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Focused crawls are collections of frequently-updated webcrawl data from narrow (as opposed to broad or wide) web crawls, often focused on a single domain or subdomain. ||||| The influential conservative website RedState fired a handful of prominent writers on Friday in a move that appeared motivated, at least in part, by purging the outlet of anti-Trump voices.

 The Daily Beast confirmed that among those laid off by RedState and its parent company Townhall Media were top editors and writers Caleb Howe, Jay Caruso, Ben Howe, Patrick Frey (who writes under the pseudonym Patterico), Neil Stevens, and Susan Wright—all of whom are often critical of the president.

 Fired staffers learned about their dismissal either through their email accounts being locked or via a memo from Townhall general manager and vice president Jonathan Garthwaite. “[W]e are having to make changes to RedState effective today,” the memo read. “Unfortunately, we have reached the conclusion that we can no longer support the entire current roster of writers.”

 RedState was founded in 2004, and soon after conservative pundit Erick Erickson was hired as its editor in chief. The site quickly grew into an influential blog among both Republican lawmakers and conservative activists. But the shedding of staffers on Friday marks a new chapter in its history and for some of those let go, it is a reflection of the drift that the conservative movement has taken during the Trump era.

 “There was a time that Republican politicians were terrified if [RedState] excoriated them from the front page,” fired contributor Ben Howe lamented to The Daily Beast. “But the modern conservative movement seems to have grown tired of accountability. ‘Liberal tears’ is the new operating principle. Unless you’re causing those tears to flow you aren’t being a team player.”

 Garthwaite and Townhall Media did not respond to The Daily Beast’s requests for comment.

 Erickson, who no longer operates the website, lamented the latest development in a tweet on Friday morning and suggested to The Daily Beast that the motivations for the layoffs were “two-fold”—relating to both financial and political concerns.

 He said he had spoken with roughly a dozen RedState writers on Friday, as the layoff notices went out.

 “A number of those fired had older contracts making more money-per-click,” he explained. “But [RedState] kept all the pro-Trump ones. Of those they fired making the lower amount per-click, the ones who were regularly critical of Trump were fired—even if they generated solid traffic.”

 Several vocal Trump critics—including Sarah Rumpf and Joe Cunningham—remain with the site. But Friday’s dismissals have been interpreted by those on staff, and those let go, as a purge of anti-Trump writers.

 “Any opinion site that fires people en masse because of a particular point of view is sending a message,“ fired columnist Patterico wrote on Twitter. “The message is: this point of view will no longer be tolerated at this Web site. Any operator of a Web site is entitled to decide that a particular message will no longer be tolerated. When the message that will no longer be tolerated is criticism of the sitting President, that creates all kinds of problems for the site.”

 Another fired staffer, who requested anonymity to speak freely, said the layoffs “definitely” had political motivations. “They canned someone who brought in 700k to 800k page views per month,” the writer told The Daily Beast. “Lately that would be around 10 percent of monthly traffic.”

 Indeed, the website’s highest-trafficked writer, Susan Wright, has been openly critical of not just President Trump—routinely decrying his various scandals, “desperate” behavior, and self-contradictions—but of the unabashed pro-Trump sycophants in conservative media, such as Fox News’ Sean Hannity.

 Wright makes “significantly less” than other, more pro-Trump writers who remain with the site and generate less traffic, a source noted to The Daily Beast.

 RedState is one of many conservative opinion sites in the Townhall Media roster, alongside Townhall, HotAir, Twitchy, and Human Events. As CNN noted on Friday, their parent company, Salem Media Group—which also owns radio networks and book publishers—has previously been criticized for its treatment of radio hosts who criticized Trump during the election.

 Other laid-off staffers suggested the firings reflect the Trump-era incentive for conservative outlets to protect the Republican president at all costs. One of those staffers was Ben Howe, who has been one of the right’s most vocal Trump critics. He was early adopter of the “Never Trump” tag during the election, declaring that he planned to work against Trump’s candidacy, even if that meant helping Hillary Clinton. At one point during the election he declared that a regrettably “status-quo” candidate like Clinton would be better than having “maniac” Trump in the White House.

 “It had become clear to me over the last couple of years that Jonathan [Garthwaite] was far more interested in making sure his golfing buddies were pleased with the level of GOP line-toeing more than anything,” Howe told The Daily Beast.

 By writing anti-Trump opinions, he said, “you’re certainly making Jonathan’s tee time awkward.” ||||| Salem Media, owner of the influential conservative outlet RedState, froze the site on Friday and dismissed many of its writers.

 Bloggers were locked out of their accounts -- some just temporarily, while the cuts were made, and others permanently.

 Erick Erickson, the site's longtime editor who left in 2015, tweeted about what he called the "mass firing" on Friday morning.

 "Very sad to see, but not really surprising given Salem's direction," he wrote. "And, finally, after all these years, they've turned off my account."

 Multiple sources told CNNMoney that they believed conservative critics of President Trump were the writers targeted for removal.

 "Insufficiently partisan" was the phrase one writer used in a RedState group chat.

 "They fired everybody who was insufficiently supportive of Trump," one of the sources who spoke with CNNMoney said, adding, "how do you define being 'sufficiently supportive' of Trump?"

 But if it was about politics, it was also about money.

 Related: Trump's call to 'Fox and Friends' explains why we don't hear much from him

 RedState writers work on contract and are paid based on the amount of traffic to their posts.

 "Those who had been under a contract with a higher per-click rate were mostly all tossed, only keeping those who were pro-Trump even if their traffic was comparable," another one of the sources said on condition of anonymity.

 "Of those who make less under their contracts, they mostly tossed those who had been openly critical of the president," the source said. "It seems to have been a cost saving measure, but the deciding factor between any two people seems to have been who liked the president and who didn't."

 Salem had no immediate comment. But an internal memo obtained by CNNMoney confirmed the housecleaning.

 "We had to make some tough changes to RedState today," Townhall general manager Jonathan Garthwaite wrote in the memo. "While these changes are painful, they were necessary once we reached the conclusion that we could no longer support the entire roster of writers and editors."

 RedState, a 13-year-old blog that was founded by Erick Erickson, is one of several sites in Townhall Media's portfolio. Townhall, in turn, is owned by Salem Media Group, a conservative media company that also operates radio stations and publishes books.

 Salem has previously been scrutinized for its treatment of radio hosts who weren't toeing a pro-Trump line during the presidential campaign.

 A source with ties to RedState said bloggers had been "wondering if this was going to happen at RedState," meaning "anyone who wasn't a big fan of Trump would be dumped."

 RedState has been reflective of the divides within the GOP and the conservative movement, with a spectrum of writers with varying reactions to Trump's political choices and personality conflicts.

 Garthwaite did not respond to a followup request for comment on Friday.

 His initial email to writers said, "there's no getting around the fact that this is awful news, but I value your contribution to RedState and I hope you will stick with it through this tough period and keep RedState going."

 However, some contributors then received a separate email indicating that they were out. Their accounts were locked, meaning publishing rights were revoked.

 Caleb Howe, one of the site's lead editors, was among those dismissed.

 He cryptically tweeted on Friday, "There is a right way to do something and a f---ed up way."

 His tweet aimed at an unknown person, saying, "You can call me back or you can watch this unfold right here, guy."

 Howe did not respond to requests for comment from CNNMoney.

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

– The prominent conservative site RedState is now poised to have a decidedly pro-Trump vibe. Parent company Salem Media on Friday purged a slew of bloggers in a "mass firing," and many of those who lost their jobs were critics of President Trump, reports CNN media writer Brian Stelter. Former editor Erick Erickson, now at the Resurgent, writes that it's not a huge surprise given that Salem similarly got rid of many anti-Trump voices at its radio properties. Both stories point out that the move wasn't entirely political. Salem wanted to cut costs; it's just that those who bore the brunt of the cuts were generally critical of the president. "They fired everybody who was insufficiently supportive of Trump," one source tells CNN. The Daily Beast lists some of those fired writers as Caleb Howe, Jay Caruso, Ben Howe, Patrick Frey (who writes as Patterico), Neil Stevens, and Susan Wright. Caleb Howe, for one, sounded ticked about Friday's events. "There is a right way to do something and a f---ed up way," he tweeted.


– George W. Bush made a rare public appearance today—next to Barack Obama, no less. And he'll be appearing at the White House every day going forward in at least one form: The 43rd president's official portrait was unveiled in an East Room ceremony replete with jokes and laughs, reports the AP. Bush quipped that the presidents' portraits are now bookended by his own and that of George Washington, noting, "It now starts and ends with a George W." Wife Laura, George H.W. Bush, and Barbara Bush were in attendance. The Christian Science Monitor shares a bit of interesting presidential portrait trivia: Presidents pick the artist who will depict them after sorting through the avalanche of portfolios that are sent to the White House; Lyndon B. Johnson had a second painting done by a new artist after declaring his first portrait "ugly"; and you're not stuck footing the bill for these works of art—donations made to the nonprofit White House Historical Association currently fund the paintings. Click to read about "the irony lurking in Bush's portrait."

Expand this summary.

Former President George W. Bush had his official presidential portrait unveiled at a special ceremony at the White House today. It’s fairly standard issue: Bush stands in the Oval Office, his hands on a chair, with a look that Roland Barthes noted decades ago is typical of political portraits . (“The gaze is lost nobly in the future, it does not confront, it soars and fertilizes some other domain, which is chastely left undefined.”) You can see the new portrait over at Talking Points Memo .

