– The latest accusations against Kevin Spacey bring the timeline of alleged sexual assault and harassment up to the present: No fewer than eight current and former House of Cards employees tell CNN that the star's behavior, including groping and crude comments, made the set of the Netflix show a "toxic" working environment. The show halted production earlier this week. The workers—who asked to stay anonymous out of fear of ruining their careers—say Spacey targeted young male staffers in a "predatory" manner. One former production assistant says he was in a car on the way to the set with Spacey when the actor suddenly put his hands down his pants. The worker says the nonconsensual touching from someone in a "very powerful position on the show" left him "in a state of shock." The production assistant says after arriving on set, Spacey cornered him in his trailer and made "inappropriate contact." He says after he told Spacey what he was doing wasn't OK, Spacey became "flustered" and left for the rest of the day. House of Cards producer Media Rights Capital says Spacey was reported for sexual harassment in 2012 and it is "deeply troubled" by the new allegations, per the Hollywood Reporter. MRC says it has set up a complaint hotline and legal assistance for workers. In a separate allegation, a man who is now 48 tells Vulture that he had a sexual relationship with Spacey when he was 14 and the actor was 24. He says they met around five times and there was a lot of "physical activity"—but Spacey then tried to rape him. He says he fought the actor off and fled, and Spacey later broke off contact with him.

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Media Rights Capital says it has also set up an anonymous complaint hotline, crisis counselors and sexual harassment legal advisors for the show's crew in light of recent allegations.

 Netflix and House of Cards producer Media Rights Capital are responding to new allegations of sexual harassment made against Kevin Spacey.

 In a CNN report Thursday, multiple employees of the Netflix series accused the star and executive producer of inappropriate behavior. One production assistant claimed that Spacey put his hands down the assistant's pants without consent while he was driving Spacey to the set. He then alleged that Spacey cornered him and touched him inappropriately.

 Another crewmember on the political drama said Spacey "would put his hands on me in weird ways," including massaging his shoulders and touching his stomach. Six other employees from the show talked with CNN about their experiences with the actor.

 In a statement, MRC responded to the latest allegations and confirmed a previous allegation of sexual harassment by Spacey in 2012.

 “We are deeply troubled to learn about these new allegations that are being made to the press concerning Kevin Spacey’s interaction with members of the crew of House of Cards. As the producer of the show, creating and maintaining a safe working environment for our cast and crew has always been our top priority," the company said.

 "We have consistently reinforced the importance of employees reporting any incident without fear of retaliation and we have investigated and taken appropriate actions following any complaints," the statement continued. "For example, during our first year of production in 2012, someone on the crew shared a complaint about a specific remark and gesture made by Kevin Spacey. Immediate action was taken following our review of the situation and we are confident the issue was resolved promptly to the satisfaction of all involved. Mr. Spacey willingly participated in a training process and since that time MRC has not been made aware of any other complaints involving Mr. Spacey."

 The company also said that it has set up an anonymous complaint hotline, crisis counselors and sexual harassment legal advisors for the crew in the wake of the accusations made. "MRC will continue to thoroughly investigate all current claims and any new claims that are formally brought to our attention, and will continue to monitor our own production and practices to ensure that our cast and crew feel safe and supported," the company added.

 Netflix also issued a new statement Thursday regarding the latest claims made against Spacey: “When the allegations broke about Kevin Spacey on Sunday night, in conjunction with MRC, we sent a representative to set on Monday morning. Netflix was just made aware of one incident, five years ago, that we were informed was resolved swiftly. On Tuesday, in collaboration with MRC, we suspended production, knowing that Kevin Spacey wasn’t scheduled to work until Wednesday. Netflix is not aware of any other incidents involving Kevin Spacey on-set. We continue to collaborate with MRC and other production partners to maintain a safe and respectful working environment. We will continue to work with MRC during this hiatus time to evaluate our path forward as it relates to the production, and have nothing further to share at this time.”

 The accusations follow those made by Star Trek actor Anthony Rapp, who alleged in a Oct. 29 BuzzFeed News article that Spacey made sexual advances towards him in 1986 when Spacey was 26 and Rapp was 14. Spacey tweeted a statement offering his "sincerest apology" to Rapp but said he did not remember the incident. In the statement, he also came out as gay, a move which was criticized by many in Hollywood as well as GLAAD.

 On Monday, Netflix and MRC confirmed the upcoming sixth season of the series, which had already started production, would be its last. (Media Rights Capital is co-owned by Eldridge Industries, which also owns The Hollywood Reporter.)

 In a joint statement, the companies said they were "deeply troubled" by the accusations. Executives from both companies traveled to the Maryland set to discuss the situation with cast and crew to ensure their safety. On Tuesday, Netflix and MRC suspended production on the series indefinitely.

 On Wednesday, Spacey's rep said he is "taking the time necessary to seek evaluation and treatment" in the wake of the allegations. ||||| Kevin Spacey. Photo: Daniel Zuchnik/WireImage

 Earlier this week, the actor Anthony Rapp alleged that Kevin Spacey made a sexual advance toward him in 1986, when he was 14 years old. After Rapp’s allegation, Spacey released a statement in which he claimed not to remember the incident in question and also came out as a gay man. Since then, others have come forward with further allegations against Spacey, including the filmmaker Tony Montana, who said that Spacey groped him in public in 2003, and the actor Roberto Cavazos, who said he witnessed Spacey court and inappropriately touch younger male actors at the Old Vic Theatre, where Spacey was the artistic director from 2004 to 2015.

 After Rapp’s public statement, a man who was friendly with a member of the New York staff approached the magazine to talk about Spacey. At the age of 14, he says, he began a sexual relationship with the actor, who was then 24, that ended with what he describes as an attempted rape. The man is now a 48-year-old artist living on the East Coast with a long-term partner, and he wishes to remain anonymous. “I have worked really hard to have a nice life and feel safe, and I’m not giving that up for him,” he told me, sitting outside on a park bench. “I don’t want them to be able to find their way back to me.”

 He first met Spacey in 1981, when the actor was a guest teacher at a weekend acting class he took in Westchester County; he was then a 12-year-old student. Spacey was 22 and working in the New York theater scene. They met again by chance in line at Shakespeare in the Park in 1983, when the student was 14 years old; Spacey had made his Broadway debut in Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts the year prior. After that meeting, he says, Spacey gave him his phone number, and the two began a sexual relationship.

 The former student came forward, he says, because he was enraged at Spacey’s response to Rapp’s story. We have done our best to verify his account of his time with Spacey. We confirmed with two sources that Spacey taught at the acting school in 1981; checked the plausibility of dates and other details in his account; and spoke with people close to the former student, who said that he had spoken about his relationship with Spacey as far back as the 1990s. We also spoke with his current therapist, who confirmed that he began speaking about it in sessions in 2015. And we have confirmed the other abusive relationship the former student discusses. We reached out to Spacey to talk about the relationship. He responded through his lawyer, who wrote in an email, “Mr. Spacey absolutely denies the allegations.”

 The following is a condensed and lightly edited transcript of our conversation. We are presenting it as he told it to us because of the nature of the relationship, which is best left to the former student to describe. He entered it enthusiastically as a young adolescent and continued to see Spacey until the unwanted assault. Consent is rarely simple, even among adults. It is especially complicated in the mind of a 14-year-old. This is his account.

 When did you first meet Kevin Spacey?

 I went to Saturday acting classes in Westchester County, outside of New York, around 1981. They would bring working theater professionals in to teach us. I was 12, and he taught at the school, maybe just for half a year. He wasn’t a known person at that time. He was probably just beginning to be a working actor.

 What was the school called?

 It didn’t really have a name. It was an hour of movement, an hour of acting, and an hour of musical comedy. It was in a church, and it was a bunch of kids between the ages of probably 11 and 18, singing and acting.

 When you were at school, did Kevin Spacey give you attention in that way?

 No. I knew that he knew who I was, but no there was no physical attention. There was no grooming or attention like “Let’s go out for an ice cream.”

 Was there ever any gossip around the students about him?

