Summarize this article:

ALBANY, NY (NEWS 10) – A total of seven men have been charged in the 2014 hazing death of University at Albany student Trevor Duffy.

 The men are accused of forcing Duffy to drink a 60-ounce bottle of vodka, leading to his death.

 The fraternity the men say they were part of, Zeta beta Tau, has released a statement denouncing them.

 According to the statement, the men were not a part of the fraternity that is sanctioned by UAlbany.

 The fraternity, based in Indianapolis, has retained legal counsel and is planning to sue the men.

 The full statement reads as follows:

 Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity has no affiliation with the rogue group that illegally used the Zeta Beta Tau name at the University of Albany and is involved in the alleged hazing that resulted in the death of a University of Albany student. The group is not the Epsilon Gamma Chapter of Zeta Beta Tau, which is recognized by the Fraternity and the University as a leader on campus. Rather, these men are a separate rogue group not authorized to use the Zeta Beta Tau name.

 The men allegedly involved in this incident are not, nor have never been, members of Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity. This group allegedly involved in the incident is not recognized by the University nor Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity.

 Zeta Beta Tau is retaining counsel for the purposes of filing suit against these individuals who falsely represented themselves, deceiving the public and damaging the otherwise exceptional reputation of our Fraternity.

 Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity, ZBT, its symbols, slogans, and materials are protected by United States Copyright and Trademark law and Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity, Inc. has the sole and exclusive right to license the use of its copyrights and trademarks. Anyone found to be engaged in unauthorized use of ZBT’s intellectual property (including, but not limited to, representing themselves as a member of a chapter or undergraduate member of ZBT at University at Albany or using copyrighted or trademarked materials, or wearing ZBT letters) may be subject to legal action. ||||| text size

 ZBT Fraternity suing group linked to hazing deaths for using its name

 ALBANY -- Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity is suing a group of University of Albany students connected with a 2014 hazing death, saying the group was never recognized as a chapter of the fraternity.

 According to a fraternity statement, the group is not recognized by either the fraternity or the university. The group claimed to be a part of the Epsilon Gamma chapter, which is recognized by the national fraternity and by the university.

 Zeta Beta Tau is retaining counsel for the purpose of bringing a lawsuit against the individuals, claiming they falsely represented themselves, deceiving the public and damaging the fraternity's otherwise exceptional reputation.

 According to the national fraternity, the name Zeta Beta Tau Fraternity, ZBT, its symbols, slogans and materials are all protected by copyright. Unauthorized use leaves the rogue group subject to legal action, fraternity officials said.

 Zeta Beta Tau was founded in 1898 in New York City, as the world's first Jewish fraternity. It has chapters on more than 90 campuses across North America, and has more than 130,000 undergraduate and alumni brothers worldwide.

 Attorney Paul DerOhannesian is representing Joseph Angilletta, one of the students accused in connection to Duffy's death.

 “Clearly one aspect here is they seem to want to distance themselves from this tragic event,” DerOhannesian said.

 He said CBS 6 informed him of the new lawsuit against Angilletta and wasn't ready to state his client's case in regard to the new allegations.

 “It’s certainly different, it’s certainly novel and I'm not sure why they'd take that step,” DerOhannesian said.

 ZBT Fraternity suing group linked to hazing deaths for using its name |||||

– The seven men accused of the 2014 hazing of a SUNY Albany student that caused his death are already in trouble with the school and the police. Now they've got a new problem on their hands: a lawsuit set to be filed by the fraternity whose name they apparently appropriated. Zeta Beta Tau's national office says the "rogue" group of SUNY Albany students charged in the death of 19-year-old Trevor Duffy used the frat's name without authorization and isn't linked to the actual recognized chapter on campus, NBC News reports. "Zeta Beta Tau is retaining counsel for the purposes of filing suit against these individuals who falsely represented themselves, deceiving the public and damaging the otherwise exceptional reputation of our Fraternity," a fraternity statement reads, per News10. Duffy died after allegedly being made to consume nearly half a gallon of vodka in a case that made headlines; his BAC was seven times the legal limit, notes NBC. The national fraternity says its intellectual property—including its name, the ZBT initials, and other materials—are protected under copyright rules, WRGB reports. That means anyone who falsely claims to be affiliated with the frat is fair game for legal action, a move the attorney for one of the accused says he's baffled by. "It's certainly novel, and I'm not sure why they'd take that step," the lawyer for Joseph Angilletta, one of two men arrested just last week in the case, tells the station. "Clearly one aspect here is they seem to want to distance themselves from this tragic event." (Five Baruch College frat members may face up to 20 years behind bars for allegedly taking part in the "glass ceiling.")


– Researchers from London's Imperial College think they've found two networks of genes, possibly controlled by a master system, that control cognitive functions—a find that may allow them to modify human intelligence down the line, the Guardian reports. In a study published in Nature Neuroscience, scientists say these M1 and M3 clusters control cognitive functions such as memory, attention, and reasoning, per the Daily Express. "Traits such as intelligence are governed by large groups of [genes] working together—like a football team made up of players in different [positions]," study co-author Dr. Michael Johnson says, per the Guardian. By figuring out how these "players" work together, scientists could perhaps boost cognitive abilities by simply flicking the equivalent of a master switch. And based on other findings in the study linking mutations of those same genes to cognitive impairments, research in this area may be lead to treatment of cognitive issues that accompany neurodevelopmental diseases such as epilepsy, Dr. Johnson notes, per the Guardian. Researchers analyzed "huge sets of data" taken from samples of mouse and human brains, the paper notes, as well as info from a previous health study and genetic data from volunteers (both healthy ones and those with autism and other intellectual disabilities) who took IQ tests. Not only did they find evidence for the disparate gene networks—they also found that the same genes that apparently contribute to the intelligence of healthy subjects damaged cognitive abilities if they were mutated. "Eventually we hope that this sort of analysis will provide new insights into better treatments for neurodevelopmental disease … and ameliorate or treat the cognitive impairments associated with these devastating diseases," Johnson says. Not everyone is thrilled with the idea of flipping a switch to play around with intelligence functioning. "Genetics is the science of inheritance, not pre-determinism, and there is no substitute for hard work and application," a University of Kent genetics professor tells the Express. (Predict your kid's intelligence—with a raisin.)

Expand this summary.

Scientists from Imperial College believe that intelligence may be influenced by two networks of genes, possibly controlled by a master regulatory system

 British scientists believe they have made a huge step forward in the understanding of the mechanisms of human intelligence. That genetic inheritance must play some part has never been disputed. Despite occasional claims later dismissed, no-one has yet produced a single gene that controls intelligence.

 But Michael Johnson of Imperial College London, a consultant neurologist and colleagues report in Nature Neuroscience that they may have discovered a very different answer: two networks of genes, perhaps controlled by some master regulatory system, lie behind the human gift for lateral thinking, mental arithmetic, pub quizzes, strategic planning, cryptic crosswords and the ability to laugh at limericks.

 Diverse parental genes lead to taller, smarter children, finds extensive study Read more

 As usual, such research raises potentially politically-loaded questions about the nature of intelligence. “Intelligence is a composite measure of different cognitive abilities and how they are distributed in a population. It doesn’t measure any one thing. But it is measurable,” Dr Johnson said.

 About 40% of the variation in intelligence is explained by inheritance. The other factors are not yet certain. But the scientists raise the distant possibility that armed with the new information they may be able to devise ways to modify human intelligence.

 “The idea of ultimately using drugs to affect cognitive performance is not in any way new. We all drink coffee to improve our cognitive performance,” Dr Johnson said. “It’s about understanding the pathways that are related to cognitive ability both in health and disease, especially disease so one day we could help people with learning disabilities fulfil their potential. That is very important.”

 The two networks, known just as M1 and M3, one with roughly 1000 genes, the other with more than a 100, also play a role in neurodevelopmental disorders such as epilepsy, schizophrenia and autism. The functions do not seem to overlap, and the role of each network has yet to be settled.

 “We know that genetics plays a major role in intelligence but until now haven’t known which genes are relevant. This research highlights some of the genes involved in human intelligence and how they interact with each other,” Dr Johnson said. “What’s exciting about this is that the genes we have found are likely to share a common regulation, which means that potentially we can manipulate a whole set of genes whose activity is linked to human intelligence.”

 The discovery is testament to the power of patience, patients and the assembly of huge sets of data. The Imperial College scientists started with evidence from 100 mouse brains, 122 samples of human brain, and 102 whole human brains preserved postmortem. Such indicators of a genetic connection between neurodevelopmental problems or memory and understanding were then checked against records of 6,732 people in the “Generation Scotland” family health study, which tracks the life history of thousands of volunteers, and repeated in 1,003 healthy people who had volunteered to take part in a study called the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936.

 Gene linked to long life also protects against mental decline in old age Read more

 It assessed a range of cognitive abilities – among them memory, attention, processing speed and reasoning – and then it combined the results with genetic information donated by healthy people who had taken IQ tests, and from people with autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability. Included in the research were studies of people who had undergone neurosurgery for epilepsy.

 Then the scientists then harnessed massive computing power to see what the data could tell them. They found that the genes that influenced the intelligence and ability of healthy people were the same ones that impaired cognitive ability and caused epilepsy when mutated. If researchers understand what may go wrong in the interplay of inheritance that delivers human reasoning or memory, they might – the possibility for the moment is only theoretical – be able to devise new ways to deliver help.

