Summarize this article:

Singer Justin Bieber performs at Z100's Jingle Ball 2012 presented at Madison Square Garden on Friday. There are reports of a plot to kill the Canadian singer. (Evan Agostini/Invision/Associated Press)

 Two men from Albuquerque, N.M., may have been plotting to kill singer Justin Bieber and his bodyguard, a New Mexico state police investigation has revealed.

 Mark Staake, 41, and his nephew Tanner Ruane, 23, were arrested in late November, New Mexico state police said in a release, after an investigation found they might be plotting to commit murder.

 Mark Staake, 41, was arrested by Vermont police on probation violation charges Nov. 19. (Vermont State Police/Associated Press) Mark Staake, 41, was arrested by Vermont police on probation violation charges Nov. 19. (Vermont State Police/Associated Press)

 "Through follow-up investigation it was discovered that Justin Bieber may have also been a target of the murder plot," wrote Lt. Robert McDonald in an emailed statement.

 The alleged plot was revealed to police by Dana Martin, 45, a convicted killer who says he hired two men for a hit while in state prison.

 According to an affidavit for an arrest warrant, Martin wanted all four victims, including Bieber, strangled with a paisley tie, which is similar to how Martin had killed his victims.

 The affidavit suggests the first two victims were to be castrated — with a total of $2,500 US paid to Staake per testicle. However, it does not say the third victim, believed to be Bieber, was to be castrated, as was previously reported.

 Martin requested the two men kill four people in two separate attacks, according to the affidavit. According to the document, the ultimate target was a victim referred to as "J.B," whose bodyguard "M.B." would have to be killed first.

 Convicted killer felt snubbed by 'J.B.'

 Martin told investigators he wanted J.B. killed because he "has a measure of fame" and Martin had "become infatuated" with him.

 Martin has a tattoo of J.B. on his leg and attempted to contact him several times, but became upset when J.B. did not respond, the affidavit says.

 The affidavit said this perceived slight and Martin's belief he was a nobody in prison led him to start plotting to kidnap and murder J.B.

 Martin told investigators "he was seeking a measure of notoriety so that there would be people outside of prison who would know who he ... was."

 The Canadian singer's management, asked to comment on the reports, released a statement saying only that they take "every precaution to protect and insure the safety of Justin [Bieber] and his fans."

 Martin, Staake met in prison

 Police in Vermont originally arrested Staake on Nov. 19 for violating probation. He is also wanted in New Mexico on two counts of conspiracy to commit murder in the first degree and two counts of conspiracy to commit aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, Vermont police told CBC News.

 Staake and Ruane "are being investigated for their part in the criminal conspiracy to locate and murder two individuals in Vermont," according to the Vermont police statement.

 The New Mexico affidavit explains the first two victims Martin ordered to be killed were located in Vermont, but does not provide any identities.

 Justin Bieber performs during the halftime show of the 2012 Grey Cup. The Canadian singer may have been a target of a murder plot uncovered by U.S. police. (Christinne Muschi/Reuters) Justin Bieber performs during the halftime show of the 2012 Grey Cup. The Canadian singer may have been a target of a murder plot uncovered by U.S. police. (Christinne Muschi/Reuters)

 The New Mexico Corrections Department has confirmed it is in the process of extraditing Staake to New Mexico, but Cristina Rodda, the public affairs director, could not confirm whether Staake was the accused in a plot to kill Bieber.

 Staake and Martin have both served time at the Southern New Mexico Correctional Facility.

 Staake was released on Oct. 22, according to a statement by the state corrections department. He reported and complied with the conditions of his parole until Nov. 14 when he absconded, officials said.

 Martin is currently being held in segregation at Southern New Mexico Correctional Facility in Las Cruces, N.M., according to the corrections department. His sentence was just short of 989 years for first-degree murder.

 No killings planned in the alleged plot were committed. Instead, Martin revealed the plots to police before Staake and Ruane could act.

 Staake was arrested in the Vermont area and Ruane in New York, where Bieber gave a concert on Nov. 28.

 With files from The Canadian Press ||||| Police say 41-year-old Mark Staake (LEFT) and his 23-year-old nephew Tanner Ruane (RIGHT) were part of a murder-for-hire plot to mutilate and kill Canadian pop star Justin Bieber.

 Accused Anonymous/AP Police say 41-year-old Mark Staake (LEFT) and his 23-year-old nephew Tanner Ruane (RIGHT) were part of a murder-for-hire plot to mutilate and kill Canadian pop star Justin Bieber.

 In an email to the Star, Melissa Victor, vice president of media and artist relations at Island Def Jam Music Group, said: “We take every precaution to protect and insure the safety of Justin and his fans.”

 Justin Bieber Sean Kilpatrick/THE CANADIAN PRESS file photo In an email to the Star, Melissa Victor, vice president of media and artist relations at Island Def Jam Music Group, said: “We take every precaution to protect and insure the safety of Justin and his fans.”

 Jeff Green and Shawna Richer

 Staff Reporters

 WARNING: THIS STORY CONTAINS GRAPHIC DETAILS

 Nothing seemed out of the ordinary when teen pop star Justin Bieber played two sold-out nights at Madison Square Garden in New York on Nov. 28 and 29.

 There were thousands of screaming girls, and Bieber seemed especially pumped to be performing at what is widely considered the world’s most prestigious entertainment venue. In the 10 concerts witnessed by a Star writer on Bieber’s Believe tour, a bra flying onto the stage during an encore at the second Garden show was the only thing unusual that night.

 But behind the scenes, there was something both sinister and bizarre going on, though it is not known whether Bieber or his people knew of it.

 A police affidavit alleges that two prison inmates and a nephew were hatching a plot to murder Bieber and his director of security while the singer was in New York for those shows.

 Details of the grisly plan — which involved strangling two other victims with a paisley tie and then castrating them — were revealed Wednesday in an affidavit for arrest obtained by New Mexico State Police.

 But the plot may have been thwarted by a missed highway exit and a pair of recorded phone calls between an inmate and one of the accused.

 According to the affidavit, the plan was hatched behind bars after inmate Dana Martin was transferred from a Florida prison to the Southern New Mexico Corrections Facility in April.

 Shawna Richer travelled North America for two months, watched the superstar perform 11 concerts, and met hundreds of fans, in search of what it means to be a Belieber. Available Friday Dec. 21 at stardispatches.com

 Martin, 45, serving a life sentence for the rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl in Vermont, was reportedly obsessed with Bieber. He had written him letters and even had a tattoo of the singer on his leg.

 He allegedly recruited Mark Aaron Staake, 41, a fellow inmate at the time, after Staake noticed the tattoo on his leg. The plan was to kill four people in two states, with Bieber as the main target.

 Oddly, the details were spilled on Nov. 20, when Martin asked to speak to police, telling them Staake (who had been released on probation on Oct. 22) and his nephew, Tanner Ruane, 23, had been planning to commit the first two murders, neither of them Bieber. New Mexico police declined to identify those intended victims.

 In his interview with police, Martin described how the first two killings were to be carried out: strangulation with a paisley neck tie, followed by castration with Fiskars “Durasharp” brand garden clippers. The affidavit said there was a bounty of $2,500 on each testicle.

 “Martin stated that a paisley tie needed to be used because that was what he (Mr. Martin) had used previously,” the affidavit reads.

 Martin is serving consecutive life sentences for murders committed in 2000. The strangulation murder of the 15-year-old girl was a “case of jealousy,” police told The Associated Press.

 In his police interview, Martin said that in addition to the two Vermont slayings, there would be two more targets. The main one was identified in the affidavit as J.B., who “has a measure of fame.”

 Lt. Robert McDonald of the New Mexico State Police told the Star that “J.B.” was Bieber. However, investigators from New Mexico State Police have yet to make an official statement.

 The affidavit describes Martin as “a very good manipulator,” who, “as part of his ruse,” convinced Staake he had access to large sums of money and a multimillion-dollar historic home where Staake and Ruane could hide out.

 He also allegedly told Staake he had connections to Chinese gangs in New York, who had “sanctioned” the murders.

 Martin told police he had been in contact with Staake since his release, and that Staake was to be in New York City in late November.

 McDonald declined to speculate on why Martin revealed the plot to police when he did, but a pair of phone conversations on Nov. 19 hint at a plot unravelling.

 The plan, according to the affidavit, called for two murders in Vermont, followed by two in New York. But the would-be assassins missed an exit in Vermont and were headed toward Canada on Nov. 19 in a 1983 BMW. When they spoke with a U.S. border agent at the Highgate Springs crossing, Staake was arrested on an outstanding New Mexico warrant.

 That same day, Ruane phoned Martin in a call, recorded by the prison, telling him of Staake’s arrest. “Mr. Ruane did not want to ‘move it forward’ without Mr. Staake,” reads the affidavit, referring to the two Vermont killings.

 Ruane then made his way south, phoning Martin again from a truck stop in Rotterdam, N.Y. The focus of that call was on Victims 3 (Bieber) and 4.

 In the recorded conversation, Ruane tells Martin that Staake was going to “handle the whole putting down of the ‘dogs’ and I (Mr. Ruane) was going to go ‘snip, snip.’”

 Martin went to police the next day and Ruane was arrested Nov. 26 by New York State Police, who had been on the lookout for the BMW.

 New Mexico State Police are working to get Staake and Ruane back to that state. “Paperwork is in the process to get them extradited,” said McDonald.

 The question now is could the alleged hit men have got close enough to Bieber to carry out the abduction and gruesome attack?

 The pop star employs an imposing security detail. Chief among them are security director Moshe Benabou, a former Israeli soldier, and Dustin Folkes, a celebrity bodyguard based in Los Angeles. They are never far from him. Nor is tour manager Kenny Hamilton, who formerly served as Bieber’s bodyguard.

 “We take every precaution to protect and ensure the safety of Justin and his fans,” Melissa Victor, vice-president of media and artist relations for Island Def Jam Music Group, told the Star in an email.

 These bodyguards are obsessively protective of Bieber when it comes to paparazzi and sometimes even well-meaning fans.

 Given the number of teenage girls who follow Bieber and stake out his hotels, his security detail is vigilant. He was the target last year of an allegation that he fathered a child with an obsessed fan after a brief encounter in a backstage bathroom. Bieber supplied DNA to prove he was not the father.

