While frustrated California detectives looked fruitlessly for a man accused of brutally raping 45 women and killing a dozen more people, one of his relatives was likely busy seeking information to unite a big family tree.

 Their colliding searches lead to the momentous arrest Tuesday of Joseph James DeAngelo, 72, the suspected Golden State Killer who eluded law enforcement for four decades.

 The bulk of the information detectives used to help capture DeAngelo came from a no-frills “open-source” genealogy website called GEDmatch that allows users to voluntarily share their genetic profiles for free.

 The Florida-based website that pools raw genetic profiles that people share publicly to find long-lost relatives was the team’s biggest tool, said lead investigator Paul Holes, a cold case expert and retired Contra Costa County District Attorney inspector who’s spent about seven years using such websites to identify the California killer.

 The website revealed a “distant relative” early this year that helped lead authorities to DeAngelo, who was arrested at his Citrus Heights home on suspicion of conducting a reign of terror up and down California, including 12 homicides, 45 rapes and more than 100 residential burglaries between 1976 and 1986, investigators said.

 That information made it possible for police to focus their search, supplemented by other clues, like ethnicity, height and where he lived at the time. Then they did surveillance and retrieved new evidence — such as saliva on a restaurant dish or a discarded beer can, cigarette or Kleenex – for a more direct DNA match, leading to his arrest.

 The case sheds light on a little known fact: Even if we’ve never spit into a test tube, some of our genetic information may be public — and accessible to law enforcement. That’s because whenever one of our relatives — even distant, distant kin — submits their DNA to a public site hoping to find far-flung relations, some of our data is shared as well.

 “When you put your information into a database voluntarily, and law enforcement has access to it, you may be unwittingly exposing your relatives — some you know, some you don’t know — to scrutiny by law enforcement. Even though they may have done nothing wrong,” said Andrea Roth, assistant professor of law at UC Berkeley Boalt School of Law and an expert on the use of forensic science in criminal trials.

 And even companies that promise privacy may be required to surrender your genetic data if confronted with a search warrant.

 “As more and more genetic information becomes available, its possible use in criminal investigations becomes more and more feasible, both for direct checking and familial checking,” said Stanford University School of Law professor and bioethicist Hank Greely, director of Stanford’s Center for Law and the Biosciences. “That’s true whether it’s a genealogy database, electronic health record or research.”

 Holes began his search six years ago on Ysearch.org, a similar website as GEDmatch. Last March, Holes narrowed it down to an elderly man in Oregon, but he knew it was a “weak match,” he said.

 Court records obtained by the Associated Press show that in March 2017 investigators in Clackamas County, Oregon, convinced a judge to order the 73-year-old man to provide a DNA sample. The documents said they used a genetic profile based off DNA from crime scenes linked to the serial killer and compared it to information from genealogical websites. The man turned out to be innocent.

 “He was cooperative,” Holes said. “We generated the legal documentation more as a matter of routine, due diligence … But he was willing all along to provide his DNA.

 “I knew it was a weak match. After six years it was our only match,” he said, adding that Golden State Killer and the Oregon man shared an unusual genetic trait.

 After that failure, Hole said he “recalibrated” and used his own family member’s DNA profile from Ancestry to start learning how to use GEDmatch. He was confident the new technology would provide answers and he visited the agencies touched by the serial killer’s crimes to convince them to provide some DNA for his new tactic. Ventura County offered some DNA, but to submit DeAngelo’s data to the GEDmatch, investigators would have to put it in a format that would be recognized by the website and uploaded it to the site for analysis, said CeCe Moore, a genetic genealogist who has used the site in thousands of adoption cases.

 The site returns a list of relatives — with names and emails — by degree of shared single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs, which offer a genetic fingerprint. On average, you share 50 percent of your SNPs with a sibling, 25 percent with a half sibling, 12.5 percent with a first cousin, and 3.1 percent with a second cousin. The numbers diminish after that.

 “They had luck, and they had skill,” said Moore, who owns a company called The DNA Detectives.

 The hits on DeAngelo came from third and fourth cousins, Holes said. Family members directly related to DeAngelo’s great, great, great, great grandfather dating back to the 1800s when families would often have 15 kids. Holes and his team built out more than 25 different family trees. The tree that eventually linked to the Golden State Killer was so large, it contained about 1,000 people, he said.

 “I’m not familiar with any other case used to capture someone like this,” Holes said.

 California law limits such “familial searching” using the state’s criminal DNA database. And major companies, such as 23andMe and Ancestry.com, require a court order for law enforcement to access DNA files stored in their databases.

 But there are no legal restrictions against accessing the 900,000 DNA files on the public GEDmatch database, created when consumers take information from commercial testing companies, such as 23andme, then upload it to the volunteer-run database.

 That openness is what makes the site so useful, said Moore. Because so many people contribute data, vast family trees can be built.

 “The majority of companies do a really good job of protecting the genetic privacy of customers,” said Moore. “But if a company allows the uploading of files from other sources, that opens the door up for other types of uses.”

 On Friday, GEDmatch operator Curtis Rogers released a statement saying his company was unaware of the search for the East Area Rapist using his site.

 “We understand that the GEDmatch database was used to help identify the Golden State Killer,” he said. “Although we were not approached by law enforcement or anyone else about this case or about the DNA, it has always been GEDmatch’s policy to inform users that the database could be used for other uses, as set forth in the Site Policy … While the database was created for genealogical research, it is important that GEDmatch participants understand the possible uses of their DNA, including identification of relatives that have committed crimes or were victims of crimes.”

 Rogers continued to say if anyone had concerns that their profiles might be used for “non-genealogical uses” they should remove it from the site or not upload it in the first place. He provided an email address to delete profiles.

 The site does not specifically address law enforcement searches, but it stresses that it “cannot guarantee that your information will never be accessed by unintended means.”

 One of the earliest uses of this approach helped detectives reopen the killing of a 20-year-old woman in Wales. In 2002, data from a 14-year-old boy in Britain’s database of offenders led authorities to his uncle. In 2010, a DNA sample from the son of California’s “Grim Sleeper” serial killer Lonnie David Franklin Jr. led to his arrest and conviction. The son had been jailed on weapons charges.

 The East Area Rapist/Golden State Killer case shows the promise and potential peril of DNA as a law enforcement tool, said UC Berkeley’s Roth.

 “The promise is that it’s a wonderful thing that police were able to find this person,” she said. “And the potential concern is that the government is looking at a lot of genetic information that most of us probably want to keep private.

 “And even though it is easy to think of this technology as something that is used just to track down serial killers,” she said, “If we allow the government to use it with no accountability or no further safeguards, then all of our genetic information might be at risk for being used for things we don’t want it to be used for.”

 Staff writer Julia Prodis Sulek contributed to this report. ||||| Sacramento investigators tracked down East Area Rapist suspect Joseph James DeAngelo using genealogical websites that contained genetic information from a relative, the Sacramento County District Attorney's Office confirmed Thursday.

 The effort was part of a painstaking process that began by using DNA from one of the crime scenes from years ago and comparing it to genetic profiles available online through various websites that cater to individuals wanting to know more about their family backgrounds by accepting DNA samples, said Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Grippi.

 Paul Holes, a retired investigator with the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office, confirmed Friday that he used "open-source" site GEDmatch to help law enforcement make the DNA connection.

 The investigation was conducted over a long period of time as officials in Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert's office and crime lab explored online family trees that appeared to match DNA samples from the East Area Rapist's crimes, Grippi said. They then followed clues to individuals in the family trees to determine whether they were potential suspects.

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 The process finally came to fruition last Thursday, when the investigation focused on the possibility that DeAngelo might be a suspect, a suspicion bolstered by the fact that he had lived in areas where the attacks occurred and was in the right age range, Grippi said.

 Schubert said in an interview at her office that the April 19 determination that DeAngelo might be a suspect set the investigation into high gear.

 Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones' investigators set up surveillance on DeAngelo in his quiet Citrus Heights neighborhood and obtained his DNA from something he discarded.

 The crime lab began testing the material and Schubert said she got a call last Friday night from Grippi while she was at a high school fundraiser telling her that the DeAngelo DNA matched that found at decades-old murder scenes in Ventura and Orange counties.

 "I was at a dinner at Cristo Rey High School and Steve Grippi called me," she said. "And so I probably used a few words I wouldn't put in a newspaper, but basically said, 'You'd better not be lying to me.'"

 The sample provided "overwhelming evidence that it was him," Schubert said, but she decided they wanted a second sample, which sheriff's officials recovered.

 The results from testing that second sample came in while Schubert was in her office Monday night, she said.

 "The second sample was astronomical evidence that it was him," Schubert said, adding, "There were a whole lot of holy s--- moments."

 Authorities began moving quickly to plan the arrest.

 "We wanted to be able to move quickly because it wasn't like he was in custody somewhere," she said, adding that she didn't tell all prosecutors with unsolved crimes around the state in an effort to keep the discovery secret. "Not all the DAs knew at the time that the arrest was made," she said. "I think it's a fair statement that it was closely held. "There were concerns about public safety in terms of if he figured out something was going on." DeAngelo was arrested outside his home Tuesday afternoon and booked into the county jail on two charges of murder in the February 1978 slayings of Katie and Brian Maggiore in Rancho Cordova.

