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– Michael Cohen's legal woes appeared to deepen Tuesday night with a bombshell release from Stormy Daniels' attorney. According to financial records reviewed by the New York Times and NBC News, a company linked to a Russian oligarch targeted by US sanctions deposited around $500,000 into an account controlled by Essential Consultants, the shell company Cohen used to pay hush money to Daniels before the 2016 election. Michael Avenatti alleges that funds from oligarch Viktor Vekselberg may have "replenished the account" in a series of payments in 2017 after the Daniels settlement, though Columbus Nova, a US affiliate of a Vekselberg company, denies that he was involved in its payments to Trump's personal lawyer, the Washington Post reports. The purpose of the company's payments is unclear. Sources tell CNN that Robert Mueller's investigators have already quizzed Vekselberg about the payments to Cohen's company. Records reviewed by the Times show that around $4.4 million flowed through the Essential Consultants account between its creation weeks before the 2016 election and January this year, including hundreds of thousands of dollars from pharmaceutical firm Novartis, AT&T, and Korea Aerospace. AT&T confirmed the payments late Tuesday, saying Cohen's firm was among those it "engaged in early 2017 to provide insights into understanding the new administration," the AP reports. Cohen isn't a registered lobbyist, and while the unusual payments may not have broken any laws, Trump and his attorney "have a lot of explaining to do," Avenatti said in a tweet Tuesday.

The Executive Summary from our first Preliminary Report on Findings may be accessed via the link below. Mr. Trump and Mr. Cohen have a lot of explaining to do.https://www.dropbox.com/s/pskgpwr15r48tx5/Executive%20Summary.pdf?dl=0 … ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.

 / Updated By Sarah Fitzpatrick, Tracy Connor, Tom Winter and Ben Collins

 Stormy Daniels' attorney claimed Tuesday that President Donald Trump's personal lawyer Michael Cohen received $500,000 from a company controlled by a Russian oligarch, deposited into an account for a company also used to pay off the adult film actress.

 Daniels' attorney, Michael Avenatti, also detailed other transactions he said were suspicious, including deposits from drug giant Novartis, the state-run Korea Aerospace Industries, and AT&T.

 Novartis confirmed it had paid Cohen's company, Essential Consultants, and said Special Counsel Robert Mueller had inquired about the arrangement in November. AT&T also confirmed it paid Cohen's company, for "insights" into the Trump administration.

 Avenatti's claims, made in a dossier posted to Twitter, could suggest a new dimension to the federal investigation into Cohen. NBC News has reviewed financial documents that appear to support Avenatti’s account of the transactions.

 "This thing is a pig and they can try to put lipstick on a pig — tonight, next week, next month — but it's still gonna be a pig," Avenatti said on MSNBC's "The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell."

 "This thing's ugly and it's gonna get worse."

 Cohen disputed Avenatti's accounting but provided no details.

 "His document is inaccurate," he said as he left a Manhattan hotel and got into a cab Wednesday morning.

 Avenatti said his investigation uncovered that $4.4 million flowed through a First Republic account linked to Essential Consultants between October 2016 and January 2018. Essential Consultants is the company Cohen created before the 2016 election and then used to wire $130,000 to Daniels to stop her from going public with her account of an alleged sexual affair with Trump a decade ago.

 In particular, Avenatti identified eight transactions between January and August 2017, totaling half a million dollars, from U.S.-based Columbus Nova, which he said is controlled by Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg and Vekselberg's cousin Andrew Intrater.

 In a statement, an attorney for Columbus Nova said the management firm is owned and controlled by Americans and not Vekselberg, who is the president of the Russian conglomerate Renovo Group.

 "After the inauguration, the firm hired Michael Cohen as a business consultant regarding potential sources of capital and potential investments in real estate and other ventures," the Columbus Nova statement said.

 "Reports today that Viktor Vekselberg used Columbus Nova as a conduit for payments to Michael Cohen are false. The claim that Viktor Vekselberg was involved or provided any funding for Columbus Nova's engagement of Michael Cohen is patently untrue.

 "Neither Viktor Vekselberg nor anyone else other than Columbus Nova's owners, were involved in the decision to hire Cohen or provided funding for his engagement."

 This thing is a pig and they can try to put lipstick on a pig — tonight, next week, next month — but it's still gonna be a pig.

 Columbus Nova was listed on the website of the Renova Group as one of its "companies" until November 2017. Renova's website is now listed as "under construction," but older versions remain on The Wayback Machine, which creates archives of sites across the web.

 In a statement, Columbus Nova's attorney said the firm "has managed assets on behalf of Renova Group companies and other clients. Columbus Nova itself is not now, and has never been, owned by any foreign entity or person including Viktor Vekselberg or the Renova Group."

 A review of public election filings shows that the CEO of Columbus Nova, Andrew Intrater, made several political donations over the past two years.

 According to public record filings he donated $29,600 to the Republican National Committee in June 2017, $35,000 to the Trump Victory PAC the same month, and then $250,000 to the Trump Inauguration Fund. Columbus Nova has also registered many alt-right internet domains, though the domains return an error message.

 Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with Renova Group Board Chairman and Skolkovo Foundation President Viktor Vekselberg at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 14, 2017. Alexei Nikolsky / TASS via Getty Images file

 Vekselberg questioned by Mueller probe investigators

 As the New York Times first reported last week, citing people familiar with the matter, agents working for Special Counsel Mueller searched and questioned Vekselberg as he got off a private plane in the New York area earlier this year.

 Vekselberg — one of the richest men in Russia, with a fortune from aluminum and oil — also attended a much-discussed 2015 dinner in Moscow where Michael Flynn, soon to become Trump's national security adviser, was seated next to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

 Vekselberg, who was among the Russian oligarchs sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department last month, has not been accused of wrongdoing in connection with either Mueller's investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election or a separate probe of Cohen by the U.S. Attorney's office in Manhattan.

 He could not be reached for immediate comment.

 Avenatti also said he had uncovered:

 Four payments of just under $100,000 made by Novartis to Essential in late 2017 and early 2018. He noted reports that said Trump met with Novartis' CEO in January 2018. In a statement, Novartis said it had a one-year agreement with Essential Consultants, "focused on U.S. healthcare policy matters," that expired in February. It was contacted in November by Mueller's office and "cooperated fully," it said.

 AT&T made four payments of $50,000 each to Essential in late 2017 and early 2018. In a statement, AT&T said it engaged the firm in early 2017 to "provide insights into understanding the new administration. They did no legal or lobbying work for us, and the contract ended in December 2017.”

 Korea Aerospace Industries made a $150,000 payment to Essential in November 2017. KAI did not respond to requests for comment.

 Nicholas Biase, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Manhattan, declined to comment on Avenatti’s report and declined to confirm its authenticity. First Republic also declined comment.

 The White House has said Trump denies having an affair with Daniels, and Cohen has said he himself put up the $130,000 she was given in a non-disclosure agreement. One of Trump's new attorneys, former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, said last week that Trump repaid the money to Cohen. ||||| FILE - In this Thursday, April 26, 2018, file photo, Michael Avenatti, Stormy Daniels' attorney, talks to reporters outside of federal court in New York. Avenatti says he has information showing that... (Associated Press)

 WASHINGTON (AP) — Stormy Daniels' lawyer said Tuesday he has information showing that Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's longtime personal attorney, received $500,000 from a company associated with a Russian billionaire within months of paying hush money to Daniels, a porn star who claims she had an affair with Trump.

 Lawyer Michael Avenatti also said hundreds of thousands of dollars streamed into Cohen's account from companies, including pharmaceutical giant Novartis, AT&T and Korea Aerospace, with U.S. government business interests. AT&T confirmed its connection Tuesday evening.

 Avenatti did not reveal the source of his information or release documentation. But in a seven-page memo, Avenatti detailed what he said were wire transfers going into and out of the account Cohen used to pay Daniels $130,000 in October 2016 to stay silent about her alleged affair with the soon-to-be president. Trump denies having an affair with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.

 Financial documents reviewed Tuesday by The Associated Press appeared to back up Avenatti's report.

 The memo, containing highly specific dates and amounts, stated that Viktor Vekselberg, a Russian billionaire, and his cousin "routed" eight payments totaling approximately $500,000 to Cohen's company, Essential Consultants, between January and August 2017. The reason for the payment was not known.

 Speculating without offering proof, the Avenatti memo said, "It appears these funds may have replenished the account following the payment to Ms. Clifford."

 Avenatti's memo said the deposits into the account controlled by Cohen were made by Columbus Nova, an American investment company affiliated with the Renova Group, which is controlled by Vekselberg.

 Columbus Nova's attorney Richard Owens stressed in a statement that the company is "solely owned and controlled by Americans" and said that, after Trump's inauguration, the firm hired Cohen as a business consultant "regarding potential sources of capital and potential investments in real estate and other ventures," but that it had nothing to do with Vekselberg.

 Owens said any suggestion that Vekselberg used Columbus Nova as a conduit for payments to Cohen was false. "Neither Viktor Vekselberg nor anyone else, other than Columbus Nova's owners, were involved in the decision to hire Cohen or provided funding for his engagement," he said.

 Cohen and his attorney did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Cohen is currently under investigation by federal prosecutors in New York, but hasn't been charged.

 At the time of the payments, there was an active FBI counterintelligence investigation — which special counsel Robert Mueller took over last May — into Russian election interference and any possible coordination with Trump associates.

