Write an article based on this summary:

– The technician accused of stealing data from Tesla's battery factory in Nevada is countersuing his former employer and CEO Elon Musk for defamation. "Tesla has made several false and defamatory statements about [Martin] Tripp in an effort to discredit him," a lawyer says. The Guardian specifically mentions Musk claiming on June 20 that Tesla "received a call at the Gigafactory that he was going to come back and shoot people." Per CNBC, a Tesla rep added "a friend of Mr. Tripp" claimed he would "shoot the place up." Tripp—who's painted himself as a whistleblower concerned by Tesla's "dangerous" practices, including alleged use of punctured battery cells repaired with glue, per Business Insider—described the claim as "insane." A day later, the local sheriff's department announced "there was no credible threat." That's because there was no phone call, and if there had been, Tesla acted with "at least negligence" in publicizing the information before investigating, reads Tripp's lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Nevada, per Ars Technica. It further notes Tesla seemed to know Tripp's location during the law enforcement investigation and "provided false information" to authorities when claiming it could "verify" the 40-year-old was "armed." "We're … interested in getting to the bottom of how the story was concocted," a lawyer for Tripp tells the Guardian. Tripp, who denies Tesla's claim that he wrote software used to lift data from factory computers (he says he can't even code), is seeking at least $1 million plus punitive damages for alleged defamation, invasion of privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. His lawsuit notes he's received "numerous threats" to his safety.

Martin Tripp. Business Insider

 Martin Tripp, a former process technician at Tesla who says he made $28 an hour, filed a countersuit against the company on Tuesday.

 Tripp, 40, alleges that Tesla is not living up to its mission to improve the environment and instead is generating "large quantities of waste and 'scrap' vehicle parts lying haphazardly on the ground inside the Gigafactory," according to the counterclaim.

 Tripp also alleges that Tesla consistently reused battery parts that had been discarded as waste. His filing says he "was even told by one colleague that the colleague, after seeing damaged products being reused, intentionally further damaged the parts to prevent them from being used in a Model 3."

 More allegations from Tripp's counterclaim:

 "In mid-May 2018, [Tesla's] Manufacturing Operating System ('MOS') showed that from January 1, 2018 to mid-May 2018, approximately $150,000,000 to $200,000,000 worth of battery module parts, including bandoliers and battery cells, had been categorized as 'Scrap.'"

 Tripp also claims that punctured battery cells were reworked with glue and put back on the manufacturing line: "Based upon information and belief, no quality inspections were performed on these 'reworked' battery modules before they were returned to the manufacturing processing line. Mr. Tripp personally observed technicians perform this process on several battery modules."

 Tripp claims that Tesla discontinued systems to track vehicle parts: "As a result, traceability is unknown for many vehicle-parts and/or materials which could have a drastic effect on determining where the part(s) were made, when, and by whom."

 Tripp denies allegations that he hacked into Tesla's manufacturing operating system.

 Tripp claims Tesla "published these false and defamatory statements out of malice and to retaliate against" him and "discredit him before the general public."

 Earlier, Tripp leaked internal documents and other information to Business Insider.

 A self-proclaimed former Tesla fanboy, Tripp claims that he tried bringing his concerns to his superiors and to Tesla CEO Elon Musk first but that nothing came of it.

 Now Tripp is being sued by Tesla, which accuses him of hacking the company and transferring secret information to third parties.

 Tesla also claimed it received a tip from a "friend" of Tripp who suggested Tripp might try to "shoot up" the Gigafactory. Law enforcement looked into it at the time and found no credible threat.

 Tripp denies any violent intentions in his counterclaim and says Tesla declined to reveal the name of the "friend" who gave it the tip.

 "Tesla has used strong-arm tactics and a defamatory smear campaign in an effort to bury the disconcerting information Martin Tripp learned as a Tesla employee and to discredit Mr. Tripp before the general public," Tripp's attorney, Robert D. Mitchell of Tiffany and Bosco, said in a statement to Business Insider.

 "By filing its lawsuit against Mr. Tripp, Tesla has now forced the issues to the forefront, and Mr. Tripp looks forward to defending himself before a jury of his peers by showing that what he witnessed and repeatedly reported at Tesla is, in fact, true."

 Tesla did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

 What may happen when Tesla wants to sue you

 Tripp's legal troubles with Tesla began on June 14 and 15, when the company's security team called him into meetings for questioning.

 He tells Business Insider the first meeting lasted about six or seven hours. Tripp claims Tesla's team wanted to know how he allegedly ran queries into its manufacturing operating system, such as about Tesla's scrap waste and part prices, and why he'd do that.

 Tripp says he told Tesla that he felt Musk was misleading investors about production numbers and that Tesla's security personnel laughed in response.

 Tripp says he then took Tesla's team to an area where nonconforming battery parts were lying about. Some of those batteries were destined for rework, and he explained his fears about hurriedly reworked batteries going into "thermal runaway," a condition in which an overheating battery begins to destroy itself.

 Tripp says he was eventually escorted out by security, at which point, he says, he found his car surrounded by further security in the Tesla parking lot.

 Tesla security wouldn't leave until a truck came to escort Tripp out, he claims. The incident left him with the impression that he'd been let go from the company.

 He was not.

 The next day, Tripp says, Tesla's security team called him back for more questioning and then put him on "administrative leave."

 Tripp recalls the second meeting with Tesla being shorter and less cordial than the first. Tesla's team asked similar questions and then started to ask stranger ones, Tripp claims. They wanted to know how he had allegedly managed to put a program into the MOS that ran queries into the system at the same time every day, searching for scrap costs.

 According to Tripp, the security team told him it knew he had logged into nine computers and had the program running from three of them.

 Tesla did not respond to request for comment on the meetings. In Tesla's complaint, Tesla alleges that in the meetings, Tripp admitted to writing software that hacked Tesla's MOS and to transferring "several gigabytes of confidential and proprietary Tesla data..." Tripp denies these accusations in his filing. He told Business Insider he didn't even know how to code.

 "This ordeal, which, inter alia, implied that Mr. Tripp was a danger to those around him, was highly embarrassing and distressing to Mr. Tripp," Tripp claims in the filing.

 Later, Musk wrote in a company-wide email that Tesla had a "saboteur" on its hands. Shortly after that, Tesla filed a lawsuit against Tripp.

 In a now-public email exchange between Tripp and Musk, the Tesla CEO called Tripp a "horrible human being."

 The company alleges that Tripp stole confidential data and exaggerated the numbers in that data to the media. Tesla also alleged that Tripp hacked into its MOS.

 Tripp says his safety was jeopardized in the weeks that followed.

 The counterclaim alleges that Tripp "has received numerous threats to his personal safety, which, upon information and belief, have been stirred by the foregoing false and defamatory statements published about him" by Tesla. It continues: "Mr. Tripp has even been followed and trailed on multiple occasions by unidentified individuals."

 Claims and rumors

 Rumors have flown around Tesla's factories about Tripp and the "saboteur."

 An engineer at the Fremont, California, factory told Business Insider that the engineers thought it was crazy that any such "saboteur" could exist at all. In their opinion, this person would have to have been a professional hacker.

 "The MOS configuration ... gets overwritten daily with an automatic push from a stash repository," the person said. "All changes on said stash are trackable and require approval from other members."

 He added: "Pushing malicious software onto other people's computers would not be possible without their authorization unless [the person were] a professional hacker. To which then I would say, 'Why is [Tripp] working as a process technician?'"

 In his counterclaim, Tripp maintains that the information he sent to Business Insider was accurate.

 All of this comes at a critical time for Tesla. Analysts at Goldman Sachs say the company may have to raise money soon to maintain a comfortable cash position as it tries to scale its new Model 3 sedan amid production delays.

 The company reports its second-quarter earnings on Wednesday.

 If you are a Tesla employee or customer who has a story to share about a car or experience with the company, give me a shout at llopez@businessinsider.com.

 Disclaimer: The author of this article is specifically named in the counterclaim, where Tripp alleges that statements Musk made on Twitter to @lopezlinette are false and defamatory. ||||| The Tesla “whistleblower” who was accused of sabotage has filed a counterclaim against Tesla and Elon Musk, arguing that his former employer defamed him when it told media outlets that he had threatened a mass shooting.

 Martin Tripp, a former technician at Tesla’s Gigafactory in Nevada, was sued by the electric car company on 20 June, just days after Musk had sent a company email stating that an employee had engaged in “quite extensive and damaging sabotage” against the company’s computer systems.

 The lawsuit accused Tripp of hacking, theft, and making false claims to the media about punctured battery cells and excess scrap material.

 Tripp fought back, telling reporters that he was not a saboteur, but a whistleblower who had leaked information to a reporter for Business Insider out of environmental and safety concerns.

 In response to Tripp’s claim to be a whistleblower, Musk told the Guardian by email on the evening of 20 June that Tesla had “received a call at the Gigafactory that he was going to come back and shoot people”.

 Elon Musk: the volatile visionary at risk of steering Tesla off the road Read more

 The Guardian did not publish the allegation, but other media outlets did, based on an official statement from a company spokesperson stating that the call came “from a friend of Mr Tripp”. The local sheriff’s department announced that “there was no credible threat” the next day.

 Earlier this month, Musk faced significant backlash after he baselessly accused one of the British cave divers involved in the rescue of 12 Thai children of being a “pedo”. The diver said he was considering legal action, and Musk eventually apologized.

 William Fischbach, one of the attorneys representing Tripp, said Tuesday: “Tesla has made several false and defamatory statements about Mr Tripp in an effort to discredit him before the general public.”

 Another attorney for Tripp, Robert D Mitchell, added: “There were very suspicious, very contradictory stories that were advanced by Tesla. We’re going to be interested in getting to the bottom of how the story was concocted.”

 Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It has previously challenged the accuracy of Tripp’s claims.