 One detail stands out, though: President Bush’s favorite painting, the one he kept by his desk, and the one for which he named his 1999 autobiography, A Charge to Keep . Bush loved to regale visitors with what he thought was the story behind the painting, telling how it depicted the famous circuit riders who in the nineteenth century spread the message of Methodism across the Alleghenies. Bush, a Methodist since the 1970s, identified with the quest of the noble cowboy missionary, and visitors often noted the resemblance between Bush and the lead rider. There’s only one problem with that story: As Slate Group editor-in-chief Jacob Weisberg wrote in his 2008 book The Bush Tragedy , “that is not the title, message, or meaning of the painting.” * Weisberg explains:

 Whether or not Bush ever learned the true story behind the painting seems to be unclear, but if so, he’s sticking to his guns, unwanted ironies be damned. Indeed, President Bush seems determined to ride off with Koerner’s painting into history.

 *Update, June 1, 2012: While Bush’s story of the painting’s origins still appears to be false, aspects of Weisberg’s account have also been disputed. As University of Illinois professor Cara Finnegan points out on her blog First Efforts, an illustration that ran with the horse thief story “The Slipper Tongue” in The Saturday Evening Post is actually a very similar-looking but different Koerner composition, also depicting a man working his way up a hill on a horse. The Google Books archive, similarly, shows the same similar-looking but different Koerner illustration.

 Contacted about the dispute, Weisberg agreed that he may have confused the two illustrations, and explained that his photocopy of “The Slipper Tongue” may simply have been blurry.

 Not disputed by Finnegan is the later appearance of the composition, also mentioned in Weisberg’s book, with the 1918 Country Gentleman story “A Charge to Keep.” Both Finnegan and Weisberg note that this illustration, now the first confirmed appearance of the painting, is not about Methodist missionaries either. As Weisberg points out, the story—about a son’s fight to keep his land, inherited from his father, from “rapacious timber barons”—may contain a different irony altogether.

  ||||| President Obama welcomed his predecessor back to the White House on Thursday for the unveiling of the official George W. Bush and Laura Bush portraits. As we watched the two men interact graciously during the event, we could not help but wonder: Where did it come from?

 Not the amity. Obama and Bush are members of the presidents’ club and have more in common with each other than with the leaders of their respective parties. We mean the picture itself. Who chooses the artists for official presidential portraits, and how? Who pays for the painting – taxpayers, private citizens, or presidents themselves?

 Well, presidents choose their own painters. But it’s not an easy process. Sometimes things don’t work out – Lyndon B. Johnson picked a second artist after the first produced a painting he thought “ugly” in all ways. And there are many applicants. Portfolios flood into the White House from artists, their agents, galleries, staff members, friends, and family.

 During the Clinton administration, Hillary Rodham Clinton reviewed these submissions. The first lady sought advice from the White House curator and the director of the National Portrait Gallery, according to an article by White House curator emeritus Betty C. Monkman in the journal White House History.

 After Clinton won reelection, Mrs. Clinton began interviewing artists, sometimes with the president in tow. Just before leaving office Bill Clinton picked the Alabama-born Simmie Knox to produce his official likeness. After seeing the likeness – which depicts a rather formal Clinton standing in the Oval Office – Mrs. Clinton picked Knox for her official first lady portrait as well.

 Taxpayers don’t foot the bill for this art. At least, not all taxpayers do. They’re paid for via private donations channeled through the nonprofit White House Historical Association.

 “We have for years been underwriting the cost of official presidential portraits,” says Maria Downs, WHCA director of public affairs.

 This is a fairly recent phenomenon. Prior to the historical association’s founding in 1961, there was no organized effort to produce a line of presidential and first lady portraits for the White House itself. Well into the twentieth century the commission of official portraits was a “haphazard affair,” according to former curator Ms. Monkman.

 In 1800, for instance, Congress allocated $700 to purchase a portrait of the recently deceased George Washington. This paid for what has since become one of the icons of American art, indeed one of the touchstones of American history – the full-length “Lansdowne” portrait by Gilbert Stuart.

 Four years after Abraham Lincoln’s death, Congress allocated funds for a Lincoln portrait competition. President Ulysses S. Grant picked the winner: a full-length portrait by Chicago artist William Cogswell. Ironically, today a losing effort from that contest is better known. It’s the famous portrait of a brooding, sitting Lincoln, produced by another Chicago painter, George P.A. Healey. Bought by Lincoln’s son Robert Todd, it eventually ended up back in the White House. Today it hangs in the State Dining Room.

 Other notable official portraits include John Singer Sargent’s rendering of Theodore Roosevelt, who appears thrumming with energy, ready to bust from the stairway where he is standing, and Aaron Shikler’s posthumous painting of John F. Kennedy, his eyes downcast, against a gray background that makes him appear almost a ghost.

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 Presidential paintings hang at the National Portrait Gallery, and in individual presidential libraries, but it is particularly fitting that the White House itself should have the official collection, writes William Seale, editor of White House History.

 “Portraits of [presidents] seem to belong there, making windows into that long history,” he writes. |||||


SULPHUR, Okla. (AP) — An Oklahoma man who is legally blind has been sentenced to probation for raping a 13-year-old Texas girl at a church camp, after prosecutors cited his disability in agreeing to a plea deal that spares him prison time.

 Benjamin Lawrence Petty, 36, pleaded guilty to attacking the girl in 2016, while she was attending the Falls Creek church camp in southern Oklahoma. Petty, who was a cook at the camp, tied a rope around the girl's wrists, raped her and threatened to hurt her if she told anyone, according to investigators.

 Murray County Assistant District Attorney David Pyle said a major factor in his decision not to insist on prison time was that Petty was legally blind, the Oklahoman newspaper reports . But a group that works to prevent and eliminate sexual and domestic violence said the sentence sends the wrong message.

 "Failure to hold perpetrators accountable regardless of their disabilities sends the wrong message to victims of crime," said Candida Manion, executive director of the nonprofit Oklahoma Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault.

 Under the terms of his probation, Petty will be required to wear an ankle monitor for 24 months, register as a sex offender and obtain treatment. But Manion said monitoring systems do not prevent sexual assaults and that state agencies that monitor sex offenders suffer from a lack of resources.

 "There is a lack of knowledge about sexual assault within the criminal justice system, and what we know about violent offenders is that they will reoffend," Manion said.

 Petty received three suspended 15-year prison sentences and was placed on probation after pleading guilty to felony counts of first-degree rape, forcible sodomy and rape by instrumentation. Documents indicate that he had no prior felony convictions.

 Murray County District Attorney Craig Ladd said he was unaware of the details of Petty's negotiated plea before it was entered in court.

 "I didn't authorize it," Ladd said. He said he plans to review the investigative reports surrounding the case before deciding whether to take any further action.

 Petty's defense attorney, Lee Berlin, said "it's a misstatement of what the law and the facts are" to assert that Petty is not being held accountable. Berlin said Petty will be registered as an aggravated sex offender and must comply with rigorous assessment, polygraph and reporting requirements during his probation.

 "He certainly is being punished," Berlin said.

 The Falls Creek church camp is owned and operated by the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma and is the largest youth camp in the nation. Sen. James Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican, was director at the camp for 13 years before stepping down in 2009 to run for Congress.

 ___

 Information from: The Oklahoman, http://www.newsok.com ||||| OKLAHOMA CITY – An Oklahoma man who pleaded guilty to brutally raping a 13-year-old girl at a church camp was sentenced to 15 years probation.

 In the summer of 2016, a 13-year-old girl said she was raped by Benjamin Lawrence Petty, 36, while she was at Falls Creek.

 Petty was reportedly a cook at the church camp.

 Court documents show that the victim says that Petty told her he was going to show her how to perform tricks on a device he brought to the camp when he suddenly pulled her into his cabin.

 “Petty closed the door to his bedroom, tied [victim’s] hands behind her back, pulled down her jeans, pushed her face down on his bed, and violently raped and sodomized her,” the document states.

 He was later arrested and charged with forcible sodomy, first-degree rape, and rape by instrumentation.

 Last week, Petty, of Spencer, pleaded guilty to the three felonies as part of a plea deal, NewsOK reports.

 Court records show Petty received three 15-year suspended sentences in exchange for his guilty plea, all of which will run concurrently.

 Murray County Assistant District Attorney David Pyle, who negotiated the guilty plea deal, told NewsOK that Petty is “legally blind” which was a major factor in his decision not to insist on prison time.

 “The big thing is Mr. Petty is legally blind and the parents (of the victim) live out of state and this little girl lives out of state and didn’t want to make all the travels back and forth,” Pyle said. “The plea was negotiated with their permission.”

 Pyle also said that Petty was legally blind at the time of the rape.

 Last year, the girl’s family filed a civil lawsuit against the church that brought her to the camp from Terrell, Texas, along with County Estates Baptist Church in Midwest City, which brought Petty to the camp, and Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma.

 The victim’s family says all of the organizations failed to perform background checks, which may have protected the teen.

 “Minimal effort on the part of the Defendants- before and/or during the camp- would have revealed that Petty was not an appropriate adult candidate to bring to , or remain at, the camp. In fact, Petty was a convicted criminal and it was readily apparent that he was involved in a lifestyle contrary and repugnant to the values espoused by the BGCO, Country Estates, Terrell and Falls Creek,” the lawsuit alleges.

 The Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma released the following statement to News 4: ||||| SULPHUR — In an unusual plea deal, a Spencer man has been sentenced to 15 years on probation after pleading guilty to brutally raping and sodomizing a 13-year-old girl at Falls Creek church camp.