 Vekselberg was targeted for U.S. sanctions by the Trump administration last month. He built his fortune, currently estimated by Forbes at $14.6 billion, by investing in the aluminum and oil industries. More recently, he has expanded his assets to include industrial equipment and high technology.

 Offering confirmation for more of the payments, AT&T said in a statement that Essential Consultants was one of several firms it "engaged in early 2017 to provide insights into understanding the new administration."

 Avenatti alleged that the company made four $50,000 payments to Cohen totaling $200,000 in late 2017 and early 2018.

 AT&T said Cohen's company "did no legal or lobbying work for us, and the contract ended in December 2017." Cohen is not a registered lobbyist, according to public records.

 Such a confidential relationship would not violate federal lobbying laws if Cohen did not seek to influence Trump on the companies' behalf. But hiring the president's personal attorney for advice on how to woo Trump would be highly unusual, especially given that Cohen was never formally involved in the campaign or Trump's administration.

 Making the arrangement even stranger, the blue-chip companies' payments to Cohen were routed to Essential Consultants LLC — the same company Cohen used to buy Stormy Daniels' silence about her alleged affair with the President.

 Trump's Justice Department has sued to block AT&T from an $85 billion merger with Time Warner, saying it would hurt competition and consumers would have to pay more to watch their favorite shows.

 Korea Aerospace, which is alleged to have paid Cohen $150,000 in November 2017, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for Novartis, a multinational pharmaceutical company, could not confirm or deny the payment, but said any agreements with Essential Consultants were entered before the company's current CEO took over in February of this year and have since expired.

 The memo alleges the company paid Cohen $399,920 in late 2017 and early 2018 in four payments — each amounting to $99,980.

 Trump had dinner with Novartis' soon-to-be CEO Vasant Narasimhan, along with other European executives, at the World Economic Forum in Davos shortly after the date of the final payment.

 Larry Noble, senior director of the Campaign Legal Center, said there's nothing technically wrong with companies like Novartis and AT&T hiring people like Cohen to provide insight into the president's thinking. But he said the arrangement described by Avenatti "certainly doesn't look good."

 "Why would you go to the president's private fixer?" he asked. "He's not known for policy and he's not in the administration. You're going to someone who can get you access and tell you about the person of the president. That's unusual."

 ___

 Associated Press writers Chad Day and Jeff Horwitz in Washington, Jake Pearson in New York and Mike Balsamo in Los Angeles contributed to this report. ||||| (CNN) Special counsel Robert Mueller 's investigators have questioned a Russian oligarch about hundreds of thousands of dollars in payments his company's US affiliate made to President Donald Trump's personal attorney, Michael Cohen, after the election, according to a source familiar with the matter.

 Viktor Vekselberg, chairman of asset manager Renova Group, is an oligarch close to Vladimir Putin, and last month the Trump administration placed him on a list of sanctioned Russians for activities including election interference. The purpose of the payments, which predate the sanctions, and the nature of the business relationship between Vekselberg and Cohen is unclear.

 The scrutiny of the payments could add to the legal troubles for Cohen, whose home and office were raided last month as part of a criminal investigation by federal prosecutors in Manhattan. In court documents, the prosecutors said at least part of their inquiry stemmed from a referral from Mueller's office.

 The questions asked of Vekselberg suggest that Mueller investigators have been examining some of Cohen's business relationships as part of the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Vekselberg is one of two Russian oligarchs the FBI stopped earlier this year after their private jets landed in New York-area airports as part of Mueller's investigation.

 Investigators also asked Vekselberg about donations the head of his US affiliate made to Trump's inaugural fund and campaign funds, sources said.

 The attorney for Stormy Daniels -- the porn star who received $130,000 to keep quiet about an alleged affair she had with Trump a decade ago -- produced information Tuesday evening that appears to add further details to CNN's reporting. Michael Avenatti alleged that Cohen received half a million dollars from a company affiliated with Vekselberg in the months after the presidential election.

 Avenatti alleged the $500,000 went into the bank account for Essential Consultants, a shell company that Cohen set up before the election that was used to pay Daniels. Avenatti added that the payments occurred from January to August 2017.

 CNN has reviewed documents that appear to show these payments. CNN has not independently authenticated the documents.

 Prosecutors have not accused Cohen of wrongdoing in regard to the payments or any other business dealings.

 What FBI agents wanted to know

 FBI agents asked Vekselberg about payments his company's American affiliate, Columbus Nova, made to Cohen, according to one source. The Russian was questioned as well about $300,000 in political donations by Andrew Intrater, Vekselberg's American cousin who is the head of Columbus Nova, sources said.

 Intrater was also questioned by Mueller's investigators, two sources told CNN. Last month, Vekselberg was placed on the US government's list of sanctioned individuals, prohibiting him from traveling to the US.

 The payments occurred at the same time Cohen was trying to build a consulting and legal business after the election and around the time he left the Trump Organization. At that time, he was still Trump's personal lawyer. Even last month, as Trump responded to questions about the payment to Daniels, the President deferred to Cohen and said, "Michael is my attorney."

 In court filings, Cohen's attorney said that Cohen has seven clients for whom he provides "strategic advice and business consulting." The attorney did not specify whether Columbus Nova was one of those clients.

 After publication, Columbus Nova provided a statement from its attorney, Richard Owens.

 "Columbus Nova is a management company solely owned and controlled by Americans," the statement said. "After the inauguration, the firm hired Michael Cohen as a business consultant regarding potential sources of capital and potential investments in real estate and other ventures. Reports today that Viktor Vekselberg used Columbus Nova as a conduit for payments to Michael Cohen are false. The claim that Viktor Vekselberg was involved or provided any funding for Columbus Nova's engagement of Michael Cohen is patently untrue. Neither Viktor Vekselberg nor anyone else other than Columbus Nova's owners, were involved in the decision to hire Cohen or provided funding for his engagement."

 Later Tuesday, Eric Kosta, general counsel of Columbus Nova, sent this statement: "As the General Counsel of Columbus Nova, I can confirm that the company is 100% owned and controlled by Americans. Any suggestion that at any point in time Viktor Vekselberg or any of his companies owned or exercised any control over Columbus Nova is patently untrue."

 Intrater did not respond to requests for comment. An attorney for Vekselberg did not respond to a request for comment, nor did representatives for his company in Russia. Cohen did not respond to a request for comment.

 Prosecutors with the US attorney's office in Manhattan are investigating Cohen's personal financial dealings, including his taxi business and payments made to silence Daniels, sources have told CNN. The FBI raided Cohen's home, office and hotel room last month, seizing at least eight boxes of documents and more than a dozen electronic devices. Cohen's attorney said the inquiry was referred by Mueller's team.

 Campaign donations under scrutiny

 Vekselberg's cousin Intrater gave generously to support Trump.

 He donated $250,000 to the Trump inauguration fund, $35,000 to the Trump Victory Fund, and $29,600 to the Republican National Committee in June 2017, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

 While it is illegal for foreigners to donate to US politics, Intrater is American.

 However, the donations were a sharp increase from previous cycles and may raise questions for investigators. Intrater's only previous political donations included $1,200 to Democrat Bill Richardson's presidential run in 2008 and $2,600 in 2014 for Republican Chris Day's congressional race in New York. Renova Group donated between $50,000 and $100,000 to the Clinton Foundation, but it's not clear when the contribution occurred, according to the foundation's public list of donors.

 Vekselberg may also be of interest to investigators because of his close ties to the Kremlin. He built his fortune following the collapse of the Soviet Union through a series of deals in the oil and gas sector. In 2004, he paid over $100 million to buy nine Faberge eggs from the American Forbes family, returning the second-largest collection of imperial eggs to Russia. Six years later, he was appointed by then-Russian president Dmitry Medvedev to lead the Skolkovo Innovation Center project, the Kremlin's answer to Silicon Valley.

 From 2007 until March 2012, Vekselberg was a shareholder and chairman of the board of Rusal, the aluminum company controlled by Oleg Deripaska. Deripaska has business ties to former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, who has been indicted on fraud and tax related charges as part of Mueller's investigation. Manafort has pleaded not guilty. Deripaska, who also was added to the US sanctions list last month, has sued Manafort over a soured investment deal.

 Lamesa Investments Ltd, an affiliate of Renova, acquired a large stake in the Bank of Cyprus at the same time Wilbur Ross, then a private equity investor, made a capital infusion into the then-struggling bank. Lamesa now holds a 9.2% stake in the Bank of Cyprus. Ross resigned from his position as vice chairman of the bank after he was confirmed as Trump's commerce secretary.

 Vekselberg also attended the December 2015 dinner in Moscow for RT, the state-controlled television channel, where Michael Flynn, Trump's former national security adviser, sat beside Putin, according to NBC News. Flynn has pleaded guilty to lying about a call he had with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition and is cooperating with the Mueller investigation.

 Update: This story has been updated to include Columbus Nova's latest statement. ||||| Michael Cohen, a longtime lawyer for President Trump, was reportedly hired last year by the U.S.-based affiliate of a Russian billionaire with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. (Seth Wenig/AP)

 President Trump’s personal attorney Michael Cohen was hired last year by the U.S.-based affiliate of a Russian business magnate who attended Trump’s inauguration and was recently subjected to sanctions by the U.S. government, the company said Tuesday.

 The New York investment firm Columbus Nova said it retained Cohen as a consultant “regarding potential sources of capital and potential investments in real estate and other ventures.” Though Columbus Nova has been described in federal regulatory filings as an affiliate of the Renova Group, founded by Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg, the company said Vekselberg was not involved with hiring or paying Cohen.