 “Traits such as intelligence are governed by large groups of genes working together - like a football team made up of players in different position,” he said. “We found that some of these genes overlap with those that cause severe childhood onset epilepsy or intellectual disability,”

 The researchers may have identified a pool of players in a team: they still have to identify how the players co-operate, which are the key players and precisely what game is being played.

 “Eventually we hope that this sort of analysis will provide new insights into better treatments for neurodevelopmental disease such as epilepsy, and ameliorate or treat the cognitive impairments associated with these devastating diseases.”

 • This article was amended on 29 December 2015 to remove a reference to autism as a neurodevelopmental illness; it is a disorder, not an illness. ||||| STRADL - Stratifying Resilience and Depression Longitudinally In 2014, the Wellcome Trust awarded £4.8M to researchers in Edinburgh and Aberdeen to fund a study of depression using GS:SFHS. Experts say that rather than being one disease, clinical depression is a collection of different disorders with one common symptom – that of low mood. Over the next five years, scientists will study individual groups of people who have known depression risk factors such as a family history of low mood, early life problems such as being born underweight or psychological trauma in childhood. Participants will asked to complete new questionnaires on their mental health and resilience. A subset will also be invited to attend a new clinic visit in Aberdeen or edinburgh, which will include MRI brain imaging. By studying groupings of people both with and without depression in this way they hope to be able to identify its causes and mechanisms , which can be used in the quest for diagnostic tests and new therapies. Read more... |||||


Write a summary based on this article:

MOSCOW Former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden's father arrived in Moscow on Thursday to see his son, who was granted asylum in Russia after leaking details of government surveillance programs.

 Speaking at Sheremetyevo airport, where his fugitive son was stranded for weeks this summer, Lon Snowden said he had no direct contact with Edward Snowden for months, but felt "extreme gratitude that my son is safe and secure and he's free".

 The younger Snowden, 30, is wanted in the United States on espionage charges and Russia's decision to grant him temporary asylum aggravated already tense relations between Moscow and Washington.

 Russian authorities and the Russian lawyer who is assisting Snowden, Anatoly Kucherena, have not disclosed his location.

 "I am his father, I love my son and I certainly hope I will have an opportunity to see my son," Lon Snowden said. He told reporters he was "not sure my son will be returning to the U.S. again".

 Snowden's revelations about the reach and methods of the U.S. National Security Agency, including the monitoring of vast volumes of Internet traffic and phone records, have upset U.S. allies from Germany to Brazil. They sparked an international furore, with admirers calling him a human rights champion and critics denouncing him as a traitor.

 JOB SEARCH

 Lon Snowden said he did not know his son's intentions, but believed he had not been involved in the publication of any information since he arrived in Russia and was "simply trying to remain healthy and safe".

 Directly from the airport, he and the lawyer drove to a state television studio to give an exclusive live interview, indicating the visit was under strong government control.

 Kucherena expressed hope the former intelligence contractor would soon find a job in Russia - possibly in IT or the human rights sector - because he had largely run out of savings and was living modestly, mainly off donations.

 He said the American was living under security and avoiding publicity because of the U.S. chase after him.

 Kucherena later said father and son would meet on Thursday but that Lon Snowden would first have to travel "quite a number of kilometers", echoing previous coy statements intended to keep people guessing about the younger Snowden's location.

 He said that Lon Snowden would be in Russia for a few days and "as he is here for the first time, I have prepared an entire program so that he can meet with his son and get more closely acquainted with our country," state newswire Itar-Tass reported.

 Snowden, who worked as a systems administrator at a U.S. National Security Agency facility in Hawaii, fled to Hong Kong in June and then flew to Moscow.

 President Vladimir Putin rejected U.S. pleas to hand him over, but denied Russia had any role in Snowden's disclosures or that its intelligence agencies were working with him in any way. He has used the case to accuse the United States of preaching to the world about rights and freedoms it does not uphold at home.

 (Additional reporting by Alessandra Prentice and Gabriela Baczynska; Writing by Steve Gutterman; Editing by Mark Trevelyan) ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Lon Snowden says he is extremely thankful to Russia for granting asylum to his son

 The father of fugitive former US intelligence contractor Edward Snowden is in Russia to visit his son.

 Lon Snowden told journalists in Moscow he felt "extreme gratitude that my son is safe and secure and he's free". He later met his son, local media say.

 Edward Snowden was granted asylum in Russia in August after weeks spent in a transit zone at Moscow airport when the US revoked his travel documents.

 The 30-year-old leaked many thousands of US intelligence documents.

 The information, published in The Guardian and Washington Post newspapers, revealed extensive internet and phone surveillance by both US and British intelligence.

 In the US, Edward Snowden faces charges of theft of government property, unauthorised communication of national defence information and wilful communication of classified intelligence.

 Each of the charges carries a maximum 10-year prison sentence.

 Meanwhile, Edward Snowden met four former US security officials in Russia late on Wednesday, it has emerged.

 The officials - who now campaign against what they describe as the misuse of state secrecy - said they had presented Mr Snowden with the Sam Adams Associates for Integrity in Intelligence award. The award is given annually by a group of retired CIA officers.

 The officials told Russian media Mr Snowden had no regrets about leaking the classified files and was convinced he had done the right thing.

 "He's remarkably centred," ex-FBI agent Coleen Rowley told state-funded RT television.

 'Legal options'

 Lon Snowden, arriving at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport on Thursday, was met by his son's Russian lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena.

 Image caption Edward Snowden is living in a secret location in Russia

 "I'm here to learn more about my son's situation," Mr Snowden told reporters. "My hope is to learn more about his circumstances and his health and to discuss legal options."

 "If the opportunity presents itself, I certainly hope that I have the opportunity to see my son," he said in televised remarks.

 "I'm not sure that my son will be returning to the US. That's his decision, he's an adult."

 Lon Snowden later visited his son, but the place and time of the meeting "are not being been revealed for security reasons", said Russia's state-run TV channels Rossiya 24 and Channel One.

 Lon Snowden has in the past praised his son for speaking "the truth" and making great sacrifices, and has spoken of his concern that he would not face a fair trial if he returned to the US.

 Edward Snowden accessed many of the documents while working for the defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton in Hawaii, where he had been living with his girlfriend.

 As the revelations became public, Mr Snowden fled to Hong Kong where, with his consent, The Guardian revealed his identity in June.

 To escape US attempts to extradite him, Mr Snowden moved on to Russia where he remained in the transit zone of Sheremetyevo airport until Russia granted him asylum.

 Russia's move added to already tense relations with the US. Washington cancelled a bilateral summit in September. ||||| Moscow (CNN) -- The father of NSA leaker Edward Snowden told reporters in Moscow that he thinks his son deserves a Nobel Peace Prize.

 He arrived there Thursday for his first visit with his son since the former government IT contractor fled the United States after leaking National Security Agency spy program details to the media.

 Members of the European Parliament nominated Snowden in September for the Andrei Sakharov Prize, which honors figures who stand up to oppressive powers. The prize was awarded to Pakistani education activist Malala Yousafzai on Thursday.

 "Edward took the Sakharov prize nomination very calmly," Lon Snowden told reporters at Moscow's Sheremetyevo International Airport. "He wanted to expose the injustices in the American system, and wasn't doing it with any awards in mind."

 Edward Snowden collected information on spy programs, in which the NSA mined phone and Internet metadata from thousands of people inside and outside of the United States. He exposed the program to the media.

 Anticipating legal consequences, he initially fled to Hong Kong in late May but flew to Moscow on June 23. He was holed up at the airport for more than five weeks. U.S. authorities have charged him with espionage and theft of government property.

 Snowden received asylum in Russia on August 1 and left the airport.

 Snowden's father: 'I know my son. I know he loves his country'

 Low profile

 Lon Snowden's visit to Russia seems shrouded in mystery, as Edward Snowden is keeping information about himself close to the vest.

 "I've had no direct contact with my son despite previous reports, so I really have no idea what his intentions are," Lon Snowden told reporters at the airport.

 Snowden the son has kept a low profile, apparently not even telling his father where in Russia he is living.

 "I cannot answer the question if Edward is in Moscow," Lon Snowden said. "I don't know that. I haven't been informed where Edward is right now."

 His lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, also has not disclosed Snowden's location. But he told reporters that he had met with him Wednesday.

 It appears that Snowden is settling in to his new surroundings.

 He has been living from savings and donations but has had some job offers, Kucherena said.

 "I am confident that he would find a high-paying job. He is very capable." He is also learning Russian and soaking in Russian culture, Kucherena said.

 And he has a girlfriend.

 The lawyer earlier told reporters that Edward Snowden may hold a news conference soon, but later reversed that, saying the former contractor had no intention of speaking publicly.

 Since the movie "The Fifth Estate" came out, which is based on the experiences of WikiLeaker Julian Assange, producers have contacted Snowden about telling his story on film.

 But he does not seem interested at the time.

 Defending his son

 As in the past, Lon Snowden defended his son's actions Thursday, calling him a "whistle-blower" who is "not leaking information."

 "I don't think the American public knows all the details of what my son did," he said.

 Snowden has said that he does not expect his son to receive a fair trial in the United States and would not want him to come home, until that changes.

 "I'm not sure that my son will be returning to the U.S. again. That's his decision. He is an adult," the elder Snowden told reporters.

 He thanked the Russian people and President Vladimir Putin for taking his son in. "I consider Edward to be absolutely safe in Russia. He is comfortable here," he said.

