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Tweet with a location

 You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| Focused crawls are collections of frequently-updated webcrawl data from narrow (as opposed to broad or wide) web crawls, often focused on a single domain or subdomain. ||||| Focused crawls are collections of frequently-updated webcrawl data from narrow (as opposed to broad or wide) web crawls, often focused on a single domain or subdomain. ||||| Patton Oswalt married his fiancée Meredith Salenger on Saturday.

 The couple posted pictures of their ceremony on Sunday confirming the news.

 “True love,” Salenger captioned a snap of her walking down the aisle holding her step-daughter Alice’s hand and new husband Oswalt on the other side. “True happiness. Forever and Always. The Oswalts. November 4, 2017. Jim Henson Studios.”

 Oswalt, 48, posted the same photo to Instagram with the quirky question, “What’d you guys do yesterday?”

 In October, the couple announced they would be exchanging vows in November, but kept the details to themselves.

 Oswalt’s journey to finding love again hasn’t been easy. His first wife, Michelle McNamara, suddenly died in April 2016 at age 46. He wasn’t able to remove his wedding ring until a year after McNamara’s passing.

 By July 2017, Oswalt had proposed to Salenger one month after taking their relationship public.

 “It’s official. I’m the luckiest happiest girl in the universe!!!!” Salenger said at the time. “I love you @PattonOswalt I love you Alice Oswalt. #YesYesYes.”

 A request for additional wedding details wasn’t immediately returned. ||||| It’s time to uncork the bubbly! Patton Oswalt and his fiancée, Meredith Salenger, are married, Us Weekly can confirm.

 Celebrity Engagement Rings of 2017: See the Bling!

 The 48-year-old Veep actor and the 47-year-old Hollywood Heights actress tied the knot at the Jim Henson Company lot in L.A. on Saturday, November 4.

 The pair, who made their debut as a couple at the Los Angeles premiere of Baby Driver in June, announced their impending nuptials via Instagram in July.

 “I don’t wanna brag … but check out the size of The Rock on my finger,” Salenger captioned a playful snap of herself with a photoshopped picture of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson on her ring finger while cuddling close to her love.

 I don't wanna brag… but check out the size of The Rock on my finger! Hahahah (photoshop via @edwardderuiter) A post shared by Meredith Salenger (@meredithsalenger) on Jul 6, 2017 at 8:29am PDT

 Hours later, the brunette beauty shared a collage of images from the proposal, which included a sweet snuggle between Salenger and Oswalt’s daughter, Alice, 8, from his first marriage.

 “It’s official. I’m the luckiest happiest girl in the universe!!!!💖 I love you @pattonoswalt I love you Alice Oswalt! #YesYesYes” the Lake Placid actress wrote of the adorable moment.

 It's official. I'm the luckiest happiest girl in the universe!!!!💖 I love you @pattonoswalt I love you Alice Oswalt! #YesYesYes A post shared by Meredith Salenger (@meredithsalenger) on Jul 6, 2017 at 9:26am PDT

 The pair’s engagement came 15 months after the death of Oswalt’s first wife, Michelle McNamara, who died in her sleep from a mix of prescription medications and an undiagnosed heart condition in April 2016.

 Shortly after announcing their engagement, the King of Queens alum shared a blog titled “A Widow’s Rage Defense Against Patton Oswalt’s Engagement,” written by Erica Roman, who lost her husband days before McNamara passed away.

 Oswalt, who called the article “amazing,” thanked Roman for her gentle words. “I expected some bitter grub worms to weigh in (anonymously, always always always) with their much-needed opinions when I announced my engagement last week. I decided to ignore them,” he wrote on Facebook. “But yeah, I felt this rage. And Erica articulated it better than I could have ever hoped. So there you go. Thank you, Erica.”

 Famous Celeb Dads and Daughters

 Salenger also took to social media to share her feelings. “Everyone has been so lovely to us… all of Patton’s family… ALL of Michelle’s siblings and friends and family… a few trolls have strong opinions,” she wrote at the time. “But I think for Patton, having met and found love after over a year of intense therapy and openly grieving and dealing with his pain… I am grateful to be the one who helps him climb out of the depths of grief and find some joy again. And most of all… Alice is happy and feels loved. I have waited 47 years to find true love.”

 She continued: “Creating our family unit while honoring the brilliant gift Michelle has given me will be my life’s goal and happiness. I am deeply in love with both Patton and Alice and very much looking forward to a beautiful happy life having adventures together.”

 Just months before the couple tied the knot, the Virginia native opened up about his relationship with Salenger in Playboy’s September/October 2017 issue.

 “My fiancée and I started talking February 28, through Facebook,” he said of his relationship with the actress. “We have friends in common and we were messaging, and it just turned into every night for three months — February through May. We would talk about everything, writing these short novels to each other every night.”

 Celebrity Bridesmaids: Stars Who’ve Helped Out at Weddings

 Oswalt continued: “It was as if I had known this person since we were teenagers and we both had unrequited crushes since we were 14 and now it was finally crashing together. Even though I’m at this level of joy I didn’t think I would ever feel again, I still wouldn’t recommend those extremes to anybody. I’d like people to have this joy without that despair.”

 Sign up now for the Us Weekly newsletter to get breaking celebrity news, hot pics and more delivered straight to your inbox!

 Want stories like these delivered straight to your phone? Download the Us Weekly iPhone app now! ||||| Patton Oswalt has found love again after heartbreak.

 On Saturday, the 48-year-old actor and comedian wed Meredith Salenger. The nuptials came over a year and a half after Oswalt’s first wife, Michelle McNamara, died unexpectedly in her sleep.

 Here’s a look back at how Oswalt’s life has changed since last April.

 A tragic loss

 Oswalt wed crime writer McNamara in 2005, and the two welcomed a daughter, Alice Rigney, in 2009.

 On April 21, 2016, McNamara died in her sleep at age 46. In an instant, Oswalt became a widower — and single parent.

 Patton Oswalt and Michelle McNamara in December 2011 Gregg DeGuire/FilmMagic

 In an October 2016 interview with The New York Times, Oswalt recounted the last night he had with his wife, speculating that she may have accidentally overdosed.

 McNamara, who was writing a book about a serial rapist and killer at the time, was working long days and nights and unable to sleep due to anxiety and nightmares. Worried about her health, Oswalt suggested she take a night to “sleep until you wake up.” McNamara took some Xanax and went to sleep — but never woke up.

 The next morning, Oswalt remembered waking up early to get Alice dressed, packed and off to school. On the way home, he picked up an Americano coffee and left it on McNamara’s bedside table — around 9:40 a.m., he recalled.

 Hours later, he checked to see if his wife was up yet. She was still in bed — not breathing. The paramedics pronounced her dead at the scene. While a cause of death was not declared by the coroner’s office at the time, Oswalt said he believed the Xanax was to blame.

 In February, Oswalt revealed McNamara’s cause of death: “We learned today the combination of drugs in Michelle’s system, along with a condition we were unaware of, proved lethal,” he wrote in a statement to the Associated Press.

 Oswalt also explained that the couple had “no idea” McNamara had a heart condition that caused blockages in her arteries. According to Oswalt, the blockages, combined with her taking the medications Adderall, Xanax and the pain medication fentanyl, were responsible for her passing.

 Learning to cope

 On the one-year anniversary of her death, Oswalt remembered his late wife in a lengthy Facebook post — expressing a combination of grief, gratitude and perseverance.

 “It’s awful, but it’s not fatal,” Oswalt began. “That’s the dispatch I’m sending back from exactly one year into this shadow-slog.”

 He went on to say that he had removed his wedding ring and placed it in a box of keepsakes.

 “I couldn’t bear removing it since April 21st, 2016,” he wrote. “But now it felt obscene. That anonymous poem about the man mourning his dead lover for a year and a day, for craving a kiss from her ‘clay cold lips.’ I was inviting more darkness. Removing the ring was removing the last symbol of denial of who I was now, and what my life is, and what my responsibilities are. But it’s not fatal.”

 “I’m not making today any sort of dark ritual or painful memorial. No graveside visit. Those are for when Alice and I have something exciting to say to her. No candle lighting or balloon launching. We think of her every day — she’s still so tied into our worlds, in a way that’s encouraging, and energizing. So why light a flame that will die, or release a balloon that will disappear? Michelle’s gone but she wasn’t the kind of soul that disappears or dies out.”

 A new beginning

 In June, Oswalt stepped out for the premiere of Baby Driver with a very special guest by his side: his girlfriend Salenger. The couple held hands while posing for the cameras.

 Patton Oswalt and Meredith Salenger at the Baby Driver premiere Jason LaVeris/FilmMagic

 Salenger — a 47-year-old Harvard-educated actress with credits in TV and films including Lake Placid and Hollywood Heights, plus voiceover work for cartoons like Star Wars: The Clone Wars — also tweeted an adorable selfie with Oswalt in the theater.

 At the time, a source close to the couple told PEOPLE the relationship was “new” and the two were “very happy.”

 “They met through mutual friend Martha Plimpton,” said the insider. “They started chatting as friends and it blossomed from there.”

 A month later, PEOPLE exclusively confirmed that Oswalt and Salenger were engaged.

 “It’s official. I’m the luckiest happiest girl in the universe!!!!” she gushed on Instagram. “I love you @pattonoswalt I love you Alice Oswalt! #YesYesYes.”

 “I put the ring in a marzipan [Star Wars] Slave I replica and said, ‘Will you be my Padawan of Love?’ ” Oswalt quipped of the proposal on Twitter. “She maced me but said yes later.”

