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– A federal advisory panel has delivered its assessment on climate change, and it's not pretty. Expect hotter temperatures and more "extreme weather events" across the US in coming decades, says the panel of 240 scientists and other experts, reports the Hill. “These changes are part of the pattern of global climate change, which is primarily driven by human activity,” says the draft report of the National Climate Assessment. (Read it in full here.) Some other highlights: It's a problem now: "Climate change, once considered an issue for a distant future, has moved firmly into the present," says the report. "Americans are noticing changes all around them. Summers are longer and hotter, and periods of extreme heat last longer than any living American has ever experienced. Winters are generally shorter and warmer." Severe weather: “Certain types of weather events have become more frequent and/or intense, including heat waves, heavy downpours, and, in some regions, floods and droughts. Sea level is rising, oceans are becoming more acidic, and glaciers and arctic sea ice are melting." How much hotter? Most of the US will be 2 to 4 degrees Fahrenheit hotter over the coming decades, says the report. Under current emissions, temperatures could rise a staggering 5 to 10 degrees by 2100. The report does not make recommendations on how to fix things, notes the LA Times, but environmentalists and their legislative backers hope the forecast will prompt the White House to move. "The findings in the report are a three-alarm fire," says Democratic congressman Henry Waxman. The last assessment came out in 2009, and "evidence for a changing climate has strengthened considerably" since then, say the authors, reports NPR.

Major report warns climate change could raise temperatures by 10 degrees By Ben Geman - Tweet A major draft federal report concludes that climate change is already affecting U.S. residents through heat waves, droughts and other changes, and warns that temperatures could increase as much as 10 degrees Fahrenheit if global carbon emissions keep soaring.

 The third National Climate Assessment, released Friday, said there’s “unambiguous evidence” that earth is warming, and that climate change over the past 50 years is driven primarily by human activity, especially from burning fossil fuels.

 “Certain types of weather events have become more frequent and/or intense, including heat waves, heavy downpours, and, in some regions, floods and droughts. Sea level is rising, oceans are becoming more acidic, and glaciers and arctic sea ice are melting,” states the draft report developed by a federal advisory panel.

 “These changes are part of the pattern of global climate change, which is primarily driven by human activity,” adds the draft report, released through U.S. Global Change Research Program.

 It also tallies regional effects of climate change in the U.S.

 Environmentalists quickly seized on the report, which follows a separate federal announcement that 2012 was the hottest year on record in the lower 48 states, to call for more aggressive steps to drive down emissions.

 “This could help restart a national conversation about climate change,” said Todd Sanford, a scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists. “It gives us a road map for climate change. And the road is much bumpier if we continue along a higher emissions pathway.”

 Carol Browner, President Obama’s former climate czar, said the U.S. has made progress in reducing emissions but more action is needed immediately.

 “We can start with strict carbon pollution standards for power plants and we must significantly expand investments in community resiliency to protect people and the economy from the gathering storms — and floods, droughts, wildfires, and heat waves,” said Browner, who is now a senior fellow with the liberal Center for American Progress.

 The report finds that U.S. temperatures will continue rising 2 degrees F to 4 degrees F in most areas in the coming decades, and calls for effort to increase resilience to changes that cannot be avoided.

 But it’s unclear how high temperatures will climb. The report provides a range of 3 degrees F to 5 degrees F by century's end if global emissions are reduced sharply after 2050, and up to 10 degrees F if they’re not.

 Average U.S. temperatures have risen roughly 1.5 degrees F since 1895, and more than 80 percent of that increase has occurred since 1980, the report concludes.

 The report is just the latest broad study or statement by a scientific body to conclude there’s overwhelming evidence that global warming is under way and that human activities are a major cause.

 For instance, the National Research Council, in a The report tallies the wide-ranging effects of climate change, such as water supplies stressed by declining runoff and increased risk of heat stress and waterborne disease, and notes that U.S. infrastructure is already being harmed by sea-level rise, storm surges and heavy downpours.It also tallies regional effects of climate change in the U.S.Environmentalists quickly seized on the report, which follows a separate federal announcement that 2012 was the hottest year on record in the lower 48 states, to call for more aggressive steps to drive down emissions.“This could help restart a national conversation about climate change,” said Todd Sanford, a scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists. “It gives us a road map for climate change. And the road is much bumpier if we continue along a higher emissions pathway.”Carol Browner, President Obama’s former climate czar, said the U.S. has made progress in reducing emissions but more action is needed immediately.“We can start with strict carbon pollution standards for power plants and we must significantly expand investments in community resiliency to protect people and the economy from the gathering storms — and floods, droughts, wildfires, and heat waves,” said Browner, who is now a senior fellow with the liberal Center for American Progress.The report finds that U.S. temperatures will continue rising 2 degrees F to 4 degrees F in most areas in the coming decades, and calls for effort to increase resilience to changes that cannot be avoided.But it’s unclear how high temperatures will climb. The report provides a range of 3 degrees F to 5 degrees F by century's end if global emissions are reduced sharply after 2050, and up to 10 degrees F if they’re not.Average U.S. temperatures have risen roughly 1.5 degrees F since 1895, and more than 80 percent of that increase has occurred since 1980, the report concludes.The report is just the latest broad study or statement by a scientific body to conclude there’s overwhelming evidence that global warming is under way and that human activities are a major cause.For instance, the National Research Council, in a 2011 report , noted that climate change is “very likely caused primarily” by human-induced greenhouse gas emissions. However, a substantial number of Republicans dispute the conclusion that human activities are the primary driver of climate change.

 Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), chairman of the House Science, Space and Technology Committee, said in a statement Friday that he plans to vet climate science in the new Congress.

 “I believe climate change is due to a combination of factors, including natural cycles, sun spots, and human activity. But scientists still don’t know for certain how much each of these factors contributes to the overall climate change that the Earth is experiencing,” he said in a statement Friday.

 “It is the role of the Science Committee to create a forum for discussion so Congress and the American people can hear from experts and draw reasoned conclusions,” he said. The panel will have a hearing on the environment in coming weeks, according to committee aides.

 While climate advocates are pouncing on the report, it’s unlikely to fundamentally change the politics of climate change on Capitol Hill, where bills to cap emissions or impose carbon taxes are moribund.

 However, green activists are pressing for stronger executive actions, such as Environmental Protection Agency carbon emissions standards for existing power plants.

 The broad new federal assessment was released in draft form Friday by the National Climate Assessment and Development and Advisory Committee, which is comprised of experts from academia, various industries and elsewhere.

 The National Research Council will review the draft, which is also open for public comment.

 The report was crafted under the Global Change Research Act of 1990, which requires wide-ranging climate reports to the president and Congress. This post was updated at 5:34 p.m. on Jan. 12

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 U.S. Will Be 2-4 Degrees Hotter In Coming Decades, New Climate Report Says

 i itoggle caption NOAA NCDC/CICS-NC NOAA NCDC/CICS-NC

 Temperatures will continue to rise in America, "with the next few decades projected to see another 2 degrees [Fahrenheit] to 4 degrees [Fahrenheit] of warming in most areas," according to the latest National Climate Assessment, which came out Friday afternoon.

 That means we can expect to see more "extreme weather events," according to the report, such as heavy precipitation — particularly in the Northeast and Midwest — and intense Atlantic hurricanes. Other parts of the U.S. will experience heat waves and droughts, especially in the West.

 By 2100, U.S. temperatures are projected to rise 3 to 5 degrees, under the most optimistic estimates — and 5 to 10 degrees if global greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase.

 While it doesn't seem to bring any startling new facts to the table, the assessment's authors say that "evidence for a changing climate has strengthened considerably" since the last report, issued in 2009.

 Some of that evidence has been on display recently. Earlier this week, we were told that 2012 was the hottest year on record for most of the U.S. The year's weather, marked by droughts and powerful storms, led NPR's Adam Frank to call 2012 "the year that climate change got real for Americans."

 Seeking to highlight the everyday effects of those changes, the report's advisory committee included a "Letter to the American People," in which they laid out some of the ways the changing weather has begun to affect livelihoods and futures:

 "Many more impacts of human-caused climate change have now been observed. Corn producers in Iowa, oyster growers in Washington State, and maple syrup producers in Vermont have observed changes in their local climate that are outside of their experience. So, too, have coastal planners from Florida to Maine, water managers in the arid Southwest and parts of the Southeast, and Native Americans on tribal lands across the nation."

 The 1,193-page report, the work of more than 240 scientists, is in "draft" form; it has been released for three months of review and comment by other scientists and the public. That review period will begin Monday.

 "This could help restart a national conversation about climate change," writes Todd Sanford, of the Union of Concerned Scientists. "It gives us a road map for climate change. And the road is much bumpier if we continue along a higher emissions pathway." ||||| Residents of Ogden, Utah, clear snow after close to a foot fell in the area Friday. A federal report on climate change described devastating weather linked to global warming. (Nick Short, Associated Press / )

 WASHINGTON — The impacts of climate change driven by human activity are spreading through the United States faster than had been predicted, increasingly threatening infrastructure, water supplies, crops and shorelines, according to a federal advisory committee.

 The draft Third National Climate Assessment, issued every four years, delivers a bracing picture of environmental changes and natural disasters that mounting scientific evidence indicates is fostered by climate change: heavier rains in the Northeast, Midwest and Plains that have overwhelmed storm drains and led to flooding and erosion; sea level rise that has battered coastal communities; drought that has turned much of the West into a tinderbox.

