Here is a news article: In little over a year, at least six women have disappeared from Chillicothe, Ohio, a town of only 21,000 people. (The Washington Post)

 For years, Chillicothe, Ohio, was known as just another notch on the Rust Belt, afflicted by the same old problems of drugs, poverty and unemployment. If the town ever made national news, it was because a presidential candidate stopped by vowing to fix things, only for those promises to evaporate after Election Day.

 But in the past couple of months, Chillicothe has crept back into headlines for something other than a stump speech. Something much darker. Something evil.

 Chillicothe is no longer just another Rust Belt town. Now it’s the place where women go missing and wash up dead.

 In little over a year, at least six women have disappeared from the town of only 21,000. Four of their bodies have been found, almost all of them dumped in creeks or streams flowing away from the town.

 The women have similar stories. Most of them were hooked on drugs, and many moonlighted as prostitutes to fund their addictions, police say. Some of them even knew one another.

 The similarities between the victims and the crime scenes have Chillicothe terrified that a serial killer is on the loose. Local police, several county sheriffs’ offices and state investigators have banded together to solve the spiraling murder mystery.

 Even FBI analysts are assisting with the investigation, busy compiling a profile of a possible serial killer.

 “I don’t want to come out and say ‘yes, we have a serial killer,’ but it’s a small community that we live in … and the number of females who have come up missing, and then the bodies that we’ve found, that’s quite a bit for our community,” Staff Lt. Mike Preston of the Ross County Sheriff’s Department told The Washington Post.

 “The community is starting to get concerned,” he said. “Everyone just wants answers.”

 In the absence of answers — and arrests — residents are getting scared. The fear that a serial killer is stalking prostitutes swirls around Chillicothe.

 “Obviously there has to be something going on,” said Jessica Sayre, whose older sister, Tiffany, was the latest victim. Her body was found in a drainage pipe Saturday after she had been missing for more than a month.

 “Apparently my sister was the next target,” Jessica Sayre said.

 The women began disappearing a year ago from Chillicothe, a town about an hour south of Columbus. Ohio’s first capital more than 200 years ago — a title still boasted on city signs — Chillicothe has fallen far.

 “We are battling a problem with heroin in our community,” Preston said. Prostitution is on the rise as well, he acknowledged.

 Charlotte Trego was the first to vanish. In her late 20s with wavy brown hair and glasses, the mother of two young kids had fallen on hard times. “She started taking pain pills and graduated to heroin,” according to the Columbus Dispatch. In the spring of 2014, Trego told her mother that she was ready to get clean. Her mom found a rehab center.

 But then Trego was evicted by her roommate, according to the Chillicothe Gazette. She was last seen May 3, 2014. It was as if Chillicothe’s increasingly dangerous streets simply swallowed her whole.

 That same day, a friend of Trego’s, Tameka Lynch, also vanished. Like Trego, Lynch had drug problems.

 “She used and she kind of was struggling, especially after she was diagnosed with lupus,” Lynch’s cousin, Chasity Lett, told the Huffington Post. “Once that happened and she lost her place, it kind of triggered the whole drug thing.”

 Lynch, a 30-year-old mother of three, financed her deepening addiction by selling her body, the Huffington Post reported, citing Chillicothe police and a local prostitute.

 “I knew her,” said the woman, whom the Huffington Post did not identify. “It was around midnight when she went to turn tricks and disappeared.”

 Lynch was the first of “Chillicothe’s missing women” — as the six have been called — to be found. On May 24, three weeks after her disappearance, a kayaker spotted Lynch’s body on a sandbar in Paint Creek outside town. The Ross County coroner’s office determined that she had died of a multiple-drug overdose.

 But Lynch was afraid of the water, her mother told the Dispatch. “Somebody needs to pay for this,” Angela Robinson said, speculating that her daughter had been murdered. “She was already dead when she was put in the water,” she told the Huffington Post.

 In the year since, four more women have vanished. Three of them have come home in coffins.

 On Nov. 3, 2014, six months after Trego and Lynch disappeared, another local woman went missing. Wanda Lemons is a 37-year-old mother of five.

 “She just disappeared out of thin air,” her daughter, Megan Hodges, told the Huffington Post. “I just want them to find out what happened to her.”

 “I think her disappearance might be related to sex trafficking, but if it were drugs I don’t think it would be related,” Hodges added.

 Two months later, Shasta Himelrick’s body was found floating in the Scioto River outside Chillicothe. In December, she had gleefully told friends that she was “eating for two,” according to the Chillicothe Gazette. On Christmas Day, the pregnant 20-year-old blonde had received a text message while visiting her grandmother. Himelrick left, promising to return, but never did.

 A Chillicothe gas station surveillance camera recorded her ducking inside. Hours later, her abandoned car was found on a bridge south of town. The doors were open, the tank was empty and the battery was dead. Himelrick’s body was fished from the water eight days later. The coroner ruled the death a suicide, but Himelrick’s friends are convinced it was murder.

 Tiffany Sayre, 26, went missing on May 11. On June 20, her body was found wrapped in a bed sheet. (The Sayre family)

 Tiffany Sayre with her two children. (The Sayre family)

 Tiffany Sayre went missing under similar circumstances. It was around midnight on May 11, and Sayre and her friend Jessie Sanford were working at a local motel.

 “She was doing business at the Chillicothe Inn,” Sanford told the Huffington Post. “She left to run to her grandmother’s house and was going to go back to the hotel to meet the same people so she could make some more money. I don’t know what happened. I think somebody took her.”

 Like the other women, Sayre had gotten involved in drugs and prostitution, according to police and family members.

 Kenneth Buell, Sayre’s ex-boyfriend and the father of their two children, told The Washington Post that the couple had done heroin and crack cocaine together. “For a couple of years we were both on drugs,” he said. Buell said he got clean a year ago, but Sayre couldn’t, and the couple broke up.

 “She couldn’t kick it,” he said. “It just had a hold of her.”

 Jessica Sayre said her sister had met another man and tried to go straight. But when her new boyfriend died in April from a blood clot, Tiffany went back to drugs and the vices that funded her addiction.

 “It hit my sister really hard. She really loved him,” Jessica Sayre said. “They had planned on moving, going to this other place, actually getting married and having a life together. I think she did the drugs a little more to help with the pain. She didn’t want to be in her right mind because she didn’t feel like it was the right thing.”

 “The night she apparently went missing, she talked about how she wanted to get her life straight and go clean,” Sayre added. “My sister did these things that we did not approve of to get money for drugs, because we didn’t want to be the source of money for those types of things. She did what she had to do.”

 “Did she have a problem? Yes, everybody’s got problems,” Buell said. “Hers got a hold of her and didn’t let go.”

 //

 I know everyone is probably getting sick and tired of me sharing the pictures of my cousin and all the other ladies that… Posted by Courtney Willett on Tuesday, June 9, 2015

 Sayre’s family put out missing-person fliers and held candlelight vigils but heard nothing. While they were waiting, another woman, Timberly Clayton, was found dead: shot in the head three times and left in a ditch near another creek. (Authorities named Jason A. McCrary, a 36-year-old convicted sex offender, as the prime suspect in the killing but have not yet charged him with the crime.)

 Finally, last Saturday, Sayre became the latest victim in the string of deadly disappearances.

 A couple out for a Saturday evening walk through a nature preserve south of Chillicothe spotted something white at the edge of a drainage pipe running underneath the road. Sayre’s naked body had been wrapped in a bed sheet and hidden inside the culvert with a crown of duct tape around her strawberry blond hair.

 “She’s wrapped up in a blanket and you can see her breasts, her stomach, duct tape, a white blanket,” the female passerby told a 911 dispatcher.

 “We were hoping that she was still alive,” Jessica Sayre said. “You’re wishing and hoping and then all of a sudden you get a phone call saying that your loved one has been found, but not the way you wanted to find her.”

 “She got murdered,” Buell said more bluntly. “Somebody took her away and it was intentional.”

 Authorities have ruled Sayre’s death a homicide. The grisly discovery helped launch the task force, which now includes more than a dozen members, including the FBI analysts, according to Preston. The task force is investigating the cases of all six women, even those formerly considered suicides. According to media reports, the investigation could also expand to at least three other women who went missing from nearby Portsmouth and Columbus.

 A serial killer is a possibility, Preston admitted. He said officials were studying the apparent pattern of the dumping of the bodies along waterways outside the city.

 “This wasn’t just a simple overdose,” Jessica Sayre said of her sister’s death. “They could have called the police. We didn’t have to find her like this.”

 “These motherf—— are gonna get done,” Buell said, promising vengeance. “What would you do if somebody took your life away?”

 Tiffany Sayre, 26, went missing May 11. On June 20, her body was found wrapped in a bed sheet. (The Sayre family)

 The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is analyzing the forensics found at the scene for traces of a suspect, Preston said. He added that the task force had received more than 100 tips in just a few days but is still searching for a witness.

 “A lot of those people may be afraid to come forward,” he said. “If they are afraid, they can let us know anonymously. We just want the information. Somebody saw something.”

 But as authorities delve into the growing number of deaths and disappearances, some locals say the police are part of the problem.

 “The day I reported her missing was very upsetting to me,” Trego’s mother, Yvonne Boggs, told the Huffington Post. “The cop said, ‘Women like your daughter take off because they don’t want to be bothered.’ It was like they looked into it up to a certain point and then quit looking.”

 “The police didn’t take it serious and just blew me off,” Lynch’s mother, Angela Robinson, told the same Web site.

 Sayre’s family said they had also been kept in the dark. Buell even blamed the authorities.

 “These police down here are pieces of s—,” he said. “They even go around and pick up the prostitutes.”

 Both he and Jessica Sayre said police and authorities had long ago abandoned Chillicothe.

 “It’s not safe,” he said. “The last five, six, seven years it’s gone to hell. You can’t walk around by yourself, especially females.”

 “I feel like Chillicothe has turned for the worst,” Jessica Sayre said. “Now they are going to start picking up the pieces, but this town has really gone down with drugs. It’s got pretty bad.”

 She said that despite the discovery of her sister’s body, her family would continue to hold vigils for Trego and Lemons.

