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Published on Nov 25, 2008

 Paul Dawson

 Food Scientist, Clemson University

 The five-second-rule is a popular belief that if you drop food on the floor and pick it up within five seconds, it won't be too germ laden to eat. It's not true and we've proven it, it's well, bologna. My name is Paul Dawson. I'm a food scientist at the food science and human nutrition department at Clemson University.

 My students and I have researched the five-second-rule and published the results in the Journal of Applied Microbiology. We did this as a creative inquiry project to learn how research is done. That is, research begins with a simple idea or a question, experiment is then set up to test this idea or question, data is collected, and finally a conclusion is drawn based on what the data showed us about that original question. In the case of the five-second-rule we found that bacteria was transferred from tabletops and floors to the food within five seconds, that is the five second rule is not an accurate guide when it comes to eating food that has fallen on the floor.

 My students have done other creative inquiry projects. Weve researched what happens when someone double-dips. You have probably seen it happen; someone dips a chip, takes a bite, and then dips a chip again. We have also researched what happens when someone drinks milk out of the carton.

 Both projects showed that these activities are bad ideas when it comes to healthy eating and food safety. The experiments are not silly but are not only designed to teach students about food science, which is food safety, tasteness and freshness, but also about how research is done and how it affects our daily lives, even if it's about dropping food on the floor. Most of all Clemson's creative inquiry program is about looking deeper in the world around us, learning how to question the facts and assumptions, whether it be in the arts or the sciences. ||||| The controversial “five-second rule” — the one that lets us eat dropped food if it’s quickly scooped off the floor — is a bunch of boloney, according to Clemson University food scientist Paul Dawson, who stirred up the long-debated issue in this month’s National Geographic.

 Though previous research has shown we may have up to a minute to rescue certain types of spilled food before it becomes contaminated, Dawson and his students made a strong case for the “zero-second rule.” They found that salmonella and other bacteria can live up to four weeks on dry surfaces and be immediately transferred to food.

 (Chicago Tribune illustration by Michael Miner)

 The zero-tolerance standard, however, conflicts with the findings of two Connecticut College student researchers who sprinkled apple slices and Skittles candies in the college dining hall and snack bar for five, 10, 30 and 60-second intervals. The apple slices picked up bacteria after one minute; nearly five minutes elapsed before the Skittles attracted any.

 Then there were the University of Maine undergraduates who concluded that using the five-second-rule could reduce food waste and possibly improve children’s immune systems.

 Still, most researchers agree that the critical thing is not time, but location. It’s OK to brush off the bagel that fell from the stroller onto the sidewalk and give it to your screaming child, for example, because the pavement is cleaner than the kitchen floor in terms of the types of germs that cause illnesses, said Dr. Harley Rotbart, a professor of microbiology and pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

 “The kitchen floor, however, is probably a zero-second zone because the bacteria from uncooked meat and chicken juices are more hazardous than the ‘soil’ bacteria outside,” said Rotbart. The bathroom floor is another zero-second zone because “it’s a great potential source of bacteria and shorter-lived viruses that can cause gastrointestinal illness if ingested,” said Rotbart, the author of “Germ Proof Your Kids.”

 Ultimately, however, most people assess their risk according to how badly they want what has slipped through their fingers and whether anyone else is looking. Women are more likely to eat food that has been on the floor than men, while cookies and candy are much more likely to be picked up and eaten than cauliflower or broccoli, research shows.

 Unfortunately, despite the distress it causes, there’s just no rescuing ice cream.

 Related content:

 The five-second rule is alive and well at Illinois same-day surgery centers, according to Associated Press Medical Writer Carla K. Johnson. "Medical staff were observed picking up items that had fallen to the floor and behaving as if they weren't contaminated by germs, according to state inspection reports." Here's the full story, "Illinois clinics cited over infection control." ||||| Though conventional wisdom says you have three to five seconds before a dropped substance becomes infested with germs, two Connecticut College student researchers have found that we actually have 30 seconds to pick up moist foods and more than a minute to pick up dry foods before they're contaminated with bacteria.

 Apparently we have more time than we thought when it comes to retrieving and eating food that has been dropped on the floor, a favorite topic among Julie's Health Club readers.

 The students set out to challenge previous research on the topic by Jillian Clarke of Chicago High School for Agricultural Sciences, who tested the theory several years ago for a college internship by dropping food items directly onto e-coli contaminated tiles.

 "That's not representative of what really happens," said Connecticut College's Molly Goettsche, a cell and molecular biology major.

 Trying to simulate everyday life, Goettsche and Nicole Moin dropped apple slices and Skittles candies in the Connecticut College dining hall and snack bar for five, 10, 30 and 60-second intervals. They also tested them after allowing five minutes to elapse and then searched for any rogue bacteria.

 The researchers found no bacteria were present on the foods that had remained on the floor for 5, 10 or 30 seconds. The apple slices did pick up bacteria after one minute, however and the Skittles showed a bacterial presence after remaining on the floor for 5 minutes. |||||

– The 5-second rule may or may not protect your stomach from nasty germs (here's a no, here's a yes), but it probably depends more on location than duration, writes Julie Deardorff, who rounds up recent studies and talks to scientists for her Health Club column in the Chicago Tribune. Kitchen and bathroom floors, for instance, are nasty places where a 0-second rule is wise. The sidewalk, on the other hand, is safer because it's less likely to harbor the germs that cause illness. A kitchen floor "is probably a zero-second zone because the bacteria from uncooked meat and chicken juices are more hazardous than the ‘soil’ bacteria outside,” says one medical expert on the subject. Ditto for a bathroom floor because "it’s a great potential source of bacteria and shorter-lived viruses that can cause gastrointestinal illness if ingested.”


The Baltic Sea is a graveyard of ships that have sunk over the past few centuries, in particular the two World Wars. German maritime expert Thomas Dehling has an eye on shipwrecks and sunken objects - and their exact positions.

 DW: How many shipwrecked boats are there in the Baltic Sea?

 Thomas Dehling: I don't know the figure for the entire Baltic Sea, but in German waters - about 16,000 square kilometers (6000 square miles), less than a tenth of the Baltic Sea - there are quite a lot, roughly 1,000 objects that we know about.

 In the Baltic Sea, we have quite a lot of shipwrecks due to the two World Wars, more than in other seas. Most of the objects are from the early 20th century, but there is one shipwreck in Finnish waters that is more than 400 years old. In our part of the Baltic, there's an old wooden shipwreck that dates to the 15th or 16th century, the archeologists aren't sure. There's not much left but the cargo was still there: copper disks, a really unusual find so far north.

 We regularly survey the objects, especially those that are potentially dangerous to shipping, depending on the importance of the object and the sea lane, maybe once a year or only once every 25 years.

 How unusual would a

 off the Swedish coast be?

 There are several WWII Russian submarine shipwrecks in the Baltic Sea, that isn't unusual. In the case of the shipwreck off the Swedish coast, it depends on how old it is. Because of the wars, there are English submarines in German waters in the North Sea, a Polish shipwreck in the Baltic Sea, a German shipwreck in Polish waters. If the Russian submarine is not that old, it is obvious that a Russian submarine entered Swedish waters clandestinely.

 Is the Baltic Sea popular with recreational divers?

 Yes it is - and it's dangerous. Very often fishing nets get caught in the objects and you have to be very experienced to dive there. That's why we don't disseminate our information on the shipwrecks.

 But there's a map on your website?

 Yes, but you won't find an object when you use that map because it's not that precise. Of course we have to inform the maritime community about obstructions that might hinder their traffic, but we don't inform the public about objects that might be of historic interest - only people who can claim that they need to have the information.

 Have you charted all of the objects in your sector by now, or do you still find new ones?

 In our part of the Baltic Sea, we still find 10 to 15 objects every year that we didn't know about before, thanks to the modern technology on our ships that lets us survey the seafloor in much more detail. And many of the objects aren't large shipwrecks, but much smaller, or partially submerged. And they're not the ones that are potentially dangerous to shipping, we know about those. We don't remove anything, we inform the water and shipping administration, and it's up to them to decide whether to remove an object or set up a buoy.

 Thomas Dehling heads the hydrographic surveying division at Germany's Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH), which provides maritime service for the shipping. The agency is based in Hamburg and Rostock. ||||| The term “vintage” may now have a whole new meaning for wine lovers—a treasure trove of 170-year-old champagne has been unearthed from the bottom of the sea. In 2010, a group of divers in the Baltic Sea happened upon the remains of a sunken trade schooner just off the coast of Finland. Scattered amongst the wreckage 160 feet below the surface, they discovered a treasure sent from Dionysus himself—168 bottles of French bubbly that had aged in near perfect conditions for decades.

 Although the local government ultimately claimed the bottles, a team of scientists led by Philippe Jeandet, a professor of food biochemistry at the University of Reims, was able to obtain a small sample of the preserved beverage for testing—and tasting. Their chemical and sensory analysis, published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, provides a unique lens into the past, offering information about conventional winemaking practices in the 19th century as well as the likely destination of the lost trade ship.

 Despite the fact that the labels had long since worn off, branded images on the interior surface of the corks allowed the team to identify the original vintners. Several champagne houses were represented, including Veuve Clicquot Ponsardin, a well-known brand founded in 1772 that still exists today. To conduct their chemical analysis, the team compared the older “Baltic wine” with modern Veuve Clicquot. Their results show that the Baltic versions contained lower alcohol content and higher sugar levels than their modern-day counterpart.

 Many of these chemical differences can be explained by “steps in the production process that were less controlled than they are today,” says Jeandet. Specifically, the researchers believe that the lower alcohol levels are a consequence of a colder average climate, which would inhibit grape maturation and overall levels of alcohol from sugar, as well as use of a less efficient yeast product. Also, while individual grapes did not produce particularly high sugar yields, 19th-century winemakers were known to add a considerable amount of sugar to artificially sweeten their champagnes. Addition of sugar syrup at the end of the production process would have diluted the wine, also possibly accounting for the lower alcohol content.

