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Add a location to your Tweets

 When you tweet with a location, Twitter stores that location. You can switch location on/off before each Tweet and always have the option to delete your location history. Learn more ||||| Members of 'Women of the Wall' group wear prayer shawls and one (C) wearing Tefillin, leather straps and boxes containing sacred parchments, that Orthodox law says only men should don, during a monthly prayer session at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City May 10, 2013.

 A member of 'Women of the Wall' group (2nd R) wears a prayer shawl and Tefillin, leather straps and boxes containing sacred parchments, that Orthodox law says only men should don, during a monthly prayer session at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City May 10, 2013.

 Israeli policemen block ultra-Orthodox Jewish women as members of 'Women of the Wall' group (not pictured) leave the Western Wall after a monthly prayer session at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City May 10, 2013.

 An Israeli policeman (L) holds back ultra-Orthodox Jewish men as they protest against the 'Women of the Wall' group during a monthly prayer session at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City May 10, 2013.

 A member of 'Women of the Wall' group wears a prayer shawl and Tefillin, leather straps and boxes containing sacred parchments, that Orthodox law says only men should don, during a monthly prayer session at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City May 10, 2013.

 An Israeli policewoman (R) holds back ultra-Orthodox Jewish men as they protest against the 'Women of the Wall' group during a monthly prayer session at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City May 10, 2013.

 JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli police held back thousands of ultra-conservative Jews who tried to drive liberal women worshippers from Judaism's sacred Western Wall on Friday, marking a shift in the authorities' handling of a long-running religious schism.

 Ultra-Orthodox protesters dressed in traditional dark clothing threw chairs and water at the women, then later stoned their buses. Two policemen were hurt.

 Previously police detained members of Women of the Wall, a group challenging the Orthodox monopoly over rites at Jerusalem's Western Wall, for wearing prayer shawls in violation of Orthodox tradition.

 This time police arrested five religious protesters instead.

 The police response followed a court ruling last month that found that the group was not in violation of the law.

 The issue is at the heart of a long struggle between a secular majority and an ultra-Orthodox minority over lifestyle in a country where institutions such as marriage, divorce and burial are controlled by religious authorities.

 Dozens of border policemen formed a cordon to keep the protesters at the site - revered as part of the Biblical Jewish Temple compound - from charging at the approximately 100 women and some male supporters as they prayed.

 "They're desecrating the site of our holy temple," shouted one of the hundreds of Orthodox women who also came to protest against Women of the Wall.

 Yocheved Malachi called it shocking that women would wear prayer shawls or other religious gear, which Orthodox tradition reserves solely for men.

 Friday's prayers were the first in weeks in which police avoided any showdown with Women of the Wall, whose members have been detained in the past and charged with disruption for violating Orthodox traditions at a holysite. They are seeking a greater role in prayer ritual.

 "I'm seeing signs of progress," one woman worshipper, Lisa Kainan, said about the police presence at the site.

 Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has asked former cabinet minister and Jewish leader Natan Sharansky to seek a compromise to permit the Women of the Wall to hold prayers without exacerbating tensions with the ultra-Orthodox Jews.

 Sharansky has since proposed a formula to widen a separate zone at the Western Wall once designated for egalitarian prayer, a suggestion neither side nor the government has yet embraced.

 Also spurring Israel's drive to resolve the dispute is the growing support for the Women of the Wall movement among Jews in the United States, Israel's main ally.

 (Editing by Angus MacSwan) ||||| Haredi worshippers clashed with police in Jerusalem's Old City early Friday in the wake of the court authorization for the Women of the Wall to pray at the Jewish holy site.

 Thousands of female haredi worshipers arrived at the site, heeding the call of community leaders rabbis Ovadia Yosef and Aharon Leib Shteinman who entreated female Ulpan students to hold a mass prayer at the Western Wall on Friday in an attempt to push aside the Women of Wall prayer set for the same time. However, the rabbis stressed there is no need to act provocatively or violently.

 Holy Site Zionist rabbis vs. Women of Wall Kobi Nachshoni Religious Zionism leaders join battle against liberal female worshippers following court ruling allowing them to wear prayer shawl at Western Wall. Yeshiva students prepare to gather at holy site on Friday during women's monthly prayer Zionist rabbis vs. Women of Wall

 A mass brawl erupted at the site at around 6:30 am, during which garbage, water, coffee and various objects were flung at dozens of Women of the Wall and police forming a human barrier between the female group and the ultra-Orthodox. Three yeshiva students were detained during the clashes. Two police officers were injured lightly.

 Women of the Wall (photo: Gil Yohanan)

 The protest comes in response to a Jerusalem District Court ruling last month, whereby the Women of the Wall may conduct their pluralistic customs in the holy site.

 Knesset members Miri Regev (Likud ) and Tamar Zandberg (Meretz ) arrived on the scene. Zandberg described the scenes as "tumultuous and exciting," saying those objecting to the female group's right to pray at the site have shown themselves to be seeking antagonism at any cost.

 Video courtesy of jn1.tv

 Deputy Jerusalem Mayor Isaac Pindar (United Torah Judaism) branded Women of the Wall "the women of provocation." Pindar told Ynet the thousands of haredi women who came this morning to hold a mass prayer nearby were "the true women of the wall."

 Police forces at the scene restraining a haredi man (photo: Gil Yohanan)

 Reform Movement CEO Rabbi Gilad Kariv, who also arrived at the site, said the leaders of the haredi public "desecrated the sanctity" of the Western Wall by calling on ultra-Orthodox to confront the Women of the Wall.

 The Rabbi of the Western Wall Shmuel Rabinovich said "these pictures hurt the eye. The Jewish Torah should unify and I ask the Lord above to give everyone the wisdom to overcome the controversy."

 He added a compromise regarding the praying sectors at the site was achieved through a Supreme Court ruling over a decade ago, but "a small group nevertheless decided to start the argument all over."

 The riot again brings to the fore the issue of religion’s role – and the authority wielded by religious authorities associated with religious practice – in the modern State of Israel . In addition to being portrayed as the epicenter of Jewish prayer, the Western Wall is simultaneously a holy site and a site used for ceremonies such as soldiers’ swearing-in ceremonies and other national activities.

 Until now, the site has been run in the manner of an Orthodox synagogue, with a high partition separating men’s and women’s prayer areas. Women coming to attend a bar mitzvah (a coming-of-age ceremony for boys at age 13) have had to climb up on chairs to peek over the partition in order to be part of the festivities.

 Women of the Wall's Catherine Leff, 17, whose father is a Conservative rabbi, said the events actually strengthened the group and encouraged the members to sing and pray even louder. She said that at some point the haredim began to spit at the women until police cleared them from the area. According to Leff, the bus which transported the Women of the Wall out of compound was pelted with huge stones, but no one was injured.

 Students enrolled in the Reform Movement's pre-military academy were also on hand to support the Women of the Wall. "We arrived from Tel Aviv to show our support," one of them said. "It is also a lesson in democracy, as there is no law that forbids women from praying in this manner."

 During the prayer, a woman approached the yeshiva students and yelled out "Israel's chief rabbi will be a woman." She was immediately removed from the area by police.

 Yaakov, a 21-year-old haredi, said, "What these women are doing is disgraceful and against the Torah. We will continue to fight them. A woman draped in a tallit (prayer shawl) is ridiculous. Jews do not act this way. I am willing to get arrested. Some things justify a violent reaction." ||||| Israeli soldiers stand still as a siren sounds nationwide during a ceremony marking Memorial Day at the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City April 14, 2013.

 JERUSALEM |

 JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Women seeking equal prayer rights at the Western Wall are planning a further challenge to Jewish Orthodox tradition at the site after a court ruling bolstered their cause, an activist said on Sunday.

 The Women of the Wall movement hopes to have its members read from a Torah (holy scriptures) scroll at the Jerusalem site, a ritual reserved under Orthodox practice for men only, when it holds its monthly prayer session there on May 10, according to Anat Hoffman, a leader of the group.

 The women have already broken with tradition in gatherings at the Western Wall, which is divided into separate men's and women's sections, by wearing prayer shawls that Orthodox law says only men should don.

 Israeli police, saying they were enforcing Supreme Court guidelines on keeping the peace and following local customs at the site, have routinely arrested women worshippers from the group during the prayer meetings.

 The protests have exposed a rift between Israel's government, which supports Orthodox practice at the Western Wall, and the U.S. Jewish Reform and Conservative movements, in whose synagogues men and women sit together.

 In a ruling that Women of the Wall called revolutionary, the Jerusalem District Court said on Thursday that customs change and women should not be arrested for wearing prayer shawls at the site.

 Women reading from the Torah at the Western Wall, revered as part of the Biblical Jewish Temple compound, could cause further friction with Orthodox worshippers.

 Earlier this month, an envoy appointed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to seek a compromise over religious practices at the holy site proposed adding a mixed-gender section for non-Orthodox denominations of Judaism.

 Hoffman told Reuters she planned to meet with the envoy, former Israeli cabinet minister Natan Sharansky, on Monday.

 "Then we will have a better understanding of what is on the table," she said.

