– Japan has made the decision to raise the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster severity level from 5 to 7. That obviously means "worse." But what else does it mean? Japan finally has an estimate on how much radiation has been released: The level is an indication of the total radioactive materials emitted. Data has revealed that the cumulative amount of radioactive particles released into the atmosphere had reached levels that apply to a Level 7 incident, reports the AP. So what is that estimate? According to two estimates, the equivalent of about 500,000 terabecquerels of radiation from iodine-131 has been released. The Level 7 threshold is "several tens of thousands of terabecquerels." But all 7s are not created alike: The Wall Street Journal notes that officials were careful to say this this is still not a Chernobyl-size disaster. "The amount of released radiation is about a tenth of Chernobyl"—about 5.2 million terabecquerels—said a rep for Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. But it could still top Chernobyl in one regard: TEPCO today warned that the plant continues to release radioactive materials, and that the total levels emitted could eventually top those released by Chernobyl. Level 7 also indicates widespread effects on the environment and health: The Telegraph noted that Japan's safety commission now says radiation in excess of the amount considered safe for humans during an entire year has been found as far as 37 miles from the plant; the evacuation zone is only 18 miles. Is there another big one we haven't been talking about? Sort of. Besides Chernobyl, Time notes that a 1957 accident in Kyshtym, Russia, was the only one that's come close to being a 7; it was a 6. Most nuclear accidents tend to be a 3 or less.

Expand this summary.

(UPDATED) Japanese officials announced on Tuesday morning that they were planning to raise the event level at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant from 5 to the maximum level of 7, the highest on the international scale for nuclear incidents and the same level assigned to the 1986 disaster at Chernobyl in the Ukraine.

 The decision was made after Japan’s nuclear safety body determined that at one point after the March 11 earthquake, the plant was releasing 10,000 terabecquerels of iodine-131 for several hours; level 7 accidents are defined as releasing tens of thousands of terabecquerels. “The INES [International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale] rating itself is not an indicator of a daily phenomena but the assessment after careful consideration and calculation on the event that happened in the past,” Ken Morita of Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency (NISA) tells TIME.

 NISA also noted that the amount of radioactive material being released at Fukushima today is less than 1 terabecquerel. The agency said that to date, Fukushima has released only about 10% of the total radiation released 25 years ago at Chernobyl, or about 1.8 million terabecquerels. About 30 people, mostly workers, died in the immediate aftermath of Chernobyl, though the U.N. has estimated that the long-term death toll due to exposure could eventually be as high as 4,000.

 (More on TIME.com: See the top 10 environmental disasters.)

 INES, designed in 1989 by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the Nuclear Energy Agency of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, ranges from 1 (anomaly) to 7 (major accident). The scale is intended to help easily communicate with the public to indicate the seriousness of a nuclear event. Chernobyl is the only other event to have been given a 7, an accident classified as having a major radioactive release with widespread impact on the environment and public health. According to INES, “Such a release would result in the possibility of acute health effects; delayed health effects over a wide area, possibly involving more than one country; long-term environmental consequences.” (Read the IAEA’s glossary of short- to long-term health effects of radiation exposure here.)

 Besides Chernobyl, the only other event that has come close to a 7 was a 1957 accident at a fuel-processing plant (where spent nuclear fuel is recycled into new fuel) in Russia, in which an off-site release of radiation prompted preventive evacuations. The Three Mile Island accident in the U.S. in 1978, in which a reactor core was severely damaged, but the off-site release of radioactivity was limited, was classified as a 5. Almost all reported events at nuclear facilities are a level 3 or lower, according to INES.

 Tuesday’s announcement comes on the back of a minor fire spotted by workers outside Fukushima’s Reactor 4 on Tuesday morning, shortly after the second of three major aftershocks hit the beleaguered northeast in a span of 24 hours. Three people in Iwaki died in landslides triggered by the 7.1-magnitude aftershock on Monday night. The government also expanded the exclusion zone around Fukushima on Monday to include several towns within a 19-mile (30 km) radius where residents had been told they could remain at home but were recommended to stay indoors. The towns added to the mandatory evacuation zone were found to have high levels of radiation.

 Meanwhile, Greenpeace said that in a survey conducted in Fukushima last week, its team of experts found radiation levels 75 times higher than the government recommendation in 11 samples of vegetables from gardens and small farms. The environmental group also announced that it found radiation levels equivalent to an annual exposure of 5 millisieverts — the evacuation threshold for Chernobyl — at a playground in Fukushima City, pop. 300,000. Greenpeace is urging the government to delay the start of the school year.

 Though raising Fukushima’s level to 7 may not herald any immediate worsening of events, it is sure to add to many residents’ growing concern — and feeling of helplessness — over what could happen at dozens of other nuclear reactors spread across this seismic archipelago. On Sunday, more than 17,000 people protested at two demonstrations in Tokyo against nuclear power. It was the first time that Yohei Nakamura, 45, had ever been to a protest. “For a long time, I’ve been suspicious of nuclear power, but now I realize it’s a serious problem,” he said amid the crowds carrying placards and shouting slogans. He said anti-nuclear demonstrations were undercovered in the Japanese press because of the influence of the Tokyo Electric Power Co., which owns Fukushima. “TEPCO is one of the most powerful companies in Japan,” Nakamura said. “They use a tremendous amount of money for advertising. If the mass media shows anti-nuclear-power activities like demonstrations, they risk losing TEPCO as an advertiser.”

 — With reporting by Lucy Birmingham / Tokyo

 See pictures of Japan’s nuclear wasteland. ||||| Japan raised the crisis level at its crippled nuclear plant Tuesday to a severity on par with the 1986 Chernobyl disaster, citing high overall radiation leaks that have contaminated the air, tap water, vegetables and seawater.

 Buddhist monks, Japan Self-Defense Force personnel firefighters and other relief workers observe a moment of silence on Monday, April 11, 2011, exactly one month after the devastating earthquake hit northeastern... (Associated Press)

 Buddhist monks pray in an area destroyed by a tsunami in Natori, Miyagi Prefecture, northern Japan Monday, April 11, 2011, one month to the day after an earthquake and tsunami devastated the city. (AP... (Associated Press)

 Members of the Japan's Ground Self-Denfence Force, left, and firemen take a moment of silence in an area destroyed by tsunami in Natori, Miyagi Prefecture, northern Japan, Monday, April 11, 2011, one... (Associated Press)

 Japanese stop for a moment of silence at 2:46pm, exactly a month after a massive earthquake struck the area in the port town of Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan, Monday, April 11, 2011.(AP Photo/Sergey... (Associated Press)

 Volunteers cook noodles for evacuees at an evacuation center in Soma, Fukushima Prefecture, northeastern Japan, Monday, April 11, 2011, a month after an earthquake and tsunami struck the east coast. ... (Associated Press)

 A survivor takes rest after she took a moment of silence at 2:46 p.m., exactly a month after a massive earthquake struck the area in Kamaishi, Iwate prefecture, Japan, Monday, April 11, 2011. (AP Photo/Lee... (Associated Press)

 A broken clock sits in the debris a month after a massive earthquake struck the area in Kamaishi, Iwate prefecture, Japan, Monday, April 11, 2011. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man) (Associated Press)

 A survivor woman wipes her tear after she takes a moment of silence at 2:46pm, exactly a month after a massive earthquake struck the area in Kamaishi, Iwate prefecture, Monday, April 11, 2011. (AP Photo/Lee... (Associated Press)

 Japanese police officers make their way through the rubble at an area devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in the port town of Kesennuma, Miyagi prefecture, Japan, on Monday, April 11, 2011.... (Associated Press)

 An eldery Japaneese man observes the area devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in the port town of Kesennuma, Miyagi prefecture, Japan, on Monday, April 11, 2011. Exactly a month ago today... (Associated Press)

 A Japanese man throws the garbage out of a window of his house just next to the grounded ship at an area devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in the port town of Kesennuma, Miyagi prefecture,... (Associated Press)

 A man walks along the grounded ships at an area devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in the port town of Kesennuma, Miyagi prefecture, Japan, Monday, April 11, 2011. Exactly a month ago... (Associated Press)

 A Japanese family, who refused to give their family name, cleans an area around their house next to the grounded ship at an area devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in the port town of Kesennuma,... (Associated Press)

 A Japanese family walks along the flooded street at an area devastated by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami in the port town of Kesennuma, Miyagi prefecture, Japan, on Monday, April 11, 2011. Exactly... (Associated Press)

 Greenpeace activists and other environmentalists light candles amidst hundreds of paper cranes at the Heroes' Monument in solidarity to the Japanese disaster victims at suburban Quezon city, northeast... (Associated Press)

 This Sunday, April 10, 2011 photo released by Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) shows orange colored floats suspending"silt fence," that was installed under water to help prevent contaminated water from... (Associated Press)

 Japanese nuclear regulators said they raised the rating from 5 to 7 _ the highest level on an international scale of nuclear accidents overseen by the International Atomic Energy Agency _ after new assessments of radiation leaks from the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant since it was disabled by the March 11 tsunami.

 The new ranking signifies a "major accident" that includes widespread effects on the environment and health, according to the Vienna-based IAEA. But Japanese officials played down any health effects and stressed that the harm caused by Chernobyl still far outweighs that caused by the Fukushima plant.

 The revision came a day after the government added five communities to a list of places people should leave to avoid long-term radiation exposure. A 12-mile (20-kilometer) radius already had been cleared around the plant.

 The news was received with chagrin by residents in Iitate, one of the five communities, where high levels of radiation have been detected in the soil. The village of 6,200 people is about 40 kilometers from the Fukushima plant.

 "It's very shocking to me," said Miyuki Ichisawa, 52, who runs a coffee shop in Iitate. "Now the government is officially telling us this accident is at the same level of Chernobyl."