 “Today most champagnes contain low levels of sugar that are added at the end of the process,” says Jeandet. “The Baltic wine we analyzed contained at least 140 grams of sugar per liter, as compared to about 6 to 8 grams per liter used today.”

 The aged wine also had enhanced levels of iron, copper, sodium and chlorine. The researchers hypothesize that the increased concentration of iron and copper, accompanied by several wood compounds, suggests the use of metal- and wood-containing vessels during the manufacturing process. This contrasts with the steel vessels that are predominately used today. Furthermore, in the 1800s “copper sulfate was often used for the control of disease in the vineyard, as opposed to fungicide containing organic compounds used today,” says Jeandet. This also accounts for the high levels of copper compounds observed.

 Meanwhile, the heightened levels of sodium and chlorine in the Baltic wine can be attributed to salt, which was repeatedly added to help stabilize wine during the 19th-century manufacturing process. Today, these similar processes occur after the blending of the wine, leading to relatively lower sodium levels.

 According to the authors, the sugar content also provides an important clue about the destination of the trade schooner. The location of the wreckage suggests that the ship may have been destined for a Russian market. However, historical records of regional preferences in wine sweetness provide conflicting evidence. The Russians demanded extremely high sugar levels of around 300 grams per liter. Russians had such a sweet tooth that “it was common to have sugar on every table close to the wine glass—for they added sugar not only to red wine, but also to champagne,” says Jeandet. This spurred the creation of an entirely separate brand of extra-sweet bubbly called Champagne à la Russe.

 The Germans and French, meanwhile, demanded more moderate sugar levels of approximately 150 grams per liter, while British and American connoisseurs preferred even lower levels of around 20 to 60 grams per liter. Based on the measured sugar content of the Baltic wine, the authors think this particular shipment was probably destined for the Germanic Confederation, whose constituents preferred more moderately sweetened champagne.

 So what about the question that virtually everyone is asking: “What does this stuff taste like?”

 By a stroke of luck, most of the bottles had been preserved in ideal conditions—at a depth characterized by minimal light and temperatures ranging between 35 and 39 degrees Fahrenheit. The researchers observed very low levels of acetic acid in the wine, a primary red flag for spoilage. So as part of the testing, the team had a panel of wine experts take a taste. The compiled responses were then compared to the chemical findings.

 Initially, the experts described the Baltic wines with words such as “animal notes,” “wet hair” and “cheesy.” However, after the wine was swirled a bit in the glass, providing some much needed oxygen, it took on a whole new character. Once it had a chance to breathe, the champagne was described as “grilled, spicy, smoky, and leathery” accompanied by fruity and floral notes, according to the paper.

 Although he was not given a bottle to keep for himself, Jeandet was able to obtain a small personal sample of 100 microliters to try. “It was incredible. I have never tasted such a wine in my life,” says Jeandet. “The aroma stayed in my mouth for three or four hours after tasting it.” Wine connoisseurs seem to agree, as several of these bottles have been auctioned off for up to 100,000 euros each, according to Jeandet. Other bottles have been sent to museums or historical institutions. Further work may prove useful to enologists who are now investigating the potential for deep-sea aging as a technique to enhance or augment the taste of various wines. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– The Baltic Sea's trove of shipwrecks has preserved all kinds of history—much of it about war—and recently sparked fears of a fresh conflict in Europe. Bordered by Scandinavia, Finland, the Baltics, the North European Plain, and accessible by Russia, one sliver of the sea contains about 1,000 known shipwreck objects, maritime expert Thomas Dehling tells Deutsche Welle. He's referring to what slumbers in 6,000-square-miles of "German waters," which he says represent not even a tenth of the full sea. "Many of the objects aren't large shipwrecks, but much smaller, or partially submerged [ones]," he says. "We still find 10 to 15 objects every year that we didn't know about before." Most are from World War I and II, but not all: A Swedish three-masted warship called the Mars went down in 1564 while battling the Danes and may have been cursed by its own cannons, National Geographic reported last year. Discovered in 2011, the warship sank when its cannons overheated and exploded during battle; legend says it was cursed because Swedish kings repurposed church bells to build the cannons. In another Baltic find, 168 bottles of perfectly preserved 19th-century French champagne were discovered on a sunken schooner near Finland, Smithsonian reports. "It was incredible," says a scientist of the bubbly that later sold for up to $100,000 a bottle. Then last year, Sweden saw its Cold War fears revived—and concerns about modern Russia heightened—when said it spotted a foreign sub in its waters. Sweden now says a Russian sub may have indeed been found in the Baltic ... but the wreckage is thought to be that of a WWI vessel that likely went down almost 100 years ago. (Read about a "sickening" shipwreck find in the Arctic.)


Article:

CLOSE Album of the Week: Cher's 'Dancing Queen' USA TODAY

 Kanye West and Kim Kardashian West attend the opening night of 'The Cher Show' on Broadway. (Photo: Dominik Bindl, Getty Images)

 Kim Kardashian West is a huge fan of Cher, but that didn't stop her husband, Kanye West, from being on his phone during the pop legend's Broadway show.

 The Wests were on hand Monday for the opening night of "The Cher Show," a biopic musical that documents different chapters of the 72-year-old's life, including her iconic relationship with Sonny Bono.

 But, apparently the rapper found his cellphone more interesting. Kanye's lack of attention caught the attention of Tony-nominated actor Jarrod Spector, who stars in the musical as Bono.

 "Hey @kanyewest so cool that you’re here at @TheCherShow! If you look up from your cell phone you’ll see we’re doing a show up here," Spector tweeted. "It's opening night. Kind of a big deal for us. Thanks so much."

 Related: Cher reveals Sonny Bono told her she wasn't 'particularly attractive' when they first met

 Hey @kanyewest so cool that you’re here at @TheCherShow! If you look up from your cell phone you’ll see we’re doing a show up here. It’s opening night. Kind of a big deal for us. Thanks so much. — Jarrod Spector (@jarrodspector) December 4, 2018

 West quickly issued an apology for his impoliteness.

 "The dynamics of Cher and Sonny’s relationship made Kim and I grab each other’s hand and sing 'I got you babe,'" West tweeted Monday.

 "Please pardon my lack of etiquette. We have so much appreciation for the energy you guys put into making this master piece," he continued.

 the dynamics of Cher and Sonny’s relationship made Kim and I grab each other’s hand and sing “I got you babe”

 please pardon my lack of etiquette. We have so much appreciation for the energy you guys put into making this master piece. — ye (@kanyewest) December 4, 2018

 Hopefully there are no hard feelings between the Wests and Cher, because Kardashian West thinks the "Believe" singer "is seriously the most amazing beautiful person ever!!!"

 Related: Kim K looks just like Cher, Aaliyah, Madonna in her stunning Halloween costumes

 Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2018/12/03/kanye-west-apologizes-after-cher-actor-calls-him-out-over-phone/2199361002/ ||||| Choosing to recreate the spirit of the television variety shows that Sonny and Cher — and then Cher sans Sonny — headlined in the ‘70s is a choice that lands as flat as the jokes in Broadway’s latest jukebox bio, “The Cher Show.” Its attempt to celebrate the resilience of its “bad-ass” star and her half-century career of highs and lows rarely rises above that TV series’ taste for cliches, corn and cheese. Despite an icon with attitude, an armful of pop tunes and a can-do cast, the script never quite finds a satisfying style — or a genuine heart — as a winning stage musical. As Cher might say: Broadway’s a bitch.

 You know a show’s in trouble when the moments that elicit the biggest applause of the night don’t even feature its title character. There’s a mini-fashion show featuring over-the-top outfits by original Cher designer Bob Mackie — who created the costumes for the musical — that’s a stunner of shameless excess. There’s also a dazzling number choreographed by Christopher Gattelli featuring a knockout dancer (Ashley Blair Fitzgerald) representing “The Dark Lady” of one of Cher’s songs.

 As for the title character, a trio of actresses play Cher at various stages of the star’s career, echoing the threesome approach of the soon-to-be-shuttered Donna Summer musical. Here there’s a bit more banter in Rick Elice’s sketchy, every-scene-is-a song-cue script. The trio of cool babes wisecrack about each other’s life and career choices, buck each other up and repeat the same talking points again and again. (Cher’s really shy, but she’s also a “goddess warrior,” but she’s also a victim of manipulative men, but she also chooses her own destiny. Always, the songs make her strong, see? And they go something like this…)

 “Star” Cher (Stephanie J. Block) opens the musical as if it were her TV show with “If I Could Turn Back Time” (minus the iconic cannon straddle), and then introduces her fellow selves to the audience — “My two very special guest stars: me and me” — “Lady” (Teal Wicks, representing mid-career Cher ) and “Babe” (Micaela Diamond, for the early years).

 The tone of the show, directed by Jason Moore (“Avenue Q,” “Pitch Perfect”) veers from playfully self-aware to broad comedy to melodrama. (“Won’t you please stop drinking for my sake?” asks Cher’s mother, Georgia Holt, to her then-husband. “Who says I’m drinking for your sake?” he responds.)

 What “The Cher Show” rarely does is get real, despite the tell-it-like-it-is attitude of its subject. It only takes itself semi-seriously, keeping genuine emotion at arm’s length. The audience witnesses all of Cher’s struggles — including the dip into infomercial-land — and triumphs, but is not especially moved by them, since it’s filtered through the obviousness of the script and the cool aloofness of its protagonist.