 The counterclaim, filed in federal court in Nevada on Tuesday, reasserts claims that Tripp had made to Business Insider about his concerns over “high levels of waste and scrap”, “unnerving, dangerous and wasteful business practices” and “punctured battery modules”.

 The countersuit also alleges that Tesla never received any phone call from “a friend of Mr Tripp” and argues that even if the company had received such a call, it acted “with at least negligence” by failing to “conduct a reasonable investigation” prior to publicizing the information.

 The suit further alleges various problems with Tesla’s behavior on the night of the alleged shooting threat, stating that Tesla had “provided inconsistent responses” to law enforcement when asked whether the caller was male or female; that Tesla “provided false information” to law enforcement when it claimed to be able to “verify” that Tripp was “armed”; and that Tesla “appeared to know exactly where Mr Tripp was located” during the course of the sheriff’s department’s investigation, telling investigators that “little birds sing”.

 Mitchell and Fischbach declined to comment on the source of their information about Tesla’s statements to investigators, but they said they had confidence in their evidence.

 The suit also addresses a series of tweets that Musk sent about the Business Insider reporter, Linette Lopez, to whom Tripp had leaked information.

 Elon Musk (@elonmusk) Indeed, very simple question. To be specific: @lopezlinette, did you compensate or promise to compensate Martin Tripp for inside information about Tesla? Did he, under that inducement, provide you with exaggerated negative info, which you printed, but turned out to be untrue?

 The countersuit claims that the tweet “falsely implies that Mr Tripp accepted a bribe from Ms Lopez in exchange for providing information”, which Tripp denies.

 Tripp is seeking at least $1m and punitive damages for claims of defamation, invasion of privacy and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

 The countersuit comes at a sensitive time for Tesla, which is under intense pressure from investors to prove that it can mass-produce its electric vehicles and turn a profit.

 Tesla will announce its quarterly financial results Wednesday. ||||| Martin Tripp, an ex-Tesla technician the company has accused of hacking and sabotage, has now countersued his former employer and claimed that Tesla defamed him.

 Since Tesla fired Tripp and sued him more than a month ago for alleged trade secrets theft, he has hired a New York attorney to help him file a formal whistleblower complaint with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

 CEO Elon Musk has suggested that there could be tens of "bad apples" who have also committed "sabotage" against the company in an apparent effort to thwart Tesla's ambitious promised ramp-up to produce 5,000 Model 3s per week. In recent months the company mounted an unusual tent-like apparatus known as a Sprung structure that houses a new assembly line as part of its factory in Fremont, California.

 However, to date, Tesla has not brought any cases against any further alleged saboteurs.

 In a new lawsuit filed Tuesday by his new Arizona-based legal team, Tripp more fully explained his concerns.

 A long, dusty road

 Tripp previously worked at the Gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada, which manufactures Tesla’s batteries.

 There, he "observed that the waste and scrap levels and non-conforming materials generated by Counterdefendant dramatically increased" after the March 2018 so-called "March to 2,500." The "March to 2,500" referred to Tesla's goal of ramping up to 2,500 Model 3s and then 5,000 by July 2018.

 The lawsuit goes on to explain that Tripp "raised his concerns about the seemingly exorbitant amounts of scrap with his managers and supervisors but no action was taken." On May 16, 2018, he went so far as to email Musk himself and included supporting "graphical charts," in anticipation of Musk’s visit to the Gigafactory.

 As the civil complaint continues:

 Later in the afternoon on May 16, 2018, Mr. Tripp's Manufacturing Engineer Manager asked Mr. Tripp to "forward" him the "email to Elon so that I can avoid getting fired tonight." After Mr. Tripp asked why the Manufacturing Engineer Manager would get fired, the Manufacturing Engineer Manager explained: "because I'm the guy showing him the line and our problems like yield, the guy standing in front of him is the guy who gets fired, and tonight I’m the guy in front of him." That same day, a Design Engineer asked Mr. Tripp to "clean up" the stator production line area so Mr. Musk would not see the mounds of scrap and waste lying on the ground. Mr. Tripp declined to do so because he had repeatedly complained to his supervisors about that very issue over the course of several months, but his complaints had been ignored. Mr. Tripp wanted Mr. Musk to observe how the Gigafactory was actually being operated. The next day, May 17, 2018, Mr. Tripp was "reassigned" to the battery module production line. … Perhaps most egregiously, Mr. Tripp was told by multiple process technicians and associates that a "teach pin" had been left on a robot used in the manufacturing process of battery modules, causing damage to the battery modules. Mr. Tripp was told by the process technicians and associates that when the robot had picked up a battery module, the teach pin, which had become "unthreaded" and "longer," struck the clamshell (i.e., the outer plastic coating) of the battery module, causing a dent and/or puncture. Mr. Tripp was further told that, eventually, the teach pin began puncturing the actual battery cells within the battery module. Approximately 1,173 battery modules had been damaged by this process.

 For its part, Tesla has strongly denied that any such damaged batteries made it into any Model 3. The company has previously said in a statement that "Tripp is either not telling the truth or he simply has no idea what he is talking about."

 Bye, bye, birdie?

 In yet another bizarre turn in this twisted tale, in the immediate wake of the June 2018 lawsuit filed against Tripp, a woman at the Gigafactory said she received a call from an anonymous caller claiming that Tripp had threatened to "shoot the place up."

 Tripp previously categorically denied making any such statement to Ars, which prompted a visit by the Storey County Sheriff. The local authorities ultimately determined that there was "no credible threat."

 Even if Tesla did receive such a call, according to the lawsuit, Tesla "did not, based upon information and belief, conduct a reasonable investigation to determine whether the purported caller was actually a 'friend of Mr. Tripp' before making the foregoing false and defamatory publication, such as obtaining the name of the caller or ascertaining how the caller knew Mr. Tripp."

 This, Tripp’s lawyers argue, constitutes "at least negligence."

 Even more strangely, the lawsuit continues, during the sheriff's investigation, Tesla "appeared to know exactly where Mr. Tripp was located the majority of the time and, after being asked by the investigating deputies how it was aware of such information, [Tesla] simply replied ‘little birds sing.’"

 Tesla did not immediately respond to Ars' request for comment. |||||


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. ||||| United Nations (CNN) The United Nations Security Council on Saturday passed a resolution imposing new sanctions on North Korea for its continued intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) testing and violations of UN resolutions.

 With 15 votes in favor, Resolution 2371 was passed unanimously.

 The resolution targets North Korea's primary exports, including coal, iron, iron ore, lead, lead ore and seafood. The sanctions also target other revenue streams, such as banks and joint ventures with foreign companies.

 The sanctions will slash North Korea's annual export revenue of $3 billion by more than a third, according to a statement from the office of Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations.

 The resolution represents "the strongest sanctions ever imposed in response to a ballistic missile test," the statement said.

 North Korea's state-run newspaper Rodong Sinmun carried an article Sunday warning that the United States' only option will be self-destruction unless it gives up its "hostile policy" against Pyongyang.

 "The US mainland will sink into an unimaginable sea of fire on the day when it dares to touch our country by stupidly causing mischief and brandishing its nuclear and sanctions clubs," the commentary -- under the byline Ri Hyo Jin -- warned.

 'Up to North Korea'

 President Trump, vacationing in New Jersey, tweeted his approval of the Security Council's resolution: "The United Nations Security Council just voted 15-0 to sanction North Korea. China and Russia voted with us. Very big financial impact!"

 Trump has been critical of UN performance in the past but was glad to see China and Russia join with the United States to condemn and crack down on the moneymaking ventures that fuel North Korea's outlawed missile expansion program.

 As for what's next, Haley said, it's "completely up to North Korea."

 Two recent ICBM launches by North Korea prompted a call for action by many UN members, and Haley said the resolution includes "one of the strongest sanctions that's have been passed in a generation."

 The Security Council measured the impact in a big round number: $1 billion in key exports from North Korea to be banned under new international law. From seafood to coal, the resolution demands a shutoff of some of the ways that the reclusive regime makes valuable hard currency to fuel its rising ballistic missile and nuclear industry.

 UNSC just increased the penalty of NKorea ballistic missile activity to a whole new level. Learn more about res 2371:https://t.co/nnZm71O6cw pic.twitter.com/p0hldFpdDt — US Mission to the UN (@USUN) August 5, 2017

 France's UN ambassador, Francois Delattre, said North Korea poses a "4G" threat to the world -- 4G meaning "global, grave, given and growing."

 British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said North Korea, by its ICBM launches, is showing contempt and disregard for the Security Council. "We must meet this belligerence with unequivocal condemnation and with clear, unequivocal consequences," he said.

 The resolution also bans countries from hiring additional North Korean workers, a move designed to shut off another source of hard currency for the Pyongyang regime. A Security Council diplomat said the workers are kept in deplorable conditions in many countries. Haley termed it "modern slavery."

 The resolution also placed nine people and four business entities -- including a major North Korean bank -- on a UN blacklist, slapping all with asset freezes or travel bans.

 Adding tougher sanctions was not possible, with China opposing more severe restrictions that might have been urged by Washington. North Korea is still allowed to receive oil.

 Differences between China and US

 China and a few other countries would like to see dialogue between North Korea and the United States.

 "We are happy to talk with them, but they have to stop this reckless action in order for us to do that," Haley said.

 The resolution, like many before, was worked out over several weeks of negotiations between the United States and China. Ambassador Haley thanked China at the Security Council table for its cooperation.

 However large differences remain between the US and China, North Korea's main ally.

 Chinese Ambassador Liu Jieyi did condemn the ICBM launches but warned against the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system in South Korea by the United States. Jieyi said the missile deployment will not bring a solution to the nuclear and missile testing by North Korea.

