Article:
Cameras catch BART janitor who made $270,000 in a year spending hours in Powell St. closet

 Last November, a nonprofit called Transparent California reported that a BART janitor named Liang Zhao Zhang made $271,000 in a single year — over $162,000 of that in the form of overtime.

 Now, a KTVU investigation into Zhang's hours and pay revealed that he disappears into a storage closet at the Powell St. station, sometimes for hours a day.

 In order to observe how Zhang spent his sometimes 17-hour work day, KTVU requested surveillance video from BART. On it, they saw Zhang entering a storage closet twice in one day, once for 54 minutes and again for 90 minutes later in the day. On another day, they observed Zhang in the closet for 90 minutes in the afternoon and another 78 minutes in the evening.

 More: Parking fee increase at 5 East Bay BART stations starts today

 Zhang tells the TV crew he is taking his meal breaks during that time, although a BART representative told KTVU employees eat their lunch in the separate break room. BART employees are normally given 30 minutes for lunch, although BART doesn't track their breaks.

 KTVU also discovered that Zhang failed to clock in or out 16 times in one year.

 Click ahead to read about the weirdest BART antics in the news lately. A BART train pulls into the Powell St. station.

 Click ahead to read about the weirdest BART antics in the news lately. A BART train pulls into the Powell St. station. Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle Photo: Michael Macor, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 23 Caption Close Cameras catch BART janitor who made $270,000 in a year spending hours in Powell St. closet 1 / 23 Back to Gallery

 Last year, BART spokesperson Alicia Trost told SFGATE that Zhang was paid every single day in 2015 and provided a breakdown of his pay and benefits for the year:

 For regular hours he did:

 1420.73 regular hours

 24 hours of protected sick leave

 192 of vacation hours

 48 hours of holiday pay

 3.27 of administrative leave

 For overtime he did:

 63 hours of "holiday work"

 1821.53 hours of time and a half (1.5 for regular day off 1).

 601 hours of double time (2 for regular day off 2)

 Transparent California found that Zhang worked 17 hours a day for 18 days in a row in July 2015, a feat that a writer from the nonprofit called "super human."

 "This employee signs up for every overtime slot that becomes available," Trost told SFGATE. "He is likely working almost every day of the year cleaning our stations. He is signing up for time that is also available to others — if he doesn't take the hours, someone else will. The sign-ups are based on seniority."

 MORE: Some BART workers are nearly tripling their salary with overtime pay

 BART confirmed that 49 other janitors made over $100,000 in 2015 and that no city, state or federal regulations prevented employees from working that much voluntary overtime.

 None of those employees have been audited, BART told KTVU. ||||| SAN FRANCISCO (KTVU) -- A BART janitor who earned more than a quarter million dollars in salary, overtime, and benefits made headlines for his eye-popping pay.

 But now 2 Investigates has uncovered some serious questions about how he earned all that money and why supervisors haven’t taken a closer look.

 The janitor, Liang Zhao Zhang, earned $57,945 in base pay in 2015 for cleaning San Francisco’s Powell Street station. But according to public records uncovered by Transparent California, his also raked in an additional $162,050 in overtime, bringing his total salary and benefits that year to $271,243.

 “It’s absolutely outrageous,” said Robert Fellner, with Transparent California.

 Fellner has examined public employee salary information for years, and says he has never seen anything like this.

 “For Janitors that’s obscene! It’s unconscionable!”

 2 Investigates obtained Zhang’s timecard data and plotted it out over the calendar year. The results showed the BART paid Zhang every single day in 2015. Most days he worked overtime, clocking in about 17 hours of work. He also used some days of paid vacation and holidays in order to rake in pay for 365 days that year.

 In one stretch during July 2015, Zhang worked 17 hour days for 18 days straight, according to timecard records.

 “Super human!” said Fellner. “The average reaction to that is ‘How is that possible?'"

 RELATED STORY

 BART’s Chief Transportation Officer Roy Aguilera says it’s possible because Zhang never refuses extra work and picks up much of the overtime hours offered.

 Aguilera says the population of homeless people who spend time in the Powell Street station means the janitorial staff spends much of their time cleaning up urine, feces, and needles, which he calls “totally unacceptable.”

 “People are not raising their hands and saying, ‘I want some of that overtime.’ Mr. Zhang has said yes, he’s worked hard, he’s completed his assignments, so I stand by the work he’s done,” Aguilera said.

 When asked whether he’s check up on Zhang’s performance, time cards, or overtime hours, Aguilera said he personally hasn’t but the supervisors working under him have.

 2 Investigates learned that BART has never conducted an extensive investigation of Zhang’s time cards, despite the janitor earning more than $705,000 in pay and benefits during the four years from 2012 to 2015.

 Graph Source: BART Spokesperson Alicia Trost

 There have also been 49 other BART janitors who have earned more than $100,000 in 2015, and the agency also confirmed it has not audited or investigated those employees either.

 In an email, BART spokesperson Alicia Trost said “There are multiple management systems in place to ensure hours worked and assignments are completed.” She also confirmed there is no future audit being considering after KTVU’s investigation.

 But when 2 Investigates randomly checked on Zhang’s performance and timesheets, discrepancies and questions quickly arose. While inspecting two random days of surveillance video from BART’s own security cameras, KTVU investigators spotted Zhang working, sweeping, mopping on a riding machine, and taking out the trash. But, according to the timestamp on BART’s video, Zhang also appears to have disappeared inside a storage closet for hours at a time.

 On the first day that 2 Investigates logged, Zhang appears to go into the closet twice, for 54 minutes and 90 minutes respectively. On the second day of video, he spends 90 minutes in the closet in the afternoon, and another 78 minutes behind the door later that evening.

 A BART spokesperson said she cannot be certain that Zhang is the janitor pictured in one of the video clips, but that in other instances it is “obvious.” She said the janitors may be cleaning, repairing equipment, or taking breaks in that closet, but the agency does not track breaks. Earlier, though, Aguilera had said the closet is not a break room and employees eat their lunches in a separate room in a different part of the station. But he wouldn’t allow 2 Investigates to see inside the closet.

 2 Investigates also found questions on Zhang’s timesheet. Over two months, he failed to clock in or out to verify his hours three times. BART General Manager Grace Crunican said she wasn’t aware of those discrepancies.

 “Well, this piece is news to me, yes that would be concerning if we had an examination with the supervisor and there wasn’t a good reason for that.”

 Crunican also said she has not personally seen the surveillance video of Zhang spending hours inside the Powell Street station closet. She said she does not believe, based on the information she’s seen, that Zhang’s high pay and time sheet warrants an audit.

 “We’ve increased the staffing two years in a row, we’ve reduced the overtime this past year,” she said, “we’ve reduced the number of hours for overtime.”

 2 Investigates also showed Crunican video of dirty conditions at Powell Street station taken over several days. It shows sticky handrails, trash on the floor, and dirt and dust built up under benches.

 “I do agree with you that those levels those standards are not good,” she said.

 Aguilera argued that because of the constant need to clean up human waste and drug at Powell Street that janitors do not have time to keep the rest of the station clean. He showed 2 Investigates a list of the janitors’ daily duties and cleaning the elevators was listed as No. 2. Aguilera said the cleaning crew can rarely get past cleaning the elevators because of the constant mess. Cleaning the “restroom, offices, lunch room, and locker rooms” is number 11 on that list, and cleaning the “janitor’s room” is at the bottom.

 BART administration says that Zhang’s direct supervisor approved all his timesheets and overtime, and they insist he is one of their best employees.

 But Fellner disagrees, insisting that enough questions exist about how custodians are being managed that BART should have audited their overtime and pay years ago. “I would say a catastrophic management failure there.”

 Source: Data compiled from timecard information provided by BART |||||Summary:

– There's quite a difference between making $58,000 a year and $270,000, and that huge gap is why some are now poking around to see how a San Francisco janitor has been pulling in the latter. The San Francisco Chronicle reports on Liang Zhao Zhang, who cleans the BART system's station at Powell Street and has a base salary of $57,945, per public records culled by Transparent California. But thanks to about $162,000 in hefty overtime pay and other compensation and benefits, Zhang raked in what amounts to $271,243 in 2015. Robert Fellner, a research director for the watchdog group, tells KTVU he's been keeping an eye on public employee salaries for years and has never seen a janitor get paid such an "obscene" and "unconscionable" amount. Nearly 50 other unaudited BART janitors also earned in the six figures in 2015. Fellner wants to know, for instance, how the "superhuman" Zhang worked 17-hour days for 18 days in a row during July 2015, a fact found during an analysis of Zhang's timecards, which turned up several "discrepancies and questions." Roy Aguilera, BART's chief transportation officer, says Zhang just grabs extra hours no one wants. But when KTVU gained access to video on BART's security cameras for two random days, it witnessed Zhang head into a storage closet and hole up there for hours (on one day he was in the closet for 90 minutes, then later on for another 78). A BART rep says Zhang may have been fixing equipment or taking a break, though Aguilera tells KTVU there's a dedicated break area elsewhere. Fellner says the situation is a "catastrophic management failure" that should've been audited long ago. (The worst-paying jobs you have to go to college for.)


News article:

Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. ||||| Just thinking you had a better night sleep creates a placebo effect that can improve your cognitive abilities, a new study has found.

 Researchers at Colorado College found students who were told they had a good night’s sleep, even if they did not, performed better on attention and memory skill tests than those who had been informed they had slept badly.