 The company’s confirmation came after Michael Avenatti, a lawyer for adult-film actress Stormy Daniels, circulated on Twitter a document purporting to show a detailed accounting of wire transfers made to Essential Consultants, a company established by Cohen in October 2016.

 The payments listed in the document began in the months after Cohen paid $130,000 to Daniels just before the November 2016 election, as part of an agreement that required her to not speak publicly about an affair she says she had with Trump a decade earlier.

 In the document, Avenatti claims that Cohen received $500,000 from Columbus Nova between January 2017 and August 2017.

 Avenatti did not provide supporting documentation for his claims, though Columbus Nova and AT&T;, another company named in the document, both released statements in the hours after Avenatti’s disclosure confirming that they had business relationships with Cohen.

 Avenatti alleged that Vekselberg might have provided funds that “replenished the account” following Cohen’s payments to Daniels. In a statement, a spokesman for Vekselberg said neither the Russian billionaire nor the Renova Group has any “contractual relationship” with Cohen.

 [Analysis: How money flowed through Michael Cohen’s multipurpose shell company]

 The payments from Columbus Nova point to a potential new financial tie between the president’s personal lawyer and a U.S. representative of a key Russian figure. Vekselberg, who is close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, was one of two dozen Russian business executives and government officials sanctioned in April as part of the U.S. response to the poisoning of a former Russian intelligence officer in southern England.

 Columbus Nova hired Cohen as U.S. investigators were ramping up their inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election. The chief executive of the U.S. affiliate is Vekselberg’s cousin, Andrew Intrater, a U.S. citizen who donated $250,000 to Trump’s inauguration and made additional contributions to a Trump campaign committee and to the Republican National Committee.

 More broadly, the revelations show that companies with business interests before the U.S. government hired Cohen, a longtime Trump associate, by paying him through Essential Consultants, which he also used to pay Daniels before the election.

 The document from Avenatti says AT&T; paid Cohen $50,000 a month for four months starting in October 2017, just weeks before Trump’s Justice Department filed suit to block AT&T;’s acquisition of Time Warner.

 A spokesman for AT&T; confirmed that the company engaged Essential Consultants, a company formed by Cohen in early 2017, “to provide insights into understanding the new administration.”

 “They did no legal or lobbying work for us, and the contract ended in December 2017,” the spokesman added.

 Cohen was receiving payments from Columbus Nova during the same months that Trump attorney Rudolph W. Giuliani has said Trump was paying Cohen $35,000 a month in legal fees.

 Giuliani has said Trump’s money served as a reimbursement for the funds Cohen provided to Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.

 Stephen Ryan, a lawyer for Cohen, did not respond to requests for comment.

 Cohen’s finances are of intense interest to federal authorities in New York, who last month served search warrants on his home, office and hotel room, gathering documents related to the Daniels payment as well as to Cohen’s personal businesses.

 Cohen’s lawyers have fought in court to restrict prosecutors’ access to the material seized in those raids. As part of that legal fight, they told a judge that in 2017, Cohen had three legal clients and seven clients to whom he provided “strategic advice and business consulting.”

 Avenatti’s document might provide a road map to those clients. He claims that Cohen also received payments from the drug company Novartis Investments and from Korea Aerospace Industries. Each has important business considerations with the U.S. government.

 Shortly after the last transaction from Novartis identified by Avenatti, in January, Trump met with executives including the incoming CEO of Novartis, Vas Narasimhan, during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

 A Novartis spokesman said any agreements with Essential Consultants took place before the new CEO took over in February and have since expired.

 Korea Aerospace is in contention for a multibillion-dollar joint contract with Lockheed Martin to produce jet trainers for the U.S. Air Force. A company representative confirmed paying the Cohen company, but said the payments were to provide legal consulting to assist in the company’s reorganization of its “internal accounting system” and did not involve the Air Force deal or other lobbying.

 The company added that it learned only recently of Essential Consultants’ Trump ties.

 In a Wednesday morning tweet, Avenatti said it was “priceless” to watch the various companies that paid Cohen try to explain their reasons for doing so.

 “Watching all of the companies that sent money to the LLC slush fund come up with different alleged reasons for hiring Mr. Cohen — ‘accounting advice,’ ‘real estate consulting,’ ‘insight,’ etc. Who knew Mr. Cohen was such a brilliant renaissance man?”

 Vekselberg is a Russian billionaire who regularly participates in gatherings of Russian business leaders with Putin and sometimes meets one on one with the Russian president, according to news accounts and people familiar with his role.

 In March 2017, the two sat down to discuss infrastructure projects, according to Russian state news reports. Vekselberg funds several critically important prestige projects, including Skolkovo, the business incubator touted as Russia’s answer to Silicon Valley.

 Vekselberg’s spokesman Andrey Shtorkh confirmed to The Washington Post in January that Vekselberg had attended Trump’s inauguration as a guest of one of his American business partners.

 A person familiar with the inauguration said the partner was Intrater, and the New York Times has reported that Intrater and Vekselberg have both been interviewed by prosecutors working for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.

 Two people familiar with Mueller’s probe told The Post that the special counsel is investigating whether foreign money helped fund Trump’s inauguration. By law, only U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents can donate to a U.S. inaugural committee.

 In addition to Intrater’s donation to Trump’s inauguration, an additional $1 million to support the inauguration came from Access Industries, which was founded by Leonard Blavatnik, a Soviet-born American British billionaire who is a longtime friend and business associate of Vekselberg.

 Shtorkh told The Post in January that Vekselberg had met the past three U.S. presidents as part of his efforts to expand Russia’s international economic relations but that this was the first time the magnate attended a presidential inauguration.

 Photographs also show that Vekselberg attended a December 2015 dinner in Moscow to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Russian television network RT. Another attendee of the dinner, seated next to Putin, was Michael Flynn, who later became Trump’s national security adviser.

 Alice Crites, Carol D. Leonnig, Beth Reinhard, Ashley Parker, Craig Timberg and John Wagner in Washington and Min Joo Kim in Seoul contributed to this report. |||||


News article:

 Mike Brown stands for a portrait in front of an artist portrayal of Planet Nine. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon for The Washington Post)

 Mike Brown is an astronomer at Caltech who's been instrumental in the discovery of more than 30 dwarf planets and asteroids at the far reaches of our solar system. Most members of the general public probably don't know about all of the planetoids he has found — but many know about the one planet he has killed.

 When Brown and his team discovered Eris, a dwarf planet more massive than Pluto, it was initially referred to as our solar system's 10th planet. But that ended in 2006 when the International Astronomical Union voted to define "planet" officially for the first time. Eris was out of the running, and Pluto was a casualty — cut from the official planetary roll call.

 Now Brown and his co-author, Konstantin Batygin, believe they've compiled the best evidence for a true ninth planet to take Pluto's place in the history books. We called Brown up to chat about the latest blow he has dealt to Pluto fans.

 This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

 Washington Post: How did you get into the planet finding (and planet killing) business?

 Mike Brown: So, planetary science is something I got into when I was in grad school. I went into astronomy anticipating studying some of the most distant galaxies, but I fell in love with this field because planetary science is just so much more concrete to me. I could actually go outside at night and see this thing I was studying.

 I can’t do that anymore! But it’s still much more visceral to me than some of the more abstract parts of astronomy.

 And the reason why I particularly like these objects I study in the outer solar system is that they have grand importance for how our solar system came together, and how our planetary system formed, but it's also just as much about this journey of discovery. It’s exploration. For me, this is what we do as humans. We see our neighborhood out there and explore it.

 Mike Brown points to the gold ring showing the orbital path of Planet Nine. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon for The Washington Post)

 WP: Tell us more about that "grand importance." What can objects like Eris, Pluto and Planet Nine teach us about the origins of the solar system?

 MB: The objects in the outer solar system have the unique property of not having been messed with very much.

 All the planets on the inside of the solar system have been heated, smashed, had their orbits pushed around, and so on. But on the very edge, there’s just not as much out there to mess with things. The sunlight isn’t very hot, and they can preserve these very delicate records of what happened at the beginning of the solar system.

 Planet Nine is actually an example, and not one I ever thought we’d get. The fact that we can find another planet out there based on the very subtle gravitational influence it has is because everything is so pristine.

 Astronomers say they have evidence of a ninth planet in our solar system. Here's what they say they know about it. (Joel Achenbach,Gillian Brockell/The Washington Post)

 WP: When you discovered the dwarf planet Eris, at what point did you realize Pluto was in trouble?

 MB: Oh, within 15 seconds. I was sitting — I'm actually sitting in the same chair right now — I was looking at data, and the only reason it took 15 seconds was that for the first 14 I was thinking, no, this can't be right; there's nothing this bright in the sky.

 Then I did a quick calculation to see how big this object was and — we didn't know exactly how big it was at the time, but it was clearly the size of Pluto or much bigger. Either this was going to be a new planet, or Pluto was in trouble.

 WP: A lot of people got excited when New Horizons found that Pluto is probably larger than Eris, for exactly that reason.

 MB: Eris is significantly more massive — 25 percent more massive. If you take Pluto and you add every single object in the asteroid belt to it, you get to the mass of Eris. Pluto is bigger by volume, but it's just puffed up with extra ice.

 WP: So size isn't really the thing to get hung up on?

 MB: It's good for bragging rights, but it doesn't actually mean anything. They're both so much smaller than anything else we'd call a planet. In the end, it doesn't matter that Eris exists. Eris isn't the problem with Pluto. Pluto is the problem with Pluto.