 He is expected to face charges in 12 homicide cases in Sacramento, Orange, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties stemming from a rape and slaying spree that authorities say stretched from 1974 through May 1986. DeAngelo faces arraignment in Sacramento Superior Court on Friday, but authorities still must determine where he ultimately will stand trial and whether he faces death penalty prosecutions. Some of the murders were committed at a time when the death penalty had been ruled unconstitutional, but others are eligible. Schubert said she wants to meet with prosecutors from the counties where DeAngelo is suspected of murders and plan a joint prosecution similar to that used in the Luis Bracamontes cop-killing trial that ended with a death penalty sentence on Wednesday. Bracamontes killed deputies in Sacramento and Placer counties in 2014, and was jointly prosecuted in Sacramento by Rod Norgaard from Schubert's office and Dave Tellman from the Placer DA's office. "It makes sense to do it in one county," she said, adding that the case could be moved to Southern California because 10 of the 12 murder victims were killed there. "The majority of the murders happened down in Southern California, so I'm comfortable with wherever it's going to be as long as everybody gets to be a participant," she said. Prosecutors also must grapple with whether to file rape charges against DeAngelo because for many cases the statute of limitations has expired.

 Sacramento prosecutors do not currently plan to file such charges. In Santa Clara County, where the East Area Rapist was linked to two rapes in San Jose in 1978, the district attorney's office said it would not seek to prosecute DeAngelo because the statute of limitations had expired. But other jurisdictions are considering it, including Yolo County, where authorities said Thursday they are investigating three rapes in Davis nearly 40 years ago they suspect were committed by DeAngelo. Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig indicated in a written statement he would seek to prosecute DeAngelo in connection with the Davis attacks, the first prosecutor in the state to announce such plans. Reisig said his office would work with Schubert, the FBI and Davis police “to solve the Davis rapes, vigorously prosecute the rapist and achieve some sense of justice for the victims, family members and the Davis community.” Contra Costa County's district attorney is working with police agencies there to investigate whether DeAngelo committed nine sexual assaults in that county between 1978 and 1979, DA spokesman Scott Alonso said. Alonso said the statute of limitations may present a challenge. He said the office is evaluating cases with the county sheriff and police in Concord, Danville and Walnut Creek, where attacks linked to the East Area Rapist occurred. "I think we're very interested in pursuing justice for the victims in these cases and pursue what we can file under the statute of limitations," Alonso said. "We want to see justice for these terrible crimes." The East Area Rapist is believed to have killed 12 people, raped at least 51 and burglarized hundreds of homes from 1974 through May 1986 along the length of California. News that a suspect had been arrested in the 44-year-old mystery set off a frenzy of calls to the DA's office from news outlets around the world, and left Schubert reaching out to victims and investigators who had spent decades working to solve the case. Schubert, who grew up in Sacramento and was 12 when the attacks began, said her brother recalled their father buying a gun because of the rapes and that her mother slept with a knife under her pillow. The realization that the case might finally have been solved - and that it involved a man who had lived in Sacramento undetected for decades - comes 18 years after Schubert convinced her bosses in the DA's office to let her begin a cold case investigations unit and two years after she formed a statewide task force to focus efforts on the case. "It's just surreal, so many years of people waiting...," she said. "It’s a big deal. It's a moment in time that I don't think anybody's going to forget...Everybody here understands the significance of this case." |||||

Write a summary.

– A distant relative of Joseph James DeAngelo hoping to learn more about their family submitted a DNA sample to a genealogy website. They now know that they're related to a suspected serial killer. Police say they tracked the suspected Golden State Killer by comparing DNA from one of his many crime scenes to genetic information freely available online, the Sacramento Bee reports. They traced family trees for possible suspects and singled out DeAngelo, a 72-year-old ex-cop, last Thursday. Sacramento County District Attorney Anne Marie Schubert says DeAngelo was placed under surveillance, and DNA collected from discarded items provided "astronomical evidence" that he was the killer. Schubert tells the Bee that when she was informed of the DNA test results, "I probably used a few words I wouldn't put in a newspaper, but basically said, 'You'd better not be lying to me.'" She adds: "There were a lot of holy s--- moments." DeAngelo was arrested outside his home Tuesday. The San Jose Mercury News reports that investigators used the open-source genealogy website GEDMatch.com to search for the suspect who committed 12 murders and more than 50 rapes between 1974 and 1986. Other genealogy websites, including Ancestry.com and 23andMe, say they weren't contacted by police about the case and that they never provide customer information to law enforcement unless they're legally compelled to. (Neighbors describe DeAngelo as a "nice old grandpa" obsessed with lawn care.)


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In this photo taken Friday, March 17, 2017, Ivanka Trump, the daughter of President Donald Trump, and her husband Jared Kushner, senior adviser to President Donald Trump, attend a joint news conference... (Associated Press)

 In this photo taken Friday, March 17, 2017, Ivanka Trump, the daughter of President Donald Trump, and her husband Jared Kushner, senior adviser to President Donald Trump, attend a joint news conference with the president and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the East Room of the White House in Washington.... (Associated Press)

 WASHINGTON (AP) — Cementing her role as a powerful White House influence, Ivanka Trump is working out of a West Wing office and will get access to classified information, though she is not technically serving as a government employee, according to an attorney for the first daughter.

 Since President Donald Trump took office, his eldest daughter has been a visible presence in the White House, where her husband, Jared Kushner, already serves as a senior adviser. On Friday, she participated in a meeting on vocational training with the president and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

 Jamie Gorelick, an attorney and ethics adviser for Ivanka Trump, said Monday that the first daughter will not have an official title, but will get a West Wing office, government-issued communications devices and security clearance to access classified information. Gorelick said Ivanka Trump would follow the ethics rules that apply to government employees.

 "Our view is that the conservative approach is for Ivanka to voluntarily comply with the rules that would apply if she were a government employee, even though she is not," said Gorelick, who also helped Kushner with the legal strategy that led to his White House appointment. "The White House Counsel's Office agrees with that approach."

 Ivanka Trump's role has already come under scrutiny because there is little precedent for a member of the first family with this kind of influence. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 A person with knowledge of Ivanka Trump's thinking, who requested anonymity to discuss private conversations, said she believes she can offer more independent perspective to her father by not serving as a White House staffer.

 A popular surrogate for her father on the campaign trail, Ivanka Trump moved her young family to Washington at the start of the administration and signaled plans to work on economic issues, like maternity leave and child care. In a statement, she said: "I will continue to offer my father my candid advice and counsel, as I have for my entire life."

 Federal anti-nepotism laws prevent relatives from being appointed to government positions. But the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel recently said the president's "special hiring authority" allowed him to appoint Kushner to the West Wing staff. Gorelick noted the office also made clear that the president could consult family members as private citizens, arguing that this is what Ivanka Trump will be doing.

 The first daughter has sought to distance herself from the Trump Organization and her lifestyle brand, which offers shoes, clothing and jewelry. She has removed herself from executive roles and will have a more hands-off approach to the brand — though she will still get certain information and will have the power to veto new deals if they raise ethical red flags.

 Richard Painter, a University of Minnesota law professor who served as President George W. Bush's chief White House lawyer on ethics, said that Ivanka Trump is effectively working as a White House employee. He said that "means that she, like her husband, has to follow the rules. It's not a huge deal if she stays out of things that affect her financial interests."

 Painter said that means Trump should avoid anything to do with foreign trade with countries where her products are made, as well as recuse herself from real estate matters, given Kushner's family real estate business.

 Trump says she will follow ethics rules and some of her financial information will be included in Kushner's official disclosures. She would have to disclose additional financial information if she were in a senior White House role, said Painter. That could include more details about her lifestyle brand, including her contracts and income.

 Attorney Andrew Herman, who has advised lawmakers on ethics issues, said he thought the administration should make her role official. He said: "I think the right way to do that is to make her a special government employee. But that implicates all kind of formal and disclosure issues."

 Ivanka Trump continues to own her brand. But she has handed daily management to the company president and has set up a trust to provide further oversight. The business cannot make deals with any foreign state, and the trustees will confer with Gorelick over any new agreements. Ivanka Trump will also be able to veto proposed new transactions.

 Ivanka Trump has also barred the business from using her image to promote the products in advertising or marketing.

 To be sure, the trustees are in the family — her husband's siblings Joshua Kushner and Nicole Meyer. But Gorelick said the goal of the trust wasn't to shield Trump from everything, but to remove her from the day-to-day operations. She also acknowledged that the arrangement did not eliminate conflicts, but she said Trump is trying to minimize them and will recuse herself from any administration decision-making that affects her business.

 With the Trump Organization, Ivanka Trump has stepped down from a leadership role and will receive fixed payments rather than a share of the profits.

 Ivanka Trump has also written a book, "Women Who Work," that will be released in May. The proceeds and royalties will be donated to charity, Gorelick said. ||||| Ivanka Trump, who moved to Washington saying she would play no formal role in her father’s administration, is now officially setting up shop in the White House.

 The powerful first daughter has secured her own office on the West Wing’s second floor — a space next to senior adviser Dina Powell, who was recently promoted to a position on the National Security Council. She is also in the process of obtaining a security clearance and is set to receive government-issued communications devices this week.

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 In everything but name, Trump is settling in as what appears to be a full-time staffer in her father’s administration, with a broad and growing portfolio — except she is not being sworn in, will hold no official position and is not pocketing a salary, her attorney said.

 Trump’s role, according to her attorney Jamie Gorelick, will be to serve as the president’s “eyes and ears” while providing broad-ranging advice, not just limited to women’s empowerment issues. Last week, for instance, Trump raised eyebrows when she was seated next to Angela Merkel for the German chancellor’s first official visit to Trump’s White House.

 As her role in the White House grows — a role that comes with no playbook — Trump plans to adhere to the same ethics and records retention rules that apply to government employees, Gorelick said, even though she is not technically an employee. But ethics watchdogs immediately questioned whether she is going far enough to eliminate conflicts of interest, especially because she will not be automatically subjected to certain ethics rules while serving as a de facto White House adviser.

