PA Dr James Watson

 Not very long after James Watson finished his Nobel Prizewinning work on the structure of DNA in 1953, he started firing off some eyebrow-raising comments about his fellow man: that fat people don't get hired because they lack ambition; how sunlight (and darker skin) is the source of the "Latin lover" libido; what he found distasteful in the appearance of his female research collaborator, Rosalind Franklin.

 But as the great geneticist slunk back to the U.S. on Friday  his sold-out U.K. tour for his new book called Avoid Boring People: Lessons from a Life in Science canceled after the apparently racist remarks he made to Britain's Sunday Times Magazine last weekend  it's clear that Watson's latest provocation is not one he'll shrug off lightly. Indeed, Watson, 79, says he is "mortified" by the imbroglio, and apologizes "unreservedly" for the offending comments, in which he suggested black people are not as smart as whites: he told the Sunday Times' Charlotte Hunt-Grubbe that he is "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa," since "all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours  whereas testing says not really." Watson also told Hunt-Grubbe, who lived and worked with him as a lab assistant in Long Island a decade ago, that even though he would hope all people are equal in intellectual capacity, "people who have to deal with black employees find this not true."

 Condemnation was swift. Watson arrived in the U.K. midweek to promote his new book, which will be out Oct. 22. He was scheduled to speak Friday at the Science Museum in London, but the museum announced the day before that it would cancel the event, as Watson had "gone beyond the point of acceptable debate." The University of Edinburgh then axed Watson's scheduled appearance for Monday, calling the scientist's remarks "entirely incompatible with the spirit" of the lecture series in which he was supposed to participate. And an event organizer in Bristol, which had booked the DNA pioneer for Oct. 24, dropped Watson as well, saying the Sunday Times Magazine remarks were "unacceptably provocative."

 By noon on Friday, a beleaguered Watson had canceled his remaining engagements and was flying back to the U.S. "His decision to leave the country, I believe, was due to things going on at Cold Springs Harbor," says his publicist Kate Farquhar-Thomson, referring to the Long Island lab where Watson is chancellor. Though Farquhar-Thomson declined to speculate what those "things going on" might be, odds are they include the lab board's decision yesterday to suspend Watson's administrative responsibilities.

 No one seems more shocked by the statements than James Watson himself. "To all those who have drawn the inference from my words that Africa, as a continent, is somehow genetically inferior, I can only apologize unreservedly," Watson said in a statement he issued at the Royal Society Thursday. "That is not what I meant. More importantly from my point of view, there is no scientific basis for such a belief."

 And on that much at least, he's right. For one thing, science has no agreed-upon definition of "race": however you slice up the population, the categories look pretty arbitrary. For another, science has no agreed-upon definition of "intelligence" either  let alone an agreed-upon method to test it. All kinds of cultural biases have been identified in IQ tests, for example. If there is something fundamental in our brains that regulates our capacity to learn, we have yet to separate its effects from the effects of everything that we experience after we're born.

 Still, even with the offensive and unreasonable remarks that appeared in print, it's hard not to feel a little bit sorry for Watson. The man Charlotte Hunt-Grubbe describes in The Sunday Times Magazine is less an arrogant bigot than an enthusiastic if misguided old man, someone who does not quite understand that people won't always take his provocative remarks as innocently as he intended. Even Watson seems shocked by the comments in the magazine. "I cannot understand how I could have said what I am quoted as having said," he said in yesterday's statement. (The Times Online reports today that the Sunday Times Magazine interview was recorded and the publication stands behind its story.)

 But there was a time about 10 years ago, writes Hunt-Grubbe in her piece, when she, then a lab assistant, found Watson distressed over a British newspaper headline: Abort babies with gay genes, says Nobel winner. Hunt-Grubbe asked Watson about that incident again when they met for their recent interview. "It was a hypothetical thing," Watson tells her. Someone had asked a question about aborting homosexual babies, and Watson believed mothers "should have the right" to decide when they have a baby. "I was just arguing for the freedom of women to try and have the children they want, not what is right or wrong," he continues. To be sure, picking and choosing your kids' traits is controversial enough. But it's not necessarily prejudicial. Given Watson's stature in scientific circles and his complete retraction of the Sunday Times Magazine remarks, let's hope these race comments, too, have been misunderstood, and that Watson is not just an obsolete product of a bygone time. ||||| For Immediate Release

 RELEASE: RECOGNITION FOR THE MOST IMPORTANT SCIENTIFIC BREAKTHROUGH OF THE 20TH CENTURY: DR. JAMES D. WATSON’S 1962 NOBEL MEDAL FOR HIS WORK ON THE STRUCTURE OF DNA ESTIMATE: $2.5 – 3.5 MILLION

 New York – On December 4, Christie’s New York will conduct the sale of the 1962 Nobel Prize gold medal awarded to Dr. James D. Watson, one of the world’s greatest living scientists, for his ground-breaking discovery in 1953, alongside Dr. Francis Crick and Maurice Wilkins, of the structure of DNA: the double helix. Their discovery gave birth to the new science of molecular biology and revolutionized modern medicine. A Nobel Prize medal has never before been offered for sale by a living recipient. A portion of the proceeds will be donated by Dr. Watson to continue his philanthropic legacy of supporting scientific research, academic institutions, and other charitable causes. This medal represents the turning point of 20th century medicine. It is estimated at $2.5 to $3.5 million.

 No single person has done more to make DNA central to modern life than Dr. Watson, who wrote the first textbook of the new science, the innovative and highly influential Molecular Biology of the Gene (1965), followed by his memoir of the discovery, The Double Helix (1968)—one of the best-selling popular science books of all time.

 Included in this historic auction are Dr. Watson’s own handwritten notes for his acceptance speech at the December 10, 1962, banquet ceremony in Stockholm (estimate: $300,000 - $400,000), and his manuscript and corrected drafts for his Nobel Lecture, delivered the following day (estimate: $200,000 - $300,000). These unique papers offer intimate insights into the creative mind of Dr. Watson, virtually all of whose papers are in the collection of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory archives. On April 10, 2013, Christie’s sold Francis Crick's “Secret of Life” letter, in which Watson’s co-discoverer explained the structure of DNA to his son a few weeks before their discovery was published, for $6,059,750, more than three times its pre-sale estimated value. It holds the world record for any letter sold at auction.

 The discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA was formally announced in an elegant 800-word article by Watson and Crick in the journal Nature in April 1953. The importance of Watson and Crick’s discovery was revolutionary, and the scientific community soon rallied around their achievement in subsequent research on DNA and issues of molecular biology.

 Watson’s 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine represents not merely a pinnacle in scientific achievement, but the beginnings of an intellectual life story that continues to this day. The beauty of the double helix was manifold, implying methods of replication that underpin the inheritance of biological traits and form the basis of the entire field of molecular biology. It was, in short, the most important scientific event of the 20th century, one that would forever link the names Watson and Crick in history.

 Dr. Watson comments on the sale: “I look forward to making further philanthropic gifts to Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, the University of Chicago, and Clare College Cambridge, so I can continue to do my part in keeping the academic world an environment where great ideas and decency prevail. I also intend to direct funds to the Long Island Land Trust and other local charities I have long supported.”

 James Dewey Watson (b. 1928)

 James Watson was born in Chicago in June 1928, the only son of Jean Mitchell and James D. Watson, a businessman who only completed one year at Oberlin College and a mother who completed two years at the University of Chicago, both due to financial reasons. A couple of modest means, the Watsons nevertheless sought to inspire their son to achieve great things through education and constant self-improvement. After just two years at South Shore High School, he was accepted to begin his undergraduate studies in Zoology at the University of Chicago. At just 15 years old, James Watson already demonstrated tremendous intellectual potential. After graduating with his BA in 1947, a Bachelor of Philosophy in a Great Books centered college curriculum, and graduating Phi Beta Kappa, James Watson began doctoral work on bacterial viruses at Indiana University, studying under Salvador Luria, who himself would receive a Nobel Prize for his research on viruses. Watson obtained his PhD in 1950, and began post-doctoral work in Copenhagen studying the fate of DNA- infecting virus particles.

 In 1951, at a symposium in Naples, he met Maurice Wilkins, a 34-year-old physicist who saw the X-ray diffraction pattern of crystalline DNA. It inspired Watson to change the direction of his own research. Salvador Luria arranged for him to move new research at the University of Cambridge’s Cavendish Physics Laboratory, where he worked alongside Francis Crick, a physicist 12 years his senior. “He was the first person I met who I could really talk to about DNA,” Watson said later. “I’d met people, but they didn’t share my conviction that only DNA was important.” Over 18 months, Watson and Crick pored over countless sets of data before discovering the structure of DNA on February 28, 1953. It was a thrilling, laborious, and ever-changing process, one that Watson later rendered vividly in his memoir, The Double Helix (1968).

 One morning in February 1953, he noticed that the shapes of two pairs of the base molecules in DNA were identical: the adenine-thymine pair and the guanine-cytosine pair. “Upon [Crick’s] arrival, Francis did not get more than halfway through the door before I let loose that the answer to everything was in our hands,” Watson recalled later. It is no small feat to change the course of science. On a par with Newton, Darwin and Einstein, Watson’s unyielding quest for knowledge led to discoveries that forever altered human history.

 In 1956, James Watson joined the faculty at Harvard, where he quickly ascended the ranks to become a full professor of Biology. He championed cutting-edge research and restructured the department into what is today the leading biological research center in the world. In 1968, Watson was appointed director of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, the prestigious research institution where he had made his first public presentation of the DNA double helix some 15 years earlier. As he had done at Harvard, Watson turned CSHL into an international leader in molecular biology. He hired distinguished biologists, assembled conferences, and oversaw the restoration of historic, harbor-view properties meant to inspire bold scientific thinking. “Just as he was with the double helix,” noted Bruce Stillman, president of CSHL, “[Watson] was a real visionary in running an institution, and how an institution can have an impact on the world.” He became chancellor emeritus in 2008, after decades of tireless work in transforming the facility and promoting its research.

 His accomplishments as a writer have solidified his place with the general public. His best-selling memoir from 1968, The Double Helix, forever changed the public perception of scientists, from staid figures ensconced in laboratories to quick-thinking, ambitious and oftentimes competitive individuals in a race to discover the mysteries of life. Subsequent books included Genes, Girls and Gamow: After the Double Helix, and Avoid Boring People and Other Lessons from a Life in Science.