 Research led by Christina Draganich and Colorado College Psychology Professor Kristi Erdal involved 164 students who were told a new technique, which does not actually exist, would be used to measure their sleep pattern from the night before.

 Researchers randomly split participants into “above average” quality sleep and “below average” quality sleep groups. Students in both groups were also given a five minute talk on sleep quality and how important it is for cognitive function. They were told the average proportion of REM sleep a night was between 20 and 20 per cent.

 Participants were then connected to a machine they were told would measure their brainwave frequency and shown spreadsheets and formulas.

 Those in the "above average" sleep quality condition were told by researchers they had spent 28.7 per cent of their total sleep time in REM, whereas those in the "below average" sleep quality condition were informed that they had only spent 16.2 per cent of their time in REM sleep.

 The students who were told they got a good night’s sleep performed significantly better in the Paced Auditory Serial Addition Test, a cognitive exercise which measured their ability to listen and process information.

 The authors say what the students were told about their sleep is known as “placebo sleep.” The effect of that information was a placebo effect, which has to do with the person’s mindset regarding his or her treatment.

 They concluded: “These findings supported the hypothesis that mindset can influence cognitive states in both positive and negative directions, suggesting a means of controlling one's health and cognition.”

 The study Placebo Sleep Affects Cognitive Functioning is published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– Got a big day ahead? You're better off thinking you slept well, even if you didn't, a study suggests. Researchers told subjects a normal night of sleep consisted of about 20% to 25% REM sleep. Less than 20%, the subjects heard, meant a worse performance on cognitive tests, while more than 25% meant scoring well on such tests, the Telegraph reports. Researchers duped these subjects into believing that sensors attached to their bodies were tracking their sleep quality. After a night's sleep, some subjects were told they spent 16.2% of the night in REM sleep, while others were informed they'd spent 28.7% of the night in REM. That was all made up, the Smithsonian reports. Next, the subjects took tests involving adding numbers. Subjects who'd been told they'd slept poorly did worse on the tests, reports blogger Eric Horowitz. Those who heard they slept well did better, the Independent reports. In other words, the subjects experienced a "placebo sleep" effect. Indeed, the effect isn't limited to pills: We can get placebo exercise, too, the Smithsonian notes.


Here is a news article: President Obama made a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room Friday to share his thoughts on the acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, saying it is important to look at the case through the lens of past discrimination.

 "Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago," Obama said, during extensive and deeply personal remarks that lasted for 18 minutes. "And when you think about why, in the African American community at least, there’s a lot of pain around what happened here, I think it’s important to recognize that the African American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that -- that doesn’t go away."

 Obama continued: "And I don't want to exaggerate this, but those sets of experiences inform how the African American community interprets what happened one night in Florida. And it's inescapable for people to bring those experiences to bear."

 Obama spoke in a quiet and sometimes halting voice, without notes, touching on both his own experience as a black man and what he sees in his daughters, Sasha and Malia, and their relationship to children of other races. "There are very few African American men who haven't had the experience of being followed in a department store. That includes me," he said.

 But he also struck a hopeful note, saying, "As difficult and challenging as this episode has been, things are getting better."

 The president said that his daughters and their friends are "better than we are, they’re better than we were, on these issues. And that’s true at every community I’ve visited across this country."

 “We should also have confidence that kids these days, I think, have more sense than we did back then, and certainly more than our parents did or our grandparents did," Obama said. "And along this long journey, we’re becoming a more perfect union, not a perfect union, but a more perfect union.”

 Obama said he and his deputies were considering a few concrete policy options in the wake of the Zimmerman verdict, such as trying to train state and local law enforcement officials how to better deal with issues of racial bias, and exploring whether state laws such as "Stand Your Ground" might "encourage the kinds of altercations and confrontations" rather than defuse them.

 More broadly, he said he wanted to pursue a "long-term project" of "thinking about, how do we bolster and reinforce African American boys? And this is something that Michelle and I talk a lot about. There are a lot of kids out there that need help, that are getting a lot of negative reinforcement."

 It is important, Obama said, for individual Americans to "do some soul-searching" about their own inherent racial biases, and ask, "Am I wringing as much bias out of myself as I can?"

 "That would, I think, be an important exercise in the wake of this tragedy," he said.

 More on this story:

 Full video of Obama's remarks

 Full transcript

 The Fix: President Obama's remarkably personal speech on race

 Robert Zimmerman: 'I'm glad he spoke out today' ||||| CLOSE President Obama made a statement about the George Zimmerman trial verdict saying that he could have been Trayvon Martin 35 years ago. He said that the country needs to stop racial disparities. VPC

 In his most extensive comments on race since the 2008 campaign, Obama asks nation to "wring" bias out of themselves

 Barack Obama at his high school graduation, left, and slain teen Trayvon Martin. (Photo: Obama photo via the Obama Presidential Campaign; Trayvon Martin family photo) Story Highlights President Obama urges Americans to respect the verdict in the George Zimmerman case

 Obama also said whites need to understand the realities of racial discrimination

 The nation should do soul searching in the wake of the case, Obama says

 President Obama said Friday that all Americans should respect a jury's acquittal of George Zimmerman in the killing of Trayvon Martin, but white Americans should also understand that African Americans are pained by Trayvon's death and continue to face racial discrimination.

 "Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago," the nation's first African-American president said during a surprise appearance in the White House briefing room.

 Obama, who last year said the 17-year-old Florida shooting victim could just as easily have been his son, talked about how he has been subjected to casual prejudice. He also said African Americans need to address the problems of violence in their own communities.

 African-American males know they are more likely to be both "victims and perpetrators of violence," Obama said, and "somebody like Trayvon Martin was probably statistically more likely to be shot by a peer than he was by somebody else."

 The problem is that so many people paint with a "broad brush" and see all black young men as potential criminals, Obama said.

 A Florida jury acquitted Zimmerman on Saturday night of murder in the 2012 death of 17-year-old Trayvon. This was Obama's first on-camera comments on the case since the verdict was handed down Saturday night. He had had issued a written statement calling for calm on Sunday.

 Obama has generally avoiding discussing racial issues -- today was probably his most extensive comments on the issue as president, reminiscent of his speech on race relations during the 2008 campaign.

 FIRST TAKE: Obama leading from behind on race

 In an extraordinary 19-minute appearance, Obama spoke personally and at times emotionally about the frustrations African-Americans have with the justice system, and the continuing racial divides that shadow the nation.

 "I think it's important to recognize that the African American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that doesn't go away," Obama said, and "it's going to be important for all of us to do some soul-searching."

 Obama told reporters that, like other African Americans, he has been followed by security guards while shopping, and has seen motorists lock their doors or women hold tighter to their purses as he walked near them. While didn't want to "exaggerate," Obama said "those sets of experiences inform how the African-American community interprets what happened one night in Florida."

 He cited racial disparities in the criminal justice system, and how blacks tend to be charged more often with drug offenses and sentenced to longer prison terms than whites. He also said it's fair to wonder what would have happened in Florida if the shooter had been a young African-American.

 Obama said he respects the different views of the verdict, but the trial was conducted professionally, and "once the jury has spoken, that's how our system works." While demonstrations and peaceful protests are understandable, he said violence "dishonors what happened to Trayvon Martin and his family."

 Said Obama: "Now, the question for me at least, and I think for a lot of folks, is where do we take this?"

 While the Justice Department investigates whether to charge Zimmerman with civil rights violations in the case, Obama said state and local levels should examine whether changes to laws can head off violent confrontations. He cited laws to ban racial profiling, and proposed new kind of training for law enforcement in order "to reduce the kind of mistrust in the system that sometimes currently exists."

 The president also questioned the wisdom of Florida's "stand your ground" law, which, in the view of critics, all but encourages confrontation that could turn deadly.

 Obama also suggested people consider whether Trayvon also had the right to stand his ground, adding: "Do we actually think that he would have been justified in shooting Mr. Zimmerman who had followed him in a car because he felt threatened?"

 The nation should also think about ways to "bolster and reinforce our African American boys," Obama said, saying there are too many kids out there who need help, but "are getting a lot of negative reinforcement."

 Obama said all Americans should do "soul-searching" in the wake of the verdict and the reactions to it, but questioned whether a full-blown "national conversation" would do much good if too many politicians or pundits were involved.

 "On the other hand, in families and churches and workplaces, there's the possibility that people are a little bit more honest, and at least you ask yourself your own questions about, am I wringing as much bias out of myself as I can?" Obama said.

 Borrowing a quote from Abraham Lincoln, Obama said political leaders should do whatever they can to encourage ''the better angels of our nature." rather than "using these episodes to heighten divisions."

 Obama also said that Americans should realize that, over the course of decades, American race relations have improved, citing his daughters and their friends as examples. While that doesn't means "we're in a post-racial society," Obama said there is progress.

 "I don't want us to lose sight that things are getting better," Obama said.

 Obama also paid tribute to Trayvon's parents, saying that "I can only imagine what they're going through and it's remarkable how they've handled it."

 In a statement, Trayvon's parents Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton said Friday, "we are deeply honored and moved that President Obama took the time to speak publicly and at length about our son, Trayvon. The President's comments give us great strength at this time."

 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/12PhEZT ||||| Several people who have had conversations with Mr. Obama’s top aides said a president who has rarely spoken about America’s racial tensions from the White House was particularly torn about appearing to force the hand of Eric H. Holder Jr., the attorney general, when it comes to any investigations in the case.

