Here is a news article: Serena Williams was portrayed as an angry baby in a cartoon published in the Australian newspaper the Herald Sun on Monday, two days after the 23-time Grand Slam tennis champion lost her cool in a dramatic US Open final.

 Williams was given three code violations during her straight-sets loss to Naomi Osaka on Saturday.

 The first violation was for coaching, which Williams argued against. "I don't cheat to win — I'd rather lose," she said.

 Williams was later given a violation for smashing her racket, costing her a point. Her third violation, for calling the umpire Carlos Ramos a "thief," cost her a game.

 She repeatedly demanded an apology from Ramos. Speaking with the referee to protest Ramos' call, she argued that male players weren't punished for similar, or worse, actions. "Because I'm a woman, you're going to take this away from me?" she said.

 Williams was fined $17,000, which is deducted from her prize money of $1.85 million as the tournament's runner-up, according to the Associated Press.

 In response, the Herald Sun's editorial cartoonist, Mark Knight, lampooned Williams in his latest piece.

 Williams is shown with grotesque features including an oversize nose and lips and is pictured jumping up and down with a broken racket and a pacifier nearby, insinuating that Williams acted like a baby having a temper tantrum during the final.

 The cartoon also pictures 20-year-old Osaka, one of the rising stars in women's tennis, in the background, where the umpire tells her: "Can you just let her win?"

 Here is the cartoon:

 The cartoon provoked an angry response on Twitter, where some users have also commented on how Osaka appears to be portrayed as a white, blond woman in the drawing.

 "Regardless of the rights and wrongs of Williams' behaviour, I really don't like that cartoon at all," one Twitter user said. "Why is Naomi Osaka suddenly transformed into a white, blonde player? Why is Carlos Ramos white too? And why are Serena Williams' facial features distorted like that?"

 Another Twitter user said: "Thank you for this cartoon. I will be sure to use it when I write about how Black women are treated and characterized for speaking up for themselves. The way you have drawn both women speaks volumes about who you are and how you feel about Black women. Shame."

 A polarizing US Open final

 While Osaka beat Williams in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4, headlines did not focus on her first major win, instead fixating on Williams' hat trick of code violations.

 The decision to reprimand Williams polarized the tennis industry and wider sporting press, especially after Williams claimed she had been treated differently than a male tennis player would have been. Ben Rothenberg, a freelance journalist for The New York Times, argued on Twitter that all sanctions were fair.

 The US tennis great Billie Jean King, however, suggested Williams had indeed identified a double standard in tennis. ||||| J.K. Rowling Blasts 'Racist' Serena Newspaper Cartoon

 J.K. Rowling Blasts 'Racist' Serena Williams Newspaper Cartoon

 Breaking News

 This is not good.

 A newspaper in Australia is catching A LOT of heat over a cartoon that was trying to spoof Serena Williams' incident at the U.S. Open -- because it's racist as hell.

 The cartoon -- drawn by Mark Knight (editorial cartoonist for the Herald Sun newspaper) -- shows the tennis superstar stomping on her racket.

 But, let's get serious, it looks like a Jim Crow-era, Sambo-style caricature of a black person -- not Serena Williams.

 The cartoon has been blasted by athletes and celebs including J.K. Rowling who said, "Well done on reducing one of the greatest sportswomen alive to racist and sexist tropes and turning a second great sportswoman into a faceless prop."

 ESPN's Jemele Hill noted the racism is "About as subtle as Fran Drescher’s voice."

 So far, it doesn't seem like the Herald Sun is backing down -- they retweeted the image and haven't pulled it.

 At least, not yet.

 As we reported ... Serena was penalized several times during Saturday's U.S. Open finals match against Naomi Osaka. Serena went off on the judge claiming he was a "thief" who stole a point from her.

 The judge then penalized Serena a game for the "verbal abuse." Williams continued to go off on the guy to other tournament officials claiming the judge would never treat a man that way. ||||| J.K. Rowling ಮರುಟ್ವೀಟಿಸಿದ್ದಾರೆ

 Well done on reducing one of the greatest sportswomen alive to racist and sexist tropes and turning a second great sportswoman into a faceless prop. https://t.co/YOxVMuTXEC ||||| Nine days before she beat Serena Williams in the finals of the U.S. Open, Naomi Osaka already seemed bored talking about her own life story.

 “Um, I think everybody knows this by now,” she said last month, with a small laugh. “Like I grew up in New York until I was 8 or 9 and then I moved to Florida, so…” She shrugged.

 It was a somewhat oversimplified version of the rising tennis star’s unusual story: Her father, Leonard Francois, is Haitian; her mother, Tamaki Osaka, is Japanese. The two met in Hokkaido when Francois, then a college student in New York, was visiting the island. According to a recent profile in the New York Times Magazine, Tamaki Osaka’s father accused her of bringing disgrace on the family when he learned that she was dating a black foreigner, and the two moved to Osaka, Japan’s second largest city. It was while they were living there that the future tennis star was born.

 Yes, her last name is the same as the city of her birth, which is another thing that she’s clearly tired of talking about.

 “You ready?” she said when a reporter asked about it on Saturday. “We’re recycling a joke from 2014! Everyone who was born in Osaka, their last name is Osaka.”

 “I never know what to do when someone asks me where I’m from,” Osaka tweeted in May 2017. “I just say FL, because saying Japan starts an unnecessary conversation.”

 She may be tired of the questions about her complicated identity, but given her growing celebrity, they’re unlikely to go away anytime soon. The 20-year-old is currently ranked seventh in the world, and her victory on Saturday made her Japan’s first Grand Slam champion. She’s also believed to be the first Grand Slam winner of Haitian descent. “At the U.S. Open, Naomi Osaka looks like the next best player in the world,” read one headline in the New Yorker.

 On Saturday, Osaka inadvertently found herself in the middle of a raging controversy after umpire Carlos Ramos decided to penalize Williams for her tone of voice during their match. Because of his widely criticized call, Washington Post sports columnist Sally Jenkins wrote, “we will never know whether young Osaka really won the 2018 U.S. Open or had it handed to her by a man who was going to make Serena Williams feel his power.”

 Yet for all the outpouring of anger that followed, virtually none of it was directed at Osaka, who instead was praised for her humility. At the trophy presentation, she cried, telling the crowd, “I’m sorry it had to end like this.”

 Then, she turned to Williams and bowed to her, saying, “I’m really grateful I was able to play with you.”

 Osaka has frequently described Williams, the winner of 23 Grand Slams, as her idol and inspiration. And like Williams, she was trained primarily by her father, along with her older sister Mari, who is also a professional tennis player.

 “I was 3 when I started playing tennis,” she told Bleacher Report last month. “It’s the only thing I’ve really known and the thing that I’m best at.”

 By then, her parents had left Japan and moved to Long Island to be closer to Francois’s family. Several years later, they would move to South Florida, where many of the country’s best young tennis players are trained. Broward County, where they settled, also has a sizable Haitian population — Creole is the third-most common language after English and Spanish in the county, appearing on ads on buses and official government notices. Osaka’s upbringing, she’s said in interviews, was influenced by both Japanese and Haitian culture. When she talks, she sounds like any other 20-year-old from Florida. Asked about her career goals in 2016, she replied, “To be the very best, like no one ever was. That’s a Pokemon quote, I’m sorry. That’s the Pokemon theme song. ”

 “She has some of the purest raw power in the game, a serve that she can use to dictate points and a whipping forehand swing that generates phenomenal racket head speed,” Louisa Thomas wrote in Racquet magazine. “Even as a 16-year-old, she’d clocked forehands at over a hundred miles an hour.”

 When Osaka turned pro in 2013, her dual citizenship meant that she had a choice between playing for Japan or the United States. Her father chose Japan, thinking it would open up more opportunities for her.

 The country is fairly homogeneous and Osaka, as a half-black woman, stood out. “I could see the shock on people’s faces,” she told Racquet magazine in March, remembering her first tournaments.

 [Japan’s half-black Miss Universe says discrimination gives her ‘extra motivation’]

 After the 2016 Australian Open, Osaka commented that it was “touching” that there were Japanese flags in the stand, and Japanese fans cheering for her. “I always think that they’re surprised that I’m Japanese,” she explained.

 But Osaka is not entirely comfortable speaking in Japanese, which is understandable, considering that she left the country as a toddler. At news conferences last week, she took questions in Japanese but replied to most of them in English. Yet, her posts on Twitter and Instagram alternate between the two languages.

 “I don’t know if you guys know this but I can understand most Japanese and I speak when I want to,” she tweeted in January, adding, “that applies to my family and friends.”

 “Thank you for your continuous support always,” she told fans on her website, which is available in both languages. “I will do my best on every game! And I will keep trying hard to speak better Japanese.”

 With her Grand Slam win, Osaka has become an overnight sensation in Japan. One teacher in the city of Kobe told the Associated Press that Osaka’s post-match comments were “so cool and yet so Japanese.” But the spate of headlines referring to her as the first Japanese woman to win the championship has also made some fans feel like her black identity is being erased.

 Naomi Osaka is Japanese-Haitian, not just Japanese. And she’ll quickly remind you about that. But reporters continue to diminish her Haitian identity smh. 🇭🇹🇯🇵 — Jermaine Scott (@itsjermaine) September 8, 2018

 Why are they only focusing on @Naomi_Osaka_ ‘s Japanese heritage and not a mention of her Haitian background? She’s proud of both and she’s the “first” for both countries ...hummm? pic.twitter.com/K2y19mpJY5 — Alberto B Mendoza (@AlbertoBNAHJ) September 9, 2018

 Osaka, for her part, has repeatedly reminded reporters that she is Japanese and Haitian. But she doesn’t seem to get asked about her Haitian side as often.

 “Talk about your relationship with Japanese culture and U.S. culture,” one reporter asked her on Wednesday, following Osaka’s quarterfinal victory. “How did both cultures make you who you are?”

 “My dad’s Haitian, so I grew up in a Haitian household in New York,” Osaka reminded her. “I lived with my grandma. And my mom’s Japanese and I grew up with the Japanese culture too, and if you’re saying American, I guess because I lived in America, I also have that too . . . I hope I answered your question. I don’t know.”