 Japanese officials said the leaks from the Fukushima plant so far amount to a tenth of the radiation emitted in the Chernobyl disaster, but said they eventually could exceed Chernobyl's emissions if the crisis continues.

 "This reconfirms that this is an extremely major disaster. We are very sorry to the public, people living near the nuclear complex and the international community for causing such a serious accident," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano.

 But Edano told reporters there was no "direct health damage" so far from the crisis. "The accident itself is really serious, but we have set our priority so as not to cause health damage."

 Hironobu Unesaki, a nuclear physicist at Kyoto University Research Reactor Institute, said the revision was not a cause for worry, that it had to do with the overall release of radiation and was not directly linked to health dangers. He said most of the radiation was released early in the crisis and that the reactors still have mostly intact containment vessels surrounding their nuclear cores.

 The change was "not directly connected to the environmental and health effects," Unesaki said. "Judging from all the measurement data, it is quite under control. It doesn't mean that a significant amount of release is now continuing."

 Prime Minister Naoto Kan, in a national television address, urged the public not to panic and to focus on recovering from the disaster.

 "Right now, the situation of the nuclear reactors at the Fukushima plant has been stabilizing step by step. The amount of radiation leaks is on the decline," he said. "But we are not at the stage yet where we can let our guards down."

 Continued aftershocks following the 9.0-magnitude megaquake on March 11 are impeding work on stabilizing the Fukushima plant _ the latest a 6.3-magnitude one Tuesday that prompted plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co., or TEPCO, to temporarily pull back workers.

 Officials from Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said that the cumulative amount of radioactive particles released into the atmosphere since the incident had reached levels that apply to a Level 7 incident. Other factors included damage to the plant's buildings and accumulated radiation levels for its workers.

 "We have refrained from making announcements until we have reliable data," said NISA spokesman Hidehiko Nishiyama said. "The announcement is being made now because it became possible to look at and check the accumulated data assessed in two different ways," he said, referring to measurements from NISA and Japan's Nuclear Security Council.

 NISA and the NSC have been measuring emissions of radioactive iodine-131 and cesium-137, a heavier element with a much longer half-life. Based on an average of their estimates and a formula that converts elements into a common radioactive measure, the equivalent of about 500,000 terabecquerels of radiation from iodine-131 has been released into the atmosphere since the crisis began.

 That well exceeds the Level 7 threshold of the International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale of "several tens of thousands of terabecquerels" of iodine-131. A terabecquerel equals a trillion becquerels, a measure for radiation emissions.

 The government says the Chernobyl incident released 5.2 million terabecquerels into the air _ about 10 times that of the Fukushima plant.

 If the leaks continue, the amount of radioactivity released in Fukushima could eventually exceed the amount emitted by Chernobyl, a possibility that Naoki Tsunoda, a TEPCO spokesman, said the company considers "extremely low."

 In Chernobyl, in the Ukraine, a reactor exploded on April 26, 1986, spewing a cloud of radiation over much of the Northern Hemisphere. A zone about 19 miles (30 kilometers) around the plant was declared uninhabitable, although some plant workers still live there for short periods and a few hundred other people have returned despite government encouragement to stay away.

 In 2005, the Chernobyl Forum _ a group comprising the International Atomic Energy Agency and several other U.N. groups _ said fewer than 50 deaths could be confirmed as being connected to Chernobyl. It also said the number of radiation-related deaths among the 600,000 people who helped deal with the aftermath of the accident would ultimately be around 4,000.

 The U.N. health agency, however, has said about 9,300 people are likely to die of cancers caused by radiation. Some groups, including Greenpeace, have put the numbers 10 times higher.

 The Fukushima plant was damaged in a massive tsunami that knocked out cooling systems and backup diesel generators, leading to explosions at three reactors and a fire at a fourth that was undergoing regular maintenance and was empty of fuel.

 The magnitude-9.0 earthquake that caused the tsunami immediately stopped the three reactors, but overheated cores and a lack of cooling functions led to further damage.

 Engineers have pumped water into the damaged reactors to cool them down, but leaks have resulted in the pooling of tons of contaminated, radioactive water that has prevented workers from conducting further repairs.

 A month after the disaster, more than 145,000 people are still living in shelters. The quake and tsunami are believed to have killed more than 25,000 people, but many of those bodies were swept out to sea and more than half of those feared dead are still listed as missing.

 ___

 Associated Press writers Shino Yuasa and Noriko Kitano in Tokyo and Eric Talmadge in Soma contributed to this report. ||||| (See Correction & Amplification item below.)

 TOKYO—The Japanese government raised its assessment of the monthlong crisis at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant to the highest severity level by international standards—a rating only conferred so far upon the Chernobyl accident.

 Japanese officials raised its nuclear crisis to the level of Chernobyl. WSJ's Yumiko Ono reports. Also Jerry Seib reports on a new era of dialogue in Washington as debt ceiling and budget talks heat up again. And Donald Trump gets serious about 2012.

 Past Nuclear Incidents See a timeline of how the Fukushima nuclear incident compares to other nuclear incidents. View Interactive More photos and interactive graphics

 Japan's nuclear regulators said the plant has likely released so much radiation into the environment that it must boost the accident's severity rating on the International Nuclear Event scale to a 7 from 5 currently. That is the same level reached by the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in the former Soviet Union, which struck almost exactly 25 years ago, on April 26, 1986.

 "Based on the cumulative data we've gathered, we can finally give an estimate of total radioactive materials emitted,'' Hidehiko Nishiyama, spokesman for Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, said at a press conference Tuesday.

 Even as they upgraded their assessment of the situation, Japanese officials went to lengths to say that the problem they are struggling to contain isn't anywhere near the disaster of Chernobyl.

 "It is quite different from Chernobyl," said Mr. Nishiyama. "First, the amount of released radiation is about a tenth of Chernobyl," he said, adding that while there were 29 deaths resulting from short-term exposure to high doses of radiation at Chernobyl, there were no such deaths at Fukushima.

 Enlarge Image Close ZUMAPRESS.com Japanese police searched for victims inside the deserted evacuation zone in Minamisoma in Fukushima Prefecture.

 "At Chernobyl, the nuclear reactor itself exploded," he said, adding that at the Fukushima plant, the pressure vessel and the containment vessel were largely intact.

 Still, Fukushima Daiichi operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. warned Tuesday that since the Fukushima Daiichi plant is still releasing radioactive materials, the total level of radiation released could eventually exceed that of Chernobyl, a spokesman said.

 The new assessment comes as Japan admits that the effects of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident—which has already caused the evacuation of tens of thousands of people and spread radiation through groundwater and farms over a broad section of eastern Japan—are likely to be long-lasting and grave. The accident was precipitated by the massive March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which knocked out Fukushima Daiichi's power and cooling systems, causing several of the reactors to overheat.

 The International Nuclear Event scale, whose development is coordinated by the International Atomic Energy Agency, measures the severity of accidents based on how much radiation is released, the degree of damage to the nuclear cores and how widespread and long-lasting the effects are likely to be.

 Level 5—the previous level given the Fukushima Daiichi accident—indicates a "limited release'' of radioactive materials requiring "some planned countermeasures.'' The 1979 Three Mile Island accident in Pennsylvania was rated a 5.

 Enlarge Image Close European Pressphoto Agency The reactor building of Unit 1-2 at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station on Sunday.

 Enlarge Image Close ZUMAPRESS.com Houses collapsed by the earthquake and tsunami in Minamisoma.

 Level 7 labels this "a major accident," the most serious on the international scale. It means high levels of radiation have been released, and that the amount of time needed to bring the plant under control will require an extended period. But not all "major accidents" are equal in severity.

 The decision to upgrade formally the severity of the accident came a day after Japan broadened the 12-mile nuclear evacuation zone around the plant to include all or part of five towns and villages that housed tens of thousands of people before the disaster, a sign that officials now see the long-term risks as far higher than originally estimated.

 And the crisis appears far from over, with constant reminders that efforts to bring the crippled reactors under control are far from complete. Operator Tepco scrambled to keep reactors stable in the wake of another big earthquake Monday and a battery fire Tuesday morning, signs of how vulnerable the plant remains a month after the quake.

 Experts have predicted it could take months for Tepco to bring Fukushima Daiichi's reactors truly under control, and years to clean up the plant itself.

 Japanese nuclear regulators determined that after the accident, the plant has likely released tens of thousands of terabecquerels—or a mind-boggling tens of thousands of trillions of becquerels—of radiation in the immediate area. That's a level that's been recorded only during the Chernobyl accident.

 While the new assessment puts Fukushima on a par with Chernobyl, there are key differences between the two, suggesting the Ukraine disaster was still far more serious.

 The Japanese government said the monthlong crisis at its Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant is on par with Chernobyl in terms of severity. WSJ's Mariko Sanchanta and Yumiko Ono discuss the public's reaction to the news.

 In the case of Chernobyl, a graphite fire burned uncontrolled for days, spewing out radioactive smoke that spread around the world. Fukushima, unlike Chernobyl, has a containment structure, which, even if damaged, has meant that the Japanese accident has shown "much, much, much lower'' traces of far-flung radiation, Wolfgang Weiss, chair of the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation, said in Vienna last week.

 The release from Fukushima of tens of thousands of terabecquerels of iodine-131, while huge, appears to be smaller than the 5.2 million terabecquerels released from Chernobyl. Japanese government officials said the radiation release was between 370,000 and 630,000 terabecquerels so far from Fukushima. The permissible level of iodine-131 for vegetables and fish is 2,000 becquerels per kilogram, or just a tiny fraction of what has been released.

 A 2005 United Nations study said up to 4,000 people could eventually die from radiation exposure to Chernobyl.

 In Japan, so far, a handful of workers have been hospitalized, but they were released a few days later, and regulators said they showed no signs of lasting injury.

