– Alleged Silk Road mastermind Ross Ulbricht was no ordinary drug boss—he paid $1,000 a month for a San Francisco apartment he shared with two roommates, used an alias from the Princess Bride, and was arrested in the sci-fi section of his public library. But the FBI says the 29-year-old not only raked in around $80 million from his online drug marketplace's $1.6 billion turnover over two years, he ordered at least two killings to protect his operation, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The FBI says Ulbricht, aka "Dread Pirate Roberts," was provided with a photo of the supposed victim in one killing he ordered but there's no indication the killing actually took place. The other hit man he tried to hire was an undercover agent. Ulbricht, a Texas native, appears to be a "normal, nerdy guy" in his social media postings, Gawker finds. He went to grad school at Pennsylvania State University, where he studied solar cells. On his LinkedIn profile, he complained about government control and said his goals had changed after graduation. "The most widespread and systemic use of force is amongst institutions and governments, so this is my current point of effort," he wrote. "I am creating an economic simulation to give people a first-hand experience of what it would be like to live in a world without the systemic use of force."

Expand this summary.

Alleged online drug kingpin arrested at SF library S.F. man arrested at library accused as the mastermind

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 Photo: Kurt Rogers Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Image 1 of 3 The entrance to the Glen Park Branch Library in San Francisco. Ross Ulbricht, previously known by the pseudonym "Dread Pirate Roberts, was arrested at the library on Tuesday. Ulbricht was the alleged mastermind behind the online drug marketplace known as Silk Road. less The entrance to the Glen Park Branch Library in San Francisco. Ross Ulbricht, previously known by the pseudonym "Dread Pirate Roberts, was arrested at the library on Tuesday. Ulbricht was the alleged ... more Photo: Kurt Rogers Image 2 of 3 The F.B.I. siezed the Silk Road website. The F.B.I. siezed the Silk Road website. Photo: FBI Image 3 of 3 Alleged online drug kingpin arrested at SF library 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

 After spending months trying to infiltrate an underground website that made buying and selling drugs as easy as shopping online for a book or TV, half a dozen FBI agents shuffled into the science fiction section of a San Francisco library and grabbed a young man working on a laptop.

 Authorities said Wednesday the man was Ross William Ulbricht, and they accused him of being "Dread Pirate Roberts," the once-anonymous mastermind behind the online drug marketplace known as Silk Road. Ulbricht, 29, collected tens of millions of dollars in commissions, investigators said, and twice ordered people killed in a bid to protect his empire.

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 The Texas native and San Francisco transplant didn't resist as he was taken into custody Tuesday at the Glen Park library branch, officials said.

 In a complaint filed in New York and a parallel grand jury indictment handed down in Maryland, federal prosecutors accused him of charges including narcotics trafficking, money laundering and attempting to murder a witness.

 They said his business, while operating in a dark corner of the Internet, was penetrated by undercover agents.

 The FBI said Ulbricht ran Silk Road from San Francisco, where he had been living for the past year, including at a cafe not far from his former Hayes Valley home. Since at least 2011, authorities said, he had facilitated the sale of heroin, cocaine and other drugs as "Dread Pirate Roberts" - a reference to a character in the film "The Princess Bride" who turns out to be not one man but rather a series of men passing down the title.

 Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who in 2011 asked federal agents to take down the site after it began to get media attention, applauded the arrest.

 "Sayonara to Silk Road," Schumer said. "The country is safer now that this open market for lawbreaking has been shuttered."

 Change in goals

 Ulbricht has in the past railed against government control. After studying solar cells as a graduate student in Pennsylvania, he wrote on his LinkedIn profile that his goals had changed.

 "The most widespread and systemic use of force is amongst institutions and governments, so this is my current point of effort," he said. "I am creating an economic simulation to give people a first-hand experience of what it would be like to live in a world without the systemic use of force."

 That simulation, the government alleged, is Silk Road.

 Federal authorities had seized the website by the time Ulbricht appeared Wednesday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, where he was remanded into custody pending a hearing Friday. His attorney declined to comment.

 Undercover buys

 The charges were the result of an investigation during which law-enforcement officials made more than 100 undercover purchases of drugs from Silk Road vendors from 10 countries, authorities said. The site itself didn't sell drugs, but connected sellers with buyers, who would generally ship items through the mail.

 FBI Special Agent Christopher Tarbell described the website in an affidavit as a "sprawling black-market bazaar." Users could only access Silk Road using the Tor network - technology that was first developed by the U.S. Navy and conceals communications. Tor browser software can be downloaded for free on the Internet.

 To pay for items, buyers used Bitcoins, an anonymous digital currency with no central bank or authority. Bitcoins - whose value plunged after news spread of Ulbricht's arrest - aren't illegal and are used in many legitimate ways, but the FBI noted that they've been used by "cyber-criminals for money-laundering purposes."

 The Silk Road site had many of the trappings of popular online retail sites, like user comments, which sought to ward off shady dealers and undercover cops. It featured wares like "amphetamine paste" and "high quality #4 heroin." One commenter wrote after making a purchase that he "had to snort almost triple the amount of this new stuff to get where I was with the old."

 $1.2 billion in sales

 Over the past two years, Silk Road had been used by "several thousand drug dealers and other unlawful vendors" to sell "hundreds of kilograms" of illegal drugs, generating the Bitcoin equivalent of $1.2 billion in sales and $80 million in commissions, Tarbell wrote. At one point, Ulbricht hid behind the username "altoid" to marvel about Silk Road, describing it as an "anonymous Amazon.com," investigators said.

 Authorities also alleged that Ulbricht sought to use violence to protect his domain.

 The Maryland grand jury indictment said a federal agent began communicating with Ulbricht in April 2012 while posing as a drug smuggler. Then in January, prosecutors said, Ulbricht paid the agent $80,000 to torture and kill a Silk Road employee who had stolen Bitcoins and had been arrested, prompting fears he would become a government witness.

 Ulbricht allegedly wrote to the agent that he had "never killed a man or had one killed before, but it is the right move in this case."

 In February, the agent sent staged photographs of the employee being tortured and a picture of the purported dead body, prosecutors said.

 Another try

 They said they found out later that Ulbricht soon sought to kill again. In March, Tarbell wrote, Ulbricht offered $150,000 to a Silk Road user "to execute a murder-for-hire of another Silk Road user, who was threatening to release the identities of thousands of users of the site" unless he was given $500,000.

 "I wouldn't mind if he was executed," Ulbricht allegedly wrote.

 Ulbricht was again given a picture of the purportedly dead victim, a resident of British Columbia, but there were no reports of anyone having been killed there, the FBI said.

 "Your problem has been taken care of," the reported hit man wrote in a message to Ulbricht, authorities said. "Rest easy though, because he won't be blackmailing anyone again. Ever."

 Ulbricht "has acted as a law unto himself in deciding how to deal with problems affecting Silk Road, and that he has been willing to pursue violent means when he deems that the problem calls for it," Tarbell wrote.

 San Francisco operation

 Authorities said they identified Ulbricht by tracing his online activity. They said that in June he was living with a friend on Hickory Street in San Francisco's Hayes Valley, just 500 feet from an Internet cafe on Laguna Street "from which someone logged into a server used to administer the Silk Road website."

 By July, he had moved to 15th Street in San Francisco, where U.S. Department of Homeland Security agents visited him to see why a package for him that they had intercepted contained nine fake identification documents, all with his picture on it, authorities said.

 Ulbricht refused to discuss the counterfeit papers, the affidavit said, but "volunteered that 'hypothetically' anyone could go onto a website named 'Silk Road' on 'Tor' and purchase any drugs or fake identity documents the person wanted." ||||| The owner of the underground drug market Silk Road was a 29-year-old Libertarian engineer living in San Francisco raking in over $80 million in 2 years, according to the indictment revealed today. Who is the man behind the biggest underground drug market, and how did he get caught? The indictment lays out a detailed account of how Silk Road grew and how FBI agent Christopher Tarbell took it down.

 According to the indictment, Silk Road was bigger than anyone had suspected: It boasted over $1.6 billion in sales from 2011-2013, which resulted in $80 million in commissions. (Researchers had previously estimated that Silk Road was doing about $22 million in total sales per year.) According to the indictment, which claims that FBI agents obtained a mirror of the server that housed Silk Road's business from law enforcement in an unidentified foreign country, Ulbricht "alone has controlled the massive profits generated from the operation of the business." He used some of the profits to pay a team of administrators as much as $2,000 a week each. And yet, he only paid $1,000 a month in rent for his San Francisco apartment, according to the indictment.

 The most bizarre and spectacular allegation in the indictment is that Ulbricht solicited a murder-for-hire against a Silk Road user who was attempting to blackmail him. The user, FriendlyChemist, told Ulbricht—whose alleged online persona was "Dread Pirate Roberts," or DPR, a reference to the film The Princess Bride—that he had obtained a list of thousands of Silk Road users and was going to release them unless DPR paid off his $500,000 debt to another user, RedandWhite. Instead of paying the debt, DPR contacted RedAndWhite and paid him $150,000 in Bitcoins to off Friendly Chemist.

 "In my eyes, FriendlyChemist is a liability and I wouldn't mind if he was executed," DPR wrote. DPR even tried to bargain down FriendlyChemist, messaging: "Don't want to be a pain here, but the price seems high. Not long ago, I had a clean hit done for $80K." DPR gave redandwhite the address of FriendlyChemist in British Columbia, and the indictment reports that redandwhite sent back photo evidence of the deed. But according to the indictment there is no indication the hit actually happened—"Although I believe the foregoing exchange demonstrates DPR's intention to solicit a murder-for-hire," Tarbell wrote, "I have spoken with Canadian law enforcement authorities, who have no record of there being any Canadian resident with the name DPR passed to redandwhite as the target of the solicited murder-for-hire. Nor do they have any record of a homicide occurring in White Rock, British Columbia on or about March 31, 2013."

