Article:
By Max Fisher

 Reuters

 In late 2009, when the New York Times first reported that the CIA had for years been working with Ahmed Wali Karzai, the president's half-brother and a major player in the heroin trade, Major General Michael T. Flynn, the top military intelligence officer in Afghanistan, told the newspaper, "If we are going to conduct a population-centric strategy in Afghanistan, and we are perceived as backing thugs, then we are just undermining ourselves," he said. "The only way to clean up Chicago is to get rid of Capone." Flynn's comment underscored one of the war's many challenges: the military, which has led the international mission in Afghanistan since 2001, and the CIA, which had spearheaded U.S. interests in Afghanistan from the 1979 Soviet invasion through September 11, 2001, often work at cross purposes and toward different goals.Today's killing of Ahmed Wali Karzai, reportedly by a close business associate , is a reminder of the complicated web of loyalties, interests, and contradictions that the U.S. has attempted to navigate for nearly a decade. Ahmed Wali Karzai was a politician working within the system and a criminal working against it; he ran militias on behalf of the CIA and funded drug networks that were the stated enemy of the U.S. military; he worked with trucking contractors that sold services to NATO and that funded anti-NATO warlords; he was a close ally of the U.S. and a tremendous drag on its mission to win over the Afghan people.Even in death, he is a contradiction. His killing, as the half brother of the nation's president, is both major news for the Afghan war and barely news at all; in March, President Karzai's cousin was killed by a U.S. night raid, a tragedy for the family that had little appreciable affect on an already sour Obama-Karzai relationship.Ahmed Wali Karzai was exactly the kind of local "big man" -- he was a major player in the southern province of Kandahar, which has seen heavy fighting and a big U.S. push -- whom the U.S. mission both relied on and worked against. His cooperation and help was crucial in arranging day-to-day political deals; guys like Ahmed Wali, quite simply, can get things done in a way that we can't. But the things that make men like Ahmed Wali useful in the particular also make them burdensome in general. His power, inextricably linked with his corruption, came from a self-interested, unaccountable Afghan political system that enrages many Afghans and leaves them feeling disconnected from their government. He was part of a system that fueled the war, and he helped us navigate that system while simultaneously worsening it.Whatever the meaning of Ahmed Wali Karzai's death for the Afghan war, his killing, like so much in the final ten years of his life, underscores the challenge that the U.S. has faced in the Afghan political system, which we rely upon in the short-term but which, in the long term, is a major hurdle in our effort toward peace and stability. Despite many efforts, we have not succeeded in unknotting this contradiction. It's little wonder, then, that President Obama appears bent on extricating the U.S. from a conflict that we have been unable to untangle, much less win. ||||| KABUL, Afghanistan — Ahmed Wali Karzai , the powerful half brother of Afghanistan ’s president, was assassinated Tuesday, removing from the political scene a divisive power broker who was accused of corruption and alienated the American military, but whose connections and ruthlessness made him a critical force in volatile southern Afghanistan.

 The death of Mr. Karzai, who effectively ruled much of the country’s southern tier from Kandahar, sent tremors through the country’s political establishment and raised questions about whether tenuous security gains made by the influx of American forces in the south could hold.

 Mr. Karzai was shot to death by a police official, Sardar Muhammad, a longtime confidant, who was immediately killed by Mr. Karzai’s bodyguards, Afghan officials said. Mr. Muhammad’s body was later hung above a busy Kandahar street. His motives were not known; the Taliban claimed responsibility for the killing, but there was no evidence that Mr. Muhammad, a member of the Karzais’ Populzai tribe, had ties to the insurgency.

 The immediate implications of Mr. Karzai’s death for the American-led war against the Taliban and the withdrawal of American troops beginning this month were uncertain. Many in the region warned that the Taliban, as well as competitors for Mr. Karzai’s position, would try to take advantage of the power vacuum and that without him the hard-earned security gains made by American and Afghan troops over the past year could erode.

 American military commanders have long argued that Mr. Karzai’s reputation for blatant self-dealing undercut support for the government among many Afghans, and some wondered on Tuesday whether his death might make room for a leader with greater integrity.

 But those commanders had clashed with Central Intelligence Agency officers who had long paid Mr. Karzai for information and other services and saw him as a crucial broker of intelligence and influence. Mr. Karzai identified Taliban fighters for attack by American forces, recruited Afghan men for a NATO-allied “Kandahar Strike Force,” and even rented space to the agency in the city, officials said.

 In a sense, contradictory American attitudes toward Mr. Karzai have reflected the evolving American war strategy. When the United States was trying to win over the population with a counterinsurgency strategy, the corruption he symbolized was an insurmountable obstacle. But as the Obama administration has gradually embraced a more limited counterterrorism policy — killing Taliban fighters and moving toward political negotiations — Mr. Karzai became an indispensable, if never fully trustworthy, ally.

 “We viewed him as more of an enemy of our enemy than as a friend,” said Bill Harris, who until last November served as the senior American diplomat in Kandahar.

 “The fact is, we made common cause with A.W.K. during the last fighting season to run the Taliban out of Kandahar, and we should make no apologies for that,” Mr. Harris said, using the government’s shorthand for Ahmed Wali Karzai. “His death will only complicate an already complicated situation.”

 One American official on Tuesday lamented the “huge power vacuum” left by the assassination. “Do we care more about security and fighting the Taliban, or about drugs and corruption?” said the official, who would discuss the internal debate only on the condition of anonymity. “I think that most people would agree that taking on the Taliban is our top priority, and Ahmed Wali Karzai helped us with that.”

 Mohammed Naim Hamidzai Lalai, the chairman of the Afghan Parliament’s internal security committee and a Kandahari, said, “His presence in Kandahar was like a backbone for the security of the province.”

 The president, Hamid Karzai, held a news conference in Kabul with President Nicolas Sarkozy of France barely two hours after the shooting, speaking in a steady but somber voice as he confirmed the death of his half brother. ||||| 1 of 5. Ahmad Wali Karzai speaks at a news conference in Quetta, Pakistan in this still image taken from a December 2001 video.

 KANDAHAR, Afghanistan (Reuters) - The younger half-brother of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, one of the most powerful and controversial men in southern Afghanistan, was shot dead at his home on Tuesday by a senior and highly trusted family security guard.

 Ahmad Wali Karzai's assassination will leave a dangerous power vacuum in volatile Kandahar province, the Taliban's birthplace and a focus of recent efforts by a surge of U.S. troops to turn the tide against the insurgency.

 He was accused of corruption and ties to the opium trade, but always denied wrongdoing and was strongly supported by his brother whose influence he shored up in the south.

 President Karzai may find his reach there is now limited as a potentially violent power struggle plays out among the possible successors to his brother.

 "We felt more safe when Ahmad Wali Karzai was around," said Tooryalai Wesa, the governor of Kandahar who outranked Karzai, but like almost everyone in the province deferred to him.

 "His loss will have a negative impact on issues with tribes, and current affairs and security. Kandahar today witnessed the darkest day," Wesa added at a news conference.

 Ahmad Wali Karzai, born in 1961. was head of the Kandahar Provincial Council, a largely consultative role, but his power came from his family and tribal connections and his fortune.

 He was shot dead by Sardar Mohammad, a senior member of the Karzai family's security team in Kandahar who had known his victim for at least a decade and was based at a compound in the village of Karz, where both brothers were born.

 Mohammad traveled into Kandahar on Tuesday morning saying he had an application he needed to give his boss, Kandahar police chief Abdul Razeq told a news conference.

 "The man carried his pistol through the security checks to Wali Karzai's room. As soon as Wali Karzai came out of bathroom, he opened fire and shot him in the head and chest," Razeq said.

 Mohammad was shot dead by Karzai's bodyguards moments after opening fire, witnesses and officials said.

 Ahmad Wali Karzai was the first of Karzai's close relatives to be killed since he became president, but their father was assassinated in 1999 while in exile in Pakistan.

 "My younger brother was martyred in his house today," President Karzai said at a news conference in Kabul held with his visiting French counterpart, Nicolas Sarkozy. "I hope these miseries, which every Afghan family faces, will one day end."

 The White House condemned the killing in "the strongest possible terms" spokesman Jay Carney said. Asked about a reported Taliban claim of responsibility, Carney said, "We don't know who's responsible. There have been some claims, and we will certainly work with the Afghan authorities on that."

 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called President Karzai to express condolences to him and his family and said in a statement that the United States condemned the assassination "in the strongest terms."

 "We join President Karzai in his prayer for peace and stability in Afghanistan and remain committed to supporting the government and people of Afghanistan in their struggle for peace," Clinton said in a State Department statement.

 The top U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan David Petraeus and Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani were among others who condemned the killing and offered condolences.

 "MANY ENEMIES"

 Karzai flew to Kandahar for the burial, set for early Wednesday morning, with ministers and other officials. Security was dramatically tightened, with helicopters circling overhead, extra checkpoints and many roads closed.

 The killing cast a shadow over the city, which has been a focus of violence in recent months as the Taliban came under pressure in surrounding districts from a wave of extra troops ordered in by U.S. President Barack Obama in 2009.

 More than half of all assassinations in Afghanistan since March were carried out in Kandahar city, a U.N. report said.

 The Taliban claimed responsibility for one of the most high-profile political killings of the last decade after news of his death became public. In the past the security services have sometimes doubted instances when they have claimed responsibility.

 Years in power and his sometimes ruthless operating methods meant there might be many other people keen to target Karzai, who was often known simply by his initials, AWK.

 "I'm not sure whether I would assume that this was the Taliban because he had a lot of enemies down there," said Thomas Ruttig, co-director of the Afghanistan Analysts Network.

 But regardless of whether they had a hand in the killing, the Taliban are likely to benefit from his death.

 "(He) is irreplaceable in Kandahar," said Haroun Mir, head of Afghanistan's Center for Research and Policy studies.