 Benjamin Lawrence Petty, 36, tied rope around the girl's wrists, raped her and then threatened her with physical harm if she told anyone, according to the criminal charge. He was at the camp as a cook at the time of the 2016 offense.

 Murray County Assistant District Attorney David Pyle, who negotiated the guilty plea, said Petty is "legally blind" and that was a major factor in his decision not to insist on prison time.

 Petty was given the suspended sentence by District Judge Wallace Coppedge on Jan. 19 after entering a negotiated guilty plea to first-degree rape, forcible sodomy and rape by instrumentation. All three are felonies.

 A woman in Judge Coppedge's office said he would not be making any statement.

 "The big thing is Mr. Petty is legally blind and the parents (of the victim) live out of state and this little girl lives out of state and didn't want to make all the travels back and forth," Pyle said. "The plea was negotiated with their permission."

 Petty was already legally blind at the time of the rape, Pyle said. Under terms of the probation, Petty will be required to wear an ankle monitor for 24 months, register as a sex offender and obtain treatment. He had no prior felony convictions, according to plea agreement documents.

 Bruce Robertson, an attorney who is helping represent the victim's interests in a civil case, said the family's consent to the plea agreement came after "the family was told by the district attorney's office that the rapist would not serve any meaningful prison time due to his medical conditions."

 "Based on this representation, the family did not object to the probationary sentence," Robertson said. "As a result of the plea, Benjamin Petty has been convicted of three felonies resulting from this incident, in which he bound and raped a 13-year-old, and is required to register as a sex offender for the remainder of his life, providing at least some protection for other potential victims."

 The girl was raped in June 2016, while attending church camp at Falls Creek with a group from Terrell, Texas, according to court records filed in the civil lawsuit.

 The rapist was brought to the camp to serve as a cook by The Country Estates Baptist Church of Midwest City, according to that lawsuit.

 The First Baptist Church of Terrell is named as a defendant in the lawsuit along with the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma and The Country Estates Baptist Church.

 Currently pending in the civil case is a request by attorneys for the Midwest City church to question the rape victim about her "prior history of voluntary sexual activity."

 Oklahoma County District Judge Aletia Timmons rejected the initial request, saying, "I don't think it has any — even a scintilla of any relevance to anything."

 Attorneys for the church have asked the judge to reconsider her decision, claiming the victim talked with fellow campers about "her sexual activities and history with her then-boyfriend, including her fear that she might be pregnant with her boyfriend's child."

 The church's attorneys contend that is relevant because it may have "contributed to her physical and emotional damages."

 Attorneys for the victim claim the rape, itself, is responsible for the girl sustaining physical, emotional and psychological damages.

 "We are saddened to see that the church has stooped to victim-blaming," Robertson said. "While we will not publicly debate the consensual sexual history, if any, of our teenage client, we fail to understand how the church can conceivably argue that any female's consensual relations are relevant to the trauma suffered as the result of a horrific, violent rape. The church has improperly used information in its motion which we believe is in violation of the court's protective order and we will not comment further at this time."

 The Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma is a cooperative owned by a partnership of Oklahoma Baptist churches. It owns and operates Falls Creek, which is located in the Arbuckle Mountains in south-central Oklahoma. About 54,000 adolescent campers attend the camp during the summer camping season, according to the lawsuit.

 The lawsuit accuses the churches and Baptist General Convention of negligence, contending they didn't do a good enough job of checking the backgrounds of workers, failed to adequately supervise sponsors and camp participants, and failed to train them on how to recognize and avoid predators.

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

– Benjamin Petty, a cook at a Baptist church camp in Oklahoma, pleaded guilty to tying up a 13-year-old camper, raping her, sodomizing her, and threatening her if she told anyone, the Oklahoman reports. Despite pleading guilty to three felonies, Petty was sentenced to 15 years probation with no prison time earlier this month. While Petty's attorney says his client "certainly is being punished"—he must wear an ankle monitor for 24 months and register as a sex offender—others find the sentence issued by Judge Wallace Coppedge on Jan. 19 lacking, according to the AP. "Failure to hold perpetrators accountable ... sends the wrong message to victims of crime," says the executive director of the Oklahoma Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. Assistant district attorney David Pyle says he didn't push for prison time because of the state of Petty's vision. "The big thing is Mr. Petty is legally blind and the parents (of the victim) live out of state and this little girl lives out of state and didn't want to make all the travels back and forth," he says. "The plea was negotiated with their permission." The victim's family has filed a civil suit against three churches involved in the camp—the largest youth camp in the US—alleging they didn't run background checks, KFOR reports. In the civil case, one of the churches is pushing for the victim's "prior history of voluntary sexual activity" to be introduced. An attorney for the victim says they "are saddened to see that the church has stooped to victim-blaming."


Here is a news article: Image copyright University of Louisville Image caption A portion of a music manuscript for Happy Birthday's predecessor - "Good Morning to All"

 The company collecting royalties for Happy Birthday To You does not hold a valid copyright to the song, a US federal judge has ruled.

 Warner/Chappell acquired the copyright - which was originally filed in 1935 - in 1988.

 But judge George King ruled that the original copyright was only granted for specific arrangements of the music, not the song itself.

 The tune was composed by two Kentucky sisters in 1893.

 Mildred and Patty Hill called their version Good Morning To All, which later evolved into the song that is popularly sung at birthday parties around the world.

 Warner/Chappell had been collecting fees since 1988, when it bought Birch Tree Group, the successor to Clayton F Summy Co, which claimed the original copyright.

 It is thought to have made $2 million (£1.3 million) a year by charging every time the song was used in a film, television episode, advertisement or other public performance.

 The case against the publishers was launched in 2013 by Rupa Marya and Robert Siegel, who are making a film about the song.

 When Warner asked for $1,500 (£970) for the right to use Happy Birthday To You in the film, Ms Marya and Mr Siegel argued the song was in the public domain and should not be subject to copyright fees.

 Judge King ruled that Summy had never acquired copyright to the song's words.

 'Thrilled'

 "The Hill sisters gave Summy Co the rights to the melody, and the rights to piano arrangements based on the melody, but never any rights to the lyrics," he said.

 Mark Rifkin, one of lawyers who acted for the plaintiffs, said he was "thrilled" by the judge's decision.

 "We did exhaustive historical research and none of it showed that the publisher owned anything other than copyrights to four very specific piano arrangements," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

 "In the second part of the case, which hopefully we'll get to start very soon, we're going to be asking the court to order Warner to return all the money that's been collected from everyone who has had to pay a licensing fee or royalty to use the song... at least going back to 1988."

 "If they've collected $2m a year over that period, that's a large sum of money."

 After the ruling was announced, Warner/Chappell said: "We are looking at the court's lengthy opinion and considering our options."

 Despite the ruling, the song still remains under copyright in the UK and other countries - and caution should be exercised over its use, says intellectual property lawyer Mark Owen.

 "As elements of the song are still potentially within the maximum copyright term it may be the case that someone still owns some rights to it," said Mr Owen, a partner at law firm Taylor Wessing.

 "There are also complex questions as to what the impact of this ruling may be on uses outside the US, so film-makers here should not now rush into using the song without considering the impact of this judgment carefully." ||||| LOS ANGELES (AP) — The music publishing company that has been collecting royalties on the song "Happy Birthday To You" for years does not hold a valid copyright on the lyrics to the tune that is one of the mostly widely sung in the world, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.

 FILE- In this July 25, 2015, file photo, Terrance Jackson, left, Doris Ware, second from left, and Beverly Booker, right, sing "Happy Birthday To You" to Bernice Williams, seated, as she celebrates her... (Associated Press)

 File-This July 18, 2013, file photo shows a group of kindergarten children singing Happy Birthday to Nelson Mandela outside the Mediclinic Heart Hospital in Pretoria, South Africa. The music publishing... (Associated Press)

 U.S. District Judge George H. King determined the song's original copyright, obtained by the Clayton F. Summy Co. from the song's writers, only covered specific piano arrangements of the song and not its lyrics. The basic tune of the song, derived from another popular children's song, "Good Morning to All," has long been in the public domain.

 King's decision comes in a lawsuit filed two years ago by Good Morning To You Productions Corp., which is working on a documentary film tentatively titled "Happy Birthday." The company challenged the copyright now held by Warner/Chappell Music Inc., arguing that the song should be "dedicated to public use and in the public domain."

 "Because Summy Co. never acquired the rights to the 'Happy Birthday' lyrics, defendants, as Summy Co.'s purported successors-in-interest, do not own a valid copyright in the Happy Birthday lyrics," King concluded in his 43-page ruling.

 The lawsuit also asked for monetary damages and restitution of more than $5 million in licensing fees it said in 2013 that Warner/Chappell had collected from thousands of people and groups who've paid to use the song over the years.

 Marshall Lamm, a spokesman for one of the plaintiffs' lawyers, said that issue would be determined later.

 In the meantime, one of the suit's co-plaintiffs, Ruypa Marya of the music group Ruypa & The April Fishes, praised Tuesday's decision.

 "I hope we can start reimagining copyright law to do what it's supposed to do — protect the creations of people who make stuff so that we can continue to make more stuff," said Marya, who added she paid Warner/Chappell $455 to include "Happy Birthday To You" on a live album during which members of her band and audience sang the song to her the night before her birthday.

 Warner/Chappell has said it doesn't try to collect royalties from just anyone singing the song but those who use it in a commercial enterprise.

 "We are looking at the court's lengthy opinion and considering our options," Warner/Chappell said in a statement following Tuesday's ruling.

 In his ruling King went into great detail about the history of "Happy Birthday To You" and its derivation from "Good Morning to All."