 I put the ring in a marzipan Slave I replica and said, "Will you be my Padawan of Love?" She maced me but said yes later. https://t.co/9gIr2yxfP5 — Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) July 6, 2017

 Hitting back at critics

 After facing harsh blowback on social media for getting engaged 15 months after McNamara’s death, Oswalt and Salenger defended their decision on social media.

 On Facebook, Oswalt referred to his critics as “bitter grub worms,” thanking blogger Erica Roman for writing an article in their defense.

 “This is so amazing. And SO well-written,” he wrote. “I expected some bitter grub worms to weigh in (anonymously, always always always) with their much-needed opinions when I announced my engagement last week. And I decided to ignore them. But yeah, I felt this rage. And Erica articulated it better than I could have ever hoped. So there you go. Thank you, Erica.”

 Salenger also posted Roman’s article alongside her own defense of the couple’s engagement.

 “Everyone has been so lovely to us… ALL of Michelle’s siblings and friends and family… a few trolls have strong opinions,” she wrote. “But I think for Patton, having met and found love after over a year of intense therapy and openly grieving and dealing with his pain…I am grateful to be the one who helps him climb out of the depths of grief and find some joy again. And most of all… Alice is happy and feels loved.”

 “I have waited 47 years to find true love,” she continued. “Creating our family unit while honoring the brilliant gift Michelle has given me will be my life’s goal and happiness. I am deeply in love with both Patton and Alice and very much looking forward to a beautiful happy life having adventures together.”

 WATCH: Patton Oswalt Opens Up About Emotional Wedding to Meredith Salenger: ‘This Is a New Level of Joy and a New Life’

 Staying strong for Alice

 Since McNamara’s death, Oswalt’s top priority is taking care of their daughter.

 “If I hadn’t had a daughter and my wife died, we wouldn’t be talking right now. I’m not saying I would be dead, but I would be a shut-in alcoholic,” he told Playboy in August. “Everything would have shut down. I wouldn’t have been about anything. But with Alice, it was and is ‘You got to get up.’ ”

 “There were times when I had to get her to play a game on her iPad or start a little project, and then I would say, ‘Oh, let me go upstairs,’ and I would go put my head in a pillow and just scream and cry because I didn’t want to break down in front of her,” he confessed.

 Still, the father-daughter duo opted to stay in their family home, admitting that a move “would have been more painful,” and have felt like they were “running away from Michelle’s ghost.”

 And at the end of the day, Oswalt said he chose to move forward with his life for the sake of his daughter.

 “I’m moving forward — clumsily, stupidly, blindly — because of the kind of person Alice is,” he wrote in a December 2016 first-person essay for GQ. “She’s got so much of Michelle in her. And Michelle was living her life moving forward. And she took me forward with her. Just like I know Alice will. So I’m going to keep moving forward. So I can be there with you if you need me, Alice. Because I’ll need you.

 “I can do it,” he added. “I can do it. I can do it. Because of you, Alice.” |||||

– When Patton Oswalt tweeted on Sunday, "What'd you guys do yesterday?," it was less a call to conversation and more to reveal what he did on Saturday: marry Meredith Salenger, per Page Six. His tweet showed him holding hands with his 8-year-old daughter, Alice, who in turn was holding hands with Salenger on the happy occasion. While Page Six didn't have much in the way of wedding details, which Us says took place at the Jim Henson Company lot in Los Angeles, Oswalt, 48, and Salenger, 47, offered some insight online, including an Oswalt tweet showing Aimee Mann and Michael Penn performing for their first dance. Oswalt also showed off a photo of his smiling daughter, with the caption "World Champion Flower Girl." Salenger gushed about becoming stepmom to Alice ("This little girl is MINE!!!!!!!!!," she tweeted), posted a pic of herself and Alice, and shared a poignant photo of Oswalt hugging his daughter, with the simple caption: "My family." People documents all that's happened since Oswalt's first wife, Michelle McNamara, died in her sleep in April 2016, including his grieving process, his first public appearance with Salenger in June, and their journey toward marriage, with Alice at the top of their priority list. "Creating our family unit while honoring the brilliant gift Michelle has given me will be my life's goal and happiness," Salenger wrote in July. "I am deeply in love with both Patton and Alice and very much looking forward to a beautiful happy life having adventures together."


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– When Ohio's health department released birth records last month for those adopted over a period of more than three decades, a spokesman called it a chance for people to "possibly reconnect with some siblings or their birth parents," WYTV reported at the time. For one Youngstown woman, both her birth mom and sister were much closer than anyone could have guessed. La-Sonya Mitchell-Clark, 38, had been working with her mother for four years before the two found out about it, ABC News reports. Her sister—one of three Mitchell-Clark learned she has—works at the same company, InfoCision. The path to discovery began on Monday, when Mitchell-Clark's birth record arrived in the mail. She learned that her mother's name was Francine Simmons, and she looked up Simmons' Facebook profile, which revealed her place of employment. "There's a Francine that works at my job. She works in (volunteer recruitment) and she works at the front desk," she tells WYTV. It was the same Francine, and the two shared a tearful phone call soon afterward. "They would come in contact around the building and during events such as our corporate summer cookouts," says a rep for the company, which has put out an exclamation point-filled press release about the news. Simmons had always wanted to meet her daughter, whom she gave up at age 15. "Had her. Got to hold her. Didn't get to name her, but I named her myself in my heart all these years," Simmons tells ABC. The two women live only six minutes apart. (Another incredible reunion saw a mother reconnect with the daughter she heard had died 50 years ago.)

Mother and Daughter Reunited After Nearly 40 Years at InfoCision Boardman!

 Akron, OH , April 16, 2015 -

 Page Content

 InfoCision employees enjoy the company’s family like atmosphere and family-friendly culture. But imagine not realizing you are working in the midst of family members for years. That’s the amazing story unfolding recently for three InfoCision employees in Boardman!

 Since finding out she was adopted, Boardman Media Communicator La-Sonya Mitchell-Clark, 38, of Youngstown has always wanted to know who her biological mother was. Recently the Ohio Department of Health released prior birth records and Mitchell-Clark finally got her answer in the mail on Monday.

 Her birth records included her mother’s name, Francine Simmons. So, she looked her up on Facebook and found out she worked at InfoCision in Boardman. So does Mitchell-Clark. Then, it clicked – there was a Francine at InfoCision she knew. A day later, she got the long-awaited phone call from her birth mother, Boardman Volunteer Recruitment Communicator Francine Simmons!

 They had plenty to talk about, but started with tears of joy. “I’m still in shock. It’s amazing,” Simmons said. She said she always wanted to reconnect with her daughter, but never knew how.

 And the story doesn’t end there. It turns out Mitchell-Clark has three other sisters she didn’t even know about, including another coworker Boardman Volunteer Recruitment Communicator Kamala Cummings!

 “It’s just amazing that all this time we’re thinking about her and trying to find her and she was trying to find us, too,” said sister Maisha Cummings. To top it all off, mom and daughter live just 6 minutes from each other in Youngstown. “Now, we’ve got a bigger extended family where we can just be together,” said Francine Simmons.

 Click here to view the news video and read full story covered locally in Youngstown and nationally via ABC news. |||||

 YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WYTV) – Birth records and family medical history soon will become available for more then 400,000 people.

 Starting Friday, the Ohio Department of Health will open birth records for those adopted in Ohio between Jan. 1, 1964, and Sept. 18, 1996.

 “It is an opportunity to find out about past family medical history, maybe possibly reconnect with some siblings or their birth parents that they never had the opportunity to find out,” Mahoning County Probate Judge Robert Rusu said. “Most people want the original birth certificate because that has the birth parents name on it and that is what they want to know.”

 Catholic Charities in Youngstown has helped with thousands of adoptions.

 “We have been getting phone calls already, people calling with questions,” Catholic Charities Regional Agency Executive Director Nancy Voitus said.

 She said those calls are being referred to the Ohio Department of Health, Office of Vital Statistics in Columbus, which is handling the records requests.

 But, Voitus wants people to know that each outcome is different.

 “I have seen success stories where people do connect and you can’t believe how wonderful it is for them, to other situations where people put that past in their life and have dealt with it and really don’t want to re-open that,” Voitus said.

 Toni Amey of Canfield was born and adopted in California.

 “Found the contact information for my biological mother and was able to make contact with her. That was probably less than desired. You know, you spend 30 years thinking that mom misses you every day and you find out that she dreaded this day,” Amey said.

 But, Amey said she has gained a sense of freedom by trying to piece together her past.

 “You can fill in the blanks and then you realize those were not the blanks you really needed, that you had the answers all along and you are going to create your own story,” she said.

 The Ohio Department of Health’s website offers detailed information on the forms required for requesting records. ||||| A woman in Ohio reunited with her biological mother who has worked at the same company for the past four years, unbeknown to either of them.

 La-Sonya Mitchell-Clark, 38, of Youngstown, learned her mother's identity after the Ohio Department of Health released birth records last month for those born between Jan. 1, 1964 and Sept. 18, 1996.

 “Ever since I found out that I was adopted, I wanted to know who my biological mother was,” Mitchell-Clark told ABC affiliate station WYTV.

 She received her birth record in the mail Monday from the Department of Health in Columbus. That included her mother’s name, Francine Simmons. She searched for the name on and found out they worked at the same company, InfoCision, a privately held teleservices firm in Boardman, just south of Youngstown.

 “There’s a Francine that works at my job. She works in VR and she works at the front desk,” Mitchell-Clark told WYTV, referring to volunteer recruitment, a nonprofit fundraising program that asks supporters to recruit friends and family.