 The pleasures in the show come from individual performances, including Jarrod Spector, spot-on as Sonny Bono and capturing the man’s charm, calculation and nasal twang. (But did he really have those abs?) Emily Skinner is terrific as Cher’s mother, the tough-but-tender Georgia Holt, but is bizarrely misdirected in a turn as a clownish Lucille Ball. Michael Berresse has flamboyant fun as Bob Mackie and Matthew Hydzik nails Gregg Allman’s sound — and a hair sway that rivals Cher’s.

 Keeping the show afloat are the strength of its combined Chers, who each give us just enough of the low vocal treble to evoke the star while hanging on to her own individuality. Diamond highlights the freshness, excitement and naiveté of youth; Wicks, the deadpan humor and personal conflicts of mid-career Cher. Broadway veteran Block showcases seasoned assuredness and chops as the older, wiser Cher, who finally becomes a woman who finds the courage to live up to her empowering persona. ||||| the dynamics of Cher and Sonny’s relationship made Kim and I grab each other’s hand and sing “I got you babe” please pardon my lack of etiquette. We have so much appreciation for the energy you guys put into making this master piece. ||||| Hey @ kanyewest so cool that you’re here at @ TheCherShow! If you look up from your cell phone you’ll see we’re doing a show up here. It’s opening night. Kind of a big deal for us. Thanks so much. |||||
What is a summary?

– Kim Kardashian West was excited to attend the Broadway debut of The Cher Show, a musical based on the singer's life. Her husband was apparently less so, and he ended up apologizing for his fascination with his phone during the Monday show, reports USA Today. "Hey @kanyewest so cool that you're here at @TheCherShow! If you look up from your cell phone you'll see we're doing a show up here," Tony-nominated actor Jarrod Spector had tweeted during the performance. "It's opening night. Kind of a big deal for us. Thanks so much." "Please pardon my lack of etiquette. We have so much appreciation for the energy you guys put into making this master piece," West responded hours later, noting he and his wife joined hands and sang "I Got You Babe" at one point. "We had the best time!" Kardashian West added in a Tuesday tweet without mentioning West's distraction. "All of the actors were sooo good!" Spector did particularly well, according to Variety critic Frank Rizzo. "Spot-on as Sonny Bono and capturing the man's charm, calculation and nasal twang," he writes of the actor. (Kim and Kanye recently took flak for an "obnoxious" flight.)


Article:

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — A professional drummer who has served as a musical director for the United Nations and “The Arsenio Hall Show” allegedly embezzled $750,000 from a charity concert for homeless children and used the pilfered money to buy his ex-wife a house in Calabasas, federal prosecutors said Monday.

 Robin DiMaggio, 47, of Woodland Hills, was expected to make his first court appearance Monday following his arrest Friday afternoon, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

 Prosecutors say DiMaggio promised to help the Peace for You Peace for Me Foundation, a Bulgaria-based non-profit organization, with organizing a charity concert in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia that was designed to raise money for and raise awareness of homeless and displaced children from conflict zones throughout the world.

 “He took the money, deposited it into his own account, never put it in an escrow account and then spent the money on cars, living expenses and purchasing a home for his ex-wife,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Poonam Kumar said.

 In a series of communications, DiMaggio allegedly told the Foundation that he would be able to secure several celebrities to perform at the charity concert.

 In August 2016, the foundation’s financial sponsor allegedly wired $750,000 to a DiMaggio-controlled account as a guarantee for future payments related to artists performing at the charity concert, prosecutors said.

 DiMaggio allegedly pledged not to spend the money, and that he would place it in an escrow account to be used later to pay artists who would perform at the concert.

 The complaint alleges DiMaggio never set up the escrow account and instead deposited the $750,000 into his personal bank account and used the money to make payments on cars, credit card debt and his living expenses.

 Prosecutors say within weeks of the wire transfer, DiMaggio used $251,370 of the funds to buy a Calabasas home for his ex-wife. He also wired $150,000 of the funds to a bank account in the name of his company, DiMagic Entertainment, Inc., according to the complaint.

 None of the transfers was distributed to artists or their management in connection with the charity concert in Bulgaria, according to the complaint.

 DiMaggio has performed or recorded with a number of A-list artists, including Paul Simon, David Bowie, Jackson Browne, Diana Ross, Tupac, Dr. Dre, Luther Vandross, Lil Jon, Martina McBride, Daft Punk, Johnny Cash, and Chris Isaak, according to his Wikipedia page.

 He assumed the role of United Nations musical director in Sept. 2013.

 DiMaggio also composed the theme song for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, believed to be the first of its kind.

 The case has been investigated by the FBI.

 If convicted, DiMaggio would face up to 20 years in federal prison. ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.

 By Alex Johnson

 LOS ANGELES — Robin DiMaggio, a star drummer who has performed with many of the most famous names in music, has been charged with embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars from a charity concert for homeless and displaced children in the world's conflict zones, prosecutors said.

 DiMaggio, 47, of the Woodland Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, was arrested Friday on a single felony charge of wire fraud. He was released on $40,000 bond and must wear a tracking device pending a preliminary hearing and arraignment next month in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, the U.S. attorney's office said late Monday afternoon.

 No court documents were available identifying an attorney for DiMaggio, who has been the music director for several United Nations events and was the drummer and music director for Arsenio Hall's second late-night talk show, which ran for one season on CBS in 2013-14. A phone number for a person listed as his agent was disconnected.

 The U.S. attorney's office said DiMaggio offered to help secure top-tier artists for a charity concert for the Peace for You Peace for Me Foundation, a Bulgaria-based nonprofit, to raise money for homeless and displaced children from conflict zones around the world.

 Prosecutors said the foundation's financial sponsor wired $750,000 to a DiMaggio-controlled account in August 2016 as a guarantee for future payments, which DiMaggio promised to place in escrow account and use only to pay the artists.

 But DiMaggio never set up the escrow account, prosecutor said. Instead, he deposited the money in a personal bank account and used it to pay for cars, credit card debt, living expenses and a quarter-million-dollar home for his ex-wife, prosecutors said.

 None of the money was sent to the artists, according to prosecutors. But when the foundation's financial sponsor demanded the money back, DiMaggio reported by email that he had sent the deposit to the artists as agreed, they said.

 Los Angeles County Superior Court records show that in December 2016, the sponsor sued DiMaggio, who filed for bankruptcy. The financial sponsor was awarded a $1.2 million summary judgment in bankruptcy court but that judgment hadn't been formally entered by the court as of last week, according to the records.

 A scheduling conference in the bankruptcy is scheduled for March. Records in that case indicate that DiMaggio represented himself without an attorney who could be called for comment on Monday.

 DiMaggio has performed with a wide range of musicians across a variety of musical styles in a career spanning more than 30 years. The music publication All About Jazz described him as "a superior percussionist with a deep appreciation for the world's musical styles."

 Among the performers he has worked with are Paul Simon, Diana Ross, Dr. Dre, David Bowie, Jackson Browne, Tupac Shakur, Luther Vandross, Lil Jon, Martina McBride, Daft Punk, Johnny Cash and Ravi Shankar. ||||| A former musical director for the United Nations and TV's Arsenio Hall Show has been arrested for allegedly embezzling $750,000 "from a charity concert for homeless children" and using the money for his personal spending, including buying a home for his ex-wife in Southern California.

 Robin DiMaggio was arrested on Friday and could face felony wire-fraud charges, the Justice Department said. If convicted, DiMaggio faces 20 years in prison.

 A rep for DiMaggio did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment. The U.S. Attorney's Office had "no additional comment" when reached by Fox News.

 DiMaggio was arrested after allegedly agreeing he "would assist" the Bulgaria-based non-profit Peace for You Peace for Me Foundation "with organizing a charity concert designed to raise money for and awareness of homeless and displaced children from conflict zones worldwide," federal prosecutors said.

 According to the release, the 47-year-old drummer allegedly said he would "be able to secure several celebrities" to perform at the event.

 As a result, in 2016 the foundation's financial sponsor wired DiMaggio $750,000 to be placed in an "escrow account" to pay the artists, prosecutors said.

 However, prosecutors said DiMaggio allegedly "never set up the escrow account." Instead, several days later he deposited the funds into his "personal bank account and used the money to make payments on cars, credit card debt and his living expenses," the feds alleged.

 FLOYD PARTON, SINGER-SONGWRITER AND DOLLY'S BROTHER, HAS DIED

 DiMaggio also allegedly used $251,370 of the money "to purchase a Calabasas home for his ex-wife," prosecutors said.

 One day the funds landed in his personal account, DiMaggio allegedly emailed the foundation's financial sponsor stating that “an entire group of managers” believed the charity concert should be postponed by two months, from Oct. 1 to Dec. 1, 2016, prosecutors said.

 They said after the sponsor asked to get the $750,000 back, DiMaggio allegedly claimed he already had sent the "deposit to the artists as agreed and that he would return the funds when the deposits were returned."

 'WHEEL OF FORTUNE' HOST PAT SAJAK SUGGESTS 'QUICK FIX' FOR OSCARS

 Per the release, the sponsor sued DiMaggio and during his 2016 deposition, DiMaggio "testified that a third party" had used his email "to contact the foundation about the concert and had been responsible for the withdrawal of most of the funds."

 However, he allegedly admitted he used part of the funds to buy a house for his ex-wife. The release also noted that DiMaggio filed for bankruptcy nine months later.

 Fox News' Julius Young contributed to this report. ||||| A man who formerly worked as the musical director for “The Arsenio Hall Show” is named in a criminal complaint alleging he took $750,000 from a charity concert that was meant to benefit homeless children and used the money to buy a Calabasas home for his ex-wife, federal prosecutors said Monday.