 Japanese suppliers impacted by last month's quake are struggling to hang onto their business amid shortages of key components and electricity. Companies that rely on that hard-hit supply network are also rethinking their exposure to Japan.

 On Edge | Worries over Fukushima Daiichi Enlarge Image Close

 Earthquake in Japan View Interactive

 There are, however, regular reports in the Japanese press of elevated radiation exposure for the workers trying to contain Fukushima, and it could be months, or years, before the real impact is known. The same is true for the population in and around the plant.

 Officials said they expanded the original evacuation zone because the accident had lasted longer than expected.

 "Japan has been doing drills for possible nuclear accidents, but they assumed that the accidents would be resolved in about 10 days," said Mr. Nishiyama, the spokesman. "We are now dealing with a crisis of a historic proportion. This has necessitated different kinds of responses than initially planned."

 Even in announcing the expanded evacuation zone, Japanese officials said residents of the affected areas weren't in danger of surpassing government exposure limits anytime soon and that they have about a month to move.

 Testing by Japanese, U.S. and IAEA officials shows that the radioactive contamination is spreading unevenly from the plant, creating what are known as hot spots due to wind, topography and other natural conditions that show a higher density of radioactive material compared with some areas closer to the plant.

 The move will present major logistical hurdles for communities already battered by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that damaged the plant as well as much of the surrounding countryside. The area includes towns and villages with a population totaling about 115,000 people before the crisis, though the number of people affected is likely to be far less because the government's order applies only to particular hot spots believed to have higher radiation levels, not a set radius from the plant.

 Meanwhile, efforts to stabilize reactors at Fukushima Daiichi continue to be dogged by setbacks and scares, in a sign of how fragile the situation on the ground remains. On Tuesday morning, Tepco said there was a small fire at a battery unit outside reactor No. 4, which was put out shortly after being reported.

 On Monday, a 7.1 magnitude quake centered in coastal Fukushima temporarily shut down power supply and makeshift cooling systems to three reactors at the plant, causing the evacuation of workers to the compound's command center. The systems remained down for nearly an hour while the evacuation remained in effect, keeping workers from switching to emergency power generators.

 Tepco said the suspension didn't appear to have caused significant safety issues. But the scramble to restore power served as a reminder of how aftershocks and the risk of tsunami could upset the delicate efforts to stabilize the problems at the plant.

 —Mitsuru Obe contributed to this article.

 Correction & Amplification:

 The Three Mile Island accident occurred in 1979. An earlier version of this article incorrectly said it happened in 1978. |||||


Article:

Friday, July 11 2014, 11:20 PM EDT

 Teen who killed FHP trooper's K-9 gets 23-year sentence by judge ||||| Ivins Rosier, 17, is charged with one count of burglary of a dwelling with… (Palm Beach County Sheriff's…)

 Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Robert Boody's retired police dog, Drake, was near death when Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office Detective Philip DiMola questioned one of the suspects in the canine's shooting, then-16-year-old Ivins Rosier.

 "If you shoot that dog and he dies, that's murder of a law enforcement officer," DiMola pressed Rosier on Nov. 21, 2012, in an interrogation recorded on video and watched by a Palm Beach County jury during its deliberations Friday.

 As it turned out, the juvenile then confessed to DiMola, the 5-year-old German shepherd was euthanized two days later, and Rosier was charged as an adult and this week put on trial — but not for murdering a cop since Drake was retired and the law treats killing a dog differently than a human.

 The end result: A guilty verdict on the felony counts of cruelty to animals with a firearm, burglary of a dwelling with a firearm and shooting into a building.

 Circuit Judge Robin Rosenberg ordered Rosier, 17, to be held without bail at the Palm Beach County Jail, while defense attorneys Jack Fleischman and Rachel Preefer said they will seek a new trial and other legal challenges.

 They plan to revisit their pre-trial argument that Rosier's indictment violates his right to be sentenced as a juvenile, which would mean far less prison time for the offenses.

 Also, Fleischman says he'll return to the assertions he made during his closing arguments Thursday: There's insufficient evidence to find his client guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, regardless of the defendant's confession and GPS ankle monitor records showing Rosier was inside Boody's home on the night of the crimes. |||||
What is a summary?

– It's no small prison term: An 18-year-old boy was sentenced Friday to 23 years for a burglary in 2012 during which he shot a retired police dog, the Sun-Sentinel reports. At age 16, Ivins Rosier confessed to breaking into the home of Florida Highway Patrol Trooper Robert Boody in West Palm Beach and shooting the 5-year-old German Shepherd, the newspaper noted in May. Rosier's attorney argued that a detective "hustled" the boy during interrogation by equating the dog's death to the "murder of a law enforcement officer" (which wasn't legally true). Rosier's attorney also wanted his client sentenced as a juvenile with a maximum sentence of 6 years, CBS 12 reports. "I believe this to be sadistic to do this to a child," said Rosier's attorney, who plans to appeal. He conceded that Rosier's crimes were serious, "but when you look at the range of punishments available, that's why they call it juvenile." Ultimately, Rosier's sentence resulted from convictions on three felony counts: cruelty to animals with a firearm, burglary of a dwelling with a firearm, and shooting into a building. "A gun in a 16-year-old's hand can do equally the damage as a gun in an adult's hand," said the prosecuting attorney. "He's not a child." The trooper, Boody, cried when testifying about how he came home to find his dog crippled by gunshot wounds. (In Utah, a 16-year-old boy faces as many as 15 years in prison for taking part in a robbery with friends.)


Article:
LOS ANGELES -- A woman who owns a business that claims to be California's largest landlord of marijuana businesses sued the city of San Bernardino to overturn its pot regulation ordinance that could bar her from the industry. CBS Los Angeles reports that Stephanie Smith, who describes herself as a real estate developer by way of Boston College and UCLA, was accused of running a weed "fortress" from three San Bernardino buildings.

 In January, she said she was just the owner of the properties, insisting her tenants' activities were legal under California law.

 Smith, the owner of a business called Bubba Likes Tortillas, said in the lawsuit filed Friday in San Bernardino County Superior Court that the city's new law could create monopolies and also prevent her from renting property to pot growers and other marijuana operations.

 The dispute dates back to December when a fortified building Smith owns was raided, cultivation operations her clients were operating were shut down and 35,000 marijuana plants were seized. Smith was not involved with pot growing and she was not arrested or charged, her attorney Ben Eilenberg said.

 After the raids, a judge invalidated a voter-approved measure to regulate marijuana operations and San Bernardino City Council passed its own measure to replace it earlier this month.

 At the time, CBS Los Angeles reported her attorney released a statement which read, in part: "As a professional real estate developer with several million square feet of commercial and industrial space throughout California, I provide the infrastructure for all types of industry to operate and prosper, including the cannabis industry. I am a well-known and recognized leader in large-scale cannabis real estate development and I am proud of the State of California's position on cannabis."

 Stephanie Smith, 43, and a pot farm that she allegedly operated. San Bernardino Police Dept./CBS News

 The new rules said anyone - from a permit applicant or an employee of a cannabis business to the owner of a property - could be barred from the commercial cannabis business in the city if they had violated local or state laws related to the industry or if they had failed to report income from it.

 Smith is concerned that could apply to tenants - or even her company - because the businesses raided in December were in the process of being licensed, Eilenberg said. They received approval letters to operate a week after they were shut down, but the law appears to make them ineligible to get licenses.

 "This misguided ordinance is a backdoor ban that continues the city's illogical campaign against a legal product," Smith said in a statement. "Any person who has ever had anything to do with cannabis is banned for life from entering the legal market under this ordinance. It is not what the voters want and it makes no sense."

 Eilenberg said it could also apply to businesses that operated in the murky days when medical marijuana was loosely regulated. Cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco have given priority to license businesses that operated under medical marijuana regulations to get into the broader retail market that opened Jan. 1.

 "San Bernardino is taking the opposite tack and guaranteeing that anyone in the city who operated prior to this law has to remain in the black market," Eilenberg said.

 The lawsuit said the ordinance would violate the constitutional right to due process by disqualifying tenants or Smith without ever granting them an administrative or criminal hearing.

 The lawsuit also claimed the city law could create monopolies of certain types of marijuana operating licenses.

 The ordinance would allow 17 commercial marijuana businesses in the city, but there are 19 different types of licenses that could be issued - everything from growing pot, to transporting it, testing it and selling it.

 A city spokeswoman did not immediately comment on the case. ||||| FILE - This Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2017, file photo provided by the San Bernardino Police Department shows a shut down marijuana operation of some 35,000 plants they believe was bringing in millions of dollars... (Associated Press)

 FILE - This Wednesday, Dec. 13, 2017, file photo provided by the San Bernardino Police Department shows a shut down marijuana operation of some 35,000 plants they believe was bringing in millions of dollars a month in San Bernardino, Calif. The woman who owns the operation who claims to be California's... (Associated Press)

 LOS ANGELES (AP) — A woman who owns a business that claims to be California's largest landlord of marijuana businesses sued the city of San Bernardino to overturn its pot regulation ordinance that could bar her from the industry.

 Stephanie Smith, the owner of a business called Bubba Likes Tortillas, said in the lawsuit filed Friday in San Bernardino County Superior Court that the city's new law could create monopolies and also prevent her from renting property to pot growers and other marijuana operations.

 The dispute dates back to December when a fortified building Smith owns was raided, cultivation operations her clients were operating were shut down and 35,000 marijuana plants were seized. Smith was not involved with pot growing and she was not arrested or charged, her attorney Ben Eilenberg said.

 After the raids, a judge invalidated a voter-approved measure to regulate marijuana operations and San Bernardino City Council passed its own measure to replace it earlier this month.

 The new rules said anyone — from a permit applicant or an employee of a cannabis business to the owner of a property — could be barred from the commercial cannabis business in the city if they had violated local or state laws related to the industry or if they had failed to report income from it.

