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The owner of the drilling rig involved in the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico criticized the U.S. government's six-month ban on deepwater drilling in the area Tuesday.

 Workers climb over a boom after cleaning oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill on a beach, Monday, June 21, 2010, in Grand Isle, La. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) (Associated Press)

 Oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill invades the beach, Monday, June 21, 2010, in Port Fourchon, La. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) (Associated Press)

 Workers walk along a line of barges anchored in Pass Abel on the coast of Louisiana near Grand Isle, La., Monday, June 21, 2010. When completed, the barges, which will be lined up end-to-end, are expected... (Associated Press)

 Workers line up a piling to keep a line of barges in place in Pass Abel on the coast of Louisiana near Grand Isle, La., Monday, June 21, 2010. When completed, the barges, which will be lined up end-to-end,... (Associated Press)

 People walk past hay bales along the beach in Dauphin Island, Ala., Monday, June 21, 2010. The bales line the beach to defend against oil from the Deepwater Horizon spill. (AP Photo/Dave Martin) (Associated Press)

 On the sidelines of an oil conference in London, Transocean Ltd. president Steven Newman said there were things President Barack Obama's administration "could implement today that would allow the industry to go back to work tomorrow without an arbitrary six-month time limit."

 Transocean owns the Deepwater Horizon rig, which was run by British oil company BP PLC. An April 20 explosion on the rig killed 11 workers and set off the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

 The criticism came a day after a federal judge in New Orleans began to mull lifting the moratorium, which the Obama administration imposed after the disaster began, and the administrator of a $20 billion fund to compensate oil spill victims pledged to speed payment of claims.

 Judge Martin Feldman said he will decide by Wednesday whether to overturn the ban.

 During Monday's two-hour hearing, plaintiffs' attorney Carl Rosenblum said the six-month suspension of drilling work could prove more economically devastating than the spill itself.

 "This is an unprecedented industrywide shutdown. Never before has the government done this," Rosenblum said.

 Government lawyers said the Interior Department has demonstrated that industry regulators need more time to study the risks of deepwater drilling and identify ways to make it safer.

 "The safeguards and regulations in place on April 20 did not create a sufficient margin of safety," said Justice Department attorney Guillermo Montero.

 Meanwhile, Kenneth Feinberg, who has been tapped by the White House to run the fund set up to help people harmed by the spill, said many people are in desperate financial straits and need immediate relief.

 "We want to get these claims out quicker," he said. "We want to get these claims out with more transparency."

 Feinberg, who ran the claim fund set up for victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, said BP has paid out over $100 million so far. Various estimates place total claims so far in excess of $600 million.

 BP said it has spent $2 billion fighting the spill for the last two months and compensating victims, with no end in sight. It's likely to be at least August before crews finish two relief wells that are the best chance of stopping the flow of oil.

 The British oil giant released its latest tally of response costs, including $105 million paid out so far to 32,000 claimants. That figure does not include the $20 billion fund BP PLC last week agreed to set up for residents and businesses hurt by the spill.

 Also Monday, the government sent BP a $51.4 million bill for the response effort. BP has already paid two other bills totaling $70.9 million.

 Shares of BP, which have lost about half their value since the April 20 oil rig disaster that killed 11 workers, fell nearly 3 percent Monday in New York trading to $30.86.

 BP chief executive Tony Hayward canceled a scheduled Tuesday appearance at the London oil conference, citing his commitment to the Gulf relief effort. The last-minute pullout followed stinging criticism of Hayward's attendance at a yacht race on the Isle of Wight off the coast of southern England on Saturday.

 Obama's administration has also been struggling to show it is responding forcefully to the spill, which has gushed anywhere from 68 million to 126 millions gallons of oil into the Gulf.

 As part of that effort, the Interior Department halted the approval of any new permits for deepwater drilling and suspended drilling at 33 existing exploratory wells in the Gulf.

 But a lawsuit filed by Hornbeck Offshore Services of Covington, La., claims the government arbitrarily imposed the moratorium without any proof that the operations posed a threat. Hornbeck says the moratorium could cost Louisiana thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in lost wages.

 During Monday's hearing, Feldman asked a government lawyer why the Interior Department decided to suspend deepwater drilling after the rig explosion when it didn't bar oil tankers from Alaskan waters after the Exxon Valdez spill in 1989 or take similar actions in the wake of other industrial accidents.

 "The Deepwater Horizon blowout was a game-changer," Montero said. "It really illustrates the risks that are inherent in deepwater drilling."

 Feldman asked Rosenblum if it's true that a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing by Hornbeck suggests "basically things are pretty good" for the company and it can survive the moratorium. Rosenblum said the full impact of the shutdown cannot be calculated.

 "Thousands of businesses will be affected," he said. "These dominoes are falling as we speak."

 Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's office filed a brief supporting the plaintiffs' suit. A lawyer for the state told Feldman that the federal government did not consult Louisiana officials before imposing the moratorium, in violation of federal law.

 Catherine Wannamaker, a lawyer for several environmental groups that support the moratorium, said six months is a reasonable time for drilling to be suspended while the government studies the risks and regulations governing the industry.

 "The risks here are new," she said.

 Government lawyers said the plaintiffs haven't seen much of the data that served as the basis for the Interior Department's decision to suspend drilling operations.

 Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar "wants to be sure deepwater drilling is as safe as we all thought it was on the day before the incident on April 20," said government lawyer Brian Collins.

 U.S. District Judge Nancy Atlas in Houston listened to Monday's hearing over the telephone. Atlas is presiding over a similar case against the Interior Department filed by Diamond Offshore Co., which operates a fleet of drilling rigs.

 Along the coast Monday, some cleanup workers reported progress.

 On Barataria Bay off the coast of Louisiana, thick globs of oil that washed onto marshy islands a week ago had disappeared, leaving a mass of stained bushes and partly yellowed grasses.

 Blackened lengths of boom surrounded the islands, which were still teeming with brown pelicans, gulls and other seabirds, some with visible signs of oil on their plumage. Nearby, shrimp boats that have been transformed into skimmers hauled absorbent booms across the water's surface, collecting some of the remaining oil.

 Crews aboard Navy and Coast Guard boats teamed with local fishermen using booms to funnel oil into a vessel and haul it away.

 "It looks 10 times better than it did a week ago," said Carey O'Neil, 42, a commercial fisherman idled by the spill who now provides tours of the damaged areas for media and government observers in his 23-foot boat anchored in Grand Isle. "But what impact will this have for the future _ two, three, four, even 10 years? That's what worries me."

 ___

 Associated Press writers John Flesher and Ramit Plushnick-Masti in Barataria, La., and Robert Barr and Jane Wardell in London contributed to this report. ||||| New Orleans, Louisiana (CNN) -- Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Tuesday called a six-month halt on deepwater drilling "needed, appropriate and within our authorities" in announcing he will issue a new order on a moratorium just hours after a federal judge blocked such a mandate.

 "We see clear evidence every day, as oil spills from BP's well, of the need for a pause on deepwater drilling," Salazar said in a statement. "That evidence mounts as BP continues to be unable to stop its blowout, notwithstanding the huge efforts and help from the federal scientific team and most major oil companies operating in the Gulf of Mexico."

 Salazar's statement did not give an exact date for when the new order would be imposed, saying only "in the coming days."

 He promised that the new order will include evidence that "eliminates any doubt that a moratorium is needed, appropriate, and within our authorities."

 U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman in New Orleans, Louisiana issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday against the ban, which halted all drilling in more than 500 feet of water and prevented new permits from being issued. The White House said it would appeal the ruling.

 President Barack Obama ordered the moratorium after the April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon, an oil rig off Louisiana. Eleven people died in the blast, which triggered an underwater oil gusher.

 Brian Collins, an attorney for the Justice Department, insisted Monday that the suspension is necessary while officials conduct a safety review.

 But a group of companies that provides boats and equipment to the offshore drilling industry filed a lawsuit claiming the government has no evidence that existing operations pose a threat to the Gulf of Mexico and asked the court to declare the moratorium invalid and unenforceable.

 Feldman agreed, writing in his ruling, "an invalid agency decision to suspend drilling of wells in depths of over 500

 feet simply cannot justify the immeasurable effect on the plaintiffs, the local economy, the Gulf region, and the critical present-day aspect of the availability of domestic energy in this country."

 White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the government will immediately appeal the ruling to the 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.

 "The president strongly believes, as the Department of Interior and Department of Justice argued yesterday, that continuing to drill at these depths without knowing what happened does not make any sense," Gibbs said. Such drilling "puts the safety of those involved, potentially puts safety of those on the rigs and the safety of the environment and the Gulf at a danger that the president does not believe we can afford right now."

 In issuing the ruling, Feldman said, "the court is unable to divine or fathom a relationship between the findings (of the government) and the immense scope of the moratorium. The plaintiffs assert that they have suffered and will continue to suffer irreparable harm as a result of the moratorium. The court agrees."

 Transocean President Steve Newman, whose company owned the Deepwater Horizon, said Tuesday that he supported ending the moratorium, and the office of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal filed a brief in support of blocking the moratorium.

 Jindal and Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-Louisiana, were among those asking the Obama administration Tuesday not to appeal the ruling.

 "I'm going to strongly urge the administration not to appeal this ruling, but to try to find a way forward that would achieve the president's goals for safety and responsibility, but at the same time would not jeopardize and threaten a very vibrant and necessary industry for decades," Landrieu told reporters during a conference call.

 iReport: In the Gulf? Share your experience with BP

 Legendary Texas oil and gas executive T. Boone Pickens also said such a ban is not needed.

