– London's transport authority says it won't renew Uber's license to operate in the British capital, arguing that it demonstrates a lack of corporate responsibility with implications in public safety and security. Transport for London says the car-hailing app was not "fit and proper to hold a private hire operator license." It cited Uber's approach to reporting serious criminal offenses and its "approach to explaining the use of Greyball in London"; that's the software Uber reportedly used to block regulatory bodies from gaining full access to the app, preventing "officials from undertaking regulator or law enforcement duties." The AP reports London Mayor Sadiq Khan said he supported the decision, saying any operator of taxi services in the city "needs to play by the rules." He says that "providing an innovative service must not be at the expense of customer safety and security." Uber's current license is up on Sept. 30, but the Guardian reports it can appeal the decision over the next 21 days. It can keep operating "until any appeal processes have been exhausted," per Transport for London.

Expand this summary.

Tweet with a location

 You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| US ride-hailing company to appeal against ruling but new chief executive admits it is the ‘cost of a bad reputation’

 Uber has been stripped of its London licence in a surprise move that dealt a serious blow to one of Silicon Valley’s fastest rising companies and sparked an outcry from a coalition of customers, government ministers and drivers at the ride-hailing company.

 The firm’s application for a new licence in London was rejected by Transport for London on the basis that the company is not a “fit and proper” private car hire operator.

 Uber’s cars will not disappear immediately as its current licence expires on 30 September and it plans to challenge the ruling by London’s transport authority in the courts immediately. The firm can continue to operate in the capital – where it has 3.5 million users – until it has exhausted the appeals process, which could take months..

 How will you be affected by Uber losing its licence to operate in London? Read more

 Uber’s chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, wrote to staff on Friday confirming that the company would appeal against the ruling. He said he disagreed with the decision but it was based on past behaviour.

 “The truth is that there is a high cost to a bad reputation,” he wrote. “It really matters what people think of us, especially in a global business like ours.

 “It’s critical that we act with integrity in everything we do, and learn how to be a better partner to every city we operate in. That doesn’t mean abandoning our principles – we will vigorously appeal TfL’s decision – but rather building trust through our actions and our behaviour. In doing so, we will show that Uber is not just a really great product, but a really great company that is meaningfully contributing to society, beyond its business and its bottom line.”

 Khosrowshahi, who was brought in to run the firm after a series of scandals, also tweeted an appeal to Londoners to “work with us” in solving the issue.

 dara khosrowshahi (@dkhos) Dear London: we r far from perfect but we have 40k licensed drivers and 3.5mm Londoners depending on us. Pls work w/us to make things right

 The decision by TfL was backed by the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, employment rights campaigners, and the trade body for the capital’s black-cab drivers, who have been staunch opponents of the US-based company.

 However, it drew immediate criticism from Uber users, drivers and Greg Hands, the trade minister.

 One of Uber’s 40,000 drivers in the capital, James Farrar, who has campaigned for better working conditions at the firm, said TfL’s decision was a “devastating blow”.

 TfL said it had rejected the company’s application to renew its licence because “Uber’s approach and conduct demonstrate a lack of corporate responsibility” in relation to reporting serious criminal offences, obtaining medical certificates and driver background checks.

 The licensing body also said it was concerned by Uber’s use of Greyball, software that can be used to block regulatory bodies from gaining full access to its app and undertaking regulatory or law enforcement duties.

 The decision to remove Uber from one of its biggest markets is the latest blow for a company that has shot to a $70bn (£52bn) valuation since it was founded in 2009 but has been hobbled by opposition from national and municipal governments around the world – including in Italy and Rio de Janeiro – due to concerns over safety or the threat to existing taxi businesses.

 Prof Andre Spicer, from Cass Business School in London, said the decision was a “potentially mortal blow” to Uber. “In the past Uber operated at the edge of the law with new technology as an alibi. Now its rogue business model is proving to be a big liability.”

 Khan said he fully supported TfL’s decision, saying all companies needed to “play by the rules”.

 He said: “I want London to be at the forefront of innovation and new technology and to be a natural home for exciting new companies that help Londoners by providing a better and more affordable service.

 “However, all companies in London must play by the rules and adhere to the high standards we expect – particularly when it comes to the safety of customers.”

 But Hands, who is also minister for London, said: “At the flick of a pen Sadiq Khan is threatening to put 40,000 people out of work and leave 3.5 million users of Uber stranded.

 “Uber must address safety concerns and it is important there is a level playing field across the private hire market.

 “But a blanket ban will cause massive inconvenience to millions of Londoners, all while showing that the Mayor of London is closed to business and innovation.”

 Sam Gyimah, a Conservative justice minister and MP for East Surrey, said it was “possible to have effective regulation of Uber without

 penalising the consumers who benefit from more choice and lower

 prices”.

 How will TfL's decision affect Uber? Read more

 Steve McNamara, general secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Association, which represents black-cab drivers, said the mayor had made the right decision.

 “Since it first came on to our streets Uber has broken the law, exploited its drivers and refused to take responsibility for the safety of passengers. This immoral company has no place on London’s streets,” he said.

 Uber said in a statement the decision would “show the world that, far from being open, London is closed to innovative companies”.

 “3.5 million Londoners who use our app, and more than 40,000 licensed drivers who rely on Uber to make a living, will be astounded by this decision,” the company added.

 The company wrote to users on Friday asking them to “defend the livelihoods” of its drivers and sign a petition asking the mayor to reverse TfL’s decision.

 Uber (@Uber) Help ensure Londoners have more, not fewer, transportation options—sign the petition. https://t.co/nheuOcYjQH

 Farrar, a co-claimant in a landmark employment tribunal decision against Uber and chair of the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain’s private hire drivers’ branch, said TfL should have stepped in earlier to protect drivers.

 “To strip Uber of its licence after five years of laissez-faire regulation is a testament to a systemic failure at TfL,” he said.

 The majority of Uber users responding to a Guardian request for comment opposed the decision to revoke the company’s licence.

 Helen, from Walthamstow in east London, criticised the decision and said TfL should be working more closely with Uber. “With a lack of staff and police visible [on public transport], I often feel unsafe travelling alone and Uber has given me an affordable alternative to get home safely,” she said.

 Leo, a wheelchair user, said less than 30% of the tube network was accessible to him and buses were slow. “Uber has been a lifesaver for me. It has got me to visit family at short notice when the nearest accessible station was miles away and the bus took two hours,” he said.

 Uber is treating its drivers as sweated labour, says report Read more

 In London, Uber has faced criticism from unions, lawmakers and traditional black-cab drivers over working conditions. Unions including the IWGB and GMB called on TfL to insist Uber guaranteed basic employment rights under the terms of its new five-year licence.

 Employment rights campaigners said TfL’s decision was a warning shot to so-called gig economy companies, which include apps such as Deliveroo and delivery firms such as Hermes who argue their drivers and riders are self-employed.

 Frank Field, the Labour MP who led a parliamentary inquiry which found that Uber drivers were treated as Victorian-style “sweated labour” said: “This is a gamechanger for the gig economy. Uber must now respond to TfL’s decision by totally resetting its business model.” ||||| FILE - This Wednesday, June 21, 2017, file photo shows the building that houses the headquarters of Uber, in San Francisco. Transport for London says it won't renew a license for Uber to operate in the... (Associated Press)

 FILE - This Wednesday, June 21, 2017, file photo shows the building that houses the headquarters of Uber, in San Francisco. Transport for London says it won't renew a license for Uber to operate in the... (Associated Press)

 LONDON (AP) — London's transport authority said Friday it won't renew Uber's license to operate in the British capital, arguing that it demonstrates a lack of corporate responsibility with implications in public safety and security.

 Transport for London says the car-hailing app was not "fit and proper to hold a private hire operator license."

 It cited its approach to handling serious criminal offenses and its use of software to block regulatory bodies from gaining full access to the app, preventing "officials from undertaking regulator or law enforcement duties."

 London Mayor Sadiq Khan said he supported the decision, saying any operator of taxi services in the city "needs to play by the rules."

 He says that "providing an innovative service must not be at the expense of customer safety and security."

 Uber can appeal within 21 days. |||||


Summarize this article:

A woman who killed her pet kitten by cooking it in a microwave because she thought it had attacked her goldfish has been jailed for 14 weeks.

 Laura Cunliffe, 23, of Hoyland, near Barnsley, put black-and-white Mowgli into the microwave and turned it on for five minutes.

 She was jailed at Barnsley Magistrates' Court after admitting causing unnecessary suffering to an animal.

 District Judge John Foster said it was an "act of utterly horrendous cruelty".

 The court heard Cunliffe put the kitten into the microwave and switched it on but took the animal out about a minute later when she realised what she had done. The kitten died later.

 'Suffered terribly'

 Her solicitor, Alan Greaves, said Cunliffe had longstanding problems with psychotic depression and had been sectioned under the Mental Health Act 20 times.

 As she was sentenced a family member shouted from the public gallery: "She doesn't know what's happening - she hasn't a clue."

 Another shouted: "This is a failure of medical services, judge."

 Mr Foster told the defendant: "This was an act of utterly horrendous cruelty on your part on an animal that, as far as I could see, had come to trust you and rely on you."

 Cunliffe was banned from keeping animals for life and was told she cannot apply to have this ban reviewed for five years.

 An RSPCA spokeswoman said: "This was such a sad case and clearly this poor kitten would have suffered terribly over a prolonged period of time.

 "Sentencing is a matter for the courts but we hope this means other animals will not have to suffer in the future in this way." ||||| Laura Cunliffe has been sentenced to 14 weeks in jail for causing unnecessary suffering to an animal (Picture: Caters)

 A woman who subjected her pet cat to a horrendous death in a microwave because she thought it had attacked her goldfish has been sentenced to 14 weeks in jail.

 Laura Cunliffe put four-month-old kitten Mowgli into the appliance and turned it on for five minutes.

 The cat initially survived despite having its internal organs cooked, but died 90 minutes later.

 Described as ‘an act of utterly horrendous cruelty’ by district judge John Foster, the black and white cat died a slow and painful death.

 The 23-year-old from Hoyland, near Barnsley, pleaded guilty to causing unnecessary suffering to an animal before being sentenced today.

 She has also been banned from keeping animals for life and told she cannot appeal this ban for at least five years.