 That song was written by sisters Mildred Hill and Patty Hill sometime before 1893, the judge said, adding that the sisters assigned the rights to it and other songs to Clayton F. Summy, who copyrighted and published them in a book titled "Song Stories for the Kindergarten."

 "The origins of the lyrics to Happy Birthday (the 'Happy Birthday lyrics') are less clear," the judge continued, adding the first known reference to them appeared in a 1901 article in the Inland Educator and Indiana School Journal.

 The full lyrics themselves, King said, didn't appear in print until 1911.

 Since then, they have become the most famous lyrics in the English language, according to Guinness World Records. The song is also sung in countless other languages around the world.

 Warner/Chappell, which eventually acquired the song's copyright from Summy, argued that its predecessor had registered a copyright to "Happy Birthday To You" in 1935 that gave it the rights to all of the song.

 "Our record does not contain any contractual agreement from 1935 or before between the Hill sisters and Summy Co. concerning the publication and registration of these works," the judge said. ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. ||||| More than two years after a documentary filmmaker challenged the copyright to the simple lyrics of the song "Happy Birthday," a federal judge ruled Tuesday that the copyright is invalid.

 The result could undo Warner/Chappell's lucrative licensing business around the song, once estimated to be $2 million per year. The company is likely to appeal the ruling to the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit.

 US District Judge George King held that the two sisters who authored the song, Patty and Mildred Hill, gave the melody and piano arrangements to Summy Co., which was eventually acquired by Warner/Chappell. But King wrote that there's no evidence they ever transferred a copyright on the words.

 "Defendants ask us to find that the Hill sisters eventually gave Summy Co. the rights in the lyrics to exploit and protect, but this assertion has no support in the record," King wrote. The idea that any of the Hill sisters' deals with Summy resulted in a transfer of the copyright on the lyrics is "implausible and unreasonable."

 Good Morning To You

 The lyrics of "Happy Birthday" are based on an earlier children's song called "Good Morning To You." There's wide agreement that the Hill sisters sold "Good Morning To You," along with other songs, to Clayton Summy in 1893.

 "Good Morning To You" has the same tune as "Happy Birthday." Its lyrics are:

 Good morning to you Good morning to you Good morning dear children Good morning to all.

 The origin of the "Happy Birthday" lyrics is unclear, but they were written after "Good Morning To You." Newspapers reference the singing of a Happy Birthday song in 1901 and 1909, and "Happy Birthday" appeared in a songbook in 1911, without crediting anyone with the lyrics. 1920's songbooks similarly published the work without a credit, with one exception.

 Further Reading Filmmakers fighting “Happy Birthday” copyright find their “smoking gun”

 Who's the real author?

 Lawyers representing plaintiffs, including filmmaker Jennifer Nelson, who made a film about the "Happy Birthday" song, challenged "nearly every aspect of this narrative," the judge noted. Nelson and her lawyers said the lyrics could have been written by someone else, the common law rights had been lost from repeated publications, and there was never a proper transfer to Summy.

 King found merit in multiple prongs of the plaintiffs' argument. In his view, it isn't clear what was copyrighted in 1935, since the "new matter" mentioned a piano arrangement—so the Copyright Office may not have seen Summy as trying to copyright the song lyrics at all.

 "[T]he registration is flawed in any event," wrote King. "Given this facial and material mistake in the registration certificate, we cannot presume (1) that Patty authored the lyrics or (2) that Summy Co. had any rights to the lyrics."

 As to the authorship matter, King thought the situation was muddled enough that a trial might be appropriate. The 1911 and 1920s songbooks were copyrighted by other authors, and Patty Hill never publicly claimed she had written "Happy Birthday" until she was deposed in a 1935 copyright lawsuit. One possibility is that Hill wrote the song, and then waited 40 years to take credit for it.

 On the other hand, "a reasonable fact finder could also find that the Happy Birthday lyrics were written by someone else... and that Patty’s 1935 claim to authorship was a post hoc attempt to take credit for the words that had long since become more famous and popular than the ones she wrote for the classic melody," King wrote.

 King also ruled that the 1927 songbook that plaintiffs called a "Smoking Gun," called The Everyday Song Book, wasn't the slam dunk they thought it was. "As Defendants point out, there is no direct evidence that the Hill sisters had authorized Summy Co. to grant permission for the publication of the lyrics in The Everyday Song Book."

 Three Agreements

 The Hill sisters, and later their foundation, struck three deals with the Summy Co. The Second Agreement, described only in pleadings from a 1942 lawsuit, is what allegedly transferred the rights of "Happy Birthday."

 The First Agreement didn't include rights to movies or dramatic performances, since at the time of that deal "sound motion pictures were unknown commercially." The Second Agreement remedied that, giving Jessica Hill, sister and heir to Patty and Mildred Hill, an entitlement to 50 percent of revenue from performance of the works worldwide.

 From what little is known about the Second Agreement, the idea that it related to the lyrics "is not supported by any explicit description of the agreement" and is "implausible," King wrote. Warner/Chappell's argument that the lyrics could have been transferred in the Third Agreement is "circular," he concludes. The Third Agreement is in the court record and "contains no reference to the transfer of the 'Happy Birthday' lyrics."

 That means Summy Co. never got the rights to the lyrics, and they're now in the public domain.

 The lawsuit also has requested restitution of the millions in licensing fees paid by various companies and individuals over the years. A spokesperson for the plaintiffs told The Associated Press that issue will be resolved at a later time.

 "We are looking at the court's lengthy opinion and considering our options," Warner/Chappell told AP in a statement.

 Jennifer Nelson had to pay a synchronization license of $1,500 to Warner/Chappell to include the song in her movie. Another artist who was added as a named plaintiff later, musician Ruypa Marya, told AP she had to pay $455 to include "Happy Birthday To You" in a live album in which her bandmates sang the song to her.

 "I hope we can start reimagining copyright law to do what it's supposed to do—protect the creations of people who make stuff so that we can continue to make more stuff," Marya told the newswire. |||||
A summary of this is?

– You can now sing "Happy Birthday" anywhere you like without fear of copyright lawyers pouncing. A federal judge has ruled that Warner/Chappell, which has been making around $2 million a year from "Happy Birthday to You," doesn't have the rights to the song and never did, reports the Los Angeles Times. The judge ruled that a copyright filed in 1935 and acquired by Warner in 1988 only covered specific piano arrangements of the tune and not the lyrics, the BBC reports. The song started out as "Good Morning to All," written by a Kentucky schoolteacher and her sister in the 1890s, and the judge found that there was no evidence that the sisters had even written the better-known lyrics, Ars Technica reports. Warner wasn't in the habit of sending lawyers to raid birthday parties, but it did expect to get paid whenever the song was used in ads, movies, or any other profit-making enterprise. Plaintiffs in the long-running lawsuit included the makers of a documentary about the song and singer Rupa Marya, who had to pay $455 for including it on a live album. "I hope we can start reimagining copyright law to do what it's supposed to do—protect the creations of people who make stuff so that we can continue to make more stuff," she tells the AP. Lawyers say they now plan to make the suit a class-action one to force Warner to pay back some of the royalties, the Times reports.


News article:

In this photo taken Monday night, Nov. 30, 2015, DJ Thomson, right, and Joyce Levine light candles on Kennedy Street after hearing about the death of Mayor Stephen "Greg" Fisk in Juneau, Alaska. Fisk,... (Associated Press)

 JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The police chief in Alaska's capital city defended his department's response after the newly elected mayor was found dead at home, bruised and bloodied, and speculation ran rampant as to the cause of his death.

 The speculation was fueled — and the attention surrounding the case grew — when police did not immediately rule out foul play in the death of Mayor Stephen "Greg" Fisk, 70. Police deferred until autopsy results came back.

 Sometimes, it's obvious at the scene that a person died of natural causes. "In this case, we just can't confirm that yet or rule anything out," police spokeswoman Erann Kalwara said Tuesday.

 Fisk's death made national headlines this week and garnered notice far outside Juneau's remote location.

 On Wednesday, preliminary autopsy results indicated that Fisk, who went by Greg, died of natural causes and that the injuries he sustained were consistent with falling or stumbling into objects.

 During a news conference, police chief Bryce Johnson said Fisk had a history of heart problems. He said it's believed that Fisk had some issues with his heart and fell.

 No one had witnessed the death, and when the first person to find Fisk, his son, saw the injuries and blood at the scene "the first assumption was someone had done something to him," Johnson said.

 Police proceeded not knowing the cause and had an obligation to rule out all the possibilities, Johnson said. He said he noted multiple times that it also was possible that Fisk had fallen. But there was a period of time where authorities didn't have answers, he said.

 "And people being people, they run with the unknown for that couple of days, and it's Juneau, Alaska, it's an exotic location. It's a newly elected mayor. And so it was an intriguing story," he said.

 But in reality, it was a tragic story for the family and for Juneau, Johnson said.

 A police statement Monday night, after Fisk's body was found, said police were aware of rumors that an assault had occurred but called those rumors speculation. There was no sign of forced entry into Fisk's home.

 Prior to the autopsy, police also said there was no apparent gunshot wound and nothing to suggest drugs were involved or that it was a suicide.

 Fisk had scheduled appointments Monday and when he missed them, his adult son, Ian, went to his father's home. Fisk lived alone.

 Fisk, a fisheries consultant, was sworn in as mayor in October after ousting the incumbent. Deputy Mayor Mary Becker was named acting mayor.

 Ian Fisk previously stated in an email that his family is grieving privately.