 Sharansky has said the plan to convert an old archaeological dig south of the Western Wall into an area where men and women would be allowed to mix and worship freely would not entail structural damage around nearby al-Aqsa mosque, Islam's third-holiest site.

 The sites came under Israel's control in the 1967 Middle East war when it captured East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

 (Reporting by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Angus MacSwan) ||||| Protests at the Western Wall in Jerusalem opposing the Women of the Wall prayer group ended on Friday morning with the arrest of three haredi men suspected of disturbing the peace. Two police officers who suffered light injuries during the unrest were treated at the scene. A large number of security forces at the holy site attempted to create a human barrier between the men and women's sections.

 Haredi protesters threw water bottles and other objects and shouted insults at the Women of the Wall activists, according to Israel Radio.

 The Jerusalem Post

 Post

 Rabbi Susan Silverman, comedian Sarah Silverman's sister who prays with the Women of the Wall, was at the protest where she said that haredi men spit globs of spit on her three daughters, she told. Silverman also said that the haredim threw coffee at the Women of the Wall activists and that a little girl next to her was hit in the head with something hard.Silverman told thethat the haredi protesters represent "a fundamentalism and a belief in a single and very narrow view of God that I believe is idolatrous."Women of the Wall Spokesperson, Oshrat Ben Shimshon told Israel Radio, "Orthodox rabbis have determined that there is no halachik barrier to women praying with prayer shawls and tefillin and reading from the Torah."Meanwhile, chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, Natan Sharansky said that a sustainable solution is urgent and this morning's clashes at the Western Wall dramatically reinforce Israel's need to allow any Jew, group of Jews or Jewish community to pray at the Western Wall according to their own customs.Sharansky praised police for the appropriate and level-headed action they have taken under extremely complicated circumstances, dealing with clashes and riots, and ensuring respect was given to those engaged in prayer.Several thousand yeshiva students and haredi school girls convened at the Western Wall plaza in Jerusalem to protest the monthly prayer service of the Women of the Wall.The protesters shouted at the Women of the Wall activists as they were conducting their first monthly service without restrictions after a court ruling two weeks ago reinterpreted existing laws and allowed them to be able to perform their own customs, such as wearing prayer shawls and tefillin, without fear of being arrested.The idea to send haredi school girls to protest the Women of the Wall was devised by MKs from the United Torah Judaism party earlier this week in consultation with principals of haredi girls schools, on condition the initiative received approval from the leading haredi rabbis.According to a report on haredi website Kikar Hashabbat, spiritual leader of the haredi world Rabbi Aharon Leib Shteinman gave his blessing to the proposal on Thursday.Many participants in the Women of the Wall services don prayer shawls and perform other customs usually performed by men in Orthodox practice, that has until now been prohibited by state law, and as of late, women have been arrested on a frequent basis for wearing prayer shawls during the WoW services. A court ruling two weeks ago reinterpreted existing laws and the Women of the Wall will on Friday be able to perform their own customs.At a hearing of the Knesset Committee on the Status of Women earlier this week, a representative of the Jerusalem Police confirmed that the police would not act against the recent Jerusalem District Court ruling which decided that WoW’s customs did not contravene “local custom,” that has been the basis for outlawing the group’s non- Orthodox customs.United Torah Judaism MK Yisrael Eichler expressed outrage during the committee hearing at what he referred to as the Women of the Wall’s “provocations.” He asked if the police would allow the right of protest and demonstration against the group’s prayer service.The Women of the Wall issued a statement on Thursday celebrating their new found freedoms.“We have the great merit that Israeli women will arrive in their masses tomorrow for the prayer service for the New Month of Sivan. We call on the public which supports us, women and men, to come and pray with us, to liberate the Western Wall and to turn it into to the home of everyone,” the group said. |||||

– Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews showed up to protest a prayer gathering by the "Women of the Wall" at Jerusalem's holy Western Wall today, hurling chairs, water, and garbage at the women and stones at their buses, Reuters reports. In a reversal, police held back and clashed with the protesters and arrested five of them; in the past, they've detained Women of the Wall worshipers instead. The changed police response follows a court ruling that stated women shouldn't be arrested for wearing prayer shawls there; in Orthodox tradition, only men are permitted to wear the shawls. Sarah Silverman's sister, Rev. Susan Silverman, was among the Women of the Wall contingent. "SO proud of my amazing sister @rabbisusan & neice @ purplelettuce95 for their ballsout civil disobedience," the comedian tweeted. "Ur the tits!" There were many women among the Orthodox protesters as well, including a contingent of Haredi school girls, in a move dreamed up by the United Torah Party, the Jerusalem Post reports. Politicians are lining up on each side of the dispute, with some decrying the protesters' aggression and others, like the deputy mayor of Jerusalem, calling the Women of the Wall "the women of provocation," according to Ynetnews.


Vetting the idea

 We don't just build whatever comes our way. The first step is to hand-pick only the best projects. And then no matter how good the idea sounds or how confident our client is, we put the app through a rigorous vetting process, polishing and streamlining the idea along the way. Only then, are we ready to start designing and building anything. ||||| "There's an app for that" was a statement that Apple trademarked in 2009 as they began the rollout for the iPhone 3G. Today, that declaration is very true.

 Weather trackers, travel planners and dating apps are just a small selection of the applications available. They cover every possible demographic and audience in order to cater to their various needs.

 Despite that, the multitude of programs has made it difficult for aspiring developers to come up with the newest creation.

 It seems as if every possible aspect is covered but Ryan Matzner, Director & Chief Strategist of Fueled has some advice.

 Based in New York City, Fueled is a mobile app development company that helps people build apps for the iPhone, Android, iPad and the desktop PC. Matzner polled his staff and clients to come up with this list of tips of what's hot/what's not in today's app world.

 General Terrible

 Selling public parking spaces (Airbnb for public parking!): "It turns out no one wants to go through the hassle of setting up and monitoring a bidding platform for a parking space and spend 10-20 minutes hanging out in a spot just to collect a few dollars (or less)."

 (Airbnb for public parking!): "It turns out no one wants to go through the hassle of setting up and monitoring a bidding platform for a parking space and spend 10-20 minutes hanging out in a spot just to collect a few dollars (or less)." Tinder for dogs . Here's the message that we were sent via our website: "I need a proposal today for LillyFly. Sorry for the last minute. But I'm meeting with some investors this weekend. LillyFly is going to be an IOS APP (Identical) to Tinder. Except with Dogs. Purpose. So Dogs/Owners can have MeetUps at the local dog park. Can you guys email me a proposal today???"

 . Here's the message that we were sent via our website: "I need a proposal today for LillyFly. Sorry for the last minute. But I'm meeting with some investors this weekend. LillyFly is going to be an IOS APP (Identical) to Tinder. Except with Dogs. Purpose. So Dogs/Owners can have MeetUps at the local dog park. Can you guys email me a proposal today???" GPS-based chat . "This idea comes in every month or two. It's a system of chatting with people around you. We spent about a month pondering the idea with WunWun's founder Lee Hnetinka, back in 2011 when he was working on Bubble. We both ultimately concluded that the idea wasn't going anywhere. People just don't care much about connecting with people over chat just because they're in a similar physical location. Just look at the failure of all the geo-networking apps that were so hot at SXSW 2012 and ultimately fell flat. Or look at Meet Gatsby, which also completely failed (though, ironically, Rameet and I originally met through it, which is probably the one successful match the app ever had)."

 . "This idea comes in every month or two. It's a system of chatting with people around you. We spent about a month pondering the idea with WunWun's founder Lee Hnetinka, back in 2011 when he was working on Bubble. We both ultimately concluded that the idea wasn't going anywhere. People just don't care much about connecting with people over chat just because they're in a similar physical location. Just look at the failure of all the geo-networking apps that were so hot at SXSW 2012 and ultimately fell flat. Or look at Meet Gatsby, which also completely failed (though, ironically, Rameet and I originally met through it, which is probably the one successful match the app ever had)." Pee Break ; "App that lets you know when your friends are going to the bathroom. Stepping out of the movie theater or off the dance floor for a pee-break, and it's too loud (or quiet) to tell ask your girlfriends to join you? There's an app for that!"

 ; "App that lets you know when your friends are going to the bathroom. Stepping out of the movie theater or off the dance floor for a pee-break, and it's too loud (or quiet) to tell ask your girlfriends to join you? There's an app for that!" Shock Therapy: "App that shocks you when you haven't been moving your bod enough. The idea was pitched as an app that would communicate with an external device: a shock bracelet that can send electrical currency through your skin, hair, or muscles. Haven't stepped away from your desk in the past 30 minutes? ZING! Eating unhealthy? ZING!"

 Terrible To People Who Understand Tech

 Apps to find bars with happy hour deals : "Get in line."