 Smith is concerned that could apply to tenants — or even her company — because the businesses raided in December were in the process of being licensed, Eilenberg said. They received approval letters to operate a week after they were shut down, but the law appears to make them ineligible to get licenses.

 "This misguided ordinance is a backdoor ban that continues the city's illogical campaign against a legal product," Smith said in a statement. "Any person who has ever had anything to do with cannabis is banned for life from entering the legal market under this ordinance. It is not what the voters want and it makes no sense."

 Eilenberg said it could also apply to businesses that operated in the murky days when medical marijuana was loosely regulated. Cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco have given priority to license businesses that operated under medical marijuana regulations to get into the broader retail market that opened Jan. 1.

 "San Bernardino is taking the opposite tack and guaranteeing that anyone in the city who operated prior to this law has to remain in the black market," Eilenberg said.

 The lawsuit said the ordinance would violate the constitutional right to due process by disqualifying tenants or Smith without ever granting them an administrative or criminal hearing.

 The lawsuit also claimed the city law could create monopolies of certain types of marijuana operating licenses.

 The ordinance would allow 17 commercial marijuana businesses in the city, but there are 19 different types of licenses that could be issued — everything from growing pot, to transporting it, testing it and selling it.

 A city spokeswoman did not immediately comment on the case. ||||| LOS ANGELES -- Police in Southern California raided a weed "fortress" on Wednesday, seizing 35,000 marijuana plants and shutting down an operation they believe was bringing in millions of dollars a month.

 San Bernardino Police say eight people were detained Wednesday when police and federal agents raided the warehouse that was converted into a multi-level grow house.

 Investigators first turned their sights on the illegal grow operation about two months ago after receiving complaints from neighbors. They found the once-abandoned warehouse had been outfitted with a 12-foot metal rolling fence, "fortified doors," a large concrete wall around the parking lot and surveillance cameras.

 Inside the four-story warehouse, police found thousands of plants stacked next to one another under heat lamps on wood tables and an advanced irrigation system. The electric bill for the property was about $67,000 per month, police said.

 "In my 26 years, it was the biggest grow that I've ever seen," San Bernardino police Lt. Mike Madden said. "There were all different rooms for different processes and hydration, filtration and ventilation. It was pretty extensive."

 CBS Los Angeles reports that police are investigating the owner, identified as 43-year-old Stephanie Smith. She was not arrested or charged with a crime. A telephone number for Smith could not be located in public records.

 San Bernardino Police Dept./CBS News

 Police and federal investigators raided two other properties owned by Smith and seized 18,000 pounds of marijuana in total. Eight people who were working in the warehouse in downtown San Bernardino were detained by police, but no charges have been filed in the case, Madden said.

 California voters have approved the legalization of marijuana, but growers must receive licenses and permits from local governments and the state. Recreational pot sales start in California on Jan. 1, joining the long-running medical cannabis industry.

 "Marijuana has been legalized, but there are stringent requirements," Madden said. "It's not that you just get to set up shop where you want to set up."

 The Los Angeles City Council voted Dec. 6 to license sales beginning next year. After months of debate and political snags, the council approved rules to usher in commercial sales and cultivation set to begin in less than a month under an initiative approved by state voters.

 California is among 29 states where pot is legal, either for medical or recreational use. Medical marijuana has been legal in the state for two decades.

 With the new year just weeks away -- and the holidays coming -- industry experts say it's not clear how many businesses, if any, will be ready to open their doors on Jan. 1 to hordes of anxious customers.

 Under the Los Angeles regulations, residential neighborhoods would be largely off-limits to pot businesses, and buffer zones would be set up around schools, libraries and parks. ||||| PACIFIC PALISADES (CBSLA) — Stephanie Smith, who describes herself as a real estate developer educated at Boston College and UCLA, made news in December, when police accused her of running a multimillion-dollar marijuana grow operation in San Bernardino.

 The blonde and blue-eyed 43-year old mother of five with a huge smile made headlines around the world after San Bernardino police raided three buildings she owned and confiscated thousands of marijuana plants all seen on video. Investigators got suspicious when a $67,000 electric bill popped up at one of her properties thought to be vacant and red-tagged it.

 Smith lives 80 miles from San Bernardino in Pacific Palisades, where police showed up on her doorstep.

 Smith posted security camera photos online from that day and wrote, “Raiding a woman and toddlers with SWAT in full gear and guns is absurd.”

 Smith declined an interview but through a statement from her attorney she says she’s “a well-known and recognized leader in large-scale cannabis real estate development.”

 She insists she just owns the buildings saying: “The tenants in my buildings were compliant with the laws of the State of California and had applied for licenses from the City of San Bernardino multiple times. only to have their applications rejected for technical reasons.

 “These raids certainly inconvenienced me, but they devastated my tenants, who are small-business operators, destroyed over 100 local jobs that paid excellent wages, squandered badly needed local tax revenue.”

 San Bernardino Community Development Director Mark Persico is in charge of permitting marijuana businesses and says the city is an attractive spot for marijuana businesses. They already have 50 applications in the works because of Measure O, which passed in 2016.

 “The measure sets up a permitting process for both the cultivation of marijuana as well as the sales, testing, distribution. … It sets up a whole permit structure,” said Persico,

 Police say the operators of the business did not have the proper permits to run a business of this scale. The plants will be destroyed, and the operators could be charged with misdemeanors.

 If Smith looks or sounds familiar, she was the subject of a story CBS2 ran in 2008.

 Back then, her last name was Darcy and she was accused of performing liposuction on patients in Dr. Craig Alan Bittner’s Beverly Hills office, even though she didn’t have a medical degree.

 Three patients sued Smith and Bittner, but the cases were dismissed.

 You might recall Bittner also made headlines for turning fat into biodiesel for his SUV. The two now work together in real estate development.

 A Statement From Smith:

 As a professional real estate developer with several million square feet of commercial and industrial space throughout California, I provide the infrastructure for all types of industry to operate and prosper, including the cannabis industry. I am a well-known and recognized leader in large-scale cannabis real estate development and I am proud of the State of California’s position on cannabis.

 Clearly the Mayor of San Bernardino and I feel differently about cannabis. I’m strongly on the side of the majority voters in San Bernardino and elsewhere who demand the regulation and taxation of commercial cannabis. The tenants in my buildings were compliant with the laws of the State of California and I had applied for licenses from the City of San Bernardino multiple times only to have their applications rejected for technical reasons. In raiding buildings that I own, the Mayor of San Bernardino opposed the will of the voters, wasted city resources and in the process squandered well over $1 million of potential annual city taxes from the businesses of my tenants.

 These raids certainly inconvenienced me, but they devastated my tenants who are small business operators, destroyed over one hundred local jobs that paid excellent wages, squandered badly needed local tax revenue and violated the will of the voters of San Bernardino.

 As for the marijuana investigation, the feds helped San Bernardino police with their investigation but say it’s up to police if they want to move forward with pressing charges. Again, Smith hasn’t been arrested. ||||| The cannabis company owned by a Pacific Palisades woman whose marijuana growing operation was uprooted by San Bernardino police late last year is suing the city to overturn a new ordinance addressing commercial cannabis businesses.

 The suit – filed Friday by Bubba Likes Tortillas, which owns a lot of property used for cannabis businesses – says the ordinance violates Prop. 64 and other California laws. The San Bernardino City Council unanimously approved the ordinance March 7.

 Stephanie Smith, owner of Bubba Likes Tortillas, claims the ordinance creates a monopoly for certain cannabis license types and bans “any person who has ever had anything to do with cannabis … from entering the legal market.”

 City Attorney Gary Saenz said by phone Monday, March 26, his office had received the lawsuit earlier in the day and hadn’t had time to review it and offer a comment.

 The ordinance – one of three passed earlier this month – says the city can award only 17 cannabis business licenses in this first year; with 19 different cannabis license types available under California law, certain businesses can hold a monopoly on the marketplace, the suit says.

 State law grants cities the authority to limit cannabis businesses as they choose.

 Additionally, Smith claims, the ordinance disqualifies any cannabis-related enterprise previously labeled as non-compliant with city law from holding a commercial license. And a renewal could be denied if a business owner is found to have operated in violation of city or state law.

 Cities such as Los Angeles and Oakland are going the opposite direction and giving priority in licensing to business owners who’ve had cannabis-related convictions in the past. Such social equity programs have been created to help undo some of the historic harms from the war on drugs.

 San Bernardino’s requirements violate due process, the suit says. They do “not require a conviction, administrative hearing, or any other process other than that the City of San Bernardino has determined that the actions occurred.”

 “This misguided ordinance is a backdoor ban that continues the City’s illogical campaign against a legal product,” Smith said in a statement.

 Smith made headlines late last year when San Bernardino police seized nearly 25,000 marijuana plants at three Bubba Likes Tortillas locations as part of an intensive investigation. One of the locations was less than a block from the rear of the police station.

 Smith’s home also was raided. She was not arrested, though eight men at the sites were arrested on suspicion of cultivating marijuana. Less than a week later, nearly 4.5 tons of marijuana was seized at another warehouse owned by Smith.

 Smith did not have a permit to grow in the city, authorities said.

 San Bernardino’s marijuana laws have been murky for a while.

 Voters in 2016 passed Measure O, a ballot measure requiring the city allow marijuana dispensaries in certain areas. Three permits were awarded, including one to the Flesh Showgirls strip club on Hospitality Lane. Measure O’s validity later was challenged in court, putting those permits in limbo.

 Smith’s operations were uprooted Dec. 13 and 19. On Dec. 20, city leaders passed a temporary moratorium on certain marijuana activities not covered by Measure O. Nine days later, a San Bernardino County Superior Court judge tentatively ruled Measure O invalid for spot zoning – that is, singling out parcels of land for uses benefiting their owners at the expense of others in the surrounding area.