 WP: What made you take on the title of "Pluto Killer" willingly? Any regrets?

 MB: It all happened kind of accidentally back in the early days of Twitter. I thought, oh, I should try it, and I needed a name and just thought being Pluto Killer would be funny.

 [Laughing] Be careful what you use, because that's going to follow you forever. I can say it was not really a calculated statement at the time.

 WP: Do the Pluto fans ever make it personal?

 MB: I think that there are people who would still love for Pluto to be a planet, and they wish people who kept reminding them why it’s not would be quiet and go home.

 Personally, I think it actually matters. I think that for people understanding the solar system as it really is, that's really important. So I have not been willing to back down and give up, and there are certainly people who don't like that.

 WP: And now you haven't just killed Pluto, you're trying to replace it.

 MB: My daughter — she's still kind of mad about Pluto being demoted, even though she was barely born at that time — she suggested a few years ago that she'd forgive me if I found a new planet. So I guess I've been working on this for her.

 An artist's impression of Planet Nine, which could sit at the edge of our solar system. (Caltech/R. Hurt)

 WP: Speaking of Planet Nine, at what point can we actually say the planet has been "discovered"?

 MB: In the end, discovery means it’s been seen. Someone has seen it, has seen it move, has seen the orbit. We think we know the orbit, but we don't know where on that orbit the planet is, and we haven't seen it yet. This paper we published is like handing everyone a treasure map.

 It's going to depend on the luck of the person who points the telescope in the right place first. It's going to take a lot of hard work, sure, but also a lot of luck. It might not be us.

 WP: But if you do get naming rights, what name are you going to propose for Planet Nine?

 MB: This would only be the third planetary discovery in modern history [note: not counting Pluto!]. Naming it just seems too big for any one person. It just really seems like too big of a thing for the person who happens to have the luck of pointing the telescope.

 It would be a huge cultural moment. It shouldn't just be some guy saying, hey, I found it, so we're going to name it George. Which, by the way, is what William Herschel tried to do when he discovered Uranus. Unfortunately for him, we didn't stick with George.

 Read More:

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 Why is this famous physicist tweeting rumors about gravitational waves? ||||| Astronomers say they have evidence of a ninth planet in our solar system. Here's what they say they know about it. (Joel Achenbach,Gillian Brockell/The Washington Post)

 Astronomers at the California Institute of Technology announced Wednesday that they have found new evidence of a giant icy planet lurking in the darkness of our solar system far beyond the orbit of Pluto. They are calling it "Planet Nine."

 Their paper, published in the Astronomical Journal, estimates the planet's mass as five to 10 times that of the Earth. But the authors, astronomers Michael Brown and Konstantin Batygin, have not observed the planet directly.

 Instead, they have inferred its existence from the motion of recently discovered dwarf planets and other small objects in the outer solar system. Those smaller bodies have orbits that appear to be influenced by the gravity of a hidden planet – a "massive perturber." The astronomers suggest it might have been flung into deep space long ago by the gravitational force of Jupiter or Saturn.

 Telescopes on at least two continents are searching for the object, which on average is 20 times farther away than the eighth planet, Neptune. If "Planet Nine" exists, it's big – about two to four times the diameter of the Earth, which would make it the fifth-largest planet after Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. But at such extreme distances, it would reflect so little sunlight that it could evade even the most powerful telescopes.

 [Q&A: The ‘Pluto Killer’ who thinks he’s found the true ninth planet]

 Confirmation of its existence would reconfigure the models of the solar system. Pluto, discovered in 1930, spent three-quarters of a century as the iconic ninth planet. Then, a decade ago, Pluto received a controversial demotion, in large part because of Brown.

 His observations of the outer solar system identified many small worlds there – some close to the size of Pluto – and prompted the International Astronomical Union to reconsider the definition of a planet. The IAU voted to change Pluto's classification to "dwarf planet," a decision mocked repeatedly last summer when NASA's New Horizons probe flew past Pluto and revealed a world with an atmosphere, weather and a volatile and dynamically reworked surface.

 Brown, who tweets under the handle @plutokiller and who wrote the book "How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming," said now may be the time to rewrite the textbooks yet again.

 "My daughter, she's still kind of mad about Pluto being demoted, even though she was barely born at that time," Brown said. "She suggested a few years ago that she'd forgive me if I found a new planet. So I guess I've been working on this for her."

 [Is there a Planet X, a ‘massive perturber,’ hidden beyond Pluto?]

 NASA's director of planetary science, Jim Green, cautioned Wednesday that there could be other explanations for the observed motion of the small bodies in the outer solar system. He referenced the famous dictum from Carl Sagan that "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."

 “The Sagan Rule applies. If it's there, find it. I challenge you. Somebody out there oughta find it," Green said.

 But he said he was personally excited about the new research: "What an era we're in, where we’re discovering new things about our solar system that we never thought possible even a handful of years ago."

 Brown and Batygin initially set out to prove that Planet Nine didn't exist. Their paper builds on earlier research by two other astronomers that revealed a peculiar clustering of the small, icy objects discovered in the past decade or so in the remote regions of the solar system.

 [Nah, this possible new ninth planet isn’t Pluto]

 In 2014, Scott Sheppard of the Washington-based Carnegie Institution of Science and Chad Trujillo of the Gemini Observatory in Hawaii published a paper in the journal Nature that discussed the potential existence of a giant planet affecting the orbits of those dwarf worlds. Sheppard and Trujillo noted a similarity in the motion of those bodies when they are closest to the sun.

 "We thought their idea was crazy," Brown said, explaining that extra planets are always the "go-to suggestion" when astronomers find orbital behavior they can't explain. But he and Batygin struggled to debunk that hypothetical ninth planet. They used mathematical equations and then computer models, ultimately concluding that the best explanation for the smaller objects' clustering was the gravitational effects of something far bigger.

 Such clustering is similar to what's seen in some asteroids that are about as close to the sun as the Earth. They wind up in stable orbits that keep them far from Earth and free from any significant disturbance by the Earth's gravity.

 Mike Brown and Konstantin Batygin stand for a portrait in front of an artist portrayal of Planet Nine at Caltech (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon for The Washington Post)

 "Until then, we didn't really believe our results ourselves. It just didn't make sense to us," Brown said. But their modeling showed that a planet with 10 times the mass of Earth would exert an influence over the orbits of the smaller bodies and keep them from coming as close to the sun as they should. It would also slowly twist these orbits by 90 degrees, making them periodically perpendicular to the plane of the solar system.

 "In the back of my head, I had this nagging memory that someone had found some of these modulating objects and not known what to make of them," Brown said. "And sure enough, these objects do exist. And they were exactly where our theory predicts they should be."

 That's when the Caltech researchers started to take Planet Nine seriously. "That was the real jaw-dropping moment, when it went from a cute little idea to something that might be for real," he said.

 [NASA estimates 1 billion ‘Earths’ in our galaxy alone]

 Sheppard, who co-wrote the paper that Brown and Batygin set out to disprove, says the existence of a hidden planet is still a big unknown. "Until we actually see it for real, it will always be questionable as to whether it exists," he said, cautioning that the latest calculations are based on a relatively small number of known objects and that further observations and detections of perturbed bodies would bolster the hypothesis.

 Still, Sheppard significantly upped the odds of discovery – from 40 percent before to 60 percent now. “Some people took it seriously, but a lot of people didn’t," he said of his own study's findings. "With this new work, it’s much more rigorous, and people will take it more seriously now.”

 Brown said he puts the odds of Planet Nine being real as "maybe 90 percent."

 From the Côte d'Azur Observatory in Nice, France, planetary scientist Alessandro Morbidelli agreed that the evidence was stronger this time. "I immediately felt that this paper, for the first time, was providing convincing evidence for a new planet in the solar system," said Morbidelli, an expert in these kinds of orbital movements who was not involved in either study. "I don't see any alternative explanation to that offered by Batygin and Brown."

 "We will find it one day," he added. "The question is when."

 The past two decades have seen a burst of discoveries as astronomers have scrutinized the light of distant stars and looked for signs of orbiting planets. More than a thousand such planets have been detected through analysis of starlight that has traveled across the vast interstellar distances. Brown and Batygin, however, have been searching closer to home, looking for objects that orbit the sun and remain unseen only because the outer regions of the solar system are exceedingly dark.

 [Scientists caught a new planet forming for the first time ever]

 The thought of a hidden planet larger than Earth is intriguing, but for now it's difficult to say too much about the hypothetical conditions there. Brown believes it's probably an icy, rocky world with a small envelope of gas – a planet that could have been the core of a gas giant had it not been ejected into a wonky, highly elliptical orbit. It might not make its closest approach of the sun more than once every 10,000 years, and even then it would remain far beyond the known planets.

 The situation mimics what happened in the 19th century when careful observation of the seventh planet, Uranus, indicated that there must be another body in far-distant space influencing its orbit. That work led eventually to the discovery of Neptune.

 It would be difficult to see the ninth planet if it's not at or near its closest approach to the sun. Brown doesn't believe the object is at that point, saying it would have been spotted by now. But he does think that the most powerful telescopes on the planet, if pointed in precisely the right direction, might be able to detect it even when it is most distant from the sun.

 "We've been looking for it for a while now, but the sky is pretty big," Brown said. "We know its path, but not where it is on that path."

 He and Batygin hope their paper's publication will infuse the search with new energy. "If other people – better astronomers – get excited about the idea of finding Planet Nine, we could hopefully see it within a couple of years," he said.

