– Some 640,000 kids in the nation's second-largest school district won't be getting a second terror-related day off from school. Officials in the Los Angeles Unified School District say all 900 schools have been inspected following an emailed threat that has now been discredited by the FBI and they plan to reopen for classes Wednesday morning, reports the Los Angeles Times. A similar threat, supposedly from Islamic radicals, was received by officials in New York City, who rejected it as a hoax almost immediately. Gawker reports that both emails, which threatened attacks involving bombs, guns, and nerve gas, came from a profanely named server associated with the message board "8chan." Officials trying to trace the emails say they were routed through Germany but probably didn't originate there, the Times reports. School board officials, LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, and LAPD Chief Charlie Beck defend the decision to close down schools, saying the threat was specific enough to be taken seriously, KTLA reports. "When parents make their determination about the decisions that were made today," Beck says, "I would ask them to look at it this way: If you knew what the superintendent and the school board knew at 5:30 this morning, when the decision had to be made, would you have sent your child to school? Every parent I've asked said, no, of course not."

Expand this summary.

The public school systems in New York and Los Angeles both received bomb threats today, but only one city took it seriously. So why did 640,000 California kids get the day off while New York’s youths had to spend a lovely 60-degree day in class? Credulity.

 Though neither email has been made public, it appears both school systems received similar—if not identical—emails, threatening a multi-pronged, jihadi attack on multiple schools, using bombs and nerve gas. But there were plenty of details to indicate the threat was a hoax. Among them:

 Both emails were sent by Cockmail—an email host affiliated with the gutter image board 8chan that boasts decidedly non-halal domains like “nigge.rs,” “horsefucker.org,” and “goat.si,” as well as multiple variations on the phrase, “dicksinmyan.us.” (The NYPD has since subpoenaed “Cock.li Email Hosting,” and California state Rep. Brad Sherman confirms the LA email came from a “pornographic” address.)

 Both emails spelled the word “Allah” with a lowercase “a”

 The author of the Los Angeles email, at least, claimed to be a victim of bullying.

 “There was nothing credible about the threat. It was so outlandish,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said at a news conference Tuesday.

 “It is very easy in hindsight to criticize a decision based on results the decider could never have known,” LA Police Chief Charlie Beck said at a different news conference Tuesday.

 Perhaps. But it’s also apparently very easy to shut down a school—or many schools, in a major American city— by pretending to be an ISIS fighter using an email with the word “cock” in it. ||||| Please enable Javascript to watch this video

 All Los Angeles Unified School District campuses will reopen Wednesday, officials announced, following an unprecedented districtwide closure Tuesday after the LAUSD received a threat of violence that law enforcement agencies ultimately determined was "not credible."

 "We believe that our schools are safe," Steve Zimmer, president of the LAUSD board, said early Tuesday evening at a news conference attended by Mayor Eric Garcetti, LAPD Chief Charlie Beck and Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell.

 "Some have used words that I think are inappropriate like 'hoax' and other things" to describe the incident, Garcetti said. "Whether it's criminal mischief, whether it's somebody testing vulnerabilities of multiple cities, we still do not know enough to say definitively."

 The threat against the nation's second-largest school district was sent via email to a school board member Monday evening and was traced back to an IP address in Frankfurt, Germany, according to LAUSD spokeswoman Ellen Morgan.

 Officials announced the districtwide closure shortly before 7 a.m. Tuesday.

 The Los Angeles Police Department was notified about a "specific" threat late Monday night that had been sent to a number of school board members, Beck said during a mid-morning news conference.

 The implied threat was "explosive devices," "assault rifles" and "machine pistols," according to Beck.

 Garcetti, speaking at the same morning news conference as the police chief, added that the message included a number of forms of violence and weapons, and stated that "things were already in place to bring that violence about."

 Early on in the investigation, the city's Emergency Operation Center was activated at its lowest level, the mayor said.

 The threat -- also made against New York City schools -- was deemed a "hoax or something designed to disrupt school districts in large cities" in a preliminary assessment, according to Rep. Adam Schiff, a Democrat who represents parts of L.A. and is on the House Intelligence Committee.

 Beck later defended the decision to close schools.

 "When parents make their determination about the decisions that were made today," he said, "I would ask them to look at it this way: If you knew what the superintendent and the school board knew at 5:30 this morning, when the decision had to be made, would you have sent your child to school?"

 "Every parent I've asked said, no, of course not," he said.

 In an interview with KTLA, Karlee Parrish, an LAUSD parent, expressed support for Tuesday's closure.

 "If there's anything like that is ever even a potential threat, I would want them to cancel all schools," she said.

 Tom Torlakson, state Superintendent of Public Instruction, noted the technical possibility that the LAUSD would not receive about $29 million in funding due to the "loss of ADA," or average daily attendance, caused by the shutdown.

 "I have the power, as superintendent, in emergencies, to recommend that the district be made whole," he said. "We're nearly 100 percent certain that we can take the steps to restore those funds to the district."

 Although the email originated from an IP address in Germany, the source of the threat was unknown, according to Beck. He said he believed the threat came from much closer than Europe.

 School officials initially referred to the threat as "credible." After a 12-hour investigation, however, the LAPD, LAUSD, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department and FBI "have determined that this is not a credible threat," Beck said.

 A similar threat was made against New York City's school system on the same day, according to New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton. He described the email that the superintendent of his city's school system received as "almost exactly the same" as the one LAUSD officials were sent.

 New York police believe the threat in their city to be a “hoax," said Bratton, a former LAPD chief.

 In a live phone interview with KTLA, Rep. Brad Sherman said he had reviewed the emails. The one directed at New York schools included a claim that 138 people were involved, while the one sent to L.A. stated 33 people were involved.

 "The New York email lacked credibility. There were certain parts of the Los Angeles email that are not credible," Sherman said.

 “The purpose of terrorism is not necessarily to blow things up, and to cause casualties, but to create fear," said the congressman, who represents part of the San Fernando Valley. "This email did just that at very little cost to whoever sent it.”

 Earlier, Superintendent Ramon Cortines described the nature of the threat as "unspecified." It was initially characterized as a "terror threat" by another LAUSD official.

 Calling the threat "rare," Cortines said the threat was directed to "students at schools." He added it was made to "many schools," but did not identify any by name.

 Officials later clarified the threat had been made to all schools.

 The superintendent stated that he made the decision to close all campuses after consulting with Zimmer and Los Angeles School Police Department Chief Steven Zipperman.

 Cortines had the full support of Garcetti, who said that while the decision to close the schools was not his to make, "it is mine to support as mayor."

 All the schools were being thoroughly searched to ensure the grounds were "safe for children," according to Cortines.

 "I've asked the plant managers to walk the school, and if they see anything that is out of order to contact the police," Cortines said.

 The LAPD -- which has taken the lead in the investigation -- and the Sheriff's Department assisted school police in search operations of all campuses.

