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A damaged OGA Charters bus is hauled away after a fatal rollover on Saturday, May 14, 2016, south of the Dimmit-Webb County line on U.S. 83 North in Texas. (Laredo Texas, Nuevo Laredo Mexico out, Mandatory... (Associated Press)

 A damaged OGA Charters bus is hauled away after a fatal rollover on Saturday, May 14, 2016, south of the Dimmit-Webb County line on U.S. 83 North in Texas. (Laredo Texas, Nuevo Laredo Mexico out, Mandatory credit Danny Zaragoza | Laredo Morning Times.) (Associated Press)

 LAREDO, Texas (AP) — A charter bus headed to a casino crashed in far South Texas on Saturday, killing eight people and injuring 44 others in a one-vehicle rollover, officials said.

 Seven people died at the scene on U.S. Highway 83 about 46 miles north of Laredo and another died later at a Laredo hospital, Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Conrad Hein said.

 "The driver of the bus lost control and rolled over," he said. "Everything's real preliminary right now."

 Hein said the driver was among the survivors. His name and the names of passengers were not immediately available, Hein said.

 The trooper said it was raining Saturday morning but it was uncertain if that was a factor in the crash that occurred just before 11:30 a.m. He said no other vehicles were in the area at the time.

 "Our troopers are going to look into what happened but it's going to take us some time," he said of the investigation. "We just know the driver lost control."

 The National Transportation Safety Board said Saturday night it was sending a team to also investigate the wreck. They were expected to arrive Sunday.

 Webb County Volunteer Fire Department Chief Ricardo Rangel told the Laredo Morning Times the bus belonged to OGA Charters was headed to a casino in Eagle Pass, about 125 miles northwest of Laredo. The bus company is based in San Juan, in Hidalgo County in Texas' Rio Grande Valley. A message left at the bus company Saturday was not immediately returned.

 Hein said 23 people were taken to Doctors Hospital in Laredo, where the eighth victim died. Fifteen were taken to Laredo Medical Center. Seven were taken to a Dimmit County hospital in Carrizo Springs.

 Priscilla Salinas, a spokeswoman for Laredo Medical Center, said bus passengers being treated there were in stable condition. She said she could share no additional information.

 The highway at the accident scene was reopened by early evening. Laredo about 150 miles southwest of San Antonio.

 The crash is one of the deadliest bus accidents in Texas in the last several years. In January 2015, two state corrections officers and eight inmates were killed after their Texas Department of Criminal Justice bus struck a piece of displaced highway guardrail west of Odessa. The bus fell about 20 feet before striking a Union Pacific freight train that happened to be passing beneath the highway. Last Thursday, the NTSB concluded that the wreck was caused by the bus hitting the guardrail piece.

 Seventeen passengers died in 2008 near Sherman when their bus plunged over a highway bridge on their way to a religious retreat in Missouri. The NTSB blamed that crash on a retreaded tire on the right front axle that was punctured by an unknown object.

 Although the retread itself wasn't the cause, the panel noted that the tire was affixed to the front axle illegally, the bus company didn't have the authority to leave Texas after failing an inspection three months earlier, and the company that inspected the bus wasn't equipped to judge whether it was roadworthy. The owner of the Houston bus company was charged with making false statements but avoided prison in 2014 after a federal judge sentenced him to three years of probation in a plea agreement.

 ___

 Information from: Laredo Morning Times, http://www.lmtonline.com ||||| Updated material from The Associated Press:

 The small South Texas bus company involved in a rollover crash that killed eight people and injured 44 others had been ordered twice by Louisiana state inspectors in 2015 to take one of its buses off the road to fix brake and emergency exit problems.

 Records posted online by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration show that regulators ordered OGA Charters to sideline the bus in May 2015 because of brake problems and again in August of last year when they were getting worse.

 It was not immediately clear Sunday whether that was same charter bus that crashed Saturday about 45 miles north of Laredo or what steps the company took to fix the problems with its sidelined bus between inspections.

 The Laredo Morning Times identified the victims as Altagracia Torres, 61; Maria de Jesus Musquiz, 52; Dora Nelly Gonzalez, 68; Frances Guerrero, 52; Marisela Lopez, 60; Adelfa Garza, 63; Jaime Navarro, 60; and Emma Rodriguez Zamudio, 81.

 A Webb County official retracted a statement Sunday that a ninth person had died from injuries from the crash.

 National Transportation Safety Board investigators arrived Sunday in Laredo to try to determine a cause of the crash. Spokesman Keith Holloway said the agency will look at the operations of the company as part of its investigation but declined further comment.

 According to federal online records, OGA Charters has two buses and the Motor Carrier Safety Administration had it listed with a “satisfactory” rating in May 2014.

 Records noted that the company had reported no crashes in the last two years prior to Saturday. But six driver and vehicle inspections since 2014 found 15 total violations, ranging from driver records and hours they were on the road, to vehicle maintenance problems.

 The May 2015 inspection in Louisiana reported brake connections with leaks, problems with the automatic brake adjustment system and a discolored windshield. The bus was put out of service because 20 percent or more of its brakes were defective.

 The records don’t name the Louisiana community where the inspection occurred.

 Another Louisiana inspection just four months later found “general” brake problems, citing some of the same problems, and the emergency exit issue. Details of the emergency exit problem were not immediately available. The report also noted the discolored windshield problem and again ordered the bus out of service.

 That the same bus, whether it was the one involved in the deadly crash or not, continued to have brake problems a few months after its initial inspection is a concern, said Shaun Kildare, director of research for Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, a Washington, D.C.-based group that tracks bus crashes and federal highway safety regulations.

 “We know this carrier had the vehicle violation problems,” Kildare said. “They apparently didn’t do anything. … When they have vehicle problems they don’t fix, that’s a question.”

 The rate of violations for hours of service was marked as a problem area by federal regulators.

 Officials at OGA Charters, based in San Juan, Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley, did not immediately return phone messages seeking comment.

 Seven people died at the scene of Saturday’s crash and another died at a hospital, Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Conrad Hein said Saturday.

 “The driver of the bus lost control and rolled over,” he said. “Everything’s real preliminary right now.”

 Hein said the driver was among the survivors. Hein did not release the identity of the driver or any passengers.

 The trooper said it was raining Saturday morning but it was uncertain if that was a factor in the crash that occurred just before 11:30 a.m. He said no other vehicles were in the area at the time.

 “Our troopers are going to look into what happened but it’s going to take us some time,” he said of the investigation. “We just know the driver lost control.”

 Department of Public Safety officials did not immediately return phone messages Sunday.

 Webb County Volunteer Fire Department Chief Ricardo Rangel told the Laredo Morning Times the bus was heading to a casino in Eagle Pass, about 125 miles northwest of Laredo.

 The injured were taken to hospitals in Laredo, Carrizo Springs and San Antonio. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– A charter bus headed to a casino crashed in far South Texas on Saturday, killing nine people and injuring 43 others in a one-vehicle rollover, officials tell the AP. Seven people died at the scene on US Highway 83 about 46 miles north of Laredo and two died later at a Laredo hospital, per Texas Department of Public Safety Trooper Conrad Hein. "The driver of the bus lost control and rolled over," he says. "Everything's real preliminary right now." Hein says the driver was among the survivors. His name and the names of passengers were not immediately available, the Dallas Morning News reports. The trooper says it was raining Saturday morning but it's uncertain if that was a factor in the crash that occurred just before 11:30am. A family member who had three aunts on board, one of whom was killed, says a trooper told her the bus rolled over three times, the Laredo Morning Times reports. Fighting back tears, she says some passengers were trapped inside and others flew out windows. Hein says no other vehicles were in the area at the time. "Our troopers are going to look into what happened but it's going to take us some time," he says of the investigation. "We just know the driver lost control." The National Transportation Safety Board said Saturday night it was sending a team to also investigate the wreck. They were expected to arrive Sunday. The crash is one of the deadliest bus accidents in Texas in the last several years.


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– Apple finally responded to the accusations that it was tracking iPhone users’ locations today, saying it “has never done so and has no plans to ever do so.” In a statement, which you can read on TechCrunch, the company explained that it was actually keeping a log not of the phone’s location, but of the location of WiFi hotspots and cell towers, “some of which may be located more than one hundred miles away from your iPhone.” The data is used to more quickly triangulate users’ position when they use location-based services, and is sent to Apple anonymously. But the company did admit to some “bugs” in the software—like that it keeps collecting data even after you’ve turned Location Services off, and that it stored years of data, instead of the week's worth it needs—and promised an iOS update to fix them. And, just to add some positive news to the cycle, it also announced that the rumored white iPhone will be available tomorrow, Time reports.

There we go. Everything’s wrapped up in a tidy little bow now. Apple has officially—officially!—announced that the elusive white iPhone 4 will be available for purchase tomorrow.

 Per Apple’s press release (official!):

 “The white iPhone 4 has finally arrived and it’s beautiful,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “We appreciate everyone who has waited patiently while we’ve worked to get every detail right.”

 How many of you have “waited patiently” for the white iPhone 4? I salute you. We all salute you. Your friends said it would never happen BUT YOU KNEW BETTER. It’ll be available through Apple, Verizon, AT&T and Apple’s other authorized resellers in 16- and 32-gigabyte versions for $199 and $299, respectively, with a two-year wireless contract.