 Robin DiMaggio, a 47-year-old resident of Woodland Hills, was arrested Friday afternoon after being accused of felony wire fraud in the case, the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Central District of California said in a news release.

 DiMaggio has also worked as a professional drummer and served as the music director of a concert put on by the United Nations.

 The investigation centers on a charity event he said he would help put on in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia called “Peace for You, Peace for Me,” which sought to mimic 1985’s Live Aid to raise money for homeless and displaced children from conflict zones across the globe, according to the criminal complaint.

 DiMaggio allegedly told the nonprofit he would be able to get several celebrities to perform, so the organization’s financial sponsor wired him $750,000 to pay the artists. But instead of putting the funds into an escrow account, as he promised he would, he deposited the money into his personal bank account, officials said.

 Within days, the defendant had allegedly used the money to cover payments on cars and credit cards, among other living expenses. And within weeks, he had taken more than $250,000 to buy the residence in Calabasas, prosecutors said.

 Although he did send $150,000 to a bank account for his business, DiMagic Entertainment, those funds weren’t used to pay any performers for the charity concert, the complaint alleges.

 During that time, DiMaggio allegedly emailed organizers and told them “an entire group of managers” thought the benefit’s date should be postponed two months, prompting the sponsor to demand its money back. But the defendant said he couldn’t return it because he had already paid deposits to artists involved, according to investigators.

 After being taken to court over the situation in Los Angeles County in December 2016, DiMaggio testified someone else had used his email to contact the foundation and had been responsible for withdrawing funds, though he did admit to using some to buy his ex-wife’s home as a partial settlement of his spousal support, officials said.

 When DiMaggio filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy nine months later, the charity’s financial backers and his own company — which had also filed claims against him — were awarded $1.2 million.

 If convicted of wire fraud, the 47-year-old would face a maximum possible sentence of 20 years in federal prison, prosecutors said. |||||
What is a summary?

– A former United Nations musical director allegedly embezzled $750,000 from a charity concert for homeless and displaced children, spending some of the funds on a home for his ex-wife. Robin DiMaggio—a professional drummer who's worked with artists like David Bowie, Diana Ross, Tupac, and Johnny Cash—was arrested Friday on a felony wire fraud charge after a promise to help a nonprofit put on a star-studded charity concert in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, inspired by the 1985 Live Aid benefit concert, per KTLA and NBC News. Per CBS Los Angeles, DiMaggio, 47, was wired $750,000 in August 2016 to pay artists he agreed to recruit. But prosecutors say "he took the money, deposited it into his own account, never put it in an escrow account," then spent it on cars, living expenses, and a $250,000 home in Calabasas, Calif. DiMaggio is also accused of paying off credit card debt and wiring $150,000 to his company, DiMagic Entertainment. The Peace for You Peace for Me Foundation demanded its money back when he suggested the concert scheduled for Oct. 1, 2016 be postponed, but DiMaggio said the artists had already been paid, reports Fox News. While battling a lawsuit from the concert sponsor in December 2016, DiMaggio instead claimed someone used his email to contact the foundation and withdraw funds, though he acknowledged buying the home as a partial settlement of his spousal support, per KTLA. The foundation was awarded a $1.2 million summary judgment when DiMaggio later filed for bankruptcy, per NBC. Released on $40,000 bond, the drummer must now wear a tracking device. He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. (This rocker is accused of defrauding 100,000.)


Variants of apolipoprotein E have been studied extensively as risk factors for many different conditions. For example, APOE alleles have been shown to influence the risk of cardiovascular diseases. People who carry at least one copy of the APOE e4 allele have an increased chance of developing atherosclerosis, which is an accumulation of fatty deposits and scar-like tissue in the lining of the arteries. This progressive narrowing of the arteries increases the risk of heart attack and stroke.

 The APOE e2 allele has been shown to greatly increase the risk of a rare condition called hyperlipoproteinemia type III. Most people with this disorder have two copies of the APOE e2 allele, leading researchers to conclude that the e2 allele plays a critical role in the development of the condition. Hyperlipoproteinemia type III is characterized by increased blood levels of cholesterol, certain fats called triglycerides, and molecules called beta-very low-density lipoproteins (beta-VLDLs), which carry cholesterol and lipoproteins in the bloodstream. A buildup of cholesterol and other fatty materials can lead to the formation of small, yellow skin growths called xanthomas and the development of atherosclerosis.

 APOE gene variants have also been studied as a potential risk factor for age-related macular degeneration, an eye disease that is a leading cause of vision loss among older people worldwide. Some studies have suggested that having at least one copy of the APOE e4 allele may help protect against this disease or delay the onset of vision loss, while having at least one copy of the APOE e2 allele may increase the risk of this disease or cause symptoms to appear earlier. However, other studies have not found these associations. More research is needed to clarify what role, if any, APOE gene variants play in the development of age-related macular degeneration. ||||| The gene comes in three varieties, known as the e2, e3 and e4 variants. Since everyone inherits one version of the gene from each parent, there are six possible combinations. People with one — and especially two — e4 variants are significantly more likely to develop Alzheimer's than people without e4. Researchers also have found that adults with e2 variants have more plaques in their brains but are less likely to have symptoms of dementia. |||||

Write a summary.

– You have one of six possible variations of the APOE gene, having inherited one variant—e2, e3, or e4—from each parent. Reporting in the journal Neuron, University of Hawaii researchers found that the brain development of children as young as preschool age with two copies of e4 or one of e4 and one of e2 seem most adversely affected—an intriguing find in light of previous research that has linked the e4 variant to Alzheimer's. Researchers scanned the brains of 1,187 healthy people between the ages of 3 and 20 and found, for instance, that the size of the hippocampus tends to be smaller in those with the e2/e4 combination. They also found some kids with e4 didn't perform as well on tests of memory, though they caught up with their peers by age 10, reports HealthDay News. And while brain researcher Rebecca Knickmeyer, who didn't participate in the study but wrote an accompanying editorial, says the variants aren't necessarily predictive and people shouldn't start testing their kids, the research suggests that Alzheimer's may in fact be a developmental disorder, not strictly an aging one, reports the Los Angeles Times. That raises the possibility that adjustments to "diet or cognitive training" early on could change someone's "trajectory," per Knickmeyer. Three in four people have at least one copy of e3, which seems to offer a protective effect. About 14% of people have an e4 variant, which has been linked with an elevated risk of Alzheimer's, but Knickmeyer points out that there are many Alzheimer's patients without e4, and many with e4 who never develop Alzheimer's. (Some research suggests that memories lost to Alzheimer's are actually retrievable.)


Article:

The news gathering technique appears more widespread than the Goldman incident, which was first reported by The New York Post. A preliminary analysis at Bloomberg revealed that “several hundred” reporters had used the technique, a person briefed on the analysis said. (Bloomberg employs more than 2,400 journalists worldwide. A spokesman declined to comment on the analysis and said no reporters had been fired.)

 There are also fears that the monitoring may have gone beyond Wall Street. Banking regulators at the Federal Reserve are examining whether their own employees were subject to tracking by Bloomberg reporters, according to people briefed on the matter. A spokeswoman for the Fed declined to comment.

 There are now more than 315,000 Bloomberg terminal subscribers worldwide who rely on the desktop computer for research, trading, communication and a constant stream of financial information and news.

 But as it turned out, what the subscribers were doing was not always confidential. Bloomberg reporters used the “Z function” — a command using the letter Z and a company’s name — to view a list of subscribers at a firm. Then, a Bloomberg user could click on a subscriber’s name, which would take the user to a function called UUID. The UUID function then provided background on an individual subscriber, including contact information, when the subscriber had last logged on, chat information between subscribers and customer service representatives, and weekly statistics on how often they used a particular function. A company spokesman said both of those functions had been disabled in the newsroom.

 Terminals never allowed journalists to see specific securities or trades, but even general hints of what users are searching could provide a glimpse into Wall Street’s thinking — powerful currency in the competitive world of financial journalism. Daniel L. Doctoroff, chief executive of Bloomberg L.P. and a close confidant to the company’s founder, Michael R. Bloomberg, said in a memo to employees that “client trust is our highest priority and the cornerstone of our business.” Mr. Bloomberg stepped away from day-to-day operations when he became mayor of New York City.

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 Last month, the company further centralized its data security efforts, including appointing Steve Ross, a senior executive, to the newly created role of client data compliance officer.

 “To be clear, the limited customer relationship data previously available to our reporters never included access to our trading, portfolio, monitor, blotter or other related systems or our clients’ messages,” Mr. Doctoroff said. He posted a damage control message to clients on the Bloomberg terminal and blog, calling the reporting practice a “mistake.”

 Similar problems, which became public on Friday, started at JPMorgan Chase last summer, when the bank suffered a multibillion-dollar trading loss. Some Bloomberg reporters called the bank, people briefed on the call said, to question whether the traders responsible for the loss had been fired. They cited the fact that the traders had gone silent on the terminal. The bank, the people said, objected to the reporting technique, but did not formally reach out to Bloomberg executives to complain. Yet bank officials soon discovered that other Bloomberg reporters were using the approach on other stories unrelated to the trading loss.

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 When Goldman raised the issue with Bloomberg last month, the media company dispatched senior sales executives to Goldman’s Lower Manhattan headquarters, according to people briefed on the matter. The Bloomberg officials assured top bank executives, including Gary D. Cohn, the firm’s president and chief operating officer, that the problem would be resolved. “We brought this matter to the attention of the news organization, and senior management at the company assured us that they were taking immediate measures to address the problem,” a bank spokesman said.

 Matt Winkler, editor in chief of Bloomberg News, also contacted Goldman to apologize for the incident. In a meeting on Friday, he reminded reporters of the company’s policy about terminal use and the employee confidentiality agreement.