 Lon Snowden has received a visa for multiple entries into the country. "I hope to return to Russia many times," he said.

 Father Lon carefully separated his own interests from Edward Snowden's, speaking of getting on with his own life in the United States, while his son moves on with his in Russia.

 But he in no way distanced himself from the younger Snowden.

 He told reporters: "I am his father. I love my son."

 Snowden: My father and his legal team do not speak for me

 CNN's Boriana Milanova contributed to this report. |||||

– With Edward Snowden's lawyer in tow, dad Lon Snowden arrived in Russia early today in the hope of seeing his fugitive son. "I am his father, I love my son, and I certainly hope I will have an opportunity to see my son," he told Reuters, though his real purpose is "to learn more about his circumstances and his health and to discuss legal options," the BBC reports. Speaking from the same airport in which Edward Snowden was stranded for weeks, Lon said he wasn't in contact with his son, but noted a reunion in the US was unlikely. "I am not sure my son will be returning to the US again," he noted. "That's his decision." Neither the elder Snowden, nor his son's Russian lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, would give any details about when and where a meeting would take place, but Kucherena did share some details of Edward's new life in Russia. He still hasn't found a job and is living modestly, mostly on donations since he's run out of his savings, Reuters notes. As to reports of NSA leaks to come: "I really have no idea what his intentions are," Lon Snowden said, but as of now, he is "not leaking information," CNN reports.


Summarize this article:

Recognized as the leading authority on Surrogate Partner Therapy, since 1973,

 IPSA is a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the science, art, and availability of Surrogate Partner Therapy.

 Statement of Purpose and Mission

 IPSA supports a worldwide community of professionals in the field of surrogate partner therapy, which includes surrogate partners, therapists, and individuals n need of and supportive of surrogate partner therapy. The purposes of the organization are:

 To make available to therapists surrogate partners who uphold professional ethics and meet professional

 qualifications; To increase knowledge and acceptance of surrogate partner therapy in the therapeutic community and in the general public; To elevate the professional standards and ethics of all surrogate partners; To promote professional standards for surrogate partner training; To provide training for prospective and practicing surrogate partners and therapists; To conduct and participate in research related to surrogate partner therapy and sex therapy; To promote educational services for the professional development of IPSA members; To facilitate client access to surrogate partner therapy information and referrals; and To foster a feeling of fellowship and cooperation within the organization.

 As members of IPSA, we are committed to promoting healthy attitudes toward sexuality and intimacy in our clients and in the community. To further our work and our own emotional well-being, we join together to provide support and assistance to each other in these endeavors.

 Supporting academic research, public education, professional training and professional standards for over forty years.

 Training surrogate partners and sex therapists

 Referrals for clients and supervising therapists. ||||| Larry was completely naked and blindfolded next to a piano when the younger woman he was with had a breakthrough. She was 35 years old but gave off the nervous pent-up sexual energy of a wallflower at prom, and with good reason: She had never kissed a man, let alone seen one nude in her Long Beach home.

 She had been carefree and pretty as a teenager—until a car accident sent her flying through a windshield, slicing her face open and blinding her in one eye, according to Larry. Afterwards, she thought, How could anyone ever love me? So she shut herself off to the world, to romantic love and sex. Until now.

 It was summer 1994 and Larry, who was a decade her senior, had instructions. "I want you to stare at me," he ordered softly. "Be scared. Be curious. Be excited. If you're bored, that's good. We'll move on." Soon they did, and—terrifying as it was—she stripped down, too. Then came kissing, caressing, and, eventually, sex.

 Read More: Learning How to Orgasm Without Any Touching

 Larry Villarin, a 62-year-old Californian, is not her boyfriend. Nor is he a sex worker, although technically he gets paid $150 per hour to have sex, hang out naked, and teach his clients the joys of the erotic. Larry is America's oldest male sexual surrogate, a job in which he risks being arrested in order to help others work through sexual dysfunction during one-on-one "sessions." In the past 35 years, the gig has matched him with dozens of women (and an occasional man) to achieve therapeutic goals. In the past, he says, he has worked with disabled clients, abuse survivors, and people from strict religions backgrounds, as well as with millionaires, geniuses, 40-year-old virgins, and powerful judges. Most of clients pair his hands-on therapy with trips to a psychologist in order to prepare for real-life intimacy.

 She needed to believe I wouldn't laugh at her or run away. It was beautiful to see her open up.

 Only ten men are certified to do this work in the U.S., according to the International Professional Surrogates Association (IPSA). Larry and other rare men in the field must undergo 100 hours of human sexuality studies before becoming certified by the IPSA, which connects patients with surrogates through psychiatrists. As a sexual surrogate, Larry must navigate tricky emotional turf, like what happens when a client falls in love with you, or how to gently bust through body hang-ups or deeply internalized anxieties. In the case of the 35-year-old woman who had survived a car accident, it turned out that she was mostly scared of ridicule. "She needed to believe I wouldn't laugh at her or run away. It was beautiful to see her open up," he says.

 Most of Larry's job is far less sexy than it might seem. During their first hour-long session with him, clients unload their emotional baggage —ranging from social anxiety to PTSD — and set therapy goals. No sexual touching is allowed. If all goes well, they'll move to hand stroking and a face caressing. Later, he'll try a blindfolded "trust walk" to get them "out of their heads."

 His clients, who range in age from 22 to 75, usually invite Larry to their L.A. homes or come to his. Many are referred to him by a psychologist after reaching a frustrating impasse in expressing their sexuality: they can't become "normal" without a partner, and they can't find partner if they don't become "normal." The steamy stuff comes slowly— if at all. "You set ground rules," Larry says, "It's baby steps." He works with some clients for weeks, others for years. Some are never ready to have full-blown sex.

 One of the tools Larry uses in order to help his clients open up is playing naked games. In one, he and the client stand back-to-back with their eyes closed. She opens her eyes first, then it's his turn. Eventually they go to a mirror and talk honestly about their reflections. It helps that Larry, a slow-talking old hippie type, is not at all physically threatening. "I go first and stand in front of full-length mirror. I do an oral meditation, describing my body, tip to toe—how it feels and functions—totally honestly," he says. "It really gets down to image. I say, 'I don't like my saggy buttocks,' or 'I broke my toe when I was 20.' I can do 30 minutes of that, just modeling openness. Then she goes."

 She had her first orgasm. She didn't believe she could ever have one. I'm getting misty about it.

 In addition, Larry says, physical exercises can lead to epiphanies. In one case, a 70-year-old woman had lived her whole life thinking sex was a chore; religious guilt kept her from masturbating. "She was numb — her hips were frozen," Larry recalls. So he told her to stand with her legs apart. "I said, 'Imagine a pencil coming down between your genitals and your anus. Now write your name on the floor. It required movements in her hips."

 Later that night, she took a shower and lay naked on her sheets. A breeze from an open window rolled over her body, and something shifted in her pelvis. "That's all it took. She had her first orgasm. She didn't believe she could ever have one. I'm getting misty about it," Larry says. "It's just: growth — what humans are capable of. Gosh, it's intimate stuff."

 Larry claims that birthdays are the number-one reason women come to see him. Late-in-life virgins, turning 30 or 40, see the date looming and want to take the plunge. "Milestones are a big one. It's anxiety provoking. Women will say, 'This my final hope,'" Larry says.

 Usually, those clients have control problems sparked by something early in life. If they don't address their issues with control, they tend to get worse, and their virginity becomes a symbol of everything wrong with them. "They're embarrassed. Sometimes they can't talk to anyone about it," Larry notes. "They try to fake it with girlfriends. But every new man has to be Mr. Right—perfect—so they run away at the first relationship glitch. The longer they wait, the more the anxiety builds."

 [Birthdays] are a big one. It's anxiety provoking. Women will say, 'This my final hope.'

 Emotional blocks can turn physical for some women. One client suffered from a condition called vaginismus, which caused her vaginal canal to tighten involuntarily, preventing sex. It was painful and embarrassing, so Larry recommended she use vaginal dilators for six months. Unlike a gynecologist, however, he paired that treatment with intimacy therapy and physical touch. It worked, he claims.

 Larry is a sort of a gateway guy, he says: He's low risk because he's not a real lover. "The women are not there to please me; I'm there for them. Somewhere along the line, they stopped trusting men. I have to undo that."

 Although trust is deeply important to Larry's work, it's also important to keep an emotional distance. Larry says that some of his clients have fallen in love with him, which can push him into a tricky emotional and ethical gray area.

 One woman came to him, fresh out of an abusive marriage, on the heels of her son's death. She was sick of being alone and wanted to enjoy sex. "We worked for two years. We had so many firsts together—she didn't want to let go," Larry recalls. When her sessions came to an end, Larry says, the client began sending him expensive gifts and kept trying to see him. "I kind of knew she was in love with me. But I had to be ethical."

 Not long after that, he set up new boundaries: He stopped allowing sessions in his own bedroom and built a "therapy room" instead. After one of his own romantic relationships "fell apart because of the job," he took a break from it. Now, he sometimes holds back sharing with clients because, "by telling [a client] too much about myself, I realized, I am burdening her."

 The job is full of ethical landmines, according to Paula Hall, a British sex therapist. "In the UK, the practice is mostly frowned upon," she says. The surrogate-client relationship is often seen as just too complicated, she adds. To Larry, however, the lines are clear enough. "In a sense, we already know the relationship has to end. It's better that they learn how to be hurt with me, rather than a less sensitive man."