 Alan Greaves, defending, said Cunliffe had been sectioned under the Mental Health Act 20 times and had longstanding problems with psychotic depression.

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 As she was being sent down a member of the public gallery, who was thought to be one of Cunliffe’s relatives, shouted: ‘She doesn’t know what’s happening – she hasn’t a clue.’

 An RSPCA spokeswoman said: ‘This was such a sad case and clearly this poor kitten would have suffered terribly over a prolonged period of time.’ |||||

– A court case out of England is pretty awful on all fronts: A judge sentenced a 23-year-old woman to 14 weeks in jail because she put her kitten in the microwave as punishment, reports the BBC. The 4-month-old cat initially survived the minute-long ordeal but died what vets said was probably a terrible death within two hours, reports Metro. And what did it do to deserve the punishment? The cat's owner, Laura Cunliffe, found her goldfish on the kitchen floor in pieces. "This was an act of utterly horrendous cruelty on your part on an animal that, as far as I could see, had come to trust you and rely on you," said the judge in Barnsley. What's worse is that Cunliffe has a history of "psychotic depression," and a family member shouted, "She hasn't a clue," as she was being led away. Cunliffe set the microwave for 5 minutes but realized her mistake after a minute, removed the cat, and tried unsuccessfully to cool it down with water, reports the Irish Independent. The judge banned her from having pets for the rest of her life.


– Playboy magazine has decided it no longer makes sense to try to compete with an Internet full of photos of naked women. The 62-year-old magazine is undergoing a major revamp and will dispense with nude photos when it relaunches in March, the New York Times reports. "You're now one click away from every sex act imaginable for free. And so it's just passe at this juncture," Playboy CEO Scott Flanders tells the paper. The change apparently has the approval of 89-year-old founder and editor-in-chief Hugh Hefner, the BBC reports. The magazine will still feature racy photos of women, but analysts say the removal of nudes will be a big boost for its articles, including serious journalism and interviews, CNN reports. Flanders tells the Times that the target audience will be young, urban men. "The difference between us and Vice is that we're going after the guy with a job," he quips. The Playboy company now makes most of its money from licensing its brand, and Flanders tells the Times that the magazine loses around $3 million a year in the US, which is a cost the firm sees as an expense for their "Fifth Avenue storefront." The Times notes that the Playboy website became SFW and got rid of nudes last year, which execs say caused traffic to quadruple to 16 million users a month. The age of the average user dropped from 47 to 30. (A major porn site is offering a $25,000 college scholarship.)

Expand this summary.

Last month, Cory Jones, a top editor at Playboy, went to see its founder Hugh Hefner at the Playboy Mansion.

 In a wood-paneled dining room, with Picasso and de Kooning prints on the walls, Mr. Jones nervously presented a radical suggestion: the magazine, a leader of the revolution that helped take sex in America from furtive to ubiquitous, should stop publishing images of naked women.

 Mr. Hefner, now 89, but still listed as editor in chief, agreed. As part of a redesign that will be unveiled next March, the print edition of Playboy will still feature women in provocative poses. But they will no longer be fully nude.

 Its executives admit that Playboy has been overtaken by the changes it pioneered. “That battle has been fought and won,” said Scott Flanders, the company’s chief executive. “You’re now one click away from every sex act imaginable for free. And so it’s just passé at this juncture.” ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Playboy without nudity: Will anyone buy it for the articles?

 Playboy magazine is to stop publishing images of naked women as part of its redesign, it has emerged.

 Its US owners say the internet has made nudity outdated, and pornographic magazines are no longer so commercially viable, the New York Times reports.

 Playboy's circulation has dropped from 5.6 million in the 1970s to the current 800,000, official figures show.

 However, the magazine will still feature women in provocative poses - though not fully nude.

 'Battle won'

 The decision was apparently taken last month at a meeting attended by Playboy founder and current editor-in-chief Hugh Hefner.

 Magazine executives admitted that Playboy - which was founded in 1953 - had been overtaken by the changes it pioneered, according to the New York Times.

 "That battle has been fought and won," Playboy chief executive Scott Flanders is quoted as saying by the newspaper.

 "You're now one click away from every sex act imaginable for free. And so it's just passe at this juncture."

 Gone, too, are the days when interviews with figures of the stature of Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X and Jimmy Carter made Playboy so culturally and politically significant, says the BBC's Nick Bryant in New York.

 Playboy's website has already banished nudity, partly to give it access to social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. And its popularity has soared, with web traffic quadrupling.

 A brand long synonymous with salaciousness is cleaning up its act, and all with the blessing - apparently - of the 89-year-old Mr Hefner, our correspondent adds.

 Image copyright AFP/Getty

 60 years of Playboy

 Playboy's logo showing a rabbit head wearing a bow tie is one of the most recognisable in the world. The company makes most of its money from licensing it around the world to sell products including toiletries, drinks and jewellery, including a necklace worn by the character Carrie Bradshaw in the TV series Sex and the City. About 40% of merchandising income is generated in China, where the magazine itself is not available.

 Among the magazine's most famous interviews was a 1976 conversation with Jimmy Carter in which the then presidential candidate admitted he had desired women other than his wife, confessing he had "looked on a lot of women with lust" and "committed adultery in my heart many times". Other notable interviewees included jazz musician Miles Davis in 1962; writer Vladimir Nabokov in 1964; and John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1981.

 The Library of Congress in Washington produces a Braille version of Playboy, one of 30 general-interest magazines that are translated for the blind and visually-impaired. In 1985, Congress voted to stop producing a Braille Playboy over morality concerns and to save money. But a group of blind Playboy readers sued for their right to read the magazine and a judge ruled that the ban violated their First Amendment rights under the US constitution. The Braille version can be viewed here.

 Playboy has gained a reputation for riffing off business stories, beginning with a "Women of Wall Street" series in 1989 featuring nine stock market workers - shortly afterwards, seven of the nine were revealed to have left their jobs. Playboy continued with "Women of Enron" and "Women of WorldCom" shoots after those companies collapsed. It revisited the "Women of Wall Street" theme as the global financial crisis hit in 2008. The magazine advertised for models, requiring them to have worked for a financial institution and expressing a preference for those with senior management experience. ||||| Soon "I read it for the articles" will be more believable.

 The iconic men's magazine Playboy says it is planning to drop fully nude female photography from its pages.

 In a letter to readers, the magazine predicted that everyone would be asking why, so it answered, "Playboy has been a friend to nudity, and nudity has been a friend to Playboy, for decades. The short answer is: times change."

 Like so many other magazines, Playboy is reacting to the Internet revolution. In Playboy's case, it is about the ubiquity of online pornography.

 "You're now one click away from every sex act imaginable for free. It's just passé at this juncture," Playboy's chief executive Scott Flanders told The New York Times, which first reported the news on Monday night.

 His comments sent shock waves through the magazine industry. Playboy, founded by Hugh Hefner, has been a controversial part of American popular culture since its debut in 1953.

 "Yes, we're taking a risk by going non-nude," the magazine said, "but this is a company—like all great companies—that has risk in its DNA."

 Playboy has a circulation of around 800,000 -- way down from its pre-Internet glory days when it boasted a circulation of many millions.

 Related: Why is Playboy giving up nudity?

 By covering up the nude photos, the magazine hopes to appeal to a broader and younger audience both in print and online.

 The change will take effect in February when Playboy publishes its March issue.

 But the magazine will continue to show women in what it calls provocative poses -- like Maxim, Esquire, GQ and other publications.

 Another competitor is Vice, an outlet that began as a print magazine and has evolved into a multimedia juggernaut valued at more than $2 billion. Both Playboy and Vice target young men living in urban areas. "The difference between us and Vice," Flanders told the Times, "is that we're going after the guy with a job."

 Samir Husni, the director of Magazine Innovation Center at the University of Mississippi, said that the magazine's attempts at a younger audience may alienate the magazine's long-time subscriber base.

 "They want the young college male, but that young college male doesn't need playboy," Husni said. "With this announcement they may have lost the audience they had and may never get the audience they want."

 After the announcement on Monday night, commenters on social media pointed out that the removal of nude photos may boost the magazine's articles.

 "The Playboy Interview has long been one of the greatest columns in the magazine world," Politico media reporter Alex Weprin tweeted. "In some ways the rest of the magazine held it back."

 Husni added that Playboy was "the original man's magazine that serviced men through advice and helpful information" while also dealing with the nude photography.

 "In the past, it went through the hoops of the nude photos to offer help to men in all aspects of life," Husni said. "But now, Playboy has lost its identity and is in many ways frozen in time."

 The Future of Media, a customized magazine |||||


Write a summary based on this article:

JAKARTA/PANGKALAN BUN, Indonesia Search teams hunting for the wreck of an AirAsia passenger jet that crashed with 162 people on board have found four large parts of the plane on the sea bed, the head of Indonesia's search and rescue agency said on Saturday.

 A multi-national task force of ships, planes and helicopters have been scouring the northern Java Sea and coastline of southern Borneo to recover the bodies of victims and locate the wreck of Flight QZ8501 and its black box flight recorders.

 "We've found four big parts from the plane we're looking for," search and rescue agency chief Fransiskus Bambang Soelistyo told reporters in Jakarta.

 The breakthrough came as authorities said that Indonesia AirAsia had violated the terms of its licence for the Surabaya to Singapore route by flying on a Sunday, the day the Airbus A320-200 plunged into the Java Sea, and announced they would investigate the carrier's other schedules.

 One large object was pinpointed by a ship searching during the night, Soelistyo said, and three more, the largest of which was around 18 metres long, were located on Saturday.

 Another official, Supriyadi, who is coordinating the operation from the port of Pangkalan Bun in Borneo, said earlier that poor visibility had hampered efforts to capture images of the objects with underwater remote operating vehicles (ROVs).

 "The visibility is only two metres," he said. "It's cloudy, making it difficult for the cameras to detect."

 Divers, including a team of Russian specialists who just arrived in Pangkalan Bun, may be able to investigate the suspected wreckage on Sunday if the weather improves, officials said.

 NO SURVIVORS

 No survivors have been found from the crash, which happened about 40 minutes after the plane took off from Indonesia's second largest city in an area known for intense tropical thunderstorms during the current monsoon season.

 A report from Indonesia's weather bureau said it was likely the plane had flown into bad weather which would have been difficult to avoid, and that it was possible this had caused ice to form on its engines.