 Mitchell-Clark contacted friends through social media and, then, a day later, she received a call from her birth mother. Mitchell-Clark has worked for InfoCision for four years, while her mother has been there for 10 years, a company spokeswoman told ABC News.

 "They would come in contact around the building and during events such as our corporate summer cookouts, parties, and using the facilities or in the hallway," said Samantha Wells, an InfoCision spokeswoman who called the reunion "wonderful."

 “She called me and I said, ‘Is this Ms. Francine?’ She said, ‘Yes.’ I said, ‘I think I’m your daughter,’” Mitchell-Clark told WYTV, adding that there were tears of joy.

 The duo learned they live just six minutes from each other.

 “I’m still in shock. It’s amazing,” Simmons told WYTV, adding that she had always wanted to meet her daughter but didn't know how to do so.

 “I got pregnant when I was 14. I had her when I was 15. I was put in a home, a girl’s home. Had her. Got to hold her. Didn’t get to name her, but I named her myself in my heart all these years,” Simmons said.

 Mitchell-Clark learned she has three sisters, with one of whom she works.

 “I feel a sense of relief for my mother,” her sister, Kamala Cummings, told WYTV. She's worked at InfoCision for 10 years and in the same division as her mother, but separate from that of Mitchell-Clark.

 Another sister, Maisha Cummings, told the station, “It’s just amazing that all this time we’re thinking about her and trying to find her and she was trying to find us, too.”

 Mitchell-Clark and Simmons did not respond to requests for comment.

 Mitchell-Clark told the TV station her adoptive parents support the reunion.

 “My mom and dad have always been supportive of me," she said. "[They’ve] always encouraged me to look for them. They’re going to be a part of this, too."

 Simmons told WYTV, “Now, we’ve got a bigger extended family where we can just be together.” |||||


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 Darcy Matheson, CTV Vancouver

 A Vancouver police officer recently commended for his part in a water rescue just went beyond the call of duty yet again, this time jumping into frigid waters to save a stranded dog.

 On Friday afternoon, the large pup chased a ball out onto the frozen Lost Lagoon in Stanley Park, but crashed through the thin ice.

 After being alerted by someone nearby, officers arrived to see the tired dog struggling to stay above the water.

 That's when Const. Peter Colenutt stripped off part of his uniform and leapt into action.

 "He took hold of one end of a rescue rope, and with his co-workers holding the other end, he made his way to the dog," said Const. Jason Doucette.

 The dog and officer were chilly but otherwise uninjured when they reached the shore.

 Colenutt is well known for helping people in the water. The Vancouver Police Board presented the officer with the Chief Constable's Commendation this past week for his part in a Stanley Park water rescue.

 In June 2016, the constable and another officer raced into the water to aid a person in obvious distress.

 After swimming 100 meters to help the panicked swimmer, the duo managed to keep him afloat until the VPD police boat arrived.

 An officer AND a gentleman! This Vancouver cop dove into Lost Lagoon to save a dog that fell through the thin ice. (dog & hero ok!) pic.twitter.com/4R9HEOa6p8 — CTV Darcy (@darcynews) February 12, 2017 ||||| A Vancouver Police officer is being commended by people on social media for rescuing a dog that had fallen through the ice at Lost Lagoon in Stanley Park.

 #Vancouver s finest @Vancouverpd Peter(?) Rescuing a drowning dog chased a bird into Lost Lagoon at Stanley Park #VPD pic.twitter.com/9WkvtrACdM — @RiskManagerCa

 On Friday afternoon around 4:30 p.m. PT, police were called by a resident who saw a dog chase a ball onto the thin ice and subsequently fall through. Police said it was a ball the dog chased, not a bird as reported by a Twitter user who took pictures.

 When officers arrived, they saw the dog struggling to stay above the water.

 'Removed portions of his uniform'

 "Concerned for the immediate well-being of the dog, one of our officers removed portions of his uniform, took hold of one end of a rescue rope, and with his co-workers holding the other end, he made his way to the dog," wrote Const. Jason Doucette in an email to CBC News.

 On Sunday, police identified the officer as Peter Colenutt.

 "Both the dog and our officer made it back to shore, cold, but uninjured."

 Thanks for sharing these photos, Paul! The dog and our officer were both pretty chilly, but thankfully okay. https://t.co/iwJFHBFNUQ — @VancouverPD

 Photos posted on Twitter show Colenutt making his way to shore with one hand on the rope and the other holding the dog.

 Others show him in bare feet and a short-sleeved shirt making his way across the snow-covered ground back to a squad car.

 This officer probably didn't expect an icy plunge into Lost Lagoon during his shift. (Paul E. Marquis/Twitter)

 @VancouverPD Such an act of kindness!!

 These weather conditions & temp of water is a risk for anyone!

 Thank U Peter...over & above 👍 — @ShayMoyer

 @VancouverPD you all are just the Best!💕🙌 — @lushuslulu

 @VancouverPD Wow amazing pictures! Good job, what an Officer! :) — @michellesplant ||||| Add a location to your Tweets

 When you Tweet with a location, Twitter stores that location. You can switch location on/off before each Tweet and always have the option to delete your location history. Learn more |||||

– A hearty Vancouver police officer is being hailed as a hero for plunging into a freezing lake to save a dog, the CBC reports. (Police retweeted images here.) The pooch became trapped after he chased a ball onto Lost Lagoon on Friday afternoon and plunged through thin ice. By the time cops arrived, the dog was struggling to stay above water. Constable Peter Colenutt pulled off his coat and shoes and plunged into the frigid lake in short sleeves. "He took hold of one end of a rescue rope, and with his co-workers holding the other end, he made his way to the dog," Constable Jason Doucette tells CTV. Photos posted on Twitter show Colenutt grabbing the black shaggy dog by the scruff and easing him through blocks of ice to the shore. Others show him padding in his bare feet in the snow to a squad car. "The dog and our officer were both pretty chilly, but thankfully okay," Vancouver police tweeted. It's not Colenutt's first water rescue. Last June, the officer raced into the water to save a swimmer in distress, per CTV; he had just been given an award in that case. Photos of the latest heroics unleashed a flood of praise for Colenutt on Twitter. "An officer AND a gentleman," tweeted one user. (A family dog saved a boy trapped in clothes dryer.)


These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. ||||| Views: 5,588

 Girls star Allison Williams made her 92Y debut February 18, in conversation with Late Night host, and good friend, Seth Meyers. The in-demand actress spoke candidly about her type-A character Marnie, flying high in Peter Pan Live!, and even addressed the controversy surrounding her father Brian Williams in her first public statement.

 READ: 5 Things We Learned About Allison Williams

 Allison Williams is best-known as ‘Marnie’ in HBO’s critically acclaimed television series, Girls, embarking on its fourth season. Williams was recently seen in the title role of the NBC live action event, Peter Pan Live, which aired Dec 4. While she may have found success quickly, Williams has been honing her craft for years. She has been involved in theater since an early age, and while at Yale she refined her improv skills as a member of the improvisational comedy group, Just Add Water. She graduated with a BA in English, and is trained in acting and singing. ||||| Allison Williams has broken her silence about Brian Williams' six-month suspension from NBC News. During a Q&A with Seth Meyers at 92Y in New York City Wednesday, the Girls actress defended her father and assured the audience that the 55-year-old journalist will work hard to regain viewers' trust.

 "This has been a really hard time. We have also been very lucky, counting our blessings. We have our health. We have each other. It's been incredible to experience the outreach from people you love, family, friends, and then people we don't even know, strangers, just reaching out saying we want him back on TV," she said. "It's been tough, though. Obviously, toughest on my dad, who bears the full burden of responsibility for it." Despite Brian's admission that he was untruthful about being fired at in Iraq in 2003, Allison told Meyers that she's in her father's corner. "One thing the experience has not done is shake my trust and belief in him as a man. He's a really good man. He's an honest man. He's a truthful man. He has so much integrity. He cares so much about journalism. And yes, he's a really good dad," she said. "I know you can trust him because, as any good daughter does, I've tested him on that."

 When Brian was in Iraq, Allison was in ninth grade and hoping that he would return home in time for the father-daughter dance. "As that date was coming, it didn't seem like he was going to make it like he had promised," the Peter Pan Live! star said. "And then a couple days before the dance I was so upset and I got a surprise call from Iraq from my dad and he asked me if I had a date to the dance. So, that's the kind of man he is, and I can't wait for him to be back on TV, and I know many of you guys feel that way." |||||

Write a summary.

– Allison Williams is delaying her wedding to CollegeHumor co-founder Ricky Van Veen, but don't blame dad Brian. The brouhaha that led to his suspension from NBC News is just one reason, she explained to Seth Meyers during a Q&A Wednesday night at New York's 92nd Street Y. "It's been a very full year," the Girls star said, according to E!, when explaining her reasons. "You sort of think, 'What could possibly come along that would make me not think about [wedding planning]?' And then I got cast as Peter Pan and I think, 'Okay, I will think only about Neverland and then we'll go back to talking about our wedding.' Then current events started happening, so that derailed it a little bit, but it has been this really beautiful through line in our lives." She spoke more about her father, saying the situation has been tough, but "one thing the experience has not done is shake my trust and belief in him as a man. He's a really good man. He's an honest man. He's a truthful man. He has so much integrity. He cares so much about journalism. And yes, he's a really good dad. I know you can trust him because, as any good daughter does, I've tested him on that." In other Williams family news, Stars and Stripes reports Brian Williams yesterday stepped down from the board of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation; he joined the board in 2006. (Meanwhile, Williams' wife has stepped out for the first time since his suspension.)