 Romantic feelings aren't the only issue complicating Larry's profession: Paying for sex — any sex —is illegal in the U.S., and there's no law offering surrogates special protection. If a cop were to bust in on Larry during a session, he could be arrested, which is exactly what happened to one of his female surrogate friends. "She was seeing a client and he turned out to be a cop," Larry says. "He said, 'I have to confess: In 10 minutes you're going to hear a knock on the door, and you're going to be busted for prostitution, but I can see that's not what this is."

 IPSA skirts prostitution law in certifying its members because it doesn't acknowledge intercourse is part of the practice, according to Larry and other current and former surrogates. Today, he's baffled that people don't understand the difference between his work, which he sees as primarily therapeutic or socially instructive.

 For instance, Larry once worked with a woman from a strict religious background. Because of her upbringing, she had learned to see kissing as strictly a sexual act, never used for casual affection. She enlisted Larry to teach her the basics of kissing in all different contexts. In their sessions, Larry says, she made the rules. "We tried all of them: A quick kiss goodbye, a hello kiss, a marathon make out. I was never allowed to kiss back," he recounts. After a few weeks, she left feeling "reborn," ready for lovers and friends. "It did increase her confidence, oh my," Larry says.

 But most of the time, Larry never gets to see the positive affects of his work. "The empowerment part comes when they leave me. It's like karate: Once you get your black belt, your training has just begun. With me, they've opened their hearts — and now they can go have a life." |||||

– It is one of the most unusual, and rarest, jobs in the country: Larry Villarin is a certified male sex surrogate, one of only 10 in the US sanctioned by the International Professional Surrogates Association. But as a profile at Broadly makes clear, the 62-year-old Villarin is not to be confused with a male gigolo. His role is to help clients "cope with their fears and anxieties about physical intimacy," writes Natalie O'Neill, and sex is just one component of that. The story uses the example of a 35-year-old woman who had shied away from intimacy her entire adult life because a car accident as a teenager left her blind in one eye. She'd never even been kissed until her sessions with Villarin. "She needed to believe I wouldn't laugh at her or run away," he says. "It was beautiful to see her open up." On its website, IPSA says "it is committed to promoting healthy attitudes toward sexuality and intimacy in our clients and in the community," and the story explains that it gets around prostitution laws "because it doesn't acknowledge intercourse is part of the practice." Villarin says his clients range in age from 22 to 75, with milestone birthdays seemingly one of the big triggers. Most are referred to him from a psychologist, with survivors of abuse and women with disabilities among those reaching out. One of the tricky parts is setting boundaries so the clients don't confuse the physical intimacy with romantic feelings for Villarin. "It's just growth—what humans are capable of," he says. "Gosh, it's intimate stuff." Click for the full story. (This study has concluded how often happy couples have sex.)


Summarize this article:

ROME (AP) — Italy's health ministry has ordered an investigation into the death of a 4-year-old girl from malaria after checks determined she hadn't traveled to any country at risk for the disease.

 The child died Monday at the Brescia public hospital after being transferred from Trento. Italy is not known to have the kind of mosquitoes that spread malaria.

 The health ministry said Tuesday it is sending a team of experts to the Trento hospital to determine how the girl got infected, since she hadn't made any trips to countries with the parasitic disease.

 Malaria is a tropical disease that mostly strikes children in Africa, although parts of Asia, Latin America and the Middle East are also at risk. The disease is estimated to have killed more than 420,000 people last year.

 In recent years, European health officials have noted several isolated cases of locally acquired malaria, including one case in Rome in 2009.

 Suspicion fell on the Trento facility because it was treating two other children with malaria. But the disease does not spread easily between people and typically either requires a mosquito bite or blood transfusion. The ANSA news agency quoted the head of the Trento health service, Paolo Bordon, as saying that the child received no blood transfusions and that the malaria-infected children were being treated in other rooms with single-use equipment.

 Bordon suggested the girl might have caught it earlier, given the timing of her symptoms.

 Malaria symptoms, which include fever, a headache and chills, typically appear about 10 days after an infected mosquito bite. Bordon said it was possible the girl might have contracted the disease before arriving at the Trento hospital, possibly from a mosquito trapped in luggage.

 According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, there have been 75 cases of malaria linked to mosquitoes in luggage arriving in Western Europe from malaria-endemic countries in the past few decades. ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.

 / Updated By Claudio Lavanga

 ROME — Malaria killed a 4-year-old girl in Italy, raising fears that the mosquito-borne disease has returned to the country after decades.

 Sonia Zago developed a high fever after returning home from a vacation in Bibione, a seaside town on the Adriatic coast near Venice.

 As her condition worsened, she was taken to a hospital in the northern city of Trento. Within an hour of arriving, the girl had fallen into a coma and was diagnosed with malaria. Zago was then transferred to a hospital in Brescia that treats tropical diseases, but she died on Sunday night.

 The girl had never traveled to a risk-prone country, raising questions about how she contracted the disease.

 "It baffles us how she could have been infected"

 The Ministry of Health confirmed Tuesday that it had dispatched a team of experts to investigate.

 Dr. Claudio Paternoster, director of the infectious diseases ward at Santa Chiara hospital in Trento, said that he had not seen a case of home-grown malaria during his 30-year career.

 He said that Zago had been admitted to the facility about two weeks ago due to suspected diabetes and had shared a ward with two children who had contracted malaria while in Burkina Faso.

 "It’s not probable, almost impossible, to pass on the [parasite] from patient to patient," Paternoster told NBC News. "So the only option I can think of is that the mosquito that carried the disease may have traveled to Italy, and survived somehow."

 Tropical diseases expert Alberto Matteelli, left, is flanked by Ezio Belleri, general manager of the "Spedali Civili" hospital, as they meet the media in Brescia, Italy on Sept. 5, 2017. Italy's health ministry has ordered an investigation into the death of a 4-year-old girl from malaria after checks determined she hadn't traveled to any country at risk for the disease. Filippo Venezia / ANSA via AP

 He added: "It baffles us how she could have been infected.”

 Italy has been malaria-free since the 1950s, with most recorded cases linked to tourists who returned from countries where it is common.

 Paternoster speculated that climate change may be to blame.

 ”It was a long and very hot summer," Italian daily Corriere della Sera quoted Paternoster as saying.

 On Tuesday, the World Health Organization was hosting a meeting in Moscow to discuss how to keep Europe malaria-free. Zero cases of home-grown malaria were reported in Europe in 2015.

 The WHO says Italy could be vulnerable to a return of malaria if mosquitoes are not properly controlled.

 Malaria is caused by a parasite that has a complex life cycle dependent on both animals, including humans, and mosquitoes.

 CORRECTION (Sept. 5, 2017, 2:45 p.m. ET): Due to a mistranslation in a quotation from Dr. Paternoster, a previous version of this article incorrectly described the nature of malaria. It is a parasite, not a virus. ||||| In A Case That Is 'Almost Impossible,' Girl Dies Of Malaria In Italy

 Enlarge this image toggle caption Sinclair Stammers/Getty Images/Science Photo Library RM Sinclair Stammers/Getty Images/Science Photo Library RM

 A 4-year-old girl has died of malaria in Italy, where the disease is thought to have been wiped out. Troubled health officials are looking for answers.

 The girl was taken to the hospital Saturday in her Alpine hometown of Trento after she developed a high fever, according to the Italian newspaper, Corriere della Sera. Lab tests confirmed she was infected with cerebral malaria, the deadliest kind. The girl had already fallen into a coma. She was transferred to a hospital specializing in tropical diseases in neighboring Brescia, where she died in the early morning hours Monday, reports the daily newspaper.

 "This is the first time in 30 years of career that I have been involved in a case of native malaria in Trentino," Dr. Claudio Paternoster, an infectious disease specialist at Trento's Santa Chiara Hospital, told the newspaper.

 Malaria was endemic throughout Italy until the first half of the 20th century, especially in coastal and marshy areas hospitable to the mosquitoes carrying the disease. But a campaign launched in 1947 to eradicate malaria, mainly through pesticides, proved to be successful.

 The World Health Organization declared Italy malaria-free in 1970. Since then there have been cases of malaria reported, but almost all of them have been imported, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 Now health officials are trying to piece together how and where the girl may have been infected.

 "It's a mystery, almost impossible," Paolo Bordon, general manager of the provincial health service, tells Corriere della Sera.

 The child had never traveled abroad, but she had recently returned from a vacation in Bibione, a coastal resort northeast of Venice on the Adriatic Sea.

 Corriere della Sera reports that the trip — in the first weeks of August — is compatible with the incubation period for malaria.

 The BBC reports that the child had previously been treated for her diabetes at the Trento hospital, where two other children were recovering from malaria they had caught in Africa.

 While patient-to-patient transmission of the disease is rare, it is possible. Yet Paternoster tells Corriere della Sera that the girl was treated in a different ward from the infected children and she did not have a blood transfusion.

 Officials are also considering the "mosquito in a suitcase" theory, where an infected insect could have been brought over by a traveler.

 Just one kind of mosquito — the Anopheles — (and only females at that) can transmit the disease, and it is not known to live in Italy. "(To) our knowledge, there are no vectors suitable for transmitting malaria in Trentino and Italy," Paternoster told Corriere della Sera. But he says an investigation is underway to see if the mosquito is once again present in the region.

 "It has been a hot summer and with climate change it is not possible to exclude the adaptation of some species," Paternoster said.