 JUST WATCHED Tillerson to North Korea: We are not your enemy Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Tillerson to North Korea: We are not your enemy 01:32

 Haley said the US "is taking and will continue to take prudent defensive measures to protect ourselves and our allies" from the threat posed by North Korea.

 Jieyi of China countered that "China strongly urges parties concerned to halt the process of this deployment and dismantle relevant equipment."

 Russia called the THAAD system an irritant that threatens the regions security.

 US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson recently said the United States does not want regime change in North Korea. Russia's new UN ambassador, Vasily Alekseevich Nebenzya, said Russia hopes Tillerson is sincere.

 The US secretary of state is currently meeting with Asian regional ministers attending the Association of Southeastern Asian Nations (ASEAN) Regional Forum in the Philippines, with North Korea a leading topic.

 Tillerson will hold a trilateral meeting Monday in Manila with his South Korean counterpart Kang Kyung-wha and Japanese counterpart Taro Kono to discuss North Korea, according to South Korea's foreign ministry

 "The three foreign ministers will share their assessments of situations caused by the series of provocations by North Korea and discuss necessary future countermeasures, " the ministry said in a statement.

 China on its role

 Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters covering the forum Sunday that while sanctions against North Korea are necessary, "sanctions are by no means the ultimate goal.

 "The goal is to bring the Korean peninsula nuclear issue back to the negotiation table and to seek a final solution through negotiation, until the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula and the long-term peace and stability of the Korean peninsula become reality."

 Wang said talking about the issue at the ASEAN forum would increase understanding.

 "What's important is that the DPRK foreign minister has come (to this event) too, he can listen to views from all parties, he also has the right to express his own views, this kind of mutual communications can only be beneficial, it will bring no harm," Wang said.

 He said China was the nation that had been executing the UN resolutions:

 "Who is executing each resolution regarding North Korea by the UNSC? It is in fact China who is executing them. Who is taking on the relevant costs? It is China who is taking on those costs. China fully, comprehensively and strictly executed each and every resolution by the UNSC, and fulfilled the responsibility expected from a responsible country. This is for all to see."

 North Korea 'determined to remain nuclear'

 Experts on North Korea debated the impact of the sanctions.

 Seung-Kyun Ko, a professor at Hawaii Pacific University and a former research commissioner in South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told CNN last week that the Kim regime will not respond to punitive measures.

 "If there are no negotiations, the current tensions will continue. North Korea will endeavor to improve its nuclear and missile capability," Ko said.

 "North Korea is an absolute dictatorial regime ... It has sacrificed so much and so many. It is willing to sacrifice more," Ko said.

 John Delury of Yonsei University said the US and Security Council measures appeared to be aimed at North Korea's economy as a whole and it was unlikely the UN resolution would force Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear program.

 "When the economy overall hurts they don't cut the military first, they cut it last. They are very used to suffering economically and the regime is very good at it," Delury said.

 Andrei Lankov, a North Korea expert from Kookmin University in Seoul, had a similar take when talking about sanctions the US imposed unilaterally last week.

 "If we are talking about denuclearization, let's be frank -- nothing is going to work. (The) North Korean government is determined to remain nuclear, and it will remain nuclear. Period. If it means massive economic disaster, they will not care," he told CNN.

 Damage to regime?

 But Cheong Seong-jang, from the South Korea-based Sejong Institute, told CNN the UN resolution could be effective against Kim's regime.

 North Korea's mineral and marine exports were known to be controlled by the Worker's Party of Korea and military authorities "hence this is expected to cause significant damage to the foreign currency income for North Korean elites and could cause big damage to Kim Jong Un's leadership," he said.

 Cheong praised Beijing for signing up to the resolution, which he said could cause economic damage to China's northeastern regions where North Korea's marine and mineral exports were important.

 "However, this resolution does not include measures to halt providing crude oil to North Korea, hence, there are questions on whether this measure could stop North Korea from conducting additional ICBM or nuclear tests," he said.

 "If North Korea does not announce a halt in further nuclear and ICBM tests and does not come out to the negotiation table in the next month, (China) should halt any tourism and trade exchanges, stop providing crude oil, repatriate all North Korean workers to the North and stop all its import activities from the North. Kim Jong Un, for survival of its system, will be forced to send a special envoy to China to make a deal." |||||Summary:

– China appeared to give a boost to US efforts to curtail North Korea's nuclear program on Sunday, one day after the United Nations voted to impose new sanctions on the country. After meeting North Korea's top diplomat, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi urged North Korea to make the "smart decision" and stop testing nuclear weapons and launching missiles, the Washington Post reports. “Do not violate the UN's decision or provoke international society’s goodwill by conducting missile launching or nuclear tests,” Wang said. China's warning came a little more than a week after North Korea tested a ballistic missile that experts say could hit major cities in the United States. On Saturday, the UN Security Council unanimously approved new sanctions on North Korea, banning the country's largest exports, coal, iron and iron ore, lead and lead ore, and seafood, the Los Angeles Times reports. The resolution also freezes the assets of a North Korean art studio that makes Communist-style statues and monuments for dictatorships around the world. All told the sanctions would cut North Korean annual exports by a third, from $3 billion to $2 billion. In response to the UN vote, North Korea's state-run newspaper, Rodong Sinmun, condemned the United States on Sunday, CNN reports. "The US mainland will sink into an unimaginable sea of fire on the day when it dares to touch our country by stupidly causing mischief and brandishing its nuclear and sanctions clubs," the article warned.


Here is a news article: This will appear next to all of your comments

 This will NOT appear anywhere on Newser ||||| Teen surfer dies after shark attack near Esperance, off WA south coast

 Updated

 A 17-year-old girl has died after she was attacked by a shark on Western Australia's south coast, near Esperance, on Monday.

 Police said the girl was surfing with her father when she was attacked at a popular surf break known as Kelp Beds — three kilometres east of Wylie Bay.

 The teenager was treated on the beach by paramedics before being taken to hospital in a critical condition.

 WA Police confirmed the girl later died from her injuries.

 Wylie Bay Beach will be closed until further notice and the Department of Fisheries will spend Tuesday patrolling the beach.

 A surfer lost his arm and his other hand in a shark attack at the same beach in 2014.

 Topics: shark, animal-attacks, esperance-6450, wa

 First posted ||||| NOT DEPLOYED: Fisheries Minister confirms drum lines not deployed

 A TEENAGE girl has died after being mauled by a shark while surfing with her father off a beach near Esperance on Monday.

 The 17-year-old is understood to have lost her left leg in the attack at the popular Kelp Beds surf break at Wylie Bay east of Esperance about 4pm.

 It happened off the same beach where surfer Sean Pollard lost his arms in a shark attack nearly three years ago.

 It is understood the girl’s father had been some distance away at the time of the attack and heard her scream before she was pulled under water by the shark.

 When she resurfaced, her father paddled over and dragged her to the shore with the help of another teenager.

 The girl’s mother and two younger sisters were at the beach and watched the dramatic events unfold.

 media_camera Bandy creek

 The family, who are believed to be from the Mandurah area and were holidaying in Esperance, helped provide emergency first aid until police and an ambulance crew arrived.

 It is understood the girl was unconscious and had major blood loss by the time she arrived at Esperance Hospital, where doctors continued the desperate effort to save her life.

 She was pronounced dead a short time later.

 Authorities believe it was likely the girl was attacked by a great white shark, but the size of the shark is not known.

 media_camera Esperance shark attack. Picture: 7 News Perth

 The beach was closed Monday night and is expected to remain closed on Tuesday. PerthNow understands the area around Wylie Bay has been a hotbed of shark sightings and activity since Mr Pollard, of Bunbury, lost both hands while surfing there in October 2014.

 Mr Pollard was bumped by a second shark as he floated in the water in a massive pool of blood.

 Miraculously, four strangers on the beach who all knew first aid were able to save his life.

 That incident prompted the Department of Fisheries to invoke its serious-threat policy and deploy drum lines, which caught two great white sharks including one that was tagged.

 Fisheries last night declined to say whether it would deploy any gear after yesterday’s attack.

 17yo girl fighting for her life after Wylie Bay shark attack. #esperance pic.twitter.com/kCNdidIXa6 — Caitlyn Rintoul (@caitlynrintoul) April 17, 2017

 Professional fisherman and surfer Neville Mansted said the girl’s death was tragic.

 “We heard the sirens and then when we heard there had been an attack,” he said. Mr Mansted said he would never surf at the beach again.

 “That’s twice now in the same spot. It could have been my son,” he said.

 Mr Mansted, whose family holds a shark fishing licence, said there were more great white sharks than ever in the waters off Esperance. The decision to declare them endangered in 1995 had been a mistake.

 “They are breeding like flies. Shark fishers see them all the time,” he said.

 Department of Fisheries said water users should not surf, swim or dive in the Wylie Bay area for at least the next 48 hours.

 The Shark Smart WA website lists two shark sightings for the area around Esperance over the past week - a medium-sized great white 150 metres off shore last Tuesday at Two Mile Beach in Hopetoun, with the same shark also seen 300 metres off shore at Crazies Reef.

 WA SHARK ATTACK VICTIMS SINCE 2000

 November 2000

 KEN CREW, 48

 Fatally mauled in knee-deep water at North Cottesloe beach.

 July 2004

 BRAD SMITH, 30

 Killed while surfing at Lefthanders surf break near Gracetown.

 March 2005

 GEOFFREY BRAZIER, 26

 Killed after being attacked by a 6m shark while snorkelling off the Abrolhos Islands, off Geraldton.

 December 2008

 BRIAN GUEST, 51

 Killed at Port Kennedy as he snorkelled with his son within 30m of the beach.

 August 2010

 NICK EDWARDS, 31

 Killed while surfing off Gracetown.

 September 2011

 KYLE BURDEN, 21

 Fatally bitten while bodyboarding at Bunker Bay, near Dunsborough.