– Aung San Suu Kyi visited the UN's European headquarters in Geneva today, and amidst pleasantries, made a serious call for the world to boycott Burma's state-run oil and gas companies. "The Myanmar Oil and Gas Enterprise … lacks both transparency and accountability at present," she said, speaking before the UN's International Labor Organization. Burma currently has contracts with several foreign firms, including Chevron, Total, and China's CNPC. "Quite frankly, none of us know what's in those contracts," Suu Kyi said, according to Reuters. Suu Kyi did, however, allow that, despite having struck a deal with the junta, Total "is a responsible investor in the country" and was "sensitive to human rights and environmental issues." She also called for a "democracy-friendly development policy" coupled with various business reforms. "No country can claim genuine development until all its peoples can enjoy the basic freedoms. Freedom from want, and freedom from fear," she said, according to this video. The visit is part of Suu Kyi's first trip to Europe in decades.

Expand this summary.

Ms Suu Kyi smiled for the cameras as she embarked on the first day of the much-anticipated trip that will see her formally accept the Nobel Peace Prize that thrust her into the global spotlight two decades ago.

 Ms Suu Kyi has not visited Europe since 1988 after years spent under house arrest. ||||| * State oil/gas firm "lacks transparency, accountability"

 * Suu Kyi taken ill at press conference

 * First visit to Europe in nearly quarter century

 By Stephanie Nebehay and Tom Miles

 BERN/GENEVA, June 14 (Reuters) - Myanmar's Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi on Thursday urged foreign governments not to let their companies form joint ventures with her country's state-owned oil and gas company until it improved its business practices.

 Suu Kyi spoke on the first full day of her first visit to Europe in nearly a quarter of a century - a trip that was disrupted when she briefly fell ill at a press conference in the Swiss capital Bern.

 The 66-year-old, who spent two decades under house arrest before being elected to parliament in April, halted the event after vomiting and excusing herself saying "I'm so sorry".

 An official Swiss dinner in her honour was cancelled although she did attend a cocktail reception later, Swiss foreign ministry spokesman Jean-Marc Crevoisier said. "She is tired and has gone to her hotel to rest," he told Reuters.

 Suu Kyi, who minutes before complained of jet lag and tiredness, arrived in Geneva late on Wednesday at the start of her 17-day trip to Europe which will include stops in Norway, Britain, Ireland and France.

 In Bern, Swiss foreign minister Didier Burkhalter said Switzerland was partially lifting sanctions against Myanmar except for an embargo on military weapons that could be used for the "purpose of repression".

 Earlier in Geneva, she received a standing ovation at the International Labour Organization (ILO), whose director-general Juan Somavia praised her "remarkable courage and determination".

 "The Myanma Oil and Gas Enterprise ... with which all foreign participation in the energy sector takes place through joint venture arrangements, lacks both transparency and accountability at present," she said in a speech to the ILO's annual conference.

 "The (Myanmar) government needs to apply internationally recognised standards such as the IMF code of good practices on fiscal transparency. Other countries could help by not allowing their own companies to partner MOGE unless it was signed up to such codes," she said.

 Responsible investment was the key to helping her resource-rich country along the path to democracy after nearly 50 years of military rule, she said.

 The hugely popular leader of Myanmar's opposition had been fearful until now that if she left Myanmar, the junta whose rule she fought against for two decades would block her return.

 But after months of cautious rapprochement with Thein Sein, a former general who convinced her to run in by-elections, she accepted an offer to go to Thailand to attend the World Economic Forum on East Asia two weeks ago in one of the clearest signs yet of her confidence in Myanmar's reforms.

 LACK OF TRANSPARENCY IN CONTRACTS

 Myanmar has granted Chinese state-owned oil firm CNPC oil and gas pipeline concessions that will enable Middle East energy supplies to a take short-cut on the route to China, cutting out the extra expense and journey time of using the Malacca Strait.

 "Quite frankly none of us know what's in those contracts, this is what I mean by lack of transparency in the country," Suu Kyi told a news conference. "Lack of transparency leads to all kinds of suspicions that shore up trouble for the future."

 Asked about Chevron and Total, the big Western oil firms with investments in Myanmar, she said: "I have to say that I find that Total is a responsible investor in the country, even though there was a time when we did not think they should be encouraging the military regime by investing in Burma.

 "They were sensitive to human rights and environmental issues and now that we've come to a point in time when we would like investors who are sensitive to such issues, I am certainly not going to persuade Chevron or Total to pull out."

 A day after the ILO, a United Nations agency, lifted its more than decade-old restrictions on Myanmar in recognition of progress including a new law on trade unions and pledge to end forced labour, Suu Kyi said foreign direct investment that created jobs should be welcomed.

 As sanctions are lifted, investment should be responsible and help the process of democratisation, she said.

 "Burma is a land with a lot of energy resources. We do not want to dissipate it. I would like to see a sound effective energy policy in Burma and this should be related to the kind of extractive investments that we invite in." |||||


Write an article based on this summary:

– Madonna doesn’t mind criticism of her new movie, WE—a good thing, since it bombed at the Venice Film Festival and, Reuters notes, subsequently received a one-star review in the Guardian—as long as that criticism is directed at the movie, and not at the Material Girl. "I can tell when people are reviewing my film and when they're reviewing me personally," Madonna said yesterday at the Toronto International Film Festival, where WE is screening. "So when they stick to the film, then I do care" what critics think, she explained. She also described King Edward VIII, whose romance with Wallis Simpson is depicted in the film, as “very punk rock,” the Telegraph reports. That’s why she put the Sex Pistols’ “God Save the Queen” on the soundtrack, she explained: “I thought [the king] was quite rebellious and cutting edge in his point of view about life and about how to run the empire and using the Sex Pistols was a perfect marriage.” (She also, the Telegraph adds, broke into song at one point during the Q&A session—watch at left.) Click for another story coming out of the film festival—apparently, Madge doesn't like to be looked at by volunteers...

UPDATE: The Globe And Mail is now reporting that Madonna's camp has issued and distributed a press release denying she told volunteers to turn away from her.

 The following is an excerpt from the press release:

 "Neither Madonna nor her security ever gave instructions for the volunteers to turn away from Madonna. In fact she was so impressed with the volunteers that she publicly thanked them from the stage for their hard work before the premiere of her film last night which earned a standing ovation. She had a wonderful time at the festival and was especially delighted that she got to spend so much time with her fans in front of the theatre which is a famous tradition at the Festival ... We are still trying to figure out who and why anyone would ask the volunteers to turn away from Madonna. She has never and would never ask anyone to do that ever"

 _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 At the Toronto International Film Festival, each movie showing opens with a pre-roll of messages meant to inform the press, industry folk and public about different aspects of the major event. Amongst the most prominent of these ads is a series of sketches featuring famous directors in messy scenarios, a sort of parallel universe that would explode without the help of the festival's ubiquitous and dutiful orange-shirted volunteers. The ad ends with a thank you to the unpaid staff for all their hard work, and the audience, on cue, applauses resoundingly.

 Maybe she hasn't seen a movie at the festival yet, or maybe they gave her a bouquet of hydrangeas; either way, Madonna, according to a report in Toronto's Globe and Mail, did not quite show the same appreciation for the volunteers' tireless hustle.

 The "W.E." director premiered her film at the festival Monday night, and earlier in the day, sat down for a press conference with a gaggle of international reporters. Backstage, before the event, word is that she refused to allow the volunteers to even look at her in the eye. Instead, as a volunteer told the paper, they had to turn their backs to her as she made her way to speak with the assembled masses.

 Clearly, Madonna doesn't deal well with the little people press events; it was in Venice that she made her infamous hydrangea diss. Which, by the way, she refuses to let go away.

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  ||||| Director Madonna poses before the news conference for the film ''W.E.'' at the 36th Toronto International Film Festival September 12, 2011.

 TORONTO |

 TORONTO (Reuters) - Madonna on Monday said she said she doesn't mind any criticism of her filmmaking abilities, so long as it is directed at her movie and not at herself.

 The pop star told reporters at the Toronto International Film Festival, where she is promoting her second film "W.E.", she had to earn her reputation as a musician and she expected to do the same as a film director.

 "I had the same kind of pressure when I began my music career," Madonna told reporters. "I was nervous, and I didn't know what to expect, and people didn't know what to expect."

 The film, which premiered at the Venice film festival and is screening at Toronto, has been characterized by critics as visually stunning, but lacking in focus and burdened by weak performances.

 "I can tell when people are reviewing my film and when they're reviewing me personally," Madonna said when asked whether she cared about what critics thought. "So when they stick to the film, then I do care."

 "W.E." stars Abbie Cornish as a young New Yorker in the 1990s who becomes infatuated with the 1930s marriage of King Edward VIII and American divorcee Wallis Simpson, played by Andrea Riseborough. It follows Madonna's first feature, 2008's "Filth and Wisdom," which performed poorly at the box office.

 Britain's The Guardian newspaper was the harshest among the critics, giving the film just one star out five, while the Daily Telegraph gave a more positive three star review.

 The budget of W.E. is estimated to be around $15 million, and it hits movie theaters in the United States in December, prompting one journalist to ask Madonna about her Oscar hopes for the film.

 "My legs and my fingers are crossed," she quipped. (Reporting by Julie Gordon, editing by Christine Kearney) ||||| Madonna described King Edward VIII as "very punk rock," at the North American opening of her film W.E about his infamous romance with American divorcee Wallis Simpson - and his subsequent abdication.

 The singer-turned-film-director was explaining how an anarchist anthem by punk band The Sex Pistols ended up on the soundtrack for her second directorial work, starring British actors James D'Arcy and Andrea Riseborough.

 The band's 1977 single "God Save the Queen" attacked social conformity and deference to the Crown.