 More on TIME.com:

 Best Buy Shows White iPhone Launch Date as April 27

 White iPhone Said to Make Appearance by the End of April

 Almost Very Nearly Official: White iPhone Coming This Spring ||||| Apple aims to – finally – set the record straight about the gathering and use of location information by iOS devices. The entire Q&A can be found below.

 Apple starts off by stating that it has never tracked, and will never track the location of a customer’s iPhone. The company goes on to say it’s partly to blame for any ‘confusion’ about it, though, because users haven’t been ‘educated’ to fully understand the technical issues with providing mobile users with fast and accurate location information.

 That said, the company did identify several ‘bugs’ which it says it will fix shortly.

 As we posited earlier, Apple says it’s merely maintaining a crowd-sourced database of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers around your current location that is generated by tens of millions of iPhones sending geo-tagged locations, both anonymously and encrypted.

 According to the Cupertino company, the location data that researchers spotted on the iPhone is not the past or present location of the iPhone, but rather the locations of Wi-Fi hotspots and cell towers surrounding the iPhone’s location, which it adds can be more than one hundred miles away from the device in question.

 Apple says it simply can not identify the source of this data (i.e. your location).

 Nevertheless, the company says it will release a free iOS software update sometime in the next few weeks that reduces the size of the Wi-Fi hotspot and cell tower database cached on the iPhone, start encrypting and refrain from backing up this cache and delete it entirely when Location Services is turned off by the user.

 Apple admits that this storing the cache for such a long time was a bug that will be fixed, ultimately recognizing that this was a valid source for concern. Another bug resulted in the iPhone continually updating its Wi-Fi and cell tower data from Apple’s crowd-sourced database even after the user turned off Location Services on his phone.

 Earlier this week, a class action suit was filed, accusing Apple of invasion of privacy and computer fraud and of “secretly recording movements of iPhone and iPad users.”

 French, German, Italian and South Korean regulators had also started investigating the alleged location collection feature on Apple devices following publication of the researchers report.

 Does Apple’s response sound credible to you?

 Apple Q&A on Location Data: |||||


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China's Premier Wen Jiabao attends a meeting with Uruguayan Vice-President and President of the Congress Danilo Astori, during a visit to the Congress building in Montevideo, June 23, 2012. Wen is in Uruguay for an official visit.

 SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Premier Wen Jiabao encouraged North Korea to allow "market mechanisms" help revamp its economy, state media said on Saturday, and laid down other pre-conditions as China tries to wean its impoverished ally off its dependence on Chinese aid.

 Wen's comments followed his meeting with Jang Song-thaek, the powerful uncle of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, in Beijing on Friday. Jang is the highest-profile North Korean official to visit China since Kim power in December 2011.

 As well as allowing freer rein to market forces, the Chinese premier also recommended Pyongyang encourage economic growth by improving laws and regulations, encouraging business investment and reforming its customs services.

 China's President Hu Jintao also met Jang in a clear show of support for the North and its new leadership. Jang is seen as the driving force behind reforms that the isolated and destitute North is believed to be trying and for which it desperately needs Chinese backing.

 Beijing has had difficulty managing the relationship with North Korea, which it views as a strategically critical buffer between itself and U.S. military forces in South Korea.

 But North Korea is often more cantankerous than China would like, in particular towards South Korea, even though the economic relationship between China and South Korea is far more important. Bilateral ties are also not always smooth.

 In May, North Korea seized a number of Chinese fishermen and boats in the Yellow Sea and demanded 1.2 million yuan for their release.

 China has expressed unhappiness with North Korea's nuclear weapons program, particularly with nuclear tests that have been conducted near the Chinese border, and is quietly lobbying against future tests.

 Beijing has supported international sanctions against the North in the past, and has also occasionally cut off economic aid, including critical oil shipments, but the desperate state of the North's economy has limited its leverage in Pyongyang.

 Experts and government sources who spoke to Reuters say China cannot go too far with such sanctions for fear of destabilizing the regime entirely, prompting a flow of refugees across the border into China.

 China and North Korea have moved to intensify economic cooperation through development zones in Rason on the North's east coast, and in the border area of Hwanggumphyong.

 So far North Korea has received around $300 million in non-financial direct investment from about 100 Chinese companies, mainly in the food, medicine, electronics, mining, light industry, chemicals and textile sectors.

 China's exports to North Korea rose 20.6 percent last year to $2.28 billion from 2010, while imports plunged 81.4 percent to $147.4 million, according to Chinese customs figures.

 Those numbers are dwarfed by trade with South Korea, China's third-largest trading partner.

 (Reporting by Pete Sweeney; Editing by Paul Tait) ||||| The powerful uncle of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un met both China's president and premier on Friday in a sign that relations between the two countries are back on track after Kim irked Beijing with a rocket launch soon after taking power.

 State media have said the six-day visit to China by Jang Song Thaek, the chief of the central administrative department of the Workers' Party of Korea, is a possible prelude to a visit by Kim himself. China remains North Korea's most important ally.

 The top-level meetings came after Beijing earlier this week agreed to help Pyongyang revamp two trade zones near the Chinese border.

 Since he became North Korea's top leader following his father's death in December, Kim has promoted younger economists to key party positions to help revive his country's economy. North Korea has lagged economically far behind the rest of Northeast Asia, and much of the nation is impoverished outside the capital, Pyongyang.

 Beijing also wants to see bolder economic reforms under the young Kim to lessen North Korea's reliance on hand-outs.

 A few months ago, relations between the two allies were strained. North Korea drew strenuous objections from China, the United States, Japan and others by testing a rocket in April because they feared it would add to tensions on the Korean Peninsula between the North and the South. Analysts said North Korea did not give Beijing advance notice of the launch, which particularly irked them.

 Jang is a vice chairman of the powerful National Defense Commission. He also is seen as a leading economic policy official.

 His meetings with President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao in Beijing came toward the end of his visit. Hu praised Jang for his "huge amount of work for the friendly relations between China and North Korea as two neighboring countries," the official China News Service reported.

 Wen told Jang that the China-North Korea friendship has endured historical tests and is a shared treasure to be "doubly cherished." He said Jang's visit will deepen the relations between the two ruling parties and the two nations, according to CNS.

 Jang met Chinese commerce ministry officials earlier this week to discuss the development of two special economic zones in North Korea.

 The ministry said the two sides signed a number of cooperation agreements to further develop the zones _ Rason on the Korean Peninsula's northern tip, and Hwanggumphyong, an island in the Yalu River that marks their border to the southwest.

 Rason would be developed into a manufacturing base, logistics center and tourism hub, and the Hwanggumphyong zone would focus on information technology, tourism, agriculture and garment manufacturing, it said.

 Rason has recently begun to develop thanks to Chinese infrastructure projects, but Hwanggumphyong has languished since ground was broken last year.

 On Thursday, Jang met with Wang Jiarui, the head of the international department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee. Wang said China is committed to strengthening and developing the friendly and cooperative relations between the countries, and Jang said Pyongyang wants to see the friendship strengthen, the official Xinhua News Agency said. |||||

– It's time for authoritarian North Korea to let in some free markets, urged Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao today, following a rare meeting with a high-ranking North Korean official, reports Reuters. Wen and President Hu Jintao met yesterday with Jang Song Thaek, the powerful uncle of North Korea's young leader Kim Jong Un, encouraging North Korea to improve its laws, reform customs services, and encourage business investment. The two countries announced the creation of two special economic zones near the China-North Korea border earlier in the week. Jang is widely considered one of the top forces for reform in the North, so getting strong support from China is vital for the new regime, notes the AP. China may consider North Korea a vital buffer between it and South Korea, Japan, and the United States, but Pyongyang has often been a difficult ally, with its bellicose rhetoric, missile and nuclear weapons programs, and ravaged economy. China's exports to North Korea totalled just $2.28 billion in 2010, while South Korea is China's third-largest trading partner. China's GDP reached $7.3 trillion in 2011, South Korea's $1.1 trillion, and North Korea's an estimated $40 billion.


Article:
Am I morally obligated to defend the president every time somebody says something bad or controversial about him? I don't think so! ||||| 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 ||||| Washington (CNN) Donald Trump came under fire Friday morning for his handling of a question at a town hall about when the U.S. can "get rid" of Muslims, for failing to take issue with that premise and an assertion that President Barack Obama is Muslim.

 Trump, who has shaken off several high-profile controversies that would have ended other presidential campaigns, faced an immediate backlash from advocacy groups, and members of his own party distanced themselves from the GOP front-runner. The incident recalls Trump's 2011 quest to challenge Obama on where he was born, which ended with Obama releasing his long-form birth certificate. It also follows a debate performance Wednesday that garnered mixed reviews for the billionaire businessman.

 "We have a problem in this country. It's called Muslims," an unidentified man who spoke at a question-and-answer town hall event in Rochester, New Hampshire asked the mogul at a rally Thursday night. "You know our current president is one. You know he's not even an American."

 A seemingly bewildered Trump interrupted the man, chuckling, "We need this question. This is the first question."