 But as NPR's Michaeleen Doucleff has reported, it can be tricky to definitively link climate change to the spread of vector-borne diseases, in part, because the life span of mosquitoes is so short and may only be made shorter in warmer weather.

 Malaria is caused by a parasite that leads to flu-like symptoms. And every year, millions of people are sickened with the disease. Many recover, but small children are especially vulnerable.

 Ninety percent of malaria cases occur in sub-Saharan Africa, where it kills about 3,000 children every day, according to UNICEF.

 Europe was declared malaria-free in 2015.

 This week the World Health Organization is hosting a meeting in Moscow to discuss keeping Europe malaria-free. ||||| Image copyright Science Photo Library Image caption The female Anopheles mosquito passes on the malaria parasite by feeding on human blood

 A four-year-old Italian girl has died of cerebral malaria in northern Italy, a region free of the disease, in what doctors see as a very mysterious case.

 Sofia Zago died in Brescia on Sunday night, after being rushed to hospital with a high fever on Saturday.

 Italy is free of the Anopheles mosquito that carries cerebral malaria, the deadliest form of the blood disease. But after a scorching August, some fear that it might have reached Italy.

 A flight could have brought it in.

 Sofia had been on holiday with her parents at Bibione, an Adriatic resort near Venice.

 Trento, where the girl's malaria was diagnosed on Saturday, lies within the Trentino region in the foothills of the Alps.

 "It's the first time in my 30-year career that I've seen a case of malaria originating in Trentino," said Dr Claudio Paternoster, an infectious diseases specialist at Trento's Santa Chiara Hospital.

 Since the 1950s, Italy has not had a malaria problem because mosquito-infested marshes were drained.

 There is speculation that Sofia might have caught malaria from one of two children treated for it at the Trento hospital after 15 August. They had caught it in Africa, and recovered.

 Sofia had had treatment there for child diabetes and there was a break before her emergency readmission to the hospital at the weekend.

 A Trentino health official, Paolo Bordon, said Sofia had not been in the same ward as the other two children. Sofia had not had a blood transfusion, he added, stressing that the treatments for malaria and diabetes were utterly different.

 The Plasmodium Falciparum parasite carried by the Anopheles mosquito can kill a human within 24 hours.

 About 438,000 people died of malaria in 2015 in the 95 tropical countries where it is endemic, Italy's Corriere della Sera daily reports.

 Extreme gardening to tackle malaria

 Three countries get first malaria vaccine

 Malaria drugs fail for first time in UK

 Rare case for Europe

 By Michelle Roberts, Health Editor, BBC News Online

 Only some types of mosquito are able to transmit the disease from person to person.

 Risky insects are found in large areas of Central and South America, Africa, Asia, the South Pacific and some parts of Eastern Europe, but not in the rest of Europe.

 As a result, malaria is largely limited to tropical areas - cases appearing within the European Union are typically "suitcase" ones, linked to recent travel to other parts of the world where malaria is present.

 The latest case in northern Italy has baffled experts. It is not clear how the girl caught it, but her case is not unique.

 The European Centre for Disease Prevention Control closely monitors cases and has found a few cases of "locally acquired" malaria in the EU - two in France and three in Spain in 2014.

 But there were explanations for how some of these might have occurred. One was a patient who had received a kidney from a donor with malaria; another was a newborn whose mother had recently returned from Equatorial Guinea.

 One of the Spanish patients had no history of travel, but lived a few kilometres from a town where a "suitcase" malaria person lived. No infected local mosquitoes were found, but lab tests showed two people had an identical strain of the disease. |||||

– The death of a 4-year-old girl from malaria on Monday in Italy has local health authorities searching for answers and worrying about a resurgence of the deadly disease, NPR reports. Italy was declared malaria-free in 1970, and the mosquito that carries the disease no longer lives in the country. "It baffles us how she could have been infected,” NBC News quotes a doctor at a hospital in Trento as saying. Sofia Zago was brought to the hospital on Saturday with a high fever and quickly fell into a coma. Tests showed she had cerebral malaria, the deadliest form of the disease, and she died Monday after being moved to a hospital in Brescia. A doctor says it was the first case of native malaria he's seen in Trento in 30 years. "It's a mystery, almost impossible," the general manager of the provincial health service says regarding the case. Doctors believe Sofia may have been infected during a trip to a beach resort near Venice. It's possible she was infected by a mosquito that had managed to travel to Italy inside of luggage. It's also possible, though very unlikely, Sofia contracted the disease a few weeks ago when she was hospitalized for childhood diabetes. The BBC reports there were two children at the hospital at the same time recovering from malaria they picked up in Africa, though they were in a different ward and Sofia received no blood transfusions. Italy's health ministry has ordered an investigation, according to the AP. While Europe was declared malaria-free in 2015, there have been several individual cases of locally transmitted malaria in recent years, including one in Rome in 2009. (After decades of work, a malaria vaccine is finally here.)


Rap Genius co-founder Mahbod Moghadam has been fired from the annotation service after posting appalling comments on the memoir of mass murderer Elliot Rodger, who killed six people in a shooting spree earlier this week.

 In now-removed annotations on the site on the sick 141-page manifesto, Moghadam added a tasteless series of comments, including “beautifully written” and also “MY GUESS: his sister is smokin hot.”

 My annotation: Good riddance.

 The comments were first written about by Valleywag, which published images of Moghadam’s annotations like the one above.

 In a statement, Rap Genius co-founder and CEO Tom Lehman said Moghadam had resigned as an employee and also from the board of directors.

 It read in part:

 “However, Mahbod Moghadam, one of my co-founders, annotated the piece with annotations that not only didn’t attempt to enhance anyone’s understanding of the text, but went beyond that into gleeful insensitivity and misogyny. All of which is contrary to everything we’re trying to accomplish at Rap Genius.”

 (You think? Dear Rap Genius: People died due to a mentally ill man who had deeply warped problems with women and a dangerous streak of misogyny. But at least you moved quickly to remove him.)

 Thankfully, sources close to the situation said he was actually asked to leave the company in a decision by Lehman, but there was also pressure from investors and others internally. In a tweet, which you can see below, Ben Horowitz of Andreessen Horowitz — which is a big backer of Rap Genius — said he has a “conversation” with Lehman, but did not characterize it as pressure.

 @karaswisher @JoshConstine Tom knew my opinion on this as as he always does. If you want to call that pressure, fine. I call it conversation — Ben Horowitz (@bhorowitz) May 27, 2014

 Whatever the case, it was a definitely a bridge too far — especially after the entire group of founders has already wallowed in a number of controversial issues, calling attention more to their idiotic hijinks than to their business.

 Here is Moghadam’s apology on Twitter:

 I want to apologize to everyone. I need to hear these criticisms, reflect for real, and work on becoming a better person — Mahbod (@mahbodmoghadam) May 26, 2014

 And here’s Lehman’s whole statement: ||||| Rap Genius cofounder Mahbod Moghadam resigned from both the company and its board of directors, effective immediately, after leaving inappropriate annotations on the manifesto by Elliot Rodgers, the alleged Santa Barbara shooter.

 In response to questions from Valleywag yesterday, Moghadam apologized about the bizarre and disturbing commentary he left on Rodger's horrifying manifesto. Rap Genius allows anyone to annotate a snippet to text. In his explanations, Moghadam applauded Rodger's writing and commented on the attractiveness of Rodger's sister. Before it was removed, one annotation said: "MY GUESS: his sister is smokin hot"

 Before the resignation, Moghadam told Valleywag:

 I was fascinated by the fact that a text was associated with such a heartbreaking crime, especially since Elliot is talking about my neighborhood growing up I got carried away with making the annotations and making any comment about his sister was in horrible taste, thankfully the rap genius community edits out my poor judgement, I am very sorry for writing it

 Re/code has the full statement from CEO and cofounder Tom Lehman. Moghadam, Lehman, and a third cofounder, Ilan Zechory, were all classmates at Yale University. They raised $16 million from Andreessen Horowitz, the storied Silicon Valley venture capital firm, to expand their website annotating hip hop lyrics into the "Internet Talmud" by crowd-sourcing explanations for poetry, music, legal documents, classic literature, and the news.

 When I first met the cofounders in the fall of 2012 at their Williamsburg penthouse, Moghadam told me that Rap Genius planned to make money through advertising and merchandise. But since raising $16 million, the startup has mostly made trouble for its benefactor Ben Horowitz, who also sits on the company's board.

 Horowitz is known for starting his blog posts about leadership and finance with rap lyrics and brought the company to Marc Andreessen's attention. The firm managed to stay silent on Moghadam's antics in the past, including tweeting "I'mma rape you in your mouth cuz" to a music critic at Spin magazine.

 Moghadam also told Mark Zuckerberg to "Suck his dick" after the Facebook CEO objected to Instagram photos of an evening at Horowitz's house. The rapper Nas, a friend of Horowitz, was also present that night.) After these regularly recurring outburst, Moghadam tends to issue an effusive apology. Last October, he blamed the last of impulse control on a brain tumor which has since been removed.

 Moghadam's departure from the board is strong signal that Rap Genius and its investors want to distance themselves from that kind of behavior, which they have previously brushed off as some kind of swaggy performance art. But Moghadam hasn't been the only source of bad press. Around Christmas, Google severely punished Rap Genius for using spammy SEO tactics to get its content at the top of the search engine.