 "Based on the available data on the last received location of the aircraft, the weather was a factor in causing the accident," the weather bureau said.

 Indonesian authorities on Friday questioned whether the pilot had followed correct weather procedures, and later suspended Indonesia AirAsia's Surabaya to Singapore flights, saying the airline's operating licence only permitted flights on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.

 Djoko Murdjatmodjo, Indonesia's acting Director General of Air Transportation, said on Saturday that the Transport Ministry would investigate other routes used by the carrier, which flies from at least 15 Indonesian destinations.

 "We are going to investigate all AirAsia flight schedules. Hopefully we can start on next Monday," he said. "It is possible AirAsia's licence in Indonesia might be revoked," he added.

 Sunu Widyatmoko, Indonesia AirAsia chief, told reporters the airline, which is 49-percent owned by Malaysia-based AirAsia, would cooperate with the inquiry.

 "The government has suspended our flights from Surabaya to Singapore and back," he said. "They are doing the evaluation process. AirAsia will cooperate fully with the evaluation."

 Much effort has focused on finding the mostly Indonesian victims of the crash. Thirty bodies have been recovered from the sea, although rescue official Supriyadi, who like many Indonesians uses just one name, said it was unlikely more would be found floating.

 "Because we're already in the seventh day ... the chances are they have all sunk," he said. "There's a possibility they'll be found on beaches."

 Small pieces of the aircraft and other debris have also been found, but there has been no sign of the crucial voice and flight data recorders - the so-called black boxes that investigators hope will unravel the sequence of events in the cockpit during the doomed jet's final minutes.

 WEATHER FACTOR

 The cause of the crash, the first fatal accident suffered by the AirAsia group, remains unexplained.

 The plane was flying at 32,000 ft (9,753 metres) and the pilot had asked to climb to 38,000 ft just before contact was lost. When air traffic controllers granted permission to fly at 34,000 ft a few minutes later there was no response.

 A source close to the investigation said radar data appeared to show the aircraft made an "unbelievably" steep climb before it crashed, possibly pushing it beyond the A320's limits.

 Hadi Mustofa Djuraid, a transport ministry official, told reporters on Friday that authorities were also investigating the possibility that the pilot did not ask for a weather report from the meteorological agency at the time of take-off.

 Indonesia AirAsia said in a statement that weather reports were printed in hard copy at the operations control centre at all its flight hubs, including Surabaya, and taken by the pilot to the aircraft before each flight.

 An AirAsia spokeswoman declined to comment on whether the pilot had followed the procedure described in the statement.

 (Additional reporting by Adriana Nina Kusuma, Cindy Silviana, Kanupriya Kapoor, Michael Taylor, Charlotte Greenfield and Nicholas Owen in JAKARTA; Writing by Alex Richardson; Editing by Michael Perry and Raissa Kasolowsky) ||||| AirAsia Flight 8501 did not have permission to fly to Singapore on the day it crashed into the Java Sea, transport officials have said as search chiefs said they had found “two big objects” believed to be from the missing plane.

 AirAsia’s Airbus 320 disappeared around 40 minutes after taking off from the Indonesian city of Surabaya last Sunday morning with 162 people on board.

 However, the company was only authorised to fly that route on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, Indonesia’s transport ministry said.

 "It violated the route permit given, the schedule given, that's the problem," Djoko Murjatmodjo, the head of air transport, told AFP on Saturday.

 It was not immediately clear why AirAsia had been flying that day if it did not have permission. All the company’s flights from Surabaya to Singapore have now been ordered to stop. The transport ministry has announced a full review of all AirAsia flights.

 Sunu Widyatmoko, the chief executive of AirAsia’s Indonesian subsidiary, confirmed government officials had suspended the airline’s permission to fly from Surabaya to Singapore but declined to comment further.

 Meanwhile search teams operating in the Java Sea reported detecting an oil slick and “two big objects” believed to be parts of the plan’s main fuselage.

 “With the oil slick that we found and the discovery of the two big objects, I can confirm that this is the big part of the AirAsia plane we have been looking for all this time,” Bambang Soelistyo, the head of Indonesia’s search and rescue agency, told reporters.

 Teams of divers were expected to explore those objects on Saturday, weather permitting.

 As the search entered its sixth day, with around 60 vessels and 20 aircraft now involved, there was renewed speculation that “extreme weather” had contributed to south-east Asia’s third major airline catastrophe of 2014.

 A member of the Indonesian Red Cross walks among coffins for the victims of AirAsia Flight 8501 at the main hospital in Pangkalan Bun, Indonesia (Tatan Syuflana/AP)

 A 14-page "meteorological analysis" from Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency said one likely scenario was that icing, caused by bad weather, had “damaged” the Airbus’s engines.

 "This is however just one analysis of what likely happened based on available meteorological data, and is not the final determination on the cause of the incident,” said the report, quoted by Singapore’s Straits Times newspaper.

 Tony Fernandes, the AirAsia chief, has hinted extreme weather played a major role in the tragedy. “What we are beginning to see is that there were some very unique weather conditions,” he said earlier this week.

 “I continue to have full faith in our operations in Indonesia and elsewhere,” he added.

 As Indonesian rescue teams flew the bodies of 12 more victims back to Surabaya for identification and burial, heart-breaking reports emerged about a 15-year-old Indonesian girl who lost her entire family in the tragedy.

 Family members of passengers react after watching news reports showing an unidentified body floating in the Java sea (MANAN VATSYAYANA/AFP/Getty Images)

 Chiara Natasya Tanus, a Surabaya-born student who was attending school in Singapore, lost both parents and both brothers - aged 17 and 9 - in the crash. They had been coming to visit her for New Year's Eve and when they did not arrive at Sinagpore airport as expected last Sunday she returned home to her dormitory.

 “We were supposed to have the best time in Singapore - we planned to spend the rest of holidays together,” the orphaned teenager told Indonesia’s Jawa Pos newspaper.

 “I was so excited. I was looking forward to showing my dormitory to my family,” she added. ||||| PANGKALAN BUN, Indonesia (AP) — Indonesian officials said Saturday that they were confident wreckage of AirAsia Flight 8501 had been located after sonar equipment detected four massive objects on the ocean floor.

 Indonesian Navy personnel lay plastic bags containing the bodies of victims of AirAsia Flight 8501 found at sea off the coast of Pangkalan Bun, Indonesia, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2015. Indonesian officials... (Associated Press)

 Indonesian military personnel sit with a coffin containing the body of a victim of AirAsia Flight 8501 in an ambulance upon arrival at Juanda Naval Airbase in Surabaya, East Java, Indonesia, Saturday,... (Associated Press)

 Indonesian Navy personnel carry a plastic bag containing the dead body of a passenger of AirAsia Flight 8501 at sea off the coast of Pangkalan Bun, Indonesia, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2015. Indonesian officials... (Associated Press)

 Bags containing dead bodies of the passengers of AirAsia Flight 8501 are lifted onto Indonesian navy vessel KRI Banda Aceh at sea off the coast of Pangkalan Bun, Indonesia, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2015. Indonesian... (Associated Press)

 Indonesian's Navy personnel prepare the dead bodies of the passengers of AirAsia Flight 8501, on Indonesian navy vessel KRI Banda Aceh, to transfer them by helicopters at sea off the coast of Pangkalan... (Associated Press)

 Members of the National Search and Rescue Agency carry coffins containing bodies of the victims aboard AirAsia Flight 8501 to transfer to Surabaya at the airport in Pangkalan Bun, Indonesia, Saturday,... (Associated Press)

 Indonesian's Navy personnel carry a bag containing a dead body of a passenger of AirAsia Flight 8501 at sea off the coast of Pangkalan Bun, Indonesia, Saturday, Jan. 3, 2015. Indonesian officials were... (Associated Press)

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

 The biggest piece, measuring 18 meters (59 feet) long and 5.4 meters (18 feet) wide, appeared to be part of the jet's body, said Henry Bambang Soelistyo, chief of the National Search and Rescue Agency.

 Though strong currents and big surf have prevented divers from entering waters to get a visual of the suspected fuselage, officials are hopeful they will find many of the 162 passengers and crew who were aboard the plane still strapped in their seats inside.

 So far, after nearly a week of searching, only 30 bodies have been found floating in the choppy waters.

 The Airbus A320 crashed Dec. 28, halfway into a two-hour flight from Surabaya, Indonesia's second-largest city, to Singapore. Minutes before losing contact, the pilot told air traffic control that he was approaching threatening clouds, but was denied permission to climb to a higher altitude because of heavy air traffic.

 It remains unclear what caused the plane to plunge into the Java Sea, though bad weather appears to have been a factor, according to a 14-page report released by Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency.

 "Flight 8501 appears to have been trapped in bad weather that would have been difficult to avoid," the report said.

 While the plane's black boxes — the flight data and cockpit voice recorders — have yet to be located, the discovery of the wreckage, especially if it is largely intact, would greatly benefit the investigation.

 The objects on the seafloor were discovered Friday and Saturday, and an Indonesian Geological Survey vessel was used to assess their dimensions, Soelistyo said.

 In addition to what appeared to be a significant part of the plane's body, chunks of debris found in the target search area measured up to 12 meters (39 feet) long.

 Other suspected plane parts were seen scattered on beaches during an aerial survey, Soelistyo said.

 Indonesian authorities announced the grounding of AirAsia flights from Surabaya to Singapore, with the Transport Ministry saying the airline did not have a permit to fly on Sundays. However, Singapore's Civil Aviation Authority said Saturday that from its end, the airline had been approved to fly the route daily.

 AirAsia, which began operations in 2001, quickly becoming one of the region's most popular low-cost carriers, said it was reviewing the suspension. The crash was the airline's first.

 Strong currents and towering waves as high as 4 meters (13 feet) have slowed recovery efforts, scattering bodies and debris in all directions. The discoveries so far include an emergency exit door and slide, as well as a backpack with food and a camera inside.

 As part of the investigation into the crash, autopsies will be carried out on some of the bodies, including the pilot and co-pilot, whose remains have not yet been recovered, said Budiyono, who heads East Java's Disaster Victim Identification unit and, like many Indonesians, uses only one name.