 "Despite all the criticism, he was a stabilizing factor in Kandahar. Now Ahmad Wali Karzai is not there, others in Kandahar will be afraid. This is a real boost to the Taliban."

 Ahmad Wali Karzai had survived several other assassination attempts, including a May 2009 ambush on the road to Kabul when Taliban insurgents killed one of his bodyguards.

 CRITICAL POWER BROKER

 Ahmad Wali Karzai returned to Afghanistan after the removal of the Taliban government, leaving behind a career as a restaurateur in Chicago to eventually become probably the most powerful man in Kandahar.

 The president will miss his support, particularly at a time when he is mired in a long-running dispute with parliament and faces a slow but steady reduction in Western financial and military support over the next four years.

 The killing is also likely to alarm Western military and civilian officials, despite misgivings they had about him, because it comes at a time when they are trying to map out their departure from Afghanistan.

 "The Americans and the British were extremely dependent on him for keeping a lot of these very prominent Pashtun tribes in line and not going over to the Taliban," said Ahmed Rashid, a Pakistani expert on the Taliban.

 (Additional reporting by Hamid Shalizi, Jonathon Burch and Michelle Nichols in Kabul, and Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Writing by Emma Graham-Harrison; Editing by Matthew Jones and Paul Simao) ||||| A Kandahar Killing: What Does It Mean for the U.S. Military Mission?

 A huge power vacuum has opened in southern Afghanistan with the assassination on July 12 of Ahmed Wali Karzai, a half brother of President Hamid Karzai and, fundamentally, the godfather of Kandahar. U.S. officials are debating whether he will be followed by a more benign tribal autocrat or someone alleged to be just as bad — and how much influence the Taliban will have over whoever fills his shoes.

 Quick answer: there will be blood.

 The assassination couldn't come at a worse time for the U.S. military, which is wrapping up more than a year's worth of intense fighting in the region. While the gains are routinely described as "fragile," Washington was counting on a steady hand from the Karzai clan — in both Kabul and Kandahar — to cement them into place. That effort may have been mortally wounded along with Wali Karzai on Tuesday. Or — if you buy into the notion that Wali Karzai was a corrupt warlord whose presence reduced the chance for progress in southern Afghanistan — his death could turn out to be a bloody blessing. No one knows yet.

 It's not yet clear why Sardar Mohammed, a longtime family friend, apparently turned on Wali Karzai. The Taliban has claimed responsibility for the slaying, and certainly it will reap a whirlwind of fear for its role. That's true even if the Taliban is limited to creating the conditions that make everyday Afghans fear for their safety. The assassination dramatically highlights the fact that the nation's security forces — in which the U.S. has invested $28.5 billion, more than the $24.2 billion spent on Iraq's military and police — cannot protect their nation's most powerful leaders.

 Wali Karzai overshadowed Kandahar province's official governor, Tooryalai Wesa, by dint of the Karzai family legacy there. The Pashtun tribe, in which the Karzais are a prominent clan, has traditionally held sway over a wide swath of southern Afghanistan, lapping into Pakistan. That has made it tough for the U.S. military — or anyone else — to seal the border between the two nations.

 Wali Karzai served as the provincial council chairman for Kandahar, the Taliban's birthplace. He oversaw a web of warlords across the region, involved in trade that was legitimate and not — smuggling, narcotics and gun running have long been big businesses in the region. The Afghan President resolutely denies that his half brother, who was paid by the CIA for information, had a role in such traffic. "We have no intelligence that leads us to believe that he's criminally involved," then U.S. Army Lieut. General Douglas Lute said a year ago. But U.S. military officials in the region long believed Wali Karzai was involved in enterprises both fair and foul.

 "He's either a candidate for an Oscar or he's the most maligned man in Afghanistan," British Major General Nick Carter told reporters at the Pentagon in May 2010. Wali Karzai repeatedly told allied military leaders that he was "trying to help his country, that he's trying to help us and he's trying to help his people," Carter said. "And he will also tell you that, as an avid Chelsea soccer club watcher and supporter, he'd rather be watching soccer than he would providing governance."

 But Wali Karzai had his hands in everything, hindering the governor's role. He had "close links with a number of Kandahar's key private security and militia commanders," Moshe Schwartz, a military expert at the Congressional Research Service, told Congress in June 2010. "Several of these commanders control key logistics routes and are heavily relied upon by almost the whole host nation, trucking companies operating in southern Afghanistan. Ahmed Wali Karzai has used his connections to the Afghan government and to ISAF [the International Security Assistance Force] to build this network and, in some cases, to influence in the awarding of contracts to his own allies."

 That's why there were always long lines of favor seekers in and out of Wali Karzai's home in central Kandahar. There were some 60 people there on Tuesday when he was killed. It was plain that, despite the best efforts of the U.S. and its allies, Wali Karzai was still the man to see to get things done in southern Afghanistan. Major General Carter knew what he had to measure to gauge the prospects for progress in the region: he wanted to see the governor's role increase and Wali Karzai's decline: "We will very much judge success by the extent to which that balance switches and, metaphorically speaking, the queue outside the governor's office goes up and the queue outside the provincial council's office goes down."

 There will be no favor-seeking queue outside Wali Karzai's home on Wednesday. |||||Summary:

– So what does the killing of Hamid Karzai's powerful half-brother in southern Afghanistan mean for the war effort? Such is the contradiction of Ahmad Wali Karzai that the only answer seems to be "stay tuned": Mark Thompson, Time: The killing of the "godfather of Kandahar" is horrible timing for the US military, which needs stability from the Karzai clan to shore up fragile gains. "Or— if you buy into the notion that Wali Karzai was a corrupt warlord whose presence reduced the chance for progress in southern Afghanistan—his death could turn out to be a bloody blessing. No one knows yet." Max Fisher, Atlantic: He personifies the US entanglement in the war itself. "The things that make men like Ahmed Wali useful in the particular also make them burdensome in general. His power (is) inextricably linked with his corruption ... He was part of a system that fueled the war, and he helped us navigate that system while simultaneously worsening it." Reuters: The killing will likely set off a bloody power struggle to fill the leadership vacuum in Kandahar. "Regardless of whether they had a hand in the killing, the Taliban are likely to benefit from his death ." New York Times: The killing is bad news for Hamid Karzai, "who depended on his half brother’s unchallenged influence in southern Afghanistan to maintain the Karzai family’s nexus of connections to power brokers across the region, including tribal leaders, elected officials, narcotics smugglers and insurgents."


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Melquan Williams, 21, of Fairmont. Williams, a former Maxton police officer is charged with one count of felony, arson, burning church, uninhabited house, store, one count felony, conspiracy, His bond was set at $200,000.

 Austin Seth Hunt, 23, of Rowland, who works for the Department of Corrections, is charged with 1 count of felony, setting fire to grass, brush, woods, two counts felony, arson, burning church, uninhabited house, store, five counts felony, setting fire to grass, brush, woods and five counts felony conspiracy. His bond was set at $200,000.

 Ashley Marie Oxendine, 18, of Orrum, is charged with two counts felony setting fire to grass, brush, woods, two counts felony conspiracy. Her bond was set at $100,000.

 John Austin Huggins, 17, of Fairmont, is charged with two counts felony setting fire to grass, brush, woods, two counts felony, arson, burning church, uninhabited house, store and four counts felony conspiracy. His bond was set at $100,000.

 Jordan Scott, 19, of Fairmont, is charged with four counts felony setting fire to grass, brush, woods, five counts felony arson, burning church, uninhabited house, store, and nine counts felony conspiracy. His bond was set at $100,000.

 Kenny Caulder Jr., 19, of Fairmont, is charged with six counts felony arson, burning church, uninhabited house, store, two counts felony setting fire to grass, brush, woods and seven counts of felony conspiracy. His bond was set at $100,000.

 Willie Fuentes Strickland, 42, of Fairmont, is charged with two counts of felony setting fire to grass, brush, woods, one count of felony arson, burning church, uninhabited house, store and three counts of felony, conspiracy. His bond was set at $100,000.

 Jordan Emmanuel Hunt, 18, of Fairmont, is charged with four counts of felony setting fire to grass, brush, woods, 12 counts of felony conspiracy. His bond was set at $100,000.

 Shellia Huggins, 19, of Fairmont is charged with two counts of felony setting fire to grass, brush, woods, two counts of felony arson, burning church, uninhabited house, store, and four counts of felony conspiracy. Her bond was set at $100,000.

 William Kendall Strickland, 18, of Fairmont, NC is charged with one count of misdemeanor larceny, one count of felony setting fire to grass, brush, woods and one count of felony conspiracy. His bond was set at $100,000.

 EMBED More News Videos Firefighters with the Fairmont and Orrum Fire Department set the fires over a two-year period.

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 Following a year-long investigation, 10 volunteer firefighters have been arrested and accused of intentionally setting fires to abandoned homes and woods throughout Robeson County.Sheriff Ken Sealey said firefighters with the Fairmont and Orrum Fire Department set the fires over a two-year period.A Maxton police officer and NC Department of Corrections officer were also charged in connection with the investigation.There were 90 arson-related charges with more expected, the sheriff said.The 10 volunteer firefighters arrested were:All 10 were placed in the Robeson County Detention Center.Sealey also said the actions of the firefighters have cost taxpayers thousands of dollars."This investigation is not about any particular fire department. It's an investigation involving individuals," Insurance Commissioner and State Fire Marshal Mike Causey said.Chief State Fire Marshal Brian Taylor said all North Carolina fire departments were fully functional and that there are no coverage issues in Robeson County.The Robeson County Sheriff's Office, State Bureau of Investigation, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and the NC Forestry Service were involved in the investigation.The locations of fires affected were: ||||| You must enter the characters with black color that stand out from the other characters

 Message: * A friend wanted you to see this item from WRAL.com: http://wr.al/1CDJA

 — Ten volunteer firefighters were arrested Tuesday and accused of being involved in a nearly two-year conspiracy to set numerous fires in woods and abandoned structures, according to the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office.