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 The White House’s original plan — for Mr. Obama to address the verdict in brief interviews on Tuesday with four Spanish-language television networks — was foiled when none of them asked about it.

 Instead, he appeared in the White House briefing room with no advance warning and little of the orchestration that usually accompanies presidential speeches. Mr. Obama spoke for 18 minutes, offering his own reflections and implicitly criticizing gun laws and racial profiling methods — both of which, critics say, played a role in Mr. Martin’s death.

 Mr. Obama continued to avoid criticizing either the conduct of the trial or the verdict, in which a jury found a neighborhood watch volunteer in Sanford, Fla., George Zimmerman, not guilty of all charges in the killing of Mr. Martin in February 2012.

 But in the most expansive remarks he has made about race since becoming president, Mr. Obama offered three examples of the humiliations borne by young black men in America: being followed while shopping in a department store, hearing the click of car doors locking as they cross a street, or watching as women clutch their purses nervously when they step onto an elevator. The first two experiences, he said, had happened to him.

 “Those sets of experiences inform how the African-American community interprets what happened one night in Florida,” Mr. Obama said. “And it’s inescapable for people to bring those experiences to bear.”

 For black leaders who had beseeched the president to speak out — inundating White House officials with phone calls — his remarks were greeted with a mixture of relief and satisfaction.

 The Rev. Jesse Jackson said Mr. Obama had no choice but to confront mounting concern among African-Americans about the Martin case and recent Supreme Court rulings on affirmative action and voting rights.

 “At some point, the volcano erupts,” Mr. Jackson said.

 From the moment the verdict was announced on Saturday night, black activists had called on Mr. Obama to express the anger and frustration of their community. The pressure only increased after he issued a carefully worded statement urging respect for the jury’s decision.

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 “We needed this president to use his bully pulpit,” said the Rev. Al Sharpton, the civil rights activist and host on MSNBC, who urged Mr. Obama’s advisers to have him speak out.

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 The parents of Mr. Martin, Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin, said they were “deeply honored and moved” by Mr. Obama’s comments. “President Obama sees himself in Trayvon and identifies with him,” they said in a statement on Friday. “This is a beautiful tribute to our boy.”

 For some black activists, however, Mr. Obama’s remarks were too little, too late. Tavis Smiley, a radio host who has long been a critic of the president, said the president has chosen to “lead from behind” on race issues.

 The president’s advisers selected the White House briefing room as the location for Mr. Obama’s remarks during the Thursday meeting, calculating that it would be less formal than a full-dress speech — but would shield him from the questions he would likely face in a longer interview about why he had waited days after the verdict to speak.

 The advisers said Mr. Obama was anxious to confront the issue of race in a way that he has not since he ran for president in 2008. In a landmark speech to defuse the political storm over his Chicago pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., Mr. Obama spoke about what he called “the complexities of race” in America.

 As president, Mr. Obama has only periodically returned to the subject. And on the few occasions that he has, it has often been in reaction to an event — a black Harvard professor’s arrest, or Mr. Martin’s death. A month after Mr. Martin was killed, Mr. Obama said, “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.”

 The president’s remarks on Friday were different: more expansive, more personal and more reflective of the concerns of fellow blacks. His comments mirror public opinion among African-Americans, according to polls.

 A telephone poll conducted June 13 to July 5 by Gallup found that blacks were “significantly less likely now than they were 20 years ago to cite discrimination as the main reason blacks on average have worse jobs, income, and housing than whites.” It found that 37 percent of blacks today blame discrimination. In 1993, 44 percent said the same.

 Mr. Obama has also shown more willingness to speak in personal terms. At Morehouse College in Atlanta in May, he told graduates, “Sometimes I wrote off my own failings as just another example of the world trying to keep a black man down.”

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 His remarks Friday were also reminiscent of the tone in his speeches during his trip to Africa earlier this month. After standing in the cell that Nelson Mandela occupied for 18 years, Mr. Obama told a South African audience, “You’ve shown us how a prisoner can become a president.”

 On Friday, Mr. Obama brought that message home, urging Americans to be honest with themselves about how far this country has come in confronting its own racial history.

 “Am I wringing as much bias out of myself as I can?” he asked. “Am I judging people, as much as I can, based on not the color of their skin but the content of their character? That would, I think, be an appropriate exercise in the wake of this tragedy.” |||||
A summary of this is?

– When the Trayvon Martin shooting took place, President Obama made headlines by saying that Trayvon could have been his son. Today, he took it further: "Trayvon could have been me 35 years ago," he said during an unscheduled stop in the White House briefing room to talk about the case. Some highlights, as noted by USA Today, the New York Times, and the Washington Post: “I think it’s important to recognize that the African-American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history that—that doesn’t go away. There are very few African-American men in this country who haven’t had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. That includes me.” "I don’t want to exaggerate this, but those sets of experiences inform how the African-American community interprets what happened one night in Florida. And it’s inescapable for people to bring those experiences to bear.” But: "I don't want us to lose sight of the fact that things are getting better." Referring to his daughters and their generation: "They’re better than we are, they’re better than we were, on these issues," and that should instill confidence that things will change. He asked all Americans to do some "soul-searching," asking themselves, "Am I wringing as much bias out of myself as I can."


Write an article based on this summary:

– Addressing high-profile GOP donors, Mitt Romney predicted Thursday that President Trump would slide smoothly into a second term in 2020. "I think President Trump will be re-nominated by my party easily, and I think he'll be reelected solidly," he told business and political leaders including Blackrock CEO Stephen Schwarzman, Michael Bloomberg, Paul Ryan, and former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz at the Romney-hosted, invite-only E2 summit in Park City, Utah, per the AP. And while he cited the "strong economy," Romney said Democrats "are likely to nominate someone who is really out of the mainstream of American thought and will make it easier for a president who is presiding over a growing economy," per Politico. Romney, who is expected to win a Senate seat in Utah, also predicted Republicans would hold the House and Senate come November. "I know a lot of pundits don't believe that. I think we will," he said.

“I think that growth and the higher incomes people are seeing means that Republicans will do just fine in November,” said Mitt Romney, the former 2012 GOP presidential nominee and current U.S. Senate candidate. | George Frey/Getty Images Romney: Trump will be reelected in 2020

 DEER VALLEY, UTAH — Republican Senate candidate Mitt Romney bluntly predicted here on Thursday evening that President Donald Trump would win reelection in 2020.

 Addressing a group of major GOP donors, Romney — who bitterly collided with Trump during the 2016 campaign and implored his party to nominate someone else — also said Trump would easily capture the Republican Party’s 2020 nomination.

 Story Continued Below

 He said Trump’s political fortunes would be bolstered by a pair of factors: an improving economy and the likelihood that Democrats would choose an outside-the-mainstream candidate.

 “I think President Trump will be re-nominated by my party easily, and I think he’ll be reelected solidly,” Romney said.

 “I think that not just because of the strong economy and because people are increasingly seeing rising wages, but I think it’s also true because I think our Democrat friends are likely to nominate someone who is really out of the mainstream of American thought and will make it easier for a president who is presiding over a growing economy,” he added.

 Since launching his Utah Senate candidacy earlier this year, Romney has praised some of Trump’s early actions as president while saying he disagrees with the president’s bombastic style.

 During a recent interview with NBC News, Romney, a former Massachusetts governor and the GOP’s 2012 nominee, said he wouldn’t “point to the president as a role model for my grandkids on the basis of his personal style. He has departed in some cases from the truth, and has attacked in a way that I think is not entirely appropriate.”

 Morning Score newsletter Your guide to the permanent campaign — weekday mornings, in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time.

 After the 2016 race, the relationship between Trump and Romney warmed somewhat, with the president-elect briefly considering Romney to serve as his secretary of state before ultimately picking ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson. Still, there were signs of strain. Earlier this year, Trump waged an unsuccessful bid to persuade longtime Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch to seek reelection and block Romney.

 After Hatch announced that he wouldn’t seek reelection, the president endorsed Romney for the seat.

 The remarks came on the opening night of the E2 Summit, an annual Romney-hosted event that draws influential political leaders and donors. This year’s event is expected to draw a number of bold-faced names, including former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, investor Stephen Schwarzman, and House Speaker Paul Ryan, who was Romney’s vice-presidential nominee.

 Actor and comedian Seth Rogen is expected to speak on brain health.

 Romney also offered a bullish assessment of the GOP’s 2018 midterm prospects, arguing that the party would retain control of both chambers of Congress.

 “I think that growth and the higher incomes people are seeing means that Republicans will do just fine in November,” he said. “I think we will hold the House, I think we’ll hold the Senate. I know a lot of pundits don’t believe that. I think we will.”

 Romney is heavily favored to capture the Utah Senate seat. He faces a June 26 runoff for the GOP nomination against Mike Kennedy, a conservative state representative.

 CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct Mike Kennedy's name. ||||| FILE - In this March 3, 2018, file photo, Mitt Romney speaks with a group during a breakfast campaign stop in Green River, Utah. Romney's annual gathering of top Republicans, wealthy political donors... (Associated Press)

 FILE - In this March 3, 2018, file photo, Mitt Romney speaks with a group during a breakfast campaign stop in Green River, Utah. Romney's annual gathering of top Republicans, wealthy political donors... (Associated Press)

 PARK CITY, Utah (AP) — He once called Donald Trump "a con man," but Mitt Romney now predicts that Trump would "easily" win his party's presidential nomination in 2020 and "solidly" win a second term.

