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Shoes tied to a power line hang near a street after winds from Hurricane Harvey brought down a power pole in Corpus Christi, Texas, on Friday, Aug. 25, 2017. Hurricane Harvey smashed into Texas late Friday,... (Associated Press)

 CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas (AP) — The Latest on Hurricane Harvey (all times local):

 9:40 a.m.

 Hurricane Harvey has knocked out power to nearly 300,000 customers along the Texas coast and has dumped nearly 20 inches (half a meter) of rain in some places.

 The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages about 90 percent of the state's electric grid, says there were 211,000 outages in the few hours after Harvey made landfall Friday night as a Category 4 hurricane.

 That figure rose to 293,000 on Saturday, when the hurricane was downgraded to Category 1.

 In addition to loss of power, emergency personnel in the communities northeast of Corpus Christi where Harvey made landfall are reporting loss of cellphone service and other forms of communication.

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 9 a.m.

 The rain was so torrential along Interstate 45 coming out of Galveston as Hurricane Harvey settled over southeast Texas that motorists had to stop under bridges to avoid driving in whiteout conditions.

 The downpour on Saturday has also caused minor street flooding along a highway in Dickinson, about 25 miles northwest of Galveston.

 Harvey, the fiercest hurricane to hit the U.S. in more than a decade, made landfall Friday night about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northeast of Corpus Christi as a Category 4 storm with 130 mph (209 kph) winds.

 It gradually weakened over the next several hours and the National Hurricane Center said that by 5 a.m. Saturday Harvey was downgraded to a Category 1.

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 8:30 a.m.

 A Texas mayor says Hurricane Harvey hit his coastal community "right on the nose" and left "widespread devastation."

 Rockport Mayor Charles "C.J." Wax told The Weather Channel on Saturday that some homes and businesses were heavily damaged or even completely destroyed. Schools were also damaged.

 He says emergency response system for the city of about 10,000 people has been hampered by the loss of cellphone service and other forms of communication.

 Harvey made landfall Friday evening as a Category 4 hurricane but has since been downgraded to a Category 1. The National Hurricane Center says the threat in coming days is sustained rains that could unleash "catastrophic" flooding.

 The city of Victoria, about 60 miles (96 kilometers) north of Rockport, had received more than 16 inches of rain by Saturday morning.

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 8:15 a.m.

 Daybreak has revealed some of the damage caused when Hurricane Harvey came ashore overnight, including downed lamp posts and tree limbs in Corpus Christi and roof tiles torn off buildings.

 Harvey came ashore along Texas' Gulf Coast on Friday night as the most powerful hurricane to hit the U.S. in more than a decade. It has since been downgraded from a Category 4 to a Category 1 hurricane, but the storm is expected to hover in the region for days and to dump as much as 40 inches (1 meter) of rain in places.

 Corpus Christi's marina has been left nearly unscathed, save an awning ripped from a restaurant entrance and a wooden garbage bin uprooted and thrown.

 An old white sport fishing boat was partially submerged and several boats' sails came unfurled and were ripped and whipping in wind gusts of more than 50 mph.

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 7:45 a.m.

 President Donald Trump has commended the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency for his handling of the hurricane now hitting the Texas Gulf Coast.

 In a tweet Saturday morning addressed to FEMA head Brock Long, Trump said: "You are doing a great job - the world is watching! Be safe."

 Hurricane Harvey, the fiercest to hit the U.S. in more than a decade, is posing the first major emergency management test of Trump's administration.

 In a separate tweet, Trump said he is monitoring the hurricane closely from Camp David and "We are leaving nothing to chance. City, State and Federal Govs. working great together!"

 He also tweeted that "We have fantastic people on the ground, got there long before #Harvey. So far, so good!"

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 5:45 a.m.

 Harvey has been further downgraded to a Category 1 hurricane as it churns slowly inland from the Texas Gulf Coast, already depositing more than 9 inches of rain in South Texas.

 Harvey made landfall about 10 p.m. Friday east-northeast of Corpus Christi as a Category 4, with winds in excess of 130 mph (210 kph).

 But wind speeds quickly weakened and by early Saturday Harvey was downgraded. It continues to produce gusts of up to 120 mph (193 kph) and sustained winds of 90 mph (144 kph). The National Hurricane Center warns of "catastrophic flooding" over the next few days.

 Emergency personnel in coastal communities like Rockport, just northeast of Corpus Christi, say there's broad damage to buildings. But Rockport Volunteer Fire Department Chief Steve Sims said early Saturday that firefighters were hunkered down at the city's fire station waiting for conditions to improve to assess the damage.

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 4:22 a.m.

 Hurricane Harvey has settled over southeast Texas, dumping rain and lashing the state's Gulf Coast with damaging winds.

 The storm made landfall Friday night as a Category 4 with 130 mph (209 kph) winds. It gradually weakened over the next several hours and by early Saturday, the National Hurricane Center said it back to a Category 2 — still sustaining winds of 110 mph (185 kph) as of 3 a.m.

 Early damage reports from Gulf Coast cities included collapsed roofs and walls. One community transported multiple people from a senior living home to the county jail for treatment after a roof caved in.

 But officials remained largely unable to assess the damage before daylight.

 The storm is expected to slow further and flood the area with rain through the middle of next week. The center warned that Harvey could produce life-threatening storm surges along a coastal area of more than 400 miles (643 kilometers). ||||| HOUSTON -- Hurricane Harvey settled over southern Texas on Saturday, causing widespread destruction and dumping rain that will drench the southern part of the state for days.

 The storm made landfall late Friday night as a Category 4 storm, with sustained winds of 130 mph that whipped coastal communities throughout the night. Winds slowed throughout the day Saturday as Harvey lost strength, becoming a tropical storm by Saturday afternoon.

 But the relenting winds are little relief for residents stuck in the storm's path. Harvey's movement slowed to a crawl, and the system will continue to dump up to 40 inches of rain in some places. Officials warned of "torrential rains" that will cause "catastrophic damage" as the storm continues to pull moisture off warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico.

 The storm was the first Category 4 hurricane to hit the continental United States in over a decade, and the first to make landfall in Texas since 1961. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said Harvey is "probably the biggest storm in [Texas] history."

 Follow along below for live updates on the storm. All times are Eastern unless otherwise noted.

 1:50 a.m.: Fatality is confirmed from flooding in Houston

 A motorist died Saturday after being stranded in the floodwaters from Harvey, County Judge Ed Emmett told CBS affiliate KHOU.

 KHOU reports the woman tried to get out of her car but didn't make it. A neighbor found her body.

 NICK OXFORD / REUTERS

 Several major Houston roadways are underwater.

 Houston mayor Sylvester Turner said the streets are "treacherous."

 11:35 p.m.: Flash flood emergency declared in Houston's Harris County

 A flash flood emergency is in effect for Harris County, meaning life-threatening flooding is possible, CBS affiliate KHOU reports.

 "We're seeing just incredible rainfall rights right now in the heart of Houston," said Jeff Lindner with the Harris County Flood Control District.

 The Harris County Sheriff's office tweeted that a man had been rescued from his car in three feet of rushing water.

 HCSO deputies rescued one male driver in 3 feet of rushing water in west Harris County — Saums Rd. & Park View Dr. pic.twitter.com/i51U6jcT42 — HCSOTexas (@HCSOTexas) August 27, 2017

 Most areas have seen more than 2 inches in the last hour, according to KHOU.

 They've had more than 4 inches in the last hour in the Meyerland area and there is a threat of water in homes there, Lindner said.

 The Houston Office of Emergency Management tweeted that the Red Cross shelter is closing due to high water. The METRO Houston has suspended all bus and rail service.

 The Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office is also reporting tornado sightings in Stafford, Missouri City and near US 90 and the Texas Parkway.

 Tornados have already caused damage in Cypress, Sienna Plantation, Katy, Richmond and Atascocita.

 9:40 p.m.: Coast Guard launches helicopter rescue

 The Coast Guard said Saturday that it was responding to a call of seven distressed people in Aransas Pass, Texas.

 The Coast Guard said it received the call at about 7 p.m. central time of seven people, one of which is reportedly on oxygen and had run out, in need of assistance.

 The Coast Guard said its Air Station Corpus Christi aircrews rescued in total 20 people and a dog after they received reports from watchstanders at Coast Guard Sector Corpus Christi Saturday morning and afternoon.

 7:50 p.m.: "Biggest concern" is the 20-30 inches of rain, Texas Gov. says

 More than a foot-and-a-half of rain fell in just 24 hours in Victoria, Texas -- and by the time the storm is over, the city could get in only days the amount of rain it sees in one year, CBS News' Manuel Bojorquez reports.

 "Our biggest concern is the possibility of between 20 and 30 inches of rain in areas ranging from Corpus Christi over to Houston," said Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. "Because of the flooding, one of the top focal points that we are concerned about is ongoing rescue and recovery."

 Angela and Mario Manzano are checking on the home they recently purchased.

 "It's devastating because like I said, we're barely purchasing the home, we're still paying it off, to lose it now, it's going to be hard," Angela said.

 Their home is in a low-lying area prone to flooding.

 "If it was just the two of us, it would be different, but having our kids, that why we took, we just took the most important things -- our important documents and pictures that can't be replaced and that stuff," Angela said.

 7:30 p.m.: Inside Rockport, the city in the eye of Harvey

 Ferocious winds and floodwater have left this quaint city on the gulf a disaster zone, CBS News' David Begnaud reports. Parts of the high school were torn to shreds. Harvey showed no mercy on the local First Baptist church. Some homes have collapsed into the water.

 "We went upstairs and looked out the window and down the road here it was a sheer wall of water, like 100 mph it was crazy," said Tim Freiburger. His garage was lifted up and jammed against the side of the house.

 "It was insane all you could do was just feel stuff pounding the house," he said.

 Residents of this senior living complex were stranded when portions of its roof torn away and emergency workers were unable to respond at the height of the storm.

 Nearly every police car in town has been damaged, but still officers were out Saturday, banging on doors, making sure no one was trapped.

 When the hurricane made landfall here late Friday night, the city was under a mandatory evacuation.

 "I'll take a while to get it all straightened backup," said Randy Bonnett, who has been through Texas hurricanes before but he says he will not forget Harvey.

 "You got three hours of hell and then an hour lull and then three hours hell," Bonnett said.

 7:10 p.m.: Millions in danger of potentially catastrophic flooding

 Harvey is still going and it's not going anywhere for awhile, CBS News' DeMarco Morgan reports. There are over 1,000 people assigned to search and rescue operations. Near Corpus Christi on Saturday, the Coast Guard rescued 17 people whose vessels were in distress. The governor of Texas has issued a disaster declaration for 50 counties. Saturday morning, Galveston got pounded.

