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A random mom on the playground, looking serious and a little bit concerned, asks me, "Do you think your son might grow up to be gay?"

 Random Moms across America think they know: My son has got to be gay. He wears khakis today but wore a dress to school from age 4 to 6; he used to do ballet and still doesn't like sports; in preschool he was all about playing princess but now is all about Pokemon; and, in spite of the clear gender divisions in third grade, he plays with both girls and boys. I mean, what straight boy is into that kinda freaky gender mash-up?

 Well, my husband, for one. And all metrosexuals, for another coupla-million-ish. My husband used to help his mother choose curtains. He now drives a motorcycle and hunts deer. He still likes curtains, which he now calls "window treatments" (How gay is that? Random Mom mutters). But really, haven't you met a guy like this, the one you think is gay when you first met him, but then realize that his sexuality doesn't match his gender presentation?

 And if you get busy thinking about femmy boys who grow up to be straight, you might also start thinking about butch boys who grow up to be gay, like all those bears and leather daddies I see walking around the Castro. Then you might have to admit that, though it often does, childhood gender expression doesn't always correlate to adult sexuality.

 I recently discovered that America's favorite telepsychologist and I actually agree on that. Dr. Phil's website tells Robby, the mother of a 5-year-old boy who loves Barbies and wearing feminine clothes: "This is not a precursor to your son being gay."

 I got a little excited reading this. The conflation of gender expression and sexuality is so ubiquitous in our society that it was refreshing to hear our country's second-highest-rated talk show host giving the same message to millions of Americans that I've given to dozens (literally dozens!) of Random Moms on playgrounds across my fair city. Reading on, however, the beautiful Dr. Phil/Ms. Hoffman mind-meld crumbles.

 Dr. Phil -- who implores us all to "get real" -- tells Robby that she should not buy her son Barbie dolls or "girl's" clothes, and that she should "Take the girl things away, and buy him boy toys ... Support him in what he's doing, but not in the girl things." Support him, but take away the things he loves to play with?

 And does Dr. Phil really imagine that Robby's son will stop being interested in Barbie just because Robby throws his dolls in the trash? What kid forgets about his favorite toy just because it's been taken away? (What kid doesn't want the forbidden thing more when it's taken away?) As Dr. Phil advises Robby, Random Moms advise me to encourage my son to do "boy" things like play soccer and get fixated on trains. But really, has that ever worked? Think about it: How easy is it to force a tomboy into a dress? A girly-girl into playing football? And I'd really like to see Dr. Phil make a sports-loving he-boy wear Tinkerbell underpants. And like it.

 Gender identity isn't something we just impose on kids and expect them to suck it up, like eating vegetables or going to school. It's part of who they are, whether that satisfies us as parents or not.

 I write (under a pen name) about raising my gender-nonconforming son for magazines, radio, and my blog. I get all kinds of e-mail from readers telling me that if I just stopped encouraging my son to be girly that he'd man up and try out for the football team. Ah, yes: I am the All Powerful Mother, whose magic is strong enough to make boys run from Thomas trains to pink tutus. Really, I'm that good. And if I just directed my magic toward good and not evil, then my boy would become all boy.

 The problem is that, as a mother, I'm too powerful. Or too weak. We're not sure which. Because I've also been told that I need to learn to parent forcefully, to learn to stand up and say NO. That my son wouldn't be like he is if I simply didn't allow him to be like he is. But here's the truth: I'm actually kind of a NO-saying badass. Check me out: Can we throw this baseball in the kitchen? NO. Can we eat chocolate cake for breakfast? NO. Can we make fun of the girl in the wheelchair? NO. I really can haul out a NO when I need to, and I whip it out many times a day. But I try to save NO for things that actually cause demonstrable harm to property, to my children or to other people.

 Is it really my maternal strength/weakness that caused my son to adore pink Marabou-feather slippers at age 3? You decide. But consider that mothers have regularly been blamed for their children's -- especially their sons' -- quirks and challenges.

 In the 1950s, psychologist Leo Kanner coined the phrase "refrigerator mother" and used it to blame mothers for causing autism in their children (needless to say, Kanner's theory was later discredited by actual science). From the academic paper Children, Work, and Family: Some Thoughts on "Mother Blame," we learn that mothers have similarly been blamed for a host of issues in their offspring including schizophrenia, bed-wetting, learning disabilities and, my personal favorite, "homicidal transsexualism."

 You may remember momblogger Nerdy Apple Bottom (who goes by the name of Sarah -- no relation), whose November blog post My Son Is Gay went viral and has now generated over 46,000 comments. After her post, Sarah was chastised by her church for standing up to the other preschool mothers who criticized her and her son for the way he busted out of gender norms (on Halloween! We're not even talking about the glamfest that has walked out of my house on any old Tuesday). Her church accused her of "promoting gayness" and threatened to kick her out of the entire denomination.

 The notion that parents are responsible for spreading gayness (like butter, or an STD) is one buoyed by conservative religious organizations like Exodus International and Focus on the Family. Focus' ousted founder, the famed radiovangelist James Dobson, offers his book "Bringing up Boys" as a guide for "parents to lay a healthy foundation for heterosexual identity for their children." In other words, to use reparative therapy to try to ungay them before the gayness spreads.

 Joseph Nicolosi, founder of NARTH, the National Association for Research & Therapy of Homosexuality, penned the DIY reparative therapy bible, "A Parent's Guide to Preventing Homosexuality." NARTH has long and loudly argued that feminine boys are pre-homosexuals who can be ungayed with a just-so combination of a mom who backs off and a dad who takes his son out to pump gas and light the barbeque.

 It would seem that Dr. Phil has torn a page from Nicolosi's book, a book in which Nicolosi tells parents to replace feminine toys, games and clothing with masculine ones, stressing the importance of "extinguishing feminine behavior" with "gentle and consistent disapproval." But where these two popular scolds differ is on the moral value of homosexuality.

 Dr. Phil sides with the American Psychiatric Association, publisher of the "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders," broadly considered the arbiter of mental health. The APA declassified homosexuality as a mental illness nearly 40 years ago. Dr. Phil tells Robby, "If your son is gay ... it won't be a choice. It will be something that he's pre-wired to do." Elsewhere on his website, Dr. Phil tells a mother concerned about her lesbian daughter, "Homosexuality is not a learned behavior. A sexual orientation is inherited. You are wired that way." He asks, "What difference does it make if she is gay? Accept her, support her, and do not be judgmental. It is difficult enough for her to live openly and honestly in this society. Don't put your judgment on top of that."

 But definitely rain that judgment down on your 5-year-old son.

 So I'm really trying to figure this out. Dr. Phil tells us that it's OK to be gay (just like the APA), but it's not OK for boys to play with Barbie (just like NARTH), because ... well, that's where I get stuck. Because ... they might grow up to be gay? But ... they won't necessarily, he says. And around we go.

 Perhaps Dr. Phil's thought process is just terribly muddled (the more charitable explanation among those I've considered). A more likely explanation is that Dr. Phil really isn't OK with homosexuality and thinks that it can be prevented in boyhood if you just chuck the Barbies and say NO. If so, he hides this message fairly well -- or at least confuses his viewers with his homos-good/proto-homos-bad schtick.

 And speaking of confusion, Dr. Phil tells Robby, "Direct your son in an unconfusing way ... You don't want to do things that seem to support the confusion at this stage of the game."

 Who's confused? My son knows exactly what he likes. When Sam was 4 and his male peers trick-or-treated as Batman and Spiderman and gorillas, Sam was a princess. At 5, he was a queen, regal and proud and full of the royal prowess that Disney offers all little girls. He liked feather boas and lip gloss and dancing. Did he think he was a girl? Nope. Was he confused about being a boy? Nope. Did he need to be taught what boys are supposed to like? Nope -- how boys are supposed to behave was abundantly clear from the trains and trucks we bought him before we realized he was a pink boy, the behavior of all the boys he knew, the messages on TV, and the judgments of all the Random Moms. He just liked what he liked, the way other kids did -- only his likes were different.

 Anti-gay organizations are clear about why boys like Sam need to change. But Dr. Phil's muddled message reflects a broader, mostly unspoken cultural bias in America -- even among Americans who are accepting of gay people -- that femmy boys are somehow nebulously bad (though no one can actually articulate why). Dr. Phil -- or NARTH -- isn't making a stink over girls who wear jeans and play soccer. So what, exactly, is wrong with a boy who likes Barbie?

 America, talk to me. I'm all ears. And if you can't think of an un-muddled answer, then think about this: Everywhere -- on playgrounds and in homes across America, in Disney movies and on national television, on high school and college campuses -- pink boys are the brunt of jokes, made to feel inferior, mocked until they take their own lives. Feminine boys are among the last people it's OK for our culture to hate.

 Indeed, one of the most popular arguments against letting boys express their feminine sides is that people will make fun of them. Which makes me wonder: should we hide who we are because people are mean? Or should we -- parents, teachers, bystanders, infotainment talk-show hosts -- stand up and say it's not acceptable to make fun of people who are different?

 Random Mom doesn't know who or what my son is going to grow up to be, any more than she knows who or what her kid is going to grow up to be. Whether or not she shares the judgments of America's religious conservatives and reparative therapists, or even Dr. Phil, she's repeating cultural biases that she's absorbed, raising her eyebrows at the things that might, to her, signal future gayness. In this I can hear the click of the first domino falling into the second in the cascade that flows from judgment to disapproval to bullying. As social acceptance of gay people grows, it's time to look critically at the lingering disapproval of things we once thought were precursors to gayness.

 Because the problem ain't Barbies. It's bullies. ||||| There is, remarkably, a 28-year-old woman who is running for Congress from Virginia named Krystal Ball (JESUS CHRIST, BAD PARENTS). As we have, apparently, noted in the past, this woman is quite attractive, in terms of fornication. But we wrote that before photos showed up on the Internet of her fellating a Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer dildo on her then-husband’s face at a Christmas party. Will Krystal Ball be the first dildo-fellating member of Congress? No, certainly not! Probably every current member of Congress has done this. But it’s still fun to see, right? Especially when there are quite a few of these photos?