 No. We were not discussing sexuality. I mean, my group was 12.

 Do you remember what church it was held at?

 It was housed inside of Saint Thomas’s Church in Mamaroneck, New York. There were different age groups, and he came and taught acting classes, and then went away. I met him again the summer of 1983, when I was 14, at Shakespeare in the Park. I was waiting on line with my family. I saw him, and he saw me, and while my parents were waiting for tickets, he and I went for a walk.

 And that didn’t strike anyone as strange?

 No. I had been sexually active for a year then, also with a person ten years my senior — a member of my family, my cousin. Throughout that period, I’m giving off very obvious signals about my relationship with my cousin. I’m wearing his clothes. I’m sleeping over at his house. And my parents are in what seems to me a very profound state of denial about what’s going on. They know I’m gay. I came out to my parents in the eighth grade, when I was 13.

 It’s a shameful moment in the history of my family. But my cousin had sexually abused my older brother when my brother was 11 and he was 17 or 18. He was forgiven by my family and kind of invited back into the fold. My mother told him [to stay away from me]: “If you touch [him], I’ll kill you.” But then I start sleeping over at his house and wearing his clothes, and that goes on really for a year before anybody asks me any questions.

 Did you feel your relationship with your cousin was consensual?

 At the time, I would’ve told you that relationship was completely consensual. That we were boyfriends. I would’ve said, “Yeah, I’m 14, but I’m really smart. I’m really together. And it’s normal that 25-year-old men would want me to be their boyfriend because I’m a grown-up.”

 Okay, so you are walking with Kevin.

 Yeah, and we’re talking. He was kind of in high seduction mode and gave me his phone number and asked me to call him. He said, “I want to see you, and I want you to come to my apartment.” He said he’d always been really drawn to me at the acting classes, but had stayed away because I was 12. So I’m like [laughs] … now that I was 14. That was probably a 15-minute walk, and then I went back to be with my parents.

 How did you feel?

 I felt like I’d won the lottery. A little drunk with it and very delighted with the attention. I was like a cute, plump little kid who went through puberty really fast and came out the other side as somebody that grown-ups were looking at and saying was beautiful. If your father has never rubbed your head or patted you, and if you have suspected your whole life that he is actually repulsed by you or just bored by you [laughs], you’re hungry. And I had gone through puberty at 11. I had to make this happen. And I was terrified to do that with a boy of my own age. You could be beat up.

 After you talked in the park, when did you and Kevin first meet?

 I called him on the phone the next day, and he told me how he was in love with me and wanted to see me. I went and saw him at an apartment he was renting on the Upper West Side. He had a black Labrador named Snake. He might’ve been walking that dog in Central Park when we bumped into him that night. We started a sexual relationship that first visit, which mostly involved me fucking him.

 Did he ever talk about his personal life?

 There were pictures around his house of Jennifer Jason Leigh. I remember him talking about her as his girlfriend.

 Did you know if he was sleeping with anyone else?

 I assumed that he was sleeping with Jennifer Jason Leigh.

 How did the sexual part start happening? Did you talk?

 We talked a little bit, but it was more like, “You know why you’re here, I know why we’re here.” I don’t remember a lot of conversation. I remember a lot of physical activity.

 And how did you feel after the first time with Kevin?

 Dizzy.

 What happened afterward?

 I think we lay around and talked some. I was probably just there for a couple hours. I remember feeling like [I was] cheating, going back and forth between these two men.

 In your mind, at that age, there was a kind of drama.

 Oh my God. I’m sexually so compelled with this one man. With my cousin, I’m beginning to perceive his mental illness and his endless need for me at that time. I was part of a troupe of kids working with the director and writer Liz Swados, and that winter, Liz and I got together and she recognized that I was in a lot of psychic distress. She pursued it to the point where I confessed to her that I was trapped in this relationship with my cousin and wanted to get out, but felt like he would fall apart if I left him. She helped me get out. She gave me the words and explained to me also that 25-year-olds don’t have sex with 14- and 15-year-olds, that that’s wrong, that I was not the guilty party and I could leave.

 How many times did you meet up with Kevin after that first meeting?

 My memory is that we met up three or four more times with, again, proclamations that we loved each other. Also, [he was telling me] that there were producers who were really interested in me as an actor and that he wanted to get me auditions. He talked about some play and how he wanted to get me an audition for it. He hadn’t seen me act since I was 12.

 Did anything come of that?

 No, it didn’t result in anything professional.

 Did you ever talk to Kevin about his work?

 I knew at that point he was starting to be a working actor. That was very glamorous to me, that he was having the beginnings of some success in that world. Enough that it seemed like he was going to get me these auditions. That all seemed very believable. When you’re 14, a lot of things seem believable, especially if it’s something nice. I was acting professionally at that time, so that’s another part of why all of this made sense to me: I was commuting into New York and acting and making money.

 You were a working child actor.

 Of course I have a 24-year-old boyfriend and I’m going out to punk clubs. I’m lying to my parents about all of this. And I’m “cheating” on my cousin/boyfriend to go see Kevin Spacey. I’m very caught up in the drama, and it’s now early winter. So now I’m 15. He was in a different apartment, also on the Upper West Side, and I called him from a pay phone, like you used to do, and said, “I’m close by. Can I see you?” I had like 15 minutes before I had to meet my parents and some family friends for dinner.

 He told me to come over, and I went to the apartment. And I thought we were going to kiss and tell each other we loved each other and I was going to go. But he wanted to have sex, and this time he wanted to fuck me, which had never happened to me before.

 He said he wanted to top you?

 He did not say. He just did. I guess he must have come up behind me and yanked down my baggy jeans, and he goes to fuck me and I’m like, “No, I don’t want to.” And he pushes hard, and grabs me, and starts shoving up against my asshole, and it hurts like a motherfucker. I again tell him no, and he tries again. I am strong enough, thank God, both somewhere in my brain and in my body, to get him off of me. I’m sturdy, thankfully. I throw him off of me and I run crying down the stairs and out into the street and then suck it all up and go have dinner.

 Did he penetrate you?

 No. I don’t think so. I know it hurt, so something went somewhere to the point where it hurt, but I remember feeling like I got him. I did not feel like I had been fucked.

 What would you call it?

 I always have said, “He tried to rape me.” I told him I didn’t want that, he went again to do it, I told him no, he went again and pushed harder and grabbed me and pushed harder. I don’t know how I would see that as anything besides an attempted rape, which I was able to thwart.

 Did you feel afraid?

 I don’t know that I felt afraid. I felt betrayed, or in danger, or trapped. In some way it was like, “Oh, I’ve been lured into a trap.”

 I called his number a few days later and there was no answer — he’s gone, and I do not hear from him ever again. One year later, I’m an apprentice at the Berkshire Theater Festival. I see that he’s at the Williamstown Theater Festival [Spacey starred in Williamstown’s production of Real Dreams in 1984], and I contact him there and say I want to see him. And at the last minute I call him and say, “Why didn’t you ever call me? Why didn’t you ever do anything? I don’t want to see you.”

 And what?

 He was like, “Oh, come over. I’m going to drive over.” I had maintained this weird obsession with him, and I turned it at the last minute and said, “I don’t want to see you. Don’t come.” So that was that. And that has been the extent of my contact with him.

 Kevin Spacey and Robin Bartlett in Williamstown’s production of Real Dreams in 1984. Photo: Courtesy of Williamstown Theater/Bob Marshak

 Did you ever tell your parents?

 Nope. But then I remember talking to my friends in my early 20s about it, as he started to get prizes and be in plays and later win a Tony. In the late ’80s, I remember seeing him in the movie Heartburn, playing the thief, and this rage that he was rising up in the world and that I was going to have to look at this person for the rest of my life.

 How did you feel about him when you were 14?

 I was obsessed with him.

 And how do you feel about those feelings now?

 You feel things full body, in a way, when you’re adolescent, right? And some people never learn, but in adolescence, you certainly don’t know yet that a very powerful sexual feeling is not love. You haven’t found that out yet, and some people don’t ever find that out. I was just full of this lust. And that’s why, one year later, even after he tried to rape me, some part of me wanted to see him again.

