Here is a news article: Mitt Romney appears to have altered his position on the Obamacare ban on denying insurance to people with pre-existing conditions in an interview with the Columbus Dispatch editorial board.

 “You have to deal with those people who are currently uninsured, and help them have the opportunity to have insurance,” said Romney, according to the paper.

 “But then once people have all had that opportunity to become insured, if someone chooses not to become insured, and waits for 10 or 20 years and then gets ill and then says, ‘Now I want insurance,’ you could hardly say to an insurance company, ‘Oh, you must take this person now that they’re sick,’ or there’d literally be no reason to have insurance.”

 In the same interview with the Dispatch, he also argued that not having insurance does not in itself lead to deaths.

 “We don’t have a setting across this country where if you don’t have insurance, we just say to you, ‘Tough luck, you’re going to die when you have your heart attack,’” Romney said. “Instead you go to the hospital, you get treated, you get care, and it’s paid for, either by charity, the government or by the hospital. We don’t have people that become ill, who die in their apartment because they don’t have insurance.”

 Tune in to ABCNews.com on Thursday for livestreaming coverage of the 2012 Vice Presidential Debate in Danville, Ky. Coverage kicks off with ABC News’ live preview show at noon, and full debate coverage begins at 8 p.m.

 Romney’s reference to a “choice” with regard to pre-existing conditions and his inclusion of giving opportunity to people “who are currently uninsured” would seem to contradict earlier statements from Romney and his own website, which suggest no ban on pre-existing conditions should be extended for people who don’t currently have insurance. A full transcript of the interview has not yet been posted by the Dispatch. The Romney campaign has not responded to a request for comment.

 Read more about Romney and pre-existing conditions.

 There were approximately 49 million non-elderly uninsured Americans in 2010, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation report that utilized U.S. Census data. More than 70 percent of those have gone without insurance for a year or more, according to the report.

 Here’s what it says on Mitt Romney’s website about pre-existing conditions: “Prevent discrimination against individuals with pre-existing conditions who maintain continuous coverage.”

 That has been taken to suggest that he favors a ban on insurance companies discriminating on the basis of pre-existing conditions, but not for people who are currently uninsured. “Continuous coverage” generally means three months, so presumably a three-month gap is allowed.

 Romney has backed this assessment up, most notably in an interview during the GOP primary this spring with Jay Leno, when Romney was careful to stipulate that someone would need to have had insurance. “People who have done their best to be insured are going to be covered,” said Romney.

 “If they are 45 years old, and they show up and say, ‘I want insurance because I have heart disease,’ it’s like, ‘Hey, guys. We can’t play the game like that,’” Romney told Jay Leno during a March appearance on the “Tonight Show.” ”You’ve got to get insurance when you are well, and then if you get ill, you are going to be covered.

 “People who have been continuously insured, let’s say someone’s had a job for a while and been insured, then they get real sick and they happen to lose a job, or change jobs, they find, ‘Gosh, I got a pre-existing condition. I can’t get insured,’ I’d say no, no, no. People with pre-existing conditions, as long as they have been insured before, they are going to be able to continue to have insurance,” he said.

 In the presidential debate last week, Romney said, “I do have a plan that deals with people with pre-existing conditions,” but he did not elaborate. ||||| Romney defends plan to repeal Obama healthcare law

 By Elise Viebeck -

 Repealing President Obama’s healthcare law would not keep people from getting insurance or quality care, GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney said Wednesday.

 In an interview with the editorial board of the Columbus Dispatch, Romney defended his plans to repeal the healthcare law, saying the uninsured could still visit an emergency room and that people with preexisting conditions could keep their insurance.

 “We don’t have a setting across this country where if you don’t have insurance, we just say to you, ‘Tough luck, you’re going to die when you have your heart attack,’ ” Romney said.

 “No, you go to the hospital, you get treated, you get care, and it’s paid for, either by charity, the government or by the hospital,” he said.

 “We don’t have people that become ill, who die in their apartment because they don’t have insurance,” Romney added.

 The comment drew criticism from the Obama campaign, which said it showed Romney did not understand the struggles of middle-class families that lack insurance.

 “If he did, he wouldn’t claim that no one in this country dies because they don’t have health insurance when, in fact, experts estimate that 26,000 people die prematurely every year because they don’t have coverage,” said Obama campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith.

 Healthcare is a challenging issue for Romney, who backed an overhaul of the healthcare laws in Massachusetts as that state's governor that President Obama has said served as a basis for his own federal healthcare law.

 Romney embraces the Massachusetts law, but argues that different states should be free to set up their own healthcare laws. He has described "ObamaCare" as a federal takeover of state healthcare law.

 In the interview in Columbus, Romney also said he would ensure people with preexisting conditions could not be blocked from getting health insurance as long as they previously had health insurance. But he suggested insurance companies would not be obliged to cover people with preexisting conditions who had never had been insured.

 “You have to deal with those people who are currently uninsured, and help them have the opportunity to have insurance," Romney told the Columbus newspaper.

 "But then once people have all had that opportunity to become insured, if someone chooses not to become insured, and waits for 10 or 20 years and then gets ill and then says ‘Now I want insurance,’ you could hardly say to an insurance company, ‘Oh, you must take this person now that they’re sick,’ or there’d literally be no reason to have insurance."

 The comments come as Romney has sought to edge toward the political center with some of his remarks. After an impressive debate performance last week, polls have shown Romney edging into a lead over Obama, and the two men are intensely fighting over centrist, Independent voters.

 Obama's healthcare law remains unpopular in polls, and conservatives argue it will raise taxes and limit growth while adding to the deficit.

 Obama and the law's supporters argue it will lower government spending and national healthcare costs, in part by requiring younger, healthier people to purchase insurance.

 Federal law requires that virtually every U.S. hospital treat anyone who arrives needing emergency care, a guarantee passed in 1986 as part of the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA).

 The law was designed to prevent the situation Romney described on Wednesday — uninsured Americans dying in their homes for lack of care — but it also creates a “free-rider” problem by burdening hospitals with costs they pass to other patients.

 Smith cited a report by the liberal advocacy group Families USA, which supports the healthcare law, that found 26,000 Americans die every year because of a lack of health coverage.

 In 2009, nonpartisan researchers at Harvard Medical School pegged the number of U.S. deaths related to lack of coverage closer to 45,000 annually.

 This story was updated at 3:30 p.m. ||||| A growing collection of websites selected by the National Information Center on Health Services Research and Health Care Technology (NICHSR) of the National Library of Medicine, which focuses on the discussions surrounding possible changes, repeal, or reform of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Enacted in 2010, The Affordable Care Act has implications both for coverage and utilization of health care as well as the relationship of public health to the general health care system. With a change in the political administration in the White House and the Senate, a priority for the administration became a focus for the government. The websites examined in this collection will reflect the debates taking place in the government, and will have been influential in influencing the eventual decisions reached by the Government. Website captures began in late 2016, with the aim of capturing discussions of repeal/replace/revise conversations that will occur over the next following 4 years. The collection will focus on data, analyses, and proposed changes by highlighting websites, blogs, collections of white papers, reports, and news items from high-value analytic and policy sources. These sources reflect all political and value perspectives, to give the most concise picture of the debate. ||||| L

 iberal critics of Mitt Romney's plan to repeal ObamaCare argue that a President Romney would leave tens of millions of Americans without health insurance they would otherwise have under Obama's reform law. In a meeting with the Columbus Dispatch editorial board this week, Romney sought to downplay the harm that such an insurance-revoking plan would cause. "We don't have people that become ill, who die in their apartment because they don't have insurance," Romney said, repeating a claim he made last month on 60 Minutes. Is Romney right, or is he underestimating the dangers faced by the nation's tens of millions of uninsured Americans? Here, a brief guide:

 First off: What exactly did Romney say?

 He told the newspaper's editors that even those without health-insurance coverage have a safety net, because federal law prohibits hospitals from turning even uninsured people away when they show up to an emergency room. "We don't have a setting across this country where if you don't have insurance, we just say to you, 'Tough luck, you're going to die when you have your heart attack,'" Romney said. "No, you go to the hospital, you get treated, you get care, and it's paid for, either by charity, the government or by the hospital."

 Is Romney right?

 About the law, yes, he is, says Rebecca Leber at Think Progress. Emergency rooms really do serve as "a place of last resort" for the uninsured. Still, an analysis released in 2009 by Harvard Medical School researchers found that 45,000 Americans die every year because they don't have health insurance. That's one person every 12 minutes. Other studies have put the figure lower — the Institute of Medicine estimated in 2002 that about 18,000 people die annually because they're uninsured. Indeed, the consensus among researchers is that you run a greater risk of dying if you're not insured.

 Why do uninsured Americans die if hospitals must admit them?

 Hospitals have to treat them in the emergency room, but many patients don't get there until it's too late. And patients with chronic conditions often can't afford care they need on a regular basis — basic services that emergency rooms aren't set up to provide. "For any doctor," Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, a co-author of the 2009 study, told Reuters, "it's completely a no-brainer that people who can't get health care are going to die more from the kinds of things that health care is supposed to prevent."

 Why is Romney talking about this at all?

 He's stuck with "defending his emergency-room plan as a tenable solution," says Steve Benen at MSNBC, because he knows full well his proposal to gut ObamaCare will strand tens of millions of Americans with no coverage. "The reality is plain for anyone who cares: Americans die because they lack basic coverage," and forcing hospitals and taxpayers to foot the bill for free emergency room care is "the most inefficient system of socialized medicine ever devised." But Romney isn't talking about returning to the pre-ObamaCare status quo, says John Hinderaker at Power Line. He wants to help get more people covered by doing things like "banning discrimination" against people with pre-existing conditions. So disagree with him if you must, but don't distort his plans.