 Currently the most-discussed aspect of the case on the Darknet is speculation on how Ulbricht got caught. Silk Road was hosted using the privacy-protecting Tor Network, and its brazen customers believed their digital tracks were hidden. But it appears that Ulbricht was tripped up by some security mistakes while promoting Silk Road in the early days. Tarbell found that the two earliest mentions of Silk Road were forum posts by a user called Altoid on the drug forum Shroomery.org and the semi-official Bitcoin Forum. Both were obvious astroturfing efforts to promote the Silk Road:

 "Has anyone seen Silk Road yet?" goes one. "It's kind of like an anonymous Amazon.com. I don't think they have heroin on there, but they are selling other stuff. Let me know what you guys think." Altoid was easily connected to Ulbricht by a post on the Bitcoin forum in which Altoid solicits programming help for a "venture backed bit coin startup" using the email address: Rossulbricht@gmail.com. From there, agents surveilled Ulbricht in real life and were able to match up his locations to locations used to log into the DPR account. They noticed that both Ulbricht and DPR were fans of the Libertarian Ludwig Von Mises Institute. And a key used to log into Silk Road's administrator account was linked to another email address Ulbricht had used.

 The feds also managed to gain access to servers belonging to Silk Road. They spied on the traffic in real time, determining that from Feb 2011 to July 2013 there were 2013 1,229,465 transactions on the site, and 957,079 total registered users. This raises the question of exactly how much information they have on Silk Road's users, and whether more busts are to come. (Agents made over 100 undercover transactions throughout the investigation, according to the indictment.)

 Browsing Ulbricht's social media accounts show a pretty normal, nerdy guy. Ulbricht graduated from the University of Texas in 2006 with a degree in Physics and went to the University of Pennsylvania Pennsylvania State University for grad school, where he studied engineering and wrote a master's thesis on "Growth of EuO Thin Films by Molecular Beam Epitaxy." According to property records, he owned a home in State College, PA, which he sold in 2010 for $187,0000. Curiously, the indictment misidentifies his grad school as the University of Pennsylvania.

 He's got a Facebook page full of beer pong pics and, of course, was a vocal supporter of Ron Paul, donating $200 to his campaign in 2007. "He doesn't compromise his integrity as a politician and he fights quite diligently to restore the principles that our country was founded on," Ulbricht told the Penn State student newspaper in 2008.

 Last year in a YouTube video for the storytelling project StoryCorps with his friend Rene Pinnell. Pinnell, speaking to the Verge, was adamant about his friend's innocence: "I don't know how they messed it up and I don't know how they got Ross wrapped into this, but I'm sure it's not him," he said. |||||


Summarize this article:

Los Angeles Laker owner Jerry Buss is in the hospital, according to multiple reports. (Photo: Robert Hanashiro USA TODAY Sports) Story Highlights Lakers owner Jerry Buss hospitalized with undisclosed form of cancer, USA TODAY Sports has learned

 Buss has been hospitalized for few months, but family kept it private until recent report

 Lakers past and present hoping for best for Buss, with many tweeting in support

 Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss has been hospitalized for a few months with an undisclosed form of cancer, someone with knowledge of the situation told USA TODAY Sports.

 The person spoke on the condition of anonymity to respect the wishes of the family.

 Buss, 79, has spent time in the intensive care unit at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, according to the Los Angeles Times, which quoted Buss' son, Jim, on Thursday saying his father was "doing fine."

 NBA NEWS: Jordan trying to get into playing shape

 Some former players have been giving high praise to Buss for his accomplishments as owner.

 "Yeah, (Buss) has been on my mind, that's been on my mind for a while," Lakers star Kobe Bryant told USA TODAY Sports at All-Star weekend in Houston. "I'm just trying to stay, gotta stay positive."

 Asked if he knew Dr. Buss' status, he said, "I don't know. I haven't gotten an update."

 NBA NEWS: Billy Hunter fires back at critics

 Bryant credits Buss for helping him early on.

 "He means everything to me," he said. "He took a chance on a 17-year-old kid coming out of Philadelphia when nobody really saw that potential. He believed in me the entire way."

 In a tweet, former Lakers center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar said, "Dr. Buss is an important part of the Laker family so I hope his stay in the hospital is short and he has a speedy recovery. #Jerrybuss."

 "Dr. Jerry Buss, thinking about u & wish I could be there, get well soon," former Lakers center Shaquille O'Neal tweeted Thursday. "I cant wait 2 see u on 4/2/13 #LoveYou."

 HALL OF FAME: One finalist rubs people wrong

 Former Los Angeles Lakers player Robert Horry said his relationship with Buss is professional. But he had praise for what Buss' teams have accomplished.

 "You've got to think about it. He owned the Lakers what, 30 years? And they've won championships or been in the championships half that — that's incredible," Horry told USA TODAY Sports.

 "They bring in the right people. And the thing about it is you've got certain organizations around professional sports where you just say their name and guys want to play for them. They're going to go to that organization. The Lakers are one of those organizations where somehow, someway, they've got a rabbit's foot and they keep getting players to come there, and that's the Lakers. The Lakers are one of the best professional organizations in the world."

 Bryant has been a part of five championships with the Lakers.

 "You'd be hard-pressed to find another owner who has had that kind of success," he said. "He's been able to construct championship teams, regroup, reconstruct them again, regroup, reconstruct them again and build them in a very, very quick order. That's tough to find. "

 Lakers spokesman John Black said the team has no plans to comment on Buss' health out of respect for the family's wishes. Buss spokesman Bob Steiner said information would have to come from the Lakers.

 Buss has been hospitalized several times in recent years, including a stint last July for dehydration. He was treated for blood clots in his legs in December 2011.

 Buss' son Jim Buss has taken over the basketball operations and daughter Jeanie is running the business side and is engaged to former Lakers coach Phil Jackson. Buss was involved with the firing of coach Mike Brown and hiring of Mike D'Antoni in early November, after the Lakers went 0-8 in preseason games and 1-4 to start the regular season.

 It was Buss who wanted the Lakers to be an up-tempo team, like the 'Showtime' Lakers of the 1980s. He pushed for D'Antoni, although Jackson thought he had a good chance to come back as coach, former player and coach Kurt Rambis told USA TODAY Sports shortly after D'Antoni was hired.

 A former aerospace engineer and real-estate developer, Buss has been a prominent name in American sports since he bought the Lakers, the NHL's Los Angeles Kings and the Forum from Jack Kent Cooke in 1979. Buss immediately transformed the Lakers into the NBA's most glamorous franchise, winning 10 NBA championships under his watch.

 The Lakers won five titles in nine years during the 1980s, earning a reputation as basketball's most exciting team with their glamorous style led by Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson, who was Buss' first draft pick. O'Neal and Bryant then led the Lakers to a three-peat from 2000 to 2002 under Jackson before Bryant and Pau Gasol won two more titles in 2009 and 2010.

 Contributing: The Associated Press ||||| Lakers' Jerry Buss 'beyond measure,' says Kobe Bryant

 As Lakers owner remains hospitalized with cancer, Bryant talks of Buss' impact on the sport globally and says that Buss has 'meant everything' to him.

 "You think about the rivalry that took place between the Lakers and the Celtics and what that did for the global outreach of the game. I mean, it reached me and I was all the way in Italy and I was only 6 years old," Bryant said.

 Several current and former Lakers players, including Bryant, Pau Gasol and Magic Johnson, have visited Buss. A Lakers spokesman said the team has no plans to comment on Buss' health.

 The Times reported Thursday that Buss, 79, is in the intensive care unit at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

 "He's meant everything to me in my career in terms of taking a risk on a 17-year-old kid coming out of high school and then believing in me my entire career. And then for the game itself, the brand of basketball that he implemented in Showtime carried the league," Bryant said at a news conference during the NBA's All-Star weekend.

 HOUSTON — Kobe Bryant was reflective Friday when talking about Lakers owner Jerry Buss, who is hospitalized with an undisclosed form of cancer.

 Bryant spent many of his formative years in Italy as his father, Joe "Jelly Bean" Bryant, played overseas.

 The Lakers in 1996 traded Vlade Divac to Charlotte for Bryant, shortly after he'd been drafted out of high school. The Lakers have gone to seven NBA Finals with Bryant, winning five titles.

 Bryant was asked Friday about Buss' overall imprint on the game. "It's beyond measure. There's nothing you can do to really define it. What he's done consistently, it's tough to really find a match for that in any sport. He's been a model of consistency," Bryant said.

 Bryant also had high praise for Buss on Thursday night at Staples Center.

 "He's extremely, extremely intelligent and extremely patient," Bryant said. "He has his goals. He knows exactly what he wants to do and how he wants to construct the ballclub."

 The Lakers have won 10 championships since Buss purchased the team in 1979.

 "He's just extremely, extremely smart going about it," Bryant said Thursday. "It's very rare to find that kind of owner that can seemingly not make any mistakes. It's pretty impressive."

 Meanwhile, there was the problem of the Lakers' play on the court Thursday, as they were blasted by the Clippers in a 125-101 loss. During and after the game, Bryant was livid.

 "It's not a good feeling at all," Bryant said in the Lakers' locker room. "Once things got difficult, we didn't step up to meet that challenge, and I'm not very happy right now and hopefully my teammates feel the same way."

 Bryant scored 20 points Thursday while dishing 11 assists, but he struggled with six turnovers. "We've just got to sit over the [All-Star] break and just kind of reflect and think on how important this is to you and what it means to you," he said.

 The Lakers (25-29) are in 10th place in the Western Conference.

 "We lose by 20 or 30 points, we definitely can't be laughing and joking around," said Bryant, without specifying who he meant.

 Bryant seemed to question his teammates' commitment several times.

 "If it's important to us, we'll show up ready to play," said Bryant. "We can still put together something pretty special, I think — but there's a lot of work ahead to do."