 A number of police patrol cars and SWAT vehicles were seen in the vicinity of local schools in the hours after LAUSD disclosed the threat, video from Sky5 showed.

 School bus service was canceled for the day. All LAUSD students with a valid student ID were able to ride Metro services for free Tuesday.

 Other districts in Southern California reported receiving no threats to their schools, and were operating their campuses normally. Some charter, private and Catholic schools closed.

 Cortines felt it was important to take the precaution "based on what has happened recently, and what has happened in the past," he said, alluding to the recent mass shooting in San Bernardino, which was being investigated by the FBI as an "act of terrorism."

 The Dec. 2 attack at the Inland Regional Center left 14 people dead and 22 others injured.

 “Whether this pans out as something that could have happened or not … I do not want people to say – because sometimes things don’t result in a shooting, or don’t result in a foiled plot – to not speak up and to not speak out," Garcetti initially said, while the threat was being analyzed. “If you see something, say something.”

 As law enforcement personnel walked through all the campuses looking for anything suspicious, schools were closed Tuesday out of an abundance of caution and to ensure the safety of students, according to the school police chief.

 A number of steps were taken before the schools were cleared to reopen, including gathering information obtained by LAPD and the Sheriff's Department from the campus sweeps, Zipperman stated.

 The superintendent and school board members were then briefed and made a final determination based on the collected evidence on whether classes would be in session on Wednesday.

 "We will not do that until we are completely satisfied that we have taken every measure possible to ensure the safety of our students," Zipperman said at the initial news conference.

 In the meantime, parents and guardians were urged in the morning hours to keep their kids home from school on Tuesday.

 Anyone who had already dropped their child off was asked to pick them up. Proper ID was required and checked upon picking students up, school officials said.

 LAUSD serves more than 640,000 students throughout the Los Angeles area and in multiple nearby cities, according to its website. The district is comprised of 900 school and 187 public charter schools.

 After a brief outage, an information hotline was working again for parents with questions: 213-241-2064.

 KTLA's Melissa Pamer, Alberto Mendez and Irving Last contributed to this story.

 LAUSD has issued a guidance in order to help schools "restore calm." Click here for more information.

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Article:
Soil erosion is often considered to be the primary cause of land and mountain loss on islands, but new research has found that on Oahu the mountains are being dissolved and destroyed by groundwater.

 Eventually the mountains Koolau and Waianae on Oahu will be dissolved until the island becomes a nearly flat, very low-lying island similar to Midway.

 “We tried to figure out how fast the island is going away and what the influence of climate is on that rate,” said Brigham Young University geologist Steve Nelson. “More material is dissolving from those islands than what is being carried off through erosion.”

 The research was done by comparing the effects of groundwater compared to stream water, to find out which one was removing more mineral material. “Nelson and his BYU colleagues spent two months sampling both types of sources. In addition, ground and surface water estimates from the U.S. Geological Survey helped them calculate the total quantity of mass that disappeared from the island each year.”

 “All of the Hawaiian Islands are made of just one kind of rock,” Nelson said. “The weathering rates are variable, too, because rainfall is so variable, so it’s a great natural laboratory.”

 In order to get an idea of what will happen to the island in the future it was also necessary to take into account plate tectonics. As Oahu is being forced northwest, it actually rises in elevation slowly.

 “According to the researchers’ estimates, the net effect is that Oahu will continue to grow for as long as 1.5 million years. Beyond that, the force of groundwater will eventually triumph and the island will begin its descent to a low-lying topography.”

 The researchers got something of a surprise when they were doing their mineralogical analysis of the soil samples that they took.

 “The main thing that surprised me on the way was the appearance of a large amount of quartz in a saprolite taken from a 1-meter depth,” Brian Selck, co-author of the study, said.

 The research was just published in the journal Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta.

 Source: Brigham Young University

 Image Credits: Brigham Young University ||||| PROVO, Utah, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- The mountains on Oahu in the Hawaiian Islands are dissolving from within under the slow but inexorable onslaught of groundwater, researchers say.

 Sometime in the distant future the mountainous tropical island will be reduced to a flat, low-lying island similar to Midway, scientists at Brigham Young University reported Friday.

 While external erosion is the primary force that wears down mountains, that's not the case on Oahu, they said.

 "We tried to figure out how fast the island is going away and what the influence of climate is on that rate," BYU geologist Steve Nelson said. "More material is dissolving from those islands than what is being carried off through erosion."

 That was the result from comparing groundwater against stream water to see which removed more of the total quantity of mineral material mass that disappeared from the island each year, the researchers said.

 "All of the Hawaiian Islands are made of just one kind of rock," Nelson said, referring to the volcanic composition of the islands. "The weathering rates are variable, too, because rainfall is so variable, so it's a great natural laboratory."

 While Oahu is at present still growing, after about 1.5 million years the force of groundwater will eventually triumph and the island will begin its descent to a low-lying topography, the researchers said. |||||Summary:

– Hawaii's island of Oahu is renowned for its mountainous vistas, but someday it's going to be flat as a pancake, or at least as flat as Midway. So say researchers from Brigham Young University in a new study, reports UPI. The big factor isn't what you might expect, namely external erosion. Rather, the island's own groundwater is slowly dissolving the mountains. The weird part, explains PlanetSave, is that Oahu's elevation is actually going to keep growing for 1.5 million years because of how it's being shifted by tectonic plates. But after that, the slow descent begins.


Article:
The CEO of JPMorgan Chase survived a shareholder push Tuesday to strip him of the title of chairman of the board, five days after he disclosed a $2 billion trading loss by the bank.

 Hillsborough Sheriff deputies patrol outside the gate of JPMorgan Chase annual stockholders meeting held Tuesday, May 15, 2012, in Tampa, Fla. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon will speak to shareholders... (Associated Press)

 Protestors hold signs outside the gate of JP Morgan Chase annual stockholders meeting held Tuesday, May 15, 2012, in Tampa, Fla. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, facing shareholders five days after the... (Associated Press)

 A poster of JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is covered with eggs thrown by protesters, outside the gate of JP Morgan Chase annual stockholders meeting, Tuesday, May 15, 2012, in Tampa, Fla. JPMorgan Chase... (Associated Press)

 Hillsborough Sheriff deputy patrols outside the gate of JP Morgan Chase annual stockholders meeting held Tuesday, May 15, 2012, in Tampa, Fla. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon will speak to shareholders... (Associated Press)

 An employee checks in outside the gate of JPMorgan Chase annual stockholders meeting held Tuesday, May 15, 2012, in Tampa, Fla. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon will speak to shareholders five days after... (Associated Press)

 CEO Jamie Dimon also won a shareholder endorsement of his pay package from last year, which totaled $23 million, according to an Associated Press analysis of regulatory filings.