 Madonna said: "I thought he (King Edward VIII) was quite rebellious and cutting edge in his point of view about life and about how to run the empire and using the Sex Pistols was a perfect marriage."

 In Venice, where the film premiere earlier this month, the Queen of Pop said there were "elements of myself" in the film, and said she could sympathise with Wallis as an outsider, an American living in London.

 "I empathize with Wallis. Public figures or icons are often just reduced to a sound-bite, just a handful of attributes. I think people tried to diminish her... I tried to make her human," she said in Venice.

 At the Toronto International Film Festival, Madonna added that Wallis "was and is a very provocative character. She is also a mysterious and enigmatic creature, not conventionally beautiful, not young, twice divorced, not anything fabulous about her background and somehow she managed to capture the heart of the man who at the time held the most important position in the world.

 "That story intrigued me immensely and I wanted to understand it."

 "But also I was interested in the concept of the cult of celebrity which we are all consumed with now, and then."

 Polish classical composer Abel Korzeniowski set up the movie's haunting score.

 He tried to explain to reporters that Madonna had urged him to "not try to be talented." Madonna interrupted, "No, I said: 'Don't over-think it.' I always wanted you to be talented."

 The clash of his classical and Madonna's pop backgrounds, he continued, resulted in "the most interesting thing."

 "I found myself learning very interesting things (from Madonna) about music, which helped me in my classical thinking," Korzeniowski added.

 During filming, it was also revealed that Madonna and the cast held sing-a-longs "to pass the time" during rainy days when shooting was interrupted.

 In Toronto, Madonna serenaded journalists with a few impromptu lyrics they had sung together: "We're making a movie, isn't it groovy, welcome to my house".

 But Madonna has already conquered the music industry, and is more focused on filmmaking now.

 "I had to earn my way ... to be taken seriously in the music department, and now I'm well aware that I have to do the same in the world of film," she said, welcoming critics' reviews of her film (not her personal life).

 W.E is scheduled for wide release in December at the peak of the pre-Oscar season. "I'm keeping my legs and fingers crossed" for a nod, she quipped. ||||| W.E. is Madonna's first film as director and received some negative reviews when it debuted at the Venice Film Festival earlier this month.

 Speaking at the Toronto Film Festival, the singer said she wanted reviewers to focus on her work as a director – not on her personal life.

 "I can tell when people are reviewing my film and when they're reviewing me personally," she said.

 "I welcome criticisms of my film when it's viewed as an artistic form and not when people are mentioning things about my personal life or my achievements in any other field because they're irrelevant to the film. So when they stick to the film then I do care, I pay attention to it."

 Madonna said she has always been fascinated by the relationship between Wallis Simpson and King Edward VIII. Despite being based on true historical figures, the film is not a straight-forward biopic but vacillates between the historical love affair and a contemporary romance between a married woman and a Russian security guard.

 While she takes her work seriously, the director said there was plenty of time on set where the cast relaxed with one another.

 "We did have sing alongs. It was a way to pass time. When it was pouring down rain and you were shooting outside and you were stuck inside some grey dirty shack waiting for the sun to come out, what can you do but make up a song." |||||


Write a summary based on this article:

Jennifer Lawrence made an unplanned appearance in Buffalo this weekend.

 A small plane carrying the Oscar-winning actress and "Hunger Games" star was forced to make an emergency landing Saturday at the Buffalo Niagara International Airport after it experienced engine failure, according to E! News.

 Helen Tederous, a spokeswoman for the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, told The Buffalo News that a Beechcraft 400 Beechjet was diverted to the airport in Cheektowaga at 1:15 p.m. Saturday after possible left engine failure.

 The aircraft landed safely with two crew members and two passengers on board. She did not identify the passengers, although E! News talked to a Lawrence representative who confirmed that she was on board and was not injured in the incident.

 Tederous said that after the landing, the aircraft went to Prior Aviation. The plane was heading from Louisville, Ky., to the Teterboro Airport in New Jersey.

 It's not yet clear if or when the plane left Buffalo. ||||| Jennifer Lawrence is a lucky lady...

 Earlier today, the Oscar winner was aboard a private plane when the flight was forced to make an emergency landing due to engine failure, E! News can confirm.

 When contacted about the harrowing incident, a rep for Lawrence confirmed that the actress is fine.

 A source tells E! News that during the flight, which was coming from Louisville, Kentucky, one of the engines failed at 31,000 feet. The pilots made an emergency landing, however, while in the middle of the unscheduled landing, the other engine failed.

 Despite the double-engine failure, the pilots landed the plane safely in Buffalo, New York. ||||| CLOSE Jennifer Lawrence’s private jet had to make an emergency landing. Fortunately, it has been reported that Lawrence is safe and sound. She was flying out of her hometown Louisville, Kentucky, when the plane’s engines failed. USA TODAY

 A private plane carrying Jennifer Lawrence made an emergency landing Saturday, June 10, 2017. (Photo: Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)

 Jennifer Lawrence endured an eventful plane ride this weekend.

 Liz Mahoney, a representative for the Passengers star, confirmed to USA TODAY that a private plane carrying the actress made an emergency landing in Buffalo, N.Y., after experiencing double-engine failure.

 After leaving Louisville, Ky., where she spent time with her family, one of the plane's engines went out while cruising at an altitude of 31,000 feet. When the plane made an emergency landing, it lost the second engine.

 Mahoney says the 26-year-old Academy Award winner walked away without injuries and is doing OK.

 Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2tcNJeN |||||

– Engine failure is not what you want to experience at 31,000 feet, but that's what happened to actress Jennifer Lawrence on Saturday—and then it got worse. The 26-year-old had departed Louisville, Ky., on a private plane with two pilots and one other passenger when the engine issue occurred. A rep for the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority tells the Buffalo News a Beechcraft 400 Beechjet made an emergency landing in Buffalo at 1:15pm due to the left-engine issue. E! reports that while making the landing, the other engine gave out, but the plane was able to land without incident. A rep for Lawrence confirms to USA Today that she was uninjured.


Summarize this article:

A boy born without ears has had a pair created from his own ribs at Great Ormond Street hospital.

 Nine-year-old Kieran was born deaf and also had a rare condition which meant he did not have fully formed ears – only small lobes where his ears should have been.

 Last week's procedure was primarily cosmetic but, thanks to several previous operations and a hearing aid, Kieran has gradually been able to hear. Without help he is still about 90% deaf, but, when using hearing aids, he could "hear the wind blow and the birds tweet", David Sorkin, his father, said.

 Before the surgery, Kieran, from Bushey, Hertfordshire, said: "I've always wanted big ears, and now I'm finally going to have them." Following the procedure his parents helped him to take a photograph of his newly crafted ear, or a "side selfie". Sorkin said he and his wife, Louise, were "on cloud nine" after the procedure. "We could not have wished for a better result," Sorkin said.

 Kieran struggled at his first school because he looked different to the other children. He has since moved to a school with a deafness unit in every year group.

 "They are a little bit more receptive to deafness and to a child looking different. But this will boost his confidence no end," Sorkin said. "His reaction was just a 'wow', he is very happy." The 44-year-old IT manager added: "It's been heart-wrenching for us and we've had the moral dilemma all along of whether it's right to change the features that Kieran was born with. But Kieran has talked about having ear surgery ever since the age of six when he saw a TV programme about it.

 "It was very important that this was Kieran's decision, and I think it's happened at exactly the right time for his development."

 He also described Kieran's difficulties at school, saying: "He had problems at school in that he didn't gel very well in the groups because he looked different to other kids and he only had one or two friends at his previous school. He has now moved to a different school now and they have a deaf unit in every year so they are a little bit more receptive to deafness and to a child looking different."

 Kieran was born with bilateral microtia, a congenital deformity where the external ear is underdeveloped. It affects one in 100,000 babies.

 Medics, led by Neil Bulstrode, GOSH consultant plastic and reconstructive surgeon, have now turned his fortunes around.

 During the six-hour operation Bulstrode harvested the rib cartilage from both sides of Kieran's chest and then carved and shaped it into frameworks for Kieran's ears. When designing them he used an outline of Mrs Sorkin's ears as a "family template" to make them as close as possible to the ear shape that he might otherwise have had.

 He then grafted the ears on to Kieran's head under pockets of skin and then used a vacuum to shape the skin to the contours of the new ear.

 "Bilateral reconstructions are sometimes done one at a time, but for Kieran we have created both of his new ears at the same time," Bulstrode said. "This allows us to ensure the ears are balanced and achieve the best result

 "It's a major operation but it brings a significant improvement in quality of life for children with microtia. Their confidence improves exponentially and their performance at school improves," he said. "If you can improve a young person's confidence, you can alter their whole trajectory in life."

 Kieran will have a follow-up operation in six months' time, and hopefully he will not need to have any more, Mr Sorkin added.

 "These should last because they are cartilage and not prosthetics," he said

 A hospital spokeswoman said that researchers were working with the University College London Institute for Child Health to try to perform ear reconstructions for children like Kieran by growing new ear frameworks and other skeletal structures from a child's own stem cells.

 They hope to be able to use stem cells from a child's own fat to create a new ear. Experts say that the approach would be far less invasive than the current treatment.

 • This article was amended on 12 August 2014. The original headline stated: "Boy born without ears can hear thanks to pioneering procedure". As the story says, Kieran could already hear "thanks to several previous operations and a hearing aid". The headline has been corrected. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Kieran, his family and his surgeon, before, during and after the operation

 A boy who was born without ears has had a pair created from his ribs.

 Nine-year-old Kieran Sorkin had the surgery at London's Great Ormond Street Hospital.