 Times staff writer Bolch reported from Houston. Correspondent Pincus reported from Los Angeles.

 ben.bolch@latimes.com ||||| Lakers Owner Jerry Buss Dies in L.A. Hospital

 Jerry Buss Dead -- Lakers Owner Dies After Battle with Cancer

 Breaking News

 -- owner of the-- died early this morning at the age of 80.Buss had been hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in L.A. for the past few months due to a previously undisclosed intestinal problem ... though it was revealed yesterday he'd been battling cancer the entire time.After starting his career as a chemist, Buss soon found his true calling in the real estate biz ... snapping up properties all over L.A. before moving on to the sporting world.In 1979, Buss made history when he purchased the Lakers, theandfor $67.5 million -- at that time, the largest transaction in sports.Under his ownership, Buss watched dozens of all-time greats -- includingand-- win the Lakers 10 NBA Championships. He was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010.Buss was also an avid poker player ... and appeared on several TV shows, including "" and "."He is survived by his six children. ||||| Jerry Buss, the longtime owner of the Lakers whose penchant for showmanship helped turn the game of basketball into “Showtime” and who led the team to 10 NBA championships, died Monday. He was 80.

 A self-made millionaire who built his fortune in real estate, Buss bought the Lakers in 1979. He charted his successful course with marquee players Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal, Hall of Fame coaches Pat Riley and Phil Jackson, celebrities sitting courtside and Laker Girls dancing during timeouts.

 "I really tried to create a Laker image, a distinct identity," Buss said. "I mean, the Lakers are pretty damn Hollywood."

 PHOTOS: Jerry Buss through the years

 It was a remarkable winning streak for a man who dug his way out of a hardscrabble youth.

 A Depression-era baby, Jerry Hatten Buss was born Jan. 27, 1933, in Salt Lake City. His parents divorced when he was an infant.

 His mother struggled to make ends meet as a waitress in tiny Evanston, Wyo., and Buss remembered standing in food lines in the bitter cold.

 Later, Buss earned a science scholarship to the University of Wyoming. At 19 he married a coed named JoAnn Mueller, and they would eventually have four children: John, Jim, Jeanie and Janie.

 By the mid-1950s, the couple had moved to Southern California, where Buss earned a doctorate in chemistry at USC. He worked briefly in the aerospace industry, and in the late 1950s, he and a colleague, Frank Mariani, tried their hand at real estate.

 They scraped together a few thousand dollars to buy a 14-unit apartment house in West Los Angeles and, to save money, did all the repairs themselves. Their real estate company kept growing as they invested in residential properties, hotels and office buildings.

 TIMELINE: Jerry Buss' path

 In 1979, Buss and his partners bought the Lakers (along with the Forum in Inglewood), the NHL’s Kings and a 13,000-acre ranch in Kern County for $67 million from Jack Kent Cooke.

 At the time, the NBA had fallen by the wayside and several teams stood on the brink of bankruptcy.

 But to Buss, the Lakers looked like a gem in the coal bin. They had a dominant center in Abdul-Jabbar, and the team picked the effervescent Johnson out of Michigan State in the 1979 NBA draft.

 Success came quickly. With former Lakers star Jerry West maturing into one of the most gifted general managers in the league, the team won an NBA championship in Buss’ first season. Johnson, Abdul-Jabbar and Michael Cooper guided the Lakers to five titles.

 The Lakers' next title era came with O’Neal; the precocious Bryant, whom they traded for after he was drafted out of high school; and Jackson as coach. The Lakers won three consecutive championships from 2000 through 2002.

 The team then flamed out in the 2004 NBA Finals against the Detroit Pistons and traded O’Neal to the Miami Heat. At the same time, Jackson walked away.

 After a few more disappointing seasons, Bryant demanded a trade, but Buss stood firm.

 The Lakers, with Jackson back as coach and with Pau Gasol added to the team, defeated Orlando for the 2008-09 title. The following season, they beat Boston for another championship. It was their 10th and final title under Buss.

 "Jerry Buss helped set the league on the course it is on today," NBA Commissioner David Stern said. "Remember, he showed us it was about 'Showtime,' the notion that an arena can become the focal point for not just basketball, but entertainment. He made it the place to see and be seen."

 Former Times staff writer Mark Heisler contributed to this report.

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– Lakers owner Jerry Buss died this morning at age 79, after a secret hospital stay, TMZ reports. News broke last week that Buss had for months been hospitalized for an undisclosed form of cancer, though at the time family members said he was "doing fine," USA Today reports. Buss, who made his fortune in real estate, has owned the Lakers since 1979, a span that includes 10 championships and the celebrated "Showtime" era, an LA Times obituary observes. "He's meant everything to me," Kobe Bryant reflected on Friday, "in terms of taking a risk on a 17-year-old kid coming out of high school and then believing in me my entire career. And then for the game itself, the brand of basketball that he implemented in Showtime carried the league."


Article:

Story highlights Gregory Arthur Weiler II was arrested at a motel last week

 Authorities found bomb-making materials and a handwritten journal

 He is charged with threatening to use an explosive or incediary device

 He also is charged with violating the Oklahoma Anti-Terrorism Act

 Authorities in Oklahoma have arrested and charged a 23-year-old man who they say planned to blow up 48 area churches.

 Gregory Arthur Weiler II was arrested last week at a motel in Miami, Oklahoma, according to Ben Loring, first assistant district attorney for Ottawa County.

 Authorities were tipped off to the plot by workers at the motel about 90 miles northeast of Tulsa. One discovered a duffel bag full of Molotov cocktails near the outside trash, while a room service employee reported suspicious items in Weiler's room, said Loring.

 Police searched the room and allegedly found various documents outlining his plan to set off bombs at 48 churches in and around Miami.

 Among the documents were a list of churches, a hand-drawn map with the churches grouped and circled, instructions for making Molotov cocktails and a handwritten journal, said Loring. Some of the documents had been torn up and needed to be assembled.

 Loring said one of the journal entries read as follows: "Self-Promote for the next 4 years while beginning list of goals written out in Oklahoma having to do with destroying and removing church buildings from U.S., a tiny bit at a time -- setting foundation for the years to follow."

 Authorities also recovered 50 brown glass bottles with cloth wicks attached by duct tape, a funnel and a 5-gallon gasoline can, Loring said.

 Weiler was charged Friday with threatening to use an explosive or incendiary device and violating the Oklahoma Anti-Terrorism Act. He is being held without bond.

 Weiler appeared in court Monday and was appointed representation -- attorneys Andrew Meloy and Daniel Giraldi, said Loring. Both work at the Hartley Law Firm. A woman answering the phone there said that the office would have no comment.

 The suspect, who is from Illinois, is expected to appear in court next on October 22.

 FBI using social media in hunt for 'wanted terrorist'

 French police kill terror suspect, arrest 10 ||||| An Illinois man with a long history of mental illness has been charged with plotting to blow up dozens of churches after a hotel maintenance worker in Oklahoma spotted the makings of Molotov cocktails in a trash bin and alerted police.

 This undatedphoto provided by the Ottawa County (Okla.) Sheriff Department shows Gregory Arthur Weiler II. Prosecutors have filed charges against the Illinois man accused of plotting to bomb nearly 50... (Associated Press)

 Gregory Arthur Weiler II, 23, of Elk Grove Village, Ill., has been charged under a strict Oklahoma anti-terrorism law put in place after the federal building bombing in Oklahoma City in 1995. The law makes terrorism hoaxes a crime as well as any effort to plan or help plan an act of terrorism.

 Weiler was arrested Thursday after a worker at a motel in Miami, Okla., spotted bottles and other suspicious items in a garbage bin, according to a police affidavit.

 Officers found bomb-making materials in Weiler's room along with torn bits of paper that, when assembled, contained directions for making Molotov cocktails, a list of 48 local churches, a hand-drawn map of the churches, and an outline of a plan to plant bombs.

 Weiler has been held without bond on charges of threatening to use an explosive or incendiary device and violating the Oklahoma Antiterrorism Act. Online court records indicate he has applied for a court-appointed attorney and is due in court on Oct. 22.

 According to an affidavit filed by Det. Jeff Frazier, a maintenance worker alerted Miami police after noticing a pile of brown bottles with cloth wicks attached by duct tape in a trash bin at the Legacy Inn and Suites, which sits just off a major interstate. A funnel and 5-gallon red gasoline can also had been dumped in the bin.

 While background checks were being done on the hotel's 18 guests, the maintenance worker accidentally walked into Weiler's room and saw Weiler with similar items and a Walmart receipt showing the purchase of other items, the affidavit said.

 Police found pieces of paper in the trash with details of the plot, plans to videotape the bombings and the words: "Try to get away with it ... maybe a plan out of town?"

 Weiler's family said he has a long history of mental illness, and Miami Police Chief George Haralson said his answers during questioning ranged from rambling to coherent.

 Haralson said it wasn't clear whether Weiler posed a real threat to churches and the community.

 "He had the means and the ability to carry this out," he said. "How does one assess the threat?"

 Weiler's parents both committed suicide, and Weiler has battled drug addiction and "a lot of mental illnesses" that led to a suicide attempt in the eighth grade, said his cousin Johnny Meyers.

 Weiler has been admitted to mental hospitals multiple times, but "with his medication, he was perfectly fine and functional," Meyers said. He said family members in suburban Chicago believe Weiler must have stopped taking his medication and planned to go to Oklahoma to see him.

 Meyers, whose parents cared for Weiler and his siblings, said his cousin had been out of touch for several years after leaving Illinois.

 A pastor at a homeless shelter operated by a church in suburban Kansas City, Mo., said Weiler lived there for about six months within the past year.

 Doug Perry said Weiler showed no violent tendencies and was active in the group's food pantry and various ministries, but he was clearly troubled. Among other things, he blamed himself for his parents' deaths, Perry said.

 "I knew he was in a bad place," the minister said. He said he last saw Weiler about three months ago, when he left to take a roofing job in Houston.

 "We really, really tried hard to love Greg and put up with his sort of sullen detachment," said Perry, pastor of The Church of Liberty in Liberty, Mo. "We poured a whole lot of love, a whole lot of time, a whole lot of prayer into trying to help him. I grieve because I really do love the kid."

 Perry's church opposes denominational divisions and advocates for one Christian church in each community.

 "We're supposed to be ONE Body and we're supposed to be about JESUS," its website says. "We're not supposed to split off and let theologies and philosophies of Man and personal grudges divide us into little pieces."

 Perry said his beliefs are based on Christian teachings and his church does not advocate physical violence or the destruction of buildings. He said it would not support any plan Weiler had to harm churches.