 In the late 1980s, his connection with the double helix came full circle, when he became the first director of the U.S. National Institute of Health’s Human Genome Project. It was the kind of monumental undertaking familiar to Watson: sequencing the entirety of the human genome in an effort to unlock the secrets of disease, human evolution and mankind at the molecular level. In 2007, he was one of the first people to have his entire genome sequenced, a fitting milestone for someone who was so instrumental in uncovering the building blocks of human life. He can still be found at Cold Spring Harbor, where he has lived since the 1970s. In his constant search for answers and to cure incurable cancers, James Watson continues to inspired.

 The impact of the discovery of DNA's structure extends far beyond theory, and well beyond science. The concept of DNA has become the very foundation of so much of our contemporary discourse, influencing art, business, culture, the law, even politics. That it is at once something we all share and that which makes us unique profoundly affects our sense of who and what we are in the 21st Century. Dr. Watson's medal is thus not a static object from a moment in the past, frozen in time, but a symbol of human history and evolution: a powerful emblem of human advancement given to one of the men who unlocked our common "secret."

 Auction date: December 4, 10 a.m.

 On view: Christie’s, 20 Rockefeller Center, November 29 – December 3, 10 a.m. – 5 p.m., (Nov. 30, 1 – 5 p.m.)

 Related Departments Books & Manuscripts |||||

Write a summary.

– One of the scientists who helped unfold the structure of DNA is putting his Nobel Prize on the auction block, and James Watson says it's because he's broke after being ostracized by the academic community over racist remarks he made seven years ago, the Atlantic reports. "No one really wants to admit I exist," he tells the Financial Times, labeling himself an "unperson." The remarks were made in a 2007 Sunday Times article, in which he admitted to feeling "inherently gloomy about the prospect of Africa [because] all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours—whereas all the testing says not really." He tacked on that even though some would say black people were as intelligent as whites, "people who have to deal with black employees find this not true." Those weren't the first incendiary statements he's made: As Laura Blue pointed out in a 2007 Time article, Watson has also said fat people don't get jobs because they lack ambition, that sun and dark skin creates a "Latin lover" libido, and that a female colleague widely credited with expediting the DNA discovery didn't dress well. But while Blue writes that it's "hard not to feel a little bit sorry" for Watson, whom she calls "less an arrogant bigot than an enthusiastic if misguided old man," Adam Rutherford says in the Guardian that "no one is interested in his racist, sexist views" and that "it turns out that just like DNA, people are messy, complex, and sometimes full of hideous errors." Meanwhile, his Nobel is expected to net between $2.5 million and $3.5 million when it's up for auction on Thursday, according to a Christie's statement. (Maybe he just needs to watch some Jon Stewart.)


DID YOU KNOW?

 The SS United States is 990 feet long – about five city blocks! If you stood her on end, she’d rise nearly as high as New York’s Chrysler Building or Philadelphia’s Comcast Center.

 You think the Titanic was huge? The SS United States is over 100 feet longer.

 More aluminum was used in the SS United States than for any previous construction project in history. Why? To reduce her weight and make her the fastest ocean liner of all time.

 The SS United States was designed to be just wide enough (101 feet) so it could pass through the locks of the Panama Canal with two feet of clearance on either side. ||||| PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A historic ocean liner moored in Philadelphia has been spared from the scrap heap, at least temporarily.

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 FILE - in this Nov. 22, 2013 file photo, the SS United States sits moored in Philadelphia. The historic ocean liner has been spared from the scrap heap, at least temporarily. The SS United States Conservancy... (Associated Press)

 The SS United States Conservancy announced Monday that it raised more than $100,000 from supporters around the world. The board will meet this week to discuss the ship's future.

 The SS United States was once the world's fastest ocean liner. It launched in 1952 after a secret Cold War project to build the world's fastest ship.

 The conservancy had planned to repurpose it as a museum and mixed-use destination.

 The nonprofit had sent a virtual SOS to supporters last month saying expenses had become unsustainable. It even retained a broker to explore selling the ship to a metals recycler.

 The conservancy needs more than $60,000 per month to keep the rehabilitation project afloat. ||||| The SS United States is a true American champion, and I’m proud to support the Conservancy’s efforts on this historic and patriotic project.

 Jim Nantz, CBS Sports Broadcaster

 I won my Olympic medal 66 years ago, four years before the SS United States won her own prize for breaking the transatlantic speed record. There are many great Olympic champions, but there is only one great American ocean liner still with us: the SS United States. We must save her!

 Herb Douglas, Olympian and Philanthropist, Philadelphia PA

 The SS United States is… a symbol of our country’s industry and accomplishment… the destruction of the United States would be tantamount to destroying other national monuments like the Liberty Bell or the Statue of Liberty… we must maintain what is good and constant in our past if we are to imagine a better future.

 President William Jefferson Clinton, March 2010 letter provided by the SS United States Trust

 For me, the United States is hallowed ground. She is the crowning achievement of American maritime ingenuity and resolve. She has sat idle for over 40 years against all odds, and it would be a crime on many levels to see her disposed of. She wears her rust and peeling paint like scars from an ongoing battle against the elements, one that she has thus far endured.

 Peter Knego, Moorpark, CA

 You can’t set her on fire, you can’t sink her, and you can’t catch her.

 William Francis Gibbs, Designer of the SS United States (1886-1967)

 The SS United States is a tribute to the wonderful days of ocean liners. Some of us were fortunate to have lived them. Those who were not so lucky deserve a place to experience what it was like.

 Fay Smith, Aberdeen, WA

 As a teenager, the closest I’ve ever been able to come to living the golden era of the passenger ships is reading about them in library books Saving the United States must be accomplished at whatever the cost. If this great flagship of flagships were to be lost, then so too would we lose part of the pride of the name it carried.

 Hendrick Stoops, Mansfield, OH

 This is a crime against shipbuilding – a crime against history … [to] let such a ship die such a miserable death.

 Walter Cronkite, Former CBS News Anchor, (1916-2009)

 William Francis Gibbs is known as one of our greatest American geniuses. The SS United States was his greatest work. To save her is to save a great piece of American character.

 Richard Leach, Queensbury, NY

 The SS United States represents the ultimate of modern trans-Atlantic liners and an important part of US history and the history of the great era of Atlantic crossings by ship. She represents America at its best – leading the world in technology and ingenuity. I pray we Americans can rise to the occasion to save her for a new life and the beautiful icon/trophy that she is.

 Richard Steininger, Indianapolis, IN

 After the loud and fantastic claims made in advance for the liner United States, it comes as something of a disappointment to find them all true.

 Punch Magazine, (UK, 1952)

 The ship can be saved if we all do our part. Every little donation counts and will help bring long term jobs to whichever port she claims as home. Join, Donate, Help! As a US Citizen she is my ship. I am a patriot!

 Russell Parmerter, Savannah, GA

 I have only seen the SS United States in photographs, and videos, but to lose her would be our Nation’s greatest crime. As someone who can only give a little to save our ship, I shall do everything I can. Our nation needs to rediscover its’ pride. Saving this ship will help reclaim that pride.

 Robert Beckwith, Dover, MA

 The best marine engineering of the 20th century was built into the Big U. With determined action and commitment, she can and will be brought back to life as a viable expression of our national pride, inventiveness, and will of purpose.

 D Kurt Pelkey, Old Orchard Beach, ME

 Attempting to save her has been a long, uphill battle for a lot of people over the years. With her legacy and her position in the National Registry of Historic Places, the SS United States should be preserved at all costs.

 Jim Palmer, Greenfield, WI

 She was built at a time when ‘made in America’ really meant something and that is a legacy that cannot be lost.

 H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest, Inaugural Chair, SS United States Conservancy Blue Riband Council

 It’s about time for this country to honor our maritime past, and preserving the United States would send a strong message that we can!

 Erik Johnson, Lombard, IL

 The Big U must be saved. Not only she is an engineering marvel, she also represents a piece of US history and an achievement unsurpassed to this date.

 Leopold Brandenburg, Sr., Baltimore, MD

 The SS United States is such a beautiful ship and truly an American original. Let’s save this “Speed Queen of the Seas.”

 Kristin Stockslager, Camp Hill, PA

 This ship reflects the best of America while its decay represents the worst. Let’s hope the conservation efforts succeed and allows our country to shine.

 Bruce Linick, Havre de Grace, MD

 This ship represents the can do spirit and other qualities that helped build the great nation whose name she bears on her hull. The SS United States is the embodiment of this country and must be preserved.

 Christopher Argeson, Wayne, NJ

 Truly one of the greatest ships in the world. One day she will yet again plow the waves of the seven seas.

 Svein Georg Rygg, Norway (On behalf of Norwegian Ships Historical Society)

 It is important that a great ship like this… should not be lost to the scrapyard – a fate suffered by so many great ocean liners that are now forever lost. We must conserve our history for future generations. I wish her luck!

 Daniel Steel, Glasgow, UK

 The story of the SS United States is inseparable from the story of America. This great ship is a marvel of American engineering and capacity. It needs to be saved…

 David Dubczak, Indianola, IA

 The effort to save the SS United States will help preserve some of the history of this great country for future generations and I am proud to do what I can to help.

 James Mitchell, Mystic, CT

 I am honored to be able to help save our Nation’s Flagship. We will continue to fight to save her, no matter what it takes!

 Dawn Hegeman, Claymont, DE

 I will do whatever I can to help make sure that she is restored and preserved as a major symbol of the pride and determination of those who designed her and served on her. She ranks amongst the very greatest technical achievements of the men and women who embodied the ideals of United States of America. She will continue her role as a shining reminder of what can be done when creativity and need come together in one great endeavor.

 Robert Nixon, Oshkosh, WI

 Wrought in steel and aluminum, the SS United States is the product of many hands and many hopes. The magnificent ship is more than a superlative achievement of American engineering. She stands for dreaming big (literally!) and perseverance and for the human ability to accomplish.

 Margaret Stack, Philadelphia, PA |||||

Write a summary.