 With the storm stalling out, now millions are in danger of potentially catastrophic flooding. More than three feet of rain could fall in some places.

 "We are just getting into this so people need to understand that the longevity of this is gonna go thru the weekend and even into the early part of next week," said Jeff Linder with the Harris County Flood Control in Houston.

 Nearly 300,000 power outages have been reported and Corpus Christi is under a boil water order. Incredibly, no fatalities have been reported yet. In Rockport, where the storm took a direct hit, ten people were injured when the roof of a senior housing complex collapsed, according to local media reports. Hundreds of people were evacuated from a hotel there last night:

 5:34 p.m.: White House releases photos of President Trump on teleconference call earlier Saturday

 The White House said President Trump was briefed on the response to Harvey at Camp David, where he's spending the weekend.

 Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead

 Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead

 4:11 p.m.: Coast Guard rescues 17 people

 The Coast Guard says it has rescued 15 people onboard vessels near Port Aransas, Texas. Two Coast Guard helicopters were dispatched to help the ships earlier Saturday after receiving distress calls.

 The Coast Guard said in a release that seven people were rescued from the tugboat Sabine; four people from the Signet Enterprise; and four from the vessel Sandy Point.

 A man and a woman were also rescued in Houston, along with their dog. Read the full story here.

 3:47 p.m.: President Trump thanks volunteers

 THANK YOU to all of the great volunteers helping out with #HurricaneHarvey relief in Texas! https://t.co/Ds95oSgo8f — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 26, 2017

 3:31 p.m.: Harvey shuts down one-fifth of U.S. oil production

 About one-third of the America's refining capacity reside in low-lying areas on the coast from Corpus Christi, Texas, to Lake Charles, Louisiana, the Associated Press reports.

 The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said Friday that workers were evacuated from 86 of 737 manned oil production platforms where oil and gas are pumped from the Gulf of Mexico.

 The agency estimated that approximately 21.55 percent of oil production had been shut down along with 23.24 percent of natural gas production.

 The AP reports, citing FlightAware, that nearly 1,200 flights were cancelled on Friday and Saturday, and an additional 485 flights for Sunday were cancelled.

 2:27 p.m. President Trump receives update from cabinet officials

 President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence met with cabinet members and senior administration officials via video teleconference Saturday about the hurricane, according to a White House readout of the meeting. Mr. Trump expressed that all departments and agencies involved should stay focused on saving lives, the White House said.

 Mr. Trump, who had been receiving updates from his chief of staff John Kelly Friday night and Saturday morning, directed his team to support the governors of Texas and Louisiana. Mr. Trump on Friday night signed a disaster declaration for the state of Texas at Gov. Greg Abbott's request. The declaration frees up federal resources to alleviate affected localities.

 2:18 p.m.: Texas governor: No confirmation of fatalities; 338,000 without power

 Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he could not confirm any fatalities from now-Tropical Storm Harvey. He says 338,000 customers are without power and service might not be restored for several days.

 Jay Janner / AP

 2:15 p.m.: Hotel taxes suspended for evacuees

 Evacuees from areas affected by Harvey as well as first responders will be able to stay in hotels tax-free, Abbott says. He said he has waived the state's surcharge in a proclamation.

 Abbott said about 1,500 evacuees are currently staying at Texas state park facilities. Nearly 1,500 more are staying in 21 Red Cross shelters and 42 more shelters are standing by to accept more evacuees. More than 200 buses have been deployed to transport residents, Abbott said.

 2:13 p.m. 1,000 people involved in search and rescue operations

 Abbott says 1,000 workers are focused on search and rescue operations, which he said "will be one of the foremost tasks that we take in the coming days."

 Search and rescue "will be one of the foremost tasks that we take in the coming days," Gov. Abbott says https://t.co/8YHzAJZ5CQ pic.twitter.com/xh7822hmG8 — CBS News (@CBSNews) August 26, 2017

 2:10 p.m.: 1,800 service members to assist in recovery in Texas

 Abbott says 1,300 Texas service members are already assisting in recovery and search and rescue efforts, with another 500 to be activated soon.

 2:06 p.m.: Abbott says state concerned about 20 to 30 more inches of rain

 "Turn around. Don't drown," the governor said. He says flooding is still a major concern.

 "Now that the hurricane has come on shore our primary concern remains dramatic flooding," Abbott said. Abbott said about 20 inches of rain has already fallen in Corpus Christi and about 16 inches in Houston.

 2:05 p.m.: Texas governor gives update on Harvey

 Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is providing an update on Harvey from Austin, Texas. You can watch on CBSN at the top of this post.

 1:50 p.m. Harvey downgraded to tropical storm

 Harvey is now a tropical storm, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) says in its latest release.

 Winds have slowed to 70 mph, down from a peak of 130 mph when Harvey made landfall late Friday. The storm is now located 45 miles north-northwest of Victoria, Texas, and moving at 2 mph.

 But Texas isn't out of the woods yet. The NHC adds that an "extremely serious flooding event is unfolding" as the storm continues to drench the area in rain. Some areas have seen rainfall of up to 3 inches per hour at times. The threat of storm surge continues to threaten low-lying areas, as well.

 1:39 p.m.: Texas attorney general warns against price gouging

 Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton joined CBSN to discuss Harvey, and warned potential price gougers from taking advantage of residents as flooding continues.

 "Under Texas law, you're not allowed to massively increase your prices by more than 10 percent, [that's] the approximate number, when there's some type of crisis or catastrophe," Paxton said. "There's significant fines for that, up to $20,000 per incident. If you're doing that to somebody over 65, it could be up to $250,000."

 Paxton said his office has received over 200 calls about potential price gouging. He said investigators have looked into instances of alleged price gougers charging nearly $100 for a case of water.

 12:45 p.m.: Texas evacuates prisoners threatened by flooding

 The Texas Department of Criminal Justice announced Saturday three prisons would be evacuated in Brazoria County, just south of Houston, as rainfall from Hurricane Harvey slams the area.

 In a news release, the department said approximately 4,500 inmates will be evacuated beginning Saturday morning.

 "These evacuated offenders will not be available for visits at the designated receiving units, but will have the ability to use the offender telephone system," the statement said. "Additional food and water has been delivered to the prisons receiving the displaced inmates."11:59 a.m.: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott warns of "ongoing danger" from flooding

 Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Saturday said ongoing flooding in the wake of Harvey poses the greatest danger in the days ahead, as rescue efforts are already underway in the southeast part of the state.

 The Republican governor told CBSN that the hurricane, which made landfall late Friday night as a Category 4 storm but has since been downgraded to Category 1, has caused "great devastation." As it moves slowly and unleashes devastating amounts of rain on the Texas coastline, Abbott says flooding is the greatest concern. Read the full story here.

 11:32 a.m.: Mayor of Rockport, Texas, details "widespread damage"

 The mayor of Rockport, Texas, says the town has suffered "widespread damage" from Hurricane Harvey as the storm continues to dump rain across southeast Texas. Mayor Charlie Wax joined CBSN to discuss the situation in Rockport, one of the towns hardest hit by the storm.

 "Our high school is damaged. One of our learning centers is also damaged. We have businesses that are destroyed, we have homes that have been destroyed, and at the very least lives are disrupted," Wax said.

 The mayor said, as of Saturday morning, there were no confirmation of any deaths, but said it was likely because the response teams haven't been able to survey the town completely.

 He also warned residents to "stay in place," adding that it wasn't safe to return home.

 "Stay in place, protect yourself. If you did evacuate, do not even attempt to go back," he said. "Stay away, let the first responders do their job."

 10:55 a.m.: Harvey expected to weaken to tropical storm this afternoon

 The National Hurricane Center says Harvey remains a Category 1 hurricane as wind speeds remain at 75 mph. The threat for serious flooding will continue for several days as the storm continues to move slowly over inland Texas.

 In its latest advisory, the NHC says "torrential rains will continue for a few more days." The center says Harvey should become a tropical storm sometime Saturday afternoon.

 Harvey made landfall late Friday night as a Category 4 hurricane with sustained wind speeds of 130 mph. It has slowed overnight but will continue to pull in moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, and could still move back out over water.

 10:28 a.m.: NASA animation of satellite data shows rainfall upon making land

 @NASA's GPM satellite analyzed Hurricane Harvey's rainfall as it made landfall in Texas: https://t.co/OGW4LLZvd5 pic.twitter.com/eWF3cHVL1N — CBS News (@CBSNews) August 26, 2017

 10:25 a.m.: Houston airport lifts ground stop on incoming flights

 Flights are beginning to land again at Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport following an earlier ground stop on incoming flights. The airport said 225 flights have been canceled so far.

 IB ground stop has been lifted, and aircraft are now beginning to land. Get the latest at https://t.co/9gZJSkXIjn #fly2houston — Houston Bush Airport (@iah) August 26, 2017

 10:11 a.m.: Coast Guard responds to mayday calls

 The Coast Guard says it is responding to tugboats in distress near Port Aransas, Texas.

 In a statement, the Coast Guard says its Corpus Christi sector received mayday calls from the boats Belle Chase, Sandy Point and Sabine Pass near the Lydia Ann Channel. It has dispatched two MH-65 Dolphin helicopter crews to the scene.

 10:05 a.m.: Wind speeds slow to 75 mph

 The National Hurricane Center says in an advisory that sustained wind speeds have decreased slightly to 75 mph. The storm remains a Category 1 hurricane.

 Harvey's center is now about 25 miles west of Victoria, Texas, moving at 6 mph.

 9:20 a.m.: More than 16 inches of rain have fallen in Victoria, Texas

 CBS News correspondent Manuel Bojorquez joined CBSN from Victoria, Texas, with an update from the heart of the storm. Speaking from his hotel as Harvey's eyewall whipped palm trees in the background, Bojorquez reports Victoria has received more than 16 inches of rain in the past 24 hours.

 His hotel began swaying in the wind early Saturday morning. The roof of a car dealership behind the hotel began flapping in the heavy winds, indicating the likelihood of extensive structural damage as Harvey swirls over Texas.

 "The big concern is not only all this wind, but of course all of this rain," Bojorquez reports. "They're not expecting just inches of rain here. They are expecting to get up to 2.5 feet. And so the major flooding that will happen as a result of this hurricane is something that they will deal with for days to come here."

 9:12 a.m.: Michio Kaku says "agony has just begun"

 CBS News science contributor Michio Kaku joined "CBS This Morning: Saturday" to discuss the science behind Harvey and why it will continue to cause damage for days.

 "First of all, if it lingers over the land, it could cause massive flooding. And then, watch out," he said. "If it goes back into the Gulf, it could get reenergized and create a second, even a third landfall. And so the agony has just begun with this hurricane of the decade."