 "Climate change, once considered an issue for a distant future, has moved firmly into the present," the report says. "Americans are noticing changes all around them. Summers are longer and hotter, and periods of extreme heat last longer than any living American has ever experienced. Winters are generally shorter and warmer."

 Written by 240 scientists, business leaders and other experts, the draft assessment arrives days after the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued its annual State of the Climate Report, which noted that 2012 was the hottest year on record. Together, the two major reports and a year of drought, wildfires, floods and freak storms have created for President Obama the chance to take substantial steps on climate change, environmentalists said.

 The report explicitly addresses the most controversial question in the global warming issue, saying that consumption of fossil fuels by humans is the main driver of climate change.

 "The findings in the report are a three-alarm fire," said Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Beverly Hills). "Climate change is already causing widespread disruption across the nation. We are in deep trouble if we don't act forcefully this year."

 But with the White House working on so many economic, foreign and domestic policy fronts, it remains unclear if the president will speak up more on climate, let alone spearhead new initiatives.

 The Obama administration has implemented several regulations to curtail emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that scientists say have stoked global warming. But the president seldom speaks of climate change.

 The White House declined to comment on the National Climate Assessment report, saying it had not had a chance to review it.

 The report, issued by an independent, interagency group operating under the president's National Science and Technology Council, first came out in 2000 but went on hiatus during the Bush administration. It does not offer policy proposals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or to help specific communities adapt to climate change. Instead, it details the risks they face.

 The Southwest, including California, produces more than half of the country's "high-value specialty" crops that are heavily dependent on irrigation. But a projected decline in snowpack and stream flow and increased competition for the water could threaten California's agricultural communities. Higher temperatures could disrupt regional electricity grids and create public health emergencies in Southwestern cities, where 90% of the region's population lives.

 Flooding and sea level rise are already damaging some coastal California communities during storms and high tides, the assessment says, and water would come farther inland as erosion worsens.

 The final assessment will be issued in early 2014. Public comment on the draft will be accepted until April 12.

 neela.banerjee@latimes.com |||||


Article:

Family of Grace Sung Eun Lee says video proves she wants to stay on life support Brain cancer patient’s lawyer says parents are putting her under ‘indescribable pressure’

 The family of a terminally ill woman who asked doctors to remove life support posted a murky video Thursday that they claim is proof she wants to stay hooked up to the machines.

 The desperate parents of a terminally ill Manhattan banker released a murky video of her Thursday as a mystery panel of judges deliberated on whether she can die.

 Grace Sung Eun Lee’s family is trying to stop a hospital from honoring her request to end life support — and they claim the video is proof she wants to stay hooked up to breathing and feeding tubes.

 But the soundless footage — taped hours after Lee told the Daily News, “I want to die” — sheds little light on her state of mind.

 Lee’s court-appointed lawyer complained her devout parents — who believe she’ll go to hell if she pulls the plug — are putting her under “incredible pressure.”

 “She has made herself abundantly clear,” the lawyer, David A. Smith, said of his client, who can’t move from the neck down and is being kept alive by machines. “They stand there all day, and tell her that this is Satan’s work — and she loves her parents desperately.

 “They do love her, equally. This is just awful.”

 An appeals court could decide as early as Friday whether to let Long Island’s North Shore Hospital disconnect Lee, who has an inoperable brain tumor.

 The tragic case is being handled by a four-judge Appellate Division panel. The names of the judges will be made public after they issue a ruling. The key questions are whether Lee wants to pull the plug and whether she’s competent to decide.

 Her Korean-born parents initially conceded she requested the tubes be removed but said she was too drugged-up to think straight. Now, the Rev. Manho and Jin-ah Lee contend their daughter has simply changed her mind and wants to stay on life support.

 Christie M Farriella for New York Daily News In video posted on Facebook, the 28-year-old mouths “yes” when cousin Intae Kim asks a question that’s impossible to make out. “We asked her, ‘So do you want us to take you to the nursing home to take care of you?’” said Lee’s older brother, Paul. “She told us that she wanted to leave the hospital.” Vague as it is, the video probably wouldn’t hold much legal weight. Terry Lynam, a spokesman for North Shore-LIJ Hospital Systems, said the hospital has not made changes to Lee’s care and is waiting for the appeals court decision.

 But her parents say they answer to a higher power.

 “When someone sets a time and date to die, that is considered as a suicide and sin,” Rev. Lee said.

 His daughter was training for the New York City Marathon last year when she fell ill and was diagnosed with brain cancer. Last month, she had a seizure and was rushed to North Shore, where she has begged doctors to remove life support, they testified.

 The parents went to court Sept. 24 and asked that the father be appointed guardian.

 After an emergency hearing, a Long Island judge ruled the tubes could be removed.

 The family rushed to the Appellate Division in Brooklyn and obtained a temporary order keeping life support in place until the judges make a full ruling.

 epearson@nydailynews.com ||||| They rushed to court Sept. 24 hoping to have their daughter declared incompetent and her father appointed guardian. After an emergency hearing, a Long Island judge ruled the tubes could be removed.

 Still unable to accept their daughter's fate, Lee's parents rushed to the Appellate Division in Brooklyn and obtained a temporary order keeping life support in place.

 In a motion to the four-judge panel, Lee's parents spelled out their objections, arguing that their daughter has "devoted her life to her faith."

 They note that she has worked at her church, ran a Bible group at work and went on missionary trips to South Africa, Ethiopia and Mexico.

 "One of the tenets of the faith is the preservation of life under all circumstances," the parents' motion says.

 "The removal of the respirator and/or the feeding tube is considered suicide. A person who commits suicide is condemned in the next life to burn in Hell forever."

 "Obviously, this could not be (Lee's) intention," it adds.

 Lee's lawyer countered that the incapacitated woman has made her desire to die crystal clear.

 "My client had directed me in the clearest and most unmistakable of terms to 'not let that weekend pass,' " Smith wrote.

 He also pointed out that she has no hope for recovery.

 "Her brain stem is so utterly compromised that she will never again be able to breathe on her own," Smith's motion says.

 Even with the court ruling against Lee's parents, a hearing scheduled last week on the issue of her father's guardianship is still slated for Tuesday.

 But after huddling with the lawyers for Lee's parents in a closed-door meeting with the judge Friday, her attorney said there's little left to be decided.

 Now, it's up to Lee.

 "There are now no restraints remaining on her exercising her right to die," Smith said. "If and when she decides to exercise it, she can do so. But she has not made that decision."

 rschapiro@nydailynews.com |||||
What is a summary?

– A New York state appeals court ruled today that Grace Sung Eun Lee has the right to die, the Daily News reports. The incurably ill Manhattan banker has begged doctors to pull the plug, but her religious parents did their best to stop the request. They even released a video in which Lee mouthed the word "Yes" to a question from her cousin—but that question was impossible to make out, reports the Daily News. "She has made herself abundantly clear,” said Lee's court-appointed lawyer. "They stand there all day, and tell her that this is Satan’s work—and she loves her parents desperately. ... This is just awful." Lee was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor last year and put on life support last month. But her father, a reverend, says that "when someone sets a time and date to die, that is considered as a suicide and sin." No word yet on whether her parents will give up their legal battle.


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President Donald Trump, accompanied by his daughter Ivanka, waves as they walk to board Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2017. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) (Associated Press)

 DOVER AIR FORCE BASE, Del. (AP) — Assuming the somber duties of commander in chief, President Donald Trump made an unannounced trip Wednesday to honor the returning remains of a U.S. Navy SEAL killed in a weekend raid in Yemen.

 Chief Special Warfare Operator William "Ryan" Owens, a 36-year-old from Peoria, Illinois, was the first known U.S. combat casualty since Trump took office less than two weeks ago. More than half a dozen militant suspects were also killed in the raid on an al-Qaida compound and three other U.S. service members were wounded.

 More than a dozen civilians were also killed in the operation, including the 8-year-old daughter of Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical cleric and U.S. citizen who was targeted and killed by a drone strike in 2011.

 Trump's trip to Delaware's Dover Air Base was shrouded in secrecy. The president and his daughter, Ivanka, departed the White House in the presidential helicopter with their destination unannounced. A small group of journalists traveled with Trump on the condition that the visit was not reported until his arrival.

 After returning to the White House, Trump commented on the trip at the swearing-in of Rex Tillerson as secretary of state.

 "I just returned from an amazing visit with a great, great family at Dover," Trump said. "It is something very sad, very beautiful. Ryan, a great man."

 Marine One landed at Dover shortly before a C-17 believed to be carrying Owens' remains touched down. The president met with Owens' family during a two-hour visit to the base. The sailor's family had requested that Trump's visit and the return of Owens' remains be private.

 Former President Barack Obama lifted a ban on media coverage of the casualty returns, though families may still request privacy. A spokeswoman at Dover said about half of families choose to allow media coverage.

 Owens joined the Navy in 1998 and was the recipient of two Bronze stars, a Joint Service Commendation and an Afghanistan Campaign Medal, among other honors. In a statement following his death, the Navy Special Command called Owens a "devoted father, a true professional and a wonderful husband."

 His death underscores the human costs of the military campaigns Trump now oversees. Far fewer troops are serving in combat now than in the wars Trump's predecessors led in Afghanistan and Iraq, but thousands of Americans remain in hotspots around the world.