 "Having an adult child of the president who is actively engaged in the work of the administration is new ground,” Gorelick conceded in an interview on Monday. “Our view is that the conservative approach is for Ivanka to voluntarily comply with the rules that would apply if she were a government employee, even though she is not.” A spokeswoman for Ivanka Trump said her role was signed off on by the White House counsel’s office, and the conflict issues were “worked through” with the office of government ethics. A White House spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment about the unique arrangement.

 People close to Ivanka Trump said that she sees nothing unusual about the arrangement — it’s simply how she has worked with her father for years, as a senior official at the Trump Organization and as Donald Trump’s partner on “The Apprentice.”

 But in the White House, the unprecedented arrangement for a child of the president has raised new questions about potential conflicts of interest — and about why Ivanka Trump can’t simply join the administration as a government employee. Her husband, Jared Kushner, serves as an official senior adviser in the White House and was sworn in, but his hiring also raised questions of whether it violated anti-nepotism laws. The Justice Department ruled that those laws applied only to agency appointments.

 Ivanka Trump still owns her eponymous fashion and jewelry brand, even though she stepped down from her position at the company ahead of her father’s inauguration. She is also publishing a book, “Women Who Work,” which is due out in May.

 "I will continue to offer my father my candid advice and counsel, as I have for my entire life,” Trump said in a statement. “While there is no modern precedent for an adult child of the president, I will voluntarily follow all of the ethics rules placed on government employees."

 The arrangement, however, was greeted with more questions about what freedoms Trump was trying to preserve for herself — and why.

 “They're not saying she's going to voluntarily subject herself to ethics rules to be nice,” said Norm Eisen, the former ethics czar in the Obama administration. “There’s recognition that they're in very uncertain territory here. The better thing to do would be to concede she is subject to the rules. It would create some outside accountability, because if she can voluntarily subject herself to the rules, she can voluntarily un-subject herself to the rules.”

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 Under the new rules, Trump has divested her common stock, tech investments, investment funds — and they will all appear on Kushner’s 278 financial disclosure form, required by all Cabinet nominees. Bloomberg News reported on Monday afternoon that Trump and Kushner sold as much as $36.7 million in assets to comply with federal ethics rules, according to the Office of Government Ethics.

 But when it comes to divesting from her business, however, Gorelick admitted there is no way to make it a conflict-free zone.

 “The one thing I would like to be clear on: we don’t believe it eliminates conflicts in every way,” Gorelick said. “She has the conflicts that derive from the ownership of this brand. We’re trying to minimize those to the extent possible."

 Gorelick argued that the area is murky because outstanding contracts with third party vendors mean that Ivanka Trump cannot simply close her business — those vendors could continue using her brand. She also can’t sell the business, her attorney argued, because the buyer would have the right to license her name and potentially create other ethical issues.

 Instead, Trump will be distancing herself, as much as possible, from the day-to-day operations of the Ivanka Trump brand and convey her interests to a trust.

 The trust, Gorelick said, will be controlled by her brother-in-law, Josh Kushner, and her sister-in-law, Nicole Meyer, who will be prohibited from entering the brand into any agreements with foreign countries or agencies. Ivanka Trump has appointed Abigail Klem to serve as president of her company, overseeing the day-to-day operations, and prohibited the company from using her image to sell the brand. The first daughter, however, will retain veto power to kill any deals that would be “unacceptable from an ethics perspective.”

 Gorelick, a former deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration, will also serve as the outside ethics adviser to the trustees. The business will also be prohibited from using her image to market the brand.

 Under the trust, her attorneys said, Ivanka Trump will receive only the information she needs for disclosure requirements and to facilitate compliance with conflict of interest and impartiality rules.

 As for the money she will make from her book, Trump is planning to donate the royalties and net proceeds to charities that focus on women in the workforce, with the help of a donor-advised fund.

 The measures that Ivanka Trump is undergoing to comply with federal ethics laws, ethics watchdogs said, are better than nothing. But they argued they are weak in the face of the flagrant violations of ethics standards by the president. Donald Trump’s hotels and golf courses, for instance, continue to engage in business with foreign and national groups that have interests in front of the White House.

 “You might be inclined to view this differently and more generously if the White House had shown a stronger commitment to ethics enforcement,” Eisen said. |||||

– Cementing her role as a powerful White House influence, Ivanka Trump is working out of a West Wing office and will get access to classified information, though she is not technically serving as a government employee. Jamie Gorelick, an attorney and ethics adviser for Ivanka Trump, said Monday that the first daughter will not have an official title or receive a salary, but will get a West Wing office, government-issued communications devices, and security clearance to access classified information, the AP reports. Gorelick says Ivanka Trump will follow the ethics rules that apply to government employees. Since President Trump took office, his eldest daughter has been a visible presence in the White House, where her husband, Jared Kushner, serves as a senior adviser. Her role has already come under scrutiny because there is little precedent for a member of the first family with this kind of influence. "Having an adult child of the president who is actively engaged in the work of the administration is new ground,” Gorelick tells Politico. "Our view is that the conservative approach is for Ivanka to voluntarily comply with the rules that would apply if she were a government employee, even though she is not." (Ivanka Trump's clothing brand has had a surge in sales so far this year.)


Sanford PD told woman to "stop calling 911" hours before she was killed

 Three hours before Latina Herring was murdered, she can be seen on Sanford police body camera video arguing with her boyfriend, Allen Cashe, the man accused of taking his AK-47 and going on a shooting rampage, killing Herring, her 8-year-old son and attempting to kill her 7-year-old son, her father and two bystanders.

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 At 3:20 in the morning Monday, police were called to a Wawa.

 “I don’t have her house keys,” Cashe says on the body camera video.

 “Man, you got my keys,” she yells.

 “I’m not trying to play games,” said Cashe. “You have an attitude coming home from the club drunk.”

 Twenty minutes later, police were called again, to a home on Hays Drive. According to video released by Sanford police Friday, officers on scene dismissed Herring’s concerns.

 “She’s making false accusations,” an officer said. “It’s the second time she’s done it.”

 At one point, police tell Herring to “stop calling 911.”

 “We’re going to handle it,” an officer tells Herring. “Just stop calling 911 and making accusations that you don’t know about.”

 Police, in the video, say the couple was just arguing and it was not physical. They call it a “civil matter.” At one point Cashe is handcuffed and placed in the back of a patrol car but is released. Police say there was no reason to arrest anyone.

 One officer says Herring, frustrated, said she should have just lied and said Cashe hit her.

 It is unclear why Cashe, or Herring, called 911. Officers on scene remarked he may have wanted to harm her.

 “I think he’s calling because he’s afraid he’s going to do something to her,” an officer said to another.

 Herring’s friend Ladasha Beasley says Sanford police should have done more.

 “Sanford PD’s a big disappointment to me and to others,” said Beasley. “To protect and serve who man? Who? Justice needs to be served.”

 Sanford police did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the newly released body camera video and how officers handled the scene.

 Cashe is accused of going on his shooting spree around 6:30 a.m. Police let him leave the scene after he got his keys, which sparked the argument.

 The four shooting survivors remain in the hospital. Three are stable and one is in critical condition. ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.

 / Updated By Alex Johnson

 Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story said police told the victim to stop calling 911. In fact, they were speaking to a third-party, in another location, who was on the phone with police.

 A few hours before a Florida woman and her 8-year-old son were fatally shot last week, police responded to a domestic dispute between the woman and the suspect.

 Early on the morning of March 27, Sanford police were twice called to intervene between Latina Verneta Herring, 35, and Allen Dion Cashe, 31, who were quarreling over the keys to her house and car, according to an arrest report obtained by NBC affiliate WESH of Orlando and The Orlando Sentinel.

 About three hours later, around 6:30 a.m., Cashe emptied the magazine of an assault-style rifle, investigators said. Herring, who was shot seven times, died at the scene. Her 8-year-old son, Branden, was critically wounded; he died Tuesday. Police said four other people were also shot — Herring's father and 7-year-old son, who were critically wounded, and two bystanders.

 Allen Dion Cashe, guarded by armed officers, in court March 28 in Seminole County, Florida. WESH-TV via NBC News Channel

 Police body camera video of the pre-shooting encounters with Herring show her and a man identified as Cashe yelling at each other at a gasoline station about who has the car keys.

 "I'm not trying to play games," Cashe tells Herring on the video. "You have an attitude coming home from the club drunk."

 About 20 minutes later, officers were again called, this time to Herring's home. In the police video, Cashe is handcuffed and placed in a patrol car, but he is then released after officers conclude that it is a civil matter, not a criminal one.

 "She's making false accusations," one of the officers says to another cop. "It's the second time she's done it."

 Allen Dion Cashe in a 2015 booking photo. Seminole Country Sheriff's Office

 Three hours later, Herring was dead, both of her sons and her father were critically wounded and two bystanders suffered non-life-threatening gunshot wounds.

 In the arrest report, investigators said Cashe admitted to "firing an entire magazine from his AK-47 style" rifle, shooting Herring and "possibly 'accidentally' shooting both children while they were sleeping." According to the arrest report, he told investigators that he was upset with Herring for calling police and for "stealing his car keys."

 But Police Chief Cecil E. Smith said the day of the shooting: "The cause of this was Mr. Cashe's making the decision to recklessly shoot and harm these individuals."

 Sanford Mayor Jeff Triplett said in a statement that he was deeply saddened by "the senseless shooting in Sanford," adding: "Domestic violence is a reality in society that doesn't distinguish itself among race, creed, location, color or class."