 Sources: Columbus Dispatch, MSNBC, PowerLine, Reuters, Think Progress

 Read more political coverage at The Week's 2012 Election Center. ||||| Politics Romney: ‘We Don’t Have People Who Die Because They Don’t Have Insurance’

 Mitt Romney doubled down on his suggestion that uninsured Americans can find the care they need in emergency rooms, telling The Dispatch that people will always receive the treatment they need, and do not die or suffer because they can not pay for care. He pointed to federal law that requires hospitals to admit emergency patients, repeating his advice that patients rely on the most expensive form of care reserved strictly for emergencies. Romney told the Columbus Dispatch:

 “We don’t have a setting across this country where if you don’t have insurance, we just say to you, ‘Tough luck, you’re going to die when you have your heart attack,’ ” he said as he offered more hints as to what he would put in place of “Obamacare,” which he has pledged to repeal. “No, you go to the hospital, you get treated, you get care, and it’s paid for, either by charity, the government or by the hospital. We don’t have people that become ill, who die in their apartment because they don’t have insurance.” He pointed out that federal law requires hospitals to treat those without health insurance — although hospital officials frequently say that drives up health-care costs.

 Emergency rooms serve as a place of last resort, but 45,000 Americans still die every year because they lack health insurance, or one every 12 minutes. Uninsured adults under age 65 are also at a 40 percent higher death risk. Hospitals may treat patients for emergency medical conditions regardless of legal status or ability to pay, but patients with chronic conditions that don’t require emergency interference are often unable to access needed care.

 Romney’s health care proposal would leave 72 million Americans without health insurance and wouldn’t provide all uninsured Americans with a stable source of insurance. ||||| Supporters of the health care reform hold signs outside a health care town hall meeting with U.S. congressman Kendrick Meeks in Miami, Florida September 3, 2009.

 WASHINGTON Nearly 45,000 people die in the United States each year -- one every 12 minutes -- in large part because they lack health insurance and can not get good care, Harvard Medical School researchers found in an analysis released on Thursday.

 "We're losing more Americans every day because of inaction ... than drunk driving and homicide combined," Dr. David Himmelstein, a co-author of the study and an associate professor of medicine at Harvard, said in an interview with Reuters.

 Overall, researchers said American adults age 64 and younger who lack health insurance have a 40 percent higher risk of death than those who have coverage.

 The findings come amid a fierce debate over Democrats' efforts to reform the nation's $2.5 trillion U.S. healthcare industry by expanding coverage and reducing healthcare costs.

 President Barack Obama's has made the overhaul a top domestic policy priority, but his plan has been besieged by critics and slowed by intense political battles in Congress, with the insurance and healthcare industries fighting some parts of the plan.

 The Harvard study, funded by a federal research grant, was published in the online edition of the American Journal of Public Health. It was released by Physicians for a National Health Program, which favors government-backed or "single-payer" health insurance.

 An similar study in 1993 found those without insurance had a 25 percent greater risk of death, according to the Harvard group. The Institute of Medicine later used that data in its 2002 estimate showing about 18,000 people a year died because they lacked coverage.

 Part of the increased risk now is due to the growing ranks of the uninsured, Himmelstein said. Roughly 46.3 million people in the United States lacked coverage in 2008, the U.S. Census Bureau reported last week, up from 45.7 million in 2007.

 Another factor is that there are fewer places for the uninsured to get good care. Public hospitals and clinics are shuttering or scaling back across the country in cities like New Orleans, Detroit and others, he said.

 Study co-author Dr. Steffie Woolhandler said the findings show that without proper care, uninsured people are more likely to die from complications associated with preventable diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.

 Some critics called the study flawed.

 The National Center for Policy Analysis, a Washington think tank that backs a free-market approach to health care, said researchers overstated the death risk and did not track how long subjects were uninsured.

 Woolhandler said that while Physicians for a National Health Program supports government-backed coverage, the Harvard study's six researchers closely followed the methodology used in the 1993 study conducted by researchers in the federal government as well as the University of Rochester in New York.

 The Harvard researchers analyzed data on about 9,000 patients tracked by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics through the year 2000. They excluded older Americans because those aged 65 or older are covered by the U.S. Medicare insurance program.

 "For any doctor ... it's completely a no-brainer that people who can't get health care are going to die more from the kinds of things that health care is supposed to prevent," said Woolhandler, a professor of medicine at Harvard and a primary care physician in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

 (Editing by Xavier Briand) |||||
A summary of this is?

– A comment from Mitt Romney on health insurance is making waves, especially among critics on the left. Speaking to the Columbus Dispatch editorial board (in all-important Ohio), Romney sought to convey the notion that sick people wouldn't be left high and dry with the repeal of ObamaCare. His quote: “We don’t have a setting across this country where if you don’t have insurance, we just say to you, ‘Tough luck, you’re going to die when you have your heart attack. No, you go to the hospital, you get treated, you get care, and it’s paid for, either by charity, the government, or by the hospital. We don’t have people that become ill, who die in their apartment because they don’t have insurance.” It's that last part getting the most attention: White House: If Romney understood middle-class struggles, "he wouldn’t claim that no one in this country dies because they don’t have health insurance when, in fact, experts estimate that 26,000 people die prematurely every year because they don’t have coverage." See the Hill for more on that. ThinkProgress: Emergency rooms don't cut it as a last resort. "Hospitals may treat patients for emergency medical conditions regardless of legal status or ability to pay, but patients with chronic conditions that don’t require emergency interference are often unable to access needed care," writes Rebecca Leber. She cites a study putting the yearly death toll as a result at 45,000. The Note blog at ABC News thinks Romney might have actually shifted his position on pre-existing conditions in the interview, and The Week has more background and context on Romney's statements.


Here is a news article: If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it

 BY BRUCE JOHNSTON IN ROME THE MAFIA WAS behind the assassination plot which left the Pope badly injured in 1991, according to a supergrass.

 Vincenzo Calcara, a turncoat described by Mafia watchers as a serious and reliable collaborator, said Ali Agca, the Turk who shot the Pontiff in St Peter's Square, was a hit-man working for the Mafia.

 Calcara said that Salvatore "Toto" Rina, the Mafia's now jailed Godfather, and Antonio Vaccarino, a former mayor of a small town who has been embroiled in many organised-crime inquiries, were behind the attempt.

 Also working together with them was a man called Antonov, whom the other two later had killed and secretly buried near Milan, Calcara said.

 Magistrates in Sicily have sent transcripts of his testimony to colleagues in Rome; however reports said that a search for a body following the turncoat's indications had produced nothing, adding that investigators had expressed their doubts as to the veracity of the claims. "In the beginning it was said that the Mafia had ordered that the Pope be killed, but there is nothing to suggest that this is true," said Antonio Marini, the prosecutor who handled investigations into the assassination attempt.

 However, Agca did visit Palermo four months before he shot the Pope; and Calcara recently accused a leading Vatican figure and Sicilian criminal exponents of recycling dirty money. Meanwhile, the Mafia's jailed "cashier", Pippo Calo, has become the object of a new arrest warrant. ||||| Image caption Schoolgirl Emanuela Orlandi went missing in Rome in June 1983

 A former mafia mobster has written to the Pope asking to confess three "very important secrets", including details about one of Italy's most famous missing persons cases, it's been reported.

 In a six-page letter, Vincenzo Calcara says he is "convinced" his confessions "can change the course of certain events", according to La Repubblica newspaper. Calcara was a member of Sicily's Cosa Nostra, before becoming a so-called "pentito", or police collaborator.

 Now he wants to meet Pope Francis one-to-one, apparently to divulge information relating to the disappearance of 15-year-old schoolgirl Emanuela Orlandi, the daughter of a Vatican employee, who went missing in Rome in 1983, Il Messaggero newspaper reports.

 "The truth on this incident has been kept hidden for years," Calcara writes. "Because to reveal it would be like opening a box and bringing to light truths so weighty as to throw into crisis a system that links the Vatican with other deviant entities."

 At meeting with mafia victims' families in March, Pope Francis warned mafia operatives they would "end up in hell" unless they choose to repent. The speech is considered one of the Vatican's strongest attacks on Italy's organised crime networks.

 Use #NewsfromElsewhere to stay up-to-date with our reports via Twitter. ||||| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. |||||
A summary of this is?

– In what could be one of history's more intriguing cases of a Catholic confessing his sins, a former mobster has asked for a meeting with Pope Francis so he can confess three "very important secrets." Vincenzo Calcara, described by the BBC as a "mafia turncoat" who was a member of Sicily's Cosa Nostra before becoming a police informant, wrote a six-page letter to the pope claiming that what he has to say "can change the course of certain events," according to local media. (This after Pope Francis in March warned mobsters to repent or "end up in hell.") Specifically, he implies he has information about the 1983 disappearance of Emanuela Orlandi, the 15-year-old daughter of a Vatican employee. Calcara wrote that what happened has been kept secret "because to reveal it would be like opening a box and bringing to light truths so weighty as to throw into crisis a system that links the Vatican with other deviant entities." It's not Calcara's first run-in with the church: Years ago, he claimed that Ali Agca, who attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II in a St. Peter's Square shooting in 1991, was a hitman hired by the mafia, according to the Catholic Herald. And in 1994, the AP reported Calcara claimed that a US archbishop who once ran the Vatican bank had helped mobsters launder $6.5 million through the bank. That allegation was denied by the cardinal who ran the Vatican bank at the time.


Summarize this article:

Read next: The Apple TV review.

 Starting today, millions of people in the US can buy HBO without cable. HBO Now has officially launched across Apple TV and iOS. Subscriptions can be purchased directly through iTunes — your first month is free — and the HBO Now iPhone app hints that Cablevision will begin selling the service very soon. So now that it's here, what's HBO's standalone service like to use? Well, it's very familiar. It's HBO Go sans cable. In other words, it's exactly what we were anticipating, and that's fine.