 The firefighters work with the Fairmont Rural Fire Department and the Orrum Fire Department.

 There are approximately 90 arson-related charges in the investigation, and more charges are expected, authorities said.

 "Not accidental, set on fire...what it costs taxpayers to answer these numerous calls. We've been doing this for the last six months," Sheriff Kenneth Sealey said. "Several woods fires and abandoned house fires in a week."

 Sealey said a tip lead to the start of the investigation.

 Carolyn Harriman, who lives around the corner from the Fairmont firehouse, said she is shocked by the allegations.

 "I don't understand that. I mean, the job might be boring at times, but you don't go creating fires just to have something to put out," she said.

 The following people were arrested and charged in the case:

 Melquan Williams, 21, of Fairmont, was charged with one count of felony arson and one count of felony conspiracy. His bond was set at $200,000.

 Austin Seth Hunt, 23, of Rowland, was charged with six counts of felony setting fire to grass, brush or woods, two counts of felony arson burning a church, uninhabited house or store, and five counts of felony conspiracy. His bond was set at $200,000.00.

 Ashley Marie Oxendine, 18, of Orrum, was charged with two counts of felony setting fire to grass, brush or woods and two counts of felony conspiracy. Her bond was set at $100,000.

 John Austin Huggins, 17, of Fairmont, was charged with two counts of felony setting fire to grass, brush or woods, two counts of felony arson burning a church, uninhabitable house or store and four counts of felony conspiracy. His bond was set at $100,000.00.

 Jordan Scott, 19, of Fairmont, was charged with four counts of felony setting fire to grass, brush or woods, five counts of arson burning a church, uninhabited house or store and nine counts of felony conspiracy. His bond was set at $100,000.

 Kenny Caulder Jr., 19, of Fairmont, was charged with six counts of felony arson burning a church, uninhabited house or store, two counts of felony setting fire to grass, brush or woods and seven counts of felony conspiracy. His bond was set at $100,000.

 Willie Fuentes Strickland, 42, of Fairmont, was charged with two counts of felony setting fire to grass, brush or woods, one count of felony arson burning a church, uninhabited house or store and three counts of felony conspiracy. His bond was set at $100,000.

 Jordan Emmanuel Hunt, 18, of Fairmont, was charged with four counts of felony setting fire to grass, brush or woods, 12 of felony conspiracy. His bond was set at $100,000.

 Shellia Huggins, 19, of Fairmont, was charged with two counts of felony setting fire to grass, brush or woods, two counts of felony arson burning a church, uninhabited house or store and four counts of felony conspiracy. Her bond was set at $100,000.

 William Kendall Strickland, 18, of Fairmont, was charged with one count of misdemeanor larceny, one count of felony setting fire to grass, brush or woods and one count of felony conspiracy. His bond was set at $100,000.

 Investigators say more arrests are possible.

 Anyone with information about the investigation is asked to call Lt. Kevin Graham of the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office at 910-671-3100. |||||

– They volunteered to fight fires, but authorities say they were also purposely setting fires over a period of almost two years. After a tip led to a yearlong investigation, 10 volunteer firefighters in North Carolina's Robeson County were arrested Tuesday and charged with arson and related crimes, ABC 11 reports. So far there are 90 charges involved in the case, which involves firefighters from the Fairmont Rural Fire Department and the Orrum Fire Department, and officials say more charges are expected and more arrests could be made. "I don't understand that. I mean, the job might be boring at times, but you don't go creating fires just to have something to put out," a local, who lives near the Fairmont firehouse, tells WRAL. The firefighters are accused of setting fires in woods and at abandoned structures; WRAL and ABC 11 both have the names of those accused—among them are a police officer and a Department of Corrections officer—and specific charges. Authorities say the alleged crimes cost taxpayers thousands of dollars.


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– The big news organizations couldn't call this one fast enough. The moment the last of the Florida polls closed at 8pm, AP, CNN, and all the usual suspects declared Mitt Romney the winner. It wasn't tough: With all precincts reporting, Romney had 46.4%, Newt Gingrich 31.9%, Rick Santorum 13.4%, and Ron Paul 7%. In their respective speeches, Gingrich made clear that he is in the race for the long run, while Romney put all his focus on President Obama. Click for that. Some exit poll highlights: Electability: 45% said it was the most important attribute in a candidate, a good sign for Romney. Conservatives: Voters who called themselves "very conservative" went for Gingrich 43-29, one of Newt's few bright spots, notes Politico. Anyone else? About 4 in 10 said they would like another candidate in the race. Women: Romney won among female voters 51-29, reports the Daily Caller. Economy: 30% said they were falling behind financially, and half said foreclosures were a big problem in their communities, notes AP. Negative ads: 37% said Romney ran the most unfair campaign, while 34% pinned it on Gingrich. Demographics: About 1 in 7 voters were Hispanic, and 4 in 10 were over age 65.

Voters in Tuesday's Florida Republican primary chose Mitt Romney as the candidate best able to beat President Barack Obama in the fall, preferring electability over ideology in lifting the former Massachusetts governor to a broad victory despite concerns that his issue positions are not conservative enough.

 ROMNEY RECAPTURES ELECTABILTY: A majority of Florida GOP voters said Romney is the candidate best able to beat Obama in a general election matchup; only about 3 in 10 said the same of Newt Gingrich. And Romney carried 6 in 10 votes among those seeking a candidate who could defeat the president in November. Gingrich had a strong showing among those seeking a true conservative and split the vote with Romney among those seeking an experienced candidate.

 CONSERVATIVES THEN AND NOW: In 2008, Romney carried the mantle of conservative alternative to eventual Republican nominee John McCain. This time around, about 4 in 10 Florida voters said Romney's issue positions are not conservative enough, and very conservative voters were more apt to back Gingrich than the former governor of Massachusetts. Strong supporters of the tea party movement also favored Gingrich over Romney, but Romney carried 50 percent or more among those who support the movement somewhat, are neutral or oppose it.

 THE GENDER GAP: Romney won by a wide margin among women after a deeply negative campaign in Florida raising questions about Gingrich's character. Women were more apt than men to say they were influenced by campaign advertising, and were a bit more likely to say a candidate's "strong moral character" was the most important factor in their vote. In the end, only about half of women in the poll report holding a positive opinion of Gingrich as a person, compared with nearly 8 in 10 who have a positive opinion of Romney.

 ECONOMIC CONCERNS TRUMP ALL: About 6 in 10 said the economy was their top issue in choosing a candidate, about half said foreclosures were having a major impact on their community, and 3 in 10 said they were falling behind financially.

 SEEKING OTHER CHOICES: Four in 10 voters said they would like to see someone else run for the nomination, more than said so in New Hampshire a few weeks ago, though the window for another candidate to join the field is nearly closed. About half of voters said they would be satisfied if Gingrich or Rick Santorum became the nominee. More, about two-thirds, said they'd be satisfied with a Romney candidacy, including about 4 in 10 who voted for Gingrich and half who backed Santorum.

 The survey of 2,739 Republican voters was conducted for The Associated Press and the television networks by Edison Research. This includes preliminary results among 2,139 voters interviewed Tuesday as they left their polling places at 40 randomly selected sites in Florida. In addition, 600 who voted early or absentee were interviewed by landline or cellular telephone from Jan. 23 to 29. The survey has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. ||||| Mitt Romney won a commanding victory in the Florida primary Tuesday night, rebounding from defeat a week earlier and taking a major step toward the Republican presidential nomination. Despite the one-sided result, Newt Gingrich vowed to press on.

 Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, points to his signature on a quilt he signed earlier, with messages from supporters, Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012, at his campaign office... (Associated Press)

 Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney gives a thumbs up as he greets volunteers at his campaign office in Tampa, Fla., Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012, during Florida's primary... (Associated Press)

 Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, accompanied by his wife Callista, campaigns outside a polling place at the First Baptist Church of Windermere in Orlando, Fla., Tuesday,... (Associated Press)

 Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney laughs as he speaks with a voter at his campaign office in Tampa, Fla., Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2012, during Florida's primary election... (Associated Press)

 Republican presidential candidate, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich meets with campaign workers in view of a cutout of former President Ronald Reagan during a visit to the Polk County campaign office,... (Associated Press)

 "Thank you FL!" an exuberant Romney tweeted minutes after the race was called. "While we celebrate this victory, we must not forget what this election is really about: defeating Barack Obama."

 Returns from slightly more than half of Florida's precincts showed Romney with 47 percent of the vote, to 33 percent for Gingrich.

 Former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum had 13 percent, and Texas Rep. Ron Paul 7 percent. Neither mounted a substantial effort in the state.

 The winner-take-all primary was worth 50 Republican National Convention delegates, by far the most of any primary state so far.

 But the bigger prize was precious political momentum in the race to pick an opponent for Democratic President Barack Obama this fall

 That belonged to Romney when he captured the New Hampshire primary three weeks ago, then swung stunningly to Gingrich when he countered with a South Carolina upset 11 days later.

 Now it was back with the former Massachusetts governor, after a 10-day comeback that marked a change to more aggressive tactics, coupled with an efficient use of an overwhelming financial advantage. ||||| Story highlights Romney to get Secret Service protection, a source tells CNN

 Mitt Romney gets Florida's 50 convention delegates, the biggest primary haul so far

 Tuesday's winner will get the GOP nomination, predicts Florida Sen. Rubio

 Gingrich's momentum dropped as Romney went on the offensive

 Mitt Romney headed west Wednesday to begin campaigning in Minnesota and Nevada after cementing his status as the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination with a solid victory in Florida's bitterly contested primary.

 Romney had 46% compared to 32% for Newt Gingrich, 13% for former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and 7% for Texas Rep. Ron Paul, according to the Florida Department of State website.