 “It’s been a nightmare for us,” she said of Tiffany’s death. “Nothing is going to bring her back, but we are going to get justice. And we are going to pray for these two other women who are missing in Chillicothe.

 “This town has beauty,” she said. “This town can come together.” ||||| CHILLICOTHE, Ohio -- One-by-one, at least four women have disappeared or turned up dead in this small city, where family and friends fear a serial killer or sex traffickers are on the loose, and authorities are ruling nothing out.

 "There is something going on," Yvonne Boggs told The Huffington Post. "It seems strange that all these girls knew each other and are now missing. Someone is taking these girls for some reason."

 Boggs' daughter, 27-year-old Charlotte Trego, was the first of the women to go missing in the small city roughly 50 miles south of Columbus.

 CHARLOTTE TREGO

 "She was last seen by us on May 3, 2014," Boggs said. "I knew right away something was wrong because it's not like Charlotte not to get in touch with me at all."

 Trego has two children, ages 4 and 13.

 "The day I reported her missing was very upsetting to me," Boggs said. "The cop said, 'Women like your daughter take off because they don’t want to be bothered.' It was like they looked into it up to a certain point and then quit looking."

 Boggs acknowledges her daughter has battled drug addiction, but argues that affliction entitles her child to no less attention than any other missing person case.

 VISIT: Find Charlotte Trego

 "She is a very loving, caring person," the distraught mother said. "She didn't always make the best decisions, but she wouldn’t do anything to hurt anyone. She is a mommy's girl."

 May 3, 2014 is also the day Trego's friend, 30-year-old Tameka Lynch, was last seen in Chillicothe.

 TAMEKA LYNCH

 "The police didn't take it serious and just blew me off," Lynch's mother, Angela Robinson, told HuffPost.

 Lynch was found dead on May 24, 2014. Kayakers found her naked body on a sandbar in Paint Creek, roughly 20 miles downstream from where it passes through Chillicothe.

 PAINT CREEK

 According to the autopsy report, Lynch's cause of death was "likely multiple drug overdoses." The manner of death is listed as "undetermined circumstance."

 "She was already dead when she was put in the water," Robinson said.

 Lynch's cousin, Chasity Lett, told HuffPost Lynch was battling drug addiction at the time of her disappearance.

 VISIT: Missing Chillicothe Women

 "She used and she kind of was struggling, especially after she was diagnosed with lupus," Lett said. "Once that happened and she lost her place, it kind of triggered the whole drug thing."

 Chillicothe police said Lynch had ties to prostitution, which she likely used to support her drug habit.

 DOWNTOWN CHILLICOTHE

 A prostitute from Second Street in Chillicothe -- a street where much of the city's illegal sex trade occurs -- told HuffPost the word on the street is that Lynch disappeared on her way to meet a client near Water Street.

 "I knew her," said the woman, who did not wish to be identified. "It was around midnight when she went to turn tricks and disappeared."

 The woman said it is unlikely that anyone will ever know what happened to Lynch.

 "Maybe someone killed her or maybe she overdosed and someone dumped her body," she said. "Nobody knows and probably nobody ever will."

 Lynch was the mother of three children, ages 5, 6 and 11.

 On Nov. 3, 2014 -- six months to the day that Trego and Lynch were last seen -- 37-year-old Wanda Lemons was last seen in Chillicothe.

 "She just disappeared out of thin air," Lemons' daughter, 19-year-old Megan Hodges, told HuffPost. "I just want them to find out what happened to her."

 WANDA LEMONS

 Authorities have yet to find any trace of Lemons, who is the mother of five children, ages 7, 13, 19, 21 and 23.

 "I think her disappearance might be related to sex trafficking, but if it were drugs I don't think it would be related," Hodges said.

 VISIT: Missing Wanda Lemons

 It was around midnight on May 11, some six months after Lemons' disappearance, that 26-year-old Tiffany Sayre disappeared in Chillicothe. She was last seen by her friend, Jessie Sanford.

 TIFFANY SAYRE

 "She was doing business at the Chillicothe Inn," Sanford told HuffPost. "She left to run to her grandmother's house and was going to go back to the hotel to meet the same people so she could make some more money. I don't know what happened. I think somebody took her."

 It remains unclear if Sayre went back to the hotel. Her cellphone, police said, was last active by a tower near Marietta Road. It has not been powered on since then.

 CHILLICOTHE INN

 It's also unclear if the men Sayre met with at the hotel have been cleared of suspicion.

 "All the videos and everything have been turned over to our detective bureau," Chillicothe Police Sgt. Ron Meyers told HuffPost. "They haven't indicated to me that they've even contacted [the men]."

 VISIT: Find Tiffany Sayre

 Like Boggs and Robinson, Sayre's family is critical of the police department.

 "We have been provided no information whatsoever," Mike Bloomfield told HuffPost.

 CHILLICOTHE POLICE

 Bloomfield has been with Sayre's mother, Connie Sayre, for the past nine years and said he considers Tiffany Sayre one of his own children.

 "No one will talk to us and when they searched the river last week, we had to read about it in the paper," Bloomfield said. "The media knows more than we do."

 Tiffany Sayre's mom said her daughter has two children, ages 2 and 6.

 "I want her home," Connie Sayre told HuffPost. "We all love her and miss her."

 TIFFANY SAYRE VOLUNTEER SEARCH

 According to Meyers, each of the cases has been assigned to a detective who is actively investigating.

 Meyers said that while missing person cases are not uncommon in Chillicothe, which has a population of about 21,000, the timing and circumstances of these cases stand out as "peculiar."

 "They all ran in the same circle -- the drug scene and things like that," Meyers said. "In my 23-year career, I have handled 30 to 40 cases of missing people and generally those cases are quickly solved. These cases, where people have been gone this long, are odd."

 Every family member HuffPost interviewed said they suspect the cases in Chillicothe are linked. Some even think cases in other nearby areas, including the 2013 disappearance of 26-year-old Megan Lancaster, could be connected.

 MEGAN LANCASTER

 "These girls all knew the same people," Lancaster's sister-in-law, Kadie Lancaster, told HuffPost. "I think it's possible these and other cases, as far off as Michigan, are all connected."

 Megan Lancaster, the mother of a 9-year-old boy, was last seen in Portsmouth on April 3, 2013. Her vehicle was later found abandoned at an area business. Portsmouth is a city located about 45 miles south of Chillicothe.

 "When Megan disappeared, they all started disappearing," said Kadie Lancaster.

 VISIT: Finding Megan Lancaster

 "There's something going on here and it's scary," Lett said.

 While it is possible the women took off of their own accord or met their tragic ends as a result of drug overdoses, there is no mistaking that the lives most of them lived put them in danger every single day.

 "My friend, who has been on streets longer than any of these girls, got pulled into a van and got the f--k beat out of her a few days ago," a registered nurse and Second Street prostitute told HuffPost. "But she didn’t call the cops because they don’t do s--t. If you're an addict or a prostitute, they don’t care."

 Sanford said the unexplained disappearances have prompted her to give up prostitution for good.

 "I'm done," she said. "I'll never go back to it again."

 While the search for answers continues, at least one of the missing women's family members considers Tameka Lynch's family lucky.

 "Honestly, I hate to say it, but her family is the luckiest because they have closure," Hodges told HuffPost. "For the rest of us, there are no answers."

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A summary of this is?

– Chillicothe was the capital of Ohio some 200 years ago. Things have gone downhill from there. But amid poverty and heroin woes, the city of 21,000 has "turned for the worst," Jessica Sayre tells the Washington Post. Her 26-year-old sister, Tiffany, a sex worker battling a drug problem, went missing from a local motel on May 11. Her naked body was found wrapped in a sheet in a drainage pipe on Saturday, making her the fourth woman to turn up dead near Chillicothe's waterways in the last year. At least two more women have vanished, leading some to fear a serial killer is on the loose. "I don't want to come out and say 'yes, we have a serial killer,'" says an officer, but he admits it's possible. The location of the women's bodies isn't the only evidence linking the cases. Most of the victims had drug issues and some were prostitutes; some even knew each other, reports the Post, which rounded up coverage from the Columbus Dispatch and Huffington Post. Friends Charlotte Trego, 27, and Tameka Lynch, 30, were the first to disappear, separately, on May 3, 2014. Lynch was found dead of a suspected drug overdose in a creek weeks later; her mom told the Dispatch she was afraid of water. Wanda Lemons, 38; Shasta Himelrick, 20; and Timberly Claytor later vanished; the bodies of the latter two were ultimately found. Himelrick was pregnant; the five other women all had children. Sayre's death, ruled a murder, helped launch a task force now investigating all six cases; the cases of three missing women from nearby Portsmouth and Columbus may also get a look. For more, head to the Post.


Jared Fogle Challenges Sentence Wrong to Punish Me for My Fantasies

 Jared Fogle -- Challenges Sentence ... Wrong to Punish Me for My Fantasies

 EXCLUSIVE

 Jared Fogle is challenging the judge who sentenced him to more than 15 years in prison, arguing that he's being punished in part for his fantasies ... and fantasies are not a crime.

 Fogle's lawyers are appealing the sentence on several grounds, claiming the judge had no right to exceed the maximum sentencing guideline -- around 13 years.

 The lawyers note the judge who sentenced Fogle said, "This defendant is obsessed with child pornography and having sex with minors. He fantasized about it in telephone conversations."

 Fogle's attorneys say fantasies should not form the basis of a criminal sentence. They quote another court decision, which says, "We are loath to give the government the power to punish us for our thoughts and not our actions."

 According to Fogle's lawyers, the fantasies and "requests to third parties" were never acted upon by Fogle, yet they were relied on by the judge in imposing the sentence.

 Fogle wants the appeals court to give him another sentencing hearing, where his actions -- not his thoughts -- are front and center. ||||| Former Subway star and convicted sex offender Jared Fogle asked for a shortened prison term Friday, months after a judge sentenced the child porn-collecting pitchman to more than 15 years behind bars — three years longer than prosecutors’ requested punishment.

 Fogle's attorney argued that the District Court judge in Indianapolis abused her authority by giving Fogle the heftier sentence in November. Under his plea deal prosecutors agreed to request a maximum 12 ½-year sentence while Fogle agreed not to seek a sentence of less than five years in prison.