 ___

 Dan Joling contributed to this report from Anchorage, Alaska. ||||| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– "The first assumption was someone had done something to him," but the reality is much less nefarious: Juneau Police Chief Bryce Johnson on Wednesday announced that the city's newly installed mayor died of natural causes, reports the Alaska Dispatch News. Though the AP notes Greg Fisk was found "bruised and bloodied," the injuries he sustained—which Johnson specified were on his face—resulted from a fall, not an attack, per preliminary autopsy results. The 70-year-old is believed to have hit a counter and "other objects" as he fell; Fisk was found dead Monday by his son after he was a no-show at morning appointments. Police believe Fisk died that same morning, and while the specific cause of death hasn't been given, Johnson did note that Fisk's health history included heart issues. Fisk had been in the job since October; Deputy Mayor Mary Becker has been named acting mayor.


Write an article based on this summary:

– With an official count of 7,041,000 signups under ObamaCare—a number expected to grow as final tallies are made—President Obama enjoyed what both ABC and NBC called a "victory lap" in the Rose Garden today. "Many of the tall tales have been debunked," he said. "There are still no death panels. Armageddon has not arrived." The president said he doesn't understand why so many were "so mad about the idea of people having health insurance," but they better get over it, because the law is working "and it's here to stay." Another person who used the term "victory lap" was John Boehner, but he did so in criticizing Obama for celebrating a law that "continues to harm the American people," reports the Los Angeles Times. Meanwhile, Dave Weigel at Slate dubs "Confused Arkansas Guy" as the newest ObamaCare victim. That's thanks to a new ad funded by the Koch brothers' Americans for Prosperity group in which a man complains not that his policy has been canceled, but that it's now surrounded in a confusing "haze" because of the new law. "It was taken away from us, or it was given back to us, or it was taken," he says. A main target is Democratic Sen. Mark Pryor.

Arkansas is simultaneously the most fertile and most treacherous ground for a political campaign against Obamacare. Fertile, because the state's rapid sprint away from conservative Democrats and toward conservative Republicans makes it pretty easy to beat up Democrats like Sen. Mark Pryor. Treacherous, because the state's Republican legislature has pioneered and continued a "private option" for Medicaid expansion, cleaving the Tea Party (Americans for Prosperity, et al.) from the Chamber of Commerce, and preventing the state from joining the larger Obamacare rebellion. (Luckily, as Republicans are finding in West Virginia and Kentucky, Republican voters don't change overnight simply because they can access health insurance.)

 So: For a while, Americans for Prosperity was drenching Arkansas in ads that told the story of a woman whose health insurance had been canceled by the coverage mandates of the ACA. Democrats and liberal groups cried havoc—the state had actually extended the life of such plans until 2017. What was AFP to do? Sink six figures into this ad.

 Advertisement

  ||||| Published on Apr 1, 2014

 Listen to Jerry from Arkansas explain the problems and uncertainty ObamaCare has caused for him and his wife. Then tell Mark Pryor to stop supporting Obamacare at http://www.LieOfTheYear.com ||||| President Obama today heralded more than 7 million sign-ups for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act -- bringing to a close a politically bruising six-month enrollment period and a first major test for his signature legislative achievement.

 The 7.1 million who have signed up, the president said in a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden, "despite several lost weeks out of the gate because of problems with the website."

 “Even more folks want to sign up,” he added. “7.1 million – that’s on top of the more than 3 million young adults who gained insurance under this law by staying on their family plan.”

 The latest tally represents the total number of Americans who selected health plans through state and federal marketplaces created by the law since Oct. 1.

 The number is expected to grow as last-minute applications filed through 23 state-run insurance exchanges are counted and people continue to complete applications in the federal exchange into April.

 Obama noted that many of the “tall tales” opponents have told about the law have been “debunked.”

 “There are still no death panels,” Obama said to laughter. “Armageddon has not arrived.”

 Obama added, “The debate over repealing this law is over. The Affordable Care Act is here to stay."

 The 7-million figure has become a symbolic and political milestone since the administration embraced it as a “goal” in mid-2013 based on a projection by the Congressional Budget Office. Reaching that mark is a noteworthy feat after the significant, high-profile technical glitches and website outages that plagued the enrollment process on HealthCare.gov from beginning to end.

 In his statement, Obama, flanked by Vice President Joe Biden, declared: "We've taken a big step forward."

 Still, the number says little about the extent to which the health law has expanded coverage to the uninsured or will stabilize premiums. The administration does not yet know how many previously uninsured Americans gained coverage under the law. They also do not know the ratio of young and healthy enrollees to old and sick -- a key data point insurers watch to set their premiums.

 "We have none of that breakdown data at this point,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said today. However, “we already know that that breakdown is sufficient to ensure that the marketplaces will effectively function, that issuers will feel comfortable with the demographics,” he said.

 Officials also cannot say how many of the 7 million applicants have paid their premiums to finalize enrollment.

 Nevertheless, Obama said, “This law has made our health care system a lot better -- a lot better.”

 Meanwhile, Republicans continue to blast the law.

 "All across the country our constituents are having an unpleasant interaction with Obamacare,” said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.. “Whether they can sign up for a policy or not, they are discovering, of course, higher premiums, a higher deductible.”

 Public support for the Affordable Care Act narrowly notched a new high in the latest ABC News-Washington Post poll, while criticism of Barack Obama’s handling of the law’s rollout -- although still substantial -- has eased from its peak last fall.

 Americans split on Obamacare: 49 percent support it while 48 percent oppose it. But last November just 40 percent supported it while 57 percent opposed it.

 "I think I'm like a lot of people who end up waiting till the last minute,” Caroline Mays, 30, of Washington, DC, told ABC News as she signed up for an Obamacare insurance policy late Monday. “But now I'm all squared away. I have health insurance. I've been working independently so I haven't had coverage. So this is a big relief to me, for sure.”

 Senior administration officials credit grassroots organizing and a social media blitz, drawing on lessons from the 2012 election campaign, with fueling a last-minute surge in sign-ups.

 They say groups have held more than 5,000 events over the past 6 weeks, including appearances of Obama cabinet officials at 45 of those. They say their social media reach touched 350 million twitter followers and 33 million online video views.

 Privately, the White House points to what they call two pivotal moments in their campaign: A promotional video by NBA star LeBron James, who they say spurred other celebrities to help spread the word; and, the president’s “two ferns” interview with comedian Zach Galifianakis, which generated significant buzz.

 “I have a lot of friends who've been uninsured and have kind of been winging it,” said Sarah Leonard, who enrolled for a new health policy on Monday. “But I know that that's not very responsible, especially at 26, you have to get responsible. I was going to try to wing it but then there's also the tax penalty and I really didn’t want that either.”

 Most Americans were required to obtain health insurance by March 31 or face a fine of the greater of $95 or 1 percent of household income above $10,150 for an individual. Those subject to the fine will pay it on their 2014 federal income taxes.

 As for the politics of the Affordable Care Act, administration officials say the focus now shifts to making the case against repeal. They note that no Democrat that originally voted for the ACA has flipped his or her vote – a sign, they say, that if implemention of the law is continued effectively, then the intensity of debate will wane.

 Congressional Republicans, meanwhile, are vowing to intensify the drumbeat for repealing the law ahead of the November midterm elections.

 "House Republicans will continue to work to repeal this law and protect families and small businesses from its harmful consequences,” said House Speaker John Boehner. “We will also continue our work to replace this fundamentally-flawed law with patient-centered solutions focused on lowering health care costs and protecting jobs.”

 ABC's Shushannah Walshe contributed reporting. ||||| April 1 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. President Barack Obama speaks about the just over 7 million people that enrolled for insurance coverage under Obamacare.

 This afternoon President Obama, with a grinning Vice President Biden behind him, announced in the White House Rose Garden that sign-ups for his signature health law had exceeded original projections.

 Some 7.1 million Americans have signed up for Obamacare, the president said, by far exceeding the revised projection of 6 million insured after the disastrous roll out of the HealthCare.gov website in October.

 The president was clearly enjoying delivering the news: "This law is doing what it's supposed to do," he said. "It's working. It's helping people from coast to coast." He seemed bemused by the continuing efforts of Republicans do undo the legislation. "Why are folks working so hard for people not to have health insurance? Why are they so mad about the idea of people having health insurance?"

 Republicans were quick to jump on what a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner called Obama's "victory lap." "This law continues to harm the American people," said Boehner spokesman Michael Steel. "Every promise the president made has been broken: healthcare costs are rising, not falling. Americans are losing the doctors and plans that they like – especially seniors suffering under President Obama’s Medicare cuts. Small businesses are afraid to hire new workers, hobbling our economic growth. That’s why we must replace this fundamentally flawed law."

 But Obama had already brushed off such criticisms.

 "Many of the tall tales have been debunked. There are still no death panels. Armageddon has not arrived. Instead this law has helped millions of Americans. The debate over repealing this law is over. The Affordable Care Act is here to stay."