 According to court records, Cashe remains in jail without bond pending arraignments on April 17 on a charge of violating parole and on May 2 on two counts of first-degree premeditated murder, five counts of attempted homicide and a count of possession of a weapon by a convicted felon. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Body cam video released by police in Sanford, Fla., after a man allegedly went on a shooting spree last week that killed his girlfriend and her 8-year-old son, shows cops scoffing at the woman's "false accusations" and telling her to "stop calling 911," WESH reports. In the early morning of March 27, police responded twice to an altercation between 35-year-old Latina Herring and 31-year-old Allen Cashe, per an arrest report cited by NBC News. In the first encounter around 3:20am at a gas station, Herring and Cashe are seen screaming at each other about who was holding onto the keys, with Cashe insisting, "I'm not trying to play games" and telling Herring she had an "attitude" after coming home intoxicated after a night out. Less than half an hour later, cops were called once again, this time to a home NBC identifies as Herring's, and they don't appear to be taking Herring seriously. "It's the second time she's done it," one officer is heard saying about Herring's so-called "false accusations," with another telling her that police were going to "handle" the situation but that she should "just stop calling 911." How they handled it: Cashe was cuffed and placed in the back of a police vehicle, but then let go after cops determined the incident was a "civil matter." Just a few hours later, Cashe reportedly opened fire, killing Herring and her son. Herring's 7-year-old son and father were injured in the attack, as were two bystanders; WESH says three are in stable condition, one in critical condition. Cashe is in jail without bond until his first arraignment on April 17 for parole violation, followed by a May 2 appearance on charges of premeditated murder, attempted homicide, and possession of a weapon by a convicted felon.


Summarize this article:

A Lake County sheriff’s deputy is out of a job after officials say he waved his firearm and stun gun while quoting lines from Denzel Washington's character in "Training Day," a movie about a corrupt law enforcement officer.

 Deputy Dean Zipes was fired April 21, according to an internal affairs report obtained by WESH 2 News.

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 Authorities say Zipes rubbed his pistol and Taser together in the direction of a convenience store in front of a police trainee. An internal affairs review says the action replicates a scene from the 2001 movie.

 Zipes told investigators he was trying to be funny.

 The report says Zipes twice pulled his firearm in an office setting, voiced racial slurs, made a motion to draw his gun at a pizza delivery driver and became upset after not receiving free Starbucks coffee.

 During the incident in which he made a motion to draw his gun at the delivery man, Zipes joked that the delivery man was alleged murderer Markeith Loyd, the report said.

 AlertMe ||||| LAKE COUNTY, Fla. - A Lake County deputy was fired for "reckless behavior" for waving his gun around in public.

 A supervisor said the deputy posed a "serious safety concern to citizens and other deputies," according to an internal affairs investigative report obtained by News 6.

 Deputy Dean Zipes had his department issued handgun in one hand and a Taser in the other, according to colleagues who witnessed the incident.

 He also recited lines and re-enacted a scene from the movie "Training Day," starring Denzel Washington, according to the report.

 In the movie, Washington plays a crooked LAPD officer.

 In one scene, Washington confronts a suspected rapist and points two guns back and forth from his chest to straight out in front of him, then rubs the weapons together.

 News 6 uncovered video from a Lake County deputy's patrol car that shows Zipes re-enacting the scene using his Taser and department-issued weapon.

 The incident happened in the parking lot of the Sheriff's Office substation in Minneola, according to the report.

 A deputy in training who witnessed it reported "Deputy Tammy Peshek was upset that Deputy Zipes would act in an unsafe manner.”

 “And in public where a civilian could drive by and witness it," Peshek said during an interview with a supervisor after the incident.

 It happened in February, and News 6 has learned Zipes was already under investigation "for pulling his firearm out of his holster twice in an office setting and using racial slurs," according to the internal affairs report.

 In another incident, a deputy reported being in the break room when Zipes "pulled his weapon out of his holster, pointed it at the glass

 windows and stated he never got to shoot the gun," according to the report.

 Zipes was terminated April 21st for harassment, on duty use of a firearm, and other violations, according to the report.

 Copyright 2017 by WKMG ClickOrlando - All rights reserved. |||||

– A Florida deputy was fired last month for impersonating one of the most famous corrupt cops in movie history. The Orlando Sentinel reports Deputy Dean Zipes was outside a sheriff's substation in Lake County around 4am last February with a police trainee and other deputies when he started quoting a "profanity-laced" speech given by Denzel Washington in Training Day. He then rubbed his pistol and Taser together in the direction of a convenience store in what an internal affairs review says mimicked Washington's character, according to WESH. WKMG reports another deputy "was upset" Zipes was acting "in an unsafe manner" where a member of the public could potentially see him. Zipes told investigators he was just joking around. “I am not a rogue, reckless, dangerous, insane guy that slipped through the cracks at the hiring process and somehow got a gun and a badge,” the Sentinel quotes Zipes as saying to investigators. He told them he's "going through some stuff." Zipes was fired April 21, with a supervisor saying he created a "serious safety concern" for fellow deputies and civilians. There are also reports Zipes pulled his pistol twice in an "office setting" and used racial slurs. He reportedly motioned to pull his pistol on a pizza delivery person he was pretending to mistake for an accused cop-killer, and also once "made a scene" at a Starbucks when they wouldn't give him free coffee.


Article:
A 36-year-old woman suffering from an itchy skin lesion went to several Florida doctors two months after her honeymoon in Belize — and learned the wound was the sign of a living creature, which had burrowed into the skin on her groin, doctors say.

 The woman had gone to Tampa General Hospital telling doctors that she thought the reddish lesion could have been an insect bite. She said she had already gone to a primary care doctor about the lesion. That earlier doctor had given the women a course of the antibiotic sulfamethoxazole; but when the woman had finished her antibiotics, she said the lesion was still there, though the redness had improved, according to researchers who investigated the case.

 Doctors puzzled over what it could be: Was it a cyst? An ingrown hair? It wasn’t until the woman went to Tampa’s Memorial Hospital for another opinion that she learned the truth, researchers wrote in a case report in the Journal of Investigative Medicine High Impact Case Reports earlier this month.

 Dr. Enrico Camporesi, a wound healing specialist who treated the woman and authored the report, said the skin around the lesion was hard, as if there were an egg or bean below, Live Science reports. Camporesi sought a surgeon’s expertise, because he worried it could be a lymph node problem — but the surgeon suggested the lesion was actually a living creature.

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 The surgeon was correct: Doctors used local anesthesia and a 5 millimeter incision to remove the object beneath the woman’s skin, which was identified as a human botfly larva — essentially, a maggot — by a pathology lab. By the time the woman came back for a follow-up appointment a week later, the lesion was “completely resolved,” researchers said.

 But what is a botfly?

 A Tampa, Florida, hospital found a human botfly maggot under a woman’s skin months after she took a vacation in Belize, a case report in the Journal of Investigative Medicine said. The botfly is rare in the US but common in the tropics and easily treated. Mina Shenouda, MD, Et Al/Journal Investig Med High Case Rep./American Federation For Medical Research

 It’s a bug that’s rare in the United States, but more commonly found in the tropics. The insect lays its eggs on animals like flies or mosquitoes. Those insects become hosts, carrying the human botfly eggs to human skin — the warmth of which hatches the eggs into larvae, researchers said. The larvae then burrow into the human skin, where they live for 27 to 128 days, causing itching in their hosts.

 The authors wrote that sometimes “patients can feel the larvae moving when they shower or cover the wound.”

 After its stay beneath the skin, the adult larva “drops to the ground where it pupates for between 27 and 78 days before maturing into an adult botfly. The adult form of the human botfly is rarely seen and ranges between 1 and 3 cm long,” researchers wrote.

 A fully-grown human botfly looks somewhat like a bumblebee, and is large with thick hair, according to the University of Florida entomology department.

 The side view of an adult human botfly, Lyle J. Buss University of Florida

 Not all human botfly infestations require a surgeon to intervene, though: Communities in the tropics that are more acquainted with the pests have their own home remedies, the case report authors said.

 “Local residents in Belize suffocate the larvae by applying ... petroleum jelly, bacon strips, nail polish, or plant extracts” over the lesion, researchers wrote. “Several hours after occlusion the larvae will emerge head-first seeking air, at which time, tweezers may be used to physically extract it or apply pressure around the cavity aiding in the larvae expulsion. Generally, larvae emerge 3 to 24 hours after application of the occluding agent.”

 The authors said skin problems are one of the medical issues travelers are most likely to bring home with them after visiting developing countries — and a skin infestation of developing larvae is the fourth most common skin disease travelers report. ||||| The image on the left shows the lesion on the woman’s skin. The human botfly larva (Dermatobia hominis) was able to breathe through the hole in the center. The image on the right shows the larva after it was removed. The rows of black spines make it difficult to extract.

 A Florida woman will probably never forget her honeymoon in Belize, but not for the usual reasons. Instead, her trip was memorable because of a small souvenir she unknowingly brought back with her: a baby fly growing in her skin.

 But it wasn't until the 36-year-old woman had been back home for two months that she noticed something was amiss.

 According to a recent report of her case, it was at this point that she saw what looked like a pimple on the left side of her groin. The skin lesion was itchy, but not painful. So, thinking she may have been bitten by an insect in Belize, the woman went to see her doctor, who suspected it was an infected spider bite and prescribed antibiotics. [27 Oddest Medical Cases]

 But the antibiotics didn't help, according to the case report, published online Oct. 7 in the Journal of Investigative Medicine High Impact Case Report.

 That's when the woman decided to get a second opinion at a wound management clinic.