 It might not be her favorite subject, or one that she’s completely comfortable discussing, but Osaka is aware that her multicultural background means that she’s well positioned to become an international celebrity. At the 2016 Australian Open, she was asked why she had so many fans.

 “Probably because they think I’m interesting,” she told reporters. “Maybe it’s because they can’t really pinpoint what I am, so it’s like anybody can cheer for me.”

 More from Morning Mix:

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 ‘We’re the only ones who understand our situation’: Wives and girlfriends of men in wheelchairs form unique sisterhood

 Homecoming queen swaps tiara for her football helmet, kicks winning point before frenzied crowd ||||| The temperature in Boca Raton had soared above 90 degrees, but on a side court at the Evert Tennis Academy, Naomi Osaka was just digging into one of her last training sessions before the summer hardcourt season. Wearing leggings and a tank top — her magnificent mane of frizzy blond-tinted hair emerging from the back of her Adidas cap — the 20-year-old smacked crisp topspin groundstrokes with her coach, Sascha Bajin, a German of Serb descent best known for working as Serena Williams’s hitting partner for eight years. On the sideline, Osaka’s Japanese mother, Tamaki, sat in the shade in a denim jumpsuit and sunglasses, her daughter’s miniature Australian shepherd sitting by her feet. Pacing on the grass alongside the court was her Haitian-born father, Leonard Francois, a taciturn man in a baseball cap who trained her from age 3 and still tracks nearly every shot she hits.

 Some version of this simple scene — dutiful parents, a gifted child, the metronomic thump of a ball — plays out every day at tennis courts and sports fields across the world. Only in this case, the parents’ unlikely union has led to the emergence of one of the most intriguing young stars in sports today: an athlete who has grown up in one place (the United States), represents another (Japan) and, for some, symbolizes something as large as the world’s multicultural future. In playing under the flag of an island nation noted for its racial homogeneity, Osaka challenges assumptions about whether and under what circumstances a biracial person might be accepted as truly Japanese. For her part, Osaka, shy and quirky, with a penchant for unexpected candor, seems focused solely on becoming the next Serena. Her ambition, she once told a reporter, was “to be the very best, like no one ever was.” After a beat, realizing that her interlocutor was not tuned to her frequency, she explained: “I’m sorry; that’s the Pokémon theme song. But, yeah, to be the very best, and go as far as I can go.”

 On this searing afternoon, Osaka was amping up the velocity of her shots. “Ninety seconds!” shouted her conditioning coach, Abdul Sillah, looking at his stopwatch. Osaka and Bajin were halfway through their first three-minute drill, a baseline rally that lasts about 10 times longer than an average exchange in a match. The drill is meant to make the legs and lungs burn without affecting the pace and placement of the athlete’s groundstrokes. It also happens to goad Osaka’s competitive pride. After about 80 shots, by my count, neither she nor Bajin had missed. As the clock slogged on — “Two minutes!” Sillah said, then “Two and a half minutes!” — it was clear that each was trying to make the other crack. Osaka let out a shriek as she scrambled to return one of his deep shots down the line. As the last seconds ticked away, Osaka crushed a forehand crosscourt for a winner. “I hit with Serena almost every day for eight years, and Naomi’s weapons are just as big,” Bajin says. “She’s not afraid of center stage, either, and that’s why I believe she has greatness within her.”

 As the U.S. Open begins this week, Osaka may be a premature pick to lift this year’s trophy, but the prospect also wouldn’t be entirely outlandish. At 20, she is the youngest woman in the world’s Top 20 — and Japan’s highest-ranked female player in more than a decade. Serena Williams declared two years ago that Osaka was “very dangerous.” So it wasn’t a complete surprise when she put together a spectacular run in March at Indian Wells, in California, demolishing three current or former world No.1s on the way to her first W.T.A. title. Those upsets catapulted her up the rankings, from No. 68 at the end of 2017 to 17 by early August. “Ever since I can remember, I played better against bigger players on bigger courts,” she told me, her high, soft voice a contrast to the ferocity she displays on court. Tsuyoshi Yoshitani, a sports reporter with Kyodo News, says: “Naomi is like no Japanese player ever before. I think she will be the first Japanese player to win a Grand Slam.” |||||
A summary of this is?

– Serena Williams' loss to Naomi Osaka over the weekend at the US Open continues to generate headlines beyond the world of sports. One of the buzzier stories Monday concerned a cartoon—see it here—that it appeared in the Herald Sun of Australia, reports Business Insider. It depicts Williams, with exaggerated features, throwing a tantrum. In the view of TMZ, "it looks like a Jim Crow-era, Sambo-style caricature of a black person—not Serena Williams," and plenty of people agreed, including JK Rowling. "Well done on reducing one of the greatest sportswomen alive to racist and sexist tropes and turning a second great sportswoman into a faceless prop," she wrote. Others found it strange that the cartoonist made Osaka and the ump white, when neither are. Related coverage: Catching up: If you missed it, Williams accused ump Carlos Ramos of being a "liar" and a "thief" for docking her a point after what he deemed to be illegal communication between Williams and her coach. As she criticized him and demanded an apology, he penalized her a full game. Williams was ultimately fined $17,000. Lost in all this: The controversy has overshadowed the win by Osaka and the 20-year-old's remarkable journey. Her mother is Japanese and her father Haitian, notes the Washington Post, which makes her Japan's first Grand Slam champ. The New York Times recently profiled her, wondering whether she can "burst Japan's expectations of what it means to be Japanese."


Write a summary based on this article:

Just weeks after Endemol Shine North America announced it would develop a television series about Tejano music queen Selena’s love story with her husband Chris Perez, the project faces a legal roadblock.

 The late singer’s father, Abraham Quintanilla, Jr. on Friday filed a suit in a Texas court against Endemol and Perez to stop production of the series, alleging that only Selena’s estate has the right to her name, image and “to author or authorize and commercially exploit a book, play, video, film, TV movie” about her life.

 Earlier this year, Endemol Shine signed a deal with Perez to adapt his best-selling book To Selena With Love, published in 2012, which tells the story of his romance with Selena from his perspective. Perez was married to the star from 1992 until she was murdered in 1995. She was only 23.

 The suit states Perez is in violation of an Estate Properties Agreement he signed two months after her death in 1995. That agreement stipulates that Quintanilla, Jr. is the exclusive rights holder of all “Entertainment Properties,” which includes contract, trademark and copyright rights, rights to income, rights of publicity, rights to name, voice, signature, and photographs, among other rights, “throughout the world in perpetuity without restriction.”

 According to the suit, Perez accepted the terms of the Estate Properties Agreement and in doing so, “agreed to receive, among other things, twenty-five percent (25%) of the net profits derived from the exploitation of the Entertainment Properties.”

 That means that Perez’s book To Selena With Love, which includes a photo of the star on its cover, was published in breach of contract, and is considered “unauthorized.”

 “The petition states Mr. Perez violated the Entertainment Properties agreement. He doesn't have the rights to publish a book or produce a television series based in any part on Selena,” says Quintanilla estate attorney Simran A. Singh. “Among other things, we are seeking a judicial declaration that the defendants have no right to exploit the series and stop production.” ||||| Selena Quintanilla and Chris Perez's love story might not make it to TV.

 On Friday, the late singer's father, Abraham Quintanilla Jr., filed a lawsuit in a Texas court against Perez and Endemol to stop the production of the TV series based on their relationship, which they announced just two weeks ago.

 The documents state that in 1995, after Selena's death, Perez and others entered a legal agreement about the late singer's estate. According to the documents, Quintanilla Jr. is the only person with ownership and all proprietary rights in the name, voice, signature, photograph, and likeness of Selena. |||||

– For fans looking forward to watching Selena Quintanilla and Chris Perez's love story play out on screen, don't get your hopes up too high. A TV series about the relationship was just announced two weeks ago, but now Quintanilla's father is suing Perez, her widower, to stop production, E! reports. The series was to be an adaptation of Perez's 2012 book about his romance with Quintanilla, the iconic "queen of Tejano music" who was murdered by her fan club president in 1995 when she was just 23. The couple married in 1992. In the lawsuit, Abraham Quintanilla Jr. says that, per an Estate Agreement entered into after Selena's murder, only Quintanilla Jr. holds the rights to "Entertainment Properties," a broad category that includes the use of Selena's name, voice, signature, and photographs. Per the suit, Perez agreed to that in exchange for receiving, "among other things," 25% of "net profits derived from the exploitation of the Entertainment Properties." Perez "doesn’t have the rights to publish a book or produce a television series based in any part on Selena," a Quintanilla estate attorney tells Forbes.


Because your body will simply shut down once it realizes it's being forced to share the same plane of existence with the kind of people who think it's completely normal to snap selfies at funerals and upload them to social media sites with the caption "love my hair today, hate why I'm dressed up" and the hashtag "#funeral."

 And then one of your snot-nosed relatives will snap a selfie of themselves at your funeral, and upload it to Twitter with the caption "depressing funeral selfie" and the hashtag "#sadday."

 It's the circle of YOLO.

 Advertisement

 [screengrabs via Tumblr] ||||| “Selfies at Funerals! A page on Tumblr has been creating quite an uproar," says a man on Good Morning America while reading a script, clearly not uproar’d himself. But this scary man seems quite upset indeed:

 Terrifying, right? Perhaps you have some questions.

 Why is all this text here in blue?

 It’s the Tumblr template and I don’t know how to change it. I hate it too.

 Why did you—

 Sorry to I interrupt but I see where you’re going. Please check out the press page, and in particular, listen to the interviews on "Q” and “The List,” which should provide plenty of context.

 Will you keep updating this Tumblr?

 Probably not. I like to think of it as a standing statement: Everyone who’s ever visited will have seen the exact same thing (except for this post, which came a few weeks after launch.) But if someone wants to offer me a lot of money to keep it going—or to do anything else, I suppose—you have my full attention.

 So what now?

 Follow me on Twitter. Or, take a selfie at a funeral and be mocked globally. Those are your only two options. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– One of the buzzier Tumblr entries of late is called "Selfies at Funerals," which compiles teen photos posted to Twitter or elsewhere that were taken at, yes, funerals. The ridicule has been fast and furious—oh, today's incredibly narcissistic and shallow teens—and totally out of line, argues PJ Vogt at OntheMedia. At least consider the possibility that this isn't about narcissism and is instead a classic case of an older generation not getting a younger one. "I suspect that for a lot of young people, a selfie is more like a public diary entry than it is a chance to show your friends how hot you look," writes Vogt. For those doing the mocking, "is this the kind of adult you wanted to be?" he asks. "A person who has no curiosity about why young people might do things in a new or different way from you." Besides, think of how grown-ups act at a funeral. Maybe, Vogt suggests, it's time for a Tumblr called "Adults In Suits Eating Hors d'oeuvres Near A Corpse." Click for the full column.


