News article:

Story highlights The woman pleads not guilty to lying to police, her attorney says

 "This has been kind of a kick in the gut as a victim to ... be charged," lawyer says

 Charlie Rogers told police she was attacked in her home last month

 Authorities now say the incident was staged

 A Nebraska "hate crime" that targeted an openly gay woman and that triggered responses from candlelight vigils locally to Facebook postings of support nationwide was staged by the alleged victim, authorities said Tuesday as they charged the woman with lying to police.

 Charlie Rogers -- a former basketball player for the University of Nebraska who identifies herself as lesbian -- told police that three masked men entered her home on July 22, stripped her, tied her down, and carved homophobic slurs into her body before attempting to set her and the house on fire.

 But the Lincoln Police Department said Tuesday that "the physical evidence conflicted with Charlie Rogers' version of events" and that "extensive investigation revealed numerous inconsistencies."

 Rogers was arrested Tuesday, police said.

 Her attorney, Brett McArthur, told CNN Tuesday night that Rogers had agreed as part of an arrangement to turn herself in, in exchange for a personal recognizance bond.

 "She did not have to post any money" to be released, McArthur said, adding that his client pleaded not guilty to the charge of lying to police.

 "She maintains her innocence. This has been kind of a kick in the gut as a victim to turn around and be charged," McArthur said.

 The police in Lincoln, Nebraska, arrested Charlie Rogers on charges of filing a false report.

 In a news release, police cited DNA and pathologists' examinations that did not substantiate Rogers' original statements, and changes in her story during the investigation.

 "These were serious allegations that garnered national attention and spread fear among local citizens," the police statement said. "A great deal of time and resources were spent investigating Charlie Rogers' claims in hopes of identifying and arresting the three suspects in this case."

 Beth Rigatuso, president of Heartland Pride based in Omaha, organized a vigil that attracted over 1,000 people in the aftermath of the reported attack.

 For her, the news that it may have been a hoax is "a pretty big blow."

 "I don't feel betrayed as much as I feel sad for how, if this is really true...there is a lot of things going on with her," Rigatuso said. "It leads to a bigger problem in our society that someone would do this."

 Rigatuso said she hopes people would not turn their backs on Rogers now.

 The vigil she put together in Omaha raised more than $1,800, all of which was deposited in an account for Rogers.

 "We'd like to get the funds returned to us so we can establish our own fund to support victims of anti-gay violence." Rigatuso said Tuesday.

 McArthur, Rogers' attorney, said he "knows nothing" about the fund or how much money might be in it. He said it was in place before he became Rogers' lawyer.

 According to the Lincoln Police Department complaint, Rogers, 33, provided information "she knew to be false" with the intent to "instigate an investigation of an alleged criminal matter."

 Rogers reported to police that she was lying on her bed when the alleged attackers held her down and carved "derogatory words" into her arms and abdomen and "a cross" in her chest. She told police she was then rolled onto her stomach where more cuts were made.

 But according to a deposition from Lincoln police investigator Lynette Russell filed as part of the complaint, Rogers bedspread was "evenly placed on the bed and no apparent sign of a struggle." A DNA lab test found no evidence of blood on the bedspread.

 Russell also described a pair of white gloves found at the scene that Rogers had said were not hers.

 "Ms. Rogers DNA profile was the major contributor to the DNA located on the inside of the gloves," Russell said.

 Furthermore, the deposition said, the FBI sent photos of Rogers' cuts to a forensic pathologist, who believed the wounds to be self-inflicted.

 "This opinion is based partially on the fact that the cuts appeared superficial and symmetrical, avoided sensitive areas of the body,...are accessible to the victim and follow the victim's frame of reference for reading and writing," the deposition said.

 Rumors had been circulating in recent weeks in Lincoln and on the Internet due to the fact that police had yet to pinpoint any suspects. The urge to respond to rumors prompted Rogers to give her one and only interview.

 "For people to think this doesn't happen here, it does," Rogers told CNN affiliate KETV on July 27. "It did."

 She refused to discuss the incident itself during that interview.

 Rogers' attorney at the time, Megan Mikolajczyk, told CNN her client was ready for a full interview early last week, but canceled saying "things have changed."

 Mikolajczyk said Tuesday that she is no longer Rogers' attorney.

 According to neighbor Linda Rappl, Rogers' showed up on her doorstep bloodied in the early morning hours immediately following the alleged attack last month.

 "I was in shock," Rappl said soon after the incident. "She was naked, her hands were tied with zip ties. All I could see was a cut across her forehead and blood running down."

 Rappl said she took the sobbing Rogers inside and wrapped her in a blanket before calling 911. ||||| A former University of Nebraska women's basketball star faked an attack in which she allegedly carved anti-gay slurs into her skin because she felt it would spark change, police said Tuesday.

 Four days before Charlie Rogers crawled naked and bleeding from her Lincoln home, screaming for help, she outlined in a Facebook posting what investigators believe was her motive for faking the July 22 attack, Police Chief Jim Peschong said at a news conference.

 "So maybe I am too idealistic, but I believe way deep inside me that we can make things better for everyone. I will be a catalyst. I will do what it takes. I will. Watch me," read the July 18 posting, according to police.

 Furthermore, genetic testing on evidence gathered at the crime scene undermines Rogers' account of what happened, Peschong said.

 Charlie Rogers, 33, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to making a false police report and was released on her own recognizance. She didn't respond to a message seeking comment left Tuesday at a number listed as hers, but her lawyer, Brett McArthur, said she maintains the attack happened and plans to vigorously defend herself.

 "This has been a very traumatic event for her, and having the focus of the investigation turn toward her has been really hard," said McArthur, who described Rogers as reserved and soft-spoken, and not the type to seek attention.

 "She has no reason to lie about what happened. She's pretty devastated, when you go to authorities and things kind of get turned around on you," he said.

 Rogers, a lesbian who ranks second all-time in blocked shots for the Cornhuskers, reported the attack amid a charged debate in Lincoln over the city's proposed "fairness ordinance," which would ban discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people. The City Council approved the ordinance in May, 5-0, but two conservative groups gathered enough signatures to force a popular vote on it before it can take effect.

 According to police, Rogers said three masked men broke into her home, and that one of them pinned her down while another sliced a cross into her chest, cut the front of her thighs and shins and carved derogatory words in her arms and abdomen. She said they then rolled her onto her stomach and cut her buttocks, the back of her thighs and the back of her right calf. She also said they tried to burn down her house.

 Rogers crawled from her home naked, bleeding and screaming for help, a neighbor told police. The community's gay community responded swiftly, and hundreds turned out for a rally that weekend outside the state Capitol.

 On Tuesday, four Nebraska gay-rights groups that followed the case released a joint statement crediting police for conducting what they believe was a balanced and thorough investigation.

 "It is important not to focus on the actions of any single individual," the groups said in the statement. "As residents of Lincoln we must continue to bring our community together to declare that violence and hate are not the values of our city."

 According to Peschong, police found a pile of clothes, white knit gloves and a red box cutter on the living room floor after the alleged attack. Rogers said the gloves didn't belong to her, but investigators determined that a lot of the DNA found inside the glove was Rogers' and that none of it came from a male.

 Peschong said investigators discovered that Rogers deleted numerous text messages she had sent the evening of the alleged attack, and that she bought cotton gloves, a box cutter and zip ties from an Ace Hardware Store in Lincoln on July 17. All of the items were later found in her house, he said. When confronted about the evidence weeks later, he said, Rogers admitted to purchasing all of the items except the gloves.

 She also sent a photo of a cross-shaped cut on her chest to a friend a few days before the reported attack, Peschong said.

 Investigators say they found no apparent sign of a struggle in the living room where Rogers said she was attacked, and no blood on the sheets where the cutting allegedly took place. An FBI forensic pathologist concluded that Rogers either cut herself, or allowed someone else to do it.

 Peschong said the department spent thousands of dollars investigating the case, but he stressed that the case will not undermine the department's trust in people who report hate crimes.

 "The FBI, the Bureau of Fire Prevention and the Lincoln Police Department have spent an exorbitant amount of time and personnel resources investigating this," he said. "We aggressively investigated this. Every day since this incident has happened, there have been investigators working on trying to identify who these assailants were." |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– A former University of Nebraska women's basketball star who claimed to be the victim of an anti-gay attack appears to have staged the attack herself out of a desire to spark social change, police say. Charlie Rogers, who told police last month that three men had entered her house, stripped her, and carved anti-gay slurs on her body, has been charged with lying to police, CNN reports. Police say their investigation uncovered numerous inconsistencies in her story, and that physical evidence, including DNA, did not support Rogers' version of events. An FBI forensic pathologist determined that Rogers' wounds were self-inflicted. Four days before the alleged attack, she made a post on Facebook that investigators believe underscores her motive, AP reports. "I believe way deep inside me that we can make things better for everyone," she wrote. "I will be a catalyst. I will do what it takes. I will. Watch me." Rogers, who ranks second all-time in blocked shots for the Cornhuskers, has pleaded not guilty. Her lawyer says she has been devastated by investigators' decision to focus on her.


Article:
Octomom You Can Date Me ... If You PAY Me

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 Meet attractive people who otherwise may have been "out of your league."

 Secure a first meeting more quickly than on other dating sites. |||||

 Thank you so much for taking the time to visit my page. I am having to move out of my home soon and i'm very close to being able to buy a home for my kids. Your support is appreciated.

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– She tried porn, stripping, and pleading for cash. Now Octomom is auctioning off ... herself ... to make a few extra bucks so she won't get booted from her California home, reports TMZ. "You can date me if you pay me," says Nadya Suleman on What'sYourPrice.com. She reminds anyone interested that she's a "media personality," and a single mom with 14 kids, who's "attractive, athletic, a hard worker, and loves to laugh." Her ideal date? She'd like to "work out or do something athletic, and then have a nice dinner." She started the bidding at $500. Her latest attempt at begging for cash on GoFundMe has raised $2,600—but she needs $150,000 to fend off foreclosure or pay for a new house.