 October 2011

 GEORGE WAINWRIGHT, 32

 Texan killed while diving from a boat about 500m off Little Armstrong Bay at Rottnest Island.

 October 2011

 BRYN MARTIN, 64

 Disappeared while swimming at Cottesloe beach. The WA Coroner concluded he was taken by a shark.

 March 2012

 PETER KURMANN, 33

 Killed by a 4m great white while diving about 1.6km off Stratham beach, 230km south of Perth.

 July 2012

 BEN LINDEN, 24

 Killed while surfi ng with a mate near Wedge Island on Saturday.

 November 2013

 CHRIS BOYD, 35

 Plumber Chris Boyd, 35, originally from Queensland, was fatally attacked off Gracetown.

 December 2014

 JAY MUSCAT, 17

 Died after he was mauled by a 4-5m great white off Cheynes beach.

 May 31, 2016

 BEN GERRING

 Surfer is mauled by a shark off the coast of Falcon. He died from his injuries in hospital.

 June 5, 2016

 DOREEN COLLYER

 Killed after being attacked by a large shark while diving off Mindarie. |||||
A summary of this is?

– A teen surfing off the southern coast of Australia died Monday after she was attacked by a shark, the AP reports. ABC Australia says the 17-year-old was surfing with her dad near the Kelp Beds surfing break, off of Esperance, at the same beach where a surfer suffered serious injuries from a shark attack in 2014. The girl was attacked around 4pm while her mom and sisters watched from the shore, PerthNow notes. Paramedics tried to help her on the beach, but she was soon taken to a local hospital in critical condition, and died of her injuries, per local cops. Although police haven't said what kind of shark may have killed the teen, PerthNow says a local shark-watch site flagged two sightings nearby of great white sharks (perhaps the same one) in the week before the attack. (An Oregon man started pummeling a shark in a panic when he was attacked.)


Article:
Story highlights The Marietta City Council on Thursday will decide on a retired K-9 officer's request to keep his dog

 The dog is property under state law and must be auctioned

 GoFundMe page has raised over $70,000 in support of Matthew Hickey, the retired officer

 (CNN) The retired Marietta, Ohio, police officer who has been fighting to keep his K-9 partner will have to decide whether he'll take an auxiliary position on the force so he can keep his beloved Ajax, and to prevent the city from having to auction off the German shepherd.

 Matthew Hickey retired from the Marietta Police Department last month due to an injury. The former K-9 officer told CNN his original understanding was that he could keep Ajax as long as he paid the value of the working dog. Hickey said Ajax was valued between $3,500 and $4,000.

 "Ajax is a family member; he's one of my children," Hickey told CNN affiliate WBNS

 According to Ohio law, though, a police dog must be treated as city property and sold at auction if its handler leaves the force and another handler is not available. Ajax can likely work for another five or six years, according to the police statement.

 The city council will consider options for Hickey and Ajax during a meeting Thursday. On Wednesday, Mayor Joe Matthews told CNN that the Marietta City Council will officially offer Hickey the auxiliary officer position on Thursday.

 Read More ||||| GoFundMe has verified that the funds raised will go directly to the intended recipient.

 What does verified mean? |||||Summary:

– Retired Ohio police officer Matt Hickey will get to keep his K9 partner, Ajax, but he "escalated the situation by being disingenuous," his former boss says, per the New York Daily News. Marietta Police Chief Rodney Hupp says Hickey—who announced he would have to bid on his "family member" after retiring from the force last week—has been appointed an auxiliary officer, meaning Ajax can remain with him. Hupp calls the move "a win-win for everyone," but he says it was in the works since Thursday, when Hickey told the media he feared losing his dog. While police were bound by a confidentiality agreement, "you could have stopped this train wreck, simply by saying, 'They're working on a solution,'" Hupp told Hickey at a Monday press conference. "I'm ashamed of you," Hickey responded from the crowd. "You're making up small lies." Hupp admits there's "bad blood," but that won't affect Hickey's status as an auxiliary officer or his ability to keep Ajax. Some $69,000 raised to help Hickey pay for the dog will now be given to charities that work with police dogs, reports CNN.


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– Supporters of Ron Paul continue to prove their savvy at winning straw polls. This time, Paul walked off with the today's Values Voter Summit straw poll in Washington, DC, taking 37% of the vote, Politico reports. The event for social conservatives gave Herman Cain 23%, Rick Santorum 16%, and Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann both 8%. It seems pro-Paul voters signed up en masse yesterday to ensure a winning vote, Slate reports. Given Paul's last-minute turnout, what does the poll really mean for Republican presidential contenders? Social conservatives are liking Santorum and have lost interest in Bachmann, Politico notes. Plus, Perry lost ground for calling critics of his immigration policy "heartless," while Cain swept up the crowd with a moving speech, says McClatchy. “Those results probably aren’t accurate,” said one voter. “Cain wowed everybody. He’s good.”

Cain received 37 percent of the 2,600 delegate votes, more than twice as many as Perry, who made by far the most extensive effort but finished a distant second with 15 percent. He barely edged out Mitt Romney, who did not compete here, at 14 percent. Romney was followed by former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania with 11 percent; Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, 10 percent; former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, 8 percent and former Gov. Jon Huntsman of Utah, 2 percent. ||||| Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images

 WASHINGTON -- Ron Paul won the presidential straw poll at the 2011 Values Voter Summit, a comeback of sorts, and return to the usual pattern of highly-organized convention takeovers by the libertarian candidate. He beat out seven other candidates and "undecided." The full results, with 1,983 ballots cast:

 David Weigel David Weigel is a reporter for the Washington Post.

 Ron Paul - 36.9% (732)

 Herman Cain - 22.5% (447)

 Rick Santorum - 16.3% (323)

 Rick Perry - 8.4% (167)

 Michele Bachmann - 7.9% (157)

 Mitt Romney - 4.4% (88)

 Newt Gingrich - 2.7% (54)

 Undecided - 0.7% (13)

 Jon Huntsman - 0.1% (2)

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 In a post-vote press conference, FRC President Tony Perkins made sure to note that 600 people had bought tickets for Saturday only -- a none-too-subtle hint that Paul's supporters had over-represented themselves.

 "Do the math," said Perkins. "Ron Paul and his campaign are very well organized."

 The rule about straw polls: They only matter if someone's trying to win. In 2010, Rep. Mike Pence made an effort to take the straw poll, and he won it. And then he decided not to run for president. In 2011, the only campaigns with real victory strategys were Ron Paul's and Rick Santorum's. This was limited -- Paul's spin-off Campaign for Liberty organization bought tickets, but the presidential campaign didn't do anything. According to CFL's John Tate, between their efforts and the indepenent efforts of Paul fans -- "some guys rented buses and came down from New York!" -- there were 700 summit passes bought by and for the man from Lake Jackson, Texas.

 There was no real effort on behalf of Perry, who might as well have been grown in a lab to appeal to an audience like this. The big reasons: Herman Cain and "heartless." Just as in Florida, Cain's likeability and Perry's stance on immigration choked off his possible supporters' enthusiasm. Not even a well-received, stumble-free speech could bail him out.

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 "How can you change 'heartless'?" said Karen Winterling, a happy Cain organizer from Maryland. "He can't take that back."

 Perry didn't work the event too hard. He arrived on Friday, spoke, did an interview with CBN News, then hot-footed it to Iowa, leaving reporters to fight over the story of his anti-Mormon endorser/introducer like starving dogs over a ham hock. Inside the Omni Shoreham, only Santorum and Paul had visible support. Their blue and white campaign signs positioned (or left behind) around the conference area. Both candidates hung around for hours after their speeches, whipping up support. But there were plenty of attendees sporting Herman Cain buttons, and many who had attended a Cain rally in Virginia on Friday. And on Friday, he delivered a speech that trebled the standing ovations of his nearest competitor. Meanwhile, Bachmann was continuing her fade with a speech not even her supporters loved.

 "I was very impressed that she shared her testimony, telling us about how she found Christ," said Lynae Flamengo, a teacher from Ohio who voted for Bachmann in the poll. The speech was good. It was a little unfocused." She voted for Santorum in the second piece of the poll, asking who attendees liked for vice president.

 What do the numbers mean for Santorum, who's running the self-described "little campaign that could," or Romney, who's still the national frontrunner? This has never been a Romney-friendly event; in 2010, he only won 13 percent of the vote. His path to the nomination does not need a massive embrace from religious conservatives; it needs the candidates beloved by those voters to keep mud wrestling. This is an ideal setting for someone like Santorum, who did rise from his 5 percent showing in 2010. (The departure of fantasy candidates, like Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin, helped him out.) But just as in Florida, he can't escape the shadow of Herman Cain. There are reasons.

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 "My problem with Santorum is that he's a little vanilla," said Greg Rohrbough, an activist from Virginia. "When he was in the Senate, he was not a fiscal conservative."

 Rohrbough's "heart was with Herman," he said. Could he endure a Romney win? He sighed. "If Romney wins, I'm planting a farm and getting ready for the end of the world. My problem with him is not Mormonism. It's the other M-word: Massachussetts. I think if he gets in there, he validates Obamacare, just as President Eisenhower validated the New Deal."

 Social conservatives expecting their leaders to stop a Romney win didn't get much help from Perkins. I mentioned that in 2009, the late Paul Weyrich had regretted that social conservatives didn't get behind their own candidate -- Huckabee, he'd said -- earlier. And in 2007, the Summit was the backdrop to some unsuccessful backroom negotiating among conservative leaders about who they should back.

 I asked if the poll had hinted at one candidate for the movement to get behind, noting that Cain and Santorum had done well. |||||


News article:

CLOSE Pete Seeger will be remembered as a folk music legend. The 94-year-old was known for penning "Turn, Turn Turn" and popularizing "This Land is Your Land", but there are lots of other fascinating facts many may not know about Seeger. VPC

 Seeger popularized "This Land Is Your Land" and "We Shall Overcome" and wrote "If I Had a Hammer" and "Turn, Turn, Turn." He opposed McCarthyism, marched beside MLK and led environmental campaigns.