Here is a news article: List of nominees for the 89th annual Academy Awards presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

 Best Picture: "Arrival," ''Fences," ''Hacksaw Ridge," ''Hell or High Water," ''Hidden Figures," ''La La Land," ''Lion," ''Manchester by the Sea", "Moonlight."

 Actor: Casey Affleck, "Manchester by the Sea"; Denzel Washington, "Fences"; Ryan Gosling, "La La Land;" Viggo Mortensen, "Captain Fantastic"; Andrew Garfield, "Hacksaw Ridge"; Tom Hanks, "Sully."

 Actress: Isabelle Huppert, "Elle"; Ruth Negga, "Loving"; Natalie Portman, "Jackie"; Emma Stone, "La La Land"; Meryl Streep, "Florence Foster Jenkins."

 Supporting Actor: Jeff Bridges, "Hell or High Water"; Mahershala Ali, "Moonlight"; Dev Patel, "Lion"; Michael Shannon, "Nocturnal Animals."

 Supporting Actress: Viola Davis, "Fences"; Naomie Harris, "Moonlight"; Nicole Kidman, "Lion"; Octavia Spencer, "Hidden Figures"; Michelle Williams, "Manchester by the Sea."

 Directing: "Arrival," Denis Villeneuve; "Hacksaw Ridge" Mel Gibson; "La La Land" Damien Chazelle; "Manchester by the Sea," Kenneth Lonergan; "Moonlight" Barry Jenkins.

 Foreign Language Film: "Land of Mine," Denmark; "A Man Called Ove," Sweden; "The Salesman," Iran; "Tanna," Australia; "Toni Erdmann," Germany.

 Adapted Screenplay: "Moonlight," ''Lion," ''Arrival," ''Fences," ''Hidden Figures."

 Original Screenplay: "Hell or High Water," ''La La Land," ''The Lobster," ''Manchester by the Sea," ''20th Century Women."

 Animated Feature Film: "Kubo and the Two Strings," Travis Knight and Arianne Sutner; "Moana," John Musker, Ron Clements and Osnat Shurer; "My Life as a Zucchini," Claude Barras and Max Karli;"The Red Turtle," Michael Dudok de Wit and Toshio Suzuki; "Zootopia" Byron Howard, Rich Moore and Clark Spencer.

 Production Design: "Arrival" Production Design: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Paul Hotte; "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" Production Design: Stuart Craig; Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock; "Hail, Caesar!" Production Design: Jess Gonchor; Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh;"La La Land" Production Design: David Wasco; Set Decoration: Sandy Reynolds-Wasco; "Passengers" Production Design: Guy Hendrix Dyas; Set Decoration: Gene Serdena.

 Cinematography: "Arrival," Bradford Young; "La La Land," Linus Sandgren; "Lion," Greg Fraser; "Moonlight," James Laxton; "Silence," Rodrigo Prieto.

 Sound Mixing: "Arrival," Bernard Gariepy Strobl and Claude La Haye; "Hacksaw Ridge," Kevin O'Connell, Andy Wright, Robert Mackenzie and Peter Grace; "La La Land," Andy Nelson, Ai-Ling Lee and Steve A. Morrow; "Rogue One," David Parker, Christopher Scarabosio and Stuart Wilson; "13 Hours," Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers, Jeffrey J. Haboush and Mac Ruth.

 Sound Editing: "Arrival," Sylvain Bellemare;"Deepwater Horizon," Wylie Stateman and Renee Tondelli;"Hacksaw Ridge" Robert Mackenzie and Andy Wright;"La La Land," Ai-Ling Lee and Mildred Iatrou Morgan;"Sully," Alan Robert Murray and Bub Asman.

 Original Score: "Jackie," Mica Levi; "La La Land," Justin Hurwitz; "Lion," Dustin O'Halloran and Hauschka;"Moonlight," Nicholas Britell; "Passengers," Thomas Newman.

 Original Song: "Audition (The Fools Who Dream)," from "La La Land"; "Can't Stop the Feeling!" from "Trolls"; "City of Stars" from "La La Land"; "The Empty Chair" from "Jim: The James Foley Story"; "How Far I'll Go" from "Moana."

 Costume Design: "Allied," Joanna Johnston; "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" Colleen Atwood; "Florence Foster Jenkins," Consolata Boyle; "Jackie," Madeline Fontaine; "La La Land," Mary Zophres.

 Documentary Feature: "Fire at Sea," Gianfranco Rosi and Donatella Palermo; "I am Not Your Negro," Raoul Peck, Remi Grellety and Hebert Peck; "Life Animated," Roger Ross Williams and Julie Goldman; "OJ: Made in America," Ezra Edelman and Caroline Waterlow; "13th," Ava DuVernay, Spencer Averick and Howard Barish.

 Documentary (short subject): "Extremis," Dan Krauss; "4.1 Miles" Daphne Matziaraki;"Joe's Violin," Kahane Cooperman and Raphaela Neihausen; "Watani: My Homeland," Marcel Mettelsiefen and Stephen Ellis; "The White Helmets" Orlando von Einsiedel and Joanna Natasegara

 Film Editing: "Arrival," Joe Walker; "Hacksaw Ridge" John Gilbert; "Hell or High Water," Jake Roberts; "La La Land," Tom Cross; "Moonlight," Nat Sanders and Joi McMillon.

 Makeup and Hairstyling: "A Man Called One," Eva von Bahr and Love Larson; "Star Trek Beyond," Joel Harlow and Richard Alonzo; "Suicide Squad," Alessandro Bertolazzi, Giorgio Gregorini and Christopher Nelson.

 Animated Short Film: "Blind Vaysha," Theodore Ushev;"Borrowed Time," Andrew Coats and Lou Hamou-Lhadj;"Pear Cider and Cigarettes," Robert Valley and Cara Speller;"Pearl" Patrick Osborne;"Piper" Alan Barillaro and Marc Sondheimer.

 Live Action Short Film: "Ennemis Interieurs," Selim Azzazi;"La Femme et le TGV," Timo von Gunten and Giacun Caduff; "Silent Nights," Aske Bang and Kim Magnusson; "Sing" Kristof Deak and Anna Udvardy; "Timecode" Juanjo Gimenez.

 Visual Effects: "Deepwater Horizon," Craig Hammack, Jason Snell, Jason Billington and Burt Dalton;"Doctor Strange" Stephane Ceretti, Richard Bluff, Vincent Cirelli and Paul Corbould; "The Jungle Book" Robert Legato, Adam Valdez, Andrew R. Jones and Dan Lemmon;"Kubo and the Two Strings" Steve Emerson, Oliver Jones, Brian McLean and Brad Schiff; "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" John Knoll, Mohen Leo, Hal Hickel and Neil Corbould. ||||| FILE - This Oct. 26, 2016 file photo shows director Mel Gibson posing to promote his film, "Hacksaw Ridge," at the Ritz Carlton in New Orleans. Gibson was nominated for an Oscar for best directing on... (Associated Press)

 FILE - This Oct. 26, 2016 file photo shows director Mel Gibson posing to promote his film, "Hacksaw Ridge," at the Ritz Carlton in New Orleans. Gibson was nominated for an Oscar for best directing on Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2017, for his work on the film. The 89th Academy Awards will take place on Feb. 26.... (Associated Press)

 The candy-colored love letter to musicals "La La Land" has landed a record-tying 14 Academy Awards nominations, matching it with "Titanic" and "All About Eve" for most nominations ever.

 "La La Land" has earned nods for best picture, its stars Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, its songs and its 32-year-old writer-director, Damien Chazelle.

 The other nominees for best picture are: "Moonlight," ''Arrival," ''Manchester by the Sea," ''Hell or High Water," ''Lion," ''Fences," ''Hidden Figures" and "Hacksaw Ridge."

 Following two years of "OscarsSoWhite" furor, the Academy of Motion Pictures fielded a notably more diverse field of nominees, led by Barry Jenkins' luminous coming-of-age portrait "Moonlight," Denzel Washington's "Fences" and Theodore Melfi's "Hidden Figures."

 "Moonlight" tied with Denis Villeneuve's cerebral science fiction thriller "Arrival" for second most nominees with eight each.

 The biggest surprise of the morning was the strong boost of support for Mel Gibson, who had long been shunned in Hollywood. Not only did his World War II drama "Hacksaw Ridge" land a best picture nod, but Gibson scored an unexpected best director nomination.

 The nominees for best actor are: Casey Affleck ("Manchester by the Sea"), Andrew Garfield ("Hacksaw Ridge"), Ryan Gosling ("La La Land"), Viggo Mortensen ("Captain Fantastic"), Denzel Washington ("Fences").

 The nominees for best supporting actor are: Mahershala Ali ("Moonlight"), Jeff Bridges ("Hell or High Water"), Michael Shannon ("Nocturnal Animals"), Lucas Hedges ("Manchester by the Sea") and Dev Patel ("Lion").

 Whether fairly or not, the nominations were seen as a test for the revamped film academy. It will be the first Oscars voted on since academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs ushered in new membership rules and added 683 new members as a way to diversify a predominantly white, male and elderly group, which now numbers 6,687.

 The Oscars also rejiggered its nominations format. Instead of announcing nominees live in Los Angeles, pre-produced videos of previous winners introduced each category on Tuesday morning.

 Though "La La Land" and other best-picture nominees such as "Arrival" and (less certainly) "Hidden Figures" are knocking on the door of $100 million at the North American box office, none of the best picture nominees has yet grossed more than $100 million.

 After an unlikely awards season run, the smart-aleck superhero "Deadpool" ($363.1 million) didn't managed to crash the party, making this year's best picture nominees one of the lowest grossing bunch ever.