 Krystal Ball has responded by saying it’s really sexist to post these photos. Because it’s not sexist to post male members of Congress fellating dildos? We don’t understand. Let us enjoy these photos of you, lady. And if anyone has photos of any candidates for Congress, male or female, sucking on dildos, please send them along.

 If anything, that last one is sexist. Men are not animals you can simply exploit for your enjoyment at holiday parties, Ball. Or maybe they are, if you want them to be. [TBD/Gawker/BVBL] ||||| Driving liberals, dhimmis and illegal alien apologists absolutely insane since 2005...

 By Greg L | 28 January 2018 | Crime, Prince William County | 8 Comments

 First, I’d like to thank you for the unscheduled home defense drill late last night. I certainly don’t get enough opportunities to exercise these drills, and you volunteering yourself to participate is quite an unexpected blessing. I hope your nerves aren’t too shattered by the experience, but if it’s any comfort to you, I found the event to be absolutely thrilling!

 My experience has taught me the immense value of a proper post-combat after-action report, and in return for your kindness last evening I’d like to share a few findings that might help make our next encounter even more productive for you. Take these to heart, as I’m sure after some reflection you’ll find them immensely valuable:

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 By Greg L | 1 January 2018 | Manassas City | 7 Comments

 Manassas City Councilman Mark Wolfe’s residence is to be sold at auction on January 17th in order to satisfy the creditors listed in his bankruptcy.

 Even if he establishes a new residence somewhere in the city and thus retains maintains his legal eligibility to run for office, should someone with such dire personal financial issues be in a position to influence how public money is spent? Does this not tarnish every future vote regarding appropriations of the City of Manassas with unavoidable concerns of a conflict of interest?

 Of course the law is silent on this, as I doubt anyone ever forsaw a situation where an elected official would became homeless due to his own reckless personal behavior.

 By Greg L | 4 November 2017 | Manassas City | 6 Comments

 Here is Patricia’s resume, the one she provided to the Manassas City Council in consideration for her first attempt to gain political power.

 Highlights:

 2011-2015: Secretary for a small magazine that went out of business

 2008-2011: Telemarketer

 2007-2008: Temp Office Help

 1998-2007: Ran the laundry at a hospital

 Based on her experience, would you hire Patricia to be the accountant for your small business? How about as your treasurer? Is it any wonder that the treasurer’s office in Manassas is in complete and utter chaos?

 By Greg L | 4 November 2017 | 13th HOD District, Prince William County | 20 Comments

 Danica Roem, picured on left

 Every election cycle the strangest, most unqualified and thoroughly unelectable Democrat candidates come out of the woodwork to challenge Delegate Bob Marshall in the 13th District. I’d thought I’d seen just about everything, but then this Danica Roem character shows up. Good Lord, if this is the direction our political culture is lurching, heaven help us.

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 By Greg L | 3 November 2017 | Manassas City | 3 Comments

 We’ve decided to take a bit of a break from the web of deception Patricia (Fill-in-The-Blank) in the years prior to her relocating her flim-flam, here in Manassas. Pat has decided to make her case directly to the voters, as to why they should reelect her, and she remains true to form. In striving for a better-informed electorate, we’ve analyzed her statements made over at Potomac Local, and will dissect these statements, exposing the lies and half-truths contained therein:

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 By Greg L | 31 October 2017 | Manassas City | 3 Comments

 We’ve uncovered much regarding Patricia Ritchie-Folks (and all the other aliases she’s used over the years), and have started to dive down into what she’s done in the many places she’s lived, but really we’ve only covered her time in Georgia. Looking at it now, it’s as if Sherman’s March to the Sea got intermingled with a caravan of Gypsy fraudsters. Where did the “Pat Show” go next? Tough to say, what with all of those overlapping names and addresses, Paticia Richie-(Pick-a-name here) was using. As best as we can tell, Pat (is it REALLY Pat?) landed in Florida. Perhaps Florida was a chance to get a “fresh start”. She settled in a modest apartment, not far from the beach, near Miami. Who wouldn’t want a little time in the Sun? But, it seems that Pat couldn’t break some of her old habits. You know, like paying her bills. Pat was sued by a company that provides care for the elderly: (more…)

 By Greg L | 26 October 2017 | Manassas City | 4 Comments

 What a great question! So many aliases. So many addresses. So much overlap. We are sure that you can understand why it has taken so long to unravel this web, woven by this spider who now holds the city’s check-book in her hands. Undaunted, we entered her parlor of deception not as flies, but as wasps and hornets, looking for possible reasons as to “why” Pat (are we sure it’s Pat?) has gone to such great effort to hide her background. There are as many possibilities as there are names and addresses, but we managed to find that common thread, made of spider-silk, that leads to the center of the web: Money.

 Pat (who currently goes by the name Patricia Richie-Folks) likes to talk about her “vast financial experience” that she brings to the office of treasurer. Oh, she does indeed have financial experience, just not the kind that many of us might aspire to have. (more…)

 By Greg L | 25 October 2017 | Manassas City | 6 Comments

 We all know who Patricia Richie-Folks claims to be. She’s a financial expert with deep connections to the City of Manassas, right?. She’s was a “co-owner” and “payroll manager” of a construction company. The problem is, “Pat” (can we call you Pat?) has presented little in the way of specifics regarding her life, prior to moving into the city. The local press, in an abdication of its traditional role as “seekers of the truth”, has done little except to print Pat’s vague descriptions of her vast experience, leaving it to someone else us to do the actual work normally associated with that arcane practice once known as “journalism.”

 Well, we’ve been working. Someone has to. Using publicly-available information and a high-level of determination, our team of citizen investigators have uncovered much in the way of the enigma that is the recently-elected City of Manassas Treasurer, and don’t think for a moment we’d keep all the juicy bits from you.

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 By Greg L | 24 October 2017 | Manassas City | 4 Comments

 Patricia Richie-Folks was elected City Treasurer during a special election last year, which happened to coincide with the Presidential and Congressional elections. Richie-Folks rode a wave of local anti-Trump sentiment and a woefully inept local press to a 2%-margin win over her opponent, Russ Harrison. It should be noted that this was Richie-Folks third attempt at elected office, having twice previously failed to garner enough support to be elected to Manassas City Council.

 So why was “three the charm” for Richie-Folks? Why did she win over someone obviously better qualified for the position? Who is Patricia Richie-Folks? What special qualifications did she bring to the office? These are all legitimate questions that need to be answered…and we will answer them. However, the biggest question is, what in Patricia Richie-Folks background might otherwise disqualify her from office, or at least give the informed voter sufficient reason not to pull the lever for this individual of questionable character?

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 By Greg L | 28 August 2017 | Crime, Manassas City, Prince William County | 1 Comment

 The Manassas Tea Party released the following press advisory late Sunday evening:

 Manassas Tea Party Denounces Arrival of Violent AntiFa Groups

 Calls on Community to Refrain from Lending Support and Counter-Protesting

 The Manassas Tea Party is denouncing a potential influx of AntiFa groups into Prince William County, Manassas City and the Manassas National Battlefield Park over the Labor Day weekend in what is being called “The March to Confront White Supremacy.”

 “After the recent violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, citizens of Manassas and Prince William County, peace-loving, tolerant and law-abiding people, are broadly opposed to the potential for similar racial strife and bloodshed in their backyard.” Manassas Tea Party Chairman Dan Arnold said. “Whether it is being stirred up by white supremacists or by AntiFa activists, Manassas residents have no interest in having their community and history used as political pawns in an increasingly dangerous game of ‘Gotcha’”.

 AntiFa-affiliated groups and white nationalists have a history of engaging in violence and destruction that is antithetical to the Constitution and the Rule of Law and neither should be welcomed in Manassas. The majority of agitators from these groups typically do not reside in the communities they infiltrate and are often bused in from outside locales. Thus they have to rely on support from local organizations for lodging, food, etc.

 Manassas Tea Party is calling on all residents, businesses and religious entities in particular to refrain from lending support to this effort or any counter-protesting efforts which only seek to divide us, damage the historic nature of our community, and encourage violence and destruction. The organization is also calling on local governments and law enforcement to be vigilant in preparing for and acting upon the potential destruction of public property and the outbreak of violence.

 There is no credible evidence that has been made public that such groups involved have applied or intend to apply for any permits to stage demonstrations in the City or at Manassas National Battlefield Park, a potential legal violation.

 “We believe firmly in the First Amendment right to free speech but also advocate for upholding the rule of law. We’re not a political organization and we don’t take sides.” Arnold said. “But we hope that all citizens and organizations in the Manassas area will speak with one voice that manufactured political violence is not welcome in our town, regardless of ideology.”

 The Manassas Tea Party is a 501(c)4 non-profit organization of hundreds of Manassas and greater Manassas area citizens dedicated to preserving constitutional principles of every level of government. Its mission is to inform about the issues of the day, influence friends and neighbors to engage, and inspire those around us with a message of hope.

 By Greg L | 27 August 2017 | Crime, Manassas City | No Comments

 AntiFa is coming to Manassas next weekend on their way to call for an overthrow of the federal government in DC. Let’s hope this faction of AntiFa isn’t in the lead.

 By Greg L | 14 July 2017 | Patriotism, Crime | 5 Comments

 A lot of folks I know are quite concerned about large-scale civil disturbances after watching events unfold such as happened in DC, Ferguson and Baltimore, along with the re-emergence of violent anarchists such as AntiFa. Commercial property is set ablaze, cars are firebombed, cops get shot and wide swaths of the community are vandalized, looted and burned. When these happen our social media feeds get clobbered with posts displaying in real time the shocking violence perpetrated by rioters who seem rather insane, and ineffective law enforcement responses to this violence which only seems to make the problem worse. The question of how safe our families and communities are, and what we can do to address this threat inevitably rises.