 But U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt elected to go beyond the prosecution's recommendation, sentencing Fogle to 15 years and eight months. She could have sentenced him to up to 50 years in prison.

 JARED FOGLE SAID 'MIDDLE SCHOOL GIRLS ARE HOT': REPORT

 The Friday appeal called that decision “unreasonable,” and asked the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago to throw out the prison term and order resentencing.

 “The District Court's ruling also undermines the notions of trust and fairness that undergird our delicate system of plea bargaining,” Fogle's appeal said.

 The sub chain cut all ties with Fogle last year. (Jeff Roberson/AP)

 The fast food icon’s downfall started when federal officials raided his suburban Indianapolis home in July and seized several computers and DVDs from the married dad.

 Investigators arrived with a warrant after the former head of Fogle’s childhood obesity charity was arrested earlier this year on similar child porn charges.

 Fogle later admitted he paid for sex at New York City hotels with girls who were 16 or 17 years old and that he had received some child pornography produced by the one-time head of his anti-obesity charity, Russell Taylor. Fogle also paid a total of $1.4 million to his 14 victims, with each getting $100,000.

 Taylor was sentenced in December to 27 years in prison after pleading guilty to 12 counts of child exploitation and one count of distributing child pornography. Prosecutors say Taylor used hidden cameras in his Indianapolis-area homes to secretly film 12 minors who were nude, changing clothes, or engaged in other activities.

 Defense attorney Ronald Elberger argues that in determining Fogle's 188-month sentence the judge wrongly considered allegations for which he didn't face criminal charges, including discussions he had with others about possible sexual contact with other minors and collecting pornography of children as young as 6 years old.

 Subway restaurant spokesman Jared Fogle walks to a waiting car as he leaves his home in July as FBI agents and Indiana State Police raid his Indiana home. (Michael Conroy/AP)

 The appeal maintains that the child pornography was on a thumb drive that Fogle received from Taylor and viewed, "but that does not amount to a contention that Fogle actively sought, collected and distributed images of 6-year-olds."

 "Fogle acknowledges that he has committed inexcusable acts for which he takes full responsibility and is genuinely remorseful," the appeal said. Prosecutors "knew everything the District Court knew and still agreed to a below-guidelines sentence that adequately reflected the severity of the crimes to which Fogle pleaded."

 Fogle, a weight-loss sensation on the Indiana University campus, debuted in his first commercial for Subway in 2000 after the sandwich chain caught wind of the student’s transformation. Once weighing a whopping 425 pounds with a 60-inch waist, Fogle dropped 245 pounds on a do-it-yourself diet of nothing but turkey and vegetable subs from the campus Subway.

 “The Subway Guy” became a national sensation, and Fogle appeared two years ago in a Super Bowl ad marking the 15-year anniversary of his diet program.

 Subway cut all ties with its former pitchman amid the investigation last year.

 With News Wire Services |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Former Subway pitchman Jared Fogle wants his child pornography sentence reduced, claiming that the judge who sentenced him was, in part, punishing him for his fantasies, TMZ reports. According to the New York Daily News, Fogle's plea deal called for a maximum sentence of 12.5 years; the judge ended up giving him more than 15. His lawyers claim that longer sentence was partly based on fantasies Fogle had but never acted on. As evidence, they quote the judge: "This defendant is obsessed with child pornography and having sex with minors. He fantasized about it in telephone conversations." Fogle filed an appeal for a new sentencing on Friday. His appeal calls his current sentence "unreasonable" and says the judge "abused her authority." Fogle admitted to paying for sex with girls who were 16 and 17, as well as receiving child pornography made by the head of his charity. But he also talked about more sexual contact with minors and getting pornography featuring children as young as 6. Fogle's lawyers argue it's those conversations about things he was never charged with that led to the longer sentence. Fogle's sentence is still much shorter that the 50 years the judge could have legally given him.


Here is a news article: The driver of a Wal-Mart tractor-trailer that slammed into a limo carrying comedian Tracy Morgan last June had been awake more than 28 hours, the National Transportation Safety Board said today.

 Interested in ? Add as an interest to stay up to date on the latest news, video, and analysis from ABC News. Add Interest

 Around 1 a.m. on June 7, 2014, 35-year-old Kevin Roper – then halfway through the 13th hour of his 14-hour shift – slammed into Morgan’s limo from behind, killing comedian James McNair and seriously injuring Morgan and three others.

 Before starting his Wal-Mart shift, Roper had driven 12 hours in his personal vehicle from his home in Georgia to his base in Delaware, according to the NTSB.

 His “decision to drive 800 miles overnight” was “a factor in the crash,” NTSB senior accident investigator Dennis Collins said today.

 Though Wal-Mart provided fatigue information during its driver training, it was not required to have a fatigue management program,the NTSB said.

 Moments before the crash, the trailer was traveling at 65 mph, 20 mph over the construction zone’s 45 mph speed limit.

 “Had the truck driver been traveling at the posted work zone speed limit of 45 mph, it could have been stopped before impact,” NTSB investigator David Rayburn said today.

 Roper's attorney told ABC News he would dispute the NTSB's conclusions.

 The passengers in the rear of the limo’s rear compartment were not wearing seatbelts at the time of the crash, NTSB chairman Christopher Hart announced at a board meeting today, nor had they received a safety briefing outlining the benefits of seat belts.

 After being hit by the Wal-Mart truck, the limo then struck three other vehicles and rolled over before coming to rest on its side on the New Jersey Turnpike.

 Because the limo had been customized, “the passengers had no available exits until emergency responders removed parts of a plywood panel that had been installed,” Hart said today.

 Indeed, it took nearly 40 minutes for first responders to extricate some of the victims from the limo.

 “I shudder to think what would have happened if this vehicle had caught fire,” NTSB board member Robert Sumwalt noted.

 Roper was later charged with one count of vehicular homicide and several counts of assault by auto, with authorities saying they believed he had dozed off behind the wheel. He pleaded not guilty.

 The crash left Morgan, then 45, in critical condition, with multiple broken bones and a traumatic brain injury.

 Since then, the comedian has “struggled” to regain his old self, his lawyer said.

 In a June 2015 interview with “Today” anchor Matt Lauer, Morgan wondered through tears whether he was ever “going to be funny again.”

 He filed a civil suit against Wal-Mart; they reached a confidential settlement in May.

 The retailer, which initially faulted Morgan and his colleagues for not wearing seat belts, later “took full responsibility for the accident,” according to Morgan’s lawyer. ||||| WASHINGTON (AP) — A Wal-Mart truck driver who hadn't slept in 28 hours failed to slow down despite posted warning signs and was responsible for a highway crash last year that severely injured comedian Tracy Morgan and killed another comedian, the National Transportation Safety Board said Tuesday.

 FILE - In this April 9, 2014, file photo, actor Tracy Morgan attends the FX Networks Upfront premiere screening of "Fargo" at the SVA Theater in New York. The National Transportation Safety Board is meeting... (Associated Press)

 National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Chairman Christopher Hart speaks during an NTSB meeting at their headquarters in Washington, Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2015, to determine the cause of an accident last... (Associated Press)

 An accident description is displayed on a large screen as the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) meets at their headquarters in Washington, Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2015, to determine the cause of... (Associated Press)

 But the board said the failure of Morgan and other passengers in a limousine-van to wear seat belts and adjust headrests contributed to the severity of injuries when the limo was struck from behind by the truck.

 Most of their injuries were caused when the passengers were whipped around or thrown into the sides of the vehicle, the board said at a meeting to determine the cause of the crash and make safety recommendations.

 None of the passengers in the back of the 10-seat limo or the driver was wearing a seat belt.

 The board said truck driver Kevin Roper of Jonesboro, Georgia, could have prevented the June 7, 2014, crash if he had slowed to 45 mph, the posted speed limit for the construction work zone on the New Jersey Turnpike near Cranbury, where the crash occurred.

 The truck traveled 0.9 miles past the first work zone sign and more than 0.4 miles past the 45 mph speed limit sign without slowing from 65 mph. The truck was going that fast until it reached a closing distance of approximately 200 feet before the impact.

 At 45 mph, the truck could have stopped before impact, the board concluded.

 The collision with the limo started a chain reaction crash that affected 21 people in six vehicles.

 "One tragic aspect of roadway deaths is that so often they could have been prevented," said the safety board's chairman, Chris Hart.

 Heavy trucks are involved in nearly 1 in 8 fatal crashes, NTSB said. In work zones, 1 in 4 fatal crashes involves a heavy truck.

 Roper had driven over 800 miles overnight from Georgia to a Wal-Mart distribution center in Delaware to pick up a load before starting the trip without stopping for sleep.

 He had worked for Wal-Mart for 15 weeks and had had nine "critical event reports." Critical event reports, which are generated by a truck's computers and downloaded by Wal-Mart, record things such as hard braking, activation of the vehicle's stability control system or other events that might indicate unsafe driving.

 Roper also had been involved in a preventable accident, causing him to lose his safety bonus, investigators said.

 Wal-Mart had provided guidance to its drivers on preventing fatigue, but didn't have a comprehensive program to prevent drivers from being assigned over-tiring schedules or to make sure they were rested before reporting to work, the board said. Since then, Wal-Mart has taken greater steps to educate drivers about fatigue and has said it will put in place a program to reduce fatigue, investigators said.

 The board has long raised concerns about operator fatigue leading to accidents across all modes of transportation, from airline pilots to train engineers.

 Investigators said the limo wound up on its side with its rear doors jammed shut. A sheet of plywood that had been added to the limo to separate the cab from passengers blocked occupants from escaping the vehicle through the front doors after the crash.

 It took emergency responders working with the assistance of other motorists 37 minutes to remove the first of the crash victims from the rear of the limo.

 Investigators said emergency responders, mostly volunteers, didn't have the training to address some of the logistical and coordination issues arising from the complicated accident. New Jersey doesn't have requirements for the number of training hours that volunteer emergency responders must have, or a certification program, they said.

 Comedian James "Jimmy Mack" McNair of Peekskill, New York, a mentor of Morgan's, was killed. Morgan suffered head trauma, and was in a coma for two weeks. Three other passengers in the limo suffered serious injuries.

 Morgan, a former "Saturday Night Live" and "30 Rock" star, and the others were returning from a show in Dover, Delaware.