 The victory gave Romney all 50 of Florida's convention delegates, and more importantly, new momentum heading into a series of caucuses and primaries building up to Super Tuesday on March 6, when 10 states will hold nominating contests.

 In a sign of Romney's new prominence, a federal law enforcement source told CNN that Romney will receive Secret Service protection "within days."

 Appearing to cheers of "Mitt, Mitt, Mitt" just 30 minutes after the last polls closed, the former Massachusetts governor thanked his supporters for what he called a "great victory."

 A Florida campaign of vicious personal attacks between Romney and Gingrich, his closest competitor, raised questions about whether the process would damage the eventual winner when it comes time to run against President Barack Obama in November.

 "A competitive primary does not divide us, it prepares us, and we will win," Romney said to cheers.

 Reflecting the bitter campaign, Gingrich refrained from congratulating Romney when he later spoke to supporters holding signs that read "46 states to go" in reference to the early stage of the GOP nominating process.

 Instead, the former House speaker tried to frame the Florida result as a narrowing of the field, saying it was "now clear this will be a two-person race between the conservative leader Newt Gingrich and the Massachusetts moderate."

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 Santorum said Tuesday night that the Florida result showed Gingrich was unable to build on his previous victory, and conservatives were coalescing around Santorum's candidacy as the viable right-wing alternative to the more moderate Romney.

 "Newt Gingrich had his opportunity. He came out of the state of South Carolina, he came out with a big win and a lot of money. He said, 'I'm going to be the conservative alternative. I'm going to be the anti-Mitt'," Santorum said. "It didn't work. He became the issue. We can't allow our nominee to be the issue in the campaign."

 Santorum also told CNN his campaign raised almost $4.5 million in January in what he called a fundraising surge.

 Paul, meanwhile, said he was focusing on upcoming caucuses in Maine and other states where his enthusiastic support base can generate more convention delegates. So far, he noted, he was in third place in delegates, adding "that's what really counts, and we've only just gotten started."

 No candidate so far has more than 10% of the 1,144 delegates needed to win the nomination at the August convention.

 According to exit poll information, Romney led in most categories in Florida to show his appeal to Republican voters who said their main concern was choosing a candidate who can defeat Obama.

 Romney gained significant ground in the Latino community, carrying Hispanics by 23 points. In the 2008 Florida primary, Romney lost Hispanics to eventual GOP nominee Sen. John McCain by 40 points.

 In particular, Romney carried Cuban-Americans -- a vital constituency for Republicans in Florida against Obama -- by 24 points.

 He lost to Gingrich only among the most hardcore elements of the GOP base -- voters who described themselves as very conservative and evangelical or born-again. However, Romney ran strongly among women voters, getting 51% to 29% for Gingrich, indicating that Gingrich's history of three marriages, two divorces and infidelity might be harming him.

 Final polls closed at 8 p.m. ET and Romney jumped out to a strong early lead, buoyed by solid support among more than 632,000 voters who cast absentee or early ballots. His double-digit victory blunted any momentum Gingrich gained from his January 21 victory in South Carolina, the previous primary.

 Both Romney and Gingrich focused their speeches Tuesday night on the ultimate goal -- taking on Obama in November.

 Romney listed what he called the differing ideologies between himself and the president, promising to balance the budget without raising taxes and saying "together we will build an America where hope is a new job with a paycheck, not a faded word on an old bumper sticker."

 "The path I lay out is not one paved with ever increasing government checks and cradle-to-grave assurance government will always be the solution," Romney said. "If this election is a bidding war for who can promise the most goodies and the most benefits, I'm not your president. You have that president today."

 Gingrich pledged to compete in every contest in the nomination process, and to repeal Obama policies hated by conservatives -- such as health care reform and Wall Street reform -- on his first day in office.

 "This is the most important election of your lifetime," Gingrich said, adding: "If Barack Obama gets re-elected, it will be a disaster for the United States of America. You can't imagine how radical he'll be in a second term."

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 Analysts and observers said a Romney victory Tuesday would be important and could be decisive.

 "I think the winner of Florida is in all likelihood going to be the nominee of our party," Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio told CNN Tuesday . "Florida is a mini America."

 GOP strategist and CNN contributor Alex Castellanos said a Romney victory would not automatically end the Repubican nomination campaign.

 "With a win, Romney puts the nomination firmly in his grip. But it appears Gingrich and Santorum will keep trying to rip it from his hand," said Castellanos, who was a Romney media adviser in 2008 but is not taking sides this year.

 Gingrich stormed into Florida 10 days earlier on a roll off of his double-digit victory over Romney and the rest of the field in the South Carolina primary.

 His momentum quickly faded after Romney's campaign went on the offensive, turning in two strong debate performances in the Sunshine State and unleashing a barrage of ads targeting Gingrich.

 Negative ads accounted for 92% of political ads airing in Florida over the last week -- a record rate for political campaigns , according to the Campaign Media Analysis Group, which tracks advertising content and spending.

 "I spent much of my academic career telling reporters, 'Relax, this is not the most negative campaign ever,' " CMAG President Ken Goldstein said. "Well, this IS the most negative campaign ever."

 Romney told reporters Tuesday that he had learned his lesson from his South Carolina loss.

 "If you're attacked, I'm not going to just sit back," he told reporters in Tampa, repeating a refrain he's used regularly recently. "I'm going to fight back and fight back hard."

 On the day before the primary, Gingrich accused Romney of dishonesty but conceded the wave of attack ads had been effective.

 "Frankly if all that stuff were true I wouldn't vote for myself," Gingrich said in Jacksonville Monday , referring to what he called "dishonest" Romney ads.

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 He later told a crowd in Pensacola that "we will only win if the American people decide that they are sick and tired of the New York and Washington establishment thinking that we are dumb enough to let them try to buy an election by telling us things that we all know are just plain not true."

 The Romney campaign and an independent super PAC supporting his bid have greatly outspent Gingrich and pro-Gingrich super PACs on ad buys in Florida.

 Gingrich "has been flailing around a bit trying to go after me for one thing or the other," Romney said later Monday to a crowd in Dunedin. "You just watch it and shake your head. It has been kind of painfully revealing to watch."

 While Romney and Gingrich were in Florida on Tuesday night to watch election returns, Santorum and Paul, knowing they're out of the running for the 50 delegates, have moved on to the next contests.

 Santorum campaigned in Colorado and Nevada on Tuesday, while Paul was in Maine over the weekend and was spending Tuesday in Colorado and Nevada.

 Nevada's caucuses take place Saturday, when Maine starts its week-long caucuses.

 Minnesota and Colorado hold their caucuses on February 7, the same day that Missouri holds its non-binding primary.

 In Lone Tree, Colorado, Santorum called on voters to consider questions that have arisen about the character and discipline of Gingrich, his main rival for support from conservatives.

 "It's an issue of trust," Santorum said when a man at his Tuesday event challenged the character of Gingrich, who has been divorced twice and cited for a violation of House ethics rules.

 Personal mistakes don't automatically disqualify someone from seeking high office, Santorum said, noting Gingrich has sought forgiveness.

 "I don't question his sincerity of his repentance, but as I have said many times there is two areas that are open for concern and that is -- the issue of trust and whether someone who has a record of that is someone you feel comfortable has truly changed and you forgive them," Santorum continued. "That doesn't mean they necessarily have changed their ways."

 The Paul and Santorum campaigns are strategically looking to states in which they can pick up delegates.

 "Ultimately they're conceding in advance in Florida, while trying to shore up future states," said Doug Heye, a GOP strategist and Republican National Committee communications director. "Unfortunately for Paul and Santorum, that generally has not been a winning strategy. It's not being done out of a position of strength."

 Romney's convincing win in Florida, coupled with an unfriendly calendar for Gingrich in February with friendlier Super Tuesday states more than a month away, could put Gingrich in a bind.

 "February doesn't look good for Newt Gingrich. He'll lose Nevada, with its large LDS (Mormon) population and lose Michigan (February 28), where Romney's father was governor. Newt will have a long march across the desert with no debates to revive his campaign," Castellanos said.

 "Newt has to hold his breath all the way to Super Tuesday, March 6th, raise 30 or 40 million dollars for advertising and fix his problem with female voters to catch Romney. Those are grandiose problems, even for Gingrich." ||||| TAMPA, Fla. — Mitt Romney claimed a powerful victory in Florida’s presidential primary, reasserting himself as the front-runner for his party’s nomination and leaving Newt Gingrich reeling from a likely double-digit defeat and facing an uncertain path to regaining his post-South Carolina momentum.

 With 96 percent of precincts reporting, Romney led Gingrich by 16 percentage points, 47 percent to 32 percent. Rick Santorum was a distant third, with 13 percent, followed by Ron Paul with 7 percent.

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 reset Winners & Losers in 60 seconds Romney wins in Florida Gingrich after 2nd place finish

 In just 10 days, Romney went from limping out of South Carolina — where Gingrich beat him handily — to scoring an almost across-the-board win against the former House speaker with nearly every category of GOP primary voter.

 Addressing an energetic crowd of supporters here in Tampa, Romney acknowledged that the primary campaign was not over but predicted the GOP was on its way to victory in the fall.

 “A competitive primary does not divide us. It prepares us. And we will win,” Romney said. “When we gather back here in Tampa seven months from now for our convention, ours will be a united party with a winning ticket for America.”

 Said Romney: “I stand ready to lead this party and to lead our nation.”

 Romney’s final victory margin may tighten as returns come in from Florida’s conservative western Panhandle. But with a majority of votes reported, Romney appeared on the brink of an important symbolic accomplishment: winning more votes than Gingrich and Santorum — the two would-be anti-Romney conservatives — combined.

 That won’t put to rest questions about Romney’s ability to connect with and fire up the activist base of the Republican Party. It may, however, deprive his beleaguered opponents of a key argument they’ve used to explain their persistence in the race.

 Romney won with both men and women and in every age and income group, according to network exit polls. He won a majority of white voters — 53 percent — and 44 percent of Latinos.