 In that case, however, it was an email from Moghadam that spilled the startup's SEO secret. Moghadam promised a fellow Y Combinator alum "MASSIVE traffic," if he embedded Rap Genius links about Justin Bieber's new album in the bottom of a post. Google began its investigation into Rap Genius shortly after Moghadam's solicitous email was published.

 Here is the memo from Lehman about Moghadam's resignation:

 Yesterday the Rap Genius community annotated Elliot Rodger's manifesto on News Genius. Because this tragedy is still so raw, there was internal debate as to whether this document belonged on the site at all. Ultimately we decided that it was worthy of close reading – understanding the psychology of people who do horrible things can help us to better understand our society and ourselves. The current version of the annotated document is far from great, but the hope is that the annotations will improve over time as the story unfolds and it will eventually be a good resource for people looking to understand this tragedy. Almost all the annotations were at least attempting a close reading – they were genuinely, though imperfectly, trying to add context to the text and make it easier to understand. However, Mahbod Moghadam, one of my co-founders, annotated the piece with annotations that not only didn't attempt to enhance anyone's understanding of the text, but went beyond that into gleeful insensitivity and misogyny. All of which is contrary to everything we're trying to accomplish at Rap Genius. Were Mahbod's annotations posted by a new Rap Genius user, it would be up to our community leaders, who set the tone of the site and our approach to annotation, to delete them and explain to the new user why they were unacceptable. Were Mahbod's annotations posted by a Rap Genius moderator, that person would cease to be an effective community leader and would have to step down. And Mahbod, our original community leader, is no exception. In light of this, Mahbod has resigned – both in his capacity as an employee of the company, and as a member of our board of directors, effective immediately. Mahbod is my friend. He's a brilliant, creative, complicated person with a ton of love in his heart. Without Mahbod Rap Genius would not exist, and I am grateful for all he has done to help Rap Genius succeed. But I cannot let him compromise the Rap Genius mission – a mission that remains almost as delicate and inchoate as it was when we three founders decided to devote our lives to it almost 5 years ago. Tom Lehman

 Co-Founder & CEO

 After the news broke, Moghadam seemed contrite:

 I want to apologize to everyone. I need to hear these criticisms, reflect for real, and work on becoming a better person — Mabode (@mahbodmoghadam) May 26, 2014

 Update: Horowitz said the decision was made by Moghadam's cofounder, Tom Lehman and Ilan Zechory. His tweet indicates that it was more of a forced directive than a resignation.

 . @semil @MikeIsaac @RapGenius this was all Tom and Ilan not me. They made the hard decision. — bhorowitz (@bhorowitz) May 26, 2014

 This post has been updated to include more information and to note Moghadam's role in the SEO investigation. To contact the author, please email nitasha@gawker.com.

 [Image via Getty] |||||

Write a summary.

– The co-founder of annotation service Rap Genius has been turfed out after making stunningly tasteless remarks on the manifesto of Santa Barbara shooter Elliot Rodger. Mahbod Moghadam called the 141-page document "beautifully written" and speculated that the shooter's sister is "smokin hot." Rap Genius CEO Tom Lehman said Moghadam had resigned over the annotations, which "didn’t attempt to enhance anyone’s understanding of the text, but went beyond that into gleeful insensitivity and misogyny." Sources, however, tell Re/code that the co-founder was asked to leave by Lehman and also faced pressure from investors. Before the resignation, Moghadam apologized, saying: "I was fascinated by the fact that a text was associated with such a heartbreaking crime, especially since Elliot is talking about my neighborhood growing up." His departure appears to be a sign that the company, which has expanded from rap lyrics into crowdsourced explanations of things like legal documents and classic literature, wants to distance itself from "swaggish" behavior, reports Valleywag, which notes that Moghadam has blamed previous outbursts on a brain tumor.


News article:

West Philadelphians casts their votes in a recreation center during the special primary election on May 19, 2015. REUTERS/Mark Makela

 Philadelphia residents: If you trouble yourselves to vote Nov. 3, you might win $10,000. Seriously. That was the scheme laid out Thursday, showcased in part by two ex-rivals - former Mayor John F. Street and three-time Republican mayoral candidate Sam Katz, whom Democrat Street twice defeated. They teamed up to promote voting in a city that has seen abysmal turnouts in recent years. "Desperate times require desperate measures, and this is certainly the case," Katz said at a LOVE Park event announcing what promoters billed as a lottery.

 The two men joined Larry Platt, former editor of Philadelphia Magazine and the Philadelphia Daily News, as he announced the plan to give $10,000 to one lucky voter on Election Day.

 Platt pointed to a large chart showing dwindling turnout over the last few decades. Barely one in four voters took part in the May 19 mayoral primary.

 "We are in a crisis of civic participation," Platt said. "And we're in favor of anything that gets the conversation started, to try and jump-start democracy in the place where it was born."

 The planned giveaway is also sure to stir publicity for the entity running it - Platt's online publication, Philadelphia Citizen.

 The $10,000 is coming from a foundation begun by Ajay Raju and his wife, Pamela. Raju is chairman and chief executive of the Dilworth Paxson law firm and, with Platt, is a founder of Philadelphia Citizen.

 Platt said the contest will work this way: Polling locations for all 1,686 voting divisions will be fed into a computer program that chooses one at random. Then on Election Day, organizers will drive to that polling place and wait for the first person who comes out after having voted.

 That voter, if all goes according to plan, will be handed a $10,000 check.

 "My first gut instinct was, 'Do we really need to pay to get voter participation?' It seemed a bit crass," Raju said following the announcement. "But if it can spark a conversation. ..."

 Raju said he doesn't have the best voting record himself.

 "Part of it is penance," he said of donating the money. "I always have an excuse for not voting."

 Promoters said the contest is modeled on one this year in a Los Angeles school-board election by the Southwest Voter Registration Education Project, a national group that encourages Latino voter participation. A Los Angeles voter won $25,000; the experiment drew praise and criticism.

 Project president Antonio Gonzalez said the runoff race for school board drew only 10 percent turnout - a little better than previous elections.

 Is it legal to award cash for voting in Philadelphia? Yes, if it's not partisan, said local lawyer Kevin Greenberg, who specializes in election law and was part of Thursday's announcement. Another election-law specialist, lawyer Adam Bonin, agreed. Both said it's a bribe if the voter is asked to vote for a particular candidate or issue.

 David Thornburgh, chief executive of the watchdog group Committee of Seventy, was at the LOVE Park event, too - and later said he was open-minded. "I do agree that we have to be trying things," he said. "I'm not offended by the idea."

 His predecessor was.

 "It's a bad idea," Zack Stalberg said in an interview from New Mexico, to which he retired last year. "The objective should be to inform voters, not give voters a payday."

 Street said voter apathy is not just a problem for Philadelphia.

 "It seems like this is a very, very serious national trend," said the former mayor, an inveterate bicyclist who wore his helmet throughout the event. "Long-term, people have to see a direct relationship between the casting of their vote and the quality of service that they get and the quality of life."

 cvargas@phillynews.com

 215-854-5520@InqCVargas ||||| The 1971 Philadelphia mayor’s race may have been the last great moment in this city’s electoral history. That was the race that brought to City Hall the most-loved-most-hated Philly politician of the last century, Frank Rizzo. It found African Americans throwing their support to a Republican, Thacher Longstreth. And it saw the most tremendous voter turnout of the last 56 years. That November day, 77 percent of eligible Philadelphians made a choice. They went to the polls; they punched a ticket; they voted. For or against Rizzo, they took a stand in the most basic, most powerful way this country’s founders intended when they wrangled a constitution at 5th and Chestnut 200 years earlier.

 Frank Rizzo was not, by any means, mayor for every Philadelphian. But you know what? Neither is Michael Nutter, who moved into City Hall in 2007 after just 29 percent of eligible voters made a choice. Or even John Street, whose races against Sam Katz were the most exciting in recent memory—and brought a whopping 45 and 50 percent of voters respectively to the polls. This year, just 27 percent voted in the May 2015 primary to decide who would likely lead Philly for the next eight years—and that was considered a good turnout. (Oh, we of such low expectations.)

 One voter. Randomly selected. Taking home $10,000, courtesy of the Pamela and Ajay Raju Foundation.

 It’s not just Philly, of course. This is a national epidemic: Turnout in the last federal election in 2014 was just 36 percent—the lowest since World War II (when thousands of voters were, you know, super busy). But it is especially galling here, where this country started and where every single one of us knows a myriad of problems that need solving—and that are not being solved by the same old decision-makers on Broad Street. Philadelphia suffers from chronic civic participation malaise. We could, as usual, stand back and wring our hands. Instead, we at The Citizen have decided it’s time for action.

 That’s why we launched the 2015 Philadelphia Municipal Election Voting Lottery, to give $10,000 to one Philadelphia voter who casts a ballot on November 3. Let me repeat that: One voter. Randomly selected. Taking home $10,000, courtesy of the Pamela and Ajay Raju Foundation. Before you ask: Yes, this is legal. And no: We are not endorsing anyone, or making any money off of this ourselves. We’re doing this for one reason alone: To bring more people to the polls, in any way that gets them there. (See here for rules and regulations.)

 We’ll even make it easier for you make a decision: Now that you know what’s at stake, make sure you take 10 minutes and familiarize yourself with all the candidates in the race. You can learn about them all here, and even make your own ballot.