 About 100 children a year in the UK are born without one or both ears, a condition known as microtia.

 Kieran was born deaf with small lobes where his ears should be. He can already hear, thanks to previous surgery to implant a hearing aid.

 "I want people to stop asking me questions", said Kieran from Hertfordshire. "I'd like just to look like my friends.

 "I'd also like to be able to wear sunglasses and earphones."

 Kieran's mum Louise Sorkin said: "He's a very sociable boy and has longed for this operation for years.

 "I don't want children bullying him because he's different. I just want him to be accepted like everyone else."

 On the morning of the operation, consultant plastic surgeon Neil Bulstrode stencils the shape of Louise Sorkin's ears.

 He said: "When a patient has one ear we can match the new ear to that. Fortunately Kieran's mum has very pretty ears so that should work well."

 Psychological benefits

 In theatre the surgical team remove cartilage from six of his ribs. It is cut, shaped and sewn.

 Image caption Kieran's ears were shaped from cartilage taken from his ribs

 These frameworks are inserted in pockets in the skin and then using suction, they take on the shape of an ear on both sides.

 Great Ormond Street Hospital does about 40 of these operations each year, although most of those are to create one missing ear.

 The surgery is cosmetic, not to improve hearing. But Mr Bulstrode said it brings huge psychological benefits.

 "If you can change the confidence of a patient at this young age, you can change their whole trajectory in life.

 "You see this when they come back. It's a huge boost for them."

 Tissue engineering

 Advances in tissue engineering mean that this kind of reconstructive surgery could be done quite differently within a decade.

 Scientists at the Institute of Child Health (ICH), part of University College London, are creating stem cells from patients' fat tissue.

 The Institute, which is Great Ormond Street Hospital's research partner, induces the cells to make cartilage or bone.

 Dr Patrizia Ferretti, leader of the ICH's Development and Regeneration Group, who is leading the study, said: "This approach would be far less invasive for a child than the current method of harvesting a child's rib cartilage."

 Last year scientists in the US implanted a human-like ear, grown from cow and sheep cells, onto a rat.

 But such research is still at its early stages, and for the foreseeable future children needing new ears will benefit from the same procedure used at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

 Three days after surgery, Kieran is given a mirror to look at his new ears.

 Image caption Kieran is delighted with his new ears

 His first reaction was "Wow!". Kieran started to giggle, but the operation on his ribs means it hurts when he laughs.

 Kieran will need a second operation in six months to make his ears stand out from the scalp more, but he's already delighted with the result. |||||

– An operation in London has given 9-year-old Kieran Sorkin a pair of ears—made from his ribs, no less. Born deaf with no ears, Kieran was able to hear because of an implanted hearing aid, but he still wanted ears. "I want people to stop asking me questions," he told the BBC. "I'd like just to look like my friends. I'd also like to be able to wear sunglasses and earphones." So surgeons traced an outline of Kieran's mom's ears, removed cartilage from the boy's ribs, and sliced, contoured, and sewed the cartilage. Then they put it in two skin pockets and vacuumed them into the shape of ears. They don't perform any function, but Kieran's plastic surgeon says they can deliver a huge confidence boost: "If you can change the confidence of a patient at this young age, you can change their whole trajectory in life," he said. The ears should last, too, because they're made of cartilage rather than prosthetics, the Guardian reports. Every year about 100 British newborns lack one or both ears (it's called microtia), and the hospital Kieran went to performs the operation about 40 times a year. Scientists hope to one day make ears from the fat tissue of patients, instead of ribs. Kieran might have liked that, since he got so excited on seeing his new ears that he cried "Wow!" and giggled—which made his ribs hurt from the operation. (Click to read about a man who needed surgery to remove a tooth growing in his nose.)


As the sad, eerie story of Brittany Murphy really only starts unfolding, Renegade Pictures has just released a trailer for her final movie, “Abandoned.” Brittany’s performance in it is pretty intense. She plays a woman under psychiatric evaluation whose husband has vanished. [Ace Showbiz]

 Has anyone noticed that in show business, when stars die young, their last movie never seemed to be anything warm and fuzzy? After the jump, let’s look at the almost prescient movies of stars who died young.

 Heath Ledger‘s last movie, “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus,” is about a troupe of traveling performers who make deals with the devil and their audiences. Eerie. And the images of him from “The Dark Knight” were pretty shocking too, considering that he was already gone when it came out. [IMDb]

 Aaliyah was a beautiful 22-year-old singer who played the queen of the dead, literally, in “Queen of the Damned.” She died in a plane crash before the movie was released. [Movie Fone]

 Bruce Lee was 32 when he took a headache pill that caused a fatal cerebral edema. His final film, released five years later, was called “Game of Death. ” [IMDb]

 Brandon Lee, Bruce’s tragically sexy son, died at 28, from an injury he received from a prop gun, while he played the title role in “The Crow,” about a post-apocalyptic murder victim who won’t stay buried. Yikes. [All Movie Portal]

 Brad Renfro acted in the title role of “The Client” when he was 11. At 25, he died of a drug overdose, after filming his last movie, “The Informers,” with an ensemble cast of characters each facing some kind of addiction. [Celebitchy]

 River Phoenix died an even younger overdose death. He expired on the sidewalk in front of the notorious nightclub the Viper Room. River was ninety percent done filming “Dark Blood,” but it was never released. [Movie Moron]

 Judy Garland, troubled for years by substance abuse and an unhappy personal life, died of a drug overdose days after she turned 47. Her legendary last film, ” I Could Go On Singing,” was the story of a woman trying to get back the life she abandoned while pursuing fame. [Judy Garland Database]

 What do you think? Don’t they all hit a little close to home? ||||| Redbox

 It's an eerie and tragic example of life imitating art.

 In a dreadful case of bad timing, Brittany Murphy's sudden death on Sunday has forced the DVD rental company Redbox to yank box art images from its kiosks nationwide for the actress's latest film, Deadline.

 The cover shows the 32-year-old's character lying lifeless in a bathtub.

 Murphy, of course, collapsed in the bathroom of her Hollywood Hills home Sunday morning and, after unsuccessful attempts by family and paramedics to revive her, was pronounced dead at the hospital.

 And that sent Redbox scrambling when it realized what was on the cover of the straight-to-DVD horror thriller.

 "We are removing the box art images from our displays," Redbox spokeswoman Laura Dihel tells E! News. "We will continue to carry her film, but we will not be featuring the box art. We have 19,000 locations, and to be honest, I can't tell you if this particular art is up at all the locations."

 Staffers began removing the Deadline artwork yesterday and hope to complete the task by Jan. 1. The box art was also pulled from the company's website.

 In the film, Murphy plays a screenwriter who travels to a haunted Victorian mansion to finish a script on deadline, only to stumble upon videos recorded by past residents that lead her to have a psychological breakdown.

 (Originally published Dec. 23, 2009, at 1:27 p.m. PT)

 ________

 Remember the other roles Brittany Murphy has played in our special gallery. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– In the wake of Brittany Murphy’s death, her latest film roles take on an especially creepy symbolism. The Frisky points to the just-released trailer for her upcoming movie Abandoned, in which she plays a woman under psychiatric care—and E! notes that the box art for another recent film, Deadline, shows Murphy’s character, lifeless, in a bathtub. The Frisky looks back at the final roles of others who died young: Heath Ledger: The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is about traveling performers who make deals with the devil—and let’s not forget his role as the Joker in The Dark Knight. River Phoenix: He was 90% done filming a movie called Dark Blood before dying of an overdose on the sidewalk in front of the Viper Room nightclub. Aaliyah: The singer died in a plane crash before her last movie, Queen of the Damned, was released. For the complete list, click here.


Here is a news article: The mystery author has set "O: A Presidential Novel" during the "presidential election of 2012" and mixes fact with fiction. Amazon

 W

 ashington is abuzz with rumors about O, a speculative novel about the Obama presidency penned by "Anonymous." Publisher Simon & Schuster says only that the shadowy scribe has "been in the room with Barack Obama" and has "spent years observing politics." Set in the future during the 2012 presidential election, the 368-page novel is said to mix fiction with reality — much like "Primary Colors," the 1996 novel about Bill Clinton published anonymously by journalist Joe Klein. Beltway pundits are desperate to identify the mystery author before the novel hits shelves later this month. Who are the frontrunners?

 1. Joe Klein

 Could Klein, now a columnist at Time, have played the same trick again? asks Lloyd Grove at The Daily Beast. Klein says he didn't: "You get to do that only once in a lifetime, I think." Uh, the last time Klein "vehemently denied his involvement" in an anonymous political novel, says Juli Weiner at Vanity Fair, "it turned out he did write [it]." Why believe him now?

 2. Robert Gibbs

 On the other hand, the publishers' description of the author "fits Gibbs to a T," says Grove, and it is "at minimum, an intriguing coincidence" that the White House press secretary chose to resign just a few weeks before the book's publication. That said, Gibbs has been "rather busy" over the last two years, and "literary flair" isn't his strong suit.

 3. Rahm Emanuel

 While "the smart money is on Klein, the optimistic money is on former White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel," says The Guardian, though "Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert" are also possibilities. Sarah Palin or Glenn Beck? Less likely.

 4. Ben Smith

 Politico correspondent Ben Smith has been leading a hunt for the anonymous author on his blog, where he and colleague Byron Tau have gathered denials from, among others, Bill Ayers, David Axelrod, David Plouffe, former White House Communications Director Anita Dunn, and New York Times columnist David Brooks. But what about Smith himself? asks Ben Grossman-Cohen at Aggregate Appeal. He fits the description, and has "publicized the upcoming release on multiple occasions." Sorry, responds Smith. "I didn't do it."