 Pete Seeger performs in 2008 in a scene from the motion picture "Pete Seeger: The Power of Song." (Photo: Genius Products/The Weinstein Company) Story Highlights He adapted and popularized 'We Shall Overcome'

 Continued to perform into his 90s.

 Was once a member of the Communist Party.

 To Bruce Springsteen, Pete Seeger, the singer/songwriter/activist who died Monday at the age of 94, was "the father of American folk music."

 But Seeger, who popularized This Land Is Your Land and We Shall Overcome and wrote If I Had a Hammer and Turn, Turn, Turn, never liked the term folk music.

 "It's been defined as the 'music of the peasants,' " Seeger told USA TODAY in a 2009 interview, "and then you get someone saying (of Seeger), 'he's no peasant!'''

 Seeger, who dropped out of Harvard University in 1938 to ride a bicycle across the country, quoted his father, Charles Seeger, a musicologist: "My dad, the old professor, used to say, 'Never get into an argument about what's folk music and what isn't.' "

 But whatever you called him, Seeger influenced scores of other singers, including Springsteen, Joan Baez, Dave Matthews, Rufus Wainwright, John Mellencamp and Arlo Guthrie. All performed in 2009 at Seeger's 90th birthday party at sold-out Madison Square Garden, a fundraiser for his favorite local cause: cleaning up New York's Hudson River.

 RELATED: Recommended listening: Pete Seeger

 That night, Springsteen introduced Seeger saying, "He's gonna look a lot like your granddad that wears flannel shirts and funny hats. He's gonna look like your granddad if your granddad can kick your ass. At 90, he remains a stealth dagger through the heart of our country's illusions about itself."

 PHOTOS: A look at the life of Pete Seeger

 Tao Rodriguez-Seeger and Pete Seeger perform "This Land Is Your Land" at the Clearwater Concert: Creating the Next Generation of Environmental Leaders at Madison Square Garden on May 3, 2009. The concert honored Seeger on his 90th birthday. (Photo: Robert Deutsch, USA TODAY)

 On his facebook page Tuesday, Arlo Guthrie, who performed often with Seeger and is the son of Woody Guthrie (who taught Seeger how to jump freight trains), described his last phone call to Seeger's hospital bed Monday night.

 "I simply wanted him to know that I loved him dearly, like a father in some ways, a mentor in others and just as a dear friend a lot of the time," Guthrie wrote.

 "I let him know I was having trouble writing his obituary - as I'd been asked -- but it seemed just so silly and I couldn't think of anything that didn't sound trite or plain stupid....We laughed, we talked, and I took my leave about 9:30."

 "'Arlo,'" Seeger said, "sounding just like the man I've known all of my life, 'I guess I'll see ya later.' I've always loved the rising and falling inflections in his voice.

 " 'Pete,' I said. "I guess we will."

 Guthrie fell asleep until about 3 a.m. when texts and phone calls began from friends saying, "Pete had passed away."

 "Well, of course he passed away," Guthrie said in response. "But that doesn't mean he's gone."

 Seeger opposed McCarthyism, marched beside the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and led environmental campaigns. In 1969, he helped build a 10-foot sailing sloop called the Clearwater that continues to serve as a "floating classroom" and rallying point for cleaning up the Hudson.

 "Songs won't save the planet," Seeger told his biographer David Dunaway, author of How Can I Keep From Singing? "But, then, neither will books or speeches. ... Songs are sneaky things. They can slip across borders. Proliferate in prisons." He liked to quote Plato: "Rulers should be careful about what songs are allowed to be sung."

 Seeger is the only singer in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame who was convicted of contempt of Congress. In 1955, he refused to testify about his past membership in the Communist Party. (He later said he quit the party in 1949 and "should have left much earlier. It was stupid of me not to. ... I thought Stalin was the brave secretary Stalin and had no idea how cruel a leader he was.")

 In 1961, his conviction was overturned on appeal, but Seeger continued to be blacklisted by commercial TV networks until 1967. Even then, CBS censored parts of his anti-Vietnam War musical allegory, Waist Deep in the Big Muddy, when he sang it on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.

 CLOSE Pete Seeger - from a May 2009 interview with The Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Journal The Poughkeepsie (N.Y.) Journal

 In 2006, Springsteen helped introduce Seeger to a new generation when he recorded We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, an album of 13 songs popularized by Seeger, including John Henry and Shenandoah. Three years later, Springsteen persuaded Seeger to sing This Land Is Your Land with him at President Obama's inaugural concert in frigid temperatures on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

 "He was so happy that day," Springsteen said later. "It was like, 'Pete, you outlasted the bastards, man.' It was so nice."

 Much earlier, poet Carl Sandberg crowned Seeger "America's tuning fork." But when Bob Dylan called Seeger a saint, that was going too far.

 "What a terrible thing to call someone," Seeger told USA TODAY on the eve of his 90th birthday. "I've made a lot of foolish mistakes over the years."

 TIMELINE: Pete Seeger 1919 - 2014

 But no one was better at leading sing-alongs. "There is no such thing as a wrong note," he liked to say when leading group renditions of songs like Amazing Grace, "just as long as you're singing along."

 At the end of our interview in 2009, I mentioned that my father had attended one of Seeger's free outdoor concerts decades earlier. As my father told it, Seeger noticed my dad wasn't singing and urged him to join in. My father said he shot back, "It's a free country. If I don't want to sing, I don't have to."

 When I told Seeger that story, he asked if my father was still alive. No, I said.

 "That's too bad," Seeger replied, "because I have some new songs he might like."

 Seeger was born in New York on May 3, 1919, to musical parents: His father was a Harvard-trained composer. His mother, Constance, was a concert violinist.

 After dropping out of Harvard, Seeger met Woody Guthrie. They became part of the left-wing Almanac Singers who sang in opposition to the peacetime draft of 1940. But after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Seeger enlisted in the Army and trained as an airplane mechanic. He ended up being assigned to entertain the troops in the Pacific. When he was asked what he did in the war, he'd answer: "I strummed my banjo."

 Seeger co-founded the Weavers, who had an apolitical hit, Good Night Irene, which topped the charts for 13 weeks in 1950, but within three years they were blacklisted from radio and TV because of their left-wing politics.

 Long after the blacklists ended, Seeger continued protesting. In 2011, he joined a march in support of the Occupy Wall Street protests.

 MORE : Seeger's impact on labor movement

 For more than 60 years, he lived in Beacon, N.Y., with his wife, Toshi, in a cabin he mostly built himself on a cliff overlooking the Hudson River, 60 miles north of Manhattan. Toshi, whom he called "the brains of the family," died at 91 in 2013, after nearly 70 years of marriage. Seeger is suvived by a son, Daniel; two daughters, Mika Seeger and Tinya Seeger; six grandchildren; and a great-grandson.

 If he didn't being want to be called a folk singer, what term did he prefer?

 "How about river singer," he suggested. "I sing up and down the Hudson River."

 The last time I saw Seeger perform was in 2010 at an environmental fundraiser in an old church in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. He looked as pleased to be singing with a local children's chorus, with kids named Destiny Burroughs and Maddy Murphy, as he had at Madison Square Garden with Springsteen, Baez and Mellencamp.

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 Mr. Seeger was a mentor to younger folk and topical singers in the ‘50s and ‘60s, among them Bob Dylan, Don McLean and Bernice Johnson Reagon, who founded Sweet Honey in the Rock. Decades later, Bruce Springsteen drew from Mr. Seeger’s repertory of traditional music about a turbulent America in recording his 2006 album, “We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions,” and in 2009 he performed Woody Guthrie’s “This Land Is Your Land” with Mr. Seeger at the Obama inaugural. At a Madison Square Garden concert celebrating Mr. Seeger’s 90th birthday, Mr. Springsteen introduced him as “a living archive of America’s music and conscience, a testament of the power of song and culture to nudge history along.”

 Although he recorded dozens of albums, Mr. Seeger distrusted commercialism and was never comfortable with the idea of stardom. He invariably tried to use his celebrity to bring attention and contributions to the causes that moved him, or to the traditional songs he wanted to preserve.

 Mr. Seeger saw himself as part of a continuing folk tradition, constantly recycling and revising music that had been honed by time.

 During the McCarthy era Mr. Seeger’s political affiliations, including membership in the Communist Party in the 1940s, led to his being blacklisted and later indicted for contempt of Congress. The pressure broke up the Weavers, and Mr. Seeger disappeared from commercial television until the late 1960s. But he never stopped recording, performing and listening to songs from ordinary people. Through the decades, his songs have become part of America’s folklore.

 “My job,” he said in 2009, “is to show folks there’s a lot of good music in this world, and if used right it may help to save the planet.”

 Peter Seeger was born in Manhattan on May 3, 1919, to Charles Seeger, a musicologist, and Constance de Clyver Edson Seeger, a concert violinist. His parents later divorced.

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 He began playing the ukulele while attending Avon Old Farms, a private boarding school in Connecticut. His father and his stepmother, the composer Ruth Crawford Seeger, collected and transcribed rural American folk music, as did folklorists like John and Alan Lomax. He heard the five-string banjo, which would become his main instrument, when his father took him to a square-dance festival in North Carolina.

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 Young Pete became enthralled by rural traditions. “I liked the strident vocal tone of the singers, the vigorous dancing,” he is quoted as saying in “How Can I Keep From Singing,” a biography by David Dunaway. “The words of the songs had all the meat of life in them. Their humor had a bite, it was not trivial. Their tragedy was real, not sentimental.”