 Generally, aviation experts say the more passengers, luggage and parts of the aircraft that remain intact, the more likely the plane hit the water in one piece. That would signal problems like a mechanical error or a stall instead of a mid-air breakup due to an explosion or sudden depressurization.

 For family members, the wait has been agonizing, with local media covering every development and theory, many of which have proved to be untrue — including a false report that a body was found wearing a life jacket, which would have indicated passengers had time to prepare for the impact or miraculously were able to put them on after hitting the water.

 With more corpses arriving in Surabaya, some relatives said they were simply worn out. But they were encouraged by reports that parts of the plane had been detected and hoped that everyone on board would be retrieved.

 "Let's hope the news is true," said Ongko Gunawan, whose sister was on the flight with her husband and their child. "We need to move on."

 Vessels involved in the search for debris included at least eight sophisticated navy ships from Singapore, Russia, Malaysia and the U.S. equipped with sonars for scouring the seabed to pinpoint the all-important black boxes and the wreckage.

 A second U.S. Navy ship arrived Saturday to help in the search.

 The hope, officials say, is that the body of the plane will still be largely intact, speeding the investigation.

 "Many of the passengers believed to be still trapped inside the plane's fuselage and could be discovered soon," Supriyadi said. "God willing, we will complete this operation next week."

 ___

 Associated Press writers Niniek Karmini, Ali Kotarumalos, Margie Mason and Robin McDowell in Jakarta, Eileen Ng in Surabaya, Indonesia, and Scott Mayerowitz in New York contributed to this report. |||||

– Search teams in Indonesia may have found the main fuselage of the AirAsia plane where most of the remaining victims and the plane's black boxes are expected to be. Authorities found "four big parts of the plane we're looking for," says the official in charge of the search in the Java Sea, reports Reuters. The biggest of the pieces is about 59 feet long and 18 feet wide, reports AP. The pieces have only been detected, not recovered, and divers hope conditions will permit them to reach the objects tomorrow. So far, only 30 of 162 bodies have been recovered, and most of the victims are believed to be still strapped in their seats. Authorities also said today that AirAsia was in violation of its license by flying to Singapore on a Sunday, the day of the crash, reports the Telegraph. As a result, the airline might have its license revoked in Indonesia. There's still no conclusions yet in what caused the crash, but theories continue to center on stormy conditions. "Flight 8501 appears to have been trapped in bad weather that would have been difficult to avoid," says a report by Indonesia's Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency.


Video of a Chicago Police officer firing 16 shots at 17-year-old Laquan McDonald touched off demonstrations across the city but the images were not enough for a Cook County judge to order the officer held without bail pending trial.

 Officer Jason Van Dyke had been in custody since turning himself in last Tuesday to face first-degree murder charges. Judge Donald Panarese Jr. said he would not set bail for the veteran officer until he had watched squad car video that prosecutors said showed Van Dyke firing 16 shots at the teen, most of them as McDonald lay slumped on the ground.

 Panarese sat silently at the front of the packed courtroom Monday, leaning his head on his fist as he watched a few minutes of silent, grainy dashcam video playing on a laptop computer.

 Panarese was apparently watching the video for the first time, and he asked Assistant State’s Attorney William Delaney if there was any sound on the recording.

 “There’s no audio, judge,” Delaney said.

 “The law gives a presumption of innocence,” Panarese said after setting Van Dyke’s bail at $1.5 million.

 Four hours later, the officer walked out of Cook County Jail and past a throng of reporters and protesters after posting $150,000 bond, the 10 percent of the bail amount required to secure his release.

 Van Dyke is scheduled to be back in court on Dec. 18.

 Van Dyke was led into the courtroom in wrist and ankle chains and surrounded by correctional officers. A handful of protesters seated in the glass-walled courtroom gallery rose to their feet as the officer stood before the judge. The group, apparently mishearing Panarese and thinking the judge had denied bail, cheered before being ordered by sheriff’s deputies to clear the room.

 “There’s good cops out there, but these crooked ones, they got to get locked up,” one woman shouted during a break as prosecutors cued up the video on Panarese’s laptop.

 Late Monday, the mayor’s office announced plans to create a “Task Force on Police Accountability.”

 “The task force will review the system of accountability, oversight and training that is currently in place for Chicago’s police officers,” according to a statement from the mayor’s office.

 The mayor’s panel — “actively engaging a range of community members” — is expected to present recommendations to the mayor and the City Council by March 31, 2016. More details were expected Tuesday.

 The dashcam video of the shooting on Oct. 20, 2014, was made public last week just a few hours after the officer was charged. In the days since, hundreds of demonstrators have rallied to mostly peaceful protests across the city, including demonstrations that blocked shoppers from stores on Michigan Avenue as holiday shopping season kicked off Friday.

 Ten people were arrested Monday at what police called a “small gathering” outside City Hall that took place around the time of Van Dyke’s hearing at the Leighton Criminal Court building.

 On Monday evening, about 150 people gathered for a largely peaceful demonstration outside Chicago Police headquarters at 35th and Michigan.

 Activists, pastors from across the city and other city residents

 called for Chicago Police Supt. Garry McCarthy to resign, among other things. They voiced the now familiar chant: “Sixteen shots!” and held up signs, one of which read, “Prosecute all criminal cops.”

 At one point, activist Jedidiah Brown, holding a heavy chain, made his way to the front doors of the building. He said he wanted to chain the doors shut.

 “That building is full of filth and corruption, and we want the

 building shut down,” Brown said.

 Police pulled Brown aside and persuaded him to back down.

 In the background, a woman who identified herself as Sister Shannon shouted repeatedly, “Forgive them, Lord, for they know not what they do!”

 Van Dyke had been on desk duty until the charges were announced last week and has since been placed on “no-pay status” by the police department.

 Fraternal Order of Police President Dean Angelo Sr., who attended the hearing Monday, said the union does not post bond for officers facing charges but had encouraged members to donate money toward Van Dyke’s bond.

 Angelo, whose union represents more than 8,000 Chicago Police officers, said he had watched the dashcam video and that McDonald “squared his shoulders” toward the officers before Van Dyke opened fire.

 Prosecutors have said McDonald was walking away from police on Pulaski Road near 41st Street and was 10 feet away from Van Dyke when the officer fired the first of 16 shots from his 9mm pistol. Van Dyke emptied his magazine in about 15 seconds, with most of the shots fired after McDonald had fallen to the pavement.

 Police had been following McDonald for several blocks after receiving a report that the teen was breaking into trucks parked on a lot at 41st Street and Kildare Avenue.

 The teen had PCP in his system, and officers said he had a “glazed look” as he jogged away from officers and ignored their commands. McDonald was holding a knife and had slashed the tire of a squad car that had tried to hem him in near the intersection of 41st Street and Pulaski Road.

 Van Dyke was only at the scene for 30 seconds, and he was outside his vehicle for about 6 seconds when he started shooting, prosecutors said. None of the other officers at the scene fired a shot.

 Police officials said at the time of the shooting that McDonald had been moving toward the officers when he was shot, a claim that appears not to jibe with video.

 Angelo said Monday it appeared McDonald “squared his shoulders” toward the officers when Van Dyke started shooting.

 “I think Officer Van Dyke stepped into training mode and takes action that he believed at that time was justified,” Angelo said.

 “We don’t get an Officer Van Dyke view of that incident. There is a moment when the individual with the knife squares his shoulder at the officer and I believe, without the sound, that is the moment when the shooting starts,” he said.

 Outside the courtroom, Van Dyke’s attorney, Daniel Herbert, told reporters the video appeared damning, but he said the dashboard camera did not capture the entire event.

 “When you see the video alone it does not seem like a justifiable shooting,” he said. But he added that “we’re not going to try this case in the media. . . . There’s certain things that I know that, quite frankly, no one else knows.”

 Contributing: Rummana Hussain, Stefano Esposito, Mitch Dudek, Fran Spielman ||||| CHICAGO (AP) — The latest on the aftermath of the shooting of a black teenager by a white Chicago police officer and the online threat that led the University of Chicago to cancel classes on Monday (all times local):

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 FILE - This Nov. 24, 2015 file photo released by the Cook County Sheriff's Office shows Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke, who was charged with first degree murder after a squad car video caught him... (Associated Press)

 5:20 p.m.

 The white Chicago police officer charged with murder after a squad car video caught him shooting a black teenager 16 times has posted bond.

 Local media outlets showed Officer Jason Van Dyke leaving Cook County Jail on Monday evening.

 His bond had been set at $1.5 million, meaning he needed to post $150,000 to get out.

 Van Dyke has been locked up since Nov. 24, when prosecutors charged him with first-degree murder in the shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.

 Authorities also released the dashcam video Nov. 24. It shows McDonald — armed with a small knife and walking down a street on the city's southwest side — being shot repeatedly by the 37-year-old Van Dyke. A judge had ordered the video released the previous week.

 ___

 5:10 p.m.

 University of Chicago officials say classes will resume Tuesday, one day after a 21-year-old black student was arrested and charged for allegedly threatening to kill 16 white males on campus.

 University President Robert Zimmer wrote in an email Monday that in light of the arrest, classes and activities would resume Tuesday.

 The campus was almost desolate aside from police and campus security on Monday after university officials canceled classes due to an FBI tip of a threat of gun violence.

 Zimmer called Monday a "challenging day." He says the university will keep additional security presence in place through the quarter, which ends Dec. 12.

 Jabari R. Dean of Chicago, who's accused of making the threat, had his initial court appearance Monday. He's a University of Illinois at Chicago student.

 ___

 4:10 p.m.

 A 21-year-old black man has made an initial appearance in federal court on allegations that he threatened to kill 16 white male students or staff at the University of Chicago in response to the killing of a black teenager by a white city police officer.

 Prosecutors indicated at Monday's hearing that they'll agree to Jabari R. Dean being released before trial. The judge ordered Dean be held at least until a Tuesday bond hearing.

 A University of Illinois at Chicago spokeswoman confirmed that Dean is a freshman majoring in electrical engineering.

 A visibly ill-at-ease Jabari wore a red sweatshirt emblazoned with the words "The University of Illinois at Chicago."

 A prosecutor said Jabari cooperated after federal agents confronted him and that he didn't appear to pose a threat.

 Dean didn't enter a plea and his lawyer declined comment afterward.

 ___

 2:05 p.m.