 8:55 a.m.: Power outages now affect more than 255,000 customers in Texas

 More than a quarter-million customers are without power in Texas early Saturday after Hurricane Harvey made landfall. Utilities are reporting outages affecting more than 255,000 customers.

 AEP reported more than 192,000 customers without power as of early Saturday. CenterPoint Energy reported nearly 58,000 customers without power.

 Outages were also reported by Austin Energy, CPS, Entergy and Oncor. Read the full story here.

 8:35 a.m.: Latest forecast as Harvey settles over Texas

 Texans are facing days of rain as Hurricane Harvey settles in. Meteorologist Megan Glaros joined "CBS This Morning: Saturday" with the latest forecast at the top of the hour.

 The system continues to weaken in terms of wind speed, but it continues to pull in moisture from warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico. Winds have decreased to 80 mph and the storm continues to move at a sluggish 6 mph, which will continue for the next few days.

 In Victoria, Texas, more than 16 inches of rain has fallen. McFaddin and Austwell have received just under 12 inches, and Edna and Sugar Land about 9 inches. Total rainfall could total more than 40 inches in places over the coming days.

 7:25 a.m.: President Trump says he is "closely monitoring" storm, FEMA director doing "great job"

 Closely monitoring #HurricaneHarvey from Camp David. We are leaving nothing to chance. City, State and Federal Govs. working great together! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 26, 2017

 You are doing a great job - the world is watching! Be safe. https://t.co/PJLdxy3hD9 — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 26, 2017

 6:15 a.m.: Category 1, with maximum winds near 90 mph

 Hurricane Harvey became a Category 1 storm with top wind speeds near 90 mph, the National Hurricane Center reported. Tide gauges near Port Lavaca, Texas, recorded water levels more than 6.5 feet higher than normal.

 STAFF / REUTERS

 5:00 a.m.: From Category 3 to Category 2

 The National Hurricane Center downgraded Hurricane Harvey to a Category 2 storm, with maximum sustained winds near 100 mph. Harvey is likely to become a tropical storm later today as it moves further inland, predicted NHC forecasters who also warned of "catastrophic flooding over the next few days due to heavy rainfall." .

 4:30 a.m.: Emergency crews in limbo

 Many emergency crews were unable to make rescues early Saturday because of Harvey's strong winds. Melissa Munguia, the deputy emergency management coordinator in Nueces County, which includes Corpus Christi, said early Saturday that it could be several more hours before crews could fully assess the damage in coastal communities.

 ADREES LATIF / REUTERS

 3:40 a.m.: More than 211,000 homes and businesses lose power

 More than 211,000 customers were without power on the Texas Gulf Coast due to effects from Hurricane Harvey, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas reported. The storm was downgraded to a Category 3 hurricane early Saturday morning, as Harvey's maximum sustained winds decreased to nearly 125 mph. Additional weakening is forecast during the next 48 hours while the center of Harvey is over southeastern Texas.

 2:30 a.m.: Homeowner shoots intruder, cops say

 A homeowner shot an alleged intruder in Corpus Christi just as Hurricane Harvey was making landfall late Friday night, Corpus Christi police said. Read the full story here on CBSNews.com.

 The victim was taken to a local hospital, and was coherent when police arrived on scene, Corpus Christi police tweeted. According to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times, the victim was shot in the head.

 Update on shooting @ 7100 Ficus Ct. homeowner shot intruder. Victim @ Hosp. with gunshot wound was coherent when medics took him. PIO Pace — Corpus Christi PD (@CorpusChristiPD) August 26, 2017

 1:45 a.m.: "Boil water," Corpus Christi residents told

 In Corpus Christi, the major city closest to the center of the storm, wind whipped palm trees and stinging sheets of horizontal rain slapped against hotels and office buildings along the city's seawall as the storm made landfall. Boats bobbed violently in the marina. It was too dark to tell whether any boats had broken their moorings.

 City officials notified residents to "boil their water prior to consumption (e.g., washing hands/face, brushing teeth, drinking, etc)" to kill all potentially harmful bacteria and other microbes. "Water for drinking, cooking and ice making should be boiled and cooled prior to use for drinking water or human consumption purposes. The water should be brought to a vigorous rolling boil and then boiled for two minutes."

 1:15 a.m.: Early details emerge from Rockport

 Rockport, Texas, a coastal city of about 10,000 people some 30 miles northeast of Corpus Christi, was directly in the path of Harvey when it came ashore. The city had peak wind surges of more than 125 mph, according to the National Weather Service.

 Volunteer Fire Department Chief Steve Sims said there were about 15 firefighters at the city's fire station waiting for conditions to improve enough for their vehicles to safely respond to pleas for help. "There's nothing we can do at this moment. We are anxious to get out there and make assessments, but we're hunkered down for now," Sims said, according to an Associated Press report.

 Fire Department spokeswoman Gillian Cox told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times that the roof of Rockport's high school has partially caved in. But Cox says social media posts that the school has "disappeared" are inaccurate.

 Rockport City Manager Kevin Carruth told the newspaper that the courthouse also sustained major damage. Carruth said a cargo trailer was halfway in the building.

 Earlier Friday, Rockport Mayor Pro Tem Patrick Rios offered ominous advice, telling a local TV station that those who chose to stay put "should make some type of preparation to mark their arm with a Sharpie pen," implying doing so would make it easier for rescuers to identify them.

 When I reported people in Rockport, TX were being told to write their social security # on their arms, people tweeted me it was ridiculous. https://t.co/BkVhUJsGz6 — David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) August 26, 2017

 12:30 a.m.: Facebook activates "Safety Check" feature

 Facebook has activated its Safety Check feature for Hurricane Harvey, allowing Facebook users to inform friends and family of their whereabouts during the weather emergency.

 Facebook users can also find the feature on their smartphone apps. As CBSNews.com sibling site CNET explains: "Safety Check is now integrated into the mobile apps, meaning you can manually notify friends of your status as well as follow crises worldwide and even offer support. The only trick is finding it. When Facebook does a server-side activation, you'll usually see a notification right at the top of the app. But if you want to access the feature yourself, it requires a bit of menu-diving."

 Here's a primer from CNET on how to find the feature on Android devices and iPhones.

 12:00 a.m.: Roof collapses at senior housing complex

 Several residents are trapped inside a senior housing complex in Rockport, Texas, where a roof collapsed, a city manager confirmed to CBS News.

 City manager in Rockport, TX tells CBS News people trapped inside of senior housing complex where roof collapsed; rescuers unable to get in — David Begnaud (@DavidBegnaud) August 26, 2017

 A couple is trapped in a mobile home in Rockport after a tree fell on it, according to Rockport City Manager Kevin Carruth.

 More than 32,000 homes and businesses have lost power in Corpus Christi, CBS affiliate KZTV reports. The city of Corpus Christi has issued a precautionary water boil advisory.

 The City of Corpus Christi.. yeah, I'd say we lost some power. #hurricaneharvey 🙏🏻 pic.twitter.com/CAO8hy3oCl — Marisol Gonzalez (@MarisolKZTV) August 26, 2017

 Large shipping boats in Port Aransas have broken away from their moorings, leading to significant damage, KZTV reports.

 Storm surges up to 13 feet are predicted in some places with up to 40 inches of rain over several days. The National Weather Service warns some residents may not be able to return to their homes for weeks or months.

 Friday

 11:05 p.m.: Harvey makes landfall

 The eye of Harvey made landfall just after 11 p.m. between Port Aransas and Port O'Connor as a Category 4 storm with 130 mph winds, the National Weather Service said.

 #Harvey made landfall at 10 PM CDT as a category 4 hurricane near Rockport, Texas, with max winds of 130 mph and min pressure of 938 mb. pic.twitter.com/98y5wpKmBw — NHC Atlantic Ops (@NHC_Atlantic) August 26, 2017

 9:51 p.m.: President Trump signs disaster proclamation

 President Trump tweeted shortly before 10 p.m. that he had signed a disaster proclamation, which Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said earlier Friday he had requested. The disaster proclamation will allow federal funds to flow into state and local relief efforts.

 According to the National Hurricane Center, the storm is expected to make landfall "very soon."

 Eye of Category 4 #Harvey almost onshore in Texas. Hurricane force winds reported at many observing stations. Landfall expected very soon. pic.twitter.com/JZ4tE1Bvbx — NHC Atlantic Ops (@NHC_Atlantic) August 26, 2017

 8:20 p.m.: Evacuees seek refuge in San Antonio

 Hundreds of evacuees seeking shelter from Hurricane Harvey arrived in San Antonio on Friday, CBS affiliate KENS-TV reports.

 Two shelters opened their doors Friday morning, and city officials announced they would make room for at least 6,000 evacuees.

 "I get deep anxiety when it comes to stuff like this," Justine Vela of Corpus Christi told the station. Vela packed up her four children and left for San Antonio.

 "My kids don't kinda know what's going on because they are little," she said. "I'm trying to keep them calm and safe. This is the best place for us to be right now."

 7:45 p.m.: Trump prepares to face first major natural disaster as president

 Hurricane Harvey will be the first major natural disaster of President Trump's administration. The White House is saying FEMA has changed since the organization's dismal response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, CBS News' chief White House correspondent Major Garrett reports.

 The failures of Katrina haunt emergency planners to this day, so much so, White House Homeland Security Adviser Tom Bossert felt compelled to say "now is not the time to lose faith in your government institutions."

 "All the mayors and governors saw what happened at Katrina and they're not gonna let that happen," says David Paulison, who headed FEMA after Katrina and until 2009. He says that Katrina changed management procedures.

 "Before we waited for the local community to become overwhelmed before the state stepped in, and waited for the state to become overwhelmed before the federal government stepped in," Paulison tells Garrett.

 7:40 p.m.: FEMA urges residents to follow future orders

 Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) officials are encouraging residents and visitors in Hurricane Harvey's path to follow directions from local and state officials.

 "I encourage residents who will be affected to follow directions from their local officials," Administrator Brock Long said in a statement. "Know your threats, heed the warnings, and if you're in the path of the storm, ensure your family is prepared for possible prolonged disruptions to normal services."

 The agency has set up bases near Seguin, Texas, and areas closer to the storm's path to store supplies including more than 96,000 liters of water, 306,000 meals and 4,500 tarps and blankets, the Associated Press reports. State and local officials will be responsible for distributing the materials as needed.

 7:20 p.m.: 20-30 inches of rain expected in Victoria, Texas

 Victoria, Texas, is about 20 miles from the coast, but the distance is not expected to shield it from the worst impacts of Hurricane Harvey. Aside from winds up to 105 miles per hour, the biggest threat is the rain, CBS News' Manuel Bojorquez reports.