 Those aren’t easy question to definitively answer, but it certainly is a lot easier to get close when you consider that large-scale, violent civil disturbances aren’t anything new in this country. We just haven’t had a whole lot of them in most people’s memory, and the earlier ones happened before everyone was carrying around a mobile phone with a camera.

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 By Greg L | 5 July 2017 | Illegal Aliens, Crime | No Comments

 Of the 22 murders in Prince William County in 2016, eight of them were at the hands of persons known to be illegal aliens. The press also reports that 1 of the 10 persons arrested for rape in the county were illegal aliens as well. Gee, the press would have you think that crime coming from illegal aliens is becoming less and less of a problem now, wouldn’t you? Well, that’s what some folks want you to think.

 The problem here is that Prince William County lost all visibility over whether an arrestee was an illegal alien back in 2012 when the federal government under the Obama Administration terminated the Section 287(g) program. Before then, law enforcement officials were able to verify a suspect’s immigration status when they were taken into custody using federal resources under the supervision of an ICE agent. If the individual was foreign-born and had a record of legal entry, was admitted as a nonresident or resident alien, or naturalized as a citizen, he was known to be a legal alien. The absence of such a record indicated he was an illegal alien, and that system swept up illegal aliens by the thousands. It worked very well.

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 By Greg L | 30 June 2017 | Local Economy | 5 Comments

 All you folks with a “verizon.net” email address are going to have a decision to make shortly. Do you pay extra for some unknown third-party email provider to provide you service at some unknown price just so you can continue to advertise the Verizon brand that has now abandoned you? Or do you sign up with someone else, tie their corporate identity to your own, tell all your friends about your new email address and hope that at some point they don’t do the same thing to you as Verizon just did and start this all over again?

 Well, there’s another answer and long ago I charted a course that you’re free to follow.

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 By Greg L | 28 June 2017 | Manassas City, 50th HOD District | 2 Comments

 We’re saddened tonight by the news that Suzanne Miller, wife of Delegate Jackson Miller, has passed away following a long battle with cancer. This gracious and brilliant treasure was the mother of two very fine boys and the bedrock that made possible a lot of what Jackson accomplished.

 When services are announced this post will be updated.

 UPDATE: Memorial services have been announced:

 Grace United Methodist Church

 9750 Wellington Road

 Manassas VA 20110

 July 7th

 Visitation from 12pm - 2pm

 Services at 2pm

 There will be a reception in the church hall following the service.

 By Greg L | 23 June 2017 | Schools | 8 Comments

 Back in 2009, when facebook was just starting to become “a thing,” a number of concerned parents joined together there to form a “Prince William County Education Reform” group to discuss the county’s math curriculum and coordinate efforts to advocate for reform. Eventually, the “Math Investigations” curriculum would be replaced and one of the leading proponents of that program on the school board would be defeated by Alyson Satterwhite. That group has been one of the most long-standing and impactful resources for parents who want to have a voice in how their taxpayer dollars are spent educating their children.

 Of course the Prince William Education Association and the Virginia Education Association teacher lobbies felt threatened by this. These left-leaning lobbies, slavishly devoted to the Democrat party and the principle that elites should dictate what the proletariat is allowed to get, fought bitterly against the parents on PW Education Reform at every turn. After name calling and public bullying didn’t seem to work, they settled on a different strategy - to embed themselves in these parent resources, try to take them over, and eventually destroy them. Last night they celebrated what they think is a victory in wiping out this six year experiment in representative democracy.

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 By Greg L | 22 June 2017 | 13th HOD District | 8 Comments

 Danica Roem is the 33 year-old “transgender” former reporter who still hasn’t moved out of his parent’s house, but is running for the 13th District House of Delegates seat as a Democrat. Not too surprisingly he’s getting a lot of his funding for the campaign with out-of-state donors, one of which is Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele who coughed up a remarkable $25,000.

 It turns out that this multi-millionaire can easily afford to be this generous with Roem’s campaign given that he hasn’t paid any state taxes in Wisconsin since 2010.

 When Roem inevitably starts talking about the rich “paying their fair share” of taxes I hope he can use his donors as a demonstration of the problem.

 By Greg L | 20 June 2017 | Schools, PWCDC, Prince William County | 11 Comments

 Here’s the story that the leftists supporting Prince William County School Board Chairman desperately do not want you to see on social media, so perhaps it’s time to at least suspend my hiatus from blogging.

 Tomorrow night the School Board is going to have a meeting where Democrats are almost certainly going to enshrine special protections for “transgender” staff and students in official school policy. Given that in the past five years there hasn’t been a single incident where any “transgender” persons has reported any problems, the result of this policy will be to arm activists with a cudgel to beat down anyone who even expresses discomfort when they’re forced to share private areas with people of the opposite sex. It’s a tremendously effective way to enforce groupthink, as the purpose of policy is to define behavior deserving of punishment, not to enable anyone to do anything.

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 By Greg L | 4 January 2017 | 13th HOD District | 6 Comments

 If you were a Democrat not suffering from a mental disability, the announcement of your candidate running against Bob Marshall probably wouldn’t be headlined “Transgender journalist challenges Bob Marshall for 13th House seat.” No, I’m not making this up.

 The mainstream media’s approval rate is a mere 32% according to Gallup, so 68% of the electorate already thinks journalists are inherently untrustworthy. It’s all downhill from there.

 Roem joins Mansimran Kahlon, an avid Bernie Sanders supporter, in the race for the Democratic nomination who apparently thinks the purpose of the First Amendment of the Constitution is to guarantee “equality.”

 By Greg L | 19 October 2016 | Manassas City | 46 Comments

 I’d been under the impression that if you’re able to funnel public money to your private business because you’re voting on those specific municipal appropriations, going broke would be a near impossibility. It’s not as if government is running out of money any time soon, right? Well, Mark Wolfe has apparently accomplished the impossible after filing for Chapter 13 bankruptcy earlier this month while at the same time campaigning about what a responsible steward he is with the money you are forced to give government.

 You just can’t make this stuff up.

 No mention has been made so far about his firing of Patricia Richie-Folks as treasurer of the Manassas Ballet (at the same time she apparently owns a construction company, curiously enough) for incompetence. Word is that Richie-Folks couldn’t manage to execute a T-shirt sale without basic math errors, requiring the Manassas Ballet to reach back with an additional assessment for $15 items unless they wanted to lose money on their fund raiser. And yes, this individual is running for City Treasurer.

 What a pair. A person who can’t pay his bills spending your money, and someone who can’t do basic math cutting the checks. That’s your Democrat ticket in Manassas.

 Hang on for a data dump of some court filings. I bet they’ll be real interesting.

 WHAT THEY'RE TALKING ABOUT

 « Previous Entries |||||
What is a summary?

– Sometimes your Newser Virginia bureau feels like it should really be the Alternative Reality bureau (see here and here and here), but even we can't make up this story: A 28-year-old Democrat named Krystal Ball—who is running for a seat in Virginia's 1st District—was somehow blindsided by the online release of party pics of her fellating a reindeer dildo her then-husband was wearing on his nose. Best part? She's not so much embarrassed as pissed, blaming her opponent for the leak, which she calls "sexist." "I have a message for any young woman who is thinking about running for office and has ever attended a costume party ... or done anything stupid on camera," Ball tells the Richmond Times-Dispatch. "Run for office. Fight for this country. Don't let this sort of tactic deter you." The blog that dug up the images is currently down; for the photos and Wonkette's chortling, click here. Ball talked to Salon about the pics; click here for that.


Summarize this article:

Several cards were placed among the flowers at a memorial at Warren Hills’ football stadium – one branded with a large Superman emblem.

 It was clear on Saturday morning that Evan Murray was a superhero, and more, to the Warren County community.

 The high school senior died on Friday night after being injured during a home football game against Summit.

 Faculty, students, friends and family gathered at Warren Hills to mourn and remember the teenager who’d touched so many people.

 “Everyone honored him, and they should because he deserves it,” said Anthony Veneziano, a classmate of Murray, as he left the stadium. “They should continue to honor him forever.”

 The specific circumstances of Murray’s death weren’t revealed by school district administrators on Saturday. The Blue Streaks community, in the meantime, is grieving.

 “It was complete shock,” said Veneziano, who attended Friday night’s game and was on the basketball and baseball teams with Murray. “He’s one of the greatest kids in this whole community. It’s unbelievable. I still don’t believe it.”

 Tragedy at Warren Hills: Full coverage of Evan Murray's death

 Murray was a three-sport performer, gifted with versatile athleticism. It was his character, however, that drew peers toward the senior.

 “There’s a lot of things that I’m going to remember about Evan, mostly his leadership and the young gentleman that he was,” baseball coach Mike Quinto said, “not just an athlete, but the person he was.”

 “He was one of the best leaders,” said Veneziano, who noted that Murray was honest and levelheaded. “He believed in us. He got the job done in all three sports.”

 The teenager was also dedicated, filling his free time with football, basketball or baseball, according Quinto.

 “That’s just the way he was, and he would lead others to do the same, and that’s why we love him,” he said.

 Quinto, who also coaches boys soccer at the school, said the Warren Hills students are devastated. It’s another blow to a community that has been hard-hit by tragedy of late.

 Colin Matthew Cudworth Jr., a 17-year-old Warren Hills student, died in an auto accident in July. Kinsey Fredericks-Bishow, a 2012 Warren Hills graduate, died after contracting bacterial meningitis while studying abroad in Paris over the summer.

 “The (students) that I met with here today are having a tough time,” Quinto said. “The baseball players that I spoke with, I just told them to please stick together; that we’ll get through this. We’ve dealt with some tragedy throughout the last year and we’ll get through this one, too.”

 “They lost a leader and they lost somebody that … a lot of kids look up to, and a lot of staff and teachers look up to,” Quinto said.

 The Blue Streaks have lost their Superman, but more importantly, they’ve lost part of their family.

 “He was a brother to us,” Veneziano said. “We’re all brothers. We’re going to be brothers forever.”