 The lesion looked like a small bite, with a hole in the center and pus coming out of it, said lead case report author Dr. Enrico Camporesi, a specialist in wound healing at Memorial Hospital in Tampa, Florida, who treated the woman.

 But there was something unusual about the bite, Camporesi told Live Science: The skin on the wound felt hard to the touch, like there was a bean or egg inside of it. Concerned this could be an infection in the woman's lymph node, Camporesi asked a surgeon to take a look.

 The surgeon, however, suspected something completely different: That the hard bump may be some sort of small creature, under the woman's skin, Camporesi said.

 The surgeon turned out to be right, and when doctors cut open the lesion, they found an insect with a tapered shape and rows of spines and hooks. Pathologists identified the insect as a human botfly larva.

 Fully grown, the human botfly (Dermatobia hominis) resembles a large bumblebee, and is commonly found in Central and South America, according to the University of Florida entomology department. Botfly larvae (the wingless, immature forms of the insects) can burrow into human skin, essentially carving out a haven where they can grow and develop into adults. In medical terms, the infestation is known as "myiasis," according to the case report. [8 Awful Parasite Infections That Will Make Your Skin Crawl]

 Botfly infestations are rarely seen in the U.S., but they are a common skin problem in Central America, Camporesi said. But the infestations aren't the result of a female botfly laying her eggs on human skin. Rather, the female fly deposits her mature eggs on the body of another insect, such as a mosquito or a fly. Then, when the mosquito or fly bites a person, the mature egg is injected into the person's skin, where it burrows down beneath the surface and, thanks to the skin's warmth, hatches into a larva, Camporesi said.

 But when a larva burrows into the skin, it needs to leave a hole to breathe through. Indeed, the hole observed on the woman's lesion was just that — a source of air for the baby fly. (People in Belize may use home remedies, such as placing petroleum jelly, bacon strips, nail polish or plant extracts over the central opening to suffocate the larva, according to the case report. Several hours later, the larva will emerge head first seeking air, and the insect can be extracted with tweezers.)

 Camporesi noted that if the larva had not been surgically removed, there's a chance it could have matured into an adult fly, creating a bigger hole in the skin as it grew larger.

 Needless to say, the woman was very upset to learn she'd had a fly growing in her groin after her honeymoon. But within a week of its removal, her skin had completely healed.

 Originally published on Live Science. |||||Summary:

– A tiny creature grew inside a Florida woman for two months after her honeymoon in Belize—and no, she wasn't pregnant. Weeks after returning home, the 36-year-old noticed an itchy spot on the left side of her groin and assumed she'd been bitten by an insect, reports Live Science. Thinking it was an infected spider bite, her doctor fruitlessly prescribed antibiotics. Dr. Enrico Camporesi of Tampa's Memorial Hospital next took a look, noticing a hole in the center of the wound, which felt hard, as though something were inside. A surgeon suspected it was a living thing, and turned out to be right. Cutting open the lesion, doctors found a tapered human botfly larva with rows of spines and hooks meant to keep it buried in the woman's skin for up to 128 days, reports the Miami Herald. Commonly found in Central America, a human botfly first deposits her eggs on an insect, like a mosquito, which carries them to human or animal hosts. Injected in skin via bites, the egg hatches into larva that eventually drops from the skin and continues developing, eventually reaching the size of a large bumblebee, per the Journal of Investigative Medicine High Impact Case Reports. Though the botfly didn't reach the pupa stage in this case, it wasn't necessary for its human host to go under the knife. Belizeans cover lesions—with petroleum jelly, nail polish, and even bacon strips, per the Herald—to suffocate larvae, which emerge for air and can be removed with tweezers. Still, the Florida patient was healed within a week. (Caterpillar larvae might prove useful.)


Focused crawls are collections of frequently-updated webcrawl data from narrow (as opposed to broad or wide) web crawls, often focused on a single domain or subdomain. ||||| Focused crawls are collections of frequently-updated webcrawl data from narrow (as opposed to broad or wide) web crawls, often focused on a single domain or subdomain. |||||

Write a summary.

– CNN reported yesterday that an arrest had been made in the Boston Marathon bombing, with Wolf Blitzer touting the network's "dramatic, exclusive reporting." Just one problem: There was no arrest, and the network eventually backtracked. Cue Jon Stewart: "There was a very good reason why this was exclusive," he said last night on the Daily Show. "Because it was completely f---ing wrong." He later quipped, "It's like a news story ... as imagined by M. Night Shyamalan." John Oliver spoofed the exclusive in a second segment, reporting that the bombing suspect is "a dark-skinned male, possibly white, or maybe a woman. It could be a mannish woman or an effeminate man. The police don't want to appear rude at this point by asking the suspect. The police are just waiting around to see which lavatory he or she uses ... You heard it here, exclusively, and first."


NEW BRUNSWICK -- Rutgers University's undergraduate tuition and fees will go up 2.3 percent -- or by about $300 -- this fall under a plan approved by the state university's board Thursday.

 The typical in-state undergraduate on the New Brunswick campus will pay $14,131 in annual tuition and fees in 2015-2016, or $318 more than last year, school officials said.

 Room and board costs are also going up about 2.6 percent under the plan. Once all of the costs are totaled, the average student living on the New Brunswick campus will pay a total bill of $26,185 to attend Rutgers, or $624 more than last year.

 The Rutgers Board of Governors unanimously approved the tuition hike during a meeting on the New Brunswick campus. The 15-member board also approved a new $3.8 billion budget for the 65,000-student university.

 Rutgers needs the tuition hike to cover several rising costs, including new contracts with various unions calling for a 2 percent raises for Rutgers employees and a 3.7 percent cut in state funding for Rutgers operations.

 "A lot of this is out of our hands," said Mark Angelson, head of the board's finance committee.

 Under Rutgers' system, tuition and fees vary by campus and school. On the Rutgers-Newark campus, the typical undergraduate will pay $13,597 in annual tuition and fees, or $300 more than last year.

 On the Rutgers-Camden campus, the typical undergraduate will pay $14,000 in annual tuition and fees, or $317 more than last year.

 The board approved similar increases of about 2.3 percent for most graduate students. Out-of-state students will see their tuition and fees go up slightly more, by about 3.4 percent.

 This year's tuition and fee increase was about the same as last year, when Rutgers' board voted to approve a 2.3 percent increase.

 "We have really tried under this administration and this president to keep our tuition and fee increases reasonable," said Nancy Winterbauer, Rutgers' vice president for university budgeting.

 Rutgers, like most of the state's public four-year colleges, sets tuition in the summer after the state budget is approved in Trenton. That means few students attend the July meeting where the Rutgers board votes on tuition increases.

 No students were given the opportunity to speak during the meeting. But, during the spring semester, students were given a chance to comment on tuition during a hearing attended by board members.

 Rutgers continues to have one of the highest tuition rates in the nation among state universities. But New Jersey is considered a high aid state in which low-income students receive relatively generous financial aid packages to help cover tuition.

 Less than half of Rutgers students pay the full tuition and fee rate, university officials said. The rest get grants and scholarships to help cover some of their tuition.

 On the New Brunswick campus, the typical in-state undergraduate has their tuition reduced by about 45 percent, Winterbauer said.

 "Grants and scholarships are reducing the costs for the average student by significant amounts," Winterbauer said.

 The Rutgers board also approved a 3.2 percent increase in the university's financial aid program. The Rutgers Assistance Grant program will include $32.5 million to help low-income students cover the tuition increase, Winterbauer said.

 Kelly Heyboer may be reached at kheyboer@njadvancemedia.com . Follow her on Twitter @KellyHeyboer . Find NJ.com on Facebook |||||

 In this Oct. 6, 2011 photo, Gan Golan of Los Angeles, dressed as the “Master of Degrees,” holds a ball and chain representing his college loan debt during Occupy DC activities in (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

 Getting an advanced degree doesn’t come cheap, which is why graduate students carry nearly half of all student debt. But it turns out that a handful of schools are responsible for a large share of that money.

 A new study from the Center for American Progress (CAP) found that 20 universities received one-fifth, or $6.5 billion, of the total amount of loans the government gave graduate students in the 2013-2014 academic year. Those schools, however, only educate 12 percent of all graduate students.

 What’s striking about the Center’s findings is that a majority of the debt taken to attend the 20 schools on its list is not for law or medical degrees that promise hefty paydays. Most graduate students at those schools are seeking master’s degrees in journalism, fine arts or government, according to CAP.

 [It’s about to get cheaper to borrow for college]

 Still, at two foreign medical schools, St. George’s University in Grenada and Ross University in Dominica, students borrowed more than $200 million in a single school year. Medical schools in the Caribbean are often a refuge for students rejected from top American schools, but their tuition easily rival schools in the United States. Tuition for one semester at Ross, for instance, costs up to $21,710.

 It’s not exactly shocking that pricey private schools like New York University, Georgetown University and George Washington University made the list–tuition alone at all three schools is well over $40,000 a year. But the eight for-profit colleges, including University of Phoenix and Capella University, may raise some eyebrows.

 Indeed, students borrowed the most amount of money, $756 million, to attend Walden University, a for-profit school that specializes in offering graduate degrees in education, healthcare and business. The second highest loan balance on the list is attributed to Nova Southeastern University, a private college in Florida where 59 percent of students are working toward graduate degrees online.

 Although online programs are billed as time and cost effective, schools like Nova and Liberty University prove otherwise. About 98 percent of graduate students at Liberty, founded by evangelical leader Jerry Falwell, are enrolled in online programs that led them to borrow $351 million in a single year.