 When did your thinking around what had happened start to change?

 When do I start to think of him as a sexual predator?

 Yeah. I assume you would call him that now.

 I would call him that to his face. I would call him a pedophile and a sexual predator. When I turned 25, I looked at every 14-year-old boy I could see, to try to understand what those men had seen, because I still on some level thought I had been a tiny adult. That whole year I was 25, I tried to just see the ones who were like six-foot-two, and 200 pounds — they all looked like children. They all looked like somebody who was 10 years old four years ago. Nobody looks fuckable. Nobody … I couldn’t conjure it up. I couldn’t conjure up the desire. It was nauseating to think of having sex with them, and that was, I think, certainly when I understood, on a very deep level, these men were fucked up. Up until then, I just thought about him as somebody who had really done me wrong and tried to rape me, but not as somebody who had functioned as a predator. And then, if you’re interested in sexual predation, you start to read about it, and you realize all these patterns and techniques, and it all kind of falls within a set of practices.

 Is that what you did? You read about it?

 Yeah, like I would talk to psychologists. I know that pedophilia is a sexuality, like homosexuality. You can’t necessarily — you can’t be cured of it. It is in your brain. That’s one of the tragic things about it for those people. You can become someone who does not act on those impulses, but the understanding in the psychological community is … that’s your sexuality. That’s what you’re stuck with. You read and you realize, “Oh yeah, they do this thing.” My cousin had done it. They make themselves beloved. They’re charming and helpful and kind so that the community invites them deeper in. They make themselves indispensable, and that also is a double thing. So that when they are accused, people don’t believe it. “Not him. Mr. Wallace is so great, and he takes the kids camping.”

 So in your view, this is who he is?

 He is a pedophile. When you look at his statement, you realize also he’s profoundly narcissistic. He thinks this is about being caught that he’s gay. And then he is spinning it, right? “Oh, people like gays now. So I’ll throw them that. I’ll say I’m gay and I will betray my whole community and do something else that conflates pedophilia with male homosexuality.” That’s great. Thank you for that. And that was probably the thing that made me want to talk more than anything else. How repulsive that was.

 Okay. I guess this is speaking a little more generally about relationships that gay men have, and often I think that there are older-younger kinds of relationships.

 Yeah. My partner now is 11 years older than I am. I mean, some part of me, almost anyone I’ve ever been seriously involved with has been older. What’s your question?

 Do you think that a 14- or 15-year-old is capable of being in a relationship with a man who is a decade older?

 No. What you need in a relationship, any relationship, involves a power struggle. But you have to start from some kind of equal footing. And a 15-year-old is a child. Everything is already off-kilter. You’re taking from somebody to get this thing you want.

 What did he take?

 From me?

 Yeah.

 Luckily, I threw him off me. I saved myself in many ways in that minute from the much deeper trauma that would’ve come from having been raped. Thankfully, some part of me was strong enough to be like, “Fuck no.” I’m so grateful to that little 14-year-old, that he didn’t say, I have to let him do this or he’ll stop loving me. What he left me with, more than what he took from me, was a sense that I deserved this. And that’s the knot I’m still untangling. Every time I’ve ever told the story, I am compelled to tell people how seductive I was towards these men. I’m compelled to tell people how much I wanted these things because some very deep part of me feels like it’s lying if I don’t say that. If I don’t describe how consensual it was. Some part of me takes a lot of work to understand that I can have been the victim of someone and not be a victim. So that’s all fucked up in my head.

 My introductions to love were, You’re a thing. You’re a tasty thing. And if you didn’t have that, you would have no worth.

 Does the question of consent feel complicated to you?

 Yeah. Sexual abuse is complicated. It’s like when you’re a kid, right, and somebody accidentally touched your penis with a towel, it feels nice. You can’t help that. Like rubbing up against the bed, it feels nice. So if you’re little and somebody touches your penis, it’s terrifying and shameful. At the same time, neurologically, it’s pleasurable. You’re left with that forever. You can’t help it. Teenagers have to be protected from themselves. Children have to be protected from themselves. That’s what adults do. They protect them and they create spaces for them like training wheels where they can begin to get ready. In an ideal world. This is not an ideal world.

 What made you want to talk about Kevin Spacey now?

 The low-level guilt that I’ve kind of carried all this time of knowing, in my brain, that these people repeat offend. They don’t stop. It’s never one and done. Pedophiles, sexual predators, that’s part of it. So knowing full well that he was continuing to do this, that he was out there at large, has made me feel ashamed. So that makes me want to talk. I’m grateful to Anthony Rapp for talking, that opened that door for me. Obviously the most right thing is to put my name and speak, and the second most right thing is to be anonymous and speak. And that’s what I can do. If it was 1977 and it was a newspaper, and I didn’t feel like the world was going to swarm in through the wormhole of my phone and invade my life and strip me of things, and if I also didn’t feel like that was going to become my name … I don’t want that to be my name. ||||| Kevin Spacey made the set of Netflix's "House of Cards" into a "toxic" work environment through a pattern of sexual harassment, eight people who currently work on the show or worked on it in the past tell CNN. One former employee told CNN that Spacey sexually assaulted him.

 The former production assistant, whose account has never previously been disclosed, told CNN that Spacey sexually assaulted him during one of the show's early seasons. All eight people, each of whom spoke to CNN on the condition of anonymity for fear of professional repercussions for speaking out, described Spacey's behavior as "predatory," saying it included nonconsensual touching and crude comments and targeted production staffers who were typically young and male.

 The new accusations follow an explosive article published less than a week ago by BuzzFeed News, in which actor Anthony Rapp said Spacey made sexual advances toward him in 1985, when Rapp was 14 years old.

 On Monday, Spacey released an apology in response to Rapp's account. "I honestly do not remember the encounter, it would have been over 30 years ago," Spacey said. "But if I did behave then as he describes, I owe him the sincerest apology for what would have been deeply inappropriate drunken behavior, and I am sorry for the feelings he describes having carried with him all these years."

 Related: Kevin Spacey seeking treatment after sexual assault allegations

 Spacey's publicist said in a statement on Wednesday that the actor is seeking unspecified treatment following Rapp's allegations.

 On Thursday, that publicist -- Staci Wolf -- said she and Creative Artists Agency were parting ways with the actor.

 Production of Season 6 of the series was shut down this week. Netflix and the production company Media Rights Capital issued a joint statement Tuesday to say that they are reviewing the "situation and to address any concerns of our cast and crew." Spacey is also one of the show's executive producers.

 The former production assistant who spoke with CNN said Spacey sexually assaulted him one afternoon when the assistant was assigned to drive to an offsite location to pick up Spacey and bring him to the "House of Cards" set, which is located about 30 miles outside of Baltimore.

 Related: House of Cards' production halted

 The production assistant says that when he and Spacey were just minutes away from the set and while the car was moving, Spacey, who was driving, put his hands down the production assistant's pants. The production assistant told CNN that the touching was nonconsensual.

 "I was in a state of shock," he said. "He was a man in a very powerful position on the show and I was someone very low on the totem pole and on the food chain there."

 The production assistant asked that what happened next in the car not be described, for fear that it would identify him.

 Once they had arrived on set, the production assistant says he helped the actor take his belongings from the car to Spacey's trailer on set. While the two men were in the trailer, the production assistant says, Spacey cornered him, blocked his exit and made inappropriate contact with him.

 "I told him, 'I don't think I'm ok with this, I don't think I'm comfortable with this,'" the production assistant said. That's when the actor became "visibly flustered," fled the trailer, got in his car and left for the remainder of the day, according to the production assistant.

 The production assistant did not report the incident to any managers of the series or the police, but he did tell a coworker at the time. CNN has spoken to the coworker to corroborate the production assistant's story.

 Related: London theater calls for information after Kevin Spacey allegations

 The alleged sexual assault came months after the production assistant had, he told CNN, complained to a supervisor that Spacey was sexually harassing him. The supervisor's solution was to never let the production assistant be alone with Spacey while they were on set, the production assistant says.