 Dimon, unusually subdued, told shareholders at the JPMorgan annual meeting that the company's mistakes were "self-inflicted." Speaking with reporters later, he added: "The buck always stops with me."

 Most of the shareholder ballots were cast in the weeks before Dimon revealed the trading loss.

 His pay package passed with 91 percent of the vote. The vote to strip him of the chairman's title won only 40 percent support. The bank did not announce separate results from before and after the loss was revealed.

 Dimon was confronted at the meeting by shareholders upset about the trading loss, which has rattled investor confidence in the bank and complicated JPMorgan's efforts to fight tougher regulation of Wall Street.

 Rev. Seamus Finn, representing shareholders from the Catholic organization Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, said that investors had heard Dimon apologize before for the foreclosure crisis and other problems.

 "We heard the same refrain: We have learned from our mistakes. This will never be allowed to happen again," Finn said. "I can't help wondering if you are listening."

 Lisa Lindsley, director of capital strategies for an influential union of public employees that is also a major JPMorgan shareholder, said independent board leadership was in shareholders' best interest.

 "An all-powerful CEO is his own boss," she said. "Looking for an infallible CEO is a fool's errand."

 Investors have pummeled JPMorgan's stock price since the loss was revealed. The stock lost 12 percent in two trading days and lost almost $20 billion in market value. It bounced back on Tuesday, rising 3 percent.

 Dimon said he did not expect the trading loss to jeopardize JPMorgan's quarterly stock dividend, which is 30 cents per share.

 There was a heavy police presence at the meeting, in an office park east of downtown Tampa. Protesters were there as well, including some who threw eggs at a poster with Dimon's picture on it.

 "We wanted to let Jamie Dimon know how we feel about what big banks have done to our economy," said Marilyn Lyday, a member of the protest group Occupy Orlando.

 Dimon got something of a vote of confidence from President Barack Obama, who appeared on ABC's "The View" for an episode airing Tuesday. Obama used the appearance to press for tighter regulation of Wall Street.

 "JPMorgan is one of the best-managed banks there is," the president said. "Jamie Dimon, the head of it, is one of the smartest bankers we got, and they still lost $2 billion and counting."

 Obama said the bank was "making bets" in the market for the complex financial instruments known as derivatives. Dimon has said the bank was hedging against financial risk.

 A part of the 2010 financial overhaul legislation known as the Volcker rule would restrict banks from some trading for their own profit. Dimon and critics of the industry have disagreed over whether JPMorgan's trading would have violated that rule.

 In Washington, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said JPMorgan's trading loss strengthens the case for tougher rules on financial institutions, as regulators continue writing rules from the 2010 law.

 Geithner said that the Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Obama administration are "going to take a very careful look" at the JPMorgan incident as they implement the rules.

 "I'm very confident that we're going to be able to make sure those come out as tough and effective as they need to be," Geithner said. "And I think this episode helps make the case, frankly."

 At the annual meeting for the investment bank Morgan Stanley, which took place Tuesday in upstate New York, CEO James Gorman appeared to allude to the JPMorgan trading loss when he said: "Events of the last few days remind us that risk levels remain high in the global markets."

 He noted twice that Morgan Stanley has jettisoned or is in the process of dumping all of its businesses that do proprietary trading, or trading for the bank's own profit.

 Gorman also said, unprompted, that the bank maintains the right to take back pay from executives who act improperly. Gorman was confronted by shouting protesters who said the loss at JPMorgan was proof that banks are out of touch with their customers.

 On Monday, Ina Drew, JPMorgan's chief investment officer and one of the highest-ranking women on Wall Street, left the bank. Drew oversaw the trading group responsible for the $2 billion loss.

 ___

 Pallavi Gogoi reported from New York. AP Business Writer Christina Rexrode contributed from New York and Associated Press writer Andrew Taylor from Washington. ||||| National September 11 Memorial MuseumArchive-It Partner Since: Dec, 2007Organization Type: Museums & Art LibrariesOrganization URL: http://www.national911memorial.org The National September 11 Memorial Museum is committed to documenting the events, immediate aftermath, and continuing repercussions of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and February 26, 1993. To that end, the Memorial Museum's Web Archive seeks to identify and preserve web sites that reflect the international scope of this emergent history. These sites will be continually sourced from a wide variety of contributors, and will serve to reflect the full breadth of the post-9/11 world.References to Institution as a partner on Internet Archive's Website shall carry no legal meaning and simply reflects Institution's status as a user of Internet Archive's Services pursuant to this Agreement. |||||Summary:

– Maybe Jamie Dimon will go on trial after all? That's getting way ahead of things, but the Justice Department has opened an inquiry into the JPMorgan trading scandal, sources tell the Wall Street Journal. It's currently unclear what legal violations it's looking into, but the probe will be separate from the SEC's investigation, which is looking at the company's accounting and disclosures. But there is good news for Dimon: Shareholders today rejected a motion to oust him from his post as chairman, though there was serious support for it; 40.1% of votes were cast in favor of splitting up the jobs of chairman and CEO, Reuters reports. The AP adds that he also won a shareholder endorsement of his 2011 $23 million pay package, but notes that most of the shareholder ballots were cast weeks ago.


Article:
This article is over 1 year old

 Man, 62, who was not carrying a rifle, ‘was charged and pierced by a deer, which stabbed him with his antlers’

 A 62-year-old man taking part in a hunt in the Paris area has died after being charged by a deer that fatally gored him, police said.

 The incident occurred around 10am local time in the Compiègne national park, about 53 miles north-east of Paris.

 The man was acting as a beater when he was struck. He “was charged and pierced by a deer, which stabbed him with [its] antlers”, a police spokesman said on Monday.

 The hunter, who was not carrying a rifle, died of internal bleeding before emergency services could arrive. Police said this type of death was “uncommon”. ||||| File pic. AFP

 A 62-year-old man died while taking part in a hunt in the Paris area after being charged by a deer that fatally gored him with its antlers.

 The incident occurred around 10am (0900 GMT) in the Compiegne forest, about 85 kilometres (53 miles) northeast of Paris.

 The man was acting as a beater, who normally help corner the animal in a certain area, when he was struck.

 He "was charged and pierced by a deer which stabbed him with his antlers," a police spokesman said. The hunter, who was not carrying a rifle, died of internal bleeding before emergency services could arrive. Police said this type of death was "uncommon".

 Guy Harlé, the president of the local hunters federation said: "Normally the animal would flee, but this time he decided to charge. It came after him.

 "The antlers of the stag are like many knives piercing you, there is nothing you can do. This tragic accident reminds us that we do not play with a wild animal. There is an inherent risk with hunting," said Harlé.

 The victim was named as Regis Levasseur. He was due to get married in the coming months.

 "For him, hunting was more than a hobby, it was his life," said Harlé.

 The killing of the hunter by a deer comes just a week after there was an outcry in France after hunters and their hounds tracked a stag to the garden of a private house before shooting it at close range (see video below).