 The government lets graduate students borrow far more than undergrads. Students pursuing a bachelor’s degree can take out no more than about $27,000 from the government, unless they’re married, over age 24 or otherwise independent from their parents. On the other hand, graduate students can borrow the full cost of attendance and wind up with six-figure debt by the time they earn a degree.

 “Policymakers should consider how much graduate lending is sustainable, and examine the value of graduate credentials,” said Elizabeth Baylor, director of postsecondary education at the Center for American Progress. “Degrees in medicine at traditional medical schools offer a clear path to a career with very positive economic outcomes. It’s an expensive education to deliver and the cost students bear makes some sense. However, an online master’s degree, which is cheap to deliver—from an institution with uncertain career outcomes—may not merit unlimited graduate loans.”

 Americans owe more than a trillion dollars in student loan debt. Here's how to pay yours back faster — explained with dominoes. (Gillian Brockell and Jhaan Elker/The Washington Post)

 Want to read more about the student loans? Check out these stories:

 Is graduate school worth the cost? Here’s how to know.

 A guide to paying off your student loans

 Sidelined by disability and saddled with student loans

 There’s a way to dramatically lower student debt payments, but hardly anyone use it |||||

 In this Oct. 6, 2011 photo, Gan Golan of Los Angeles, dressed as the “Master of Degrees,” holds a ball and chain representing his college loan debt during Occupy DC activities in (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

 Getting an advanced degree doesn’t come cheap, which is why graduate students carry nearly half of all student debt. But it turns out that a handful of schools are responsible for a large share of that money.

 A new study from the Center for American Progress (CAP) found that 20 universities received one-fifth, or $6.5 billion, of the total amount of loans the government gave graduate students in the 2013-2014 academic year. Those schools, however, only educate 12 percent of all graduate students.

 What’s striking about the Center’s findings is that a majority of the debt taken to attend the 20 schools on its list is not for law or medical degrees that promise hefty paydays. Most graduate students at those schools are seeking master’s degrees in journalism, fine arts or government, according to CAP.

 [It’s about to get cheaper to borrow for college]

 Still, at two foreign medical schools, St. George’s University in Grenada and Ross University in Dominica, students borrowed more than $200 million in a single school year. Medical schools in the Caribbean are often a refuge for students rejected from top American schools, but their tuition easily rival schools in the United States. Tuition for one semester at Ross, for instance, costs up to $21,710.

 It’s not exactly shocking that pricey private schools like New York University, Georgetown University and George Washington University made the list–tuition alone at all three schools is well over $40,000 a year. But the eight for-profit colleges, including University of Phoenix and Capella University, may raise some eyebrows.

 Indeed, students borrowed the most amount of money, $756 million, to attend Walden University, a for-profit school that specializes in offering graduate degrees in education, healthcare and business. The second highest loan balance on the list is attributed to Nova Southeastern University, a private college in Florida where 59 percent of students are working toward graduate degrees online.

 Although online programs are billed as time and cost effective, schools like Nova and Liberty University prove otherwise. About 98 percent of graduate students at Liberty, founded by evangelical leader Jerry Falwell, are enrolled in online programs that led them to borrow $351 million in a single year.

 The government lets graduate students borrow far more than undergrads. Students pursuing a bachelor’s degree can take out no more than about $27,000 from the government, unless they’re married, over age 24 or otherwise independent from their parents. On the other hand, graduate students can borrow the full cost of attendance and wind up with six-figure debt by the time they earn a degree.

 “Policymakers should consider how much graduate lending is sustainable, and examine the value of graduate credentials,” said Elizabeth Baylor, director of postsecondary education at the Center for American Progress. “Degrees in medicine at traditional medical schools offer a clear path to a career with very positive economic outcomes. It’s an expensive education to deliver and the cost students bear makes some sense. However, an online master’s degree, which is cheap to deliver—from an institution with uncertain career outcomes—may not merit unlimited graduate loans.”

 Americans owe more than a trillion dollars in student loan debt. Here's how to pay yours back faster — explained with dominoes. (Gillian Brockell,Jhaan Elker/The Washington Post)

 Want to read more about the student loans? Check out these stories:

 Is graduate school worth the cost? Here’s how to know.

 A guide to paying off your student loans

 Sidelined by disability and saddled with student loans

 There’s a way to dramatically lower student debt payments, but hardly anyone use it ||||| Rutgers University, New Jersey’s premier public university, continues to dominate top spots in several national college rankings — it ranks 26th among the nation’s top public schools and 30th in campus ethnic diversity, among other accolades.

 But the university’s most recent ranking is one that university administration and prospective students may find less favorable. Of all the public institutions in the country, Rutgers has the most graduate student debt.

 According to the Washington Post, the Center for American Progress, a non-partisan public policy think tank, released a report earlier this month, which found that just 20 U.S. universities accounted for $6.5 billion — or one-fifth — of all federal student loan debt for the 2013-2014 academic year.

 Ranked 19th on the list was Rutgers University, the only public college to appear in the top 20 alongside pricy private universities like New York University and for-profit colleges like the University of Phoenix.

 Ava Lorenzo, an out-of-state graduate student at Rutgers’ campus in New Brunswick, N.J., was not surprised to learn the university was the top public college in the nation in terms of graduate student debt.

 She says she has met many in-state students who do not qualify for sufficient federal aid but whose parents’ income are not high enough to finance their full tuition and fees.

 “A lot of my friends’ parents who live in New Jersey make a decent salary,” Lorenzo says. “[But] this salary is not enough to fund college completely and also not enough for these students to receive wage-based grants from the federal government. Therefore, most of these kids had to take out a significant amount in loans.”

 While Lorenzo funded most of her undergraduate expenses with income-based grants and scholarships, she says she is paying for her doctorate degree with loans.

 She adds, “I know [the debt] is adding up, but getting a doctoral degree should mean that I will make enough to live comfortably despite having a loan bill to pay each month.”

 In addition, Rutgers has one of the highest tuition rates in the nation among state colleges. And while graduate students enrolled at the university received more than $192 million in federal loans in 2013-2014 academic year, undergraduate students at Rutgers received more than $230,962,547 in federal loans that same year, according to the university’s official 2013-2014 financial aid report.

 Candice Yeung, an undergraduate student at the Rutgers campus in Newark, N.J. who is considering enrolling in a graduate program in the next few years, says undergraduate debt alone can be so crippling that it becomes a major factor in the decision to pursue an advanced degree.

 “Students spend four years paying or taking out loans for education and in addition to that, there are meal plans and dorm payments for those who choose to dorm at school,” she says. “Then, there are the textbooks, the supplies and the extra accessories that professors demand for a class. Even with jobs, it is hard to maintain a stable financial status in college. To be honest, I try to not think about my student loans. It makes me wonder if I’m going to graduate school or if law school is even worth it.”

 While the university offers graduate students scholarships and other financial aid resources — including the Eagleton and Ralph Bunche fellowships — federal student loans remain the primary source of aid, according to NJ.com.

 Historically, Americans journeyed to the nation’s top public schools to pursue either an undergraduate or graduate education with an expectation of affordability due to government investment.

 Elizabeth Baylor, the director of postsecondary education at Center for American Progress and author the new report, argued in a 2014 analysis that cuts in-state funding of public colleges have made a bachelor’s degree or advanced degree very unaffordable for students across the country.

 “In response to the fiscal crisis, the majority of state governments charted a budgetary course that reduced direct support to public colleges and universities, which, not surprisingly, coincided with the increasing unaffordability of these institutions,” Baylor said. “To make up for the funding cuts, public colleges increased their reliance on tuition revenue, which unduly burdened low- and moderate-income families.”

 Rutgers University – much like other public colleges — has had to increase tuition in response to state disinvestment in recent years, thus forcing more students to rely more heavily on loans to finance their education.

 The university’s board just approved a 2.3% tuition hike in undergraduate tuition and fees and approved similar increases of approximately 2.3% for most graduate students for the 2015-2016 academic year on Thursday. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Just one public university made it on the list of the top 20 US colleges receiving the most graduate-student loan money—an elite group that received 20%, or $6.5 billion, of the total amount of funds loaned to graduate students in the 2013-2014 academic year, the Washington Post reports. According to a study from the Center for American Progress, New Jersey's Rutgers University—No. 26 on this year's US News & World Report list of top public colleges in the nation—squeaked in at No. 19, holding its own with NYU, Columbia, and 17 other private schools. USA Today notes that Rutgers is among the pricier public schools in the nation, and NJ.com notes that it just hiked tuition about 2.3% for both undergrad and grads for the upcoming academic year. Students aren't surprised: "A lot of my friends' parents who live in New Jersey make a decent salary," an out-of-state grad student at Rutgers tells USA Today. "[But it's] not enough to fund college completely and also not enough for these students to receive wage-based grants from the federal government." (Check out the 19 private schools that make the loan-heavy list at the Washington Post.)


– Jon Huntsman is skipping next week's debate in Las Vegas to protest Nevada's decision to move up its caucuses to January, reports the Hill. Instead, Huntsman will host a town-hall meeting in New Hampshire. The Huntsman camp accuses Mitt Romney of encouraging the state to shift its caucus date to "game the system." Romney is expected to win in Nevada, and his rivals fear that if he racks up enough early victories, he will lock up the nomination. Huntsman's daughters weigh in on their Twitter feed: "Dad boycotting Tuesday's Vegas debate to hold townhall in NH. Enough w/@mittromney and his campaign's attempts to rig the political process."

Expand this summary.

Huntsman to skip Nevada debate in protest By Justin Sink - Tweet Jon Huntsman announced Friday that he will definitively be boycotting the Republican debate in Las Vegas next week in protest of Nevada's decision to move its caucus date to Jan. 14, throwing into doubt the traditional primary calendar led by Iowa and New Hampshire.