 "The accident that BP has had could be likened to qualified pilots in an airliner and they have pilot error," he told CNN's "Campbell Brown" program Tuesday night. "(An) airliner crashes, starts a 50,000-acre forest fire and we shut down all flying? No more airlines until we have six months to see what happened?"

 Ken Wells, the president of the Offshore Marine Service Association, said Tuesday that while the ruling is positive for his group -- which represents many of the ships that service oil rigs -- the decision is "tempered by the realization this is a big, strong government. And if they want to keep fighting on this, they will keep fighting."

 Wells told CNN that many of the small business owners and workers who support the rigs felt "like innocent bystanders in all this," adding that many of them are losing their jobs left and right. He said Feldman's decision "may help our industry survive."

 Government estimates indicate as much as 60,000 barrels (2.5 million gallons) of oil may be flowing into the Gulf every day, and the gusher has already taken a serious toll on tourism and the fishing industry in Gulf Coast states.

 BP said Tuesday it had collected 25,830 barrels -- 1.08 million gallons -- of oil from the gushing undersea well over the past 24 hours. The amount is the most ever collected; the previous record was set Thursday when 25,290 barrels were collected.

 The company announced Tuesday that it will donate net revenues it receives from the sale of oil recovered from the spill to the National Fish and Wildlife Federation.

 Also Tuesday, protesters in London, England, briefly disrupted an oil conference that BP CEO Tony Hayward pulled out of a day earlier.

 Just before the welcoming speech by BP chief of staff Steve Westwell, who was standing in for Hayward at the World National Oil Companies Congress, a woman got on stage and started shouting. Security quickly removed her.

 The woman was Greenpeace campaigner Emma Gibson, who told the crowd that "because BP is incapable of telling you the truth, I'm going to tell you what you need to know."

 Hayward decided not to attend the conference because of his "commitment to the Gulf of Mexico relief effort," a BP spokesman said Monday.

 Westwell started his speech by apologizing on Hayward's behalf for him not being at the conference. He said the past few weeks have been "extremely difficult for BP."

 "It has been hugely shocking for us, for America, and for the rest of the world," Westwell said. "Everyone at BP is devastated, and we deeply regret what's happened. Our hearts go out to those who have lost loved ones. And we are profoundly aware of our responsibilities to those people whose livelihoods and neighborhoods have suffered."

 Kenneth Feinberg, who is overseeing BP's $20 billion escrow claims fund, met with Alabama Gov. Bob Riley on Tuesday in what Riley described as a "very, very productive meeting" to discuss ways to accelerate the claims payment process.

 "I will be back quickly to spend as much time as it takes to make sure that this program is designed and implemented in an expeditious manner," Feinberg said.

 BP said in a statement Monday that costs from the disaster now total about $2 billion, including the cost of the response, containment, relief well drilling, grants to Gulf states, claims paid and federal costs. To date, more than 65,000 claims have been submitted and more than 32,000 payments totaling more than $105 million have been made, the company said.

 Elsewhere, a spokesman for Iran's foreign ministry said the Islamic republic, which has chilly relations with the United States, would consider helping America with the oil spill if asked, according to the Iranian Labour News Agency.

 "The difficult solution of an oil spill, from the standpoint that it's a humanitarian problem, persuades all countries to offer help," ILNA quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast as saying.

 CNN's Anderson Cooper, Eric Marrapodi, Chris Lawrence, Alan Silverleib, Matthew Chance, Vivian Kuo and Ethan Harp contributed to this report. |||||
What is a summary?

– The owner of the busted rig spewing oil into the Gulf of Mexico is itching to get back to work. Transocean chief Steven Newman slammed the Obama administration's 6-month moratorium on deepwater drilling at an oil conference today, the AP reports. There are things the administration "could implement today that would allow the industry to go back to work tomorrow without an arbitrary 6-month time limit," Newman said. The government says the ban is needed to give regulators time to study ways of making deepwater drilling safer. A group of companies that supply the offshore drilling industry have filed a lawsuit challenging the ban and a New Orleans judge has promised a decision by tomorrow, CNN reports. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's office has filed a brief supporting the lawsuit. "This is an environmental disaster. Let's not make an economic disaster," an attorney for the state said.


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 An independent monitor will oversee changes in the Cleveland police department after a federal investigation found a pattern of “unreasonable and in some cases unnecessary force.”

 The agreement, announced Thursday by outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder, follows a civil rights investigation launched last year, well before the police shooting death two weeks ago of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy who was carrying a pellet gun.

 Federal investigators found that the pattern of improper police tactics included shootings, blows to the head and excessive force against the mentally ill. Investigators concluded that Cleveland officers are not given adequate training and supervision.

 Among the high-profile episodes that led to the investigation was a police shooting of an unarmed man and woman in November 2012 that followed a high-speed chase. Thirteen officers fired 137 shots at the man and woman. One officer and six supervisors were indicted.

 While the investigation began before the 12-year-old was killed, Holder mentioned it as among a series of police killings that have started what he called an urgent national conversation about relations between police and citizens.

 President Barack Obama, speaking at an education summit in Washington on Thursday, mentioned another incident — the chokehold death of Eric Garner, a New York man who was confronted by police in July for allegedly selling individual cigarettes. A grand jury declined to indict the officer.

 “When it comes, unfortunately, as we’ve seen in recent days, to our criminal justice system,” Obama said, “too many Americans feel deep unfairness when it comes to the gap between our professed ideals and how laws are applied on a day-to-day basis.”

 Duane Deskins, the first assistant prosecutor of Cuyahoga County, said the goal in Cleveland would be “a more transparent and effective system of justice.”

 “I think every city in every community has its own set of particular issues,” he said. “I think we are trying to solve the problems that we have here.”

 IN-DEPTH

 — Pete Williams and Erin McClam with Ty Wright ||||| RESTRAINED AND KICKED

 After leading officers on a brief chase, a man got out of his van and walked into a group of trees. An officer approached the man with his weapon drawn, and the man followed commands to lie down on the ground and spread his arms and legs. After the man was restrained and on his stomach, officers began kicking and striking the man. He was later taken to the hospital with a broken bone near his eye.

 13-YEAR-OLD PUNCHED

 After officers arrested a 13-year-old boy for shoplifting, he was handcuffed and placed in a police vehicle, where he began kicking the door and an officer in the leg. The officer then sat on the legs of the handcuffed boy and punched him three to four times until the boy was "stunned" and had a bloody nose.

 STUNNED WHILE STRAPPED TO GURNEY

 Officers assisted a man who had suffered several seizures into an ambulance, where he was strapped onto a gurney. The man became angry and tried to unstrap himself, balling his fist. An officer threatened to use a stun gun on him, but the man continued to try to stand up and threatened to hurt the officer. The officer then stunned him while he was still strapped to the gurney.

 PEPPER SPRAYED IN CUFFS

 Officers placed a mentally ill man in handcuffs for making threats to "blow up the government." Because the man was spitting on officers, they placed a hood — called a spit sock — over the man's head. When the man was placed in the police vehicle, he kicked at the windows and continued to spit. An officer ordered him to stop, and then shot pepper spray over the spit sock. The man was required to wear the spit sock and was not decontaminated until he arrived at a hospital later.

 SHOT INSIDE CAR

 After a driver cut off another car while attempting to make a right turn from a center lane, an officer approached the driver with his gun drawn. The officer later said he felt "uneasy" because he couldn't see the driver's hands. The officer ordered the driver to turn off the car and show his hands, but the driver said he was afraid to move because of the officer's gun. When the officer attempted to lean in and turn off the vehicle himself, his gun discharged, striking the driver in the chest. The driver survived.

 ___

 Source: U.S. Department of Justice ||||| Attorney General Eric Holder announced Thursday that "there is reasonable cause to believe that the Cleveland Division of Police engages in a pattern and practice of using excessive force," after Justice Department investigators examined nearly 600 cases of use of force that occurred between 2010 and 2013.

 Holder went on to say that Cleveland and the Justice Department had agreed on a statement of principles that will lead to a consent decree.

 The investigation in the Cleveland Police Department was launched in March 2013, "following a number of high profile use of force incidents and requests from the community and local government to investigate the [police department]," the report released Thursday said.

 The report cited specific incidents, including a January 2011 police chase of an unarmed man, who suffered "kicks to the head" after he had "surrendered to officers and was handcuffed and prone on the ground." None of the officers filed a report on the use of force, and none "were appropriately disciplined for failing to report the use of force."

 In another incident from November 2012, the report said, "over 100 Cleveland police officers engaged in a high speed chase, in violation of [Cleveland Division of Police] policies, and fatally shot two unarmed civilians. [Cleveland Division of Police] officers ultimately fired 137 shots at the car, killing both its occupants."

 The unreasonable practices the Justice Department found included the following:

 Unnecessary and excessive use of deadly force, including shootings and head strikes with impact weapons

 Unnecessary, excessive or retaliatory use of less lethal force including Tasers, chemical spray and fists

 Excessive force against persons who are mentally ill or in crisis, including in cases where the officers were called exclusively for a welfare check

 Employment of poor and dangerous tactics that places officers in situations where avoidable force becomes inevitable

 Justice Department investigators also said the division doesn't adequately review and investigate the use of force by its officers or fully investigate misconduct allegations or identify and respond to patterns of at-risk behavior.

 The Justice Department and Cleveland Police Department so far have only agreed to come to an agreement about how to address this problem. They will work out the details of that agreement -- the so-called "consent decree" -- in the coming months, but it will include a requirement for an independent monitor who will oversee necessary reforms.

 Holder invoked the names of Michael Brown, Eric Garner and 12-year-old Tamir Rice, who was killed in Cleveland in November, noting that there are ongoing federal civil rights investigations for each of those incidents. The Justice Department's investigation predates the recent shooting of Rice, and CBS News has learned that while that incident was not taken into consideration in the investigation, it will be considered as an agreement on changes that must be made within the Cleveland Division of Police.