 In Afghanistan, where America's longest war continues, about 8,400 U.S. troops are training and advising local forces. More than U.S. 5,100 troops in Iraq and about 500 in Syria are involved in the campaign against the Islamic State group. The U.S. also engages in counterterrorism operations — mainly drone strikes — in Yemen, where Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula has exploited the chaos of the country's civil war.

 Sunday's pre-dawn raid — which a defense official said was planned by the Obama administration but authorized by Trump — could signal a new escalation against extremist groups in Yemen.

 As a candidate, Trump said he would be willing to "take out" the families of terrorists in order to root out extremism. On Tuesday, White House spokesman Sean Spicer said no Americans "will ever be targeted" in raids against terror suspects.

 The president's trip to Dover comes as he begins weighing whether to reshape U.S. military activities around the world. As a candidate, he vowed to be tougher on the Islamic State and at one point said he would be willing to send up to 30,000 U.S. troops to fight the extremist group in Iraq and Syria. Last week, Trump gave the Pentagon and other agencies 30 days to submit a plan for defeating the Islamic State.

 Trump has said little about his approach to Afghanistan. Obama had pledged to end the war there on his watch, but continuing security concerns prompted him to extend the U.S. military campaign, handing the war off to a third American president.

 Trump, who never served in the armed forces and received student and medical deferments during the Vietnam War, had an uneven relationship with the military community during the presidential campaign.

 About 60 percent of voters who served in the military supported Trump in the presidential election, compared with 34 percent who voted for Democrat Hillary Clinton, according to exit polls. But Trump was also criticized by military groups, including the Veterans of Foreign Wars, for his feud with the Khan family, whose Muslim-American son was killed while serving in Iraq.

 ___

 Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor and AP Polling Director Emily Swanson contributed to this report.

 ___

 Follow Julie Pace at http://twitter.com/jpaceDC ||||| Since Donald Trump's inauguration, Melania (R) has not been seen at official events and is not living in the White House, raising questions on what kind of first lady the former model will be (AFP Photo/Nicholas Kamm )

 New York (AFP) - Two weeks after her husband's inauguration, questions are mounting about what kind of first lady Melania Trump will be.

 The 46-year-old former model wowed the crowds at his swearing-in ceremony and inaugural balls dressed in Ralph Lauren powder blue and a vanilla crepe, ticking fashion boxes and suggesting that the mother of one was anxious to step up to her new role.

 Since then, however, she has not been seen at official events, is not living in the White House and is still putting together her staff.

 She was last spotted by the president's side at an inter-faith church service on January 21 before making the reported 90-minute commute home to New York by helicopter, plane and motorcade the following day. With no imminent plans to move to Washington, she's said to want the couple's 10-year-old son Barron to stay at his school at least until the end of the academic year.

 On Tuesday, she was conspicuously absent when Trump announced his Supreme Court pick. Vice President Mike Pence and Neil Gorsuch brought their wives. Even Trump's sons Donald Jr. and Eric made the journey from New York.

 On Wednesday, the president's daughter Ivanka accompanied him to Delaware to honor a fallen Navy SEAL. Unlike her stepmother, Ivanka has already moved from New York with her husband, White House advisor Jared Kushner.

 Asked in December if he would be lonely rattling around the White House on his own, then president-elect Donald Trump told Fox News: "No, I'll be working."

 Never in modern times -- when Americans are accustomed to having visible and active first ladies -- has a president's wife not moved straight to Washington.

 "Certainly in that time we haven't seen a phenomenon such as this where the first lady delays for at least several months moving into the White House," said Katherine Jellison, history professor at Ohio University.

 For more news videos visit Yahoo View, available now on iOS and Android.

 - Quiet start common -

 Melania's absence has prompted speculation in the media, which Trump's senior advisor Stephen Bannon has likened to "the opposition" for its tough, critical coverage of the president's campaign and his first two weeks in office.

 "Whither Melania Trump?" 12 days without a public sighting," CNN said. "Where is Melania?" asked The Washington Post. "Separate Lives," ran a headline in celebrity magazine US Weekly.

 The White House announced Wednesday that the first lady had appointed a chief of staff -- Lindsay Reynolds, who previously served there under George W. Bush.

 "I am putting together a professional and highly experienced team which will take time to do properly," the first lady said in the statement.

 Still, first ladies tend to maintain low profiles at the start. Hillary Clinton and Rosalynn Carter proved exceptions to the rule.

 "The first lady often sets out her policy agenda in March or April, complementing and reinforcing the 100-days agenda of the president," said Connecticut College government professor MaryAnn Borrelli.

 But beyond admiring Michelle Obama and Jacqueline Kennedy and mentioning a potential campaign against cyber bullying, Melania has given little indication so far of what kind of first lady she wants to be.

 - Reframing the job? -

 Since Trump assumed office, her official Facebook and Twitter accounts have issued just one update -- on January 21 -- proclaiming her "deeply honored" to serve.

 Just one appointment to her staff has been revealed besides Reynolds: longtime friend and New York event planner Stephanie Winston Wolkoff as senior adviser. Other positions such as press and social secretaries have yet to be filled.

 The absence is not helping her lackluster approval ratings, partly a by-product of her husband's deep unpopularity among half the electorate. She was also mocked during the campaign for a major speech that plagiarized Michelle Obama.

 But Borelli believes her unpopularity is not entirely unusual.

 "I think that first ladies often enter the White House with a mix of support and suspicion and then the job is -- because they do public outreach -- how to capitalize on the support and manage suspicion," she said.

 Michelle Obama, the first African-American first lady, and Clinton and Eleanor Roosevelt, who both defied the meek housewife stereotype, also came in for heavy criticism particularly at the start.

 Others say it is time for an independent first lady who reflects reality in the 21st century, when few American women are defined by their husbands.

 Should Melania continue to keep a low profile, future generations may credit her as a modernizer who broke free from the confines of her position.

 "It may lower expectations for the next woman," Jellison said. "She won't feel that she has to be the perfect American wife and mother role model." ||||| An aide to Melania Trump on Wednesday confirmed that the First Lady will move to the White House starting at the beginning of the summer.

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 "Mrs. Trump will be moving to D.C. and settling into the White House at the end of the school year, splitting her time between New York and D.C. in the meantime," Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, senior adviser to the First Lady told ABC News. "Mrs. Trump is honored to serve this country and is taking the role and responsibilities of the First Lady very seriously."

 The confirmation comes after a rumor sparked by tabloids early Wednesday morning that the First Lady and her 10-year-old son Barron Trump were not considering a move to Washington, D.C. from New York City.

 Later on Wednesday, the White House also announced that Lindsay Reynolds would be joining the First Lady’s team as her Chief of Staff.

 "I am putting together a professional and highly-experienced team which will take time to do properly,” the First Lady said in a White House press release.

 Apart from being the First Lady’s Chief of Staff, Reynolds is also an assistant to the President. But in her capacity as Chief of Staff, Reynolds will be in charge of "managing the agenda and day to day operations" of the First Lady’s office.

 "It has been an honor to take on the responsibility of the position of First Lady, with its long history as an important representative of the President, our family, and the traditions of our nation around the world," the First Lady said in the statement. ||||| Melania Trump has hired a chief of staff, a move that puts her first official mark on the White House, but the first lady’s office is likely to be pretty lonely for the foreseeable future.

 Trump herself hasn’t been in Washington since her husband’s inauguration weekend, and it’s not clear when she will return. She has said she plans to continue living in Trump Tower in Manhattan while son Barron finishes out the school year.

 Story Continued Below

 And even though Lindsay Reynolds, a private fundraising planner and former official in President George W. Bush’s visitors office, will be joining the second floor of the East Wing, there’s little insight on when she’ll get co-workers.

 Key roles still open in the first lady’s office include the press operation, scheduling, correspondence and the social office.

 The relatively empty first lady’s office is a break from Melania Trump’s predecessors. Laura Bush and Michelle Obama each assumed the role with a chief of staff and a social secretary at the ready.

 But some say it’s not surprising that Melania Trump hasn’t staked her claim on the office of the first lady, since she has yet to settle into the White House. The first lady’s role comes with a budget and a staff that technically reports to the office of the president, but there’s no statutory authority and its contours have been shaped by tradition.

 “We have become accustomed with the activism of the first lady, but there’s nothing that is required and there really is no specific job description for the first lady,” said Anita McBride, former chief of staff to Laura Bush and an executive in residence at American University. “Each occupant gets to rewrite how they want to handle it.”

 Reynolds was involved in planning the inauguration under former Vogue events planner Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, who is acting as a consultant to the first lady. Key roles still open in the first lady’s office include the press operation, scheduling, correspondence and the social secretary’s office, which plans state dinners and other formal events.

 Residence staff had to step in and organize the swearing-in ceremony for White House appointees and the lunch with British Prime Minister Theresa May last week. “The most important person in the first lady’s office is the social secretary,” said McBride. She cautioned that working without a social secretary is not a “long-term solution.”

 “Clearly you’re going to have a lot of social events that will require the expertise of a social secretary,” she said.

 Ebs Burnough, former deputy social secretary to Michelle Obama, said it’s not necessary to have an active first lady’s office as long as the social secretary has access to the Oval Office. “The social secretary can conceivably not see the first lady and just deal directly with the president,” he said.

 Transition officials sought guidance from staffers who worked for Obama and for Laura Bush, according to sources, which is customary. Since the transition, Jessica Boulanger, a Washington-based communications executive and the founder of a line of maternity wear, has been helping the first lady field press requests pro bono, she said.