 Setting up an account

 We had some trouble registering for the service in the immediate moments after it went live this morning. Things seem to be settling now, but some users are still experiencing problems. As you go through the set-up process, you'll agree to a bunch of fine print most people will probably ignore. But there's some interesting stuff in there. For one, HBO is reserving the right to change the amount of simultaneous streams that customers can watch whenever it chooses and without warning.

 HBO may change the maximum number of simultaneous streams and/or registered devices that you may use at any time.

 HBO reserves the right to shut down password sharing

 Should login sharing become a real problem that eats into HBO Now's success, the company has given itself full allowance to get much stricter about where and when you can watch. But don't be alarmed just yet. Knowing that this is a service for cord cutters, HBO is at least partially open to the idea of users sharing HBO Now between family members. Another section of the user agreement mentions that you can add "authorized users" who can use the service under your own account. HBO warns that this should only be used for people living in the same household, but will that be something it somehow tries to enforce? There's no telling right now.

 It's just what you'd expect (for now)

 Once you successfully register, you'll find that the HBO Now app on Apple TV is largely identical to HBO Go. And there's no reason it shouldn't be; HBO has made clear from the start that Now would offer its full vault of original shows and catalog movies. You're not losing anything here compared to cable customers, nor should you expect to get anything extra. At least, not yet. Fast Company's interview with CEO Richard Plepler hints that HBO Now may eventually offer programming that won't appear on the main, linear network. Those possibilities are exciting, but they're not here at launch.

 Aside from the home screen, HBO Now's main navigation bar is divided into six sections: Watchlist, Series, Movies, More, Search, and Settings. Aside from "More," which is where you'll find HBO sports and comedy specials, they're all pretty self explanatory. From anywhere in the app, you can add shows and movies to your Watchlist. Series is where you'll find HBO's long history of acclaimed original shows like The Sopranos or current hits like Game of Thrones. As for movies, HBO has a pretty extensive collection of on-demand films, and helpfully gives you the precise date when each one will be leaving the service.

 As usual with Apple TV apps, navigating around is dead simple. It's incredibly user friendly and obvious; select any show or movie and you can start playing it instantly, watch a brief preview, add it to your watch list, or hit "more" for cast and crew information. So the Apple TV channel is functional, but also a bit bland and inelegant. Especially in the movies section, expect to find yourself scrolling through large grids of icons, which has become another hallmark of the Apple TV experience. None of that's a huge annoyance on iPhone or iPad, where things are laid out better and browsing content is faster and more efficient since you're swiping through everything.

 The Apple TV experience is a bit boring, but it works just fine

 If HBO Go is any indication, the company will have more freedom to experiment with menus and user interface whenever Now inevitably reaches other living room boxes and game consoles. (See: HBO Go on PlayStation 4.) Still, it's perfectly usable on Apple TV, and you're here for the content more so than the app itself. Playback seems to work just fine. Streams start up promptly and display in HD without any noticeable buffering or freezing issues, so MLB Advanced Media seems to be doing a decent job handling the backend of HBO's standalone service. So far, anyway. We'll see how things hold up Sunday night when the internet is in full Game of Thrones mode. Reliability may go out the window.

 If you're in Apple's ecosystem, it's a no brainer

 Signing up for the free month's trial of HBO Now is something of a no brainer. This is something people have spent years waiting for, and it won't take long to decide whether HBO's content library is worth your $14.99 each month. And even then, remember that there's no commitment involved, so you can theoretically come and go whenever your favorite HBO shows are in-season. Obviously the company would prefer you stick with it, but there's nothing that says you have to.

 At launch, HBO Now on Apple TV is just what we expected it to be. It's HBO Go without the costly cable package. If you don't have any Apple devices around, jumping in right now might not make the most sense. Cord cutting Android users will need to keep borrowing someone else's HBO Go login for now. In the months ahead, HBO Now should develop into a richer experience and one available on many more devices. But for right now, all you need is the internet — and Apple. Thankfully, an Apple TV will only cost you 69 bucks. ||||| HBO Now, the new standalone version of HBO that doesn’t require a cable subscription, is finally here. The app launches exclusively on Apple devices—iPhones, iPads, and the Apple TV to be specific—so if you have one of those then legal, non-moocher, cable-free HBO is just a few taps away.

 Unlike just stealing HBO credentials from your parents or partner, HBO Now costs $15 a month, but also helps you foster the delusion that you are truly a Good Person who pays for content, and not at all a thief. And if you sign up this month, you’ll get a free 30-day trial. Just enough time to see the beginning but not the end of this season’s Game of Thrones.

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 For now, the HBO app is exclusive to iOS but there are some ways around it. Once you download the HBO Now app on your iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV and sign up, you can also watch on any computer at HBONow.com. And if you don’t have an iOS device but you do have Cablevision’s Optimum Online, you can buy it through that and then just watch on the website.

 Obviously the app will be coming to other places eventually (one can only assume Android, Xbox, and nearly every set-top box, much like HBO Go), but for now it’s iOS, Cablevision or nothing. But even with those artificial and temporary constraints, the days of HBO without the cable are finally here.

  ||||| Time Warner Inc.’s Home Box Office unit said Tuesday that its stand-alone streaming service HBO Now is available to users of Apple Inc. products and customers of Cablevision Systems Corp.’s Optimum Online.

 About 2,000 titles are available through the service for $14.99 a month. The company is offering a 30-day free trial to customers who sign up in April. The launch comes in time for the premiere of the fifth season of “Game of Thrones” on Sunday.

 ... |||||

– It's another win for cord-cutters, but in this case they'll still need some ties to Apple or Cablevision. Customers of either company now have access to HBO Now, a stand-alone streaming service that offers HBO content for $15 a month, reports the Wall Street Journal. Those who sign up in April can try it out for free the first month. (Everyone's pointing out that HBO made the service available ahead of Sunday's premiere of the new Game of Thrones season.) Apple customers can get HBO Now though an app on the iPhone, iPad, or iPod, or via Apple TV. Subscribers to Cablevision's Optimum Online also can get it via an app. Some quick reaction: "It's HBO Go without the costly cable package," writes Chris Welch at the Verge. "If you don't have any Apple devices around, jumping in right now might not make the most sense. Cord cutting Android users will need to keep borrowing someone else's HBO Go login for now." "Obviously the app will be coming to other places eventually (one can only assume Android, Xbox, and nearly every set-top box, much like HBO Go), but for now it’s iOS, Cablevision or nothing," writes Eric Limer at Gizmodo. "But even with those artificial and temporary constraints, the days of HBO without the cable are finally here."


(Reuters Health) - Gunshot-related deaths and injuries temporarily show a dramatic decline when the National Rifle Association is holding its annual convention, according to a new analysis in the New England Journal of Medicine.

 FILE PHOTO: An overall view of the exhibit floor at the National Rifle Association's (NRA) annual meetings and exhibits show in Louisville, Kentucky, May 21, 2016. REUTERS/John Sommers II

 The authors say it’s evidence that firearms - even in the hands of experienced users - are inherently dangerous and accidents don’t just happen among novices.

 Dr. Anupam Jena of Harvard Medical School and Andrew Olenski of Columbia University compared firearm injuries during the conventions each year from 2007 through 2015 with injury rates three weeks before and three weeks after each event.

 A decline of 63 percent was seen in the states where the conventions were being held, apparently due to large numbers of gun owners being at the events, as well as, in some cases, gun venues such as firing ranges or hunting grounds having closed while their staff attended the convention.

 Nationally, there was a 20 percent reduction in firearm injuries during the convention.

 In contrast, gun-related crime did not decrease during the conventions.

 The drop in injuries was only seen among men. It was most prominent in the states with the highest rate of gun ownership, and among people living in the South and the West.

 “These findings are consistent with reductions in firearm injuries occurring as a result of lower rates of firearm use during the brief period when many firearm owners and owners of places where firearms are used may be attending an NRA convention,” they said. “Our results suggest that firearm-safety concerns and risks of injury are relevant even among experienced gun owners.”

 The NRA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

 The study comes at a time when Americans own an estimated 265 million to 300 million guns, which is about one for every adult. Thirty percent of Americans say they own at least one gun, and another 11 percent say they live in a household with someone who owns one, according to the Pew Research Center. In 2014, 461 people died from an accidental firearm discharge and 15,928 were injured, nearly 2,000 of whom were children, the study authors note.

 “This passes the sniff test. It makes sense that decreased exposure and decreased usage would result in fewer events,” said Dr. Stephen Hargarten, chairman of emergency medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin, in Milwaukee, who was not involved in the study.

 “I have worked with lifetime members of the NRA who secretly confess that they have unintended discharges of their rifles or shotguns. And this study doesn’t account for the unintended discharges that didn’t result in injury,” he told Reuters Health in a telephone interview.

 “We’re saying, ‘Here’s a brief period of time when people likely to use guns are not using them,’” and the injury rates go down, Jena told Reuters Health by phone.

 The researchers used an insurance database to track firearm injuries during conventions in Nashville, Indianapolis, Houston, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Charlotte, Phoenix, Louisville and St. Louis.

 Nationally, the rate of firearm injury dropped from 1.5 per 100,000 on the dates adjacent to the convention to 1.2 per 100,000 during the convention itself. And in the state where the convention was held, the injury rate went from 1.9 down to 0.7 per 100,000.

 With as many as 80,000 firearm owners attending a convention, “the relationship is not just possibly due to 80,000 members not using firearms as much during the date of the convention,” Jena said. “It could be that firing ranges and hunting grounds are more likely to be closed. There could be a larger network effect that could be at play here.”

 It’s also relevant that the effect is largest in states that hold a meeting in a given year, he noted. “If the convention is closer to you in a given year, the effect should be larger, and we find that.”

 During the NRA’s Atlanta convention in 2017, 60 percent of the 81,000 NRA members traveled more than 200 miles to attend, according to the organization’s 2018 convention website.