 The lawyer for a white Chicago police officer charged with fatally shooting a black teenager says he's hopeful the officer can post bond in the "very near future."

 A judge on Monday set bond at $1.5 million for Jason Van Dyke. He was charged with first-degree murder last week for the shooting 17-year-old Laquan McDonald 16 times in October 2014. Van Dyke was charged the same day authorities released video of the shooting.

 Lawyer Dan Herbert says Van Dyke is pleased the judge set a bond amount after ordering him held without bond last week.

 Herbert says Van Dyke is "very scared about the consequences he is facing." He also says Van Dyke "absolutely" can defend his actions in court. Herbert says he has information that isn't yet public.

 ___

 1:05 p.m.

 A Cook County judge has set bond at $1.5 million for a white Chicago police officer charged with murder after a squad car video caught him shooting a black teenager 16 times.

 A judge set the bond Monday afternoon for Officer Jason Van Dyke.

 Van Dyke has been locked up since Nov. 24, when prosecutors charged him with first-degree murder in the shooting death of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald.

 The same day, authorities released the dashcam video that shows McDonald — armed with a small knife and walking down a street on the city's southwest side — being shot repeatedly by the 37-year-old Van Dyke. A judge had ordered the video released the previous week.

 The bond amount means Van Dyke will need $150,000 to be released. Van Dyke's attorney has said the officer isn't a flight risk. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– The Chicago police officer charged with killing 17-year-old Laquan McDonald has paid his $150,000 bond and walked out of jail, the Chicago Sun-Times reports. A judge set bail for officer Jason Van Dyke at $1.5 million earlier in the day. Meanwhile, authorities have released the dashcam video that shows Van Dyke repeatedly shooting McDonald on Nov. 24 on the southwest side of Chicago, the AP reports. And in related news, the University of Chicago will re-open tomorrow after police arrested 21-year-old Jabari Dean with allegedly threatening to murder 16 white male staff or students at the school. The school had shut down after an online threat was posted Sunday night. (A Burger King manager says 86 minutes of the "Laquan video" have gone missing.)


Article:

An 18-year-old Wimauma man is recovering at Tampa General Hospital after he was bitten on the lip by a cottonmouth he was keeping in a pillowcase on his bed, officials said.

 The snake, also known as a water moccasin, escaped from the pillowcase at about 11:45 p.m. Saturday and slithered across the stomach of Austin Lane Hatfield, said Gary Morse, spokesman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. When Hatfield tried to recapture it, the snake bit him, Morse said.

 A bite from a cottonmouth can be deadly; its venom usually causes massive swelling.

 Hatfield was rushed to the emergency room.

 “His condition has improved today and he is expected to recover,” Morse said.

 Hatfield had captured the snake sometime last week and was illegally possessing it, Morse said. Because cottonmouths are venomous, a state permit is required to keep them.

 The Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is investigating and Hatfield could face charges, Morse said.

 The snake was captured and euthanized so a proper identification could be made, he said.

 A spokeswoman for Tampa General said Tuesday that Hatfield and his family asked that no more information be released about his condition. He and his family declined to be interviewed or share photos, the spokeswoman said.

 The cottonmouth, a member of the viper family, gets its name from the cotton-white interior of its mouth. When threatened, the snake often coils and opens its mouth. They are the only venomous water snakes in Florida and are usually found in swamp-like habitats. Adult snakes are dark in color and can grow to between 2 and 4 feet. They have broad, triangular heads and a dark stripe that runs through their eyes. There is a deep pit between their eyes and nostrils.

 Those who come across the snakes should give them a wide berth, Morse said.

 “It really doesn’t want to eat you, but it will protect itself,” Morse said. “Cottonmouths have a reputation of being somewhat skittish when you get near them and they will readily defend themselves.” ||||| A Florida teenager is recovering after being bitten in the face by a water moccasin.

 The bite happened last Saturday, according to investigators with Florida Fish and Wildlife, two days after Austin Hatfield, 18, captured it in his girlfriend's yard in Wimauma.

 One of Hatfield's friends, Jason Belcher, was there when it happened. Belcher said the snake was initially in a pillow case.

 "He took it out, put it on his chest and it was acting funny, and it jumped up and got him," he said.

 The snake lunged at Hatfield, biting him on his mouth.

 "He ripped it off his face, threw it on the ground and he started swelling up immediately," Belcher said. "It was pretty frightening. We've done a lot of stuff together. This is the one thing that scared me the most."

 Hatfield was in critical condition, but was later upgraded to good condition, a Tampa General Hospital spokesperson said.

 Family and friends said Hatfield needed several antivenin treatments.

 "[Doctors] said that they had to ventilate him so he could breathe because of the swelling. And that was the first thing [I thought] -- is he going to make it?" said Gina Bailey, the mother of Hatfield's girlfriend. "I was very worried. I know that these snakes are very, very poisonous."

 Hatfield did not have a permit to possess the venomous reptile, and he captured the Water moccasin illegally, according to FWC spokesperson Officer Baryl Martin. "People without the experience shouldn't be handling these types of animals."

 "Any type of venomous reptile, besides posing a danger to himself, he could pose a danger to other people, injure other people, that's the whole reason that we have the [permitting] process," Martin said.

 Investigators said the snake was euthanized in order to identify it and treat the bite.

 Water moccasins are also knows as "cottonmouths" because of the white coloring inside their jaws. They are typically two to four feet long, heavy-bodied snakes with heads wider than their jaws.

 They are pit vipers that have heat-detecting pits between their eyes and nostrils. They can detect temperature differences as small as one degree from their surroundings -- which allows them to strike their prey very accurately, according a fact sheet from the National Zoo. |||||
What is a summary?

– "People without the experience shouldn't be handling these types of animals." This revolutionary statement of the obvious on venomous snakes comes to us by way of a Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission rep in the great state of Florida, where one Austin Hatfield might take that to heart. As MyFox Tampa Bay reports, the 18-year-old captured a water moccasin in his girlfriend's yard last month. A few days later, he had the reptile in a pillowcase on his bed. Says a friend: "He took it out, put it on his chest and it was acting funny, and it jumped up and got him." Specifically, it bit Hatfield on the mouth. "He ripped it off his face, threw it on the ground and he started swelling up immediately. We've done a lot of stuff together. This is the one thing that scared me the most." Hatfield's face swelled dangerously, but he's recovering. The snake, also known as a cottonmouth, was euthanized so Hatfield's bite could be treated, adds the Tampa Tribune. Further, Florida requires a permit to possess such animals, and Hatfield had no permit.


– Irony alert: A billionaire accused of worsening the opioid crisis just won a patent for a drug to treat opioid addiction, Stat News reports. Richard Sackler, whose family owns OxyContin-maker Purdue Pharma, is one of six inventors behind a new medication that could help people get off drugs including opioids. It would be a new kind of buprenorphine—a gentle opiate that curbs drug cravings—which is already FDA-approved in film-strip or tablet form and now would come in wafers disintegrating quickly under the tongue, per the Financial Times. The best-selling version of buprenorphine, Suboxone, made $877 million in US sales for the British pharmaceutical company Indivior. The patent application says the new drug would help ease crime caused by addicts, but doesn't mention the thousand-plus lawsuits filed against Purdue Pharma for allegedly spurring the opioid epidemic. "It's reprehensible what Purdue Pharma has done to our public health," says the director of an addiction treatment center in Staten Island, New York. He adds that Sackler's family "shouldn't be allowed to peddle any more synthetic opiates—and that includes opioid substitutes." The Sacklers, known mostly for philanthropy before the opioid epidemic, deny fueling a crisis that killed 42,000 people in 2016. In related news, Julia Roberts is starring in the new film Ben Is Back about a mother dealing with an opioid-addicted son who comes home for Christmas, per USA Today.

Expand this summary.

A member of the family that owns Purdue Pharma — which is being sued by more than 1,000 jurisdictions for its alleged role in seeding the opioid crisis with its pain medication OxyContin — has been awarded a patent for a treatment for opioid use disorder.

 Dr. Richard Sackler is listed as one of six inventors on the patent, which was issued in January and was first reported Friday by the Financial Times. Critics told the FT that they were disturbed that the patent could enable Sackler to benefit financially from the addiction crisis that his family’s company is accused of fueling.

 Purdue has denied the allegations in the lawsuits, which also target a range of other opioid painkiller manufacturers and distributors.

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 The patent concerns a new formulation of buprenorphine, one of the medications shown to help people with opioid addiction. It is already approved by the Food and Drug Administration in tablet and film form, but the patent describes a wafer that could dissolve even faster than existing forms when put under the tongue.

 The patent says that the faster the treatment dissolves, the less risk there is for diversion.

 Sackler is the past president of Purdue; his father was one of three brothers who founded the company. The family has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to museums and schools and hospitals around the world, but has increasingly come under scrutiny amid the opioid crisis.

 In addition to the more than 1,000 lawsuits against Purdue from cities, state, counties, and tribes — most of which have been consolidated in an Ohio federal court — a case brought by Massachusetts recently named the Sackler family as defendants.

 Meanwhile, Congress has requested from Purdue a copy of a deposition from Sackler that was taken as part of a lawsuit brought by Kentucky against Purdue. The case was settled in 2015, but it is believed to be the only time a member of the Sackler family has been questioned under oath about the marketing of OxyContin and what the company knew about the addictive properties of the pain reliever.

 In a lawsuit in Kentucky, STAT has also sought to obtain a copy of the deposition.

 The description in the patent warns that people who are addicted to drugs sometimes commit crimes to feed their habit, which is why it says improved forms of medication-assisted treatment are needed. Some of the lawsuits against Purdue and the other opioid companies have cited the public safety and law enforcement costs associated with addiction.

 The description of the patent says the form of buprenorphine could also be used to treat pain in people or animals.

 Purdue declined to comment on the patent.

 Separately, Purdue has been trying to show it is taking steps to address the addiction crisis. It has backed safer prescribing efforts and donated money to the National Sheriffs’ Association to purchase naloxone and train law enforcement on its use. This week, it contributed $3.4 million to a company working on a low-cost naloxone nasal spray. ||||| Julia Roberts plays the mother of an opioid-addicted son (Lucas Hedges) in "Ben Is Back." (Photo: MARK SCHAFER/ROADSIDE ATTRACTIONS)

 TORONTO – Julia Roberts gets choked up just talking about it.