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Mantecore, the tiger responsible — but never blamed — for a near-fatal injury to Roy Horn of Siegfried & Roy in 2003, died on March 19.

 The white tiger was 17 and died “after a short illness,” according to a press release. Zoologists say 17 is within the lower-end parameter of a normal life expectancy for a tiger.

 The tiger (his name usually spelled “Montecore” in press reports) was reported as seven years old the night he bit Horn on the neck during a show at The Mirage. Though Horn suffered significant blood loss from the bite, it was a stroke and brain-swelling which followed the injury that left Horn partially paralyzed, ending the entertainer’s stage career.

 Mantecore was quarantined for 10 days following the Oct. 3 injury, but was then returned to exhibit at The Mirage’s Secret Garden of Siegfried & Roy attraction after no signs of disease or abnormal behavior were found. He spent most of his remaining years alternating between the Secret Garden attraction and Horn’s estate.

 Even during the early days of his recovery, Horn was adamant in his wishes the tiger be spared, and has always argued with reports that he was “attacked” by the tiger. Siegfried & Roy have long contended Horn suffered a stroke onstage, and that the tiger punctured his neck while dragging him backstage as a protective response.

 As recently as his 69th birthday party last October, Horn chided Review-Journal columnist Norm Clarke for his word choice in a column recounting the incident. “It was not an attack,” Horn said in a scolding tone and repeated it.

 Horn released a statement today:

 “The world has lost one of its most majestic creatures and I have lost a brother. I will forever believe it was his concern for my safety and well-being that caused him to act as he did on that night long ago. We spent many hours together and he never failed to bring me great joy and wonderment. It was my great honor to be beside him at the end. He is now playing with his siblings in White Tiger heaven.”

 Horn added, “His contribution to the avalanche of awareness for conservation and preservation has made him unforgettable. His spirit will live forever with Siegfried & Roy and his multitude of fans.”

 Contact reporter Mike Weatherford at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0288. ||||| Siegfried & Roy are in mourning.

 The Las Vegas-based entertainers famous for incorporating white tigers into their elaborate, illusion-packed stage shows announced today the death of Mantecore, one of their prized pets and former costars.

 And yes, the name is particularly familiar because it's the same big cat that nearly mauled Roy Horn to death onstage during a performance on Oct. 3, 2003.

 According to a rep for the longtime couple (both onstage and off), Mantecore passed away on March 19 after a short illness at the age of 17. He had been living at the Siegfried & Roy Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat at the Mirage hotel in Vegas. |||||

– The tiger that nearly killed Roy Horn of Siegfried & Roy in 2003 has died at age 17, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports. The tiger, Mantecore, bit Horn on the neck during a show at the Mirage. Following the incident, Horn suffered a stroke and brain swelling that left him partially paralyzed and ended his stage career. But he never blamed Mantecore, refuted reports that the tiger "attacked" him, and allowed the tiger to spend the rest of his days between his own estate and the Mirage's Secret Garden of Siegfried & Roy. After the incident, Horn's only stage appearance has been at a benefit in 2009 that actually featured Mantecore, E! notes. In fact, Horn and entertainment partner Siegfried Fischbacher insist Horn actually suffered the stroke first, and Mantecore was simply trying to drag Horn backstage to protect him. The tiger died last week "after a short illness," according to a press release. Says Horn in a statement, "The world has lost one of its most majestic creatures and I have lost a brother. I will forever believe it was his concern for my safety and well-being that caused him to act as he did on that night long ago." He adds on Facebook, "My lifesaver, 'Mantecore,' ... was the one responsible for pulling me to safety where the Paramedics could help me after my high blood pressure made me dizzy on stage."


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LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Southwest Airlines flight landed in Los Angeles with one more passenger than when it took off.

 A passenger gave birth shortly after Flight 623 took off from San Francisco on Tuesday and the Phoenix-bound jet diverted to Los Angeles International Airport.

 The woman was assisted by the flight crew and a doctor and nurse who were aboard, airline spokeswoman Emily Samuels said. She said hopefully the airline has a new customer for life.

 Paramedics boarded the aircraft and the mother and newborn, whose names have not been released, were taken to a hospital in good condition, Los Angeles Fire Department spokesman Erik Scott said.

 The aircraft was taken out of service for cleaning and the other passengers went on to Phoenix aboard another plane, arriving more than two hours behind schedule.

 Passenger Julie Dafoe said she and Kurt Reed were sitting next to the woman.

 "One of the nurses that helped she said she was like walking around pacing in the airport so they were thinking she was having contractions," Dafoe told Phoenix TV station KTVK.

 "All of a sudden I heard a baby cry like a gurgling sound, like a baby that had too much milk or whatever and I'm like 'There's no babies on this flight,'" Reed said.

 Passengers said they had heard the call for a doctor, but nothing about what the medical emergency was.

 "The captain announced congratulations for the arrival of this new baby boy," another passenger Aarti Shahani told KTVK. "So we all started applauding, but it was confusing because we thought someone was going to die not be born." ||||| A baby born on a plane mid-flight joined a very different kind of mile high club.

 Southwest Airlines Flight 623 bound for Phoenix was diverted shortly after taking off from San Francisco on Tuesday when a pregnant passenger went into labor, the airline confirmed to ABC News.

 But before the plane could make an emergency landing in Los Angeles, the baby was born with the help of a doctor and nurse who were on board.

 "Never thought I'd experience that, yeah, everyone was saying the same thing. It was just amazing that that happened on a plane," pasenger Ely Alexander told ABC station KABC-TV in Los Angeles.

 "No one freaked out, no, it was all very calm," Alexander said. "It was really amazing how calm it was and how many people came to help."

 A team of medics met the plane when it did land in Los Angeles.

 The airline did not make public the baby's gender.

 The other 111 passengers on board flight 623 boarded another flight to Phoenix.

 The identity of the mother has not yet been released, but she was transported to a hospital.

 This isn't the first time a baby was born mid-air on a Southwest Airlines flight.

 In 2009 a passenger gave birth to a baby boy while on a flight from Chicago to Salt Lake City.

 Babies born on flights are usually given a birth certificate from the state in which their plane lands. |||||

– A baby born yesterday probably has more frequent-flier miles than any other newborn alive. A Southwest Airlines flight bound for Phoenix from San Francisco made an emergency landing in LA not long after takeoff yesterday when a woman on board the plane went into labor and produced an addition to the passenger manifest, the AP reports. A Southwest spokeswoman says the flight crew, as well as a nurse and doctor on the flight, helped usher in the new neonatal nomad, and the unidentified mom and baby were whisked off to the hospital by paramedics when the plane landed and were said to be in good condition. If all follows the usual protocol, the baby will likely be given a birth certificate from California, the state in which the plane landed, ABC News reports. It was a somewhat confusing moment for some of the passengers. "All of a sudden I heard a baby cry like a gurgling sound, like a baby that had too much milk or whatever, and I'm like, 'There's no babies on this flight,'" a passenger who had been seated near the mother tells the AP. Another passenger experienced relief upon finding out what the in-air request for a doctor was all about: "The captain announced congratulations for the arrival of this new baby boy, so we all started applauding. … It was confusing because we thought someone was going to die, not be born." The other 111 passengers were redirected onto another plane to Phoenix, and the birthing plane was removed from service for cleaning. (Click to read about how a baby born to a Ugandan woman who resides in the US ended up a Canadian citizen after being born on a flight from Amsterdam to Boston.)


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– A judge on Friday tossed out a $417 million jury award to a woman who claimed she developed ovarian cancer by using Johnson & Johnson talc-based baby powder for feminine hygiene, the AP reports. Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Maren Nelson granted the company's request for a new trial, saying there were errors and jury misconduct in the previous trial that ended with the award two months ago. Nelson also ruled that there wasn't convincing evidence that Johnson & Johnson acted with malice and the award for damages was excessive. The decision will be appealed even though Eva Echeverria has died, said her attorney, Mark Robinson Jr. "We will continue to fight on behalf of all women who have been impacted by this dangerous product," he said in a statement. Echeverria alleged Johnson & Johnson failed to adequately warn consumers about talcum powder's potential cancer risks. She used the company's baby powder on a daily basis beginning in the 1950s until 2016 and was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2007, according to court papers. Her attorney contended that documents showed that Johnson & Johnson knew about the risks of talc and ovarian cancer for three decades. But a company rep says in a statement, "Ovarian cancer is a devastating disease—but it is not caused by the cosmetic-grade talc we have used in Johnson's Baby Powder for decades. The science is clear." Similar allegations have led to hundreds of lawsuits against the New Jersey-based company. Jury awards have totaled hundreds of millions of dollars. However, a $72 million award was also thrown out Tuesday.

FILE - In this April 15, 2011, file photo, a bottle of Johnson's baby powder is displayed in San Francisco. A judge on Friday, Oct. 20, 2017 tossed out a $417 million jury award to a woman who claimed... (Associated Press)

 FILE - In this April 15, 2011, file photo, a bottle of Johnson's baby powder is displayed in San Francisco. A judge on Friday, Oct. 20, 2017 tossed out a $417 million jury award to a woman who claimed... (Associated Press)

 LOS ANGELES (AP) — A judge on Friday tossed out a $417 million jury award to a woman who claimed she developed ovarian cancer by using Johnson & Johnson talc-based baby powder for feminine hygiene.

 Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Maren Nelson granted the company's request for a new trial, saying there were errors and jury misconduct in the previous trial that ended with the award two months ago.

 Nelson also ruled that there wasn't convincing evidence that Johnson & Johnson acted with malice and the award for damages was excessive.

 The decision will be appealed even though Eva Echeverria has died, said her attorney, Mark Robinson Jr.