 "We've never advocated any kind of violence at all," he said. "This has nothing to do with physical violence."

 Back in Oklahoma, youth pastor Chris Carlisle of First Baptist Church of Miami, said the community in the northeast corner of the state is usually very safe and Weiler's arrest hadn't caused great alarm.

 "We haven't changed anything," Carlisle said. "We just pray for him that God would do a work in his life. We know that God has a different plan for his life."

 ___

 Associated Press writer Don Babwin contributed to this story from Chicago. |||||
What is a summary?

– A 23-year-old from Illinois has been charged in connection with an alleged plot to blow up 48 churches in northeast Oklahoma. Gregory Weiler, who has a long history of mental illness, was arrested after motel workers in the town of Miami spotted suspicious items in a garbage bin, CNN reports. Police found 50 Molotov cocktails in the trash and bomb-making materials in Weiler's room, along with documents outlining his plans to set off bombs at dozens of churches. He has been charged under state anti-terrorism laws. Miami's police chief says Weiler's answers in custody ranged from rambling to coherent and it's not clear whether he was going to actually carry out the plot. "He had the means and the ability to carry this out," the chief tells the AP. "How does one assess the threat?" Weiler's parents both committed suicide and he has battled drug addiction and "a lot of mental illnesses," his cousin says. "With his medication, he was perfectly fine and functional," but family members believe he must have stopped taking the medication, the cousin says.


(CNN) Indonesian searchers battled bad weather Wednesday in their efforts to find more remains from AirAsia Flight QZ8501, a day after the first signs of debris were spotted.

 There was conflicting information about whether any parts of the plane had been located underwater.

 One search official told CNN that he believes sonar equipment has detected wreckage from the plane at the bottom of the sea.

 "I think that that's the case," said Muhammad Hernanto, the head of search and rescue for the city of Surabaya, where Flight 8501 began its journey on Sunday. He was dialing back earlier comments he made to CNN in which he said the sonar equipment had located wreckage from the plane.

 Indonesia's national search and rescue chief said the body of the aircraft hasn't yet been discovered.

 "Until now, we haven't found the plane," Bambang Soelistyo said, according to Indonesia's national news agency Antara. "We've only found seven bodies to this day."

 The grim discovery Tuesday of parts of the missing plane and several bodies on the surface of the sea dealt a heartbreaking blow to families whose loved ones were lost.

 Debris was found 100-200 kilometers (60-120 miles) from the aircraft's last known location over the Java Sea, Indonesia's search and rescue agency said.

 Seven bodies -- four men and three women -- have been recovered from the water so far, Soelistyo said. One of the women found was wearing a flight attendant's uniform, he said.

 Search teams are looking for other bodies and parts of the plane, including its so-called black boxes. Those could help investigators determine what went wrong on the flight, which lost contact with air traffic controllers on Sunday with 162 people aboard.

 Sonar equipment has been searching the bottom of the sea, tens of meters below the water's surface, according to SB Supriyadi, the search agency's director of operations.

 Dozens of ambulances were lined up in the Indonesian city of Surabaya, ready to carry any bodies recovered.

 The search isn't easy; heavy wind and rain, as well as big waves, are hampering efforts, officials said.

 Families' anguish

 As families watched a live news conference Tuesday about the discovery of the debris and saw video of a helicopter lowering a diver to what appeared to be a floating body, some people fainted. Stretchers were brought into the room.

 Family members burst into tears, dabbing their eyes as officials passed out tissues. Some sat with their eyes full of tears, hands covering their mouths or heads buried in their hands. Others had phones jammed against their ears.

 "Everyone became hysterical, especially the mothers. One mother even blacked out," said Maria Endang Wirasmi, whose daughter, son-in-law and two grandchildren were on the flight.

 Her husband, Imam Sampurno, said he was relieved the plane had been found.

 "We hope that our children will be saved by a miracle," he said.

 AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes told reporters he hoped there was "at least some closure" for families.

 "My heart is filled with sadness for all the families involved in QZ 8501," he tweeted. "On behalf of AirAsia my condolences to all. Words cannot express how sorry I am."

 Flight 8501 was operated by AirAsia's Indonesian affiliate.

 Military crew spotted an object's shadow

 Soelistyo, the head of Indonesia's search and rescue agency, said the debris was discovered when a crew on a military aircraft spotted the shadow of an object that looked like a plane in the water off the coast of Indonesia's Central Kalimantan province on Borneo.

 Further searching found floating objects believed to be the bodies of passengers, and then what appeared to be an emergency exit of the plane. Officials sent other search teams racing to the area.

 Several nations are contributing resources to the effort, including the United States. The U.S. Navy destroyer USS Sampson arrived Tuesday.

 JUST WATCHED Jet in water deep as a 10-story building Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Jet in water deep as a 10-story building 02:22

 The USS Fort Worth is also being prepared to deploy from Singapore, Pentagon spokesman Rear Adm. John Kirby said. It "can be ready to sail in a day or two to get on station and can be there very quickly," he said.

 The United States is also preparing maritime patrol aircraft that could help, he said.

 Search and rescue teams are diverting all their resources to where the debris is, in the Karimata Strait, about 110 nautical miles southwest of the Indonesian city of Pangkalan Bun, AirAsia said.

 JUST WATCHED Is air travel in Asia growing too quickly? Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Is air travel in Asia growing too quickly? 02:16

 Unanswered questions

 Fernandes said the focus for now must remain on the recovery effort, and no sweeping changes were planned for the airline, which has 1,000 flights a day. "But rest assured," he said, that once the investigation is done, if "there are things we need to change, that we will change it."

 The Airbus A320-200 lost contact with air traffic control early Sunday shortly after the pilot requested permission to turn and climb to a higher altitude because of bad weather, according to Indonesian officials.

 Authorities mounted a huge effort to find the aircraft, mapping out a search zone covering 156,000 square kilometers.

 Questions remain about why Flight 8501 lost contact with air traffic control and what happened afterward.

 Some experts have said the aircraft might have experienced an aerodynamic stall because of a lack of speed or from flying at too sharp an angle to get enough lift.

 Analysts have also suggested the pilots might not have been getting information from onboard systems about the plane's position or that rain or hail from thunderstorms in the area could have damaged the engines.

 The key to understanding what happened is likely to be contained in the aircraft's flight recorders.

 "Until we get the black boxes, we won't know what's going on with the engines," said Bill Savage, a former pilot with 30 years of experience. ||||| Some of the victims' relatives at Subaraya airport

 The first bodies have been recovered from the AirAsia plane crash site but many of the relatives waiting at Indonesia's Subaraya airport are increasingly frustrated.

 They cannot understand why there has not been more concrete news over the last 24 hours.

 Kezia has lost five members of her family. They were all wiped out when the flight went down.

 Kezia lost five members of her family in the crash

 She has given DNA to officials to try and expedite the identification process - when the corpses of her relatives are found.

 She said: "I have so many precious memories that are gone.... But I cannot start to grieve properly until we can hold proper funerals."

 Play video "Bodies Returned After Plane Crash" Video: Bodies Returned After Plane Crash

 The mood is increasingly sombre at the airport. Most of the people on board were Indonesian and the country is dealing with a national tragedy.

 I meet Vivi just outside the crisis centre where she is close to tears.

 Her sister was on board the aircraft and although she knows she is dead she tells me she still prays for the impossible.

 She said: "I don't know what to say. I just hope for a miracle. I just want a miracle to happen."

 But there is also fury in some quarters.

 Inside the crisis centre there is no hope; that disappeared on Tuesday when uncensored video showing a corpse floating in the water was broadcast onto a big screen without warning.

 Play video "Latest Update From AirAsia Boss" Video: Latest Update From AirAsia Boss

 It was the moment Aldilia Sutanto found out her family was dead - like many she's angry and says the TV channel should apologise.

 She said: "I feel this is not good to show it to us like that. It is not ethical."

 Crucial to the investigation will be finding the flight data recorders.

 Aviation experts believe the plane may have crashed whilst trying to evade a catastrophic storm.

 For the moment though the massive international recovery effort will continue and with it the grief and anguish of the relatives. ||||| PANGKALAN BUN, Indonesia (AP) — Bad weather hindered efforts to recover victims of AirAsia Flight 8501 on Wednesday and sent wreckage drifting far from the crash site, as grieving relatives prayed for strength to endure their losses.

 Indonesians hold candles to pray for the victims of AirAsia Flight 8501 in Surabaya, Indonesia, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2014. Bad weather hindered efforts to recover victims of the jetliner on Wednesday,... (Associated Press)

 Relatives of passengers of AirAsia Flight 8501 pray at Juanda International Airport in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2014. The first proof of the jet's fate emerged Tuesday in an... (Associated Press)

 An Indonesian girl holds a candle to pray for the victims of AirAsia Flight 8501 in Surabaya, Indonesia, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2014. Bad weather hindered efforts to recover victims of the jetliner on Wednesday,... (Associated Press)

 Officers of the National Search And Rescue Agency (BASARNAS) carry a body of one of the victims on board the ill-fated AirAsia Flight 8501, from a helicopter upon arrival at the airport in Pangkalan Bun,... (Associated Press)

 Officers of the National Search And Rescue Agency (BASARNAS) and Indonesian Air Force personnel unload a body of one of the victims on board AirAsia Flight 8501 from a helicopter at the airport in Pangkalan... (Associated Press)

 Relatives check the documents of passengers on board AirAsia Flight 8501, which will be used for identification purpose, at the crisis center at Juanda International Airport in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia,... (Associated Press)

 Relatives of passengers of AirAsia Flight 8501 cry after visiting the crisis center at Juanda International Airport in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2014. The first proof of the... (Associated Press)

 Indonesian soldiers carry a coffin containing a victim of AirAsia Flight 8501 upon arrival at Indonesian Military Air Force base in Surabaya, Indonesia, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2014. A massive hunt for the... (Associated Press)

 Indonesian soldiers carry coffins containing bodies of victims of AirAsia Flight 8501 upon arrival at Indonesian Military Air Force base in Surabaya, Indonesia, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2014. A massive hunt... (Associated Press)

 Members of Indonesian National Search And Rescue Agency (BASARNAS) carry the body of a victim of AirAsia Flight 8501 upon arrival at the airport in Pangkalan Bun, Indonesia, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2014.... (Associated Press)

 "Help us, God, to move forward, even though we are surrounded by darkness," the Rev. Philip Mantofa, whose church lost about 40 members in the disaster, told families gathered in a waiting room at the Surabaya airport.