 We’re a day away from the debut of her new film, “Ben Is Back,” at the Toronto International Film Festival, in which she plays Holly, the mother of a 19-year-old opioid-addicted son (Lucas Hedges) who returns from rehab unexpectedly on Christmas Eve.

 “It was pretty intense when we were shooting it,” says Roberts, 50, who learned in her research that a parent like Holly struggles with standing firm on just one treatment strategy. “There’s never ‘I’m doing it right.’ Because doing things out of love and hope and belief might be right for an hour, that day or that week, but so quickly the correct thing to be doing could be saying, ‘You’re not welcome in this house.’ "

 "Ben Is Back" (in theaters Dec. 7) – a film that could send Roberts back to the Oscars this year, thanks to her tour de force performance – is both timely and gutting: About 2 million people in America are addicted to opioids, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 Guest column: The opioid crisis hits home. Mine.

 Addiction is no stranger to the Roberts family: Earlier this year Eric Roberts, 62, Julia's elder brother, revealed a decades-long history of drug abuse. But the connection to "Ben Is Back" ends there for Roberts. "The position of the mother in this film is very different from a sister, a niece," she says. "So for me, it was delving into all the mother relationships in these kinds of scenarios that I could find.”

 In the film, Ben becomes addicted to prescribed drugs after a snowboarding accident. Roberts, who has twins Hazel and Phinnaeus, 13, and son, Henry, 11, with husband Danny Moder, 49, is watchful of how children are prescribed in her community.

 "A lot of my friends who have older teenage kids – older than my teenagers – you get concussions and people get hurt. Kids are playing soccer and things happen," she says, wearing a pair of caramel-framed glasses, her hair pulled into a mussed side braid. "And fortunately the stories that I’ve heard have very much surrounded doctors that say, ‘It’s going to be a bummer, but here’s an aspirin. Suck it up. I’m not going to prescribe anything else for this teenager.' ”

 More: Opioid epidemic requires a new perspective on addiction treatment and new solutions

 In the Roberts-Moder household, those often-fraught teen years are being confronted as a family unit.

 “Fortunately, the five of us are super-close and at dinner, which we have just about every night the five of us are together, it becomes part of the family conversation: ‘Do you know what this is?’ ‘Have you ever heard about this?’ ‘Well, have you ever done that?’ " she says. "It’s about figuring it out together."

 More: FDA declares youth vaping an epidemic, announces investigation, new enforcement

 That includes vaping, something Roberts calls "a hideous monster in culture now. ... Honestly, I didn’t realize what a thing it was until my oldest son had a swim test at a high school in a neighboring town. I went into the gym to get some water and there was a sign that said: ‘No skateboarding. No loud music. No vaping.’ Like, a permanent sign! And I was like, 'What?' "

 Amazon's "Homecoming" marks Julia Roberts' first leading role in television. (Photo: Hilary B Gayle/SMPSP, )

 So what does she say to her kids?

 "As a parent, I have to put my sort of personal disgust of something aside and be able to have a conversation … as opposed to: ‘Why would anyone do that? It’s disgusting!' "

 This weekend Roberts is on double duty in Toronto, where she's also unveiling her first TV series, the upcoming Amazon psychological thriller “Homecoming” (streaming Nov. 2). Based on the popular podcast and directed by “Mr. Robot" creator Sam Esmail, the 10-episode series finds her as a psychologist working with veterans struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder, unaware that darker motivations are at play.

 The Oscar winner, who executive-produced the series, acknowledges she's learning as she wades into this era of peak TV.

 “The first day I came into the production office I said: 'I don’t understand any of these emails I’m getting. I don’t know what anything means!' ” Roberts laughs. "So I got a quick study in the language of television."

 Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2wTMjKt ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. |||||


Here is a news article: In the immediate aftermath of the targeted killing of Osama bin Laden, President Obama’s approval rating has jumped higher, with big increases in the number of Americans giving him high marks on dealing with terrorism and the situation in Afghanistan.

 But the new poll, conducted Monday evening by The Washington Post and the Pew Research Center, also finds virtually no movement in Obama’s numbers when it comes to handling the economy. That suggests that success on one front — even one as important as the death of the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks — might not translate easily to other areas.

 Overall, 56 percent of those polled say they approve of the way Obama is handling his job as president, an increase of nine percentage points over April polls by Post-ABC News and Pew. That is the highest approval rating for the president in either poll since 2009.

 There’s also been a clear increase in public satisfaction with the way things are going in the United States, although by a margin of nearly 2-1, Americans are still dissatisfied with the direction of the country.

 The president gets big bounces on dealing with Afghanistan, with his approval rating soaring to 60 percent, and on handling the threat of terrorism, where he recorded a career high of 69 percent.

 More than three-quarters of all Americans say the president deserves credit for the killing of the bin Laden in Pakistan on Sunday. Among Republicans, 61 percent say Obama deserves at least some credit for the move. But just 17 percent of them say he deserves a “great deal” of credit for bringing bin Laden to justice after a nearly 10-year pursuit by U.S. intelligence and military forces.

 Republicans are more apt to give former president George W. Bush acclaim for killing bin Laden, with 81 percent saying he deserves at least some of the credit for what happened Sunday. Only 35 percent of Democrats share that view, however, with a slender 4 percent giving the former president a lot of credit.

 There is more bipartisan agreement that the U.S. military and intelligence deserve a great deal of credit for the killing.

 For the president, the nine-point increase in his overall approval rating is on par with the six-point increase in Bush’s numbers in the weeks following the capture of Saddam Hussein in Iraq in December 2003. Then, as now, political independents moved the most.

 Compared with the mid-April Post-ABC poll, Obama’s approval rating among independents is now 10 points higher, at 52 percent. Bush got an identical 10-point boost among independents in December 2003. For Bush, that lift proved short-lived, with the entire increase gone within six weeks.

 How long Obama’s improved ratings will last is, of course, an open question. The fact that there was no movement in Obama’s approval on the economy — still the top issue by far in the country — offers a reminder of the challenges that remain for the White House. Obama’s 40 percent approval on the economy in this one-night poll is the lowest of his presidency in Washington Post polls, though it has been numerically lower in Pew surveys.

 The Post-Pew poll was conducted by conventional landline and cellular telephone Monday evening, and included interviews with 654 randomly selected adults. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.

 Polling manager Peyton M. Craighill also contributed to this report. ||||| While the public lauds the president’s performance killing Bin Laden, he got no overall bounce in a new Newsweek/Daily Beast poll. Also: Obama vs. Bush on terror and Obama vs. Trump in 2012. Plus, full coverage of Osama bin Laden.

 How much overall boost did President Obama get from the capture of Osama Bin Laden? None, according to an exclusive Newsweek / Daily Beast poll encompassing 1,200 American adults, conducted in the two days immediately before the president’s Sunday announcement about the terrorist leader, and then the two days immediately after.

 Specifically, Americans like the way he handled the situation, giving him strong results in strength and decision-making (55 percent now term him a strong leader overall, and 63 percent do so in the area of terrorism). Yet he did not get any overall bump in terms of approval rating, or electoral support. His approval rate was unchanged—48 approve, 49 disapprove, both before and after. There was also no statistical change in whether Obama deserves reelection—40/48 before, 39/49 after.

 Photos: Inside bin Laden’s Compound

 The clear reason: It's the economy, stupid. Even after Bin Laden’s death, only 30 percent think the country is on the right track, and only 27 percent think the economy is on the right track. Respondents disapprove of President Obama's handling of the economy by a margin of 56 percent to 39 percent.

 When compared to President George W. Bush, 48 percent of respondents say Obama deserves more credit for the death of Bin Laden, while 31 percent say Bush. Yet when asked who did better prosecuting the war on terror, even after the killing, the results are nearly reversed: 31 percent say Obama, 45 percent say Bush.

 Meanwhile, in terms of the putting the birther issue to rest, while Donald Trump was close to Obama a month ago, the president now crushes the tycoon/reality star, 53 percent to 25 percent. The poll, encompassing 600 people on Saturday April 30th and Sunday May 1st, and a further 600 on Monday May 2nd and Tuesday May 3rd., was conducted by Douglas E. Schoen, LLC on behalf of Newsweek/The Daily Beast, and has a margin of sampling error of +/-3 percent.

 Full results below:

 APPROVAL RATING

 BEFORE: 48% APPROVE, 49% DISAPPROVE

 AFTER: 48% APPROVE, 49% DISAPPROVE

 COUNTRY HEADING IN THE RIGHT OR WRONG DIRECTION?

 BEFORE: Right, 20%, Wrong, 65%

 AFTER: Right, 30%, Wrong 55%

 ECONOMY HEADING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION?

 BEFORE: Right, 31%, Wrong, 56%

 AFTER: Right, 27%, Wrong 60%

 HAS OBAMA DONE HIS JOB WELL ENOUGH TO DESERVE RE-ELECTION?

 BEFORE: Yes, 40%, No, 48%

 AFTER: 39%, No, 49%

 WHO WOULD YOU VOTE FOR (LIKELY VOTERS ONLY IN MATCH-UP BETWEEN:

 Barack Obama vs. Mitt Romney

 BEFORE: 44% Obama/44% Romney

 AFTER: 42% Obama/36% Romney

 Barack Obama vs. Mike Huckabee

 BEFORE: 46% Obama/43% Huckabee

 AFTER: 42% Obama/38% Huckabee

 Barack Obama vs. Sarah Palin

 BEFORE: 53% Obama/35% Palin

 AFTER: 50% Obama/29% Palin

 Barack Obama vs. Donald Trump

 BEFORE: 55% Obama/30% Trump

 AFTER: 53% Obama/25% Trump

 In the wake of the capture of Osama Bin Laden…

 Do you think President Obama is a strong leader overall?

 STRONG 55%

 WEAK 44%

 Do you think President Obama is a strong leader in the war on terrorism?

 STRONG 63%

 WEAK 34%

 Do you think President Obama has made the world more safe or less safe, or no impact?

 More safe 38%

 Less safe 16%

 No impact 40%

 Does news that U.S. forces have killed Osama bin Laden make you more favorable, to President Obama less favorable, or does it not impact your opinion?

 More favorable 26%

 Less favorable 3%

 No impact 67%

 Do you think President Obama deserves all of the credit, some of the credit, not much of the credit, or none of the credit for this operation?