 "The tragic losses of these and far too many other Americans - including, just last month, the shooting death of 12-year-old Tamir Rice here in Cleveland - have raised urgent, national questions. And they have sparked an important conversation about the sense of trust that must exist between law enforcement and the communities they serve and protect."

 The Cleveland investigation is the same kind of investigation the Justice Department launched into the Ferguson Police Department after one of its officers, Darren Wilson, shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed 18-year-old.

 Holder made his announcement in Cleveland, where he is hosting a round table discussion as part of a tour of several U.S. cities where he will meet with local leaders and discuss relations between the community and law enforcement. He is also expected to visit Memphis, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Oakland in the coming weeks. |||||

Write a summary.

– Cleveland police use unnecessary force so often that the department must let an independent monitor make sure reforms are put into place, reports NBC News. That's one result of a Justice Department investigation of 600 incidents between 2010 and 2013 that faults the department for poor training and a "pattern and practice of using excessive force." The investigation began well before the recent police shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice at a city recreation center, and it's the same kind of federal investigation now underway in Ferguson, Missouri, notes CBS News. "We saw too many incidents in which officers accidentally shot someone either because they fired their guns accidentally or because they shot the wrong person," says the report. In one incident, officers fired 137 shots at a car with two unarmed civilians inside who were fleeing police. Both were killed. In another, officers kicked and punched a man who was restrained and on his stomach, reports AP. He was hospitalized for a broken bone near his eye. (The officer in the Eric Garner case maintains that his chokehold was a wrestling move learned at the police academy.)


– A 91-year-old widow in New York state has been reunited with her life savings thanks to the honesty of three young roommates who found the cash in a beat-up sofa they bought from the Salvation Army. Months after buying the couch, the trio were astonished to discover $40,000 stashed in the arm cushions, the AP reports. After finding a name written on an envelope, they contacted the sofa's former owner and discovered she had stored her savings in it for more than 30 years. While the elderly woman was in hospital after an operation on her back, her daughter unknowingly got rid of the couch her mother slept on and replaced it with a full-sized bed. After the find, "we had a lot of moral discussions about the money," one of the roommates tells Little Rebellion. "We all agreed that we had to bring the money back to whoever it belonged to. It's their money—we didn’t earn it." They say that after they handed the money back, she cried in gratitude, and rewarded them with $1,000. (A homeless man recently did something similar—for a second time.)

Expand this summary.

It was an ethical dilemma straight from the textbooks: Imagine you and two of your friends find a small fortune of cash inside a crummy old couch you bought for cheap at a second-hand shop. Would you trace the money back to its owner, or would you keep it to spend on your heart’s deepest desires? A SUNY New Paltz student and two friends dealt with this dilemma firsthand early March 2014.

 Third-year geology student Reese Werkhoven, Mount Holyoke College graduate Cally Guasti, and SUNY New Paltz graduate Lara Russo were getting cozy on their new couch for the first time when Werkhoven found a plastic envelope under the couch’s patchy arm.

 “I almost peed,” Werkhoven said. Inside the envelope was a wad of twenties that added up to $700.

 “The most money I’d ever found in a couch was like fifty cents. Honestly, I’d be ecstatic to find just $5 in a couch.”

 The group began a thorough excavation, maneuvering the couch in all directions so that every linty crevice could be probed to find more money.

 “Just when we thought we pulled out the last envelope we’d find another $1,000 a few minutes later,” said Guasti.

 Twenty minutes after sitting on an old, musky couch, three college students were now miraculously standing on $40,000 in cash.

 For a while, there were no notes, no names, or anything else that could have told them who the money belonged to. For all they knew the money was fair game.

 ~

 Then there was a game changer. Russo found a woman’s name on one of the envelopes.

 “We had a lot of moral discussions about the money,” Russo said. “We all agreed that we had to bring the money back to whoever it belonged to… it’s their money– we didn’t earn it. However, there were a lot of gray areas we had to consider.”

 Each of them called their parents for advice;. Their parents basically told them all the same thing:

 Don’t spend the money. Don’t tell anyone about the money. Find the woman from the envelope. Find out if it’s her money.

 Questions came into focus.

 What if the money had belonged to a homicidal drug dealer? What if it was all counterfeit? What if the person who owned the money was dead? Who should they trust to give it to in their name? What if the person is just a really bad person?

 Russo pondered the last question on the phone with her mother. “My mom said that I have a good moral compass, and if I don’t think that someone is a good person, or deserving of the money, then I’m not obligated to give it to them. This really threw me off. Where do you draw the line? It’s all very subjective.”

 The possibilities were endless and the group seemingly discussed them all that night. Though they weren’t banking on it, there was still a chance they’d be able to keep some or all of the money.

 “I would have bought my mom a new car,” Werkhoven said. “What she drives is a piece of junk, and I really wanted to surprise her with a brand-new car.”

 Other items high on the wish lists: paying back student loans and traveling the world.

 Keeping the big secret

 The next morning, Russo and Guasti were at work, Werkhoven was at class, and all of them had a huge secret they couldn’t share with anyone.

 Then around 11 a.m., Werkhoven’s mom called and told him that she found the woman’s name in the phone book. After work Werkhoven gave the woman a call.

 He asked the woman her name and told her he had just bought a couch from Salvation Army.

 She immediately replied, “Oh, I left a lot of money in that couch.”

 Werkhoven promised her that he and his housemates would be able to return the money at any time, but he was a little taken aback by her shortness with him on the phone.

 Returning the money

 In the late afternoon, Werkhoven, Guasti and Russo were in the car headed to the woman’s house in the Hudson Valley.

 “About halfway to her house we stopped the car and had a serious discussion…what if she’s a really bad person? What can we do at this point if we meet her and decide we don’t want to give her the money?”

 Not having a plan of exit, they rolled up the long driveway past three “beware of dog” signs and several mounted cameras.

 It was a rustic home in a rough neighborhood. The porch was grey and chipping paint. The front door creaked open slowly, Werkhoven remembered.

 “I think the part of this whole experience that cleared away my prior thoughts and worries was when I saw the woman’s daughter and granddaughter greet us at the door,” Werkhoven said. “I could just tell right away that these were nice people.”

 “When we handed the money back to the woman, she told us that she felt like her husband was present in the room with us,” Guasti said.

 In an interview, the woman, who asked not to be identified, explained how her money was lost.

 Her husband had had a heart condition and knew his time was limited. Before he died, he gave her money each week to put away for when he passed. For 30 years she stored her savings inside an old couch in the television room where she slept. When her husband passed away, she remained working as a florist and continued to store her money in the couch until she had an operation on her back and went to a rehabilitation center for several months.

 Upon the doctor’s advice, the woman’s daughter and son-in-law replaced the couch she slept on with a full-size bed.

 The couch ended up at the Salvation Army store in New Paltz and was bought for $20 by three genuinely good young people who had the strength and wherewithal to make a commendable moral decision.

 “We almost didn’t pick that couch,” Russo said. “It’s pretty ugly and smells, but it was the only couch that fit the right dimensions for our living room.”

 The woman gave $1,000 to Guasti, Russo and Werkhoven as a reward for returning the $40,000. ||||| NEW PALTZ, N.Y. (AP) — For all the screaming and carrying on, their neighbors thought they'd won the lottery. But it was a lumpy old sofa stuffed with $40,000 in cash that had three young roommates raising a ruckus.

 From left, Lara Russo, Cally Guasti and Reese Werkhoven sit on a couch in their apartment in New Paltz, N.Y. on Thursday, May 15, 2014. The roommates had purchased it at a Salvation Army store and found... (Associated Press)

 Lara Russo, left, Cally Guasti, center, and Reese Werkhoven sit on a couch in their apartment in New Paltz, N.Y. on Thursday, May 15, 2014. The roommates had purchased it at a Salvation Army store and... (Associated Press)

 And here's the other side of the ticket: They returned the money to the 91-year-old widow whose couch had been given away.

 "We just pulled out envelopes and envelopes," said Cally Guasti, a social worker with Family of Woodstock who shares an apartment with two friends in New Paltz, 75 miles north of New York City. "My mouth was literally hanging open — everybody's was — it was an unfathomable amount."

 Guasti told The Associated Press on Thursday that she and her friends had bought the beat-up couch and a chair for $55 at a Salvation Army thrift shop in March. They noticed the arm cushions were weirdly lumpy. Then, one night in April, one of them, State University of New York at New Paltz student Reese Werkhoven, opened a zipper on one arm and found an envelope.

 It contained $4,000 in bubble-wrapped bills.

 Guasti, Werkhoven and roommate Lara Russo opened the other arm zipper and started mining the treasure stashed inside. They counted it up: $40,800.

 "Honestly, I was a little overwhelmed," Russo said. "I wanted to put it back in the couch and like re-find it in the morning when I can process it better."

 Gausti said they spread the money on the bed and started counting.

 "And we were screaming," she said "In the morning, our neighbors were like, 'We thought you won the lottery.'"

 Mixed in with the cash was a deposit slip with a woman's name on it. Werkhoven called her the next morning.

 "She said, 'I have a lot of money in that couch and I really need it,'" Guasti said.

 They drove to the home of the woman, who turned out to be the elderly woman. She cried in gratitude when they gave her the cash she had hidden away.

 The woman's family had donated the couch to the Salvation Army while she was having health problems.

 "It's not our money, said Werkhoven, of New York City. "We didn't have any right to it."