 "We will continue to fight on behalf of all women who have been impacted by this dangerous product," he said in a statement.

 Echeverria alleged Johnson & Johnson failed to adequately warn consumers about talcum powder's potential cancer risks. She used the company's baby powder on a daily basis beginning in the 1950s until 2016 and was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2007, according to court papers.

 Echeverria developed ovarian cancer as a "proximate result of the unreasonably dangerous and defective nature of talcum powder," she said in her lawsuit.

 Her attorney contended that documents showed that Johnson & Johnson knew about the risks of talc and ovarian cancer for three decades.

 The company said it was pleased with the ruling.

 "Ovarian cancer is a devastating disease — but it is not caused by the cosmetic-grade talc we have used in Johnson's Baby Powder for decades. The science is clear and we will continue to defend the safety of Johnson's Baby Powder as we prepare for additional trials in the U.S.," spokeswoman Carol Goodrich said in a statement.

 Similar allegations have led to hundreds of lawsuits against the New Jersey-based company. Jury awards have totaled hundreds of millions of dollars.

 However, on Tuesday a Missouri appellate court threw out a $72 million award to the family of an Alabama woman who has died, ruling that the state wasn't the proper jurisdiction for such a case.

 The court cited a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June that placed limits on where injury lawsuits could be filed, saying state courts cannot hear claims against companies not based in the state where alleged injuries occurred. ||||| KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A Missouri appeals court on Tuesday that vacated a $72 million award to an Alabama woman who claimed her use of Johnson & Johnson products that contained talcum contributed to her ovarian cancer has thrown the fate of awards in similar cases into doubt.

 The Missouri Eastern District Court's ruled that Missouri was not the proper jurisdiction to hear a lawsuit filed by Jacqueline Fox, 62, of Birmingham, Alabama, who claimed the baby powder she used for feminine hygiene for about 25 years contributed to her cancer. She died in 2015, about four months before her case went to trial in St. Louis Circuit Court. In February 2016, a jury awarded Fox $10 million in actual damages and $62 million in punitive damages — the first award in the lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson.

 The appeals court cited a Supreme Court ruling in June that placed limits on where injury lawsuits could be filed, saying state courts cannot hear claims against companies not based in the state where alleged injuries occurred. The case involved suits against Bristol-Myers Squibb over the blood-thinning medication Plavix.

 More than 1,000 others have filed similar lawsuits in St. Louis against Johnson & Johnson, which is based in Brunswick, New Jersey. In four of five trials held so far, jurors awarded more than $300 million combined. Only two of the 64 cases attached to Fox's case lived in Missouri.

 The company appealed all the awards against it and says its products are safe. A spokeswoman said after Tuesday's ruling that Johnson & Johnson is confident its appeals will be successful.

 "In the cases involving nonresident plaintiffs who sued in the state of Missouri, we consistently argued that there was no jurisdiction and we expect the existing verdicts that we are appealing to be reversed," spokeswoman Carole Goodrich said in a statement.

 Jim Onder, who is representing many plaintiffs in the lawsuits, has argued that Missouri is a proper jurisdiction because Johnson & Johnson packages and labels some products in Missouri. Onder's firm did not immediately return a call from The Associated Press Tuesday but he told The St. Louis Post Dispatch that the Supreme Court sent the Bristol case back to California state court and he is confident the Missouri Supreme Court will do the same.

 Within days of the Supreme Court ruling, a mistrial was declared in a Missouri state court in another lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson that involved three plaintiffs, two from out of state. That trial has not yet been rescheduled.

 Talc is a soft mineral that is widely used in personal care products to absorb moisture and for other products including paint and plastics.

 Most research has established no link or a weak one between ovarian cancer and using baby powder for feminine hygiene, and most major health groups have said talc is harmless. But some smaller studies have found a small link and the International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies genital use of talc as "possibly carcinogenic."

 Ovarian cancer accounts for about 22,000 of the 1.7 million new cases of cancer likely to be diagnosed in the U.S. this year. Women's risk factors for the ovarian cancer can include age, obesity, use of estrogen therapy after menopause, not having any children, certain genetic mutations and a family history of breast or ovarian cancer.

 ___

 Linda Johnson contributed to this story from Trenton, New Jersey.

 ___

 Sign up for the AP's weekly newsletter showcasing our best reporting from the Midwest and Texas: —http://apne.ws/2u1RMfv |||||


Rotisserie chickens have been around for a while. I used to bypass them and roast my own, until I noticed something: The rotisserie chickens were actually cheaper than buying and roasting my own.

 Cat Vasko noticed the same thing and decided to figure out why. The answer makes a surprising amount of sense: Grocery stores make them out of unsold chicken that is about to pass its expiration date. It's an elegant way to make a profit out of food that would otherwise be a net loss. And it's not just chicken -- according to Vasko, the ever-expanding prepared-foods section of the supermarket uses up all sorts of unsold produce and meat. It is, as she says, a bit like hunter-gatherers using every inch of the animal.

 This is the sort of thing that no one talks about when they talk about innovation --and yet, it's a major way in which our economy has become more efficient over the last few decades. Reducing spoilage means grocery stores can sell us raw chickens at lower prices -- and that we can get fresh, delicious prepared food at even lower prices. It's a win for the grocer and the consumer.

 So the next time you hear someone talk about the innovation economy, don't just think of Facebook or Google. The folks who spit-roast chickens, streamline factory production, or think up any of a million ways to save a little money here and there are just as important in improving our standard of living. Especially when it's five minutes to 7 and you still haven't made anything for dinner.

 This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of Bloomberg View's editorial board or Bloomberg LP, its owners and investors. ||||| A couple of years ago, I got it into my head that I wanted to roast a whole chicken, just because. I wandered around my local Ralphs for a few minutes looking for poultry that hadn't already been turned into individually shrink-wrapped meat units before asking for help. The gentleman I flagged down blinked a few times at my question. "Um," he answered finally. "You know we have chickens for sale up at the front of the store that have already been cooked, right?"

 I bought the raw chicken anyway. I took it home, rubbed it in butter and herbs, shoved a lemon half up its butt, and roasted it low and slow for the majority of the day. It turned out okay. For all the work it took, it certainly wasn't notably better than a store-bought rotisserie chicken, and with the other ingredients factored in, it cost significantly more. Right now, an uncooked chicken at Ralphs runs you $9.87, but a rotisserie chicken is $6.99; at Gelson's, you'll pay $8.99 for a cooked chicken or $12.67 for the raw version; and at that beloved emporium of insanity Whole Foods, a rotisserie chicken is $8.99, while a whole chicken from the butcher counter is $12.79 ... per pound.

 In retrospect, it's not hard to understand why the fellow at Ralphs thought I was weird. But in most cases, preparing meals from scratch is significantly cheaper than buying them pre-made. What makes rotisserie chickens the exception?

 Grocery Store Economics

 The answer lies in the curious economics of the full-service supermarket. For instance, the Gelson's by me offers, among other amenities, a hot bar, a salad bar, a bakery, a gelateria, a full-service deli and an olive bar, because we live in L.A. so why not. But how can it afford to put out all of this food fresh every day?

 It can't. Neither can Ralphs. Even Whole Foods' notoriously inflated prices don't offset that level of production. Instead, much like hunters who strive to use every part of the animal, grocery stores attempt to sell every modicum of fresh food they stock. Produce past its prime is chopped up for the salad bar; meat that's overdue for sale is cooked up and sold hot. Some mega-grocers like Costco have dedicated rotisserie chicken programs, but employees report that standard supermarkets routinely pop unsold chickens from the butcher into the ol' rotisserie oven.

 Though supermarkets are loath to admit as much, likely for fear of turning off the squeamish, the former CEO of Trader Joe's cheerfully confirmed in a recent interview that meat and produce are recycled into prepared foods. And the vendor of one of the leading commercial rotisserie ovens offers, as a complement to its wares, "culinary support" that, among other things, aims to "develop programs to minimize food shrinkage and waste" and "improve production planning to optimize the amount of fresh food that is available during both peak and down times."

 Rotisserie chickens aren't even the end of the line. When unsold, fresh meats, fruits and veggies that have passed their sell-by points can be "cooked up for in-store deli and salad counters before they spoil," per no less a source than a consultant to the supermarket industry.

 Thinking back with horror on all the times you picked up a prepared meal on the way home from a long day of work, then demolished it within ten minutes of walking through the door? Don't panic just yet.

 Safe as Milk

 It's worth noting, first of all, that sell-by, use-by and best-by dates were never intended as indicators of food safety, but rather as estimates of food quality. The USDA itself says that food product dating is intended to "help the purchaser to know the time limit to purchase or use the product at its best quality. It is not a safety date."

 Further, it's pretty well documented that these estimates are no substitute for boring old human discretion. Sites like StillTasty.com aim to help consumers get the most out of their groceries by educating them on the real shelf lives of thousands of foods as well as ways to ascertain quality that have nothing to do with the numbers stamped on the package. And a recent report from Harvard's Food Law and Policy Clinic suggests that because date labels are wildly inaccurate a lot of the time, they're pretty much directly responsible for 60 billion pounds of wasted food every year. Even more disturbingly (especially for we Californians), the report estimates that 25% of the fresh water used in the US is "squandered on the production of wasted food." Awesome.

 In fact, in spite of their creative uses of items that have passed their sell-by dates, grocery stores are still being conservative enough when it comes to food safety to waste plenty of usable meat and produce -- around $900 million in inventory annually, according to a 2001 study. And as the Harvard report points out, major retailers aren't generally wont to take a loss, meaning their waste "ultimately could be a cost born by consumers in the price of goods."

 So not only do you have nothing to fear from that grocery store rotisserie chicken, you could actually be doing a triple good deed by purchasing it -- making your life easier, keeping prices down for your fellow shoppers, and helping the environment. |||||

Write a summary.