 Jonathan Corpina, a managing partner at Meridian Equity Partners, said the incident was a reminder that nothing — not even the seemingly secure Bloomberg terminal — was private. “It concerns people that what they are doing is being watched and monitored by people who shouldn’t be watching and monitoring it,” Mr. Corpina said.

 Mr. Bloomberg founded Bloomberg L.P. in 1982 as a financial information company. The company had revenue of $7.9 billion in 2012 and its high speed, data-splicing terminals occupy a prominent spot on traders’ desks. Even though Bloomberg News has gained prominence, counting the weekly magazine Businessweek among its assets, about 85 percent of the company’s revenue comes from its terminals. That business provides for generous employee perks, and cushions Mr. Bloomberg’s $27 billion fortune.

 In the early 1990s, when Bloomberg L.P. had just started to build its news division, reporters were encouraged to leverage the terminals as a way to get a leg up on the competition, said several former employees who would discuss practices only anonymously. Reporters often went on sales calls to talk to banks and hedge funds about the news division to help the company sell terminals. The practice became much less pervasive as Bloomberg became an established news outlet, although many Bloomberg veterans still consider the news division solely a means to sell more terminals.

 Thomson Reuters, which sells a desktop financial data product that competes with Bloomberg and, like Bloomberg, employs thousands of news journalists, promptly seized on its rival’s headache. “Thomson Reuters Financial and Risk business and Reuters division operate completely independently with reporters having no access to nonpublic data on its customers, especially any data relating to its customers use of its products or services,” said Yvonne Diaz, a Thomson Reuters spokeswoman. ||||| The information appeared to concern general functions used by the officials and the frequency with which those functions — such as looking at a bond, equity markets or news — were accessed. The source said all Bloomberg journalists who knew of this capability of the terminal would have had access to the usage information of the officials. However, CNBC has no information that the data were either used by the employees for journalism or shared inappropriately.

 (Read More: Privacy Breach on Bloomberg Terminals )

 In response to queries that Bloomberg journalists had access to officials data usage, a Bloomberg spokesman said, "What you are reporting is untrue" but declined to respond when asked what specifically was inaccurate. He also would not say whether the company had investigated journalists' access to this information.

 CNBC is a competitor of Bloomberg in reporting and distributing business news on the web and on television.

 The issue of Bloomberg journalists' access to individual data from the terminals was revealed in recent days when a reporter called a Goldman Sachs Group employee inquiring about a partner's employment status and noting the partner had not logged on to the terminal lately.

 The incident prompted a complaint from Goldman and led Bloomberg to terminate the ability of reporters to monitor subscribers.

 (Read More: Wall Street: How Much Does Bloomberg Know?)

 In a statement on its website, Bloomberg said, "Having recognized this mistake, we took immediate action. Last month we changed our policy so that all reporters only have access to the same customer-relationship data available to our clients."

 The former Bloomberg employee who worked in the editorial section recalled calling up the information on Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner "just for fun" and displaying the information to new recruits "to show how powerful" the Bloomberg terminals were.

 The former employee said he recalled seeing the functions used by the Fed Chairman and Treasury Secretary and the number of times those functions had been used. The person did not recall which specific functions he saw, but said it would have been at a broad level. For example, he said it would likely have been information that the official accessed a page such as global equity indexes, though not which markets specifically. He said it also could have included information that the user looked up bond spreads, but the information would not have shown what specific bonds were searched by the user.

 (Read More: Technologies That Could Change the World)

 Still, with thousands of functions, the information could apparently get quite specific. And knowing how often a user looked up individual information and how often the user was logged in could provide valuable information.

 A JPMorgan Chase source told CNBC that, "Multiple Bloomberg reporters very openly were using terminal login data to determine when traders were suspended and/or let go — during the London Whale situation, as well as during other rounds of layoffs."

 A Quartz story (www.qz.com) said Bloomberg employees had accessed a transcript of a call of former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan to the company's help desk. The story said the information was not used in any editorial pieces written by journalists.

  |||||
What is a summary?

– Bloomberg LP operates both a multi-platform media organization, Bloomberg News, and a computer system, Bloomberg Terminal, that bankers and traders use to monitor market data. The problem: Bloomberg News reporters can see how and when any customer has been using a terminal, and now it turns out they have been using that access to snoop on Wall Street and break news, the New York Times reports. And it may have gone even further than just traders: a former Bloomberg staffer now says he also accessed the terminals of Ben Bernanke and Timothy Geithner, according to CNBC. The issue was first discovered when a Bloomberg reporter asked Goldman Sachs if a partner had recently left the firm because he hadn't recently logged into his terminal, the New York Post revealed. JPMorgan claims Bloomberg may have used data from terminals to break the "London Whale" scandal, the Post reports. The Times says "several hundred" reporters have used the technique, gaining access to 315,000 subscribers worldwide. Bloomberg has called the news-gathering process "a mistake," and has cut off its journalists' access, reports the AP. But the damage may already be done: the terminal is Bloomberg's primary money-maker, with firms paying around $20,000 a year to use it, and Wall Street is not happy.


Write a summary based on this article:

It’s now official: 13 Reasons Why, Netflix’s adaption of the bestselling 2007 YA book by Jay Asher, has been renewed for a 13-episode second season to premiere in 2018. Season 2 will pick up in the aftermath of Hannah Baker’s death and the start of the characters’ complicated journeys toward healing and recovery. (Watch the first teaser below.)

 Executive produced by Selena Gomez, 13 Reasons Why has been a breakout. It was well-received by critics and has gotten a lot of attention on social media. Tony Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winner Brian Yorkey, who wrote the adaptation and serves as an executive producer on the series, will take the reins as solo showrunner in Season 2. Diana Son, who was executive producer/co-showrunner on the drama’s first season with Yorkey, is leaving.

 Season 1 follows teenager Clay Jensen (Dylan Minnette) as he returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker (newcomer Katherine Langford) — his classmate and crush — who tragically committed suicide two weeks earlier. On tape, Hannah explains that there are 13 reasons why she decided to end her life. Kate Walsh, Brian D’Arcy James, Derek Luke, Brandon Flynn, Justin Prentice, Alisha Boe, Christian Navarro and Tommy Dorfman also star.

 The series, which deals with teen suicide, bullying, drunk driving and rape in graphic detail, has been the subject of active discussion, drawing criticism by some mental health experts who say the show could pose health risks for certain young people, especially those with suicidal thoughts. In response, Netflix amped up its content warnings.

 13 Reasons Why is directed by Oscar winner Tom McCarthy; written by Yorkey; and executive produced by Gomez, Yorkey, McCarthy, Joy Gorman, Michael Sugar and Steve Golin from Anonymous Content, Kristel Laiblin and Mandy Teefey. The series is produced for Netflix by Paramount Television. ||||| NEW YORK (AP) — Netflix has renewed the watercooler hit "13 Reasons Why" for a second season.

 The streaming service announced Sunday that it has picked up the series revolving around the suicide of a high school girl. Season two will debut on Netflix next year.

 While Netflix doesn't release ratings information, "13 Reasons Why" has proven a conversation-starting drama.

 Some have criticized the show for glorifying suicide, which led to Netflix adding an additional warning ahead of the series.

 The Selena Gomez-produced "13 Reasons Why" is based on Jay Asher's young adult best-seller.

 The second season will also be 13 episodes long. |||||

– Netflix has renewed the watercooler hit 13 Reasons Why for a second season. The streaming service announced Sunday that it has picked up the series revolving around the suicide of high schooler Hannah Baker. Season two will debut on Netflix next year, and Deadline reports it will begin "in the aftermath of [Hannah's] death and the start of the characters' complicated journeys toward healing and recovery." The second season will also be 13 episodes long, reports the AP. While Netflix doesn't release ratings information, 13 Reasons Why has proven a conversation-starting drama. Some have criticized the show for glorifying suicide, which led to Netflix adding an additional warning ahead of the series. The Selena Gomez-produced show is based on Jay Asher's young adult best-seller. The show's creators insist it doesn't glamorize suicide; more from them here.


One staple of a Michele Bachmann campaign event is blaring Elvis Presley music. Another is a reference to her intent to make Barack Obama a one-term president. Increasingly, there is a third feature of a Bachmann appearance on the presidential trail: a staffer’s physical confrontation with a reporter.

 In less than two months since entering the 2012 race, Bachmann’s campaign staff has become embroiled in at least five unusually hostile encounters with the traveling media marked by pushing, shoving and, in one instance, the allegation of a threat of violence to a reporter.

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 reset Allen on Bachmann security POLITICO 44

 Some of it has unfolded in full public view: Bachmann aides’ tussles with the press have twice turned into news stories, once when veteran ABC News reporter Brian Ross was shoved and pushed by Bachmann staffers in South Carolina and on a second occasion when Bachmann’s husband and two staffers pushed CNN’s Don Lemon into a cart, producing a furious on-air complaint.

 In another incident that did not make the air, a camera captured Fox News correspondent Steve Brown telling a bodyguard in Iowa, “Do not put your hands on me. Don’t ever do it again.”

 A foreign reporter also alleged to POLITICO this week that an aide threatened to break his arm — an allegation the Bachmann campaign denied.

 Friction between the press and high-profile politicians and celebrities is nothing new. But the number and intensity of incidents is unusual, particularly in Iowa, where reporters and the public are accustomed to almost unlimited access as an early state presidential ritual.

 The campaign makes no apologies for its physically aggressive approach to media management, asserting that it is simply doing what it has to do to protect a popular, controversial candidate. The most aggressive aide — a tall, silver-haired man according to reporters — a spokeswoman said, is a former Secret Service agent who has guarded presidents. He and an advance woman frequently make physical contact with reporters.