 : "Get in line." Emojis of all types (ratchet emojis, college life emojis, celebrity emojis). "The emojis on an iPhone exist the same way any other international language does on the phone. They're really just characters on the phone, like any letter or symbol on the keyboard. They're built into iOS, so you can't just create new ones and add them to the phone. People don't seem to realize this and we get about one call a week asking for a quote to build an emoji app. People get confused because there are many emoji apps in the app store, but what they don't realize is that all these apps are just reusing the fixed set of emoji on the Apple keyboard. This concept hits a real sweet-spot with would-be million-dollar-idea-havers: it's a simple technical concept, people are familiar with it, and there is a clear need for new emojis as the current set is overly limited."

 (ratchet emojis, college life emojis, celebrity emojis). "The emojis on an iPhone exist the same way any other international language does on the phone. They're really just characters on the phone, like any letter or symbol on the keyboard. They're built into iOS, so you can't just create new ones and add them to the phone. People don't seem to realize this and we get about one call a week asking for a quote to build an emoji app. People get confused because there are many emoji apps in the app store, but what they don't realize is that all these apps are just reusing the fixed set of emoji on the Apple keyboard. This concept hits a real sweet-spot with would-be million-dollar-idea-havers: it's a simple technical concept, people are familiar with it, and there is a clear need for new emojis as the current set is overly limited." Building a point-of-sale (POS) cash register system: "This is a HUGE undertaking that requires a huge sales force to execute, on top of it. And the payoff has very limited potential."

 "This is a HUGE undertaking that requires a huge sales force to execute, on top of it. And the payoff has very limited potential." Any app that requires a huge network of users and can't work "with the inevitably smaller set of initial users" that it will have.

 Apps that allows you to pay when you walk out of a store : "Sometimes a super smart idea, like this one, can be really dumb. Lots of wannabe entrepreneurs have no concept of how current technology works."

 : "Sometimes a super smart idea, like this one, can be really dumb. Lots of wannabe entrepreneurs have no concept of how current technology works." A daily scavenger hunt: "Every day the app will post an assignment and then users will take and upload pictures in hops of winning a prize or coupon. Meh."

 Other Terrible Things People Call Fueled About

 People trying to sell their ideas : "On a regular basis, people call us up and tell us they have million-dollar or billion-dollar ideas that they have no interest or means to pursue and want to sell the idea to us. We quickly hang up on these calls."

 : "On a regular basis, people call us up and tell us they have million-dollar or billion-dollar ideas that they have no interest or means to pursue and want to sell the idea to us. We quickly hang up on these calls." "People call us every day with a ridiculous budgets to build huge apps. For example, yesterday a guy called wanting to build a new social network that would cost around $200,000 to develop and then had a budget of only $1,500. -- People hear about Internet startups and founders striking it right with a hot new website. They assume these things are trivial to build and can easily be built overnight, if only someone could come up with the right idea first." |||||

Write a summary.

– Dating for dogs? An app to time pee breaks? Among the multitudes of clever mobile apps come plenty that are duds from the start. Developer Fueled shares some of the most ridiculous pitches it has received, via Business Insider: Shock treatment: Linked to an electric bracelet, this app is all about self-punishment. It would help you out by shocking you when you're doing something unhealthy—for instance, spending too much time sitting at your desk without moving around. Communal urination: If you want buddies in the bathroom, this is for you. The app would inform your friends that you're planning a trip to pee; it would, theoretically, be handy when you can't tell them yourself because you're in a club or a movie theater. Parking-spot dealer: This would apparently be a combination of eBay and airBnB—for public parking. Users would have to hold a spot as others bid on it, and the pay would be meager. A dog-dating app: From the message Fueled received, it's unclear whether this involves dating other dog owners, or just dogs dating dogs. The pitch: "an iOS APP (Identical) to Tinder. Except with Dogs. Purpose. So Dogs/Owners can have MeetUps at the local dog park." Click for the full list.


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WASHINGTON — Two and a half weeks after Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta announced an inquiry into e-mail exchanges between Gen. John R. Allen of the Marines and a socialite in Tampa, Fla., some 15 investigators working seven days a week in the Pentagon inspector general’s office have narrowed their focus to 60 to 70 e-mails that “bear a fair amount of scrutiny,” a defense official said.

 The official did not disclose the content of the e-mails, but senior Pentagon officials have described the voluminous correspondence between General Allen, the top NATO commander in Afghanistan, and the socialite, Jill Kelley, as potentially “inappropriate communication.” Law enforcement officials say the e-mails number in the hundreds and cover a period of two and a half years starting in 2010, when General Allen was the deputy commander of Central Command, based in Tampa.

 The investigation, which is delaying and could derail General Allen’s appointment to be the NATO supreme allied commander in Europe, is on a fast track but is unlikely to be completed before the end of the year. Investigations of senior officers in the inspector general’s office usually take about seven months on average, although normally there are only two or three investigators assigned to a case.

 The defense official, who asked not to be named because of the nature of the inquiry, said investigators were trying to determine whether the e-mails violated Defense Department policy, government regulations or military law. They were discovered in the course of an F.B.I. investigation into anonymous e-mails to Ms. Kelley warning her to stay away from David H. Petraeus, then the C.I.A. director. The F.B.I. found that the e-mails had been sent by Paula Broadwell, Mr. Petraeus’s biographer; he admitted to having had an affair with Ms. Broadwell and resigned on Nov. 9.

 Like General Allen, Mr. Petraeus, a retired four-star general, was a social acquaintance of Ms. Kelley when he was stationed at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, headquarters of the Central Command.

 The e-mails between General Allen and Ms. Kelley were sent to the Pentagon by the F.B.I. on Nov. 11. “They just forwarded the evidence,” the official said, referring to the F.B.I. “People have to go through and decide if they fit one of three potential violations.” Those violations include misconduct, which could range from inappropriate language on a government computer to adultery, prohibited under military law; more than an incidental use of government property for personal matters; and security breaches.

 The defense official said there was no evidence so far that there had been security violations. General Allen, who is in Kabul planning the drawdown of American forces from Afghanistan, is cooperating with the investigation and has said through associates that he did not commit adultery. The inquiry does not appear to have progressed to interviews with General Allen, 58, who is married and the father of two, or Ms. Kelley, 37, the wife of a cancer surgeon and the mother of three.

 Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., who has been nominated to succeed General Allen as part of a regular military rotation, is expected to be confirmed by the Senate before the end of the year and to be in Kabul by February. General Allen is expected to return to the United States at that time, but it is unclear what he will do.

 There have been conflicting accounts of the nature of the e-mails between him and Ms. Kelley. A law enforcement official has described some of them as sexually explicit. Pentagon officials briefed on the matter say they have been told that half a dozen are embarrassing. But General Allen’s associates say they are innocuous and contain little beyond language like “you’re a sweetheart.”

 Although Ms. Kelley’s e-mail correspondence with General Allen has not been made public, dozens of her e-mails to Mayor Bob Buckhorn of Tampa have been released under Florida’s public record laws and refer to her friendship with both General Allen and Mr. Petraeus.

 A year ago, after inviting the mayor to a birthday party for one of her children, she added a casual P.S.: “I’ll be in DC this weekend with Petraeus, but let’s set up a double date when I return!” Last January, she wrote to a mayoral aide, “I’m up in DC having dinner tonight with Gen. Petraeus and Gen. John Allen.” ||||| FILE - In this Nov 13, 2012 file photo Jill Kelley leaves her home in Tampa, Fla. The Tampa socialite at the center of a scandal involving Gen. David Petraeus has hired a top Washington attorney and seems... (Associated Press)

 FILE - In this Nov 13, 2012 file photo Jill Kelley leaves her home in Tampa, Fla. The Tampa socialite at the center of a scandal involving Gen. David Petraeus has hired a top Washington attorney and seems... (Associated Press)

 Jill Kelley wants the world to know that she didn't do anything wrong when she befriended top military brass.

 The Tampa socialite at the center of a scandal involving Gen. David Petraeus has hired a top Washington attorney and seems to be trying to change the narrative about her friendship with the general, her past and her role as an "honorary consul" to the country of South Korea.

 On Tuesday, Kelley's attorney Abbe Lowell released emails, telephone recordings and other material that he and Kelley say proves she never tried to exploit her friendship with Petraeus.

 Lowell wrote to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Tampa, demanding to know why the name of his client and her husband were revealed during the FBI's investigation of Petraeus and his mistress, Paula Broadwell.

 Officials said they were led to Kelley because Broadwell sent her threatening messages to stay away from Petraeus. Lowell addressed this in a letter to W. Stephen Muldrow, the assistant U.S. Attorney in Tampa.

 "You no doubt have seen the tremendous attention that the Kelleys have received in the media," Lowell wrote. "All they did to receive this attention was to let law enforcement know that they had been the subjects of inappropriate and potentially threatening behavior by someone else."

 Lowell added that federal privacy laws could be applicable to the couple's information.

 "These leaks most certainly had to come, at least in part, from government sources," Lowell said. "The earliest and best example of the leaks would be the release to the media of the names of my clients. As you know, there are several rules and laws that seek to protect United States citizens against such leaks."

 The U.S. Attorney's Office in Tampa did not return telephone calls for comment Tuesday.