 Romney, the GOP's failed 2012 presidential nominee from Massachusetts, now a Republican Senate candidate in Utah, made the prediction Thursday as he welcomed dozens of high-profile business and political leaders to a mountainside retreat in Utah Thursday night. As he has every year since 2012, Romney played host to an invitation-only summit focused on the future of American leadership at home and abroad.

 The future, he predicted, would feature Trump as America's leader at least for another six years.

 "I think that not just because of the strong economy and the fact that people are going to see increasingly rising wages," Romney said, "but I think it's also true because I think our Democrat friends are likely to nominate someone who is really out of the mainstream of American thought and will make it easier for a president who's presiding over a growing economy."

 The remarks from Romney marked a sharp reversal from his original impression of Trump. Romney briefly served as the face of the so-called "Never Trump" movement before the 2016 election. He delivered a scathing speech in Utah before the 2016 election, calling Trump "a con man" and "a fake."

 Yet Romney's criticism has softened since then. And now, in the midst of a Republican Senate primary campaign, the former Massachusetts governor appears to be embracing Trump and his leadership role in the modern-day Republican Party.

 He delivered the remarks on the first day of a three-day, closed-door summit in Utah's mountains. The Associated Press was allowed to listen to Romney's remarks during the event's opening reception.

 Dignitaries on the guest list feature included House Speaker Paul Ryan, billionaire former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner in addition to actor Seth Rogin, former Starbuck CEO Howard Schultz and former Domino's Pizza CEO Patrick Doyle.

 While there were many Trump skeptics in the crowd, a handful of Trump loyalists were in attendance as well, including short-lived White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci and Blackrock CEO Stephen Schwarzman.

 It won't be all business.

 Guests will have an opportunity to go skeet shooting with Ryan or hiking with Romney.

 "I'm looking forward to an unusual and packed couple of days here," Romney said, suggesting he would have little more to say about politics. "Campaigns are off limits." |||||


Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has recommended cutbacks or other changes to nearly half the geographic national monuments he recently reviewed at the request of President Donald Trump, according to a report sent to the White House and reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

 The report recommends reducing the boundaries of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante preserves in Utah, and reopening hundreds of thousands of square miles of protected oceans in both the Pacific and Atlantic to commercial fishing—in actions numerous... ||||| FILE - In this May 9, 2017, file photo, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke rides a horse in the new Bears Ears National Monument near Blanding, Utah. Zinke is recommending that six of 27 national monuments... (Associated Press)

 WASHINGTON (AP) — Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is recommending that six of 27 national monuments under review by the Trump administration be reduced in size, with changes to several others proposed.

 A leaked memo from Zinke to President Donald Trump recommends that two Utah monuments - Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante — be reduced, along with Nevada's Gold Butte and Oregon's Cascade-Siskiyou.

 Two marine monuments in the Pacific Ocean also would be reduced under Zinke's memo, which has not been officially released. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the memo, which was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

 Trump ordered the review earlier this year after complaining about improper "land grabs" by former presidents, including Barack Obama.

 National monument designations add protections for lands revered for their natural beauty and historical significance with the goal of preserving them for future generations. The restrictions aren't as stringent as for national parks, but some policies include limits on mining, timber cutting and recreational activities such as riding off-road vehicles.

 The monuments under review were designated by four presidents over the last two decades. Several are about the size of the state of Delaware, including Mojave Trails in California, Grand-Staircase Escalante in Utah and Bears Ears, which is on sacred tribal land.

 No other president has tried to eliminate a monument, but some have trimmed and redrawn boundaries 18 times, according to the National Park Service.

 Zinke told The Associated Press last month that unspecified boundary adjustments for some monuments designated over the past four decades will be included in the recommendations submitted to Trump. None of the sites would revert to new ownership, he said, while public access for uses such as hunting, fishing or grazing would be maintained or restored.

 He also spoke of protecting tribal interests and historical land grants, pointing to monuments in New Mexico, where Hispanic ranchers have opposed two monuments proclaimed by Obama.

 Zinke declined to say whether portions of the monuments would be opened up to oil and gas drilling, mining, logging and other industries for which Trump has advocated. It was not clear from the memo how much energy development would be allowed on the sites recommended for changes, although the memo cites increased public access as a key goal.

 A spokeswoman for Zinke referred questions Sunday night to the White House, which did not offer immediate comment.

 If Trump adopts the recommendations, it would quiet some of the worst fears of his opponents, who warned that vast public lands and marine areas could be lost to states or private interests.

 But significant reductions in the size of the monuments, especially those created by Obama, would mark the latest in a string of actions where Trump has sought to erode his Democratic predecessor's legacy.

 The recommendations cap an unprecedented four-month review based on Trump's claim that the century-old Antiquities Act had been misused by past presidents to create oversized monuments that hinder energy development, grazing and other uses.

 The review raised alarm among conservationists who said protections could be lost for areas that are home to ancient cliff dwellings, towering sequoia trees, deep canyons and ocean habitats. They've vowed to file lawsuits if Trump attempts any changes that would reduce the size of monuments or rescind their designations.

 Zinke had previously announced that no changes would be made at six national monuments — in Montana, Colorado, Idaho, California, Arizona and Washington. He also said that Bears Ears monument in Utah should be downsized.

 In addition to shrinking six monuments, Zinke recommends changes at several other sites, including two national monuments in New Mexico: Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks and Rio Grande del Norte.

 He also recommended changes to Katahdin Woods and Waters in Maine.

 Jamie Williams, president of the Wilderness Society, said the recommendations apparently made by Zinke "represent an unprecedented assault on our parks and public lands" by the Trump administration.

 "This callous proposal will needlessly punish local, predominantly rural communities that depend on parks and public lands for outdoor recreation, sustainable jobs and economic growth," Williams said in a statement.

 "We believe the Trump administration has no legal authority to alter or erase protections for national treasures. If President Trump acts in support of these recommendations, The Wilderness Society will move swiftly to challenge those actions in court," Williams said. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is recommending that six of 27 national monuments under review by the Trump administration be reduced in size, with changes to several others proposed, per the AP. A leaked memo from Zinke to President Trump recommends that two Utah monuments—Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante—be reduced, along with Nevada's Gold Butte and Oregon's Cascade-Siskiyou. Two marine monuments in the Pacific Ocean also would be reduced under Zinke's memo, which has not been officially released. (Details have previously leaked.) Trump ordered the review earlier this year after complaining about improper "land grabs" by former presidents, including Barack Obama. The monuments under review were designated by four presidents over the last two decades. Several are about the size of the state of Delaware, including Mojave Trails in California, Grand-Staircase Escalante in Utah, and Bears Ears, which is on sacred tribal land. Among other things, Zinke recommends opening hundreds of thousands of square miles of currently protected zones in the Atlantic and Pacific to commercial fishing, reports the Wall Street Journal, which also obtained a copy of the memo. The changes also could open up areas around monuments on land to coal and oil exploration. For instance, the memo says the Grand Staircase-Escalante currently has "an estimated several billion tons of oil and large oil deposits." The Journal expects environmental groups to fight any changes.


Summarize this article:

As his presidential library and museum open, former President George W. Bush said he remains "very comfortable" with perhaps the most controversial decision of his presidency -- the invasion of Iraq -- as he pursues a post-presidency removed from the spotlight but active on a series of core issues.

 In a wide-ranging interview that touched on everything from his brother Jeb Bush's presidential prospects, the Republican Party's future, and his new passion for painting, he told ABC News' Diane Sawyer he hopes the library and museum serve as resources for historians to judge him based on the same facts he had access to as president.

 That includes his decision to invade Iraq, despite the fact that the world later learned that Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction. The museum presents that information directly, Bush said.

 "We're just laying out the facts. And that was a fact," Bush said. "I am comfortable in the decision-making process. I think the removal of Saddam Hussein was the right decision for not only our own security but for giving people a chance to live in a free society. But history will ultimately decide that, and I won't be around to see it.

 "As far as I'm concerned, the debate is over. I mean, I did what I did. And historians will ultimately judge those decisions."

 As the formal dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Center takes place Thursday, Bush appears at ease with both his much-lower profile and his handling of the major episodes that defined his presidency. President Obama and all four living former presidents, including George W. Bush's father, plan on attending the ceremony just outside Dallas.

 The younger Bush's post-presidential efforts are aligned with some of the more popular initiatives of his presidency -- fighting AIDS in Africa and empowering women in the Middle East, for example. The new museum, like Bush's memoir, "Decision Points," focuses intensely on critical periods of his presidency, including 9/11, the run-up to the Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina and the 2008 financial crisis.

 As a brand-new grandfather who says he's now painting daily, Bush said those who wonder if he has sleepless nights about the decisions he made as president shouldn't worry.

 "No, sleeping pretty well," Bush said. "It's nice of 'em that [they] can be concerned about my sleeping habits, but ... I'm rested. I know I'm rested."

 The presidential center, set on a sprawling 23-acre site on the campus of Southern Methodist University, houses the Bush Library and Museum as well as the Bush Institute. The institute, founded in 2009, builds on the principles of the Bush presidency through research and training on economic growth, education reform, global health, human freedom, wounded veterans, and helping women in the Middle East.

 "Through the Bush Institute," former first lady Laura Bush said, "we've had the chance to continue to work on the issues we think are so important, that were important to us when George was president and that we want to work on, really, for the rest of our lives."