 "Anyway, we have training camps growing where they want to kill us," the man, wearing a "Trump" T-shirt, continued. "That's my question: When can we get rid of them?"

 "We're going to be looking at a lot of different things," Trump replied. "You know, a lot of people are saying that and a lot of people are saying that bad things are happening. We're going to be looking at that and many other things."

 The real estate mogul did not correct the questioner about his claims about Obama before moving on to another audience member.

 White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest condemned the remarks Friday, but added "Is anybody really surprised that this happened at a Donald Trump rally?"

 The audience members comments and Trump's response were quickly denounced by Democrats. Hillary Clinton, the party's front-runner for president, personally tweeted late Thursday that Trump's remarks were "just plain wrong," and followed up on it Friday morning at a press conference.

 "I was appalled," Clinton said bluntly to a question from CNN's Suzanne Malveaux. "Not only was it out of bounds, it was untrue. He should have from the beginning corrected that kind of rhetoric, that level of hatefulness."

 Fellow Democratic hopefuls Bernie Sanders and Martin O'Malley condemned the remarks.

 Rep. Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, called the incident a sign of "a lack of moral courage."

 "I don't know if Trump is using dog-whistle politics to win support in the polls, or if he genuinely believes the racist things he says. Either way, he showed a complete lack of moral courage in that clip, and he has shown once again that he completely unqualified to be President of the United States."

 Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz flatly called Trump a racist in a statement.

 "GOP front-runner Donald Trump's racism knows no bounds. This is certainly horrendous, but unfortunately unsurprising given what we have seen already. The vile rhetoric coming from the GOP candidates is appalling," Schultz said. "(Republicans) should be ashamed, and all Republican presidential candidates must denounce Trump's comments immediately or will be tacitly agreeing with him."

 After the event, several reporters asked Trump why he didn't challenge the questioner's assertions. Trump did not answer.

 But Corey Lewandowski, Trump's campaign manager, later told CNN that the candidate did not hear the question about Obama being a Muslim.

 "All he heard was a question about training camps, which he said we have to look into," Lewandowski said. "The media want to make this an issue about Obama, but it's about him waging a war on Christianity."

 Trump announced Friday that he would cancel his trip to South Carolina, citing "a significant business transaction."

 New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said Friday that he would not "lecture" Trump on how to respond to comments like that, but said that leaders are responsible for correcting voters on certain issues.

 "I'll tell you what I would do and I wouldn't have permitted that if someone brought that up at a town hall meeting of mine. I would have said, 'No, listen. Before we answer let's clear some things up for the rest of the audience.' And I think you have an obligation as a leader to do that," Christie said on NBC's "TODAY" Friday.

 Falsehoods persist about Obama's background

 Obama, who has spoken openly about his Christian faith, was born to an American mother and Kenyan father in Hawaii. But Trump has been one of the leading skeptics of Obama's birthplace, saying he did not know where Obama was born as recently as July

 A recent CNN/ORC poll found 29% of Americans believe Obama is a Muslim, including 43% of Republicans.

 Trump is not the first Republican candidate to raise eyebrows over comments involving Obama and his ethnic and religious background. In February, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker became embroiled in a brief controversy when he told The Washington Post that he didn't know if Obama was a Christian.

 "I've never asked him that," Walker said. A spokeswoman later clarified that he did believe Obama was Christian, but disagreed with the media's obsession with "gotcha" questions.

 And in 2008, Republican presidential nominee John McCain was booed after he famously told an audience member at a campaign event that Obama was a "good family man."

 "He's a decent family man ... (a) citizen that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues," McCain said then. "That's what this campaign is all about." |||||Summary:

– When Donald Trump initially took flak for not challenging a questioner's assertion that President Obama is a non-American Muslim, his campaign explained that he hadn't heard that part of the question. This morning, however, Trump himself took to Twitter in a far more defiant tone: "Am I morally obligated to defend the president every time somebody says something bad or controversial about him? I don't think so!" he tweeted. Then he pointed out that "this is the first time in my life that I have caused controversy by NOT saying something." He reeled off three more, one asserting that president Obama wouldn't have defended him if the situation were reversed, another saying the media would have castigated him on free-speech grounds if he had challenged the man, and another saying that Christians' "religious liberty is at stake" around the world. (Still, critics are pouncing, including the White House.)


Etched on a sun-kissed cross above grave A-12-195 at the Manila American Cemetery is the phrase, “Here Rests in Honored Glory a Comrade in Arms Known But to God.”

 They are the words of a grateful nation meant to honor the remains of an unknown American servicemember who died during World War II, but for relatives of Pvt. Arthur “Bud” Kelder, they make the blood boil in their veins.

 Family members insist it is Kelder who is buried underneath the blanket of meticulously manicured grass at A-12-195. They want the body exhumed, tested for DNA and brought home to be buried with his beloved parents Julia and Herman Kelder, but the Joint Prisoners of War, Missing in Action Accounting Command — whose mission it is to find and identify the missing from America’s wars — has refused, prompting a lawsuit by the family.

 Kelder is one of 73,652 servicemembers unaccounted for from the war. His family believes he belongs to an even more exclusive group, the more than 8,500 American servicemembers from World War II who are buried as unknowns in American cemeteries around the world.

 Families of the missing and JPAC whistleblowers believe modern technology and the analysis of war and post-war documents can easily identify a great number of these World War II unknowns but say JPAC has chosen to ignore them.

 JPAC officials say that steps are being taken to address the issue, but critics remain skeptical.

 “I thought it would be difficult to identify Bud’s remains but that was the easiest thing to do,” said Kelder’s cousin, John Eakin, who is suing the government for a timely identification on behalf of the family. Eakin works with other families to ID their loved ones.

 “We know where [these World War II unknowns] are. The law says they’re supposed to return the remains. Bud should have been reburied in the family plot in Chicago years ago.”

 ‘Inconceivable’ refusals

 Bud Kelder’s story is a sad one.

 He survived the horrors of the Bataan Death March in April 1942, but succumbed to malaria, pellagra and diphtheria Nov. 19 at the Cabanatuan Prisoner of War Camp in Luzon, relatives said. The 26-year-old Army medic was buried in communal grave 717 along with 13 other Americans who died that day.

 After the war, overwhelmed American Graves Registration Service personnel opened grave 717 and were able to identify four of the individuals using prisoner-maintained burial records, identification tags and military dental records, according to records and former JPAC officials. The remaining 10 Americans were buried as unknowns at the cemetery in Manila, lost to the limits of the day’s technology, a never-ending roster of war dead and confusion following the war. The burial records were classified, and the Kelders were told that their beloved son’s body was “not recoverable.”

 In 2009, Eakin began studying declassified records pertaining to the 10 unknowns from grave 717. Kelder’s file indicated that the Army knew he was one of the 10 unknowns.

 Eakin contacted family members and discovered that Kelder had gold inlays in his teeth, courtesy of his dentist brother. Two of the 10 unknowns had dental patterns that matched Kelder, yet only one had gold inlays. Those remains, designated as Manila #2 X-816, were buried beneath the white cross in grave A-12-195.

 Eakin vehemently believes this is his cousin. His conclusions have been backed by two forensic dentists, both of whom have consulted with JPAC, and the former deputy chief of JPAC’s World War II Research and Investigation Branch, Rick Stone, who said that Kelder’s documented physical characteristics matched those of the remains in A-12-195.

 “Why they won’t do it is just inconceivable,” Eakin said.

 Stone told Stars and Stripes that he recommended the disinterment and DNA testing for all 10 of the grave 717 unknowns, but top JPAC officials refused to sign off and buried the report.

 Eakin said that Johnie Webb, JPAC’s deputy to the commander for external relations and legislative affairs, verbally denied his request for disinterment and said there was no evidence to support continued investigation. Scientific director and deputy to the command for Central Identification Laboratory operations, Thomas Holland, stated in a memo written Jan. 28, 2013, that the case did not meet the standard of “scientific certainty” necessary to justify disinterment for DNA identification. JPAC commander Maj. Gen. Kelly McKeague used Holland’s memo as the basis for JPAC’s opinion and forwarded the case to the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office for a decision — virtually ending Eakin’s quest.

 “My investigative reports at JPAC on the 10 cases recommended that DNA be obtained from the families of all the possible matches and then all 10 unknowns be disinterred simultaneously and tested against the family DNA to make the final identifications,” Stone said. “In the real world, it would take any competent medical examiner less than two weeks” to make the identifications.

 McKeague, Webb and Holland declined requests for interviews by Stars and Stripes through a JPAC spokesman.

 Burden of proof

 The revelations are the latest affront to JPAC’s credibility.

 In July, The Associated Press exposed an internal review written by a management consultant that chronicled turf wars and questionable recovery results that the JPAC brass had covered up. The agency was labeled “acutely dysfunctional.” A Government Accountability Office report mirrored those findings.

 JPAC was bound by congressional mandate three years ago to recover at least 200 fallen troops a year from overseas battlefields by 2015, but officials have said they will not be able to meet that goal. Currently the Hawaii command averages fewer than 70 identifications a year.

 In October, JPAC admitted that they had been holding phony repatriation ceremonies for seven years, with honor guards carrying flag-draped coffins off cargo planes as though they held remains returning that day from old battlefields.