 “The No. 1 priority for us every single day we step out on the campaign trail is the safety and security of Michele Bachmann,” said her spokeswoman, Alice Stewart.

 The retired Secret Service agent, whom she declined to name, is “extremely professional.”

 “He’s guarded presidents and vice presidents and knows exactly what needs to be done,” she said. “When he gives a warning to whoever it may be, the person needs to heed the warning.”

 The conduct seems authentically motivated by security concerns for the popular grass-roots candidate, who tends to draw enthusiastic crowds. But the Minnesota congresswoman isn’t the first celebrity-like figure to run for president, or the biggest. And the contentious encounters with the press has far oustripped that of other high-profile campaigns. Security guards for high-profile candidates like Rudy Giuliani, Hillary Clinton and Sarah Palin were better able to distinguish between reporters and threats.

 The difference was sharply visible over the past week at the Iowa State Fair. Palin wandered the fairgrounds freely with her husband, an advance man, and, at a remove, a handful of Iowa State Police. Rick Perry was guarded by watchful Texas Rangers who gave the press and fair-goers broad latitude to talk and walk next to the governor. Bachmann, in contrast, raced through the fair in a golf cart; in a similar cart in Ames on Saturday, her bodyguard could be seen pushing away the hands of autograph-seeking supporters.

 The reporter alleging that a warning crossed over into a threat is a Norwegian correspondent, Are Tagvold Flaten, who is in Iowa on a grant from the Oslo-based Freedom of Expression Foundation. He is covering the race for a Norwegian website about American politics and also wrote about the Ames Straw Poll for the conservative Norwegian Web journal Minerva (recently in the news for its editor’s pained consideration of the fact that the mass murderer Anders Breivik was among the site’s commenters). ||||| Kathy Griffin has, over the past few years, been a persistent thorn in the side of the Palin family, pulling public stunts, taking out Levi Johnston to events and making jokes about Sarah and Bristol a regular part of her stand-up repertoire. Now, with a new religious ultraconservative woman taking the spotlight, the comedienne has a new target in her sights.

 Appearing on "Conan" Monday night, Griffin recalled the time she met Bachmann in Washington while researching for her rally to repeal Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

 Perhaps mistaking Griffin for someone else, one of Bachmann's staffers pulled out a video camera to capture their interaction for her website. First, Griffin says she asked the Congresswoman if she'd support an effort to repeal the law that banned homosexuals from the military. When Bachmann declined, Griffin got personal.

 "Congresswoman Bachmann, were you born a bigot or did you, like, grow into it?" she asked -- on tape.

 As for Bachmann's answer?

 "That's a good question. I'm gonna have to get back to ya," she said, perhaps not creating the best of campaign slogans.

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

– Michele Bachmann's presidential campaign is brash and boisterous—and increasingly rough with the reporters covering it, reports Politico. In less than two months, there have been at least five incidents reporters have called unusually hostile, including a Norwegian reporter who says an aide threatened to break his arm. Bachmann's campaign says security is just doing what it needs to keep their candidate safe, but veteran reporters say her security is going too far, well beyond the norms for bigger and more controversial candidates' security. Bachmann's spokeswoman defended one guard, a retired Secret Service agent, who has particularly come under criticism for his rough style. “He’s guarded presidents and vice presidents and knows exactly what needs to be done,” she said. “When he gives a warning to whoever it may be, the person needs to heed the warning.” On the other hand, with celebrities calling Bachmann a "bigot" to her face—as Kathy Griffin recounted on her Monday appearance on Conan—perhaps her security feels the need to stand up for their candidate.


News article:

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (left) with Jang Song Thaek, who was the vice-chairman of the National Defence Commission, at a cemetery for Korean War veterans in Pyongyang in July. -- PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS

 THE execution of Jang Song Thaek, the No. 2 man in North Korea, took Beijing by surprise and will adversely affect bilateral relations.

 Beijing's displeasure is expressed through the publication of a detailed account of Jang's brutal execution in Wen Wei Po, its official mouthpiece, in Hong Kong, on Dec 12.

 According to the report, unlike previous executions of political prisoners which were carried out by firing squads with machine guns, Jang was stripped naked and thrown into a cage, along with his five closest aides. Then 120 hounds, starved for three days, were allowed to prey on them until they were completely eaten up. This is called "quan jue", or execution by dogs.

 The report said the entire process lasted for an hour, with Mr Kim Jong Un, the supreme leader in North Korea, supervising it along with 300 senior officials.

 The horrifying report vividly depicted the brutality of the young North Korean leader. The fact that it appeared in a Beijing- controlled newspaper showed that China no longer cares about its relations with the Kim regime.

 Two days later, the Global Times, associated with the People's Daily, a Chinese Communist Party organ, followed up with a sternly worded editorial saying that the abrupt political change epitomised the backwardness of the North Korean political system. It warned the Chinese government not to coddle North Korea any longer, saying that the majority of Chinese were extremely disgusted with the Kim regime.

 The incendiary story, plus the stern editorial, provided a measure of the extent of Beijing's loathing, which is quite understandable.

 In purging a top official known for his close ties with Beijing in such a brutal manner, Pyongyang did not hide its antagonism towards China.

 The official litany of Jang's treason implicated China three times. Jang was accused of underselling coal and other natural resources for which China was virtually the sole customer. He was also charged with "selling off the land of Rason economic and trade zone to a foreign country for a period of five decades under the pretext of paying debts". Finally, he was accused of selling precious metals, thus disrupting the country's financial stability. In fact, China purchased some of North Korea's gold reserves several months ago.

 He was also accused of aiding Chinese businessmen in securing low prices for North Korean goods and commodities.

 The purge of Jang reflected the longstanding suspicion and apprehension of the North Korean regime towards China, which dates back to the time of Kim Il Sung, North Korea's founder.

 Although China fought the Korean War to preserve the Kim regime, he was less than grateful. Once the war was over, Kim started purging the Yan-an faction within his party. This faction received its training in Yan-an, the capital of the Chinese Communist Party in the 1940s.

 Stanford University research fellow David Straub recalled that when he accompanied former United States assistant secretary of state James Kelly to North Korea in 2002, the North's then Vice-Foreign Minister Kang Sok Ju made comments that minimised Chinese assistance during the Korean War.

 When the son, Kim Jong Il, took over the helm, he did not hide the fact that his nuclear weapons could be used against China.

 Dr Xue Litai, a research fellow at Stanford University's Centre for International Security and Cooperation at the time, disclosed that he received further confirmation from an American source who accompanied former US president Bill Clinton in his visit to Pyongyang in 2009. According to the source, a North Korean senior official told Mr Clinton that their nuclear weapons could not reach the US but could be "pointed West" in the direction of the Chinese mainland.

 The North Korean official also reportedly suggested that if the US changed its policy towards Pyongyang, the latter could become a strong bastion against China.

 The Korean peninsula was a vassal state of China in the 17th century. A deep-rooted suspicion remains among the North Korean leadership that China wants to make North Korea its satellite state. Pyongyang also resents Beijing establishing ties with Seoul, which it sees as an act of betrayal.

 Nuclear-armed China is seen as having double standards when it exerts pressure on Pyongyang to halt the latter's nuclear programme.

 So when the grandson, Mr Kim Jong Un, took over the helm, this family tradition of suspecting China prompted the young leader to take drastic action to cleanse the party of any pro-China elements.

 Recent developments have posed a number of issues for China.

 First, China's own security is at risk. The erratic and ruthless behaviour of Mr Kim Jong Un suggests that China should not underrate the likelihood of a nuclear threat from Pyongyang.

 The Internet version of the Global Times carried an article last Monday by Lieutenant-General Wang Hongguang, former deputy commander of Nanjing Greater Military Region, saying that the recent incident showed North Korea had become increasingly provocative and was getting out of (Chinese) control. He urged a complete reassessment of security threats originating from that direction.

 Second, China's political and strategic influence on the Korean peninsula has been drastically reduced. China was widely considered to be able to rein in the unruly Kim regime, thus acting as a force for peace in the region. But it now appears China's influence over its neighbour is close to zero.

 This is clear from the fact that Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi telephoned his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov for urgent consultation on Dec 13. This was followed by Ambassador Wu Dawei's trip to Moscow. Both moves suggest that Beijing realises it can no longer tame the Kim regime by itself.

 Third, China had hoped to nurture a less belligerent neighbour by encouraging reform, open- door policies and economic development in North Korea. Jang had been working closely with China to bring about a Chinese-style transformation in his own country. With Jang brutally executed, the idea of a peaceful transformation seems unrealistic.

 chingcheong@gmail.com ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– What's a fitting way to execute a man labeled "worse than a dog"? If an unconfirmed newspaper report is to be believed, by stripping him naked, throwing him in a cage, and feeding him alive to 120 hungry hounds. NBC News picks up Hong Kong-based paper Wen Wei Po's account of how Kim Jong Un did away with his uncle, Jang Song Thaek, last month. Its report claims Jang and his five closest aides were set upon by a pack of hunting dogs that hadn't eaten in days as Kim and his brother, flanked by 300 officials, watched; the report hasn't been verified. Wen Wei Po, which has close ties to China's Communist Party, added Jang and his allies were "completely eaten up" in the "quan jue," or execution by dogs—a break from the usual execution by firing squad—over the course of an hour, the Straits Times notes. Though Kim has championed the execution, there's been no official word from Pyongyang on how it was carried out. The Times sees the publication of the account as an indication that Beijing is none too pleased with North Korea in the wake of the execution and "no longer cares about its relations with the Kim regime." This follows a previous report that claimed that two of Jang's top men who were killed prior to his own death were executed using antiaircraft machine guns.


Article:
The legal team leading the prosecution of former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has gone on the offensive in enlisting a prominent French lawyer, Thibault de Montbrial, to locate any of Strauss-Kahn's alleged past victims.