 The two know they may not get credit for that discovery. Until the planet is spotted directly with a telescope, any work surrounding it is theoretical. Brown, Batygin and other scientists who have made the case for Planet Nine's existence are providing treasure maps and clues – but someone else could very well strike gold before they do.

 If and when it's spotted, Planet Nine would be evaluated by the same criteria that got Pluto demoted. Brown isn't concerned about that.

 "That's not even a question -- it's definitely a planet," he said. One of the trickiest criteria for planet status, based on the standards set by the International Astronomical Union, is that a planet must "clear the neighborhood" around its orbital zone. It needs to have the gravitational prowess to change the orbits of other objects.

 "Planet Nine is forcing any objects that cross its orbit to push into these misaligned positions. It fits that concept perfectly," Brown said.

 The "Pluto killer" added: "Not to mention the fact that it's 5,000 times the mass of Pluto."

 1 of 22 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × 22 stunning photos of our solar system and beyond in 2016 View Photos A look at the best photos of space. Caption A look at the best photos of space. This undated photo shows the icy moon Mimas dwarfed by Saturn’s enormous rings. NASA/JPL-CalTech/Space Science Institute via AP Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.

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 For more science news, you can sign up for our weekly newsletter here. ||||| CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Scientists say they finally have "solid evidence" for Planet X, a true ninth planet on the fringes of our solar system.

 The gas giant is thought to be almost as big as Neptune and orbiting billions of miles beyond Neptune's path — distant enough to take 10,000 to 20,000 years to circle the sun. This Planet 9, as the two Caltech researchers call it, hasn't been spotted yet. They base their findings on mathematical and computer modeling, and anticipate its discovery via telescope within five years.

 The two reported on their research Wednesday in the Astronomical Journal.

 Once it's detected, the researchers insist there will be no Pluto-style planetary debate. They ought to know; one of them, Mike Brown, is the so-called Pluto killer. ||||| Image copyright SPL Image caption Pluto killer: Prof Mike Brown says he has no regrets about his role in Pluto's demotion

 The New Horizons flyby has renewed calls for Pluto to be reinstated into the club of planets from which it was unceremoniously dumped in 2006.

 But Dr Mike Brown of Caltech in Pasadena, who rejoices in the sobriquet of "the man who killed Pluto" told BBC News that those arguing for its reinstatement should stop living in the past.

 "The people you hear most talking about reinstatement are those who are involved in the (New Horizons) mission. It is emotionally difficult for them," he said.

 Those involved in the New Horizons mission want Pluto to be a planet because they want to be flying to a planet. They would be far better off embracing the reality that it is not a planet Prof Mike Brown, Caltech

 "They want Pluto to be a planet because they want to be flying to a planet. They would be far better off embracing the reality that it is not a planet and being excited about the fact that they are going to a new type of object in the outer Solar System."

 Coup de grace

 Calls for Pluto to be downgraded intensified after a candidate Kuiper Belt object was discovered in 1992. Some argued that Pluto was simply the first resident of this outer Solar System region to be discovered.

 But the coup de grace was delivered by Prof Brown with his discovery of the dwarf planet Eris in January 2005. It was like Pluto but more massive.

 This was one of the finds that eventually led the International Astronomical Union to set up a committee to examine how planets should be defined.

 Image copyright FRIEDRICH SAURER/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY Image caption An artist's impression of Eris; its discovery did much to force the issue over Pluto's planet status

 The IAU was forced to decide in 2006 whether it would admit Eris and other small worlds like Ceres, or boot out Pluto. It was a choice of one or the other - the status quo was not an option.

 Prof Brown argues that had the IAU had decided to keep Pluto as a planet and enrol Eris, it would eventually find itself having to consider the candidacies of hundreds, possibly thousands of wannabe planets.

 If outrageously calling myself 'Pluto killer' helps people understand what the solar system is really like then I'm happy with it Dr Mike Brown, Caltech

 "There is no other way of categorising our Solar System than to describe it as having eight dominant objects in it which are the planets we know. It is really no good keeping Pluto and classifying it as one of the major objects because it is just not," he told BBC News.

 So how did Prof Brown feel the day he heard that Pluto had been demoted? Was it a moment of joy, or was he wracked with guilt? He told me he felt it was more like a cold-blooded mercy killing necessary for the good of science.

 "It had been clear to me for some years that Pluto had been wrongly classified. So I was quite happy with the idea (of demoting Pluto) that we could go back and fix those mistakes," Prof Brown explained.

 No regrets

 Pluto's demotion continues to be acrimonious. Many scientists say that it should remain a planet, arguing that it looks like a planet, behaves like a planet and has been thought of as a planet for three quarters of a century.

 I asked Mike Brown whether he had any regrets.

 "No, no regrets. But I am sad about the way the last decade has gone since Pluto's demotion. I wish that people had embraced Pluto's status as an interesting member of the Kuiper Belt rather than the discussion of whether Pluto was a planet or not," he explained.

 When I met Mike Brown for the first time at a scientific meeting, there was a gleam in his eye - more mischievous than murderous - when I greeted him by saying: "You're the guy who killed Pluto."

 When I spoke to him this week, I put it to him that he seems to relish in the title, indeed he uses it himself on his website, and his book is called "How I killed Pluto and why it had it coming".

 He told me that it was intended as a clever joke but no one really understood it at the time.

 Image copyright SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY Image caption And then there were eight. In 2006 Pluto was expelled from the solar system's exclusive club of planets

 "I thought it was funny to talk about 'killing Pluto' because Pluto was god of the Underworld, but no one really picked up on that," he explained.

 "It is a bold claim that grabs attention. And that is important educationally. I want people to understand what the Solar System is really like and if outrageously calling myself 'Pluto killer' helps then I'm happy with it."

 Hate mail

 Dr Brown still gets hate mail on Twitter, mostly - he says - from people who had learned that Pluto was a planet at school. But he says that children who have grown up with the idea of Pluto not being a planet are comfortable with the idea. He believes that the controversy will gradually die down.

 "The Sun and the Moon used to be (thought of as) planets too but then we got over that a long time ago. I think it is far more interesting to be going to this new type of object rather than an odd ball planet on the edge of the Solar System.

 "I'm hoping that after New Horizons, those discussions will die down and we can begin talking about Pluto and what we have learned about the rest of the Kuiper Belt."

 Follow Pallab on Twitter |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– Pluto is gonna be PO'd. While the dwarf planet tries to fight its way back into the good graces of Those Who Deem What Counts as a Planet, another icy orb even further out may snatch that designation first. Astronomers at the California Institute of Technology say a giant celestial body "lurking at the end of our solar system," as the Washington Post puts it, may actually be a planet, and they're even already calling it "Planet Nine." In their research published in the Astronomical Journal, the sky-watching scientists—one of whom is known as the "Pluto killer" for his role in getting Pluto demoted—think their find is five to 10 times as massive as Earth, and per the AP, almost as big as Neptune and orbiting billions of miles past that planet's orbit. Michael "Pluto Killer" Brown and Konstantin Batygin haven't seen the supposed planet directly, but say they can infer the "massive perturber" exists by how the orbits of smaller bodies nearby are affected by its gravitational pull, the Post notes. What's interesting is that Brown and Batygin originally set out to disprove the existence of Planet Nine. "We thought their idea was crazy," Brown says of the scientists who originally floated the idea of a large, hidden planet. But as they did their own research, they soon came to their own conclusion in what Brown calls a "jaw-dropping moment" that Planet Nine could be the real deal. Now they're simply hoping more astronomers join in to actually try to spot the alleged planet—and they're not concerned it will face Pluto's fate. "That's not even a question—it's definitely a planet," Brown says. Not everyone's convinced. "I have seen many, many such claims in my career," a planetary scientist at Colorado's Southwest Research Institute tells Nature. "And all of them have been wrong." (The Washington Post caught up with Brown for a Q&A on the latest Pluto-killing endeavor.)


Summarize this article:

UPDATE:

 Odessa Police have just released higher quality video of the suspect wanted in reference to a theft of a deceased person that happened at Sunset Memorial Gardens & Funeral Home.

 _

 UPDATE:

 The family has given CBS 7 News a photo of the suspects vehicle.

 Anyone with information in reference to this incident is encouraged to contact the Odessa Police Department or Odessa Crime Stoppers at 432-333-TIPS.

 UPDATE:

 Odessa Police responded to Sunset Memorial Gardens & Funeral Home located 6801 East Highway 80 in reference to a theft of a deceased person.

 The investigation revealed that on April 8th an unknown female stole a ring off a deceased person and fled the scene in a red or maroon 4-door Saturn. The suspect is described as a heavy-set white female wearing a brown long sleeve sweater, black sweat pants and black sandals.

 This is currently being investigated as a State Jail Felony. No arrests have been made and the investigation continues.

 Anyone with information in reference to this incident is encouraged to contact the Odessa Police Department or Odessa Crime Stoppers at 432-333-TIPS.

 _

 An Odessa woman wants to find a thief after her mother's wedding ring was taken as she lay in a funeral home.

 Take a look at this video: The woman you see here allegedly took the ring from the mother's body at the Sunset Funeral Home in Odessa.

 The family is still grieving the woman's death, and is asking anyone with information about the theft to come forward.

 If you have any information, you can call Odessa Crimestoppers at 432-333-TIPS. ||||| A woman quietly walked into an Odessa funeral home following a visitation service Friday and stole a wedding ring from a dead woman lying in a casket, a relative said Saturday.