– If you've recently spotted the hashtag #savetheunitedstates, it's not an offshoot of Donald Trump's "Make America Great Again" campaign: It's a last-ditch effort to keep the SS United States—once the fastest ocean liner on Earth—afloat instead of becoming scrap metal, the AP reports. And it looks like the Cold War-era ship is indeed getting a temporary stay, with the nonprofit conservancy that oversees it announcing Monday it's raised $100,000 from supporters around the world determined to keep the ship, currently moored in Philly, out of the hands of a metal recycler. Even this new cash influx, though, can't maintain the ship forever; the conservancy's board will be meeting later this week to talk about what comes next. "The destruction of the United States would be tantamount to destroying other national monuments like the Liberty Bell or the Statue of Liberty … we must maintain what is good and constant in our past if we are to imagine a better future," says one writer on the ship's testimonials page. That writer's name: President William Jefferson Clinton.


Sen. Ted Cruz (R) leads his Democratic challenger, Rep. Beto O’Rourke, by just 1 point in their Texas Senate race, well within the margin of error of a new poll from Emerson College.

 The survey, which was released on Monday, found that Cruz leads O'Rourke 38 to 37 percent. Four percent of voters favor a different candidate and 21 percent remain undecided.

 The survey comes as O'Rourke continues to gain momentum in his quest to unseat Cruz.

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 While Texas has not elected a Democrat to the Senate in three decades, polls continue to show that the race between O'Rourke and Cruz will be tight. Just last week, a new NBC News–Marist survey found that Cruz led O'Rourke by 4 points.

 In addition, the Cook Political Report shifted the race from its “likely Republican” column to “lean Republican” earlier this month.

 Emerson College notes that O'Rourke is a popular candidate, which could spell trouble for Cruz. According to the survey, the three-term congressman is viewed favorably by 37 percent of registered voters.

 O'Rourke leads Cruz among voters in the 18–34 and 35–54 age ranges. On the other hand, Cruz has the advantage among voters between 55 and 74 and over the age of 75.

 The Emerson College survey was conducted from Aug. 22 to 25 among a population of 550 voters. The margin of error is 4.4 percentage points. ||||| Tweet with a location

 You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– The race between Ted Cruz and Beto O'Rourke in Texas is emerging as one of the must-watch races of the midterms. Cruz, of course, is the Republican incumbent hoping to keep his Senate seat, while O'Rourke is a 45-year-old three-term congressman mounting a surprisingly strong challenge. A new poll by Emerson College out this week has the race in a statistical dead heat, reports the Hill, which notes that Texas has not elected a Democrat to the Senate in three decades. Here's a look at the latest, including O'Rourke's growing national profile: Rock star: The Texas GOP tweeted an old photo of O'Rourke this week showing him back in the '90s with his old punk band, Foss. The photo was meant to mock O'Rourke, and some Republicans think it did just that. "Wearing a dress?" tweeted one strategist. But an analysis at the Washington Post thinks the photo actually endeared O'Rourke to far more people than it alienated. His "rock-star status is cemented by Texas GOP, handing Dems an icon they desperately need," reads the headline. Oh, he skateboards, too.


News article:

The seed for Wide00014 was:

 - Slash pages from every domain on the web:

 -- a ranking of all URLs that have more than one incoming inter-domain link (rank was determined by number of incoming links using Wide00012 inter domain links)

 -- up to a maximum of 100 most highly ranked URLs per domain

 - Top ranked pages (up to a max of 100) from every linked-to domain using the Wide00012 inter-domain navigational link graph ||||| CRIME WATCH DAILY EXCLUSIVE

 Jennifer Madison with reporting by Rebecca Waer

 LOS ANGELES -- (December 29, 2015) -- "Glee" actor Mark Salling was charged Tuesday with possession of child pornography after the Los Angeles Police Department's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Unit served a search warrant at his Sunland, California home and placed him under arrest.

 Police used a battering ram to force entry into Salling’s residence Tuesday morning. Authorities say when they knocked on the door, announced their presence and called out Salling’s name he did not answer. The owner of the home confirmed to authorities the front door is broken.

 Police sources tell “Crime Watch Daily” "hundreds" of images were found on one of Salling's personal devices during the search.

 Salling’s computer and other electronic devices were also seized after he refused to share his passwords with authorities, sources tell “Crime Watch Daily.” Investigators are now searching for further images on the devices.

 Salling was in custody at the LAPD Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles at the time of publication.

 His bail was set at $20,000.

 This isn't Salling's first public scandal. In 2013 he was sued by an ex-girlfriend alleging sexual battery. Salling was ordered to pay the plaintiff a $2.7 million settlement in that case.

 Police sources say Tuesday’s bust was in the works for up to two weeks after authorities received a tip. The LAPD continued its investigation amid concerns it was part of a revenge plot but authorities eventually obtained a search warrant, leading to Salling’s arrest.

 Police sources will not confirm the identity of the individual who tipped them off but tell “Crime Watch Daily” it is not the individual involved in the sexual battery case.

 “Crime Watch Daily” has reached out to Salling’s representatives for comment but has not yet heard back.

 Salling is best-known for his role as Noah "Puck" Puckerman on the hit television series “Glee,” which aired its season finale in March 2015.

 UPDATE [3:33 p.m. PT]: Salling was released on bail at 2:26 p.m. PT. His first court appearance is scheduled for January 22. ||||| Mark Salling 'Glee' Star Arrested for Child Porn (Update)

 Mark Salling: 'Glee' Star Arrested For Child Porn [UPDATE]

 Exclusive Details

 11:45 AM PT -- Law enforcement sources now tell us they've already seen more than a thousand images of "child sexual exploitation" on Salling's computer. Cops also seized other electronic devices, including tablets and cellphones. We're also told he lives alone, which will make it hard to argue someone else put the images in the computer.

 Our sources say when cops arrived to search the home, Salling was "shocked."

 We're also told Salling has already lawyered up.

 "Glee" star Mark Salling has just been arrested for possessing child porn ... TMZ has confirmed.

 We're told the LAPD's Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force obtained a warrant and served it Tuesday morning, as first reported by the TV show "Crime Watch Daily."

 We're told cops searched Salling's computer at his Sunland home and found hundreds of images. At the time of this post, Salling is being taken to the police station for booking.

 Law enforcement sources say the images they captured from Salling's computer were children ... significantly younger than 15 and 16 year olds.

 Our sources say an ex-girlfriend of Salling's tipped off cops and they investigated before the raid to make sure it wasn't a revenge allegation.

 Salling has had his share of legal problems. In 2013 he was sued by a woman who claimed he committed sexual battery on her by forcing sex without a condom. Salling denied the charge and the case settled.

 Story developing ... |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– Mark Salling, who played Puck on Glee from 2009 to 2015, was arrested Tuesday morning for alleged possession of child pornography, an LAPD officer confirms to People. Crime Watch Daily first broke the story. Law enforcement sources tell TMZ authorities found more than a thousand images showing "child sexual exploitation" on Salling's computer, and that the images featured children "significantly younger" than 15 or 16. Salling, 33, lives alone. Sources say his ex-girlfriend tipped off police and that the actor was "shocked" when they arrived at his house; he's said to have already hired a lawyer. In 2013, the actor was sued by an ex for allegedly forcing her to have sex without a condom; he denied it, but ended up paying her more than $2.7 million when the case was settled.


NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — A Mount Sinai Hospital doctor appeared in court late Tuesday on charges that he sexually abused two female patients while they were being treated.

 Dr. David Newman showed no emotion and wouldn’t respond to questions Tuesday afternoon as his lawyer escorted him into the NYPD Manhattan Special Victims Division, CBS2’s Hazel Sanchez reported.

 He surrendered after days of knowing police were investigating claims by the two women, CBS2’s Jessica Schneider reported.

 In court late Tuesday, Newman was ordered held on $150,000 bond, or $50,000 cash.

 The 40-year-old, highly-regarded emergency room doctor is accused of drugging and sexually abusing a 22-year-old woman in his care.

 “That’s horrifying, especially since I’ve been to Mount Sinai multiple times,” said Jennifer Price, of the South Bronx. “I’ve had multiple surgeries here. And so to hear something like that is very scary, ’cause it’s like how many other women has this happened to?”

 Police say a second alleged victim has come forward — another 22-year-old woman who claims she was seeking treatment for a cold when Newman allegedly groped her during a chest exam.

 The initial sex assault allegations came from a woman who was being treated for a shoulder injury. That woman told police on Jan. 11 Newman knocked her out with morphine then committed a lewd act next to her and left DNA on her body, Sanchez reported.

 The alleged victim kept her hospital gown and bedding for evidence, WCBS 880’s Alex Silverman reported. Police are still awaiting lab results on the DNA. Newman has not volunteered his DNA.

 In court Tuesday night, an assistant district attorney said only nurses are given access to morphine – concluding that Newman must have had his own stash.

 “It’s very scary because when you go in there you’re expecting medical treatment, not to get fondled and touched upon,” said South Bronx resident Jason Price. “That’s ridiculous.”

 Newman lives in Montclair, New Jersey home with his wife and two children, both of whom are under 3 years old. His wife had no comment.

 But Newman’s attorney said his client does not have a criminal record, nor any claims of malpractice against him.

 Newman was immediately suspended from Mount Sinai after the allegations surfaced.

 Hospital officials released a statement saying Newman “has not provided care to patients at Mount Sinai since the investigation began.

 “We take the nature of these allegations very seriously and continue to conduct our own extensive internal inquiry,” the statement said.

 Some Mount Sinai employees were upset by the news.

 Rebecca Banchik said it’s disappointing when people abuse their power or position. “Unfortunately, it happens,” she said.

 Police also believe there may be more victims. If so, they are urging those patients to come forward. ||||| The plot grows sicker.

 A prominent Manhattan doctor was accused of groping a second Mount Sinai Hospital patient before surrendering Tuesday for allegedly masturbating onto another woman’s face, the Daily News has learned.

 Dr. David Newman turned himself in on charges that he ejaculated on a patient knocked out by a shot of morphine that he delivered personally in the hospital emergency room.

 Newman, 45, showed a stone face and declined to speak as he walked into the NYPD Special Victims Squad in Harlem — and again as he was led away in handcuffs four hours later.

 The doctor, an Iraq War veteran and published author, was arraigned on sexual abuse and forcible touching charges in both cases Tuesday evening.

 EXCLUSIVE: MOUNT SINAI DOCTOR ACCUSED OF EJACULATING ONTO PATIENT'S FACE

 Newman, whose wife skipped the arraignment, was held on $150,000 bond over $50,000 cash bail.