 For the last several weeks, France has stood by watching as one of its most prominent international figures, fallen IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, has been processed by the US justice system following his arrest on sexual assault charges. But now, one of France's own will be jumping into the legal fray unfolding on the other side of the Atlantic.

 The team of New York lawyers representing the 32-year-old Guinean hotel maid who accused Strauss-Kahn of sexually assaulting her have asked Paris-based lawyer Thibault de Montbrial to help dig up previous victims of the French politician, news reports on Thursday stated.

 The 42-year-old Montbrial, described in the French press as an avid athlete who loves football and combat sports, is not considered “one of the star criminal lawyers in France”, according to French daily Le Monde’s legal correspondent Pascale Robert Diard.

 Still, he is “very respected and has worked on some of the big French political and financial cases”, she said.

 Those cases include the infamous Clearstream trial – Montbrial served as lawyer for accused former EADS head Jean-Louis Gergorin – and the defence of Renault executive Matthieu Tenenbaum, accused of spying.

 Montbrial has also played a prominent role in certain international cases, representing the families of victims of the Karachi bombings and victims of former Tunisian President Ben Ali’s regime.

 According to Pascale Robert Diard, Montbrial is not, however, known for working on cases involving rape or sexual assault.

 Hunt for witnesses or ‘communications operation’?

 Montbrial, contacted by France 24 on Friday, declined to comment. But a day earlier, he told Reuters that he was chosen, because the legal team representing Strauss-Kahn’s accuser, led by Kenneth Thompson and Douglas Wigdor, were “looking for an attorney in France who had a certain amount of visibility and independence in France, where this is a very complicated case”.

 According to reports, several high-profile French lawyers had been short-listed by New York legal team of Strauss-Kahn’s accuser, with proficiency in English among the criteria.

 Thompson and Wigdor, the accuser’s main lawyers, cannot directly intervene in the criminal trial of Dominique Strauss-Kahn – which officially pits Strauss-Kahn against the people of the state of New York – but they can collaborate with prosecutors.

 In early June, Thompson appeared on French TV, calling for other women to come forward if they, too, had been attacked by Strauss-Kahn.

 There are two possible motivations behind a publicised search for former victims of any possible sexual misconduct by Strauss-Kahn, Pascale Robert Diard explained.

 “Either they really think they can find women to testify against [Strauss-Kahn], or it’s a big communications operation intended to show the other side that those leading the case against Strauss-Kahn are on the offensive,” she assessed.

 Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s defence team has, in turn, explicitly asked the prosecution if they intend to talk about past claims of unwanted sexual advances by their client when the trial opens; the prosecution has not yet responded.

 Strauss-Kahn remains under house arrest in New York City and has pleaded not guilty to the charges of attempted rape, sex abuse, a criminal sex act, unlawful imprisonment and forcible touching. If he is convicted, he could serve up to 25 years in prison.

 Date created : 2011-06-24 ||||| The 32-year-old maid has added Thibault de Montbrial to her legal team, the French attorney told Reuters, after he was contacted by her New York-based lawyer.

 "I was hired to see if we can contact other victims of Strauss-Kahn ," de Montbrial said in a telephone interview.

 "They (the U.S. lawyers) were looking for an attorney in France who had a certain amount of visibility and independence in France, where this is a very complicated case," de Montbrial said.

 Strauss-Kahn, 62, was arrested on board an Air France flight to Paris just minutes before it was due to depart New York's John F. Kennedy Airport on May 14.

 He is under house arrest in New York City and has pleaded not guilty to attempted rape, sex abuse, a criminal sex act, unlawful imprisonment and forcible touching. He faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted.

 His lead defence attorney, Benjamin Brafman, declined to comment.

 The maid hired a legal team to defend against allegations by Strauss-Kahn's lawyers that she consented to having sex in the hotel room, and to help prosecutors.

 Earlier this month, the maid's New York-based lawyer Kenneth Thompson appealed on French television for other women with claims against Strauss-Kahn to come forward. |||||Summary:

– The hotel maid accusing Dominique Strauss-Kahn of sexual assault has hired a well-known lawyer in France to look for other women who may have fallen prey to the banker, the Telegraph reports. “I was hired to see if we can contact other victims,” Thibault de Montbrial says, explaining that the maid’s US team wanted someone “who had a certain amount of visibility and independence in France, where this is a very complicated case.” The maid’s New York-based lawyer has already appeared on French television once to call for other victims to come forward. Her attorneys can’t directly get involved with the criminal case against the banker, but can help the prosecution. One French legal expert tells France 24 that the move could be a legitimate search for witnesses or “a big communications operation” to show her team is on the offensive.


– What does defeat sound like? This: "We have reached the conclusion that this is not a winnable battle at this time." That was the pronouncement of Seattle Councilwoman Lisa Herbold Tuesday in advance of what ended up being a 7-2 vote to reverse a new tax the council had unanimously approved only a month prior. The so-called "head tax" would have generated just shy of $50 million annually to put toward homelessness and affordable housing by charging businesses that generate more than $20 million in revenue a year about $275 per employee. That would have hit about 3% of businesses in the city, one of which is Amazon, which would have contributed about 25% of the expected total, reports NPR. The company was vocal in its opposition. And per SeattlePI.com, the "stunning wealth" of Amazon, Starbucks, and the rest of the opposition drove the reversal. As Councilwoman Lorena Gonzalez explains, "I have been unable to find a way forward that we could out-fund and out-resource the opposition campaign by November" (the opposition was campaigning for a referendum on the tax in the fall). "Money has funded this campaign that put us in a position where we have to repeal this law." The AP characterizes city leaders as having "underestimated the frustration" over not just the tax but the fact that while $68 million was spent on homelessness last year, a January count found the homeless population in the Seattle area up 4%, to 12,000, suggesting to some that the city's current resources weren't being used appropriately.

Expand this summary.

Supporters at left of a tax on large companies such as Amazon and Starbucks that was intended to combat a growing homelessness crisis stand in Seattle City Council Chambers and face off against people... (Associated Press)

 Supporters at left of a tax on large companies such as Amazon and Starbucks that was intended to combat a growing homelessness crisis stand in Seattle City Council Chambers and face off against people at right supporting the repeal of the tax, Tuesday, June 12, 2018, at City Hall in Seattle. Seattle... (Associated Press)

 SEATTLE (AP) — A tax on large companies such as Amazon that was meant to fight a growing homelessness crisis got rolled back during a raucous Seattle City Council meeting that exposed divisions over how much companies that have fueled booming economies should help pay to alleviate the downsides of success.

 A divided crowd chanted, jeered and booed at the meeting, drowning out city leaders as they cast a 7-2 vote Tuesday. People shouted, "Stop the repeal," as others unfurled a large red banner that read, "Tax Amazon." An opposing group held "No tax on jobs" signs.

 The vote showed Amazon's ability to aggressively push back on government taxes, especially in its affluent hometown where it's the largest employer with more than 45,000 workers and where it has been criticized for contributing to a widening income gap.

 It remains to be seen whether Seattle's retreat will have a chilling effect on other cities considering taxes on big tech companies to help mitigate the effects of growth.

 The City Council in Mountain View, California, where Google is based, will vote June 26 on whether to put a similar measure before voters in November. The "Google tax," which has unanimous support from the council, aims to alleviate transportation woes and high housing costs in the Silicon Valley city south of San Francisco.

 Mountain View Mayor Lenny Siegel said Seattle's about-face hasn't changed his support for the tax, the details of which the council and city administrators have been working on for several months.

 "It appears that we have a better relationship with our business than Seattle does," Siegel said.

 He said Google hasn't taken a position on the proposal and that no "groundswell" of opposition has materialized from the Internet search giant and other companies.

 "That doesn't mean they support it," Siegel said. "Our chamber of commerce has not been excited by it."

 In Seattle, the tax was proposed as a progressive revenue source aimed at tackling one of the nation's highest homelessness numbers, a problem that hasn't eased even as city spending on the issue grew.

 Businesses and residents demanded more accountability in how Seattle funds homelessness and housing and said the city should take a regional approach to the problem. Many worried that Amazon and others would leave the city as the companies sharply criticized the tax.

 Amazon called Tuesday's vote "the right decision for the region's economic prosperity."

 The company is "deeply committed to being part of the solution to end homelessness in Seattle," Drew Herdener, an Amazon vice president, said in a statement.

 City leaders underestimated the frustration and anger from residents, businesses and others over not just a tax increase but also a growing sense that homelessness appears to have gotten worse, not better, despite Seattle spending millions to fight it.

 It poured $68 million into the effort last year and plans to spend more this year. The tax would have raised roughly $48 million annually.

 But a one-night count in January found more than 12,000 homeless people in the Seattle and surrounding region, a 4 percent increase from the previous year. The region saw 169 homeless deaths last year.

 Many supporters called the repeal a betrayal and said the tax was a step toward building badly needed affordable housing. They booed council members, imploring them to keep it and fight a coalition of businesses trying to get a referendum overturning the tax on the November ballot.

 "It's frustrating to see the council be so spineless when the city has so much leverage for businesses to come here despite the tax," said Jake Lindsay, 25, a musician and Lyft driver who supported the tax.

 Several council members, including three who sponsored the legislation but voted to repeal it, lamented the reversal and conceded they didn't have the resources or time to fight the referendum.

 Councilwoman Lisa Herbold said it "was truly our best option" and that she repealed it with a heavy heart. She lashed out at business interests for blaming the problems on government inefficiencies.

 Seattle's so-called head tax would have charged companies about $275 per full-time worker each year for affordable housing and homeless services. It targeted nearly 600 businesses making at least $20 million in gross revenue and would have taken effect next year.