 Lawmakers then proposed giving the Defense Department one year to detail how they intend to clean up the “mess” that has become the nation’s accounting apparatus.

 JPAC officials declined to comment on the Kelder case due to the pending litigation but said that JPAC has implemented a program to research and identify more than 2,900 unknown remains buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, called the Punchbowl. They are also researching cases for disinterment around the world and are looking for more efficiencies.

 “Recently, JPAC’s Central Identification Laboratory has expanded the disinterment program to include unknown remains from World War II buried in American cemeteries in the U.S., Europe and the Pacific,” said JPAC spokesman Army Maj. Jamie Dobson.

 Dobson said there are significant challenges to identifying World War II remains: the sheer number of unknowns, the lack of historical records and a high burden of proof before the final resting place of an unknown can be disturbed. JPAC has disinterred 25 sets of World War II remains in the past 10 years, compared with 63 from the Korean War. Out of 25 World War II disinterments, 28 bodies have been identified, due to comingled remains.

 “A decision to disinter a set of remains now marked as ‘unknown’ must be based on sufficient circumstantial and anatomical evidence which when combined with current forensic science techniques would lead to a high probability of positive identification,” DOD disinterment policy established in 1999 states. The memo goes on to state that if JPAC can narrow the number of potential candidates down to the point where DNA can identify the unknown, they will gather the DNA and test.

 “If the Central Identification Laboratory-Hawaii believes positive identification is highly probable, it will coordinate with the appropriate cemetery authority for disinterment.”

 In 2012, the accounting community’s stakeholders established new procedures to streamline the approval of requests for disinterment of unknowns. Even still, only one World War II unknown was disinterred in 2013, and none was disinterred in 2012, Dobson said. The Secretary of the Army is the approval authority for disinterment cases.

 “Since JPAC has the inherent responsibility to ensure that disinterred remains bear a high probability for identification, the disinterment group painstakingly works to develop strong historical and forensic evidence to validate and justify a disinterment,” Dobson said. “The disinterment decision-making process is continually reviewed and evaluated in order to ensure that the probability is as high as possible that a disinterred unknown will be identified.”

 Many believe JPAC’s burden of proof is too high. An American-led team of researchers recently petitioned the French and German governments to obtain a disinterment and DNA testing on an unknown soldier buried in a German cemetery on French soil. They believe the remains belong to U.S. Army Pvt. 1st Class Lawrence Gordon, a Canadian citizen who moved to Wyoming and died fighting with the 3rd Armored Division on Aug. 13, 1944, in Normandy, France.

 Gordon was 28 when he and another soldier were killed instantly in an M8 armored car that was struck by a German anti-tank shell, according to testimony from the lone survivor of the attack and military records. Gordon was killed in the gun turret with James Bowman of Kentucky.

 Bowman was buried as an unknown but fingerprints taken before the burial would later identify him. The body he was recovered with was first buried as an American unknown and then reprocessed seven months later as a German because of German clothing or equipment found with the body.

 The team believes this unknown is Gordon.

 Records indicate that the vehicle Gordon and Bowman died in was most likely recovered. Further fanning the flames of belief in the identification is the fact that Gordon’s blood-stained wallet was sent home to his family — indicating that his body was most likely recovered as well. In addition, Bowman’s records indicate he was found with a German raincoat, leading the team to believe the only thing that put this unknown in a German cemetery means very little.

 “If you have the wallet, the guy next to Pvt. 1st Class Gordon and the vehicle, then you must have recovered the body,” said team member Jed Henry, whose grandfather Staff Sgt. David Henry fought alongside Gordon during World War II.

 Forensic dentists have compared Gordon’s charts with the unknown and say they look good for a match, according to team members.

 The research team has continuously reached out to JPAC for assistance but found them less than helpful, Henry said. JPAC disputed that they had enough evidence to test for DNA and wished them luck. However, the French and Germans agreed that there was enough evidence and ordered an exhumation and DNA testing at their own cost. The results are expected later this month.

 “It’s sad that you’ve got enough information for the French and the Germans but it’s still not good enough for the American system,” said Henry. “If you need 100 percent proof before you test, why are they marked as unknowns to begin with?”

 Focus on Tarawa

 Stone, a highly decorated former Dallas Police Department officer who had a minor role in the 1976 House Select Committee on Assassinations’ investigation into the death of President John. F. Kennedy, joined JPAC in June 2011.

 He worked many cases over the course of the year, one month and 11 days he was with JPAC, but his primary focus was on identifying 103 sets of remains recovered from the Battle of Tarawa buried as unknowns in the Punchbowl. There are 513 missing from the battle, the majority of which are buried in mass graves on the atoll.

 Stone used a police technique called “random incident statistical correlations” to try to narrow down the number of potential candidates for each unknown so DNA testing could take care of the rest. He prepared historical and biometric profiles on each of the missing from the battle and compared it with the historical and biometric profiles for each of the unknowns. He would then look for correlations.

 Perhaps a loss date narrowed the field of candidates or perhaps only a handful of the 513 missing had the same height, weight, hair color or matching dental features as unidentified remains in Hawaii. Setting up the data was painstaking work. Of the 103 unknowns buried in the Punchbowl, he worked 94 cases; documentation had been lost for the other nine, he said. Some he was able to narrow down to between as few as two servicemembers, others he narrowed to a handful of potential matches.

 For example, one of the sets of remains belongs to a soldier of short stature. At approximately 5-foot-2, the body could only belong one of two of the missing, Stone said. His records indicate that when he was found, he had the bars of a second lieutenant in his pocket. One of the two possible candidates was a second lieutenant, Army Air Corps 2nd Lt. Stanley Alenier. To Stone’s knowledge, these remains have never been disinterred and tested. Alenier is listed as missing on the DPMO website.

 Another example is the set of unknown remains in grave number 12, Section E, with the date Jan. 21, 1944, two months after the main battle. The only casualties on Tarawa on that day came from two separate B-24 bomber crashes. Out of the 20 men on board, whose names are known, only 12 cases remain unresolved. Some survived the crashes and some of the bodies were identified. So right away, the remains are narrowed down between 12 people, Stone said. They can be narrowed down to seven potential matches when comparing the physical characteristics of the remains with those of the missing.

 This led Stone to discover another gap in the accounting process. Stone contacted the U.S. Army Casualty Office to see how many family reference DNA samples they had for the 12 unresolved Army Air Corps casualties from Jan. 21, 1944. The case manager claimed that he had not been informed by JPAC there were any Army casualties from Tarawa that were unaccounted for. Stone provided them with the names but ultimately, nothing was done, Stone said.

 Out of the 94 cases he worked, Stone recommended a full forensic review for 80 that he believed could be solved. Not a single report was accepted by Holland. Stone claims that he was told they weren’t even being read as they went up the chain.

 “I couldn’t even get them to read the reports,” Stone said of his work at JPAC, which ended with his resignation in August 2012.

 “It’s simple deductive reasoning. ... Nobody at JPAC has given any interest to these cases at all.”

 Stone’s assertions were backed by other former JPAC employees who declined to be identified for fear of reprisal.

 Dobson said that all reports generated by JPAC investigators are read and evaluated.

 “The Tarawa cases are more complex than people realize because missing servicemembers from Tarawa include the graves of the unknowns at Punchbowl as well as remains still on the island that have yet to be recovered,” Dobson said. “Later this fiscal year, JPAC will submit to DOD a request to disinter all 94 unknown caskets at Punchbowl so as to begin the identification process in a more deliberate and effective manner.”

 Stone called the move to disinter all 94 ridiculous.

 “I believe that the lack of leadership and management skills at JPAC, the inability of the JPAC lab to show a track record of credible results of more than five or six dozen identifications a year, the JPAC lab’s failure to build a DNA database to make these identifications quickly and easily and JPAC’s admission that the average length of time it takes the laboratory to make an identification already exceeds 11 years makes the proposal by JPAC to disinter all the Tarawa remains in the Punchbowl a ridiculous suggestion,” Stone said.

 He said the Defense Department had collected family reference samples of DNA for less than 1 percent of the missing from World War II at the time of his resignation. In addition to taking far too long to make identifications, Stone said the JPAC lab — which ships all its samples to the Armed Forces DNA Identification Laboratory in Dover for analysis and coding — has more than 1,000 sets of remains in backlog and is technologically behind the times.

 “As much as I would like to see any of my Tarawa kids get identified and sent home to their families, it makes absolutely no sense to blindly disinter all of the Punchbowl remains just so they can be added to the 1,000 or so cardboard boxes that now sit on JPAC shelves that the lab cannot ID,” Stone said. “Why wouldn’t they just disinter a few of the cases where I found only a few most likely matches, after they had the DNA comparisons in hand for those few possible matches, and test the system? For example, in the Alenier case, JPAC needs two DNA samples to make the comparisons, not 513, to determine if it is who the investigation says it is.”

 Dobson said there are more than 1,000 boxes of remains at the JPAC laboratory in Hawaii, but it is not a backlog. Some belong to those who cannot be identified so they accumulate over time. He said that all of the remains have been examined.