 Related: Justin Bieber at The Rogers Centre

 Grammy Awards: Justin Bieber shunned, Drake and Carly Rae Jepsen nominated

 Justin Bieber tops Bing searches in Canada

 Drop-crotch pants: Is this now a thing? |||||

– One of the downfalls of being an international pop star beloved by tweens everywhere: Sometimes you end up the target of two would-be assassins hired by a convicted killer to murder you. That's what happened to Justin Bieber, police say. CBC News and the Toronto Star have details of the bizarre plot: Dana Martin, 45, was both the mastermind and the person who alerted police to the plot. He says he hired New Mexico men Mark Staake, 41, and Staake's nephew, Tanner Ruane, 23, to kill four people. Staake and Ruane were arrested late last month, but authorities just discovered Bieber may have been a target. Martin wanted all four of the victims, which were to include both Bieber and his bodyguard, strangled with a paisley tie. Martin is currently in state prison for murder; he killed his victims in a similar fashion. Martin wanted two of the victims castrated, and was willing to pay $2,500 per testicle, but Bieber is not believed to be one of those he wanted castrated. Martin was obsessed with the singer, having written him letters and gotten a Bieber tattoo on his leg. He got upset when Bieber never responded to him. If the whole thing sounds like a macabre publicity stunt, there's reason for that. Martin told police "he was seeking a measure of notoriety so that there would be people outside of prison who would know who he ... was." Oh, and he had nothing to lose: He's serving a sentence of 988 years and change.


Write an article based on this summary:

– The tsunami that killed hundreds, possibly thousands of people after an earthquake in Indonesia on Friday was much bigger and more devastating than would normally be expected after that kind of quake, scientists say. "We expected it might cause a tsunami, just not one that big," geophysicist Jason Patton tells the New York Times. Tsunamis like the 18-foot monster wave that wrecked cities on Sulawesi island are usually caused by "megathrust" earthquakes that move land vertically, not "strike-slip" quakes like the 7.5-magnitude one Friday, which moved the earth horizontally, Patton says. The Sulawesi event was, however, localized, unlike the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. It may have been the case, Patton says, that massive undersea landslides created the tsunami, or that the narrow bay that Palu sits at the end of concentrated the wave's power. Indonesian authorities have been strongly criticized for apparently canceling the tsunami alert too early, though expert Adam Switzer at the Earth Observatory of Singapore tells the AP that this is unfair. "What it shows is that the tsunami models we have now are too simplistic," he says. "They don't take into account multiple events, multiple quakes within a short period of time. They don't take into account submarine landslides." The official death toll now stands at 844, though authorities, who have been preparing mass graves, have been unable to access some hard-hit areas, the Guardian reports.

In this Sunday, Sept. 30, 2018, file photo, a damaged shopping mall sits in flood water following earthquakes and a tsunami in Palu, Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana, File) (Associated Press)

 MAKASSAR, Indonesia (AP) — An early warning system that might have prevented some deaths in the tsunami that hit an Indonesian island on Friday has been stalled in the testing phase for years.

 The high-tech system of seafloor sensors, data-laden sound waves and fiber-optic cable was meant to replace a system set up after an earthquake and tsunami killed nearly 250,000 people in the region in 2004. But inter-agency wrangling and delays in getting just 1 billion rupiah ($69,000) to complete the project mean the system hasn't moved beyond a prototype developed with $3 million from the U.S. National Science Foundation.

 It is too late for central Sulawesi, where walls of water up to 6 meters (20 feet) high and a magnitude 7.5 earthquake killed at least 832 people in the cities of Palu and Donggala, tragically highlighting the weaknesses of the existing warning system and low public awareness about how to respond to warnings.

 "To me this is a tragedy for science, even more so a tragedy for the Indonesian people as the residents of Sulawesi are discovering right now," said Louise Comfort, a University of Pittsburgh expert in disaster management who has led the U.S. side of the project, which also involves engineers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute and Indonesian scientists and disaster experts.

 "It's a heartbreak to watch when there is a well-designed sensor network that could provide critical information," she said.

 After a 2004 tsunami killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries, more than half of them in the Indonesian province of Aceh, a concerted international effort was launched to improve tsunami warning capabilities, particularly in the Indian Ocean and for Indonesia, one of world's most earthquake and tsunami-prone countries.

 Part of that drive, using funding from Germany and elsewhere, included deploying a network of 22 buoys connected to seafloor sensors to transmit advance warnings.

 A sizeable earthquake off Sumatra island in 2016 that caused panic in the coastal city of Padang revealed that none of the buoys costing hundreds of thousands of dollars each were working. They'd been disabled by vandalism or theft or just stopped working due to a lack of funds for maintenance.

 The backbone of Indonesia's tsunami warning system today is a network of 134 tidal gauge stations augmented by land-based seismographs, sirens in about 55 locations and a system to disseminate warnings by text message.

 When the 7.5 quake hit just after 6 p.m. Friday, the meteorology and geophysics agency issued a tsunami alert, warning of potential for waves of 0.5 to 3 meters (2 to 10 feet). It ended the warning at 6:36 p.m. That drew harsh online criticism, but the agency's head said the warning was lifted after the tsunami hit. It's unclear exactly what time tsunami waves rushed into the narrow bay that Palu is built around.

 "The tide gauges are operating, but they are limited in providing any advance warning. None of the 22 buoys are functioning," Comfort said. "In the Sulawesi incident, BMKG (the meteorology and geophysics agency) canceled the tsunami warning too soon, because it did not have data from Palu. This is the data the tsunami detection system could provide."

 Adam Switzer, a tsunami expert at the Earth Observatory of Singapore, said it's a "little unfair" to say the agency got it wrong.

 "What it shows is that the tsunami models we have now are too simplistic," he said. "They don't take into account multiple events, multiple quakes within a short period of time. They don't take into account submarine landslides."

 Whatever system is in use, he said, the priority after an earthquake in a coastal area should be to get to higher ground and stay there for a couple of hours.

 Power outages after the earthquake struck meant that sirens meant to warn residents to evacuate did not work, said Harkunti P. Rahayu, an expert at the Institute of Technology in Bandung.

 "Most people were shocked by the earthquake and did not pay any thought that a tsunami will come," she said.

 Experts say the prototype system deployed offshore from Padang — a city extremely vulnerable to tsunamis because it faces a major undersea fault overdue for a massive quake — can provide authoritative information about a tsunami threat within 1 to 3 minutes. That compares with 5 to 45 minutes from the now defunct buoys and the limited information provided by tidal gauges.

 The system's undersea seismometers and pressure sensors send data-laden sound waves to warm surface waters. From there they refract back into the depths, traveling 20 to 30 kilometers (12 to 20 miles) to the next node in the network and so on.

 The Padang network's final undersea point needs just a few more kilometers of fiber optic cable to connect it to a station on an offshore island where the cascades of data would be transmitted by satellite to the geophysics agency, which issues tsunami warnings, and to disaster officials.

 The Associated Press first reported on the system in January 2017, when the project was awaiting Indonesian funding to lay the cables. Since then, agencies involved have suffered budget cuts and the project bounced back and forth between them.

 A December 2017 quake off the coast of Java close to Jakarta reignited interest and the geophysics agency made getting funding a priority. In July, the Ministry of Finance in July approved funding to purchase and lay the cable.

 But at an inter-agency meeting in September, the three major agencies involved failed to agree on their responsibilities and the project was "simply put on hold," Comfort said.

 Indonesian officials who've been supportive of the new early warning system did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

 Since the 2004 tsunami, the mantra among disaster officials in Indonesia has been that the earthquake is the tsunami warning and signal for immediate evacuation. Not everyone is convinced a tsunami detection system is essential.

 "What Indonesian colleagues have commented upon is that people were confused about what to do with the alert information," said Gavin Sullivan, a Coventry University psychologist who works with the Indonesian Resilience Initiative on a disaster preparation project for the Indonesian city of Bandung.

 The fact that people were still milling around Palu's shoreline when waves were visibly approaching shows the lessons of earlier disasters haven't been absorbed.

 "This points to the failing to do appropriate training and to develop trust so that people know exactly what to do when an alert is issued," he said. "In our project in Bandung, we're finding a similar unwillingness to prepare for something that seems unlikely."

 ___

 Associated Press writer Margie Mason in Jakarta, Indonesia, contributed to this report. ||||| By contrast, the fault that ruptured on Friday was a so-called strike-slip fault, in which the earth movement is largely horizontal. That kind of movement would not ordinarily create a tsunami.

 But under certain circumstances it can, Dr. Patton said.

 A strike-slip fault might have some amount of vertical motion that could displace seawater. Or the fault’s rupture zone, which in this case was estimated to be about 70 miles long, may pass through an area where the seafloor rises or drops off, so that when the fault moves during the quake, it pushes seawater in front of it.

 Another possibility is that the tsunami was created indirectly. The violent shaking during the quake may have caused an undersea landslide that would have displaced water and created waves. Such events are not uncommon; several occurred during the 1964 9.2-magnitude Alaska earthquake, for example.

 Dr. Patton said a combination of factors may have contributed to the tsunami. Studies of the seafloor will be crucial to understanding the event. “We won’t know what caused it until that’s done,” he said. |||||


NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — A mother has been charged in Westchester County with systematically poisoning her 5-year-old son to death.

 Lacey Spears, 26, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to charges of second-degree depraved murder and first-degree manslaughter, CBS 2’s Lou Young reported. Her son, Garnett, who was fitted with a feeding tube because of nourishment issues, died in January of sodium poisoning at Westchester Medical Center, authorities said.

 WEB EXTRA: Read The Indictment

 Authorities believe the mother tortured her son medically for years and might have suffered from Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a psychiatric illness in which a parent sickens a child to gain attention and sympathy. Spears often blogged about Garnett’s deteriorating medical condition.

 The case could be the first invovling Munchausen syndrome by proxy in the Internet age, Young reported.

 Prosecutors on Tuesday said Spears fed her son lethal amounts of salt and that the mother had conducted Internet research about the effects salt would have on the boy. Garnett was brought to Nyack Hospital on Jan. 17 with seizure-like symptoms before being transferred to Westchester Medical Center on Jan. 19 after his sodium levels rose with no medical explanation. At the request of doctors, the state Office of Children and Family Services had already launched an investigation into whether Spears was harming her son before Garnett died Jan. 23, prosecutors said.