 The library and museum house the papers and records of the Bush presidency -- including more than 200 million emails, 70 million paper documents and 43,000 artifacts, including Saddam Hussein's gun and the bullhorn Bush grabbed at Ground Zero.

 The museum is a history of the former first family, as well as Bush's turbulent eight years in office, featuring everything from a giant chunk of mangled steel from the Twin Towers to a portion of the signed baseball collection Bush began accumulating as a child.

 The centerpiece is the "Decision Points Theater," which presents a series of critical decisions the president was faced with, and asks the visitor to make a snap judgment based on that information.

 "The purpose of the museum is not to herald me, necessarily, but to explain different events and to show people what it's like to make decisions," the former president said. "And the other message in the museum is to encourage people to serve. One of the really unique features of America is the millions of acts of kindness that take places on a daily basis. And I really think it's an important part of our country and will continue to be important part of our country."

 A key message, Laura Bush said, is that the president needs to make countless high-impact decisions, and fast.

 The idea, she said, is to "feel the pressure that the president feels. ... The president is a man who makes good decisions and sometimes doesn't. I mean, that's just the fact of life like every single one of the rest of us."

 The presidential center opens at a time of broad reevaluation of the Bush legacy. A large cadre of former aides who've descended on Dallas for the museum opening have expressed hope that the a presidency perhaps best remembered now for two wars, an economic crisis, and the aftermath of Katrina will also be recalled for work combating AIDS, expanding seniors' access to prescription drugs, and pressing for immigration reform, just for starters.

 A new ABC News/Washington Post poll out this week found that 47 percent of people approve of the job Bush did as president, with negative sentiment softening considerably over the past few years. While 50 percent still disapprove, Bush hasn't seen approval ratings this strong since December 2005 -- less than a year into his second term.

 The dedication also comes as national events such as the Boston Marathon bombings stir memories of a defining episode of the Bush presidency -- Sept. 11, 2001. A few days after the Boston attack, an explosion at a fertilizer plant not far from Bush's own Texas ranch stoked fears of further terrorism.

 Related: Bush: Boston Attacks 'Harkened Back' to His Presidency

 "Whether it be that [attack at the Boston Marathon] or the explosion at West, Texas, I mean -- it hearkened back to days where you become the comforter-in-chief, you try to help heal souls that that are hurting," he said.

 The former president told Sawyer that he's comfortable staying far away from day-to-day politics, in contrast with his predecessor, Bill Clinton, and his former vice president, Dick Cheney. He declined to weigh in on raging debates over immigration reform, gun control and gay marriage, saying: "You're either in or out."

 "I had all the fame I needed -- and I am trying to be not famous," he said. "I don't really want to undermine our president. And frankly, the only way for me to generate any news is to either criticize the president or criticize my party. I'm not interested in doing either."

 He added: "I know people don't believe that. I guess they have trouble believing that somebody who's been in the limelight for so long is anxious not to be in the limelight."

 Related: George W. Bush Tells Jeb 'Run!' in 2016

 He is making an exception to advocate for the presidential candidacy of his younger brother, Jeb Bush, a former governor of Florida.

 "He'd be a marvelous candidate if he chooses to do so. He doesn't need my counsel 'cause he knows what it is, which is, 'run,'" Bush said.

 Related: George W. Bush: 'Painting Has Changed My Life'

 Painting now occupies part of every one of the former president's days, and is giving him an opportunity to "keep learning in life," he said.

 "Painting has changed my life in an unbelievably positive way," he said.

 The Bushes became grandparents for the first time just this month when their daughter, Jenna Bush Hager, delivered a daughter, Mila. Asked what he wants to be called by his grandchildren, the former president joked, "El Jefe" -- Spanish for "the chief" or "the boss."

 "I will tell you this, holding that little child was one of the great joys of my life," he said. "Holding little Mila was unbelievably pleasurable. And I'm looking -- I really am looking forward to this new phase of our lives, which is being a grandfather. ... I plan on spoiling the child."

 Family will be on Bush's mind Thursday as well. His father, George H.W. Bush, now 88 and in frail health, will be among the former presidents in attendance. In a courtyard at the museum, there's a statue of the 43rd president side-by-side with his father, the 41st.

 "He's meant a lot to me in my life," the younger Bush said. "I wouldn't be sitting here without his unconditional love. And it gives me great comfort to know that he will be by my side for eternity." ||||| 35 days ago

 Washington (CNN) - Was George W. Bush's presidency a success or failure?

 A new national poll suggests it depends on who's answering the question.

 A CNN/ORC International survey indicates wide partisan and generational divides when it comes to rating Bush's years in the White House. And according to the poll, released Wednesday on the eve of the dedication of the George W. Bush Presidential Center at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, views of his presidency among all Americans are starting to improve.

 "It's likely that time will only improve his standing in the public's eye," says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "Although a majority of Americans still call him a failed president, the number who believe that 43rd president was a failure has dropped significantly since he left office."

 Fifty-five percent of those questioned say Bush's presidency was a failure, down 13 percentage points since a CNN poll conducted in January, 2009, during his final days in office. Forty-two percent now say Bush's presidency was a success, up 11 points from when he left the White House.

 When it comes to Bush, Democrats and Republicans still don't see eye to eye. Eight in ten Republicans now say that Bush's eight years in office were a success, but that number drops to 43% among independents. Only 13% of Democrats agree, with nearly nine in ten Democrats saying the Bush presidency was a failure.

 "There is a big generation gap as well, with most senior citizens giving Bush's years in office positive reviews, but two-thirds of younger Americans say he was a failed president," adds Holland.

 The survey also points to a geographical divide, with those living in urban areas giving Bush a thumbs down, and suburbanites and rural Americans divided.

 The George W. Bush Presidential Center includes a library, museum, and a public policy center. America's 43rd president will be joined at the dedication ceremony by President Barack Obama, and former presidents George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.

 Bush's second term was one of the most unpopular in modern times. His approval rating stood at 31% in a CNN poll conducted at the time he left office and it was at 33% in an ABC News/Washington Post survey. The post-presidency uptick for Bush's numbers seen in the CNN poll is also registering in an ABC News/Washington Post survey on Bush's approval rating, which now stands at 47%.

 The CNN poll was conducted by ORC International from April 5-7, with 1,012 adults nationwide questioned by telephone. The survey's overall sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points. |||||

– George W. Bush's library and museum get dedicated in Dallas tomorrow, and the former president has been making the interview rounds in advance. In one, he tells Diane Sawyer of ABC News that he is "very comfortable" with his decision to invade Iraq, even though no WMDs turned up. "I think the removal of Saddam Hussein was the right decision for not only our own security but for giving people a chance to live in a free society. But history will ultimately decide that, and I won't be around to see it." Other subjects: Jeb Bush in 2016? "He'd be a marvelous candidate if he chooses to do so. He doesn't need my counsel 'cause he knows what it is, which is, 'run.'" Dick Cheney: Asked by CSPAN to describe his relations with his former VP, Bush used the subdued term of "cordial," notes the Washington Post. “You know, it’s been cordial,” Bush said. “But he lives in Washington and we live in Dallas. And one of the saddest things about departing Washington is that you miss your pals. A lot of people were there for all eight years, and I became good friends with them, like Vice President Cheney. And you know, I just don’t see him much. And I don’t see many of the people I worked with much. And it’s kind of sad.” Rising poll numbers: A CNN poll finds that 42% of Americans consider Bush's presidency a success, up 11 points from when he left office. Meanwhile, 55% rank his presidency a failure, down 13 points. Tea Party resentment: Many in the movement are rankled by what they see as a revival of Bush's legacy, writes Dave Weigel at Slate. Click for that post.


Article:

Airbus Group Chief Executive Tom Enders speaks during a news conference on the aerospace group's annual results, in London, Britain February 24, 2016. REUTERS/Hannah McKay

 MUNICH (Reuters) - Airbus Group plans to test a prototype for a self-piloted flying car as a way of avoiding gridlock on city roads by the end of the year, the aerospace group’s chief executive said on Monday.

 Airbus last year formed a division called Urban Air Mobility that is exploring concepts such as a vehicle to transport individuals or a helicopter-style vehicle that can carry multiple riders. The aim would be for people to book the vehicle using an app, similar to car-sharing schemes.

 “One hundred years ago, urban transport went underground, now we have the technological wherewithal to go above ground,” Airbus CEO Tom Enders told the DLD digital tech conference in Munich, adding he hoped the Airbus could fly a demonstration vehicle for single-person transport by the end of the year.

 “We are in an experimentation phase, we take this development very seriously,” he said, adding that Airbus recognized such technologies would have to be clean to avoid further polluting congested cities.

 He said using the skies could also reduce costs for city infrastructure planners. “With flying, you don’t need to pour billions into concrete bridges and roads,” he said.

 Enders said Airbus, as the world’s largest maker of commercial helicopters, wanted to invest to make the most of new technologies such as autonomous driving and artificial intelligence, to usher in what amounts to an era of flying cars.

 “If we ignore these developments, we will be pushed out of important segments of the business,” he said.

 A spokesman for Airbus declined to say how much the company was investing in urban mobility. ||||| Photo: Airbus

 What’s that? Airbus is doubling down on its promise of a flying car? Cool! Just what 2017 needed: Yet another wishful plan in the near 100-year quest to make flying cars a reality. Will it happen? (Probably not.)

 Airbus formed a division called Urban Air Mobility, Reuters reports, and — in an act of media-hype that momentarily stupefied me — it apparently has some ideas: A “vehicle to transport individuals,” as the news agency literally put it, along with “a helicopter-style vehicle that can carry multiple vehicles.”