– Those who like chicken might have noticed a seemingly weird quirk in the grocery store: It's generally cheaper to buy a fully cooked rotisserie chicken than to buy a raw chicken and prepare it yourself at home, writes Megan McArdle at Bloomberg View. Cooking food yourself is typically cheaper, so why the exception here? McArdle cites a post at KCET that explains what's going on: Supermarkets use chickens that are about to hit their sell-by expiration date for those rotisseries. In fact, they do it not just with chicken but with many of the offerings in the prepared-food department. Underhanded? No, writes McArdle. It's actually kind of brilliant. Instead of taking a loss on the still-fine food, the stores cook it up and serve it hot. "This is the sort of thing that no one talks about when they talk about innovation—and yet, it’s a major way in which our economy has become more efficient over the last few decades," she writes. The practice benefits both the store and the consumer, and it reduces spoilage to boot. Click for her full post.


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 The race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump has tightened. Clinton, whose lead over Trump exceeded 8 percentage points at her peak following the Democratic convention, is ahead by 4 or 5 percentage points today, according to our polls-only forecast.

 The tighter margins in the polls, which reflect a loss of support for Clinton along with a modest improvement for Trump, have come gradually over the past few weeks. The evidence of a tightening has become more widespread, however, and it’s particularly clear in polls that surveyed the race just after the conventions and are retaking its temperature now. Fox News’s national poll, for instance, had Clinton up by 9 points just after the conventions (in the version of the poll that included third-party candidates) and has her up by 2 points now.

 There isn’t any guarantee that Trump will continue to gain ground. Over the course of the year, polls have oscillated between showing a dead heat at Trump’s best moments and a lead of 8 to 10 percentage points for Clinton at her peaks. We’re about halfway between those goal posts now. It’s plausible that the recent shift reflects Clinton’s convention bounce wearing off — reversion to the mean — as much as it does momentum for Trump per se. Most importantly, Clinton is still ahead, with a 74 percent chance of winning according to the polls-only model and a 70 percent chance according to polls-plus.

 But what if the race continues to tighten? I’ve often heard Democrats express a belief that Clinton’s position in the swing states will protect her in the Electoral College even if the race draws to a dead heat overall. But this is potentially mistaken. Although it’s plausible that Clinton’s superior field operation will eventually pay dividends, so far her swing state results have ebbed and flowed with her national numbers.

 Take Wisconsin, for example. At her peak, Clinton had a double-digit lead there, according to our polls-only forecast. By Wednesday morning, it had declined to an estimated 7 points, as a result of our model’s trend line adjustment — which adjusts polls in all states based on shifts it detects in the race overall — along with data from the Ipsos 50-state tracking poll.

 We know that some readers don’t like the trend line adjustment. But if anything, the model hadn’t been aggressive enough. Two highly rated, traditional telephone polls of Wisconsin came out Wednesday, and they showed Clinton up by just 3 points and 5 points. The 3-point lead was in a poll from Marquette University, which had Clinton up by 13 points just after the Democratic National Convention. (As of Thursday morning, Clinton is projected to win by 5 points in Wisconsin, according to the polls-only model.)

 Usually, the trend line adjustment helps the model peg what forthcoming polls will look like in a state even if there haven’t been many of them recently. When Clinton established a roughly 8-point lead nationally in August, for example, it figured we’d see polls showing her with leads of 10 to 12 percentage points in some of her better swing states, such as Michigan and Colorado, along with leads of 5 to 6 percentage points in swing states that are just slightly redder than the country as a whole, such as Ohio and Florida. And that’s pretty much what we saw, at least on average. Now that the race has tightened to 4 or 5 points nationally, the model expects to see narrower leads — along with some polls showing a tie or Trump slightly ahead in the more red-leaning swing states:

 ADJUSTED POLLING AVERAGE STATE AUG. 14 AUG. 31 Arizona +1.6 -3.9 Colorado +10.5 +6.1 Florida +6.3 +3.1 Georgia +0.7 -2.3 Iowa +5.0 +0.7 Michigan +11.8 +6.0 Minnesota +12.6 +7.7 Nevada +4.2 +0.8 New Hampshire +9.0 +4.2 North Carolina +5.5 +1.2 Ohio +6.4 +2.7 Pennsylvania +9.3 +4.8 Virginia +9.1 +7.1 Wisconsin +12.6 +4.8 Clinton’s projected leads have shrunk in swing states

 Keep in mind that these numbers are self-correcting. For instance, the model expects new Ohio polls to show Clinton ahead by 2 or 3 percentage points, provided they don’t have a strong Trump-leaning or Clinton-leaning house effect. If new surveys deviate significantly from that range, the model will adjust itself accordingly. But usually this method gets things about right. Swing states are swing states for a reason — they closely follow the overall national trend.

 The other thing to notice about Clinton’s swing state polls is that they aren’t especially strong (or weak) relative to her national polls. At her post-convention peak, Clinton’s path of least resistance to 270 electoral votes appeared to run through a set of states that included Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and New Hampshire, among others. But in Pennsylvania, the most recent polls have Clinton ahead by margins ranging from 3 to 8 percentage points — perfectly fine, but not that different from her national numbers. We haven’t gotten much data recently from New Hampshire, but it can be swingy, and the most recent numbers from the Ipsos poll (caveat: very small sample size) showed Trump ahead. We did get some high-quality polls from Wisconsin, and, as I mentioned, they weren’t that good for Clinton.

 Overall, Clinton’s leads in the tipping-point states — the ones most likely to determine the Electoral College winner in a close election — average about 4 percentage points, close to her numbers in national polls.

 With a tighter race, the model’s expectations for Clinton are lower. A new poll showing her up by 5 or 6 points in Florida or Ohio — which would have been a ho-hum result a few weeks ago — could be a terrific one for her today, depending on the pollster. ||||| The plan to get to 270 electoral votes remains unclear. The battleground state deployment plan is a work in progress. Money from big donors is slowing to a trickle. And aides are confused about who’s calling the shots.

 Donald Trump’s campaign is teetering, threatening to collapse under the weight of a candidate whose personality outweighs his political skill. And now, with 22 days until the start of early voting, the GOP nominee is running short on his most precious commodity: time.

 Story Continued Below

 Late last week, with Labor Day and the final stretch of the 2016 campaign approaching, Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, met with Republican National Committee brass — including chief of staff Katie Walsh and political director Chris Carr — in New York City. Kushner, who has in many respects assumed the role of campaign manager, asked a series of direct questions to the GOP officials — all surrounding the troubles the party was having in deploying field staffers, opening up swing-state headquarters, and establishing field offices in battlegrounds that will decide the election.

 Those present for the meeting, and those briefed on it, insisted there were no fireworks, no drag-out fights. But they said Kushner’s questions reflected a growing realization within Trump’s team that for all the party’s talk about implementing a major swing-state deployment plan, it hasn’t yet materialized.

 For weeks, Republican officials and operatives have groused about a dearth of campaign infrastructure in battlegrounds across the country — a state of affairs that could have an impact on GOP candidates up and down the ballot. But like many aspects of the Trump campaign, the deployment plan has been wracked by confusion, false starts and a lack of quick decision-making. On Aug. 18, Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, came to Trump’s Alexandria, Virginia, headquarters for a day of meetings. He left ready to finalize a series of decisions.

 But the next morning, Manafort, under withering scrutiny surrounding his work overseas, abruptly quit. His departure created a chain reaction, delaying the talks for days on end. By late August, finger-pointing had begun: In interviews, a Trump aide accused the RNC of slow-walking the process, while RNC officials blamed the lag on dysfunction within the campaign.

 Trump’s son Eric, who has expressed impatience to party officials about progress being made in battleground states, on Monday made a pilgrimage to RNC headquarters in hopes of expediting the delayed field programs.

 The RNC shrugged off any talk of tension with the Trump campaign. “The RNC and the Trump campaign have a good working relationship,” said Lindsay Walters, a committee spokeswoman. “We are coordinating on all fronts as we work towards victory in November.”

 The absence of a clear plan has spread to something even more fundamental — the campaign’s path to 270 electoral votes.

 In mid-August, Trump’s campaign team gathered with RNC officials at the candidate’s Washington, D.C.-area office to discuss the swing-state map and a deployment plan that would make their difficult Electoral College math work.

 According to three people present, Trump’s chief pollster, Tony Fabrizio, laid out a path that required the team to divide states into four tiers — with Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania sitting in Tier One. In the next were Arizona and North Carolina, which Mitt Romney carried but where Democrats are hoping to compete this time around. There were also Nevada and Iowa, which Democrats won in 2012 but where Trump is running competitively.

 The third tier included traditionally conservative states — Georgia, Missouri and Indiana — that Trump would need to keep an eye on. In the final tier were a half-dozen states, including Michigan, Virginia and New Hampshire, that President Barack Obama won four years ago. Whether to invest resources into those states would depend on costs, the strength of Trump’s campaign in each of those states and an autumn assessment of the potential for a win.

 To those present, the plan was persuasive — and seemed to offer a coherent blueprint for the campaign to allocate resources. Yet, two weeks later and 20 days from the start of early voting, it’s not clear the plan is being implemented. In recent days, Trump has campaigned in Mississippi and Washington state — neither of which are seen as remotely competitive.

 Making matters tough for Trump has been the ongoing reluctance of the party’s biggest contributors to open their wallets. In some cases, they are expressing profound misgivings about the Republican nominee. Last month, during a gathering of House Speaker Paul Ryan’s donor network in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Annie Dickerson, a Republican giver who also serves as top adviser to GOP megadonor and Trump critic Paul Singer, spoke up. During one panel discussion, discussion turned to an often-asked question in Republican circles: Whether not backing Trump would ultimately lead to the election of Hillary Clinton — and regret.

 That’s when Dickerson chimed in: Trump, she said, has to be more accountable for himself. For Trump to blame everyone from the media to major donors to the establishment meant that he wasn’t placing the right amount of responsibility on himself, she said.