 Lacey Spears Pleads Not Guilty To Poisoning 5-Year-Old Son To Death In Westchester County Monica Miller reports playpause

 Spears, who had been staying with family in Kentucky, turned herself in to Westchester County police Tuesday after an indictment against her was handed up and police obtained an arrest warrant.

 “She really didn’t show any emotion,” Westchester Police Capt. Christopher Calabrese told Young. “She was kind of stoic when she came here. I think that she knew the grand jury was going on. She anticipated this happening, and she turned herself in with her attorney.”

 A judge denied bail for Spears, who faces a maximum sentence of 25 years to life in prison if convicted.

 The only words she said in court Tuesday were “yes, sir” when the judge asked if she was Lacey Spears.

 She is due back in court July 2.

 Spears’ father, Terry Spears, accompanied her to her arraignment Tuesday, but did not speak to reporters.

 Because Garnett died in Westchester County, police there are handling the case. Spears also had lived in Alabama, Florida and Kentucky before moving to New York.

 “Numerous detectives traveled up and down the East Coast numerous times, conducting multiple interviews, examining multiple documents, following a tremendous amount of leads,” Westchester County Public Safety Commissioner George Longworth told reporters.

 Lacey and Garnett Spears lived the last year of the boy’s short life living at the Fellowship Community, an idyllic communal community in Chestnut Ridge, in Rockland County, where the mother cared for the elderly and farmed, and the boy attended school.

 “What went wrong?” Valarie Plausche, a Fellowship Community resident, told Young last month. “What would make someone sick enough to hurt their child?”

 One resident of the community has said Spears called her asking that she dispose of Garnett’s feeding bag just before he died.

 “How did so many people live around that story and none of us knew?” said Kirsten Young, another resident of the community, said in May.

 You May Also Be Interested In These Stories

  ||||| Mom being held without bail at the Westchester County jail. Police say she poisoned her son with sodium through a feeding tube in his abdomen.

 Buy Photo Lacey Spears, 26, enters state Supreme Court on Tuesday, to be arraigned on murder and manslaughter charges in the death of her five-year-old son, Garnett. She pleaded not guilty and Judge Barry Warhit ordered her held without bail. (Photo: Ricky Flores/The Journal News)Buy Photo Story Highlights Garnett died Jan. 23 at Maria Fareri Children's Hospital in Valhalla

 Investigators suspect Munchausen by proxy, that she sickened her son to garner sympathy

 Spears documented the boy's illness on social media, posting photos from his deathbed

 His killing, police said, was the final act of a deranged mother who, fueled by attention on social media, medically tortured her child for years.

 Lacey Spears pleaded not guilty Tuesday to murder and manslaughter charges in the poisoning death of her five-year-old son, Garnett. She was ordered held without bail at Westchester County jail and is due back in court July 2.

 The only words the 26-year-old Alabama native uttered in state Supreme Court in White Plains were "Yes, sir," when Justice Barry Warhit asked if she was Lacey Spears.

 Assistant District Attorney Doreen Lloyd presented the government's case, focusing on Spears' time at Nyack Hospital between Jan. 17 and 19 when, Lloyd said, the mother took Garnett into the hospital room's private bathroom and administered the sodium into a tube in the boy's stomach.

 "This mother was intentionally feeding her son salt in toxic levels," Lloyd said.

 Live chat: 7 p.m., Wednesday, June 18, with Shawn Cohen and Peter D. Kramer

 Investigation: Truth, lies and Lacey Spears

 'Losing Garnett the Great': Read all five parts of the original series

 Lloyd said prosecutors know from computer records that Spears had searched the Internet to research what the effects of salt would be on her son.

 Assistant District Attorney Doreen Lloyd explains evidence as to how Garnett Spears died during her argument against bail during Lacey Spears' arraignment at the Westchester County Courthouse. (Video by Joe Larese/The Journal News) Joe Larese/The Journal News

 Earlier in the day, Spears' head was bowed as she walked into the back door of Westchester County Police headquarters in Hawthorne, escorted by detectives. Her father, Terry, had his arm around her as she solemnly surrendered. After being processed -- and having her mug shot taken -- Spears left the headquarters silently, not answering reporters' questions before getting into the back of a black, unmarked police car and speeding off.

 Acting on a sealed grand jury indictment, law enforcement on Tuesday obtained a warrant to arrest the former Chestnut Ridge resident on a charge of second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter in the Jan. 23 death of her son, Garnett, at Maria Fareri Children's Hospital in Valhalla, sources said. The murder charge does not accuse her of intentionally killing her son but of acting with depraved indifference toward his life. Spears, 26, who had been staying with her parents in Kentucky, had returned to Westchester and was accompanied by her attorney, David Sachs.

 Lacey Spears' attorney David Sachs makes an argument for bail in Westchester County Court during an arraignment proceeding in which Spears was charged with killing her son, Garnett Spears. (Video by Joe Larese/The Journal News)

 The grand jury's vote concluded a two-week presentation from prosecutors, who based their case on months of investigation in New York, Florida and Alabama -- where Spears and her son lived -- and Tennessee, where they visited Vanderbilt University Hospital.

 Capt. Christopher Calabrese, commander of the Westchester County Police Detective Division, said the investigation involved hundreds of interviews and the analysis of tens of thousands of pages of medical records by Westchester and Ramapo detectives and the Westchester County District Attorney's office.

 Westchester County Police make a statement on the arrest of Lacey Spears in connection to the death of her son Garnett. (Video by Ricky Flores/The Journal News) Ricky Flores/The Journal News

 "This is a very sad day for everyone, but it is a day for justice," Calabrese said. "Justice for the betrayal of the intimate trust between a mother and child, justice for a mother's continual abuse and death of her innocent child for her own selfish psychological needs and financial gain; justice for Garnett."

 Authorities suspect the single mother, who was a constant presence on social media sharing stories of Garnett's medical crises, may have poisoned the little boy at least twice; once before he experienced seizures that sent him to Nyack Hospital Jan. 17 and again on Jan. 19 at Nyack when his sodium level spiked and he had to be flown to Valhalla.

 As Garnett lay dying in the hospital, a Chestnut Ridge neighbor said Spears called and told her to dispose of a bag Spears used to feed the boy through a tube. Police later recovered the bag which had extremely high levels of sodium.

 The homicide case may be one of the first involving Munchausen by proxy – a psychiatric disorder in which a parent sickens a child to garner sympathy – in the era of social media.

 Spears was living with Garnett in the secluded Fellowship Community when the alleged crime occurred. She faces a maximum of 25 years to life in prison on the murder charge and up to 25 years for manslaughter.

 The reaction in Spears' hometown of Decatur, Ala., was swift.

 Former nurse Ginger Dabbs-Anderson, who first met Spears and Garnett when the boy was six months old, was grateful for the action, but remorseful that it came too late to save Garnett, who friends called "G."

 "I'm happy they got her and I do believe that she's had this problem for years and that he's been suffering at her hands. I really wish we could have prevented this because there were signs.

 "Maybe the hospitals should have caught it, maybe her parents should have caught it, maybe those people closest to her should have caught it. She put all over Facebook how wonderful she was. She had us all snowed, she had us all believing she was wonderful. But obviously not."

 The former nurse was not surprised to learn that officials suspect Spears may suffer a psychological disorder.

 "I don't care if it is a case of Munchausen by Proxy. I think she should get whatever it is anyone else who murders someone gets."

 Shawna Lynch, who knew Spears before Garnett was born and initially defended her, said: "I cried. It broke my heart but thank God they're finally going to get justice for G. I just hope she gets what she deserves. I know G's not coming back, but at least we'll have justice for him."

 At the Fellowship Community in Chestnut Ridge, people were saddened at the mention of Spears and her son.

 "There has to be some way where this isn't true," said one woman who wished not to be named.

 Another Fellowship member said she couldn't reconcile the Spears she knew with the one in court on Tuesday.

 Buy Photo Lacey Spears is accompanied by her father, Terry, as she is led into a back door at Westchester County Police headquarters in Hawthorne on June 17, 2014. (Photo: Frank Becerra Jr./The Journal News)

 "I don't see her as a murderer," the woman said. "I think (it was) sickness and I think a lot of things happen to us in our lives that are tragic and make us seek this kind of grief or sympathy that she was looking for. We all do it in different ways. I think it was really wrong of course, and I think it was terrible and all I can do is pray for her."

 The charges relate to Garnett's death, but authorities suspect Spears subjected him to past medical abuse, fueled by attention on Facebook, Twitter and blog posts. She presented herself as a doting mother caring for a son who'd been in and out of hospitals his entire life. In a Facebook post in November 2009, she wrote that Garnett was back in the hospital again, his 23rd hospital visit in his first year.

 The investigation began in January, while Garnett was still alive, when doctors at Maria Fareri alerted police that the boy's sodium level had spiked to suspiciously high levels.

 Witnesses told The Journal News they saw a doctor at Maria Fareri confront Spears the night of Jan. 19, shortly after she and her son arrived there on an emergency helicopter flight from Nyack. The doctor told her it was "metabolically impossible" for her son's body to produce such extreme levels, and that "something isn't right."

 At Maria Fareri, Spears continued to sleep in Garnett's room and had unmonitored access to him in the room's attached bathroom, sources said. There was a similar setup at Nyack Hospital.

 The boy was alert and talking on the night of Jan. 20 when friends visited him and Spears in his hospital room. One friend recalled the 5-year-old pleading with her: "Don't leave me."

 It wasn't until the following morning, Jan. 21 — after Garnett's condition worsened and he "coded" — that the medical staff notified the state's child-abuse hotline, prompting police and the district attorney's office to get involved. The boy was taken off life support and declared dead Jan. 23.

 Lacey Spears' mug shot at Westchester County Police headquarters in Hawthorne, on June 17, 2014. (Photo: Westchester County Police)

 In April, the Westchester Medical Examiner ruled Garnett's death a homicide, and detectives have focused on Lacey Spears from the start. Even before the boy's death, they seized food, her cellphone and computer from her home at the Fellowship Community and confiscated the feeding bag Spears was so concerned about that she contacted her neighbor from the hospital.

 A second Fellowship neighbor reported seeing Spears feed Garnett through his tube Jan. 17, shortly before a seizure sent him to Nyack Hospital. That version of events contradicted Spears' claim to others that she hadn't fed him through the tube for at least a week.

 Both neighbors testified before the grand jury.

 Westchester County police, Ramapo police and the district attorney's office have also secured medical records and video surveillance from Nyack and Maria Fareri, and statements from medical staff and friends who accompanied Spears at both hospitals.