 Guasti said the cash simply wasn't theirs. "I think if any of us had used it, it would have felt really wrong." |||||


Article:

Daejona M. Homes has been certified as an adult in this case

 The Jackson County Prosecutor's Office has announced charges against a 15-year-old girl accused of murdering her parents back in April.

 Daejona M. Holmes, 15, has been charged with two counts of murder second degree, two counts of armed criminal action, and tampering with physical evidence.

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 Police were originally called to investigate a shooting at a home in the 5000 block of Belmeade Road on April 9.

 Police said a girl, later identified as Daejona Holmes, called 911 from the McDonald's on Eastwood Trafficway. She told dispatchers that a robbery had happened inside the home, and that her parents had been shot.

 Officers responded to the home and found Kinderly Holmes, 37, and Brian Starr, 38, dead from apparent gunshot wounds inside. Kinderly Holmes had been shot once in the stomach; Starr was found to have been shot three times - twice in the torso and once in the mouth.

 Daejona Holmes' story later changed - she told authorities that her father had shot her mother, and that she had then shot her father.

 After a warrant was obtained for her phone, authorities found recent online searches that included "scary movies where kids kill parents," and rap lyrics about wanting a father dead. A video of Daejona Holmes was also located in which she was holding a gun and dancing in her bedroom. Police also found a drawing of stick figures in the girl's backpack, one labeled "me." That stick figure was shooting another labeled "dad."

 A witness also told police that he received calls from Daejona saying she needed help. He met her at McDonald's, where she told him her parents had been shot. The witness said he had to talk Daejona in to calling the police.

 Records show Daejona made nine phone calls with her mother's phone after the shooting, and that she waited an hour to call 911.

 The gun in this case was ultimately located across the street from the home in a puddle of water.

 Daejona Holmes has been certified to stand trial as an adult in this case, which is why her name and charges have been released.

 Prosecutors have requested a $150,000 bond in this case.

 AlertMe ||||| A 15-year-old Kansas City girl charged in the fatal shootings of her parents allegedly had searched for “Scary movies where kids kill parents.”

 The Jackson County prosecutor announced Monday that Daejona M. Holmes has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder in the slaying of her parents, Kinderly Holmes, 37, and Brian Starr, 38, in their Kansas City home on April 9.

 Daejona Holmes also faces two counts of armed criminal action and one count of tampering with physical evidence.

 According to court documents, police responded to a 911 call the evening of April 9 on reports of a shooting at a home in the 5000 block of Belmeade Road.

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 Upon arrival, officers entered through the back of the house, where they found Kinderly Holmes in an upstairs bedroom and Starr downstairs by the front door. Both were dead.

 The Jackson County Medical Examiner, who ruled their deaths a homicide, found that Kinderly Holmes was shot once in the stomach and Star was shot twice in the torso and once in the mouth.

 Their daughter Daejona Holmes allegedly had called 911 from a different location and told a dispatcher that a robbery had occurred and both of her parents were shot. When officers contacted her at a fast food restaurant, she allegedly told them that her father had shot her mother and then she had shot her father.

 During their investigation, police found in a backpack a handwritten drawing of stick figures with one figure shooting another. The figures were allegedly labeled “Dad” and “Me.” A third stick figured had X’s as eyes and “blood” around it.

 Detectives obtained a search warrant and when they searched the data from Daejona Holmes’ phone, it showed a recent search for “Scary movies where kids kill parents,” according to court records. It also showed rap lyrics about wanting her father dead, according to court records.

 Detectives also found a video from Feb. 15 that showed Daejona Holmes dancing in her bedroom while holding a handgun.

 According to court records:

 On the night of the shooting, police questioned her at Police Headquarters. She told police that she was warming up macaroni in the microwave when she heard her parents arguing. She then heard a gunshot.

 As she was headed upstairs, she passed her father as he was going downstairs. She told police that when she went into her room, she found her mother deceased with the handgun lying next to her.

 Daejona Holmes allegedly told police that she picked up the gun and walked downstairs. She allegedly said she shot her father as he walked toward her. She ran from the house and when she realized she didn’t have her cell phone, she ran back and grabbed both her and her mother’s cell phones. She also ran upstairs and grabbed a house key.

 She told police that as she ran to the fast food restaurant she tossed the handgun in a neighbor’s yard. She allegedly told police that the reason she reported that there had been a robbery was because she was scared.

 During the investigation, a neighbor said three shots were heard about 6 p.m. When police searched the call data on the phone, it showed that nine calls were made between 6:25 p.m. and 7:25 p.m., when the 911 call was made. Several of the calls were to a friend who told police he met her near the fast food restaurant.

 The friend told police that Daejona Holmes said she needed help and that her parents had been shot. He convinced her to call 911.

 When detectives asked Daejona Holmes about the calls and why it took an hour to call 911, she allegedly couldn’t provide a reason. ||||| Please enable Javascript to watch this video

 KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A 15-year-old girl who investigators say searched on her phone for "scary movies where kids kill parents" and had rap lyrics about wanting her father dead is accused of killing her parents.

 Daejona M. Holmes faces two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of armed criminal action and tampering with physical evidence. She will be tried as an adult.

 Holmes is accused of shooting and killing mom Kinderly Holmes and dad Brian Starr on April 9 at their home in the 5000 block of Belmeade Road.

 Court records say that police found Holmes, 37, and Starr, 38, both shot to death inside their home.

 Daejona Holmes reportedly called 911 from a different location and said a robbery had occurred and her parents were shot. She later changed her story and said her father shot her mother, and she shot her father.

 When investigators got a search warrant and looked at Holmes' phone, they found the web searches, rap lyrics and a video of Holmes holding a gun and dancing in her bedroom. They also found a hand-drawn stick figure illustration where one labelled "me" was pointing a gun at another labelled "dad." A third illustration had a stick figure with X's for eyes and blood around it.

 A witness told police that Holmes called him, saying she needed help. He met her at a McDonald's on Eastwood Trafficway where she told him her parents had been shot. The witness added he had to talk her into calling 911. She also made nine phone calls with her mother's phone following the shooting and waited an hour to call 9-1-1.

 Court documents show investigators spoke with Holmes on April 9 and again May 11 to clarify her story. During the first interview she said her parents were fighting and she heard a gunshot. She said she went upstairs and passed her father, but they didn't exchange words, and she found her mother dead in her bedroom. She then said she picked up a gun before walking back downstairs, and shot her dad as he approached her. She said she ran in and out of the house and threw the gun in a nearby yard.

 During her second interview she said she had actually gone back into the house twice; once to get her cell phone and another time to get her mom's cell phone. She admitted to changing her clothes prior to leaving the home and moving her dad's body close to the front door. She couldn't explain why she didn't leave the house upon hearing the first gunshot, why she didn't call 9-1-1 sooner, or why she made nine phone calls from her mom's cell phone.

 Prosecutors have requested a bond of $150,000. |||||
What is a summary?

– A 15-year-old Kansas City girl has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder after allegedly killing her parents, prosecutors announced Monday—and police allege they found some damning content on her phone. WDAF reports Daejona Holmes placed a 911 call on April 9 saying her parents—Kinderly Holmes, 37, and Brian Starr, 38—had been killed in a robbery. But during two interviews with investigators, the story shifted: Per court documents, Holmes first said she was at home heating up pasta as her parents argued, heard a shot, walked past her father and saw her mother's body, then grabbed a gun and killed her father downstairs. During the next interview, she allegedly added details: She said she entered the home a second time to get her mom's phone, changed her clothes, and moved her dad's body. After securing a search warrant for Holmes' phone, investigators say they discovered a web search for "scary movies where kids kill parents," rap lyrics expressing a desire to see her dad dead, and a Feb. 15 video of a dancing, gun-toting Holmes in her bedroom. They also allegedly uncovered a stick-figure drawing in a backpack featuring "me" and "dad"; "me" held a gun. The Kansas City Star reports Kinderly Holmes' body was found with a fatal gunshot wound to the stomach in an upstairs bedroom; Starr was near the front door and had been shot in the mouth and torso. KMBC reports Holmes will be tried as an adult, which is why her name has been released.


– The celebrity hero club just got a new member: The Scottish Sun reports that Brad Pitt saved a woman from being trampled by zombies on Wednesday. Seriously. The rescue happened on the set of World War Z, during a scene in which some 700 extras jammed themselves into Glasgow's George Square and then started to flee the approaching zombies. One extra fell amid the chaos and risked being pounded by the crowd. Cue Brad. "Brad came to the rescue of a woman who slipped," says an insider. "I don't think she could believe it when Brad picked her up. He didn't have time to speak to her as it was mid-shoot. But she said afterwards how grateful she was, despite having a badly-grazed knee." (Ex Jennifer Aniston is also making big news this weekend.)

Expand this summary.

The seed for Wide00014 was:

 - Slash pages from every domain on the web:

 -- a ranking of all URLs that have more than one incoming inter-domain link (rank was determined by number of incoming links using Wide00012 inter domain links)

 -- up to a maximum of 100 most highly ranked URLs per domain

 - Top ranked pages (up to a max of 100) from every linked-to domain using the Wide00012 inter-domain navigational link graph ||||| People.com:

 Jennifer Aniston and her boyfriend Justin Theroux have taken the plunge – the pair have officially moved in together, a source tells People.

 "They decided to rent a house together while they keep searching for the perfect [one] to buy," says the source.

 Read the whole story: People.com |||||


Cows, goats, deer, and sheep naturally produce an abundance of methane — one of the more powerful greenhouse gases — but researchers are hoping that they can all but bring an end to that with selective breeding. Preliminary findings suggest it can be done, according to a team of researchers from over a half-dozen countries. The team found that methane production, which primarily occurs through belching, was consistent in each animal. This finding should allow the team to breed animals that release methane at continually lower levels. If they can make it happen, the environment may very well benefit by curbing a major producer of greenhouse gases.