 Odessa police had little information about the theft, but Vel McKee, daughter of Lois Hicks, said a woman she never saw before walked in Friday to the Sunset Funeral Home, 6801 E. Business 20, and yanked the ring off her mother’s left hand, tearing off part of the skin from the woman's finger and took off with the jewelry.

 It was placed on Hick's hand to symbolize her love and devotion to her husband, Gayle, who died three years ago, McKee said. The theft occurred a day after Lois Hicks died. She was 88, McKee said.

 “I can’t believe someone would be that low,” McKee said Saturday. McKee and other family members saw the video surveillance of the thief jerking on Hick’s hand, she said.

 “It makes me sick to my stomach,” McKee said. “Horrible. I hope they catch her.”

 Bill Vallie, general manager of the funeral home said the video surveillance showed the unidentified woman parking her car, getting out of it and entering the building.

 McKee and Hicks’ other loved ones had left the funeral home shortly before the woman showed up at about 5:27 p.m. Friday. The woman walked in asking where the restroom was but went into the room where the casket was instead, Vallie said.

 “You can’t restrict anyone,” he said.

 Several shots of the vehicle’s license plate from the video recording can be enhanced for close ups; Hicks’ family is going to press charges, Vallie said.

 Jewelry theft from the dead at funeral homes is nothing new, Vallie said. But nothing prepared him for the brazen nature of Friday’s incident.

 “This is the first time this has happened” at the Odessa funeral home since it has been in operation in 1999, said Vallie, who worked in the funeral home industry for the past 40 years. “It never happened where I was at.”

 McKee said she and her sister, Brenda Vaughan, spent part of their Friday putting on makeup and brushing the hair of their deceased mother. Then one of funeral directors later called McKee up asking if either she or Brenda would want to touch up her makeup. That’s when McKee spotted the missing ring, she said.

 “We had only been gone for 15 minutes,” McKee said. “It’s just heartbreaking.”

 The sisters confirmed that a video recording was taken of the theft which alleviated some of their concerns, but McKee said she was stunned that such a crime to happen to someone so defenseless.

 “It made me sick,” McKee said of the theft. “We just never dreamed that something like this would happen. Not in a million years.”

 Anyone with information about the woman or her whereabouts can call the Odessa Police Department at 335-5784 or Odessa Crime Stoppers at 333-8477. |||||

– A Texas woman was caught on surveillance video stealing a wedding ring off the finger of a dead woman Friday, the Odessa American reports. The body of Lois Hicks, 88, was in an open casket at Odessa's Sunset Funeral Home. The woman's family had just left the funeral home after a visitation service when a stranger parked outside, came in, and asked to use the restroom. Instead, the funeral home's manager says, she walked into the room with Hicks' coffin, grabbed the ring off her finger, and left. Hicks' daughter says some of her mother's skin was actually torn off during the theft. "I can't believe someone would be that low," she says. The surveillance video captured the alleged thief's license plate, and the family is pressing charges. The incident is being investigated as a felony, KOSA reports. The suspect is described as a heavy-set white woman who was wearing a brown long-sleeved sweater, black sweat pants, and black sandals at the time; she drove off in a red or maroon four-door Saturn.


Here is a news article: A Las Vegas judge on Friday threw out a case against Kirstin Blaise Lobato, who spent more than a decade behind bars for the killing of a homeless man whose penis was cut off.

 Kirstin Lobato, who has long claimed her innocence in a 2001 killing, appears in Regional Justice Center on Wednesday Jan. 04, 2017. The Innocence Project has agreed to take her case. Jeff Scheid/Las Vegas Review-Journal Follow @jeffscheid

 Kirstin Lobato, who has long claimed her innocence in a 2001 killing, appears in Regional Justice Center on Wednesday Jan. 04, 2017. The Innocence Project has agreed to take her case. Jeff Scheid/Las Vegas Review-Journal Follow @jeffscheid

 Kirstin Lobato, left, who has long claimed her innocence in a 2001 killing, talks to her attorney Travis Barrick in Regional Justice Center on Wednesday Jan. 04, 2017. The Innocence Project has agreed to take her case. Jeff Scheid/Las Vegas Review-Journal Follow @jeffscheid

 Kirstin Lobato, left, who has long claimed her innocence in a 2001 killing, talks to her attorney Travis Barrick in Regional Justice Center on Wednesday Jan. 04, 2017. The Innocence Project has agreed to take her case. Jeff Scheid/Las Vegas Review-Journal Follow @jeffscheid

 Kirstin Lobato, then 19, turns toward her family after being sentenced Aug. 28, 2002, to at least 40 years in prison for killing and sexually mutilating a homeless man. Las Vegas Review-Journal file photo

 Kirstin Lobato, then 19, appears in court for sentenced Aug. 28, 2002. Lobato was sentenced to at least 40 years in prison for killing and sexually mutilating a homeless man. Las Vegas Review-Journal file photo

 Kirstin Lobato awaits opening statements May 8, 2002 in her trial on charges of killing and cutting of the penis of a homeless man in Las Vegas in 2001. Las Vegas Review-Journal file photo

 Kirstin Lobato awaits opening statements May 8, 2002 in her trial on charges of killing and cutting of the penis of a homeless man in Las Vegas in 2001. Las Vegas Review-Journal file photo

 Tears stream down the face of Kirstin Lobato, appearing in Clark County District Court Tuesday, Aug. 21, 2001, on charges of murder and severing a man's penis. K.M. Cannon Las Vegas Review-Journal

 Convicted killer Kirstin Lobato makes an appearance in Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2006, for a hearing in connection with the death and mutilation of a homeless man. Lobato has been convicted of manslaughter in connection with the death of Duran Bailey in July 2001 and mutilating his body to include severing his penis. Ronda Churchill Las Vegas Review-Journal

 Kirstin Lobato in court. 8-7-01 RJ Photo Gary Thompson|||

 Kirstin Lobato listens to testimony in Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, May 14, 2002, during her hearing in connection with the death and mutilation of a homeless man. Lobato allegedly killed Duran Bailey in July 2001 and mutilated his body to include severing his penis. Gary Thompson Las Vegas Review-Journal

 Kirstin Lobato makes an appearance in Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, July 31, 2001, for her hearing in connection with the death of a man and mutilation. Lobato allegedly killed homeless man Duran Bailey earlier in the month and mutilated his body to include severing his penis. Gary Thompson Las Vegas Review-Journal

 Convicted killer Kirsten Lobato appears in Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, May 19, 2006, for her retrial in connection with the alleged killing and mutilation of a homeless man. Lobato allegedly killed Duran Bailey in July 2001 and mutilated his body to include severing his penis. Gary Thompson Las Vegas Review-Journal

 Convicted killer Kirstin Lobato makes an appearance in Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2006, for a hearing in connection with the death and mutilation of a homeless man. Lobato has been convicted of manslaughter in connection with the death of Duran Bailey in July 2001 and mutilating his body to include severing his penis. Ronda Churchill Las Vegas Review-Journal

 A Las Vegas judge on Friday dismissed the case against Kirstin Blaise Lobato, who spent more than a decade behind bars for the killing of a homeless man whose penis was cut off, after prosecutors declined to proceed with a third trial.

 In a one-page order, Chief Judge Elizabeth Gonazalez ordered the Nevada Department of Corrections to release Lobato, 35.

 Lead defense attorney Vanessa Potkin, director of post-conviction litigation for the New York-based Innocence Project. which fought to overturn her conviction, said prison had a “devastating impact” on Lobato’s life.

 “We’re elated with the dimsissal,” Potkin said. “It brings an end to a nearly 17-year nightmare for Kirstin Lobato and her family.”

 Judge's Order by Las Vegas Review-Journal on Scribd

 Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson declined to comment on the ruling.

 During a court hearing Friday morning, Chief Deputy District Attorney Sandra DiGiacomo pointed out that two juries had previously convicted Lobato in the killing.

 “By the time the third trial could proceed, Lobato would be immediately eligible for parole if convicted,” DiGiacomo said. “Although we fully believe in her guilt, as did the 24 members of our community who found her guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, our resources are such that we are electing not to proceed with the third trial of this defendant, particularly considering the more than 15 years she has served in prison.”

 Earlier this year, Las Vegas attorney David Chesnoff, known for representing high-profile criminal defendants, agreed to take on Lobato’s case for free and work with the Innocence Project.

 “I was very proud to work with the Innocence Project and could not be happier than providing freedom to a fellow human being at the new year,” Chesnoff said Friday. “I appreciate the professionalism of the district attorney’s office.”

 Ineffective counsel argued

 Another judge earlier this month granted Lobato’s request for a new trial after finding that ineffective assistance of counsel may have played a role in her conviction in 44-year-old Duran Bailey’s slaying on either July 7 or 8, 2001.

 Time of death was crucial in the case.Bailey’s body was found about 10 p.m. on July 8, and the only evidence as to time of death at trial came from the medical examiner, who said death could have occurred as early as 10 p.m. on July 7.

 There was uncontested evidence that Lobato was in Panaca, her hometown, at midday and early evening on July 8.

 During a lengthy hearing in October, however, four forensic experts for the defense, including a former Clark County medical examiner and a university professor of forensic pathology, testified that Baileylikely died about 9 p.m. on July 8, when Lobato was seen in Panaca. They said they based their testimony based on photos and reports indicating lack of blowfly egg colonization on the homeless man’s body.

 Lobato’s post-trial lawyers said that pointed to her innocence.

 As of early Friday afternoon, it was unclear whether Lobato would be freed this weekend from Florence McClure Women’s Correctional Center, where she has served since 2007, even though Gonzalez’s order demanded that Lobato be released “forthwith.” A prison spokeswoman told the Review-Journal that Lobato “could be transported to another location” before being released.