 “I think the most sophisticated and reasoned gun supporters will not be surprised by this,” Jena said. “All we are saying is that guns are inherently unsafe and you recognize that whenever you use a firearm. Even an experienced user may still suffer from a gun-related injury. That’s like saying even the best drivers in the world may still get in a car accident. Why? Because driving is inherently an unsafe activity compared to walking around in circles in your house.”

 It would seem reasonable to investigate ways to make guns safer, Hargarten said. “We’ve integrated safety features into other products, but there has not been a collective discussion about this product, as we had with cars in the 1960s.”

 SOURCE: bit.ly/2CKXQfa The New England Journal of Medicine, online February 28, 2018. ||||| Story highlights Gun-related injures go down by 20% during NRA conventions, new research shows

 The NRA calls the findings "absurd" and says the numbers "simply don't add up"

 (CNN) During National Rifle Association annual conventions, when about 80,000 gun owners spend a few days focused on seminars, events and meetings, America seems to be safer, new research suggests.

 More specifically, the rate of firearm-related injuries when NRA members gather en masse falls by 20% nationwide, according to a study published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine

 When a state hosted a convention, and presumably a higher percentage of local gun enthusiasts attended, gun-related injuries in that state fell 50%, said Dr. Anupam Jena, the study's senior author and an associate professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School.

 The Harvard-led researchers looked at the number of hospitalizations and emergency room visits tied to firearm injuries during convention dates and the three weeks before and after conventions. To reach their conclusions, they combed through nearly 76 million medical insurance claims filed by privately insured patients between 2007 and 2015.

 Injury reductions were most significant among men from the South and the West, where gun ownership -- and likely NRA membership -- is greater.

 Read More ||||| When gun enthusiasts gather for the National Rifle Association’s annual conventions, rates of gun-related injuries and deaths drop by 20 percent nationwide—and a whopping 63 percent in the hosting state—according to an analysis published this week in the New England Journal of Medicine.

 Further Reading Making a different case for guns as a public health issue The finding was based on an analysis of insurance data on gun injury rates during NRA conventions from 2007 through 2015, as well as rates three weeks before and three weeks after each of the conventions. The researchers behind the work—health policy expert Anupam Jena, MD, PhD of Harvard Medical School and economist Andrew Olenski of Columbia University—also looked at crime rates during those times.

 They found no significant change in crime rates despite the dip in injuries. They also noted that the largest drops in firearm-related injuries during NRA conventions were in men, the southern and western areas of the country, and in states with the highest levels of gun ownership.

 Further Reading Researcher finds evidence that relaxing gun laws ups murder rate Though the analysis can only provide a correlation—not causation—Jena and Olenski suggest it may refute a common argument among gun proponents. That is, that gun accidents happen primarily in the hands of inexperienced users and that practice and training—promoted by the NRA—can greatly reduce or eliminate safety concerns and accidents, which affect thousands each year. In 2014, for example, there were 461 unintentional firearm deaths and 15,928 unintentional, non-fatal injuries, 1,960 of which involved youths.

 In their analysis, Jena and Olenski concluded that the findings:

 “...are consistent with reductions in firearm injuries occurring as a result of lower rates of firearm use during the brief period when many firearm owners and owners of places where firearms are used may be attending an NRA convention. Our results suggest that firearm-safety concerns and risks of injury are relevant even among experienced gun owners.”

 In a statement to CNN, NRA's director of public affairs, Jennifer Baker, called the study “absurd.” She continued: "This study is another example of when data and numbers fly in the face of logic and common sense.”

 Baker went on to note that only a small fraction of the country’s gun owners—a group that totals about a third of Americans—attend the NRA’s annual conventions. She questioned how such a relatively small number of gun owners could explain such large decreases in injuries.

 In a response to CNN, co-author Jena emphasized that the study was not designed to explain the cause of the drops. But he speculated that gun owners who attend NRA conventions may be those who tend to use their guns more frequently than non-attending owners.

 Further Reading Connecticut gun controls estimated to have cut fatal shootings by 40% Moreover, he and Olenski noted a potential domino effect from the convention disrupting other group events or trips involving firearms and venues, such as shooting ranges and hunting grounds, where owners may temporarily close up to attend the convention. Last, the researchers noted that many NRA convention goers travel long distances to attend, potentially helping to explain the nationwide declines. For instance, 60 percent of the 81,000 NRA members attending the 2017 convention ventured more than 200 miles to get there.

 Other researchers were accepting of the analysis and its conclusions. Stephen Hargarten, chairman of emergency medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, was not involved in the study and told Reuters that it “passes the sniff test.” Hargarten added that “it makes sense that decreased exposure and decreased usage would result in fewer events.”

 Nationally, the study found that baseline injury rates dropped from 1.5 per 100,000 people during control periods to 1.2 per 100,000 during NRA conventions. It also found that declines in injuries were larger within hosting states, dropping from 1.9 per 100,000 to 0.7 per 100,000 during the conventions. The conventions included in the study from 2015 back to 2001 were held in: Nashville, Indianapolis, Houston, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Charlotte, Phoenix, Louisville, and St. Louis.

 NEJM, 2018. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMc1712773 (About DOIs). ||||| The National Rifle Association and its allies have found their political influence under fresh scrutiny as gun control advocates push for new restrictions and corporations sever their ties in the wake of the deadly high school shooting last month in Parkland, Florida. But outside the gun control debate in Washington, membership in the NRA and gun rights groups across the country, which includes more than five million Americans, is spiking, according to people familiar with the numbers.

 The spike isn’t a surprise, as such increases happen whenever people feel their Second Amendment rights are under threat, and many groups reported similar surges after the 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. But as gun control groups seek to use the anti-NRA backlash to mobilize their grassroots, recruitment this time seems to have taken on a more urgent tone.

 “Wake up people and see what’s happening!!!!,” Charles Cotton, a member of the NRA Board of Directors, wrote on a message board, TexasCHLforum.com, a site described as “the focal point for Texas firearms information and discussions, earlier this week. “[Former New York Mayor Michael] Bloomberg and Hollywood are pouring money into this effort and the media is helping to the fullest extent. We’ve never had this level of opposition before, not ever. It’s a campaign of lies and distortion, but it’s very well funded and they are playing on the sympathy factor of kids getting killed. If you really want to make a difference, then start recruiting NRA members every single day.”

 “The NRA better be 15 million strong soon, or this is only going to get worse,” Cotton, who didn’t respond to a request for comment, added on the message board.

 Representatives from over a dozen gun rights organizations and shooting associations in California, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia told TIME they have seen membership rise since the Feb. 14 shooting left 17 dead at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. And two people familiar with the workings of the NRA, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss membership numbers, said that since the shooting the NRA has also seen more people than usual join, renew memberships or donate money as President Donald Trump and other Republican Party leaders have signaled an openness to gun control policies that are anathema to the powerful group. A spokesperson for the NRA, which says on its website that it has more than five million members, didn’t respond to requests for comment.

 Activists hold up signs at the Florida State Capitol as they rally for gun reform legislation in Tallahassee, Fla., on Feb. 26, 2018. Don Juan Moore—Getty Images

 “As soon as anti-gun attacks started coming in on Twitter, Facebook, and in the media, we began to hear from people who didn’t even own guns who wanted to join up or contribute out of solidarity in defense of the Second Amendment to the Constitution,” said Patrick Parsons, who heads the Georgia Gun Owners, an independent gun rights organization in Georgia. Parsons said the group’s membership, which he estimated at 13,000, had increased by 1,000 over the past two weeks, and that he had been “working around the clock taking calls, answering emails from interested people, sending out new member packets.”

 Dudley Brown, the president of the National Association for Gun Rights, estimated his organization — which claims more than 4.5 million “members and supporters” on its website — estimated online membership applications at his organization could have grown by 30% over the last week, a number he expected to rise after Trump this week called for comprehensive gun reform legislation, including raising the age limit for buying certain weapons to 21. The Connecticut Citizens Defense League, which has a membership of almost 29,000 people, said it typically gets 15 or 20 applications a week, but received almost 200 in the last week. Gun Owners of America, which says it has 1.5 million members, amassed “hundreds” of new members in the last week, according to an official at the organization familiar with membership numbers who spoke on condition of anonymity. The organization said it has seen it’s membership grow by thousands since the Las Vegas shooting last October. Don Turner, the President of the Nevada Firearms Coalition and NRA member, estimated membership renewals and requests had increased by 20 percent at his organization since Parkland, although this is an increase he said he did not witness after the shooting in Las Vegas.

 “Gun owners themselves weren’t being demonized [after Las Vegas]” Turner explained. “But after the Florida shooting, there was a definite push to demonize honest gun owners and to demonize the NRA. And I think that’s what’s provoked their response.”

 A model walks the runway during the NRA Concealed Carry Fashion Show in Milwaukee, on Aug. 25, 2017. Joshua Lott—AFP/Getty Images

 Read More: With Gun Sales Down, the NRA Told Republicans It’s OK to Talk About Gun Control

 After the deadly 2012 shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, when the gun control debate also reached a fever pitch, the NRA said it had gained 100,000 members in 18 days; NRA executive Wayne LaPierre announced that May that the organization’s membership had reached 5 million, although that claim is impossible to independently verify since membership rolls and figures are not publicly released. NRA tax filings from 2013, published by ProPublica, show that in 2013, overall revenue increased by more than 35% from the previous year, with a nearly $10 million increase in contributions. Revenue from membership growth from 2012 to 2013 increased by nearly $70 million, and the percentage of membership dues contributing to total revenue growth increased from 42 percent to 50 percent, the tax filings show.