 However, the team's intention isn't strictly environmental: the real hope is to increase the efficiency of cows and other ruminant, methane-producing animals. The team says that between 2 and 10% of such animals' energy is used to produce methane. Minimizing this wouldn't just help the environment, it would lower feed costs. The team is part of a $10 million project broadly focused on making these animals more efficient. Its next step is to work with a larger sample of animals — about 1,400 — and determine in exactly what ways genetics play a role in methane production. ||||| Natural gas wells leak methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere as a consequence of the production process. So do cows. But where well leaks are called “fugitive methane emissions,” cow leaks are simply called farts and burps.

 Regular Grist readers will remember that we’re really quite interested in this unusual source of methane. It’s silly, but it’s also a big problem. Scientists now think, though, that they’ve hit on a solution: They might simply be able to breed to farts and burps out of cows.

 The Verge reports:

 Cows, goats, deer, and sheep naturally produce an abundance of methane — one of the more powerful greenhouse gases — but researchers are hoping that they can all but bring an end to that with selective breeding. Preliminary findings suggest it can be done, according to a team of researchers from over a half-dozen countries. The team found that methane production, which primarily occurs through belching, was consistent in each animal. This finding should allow the team to breed animals that release methane at continually lower levels. If they can make it happen, the environment may very well benefit by curbing a major producer of greenhouse gases.

 Try that with a natural gas well. Actually, it should be possible to make those leak less, too, but it won’t involve any cow sex. (Although, to be fair, cattle breeding in this day and age probably doesn’t involve much actual sex, either.) ||||| The possibility of selective breeding to produce cattle that are consistently low methane emitters is being explored by an international team of scientists led by the University of Aberdeen.

 The option is being investigated as part of the €7.7 million EU funded RuminOmics project which aims to increase the efficiency of the farming of ruminant* animals, such as cows, while decreasing the associated environmental footprint.

 Ruminants produce methane - a greenhouse gas with a global warming potential 25 times that of carbon dioxide. Methane is formed in the gut during digestion of fibrous feeds and is mainly released into the atmosphere when the cow belches.

 Preliminary findings of the four-year RuminOmics project - which comprises scientists from the UK, France, Italy, Finland, Netherlands, Czech Republic and Sweden, with international advisors from Canada and Australia - add further support to the existing idea that the genetics of an animal may influence the level of methane it produces.

 Professor John Wallace, who researches microbial metabolism in the gut of man and ruminants at the University of Aberdeen Rowett Institute of Nutrition and Health, is leading the study. He said: “Methane production represents a waste of feed energy, varying between two and ten percent of total energy consumed by an animal.

 “Methane production is important for cattle and sheep farmers because if the amount of methane produced can be lowered then there are benefits for the environment, production, and profitability.”

 The RuminOmics team has been investigating methane production and feed efficiency between individual animals and the effect of different feeds. In dairy cattle they have shown that the production of methane is quite variable, particularly between individual animals. It is already known that diet can affect methane production.

 Professor Wallace said: “Currently most diets which have been formulated to lower methane add cost or increase losses of other nutrients.”

 In one study from Sweden, increasing dietary protein concentration lowered methane per kg milk output but at the expense of increased nitrogen losses. Nitrogen is lost as ammonia in the urine which builds up in the soil and is converted to the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide.

 Professor Pekka Huhtanen of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, who is also part of the RuminOmics consortium, believes that researchers need to take into account both global warming and nitrogen pollution impacts when change is made to the diet of dairy cattle.

 Professor Wallace added: “The RuminOmics team is finding means to identify animals which are producing less methane and are more efficient across a range of diets.

 “Our work suggests there is considerable variability between individuals, with some producing more than others.

 “The finding has led the team to ask whether animals which are low emitters always emit low levels under all circumstances”

 The team has started to explore this and so far preliminary results, from a group of 25 dairy cattle, suggest that irrespective of what the individual animals are fed, animals which are low emitters are always low emitters, and conversely cattle which are high emitters are always high emitters.

 These 25 cows are just the start of the project which will involve around 1400 animals. The results will enable the genetic influence on methane emissions to be be determined.

 The RuminOmics team aim to use the data generated to develop new models and tools which will enable the livestock industry to select cattle that will have less environmental impact from methane and nitrogen emissions and improve feed efficiency.

 *Examples of ruminants include cows, sheep, deer and goats. They are herbivores that characteristically have a stomach divided into four compartments and chew the cud which consists of regurgitated partially digested food. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– A team of international scientists is going to spend $10 million to try to breed a herd of all-star cows—ones that don't burp a lot. The idea is to cut down on the cows' methane emissions, which would have a two-fold benefit, explains the Verge: It would help the environment by reducing a potent greenhouse gas, and it would help farmers by making the cows more efficient and thus reducing feed costs. The scientists have found that some cows simply belch less than their peers, even when fed the same diet. They're going to start with 25 of these well-mannered dairy cows and expand the herd to 1,400 through selective breeding, reports the University of Aberdeen, which is leading the project. As for the environmental benefits of reducing cow emissions: "It's silly, but it's also a big problem," notes Grist. Some farmers have experimented with special diets, but that gets expensive and ends up reducing beneficial nutrients from the cow along with the methane.


– It was supposed to be the event of the summer. Well, OK, an event of the summer—but Michael Phelps fans still had high hopes for the swimming champ's much-hyped race Sunday against a bunch of sharks. They didn't read the fine print, however, and People and the New York Post document their disappointment on realizing the 32-year-old Olympic athlete, as part of the Phelps vs Shark: Great Gold vs Great White special on the Discovery Channel, was pitted against computer-simulated versions of the superfish, whose swim rates had been calculated during previous in-water races. "Disappointed," "letdown," and even "biggest scam of 2017" were just a few of the pejoratives hurled on social media after viewers realized Phelps wouldn't be appearing side by side with his finned foes. "More like Shark WEAK!" complained one fan on Twitter, riffing on Discovery's popular annual event. With a time of 18.7 seconds in the 50-meter preliminary, Phelps—outfitted in a special wetsuit and monofin—"lost" to a hammerhead (time: 15.1), but "won" over a reef shark (18.9 seconds). Phelps lost the 100-meter competition (one of his world-record specialties, per the Independent) against the great white, 38.1 to 36.1, per TMZ. EW.com reports the two early races were in the Bahamas, while the main event was filmed last month in South Africa; the Washington Post notes that swim took place in 56-degree open water. Phelps acknowledged the chilly swim after the special aired, tweeting: "Rematch? Next time..warmer water." (Live Science explains how great whites manage in such frigid temps.) Other fans simply laughed at the outrage. "Wait... people were actually mad that Phelps didn't race an ACTUAL shark?? Come on people.. use your heads," one tweeted.

Expand this summary.

Can you blame him?

 Social media users were tearing Michael Phelps to shreds for his “race” against a Great White shark on Sunday night — calling it a “scam” — after he chose to swim side-by-side with a simulation, instead of the real thing.

 “Don’t say Phelps is racing a shark if you’re not going to put him against an actual shark,”

 tweeted Breyanna Davis, who was one of countless viewers to get confused over the way the televised swimming competition went down.

 “So you mean to tell me Michael Phelps didn’t even race a real shark? It was just a simulation. I’m mad. More like Shark WEAK!” said Frank Costa.

 User @M_Frosti added, “smh Michael Phelps isn’t actually racing a shark. He’s just racing a simulation of a shark. Biggest scam of 2017.”

 Those hoping to see the Olympic gold medalist swim side-by-side with the ocean’s most fearsome predator were sadly disappointed as Phelps and the Great White each took turns running the 100 meter race course at different times.

 Researchers with the Discovery Channel first recorded the time of the shark, then let the 32-year-old swim by himself in the waters off the coast of South Africa — which to his credit, is a danger in itself.

 During Phelps’ run, producers superimposed an image of the Great White on the other side of him to give the appearance of an actual, head-to-head swimming race.

 While it ultimately helped keep the Olympian safe, the move didn’t sit well with viewers.

 “I WAS EXPECTING MICHAEL PHELPS TO BE RACING NEXT TO A REAL LIVE WHITE SHARK,” tweeted Addie Ramsey. “IM REALLY UPSET RN.”

 Gary Parrish wrote, “Turns out ‘Michael Phelps races a shark’ was really just “Michael Phelps swims alone and then compares his time to a shark’s time.'”

 Meg Conley added, “Call me crazy but I thought they were gonna put Phelps up against a real shark not a simulation. I feel robbed.”

 Though most people were upset, there were some who understood where Phelps was coming from.

 “I’m enjoying the fact that people actually thought they’d put Phelps in open water with a shark to race,” tweeted Jessica M.

 “Wait… people were actually mad that Phelps didn’t race an ACTUAL shark?” wrote Jeremy Gaunce. “Come on people.. use your heads lol.”

 Maddie Pass concluded, “Those of that thought @MichaelPhelps was going to be racing side-by-side a great white are seriously idiots.” ||||| You’ve heard the hype: 28-time Olympic medalist Michael Phelps versus 0-time Olympic medalist great white shark. Who is faster?

 Well, the answer is unequivocally the Great White Shark, as Phelps’ top speed in a pool is just more than 5 miles an hour and great whites can swim up to 25 mph. Buuuuuut what if Phelps were given some advantages to even the playing field, say, a 1-millimeter-thick bodysuit that mimics the skin of the great white, and a special monofin?