 A similar program, in a small Los Angeles school district election in May , saw remarkable results: Voter turnout increased from 46 percent to 80 percent among those who knew about the possibility of winning $25,000 through Votería. Can you imagine if twice as many people here came out to the polls in November as showed up in May? That would still be only 54 percent of registered voters. But even that would make an impact. And who knows? Maybe it would be just the spark they need to come back again and again.

 Sure, it reeks a little. It is sorta icky. As The Los Angeles Times said about Votería, “This gimmick demeans the value of voting. And it’s the most superficial pseudo-solution to a very real problem in Los Angeles, which is the pervasive civic malaise that prevents so many eligible voters from feeling truly engaged.”

 Philadelphia suffers from chronic civic participation malaise. We could, as usual, stand back and wring our hands. Instead, we at The Citizen have decided it’s time for action.

 But you know what? Desperate times call for desperate measures. This is not the only idea out there. We’ve written about Next Stop Democracy, which has hired artists to set up signs around town pointing people to their voting booths. Young Involved Philadelphians, along with our lottery co-sponsor IAM, are running a Voter Education Week to get out the vote. Nationally, there is talk of mandatory voting, automatic registration, same day registration, open primaries, online registration (which Gov. Wolf launched in PA in August). Hopefully, some of those ideas will gain enough traction in the years ahead to reverse the trend of declining voter turnouts.

 In the meantime, we can only say this: Go vote. Because it’s the right thing to do as a citizen. And because you might just come out $10,000 richer.

 Header photo: “Voting United States” by Tom Arthur from Orange, CA. Uploaded by Petronas. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons. ||||| In what it calls an act of desperation, The Philadelphia Citizen says it will pay one Nov. 3 voter $10,000 awarded by lottery. Is the desperation to prod more Philadelphians to the polls -- or to notice The Philadelphia Citizen?

 In the good old days of politics, which were the bad old days of politics, the ward leader might pay his/her reliable citizens – the ones who cast predictable votes – some cash for showing up. Buying a drink or a sandwich was the favored inducement in other wards. Generally speaking, buying votes is considered to be a bad thing – when the money goes directly from the politician to the voter. Somehow, it is considered OK when it is washed through a political action committee or a TV station, which is how most modern voters make up their minds. The Philadelphia Citizen, which sounds like a newspaper but is more of an online presence, says it will pay $10,000 to a single Philadelphia voter, to be chosen by chance. The Philadelphia Citizen is co-founded by Larry Platt, former editor of the Daily News, former editor of Philadelphia Magazine, and something of a promotional genius (he’s got Eagles linebacker Connor Barwin writing for him).

 The Citizen says the lottery is legal, it is not endorsing anyone, and the money is provided by the Pamela and Ajay Raju Foundation. (Ajay is the CEO of the mammoth Dilworth Paxson law firm, a co-founder of the Citizen and a big part of the money behind it).

 The story announcing the prize kind of admits the pay-for-voting is “icky,” and it is, but when you consider that only 27 percent of registered voters turned out for the mayoral primary in May, things are dire.

 The Philadelphia Citizen said it did drive turnout in a recent Los Angeles school district election, but that was $25,000 and who knows what other factors might have been in play.

 “It’s kind of a cockamamie scheme,” Platt told me. “I want to give away money to see if we can get people to vote.”

 The plan is to show up at a random polling place at a random time, stop someone who had just voted and (almost) hand him or her a check. Almost?

 Platt explains they have to check to make certain that person is not related to a candidate or anyone on the Citizen staff.

 Why? They voted, didn’t they?

 Anyway, if that “winner” turns out to be ineligible, the Citizen will go through the list of people who voted to find a random winner.

 Like me? Am I eligible?

 Probably yes, but I will vote because I always vote, not because of the cash inducement (but I’ll keep it if I win it).

 I don’t think the 10 Large will make much difference because Philly voters seem to be lethargic, and few will hear about this offer. I’m doing my part to get the word out.

 It couldn’t hurt. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– A nonprofit group is throwing in $10,000 to sweeten the deal for potential voters in Philadelphia for whom the joy of taking part in democracy might not be enough. Voter turnout in the city has been declining for a long time and sank to just 27% in a mayoral primary this May, according to the Philadelphia Citizen, which is offering the prize in its "2015 Philadelphia Municipal Election Voting Lottery." The group says it will randomly select one of Philadelphia's 1,686 voting divisions when the city votes in local elections on Nov. 3, and will hand a $10,000 check to the first voter who emerges at a selected time, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. The Citizen says the funds will come from the Pamela and Ajay Raju Foundation civic group—and the giveaway is completely legal. On its website, the Citizen, which was co-founded by former Philadelphia Daily News editor Larry Platt, admits that the plan is "sorta icky"—and that a similar giveaway in a Los Angeles school district was condemned as a "superficial pseudo-solution" to civic malaise—but says "desperate times call for desperate measures," and the lottery isn't the only scheme underway to try to boost voter turnout. "It's kind of a cockamamie scheme," Platt tells the Daily News. "I want to give away money to see if we can get people to vote." (Low turnout isn't just a Philadelphia problem: The "abysmally low" turnout nationwide last year was the worst since World War II.)


Article:
Martin funeral director: No signs of fight on body

 (CBS News) SANFORD, Florida - The defense of George Zimmerman rests on a violent fight that he said occurred before he fired the shot that killed Trayvon Martin.

 Zimmerman is neighborhood watch volunteer at the center of the case. It was almost five weeks that Martin, the unarmed 17-year-old, was killed after Zimmerman found him suspicious. We don't know what happened immediately immediately before the shot was fired. CBS News correspondent Mark Strassman has new evidence in the case.

 Trayvon Martin was buried in Miami with a gunshot wound to his chest. But otherwise, according to Richard Kurtz, the funeral director who prepared Martin for burial, his body showed no injuries.

 "We could see no physical signs like there had been a scuffle [or] there had been a fight," he said. "The hands -- I didn't see any knuckles, bruises or what have you. And that is something we would have covered up if it would have been there."

 Video shows Zimmerman with cops; Dad speaks out

 Complete coverage: The shooting of Trayvon Martin

 And as a surveillance tape shows, George Zimmerman in handcuffs, 40 minutes after he killed Trayvon Martin. He seemed to show no apparent injuries, either.

 Yet Zimmerman claims Martin beat him and threatened his life, so he shot the teenager in self-defense.

 But Ben Crump, the lawyer for Martin's parents, said the video shows a murderer.

 "Look at that video," he said. "Do you see any blood on his head? He said he broke his nose. Look at that video. And look at how easy he walks out of the car."

 Zimmerman, a crime watch volunteer, thought Martin looked suspicious, called police, and followed Martin along a street and around a corner.

 Robert Zimmerman, the gunman's father, told WOFL-TV in Orlando that Martin suddenly confronted his son.

 Watch the full interview with Richard Kurtz, the funeral director who prepared Trayvon Martin's body for burial, below:

 "At that point he was punched in the nose," he said. "His nose was broken. and he was knocked to the concrete. Trayvon Martin got on top of him and just started beating him in the face and in the nose, hitting his head on the concrete."

 Police reports noted Zimmerman was "bleeding from the nose and the back of the head." But a closer look at Zimmerman shows no obvious head or face injuries. At one point, an officer does check the back of his head.

 Martin's family contends this video proves police never wanted to arrest Zimmerman.

 And Cheryl Brown said a widespread perception is wrong: Sanford police wanted to charge Zimmerman. She identified Chris Serino as the lead investigator who questioned people in the neighborhood.

 "Detective Serino -- did you have the sense when he interviewed you that he thought it was a killing in self-defense?" Strassmann asked Brown.

 "No, because he actually stated to me in my family room that 'we do not believe it was self-defense and we need to prove it,'" said Brown.

 A special prosecutor will now decide whether Zimmerman deserves to be charged. Zimmerman's father insists his son is also a victim here.

 "...They are just making up stuff that are not true about George. How he is being portrayed is an absolute lie."

 Robert Zimmerman said Martin beat his son for more than one minute. And when his son fired his .9-mm, Robert Zimmerman said it was because he had no choice. ||||| About this Show:

 Anderson Cooper goes beyond the headlines to tell stories from many points of view, so you can make up your own mind about the news. Tune in weeknights at 8 and 10 ET on CNN.

 Questions or comments? Send an email

 Want to know more? Go behind the scenes with AC361° |||||Summary:

– It wasn't a great day for George Zimmerman yesterday, as a series of stories raised fresh doubts about his tale of killing Trayvon Martin in self-defense. First, the funeral director who prepared Martin's body for burial said he observed no signs of a struggle, reports CBS News. Aside from the gunshot wound to the chest, "We could see no physical signs like there had been a scuffle," he explained. "The hands—I didn't see any knuckles, bruises, or what have you. And that is something we would have covered up if it would have been there." Also: The mother of a key 13-year-old eyewitness in the case says that police pressured her son to tell them details he hadn't seen, reports the New York Daily News. He saw just one person in the grass, she says, and couldn't tell who it was "because it was too dark." But the police persisted, giving the boy a multiple choice question about the color of the sweater he saw. Of the three options, he told them he thought it might be red—the color Zimmerman was wearing. "I believe he felt pressured to give the color," says mom. An anonymous eyewitness spoke to Anderson Cooper last night. He says Zimmerman didn't seem injured as he walked away. More news from the past: Zimmerman was fired in 2005 from an under-the-counter security guard job because he "had a temper and he became a liability," a former co-worker tells the New York Daily News. The man described Zimmerman as "like Jekyll and Hyde," saying, "When the dude snapped, he snapped. He definitely loved being in charge. He loved the power. Still, I could never see him killing someone. Never," he said.