 Voluntary sex conviction

 In 2007, Lobato was found guilty of voluntary sexual conduct between a prisoner and another person, which added another year to her sentence and was expected to be served after she finished serving her time for the killing.

 But Potkin said she would push for Lobato’s immediate release and revisit the prison crime conviction because Lobato “served over 15 years for a crime she did not commit.”

 Lobato filed a petition in May 2010 to challenge the legality of her detention, alleging 79 grounds for relief. The Supreme Court last year ordered an evidentiary hearing on 25 of the claims.

 Contact David Ferrara at dferrara@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-1039. Follow @randompoker on Twitter. ||||| On December 29, more than a decade after she was first sent to prison in Nevada for a murder she did not commit, Kirstin Blaise Lobato saw the charges against her dismissed. “It is the end to her nearly 17-year nightmare,” said Vanessa Potkin, director of post-conviction litigation for the Innocence Project, which took on Lobato’s case. “It’s over.”

 Lobato was twice convicted of the gruesome murder of a 44-year-old homeless man named Duran Bailey, whose body was found behind a dumpster off the Las Vegas Strip just after 10 p.m. on July 8, 2001, covered in a thin layer of trash. Bailey’s teeth had been knocked out and his eyes were bloodied and swollen shut; his carotid artery had been slashed, his rectum stabbed, and his penis amputated. It was found among the trash nearby.

 Despite a crime scene rich with potential evidence, Las Vegas detectives Thomas Thowsen and James LaRochelle ignored obvious leads and instead focused their investigation on 18-year-old Lobato, based solely on a third-hand rumor.

 Lobato, who was a stranger to Bailey, had an alibi for the day of the crime: She was at home with her parents in the small town of Panaca, nearly three hours northeast of Las Vegas near the Utah state line. Still, detectives and prosecutors insisted that Lobato had been in the city during the early morning hours of July 8, killing Bailey before setting off in her old Pontiac Fiero for the long drive up the unlit, mountainous highway, making it home in time to get cleaned up before being seen around the neighborhood later that morning.

 The state’s theory of the crime fell apart this past October, when Potkin and a team from the Innocence Project presented nearly a week’s worth of testimony from several renowned entomologists and a medical examiner, each of whom demonstrated why the state’s narrative never made any scientific sense. In short, had Bailey been slaughtered in the pre-dawn hours and his body left outside all day in the summer heat, as the state claimed, blowflies — nature’s swift and ubiquitous first responders to scenes of death — would have quickly colonized his remains, leaving visible clusters of eggs in his various wounds.

 Still, the prosecution would not be bowed: At the October hearing, prosecutor Sandra DiGiacomo tried to peddle the notion that flies in Las Vegas behave unlike flies everywhere else in the world. It didn’t work. In a detailed opinion filed December 19, Judge Stefany Miley concluded that the testimony of Lobato’s experts was credible, and had a jury heard such evidence, she might have been acquitted. Miley granted Lobato a new trial.

 That left District Attorney Steven Wolfson with three possibilities: appeal the ruling to the Nevada Supreme Court (a longshot given the court had granted the hearing before Judge Miley based on its determination that Lobato’s alibi evidence was strong); retry the case (another loser option, particularly since Miley’s ruling left the DA without any evidence to try the case again), or dismiss the charges and free Lobato.

 On Friday morning, Wolfson chose option three, and prosecutors went to court to ask that a judge dismiss the charges against Lobato “with prejudice” — meaning the state could never seek to prosecute her again for the crime.

 By Friday afternoon, Potkin said she had spent the day on and off the phone with the Florence McClure Women’s Correctional Center in Las Vegas trying to arrange for Lobato’s immediate release — as was called for in the judge’s order. “The defendant shall be released from the custody of the Nevada Department of Corrections forthwith,” Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez wrote. If Lobato isn’t released on December 29, Potkin said, she will have to remain in prison through New Year’s Day.

 For Michelle Ravell, Lobato’s dedicated advocate, her release can’t come a minute too soon. Ravell said that Lobato, now 35, will live with her while she works to put her life back together. Indeed, Lobato has spent most of her adulthood locked up for a crime she did not commit. “I always knew this was going to happen,” Ravell said. “I just want to go and get her.” ||||| “Despite the strong evidence that Ms. Lobato played no role in this crime, including alibi evidence that she was three hours away from Las Vegas on the day the victim was killed, the police focused exclusively and inexplicably on her as a suspect,” said Vanessa Potkin, Post-Conviction Litigation Director for the Innocence Project, which is affiliated with Cardozo School of Law. “As a result, Ms. Lobato has spent all of her young adulthood wrongfully incarcerated for a crime she did not commit. We are grateful that the prosecutor’s office moved expeditiously to dismiss her charges after the vacatur decision, and we hope Ms. Lobato will be released soon.”

 Lobato was just 18 years old when she was charged with the brutal 2001 murder of Duran Bailey, a homeless man in Las Vegas. Lobato, who was tried twice for the crime, has always maintained her innocence. Bailey’s body had been found at around 10 p.m. on July 8, 2001 next to a dumpster in the parking lot of a bank building. He had been brutalized: his eyes were swollen shut; his skull cracked; several of his teeth had been knocked out of his mouth; his carotid artery was cut; and his penis had been removed.

 Lobato grew up in Panaca, Nevada, a small town three hours north of Las Vegas. In late May 2001, two months before Bailey was killed, Lobato was visiting friends in Las Vegas when she was attacked in a motel parking lot by a man who attempted to rape her. Carrying a small knife given to her by her father for her protection, Lobato slashed at the man’s groin area and escaped his grasp. When she drove off, she saw the man on the ground, mobile and apparently crying. In the coming days and weeks, Lobato described this attack to numerous people, making clear that it occurred before July 2001 and stating that she believed she may have cut the man in the groin area before running off to safety.

 On July 20, 2001, nearly two weeks after Bailey’s murder, Las Vegas Metro Police Department detectives received a phone call from a Panaca resident who had heard from another Panaca resident that Lobato had told her that she had cut off a man’s penis in Las Vegas. Based on that attenuated story alone, detectives immediately drove the three hours to Panaca from Las Vegas. Upon arriving at Lobato’s family home, the detectives told Lobato that they knew she had recently been attacked. The police recorded a statement in which Lobato described the attempted rape in late May, stating that it had happened “at least a month ago,” clearly describing a motel parking lot as the location and not a dumpster, and describing a man who was mobile and alive when she left and not beaten to death, as was Bailey. Under the mistaken belief that police were informing her that the man who tried to rape her had died, she expressed remorse, and made other comments that the detective took as a confession for Bailey’s murder, even though the event Lobato described was glaringly at odds with the basic facts of his killing.

 Armed only with this statement, the detectives arrested Lobato for Bailey’s murder. The police did not investigate clear alternate perpetrators with the motive and means to so violently kill Bailey. On July 1, 2001, one week before he was found dead, Bailey assaulted and raped a woman who lived in an apartment building next to the bank where his body would be found. Bailey threatened to kill the woman if she told anyone, but she eventually reported the attack to the police on July 5, 2001, just three days before Bailey was killed. She also told a number of her male neighbors who had an ongoing dispute with Bailey about the attack. Despite the woman’s prior contact with the victim, as well as her male friends’ motive to retaliate against Bailey, the police prematurely dismissed these potential suspects.

 Instead, the police focused solely on Lobato, a teenager with no connection to Bailey and no motive to harm him. At trial, the prosecution relied primarily on Lobato’s statement to the detectives, which they characterized as a confession, as there was no physical or forensic evidence linking Lobato to this crime. The defense presented numerous family members and neighbors who testified that Lobato was actually in Panaca on July 8, 2001. The prosecution even conceded in summation that Lobato was in Panaca as of 11:30 a.m. on July 8th. However, the prosecution relied heavily on their medical examiner’s time of death estimation to undermine Lobato’s alibi defense: the medical examiner estimated that Bailey died up to 24 hours before he was pronounced dead at 3:50 a.m. on July 9th, meaning at approximately 4 a.m. on July 8th. The State argued that this put Bailey’s death at a time when Lobato was not accounted for by her alibi witnesses, and the jury convicted her.

 At the October 2017 hearing, Lobato presented the testimony of three forensic entomologists, or insect scientists, all of whom concluded that based on the weather conditions in Las Vegas on July 8, 2001 and based on the outdoor location where Bailey’s body was found, one would expect to see his body teeming with blowfly eggs within a short period of time after his death. Blowflies arrive very shortly after death and lay hundreds of easily observable eggs in a freshly dead body’s orifices and wounds. Given that Bailey’s body had no blowfly eggs on it, each of the forensic entomologists independently concluded that he had to have died close in time to when his body was discovered around 10 p.m. on July 8th, during which time, as conceded even by the prosecution, Lobato was three hours away with her family in Panaca. A forensic pathologist also independently concluded that based on the recorded rigor mortis changes in Bailey’s body between the time when his body was discovered and when his autopsy was conducted, he likely died during the early evening hours of July 8th. Based on this compelling scientific evidence which could have been presented at Lobato’s trial and which would have likely changed the jury’s outcome, Judge Miley granted Lobato’s habeas corpus petition and vacated her convictions.