 The regular business of today's corporate-driven Hollywood is increasingly set apart from the industry's awards season, where smaller, critically adored films like "12 Years a Slave," ''Birdman," ''Boyhood" and "Spotlight" have recently dominated. Only one major studio — Paramount, which distributed "Arrival" and "Fences" scored a best picture nomination.

 Amazon, however, landed its first best picture nomination for Kenneth Lonergan's "Manchester by the Sea," which the streaming retailer partnered with Roadside Attractions to distribute.

 The dearth of blockbusters will pose a test for host Jimmy Kimmel, who'll be presiding over the Feb. 26 Oscarcast for the first time. While the Academy Awards are still among the most-watched TV programs of the year, ratings have been in decline the last two years. Last year's broadcast, hosted by Chris Rock, drew 34.4 million viewers, an eight-year-low.

 Rock's show, which he introduced as "the White People's Choice Awards," was rife with Hollywood's diversity debate. This year's — where politics may take over the spotlight — will surely be seen as an improvement. But many have always held that the industry's inclusivity problems are rooted not in its award shows but in its power brokers: executives, agents and producers.

 ___

 Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP |||||
A summary of this is?

– The Oscar nominations are out, with La La Land leading the way with a record-tying 14 nominations, reports the AP. (It ties Titanic and All About Eve.) Some highlights: Best movie: Arrival, Fences, Hacksaw Ridge, Hell or High Water, Hidden Figures, La La Land, Lion, Manchester by the Sea, and Moonlight. Best actress: Natalie Portman, Jackie; Emma Stone, La La Land; Isabelle Huppert, Elle; Meryl Streep, Florence Foster Jenkins; Ruth Negga, Loving. Best actor: Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea; Andrew Garfield, Hacksaw Ridge; Ryan Gosling, La La Land; Viggo Mortensen, Captain Fantastic; Denzel Washington, Fences. Best director: Damien Chazelle, La La Land; Barry Jenkins, Moonlight; Denis Villeneuve, Arrival; Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea; Mel Gibson, Hacksaw Ridge. Supporting actor: Mahershala Ali, Moonlight; Jeff Bridges, Hell or High Water; Lucas Hedges, Manchester by the Sea; Dev Patel, Lion; Michael Shannon, Nocturnal Animals. Supporting actress: Viola Davis, Fences; Michelle Williams, Manchester by the Sea; Octavia Spencer, Hidden Figures; Naomie Harris, Moonlight; Nicole Kidman, Lion. Animated feature: Kubo and the Two Strings, Moana, My Life as a Zucchini, The Red Turtle, and Zootopia. Original screenplay: Hell or High Water, La La Land, The Lobster, Manchester by the Sea, 20th Century Women. Full list: See a complete list of nominations here. Check out this year's Razzie nominations.


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– Wreckage of the Indonesian passenger plane that went missing today has been found, a transportation official tells Reuters, and early indications are that it crashed into a mountainside in remote terrain in eastern Papua. The Trigana Air Service plane, a twin turboprop, issued no distress signal before it went down, reports CNN, and it may have run into bad weather in the mountainous region. The BBC notes that a second plane sent to look for the missing one was forced back by dangerous conditions. Villagers reported seeing the plane crash into the side of a mountain; it's not yet known if there are any survivors.

JAKARTA An aircraft with 54 people on board crashed in Indonesia's remote and mountainous region of Papua on Sunday, a government official said, the latest in a string of aviation disasters in the Southeast Asian nation.

 "The latest information is that the Trigana aircraft that lost contact has been found at Camp 3, Ok Bape district in the Bintang Mountains regency," Air Transportation Director General Suprasetyo told reporters. "Residents provided information that the aircraft crashed into Tangok mountain."

 There was no immediate word on whether anyone survived.

 Earlier, the National Search and Rescue Agency (BASARNAS) said a twin-turboprop plane had lost contact with air traffic control as it flew over the forested area of eastern Indonesia but efforts to trace it were difficult because of failing light.

 Trigana Air Operations Director Beni Sumaryanto said that within 30 minutes of hearing that the aircraft was missing, the airline sent another plane to scour the same flight path but it had found nothing because of bad weather, local media reported.

 According to the official BASARNAS Twitter account, the aircraft, a short-haul ATR 42-300 airliner belonging to Trigana Air Service and built in France and Italy, was carrying 44 adult passengers, five crew and five children and infants.

 The plane was flying between Jayapura's Sentani Airport and Oksibil, due south of Jayapura, the capital of Papua province.

 Air transport is commonly used in Papua, Indonesia's easternmost province, where land travel is often impossible.

 According to the Aviation Safety Network, an online database, the ATR 42-300 that went missing made its first flight 27 years ago. ATR is a joint venture between Airbus (AIR.PA) and Alenia Aermacchi, a subsidiary of Italian aerospace firm Finmeccanica (SIFI.MI).

 The airline has been on the EU's list of banned carriers since 2007. Airlines on the list are barred from operating in European airspace due to either concerns about safety standards or the regulatory environment in their country of registration.

 The airline has a fleet of 14 aircraft, according to the airfleets.com database. These include 10 ATR aircraft and four Boeing 737 Classics. These have an average age of 26.6 years, according to the database.

 Trigana has had 14 serious incidents since it began operations in 1991, according to the Aviation Safety Network. Excluding this latest incident, it has written off 10 aircraft.

 Airline officials were not immediately available to respond to enquiries from Reuters.

 Indonesia has a patchy aviation safety record and has seen two major plane crashes in the past year, including an AirAsia flight that went down in the Java Sea, killing all on board.

 The AirAsia crash prompted the Indonesian government to introduce regulations aimed at improving safety.

 Indonesia's president promised a review of the ageing air force fleet in July after a military transport plane crashed in the north of the country, killing more than 100 people.

 (Additional reporting by Siva Govindasamy in Singapore; Writing by John Chalmers; Editing by Dale Hudson) ||||| Image copyright AP Image caption The missing plane, pictured in 2010

 The wreckage of an Indonesian plane which went missing with 54 people on board has been spotted in the remote western Papua region, officials say.

 The Trigana Air flight lost contact at 14:55 local time (05:55 GMT) on Sunday as it flew from the provincial capital, Jayapura, to the town of Oksibil.

 Indonesia's transport minister said the aircraft had been found by local people in the Bintang highlands region.

 A search plane has also now spotted suspected debris.

 Indonesia's postal office has told the BBC that the plane was carrying four bags containing cash, about 6.5 billion rupiah ($486,000; £300,000), for villagers living in remote places in Papua.

 "Our colleagues carry those bags to be handed out directly to poor people over there," said the head of Jayapura's post office, Haryono, who goes by only his first name.

 'Pray together'

 The ATR42-300 twin turboprop plane was carrying 44 adult passengers, five children and infants, and five crew. It is not yet known if anyone survived.

 It took off from Sentani airport in Jayapura at 14:21, but lost contact with air traffic controllers half an hour later.

 Bintang Mountains Regency Police Chief Yunus Wally told the Antara news agency that the debris was seen near a waterfall by a search plane on Monday, and that ground teams were preparing to head to the area.

 Henry Bambang Soelistyo, chief of Indonesia's national search and rescue agency, told AP news agency that "smoke was still billowing" from the debris spotted by their plane. He said bad weather and rugged terrain were hampering efforts to reach the site.

 Villagers had earlier told officials that a plane had crashed into a mountain.

 Indonesian President Joko Widodo has expressed his condolences on Twitter and called for the country to "pray together" for the victims.

 Image copyright EPA Image caption Family members have been waiting for news of their loved ones

 Oksibil, which is about 280km (175 miles) south of Jayapura, is a remote, mountainous region, which is extremely difficult to navigate.

 Bad weather is believed to have been a possible reason for the crash.

 The search plane was forced to turn back on Sunday because of dangerous flying conditions.

 On blacklist

 Trigana Air has had 14 serious incidents since it began operations in 1991, losing 10 aircraft in the process, according to the Aviation Safety Network.

 It has been on a European Union blacklist of banned carriers since 2007. All but four of Indonesia's certified airlines are on the list.

 Indonesia has suffered two major air disasters in the past year.

 Last December an AirAsia plane crashed in the Java Sea, killing all 192 people on board - and in July a military transport plane crashed in a residential area of Medan, Sumatra claiming 140 lives.

 Have you been affected by this story? You can share your comments by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

 Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways: |||||


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Engadget claims that Barnes & Noble is phasing out the 3G Nook. Does that mean a new Nook is coming?

 Gone baby gone? (Credit: Barnes & Noble)

 We're not sure quite what to make of this rumor, but Engadget is reporting that Barnes & Noble is phasing out the Nook 3G.

 Engadget doesn't cite a specific person or anonymous source, but says it, "Received hard evidence from within B&N; that the Nook is being discontinued, with sales to seemingly continue until stock is exhausted." The "outfit" (we assume that means Barnes & Noble) is apparently "encouraging retail partners to not send out any 'bulk requests' for the Nook 3G, as there simply 'will not be sufficient quantities to fulfill those orders.'"

 The article then goes on to say that "the company never actually received a huge amount of Nook 3G bulk orders to begin with, so maybe Wi-Fi really is everywhere these days."

 As we said, it's a little hard to decipher what this means, but we should point out that Engadget's story about the Nook Color getting an update to Android 2.2 and possibly blowing up if you rooted it (installed custom Android firmware) ended up being just a tad off base. However, this latest story was written by veteran Engadget reporter Darren Murph, so we're taking it more seriously.

 One thing worth pointing out is that it would seem odd for Barnes & Noble to discontinue the 3G/Wi-Fi version of the Nook and tell customers they could only get the Wi-Fi-only version. The fact is, Amazon offers both a 3G/Wi-Fi Kindle and Wi-Fi-only Kindle, and Barnes & Noble would most likely continue to offer models that compete with what Amazon's got.

 While Barnes & Noble remains heavily focused on marketing the Nook Color, the more likely scenario is for the company to refresh the Nook e-ink line, which launched in November 2009. Whether that ends up being a substantial makeover or just some modest design and parts tweaks is unclear, but some industry insiders say that Barnes & Noble may be losing money on its e-ink readers (which is why it hasn't quite matched Amazon's prices). Therefore it would behoove the company to release a product that was more cost-effective to produce.