 That could help. And the opening night of Discovery’s 29th edition of Shark Week featured the 100-meter “race” between the great white and the swimmer considered the greatest of all time in Phelps vs. Shark: Great Gold vs. Great White. We say “race” in quotes because, to the disappointment of some fans on Twitter, not only were Phelps and the shark not side-by-side for obvious safety reasons — and Phelps confirmed that much in his pre-race interviews — the shark was digitally rendered next to Phelps to simulate the showdown after scientists creatively determined the velocity of the shark swimming in a straight line by tempting it with a seal decoy.

 Phelps did beat a reef shark and lose to a hammerhead shark in a preliminary 50-meter race in the Bahamas before heading to the much colder waters off South Africa for the big showdown. And what exactly happened there? (Skip the rest of this paragraph and just click on the video if you don’t want to know the results of the final race.) First, the shark was clocked at 36.1 seconds, so Phelps knew what he was up against when he began his end of the race. The monofin definitely raised his game, increasing his normal superhuman speed by a few miles an hour, but it simply wasn’t enough, as he finished in 38.1 seconds, two seconds behind the shark, which still is a lot closer than you probably thought it would be. (The digital match-up revealed that the race was very competitive up until the 25-meter mark when the shark burst ahead and cemented its victory with a speedometer-busting breach at the end.)

 Phelps was gracious in defeat, though he did note the chilly waters were an obstacle and “shocked” his body, and he probably should have used a thicker bodysuit to stay warm. And, yes, he’s already up for a rematch. Though probably not against a mako shark, which can reach speeds of 45 to 60 miles per hour.

 “You really see the speed that the animal has,” a freezing Phelps said after the race, ” how many different gears they can really switch into when they need to, under any circumstance.”

 Check out this part-silly, part-scientific race, above, as well as some behind-the-scenes, how-they-did-that footage below. ||||| When fans heard that 28-time Olympic medalist Michael Phelps would be racing against against a shark on live TV they were excited, but it turns out the result wasn’t quite what they had in mind.

 On Sunday’s Phelps vs Shark: Great Gold vs Great White, the Olympic swimmer tested his racing ability against a number of sharks — but it was all simulated. Instead, Phelps raced against virtual versions of the sharks side-by-side based on their swim rate in a separate race.

 The problem? Many fans apparently thought that the retired Olympian would be getting into a swim tank with real sharks. And they took their frustration to Twitter.

 Phelps vs the shark is the biggest let down ever — MORGAN (@Boats_andMOs) July 24, 2017

 Michael phelps is racing a CGI shark. The world is yet again a meme. — maxwell (@maxneary13) July 24, 2017

 Sign of the apocolyse, and confirmation of the idiocy of America…..Phelps vs Shark. — Jim DeAntonio (@jimithing123) July 24, 2017

 i’m disappointed because i thought Phelps was racing an actual shark #SharkWeek — olivia hager (@oliviahager) July 24, 2017

 i thought they were gonna have michael phelps swim right next to a real shark. sad to say i am #dissapointed — T SIZZLE (@tesshawess) July 24, 2017

 While it was announced ahead of time that Phelps would not be swimming side-by-side with live sharks during the race in Bahamian waters, fans were apparently still confused.

 Still, Phelps was prepared for the experiment with the addition of a mermaid-like monofin and a specially designed wetsuit helped even the playing field a bit — and Phelps put on his game face and gave it his best shot.

 In the end it turned out that Phelps both won — and lost. In the 50-meter race he beat the reef shark with a time of 18.7 but was blasted out of the water by the hammerhead with a time of 15.1.

 MICHAEL PHELPS IS FASTER THAN A REEF SHARK pic.twitter.com/4fPqYYLgBR — SB Nation GIF (@SBNationGIF) July 24, 2017

 However, when it came to the main race against a Great White, Phelps lost the race by two seconds.

 Discovery Channel

 Despite the mixed results, Phelps has no hard feelings toward his competitors. In fact, proving an athletic point was never on his agenda.

 “I’m a massive geek when it comes to sharks,” he told TIME. “Just being able to see a handful of species of sharks out of the over 500 sharks we have in the world — that just really excited me.”

 Watch People Features: Michael Phelps, available now, on the new People/Entertainment Weekly Network (PEN). Go to PEOPLE.com/PEN, or download the PEN app on your favorite mobile or connected TV device.

 He’s also hoping that this race will have a bigger take-away than just the results. Phelps, a longtime shark fan himself, wants to bring more awareness and knowledge about the species to the world.

 “They don’t want to eat us. They’re not trying to kill us and trying to hurt us,” he explained. “They’re out there surviving just like we are on land. Hopefully with some of the lessons that I’ve learned and the do’s and don’ts in the shark world, hopefully people can learn and hopefully people can be able to swim free with the sharks.”

 Discovery Channel

 RELATED VIDEO: See Scott Hamilton’s New PEN Series

 Previously, Phelps ventured down to Cape Town, South Africa with the assistance of the Discovery Channel Shark Week team, Phelps ventured down to Cape Town, South Africa to learn about the species and go cage diving in the deep.

 “It’s been on my bucket list for years and years,” he told PEOPLE. “As soon as I got down there and saw the fin for the first time, I knew I was going to love it.” ||||| A shark approaches the cage that Michael Phelps is about to enter.

 It's hard to imagine how Olympic-gold-medal swimmer Michael Phelps could win in a race against a great white shark, but the Discovery Channel is giving him every advantage in the book.

 During Sunday's program, "Phelps vs. Shark: Great Gold vs. Great White," Michael Phelps will wear a monofin — a single fin-like foot flipper that will help him swim like a shark — as well as a wetsuit known as the Phantom, which increases buoyancy and reduces drag, according its maker Aqua Sphere.

 But even with these accessories, can Phelps beat a great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias), a fish that can swim upwards of 25 mph (40 km/h)? [7 Unanswered Questions About Sharks]

 Michael Phelps wears the Lunocet swim fin and a phantom suit, both of which are designed to help him race against the shark. Credit: Discovery Channel

 "My money is on the shark, even with a Phelps' monofin," Andrew Nosal, a marine biologist and shark scientist from Scripps Institution of Oceanography in San Diego, who is not involved with the Discovery Channel program, told Live Science in an email.

 Few details are available about the 100-meter (330 feet) race, which the Discovery Channel filmed last month. But channel spokespeople confirmed that the race takes place off the coast of South Africa, although they wouldn't reveal the stroke used by Phelps, who has set 39 world records and won 23 Olympic golds.

 But Phelps confirmed that the race was held in open water and that "we were very safe. We had about 15 safety divers around," he told Entertainment Weekly. In addition, Phelps told Time that he and the shark "weren't side by side."

 "For me, the biggest thing was just trying to stay warm; that was something that was extremely challenging, just because the water is 55 degrees [Fahrenheit, or 13 degrees Celsius]," Phelps said in the Entertainment Weekly interview. "It's something that a shark can survive in, and a human really can't survive in water like that."

 Unlike most other sharks, great whites are endothermic, or "warm blooded," and thus can survive and swim quickly in cold water, Nosal said.

 "This means their core body temperature is warmer than [that of] the surrounding water, allowing their aerobic swimming muscles to contract harder and for longer periods of time," Nosal said.

 This endothermy is maintained by a special arrangement of blood vessels called "countercurrent heat exchangers," which prevent metabolic heat generated from core muscle contractions from being lost to the surrounding water, he said.

 Great whites use their extreme speed to ambush prey, such as elephant seals and other marine mammals, which are smart and nimble, Christopher Lowe, a professor of marine biology at California State University, Long Beach, told Live Science in a previous interview.

 However, great whites aren't even the fastest of the endothermic sharks. The mako shark has been estimated to swim between 40 mph and 60 mph (64 and 96 km/h), Nosal said.

 In contrast, Phelps has been fast … but for a human, not for a shark.

 "In a race, I think my fastest speed was about 5 or 6 mph [8 to 10 km/h]," Phelps told USA Today. With the monofin, Phelps said he thinks he reached up to "8 to 10, maybe 12 [mph, or 13 to 19 km/h]. But for me, it actually gives me more of an appreciation for how fast [sharks] move through the water, especially at their size." [Aahhhhh! 5 Scary Shark Myths Busted]

 Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps wears the monofin as he dives into the Bahamas' warm waters. Credit: Discovery Channel

 It should be noted that several excerpts from the program made available to reporters paired footage of a shark with ominous, suspenseful music. This isn't uncommon — most movies and even nature documentaries play scary music when a shark swims onto the screen. However, menacing music makes people feel unjustly terrified of sharks, Nosal and his colleagues found in a 2016 study published in the journal PLOS One.

 If people are frightened of sharks, they likely won't work to protect the animals, even those that are endangered, Nosal told Live Science in a previous interview.

 The program will air at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Sunday, July 23, on the Discovery Channel.

 Original article on Live Science. ||||| Michael Phelps Races Shark And the Winner is ...

 Michael Phelps vs. Shark has a Winner

 Gold medal winning Olympian Michael Phelps took on a great white shark ... and now we know who truly reigns supreme in the water ... sort of.

 THE SHARK WINS!!!

 Phelps kicked off Shark Week 2017 on Discovery Channel with a primetime special, "Phelps vs. Shark: Great Gold vs. Great White" after weeks of anticipation for the man-against-beast event. The 100-meter open water "race" took place in Cape Town, South Africa ... but many fans are unhappy about what actually qualified as a race.

 Most people thought Phelps didn't stand a chance considering his top swim speed is about 6 mph and great whites can reach speeds up to 25 mph ... but his team helped him even the playing field with a shark skin-like wetsuit and a monofin to emulate a shark's tail.

 Turns out ... it didn't matter. Phelps lost the SIMULATED race to a great white shark by 2 seconds.

 So ... Ryan Lochte was right?

  ||||| The most successful Olympian of all time was no match for one of the world’s most feared animals when the two were pitched against each other to kick off the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week.