 Experts who closely watch gun rights groups said that while the NRA has remained silent about its membership numbers after the latest shooting, the rise in membership of other groups demonstrates the grassroots mobilizing power that is key to the NRA’s influence. “It’s not just a gun lobby, it’s much bigger than that,” said Scott Melzer, a sociology professor at Albion Colege who has spent almost a decade researching the NRA and is the author of Gun Crusaders: The NRA’s Culture War. “It relies on the support of a very large and activist membership base, and that base and that movement is connected to the broader conservative movement.”

 Gun rights activists said the membership increase is also fueled by a feeling that public rebukes such as corporations ending partnerships with the NRA are simply publicity stunts. “There is no one. NO ONE. Who joins the NRA for a discount on a rental car,” Cleta Mitchell, an NRA member and former Oklahoma state lawmaker who sat on the NRA’s board from 2002 to 2013, said in an email. She was referring to Hertz ending its discount program for NRA members.

 A general view of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School as staff and teachers prepare for the return of students in Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 27, 2018. Rhona Wise—AFP/Getty Images

 “You can rest assured that the NRA will not lose a single member as a result of this,” Mitchell said. “If anything, it should spur people to join the NRA as a means of demonstrating that we who believe in the Second Amendment will not be bullied by these left wing multi-billion dollar corporations.”

 Read More: Inside the Republican Party’s New Direction on Gun Restrictions

 But as Cotton, the NRA board member, noted on the Internet forum, the spike in membership reported by these gun rights groups are are coming at the same time that some gun-control proponents are hoping the Florida shooting and the high-profile activism of the student survivors may finally push Congress to act. The gun-control advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety said it has fielded inquiries from over 125,000 volunteers since the shooting, and received over $1.5 million in unsolicited donations in the immediate aftermath. And a new poll shows support for gun control in the country has reached its highest level in 25 years. So while these gun rights groups may be gaining members, it’s ultimately unclear if that will make a difference.

 “The gun lobby is very good at marketing themselves and guns in the wake of mass shootings,” said Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action. “They specialize in exploiting shooting tragedies. No, I’m not surprised [about memberships increasing] but at the end of the day it doesn’t really matter, because the vast majority of Americans support stronger gun laws and gun safety.” |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– It seems Americans are safest from gun-related injuries and deaths when thousands of gun owners are busy attending the NRA's annual convention, Ars Technica reports. An analysis published Thursday in the New England Journal of Medicine found gun-related injuries dropped 20% nationwide during annual NRA conventions between 2007 and 2015 and 63% in the states hosting the conventions. These reductions were seen despite no corresponding reduction in crime rates. The biggest drop in gun injuries was for men living in states with high levels of gun ownership in the South and West. "The drop in gun injuries during these large meetings attended by thousands of well-trained gun owners seems to refute the idea that gun injuries stem solely from lack of experience and training in gun use," analysis author Dr. Jena Anupam tells CNN. Jennifer Baker, the director of public affairs for the NRA, says the analysis "is another example of when data and numbers fly in the face of logic and common sense." But the chair of emergency medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin tells Reuters it "passes the sniff test." "It makes sense that decreased exposure and decreased usage would result in fewer events," says Dr. Stephen Hargarten, who wasn't involved in the analysis. Anupam says it's possible NRA conventions have an outsize impact on gun injuries and deaths because attendees are the most intense users of guns. So it's good news for the safety of Americans then—at least for the few days of the year when there's an NRA convention—that Time is reporting a spike in NRA memberships in the wake of the Parkland shooting and ensuing conversation about gun control.


Here is a news article: Disgruntled with the Department of Veterans Affairs, a veteran set himself on fire in protest Tuesday morning outside the state Capitol in downtown Atlanta, according to the Georgia State Patrol.

 The GBI identified the man as 58-year-old John Michael Watts. He has no current address, the agency said.

 The man involved in today’s #GAStateCapitol incident has been identified as John Michael Watts, age 58. He has no current address. pic.twitter.com/gRQU1HQB0u — GA Bureau of Invest (@GBI_GA) June 26, 2018

 About 10:45 a.m., the Air Force veteran parked a Nissan Sentra on Washington Street, stepped out of the car and walked toward the Capitol, GSP Capt. Mark Perry told AJC.com.

 Video: DEVELOPING - Disgruntled veteran sets himself on fire outside Georgia Capitol, GSP says -https://t.co/UmUIZsaQCm #Atlanta pic.twitter.com/FZqAui4Oth — John Spink (@johnjspink) June 26, 2018

 “He was strapped with some homemade incendiary devices (and) firecrackers, and doused himself with some kind of flammable liquid” before lighting the fireworks, he said.

 Several loud explosions were heard, and a trooper quickly put out the fire with an extinguisher, according to authorities.

 Watts was rushed to Grady Memorial Hospital with burns over 85 to 90 percent of his body, Perry said.

 No other injuries were reported.

 Commissioner Mark McDonough telling us about what started emergency at the State Capitol. Washington Street closed. @wsbtv #breaking pic.twitter.com/3OJ35t36sz — Linda Stouffer (@LindaWSB) June 26, 2018

 The Capitol and judiciary buildings were evacuated. Workers were forced to move children from a day care associated with Central Presbyterian Church to a neighboring Catholic church as a precaution, according to officials.

 A bomb tech empties a car of all its contents, hours after a disgruntled Air Force veteran set himself on fire Tuesday morning outside the Georgia Capitol. JOHN SPINK / JSPINK@AJC.COM

 The area has been secured, Atlanta police said on Twitter.

 UPDATE: The all clear has been given after the APD SWAT Team worked with multiple other agencies to secure the area around the State Capitol. We worked remotely with our robots to check out the scene where a man set himself on fire. pic.twitter.com/Pn4NWbwBTF — Atlanta Police Dept (@Atlanta_Police) June 26, 2018

 All roads in the area were reopened by 6:15 p.m., according to the WSB 24-hour Traffic Center.

 TRAFFIC UPDATE: Atlanta: GA State Capitol Explosion: Washington St and other roads around the Capitol; are now All Open; no delays; https://t.co/kTgeaYu0Zi; #ATLtraffic — Triple Team Traffic (@WSBTraffic) June 26, 2018

 Multiple agencies were on the scene earlier. The GBI emptied the car and bomb techs examined the contents.

 Bomb tech moving contents out of suspect’s car after veteran sets himself on fire outside Georgia Capitol - https://t.co/UmUIZsaQCm #Atlanta pic.twitter.com/XRn5P379sU — John Spink (@johnjspink) June 26, 2018

 — Staff writer Chris Joyner contributed to this article. ||||| The Georgia Bureau of Investigation identified the man as John Michael Watts, 58, and said he had no current address. He was taken in critical condition to Grady Memorial Hospital with burns on 85 to 90 percent of his body.

 Captain Perry said he was able to speak after the fire was extinguished.

 “He did indicate that he is disgruntled with the V.A. system and was seeking attention for that,” he said.

 The authorities shut down the area around the Capitol and called the bomb squad to assure the man’s vehicle did not contain explosives. Nearby buildings were evacuated. No other injuries were reported.

 The incident unfolded during a news conference about a new state law on hands-free driving. A series of loud bangs and then sirens could be heard in video of the event. |||||
A summary of this is?

– A man claiming to be an Air Force veteran upset with the Department of Veterans Affairs set himself on fire in front of the Georgia Capitol on Tuesday, suffering burns to at least 85% of his body. Authorities say 58-year-old John Michael Watts parked a vehicle and started walking toward the building around 10:45am. "He was strapped with some homemade incendiary devices, some firecrackers and doused himself with some kind of flammable liquid and attempted to set himself on fire," Capt. Mark Perry of the Georgia State Patrol says, per the New York Times. An off-duty GSP trooper driving by saw flames, jumped out of his car, "and was able to douse him pretty quickly" using a fire extinguisher, Perry adds. The man, of no current address, was then taken to Atlanta's Grady Memorial Hospital with burns to 85% to 90% of his body. "He did indicate that he is disgruntled with the VA system and was seeking attention for that," says Perry, who initially indicated a phone number seen on a sign in the man's windshield could be connected to another device. A bomb squad later removed the contents of the vehicle without issue, per the Atlanta Journal Constitution. There were no reports of other injuries. Though it cannot "comment on the specifics of this Veteran's case due to patient privacy laws," the Department of Veteran Affairs tells the Washington Post it "is ensuring he receives the VA care that he needs."


Write a summary based on this article:

The authorized biopic is being produced by Ball and Desi Arnaz's children.

 Cate Blanchett is attached to star as Lucille Ball in an authorized biopic that Aaron Sorkin will write.

 Sorkin has not started working on the script yet, but, according to sources, he's the top choice to pen the project for Escape Artists.

 The film will center on the life of the iconic actress, who starred on TV sitcoms I Love Lucy, The Lucy–Desi Comedy Hour, The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy and Life with Lucy. She was nominated for 13 Emmys and won four times, and she also won the Golden Globe Cecil B. DeMille Award in 1979. She was married to actor Desi Arnaz from 1940 to 1960.

 The couple's children, Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr., will produce the film along with Escape Artists. Jenna Block will oversee the project for Escape Artists.

 Blanchett was most recently seen in Cinderella, and Carol, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. Her upcoming films include the Dan Rather biopic Truth, which will screen at TIFF, and Terrence Malick’s Knight of Cups. She’s repped by CAA and RGM Artists.

 Sorkin wrote the scripts for The Social Network, Moneyball and the upcoming Steve Jobs, starring Michael Fassbender. He also just wrote the script for Molly's Game for Sony. He’s repped by WME. ||||| Escape Artists may have some 'splainin' to do.

 The Internets (yes, we're bringing back that term from the Bush years) were ablaze with excitement (and a little confusion) after The Wrap reported that Oscar winner Cate Blanchett is attached to play Lucille Ball in an authorized biopic chronicling the comedy legend's 20-year marriage to Desi Arnaz.