 Victoria is in the bull's eye of Hurricane Harvey's rain, with 20-30 inches expected over the next 72 hours. that's a year's worth of rain for this city.

 The flooding is expected to be worse than Victoria's 1998 disaster.

 "We've never seen a forecast for that kind of localized rain, and I've been working hurricanes and emergencies here for several years. It's the most dangerous forecast we've ever seen," said O.C. Garza the Victoria Office of Emergency Management.

 7:15 p.m.: Corpus Christi police stop responding to emergency calls

 Corpus Christi police are not responding to calls for emergency service because of the current weather conditions. If you live in the area and you want to get out, the free bus rides are over and the city has discontinued the service, CBS News correspondent David Begnaud reports.

 The National Weather Service says winds could leave homes uninhabitable for weeks or even months. Storm surge could reach 12 feet -- that's strong enough to wash away vehicles, Begnaud reports.

 Fears of a power outage forced the sickest babies at a children's hospital to be moved out of the hurricane's path. Others are heeding the warnings and evacuating on their own.

 7:02 p.m.: Hurricane Harvey upgraded to Category 4 storm

 The National Hurricane Center has upgraded Hurricane Harvey to a Category 4 storm with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph and is moving northwest at a speed of 8 miles an hour. The storm is about 45 miles outside of Corpus Christi.

 NEW: #Harvey continues to intensify and is now a category 4 #hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph. https://t.co/tW4KeGdBFb pic.twitter.com/7CkJkuafTb — NHC Atlantic Ops (@NHC_Atlantic) August 25, 2017

 6:09 p.m.: Houston officials resist calls for evacuation

 Houston is bracing for dozens of inches of rain, but officials are urging residents to stay put.

 Judge Ed Emmett, Harris County's top official, said "no mass evacuations" would be called because the hurricane would not "directly" hit the area.

 "Always say run from water, hide from wind, we mean storm surge, not rain. [It's] not the kind of water we would ask people to evacuation from," Emmett said.

 Mayor Sylvester Turner also urged residents to stay off roads and in their homes. Turner said there might be "greater danger" in having residents who don't need to be evacuated onto roads that could possibly flood, the Associated Press reports.

 6:13 p.m.: NWS issues "EXTREME WIND WARNING"

 The National Weather Service in Corpus Christi has issued a warning for southwestern Calhoun County in south Texas, urging residents to "TAKE COVER NOW!"

 "Widespread destructive winds of 115 to 145 mph will spread across Calhoun County, Aransas County, Nueces County, San Patricio County, Refugio County, producing swaths of tornado-like damage," the advisory says. "TAKE COVER NOW! Treat these imminent extreme winds as if a tornado was approaching and move immediately to the safe room in your shelter. Take action now to protect your life!"

 5:08 p.m.: Wind speeds reach 125 mph, officials warn of "catastrophic flooding"

 The National Hurricane Center (NHC) says in an update that Harvey now has wind speeds of 125 mph. It's now about 60 miles southeast of Corpus Christi.

 The NHC also says some areas of Texas could get 40 inches of rain and cause "catastrophic flooding." The storm surge is expected to be between 6 to 12 feet along parts of the coast.

 5:06 p.m.: Feds won't question families about immigration status at shelters

 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) issued a joint statement Friday saying they won't question the immigration status of families arriving to hurricane shelters in Texas and Louisiana.

 The agencies said their "highest priorities are to promote life-saving and life-sustaining activities, the safe evacuation of people who are leaving the impacted area, the maintenance of public order, the prevention of the loss of property to the extent possible, and the speedy recovery of the region."

 The joint statement said that routine "non-criminal immigration enforcement operations" would not be conducted at evacuation sites or assistance centers such as shelters or food banks.

 It also warned that immigration laws would not be suspended, and the agencies would "be vigilant against any effort by criminals to exploit disruptions caused by the storm."

 5:03 p.m.: President Trump arrives at Camp David

 The president has arrived at Camp David, where he will be monitoring the storm over the weekend:

 Just arrived at Camp David where I am closely watching the path and doings of Hurricane Harvey, as it strengthens to a Category 3. BE SAFE! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2017

 4:50 p.m.: National Weather Service director: "The impacts will be extreme"

 National Weather Service Director Louis Uccellini issued a warning to Louisiana and Texas residents on Friday, calling the impact of Hurricane Harvey "extreme" and "devastating."

 "Catastrophic inland flooding due to incredible rainfall amounts and damaging wind will also be associated with this storm," Uccellini said in a statement Friday. "The flooding will be catastrophic and life threatening. The economic impact will likely be devastating."

 4:46 p.m.: NASA posts photos of storm from space

 NASA posted new photos of Harvey from the International Space Station taken by astronaut Jack Fischer:

 .@Astro2fish orbited over Hurricane #Harvey2017 and photographed the storm bearing down on the Texas coast. pic.twitter.com/eBzNc7NlMZ — Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) August 25, 2017

 4:38 p.m.: Coast Guard rescues 12

 The U.S. Coast Guard says it has rescued 12 people from the storm near Corpus Christi.

 Breaking News: @USCG Air Station Corpus Christi rescued 12 as #HurricaneHarvey nears. Updates to follow soon at https://t.co/AJyH7tl8P9. pic.twitter.com/WRA8KzFQdy — USCG Heartland (@USCGHeartland) August 25, 2017

 4:30 p.m.: Corpus Christi mayor: "You can't force people to leave"

 Corpus Christi Mayor Joe McComb told CBSN that he hadn't issued a mandatory evacuation order citywide because "you can't force people to leave and send police out there and drag them out."

 He added, "you can highly recommend it, and we've done that, and say they need to get out of low-lying areas."

 McComb said he'd received a positive response of residents who were seeking higher grounds. "Many people have gone to San Antonio and points beyond," he said Friday.

 4:15 p.m.: Tornado threats in Louisiana and Texas

 The National Weather Service has issued a tornado watch for for parts of Louisiana and Texas lasting until 3:00 a.m. on Saturday.

 A tornado watch has been issued for parts of Louisiana and Texas until 2 AM CDT pic.twitter.com/WjHxXSSDFt — NWS Houston (@NWSHouston) August 25, 2017

 4:00 p.m.: Vice President Pence halts travel

 Vice President Mike Pence will remain in Washington D.C. during the storm, his spokesman Marc Lotter announced on Twitter. Pence will coordinate with President Trump as he visits Camp David with first lady Melania Trump on Friday.

 The White House said Marine One landed at Camp David at 3:46 p.m. on Friday, according to the pool report.

 Due to #HurricaneHarvey, @VP Pence will remain in DC this wknd, coordinating with @POTUS Trump at Camp David, monitoring storm & response. — Marc Lotter (@VPPressSec) August 25, 2017

 3:18 p.m.: President Trump tweets about Harvey

 President Trump addressed the threat of Hurricane Harvey on Friday, urging residents to follow the advice of local and state officials.

 I encourage everyone in the path of #HurricaneHarvey to heed the advice & orders of their local and state officials. https://t.co/N6uEWCZUrv — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 25, 2017

 3:15 p.m.: Texas governor requests disaster declaration

 Texas Gov. Greg Abbott held an afternoon news conference warning residents that Harvey is going to be a "very major disaster." Abbott said Friday that he's asked President Trump for a federal disaster declaration.

 Abbott warned residents in coastal areas to evacuate their homes, even if local officials hadn't issued an official warning.

 "Even if an evacuation order has not been issued by your local official," Abbott said, "if you are in areas between Corpus Christi and Houston, and maybe even some other areas, especially low lying areas, you need to strongly consider evacuating."

 He added, "You don't want to put yourself in a situation where you could be subject to a search and rescue."

 3:00 p.m.: Hurricane Harvey reaches Category 3

 Harvey became a Category 3 hurricane Friday afternoon, with sustained winds of 120 miles per hour, the National Hurricane Center said in an advisory. ||||| (Adds whereabouts of two more ships, comments from port director)

 HOUSTON, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Cruise ships carrying thousands of passengers were stranded in the Gulf on Friday as Hurricane Harvey, a Category 4 storm, came ashore in the middle of the Texas coast, closing the Port of Galveston.

 Carnival Corp said that three of its ships were unable to return Galveston as scheduled and that two of them would be forced to divert instead to New Orleans, where they would pick up fresh supplies.

 The cruise line said passengers could get off those two ships in New Orleans but advised against that in a statement posted on its Facebook page.

 “Given the severity and projected path of the storm along with potential challenges guests may encounter attempting to travel back to Galveston independently, we are strongly encouraging them to remain on board as we intend to return the ships to Galveston as soon as feasible,” Carnival said .

 A third ship, the Carnival Breeze, will extend its stay in Cozumel, Mexico, and begin sailing back to Galveston this weekend, the company said.

 The next scheduled cruises on all three ships will be shortened and customers will receive refunds, the company said.

 “We will continue to remain in close contact with port officials regarding their plans to re-open once the storm has passed,” spokeswoman Christine de la Huerta said.

 Royal Caribbean International said that its Liberty of the Seas cruise ship had departed Cozumel, Mexico on time on Friday and was still scheduled to return to Galveston on Sunday.

 “However, we will return to Galveston only when it is safe to do so,” Royal Caribbean spokesman Owen Torres said.

 The port’s interim director, Peter Simons, told the Houston Chronicle newspaper that officials there were still trying to determine if ships could safely return on Sunday.

 “We’re working with the cruise lines, the Coast Guard and the pilots to see what can be done to bring the cruise ships in as quickly but as safely as possible,” Simons told the paper.

 The Chronicle reported that a total of 1.73 million passengers left on cruises in 2016 from the port at Galveston, where an expanded cruise terminal opened last year. (Reporting by Ernest Scheyder in Houston; Additional reporting by Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles; Editing by Lisa Shumaker and Sandra Maler) |||||
What is a summary?

– The immediate effects of Hurricane Harvey on Texas are starting to show. The AP reports nearly 300,000 people lost power as some areas of the state received nearly 20 inches of rain. Some communities near the coast where Harvey made landfall Friday night are reporting damaged or destroyed homes, businesses, and schools and loss of cell service. Coast Guard helicopters were sent to rescue the crews of three tugboats that were in distress near Port Aransas on Saturday morning. And multiple cruise ships with thousands of passengers are currently stranded in the Gulf, unable to return to Galveston, according to Reuters. Two Carnival cruise ships were rerouted to New Orleans for additional supplies. Hurricane Harvey was downgraded to a Category 1 on Saturday morning, and CBS News reports it was expected to weaken to a tropical storm by the afternoon. But that doesn't mean the danger has passed. Some areas of Texas are expected to receive up to 30 inches of rain by Wednesday, and "catastrophic" flooding is still a possibility in the coming days. It's also possible Harvey moves back out to sea and gains strength before hitting Texas a second time.