 Mount Sinai Hospital Dr. David Newman is accused of ejaculating on a 22-year-old patient’s face after incapacitating her with morphine injections. (Anthony DelMundo/New York Daily News)

 A second woman who went to Mount Sinai for medical help in September — four months before the alleged Jan. 11 incident surfaced this weekend with her own tale of sexual misconduct by the Montclair, N.J., doctor.

 The 22-year-old woman contacted police Saturday and reported the earlier attack, a source told the Daily News. The report to cops came after The News broke the story on the masturbation incident.

 The patient claimed she went to Mount Sinai suffering from a severe head cold Sept. 21, and Newman’s “treatment” included fondling her breast, according to court papers.

 Newman has yet to make any comment on the vile charges against him. Hospital officials confirmed Tuesday that he remained on suspension as the investigation goes forward.

 Authorities want a court order for a sample of Newman’s DNA to compare it with evidence taken from the gown that his alleged second victim was wearing on Jan. 11.

 The woman said she used the gown to wipe the semen off her face, and placed it — along with a blanket that she used to clean up — inside a plastic bag, authorities said.

 Dr. David Newman’s home in Montclair, N.J. The doctor is expected to surrender on Tuesday morning. (Ken Murray/NEW YORK DAILY NEWS)

 HENIOUS DEEDS COMMITTED BY HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS

 The patient was complaining of shoulder pain when she was taken to a private room inside the emergency room at Mount Sinai.

 After nurses gave her two pain pills and a shot for inflammation, the patient was given a morphine shot by one of the nurses after complaining of more pain.

 She was then told to change into a gown for X-rays. The woman was still dressed in the hospital garb when Newman walked into her room.

 “I’m going to give you a shot of morphine,” the doctor told her, according to sources familiar with the woman’s claims.

 The patient says she told the doctor that a nurse had already administered the drug, but she then felt a burning sensation in her arm that convinced her that Newman shot her up with more morphine anyway.

 Dr. Newman, 40, is a hot shot emergency physician described as a leading voice for health care reforms. (Mount Sinai)

 Newman then began fondling her breasts after the woman complained about pain on the right side of her chest, sources said.

 Newman moved her bed away from the wall and positioned himself with his back toward the patient. She heard the sounds of someone masturbating — and then felt semen on her face, she claimed.

 All the while, she was unable to react because she was heavily medicated, sources said.

 A friend and fellow medical professional came to Newman’s defense. “I feel so bad for Dr. Newman being dragged through the mud on this,” said David Cundiff of Whistleblowerdoctor.org.

 Newman is due back in court Feb. 23.

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 With Graham Rayman |||||

 Dr. David Newman giving a TED talk called “Truth That Lasts” in 2012. (Screen grab from YouTube/ TedX Talks)

 David H. Newman is an emergency room doctor at New York City’s Mount Sinai Hospital and an Iraq War veteran. The 45-year-old physician has edited online medical publications, taught at elite medical schools, and been featured in the Wall Street Journal and on PBS.

 He blogged for the New York Times and the Huffington Post, and he wrote a book — “Hippocrates’ Shadow: Secrets From the House of Medicine” — exploring “the underbelly of modern medicine and the fraying of the patient-doctor bond.” Its jacket describes it as a “new paradigm to rebuild the bridge between physicians and their patients.”

 This sterling reputation took a sharp turn Tuesday, when Newman was arrested and charged with sexual abuse in court, according to his New York City inmate file.

 A criminal complaint cited by the New York Times, NBC and the New York Daily News accuses the doctor of drugging, groping and masturbating on a female patient as well as groping another in two separate incidents.

 Authorities said a 29-year-old woman called the police Jan. 12 to recount an assault in Mount Sinai’s emergency room between midnight and 2 a.m. that day.

 A law enforcement official told the Times under the condition of anonymity that Newman allegedly gave the woman an excess shot of morphine, causing her to partially lose consciousness while Newman fondled her breasts and ejaculated on her.

 Afterward, the woman turned her semen-stained hospital gown over to police.

 These accusations were first brought to light in the New York Daily News, which reported on Thursday that the New York Police Department and the Manhattan district attorney’s office were investigating the case.

 Even though Newman had yet to be charged, the allegations were serious enough to bar him from continuing to work at Mount Sinai pending an outcome.

 “We are aware of an allegation that has been made against one of our physicians,” the hospital said in a statement to the Daily News. “This is a matter under investigation and we are fully cooperating with the appropriate authorities. We take this matter very seriously and are conducting our own internal investigation.”

 Mount Sinai officials told the Times on Tuesday that Newman has been suspended.

 After news of the first incident surfaced, another woman reportedly came forward this past weekend with a similar account. A 22-year-old told police Saturday that she went to the hospital with a head cold in September and was groped by Newman for an extended period of time.

 Newman’s attorney, John Wing, told NBC that Newman turned himself into police and volunteered a DNA sample.

 “We plan on dealing with this in a responsible manner,” said Wing, adding that Newman is a “good man and excellent doctor” with a wife and two young children.

 Newman also has received support from other medical professionals.

 “I feel so bad for Dr. Newman being dragged through the mud on this,” physician David Cundiff told the Daily News.

 A colleague of the physician’s wrote in an email to Jezebel:

 There is no privacy in that ER. Period. Whoever is in the large rooms there divided by thin cotton curtains will hear exactly what’s going on. You hear more than you want to. Secondly, morphine doesn’t paralyze you. If you have enough to be too drugged to do anything, it means you are asleep — it’s not dissociative.

 Newman is being kept in the Manhattan Detention Complex on $50,000 bail or $150,000 bond. He is scheduled to appear in court again Feb. 23.

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Write a summary.

– A renowned "TED-talker" and ER doctor at New York City's Mount Sinai Hospital who served in Iraq and who advocates for improved doctor-patient relationships was arrested Tuesday and charged with sexually abusing two patients, the New York Times reports. David H. Newman, said to be in his 40s (the Times and New York Daily News note he's 45) first came to the attention of police when a woman in her 20s called them Jan. 12 and said Dr. Newman assaulted her the night before. She says Newman entered the private room in the ER where she was being examined for shoulder pain, injected her with morphine even after she told him nurses already had, then groped her and masturbated on her face while she was incapacitated, sources tell the Daily News. After that story broke, a second woman, 22, came forward Sunday and told authorities that during a September visit to the ER for a bad head cold, Newman had groped her breast, the paper notes. An assistant DA said that Newman—who CBS New York said "showed no emotion" as he entered the NYPD's Special Victims division Tuesday with his lawyer—must have been carrying around his own supply of morphine, as only nurses are typically given access to the drug, per CBS. "[Dr. Newman] has been suspended from Mount Sinai pending the outcome of the investigation, and we continue to cooperate fully with the appropriate authorities," a statement from the hospital says, per the Times. Authorities want a court order for Newman's DNA to compare to DNA on the hospital gown the shoulder pain victim wore; she says she used the gown to wipe his semen off her face, then stashed it as evidence, the Daily News notes. "That's horrifying," a South Bronx woman who says she's had multiple surgeries at Mount Sinai tells CBS. "To hear something like that is very scary … how many other women has this happened to?" A judge Tuesday night set Newman's bail at $50,000 cash or $150,000 bond, the Times notes. (Jezebel has received multiple emails of support for Newman.)


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– Sad news out of Nashua, NH, after police say they believe a body found floating in a river is that of a high school student who likely plunged 20 feet into an open sewer. Jacob Goulet, 16, was last seen Friday night after he left a friend's house during a torrential rainstorm, WMUR reports. His family reported him missing Saturday morning. A Massachusetts State Police helicopter spotted a body floating in the Merrimack River in neighboring Tyngsboro on Sunday morning. A positive ID is pending, but cops said they believe the body is Jacob's. "Our thoughts and prayers are with Jacob’s family, friends, classmates," Nashua Police wrote on Twitter. Cops were investigating why the sewer cover was open. They described a steep drop into a storm drain that links to a water treatment plant. During heavy rains an overflow system discharges water directly into the river. A frantic search began Saturday morning after a passerby spotted the open sewer and beside it a baseball cap and umbrella believed to be Jacob's. Surveillance video confirmed the teen was in the area, WMUR reports. Jacob's family searched storm drains across the city, hoping perhaps he was trapped inside one and would hear their shouts. "Maybe he might have fallen in and he’s just hanging on, and maybe he’s too cold to yell," his uncle, Darren Blouin, told WMUR. Devastated family and friends recalled Jacob, who recently turned 16, as a good kid who avoided trouble and liked video games. "Jacob is a sweet boy with a great heart,” family friend Lauren Comeau told the Boston Globe. "He is his father Billy’s whole world." (A freak hammock accident killed this teen.)

Nashua police believe body found is that of missing teen

 Nashua police said they believe a body discovered in the Merrimack River Sunday is that of a teenager who is feared to have been swept down a storm drain during a storm on Friday night.

 Timeline: What we know about Jacob Goulet’s disappearance.

 Around 11:40 a.m., a Massachusetts State Police helicopter spotted what appeared to be a body in the Merrimack River in Tyngsboro. By 12:20 p.m. Tyngsboro police and firefighters recovered the body of a young man.

 Police said Sunday afternoon that the identity of the body has not been confirmed, but they believe it’s Jacob Goulet, 16.

 Goulet’s parents filed a missing person’s report around 8:48 a.m. Saturday after he didn’t return home from visiting a friend on Friday night.

 His family was frantically searching for him. His uncle and cousin yelled for him into storm drains throughout the city.

 “I just hope that maybe he might have fallen in and he’s just hanging on, and maybe he’s too cold to yell. Maybe we’ll see him, we’ll hear him. Just can’t stop trying, you know?” said Goulet’s uncle, Darren Blouin.

 “He just turned 16. He’s a good kid. He doesn’t get in trouble, likes video games, like listening to music,” said Goulet’s cousin, Sarah Blouin.

 Goulet is 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighs around 200 pounds. He has short, black hair on the sides with longer hair along the top of his head. He has blue eyes. He was last wearing a denim vest with metal studs on it, a gray T-shirt, black shorts and black Converse All-Star sneakers.

 Based on that description, Nashua police said the body appears to be Goulet, but police will not officially identify the body until the Massachusetts Medical Examiner’s Office makes a positive identification.

 On Friday, officers responded to a drain behind 75 Main St. and the north side of Water Street for a report that a person may have fallen down a storm drain.

 "A citizen in the area noted an open sewer cover with personal items on the ground nearby. Several people were interviewed, but no one witnessed anyone falling through the hole," Nashua police Chief Andrew Lavoie said.