 The billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch also have refused to come around. After the Republican National Convention, the Kochs invited their friends and allies to a retreat in Colorado Springs, Colorado. There, Doug Deason, the son of Texas billionaire Darwin Deason, tried to persuade Charles Koch to have a meeting with the nominee. In an interview, Deason recalled telling Koch that he could influence Trump’s policies. But Koch was having none of it. His response: “I just don’t see the upside.”

 The antipathy has had far-reaching consequences. More than a month after Trump was nominated in Cleveland, the committee tasked with funding the convention remains in debt, according to three sources briefed on its finances. Organizers struggled to raise cash from major contributors and companies, many of them leery of Trump’s candidacy. (In July, just days before the start of the convention, the committee sent a letter to Republican megadonor Sheldon Adelson pleading to him for a $6 million infusion.)

 Some Republicans believe the party’s most prominent contributors have simply moved on and will focus their remaining giving on competitive House and Senate races.

 “Overwhelmingly the donors that I talk to are focused on protecting the House and saving the majority in the Senate,” said Spencer Zwick, a Ryan political adviser who is one of the most prominent fundraisers in Republican politics.

 Not all is lost. As the campaign enters its final months, some things have improved — perhaps most notably, Trump’s temperament and ability to stick to the script. During an August fundraising stop in Texas, Trump held forth before donors at a luncheon in Fort Worth, and vowed to stick with his new, more-on-message approach.

 “He’s turned the corner. He’s sharpened the message and staying on message. He’s not attacking Republicans and minorities, and he’s letting the media focus on Clinton and her problems,” said Deason, who was present at the Texas fundraiser.

 Recent swing state and national polling has shown Trump closing the gap with Clinton, who’s endured days of negative headlines surrounding her email practices and her family’s foundation.

 “The campaign has made tremendous strides over the last several weeks,” said Jason Miller, a Trump spokesman. “Mr. Trump is working harder than ever, we’re seeing greater crowds than ever before. Crooked Hillary Clinton continues to be a walking ethics nightmare to the extent she bothers to show up on the campaign trail at all. Additionally, it has been 271 days since Hillary Clinton held a press conference.”

 Other improvements are also in the works. Following a multitude of on-air slip-ups from Trump television surrogates that resulted in a series of embarrassing headlines, some advisers — which, according to one source included former House Speaker Newt Gingrich — urged the campaign to alter the process for determining who is allowed to represent the campaign on TV news programs. Greater control of surrogates, they concluded, was a must — and freelancing simply couldn’t happen anymore.

 On Wednesday evening, Bryan Lanza, a Trump press aide who oversees the surrogate operation, sent an email to staff informing them that changes were coming.

 “We are having too many issues of surrogates booking their media hits independently,” Lanza wrote, adding that surrogates now needed to contact him before going on air. “I will take care of all your booking needs. PLEASE DO NOT BOOK ON YOUR OWN ANYMORE.”

 But with just over two months until the election, Trump’s campaign remains transitory and unstable. Staffers describe a confusing work environment, with a constant lack of clarity about who’s in charge. To some, it's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway and CEO Steve Bannon. Others say it's Kushner and other members of the Trump family. Others say that, in the end, it’s Trump himself who’s calling the shots.

 Even keeping track of who’s working for the campaign at any given moment can be a challenge. In recent weeks, several aides who’d been advising Trump are no longer playing formal roles. They include Mike McSherry, a veteran party strategist who worked on the convention, and Doug Davenport, a longtime lobbyist who helped with the convention and Trump’s Pennsylvania primary effort. Rick Gates, who was Manafort’s top deputy, is also expected to soon depart, according to three sources familiar with his plans — even though on Aug. 19, the day Manafort resigned, the campaign announced that Gates would be serving as Trump’s liaison to the RNC. (Gates did not respond to requests for comment.)

 Some say the campaign narrowly avoided an exodus last month. Following Manafort’s departure, he personally appealed to those he brought on not to leave and to give the new leadership team, led by Conway and Bannon, a chance.

 Republicans say Trump still has time — but not much.

 “It’s hard to see how the Trump campaign gets to 270 where they are today,” said Russ Schriefer, a veteran strategist of presidential campaigns who served as a senior adviser to Romney in 2012. “It’s not impossible, but it would take some external factor and some very lucky breaks for that to happen.”

 “They have to reset the entire race and the entire dynamic,” he added. “They have a lot of things left to do and a very short amount of time left to do it.” |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Donald Trump is planning another trip outside his comfort zone with a visit to an African-American church in Detroit on Saturday, and he wasn't planning on taking any risks, according to a leaked script seen by the New York Times. The script contains a dozen questions that Bishop Wayne T. Jackson of Great Faith Ministries International was apparently planning to ask Trump in a closed-door session—and, more unusually for such an appearance, lengthy prepared answers for Trump. "I treasure my relationship with my family, and through them, I have a strong faith enriched by an ever-wonderful God," was Trump's prepared answer for a question about whether he is a Christian. "I want to make race disappear as a factor in government and governance," Trump was directed to say after a question about his vision for black Americans. After the script was leaked, a Trump campaign spokesman said the agenda has now changed and Trump plans to speak to the congregation directly after his interview session with the pastor. In other coverage: The Detroit Free Press looks at the uphill struggle Trump will have in order to win votes in Detroit, where Mitt Romney got just 2% of the vote in 2012. Some analysts believe the real purpose of Trump's visit is to show moderate Republicans elsewhere that he is willing to reach out to different groups of voters. The Washington Post analyzes Trump's latest proposals on immigration, and finds that immigration enforcement costs would leap by more than $50 billion over the next few years in order to put his plan into action. Politico looks at the state of the Trump campaign with 22 days to go before early voting begins. There has been some progress in areas including getting the candidate to stay on-message, but the campaign remains "transitory and unstable," with many aides unsure who is calling the shots. At FiveThirtyEight, Nate Silver notes that the race is tightening as it nears the home stretch—and warns that Clinton supporters are mistaken if they think the electoral college math will save her if it continues to tighten. The Wall Street Journal reports that in his big immigration speech in Arizona Wednesday, Trump had originally planned to avoid mentioning a border wall. He changed his mind and added a line about Mexico paying for the wall after finding out that Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto had told reporters that he told Trump Mexico wouldn't pay. "I had no choice," Trump, who thought they had an agreement not to discuss the wall at their first meeting, tells the Journal. Trump adviser Rudy Giuliani was at the meeting and says that when Peña Nieto declared Mexico wasn't going to pay, he said: "That's off the table" and the talks moved to another subject.


Here is a news article: Tech firms are known for their lavish meals, but city says it damages local businesses

 Free food has long been a perk of Silicon Valley. On the campuses of Facebook, LinkedIn and Google, employees have access to high-end restaurants with pizza ovens, sushi counters, freshly baked pastries and ice cream.

 However, as technology companies come under increasing pressure to deliver more value to the communities they inhabit, cities are clamping down on campus cafeterias in an attempt to support local restaurants.

 In a highly unusual mandate, city officials have barred Facebook from serving free food to its employees when the tech company moves into a new office in Mountain View later this year – and the city of San Francisco hopes to follow suit.

 How tech's richest plan to save themselves after the apocalypse Read more

 Two thousand Facebook employees are due to move into an office in a complex called The Village at San Antonio Center. In a 2014 agreement with the social network, reported by the San Francisco Chronicle this week, the city stipulated that tenants of the development cannot subsidise employee meals by more than 50%. Facebook can, however, cover the cost of employees’ food if they dine in restaurants that are open to the public.

 The restriction was enforced after local restaurants complained that free meals at Google, the city’s largest employer, had damaged their business.

 “We wanted to make sure businesses that were there were successful,” the councilman John McAlister told the Chronicle.

 Neither Facebook nor Google responded to requests for comment.

 Tech companies offer staff free food partly because some of their offices were built in suburban wastelands with few local restaurants, partly as a deal sweetener in a highly competitive job market, and partly to squeeze more working hours out of every day.

 It’s a popular perk, and one that causes Facebook employees to joke about the “Facebook 15”, the inevitable weight gain in pounds that comes from being surrounded by so many free delicious treats.

 In their efforts to satisfy tech workers’ various appetites, tech companies have poached some of the Bay Area’s best chefs, promising better pay and more sociable hours.

 The rules for Facebook’s new office are designed to encourage the thousands of tech workers to spend some money in and integrate with the local community, rather than arriving in a bus each day and never leaving the building.

 This is what the restaurant industry says has happened in San Francisco, where tech companies like Twitter, Uber, Airbnb, Yelp and Square were offered tax breaks in exchange for locating their offices in the Mid-Market neighbourhood.

 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Facebook’s headquarters in Menlo Park. The rule is designed to get workers to engage with the local community. Photograph: Kim Kulish/Corbis via Getty Images

 “It’s great we’ve had an amazing economic boom where jobs have located into San Francisco over the last several years, but many of these new jobs come with full-scale kitchen operations that make it difficult for restaurants to have a good lunch business and find workers,” said Gwyneth Borden, the executive director of Golden Gate Restaurant Association, a trade group for restaurants in the city.

 Borden is one of the supporters of a San Francisco city proposal, announced on Tuesday, that would ban on-site workplace cafeterias.

 If approved, the measure would alter city planning laws to ban workplace cafeterias in any new developments, but would not be retroactive.

 The Silicon Valley paradox: one in four people are at risk of hunger Read more

 “This is not a prohibition on catering or providing free food,” said Borden, noting that companies could instead give staff vouchers to buy food from local businesses.

 “Yes, we want the jobs but the whole point is you get more foot traffic, restaurant and retail patrons and overall vitality in the streets. But if people are bussed in, go to work and never leave the building, the effect isn’t felt.”

 Axing company cafeterias also means axing jobs that, depending on the company, can come with good pay and benefits.