 The incident took place in the town of Lacroix-Saint-Ouen, on the edge of the Compiegne forest, not far from where Regis Lavasseur was gored.

 It prompted France's environment minister, Nicolas Hulot, to slam hunting with hounds as "a practice from another century" that "prolongs the agony" of the animal.

 Animal rights groups launched petitions calling for hunting to be banned and protests were held in nearby towns. The hunting group involved in the incident was banned for a month and the hunter who shot the deer was subject to death threats.

 For Harlé from the hunters federation the fatal goring of his fellow hunter was an answer to those who had criticized those who had shot the stag.

 "Here we have the painful illustration of the danger that a wild animal can represent," he said.

 "What would have happened at Lacroix-Saint-Ouen if the stag had charged around the neighborhood? This should serve as a lesson."

 There was less sympathy for that argument on Twitter where many linked the two incidents together with the hashtag "#karma".

 The death of the hunter in Compiegne comes after several tragic accidents since the start of the season in September when hunters have accidentally shot each other.

 In one incident a grandfather killed his own grandson during a hunt in the Vendée, western France. And last month a woman was shot dead in her garden after a bullet from a hunter's gun passed through her garden hedge.

 Although it is rare for someone not involved in the hunt to be killed it does happen, with walkers, mushroom pickers and even motorists killed by stray bullets in recent years.

 France's national hunting office insist that the majority of accidents are carried out by people not respecting the rules of the hunt.

 According to La Depeche newspaper 27 percent of hunting accidents in France are due to mishandling of the firearm and 17 percent due to hunters firing off bullets without having identified a definite target.

 Last year 18 people were killed in hunting accidents in France and 351 have been killed since 2001, but most of the victims were involved in the hunt. |||||Summary:

– A member of a French hunting party was killed Monday in what authorities are calling an exceedingly rare accident. Police say the unarmed 62-year-old man was acting as a beater (meaning trying to get game to leave their cover) for a hunting party in Compiègne national park, around 50 miles northeast of Paris, when the animal charged, piercing him with an antler, AFP reports. Regis Levasseur, described as a seasoned hunter, died of internal bleeding before emergency services got there. Authorities say hunting injuries involving wild boar are a lot more common, though ones involving deer are not completely unheard of. "It remains a wild animal, with unpredictable reactions," Guy Harlé, the chief of the regional hunting association, tells Courrier Picard. "It is a dangerous animal, contrary to what people think. The antlers of the stag are like many knives piercing you, there is nothing you can do." As for Levasseur, "For him, hunting was more than a hobby, it was his life," Harlé adds, per the Local. (Scientists have spotted a grisly first among deer.)


Article:
For one tortured weekend, the parents of Kayla Mueller refused to believe that their daughter was dead. From their home in Prescott, Ariz., they issued an impassioned plea to the Islamic State, which had held her captive since August 2013, and urged the extremist organization to contact them privately with proof of her death. The militants acquiesced and sent at least three photographs of her corpse.

 Those photos are among the few clues about her life and death in captivity, as is a letter that she wrote from her cell last year and that her family made public on Tuesday.

 Two people briefed on the family’s communication with the Islamic State said that her parents had received at least three photos. Two showed Ms. Mueller, who was 26, in a black hijab, or Muslim head covering, that partly obscured her face. Another showed her in a white burial shroud, which is used in traditional Muslim funerals. The images showed bruises on the face, but both people, who reviewed the photographs and asked not to be identified given the sensitivity of the matter, said it remained unclear whether her injuries were consistent with being killed in the rubble of a flattened building, as the Islamic State reported. ||||| [This report was updated Feb. 11 to include a statement from the White House National Security Council.]

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

 With the confirmed death of Kayla Mueller, new details have emerged about the American hostage’s experience in ISIS captivity, including the belief by some officials that she had been given over to a commander in the jihadi group.

 "ISIS didn't see her as a hostage or a bargaining chip," a counter-terrorism official told ABC News.

 "Reflections" in the limited collection of intelligence in Syria -- like indirect indications of a person's presence somewhere, such as ISIS fighters referring to her in calls or spotted guarding a sensitive site where she might have been held -- indicated Kayla was still alive and sometimes in the company of an ISIS leader being actively tracked who had custody over her, possibly by forced marriage, officials told ABC News.

 Sometimes she was with her ISIS keeper and other times she was not, two officials said.

 The Daily Courier

 The U.S. has no ground-level intelligence from Syrian human sources or American spies and so relies on "airborne collection platforms" like satellites and drones, officials have said.

 Mueller's family in a public plea to ISIS on Friday said the terrorists had referred to her as a "guest" in private communications.

 In a letter written by Mueller last year and released by the family today, Mueller said she was "in a safe location, completely unharmed [and] healthy."

 "I have been treated with the utmost respect [and] kindness," she wrote.

 Matt Olsen, former head of the National Counterterrorism Center and current ABC News consultant, said ISIS is known to for the “practice of essentially selling off, or putting young women and girls in the company of ISIS militants."

 A former law enforcement official involved in the American hostage cases told ABC News Mueller was briefly able to communicate with some male hostages by passing them handwritten messages. For the most part, she was kept away from the other hostages, the official said.

 Several counter-terrorism officials told ABC News there were "a few ideas but no real clue" of Mueller’s whereabouts with ISIS in Syria over the months since an August deadline for a $6.6 million ransom with accompanying death threat passed -- but U.S.-led airstrikes in Syria were carefully coordinated to avoid killing hostages.

 "We haven't hit any areas where we thought she might be," another official said. In announcing Mueller’s death, ISIS claimed she had perished in a coalition airstrike launched by Jordan.

 A few weeks ago U.S. officials "lost fidelity" on her status entirely, several officials confirmed.

 The Mueller family had not received a proof of life, likely an audio recording of her voice, since last year, officials and a source close to the hostage case told ABC News. She also was never mentioned or shown in any of the brutal hostage execution videos released by ISIS.

 But recently, evidence of a visual sighting of Kayla last fall in Syria was obtained by intelligence agencies and was deemed credible, several counter-terrorism officials said. But, since the sighting was months ago, it gave no hard indication of her location this year.

 Her last proof of life was in May, and then the ransom demand and death threat deadline passed by in August apparently without her execution.

 Then over the weekend, ISIS provided the family with "information," including photographic evidence that convinced the U.S. intelligence community that Mueller had been killed, according to a senior U.S. official. U.S. officials said it has not been possible to determine when or how Mueller actually died.

 Update: White House National Security Council Statement

 Out of respect for Kayla's family, we have not shared details regarding her time in ISIL [ISIS] captivity. In addition, as we have consistently made clear in the past, we do not discuss intelligence. At this time, given the distress that anonymously-sourced reports regarding Kayla's time in captivity are causing her family, we are providing this comment with the Mueller family's consent.