Article:
Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.

 / Updated By Harriet Baskas

 You’re not imagining it if it seems like everyone you know is either planning a trip to Iceland — or just got back.

 The Nordic island nation — population 350,000 — has seen tourism numbers explode from under 500,000 in 2010 to more than 2.4 million tourists expected this year.

 Iceland has stunning glaciers, waterfalls, volcanoes, lava fields, geothermal pools and geysers — and an erupting volcano, Eyjafjallajökull. Ragnar Th. Sigurdsson / ARCTIC IMAGES / Courtesy of Promote Iceland

 Iceland’s stunning glaciers, waterfalls, volcanoes, lava fields, geothermal pools and geysers have always been there, of course. But it took global news coverage of the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano, cameo TV and film roles for Iceland’s scenery, and some quirky tourism campaigns to really grab the world’s attention.

 “At first it was crisis communications,” said Inga Hlin Palsdottir, Director of Visit Iceland and Creative Industries at Promote Iceland. “Our tourism industry was having difficult times after the 2008 recession and in 2010 things were just beginning to pick up. Then the volcano starting erupting right before the peak summer tourism season.”

 Related: How President Trump Has Impacted Foreign Travel

 Iceland’s tourism industry and the government banded together to try to save the summer season, eking out a tiny 0.1 percent increase that year. They continued to work together, with a focus on raising Iceland’s profile as a year-round destination and getting tourists to venture outside of the capital city of Reykjavik.

 “Before Airbnb was even booming, we had locals invite tourists to their homes. Then we asked tourists to rename Iceland, because the country really doesn’t have that much ice,” said Palsdottir, “Now we have the Iceland Academy,” which is a series of short, offbeat videos on everything from “How to Eat Like an Icelander,” to the essential “How to Avoid Hot Tub Awkwardness.”

 Now, music fans want to see where Björk, Of Monsters and Men, and Sigur Rós came from. TV and film aficionados want to see for themselves the Icelandic scenery that appears in hits such as HBO’s fantasy series ‘Game of Thrones,’ and the movie ‘The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.’

 And going somewhere where there’s a great chance of seeing the Northern Lights is on the bucket list of almost every traveler.

 Witnessing the Northern Lights is on most travelers' wish lists. Ragnar Th. Sigurdsson / ARCTIC IMAGES / Courtesy of Promote Iceland

 Foreign and local tour operators have greatly expanded schedules and itineraries throughout Iceland and the inventory of hotel rooms and vacation rentals have grown.

 For example, HomeAway’s listings in Iceland have grown by 68 percent in the past year, while demand for stays grew 81 percent, said HomeAway travel expert Melanie Fish.

 Helping to fuel the influx of visitors from North America is the increase in air service to Iceland, especially by Wow Air and Icelandair, two Reykjavik-based airlines that route their flights through Iceland and offer passengers the option of an Iceland stopover for no additional airfare charge.

 Wow Air flies to Iceland from these 10 North American cities, while Icelandair serves 13 U.S. airports (Philadelphia services starts May 30; Tampa services kicks off September 7) and five in Canada.

 “Who doesn’t love a two-for-one deal?” said Pauline Frommer, Editorial Director of Frommer’s guidebooks and Frommers.com. “Most travelers are jazzed by the idea of getting to see an additional destination on their way to Europe — and one that is hugely popular right now.”

 That was the appeal for Kenneth Swanstrom, a 59-year old logging contractor from Kalispell, Montana, who was heading to Europe earlier this month for a first-time visit.

 “Germany was the reason for my travel in the first place,” he said. “But I also wanted to see Iceland and I really liked the stopover option on Icelandair. I’ll definitely do it again.”

 Icelandair, celebrating its 80th anniversary this year, has been promoting its stopover option since perhaps the early 1950s or mid-60s, said airline spokesman Michael Raucheisen. “We’ve always encouraged passengers to come experience Iceland for a few days, fall in love with it and come back for a full trip. And that model has worked well over the years.”

 For passengers who don’t choose to stopover, Icelandair has two planes offering flyers a taste — or a tease — of the Iceland experience. The carrier’s Northern Lights-themed plane was introduced in 2015, and earlier this month the airline launched a glacier-themed plane (named for Iceland’s Vatnajökull glacier) that has images of the glacier hand painted on the exterior and, inside, ice-blue lighting and headrests, cups, napkins, lavatory décor and even airsickness bags with a glacier motif. ||||| The Jökulsárlón Glacial Lagoon lies on Iceland’s southern coast. It’s more than 800 feet deep and filled with chunks of ice that break off the nearby Breiðamerkurjökull Glacier.

 Many tourists attractions, like this one in Stokksnes, sit on private property, and it is up to the owners to care for them.

 A tourist floats in the Blue Lagoon, which sits in a lava field in Grindavik. It’s a manmade lagoon, built in 1976 and fed by water from a geothermal power plant. People flock to the lagoon to bathe in the silica mud.

 Construction at Skogafoss waterfall.

 Tourists fill a cafe at the Blue Lagoon.

 This US Navy plane crashed in Solheimasandur in 1973. Over the years, the site has become a stop for tourists.

 A tourist at Breiðamerkurjökull Glacier. Due to melting, the caves change from one year to the next, sometimes leading to discrepancies between image advertisements and reality.

 A sign warns visitors to keep out.

 This sculpture, Sun Voyager, by Jón Gunnar Árnason, sits by a road in Reykjavik.

 A geyser shoots into the air at a geothermal field in Geysir, Iceland.

 Construction facade in Reykjavík.

 Tourists stride across the Svínafellsjökull Glacier in Skaftafell National Park. |||||Summary:

– Some 2.3 million Earthlings who are not Icelandic will trek through Iceland this year, armed with selfie sticks in search of the island's breathtaking fjords, waterfalls, volcanoes, and Game of Thrones backdrops. That's nearly five times the foot traffic Iceland saw seven years ago and it's worth $3.4 billion and one out of every three jobs. But that boon for Iceland's economy comes with a serious drawback, writes Laura Mallonee at Wired, as tourists trample over aforementioned natural beauty, infrastructures groan, and yes, sewers overflow. "Uncontrolled tourism does have negative impacts on the environment," a tourism professors says. "So if tourism is not planned and managed properly we will see some of the natural attractions be damaged." "Nice experience," reads a typical Trip Advisor review, "but there should be less people." It's a problem that Iceland has worked hard for: The Iceland Monitor points out that there's now a guidebook in English that instructs tourists on how to act (hint: don't stick your hand in a geyser to see if it's scalding), while NBC News notes that Visit Iceland put together the "Iceland Academy," which gives visitors tips on gems like "How to Avoid Hot Tub Awkwardness." Add in cheap airfares, and the fact that, as a Frommer's rep puts it, "most travelers are jazzed by the idea of getting to see an additional destination on their way to Europe," and you've got yourself a hot spot. Mallonee cites one French photog who sought to document the tourist clog. The problem, she writes, "is that even as (his work) offers a commentary on all those damned tourists, his photos often look like tourism bureau ads." (Whatever you do, don't sneak your cat into Iceland.)


Article:
Cynk Technology Corp., the supposed social-network operator that caught the attention of the financial world with its skyrocketing stock price, was suspended from trading by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

 The halt is because of “concerns regarding the accuracy and adequacy of information in the marketplace and potentially manipulative transactions in CYNK’s common stock,” the SEC said today on its website. Judith Burns, a spokeswoman for the agency, declined to comment further.

 Cynk’s social network appears to have no members, no revenue, no assets and only one employee. The stock-price chart has been the talk of all manner of business blogs and Twitter pundits, from Business Insider to the Wall Street Journal and Zero Hedge, which has called Cynk’s moves “pure madness.”

 Cynk climbed as much as 49 percent to $21.95 yesterday in over-the-counter trading on volume of more than 380,000 shares before erasing its gain to close down 5.5 percent to $13.90. After closing at 6 cents on May 15, it began its surge with a 3,650 percent jump to $2.25 on June 17. The stock rose as much as 36,000 percent from May 15 to yesterday’s intraday high.

 “The issue of stock manipulation, or perceived stock manipulation, particularly in the penny market, is extremely common, and it’s a challenge to the regulators,” said Jacob Frenkel, a former SEC enforcement official who’s now a securities attorney at Shulman Rogers Gandal Pordy & Ecker PA. “Real companies get hurt when the entire space gets tagged as bad because of really bad incidents such as this.”

 Source: Introbiz.com Introbiz offers services to buy contact information of various types of people, including celebrities such as Nicole Kidman and Johnny Depp. Close Introbiz offers services to buy contact information of various types of people,... Read More Close Open Source: Introbiz.com Introbiz offers services to buy contact information of various types of people, including celebrities such as Nicole Kidman and Johnny Depp.

 ‘Buyer Beware’

 Before the SEC said the stock was suspended, it had been halted by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. The halt was reflected on the website of OTC Markets Group Inc., which runs venues for trading penny stocks. It marks stocks it deems suspicious, including Cynk, with a skull-and-crossbones icon and a “buyer beware” warning.

 Once OTC Markets “skull and crossbones something,” brokerage firms lock it down, said Cromwell Coulson, the company’s president and chief executive officer.

 “Ninety-nine percent of investors take a look at a stock like this and say no way,” Coulson said. “One percent says that would be fun to trade.”

 The surge in the shares may have occurred because of difficulty in shorting the stock, or borrowing the shares and betting they’ll decline, as well as brokerage compliance systems preventing owners from selling after the suspicious jump in price, Coulson said.

 ‘Out of Whack’

 “The big challenge is how can we get the information out to help Finra halt these and speed up the SEC suspension process to easily stop these heavily promoted securities that trade completely out of whack,” he said. “They’re a waste of time for our capital markets, hurt small-company capital formation and are harmful to investor confidence.”

 A message left today for Cynk wasn’t immediately returned.

 In Cynk’s last quarterly earnings report, filed with the SEC in November 2013, the company reported a $1.5 million net loss and no revenue for the first nine months of the year. The bulk of that loss came from stock-based compensation, which was listed under operating expenses.

 The document was signed by Marlon Sanchez, Cynk’s one employee at the time of the filing. He was listed as president, CEO, chief financial officer and secretary. A June 2013 filing showed Sanchez holding a 72 percent stake in the company.

 Belize Headquarters?

 Cynk said in its most recent filing from April that its headquarters are in Suite 400 of the Matalon, an office building in Belize City, Belize. The Matalon does not have a Suite 400, said Tiffany Techeco, secretary of building. She also said there is no main company with the name Cynk Technology; Introbiz, which is the name of Cynk’s website; or Introbuzz, the company’s former name.