 Despite there being no witnesses, Nashua police said they believe Goulet fell down the storm drain, and a massive search began Saturday.

 Police said they found items, including a baseball cap and an umbrella, near the drain, but no identifying information. Based on information given by Goulet’s parents and surveillance footage, police said they had reason to believe that the items could belong to Goulet.

 Officers said areas searched included the Nashua River, the Merrimack River and the entire underwater storm drain system north of Water Street and south to Sawmill Drive.

 The Nashua Fire Department and its dive team, the city of Nashua Waste Water Department, Division of Public Works, New Hampshire State Police, Massachusetts State Police and New Hampshire Fish and Game assisted with the effort.

 Public works assisted in the search, and a private contractor was called in to search the sewers with cameras, according to Nashua Mayor Jim Donchess.

 Donchess said that approximately 1,000 feet of the sewer system had been searched as of Sunday afternoon.

 Donchess described the storm drain that Goulet may have fallen into as an "interceptor," which connects to the waste water treatment plant over "several miles" of pipeline.

 The interceptor is said to have a steep drop and could be 20 feet deep.

 Donchess said that there is no direct flow to the Merrimack River from the drain in question, but that there is an overflow system in place where water could be discharged into the river during a storm.

 Officials are unsure how the cover came off of the storm drain. The storm drain cover was resecured with bolts Sunday afternoon.

 "No one has ever potentially fallen into the sewer system as far as we know, and these covers don’t typically come off," Donchess said.

 Donchess said that grief counselors will be available at Nashua North on Monday to talk to Goulet’s classmates.

 "We feel so badly for the family -- for Jacob’s family, his parents, for the kids who know him at the high school. We’ve asked that the school department have grief counselors available for the kids at Nashua High School North," Donchess said.

 Meanwhile, his friends and family are reeling after the latest developments.

 The high school is putting together a list of his friends and reaching out to them. The principal said they will also send a note to parents on Sunday evening to update them on the situation.

 Many people in Nashua, some who didn’t even know Goulet, were emotional over the situation.

 "I have kids -- a 14- and a 20-year-old -- so as a parent, I hope somebody would care about my kid," Jessica Keyza said.

 A tribute to Goulet grew by the hour Sunday night.

 Friends sat together and consoled each other while many people -- some total strangers to Goulet -- left flowers at the site.

 "I wouldn’t want it to be one of my boys. That shouldn’t have happened," Diana Bela said.

 Nicholas Brown, one of Goulet’s best friends, left a Converse shoe -- Goulet’s favorite brand -- with a note inside at the memorial.

 Brown said he saw Goulet on Friday, just hours before he disappeared while walking home from a friend’s house.

 "Anything sad, he would just like, try to be happy about it," Brown said. "Or he’d try to make a joke of something, just to get him by, you know."

 "It doesn’t seem real to me that something like this could happen, where I could be making jokes with him in second block of school, and then a day later, he turns up missing," Brown said. ||||| Nashua Public Works employee Chris Nelson and a co-worker worked to repair a sewer cover that missing teen Jacob Goulet is thought to have fallen into in Nashua, N.H.

 NASHUA — Authorities said Sunday they believed they had found the body of a missing teen floating in the Merrimack River, bringing a heartbreaking end to a days-long search for the Nashua High School North student who might have fallen into an open sewer.

 Jacob Goulet, 16, disappeared during an intense rainstorm Friday. Friends, family, and teachers had held out hope through the weekend, but by Sunday afternoon, Nashua police had confirmed their worst fears.

 “Our thoughts and prayers are with Jacob’s family, friends, classmates, [and] the entire Nashua community at the probable tragic loss of Jacob Goulet,” the department wrote on Twitter.

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 Police said they feared Goulet fell at least 20 feet down an open sewer near 75 Main St. in Nashua during the downpours Friday evening. He could have ended up in the river through the overflow of water through the system following Friday evening’s intense downpour.

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 Nashua officials said Sunday that the sewer should not have been open, and they were looking into what happened.

 Related Links Read Story Nashua police say teen may have fallen through drain Police believe Jacob Goulet fell through a storm drain during heavy rain on Friday night.

 As news of Goulet’s apparent death spread, there was an outpouring of shock and grief.

 Lauren Comeau, who said she is a family friend and former co-worker of Goulet’s father, said in a Facebook message to the Globe that the loss had shaken the Nashua community, and parents were hugging their children a little tighter on Sunday.

 “Jacob was a sweet boy with a great heart,” she said. “He is his father Billy’s whole world.”

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 Search teams had scoured miles of river, treatment plants, and sewer pipes for the teen, whose family had reported him missing Saturday morning after looking for him all night.

 A Massachusetts State Police helicopter crew sighted a body floating near Parlee Farms in Tyngsborough at 11:38 a.m. Sunday, said David Procopio, a State Police spokesman.

 A positive identification must still be made by the Massachusetts chief medical examiner, Nashua police said in a statement, but the body and clothing fit the description of Goulet.

 Officers from the Nashua police dive team and Special Investigations Division traveled to Tyngsborough, where the dive team and Tyngsborough Fire Rescue pulled the body from the water, Nashua police said.

 Little is known about what happened Friday night after Goulet left a friend’s house to walk home, but he was seen near the sewer in a surveillance video.

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 No one saw him fall, but a caller reported Friday night that someone could have plunged into the sewer, after the caller found a baseball cap and an umbrella on the ground near the opening, Nashua police said.

 Goulet’s parents told police the items belonged to their son.

 Rescuers arrived Friday to find dangerous conditions.

 “They were literally thinking of sending people into that hole,” Nashua Police Chief Andrew Lavoie said. “The water flow was just, without being positive that someone was down there, was just absolutely unsafe.”

 Nashua Public Works employees were at the scene Sunday attempting to secure the sewer, which was surrounded by six cones.

 Nashua’s director of public works could not be reached for comment Sunday.

 Nashua Mayor James Donchess said at a Sunday press conference that such covers don’t typically come off and that nothing like the incident had happened in the city before.

 “We’re going to be looking into how that may have come off,” Donchess said, “and whether it could’ve been water or air or some other cause. That’s not clear now.”

 The sewer lies at the juncture of two pipes, he said, and leads to a treatment plant several miles away. Donchess said there are 900 covers in the system. The one Goulet might have fallen through is about 4 feet by 4 feet.

 “This is a tragedy for our community,” Donchess said. “We still are somewhat of a small town. I know people whose kids are friendly with Jacob.”

 Some of those close to Goulet attended the press conference but sat quietly in the back and declined to comment. His parents and siblings could not be reached.

 Nashua High School North Principal Marianne Busteed said she was planning to meet with a crisis team Monday morning and prepare for the day and that grief counselors will be available for students.

 Supporters created a GoFundMe page to raise money for Goulet’s funeral costs. By Sunday evening, they had raised more than $3,000 toward a goal of $8,000.

 Cristela Guerra can be reached at cristela.guerra@globe.com . Follow her on Twitter @CristelaGuerra . Jeremy C. Fox can be reached at jeremy.fox@globe.com . Follow him on Twitter @jeremycfox |||||


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EMBED More News Videos Fairfield couple has been charged with everything from child neglect to torture after police say they discovered their 10 children living in squalor. Here's a look inside the home.

 EMBED More News Videos Torture, child cruelty, child endangerment -- all charges a Fairfield couple now face after the discovery of ten children living in squalid conditions at their family home.

 #DEVELOPING Ina Rogers says she and husband Jonathan Allen did not abuse 10 children. “My husband is amazing person. I am amazing mother.” pic.twitter.com/El5DkoKxtz — Laura Anthony (@LauraAnthony7) May 14, 2018

 EMBED More News Videos Fairfield police held a press conference regarding 10 children who were rescued after being allegedly abused by their parents.

 #DEVELOPING Fairfield father Jonathan Allen charged with 6 counts of child cruelty, 9 counts of child torture. #abc7now pic.twitter.com/ABp2rXrwNp — Laura Anthony (@LauraAnthony7) May 14, 2018

 ##BREAKING Bail for Fairfield man Jonathan Allen accused of torturing and abuse 10 children raised to $5million. #abc7now pic.twitter.com/f0hzAJTDej — Laura Anthony (@LauraAnthony7) May 14, 2018

 #BREAKING Fairfield mom responds to allegations that she and her husband abused and tortured their 10 children. #abc7now pic.twitter.com/tWwJCDf0kp — Laura Anthony (@LauraAnthony7) May 14, 2018

 “Not one of my kids even has a cavity...” says Ina Rogers, defending herself and her husband against charges of abuse and torture. #abc7now pic.twitter.com/0IfwkU1L4C — Laura Anthony (@LauraAnthony7) May 14, 2018

 A Fairfield couple has been charged with everything from child neglect to torture after police say they discovered their 10 children living in squalor."This is absolutely appalling," Ina Rogers said, standing in the doorway of her Fairfield home while giving reporters her reaction to charges she and her husband abused, even tortured, their 10 children."I strive, I thrive on being a good parent to my children," Rogers said. "My husband has a lot of tattoos. He looks like a scary individual, and that's why people are so quick to judge him. But my husband is an amazing person. I am an amazing mother."The 30-year-old mother is out on bail after her arrest in late March, in which she was being charged with abuse after police returned her 12-year-old son to the family home after he had been reported missing.Rogers showed reporters the inside of her home, which she claims was left messy by police after their search. All of the children sleep on the floor in one room.Fairfield police arrested Rogers' 29-year-old husband Jonathan Michael Allen on Friday after a six-week investigation. He's been charged with nine felony counts of child cruelty, and seven of torture."The children described incidents of intentional abuse resulting in puncture wounds, burns, bruising and injuries consistent with being shot by a pellet or airsoft gun," said Lt. Greg Hurlbut.Hurlbut added that police found filthy conditions in the home shared by Rogers and Allen."Officers located unsafe and unsanitary living conditions including garbage and spoiled food on the floor, animal and human feces and a large amount of debris making areas of the house unpassable," he said.Sharon Henry, chief deputy district attorney for Solano County, said she was "horrified" by the statements from the children.She said at a news conference that "torture occurred in this house" and it was carried out "for sadistic purposes." She declined to elaborate."It literally breaks your heart, and you're outraged by how a parent or anyone could commit those acts," Henry said afterward.Rogers says she got pregnant when she was 16 years old. The Fairfield resident went on to say that she has 11 biological children ages four months to 14 years old. Three she had before meeting Allen and eight more in the past 10 years.She says she home schools the children, while working full-time as a medical technician. "Not only do I have 11 children and I'm 30 years old, but I also homeschool all of my children and people don't agree with that lifestyle and so I've had many people question my right to parent and I just feel like this whole situation was exploded," Rogers said.Allen was arraigned Monday afternoon in a Solano County court. He is being held on $5.2 million bail.The children have all been placed in the custody of Rogers' sister and mother in the Bay Area. All 10 children were initially taken into protective custody by Solano County Child Welfare Services.With the assistance of Child Welfare Services and the Solano County District Attorney's Office, detectives with the Fairfield Police Department's Family Violence Unit initiated an investigation.Officials say the investigation revealed a long and continuous history of severe physical and emotional abuse of the children. As a result of the investigation, an arrest warrant was issued for the father of the children and served by detectives on Friday, May 11 at 8:30 a.m. at the family home. ||||| FAIRFIELD, Calif. (AP) — Police said Monday they had removed 10 children from a squalid California home and charged their father with torture and their mother with neglect after an investigation revealed a lengthy period of severe physical and emotional abuse.