 Investigators have dug into Spears' 14 months at the Fellowship and the time she spent in Alabama and Florida, poring over medical reports and interviewing friends, hospitals and social-service agencies that have fielded calls in the past about Spears' parenting.

 Police have also spoken to members of a parenting group in Spears' former community of Clearwater, Fla., where she'd share tearful stories about raising a sickly son whose father she claimed died in a crash. One member contacted that state's Department of Children and Families in 2011, one of several times Spears was reported to child-welfare authorities.

 None of the reports, however, resulted in action to remove Garnett from her care.

 Garnett Spears started school in October at Green Meadow Waldorf School in Chestnut Ridge, associated with the Fellowship Community. Lacey Spears posted this first-day-of-school photo. (Photo: Facebook, courtesy family)

 Spears, who repeatedly sought treatment for Garnett's severe ear infections and purported digestive problems, told friends her son needed to be tube-fed because he'd go days without eating and was a "failure to thrive" case, a diagnosis for children defined by inadequate weight gain.

 But those same friends saw him eat solid foods routinely. To them, Garnett – sporting a gap-toothed smile and long blond hair – appeared happy and healthy.

 During the final hospital stay at Maria Fareri, Spears took to Facebook frequently, pleading for prayers as she posted pictures of her son on life support, noting that the pain in his head was making him scream out loud in pain.

 Then, on Jan. 23, Spears posted a final Facebook declaration: "Garnett the great journeyed onward today at 10:20 a.m."

 Initially flooded with condolences, support for Spears diminished as friends learned about the investigation and stories from her past: that her frequent emergency-room visits raised eyebrows among medical staff; that she misrepresented herself as the mother of a child she babysat; and that she'd lied about Garnett's father. He was not a police officer who died in a crash; he is a garage-door installer still living in Alabama.

 Staff writers Jonathan Bandler, Greg Shillinglaw and Frank Becerra Jr. contributed to this report.

 Twitter: @SPCCohen

 Buy Photo Losing Garnett the Great (Photo: The Journal News)

 About the series

 Read our five-part series, "Losing Garnett the Great," a Journal News report that follows the life of Lacey Spears from Alabama to Florida to Rockland's Fellowship Community where her well-documented devotion to Garnett ends in his unexplained death. We explore how a woman whose existence centered on her only child became the focus of a police probe into whether her son was poisoned.

 Part 1: Boy's death reveals mom's lies

 A little blond boy beams in dozens of photos on Lacey Spears' MySpace page with captions like "My World My Everything" and "He Completes Me." There's just one problem with this maternal picture: It isn't true. That boy is not her son.

 Part 2: Two fathers; one real, one imagined

 When Chris Hill heard from a friend that Garnett was dying, he reached out to Lacey Spears in the only way he knew how: He sent her a Facebook friend request. It's a strange way for a father to seek news about his son.

 Part 3: Red flags, in and out of the hospital

 Some people in Lacey Spears' life described her as a caring and nurturing mother but others saw darker signs. Were the surgeries, IVs and feeding tube really necessary? Lacey Spears has denied doing anything to harm her son. (Audio: Ex-nurse recalls Lacey as "the biggest liar I ever met.")

 Part 4: Sun and sandcastles

 It was a brief idyll for a happy child. Lacey Spears and son Garnett move to Florida, but the happier times didn't last. Just before Superstorm Sandy, mother and son moved north to Chestnut Ridge and the Sunbridge Institute, known as the Fellowship.

 Part 5: 'Garnett the Great journeyed onward'

 Lacey Spears and her son Garnett settle in to life at the Fellowship, where Lacey spoke frequently about her sickly son's medical history. Garnett seemed like a normal, healthy boy to many in the Chestnut Ridge enclave. In late January, Garnett was transported from Nyack Hospital to Westchester Medical Center. He died Jan. 23. Westchester County Police subsequently launched an investigation.

 Lacey Spears and her son, Garnett Spears. (Photo: Facebook photo)

 Read more

 Garnett's last days: 'Something is not right here'

 Friends share shocking new details about the time Lacey Spears spent with her dying son at Nyack Hospital and Westchester Medical Center.

 Spears case has red flags seen in Munchausen by Proxy

 Garnett Spears had feeding tube most of his life

 Losing Garnett: Listen to reporter Peter D. Kramer read the series

 Chat live with lohud

 Journal News/lohud reporters Shawn Cohen and Peter D. Kramer will be taking your questions and sharing insights into the Lacey Spears arrest at 7 p.m. ET Wednesday, June 18, on lohud. Find the chat and set up an email reminder at http://lohud.us/spears-arrest-chat.

 Read the indictment

 http://data.lohud.com/documents/lacey-spears-indictment.html

 Read or Share this story: http://lohud.us/1q9cQZl |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– After a months-long investigation, an Alabama mom has been charged with murder: Prosecutors in Westchester County, NY, say Lacey Spears poisoned her 5-year-old son through a feeding tube, likely in an effort to gain sympathy on social media. She "was intentionally feeding her son salt in toxic levels," said a district attorney in court yesterday, where Spears pleaded not guilty. Her charges include second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter; prosecutors aren't arguing that she meant to kill her son Garnett, but they say she behaved without regard for his life, the Journal News reports. There was no medical explanation when his sodium levels soared, and prosecutors say Spears had done online research into how salt affects one's health, CBS 2 reports. The case may be among the first to grapple with the psychiatric disorder Munchausen by proxy in the Internet age: Spears posted updates about her son's frequent illnesses on Facebook. She told friends he needed to be fed through a tube, but they regularly saw him eat solid foods. Police believe Spears may have poisoned him more than once, and the investigation began even before he died on Jan. 23. When he did, she initially got sympathy, the Journal News notes. But some who know her now tell the paper they're not surprised at the charges. "I really wish we could have prevented this because there were signs," says one. "She put all over Facebook how wonderful she was. She had us all snowed." The murder charge carries a sentence of 25 years to life. Click for more on the lies Spears reportedly told.


News article:

Egypt is frayed, bloody and slipping toward a new revolt.The clashes that erupted for the second day in a row Sunday between police and protesters are the most volatile challenge in months to the nation's military leaders. The anger glimpsed through the tear gas and on the bruised faces of demonstrators marked a dangerous chasm between the Egyptian people and the generals who have refused to relinquish power to a civilian government.What is unfolding in the streets of Cairo, Suez and the coastal city of Alexandria is the compounded anger over the unrealized promise of a revolution that ousted Hosni Mubarak in February but has yet to steer the country toward a new democracy. Five people have been killed across the nation, including three Sunday in Cairo's Tahrir Square, and more than 1,000 have been injured since violence broke out on Saturday.Security forces and military police, swinging batons, firing birdshot and driving armored personnel carriers, stormed the square late Sunday afternoon, chasing out protesters and burning tents. The troops quickly retreated and growing ranks of demonstrators returned to the area, yelling epithets against the military as darkness fell. Protesters numbered as many as 20,000 before midnight."We are on the brink of danger. Those asking for the government to fall are asking for the state to fall," Gen. Mohsen Fangary said in a TV interview.But at times, the military appears in denial, as if the deepening discontent against it can be placated or ignored in the run-up to next week's parliamentary elections.The military is not ready to cede the country's future to an array of political interests, including remnants of the old regime and the dominant Muslim Brotherhood. These forces mistrust one another but they — along with thousands of idle, angry young men — have banded against what they all regard as the larger enemy in the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces.But political parties, especially Islamist groups, face a dilemma: They want to tap into the spirit of the protests but do not want violence to jeopardize the country's first significant elections in decades. The Muslim Brotherhood did not endorse the demonstrations but condemned security forces for the bloody crackdown. The ultraconservative Gamaa al Islamiya group told its followers now is "not a suitable time" to take to the streets."I should be at work," said Ashraf Hamed, a food vendor who joined Sunday's rally in Tahrir Square. "But I suffered from life under Mubarak and I refuse to continue suffering and keep watching injustices being done to our revolution."Broken glass, stones and bullet casings littered the square as about 4,000 protesters gathered while riot police battled others on side streets and protected the nearby Interior Ministry. The April 6 Youth Movement and an ultraconservative Islamist presidential candidate announced their support of the protest, but the majority of the demonstrators appeared not to belong to political parties or activist groups."I was against the idea of a sit-in but when I saw the police brutality against demonstrators on TV yesterday I decided to come and join them," said Adel Kassem, a university professor. "These people here are the real Egyptians, without any politicians or banners of Muslim Brotherhood or anyone else who has tried to hijack the revolution."The clashes began early Saturday when several hundred protesters attempted a sit-in after a huge anti-military rally on Friday. The violence resumed Sunday as military helicopters skimmed overhead and shops and businesses closed."Leave, leave just like Mubarak!" protesters chanted."Down with the field marshal!" yelled others, referring to Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, leader of the armed forces.The police and the military are "doing their best to hinder elections while at the same time falsely showing everyone that the revolution will bring change and democracy," said Ali Shahin, a businessman. "But this is all fake. They want to show that the country is not ready for democracy so they make the changes they want."The military expanded martial law in September and has been intent on preventing activists from retaking Tahrir Square, which they occupied during the revolt against Mubarak. But the generals face the prospect of possibly provoking widespread bloodshed and unrest that could draw tens of thousands into the streets amid the political turmoil already surrounding the run-up to parliamentary elections on Nov. 28."Do not leave the square. This square will lead the way from now on," Hazem Salah abu Ismail, the ultraconservative Islamist presidential candidate, told demonstrators. "Tomorrow the whole of Egypt will follow your lead."Egypt has stumbled from the so-called Arab Spring's great inspiration to its lingering disappointment. The euphoric 18 days that led to Mubarak's downfall have been clouded by divisions between secularists and Islamists and by the military, which has repeatedly delayed transition to civilian rule. The generals are reviled by activists but their wide support in the provinces allows them a tight grip on the nation.The most recent violence was sparked by an attempt by the military to consolidate its power by enshrining a larger role for itself in a new constitution. Late Saturday, amid the rising protests, the generals amended the proposals in an effort to calm activists and the Muslim Brotherhood. That kind of appeasement worked in the past, but did little to contain the outrage of the last two days.The nation is unlikely to find respite soon. The military announced that it would not postpone elections. The voting could trigger more bloodshed and is certain to exacerbate differences between liberals and the Muslim Brotherhood, which could win at least 30% of the seats in parliament. Secularists and the military fear the Brotherhood and other Islamist groups are determined to press for a government deeply rooted in, or Islamic law.But, in the short term, the parliament will ultimately be accountable to the ruling military council. A full transfer of power to civilian control is not expected until a president is elected late next year or in 2013. This scenario is certain to lead to more protests even as Egypt struggles with a downward spiraling economy and a shrinking tourism industry.This was on the minds of many in Tahrir Square. Like Kassem, the university professor, they mirrored the Egyptians who protested last winter — not politically driven, just fed up. Kassem stood Sunday amid scorched tires and the tang of tear gas not far from a makeshift hospital in a mosque and a few tents erected in the square's central garden."Mubarak's thieves headed by Tantawi stole our revolution, so did groups using religion," he said. "The ruling system remains the same as it was under Mubarak, practicing the same stupidity as Mubarak's men did." ||||| CAIRO (Reuters) - Cairo police fought protesters demanding an end to army rule for a third day on Monday and the death toll rose to 33, with many victims shot, in the worst violence since the uprising that toppled President Hosni Mubarak.