 Roper was charged with death by auto and four counts of assault by auto in state court in New Jersey.

 ___

 Follow Joan Lowy on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/AP_Joan_Lowy |||||
A summary of this is?

– How are your reflexes after you've been awake for 28 straight hours? The NTSB says the driver of the truck that smashed into Tracy Morgan's limo was in that exact predicament, reports ABC News. Kevin Roper, 35, drove 800 miles from his home in Georgia to Delaware, where he got into his Walmart truck and embarked on a 14-hour trip, say NTSB investigators. In the 13th hour of that trip, Roper hit Morgan's vehicle on the New Jersey Turnpike, killing one passenger and injuring Morgan and three others. In addition to driver fatigue, the NTSB also notes that Roper was doing 65 in a construction zone, 20mph over the limit, reports AP. “Had the truck driver been traveling at the posted work zone speed limit of 45mph, it could have been stopped before impact,” says NTSB investigator David Rayburn. The agency also says that neither Morgan nor the other passengers in the limo van were wearing seatbelts, which likely made their injuries worse. (Walmart has settled with Morgan, who vows to make people laugh again.)


Write a summary based on this article:

Red Riding Hood (2011)

 The bluenose brigade at the Motion Picture Association of America has stamped “ Red Riding Hood ” with a PG-13 rating for “violence and creature terror, and some sensuality.” Certainly this goofily amusing screen fairy tale includes bloodshed, but it’s generally tamer than its often-gruesome source. The creature terror meanwhile isn’t remotely frightening, though the designated mustache twirler (and scene chewer) Gary Oldman tries to rustle up scares. As to sensuality, Amanda Seyfried as You-Know-Who makes a delectable treat whether heaving her bosom or boogieing down in a bacchanal that’s more Burning Man than Bruegel .

 At this point in her short movie career Ms. Seyfried hasn’t often been asked to do more than hit her marks and deliver her lines, which she does appealingly in “Red Riding Hood.” What she mostly brings to her movies is otherworldly, unthreatening beauty — she has the saucer eyes and heart-shaped face of an anime pixie — and that elusive gift of cinematic presence. When she’s on camera, she draws all eyes to her, something that the director here, Catherine Hardwicke, grasps. Ms. Hardwicke is an uneven, at times careless filmmaker, but as she showed in movies like “Thirteen” and the first “Twilight,” she is attuned to beauty and has a way with young actors, tapping their energy so it buzzes on screen.

 From the start Ms. Hardwicke tries to make the case that this isn’t your granny’s favorite fairy tale. The story opens with its heroine, Valerie, as a child (Megan Charpentier), strolling about in trousers (the other girls are in dresses) while in voice-over Ms. Seyfried insists that she tried to be a good girl. But goodness had nothing to do with it, as Mae West once quipped, or so Ms. Hardwicke seems to want us to believe. Before long Valerie has run off with a boy pointedly named Peter (first D J Greenburg, later Shiloh Fernandez with hair gel), and they’re frolicking in the forest and snaring a rabbit. Valerie urges Peter to slay the animal, but he can’t or won’t, and the sequence ends with her holding a knife to the bunny like a natural-born killer.

 The suggestion that Red Riding Hood might be as much predator as prey isn’t new. She may be the intended victim, but she’s also the one who (after sizing up the wolf in bed) ends triumphant. It’s this blurring between the antagonists as well as the flexibility of the story’s morals and meanings that make it work well for different readers and writers. In the 17th century Charles Perrault turned an oral folk tale into “Le Petit Chaperon Rouge,” and three centuries later Angela Carter gave the story a wicked, feminist spin. Ms. Hardwicke doesn’t acknowledge “The Company of Wolves,” Carter’s brilliant retelling, but it’s probable that she read it or saw Neil Jordan’s dreary 1984 big-screen adaptation.

 But, my, what sharp teeth Ms. Hardwicke doesn’t have: working from David Leslie Johnson’s screenplay she takes on the story’s grown-up themes of sex and death directly but weakly. This might be because the movie has been pitched at young adults, as evidenced by its pretty leads, electronic soundtrack, contemporary vibe and veneer, and caution. Some of the updating works — a proto-hippie witchy woman, the grandmother (Julie Christie) now rocks the screen in dreadlocks — but at other times the modern touches feel like sloppiness or even pandering. It’s hard to know, for instance, if Ms. Hardwicke, a former production designer, didn’t notice that the clothing looks straight from the costume department, or whether she (or her producers) didn’t want to turn off their presumptive audience with anything, you know, old.

 The introduction of a religious zealot, Father Solomon (Mr. Oldman), adds some busywork drama and action. Summoned to vanquish the computer-generated wolf (an underfed brother to the ludicrous lupine beasts in the “Twilight” franchise), the padre arrives with an armed multicultural entourage and, in a flamboyant touch, a torture chamber cum Easy-Bake Oven shaped like an elephant. (Unlucky prisoners are slow-roasted inside.) At one point Valerie worries with good reason that Father Solomon might mistake her for a witch. But this nod at historic female troubles doesn’t go anywhere, largely because Valerie spends so much time negotiating between dueling loves, Peter and a wealthier suitor, Henry (Max Irons), while juggling her mother, Suzette (Virginia Madsen, rouged and Maybellined), and father, Cesaire (Billy Burke).

 When the wolf in one of Carter’s Red Riding Hood stories explains to the girl why he has big teeth — “All the better to eat you with” — she bursts out laughing. “She knew,” Carter writes, “she was nobody’s meat.” Her insouciance is thrilling. Ms. Hardwicke wants to have her feminism and fairy tale, but Carter’s no-prisoners bad attitude is too far out for an entertainment like “Red Riding Hood,” where only the appearance of girl power will finally do. Given this, it’s worth noting that Ms. Hardwicke, who is deeply enamored of aerial photography, sends the camera repeatedly soaring over the landscape where sometimes a woman in a red cloak as vivid as blood walks with a man across the snowy expanse. It’s a striking image suggestive of freedom, though perhaps it’s really just the guy who this little fairy-tale fugitive needs to escape from.

 “Red Riding Hood” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Wolf violence and make-out sessions.

 RED RIDING HOOD

 Opens on Friday nationwide.

 Directed by Catherine Hardwicke; written by David Leslie Johnson; director of photography, Mandy Walker; edited by Nancy Richardson; music by Brian Reitzell and Alex Heffes; production design by Tom Sanders; costumes by Cindy Evans; produced by Jennifer Davisson Killoran, Leonardo DiCaprio and Julie Yorn; released by Warner Brothers Pictures. Running time: 1 hour 40 minutes.

 WITH: Amanda Seyfried (Valerie), Megan Charpentier (Young Valerie), Gary Oldman (Solomon), Billy Burke (Cesaire), Shiloh Fernandez (Peter), D J Greenburg (Young Peter), Max Irons (Henry), Virginia Madsen (Suzette), Lukas Haas (Father Auguste) and Julie Christie (Grandmother). ||||| Red Riding Hood (PG-13) Ebert: Users:

 Red Riding Hood BY ROGER EBERT / March 10, 2011 March 10, 2011 Cast & Credits Valerie Amanda Seyfried

 Father Solomon Gary Oldman

 Father Auguste Lukas Haas

 Grandmother Julie Christie

 Peter Shiloh Fernandez

 Cesaire Billy Burke

 Henry Max Irons

 Suzette Virginia Madsen

 Warner Bros. presents a film directed by Catherine Hardwicke. Written by David Johnson. Running time: 100 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for violence and creature terror, and some sensuality). Printer-friendly »

 E-mail this to a friend » Of the classics of world literature crying out to be filmed as a sexual fantasy for teenage girls, surely "Red Riding Hood" is far down on the list. Here's a movie that cross-pollinates the "Twilight" formula with a werewolf and adds a girl who always wears a red hooded cape, although I don't recall her doing any riding. It's easy to imagine a story conference in which they said: Hey! Let's switch the vampires with a werewolf and recycle the theme of a virgin attracted to a handsome but dangerous hunk, only let's get two hunks! What this inspiration fails to account for is that while a young woman might toy with the notion of a vampire boyfriend, she might not want to mate with a wolf. Although she might think it was, like, cool to live in the woods in Oregon, she might not want to live in the Black Forest hundreds of years ago because, like, can you text from there?

 "Red Riding Hood" has the added inconvenience of being dreadfully serious about a plot so preposterous, it demands to be filmed by Monty Python. All that amused me was a dream sequence where Grandma says, “The better to eat you with.” I'm asking myself, “How can Red Riding Hood dream about dialogue in her own fairy tale when she hasn't even gone over the hill and through the dale to grandmother's house yet?”

 The movie was directed by Catherine Hardwicke, who made the first "Twilight" film. "Red Riding Hood" opens with computer-generated shots of hundreds of square miles of forests, dotted here and there by grim, stubby castles. Then we meet the narrator, Valerie, who always wears a red cape. She is but a lass when she steals away with Peter, her pre-pubescent boyfriend, so they can trap a bunny rabbit and possibly slit its throat, although the camera moves away from the bunny at the crucial moment to focus upon their faces as the young actors think, “OK, this is where they flash forward, and we are replaced by Amanda Seyfried and Shiloh Fernandez.”

 They live in a village that is one of the oddest non-places in the history of production design. Because the original fairy tale was by the Brothers Grimm, I suppose there's a chance the village is in Germany, but it exists outside time and space, and seems to have been inspired by little plastic souvenir villages in airport gift shops. You know, populated mit Hansel und Gretel.

 Valerie (Seyfried) wants to marry Peter (Fernandez), who is a wood chopper, but her parents have betrothed her to a rich kid named Henry (Max Irons). The village since time immemorial has been terrorized by a werewolf, who turns up when the moon is full and must be pacified by a pathetic little piggie left chained to a stump, lest it develop an appetite for villagers. Valerie's sister is found dead, amidst distracting cone-shaped haystacks dotted with purple flowers, which is not the sort of detail you want to be noticing when a young girl has been killed (spoiler!) not eaten by a werewolf.