 “It’s such a big mess,” Stone said. “It’s heart-wrenching to think of these families and what they go through.”

 Stone says that he sees the photos of the missing when he closes his eyes. In July, he traveled to the Punchbowl and the Jan. 21, 1944, unknown gravesite, saddened that he could do nothing to help identify one of the 12 missing who is buried in the grave.

 “Every detective hopes to find the smoking gun,” he said. “This was one, where, holy cow, here it is. I’m thinking, ‘I can bring this kid home. I can put a name here.’ But a couple of years later and nothing’s been done.”

 burke.matt@stripes.com

 Timeline of Failure

 The TARAWA UNKNOWNS Report for the 2nd Marine Division ||||| After years of refusing to act, the U.S. military has reversed course and has decided to disinter the possible grave of Arthur "Bud" Kelder, a POW from World War II who is buried anonymously in an American war cemetery in the Philippines.

 Earlier this year, ProPublica and NPR reported about the struggle by Bud's family to get him finally ID'd — and the resistance they have faced from the Pentagon.

 As we detailed, the military's effort to recover MIAs such as Bud has suffered from outdated scientific methods, overlapping bureaucracy and poor management. In 2013, the military, which receives about $100 million annually to do the job, identified just 60 service members out of the about 83,000 Americans missing from World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

 Bud's family has long been fighting the Pentagon, even going so far as suing, to get the Joint Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Accounting Command to dig up the grave of the unknown soldier who may be Bud.

 Bud, an Army private, died in 1942 in the Cabanatuan POW camp in the Philippines and was buried in a common grave numbered 717 – all of which is known because the POWs there kept a meticulous roster of the dead. After the war, the U.S. military dug up the POW graves and attempted to identify the remains. Those who couldn't be identified were buried as "unknowns" in a cemetery in Manila. Bud's family never knew what happened to his body.

 Bud's cousin John Eakin began searching for his remains a few years ago. Using historical and medical documents, Eakin discovered clues suggesting the grave of one of the unknowns, labeled "X-816," was Bud. Eakin repeatedly petitioned J-PAC to disinter the grave and do DNA testing on the bones to see if they matched Bud's.

 But despite some anthropologists at J-PAC believing it was a viable case, the agency's scientific director, Tom Holland, steadfastly refused. Under Holland's leadership, J-PAC has long operated with a risk-averse disinterment policy for the 9,400 unknowns buried around the world, rarely pursing those cases. J-PAC contended that Bud's case didn't meet those highly restrictive standards.

 Now the military has decided to disinter not only X-816, but also the remains of 10 other men who were never identified from common Grave 717, according to Navy Cmdr. Amy Derrick-Frost, a Defense Department spokeswoman. Derrick-Frost did not say what led the Pentagon to change its stance.

 Eakin said the family was overjoyed that the government was finally acting after the family first brought evidence to the Pentagon's attention more than four years ago. But he also expressed frustration that they are only acting now.

 "Exhumation of the remains of these unknowns is not being done because it is the right thing to do. Rather, these remains are being returned in response to our family's lawsuit against the U.S. Government," Eakin said. He added: "This will be a hollow victory for MIA families unless the U.S. Government undertakes substantial and meaningful reforms of the MIA accounting process."

 Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced a broad overhaul of the MIA mission in March, combining the multiple, fractious agencies involved in the mission into a new, single entity. The restructuring has not yet happened. A Pentagon inspector general report about the mission's struggles is expected next month.

 There's no timeline yet for the exhumation, but if X-816 does turn out to be Bud, the family plans to bury him the family crypt in the Norwood Park neighborhood of Chicago where Bud grew up.

 Related Articles: Read the original story, learn how you can help an MIA and see how the Pentagon's latest revamp of their mission to find missing soldiers looks a lot like their previous efforts. |||||

Write a summary.

– An anonymous POW buried in an American war cemetery in the Philippines isn't "X-816," it's Bud Kelder, say family members who have finally won their fight to have the remains disinterred. The 26-year-old Army medic survived the Bataan Death March but died in a POW camp and was buried in a communal grave along with 13 other Americans who also died on Nov. 19, 1942; four were later identified, but the remaining 10 were left in Grave 717. After carrying out their own research and studying declassified burial records, family members zeroed in on Grave 717, and "Manila #2 X-816" in particular—the only unknown in the grave that records show had gold inlays in his teeth, as Kelder did. But it has taken a long fight, and a lawsuit, to get the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command to agree to dig up the remains and carry out DNA testing, ProPublica finds. The military also plans to disinter the remains of the others in the grave who were never identified. J-PAC receives $100 million a year to do its work but only identified 60 service members last year out of the more than 73,000 Americans still missing from WWII. Relatives—and J-PAC whistleblowers—say J-PAC is choosing to ignore modern technology and war documents that could identify many World War II unknowns, Stars and Stripes found when it reported on the Kelder case last year. The cousin who did the bulk of the investigative work says that while the family is overjoyed that they could soon finally be able to bury Kelder in the family crypt in Chicago, the government has only changed its stance because of the lawsuit, not because it sees it as the right thing to do. "This will be a hollow victory for MIA families unless the US government undertakes substantial and meaningful reforms of the MIA accounting process," he says. (Meanwhile, rising seas are washing up WWII skeletons.)


WASHINGTON—Administration lawyers have presented the White House with four options for restructuring the National Security Agency's phone-surveillance program, from ditching the controversial collection altogether to running it through the telephone companies, according to officials familiar with the discussions.

 President Barack Obama in January asked U.S. intelligence agencies and the attorney general to report by March 28 on... ||||| Lawyers for the Obama administration have presented four possible methods for retooling the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs. While Obama had set a date towards the end of March to be presented with these options, according to The Wall Street Journal, the Office of Director of National Intelligence and the Justice Department have completed the assignment well ahead of schedule.

 Here are the four options Obama has apparently been presented with:

 Phone companies retain the data. Under this plan, phone companies control their data and allow the NSA to access certain information upon request.

 Under this plan, phone companies control their data and allow the NSA to access certain information upon request. Another government agency retains the data. This would provide another separation of power, instead of concentrating both the investigators and the data being investigated inside one organization. Candidates could include the FBI and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court

 This would provide another separation of power, instead of concentrating both the investigators and the data being investigated inside one organization. Candidates could include the FBI and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court A non-telecommunications and non-government agency retains the data. This one is unlikely. Obama on the matter last month: “Any third party maintaining a single, consolidated data-base would be carrying out what is essentially a government function with more expense, more legal ambiguity, and a doubtful impact on public confidence that their privacy is being protected.”

 This one is unlikely. Obama on the matter last month: “Any third party maintaining a single, consolidated data-base would be carrying out what is essentially a government function with more expense, more legal ambiguity, and a doubtful impact on public confidence that their privacy is being protected.” Scrap the program. A daring proposal, but come on, this one's a pipe dream.

 Obama’s own remarks last month lean heavily towards one of the first two options, but it is unclear exactly when a decision will be reached. |||||

Write a summary.

– President Obama asked White House lawyers last month to come up with ways to reform the National Security Administration's phone-surveillance program and they have delivered four options, insiders tell the Wall Street Journal. One option—and probably the least likely to be adopted—is scrapping the program altogether, while the other three involve taking the vast amount of phone data currently being gathered out of the NSA's hands. Sources say the Director of National Intelligence and the Justice Department have presented Obama with the following options for shifting the phone data: Having phone companies retain the data. Under this option, the NSA would contact phone companies when it needed specific searches of phone records. Telecommunications firms, however, are firmly opposed to this plan. Having another government agency retain the data. The FBI has been spoken of as a possibility for this role, though the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court is also being considered. Having a non-government, non-phone company agency retain the data. This option is also seen as unlikely. Privacy groups say any such agency would become a mere extension of the NSA. Obama said last month that any such third party would be carrying out "what is essentially a government function with more expense, more legal ambiguity, and a doubtful impact on public confidence that their privacy is being protected," the Wire notes.


Manufacturers are supposed to control programmers' distribution, but the researchers themselves got their test devices from the auction website for as little as $500 to as much as $3,000. In addition to those issues, the team has found that doctors' monitoring systems don't require log-in names and passwords when pacemakers connect to them. They even found unencrypted patients' data stored in the tools, including SSNs, names, phone numbers and medical conditions.

 That said, Matthew Green, an Assistant Professor for Computer Science at Johns Hopkins, noted that doctors are adamant not to let security systems block patient care. He said that requiring passwords would merely lead to a "post-it note on the device listing the password," so every doctors' staff member can access the data they need. Green also called attention to some dubious parts of the study, particularly the lack of emphasis on the team's most alarming finding that third-party programmers can remotely access pacemakers:

 All of the other issues are kind of peripheral. If you can use your own hardware to send programming commands to a device... 7/n — Matthew Green (@matthew_d_green) May 24, 2017

 Despite the points Green raised, it's still true that various security researchers have been warning manufacturers about pacemakers' and other cardiac devices' vulnerabilities for years. Unfortunately, it sounds like very few listened: a separate study by security firm Ponemon Institute LLC found that only 17 percent of manufacturers took steps to secure their products. While we've yet to hear about an incident that has led to a patient's death, it's still ideal to make cardiac devices more secure as cyberattacks become more common, elaborate and sophisticated. ||||| If you need more evidence that we are living in an increasingly internet-connected world, look no further than a recent software update aimed at making sure 465,000 people with pacemakers don’t have hearts that are vulnerable to hackers.