 Reports that have been published by certain news outlets regarding Kayla's time in ISIL [ISIS] captivity are speculative and unproven at this time. The U.S. Government continues to analyze any information regarding Kayla's captivity but has not corroborated any of the multiple theories regarding the conditions throughout the duration of her captivity.

 For a first-hand account of Kayla's time in captivity, we encourage people to read the letter written by Kayla in captivity, which was released by Kayla's parents earlier this week. ||||| Facebook

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 Friends and family of slain ISIS hostage Kayla Mueller said they hoped her death would achieve what she'd worked for before she was kidnapped: raising the awareness of Syrian refugees.

 "The things that were important to Kayla are finally getting the attention they deserve," aunt Lori Lyon said in a tearful news conference in her hometown of Prescott, Arizona, Tuesday — hours after the family confirmed that Mueller had died while in ISIS' hands.

 The Rev. Kathleen Day, who runs the United Christian Ministry at Northern Arizona University, where Mueller was a student, recalled following her blog posts from Syria. "I hope you can tell the entire world here what I've said here, and what I've seen," Mueller wrote, according to Day. The pastor also recalled Mueller's recollection of refugees' frequent response when they learned she was American: "Where is the world?"

 "We're right here, Syria," Day said. "We've seen your suffering reflected in Kayla's eyes."

 Eryn Street, a close friend of Mueller's, recalled her seemingly limitless empathy. "She had an amazing ability to share in someone else's suffering and add a little happiness to it," Street said.

 She added: "I'm not yet sure how to live in a world without Kayla, but I do know we're living in a better world because of her."

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 In an interview with BuzzFeed News on Tuesday, President Obama called Mueller "an outstanding young woman and a great spirit — and I think that spirit will live on."

 He added, "I think the more people learn about her, the more they appreciate what she stood for and how it stands in contrast with the barbaric organization that held her captive ... but I don't think it's accurate ... to say that the United States government hasn't done everything we could."

 The family of Abdul-Rahman Kassig, another American aid worker who was captured by ISIS and who was murdered by the group, offered its condolences Tuesday.

 We mourn with the Muellers over the death of their daughter, Kayla Mueller. She lived a life of service. She will be remembered! — Kassig Family (@kassigfamily) February 11, 2015

 Mueller, 26, was confirmed dead Tuesday morning, four days after ISIS claimed she'd been killed by a coalition airstrike in Syria.

 A senior U.S. official said the evidence consisted of a photograph emailed to the family and "appears to show her dead with trauma injuries." But the official said the injuries were not consistent with injuries suffered by victims of an airstrike.

 Jen Psaki, a U.S. State Department spokeswoman, said the government were not able to confirm a cause of death. "The U.S. military has indicated that there was no evidence of civilians in the target area prior to any recent coalition airstrikes," Psaki said.

 Kayla Jean Mueller in a photo released by her family. Family Photo

 Pentagon spokesman Rear Admiral John Kirby on Tuesday also dismissed ISIS' assertion that the Jordanian air strike was responsible for Mueller's death.

 "Let's not forget in whose hands this woman died. And let's not forget who's ultimately responsible for it: ISIL," Kirby said, using an alternate acronym for the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham.

 Mueller traveled to the Turkish-Syrian border to work with refugees in December 2012, and was taken captive in Aleppo, Syria on Aug. 4, 2013, while leaving a Doctors Without Borders hospital. Her family asked the media to keep her name out of the press out of fears it would endanger her life.

 Mueller was among the U.S. hostages Army Delta Force commandos unsuccessfully tried to rescue in an operation in Raqqa last July. And Congressman Paul Gosar, a Republican whose district encompasses Mueller's hometown, told the Arizona Republic this week that there were other plans to rescue Mueller that either failed or were shot down by her family as too risky. ||||| An attempt to rescue Kayla Mueller and other American hostages occurred in a July 4 raid previously disclosed by the Pentagon.

 U.S. special forces commandos conducted a raid in the predawn hours on a prison in Islamic State's Syrian stronghold of Raqqah.

 But the mission was unsuccessful because hostages -- which included Mueller as well as American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff -- had already been moved and weren't there at the time.

 "We never stopped trying to get her," said a defense official, who wasn't authorized to speak publicly on the matter. "We never lost that focus."

 President Obama confirmed for the first time Tuesday that Mueller was one of the hostages Delta Force commandos attempted to rescue in a raid on an oil refinery facility in northern Syria in summer 2014. The two dozen commandos arrived a day or two after the hostages had been moved from the site, Obama said.

 "I deployed an entire operation -- at significant risk -- to rescue not only her but the other individuals who had been held, and probably missed them by a day or two," Obama said during an interview with BuzzFeed News.

 Obama said the U.S. has a commitment to devote "enormous" resources to free hostages anywhere in the world.

 Relatives of Mueller, who was abducted while volunteering in Syria, announced Tuesday that they had received confirmation that she is dead.

 CAPTION Friends, family praise Kayla for her empathy, compassion Friends, family praise Kayla for her empathy, compassion CAPTION Friends, family praise Kayla for her empathy, compassion Friends, family praise Kayla for her empathy, compassion CAPTION The family of hostage American aid worker Kayla Mueller says they have received confirmation of her death. The family of hostage American aid worker Kayla Mueller says they have received confirmation of her death. CAPTION White House confirms death of hostage Kayla Mueller White House confirms death of hostage Kayla Mueller

 Islamic State released a video last week claiming that Mueller, 26, was killed in an air attack by coalition forces against the militants in Syria.

 U.S. intelligence officials believe that Mueller is dead but don't accept the militants' account of how she was killed, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said in Washington on Tuesday.

 There was no evidence civilians were in the area that was targeted by Jordan on Friday, Earnest said.

 The Pentagon confirmed that Jordanian warplanes bombed a weapons storage facility Friday, but there was no indication that Mueller was there at the time, said Rear Adm. John Kirby, a Pentagon spokesman.

 “We do not know the circumstances surrounding her death,” he said. “U.S. intelligence had no evidence that there were any civilians at the location of this weapons storage facility that was struck by Jordanian F-16s.”

 The building, a facility near the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqah, was hit Friday and at least twice before, he said.

 Regardless of how Mueller died, he said, her Islamic State captors were to blame. “They are responsible for her safety and well-being,” Earnest said.

 Mueller's family members released a statement saying that they had received confirmation of her death. They did not disclose how they learned the information.

 However, a source close to the family who requested anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the communications said a private message containing additional information from the captors was sent to Mueller's parents over the weekend. Once the statement was authenticated by the intelligence community, the family concluded that she was dead, the source said.

 “We are heartbroken to share that we’ve received confirmation that Kayla Jean Mueller has lost her life,” her parents, Carl and Marsha Mueller, and her brother, Eric, said in the statement.

 U.S. officials are aware of at least one other American being held in the region, Earnest said. He did not identify the individual, or the group holding the captive. But he may have been referring to Austin Tice, an American journalist and former Marine who disappeared in Syria in August 2012.