 Planning to be a journalist, Mr. Seeger attended Harvard, where he founded a radical newspaper and joined the Young Communist League. After two years he dropped out and went to New York City, where Alan Lomax introduced him to the blues singer Huddie Ledbetter, known as Lead Belly. Lomax also helped Mr. Seeger find a job cataloging and transcribing music at the Archive of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress.

 Mr. Seeger met Guthrie, a songwriter who shared his love of vernacular music and agitprop ambitions, in 1940, when they performed at a benefit concert for migrant California workers. Traveling across the United States with Guthrie, Mr. Seeger picked up some of his style and repertory. He also hitchhiked and hopped freight trains by himself, learning and trading songs.

 When he returned to New York later in 1940, Mr. Seeger made his first albums. He, Millard Lampell and Hays founded the Almanac Singers, who performed union songs and, until Germany invaded the Soviet Union, antiwar songs, following the Communist Party line. Guthrie soon joined the group.

 During World War II the Almanac Singers’ repertory turned to patriotic, anti-fascist songs, bringing them a broad audience, including a prime-time national radio spot. But the singers’ earlier antiwar songs, the target of an F.B.I. investigation, came to light, and the group’s career plummeted.

 Before the group completely dissolved, however, Mr. Seeger was drafted in 1942 and assigned to a unit of performers. He married Toshi-Aline Ohta while on furlough in 1943. She would become essential to his work: he called her “the brains of the family.”

 When he returned from the war he founded People’s Songs Inc., which published political songs and presented concerts for several years before going bankrupt. He also started his nightclub career, performing at the Village Vanguard in Greenwich Village. Mr. Seeger and Paul Robeson toured with the campaign of Henry Wallace, the Progressive Party presidential candidate, in 1948.

 Forming the Weavers

 Mr. Seeger invested $1,700 in 17 acres of land overlooking the Hudson River in Beacon, N.Y., and began building a log cabin there in the late 1940s. (He lived in Beacon for the rest of his life.) In 1949, Mr. Seeger, Hays, Ronnie Gilbert and Fred Hellerman started working together as the Weavers. They were signed to Decca Records by Gordon Jenkins, who was the company’s music director and an arranger for Frank Sinatra. With Jenkins’s elaborate orchestral arrangements, the group recorded a repertoire that stretched from “If I Had a Hammer” and a South African song, “Wimoweh” (the title was Mr. Seeger’s mishearing of “Mbube,” the name of a South African hit by Solomon Linda), to an Israeli soldiers’ song, “Tzena, Tzena, Tzena,” and a cleaned-up version of Lead Belly’s “Goodnight, Irene.” Onstage, they also sang more pointed topical songs.

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 In 1950 and 1951 the Weavers were national stars, with hit singles and engagements at major nightclubs. Their hits included “Kisses Sweeter Than Wine” and Guthrie’s “So Long (It’s Been Good to Know Yuh),” and they sold an estimated four million singles and albums.

 Their commercial success was dampened, however, when “Red Channels,” an influential pamphlet that named performers with suspected Communist ties, appeared in June 1950 and listed Mr. Seeger, although by then he had quit the Communist Party. He later criticized himself for not having left the party sooner, though he continued to describe himself as a “communist with a small ‘c.' ”

 Photo

 By the summer of 1951, the “Red Channels” citation and leaks from F.B.I. files had led to the cancellation of television appearances. In 1951, the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee investigated the Weavers for sedition. And in February 1952, a former member of People’s Songs testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee that three of the four Weavers were members of the Communist Party.

 As engagements dried up, the Weavers disbanded, though they reunited occasionally in the mid-1950s. After the group recorded an advertisement for Lucky Strike cigarettes, Mr. Seeger left, citing his objection to promoting tobacco use.

 Shut out of national exposure, Mr. Seeger returned primarily to solo concerts, touring college coffeehouses, churches, schools and summer camps, building an audience for folk music among young people. He started to write a long-running column for the folk-song magazine Sing Out! And he recorded prolifically for the independent Folkways label, singing everything from children’s songs to Spanish Civil War anthems.

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 In 1955 he was subpoenaed by the House Un-American Activities Committee. In his testimony he said, “I feel that in my whole life I have never done anything of any conspiratorial nature.” He also stated: “I am not going to answer any questions as to my association, my philosophical or religious beliefs or my political beliefs, or how I voted in any election, or any of these private affairs. I think these are very improper questions for any American to be asked, especially under such compulsion as this.”

 Mr. Seeger offered to sing the songs mentioned by the congressmen who questioned him. The committee declined.

 Mr. Seeger was indicted in 1957 on 10 counts of contempt of Congress. He was convicted in 1961 and sentenced to a year in prison, but the next year an appeals court dismissed the indictment as faulty. After the indictment, Mr. Seeger’s concerts were often picketed by the John Birch Society and other rightist groups. “All those protests did was sell tickets and get me free publicity,” he later said. “The more they protested, the bigger the audiences became.”

 The Folk Revival Years

 By then the folk revival was prospering. In 1959, Mr. Seeger was among the founders of the Newport Folk Festival. The Kingston Trio’s version of Mr. Seeger’s “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” reached the Top 40 in 1962, soon followed by Peter, Paul and Mary’s version of “If I Had a Hammer,” which rose to the Top 10.

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 Mr. Seeger was signed to a major label, Columbia Records, in 1961, but he remained unwelcome on network television. “Hootenanny,” an early-1960s show on ABC that capitalized on the folk revival, refused to book Mr. Seeger, causing other performers (including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez and Peter, Paul and Mary) to boycott it. “Hootenanny” eventually offered to present Mr. Seeger if he would sign a loyalty oath. He refused.

 He toured the world, performing and collecting folk songs, in 1963 and returned to serenade civil rights advocates, who had made a rallying song of his “We Shall Overcome.”

 Like many of Mr. Seeger’s songs, “We Shall Overcome” had convoluted traditional roots. It was based on old gospel songs, primarily “I’ll Overcome,” a hymn that striking tobacco workers had sung on a picket line in South Carolina. A slower version, “We Will Overcome,” was collected from Lucille Simmons, one of the workers, by Zilphia Horton, the musical director of the Highlander Folk School in Monteagle, Tenn., which trained union organizers.

 Ms. Horton taught it to Mr. Seeger, and her version of “We Will Overcome” was published in the People’s Songs newsletter. Mr. Seeger changed “We will” to “We shall” and added verses (“We’ll walk hand in hand”). He taught it to the singers Frank Hamilton, who would join the Weavers in 1962, and Guy Carawan, who became musical director at Highlander in the ‘50s. Mr. Carawan taught the song to the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee at its founding convention.

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 The song was copyrighted by Mr. Seeger, Mr. Hamilton, Mr. Carawan and Ms. Horton. “At that time we didn’t know Lucille Simmons’s name,” Mr. Seeger wrote in an autobiographical songbook, “Where Have All the Flowers Gone,” pubished in 1993. All of the song’s royalties go to the “We Shall Overcome” Fund, administered by what is now the Highlander Research and Education Center, which provides grants to African-Americans organizing in the South.

 Along with many elders of the protest-song movement, Mr. Seeger felt betrayed when Bob Dylan set aside protest songs for electric rock. When Mr. Dylan appeared at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival with a loud electric blues band, some listeners booed, and reports emerged that Mr. Seeger had tried to cut the power cable with an ax. But witnesses, including the festival’s producer, George Wein, and production manager, Joe Boyd (later a leading folk-rock record producer), said he did not go that far. (An ax was available, however. A group of prisoners had used it while singing a logging song.)

 In later recountings, Mr. Seeger said he had grown angry because the music was so loud and distorted that he couldn’t hear the words.

 As the United States grew divided over the Vietnam War, Mr. Seeger wrote “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy,” an antiwar song with the refrain “The big fool says to push on.” He performed the song during a taping of “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” in September 1967, his return to network television, but it was cut before the show was broadcast. After the Smothers Brothers publicized the censorship, Mr. Seeger returned to perform the song for broadcast in February 1968.

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 Fighting for the Hudson River

 During the late 1960s Mr. Seeger started an improbable project: a sailing ship that would crusade for cleaner water on the Hudson River. Between other benefit concerts he raised money to build the Clearwater, a 106-foot sloop, which was launched in June 1969 with a crew of musicians. The ship became a symbol and a rallying point for antipollution efforts and education.

 In May 2009, after decades of litigation and environmental activism led by Mr. Seeger’s nonprofit environmental organization, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, General Electric began dredging sediment containing PCBs it had dumped into the Hudson. Mr. Seeger and his wife also helped organize a yearly summer folk festival named after the Clearwater.

 In the 1980s and ‘90s Mr. Seeger toured regularly with Arlo Guthrie, Woody’s son, and continued to lead singalongs and perform benefit concerts. Recognition and awards arrived. He was elected to the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972, and in 1993 he was given a lifetime achievement Grammy Award. In 1994 he received a Kennedy Center Honor and, from President Bill Clinton, the National Medal of Arts, America’s highest arts honor, awarded by the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1999 he traveled to Cuba to receive the Order of Félix Varela, Cuba’s highest cultural award, for his “humanistic and artistic work in defense of the environment and against racism.”

 Mr. Seeger was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in the category of early influences, in 1996. Arlo Guthrie, who paid tribute at the ceremony, mentioned that the Weavers’ hit “Goodnight, Irene” had reached No. 1, only to add, “I can’t think of a single event in Pete’s life that is probably less important to him.” Mr. Seeger made no acceptance speech, but he did lead a singalong of “Goodnight, Irene,” flanked by Stevie Wonder, David Byrne and members of the Jefferson Airplane.

 Mr. Seeger won Grammy Awards for best traditional folk album in 1997, for the album “Pete” and, in 2009, for the album “At 89.” He won a Grammy in the children’s music category in 2011 for “Tomorrow’s Children.”