 “We are grateful that the court recognized that Ms. Lobato’s defense counsel was ineffective for failing to present scientific evidence showing that the victim died close in time to when his body was found, at a time when Ms. Lobato was hours away from the crime scene.” Adnan Sultan

 “We are grateful that the court recognized that Ms. Lobato’s defense counsel was ineffective for failing to present scientific evidence showing that the victim died close in time to when his body was found, at a time when Ms. Lobato was hours away from the crime scene,” said Adnan Sultan, Staff Attorney at the Innocence Project. “After sixteen years of wrongful conviction, Ms. Lobato’s name is finally cleared and she can begin to build her life as a free woman,” said Jane Pucher, Staff Attorney at the Innocence Project. |||||
A summary of this is?

– Kirstin Lobato will be happier than most to leave 2017 behind. Twice convicted of the brutal murder of a homeless man in Las Vegas, the 35-year-old is expected to start a new chapter when she becomes a free woman for the first time since 2001. A judge granted a request from a district attorney Friday that she be cleared of all charges and released "with prejudice," meaning Nevada can never again prosecute Lobato for Duran Bailey's murder, reports the Intercept. The move followed a judge's order vacating Lobato's murder conviction on Dec. 19, based on hours of testimony from pathology and entomology experts. They said Bailey, 44, was killed—his carotid artery was slashed and penis cut off—around 9pm on July 8, 2001, while 18-year-old Lobato was hours away from Sin City, per the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Prosecutors had claimed Lobato killed the homeless man in the morning—based on a rumor that she cut the penis of a man who tried to rape her weeks earlier—but that conflicted with an absence of blowflies, which collect on dead bodies. "Although we fully believe in her guilt … our resources are such that we are electing not to proceed with the third trial of this defendant, particularly considering the more than 15 years she has served in prison," Chief Deputy District Attorney Sandra DiGiacomo said Friday. It's not yet clear when Lobato, who had no connection to Bailey, will walk free. Though the judge said she should be released "forthwith," Lobato was convicted of voluntary sexual conduct in prison in 2007, which added a year to her sentence. Her Innocence Project attorneys say they will push for her immediate release regardless.


The Obama administration said Friday that two more states, Washington and Wisconsin, will be exempted from many requirements of the federal "No Child Left Behind" education law.

 The decision brings to 26 the number of states granted waivers as Congress remains at a stalemate regarding an overhaul to former President George W. Bush's signature accomplishment. With more than half of the states now free from many of the law's requirements, there are questions about the future of No Child Left Behind.

 The 10-year-old federal No Child Left Behind law requires all students to achieve proficient math and reading scores by 2014, a goal that many educators say is impossible.

 The Education Department began granting the waivers in February in exchange for promises from states to improve how they prepare and evaluate students. The executive action by Obama is part of an ongoing effort to act on his own when Congress is rebuffing him.

 The administration says the waivers are a temporary measure while Education Secretary Arne Duncan continues to work with Congress to rewrite the law, which is formally known as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

 "A strong, bipartisan reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act remains the best path forward in education reform, but as 26 states have now demonstrated, our kids can't wait any longer for Congress to act," Duncan said in a statement released Friday.

 The 10-year-old federal No Child Left Behind law requires all students to achieve proficient math and reading scores by 2014, a goal that many educators say is impossible.

 Members of both parties agree the No Child Left Behind law is broken but have been unable to agree on how to fix it. While it has been praised for focusing on the performance of minorities, low-income students, English language learners and special education students, it has also led to a number of schools being labeled as "failing."

 Critics also say the law has had the unintended effect of encouraging instructors to teach to the test and has led schools to narrow their curricula.

 Washington state schools chief Randy Dorn said the waiver will lift the requirement that all students pass both the state reading and math tests by 2014. It will also give Washington school districts more flexibility about how they spend some federal dollars.

 In return, Washington will need to show improvement in test scores for subgroups of students who have historically had lower scores than average, such as those who qualify for free- or reduced-price meals.

 In late May, Wisconsin officials said they were modifying some details of their waiver application and expected approval soon.

 The federal Education Department earlier wrote to officials in that state, saying Wisconsin had a number of commendable proposals, but they were too short on detail.

 Other waiver applications are still pending in 10 states and the District of Columbia. Six waivers were approved last month in Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri, South Dakota, Utah and Virginia.

 In order to get a waiver, each state had to promise to show in other ways that its students and schools are improving, and they were required to more closely link teacher evaluations to student test scores, among other requirements.

 Washington's waiver application emphasized its embrace of new national education standards, the state's new teacher and principal evaluations, and its efforts to take a broader look at student achievement beyond reading and math by also testing for writing and science.

 The waiver agreement requires that by 2018, Washington cut in half achievement gaps between various ethnic and economic groups, when compared with 100 percent passage rates. For example, if one group had 74 percent passing reading in 2011, that group would need to have 87 percent passing by 2018.

 The agreement adds another requirement for Title I schools, which are high-poverty public schools that get extra money from the federal government to help students who are behind academically or at risk of falling behind.

 It requires the state education office to annually identify priority schools, which are the 5 percent lowest-achieving of Title I schools; focus schools, which are the lowest 10 percent of Title I schools; and reward schools, the highest performing Title I schools or those making the most progress in a given year.

 ____

 Contact Donna Blankinship through Twitter at https://twitter.com/dgblankinship. ||||| In just five months, the Obama administration has freed schools in more than half the nation from central provisions of the No Child Left Behind education law, raising the question of whether the decade-old federal program has been essentially nullified.

 On Friday, the Department of Education plans to announce that it has granted waivers releasing two more states, Washington and Wisconsin, from some of the most onerous conditions of the signature Bush-era legislation. With this latest round, 26 states are now relieved from meeting the lofty — and controversial — goal of making all students proficient in reading and mathematics by 2014. Additional waivers are pending in 10 states and the District of Columbia.

 “The more waivers there are, the less there really is a law, right?” said Andy Porter, dean of the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education.

 While No Child Left Behind has been praised for forcing schools to become more accountable for the education of poor and minority children, it has been derided for what some regard as an obsessive focus on test results, which has led to some notorious cheating scandals. Critics have also faulted the law’s system of rating schools, which they say labeled so many of them low performing that it rendered the judgment meaningless.

 In exchange for the education waivers, schools and districts must promise to set new targets aimed at preparing students for colleges and careers. They must also tether evaluations of teachers and schools in part to student achievement on standardized tests. The use of tests to judge teacher effectiveness is a departure from No Child Left Behind, which used test scores to rate schools and districts.

 Congress has tried and failed repeatedly to reauthorize the education law over the past five years because Democrats and Republicans cannot agree on an appropriate role for the federal government in education. And so, in the heat of an election year, the Obama administration has maneuvered around Congress, using the waivers to advance its own education agenda.

 The waivers appear to follow an increasingly deliberate pattern by the administration to circumvent lawmakers, as it did last month when it granted hundreds of thousands of young illegal immigrants a reprieve from deportation. The administration has also unveiled policies to prevent drug shortages, raise fuel economy standards and cut refinancing fees for federally insured mortgages.

 Critics question whether the waivers have done much to genuinely shift the focus of federal education reform, given their continued reliance on standardized tests. The waivers “should probably make the meh list,” said Joshua Starr, superintendent of the Montgomery County schools in Maryland, which was granted a waiver in May.

 Mr. Starr said he believed that education reform should focus on incentives to help teachers collaborate and help students learn skills that could not simply be measured by tests.

 “It is another example to me of how we’re not focused on the right things in the American education conversation today,” Mr. Starr said. “I have a lot of respect for Arne Duncan,” he added, referring to the secretary of education, “but it’s just sort of moving around the chairs on the Titanic.”

 Mr. Duncan, in a telephone interview on Thursday, said states that had received waivers, including New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, would also use a mix of other indicators to evaluate teachers and schools, like how many students actually enrolled in college or took Advanced Placement exams, as well as reviews of teachers by their peers, their students and their principals.

 “You have to look at multiple indicators and multiple measures,” he said. “There’s been historically a push to way oversimplify what is very complex.”

 House Republicans have repeatedly protested the Obama administration’s use of waivers as an end-run around Congress.

 In a speech to the American Enterprise Institute this year, Representative John Kline, a Minnesota Republican and the chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Work Force, accused the administration of using waivers “in exchange for states adopting the policies he wants them to have.”

 But education officials in the states that received waivers expressed relief from the pressure of the looming 2014 deadline.

 “There was a general feeling that there were these goals that no one was ever going to meet,” said Kelli Gauthier, spokeswoman for the Tennessee Department of Education. “Now we have standards that are possible.”

 Instead of labeling all struggling schools as failing, the waivers direct states to focus most attention on the bottom 5 percent of low-performing schools. “With the waiver we can focus on those schools that really need a lot of help,” said June Atkinson, North Carolina’s state superintendent of public schools. |||||

Write a summary.

– It's a milestone for No Child Left Behind, but not in a good way: More than half of the nation is now exempt. The White House issued waivers today to the 25th and 26th states, and another 10 are in the works, reports the New York Times. The exemptions come ahead of a 2014 deadline requiring all students to be proficient in math and reading. They also come close to making the hallmark of George W. Bush's education reform "essentially nullified," says the Times. Education chief Arne Duncan says the waivers are necessary while the administration works with Congress to rewrite the law, which critics say is too focused on test results, notes AP. "A strong, bipartisan reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act remains the best path forward in education reform, but as 26 states have now demonstrated, our kids can't wait any longer for Congress to act," said Duncan in a statement. A school superintendent in Maryland says the waivers don't do much to get away from standardized tests, however. “I have a lot of respect for Arne Duncan, but it’s just sort of moving around the chairs on the Titanic.”