 It is unclear who is holding Tice, but his parents, Debra and Marc Tice, have said that they don't believe he is in the hands of Islamic State militants.

 "Our hearts go out to the Mueller family and everyone who loves Kayla," the family said in a statement posted on a website that aims to raise awareness about Austin Tice's captivity. "We have no way of understanding what they are going through, and we wish them all possible comfort."

 In Washington, the White House released a statement of condolence from President Obama.

 "On behalf of the American people, Michelle and I convey our deepest condolences to Kayla’s family -- her parents, Marsha and Carl, and her brother Eric and his family -- and all of those who loved Kayla dearly," the statement said. "At this time of unimaginable suffering, the country shares in their grief."

 Mueller had a long history of volunteering to help women and children, having worked for aid groups in Arizona before setting out for other countries, including India and Turkey.

 In August 2013, she was abducted in the Syrian city of Aleppo as she left a hospital operated by Doctors Without Borders and was being held in Raqqah, a militant stronghold in northeastern Syria.

 The family statement also included letters Mueller wrote to her family, including one on her father’s birthday in 2011.

 “Some people find God in church. Some people find God in nature. Some people find God in love,” she wrote. “I find God in suffering. I’ve known for some time what my life’s work is, using my hands as tools to relieve suffering.”

 After attending Northern Arizona University, she worked with aid groups in northern India, Israel and the Palestinian territories. She returned to Arizona in 2011, where she worked at an HIV/AIDS clinic and volunteered at a women's shelter. Late that year, she moved to southeastern France and worked as an au pair while learning French in preparation for a planned move to Africa.

 But the plight of families fleeing the violence in war-torn Syria drew her to Turkey in December 2012. She worked with the aid groups Support to Life and the Danish Refugee Council, assisting women and children who crossed into Turkey as refugees.

 She also made some trips into Syria to help reconnect family members separated by the fighting. Her trips into the country took her to Aleppo, where she was eventually kidnapped.

 In correspondence to her family, which she slipped to other detainees who were being freed, Mueller was contrite and seemed to try to assuage her family’s worry. She told them she was being treated well and was not in harm’s way.

 “If you could say I have ‘suffered’ at all throughout this whole experience it is only in knowing how much suffering I have put you all through; I will never ask you to forgive me as I do not deserve forgiveness,” Mueller wrote in a letter the family said it received in the spring of last year.

 She said in the letter that she was willing to wait for her freedom if it meant that her family would be absolved of the burden of negotiating her freedom. |||||Summary:

– President Obama says his reaction to the death of ISIS hostage Kayla Mueller is "heartbreak"—but he thinks her "great spirit" will live on. "The more people learn about her, the more they appreciate what she stood for—and how it stands in contrast with the barbaric organization that held her captive," he tells BuzzFeed in an interview yesterday. He stresses the government did all it could to free her, including deploying an entire operation "at significant risk" to free her and other US hostages. The government did, however, stick to its policy of not paying ransoms to organizations like ISIS; ABC News reports ISIS demanded $6.6 million for her release, and had set an August 2014 deadline for payment. More emerging details: Although the government says it has been unable to confirm the cause of Mueller's death, per the New York Times, ISIS sent Mueller's family three photos of her body, according to two people briefed on the family's correspondence with ISIS. Two photos reportedly showed Mueller in a black Muslim hijab that partly covered her face; the third showed her in a traditional white burial shroud. And while the Times sources said they saw bruises on Mueller's face in the photos, there was no evidence of "puffiness or other concussive effects associated with a bomb blast," though they acknowledge she could have been located in a nearby building or injured by flying debris. The rescue operation referenced by Obama took place July 4 in a predawn raid on a Raqqa prison by Delta Force commandos, the Los Angeles Times reports. But the two dozen soldiers were too late: The hostages—who also included James Foley and Steven Sotloff—had apparently been moved a day or two before. "We never stopped trying to get her," a defense official not authorized to speak publicly tells the Times. "We never lost that focus." Officials yesterday told ABC News that Mueller may have been "given over" to an ISIS commander, and that forced marriage could have even been involved. "ISIS didn't see her as a hostage or a bargaining chip," said one. Devastated friends and relatives in Mueller's hometown of Prescott, Ariz., say they hope her death will raise awareness of the plight of the Syrian refugees she worked with, NBC reports. "The things that were important to Kayla are finally getting the attention they deserve," an aunt said. "The world grieves with us."


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Contrary to popular belief, millennials are interested in purchasing homes. They're just waiting longer to buy.

 A September report from the real-estate website and app Zillow found that millennials — i.e., people between the ages of 18 and 34 — are the largest group of homebuyers in the US. (The median age of a homebuyer is 36.)

 Spencer Rascoff, Zillow's CEO, has some insight into why millennials are delaying their first home purchases. On an episode of Business Insider's podcast, "Success! How I Did It," Rascoff broke it down for our US editor-in-chief, Alyson Shontell:

 "As a result of limited starter-home inventory, they're renting longer. And when they buy their first home, they're buying a much nicer home than a prior generation," he said.

 "I mean, many people are basically skipping starter homes; they're renting until their 30s, and that first house they buy is a million dollars, and they just are not even buying the $200,000, $300,000, $400,000 home, which is a total mind shift as compared with previous generations. So they're still buying homes — they're just buying them later and buying them bigger." ||||| CLOSE SportsPulse: USA TODAY Sports' fantasy football expert Steve Gardner shares his advice on who you should start, and sit, in your lineup this weekend. USA TODAY Sports

 Fox Sports will run 6-second ads during the Cowboys-Broncos game. (Photo: Craig Barritt, Getty Images)

 Viewers of Sunday’s Dallas Cowboys-Denver Broncos game will see what one Fox executive told USA TODAY will soon become commonplace in the network’s sports broadcasts: The six-second ad.

 T-Mobile has developed multiple six-second spots that will bookend a more traditional 30-second ad from the mobile carrier. The ads -- which appear similar to online pre-roll ads -- will run during Fox’s America’s Game of the Week broadcast that will be seen by 81% of the country.

 “I think this really shows that we are not married to a certain commercial length,” Bruce Lefkowitz, executive vice president of advertising sales for Fox Networks Group, said in a phone interview. “This is a new opportunity for advertisers, since it changes how ads can run in games. We are going to expand this to Major League Baseball broadcasts and every single NFL game starting next week.”

 CLOSE Viewers of the Cowboys-Broncos game Sunday will see what one Fox executive told USA TODAY Sports will soon become commonplace in the network’s sports broadcasts: the six-second ad.

 Earlier this year during a presentation to advertisers, Fox hinted that it was going to experiment with ad length during games. (There are already 15-second ads mixed with occasional 60-second ads during NFL broadcasts.) The six-second ads were tested during the Teen Choice Awards broadcast by Fox last month.