 Kelley, a 37-year-old mother of three, became the focus of national media attention earlier this month. She and her husband, cancer surgeon Scott Kelley, befriended Petraeus and Gen. John Allen when the generals served at U.S. Central Command, which is headquartered at Tampa's MacDill Air Force Base. Kelley became an unofficial social ambassador for the base. She was well known around Tampa's social scene and often hosted parties at her waterfront mansion.

 When the FBI investigated Broadwell's emails to Kelley, they also discovered numerous emails between Kelley and the generals. The Pentagon is investigating the emails between her and Allen. Some have called a few of the emails between the two "flirtatious," but sources close to Kelley say they were not.

 The scandal this week cost Kelley her appointment as an honorary consul for the South Korean government, which she had gotten because of her friendship with Petraeus. The Koreans said she had misused the title in her personal business dealings.

 Lowell sent another letter to a businessman for whom Kelley tried to broker a deal with South Korea.

 The businessman, Adam Victor, said he met Kelley in late August at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, where they discussed having Kelley represent Victor's company on a coal-gasification deal it was negotiating with South Korean companies.

 On Aug. 30, according to the documents provided by her attorney, Victor sent Kelley an email saying they were seeking bids from four major Korean firms _ Samsung, Hyundai, GS and GK _ and that he expected the bidding to potentially reach $3 billion. There were several back-and-forth emails through mid-September as Victor and Kelley tried to negotiate a fee for her work, with her saying she was seeking 2 percent of the deal and Victor trying to clarify what she meant.

 There were no other emails until Victor sent one Nov. 9, when Kelley's name surfaced in the Petraeus scandal. He wrote two more times after that before she responded.

 When she finally did, he sent back another email in which he remarked, "When I heard about Petraeus, I thought of you." In a follow-up email, he asked if she was still in a position to help with Korea. She didn't respond.

 In a Nov. 14 interview with the AP, Victor said it had become clear that Kelley was not a skilled negotiator and that he had wasted his time dealing with her.

 In a letter released Tuesday and dated Nov. 21, Lowell accused Victor of seeking his "15 minutes of fame" by talking to the news media about his client. Lowell said Victor had defamed Kelley with his clients and misstated her desire for 2 percent of the profits by saying she wanted 2 percent of the entire deal. Lowell also accused Victor of unspecified inappropriate behavior toward Kelley.

 "If you want to continue seeking publicity for yourself, that is one thing," Lowell wrote to Victor. "However, if you do that by maligning a person, that is something else." He then accused Victor of casting Kelley in a false light and suggested his attorney contact Lowell to discuss the matter.

 Victor told the AP late Tuesday that he never accused Kelley of wrongdoing, but had just said she was naive and not an experienced negotiator. He also said his female assistant was present every time he met with Kelley.

 "It's not a crime to be a novice," Victor said. "I don't know why they are talking to me."

 The third letter was sent from Kelley's attorney Tuesday to the Attorney Consumer Assistance Program, which handles complaints about lawyers on behalf of the Florida Bar. In that letter, Lowell accused Tampa attorney Barry Cohen of breaking attorney-client privilege by publicly speaking about conversations he had with Kelley in 2009 while representing her in a dispute she had with a tenant. In those conversations, Lowell said, they discussed her friendships with various military personnel.

 Kelley's sister, Natalie Khawam, once worked as an attorney in Cohen's firm and later sued him for sexual harassment and breach of contract. In court responses, Cohen said Khawam "has a judicially documented recent history and continuing propensity for the commission of perjury."

 Cohen said Tuesday evening that he had not seen Lowell's complaint letter and that Kelley had "lost the battle in the court of public opinion."

 "No matter how many high-priced lawyers and publicists she employs, she has been exposed for what she is," he said.

 Prior to Tuesday, Kelley, her attorney and her publicist had only publicly addressed the situation once, in a statement to the news media when the scandal first broke.

 ___

 Spencer reported from Miami.

 Kelley's lawyer also sent letters to a New York businessman who accused her of incompetence in her work trying to set up a deal he was negotiating with South Korean companies and a Tampa attorney who accused her of name-dropping and of being a social climber;

 Follow Tamara Lush on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tamaralush |||||

– The Pentagon inspector general’s office didn't take the Gen. John Allen-Jill Kelley email exchange lightly, assigning 15 investigators toiling seven days a week to review the thousands of pages of documents. They've now sussed out between 60 and 70 emails that "bear a fair amount of scrutiny," according to a defense official, who didn't elaborate on what those emails might contain. The New York Times reports the purpose of the investigation, which likely won't conclude until 2013, is to determine if one of three violations occurred: misconduct (ie, adultery or inappropriate language), substantial use of government property for personal matters, or a security breach. Those investigators aren't the only ones getting busy. A previously silent Kelley is now defending herself, through her attorney. Abbe Lowell, a big-time Washington lawyer who has represented Bill Clinton and John Edwards, yesterday released emails, phone recordings, and more evidence that, he says, prove Kelley did not try to exploit her relationship with David Petraeus. He also sent out three letters connected to the scandal, the AP reports: He asked the US Attorney's Office in Tampa why Kelley's name was released in the first place, adding that federal privacy laws could apply. He wrote another letter to a businessman Kelley was trying to help make a deal with South Korea, before she lost her honorary consul status. The businessman, Adam Victor, has said in interviews that Kelley was not a skilled negotiator, and Lowell says he defamed her in an attempt to bask in his "15 minutes of fame." In a letter to the Attorney Consumer Assistance Program (which fields complaints about lawyers), Lowell accuses attorney Barry Cohen of talking publicly about conversations he had with Kelley in 2009, thus breaking attorney-client privilege.


Article:

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) – Police took two men into custody after an on-duty FBI agent was shot while working a case in Brooklyn Saturday afternoon, sources tell CBS2.

 Sources say the agent was inside a car conducting surveillance near the corner of E. 92nd Street and Avenue N in Canarsie when the suspects drove by, firing into his vehicle around 3:30 p.m.

 Even though the agent was struck in the shoulder, sources say he managed to return fire as the suspects fled. One of the suspects was hit by gunfire, according to sources. He was arrested when he showed up at Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center seeking treatment for at least one gunshot wound, according to sources.

 The second suspect was captured outside a business nearby on Remsen Avenue, according to sources.

 The agent was rushed to Kings County Hospital with injuries that aren’t believed to be life threatening.

 NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan tweeted that there “are no outstanding suspects at this time” late Saturday.

 There are no outstanding suspects at this time. Expect a large police presence in the area of 92nd Street & Avenue N in #Brooklyn as the investigation continues.

 Wishing the agent a speedy recovery. https://t.co/jnMScb5fFr — Chief Terence Monahan (@NYPDChiefofDept) December 9, 2018

 It wasn’t immediately clear what sparked the broad daylight shootout, or if the suspects knew their victim was an FBI agent.

 Authorities also haven’t said what the agent was surveilling at the time of the shooting.

 The investigation is ongoing. ||||| An FBI agent was shot in the shoulder while he was working in Brooklyn, the NYPD said. Wale Aliyu reports.

 An FBI agent was shot in by someone driving in a BMW in Brooklyn on Saturday afternoon, law enforcement officials said.

 The agent was shot in the shoulder, but was conscious and alert when he went into surgery at Kings County Hospital, the sources told NBC 4 New York.

 The agent was on duty performing surveillance for a drug investigation in Canarsie when the suspect, in a BMW, drove the wrong way down a one-way street and opened fire into the agent's vehicle, the sources said.

 The agent may have tried to intervene with the driver before the gunshots began, the sources said.

 The agent pulled his car around to pursue the BMW, the sources said. Then the agent got out when he stopped at a corner and fired more than 10 times at the BMW.

 The suspect ditched the BMW at an auto body shop and got a friend to drive him to the hospital, the sources said.

 The suspect was in custody and in surgery for a gunshot wound to the hand, the sources said, while the acquaintance was being held on a charge of driving with a suspended license while the investigation continues.

 Police Chief Terence Monohan tweeted that no suspects were at large.

 ___

 The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 Top Tri-State News Photos |||||
What is a summary?

– An FBI agent was shot Saturday afternoon in Brooklyn and did like in the movies—pursued his alleged attacker and opened fire, NBC New York reports. The agent was performing surveillance for a drug probe when a BMW drove by and the suspect apparently shot him in the shoulder. Sources say the agent went after his assailant by car, jumped out at a corner, and fired off more than 10 rounds. The suspect, shot in the hand, abandoned his car at an auto body shop and had a friend take him to the hospital. He and his acquaintance are both in custody. The agent went into surgery at Kings County Hospital with non-life-threatening injuries, per CBS New York. (In related news, a shootout with bank robbers left 12 dead.)


Article:

David Tepper's gain is New Jersey's loss.

 The hedge fund billionaire, founder of Appaloosa Management, officially changed his tax residency and corporate headquarters from New Jersey to Florida. People close to Tepper say he made the move to be closer to his mother and sister, who live in Florida.

 Yet it could also save him hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes that would have gone to New Jersey.