 The assistant said the harassment then stopped for long enough for him to feel comfortable driving with Spacey to the set.

 "I have no doubt that this type of predatory behavior was routine for him and that my experience was one of many and that Kevin had few if any qualms about exploiting his status and position," he said. "It was a toxic environment for young men who had to interact with him at all in the crew, cast, background actors."

 The other people who worked on "House of Cards" with whom CNN spoke all supported the idea that the set could be toxic for young men because of Spacey.

 A crew member who worked on the show for all six seasons said that Spacey routinely harassed and touched him.

 "He would put his hands on me in weird ways," the crew member said. "He would come in and massage my shoulders from behind or put his hands around me or touch my stomach sometimes in weird ways that in normal everyday conversation would not be appropriate."

 This crew member said he did not "feel comfortable" telling Spacey to stop. "That's the worst part about this whole thing. I would love to be able to speak out about this kind of stuff and not fear."

 Related: Kevin Spacey criticized for how he came out

 CNN spoke to a close friend of the crew member, who says that the crew member had told him about Spacey's behavior over the course of the six seasons of the show that it happened.

 When asked on Thursday about the new allegations, Netflix said in a statement to CNN that they sent a representative to the "House of Cards" set on Monday. Spacey did not respond to CNN's request for comment about the new allegations.

 "Netflix was just made aware of one incident, five years ago, that we were informed was resolved swiftly," the statement said. "On Tuesday, in collaboration with MRC, we suspended production, knowing that Kevin Spacey wasn't scheduled to work until Wednesday. Netflix is not aware of any other incidents involving Kevin Spacey on-set. We continue to collaborate with MRC and other production partners to maintain a safe and respectful working environment. We will continue to work with MRC during this hiatus time to evaluate our path forward as it relates to the production, and have nothing further to share at this time."

 MRC, the production company behind "House of Cards," told CNN in a separate statement on Thursday that they have implemented "an anonymous complaint hotline, crisis counselors, and sexual harassment legal advisors for the crew."

 "We are deeply troubled to learn about these new allegations that are being made to the press concerning Kevin Spacey's interaction with members of the crew of House of Cards," the MRC statement said. "As the producer of the show, creating and maintaining a safe working environment for our cast and crew has always been our top priority. We have consistently reinforced the importance of employees reporting any incident without fear of retaliation and we have investigated and taken appropriate actions following any complaints. For example, during our first year of production in 2012, someone on the crew shared a complaint about a specific remark and gesture made by Kevin Spacey. Immediate action was taken following our review of the situation and we are confident the issue was resolved promptly to the satisfaction of all involved. Mr. Spacey willingly participated in a training process and since that time MRC has not been made aware of any other complaints involving Mr. Spacey."

 MRC did not elaborate about the complaint it cited in the statement. They added that they will continue to investigate all claims brought to their attention.

 Other people with whom CNN spoke describe behavior similar to that recounted by the crew member.

 A former camera assistant, who said he witnessed Spacey's behavior but was never harassed by Spacey, said the touching largely occurred in an open space and that "everybody saw."

 "All the crew members commented on his behavior," the former camera assistant said. "What gets me is we have to sign sexual harassment paperwork before the start of the show and apparently [Kevin Spacey] doesn't have to do anything and he gets away scott-free with this behavior." CNN confirmed that Spacey was given guidelines regarding sexual harassment in the workplace.

 Colleagues never complained because they were afraid of losing their jobs, the former camera assistant said.

 "Who is going to believe crew members?" he said. "You're going to get fired."

 Related: Seth MacFarlane joked about Kevin Spacey on 'Family Guy' episode years ago

 A former female production assistant who worked on several seasons of "House of Cards" said she witnessed Spacey's sexual misconduct with crew members on set.

 "It was very known that Kevin was inappropriate, and males I worked with complained to me about how they felt uncomfortable," she said. "Kevin does this thing which was play fights with them in order to touch them." She said she saw Spacey approach "multiple people" to "say hello, greet them, shake their hand and pull their hand down to his crotch and touch their crotch. I have friends say he reached up their shorts on set."

 Spacey also made sexually-charged comments on set, according to a former crew member.

 "There was one instance [when] a grip bent over to pick something up and his ass crack was showing, and Kevin Spacey made a sexual comment about it," he recalled, adding that the comment Spacey made was "nice ass."

 The allegations about Spacey also come as the entertainment world is reckoning with fallout from the Harvey Weinstein sexual harassment scandal. Dozens of women have accused him of sexual harassment and police are investigating assault claims. Weinstein has apologized for his behavior, but he denies all allegations of nonconsensual sex. |||||


Article:
TAOS, N.M. (AP) — Authorities say searchers have found the body of a former White House chef who had been missing for more than a week after going hiking in the New Mexico mountains.

 FILE - In this July 27, 2004 file photo, outgoing White House chef Walter Scheib greets chefs from around the world at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, Md. Authorities are searching... (Associated Press)

 The New Mexico State Patrol says the body of 61-year-old Walter Scheib was found Sunday night near a hiking trail in mountains in the Taos area.

 The police statement did not provide a cause of death or any other details about the discovery of the body.

 Scheib recently moved to New Mexico. He served as White House chef for 11 years under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush

 Police say he reportedly went for a hike June 13 in the mountains near the Taos Ski Valley. His girlfriend reported him missing the next day.

 Taos police found his vehicle Tuesday parked at a canyon trailhead. ||||| The search is continuing for former White House head chef Walter Scheib, who was reported missing in New Mexico’s Sangre de Cristo Mountains last week.

 Scheib, 61, set out on a four-mile hiking trail near Taos on June 13 and hasn’t been heard from since, according to news reports. Authorities conducting the search and rescue mission found Scheib’s vehicle near the trailhead.

 Scheib, who has two sons, served as the executive chef in the executive mansion for 11 years. He was hired in 1994 by former first lady Hillary Clinton to infuse a distinctly modern American flair into 1600 Penn. menus. In 2005, after more than a decade and two administrations, Scheib was asked to resign.

 According to the book “The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House,” Scheib taught a teenage Chelsea Clinton to cook. After leaving the White House, Scheib started his own private chef business and co-authored a book, “White House Chef: Eleven Years, Two Presidents, One Kitchen.”

 “The search has been a little slow-going because of the terrain, but it is ongoing,” said New Mexico state police spokeswoman Sgt. Elizabeth Armijo, according to NBC News. ||||| Yesterday, the true Vice himself—Vice President Joe Biden—paid a visit to our very own VICE offices. But while Presidents’ schedules—and those of their Vice’s—are filled with speaking engagements, diplomacy, and meetings galore all over the world (including to our lucky digs), it can be easy to forget that a world leader’s still gotta eat. Ditto the First Family, who all eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner made by the White House’s executive chef.

 You may not recognize Walter Scheib’s name right off the bat, but there’s no doubt that you’re familiar with his work. Scheib served as the chef at the White House for 11 years; he was handpicked by Hillary for the Clinton administration and continued his service through the first half of George W. Bush’s tenure. Now, he’s the author of White House Chef and spends his days running his company The American Chef, which offers cooking classes, event planning, and speaking engagements where he shares some of the wisdom and craziness that he accrued at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

 We caught up with Walter for a phone chat while he leaned against a palm tree in beautiful Florida and we chattered our teeth into shards in New York’s current real-life snowglobe. He had so many interesting insights about the real definition of American food, the First Ladies’ love of hot sauce, and the way that 9/11 changed our diets that we’ve split his interview into two parts. Check out the first installment below, and visit MUNCHIES tomorrow for part two!

 MUNCHIES: It’s been ten years since you worked in the White House, but you’ve kept very busy since. What do you miss about working there, and what are you glad to be done with?