 5. President Obama

 Brian Stelter of The New York Times tells Politico that "Obama himself, ever insistent on controlling his narrative... [may have] penned the book." Is it "far-fetched" to think the president — an "established bestselling author" — is responsible? asks Lloyd Grove at The Daily Beast. "Sure. But it's a possibility worth considering." Not if you're White House spokesperson Bill Burton, who declined to comment on the speculation.

 6. President Obama's teleprompter

 So the author "knows Obama intimately," sums up Prudence at The Prudence Paine Papers, "tells Obama what to do," and "has written for Obama." The answer is obvious, surely? The "TOTUS" — that is, the "teleprompter of the United States." Mystery solved. ||||| I made it through "O: A Presidential Novel" last night, a quick read because the publisher vastly oversold its insight into presidential character and undersold the degree to which it's a fast, well-plotted bit of campaign fiction, an honorable genre, bogged down only at times by too much campaign detail. You get the sense the author read "Game Change," not "What It Takes", before sitting down to write, and while "O" doesn't reach the depth of either nonfiction book, it takes the former's pace.

 But its real calling card is the author's anonymity, and there's some fun to be had on those terms. For one thing, the author has a real grasp of campaigns -- but mostly as far as campaigns' relations with the press go, which suggests the author's either a political reporter or a press staffer of some sort. There's a newsroom based on POLITICO, but the surly, micro-managing editor there seems to be based on another, specific person whom I can't place. The author also has a solid grasp of Obamaland, with the obvious characters like David Axelrod (Avi Samuelson) sketched clearly, and another character, who seems to be a composite of people I can guess at, in the role of a spurned but loyal Chicago Obama protege.

 Two other specific data points:

 -The author really doesn't like Arianna Huffington. The author seems to have had more fun writing her stand-in, Bianca Stefani, than anyone else in the book. A former "courtesan to the wealthy and powerful" she's "infamously changeable" and disloyal, with just "one abiding passion: her own notoriety."

 -A character's mother has a bone marrow disease called myelodysplastic syndrome, a fairly specific choice.

 That's not all that much to go on, but then the book doesn't reveal all that much. Check out Ron Charles' lovely Washington Post review for more, and let me know if you spot more clues. |||||
A summary of this is?

– O: A Presidential Novel is not the gossipy bombshell one might have expected of a novel, penned anonymously by an insider, depicting the 2012 Obama campaign, writes Ron Charles for the Washington Post. In fact, it suffers a bit in that the fictionalized Obama and his GOP opponent—a flattering blend of John McCain and Mitt Romney, devoid of demagoguery—are relatively respectful of each other. In a way, the book is "an uncanny response to this month's call for a more civil political discourse." All in all, it's like presidential candidates themselves: Not "as good as you hoped or as bad as you feared." So who wrote it? Ben Smith, writing for Politico, notes that the author clearly knows the mechanics of political campaigns well, but mainly from the standpoint of the press, which suggests either a political reporter or a campaign staffer with experience in PR. Another hint: the author seems to hate Arianna Huffington. Check out the Week for 6 theories on the author's identity.


Write a summary based on this article:

Tweet with a location

 You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| Tweet with a location

 You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| President Donald Trump tried to claim Wednesday morning that he had been right all along about the race. | Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images Trump: I originally backed Luther Strange because Moore couldn't win

 President Donald Trump claimed Wednesday morning that he knew Republican Roy Moore, who he endorsed ahead of Tuesday’s special Senate election in Alabama, would be unable to win because “the deck was stacked against him!”

 Trump tried to claim Wednesday morning that he had been right all along about the race, because he had initially endorsed Luther Strange, who ultimately lost to Moore, in the Alabama primary.

 Story Continued Below

 “The reason I originally endorsed Luther Strange (and his numbers went up mightily), is that I said Roy Moore will not be able to win the General Election,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “I was right! Roy worked hard but the deck was stacked against him!”

 Later Wednesday morning, he tweeted: "If last night’s election proved anything, it proved that we need to put up GREAT Republican candidates to increase the razor thin margins in both the House and Senate."

 Moore was defeated Tuesday night by Doug Jones, the first Democrat from Alabama elected to the Senate in 25 years. Moore, a former chief judge of Alabama’s Supreme Court who was twice thrown off the bench for refusing to follow judicial orders, was accused during the campaign of sexually molesting and assaulting girls as young as 14 when he was a district attorney in his 30s.

 Trump's Wednesday morning tweet followed one from the previous night, when he congratulated Jones on a "hard fought victory."

 Trump had initially called on Moore to drop his Senate candidacy if the allegations were true, but wound up coming back into the Republican candidate’s fold last week with a full-throated endorsement. Trump recorded a robocall on Moore’s behalf that rang Alabamians’ phones earlier this week and hosted a rally last Friday just across the state line in Pensacola, Florida.

 The most reliable politics newsletter. Sign up for POLITICO Playbook and get the latest news, every morning — 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.

 While Trump on Wednesday touted his support for Strange, he privately expressed doubts about his endorsement even before Alabamian voters cast ballots in the GOP primary. The president held a rally for Strange in Alabama, but only at the urging of others, where he delivered a speech that famously included a screed against NFL players who protest during the national anthem. "I might have made a mistake," the president told the Alabama crowd at the time.

 Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), once a loud critic of the president's who has more recently become a golf partner and cheerleader of Trump's, echoed the president's Monday-morning-quarterbacking with a post to his own Twitter account, bashing former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, who loudly backed Moore's campaign.

 "When it comes to Alabama politics Steve Bannon should have followed President @realDonaldTrump lead in supporting Luther Strange," Graham said Wednesday morning. "Trump’s instincts on the Alabama race proved to be correct."

 It was unclear what Trump meant with his suggestion that “the deck was stacked against” Moore, given Alabama’s status among the most conservative states in the nation. The state has not elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1992, when Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) ran as a member of the opposite party before becoming a Republican. The state has not voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1976.

 Jones's soon-to-be colleague on Capitol Hill, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) celebrated the Alabama Democrat's win Wednesday morning as a moment indicative of larger movement of Americans, and especially women, unhappy with the tone of Trump's presidency.

 The reason I originally endorsed Luther Strange (and his numbers went up mightily), is that I said Roy Moore will not be able to win the General Election. I was right! Roy worked hard but the deck was stacked against him! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 13, 2017

 "He's often berated women and made them feel that they cannot be heard, as well. And what I'm seeing today and what this election of Doug Jones is about is a statement by particularly women, African-American women, and the African-American community, coming out and saying we are going to vote our values," Gillibrand, who Trump attacked online on Tuesday with a tweet that some saw as laden with sexual innuendo, told NBC's "Today" show.

 "This was an election about what we feel and our values and what we care about. And I think President Trump is wrong. He is a bully, and he has been attacking different people across this country since he's been president," she said. "Women have stood up, have fought hard, have spoken out about their beliefs, and they've not stopped. And so I think that is a testament to this election, and because of it, I have hope for this country."

 Former Vice President Joe Biden, whose relationship with Jones dates back to Biden's 1988 presidential campaign, said he spoke to Jones three times on Tuesday. Biden headlined a rally in Alabama for Jones early on in his race against Moore and was perhaps the highest-profile Democrat to appear in-state on Jones's behalf. The former vice president said Jones was "over the moon" and "really anxious to get to work" in the Senate in the wake of his Tuesday night win, praising the senator-elect for using his victory speech to call on Congress to renew the Children's Health Insurance Program instead of bashing his GOP opponent.

 The former vice president also suggested that Senate Republicans were likely breathing a sigh of relief in the wake of Moore's defeat, pleased that they would not have to be associated with Moore, a controversial firebrand even before the allegations of child molestation came out.

 "Probably some if the happiest people in America today are the Republicans in the senate. No. I genuinely mean it," Biden, a former senator, said on "CBS This Morning" on Wednesday. "What I mean by that is that the divisiveness that was caused within the Republican party by Bannon and all the sort of bile that comes out of the administration is just -- I know the majority of the members on the Republican side and they're decent people. They’re not comfortable in this territory." ||||| Tweet with a location

 You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| The Drudge Report’s Matt Drudge blasted Alabama GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore after his loss Tuesday, saying Sen. Luther Strange Luther Johnson StrangeRepublicans fear Cochran replacement puts Senate seat at risk Mississippi is new headache for GOP in the South McDaniel makes GOP Senate challenge official in Miss. MORE (R-Ala.) would have won the race.

 “Luther Strange would have won in a landslide... Just too much crazy in nerve racking times,�? Drudge said Tuesday night in a rare tweet. “There IS a limit!�?

 Luther Strange would have won in a landslide... Just too much crazy in nerve racking times. There IS a limit! pic.twitter.com/vketz7G1OR — MATT DRUDGE (@DRUDGE) December 13, 2017

 Strange was appointed to the hold seat previously held by Attorney General Jeff Sessions Jefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsDEA moves to curb oversupply of opioids The rule-of-law party must unite around Mueller GOP Rep. Zeldin to lead call for second special counsel MORE until the special election. He lost the GOP primary to Moore.

 ADVERTISEMENT

 Drudge has previously labeled Moore “Judge Whore�? on his influential news-aggregation website after reports of sexual misconduct allegations against Moore were reported.

 Moore was accused of sexual misconduct last month by multiple women, including one woman who said Moore initiated a sexual encounter with her when she was 14 years old and he was 32.

 Moore denied the allegations, but he faced calls to drop out of the race from top Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellMcConnell: Syria strikes were 'appropriate and measured' The Hill's 12:30 Report Senate to vote on repeal of CFPB auto-loan guidance MORE (R-Ky.), who supported Strange in the GOP primary.