 According to Institutional Investor's Alpha, Tepper has earned more than $6 billion over the past three years. Given that the top tax rate in New Jersey is 8.97 percent, his tax bill for the state over that time frame could have been more than $500 million. Of course, his real bill was likely much lower, given charitable deductions and other accounting treatments. Yet he still likely paid in the nine figures to the state of New Jersey over those years.

  ||||| Billionaire David Tepper is moving from New Jersey to Florida, and much to New Jersey's dismay, he is taking his tax burden with him.

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 New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (c.) delivers his budget at the Statehouse in Trenton, N.J., Feb. 16. Next year's budget may be impacted significantly by the departure of one of the state's richest citizens.

 Billionaire David Tepper is moving from New Jersey to Florida this year — and so is his tax contribution to New Jersey, which is so large the move threatens his former home's state budget.

 The outsize dent one change of address can make sheds light not only on how much money America's wealthiest citizens can move, but also on how much the "1 percent" contributes to a functioning government.

 Mr. Tepper, a highly successful hedge-fund manager, registered to vote in Florida last October, according to Bloomberg. He listed a condominium in Florida as his new residential address and moved his business, Appaloosa Management, to the Sunshine State. And the New Jersey legislature took notice.

 "We may be facing an unusual degree of income-tax forecast risk," testified Frank Haines, a budget officer with New Jersey's Office of Legislative Services, before a Senate committee Tuesday.

 New Jersey's struggling state budget projections rely on income taxes for 40 percent of revenue, Bloomberg reported. To support this, the state levies the third-highest tax burden in the country, with a marginal income tax rate of almost 9 percent for top earners and an array of estate and inheritance taxes.

 The Sunshine State, on the other hand, has one of the country's lowest tax burdens: it taxes neither personal income nor investments, and its corporate tax is 5.5 percent, all of which tempted Tepper to move south.

 New Jersey's current predicament highlights both the stark income difference between America's rich and poor and the subtle side effects of trying to solve it through taxation. As The Christian Science Monitor's Olivia Lowenberg wrote in March:

 While the gulf between the middle- and lower-class wages has held stable since 2000, the gap between the very wealthy and everyone else is expanding. While inflation-adjusted wages did grow in 2015, not every segment of the population felt the benefits. Wages for men in the top 90th and 95th percentiles of earners increased by 6.2 percent and 9.9 percent, respectively, even as wages stagnated or even dropped off for men in the bottom 60 percent of earners. Wages increased about 2.6 percent for median earners.

 New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) has been working with — and sometimes against — the state's legislature on ideas to solve both the economic stagnation of America's middle class and the state budget. During his run for president, he blamed the federal government for increasing income inequality by stagnating growth.

 "The Fed's easy money policies and the president's anti-growth policies have made the rich even richer and made our middle class work longer and harder for less pay and less promise for the future," Governor Christie told New Hampshire voters.

 Tepper's flight to the Sunshine State — and the New Jersey legislature's resulting woes — highlight both the economic puzzle and the perils of resolving it through increasing taxes.

 "The tax burden doesn’t stick out — what really sticks out is the inadequacy of their pre-tax income. That's what's hurting middle-class families," Economic Policy Institute senior economist Elise Gould told the Monitor last month.

 "I don’t think, as a share of people’s budget, that [tax cuts are] where the relief should come. We think about middle-class families that are struggling to pay for housing, childcare," she said. "We need to really think about increasing their wages." ||||| The decision by billionaire hedge-fund manager David Tepper to quit New Jersey for tax-friendly Florida could complicate estimates of how much tax money the struggling state will collect, the head of the Legislature’s nonpartisan research branch warned lawmakers.

 Tepper, 58, registered to vote in Florida in October, listing a Miami Beach condominium as his permanent address, and in December filed a court document declaring that he is now a resident of the state. On Jan. 1, he relocated his Appaloosa Management from New Jersey to Florida, which is free of personal-income and estate taxes.

 His move has state revenue officials on alert.

 “We may be facing an unusual degree of income-tax forecast risk,” Frank Haines, budget and finance officer with the Office of Legislative Services told a Senate committee Tuesday in Trenton.

 New Jersey relies on personal income taxes for about 40 percent of its revenue, and less than 1 percent of taxpayers contribute about a third of those collections, according to the legislative services office. A one percent forecasting error in the income-tax estimate can mean a $140 million gap, Haines said.

 Tepper lived in New Jersey for more than two decades, initially as an executive at Goldman Sachs Group Inc., where he helped run junk-bond trading during the late 1980s and early 1990s. He founded Appaloosa in 1993 and now has an estimated fortune of $10.6 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. That ranked him as the wealthiest person in New Jersey.

 New Jersey residents bear the country’s third-highest tax burden, according to the Tax Foundation in Washington. Along with the nation’s highest property taxes, it’s one of two states that levy both an estate tax on the deceased and an inheritance tax on their heirs. The income-tax rate for top earners is 8.97 percent. Democratic legislators have repeatedly passed a millionaire’s tax that would increase the levy to 10.75 percent, but Republican Governor Chris Christie has vetoed it each time. |||||
What is a summary?

– New Jersey, already struggling with its budget, could face a massive shortfall next year—all because one guy chose to move to Florida, Bloomberg reports. In fairness, that guy was the wealthiest man in the state. Hedge-fund manager David Tepper has an estimated worth of $10.6 billion, and after decades in New Jersey he's officially moved his residence and business operations to the Sunshine State. According to CNBC, people close to Tepper say he wanted to be closer to his mother and sister in Florida. But it also points out he stands to save hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes by moving south. Thanks to New Jersey's 8.97% tax burden on its highest earners, Tepper likely paid nine figures in taxes—potentially more than $500 million—over the past three years. Unlike Tepper's old home, which had the third highest tax burden in the country, Florida has one of the lowest, the Christian Science Monitor reports. It has no personal-income or estate taxes. But Tepper's gain is New Jersey's loss. “We may be facing an unusual degree of income-tax forecast risk," New Jersey's budget and finance officer says regarding Tepper's move. The state gets about 40% of its revenue from personal-income taxes—a large chunk of which comes from the incredibly wealthy. Being off by even 1% in income-tax forecasts could mean a budget shortfall of $140 million. But all is not lost for the Garden State. Its population of tax-paying millionaires is continuing to rise, and it boasted the fourth highest number of millionaires in the country in 2015. (This house is available for those who want to move to New Jersey, but it comes with a stalker.)


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– The 24-year-old beauty queen stripped of her Miss Delaware title for being too old is suing national and local pageant organizers to get her crown back. Amanda Longacre will still be 24 when the Miss America pageant is held in September, but she turns 25 the next month and says that while she advanced through the competition, she was never told that turning 25 before the end of 2014 would disqualify her. She has filed a $3 million class-action lawsuit, seeking $500,000 for herself and $2.5 million for other contestants who were certified to compete and then disqualified, the News Journal reports. Longacre—who deferred her master's program and her Department of Justice internship after being crowned Miss Delaware—is also seeking a waiver so she can still compete in the Miss America pageant. Her suit alleges that pageant organizers knowingly recruit ineligible contestants to boost participation. The president of the Miss America organization says Longacre's lawsuit is "without merit and we will defend it vigorously," reports the AP.

DOVER, Del. (AP) — A woman stripped of her Miss Delaware title last month for being too old is suing state pageant officials and the Miss America organization.

 In a lawsuit filed Tuesday, Amanda Longacre is seeking to be reinstated as Miss Delaware and to be allowed to compete in the Miss America pageant. She also is seeking $500,000 in damages for herself and $2.5 million for other contestants who she claims were recruited to compete in pageants before being told they were too old.

 Officials say Miss America pageant rules require contestants to be between 17 and 24. Longacre turns 25 on Oct. 22, after this year's national pageant.

 The lawsuit alleges that one or more other contestants in the 2014 Miss Delaware pageant also were too old to compete under those rules.

 "It is a lawsuit without merit and we will defend it vigorously," said Sharon Pearce, president of the Miss America organization.

 State pageant representatives did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment Wednesday. ||||| The class action lawsuit filed in Delaware's Court of Chancery seeks $3 million in damages

 Amanda Longacre of Bear waves to the crowd after being crowned Miss Delaware at Dover Downs on June 14. (Photo: JASON MINTO/SPECIAL TO THE NEWS ) Story Highlights Last month, Amanda Longacre was disqualified and first-runner up Brittany Lewis was elevated to the state crown

 She also seeks a waiver so she can compete for Miss America in September

 Former Miss Delaware Amanda Longacre, booted from the crown for being too old, sued the state and national scholarship pageant organizations on Wednesday.

 The lawsuit seeks $3 million in damages – $2.5 million for the class of contestants certified to compete then disqualified, and $500,000 for her – along with restoration of her titles as Miss Pike Creek and Miss Delaware. She also seeks the full year's reign in the state, restoration of her scholarships and an age waiver so she can compete for Miss America in September in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

 "This case has no merit and we will vigorously defend it," said the Miss America Organization in a brief statement,

 Miss Delaware Scholarship Organization spokeswoman Carolyn Nelson said Wednesday night that the group would have no comment on the lawsuit.

 The lawsuit, filed in Delaware Court of Chancery, reveals an awkward and formerly undisclosed moment just after Longacre was stripped of her crown in June, two weeks into her reign.