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 I believe these concepts are known, respectively, as a “car” and a “helicopter.” Will the Vehicle To Transport Individuals fly? It’s not exactly clear. So what are we talking about here? A flying helicopter? OK.

 From the story:

 “One hundred years ago, urban transport went underground, now we have the technological wherewithal to go above ground,” Airbus CEO Tom Enders told the DLD digital tech conference in Munich, adding he hoped the Airbus could fly a demonstration vehicle for single-person transport by the end of the year. “We are in an experimentation phase, we take this development very seriously,” he said, adding that Airbus recognized such technologies would have to be clean to avoid further polluting congested cities.

 It’s unclear if Airbus plans to make its prototype similar to the one it sketched out last fall, but the point is it’s still not feasible. We’ve been talking about flying cars for nearly 100 years, and what needs to be tackled to actually use one in public... well, it’s a stretch. If it’s reliable, that’s important, but the Federal Aviation Administration also has to approve it. So: a stretch.

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 Enders also pitched the idea as being a weird form of austerity. If we can fly, he says, why take care of the roads?

 “With flying, you don’t need to pour billions into concrete bridges and roads,” he reportedly said, indifferent to the fact the auto industry is simultaneously on a quest to bring autonomous vehicles to the market as soon as possible, while also neglecting the fact that human-driven cars will be on the road for some time to come. Meaning: We’ll still need roads.

 There’s more. Reuters says the objective for Airbus is to allow people to book a vehicle using an app, because Mobility requires an app.

 Anyway, flying cars (c. 1921). Cool. ||||| Pay no attention to the man with the flying car.

 It has been 11 months since the aviation giant Airbus, through its Silicon Valley branch A3, launched Project Vahana—an effort to build the world’s first certified, commercial passenger aircraft with no pilot. On Monday, Airbus CEO Tom Enders told a tech conference in Munich that a prototype would be ready by the end of 2017.

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 According to Reuters, Enders argued the vehicle, which would function as a taxi, will allow users to avoid gridlock on city roads. It could even save money on infrastructure, he said. “With flying, you don't need to pour billions into concrete bridges and roads.” As he tells it, the switch to airborne vehicles would be as significant as the development of underground subway systems 150 years ago.

 Twenty-four hours later, the story was the fifth-most popular on Reuters and had been picked up by dozens of giddy content creators elsewhere. Sample headline from Yahoo: “Flying cars are real and Airbus is making them this year.”

 There are a few problems with the breathless press coverage here. First of all, what Enders said wasn’t exactly news. A3 CEO Rodin Lyasoff wrote in September that a prototype, which looks like a bobsled with wings and propellers, would be ready by the end of 2017. More significantly, this month’s Airbus magazine story on the Vahana gives a lot of reasons to be skeptical.

 Lyasoff has previously made the case for a “new generation of personal aerial vehicles,” prompted by urban transportation challenges as well as elements of technical progress that were “trending favorably,” including better batteries, low-cost flight control systems, and cheaper manufacturing processes.

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 Just one thing is missing: “sense-and-avoid technology” to help the vehicles from smashing into things midflight. “That’s one of the bigger challenges we aim to resolve as early as possible,” Lyasoff told the company magazine.

 Well … Yes. That does seem like it should be a top priority. (This is a major problem for drone-delivery schemes, too.) And more pedestrian obstacles stand between us and our flying car future.

 Airbus is one of a dozen-plus companies working on “flying cars.” In June, Bloomberg Businessweek revealed that Google co-founder Larry Page had been secretly funding one aerial vehicle company for years and had invested in another. Massachusetts-based Terrafugia claims to be developing a "flying car” with a price on-par with high-end luxury cars. In March, the German manufacturer e-volo became the first company to fly a manned, fully electric “multicopter."

 Airbus’ size and experience distinguishes it from these start-ups, as does its confidence that such vehicles are a solution to traffic problems in megacities like Cairo, Mumbai, and Tokyo. The company is trying, Lyasoff wrote in September, to “nurture an ecosystem that will help enable the vertical cities of the future.” CNN advertised the concept as “Uber-like air taxis.” (Uber, by contrast, imagines that long-distance trips and route underserved by ground transportation will be the likely first use of so-called VTOLs, or vertical take-off and landing aircraft.)

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 The flying car is the quintessential undelivered promise of future—right up there with “where’s my jetpack?”—so it seems natural that the term has caught on to describe these propeller-driven entities.

 But a child would readily identify these sketches not as cars but as hybrid helicopters. Most of them don’t have wheels. They use blades, not propulsion engines. They take off and land vertically. And so—provided manufacturers can get past the primary problem of flying robot vehicles smashing into buildings, people, power lines, and one another—it is to choppers, not to cars, that they should be compared. The question is not if we can take a cheap, everyday product and make it fly, but if we can take a big, loud, expensive, relatively dangerous, pain-in-the-ass flying machine and make it cheap, quiet, and safe.

 Writing in Slate in 2013, Konstantin Kakaes observed the similarities between the drones of today and the helicopters of yesteryear:

 As Samuel Solomon, the president of Northeast Airlines, told the Associated Press in 1943, “The helicopter has tremendous possibilities.” Solomon prophesied air taxi services in which helicopters picked up businessmen on a rooftop in Boston and dropped them off “on the roof of an office in downtown New York.” Helicopters would also be used for express air-mail services, he said… Of course, none of this came to pass, for one simple reason: Helicopters could do all of these things, but they could not do them cheaply or efficiently enough to displace other technologies.”

 That's the same problem confronting vertical take-off and landing aircraft, before you even take into account tight regulations of airspace, privacy concerns, the provision of parking and landing facilities, and the fastidious maintenance procedures required of airborne vehicles. (Imagine a mechanic working on your car for 20 business days after every 400 hours of driving.) This report from Uber offers a pretty comprehensive summary of the obstacles. |||||
What is a summary?

– The future is now! Or, at least, by the end of the year, according to the CEO of Airbus. Reuters reports Tom Enders announced Monday that the company plans to test a prototype self-piloting flying car by the end of the year. He says Airbus has the "technological wherewithal" to make it happen and that they are currently in the "experimentation phase." Enders says the vehicle could be used like a ride-sharing app, help people avoid traffic, and save municipalities money on roads. Sounds pretty cool, but a number of naysayers are putting the brakes on our flying car fantasies. Slate points out Airbus admittedly hasn't figured out "sense-and-avoid technology"—or, in other words, how to keep its flying cars from smashing into stuff. And Jalopnik notes that current designs look less "flying car" and more "flying helicopter," which is slightly less exciting. Also, the whole flying car thing still needs FAA approval to become a reality, and that's probably not going to happen any time soon.


Summarize this article:

Kim Jong Un has agreed to allow Nuclear inspections, subject to final negotiations, and to permanently dismantle a test site and launch pad in the presence of international experts. In the meantime there will be no Rocket or Nuclear testing. Hero remains to continue being........ ||||| This video has been removed. This could be because it launched early, our rights have expired, there was a legal issue, or for another reason.

 Moon Jae-in says leaders have agreed to steps they say will lead to a nuclear-free peninsula, and Kim pledges to visit Seoul

 North Korea will shut down key missile test facilities in the presence of “international experts” and is willing to close its only known nuclear complex if the United States makes reciprocal measures, South Korean president Moon Jae-in has announced in a joint press conference with Kim Jong-un.

 The two leaders also agreed during a three-day summit in Pyongyang to connect two rail lines, on the east and west side of the peninsula, across one of the most militarised borders in the world. Kim also said he would visit Seoul in the “near future”, a move that would make him the first North Korean leader to visit the South’s capital.

 'Ashamed': South Koreans chilled by Kim Jong-un's cuddles Read more

 North and South Korea agreed that the Korean Peninsula should turn into a “land of peace without nuclear weapons and nuclear threats”, Moon said. Any transport links would require the approval of the US-led United Nations Command, which oversees the border region.

 “There is not only going to be a smooth road ahead, there will be challenges and trials, but the more we overcome them the stronger we will become,” Kim said. “We are not afraid of future challenges.”

 The agreement signed in Pyongyang “will open a higher level for the improvement in relations” between the two Koreas, Kim added, describing it as a “leap forward” toward peace.

 Donald Trump described the meeting as “Very exciting!” in a tweet, and claimed Kim had “agreed to allow nuclear inspections, subject to final negotiations”.

 He later said US relations with North Korea were much improved since he took office. “We’re making tremendous progress with respect to North Korea. Prior to becoming president, it looked like we were going to war with North Korea and now we have a lot of progress,” he told journalists at the White House.

 “A lot of tremendous things but very importantly no missile testing, no nuclear testing.”

 Under the agreement signed by the men, North Korea will shut down the Dongchang-ri missile engine testing facility and missile launch pad, according to Moon. It was not immediately clear what North Korea meant by “reciprocal measures” the US could take so that it would shut its nuclear complex, but it is unlikely Washington would agree to give up any part of its own nuclear arsenal.

 Handshakes and high hopes: the inter-Korean summit – in pictures Read more

 Kim did not mention denuclearisation at any point in his own remarks. The lack of steps specifically on the nuclear issue could worry officials in Washington, and talks between the US and North Korea have stalled in recent weeks.

 Mintaro Oba, a former US diplomat who focused on North Korea policy, said: “I think we can expect a two-tiered response where President Trump remains enthusiastic about engaging with Kim Jong-un, but we also see continued scepticism from US officials about both the purported progress on denuclearisation.