 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced this week that medical device company Abbott has issued a corrective action for implantable cardiac pacemakers made under the St. Jude’s Medical brand. According to the company there is a “risk of patient harm due to potential exploitation of cybersecurity vulnerabilities.”

 To address this heart-hacking vulnerability, Abbott is issuing a firmware update to the pacemakers.

 While this update is being treated as a recall, the devices will continue to function as intended “and replacement of implanted pacemaker devices is not recommended.”

 To that end, there are no known reports of patient harm related to the cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the 465,000 radio-frequency-enabled implanted Abbott devices impacted in the U.S.; the company says this firmware update is part of a plan announced in January, and will “provide an additional layer of security against unauthorized access to these devices.”

 Which devices are involved?

 Included in the update:

 • Accent

 • Anthem

 • Accent MRI

 • Accent ST

 • Assurity

 • Allure

 Not included: Any implantable cardiac defibrillators (ICDs) or cardiac resynchronization ICDs (CRT-Ds)

 Going forward, any pacemaker manufactured as of Aug. 28, 2017 will have the update pre-loaded in the device.

 How to get the update

 If you have an impacted pacemaker, you should talk with your physician about when you should receive the update — which requires an in-person patient visit — as well as address any questions or concerns you might have.

 The process will take about three minutes to complete, during which time the device will operate in backup mode “and essential, life-sustaining features will remain available.”

 If you have any questions or want additional information, check out www.sjm.com/cyberupdate, or contact Abbott’s hotline at 1-800-722-3774.

 “As medical devices become increasingly interconnected via the Internet, hospital networks, other medical devices, and smartphones, there is an increased risk of exploitation of cybersecurity vulnerabilities, some of which could affect how a medical device operates,” the FDA notes. ||||| Date Issued

 August 29, 2017

 Audience

 Patients with a radio frequency (RF)-enabled St. Jude Medical implantable pacemaker

 Caregivers of patients with an RF-enabled St. Jude Medical implantable cardiac pacemaker

 Cardiologists, electrophysiologists, cardiothoracic surgeons, and primary care physicians treating patients with heart failure or heart rhythm problems using an RF-enabled St. Jude Medical implantable cardiac pacemaker

 Medical Specialties

 Cardiac Electrophysiology, Cardiology, Cardiothoracic Surgery, Heart Failure

 Devices

 Abbott's (formerly St. Jude Medical's) implantable cardiac pacemakers, including cardiac resynchronization therapy pacemaker (CRT-P) devices, provide pacing for slow or irregular heart rhythms. These devices are implanted under the skin in the upper chest area and have connecting insulated wires called "leads" that go into the heart. A patient may need an implantable cardiac pacemaker if their heartbeat is too slow (bradycardia) or needs resynchronization to treat heart failure.

 The devices addressed in this communication are the following St. Jude Medical pacemaker and CRT-P devices:

 Accent

 Anthem

 Accent MRI

 Accent ST

 Assurity

 Allure

 This communication does NOT apply to any implantable cardiac defibrillators (ICDs) or to cardiac resynchronization ICDs (CRT-Ds).

 Purpose

 On August 23, 2017, the FDA approved a firmware update that is now available and is intended as a recall, specifically a corrective action, to reduce the risk of patient harm due to potential exploitation of cybersecurity vulnerabilities for certain Abbott (formerly St. Jude Medical) pacemakers. "Firmware" is a specific type of software embedded in the hardware of a medical device (e.g. a component in the pacemaker).

 For the purposes of this safety communication, cybersecurity focuses on protecting patients' medical devices and their associated computers, networks, programs, and data from unintended or unauthorized access, change, or destruction.

 The FDA recommends that patients and their health care providers discuss the risks and benefits of the cybersecurity vulnerabilities and the associated firmware update designed to address such vulnerabilities at their next regularly scheduled visit.

 Summary of Problem and Scope

 Many medical devices - including St. Jude Medical's implantable cardiac pacemakers - contain configurable embedded computer systems that can be vulnerable to cybersecurity intrusions and exploits. As medical devices become increasingly interconnected via the Internet, hospital networks, other medical devices, and smartphones, there is an increased risk of exploitation of cybersecurity vulnerabilities, some of which could affect how a medical device operates.

 The FDA has reviewed information concerning potential cybersecurity vulnerabilities associated with St. Jude Medical's RF-enabled implantable cardiac pacemakers and has confirmed that these vulnerabilities, if exploited, could allow an unauthorized user (i.e. someone other than the patient's physician) to access a patient's device using commercially available equipment. This access could be used to modify programming commands to the implanted pacemaker, which could result in patient harm from rapid battery depletion or administration of inappropriate pacing.

 There are no known reports of patient harm related to the cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the 465,000 (US) implanted devices impacted.

 To address these cybersecurity vulnerabilities and improve patient safety, St. Jude Medical has developed and validated this firmware update as a corrective action (recall) for all of their RF-enabled pacemaker devices, including cardiac resynchronization pacemakers. The FDA has approved St. Jude Medical's firmware update to ensure that it addresses these cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and reduces the risk of exploitation and subsequent patient harm.

 After installing this update, any device attempting to communicate with the implanted pacemaker must provide authorization to do so. The Merlin Programmer and Merlin@home Transmitter will provide such authorization.

 The firmware update will be available beginning August 29, 2017. Pacemakers manufactured beginning August 28, 2017 will have this update pre-loaded in the device and will not need the update.

 Firmware Update Details

 The firmware update requires an in-person patient visit with a health care provider – it cannot be done from home via Merlin.net. The update process will take approximately 3 minutes to complete. During this time, the device will operate in backup mode (pacing at 67 beats per minute), and essential, life-sustaining features will remain available. At the completion of the update, the device will return to its pre-update settings.

 As with any firmware update, there is a very low risk of an update malfunction. Based on St. Jude Medical's previous firmware update experience, installing the updated firmware could potentially result in the following malfunctions (including the rate of occurrence previously observed):

 reloading of previous firmware version due to incomplete update (0.161 percent),

 loss of currently programmed device settings (0.023 percent),

 loss of diagnostic data (none reported), or

 complete loss of device functionality (0.003 percent).

 Recommendations for Health Care Providers:

 The FDA and Abbott do NOT recommend prophylactic removal and replacement of affected devices.

 Discuss the risks and benefits of the cybersecurity vulnerabilities and associated firmware update with your patients at the next regularly scheduled visit. As part of this discussion, it is important to consider each patient's circumstances, such as pacemaker dependence, age of the device, and patient preference, and provide them with Abbott's Patient Guide.

 Determine if the update is appropriate for the given patient based on the potential benefits and risks. If deemed appropriate, install the firmware update following the instructions on the programmer. For pacing dependent patients, consider performing the cybersecurity firmware update in a facility where temporary pacing and pacemaker generator can be readily provided.

 Print or digitally store the programmed device settings and the diagnostic data in case of loss during the update.

 After the update, confirm that the device maintains its functionality, is not in backup mode, and that the programmed parameters have not changed.

 The firmware update process is described in Abbott's Dear Doctor Letter issued on August 28, 2017.

 Contact your Abbott representative, or Abbott's customer technical support hotline at 1‐800‐722‐3774 if you have any questions about the firmware update.

 Recommendations for Patients and Caregivers

 Consult with your physician(s) for determining when you should receive the update and if you have any questions or concerns about the vulnerabilities or the update. Your ongoing medical management should be based on your own medical history and clinical condition.

 Visit www.sjm.com/cyberupdate, or contact Abbott's hotline at 1-800-722-3774 for additional information, or if you have any questions or issues regarding your St. Jude Medical implantable cardiac pacemaker.

 FDA Actions

 The FDA will continue to assess new information concerning the cybersecurity of Abbott's implantable cardiac devices and the Merlin@home Transmitter, and will keep the public informed if the FDA's recommendations change.

 The FDA reminds patients, patient caregivers, and health care providers that any medical device connected to a communications network (e.g. wi-fi, public or home Internet) may have cybersecurity vulnerabilities that could be exploited by unauthorized users. However, the increased use of wireless technology and software in medical devices can also often offer safer, more efficient, convenient, and timely health care delivery.

 The FDA will continue its work with manufacturers and health care delivery organizations—as well as security researchers and other government agencies—to develop and implement solutions to address cybersecurity issues throughout a device's total product lifecycle. The FDA takes reports of vulnerabilities in medical devices very seriously and has issued recommendations to manufacturers for continued monitoring, reporting, and remediation of medical device cybersecurity vulnerabilities.

 Reporting Problems to the FDA

 Prompt reporting of adverse events can help the FDA identify and better understand the risks related to the use of medical devices. If you suspect or experience a problem with these devices, we encourage you to file a voluntary report through MedWatch, the FDA Safety Information and Adverse Event Reporting program. Health care personnel employed by facilities that are subject to the FDA's user facility reporting requirements should follow the reporting procedures established by their facilities.