 As midnight approached, about 20,000 people packed Tahrir Square, the epicentre of the anti-Mubarak revolt early this year, and thousands more milled around in surrounding streets.

 "The people want the fall of the marshal," they chanted, referring to Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, Mubarak's defense minister for two decades and head of the army council.

 In a late-night statement, the ruling council urged calm and called for crisis talks with political forces to find a way forward. The council voiced its "deep regret for the victims in these painful incidents", state news agency MENA said.

 "It called on all sections of the nation to show the greatest degree of self-restraint so that the matter does not lead to more victims and casualties," the agency added.

 The military council did not say whether it would accept the resignation of the cabinet, tendered on Sunday. A military source said it was seeking agreement on a new prime minister.

 The resignation of the cabinet, in office since March, was another blow to the military council's authority and casts further uncertainty on Egypt's first free parliamentary elections in decades, which are due to start next Monday.

 Clashes flared in side-streets near Tahrir. Witnesses said looters, not necessarily connected to the protests, had attacked the American University in Cairo and other buildings.

 Security forces also battled about 4,000 demonstrators in the port city of Ismailiya on the Suez Canal, witnesses said. Tear gas was also fired at about 2,000 protesters in the northern coastal city of Alexandria.

 BULLET WOUNDS

 Protesters have brandished bullet casings in Tahrir Square, where police used batons and tear gas to try to disperse demonstrators on Saturday. Police deny using live fire.

 Medical sources at Cairo's main morgue said 33 corpses had been received since Saturday, most with bullet wounds. The Health Ministry put the toll at 24 dead and 1,250 wounded.

 "I've seen the police beat women my mother's age. I want military rule to end," said protester Mohamed Gamal, 21.

 Army generals were feted for their part in easing Mubarak out, but hostility to their rule has hardened since, especially over attempts to set new constitutional principles that would keep the military permanently beyond civilian control.

 Police attacked a makeshift hospital in Tahrir Square after dawn but were driven back by protesters hurling chunks of concrete from smashed pavements, witnesses said.

 "Don't go out there, you'll end up martyrs like the others," protesters told people emerging from a metro station at Tahrir Square.

 The violence casts a pall over the first round of Egypt's staggered and complex election process, which starts on November 28 in Cairo and elsewhere. The army says the polls will go ahead.

 INTERNATIONAL CONCERN

 The United States called for restraint on all sides and urged Egypt to proceed with elections despite the violence.

 "The United States continues to believe that these tragic events should not stand in the way of elections," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

 European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton echoed that message and said the EU was keen to monitor the polls.

 "The Egyptian authorities have been very clear that they wish to conduct these elections themselves. We believe it would give credibility to them to have international observation," she told British lawmakers in London.

 U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon deplored the loss of life and called on the transitional authorities "to guarantee the protection of human rights and civil liberties for all Egyptians, including the right to peaceful protest".

 In an apparent sop to protesters, the army council issued a law to bar from political life "those who work to corrupt political life and damage the interests of the nation".

 The announcement was unlikely to satisfy political parties and activists who have called for a blanket ban on former members of Mubarak's now defunct National Democratic Party.

 "The council is out of step with the people," said activist Mohamed Fahmy, describing the new law as a "meaningless move".

 Some Egyptians, including Islamists who expect to do well in the vote, say the ruling army council may be stirring insecurity to prolong its rule, a charge the military denies.

 Political uncertainty has gripped Egypt since Mubarak's fall, while sectarian clashes, labor unrest, gas pipeline sabotage and a gaping absence of tourists have paralysed the economy and prompted a widespread yearning for stability.

 ECONOMIC WOES

 The instability could accelerate Egypt's slide toward a currency crisis, forcing a sharp depreciation of the Egyptian pound in the next few months and conceivably prompting Cairo to impose capital controls, analysts said.

 "The violence and political noise is going to erode whatever confidence was left in the Egyptian economy, and may result ... in an acceleration of capital outflows," said Farouk Soussa, Middle East chief economist at Citigroup.

 The military plans to keep its presidential powers until a new constitution is drawn up and a president is elected in late 2012 or early 2013. Protesters want a much swifter transition.

 The army said on Monday it had intervened in central Cairo to protect the Interior Ministry, not to clear demonstrators from nearby Tahrir Square, whom it also offered to protect.

 The Interior Ministry, in charge of a police force widely hated for its heavy-handed tactics in the anti-Mubarak revolt, has been a target for protesters demanding police reform.

 The latest street clashes show the depth of frustration, at least in Cairo and some other cities, at the pace of change.

 Liberal groups are dismayed by the military trials of thousands of civilians and the army's failure to scrap a hated emergency law. Islamists eyeing a strong showing in the next parliament suspect the army wants to curtail their influence.

 Analysts say Islamists could win 40 percent of assembly seats, with a big portion going to the Muslim Brotherhood.

 The Revolution Youth Coalition, an activist group, called for a "million-man march" in Tahrir on Tuesday to back demands for a new national salvation government to run the country in the transition phase, instead of the military council.

 (Additional reporting by Tim Castle in London, Alister Bull and Steve Holland in Washington and Andrew Torchia in Dubai; writing by Alistair Lyon) |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– Protesters in Egypt have held on to Tahrir Square after the latest round of clashes with police, which in three days have left 22 dead throughout the country. Police burned banners and assaulted a field hospital in a raid beginning last night; protesters threw pieces of pavement at authorities; and in unconfirmed Internet videos, protesters were beaten with sticks by police, who appeared to toss a body on a heap of trash. An apparent fire in a nearby apartment building left a woman calling for help, but police shot tear gas at those below, Reuters reports. Though demonstrators were temporarily driven from the square yesterday, they soon returned ahead of another police raid, and the Los Angeles Times reports their ranks grew to 20,000 by midnight. The unrest may complicate the country's plan to hold its first free parliamentary elections in decades; the staggered vote is due to begin next Monday, though Reuters notes that the army will retain its hold on presidential powers until a presidential poll is held, which may not happen until about a year from now; protesters object to that timeline.


Write an article based on this summary:

– Dallas won a laugher over Philadelphia, and the Jets took down Cincinnati on the road to advance in the playoffs. Tony Romo (2 TDs, 244 yards) and the Cowboys put up 27 points in the second quarter and cruised to a 34-14 win. Dallas Morning News coverage here. On the schedule Sunday: Ravens-Patriots and Packers-Cardinals. In the Jets game, QB Mark Sanchez (1 TD, 182 yards) showed no rookie jitters in leading New York to a 24-14 win. He got help from fellow rookie Shonn Greene, who ran for 135 yards, and from Bengals kicker Shayne Graham, who missed two critical second-half field goals. Daily News coverage here.

AFC wild-card game: Jets rookies Mark Sanchez, Shonn Greene star in 24-14 win over Bengals

 Antonelli/News The Thrill of Victory: Jets QB Mark Sanchez celebrates after a touchdown pass to tight end Dustin Keller in the 2nd quarter of Gang Green's win over the Bengals.

 Jets 24, Bengals 14

 CINCINNATI - They won it for their grieving owner. They won it for their brash coach. They won it because they sensed everybody thought they couldn't.

 The Jets won their first playoff game in five years, advancing to the AFC divisional round with a 24-14 wild-card victory over the Bengals Saturday at Paul Brown Stadium. Led by rookie Mark Sanchez and his cast of Cincinnati Kids, the Jets announced themselves as a serious postseason contender - just like Rex Ryan had predicted.

 "I think this is just the first step in what we all feel is going to be a great journey," Ryan said after beating the Bengals for the second time in six days.

 Ryan, his eyes red, looked as if he had been crying. Indeed, it was an emotional day for the entire organization, and it culminated in a poignant locker-room scene. Ryan gathered the players and made a presentation to Woody Johnson, who attended the game with family members less than a week after the tragic death of his daughter.

 "There's only one game ball, and it goes to Woody," Ryan told the team, according to players. The coach choked up, they said.

 It culminated a roller-coaster week in which the Jets beat the Bengals in the season finale, 37-0, and grew angrier by the day as they heard "excuses" coming from the Bengals' camp. Ryan stoked the emotions Friday night with a fiery speech to the team.

 "(The Bengals) said they treated last week like a preseason game, but when the chips were on the table they couldn't get it done," tackle Damien Woody said. "So what's their excuse now?"

 The Jets' improbable run will continue on the road, as they will meet the top-seeded Colts or the second-seeded Chargers next weekend. Their opponent will be determined by the outcome of today's Patriots-Ravens game.

 "There is no ceiling for us," said Jets linebacker Calvin Pace.

 Ryan laughed when asked how far the Jets could advance into the playoffs.

 "We can't get much higher than what I predicted," he said, alluding to his headline-making boast that the Jets - a 50-to-1 shot to win the Super Bowl - deserved to be the favorite in the field.

 Maybe it's time to believe.

 In the crucible of the playoffs, the Jets played turnover-free football, took control after an early 7-0 deficit and dropped the hammer in the fourth quarter with two late sacks.