 The massive hunt for 162 people who vanished Sunday aboard the Airbus A320 traveling from Surabaya, Indonesia, to Singapore, was severely limited due to heavy rain, wind and thick clouds. Seven bodies, including a flight attendant in her red AirAsia uniform, have been recovered, said Indonesian Search and Rescue Agency chief Henry Bambang Soelistyo.

 Sonar images also identified what appeared to be large parts of the plane, but strong currents were moving the debris.

 Conditions prevented divers from entering the choppy Java Sea, and helicopters were largely grounded. But 18 ships continued to scour the narrowed search area, and four of the seven corpses were recovered Wednesday. Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency predicted conditions would worsen, with more intense rains, through Friday.

 "It seems all the wreckage found has drifted more than 50 kilometers (30 miles) from yesterday's location," said Vice Air Marshal Sunarbowo Sandi, search and rescue coordinator in Pangkalan Bun on Borneo island, the closest town to the site. "We are expecting those bodies will end up on beaches."

 The airliner's disappearance halfway through the two-hour flight triggered an international search involving dozens of planes, ships and helicopters from numerous countries. It is still unclear what brought the plane down.

 Its last communication indicated the pilots were worried about bad weather. They sought permission to climb above threatening clouds but were denied because of heavy air traffic. Four minutes later, the jet disappeared from the radar without issuing a distress signal.

 The aircraft's cockpit voice and flight data recorders, or black boxes, must be recovered before officials can start determining what caused the crash. Items recovered so far include a life jacket, an emergency exit window, children's shoes, a blue suitcase and backpacks filled with food.

 Malaysia-based AirAsia's loss comes on top of the still-unsolved disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in March with 239 people aboard, and the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 in July over Ukraine, which killed all 298 passengers and crew.

 Simple wooden coffins — numbered 001 and 002 — with purple flowers on top contained the first two bodies, which were sent from Pangkalan Bun to Surabaya for autopsies. The two victims were a woman wearing blue jeans and a boy. The other five bodies — three male and two female — will remain on a warship until the weather clears.

 Nearly all the passengers were Indonesian, and a large portion were Christians of Chinese descent. The country is predominantly Muslim, but sizeable pockets of people of other faiths are found throughout the sprawling archipelago. Around 10 percent of those in Surabaya, the nation's second-largest city, are Christian.

 On Wednesday, around 100 relatives gathered for the airport prayer service where Mantofa urged them to hold onto their faith, despite their pain. About 40 members of his Manwar Sharon Church died in the crash.

 "Some things do not make sense to us, but God is bigger than all this," he said. "Our God is not evil."

 Before breaking up, those gathered stood together and sang with their hands reaching upward. "I surrender all. I surrender all," they repeated. "I surrender all to God our savior. I surrender all."

 Many family members had planned to travel to Pangkalan Bun, 160 kilometers (100 miles) from the area where bodies were first spotted, to start identifying their loved ones. However, Surabaya airport general manager Trikora Hardjo later said the trip was canceled after authorities suggested their presence could slow down the operation.

 Instead, some relatives gave blood for DNA tests in Surabaya, where the bodies will be transported, and submitted photos of their loved ones along with identifying information such as tattoos or birthmarks that could help make the process easier.

 Nearly all the passengers from Indonesia were frequent visitors to Singapore, particularly on holidays.

 It was 13-year-old Adrian Fernando's first trip to the city-state and was supposed to be a fun vacation with his aunt, uncle and cousin before school resumed.

 "He is my only son," said his emotional mother Linca Gonimasela, 39, who could not accompany him because she had to work. "At first, he didn't want to go, but later on he was persuaded to join them for the New Year holiday."

 A number of Indonesian cities have opted to cancel or tone down their planned New Year's Eve celebrations. However, a giant street bash was still in the works for the capital, Jakarta.

 In Surabaya, hundreds stood in a drizzle holding candles in a park.

 "Let us pray for the grieving families of those on board the plane," Mayor Tri Rismaharini told the crowd. "Let us pray this will be the last tragedy for Surabaya."

 ___

 Ng reported from Surabaya, Indonesia. Associated Press writers Niniek Karmini, Ali Kotarumalos and Margie Mason in Jakarta contributed to this report. |||||

Write a summary.

– A day after debris was first spotted, Indonesian searchers have confirmed that sonar equipment has detected wreckage from AirAsia Flight QZ8501 at the bottom of the sea—though whether the plane is in one piece or broken up remains to be seen, reports CNN. The wreckage was found between 60 and 120 miles from the plane's last known location over the Java Sea, and the bodies of six more men and women—one of whom was wearing a flight attendant's uniform—had been recovered as of late yesterday, officials said. Other news: Though the wreckage has been located, victims' grieving families are growing frustrated with the recovery and identification process, reports Sky News. "I have so many precious memories that are gone," says one woman who lost five family members. "But I cannot start to grieve properly until we can hold proper funerals." AirAsia CEO Tony Fernandes told reporters he hoped that the families would have "at least some closure." In spite of heavy winds, rain, and 6-foot waves, searchers are continuing to look for more bodies and plane parts. But the weather is causing the wreckage to drift—by a lot, reports the AP. "It seems all the wreckage found has drifted more than 30 miles from yesterday's location," says the search and rescue coordinator on Borneo island in the closest town to the site. "We are expecting those bodies will end up on beaches."


This fifth-grader wants Christie to fix school lunches

 Jacob Royal, left, and his brother, Josh, record a speech by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie during a town hall at Village Inn restaurant on Jan. 18, 2016, in Council Bluffs, Iowa. (Photo: Jae C. Hong, AP)

 COUNCIL BLUFFS — Chris Christie has a message for elementary students who miss school lunches like square pizza and crispy tacos nixed in favor of more nutritious meals.

 "I don’t care what you’re eating for lunch every day. I really don’t,” the New Jersey governor and Republican presidential contender told a student during a town hall Monday. “If I’m president, back to whatever you want to eat.”

 The question came from Jacob Royal, an Omaha fifth-grader and aspiring politician, who wore a navy pinstripe suit and a Republican lapel pin.

 “What are you going to do about the lunches?” he asked. “They were fine when Mrs. Bush was the first lady, but now that Mrs. Obama is the first lady, they have gone down.”

 Michelle Obama has been a vocal proponent of more nutritious school lunches as a way to curb childhood obesity. According to the Centers for Disease Control, childhood obesity has more than doubled in the past 30 years.

 New standards adopted in 2012 mandated fruits and vegetables on lunch trays and set limits on sugar, salt and fat. The reviews have been mixed. Some states have reported students getting better nutrition, but other studies have found students are throwing out much of their fruits and vegetables.

 Royal said he misses pizza and “crispitos,” a kind of crispy taco, and doesn’t like all “the gluten-free stuff.” Now, he packs his own lunch.

 Christie said parents should decide what their children eat, not the federal government.

 “The first lady has no business being involved in this,” he said. “I think that this intervention into our school system is just another example of how the Obamas believe that they’ve got a better answer for everything than you do.”

 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1RwtfXG ||||| In a move sure to appeal to 11-year-old voters across the country, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie promised to do away with First Lady Michelle Obama’s healthy school lunch initiative to a boy who bemoaned that the pizza and crispitos once served at his school cafeteria have gone away under the Obama administration.

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

 If he is elected president, Christie told 11-year-old Jacob Royal on Monday while campaigning here in Iowa, he can go back to eating “whatever you want to eat" at school.

 "The first lady has no business being involved in this,” Christie told Royal during a town hall at a Village Inn, a restaurant chain that Christie said is a favorite of his to frequent when he comes to Iowa.

 “Using the government to mandate her point of view on what people should be eating every day is none of her business, it just isn’t,” Christie said of Mrs. Obama. "I want people to eat healthier. I’ve been trying to eat more healthy. We all should be trying to do that. It makes us better, makes us living longer, better quality of life, all the rest of it. But in the end, it’s your choice."

 In contrast to the first lady, Christie told Royal, he doesn't care what students eat at school.

 "I don’t care what you’re eating for lunch every day. I really don’t. I want you to eat whatever your mother wants you to eat and your father want you to eat,” he said.

 Following the town hall, Royal told reporters he was satisfied with the governor’s answer: “I think it is good that he will fix it.”

 Recalling the days when crispitos were part of the regular fare at school, Royal said he thought his favorite lunch foods would “probably” come back if Christie were president. ||||| COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa - If Chris Christie becomes the next president schools probably won't be required or even encouraged to serve lunches filled with fruits and vegetables.

 That's because Christie said he doesn't believe the president should have a say in school lunches. Those, he told voters in Council Bluffs, Iowa should be up to the parents.

 "Doesn't the president of the United States have anything better to do than to worry about what you are having for lunch? Let me tell you this, I don't care," Christie said Monday when 11-year-old Jacob Royal, who traveled from Nebraska to hear Christie speak, asked the New Jersey governor what he would do to make the lunches better.

 "They were fine when Mrs. Bush was the First Lady but now that Mrs. Obama is the First Lady they have gone down," Royal said when he asked Christie how he was going to fix school lunches.

 In particular, Royal said, he does not like the "gluten-free stuff."

 Michelle Obama has made healthy eating and exercise a central part of her work as first lady. She lobbied for passage of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act in 2010, which provides funding for school where the meals follow federal nutritional standards, passed in 2010.

 CBS News/Kylie Atwood

 After complaints from school nutrition directors, who said the standards were costly and restrictive, and kids, who just didn't like the meals, Congress voted to ease the standards at the end of 2014.

 Christie said Michelle Obama has "no business" trying to determine what kids should be eating at school.

 "If she wants to give her opinions about what people should have for breakfast or lunch or dinner, she is like any other American, she can give her opinion. But using the government to mandate her point of view on what people should be eating everyday is none of her business," Christie said.