 Walter Scheib: When you work at the White House, you’re working at what we used to call “White House flex time,” which means you get to choose any 85 hours you want to work each week, and the rest of your free time is yours. [laughs] I don’t miss that component, but what I do miss is being in the White House. I miss getting to service the First Family in that way and to the country, you get that honor and that privilege of getting to know the President and his family— not as the cartoon characters you see on the nightly news, but as the nuanced and very real and interesting people. Secondly, the camaraderie of the team—of all 90 employees in the residence—really are a distinct and unique group of individuals, not only in their particular expertise and the talents that they have, but more importantly, their understanding of the heart of service of working for this family. You basically become anonymous—you check your ego and your politics at the door and you’re only there to give the First Family an island of sanity in a very crazy world. It takes a unique temperament to be able to do that for an extended period of time.

 Do you miss it, or are you relieved that your life is less stressful now?

 Well, last year I did 85 events and was on the road for 300 days a year, as there is a tremendous interest in hearing humorous and humanizing stories about the two First Families. It really is a word-of-mouth business; the more you do, the more you do. I thought that after a year or two the novelty would wear off, but it’s been proven that each year it actually gets more busy than the previous. Of course, with Secretary/Senator Mrs. Clinton running for president and being, at the very least, a favored candidate to be in the big race, that of course will increase interest that much more.

 It’s known that she’s a huge fan of yours, and personally chose you for the role of chef while she was the First Lady. Do you think you could be called back into service if she succeeds?

 Well, I mean, of course if the President asks you to be of service to the country, you’d be hard-pressed to say no. If she wants me, she knows my phone number and I’ll be of service. I don’t care if it was a Republican or Democrat, if I knew them or didn’t know them—if the President asked me to serve, I would do it.

 There are no tasters. The idea of a taster is a very Medieval one. If you wanted to poison someone these days, it could take up to a couple of weeks to even have an effect.

 It would probably be a lot different now since Bill is basically a vegan.

 Well, that’s the urban myth. I don’t know that that’s true. If you’re trying to keep a fairly austere regimen—and veganism is that in my estimate—it’s very difficult to do. I think you have to present that you’re doing it full-time and taking it seriously so that you don’t get presented with things by chefs that you would be tempted by. I know a number of chefs that have served the former President over the years. While he trends towards veganism and vegetarianism, it isn’t totally exclusive. We’ll just put it that way.

 Photo courtesy of Walter Scheib

 What was it like the first day you started as a chef at the White House?

 My first day was so strange. The day of 9/11 was curious, the day that the administration changed over was strange too—so there have been some days that I never imagined in my wildest dreams would play out—but going to my first day at work and passing by 3,000 people that had lined up to walk around and check out the residence, getting my first phone call from the President or First Lady calling me by my first name, recognizing the fact that while it’s just a bowl of oatmeal or a sandwich, it’s going to the single most important person or another member of the family in the world …

 It really is a daunting proposition, knowing that there can be no mistakes. There can be no dilemmas where the President gets sick, you have to be very careful of things. Then, of course there’s the honor of course of being like, who am I serving every day? And then learning the history of the house so that you can be an ambassador to the White House and to the First Family when visitors come.

 What was the screening and security process like, working in the White House every day?

 The clearance that you have when you’re working in the White House is called Top Secret Presidential Proximity. “Top secret” is—well, everyone knows what that is—but the “presidential proximity” part means that you can be in close physical contact with the President and the First Family with no Secret Service around you. Obviously, this is one of the most security-cleared posts you can get. In terms of the few of us that are in the kitchen who have that clearance, if you think about it, we’re not just around outside and next to the President; we’re physically inside of him. You really couldn’t get any more close to that. In a way, you may be one of the singularly most trusted people in the whole country.

 That reminds me of a story that was circulating recently, that Obama got flak for allegedly turning down some food at an event because he didn’t have his taster with him.

 Well, that’s another urban myth. There are no tasters. The idea of a taster is a very Medieval one. If you wanted to poison someone these days, it could take up to a couple of weeks to even have an effect. Stuff takes on a life of its own, and for the most part, the White House doesn’t follow up on it or deny it. They just let it fly. There are a number of people around the President who are aware of what’s going on and who are aware of the protocols of what he eats and what he doesn’t eat, but there would be no one who would say don’t eat this or don’t eat that. There are security protocols in place to protect him, but the idea of someone tasting all of his food before he tastes it is absurd. I am honestly very apolitical, but if you look at the outlets that were spreading that story it’s fairly obvious why it was being spread.

 I think Mrs. Clinton had about 50 or 60 different hot sauces that she liked to use, and Mrs. Bush just had one that she liked, but she would use it on just about everything.

 One of your legacies is that you’re said to have really distilled and advanced the concept of American cuisine while you were in the White House. What do you think are its fundamental, signature characteristics?

 Food is a representative of the culture of the country it’s in and the people who are eating it. American food is a very clear representative—by far—of the most diverse and far-flung country that there is. I would characterize American food by three things: First, at its core, it’s not about complicated or difficult technique, but about great, delicious, big, and full flavors. Secondly, there are regional influences. This idea of big flavors really circulated in the mid-70s and suddenly you saw all of these regional cuisines popping up, whether it was Alice Waters out in California, or Mark Miller down in the Southwest, or Tom Douglas up in the Northwest. And the third play is the ethnic one.

 You don’t sound old enough to have been dining out in the 70s or early 80s [Ed. note: I’m not], but in those days, you’d say “We’re going out for Chinese,” which was some sort of amorphous Eastern type of food, or “We’re going for French,” which was some sort of cream-sauced, overly done, tuxedo-clad cuisine, or “We’re going for Italian” which was some sort of pasta with red sauce, or pizza. And that was about it. These days, you can walk down the street of any medium-sized city and see ten or 12 different Asian cuisines represented, half a dozen Italian styles, another ten or 12 European styles, South American cuisine, you name it. In America, there’s no orthodoxy. You can cook whatever or however you want, and if the food is good, people will find you and they’ll eat it.

 Bush and Clinton were both known to love rich, Southwestern types of foods. How would you compare their diets to one another?

 Food at the White House didn’t delineate along party lines, but it delineated very closely along gender lines. Both of the First Ladies had very eclectic palates, always wanting to try new and different things all the time. Mrs. Clinton, like Michelle Obama, was very interested in the nutritional components of food and a healthy lifestyle. It’s not well-known, but Mrs. Bush was adamant that as often as possible we would use organic food at the White House table. She was in Austin, apparently, when the concept of Whole Foods was coming up and really bought into the idea of organics. And they both liked spicy food. I think Mrs. Clinton had about 50 or 60 different hot sauces that she bought and liked to use, and Mrs. Bush just had one that she liked, but she would use it on just about everything, so the effect was the same. Cooking for the Presidents, I think they would have been just as happy if we had opened a barbecue pit or a burger joint in the basement. You can see that President Obama continues this trend. While his wife is a representative for responsible dining and regional food, every time you see the President he’s eating a triple cheeseburger with a side of fries wherever he is that particular. It seems Presidents are still eating their stereotypical guy food, while First Ladies are laboring to try to get people to dine responsibly.

 But both presidents that I worked for like Southwestern—one’s from Texas, one’s from Arkansas. But the real dichotomy you’re talking about is barbecue. If I had to pick a national dish, people always say it’s apple pie or hot dogs—it’s not. It’s barbecue! Barbecue is in every region in the country and there are many different takes on it. And when you’ve get a Texan and an Arkansan, the Texan will tell you that barbecue was beef brisket dry-rubbed and hot-cooked over a fire, and then sliced with a sauce on the side. But an Arkansan will tell you that it’s a slow-cooked, wet-cooked, pulled and sauced pork. Both of them will tell you very distinctly that the other one isn’t really barbecue.

 Did you feel like there was a difference in the foods that Presidents ate during the more difficult times: the wars and tragedies and scandals?

 Whether it was scandals, horrible occurrences, wars, or things not going as planned, clearly you see them in very pressured moments, both good times and bad times. Part of being the White House chef is being aware of what mood the house is in and what’s appropriate for the time—what kind of food should you be serving? I noticed right after 9/11—when I was looking back through all of my recipes for my book—that without any prompting, all of the food changed from being very eclectic and very forward-thinking, to going back into very safe food. Your mother’s table, if you will. I think the country was very confused about what was going on and everyone wanted to grab onto an anchor, and in this case, that was food. I’m doing research for a book I’m working on right now, but I think that maybe this slow food, locavore movement going on right now can really find its genesis back in the weeks and months post-9/11, as people were shying away from this very flamboyant cuisine and wanting something more soul-satisfying.