 Under Measure O’s zoning restrictions, Judge David Cohn wrote, only two locations in city – one being the Flesh Club, which is not associated with Bubba Likes Tortillas – would be allowed to sell marijuana.

 Captain Jack’s, a dispensary at the Flesh Club address, opened to the public in January with a city and a state license.

 On Feb. 1, the City Council extended the temporary moratorium up to 10 months and 15 days. At the end of the month, Cohn declared Measure O invalid in his final, written decision. An appeal was filed on behalf of the Flesh Club owner, and Saenz said the court ruled Monday that dispensaries operating with a Measure O permit and a state license can continue operating in the city until at least April 27.

 The court at that time is expected to make a determination on the city’s new commercial cannabis ordinance, Saenz said. “There’s a lot going on in the cannabis world as far as San Bernardino is concerned right now.” |||||Summary:

– A Los Angeles mom accused of running a multimillion-dollar marijuana grow operation in San Bernardino is now suing the city to overturn its pot regulation ordinance, the AP reports. Stephanie Smith, a 43-year-old real estate developer and mother of five, owns three buildings in San Bernardino that were raided by police in December. Thousands of marijuana plants were confiscated, CBS Los Angeles reported at the time. Smith was not arrested or charged, but police accused her of being in charge of the pot "fortress"; she said she was simply the landlord and that her tenants' activities were legal. In her lawsuit, she argues San Bernardino's ordinance "is a backdoor ban that continues the city's illogical campaign against a legal product," CBS reports. California legalized recreational marijuana last year, but sales did not begin until Jan. 1, CBS reported at the time. Smith, who says she is the biggest landlord of marijuana businesses in the state, argues that under the San Bernardino ordinance—which was passed by the city council after Smith's buildings were raided—"any person who has ever had anything to do with cannabis is banned for life from entering the legal market," per the San Bernardino Sun. That's because Smith says her tenants were in the process of being licensed when they were raided, and got approval to operate a week after authorities shut them down, but the ordinance bars anyone who has violated local or state laws related to the cannabis industry from ever entering the commercial cannabis business in the city. "San Bernardino is ... guaranteeing that anyone in the city who operated prior to this law has to remain in the black market," her attorney says. Smith says that could result in monopolies forming in the cannabis industry, and could also prevent her from renting to those in the industry.


Campus Rape Reports Are Up, And Assaults Aren't The Only Reason

 Enlarge this image toggle caption Erin/Flickr Erin/Flickr

 Enlarge this image toggle caption Joe Shapiro/NPR Joe Shapiro/NPR

 The number of "forcible rapes" that get reported at four-year colleges increased 49 percent between 2008 and 2012. That's the finding of an analysis by NPR's Investigative Unit of data from the Department of Education.

 That increase shows that sexual assault is a persistent and ugly problem on college campuses. But there's also a way to look at the rise in reports and see something positive: It means more students are willing to come forward and report this underreported crime.

 "It's a good thing that more victims are reporting because they're getting the help and support they need from their institutions," says Daniel Carter, a veteran advocate for better campus safety laws.

 "For far too long, they've been left on their own. And now they're getting the help they need, which is the first step in healing and recovery and ultimately ... finishing their education as wholly as possible."

 Carter is the director of a group called 32 National Campus Safety Initiative. He says there's still a long way for schools to go.

 This week, the White House told colleges and universities to take more action to prevent sexual assaults. And just in the past couple of years, many schools have taken on sexual assault investigations with more seriousness. School administrations have been prodded by students who are demanding better treatment. And schools have been pushed, since 2011, by new rules and laws from Washington, D.C.

 Among the schools that Carter and other advocates point to as being models is the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor.

 Enlarge this image toggle caption Melanie Maxwell/MLive.com/Landov Melanie Maxwell/MLive.com/Landov

 But that school, which gives a series of training sessions to first-year students on preventing sexual assault, has had its own controversy — showing just how hard it can be for schools to take on this problem.

 The University of Michigan is already doing most of the steps suggested by the White House to prevent sexual assaults on college campuses. For example, the school teaches "bystander education," which shows students how to step in and stop a dangerous situation that they see — such as a student trying to get another student drunk at a party.

 Students not only are taught the definition of consent but then role-play and practice saying "No" and even how to respond correctly — and graciously — when told "No."

 The data NPR analyzed show that reports of forcible sexual assaults between 2010 and 2012 have gone up 113 percent at the University of Michigan.

 Enlarge this image toggle caption Joe Shapiro/NPR Joe Shapiro/NPR

 "So if you say, look, University of Michigan, we want you to be aggressive. We want you to be focused. We want you to get your students to tell you what's going on, then our numbers are going to go up," says Royster Harper, the school's vice president for student affairs. "If you want low numbers, you're really saying to students, be quiet. We should expect the more education we do, the safer our students feel, the more they see us responding. We should expect our numbers to go up."

 And students have not been quiet.

 In February, a small group of students protested the way the university handled sexual misconduct allegations against a player on the football team.

 In 2009, a first-year student said the player, Brendan Gibbons, raped her at a fraternity party. But the case was dropped. Last August, the school adopted a new policy — based on new guidelines issued by the Department of Education in 2011 — that gave the school more leeway to conduct an investigation. A retired professor, who acts as a local watchdog, then filed a new complaint over the Gibbons investigation, and the case against the football player was reopened.

 And in December, right before Michigan went to a bowl game, Gibbons was expelled.

 But some students wanted to know whether the university had waited too long.

 University officials refused to turn over records to an investigative committee formed by the student government. Administrators say the records had to stay confidential.

 The student report concluded that the university took too long — more than 60 days — to investigate most allegations. In January, the school hired a second, full-time investigator — to look into reports of sexual assault.

 "If the University of Michigan still has a ways to go, but is doing a good job relative to everyone else, everyone else really needs to do a lot to catch up," says Michael Proppe, the student government president at the time, who established the student task force.

 By next fall, all schools around the country must comply with a new federal law, the Campus SaVE Act, which demands more assault prevention education and better investigations. ||||| A new study released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Education on school crime and safety revealed what appears to be a troubling statistic — sexual assault reports at college campus have increased more than 50% in 10 years.

 According to the DOE study, "The number of reported forcible sex crimes on campus reported increased by 52 percent, from 2,200 in 2001 to 3,300 in 2011." Put another way, there were 2.2 sexual assault reports for every 10,000 full-time students in 2011, compared with 1.9 reports per 10,000 students in 2001.

 This 50% rise is roughly consistent with other studies of college sexual assault reports.

 Earlier this year, NPR found that "forcible rape" reports at four-year colleges increased 49% between 2008 and 2012. Likewise, a Boston Globe investigation into federal data revealed that "forcible sex offense" reports rose by almost 40% in Boston-area colleges between 2008 and 2012.

 However, as NPR notes, these are arguably positive statistics (emphasis ours): "That increase shows that sexual assault is a persistent and ugly problem on college campuses. But there's also a way to look at the rise in reports and see something positive: It means more students are willing to come forward and report this underreported crime."

 Various studies have found that around one in five college females will be the victim of sexual assault during their time on campus and that around 90-95% of these sexual assaults go unreported.

 "When we see sexual assault numbers increase, that hopefully means the barriers to reporting are finally beginning to be addressed, which means you are beginning the steps to solve the problem," S. Daniel Carter, director of the 32 National Campus Safety Initiative, told The Globe.

 There is still a massive difference between the one in five statistic — notably cited by the White House earlier this year — and the new DOE report's 2.2 sexual assault reports per 10,000 students. It is important to note that academic and other independant studies are usually conducted using responses from anonymous college students, rather than the DOE's report, which is exclusively using data from official police reports.

 It is also notable that the DOE study defines "forcible sexual offenses" as "any sexual act directed against another person forcibly and/or against that person's will."

 Likely, this rise can partially be attributed to increased education on college campuses about what constitutes sexual assault — for example, date rape, sexual coercion, or other situations where one person is unable to give consent.

 As Los Angeles Times columnist Sandy Brooks wrote in May, "We're not talking about strangers jumping out of bushes. The majority of campus sexual assaults are committed by someone the victim knows, and involve overuse of alcohol or drugs."

 Brooks cites a National Institute of Justice study, which, as she writes, found that 14% of college women "said someone had sexual contact with them when they were passed out or too drunk to be able to stop or provide consent ... [but] only 37% of the women the study classified as rape victims believed that what happened to them was rape." ||||| The number of sex crimes reported on U.S. college campuses soared by 50% over the course of a decade, according to a new government report Tuesday, even as total campus crime decreased.

 The federal Department of Education report looked at assault data up to 2011, when 3,300 forcible sex offenses were reported on campuses across the U.S. That was up from 2,200 reported sex assaults a decade earlier. University crimes in every other category decreased, said the report, which primarily focused on elementary and secondary school safety.

 The increase in reported sexual assaults may not necessarily indicate an increase in assaults themselves, but rather a greater number of crimes being reported. Advocates say a marked increase in reports of sexual assault can be a sign that survivors are beginning to feel more comfortable going to authorities.

 Even though the data ends at 2011, the prevalence of sexual assault, a crime that the Rape Abuse & Incest National Network says goes unreported 60% of the time, continues to be a national epidemic, particularly on college campuses. A May TIME cover story examined how even though the college town of Missoula, Mont. —nicknamed “America’s Rape Capital”—gained a particularly bad reputation for at least 80 reported rapes over the last three years, that figure wasn’t a surprising outlier but rather the norm.

 The White House responded to a series of highly publicized on-campus rapes by releasing a set of guidelines in April urging universities to fight sexual assault, and to change reporting structures so that victims feel safe to come forward.

 You can compare the number of incidents recorded on campuses using TIME’s interactive here. |||||

Write a summary.