 “But if one thing is clear, it’s that North Korea continues to outmanoeuvre the United States through its willingness to take initiatives that shape the global public narrative and force Washington to choose between engaging on Pyongyang’s terms or looking like it is acting in bad faith.”

 The two Koreas also agreed to establish a joint military committee to resolve any potential conflicts, and each side will withdrawal 11 guard post from the demilitarised zone by the end of the year. The two militaries agreed to a range of measured to prevent accidental clashes, including a no-fly zone near the border and suspending test firing in the area.

 South Korea will allow its citizens to visit the Mount Kumgang tourist region in the North for the first time since 2008, when a North Korean soldier shot and killed a tourist from the South. The two sides will also establish a permanent venue for families divided by the 1950-53 Korean war to meet more frequently. In the past most families could see relatives for only a few hours, and usually only once.

 The two sides also plan to bid to jointly host the 2032 Summer Olympics. ||||| WASHINGTON/SEOUL (Reuters) - The United States said it was ready to resume talks with North Korea after Pyongyang pledged on Wednesday to dismantle its key missile facilities and suggested it would close its main Yongbyon nuclear complex if Washington took unspecified actions.

 South Korean President Moon Jae-in, first lady Kim Jung-sook, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and his wife Ri Sol Ju pose for photographs beside the Heaven Lake of Mt. Paektu, North Korea, September 20, 2018. Pyeongyang Press Corps/Pool via REUTERS

 U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said he had invited North Korea’s foreign minister to meet in New York next week, with the aim of completing its denuclearization by January 2021, after a Pyongyang summit between the leaders of the two Koreas.

 The United States appeared eager to seize on commitments by North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at his talks with South Korean President Moon Jae-in even as critics said the steps did little to put Pyongyang on a course for irreversible denuclearization.

 North Korea will allow experts from “concerned countries” to watch the closure of its missile engine testing site and launch pad at Tongchang-ri, Moon said at a joint news conference with Kim after their meeting in the North Korean capital.

 North Korea will also take additional steps such as closing its main Yongbyon nuclear complex if the United States undertook unspecified reciprocal measures, Moon added.

 The sudden revival of diplomacy followed weeks of doubts in U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration’s about whether North Korea was willing to negotiate in good faith after a June summit between Trump and Kim yielded few tangible results.

 The January 2021 completion date was the most specific deadline set in what is expected to be a long process of trying to get the North to end its nuclear program, which may threaten U.S. allies South Korea and Japan as well as the U.S. homeland.

 In addition to inviting North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho to meet when both are in New York next week for the annual U.N. General Assembly gathering of world leaders, Pompeo said Washington invited Pyongyang’s representatives to meet the U.S. special representative for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, in Vienna at the “earliest opportunity.”

 China, North Korea’s most important economic backer and diplomatic ally, said it warmly welcomed the agreement reached in Pyongyang and strongly supported it.

 “We absolutely cannot let this hard to come by opportunity for peace slip away once again,” the Chinese government’s top diplomat, State Councillor Wang Yi, said in a statement.

 SKEPTICISM

 Some U.S. officials were deeply skeptical. Speaking before Pompeo’s announcement, two senior U.S. officials involved in U.S.-North Korea policy voiced fears Kim was trying to drive a wedge between Washington and Seoul.

 At the summit, the two Koreas agreed on plans to resume economic cooperation, including working to reconnect rail and road links. They agreed as well to restart a joint factory park in a border city of Kaesong and tours to the North’s Mount Kumgang resort, when conditions are met.

 U.S. officials suggested Kim was trying to ease the economic pressure on him to curb his nuclear programs and to undercut the rationale for U.S. troops being based in South Korea by improving relations with Seoul.

 The United States has some 28,500 U.S. troops in South Korea to deter North Korean attack. Pyongyang has long sought their withdrawal and Trump has questioned their rationale and cost.

 “There is nothing the North has offered so far that would constitute irreversible movement toward denuclearization, however you define that, by January 2021 or any other time, or even a reduction of the military threat it poses to the South and the region,” said a U.S. intelligence official.

 “Everything that’s out there now is conditional on U.S. actions that would reduce the pressure on the North to cooperate or (is) filled with loopholes and exit ramps,” added the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

 U.S. officials said the ambiguity about what Washington was supposed to do for the North to close its nuclear complex at Yongbyon gave Kim room to argue that Washington had not done enough for North Korea to follow through on its pledges.

 TRUMP: ‘HE’S CALM, I’M CALM’

 Even if North Korea were to shut down Yongbyon, officials and experts believe it has other secret nuclear facilities.

 South Korea’s national security adviser, Chung Eui-yong, said the reciprocal U.S. steps could include an end-of-war declaration. South Korea and the United States remain technically at war with North Korea because the 1950-53 Korean War ended in an armistice and not a peace treaty.

 Though Wednesday’s inter-Korean agreement failed to stipulate the North’s commitment to declare nuclear and missile facilities for inspection and eventual decommissioning, Seoul has been in talks with both Pyongyang and Washington over the issue, a senior South Korean official said.

 “What North Korea really wants and their priorities may be different from ours,” the official told reporters on Thursday on condition of anonymity.

 “We’re talking about a package that would carry many elements, including the declaration of the facilities, Yongbyon and Tongchang-ri, which are of U.S. interest, and from the North side, the issues of normalizing relations, ending the war and easing sanctions.”

 Despite the doubts of U.S. officials and outside analysts, North Korea’s pledge at the summit with the South Korean president drew an enthusiastic response from Trump.

 Speaking before Pompeo’s comments, Trump welcomed Kim’s pledges, calling them part of “tremendous progress” with Pyongyang on a number of fronts, and hailing “very good news” from the summit between the Koreas.

 “He’s calm, I’m calm - so we’ll see what happens,” Trump, who last year threatened to destroy North Korea, told reporters.

 ‘THEATRICAL PROMISES’

 Kim pledged to work toward the “complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula” during two meetings with Moon earlier this year and at his summit with Trump.

 But discussions over how to implement the vague commitments have since faltered and North Korea has consistently refused to give up its nuclear arsenal unilaterally.

 Washington has demanded concrete action, such as a full disclosure of North Korea’s nuclear and missile facilities, before agreeing to Pyongyang’s key goals, including an easing of international sanctions and an official end to the Korean War.

 While North Korea has stopped nuclear and missile tests in the past year, it did not allow international inspections of its dismantling of its Punggye-ri nuclear test site in May, drawing criticism that its action was for show and could be reversed.

 The day after the June 12 Trump-Kim summit, Pompeo said he hoped to achieve “major disarmament” by North Korea by the end of Trump’s first term in January 2021.

 His latest statement that the process “should be completed by January 2021” may be a signal Washington will not wait forever.

 “The statement clearly implies that inter-Korean summits and theatrical promises to dismantle the odd facility simply can’t substitute for a negotiating process on the nuclear issue,” said the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Daniel Russel.

 “Invoking the end of Trump’s term in January 2021 is another way of saying to the North that American patience is not unlimited and that Kim Jong Un won’t be able to sidestep denuclearization indefinitely,” Russel added. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption North Korea's agreed to shut one of the country's main missile launch sites. Laura Bicker considers what might happen next.

 North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has agreed to shut one of the country's main missile testing and launch sites.

 He signed a pledge to permanently close the Tongchang-ri facility, after talks in Pyongyang with his South Korean counterpart Moon Jae-in.

 Both leaders also "agreed on a way to achieve denuclearisation" on the Korean peninsula, Mr Moon said.

 Mr Kim said he hoped to "visit Seoul in the near future" - he would be the first North Korean leader to do so.

 China has welcomed the outcome of the inter-Korean summit, saying both sides had found "new and important common ground".

 What was agreed on denuclearisation?

 The main focus of the summit was the issue of denuclearisation. While the US and North Korea agreed in broad terms earlier this year to work towards that goal, negotiations have stalled.

 Pyongyang has now sought to reconfirm its commitment.

 Mr Kim expressed a readiness to shut down the Yongbyon nuclear facility - where North Korea is believed to have produced the material used in its nuclear tests - if the US took some reciprocal action. The details of that were not specified.

 But he went further on Tongchang-ri, saying the engine missile testing and launch facility would be permanently closed "in the presence of experts from relevant nations".

 The BBC's Seoul correspondent Laura Bicker said the announcement is a major step forward.

 Satellite images suggest Tongchang-ri is in the process of being destroyed, she added, but the declaration will allow inspectors to verify the process.

 Tongchang-ri has been North Korea's main satellite launch facility since 2012, according to monitoring group 38 North.

 It has also been used for testing engines for North Korean missiles capable of reaching the US.

 Read more on North Korea's missile and nuclear programme

 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The war that never officially ended

 North Korea blew up its main nuclear testing site at Punggye-ri shortly before Mr Kim's meeting with US President Donald Trump in June.

 "The outcome is a big win for Moon Jae-in, who has managed to extract a series of positive headlines from Kim Jong-un related to denuclearisation," Ankit Panda, editor of The Diplomat, told the BBC.

 "None of the concessions are truly costly to Kim and won't help move North Korea toward short-term disarmament, but provide a further basis for confidence building on which US-North Korea talks can move forward."

 What about North-South relations?

 The two countries also made advances on inter-Korean ties, announcing plans to link up their railways, allow more reunions for families separated by war and co-operate on health care.