 Sanchez, playing like the franchise quarterback the Jets believe he can be, was magnificent. He completed 12 of 15 passes for 182 yards and a touchdown, fooling the Bengals with bootleg passes off play-action. And two incompletions came on drops, including a killer by Braylon Edwards on what should have been a 41-yard touchdown. Sanchez became only the fourth rookie quarterback in NFL history to win a playoff game. ||||| SportsDayDFW.com currently is undergoing a redesign, so articles no longer will appear on the Dallas Cowboys blog. You can find all of the latest news on America’s team on the Cowboys’ main page, which can be found here. Thanks for your … Continue reading → |||||


Article:
Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Kite-flying is a popular sport in many parts of India

 Three people, including two children, have died after their throats were slit by glass-coated strings used for flying kites on India's Independence Day.

 Saanchi Goyal, 3, and Harry, 4, were looking out through the sunroof of their cars in different parts of Delhi when sharp strings slit their throats.

 Zafar Khan, 22, died in the same manner when he was riding his motorbike.

 Glass-coated strings are used to bring down competitors' kites, but they also end up injuring and killing people.

 Many Indians fly kites to celebrate festivals and important occasions like the Independence Day, which is celebrated on 15 August.

 But every year, there are reports of people dying or getting wounded from the kite strings - locally known as manja - treated with powdered glass or metal to sharpen them.

 Similar strings killed a five-year-old boy in 2015 in the northern town of Moradabad, and a five-year-old girl died in Jaipur in 2014.

 These strings also kill and maim hundreds of birds annually - at least 500 birds have been admitted to the Charity Birds Hospital in Delhi in the past three days alone, Indian media reports say. The hospital says it treats up to 8,000 birds every year.

 On Monday, a policeman in Delhi was also injured from a sharpened string.

 The Delhi government has now banned the use of sharpened manja to fly kites and promised to run campaigns to educate people about the dangers of using such strings.

 Authorities said the sale, production and storage of nylon, plastic or any other glass or metal-coated manja would be prohibited in the capital city and those who violated the ban would have to pay a penalty of 100,000 rupees ($1,495; £1,148) and could be jailed for up to five years. ||||| Animal rights organisation PETA had also last week filed a petition with the National Green Tribunal demanding an immediate ban on use of the string. Animal rights organisation PETA had also last week filed a petition with the National Green Tribunal demanding an immediate ban on use of the string.

 A day after two people, including a three year old girl, died after getting entangled in the ‘maanjha’ (sharp string used for flying kites), the Delhi Government on Monday banned Chinese ‘maanjha’ in the capital. The move comes after Independence Day, when kite flying is practiced throughout the city. The sharp string is often coated with glass or metal to make it sharper, causing deaths of birds flying in the sky as well.

 A 22-year-old man died Monday after his neck got entangled in the kite string, making him take a fatal fall from his motorcycle. The incident happened in west Delhi’s Mianwali Nagar area.

 In another incident, a three-year-old girl Saanchi Goyal died when she was returning home with her parents after watching a movie in Naraina. The girl was looking out of open sunroof in the car when suddenly her neck got slit by a ‘manjha’ as they were passing through Rani Bagh area, a police officer said.

 Animal rights organisation PETA had also last week filed a petition with the National Green Tribunal demanding an immediate ban on use of the string ahead of Independence Day on August 15. The organisation had said that the string can cause serious injuries, sometimes fatal, to birds, animals and also humans.

 WATCH VIDEO: Manjha Kills Two Children During Independence Day Festivities

 “Manja is a menace to public safety,posing a life-threatening risk to humans and birds alike. PETA India is calling on authorities to make kite-flying enjoyable and safe for everyone by banning manja from the activity,” said PETA India Government Affairs Liaison Nikunj Sharma.

 (with inputs from agencies)

 For all the latest India News, download Indian Express App now

 © IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd |||||Summary:

– A man and two children are dead in India after a kite flying tradition on Independence Day went horribly wrong. Two children, aged 3 and 4, had their throats slit by kite strings covered with powdered glass or metal—a coating used to cut down competitors' kites—while riding with their heads out of car sunroofs in separate incidents in Delhi on Monday, reports the BBC. A 22-year-old motorcyclist suffered a fatal fall when he became entangled in a string, per the Indian Express, while a police officer was also injured. The Delhi government has since banned the sale of the sharp strings.


News article:

Our site may be experiencing technical difficulties, or we may be working to enhance this feature. Please click the link below to try another feature. ||||| A Los Angeles entertainment executive who says she was sexually assaulted by a man she met on Match.com filed a lawsuit Wednesday asking that the popular dating site start screening its members for sexual predators.

 Attorney Mark L. Webb, who represents the woman identified in the lawsuit only as Jane Doe, said he will ask a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge for a temporary injunction barring the site from signing up more members until his client’s demands are met.

 “They are a very powerful and successful online dating service, and they have the means to do this,” Webb said.

 Officials with Match.com could not be reached for comment late Wednesday. But in a statement to KABC-TV Channel 7 last week, officials that they provide safety tips on the website and warn members that they are responsible for screening the people they meet.

 "While incidents like this one between individuals who meet on Match.com are extremely rare, it doesn't make them any less horrifying," the statement said.

 Webb described his client as an Ivy League graduate who works in film and television. He said she met her alleged assailant last year at Urth Cafe in West Hollywood. He seemed charming and she agreed to see him again. After the second date, however, he allegedly followed her home and forced himself on her, Webb said.

 "This horrific ordeal completely blindsided me because I had considered myself savvy about online dating safety," the woman said in a statement released through her attorney last week. "Things quickly turned into a nightmare, beyond my control."

 After the man left, the woman went online and learned that he had been convicted of several counts of sexual battery. Charges are pending in the Match.com case, Webb said.

 The attorney said his client wants Match.com to check members’ names against public sex offender registries. “It’s not a guarantee,” he said. “But don’t you think something is better than nothing?”

 ALSO:

 Man arrested in wife's death -- 30 years after the fact

 Admissions suspension lifted for UCLA Islamic studies program

 -- Alexandra Zavis ||||| 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. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– A Los Angeles entertainment executive is suing an online dating site for failing to screen out a man who she says sexually assaulted her. The woman is seeking an injunction barring Match.com from signing members until it begins a process to filter out sex predators like her alleged attacker, who has a history of conviction for sexual battery, said her attorney. Match.com is "a very powerful and successful online dating service, and they have the means to do this,” the lawyer told the Los Angeles Times. Match.com officials said they provide safety tips on the website, and warn members that clients are responsible for screening their dates. In the LA executive's second date with a man she met on the site, he allegedly followed her home and attacked her. "This horrific ordeal completely blindsided me because I had considered myself savvy about online dating safety," the woman said in a statement. "Things quickly turned into a nightmare, beyond my control." She was stunned to discover in a subsequent Web search that the man had been convicted of several counts of sexual battery.


Summarize this article:

After a 20-year decline in favorability, the percentage of Americans who support the death penalty has once again dropped below the 50% mark.

 According to a new Pew Research Center poll, just 49% of the US now supports capital punishment.

 The last time this few Americans supported the death penalty was 45 years ago, in 1971, when the Baltimore Colts were Super Bowl V champions and Richard Nixon was Time's Man of the Year.

 With a few exceptions, the rate has fallen steadily every year since 1994, when support peaked at 80%.

 While the overall rate has fallen considerably since the mid-nineties, politics still play a big role in who supports the death penalty and who doesn't. In the Pew poll, 34% of Democrats said they support it while 72% of Republicans did.

 The declining level of support may stem from recent negative press surrounding the most popular form of the death penalty: lethal injection.

 In 2014, multiple inmates on death row were the victims of botched executions when the cocktail of drugs meant to sedate, paralyze, and ultimately kill the men failed to work properly. Some inmates struggled for an hour or more, convulsing on the sedation table before coroners eventually declared them dead of a heart attack.

 In the two years since, the US federal government has yet to come up with a widely agreed upon alternative to lethal injection drugs, and so fewer executions are being carried out overall.

 In 1999, 98 people received the death penalty. This year, only 15 have met the same fate. ||||| For the first time in almost half a century, support for the death penalty has dipped below 50 percent in the United States.

 Just 49 percent of Americans say they support capital punishment, according to a Pew Research Center poll conducted from late August to early September. That represents a seven-point decline in about a year and a half. Support peaked at 80 percent in 1994.

 The death penalty has had majority support among Americans for 45 years. The last time support was as low as it now stands was in 1971. Pew has surveyed Americans on the subject for the past two decades and relies on the polling organization Gallup for older data. ||||| Note: For 2018 data on views of the death penalty, click here.

 As the Supreme Court prepares to hear the first of two death penalty cases in this year’s term, the share of Americans who support the death penalty for people convicted of murder is now at its lowest point in more than four decades.

 Only about half of Americans (49%) now favor the death penalty for people convicted of murder, while 42% oppose it. Support has dropped 7 percentage points since March 2015, from 56%. Public support for capital punishment peaked in the mid-1990s, when eight-in-ten Americans (80% in 1994) favored the death penalty and fewer than two-in-ten were opposed (16%). Opposition to the death penalty is now the highest it has been since 1972.

 Though support for the death penalty has declined across most groups, a Pew Research Center survey conducted Aug. 23-Sept. 2 among 1,201 adults finds that most Republicans continue to largely favor its use in cases of murder, while most Democrats oppose it. By more than two-to-one, more Republicans (72%) than Democrats (34%) currently favor the death penalty.

 Two decades ago, when majorities in both parties favored the death penalty, the partisan gap was only 16 percentage points (87% of Republicans vs. 71% of Democrats).

 And, for the first time in decades, independents are as likely to oppose the use of the death penalty (45%) as they are to favor it (44%). The share of independents who support capital punishment has fallen 13 points since last year (from 57%).

 This shift in views among independents is particularly pronounced among those who lean toward the Democratic Party (a 10-point decrease in support) and those who do not lean to either party (down 16 points). Support for the death penalty among independents who lean toward the GOP is little changed from March 2015 (73% now, 70% then).

 Even as support for the death penalty has declined across nearly all groups, demographic differences remain: Men are more likely to back the use of the death penalty than women, white Americans are more supportive than blacks and Hispanics, and attitudes on the issue also differ by age, education and along religious lines.

 More than half of men (55%) say they are in favor of the death penalty and 38% are opposed. Women’s views are more divided: 43% favor the death penalty, 45% oppose it.

 A 57% majority of whites favor the death penalty for those convicted of murder (down from 63% last year). But blacks and Hispanics support it at much lower rates: Just 29% of blacks and 36% of Hispanics favor capital punishment.