 Kyle Craig may be reached at kcraig@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @KyleCraigSports. ||||| UPDATE: Confusion, disbelief amid Evan Murray's death

 The quarterback at Warren Hills Regional High School died Friday night after being injured in a varsity football game.

 The entire school community was mourning the death of Evan Murray, a senior, said interim schools Superintendent Gary Bowen.

 Bowen said grief counselors would be available for students at the Warren County high school at 9 a.m. Saturday.

 Murray was a three-sport athlete at Warren Hills and starting quarterback for three years. He also played baseball and basketball.

 RELATED: Evan Murray takes leadership role at Warren Hills

 The circumstances of his injury at Warren Hills' home stadium weren't immediately clear.

 "We're all very deeply saddened by the passing of Evan Murray," Bowen said.

 "Warren Hills Regional High School is making available grief and crisis counselors who will be available to speak with the students this weekend so that moving forward they can access the services."

 Warren Hills played Summit and completed the game, which Summit won 14-12.

 Warren Hills coach Larry Dubiel after midnight said officials were still trying to process and determine what happened.

 "We lost a fine kid," he said.

 Jim Deegan may be reached at jdeegan@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @jim_deegan. Find lehighvalleylive on Facebook. |||||

– A star high school athlete is dead in New Jersey after being injured in a football game last night, reports Lehigh Valley Live. It's not clear exactly what happened to Evan Murray, the quarterback for Warren Hills Regional High School. Witnesses say the 17-year-old took a hit but walked off the field under his own power, reports the Daily News. He reported feeling groggy, however, and was put on a gurney to head to the hospital. "He tried giving a thumbs-up to the rest of the team, and all of us cheered," says a 16-year-old cheerleader at the school. "Our coach was telling us he was going to be all right." Murray was taken to a local hospital, where he died after being treated. An autopsy was scheduled for today. Meanwhile, the Warren Hills community is devastated, reports NJ.com. Murray had been the starting QB for three years, and he also played baseball and basketball. “It was complete shock,” says a classmate. "He’s one of the greatest kids in this whole community. It’s unbelievable. I still don’t believe it.”


Summarize this article:

Firefighters near Grande Prairie, Alta., used their specialized training to rescue 10 frantic horses that broke through an ice-covered slough on Sunday.

 Dramatic video shows how firefighters saved the horses, three of which later died from the ordeal.

 The herd had wandered onto the ice before falling through, said Trevor Grant, regional fire chief in the County of Grande Prairie.

 "With the warmer temperatures, the ice on the dugouts the horses are used to being on all winter is a lot thinner," Grant said.

 About 35 regional firefighters and members of a search and rescue team responded to the call about 65 kilometres west of Grande Prairie, which came in at around 4:15 p.m.

 Firefighters used chainsaws to cut pathways to the shore. They then used slings and boards to get the horses over the mud and melting ice at the edge of the slough.

 All 10 horses were removed from the water by 6 p.m., but three died later: two from exhaustion, and one from injuries incurred due to the kicking of other horses, Grant said.

 'That ice can change in a matter of hours. What was safe in the morning may no longer be safe in the afternoon.' - Regional Fire Chief Trevor Grant

 A veterinarian said Monday that the seven remaining animals were in good shape and should be OK, Grant added.

 "To rescue seven was a great feat, especially when having such a large number in the water," Grant said.

 The rescue was especially rewarding for the firefighters from La Glace, as several members are trained in large animal rescue, Grant said. "This program has been evolving over the last couple of years out of the need."

 Grant is warning landowners to be aware of their animals around sloughs at this time of year.

 "With the changing conditions, that ice can change in a matter of hours. What was safe in the morning may no longer be safe in the afternoon." ||||| CTV News has obtained dramatic video showing a number of horses being rescued from a frozen dugout in northern Alberta over the weekend.

 The video shows rescuers cutting into the ice in the dugout, located off of Highway 43, about 65 kilometres west of Grande Prairie.

 Officials told CTV News ten horses wandered onto the ice, and fell through.

 Rescue crews were first called to the area, a property west of Hythe, Alberta, at about 4:30 p.m. Sunday.

 Crews from Hythe, Beaverlodge, Laglace and Grande Prairie were involved in the rescue operation – rescuing the animals proved to be a challenge, as crews were also dealing with thin ice, cold water, and the risk of being injured by the animals.

 “It is one of the more difficult ones that our crews have had to deal with,” Trevor Grant, Fire Chief of the County of Grande Prairie’s regional fire service said.

 “Fortunately we do have people that are trained in this type of rescue, so it helped reduce that risk.”

 Grant said the type of horses that fell through the thin ice also made the entire rescue more challenging.

 “They weren’t domesticated,” Grant said. “They were a wild broncing horse, used in rodeo. So they’re not the docile horses that are standard riding horses.”

 Rescuers used chainsaws and other tools to cut a path through the ice, allowing most of the horses to walk to safety.

 A total of seven horses were saved, Grant said two died from exhaustion, and one from injuries sustained during the ordeal.

 With files from Bill Fortier ||||| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. |||||

– Dozens of firefighters and rescue crew risked their own safety to save 10 horses that fell through the ice Sunday in Canada—and it was all caught on video, CBC reports. After the horses fell through the thinning ice in northern Alberta, rescuers had to use chainsaws to cut a path back to the shore before using boards and slings to get the horses to dry land. Rescuers were at risk not only from the cold temperatures and thin ice, but from the frantic animals, which were "wild broncing" horses used in rodeos and not domesticated, according to CTV News. All 10 horses were removed from the water after two hours, though three later died. "To rescue seven was a great feat, especially when having such a large number in the water," a local fire chief tells CBC.


Drew Peterson once grabbed his wife around her neck and asked, "Why don't you just die?" according to a friend of Kathleen Savio's who testified in Peterson's murder trial today.

 Peterson, 58, is on trial for killing Savio, his third wife, and making it look like an accident. She was found dead in her bathtub in 2004 and the death was initially ruled an accidental drowning. After Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy Peterson, vanished from their home in 2007, police exhumed Savio's body and reexamined it for signs of murder, finally charging Peterson.

 Today, Savio's friend Mary Parks testified about conversations the two women had regarding Peterson.

 "Kathy told me that her husband, Drew Peterson, said he could kill her, make her disappear," Parks said on the stand, according to ABC News affiliate WLS. Parks teared up as she recalled the conversation about Peterson grabbing Savio's neck.

 Savio told Parks that her estranged husband told her, "Why don't you just die?"

 "She unzipped the top, it opened and I saw marks on her neck," Parks said.

 According to her testimony, Parks took nursing classes with Savio, but did not see her again after their graduation in December 2003. Savio died in February 2004.

 When Parks heard of the death, she called the Will County State's Attorney's Office and asked if the case were being investigated, she testified today.

 The testimony today marked the second day hearsay statements were allowed into the court transcript, following a significant decision Wednesday by Judge Edward Burmila to allow Savio's friends to testify about Peterson's alleged threats.

 Kristen Anderson, who lived in Savio's basement after Savio and Peterson split up, said that Savio slept with a knife under her mattress because she was so afraid of Peterson.

 "She showed me a knife that she kept in between her mattresses for protection," Anderson said.

 Anderson recalled a conversation in which Savio confessed that Peterson once told her, "I could kill you and make it look like an accident."

 After the statement, Anderson broke down in tears and had to leave the courtroom, according to WLS. She returned later and continued testifying about Peterson's threatening behavior, including an incident in which Peterson broke into the home, dressed in SWAT gear, and held a knife to Savio's throat while threatening her.

 Anderson said she called police three times about Savio's case in 2004, but those calls were never returned.

 Burmila's decision to allow the testimony was hailed by the prosecution, which has no physical evidence tying Peterson to the scene of the crime.

 "Judge Burmila made an historical ruling today," prosecutor James Glasgow told WLS.

 Defense attorney Michael Lopez said his client was disappointed in the ruling.

 "He's upset," Lopez said, according to the report. "But you have to deal with the cards they give you." ||||| Drew Peterson's third wife told a friend a year before she was found dead in her bathtub that the former suburban Chicago police officer once broke into her home, grabbed her by the throat, pinned her down and asked a threatening question, the friend testified Thursday.

 FILE - In this May 8, 2009 file photo, former Bolingbrook, Ill., police officer Drew Peterson leaves the Will County Courthouse in Joliet, Ill., after his arraignment on charges of first-degree murder... (Associated Press)

 FILE - In this May 7, 2009 file booking photo provided by the Will County Sheriff's office in Joliet, Ill., former Bolingbrook, Ill., police officer Drew Peterson is shown. Peterson is charged with first-degree... (Associated Press)

 "She said that her husband said, "`Why don't you just die?'" Mary Parks told jurors, her voice quivering as she delivered more of hearsay evidence that's at the heart of the state's case.

 Peterson, an ex-Bolingbrook police sergeant, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the 2004 death of his third wife, 40-year-old Kathleen Savio, who once studied nursing with Parks.

 As Savio recounted the attack, she unzipped a top she was wearing to show dark red bruises on her neck, saying they were a result of Peterson's attack, Parks testified.

 "She looked as if she was in shock," Parks told jurors.

 She said Savio told her the incident occurred on the stairs of her suburban home the night before the women spoke around Thanksgiving in 2003.

 A year later, Savio's body was found in a dry bathtub at her home _ a gash on the back of her head. Her death was only reclassified from an accident to a homicide after Peterson's fourth wife, 23-year-old Stacy Peterson, vanished in 2007. Peterson, now 58, is a suspect in her disappearance but hasn't been charged.

 Parks and Savio spoke again in October 2003, with Savio describing another encounter with Peterson.

 "Kathy told me that her husband ... had told her that he could kill her and make her disappear," she said.

 At one point, Parks began sobbing and the judge asked jurors to leave while she regained her composure.

 The hearsay testimony is critical because police who investigated when Savio was found dead quickly decided it was an accident and didn't collect any physical evidence. Illinois adopted a law in the wake of Peterson's case _ dubbed "Drew's Law" _ that allows hearsay evidence in rare circumstances.