 Additional Resources

 Contact Information

 If you have questions about this communication, please contact the Division of Industry and Consumer Education (DICE) at DICE@FDA.HHS.GOV, 800-638-2041 or 301-796-7100. |||||

Write a summary.

– Is it a recall? Is it a software update? Well, it's actually both. Abbott, the medical device company that produces implantable cardiac pacemakers under the St. Jude’s Medical brand, has issued a "corrective action," per the Food and Drug Administration, to mitigate what it calls the "risk of patient harm due to potential exploitation of cybersecurity vulnerabilities." That's right, it's asking 465,000 people with certain devices to visit their doctors and get a firmware update so that their implants are not so easy to hack into. They say patients should schedule a visit with their doctor, and that the process will take three minutes start to finish, during which time all essential features will run in backup mode, reports Consumerist. It's unclear how many people in other countries are affected. Over the past decade, there's been an increase in reports of serious vulnerabilities in pacemakers, insulin pumps, and other medical devices, reports Ars Technica. That's because they're now outfitted with tiny radio-frequency equipment for remote maintenance that no longer requires new and costly surgeries when the devices need updating. Back in May, Engadget reported that security company WhiteScope found 8,000 bugs hackers could exploit in pacemaker programs alone. While attackers must be within 50 feet of the device to hack into it, and no one has yet to die from a cyber attack, some argue that the mere threat of an attack is reason enough to make these devices as sophisticated and protected as possible. (One pacemaker was used in an arson investigation.)


Here is a news article: A genetic study has found that some specimens of the invasive reptile that has decimated local wildlife are a mixture of two Asian species which could make it an even more formidable predator

 From carnivorous giant lizards to toxic climbing tree frogs, the Florida Everglades have become a haven to invasive species steadily destroying and devouring the flora and fauna of the state’s famed River of Grass.

 Now comes news of a hybrid super-predator slithering its way through the waterways of the 1.5m-acre wilderness: a genetically blended python that researchers believe might be able to better embrace the subtropical environment and expand its range more rapidly than any species before it.

 The discovery was made during a study to improve knowledge of non-native species. US Geological Survey (USGS) scientists analysed 400 snakes captured in the Everglades over a 10-year period from 2001.

 The researchers expected to find only the pure genetic makeup of the Burmese python, the deadly constrictor that has exploded in numbers to supplant the American alligator as the region’s apex predator since a small number of unwanted pets were released in the 1980s.

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 Instead, they were surprised to uncover “a tangled family tree”, the genetic signature of the Indian rock python present in at least 13 snakes. That species is smaller, faster and arguably more aggressive than its big cousin, and thrives on higher and drier ground. Burmese pythons are more at home in the water.

 “When two species come together they each have a unique set of genetic traits and characteristics they use to increase their survival and their unique habitats and environments,” said Margaret Hunter, a USGS research geneticist and the lead author of the report.

 “You bring these different traits together and sometimes the best of those traits will be selected in the offspring. That allows for the best of both worlds in the Everglades, it helps them to adapt to this new ecosystem potentially more rapidly.”

 Hunter stressed that the genetic markers – found only in the snakes’ mitochondrial DNA passed down through the maternal line – do not mean a new species of super-snake has suddenly been unleashed on the Everglades. The researchers believe cross-breeding occurred before the pythons secured their foothold in Florida.

 “The ones that have this signature would have to be female and breeding to pass it on to their offspring,” she said.

 Also unclear is the impact of so-called “hybrid vigour” on an individual snake.

 “Morphologically, lots of times if you have a hybrid between two good species, the hybrid shares the traits of both [but] how that translates to behaviour I don’t know,” said Steve Johnson, associate professor of wildlife ecology at the University of Florida.

 “It would depend on what genes, what molecular information is in a hybrid and how that information relates to their behavior.”

 Facebook Twitter Pinterest An adult female Burmese python captured in Everglades national park, Florida. Some specimens carry DNA from the Indian rock python. Photograph: Wayne Lynch/Getty Images/All Canada Photos

 Hunter, though, still sees this as an unwelcome development that could hamper already unsuccessful efforts to reduce or eliminate up to 150,000 pythons that have decimated native species including bobcats, foxes, rabbits and raccoons from the Florida Keys to north of Lake Okeechobee.

 “It can potentially lead to a better ability to adapt to environmental stressors and changes,” she said. “In an invasive population like Burmese pythons in south Florida this could result in a broader or more rapid distribution. With how rapidly they’ve [already] increased their population and expanded it appears they’re doing quite well.”

 Wildlife officials admit they are fighting a losing battle. Failed initiatives have included training dogs to sniff out the snakes and releasing pythons with radio transmitters to lead hunters to females carrying up to 100 eggs at a time.

 Probably the most audacious effort came last year when two renowned snake catchers from India’s mountain-dwelling Irula tribe chanted their way across the Everglades for two months. They bagged 33 pythons. But that figure, like the 1,000-plus snakes killed to date in civilian hunting programmes, is a drop in the ocean.

 The Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission (FWC) has recorded more than 500 invasive or non-native species in the state, including tegu lizards from South America that eat rodents, Cuban tree frogs that prey on smaller species of amphibians and green iguanas that feast on native plants. ||||| What started out as a straightforward genetic study of Florida’s invasive python population has turned up a surprising plot twist: a small number of crossbred Burmese and Indian pythons with the potential to become a kind of Everglades super snake.

 For the study, published Sunday in the journal Ecology and Evolution, U.S. Geological Survey researchers examined the tail tissue of 400 snakes captured in South Florida, from the Big Cypress Swamp to the Everglades. While the vast majority appeared to be closely related Burmese pythons — imagine a family reunion packed with first and second cousins — 13 had genetic markers from Indian pythons, a different species that unlike the swamp-loving Burmese snake prefers high, dry ground.

 The number is clearly small, but it raises the risk that over time some Everglades snakes could become better suited to a more varied landscape. Scientists call it hybrid vigor.

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 Python hunter Dusty Crum carries a python caught as part of South Florida Water Management District licensed hunting program in May. The state has been paying a select group of hunters to kill the invasive snakes on state lands since March 2017. Wilfredo Lee AP

 “If the Indian pythons have a wider range, perhaps these Everglades snakes now have that capability,” said lead author and USGS geneticist Margaret Hunter. “It’s quite interesting and quite surprising, but we don’t know the extent it’s in the population.”

 Because evolution seems to abhor certainty, there’s also the possibility the opposite happens through another process, she said, euphemistically referred to as ‘outbreeding depression.’

 The Early Detection and Distribution Mapping System allows researchers and citizens to report the locations of spotted pythons. Red circles indicate the sightings have been confirmed.

 The study originally intended to look at the genetic make-up of South Florida snakes to better understand how they spread and how to help control them. Pythons started turning up in the 1980s, likely escapees from a South Dade breeding facility or released pets. By 2000, they were declared official residents in Everglades National Park and have since continued to expand north into the state’s expansive water conservation areas and west into Big Cypress. In 2016, they were found breeding in the Keys for the first time.

 If snakes in different areas had different DNA, that might tell wildlife managers something about how they’ve been able to reproduce and spread so quickly.

 “We were initially looking for the population structure to get some information to shed some light on the invasion dynamics, or the core areas where the population may be breeding and then sending off migrants,” Hunter said.

 Tracker Vadivel Gopal, herpetologist Joe Wasilewski and tracker Masi Sadaiyan hold a python removed from a shaft at the old Nike missile base in Key Largo. - Joe Wasilewski

 No surprise, they found low diversity among the snakes that likely are the descendants of the handful of freed snakes, called the founder effect. In small populations, a shrinking gene pool can signal a population headed toward extinction: There is a good Florida example of that. By the 1990s, the number of Florida panthers had dwindled so low that the animals started suffering from the effects of in-breeding, including heart murmurs, reproductive problems and oddly kinked tails. Texas cougars, very close cousins, were imported to add to the gene pool.

 But the python population is so large — researchers believe they number in the many thousands based on the steep drop in nearly all small mammals in their range — that low diversity is not impeding the snake’s ability to adapt, Hunter said.

 “Such a large population allows them to rapidly adapt,” she said. “If some animals die out because of climatic issues, there are other animals that may not die out.”

 But in 13, they found that Indian marker.

 “That was unexpected,” Hunter said. “I kept looking at the data to make sure what I was seeing was correct.”

 University of Florida researchers show the scale of an 18-foot, 8-inch python undergoing a necropsy at their Gainesville lab in 2013. University of Florida/AP

 It’s not clear where the species got crossed, she said. In their native ranges, Burmese and Indian pythons have remained mostly distinct either because of the prey they eat or barriers in habitat. But they could breed in the wild. Breeders also frequently cross species to produce more desirable colors and patterns for the pet trade. The snakes may also have hooked up in the Everglades, but Hunter said that seems less likely since the markers she detected, which are only passed down through female snakes, were historical.

 Because Hunter and her colleagues focused on genetics, it’s not yet clear how climate will play into the snake’s evolution. Scientists suspect that a warming planet will allow them to roam further north. An upcoming study looking at how the snake has adapted should shed some light, she said. In the meantime, the rapid expansion has provided researchers with a rare window into evolution dynamics.