– There might be a reason that college sexual assaults make the news more often these days. A new Department of Education report has found that reports of "forcible" campus sexual assaults shot up 50% between 2001 and 2011, jumping from 2,200 to 3,300, Time reports. At the same time, every other category of college crime decreased. The numbers mean that 2.2 out of every 10,000 college students in 2011 reported an assault, Business Insider points out. Still, the spike doesn't necessarily mean that more assaults are occurring; it might just mean that victims have become more comfortable coming forward. "It's a good thing that more victims are reporting," one advocate told NPR in response to a similar finding in April. "For far too long, they've been left on their own. And now they're getting the help they need."


News article:

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. ||||| A Texas family is grieving after their 10-year-old daughter tragically died after trying to rescue kittens.

 Greenlee Marie was trying to rescue her kittens from behind a clothes dryer in her home when she was electrocuted, according to a GoFundMe created by her family.

 “On July 7th, Greenlee lost her life in a traumatizing accident at home. She was trying to rescue two kittens from behind her family’s dryer when she was tragically taken from this world,” the GoFundMe read. “At just 10 years of age, she had such a compassionate heart, not just for people but for orphaned and injured animals as well.”

 “At the wishes of her beloved parents, fundraising in Greenlee’s memory are being made available to all who knew her and loved her in our community,” it continued. “Her whole life she had enjoyed helping those less fortunate than herself, and had always planned when she was older to become a veterinarian and to help rescue more animals.”

 “So in honor of Greenlee we are asking that any donations be made, in lieu of flowers, cards, etc, her family would like to be able to collect funds to continue Greenlee’s passion of helping animals in our community. Please help us in honoring her memory by being her voice for the voiceless.”

 Her mother, Shelby Roos told KSLA-TV that her daughter “loved her babies,” referring to the kittens Greenlee was trying to rescue.

 “And she would do anything for them. I know she is up there right now with all of her babies,” Roos added.

 Roos shared a Facebook tribute to her daughter on Monday calling her a “light.”

 “With the heaviest of hearts I want to tell y’all our Greenlee was tragically taken from us Sat [sic] night,” Roos wrote alongside a photo of her daughter sticking out her tongue which was blue.

 “She was such a light in this world and everyone she ever met couldn’t help but fall in love with her. She had more compassion for everything living at 10 years old than most will have in a lifetime,” she continued. “Please pray for us as we try to find sence [sic] in the senseless.”

 “I ask everyone please continue to respect our privacy in not posing details. I will update everyone as soon as I have more info,” Roos continued. “Please hug all your babies tight because tomorrow is truly never promised. And take peace in the fact that she is in heaven getting love from all the animals she loved with her whole heart.❤❤❤❤❤❤“

 Police and the fire department are currently investigating the wiring in the home, according to the Dallas Morning News. A spokesperson for the New Boston Police Department did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

 While the family had previously complained about electricity issues in the home, interim New Boston police chief Gary McGrary told KSLA it was “too early right now to start placing blame and responsibility.”

 Greenlee’s body was sent to Dallas, Texas for an autopsy, the Dallas Morning News reported. ||||| On July 7th, Greenlee lost her life in a traumatizing accident at home. She was trying to rescue two kittens from behind her family’s dryer when she was tragically taken from this world. At just 10 years of age, she had such a compassionate heart, not just for people but for orphaned and injured animals as well. At the wishes of her beloved parents, Shelby Roos and Scott Hendrix, fundraising in Greenlee’s memory are being made available to all who knew her and loved her in our community. Her whole life she had enjoyed helping those less fortunate than herself, and had always planned when she was older to become a veterinarian and to help rescue more animals. So in honor of Greenlee we are asking that any donations be made, in lieu of flowers, cards, etc, her family would like to be able to collect funds to continue Greenlee’s passion of helping animals in our community. Please help us in honoring her memory by being her voice for the voiceless.

 Thank you, Greenlee’s family and Friends

 You can also make donations at Farmers Bank&Trust under her Grandmother’s name, Daphne Patrick

 Farmers Bank & Trust

 2900 St. Michaels Dr

 Texarkana, TX 75503

 903-791-0490

 Share Tweet 2.1k shares on Facebook shares on Facebook ||||| 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. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– A Texas family says they are trying to "make sense of the senseless" in the tragic death of their 10-year-old daughter, who was electrocuted in their home. Greenlee Marie Buckley's mother says the girl, who loved animals, died while trying to rescue two kittens that had become trapped behind their dryer on Saturday night, People reports. Police say the family has told them they previously complained about electrical issues in the rented home in New Boston, around 20 miles west of Texarkana, though Chief Gary McCrary says it's "too early right now to start placing blame and responsibility." Police and power company investigators have visited the house, which the family had lived in for around 15 months. Experts say that when a dryer gives off an electrical shock to the touch, it is a sign of one or more common but potentially lethal electrical issues, the Fort-Worth Star-Telegram reports. Greenlee's grieving parents say there's no reason their daughter should be gone. "Landlords need to be held accountable for the conditions of the homes that they let people live in," mother Shelby Roos tells KSLA. "All we want is a voice for our daughter who left us over a senseless act." Greenlee always "enjoyed helping those less fortunate than herself, and had always planned when she was older to become a veterinarian and to help rescue more animals," the family says in a GoFundMe campaign to honor her memory by helping animals in the community.


Photo

 Lincoln Chafee, the struggling Democratic presidential candidate, is planning to make an update about the state of his campaign on Friday morning at the Democratic National Committee’s Women’s Leadership Forum.

 I look forward to speaking at DNC Women's Forum tomorrow morning. I'll address my future in the campaign there. #chafee2016 — Lincoln Chafee (@LincolnChafee) October 23, 2015

 Mr. Chafee is a former governor and senator from Rhode Island and his poll numbers have been hovering around zero and he has only raised about $30,000 in his campaign.

 He did not help his cause at last week’s Democratic presidential debate, when he stumbled on questions about his record or and in trying to make a case for his candidacy.

 After the debate, the CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer asked him if he was worried that his campaign was making him look silly and questioned how long he could go on.

 An anti-war candidate who is passionate about foreign policy and opposed the Iraq war, Mr. Chafee said he remained intent on getting his message out despite the long odds.

 This week Jim Webb, another Democrat who had been struggling to break through, dropped out of the race and is considering an independent bid.

 A spokeswoman for Mr. Chafee did not immediately return a request for comment on Thursday evening about Mr. Chafee’s plans. ||||| (CNN) Former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee ended his long-shot bid for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, he announced Friday.

 "As you know, I have been campaigning on a platform of Prosperity Through Peace," Chafee said at the DNC's annual Women's Leadership Forum in Washington. "But after much thought I have decided to end my campaign for president today. I would like to take this opportunity one last time to advocate for a chance be given to peace."

 The Democrat declared his presidential campaign in June, shortly after announcing that he had formed an exploratory committee.

 One of the reasons Chafee decided to drop out now: Hillary Clinton had "a good week," he said, one where former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb dropped out of the race, Vice President Joe Biden declined to run and she withstood hours of testimony on Capitol Hill.

 "Obviously it was a good week for Secretary Clinton," Chafee told reporters after his speech. "She did well in the debates and then Senator Webb got out, Vice President Biden declined to join the race, she did well in the Benghazi hearing and Gov. Chafee got out of the race."

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

– Lincoln Chafee is saying what everybody was thinking: He's out of the race for president. The former Rhode Island governor made it official Friday morning in an address to the Women's Leadership Forum. "As you know I have been campaigning on a platform of 'Prosperity Through Peace,'" he said, per CNN. "But after much thought I have decided to end my campaign for president today. I would like to take this opportunity one last time to advocate for a chance [to] be given to peace." Two big reasons he dropped out: He was somewhere between 0% and 1% in the polls, and he'd raised only $30,000, reports the New York Times. Unlike Jim Webb, Chafee isn't interested in an independent bid, and his departure leaves Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, and Martin O'Malley in the Democratic contest. (Clinton seems only to have strengthened her campaign after Thursday's marathon grilling over Benghazi.)


Focused crawls are collections of frequently-updated webcrawl data from narrow (as opposed to broad or wide) web crawls, often focused on a single domain or subdomain. ||||| The Ohio Attorney General's Office confirmed Monday that Mike DeWine and staff are aware of Facebook threats against members of the Rhoden family, as the investigation continues into the mass shootings of eight people in Pike County.

 "An analysis of social media accounts is essential to any murder investigation," spokesperson for the attorney general Dan Tierney said.

 Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine and Pike County Sheriff Charles Reader released the following update Monday in the ongoing investigation into mass shootings of Rhoden family members in Pike County.

 A chart describing the familial relationships of the decedents can be accessed here .

 All eight autopsies have been completed.

 Search warrants have not yet been filed with the court.

 Roadblocks leading to the crime scenes will remain in place until the scenes are released by law enforcement.

 Sheriff Reader would like to express his thanks to every county sheriff in Ohio for offering assistance, manpower, and equipment.

 A memorial fund has been established to benefit the family at Fifth Third Bank. Donations to The Rhoden Memorial Fund can be made at any Fifth Third Bank.

 Attorney General Michael DeWine told newsnet5.com that a marijuana grow operation was found at three of the four crime scene locations in the Pike County mass killing investigations.

 While he says it is unclear whether the drugs were connected to the shooting, he said the grow operations will be a big part of the investigation.

 "This was commercial, to be sold and this was an organization going on," DeWine said Monday.

 Pike County Sheriff Charles Reader warned the Rhoden family to be armed.

 "This was something that was planned," said Reader at a press conference Sunday with DeWine. "The family was targeted."

 DeWine said that the attorney general's office did not know if there was one or more suspects but that the investigation into who killed the Rhoden family, and why, would be lengthy.

 The killings were a "sophisticated operation," according to DeWine. "Those that carried it out were trying to do everything they could do to hinder their investigation and prosecution," he said.