 The only conspicuous bright spot for Gingrich was voters who described themselves as “very conservative,” who made up 33 percent of the electorate and broke for Gingrich over Romney, 43 percent to 29 percent.

 In his own evening speech in Orlando, Gingrich insisted that Florida had only helped to reinforce the overarching narrative of the campaign.

 “It is now clear that this will be a two-person race between the conservative leader, Newt Gingrich, and the Massachusetts moderate,” Gingrich said. “The voters of Florida really made that clear.”

 With supporters waving signs that read, “46 States to Go,” Gingrich vowed: “We are going to contest every place and we are going to win and we will be in Tampa as the nominee in August.”

 Gingrich will be hard-pressed to keep up with Romney, financially and organizationally — a dynamic already in play in Florida.

 The dramatic scale of Romney’s win is in some respects a tale of traditional campaign legwork and preparation paying off. The Bay Stater raised money faster and earlier, built an operation in Florida sooner, and worked aggressively to exploit the state’s early and absentee voting laws. |||||


News article:

President Trump said Tuesday he doesn't think Oprah Winfrey will run in 2020, but if she did, he'd beat her.

 Mr. Trump, taking reporters' questions during a meeting with lawmakers on immigration, addressed speculation that Oprah could run for president in 2020 after her lauded speech at the Golden Globes Sunday.

 "Can you beat Oprah?" a reporter asked.

 "I'd beat Oprah," the president said. "Oprah would be a lot of fun. I know her very well. ... I like Oprah. I don't think she's going to run. I don't think she's going to run."

 The president also noted he has appeared on her show.

 Mr. Trump has praised Oprah on Twitter in the past.

 By the way, where is @Oprah? Good question. 4 years ago she strongly supported Obama--now she is silent. Anyway, who cares, I adore Oprah. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 26, 2012

 Going back even further, when Mr. Trump first considered running for president in 2000, he mentioned that Winfrey would be an ideal running mate.

 CBS News' Jillian Hughes contributed to this report. ||||| Story highlights Oprah Winfrey is "intrigued by the idea" of a presidential run, a friend said

 President Donald Trump weighed in on Tuesday

 Washington (CNN) President Donald Trump said Tuesday he would beat Oprah Winfrey in a potential 2020 presidential match-up, though he doesn't think she will end up running.

 "Yeah, I'll beat Oprah," he told reporters in the the Cabinet Room during a meeting on immigration with members of Congress.

 Winfrey is "intrigued by the idea" of a presidential bid, best friend and CBS "This Morning" co-anchor Gayle King said Tuesday, and is taking the idea seriously, per friends of the former talk show host. Her speech on the #MeToo movement at Sunday's Golden Globes propelled Winfrey to the forefront of political conversation on Monday, with the potential to disrupt the Democratic primary process and pose a strong challenge to Trump in 2020.

 "Oprah will be a lot of fun," Trump said Tuesday, noting that he knows Winfrey "very well" and appeared with his family on one of the final episodes of "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

 "I did one of her last shows. She had Donald Trump -- this is before politics -- her last week and she had Donald Trump and my family, it was very nice," the President said.

 Read More |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– Everybody's talking about the possibility of Oprah running for president, but the man currently in office doesn't think it will happen. "I don't think she's going to run," President Trump told reporters Tuesday, per CBS News. If she did, however, Trump said he'd win. "I'd beat Oprah," he said, before adding that he liked her and once appeared on her show with his family. "It was very nice." Trump does indeed apparently like Oprah, as CNN recounts. He told Larry King back in 1999 that she'd be the ideal running mate were he ever to run for president. "She's popular, she's brilliant, she's a wonderful woman," he said. "It would be a pretty good ticket." More recently, in 2012, he tweeted that "I adore Oprah." (Plenty of columnists have weighed in on why she shouldn't run.)


– The push for a higher minimum wage just got a major boost courtesy of Los Angeles. The city council has approved raising it to $15 an hour by 2020, reports the Los Angeles Times. Under the plan, the rate will rise from $9 to $10.50 in July 2016, then tick up annually to $12, $13.25, $14.25, and $15. Businesses with 25 or fewer workers will get an extra year to phase it in. Though a handful of other cities have voted for a $15 rate, including Seattle, Los Angeles is the biggest city to do so. The move doesn't become official until the city attorney's office drafts an ordinance and sends it back to council members for their approval, but once it does, it's going to affect a lot of people, notes the New York Times. The newspaper cites one study showing that about 40% of workers in the city make less than $15 an hour. The city's chamber of commerce predicts layoffs as a result. "It's simple math," says one official. "There is simply not enough room, enough margin in these businesses to absorb a 50-plus percent increase in labor costs over a short period of time." But one longtime McDonald's worker, a mother of two now making $9.05 an hour, tells the Guardian that the move is overdue. “My life would be completely different if I were paid $15 an hour," she says. "I could afford groceries without needing food stamps, my family could stop sharing our apartment with renters for extra money, and I’d be able to provide my daughters with some security.”

Expand this summary.

The council's decision is part of a broader national effort to alleviate poverty, said Maria Elena Durazo, former head of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. Raising the wage in L.A., she said, will help spur similar increases in other parts of the country.

 "Without a doubt, it was a very big victory," said Durazo, now with Unite Here, the hotel and restaurant workers' union.

 Some labor leaders have expressed dissatisfaction with the gradual timeline elected leaders set for raising base wages. But on Tuesday the harshest criticism of the law came from business groups, which warned lawmakers that the mandate would force employers to lay off workers or leave the city altogether.

 "The very people [council members'] rhetoric claims to help with this action, it's going to hurt," said Ruben Gonzalez, the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce's senior vice president for public policy and political affairs.

 He predicted that many businesses would absorb their new labor costs by laying off employees, reducing work hours or moving out of the city entirely.

 "It's simple math," Gonzalez said. "There is simply not enough room, enough margin in these businesses to absorb a 50-plus percent increase in labor costs over a short period of time."

 Councilman Mitchell Englander, the council's only Republican, cast the lone opposing vote. In a statement, he said the council action could "make it impossible for entire industries to do business" in Los Angeles.

 "The very last thing that we should be doing as a city is creating a competitive disadvantage for our businesses with those in neighboring cities," said Englander, who represents the northwest San Fernando Valley.

 The council's vote followed months of public debate and back-room lobbying on an issue that has animated City Hall like few others over the last year. Unlike some of the neighborhood-specific political dust-ups that occupy city officials, the pay increase would directly affect workers and businesses throughout the city.

 "That's a monumental change in wages," said Jerry Newman, a professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo School of Management. "It's going to have both an economic impact and a social impact."

 The stakes for some low-wage Angelenos were reflected Tuesday in testimony from workers such as Juan Moran, a line cook in Little Tokyo. Moran told the council the current statewide minimum wage of $9 per hour isn't enough to live on.

 "Sometimes I have to walk half an hour from work to get to my apartment because money's not enough to pay a ride on the bus," the Boyle Heights resident said. "Or I work 12 hours straight without stop … just to pay rent."

 Backed by well-organized labor activists at the national level, the campaign to raise the minimum wage has become a focus of Democrats seeking to revive their party's focus on income inequality. Once Los Angeles' wage hike is finalized, the city will join other West Coast cities that have enacted higher minimum wages in the last two years.

 New York City and Washington, D.C., are also weighing $15-an-hour minimum wage proposals.

 Jaime Regalado, emeritus professor of political science at Cal State L.A., said L.A.'s move on the minimum wage fits in with California's experimentation with left-leaning policies such as regulating greenhouse-gas emissions.

 The state "has been out front on a variety of things that are not as rapidly moving nationally," Regalado said.

 L.A.'s proposed wage increase, he said, is "consistent with what we've seen as California has grown increasingly blue, especially urban centers like Los Angeles."

 In L.A., the move toward a higher citywide minimum wage gathered steam last year as council members pursued a plan to raise the base pay for workers at the city's large hotels to $15.37 per hour. That measure passed last fall.

 Newly elected council members representing diverse areas of the city — Mike Bonin from an affluent coastal district, Curren Price from South Los Angeles and Nury Martinez from the San Fernando Valley — led the push for the hotel pay increase, which proponents saw as a precursor to a citywide minimum wage hike.

 Last summer, minimum-wage advocates found a key ally in Garcetti, who put forward his own proposal to raise base pay to $13.25 an hour.

 In a telephone interview from New York City, where he was speaking at Columbia University, the mayor praised the measure passed by the council. ||||| City follows Seattle and San Francisco in raising minimum wage to $15 by July 2020, with city council members voting overwhelmingly in favour of legislation

 Los Angeles became the largest US city to raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour on Tuesday, as a wage increase bill passed the city council by a vote of 14-1.

 It is now up to city attorney Mike Feuer to draft an ordinance to implement the new minimum wage requirements. The ordinance will then return to the council for a final vote before becoming law. Under the proposed legislation, the city’s minimum wage would increase to $10.50 in July 2016, and would increase incrementally every year until it reaches $15 in July 2020. For small businesses with 25 or fewer employees, the wage hike would come on a modified schedule with the incremental increases starting in July 2017 and the minimum wage reaching $15 by July 2021.

 Seattle workers hail 'historic moment' as city sets course for $15 minimum wage Read more

 The current minimum wage in California is $9 an hour and is set to increase to $10 in January 2016.

 In the past year, two other US cities have approved similar wage increase measures. In June 2014, Seattle moved to increase its minimum wage to $15 by 2017. Last November, San Francisco voted to increase its minimum wage to $15 by 2018.

 Other cities, including New York and Chicago, are considering raising their minimum wage to $15 an hour. In February,New York City mayor Bill de Blasio called for a $15 minimum wage by 2019 in his state of the city address.