 There are only modest difference by age and education in support for the death penalty, with 18- to 29-year-olds somewhat less likely to support it (42% favor) than those in older age groups (51% of those 30 and older). Those without a college degree are more likely than those with at least a college degree to favor the use of the death penalty in cases of murder (51% vs. 43%).

 White evangelical Protestants continue to back the use of the death penalty by a wide margin (69% favor, 26% oppose). White mainline Protestants also are substantially more likely to support (60%) than oppose (31%) the death penalty. But among Catholics and the religiously unaffiliated, opinion is more divided: 43% of Catholics favor capital punishment, while 46% oppose it. And while 50% of those who are religiously unaffiliated oppose the death penalty, 40% support it.

 A more detailed study last year of attitudes toward capital punishment found that 63% of the public thought the death penalty was morally justified, but majorities said there was some risk of an innocent person being put to death (71%) and that the death penalty does not deter serious crime (61%).

 Note: View the methodology for the Aug. 23-Sept. 2 survey and the topline. (PDF).

 Topics: Supreme Court, Death Penalty, Gender, Social Values, Race and Ethnicity |||||

– For the first time in 45 years, Americans who support the death penalty can't count themselves among the majority. Just 49% of Americans polled from late August to early September said they supported capital punishment for people guilty of murder, while 42% said they opposed it, according to the Pew Research Center. Recent botched executions by lethal injection may be responsible for the drop in support from March 2015, when 56% of Americans backed the death penalty, reports Business Insider. But support has actually fallen across the political spectrum since the mid-1990s, when support reached 80% as violent crime and murder rates rose, per the Washington Post. Some 57% of white Americans now support the death penalty, compared to 29% of blacks and 36% of Hispanics, according to the poll of 1,201 adults. Men, older Americans, and those without a college degree are also more likely to support the death penalty. But just 34% of Democrats support capital punishment, compared to 71% two decades ago, reports the New York Times. Some 72% of Republicans support it, down from 87%, and 44% of independents support it, down from 57%. As support has fallen, so have the number of executions. There have been just 15 so far this year, including 12 in Texas and Georgia. (Ohio is set to resume executions after a three-year break.)


Summarize this article:

A Bronx woman facing felony charges after authorities say she got married 10 times in an apparent marriage scam was arrested after court Friday.Authorities say Liana Barrientos, 39, and her niece Tracy Barrientos walked through the gate of a subway station at 149th Street and Grand Concourse and did not pay the fare.They are charged with theft of service and criminal trespass.Liana Barrientos had been arraigned earlier on two counts of filing a false instrument. She pleaded not guilty.Those false instruments were an application for a marriage license and the signed marriage license itself, executed in the spring of 2010, which stated this was her first and only marriage. The groom was a man named Salle Keita, whom she wed March 4, 2010, according to the indictment.Police believe she was marrying men to get them into the country and apparently wed nine times between 1999 and 2002, never bothering to legally change her name.She is believed to be currently married to four people, and at one time, she was married to eight of them at the same time.The case was brought to the attention of the Bronx County District Attorney's Office by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security'sInvestigation Division.They indicated that seven of the men are from so-called "red-flagged" countries, which included Egypt, Turkey, Georgia, Pakistan, and Mali.Authorities say that in 2006, groom number eight Rashid Rajput was deported to his home country of Pakistan following an investigation by the Joint Terrorism Task Force.Barientos lived in a Bronx building until recently with her boyfriend, a man who is apparently not one of the 10 men she is alleged to have married."This is a huge breach in security," national security expert Manny Gomez said. "If someone could remarry 10 times without bringing it to the attention of the authorities, potentially an al-Qaeda plant could come in, marry this woman and be in this country illegally, plotting, recruiting, perhaps even executing a terrorist attack."Her history as a serial marrier started in November 1999 when she said I do with Mohammed Gerbril in Eastchester. Two years later, she married Ahmad Allam in Rye.Then, just 18 days later, she went to Yonkers to marry Habibur Rahman. In the coming years, she would also get married in Hempstead, Ramapo, Greenburgh, Mamaroneck, White Plains and finally in the Bronx, where the previous nuptials were all discovered.On each marriage license, she used her real Social Security number and various versions of her real name.So how did she not get caught?"From the Liberty Tower being penetrated by a 16-year-old child a few months ago to now, realizing that somebody could come in and legally belong to this country simply by paying somebody and getting legally married, yes, we still have a lot of work cut out for us," Gomez said.The men whom Barientos is alleged to have married, most without benefit of divorce, are identified as:--Mohamed Gebril, of Egypt: Married November 1999, divorced in April of 2002--Ahmed Allam, of Egypt: Married November 2001, divorced November of 2004--Habibur Rahman, of Bangladesh: Married November 2001, currently married--Davit Koridze, of Georgia: Married February 2002, currently married--Duran Goktepe, of Turkey: Married March 2002, divorced in January of 2007--Aliaksandr Paharelau, of Czechoslovakia: Married March 2002, possibly divorced in January of 2005--Vakhtang Dzneladze, of Georgia: Married May 2002), divorced in February of 2007--Rashid Rajput, of Pakistan: Married July 2002), currently married--Kakhaber Khorbaladze, of Georgia: Married August 2002, divorced in August of 2007--Salle Keita, of Mali: Married March 2010, currently marriedSeven of the men filed for permanent status based on marriages to her."When some of them were denied they filed for divorce" and refiled for legal status using other marriages, Assistant District Attorney Jessica Lupo said.In one case, Barrientos acknowledged "receiving money for her actions," the prosecutor said.But she also told Homeland Security that she had never seen nine of the men before, Lupo said.If convicted, she faces up to four years in prison. ||||| The year 2002 was very busy for a young woman named Liana Kristina Barrientos.

 For one thing, she got married — on Long Island, on Valentine’s Day.

 For another, she married again, 15 days later, in Rockland County, to a different man.

 Thirteen days after that, while still married to at least two men, she wed yet another, back on Long Island.

 And then a few weeks later, when the average bride might still be recovering from her honeymoon, Ms. Barrientos was named in a divorce proceeding initiated by a man she married three years before.

 By the time 2002 was done, she would marry three more men, each in a different town in New York State.

 Advertisement Continue reading the main story

 All told, according to state records, she has married 10 men since 1999.

 Friday is also going to be busy for Ms. Barrientos, who is now 39. She will be arraigned on felony fraud charges in State Supreme Court in the Bronx. ||||| A busty Bronx woman went on a decade-long bridal binge — and was married to as many as eight men at once, court papers revealed on Thursday.

 Liana Barrientos turned walking down the aisle into an Olympic sport, getting hitched 10 times since 1999, including one stretch in 2002 when she said “I do” five times.

 The 38-year-old blonde had collected six husbands before the first one filed for divorce in 2002. She added three more before the second one dumped her in 2003.

 Prosecutors haven’t said why Barrientos is so marriage-mad.

 “The motive was definitely not love,” one source said.

 Her most recent nuptials came on March 4, 2010.

 Barrientos is accused of falsifying official records. She allegedly claimed in documents for her 2010 wedding that she had never been married before.

 And she told an investigator from the Bronx District Attorney’s Office that her exchange of vows with a man named Salle Keita “was her first and only marriage,” court papers charge.

 Barrientos also allegedly submitted different variations of her name in marriage papers, omitting or abbreviating her middle name or changing spellings.

 She was busted Oct. 1 on two felony counts of offering a false instrument for filing. She is due back in court Friday.

 Barrientos’ apparent fondness for marriage runs counter to sentiments she expressed on Twitter.

 A Bronx DA spokeswoman declined to say if other charges, such as bigamy, would be filed, or if any of her hubbies would be charged.

 In addition to those men, Barrientos has two baby daddies. One of them, Carlos Garcia, kicked her out of his Bronx apartment a few weeks ago, the building’s super said.

 “She was arrested . . . and he doesn’t want her back,” Ruben George told The Post. “They have a kid together. She has one with him and one with somebody else.”

 Garcia, whose daughter with Barrientos is about 4 months old, didn’t answer a knock on his door.

 Barrientos’ lawyer, Chris Wright, declined to comment.

 Additional reporting by Kevin Fasick |||||

– A New York woman has, according to police, gotten married a few too many times, and she's now facing felony fraud charges. Authorities say Liana Barrientos, reported as being 38 or 39, has gotten married 10 times in 11 years, the New York Daily News reports, with six of those marriages allegedly occurring between February and August of 2002. She's never gotten divorced, according to the Daily News and ABC 7, though others report differently: The New York Post holds that at least one husband filed for divorce and a second "dumped her," placing her number of concurrent marriages at eight; the New York Times reports she's actually divorced from her first two husbands and two others, but that those splits happened "long after marrying 3 through 9." The latest alleged nuptials were in 2010, when Barrientos is said to have married a man named Salle Keita. The changes are in connection with that marriage. "The defendant ... stated in sum and substance that she did marry Mr. Keita and that was her first and only marriage," says the legal complaint. Officials haven't suggested a motive in the case, the Daily News notes, though a source tells the Post that "the motive was definitely not love." While the Post reports that she varied the spelling of her name in different marriages, the Daily News reports that she allegedly used the same Social Security number. A man at one of Barrientos' previous homes tells the Daily News she's now living in a homeless shelter. She faces two counts of filing a false instrument, each of which carries a four-year sentence. She was arrested last fall and will be arraigned today. (It's far from the only unusual crime to grab headlines this week.)


Write an article based on this summary:

– Noticed something a bit off about PBS' A Capitol Fourth broadcast Monday? So did hundreds of people who took to Facebook and Twitter, per NBC News. Though host Tom Bergeron initially laughed off concerns that the live concert and fireworks display over Washington would be rained out, per the Washington Post, the sky above the Capitol Building was foggy and overcast as the fireworks began. That made seeing the show a bit difficult—so PBS intervened. Mingled with misty footage of fireworks over the Capitol building, with scaffolding clearly visible, was stock footage of fireworks from previous celebrations. Viewers were quick to call out the "fraudulent" scheme—there was no disclaimer during the "live" broadcast—noting the stock footage showed a clear sky over the Capitol Building, and no scaffolding, per the Post. Afterward, the show admitted to showing "a combination of the best fireworks from this year and previous years" because of the poor conditions. "It was the patriotic thing to do," reads a tweet from the Capitol Fourth account. "We apologize for any confusion this may have caused." The apology didn't appease some, though. "How is using stock video patriotic?" one user wrote. "If I wanted that, I'd watch YouTube." (A Texas teen tried to make a "fireworks bomb" and paid a steep price.)