 Cynk’s website, Introbiz.com, was created in June 2009 and uses GoDaddy Inc. as its Internet domain registrar and for Web hosting services. A Scottsdale, Arizona-based proxy company, Domains by Proxy, which promises to protect clients’ identities, registered the site.

 Introbiz offers services to buy the contact information of various types of people, including celebrities such as Nicole Kidman and Johnny Depp. It is currently possible to create an account on the website, deposit money through PayPal, or purchase information with a credit card or PayPal.

 (An earlier version of this story was corrected to show that OTC Markets wasn’t responsible for halting the stock. It was halted by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority.)

 To contact the reporter on this story: Jing Cao in New York at hcao38@bloomberg.net

 To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sarah Rabil at srabil@bloomberg.net Crayton Harrison, Stephen West ||||| Instagram/javierthelieutenant Everyone has been going nuts over a penny stock, CYNK Technology, that has surged 25,000% since mid-June.

 Friday, the Securities and Exchange Commission suspended trading of CYNK until July 24.

 CYNK Technology operates a "social network" called Introbiz.com. The company has no revenue, assets, or full-time employees. It has also been a mystery who runs the company.

 According to a filing with OTC Markets, the company's CEO is Javier Romero.

 "Javier Romero is the President, CEO, Secretary, Treasurer, and Director of Cynk Technologies, Inc. Since 2009 Mr. Romero has been a Fisheries Officer for the Government of Belize based out of Belize City," the filing says.

 Other than that, there's scant information available on Romero.

 Introbiz is a website that allows users to pay for connections to celebrities and business people on social media. We were able to track Romero down via a more old-fashioned technology, Facebook, where the profile includes photos of him flying airplanes and fishing.

 On the Facebook messaging system, he seemed to match the description on the filing. He told us that he's from Belize and lives in Boston. He also said he's learning how to fly airplanes and that he used to work as a fishery officer back in Belize.

 Eventually, we asked for his number and called him up.

 When reached by telephone, the man responded when we addressed him as "Javier." But after we told him we were working on a story about CYNK Technology, he quickly told us that he's not Javier and that his name is Jason.

 "Jason" told us that he works for Javier, but doesn't work for the company. He said that he's been friends with Javier since they were kids in Belize. He also said that Javier is in Boston for the next few days.

 Here's what we talked about on the phone:

 BI: Hey Javier, it's Julia.

 "Jason": Hi. How are ya?

 BI: How are you doing?

 "Jason": [laughs] All right.

 BI: Are you in Boston right now?

 "Jason": I am actually.

 BI: I'm a reporter and I've been really impressed with this company I know you're affiliated with — CYNK Technology and Introbiz. I was wondering if you could help me out and tell me more about it.

 "Jason": [laughs] Hey, I actually knew there was basically something like that going on.

 BI: So were you surprised the stock went up so high?

 "Jason": Well, actually I'm not Javier. I work for him.

 BI: Wait. But why are you Javier on Facebook? That's a little weird.

 "Jason": Yeah. I work for him.

 BI: Well, where's Javier?

 "Jason": He's actually out right now. I don't really want to disclose his business. I can definitely get a number for you guys.

 BI: Yeah. So do you work at CYNK, too?

 "Jason": I don't. I just work for him. I don't know.

 BI: Oh you work for him, but you don't work with Introbiz?

 "Jason": I do not.

 BI: If you're not 'Javier' then what's your name?

 "Jason": My name is Jason.

 BI: Jason what?

 "Jason": Hah. Ahhh like I said if you want to give me a number I can have him reach you guys.

 BI: Is he also in Boston with you?

 "Jason": He is here. He will be here for a couple of days.

 BI: Is he really excited about the stock?

 "Jason": I'm sure he's going nuts about it or whatever. We haven't really talked about it. Like I said, I just work for him.

 BI: You get to be Javier on Facebook?

 "Jason": He asked me to check out his stuff. I just let him know what's going on.

 BI: Does he usually let you talk to girls on his Facebook?

 "Jason": Uh, no.

 BI: I was really hoping you could give me a little more insight into this.

 "Jason": Personally, I don't know much. I just work for the guy. We've been very good friends since we were young. He recently got a hold of me and said he has a job for me.

 BI: How did you guys meet?

 "Jason": You know like I said Julia I don't know if I should be talking to anyone about this.

 BI: You sound a little nervous on the phone.

 "Jason": Yeah no, because I'm not supposed to be talking to too much people on his Facebook for him. I was just supposed to check his message. Then, here's this good looking girl and she wants to talk to me. I got a little carried away, OK.

 Jason has our number and we'll update if he or Javier gets in touch. Meanwhile, we might just reach out on Introbiz. ||||| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. ||||| The Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating how Cynk Technology Corp., a social network that reports zero assets, no revenue and one employee, soared to a $6 billion valuation, according to people close to the probe.

 The SEC on Friday halted trading in Cynk—whose price had shot up more than 100-fold since mid-June—because of concerns... |||||Summary:

– Too good to be true? A company with just one employee, no assets, and no revenue saw its penny stocks rocket to a $6 billion valuation this summer—enough for the SEC to shut down its trading and launch an investigation, the Wall Street Journal reports. The company, Cynk, runs a website called Introbiz.com designed to help connect people with celebrities and various kinds of professionals. Fair enough—until its stock leaped by 25,000% since June, notes Business Insider. Worse, the company address in Belize City, Belize, is inaccurate (Cynk apologized) and the company's shares have swapped hands three times over six years, always between people who were the CEO and sole employee. More details: Business Insider found someone matching CEO Javier Romero on Facebook and called him up. He answered to Javier until the reporter identified herself, when he said he was really Jason. Javier is "actually out right now," he said. "I don't really want to disclose his business. I can definitely get a number for you guys." Stock manipulation in the penny market is "extremely common" and hard to regulate, an expert tells Bloomberg. Another says that "one percent" of investors would trade in a company like Cynk—but stock promoters hardly helped, raving on Twitter that the stock "keeps surging higher!!" and "this could be EPIC!!" The SEC probe is part of its recent crackdown on penny-stock fraud. Over the past two years, the commission has halted trading in over 1,300 companies. The blog Zero Hodge drew attention to the stock this week, quipping, "Lord Overstone said it best. 'No warning can save people determined to grow suddenly rich.'"


Article:
We've been told all our lives that we can only call ourselves well-read once we've read the Great Books. We tried. We got halfway through Infinite Jest and halfway through the SparkNotes on Finnegans Wake. But a few pages into Bleak House, we realized that not all the Great Books have aged well. Some are racist and some are sexist, but most are just really, really boring. So we—and a group of un-boring writers—give you permission to strike these books from the canon. Here's what you should read instead. 1. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry Instead: The Mountain Lion by Jean Stafford I actually love Lonesome Dove, but I'm convinced that the cowboy mythos, with its rigid masculine emotional landscape, glorification of guns and destruction, and misogynistic gender roles, is a major factor in the degradation of America. Rather than perpetuate this myth, I'd love for everyone, but particularly American men, to read The Mountain Lion by Jean Stafford. It's a wicked, brilliant, dark book set largely on a ranch in Colorado, but it acts in many ways as a strong rebuttal to all the old toxic western stereotypes we all need to explode. —Lauren Groff, 'Florida'

 2. The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger Instead: Olivia: A Novel by Dorothy Strachey I have never been able to fathom why The Catcher in the Rye is such a canonical novel. I read it because everyone else in school was reading it but thought it was totally silly. Now, looking back, I find that it is without any literary merit whatsoever. Why waste adolescents' time? Alternatively, I'd suggest Olivia, the story of a British teenage girl who is sent to a boarding school in France. It is short and written in a kind of levelheaded and deceptively straightforward style. Olivia eventually falls in love with her teacher Mademoiselle Julie T, who in turn, and without reciprocating that love out loud, is equally in love with Olivia. Julie never takes a wrong step, but there are signs for those who know how to read them. I read Olivia many, many times, bought it for many of my friends, and consider it the inspiration for Call Me by Your Name. —André Aciman, 'Call Me by Your Name'

 3. Goodbye to All That by Robert Graves Instead: Dispatches by Michael Herr Goodbye to All That, the autobiographical account of Graves's time in the trenches during World War I, is entertaining and enlightening. It's also incredibly racist. Graves includes samples of near unintelligible essays produced by three of his students (“Mahmoud Mohammed Mahmoud,” “Mohammed Mahmoud Mohammed,” and “Mahmoud Mahmoud Mohammed”) from his postwar stint as an English instructor in Cairo. The joke is twofold—all these silly natives have similar-sounding names, and they lack the basic intellectual capacity to grapple with the literature. A better option is Dispatches by Michael Herr. It concerns a different time, country, and war, but this is still, in my mind, the most indispensable personal account of the cruelty and violence of modern warfare. —Omar El Akkad, 'American War'

 4. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway Instead: The Summer Book by Tove Jansson My father loved The Old Man and the Sea, so I tried to love it. It left me unmoved. Mostly, I kept hoping the fish would get away without too much damage. (When my grandpa pushed me to catch a trout at a fish farm, I threw the rod into the pond.) I'd rather read Tove Jansson's The Summer Book. This series of vignettes about a grandmother and granddaughter living on a remote Finnish island is not just heartwarming: In its views of both Nature and human nature, it teaches us what it is to be in sync with the world. All of Jansson's adult fiction is deeply humane and beautiful. —Jeff VanderMeer, 'Annihilation'

 5. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho Instead: Near to the Wild Heart by Clarice Lispector Somehow, even at 208 pages, The Alchemist is 207 pages too long. A dude wanders the desert, trying to uncover his Personal Legend (capitalized as such throughout the book) while meeting people who speak in the inane aphorisms of a throw pillow: “Remember that wherever your heart is, there you will find your treasure.” If you're after a book of existential meandering by a Brazilian author, pick up the similarly slim Near to the Wild Heart by Clarice Lispector. Unlike the entitled desert wandering of The Alchemist, Wild Heart's contemplations are inward and complex. For Lispector, there aren't easy answers—and her universe sure as hell is not interested in your hopes and dreams. —Kevin Nguyen, GQ senior editor

 6. A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway Instead: The Great Fire by Shirley Hazzard Hemingway's novels—with their masculine bluster and clipped sentences—sometimes feel almost parodic to me. If you want to read about the intersection of love and war, Hemingway's subjects in A Farewell to Arms, consider Shirley Hazzard's The Great Fire, about the fallout of the Second World War. Though it was published in 2003, the book feels both contemporaneous with that period and wholly contemporary. Hazzard just writes so damn well, every sentence a gem.