 Obama’s East Wing was largely staffed by Inauguration Day, and even staff attracted an unusual degree of attention — including social secretary Desiree Rogers, who scored a spread in Vogue. Obama used her role to promote exercise and healthy eating, a campaign that required a staff to manage and execute.

 Melania Trump said during the campaign that she would fight online bullying.

 Melania Trump’s stepdaughter Ivanka joined her father on his trip to Dover Air Force Base, where they were present as the remains of a Navy SEAL killed in a weekend raid in Yemen were returned to the U.S. It was the first time Ivanka Trump, who’s moved with her family to Washington and whose husband, Jared Kushner, is a senior White House adviser, had taken on any of the symbolic duties usually reserved for a president’s spouse.

 Ivanka Trump was a vocal presence on the campaign trail and was in the West Wing last weekend as her father made calls. A source close to her says she doesn’t have a desk in the East Wing “for now.”

 White House aides have said Melania Trump will move to Washington in the summer, once Barron, the president’s youngest child, finishes the school year in New York.

 People in Melania Trump’s Upper East Side set haven’t been surprised to see her take a low-key approach to her new role. “She's sort of like Rapunzel in the tower,” said one New York City socialite who knows Trump from her infrequent appearances on the New York social and charity scene.

 Annie Karni contributed to this report.

  |||||

– Melania Trump is holed up in New York City until at least the end of son Barron's school year, already redefining the role of first lady. The New York Times reports on that upended role, and whether Melania will even play much of one at all, noting it was Trump's daughter Ivanka, not his wife, who accompanied him to Dover Air Force Base to honor a US Navy SEAL killed during last weekend's Yemen raid. A first-lady historian tells the Times that Melania is "far behind the curve" in terms of conventional duties, including organizing the tour requests that are already stacking up. People said to be close to Mrs. Trump, though, say she'll eventually increase her presence but is in no rush to do so. Other ruminations about the first lady from around the web: AFP expands on the "low-profile" first lady, with a Connecticut College professor observing that the first lady's agenda has traditionally emerged in March or April of inauguration years. Melania has made one major move: She hired Lindsay Reynolds, a private fundraising organizer, as her chief of staff, per Politico, which calls the first lady's office the "loneliest place in the White House." Despite an Us Weekly report earlier this week that Melania and 10-year-old Barron may never leave New York, an aide to the first lady tells ABC News that Melania (and presumably Barron) will indeed relocate to DC at the beginning of the summer. The rep adds Mrs. Trump takes "the role and responsibilities of the First Lady very seriously." Melania's defamation lawsuit against the Daily Mail was tossed by a Maryland judge because the state court did not have jurisdiction to take on a foreign entity, BuzzFeed reports. Her suit against a blogger continues.


Article:

Police officers disperse the relatives of prisoners who were waiting to hear news about their family members imprisoned at a police station when a riot broke out, in Valencia, Venezuela, Wednesday, March... (Associated Press)

 Police officers disperse the relatives of prisoners who were waiting to hear news about their family members imprisoned at a police station when a riot broke out, in Valencia, Venezuela, Wednesday, March 28, 2018. In a state police station housing more than one hundred prisoners, a riot culminated in... (Associated Press)

 VALENCIA, Venezuela (AP) — Distraught families are clamoring for information about detained relatives following a fire that Venezuela's chief prosecutor says killed 68 people when it swept through the cells of the state police station.

 Angry relatives fought with police outside the facility Wednesday after being unable to get any information on casualties from Wednesday's fire, which townspeople said erupted after a disturbance involving detainees. Officers used tear gas to disperse the crowd, and local officials would confirm only that there were fatalities.

 Late Wednesday, Attorney General Tarek William Saab said on his official Twitter account that 68 people were dead and nearly all of them were prisoners. He said the dead included two women who were staying overnight at the station, but he didn't provide any further details.

 Saab said four prosecutors had been named to determine what happened at the state police headquarters in Valencia, a town in Carabobo state about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of Caracas.

 It was one of the worst jail disasters in Venezuela, where human rights groups complain about poor conditions in prisons and jails. A fire at a prison in the western state of Zulia killed more than 100 inmates in 1994.

 With tears streaking cheeks, people waiting outside the station Wednesday said dozens of detainees had been kept in squalid conditions and they feared the worst for their loved ones.

 Some people buried their hands in their faces. Others had to be supported by friends and family as they collapsed in despair. Some wept quietly and clutched their hands in prayer.

 "I don't know if my son is dead or alive!" cried Aida Parra, who said she last saw her son the previous day, when she took food to him. "They haven't told me anything."

 Nearby, National Guard troops wearing flak jackets and carrying rifles slung across their backs walked in and out of the station. Fire trucks and ambulances stood outside. Unused stretchers leaned against a wall.

 A Window to Freedom, a nonprofit group that monitors conditions at Venezuela's jails and prisons, said preliminary but unconfirmed information indicated the riot began when an armed detainee shot an officer in the leg. Shortly after that a fire broke out, with flames growing quickly as the blaze spread to mattresses in the cells, it said. Rescuers apparently had to break a hole through a wall to free some of the prisoners inside.

 Photos shared by the group showed prisoners being taken out on stretchers, their limbs frozen in awkward positions as skin peeled off.

 Carlos Nieto Palma, director of A Window to Freedom, said officials should be held accountable for failing to address the poor conditions in police station jails. The group said overcrowding has become common throughout Venezuela, with detainees being kept long past customary brief holding periods before being let go or sent to larger jails to await trial.

 "It's grave and alarming," Nieto Palma said. "What happened today in Carabobo is a sign of that."

 Opposition lawmaker Juan Miguel Matheus demanded that the pro-government leader of Carabobo state inform relatives about what happened.

 "The desperation of relatives should not be played with," he said.

 Clashes between prisoners and guards are not uncommon in Venezuela. Inmates are frequently able to obtain weapons and drugs with the help of corrupt guards and heavily armed groups control cellblock fiefdoms. ||||| (CNN) Scores of people have died in a blaze that engulfed a jail in the Venezuelan city of Valencia, according to the country's head prosecutor.

 Sixty-eight people died in the fire at a police command and detention center, according to a tweet from head prosecutor Tarek William Saab's official account.

 "We have appointed four prosecutors to clarify these dramatic events," Saab said, adding that 66 of those killed were men and two were women.

 "We will deepen the investigations to immediately clarify these painful events that has dozens of Venezuelan families in mourning," Saab said.

 Police officers disperse the relatives of prisoners who were waiting to hear news about family members imprisoned at the police station.

 As news filtered out early in the day, angry family members seeking information clashed with police and pushed against a barricade, prompting officers to shoot tear gas at the crowd, according to local media reports.

 Read More ||||| Relatives waiting for news outside a Venezuelan prison where 68 inmates have died in a fire have been tear-gassed by police.

 The blaze started when violence broke out during an attempted breakout at the jail, which is attached to a police station, in the northern city of Valencia.

 Families of the prisoners, who were hoping for news outside the police station, were dispersed with tear gas, while others came up against police officers wielding riot shields.

 Image: Riot police were also scrambled to deal with the crowds

 One woman present outside the jail, Dora Blanco, told local media: "I am a desperate mother. My son has been here a week. They have not given any information."

 Another distraught mother, Aida Parra, said: "I don't know if my son is dead or alive. They haven't told me anything."

 Image: Relatives cried out in anguish outside the prison where 68 inmates died in a fire

 There are reports that a number of people burned to death during the unrest, and a policeman is recovering in a stable condition after being shot in the leg. Another was wounded by a stone that was thrown.

 Firefighters have now extinguished the blaze, which reportedly started when inmates set fire to mattresses.

 Chief prosecutor Tarek William Saab used Twitter to confirm the death toll, which includes two women thought to have been visiting the cells, adding that four prosecutors had been assigned to "clarify these dramatic events".

 Image: Paramedics attend to a relative of one of the inmates after she fainted

 It is the latest deadly incident at one of the country's overcrowded jails, with this prison believed to have a capacity of about 60.

 Rafael Lacava, the governor of Carabobo state, said: "A serious and profound investigation has been initiated to find the causes and those responsible for these regrettable events."

 His local political opponent, Juan Miguel Matheus, has demanded that those waiting outside the facility be kept informed: "The desperation of relatives should not be played with."

 Image: A homicide unit arrives at the prison after a riot

 Many Venezuelan jails are lawless and have been for decades.

 Prisoners often openly wield machine guns and grenades, use drugs and leave guards powerless.

 The overcrowding at many of the country's penitentiaries means convicts are often sent to temporary pens designed for suspects facing charges and court hearings, where they are supposed to stay for up to 48 hours only.

 Image: Families gathered to await news outside the facility

 Two weeks ago, 58 detainees had to be recaptured after escaping holding cells on the popular tourist spot of Margarita Island, and in August 2017 a riot at police cells in the southern state of Amazonas left 37 dead and 14 wounded.

 Last April, a dozen people died and 11 were injured when rival gangs fought at the Puente Ayala prison in the eastern city of Barcelona, and a month before that the remains of 14 people were found in a mass grave at the General Penitentiary of Venezuela in San Juan de Los Morros.

 Activist Humberto Prado said of the country's prisons: "There are people who are inside those dungeons, and the authorities do not know they exist because they do not dare to enter." |||||
What is a summary?