 Click here to read Confessions of a White House Chef, Part Two. ||||| Play Facebook

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 Search teams in New Mexico recovered the body late Sunday of a missing former White House chef who was last seen setting off for a solo hike in the mountains near Taos last weekend, New Mexico State Police said.

 Walter Scheib, 61, went hiking in the area on June 13 and never returned home. He was reported missing the next day.

 His body was found late Sunday off of a trail about 1.7 miles from the base of the Yerba Canyon Trail, police said. Rescue workers were still gathering information and no other details were immediately available, police said in a statement.

 Scheib set off on the trail, which reaches altitudes above 12,000 feet, Taos Search and Rescue said. Scheib's vehicle was found at the Yerba Canyon Trailhead on Tuesday, the department of public safety said.

 The search has included ground teams, aircraft, teams from the National Guard and search dogs, Armijo said. The air search was expanded Friday, but the mountainous terrain and dense vegetation made the air effort difficult, the department said.

 Scheib served as White House executive chef under Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush from 1994 until 2005.

 He was initially hired by then-First Lady Hillary Clinton, who was said to have been impressed by Scheib's highlighting of American cuisine.

 He is listed as co-author of "White House Chef: Eleven Years, Two Presidents, One Kitchen," published in 2007. |||||Summary:

– The body of former top White House chef Walter Scheib has been found more than a week after he disappeared in rough terrain near Taos, NM. State officials say the body of the 61-year-old, who had recently moved to the state from Florida, was found near a hiking trail, the AP reports. Scheib went for a solo hike in the mountains last weekend and never returned, sparking a huge search effort involving aircraft, dogs, and National Guard teams, NBC News reports. Police say rescue teams are still gathering information on his death. Scheib, author of White House Chef: Eleven Years, Two Presidents, One Kitchen, was hired by Hillary Clinton in 1994 to give daily meals and state dinners a distinctive American twist, and was asked to resign in 2005, during the George W. Bush administration, the Washington Post reports. In an interview with Munchies earlier this year, the chef said he would be "hard-pressed to say no" if a victorious Hillary Clinton asked him to return to the White House kitchen in 2016. "If she wants me, she knows my phone number and I'll be of service. I don't care if it was a Republican or Democrat, if I knew them or didn't know them—if the president asked me to serve, I would do it."


Write an article based on this summary:

– How is it possible to rack up charges for shoplifting and child abuse at the same time? By tossing your infant daughter at the deputy coming to arrest you. Police say Pensacola's Ashley Wright, 23, was spotted by a store employee hiding about $250 worth of (adult) clothes in her daughter's baby stroller, reports WJHG. When she left the store and got in her car, a deputy approached and ordered her out. She refused, and held the baby carrier between him and her, saying, "You will have to shoot through the baby to get to me," reports the Smoking Gun. She then got out of the car and started running, still carrying the baby carrier. As the deputy chased her, she "threw the baby carrier ... at me, about shoulder height," he writes. She missed, but the 3-month-old wasn't injured. Wright, however, soon fell and was arrested. She later told police that her "night of bad decisions" probably had something to do with the beer she drank earlier.

JULY 17--As a shoplifting suspect tried to flee from a Florida cop, she used her three-month-old daughter as a tiny human shield and announced, “You will have to shoot through the baby to get me!” police charge.

 Ashley Taylor Wright, 23, allegedly walked out of a Dillard’s Monday evening with $261 worth of clothing hidden in a baby stroller. After being alerted to the theft by a store employee, an Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office deputy approached Wright as she got into the passenger side of a Nissan Pathfinder in the parking lot.

 Wright, who had screamed at her husband to get in the car so they could leave, refused a deputy’s demand that she exit the car. At one point, she “grabbed a baby carrier and held it in front of her screaming, ‘You will have to shoot through the baby to get me!’” according to a sheriff’s report.

 While Wright (seen in the adjacent mug shot) cursed and scremed at a deputy, two other small children--a two-year-old boy and a four-year-old girl--watched from the back seat.

 The Pensacola resident then jumped out of the car and “began running away from it with the baby carrier,” which held her infant daughter. As a deputy closed in on her, Wright “threw the baby carrier…at me, about shoulder height,” the report notes.

 After dodging the airborne carrier and the 14-pound baby, the deputy apprehended Wright, but not without a struggle. Wright, who was bleeding after she tripped and hit her head on the ground, shook her head from side-to-side, spraying deputies with blood. “Now you mother fuckers have my blood all over you bitches,” she remarked.

 The baby was not injured during her brief takeoff and landing.

 By the time she arrived for treatment at a local hospital, Wright had calmed down, telling deputies that she had consumed a few beers, which might have prompted her “night of bad decisions.”

 While copping to stealing the clothing, Wright claimed “it was because her kids needed school clothes.” Wright, however, had stolen a woman’s shirt and two pairs of Miss Me jeans, not children’s garments.

 Charged with felony child abuse, petty theft, and resisting an officer, Wright was booked into the county jail, where she remains locked up in lieu of $7000 bond. (3 pages) ||||| A mother is arrested on child abuse charges for sacrificing her infant in a failed attempt to escape a shoplifting arrest.

 Ashley Wright, 23, of Pensacola, went shopping Monday night at the Santa Rosa Mall in Mary Esther. The Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office says she went into the fitting room at Dillard’s and stuffed two pairs of Miss Me Jeans and a pink Hurley shirt, valued at $261.00, in a baby stroller and walked out of the store.

 As a deputy approached her car, the Sheriff’s Office says Wright yelled at her husband to leave. When the deputy tried to get Wright out of the vehicle, she put a baby carrier, with her 3-month-old inside it, in between her and the deputy and said “You will have to shoot through the baby to get me.”

 Wright then threw the 14 pound infant, still in the carrier, at the deputy and took off running Fortunately, the baby was not hurt.

 Mom didn’t make it far. She fell down in the parking lot and fought the deputy as he tried to take her into custody.

 Wright is charged with petty theft, child abuse and resisting an officer. |||||


Summarize this article:

Man charged after Heights party-goer shot to death while wearing bulletproof vest

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 A Rosenberg man has been charged with manslaughter in the shooting death of another man wearing a bulletproof vest at a party in the Heights, Houston police said.

 Jason Griffin, 39, has also been charged with felon in possession of a weapon and unlawful possession of body armor.

 Officers were dispatched early Sunday to a garage apartment in the 300 block of West 23rd, where a man had been shot in the chest. Paramedics pronounced the man him dead at the scene. Court records identified him as Daniel Barber.

 Jason Griffin Jason Griffin

 Police were dispatched to the garage apartment on 23rd Street early Sunday morning. It was not immediately clear if the bullet had gone through the vest or if the shooter had missed the vest. Police were dispatched to the garage apartment on 23rd Street early Sunday morning. It was not immediately clear if the bullet had gone through the vest or if the shooter had missed the vest. Photo: Metro Video LLC / For The Houston Chronicle

 Police were dispatched to the garage apartment on 23rd Street early Sunday morning. It was not immediately clear if the bullet had gone through the vest or if the shooter had missed the vest. Police were dispatched to the garage apartment on 23rd Street early Sunday morning. It was not immediately clear if the bullet had gone through the vest or if the shooter had missed the vest. Photo: Metro Video LLC / For The Houston Chronicle

 window._taboola = window._taboola || []; _taboola.push({ mode: 'thumbnails-c', container: 'taboola-interstitial-gallery-thumbnails-4', placement: 'Interstitial Gallery Thumbnails 4', target_type: 'mix' }); _taboola.push({flush: true});

 Image 1 of / 4 Caption Close Man charged after Heights party-goer shot to death while wearing bulletproof vest 1 / 4 Back to Gallery

 Homicide investigators were working to determine whether the incident was the result of a dare. It was not immediately clear whether the bullet had gone through the vest, police said.