Weld County Commissioner Sean Conway, center, with other elected officials address a group of supporters of the 51st State Initiative during an election result watch party at the Historic Fort Lupton Fort, November 5, 2013. (RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post)

 Weld County Commissioner Sean Conway said the 51st state movement is halted — at least in his county — but there were positive benefits from the secession campaign.

 "Weld County voters said this is an option we shouldn't pursue and we won't pursue it," Conway said Tuesday night. "But we will continue to look at the problems of the urban and rural divide in this state."

 Weld County voters Tuesday soundly rejected the 51st State Initiative 58 percent to 42 percent.

 But in five of the 11 counties where the secession question appeared on the ballot, the measure passed by strong margins.

 In Kit Carson County, 52 percent of voters directed county commissioners to explore secession and 48 percent voted against. In Washington County, 58 percent were for the initiative and 42 percent against.

 Phillips County went 62 percent for and 38 against; Sedgwick went 57 percent against and 42.9 percent for; Cheyenne County voters cast 62 percent of ballots for and 37.7 against; and in Yuma County, 59 percent of the vote went for the breakaway and 41 percent against.

 In Moffat County, the question failed, with 54.8 percent voting against secession. In Elbert County, 74 percent of voters said "no" to the idea of breaking away. In Lincoln County, 55.5 percent voted against.

 The ballot question, intended as a straw poll, asked residents whether their county commissioners should takes steps to secede from the Centennial State.

 Fort Lupton Mayor Tommy Holton said Tuesday night that secession probably would not succeed. But he said the publicity would shed light on rural Colorado's grievances.

 "We not only want to be at the table," he said, "but we want a voice at the table as well."

 Proponents say they have become alienated from the more urbanized Front Range and are unhappy with laws passed during this year's legislative session, including stricter gun laws and new renewable-energy standards.

 "The heart of the 51st State Initiative is simple: We just want to be left alone to live our lives without heavy-handed restrictions from the state Capitol," said 51st state advocate Jeffrey Hare.

 A yard sign is seen along Main Street in Akron on Election Day, November 05, 2013. (RJ Sangosti, The Denver Post)

 Secession is a difficult process. It would require a vote of the state electorate or legislature, and then the U.S. Congress. The last time a state consented to the loss of territory was when Maine split from Massachusetts in 1820. ||||| FORT LUPTON, Colo. - The largely symbolic effort to form a 51st state called North Colorado has fizzled.

 Voters in 6 of the 11 rural counties that were voting on whether to ask their commissioners to pursue creating a new state have said no.

 The movement is fueled by supporters' frustration with state government's focus on growing urban areas.

 Voters in several northeast and eastern Colorado counties were not asked if they want to secede, but rather if they want their county commissioners to pursue the idea. Voters in Moffat County, on the Western Slope, are also voting on the idea.

 The question on the ballot read: "Shall the Board of County Commissioners of ___ County, in concert with the county commissioners of other Colorado counties, pursue becoming the 51st state of the United States of America?"

 As of 9 p.m. Tuesday, voters in Elbert, Lincoln, Logan, Weld, Sedgwick and Moffat counties were voting against pursuing secession. Kit Carson, Washington, Yuma, Phillips and Cheyenne counties voted to ask their commissioners to seek joining a new state.

 The solid "No" vote in Weld County -- 30,562 to 22,313 -- was a sharp rebuke of commissioners in the most populous of the counties weighing secession. Weld County commissioners led the charge to secede, saying they were pursuing the idea because they felt agriculture, oil and gas exploration are under attack in the State Legislature, and the needs of rural Colorado counties were being ignored.

 While the 51st state proposal failed to win broad support Tuesday night, organizers say their grassroots crusade will have a lasting legacy.

 They are already backing a new initiative. They want to model the State Senate after the United States Senate, where counties would be given equal representation -- regardless of population size.

 They also hope to find statewide candidates who understand and support rural issues.

 "Certainly, in the 2014 election cycle, people running for office -- urban and rural -- must have good information about the urban vs. rural divide," said 51st state spokesman Jeff Hare.

 "To your critics, some who may even be your own constituents, who say this was a waste of time, a publicity stunt, what do you have to say?" asked 7NEWS Reporter Marc Stewart.

 "I'd say that can't be farther from the truth," said Weld County commissioner Barbara Kirkmeyer. "I don't think it's ever a waste of time to listen to the citizens and that's what we did."

 The results as of 9:40 p.m.

 Cheyenne -- No: 37.7% Yes: 62.2%

 Elbert -- No: 58% Yes: 42%

 Lincoln -- No: 55% Yes: 45%

 Logan -- No: 58% Yes: 42%

 Kit Carson  -- No: 48% Yes: 52%

 Phillips -- No: 37.7% Yes: 62.2%

 Sedgwick -- No: 57% Yes: 43%

 Washington -- No: 42% Yes: 58%

 Weld -- No: 58%. Yes: 42%.

 Yuma -- No: 18.5% Yes: 81.4%

 Moffat -- No: 54.7% Yes: 42.2% ||||| 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. |||||

Write a summary.

– Of 11 Colorado counties voting on the question, six—Cheyenne, Kit Carson, Phillips, Sedgwick, Washington, and Yuma—voted "yes" to consider becoming the 51st state. The ballot measure asked whether county commissioners should "pursue becoming the 51st state of the United States of America." The most populous county addressing the issue turned the idea down, 58% to 42%, in what ABC 7 calls "a sharp rebuke of commissioners" at the forefront of the effort. "Weld County voters said this is an option we shouldn't pursue, and we won't pursue it," said one. "But we will continue to look at the problems of the urban and rural divide in this state." The issue centers on that divide, the Denver Post notes, with new laws—including tougher gun and renewable energy measures—frustrating some in the 51st state movement. "The heart of the 51st State Initiative is simple: We just want to be left alone to live our lives without heavy-handed restrictions from the state Capitol," says backer Jeff Hare. But it's a long shot, requiring state and US congressional approval. Still, Hare says the movement has left a mark: Next year, "people running for office ... must have good information about the urban vs. rural divide."


Here is a news article: With horrified family members crying out in anguish, a Brooklyn man and his adult son died together of a double opioid overdose while celebrating a family birthday party Sunday, police said.

 Joseph Andrade, 44, and his 22-year-old son, Carlos, lost their lives soon after excusing themselves from the festivities by telling people they were going for a smoke.

 For some reason, the younger man, who was not known to use drugs, joined his father, a reputed addict, in taking some powerful opiates — apparently snorting a mix of heroin and fentanyl, police sources said.

 Carlos — his face turning purple as he asphyxiated — was discovered by his girlfriend, Jasmin Santos, just inside the foyer of his father’s building just after 3 a.m.

 “Jasmin found Carlos dying,” a cousin, Sonia Santos, told The Post. “She screamed and tried to help him. She said he was turning blue.”

 Joseph was found feet away, outside the building on 27th Street near Fourth Avenue in Greenwood, according to cops.

 The distraught women called 911 and responding officers administered Narcan, a drug that reverses the effects of an overdose. But it was too late, and both men died at Lutheran Medical, authorities said.

 Carlos had driven up from Maryland for the birthday bash with Jasmin and their children, ages 1 and 4, a relative said.

 “He was very close with his oldest son,” Santos said of Carlos. “I don’t know what they are going to do without him.”

 Acquaintances said Joseph, who worked on and off as a mechanic, may have struggled with addiction.

 “The father had a problem,” said a neighbor who asked that their name be withheld. “People knew. I was surprised Carlos was involved. He was a good son.”

 “That building was always fine until recently,” another resident lamented. “We’ve never had anything like this before, but lately there’s been a lot of men, drinking, getting drunk outside, late into the night.”

 The father and son’s deaths are under investigation and the cause will be determined by the medical examiner, officials said. A projected total of 1,300 people are believed to have succumbed to drugs in 2016, officials have said.

 Additional reporting by Emily Saul ||||| A selective collection of websites archived by the National Library of Medicine on the current opioid epidemic in the United States, declared a public health emergency in October 2017. Archived content includes websites and social media documenting a wide range of responses to and perspectives on the epidemic, including voices from of the medical and public health communities, the addiction research, policymakers and policy reformers, law enforcement, and the addicted and their families and communities. Archived websites are primarily in English. NLM will continue to develop, review, describe, and add content to the collection. |||||
A summary of this is?

– Tragedy struck a Brooklyn family over the weekend when a father and son died of drug overdoses at a birthday party. Police say Joseph Andrade, 44, and his son Carlos, 22, told family members they were stepping outside for a cigarette when in actuality they were going to snort a mix of heroin and fentanyl, an opioid 50 times stronger than morphine, the New York Post reports. Carlos, who had driven up to Brooklyn from Maryland, was discovered by his girlfriend, Jasmine Santos, as he asphyxiated in the foyer of his father's building around 3am. Joseph was found outside the building on 27th Street. Emergency responders administered Narcan, a medication that blocks the effects of opioids, to the two men and took them to NYU Langone Hospital, but they died within an hour of being found, the New York Daily News reports. Joseph Andrade is a reputed addict but several witnesses expressed surprise at his son's involvement. “I’m so surprised because I know Carlos, and I never know that he used drugs or anything like that," Jasmine Santos' uncle Yovanny said. New York City officials say 1300 people died from overdoses last year, 90 percent of which were caused by heroin or fentanyl.