 Siblings Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr. are reportedly teaming up to produce the film with Sony-based production shingle Escape Artists, hence the authorization.

 But what social media seemed most nonplussed about was the news that Aaron Sorkin was writing the script. A source tells E! News, meanwhile, that the Oscar winner has not officially committed to the project, though the studio does want him. |||||

– I Love Cate doesn't have quite the same ring to it, but no matter: Cate Blanchett has signed on to play Lucille Ball in an authorized biopic following the actress' 20-year marriage to Desi Arnaz, reports the Hollywood Reporter. The couple's children, Lucie Arnaz and Desi Arnaz Jr., will produce the flick, likely to be written by Aaron Sorkin. Given Sorkin's recent criticisms of female actors including Blanchett, per E!, Twitter users aren't exactly pleased. He'll "write a well-meaning but ultimately condescending portrait of Lucille Ball," just as he's done for "any actor with a vagina he's written for," writes one user.


News article:

Multiexport Foods, Inc is EXPANDING THE VOLUNTARILY RECALL IT LAUNCHED Saturday, December 22nd, 2012 of Cold Smoked Salmon 12oz Twin Pack and 1.25 lb Pack BECAUSE OF POSSIBLE Listeria Contamination

 MIAMI, F.L., Dec. 26, 2012 - Multiexport Foods, Inc of Miami, FL is expanding the voluntary recall that it launched Saturday, December 22nd, 2012 of cold smoked salmon, 12 oz Twin Pack and the 1.25 lb Pack under the “Paramount Reserve”, because it has the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, an organism which can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, frail or elderly people, and others with weakened immune systems. Healthy individuals may suffer only short-term symptoms such as high fever, severe headache, stiffness, nausea, abdominal pain and diarrhea. The recall is being expanded to include additional lot-sublot-batch codes.

 The 12 oz Twin pack and 1.25 lb pack were distributed between November 12th to December 21st, 2012; to retail outlets that could be in the following states Alabama, Arkansas, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Montana, Missouri, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, Virginia, Wisconsin and West Virginia.

 The specific lot-sublot-batch codes of the cold smoked 12oz pack size (two 6 oz vacuum packages in a cardboard sleeve) and the 1.25 lb Pack under the brand “Paramount Reserve” potentially could be affected. The UPC code for the twin pack product is 6 88264 86705 0 and UPC code for the 1.25 lb pack is 6 88264 86664 0. The lot-sublot-batch codes are affixed on a sticker on the back of the package: ||||| Salmon sold at Wal-Mart's Sam's Club stores is being recalled in 42 states due to listeria concerns. (Mike Hentz / Associated Press / )

 Smoked salmon sold at Wal-Mart’s Sam’s Club stores nationwide is being recalled in 42 states, including California, and Puerto Rico amid listeria concerns.

 The fish was produced by a Miami subsidiary of Multiexport Foods Inc. in conjunction with Tampa Bay Fisheries Inc. The companies are pulling the product “with an overabundance of caution,” according to a Wal-Mart statement.

 The listeria monocytogenes bacteria – which can cause fatal infections in the elderly, the young and those with weak immune systems, and lead to fever, nausea and diarrhea in other victims – was discovered during a standard lab test on a shipment of the salmon that hadn’t been distributed to stores, according to Wal-Mart.

 No illnesses have been linked to the product, the mega-retailer said. The voluntary recall was first launched last week and expanded this week.

 Cold smoked salmon in 12-ounce twin packs – which are vacuum-sealed with a cardboard sleeve – and 1.25-pound bundles under the brand “Paramount Reserve” are included in the recall.

 The UPC code for the twin pack is 6 88264 86705 0 while the code for the 1.25-pound pack is 6 88264 86664 0. More specific codes on stickers attached to the back of packages can be found here.

 Consumers can bring back the products, which were distributed to retail outlets between Nov. 12 and Dec. 21, for a full refund, Wal-Mart said.

 In a note to customers, Frank Yiannas, Wal-Mart’s vice president of food safety, wrote that Tampa Bay Fisheries and Multiexport Foods are cooperating with the Food and Drug Administration.

 Affected stores are in Alabama, Arkansas, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Iowa, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Maryland, Maine, Montana, Missouri, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, New Mexico, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, Virginia, Wisconsin and West Virginia.

 ALSO:

 Red Vines black licorice recalled due to high levels of lead

 4 million Bumbo baby seats recalled after infant skull fractures

 Peanut butter recall expands to 76 products on salmonella fears |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– If they're serving smoked salmon at the New Year's Eve party, it might pay to find out where it's from. Walmart's Sam's Club is recalling packages sold in 42 states because of concerns about listeria, reports the LA Times. The product in question is from Multiexport Foods of Miami and Tampa Bay Fisheries, specifically the 12-ounce Twin Pack and 1.25-pound Paramount Reserve. Info on UPC codes and affected states is here. No illnesses have been linked to the fish, but a routine lab test turned up traces of the potentially deadly bacteria.


Summarize this article:

A woman is escorted by officers near the Bronx Lebanon Hospital in New York after a gunman opened fire there on Friday, June 30, 2017. The gunman, identified as Dr. Henry Bello who used to work at the... (Associated Press)

 NEW YORK (AP) — A doctor who appears to have been the target of a former physician who started shooting at a hospital, killing one person and injuring six, said he has no idea why he would have been singled out.

 Dr. Kamran Ahmed told the New York Post he wasn't the only one Dr. Henry Bello had a problem with.

 However, "he never argued with me," Ahmed said. "I don't know why he put my name."

 A law enforcement official told The Associated Press that Bello arrived at Bronx Lebanon Hospital in the Bronx on Friday with an assault rifle, which was bought in upstate New York about a week earlier, hidden under his lab coat and asked for a doctor he blamed for his having to resign, but the doctor wasn't there at the time. The law enforcement official wasn't authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

 Ahmed, who specializes in the early detection and treatment of dementia, said Bello "had a problem with almost everybody, so I'm not the only one. That's why they fired him, because so many people complained."

 Authorities said Bello went to the 16th and 17th floors and started shooting anyway, killing Dr. Tracy Sin-Yee Tam, who, like him, was a family medicine doctor. Hospital officials said that Tam normally worked in one of the hospital's satellite clinics and was covering a shift in the main hospital as a favor to someone else.

 "It makes you think that anything can happen to anybody," said Tam's neighbor Alena Khaim, who saw Tam's sister outside the home Friday night overcome with grief, shaking and unable to walk. "She was such a sweet girl. You would never think something like that would happen, but it happened."

 Before the shooting, Bello sent an email to the Daily News, blaming colleagues he said forced him to resign two years earlier.

 "This hospital terminated my road to a licensure to practice medicine," the email said. "First, I was told it was because I always kept to myself. Then it was because of an altercation with a nurse."

 Bello's former co-workers described a man who was aggressive, loud and threatening. Bello had warned his former colleagues when he was forced out in 2015 that he would return someday to kill them.

 "All the time he was a problem," said Dr. David Lazala, who trained Bello.

 When Bello was forced out in 2015, he sent Lazala an email blaming him for the dismissal.

 Bello died from a self-inflicted gunshot. The six injured people were hospitalized.

 Detectives searched the Bronx home where Bello was most recently living and found the box where the gun came from. They later determined it was bought at a gun shop in Schenectady on June 20.

 ___

 This story has been corrected to show Bello had an assault rifle, not an automatic weapon. ||||| The doctor who dodged death at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital in the Bronx — at the hands of an assault weapon-toting, crazed former colleague — was shocked to be singled out by the killer.

 “I was surprised,” Kamran Ahmed told The Post. “Why me?”

 Ahmed, 48, said he had worked with shooter Henry Bello, 45, but that he wasn’t the only one Bello had a problem with.

 “He started working there a couple of months after I was hired,” Ahmed said at his Bath Beach apartment Saturday night.

 “He is not only after me, he is after a lot of people. He had a problem with almost everybody, so I’m not the only one. That’s why they fired him, because so many people complained.

 “The strange thing was that he was nice with me,” added Ahmed, who specializes in the early detection and treatment of dementia.

 “He never argued with me. I don’t know why he put my name.”

 Bello was forced to resign from Bronx-Lebanon Hospital in 2015 amid a sexual harassment scandal.

 He had vowed to return to the facility to kill Ahmed — even leaving a series of email, text and phone threats — and tried to make good Friday on his chilling pledge.

 By luck, Ahmed was not working Friday.

 Instead, Bello, dressed in a white medical coat to conceal an AM-15 rifle, spotted Dr. Roger Green on the 16th floor.

 “Why didn’t you help me out when I was in trouble?” Bello demanded of Green as he pulled his AM-15 assault rifle from its hiding spot and took aim.

 “Gun! Gun! Gun!” Green yelled as he fled, raising the first warnings of an active shooter inside the hospital.

 Bello then made his way to the 17th floor, where he randomly killed Dr. Tracy Tam , 32, briefly set fire to the nurse’s station and eventually committed suicide. Along the way, he murdered Tam and shot six others.

 Ahmed, a resident in family medicine and a father of three, claimed he only talked professionally with Bello while the two worked together.

 “I didn’t see him since he got fired. He was fine with me, but he had many arguments,” he said.

 He praised Tam as “excellent. Everybody loved her. She loved to teach us. I feel so sorry about her. She was there to cover one of the attending. She was in outpatient usually. Unfortunately she was the victim.”

 A day after the rampage, Ahmed went to a staff meeting with a hospital official, he said.

 “Everybody was there and we prayed [and] hugged each other to support each other.”

 He plans to see Bello’s other victims tomorrow.