 In any case, we think that Barnes & Noble will continue to offer some sort of sub-$200 3G-enabled Nook as long as Amazon is offering one. But to be clear, that's just speculation. We have no "hard evidence" to prove some change is coming to the Nook line, and Barnes & Noble doesn't comment on rumors.

 Update: A Barnes & Noble rep told us that the Nook 3G sold very well during the holidays and remains on sale both in Barnes & Noble stores and in its retail partners stores. She would not comment on the Nook "roadmap" going forward. ||||| When it comes to eReaders, it looks like customers prefer to have a WiFi-only model. Despite Barnes & Noble's Nook product line showing all-time sales highs (thanks in no small part to the uber-popular Nook Color), the e-ink Nook 3G is apparently about to be discontinued, according to an Engadget tipster. Sales will continue until supply is depleted, but after that, don't expect to see any more of these.

 As eReaders only need data connections for downloading books (usually not something you'll do everyday) and syncing, it makes perfect sense that more customers opt for a cheaper WiFi model.

 It's been a slice, Nook 3G. [Engadget] |||||

– Barnes & Noble's Nook e-reader is quite popular—but apparently, just the WiFi-only version. The bookseller is discontinuing the model with 3G, reports Engadget, and apparently will continue sales only until the current stock runs out. The move makes sense, writes Will Shanklin on AndroidCentral.com: Because e-readers require data connections only when the user is downloading books or syncing, "it makes perfect sense that more customers opt for a cheaper wi-fi model." But CNET cautions that other so-called scoops about the Nook turned out to be false.


– The Tea Party is mad as hell and ... that's about it, writes Richard Cohen in the Washington Post. Beyond anger, the Tea Party "has no leader. It has no address, no phone, and no Washington headquarters. It is everywhere and nowhere." When a Post posse tried to track down 2,300 local tea-drinking groups, it could verify only 647. Cohen writes that "the Tea Party exists in the vapors," bound only by anger and the Internet. The latter eliminates the middleman—"in this case an actual political party, which was once called the organization because it actually organized." "Now that's done laptop to laptop so like-minded people can get together, even if they do not actually get together." This creates an "asymmetrical," impossible-to-nail-down enemy for Obama, but it's an enemy who is seeking change—which is exactly what pushed Obama into the presidency. "The Tea Party is here to stay if only because the Internet is here to stay. But its emotions and its grievances can be co-opted, engulfed, absorbed and made part of the engine of change that Obama himself once both personified and promised. As I recall, the original Tea Party was open to anyone. All you needed for admittance was anger."

Expand this summary.

In an unruly, unpredictable and chaotic election year, no group has asserted its presence and demanded to be heard more forcefully than the tea party. The grass-roots movement that was spawned with a rant has gone on to upend the existing political order, reshaping the debate in Washington, defeating a number of prominent lawmakers and elevating a fresh cast of conservative stars.

 But a new Washington Post canvass of hundreds of local tea party groups reveals a different sort of organization, one that is not so much a movement as a disparate band of vaguely connected gatherings that do surprisingly little to engage in the political process.

 The results come from a months-long effort by The Post to contact every tea party group in the nation, an unprecedented attempt to understand the network of individuals and organizations at the heart of the nascent movement.

 Seventy percent of the grass-roots groups said they have not participated in any political campaigning this year. As a whole, they have no official candidate slates, have not rallied behind any particular national leader, have little money on hand, and remain ambivalent about their goals and the political process in general.

 "We're not wanting to be a third party," said Matt Ney, 55, the owner of a Pilates studio and a founder of the Pearland Tea Party Patriots in Pearland, Tex. "We're not wanting to endorse individual candidates ever. What we're trying to do is be activists by pushing a conservative idea."

 The group, with 25 active members, meets to discuss policies and listen to speakers, Ney said. "We provide opportunities for like-minded people to get together," he said.

 The local groups stand in contrast to - and, in their minds, apart from - a handful of large national groups that claim the tea party label. Most of those outfits, including FreedomWorks and Tea Party Express, are headed by longtime political players who have used their resources and know-how to help elect a number of candidates.

 The findings suggest that the breadth of the tea party may be inflated. The Atlanta-based Tea Party Patriots, for example, says it has a listing of more than 2,300 local groups, but The Post was unable to identify anywhere near that many, despite help from the organization and independent research.

 In all, The Post identified more than 1,400 possible groups and was able to verify and reach 647 of them. Each answered a lengthy questionnaire about their beliefs, members and goals. The Post tried calling the others as many as six times. It is unclear whether they are just hard to reach or don't exist.

 Mark Meckler, a founding member of the Tea Party Patriots, said: "When a group lists themselves on our Web site, that's a group. That group could be one person, it could be 10 people, it could come in and out of existence - we don't know. We have groups that I know are 15,000 people, and I have groups that I know are five people."

 'We can't always agree'

 There is little agreement among the leaders of various groups about what issue the tea party should be most concerned about. In fact, few saw themselves as part of a coordinated effort.

 The most common responses were concerns about spending and limiting the size of government, but together those were named by less than half the groups. Social issues, such as same-sex marriage and abortion rights, did not register as concerns. ||||| The Tea Party has no leader. It has no address, no phone and no Washington headquarters. It is everywhere and nowhere. For Barack Obama, the Tea Party is the quintessential asymmetrical enemy, much like the Taliban in Afghanistan. The president stands a chance of losing on both fronts.

 The Post set up a posse and went in search of the Tea Party. Of the 2,300 local groups claimed by one Tea Party organization, The Post could verify or reach only 647. As for the rest, "it is unclear whether they are just hard to reach or don't exist," The Post said. Most of the known groups back no candidate, have no platform, raise little money and are not exactly sure of what they stand for. This is pretty close to what Will Rogers said of his own political allegiance: "I am not a member of any organized party. I am a Democrat."

 The difference between being an early-20th-century Democrat and an early-21st-century Tea Party member is the Internet. With it, the middleman is eliminated -- in this case an actual political party, Republican or Democratic, which was once called the organization because it actually organized. Now that's done laptop to laptop so like-minded people can get together, even if they do not actually get together. The Tea Party exists in the vapors. For Obama, it's a refutation of what Joe Louis said before his 1941 bout with Billy Conn: "He can run, but he can't hide." The Tea Party can do both.

 As a result, the vexed Obama has been swinging wildly, punching at ghosts. He has tried elevating the colorless John Boehner as a worthy opponent, but his face is as unrecognizable as his name is unpronounceable. Obama tried to make the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Public Enemy No. 1, but to most Americans the chamber is a group of guys in short-sleeve shirts and clip-on ties who sponsor the July 4 parade. He has tried going after Big Business and Evil Finance, but they are where the jobs are -- or used to be -- and while they are both more or less disliked, the message is mixed.

 Obama is stuck in the classic dilemma of asymmetrical warfare: Who and where is the enemy? In Afghanistan, Gen. David Petraeus carrots-and-sticks the Taliban -- battling them while also inviting them to peace talks. The strategy might work and, if it does, Obama might wonder why he did not do something similar. "Why should he be negotiating with the Taliban and not with the Tea Party?" the Democratic political consultant Douglas E. Schoen asked me.

 The Post's survey of the Tea Party movement suggests Schoen is on to something. Despite a repellent stream of racism in the Tea Party ranks -- The Post found that 11 percent of the Tea Party members said that Obama's race, religion or ethnic background was either "very important" or "somewhat important" for the movement -- the overriding emotion is anger. Anger is ugly to behold, but it is both understandable and widespread. Who besides the odd walrus was not angered by the bridge to nowhere? Who is not angry about earmarks and exorbitant government pensions and lousy roads and awful schools and taxes that seem too high -- in other words a political system in dire need of reform?

 The desire for change -- an emotion one step short of anger -- was what propelled Obama into the White House. As the Tea Party gained attention, he could have made common cause with it -- not on social issues, of course, but these are not as important as economic ones.

 Those and a general distrust of government are what motivate most Tea Party members, The Post discovered. Their allegiance to any political party is minimal. Obama, with almost no political record, might have made inroads with these people. Instead, he managed to become the personification of Big Government -- not just with his programs (necessary though they might be) but with his persona and isolation in the White House. He banned lobbyists but managed to transform himself into the biggest one of all. He blew it.

 The Tea Party is here to stay if only because the Internet is here to stay. But its emotions and its grievances can be co-opted, engulfed, absorbed and made part of the engine of change that Obama himself once both personified and promised. As I recall, the original Tea Party was open to anyone. All you needed for admittance was anger.

 cohenr@washpost.com |||||


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Wells report: Harassment details | Martin considered suicide | Coach involved | Racist messages | Incognito lawyer response | NFL, NFLPA, Dolphins to 'review'

 When Dolphins tackle Jonathan Martin left the team in November because he said he was being bullied by guard Richie Incognito, the NFL appointed big-name attorney Ted Wells to run an independent investigation into the team.

 On Friday, that report was released, and it concluded that Incognito, guard John Jerry and center Mike Pouncey "engaged in a pattern of harassment directed" at Martin and another young offensive lineman who wasn't named and an assistant trainer.

 Writes Wells' team: "We find that the Assistant Trainer repeatedly was targeted with racial slurs and other racially derogatory language. Player A frequently was subjected to homophobic name-calling and improper physical touching. Martin was taunted on a persistent basis with sexually explicit remarks about his sister and his mother and at times ridiculed with racial insults and other offensive comments."

 You can read the full report here.

 According to Wells, the three antagonists signed a Dolphins workplace conduct policy agreement in 2013 in which harrassment was defined as "unwelcome contact; jokes, comments and antics; generalizations and put-downs."

 Wrote Wells: "Guided by this policy, it was not difficult to conclude that the Assistant Trainer and Player A were harassed, but the questions raised in Martin's case were more complex, nuanced and difficult."

 Incognito's lawyer, Mark Schamel, blasted Wells' report in a statement released to media:

 "Mr. Wells' NFL report is replete with errors. The facts do not support a conclusion that Jonathan Martin's mental health, drug use, or on field performance issues were related to the treatment by his teammates. It is disappointing that Mr. Wells would have gotten it so wrong, but not surprising. The truth, as reported by the Dolphins players and as shown by the evidence, is that Jonathan Martin was never bullied by Richie Incognito or any member of the Dolphins Offensive line. We are analyzing the entire report and will release a thorough analysis as soon as it is ready."