 “All species do this,” Hunter said. “But we’re watching evolutionary progress right in front of us.”

 An earlier version of this story incorrectly identified the Indian python as a subspecies of the Burmese python. It is a separate species. |||||
A summary of this is?

– A genetic study has found a new and dangerous possibility lurking in the DNA of Florida's invasive pythons. Per the Miami Herald, researchers from the US Geological Survey tested hundreds of the Everglades' already worryingly prolific giant snake species and what they found could mean an even hardier invader down the line. Where they expected to find nothing but DNA from the water-loving ancestors of carelessly released pet Burmese pythons, scientists discovered that at least 13 of 400 snakes tested showed signs of hybridization with a relative known as the Indian rock python. Unlike the Burmese, the rock python prefers to live on higher drier ground. It's also faster and smaller. Per the Guardian, this tells researchers that floating somewhere in the gene pool of Florida's estimated 150,000 pythons could be a mix of genes that could lead to a "super snake" with the ability to adapt even better to subtropical conditions in a Florida ecosystem already overrun with exotic and damaging invasives. Because researchers can't tell from their 400 snakes exactly how many of the Sunshine State's pythons are hybrids, they can't say for sure whether the added Indian rock python traits could one day make the population more adaptable to larger swaths of Florida and beyond.


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College Dreams (Photo: KatieWhitaker, Getty Images/iStockphoto)

 MURFREESBORO -- The TSSAA removed Riverdale and Smyrna from the high school girls basketball postseason on Monday following a report from a high school referee in charge of their District 7-AAA consolation game held Saturday where he said that both schools "played to lose the game."

 Both Rutherford County schools were placed on restrictive probation by the high school association for the rest of the school year and probation for the 2015-16 school year.

 Both schools were fined a total of $1,500 apiece.

 Administrators from both schools met with the TSSAA on Monday. Smyrna principal Rick Powell said both he and Riverdale principal Tom Nolan asked to allow their teams to continue to play, but remove their respective coaches — Shawn Middleton at Smyrna and Cory Barrett at Riverdale — from the postseason.

 "I hate it for the kids because of the actions of the coaches," Powell said. "We pleaded with the TSSAA. We hated that they were penalized. But that was their decision.

 "We talked about removing them for games, but it may be just one game (if they lost), or it could be two or three... You don't know how many games it would be."

 Tullahoma (19-8) advanced to Wednesday's Region 4-AAA semifinals without play because of the TSSAA decision. Tullahoma was scheduled to play Riverdale, which was ranked eighth in the final Associated Press Class AAA statewide poll. Lawrence County (21-8) also advanced. It was scheduled to play Smyrna.

 Neither Powell or Nolan were in attendance at the consolation game, which was held at Riverdale. Smyrna won the contest 55-29.

 In the report, the referee noted that Riverdale "missed 12-16 free throws intentionally." And that Smyrna "wouldn't get the ball across the half-court line to get a 10-second count or to make us call an over and back violation intentionally."

 The referee said "one time a Riverdale girl looked at one of the officials and gave the official a 3-second signal wanting him to call three seconds on her. Smyrna stood in the lane as well to have us call three seconds on them."

 The referee wrote that he finally called the coaches together for a meeting after "a Smyrna player was about to attempt a shot at the wrong basket (but there was a 10-second violation call before they attempted the shot) on purpose.

 "That was when I called both coaches together and told them we are not going to make a travesty or mockery of the game. WE ARE NOT GOING TO START TRYING TO SHOOT AND SCORE FOR THE OTHER TEAM."

 TSSAA executive director Bernard Childress said the decision to remove the teams stems from the players' actions on the court.

 "The student athletes bought into it," Childress said. "They were the ones asking to call three seconds. They were the ones stepping back over (midcourt). They were the ones not attempting to shoot at the basket."

 Nolan said he is suspending Barrett for the first two games of the 2015-16 school year.

 "It's a total embarrassment," Nolan said. "In my 35 years at Riverdale I've never had that happen. It sends a bad message to everyone. Bottom line is you play the game to win."

 Barrett did not return a message left on his cell phone seeking comment.

 A Riverdale administrator told the TSSAA that Barrett did not instruct the players to play to lose.

 "He said he talked to them about bracketology," Childress said. "He told them, 'This is where we will be if we win, this is where we will be if we lose."

 By losing the consolation game, Riverdale was placed in the opposite side of the Region 4-AAA from defending state and national champion Blackman. The Lady Warriors wouldn't meet Blackman until the region finals had both teams advanced. Both region finalists advance to the state sectionals.

 Smyrna would have potentially played Blackman in the semifinals, which is an elimination game.

 However, Childress said it was Barrett that substituted his starters out of the game.

 "From what I understand, he sat down and let them do whatever they wanted to do," Childress said. "We questioned why his starters were on the bench and he had no attention to the game. He acted like he really didn't care about what went on in the game."

 Rutherford County Schools spokesman James Evans told The DNJ that schools director Don Odom will have a "follow up with the coaches" as well. Evans could not give any details of what could happen from that meeting.

 Powell said he has not decided on an additional punishment to Middleton.

 "We're in the process of discussing that," Powell said. "I talked briefly to Mr. Odom. It's something we are discussing, but as to what that would be, I don't know yet."

 Middleton said he expects more punishment to come from either Powell or the central office.

 "We'll handle it as adults," he said.

 Middleton said he regrets what happened.

 "The bottom line is as a coach you make decisions in the heat of the game," he said. "No way would I do it again."

 Powell said two administrators attended the consolation game. At one point in the second half, one of those administrators approached Middleton about what was transpiring.

 "We were told the (administrator) went up to him and said, 'What are you doing," Childress said. "They told them, 'You need to play to win the ball game and stop this.' That's when he put his starters back in."

 Smyrna held a 30-25 lead at the time with about four minutes left in the game. Middleton then reinserted his starters and the team went on to win by 26 points.

 Middleton said it was difficult telling his team that its season was over, including the program's three seniors.

 "It was hard to swallow," Middleton said. "It was hard to tell my three seniors that their season is over. That was the toughest moment of my life.

 "I'm just numb. I don't have a lot to say. I just want to say if anyone should be punished, it should be the coaches."

 Contact Tom Kreager at 615-278-5168 or tkreager@dnj.com. Follow him on Twitter @Kreager.

 &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;!--iframe--&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; ||||| Prep teams banned from postseason

 MURFREESBORO, Tenn. -- A pair of Tennessee girls basketball high school teams have been pulled from the postseason for trying to lose a game to avoid the top-ranked team and improve their chances of advancing to the state tournament.

 The programs at Riverdale, a state champion in 2013, and Smyrna were fined a total of $1,500 each Monday and also placed on probation for a year by the Tennessee Secondary School athletic Association.

 TSSAA executive director Bernard Childress wrote Monday in letters to the schools' principals that the teams "made a mockery" with intentional turnovers off various violations and missed free throws. The referee also reported he stopped play ordering the coaches not to make a travesty of the game with a Smyrna player about to shoot at the wrong basket.

 "Now I think Riverdale was the first team to start, `let's lose the game,' but both teams obviously didn't want to win and it really showed," the referee wrote in his game report that was included in Childress' letters.

 Childress said high school athletic programs are meant to teach students ethics, integrity, sportsmanship, morals and values.

 "This situation defeated the purpose of educational-based athletics," Childress wrote.

 Smyrna (21-8) won the game 55-29 Saturday against Riverdale (22-8), a program that won its third state title in four years in March 2013 with a 58th straight win. The winner was on track to play Tennessee's defending Class AAA champion Blackman (25-2).

 TSSAA officials met with administrators from both schools, and Childress noted both apologized for their teams and acknowledged the game was "not in the spirit of fair play."

 Riverdale principal Tom Nolan took to Twitter to apologize for what he called "unsportsmanlike conduct and disrespect for the game."

 Smyrna principal Rick Powell told The Daily News Journal, which first reported the punishments, both he and Nolan asked the TSSAA to allow the teams to keep playing without their coaches this postseason.

 "I hate it for the kids because of the actions of the coaches," Powell said. "We pleaded with the TSSAA. We hated that they were penalized. But that was their decision." |||||

– Two Tennessee high school girls' basketball teams have been chucked out of the playoffs after a farcical game that the referee says both teams tried to lose. According to the referee's report from the Saturday game between Riverdale and Smyrna, players "missed 12-16 free throws intentionally," "wouldn't get the ball across the half-court line to get a 10-second count or to make us call an over and back violation intentionally," and one player "looked at one of the officials and gave the official a 3-second signal, wanting him to call three seconds on her," the Daily News Journal reports. The ref says the last straw was when a Smyrna player was about to shoot at the wrong basket. Both teams were trying to avoid facing top-ranked Blackman High School in the tournament, reports USA Today. After the referee ordered both coaches not to make a "travesty or mockery of the game," Smyrna ended up winning, but the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association decided to pull both teams from the postseason, fine the schools $1,500 each, and put them on probation for a year, ESPN reports. Smyrna's principal tells the News Journal that he and his counterpart at Riverdale failed to convince the TSSAA to allow both teams to stay in the playoffs with both coaches suspended. (During the 2012 Olympics, eight badminton players went home early after playing to lose.)