 President Trump Donald John TrumpTrump: US, North Korea holding talks at 'very high levels' Hoyer: Dems eying ways to roll back GOP tax law New Jersey governor signs automatic voter registration bill MORE threw his support behind Moore after the primary, during which he had supported Strange. In recent days, he urged his followers on Twitter to vote for Moore and held a campaign rally near the Alabama border in support of Moore.

 Jones’s stunning victory tightens Republicans’ margin in the Senate, giving them just a 51-49 advantage over Democrats heading into the 2018 midterm elections. |||||

– President Trump ended his night by congratulating Doug Jones, and began his morning by tweeting that he essentially knew Jones would be the victor. "The reason I originally endorsed Luther Strange (and his numbers went up mightily), is that I said Roy Moore will not be able to win the General Election," he tweeted. "I was right! Roy worked hard but the deck was stacked against him!" Politico scratched its head at the "deck was stacked against" Moore part, noting Alabama ranks as one of America's most conservative states and hasn't voted a Democrat into the Senate since 1992 (the last time it went Democrat for president was 1976). The Hill reports Trump wasn't the only one to react to the Moore news by tweeting about Strange. In what it calls a "rare tweet," Matt Drudge wrote: "Luther Strange would have won in a landslide... Just too much crazy in nerve racking times. There IS a limit!" In a second tweet, Trump offered his Alabama takeaway: "If last night's election proved anything, it proved that we need to put up GREAT Republican candidates to increase the razor thin margins in both the House and Senate."


Here is a news article: "War by its nature entails waste. But the scale of the problems in Iraq and Afghanistan also reflects the toxic interplay of huge sums of money pumped into relatively small economies and an unprecedented reliance on contractors," the report said.

 Sen. James Webb, D-Virginia, who helped establish the commission three years ago, said Friday that its latest proposals deserve attention from Congress and the Department of Defense and called for a hearing on the matter.

 "The report's specific recommendations to address the federal government's overreliance on contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan and failure to control the process underscore the importance of the Commission's charter," Webb said in a prepared statement.

 The report repeatedly criticized the federal government for turning to contractors for too many purposes, including monitoring other contractors.

 "The government has abdicated its contracting responsibilities -- too often using contractors as the default mechanism, driven by considerations other than whether they provide the best solution, and without consideration for the resources needed to manage them," the report said.

 The commission is calling for major reforms to how the government awards and monitors contractors on military, reconstruction and training programs.

 "When it comes to oversight of contingency contracting, we've been driving beyond the reach of our headlights," Commission Co-Chairman Michael Thibault said in a statement released with the report. "Reforms are badly needed."

 The report says that contractors often face great risks. "Between September 2001 and December 2010, over 2,200 contractor employees of all nationalities have died and over 49,800 were injured in Iraq and Afghanistan," the report says. "These contractors' deaths and injuries should not be ignored, but should be a part of the public debate on the cost of war."

 Among the proposals to rein in contractors is the creation of special teams of full-time federal workers to be ready to deploy and monitor projects. The report says the government also should restrict reliance on contractors for security by embedding government workers responsible for command and control and oversight. ||||| -An ill-conceived project, no matter how well-managed, is wasteful if it does not fit the cultural, political and economic mores of the society it is meant to serve, or if it cannot be supported and maintained.

 -Poor planning and oversight by the US government, as well as poor performance on the part of contractors, have costly outcomes: time and money misspent are lost for other purposes.

 -Criminal behavior and blatant corruption sap dollars from what could otherwise be successful project outcomes and, more disturbingly, contribute to a climate in which huge amounts of waste are accepted as the norm.

 Since 2002, the United States has spent $117 billion on contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to a new report by the non-partisan Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, tens of billions of those dollars have been wasted.The report's authors note that the "waste, fraud, and abuse" they have observed in these contract programs were caused by significant errors. A few of their points, quoted from the report:The U.S. has relied on contractors more heavily in these two wars than in previous others, hiring about 200,000 of them to "guard bases, build facilities, provide food and laundry services, escort supply and personnel movements, and translate local languages," according to Susan Crabtree at Talking Points Memo. She points out that there are almost as many contracted employees working in Afghanistan and Iraq as there are military troops.The commission that put out the report is urging the government to reform its contracting programs and is holding a hearing to review the report's findings today. ||||| WASHINGTON -- The chairmen of the bipartisan Commission on Wartime Contracting decried on Monday a federal system that has allowed contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan to commit fraud -- then get hired again and again.

 "For the 200,000 people employed by contractors to provide support and capability in Iraq and Afghanistan, accountability is too often absent, diluted, delayed, or avoided," Republican co-chair Chris Shays, formerly a longtime congressman from Connecticut, said while calling to order a hearing of the commission Monday.

 There are so many barriers to suspending or banning contractors with violations that "untrustworthy contractors can continue profiting from government work, responsible businesses may be denied opportunities, and costs to taxpayers can climb," Shays said in a statement co-authored with his Democratic co-chair, Michael Thibault, formerly the deputy director of the Defense Contract Audit Agency.

 The commission last week issued a blistering interim report to Congress: "At What Risk? Correcting over-reliance on contractors in contingency operations," which concluded that "misspent dollars run into the tens of billions" out of the nearly $200 billion spent on contracts and grants since 2002 to support military, reconstruction and other U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

 And that could well be an understatement, the commission noted, because "it might not take full account of ill-conceived projects, poor planning and oversight by the U.S. government, and criminal behavior and blatant corruption by both government and contractor employees."

 The report suggested that the government stop using contractors so routinely, start taking oversight more seriously and establish strong interagency standards.

 It called for an end to contractors' current role in hiring other contractors, concluding that they tend not to erect the appropriate oversight firewalls.

 And most controversially, the report said the extensive use of private security contractors -- which has surged under President Barack Obama -- raises use-of-force issues and creates a gap in legal accountability

 So rather than let them run wild, the commission recommended that agencies relying on private security contractors be required to embed government personnel among them who would be "responsible for leadership, command and control, and oversight of all security contractors and operations."

 (The commission also promised that its final report, due this summer, will further address the over-reliance on private contractors to provide "movement security" for government workers in war zones. That's a shot across the bow of the State Department.)

 The commission's findings, however, are just the latest in a litany of official and journalistic reports about the enormous cost of waste, fraud and corruption in Iraq and, particularly, Afghanistan.

 Just last month, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction warned that the entire $11.4 billion for constructing and maintaining nearly 900 Afghan National Security Forces facilities is at risk due to inadequate planning.

 The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction said in 2009 that an estimated $3 billion to $5 billion in U.S.-funded infrastructure contracting had been wasted there.

 McClatchy Newspapers have exposed example after example of waste and abuse in contracts for Afghan reconstruction.

 A State Department cable obtained by WikiLeaks revealed late last year that Afghanistan's vice president had been caught carrying $52 million in cash in a Persian Gulf tax haven.

 (See 10 more examples.)

 In his remarks at Monday's hearing, Scott Amey, general counsel for the nonprofit watchdog group Project on Government Oversight (POGO), testified that "contract award dollars have increased from approximately $200 billion in fiscal year 2000 to over $535 billion in fiscal year 2010." Meanwhile, however, "contract administration and oversight have decreased because the acquisition workforce is stretched thin," he said.

 Since 2002, POGO has maintained a Federal Contract Misconduct Database, which served as the model for the government-created Federal Awardee Performance and Integrity Information System (FAPIIS), due to become publicly available starting in April.

 Witnesses at Monday's hearing said, however, that the federal database doesn't adequately record contractors' past performance.

 As it happens, the Obama administration recently caved to pressure from contractors and won't be making that past performance data available publicly.

 But even internally, witnesses said, the state of the data is abysmal. Of the 1,485 past performance reports required from the Department of Defense, only 140 had been entered into the database. Of the 174 required from the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development, not a single one could actually be found, although USAID insisted 24 had been entered.

 And Dan Gordon, President Obama's administrator for federal procurement policy, said three-quarters of the performance reports that were filed still lacked required documentation.

 But judging from POGO's database, Amey testified:

 Some of the largest service contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan have checkered histories of misconduct, including instances of shooting civilians, false claims against the government, violations of the Anti-Kickback Act, fraud, retaliation against workers' complaints, and environmental violations.

 Amey also raised an all-too-familiar concern, though from another context:

 The government's inability to hold all contractors accountable begs the question: Is the government so reliant on large contractors that bad actors are required to preserving legitimate competition and mission accomplishment? This might be the contracting version of "too big to fail."

 *************************

 Dan Froomkin is senior Washington correspondent for the Huffington Post. You can send him an e-mail, bookmark his page; subscribe to his RSS feed, follow him on Twitter, friend him on Facebook, and/or become a fan and get e-mail alerts when he writes.

  |||||
A summary of this is?

– The US has misspent “tens of billions of dollars” on contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan—at minimum—according to a new report from a bipartisan commission set up to scrutinize the issue. The report bemoaned problems like “ill-conceived projects,” “poor planning and oversight by the US government, as well as poor performance on the part of contractors,” and even “criminal behavior and blatant corruption,” according to the Atlantic. “War by its nature entails waste,” committee member Jim Webb tells CNN. “But the scale of the problems in Iraq and Afghanistan also reflects the toxic interplay of huge sums of money pumped into relatively small economies and an unprecedented reliance on contractors.” The report criticizes the government for too routinely using contractors for too many tasks—including monitoring other contractors. It also complained that “untrustworthy” companies continue to win contracts, because there are barriers to suspending or banning them, the Huffington Post notes. A PDF of the entire report can be found here.