 Days after it passed, the business-backed No Tax On Jobs campaign began gathering signatures for the ballot and raised more than $280,000 in cash contributions in just weeks.

 In Silicon Valley, Siegel, the Mountain View mayor, said Google and other companies such as LinkedIn that are based in the California city acknowledge that soaring housing costs and long commutes make it harder to recruit and retain workers.

 He said city officials estimate the tax would raise about $10 million annually once it's completely phased in after three years. Google is expected to pay half.

 Siegel said public meetings that touched on the issue were "moderately" attended, and the proposal does not appear to be as contentious in Mountain View as in Seattle.

 ___

 Associated Press reporter Paul Elias in San Francisco contributed to this report. ||||| Seattle Repeals Tax On Big Business After Opposition From Amazon, Starbucks

 Enlarge this image toggle caption Ted S. Warren/AP Ted S. Warren/AP

 In a victory for Amazon, the Seattle City Council voted to repeal a tax on the city's biggest businesses Tuesday, a measure designed to fund efforts to combat Seattle's large homeless population.

 In a meeting punctured with shouting from activists, council members voted 7-2 to repeal the so-called "head tax," which would have raised about $47 million per year to fund affordable housing projects and to help the city's homeless population.

 It was a sharp reversal from just last month, when the council voted unanimously to pass the tax and the city's mayor signed it into law.

 Amazon, Starbucks and other companies then funded a campaign against the tax and to put it on a referendum to voters in November.

 Council member Lisa Herbold said the groups opposing the tax had "unlimited resources" and that her vote to repeal was "counter to my values as a person."

 However, a campaign from business groups including the Chamber of Commerce had convinced most Seattle residents to oppose the tax and "we don't have the time and we don't have the resources necessary to change enough minds," Herbold said.

 "This is not a winnable battle at this time," she added.

 Seattle's government said the tax would only affect about 3 percent of the city's employers — those grossing at least $20 million each year. About 585 employers would have paid about $275 per employee per year, according to the city council.

 Amazon has about 45,000 employees in Seattle and is the city's largest private employer. It would have paid about $12 million per year.

 Amazon's CEO Jeff Bezos was named the world's richest man by Forbes in March, with a worth of $112 billion.

 The company said the vote "to repeal the tax on job creation is the right decision for the region's economic prosperity."

 Amazon, Starbucks and investment company Vulcan each paid $25,000 toward the referendum effort, KUOW reports. The No Tax on Jobs campaign raised $350,000.

 After the session to consider repealing the law was announced a day earlier, Seattle's Chamber of Commerce said it was a "breath of fresh air." The Chamber echoed language from Amazon that it was a "tax on jobs."

 "From day one, the Seattle Metro Chamber has been clear that a tax on jobs is not the way to address the regional homelessness crisis," President and CEO Marilyn Strickland said in a statement Monday.

 The law passed in May was itself a watered-down version of the original plan, to tax companies $500 per employee. Amazon temporarily halted construction of a tower in downtown Seattle in opposition.

 Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan said she would sign the repeal into law. "Instead of engaging in a prolonged, expensive political fight, the City and I will continue to move forward on building real partnerships that align our strategies from business, advocates, philanthropy," she said in a statement.

 Council members Teresa Mosqueda and Kshama Sawant both voted against the repeal. Sawant called it a "cowardly betrayal of the needs of working people," saying it was "capitulation and it's a betrayal."

 Critics of the tax reportedly saw the city's homeless problem growing, despite large amounts of spending by the city already. Seattle spent $68 million on fighting homelessness in 2017, according to The Associated Press.

 The city council said 8,522 people were counted as "experiencing homelessness" in Seattle in 2017. Including nearby areas, that number went up to 12,000 during a one-night count in January, the AP says, which is up 4 percent from the year before. The wire service says 169 homeless people died in 2017.

 KUOW reports that the characterization of the tax as "extra money for homelessness ... wasn't necessarily an accurate representation."

 "It's possible the money wouldn't have been extra: It could have plugged a future hole in the budget instead. Seattle had already been spending money from its construction boom on homelessness. With a depleted general fund projected to sink into the red, the city needed to find money just to stay afloat."

 "I'm very supportive of the homeless," small business owner Claudia Campanile told the station. "But I am not supportive of the constituency getting taxed with no representation and no clear game plan of what they're going to do with the funds."

 The mayor seemed to address that concern in her statement Tuesday, saying, "people deserve to know how their money is being spent and what is working. The City has worked towards increased accountability and transparency with taxpayer dollars expected to be spent on the homelessness crisis."

 Cities across the country are competing to host Amazon's proposed second headquarters. The company says it would create 50,000 jobs and would invest $5 billion in the city it chooses — leading some competing for the headquarters to promise billions in tax breaks for the corporate behemoth. ||||| Seattle council, mayor cave to Amazon, other opposition on head tax for homelessness

 Supporters and detractors of the "head tax" hold signs in council chambers during a City Council vote to repeal the tax on big businesses, which was voted for unanimously last month, Tuesday, June 12, 2018. Council voted 7-2 to repeal the tax. less Supporters and detractors of the "head tax" hold signs in council chambers during a City Council vote to repeal the tax on big businesses, which was voted for unanimously last month, Tuesday, June 12, 2018. ... more Photo: GENNA MARTIN, SEATTLEPI.COM Photo: GENNA MARTIN, SEATTLEPI.COM Image 1 of / 28 Caption Close Seattle council, mayor cave to Amazon, other opposition on head tax for homelessness 1 / 28 Back to Gallery

 Seattle's city council on Tuesday rolled back its so-called "head tax" on big businesses to fund homeless services, less than a month after it unanimously approved the compromise deal.

 The tax would have collected about $275 per head on employees at businesses with more than $20 million in annual revenue, raising roughly $48 million a year for housing and other services for the city's booming homeless population. By the latest count, King County was home to more than 12,000 people experiencing homelessness, most of them in Seattle.

 "We have reached the conclusion that this is not a winnable battle at this time," Councilwoman Lisa Herbold said before the vote. "I am not someone who walks away from what looks like a losing fight, but ... there is so much more to lose between today and November."

 Pressure from Amazon had already cut the original tax nearly in half, but then the company joined Starbucks and others in backing a campaign to put the tax to a referendum vote this fall. The No Head Tax campaign had raised more than $285,000 through the end of May, according to filings with the city.

 RELATED: Seattle council approves smaller $48 million head tax for homelessness

 On Monday, the council and Mayor Jenny Durkan formally caved to the opposition, announcing Tuesday's special meeting and indicating they would largely support repeal.

 Against the din of protesters chanting in city council chambers, the council struggled to complete its vote on the measure, with Councilwoman Kshama Sawant holding out her vote until the crowd acknowledged the vote was happening behind them. The final tally was seven in favor, with just Sawant and Councilwoman Teresa Mosqueda dissenting.

 The decision to repeal the tax was blamed on the bottomless coffers of the opposition, a nod to Amazon's stunning wealth, and thus, influence in local politics.

 "I have been unable to find a way forward that we could out-fund and out-resource the opposition campaign by November," said Councilwoman Lorena Gonzalez ahead of the vote. "Money has funded this campaign that put us in a position where we have to repeal this law."

 During public comment on Tuesday, which ran 50 minutes before the council considered the measure, many called the moved to repeal with such little notice a "betrayal" and a "backroom deal" that put corporate interests above people.

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 "I wonder about the homeless state of emergency, I wonder if it's just that here we are in the city of Seattle paying lip service to a state of emergency but we're not actually fixing anything," said Matthew Lang, with the Hope Coalition.

 In a statement from seven members of the council and Durkan on Monday, they argued that the political fight to keep the tax would prove too costly and wouldn't help the homelessness crisis. Instead, they pointed to a need for the city to find a solution everyone could agree on.

 During comments before the vote Sawant pushed back on the idea that the council would come out ahead in backing down on the issue so soon.

 "Do council members actually believe that by completely capitulating to big business today, that somehow we'll be in a better position to win this next year?" she asked.

 Gonzalez ultimately backed the repeal effort, but hedged her support in a statement Monday.

 "I am deeply troubled and disappointed by the political tactics utilized by a powerful faction of corporations that seem to prioritize corporations over people," she wrote in Monday's statement.

 Opponents to the tax have argued that the city hasn't properly handled the money it already has for dealing with the homelessness crisis, something that was officially declared a city emergency in November 2015 by then-mayor Ed Murray.

 Seattle has doubled its spending on homeless services in the last few years, with $63 million earmarked for the crisis in 2018. Countywide, about $195 million was spent in 2017, according to a Seattle Times analysis of funds that included state and federal sources. By comparison, San Francisco, where around 10,000 people are living without stable housing, will spend about $305 million this year on the crisis.

 Durkan recently said the city would launch a website detailing how it spends its homelessness funding, but the site hasn't appeared yet. Credit rating company Moody's gives Seattle an Aa2 credit rating, the third-highest rating, and found the head tax to be a credit positive move, while it warned of the impact Amazon may have on the local government of its HQ2 city, wherever that will be.

 Amazon had a big influence over what the head tax that did pass looked like. After the original proposal was released, the e-commerce company halted planning on two tower projects in Seattle pending a vote on the deal. Durkan struck a compromise deal that was just over half the original amount of the tax in response, a deal that Amazon approved enough to resume work on its tower projects.

 RELATED: Report: Amazon halts planning for new Seattle towers over head tax

 Neither council members or Mayor Durkan had offered up alternatives to generate the same funding that was expected from the head tax.

 Senior editor Daniel DeMay covers Seattle culture, city hall, and transportation for seattlepi.com. He can be reached at 206-448-8362 or danieldemay@seattlepi.com. Follow him on Twitter: @Daniel_DeMay. |||||