 Michael Phelps swam a 100m stretch of warm Bahamas water in 38.1 seconds but lost out by two seconds to a great white shark swimming the same course.

 The American swimmer is the world record holder for 100m and 200m butterfly as well as 400m individual medley.

 He was even specially equipped with a wetsuit and monofin to mimic a shark’s movement through water.

 In order for @MichaelPhelps to beat a shark, he must become a shark. #PhelpsVsShark is TONIGHT at 8p on @Discovery #SharkWeek pic.twitter.com/1YjtRoEvGz — Shark Week (@SharkWeek) July 23, 2017

 But he could not compete with the species' 25mph average speed and its sheer size, with the animals reaching lengths of up to 6m.

 He was more successful in a 50m practice run against a reef shark, which he completed in just 18.9 seconds.

 The much hyped stunt aired on Sunday night as a premiere to Discovery Channel’s Shark Week.

 The popular American TV channel has been hosting the programme since 1988 to draw in summer audiences and raise awareness about shark attacks and conservation.

 Phelps: 'Greatest Olympian? It's a pretty neat title'

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 Meanwhile Ryan Lochte, the second most decorated Olympic swimmer behind Michael Phelps, competed for viewers on National Geographic’s Shark Fest premiere.

 Discovery Channel viewers were disappointed that Phelps was competing against a great white rather than a Mako, the fastest known shark.

 It also became apparent, but only 57 minutes into the programme, that the race was actually a simulation and that Phelps was in fact competing against a computer-generated image of a shark based on a projection of its speed.

 He completed the course in 38.1 seconds compared to the shark’s time of 36.1.

 The program did include a real great white swimming in the 100-metre stretch behind a decoy of swimming seals.

 Other highlights of the week will include a shark vs crocodile fight over sea turtles and a "great hammerhead invasion".

 The programme has in the past attracted criticism for sensationalising the risk sharks pose to humans and for intentionally blurring the lines between drama and documentary. |||||


– Georgia's Senate has voted 48-2 to shift the state's northern border to include a sliver of land it says was wrongly given to Tennessee by a surveyor's blunder in 1818. Georgia says the "mismarked boundary lines" have denied it access to the Tennessee River as a source of water and it says it will take its northern neighbor to court if it doesn't agree to surrender a slice of land big enough to allow it to do so, reports the Chattanooga Times Free Press. Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal would have to sign off on any border change, as would Tennessee and the US Congress, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution adds. "It is not something that would negatively impact the water supply of Tennessee," Deal says. The border dispute isn't likely to spark war between Georgia and Tennessee—but Alabama sits just downstream from the disputed area and, since it has suffered from drought as much as northern Georgia in recent years, it is unlikely to give up its water without some kind of fight, the Atlantic notes.

Expand this summary.

Historians, take note: On this day, which is not a day in 1732, a boundary dispute between two Southern states took a turn for the wet. In a two-page resolution passed overwhelmingly by the state senate, Georgia declared that it, not its neighbor to the north, controls part of the Tennessee River at Nickajack. Georgia doesn't want Nickajack. It wants that water.

 Georgia's claim is that the boundary between the states was set at latitude 35° north when Georgia first gave up the Mississippi territory, but that a lousy 1818 survey ended up putting that state boundary a mile south of where it should have been. The blue line on this map is a rough approximation of that latitude parallel.

 Georgia's not worried about its sovereign territory, like the Pennamite Wars that pitted Pennsylvania against Connecticut before the Revolutionary War. Nor is it an ideological conflict like that in the Koreas, which, interestingly, centers around the 38th parallel. What Georgia cares about is that splash of blue that is the Tennessee River.

 During the summer of 2012, up to 95 percent of the state experienced some level of drought; in December, it hit 99 percent. Last May, nearly a quarter of the state experienced drought that registered as extreme. Despite the state legislature arguing that the drought wasn't that bad (in an effort to avoid hurting the landscaping industry), it was.

 Nor was last year the first time such a drought imperiled the state. In 2008, there was a similarly bad drought — prompting the state to try to gain access to the river by moving the boundary north. Tennessee rejected that effort.

 Georgia's renewed focus on accessing the river isn't just a smart plan for right now. (Eighty percent of the state is still under drought conditions.) Climate change is likely to ensure ongoing droughts of similar magnitude, making an additional steady source of freshwater a critical need for the state.

 If Tennessee agrees to redrawing the state line, the issue would be brought to Congress for approval. If it doesn't, the result probably won't be war. At least not between Georgia and Tennessee. Shortly after leaving the upper corner of Georgia, the river flows into Alabama, which last year saw drought cover 72 percent of its state. The odds are good Alabama isn't eager to give up its water either.

 Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at pbump at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.

 Philip Bump ||||| Georgia senators today passed a resolution calling for the correction of survey areas along the state’s northern border in a 48-2 vote, a news release states.

 “The Tennessee Valley Authority has identified the Tennessee River as a likely source of water for North Georgia,” said Sen. David Shafer, R-Duluth, as he presented the resolution. “Yet the state of Tennessee has used mismarked boundary lines to block our access to this important waterway.”

 Georgia House Resolution 4 proposes a settlement of the boundary dispute, based on almost 200-year-old survey errors, clarifying Georgia’s access to Tennessee River water. It directs the state’s attorney general to sue to gain control of the entire area south of the 35th parallel if no agreement is reached with Tennessee, the Georgia Senate Press Office release states.

 House Resolution 4 now returns to the House for agreement on amendments made by the Senate.

 The Tennessee Valley Authority must approve interbasin water transfer that take water out of the Tennessee River watershed. TVA says it has not recommended using the river as a primary water source for North Georgia.

 "We aren’t certain where Sen. Shafer got his information, but TVA is not involved in this discussion at this point," TVA spokesman Scott Brooks said. ||||| Read the complete story...

 The story you're reading is premium content and is accessible to all AJC subscribers on our new premium website, MyAJC.com. Simply login to get total access to this story and all in-depth content from our print edition plus more. A condensed version of this story is available to all online readers on our free website, ajc.com. Look for this symbolon ajc.com to denote premium content. |||||


Article:
President Obama is planning a trip to Cuba in March, marking the first time in more than 80 years a sitting U.S. president will visit the country, according to sources with knowledge of the plan.

 Interested in ? Add as an interest to stay up to date on the latest news, video, and analysis from ABC News. Add Interest

 The president officially announced his trip via Twitter on Thursday morning.

 Next month, I'll travel to Cuba to advance our progress and efforts that can improve the lives of the Cuban people. — President Obama (@POTUS) February 18, 2016

 In a post detailing the trip on Medium, Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said the president is traveling to Cuba to press for more reforms, noting that while advancements have been made, "still, this progress is insufficient."

 "There is much more that can be done -- by the United States, and by the Cuban government -- to advance this opening in ways that will be good for Cubans, and good for the United States. That is why President Obama is traveling to Cuba," Rhodes wrote. "We want to open up more opportunities for U.S. businesses and travelers to engage with Cuba, and we want the Cuban government to open up more opportunities for its people to benefit from that engagement."

 The trip is planned for March 21-22 before the president flies to Argentina on March 23-24. During the trip to Cuba, President Obama is set to meet with Cuban President Raul Castro. The two men first met face-to-face during a summit in Panama last year.

 First Lady Michelle Obama will travel with the president to Cuba, and the First Family will join him in Argentina.

 The move comes roughly 15 months following the president's pledge with Raul Castro to reopen diplomatic channels following a prisoner exchange and the humanitarian release of U.S. contractor Alan Gross in December 2014.

 Since the announcement, the two countries have had a series of diplomatic talks, leading to the reopening of embassies last summer and the recent deal restoring commercial air traffic.

 The last and only sitting U.S. president to visit the island nation only 90 miles south of the Florida keys was Calvin Coolidge, in 1928, to address the Sixth Annual International Conference of American States in Havana.

 He met with Cuba's President Gerardo Machado, who was in office from 1925 to 1933, until he was forced into exile.

 President Jimmy Carter traveled to Cuba in 2002, 20 years after leaving office, at the invitation of President Fidel Castro.

 Carter also made a trip in 2011.

 This is a developing story. Please check back in for updates. ||||| Washington (CNN) President Barack Obama will become the first sitting U.S. President to visit Cuba in 88 years, when he visits Havana in March, White House press secretary Josh Earnest announced Thursday.

 The visit, which is scheduled for March 21-22, is another big step by the administration in ongoing efforts to normalize diplomatic relations with Cuba.

 The President announced the news via Twitter on Thursday.

 "14 months ago, I announced that we would begin normalizing relations with Cuba - and we've already made significant progress," he tweeted. "Our flag flies over our Embassy in Havana once again. More Americans are traveling to Cuba than at any time in the last 50 years."

 Our flag flies over our Embassy in Havana once again. More Americans are traveling to Cuba than at any time in the last 50 years.

 "We still have differences with the Cuban government that I will raise directly. America will always stand for human rights around the world," he tweeted. "Next month, I'll travel to Cuba to advance our progress and efforts that can improve the lives of the Cuban people."

 We still have differences with the Cuban government that I will raise directly. America will always stand for human rights around the world.

 The White House also announced Thursday that the President will meet with Cuban President Raul Castro, as well as entrepreneurs and different members of Cuban society.

 The President aims to continue to "chart a new course" for U.S.- Cuban relations by connecting U.S. and Cuban citizens through travel, commerce and access to information, according to Earnest.

 The President will be joined by the first lady on his trip to Cuba, after which they will visit Argentina for two days.

 The last sitting U.S. President to visit Cuba was Calvin Coolidge in 1928.