 The children range from 4 months to 12 years old, said Fairfield police Lt. Greg Hurlbut.

 The mother, Ina Rogers, told reporters that she called authorities in March after her 12-year-old son didn't come home.

 She said the "squalor" officers saw while investigating came from her tearing her house apart as she searched for her child.

 "I was afraid I could not find him," she told KGO-TV. "Once that fear sets in you don't know what to do."

 The investigation began March 31 when police responded to the missing juvenile report in Fairfield, 46 miles (74 kilometers) northeast of San Francisco.

 The officers found the boy and returned him to the family home, where they said they found nine other children living in "squalor and unsafe conditions."

 The father, Jonathan Allen, 29, faces felony charges of torture and child abuse and the 30-year-old Rogers faces child neglect charges. She was arrested March 31 and released after posting $10,000 bail.

 Allen was arrested Friday after specialists conducted interviews with the children, Hurlbut said. He's being held in the Solano County Jail in lieu of $1.5 million bail.

 Court records do not indicate whether the parents have lawyers.

 In a separate case, prosecutors in Riverside County, have filed eight new charges against a father accused of shackling and starving some of his 13 children, alleging that he lied on government forms about their schooling.

 David Turpin and his wife Louise previously pleaded not guilty to torture, child abuse and other charges in a case that has drawn international attention since the couple's 17-year-old daughter escaped the family's Perris, California, home in January and called 911. |||||

– Police say they removed 10 children from a squalid California home and charged their father with torture and their mother with neglect after an investigation revealed a lengthy period of severe physical and emotional abuse. The children range from 4 months to 12 years old, says Fairfield police Lt. Greg Hurlbut. The mother, Ina Rogers, told reporters that she called authorities in March after her 12-year-old son didn't come home. She said the "squalor" officers saw while investigating came from her tearing her house apart as she searched for her child. "I was afraid I could not find him," she told KGO-TV. "Once that fear sets in you don't know what to do." The investigation began March 31 when police responded to the missing juvenile report in Fairfield, 46 miles northeast of San Francisco. The officers found the boy and returned him to the family home, where they said they found nine other children living in "squalor and unsafe conditions." The father, Jonathan Allen, 29, faces felony charges of torture and child abuse and the 30-year-old Rogers faces child neglect charges, the AP reports. She was arrested March 31 and released after posting $10,000 bail. Allen was arrested Friday after specialists conducted interviews with the children, Hurlbut says. He's being held in the Solano County Jail in lieu of $1.5 million bail.


Louisiana prison officials have looked into illegally obtaining a lethal-injection drug from an Oklahoma pharmacy for the Feb. 5 execution of convicted child killer Christopher Sepulvado, according to just-released state documents.

 The Tulsa-based compounding lab, called The Apothecary Shoppe, is not listed in the state pharmacy board’s online database of suppliers licensed to provide drugs to any pharmacy in Louisiana. That would make the sale of pentobarbital from that business to the Louisiana State Penitentiary Pharmacy an illegal transaction under state law.

 A September email shows that The Apothecary Shoppe asked the state to complete a non-disclosure agreement. The document spells out the confidentiality agreement between the pharmacy and the signatory.

 Although the Department of Corrections said Friday that the state didn’t have any pentobarbital, it was in the “process of procuring” it, department attorney James Hilburn wrote in a court document.

 No other recent purchase records were made available, nor any other records that show written communication with any other pharmacy regarding pentobarbital, according to state documents given to Sepulvado’s lawyers and records obtained by The Lens.

 The Apothecary Shoppe is one of three pharmacies suspected of supplying pentobarbital for the recent Oklahoma execution of Michael Lee Williams, who reportedly said “I feel my whole body burning” as he was killed in early January, said Sophie Cull, the former director of the Louisiana Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty.*

 That same pharmacy is suspected of being the source of Missouri’s pentobarbital, according to Cull, and it is not licensed to sell drugs in that state, either.

 An investigation by St. Louis Public Radio and the St. Louis Beacon found that Missouri’s pentobarbital was supplied by one of three compounding pharmacies in Oklahoma not licensed to sell drugs in the state. A follow-up by The Pitch found that of the three possible pharmacies, only The Apothecary Shoppe performed sterile injectable compounding, or made drugs suitable for injections.

 Questions regarding the type and mix of lethal injection drugs have arisen since Dennis McGuire “appeared to gasp several times and took more than 15 minutes to die” when he was executed Jan. 16 with a mix of sedative midazolam and the painkiller hydromorphone.

 The state on Friday gave Sepulvado’s lawyers the email with The Apothecary Shoppe’s confidentiality agreement. The document was attached to a Sept. 5, 2013 email from Deril J. Lees, pharmacy manager of The Apothecary Shoppe, to Seth Smith, deputy warden of the Elayn Hunt Correctional Center.

 “Please find the attached NDA [non-disclosure agreement] and return it,” Lees told Smith in the letter.

 The agreement is blank in some parts, but filled out with the name “Georgia Department of Corrections” in others.

 The confidentiality agreement was first received by The Lens from the state Wednesday in a heavily redacted format, in response to a public-records request for any correspondence regarding the procurement of pentobarbital.

 Sepulvado’s lawyers received a non-redacted copy of the document late Friday.

 The document was given to lawyers filing a lawsuit on behalf of Sepulvado and death row inmate Jessie Hoffman. Hoffman filed the lawsuit in December 2012, and Sepulvado intervened January 2013, after the state refused to disclose how they would execute him. In February 2013, the state announced a change from a three-drug mixture of lethal injection drugs to the single drug.

 Sepulvado and Hoffman’s lawsuit contends that condemned inmates have a right to know how they’ll be executed.

 Sepulvado, who has had several execution dates come and go in the past year, received another death warrant in January after the U.S. Fifth Circuit of Appeals in December upheld a decision that the state’s lethal injection secrecy did not violate his due-process right.

 But in January, U.S. Magistrate Judge Stephen Riedlinger in Baton Rouge ruled that the state needed to release additional information about the execution process, including where it would be obtaining its lethal injection drug and if the protocol would be changing.

 Getting that information from the state has been tricky, said Michael Rubenstein, a lawyer for Hoffman.

 “We had to push hard,” Rubenstein said. “They’ve had a total lack of transparency.”

 Rubenstein said Friday afternoon that his team had to travel to Baton Rouge to pick up the documents that death-row lawyers demanded as part of discovery for the federal lawsuit. The state blamed the cold weather for not being able to deliver them on the date demanded by Riedlinger, Rubenstein said.

 Even then, however, the state gave an “incomplete” version of the documents, Rubenstein said. Among the items missing were where the state planned to find the drug.

 “DOC is in the process of procuring at least 15 grams of pentobarbital,” the initial state document read. “Defendants will supplement this answer as necessary.”

 The agreement naming The Apothecary Shoppe was found in a second delivery of records, obtained by death penalty lawyers late Friday night, among more than a thousand other documents, the lawyers said.

 Cull agreed that the state lacks transparency.

 “The procurement of pentobarbital by the Louisiana Department of Corrections continues to be shrouded in secrecy, insulating the State from public or legal scrutiny,” Cull said in an email to The Lens.

 “The State’s failure to guarantee the efficacy of compounded drugs results in the unacceptable risk that an execution may be slow and tortuous, in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment.”

 Calls and emails to the Louisiana Department of Corrections, The Apothecary Shoppe and the head of the Louisiana Board of Pharmacy were not immediately returned.

 *Correction: This story originally referred to Sophie Cull as the director of the Louisiana Coalition for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. She’s now the former director. (Jan. 27, 2014) ||||| US death penalty states face a deepening crisis in their struggle to procure medical drugs for use in lethal injections, with new evidence that the increasingly random methods being used are subjecting condemned prisoners to prolonged and possibly excruciating deaths.

 A Guardian survey of death sentences carried out over the past three years by Texas – the most prolific of all execution states – has found that the procedure now takes on average twice as long as under previous protocols. A study of Texas department of criminal justice records and eyewitness media reports mainly from the Associated Press shows a notable lengthening of the death process following the switch in July 2012 from the conventional three-drug cocktail to a single drug, pentobarbital.

 Ten executions prior to the change took on average 10 minutes to complete, ranging from nine to 11 minutes between the administration of the lethal injection and the declaration of death.

 The next 23 executions using only pentobarbital took on average 20 minutes, with the full range between 12 to 30 minutes.

 Suzanne Basso is scheduled next Wednesday to become the 510th prisoner to be executed by Texas in the modern era. Texas has eight executions set between next week and 29 May. A spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice declined to comment.

 As with most other death penalty states, Texas has dwindling supplies of fatal drugs caused by a worldwide ethical boycott of US departments of corrections by pharmaceutical companies and countries. It was revealed last October that after running low on its pentobarbital stock because of the boycott, Texas turned to a pharmacy near Houston to make a compounded version of the drug. Four men have been executed using this compound pentobarbital, with a declaration of death taking between 11 and 19 minutes.

 Lethal injection is the only execution method allowed under Texas law. In 1982, Texas became the first US state to use it. Until July, 2012 it used a combination of a muscle relaxant (pancuronium bromide), an anesthetic (sodium thiopental) and a drug used to stop the heart (potassium chloride). In 2011 sodium thiopental became unavailable because of a European boycott and was replaced with pentobarbital.