 "If you are going to boycott something, boycott it," Hunstman said to WMUR.

 His campaign said that instead, Huntsman will spend the evening campaigning in New Hampshire.

 Huntsman has accused Romney of urging Nevada officials to take the earlier caucus date. Nevada, with its significant Mormon population, looks to be an easy win for the former Massachusetts governor, and a string of early victories could help Romney to cement the nomination. But the Romney camp has denied the allegations and said it hopes New Hampshire maintains its first-in-the-nation primary.

 Michele Bachmann was reportedly also considering boycotting the debate, although her campaign later clarified that she would be in attendance. But she and Rick Santorum are considering joining Huntsman and Newt Gingrich, who have said they won't participate in the caucus itself unless New Hampshire and Iowa are accommodated.

 Tweet View Comments "Next Tuesday, Gov. Huntsman will boycott the Nevada presidential debate, and instead hold a first-in-the-nation town hall meeting in New Hampshire, to discuss his bold plans to create jobs and reform America's foreign policy for the 21st century," said campaign manager Matt David in a statement. "While Mitt Romney's campaign has tried to game the system by encouraging Nevada to move to an earlier date, Gov. Huntsman is sticking up for the Granite State."Huntsman has accused Romney of urging Nevada officials to take the earlier caucus date. Nevada, with its significant Mormon population, looks to be an easy win for the former Massachusetts governor, and a string of early victories could help Romney to cement the nomination. But the Romney camp has denied the allegations and said it hopes New Hampshire maintains its first-in-the-nation primary.Michele Bachmann was reportedly also considering boycotting the debate, although her campaign later clarified that she would be in attendance. But she and Rick Santorum are considering joining Huntsman and Newt Gingrich, who have said they won't participate in the caucus itself unless New Hampshire and Iowa are accommodated. Source:

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"What comforts me is that I too can use my power, which isn't so different from a President really. I can enact positive change. I can actually help people. I can be a symbol of my democracy. I can refuse to call him President, and call out other abuses of power when I see them. I can vote for a President, in part, by the nature of his or her character, knowing that his or her political decisions must necessarily stem from that character." ||||| UPDATED with new accusations from second actress: Following Lind’s accusation and a set of two apologies from Bush’s camp, another actress has come forward admitting that the former president touched her inappropriately.

 Jordana Grolnick said in August 2016 while she was working on a production of The Hunchback of Notre Dame in Maine, Bush came backstage during intermission and grabbed her as they posed for a picture.

 She claims, “He reached his right hand around to my behind, and as we smiled for the photo he asked the group, ‘Do you want to know who my favorite magician is?’ As I felt his hand dig into my flesh, he said, ‘David Cop-a-Feel!’”

 EARLIER with second apology from George H.W. Bush: Since the accusations from Lind, former President George H.W. Bush has issued a second apology to the first.

 According to The Washington Post spokesman, Jim McGrath, released a full statement on Wednesday:

 At age 93, President Bush has been confined to a wheelchair for roughly five years, so his arm falls on the lower waist of people with whom he takes pictures. To try to put people at ease, the president routinely tells the same joke — and on occasion, he has patted women’s rears in what he intended to be a good-natured manner. Some have seen it as innocent; others clearly view it as inappropriate. To anyone he has offended, President Bush apologizes most sincerely.

 EARLIER: Turn: Washington’s Spies actress Heather Lind has come forward with accusations that President George H.W. Bush sexually assaulted her during a photo opportunity with his wife Barbara Bush standing by his side. Bush has since apologized for the incident saying that it was an “attempt at humor” and that he didn’t mean to offend Lind.

 Lind made the accusations through a lengthy Instagram post that has since been deleted. She recently saw a photo of the 93-year-old wheelchair bound Bush shaking hands with Barack Obama at the One America Appeal hurricane relief concert which prompted her to share her alleged experience saying, “…when I got the chance to meet George H. W. Bush four years ago to promote a historical television show I was working on, he sexually assaulted me while I was posing for a similar photo.”

 The Instagram post continued saying that Bush touched her from behind and told her a dirty joke — all while being photographed. All the while Barbara Bush “rolled her eyes as if to say ‘Not again’.”

 “It seems to me a President’s power is in his or her capacity to enact positive change, actually help people, and serve as a symbol of our democracy,” she continued. “He relinquished that power when he used it against me and, judging from the comments of those around him, countless other women before me. What comforts me is that I too can use my power, which isn’t so different from a President really.”

 She closed the post saying, “My fellow cast-mates and producers helped me that day and continue to support me. I am grateful for the bravery of other women who have spoken up and written about their experiences. And I thank President Barack Obama for the gesture of respect he made toward George H. W. Bush for the sake of our country, but I do not respect him. #metoo.”

 In a statement to the New York Daily News, Bush’s spokesperson said, “President Bush would never — under any circumstance — intentionally cause anyone distress, and he most sincerely apologizes if his attempt at humor offended Ms. Lind”

 Lind’s accusations come in the wake of the Weinstein scandal and the fallout of many film and TV executives due to sexual harassment allegations.

 As mentioned in her now-deleted Instagram post, her colleagues have come forward to support her allegations. Turn co-star and Pirates of the Caribbean actor Kevin McNally tweeted, “My full support for @heatherglind for speaking out about the horrible event in Houston. All of which is true.” This was followed by numerous tweets about sexual harassment.

 Author of Washington Spies, the book on which Turn is based also tweeted saying, “@heatherglind & ex-Pres. Bush, her account is 100% accurate. I was there. It was not a ‘joke’ gone awry.” The official Turn account also chimed in, tweeting, “Sexual assault is always about abusing power over their victims. The fact that this has been politicized is avoiding the real issue.”

 My full support for @heatherglind for speaking out about the horrible event in Houston. All of which is true. — Kevin McNally (@exkevinmcnally) October 25, 2017

 Re: @heatherglind & ex-Pres. Bush, her account is 100% accurate. I was there. It was not a "joke" gone awry. @westratenick — Alexander Rose (@AlexRoseWriter) October 25, 2017 |||||

Write a summary.

– Actress Heather Lind accused former President George HW Bush of sexual assault in a now-deleted Instagram post Tuesday, saying the former president "touched her from behind" during a photo-op in 2014. The Turn: Washington's Spies star said the inappropriate behavior occurred during a special screening before the AMC historical drama's debut, Deadline reports. "He touched me from behind from his wheelchair with his wife Barbara Bush by his side," Lind wrote. "He told me a dirty joke. And then, all the while being photographed, touched me again. Barbara rolled her eyes as if to say 'not again.'" Lind said a security guard told her she "shouldn't have stood next to him for the photo." Lind said that judging from comments from people around her, Bush had behaved the same way with "countless other women." "My fellow castmates and producers helped me that day and continue to support me," she wrote. Lind said she decided to come forward with her story after seeing a recent photo of the 93-year-old Bush with former President Obama. Bush issued an apology through a spokesman. "President Bush would never—under any circumstance—intentionally cause anyone distress, and he most sincerely apologizes if his attempt at humor offended Ms. Lind," the spokesman said in a statement to the New York Daily News.


– It looks like Shakespeare's skull really is missing from his grave. That's what an archaeologist has concluded after researchers were allowed to use ground-penetrating radar to scan the Bard's final resting place, Reuters reports. "We have Shakespeare's burial with an odd disturbance at the head end and we have a story that suggests that at some point in history someone's come in and taken the skull of Shakespeare," says Staffordshire University archaeologist Kevin Colls, who says the findings are "very very convincing" that the long-standing rumors of a missing skull are true. He tells Fox News that analysis shows the "odd, strange" disturbance at the head end of the grave is a sign "of material being dug out and put back again." Per those rumors, grave-robbers took the skull from Shakespeare's grave at the Church of the Holy Trinity in England's Stratford-upon-Avon in 1794. At the time, trophy hunters believed a person's genius would be apparent in his skull. Rumors also claimed that Shakespeare's skull might be hidden in a sealed crypt at another church nearby, but Colls' team investigated and found the skull there was that of a woman in her 70s. The team also discovered that Shakespeare was buried in a simple shroud, not a coffin, and that he and his wife were buried in shallow graves, not a deeper family vault as had been believed, Newsweek adds. Researchers, who ignored a curse in Shakespeare's epitaph in order to do their non-intrusive analysis, present the findings in a documentary airing in Britain Saturday. (Click to see Shakespeare's entreaty for refugees, in his own hand.)

Expand this summary.

A team of archaeologists has claimed that William Shakespeare's skull was "probably" stolen from its final resting place in his hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon, England.

 The conclusion brings new credence to a long-discredited claim that the skull was stolen from the playwright's grave by trophy hunters in 1794.

 "We came across this very odd, strange thing at the head end," lead archaeologist Kevin Colls, of Staffordshire University, told The Guardian. "It was very obvious, within all the data we were getting, that there was something different going on at that particular spot. We have concluded it is signs of disturbance, of material being dug out and put back again."

 Shakespeare's grave famously bears the poetic admonition, "Good friend, for Jesus’ sake forbear, / To dig the dust enclosed here. / Blessed be the man that spares these stones, / And cursed be he that moves my bones."

 Holy Trinity Church vicar Patrick Taylor told Sky News he is not so sure about the grave robbery theory.

 "We now know much more about how Shakespeare was buried," Taylor said. "We are not convinced, however, that there is sufficient evidence to conclude that his skull has been taken.

 "We shall have to live with the mystery of not knowing fully what lies beneath the stone."

 Colls' team was permitted to examine the grave at Stratford's Holy Trinity Church because ground-penetrating radar technology permitted them to do so without disturbing the remains of the famous playwright.