 In March, cafeteria workers at Facebook’s Menlo Park headquarters unionised, a move that secured $4.75 an hour in raises, affordable healthcare and a pension plan. The ban on having a free cafeteria in the Mountain View complex could mean losing well-paid jobs to minimum-wage jobs in nearby restaurants.

 “We’re not convinced an outright ban makes a lot of sense,” said Ian Lewis, the research director at the labour union Unite Here.

 “One of the main problems here is an affordability crisis where working people are getting forced out and we need more good well-paying jobs with good healthcare and pensions,” he said.

 “If employee cafeterias provide those jobs that’s fine with us.”

 Contact the author: olivia.solon@theguardian.com ||||| When Facebook moves into its new offices in Mountain View this fall, a signature Silicon Valley perk will be missing — there won’t be a corporate cafeteria with free food for about 2,000 employees.

 In an unusual move, the city barred companies from fully subsidizing meals inside the offices, which are part of the Village at San Antonio Center project, in an effort to promote nearby retailers. The project-specific requirement passed in 2014, attracting little notice because the offices were years away from opening.

 It came in response to local restaurants that said Google, the city’s biggest employer, was hurting their businesses by providing free meals, according to John McAlister, a Mountain View councilman.

 “We wanted to make sure businesses that were there were successful,” McAlister said.

 The daily banquets at big tech companies — fresh-made omelets for breakfast, hand-rolled sushi for lunch, braised chicken and kale for dinner — have become legendary. Google hired its first chef about 20 years ago, when the company had just 50 employees. Reviews of its corporate cuisine popped up on Bon Appetit, Serious Eats and Yelp.

 New companies such as Facebook and LinkedIn matched the perk as they tried to lure employees away. Staffing the cafeterias became a booming business for the formerly sleepy field of corporate catering. But the in-house eating places have drawn customers and potential employees away from neighboring businesses, and city officials are concerned that local restaurants struggle and potentially bustling streets are empty as a result.

 Under Mountain View’s rules for the Village complex, meals within the offices can’t be subsidized by more than 50 percent on a regular basis. Facebook can fully subsidize employees if they go to restaurants that are open to the public.

 “It really was geared more around trying to make sure we didn’t have 400,000 square feet of office space with people that never left the building,” said Michael Kasperzak, a former Mountain View mayor who worked on the legislation. “If we have all these restaurants, we want this to be a successful development. If employers pay for it, that’s fine.”

 After leaving office, Kasperzak went on to work as a consultant for WeWork, the large New York operator of co-working spaces. Though Facebook is the sole tenant for now, WeWork is managing Facebook’s facility and is considering a public food hall in the ground floor, according to city officials.

 WeWork and Facebook declined to comment on the requirement.

 “We found the location attractive because of its proximity to public transportation, housing and public-serving amenities like shops and restaurants,” said Facebook spokesman Jamil Walker. Unlike many tech campuses, the Village project is adjacent to a Caltrain station and includes housing.

 The absence of an in-house cafeteria will help boost local retailers, said Steve Rasmussen, owner of the Milk Pail Market, a 44-year-old open-air produce market blocks from Facebook’s future office.

 “A lot of small, independent restaurants had been impacted when some of these companies went in-house with their food offerings,” Rasmussen said. “I think collaboration is vital, and it makes total sense.”

 Rasmussen is in talks with local restaurants to stock ready-to-eat meals at Milk Pail Market, which currently lacks such fare.

 “They’re very excited about what can we do to collaborate with the young folks who will come in with Facebook,” he said.

 Mountain View has been seeking other concessions from tech giants. A November ballot measure proposes a per-employee tax that would hit Google the hardest. Last year, a new Google campus called Charleston East will be partially open to the public, including restaurants that anyone can dine in.

 While the cafeteria provision only applies to the Facebook site, it’s possible Mountain View could seek to impose similar conditions on Google’s next major expansion in the North Bayshore area, where it has its headquarters campus.

 Mountain View Councilwoman Margaret Abe-Koga said it’s possible Google could help subsidize the rent for small businesses on its property or have agreements with retailers to patronize their businesses.

 Google didn’t respond to a request for comment on its North Bayshore plans regarding small businesses.

 Abe-Koga said the concept of tech companies offering free food was uncommon 20 years ago, and cities were in favor of companies in business parks having their own cafeterias because it reduced traffic. With projects like Village at San Antonio now featuring a mix of housing, office and retail, getting people outside their offices to frequent nearby businesses is key, she said.

 Mountain View’s neighbors don’t have plans to impose similar requirements on employee cafeterias. Cupertino Vice Mayor Rod Sinks said it’s already common to see Apple employees dine at local restaurants; the company charges employees for meals, making outside offerings relatively more attractive. Apple is more concerned with secrecy: It built a glassy restaurant that resembles one of its gadget stores on Alves Drive in Cupertino. A stand-alone building, it’s in walking distance of some Apple offices. Though the building is on a commercial street, the public can’t enter unless they’re the guest of an employee.

 In San Jose, there are no prohibitions on businesses offering free food, with the exception of its City Hall. When it was designed more than a decade ago, there were concerns that a cafeteria there would compete with local food businesses, so the city didn’t build one. Adobe’s downtown headquarters has partially subsidized cafeterias.

 Near San Jose’s Diridon Station, Google is planning another huge development. There has been no talk of restricting subsidized meals there, said Nanci Klein, San Jose’s assistant director of economic development.

 Chris Foley, co-owner of the Market, a food hall underneath Twitter’s headquarters in San Francisco, hopes that one day the city will follow Mountain View’s lead. Restaurants have opened in the Mid-Market neighborhood in hopes of gaining customers from the tech companies there, but a number have shuttered and struggled. If there were no meals served inside those offices, that would greatly benefit restaurants and food vendors like those in the Market, he said.

 “Having (tech workers) in their offices and not engaging with the community isn’t really good for the community or these small businesses,” Foley said.

 Zendesk, a customer-support software business located a couple of blocks down Market, doesn’t offer free lunch. Instead, CEO Mikkel Svane has recommended employees go to nearby restaurants such as Tu Lan and Farmerbrown. Once a month, the company pays for a group of employees to try a new restaurant, said spokeswoman Courtney Mundell.

 Wendy Lee and Roland Li are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email: wlee@sfchronicle.com, roland.li@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @thewendylee, @rolandlisf |||||
A summary of this is?

– There will be no free ice cream for the 2,000 employees set to fill Facebook's new office in Mountain View, Calif., later this year. Like many other tech companies in Silicon Valley, Facebook fills the bellies of its employees with free food, from oven-baked pizza to hand-rolled sushi. But that appears to be changing: In an effort to lend support to local restaurants, the city of Mountain View has blocked Facebook from subsidizing cafeteria meals by more than 50%, though it can fully subsidize meals had at outside restaurants. "We wanted to make sure businesses that were there were successful," councilman John McAlister tells the San Francisco Chronicle of the 2014 agreement, which he says came in response to complaints that Google's free employee meals were hurting local businesses. The goal was "to make sure we didn't have 400,000 square feet of office space with people that never left the building" to visit a local business, says former Mountain View mayor Michael Kasperzak. It's an idea that caught officials' attention in San Francisco. Though it "could mean losing well-paid [cafeteria] jobs to minimum-wage jobs in nearby restaurants," per the Guardian, two city legislators on Tuesday announced a proposal that would ban workplace cafeterias in new developments. "You get more foot traffic, restaurant and retail patrons, and overall vitality in the streets," says a rep for the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, which is in support of the proposal. "If people are bussed in, go to work and never leave the building, the effect isn't felt."


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 To see how we may use your information, take a look at our privacy policy. ||||| I’ve been on the Barron Trump train from the start, but it’s about time the president’s son starts dressing the part.

 Barron is the youngest son of Donald Trump and the only child the president shares with Melania Trump. Time and time again Barron has proved that he’s just a normal 11-year-old kid, despite the fact that his dad is the President of the United States and he lives in the White House. One thing that isn’t normal though is the way he dresses when he joins his parents for a public appearance.

 Barron was returning to the White House from New Jersey on Sunday and while the president and first lady traveled in their Sunday best, young Barron looked like he was hopping on Air Force One for a trip to the movie theater. (11 Times Barron Trump Proved He’s A Normal 11-Year-Old Kid)

 Think about how many times your parents forced you to dress up when you were a kid for a special occasion. No matter how hard you resisted, it was inevitable, you weren’t leaving the house until you had your tie tied, your shirt tucked in nice and neat with your hair combed, and a blazer on.

 That’s not how it goes for the president’s youngest child.

 Donald Trump and Melania always depart the White House looking their best. The president wore a fine tailored suit and Melania wore an elegant dress just as jaw-dropping as the last. But then Barron steps out in a t-shirt, khaki shorts and some suede loafers. (VIDEO: Barron Trump Snaps A Pic Of Marine One)

 What am I missing here? Is Barron just better than I ever was at rebelling against my parents? Yeah, I’d put the blazer and tie on and comb my hair and all that, but as soon as my mom turned her head you better believe I was messing my hair up and loosening my tie. Hell I might even undo a couple buttons on my shirt if I was feeling like a real badass.

 Barron doesn’t have to worry about all that, but he should. His dad is always looking dapper and his mom has become a worldwide fashion icon since becoming first lady. The youngest Trump doesn’t have any responsibilities as the president’s son, but the least he could do is dress the part when he steps out in public.

 Correction: An earlier version of this piece stated that Barron was returning to Washington, DC from Arizona, not New Jersey. ||||| You are on Twitter Mobile because you are using an old version of Edge. Learn more here ||||| President Trump, first lady Melania and their son Barron left New Jersey on Aug. 20, for Washington, D.C., at the end of the president's "working vacation." (The Washington Post)

 Once again, Barron Trump has become the target of online criticism. And once again, political figures, celebrities and others on social media are standing up for the 11-year-old, imploring the media to keep the youngest Trump out of the negative limelight.