 The villagers send off for Father Solomon (Gary Oldman), a famed werewolf fighter, and he arrives with his band of warriors and a very large metal elephant. Solomon, an expert, knows that werewolves are not werewolves all the time, and in between full moons take the form of men. Therefore, one of the villagers must be a werewolf. This has enormous implications for Valerie's possible future love life.

 But I know my readers. Right now, you aren't thinking about Valerie's romance. You're thinking, Did I just read that Father Solomon arrived with a very large metal elephant? Yes, he did. A very large metal elephant. I thought the same thing. That must have been a hell of a lot of trouble. Even harder than Herzog dragging the boat over the mountain. Showing Father Solomon's men dragging a metal elephant through the woods — there's your movie right there.

  |||||

– Catherine Hardwicke’s take on Red Riding Hood, the classic story doused in teen angst and good looks, is certainly riding the zeitgeist—but it never really enters the woods, critics say: The film is “gorgeously shot, smartly conceived, cleverly cast, badly executed—the lush medieval beauty here is at best only skin deep,” writes Betsy Sharkey in the Los Angeles Times. “Sometimes, it's literate and lofty. More of the time, it's mind-numbingly simplistic and served up on a platter like leftovers.” Imagine the story conference, suggests Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times: “Hey! Let's switch the vampires with a werewolf and recycle the theme of a virgin attracted to a handsome but dangerous hunk, only let's get two hunks!” Plus, it’s “dreadfully serious about a plot so preposterous, it demands to be filmed by Monty Python.” In the New York Times, Manohla Dargis is fairly positive, calling the film a “goofily amusing screen fairy tale.” But when it comes to the darker themes, “what sharp teeth Ms. Hardwicke doesn’t have.”


– In what the UK's Civil Aviation Authority says would be "a totally unacceptable" first, a British Airways plane landing at Heathrow appears to have been hit by a drone on Sunday, the BBC reports. The Airbus A320 coming into London from Geneva had 132 passengers and five crew members aboard, a BA spokesman tells CNN; the incident was reported after the BA pilot touched down. "Our aircraft landed safely, was fully examined by our engineers and it was cleared to operate its next flight," the rep says. No arrests have been made (it's unclear whose drone it may have been), and the aviation security arm of the Metropolitan Police is looking into the matter. Police note that flying a drone too close to a plane is illegal, NBC News reports, with punishment including up to five years in prison. Specifically, drones over 15 pounds can't fly higher than 400 feet and aren't permitted to fly "beyond the direct unaided line of sight" of its operator or near crowds or buildings. Not that the incident came as a total surprise: The head of the International Air Transport Association had previously noted the "real and growing threat" of a drone-plane hit, while a British Airline Pilots Association rep says it was "only a matter of time." A recent study by Bard College's Center for the Study of the Drone underscores the danger in US airspace, with 327 "close encounters" of drones flying within 500 feet of manned aircraft between December 2013 and September 2015, and at least 28 pilots "[maneuvering] to avoid a collision with a drone." Frighteningly, aviation experts say they don't really know what would happen if a drone got sucked into a plane's engine, a Civil Aviation Authority rep tells NBC. (A drone recently came within 200 feet of a plane at LAX.)

Expand this summary.

Image copyright PA Image caption Police said the suspected drone had struck an inbound Airbus A320, similar to this one

 A police investigation is under way after a passenger plane approaching Heathrow Airport flew into what is believed to have been a drone.

 The British Airways flight from Geneva, with 132 passengers and five crew on board, was hit as it approached the London airport at 12:50 BST on Sunday.

 If confirmed, it is thought it would be the first such incident in the UK.

 BA said it would give the police "every assistance with their investigation". No arrests have been made, police say.

 The Metropolitan Police said the plane was hit by the drone at about 1,700ft (580m) while flying over the area of Richmond Park, in south west London.

 No debris has been found and police have asked for anyone who finds drone parts in the Richmond area to come forward.

 The force's aviation security unit, based at Heathrow, is leading the investigation.

 'Very real danger'

 After safely landing the plane, the pilot reported an object had struck the front of the Airbus A320.

 A BA spokesman said: "Our aircraft landed safely, was fully examined by our engineers and it was cleared to operate its next flight."

 Chief Superintendent Martin Hendy, head of the Met's aviation policing command, said the incident highlighted "the very real dangers of reckless, negligent and some times malicious use of drones".

 A Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) spokesman said it was "totally unacceptable" to fly drones - which are generally used to capture aerial film or photographs - close to airports.

 Steve Landells, from the British Airline Pilots Association (Balpa), said it had been "only a matter of time before we had a drone strike". He called for greater enforcement of existing rules.

 Are drones dangerous or harmless fun?

 London music video drone footage draws criticism

 The rules for flying domestic drones

 Analysis

 Image copyright PA

 Leo Kelion, Technology editor

 Flying a drone near an airport can already be punished with up to five years in prison, and rules also forbid flying them "beyond the direct unaided line of sight" of the operator or near buildings and crowds of people. Drones may not fly above 400ft (122m).

 But the latest incident will only add to the pressure for further steps to be taken.

 The US recently introduced a compulsory registration scheme so any drone recovered from an accident can be traced back to its owner.

 In addition, officials could make it mandatory for drones to run geo-fencing software - that would prevent them flying in restricted areas.

 The Department for Transport has promised to publish a strategy for unmanned aircraft this year.

 Pilots have also called for it to fund tests into what would happen if a drone got sucked into an engine or crashed into a plane's windscreen.

 Last month, the British Airline Pilots Association noted that while the threat of bird strikes had been well researched, there was little data about how much damage a drone could cause a plane.

 The incident follows a warning earlier this year by the head of the International Air Transport Association Tony Tyler that drones flown by the general public are "a real and growing threat" to civilian aircraft.

 The UK Air Proximity Board - which investigates near-miss incidents in UK airspace - said there had been a number of serious near-misses at UK airports involving drones.

 David Black, from Blackwing Aerial Services - a company that specialises in licensed commercial drones - said education and enforcement of the current rules were important, particularly for hobbyists.

 "I think a register is a good idea," he said.

 "With firearms it has shown it's a good thing... but it has not stopped bad guys from getting guns. If you're going to use them as weapons, bad guys can build them themselves.

 "You need enforcement, but the problem with enforcement is that it costs money and people to carry it out.... There needs to be better technology for detection and avoidance."

 Geo-fencing is available in some drones - a database within the drone will not let it take off if it is near an airport so that operators cannot accidentally fly into trouble.

 Mr Landells from Balpa added: "The law as it stands says you're not supposed to go above 400ft (122m) or 500m away from the base unit, depending on the drone you're using, but we've been seeing incidents up at 8,000 feet, where drones just have no place to be, so we've got to do something.

 "That's a registration process, some sort of tracking, some sort of electronic security - we've got to do something about this."

 Drone incidents at UK airports

 Image copyright BAA

 17 April 2016 - A British Airways plane approaching Heathrow is believed to have hit a drone while in midair

 28 November 2015 - The pilot of an A321 plane narrowly missed a drone hovering at 100ft above a runway at Gatwick Airport

 30 September 2015 - A small drone helicopter passed within 30ft of the cockpit of an A319 plane while on the approach to Heathrow

 22 September 2015 - A "quadcopter-type drone" missed the right-hand side of a B777 plane by about 25m while at 2,000ft after it left Heathrow Airport

 13 September 2015 - A silver drone with a "balloon-like" centre missed an E170 aircraft by about 20m, while the plane was approaching London City Airport over the Thames

 13 September 2015 - A drone flew over the top of a B737 aircraft while at 4,000ft, missing it by about 5m, shortly after it left Stansted

 27 August 2015 - A DO328 aircraft flew within 50ft of a drone while approaching Manchester Airport at 2,800ft

 Source: The UK Airprox Board ||||| Story highlights London police seek public's help in finding operator of drone that may have struck airliner

 No one was hurt and the plane wasn't damaged, but authorities worry about potential for catastrophe

 London (CNN) Did a drone hit an airliner trying to land at London's Heathrow Airport?

 The pilot of a British Airways flight certainly thinks so, and now authorities would like to find out who might have been behind the weekend incident.

 British Airways Flight BA727 from Geneva was approaching Heathrow on Sunday afternoon when what the pilot believed to be a drone struck the front of the aircraft, London Metropolitan Police said. The plane was 1,700 feet in the air at the time, police said.

 The Airbus A320 landed safely, with none of the 132 passengers and five crew members on board injured, British Airways spokesman Michael Johnson said.

 The plane was fine, too, he said. ||||| Story highlights At least 327 incidents fall under the definition of close encounters

 "Incidents largely occur ... where manned air traffic density is high," expert says

 (CNN) Hundreds of drones fly dangerously close to manned aircraft in U.S. airspace, forcing pilots to take evasive action sometimes, a new study shows.

 Experts reviewed 921 cases involving drones and manned aircraft between December 2013 and September this year.

 Of those, 327 incidents fall under the definition of close encounters, according to Bard College's Center for the Study of the Drone.

 It defined "close encounters" as drones coming within 500 feet of aircraft.

 In close encounters, pilots "maneuvered to avoid a collision with a drone" at least 28 times, the study says. Such encounters involved various aircraft, including passenger jets and helicopters.

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 A British Airways pilot flying into London reported that a drone had struck his plane Sunday afternoon, according to police.

 An object, believed to be a drone, struck the front of a plane landing at Heathrow Airport from Geneva, Switzerland, about noon (7 a.m. ET), according to London's Metropolitan Police. The flight landed safely, police said.

 No arrests had been made, but the Met's Aviation Police warned that flying a drone too close to a plane is illegal.

 Officers are currently speaking to a pilot who has reported a drone flying very close to his aircraft on approach to Heathrow. 1/2 CAD1 — Aviation Policing (@MPSHeathrow) April 17, 2016

 2/2 This is dangerous, it is also a crime. Please be aware of the rules before you start flying a drone. https://t.co/jMiDJkJb6Y — Aviation Policing (@MPSHeathrow) April 17, 2016

 Five crew members and 132 passengers were aboard the Airbus A320 at the time, British Airways spokesman Michael Johnson told NBC News.

 British Airways said in a statement that the plane was inspected and cleared for the next flight.

 "Safety and security are always our first priority and we will give the police every assistance with their investigation," the statement said. ||||| Play Facebook

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 LONDON — Aviation officials admitted Monday they have little idea about what would happen were a drone to get sucked into an airliner's jet engine during a flight.