 More than 100 personnel in the southern county of Pike are assisting in the investigation.

 Seven adults and a teenage boy were found fatally shot Friday at four different properties near Piketon, about 60 miles south of Columbus. Autopsies are being performed this weekend. Authorities said investigations at the crime scenes are complete but will remain closed.

 Anyone with information on this case is asked to call 1-855-BCI-OHIO (224-6446) or the Pike County Sheriff's Office at 740-947-2111. ||||| PIKE COUNTY, Ohio --A Facebook threat mentioning one of the eight members of an Ohio family who were shot and killed execution-style on Friday is among the the evidence investigators are examining, CBS News has confirmed.

 The threat specifically called out Christopher Rhoden Jr., who died along with seven other members of the Rhoden family, in a string of shootings at four rural locations.

 "I'm aware of the Facebook threat," Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine told CBS News. "Every piece of information is valuable and our investigators are certainly taking that into consideration."

 Pike County Sheriff Charles Reader, said most of the victims were targeted while they were sleeping. He said it was clear the family was targeted and that he has warned the surviving members of the Rhoden family to take precautions and arm themselves.

 "I cautioned them, told them we will be there," Reader told CBS News. "I told (them) to be armed."

 One member of the family, who asked not to be identified, said the relatives are "torn up" over the murders.

 "And you know what I mean, kinda freaked out because we don't know. There's still killers on the loose, or killer," he said.

 Authorities confirmed Sunday that marijuana grow operations were found near some of the sites where the Rhoden family members were murdered.

 A law enforcement source has confirmed that investigators found some 200 marijuana plants in the executed Ohio family's indoor grow operation, CBS News senior investigative producer Pat Milton reports.

 The source said the size of operation indicates it was being grown for sale not for personal use.

 Each plant could produce about one pound of marijuana. A pound of high-grade quality marijuana has a street value of about $2,000.

 A second law enforcement source said that investigators are looking at numerous avenues as a motive for the killings among them is whether there is a Mexican drug cartel connection or a possible drug turf war or family feud.

 The Friday killings at four different homes near Piketon, Ohio, was "a sophisticated operation," DeWine said at a news conference in the small community that has been on edge since the seven adults and one teenage boy were found shot in the head.

 DeWine cautioned it was too soon to determine if the marijuana grow operations and the murders were directly connected.

 At the Dogwood Festival in downtown Piketon on Sunday afternoon, the crowd was smaller than usual. Courtney Boyer came with her infant daughter.

 "People are scared to come out," she said. "What if that person who shot all those people is running around here. You don't know who it is. Or what they're capable of doing?"

 Authorities have been scrambling to determine who targeted the clan and why. Investigators have interviewed more than 30 people in hopes of finding leads in the deaths.

 The victims were identified Saturday as 40-year-old Christopher Rhoden Sr.; his 16-year-old son, Christopher Rhoden Jr.; 44-year-old Kenneth Rhoden; 38-year-old Gary Rhoden; 37-year-old Dana Rhoden; 20-year-old Clarence "Frankie" Rhoden; 20-year-old Hannah Gilley; and 19-year-old Hanna Rhoden.

 It appeared some of the family members were killed as they slept, including Hanna Rhoden, who was in bed with her newborn baby nearby, authorities said. The infant was 4- or 5-days old. The baby, Hannah Gilley's 6-month-old baby, and 1 other small child were not hurt.

 Since the slayings, authorities have refused to discuss many details of the crime, including any evidence or the search for the assailant or assailants.

 Investigators sought tips and gave people a number to call if they had any details about the crimes. A Cincinnati-area businessman also put up a $25,000 reward for information leading to the capture and conviction of the killer or killers.

 Two of the crime scenes are within walking distance of each other along a sparsely populated, winding road that leads into wooded hills from a rural highway.

 The third residence is more than a mile away, and the fourth home is on a different road, at least a 10-minute drive away, said the investigation's leader, Benjamin Suver, a special agent in charge with Bureau of Criminal Investigations.

 An out-of-breath caller who found two of the eight family members told a 911 dispatcher in a quavering voice that "there's blood all over the house."

 "I think my brother-in-law's dead," she said, her voice rising as she adds later that it looks like someone has "beat the crap out of them."

 "I think they're both dead," she said before breaking down into sobs, according to one of two 911 call recordings released Saturday by the state attorney general's office.

 Phil Fulton, the pastor of Union Hill Church up the road from where some of the victims were found, described the family as close-knit and hardworking. He said they were previously part of his congregation, though not recently.

 "We're just doing everything we can to reach out to the family to show them love and comfort," Fulton said.

 Kendra Jordan, 20, said she often worked nights at a nursing home with the mother of the newborn and described her as outgoing, funny and always smiling.

 "If you were having a bad day, she'd be the first one to come up to you to question you about what was going on," Jordan said. "She was amazing."

 Jordan said the town would have difficulty recovering from the loss of a such a well-known family in the tight-knit community.

 "Everyone knows that family, you can't not know that family," she said. "They're involved in everything, and they're at every event that's going on in town. Just about see them anywhere you went." |||||

Write a summary.

– A new development in Ohio: One of the eight family members killed in a horrific mass slaying had already been threatened on Facebook, CBS News reports. The threat was directed at Christopher Rhoden Jr., who at 16 was the youngest of the victims. "I'm aware of the Facebook threat," says Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine. "Every piece of information is valuable and our investigators are certainly taking that into consideration." Now Pike County Sheriff Charles Reader has told surviving Rhoden family members to be careful. "I cautioned them, told them we will be there," Reader says. "I told [them] to be armed." One surviving family member says the Rhodens are "torn up" about the killings. "And you know what I mean, kinda freaked out because we don't know," says the relative, who asked not to be identified. "There's still killers on the loose, or killer." The slayings happened in four rural homes near Piketon, Ohio, a town of about 2,200 where the Dogwood Festival on Sunday had a smaller-then-usual turnout. "People are scared to come out," says a resident. "What if that person who shot all those people is running around here." Now autopsies of all eight victims have been completed, News Net 5 reports, and a chart of the Rhoden family relationships can be seen here. (Marijuana-growing was found at three of the four murder sites.)


Write an article based on this summary:

– Coach will spend $2.4 billion for Kate Spade, tying together two premier brands in the luxury goods sector in a bid to snare younger shoppers. Noting that crucial demographic, Coach CEO Victor Luis says in a company release Monday that Kate Spade has a "strong awareness among consumers, especially millennials." Coach will pay $18.50 per share of Kate Spade, a 9% premium to its Friday closing price of $16.97. It follows another recent millennial-minded deal on Coach's part: engaging Selena Gomez (and, it likely hopes, her 120 million Instagram fans) in a deal that will put her in Coach ads and across its social media, reports CNBC. But the brand isn't just going younger, it's going luxe-er, reports the AP: Coach has made an aggressive push to polish its image as a purveyor of opulence, ending many of the promotions it had used to ramp up sales. To power future growth, it's begun to build an empire of luxury brands. In 2015, Coach acquired the high-end footwear company Stuart Weitzman. Last month the company hired Joshua Schulman, the president of Neiman Marcus's Bergdorf Goodman division, and put him in the newly created position as president and CEO of the Coach brand. In CNN Money's view, the acquisition is "bad news for purse-loving bargain hunters." It cites Coach's CFO as saying that Kate Spade will likely reel in the number of "online flash sales" it has.

In an effort to resonate more with younger consumers, handbag maker Coach is buying its smaller rival, Kate Spade & Co., for $2.4 billion, the companies announced on Monday, putting many M&A rumors to rest.

 "Kate Spade has a truly unique and differentiated brand positioning with a broad lifestyle assortment and strong awareness among consumers, especially millennials," Coach CEO Victor Luis said in a statement.

 The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2017 and add to adjusted earnings in fiscal 2018, Coach added.

 Shares of Kate Spade closed more than 8 percent higher Monday following this announcement, while Coach's stock ended the day up almost 5 percent.

 " ... this is a sensible deal both in terms of the brand fit and the premium that Coach is paying," GlobalData Retail analyst Neil Saunders said in a statement about the transaction. "Ultimately the aim for Coach is to become a business with a portfolio of distinct and compelling luxury brands. Today's announcement is the solid step on that journey."

 Coach has made no secret of its desire to create a global, multi-brand luxury company.

 M&A rumors were already stirring last week, when Coach reported better-than-expected earnings. There were reports surfacing that in addition to Kate Spade, Coach was considering an acquisition of luxury shoe manufacturer Jimmy Choo.

 Earlier in the year, Kate Spade said it was actively considering strategic alternatives, and JAB Holding, the owner of Jimmy Choo, made a similar announcement about that brand recently.

 "Now that Coach is on a clear path to recovery, we believe it is right for the company to explore options for future growth," Saunders had said last week.

 "Some of this will come from the core brand which has the potential to become more of a lifestyle destination," Saunders wrote. "However, Coach needs to be conservative in this push, if only to avoid the previous pitfalls of ubiquity. ... This is one of the reasons why the company is exploring options to buy other brands."

 Saunders predicted an acquisition of the Kate Spade brand could have a lot of potential for Coach as Kate is "in the early stages of developing its own lifestyle brand and would benefit from Coach's sourcing and distribution expertise, as well as some fresh thinking on the design front."

 Coach's latest strategy to cut back on discounting products in the U.S. is finally paying off, as evidenced by the retailer's financials and a stronger bottom line. Making the shift from turnaround mode to growth mode, Coach hopes to boost sales in the coming quarters and better-position its brand in the mind's of shoppers.

 As of Monday's close, shares of Coach have risen 12 percent over the past 12 months and are up 27 percent for the year-to-date period. Kate Spade shares are down more than 22 percent over the past year, and down more than 1 percent for the year-to-date period.