 Here's what some reporters, supporters and critics were tweeting during his remarks:

 WASHINGTON (AP) _ Obama: 7.1 million Americans sign up for health care, despite lost weeks at the start. — Phil Elliott (@Philip_Elliott) April 1, 2014

 The Biden faces behind Obama = priceless. — Chris Cillizza (@TheFix) April 1, 2014

 All of Obama's examples of the poor getting healthcare coverage could have happened by expanding previous programs not ending the good ones. — Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) April 1, 2014

 Obama quotes letter from person who got insurance: "I felt like a human being again." Reminder of how rotten it is to be afraid. — Amy Davidson (@tnyCloseRead) April 1, 2014

 Every time Obama comes out to try to defend #Obamacare his high-pitched squealing voice tells me he's desperate — Jim Lockwood Show (@jimlockwoodshow) April 1, 2014

 The happy mood at the White House now that 7.1 million people have enrolled in Affordable Care Act via @cparsons http://t.co/aj9LpWA4AF — Maeve Reston (@MaeveReston) April 1, 2014

 Obama warns ACA opponents "history is not kind" to those who seek to block progress — John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) April 1, 2014

 Spoiler: No. MT @chucktodd: Politically aggressive speech from POTUS. Will D's running in tough races borrow same rhetoric on the trail? — Guy Benson (@guypbenson) April 1, 2014

 "There will be days when the website stumbles. I guarantee it," @BarackObama says, will be front-page news for media. Snap. — Charles Ornstein (@charlesornstein) April 1, 2014

 This is Obama's "Mission Accomplished" speech. Take a picture. — Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) April 1, 2014

 ALSO:

 More from Robin Abcarian

 Twitter: @robinabcarian

 robin.abcarian@latimes.com |||||


FILE - In this Monday, July 19, 2010 file photo, Muqtada al-Sadr, one of Iraq's most powerful Shiite political clerics, speaks to reporters following a meeting with former Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi... (Associated Press)

 A Muslim cleric who once used a militia to resist the American invasion positioned himself as a big winner in Iraq's monthslong political deadlock Friday when his party threw its support behind the beleaguered prime minister.

 The hard-line Shiite group led by Muqtada al-Sadr called it the start of its ascent to nationwide power _ a specter sure to spook the United States.

 Washington considers the cleric a threat to Iraq's shaky security and has long refused to consider his movement a legitimate political entity. But Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki may be unable to govern without him.

 March elections failed to produce a clear winner and left the nation in turmoil _ a power vacuum that U.S. military officials say has encouraged a spike in attacks by Sunni insurgents.

 Final agreement on how to form the new government could still be weeks if not months away, but "the Sadrist acceptance of al-Maliki as prime minister could begin to break the logjam," said Iraq expert Daniel Serwer of the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington.

 In a late-night appearance on state-run TV, al-Maliki thanked his fellow Shiite allies for the support that will likely hand him another term as prime minister.

 "I promise them and all beloved Iraqi people that we will take care with the big, heavy responsibility of serving all Iraqis," al-Maliki said.

 It is still too soon for him to declare victory, however, because his chief rival, former prime minister Ayad Allawi, continues to scramble for support.

 Shiite leaders from the Fadhila party and the devout Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council met late Friday night to discuss the political developments with Deputy Prime Minister Rafia al-Issawi, a lawmaker with Allawi's Sunni-dominated Iraqiya coalition. Iraqiya won the most parliament seats in the March 7 vote, narrowly beating al-Maliki's coalition, but neither side has the 163-seat majority needed to control the government outright.

 Allying with al-Maliki poses a political risk for al-Sadr among his followers, many of whom hate the prime minister, and the cleric's top aides refused Friday to publicly explain why he did it. The most that Sadrist lawmaker Nassar al-Rubaie would say is that both camps now seek to "open dialogue with the other winning political groups to form the government."

 But it is clear to Iraqi and U.S. officials that al-Sadr seeks unfettered and increased influence in the next government if al-Maliki comes out on top.

 The cleric, whose militia once ran death squads out of the health ministry headquarters in Baghdad to target Sunnis, has been in self-imposed exile in Iran since 2007.

 As part of agreeing to back al-Maliki, a leading Sadrist said the movement has demanded key government positions, including deputy parliament speaker and as many as six Cabinet-level ministry posts of the 34 to be filled.

 Controlling service agencies like Iraq's health, oil, construction and electricity ministries would allow Sadrists to hire supporters and boost political loyalty. Sadrists also are clamoring to run the trade ministry, which would carry some sway over foreign policy, and at least one of the agencies tasked with Iraqi security missions _ a huge red flag to U.S. officials.

 Down the road, after the American military has fully withdrawn in 2011 and U.S. diplomatic influence has waned, Sadrists will make a play for the prime minister's post, said a leading party official who spoke on condition of anonymity because al-Sadr has forbidden his aides from discussing the negotiations.

 "In the future, the premiership will be for us," the Sadrist official said. "We will have nominees who will compete when the next elections are held after the departure of the (U.S.) occupation."

 Having a Sadrist in power would endanger if not scuttle hopes of establishing a thriving democracy in Iraq that could be a model in the region. There are worries about how much influence Iran now carries over al-Sadr after offering him refuge for more than three years.

 While saying it does not have a favorite candidate among those vying to become prime minister, the Obama administration strongly opposes giving power to al-Sadr and his followers. It is largely a moot wish: Sadrists were the only party to gain seats in parliament in the March 7 vote, winning 39 of the 325 in a signal of their rise.

 That has put them in the position of being wooed by other Shiite political leaders for support.

 "The Sadrists having a key role in the next government of Iraq was one of the few redlines that the Obama administration had," said Ken Pollack, an expert at the Brookings Institute think-tank in Washington who was a key Iraq policymaker in the Bush administration.

 "They've staged this major comeback, and the administration is very, very worried about that," Pollack said. "This is something Iran has been trying to do for months. Clearly this is a big win for them and really bad for the U.S."

 In Baghdad, U.S. Embassy spokesman David J. Ranz avoided even using the word Sadrist when asked for an official statement Friday about the movement's partnership with al-Maliki.

 Ranz said the embassy welcomed actions that would lead to a new government in Iraq, now stalled for nearly seven months. And he said the U.S. hoped to see "an inclusive and legitimate government, responsive to the needs of the Iraqi people."

 Al-Maliki has been scrounging for allies since his political coalition fell short in the election to Iraqiya coalition, which is largely backed by Sunnis and led by Allawi, a Shiite.

 Pollack, the U.S. expert, said the deadlock between al-Maliki and Allawi allowed the Sadrists to step into the void. "They have played their hand really skillfully," Pollack said.

 Senior Iraqiya lawmaker Osama al-Nujaifi said an al-Sadr alliance with the government "will definitely complicate the situation."

 Ultimately, Kurdish parties that hold 43 seats are likely to tip the balance, and they are widely expected to throw their weight behind al-Maliki if they sense he can hold on to his post.

 Kurdish leaders who control a semiautonomous northern enclave had no immediate comment Friday, and generally have remained on the sidelines in the political maneuvering. Iraqiya would have to win over not only the Kurds, but also some Shiites, to gain control of the government.

 And some prominent Shiites have yet to side with al-Maliki, which could open potentially disruptive rifts as Iraq tries to find a political balance.

 Conspicuously absent from Friday's announcement was Shiite cleric Ammar al-Hakim, leader of the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council that was earlier aligned with the Sadrists. Aides to al-Hakim said he and about a dozen followers have not yet decided to back al-Maliki.

 Al-Sadr's support for al-Maliki marks a turnabout, and is not likely to be embraced by all of his followers. For months, the group has demanded the prime minister be replaced, and Sadrist rallies routinely call for his death.

 In 2008, a joint U.S.-Iraqi offensive broke the grip of al-Sadr's Mahdi Army militia in Baghdad and Basra, routing Shiite death squads that terrorized Sunni neighborhoods and had brought the country to the brink of civil war.

 Earlier this week, some Sadrists sent a message to the cleric, asking him why he would support a leader who had fought his army.

 Al-Sadr asked them to fall in line.

 "You know the policy is give and take," he wrote in an answer posted on his website. "Our goal is to serve you and lift the oppression on you as much we can. I ask you to stand beside (Sadrist political negotiators). Anyone who stands against them is standing against the private and public interests."

 ___

 Associated Press Writers Saad Abdul-Kadir and Brian Murphy in Baghdad contributed to this report. ||||| BAGHDAD - A coalition of Shiite political blocs chose Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as its candidate for Iraq's top government job on Friday afternoon - a step that could break a months-long standoff over who will govern the country.

 Despite the new support, Maliki must still find more votes in the Iraqi parliament if he is to remain in power and form a new government. The fact that the Shiites now supporting Maliki are mostly Sadrists - followers of radical cleric Moqtada al-Sadr who staunchly oppose the American presence here - also has the potential to alarm Washington. At the same time, the possibility that Maliki might be moving closer to claiming power has alienated others in Iraq and threatens to splinter the broader Shiite alliance.

 Attention is likely to shift to the Kurds, who have largely remained on the sidelines during months of negotiations but whose support could be decisive for Maliki.

 U.S. officials have urged Iraq's political leaders to break their impasse and form an inclusive government, amid fears that further delay could erode security gains made over the past two years.

 But in Washington, a senior Obama administration official said he did not expect Maliki to be able to form a government with the Sadrists and suggested that the agreement may end up accelerating negotiations over a broader-based government. A split among Shiites, with major groups refusing to go along with the Sadrists, leaves Maliki "still 30 seats short of a majority," the official said. "He needs to deal."

 The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid the appearance of interfering in internal Iraqi deliberations, said that "the Kurds are now in the kingmaker position" and that "no agreement that I've seen suggests their requirements have been met yet," including insistence on the inclusion of elements of the Iraqiya bloc - formed by Maliki's main rival, secular Shiite Ayad Allawi - and other Shiite groups.

 Maliki has served as prime minister since 2006 and has remained as a caretaker in that role since the March 7 parliamentary elections. As he tries to assemble the coalition he needs to win the support of a simple majority in the 325-member parliament, he has brushed up against the country's many religious and ethnic factions.

 The news of support for Maliki from the Sadrists appeared to expose the limits of the backing he can count on from other Shiite groups within the coalition. Late Friday, at least two smaller Shiite groups were meeting with the Iraqiya bloc and threatened to oppose Maliki's nomination.