– At least 68 people were killed when fire swept through the cells of a police station in Venezuela early Wednesday—and relatives demanding answers later in the day were given tear gas instead. Tarek William Saab, chief prosecutor in the city of Valencia, says 68 people—66 men and two female visitors—died in "dramatic events" at the police command and detention center, and four prosecutors have been appointed to investigate the incident, CNN reports. "We will deepen the investigations to immediately clarify these painful events that has dozens of Venezuelan families in mourning," Saab says. Desperate families waiting for news outside the police station were tear-gassed and dispersed after fights with police, Sky News reports. The nonprofit group A Window to Freedom, which monitors conditions at detention facilities in Venezuela, says there are unconfirmed reports that the fire broke out during unrest that began when an armed detainee shot a guard in the leg, the AP reports. Inmates, some of them badly burned, had to be rescued through a hole made in the station wall. The group says severe overcrowding in police station jails is common in Venezuela. "It's grave and alarming," says Carlos Nieto Palma, the group's director.


Article:

Jake Perry. (All Photos: Phil Kline)

 Jake Perry is a cat man. Standing about 5-foot-7 and often clad in workman’s clothes, the 85-year-old Austin, Texas, plumber is also a father and husband. But anyone who’s met Perry will tell you—first and foremost, he’s a cat man.

 Perry’s cats broke the Guinness World Record for oldest cat. Twice, actually: The first record, from 1998, was for a part Sphynx, part Devon Rex named Granpa Rexs Allen who made it to age 34; the second, from 2005, is for a mixed tabby named Creme Puff who lived to age 38. Since the 1980s, Perry has adopted and re-homed hundreds of cats, at his peak raising four dozen at once, showcasing the best and brightest in cat shows. According to Perry, it’s not just Granpa and Creme Puff who had unusually long lives: About a third of his cats, he says, lived to be at least 30 years old—about twice the average feline life span.

 Over the years, Perry has been equally celebrated and psychologically analyzed for his extreme dedication to his pets. Now, toward the end of his own life, he believes he’s discovered the secret to feline longevity.

 I first met Perry on a hot summer day in July 2012, when he showed up at my apartment to fix a leaky bathtub. He was strangely magnetic, with a slow Texas drawl, compulsive politeness, and a face that lit up when he saw the apartment’s resident pet—this was not your typical plumber. That day, Perry told me about his own cats, and what he believed were the keys to their unbelievably long lives.

 First, there was their daily diet: on top of dry commercial cat food, a home-cooked breakfast of eggs, turkey bacon, broccoli, coffee with cream, and—every two days—about an eyedropper full of red wine to “circulate the arteries.” Then there was his effort to ensure the cats were sufficiently stimulated: a garage he’d converted into a home movie theater, with a working reel-to-reel projector and actual movie theater seats, where Perry screens nature documentaries exclusively for the cats (with previews, he added). Last, and perhaps most important, he swore that love and close, personal relationships helped his cats live longer. Perry adored his cats so much, he remembered each of their birthdays. (Bill Clinton was invited to Granpa’s 34th; the president sent a card with his regrets.)

 I had a hard time believing him. A plumber who searches for the feline fountain of youth when he’s not unclogging the drains of Austin sounded more like a third-tier superhero than a real person. But the more I thought about it, I couldn’t imagine why someone would lie about having an absurd number of cats or a uniquely close relationship with them. As the days passed, my questions about Perry mounted. If he’s adopted hundreds of pets over the years, how does that affect his neighbors? Who’s the veterinarian who treats Perry’s ancient cats?

 I found myself googling when I should have been sleeping. News articles about Perry’s two world records were easy to find, but it wasn’t until I stumbled upon a student documentary with footage of the cat movie theater that the details of his story seemed plausible. I called for an interview. He agreed—on five separate occasions—but then didn’t return my calls for months. The man who may have accidentally discovered feline semi-immortality had vanished.

 Which is the short version of how I found myself in Texas, crawling through a thicket of bamboo in a neighbor’s yard, craning my neck to get a glimpse of the cat graveyard next door and trying to unlock the secret for myself.

 Jake holding a photograph of Granpa, who lived to the age of 34.

 “It’s not what they taught us in school, you know?” The owner of South Congress Veterinary Clinic, Bruce Hardesty, shrugs when asked about the Perry cats’ diets. The longest-living of them celebrate their birthdays in Hardesty’s clinic with a barrage of media attention, and special tuna and broccoli birthday cakes. Framed photos of those who made it to age 34 hang on Hardesty’s office wall, along with official Guinness World Record certificates.

 Now in his late 50s, Hardesty has been Perry’s vet for the last 15 years—he’s seen 40 to 50 of Perry’s cats. Hardesty believes at least six of them reached age 30, with several more making it to 25. For many, however, it’s impossible to know their precise ages. “It’s not like you can cut them open and count the rings,” he says.

 All he’ll concede—or speculate—is that there could be something to the cats’ coffee. “The kidneys are one of the weaker systems in the cat,” he says. “If you gave them a little bit of diuretic, which caffeine [is], maybe that would help?”

 Which is to say: The science behind Perry’s longevity formula is shaky at best. The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals regards caffeine as toxic to cats. Jennifer Larsen, an associate professor of clinical nutrition at the University of California, Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, agrees. “Caffeine and alcohol are not advisable and can be harmful,” she writes over email. She also says that her school recommends cats not consume more than 10 percent of their daily calories in treats or “human food.”

 But there is one major quantifiable factor that contributes to cat longevity: All of Perry’s cats are sterilized. The process eliminates certain infectious disease risks, says Sandi Lefebvre, a vet and assistant editor, publications division for the American Veterinary Medical Association. It also reduces cats’ desire to roam, making them “less likely to be at risk for things that cause death,” she says.

 The average life expectancy of pet cats in general increased from 11 years in 2002 to 12 years in 2012, according to records from Banfield Pet Hospital, a chain of more than 900 veterinary hospitals. Some of that change is associated with more people getting their pets spayed and neutered, says Lefebvre.

 With a photo of Creme Puff, who lived to 38.

 The benefits of sterilization could be more than just behavioral. Jessica Hoffman, a postdoctoral scholar in biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, thinks the hormone changes that come with neutering could help extend overall life span in multiple species. While she was a PhD candidate at the University of Georgia, she analyzed death records for about 70,500 dogs, and found that sterilized females lived about two years longer (and males about one year longer) than their genitally intact counterparts.

 To explain why sterilization might boost longevity, Hoffman mentions an evolutionary theory: Increases in testosterone can actually weaken the immune system. “A lot of the intact dogs, which would have higher levels of testosterone, also are more likely to die of infectious diseases,” she says. “That might explain some of the [life span] differences”—but, she adds, this is just a hypothesis. “We don’t know the actual reason neutering increases life span. It may be something completely unrelated to hormones.”

 Neutering and the lowered testosterone levels that result from it have also been linked to increased life span in some species of birds, and even humans. (Some scientists believe that lower testosterone levels are the key reason women live longer than men.)

 Of course, neutering can only increase cat longevity by so much. More than nine out of every 10 house cats in the United States are neutered, reports the ASPCA, and only a small portion of cats make it anywhere close to age 30. Using a human life span equivalency formula on the Cornell Feline Health Center’s website, 30 cat years translates to about 133 human years. By those measures, if 34-year-old Granpa were an actual human grandpa, he would have passed away at 149. Creme Puff, for the record, kept chugging until human-age 165. Surely, there must be something else at work here.

 Cowboy, with Jimmy Carter.

 It’s been about six weeks and 15 phone calls, but I still haven’t managed to get ahold of Jake Perry himself. So I’ve been interviewing his neighbors. One lets me peep over her backyard fence, and from there I can see Perry’s DIY pet cemetery, along with a screened-in pen he’s added so the cats can go outside and watch actual nature (when they’re not watching nature documentaries).

 Diane Bennett, a former next-door neighbor of Perry who worked on the student documentary that profiled him in 2003, described the inside of Perry’s home then as a “virtual jungle gym/cat playground.” Bennett tells me that “he had built tracks along the walls so that the cats could transit the house like hamsters in tubes.” Perry’s dedication to his cats is clearly a central focus of his life. Even those who have known Perry for years know little about his wife and children, but know everything about the cats.

 “He’s the nicest of guys. All he does is talk about his cats, you know, or the plumbing,” says Bill Malone, a home remodeling contractor who’s worked with Perry for the past five years. “There’s no in-between.”

 And yet, the cats aren’t simply one man’s obsession; they’re something of an Austin legend. Betsy Williams, a vet tech at South Congress, remembers the calendars of Granpa passed out to local businesses, and the personalized T-shirts that were printed when the cat turned 34. Local and national news media attended some of the older cats’ birthday parties. In 2011, The Austin Chronicle included Perry in their Best of Austin issue, naming him the “Best Retired Plumber With Some Claims to Fame,” and stating that “unlike his cousin [former Texas governor Rick Perry—yes, really] … Perry is well-known and well-liked around Austin.” When Granpa finally passed away, donations from domestic and international fans flooded in, enough to purchase the headstone that marks the cat’s final resting place in Perry’s backyard.

 Even postmortem, Perry’s cats have an enviable fan base, but after interviewing 10 current and former neighbors, three students who made the documentary (it’s called South Paws), a coworker, and two members of the cats’ vet care team, the man himself remains a mystery. Just when I’m convinced I’ll never find out what drives a person to take his cats to PetSmart up to seven times a week, or remodel his home to better serve his pets, Jake Perry calls back.