 As thousands of text messages that were recently leaked to the media seem to show, it appeared that Incognito and Martin were buddies who frequently were in contact and just as frequently put each other down. The report concluded that the two had an "odd but seemingly close" friendship.

 While Incognito claimed it was all one big joke, Martin -- who also claimed he had been bullied in middle school and high school -- said he engaged in an attempt to fit in. Wells' team consulted with a psychologist, who said that Martin's response was consistent "with the behavior of a victim of abusive treatment.

 "To be candid, we struggled with how to evaluate Martin's claims of harassment given his mental health issues, his possible heightened sensitivity to insults and his unusual, 'bipolar' friendship with Incognito. Nonetheless, we ultimately concluded that Martin was indeed harassed by Incognito, who can fairly be described as the main instigator, and by Jerry and Pouncey, who tended to follow Incognito's lead.

 "In reaching this conclusion, we were significantly influenced by multiple factors, including the flagrantly inappropriate treatment of the Assistant Trainer and Player A, which, independent of Martin's claims, reflected a pattern of harassment. Moreover, shortly after Martin left the team, Incognito made a number of telling entries in a notebook used to keep track of 'fines' the offensive linemen imposed on each other in their 'kangaroo court' (typically for trivial infractions such as arriving late to meetings). Incognito recorded a $200 fine against himself for 'breaking Jmart,' awarded another lineman who had been verbally taunted a $250 bonus for 'not cracking first,' and wrote down a number of penalties against Martin for acting like a 'pussy.' The evidence shows, and Incognito did not dispute, that 'breaking Jmart' meant causing Martin to have an emotional reaction in response to taunting. Approximately one week after Martin left the team, on November 3, 2013, Incognito wrote nearly identical text messages to Pouncey and another lineman: 'They're going to suspend me Please destroy the fine book first thing in the morning.' We view Incognito's entries in the fine book about 'breaking Jmart' and his attempt to destroy the fine book -- which was unsuccessful -- as evidence demonstrating his awareness that he had engaged in improper conduct toward Martin."

 In regards to the team leadership, Wells writes that Incognito and the others might not have been told they were crossing any kind of line. Which leads to this question.

 How did Joe Philbin not know what was going on inside his team? — Peter King (@SI_PeterKing) February 14, 2014

 Martin told investigators that he was most offended when his teammates vulgarly referred to his family members, most notably sexual comments made against his sister. Then, after Martin's mother attended a team event last April, the teammates began making similar comments about her.

 Incognito didn't dispute Martin's comments that the statements that were made, and he said he often was trying to "get under the skin" of someone he was insulting. But to Incognito, this was "an accepted part of the everyday camaraderie of the Dolphins tight-knit offensive line." Incognito said all the linemen "recognized, accepted, and, indeed, actively participated in 'go-for-the-jugular' teasing and that the sexual comments "helped them bond."

 Basically, Wells' investigators led to this conclusion:

 "We find that the harassment of Martin bears many hallmarks of a classic case of bullying, where persons who are in a position of power harass the less powerful. It may seem odd to some that Martin, a professional football player with imposing physical stature, could be described as a victim of bullying or harassment, but even big, strong athletes are not immune from vulnerability to abusive behavior."

 Said Dolphins owner Stephen Ross in a statement: “We have just received the report from Ted Wells and will review it in detail before responding relative to the findings. When we asked the NFL to conduct this independent review, we felt it was important to take a step back and thoroughly research these serious allegations. As an organization, we are committed to a culture of team-first accountability and respect for one another.“

 The NFLPA said: "We received the report on workplace conditions in Miami today. We will review the findings closely, confer with our players and all relevant parties involved.”

 Follow Josh Katzowitz on Google+ ||||| After the report was released, the Dolphins made the following statement: We have just received the report from Ted Wells and will review it in detail before responding relative to the findings. When we asked the NFL to conduct this independent review, we felt it was important to take a step back and thoroughly research these serious allegations. As an organization, we are committed to a culture of team-first accountability and respect for one another.

 Richie Incognito, Mike Pouncey and John Jerry engaged in a pattern of harassment directed at not only teammate Jonathan Martin, but also another young Dolphins offensive lineman and an assistant trainer, independent counsel Ted Wells has determined.

 Furthermore, Wells rejects any suggestion that Martin manufactured claims of abuse after the fact to cover up his true reason for leaving the team, he announced Friday.

 The findings were released in Wells much-anticipated report on the teams workplace conduct scandal. The investigation took three months, in which he reviewed thousands of voluntarily produced documents (including text messages, emails and team policies) and completed more than 100 interviews.

 Wells spoke with all Dolphins players and coaches, key front-office personnel, and the teams owner and chairman he said Friday.

 After the report was released, the Dolphins made the following statement: We have just received the report from Ted Wells and will review it in detail before responding relative to the findings. When we asked the NFL to conduct this independent review, we felt it was important to take a step back and thoroughly research these serious allegations. As an organization, we are committed to a culture of team-first accountability and respect for one another.

 Our office has received the report of independent counsel Ted Wells, which sets forth the findings of his investigation into the workplace environment at the Miami Dolphins. Consistent with our commitment at the outset of this matter, the full report has been transmitted to our clubs and has been made public. We appreciate the work of Ted Wells and his colleagues and the cooperation of the Miami Dolphins organization in the investigation. After we have had an opportunity to review the report, we will have further comment as appropriate.

 The report finds that an assistant trainer repeatedly was the object of racial slurs and other racially derogatory language; that the other offensive lineman was subjected to homophobic name-calling and improper physical touching; and that Martin was taunted on a persistent basis with sexually explicit remarks about his sister and his mother and at times ridiculed with racial insults and other offensive comments.

 Text messages sent from Martin to his parents and others months before he left the Dolphins corroborate the left tackles account that the harassment at the hands of his teammates caused him significant emotional distress.

 The report finds, however, that Martins teammates did not intend to drive Martin from the team or cause him lasting emotional injury.

 Wells does not plan to comment further on the investigation. ||||| G Richie Incognito (68) and T Jonathan Martin used to form the left side of the Dolphins' O-line. (Photo: Lynne Sladky, AP) Story Highlights Investigation from NFL-appointed lawyer absolves Joe Philbin, Miami front office of wrongdoing

 Martin was not only harassed by Incognito but fellow linemen Mike Pouncey and John Jerry

 Another player and one of the team's trainers were also frequent targets of abuse

 Miami Dolphins guard Richie Incognito was the ringleader of three players who "engaged in a pattern of harassment" of teammate Jonathan Martin, another unidentified young offensive lineman and a member of the team's athletic training staff, according to the long-awaited report released by prominent attorney Ted Wells' office Friday morning.

 That harassment by Incognito and fellow offensive linemen John Jerry and Mike Pouncey contributed to Martin's departure from the team in October, but those teammates "did not intend to drive Martin from the team or cause him lasting emotional injury," and coach Joe Philbin and the front office were unaware it was happening, the report said.

 "As all must surely recognize, the NFL is not an ordinary workplace," the report's conclusion read. "Professional football is a rough, contact sport played by men of exceptional size, speed, strength and athleticism. But even the largest, strongest and fleetest person may be driven to despair by bullying, taunting and constant insults.

 "We encourage the creation of new workplace conduct rules and guidelines that will help ensure that players respect each other as professionals and people."

 The Dolphins, the NFL and the players union all released statements saying they planned to review the 144-page report, which culminated a more than three-month investigation and more than 100 interviews by Wells' team.

 It was harshest toward Incognito — the 30-year-old guard suspended the season's final eight games for conduct detrimental to the club — but also implicated Jerry, Pouncey and offensive line coach Jim Turner. Statements from those three to investigators were specifically discredited.

 Dolphins owner Stephen Ross issued a statement Friday night calling the language and behavior in the report "deeply disturbing" and said the team consulted "dozens of experts" to create a series of initiatives and a policy paper examining the issue that will be released next week.

 "I have made it clear to everyone within our organization that this situation must never happen again," Ross said in the statement. "We are committed to address this issue forcefully and to take a leadership role in establishing a standard that will be a benchmark in all of sports."

 FULL REPORT: Check out full document (WARNING: Graphic language)

 Incognito's lawyer, Mark Schamel, issued a strongly worded statement Friday afternoon that criticized Wells' conclusions and promising its own counter report.

 "Mr. Wells' NFL report is replete with errors," Schamel's statement said. "The facts do not support a conclusion that Jonathan Martin's mental health, drug use, or on field performance issues were related to the treatment by his teammates.

 "It is disappointing that Mr. Wells would have gotten it so wrong, but not surprising. The truth, as reported by the Dolphins players and as shown by the evidence, is that Jonathan Martin was never bullied by Richie Incognito or any member of the Dolphins Offensive line. We are analyzing the entire report and will release a thorough analysis as soon as it is ready."

 Roughly five hours after the report's release, Incognito chimed in via Twitter: "Pleeeeease Stop The Hate. Happy Valentines Day :)"

 Pleeeeease Stop The Hate. Happy Valentines Day :) — Richie Incognito (@68INCOGNITO) February 14, 2014

 Martin, 24, left the team and checked himself into a mental hospital Oct. 28 after a cafeteria prank that was just part of the harassment he endured that day, the report said. Martin told investigators he endured "racially derogatory language," then boiled over when the offensive linemen, at Incognito's urging, got up from the table and walked away as Martin arrived.

 Six days later, Martin's representatives turned over evidence of alleged abuse — including the voicemail already leaked to media outlets, taking the issue public — to the Dolphins, who suspended Incognito that night and asked Commissioner Roger Goodell for help.

 On Nov. 6, the league hired Wells to lead an "independent" investigation in which he interviewed every Dolphins player, the entire coaching staff, key front office personnel, former Dolphins, some of Martin's teammates and coaches at Stanford, including Jim Harbaugh, Martin's parents and Martin's agent. He also collected text messages, e-mails and scouting, medical and security files.

 ANALYSIS: Dolphins at fault for failing to help Martin

 The report acknowledged Martin should have reported the harassment, which was unknown to Philbin and the Dolphins front office despite its apparently pervasive nature. Incognito not only was on the team's leadership council, he was widely supported in the locker room even after his departure and details of his treatment of Martin became public.