 “I heard they are getting better. But one is still critically ill,” Ahmed noted. |||||

– A doctor who appears to have been the target of a former physician who started shooting at a hospital, killing one person and injuring six, says he has no idea why he would have been singled out. Dr. Kamran Ahmed tells the New York Post he wasn't the only one Dr. Henry Bello had a problem with. However, "he never argued with me," Ahmed says. "I don't know why he put my name." A law enforcement official tells the AP that Bello arrived at Bronx-Lebanon Hospital Center in the Bronx on Friday with an assault rifle, which was bought in upstate New York about a week earlier, hidden under his lab coat and asked for a doctor he blamed for his having to resign (presumably Ahmed), but the doctor wasn't there at the time. Authorities say Bello went to the 16th and 17th floors and started shooting anyway, killing Dr. Tracy Sin-Yee Tam, who, like him, was a family medicine doctor. Hospital officials say that Tam normally worked in one of the hospital's satellite clinics and was covering a shift in the main hospital as a favor to someone else. Before the shooting, Bello sent an email to the Daily News, blaming colleagues he said forced him to resign two years earlier. "This hospital terminated my road to a licensure to practice medicine," the email said. Bello's former co-workers described a man who was aggressive, loud, and threatening. Bello had warned his former colleagues when he was forced out in 2015 that he would return someday to kill them. Ahmed says Bello "had a problem with almost everybody" and "that's why they fired him, because so many people complained." Bello died from a self-inflicted gunshot. The six injured people were hospitalized.


Article:
A prominent Iranian lawmaker said Tehran doesn't need any more 20 percent-enriched uranium, a news agency covering the country's parliament reported late Wednesday night, a key point in negotiations between the Islamic Republic and the West.

 In this picture taken on Friday, Nov. 2, 2012, Iranian school girls show their hands with writing in Persian in support supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, denouncing the U.S. and one of them with... (Associated Press)

 While lawmaker Hossein Naqvi Hosseini isn't a government spokesman nor a member of Iran's nuclear negotiation team, his comments touch on a major concession wanted by Western powers _ halting production of enriched uranium that could be used to build nuclear weapons.

 Hosseini's brief comments, published online by ICANA, did not say whether Iran will stop enrichment.

 "Tehran reactor fuel has been supplied and currently no need is felt for production of 20 percent-enriched uranium," Hosseini was quoted as saying.

 Hosseini, who serves as a spokesman for the Iranian parliament's national security and foreign policy committee, also said the country is prepared to relieve concerns over its stockpile of enriched uranium.

 "Tehran is ready to convert its stockpile of 20 percent-enriched uranium to fuel rods and remove concerns over its non-peaceful use," he was quoted as saying. He offered no other details about what steps Iran would take.

 Western powers fear Iran's nuclear program could be used to build an atomic bomb. Iran says its program is peaceful and is for advances in medical research and power generation.

 Last week, Iranian diplomats met in Geneva with negotiators from the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany. Iran hopes to ease the crippling economic and oil sanctions placed on its government over its contested nuclear program.

 Iran currently runs more than 10,000 centrifuges which have created tons of fuel-grade material that can be further enriched to arm nuclear warheads. Tehran also has nearly 440 pounds (200 kilograms) of higher-enriched uranium in a form that can be turned into weapons much more quickly. Experts say 550 pounds (250 kilograms) of 20 percent-enriched uranium are needed to produce a single warhead

 Among key concessions wanted by the West, according to two diplomats who spoke with The Associated Press, is that Iran stop enriching uranium to 20 percent. The diplomats say Iran offered to halt 20 percent enrichment at last week's Geneva talks. However, the Iranian government hasn't publicly commented on that.

 Negotiators from Iran and the six powers are due to meet in Geneva for further talks on Nov. 7-8. ||||| Iran's announcement that it has halted enriching uranium to a level close to bomb-grade appears to signal rare progress in nuclear talks. But there is much working against a deal.

 In this 2010 file photo, a worker rides a bicycle in front of the reactor building of the Bushehr nuclear power plant, just outside the southern city of Bushehr, Iran.

 By most accounts, the negotiations in Geneva over Iran’s nuclear program are going well.

 Diplomats have been tight-lipped, but signals sent by Iran and by diplomats from the US and other world powers indicate the sides are finding common ground in the dispute over Iran's nuclear intentions. Tehran insists its program is for research and electricity generation, but the US and others, particularly Israel, are skeptical.

 For optimists, a claim Thursday that Iran has halted enrichment of uranium to the critical 20-percent threshold is a sign that 24 years of bile and bluster between Tehran and Washington may be at an end.

 A halt to 20 percent enrichment is among the key concessions wanted by the West, and according to The Associated Press, Iran made that offer at last week's talks. (Twenty percent is important because the most challenging part of uranium enrichment happens below that threshold; once you get to 20 percent, it’s relatively easy to enrich up to bomb-grade levels).

 Unnamed US officials say talks are going well.

 “I have never had such intense, detailed, straightforward, candid conversations with the Iranian delegation before,” said one US negotiator who gave reporters an off-the-record briefing last week.

 The loudest voice in the pessimists' camp is Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who wants to force the Iranians to give up their fissile material altogether. He insists Iran open up its underground facilities and says the only reason someone would burrow scientific facilities into mountainsides is to protect them from air strikes, a point he reiterated in meetings with US Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday.

 "They should get rid of the amassed fissile material, and they shouldn't have underground nuclear facilities," Netanyahu was quoted as saying. Mr. Kerry has insisted the US is proceeding with “eyes wide open” when it comes to negotiating with the Iranians, and that “no deal is better than a bad deal.”

 There are plenty of trends pointing toward a breakthrough. Economic sanctions appear to be having a serious impact on the Iranian economy (though they may not be as debilitating as some have suggested.) The West succeeded in getting Iran’s closest ally, Syria, to give up its chemical weapons, for instance.

 But there are also obstacles. Iran’s recently elected president, Hassan Rouhani, is considered a centrist among Iranian officials and faces growing criticism from hardliners that Mr. Rouhani and the US-educated foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, are conceding too much to the US.

 Though Rouhani was elected, Iran’s political system means that the person who has ultimate authority is Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has been sending mixed signals about the talks. The comment that gave the optimists most hope was Mr. Khamenei call a few weeks back for “heroic flexibility.” But the commentary from conservative publications in Tehran suggests behind-the-scenes debate.

 In the US, meanwhile, some hawkish members of Congress say they’ve been at least partially reassured by briefings from the White House on the negotiations. That, however, hasn’t stopped those who believe Iran isn’t to be trusted in any way shape or form, most notably Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino owner, influential Israel supporter and funder of US conservative politicians, who on Tuesday called for the US to launch a nuclear strike on the Iranian desert.

 Current betting favors some sort of agreement on Iran’s nuclear program. But at this point whether the agreement will have lasting power is anyone’s guess.

 The next round of Geneva talks resume on Nov. 7. ||||| Iran could produce enough weapons-grade uranium to build a nuclear bomb in as little as a month, according to a new estimate by one of the USA's top nuclear experts.

 Iran's President Hassan Rouhani, second left, gives a speech during an annual military parade in Tehran, Iran, Sept, 22, 2013. (Photo: Ebrahim Noroozi, AP) Story Highlights The Obama administration has said Iran is probably a year away from having enough enriched uranium to make a bomb

 Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has said his country has no interest in nuclear weapons

 U.N. inspectors have found evidence of a weapons program

 Iran could produce enough weapons-grade uranium to build a nuclear bomb in as little as a month, according to a new estimate by one of the USA's top nuclear experts.

 The new assessment comes as the White House invited Senate staffers to a briefing on negotiations with Iran as it is trying to persuade Congress not to go ahead with a bill to stiffen sanctions against Iran.

 "Shortening breakout times have implications for any negotiation with Iran," stated the report by the Institute for Science and International Security. "An essential finding is that they are currently too short and shortening further."

 David Albright, president of the institute and a former inspector for the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency, said the estimate means that Iran would have to eliminate more than half of its 19,000 centrifuges to extend the time it would take to build a bomb to six months.

 The Obama administration has said Iran is probably a year away from having enough enriched uranium to make a bomb.

 Bernadette Meehan, an NSC spokeswoman for President Obama's National Security Council, said the intelligence community maintains "a number of assessments" regarding potential time frames for Iran to produce enough weapons-grade uranium for one weapon or a testable nuclear device.hi

 "We continue to closely monitor the Iranian nuclear program and its stockpile of enriched uranium," Meehan said.

 World powers are seeking an agreement "that ultimately resolves all of the international community's concerns about Iran's nuclear program," she said. "The ultimate goal is a comprehensive agreement that is credible, transparent, and verifiable."

 In the report, Albright said negotiations with Iran should focus on so-called "breakout" times, or the time required to convert low-enriched uranium to weapons-grade.

 Albright, who has testified before Congress, said the negotiators should try to find ways to lengthen the breakout times and shorten the time that inspectors could detect breakout. ISIS' analysis is based on the latest Iranian and United Nations reports on Iran's centrifuge equipment for producing nuclear fuel and its nuclear fuel stockpiles.

 Iran's stockpile of medium-enriched uranium has nearly doubled in a year's time and its number of centrifuges has expanded from 12,000 in 2012 to 19,000 today.

 Sen. Mark Kirk, an Illinois Republican whose Senate Banking Committee is considering legislation to tighten Iran sanctions, said the report shows that Iran is expanding its nuclear capabilities under the cover of negotiations.

 "The Senate should move forward immediately with a new round of sanctions to prevent Iran from acquiring an undetectable breakout capability," he said.

 The White House has said new sanctions legislation should wait while current negotiations — scheduled to resume officially in Geneva next month — are moving forward.

 The White House said Thursday it will continue consulting with Congress "so that any congressional action is aligned with our negotiating strategy as we move forward," said Caitlin Hayden, a spokeswoman for President Obama's National Security Council.

 Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has said his country has no interest in nuclear weapons but that producing nuclear fuel is Iran's right. His foreign minister, Javad Zarif, has said Iran will not ship its nuclear stockpile to a third country.