 Jake’s cat Cowboy.

 The Cat Man starts with a gentlemanly apology. Much has changed since the bathtub fix of 2012. A battle with pancreatic cancer (from which he has since emerged victorious) has mired him in a flurry of doctors’ appointments and medical jargon. But he’s happy to share more about his cat-rearing techniques—which turn out to be more wonderfully weird than I’d realized. In addition to nature documentaries, his homemade movie theater screens 3-D films that require cat viewers to wear plastic red-and-blue glasses. Perry’s cats always celebrated Easter with baskets and eggs filled with treats, Thanksgiving with turkey and long naps, and New Year’s Eve with tiny cat hats and Champagne—a beverage Granpa liked so much, “I had to keep a little bottle for him.” Every Christmas, Perry and Granpa headed to PetSmart so Granpa could pick out gifts for the cat clan. Back at home, Perry assembled an electric train that ran around the house, sometimes carrying feline freight-hoppers as it passed. But what motivates him to go to such lengths? Perry answers without hesitation. “I love them,” he says. “And another thing: When I go to the shelter, the old heart starts ticking. [I see them and think] I want you.”

 At 85 human years, Perry is finally focusing on himself. He’s staring down his own mortality and thinking about how he wants to spend his remaining days. “I’m hoping if my condition works out, I might sell this place and move to the country,” he says. “My little dream [is] to open up a pet cemetery.”

 The cats would come too, even the dead ones. The corpses of 47 of Perry’s cats are sealed in fiberglass baby caskets and buried in his backyard. Granpa’s donation-funded headstone marks the somber spot, as does a nearly 3-foot-tall Virgin Mary statue that looms over the grave. The burial is an important part of finding peace when a beloved pet passes, Perry adds, as is honoring their lives with a viewing and memorial service open to friends and family.

 “I’ve still got a video somewhere from when Granpa died,” says Betsy Williams, the vet tech. “The cats would walk up [to the casket] and kind of sniff at him and walk past. It was like a human funeral service.”

 But Perry is hardly ready to give up on the living. He has one cat left, and therefore, hope for one more world record. This would be Jean Claude Van Damme, also known as Cowboy. Clocking in at 19 years—a whipper-snapping 89 people years—Jean Claude is the last to indulge in the homemade breakfasts, the jungle gym, the film screenings. He’s also among the wealthiest cats in Texas. In 1998, Perry says he won around $50,000 playing Granpa’s birthday numbers on a lucky Cash Five lottery ticket. He tells me that the winnings, combined with several smaller jackpots won through the years, were invested in a trust for the cats to be used either for their care upon Perry’s passing, or Perry’s own care in the case of a medical emergency.

 Bruce Hardesty is keeping an eye on both Perry and his cat. He’s watching Jean Claude Van Damme’s health and noting when Perry is due in next. “If every once in a while we don’t see him, we’re afraid something … might have happened to him,” Hardesty says, “ ’Cause I’ll tell you, the world’s going to be a lesser place when Jake Perry’s not in it.” While Perry thinks it’s his methodology—the diet, the mental stimulation, the sterilization—keeping his cats alive, Hardesty believes the formula could be as simple as plain old love.

 Should Perry get his wish of opening a pet cemetery, he’ll eventually be buried there too, right beside the pets he treated as members of his more conventional family. “These are my children,” he says with that unmistakable Texas drawl. “I looked after them until they passed on. That’s the way I was raised up.”

 In the meantime, “If a sick cat comes here in the yard, you know what I’m going to do?” he says. “I’m gonna take ’em to the vet.”

 This story was co-produced with mental_floss magazine and appeared in the Jan/Feb 2016 issue. Click here to subscribe.

 To chat with the author of this piece, check out the Digg Dialog here. ||||| By Franny Syufy

 Updated February 03, 2017 .

 A strong genetic background for longevity can't be discounted. Given proper care, nutrition, and regular veterinary visits, a cat kept indoors can live as long as 21 years or more. (The average age of cats is 12-15 years) This is, of course, barring any serious medical conditions or untimely accidents.

 Cats that are indoors-outdoors usually don't last to the average age because of traffic accidents, fighting with other cats, intentional acts of violence, poisoning (accidental or intentional), diseases caught from other cats, being picked up by animal control and subsequently euthanized if not claimed, and death caused by predators.

 "Stray cats" AKA "feral cats" usually don't live more than a couple of years because of starvation or all of the above.

 Oldest Cat Trivia:

 The Oldest Living Cat

 According to the Guinness World Record (of 2002 - no longer available online), the oldest living cat was then a cat from Victoria, Australia, named Kataleena Lady. She was born in 1977, making her 25, a mere youngster, compared to other claims. ||||| SISTERS, Ore. -

 Meet Corduroy, a half-Maine coon, half-domestic longhair cat from Sisters. Corduroy loves naps, hunting for mice and cuddling. From his appearance, he may seem like your average household cat, but Corduroy is one in a million.

 "He's Guinness (Book of) World Records' oldest living cat.," explained owner Ashley Okura said Monday.

 Okura said she picked out Corduroy when he was just a kitten, and she was just a little girl. She said she still remembers the day like it was yesterday: "I was so excited I could hardly contain myself -- the 20-minute drive to Redmond felt like forever."

 Okura picked out Corduroy and her brother picked out Corduroy's brother, whom he named Batman. he two kittens looked like identical balls of fluff.

 Ever since that day, Corduroy and Okura have been inseperable. He is now 26 years old -- or 124 in cat years -- and still going strong.

 "I think Corduroy has good genes. Typically, cats live until they're 15 years old," Okura said.

 Corduroy's brother, Batman, also lived a long life, passing away at 19.

 "I really think the key to (Corduroy's) longevity is, I've always allowed him to be a cat," Okura said. "We've kept his claws, and I think that really has helped him out. It's allowed him to go outside and defend himself and also hunt."

 She explained how Corduroy loves to hunt for mice, which provides great exercise and helps keeps him sharp. She hopes his long life will encourage people to stop declawing their cats.

 Okura said she is honored and grateful to have the world's oldest cat, a title that took lots of paperwork to achieve. She had to submit a lengthy amount of documents, vet bills and photos to prove Corduroy is indeed 26 years old.

 This is the second time Corduroy has earned the "world's oldest cat" title. He regained the title in August after a 27-year-old cat named Tiffany Two passed away.

 "I'm really lucky to have him in my life now, and I hope he continues to do well and will live for a lot longer, " Ashley Okura said.

 Still, Corduroy has some years to go if he wants to earn the honor of oldest cat on record. The current title is held by Cream Puff, who passed away at 38 years old.

 In the meantime, the furry feline will enjoy the lime light and attention. Corduroy will soon be featured in National Geographic and Catster magazines. A Sisters journalist is also working on a book called "Growing Up with Corduroy...The World's Oldest Cat."

 If you would like to keep up with Corduroy's adventures you can follow him on Instagram @oldestlivingcat or on Facebook under Corduroy Reed. |||||
What is a summary?

– Jake Perry's cats live the good life. And they live it for a long time. One of Perry's felines—Granpa Rexs Allen, who lived to be 34—broke the Guinness World Record for oldest cat in 1998. Seven years later, his kitty Crème Puff topped that record, living to be 38. Plenty more of his cats have made it to at least 30, while, on average, cats live to be 12 to 15 years old. In a profile in Atlas Obscura, Christina Couch writes that she first met Perry when he fixed her bathtub in 2012. It was then that he shared some of his secrets for feline longevity: A breakfast of eggs, turkey bacon, broccoli and coffee … with cream A splash of red wine to "circulate the arteries" Stimulation by way of nature documentaries screened in his garage-turned-theater Lots of love and attention The regimen, says Perry's vet, "is not what they taught us in school." He speculates the diuretic effects of the caffeine may help kidney function, though Couch notes that the science behind Perry's regimen is "shaky at best." And an animal nutrition expert cautions that caffeine and alcohol can be harmful. Perry, 85, recently beat pancreatic cancer himself, and he still has a cat: Jean Claude Van Damme, age 19. These days, however, the title of the oldest living cat belongs to one named Corduroy, KTVZ reports. The 26-year-old Main coon mix lives in Sisters, Ore. "I really think the key to (Corduroy's) longevity is, I've always allowed him to be a cat," says his owner. "We've kept his claws (and) it's allowed him to go outside and defend himself and also hunt." Read more about Perry and his pets here. See a short documentary about them here. (One thing that won't help cats live longer: scaring them with cucumbers)


– A ceasefire in Ukraine didn't stop fighting in the rail hub of Debaltseve, which links two rebel strongholds. Now, government troops are withdrawing from the area in what the Wall Street Journal calls a big setback; Ukraine had previously said it would hold the town as it grappled with losses elsewhere, and the move may weaken President Petro Poroshenko while affirming the separatists' power, the Journal notes. Some 80% of units in the town have departed. "The priority must be saving the lives of the Ukrainian troops," said Russia's foreign minister; the BBC reports that he called on rebels to feed surrendering Ukraine troops.

Expand this summary.

Ukraine withdrew troops from the embattled strategic railway hub of Debaltseve early Wednesday after pro-Russia rebels overran the town in what Kiev and Western officials called a violation of a fragile, European-brokered cease-fire.

 Dozens of vehicles from tanks to trucks rumbled along the road to the nearest large town, Artemivsk, and Russian state television showed what it said was footage of separatists raising their flag over... ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption President Poroshenko met with troops who withdrew from Debaltseve

 The Ukrainian president says his forces are making an "organised" withdrawal from the embattled town of Debaltseve.