 For T-Mobile, the experiment with six-second ads isn’t surprising. In recent years, the company has tried to position itself as the “Un-Carrier,” heavily embracing and experimenting with social media. CEO John Legere is particularly active on various platforms, including Twitter, where he has more than 4.5 million followers.

 Mobile push: Want free Netflix? T-Mobile hopes so

 "We know that short-form videos perform better in digital, and that consumer attention spans are increasingly shorter," Kari Marshall, VP of media at T-Mobile, said in a statement to USA TODAY. "So applying these insights to TV, and taking what we’ve seen with shorter ads to date, we’re very excited to partner with Fox to take it a step further."

 T-Mobile is no stranger to the NFL. During last February's Super Bowl, it featured three minutes worth of ads that included celebrities such as Justin Bieber, Martha Stewart and Snoop Dogg.

 Lefkowitz said the ability to grab viewers’ attention via the shorter spots, especially younger viewers, was “certainly” a consideration in the creation of the six-minute ad segments.

 “We have done research on Millennials and how they interact to different types of messages,” Lefkowitz said. “You don’t always need 30 or 60 seconds to reinforce a brand’s message.”

 The creation of the shorter ads also comes as the NFL attempts to recover from an 8% viewership decline last year.

 NFL ratings slip in 2016: NFL TV ratings rebounded after presidential election but still dipped overall

 The NFL worked with its broadcast partners (Fox, CBS, NBC and ESPN) to cut down on commercial breaks -- although the breaks are slightly longer now -- among other changes to speed up the game.

 NFL speeds things up: Roger Goodell says changes coming to quicken NFL games

 The pace of play did improve in Week 1 compared to the same time period last year. Only five of the 15 games in the opening weekend exceeded three hours, compared to 10 of 16 games last year.

 PHOTOS: Best of NFL Week 2 ||||| Tom Brady of the New England Patriots celebrates after defeating the Atlanta Falcons during Super Bowl 51 in Houston last February. Credit: Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images

 Visa has signed on to run six-second ads in Fox's National Football League game on Sunday and will use the shortened spot for its Hurricane Harvey relief efforts.

 Visa will run one six-second spot right before kickoff and another during the game, according to Bruce Lefkowitz, exec VP-ad sales, Fox Networks Group. The host of Fox's pre-game show will intro the six-second spot before the game, while the other will run in a traditional pod within the game.

 The short ad unit, first prominently championed by YouTube last year but adopted by others like Facebook in recent months, is part of Fox's strategy to figure out how to improve the TV viewing experience as it confronts competition from platforms with fewer or no commercials.

 "As shorter-form ads have become more and more common in the digital ad space, consumers have become more accustomed to the format, and metrics show that they are more likely to retain the messages conveyed. It makes sense to take these learnings and apply them to the linear ad space as well," says Chris Curtin, chief brand and innovation officer, Visa, in an email.

 "Good creative messaging should be able to be boiled down to simple takeaways for the consumer. So, building for short-form ad units has been a great exercise for our creative teams to ensure our messaging is laser-focused and crystal-clear," he adds.

 Fox is charging similar rates for its six-second spots in NFL games as it does for 15-second ads. A 30-second ad in Fox's Sunday games goes for about $775,000 this season, according to ad buyers.

 Fox plans on airing a limited number of six-second spots during NFL games this season, as well as in telecasts of Major League Baseball and college football and Major League Soccer on FS1. The company is close to signing deals with other marketers for six-second ads in NFL games through week eight, Lefkowitz says.

 The network group began testing the format during its "Teen Choice Awards" in August.

 In theory, most TV people agree that less commercial clutter is good for both consumers and advertisers. Fewer ads increase the chances that the spots will be remembered and decrease opportunities for viewers to change the channel. But there are plenty of questions surrounding the economics. In order to maintain ad revenue while decreasing ad loads, networks have to raise prices on the inventory. Marketers are far from convinced that they should pay more to be in a program with less commercial clutter. But Fox has been aggressive in moving quickly with adopting the format to prove its value.

 In the spot that will air on Sunday, Visa is asking viewers to join in Harvey relief efforts, for which the company has committed $1 million.

 "We collectively decided that it didn't feel right to launch an ad on behalf of our brand in the context of what is occurring in the Gulf states," Curtin says. |||||

– Having already killed everything from golf to Applebee's, it looks like millennials have their sights set on the 30-second ad spot. AdvertisingAge reports Visa ran two six-second ads during an NFL game on Fox last Sunday. And T-Mobile will follow suit during this Sunday's Dallas Cowboys game on Fox, according to USA Today. The six-second spots, which Fox first experimented with during the Teen Choice Awards last month, "appear similar to online pre-roll ads." And one Fox executive says they're about to be commonplace on the network: "This is a new opportunity for advertisers, since it changes how ads can run in games. We are going to expand this to Major League Baseball broadcasts and every single NFL game starting next week." Six-second ads were first pushed by YouTube before being adopted elsewhere on the web. A Visa executive says research has shown viewers remember the messaging better in short bursts, and that Fox executive says the six-second ads could appeal to millennials and their shorter attention spans. "We know that short-form videos perform better in digital and that consumer attention spans are increasingly shorter," a T-Mobile executive adds. Thanks to cord-cutters and DVR's ability to fast-forward through commercials, Fox had little choice but to try something new, Fortune reports. Fox has said it may insert the six-second ads into down moments of the games themselves, which could make them both harder to skip and allow the actual commercial breaks to be shorter—a bonus for viewers.


News article:

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonTrump: Cohen only became a ‘rat’ after FBI 'broke into' office Giuliani indicates Trump Tower Moscow discussions took place up until November 2016 Hillary Clinton writes letter to 8-year-old girl who lost class president to male classmate MORE gave the closing remarks Tuesday's Professional Business Women of California conference in San Francisco, taking a moment to defend both a White House reporter and Democratic lawmaker as examples of the "indignities" facing "women who were simply doing their jobs."

 "Just look at all that’s happened in the last few days to women who were simply doing their jobs," Clinton said.

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 "April Ryan, a respected journalist with unrivaled integrity, was doing her job just this afternoon in the White House press room when she was patronized and cut off trying to ask a question."

 Clinton was referring to an exchange between White House press secretary Sean Spicer and the veteran journalist on Tuesday in which Spicer told Ryan to "stop shaking your head" as she asked a question.

 Spicer accused Ryan, a correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks, for pushing an agenda with her questions.

 "April, hold on, it seems like you're hell-bent on trying to make sure that whatever image you want to tell about this White House stays," he said.

 Clinton also referenced Fox News host Bill O'Reilly's comment about Rep. Maxine Waters's (D-Calif.) hair, which he called a “James Brown wig."

 "One of our own California congressmen Maxine Waters was taunted with a racist joke about her hair," Clinton said. "Too many women, especially women of color, have had a lifetime of practice taking precisely these kinds of indignities in stride."