 All of the credit 10%

 Some of the credit 59%

 Not much of the

 credit 13%

 None of the credit 14%

 Who do you think deserves more credit for Bin Laden's capture - President Obama or President George W. Bush?

 President Obama 48%

 President George W.

 Bush 31%

 Who has done a better job at prosecuting the war on terror - President Obama or President Bush?

 President Obama 31%

 President George W.

 Bush 45%

 Has news that Osama bin Laden has been killed made you more confident in President Obama's ability to lead America, less confident in President Obama's ability to lead America, or does it not impact your opinion?

 More confident 30%

 Less confident 3%

 No impact 65%

 Has news that Osama bin Laden has been killed made you more confident in President Obama's foreign policy, less confident, or does it not impact your opinion?

 More confident 27%

 Less confident 4%

 Does not impact

 opinion 64%

 Has news that Osama bin Laden has been killed made you feel safer, less safe, or no impact?

 Safer 26%

 Les safe 14%

 No impact 55%

 With Osama bin Laden dead, do you feel more or less support for war in Afghanistan?

 More support 30%

 Less support 23%

 The same 38%

 Now that Osama bin Laden is dead, should the U.S. continue to fight the war in Afghanistan or should we now move on and focus on problems at home?

 Continue to fight 33%

 Move on and focus on

 problems at home 57%

 Do you think that Americans have had to give up too many freedoms in the war on terror?

 Yes 49%

 No 47%

 Has news that Osama bin Laden has been killed changed the way you will vote in the 2012 presidential election from the way you felt before Sunday night.

 Yes 5%

 No 92%

 Like The Daily Beast on Facebook and follow us on Twitter for updates all day long.

 For inquiries, please contact The Daily Beast at editorial@thedailybeast.com. |||||
A summary of this is?

– Barack Obama’s approval rating took a pretty significant jump overnight after the killing of Osama bin Laden, with 56% now saying they approve of the job he’s doing overall, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted last night. That’s a 9-point increase from Obama’s April rating. He also notched a career high 69% approval rating for his handling of terrorism, and a 60% approval rating for his work in Afghanistan. Obama’s boost is nearly identical to the one Bush got after Saddam Hussein’s capture in 2003. In both cases, independents moved the most, improving their view of each president by 10 percentage points. But it wasn’t all good news for the White House: The public is as skeptical as ever of Obama’s handling of the economy, with an unchanged 40% approving. That could make sustaining the Osama boost a challenge. (Meanwhile, a Daily Beast/Newsweek poll finds little change in his overall approval rating before and after the raid.)


Article:
MERIDEN, Conn. (WTNH) -- In the cold and the snow, it's easy to imagine what it was like 26 years ago today when a newborn boy was found dead in Meriden.

 "The child was found on the ground near a tree, wrapped in a blanket on the morning of January 2, 1988," retired Detective Sergeant Keith McCurdy said.

 On a day colder than today, the baby soon froze to death. The local clergy named him David Paul, which means God's beloved little man. The police department took up a collection for his burial.

 "The Meriden Police Department unofficially adopted this child and cared for this child's burial," McCurdy said, "and we think David Paul represents all the children who are abused, neglected or abandoned."

 David Paul was blond, blue-eyed, and full term. The former Chief says he would have gladly adopted him into his family. Police never found his mother, never identified him, and never charged anyone in his death. But every year since 1988, they've come here to pay their respects and remember.

 "It shows our commitment to the baby and to the children that we represent every day in the community," said Lt. Salvatore Nesci, Meriden Police Department, said.

 Since then, the state has made it clear that new moms can go to any hospital and they will take care of the baby no questions asked.

 As for the idea that David Paul has come to represent all the kids police have sworn to protect, they say that is even more important this year, just a little over a year since the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary. ||||| Meriden police, church remember abandoned baby 26 years later

 By Lauren Sievert Record-Journal staff

 MERIDEN — Members of the police department and a local church gathered in the freezing weather to remember the baby boy abandoned in a parking lot in 1988.

 Retired Police Chief Robert E. Kosienski attended the memorial service at Walnut Grove Cemetery with about 20 members of the Meriden police department and the Rev. Alden Barnes, pastor of First United Methodist Church. Kosienski said he remembered the morning he got the call about the baby found abandoned in a South Meriden parking lot on Jan. 2, 1988.

 “He was found frozen to death,” Kosienski said. “Why would a woman do that?”

 Kosienski said his first reaction when he got the call was shock. He later found out the mother carried the baby to full term, and he had blonde hair and blue eyes. Kosienski said the massive effort to find the mother was not to punish her, but because the police believe there was “some kind of trauma” that led her to abandon the child. The baby was named David Paul, which means “God’s beloved little man” in scripture, and was officially adopted by the city police department. The child was buried in Walnut Grove Cemetery.

 Barnes said this year at the memorial service he read a prayer for children, keeping in mind the recent one-year anniversary of the Sandy Hook tragedy as well. “This death put a light on how vulnerable children are at all ages in this society,” Barnes said.

 Barnes said a man attended the memorial service and said he was interested in the Safe Haven law that was passed in Connecticut in 2000. Mothers can voluntarily drop off infants under 30 days old at a hospital with no requirement to identify themselves. The infant will go into the custody of the Department of Children and Families. |||||Summary:

– It's a 26-year tradition now in Meriden, Conn., and one with a somber start: On Jan. 2, 1988, police found a newborn boy frozen to death outside. He had been wrapped in a blanket, but the full-term baby with blond hair and blue eyes stood no chance in the frigid weather. Police took up a collection and paid for his burial, reports WTNH, and members of the local clergy named him David Paul. Today, as they have on every Jan. 2 since then, police and others in the community gathered at the cemetery where the baby is buried. "The Meriden Police Department unofficially adopted this child and cared for this child's burial," says a retired detective sergeant, "and we think David Paul represents all the children who are abused, neglected, or abandoned." The local Record-Journal notes that Connecticut has since passed a Safe Haven law that allows a mother to leave her baby at a hospital within 30 days of birth, no questions asked.


Article:

Teen's family wants criminal charges in shooting Man accused of shooting boy caught in his daughter's room

 Photo: Courtesy Of Johran McCormick's F Image 1 of / 9 Caption Close Image 1 of 9 Johran McCormick, 17, was fatally shot after being found in a teenage girl's bedroom. Johran McCormick, 17, was fatally shot after being found in a teenage girl's bedroom. Photo: Courtesy Of Johran McCormick's F Image 2 of 9 Shawn Curley sits on the bed of his son, Johran, on Friday. Shawn Curley sits on the bed of his son, Johran, on Friday. Photo: Cody Duty, Staff Image 3 of 9 Friends and classmates light candles during a vigil for McCormick at his neighborhood's Dove Meadows Park in Spring on Friday. Friends and classmates light candles during a vigil for McCormick at his neighborhood's Dove Meadows Park in Spring on Friday. Photo: Tony Bullard, For The Chronicle Image 4 of 9 Parents Zakia McCormick and Shawn Curley grieve with pastor Ginny Brown Daniel during the vigil. Parents Zakia McCormick and Shawn Curley grieve with pastor Ginny Brown Daniel during the vigil. Photo: Tony Bullard, For The Chronicle Image 5 of 9 Classmates at the vigil. Classmates at the vigil. Photo: Tony Bullard, For The Chronicle Image 6 of 9 Mourners include Natalie Portillo 17, left; Jennifer Sosa, 16; Beyra Avila, 17; Grace Germon, 17; and Alysia Grimm, 17. Mourners include Natalie Portillo 17, left; Jennifer Sosa, 16; Beyra Avila, 17; Grace Germon, 17; and Alysia Grimm, 17. Photo: © Tony Bullard 2014, Tony Bullard Image 7 of 9 Mourner Carol Villalva, 18 Mourner Carol Villalva, 18 Photo: Tony Bullard, For The Chronicle Image 8 of 9 Friends and classmates light candles Friends and classmates light candles Photo: Tony Bullard, For The Chronicle Image 9 of 9 Teen's family wants criminal charges in shooting 1 / 9 Back to Gallery

 Johran McCormick's mother slowly shook her head Friday as she stared at the floor of her modest Spring home and cried.

 She couldn't believe her 17-year-old son was killed while sneaking around with the 16-year-old girl he was apparently dating.

 She didn't know why he had secretly returned from New Orleans, where he was supposed to be enjoying spring break with friends for the rest of the week.

 And she couldn't understand why the man accused of firing the fatal shot Thursday is not behind bars.

 "If you take a life, you give your life," Zakia McCormick said behind tears. "We're suffering. Why isn't he suffering, too?"

 The Harris County Sheriff's Office has said the investigation continues and, when complete, will be forwarded to a grand jury to determine if charges should be filed.

 Experts said getting an indictment for murder, much less a conviction, is unlikely based on the story that has emerged.

 "If it's perceived that there is a 'stranger' in his home, there could be a viable claim of self-defense or defense of others," said Todd Dupont, president of the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association. The grand jurors will have to look at what the father believed at the time of the shooting, Dupont said.

 Law enforcement agencies on Friday would not answer questions about the investigation.

 Late-night visitor

 The girl's father and his family did not respond to requests for an interview.

 On Thursday, Harris County investigators said the girl let the boy into the house, in the 22000 block of Bridgestone Ridge. The father told investigators he heard noises coming from her bedroom about 2:30 a.m. He went to investigate and found Johran McCormick in the room. An altercation broke out, officials said, and then the boy was shot once.

 Zakia McCormick and the teen's father, Shawn Curley, said they believe he was in bed with the girl when her father came into her bedroom with a gun.

 The boy's family said they were told by authorities and others that the girl denied she knew the young man in her bedroom - sparking a deadly confrontation. They said they were also told that when Johran McCormick reached down for something, the girl's father thought he was going for a weapon and shot him in the head.

 It was a tragic outcome that could have been avoided, they said.

 "I wish the father could have asked more questions, he could have picked up the phone," Curley said. "And for her to say she didn't know who he was, that was most hurtful."

 'Wasn't an accident'

 Both said they want the 55-year-old father charged with murder and sentenced to life in prison. He has not been arrested or charged with a crime.

 "It wasn't an accident," Curley said. "You don't shoot someone in the head on accident."