 Petro Poroshenko said 80% of Ukraine's troops left on Wednesday morning after several days of fierce fighting.

 Russia said Ukrainian forces had tried to fight their way out of the town after being encircled but Mr Poroshenko insisted they were never surrounded.

 The rebel advance on Debaltseve, which came in spite of the recent ceasefire agreement, has been widely condemned.

 Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg said the rebels' offensive had put the wider peace agreement at risk and urged Russia to "use all its influence on the separatists to make them respect the ceasefire".

 He also called on Moscow to withdraw its forces from Ukraine, saying Russian troops, artillery and air defence units were still active in the country.

 Earlier, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted the rebels' actions in Debaltseve had not violated the ceasefire because it was a rebel-held city when the peace agreement was signed last week.

 He urged rebels to provide troops who surrendered with food and clothes and said he hoped the situation in the city would "not be used to find a pretext to actually undermine [the agreement]".

 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Footage of Debaltseve captured by a drone showed evidence of shelling

 Eyewitnesses saw dozens of tanks and columns of weary Ukrainian troops retreating from Debaltseve on Wednesday.

 Russia's state-controlled Channel One TV showed footage of what it said were rebels raising their flag on top of a high-rise building in the town.

 Later rebel spokesman Eduard Basurin was quoted in Russian media as saying Debaltseve was fully under the control of separatists, although there were still "disparate groups of the enemy" in the southern part of town.

 One rebel commander in the city told the BBC that conditions were dire, with no electricity and a shortage of food and water. He said rebels were sharing their rations with the remaining civilians.

 'Brutal violation'

 President Poroshenko said in a statement: "Debaltseve was under our control, there was no encirclement, and our troops left the area in a planned and organised manner."

 He called for "a firm reaction from the world to Russia's brutal violation of the Minsk agreements, the ceasefire regime and the withdrawal of heavy weaponry".

 Mr Poroshenko visited the soldiers who had left Debaltseve in the town of Artemivsk on Wednesday. Earlier, he said it would be an honour to shake hands with "Ukrainian heroes".

 A senior Ukrainian military official said 22 Ukrainian soldiers had died in Debaltseve over the past three days.

 Earlier, an official at a morgue in Artemivsk said the bodies of 25 Ukrainian soldiers had been brought to the facility from Debaltseve but this has not been confirmed.

 Rebels have claimed that hundreds of Ukrainian troops were killed in clashes around the city, but Mr Poroshenko denied this.

 The government in Kiev admitted that that some soldiers were taken prisoner in Debaltseve, but gave no details on how many were seized.

 At the scene: Paul Adams, BBC News, eastern Ukraine

 Image copyright Reuters

 All Wednesday, the road out of Debaltseve into government-held territory thundered to the sound of retreating armour - tanks and troop carriers full of exhausted, sometimes defiant soldiers.

 In a bus by the side of the road, I found one Yuri slumped on his seat, across the aisle from a sleeping colleague.

 He said the situation had become increasingly dire and individual units had taken their own decisions to leave. They were running out of ammunition and in danger of being surrounded, he told me.

 He blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for deceiving everyone about the ceasefire. We know him well by now, he said. When he says something is guaranteed, that means there's some kind of trap coming up.

 In nearby fields, mortars and multiple rocket launchers fired back at the rebels - providing cover for those still trying to leave Debaltseve.

 President Poroshenko says the withdrawal was planned and organised, but on the ground it looked like a hasty retreat in the face of overwhelming odds.

 The withdrawal came after Russian President Vladimir Putin urged Ukraine's troops in Debaltseve to surrender.

 Mr Putin is due to speak by telephone later on Wednesday to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and Mr Poroshenko, according to the French government.

 Spokesman Stephane Le Foll insisted the agreement announced last week by the four leaders to end the fighting in eastern Ukraine was not dead, and that progress had been made.

 Image copyright Reuters Image caption The Ukrainian troops appeared weary and dirty as they withdrew from the besieged city

 Image copyright EPA Image caption Some 7,000 civilians are said to have been trapped in the Debaltseve area during recent fighting

 International observers monitoring the truce have been unable to enter Debaltseve.

 The city has become a key prize for rebels and government forces, as it sits on a strategic railway line linking the rebel-held cities of Donetsk and Luhansk.

 Most of its 25,000 population has been evacuated but about 7,000 civilians are still believed trapped by the fighting.

 The ceasefire, which came into effect on Sunday, has been broadly observed elsewhere and some rebel heavy weaponry was said to have been withdrawn.

 The UN says more than 5,600 people have been killed in the conflict, but there are fears the actual death toll could be much higher.

 Fighting began in eastern Ukraine in April, a month after Russia annexed the Crimea peninsula.

 Ukraine's pro-Western government says Russia is supporting the separatists with troops and weapons, but the Kremlin has consistently denied this.

 Minsk agreement: Key points |||||


Former coworkers told Action News the suspected killer, Willie Gray worked at the Big Fresno Fair as a landscaper. They remember him as a hard worker. "I couldn't believe it. It was just pure shock. I just would have never believed it," said Stacy Rianda.ABC30 legal analyst, Tony Capozzi believes there's a strong case Gray acted to protect himself. "Unless someone is watching this. Unless there are some witnesses to say otherwise he may have a really good defense as self-defense," said Capozzi.But he added his attorney will have a tough time at trial. "The fact that he left the scene is the indication of consciousness of guilt. You think you did something wrong so you run away. That's allowed to come into evidence in a trial."The bizarre chain of events started on Wednesday when a jury found 37-year-old Bobby Pearson not guilty in a burglary case . It was later found that eight jurors actually believed Pearson was guilty of the burglary, but because of a fundamental misunderstanding of the law explained to them, they entered a not guilty verdict and even confirmed it when the judge polled them.It turns out, the jury couldn't reach a unanimous decision when it came to Pearson, but two-thirds of them thought he was guilty. Judge Kent Hamlin had read instructions to them, including one saying that if they couldn't reach a unanimous decision, they should send the judge a note and not sign any verdict forms."That instruction, I don't know if it was overlooked or misunderstood, but it had been explained," Linden Lindahl, defense attorney for Terrel Minnieweather -- the other defendant in the burglary trial.According to jail records, Bobby Pearson was released from jail just before midnight on Wednesday night. About an hour later, just before 1 a.m. on Thursday morning, Fresno Police found him laying in the road in the area of Dayton and West in Central Fresno. He was taken to Community Regional Medical Center where he died from his wounds shortly after arriving.During the investigation, police said Pearson went to his mother's house after leaving the jail and got into a fight with his sister's boyfriend Willie Gray. Police said Gray and Pearson had longstanding personal issues. They said the fight ended with Pearson laying in the road with two wounds -- one they said, looked like a knife wound, the other may be a gunshot wound. Witnesses also reported a loud pop. An autopsy is scheduled for Friday. Police caught the suspect, Willie Gray, on the run about a mile away from the murder scene at an apartment complex. Officers served a search warrant there looking for evidence and they also towed a minivan, which they believe was the getaway vehicle. Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer said investigators seized a gun at the home where Gray was arrested.Dyer said Gray is being treated for injuries at Community Regional Medical Center, and will face murder charges once he is booked into the Fresno County Jail.Police are still investigating the incident.----- ||||| FRESNO, Calif. (AP) — A burglary defendant who won his freedom because of a jury's mistake lost his life a few hours later when he was stabbed to death in a fight.

 In this 2007 photo released by the Fresno County Superior Court shows Judge W. Kent Hamlin. Police in Central California say a man who was released from jail after a jury mistakenly signed a not-guilty... (Associated Press)

 In this June 14, 2012 photo shows Fresno County Superior Court Judge W. Kent Hamlin in his courtroom. Police in Central California say a man who was released from jail after a jury mistakenly signed a... (Associated Press)

 In this undated photo released by the Fresno Police Dept. shows Bobby Lee Pearson. Pearson, a defendant in a Central California burglary case, walked out of a courtroom a free man after a jury mistakenly... (Associated Press)

 Police rope off the scene where burglary defendant Bobby Lee Pearson was stabbed to death after walking out of a courtroom following a jury's mistake Thursday, June 12, 2014 in Fresno, Calif. Pearson... (Associated Press)

 The jury in the trial of Bobby Lee Pearson, 37, mistakenly signed a not-guilty form Wednesday, and the flabbergasted judge said he had no choice but to order him to be released from jail because the verdict had already been put on the record.

 It was too late when the judge learned that the jury was unable to reach a verdict, stalling on an 8-4 vote in favor of guilt. Prosecutors might have had an opportunity to retry Pearson, but by then changing the verdict form would have exposed Pearson to double jeopardy.

 "I can't believe it," said Superior Court Judge W. Kent Hamlin after setting Pearson free, according to The Fresno Bee.

 After being released from jail, Pearson went home to get some clothing and belongings when Fresno police Sgt. James Rios said Pearson apparently got into a fight with his sister's boyfriend.

 The two had a long history of problems, said Rios, adding that the boyfriend stabbed and killed Pearson, who was found dead at the scene. The boyfriend's name has not been released.

 William Terrence, who prosecuted the case, told The Associated Press that despite the bizarre chain of events that led to Pearson's release, the man he tried sending to prison didn't deserve to die that way.