 The revelation came after a British Airways airline pilot reported a drone struck his plane as he was descending into London's Heathrow Airport on Sunday.

 The Airbus A320 aircraft was examined and cleared for its next flight and a spokesman for London's Metropolitan Police said Monday that no arrests had been made.

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 The incident is part of a snowballing trend.

 There were 40 near-misses between drones and manned aircraft in the U.K. last year — up from just nine in 2014. In the U.S., the Federal Aviation Authority said pilots reported more than 650 drone sightings in the first eight months of last year, up from 238 during 2014.

 Related: Dutch Police Train Eagles to Bring Down Rogue Drones

 However, there have been no live tests to explore just how bad a direct hit from a drone on a jet engine would be, a spokesman for the British government's Civil Aviation Authority told NBC News on Monday.

 "You have got something that's made of hard materials, and obviously there's a lithium battery in there too," the spokesman said. "Whereas a bird is a very different proposition, it's much softer. So there's probably a degree of a lack of knowledge about what the cause and effect would be."

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 Bird strikes have the potential to cripple jet engines — the most famous example being the "Miracle on the Hudson" in 2009.

 In August, NBC News reported that none of the world's biggest engine manufacturers had conducted drone-strike tests because they were not mandated by the FAA.

 Although no live tests have been conducted, a computer model built by the Virginia Tech College of Engineering in December showed at least a hint of the potential dangers.

 "The drone destroys a chunk of the engine's blades," the college said of its findings.

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 Kevin Kochersberger, a mechanical engineering professor at Virginia Tech, said that the research had been "late in coming," given the already booming drone industry.

 "It's probably something we should have looked at a few years ago," he said in a statement accompanying the research.

 Unlike the U.S., British drone enthusiasts do not need to register their drones, although the U.K.'s CAA said on Monday that the government would be "carrying out a consultation of future drone regulation in the near future." |||||


A US soldier from 632th Maintenance Company of 87th Supply Battalion of 3rd Infantry Division, distributes new uniforms in 2005. | Getty State worried about Marine uniforms during attack

 State Department officials on an emergency conference call during the Benghazi attack brought up concerns about whether Marines that might have been deployed should wear uniforms — something officials previously said could hurt diplomacy in the region, according to House Benghazi investigators.

 The final GOP-authored House Benghazi report released Tuesday included new details of a two-hour video teleconference call the night of the attack, a session led by White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough. Clinton and top Defense officials were also on the call, which was supposed to center on how to get Americans out of harm's way.

 But a substantial part of the discussion, GOP investigators said, centered on how and why the attack happened rather than narrowly examining potential rescue plans. Half of the action items people wrote down in the meeting didn't have to do with evacuation; many of them were about an anti-Islam video, which the administration would incorrectly blame for the violence.

 The report also found that a State official brought up a question about whether Marines should wear civilian clothing instead of their uniforms. Under secretary of State for management Patrick Kennedy told investigators he wanted to ensure that security was enhanced, not hurt by flags on the uniforms of any U.S. military presence.

 But, one commander told the committee that as they were readying themselves to deploy they kept having to change in and out of their uniforms four times.

 The military never deployed to Benghazi.

 State Department deputy spokesperson Mark Toner in a statement said the clothing issue did not affect the speed or timeliness of any possible military response.

 “We are aware that the committee is critical of these issues, but we are not aware of any finding that they had any impact on the attacks or our ability to send help," the statement says. "The fact is, we did not cause a delay.... Concerns about what they wore had no bearing on the timing of their arrival.” ||||| The final majority report of the Benghazi Select Committee is set to be released later Tuesday morning. Representatives Jim Jordan and Mike Pompeo have signed onto the official majority document and authored a supplemental, 51-page "additional views" report of their own.

 Among the most interesting aspects of their "additional views" is a timeline that contrasts the story top Obama administration officials were telling in public with the very different story some of those same officials were sharing with one another in private emails, conversations and documents. The timeline reinforces in a compelling way what will be one of the most significant takeaways from the committee investigation: The Obama administration knowingly provided the American people a false story about the Benghazi attack, its causes and its consequences.

 Read the excerpt below:

 Public vs. Private Timeline

 9/11—Public Statements

 Secretary Clinton's 10:08 p.m. Statement on the Attack in Benghazi:

 "I condemn in the strongest terms the attack on our mission in Benghazi today. * * * Some have sought to justify this vicious behavior as a response to inflammatory material posted on the Internet."

 9/11—Private Statements

 Secretary Clinton's Call Sheet for call with President of Libya Mohammed al Magariaf at 6:49 p.m.:

 Under heading "Purpose of Call" notes that "Secretary should urge Mr. Magariaf to respond urgently to the attack against the U.S. Mission Benghazi, and security threats against U.S. Embassy Tripoli." No mention of a protest or video.

 Summary of Call between Secretary Clinton and President Magariaf:

 "[O]ur diplomatic mission was attacked[.] . . . [T]here is a gun battle ongoing, which I understand Ansar as-Sharia [sic] is claiming responsibility for." No mention of protest or video.

 Secretary Clinton's E-mail to daughter at 11:23 p.m.:

 "Two of our officers were killed in Benghazi by an Al Quedalike [sic] group[.]"

 9/12—Public Statements

 Secretary Clinton's Remarks on the Deaths of American Personnel in Benghazi, Libya morning of September 12, 2012:

 "We are working to determine the precise motivations and methods of those who carried out this assault. Some have sought to justify this vicious behavior, along with the protest that took place at our Embassy in Cairo yesterday, as a response to inflammatory material posted on the internet."

 9/12—Private Statements

 Summary of Discussion between Acting Assistant Secretary Beth Jones and Libyan Ambassador Aujali at 9:45 a.m.:

 "I told him that the group that conducted the attacks—Ansar Al Sharia—is affiliated with Islamic extremists."

 Jacob Sullivan in e-mail to embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan:

 "There was not really violence in Egypt [and] "we are not saying that the violence in Libya erupted 'over inflammatory videos.'"

 Secretary Clinton's Statements to Egyptian Prime Minister Kandil at 3:04 p.m.:

 "We know that the attack in Libya had nothing to do with the film. It was a planned attack – not a protest. . . . Based on the information we saw today we believe the group that claimed responsibility for this was affiliated with al Qaeda."

 Under Secretary Patrick Kennedy to congressional staff briefing:

 When asked whether "this [was] an attack under the cover of a protest" Kennedy said, "No the attack was a direct breaching attack." More to the point, he was then asked whether "we believe [this was] coordinated with [the] Cairo [protests] to which Kennedy responded, "Attack in Cairo was a demonstration. There were no weapons shown or used. A few cans of spray paint."

 9/13—Public Statements

 Secretary Clinton's Morocco Remarks:

 "I also want to take a moment to address the video circulating on the Internet that has led to these protests in a number of countries. * * *

 To us, to me personally, this video is disgusting and reprehensible. It appears to have a deeply cynical purpose: to denigrate a great religion and to provoke rage. But as I said yesterday, there is no justification, none at all, for responding to this video with violence. * * *

 Violence, we believe, has no place in religion and is no way to honor religion. Islam, like other religions, respects the fundamental dignity of human beings, and it is a violation of that fundamental dignity to wage attacks on innocents. As long as there are those who are willing to shed blood and take innocent life in the name of God, the world will never know a true and lasting peace. It is especially wrong for violence to be directed against diplomatic missions. . . .

 ***

 I wanted to begin with this statement, because, as our Moroccan friends and all of you know, this has been a difficult week at the State Department. I very much appreciate, Minister, the condolences your government expressed to our Embassy in Rabat. And even though that tragedy happened far away in Benghazi, we found a reminder of the deep bounds that connect Morocco to the United States."

 9/13—Private Statements

 Summary of call between State Department Deputy Secretary Thomas Nides and Egyptian ambassador to U.S.:

 "Nides said he understood the difference between the targeted attack in Libya and the way the protest escalated in Egypt."

 9/14—Public Statements

 White House Spokesman Jay Carney during press conference answering question about Benghazi:

 "We have no information to suggest that it was a preplanned attack. The unrest we've seen around the region has been in reaction to a video that Muslims, many Muslims find offensive. And while the violence is reprehensible and unjustified, it is not a reaction to the 9/11 anniversary that we know of, or to U.S. policy."

 E-mail from White House Advisor Benjamin Rhodes:

 Under heading "Goals" he wrote "To underscore that these protests are rooted in an Internet video, and not a broader failure of policy[.]"

 Return of remains ceremony statement to father of Tyrone Woods recorded in diary:

 "I gave Hillary a hug and shook her hand, and she said we are going to have the filmmaker arrested who was responsible for the death of my son."

 Return of remains ceremony statement to mother of Sean Smith:

 "We were nose-to-nose at the coffin ceremony. She told me it was the fault of the video. I said 'are you sure?' She says 'yes, that's what it was . . . it was the video.'" 9/14—Private Statements

 E-mail from State Department press officer in embassy in Tripoli, Libya: "Colleagues, I mentioned to Andy this morning, and want to share with all of you, our view at Embassy Tripoli that we must be cautious in our local messaging with regard to the inflammatory film trailer, adapting it to Libyan conditions. . . . Relatively few [Facebook comments and tweets] have even mentioned the inflammatory video. So if we post messaging about the video specifically, we may draw unwanted attention to it. And it is becoming increasingly clear that the series of events in Benghazi was much more terrorist attack than a protest which escalated into violence. It is our opinion that in our messaging, we want to distinguish, not conflate, the events in other countries with this well-planned attack by militant extremists. I have discussed this with Charge Hicks and he shares PAS's view."

 9/15—Public Statements

 President's Weekly Address titled "Carrying on the Work of Our Fallen Heroes" muddles Benghazi and protests in other countries:

 "This tragic attack takes place at a time of turmoil and protest in many different countries. I have made it clear that the United States has a profound respect for people of all faiths. We stand for religious freedom. And we reject the denigration of any religion – including Islam."

 9/15—Private Statements

 Secretary Clinton's call with Prime Minister-Elect of Libya:

 Makes no mention of either a protest or the video.