 "I think that this intervention into our school system is just another example of how the Obamas believe that they've got a better answer for everything than you do," he added.

 Christie gave a short anecdote about how his own children who used to take the healthy lunch that his wife made them but then buy the lunch at school, too.

 "You will throw it out and eat what you want to eat," Christie said. "I know what you kids are up to."

 But 2011, the governor was quoted by The Telegraph as saying he supported the First Lady's initiative to get kids to eat healthier.

 Christie said it is "a really good goal to get kids to eat better." He added, "I've struggled with my weight for 30 years. And it's a struggle. And if a kid can avoid that in his adult years or her adult years, more power to them. And I think the first lady is speaking out well."

 Royal was pleased with Christie's answer.

 "I think it is good," he told reporters. "He said he can probably change it."

 He especially wants back the "crispitos" that he used to have at lunch, because the new version is not up to his standards.

 "Now, their version of crispito the tiniest tortilla shell they can find. They cook it for two minutes. Literally, two minutes. And then they put two pinches of beef in it and then they give it to us. And then they call that food," Royal said.

 Others in the room agreed with Royal and Christie that the government should stay out of school lunches.

 "I think he is right on the mark. We pay for the food and then they do not like what is being served," said Lynn Lyons of Council Bluffs who had come to the event with her 17-year-old son.

 She doesn't believe the government should press for particular nutrition requirements.

 "I think they can put the information out there but the parents make those decisions," she said. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Chris Christie may have just become the Republican frontrunner among kids, though he likely irked Michelle Obama in the process. While campaigning in Iowa on Monday, the New Jersey governor fielded a complaint from an 11-year-old boy who said pizza and crispitos, a kind of crispy taco, have vanished from his school cafeteria in recent years, reports USA Today. If Christie is elected president, kids can eat "whatever you want to eat" at school, the governor responded, per ABC News. "I want people to eat healthier … but in the end, it's your choice," he added. "I don't care what you're eating for lunch every day. I really don't." "The first lady has no business being involved in this," he added. "Using the government to mandate her point of view on what people should be eating every day is none of her business." However, CBS News uncovered a quote from a 2011 interview in which Christie said he supported Obama's clean eating initiative. "I think it's a really good goal to encourage kids to eat better," Christie told the Telegraph. "I don't want the government deciding what you can and what you can't eat," but "Mrs. Obama being out there encouraging people in a positive way to eat well and to exercise and to be healthy, I don't have a problem with that."


– In Internet terms, Facebook is already ancient. Today, the social network marks its 10th anniversary, and it's inviting hundreds of millions of users to share in the fun via "Look Back" videos. The project, overseen by multiple teams within the company, shows about 15 of your "most-liked" posts over music, the Verge reports. They began appearing this morning. "One of the things that motivated us was that there's really only a handful of companies that could take on something like this—that could render videos for as many people as we can," says the project's head. Mark Zuckerberg also offers a note to users: "It's rare to be able to touch so many people's lives, and I try to remind myself to make the most of every day and have the biggest impact I can," he writes. "It's been amazing to see how all of you have used our tools to build a real community." He also addresses the future: "Today, social networks are mostly about sharing moments. In the next decade, they'll also help you answer questions and solve complex problems." Feeling nostalgic? Here's the Harvard Crimson's 2004 report on the "hundreds" joining thefacebook.com, or Slate has its own "look back."

Expand this summary.

Image courtesy of Facebook

 On Feb. 4, 2004, in his Harvard dorm room, Mark Zuckerberg launched thefacebook.com, a website where college students could post information about themselves, trade messages, and become virtual “friends” with one another. It was entering an already-crowded field of social networks. Friendster was the world’s most popular at the time, but it was about to be overtaken by a one-year-old upstart called MySpace. Google had launched Orkut just weeks earlier.

 Will Oremus Will Oremus is Slate’s senior technology writer. Email him at will.oremus@slate.com or follow him on Twitter.

 Facebook was different because it was only for college students, featured a clean layout devoid of spam, and had no immediate plans to make money. It was an instant hit. “I assume I’ll eventually make something profitable,” Zuckerberg shrugged in a June 2004 interview with the Harvard student newspaper. (It took him a while, but Facebook turned its first profit in 2009, and last year it reported a profit of some $1.5 billion on nearly $8 billion in revenues.)

 By December the site had 1 million users, and it hadn’t even added its photo-upload feature yet. Here’s what thefacebook.com looked like in 2005, a year after it launched:

 Image courtesy of Facebook

 Image courtesy of Facebook

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 Over the years it piled on the features. Some, like News Feed and the like button, changed the Internet forever. Others, like Facebook Gifts, not so much. For its 10th birthday, Facebook has put together a timeline of significant events in its own history. It reflects a bit of a selective memory—you won’t find Gifts, Beacon, or the site’s short-lived experiment with democracy on this timeline. But then, that’s part of what made Facebook so appealing in the first place: the ability to edit your own image to your liking.

 Image courtesy of Facebook

 The timeline is one of several features that Facebook released Monday night, on the eve of its anniversary. On Tuedsay it will unveil a product called “A Look Back” that lets users make a personal movie or slideshow of their favorite moments in their lives since they joined Facebook. The company also launched a slick new iPhone app, Paper, in the App Store on Monday.

 Here’s Zuckerberg’s statement on the eve of his brainchild’s 10th birthday:

 It's been an incredible journey so far, and I'm so grateful to be a part of it. It's been amazing to see how people have used Facebook to build a real community and help each other in so many ways. In the next decade, we have the opportunity and responsibility to connect everyone and to keep serving the community as best we can.

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  ||||| When Mark E. Zuckerberg ’06 grew impatient with the creation of an official universal Harvard facebook, he decided to take matters into his own hands.

 After about a week of coding, Zuckerberg launched thefacebook.com last Wednesday afternoon. The website combines elements of a standard House face book with extensive profile features that allow students to search for others in their courses, social organizations and Houses.

 “Everyone’s been talking a lot about a universal face book within Harvard,” Zuckerberg said. “I think it’s kind of silly that it would take the University a couple of years to get around to it. I can do it better than they can, and I can do it in a week.”

 As of yesterday afternoon, Zuckerberg said over 650 students had registered use thefacebook.com. He said that he anticipated that 900 students would have joined the site by this morning.

 “I’m pretty happy with the amount of people that have been to it so far,” he said. “The nature of the site is that each user’s experience improves if they can get their friends to join it.”

 But Director of Residential Computing Kevin S. Davis ’98 said that the creation of a Harvard facebook was not as far off as Zuckerberg predicted.

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 “There is a project internally with computer services to create a facebook,” Davis said. “We’ve been in touch with the Undergraduate Council, and this is a very high priority for the College. We have every intention of completing the facebook by the end of the spring semester.”

 Davis said that the principle complication with the creation of an official facebook was figuring out how to design an interface so that directory information could not easily be compiled without authorization.

 Zuckerberg’s site allows people with Harvard e-mail addresses to upload their pictures and personal and academic information. Just as with the popular website Friendster, which Zuckerberg said was a model for his new website, members can search for people according to their interests and can create an online network of friends.

 Lisa H. Feigenbaum ’04 said that she joined thefacebook.com because it provided an open alternative to the password-protected House facebooks.

 “If there was a situation where you needed to identify someone for an organization or a meeting, it would be very helpful,” she said.

 Zuckerberg said that the most innovative feature of the site is that people can search for other students in their classes so that they can branch out to form friendships and study groups.

 “If you’re in a class where you don’t vknow anyone and want to ask somebody for help, this is a way to find out the names of people in that class,” said thefacebook.com user Roberto C. Acosta ’05.

 Zuckerberg said that the extensive search capabilities are restricted by a myriad of privacy options for members who do not want everyone to be able to look up their information.

 “There are pretty intensive privacy options,” he said. “You can limit who can see your information, if you only want current students to see your information, or people in your year, in your house, in your classes. You can limit a search so that only a friend or a friend of a friend can look you up. People have very good control over who can see their information.”

 Zuckerberg said that he hoped the privacy options would help to restore his reputation following student outrage over facemash.com, a website he created in the fall semester. ||||| As Mark Zuckerberg reflects upon Facebook's first 10 years today, he's encouraging the community he built to do the same. Starting this morning, hundreds of millions of Facebook users will receive a notification that a video summary of their life so far on Facebook is ready to watch. Each user's "Look Back" compilation contains 15 or so of their most-liked photos, statuses, and life events set to a catchy tune. The videos are a bit cheesy, but are potent reminders that for many of us, Facebook has become a very normal way to document our daily lives.

 A small team at Facebook spent the last few months crafting the videos and ensuring that the company had the necessary resources to render hundreds of millions of HD videos and send them out to users. Facebook has issued Year In Review compilations before, after all, but never in video form. Two groups within Facebook played a particularly important role: Everstore, the team in charge of media storage, and Moonshot, the team tasked with allocating idle server power to doing some heavy lifting whenever possible.

 The social network is still 'A Mark Zuckerberg Production'

 Facebook's engineering lead on the project, Nick Kwiatek, calls Look Back one of the company's largest video projects of all time. "One of the things that motivated us was that there's really only a handful of companies that could take on something like this — that could render videos for as many people as we can," he says. After spending several weeks optimizing the company's servers for the unusual task, his team effectively cut down the time required to render one video from 17 minutes to just one. The final result might look more like a Bar Mitzvah video than an epic montage of your life, but for most people, it will be worth watching. And if you look hard, you'll find Mark Zuckerberg's signature below each video. A lot has changed in 10 years, but perhaps one thing hasn't: the social network is still "A Mark Zuckerberg Production." |||||


Write a summary based on this article:

...

 for years and the food is great. Can't wait to try the Sunday roast that so many people have recommended!

 Simple down to earth good English food. They might not have a business degree but they ve been there ||||| ...

 ngs Only (Sold out) Boxing Day - Closed 27th December - Closed 28th December - Closed 29th December - Closed 30th December - Closed New Years Eve - Closed New Years Day - Closed 2nd Jan - Open as normal (7:00am-2:30pm) Merry Christmas Everyone & Happy New Year!