 Peterson, who has looked on intently during testimony, suddenly beamed when his and Savio's son, Kristopher, walked into court and sat behind him to chat during a break. The 18-year-old and other Peterson children are on a witness list and cannot sit in on testimony.

 During the cross-examination of Parks, defense attorney Steve Greenberg suggested Savio was paranoid, and that her descriptions of clashes with Peterson may have been exaggerated to elicit sympathy.

 But Savio's friend stood her ground.

 "Everything that she told me, I had no reason to doubt," Parks said.

 Before the trial began, Judge James Burmila left open the possibility he could prohibit most or even all of the hearsay prosecutors wanted to enter as evidence. But in recent days, he has permitted several such statements, potentially boosting the odds of a conviction.

 Thursday morning, Burmila refused a defense request to bar Parks' hearsay testimony. She went on to testify for more than four hours and was the sole witness of the day.

 In contentious exchanges Thursday, Greenberg said Parks' accounts of what Savio told her have been inconsistent. He even asked Parks why she kept looking to her left at jurors as she answered questions.

 Parks shot back, "Is it inappropriate for me to do that?" After Parks asked the attorney another question, Burmila admonished her, saying "Don't fence with counsel, ma'am."

 Constant legal arguments about the hearsay have slowed the trial. Jurors are frequently asked to leave the courtroom so attorneys can argue over the admissibility of hearsay statements.

 If Peterson is convicted, defense attorneys have said they could appeal all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court on grounds the hearsay should have been barred.

 There was some levity amid the otherwise weighty proceedings.

 As the trial got under way in the morning, Burmila announced he had received a letter from an Illinois inmate who claims to have information about a link between Peterson and Abraham Lincoln's assassination.

 The judge said the unnamed inmate asked him to follow up with him if he wants more details.

 "I won't be communicating with him," Burmila said, prompting laughter in the courtroom.

 ___

 Follow Michael Tarm at www.twitter.com/mtarm |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Former suburban Chicago cop Drew Peterson once choked his wife, and then asked her: "Why don't you just die?" a friend of his third wife, Kathleen Savio, testified yesterday. Peterson is on trial for allegedly killing Savio and trying to make it look like an accidental drowning in her bathtub. Peterson's fourth wife mysteriously vanished from their home after police opened an investigation into the death of Savio. Savio's pal, Kristen Anderson, also testified that Savio once described how Peterson boasted that he could kill Savio and "make it look like an accident." It was the second day that hearsay testimony from Peterson's late wife was allowed by the judge in the case, reports ABC. There's no physical evidence linking him to her murder. A police officer testified that Peterson's fourth wife, Stacy, was very distraught as they questioned her about Savio's death, and that Peterson "corrected" her answers as she spoke, reports AP.


Summarize this article:

Aboard the Papal Plane (CNN) Pope Francis said Sunday that Christians owe apologies to gays and others who have been offended or exploited by the church, remarks that some Catholics hailed as a breakthrough in the church's tone toward homosexuality.

 "I repeat what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says: that they must not be discriminated against, that they must be respected and accompanied pastorally," Francis said at a press conference aboard the papal plane returning from Armenia.

 "The Church must ask forgiveness for not behaving many times -- when I say the Church, I mean Christians! The Church is holy, we are sinners!"

 As he often does during unscripted moments -- particularly papal news conferences -- the Pope spoke expansively, saying the church should seek forgiveness for a number of historical slights committed in its name.

 Groundbreaking Moment

 "I believe that the church not only should apologize to the person who is gay whom it has offended," he added, "but has to apologize to the poor, to exploited women, to children exploited for labor; it has to ask forgiveness for having blessed many weapons."

 The Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest and editor at large of America magazine, called the Pope's apology to gays and lesbians "a groundbreaking moment."

 "While St. John Paul II apologized to several groups in 2000 -- the Jewish people, indigenous peoples, immigrants and women, among them -- no pope has ever come close to apologizing to the LGBT community. And the Pope is correct of course. First, because forgiveness is an essential part of the Christian life. And second, because no group feels more marginalized in the church today than LGBT people."

 The Pope's comments came in response to a question about a German Cardinal who said the Catholic Church should apologize for being "very negative" about gays. The Pope was also asked whether Christians bear some blame for hatred toward the LGBT community, as horrifically demonstrated in the Orlando massacre at a gay night club that killed 49 people on June 12.

 Repeating the teaching of the Catechism of the Catholic Church about respecting and not discriminating against gays, Pope Francis said that one could condemn certain behavior.

 "One can condemn, but not for theological reasons, but for reasons of political behavior...Certain manifestations are a bit too offensive for others, no?

 "But these are things that have nothing to do with the problem. The problem is a person that has a condition, that has good will and who seeks God, who are we to judge? And we must accompany them well."

 'Immense Blessing'

 Francis first uttered that rhetorical question -- Who am I to judge gay people? -- in 2013, also during a news conference on the papal plane. His comments were hailed as a breakthrough for a church that has historically condemned homosexuality, often in harsh terms. Francis has not changed church doctrine that calls homosexual acts sinful, but he has shown a more merciful approach to people on the margins, including gays and lesbians.

 Francis DeBernardo, executive director of New Ways Ministry, a Catholic gay rights group, called the Pope's remarks "an immense blessing of healing."

 "No pope has said more welcoming words to LGBT people than when Pope Francis today offered his recommendation that the Church -- indeed all Christians -- should apologize for the harm religious traditions have caused to LGBT people. The pope's statement was simple, yet powerful, and it fell from his lips so easily."

 As is often the case, the Pope's press conference encompassed a number of controversial questions. Here are the Pope's answers about Brexit, former Pope Benedict XVI and why he used the word "genocide" to describe the murder of more than 1 million Armenians in the early 20th century.

 Brexit

 "For me, unity is always superior to conflict, but there are different forms of unity and also brotherhood. and here I come to the EU -- brotherhood is better than enmity or distance and bridges are better than walls.

 "The step which the EU has to take to recover the strength of its roots is a step of creativity and healthy 'separation;' that is, to give more independence, more freedom to the countries of the EU, to think of another form of union, to be creative in jobs, in the economy..."

 "There is something that is not working in that unwieldy union, but let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater, let's try to jump-start things, to recreate .. today the two key words for the EU are creativity and fecundity."

 Genocide

 Pope Francis said that while Turkey has, "a right to protest," he has always used the word genocide, since his time in Argentina, and again last year quoting John Paul II so "it would have sounded very strange," he said, not to use it again.

 "In Argentina, when you spoke about the extermination of Armenians, one always used the word genocide. I did not know another word ... When I came to Rome, I heard the other words, 'The Great Evil' and the Armenian term which I do not know how to say, and they told me that ... using 'genocide' is offensive, that you have to say something else. I have also spoken about three genocides of the last century, always three, first the Armenian, then Hitler, and the last one is Stalin."

 "After I heard the tone of the President's speech and also with my past with this word, which I uttered last year in St. Peter's publicly, it would have sounded very strange not to say the same word."

 Two Popes?

 In response to a question about whether there are two Popes in the Vatican, a story which had received headlines recently because of a comment by Pope Benedict's personal secretary who said that the Pope Emeritus was part of an "expanded papacy," Francis said, "There is only one Pope."

 "[Benedict] is the Pope Emeritus, the wise grandpa. He is the man who guards my back with his prayers." ||||| Image copyright EPA Image caption Pope Francis, flanked by Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi, addressed journalists on the flight back from Armenia

 Pope Francis has said that the Roman Catholic Church should apologise to gay people for the way it has treated them.

 He told reporters that the Church had no right to judge the gay community, and should show them respect.

 The pontiff also said the Church should seek forgiveness from other people it had marginalised - women, the poor, and children forced into labour.

 The Pope has been hailed by many in the gay community for his positive attitude towards homosexuals.

 But some conservative Catholics have criticised him for making comments they say are ambiguous about sexual morality.

 Speaking to reporters on his plane returning from Armenia, the Pope said: "I will repeat what the catechism of the Church says, that they [homosexuals] should not be discriminated against, that they should be respected, accompanied pastorally."

 Pope Francis said the Church should seek forgiveness from those whom it had marginalised.

 Image copyright EPA Image caption The Pope and Armenian patriarch Catholicos Karekin II released doves of peace near Mt Ararat

 "I think that the Church not only should apologise... to a gay person whom it offended but it must also apologise to the poor as well, to the women who have been exploited, to children who have been exploited by [being forced to] work. It must apologise for having blessed so many weapons."

 In 2013, Pope Francis reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church's position that homosexual acts were sinful, but homosexual orientation was not.

 "If a person is gay and seeks God and has good will, who am I to judge?" he said then.

 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Pope Francis speaking to journalists about the EU: "Let's not throw the baby out with the bath water"

 In other remarks on Sunday, the Pope said he hoped the European Union would be able to recover following the UK's decision to leave.

 "There is something that is not working in that bulky union, but let's not throw the baby out with the bath water, let's try to jump-start things, to re-create," he said.

 Image copyright AP Image caption Thousands of Armenians travelled to see the Pope during his visit

 During his visit to the Armenian capital, Yerevan, the Pope described the mass killing of Armenians under Ottoman Turkish rule in World War One as "genocide".

 Turkey has always disputed the numbers killed and angrily rejects the term "genocide".

 In response, Turkish deputy prime minister Nurettin Canikli said the Pope's comments were "very unfortunate" adding it was "possible to see all the reflections and traces of crusader mentality in the actions of the papacy".