 EARLIER STORY/VIDEO: Miss Delaware too old; Miss Wilmington steps up

 First, officials told her she was too old and said she had to return her crown, wouldn't get her scholarships and couldn't compete for Miss America.

 Then, the previously unidentified state pageant official who axed her – executive director Debi Wilson was a named defendant in the filing – "offered to make it up to her by hosting a wine and cheese pajama party," the suit says.

 The suit names other pageant winners disqualified after competing and contends pageant officials knowingly recruit ineligible contestants to boost dwindling participation, take advantage of them for fundraising and appearances, then disqualify them.

 The suit details more than 20 appearances Longacre made, cites her additional fundraising for the organization and the facts that she suspended work on her master's degree in social work at University of Pennsylvania for a year, cut her work to part-time and ended internship programs as required by the Miss Delaware organization to fulfill her duties.

 Two days after Longacre was disqualified, first runner-up Brittany Lewis of Wilmington was crowned Miss Delaware in a brief ceremony at Dover Downs Hotel & Casino, elevating her to the national contest that gives each contestant a $3,000 scholarship for participating and the chance to win a lot more.

 Longacre, whose only previous pageant experience was for the separate Miss USA competition, says Miss Delaware Scholarship Organization officials recruited her and certified her eligibility after she repeatedly submitted her birth certificate, driver's license and resume – all with her birth date of Oct. 22, 1989 – as she competed successfully first for Miss Pike Creek, then Miss Delaware.

 Lewis also is 24, but she was born July 21, 1990.

 Although state and national pageant websites say those 17-24 are eligible – as the lawsuit notes – state pageant officials said in their one public statement about Longacre's ouster that they discovered after Longacre was crowned that she was too old under Miss America rules.

 Board member and legal counsel Elizabeth Soucek – who was Miss Delaware first runner up in 2007 – has said national contestants could not turn 24 before Dec. 31, meaning they could not have been born before 1990. She called that "a Miss America rule."

 POLL: Should she have sued?

 Soucek told The News Journal after Lewis was crowned that she directed Lewis and state pageant officials not to comment about the situation with Longacre "due to the possibility of pending litigation." She couldn't be reached Wednesday night.

 It was only after Longacre went public with her highly emotional account, first in an interview with The News Journal and then on televised "Today" show, that Soucek said she would get the $9,000 scholarship she earned with the state title.

 Until that time, according to the lawsuit, the only thing the organization had offered Longacre was the "wine and cheese pajama party."

 But when Soucek told The News Journal that Longacre would get $9,000 scholarship from the state title, she was asked about her other scholarship funds for winning Miss Pike Creek andstate contest preliminary events and Miss Congeniality. Soucek then said Longacre would get all her scholarship funds.

 The lawsuit said the Pike Creek title came with a $500 scholarship and her other wins totaled $1,250.

 In detailing Longacre's damages, the suit also said she lost potential career enhancements such as television and guest appearances, also that she had to spend more than $4,500 on expenses such as a voice coach, clothing, hair and makeup.

 Her suit also asks the court to require the pageants to make age requirements clear on their websites and to all potential contestants.

 While her lawsuit does not seek an apology, Longacre told The News Journal she never got one from anyone with the Miss Delaware pageant.

 Her attorney, Mark Billion of Wilmington, said before the suit was filed that they reached out repeatedly to organization officials.

 "Not only did we not get the courtesy of a response," he said, "we haven't gotten anything from them saying she is disqualified."

 Longacre recently said she feels lumped in with pageant winners dethroned for reasons from criminal activity to pornography. "I'm being treated as if I did something morally and ethically wrong," she said. "I'm just really heartbroken."

 Read or Share this story: http://delonline.us/1mNdLyJ |||||


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– A paraplegic man is recovering after being dumped on a desolate road in the New Mexico desert without his wheelchair. Ricky Gilmore says he spent three days dragging himself four miles down the road after a couple he met while hitchhiking tossed him out of their vehicle when he declined to share his alcohol, the AP reports. The 49-year-old is being treated for kidney failure from dehydration, a blood infection, and a sprained wrist. Gilmore, who lost the use of his legs in a car crash 19 years ago, says three cars passed him during the first two days of his ordeal but they didn't stop when he waved. A vehicle finally stopped on the third day, and Gilmore says he doesn't believe he could have survived a third night in the desert. Cops are searching for the couple who left him in the desert. "I just got on the devil's ride," Gilmore tells the Farmington Daily Times. "I just want to heal up and go home and change my life around and keep going."

A paraplegic man who says he was stranded in the New Mexico desert without his wheelchair dragged himself about four miles down a dirt road over three days before a motorist stopped to help him.

 Ricky Gilmore, 49, shows the pair of pants he was wearing when he dragged himself four miles down a road for three days last week near Tocito, N.M. after a man and woman he met while he was hitchhiking... (Associated Press)

 Tattered and dirty, Ricky Gilmore's blue jeans tell part of the story. His body tells the rest _ the skin on his left leg and buttocks is shredded, his wrist is sprained and his kidneys are in bad shape from going without food and water.

 "Ah man, I'm just a big mess. I ache and I'm just in the first stages of healing," he said Tuesday at the Northern Navajo Medical Center in Shiprock, N.M.

 Gilmore, 49, is being treated for acute kidney failure from dehydration, a sprained wrist and a blood infection. He spent two days in intensive care and it could be at least another week before he can go home.

 The Farmington Daily Times first reported Gilmore's story. He was found along a seldom-traveled road on the Navajo Nation about 10 miles from his home in Newcomb, which is on the eastern side of the reservation.

 Gilmore said he was dropped in the desert by a couple in a white truck whom he met while he was hitchhiking. He had invited them to his home for steaks, and they later went for what Gilmore thought was going to be a joyride.

 When he declined to share his alcohol with them, Gilmore said the man grabbed him by his feet and threw him out of the truck while parked along the desolate road.

 It was early evening and Gilmore had nothing _ no wheelchair, no food, no water, no coat _ to help him endure the flat desert scrubland.

 "It was dark and I was shivering and the wind was blowing so I just crawled to a bush and dug in right there. It was cold that night," he said.

 With the sunrise, survival mode kicked in.

 "I started dragging myself. I did the same thing all day and I only got about two miles," he said.

 Two people passed by. Gilmore tried flagging them down but they only honked and kept going.

 After spending a second night at the side of the road, Gilmore said he woke up sore and thirsty and didn't want to move.

 "I could have easily gave up and said `Forget it,' but I said `I'm not going to freeze out here' and I just kept on going," said Gilmore, who lives by himself and lost the use of his legs in a car crash years ago.

 On the third afternoon, a man in a blue pickup truck stopped and called for help. Gilmore said doctors told him his body temperature was 94 when he was found.

 "I don't think I would have made it another night," he said.

 The Daily Times reported that Gilmore filed a report with Shiprock police. No officials at the department after hours Tuesday could confirm details of the report.

 Gilmore said he's bandaged up "big time" and morphine is helping with the pain. Still, he had a nightmare Monday night in which he found himself sitting at the edge of a freeway waving his hands at the passing traffic, but no one looked at him.

 His plan is simple for when he gets released from the hospital: "Go home and pray, take inventory and just get a good night sleep in my own bed and heal."

 ___

 Follow Susan Montoya Bryan on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/susanmbryanNM ||||| Print Email Font Resize Font Resize Paraplegic man left without wheelchair in desert for three days