 Xmas opening hours: Christmas Eve - 9am-1pm Christmas Day - Booki |||||

– There's waking up hungry and there's, well, this. A British cafe has introduced the queen of all breakfasts, a 59-item spread that packs in 7,778 calories. The Corner Cafe's Monster Mega Breakfast comes across as slightly redundant: It contains eggs and omelets, fried potatoes (four portions) and hash browns, and both toast and fried bread. Plus bacon, sausages, mushrooms, chips, onion rings, black pudding, tomatoes, and beans. The meal costs about $22.50 and has a time limit attached: Those attempting to polish it off have an hour to do so if they want to win a place on the wall of champions, a breakfast coupon, and a key ring. They'll be helped (or hindered?) along the way with one of two drinks: their choice of a milkshake or energy drink, reports the Bristol Post. A manager of the Portishead cafe tells the Post that since being launched earlier this month, five people have ordered it and none have finished. Quirky side note: No one under 18 is allowed to order it. The cafe's Facebook page has photos of those who have made the attempt, along with a message to those who have accused it of being wasteful. Its post begins, "We are just a little family run business who can't save the entire world from famine and starvation!" Could the 8,000-calorie breakfast be the start of a trend? The Bear Grills cafe in Congleton, England, made a splash a few months ago with the launch of its own 8,000-calorie meal, the 7-pound "Hibernator." Sweet tooths may prefer its version, which includes four waffles. More on it here.


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 The man who was in the car with Walter Scott before a South Carolina cop shot him to death said Monday that he doesn't know why Scott ran from North Charleston Officer Michael Slager, "but I know he didn't deserve to die."

 The man, Pierre D. Fulton, was publicly identified Monday as the passenger in Scott's car when Scott he was pulled over April 4.

 He has been questioned by investigators but has refused all news interview requests. In a one-paragraph statement released Monday through his lawyer, Fulton called Scott a "dear friend" who had helped him "become a better man and showed me the value of hard work" over the last five years. He didn't elaborate.

 "I'll never know why he ran, but I know he didn't deserve to die," Fulton said. "Please keep Walter and his family in your prayers and respect my privacy moving forward."

 His lawyer said that would be his only public statement.

 Slager, 33, is charged with murder in the death of Scott, 50, who was recorded on video being shot eight times even though he appeared unarmed and was running away from Slager.

 Pierre D. Fulton Peper Law Firm

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 #WalterScott's passenger, Pierre D. Fulton, has been convicted on drug and weapon charges previously. http://t.co/1NJBevwdyA — The Post and Courier (@postandcourier) April 13, 2015

 — M. Alex Johnson and Gabe Gutierrez ||||| The man who was a passenger in the car that Walter Scott was driving before he was shot by a South Carolina police officer says he'll never understand why his friend ran.

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

 "Walter was a dear friend and I miss him every day," said Pierre Fulton, in a statement through his lawyer issued tonight. "Over the past five years he helped me to become a better man and showed me the value of hard work."

 But Fulton said, "I'll never know why he ran, but I know he didn't deserve to die. Please keep Walter and his family in your prayers and respect my privacy moving forward."

 Then-Officer Michael Slager shot at Scott eight times after he ran from the vehicle April 4 during a routine traffic stop.

 Slager has not yet had to enter a plea to the murder charge against him and his attorney has declined to publicly comment on the case, except to say that they are conducting their own investigation into the incident. |||||

– Why Walter Scott bolted during a routine traffic stop is a mystery even to Pierre Fulton, the man in the Mercedes with Scott when he was pulled over by South Carolina police officer Michael Slager. "Walter was a dear friend and I miss him every day," Fulton says in a statement released by his attorney yesterday, per ABC News. "I'll never know why he ran, but I know he didn't deserve to die. Please keep Walter and his family in your prayers and respect my privacy moving forward." He appears serious about his privacy: Fulton's lawyer says his client won't be speaking further on the matter, NBC News reports. He's already been grilled by investigators, per NBC, and has turned down all news interviews.


For the first time in the Jessica Ridgeway murder case, investigators released the description of man who used a chemical-soaked rag in an unsuccessful attempt to abduct a 22-year-old woman near Ketner Lake on May 28.

 Police stressed in their announcement on Thursday that they are linking the two cases in "an attempt to uncover any lead" in the Jessica Ridgeway's Oct. 5 abduction and subsequent murder and dismemberment.

 "Police are trying to determine if there is any connection between the two cases," authorities said in a bulletin to media Thursday afternoon.

 Ketner Lake Open Space is only about a half-mile from Jessica's home and immediately south of Witt Elementary School, where she was headed that Friday morning, though she never made it.

 On May 28 the young woman said she was grabbed by a man described as white or light-skinned and between 18 and 30 years old, with brown hair and a medium build. He was about 5 feet, 8 inches tall.

 The woman had initially jogged past the man, police said, then he grabbed her from behind "trying to put a rag over her mouth. She said the rag had a chemical smell on it. She was able to get away and called 911 from her cell phone."

 Law enforcement has no description of a vehicle related to that case, police aid.

 Police have said they had no information connecting Jessica's case to any other previous metro area abduction cases .

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 Westminster police also are looking at other attempted abductions in the Denver metro area to see whether those suspects could have been involved in Jessica's kidnapping on Oct. 5 , followed by the discovery of her body 11 miles away in an Arvada open space on Oct. 9.

 "Several metro area law enforcement jurisdictions are working other cases of attempted abductions and various vehicle or suspect descriptions have been provided," Westminster police stated Thursday.

 Investigators are asking the public to call if they know of someone whose behavior has been unusual, including failing to show up at family activities or abrupt changes in appearances or habits around Memorial Day or Oct. 5.

 Anyone with information can call Westminster police at 303-658-4336 or by sending an e-mail to PDamberalert@cityofwestminster.us

 Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174, jbunch@denverpost.com or twitter.com/joeybunch ||||| Authorities are looking for someone who may carry or wear this type of cross, may have recently purchased one of these, or is known to have some association with one. Police are also looking for a local business that may sell these specific crosses. Police believe there may be a connection between the Jessica Ridgeway murder and the attempted abduction at Ketner Lake, and urge the public to specifically look for someone with a cross like this that matches the suspect’s description from Ketner Lake. |||||

Write a summary.

– A terrifying chemical-rag attack earlier this year may help police find the killer of a 10-year-old Colorado girl, the Denver Post reports. Still investigating the murder of Jessica Ridgeway, police have released a description of a young man with brown hair who allegedly tried to abduct a Denver-area woman on May 28 by putting a rag with a chemical smell over her mouth. The woman was able to escape and call 911 on her cell phone. Police say they have connected the cases "in an attempt to uncover any lead" in Jessica's abduction and murder about two weeks ago. They are also looking through other attempted abductions in the Denver area. In another development, police have found a small wooden cross with three lines etched into it that could be key to Jessica's murder, Huffington Post reports. Police have uploaded images of the cross on their Facebook site in the hope someone who knows about the cross will come forward.


Volunteers stop to look at debris as they walk to their work site on Thursday, May 26, 2011, in Joplin, Mo. A tornado tore through much of the city Sunday, wiping out neighborhoods and killing at least 123 people. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)

 UPDATED at 5:58 p.m. with new death toll and with Red Cross saying at least nine of unaccounted for are dead.

 JOPLIN, MO. • As emergency workers in Joplin searched Thursday for more than 230 people listed as missing after a tornado tore through the city, one was sitting on a wooden chair outside the wreckage of her home, cuddling her cat.

 Sally Adams, 75, said neighbors rescued her Sunday after the storm destroyed her house and took her to a friend's home. When The Associated Press told her she was on the missing list, Adams laughed and said "Get me off of there!"

 Missouri officials had said they believed many of the missing were alive and safe but simply hadn't been in touch with friends and family, in part because cell phone service has been spotty. The AP found that was the case with at least a dozen of the 232 still unaccounted for Thursday. They included two survivors staying at a hotel, six that a relative said were staying with friends and one that a former employee said had been moved from his nursing home.

 Stephen Whitehead, of the Red Cross' Safe and Well registry, which keeps track of the accounted-for, said that since the missing list came out earlier Thursday, he has learned that at least nine are people who are dead. Whitehead said he did not know whether those nine were among the known fatalities.

 Adams said she lost her cell phone in the storm and had no way of contacting her family to let them know she was OK. She was placed on the missing list after relatives called a hot line and posted Facebook messages saying she was missing.

 Her son, Bill Adams, said he told authorities his mother was alive after he learned she was safe, yet she remained on their unaccounted-for list Thursday afternoon.

 Mike O'Connell, spokesman for the Missouri Department of Public Safety, said he wouldn't call Adams' listing a mistake and finding her is "a good thing." He urged other survivors to check the list and call if they see their names.

 The AP found Mike and Betty Salzer at a hotel being used by visiting journalists.

 "Well, for Heaven's sakes," Betty Salzer, 74, said when the AP showed her the list.

 The couple have been staying at the hotel since their home was destroyed Sunday. Betty Salzer said their names might have come from a Facebook message her daughter posted before they reached her Monday morning.

 Not all of the stories of the missing will end so well.

 Joplin City Manager Mark Rohr announced Thursday that the death toll had risen to 126.

 Some of their families waited Thursday for their remains to be released. One victim's funeral was scheduled for Friday morning in Galena, Kan., and other services were scheduled for the weekend.

 But some of the bodies have yet to be identified. Andrea Spillars, deputy director and general counsel of the Missouri Department of Public Safety, said officials know some of the people unaccounted for are dead, but she wouldn't say how many or when the names of the deceased would be released.

 Chris Haddock, 23, said his father was one of the deceased on the missing list. A commercial truck driver found 62-year-old Paul Haddock's body in his pickup truck behind a flattened Walmart.

 "They found his wallet and his cell phone in his pocket," Chris Haddock said. "That's how they know it's him."

 In another example of potential overlap, 12 residents of the Greenbriar nursing home are on the missing list. But nursing home administrators reported earlier that 11 people died in the tornado; only one was known missing.