 The Pope's spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, later told reporters: "The Pope is on no crusade. He is not trying to organise wars or build walls but he wants to build bridges. He has not said a word against the Turkish people." |||||

– It was quintessential Pope Francis: On a plane journey back from a foreign trip on Sunday, the pontiff made a statement that once would have been considered jaw-droppingly radical. In a response to a reporter's question, Francis said the church should apologize for offending and discriminating against gays over the years, the BBC reports. "I believe that the church not only should apologize to the person who is gay whom it has offended," he said, "but has to apologize to the poor, to exploited women, to children exploited for labor; it has to ask forgiveness for having blessed many weapons." Francis stressed that when he says "the church," he means Christians. "The Church is holy, we are sinners!" he said. Francis—who made waves three years ago when he asked: Who am I to judge gays?—has been hailed by gay rights groups for his groundbreaking statements, though he has reaffirmed church policy that actually having gay sex is sinful, the BBC notes. The pope was on his way home from Armenia, where he once again enraged Turkish authorities by describing the mass killing of Armenians a century ago as genocide, reports CNN. He also addressed Britain's vote to leave the EU, saying that while "something ... is not working in that unwieldy union" and EU countries should be given more independence to creatively deal with their problems, "let's not throw the baby out with the bathwater."


A gunman opened fire at 10:38 Thursday morning, killing 10 people, while wounding 9 others at Umpqua Community College. Three of the wounded are listed in critical condition, Douglas County Sheriff John Hanlin said during a 4:45 p.m. press conference today.

 The identities of the shooter and the victims were unavailable at press time. Ten were transported to Mercy Medial Center, according to Mercy Chief Medical Officer Jason Gray, and one of those died. Three patients were taken to a Springfield hospital, most for neurological surgery. Four were operated on at Mercy. All those treated at Mercy are expected to survive their injuries. Three remained in the hospital Friday morning. Of those, one was expected to be released today, one was in stable condition and one was in critical condition. As many as 10 victims were dead and the alleged shooter was reportedly killed.

 [Relief fund established in wake of UCC shooting.]

 Kortney Moore, 18, from Rogue River, was in her Writing 115 class in Snyder Hall when one shot came through a window. She saw her teacher get shot in the head. The shooter was inside at that point, and he told people to get on the ground. The shooter was asking people to stand up and state their religion and then started firing away, Moore said. Moore was lying there with people who had been shot.

 There are unconfirmed reports that the shooter had either been shot or had shot himself. An official confirmed that the shooter had been “neutralized.”

 [The latest from mass shooting at Umpqua Community College.]

 Brady Winder, 23, of Portland, said he was in the room next door when he heard a loud thud that didn’t sound like a gunshot. He then heard a percussion of gunshots and the students all fled out the front door.

 They left “like ants, people screaming, “Get out!” Winder said.

 He saw a girl swim across the creek while fleeing.

 Hannah Miles was in a class room next door to the shooting in Snyder Hall. Miles said they heard a sound next door that sounded like a yardstick slapping on a chalkboard. Then they heard the noise again. A teacher went to see if everything was all right, at which point it went off repeatedly and someone said everybody get out now. They got out as quickly as possible. They left everything behind.

 [Gun control debated in wake of tragedy.]

 According to scanner reports, the suspect was down and multiple ambulances were on scene. Police cleared the science building.

 The scene was pure chaos.

 Jared Norman, a nursing student, said he heard shots and then everyone was running. He was locked down in the cafeteria with 50 other students. His voice shook as he described the scene. They didn’t know what was going on, and they were terrified.

 [Police investigate potential apartment of UCC shooter.]

 Shortly before noon, UCC Foundation Executive Director Dennis O’Neill said, “We locked our door and I went out to lock up the rest rooms and could hear four shots from the front of campus. We have heard there are casualties but know nothing more at this stage.”

 An automated phone call went out to parents at Roseburg School District, referencing the shooting and claiming the school was safe.

 Sometime after noon, students’ cell phones were confiscated, then students were marched out one building at a time, hands up, patted down and lined up to be evacuated on buses.

 [Tweets and photos from candlelight vigil for UCC victims.]

 About 200 people were waiting at the Douglas County Fairgrounds for students, who were being ferried there in buses. Red Cross grief counselors were available at the fairgrounds.

 Camas Valley teacher Christian Bringhurst said his daughter Justine was on UCC campus at time of shooting. She was safely evacuated to the fairgrounds.

 “It’s awful. The uncertainty of what is going on is tough to deal with. We have a dozen (Camas Valley) kids going to school out there. Trying to find out who is there and make sure everybody is OK. Our hearts going out to the victims,” Bringhurst said.

 The FBI’s Portland Division is responding to the incident. Agents and specialty personnel are responding from the FBI offices in Medford, Eugene, Salem and Portland.

 U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Springfield, issued a statement following the incident.

 “Today’s shooting in Roseburg is a heartbreaking tragedy, and my thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. I want to extend my deepest gratitude to Roseburg’s first responders for their work in responding to the event. Once we know more about what happened today, I plan to work with my colleagues in Congress to find ways to prevent tragedies such as these,” DeFazio said.

 Initial information from breaking news.

 10:38 a.m. Police and emergency crews are at Umpqua Community College after a reported gunman has shot upwards of 20 people on campus. Scanner reports indicated the suspect is down. Multiple ambulances are on scene. Early reports indicate at least 15 people are dead. Students are reporting on social media that they are trapped inside classrooms.

 11:20 a.m. Police are clearing the science building at this time.

 11:28 a.m. Photographer just returned from Mercy Medical Center where he witnessed multiple ambulances bringing in patients.

 11:34 a.m. Reporter at UCC describes the scene as “pure chaos.”

 11:39 a.m. Jared Norman, a nursing student at UCC, said he heard shots and then everyone was running. He is locked down in the cafeteria with 50 other students right now. They’ve heard there is a shooting, but they don’t know what’s going on. And they’re scared.

 11:42 a.m. Automated phone call went out to parents at Roseburg School District, referencing UCC shooting and saying all schools are safe.

 11:49 a.m. “We locked our door and I went out to lock up the rest rooms and could hear four shots from the front of campus,” said UCC Foundation Executive Director Dennis O’Neill. “We have heard there are casualties but know nothing more at this stage.”

 11:53 a.m. Oregon State Police are reporting via CNN that 10 people are dead and that the alleged shooter is dead.

 11:57 a.m. Students and staff are gathered on the front lawn, waiting to be loaded onto a bus.

 12:06 p.m. Kathleen Nickel, a spokesperson for Mercy Medical Center, said six patients have been brought to Mercy Medical Center and they are expecting two more.

 12:40 p.m. Reporter Aaron Yost said two buses have brought students from UCC to the Douglas County Fairgrounds. Red Cross counselors are on scene to provide grief counseling.

 12:57 p.m. Statement from Peter DeFazio on today’s shooting. “Today’s shooting in Roseburg is a heartbreaking tragedy, and my thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. I want to extend my deepest gratitude to Roseburg’s first responders for their work in responding to the event. Once we know more about what happened today, I plan to work with my colleagues in Congress to find ways to prevent tragedies such as these.”

 1 p.m. Christian Bringhurst said his daughter Justine is fine after she was on campus at the time of shooting.

 “We (Camas Valley) have a dozen kids going to school out there,” Bringhurst said. “Trying to find out who is there and make sure everybody is OK. Our hearts going out to the victims.”

 1:05 p.m. KVAL is reporting that the shooter is among the dead. That is unconfirmed.

 1:13 p.m. Oregon Attorney General is reporting that 13 people are dead, up to 20 are injured including the shooter.

 (Check back as we continue to update this story real time.)

 Here is a Storify of social media related to the shooting: ||||| Umpqua Community College student Kendra Gordon told Neil Cavuto on "Your World" she was in the classroom next door to where today's deadly campus shooting occurred.

 "I was sitting in class when we had first heard the shot," Gordon said. "And we didn't think it was a gunshot, we thought it was a firecracker. And then we heard another one."

 "And so, one of the students in my class, she went out and checked it. She got shot twice, one in the arm, and in the stomach. And she came back and told us to lock the door, shut the lights off," Gordon said. "And we sat there for 20 minutes waiting for police to show up. It felt like forever."

 Gordon said that she waited in her class with 20 to 25 students until they heard police voices outside the room.

 "I've definitely had better days, that's for sure," Gordon said. "I'm in a lot better position than many of the other families at UCC."

 Watch more above and stay with Fox News Insider for updates on this tragic story.

 O'Reilly Calls Out Obama: Stop 'Politicizing' Oregon Shooting

 Obama Speaks Out on Oregon Shooting: 'This Is Something We Should Politicize' |||||

Write a summary.

– Horrific stories are trickling out from inside Thursday's mass shooting at an Oregon community college: Student Kendra Gordon tells Fox News she was in a classroom next to on where the gunman was shooting. "I was sitting in class when we had first heard the shot. And we didn't think it was a gunshot, we thought it was a firecracker. And then we heard another one," she said. "And so, one of the students in my class, she went out and checked it. She got shot twice, one in the arm, and in the stomach. And she came back and told us to lock the door, shut the lights off. And we sat there for 20 minutes waiting for police to show up. It felt like forever." Gordon said she's not sure how the student who was shot is doing now, Reuters reports. Student Kortney Moore says a bullet came through the window of her writing class in Snyder Hall; she saw her teacher shot in the head. The shooter came inside the room and told people to get on the ground, she tells the local News-Review. She says he then asked people to stand up and say their religion before he started firing. Tweets from @KP_KaylaMarie before she protected her Twitter feed: "Omg there’s someone shooting on campus." "Students are running everywhere. Holy God." And then, later: "Hi guys. I’m ok. Physically. We’re being bused off campus." Multiple witnesses tell the local Register-Guard that only one classroom, a writing and speech class in Snyder Hall, was targeted. Click for more on the shooter and President Obama's response.


Article:
An assertion by a white gubernatorial candidate that Florida voters can't afford to "monkey this up" by voting for his black opponent was widely viewed as a "dog whistle" to rally racists.

 If it were a dog whistle — and GOP candidate Ron DeSantis denies any racial intent against Democrat Andrew Gillum — then a jungle music-scored robo-call that has circulated in Florida is more akin to a bullhorn.

 If nothing else, the minute-long audio clip is a clear sign of how quickly racism — subtle in some cases, overt in others — has entered the contest to determine who will lead Florida.