 —Rumaan Alam, 'That Kind of Mother'

 7. Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy Instead: The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt I'm a great admirer of Cormac McCarthy's sparer masterpieces, but I'm ambivalent about Blood Meridian, the historical epic often cited as his greatest work. Set in the Old West and written in an impenetrable style that combines Faulkner and the King James Bible, Blood Meridian is a big, forbidding book that earns the reader bragging rights but provides scant pleasure. If you're looking for a more human-scaled, emotionally engaging novel set in the same time period, I'd recommend The Sisters Brothers by Patrick deWitt. It's a dark, funny, brutal Western about a pair of hired killers, at least one of whom has a conscience. It covers some of the same ground as Blood Meridian and has a lot more fun along the way. —Tom Perrotta, 'Mrs. Fletcher'

 8. John Adams by David McCullough Instead: Destiny of the Republic: A Tale of Madness, Medicine and the Murder of a President by Candice Millard David McCullough is one of our foremost historians, and his books are written with great care and impressive attention to detail. They also happen to be the driest, boringest tomes you'll ever sludge through. One time I read his book about the history of the Panama Canal, and it required about as much sweat and labor as it took to build the actual canal. For some kick-ass history, read Destiny of the Republic, about the assassination of President Garfield, the doctors who tried to save him but actually ended up killing him, and the frantic attempt by a deranged Alexander Graham Bell to invent a machine to find the bullet located in the president's body. All in a relatively tidy 339 pages. At no point will you feel like there's a test at the end. —Drew Magary, GQ contributor

 9 & 10. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain Instead: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave by Fredrick Douglass The worst crime committed by Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is that it makes first-time Twain readers think Twain wrote tedious, meandering stories. He did, as is evidenced by this, his book of tedious, meandering stories—but he also wrote a lot of richly entertaining meandering stories that are not constrained by the ham-fisted narration of a fictional backcountry child or suffused with his sweaty imitation of a slave talking. Alternatively, read Frederick Douglass's firsthand account of slavery, which is equal parts shocking and heartbreaking. It's also an invigorating revenge story: Douglass identifies slave owners by name and hometown, detailing their crimes with such specificity that their descendants will be embarrassed forever. While Jim, the affable slave friend of Huck Finn, exclaims things like “Lawsy, I's mighty glad…,” Frederick Douglass makes observations like “I love the pure, peaceable, and impartial Christianity of Christ: I therefore hate the corrupt, slaveholding, women-whipping, cradle-plundering, partial and hypocritical Christianity of this land.” You were saying, Mr. Twain? —Caity Weaver, GQ writer and editor Instead: The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll by Alvaro Mutis Mark Twain was a racist. Just read Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He was a man of his time, so let's leave him there. We don't need him. If you want adventure, or misadventure, read The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll, by Alvaro Mutis. It's one of my favorite books: sad, poetic, philosophical, and funny, with some of the best writing I've read. —Tommy Orange, 'There There'

 11. The Ambassadors by Henry James Instead: The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer Several people described The Ambassadors by Henry James in such a way as to make me impatient to read it, but between those descriptions and my experience of the book lay a chasm of such yawningness that it will never be crossed. Alternatively, I recommend The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich by William L. Shirer. I suspect that contemporary readers feel no great urge to pick it up because—in a way that doesn't happen with fiction—it has been rendered somewhat obsolete by more recent books on the subject. It's actually still as gripping as any literary classic. —Geoff Dyer, 'White Sands'

 12. The Bible Instead: The Notebook by Agota Kristof The Holy Bible is rated very highly by all the people who supposedly live by it but who in actuality have not read it. Those who have read it know there are some good parts, but overall it is certainly not the finest thing that man has ever produced. It is repetitive, self-contradictory, sententious, foolish, and even at times ill-intentioned. If the thing you heard was good about the Bible was the nasty bits, then I propose Agota Kristof's The Notebook, a marvelous tale of two brothers who have to get along when things get rough. The subtlety and cruelty of this story is like that famous sword stroke (from below the boat) that plunged upward through the bowels, the lungs, and the throat and into the brain of the rower. —Jesse Ball, 'Census'

 13. Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger Instead: Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather I loved all of Salinger's books when I was young, but now I feel that they're shallow. It's not that Salinger isn't a very accomplished writer, but there's a sort of slick, brittle, midcentury veneer to his work. It's very polished and not very profound. With Franny and Zooey, there's some Buddhist-y stuff in there, and there's stuff about being disenchanted and the real world around you seeming fake, but is that really profound? Instead I'd recommend a hidden gem, Cather's Death Comes for the Archbishop. Cather is a beautiful writer. She's very unfashionable, and I love that about her. Death Comes for the Archbishop is about a priest in what I'm pretty sure is Santa Fe. And it's incredibly calm and contemplative and open. It's the opposite of the kind of glossy, slick New York narrative. When you read it, it's like having a spiritual experience. It's not too long, and it's not effortful. —Claire Messud, 'The Burning Girl'

 14. The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien Instead: Earthsea Series by Ursula K. Le Guin I liked The Hobbit. A lot. But while Tolkien's Lord of the Rings books are influential as exercises in world building, as novels they are barely readable. It never seemed to me that Tolkien cared about his story as much as he cared about rendering, in minute detail, the world he built. Why not instead read Ursula K. Le Guin's magnificent (and as beautifully rendered) stories and novels surrounding Earthsea? Le Guin captures the world of Earthsea through a powerful, dark, gorgeous kind of storytelling that is irresistible. Perhaps Le Guin's work—along with an entire universe of fantasy fiction—wouldn't have been possible without Tolkien's influence behind it, but in its time, Le Guin's books are more influential and make for better reading. —Manuel Gonzales, 'The Regional Office Is Under Attack!'

 15. Dracula by Bram Stoker Instead: Angels by Denis Johnson Gothic-horror classics like Dracula and Frankenstein always leave me cold. If you want to read a truly terrifying literary gem, try Johnson's Angels. It unspools as a sort of nightmare that begins on a Greyhound bus. Poor Jamie grew up in West Virginia and leaves her abusive husband back in their trailer when she runs off with her two small children. On that fateful Greyhound bus she meets Bill Houston, who's done everything bad except kill someone, although by the end of the book he will have done it all. —Matthew Klam, 'Who Is Rich?'

 16. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller Instead: The American Granddaughter by Inaam Kachachi I never could get into Joseph Heller's Catch-22. It fails to capture the absurdities and impossible conflicts of war. However, one of the most arresting novels I've read about war is Kachachi's The American Granddaughter. Set at the beginning of the Iraq war, this book tells the story of Zeina, an Iraqi-American who signs up to be an interpreter for the U.S. Army and finds herself stationed in her hometown of Baghdad, where she must hide her work from her formidable grandmother. What follows is a thoughtful, nuanced, and often uproariously funny meditation on war in the 21st century. —Emily Robbins, 'A Word for Love'

 17. Life by Keith Richards Instead: The Worst Journey in the World by Apsley Cherry-Garrard I’ve nodded along—or maybe plain lied in agreement—when people extol Keith Richards’s memoir, Life. And I understand what’s to like: the life Life aims to represent has been an incredible one, and Richards affects a revelatory intimacy that, as you might wish, is both amiable and caustic. But his pettiness, and his cockiness and conceit about the wrong things, can be jarring at times; it’s a book that somehow makes me sympathize with Mick Jagger. And for all its great moments, the narrative sometimes seems a little lazy and fraudulent—as I read, I feel too aware of the efforts the ghostwriter has made in collecting “the greatest tales of Keith Richards” and refreshing them at the source. If those stories are new to you, you’ll be well entertained, but I wonder at its status as a modern day masterpiece. Instead, you might try The Worst Journey In The World, a book in which the author spends no time at all trying to convince the reader of his own greatness. Quite the opposite. In 1910, a 24-year-old Cherry-Garrard joined a British expedition to the South Pole. As the title of his book hints, it didn’t go well. Their leader, Captain Scott, was beaten to the Pole by a Norwegian explorer, and those who reached the pole died on their return. And that’s just a part of this story. For instance, Cherry-Garrard’s account of a month-long trek with two companions to collect some emperor penguin eggs is an unforgettable depiction of endurance and suffering in unimaginable conditions. That such a book, nearly a hundred years old, would be a pleasure to read today might seem improbable. But the way Cherry-Garrard writes, without grandiose flourishes but with a stoic and dogged commitment to describe and explain his experiences, is gripping from its very first line: “Polar exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of having a bad time which has been devised.” —Chris Heath, GQ correspondent

 18. Freedom by Jonathan Franzen Instead: Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal Freedom is intolerably boring. The risks of frustration and asphyxiation while reading in bed are equally high with this huge, much vaunted American über-tome. But freedom is at the heart of this tiny Czech novel, Too Loud a Solitude. In around a hundred pages, it tells the story of Hanta, who has found wisdom in his job, compressing paper and books in a totalitarian state. The jokes are funny, and the stories lead us to ever richer revelations. The book is over almost before it has begun. —Richard Flanagan, 'The Narrow Road to the Deep North'

 19. Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon Instead: Inherent Vice by Thomas Pynchon When young Thomas Pynchon was writing Gravity's Rainbow, he was fixated on the Big Things (punishingly boring and confusing things) of a Big World War II Novel that would announce him as a Big American Writer in 1973. Fortunately for us, nearly four decades later he brought us his recollections of everything else that was swirling around him back then. The world Pynchon conjures in Inherent Vice (published in 2009) is the world he himself was living in while writing Gravity's Rainbow, when he was shacked up in a small apartment in the real-life Gordita Beach. Inherent Vice is where you should start if you want to dine on a small plate of Pynchon's stuff instead of a potluck platter. —Daniel Riley, GQ features editor

 20. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Instead: Veronica by Mary Gaitskill When men on dating apps list a book, they invariably list Slaughterhouse-Five. I'd rather not get a drink with a person who's taking his cues from Vonnegut: The few women in Slaughterhouse-Five die early, are porn stars, or are “bitchy flibbertigibbets.” Instead, read Gaitskill's Veronica, in which emotions are so present and sensory they almost hold a physical weight. Gaitskill understands how you can sense a loved one's mood radiating from the next room as clearly as rain out the window. This empathy drives her characters closer to cruelty than to kindness. —Nadja Spiegelman, 'I'm Supposed to Protect You from All This' ||||| CLOSE GQ Magazine placed the bible on a list called “21 Books You Don’t Have to Read.” Veuer's Sam Berman has the full story. Buzz60

 The Good Book is not so good, says GQ magazine. (Photo: Saul Loeb, AFP/Getty Images)

 Well, it appears this group of scribes won’t be greeted very warmly at the Pearly Gates.

 GQ magazine, a bible of “grooming” tips, gadget suggestions and style advice, has sparked a social media conflagration by calling the Christian Holy Bible “foolish, repetitive and contradictory” and placing it on a list of “21 Books You Don’t Have to Read.”