 SHIPROCK — Looking into the eyes of Ricky Gilmore, one can tell he has taken many roads but none like the one he dragged himself down last week. SHIPROCK — Looking into the eyes of Ricky Gilmore, one can tell he has taken many roads but none like the one he dragged himself down last week. Gilmore, a 49-year-old paraplegic from Newcomb, was left without his wheelchair on a desolate dirt road after he hitchhiked with a woman and man near Shiprock on Oct. 16. For two nights and three days, Gilmore scooted against the dirt and rocks of the road not knowing if he would be found. During the darkness of the night, he would ball up to keep warm. He had many enemies he did not have the use of his legs, he had no water or food and it was dreadfully cold. He said he pulled himself about four miles and wondered about the wild animals he would not be able to fight off. "It was torture," said Gilmore at the Northern Navajo Medical Center on Tuesday. Gilmore winced while recalling the ordeal, which began as a quick trip from Newcomb to Shiprock to buy liquor. The trip became somewhat of a "joy ride," he said. The woman and man he hitched a ride with picked up another man, then took Gilmore home, dropped off his wheelchair, then dropped off one man elsewhere followed by a cruise on the Devil's Highway, U.S. Highway 491. That's where hell broke loose, and the woman and the passenger decided Gilmore had to go. "I didn't think anything like this would happen," Gilmore said. He recalled the man yanking him out of the truck by his ankles. "I was just trying to plead with him not to pull me out but he had those wild, devilish eyes," he said. Advertisement "I did not want to fight back...if i did fight back all hell would come loose...I know gangsters like that, they just that start clubbing away." At the hospital, he leaned to his side to show large cuts that he got from pulling himself on the ground. The cuts went across his buttocks and legs. They were covered by wide swaths of bandage and oozed. The wounds were worse when he was found by Wilfred Sisco on Thursday on the dirt at the side of Tocito Road, about 30 miles south of Shiprock. Gilmore waved desperately when Sisco found him. His thighs were bleeding, his body shivering, and his right wrist sprained. Sisco called an ambulance, which then took him to the hospital where he received treatment for a blood infection and acute kidney failure the result of the excessive energy he put into moving his upper half, hospital officials said. He also had a body temperature of 94 when he first received treatment normal is 98.6. His wrist and shoulders were sore after his misery. On his hospital bed, Gilmore showed his ragged pair of jeans, sadly looking through the holes created while he scooted himself over rocks and dirt. The jeans, threadbare, still were the color of the dirt and blood that soaked into them for three days. Then, his button-up shirt, also worn through because of the rubbing on the road. At night, the few items he had did little to keep him warm, he said. "I didn't have a jacket. All I had was my shirt. I just curled up," Gilmore said, who does not think he would have lasted a third night. "I mean, it was cold." The recorded lows for both nights were around 40 in Farmington, though it can sometimes be slightly colder or warmer in the desert, according to the National Weather Service in Albuquerque. The absolute worst part of it, though, Gilmore said, was not the actual survival but the thought that someone would do that to him in the first place. "I mean, I'm in a wheelchair. They should have that respect for people who have a disability. I was just being nice," he said. "The disrespect, you know, for people with disabilities. I didn't do nothing to them." During the first two days he was stranded, three vehicles, including one from the Native American Church, passed by Gilmore while he waved at them. "They just don't have a heart," said Gilmore. Gilmore said he has been hitchhiking for 19 years, since he lost the use of his legs in a car crash on his 30th birthday. Once he makes it home from the hospital, he intends to stop hitchhiking for a while, he said. The Shiprock Police Department is working on a pending police report filed by Gilmore on Thursday. Gilmore described the pair who abandoned him as Native American. The man, who allegedly pulled Gilmore out of the vehicle, is in his mid-20s and has a cursive written tattoo on his neck. The female is heavyset and in her mid-40s. Both suspects are believed to be from the Shiprock or Kirtland area. The pair was driving a white pickup. Gilmore said he feels lucky to have survived. "I just got on the devil's ride," Gilmore said. "I just want to heal up and go home and change my life around and keep going," Gilmore said. |||||


Article:

For years, the European Union has been on the list of Nobel Peace Prize candidates. The decision to award the 2012 prize to the bloc is a tribute to the EU's international reconciliation work, says DW's Bernd Riegert.

 Who did the Nobel Prize committee actually call to inform the European Union it won this year's Peace Prize? The European Commission, European Council President Herman van Rompuy or President of the European Parliament Martin Schultz? Europe still does not have a single telephone number. Many politicians outside of Europe do not understand that, but the variety is one of the EU's strengths that were honored by the award.

 The supranational group of states, in which sovereign national governments communalize some of their powers, is a unique body. The European Parliament is also unique in that representatives from all 27 member states have a nearly equal ability to influence legislation. Citizens of the EU can move among and live in any of the other member states, and the internal market provides companies with access to a massive market and the opportunities it can offer. And still, national governments take the lead in the Council of the European Union, where a constant conflict exists between national and European interests.

 The European Union is a peace project. People who talk and trade with each other do not shoot each other. This truism of international politics from the 1950s was the cornerstone for the foundation of the European Economic Community.

 Europeans, initially only Western Europeans, learned the right lessons from the catastrophes of two world wars. That was the view expressed by renowned political scientist and Europe expert Werner Weidenfeld in his book on European integration who said of the EU, "Looking at its centuries of history, this historic achievement cannot be valued highly enough."

 The European Union today has 27 member states, and eight more countries, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Serbia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Iceland and Turkey, have taken at least the initial steps to joining the bloc. Historically, Europeans have achieved an enormous feat of integration. After starting with just six founding members in Western and Southern Europe, the bloc currently comprises nearly all European countries. The union has integrated the former military dictatorships in Spain, Portugal and Greece as well as the former communist states of central and eastern Europe. Its current enlargement project aims to include the fragile western Balkans.

 Its greatest achievement, however, certainly remains uniting Germany and its former enemies. Who would have thought that Germany would emerge from the ruins of World War II and become one of the most important countries in the European Union? In the current debt crisis, Germany has been forced to take on a leadership role due to its economic strength.

 Even as the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize was announced, the financial and sovereign debt crisis poses one of the most serious predicaments of the European Union's history, according to EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso. But crisis has been a constant companion for Europeans, and so far the EU has come out of each crisis stronger than before.

 Critics often accuse the European Union of being too bureaucratic, too undemocratic and a faceless beast. It is true that the decision-making process can be complicated and sometimes non-transparent. But, most of the time, the laws that are enacted support integration. And those who are unhappy with a decision made by the European Union have a structured way to petition for legal redress. In this regard, the European Court of Justice is a globally unique institution.

 It is this decades-long work of the European Union that the Nobel Committee recognized. But who are the actual winners? The four presidents of the EU's institutions, the Council, Parliament, Commission or the Euro Group?

 Or is it not all Europeans, all the citizens of the European Union who each are a prize winner? After all, they are the ones who - in the end - had to support integration, reforms, enlargement as well as bear the all costs incurred.

 Many acts that our grandparents would never have dreamed possible are today regarded as simple facts of life. Europe is normality. Europe lives despite its differences: diversity in unity. Today, we are all Europeans. ||||| In what may be the most bizarre decision in the history of the award, the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the European Union. All 27 nations and 500 million citizens. The Nobel committee cited the EU's contributions to "peace and reconciliation, democracy and human rights" that have essentially kept the continent from tearing itself apart, the way it has so many times up to and including World War II.

 In the long run, the decision certainly makes sense, as Europe is currently enjoying one of its longest eras of peace and stability since the Union was first born in 1952. After the two nations fought three wars in the span of 70 years, now "war between Germany and France is unthinkable." However, as many people are pointing out, awarding the prize to the EU in 2012 seems odd, when the Union itself is being threatened by economic turmoil and the currency union shared by most of its members appears to be a massive mistake. Given the current money problems, the prize of $1.2 million almost seems like mockery, though some are interpreting the decision as a giant pep talk for a continent that sorely needs a reminder of what it can accomplish.

 Giving the Prize to an organization is also unusual, but not unprecedented . Something called the International Peace Bureau won all the way back in 1910 and other past recipients include the International Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, and UNICEF. However, the 2012 award is likely to go down as one of the more head-scratching choices, like the awards for Yasser Arafat, Henry Kissinger, the International Atomic Energy Agency (after the the U.S. had already gone to war in Iraq), and Barack Obama, who won after less than a year in office as President.

 In one final surprise, the decision was actually leaked and reported early by Norway's NRK public radio. Norway, where the Nobel Prize was born, is not even in the EU and has twice rejected appeals to join.

 Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at dbennett at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.

 Dashiell Bennett |||||
What is a summary?

– The Nobel committee has made some strange choices over the years, but awarding its peace prize to the European Union "may be the most bizarre decision in the history of the award," writes Dashiell Bennett at the Atlantic. So naturally, it's got people talking. Here's what they're saying. Bennett thinks the decision makes sense in the long run. "However, as many people are pointing out, awarding the prize to the EU in 2012 seems odd," given the economic and societal turmoil plaguing it. The award "is a classic example of an organization jumping the shark. Quite how anyone could suggest this with a straight face I am not sure," writes Tim Worstall, a self-proclaimed "extremist" against the EU, in Forbes. He points out that it's bizarre to praise an undemocratic organization for promoting democracy, and says the continent's peace is more NATO's doing than the EU's. "Who did the Nobel Prize committee actually call to inform the European Union it won?" wonders Bernd Rigert at Deutsche Welle. Still, he thinks the organization is a "worthy" winner. "The European Union is a peace project," he argues. "People who talk and trade with each other do not shoot each other." "In the broad scheme of things, the EU has been a force for good and it seemed to be in need of a pep talk," agrees Matthew Yglesias at Slate. But there's an elephant in the room: Norway itself isn't part of the EU, and "they've built an amazingly free and prosperous (albeit small society for themselves." Rich and natural resources and with a responsive democracy, it wants no part of the bureaucracy it's praising. For more reactions, see our original post on the award.


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– American Airlines has apologized to two black professional basketball players who were kicked off a plane in Dallas after a flight attendant accused them of stealing blankets. Airline spokesman Joshua Freed said Tuesday that Memphis Hustle guard Marquis Teague and forward Trahson Burrell boarded the flight bound for Sioux Falls, SD, on Sunday at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, reports the AP. Two first-class passengers gave the players their blankets as they headed to their seats in coach. But a black flight attendant accused them of theft and forced them off the plane. Freed says an airline manager apologized to the players and that they later flew first class to Sioux Falls, but the Undefeated reports they didn't arrive in time to make their team holiday dinner. CEO Doug Parker told employees last month that American Airlines will implement implicit-bias training.

DALLAS (AP) — American Airlines has apologized to two black professional basketball players who were kicked off a plane in Dallas after a flight attendant accused them of stealing blankets.