 Mr. Seeger kept performing into the 21st century, despite a flagging voice; audiences happily sang along more loudly. He celebrated his 90th birthday, on May 3, 2009, at a Madison Square Garden concert — a benefit for Hudson River Sloop Clearwater — with Mr. Springsteen, Dave Matthews, John Mellencamp, Ms. Baez, Ani DiFranco, Roger McGuinn of the Byrds, Emmylou Harris and dozens of other musicians paying tribute. That August he was back in Newport for the 50th anniversary of the Newport Folk Festival.

 Mr. Seeger’s wife, Toshi, died in 2013, days before the couple’s 70th anniversary. Survivors include his son, Daniel; his daughters, Mika and Tinya; two half-sisters, Peggy, also a folk singer, and Barbara; eight grandchildren, including Mr. Jackson and the musician Tao Rodriguez-Seeger, who performed with him at the Obama inaugural; and four great-grandchildren. His half-brother, Mike Seeger, a folklorist and performer who founded the New Lost City Ramblers, died in 2009.

 Through the years, Mr. Seeger remained determinedly optimistic. “The key to the future of the world,” he said in 1994, “is finding the optimistic stories and letting them be known.” ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption A look back at Pete Seeger's music career

 US President Obama has paid tribute to the American folk singer and activist Pete Seeger, who has died following a short illness at the age of 94.

 "Once called 'America's tuning fork', Pete Seeger believed deeply in the power of song," said Mr Obama.

 "But more importantly, he believed in the power of community.

 "To stand up for what's right, speak out against what's wrong, and move this country closer to the America he knew we could be."

 Seeger died at New York hospital, his grandson said.

 His songs included Turn! Turn! Turn! and If I Had A Hammer.

 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption One of Pete Seeger's best known songs is Where Have All the Flowers Gone?

 In 2009, he was at a gala concert in the US capital ahead of President Obama's inauguration as president.

 In his tribute, the president praised Seeger's activism.

 "Over the years, Pete used his voice - and his hammer - to strike blows for worker's rights and civil rights; world peace and environmental conservation. And he always invited us to sing along.

 "For reminding us where we come from and showing us where we need to go, we will always be grateful to Pete Seeger. Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to Pete's family and all those who loved him," he added.

 Seeger gained fame in The Weavers, formed in 1948, and continued to perform in his own right in a career spanning six decades.

 Image copyright AP Image caption President Obama said "we will always be grateful to Pete Seeger"

 Renowned for his protest songs, Seeger was blacklisted by the US Government in the 1950s for his leftist stance.

 Denied broadcast exposure, Seeger toured US college campuses spreading his music and ethos, later calling this the "most important job of my career".

 He was quizzed by the Un-American Activities Committee in 1955 over whether he had sung for Communists, replying that he "greatly resented" the implication that his work made him any less American.

 Seeger was charged with contempt of Congress, but the sentence was overturned on appeal.

 He returned to TV in the late 1960s but had a protest song about the Vietnam War cut from broadcast.

 British singer and left-wing activist Billy Bragg who performed with Seeger on several occasions called the singer "hugely encouraging".

 "He was a very gentle man and intensely optimistic," he told the BBC. "He believed in humanity and the power of music to make a difference, not to change to the world.

 "I performed at his 90th birthday and the fire was still there."

 Image copyright AP Image caption Seeger (l) performed at a rally for detente in 1975

 Seeger became a standard bearer for political causes from nuclear disarmament to the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011.

 In 2009, he was at a gala concert in the US capital ahead of Barack Obama's inauguration as president.

 His predecessor Bill Clinton hailed the musician as "an inconvenient artist who dared to sing things as he saw them.''

 Other songs that he co-wrote included Where Have All The Flowers Gone, while he was credited with making We Shall Overcome an anthem of resistance.

 Turn! Turn! Turn! was made into a number one hit by The Byrds in 1965, and covered by a multitude of other artists including Dolly Parton and Chris de Burgh.

 Image copyright AFP Image caption Joan Baez and Bruce Springsteen honoured Seeger on his 90th birthday

 Seeger's influence continued down the decades, with his induction into the US Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996, and he won a Grammy award in 1997 for best traditional folk album, Pete.

 He won a further two Grammys - another for best traditional folk album in 2008 for At 89 and best children's album in 2010.

 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Billy Bragg plays a tribute to Pete Seeger

 He was a nominee at Sunday night's ceremony in the spoken word category.

 He was due to be honoured with the first Woody Guthrie Prize next month, given to an artist emulating the spirit of the musician's work.

 Mark Radcliffe, host of BBC Radio 2's Folk show, paid tribute, saying: "Pete Seeger repeatedly put his career, his reputation and his personal security on the line so that he could play his significant musical part in campaigns for civil rights, environmental awareness and peace.

 "He leaves behind a canon of songs that are both essential and true, and his contribution to folk music will be felt far into the future."

 Image copyright AP Image caption Pete Seeger collected three Grammy awards during his long career

 Seeger performed with Guthrie in his early years, and went on to have an effect on the protest music of later artists including Bruce Springsteen and Joan Baez.

 In 2006, Springsteen recorded an album of songs originally sung by Seeger.

 On his 90th birthday, Seeger was feted by artists including Springsteen, Eddie Vedder and Dave Matthews in New York's Madison Square Garden.

 Springsteen called him "a living archive of America's music and conscience, a testament of the power of song and culture to nudge history along".

 His other musical output included albums for children, while he appeared on screen several times as well.

 A reunion concert with The Weavers in 1980 was made into a documentary, while an early appearance was in To hear My Banjo Play in 1946.

 The band, who had a number one hit with Good Night, Irene in the early 1950s, went their separate ways soon afterwards.

 Seeger's wife Toshi, a film-maker and activist, died aged 91 in July 2013. They leave three children. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– Pete Seeger, a towering presence in American folk music and activism for many decades, has died after 94 years—and more than 100 albums. The bearded, banjo-playing protest singer gained fame with the Weavers in the '40s and is best known for popularizing songs like This Land Is Your Land and We Shall Overcome, as well as writing or co-writing folk classics like If I Had a Hammer and Turn, Turn, Turn, the BBC reports. He spearheaded the American folk revival of the '50s and '60s and was an inspiration and mentor to many younger singers including Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. But activism was as important to Seeger as music. A lifelong believer in causes like civil rights, racial equality, and anti-militarism, he saw folk music and community as "inseparable, and where he saw a community, he saw the possibility of political action," a New York Times obituary notes. Blacklisted in the McCarthyite '50s, his activism continued until the very end. At a 90th birthday tribute concert—a benefit to clean up New York's Hudson River—Bruce Springsteen introduced him, saying, "He's gonna look a lot like your granddad that wears flannel shirts and funny hats. He's gonna look like your granddad if your granddad can kick your ass. At 90, he remains a stealth dagger through the heart of our country's illusions about itself," USA Today reports.


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The winner of the unusually spirited Republican contest was Joseph J. Lhota, a no-nonsense former chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. He defeated John A. Catsimatidis, a voluble billionaire who ran an often whimsical campaign.

 Mr. Lhota, who served as deputy mayor to Rudolph W. Giuliani, will carry his tough-minded approach to crime-fighting and city spending into the general election on Nov. 5. A vocal supporter of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s policies, Mr. Lhota called his victory “the first step in continuing a strong future for our city.”

 By contrast, Mr. de Blasio’s vow to make a clean break from the Bloomberg era struck a chord with Democratic voters worried about jobs and schools. Roughly three in four wanted to move the city in a different direction after 12 years with Mr. Bloomberg, an exit poll found.

 In the unexpectedly heated race for the unglamorous office of city comptroller, Scott M. Stringer, the Manhattan borough president, repelled a last-minute comeback attempt by Eliot Spitzer, who resigned as governor over his use of prostitutes. And in the Democratic primary for public advocate, Letitia James, a City Council member from Brooklyn, will face Senator Daniel L. Squadron of Brooklyn in a runoff election.

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 In the race for mayor, Mr. de Blasio had until a few months ago been a distant fourth in a crowded Democratic field, well behind Christine C. Quinn, the longtime front-runner, who rose to prominence as the speaker of the City Council and a close ally of Mr. Bloomberg. Mr. de Blasio, propelled by an unrelenting critique of the mayor, frustrated Ms. Quinn’s painstakingly cultivated effort to become the first woman and the first openly gay person to lead the city.

 Mr. Thompson, who nearly unseated Mr. Bloomberg in 2009, struggled this time to win over nonwhite voters who were crucial to his campaign strategy as the only black candidate in the race.

 Mr. de Blasio, a white Brooklynite who frequently showcased his biracial family, built a broad coalition of support among nearly every category of Democratic primary voters on Tuesday, according to the exit poll by Edison Research. His critique of a city divided between rich and poor — tried in the past by other candidates in New York and nationally with little success — resonated.

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 “I love his message about the tale of two cities, the big inequality gap,” said Jelani Wheeler, 19, a politics student at St. John’s University in Queens.

 “We can start correcting many important issues the city is facing, issues often ignored by the Bloomberg administration,” he added.

 Though Democrats outnumber Republicans in New York by six to one, the city has not elected a Democratic mayor since David N. Dinkins in 1989. But the white voters who helped elect Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Bloomberg are a less potent political force in a city where ethnic and racial minorities now make up a majority of the population.

 Mr. de Blasio, who worked for Mr. Dinkins, this year inspired Democrats angry about how the economy and police practices affected them personally, as well as those who felt uncomfortable on their behalf.

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 He promised to end racial profiling, overhaul the stop-and-frisk practice and replace Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly. His critique of the police went further than that of either Ms. Quinn or Mr. Thompson — and he memorably deployed his teenage son, Dante, to make his case in a compelling television advertisement.