 "We have reservations against Maliki, and we want to come to a compromise candidate to form a strong government of national partnership, not a weak one," said Ali Shabbar, a leading Shiite legislator from the Shiite Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq. "Maliki failed in his performance for the last four years, and he gave nothing to the people."

 The endorsement of Maliki came on the day Iraq broke the record for the longest time between elections and government formation in a parliamentary system. Both Maliki and Allawi claim the right to form the next government, based on differing interpretations of the constitution. Allawi's Iraqiya bloc, backed largely by Sunni Arabs, won 91 seats; Maliki's slate won 89. Iraqiya has threatened to boycott the next government if Maliki becomes prime minister.

 Allawi's bloc instead hopes to broker a deal with some of the Shiite groups to nominate an alternative to Maliki. Iraqi officials said the move would be a blow to neighboring Iran, which has been pressuring the Shiite leaders to stay united despite their disputes.

 Maliki is a divisive leader. He has made a slew of enemies, who accuse him of being a strongman who circumvented security ministries, consulted a small circle of advisers and ruled with dictatorial tendencies.

 The Sadrist support for him came despite a history of enmity toward Maliki, who led a charge against the militant wing of the Sadr movement in 2008 in the southern port city of Basra. In the last two months, hundreds of Sadrists have been released from Iraqi prisons.

 With about 57 seats in the parliament, the Kurdish alliance could give Maliki the backing he needs. But Kurdish officials have balked at the possibility that Iraqiya, which represents a large portion of Sunni Arabs, might not be included in Iraq's next government.

 If Iraqiya does not participate, the next government might not be seen as credible. Sunni and secular Iraqis cast their ballots in droves for Allawi's group, and Sunnis have felt marginalized by past Shiite-led governments.

 "It's not over until it's over," said Hoshyar Zebari, the foreign minister and an elected Kurdish member of Iraq's new parliament. "Things could get more complicated."

 Special correspondent Jinan Hussein in Baghdad and staff writer Karen DeYoung in Washington contributed to this report. ||||| “We are confident that with the cooperation and efforts of honorable and faithful Iraqis, we will, God willing, be able to overcome the difficulties, challenges and problems and complete the construction of the institutions of state of a free, democratic Iraq,” Mr. Maliki said in televised remarks.

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 He owes his new support to the extraordinary political resurrection of Moktada al-Sadr, the self-exiled cleric whose fighters once battled in the streets of Baghdad, Basra and other cities with Iraqi and American troops. Until days ago he fiercely opposed Mr. Maliki’s re-election.

 Mr. Maliki’s success reflected his tenacity — tinged with authoritarianism — to retain power, despite widespread opposition to his leadership. It also showed his willingness to disregard — for political expediency — American concerns about the return of Mr. Sadr’s followers to the center of political power.

 A dour, uncharismatic leader, Mr. Maliki has persisted in arguing that only he can prevent a descent into the sectarian carnage that consumed Iraq when he took office in 2006, even if that means allying with a movement blamed for much of the violence.

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 While Obama administration officials insisted over months of quiet diplomacy that they preferred no candidate, only a broadly inclusive government, they made it clear that they did not favor a government that included the Sadrists, who are closely allied with Iran and oppose the presence of American troops.

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 This week, a senior American military commander in Baghdad blamed Shiite extremist groups, including one affiliated with Mr. Sadr, for a spike in rocket attacks on the capital’s Green Zone.

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 In Washington, officials were noticeably cool to news of the agreement between Mr. Maliki and Mr. Sadr, in no small part because it signaled an ascendant Iranian influence in Iraq.

 “An Iraqi government that owes its existence to the Sadrists and lacks strong support from Allawi would necessarily be one that leans in Tehran’s direction, something Washington can little afford at the moment,” Daniel P. Serwer, a vice president at the United States Institute of Peace, said in an e-mail.

 Mr. Maliki, who is 60, now has the backing of at least 148 lawmakers in the new 325-member Parliament to form a government, just short of a majority. The Kurds, with 57 seats among several parties, indicated Friday that they, too, would support his re-election, though only with concessions on territorial, economic and political issues.

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 “Now he has a great possibility to become prime minister again,” said a prominent Kurdish lawmaker, Mahmoud Othman.

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 That would give Mr. Maliki a solid majority, though he must still cobble together a governing coalition among various parties jockeying for control of important positions and ministries, especially those overseeing oil and the security forces.

 “What happened now is the best for Iraqis,” said a leader of Mr. Maliki’s party, Ali al-Adeeb.

 He called for a swift session of Parliament to elect Mr. Maliki and pledged to continue talks to include other factions, especially Mr. Allawi’s, which includes almost all of the newly elected Sunni lawmakers. Mr. Maliki echoed that in his statement.

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 Mr. Allawi’s bloc vowed to oppose the nomination, but despite winning slightly more seats than Mr. Maliki did, 91 to 89, he and his supporters did not appear to have enough votes to do so.

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 It was not immediately clear when the new Parliament, known as the Council of Representatives, would meet again. It has convened only once, for 18 minutes, despite constitutional deadlines that have passed unheeded.

 By law, the members must first elect a president, who then authorizes the leading bloc to form a government coalition.

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 Mr. Maliki’s nomination underscored the ever-shifting alliances of power here. The Sadrists at first backed Adel Abdul Mahdi, one of two vice presidents who is a leader of the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, which was part of a broader Shiite alliance that joined Mr. Maliki’s bloc after the election, only to disagree on who should be prime minister.

 That party’s leaders boycotted the nominating session on Friday and met later with Mr. Allawi. A party member, Ali Shubar, said it would oppose Mr. Maliki because “we won’t vote for another failed government.” The outcome of the struggle over the next prime minister showed the ebbing of the power of a party that once dominated Shiite politics after Saddam Hussein’s toppling.

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 The Sadrists proved to be more effective and disciplined campaigners, with strong grass-roots support among Iraq’s Shiites. Having embraced politics, they are now poised to wield influence they have not had since they withdrew from the previous government in 2006.

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 The Sadrist leaders present on Friday did not explain their drastic and sudden swing toward Mr. Maliki. But in a statement two days ago, issued from Iran, where he is studying theology, Mr. Sadr sounded the pragmatic note of a seasoned politician.

 He cited a saying of his father, Ayatollah Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr, a revered Shiite leader who was killed in 1999 under Mr. Hussein’s regime.

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 “Politics has no heart,” Mr. Sadr said, in response to a letter from a follower. “Be informed, politics is giving and taking.”

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 One of the main issues facing Iraq in the coming year is what, if any, American military presence will continue after a deadline in December 2011 for withdrawing the remaining 50,000 American troops here.

 Diplomats and military commanders here have already signaled an interest in maintaining a close security relationship with Iraq as it rebuilds its armed services and solidifies its fragile democratic institutions.

 While many Iraqi political and military leaders have expressed support for that, the Sadrists remain opposed to what they call “a foreign occupation.” |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– A coalition of Shiite groups supported giving Nouri al-Maliki another term as prime minister, the Washington Post reports. The rare sign of progress came as the country achieved the dubious record of the longest time between an election and the formation of an actual government. Much uncertainty remains, however, and it could take weeks or even months for Maliki to get things in place, notes the New York Times. Today's progress may not be great news for the US because it would give much political clout to an old nemesis, Moktada al-Sadr, adds the AP. It was his followers, known as Sadrists, who reversed themselves and backed Maliki in a bid to get a share of power in the new government.


Chicago is America's funniest city

 Chicago is seriously funny.

 A new study by the University of Colorado at Boulder ranks Chicago as America’s funniest city, beating out laugh riots Boston and Atlanta to claim the top spot. Researchers hailed Chicagoans for their witty banter and observational humor, specifically citing the local penchant for poking fun at the brutal weather and the CTA.

 “The jokes that Chicagoans do tend to tell often feature deadpan and quick-witted humor, much of it directed at the foibles and frustrations of living in Chicago,” according to the study, which was released Sunday.

 Researchers at the university's Humor Research Lab created an algorithm to evaluate several data sets, including the number of comedy clubs in each city, the number of famous comedians born there, the number of well-known humorist who tweet from there and traveling comedians’ ratings of local audiences. They also considered how frequently residents visit comedy websites.

 They then surveyed more than 900 people living in the top 10 cities as determined by the algorithm. Researchers asked residents about the kinds of funny entertainment they enjoyed, whether they considered humor an important quality in friends and significant others and subjected them to a personality test. They also had participants describe their city’s sense of humor and recount their favorite joke.

 And, despite their funny ranking, it seems Chicagoans are lousy joke tellers.

 “For a place that’s the funniest city in the country, Chicago doesn’t seem to boast a lot of jokes,” the study states. “Many Chicago residents surveyed noted that they could not think of any zingers, since they prefer to mine observational humor from the situations in which they find themselves. Such remarks seem to fit with the city’s professional comedy scene, since the city is known as a mecca for improv and stand-up.”

 Other cities in the Top 10 were: Boston, Atlanta, Washington, Portland, Ore., New York, Los Angeles, Denver, San Francisco and Seattle. Indianapolis, Detroit and Milwaukee were 25th, 34th and 39th respectively.

 The study was led by Peter McGraw, an associate professor of marketing and psychology at CU-Boulder’s Leeds School of Business. The project grew out of McGraw’s new book, “The Humor Code: A Global Search for What Makes Things Funny,” which he co-authored with journalist Joel Warner.