 "There's not a death penalty on a burglary," Terrence said. "I'm not sitting here thinking he got what he deserved."

 Terrence said he is still trying to understand the jury's confusion. He said he explained the verdict forms in closing arguments as he has done many times, and so did the judge.

 "Apparently, the message wasn't quite received," Terrence said.

 In the case of a deadlock, jurors should have sent a note to the judge.

 Pearson and two co-defendants were accused of burglarizing an apartment last year and stealing a video system and a gun. The homeowner allegedly caught the intruders and wrestled with one of them.

 Jurors returned a guilty verdict against Pearson's co-defendant, Terrel Minnieweather and the mistaken not-guilty verdict against Pearson before lunch Wednesday.

 Terrence said Hamlin polled each juror individually to verify Minnieweather's guilty verdict. Turning to Pearson's case, the judge asked the jurors as a group if that was its not-guilty verdict in Pearson's case.

 "No one stood up and said, 'Hey, wait a minute. That's not my verdict,'" Terrence said. "They nodded along."

 Terrence said that it wasn't a mistake to poll the jury as a group. The evidence against Pearson wasn't as strong, and Terrence said he respected the jury's apparent not-guilty decision.

 The jurors were then asked to return after lunch for a potential second phase of the trial. The confusion over the verdict came to light during lunch, when one juror told court staff that he had voted to find Pearson guilty.

 Jurors said they were confused by the forms, one of which was for a guilty verdict and the other for a not guilty verdict. One juror said there was no form they could sign that indicated the jury was deadlocked.

 "It is bizarre," said Eugene Hyman, who retired from the Santa Clara County Superior Court after serving for 20 years on the bench. "But I can't find fault with anyone."

 Hyman, who had no involvement in Pearson's case, said during trials, he would always ask each juror whether the verdict read by the clerk was indeed their verdict. He said there's nothing wrong with polling jurors en masse.

 Hyman said the Fresno judge had no choice to acquit Pearson if Hamlin ordered the not guilty verdict "recorded" immediately after the jurors nodded in agreement with the verdict.

 Judges are required to poll jurors after every verdict is read in criminal cases, Hyman said, but that requirement can be waived by lawyers. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Bobby Lee Pearson got what was probably the luckiest break of his life on Wednesday when a jury mistakenly set him free after a burglary trial. It soon turned into the unluckiest break of his life: An hour into his accidental freedom, he got fatally attacked, reports ABC30 in Fresno. The strange chain of events began when jurors couldn't reach a unanimous verdict about Pearson. Eight thought he was guilty and four didn't, and at that point—as the judge had explained to them—they should have sent a note saying they were deadlocked. Instead, they signed a not-guilty form. Judge W. Kent Hamlin learned of the mistake only after the verdict had been read into the public record and had to release the career criminal, reports the Fresno Bee. Otherwise, Hamlin would have declared a mistrial and ordered Pearson held for a second trial. "I can't believe it," he said in court. "I can't change it because double jeopardy has already attached. This has never happened to me in more than 100 jury trials that I have done." Upon being released at 11:57pm Wednesday, Pearson went to his mother's house to collect some belongings and got into a fight with his sister's boyfriend, say police. He was stabbed, with a steak knife found next to his body, and was pronounced dead around 1:25am. "There's not a death penalty on a burglary," the prosecutor in Pearson's case tells AP. "I'm not sitting here thinking he got what he deserved." (Click for another unusual courtroom story.)


Here is a news article: SEOUL Aides to the leaders of North and South Korea held talks at the Panmunjom truce village straddling their border on Saturday and into the early hours of Sunday, raising hopes for an end to a standoff that put the rivals on the brink of armed conflict.

 The meeting at the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) village, known for its sky-blue huts and grim-faced soldiers, began soon after the deadline for North Korea's previously set ultimatum demanding that the South halt its loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts along the border or face military action.

 That deadline passed without any reported incidents.

 The envoys held discussions on how to resolve recent tensions and improve ties, the South Korean presidential office said in a brief statement. The talks which began late on Saturday broke before dawn on Sunday and the envoys will resume discussions later in the day, it said.

 An exchange of artillery fire on Thursday prompted calls for calm from the United Nations, the United States and the North's lone major ally, China. South Korea's military remained on high alert despite the announced talks, a defense official said.

 South Korean President Park Geun-hye's national security adviser and her unification minister met with Hwang Pyong So, the top military aide to the North's leader Kim Jong Un, and Kim Yang Gon, a veteran official in inter-Korean affairs.

 "The South and the North agreed to hold contact related to the ongoing situation in South-North relations," Kim Kyou-hyun, the presidential Blue House's deputy national security adviser, said earlier in a televised briefing.

 Pyongyang made an initial proposal on Friday for a meeting, and Seoul made a revised proposal on Saturday seeking Hwang's attendance, Kim said.

 The North's KCNA news agency also announced the meeting, referring to the South as the Republic of Korea, a rare formal recognition of its rival state, in sharp contrast to the bellicose rhetoric in recent days.

 "They need to come up with some sort of an agreement where both sides have saved face. That would be the trick," said James Kim, a research fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul.

 "North Korea will probably demand that the broadcasts be cut, and they may even come to an impasse on that issue."

 BRINK OF WAR?

 North Korea, technically still at war with the South after their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, declared a "quasi-state of war" in front-line areas and on Thursday set the deadline for Seoul to halt its broadcasts.

 South Korea began blasting anti-North propaganda, news reports and even entertainment over the DMZ on Aug. 10, days after landmine explosions in the DMZ wounded two South Korean soldiers. Pyongyang denies it planted the mines.

 Seoul said it would continue the broadcasts unless the North accepted responsibility for the blasts.

 "The situation on the Korean peninsula is now inching close to the brink of a war due to the reckless provocations made by the south Korean military war hawks," the North's KCNA news agency said earlier.

 South Korean Vice Defense Minister Baek Seung-joo said on Friday Seoul expected North Korea to fire at some of the 11 sites where it has set up loudspeakers.

 The United States, which has 28,500 soldiers based in South Korea, said on Friday it had resumed its annual joint military exercises there after a temporary halt to coordinate with Seoul over the shelling from North Korea.

 The drills, code-named Ulchi Freedom Guardian, began on Monday and run until next Friday. North Korea regularly condemns the maneuvers as a preparation for war.

 Four South Korean and four U.S. fighter jets flew in a joint sortie over the South on Saturday, a South Korean official said, as thousands of South Korean villagers living near the border were evacuated into shelters.

 FAMILIAR FACES

 Pyongyang's two negotiators had made an unexpected visit to the South last October to attend the closing ceremony of the Asian Games, where they met Kim Kwan-jin, Park's national security adviser, who led the South's delegation on Saturday.

 North and South Korea have often exchanged threats over the years, and dozens of soldiers have been killed in clashes, yet the two sides have always pulled back from a return to all-out war. Analysts had expected the current crisis eventually to wind down.

 "The fact that these powerful officials who represent South and North Korea's leaders are meeting means this is a great time to turn the crisis into opportunity," Yang Moo-jin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul. "It is a breakthrough."

 North-South ties have been virtually frozen since the 2010 sinking of a South Korean warship. Pyongyang denies any involvement.

 North Korea resumed its own broadcasts on Monday. On Thursday, it launched four shells into South Korea. The South fired 29 artillery rounds back. Neither side reported casualties or damage.

 North Korea has been hit with UN and U.S. sanctions because of nuclear and missile tests, moves that Pyongyang sees as an attack on its sovereign right to defend itself.

 (Additional reporting by James Pearson and Jack Kim in Seoul and David Brunnstrom in Washington; Writing by Tony Munroe; Editing by Nick Macfie and Robin Pomeroy) ||||| North Korea seems to be stepping up preparations for a military provocation even as ongoing high-level talks seek to avert the worst.

 More than 50 North Korean submarines have apparently been sent out on mystery missions, and artillery strength and warfare-readiness along the frontline have been raised to the max, a military source said Sunday.

 That suggests the North has embraced a two-prong strategy tempering its traditional brinkmanship with diplomacy.

 "The current sortie rate of North Korean submarines is as high as 10 times the rate in ordinary times," a military official said. "Scores of subs that have left their bases on the eastern and western coasts are off our radar, which is an unprecedentedly serious situation." |||||
A summary of this is?

– Top government officials from the Koreas met over the weekend in the border town of Panmunjom to discuss keeping the peace, Reuters reports. But North Korea seems to be hedging its bets after a South Korean military official said that 50 of its northern foe's submarines have disappeared, the Yonhap news agency reports. "Seventy percent of North Korea's submarines left their bases, and their locations are not confirmed," an official told reporters yesterday, adding, per Chosun Ilbo, "Scores of subs that have left their bases on the eastern and western coasts are off our radar, which is an unprecedentedly serious situation." The main concern is that the subs could cross the Northern Limit Line (the maritime line in the sand between the two countries) or take on South Korean Navy vessels in surprise attacks from the rear, the paper notes. It adds that although North Korean submarines—described by the National Post as" largely outdated and technically obsolescent versions produced in the 1960s for the Soviet Union"—make a lot of noise (meaning they should be easy to find), there are so many missing it would be hard to keep track of them all. Also worrisome, per the military official: North Korea has apparently doubled its number of artillery troops along the DMZ since Friday, per Chosun Ilbo. "They seem ready to shoot," the official says. (Pyongyang declaring a "quasi-state of war" doesn't sound good.)