 Griffin and another witness fled the scene, officials said. Griffin was arrested Sunday while being treated at a local hospital for what police called "a medical issue." He is still in custody at the hospital.

 Griffin was charged in 2001 with the felony offense of aggravated robbery in a Fort Bound County court, according to Harris County District Clerk court records. ||||| EMBED More News Videos Man fatally shot after putting on bulletproof vest.

 Houston police have charged a man in connection with the deadly shooting in a Heights garage apartment early Sunday morning.Jason Griffin is charged with manslaughter, unlawful possession of a firearm and felon in possession of a gun for the deadly shooting.Investigators say Griffin was at a party in the 300 block of West 23rd Street.At some point during the party, the victim, now identified as Daniel Barber, put on a bulletproof vest.Police say Griffin took out his gun and shot Barber in the chest.He was killed.Griffin left the party before returning to talk with police.His girlfriend told ABC13 he didn't mean to kill his friend. She said Griffin didn't even know his gun was loaded."He goes 'shoot me.' Well, he didn't think there was nothing in it, and he did. And the dude went '@##$ that hurt' and then he dropped. And then Jason ripped the vest off of him and tried to help him,'" said Mary Warstler.Warstler said Griffin was suicidal after the shooting and had to be treated for seizures before he was arrested. |||||

– A man was shot dead while wearing a bulletproof vest at a Houston party and police say they've been left to uncover whether the tragedy happened as part of some kind of prank gone terribly wrong. Jason Allen Griffin was arrested early Sunday morning following the death of a man named Daniel Barber. Per KTRK, cops say Griffin and Barber had been at a party together when Barber was shot in the chest while wearing the vest, allegedly by Griffin. He was arrested and has been charged with manslaughter, unlawful possession of a firearm, and felon in possession of a gun. According to the Houston Chronicle, police are trying to determine whether the men thought they were playing some kind of game. A woman who identified herself to KTRK as Griffin's girlfriend, Mary Warstler, said the suspect didn't even know his gun was loaded. What's more, Warstler claims that Barber told Griffin "shoot me" before Griffin allegedly pulled the trigger. After Barber was shot, Warstler said Griffin ripped off the vest in a bid to help the victim, but it was too late. Warstler said Griffin was so distraught following the shooting that he was suicidal and that he had to be checked into the hospital for seizures.


Colin Kaepernick’s protest of the national anthem has been spreading across the sports world, now a division rival may be embracing it. Seattle Seahawks cornerback Jeremy Lane has already joined the protest, and now linebacker Bobby Wagner and receiver Doug Baldwin may join him. In fact, the entire Seahawks roster may sit in solidarity with the San Francisco 49ers quarterback.

 Wagner said he didn’t know if he was going to sit but that, “anything we want to do, it’s not going to be individual. It’s going to be a team thing. That’s what the world needs to see. The world needs to see people coming together versus being individuals.”

 When asked if other players on the team have considered joining Lane’s protest, Baldwin said, “our locker room has discussed it. So we’ll see.”

 Baldwin said he has heard from veterans who have supported a series of tweets he posted defending the protest. He had the following to say about it:

 “My grandfather being in the military, it hit home for me as well, and specifically it’s the veterans. That’s more heartening to me than anything is the veterans that have reached out and said that’s what they fought for, that’s what they sacrificed their lives for, is to give people back home under the flag, under this country, the opportunity to stand up or sit for what they believe in.”

 Baldwin also said he has been in contact with Kaepernick over the last few days.

 Wagner said the Seahawks organization and coaches won’t dictate what the players do.

 “We have the freedom to do whatever we want here. Whatever we decide to do, we ain’t gonna get into too much trouble. We’re big kids now.”

 When it closes in on kickoff at CenturyLink Field on Sunday all eyes will be on the Seahawks to see what they decide to do. ||||| At the very least, Colin Kaepernick's decision to kneel for the national anthem has raised awareness about why he's doing it, which he explained last month: "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color."

 Granted, the issue has been a contentious one, and as President Obama pointed out this week, the way Kaepernick has chosen to deliver is message might be "messy" but this is how "democracy works."

 But Kaepernick also isn't alone; over the weekend, United States Women's National Team member Megan Rapinoe knelt during the national anthem prior to her club team's game, and fellow NFL player, Seahawks cornerback Jeremy Lane did the same. Lane says he will continue to sit and he could have company from teammates.

 Seahawks wide receiver Doug Baldwin is considering following Lane's lead, while linebacker Bobby Wagner said the team has been talking about taking action as a group.

 Details via the Seattle Times' Bob Condotta:

 While Wagner said he didn't know if he would sit down during the anthem he said "anything we want to do, it's not going to be individual. It's going to be a team thing. That's what the world needs to see. The world needs to see people coming together versus being individuals." Wagner said he couldn't say exactly what the team might do, saying "whatever we decide to do will be a big surprise."

 Meanwhile, Lane has the full support of Seahawks coach Pete Carroll.

 "[Lane's] pretty clear on what he did and what he was trying to express and I think it is very simple and so we'll leave that up to him," Carroll said. "But he understands the responsibility of it, I think, and shouldering it.''

 Wagner added: "We have the freedom to do whatever we want here. Whatever we decide to do, we ain't gonna get into too much trouble. We're big kids now."

 And Baldwin said he didn't think there would be any issues in the locker room, even if some players disagreed with the idea of sitting during the anthem.

 "It's different in our locker room," he explained. "We kind of give each other a lot of slack, so whatever decisions you make, we understand we are all human beings. Some of us might not agree, some of us will agree. But at the same time we give each other slack because we know we are all human beings."

 One person that won't have a problem with Lane -- or others: Defensive end Michael Bennett.

 "I mean I think it's his right to be able to protest," Bennett said last week, when Lane first made his stance by sitting. "And I think it's all right. I think there are definitely some issues in America that a lot of people are starting to recognize. I think people have recognized them before but I think with social media and the things that are going on out there, the media outlets, everybody has a chance to really show what is going on and their ideas and having a chance to really protest what they think is wrong with America and that's OK, that's what it's about. It's about people having that right to have their voice and I think it's cool that Jeremy Lane is doing what he wants to do."

 The Seahawks host the Dolphins on Sunday in the regular-season opener, which just so happens to fall on September 11. |||||

Write a summary.

– Colin Kaepernick's protest of the national anthem appears to be snowballing. Two Seattle Seahawks players have insinuated they may do something as a team during the national anthem prior to Sunday's game against the Miami Dolphins. "Anything we want to do, it's not going to be individual," the Big Lead quotes linebacker Bobby Wagner as saying. "It's going to be a team thing." Following teammate Jeremy Lane's solo act of protest during a preseason game, receiver Doug Baldwin says the "locker room has discussed" joining in. According to CBS Sports, coach Pete Carroll is already on record supporting Lane's right to protest, and Wagner isn't worried about reprisals. "Whatever we decide to do, we ain't gonna get into too much trouble," he says. "We're big kids now."


– Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders introduced legislation to Congress today that would ban private prisons and jails in the United States, USA Today reports. Sanders—who has called the size of the US prison population an "international disgrace"—says the goal of for-profit prisons and jails is to increase the number of people locked up, according to the Washington Post. “The profit motivation of private companies running prisons works at cross purposes with the goals of criminal justice,” the senator says, per USA Today. Legislation cosponsor Rep. Keith Ellison says for-profit prisons spend millions every year pushing for stricter sentencing laws. “Incarceration should be about rehabilitation and public safety, not profit,” he says. The "Justice Is Not for Sale Act" introduced by Sanders today would ban the government from working with private-prison companies, bring back the federal parole system eliminated in the '80s, and end quotas on how many immigrants are held in detention, USA Today reports. According to the Christian Science Monitor, private prisons are a $5 billion a year industry with 19% of federal prisoners currently being held in one, and banning them could face an uphill battle in Congress. The Post reports the legislation could be an attempt on Sanders' part to appeal to African-American and Latino voters. Democratic challengers Clinton and O'Malley have also come out against private prisons.

Expand this summary.