 One of the 12 is Dorothy Hartman, an Alzheimer's patient. Pamela McBroom, 49, who lives near the nursing home, said one of her daughters used to work there, developed a soft spot for Hartman and introduced them. Hartman was frail "but very positive and full of life," she said.

 McBroom said she and her 16-year-old daughter were hiding in a closet when the tornado tore their walls and roof away. Her walls gone, McBroom could see the mayhem at Greenbriar.

 "I could see people flying out of the nursing home by my house," McBroom said. "I could hear them screaming. Just screaming. It was horrible."

 Nursing home officials haven't said whether Hartman was one of the 11 killed.

 Identification of the deceased has been slow because officials have taken extra precautions since a woman misidentified one victim as her son in the chaotic hours after the tornado hit, Newton County coroner Mark Bridges said.

 "That's the reason why we didn't release anybody else until we at least had dental records," Bridges said.

 A federal forensics team of 50 to 75 disaster mortuary specialists has been at work in six refrigerated trucks, collecting DNA samples for testing, taking fingerprints and looking for tattoos, body piercings, moles and other distinctive marks. Bridges expected as many as 19 bodies would be released Thursday.

 He said he's been explaining the reason for the delays to grieving families "all day long."

 "It breaks my heart," he said.

 ____

 Associated Press writer Alan Scher Zagier contributed to this report. ||||| The first person on the missing list from a Missouri tornado is very much alive.

 A car passes tornado-destroyed buildings and trees as clouds roll in on Wednesday, May 25, 2011, in Joplin, Mo. A tornado tore through much of the city Sunday, wiping out neighborhoods and killing at... (Associated Press)

 Storm clouds pass over the devastated Greenbriar Nursing Home in Joplin, Mo. Wednesday, May 25, 2011. Eleven residents of the facility died when an EF-5 tornado tore through much of the city Sunday, damaging... (Associated Press)

 Cars drive down debris-lined streets on Wednesday, May 25, 2011, in Joplin, Mo. A tornado tore through much of the city Sunday, wiping out neighborhoods and killing at least 123 people. (AP Photo/Mark... (Associated Press)

 The Associated Press found 75-year-old Sally Adams sitting on a wooden chair and cuddling her pet cat Thursday. When AP told Adams she was listed as missing, she laughed and said "Get me off of there!"

 Neighbors rescued Adams on Sunday after the storm destroyed her house and took her to a home nearby.

 Her relatives had called a hot line and posted Facebook messages saying Adams was missing. Adams says she lost her cell phone in the storm and had no way to reassure family.

 Her son Bill Adams says he told authorities his mother was alive after he learned she was safe, yet she remained on their unaccounted-for list at midday Thursday. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Joplin officials have released a list of 232 people still unaccounted for in the wake of the deadliest tornado ever recorded in the US. Search and rescue teams haven’t found any new survivors of the disaster since Tuesday, but Joplin officials tell the AP that they don’t think everyone on the list is dead—they suspect many have simply been cut off from communicating with their families because of still-spotty cell phone reception. Indeed, the AP tracked down the first person on the list—75-year-old Sally Adams—and found her alive and well, sitting on a wooden chair and petting her cat. Neighbors rescued Adams after her home was destroyed, but she’s lost her cell phone and had no way to contact her family. Told she was on the missing list, Adams replied, “Get me off of there!”


Here is a news article: George Pataki speaks during the CNN Republican presidential debate at the in Las Vegas earlier this month. (John Locher/AP)

 Former New York governor George Pataki suspended his bid for the Republican presidential nomination Tuesday, after a campaign that appeared doomed almost from the start by both his long stretch out of the national spotlight and the mismatch between his moderate politics and a party turning harder to the right.

 Pataki announced the suspension of his campaign in a two-minute message that aired on NBC affiliates in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina. He secured the free air time through an “equal time” request made after GOP front-runner Donald Trump hosted the network’s popular “Saturday Night Live” program.

 Seated in front of a fireplace, Pataki said that the country needs to elect a president who can do three things: “confront and defeat radical Islam, shrink the size and power of Washington, and unite us again in our belief in this great country.”

 “I’m confident we can elect the right person. Someone who will bring us together and who understands that politicians — including the president — must be the people’s servant and not their master,” he said.

 Pataki, 70, once was an impressive figure in Republican politics: He upset a Democratic legend, then-New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, in 1994 and won reelection twice in a famously liberal state. Pataki flirted with a presidential run three times before, in 2000, 2008 and 2012.

 But each time, he withdrew. For one reason or another, Pataki said, the moment wasn’t right.

 Then this year, he flirted again — and actually ran.

 “I’m ready. I know that the need to change Washington is as big as [it has] been in my lifetime. I know the need to have a vision for the future of this country is absolutely essential. I have that vision. My life has prepared me for this moment,” he told The Washington Post and the TV station NH1 when he announced his candidacy May 28.

 But, as it turned out, his moment had already passed.

 Pataki has not held office since 2006, and his name recognition has eroded sharply since then; when “Jeopardy!” contestants were shown his picture earlier this year, none of them could supply his name. The key moments of Pataki’s political biography were even further in the past: the trying days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the stupendous defeat of Cuomo in 1994.

 At times, too, Pataki’s platform seemed out of a different time and aimed at a different Republican Party. Pataki supports abortion rights and had signed a strict gun-control measure in New York. He also told voters that true governance required compromise and that he’d learned how to share power with Democrats in Albany.

 “I understand that to change Washington you have to understand government as well. You can’t just be an outsider. You can’t just be someone who throws stones at Washington,” Pataki said in the Oct. 28 “undercard” debate. “You have to be someone who can actually bring people together across party lines.”

 That was the wrong message for this year’s GOP, in which many primary voters believe their leaders already turn to compromise far too eagerly, and far too soon. They blame Republican leaders in Washington for capitulating to President Obama and for being unable to deliver victories like sharp cutbacks in spending and the repeal of the Affordable Care Act. This year, in fact, compromise was getting even longtime leaders like House Speaker John A. Boehner (Ohio) pushed out of Washington.

 It was certainly not any Republican’s ticket in.

 At times, Pataki seemed bewildered by the campaign he’d entered, led by outsiders who portrayed themselves as insurgents, with theatrical gestures of disdain for Washington and its current occupants.

 “It is turning the American presidency into a reality gong show, and that’s not right,” Pataki said last month, lamenting the influence of Donald Trump on the campaign. So even his jokes were old: The original “Gong Show,” an absurdist TV variety show, broadcast its last new episode in 1980.

 In national polls, Pataki rarely made it above 1 percent. Even in New Hampshire — the key moderate-leaning state that Pataki visited dozens of times — his best showing was 2 percent. And that was back in July. In more recent months, Pataki was polling at 1 or zero percent even in the Granite State, where he was overshadowed by better-known politicians like Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who are aiming at the same bloc of moderate voters.

 Pataki never made the main stage at any GOP debate. Once, he even failed to make the undercard event.

 Over the summer, Pataki tried a gambit that others — including Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal — had attempted and failed. He attacked GOP front-runner Donald Trump, calling the bombastic billionaire “idiotic” for his plan to deport all 11 million undocumented immigrants in the country now.

 But Pataki had brought a knife to an artillery barrage.

 Trump blasted Pataki on social media and in speeches, lambasting the former governor — someone Trump had once praised — as a terrible politician.

 “He’s got nothing. He was a terrible governor of New York. He couldn’t have been elected dogcatcher,” Trump said in a rant in Iowa in November. “Then he didn’t even make the child’s stage [at the debate] two days ago! And I hear he’s still not quitting! He’s got zero chance.”

 For Pataki, this tactic didn’t work. Trump stayed up. He stayed down.

 By late August, it was clear that the prize Pataki had flirted with for so long would elude him — even Pataki’s own political mentor and closest ally in politics, former New York senator Alfonse D’Amato (R), gave up on him.

 D’Amato endorsed another presidential candidate instead: Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R).

 “He’s a friend. He’s bright. He’s articulate,” D’Amato said of Pataki, according to Newsday. “But there is no way he can carry Ohio.”

 Ed O’Keefe in Keene, N.H., contributed to this report. ||||| "Tonight is the end of my journey for the White House," former New York Gov. George Pataki said. | Getty Pataki exits Republican presidential race

 Former New York Gov. George Pataki dropped out of the presidential race Tuesday.

 "While tonight I suspend my campaign for president, I am confident we can elect the right person," he tweeted, adding a statement by video.

 Story Continued Below

 "Tonight is the end of my journey for the White House," he said in his video.

 Earlier Tuesday, a supporter confirmed Pataki's departure from the race.

 “I had a nice 10-minute chat with him late afternoon and he is planning on suspending the campaign partially due to lack of resources to mount a ground game," said former New Hampshire state Sen. David Currier.

 The Republican's candidacy never took off, and he's leaving the race with an average of zero percent support in national polls. Pataki, whose strategy was heavily focused on New Hampshire, raised just $153,513.89 in the third quarter, giving him $13,570.55 in cash on hand at the end of September.

 He also never managed to make it to the main debate stage.

 In a race that has often been dominated by political outsiders, Pataki is the fourth current or former governor to drop out, following Rick Perry, Scott Walker and Bobby Jindal.

 After ousting Mario Cuomo in 1994, Pataki served three terms as New York's governor, from 1995 to 2006. He was governor during the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001 and, along with New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, was the face of the local response to the terrorist attack.

 The GOP field, which has slowly winnowed, still has 12 candidates after Pataki's exit.

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A summary of this is?

– And then there were 12: George Pataki is dropping out of the presidential race, reports the New York Times. The reason is pretty clear: The former New York governor was averaging 0% in national polls and never once qualified for the main debate stage, reports Politico. The Washington Post also observes that his big moments—upsetting Mario Cuomo in New York in 1994 and leading his home state after the 9/11 attacks—are well in the past. Also not helping: The 70-year-old hasn't held office since 2006, and he's pro-choice, backs gun control, and champions compromise across party lines, putting him out of step with leading rivals in the GOP. Pataki told his supporters of his decision Tuesday, and made it official in a Tuesday night announcement. "While tonight I suspend my campaign for president, I am confident we can elect the right person," he said.