 “The Holy Bible is rated very highly by all the people who supposedly live by it but who in actuality have not read it,” novelist Jesse Ball writes in the magazine. “Those who have read it know there are some good parts, but overall it is certainly not the finest thing that man has ever produced.”

 Instead, Ball recommends reading Agota Kristof's The Notebook calling it “a marvelous tale of two brothers who have to get along when things get rough.”

 Also on the GQ list are such classics as The Catcher in the Rye, Lonesome Dove, The Old Man and the Sea, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Lord of the Rings.

 More: Biblical prophecy claims the rapture coming by month's end

 More: The Museum of the Bible debuts in the nation's capital

 More: Bible studies are underway at the White House

 More: Woman allegedly brought drugs into jail, hidden in Bible

 In an introduction to the piece, GQ editors attempted justify their choices. "We've been told all our lives that we can only call ourselves well-read once we've read the Great Books. We tried," the editors wrote. "We realized that not all the Great Books have aged well. Some are racist and some are sexist, but most are just really, really boring.”

 Perhaps predictably, the provocative proclamation about the Bible brought instant ire from Christians.

 "Even if you don't believe this is an inspired word of God, in the last 50 years 3.9 billion have read the book," Fox News religion contributor Father Jonathan Morris told Fox & Friends on Sunday. Morris also labeled the inclusion as “just foolish and a shame.”

 .@fatherjonathan: It’s ‘foolish’ that the editors of GQ Magazine would claim that the bible is one of the most overrated books of all time pic.twitter.com/rY7vhbTWkx — FOX & friends (@foxandfriends) April 22, 2018

 And evangelist Franklin Graham, in a post on Facebook, said that the Bible is “sharper than a double-edged sword. There’s nothing more powerful, and there’s nothing more needed by mankind than the Word of God.”

 Graham suggested that the GQ editors need to read it again. “The subject of the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, is Jesus Christ. And one day soon, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that He is Lord.”

 On Twitter, a user called Bluestar called GQ “The Most Overrated Magazine Of All Time!” and said the choice was an “epic fail.”

 Another poster, who identified himself as Eric Metaxas, also slammed the magazine. “If there is a person on the planet who cares what @GQMagazine has to say about literature, I'd love to meet that person,” said. “And pray for him.”

 If there is a person on the planet who cares what @GQMagazine has to say about literature, I'd love to meet that person. And pray for him. https://t.co/xJlWfH4m5P — Eric Metaxas (@ericmetaxas) April 22, 2018

 Meanwhile, Twitter user David D raged that “This Act by GQ is a total disgrace to the Christain (sic) Community.”

 “I really don't think I'll be buying anymore GQ Mags,” he proclaimed.

 I just heard GQ Magazine just Bashed the Bible!!!

 The Bible is God's Holy Word.

 I really don't think I'll be buying anymore GQ Mags.

 This Act by GQ is a total disgrace to the Christain Community. — 🇺🇸 David D 🇺🇸 (@luckydbldd) April 22, 2018

 And in perhaps the cruelest jab at the magazine, Tweeter Brian Houston declared that the Bible “is way more hip than GQ.”

 Wow. What a way for GQ to show this irrelevance. The bible is way more hip than GQ. — Brian Houston (@BrianCHouston) April 23, 2018

 GQ did not immediately respond to a request for a comment.

 Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2FcPKxa |||||Summary:

– If you've ever found yourself struggling through a so-called "classic" book only to find yourself thinking, "How racist/sexist/boring," you're not alone. The editors of GQ, along with some current authors, have put together a list of 21 such books (technically 20, because one of them got two votes) that are simply outdated and should be struck from the "Great Books" canon. The list got itself mentioned on Fox & Friends last weekend, and not in a good way—it includes the Bible, which Jesse Ball calls "repetitive, self-contradictory, sententious, foolish, and even at times ill-intentioned," leading Fox News religion contributor Father Jonathan Morris to push back by calling its inclusion on the list "foolish," USA Today reports. Lots of social media users also decried the choice, and evangelist Franklin Graham said the editors "couldn't be more wrong." As for what else made the list, here's a sampling—along with the books the editors and the authors they spoke to think you should read instead: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain: This is the book that got two votes. "Mark Twain was a racist. ... He was a man of his time, so let's leave him there," writes Tommy Orange. Instead, he suggests reading The Adventures and Misadventures of Maqroll by Alvaro Mutis; Caity Weaver suggests Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.


Donald Trump wants to build a wall on the Mexico-US border — a big, beautiful wall, of course. And while this idea may sound inherently ridiculous to a lot of people, Trump is very serious about it. So on Sunday's Last Week Tonight, Oliver decided to take Trump's primary policy proposal seriously.

 There are lots of problems, according to Oliver:

 Cost: Trump has at varying times estimated that the wall will cost anywhere from $4 billion to $12 billion. But according to the Washington Post, experts put the estimate closer to at least $25 billion. And while Trump insists Mexico will pay for the wall, there is zero evidence for that: Mexican officials have flat-out rejected the idea.

 Trump has at varying times estimated that the wall will cost anywhere from $4 billion to $12 billion. But according to the Washington Post, experts put the estimate closer to at least $25 billion. And while Trump insists Mexico will pay for the wall, there is zero evidence for that: Mexican officials have flat-out rejected the idea. Geography: Where does the wall go? As Oliver points out, this isn't as easy a question to answer as you might think. Large parts of the border are made up of the Rio Grande river. The wall can't be built to obstruct the flow of the river, per a 1970 treaty.

 As a consequence, big parts of the border fence approved in 2006 were built inland, sometimes actually blocking off US territory, such as the Fort Brown Memorial Golf Course. As the Guardian put it, the fence has turned into a "costly logistical nightmare."

 Where does the wall go? As Oliver points out, this isn't as easy a question to answer as you might think. Large parts of the border are made up of the Rio Grande river. The wall can't be built to obstruct the flow of the river, per a 1970 treaty. As a consequence, big parts of the border fence approved in 2006 were built inland, sometimes actually blocking off US territory, such as the Fort Brown Memorial Golf Course. As the Guardian put it, the fence has turned into a "costly logistical nightmare." Effectiveness: It's not clear whether the wall would do much, if anything, to stop the flow of unauthorized immigrants into the US. In a 2006 report, the Pew Research Center estimated that "nearly half of all the unauthorized migrants now living in the United States entered the country legally through a port of entry such as an airport or a border crossing point where they were subject to inspection by immigration officials" — and then they just remained in the country without authorization. A wall wouldn't stop them.

 Not to mention all the people who would get around the wall with a ladder, rope, or underground tunnel.

 Does this matter to Trump and his supporters? Maybe not. As Oliver noted, many people may want the wall as a symbol — it feels like it keeps the US safe. Trump has said it keeps out Mexican immigrants whom he characterized as "rapists" and "criminals." But a century of empirical research suggests Trump is wrong: Immigrants are potentially less, not more, likely to commit crime than their native-born counterparts. So it's not clear just how much safer it would make America.

 Ultimately, Oliver suggested that buying a $75 electric waffle iron for every American would be a better use of the money than building a wall.

 "I know what you're thinking: 'John, this is a stupid idea.' But is it? Is it, really? Yes, obviously, it is," Oliver said. "But is it significantly stupider than Donald Trump's wall? Because this waffle iron plan will cost less, it'll do nearly as much to keep out immigrants and drugs, it won't harm our relationship with our third-largest trading partner, if it is racist it's only toward Belgians, and, unlike Donald Trump's wall, this makes fucking waffles."

 Watch: Donald Trump's rise is a scary moment in America ||||| If there’s one policy proposal Donald Trump has outlined in great detail, it’s his idea to build a wall along the border between the United States and Mexico—and, of course, to make Mexico pay for it. While the proposal has made a great talking point for Trump, it has also drawn a lot of well-deserved criticism—and on Sunday night’s episode of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver delivered what might be the most thorough takedown yet.

 At first, Oliver put aside the obvious racism implied by such a plan and instead tackled the absurdity of the plan itself—highlighting its rising proposed costs, the silliness of believing Mexico would pay for it (even as Mexican officials insist they would not), and the practical complications of actually building the wall itself. “It’s like getting a pet walrus,” Oliver said. “You think it’s stupid now? Wait until you find out what a bucket of sea cucumbers costs.” And then there’s the fact that the 30-foot wall could be surmounted by something as simple as a 31-foot ladder.

 But of course Oliver wasn’t going to leave the racism and xenophobia aside for good. In fact, Trump’s comments that frame immigrants as criminals ignore the data that show that immigrants are less crime-prone than their native-born counterparts. So Oliver ended the segment by making a counterproposal, putting forward a plan that would cost less and do a better job of giving Americans what they truly crave: a warm feeling inside. ||||| + READ ARTICLE

 In the wake of his nearly successful campaign to #MakeDonaldDrumpfAgain (or at least sell a lot of hats emblazoned with the slogan), John Oliver once again has Donald Trump in his show’s cross hairs.

 Last night, Oliver spent a new episode of Last Week Tonight doing his impression of the Kool Aid Man, knocking down the wall that the Republican presidential candidate wants to build to separate Mexico and the United States in order to curtail illegal immigration. While Trump has estimated the wall would only cost $4 billion, Oliver notes that, “Donald Trump’s margin of error is only the GDP of Moldova.” Oliver did the math on the project and the cost in both dollars and common sense is much more.

 In his take down of the idea, Oliver noted that the wall would cost an estimated $26 billion, would sit on on private property, could take up to ten years to build and has serious effectiveness issues. Oliver believes there is a better way to #MakeAmericaGreatAgain — buy everyone waffle irons.

 And, yes, he knows he looks like a pygmy owl when he delivers the news.

 While the majority of the episode was dedicated to Trump’s wall, the show ended with a very important poll question:

 Which dog would make the best Merrick Garland on their Dog Supreme Court? Vote now. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– John Oliver ignored Donald Trump for a long time, then devoted a whole show to ridiculing his candidacy. Now he's specifically going after Trump's plans for a big border wall. In the latest episode of his HBO show, Oliver delivered "what might be the most thorough takedown yet" of Trump's idea to keep out immigrants from Mexico, observes Slate. (See the video here.) Among Oliver's arguments, as rounded up by Time and Vox: It would cost about $26 billion, not $4 billion to $12 billion as Trump says; Mexico wouldn't pay for it; the wall would be a nightmare to build and would likely have to be on private property; and it wouldn't work anyway. Oliver's counterproposal: Buy every American a waffle iron. Says Oliver: "Because this waffle iron plan will cost less, it'll do nearly as much to keep out immigrants and drugs, it won't harm our relationship with our third-largest trading partner, (and) if it is racist it's only toward Belgians ..."