Today, the Democratic candidate will introduce a bill that, if passed, would eliminate for-profit prisons, expanding a national conversation on social justice, law enforcement, and prison reform.

 Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks at a civil rights rally at Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday. Sanders will introduce a bill to eliminate for-profit prisons, expanding a renewed national debate on social justice and prison reform.

 On Thursday, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) of Vt. is set to introduce the “Justice Is Not For Sale” Act on Capitol Hill, which would ban a private prison industry he accuses of creating a “perverse incentive” to keep jails filled.

 The bill, co-sponsored by Rep. Raul Manuel Grijalva (D) of Ariz., calls for federal, state, and local governments to ban privately run prisons within three years, to reduce high fees for prisoner services such as phone calls, and to reinstate a federal parole system, which was eliminated as part of ‘tough on crime’ efforts in the 1980s, The Washington Post reports. The bill also seeks to reduce the number of immigrants held in detention centers, many of which are privately-managed, by eliminating the current minimum quota of housing 34,000 people each day.

 Calling the private prison industry “disgraceful,” and “morally repugnant,” Sanders’ campaign website says “the measure of success for law enforcement should not be how many people get locked up.”

 Private prisons, originally created to lower costs and reduce dangerous overcrowding in public facilities, now house 19 percent of federal prisoners, fueling a $5 billion industry that has quickly become a hot “recession resistant” investment.

 Reform advocates allege that the industry, dominated by The GEO Group and the Corrections Corporation of America, reduces the motivation to rehabilitate prisoners because companies make a profit by keeping them imprisoned.

 A University of Wisconsin study released this spring found that private prison inmates often serve longer sentences, yet are just as likely to recidivate as those in public prisons.

 As researcher Anita Mukherjee highlighted, these longer sentences drive up private prisons’ costs, undermining claims that they save taxpayers money, which is ostensibly the industry’s core purpose. Other analyses have also cast doubt on their cost-saving ability, particularly since state contacts may have to guarantee a certain number of prisoners to their private providers.

 Calling to abolish the industry, Sanders says:

 We need to end the tragic reality that the United States has more people in jail than any other country on earth, and that the people being incarcerated are disproportionately black and Hispanic. We need to take a hard look at why the rate of recidivism in this country is so high and why we are not developing successful paths back to civil society for those who serve prison time.

 By adding a specific plan to the national conversation on law enforcement, racial bias, and prison reform, the bill may help Sanders make inroads with voting demographics he has struggled to reach as an Independent senator from a small, nearly entirely white state.

 Campaigning in South Carolina beside intellectual and civil rights activist Cornel West last week, Sanders stressed investing in “jobs and education rather than jails and incarceration.” Hillary Clinton, who enjoys far more recognition and support from African-American voters, has also criticized mass incarceration, but has yet to propose a specific reform plan.

 Meanwhile, an opinion piece in Al Jazeera reports that Republican candidates Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio have supported, or accepted support from, the private prison industry.

 Although a ban on private prisons would face an uphill battle in Congress, The Christian Science Monitor reports that other bipartisan prison reform bills are likely to pass this fall, as both parties recognize new research casting doubt on the assumption that tough sentencing laws result in lower crime rates.

 Thanks to three-strike laws and minimum sentencing requirements instituted in the 1980s and 1990s, the prison population has more than quadrupled over the past few decades; more than 1 percent of Americans are now behind bars. |||||

 Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders speaks in Des Moines, Iowa, last month. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

 Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) will unveil a plan Thursday to ban privately run jails and prisons, which he says have a “perverse incentive” to increase the number of incarcerated people in the country.

 Under the proposal by the Democratic presidential hopeful, the federal government would have three years to end its practice of using private companies to keep people behind bars. The ban would also apply to state and local governments, which have increasingly turned to private contractors in a bid to save money.

 “It runs counter to the best interests of our country,” Sanders said in an interview Wednesday. “You should not be making a profit off of putting people in prison.”

 Sanders’s “Justice Is Not For Sale Act,” which he plans to introduce as legislation in Congress, also includes several provisions intended to dramatically reduce the number of immigrants who are held in detention facilities while awaiting court hearings on their legal status.

 [How Bernie Sanders is plotting his path to the Democratic nomination]

 The release of Sanders’s plan comes as he seeks to broaden his appeal among African-American and Latino voters, two key constituencies in the Democratic nominating process for whom the issue of privately run prisons and detention facilities has emerged as a hot-button issue.

 Sanders is scheduled to appear at a news conference Thursday on Capitol Hill to unveil the bill, which is being sponsored in the House by Rep. Raul Manuel Grijalva (D-Ariz.).

 Hillary Rodham Clinton has also expressed concerns about privately run prisons on the campaign trail but has not put forward a plan regarding their use. Another Democratic presidential hopeful, former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley, included a provision to phase out privately run facilities in a broader criminal justice plan he recently released.

 As a lawmaker, Sanders has not previously tackled the issue of privately run prisons, but he said it is consistent with his long-standing concern that the United States is locking up far too many people. On the campaign trail, he frequently describes the “international disgrace” that more people are incarcerated in the United States than any other country in the world.

 [Cornel West joins Bernie Sanders on the campaign trail in South Carolina]

 The bill Sanders will introduce includes another provision aimed at lowering the prison population: reinstating the federal parole system, which was abolished in 1984 as part of a wave of tough-on-crime legislation. Sanders said there needs to be flexibility in the system to release those who have been rehabilitated.

 More than 19 percent of federal prisoners are housed in private facilities, as are nearly 7 percent of state prisoners, according to statistics cited by Sanders in a two-page summary of his legislation. Meanwhile, Immigration and Customs Enforcement holds more than 60 percent of its detainees in private facilities.

 Among the immigration-related provisions in Sanders’s legislation is ending a congressional mandate that ICE maintains a minimum of 34,000 detainees a day.

 “That seems pretty silly, and is obviously wrong,” Sanders said.

 On the campaign trail, Clinton has at times spoken derisively of private prison companies, saying in June, for example, that it’s an industry “that makes money off of mass incarceration.” She has also accused the companies of cutting corners to boost their bottom line.

 Clinton has also taken some grief in recent months because lobbyists for two of the largest private prison companies are helping raise money for her campaign.

 Sanders said in the interview that he plans to continue his practice of using his position as a senator to highlight his agenda as a presidential candidate. While presidential candidates typically issue position papers, Sanders said putting his ideas in the form of legislation gives a fuller picture of where he wants to take the country.

 Staff writer Anne Gearan contributed to this report. ||||| Sen. Bernie Sanders said he hopes to end the “private, for-profit prison racket” with the introduction Thursday of bills to ban private prisons, reinstate the federal parole system and eliminate quotas for the number of immigrants held in detention.

 The Vermont independent, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, introduced the “Justice is not for Sale Act” with Democratic Reps. Raúl Grijalva of Arizona, Keith Ellison of Minnesota and Bobby Rush of Illinois. It would bar the federal government from contracting with private incarceration companies starting two years after passage.

 “The profit motivation of private companies running prisons works at cross purposes with the goals of criminal justice,” Sanders said. “Criminal justice and public safety are without a doubt the responsibility of the citizens of our country, not private corporations. They should be carried out by those who answer to voters, not those who answer to investors.”

 Taxpayers pay $80 billion a year bill to incarcerate 2.3 million people, according to the lawmakers. Of the nearly 1.6 million people in federal and state prisons in 2013, 8.4 percent were in private facilities.

 Ellison said the private-prison industry spends millions each year lobbying for harsher sentencing laws and immigration policies that serve its bottom line.

 “Incarceration should be about rehabilitation and public safety, not profit,” he said.

 The legislation would reinstate the federal parole system, abolished in 1984, and increase oversight of companies that provide banking and telephone services for inmates. It also would end the requirement that Immigration and Customs Enforcement maintain 34,000 detention beds.

 Sanders said the bill represents only a piece of the major criminal justice reforms he believes are needed, but he’s convinced the issue can find bipartisan support.

 “Making sure that corporations are not profiteering from the incarceration of fellow Americans is an important step forward.” |||||