 Airline spokesman Joshua Freed said Tuesday that Memphis Hustle guard Marquis Teague and forward Trahson Burrell boarded the flight bound for Sioux Falls, South Dakota, Sunday at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

 The flight was operated by Envoy Air.

 Two first-class passengers gave the players their blankets as they headed to their seats in coach. But a black flight attendant accused them of theft and forced them off the plane.

 Freed says an airline manager apologized to the players and that they later flew first class to Sioux Falls.

 Chief executive Doug Parker told employees last month that American Airlines will implement implicit-bias training. ||||| 5:11 PMDisgraced former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling made his players feel like they were playing out a scene from Jordan Peele’s highly acclaimed movie Get Out. Well, at least according to former Clippers guard Baron Davis.

 On Thursday, Davis spoke on ESPN’s The Hoop Collective podcast about what it was like playing for Sterling, when he knew Sterling was racist and how he handled working in that environment.

 Now, if you follow the Golden Globe Awards and know nothing else about the film, you might think it is some sort of funny movie because it’s in the comedy category. Wrong, the movie is about racism, the subtle and overt kind, which brings us back to Sterling, who made racist remarks caught on audiotape, was banned from the league, fined $2.5 million and forced to sell the team.

 Below is Davis’ comparison of the vanquished owner to the popular film and more.

 Baron Davis on Donald Sterling and playing for the Clippers:

 For me, I say this — and I said this a million times — the day at my press conference when I walked up the stage, the head of communications said, ‘Hey, you know, he may say some things to you. Just ignore him.’ And I said, ‘Well, what kind of stuff he gonna say?’ He was like, ‘Man, the dude could say anything. He just don’t have a real good understanding of people or what he says. He’s loopy.’ I said, ‘Man, he better be careful what he say to me, because I ain’t like the rest of them m—–f—–s.’ And I walked off and I didn’t think nothing to it until I was like, ‘Yo. Uh-oh. This dude is racist. I can’t play for no racist.’ You know what I mean? I can’t play for no racist, man.

 When did you realize Sterling is racist?

 Yeah, when I start paying attention to like … it was like, you know … you’re in the city and it’s like, ‘Oh, my God!’ and everybody’s excited. And it was almost like … it was almost like the movie Get Out. It was like you walking in training camp, dude, and everybody was like, ‘Yo, what the f— you so happy for?’ And I was like, ‘S—, we about to play a season.’ And it’s like, ‘Nah, he comin’.’

 And when he came in, he just sittin’ there, I saw at that moment he had no respect for nobody. You know? He had no respect for nobody. He couldn’t look nobody in the eye. And everything he was saying to people was like stuff you never say to somebody on their first day at the job. And so, for me, he rubbed me wrong from the jump because I ain’t like it. And the way that the whole Clippers system was set up … it was set up to protect him. Protect him from the media. Protect him from us, from saying stuff to us. And so it’s like he at fault, but everybody else at fault, too. You know, [former president of the Clippers] Andy Roeser, fo’ sho. [Former general manager] Mike Dunleavy, for sure. You know what I mean?

 What was the wildest thing you ever heard Sterling say?

 Besides the fact of him calling me a bastard and a heathen and a m—–f—– and telling me, ‘F— you! Why are [you] shooting? You shouldn’t be shooting in a f—ing blowout?’ Um, I say … I say the worst thing he probably did was when we lost a game and he came in the locker room. And he walked in the locker room and looked at me. He looked at everybody in the locker, and he went down the row, one by one, and he cussed everybody out. And he picked on Al Thornton, who was a rookie from Georgia. Who didn’t really know what was going on because Mike Dunleavy was puttin’ him out there to just tryna score. You know what I mean? And he dogged Al Thornton cold. And so that’s what I was like, ‘Hold on, dude. This dude ain’t right.’ Like, he don’t even know this kid … he just a kid.

 And then he went around the room and tried to talk about everybody. But that s— was fallin’ on deaf ears. |||||


Article:

The seed for Wide00014 was:

 - Slash pages from every domain on the web:

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

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

 - Top ranked pages (up to a max of 100) from every linked-to domain using the Wide00012 inter-domain navigational link graph ||||| Hostess Brands -- the maker of such iconic baked goods as Twinkies, Drake's Devil Dogs and Wonder Bread -- announced Friday that it is asking a federal bankruptcy court for permission to close its operations, blaming a strike by bakers protesting a new contract imposed on them.

 Hostess' nearly 18,500 workers will lose their jobs as the company shuts 33 bakeries and 565 distribution centers nationwide, as well as 570 outlet stores. The Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union represents about 5,000 Hostess employees.

 "We deeply regret the necessity of today's decision, but we do not have the financial resources to weather an extended nationwide strike," said CEO Gregory Rayburn in a statement.

 Hostess will move to sell its assets to the highest bidder. That could mean new life for some of its most popular products, which could be scooped up at auction and attached to products from other companies.

 A letter that Hostess sent to its network of stores that carry its product said it expects "there will be great interest in our brands." But it said it could not give a time frame for when the sales would take place and when its products would be available again.

 But even if those brands are bought and restarted, the Hostess workers will not get their jobs back.

 Related: Hostess workers face tough job market

 "It's been a very sad day," Rayburn told CNN. "I think that this was just a monumental failure on the part of everyone involved, and it was just the wrong outcome."

 Hostess filed for bankruptcy in January, its second trip to bankruptcy court since 2004. It previously emerged from restructuring in 2009 after a four-and-a-half year process. The company is now controlled by a group of investment firms, including hedge funds Silver Point Capital and Monarch Alternative Capital.

 Frank Hurt, president of the bakers' union, called the liquidation "a deep disappointment" but said his members weren't the ones responsible, blaming the various management teams in place at Hostess over the past eight years for failing to turn the firm around.

 "Our members decided they were not going to take any more abuse from a company they have given so much to for so many years," Hurt said in a statement late Friday. "They decided that they were not going to agree to another round of outrageous wage and benefit cuts and give up their pension only to see yet another management team fail and Wall Street vulture capitalists and 'restructuring specialists' walk away with untold millions of dollars."

 While approval of the bankruptcy court is needed before Hostess can start selling its assets in liquidation, the company said production at all of its bakeries stopped effective Friday, and that stores will no longer receive products from Hostess Brands after the final round of deliveries of products that were made Thursday night.

 But products that are already in stores can be sold, and the outlet stores will remain open for about a week to sell the products they already have.

 Related: The end of Hostess

 Hostess had annual sales of about $2.5 billion. The company said it had been making 500 million Twinkies and 127 million loaves of Wonder Bread annually before Friday's shutdown.

 Its bread brands, including Wonder Bread, Nature's Pride and Butternut, make the company the No. 2 bread baker in the country, according to Symphony/IRI Group. Bimbo Bakeries, maker of the Arnold and Stroehmann brands, is the No. 1 bread baker.

 The company had given a 5 p.m. ET Thursday deadline for the bakers to return to work or face a shutdown of the company.

 Related: The history of labor battles at Hostess

 In September, membership of one of its major unions, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, voted narrowly to accept a new contract with reduced wages and benefits. The Bakers' union rejected the deal, however, prompting Hostess management to secure permission from a bankruptcy court to force a new concession contract on workers.

 The Teamsters union, which represents 6,700 Hostess workers, issued a statement blaming mismanagement by Hostess executives for the company's problems. But it also was critical of the decision of Bakers' union, although it did not identify the union by name.

 "Unfortunately, the company's operating and financial problems were so severe that it required steep concessions from a variety of stakeholders but not all stakeholders were willing to be constructive," said Ken Hall, the Teamsters' Secretary-Treasurer. "Teamster Hostess members, based on the facts and advice from respected restructuring advisors, understood what was at stake and voted to protect all jobs at Hostess."

 Related: Don't worry - Twinkies will survive

 The new contract cut salaries across the company by 8% in the first year of the five-year agreement. Salaries were then scheduled to bump up 3% in the next three years and 1% in the final year.

 Hostess also reduced its pension obligations and its contribution to the employees' health care plan. In exchange, the company offered concessions, including a 25% equity stake for workers and the inclusion of two union representatives on an eight-member board of directors. |||||
What is a summary?

– Sorry, Twinkies fans: Hostess really is shutting its doors. The company threatened to do so yesterday if striking workers did not return by the end of the day. Apparently they didn't, because CNN reports that the Twinkies maker is now asking a federal bankruptcy court for permission to go out of business. That will mean 18,500 employees will lose their jobs, but CNN notes that Ding Dongs and other popular items could still survive under another brand, as Hostess will be selling its assets at auction. Slate reminds us that Hostess has gone bankrupt before; that time around, Mexico's Bimbo Bakeries tried to nab it. Maybe they'll try again—although, writes Matthew Yglesias, "the company's various packaged snack cakes are cultural icons, but also pretty unfashionable in the era of artisanal cupcakes." Wonder Bread, too, has suffered as customers gravitate toward healthier options like multigrain bread. (Click to see why one food writer fervently believes it's time for the Twinkie to die.)