 "Well, hello there,” the call begins as the sounds of drums and monkeys can be heard in the background, according to the New York Times. “I is Andrew Gillum."

 "We Negroes . . . done made mud huts while white folk waste a bunch of time making their home out of wood an' stone."

 The speaker goes on to say he'll pass a law letting African Americans evade arrest “if the Negro know fo' sho' he didn't do nothin'."

 It is unclear how many people heard the call.

 In a statement emailed to The Washington Post, Gillum's spokesman, Geoff Burgan said: “This is reprehensible — and could only have come from someone with intentions to fuel hatred and seek publicity. Please don’t give it undeserved attention."

 People on the other side of the aisle also spoke out against the telephone campaign, which was first reported by the Tallahassee Democrat.

 In a tweet, Gov. Rick Scott (R), the current occupant of 700 N. Adams St. in Tallahassee and a candidate for the U.S. Senate, blasted whoever was behind the robo-call.

 "There is no room for any racial politics here in Florida — none,” the tweet said. “Florida is a melting pot of people from all over the globe, and we are proud of it. No attempts to divide people by race or ethnicity will be tolerated, from anyone. THIS. STOPS. NOW."

 And a spokesman for DeSantis — a U.S. congressman who has been criticized for his racially tinged comment about Gillum a day after Tuesday's primary — called the robo-calls “disgusting."

 "This is absolutely appalling and disgusting — and hopefully whoever is behind this has to answer for this despicable action,” Stephen Lawson, a spokesman for the DeSantis campaign, said, according to the Tampa Bay Times. “Our campaign has and will continue to focus solely on the issues that Floridians care about and uniting our state as we continue to build on our success."

 DeSantis has said his comments were aimed at Gillum's policies, not his skin color.

 [Pastor apologizes to Ariana Grande for grazing her breast at Aretha Franklin’s funeral]

 Gillum said Sunday that he didn't want the governor's race to become one of name-calling.

 "I want to make sure that we don’t racialize and, frankly, weaponize race as a part of this process," he said on CNN's "State of the Union." He added: "People are taking their cues from [DeSantis], from his campaign and from Donald Trump."

 And on NBC's "Meet the Press" Sunday, host Chuck Todd asked Gillum if he thinks DeSantis is racist. Gillum replied: "I have not called him a racist, but his rhetoric in my opinion has to be toned down. I won't get into the gutter and name call."

 The DeSantis campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comments on Gillum's remarks on CNN.

 If elected, Gillum would be Florida's first black governor.

 “I have been really slow to try to think on it because it’s too big,” Gillum told the Associated Press. “There will absolutely be a part of this that I can’t even put words to, around what it might mean for my children and other people’s kids. Especially growing up, for them, in the age of Donald Trump.”

 A disclaimer at the end of the robo-call says it was produced by the Road to Power, a white-supremacist and anti-Semitic group based in Idaho. The Southern Poverty Law Center has noted a recent rise in robo-calls throughout the country, describing them as a “new, high-tech, computer-delivered brand of hate,” according to the Tampa Bay Times.

 The Road to Power is also the group behind the attempt to turn the killing of Mollie Tibbetts in Iowa into anti-immigration policy and a 2018 campaign talking point.

 Tibbetts, a 20-year-old University of Iowa student, disappeared in July while on a jog around her hometown. Authorities found her body in a cornfield a month later, after being led there by a man they said confessed to chasing Tibbetts after seeing her jogging, then dragging her body into a field just outside the town of Brooklyn, Iowa.

 [Mollie Tibbetts’s dad: Don’t use her death to push ‘views she believed were profoundly racist’]

 The suspect, Cristhian Rivera, is an undocumented immigrant who worked on a dairy farm, and conservatives said Tibbetts's death highlights the need for stronger immigration laws and even a wall on the southern border. Tibbetts's family has pushed back against that argument, with her father speaking favorably of the local Hispanic community.

 "If, after her life has now been brutally stolen from her, she could be brought back to life for just one moment and asked, 'What do you think now?' Mollie Tibbetts would say, 'Kill them all,' " an Iowa robo-call says. “Well, we don't have to kill them all, but we do have to deport them all. The Aztec hybrids known as mestizos are low-IQ, bottom-feeding savages and is why the country they infest are crime-ridden failures."

 According to the Des Moines Register, the man producing the robo-calls is named Scott Rhodes, of Sandpoint, Idaho. He has been linked to similar campaigns in California; Alexandria, Va.; and Charlottesville. Rhodes could not immediately be reached for comment.

 Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum speaks to supporters as his wife, R. Jai Gillum, listens during a Democratic Party rally Friday in Orlando. (John Raoux/AP)

 Colby Itkowitz contributed to this report.

 This post has been updated.

 Read more:

 After calling Barbara Bush an ‘amazing racist,’ a professor taunts critics: ‘I will never be fired’

 A California waiter refused to serve 4 Latina customers until he saw ‘proof of residency’

 ‘You know why the lady called the police’: Black people face 911 calls for innocuous acts ||||| Racist robocalls targeting Andrew Gillum, the first black nominee for Florida governor from a major party, have been placed to residents from an out-of-state white supremacist entity.

 Mr. Gillum, 39, the Tallahassee mayor and a progressive candidate who won an upset victory in the Democratic primary on Tuesday, will face Representative Ron DeSantis, 39, a Republican who embraced the style and policies of President Trump, in the November election.

 In the audio of one robocall placed on Friday and obtained by The New York Times, a man pretending to be Mr. Gillum can be heard talking in the exaggerated accent of a minstrel performer. “Well hello there,” it begins, “I is Andrew Gillum.” He then talks for a little over a minute about mud huts and unfair policing practices, and asks repeatedly for the listener’s vote. In the background are the sounds of drums and monkeys.

 The recording, reported on Friday by The Tallahassee Democrat, ends with a man saying that the message was paid for by the Road to Power, an Idaho-based website and podcast with white supremacist and anti-Semitic content. |||||Summary:

– Ron DeSantis swears he meant nothing racist by his "monkey this up" comment, but a new robocall in the Florida gubernatorial race definitely did: Set to the background of jungle music and screeching monkeys, the New York Times reports that the minute-long audio clip begins with a man saying, "I is Andrew Gillum. We Negroes . . . done made mud huts while white folk waste a bunch of time making their home out of wood an stone." The call, which went out to an unknown number of recipients, is apparently the work of an Idaho-based white supremacist, anti-Semitic group called the Road to Power. The group is also behind an effort in Iowa to drive anti-immigration policy in response to the killing of Mollie Tibbetts. A rep for DeSantis called the ad "appalling and disgusting. Hopefully, whoever is behind this has to answer for this despicable action." The Gillum camp called it "reprehensible," while asking the Washington Post to "Please don't give it undeserved attention." Current Gov. Rick Scott joined the men seeking to replace him in denouncing the ad in a tweet: "There is no room for any racial politics here in Florida — none. Florida is a melting pot of people from all over the globe, and we are proud of it. No attempts to divide people by race or ethnicity will be tolerated, from anyone. THIS. STOPS. NOW."


– An estimated 8% to 13% of pregnant woman are on antidepressants, and not without warning: The FDA in 2005 amended antidepressants' labels to indicate that babies born to moms taking them could suffer an increased risk of heart defects. But causation hadn't been proven, and the latest study on the topic indicates those warnings may be baseless. The latest study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, followed 949,504 pregnant women, 64,389 (6.8%) of whom used antidepressants during the first trimester—the period of the most rapid cell division, when the risk of developing such defects is highest, WebMD explains. What Krista Huybrechts of Brigham and Women's Hospital did differently: She and her team took into consideration factors that could lead to heart defects, like the mother's age and whether she had diabetes. The Boston Herald reports that among babies whose mothers did not take antidepressants, 72.3 per 10,000 were born with a cardiac defect, compared with 90.1 per 10,000 infants whose mothers did. After controlling for risk factors, "there is no evidence to support a substantial increased risk of cardiac malformations overall," says Huybrechts. Still, she cautions that antidepressant use during pregnancy poses a "whole range of other potential adverse outcomes." To wit, one expert pointed to "serious flaws" with the study. For one, it didn't flag miscarriages, which are linked to antidepressants. "It may be that the most severely affected pregnancies are miscarrying," he noted.

Expand this summary.

A new study has found no direct link between antidepressant use during pregnancy and one type of birth defect.

 The research, published in today’s issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, comes nine years after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned that exposure to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors — the most commonly prescribed antidepressants — might increase the risk of heart malformations in the developing fetus. ||||| WEDNESDAY, June 18, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Antidepressants taken during the first three months of pregnancy don't appear to increase the risk of heart defects in babies, new research suggests.

 However, this latest study contradicts previous research that found that taking antidepressants in pregnancy can be risky.

 The question is an important one because depression is common in pregnancy. It's diagnosed in 10 percent to 20 percent of pregnant women, and up to 13 percent of women take antidepressants while pregnant, according to the researchers.

 "The most critical period in the development of an embryo or in the growth of a particular organ is during the time of most rapid cell division," said Krista Huybrechts, lead study author and epidemiologist at the Brigham and Women's Hospital, in Boston. So, it is in the first three months of pregnancy that the risk for developing major malformations is highest, she explained.

 The U.S. government-funded research was published in the June 19 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

 The current study's findings run counter to two previous studies that caused the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2005 to formally warn health care professionals that early prenatal exposure to paroxetine (Paxil) may increase the risk of heart malformations at birth.

 Huybrechts and her team had some concerns about the earlier research and wanted to re-examine the evidence by designing their study differently. They tightened the focus and took more factors that could interfere with the data into account, she said. The team looked at whether antidepressants, including those called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs -- such as paroxetine (Paxil) and sertraline (Zoloft) -- are indeed associated with an increased risk of heart defects at birth.

 The researchers tapped data from 46 states and Washington, D.C., from 2000 through 2007. They were able to use demographic information, such as age, income and education, as well as data about all physician services and hospitalizations, including diagnoses, procedures and filled outpatient prescriptions.