 “The result was a window into the humor profiles of each of the top 10 cities,” said McGraw in a statement provided by the university. “Boston residents balance high-brow intellectualism with drunken rowdiness while Washington, D.C., finds humor in the absurdities of political systems. Portlanders are just plain weird.”

 sstclair@tribune.com

 Twitter @stacystclair ||||| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Need a laugh? Head to Chicago. A new study finds the Windy City is also the funniest one in the US, according to the Chicago Tribune. "We found humor often has a local flavor," the lead researcher says. "The jokes that get laughs at comedy clubs in Denver seem unlikely to fly with a cartoon editor at the New Yorker." Researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder's Humor Research Lab created an algorithm that looked at, among other things, a city's: number of comedy clubs and comedy radio stations number of famous comedians born there number of "funny tweeters" living there ratings of local audiences by traveling comedians frequency of visits to comedy websites and comedy-related web searches by residents When researchers determined a top 10, they surveyed 900 residents per city, asking them about their feelings on humor and comedic entertainment, their take on the city's sense of humor, and their favorite joke. "The jokes that Chicagoans do tend to tell often feature deadpan and quick-witted humor, much of it directed at the foibles and frustrations of living in Chicago," such as the weather and the transit system, researchers found. "They prefer to mine observational humor from the situations in which they find themselves. Such remarks seem to fit with the city’s professional comedy scene, since the city is known as a mecca for improv and stand-up." The rest of the top 5: Boston, Atlanta, Washington, and Portland. Click for the full top 10 and their complete humor profiles.


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 CASS COUNTY, Mo. -- The FBI has been called in to assist in the delicate search of a remote area in Cass County, where human bones were found Monday evening by a mushroom hunter, and now remains of a second person have been found nearby in the area on Tuesday.

 Authorities with Cass County now say they have found a second human skull in the wooded area near E. 233rd and State Route Y, south of Belton, where they found the first human skull on Monday. They also say they have been in contact with the families of Kara Koptesky and Jessica Runions, two young women missing from the Kansas City area, but could not confirm if the remains were that of these missing women.

 Kara's mother and Jessica's mother have become friends, sharing the common and devastating bond of missing a child.

 "I don't think I could get through this without them and my family and friends," said Jamie Runions, Jessica's mom. "It's just hard. It's the hardest thing anybody would have to go through."

 "We are a team and when you have a missing child… People can say they understand how you feel but unless you have another child that’s missing, you don’t," said Beckford, Kara Kopetsky's mother. "It’s not like any other thing and it’s drawn us closer together and we are like sisters."

 The Missouri State Highway Patrol has shut down approximately 6.5 miles of S. State Route Y between YY-Hwy and D-Hwy (Holmes Road) for the search. The road closure began at 12:30 p.m. and is expected to continue until dark. It could even continue until Wednesday.

 Kara Kopetsky, from Belton, has been missing since May 2007, and Jessica Runions, a Raymore woman disappeared in September 2016. Kopetsky was last seen leaving Belton High School on May 4, 2007 and has not been seen since. Runions was last seen at a party Sept. 8, 2016 with her boyfriend and one of his friends, Kylr Yust.

 "My feeling is Kara is gone but of course there is always that doubt in the back of your mind when you don’t know 100 percent. You always hold onto that hope that’s what you go on. But we need a resolution to this and we need to find out what happened to our girls. Good or bad, we just want them home.," said Beckford. "They brought us here because they thought there would be some new information that would come in but it just hasn’t panned out to be that way. We’re still just waiting."

 "Every hour, every day, every minute, we just hope and pray those answers come in and we find our daughters and we are able to put the dirt bag away for the rest of his life so he can’t hurt anyone else again," said Beckford.

 Kylr Yust was involved with Kara Koptesky before her disappearance. Yust has never been charged in her disappearance, but she and her mother, Rhonda Beckford, filed a restraining order against him shortly before she vanished. The order wasn’t officially granted until after she disappeared.

 Yust was also a friend of Jessica Runions. He has been charged in Jackson County with 'knowingly burning' in connection to Jessica Runions' case and car. He was arrested in September 2016 at his family's home in Edwards, Mo., in Benton County, about two hours from Kansas City. He has not faced additional charges related to her disappearance.

 In 2011, Yust, then 22, was charged with two counts of animal abuse, including smashing a kitten against a bathroom floor. According to prosecutors, Yust allegedly smashed the head of a kitten against a bathroom floor on July 5, 2011, and then allegedly drowned two kittens in a bag in an area creek on July 20, 2011.

 A week before the animal abuse charges, Yust was placed on two years probation after pleading guilty to beating and choking his 18-year-old pregnant girlfriend. According to police reports, Yust allegedly told the teen that he could dispose of body parts in a pig pen on a family ranch.

 Family and friends of both woman have been searching for clues in their disappearance but have had no luck. Just in January, groups searching for Runions' body found two bodies while searching, but neither of those bodies belong to either of these women.

 According to Captain Kevin Tieman, the skull recovered Monday has been sent to the Jackson County Medical Examiner for further examination.

 FOX 4 has crews at the scene. Expect continuing coverage on fox4kc.com. If you're a Facebook user, check our Facebook page for live reports there as well. Download the app for news in between FOX 4 newscasts. ||||| More Videos 0:58 KCK woman dies in a fatal car crash after being raped Pause 1:34 Former dispatcher remembers KC's worst floods 1:51 Feathers fly over announced Tyson Foods chicken plant in Tonganoxie 1:54 Crime Stoppers most wanted fugitives 1:30 Suspect charged in two KC killings and remains suspect in three trail deaths 3:00 Man charged in two KC murders and is a suspect in three murders on Indian Creek trail 1:59 Despite arrest, safety along Indian Creek Trail still in question 1:00 Why KC will never see 50 inches of rain 0:55 Five things to know about Jeanne Lillig-Patterson 1:52 A flood for the history books swept through Kansas City nearly forty years ago Video Link copy Embed Code copy

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 'We speak for our daughters' Rhonda Beckford and Jamie Runions talk to media after meeting with Belton police Tuesday afternoon. The families of Kara Kopetsky and Jessica Runions were notified Monday evening about the discovery of unidentified skeletal remains. Rhonda Beckford and Jamie Runions talk to media after meeting with Belton police Tuesday afternoon. The families of Kara Kopetsky and Jessica Runions were notified Monday evening about the discovery of unidentified skeletal remains. Shelly Yang The Kansas City Star

 Rhonda Beckford and Jamie Runions talk to media after meeting with Belton police Tuesday afternoon. The families of Kara Kopetsky and Jessica Runions were notified Monday evening about the discovery of unidentified skeletal remains. Shelly Yang The Kansas City Star ||||| The families of Kara Kopetsky and Jessica Runions were called by police Tuesday after investigators found a second skull in a Cass County field.

 Click here to see video of the scene

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 Human remains were found by a mushroom hunter south of Belton Monday afternoon.

 A second human skull was located in the same search area, the Sheriff's Office said.

 "No identification has been made at this time. Based on the remains recovered the age, sex, race have not been determined. Further examination is currently in progress.

 "Although families of missing person cases in the area have been in contact with law enforcement we cannot confirm the identity of victims," the Sheriff's Office said in a news release.

 The remains were found near East 233rd and State Route Y.

 Authorities said they have closed approximately 6.5 miles of S. State Route Y between YY Hwy and D Hwy (Holmes Rd). The area could be closed until Wednesday.

 "We're another day closer to getting answers, and you know, every hour, every day, every minute, we just hope and pray that those answers come in and we finally, you know, find our daughters, and we're able to put the dirt bag away for the rest of his life so he can never hurt anybody ever again," said Kopetsky’s mother, Rhonda Beckford.

 Kopetsky, 17, was last seen leaving Belton High School in May 2007. Runions, 21, was last seen in September 2016.

 A police report taken after Kopetsky's disappearance shows a witness told police they saw the vehicle belonging to Kylr Yust, Kopetsky's ex-boyfriend, in the area where Cass County authorities say those remains were located.

 Yust Kopetsky police report

 Runions’ SUV was found burned along Blue River Road in south Kansas City shortly after she vanished. Witnesses told police that Kylr Yust was the last person seen with Runions. He has been charged with burning her vehicle.

 The Cass County Sheriff's Office said they will continue searching the wooded area for at least the next 2 days. The search was suspended late Tuesday afternoon because it was getting dark. They said they will meet in the morning and evaluate the weather before continuing the search.

 For free news updates on the go, download the KMBC 9 News app

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– The families of two missing women have been notified after the discovery of a pair of skulls this week outside Kansas City, the Kansas City Star reports. Kara Kopetsky was last seen in 2007; Jessica Runions disappeared last September. Neither woman's body has ever been found. The first skull was discovered by a mushroom hunter Monday in a wooded area of Cass County. According to WDAF, authorities found the second skull Tuesday while searching the area. A number of other bones have also been found. While the families of Kopetsky and Runions were notified, neither of the skulls has been identified yet, KMBC reports. It's unclear how long it could take to get an identification. The families of the missing women are hopeful the remains will soon provide some answers. "Even if it’s not Kara, it’s someone’s loved one and someone has answers,” Kopetsky's mother tells the Star. “Good or bad, someone has answers.” Runions' family has been searching regularly since her disappearance. Searchers found two bodies in January, neither of them belonging to the missing women. Runions, 21, was last seen leaving a party with 28-year-old Kylr Yust, a friend of her boyfriend, in September. Yust has been charged with burning her car after it was later found. Yust had dated Kopetsky prior to her disappearance at the age of 17 a decade ago. Shortly before she went missing, Kopetsky filed a restraining order against him.