 Mr Moon invited the North Korean leader to Seoul, suggesting the visit should take place before the end of this year.

 They will also seek to co-host the 2032 Summer Olympics.

 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption How North Korea welcomed the South Korean leader

 The South's defence minister and the head of the North Korean army also signed an agreement to reduce military tensions, with a buffer zone to be established along the border to prevent accidental clashes.

 The signing came mid-way through a three-day visit to Pyongyang by Mr Moon.

 While it is the first trip to the North Korean capital in a decade by a leader from the South, it is Mr Moon's third meeting with Kim Jong-un since their historic summit in April.

 What does this mean for the US?

 Efforts towards denuclearisation between the North and the US had recently hit a deadlock and this week's Pyongyang summit will bolster the South's role as a mediator.

 Mr Trump was quick to tweet his applause for the Moon-Kim summit.

 The US and North Korea held their own historic meeting in June when Mr Trump and Mr Kim agreed in broad terms to work towards denuclearisation.

 Since then, however, there has been little progress, with no clear process nor timeline laid out.

 Image copyright Reuters Image caption The June Trump-Kim summit has so far yielded limited results

 Most observers warn that so far the North has taken no meaningful steps to end its controversial nuclear weapons programme and that this week's summit might not be enough to convince them otherwise.

 "For instance, the commitment to shutting down the Yongbyon complex is premised on reciprocal US measures, which raises difficulties," warns Mr Panda.

 "Washington will have to help move the needle here and it's unclear if the Trump administration can do that."

 Mr Trump recently said that he and Mr Kim would "prove everyone wrong", after he received an invitation from the North Korean leader for a second summit. Both sides say they are working on making that meeting happen. |||||

– The leaders of the two Koreas have signed what President Trump calls a "very exciting" agreement on the second day of a three-day summit in Pyongyang. South Korean President Moon Jae-in announced in a joint press conference with Kim Jong Un that they had agreed to turn the peninsula into a "land of peace without nuclear weapons," the Guardian reports. Moon said Kim had agreed to permanently close the Tongchang-ri missile launch facility in the presence of international experts, reports the BBC. The Yongbyon nuclear site could also be closed, depending on "reciprocal action" from the US. The leaders also agreed to file a joint bid to host the 2032 Summer Olympics. Trump praised the agreement in a tweet. Kim has "agreed to allow Nuclear inspections, subject to final negotiations, and to permanently dismantle a test site and launch pad in the presence of international experts," he said. "In the meantime there will be no Rocket or Nuclear testing. Hero remains to continue being returned home to the United States." Analysts described the agreement as a small step in the right direction. "Remember that North Korea is still taking baby steps," Melissa Hanham at the James Martin Centre for Nonproliferation Studies tells Reuters. "We don't have a timeline, and we also don’t have any guarantees about the larger nuclear and missile programs."


News article:

December 06, 2013

 Credit: Ronnie Olsthoorn Concept for AW&ST

 A large, classified unmanned aircraft developed by Northrop Grumman is now flying—and it demonstrates a major advance in combining stealth and aerodynamic efficiency. Defense and intelligence officials say the secret unmanned aerial system (UAS), designed for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions, is scheduled to enter production for the U.S. Air Force and could be operational by 2015.

 Funded through the Air Force’s classified budget, the program to build this new UAS, dubbed the RQ-180, was awarded to Northrop Grumman after a competition that included Boeing and Lockheed Martin. The aircraft will conduct the penetrating ISR mission that has been left unaddressed, and under wide debate, since retirement of the Lockheed SR-71 in 1998.

 Neither the Air Force nor Northrop Grumman would speak about the classified airplane. When queried about the project, Air Force spokeswoman Jennifer Cassidy said, “The Air Force does not discuss this program.�?

 The RQ-180 carries radio-frequency sensors such as active, electronically scanned array (AESA) radar and passive electronic surveillance measures, according to one defense official. It could also be capable of electronic attack missions.

 This aircraft’s design is key for the shift of Air Force ISR assets away from “permissive�? environments—such as Iraq and Afghanistan, where Northrop Grumman’s non-stealthy Global Hawk and General Atomics’ Reaper operate—and toward operations in “contested�? or “denied�? airspace. The new UAS underpins the Air Force’s determination to retire a version of the RQ-4B Global Hawk after 2014, despite congressional resistance. The RQ-180 eclipses the smaller, less stealthy and shorter-range RQ-170 Sentinel.

 If the previous patterns for secret ISR aircraft operations are followed, the new UAV will be jointly controlled by the Air Force and the CIA, with the program managed by the Air Force’s Rapid Capabilities Office and flight operations sustained by the Air Force. This arrangement has been used for the RQ-170, which is operated by the Air Force’s 30th Reconnaissance Sqdn., according to a fact sheet the Air Force released after one of the aircraft turned up in Iran.

 Northrop Grumman’s financial reports point to a possible award of a secret UAS contract in 2008, when the company disclosed a $2 billion increase in the backlog in its Integrated Systems division. This is the operating unit responsible for building the B-2 bomber, Global Hawk and Fire Scout UAS and X-47B unmanned combat air system (UCAS) demonstrator. This year, Northrop Grumman financial reports acknowledged that an unnamed aircraft program entered low-rate initial production, the Pentagon term for low-volume deliveries that begin as testing nears completion and before the program is approved for full production.

 Beyond the financial disclosures, publicly available overhead imagery shows new shelters and hangars sized for an aircraft with a 130-ft.-plus wing span at Northrop’s Palmdale, Calif., plant and at Area 51, the Air Force’s secure flight-test center at Groom Lake, Nev.

 The company also pushed for a substantial expansion of its Palmdale production facilities in 2010, perhaps to support work on the RQ-180 (AW&ST Nov. 22, 2010, p. 28). ||||| The latest top secret unmanned spy plane to be uncovered isn’t just a design idea, it’s already flying at the Air Force’s famed Area 51. Unlike the recently announced SR-72, the new RQ-180 from Northrop Grumman is believed to be currently in flight testing according to Aviation Week and Space Technology.

 The RQ-180 is a new design aimed at intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR, a.k.a. spying) and incorporates stealth technology, in addition to an efficient new design that’s tailored to flights over countries where the red carpet isn’t being rolled out for current U.S. spy drones.

 It’s the successor to the Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel, known as the “Beast of Kandahar” for its countless missions out of Afghanistan since 2007. It is assumed the RQ-170 has flown missions over Iran and Pakistan, but the aircraft lacks the endurance of other unmanned aircraft, somewhat limiting its capabilities. Iran displayed what is claimed to be a captured RQ-170 in December 2011. The U.S. Air Force would only acknowledge that it lost control of an RQ-170 over western Afghanistan at the same time.

 The new RQ-180 is thought to largely address the problem of flying in hostile airspace through improved stealth design and better aerodynamics. According to Aviation Week, the unmanned spy plane would allow the Air Force to expand ISR capabilities beyond the “permissive environments — such as Iraq and Afghanistan,” where current drones such as the Global Hawk and Predator/Reaper operate. Instead the RQ-180 would be able to fly undetected in airspace where the U.S. does not have permission and/or the protection needed to fly.

 This denied airspace capability has been missing from the Air Force’s inventory since the speedy SR-71 retired in 1998. The Blackbird mainly relied on its speed and altitude — along with some stealth-like qualities — to fly over countries and gather intelligence where the U.S. was not welcome.

 Aviation Week points to financial reports from Northrop Grumman that suggest the possibility of the new airplane, as well as satellite images of the company’s facility in Palmdale, California and Area 51 that show new hangars capable of holding aircraft with a wingspan of at least 130 feet — larger than a Boeing 737. When asked about the existence of the RQ-180, the Air Force told the trade publication that it “does not discuss this program.”

 The use of unmanned aircraft for spying continues to rise year after year. But most of the work is done by slow flying aircraft such as the Global Hawk and Predators. In addition to flying relatively slow, these airplanes are also far from invisible to radar. Most of their use has been limited to flying over areas where manned fighter aircraft are able to control the skies, providing protection for the vulnerable drones.

 The RQ-180 on the other hand is expected to have a stealth design with greatly improved aerodynamics giving it greater efficiency, which in the case of ISR work, translates to longer missions which could include longer transits to a target area, or more time over the target.

 Northrop Grumman has also been publicly flight testing its X-47B unmanned combat aircraft, including take offs and landings from an aircraft carrier. The X-47B is aimed at combat as well as intelligence gathering, and is being developed for the Navy. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– The Air Force is testing a new stealth drone at Area 51 that's designed to penetrate "contested" areas—in other words, countries where the US is not at all welcome, Aviation Week reports. Dubbed the RQ-180, the unmanned Northrop Grumman plane is thought to have better stealth design and aerodynamics than the Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel that often flew out of Afghanistan (one was apparently captured by Iran). The Air Force won't confirm, but Northrop Grumman's financial reports and Area 51's big new hangars suggest that RQ-180 testing is underway. This explains how the Air Force is planning to improve its ISR (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance) in "contested" areas—a problem they have admitted to before. "The mix is not where it needs to be," said an Air Force ISR official three months ago. "We are over-invested in permissive ISR and we have to transform the force to fight and win in contested environments." In other words, "permissive" areas like Afghanistan and Iraq are considered a thing of the past. So how many will the Air Force buy? Maybe just a few, since they'll be expensive and harder to keep under wraps if purchased in bulk. Hat tip, Wired. (See Iran's claim to its "biggest drone yet.")