 The archaeologists have also determined that Shakespeare was not buried standing up, contrary to tradition, and that he was laid to rest wrapped in a shroud rather than in a coffin.

 The claim that the skull was stolen was first published in a magazine in 1879. Colls said the team investigated a skull held at a church 15 miles from Stratford and found it could not be Shakespeare's.

 Their findings will be part of a television program broadcast in the U.K. Saturday to mark the 400th anniversary of the Bard's death.

 Click for more from The Guardian.

 Click for more from Sky News.

  ||||| William Shakespeare’s skull is likely to have been stolen by trophy hunters, a new documentary claims.

 An archaeological survey of the playwright’s grave at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon appears to give new credence to theories that Shakespeare’s grave was looted in 1794—rumors of which have been debunked as myth until now. The theory was first published in The Argosy magazine in 1879.

 Archaeologist Kevin Colls of Staffordshire University led the investigation of Shakespeare’s grave for a new documentary on the U.K.’s Channel 4 to mark the 400th anniversary of the Bard’s death in April. Colls and his team conducted a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) search using state-of-the-art technology.

 Key among their discoveries was an apparent repair to the head end of Shakespeare’s burial site, indicating a previous disturbance to his final resting place.

 “We have Shakespeare’s burial with an odd disturbance at the head end and we have a story that suggests that at some point in history someone’s come in and taken the skull of Shakespeare. It’s very, very convincing to me that his skull isn’t at Holy Trinity at all,” said Colls in the documentary.

 The televised investigation led Colls and his team to look into another legend: that Shakespeare’s skull was sealed in a crypt inside St. Leonard’s church in Worcestershire, some 15 miles away from his gravesite. However, a forensic anthropological survey conducted by Colls and his team found the skull in the crypt in fact belongs to an unknown woman, thought to be in her 70s when she died.

 Colls also discovered that Shakespeare and his wife Anne Hathaway had been buried in one-meter-deep shallow graves beneath the church’s floor, and not further below ground in a family vault as previously thought.

 The GPR scan found no indication of metal, such as nails used for coffins, indicating Shakespeare was simply wrapped in a shroud rather than buried in a casket.

 “It was a great honor to be the first researcher to be given permission to undertake non-invasive archaeological investigations at the grave of William Shakespeare,” said Colls.

 “The amazing project team...has produced astonishing results which are much better than I dared hoped for, and these results will undoubtedly spark discussion, scholarly debate and controversial theories for years to come,” he added. “Even now, thinking of the findings sends shivers down my spine.”

 Secret History: Shakespeare’s Tomb airs on Saturday at 8 p.m. on Channel 4. |||||


News article:

On first visit to Europe since taking office, US vice-president tells Munich conference Nato allies must step up their contributions

 The US vice-president has delivered the most uncompromising message yet from the Trump administration to Nato allies that they have to step up financial contributions towards defence spending.

 On his first visit to Europe since taking office, Mike Pence said “some of our largest allies do not have a credible path” towards paying their share of Nato’s financial burden. Although he did not name individual countries, his targets included Germany, France and Italy. “The time has come to do more,” he said.

 Brexit Britain’s Nato strategy is fatally flawed | Martin Kettle Read more

 This section of his speech to the Munich security conference, which is being attended by 500 delegates including government leaders and defence and foreign ministers from around the world, was greeted with lukewarm applause.

 He was speaking immediately after the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, made it clear she would not be bullied by the US over defence spending. She said Germany had made a promise to increase defence over the next decade and would fulfil that commitment rather than be forced into the faster rises that Trump is looking for.

 Merkel said the focus on defence spending could be misleading. Even if Germany was to spend more, there was not the military capacity available to invest in. She added that Germany saw spending on development in countries in Africa and elsewhere as being as vital to security as military spending.

 The conference marks the first major meeting between the Trump administration and leaders from across Europe since Trump took office.

 Pence went further than the US defence secretary, James Mattis, at Nato headquarters on Wednesday in warning Nato allies to stump up more. He said: “As of this moment, the US and only four other Nato members meet that basic standard.”

 Those four countries are the UK, Estonia, Greece and Poland. The other 23 Nato members do not meet the target of spending 2% of GDP on defence.

 In a thinly veiled warning, Pence said that while the US was bound by Nato’s article five – an attack on one member would be an attack on all – he also reminded the audience that article three contained a commitment to sharing the financial burden, echoing Trump’s warning last year that he did not feel bound to come to the defence of countries that did not pay their share.

 Pence peppered his speech with regular references to Trump, stressing that he was delivering messages from the president. He softened his criticism of allies with assurances that the president, in spite of rhetoric about isolationism, valued Nato “The US strongly supports Nato and will be unwavering in our support of this transatlantic alliance,” he said.

 Pence also attempted to square the contradictory comments made by Trump towards Russia. While the US wanted a new relationship with Russia, he said that the US expected Russia to honour the 2015 Minsk peace agreement aimed at ending violence in Ukraine.

 “Know this: the United States will continue to hold Russia accountable, even as we search for new common ground which, as you know, President Trump believes can be found.”

 After the meeting, Pence was scheduled to hold bilateral talks with Merkel and also with the leaders of Ukraine and the Baltic states.

 Merkel made the case for more multilateralism rather than a retreat into “parochialism” because of the dangers posed by “no fixed world order”.

 With Pence in the room, she avoided direct references to Trump even though many of her comments during her speech and in a question-and-answer session afterwards were aimed at him.

 Asked about attacks on the media, Merkel said: “Freedom of the press is a pillar of democracy.” ||||| MUNICH—Vice President Mike Pence said the U.S. would be unwavering in its commitment to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, but demanded that Europe step up its military spending, marking one of the Trump administration’s most full-throated efforts yet to reassure nervous partners.

 Mr. Pence, speaking at the Munich Security Conference to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and scores of other leaders and senior officials from around the world, said he was bringing to Europe a message from President Donald Trump about the... ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Nato countries are failing to meet their commitments, Mike Pence said

 The US will be "unwavering" in its support for Nato, vice-president Mike Pence told European leaders at the Munich Security Conference.

 In the first major foreign policy address for the Trump administration, Mr Pence said the US would "stand with Europe today and every day".

 But he told the gathered leaders that European countries were "failing to pay their fair share" on defence.

 That failure "erodes the foundation of our alliance", he said.

 The vice-president pointed out that apart from the US, only four Nato countries had met a 2014 commitment to spend 2% of GDP on defence.

 "The time has come to do more," he said.

 US and Europe weigh each other up at Nato

 President Donald Trump warned before taking office that the US might not uphold its commitment to come to the defence of Nato allies who were not perceived to have contributed enough financially.

 Image copyright EPA Image caption Angela Merkel addressed the conference directly before Mike Pence

 Watching the speech was German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who spoke before Mr Pence. Germany is among the nations yet to meet the 2% target.

 Nato estimates for 2016 show that only the US, UK, Greece, Poland and Estonia do so.

 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Mike Pence: "With regard to Ukraine...we must hold Russia accountable"

 Mr Pence went on to say that the US would "continue to hold Russia accountable, even as we search for new common ground, which as you know, President Trump believes can be found".

 Mr Pence said Russia must honour a 2015 peace deal agreed upon in Minsk, Belarus, aimed at ending violence in eastern Ukraine.

 His comments came amid huge controversy in the US over ties between the Trump administration and Russia, and concern in Europe over whether the new administration would attempt to restrain Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

 Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, speaking at the conference, rejected accusations that Russia was responsible for destabilising peace and described Nato as stuck in "Cold War" thinking.

 Mr Lavrov also denied allegations that Russia had meddled in the US election, saying he "saw no facts" pointing to hacking by Russian operatives.

 Speaking before Mr Pence, Ms Merkel called for increased co-operation between the US and the European Union on issues including Russian aggression and Islamist terror.

 The two leaders were scheduled to meet face to face later in the day.

 A dig at Trump - Jonathan Marcus, defence correspondent

 Speaking before Mr Pence, Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, said the question now facing the trans-Atlantic community was whether "we will be able to act in concert or fall back into parochial politics" - a subtle but clear dig at Mr Trump's mantra of "America First".

 Asked directly what she thought about the Trump administration's rhetorical onslaught against sections of the media, Ms Merkel insisted that freedom of the press was a pillar of democracy.

 When Mr Pence took to the stage he stressed that he was bringing a message of reassurance from the new president, who would "unwaveringly" back America's Nato allies.

 But he also used the opportunity to repeat Mr Trump's long-held view that Washington's European allies must spend more on their own defence. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– Mike Pence promised NATO allies Saturday that they had the "unwavering" support of the US, while also making it clear that the administration considers most of them to be freeloaders. The vice president, speaking to European leaders at the Munich Security Conference, said European countries are failing to "pay their fair share" on defense, the BBC reports. Pence said only four other NATO countries—the UK, Greece, Estonia, and Poland—met a commitment to spend at least 2% of GDP on defense. "The time has come to do more," Pence said, echoing President Trump's campaign rhetoric. Pence said the US plans to boost military spending and will "hold Russia accountable" for its actions in Ukraine. "Peace only comes through strength," Pence said, per the Wall Street Journal. "President Trump believes we must be strong in our military might." German Chancellor Angela Merkel also addressed the conference and said Germany will increase its spending to meet NATO's target, but it won't be rushed into it, the Guardian reports. She added that it would be a mistake to believe that defense spending is the only way to boost security. "Security is ensured just as much by increasing one’s development spending," she said. Merkel said the US was a valuable partner in the fight against terrorism, along with Islamic nations who can show "that a misguided Islam, rather than Islam itself, is the cause of terrorism."