PBS was pummeled on social media after it acknowledged having spliced in video of previous years' Washington, D.C., fireworks in its live "A Capitol Fourth" broadcast Monday night.

 Hundreds of viewers complained on the annual show's Twitter and Facebook pages that the fireworks display couldn't be live because the images were in clear weather:

 An image from PBS' 'A Capitol Fourth' Independence Day show Monday night.

 Washington, however, was heavily overcast and foggy Monday night — which was readily apparent as the pyrotechnics faded into dense clouds:

 Fireworks explode Monday night over the Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. AP

 About 10 p.m. ET, the show's Facebook and Twitter pages acknowledged that the supposedly "live" show was, in fact, " a combination of the best fireworks from this year and previous years."

 We showed a combination of the best fireworks from this year and previous years. It was the patriotic thing to do. #July4thPBS — A Capitol Fourth (@July4thPBS) July 5, 2016

 Reaction online was swift and savage:

 @July4thPBS Only in DC could a PBS show become a scandal #July4thPBS #capitolfourth — thedcfloridian (@thedcfloridian) July 5, 2016

 @July4thPBS How is using stock video patriotic? If I wanted that, I'd watch YouTube. #fake #July4thPBS — Thomas Rainer (@ThomasRainerDC) July 5, 2016

 #Blessed to see the fireworks from my apt window & watch #July4thPBS. Tho, the fireworks out my window don't look like @pbs. #fake? ?????? — Tina (@tinpant) July 5, 2016

 Not cool @pbs.... Fake footage of fireworks on the Fourth???? It's cloudy and rainy in DC. Those shots are clearly not from tonight. — Chris Wallgren (@seawall77) July 5, 2016

 PBS representatives didn't immediately return NBC News' calls for comment Monday night. ||||| As clouds swirled over dress rehearsal for PBS’s “A Capitol Fourth” on Sunday morning on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol, host Tom Bergeron couldn’t help but throw in a few jokes about the weather as he practiced his lines via teleprompter.

 “Thunder, lightning and torrential downpours!” Bergeron said on stage as he reeled off what audiences could expect during PBS’s annual Fourth of July fireworks and concert special. Later, he added, “We’ve only had six tornado warnings.” Although there were laughs all around, would Bergeron panic if he woke up Monday morning for the actual show and saw a gray sky?

 [D.C.-area forecast: Rain likely for the Fourth, but not necessarily a total washout all day and evening]

 Tom Bergeron, host of “A Capitol Fourth.” (Capital Concerts)

 “Oh, no,” he told us backstage. He’s not worried about potential rain. “The first rule of improv, as I was taught it, is you say yes to everything. You don’t tense up. … I’m open for anything. That doesn’t bother me.”

 Of course, it helps that Bergeron has seen basically everything in his decades as an Emmy-winning TV host, from “Hollywood Squares” to “America’s Funniest Home Videos.” He’s especially unfazed when it comes to live television, given that he has co-hosted ABC’s hit reality competition show “Dancing With the Stars” since 2005, and that’s always a frenzied couple of hours.

 So even though “A Capitol Fourth” (airing on PBS at 8 p.m., live-streamed on PBS.org and Facebook Live) is on a tight schedule, packed with performances from Smokey Robinson, Kenny Loggins, Sutton Foster, Yolanda Williams, Cassadee Pope and Christopher Jackson, you can expect some of Bergeron’s signature ad-libs between proceedings. He’s especially jazzed to meet Jackson, who plays George Washington in the smash musical “Hamilton”; Bergeron saw the show last month and loved it, although he quipped during rehearsal that he had to take out a second mortgage to afford tickets.

 And is Bergeron especially eager to have the best seat in the house for the fireworks, with his prime perch on the West Lawn?

 “To be honest with you, the fireworks — even though that gets such attention — is the least interesting part of it to me. I love that first moment walking out on the stage, seeing all the people, seeing the Capitol building … and there’s all the incredible talent,” Bergeron said. “Fireworks, they’re nice, but I’ve seen a lot of fireworks. Sorry, that’s not what gets me here. Everything else gets me here.” ||||| The annual Independence Day concert and fireworks show was held on the National Mall July 4, despite dense cloud cover that obscured the fireworks for some. (A Capitol Fourth/PBS)

 If you were watching Washington’s Fourth of July fireworks outside on Monday night and also happened to catch PBS’s broadcast of “A Capitol Fourth,” you might have noticed something looked…a little off.

 The actual weather in Washington was cloudy and misty, making it quite difficult to view the fireworks. But on “A Capitol Fourth,” the annual concert special that airs live from the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol, many of the fireworks (primarily in the second half of the display) looked glorious in a clear sky. Immediately, people started commenting on Twitter:

 [Tom Bergeron previews PBS’s ‘A Capitol Fourth’: No, he’s not worried about rain]

 When the cloud coverage is bad and PBS plays fake footage of the fireworks in DC — Alexis Sadoti (@AlexisASadoti) July 5, 2016

 https://twitter.com/tinpant/status/750139052448362496

 Not cool @pbs…. Fake footage of fireworks on the Fourth???? It's cloudy and rainy in DC. Those shots are clearly not from tonight. — Chris Wallgren (@seawall77) July 5, 2016

 Just flipped over to PBS here in the newsroom. Wow that is stock footage. They did have a few live shots, you could see the foggy conditions — JimMacKayOnAir (@JimMacKayOnAir) July 5, 2016

 Another giveaway? On TV, you couldn’t see the construction scaffolding on the Capitol building, which has been there for many months.

 Thanks for your fake coverage of the July 4th, Washington DC fireworks PBS! No clouds, No scaffolding on the Capitol #July4thPBS,#beAshamed — JoeyV (@therealjoeyjoe) July 5, 2016

 As soon as the show ended, producers from Capital Concerts owned up to the fact that not all of its footage was from the live fireworks show. (In the first segment of the display, while singer Cassadee Pope was singing, some scenes did show a cloudy sky.) “We showed a combination of the best fireworks from this year and previous years. It was the patriotic thing to do,” the “Capitol Fourth” account tweeted.

 We showed a combination of the best fireworks from this year and previous years. It was the patriotic thing to do. #July4thPBS — A Capitol Fourth (@July4thPBS) July 5, 2016

 A “Capitol Fourth” spokeswoman confirmed to us that because the weather was so overcast, the producers pulled together a combination of clips “to make the best television show.” She added this is the first time the producers have had to take such measures.

 Still, some viewers were not happy that PBS wasn’t upfront about the pre-recorded nature of the fireworks:

 @July4thPBS should have at least let viewers know "some portions pre-recorded" — Melissa Jensen (@jensenmama) July 5, 2016

 It was a fraudulent thing to do.@July4thPBS @nbcwashington — Ben Anderson (@AndStrats) July 5, 2016

 @July4thPBS How is using stock video patriotic? If I wanted that, I'd watch YouTube. #fake #July4thPBS — Thomas Rainer (@ThomasRainerDC) July 5, 2016

 Feeling personally victimized by @PBS and #capitalfourth for using stock firework footage. It's cloudy and gross today not perfectly clear — Katherine Sisemore (@KSisemore) July 5, 2016

 …and so on.

 1 of 14 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × A soggy Fourth for fireworks on the Mall in Washington View Photos Rain or shine, the fireworks display is an annual tradition over the nation’s capital on Independence Day. Caption Rain or shine, the fireworks display is an annual tradition over the nation’s capital on Independence Day. July 4, 2016 Spectators on the Mall watch the fireworks show. Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.

 More from Arts & Entertainment:

 ‘A dream scenario': Taylor Swift and Tom Hiddleston’s parade of love is a gold mine for the paparazzi

 The end of #OscarsSoWhite? The new crop of Academy members looks extremely diverse.

 Why ‘The Devil Wears Prada’ is one of those rare movies that’s better than the book ||||| A Texas teen is in the hospital recovering from horrific injuries sustained when he and some friends tried to make a “fireworks bomb” by tying together hundreds of sparklers.

 Rowdy Radford had his leg removed and is suffering a litany of medical issues at Children’s Memorial Hospital in Houston after his accident on Saturday.

 A family friend set up a GoFundMe page to help cover Radford’s medical expenses and provide family and friends with updates on the boy’s condition.

 “Both of his arms had injuring including pins and screws needed to hold his wrists and elbows together. Several of his fingers were blown off, both hands severally burned along with his face. He also just got out of surgery from having an operation on both of his eyes and they are not sure if he will ever see again,” the GoFundMe states.

 “This wonderful young man is best friends with both of my children. He is going to be a freshman this year and wanted to be a mechanic when he grew up.”

 Alongside the GoFundMe caption is a graphic photo of Radford that shows the deep extent of his injuries

 Since he was admitted to the hospital, Radford has had most of his left leg amputated. Doctors were able to reattach fingers but cannot promise he will ever be able use them. Radford also has a 50% chance of total vision loss.

 When asked by Click2Houston about her son’s injury, Radford’s mother explained that she wanted as many people as possible to see the photos in order to prevent further injuries.

 “I just want this out, I want everybody to see this so they’ll know what happened, don’t let their kids do this. It’s not worth it,” Wendy Smith said.

 RELATED: A horrific carnival ride injury to a girl’s scalp has a family wondering why workers didn’t act sooner

 Despite Radford’s grim diagnosis, his aunt, Samantha Hansen, believes he will pull through.

 “We know he’s going to pull through, it wouldn’t be Rowdy if he didn’t,” she said.

 While many have donated to Radford’s GoFundMe page, it has quickly evolved into an Internet comment thread about parenting. Many commenters have trashed Smith’s parenting skills in a not so nice manner.

 “Why are you asking for donations it’s not other people fault that,that happen to your son nobody tell him do homemade bombs that was his choice,” Welner Guevara wrote on the page.

 Others have chosen to defend Radford and his mother by telling the haters to get lost.

 “If you dont wamt (sic) to donate then don’t. You sick people come on here and leave these nasty comments. This is a child who is seriously injured, what is wrong with you people!?” one user wrote.

 “I hope the absolute best recovery for this poor boy and his family.” ||||| Tweet with a location

 You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| Add a location to your Tweets

 When you tweet with a location, Twitter stores that location. You can switch location on/off before each Tweet and always have the option to delete your location history. Learn more |||||