 The shift toward raising the minimum wage by local lawmakers comes at a time when the fight for $15 movement has swelled into the largest protest by low-wage workers in US history. On 15 April, some 60,000 workers in more than 200 US cities took part in the Fight for $15 demonstrations. Many of them were low-wage employees of companies like Walmart and McDonald’s, which have since pledged to increase their workers’ pay by $1-$2 an hour, a raise activists said is still not enough.

 Who would oppose a $15 minimum wage? Sometimes your neighbour Read more

 “By voting to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, the Los Angeles City Council has just shown what workers are capable of when we stick together. People used to think we had no chance, but we are steadily winning the fight by demanding $15 an hour to lift our families out of poverty,” said Albina Ardon, 29, a mother of two and an active member of the Fight for $15 in Los Angeles.

 Ardon, who has worked for McDonald’s for 10 years, earns $9.05 an hour and relies on food stamps and Medi-Cal to make ends meet.

 “My life would be completely different if I were paid $15 an hour. I could afford groceries without needing food stamps, my family could stop sharing our apartment with renters for extra money, and I’d be able to provide my daughters with some security.”

 The federally mandated minimum wage has stayed at $7.25 since June 2009. While the unemployment rate has dropped to 5.4% – a seven-year low – and the number of jobless claim is at a 15-year low, wages remain stagnant.

 President Barack Obama previously called on Congress to raise it to $10.10 . Democrats, led by Washington senator Patty Murray and Congressman Bobby Scott recently introduced a bill that would raise federal minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2020.

 Advocates for higher minimum wage like Unite Here and Raise the Wage attended the Los Angeles city council hearing on Tuesday. Prior to the vote, the council opened the proposal to debate and allowed each of the sides 25 minutes to make their arguments for and against the $15 minimum wage. Those on the opposing side included small business owners and restaurant owners, who said that higher minimum wage would force them to increase prices or let go of some of their staff.

 Genaro Molina (@GenaroMolina47) Members of Unite Here wait for Los Angeles City Council to vote on plan to raise the minimum wage. pic.twitter.com/ucr0plYtpa

 Council member Bernard Parks has previously expressed concern about $15 minimum wage leading to higher unemployment in the area.

 “Every minimum wage increase that we’ve seen, if it’s too high, causes unemployment,” Parks told NPR in February. “If you have a big city like Los Angeles doing something, you’re going to find a lot of people will fall in line without any thought, because they believe that we’ve done the research. The fact is, we have not done the research.”

 The city has commissioned a report from the Institute for Research on Labor Employment from University of California, Berkeley. The report found that by increasing minimum wage to $15.25 by 2019, as some city council members had suggested in the past, would affect 542,000 workers by 2017.

 “By 2019, we estimate that 609,000, or 41.3% of the covered workforce, will receive a wage increase from the proposed law,” the researchers wrote in March 2015. “Average annual earnings will increase by 30.4%, or $4,800 in 2014 dollars.”

 While higher pay may lead to higher prices and to a drop in consumer spending, those who will get a pay raise thank to the new bill are more likely to spend more, according to the researchers.

 These findings did not appease opponents of the $15 an hour minimum wage, who have said that the report is not independent. Since the institute conducted a similar study on the effects of increasing the minimum wage to $13.25 by 2017 as proposed by the Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti last year, the opponents felt that commissioning the institute to conduct this years study was a conflict of interest.

 “I asked for an independent study. Selecting UC Berkeley again for this independent analysis does not pass the smell test with me,” city councilman Mitch O’Farrell said in January.

 Both Seattle and San Francisco have populations of less than one million, whereas Los Angeles population is more than 3.88 million people. The effects of increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour on that large of a scale remain unknown, which is something that continues to worry Los Angeles lawmakers.

 “This is an experiment,” Paul Koretz said during Tuesday’s hearing. “If anyone tells you they know exactly how this is going to go … they’re not being honest with you.”

 Despite concerns about the possible effects of increasing minimum wage to $15 an hour, two hours into Tuesday’s hearing, the proposal passed. Worker rights advocates declared the vote a win for the low-wage workers.

 “By a vote of 14 to 1, the council directed L.A.’s city attorney to prepare legislation setting a $15 wage floor,” said Christine Owens, executive director of the National Employment Law Project. “Today, Los Angeles becomes the latest and largest city to throw its support behind the legions of workers who ask for nothing less than to be paid a fair and decent wage.” ||||| “The effects here will be the biggest by far,” said Michael Reich, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley, who was commissioned by city leaders to conduct several studies on the potential effects of a minimum-wage increase. “The proposal will bring wages up in a way we haven’t seen since the 1960s. There’s a sense spreading that this is the new norm, especially in areas that have high costs of housing.”

 Image Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles, right, on Monday. He said in an interview on Tuesday that “we’re leading the country.” Credit Nick Ut/Associated Press

 The groups pressing for higher minimum wages said that the Los Angeles vote could set off a wave of increases across Southern California, and that higher pay scales would improve the way of life for the region’s vast low-wage work force.

 Supporters of higher wages say they hope the move will reverberate nationally. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York announced this month that he was convening a state board to consider a wage increase in the local fast-food industry, which could be enacted without a vote in the State Legislature. Immediately after the Los Angeles vote, pressure began to build on Mr. Cuomo to reject an increase that falls short of $15 an hour.

 “The L.A. increase nudges it forward,” said Dan Cantor, the national director of the Working Families Party, which was founded in New York and has helped pass progressive economic measures in several states. “It puts an exclamation point on the need for $15 to be where the wage board ends up.”

 The current minimum wage in New York State is $8.75, versus a federal minimum wage of $7.25, and will rise to $9 at the end of 2015. A little more than one-third of workers citywide and statewide now make below $15 an hour.

 Los Angeles County is also considering a measure that would lift the wages of thousands of workers in unincorporated parts of the county. |||||


Article:

David Steele, 42, a veteran race car driver who won several sprint car series championships and competed in some IndyCar and NASCAR races, was killed in a wreck during a sprint car race Saturday night at Desoto Speedway, according to multiple sources.

 Steele, a multiple United States Auto Club national champion and two-time winner of the Little 500, was competing in the Southern Sprint Car Shootout Series race at the 3/8-mile asphalt track on State Road 64 East in east Bradenton.

 His death quickly brought stunned reactions across social media.

 “Tonight I am stunned to hear that Dave Steele has been killed in a sprint car,” wrote Andy Cobb, a professional dirt sprint car driver, on Facebook late Saturday. “Dave has been one of my closest racing friends for a long time. I can’t believe this.”

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 On Twitter, Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman wrote: “Man, I love open wheel racing, but something has to change. RIP Dave Steele. One of the best pavement sprint car and midget guys ever.”

 Steele, a native of Indianapolis who resided in Tampa, made starts in the NASCAR XFINITY Series and the Verizon IndyCar Series in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but he returned to his short-track roots. His racing background included Silver Crown (USAC), sprint car and midget racing. Steele, who was the USAC Silver Crown champion in 2004, won more USAC races than Al Unser, had more sprint car victories on asphalt than Tony Stewart and more midget wins than Jeff Gordon, according to multiple websites affiliated with Steele.

 Tony Stewart Racing was one of the first to react on social media: “Our prayers go out to the family of Dave Steele, our former teammate, he was one of the best open-wheel drivers of this era.”

 Steele was no stranger to success at the Desoto Speedway track: He won four southern Sprint Car Series events at the track last year. On Saturday, he was seeking his 100th career sprint car victory just in the state of Florida. He was already a multiple-time winner this year, with victories at 4-17 Southern Speedway in Punta Gorda in February and at Showtime Speedway in Pinellas Park.

 The field, which was turning speeds of more than 100 mph during the qualifying heats and warmups according to a source in attendance, had just taken the green flag to start the 35-lap main event, which capped Saturday night’s race card, and was not yet up to race speed at the time of the incident.

 Steele, who was starting near the rear of the 16-car field, got a good jump at the start and tried to pass a vehicle in front of him on the outside heading into Turn 1.

 Steele’s car and the car he was passing got together and hooked wheels, sending Steele’s vehicle flipping airborne.

 The Southern Sprint Car Series vehicles are open-wheel winged cars with the driver enclosed in a steel roll cage. In the winged configuration, the cars have a small wing over the nose (two vertical panels separated by a flat horizontal panel spanning the width of the nose). A larger, similarly configured wing is over the driver’s compartment.

 Steele’s vehicle hit the outside retaining wall in Turn 1 and then spun perpendicular to the track before coming to rest. According to the source, his car was not hit by another vehicle after it struck the wall and the visible damage to the car was consistent with a vehicle hitting the outside wall flush on the left side.

 According to multiple sources, the race was immediately red flagged and track emergency personnel were at the vehicle in seconds. According to a source affiliated with the track who was not authorized to speak on the record, the track has multiple fully-trained medics, EMTs and firefighters at the track for each race card. That was the case Saturday night as well.

 Despite the rapid response, Steele was pronounced dead on the track. Track personnel, emergency personnel and local authorities called to the track after the incident were still on the track at the crash scene near midnight. Track personnel, race officials and other witnesses were waiting to be cleared to leave the facility.

 Early Sunday morning, Desoto Speedway released an official statement on its Facebook page: “Desoto Speedway owners and staff are saddened by tonight’s passing of David Steele in the Sprint car feature. Thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends who were all in attendance, to see him try to win his 100th florida(sic) race.”

 The source affiliated with the track said the track planned to have no other statement Saturday night or Sunday.

 The racing related fatality is the first at the speedway in many years. Driver Butch Lindley sustained fatal injuries in an accident in 1985 during a late model sportsman race. However, he lingered in a coma for five years, without regaining consciousness, before dying in 1990. Steele’s death is the first in the Southern Sprint Car Series, which is only in its second season. Steele was the defending series champion.

 Joey “The Ace” Aguilar narrowly escaped death in a fiery wreck in 2013 at the facility, then known as Full Throttle Speedway. The driver suffered burns all over his body, but was cleared to return to racing a little more than a month later.