 "President Coolidge traveled to Cuba on a U.S. battleship, so this will be a very different kind of visit," Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes wrote in a post on Medium

 In the Medium post, Rhodes cited the progress made between the two countries since Obama took office, but also acknowledged there is more to be done especially on human rights and added that the President will continue to raise those issues to Castro.

 "As the President has said, Cuba will not change overnight, nor will all of the various differences between our countries go away," Rhodes wrote. "But the guiding principle of our Cuba policy -- our North Star -- remains taking steps that will improve the lives of the Cuban people."

 The trip, long expected, comes after Obama's administration formally reopened ties with Havana in late 2014, following a half-century of enmity.

 Cuban officials reacted positively to the announcement Thursday.

 "U.S. President Barack Obama will be welcomed by the government of Cuba and the Cuban people with our traditional hospitality. It will be an opportunity for (the) President to appreciate the Cuban reality," Josefina Vidal, the general director for U.S. affairs at the Cuban Foreign Ministry said at a news conference in Havana Thursday. "His visit will represent a step forward in relations between Cuba and the US."

 At the news conference, Vidal also called for the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba to be lifted and the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo to be returned to Cuban control.

 Speaking at CNN's GOP town hall on Wednesday night, presidential candidate Marco Rubio slammed the announcement.

 The Florida senator said that if he were president, he would not visit the island nation -- unless it were a "free Cuba."

 The Cuban government is "an anti-American communist dictatorship," said the Cuban-American senator, who has been an outspoken critic of Obama's Cuba policy. "They're a repressive regime."

 Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, whose father emigrated from Cuba, also disparaged the prospect of a presidential visit.

 "I think it's a real mistake. I think the President ought to be pushing for a free Cuba," Cruz said at the same town hall. "My family has seen firsthand the evil and the oppression in Cuba. We need a president who stands up to our enemies."

 The American embassy was reopened and a U.S. flag raised at the compound on Havana harbor in August.

 Since then, high level U.S. officials have traveled to the island, including Secretary of State John Kerry and transportation chief Anthony Foxx.

 Travel restrictions have been loosened and economic channels revived. Obama shook Cuban leader Raul Castro's hand during an historic face-to-face meeting last spring.

 That meeting, which transpired during a summit in Panama, was regarded as a breakthrough. But images of the American President stepping onto Cuban soil will provide Obama a lasting illustration of his adage that diplomacy with traditional U.S. foes can yield concrete results.

 Last week, U.S. air carriers entered a bidding war to secure routes to Cuba after both nations signed an agreement to resume flights between the island and the United States.

 U.S. travelers, who previously were required to adhere to strict conditions for visits to Cuba, are now able to apply for a broad range of travel licenses, included trips for cultural exchanges and humanitarian work.

 But travel purely for tourism won't be allowed until the U.S. Congress lifts a longstanding embargo, which also restricts most trade with Cuba.

 Rep. Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat who launched a bipartisan Cuba Working Group in December, said Obama's trip would help "close the book on the outdated Cold War policy that divided us for so many years."

 Many lawmakers stand opposed to such a move, arguing the regime in Cuba restricts dissent and tramples on citizens' freedom of expression.

 Leading up to the announcement of Obama's trip, White House officials said Cuba would need to demonstrate human rights reforms before the President would travel there.

 Rhodes said in a briefing that Obama will meet with dissidents when he visits Cuba in March.

 He noted Obama met with dissidents at the Summit of the Americas in Panama last year -- where he shook Raul Castro's hand -- and said Obama engages with a "broad range of actors" around the world, and that Cuba is no different.

 He said Obama was not likely to meet with Fidel Castro on the island.

 Officials say Obama could visit the island to witness a signing of a peace accord between the government of Colombia and the FARC rebel group. Obama committed $400 million to the Colombian government in his most recent budget proposal to implement the deal. ||||| President Barack Obama talks to media in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2016, at the bottom of a meeting, where he announced that former IBM CEO Sam Palmisano, former... (Associated Press)

 President Barack Obama talks to media in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2016, at the bottom of a meeting, where he announced that former IBM CEO Sam Palmisano, former National Security Adviser Tom Donilon are being appointed as the Chair and Vice Chair, respectively,... (Associated Press)

 President Barack Obama talks to media in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2016, at the bottom of a meeting, where he announced that former IBM CEO Sam Palmisano, former National Security Adviser Tom Donilon are being appointed as the Chair and Vice Chair, respectively,... (Associated Press) President Barack Obama talks to media in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2016, at the bottom of a meeting, where he announced that former IBM CEO Sam Palmisano, former... (Associated Press)

 WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama will pay a historic visit to Cuba in the coming weeks, senior Obama administration officials said Wednesday, becoming the first president to set foot on the island in nearly seven decades.

 The brief visit in mid-March will mark a watershed moment for relations between the U.S. and Cuba, a communist nation estranged from the U.S. for half a century until Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro moved to re-launch more than a year ago. Since then, the nations have reopened embassies in Washington and Havana and moved to restore commercial air travel, with a presidential visit seen as a key next step toward bridging the divide.

 Obama's stop in Cuba will part of a broader trip to Latin America that the president will take next month, said the officials, who requested anonymity because the trip hasn't been officially announced. The White House planned to unveil Obama's travel plans Thursday.

 Though Obama had long been expected to visit Cuba in his final year, word of his travel plans drew immediate resistance from opponents of warmer ties with Cuba — including Republican presidential candidates.

 Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, whose father fled to the U.S. from Cuba in the 1950s, said Obama shouldn't visit while the Castro family remains in power. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, another child of Cuban immigrants, lambasted the president for visiting what he called an "anti-American communist dictatorship."

 "Today, a year and two months after the opening of Cuba, the Cuban government remains as oppressive as ever," Rubio said on CNN. Told of Obama's intention to visit, he added, "Probably not going to invite me."

 With less than a year left in office, Obama has been eager to make rapid progress on restoring economic and diplomatic ties to cement the rapprochement with Cuba that his administration started. Following secret negotiations between their governments, Obama and Castro announced in late 2014 that they would begin normalizing ties, and months later held the first face-to-face meeting between an American and Cuban president since 1958.

 But Obama, facing steadfast opposition to normalized relations from Republicans and some Democrats, has been unable to deliver on the former Cold War foe's biggest request: the lifting of the U.S. economic embargo. Opponents argue that repealing those sanctions would reward a government still engaging in human rights abuses and stifling of democratic aspirations.

 Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican born in Cuba, called the visit "absolutely shameful."

 "For more than 50 years, Cubans have been fleeing the Castro regime," said Lehtinen, the longest-serving Cuban-American in Congress. "Yet the country which grants them refuge — the United States — has now decided to quite literally embrace their oppressors."

 Obama and supporters of the detente argue the decades-old embargo has failed to bring about desired change on the island 90 miles south of Florida. Still, while Obama has long expressed an interest in visiting Cuba, White House officials had said the visit wouldn't occur unless and until the conditions were right.

 "If I go on a visit, then part of the deal is that I get to talk to everybody" — including political dissidents, Obama told Yahoo News in December. "I've made very clear in my conversations directly with President Castro that we would continue to reach out to those who want to broaden the scope for, you know, free expression inside of Cuba."

 Officials didn't immediately specify what had changed in the last few weeks to clear the way for the trip, first reported by ABC News. But on Tuesday, the two nations signed a deal restoring commercial air traffic as early as later this year, eliminating a key barrier to unfettered travel that isolated Cuban-Americans from their families for generations.

 Hundreds of thousands more Americans are expected to visit Cuba per year under the deal, which cleared the way for the U.S. Department of Transportation to open bidding by American air carriers on as many as 110 flights a day. Currently, there are about one-fifth as many flights operating between the two countries — all charters.

 For Obama, the diplomatic opening with Cuba reflects one of the crowning achievements of a foreign policy rooted in a belief that the U.S. should test opportunities to ease hostilities with its historical enemies. Last month, the Obama administration lifted economic sanctions against Iran's nuclear program, following a diplomatic deal that has raised hopes about warmer ties between the U.S. and Iran. Yet those achievements have been offset by deepening security challenges in Iraq, Syria, Libya and elsewhere as Obama nears the end of his term.

 President Harry Truman visited the U.S.-controlled Guantanamo Bay on the southeast end of the island in 1948, and former President Jimmy Carter has paid multiple visits to the island since leaving office. No sitting president has visited Havana since President Calvin Coolidge traveled there in 1928.

 ___

 Reach Josh Lederman on Twitter at http://twitter.com/joshledermanAP and Kevin Freking at https://twitter.com/APkfreking ||||| Next month, I'll travel to Cuba to advance our progress and efforts that can improve the lives of the Cuban people. |||||Summary:

– President Obama next month will become the first sitting US president to visit Cuba since Calvin Coolidge's trip to Havana in 1928. Obama announced the trip on Twitter Thursday, and ABC News reports that he'll be there March 21-22. The visit will mark a watershed moment for relations between the US and Cuba and will be part of a broader trip to Latin America, reports the AP. (President Harry Truman visited US-controlled Guantanamo Bay on the southeast end of the island in 1948, and former Jimmy Carter has paid multiple visits to the island since leaving office.) Word of Obama's travel plans drew immediate resistance from opponents of warmer ties with Cuba—including Republican presidential candidates. Ted Cruz, whose father fled to the US from Cuba in the 1950s, said Obama shouldn't visit while the Castro family remains in power. Marco Rubio, another child of Cuban immigrants, lambasted the president for visiting what he called an "anti-American communist dictatorship." "Today, a year and two months after the opening of Cuba, the Cuban government remains as oppressive as ever," Rubio said on CNN. Told of Obama's intention to visit, he added, "Probably not going to invite me." (An Alabama tractor-maker is the first US firm to set up shop in Cuba since the revolution.)