 —Reuters contributed to this report. ||||| Coach has just bagged itself a deal.

 The luxury handbag maker has announced plans to buy competitor Kate Spade in a deal worth $2.4 billion.

 Coach (COH) will pay $18.50 in cash for each Kate Spade share -- an increase of nearly 30% from where the stock was trading prior to rumors of a sale.

 Coach said it expects the transaction to close by the end of the third quarter. It plans to preserve Kate Spade's (KATE) "brand independence" and retain key staff.

 Mickey Chadha, an analyst at Moody's, said the purchase is the latest effort by Coach to "broaden its customer base to a younger, trendier millennial shopper."

 Coach said it expects to eventually generate $50 million in annual savings by combining the firms' inventory management and supply chains.

 That should help boost profitability, but it's bad news for purse-loving bargain hunters.

 Coach chief financial officer Kevin Wills said the cost savings will allow Kate Spade to have fewer "online flash sales," a change that would help bolster the brand's image as maker of true luxury products.

 Coach and Kate Spade make most of their money in the U.S., but both have been working to expand their international presence.

 Coach sales hit a peak during its heyday in 2013, but the brand lost some of its luster and revenue slumped in 2014 and 2015.

 The company is now working to turn things around. In May of last year, Coach splashed out on popular shoe maker Stuart Weitzman.

 Kate Spade has also seen better days. Its shares hit a three-year low in December before takeover rumors began to swirl. ||||| FILE - In this Friday, Nov. 27, 2015, file photo, shoppers wait in line outside a Coach factory outlet store at the Cincinnati Premium Outlets, in Monroe, Ohio. Coach is buying rival luxury handbag, clothing... (Associated Press)

 FILE - In this Friday, Nov. 27, 2015, file photo, shoppers wait in line outside a Coach factory outlet store at the Cincinnati Premium Outlets, in Monroe, Ohio. Coach is buying rival luxury handbag, clothing and accessories company Kate Spade in a deal valued at $2.4 billion as it looks grab more millennial... (Associated Press)

 FILE - In this Friday, Nov. 27, 2015, file photo, shoppers wait in line outside a Coach factory outlet store at the Cincinnati Premium Outlets, in Monroe, Ohio. Coach is buying rival luxury handbag, clothing and accessories company Kate Spade in a deal valued at $2.4 billion as it looks grab more millennial... (Associated Press) FILE - In this Friday, Nov. 27, 2015, file photo, shoppers wait in line outside a Coach factory outlet store at the Cincinnati Premium Outlets, in Monroe, Ohio. Coach is buying rival luxury handbag, clothing... (Associated Press)

 NEW YORK (AP) — Coach will spend $2.4 billion for Kate Spade, tying together two premier brands in the luxury goods sector that have fought to snare younger shoppers.

 Noting that crucial demographic, Coach Inc. CEO Victor Luis said in a company release Monday that Kate Spade has a "strong awareness among consumers, especially millennials."

 Coach will pay $18.50 per share of Kate Spade & Company. That's a 9 percent premium to its Friday closing price of $16.97.

 Coach has made an aggressive push to polish its image as a purveyor of opulence, ending many of the promotions it had used to ramp up sales. But to power future growth, it's begun to build an empire of luxury brands.

 In 2015, Coach acquired the high-end footwear company Stuart Weitzman.

 Last month the company hired Joshua Schulman, the president of Neiman Marcus's Bergdorf Goodman division, and put him in the newly created position as president and CEO of the Coach brand. Many took that as a step toward a new company structure with a number of distinct brands under one umbrella, with each brand chief reporting to Luis.

 Schulman officially begins his job on June 5.

 Kate Spade's stock surged more than 8 percent before the opening bell. |||||


Article:
A 5-year-old girl is being hailed as a hero after recently being caught on home surveillance footage saving her unconscious mother from the bottom of a swimming pool in Portland, Texas.

 Tracy Anderwald, 34, told ABC News today that she and her daughter, Allison Anderwald, had been "enjoying a mommy-daughter day" in her sister's backyard pool Friday when she suddenly had a seizure, blacked out and sank 4 feet down to the pool's floor.

 After Allison realized her mom had not come up from the water for over five minutes, she jumped in, pulled her mother to the shallow end of the pool and flipped her body over so her head wasn't in the water.

 One of the mom’s sisters, Tedra Hunt, said she happened to be walking over to the house when little Allison ran to tell her what happened. Hunt said she immediately called 911 and emergency personnel then took Tracy to CHRISTUS Spohn Hospital Corpus Christi-Memorial in Corpus Christi, Texas.

 "The doctors explained to us that had Tracy been underwater any longer, she probably wouldn't be with us right now," Hunt, 32, said. "It is truly amazing that this little girl, who’s actually also pretty small for her age, was able to save my sister."

 KIII

 Hunt said doctors initially told her they had low expectations for Tracy's recovery and anticipated she might even have neurological damage.

 But Tracy woke up Saturday morning and after a few tests and assessments, she was deemed OK for release Tuesday afternoon, Hunt said.

 Courtesy Tracy Anderwald

 Tracy will be soon following up with a neurologist to try and figure out what caused the seizure, she said, adding that she had never had one before.

 "Tracy is my sister, best friend, my whole world," Hunt said of her sister. "We lost our dad almost exactly two years ago, and it was so hard to overcome that. I don't know what I would have done if I lost Tracy that day."

 Courtesy Tracy Anderwald

 Hunt added she believed their father was a "guardian angel" watching over them that day and that he guided Allison to help save Tracy.

 Now, Hunt and Tracy said they hope their story helps raise awareness for the importance of teaching kids how to swim and what to do in an emergency at an early age.

 "Allison's been swimming since she was two-and-a-half," Tracy said. "She's our little mermaid and my little hero." ||||| GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES Allison Anderwald, 5, smiles as her mother Tracy talks about how much she likes to swim Tuesday, March 23, 2016, at Christus Spohn Hospital Memorial in Corpus Christi. Allison saved her mother after she suffered from a seizure in the pool at their home.

 SHARE GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES Allison Anderwald, 5, (center) looks at her dad Ryan as he talks with her and her mother Tracy on Tuesday, March 23, 2016, at Christus Spohn Hospital Memorial in Corpus Christi. Allison saved her mother after she suffered from a seizure in the pool at their home. GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES Allison Anderwald, 5, talks to her mothers friend Amber Blimline on Tuesday, March 23, 2016, at Christus Spohn Hospital Memorial in Corpus Christi. Allison saved her mother after she suffered from a seizure in the pool at their home. GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES Ryan Anderwald hugs his daughter Allison, 5, (center) as they sit with her mother Tracy on Tuesday, March 23, 2016, at Christus Spohn Hospital Memorial in Corpus Christi. Allison saved her mother after she suffered from a seizure in the pool at their home. GABE HERNANDEZ/CALLER-TIMES Tracy Anderwald talks about how her daughter Allison Anderwald, 5, enjoys swimming Tuesday, March 23, 2016, at Christus Spohn Hospital Memorial in Corpus Christi. Allison saved her mother after she suffered from a seizure in the pool at their home.

 By Fares Sabawi of the Caller-Times

 It was supposed to be just like any other day. Tracy Anderwald and her daughter, 5-year-old Allison, were swimming in the backyard pool of their home on the outskirts of Portland on Friday. They were having fun splashing around and playing Marco Polo.

 All of a sudden, Tracy Anderwald blacked out. She woke up in Christus Spohn Hospital Memorial.

 "I did not know where I was," Anderwald said. "They did not tell me (what happened) for a while."

 Her sister, Tedra Hunt, finally did when Tracy recovered. Allison was the one to thank.

 With the shy blond girl in her mother's arms, Tracy Anderwald recounted Allison's heroic actions from her hospital room Tuesday.

 When Tracy Anderwald fell to the bottom of the pool, Allison knew something was wrong. She swam to the bottom, pulled her mother to the shallow end and lifted her head above water.

 "It's amazing that she even knew what to do," Anderwald said.

 Hunt, who happened to be walking over to the house, heard Allison and her siblings screaming for help and immediately called 911.

 "Allison was very calm through it. She was trying to tell me what happened," Hunt said.

 Tracy Anderwald described Allison affectionately as a "water bug" who learned how to swim before she was 3. Allison didn't know her mom suffered a seizure, but because she was taught water safety, she knew Tracy Anderwald was underwater for too long.

 "I believe (Allison) had a greater power telling her what to do," Hunt said. "It's a miracle ... she knew how to react." |||||Summary:

– Last Friday was a normal "mommy-daughter" day for Tracy Anderwald and her 5-year-old daughter, Allison. The two were playing Marco Polo in a backyard pool in Portland, Texas, but the next thing Anderwald knew, she was waking up in a nearby hospital without a clue as to how she got there, reports the Corpus Christi Caller-Times. Home surveillance footage on YouTube and the shy voice of little Allison tell the story of a close call—Anderwald had suffered a seizure in four feet of water and, after a few minutes lying motionless on the bottom of the pool, Allison knew it had been too long and dragged her mother to the shallow end, where she rolled her body over. Anderwald's sister, Tedra Hunt, was walking to the house as Allison pulled her mother to the shallow end, and footage shows the girl running for help as soon as her mother's face was out of the water. "The doctors explained to us that had Tracy been underwater any longer, she probably wouldn't be with us right now," Hunt, 32, tells ABC News. "It is truly amazing that this little girl, who’s actually also pretty small for her age, was able to save my sister." Hunt says their father, who died two years ago, was a "guardian angel;" Anderwald, 34, will undergo neurological tests to figure out what caused the seizure, which she'd never had before. The sisters are sharing their story in the hopes of demonstrating the importance of teaching children to swim. Allison, their "little mermaid" and "little hero," has been swimming since she was a toddler. (This skilled Dartmouth swimmer drowned.)