 On Wednesday night, Missouri put to death convicted murderer Herbert Smulls, 56, using a batch of 10mg of pentobarbital it obtained from a compounding pharmacy 400 miles away in Oklahoma. Missouri authorities had sought to keep the identity of the Tulsa-based Apothecary Shoppe secret, provoking protests from Smulls's lawyers who said that they were being prevented from protecting him against possible cruel and unusual punishment.

 The sourcing of the drugs from an out-of-state pharmacy that was not licensed in Missouri was also legally questionable, the defence lawyers said.

 Cheryl Pilate, a member of Smulls's legal team, told the Guardian after the execution that her client's first amendment rights had been violated. “If they are going to put these compounding pharmacies behind a wall of secrecy and protect them from public scrutiny, that's just not going to work. We live in a society that believes in the people's right to know what their government is doing in their name, and that gives individuals the right to protect themselves against the wrongful actions of the state – both of which were violated in this case.

 Pilate was aware of the identity of the compounding pharmacy that had supplied the lethal pentobarbital, but was ordered by a federal court to abstain from carrying out any legal investigation into the quality of the drug or the standards maintained by the drug outlet.

 On Wednesday night, the New York Times editorial board lambasted states for using the largely unregulated compounding industry to deliver “new and untested drug protocols developed on the fly and under a cowardly shroud of secrecy”.

 Surveys in several states have pointed to widespread problems in the potency and purity of drugs produced by compounding pharmacies, which are only lightly regulated and do not have to answer to the federal Food and Drug Administration. A survey revealed that one in four samples from Missouri failed to meet adequate standards.

 Following the death of Smulls, the spotlight now turns to Louisiana, which has scheduled the execution of child-killer Christopher Sepulvado for next Wednesday. With only six days to go, the department of corrections has still not succeeded in obtaining a supply of lethal chemicals for use in the procedure.

 Local newspapers revealed that Louisiana has also tried to procure compounded pentobarbital from the Apothecary Shoppe, despite the fact that the pharmacy is not licensed in Louisiana and is therefore not lawfully allowed to distribute in the state. The Apothecary Shoppe initially denied to the Guardian any involvement with departments of correction in any state, but once its name had been made public the pharmacy declined to answer any further questions relating to death penalty drugs.

 In the absence of a ready supply of pentobarbital, Louisiana has turned to a two-drug method for killing Sepulvado that has only been used once before, in a case in which the prisoner endured an abnormally long and apparently traumatic death. Dennis McGuire took up to 25 minutes to die on 16 January having been injected with an experimental cocktail of midazolam and hydromorphone.

 For up to 15 minutes he was seen gasping for air, writhing, and trying to sit up. A Catholic priest who witnessed the events described what he saw as “ghastly and inhumane”, and McGuire's family is suing the state for undue cruelty.

 Sepulvado, 70, was put on death row for the 1992 killing of his six-year-old stepson Wesley Mercer. The condemned man's lawyers are calling for the execution to be postponed to give them more time to investigate the impact of the experimental two-drug protocol, the source of the lethal drugs and whether or not Sepulvado faces possible cruel and unusual punishment which is banned under the eighth amendment of the US constitution.

 Gary Clements, one of the lawyers representing Sepulvado, said they were totally in the dark about what drugs Louisiana would use should the execution go ahead next week. “We have been left with no knowledge of what they are going to, and so we have no idea whether this rushed new plan will meet any basic dignified standards.”

 Clements added that he was puzzled that Louisiana had opted to copy Ohio's botched experiment. “Why would they to for inspiration to a place where the only time this method was used in the history of the United States it led to a gruesome spectacle?”

 The increasingly desperate attempts by death penalty states to acquire medicines to kill their inmates is the result of an ethical boycott led by the European Commission and many of the major pharmaceutical giants that have expressed their disgust at products created to heal patients being used instead to kill. The boycott has starved states of their supply of drugs such as sodium thiopental – a barbiturate that was until 2011 widely used in triple lethal injections – and now its replacement, pentobarbital.

 “The whole idea of the three-drug process is that it would be quick,” said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center. “If it should get a lot longer the purpose of doing [lethal injections] for appearance would disappear … if they get longer I think everybody gets a bit uncomfortable.”

 Dieter said it was likely that there would have to be substantial evidence that death by lethal injection had become excessively long and painful before a court might consider taking action and public opinion would turn. A lengthier execution does not automatically equate to more suffering if the inmate quickly loses consciousness, he pointed out.

 Dr Joel Zivot, assistant professor of anesthesiology and surgery at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, said that it is difficult, if not impossible, to draw definitive conclusions about the suffering of prisoners because of a lack of research and since “lethal injection is in no way a medical act … this is medicine that's now used for non-medical purposes.”

 Zivot said it is theoretically possible that using pentobarbital “could result in a situation where a person could be aware and struggle for a period of time” and that no one “can ever guarantee that there won't be the potential for cruelty” in the lethal injection process.

 When drugs are used to paralyse prisoners during executions, he said, a lack of movement and the outward appearance of calm should not be viewed as clear evidence that the person is not alert and not experiencing pain.

 A person's age and weight could be factors in the length of time it takes for a fatal dose of pentobarbital to complete its work. Texas reportedly uses 5g per execution, with another 5g available in the death chamber if necessary.

 In two examples which indicate how execution lengths have varied widely since the move to single-drug, 33-year-old Mario Swain was put to death on 8 November, 2012, for the murder of a woman a decade earlier. It reportedly took 30 minutes for Swain to be pronounced dead. Only two weeks earlier, on 24 October, 40-year-old Bobby Hines was declared dead after twelve minutes.

 The growing randomness of execution protocols forced by the boycott has led to parallels being drawn with 1972, when the US supreme court imposed a moratorium on the death penalty across the country. The highest judicial panel in the nation ruled in Furman v Georgia that capital punishment was so inconsistent in its application in different parts of the US that it was unconstitutional.

 The court lifted the moratorium in 1976 after death penalty states promised to adhere to new guidelines. One of the changes that emerged was the use of pharmaceuticals in lethal injections that were first used to kill Charles Brooks in Texas in 1982.

 The current mayhem over lethal injections has led some prominent public figures to say that the US supreme court should consider imposing a new moratorium. Former president Jimmy Carter told the Guardian last year: “It’s time for the supreme court to look at the totality of the death penalty once again.” ||||| ST. LOUIS (AP) — With lethal-injection drugs in short supply and new questions looming about their effectiveness, lawmakers in some death penalty states are considering bringing back relics of a more gruesome past: firing squads, electrocutions and gas chambers.

 FILE - This undated file photo provided by the Virginia Department of Corrections shows an electric chair which Virginia provides as an alternative to lethal injection. With lethal-injection drugs in... (Associated Press)

 FILE - In this May 13, 2011 file photo is the gas chamber at the former Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City that is now a tourist attraction. With lethal-injection drugs in short supply and... (Associated Press)

 FILE - In this June 18, 2010, file photo, the firing squad execution chamber at the Utah State Prison in Draper, Utah, is shown. With lethal-injection drugs in short supply and new questions looming about... (Associated Press)

 Most states abandoned those execution methods more than a generation ago in a bid to make capital punishment more palatable to the public and to a judicial system worried about inflicting cruel and unusual punishments that violate the Constitution.

 But to some elected officials, the drug shortages and recent legal challenges are beginning to make lethal injection seem too vulnerable to complications.

 "This isn't an attempt to time-warp back into the 1850s or the wild, wild West or anything like that," said Missouri state Rep. Rick Brattin, who this month proposed making firing squads an option for executions. "It's just that I foresee a problem, and I'm trying to come up with a solution that will be the most humane yet most economical for our state."

 Brattin, a Republican, said questions about the injection drugs are sure to end up in court, delaying executions and forcing states to examine alternatives. It's not fair, he said, for relatives of murder victims to wait years, even decades, to see justice served while lawmakers and judges debate execution methods.

 Like Brattin, a Wyoming lawmaker this month offered a bill allowing the firing squad. Missouri's attorney general and a state lawmaker have raised the notion of rebuilding the state's gas chamber. And a Virginia lawmaker wants to make electrocution an option if lethal-injection drugs are not available.

 If adopted, those measures could return states to the more harrowing imagery of previous decades, when inmates were hanged, electrocuted or shot to death by marksmen.

 States began moving to lethal injection in the 1980s in the belief that powerful sedatives and heart-stopping drugs would replace the violent spectacles with a more clinical affair while limiting, if not eliminating, an inmate's pain.

 The total number of U.S. executions has declined — from a peak of 98 in 1999 to 39 last year. Some states have turned away from the death penalty entirely. Many have cases tied up in court. And those that carry on with executions find them increasingly difficult to conduct because of the scarcity of drugs and doubts about how well they work.

 European drug makers have stopped selling the lethal chemicals to prisons because they do not want their products used to kill.

 At least two recent executions are also raising concerns about the drugs' effectiveness. Last week, Ohio inmate Dennis McGuire took 26 minutes to die by injection, gasping repeatedly as he lay on a gurney with his mouth opening and closing. And on Jan. 9, Oklahoma inmate Michael Lee Wilson's final words were, "I feel my whole body burning."

 Missouri threw out its three-drug lethal injection procedure after it could no longer obtain the drugs. State officials altered the method in 2012 to use propofol, which was found in the system of pop star Michael Jackson after he died of an overdose in 2009.

 The anti-death penalty European Union threatened to impose export limits on propofol if it were used in an execution, jeopardizing the supply of a common anesthetic needed by hospitals across the nation. In October, Gov. Jay Nixon stayed the execution of serial killer Joseph Paul Franklin and ordered the Missouri Department of Corrections to find a new drug.

 Days later, the state announced it had switched to a form of pentobarbital made by a compounding pharmacy. Like other states, Missouri has refused to divulge where the drug comes from or who makes it.

 Missouri has carried out two executions using pentobarbital — Franklin in November and Allen Nicklasson in December. Neither inmate showed outward signs of suffering, but the secrecy of the process resulted in a lawsuit and a legislative inquiry.

 Michael Campbell, assistant professor of criminal justice at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, said some lawmakers simply don't believe convicted murderers deserve any mercy.

 "Many of these politicians are trying to tap into a more populist theme that those who do terrible things deserve to have terrible things happen to them," Campbell said.

 Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington, D.C., cautioned that there could be a backlash.

 "These ideas would jeopardize the death penalty because, I think, the public reaction would be revulsion, at least from many quarters," Dieter said.

 Some states already provide alternatives to lethal injection. Condemned prisoners may choose the electric chair in eight states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. An inmate named Robert Gleason Jr. was the most recent to die by electrocution, in Virginia in January 2013.

 Missouri and Wyoming allow for gas-chamber executions, and Arizona does if the crime occurred before Nov. 23, 1992, and the inmate chooses that option instead of lethal injection. Missouri no longer has a gas chamber, but Attorney General Chris Koster, a Democrat, and Missouri state Sen. Kurt Schaefer, a Republican, last year suggested possibility rebuilding one. So far, there is no bill to do so.

 Delaware, New Hampshire and Washington state still allow inmates to choose hanging. The last hanging in the U.S. was Billy Bailey in Delaware in 1996. Two prisoners in Washington state have chosen to be hanged since the 1990s — Westley Allan Dodd in 1993 and Charles Rodman Campbell in 1994.

 In recent years, there have been three civilian firing squad executions in the U.S., all in Utah. Gary Gilmore uttered his famous final words, "Let's do it," on Jan. 17, 1977, before his execution, which ended a 10-year unofficial moratorium on the death penalty across the country.

 Convicted killers John Albert Taylor in 1996 and Ronnie Lee Gardner in 2010 were also put to death by firing squad.

 Utah is phasing out its use, but the firing squad remains an option there for inmates sentenced prior to May 3, 2004.

 Oklahoma maintains the firing squad as an option, but only if lethal injection and electrocution are deemed unconstitutional.

 In Wyoming, Republican state Sen. Bruce Burns said death by firing squad would be far less expensive than building a gas chamber. Wyoming has only one inmate on death row, 68-year-old convicted killer Dale Wayne Eaton. The state has not executed anyone in 22 years.

 Jackson Miller, a Republican in the Virginia House of Delegates, is sponsoring a bill that would allow for electrocution if lethal injection drugs are not available.

 Miller said he would prefer that the state have easy access to the drugs needed for lethal injections. "But I also believe that the process of the justice system needs to be fulfilled." |||||

Write a summary.

– A new drug for fatal injections is not only hard to find, it takes twice as long to kill people. US death penalty states like Texas, Missouri, and Louisiana are struggling to find lethal drugs for capital punishment, thanks to a worldwide ethical embargo against pharmaceutical companies selling drugs to US departments of corrections, the Guardian reports. So those states are turning from a three-drug cocktail to one drug, pentobarbital—which takes an average of 20 minutes to kill rather than the cocktail's 10. But does the prolonged death equal inhumane treatment of the prisoner? An anesthesiologist says it's hard to know—there isn't enough research yet—but the way states are procuring pentobarbital raises additional questions. Texas, Missouri, and Louisiana simply asked pharmacies to make the drug (the New York Times slammed such states for entering "a largely unregulated world" of pharmaceuticals). But Louisiana is stuck: It couldn't get any pentobarbital to execute child-killer Christopher Sepulvado on Wednesday, The Lens reports. Officials could try some other drug combination, as Ohio did in executing inmate Dennis McGuire last month—but he spent 26 minutes gasping for breath, the AP reports, and his last words were, "I feel my whole body burning."


Article:

The bittersweet romantic musical "Once" has won the best musical prize at the Tony Awards.

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 In this theater image released by Boneau/Bryan-Brown, Steve Kazee, left, and Cristin Milioti are shown in a scene from "Once," in New York. Milioti is nominated for a Tony Award for best actress in a... (Associated Press)

 The musical is based on the documentary-style 2006 film about an unlikely love affair between a Czech flower seller and an Irish street musician in Dublin.

 Both the film and musical use songs by Marketa Irglova and Glen Hansard, including the sublime, 2007 Oscar-winning song, "Falling Slowly." It stars Steve Kazee and Cristin Milioti.

 It beat out "Newsies," `'Nice Work If You Can Get It" and "Leap of Faith." ||||| "Once" was the big winner at the Tony Awards on Sunday, taking home eight awards, including best new musical.

 Based on the 2006 indie movie of the same name, "Once" is a modestly scaled romantic reverie that is leagues different in tone and size from last year's musical winner, "The Book of Mormon."

 Sunday's ceremony, hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, took placed at the Beacon Theatre in New York. "Once" also won awards for actor Steve Kazee, director John Tiffany and playwright Enda Walsh, who wrote the book for the musical.

 TONYS 2012: Red carpet | Winners & Nominees ||||| Here is the full list of Tony nominations for 2012 (WINNERS are noted):

 Play

 "Clybourne Park," Bruce Norris WINNER

 "Other Desert Cities," Jon Robin Baitz

 "Peter and the Starcatcher," Rick Elice

 "Venus in Fur," David Ives

 Musical

 "Leap of Faith"

 "Newsies"

 "Nice Work If You Can Get It"

 "Once" WINNER

 Revival of a play

 "Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman" WINNER

 "Gore Vidal’s The Best Man"

 "Master Class"

 "Wit"

 Revival of a musical

 "Evita"

 "Follies"

 "The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess" WINNER

 "Jesus Christ Superstar"

 Book of a musical

 "Lysistrata Jones," Douglas Carter Beane

 "Newsies," Harvey Fierstein

 "Nice Work If You Can Get It," Joe DiPietro

 "Once," Enda Walsh WINNER

 Original score (music and/or lyrics) written for the theater

 "Bonnie & Clyde," music: Frank Wildhorn; lyrics: Don Black

 "Newsies," music: Alan Menken; lyrics: Jack Feldman WINNER

 "One Man, Two Guvnors," music & lyrics: Grant Olding

 "Peter and the Starcatcher," music: Wayne Barker; lyrics: Rick Elice

 Performance by an actor in a leading role in a play

 James Corden, "One Man, Two Guvnors" WINNER

 Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman"

 James Earl Jones, "Gore Vidal’s The Best Man"

 Frank Langella, "Man and Boy"

 John Lithgow, "The Columnist"

 Performance by an actress in a leading role in a play

 Nina Arianda, "Venus in Fur" WINNER

 Tracie Bennett, "End of the Rainbow"

 Stockard Channing, "Other Desert Cities"

 Linda Lavin, "The Lyons"

 Cynthia Nixon, "Wit"

 Performance by an actor in a leading role in a musical

 Danny Burstein, "Follies"

 Jeremy Jordan, "Newsies"

 Steve Kazee, "Once" WINNER

 Norm Lewis, "The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess"

 Ron Raines, "Follies"

 Performance by an actress in a leading role in a musical

 Jan Maxwell, "Follies"

 Audra McDonald, "The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess" WINNER

 Cristin Milioti, "Once"

 Kelli O’Hara, "Nice Work If You Can Get It"

 Laura Osnes, "Bonnie & Clyde"

 Performance by an actor in a featured role in a play

 Christian Borle, "Peter and the Starcatcher" WINNER

 Michael Cumpsty, "End of the Rainbow"

 Tom Edden, "One Man, Two Guvnors"

 Andrew Garfield, "Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman"

 Jeremy Shamos, "Clybourne Park"

 Performance by an actress in a featured role in a play

 Linda Emond, "Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman"

 Spencer Kayden, "Don’t Dress for Dinner"

 Celia Keenan-Bolger, "Peter and the Starcatcher"

 Judith Light, "Other Desert Cities" WINNER

 Condola Rashad, "Stick Fly"

 Performance by an actor in a featured role in a musical

 Phillip Boykin, "The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess"

 Michael Cerveris, "Evita"

 David Alan Grier, "The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess"

 Michael McGrath, "Nice Work If You Can Get It" WINNER

 Josh Young, "Jesus Christ Superstar"

 Performance by an actress in a featured role in a musical

 Elizabeth A. Davis, "Once"

 Jayne Houdyshell, "Follies"

 Judy Kaye, "Nice Work If You Can Get It" WINNER

 Jessie Mueller, "On a Clear Day You Can See Forever"

 Da’Vine Joy Randolph, "Ghost the Musical"

 Scenic design of a play

 John Lee Beatty, "Other Desert Cities"

 Daniel Ostling, "Clybourne Park"

 Mark Thompson, "One Man, Two Guvnors"

 Donyale Werle, "Peter and the Starcatcher" WINNER

 Scenic design of a musical

 Bob Crowley, "Once" WINNER

 Rob Howell and Jon Driscoll, "Ghost the Musical"

 Tobin Ost and Sven Ortel, "Newsies"

 George Tsypin, "Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark"

 Costume design of a play

 William Ivey Long, "Don’t Dress for Dinner"

 Paul Tazewell, "A Streetcar Named Desire"

 Mark Thompson, "One Man, Two Guvnors"

 Paloma Young, "Peter and the Starcatcher" WINNER

 Costume design of a musical

 Gregg Barnes, "Follies" WINNER

 ESosa, "The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess"

 Eiko Ishioka, "Spider-Man Turn Off The Dark"

 Martin Pakledinaz, "Nice Work If You Can Get It"

 Lighting design of a play

 Jeff Croiter, "Peter and the Starcatcher" WINNER

 Peter Kaczorowski, "The Road to Mecca"

 Brian MacDevitt, "Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman"

 Kenneth Posner, "Other Desert Cities"

 Lighting design of a musical

 Christopher Akerlind, "The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess"

 Natasha Katz, "Follies"

 Natasha Katz, "Once" WINNER

 Hugh Vanstone, "Ghost the Musical" |||||
What is a summary?

– The come-from-behind Broadway hit Once won a Tony Award—but it didn't just do it once. The sweet reverie based on the 2006 movie about the unlikely love affair between a Czech flower seller and Dublin street musician took home eight Tonys, including wins for Best New Musical, Best Musical Performance for actor Steve Kazee, and one for Enda Walsh, for Best Book of a Musical. Both the film and musical featured the Oscar-winning song, "Falling Slowly." Audra McDonald grabbed top honors for an actress in a musical for Porgy and Bess, which won Best Musical Revival. Best Dramatic Play was Clybourne Park, and Best Dramatic Performances went to James Corden for One Man, Two Guvnors, and Nina Arianda for Venus in Fur. The awards presentation, in Manhattan's Beacon Theater, was hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, and featured more performances than ever, reports the Los Angeles Times. Check here for a complete list of nominees and winners.