 On Monday night, conservative news outlet the Daily Caller published a story attacking Barron for the T-shirt and shorts he wore while boarding Air Force One on Sunday. The headline read, “It’s High Time Barron Trump Starts Dressing Like He’s In the White House.”

 In a barrage of angry tweets, many described the story as “mean spirited,” “shameful,” intrusive and irrelevant. The reactions shared a common understanding that the president’s children are supposed to be off-limits.

 Following the story’s publication, the White House on Tuesday asked the news media to give Barron space.

 “As with all previous administrations, we ask that the media give Barron his privacy,” Stephanie Grisham, a spokeswoman for Mrs. Trump, told the Associated Press. “He is a minor child and deserves every opportunity to have a private childhood.”

 Former first daughter Chelsea Clinton, who has come to Barron’s defense before, weighed in with a tweet: “It’s high time the media & everyone leave Barron Trump alone & let him have the private childhood he deserves.”

 She later followed up with another message, tweeting, “Barron is A KID. No child should be talked about in the below manner-in real life or online. And for an adult to do so? For shame”

 Tuesday night, Melania Trump responded with a tweet thanking Chelsea Clinton and saying, “so important to support all of our children in being themselves! #StopChildhoodBullying”

 Thank you @ChelseaClinton – so important to support all of our children in being themselves! #StopChildhoodBullying https://t.co/UCUpFc5ZjR — Melania Trump (@FLOTUS) August 23, 2017

 In Monday’s Daily Caller story, entertainment reporter Ford Springer wrote that “while the president and first lady traveled in their Sunday best, young Barron looked like he was hopping on Air Force One for a trip to the movie theater.”

 As the President Trump and first lady Melania Trump departed from Morristown, N.J., to Washington on Sunday, Barron joined them wearing khaki shorts, loafers and a bright red T-shirt with the words, “On your mark tiger shark.”

 President Trump, first lady Melania Trump and son Barron Trump walk across the tarmac at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, N.J., on Aug. 20. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

 “What am I missing here? Is Barron just better than I ever was at rebelling against my parents?” Springer wrote. “His dad is always looking dapper and his mom has become a worldwide fashion icon since becoming first lady. The youngest Trump doesn’t have any responsibilities as the president’s son, but the least he could do is dress the part when he steps out in public.”

 It wasn’t the first time Chelsea Clinton has come to Barron’s defense. In January, a slew of jokes circulated on social media about the boy’s appearance at his father’s inauguration ceremony. “Saturday Night Live” writer Katie Rich was suspended indefinitely after a tweet she posted about Barron received angry backlash and calls for her firing.

 In response to the earlier attacks against Barron, Clinton wrote a Facebook post that was praised and shared widely:

 “Barron Trump deserves the chance every child does — to be a kid,” Clinton wrote. “Standing up for every kid also means opposing POTUS policies that hurt kids.”

 On Monday afternoon and evening, Twitter users questioned why the Daily Caller writer, and the public, should care about “what an 11-year-old boy wears,” as journalist Yashar Ali tweeted. “How is it your business?” he added.

 “Poor Barron,” tweeted comedian Chelsea Handler.

 Some complimented the first son’s outfit: “Barron was rockin a good look today,” tweeted Jesse Lee, who served as a special assistant under President Barack Obama.

 And others tracked down Barron’s shirt, apparently a $24.50 boys’ T-shirt from J. Crew. A similar shirt in lime green on J. Crew’s website included a note: “We’re sorry. This item has been so popular, it has sold out.”

 Jesus, they're even inhuman 2 their own. @Ford_Springer of conserv @dailycaller slams Barron Trump 4 his clothes. FORD! Kids are OFF LIMITS! — Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) August 22, 2017

 Leave Barron alone. Anything else is shameful. https://t.co/anHWEBd3AG — Tim Fullerton (@TimFullerton) August 21, 2017

 Chelsea Clinton spoke with college students about channeling anger into action and how she's learned to deal with her critics at a conference held at the University of Maryland. (Jackie Kucinich/The Washington Post)

 More from Morning Mix

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 Jerry Falwell Jr. keeps defending Trump as Liberty University grads return diplomas |||||
A summary of this is?

– If anyone understands what it's like to be a first child living in the White House, it's Chelsea Clinton. So it's not surprising she was one of many who came to Barron Trump's defense after a conservative website dressed him down—for wearing khaki shorts and a red T-shirt with a shark logo and slogan when he hopped on Air Force One on Sunday to return to DC with his parents. A reporter for the Daily Caller was insulted, Washington Post reports. "It's High Time Barron Trump Start Dressing Like He's in the White House," read the headline on an article by Ford Springer, who took the 11-year-old to task for dressing like he was going on "a trip to the movie theater." This was especially egregious, Springer writes, since the president is "always looking dapper" and Melania Trump has become a "worldwide fashion icon." Monday night, former first daughter Chelsea, who's come to Barron's defense before, spoke up. "It's high time the media & everyone leave Barron Trump alone & let him have the private childhood he deserves," she tweeted Monday night. Others joined the Team Barron chorus, including journalist Kurt Eichenwald, who tweeted, "FORD! Kids are OFF LIMITS!" Comedian Chelsea Handler simply noted: "Poor Barron." Meanwhile, the Post reports that the J. Crew website sells a green version of Barron's T-shirt, though as of this writing a note on the site read: "We're sorry. This item has been so popular, it has sold out."


– Extended family butting in with opinions about your kids is nothing new—but this case in Vietnam is a wild exception. CNN reports that a Vietnamese couple had their 2-year-old twins genetically tested after family members kept harping about how different the children looked. What the Center for Genetic Analysis and Technologies in Hanoi discovered: The twins are bi-paternal, meaning they share only a mother. The revelations about the family pretty much end there. The twins' gender was not revealed, and the only identifying details given by Vietnam's state-run news agency VNS is that the children have very different hair (thick and wavy vs. thin and straight) and live in Hoa Binh province with their 34-year-old father and mother, whose age wasn't given. Le Dinh Luong, president of the Genetic Association of Vietnam, says he's unaware of any case like this in his country. That hasn't stopped paranoid fathers from phoning the Hanoi center over fears about their twins, reports the Tuoi Tre paper. It's rare, but certainly not unheard of in the US. Last year, a New Jersey judge ruled a man is father to one twin while another man is father to the other, in a case that had child-support implications. The judge in that case cited two other similar court cases, and a 1997 article by identity testing expert Karl-Hans Wurzinger, who testified in the case, put the number of reported paternity cases involving superfecundation (the fathering of fraternal twins by two males) at one in every 13,000. CNN reports that the lifespan of the egg and sperm allow for roughly a week-long period in which a woman could become pregnant through two acts of intercourse. (This man's son was "fathered" by his unborn twin.)

Expand this summary.

Numerous fathers called a genetic analysis center in Hanoi this week raising concerns about their newborn twins whom they doubted might not biologically be theirs, following a rare case of twins born of different fathers.

 Nguyen Thi Nga, director at the Center for Genetic Analysis and Technologies (CGAT), said she received incessant phone calls from one father after another on Thursday morning, requesting consultancy on cases where their twins look nothing alike.

 These calls came in the aftermath of the first recorded case of heteropaternal twins in northern Vietnam, covered by Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper on Wednesday.

 Heteropaternal twins are born when two ova (egg cells) from the same menstrual cycle are fertilized by sperm from separate acts of sexual intercourse with two different males. The phenomenon is also known scientifically as heteropaternal superfecundation.

 The twins in question were brought in for a DNA test at CGAT by their father prior to Tet, or Vietnam’s Lunar New Year festival, which fell on February 8.

 According to Nga, the father in Hoa Binh Province was supposedly pressured by his relatives to take the test due to doubt about one of the twins’ real father, which had arisen from the baby’s appearance dissimilar from any family member’s.

 The results came as a shock to the said dad that he is the biological father of only one of the two babies, while his wife mothers both.

 Though the names of the parties involved have been kept secret to protect their identity and privacy, the curious case has still made the news so far, sparking a wave of other concerned fathers across Vietnam who are in a similar situation.

 No cause for concern

 One of the men who rang Nga said he has a pair of twin daughters who will turn one next month.

 The father had been troubled by the dissimilar appearances of his daughters since their birth, and his uneasiness has grown over time as their differences become more evident when they get older.

 Throughout the conversation, Nga said, the concerned father kept reaffirming his unshaken faith in his wife, but confessed that some thought still burdened him and it was intensified after he heard about the reported case.

 Nga said she had to keep reassuring the fathers who raised their ‘concerns’ that there was no cause for worry, as twins looking different from each other is not an uncommon phenomenon, and does not necessarily mean they are heteropaternal twins.

 In fact, Nga added, fraternal twins, or twins who were fertilized by two different egg cells, are just like siblings who were born separately and can look very different from each other depending on whom they take after in the family.

 “In these cases,” Nga said, “I always take it upon myself to advise the family not to take the DNA test, as heteropaternal twins are extremely rare in practice. Any doubt, no matter how small, can be devastating to their family ties, especially when such doubt hinges merely on the different appearances of the babies.”

 There are around 10 pairs of heteropaternal twins recorded worldwide, who can have different skin colors or even completely different appearances from each another, Nga concluded.

 Extremely unlikely, but not impossible

 Answering a Tuoi Tre question on Thursday about the likelihood of similar occurrences, Vu Ba Quyet, director at the National Hospital of Obstetrics and Gynecology, said the probability is extremely low, but not completely impossible.

 Quyet denied commenting on the credibility of recent reports of the pair of heteropaternal twins in Hoa Binh, but said it is possible for a female to bear twins from different males if she has engaged in sexual intercourse with the males within the same menstrual cycle, and her body has released two ova to be fertilized separately by their sperm.

 The twins born this way can be different from each other in their appearance, genome, and gender, Quyet added.