 Addressing widespread concerns about the gap between the city’s rich and poor, Mr. de Blasio also proposed a tax on the wealthy to pay for universal prekindergarten — though his rhetoric made it sometimes seem unclear which was the end and which the means.

 His tax-the-rich proposal was dismissed by his rivals, who said it would never be approved in Albany. But at times Ms. Quinn and Mr. Thompson were left in the unwelcome position of sounding like proponents of the status quo, at a moment when voters made clear they were impatient to be led in a different direction.

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 Mr. de Blasio gained support from black voters like Jennifer Ward, 59, of Brownsville, Brooklyn, who on Tuesday helped her 85-year-old mother, in a flowing white dress with black polka-dots, up the steps of the Brownsville Beacon Community Center and into the big gymnasium.

 “He’s strong and he fights,” said Ms. Ward, a nurse, who was impressed by Mr. de Blasio’s efforts to prevent the closing of local hospitals. “Even if he has to stand alone, he fights for us.”

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 The Democrats had been jockeying for position ever since Mr. Bloomberg squeezed out a narrower-than-expected victory over Mr. Thompson four years ago.

 The presumptive favorite a year ago was Ms. Quinn, given her close ties to Mr. Bloomberg and the business community; in the spring, the race shifted with the entry of Anthony D. Weiner, a former congressman, who briefly led the field before sinking over revelations that he had continued sending sexually explicit online messages even after resigning.

 Ms. Quinn’s defeat was crushing for a politician whose career as speaker was built on a belief that helping Mr. Bloomberg carry out his agenda would give her a record of accomplishments to run on. Her crucial role in making Mr. Bloomberg’s third term possible antagonized a huge swath of Democratic voters who showed they were unwilling to forgive and forget.

 Mr. Thompson relied on a campaign strategy built on old-fashioned New York City identity politics and electoral arithmetic. He worked hard to enlist support from establishment political players, while obtaining important municipal union endorsements.

 The police, the firefighters, the transit workers and, most important, the teachers all lined up behind Mr. Thompson; the teachers’ union alone spent about $2.6 million on his behalf.

 Pointing to his record as a behind-the-scenes power broker as school board president and as a fiscal steward while city comptroller, Mr. Thompson positioned himself as the adult in the Democratic field, running well to the right of Mr. de Blasio — and even campaigning with former Senator Alfonse M. D’Amato, once the state Republican kingpin.

 In the event of a runoff, Mr. de Blasio would begin with an fund-raising advantage of about $400,000 over Mr. Thompson. Each would be able to spend a maximum of $3.123 million, under a spending limit imposed by the city’s campaign finance program.

 But on Tuesday night, Mr. de Blasio was celebrating. As guests ate schnitzel with shallots and ginger served on soft pretzel heros, the crowd focused on the now-familiar sight of Dante’s outsized Afro, which Mr. de Blasio’s daughter, Chiara, affectionately caressed. A moment later, when Mr. de Blasio took the stage, he paid his own form of tribute to his son’s hair, telling supporters that Dante had to fend off strangers trying to touch it.

 “Security was ready to intervene,” he said. ||||| Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, who ran an upstart campaign pledging to fight New York City's economic inequality, emerged as the surprising top choice in the Democratic mayoral primary, but could still face weeks _ and another electoral fight _ before becoming his party's nominee.

 Mayoral candidate Bill de Blasio, right, kisses his wife Chirlane McCray after casting his primary vote on Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2013, at the Park Slope Public Library in Brooklyn, N.Y. New Yorkers head... (Associated Press)

 Democratic mayoral hopeful Anthony Weiner holds his son Jordan as he leaves the voting booth after casting his vote at his polling station during the primary election in New York, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2013.... (Associated Press)

 City Council Speaker and New York City Democratic mayoral hopeful Christine Quinn, right, embraces her wife, Kim Catullo, after Catullo voted in the primary election, Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2013, in New York.... (Associated Press)

 The swirling, chaotic campaign to replace billionaire Mayor Michael Bloomberg, which featured former congressman Anthony Weiner's latest sexting scandal and at least three lead changes in the polls, was fittingly plunged into uncertainty again after the votes were tallied in Tuesday's primary.

 With 97 percent of precincts reporting, de Blasio had about 40.2 percent of the total vote, which puts him a whisker above the 40 percent threshold needed to avoid triggering an automatic Oct. 1 runoff. If he cannot maintain that, he will face former city Comptroller Bill Thompson, who has 26 percent, for a potentially grueling three-week, one-on-one showdown, with the winner advancing to face Republican nominee Joe Lhota, the former chairman of the Metropolitan Transit Authority, in the general election on Nov. 5.

 But it may take a week or more before it is known whether that battle will be fought at all.

 The campaign will take a pause Wednesday as the city stops to observe the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Later this week, election officials will recount all the ballots cast Tuesday. It will likely take until early next week before they tabulate an additional 30,000 or more votes as absentee ballots arrive by mail and paperwork comes in from voters who had problems at the polls.

 City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, the early front-runner who was seeking to become the city's first woman and openly gay mayor, finished third at 16 percent, followed by current city Comptroller John Liu at 7 percent and Weiner at 5 percent.

 De Blasio, who was flanked by the interracial family he made a centerpiece of his campaign ads, made no mention of the potential runoff in his speech to supporters late Tuesday.

 "We are better as a city when we make sure that everyone has a shot," de Blasio told the raucous crowd. "We begin tonight."

 The winner of the mayor's race in November will assume the helm of the nation's largest city which has been led for 12 years by Bloomberg. The election comes at a critical juncture as the city experiences shrinking crime rates yet widening income inequality, and as the nearly completed One World Trade Center building symbolizes a new era after the terrorist attacks of 2001.

 With de Blasio so close to 40 percent, Democratic leaders may pressure Thompson to drop out of the race in the name of party unity. Exit polling shows that de Blasio would handily defeat Thompson in a runoff, 52 to 34 percent, with 9 percent saying they would stay home.

 But Thompson made it clear Tuesday he would compete in a potential runoff.

 "Three more weeks! Three more weeks!" chanted Thompson, the party's 2009 nominee. "This is far from over."

 De Blasio's rise in the race to succeed Bloomberg was as sudden as it was unexpected.

 Not even two months ago, he was an afterthought in the campaign but surged in part thanks to an ad blitz that centered on his interracial family, his headline-grabbing arrest while protesting the possible closure of a Brooklyn hospital and the defection of Weiner's former supporters in the wake of another sexting scandal.

 Weiner was leading in the polls until a gossip website revealed that he used the online handle Carlos Danger to continue to send X-rated messages to women even after he resigned from the House of Representatives in 2011 for similar behavior.

 The exit polling showed the appeal of de Blasio, the city's elected public advocate, to be broad-based: He was ahead in all five boroughs; was ahead of Quinn, the lone woman in the race, with female voters; and ahead of Thompson, the only African-American candidate, with black voters. The voter interviews were conducted by Edison Media Research for The Associated Press and other news organizations.

 Lhota, the ex-transit authority chairman and former deputy mayor to Rudolph Giuliani, defeated billionaire grocery magnate John Catsimatidis for the Republican nomination. Both Republican candidates largely pledged to follow Bloomberg's lead, focusing on maintaining the city's record low crime rates.

 Another scandal-scarred politician, Eliot Spitzer, who resigned as New York's governor in 2008 after paying for sex with prostitutes, tried to run a self-financed campaign for the lesser office of city comptroller. But his distant, television-heavy campaign struggled to connect with voters and he lost to Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer by a margin of 52 percent to 48 percent.

 Bloomberg, the businessman Republican-turned-independent, is completing his third term. While the city's registered Democrats outnumber Republicans 6 to 1, the Republican Party's recent success in mayoral elections has been largely attributed to a crime epidemic, the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks or other extraordinary circumstances.

 Nearly three-quarters of Democratic primary voters said the next mayor ought to move away from Bloomberg policies, according to the exit polls.

 De Blasio, 52, has fashioned himself as the cleanest break from the Bloomberg years, proposing to raise taxes on the wealthy to fund universal pre-kindergarten and change city police practices he says discriminate against minorities.

 De Blasio, who worked in Bill Clinton's White House and Hillary Rodham Clinton's Senate campaign before being elected to the city council and then public advocate, became the front-runner in the race's final weeks.

 Quinn was the front-runner for much of the year, boasting the biggest campaign war chest and strong establishment backing. But she was dogged by her support to change term limits to let Bloomberg run again in 2009, a decision unpopular with liberals who make up the bulk of Democratic primary voters. |||||

– As expected, Bill de Blasio will easily finish first in New York City's Democratic primary for mayor, reports the AP. What's unclear is whether he will get the necessary 40% to avoid a runoff with the second-place finisher. With 97% of returns in, de Blasio had 40.02%, Bill Thompson 26%, and Christine Quinn 15%. Trailing those three were city comptroller John Liu (7%) and, yes, Anthony Weiner (5%). The eventual Democratic winner will face former MTA chief (and Rudy Giuliani deputy) Joe Lhota in the general election in November. He won the GOP race over billionaire John Catsimatidis. There will be a recount of yesterday's ballots, and some 30,000 votes, including absentee ballots, still need to be counted a first time. A final result may not be known for 10 days and Thompson has made it clear that he won't drop out in the name of party unity: He chanted "Three more weeks!" at his election night event, referring to a time before a potential runoff, which polls show he would lose. Exit polls showed that de Blasio, the city's public advocate, did well with a wide swath of voters from different ethnic groups and locales, reports the New York Times. More so than the other candidates, he advocated a clean break from Michael Bloomberg, making a particular issue of Bloomberg's stop-and-frisk policy. The mayor interjected himself into the campaign when he accused de Blasio of running a "racist" campaign—in part because the candidate featured his Afro-sporting teen son in a TV ad. De Blasio is white, his wife is black, and he would be first city mayor with an interracial family, notes the Times.