 However, Iran has blocked international inspectors from some suspected nuclear facilities to verify they are being used for peaceful purposes, access required under international agreements it has signed.

 United Nations inspectors have found evidence of a weapons program in violation of Iran's commitment under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. The USA and the U.N. Security Council have implemented crippling economic sanctions on Iran to sway it to take steps to assure the world it is not developing a bomb.

 Israel, which sees an Iranian nuclear bomb as a threat to its very existence, has said it will take military action to prevent Iran from getting a bomb.

 ISIS estimated in October 2012 that Iran could produce enough highly-enriched uranium for a bomb within two to four months. The new estimate is based on an analysis of the latest reports by Iran and the the IAEA.

 ISIS considered various scenarios, including if Iran decided to build a covert enrichment plant like it has under a mountain in Fordow, near the city of Qom, that was designed for optimal efficiency and minimal time to enrich enough uranium for bomb making. Such a facility built with current Iranian technology could produce enough material for a bomb in a week, according to the ISIS report.

 "If they did that and they were caught it would be a smoking gun of a nuclear weapons program," Albright said.

 If Iran moves ahead with installation of its more efficient, second generation centrifuges, it would be able to produce enough nuclear fuel for a bomb with so few of them, between 2,000 and 3,300 centrifuges, that they could fit in a small warehouse, Albright said.

 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1gKaRJn ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. |||||Summary:

– In just a month, Iran could have enough weapons-grade uranium to build a nuclear bomb, a US expert says. "Breakout times"—a reference to the period needed to get weapons-grade uranium from low-enriched uranium—"are currently too short and shortening further." The findings, from the Institute for Science and International Security, are based on Iranian and UN data on nuclear progress, USA Today notes. The White House is currently urging Congress to hold off on potential tougher sanctions on the country. Meanwhile, however, some US officials say new nuclear talks with Iran are going well. "I have never had such intense, detailed, straightforward, candid conversations with the Iranian delegation before," says a negotiator, per the Christian Science Monitor. Indeed, an Iranian lawmaker says the country isn't currently enriching uranium to 20% purity, a point at which it's easy to make weapons-grade stuff, the Monitor notes. MP Hossein Naqavi Hosseini says there's "no need for further production" of 20%-enriched uranium, the Telegraph reports. Such a halt is one of the West's central goals in negotiations, the Monitor reports. Hosseini, however, isn't a government spokesman or nuclear negotiator, the AP notes.


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. ||||| Donald Trump has been catching heat for lawsuits against him and Trump University, a real estate seminar business he created in 2005.

 The company, which promised to teach students the mogul's investing techniques to get rich on real estate, is now defunct.

 But civil lawsuits against it and against Trump himself are very much alive.

 1. There are three separate lawsuits.

 Two federal class-action suits in California were filed by former students. The first, Tarla Makaeff v. Trump University, was filed in 2010. The second, Art Cohen v. Donald J. Trump, was filed in 2013. A state-based suit -- People v. Trump Entrepreneur Initiative LLC -- was filed in New York by State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman in 2013.

 Together the cases represent the interests of thousands of former Trump University students.

 2. The lawsuits claim students were hoodwinked.

 Those named in the California cases say Trump University teachers were not hand-picked by Trump as advertised, but rather independent contractors paid commissions for sales of the seminars and products.

 Schneiderman's $40 million civil suit, which accuses the program of deceptive business practices, alleged that its advertisements made false claims, including that Trump handpicked the instructors and that consumers who took the seminars would receive access to private sources of financing -- i.e., "hard money lenders."

 "It was a classic bait-and-switch scheme," he told CNN.

 3. Some paid tens of thousands of dollars.

 Trump University would "upsell" students in its initial free seminar to buy a $1,495 "one year apprenticeship" -- which was effectively a three-day seminar, the Cohen suit asserts. And if they bought that, teachers would upsell them again to buy "mentorships" at a cost of $10,000 and up. The most expensive, the Gold Elite program, cost $35,000.

 4. Trump U wasn't an accredited "school."

 In 2010, the New York Department of Education demanded that the name Trump University be changed since it was misleading and in violation of the state's education laws, according to the New York Daily News.

 Trump University was subsequently renamed the Trump Entrepreneur Initiative.

 Schneiderman's suit alleges that the business was warned by the state's education department as early as 2005 that it was violating state law by calling itself a university, but nevertheless continued to do business under that name for five years.

 5. Former employees of Trump U are among its harshest critics.

 Former employees said in sworn statements that the seminar business engaged in unethical sales techniques and hired unqualified instructors.

 "They were unqualified people posing as Donald Trump's 'right-hand men,'" said Jason Nicholas, a former employee. "They were teaching methods that were unethical, and they had had little to no experience flipping properties or doing real estate deals. It was a facade, a total lie."

 6. Trump U's playbooks revealed aggressive sales tactics.

 Recently unsealed Trump University sales and marketing materials lay out a very methodical, hard-hitting approach to selling consumers on various course packages, even if they have to go into debt to enroll:

 For instance, the playbooks suggest this rebuttal to anyone hesitant to use a recently paid off credit card: "[D]o you like living paycheck to paycheck? ... Do you enjoy seeing everyone else but yourself in their dream houses ...? Those people saw an opportunity, and didn't make excuses, like what you're doing now."

 7. Trump says he's innocent.

 Trump's camp rejects the class action suits' claims as "baseless." And Trump has charged that Schneiderman was politically motivated in his decision to bring the New York case.

 Trump himself has said repeatedly that he "easily" could have settled the cases -- which he characterizes as "minor." But he has chosen not to.

 8. He suggested he wasn't too involved in hiring.

 In a deposition in the Cohen case last December, Trump suggested under oath that he was not very involved in hiring instructors, despite the program's promotional materials suggesting otherwise and his lawyers asserting he was "very involved."

 Rather, Trump said, "I would see résumés. ... I told [Trump University president Michael Sexton] I want very good people." He also said he did not personally select instructors for 2009 live seminars.

 Sexton noted the same under oath: "None of our instructors at the live events were handpicked by Donald Trump."

 Trump also didn't contest the plaintiffs' assertion that the training program gave refunds to 25% of students. He claimed not to know the specific percentage but asserted that he paid "millions and millions of dollars in refunds."

 9. Trump has already lost a few battles.

 In 2014, a New York trial court found Trump University and Trump himself liable for running an unlicensed school. It also authorized Trump's attorneys to take the depositions of the more than 5,000 consumers for whom the attorney general is seeking restitution.

 Then in March, a New York court declined to throw out the fraud case brought by Schneiderman, rejecting arguments from Donald Trump's lawyers that it should be dismissed under the statute of limitations.

 Trump lost his case countersuing Makaeff for defamation. A judge ordered him to pay $800,000 to cover her attorneys' fees.

 10. The trials may not start until after the presidential election.

 Given Trump's refusal to settle so far, the suits likely will continue. Trump even suggested in a GOP debate that the cases could go on for a "couple of years."

 A trial date of Nov. 28 has been set in one of the California cases, where Trump will testify, his lawyer said.

 And a New York court will hear the case brought by Schneiderman, possibly as early as this fall although timing is uncertain.

 Meanwhile, Makaeff was allowed to withdraw her name as lead plaintiff in the first California class-action suit. According to the motion her lawyers filed, "Makaeff wants her life back without living in fear of being disparaged by Trump on national television."

 -- CNN's Chris Isidore, Drew Griffin, Nelli Black and Curt Devine contributed to this story

 Did you attend Trump University? Share your story with CNNMoney by emailing Logan.Whiteside@turner.com. ||||| Robert Guillo said his glowing endorsement of the program came after a teacher begged for it, reportedly saying that without it, "Mr. Trump might not invite me back to teach again."

 ADVERTISEMENT Jeffrey Tufenkian said his high ratings came as the result of his Trump University-assigned mentor refusing to leave the room until he gave the school excellent ratings.

 John Brown said employees of Trump University called him multiple times, reportedly pushing for him to raise his poor review of the program. "I finally gave in," he later testified after the series of phone calls.

 Daniel Petrocelli, a lawyer for Trump, told the Times that such experiences of those who felt manipulated "is not representative of what happened across the board," insisting, "Folks were not coerced."

 Three lawsuits have been filed against Trump's school, with former students accusing Trump of defrauding them with lofty promises to learn about buying and selling real estate.

 Earlier this week, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) said that despite the Republican presidential candidate's claims, his school currently does not have an A rating and has been unrated since September. |||||

Write a summary.

– The drawn-out saga involving the lawsuits against Trump University gained a new wrinkle with a New York Times probe that reveals students who took his real estate classes were coerced into giving their instructors positive reviews—with those reviews perhaps serving as "a central component of a business model … that deceived consumers into handing over thousands of dollars with tantalizing promises of riches," as the paper puts it. A review of hundreds of legal files, plus interviews with ex-students and instructors, suggests pressure to make those reviews sing, in addition to what the paper calls "unusual practices," such as not clearly offering anonymity on the forms and requesting the surveys in exchange for graduation certificates. Why this revelation could be critical: the glowing reviews have, as of late, served as Trump's main ammunition against the claims of fraud. He has referred to the surveys as "beautiful statements" that show a 98% level of satisfaction. There's even a website with thousands of positive evaluations to back him up. But ex-students say their praise came only under duress. "I finally gave in," says one former student who initially gave his teacher a bad score but changed it after a Trump U employee kept badgering him with phone calls. Another says an assigned "mentor" stood over him as he filled out his form, while a third says he was guilted into rating his teacher highly because the teacher basically begged him to. "It's absolutely a con," that ex-student, 76, says. A Trump lawyer says it's "completely implausible to suggest that the 10,000 reviews from the students and their guests were the result of pressure or coercion." The last rating by the BBB in 2010, meanwhile, gave Trump U a D-minus, per the Hill.