 A total of almost a million women who had given birth were included in the study. They were all on Medicaid without supplementary private insurance. All of the women were between 12 to 55 years of age. Women were excluded if they had been treated with drugs that have been associated with birth defects (such as chemotherapy, lithium, retinoids and thalidomide) or if their infants had been diagnosed with a genetic abnormality. ||||| Data Source and Study Cohort

 The study cohort was drawn from the Medicaid Analytic eXtract for 46 U.S. states and Washington, D.C., for the period of 2000 through 2007. Montana and Connecticut were excluded because of difficulty in linking data for mothers and infants, Michigan was excluded because of incomplete data, and data from Arizona were not available. The Medicaid Analytic eXtract data set contains individual-level demographic and Medicaid enrollment information, as well as data on all physician services and hospitalizations and the accompanying diagnoses and procedures and all filled outpatient medication prescriptions.

 The development of our study cohort has been described previously.22 Briefly, we identified all completed pregnancies in women and adolescents 12 to 55 years of age (hereafter, “women”) and linked these pregnancies to liveborn infants. Using a validated algorithm,23 we estimated the date of the last menstrual period on the basis of the delivery date and diagnostic codes indicative of preterm delivery. Finally, we required all the women to be eligible for Medicaid, without supplementary private insurance or restricted benefits, from 3 months before the last menstrual period through 1 month after delivery. We excluded pregnancies in which the infant had received a diagnosis of a chromosomal abnormality (1609 pregnancies) and pregnancies in which the mother had been treated with known teratogens during the first trimester (i.e., lithium, antineoplastic agents, retinoids, and thalidomide; 2476 pregnancies).

 Study Conduct

 The study was approved by the institutional review board of Brigham and Women's Hospital, and the need for informed consent was waived. The authors vouch for the accuracy and completeness of the analyses reported as well as for the fidelity of the report to the study protocol.

 Antidepressant Medications

 The etiologically relevant window for exposure extended from the date of the last menstrual period through day 90 of pregnancy (first trimester). We determined maternal use of antidepressants by a review of pharmacy dispensing records, using the dispensing date and the number of days of supply. Women were considered to have had exposure if the days of supply overlapped with the first trimester. We defined the following exposure categories: any SSRI, paroxetine, sertraline, fluoxetine, tricyclic antidepressants, serotonin–norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs), bupropion, and other antidepressants (Table S1 in the Supplementary Appendix, available with the full text of this article at NEJM.org). The reference group consisted of women without exposure to antidepressants during the first trimester.

 Cardiac Malformations

 Congenital cardiac malformations were identified on the basis of the presence of inpatient or outpatient diagnostic codes from the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision (ICD-9), in the maternal or infant records during the first 90 days after delivery. We used both maternal and infant codes because an infant's claims may be recorded under the mother's identification number for the first several months after birth.24 On the basis of previously reported associations,13,14,19 outcomes were grouped in the following categories: any cardiac malformation, right ventricular outflow tract obstruction, ventricular septal defect, and other cardiac malformation (Table S2 in the Supplementary Appendix). We excluded anomalies related to prematurity (e.g., patent ductus arteriosus, pulmonary-valve stenosis, and anomalies of the pulmonary artery in preterm infants).25 A given outcome was considered to be present if there was more than one date with the respective diagnostic codes recorded or if there was one diagnostic code and a code for a cardiac procedure or surgery (Table S3 in the Supplementary Appendix). The positive predictive values for these outcome definitions did not differ substantially according to exposure and ranged from 66.7 to 79.5% in a conservative validation study that was based on review of primary medical records in a subset of cases.26

 Covariates

 The information on covariates that were being taken into consideration in the adjustment for confounding or that were being used for stratification was obtained during the baseline period (from the time before the last menstrual period through the end of the first trimester). In addition to sociodemographic information (year of delivery, state of residence, age, race, and parity), we considered known or suspected risk factors for congenital cardiac malformations and proxies for such risk factors: multiple gestation, chronic maternal illness (hypertension, diabetes, epilepsy, and renal disease), use of suspected teratogenic medications, use of other psychotropic medications (anticonvulsant, antipsychotic, anxiolytic, and hypnotic agents; other benzodiazepines; and barbiturates), use of antidiabetic and antihypertensive medications, and the number of distinct prescription drugs used, excluding antidepressants, as a general marker of coexisting conditions.27 To address confounding by the underlying indication, we considered proxies for depression severity (number of depression diagnoses received as an outpatient and as an inpatient) and other indications for antidepressant use (other mental health disorders, pain-related diagnoses, sleep disorders, the premenstrual tension syndrome, smoking, and the chronic fatigue syndrome).

 Statistical Analysis

 We compared the distributions of sociodemographic, clinical, and health care utilization characteristics among the various exposure groups, and we calculated the absolute risks of cardiac malformations. Logistic-regression analysis was used to estimate odds ratios for cardiac malformations and their corresponding 95% confidence intervals. Because the odds ratio is an excellent approximation of the risk ratio in the case of rare outcomes, the results are referred to as relative risks.28 Use of the robust variance estimator to account for correlations within women with multiple pregnancies did not change the confidence intervals appreciably, so correlation structures were omitted from all the analyses.

 Results are presented for analyses performed according to three levels of adjustment: an unadjusted analysis; an analysis restricted to women with a depression diagnosis, to control for the potential effect of the underlying illness or factors associated with it; and an analysis restricted to women with a depression diagnosis and performed with the use of propensity-score stratification to further control for proxies of depression severity and other potential confounders.29 Propensity scores were derived from the predicted probability of treatment estimated in a logistic-regression model that contained all the covariates listed above without additional variable selection. We created 100 equally sized propensity-score strata, dropped uninformative strata (i.e., all strata that did not contain at least one treated woman and one untreated woman), and stratified the outcome models according to these propensity-score strata. In all cases, less than 0.5% of treated women and less than 0.1% of untreated women were included in the dropped strata.

 In confirmatory analyses, we used a high-dimensional propensity-score algorithm, which evaluates thousands of diagnoses, procedures, and pharmacy-claim codes to identify and prioritize covariates that serve as proxies for unmeasured confounders. A total of 200 empirically identified confounders were selected and were combined with investigator-identified covariates to improve adjustment for confounding.30 No adjustments were made for multiple comparisons.

 We performed prespecified subgroup and sensitivity analyses to evaluate the robustness of the primary results (for any cardiac malformation). Because the cohort we studied was younger and more racially diverse than cohorts in previous studies,13,14 we tested for effect modification according to age (<30 years vs. ≥30 years) and race or ethnic group (white vs. nonwhite). We conducted dose–response analyses for low, medium, and high doses of antidepressants using the first and highest doses dispensed (Table S4 in the Supplementary Appendix).31 In the analysis of SSRIs, we stratified the analysis according to the use of just that drug class versus the use of multiple antidepressant classes.

 To evaluate the effect of potential misclassification of exposure, we redefined exposure status as having had one or more prescriptions filled during the first trimester (as compared with days of supply that overlap with the first trimester); we redefined the reference group as women with no antidepressant exposure throughout pregnancy. To evaluate the effect of potential misclassification of outcome, we restricted the outcome to inpatient diagnoses only and extended infant follow-up to 1 year. We corrected odds ratios for outcome misclassification using sensitivities and specificities consistent with the positive predictive values estimated in the internal validation study.26,32 To further assess whether outcomes were well captured, we evaluated some well-known associations in our data set — in particular, associations between cardiac malformations and maternal diabetes, use of an anticonvulsant agent, or multifetal pregnancy.33 |||||


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– "Are you kidding? You're about to snort coke on the side of the road?" A routine traffic stop on Tuesday in Seattle ended with one poor police officer getting increasingly incredulous after the 73-year-old man he pulled over allegedly tried to snort some coke in the middle of their interaction, the Seattle Times reports. According to the police, officer Nic Abts-Olsen pulled the man over for driving without his lights on and was about to let him off with a warning when the man started removing some cocaine from a small vial. Easily caught in the act, the man claimed the white powder was "vitamins" before fessing up and complimenting the officer's "keen detection skills," according to police. "What would possess you to do that during a traffic stop with a police officer right behind you? I just don't understand," a frustrated Abts-Olsen can be heard asking on his dashcam video. "I don't understand it either," the man replies. The man was arrested on suspicion of drug possession.

A 73-year-old man’s spotless driving record nearly got him off the hook during a traffic stop Tuesday night, until he tried to snort cocaine right in front of an incredulous officer.

 Officer Nic Abts-Olsen was patrolling in the Colman neighborhood near Martin Luther King Jr. Way South and South Massachusetts around 8:30 PM when a man in a silver Toyota drove past him with his headlights off.

 After pulling over the 73-year-old man, Officer Abts-Olsen checked his license and registration, and walked back to the Toyota, where he saw the driver portioning out a scoop of cocaine from a small glass vial.

 When officer Abts-Olsen knocked on the driver’s car window, he apparently startled the man, leading him to spill cocaine all over his hands and the floor of his vehicle.

 “Are you kidding?,” Officer Abts-Olsen asked the man, who quickly tried to brush away the white powder. The man initially denied having any cocaine, though he admitted he had “vitamins” in his possession.

 Finally, the man relented, complimented Officer Abts-Olsen on his keen detection skills and admitted that snorting cocaine in the middle of a traffic stop was, perhaps, a poor decision. Officer Abts-Olsen also informed the man he had only intended to issue him a warning, due to his clean driving record, until the cocaine came out.

 Officers did not immediately cite the man, but arrested and booked him into the King County Jail for narcotics possession.

 The encounter was captured on in-car video, which we’ve posted below, along with a reminder to have a happy, safe holiday season! ||||| Official City of Seattle websites and related social media sites make up the bulk of the collection. Among these are numerous city department sites, sites for city services, and sites for Seattle visitors, residents and businesses as well as social media sites created by city departments and elected officials. Related sites include those for events, partnerships, organizations and projects of which the City of Seattle or one of its departments are involved. Records were harvested through Archive-It beginning in July 2012. |||||