 Luu Thi Hong, a gynecologist and former general director at the Department of Maternal Health and Children under the Ministry of Health, said it is completely normal for fraternal twins to look different from each other.

 According to Hong, the female body generally releases one ovum per month, though some women can release two at different times during a menstrual cycle, and the one that is churned out first, or either of the ova that comes out at the same time, is fertilized by the sperm.

 “The conceptus takes seven to eight days to travel to the uterus and cling to its wall. Strictly speaking, a woman is considered pregnant only after the implantation of the conceptus has finished, so even if one of her ova has been conceived, the other ovum can still be fertilized within the seven to eight days it takes for the first conceptus to travel to the uterus,” Hong elaborated.

 Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam! ||||| Story highlights Family has DNA testing after relatives note twins look very different from one another

 Twins who have different fathers are extremely rare, scientists say

 (CNN) Scientists in Vietnam have confirmed a case of bi-paternal twins, or twins who have different fathers.

 A Vietnamese couple recently brought their fraternal twins to the Center for Genetic Analysis and Technologies, in the country's capital of Hanoi, to have DNA tests, after pressure from extended family members who noticed the children did not look alike, said Le Dinh Luong, president of the Genetic Association of Vietnam.

 The tests showed there was no mix-up in the hospital: The twins have the same mother, but different fathers.

 Luong said the family was surprised by the revelation, and looking for the best way to deal with the situation.

 He declined to give more details, because of a confidentiality agreement with the parents.

 Read More ||||| DNA testing has disclosed that a set of Vietnamese twins have two different fathers. There are only 10 such cases of bipaternal twins reported from across the world so far. — Photo dantri.com.vn

 HA NOI (VNS) — A set of twins in the northern Hoa Binh Province were found to have different fathers, following DNA tests done by the Ha Noi-based Centre for Genetic Analysis and Technology.

 This is the first case of its kind to be detected in Viet Nam. The two-year-old twins of the same sex look different, as one has thick and wavy hair, while the other has thin and straight hair.

 The 34-year-old father, under pressure from a family member, agreed to a DNA test, which proved that he is the father of one infant.

 In order to rule out possible mistakes by nurses at the hospital in giving them a baby of another couple, the wife also underwent a DNA test. The result shows that she is the mother of both children.

 President of Viet Nam Genetics Association Le Dinh Luong said bipaternal twins were very rare.

 There are reportedly about 10 sets of twins with different fathers across the world, including one in Poland, one in Spain, two in the United States and two in India.

 He said the phenomenon had a scientific explanation.

 Two eggs of the same mother get fertilised by two different fathers, within the same ovulation period.

 When we see twins, we assume that both eggs were fertilised during a single act of intercourse. But it's quite possible for one egg to be fertilised during one act of intercourse, and the other during another.

 It's only logical, then, that when a woman has sex with more than one man while she's fertile, "heteropaternal superfecundation" can occur. That is, each egg can be fertilised by a different father.

 However, if the twins don't look alike, it should not be assumed that they have different fathers. Like siblings, twins with the same father can look completely different from each other. They may even appear to be of different races. — VNS |||||


Here is a news article: Obama's Harvard law professor says 'President MUST be defeated in 2012' (even though he's the man Barack used to have on speed dial)

 Roberto Unger, 65, is respected author and Brazilian politician

 Taught Obama about 'reinventing democracy' at Harvard Law School

 Professor was an adviser during the 2008 election campaign

 A former professor of Barack Obama has turned against his one-time student and publicly urged voters not to re-elect him.

 Roberto Unger posted a video on YouTube detailing the reasons why he believes the President does not deserve a second term in the White House.

 Mr Unger, a prominent Brazilian politician and an adviser to Obama in 2008, said: 'President Obama must be defeated in the coming election. He has failed to advance the progressive cause in the United States.'

 Scroll down for video

 Scathing: Obama's former professor Roberto Unger said that he had 'failed' the United States and should not be re-elected

 The 65-year-old academic was in frequent contact with Mr Obama on his Blackberry throughout the last election campaign but has since decided that he no longer agreed with the President's decisions.

 His list of complaints against the President is a long one in the video entitled 'Beyond Obama'.

 The esteemed philosopher is scathing of Mr Obama's plans to salvage America's ailing economy, saying that his policy solely consists of 'financial confidence and food stamps'.

 He adds: 'He has spent trillions of dollars to rescue the moneyed interests and left workers and homeowners to their own devices.'

 The politician admits that if Republican candidate Mitt Romney wins the election 'there will be a cost... in judicial and administrative appointments'.

 However his most barbed remarks he reserves for the Democrat leader saying that Mr Obama has 'evoked a politics of handholding, but no one changes the world without a struggle'.

 Delete! The President regularly talked to Unger during his 2008 campaign... this is no longer likely to be the case

 Taking a shot: Roberto Unger criticised President Obama after being a long time supporter

 His summary of the past four years is equally scathing: 'Give the bond markets what they want, bail out the reckless so long as they are also rich, use fiscal and monetary stimulus to make up for the absence of any consequential broadening of economic and educational opportunity, sweeten the pill of disempowerment with a touch of tax fairness, even though the effect of any such tax reform is sure to be modest.'

 Making enemies: Obama has lost a respected adviser Roberto Unger

 Most of Mr Unger's comments seem to be politically to the left of Mr Obama, but he insists that the Republicans would be no more destructive than the Democrats as 'the risk of military adventurism' would remain the same.

 And some would doubtless strike a chord with the President's GOP opponents, including the academic's attacks on Mr Obama's efforts to reform healthcare.

 Mr Unger argues: 'He has subordinated the broadening of economic and educational opportunity to the important but secondary issue of access to health care in the mistaken belief that he would be spared a fight.'

 He also suggests that, despite their fierce rivalry, the Democrats' agenda is little different to that of the Republicans, saying the party aims 'to put a human face on the programme of its adversaries'.

 The professor concludes his video by saying: 'Only a political reversal can allow the voice of democratic prophecy to speak once again in American life.'

 Mr Unger is a renowned politician in his native Brazil. He has twice has run for president of Brazil and has served as Minister of Strategic Affairs.

 Unger was one of the founding members of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party and drafted its founding manifesto.

 He has also advised on politics throughout Latin America.

 Model student: Obama was taught by Unger when he attended Harvard Law School in 1988 The professor is a respected author having published dozens of books on economics, philosophy and politics.

 In philosophy, his arguments are said to focus on some the greatest problems of the human existence.

 The video, which was posted three weeks ago, has been viewed 22,000 times.

 Mr Unger has taught at Harvard Law since 1976.

 Obama studied jurisprudence and reinventing democracy with the professor.

 The President attended Harvard Law School in 1988 and was selected as an editor of the Harvard Law Review at the end of his first year.

 Last week Obama announced that young immigrants who were brought into the U.S. illegally will no longer be deported. The Obama administration said the policy change announced on Friday will affect as many as 800,000 qualified immigrants who have lived in fear of deportation. The President also came in for sharp criticism last week after he combined fundraising events with an official event - and charged the bill to the taxpayer.

 Obama raised a total of $4.5million at the fundraisers, one at Sex and the City actress Sarah Jessica Parker's house and the other at the five-star Plaza Hotel. However, the President's re-election campaign will not have to pay the full cost of his jaunt to the Big Apple, because he scheduled a short visit to the World Trade Center site. ||||| 3239007

 Harvard Law School professor Roberto Unger, who taught President Barack Obama classes such as Jurisprudence and Reinventing Democracy, said last month in a little-publicized video that his former student has betrayed liberals and should lose the presidency in November.

 “President Obama must be defeated in the coming election,” Unger said in a sit-down video posted to his YouTube account in May, which also attacked the Republican party.

 “If [The Republicans] had their way, inequality would be even greater than it is now,” Unger said, before acknowledging that a Romney win would lead to some undesirable “judicial and administrative appointments.”

 But those costs, to Unger, pale in comparison to the risks of an Obama second term.

 “The Democratic Party has no new direction. … [Obama] has failed to advance the progressive cause,” Unger said. “He has spent trillions of dollars to rescue the moneyed interests and left workers and homeowners to their own devices.”

 Then, gripping his chair tightly as if to strap in for an earthquake of truth-telling, Unger proceeded to unleash a series of one-liners against Obama.

 “He has subordinated the broadening of economic and educational opportunity to the important but secondary issue of access to healthcare. … He has evoked a politics of hand-holding. … His policy is financial confidence and food stamps.”

 Unger has posted several interviews with himself on his YouTube channel, which are viewed only rarely. Unger typically disables comments on his videos, and he receives few positive or insightful comments when he does allow user interaction.

 In a video Unger posted on the topic of the Hegelian and Sartrean Heresies, for example, a viewer praised Unger’s “very interesting” point of view but complained that “there’s got to be something you can do” about “your jaw click.”

 According to the Harvard Crimson, Unger received tenure at Harvard Law School at the unusually young age of 29.

 Watch Unger’s takedown of Obama:

 Follow Gregg on Twitter |||||
A summary of this is?

– A former professor who taught one Barry Obama at Harvard Law School now says his onetime student "must be defeated in the coming election." Roberto Unger—who, the Daily Mail reports, actually advised Obama during his 2008 campaign—believes Obama "has failed to advance the progressive cause," he says in a YouTube video from last month that got little notice until now. Unger at one point launches into what the Daily Caller refers to as "a series of one-liners against Obama," though he also criticizes the Republican Party. "He has spent trillions of dollars to rescue the moneyed interests and left workers and homeowners to their own devices," says Unger, who is also a well-known Brazilian politician. "He has subordinated the broadening of economic and educational opportunity to the important but secondary issue of access to health care. … His policy is financial confidence and food stamps. He has evoked a politics of hand-holding." After reiterating that Obama must be defeated, Unger concludes, "Only a political reversal can allow the voice of democratic prophecy to speak once again in American life."