 According to the source affiliated with the track, racing weather and track conditions were good at the time of the crash and there had been no incidents in the heats leading up to the main event involving Steele’s car or any other car.

 Steele, who would have turned 43 on May 7, is survived by his wife, Lynn Bunn Steele, and three young children. The Herald was unable to confirm whether Steele’s entire family was at the track Saturday. ||||| BRADENTON, Fla. (AP) — Sprint car veteran David Steele has died during a race in Florida.

 Desoto Speedway officials said in a Facebook post on Saturday night that track owners and staff were saddened by the crash. The statement says Steele was trying to win his 100th race in Florida.

 A Manatee County Sheriff's Office report says Steele was driving a sprint car when his vehicle's left front wheel struck the right rear wheel of another car, causing Steele's vehicle to go up in the air, spin 180 degrees and hit the retaining wall.

 Medics attempted to treat him but he was pronounced dead. He was 42.

 NASCAR driver Kasey Kahne tweeted that Steele was "one of the best and such a good guy to hang out and have a beer with."

 ___

 This story has been corrected to fix dateline to Bradenton, Fla., not Desoto, Fla. |||||
What is a summary?

– Sprint car veteran David Steele has died during a race in Florida, reports the AP, after he locked wheels with another car, went airborne, spun 180 degrees, and hit a retaining wall. Medics attempted to treat him but he was pronounced dead. He was 42. "Desoto Speedway owners and staff are saddened by tonight’s passing of David Steele in the Sprint car feature," per a track statement. "Thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends who were all in attendance," as he tried for his 100th win in Florida, reports the Bradenton Herald. NASCAR driver Kasey Kahne tweeted that Steele was "one of the best and such a good guy to hang out and have a beer with," while Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman wrote: "Man, I love open wheel racing, but something has to change."


– Amazon.com's first CFO was killed Wednesday afternoon in a bicycle accident, authorities confirmed yesterday. Joy Covey, 50, was riding on a rural road in Woodside, California, when she collided with a minivan as it turned onto another street. "She was wearing a helmet, but the injuries were too severe," says a California Highway Patrol officer. "The vehicle turned left directly in front of the bicycle, which was traveling downhill." The 22-year-old driver has not been cited, but authorities are still investigating, the San Jose Mercury News reports. In a tragic twist, police say he may have been making deliveries for OnTrac—a shipping service that counts Amazon among its customers, the New York Times reports. Covey was the CFO and VP of finance and administration from 1996 to 1999, and oversaw Amazon's IPO, the San Francisco Chronicle reports; during that time she was named one of the 50 most powerful business women in America by Fortune. After leaving Amazon in 2000 she served on various boards, started a nonprofit, and most recently worked with the Natural Resources Defense Council. "It's a very sad day for Amazon," a company spokesperson tells CNET's Dara Kerr, who describes Covey as "instrumental in making the massive e-commerce company what it is today." Many reports on her death are citing a 2002 Harvard Law Bulletin interview, in which Covey recounted dropping out of high school and working as a grocery clerk; she ended up graduating from Fresno State in just 2.5 years, and got her law and MBA degrees from Harvard. (Covey wasn't the only business leader to die this week.)

Expand this summary.

A Conversation with Joy Covey Joy Covey '89, a graduate of the J.D./M.B.A. program, recently wrapped up four years at Amazon.com, where she worked as the chief financial officer and strategist for the online retail giant. Since leaving Amazon.com in 2000, Covey has focused her time on family, travel, and a private foundation. In addition, she has become a private pilot. She serves on the Visiting Committees of HLS and the Harvard Business School. Your path to Harvard was different from most. What in your background do you think contributed to your success? I didn't finish high school--left home when I was 15. I moved away to Fresno and worked as a grocery clerk. I went to college part-time at Cal. State Fresno, and then ended up finishing in two and a half years because I wanted to get on with things. But having fallen off the track, in a way I think I acquired a sense of independence in how I make decisions. It's really helped me not worry so much whether other people approve of my choices. What was your experience like when you eventually arrived at HLS? I was completely intimidated by the rest of the class. I don't think I even knew anyone who went to an Ivy League school when I came to Harvard. Not having finished high school and having been fairly utilitarian in the way I went about college, I didn't have a deep liberal arts background. So we'd go to lunch and people would talk about their favorite seventeenth-century poets, and I'd be thinking, "Could I even name five poets? From any century?" So that was intimidating, and it wasn't until we got our first-semester grades back that I started to realize that everything was going to be OK. What part of your legal training at HLS was most useful in the no-boundaries environment of Amazon.com? It was a certain way of thinking--a structured analytical approach to breaking down questions. This is very consistent with the kind of thinking we would use at Amazon. A lot of things we did were things that hadn't been done before, or situations that had never been dealt with. Rather than asking ourselves, "How has this been done in the past? What's the answer to this question?" we said, "Where do we want to go and what are our goals?" We spent a lot of time thinking unconventionally, and thinking through things based on our core principles, which is the kind of thought process I learned in law school. Can you think of an example of when this unconventional approach was put to use at Amazon? Probably our relationship with Wall Street. Our view was that most companies depart from their best long-term business thinking in order to please Wall Street. And they often do things that are not in the best long-term interest of the business because they're under pressure from investors for short-term results. So we asked ourselves, "Who are the companies that are truly able to make decisions that are in the best long-term interests of shareholders? How do we structure our conversations with Wall Street from the very beginning, before we even go public?" We felt that was the way to create the best possible company in the long run. Do you think it's easier for women to rise through the ranks of the tech world than through more traditional sectors of the economy? Well, I can't really speak to the other parts of the economy, but what I think is very true of the tech world is that it's easy for talented people--whatever their gender, age, or race--to rise up and succeed. In fact, in my career, during the time I spent working in larger companies or, for a brief time, at an East Coast company, age would have been more of an impediment than gender. But on the West Coast, in high tech, people simply wanted to find the most talented person. And someone who was a young, really energetic person was viewed as an ideal candidate. So gender really wasn't an issue. There was such a hunger for talent. ||||| WOODSIDE -- A bicyclist killed in a Wednesday collision with a van in rural San Mateo County was Joy Covey, a groundbreaking tech executive who was chief financial officer of online retailer Amazon.com at the time of its initial public offering.

 California Highway Patrol officer Arturo Montiel confirmed Thursday that Joy Dianne Covey, 50, of Woodside, was the bicyclist killed on a rural stretch of road in San Mateo County Wednesday afternoon. The Natural Resources Defense Council, for which Covey served as treasurer and a director, confirmed Thursday that the former high-powered tech executive had died.

 Covey was biking on Skyline Boulevard at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday when she collided with a van that turned in front of her, Montiel said.

 1997: Joy Covey, then chief financial officer of Amazon.com, at the Chicago Board Options Exchange on the first day of trading options for Amazon. (AP Photo/Chicago Board Options Exchange, John Zich)

 "The vehicle turned left directly in front of the bicycle, which was traveling downhill," Montiel said.

 The driver, a 22-year-old Fremont man, stayed at the scene and cooperated; he has not been cited in the incident, but Montiel said the collision is still under investigation, though drugs or alcohol do not appear to be a factor.

 Covey was chief financial officer at Amazon from December 1996 to September 1999, and remained at the company until April 2000, according to Bloomberg's executive profile, and was named the 28th most powerful woman in business in 1999 by Fortune Magazine. Since leaving Amazon, she has been an independent investor and consultant and served on several boards, including JetBlue Airways and the NRDC. In a 2002 interview with the Harvard Law Bulletin, Covey -- who received a law degree and MBA from the prestigious university in 1989 -- recounted dropping out of San Mateo High School at the age of 15 and working as a grocery clerk before wrapping up a degree at Fresno State in two-and-a-half years.

 After leaving Amazon, Covey focused on environmental causes, establishing the Beagle Foundation and working with the NRDC.

 Staff writer Joshua Melvin contributed to this report. Contact Jeremy C. Owens at 408-920-5876; follow him at Twitter.com/jowens510. ||||| The tech entrepreneur who oversaw the online retailer's massive expansion and masterminded its IPO has passed away at age 50.

 A self-made woman, tech entrepreneur, and intellectual powerhouse, Joy Covey died in a bicycle accident on Wednesday. She served as Amazon's first chief financial officer and was instrumental in making the massive e-commerce company what it is today.

 Covey was 50 years old when she collided with a van on a rural road in San Mateo County, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

 "It's a very sad day for Amazon," Amazon spokesperson Mary Osako told CNET. "Joy was a wonderful human being and treasured colleague, and we will miss her very much."

 At the time of her death, Covey was working as the treasurer for the environmental group National Resources Defense Council. But, she had a long history working in the tech sector -- and she got there using her quick intellect and determined work ethic.

 In an interview with the Harvard Law Bulletin in 2002, Covey talked about how she dropped out of high school, left home when she was 15, and went to work as a grocery clerk. Shortly afterward, at 17, she decided to go to college, graduating in two and a half years from Fresno State. She then went on to get dual law and MBA degrees at Harvard in 1989.

 By the time Covey joined Amazon as its CFO in 1996, she had already worked as the CFO of the digital-audio startup Digidesign. At Amazon, Covey oversaw the company's financial boom , international expansion, and various features on the site such as the video and music store launches. She also masterminded the company's initial public offering in 1997

 "A lot of things we did were things that hadn't been done before, or situations that had never been dealt with," Covey told the Harvard Law Bulletin. "Rather than asking ourselves, 'How has this been done in the past? What's the answer to this question?' we said, 'Where do we want to go and what are our goals?'"