 "Moreover, however offensive much of the conduct discussed in this Report may have been," the report said, "it appears that the Dolphins' rules of workplace behavior were not fully appreciated and, with respect to at least some of their actions, Incognito and his teammates may not have been clearly notified that they were crossing lines that would be enforced by the team with serious sanctions."

 The report found Incognito demonstrated an awareness he had engaged in improper conduct, though, urging Pouncey and another offense lineman in text messages the day he was suspended to destroy a notebook of "fines" they'd issued to one another in their so-called kangaroo court.

 After Martin left the team, Incognito had "made a number of telling entries" in the notebook that included a $200 fine against himself for "breaking Jmart," a $250 bonus for another lineman for "not cracking first" and a number of penalties against Martin, the report said.

 On Feb. 4, Incognito posted a Twitter message saying he supported Martin's return to the NFL. But his tone changed by Wednesday, when he tore in to Martin and Martin's agent, Kenny Zuckerman, in a series of tweets, saying "the truth is going to bury" Martin and his camp.

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 The report said investigators "struggled with how to evaluate Martin's claims of harassment given his mental health issues, his possible heightened sensitivity to insults and his unusual, 'bipolar' friendship with Incognito.

 "Nonetheless, we ultimately concluded that Martin was indeed harassed by Incognito, who can fairly be described as the main instigator, and by Jerry and Pouncey, who tended to follow Incognito's lead."

 All three teammates made remarks about Martin's family, including sexually graphic statements about his sister, whom they'd never met. Jerry downplayed the remarks to investigators and Pouncey denied hearing or saying them. Both were discredited in the report because Incognito, Martin and other witnesses confirmed what was said.

 "From Incognito's perspective, however, the statements in question were an accepted part of the everyday camaraderie of the Dolphins tight-knit offensive line," the report said.

 "Incognito told us that Martin (and other offensive linemen) all recognized, accepted and, indeed, actively participated in 'go-for-the-jugular' teasing, and that vulgarity and graphic sexual comments were not only a staple of their locker-room culture, but also helped them bond."

 Incognito can become a free agent March 11. Martin remains under contract for two more seasons, though it seems unlikely he'll play for the Dolphins again.

 "Martin has expressed a desire to continue his NFL career, and we hope that he will have the opportunity to do so," the report said. "His brief experience in the league was derailed by harassment from his teammates, and it would be unfortunate if he did not get the chance to resume playing in an environment that will permit him to reach his full potential as a professional athlete."

 In essence, the report absolves Philbin, who impressed investigators "with his commitment to promoting integrity and accountability throughout the Dolphins organization – a point echoed by many players. We are convinced that had Coach Philbin learned of the underlying misconduct, he would have intervened promptly to ensure that Martin and others were treated with dignity."

 TWITTER RANT: Incognito goes off on social media

 COLUMN: Incognito's rant revealing

 The report also detailed harassment of the Assistant Trainer, who is Japanese and "repeatedly was targeted with racial slurs and other racially derogatory language," as well as Player A, who "frequently as subjected to homophobic name-calling and improper physical touching."

 Martin told investigators head athletic trainer Kevin O'Neill heard and sometimes laughed at the remarks made towards the Assistant Trainer and once pulled Martin aside to tell him to stand up for himself more. The former accusation wasn't addressed by O'Neill — his interview "was cut short because O'Neill expressed hostility toward our investigation."

 The report said Turner participated in the running joke about Player A, giving the player a male "blow-up" doll as part of a Christmas stocking. It also discredited Turner's denial of knowing about the "Judas" code Martin blamed for not coming forward sooner, even though former assistant offensive line coach Chris Mosley claimed Turner introduced the concept.

 "There is no question that the better course of action would have been for Martin to report the abuse," the report said. "We also agree with the view, expressed by many of Martin's teammates, that it would have been preferable for Martin's grievances to be handled inside the Dolphins organization rather than played out in the national news media."

 The report also didn't entirely back up the accusations made publicly by Martin's representatives and attorney David Cornwell, who alleged his client "endured a malicious physical attack" at a Christmas party at Pouncey's house in 2012.

 Investigators determined that claim was "exaggerated" but also credited Martin's statements "that he found the episode humiliating and viewed Incognito's conduct as consistent with his pattern of demeaning Martin in front of other players."

 Cornwell's office and Zuckerman did not respond to messages seeking comment Friday.

 Among other things, the Wells report chronicles Martin's descent into depression — including twice contemplating suicide in 2013 — and said one complicating factor was that he may have been more sensitive to insults.

 Martin told the investigators he was bullied in middle and high school, "which diminished his self-confidence and self-esteem and contributed to what he self-diagnosed as periodic bouts of depression during his teenage years."

 Investigators leaned on a consulting psychologist, William H. Berman, who explained that "attempting to develop a close friendship with an abusive person is a common coping mechanism exhibited by victims of abusive relationships."

 "Further, Martin's vulnerabilities do not excuse the harassment that was directed at him," the report said. "That the same taunts might have bounced off a different person is beside the point. Bullies often pick vulnerable victims, but this makes their conduct more, not less, objectionable."

 The report did not tone down any of the vulgar language used in communication between the players and acknowledged "context matters" when evaluating those communications in an environment where profanity and mental and physical intimidation is widespread.

 "We also recognize that good-spirited goading often contributes to team-bonding," the report said. "But limits should exist. Even viewed in context, some of the behavior and language discussed in this Report is inappropriate by any reasonable measure of conduct becoming of a professional athlete – and, based on what he reported, certainly was offensive to Martin."

 A statement from Wells' law firm, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, said the report will stand on its own and he will have no further comment.

 The NFL said in a statement the league appreciated "the work of Ted Wells and his colleagues and the cooperation of the Miami Dolphins organization in the investigation. After we have had an opportunity to review the report, we will have further comment as appropriate."

 The union statement read: "We have received the report on workplace conditions in Miami. We will review the findings closely (and) confer with our players and all relevant parties involved."

 Incognito cut a deal Nov. 21 to delay an expedited hearing for his grievance against the team and extend his suspension two weeks beyond the maximum allowed by the collective-bargaining agreement in exchange for reducing his financial loss to two game checks worth $470,588. A subsequent deal extended Incognito's suspension for the rest of the season.

 The Dolphins officially ended Martin's season Nov. 30 by placing him on the non-football injury illness list but continued paying his weekly salary of $35,733. He has non-guaranteed base salaries of $824,933 in 2014 and $1,042,400 in 2015.

 Miami won five of its next seven games after Martin left the team, only to drop the last two to the AFC East rival Buffalo Bills and New York Jets and miss the playoffs for a fifth straight year. The team fired offensive coordinator Mike Sherman on Jan. 6 and general manager Jeff Ireland the next day, but Philbin kept his job.

 Even before the Martin/Incognito saga began, the Dolphins needed offensive line help. In addition to Incognito, their starting tackles at the end of the season, Tyson Clabo and Bryant McKinnie, and Jerry can become unrestricted free agents next month.

 USA TODAY Sports' Nate Davis and Lindsay H. Jones contributed to this report.

 ***

 Follow Tom Pelissero on Twitter @TomPelissero |||||

– A long-awaited report on allegations of bullying in the NFL is in, and the main headline-grabbing point is that Richie Incognito (and others) did indeed harass Miami Dolphins teammate Jonathan Martin (and others), reports the Miami Herald. But the report by attorney Ted Wells also gets a little squishy on the subject. For instance, it concludes that Incognito didn't intend to cause "lasting emotional injury" or drive Martin to quit the team—Martin left in October over the abuse, but remains under contract—and it cites a range of factors that make this case unique. Some of the highlights: 'Was indeed harassed': "To be candid, we struggled with how to evaluate Martin's claims of harassment given his mental health issues, his possible heightened sensitivity to insults and his unusual, 'bipolar' friendship with Incognito. Nonetheless, we ultimately concluded that Martin was indeed harassed by Incognito, who can fairly be described as the main instigator, and by (teammates John) Jerry and (Mike) Pouncey, who tended to follow Incognito's lead." Other victims: Incognito, Pouncey, and Jerry also repeatedly harassed a member of the team's athletic training staff and another unnamed lineman, reports USA Today. Calls for new guidelines: "As all must surely recognize, the NFL is not an ordinary workplace. Professional football is a rough, contact sport played by men of exceptional size, speed, strength, and athleticism. But even the largest, strongest, and fleetest person may be driven to despair by bullying, taunting, and constant insults." The report encouraged new "workplace conduct rules" for the league. 'Breaking Jmart': One of the more damning points cited against Incognito is that he fined himself $200 for "breaking Jmart" in a notebook kept by the team's offensive linemen, reports CBS Sports. When the story broke, he asked teammates to destroy the notebook, but that didn't happen. Coaches didn't know: The report says coach Joe Philbin and staff were unaware of the abuse. It also says that "Incognito and his teammates may not have been clearly notified that they were crossing lines that would be enforced by the team with serious sanctions." Read the full report here. The NFL and the Dolphins say they'll respond after a thorough review.


Write a summary based on this article:

Welcome to ODMP K9

 The Officer Down Memorial Page is furthering its mission of honoring all fallen law enforcement officers with the announcement of its newest memorial program: ODMP K9.