 9/16—Public Statements

 Ambassador Rice on Fox News With Chris Wallace:

 "But we don't see at this point signs this was a coordinated plan, premeditated attack."

 9/16—Private Statements

 Excerpt from Embassy Tripoli Media Report September 16, 2012: "[T]here is evidence that suggests that the second confrontation at the UM mission's safe house could not have happened without insider knowledge or some degree of organization. This goes against statements that the attacks were not carried out by a single group but by an angry multitude protesting[.]"

 9/17—Public Statements

 Excerpt from State Department Daily Press Briefing:

 "Ambassador Rice, in her comments on every network over the weekend, was very clear, very precise, about what our initial assessment of what happened is. . . . I don't have anything to give you beyond that."

 9/17—Private Statements

 Excerpt from e-mail discussion between members of NEA press office about what to say about attack:

 NEA Press Officer Suggested the following language:

 "The currently available information suggests the demonstrations in Benghazi were spontaneously inspired by the protests of the US Embassy in Cairo and evolved into a direct assault[.]"

 Senior Libya Desk Officer, Near Eastern Affairs Bureau responding to suggested language:

 "I really hope this was revised. I don't think we should go on the record on this."

 9/18—Public Statements

 Excerpt from White House Press Briefing by Press Secretary Jay Carney:

 . . . I would point you to what Ambassador Rice said and others have said about what we know thus far about the video and its influence on the protests that occurred in Cairo, in Benghazi and elsewhere."

 9/18—Private Statements

 Deputy Director of CIA Michael Morell in written statement to House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence:

 "The critically important point is that the analysts considered this a terrorist attack from the very beginning."

 E-mail exchange between State Department security officers commenting on news article titled "White House sees no sign Libya attack premeditated":

 DS Agent #30: "Can you believe this?"

 DS Agent: "Was there any rioting in Benghazi reported prior to the attack?"

 DS Agent #30: "Zip, nothing nada"

 9/19—Public Statements

 From "ALDAC"—a worldwide cable—from Secretary Clinton to all U.S. Embassies drafted by Deputy Chief of Staff Jacob Sullivan:

 "Since September 11, 2012, there have been widespread protests and violence against U.S. and some other diplomatic posts across the Muslim world. The proximate cause of the violence was the release by individuals in the United States of the video trailer for a film that many Muslims find offensive. Diplomatic compounds have been breached in several countries including Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, and Yemen. In Benghazi, Libya four U.S. personnel were killed in the violence[.]"

 The administration, including Secretary Clinton, knew that Benghazi was a terrorist attack—from witness accounts, from their understanding of the history of violence in Benghazi, and from the nature of the well-planned, complex attack. Yet, they led the public to believe the video and a protest were to blame in Benghazi.

 9/20—Public Statements

 Excerpt from interview of the President on Univision Town Hall:

 In response to the question, "We have reports that the White House said today that the attacks in Libya were a terrorist attack. Do you have information indicating that it was Iran, or al Qaeda was behind organizing the protests?" the President answered, "[W]e're still doing an investigation[.] . . . What we do know is that the natural protests that arose because of the outrage over the video were used as an excuse by extremists to see if they can also directly harm U.S. interests[.]"

 Secretary Clinton has since blamed her statements on changing information received from U.S. intelligence reports. She and others have claimed that the 10:08 p.m. statement was not meant to ascribe a motive to the attack. Yet, Sullivan knew the morning of September 12th—based on the press release from the embassy in Kabul—that people had heard it exactly that way. Moreover, whether or not the intelligence information changed, Secretary Clinton's public and private statements remained unchanged—publicly tying Benghazi and Cairo together and privately recognizing the violence in Benghazi was a terrorist attack with nothing to do with a protest or video.

 Moreover, to the extent any intelligence analysis incorrectly reported on a protest or a video in connection with Benghazi, Secretary Clinton and other State officials, who knew better, simply ignored them. As just one example, in her conversation September 15, 2012 with the president of Libya, Secretary Clinton made no mention of anything in the CIA talking points that administration officials later claimed were the best assessment available at the time, and those talking points made no mention of a video in connection with Benghazi. In short, Secretary Clinton and the administration knew better than to rely on flawed intelligence reports. Intelligence assessments may have changed. News reports may have changed. But the eye witness accounts remained same—and not one said a protest had occurred. Yet, once Secretary Clinton and Ben Rhodes set the message, the truth became an afterthought. ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. ||||| Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) ranks his time on the House Select Committee on Benghazi among the lowest points of his career.

 “This has been one of the saddest exercises I’ve ever engaged in in my 20 years in Congress,” he said Tuesday on MSNBC.

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 “It’s been very partisan,” added Cummings, the panel’s ranking Democrat. "We’ve been locked out of so many things.

 “Witnesses interviewed and we’re not told about it. Exculpatory evidence found out by the Republicans [and] they don’t tell us about it. A failure to allow us to have free access in regard to transcripts.”

 Cummings accused Benghazi Chairman Trey Gowdy Trey GowdyChatter grows that Ryan could step down Lawmakers press Lynch for briefing on Yahoo secret email scanning reports Clinton IT aide pleads Fifth, skips hearing MORE (R-S.C.) of trying to prevent accountability for the panel’s GOP lawmakers.

 “He is still not releasing certain transcripts,” he said. "I don’t think he wants the American people to see every syllable that has been talked about with regard to this issue.

 “And I don’t think they want to be fact-checked,” Cummings added of Republicans. "That’s why they didn’t want us to have the report, because they knew we would fact-check it.

 "They basically hid the report from us. It’s supposed to be a bipartisan effort. We literally got the report about three hours ago.”

 Cummings added the panel’s report Tuesday does not alter the public’s understanding of the 2012 attack in Benghazi, Libya.

 “All I want to say is that there’s been a lot of granularity that has been added, but the facts remain the same. There was no stand-down order. There was no effort to politicize the right’s talking points. And there’s no evidence of gun trading.”

 The Benghazi panel on Tuesday released an 800-page report filled with new criticism of former secretary of State Hillary Clinton Hillary Rodham ClintonTrump bullish on Minnesota as campaign hops to blue states Clinton makes no mention of FBI news in Cleveland rally Conway: Comey mishandled Clinton investigation from beginning MORE.

 It concludes that Clinton and other officials did not adequately heed concerns about growing extremism in Libya.

 The summary also accuses Clinton, now the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, of falsely blaming the violence on an anti-Muslim video behind unrest elsewhere.

 Cummings and other panel Democrats on Monday released their rebuttal to the GOP’s report in an attempt to debunk its findings.

 “We are issuing our own report today because, after spending more than two years and $7 million in taxpayer funds in one of the longest and most partisan congressional investigations in history, it is long past time for the select committee to conclude its work,” they said. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– The Republican-led House Benghazi committee released its final report Tuesday after two years of investigations. The 800-page report lays out the committee's findings on the 2012 attacks in Libya that left four Americans dead. Here's what you need to know: Benghazi is "unlikely to be a potent tool for weakening Clinton" in the general election, as the committee and report have little credibility and aren't seen as serious by many, the Los Angeles Times reports. Easily distilling the massive report, the Washington Post lays out its five "most serious accusations," including that the CIA "missed warning signs" and "misread how dangerous Libya ... was at the time." New evidence of “culpability or wrongdoing” on Clinton's part is lacking in the report, despite it being “one of the longest, costliest, and most bitterly partisan congressional investigations in history," according to the New York Times. Given a lack of new evidence against Clinton, the Weekly Standard uses the report as a tool for blaming Obama. “The Obama administration knowingly provided the American people a false story about the Benghazi attack, its causes, and its consequences," the Standard states. How various government agencies responded to the Benghazi crisis is one of the more interesting aspects of the report. According to Politico, a conference call in the midst of the attack included a conversation about whether Marines should wear their uniforms if deployed. Marines changed in and out of their uniforms multiple times while waiting for an answer and were never deployed. According to the Hill, a Democratic lawmaker on the House Benghazi committee calls it "one of the saddest exercises I've ever engaged in" during 20 years in Congress. He accuses Republicans of hiding the final report from Democrats to avoid having it fact-checked. Zeroing in on what it calls the "most revealing paragraph" in the report, Vox concludes there's a pattern of spinning "non-damning facts as damning" for the Obama administration. The paragraph in question admits there were no US forces close enough to prevent the attack but insists that, in itself, was a failure on the part of the White House. "I think it's time to move on," the AP quotes Clinton as saying after the release of the report, which she says includes nothing not previously discovered by an accountability board.


Summarize this article:

Kevin Winter/Getty Images

 If David Hasselhoff had any hope that he could put that infamous down-on-the-floor drunk, cheeseburger-chewing video behind him, he can forget about it.

 The former Baywatch star was roasted by Comedy Central last night, and no surprise, his battle with the booze was one of the main punching bags, as were his acting and singing skills.

 Just how cruel hilarious did things get? Read on to find out…

 It was only about a minute into the show, when Roast Master, Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, brought up the vid. "He's multi-lingual," MacFarlane said. "He can speak English, Spanish, German and...whatever the f--k that language was in the cheeseburger video."

 Talking about Knight Rider, comedian and former Dancing With the Stars contestant Jeffrey Ross said, "What a lucky break—an alcoholic that gets cast in a show about a car that drives itself!"

 Ross continued, "I heard the Hoff once got so drunk he f--ked K.I.T.T. in the gashole."

 In honor of his popularity in Germany, Hasselhoff entered the roast surrounded by dancing German beer girls while performing "Hooked On a Feeling."

 "Marlee Matlin called," McFarlane cracked, "and said, 'Please, David, no more singing."

 Even Baywatch alum Pamela Anderson got in on the jabbing. "I remember how nervous I was on my first day of Baywatch because I can't swim," she said. "But David was so sweet. He pulled me aside and said, 'Don't worry, I can't act.'"

 Anderson still has warm feelings for her former boss, telling him "I really want to work with you again someday, but you know, there is just no role for somebody like me in gay porn."

 And who would have ever thought that Hasselhoff would have something in common with Leonardo DiCaprio's hit movie, Inception.

 "David, your acting is like Inception," McFarlane said. "There's no sense of reality. It's impossible to follow what's happening and midway through we realize you were unconscious the entire time."