 The day of the shooting, McCormick and Curley thought their son was still in New Orleans for spring break and was not due home until Sunday.

 They believe he caught an early ride back and arrived in Houston late Wednesday. Once back in the neighborhood, they said, he arranged to sneak into the girl's home, adding that they didn't know the two were dating.

 "For him to be in someone else's house at 2:30 in the morning is shocking to us," Curley said. He said he warned his son often to be wary.

 Tried to be realistic

 "Every day one of us would tell him, 'Don't go by no little girl's house if her parents don't know you,' " Curley said.

 The couple said they've tried to teach their children to be cautious about the world but tried to be realistic about raising a teenager.

 "I was a teenager once too," McCormick said. "And I know what teenagers do."

 They said the Klein Collins junior was a typical teen who loved to skateboard, play video games and make music on his computer.

 Full of energy and excited about making his way in the world, Johran McCormick was considering enlisting in the U.S. Air Force, his mother said. He was also looking at a career as a mechanic.

 Typical big brother

 "He just had big dreams," his mother said.

 His sister, 14-year-old Diamond, said he was all the things a big brother should be - kind, cruel and always comedic. She was looking forward to being a high school freshman next year while he would be a senior.

 "He told me he was going to drive to school," she said, "but I would still have to ride the bus."

 Later Friday, about 50-60 people gathered at a community park near the boy's home.

 Justin Gil was friends with Johran McCormick for a decade.

 "He opened his heart when I first came here. I'll never forget him," Gil said. "I'm feeling heartbroken."

 Chronicle reporters Mike Glenn and Anita Hassan contributed to this report. ||||| Family of teen boy killed after sneaking into girlfriend’s bedroom wants girl charged

 HOUSTON – Family, friends and supporters of Johran McCormick, the teen who was shot and killed by his girlfriend’s father, want the girlfriend to be held accountable for her role in his death.

 Led by Community Activist Quanell X, the group rallied Wednesday morning with the victim’s mother, Zakia McCormick, in front of the home where he was killed.

 The 17-year-old boy was shot inside the Spring-area home on Bridgestone Lakes subdivision off FM 2920 on March 13.

 Investigators said the father accused in the shooting woke up to find Johran in his 16-year-old daughter’s bedroom around 2:30 a.m. According to detectives, the daughter snuck Johran in, but told her dad a different story when confronted.

 Her younger brother went to say good night and saw two feet sticking out from underneath the bed, detectives said. He then went to get his father.

 The father walked in and asked questions, but his daughter claimed to not know McCormick. The father then called 911, but an argument ensued with the teenage boy.

 The father told deputies that Johran dropped his hands as if to grab something, so he opened fire. Johran was shot in the head and died at the scene.

 The Harris County Grand Jury will decide if the father is to face charges, but many think the teen girl is also at fault.

 Johran’s family and supporters demand that Houston District Attorney Devon Anderson motion to file either one to two counts of accessory to murder, or involuntary manslaughter against the young girl who they say intentionally lied to her father, which led to Johran’s death. |||||
What is a summary?

– The family of the 17-year-old Texas boy who was shot and killed after sneaking into his girlfriend's bedroom says the girlfriend should be charged in his death. The 16-year-old girl has not been identified, but a grand jury is deciding whether her father should face any charges for shooting the teen after finding him in his daughter's bedroom. However, the family of victim Johran McCormick says the DA should also take action against his daughter, because she allegedly lied to her father and said she didn't know Johran—which arguably led to his death. Their idea: The girl could be charged with accessory to murder or even involuntary manslaughter, KHOU reports. Activists including Johran's mom, Zakia McCormick, rallied yesterday in front of the home where he died. But earlier this month, experts told the Houston Chronicle that an indictment for murder against the father would be unlikely. Says one, "If it's perceived that there is a 'stranger' in his home, there could be a viable claim of self-defense or defense of others."


(Reuters Health) - Skin cancers caused by indoor tanning are responsible for $343 million a year in direct medical costs for U.S. patients, a recent study suggests.

 On top of those direct healthcare costs, lost productivity and early deaths among patients with melanoma and other malignancies tied to tanning bed use will exceed $127 billion over the lifetime of the people currently diagnosed with these cancers, the study also found.

 “We already knew that the use of indoor tanning devices is damaging to health and can cause cancer, but we did not have a comprehensive documentation of the health impacts at the population level or an estimate of the costs of health care to treat these conditions,” said study co-author Hugh Waters of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

 An estimated 30 million people in the U.S. use tanning beds at least once a year, and they have approximately 25,000 tanning salons nationwide to choose from, researchers note in the Journal of Cancer Policy.

 To estimate the health costs associated with indoor tanning, researchers tallied the average costs to treat skin malignancies including melanoma, squamous cell carcinoma and basal cell carcinoma.

 Based on previously published estimates of the increased cancer risk associated with tanning beds, they also calculated the proportion of cases of these cancers that is attributable to indoor tanning.

 With data on the prevalence of tanning device use in the U.S., they were able to calculate the number of skin cancer cases caused by tanning beds and the associated costs for treatment in 2015.

 That year, tanning beds were linked to 8,947 cases of melanoma, more than 168,000 cases of squamous cell carcinoma and at least 86,000 cases of basal cell carcinoma.

 Based on data from Medicare, the U.S. health insurance program for the elderly, researchers calculated that the average 2015 cost of treating melanoma was $5,054 per case and the typical cost for other skin cancers was $1,168.

 In addition to these medical costs, researchers calculated the economic loss over the lifetime of individuals currently diagnosed with these cancers based on what they described as the value of a lost year of life.

 This estimate was calculated based on the size of the U.S. population and on a measure of the size of the economy known as gross domestic product (GDP) in 2015. Under this formula, a year of life lost resulted in a $55,266 reduction in GDP.

 It’s possible the study underestimated the number of skin cancers associated with indoor tanning, the authors note. Their cost estimates also didn’t include long-term medical and productivity costs associated with follow-up physician visits or additional care.

 However, it’s also possible the study overestimated the economic costs associated with indoor tanning, said Dr. David Leffell, a researcher at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, who wasn’t involved in the study.

 “I believe that the health risks and costs of natural sun exposure exceed those of indoor tanning substantially,” Leffell added by email.

 All unprotected exposure to ultraviolet (UV) rays can increase the risk of developing skin cancer, noted Dr. Elizabeth Martin, president of Pure Dermatology and Aesthetics in Hoover, Alabama, and a researcher at the University of Alabama School of Medicine.

 “The cost of treating skin cancer is the same regardless of whether the patient used indoor tanning or tanned outdoors,” Martin, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email.

 Tanning beds, however, can make melanoma, the deadliest type of skin cancer, more likely, and the risk increases with more tanning sessions, Martin said.

 The risk is stark for young women.

 “Women younger than 30 are six times more likely to develop melanoma if they tan indoors,” Martin noted. “Even one indoor tanning session can increase users’ risk of developing squamous cell carcinoma by 67 percent and basal cell carcinoma by 29 percent.”

 SOURCE: bit.ly/2lkInK7 Journal of Cancer Policy, online February 28, 2017. ||||| Tanning beds can ring up a steep bill — a whopping $343 million each year in medical costs in the US alone.

 Indoor tanning has long been tied to skin cancer, the most common type of cancer in the US. It’s estimated that 30 million people — nearly 25 percent of whom are teenagers — head to tanning beds at least once a year.

 And the health care costs of the habit can add up, health economists report in a new study published Tuesday in the Journal of Cancer Policy.

 advertisement

 Tanning beds emit UV-A rays, which can damage DNA, and UV-B rays, which can burn the skin and increase the risk of skin cancer. Research has shown that indoor tanning before age 35 raises the risk of melanoma up to 75 percent.

 Health care researchers at the University of North Carolina focused on melanoma and two other types of skin cancer, basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma.

 The researchers looked at all skin cancer cases in 2015, and then applied data on indoor tanning prevalence and relative risk of skin cancer after using a tanning bed to those numbers. They estimated that there were 263,600 cases of skin cancer in 2015 that could be attributed to the use of tanning beds.

 The researchers then summed up the average annual cost of treating patients with each type of cancer, which totaled more than $343 million each year.

 “Our findings highlight both the negative health and negative financial impacts associated with indoor tanning,” the authors wrote.

 The Food and Drug Administration has taken steps in recent years to rein in use of tanning beds. In 2014, the agency announced that manufacturers would be required to put a black-box warning on tanning beds that states they shouldn’t be used by anyone under 18. The FDA also classified tanning beds as moderate-risk products in 2014, giving health officials the authority to review tanning beds for safety before they hit the market.

 The Affordable Care Act aimed to reduce use of tanning beds, too, by implementing a 10 percent excise tax on indoor tanning services.

 A couple caveats: The new numbers are just an estimation — it’s impossible to nail down the cause of each individual case of skin cancer. The results also don’t include costs associated with other health problems blamed on tanning beds, such as burns.

 But the study’s authors said they are hopeful that putting an estimate on the social costs of indoor tanning will help reduce use of the devices. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Tanning beds have long been associated with skin cancer, and now researchers are quantifying just what that costs the US financially. Reporting in the Journal of Cancer Policy, they calculate that in 2015, the direct medical care for skin cancers resulting from tanning bed exposure totals $343.1 million. What's more, they figure that early deaths and loss of productivity in these cases add up to a $127.3 billion loss over the lifetime of individuals currently diagnosed. But those are just dollar signs: the human toll is large, too, with more than 263,000 cases of skin cancer attributed to tanning beds in 2015 alone. The researchers call tanning beds a "significant contributor to illness and premature mortality in the US." Reuters notes that some 30 million Americans use tanning beds every year. Tanning beds emit UV-A rays, which damage DNA, and UV-B rays, which can burn one's skin and also raise the risk of skin cancer. (The research did not calculate the medical cost of burns.) Previous research has found that indoor tanning bed exposure in people younger than 35 nearly doubles their risk of melanoma, reports STAT News, and Americans must now be 18 or older to use them in several states. "Women younger than 30 are six times more likely to develop melanoma if they tan indoors," says a University of Alabama researcher who wasn't involved in the study. "Even one indoor tanning session can increase users' risk of developing squamous cell carcinoma by 67% and basal cell carcinoma by 29%." (Australia has outright banned tanning beds.)