 ODMP K9 honors the hundreds of police canines that have been killed in the line of duty serving alongside America's law enforcement officers. These loyal companions have given their lives to ensure their handlers, fellow officers, and citizens stay safe. ||||| 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. ||||| Primo, a New Orleans Police K-9 in 2004. Matt Rose / The Times-Picayune / Landov ID: 5874049

 By the time Officer Jason Lewis of the New Orleans Police Department returned to his police SUV, his K-9 — a six-year-old Belgian Malinois named Primo — was battling for his life. While Lewis got ready for his shift, he had left the dog inside the police vehicle. As the temperature inside the SUV rose on that hot May day in 2009, Primo tore, clawed, and bit into the upholstery on the seats — apparently trying to escape to cooler air. His body temperature spiked far above normal for a dog, to almost 110 degrees. When Lewis returned to the vehicle he saw Primo “lying in the back coughing.” The officer hosed down the dog then rushed him to a local veterinary clinic, where the dog subsequently collapsed, suffered three seizures, and died. Cause of death: “shock due to heat stress.” ID: 5876273

 Interior of the police SUV after the officer found Primo “lying in the back coughing.” Metropolitan Crime Commission ID: 5874081

 Primo is one of more than two dozen police K-9s that were left in vehicles and have died of heat-related symptoms since 2007. The animal rights group PETA identified 20 deaths; BuzzFeed News confirmed those and found another nine, based on local and national news reports. Untold numbers of pets die because they are left in cars, but the deaths of police dogs can be particularly heartrending because they, like uniformed officers, put their lives on the line. And these dogs don’t need to die. New technology can warn handlers who’ve left their K-9s in cars. “It is a painful, horrible death,” said Justine Lee, a veterinary specialist in emergency critical care and toxicology for nearly 20 years. “Once a dog’s temperature goes above 105 or 106 degrees, their cells start dying, and they can start going into seizures or have mass organ failure.” With the exception of their paws, dogs lack the sweat glands that humans have on their skin. The main way dogs cool themselves is panting. Lee said that since police dogs are usually German shepherds or Belgian Malinois, with thicker coats and darker hair, they are more susceptible to heat stroke than other breeds. Ike, a Department of Corrections K-9 in Phoenix, died last year after being left in the back of a police vehicle for seven hours after an officer forgot about him. Two police K-9s — Vegas and Hades — perished after they were left in a police vehicle for nearly 30 hours in Bexar County, Texas, in 2012. Again, their officer said he forgot he left them in the kennel portion of the specially equipped police vehicle. (A spokesperson for the Arizona Department of Corrections said that the department installed “a motion-sensing alarm system to help prevent similar accidents from occurring,” while a spokesperson for the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office said it had initiated “extra measures to help ensure incidents like this don’t happen again.”) The vast majority of such K-9 deaths occur in local police forces, but dogs also sweltered to death while in vehicles belonging to airport police, corrections departments, and other types of law enforcement agencies. Forgetting the dog in the car is one problem, but some handlers intentionally put their dog in the vehicle, mistakenly trusting the air-conditioning system to keep running for hours. In a particularly ghastly case, police K-9 Sasha was found in her handler’s SUV after three hot August days in Warwick, Georgia. Lt. T.J. Frye, Sasha’s K-9 handler, told investigators the dog must have made it into the vehicle on her own, according to a local Atlanta TV station WSB. Sasha’s final moments in the car were eerily similar to Primo’s. Both dogs apparently tried to chew through the car to escape. After Frye found Sasha’s bloated and decomposing body in the vehicle, he buried the eight-year-old Dutch shepherd in his backyard. Local residents and city officials expressed shock and grief, demanding that the dog receive a proper burial. An online petition for an investigation into the dog’s death received more than 4,000 signatures. Officer Frye resigned from the force a week after the dog’s death. The Warwick Police Department referred comment to its lawyer, Tommy Coleman, who said the department has “tried to put in place procedures” to prevent such deaths. “When you have public officers who serve in the capacity of, basically, a trustee of the public, and they cause the death of an animal who had been charged with serving the same community, most people get really charged,” said Scott Heiser, director of the Criminal Justice Program at the Animal Legal Defense Fund. “These dogs are a voiceless class, much like kids, and they are at that compete mercy of their handlers.” Across America, there are at least 20,000 working police dogs, said Rick Ashabranner, president of the North American Police Work Dog Association. “Probably 95% of dogs stay with their handler and their family,” said Ashabranner, who worked with a police narcotics dog for 22 years. “It’s no different than owning a pet. The bond is so tight that when they die it’s like losing a family member.” No one knows how many police dogs die annually in hot cars. No federal agency keeps track. The Connecticut Police Work Dog Association tallies K-9s that died in service from all causes. The organization has tallied more than 2,000 K-9 deaths since 1940 from agencies including the Navy, Border Patrol, and local police. K-9s who died of excessive heat because they were left in vehicles are not listed explicitly, but some of those deaths can be found on the website under the category of “Heat Exhaustion.” The 29 deaths confirmed by BuzzFeed News occurred in 14 states from North Carolina to California, and only between April and September. Even on mild summer days, closed vehicles act like a greenhouse. When it’s 85 degrees outside, one study found that in 20 minutes, the temperature inside a car can rise almost to 114°F — almost 30 degrees. After an hour, the inside temperature can hit a scorching 128 degrees. ID: 5876279

 This is how quickly a car can heat up Courtesy Jan Null, CCM; Department of Meteorology and Climate Science, San Jose State University ID: 5874202

 According to historical temperature data, New Orleans hit a high of 88 degrees on May 27, 2009, the day Primo died. In an hour, according to the study, the black-haired dog would have been in temperatures nearing 130 degrees. By comparison, the hottest temperature ever recorded in the United States was 134 degrees in Death Valley, California. Officer Lewis told investigators that he had left the air conditioner on in the vehicle when he left Primo, according to a story in the Times-Picayune. A subsequent police investigation found no wrongdoing, but the district attorney charged Officer Lewis with aggravated cruelty to animals, a felony. Lewis later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor animal cruelty charge. He was ordered to pay $11,500 to the police department. After almost three years, a court of appeals found that Lewis was not negligent, and reinstated the officer with full pay and benefits. “There’s a huge controversy that he got off,” said Jeff Dorson, the executive director of the Humane Society of Louisiana. “It’s hard to know the truth, but the evidence shows that the dog did die of heat exhaustion, according to the necropsy report. And the fact that he [Lewis] plead guilty originally, what does that tell you?” A spokesman for the NOPD confirmed to BuzzFeed News that Lewis was reinstated to the force but no longer works with a K-9 Unit. The NOPD declined a request to interview Lewis. A 2012 federal consent decree mandated 15 specific changes to how the NOPD handles its K-9s, including “improvements to handler control of canines, personnel changes, and equipment procedures.” “By working in conjunction with the federal consent decree monitor, NOPD has put new and more stringent policies, training and procedures in place for both the dogs and their handlers,” said the department in response to questions by BuzzFeed News. The deaths of Primo, Hades, Vegas, Sasha, and other dogs were preventable. Many police K-9 units use heat alert systems sometimes known as “Hot Dog” or “Hot-N-Pop” systems. The technology varies, but if the vehicle’s interior gets too hot, the alert system automatically rolls down the windows, activates a cooling system or fan, and sets off the vehicle’s siren. According to an investigation by San Antonio’s ABC affiliate, KSAT 12, the Bextar County Sheriff’s Office bought two Hot Dog systems prior to the death of police K-9s Hades and Vegas, but “sat in boxes, untouched on a training room floor for over a year.” It is unclear why the systems, which were bought from a $27,000 grant, were not installed, the article states. A spokesman for the Bextar County Sheriff’s Office emailed BuzzFeed News that Hades and Vegas died “during a previous administration” and that the department has since taken new measures to prevent such deaths. He also wrote that “k9s are considered partners and the loss of them is tremendous for those who interact with them.” Since 2010, the NOPD has installed Hot-N-Pop systems inside every vehicle in the department, according to the NOPD’s statement to BuzzFeed News. “I’ve had those systems installed; I know how well they work,” said Jason Purgason, a former K-9 supervisor with the Reidsville Police Department in North Carolina for 10 years. A Hot Dog system typically costs $500–$1,000 per vehicle. “In the grand scheme of things, those systems are inexpensive,” said Purgason, now a training director for Highland Canine Training in North Carolina. The cost of procuring a police K-9 can vary greatly, but is generally expensive. The Glendale Police Department in Los Angeles County puts the figure around $20,000. The purchase of a dog alone is around $8,000. The additional cost of training of the dog for patrol, detection, and tracking is another $12,000. Total costs including outfitting a vehicle designed to carry a K-9 easily surpass $50,000 — and that figure does not include yearly training maintenance, veterinary care, and food. PETA plans to send letters to K-9 law enforcement organizations around the country urging them to install Hot Dog systems in all vehicles. “No dog should endure a needless, agonizing death while locked in a hot car, and a heat-alert system would be an easy fix,” the statement reads. The beginnings of the modern police dog can be found with the establishment of the first formal police dog training program in Belgium in 1899. Today, K-9s help track fugitive and missing persons, and they detect narcotics and explosives. Last September, as summer was drawing to a close in Montville Township, Ohio, two-year-old Beny was left in a patrol vehicle for more than fours hours, the windows rolled up, while Sgt. Brett Harrison filled out paperwork inside the police station, according to a local report. After Beny’s death, Sgt. Harrison wrote an apology to the township trustees. “Most of all, I want to say I’m sorry to my partner, friend and loving family member Beny. I wish everyday that I could go back and change that day or that I could put myself in your place. You will always be in my heart and I will miss you every second of every day,” Harrison wrote. Sgt. Harrison was given a two-week unpaid suspension, and 40 hours of his vacation time were taken away. Harrison was found guilty of one count of companion animal cruelty in March. Sgt. Harrison and the Montville Police Department did not respond to requests to comment. ID: 5876324

 Police K-9 Beny. Montville Township Police ID: 5874118 |||||

– A BuzzFeed investigation this year found at least 29 US police dogs had died of heatstroke in their handlers' cars over the past seven years. But a new analysis of 619 deaths since 2011 by the Green Bay Press-Gazette raises that number to at least 46 dogs, with 18 others succumbing to heatstroke during other activities (e.g., training exercises, being tethered outside in the sun), putting heatstroke as the No. 1 cause of police dog deaths for non-medical reasons. Failures in the cars' AC or other equipment were factors in 19 of the 46 cases, while officer negligence was blamed in 26. One especially egregious case in 2013 involved 10 US Customs and Border Protection dogs who died after the AC failed. "Those dogs were essentially in an oven," a rep said at the time. "You don't have to be an animal lover to be sick about this." It's unclear exactly how many police dogs die this way, since agencies don't have to report it, the Press-Gazette notes; instead, stats are typically culled from memorial websites and other sources. "It is a painful, horrible death," a veterinary specialist told BuzzFeed. Departments are taking measures including replacing faulty heat-alarm units, mounting fans in car windows, and inspecting AC units more regularly. But advocates say it comes down to human diligence. "It's not a matter of changing policy," the director of a Wisconsin canine handler group tells the Press-Gazette. "Check on your dog." An Animal Legal Defense Fund director puts it in harsher terms: "An officer who allows a dog to die of heat exhaustion on duty is as neglectful as leaving a service revolver on a school playground." (A Florida officer was "distraught" after two police dogs died in his car.)