 Covey left Amazon in April 2000 to focus on her family, travel, and environmental issues. Besides working for the National Resources Defense Council, Covey also established the Beagle Foundation, which gives funding to environmental causes. ||||| Former Amazon CFO killed while riding bicycle

 Photo: Chicago Board Options Exchange, AP Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Image 1 of 1 Joy Covey, chief financial officer of Seattle-based Amazon.com, Inc., gets pointers on trading using a hand-held market maker terminal at the Chicago Board Options Exchange on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 1997, by Thomas Ascher, left, vice chairman, and William Brodsky, chief executive officer of the exchange. It was the first day of trading options Wednesday for Amazon. less Joy Covey, chief financial officer of Seattle-based Amazon.com, Inc., gets pointers on trading using a hand-held market maker terminal at the Chicago Board Options Exchange on Wednesday, Nov. 19, 1997, by ... more Photo: Chicago Board Options Exchange, AP Former Amazon CFO killed while riding bicycle 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

 (09-19) 21:28 PDT WOODSIDE -- Joy Covey, a former chief financial officer for Amazon.com, was killed riding her bicycle in Woodside, authorities said Thursday. She was 50.

 Covey was cycling northbound on Skyline Boulevard at about 1:30 p.m. Wednesday when a southbound Mazda minivan turned left onto Elk Tree Road and the two collided, said California Highway Patrol Officer Art Montiel.

 "She was wearing a helmet, but the injuries were too severe," he said. "She was pronounced dead at the scene."

 Covey was Amazon.com's chief financial officer and vice president of finance and administration from 1996 to 1999, overseeing the online retailer in its first years after it filed for an initial public offering, according to her Bloomberg executive profile.

 She was named one of Fortune magazine's 50 Most Powerful Business Women in America during her time at Amazon.com.

 Covey left the company in April 2000 after working various other senior management positions and was elected to Jetblue Airways' Board of Directors in 2003. A deeply committed environmentalist, according to her colleagues at the Natural Resources Defense Council, Covey served as the environmental action nonprofit's treasurer and established the Beagle Foundation, which funded a two-year fellowship with the NRDC for Harvard Law School graduates.

 Covey graduated from Harvard Law School in 1989 after earning her bachelor's degree at Cal State Fresno.

 "She encapsulated the heart and soul of NRDC and will be so deeply missed by all the NRDC family," Frances Beinecke, the group's president, said in a statement. "Her adventurous and indomitable spirit was infectious and she constantly challenged us to reach greater heights."

 Authorities say the 22-year-old driver of the minivan that collided with Covey stayed at the scene after the crash. The investigation is ongoing, and drugs and alcohol do not appear to be a factor. ||||| Joy Covey, an executive who joined Amazon.com when it was a new company with big ideas and played a major role in turning those ideas into reality, died on Wednesday after the bicycle she was riding struck a delivery van in a remote stretch of San Mateo County, Calif. She was 50.

 The police said that a minivan apparently making deliveries for OnTrac, a shipping service used by Amazon and other online retailers, was turning onto a side road when the accident occurred along Skyline Boulevard. Ms. Covey was pronounced dead at the scene. The van driver was not charged.

 As Amazon’s first chief financial officer, Ms. Covey helped take the company public and was an independent-minded advocate for Amazon’s plans to ignore Wall Street and invest for the future. That notion, radical in its day, was the foundation for Amazon’s growth into a $61 billion retailing and entertainment behemoth.

 In its early days, Amazon prided itself on its unconventional hires, telling staffing agencies to “send us your freaks.” Ms. Covey did not have a traditional background. She dropped out of high school at 15 and worked as a grocery clerk. She attended Cal State Fresno and later Harvard Law School, where, she said, she did not fit in.

 “We’d go to lunch and people would talk about their favorite 17th-century poets, and I’d be thinking, ‘Could I even name five poets? From any century?’ “

 But after joining Amazon in late 1996, when its annual revenue was less than $20 million, she thrived. She sold Wall Street the debt that the company needed to expand. The company went public on May 14, 1997, with an initial offering price of $18. Shares this week were selling for more than $312. Her own wealth is estimated at more than $200 million.

 Joy Dianne Covey was born on April 25, 1963, in Boston, to Maurice C. Covey, a physician, and the former Joan De Vries, a nurse. She grew up in San Mateo and lived in Woodside, Calif.

 As the senior woman in a red-hot Internet company, Ms. Covey drew a great deal of attention, including a profile in Forbes magazine headlined “A Real Amazon.”

 She left Amazon in 2000, as the dot-com boom was ending. Survivors include a young son, Tyler. |||||


Write an article based on this summary:

– Tip for Russell Brand: When accepting an award, maybe don't joke about the award show sponsor's Nazi ties. The comedian was accepting the Oracle Award at the British GQ Men of the Year Awards in London last week when he made this comment about fashion label Hugo Boss, which was sponsoring the event: "If any of you know a little bit about history and fashion, you'll know that Hugo Boss made the uniforms for the Nazis. The Nazis did have flaws, but, you know, they did look f---ing fantastic, let's face it, while they were killing people on the basis of their religion and sexuality." Later, he added, "We're selling a lot of these ... they're flying off the shelves!" and goose-stepped while doing a Nazi salute. The Sun reports Brand was booted from the after-party over the joke, and the Daily Mail says the comedian later elaborated on Twitter: "GQ editor: 'What you did was very offensive to Hugo Boss.' Me: 'What Hugo Boss did was very offensive to the Jews.' #GQAwards #nazitailor." Gawker posted video of Brand's speech today.

GQ editor Dylan Jones told star what he said was 'offensive' to fashion company Hugo Boss

 Comic seen making an early exit from after-show party at Royal Opera House

 Brand said Hugo Boss 'made the Nazis look f****** fantastic' and goose-stepped onstage

 Comedian Russell Brand was allegedly ejected from the GQ Men Of The Year Awards after-show party after he made jibes onstage about the event's sponsors Hugo Boss - and its historical links to the Nazis.

 The comic, who picked up a gong at the GQ Men of the Year Awards, criticised the German fashion firm, who sponsored the show, for making uniforms for Hitler's regime.

 The wild bunch: Rita Ora, Noel Gallagher and Russell Brand caught up at the after-party before he was allegedly asked to leave by the event's organisers

 Brand took to the stage after Boris Johnson who received GQ magazine’s award for Politician of the Year at Tuesday night's event at the Royal Opera House in London.

 Swift exit: Russell seen arriving at the GQ Men of the Year awards at The Royal Opera House on Tuesday

 And after the mayor made jokes regarding the recent chemical attacks and subsequent deaths in Syria, Brand said: 'Glad to grace the stage where Boris Johnson has just made light of the use of chemical weapons in Syria,' during his acceptance speech for the Oracle award.

 'Meaning that GQ can now stand for genocide quips.

 'I mention that only to make the next comment a bit lighter because if any of you know a little bit about history and fashion, you'll know Hugo Boss made the uniforms for the Nazis,' he added.

 'But they did look f****** fantastic, lets face it, while they were killing people on the basis of their religion and sexuality."

 Brand, who ended his speech by telling Noel Gallagher, another of the winners on the night, "Good luck getting more offensive than that, son", was then according to The Sun kicked out of the aftershow party in central London.

 A spokesman for GQ declined to comment on the claims when contacted.

 Brand was seen chatting to Noel Gallagher and Rita Ora at the party, but he looked unnerved after taking a few photos with fans, and then made a swift exit accompanied by his security guard.

 Offensive: GQ editor Dylan Jones with The Who rocker Roger Daltrey. Jones told Brand what he did to the event sponsors was 'offensive'

 Brand took to Twitter to tell his fans about an exchange he said he had with Jones

 The comic took to Twitter to tell his fans about an exchange he said he had with the magazine's editor Dylan Jones, writing: 'GQ editor: What you did was very offensive to Hugo Boss.

 'Me: What Hugo Boss did was very offensive to the Jews', which was accompanied by the hashtag '#nazitailor'.

 The fashion firm backed the event to the tune of £250,000, and would no doubt have been left reeling by Brand's tirade which included him putting a finger under his nose to mimic Hitler's moustache and goose-stepping on stage.

 It isn't the first time Brand has run into trouble at the annual bash. In 2006 he was involved in a row with Rod Stewart after telling guests at the event he had slept with his daughter Kimberly.

 In 1999, GQ editor James Brown resigned after the magazine published a list of of the 200 most stylish men of the 20th century, which included the Nazis and Field Marshal Rommel alongside Humphrey Bogart and John F Kennedy.

 The star-studded dinner and pretty raucous award ceremony with a night full of barbs and verbal fisticuffs attended by celebrities including Lou Reed, Simon Pegg, Sir Bobby Charlton, Rita Ora, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and Justin Timberlake.

 Off colour: Rob Brydon joked about Stephen Fry's suicide attempt

 The event at the Royal Opera House, in Covent Garden, central London, was hosted by comic Rob Brydon who led from the front with an off colour remark about Stephen Fry.

 Brydon reduced the audience to stunned silence when he joked bipolar Stephen Fry could not be 'left alone with vodka and pills', which comes after the actor and writer's admission that he tried to commit suicide last year.

 Writer of the Year winner, Charles Moore took aim at Brand when took to the stage to collect his award.

 He reminded the audience of the BBC scandal Brand resigned from Radio 2 over - Sachsgate.

 Moore refused to pay his license fee in 2009 in protest over the affair, in which Brand, egged on by Jonathan Ross, left inappropriate messages on the voicemail of Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs about his granddaughter.

 The writer compared Brand's persecution of Sachs to that of the Nazis persecution of Sachs' forefathers.

 Meanwhile Noel Gallagher criticised Foreign Secretary William Hague, who presented an award, for being 'here with all the s**t going on around the world you should be sorting out'. ||||| Crawl of outlinks from wikipedia.org started March, 2016. These files are currently not publicly accessible. Properties of this collection. It has been several years since the last time we did this. For this collection, several things were done: 1. Turned off duplicate detection. This collection will be complete, as there is a good chance we will share the data, and sharing data with pointers to random other collections, is a complex problem. 2. For the first time, did all the different wikis. The original runs were just against the enwiki. This one, the seed list was built from all 865 collections. |||||