 The night's roasters also included Hulk Hogan, George Hamilton, Jerry Springer and hilariously foulmouthed comedians Lisa Lampanelli, Gilbert Gottfried, Greg Giraldo and Chelsea Lately regular, Whitney Cummings.

 We have to say that Cummings killed it. She brought raunch and personal insults to a whole new level. It'll be interesting to see how Comedy Central handles all the night's dirty cuss-filled zingers when the roast airs on August 15.

 Check out the creepy pic from last night's David Hasselhoff roast over at Marc's Twitter.

 ________

 See what else the stars have been up to in the Big Picture photo gallery. ||||| Infamous Cheeseburger Video the Main Meal in David Hasselhoff Comedy Roast

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 Major media fallout followed, and the video became something of a cultural phenomenon, attracting more than a billion views on the Internet.

 Three year's later, the Hoff's greatest viral embarrassment, as well as his longtime struggle with alcohol, provides the fuel for the 'Comedy Central Roast of David Hasselhoff.'

 Scheduled to air on August 15, the roast was filmed Sunday night and is shockingly the first time Hasselhoff has ever addressed the infamous video or his reported alcohol relapses. When David Hasselhoff 's now infamous cheeseburger video hit the Internet in 2007, the shocking image of the shirtless, slurring 'Baywatch' star on the floor struggling to eat fast food was no laughing matter.Major media fallout followed, and the video became something of a cultural phenomenon, attracting more than a billion views on the Internet.Three year's later, the Hoff's greatest viral embarrassment, as well as his longtime struggle with alcohol, provides the fuel for the 'Comedy Central Roast of David Hasselhoff.'Scheduled to air on August 15, the roast was filmed Sunday night and is shockingly the first time Hasselhoff has ever addressed the infamous video or his reported alcohol relapses.

 "I've been waiting for a forum to talk about where I'm at," Hasselhoff said backstage at the event. "I didn't do it in the beginning because I was in a very personal matter and it involved the custody of my children."Hasselhoff has always maintained that the burger video was illegally released and has never spoken about it publicly -- despite offers from major magazines and Larry King."I wanted to address [it] the way I wanted to address it," he added. "And tonight was the way I wanted to address it."More than address it, Hasselhoff was tormented about it repeatedly during the two-hour roast by some of the sharpest tongues in the business.Those who felt the comics would keep the gloves on for the roast were immediately proven wrong during Hasselhoff's introduction, where, sprinkled among the clips from his 'Baywatch' and 'Knight Rider' days, moments from the horrifying burger video kept popping up. Taboo no more.Seth MacFarlane, the roast master for the event, launched right in and zeroed in on the video."How do you make jokes about a joke? How do you embarrass a man who so thoroughly embarrasses himself?" he asked as the crowd roared with laughter. "How do you put someone down when they are already lying shirtless on the floor?"And that was only the beginning. While fellow roasters like Hulk Hogan, Jerry Springer and Pamela Anderson looked on, Hasselhoff sat in the middle on a red, oversized lifeguard's chair. His arms were folded in front of him for much of the night, but he gamely laughed at most of the jokes that were hurled at him.It might have been his greatest acting role ever. Though during the first commercial break, he showed a little chink in the armor. "It's going to be a long night," he said in the direction of his two daughters, who were in the audience.Insult specialist and former 'Dancing with the Stars' contestant Jeffrey Ross inquired what drink Hasselhoff had in a dark red glass on his lifeguard's chair. When the Hoff insisted it was water, Ross expressed disbelief and then continued his attack."I must admit, I did love you in that cheeseburger commercial you once made," Ross mocked, insisting the motto from the burger chain must have been "Have it Floor Way!""I'm so relieved you're wearing a shirt tonight because it will be so much easier than picking the vomit out of your chest hair later," Ross continued.Even animal rights activist and 'Baywatch' co-star Pamela Anderson piled on."David, I have to say, when I saw the video of you lying on the floor -- drunk, broken down, cheeseburger meat falling from your mouth -- I felt so sad," said Anderson. "For that cow."Hasselhoff exited the show triumphantly -- we don't want to spoil the ending, but it's awesome. And he even gamely met the press backstage."Yeah, it goes too far," Hasselhoff said when asked about some of the barbs. "That's what they want to do. They want to get to everybody."He kept a fixed smile on his face throughout and insisted the event was "therapeutic." Hasselhoff had, in his mind, dealt with the video issue once and for all -- and he was still standing."No one got me," said the Hoff. "I'm still laughing. My face hurts. I'm sorry it's over."Greatest. Actor. Ever. |||||

– Warning: The promos for Comedy Central’s roast of David Hasselhoff might just be enough to make you like the troubled actor again. The Baywatch star and German music phenom was roasted Sunday night by Comedy Central regulars like Gilbert Gottfried, as well as newcomers like Jerry Springer and Hulk Hogan. A few zingers courtesy of E!: Seth MacFarlane: “He's multi-lingual. He can speak English, Spanish, German, and...whatever the fuck that language was in the cheeseburger video.” Jeffrey Ross: “What a lucky break—an alcoholic that gets cast in a show about a car that drives itself!” Seth MacFarlane: “Marlee Matlin called and said, 'Please, David, no more singing.’” Pamela Anderson: “I remember how nervous I was on my first day of Baywatch because I can't swim. But David was so sweet. He pulled me aside and said, 'Don't worry, I can't act.'” Pamela Anderson: “I really want to work with you again someday, but you know, there is just no role for somebody like me in gay porn." The roast airs August 15—and it marks the first time Hasselhoff has addressed his infamous "cheeseburger video." To watch that classic, and see what the Hoff had to say about it, click here.


Here is a news article: Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis speaks at a press conference at the end of the NATO defense ministers meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, (Photo: Julien Warnand, EPA Images)

 WASHINGTON — The Pentagon announced late Friday that it will delay until at least 2018 rolling out its policy for acceptance of transgender troops into the ranks.

 The move by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis comes just hours before a July 1 deadline, set in the Obama administration, for the military to recruit transgender enlisted troops and to accept new officers.

 "Secretary Mattis today approved a recommendation by the services to defer accessing transgender applicants into the military until Jan. 1, 2018," Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said in a statement. "The services will review their accession plans and provide input on the impact to the readiness and lethality of our forces."

 In May, Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work had ordered the armed services to advise him of their plans to meet the deadline, or advise him of concerns about how accepting new transgender troops could affect the military's readiness to fight. The Army and Marine Corps both sought delays.

 Transgender troops already in the ranks can continue to serve, under the policy developed last year by then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter. Mattis has made clear that the military's readiness to fight is his top priority.

 READ MORE:

 But the lack of a policy to accept new transgender troops already has caused problems. In May, the Air Force and Army were unable to commission transgender cadets from their prestigious military academies because the military lacks an acceptance policy for new transgender troops.

 Aaron Belkin, director of the Palm Center, which studies issues of sexuality in the military, said it would force troops to lie about their identity, as did the former policy that prohibited gay and lesbian troops from serving openly.

 “Secretary Mattis' decision to prolong the enlistment ban will have the effect of requiring applicants to lie in order to join the military, as was the case under ‘Don’t Ask, don’t tell,’ Belkin said. “That makes no sense because, as predicted by all of the research, transgender military service has been a success. “

 The Rand Corp. found in 2016, in a study commissioned by the Pentagon, that accepting transgender troops would have a negligible impact on military readiness.

 Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2tzxNav ||||| Defense Secretary Jim Mattis approved the recommendation from the services that lifting the ban be delayed. | AP Photo Pentagon delays lifting of transgender troop ban

 The Pentagon announced Friday night that it will delay allowing openly transgender troops to join the military until Jan. 1, 2018.

 Defense Secretary Jim Mattis approved the recommendation from the services that lifting the ban be delayed to allow them time to review the impact on “the readiness and lethality of our forces,” Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said in a statement.

 Story Continued Below

 The six-month delay will only impact new transgender recruits, not the estimated 15,500 already serving. It follows reports last week that the service leaders requested the delay.

 Former Defense Secretary Ash Carter made the decision to allow transgender troops to serve openly on June 30, 2016, with an implementation deadline of July 1, 2017.

 Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Mo., said allowing transgender troops to serve openly is “ill-conceived and contrary to our goals of increasing troop readiness.”

 “This delay is indicative of a policy that was rushed and never clearly thought out and I am pleased that Secretary Mattis has decided to delay the accession policy,” she said in a statement.

 Morning Defense A daily briefing about national security — weekday mornings, in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time.

 Hartzler introduced and then withdrew an amendment to the House’s defense authorization bill in committee this week that would repeal the policy that allows transgender troops to serve openly. While she withdrew the amendment, she said she may bring it up again during debate in the full House in July.

 The move faced immediate blowback from gay-rights advocates. The American Military Partners Association called it “disappointing” that qualified transgender people can’t be open about their identity when enlisting or commissioning.

 “It has been unequivocally proven that allowing qualified transgender people to serve openly strengthens our military and creates a more inclusive and diverse force. The issue has been thoroughly studied and moving forward with this new recruitment policy is imperative in order for the military to be able to recruit the best talent our nation has to offer,” the association’s president Ashley Broadway-Mack said in a statement.

 OutServe-Service Members Legal Defense Network also issued a statement, saying that they still expect the ban on transgender service to be lifted at the end of the six-month delay.

 “We reiterate that the services are prepared for transgender individuals and assert that delays beyond January 2018 will have a negative impact on military readiness---that we cannot tolerate,” the group said in a statement.

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A summary of this is?

– The military isn't quite ready to recruit transgender troops. A new policy allowing the Pentagon to do so was supposed to begin on July 1, but defense chief Jim Mattis said Friday night that it would be delayed six months, reports USA Today. A Pentagon statement said Mattis had approved a request by the military's branches to postpone the change in policy so they'd have more time to assess its impact on the "readiness and lethality of our forces." An estimated 15,500 transgender troops are currently serving, per Politico, and Mattis' decision does not affect them. Critics of the move said it would force transgender recruits to lie if they want to join the military, just as Don't Ask, Don't Tell had forced gay recruits to hide their sexual identity. But Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Mo., applauded the move, asserting that the idea of transgender recruitment is “ill-conceived and contrary to our goals of increasing troop readiness.”