 "But why should we have to? And any woman who thinks this couldn’t be directed at her is living in a dream world." ||||| Speaking at the PBWC Conference in San Francisco today, Hillary Clinton called on Silicon Valley to improve diversity and inclusion, particularly by introducing paid parental leave policies. Clinton mentioned Uber and its recent sexual harassment scandal as an example of a company struggling with inclusion, and cited Salesforce as a company making positive strides on equal pay.

 “It’s a cruel irony that stereotypes and bias run rampant at companies that pride themselves at being forward-thinking,” Clinton said. “For some women the hostility is even more direct, like the Uber engineer who spoke out about her experiences with sexual harassment.”

 Clinton was referencing the experience of Susan Fowler Rigetti, a former software engineer at Uber whose blog post about harassment at the company went viral last month, prompting CEO Travis Kalanick to seek leadership help and to release the company’s first-ever diversity report.

 “These are not buzzwords to throw around or boxes to check,” Clinton said. “A crucial part of solving these problems is recognizing that, important as it is, corporate feminism is no substitute for inclusive concrete solutions that improve life for women everywhere.”

 Clinton had kinder words for Salesforce and the Gap, which she said are both “making real commitments to employees” on equal pay and paid family leave.

 Of Silicon Valley, she added, “You have the tools and the creativity to take on problems like implicit bias and make the case for those in elected office to follow suit.” |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– Two women who faced slights at the hands of prominent Republicans on Tuesday were defended by Hillary Clinton, who has experience in the area. Clinton, speaking at the Professional Businesswomen of California conference, decried the "indignities" women have to put up with while "simply doing their jobs," the Hill reports. She was referring to journalist April Ryan and Democratic Rep. Maxine Waters. Ryan was interrupted and told to "stop shaking your head" by Sean Spicer while asking a question at a press conference. Waters was mocked by Bill O'Reilly, who said he was unable to listen to what she was saying because of her "James Brown wig." Both women are black, and Clinton noted that the problem is especially bad for women of color. Her remarks were part of a bigger call for diversity and inclusion in Silicon Valley, according to TechCrunch.


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 WASHINGTON — A restriction on abortion coverage, added late Saturday to the health care bill passed by the House, has energized abortion opponents with their biggest victory in years — emboldening them for a pitched battle in the Senate.

 The provision would block the use of federal subsidies for insurance that covers elective abortions. Advocates on both sides are calling Saturday’s vote the biggest turning point in the battle over the procedure since the ban on so-called partial birth abortions six years ago.

 Both sides credited a forceful lobbying effort by Roman Catholic bishops with the success of the provision, inserted in the bill under pressure from conservative Democrats.

 The provision would apply only to insurance policies purchased with the federal subsidies that the health legislation would create to help low- and middle-income people, and to policies sold by a government-run insurance plan that would be created by the legislation.

 Abortion rights advocates charged Sunday that the provision threatened to deprive women of abortion coverage because insurers would drop the procedure from their plans in order to sell them in the newly expanded market of people receiving subsidies. The subsidized market would be large because anyone earning less than $88,000 for a family of four — four times the poverty level — would be eligible for a subsidy under the House bill. Women who received subsidies or public insurance could still pay out of pocket for the procedure. Or they could buy separate insurance riders to cover abortion, though some evidence suggests few would, in part because unwanted pregnancies are by their nature unexpected.

 Not many women who undergo abortions file private insurance claims, perhaps to avoid leaving a record. A 2003 study by the Alan Guttmacher Institute found that 13 percent of abortions were billed directly to insurance companies. Only about half of those who receive insurance coverage from their employers have coverage of abortion in any event, according to a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation.

 Abortion rights advocates, however, are grappling with a series of incremental defeats in the courts and in Congress, and are now bracing for another struggle as the health care legislation goes to the Senate.

 “This is going to make it that much more challenging on the Senate side,” said Nancy Keenan, president of Naral Pro-Choice America.

 The president and Democratic leaders alike have long promised that their proposed health care overhaul would not direct taxpayer money to pay for elective abortions. But the president has never spelled out his answer to the contentious question of how to apply that standard to the novel program of offering insurance subsidies or a government-run plan to millions of poor and middle-class Americans.

 House Democratic leaders had sought to resolve the issue by requiring insurers to segregate their federal subsidies into separate accounts.

 Insurance plans would have been permitted to use only consumer premiums or co-payments to pay for abortions, even if individuals who received federal subsidies used them to buy health plans that covered abortion. But the House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, was unable to hold on to enough moderate and conservative Democratic votes to pass the health bill using that approach, forcing her to allow a vote Saturday night on the amendment containing the broader ban.

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 Five states go further than the amendment to the health care overhaul. The five — Idaho, Kentucky, Missouri, North Dakota and Oklahoma — already bar private insurance plans from covering elective abortions.

 The federal employees’ health insurance plan and most state Medicaid programs also ban coverage of abortion, complying with a three-decade old ban on federal abortion financing. Seventeen state Medicaid programs, however, do cover the procedure, by using only state money.

 The bishops objected to the segregated funds proposal previously embraced by the House and Senate Democratic leaders in part because they argued that it amounted to nothing more than an accounting gimmick.

 Advocates on both sides of the question weighed in, but the bishops’ role was especially pivotal in part because many Democrats had expected them to be an ally. They had pushed for decades for universal health insurance.

 “We think that providing health care is itself a pro-life thing, and we think that, by and large, providing better health coverage to women could reduce abortions,” said Richard M. Doerflinger, a spokesman for the anti-abortion division of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

 “But we don’t make these decisions statistically, and to get to that good we cannot do something seriously evil.”

 Beginning in late July, the bishops began issuing a series of increasingly stern letters to lawmakers making clear that they saw the abortion-financing issue as pre-eminent, a deal-breaker.

 At the funeral of Senator Edward M. Kennedy in August, Cardinal Seán O’Malley, the archbishop of Boston, stole a private moment with Mr. Obama to deliver the same warning: The bishops very much wanted to support his health care overhaul but not if it provided for abortions. The president “listened intently,” the cardinal reported on his blog.

 Bishops implored their priests and parishioners to call lawmakers. Conservative Democrats negotiating over the issue with party leaders often expressed their desire to meet the bishops’ criteria, according to many people involved in the talks. On Oct. 8 three members of the bishops conference wrote on its behalf to lawmakers, “If the final legislation does not meet our principles, we will have no choice but to oppose the bill.”

 On Sunday, some abortion rights advocates lashed out at the bishops. “It was an unconscionable power play,” said Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, accusing the bishops of “interceding to put their own ideology in the national health care plan.”

 Now some Senate Democrats, including Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Ben Nelson of Nebraska, are pushing to incorporate the same restrictions in their own bill. Senior Senate Democratic aides said the outcome was too close to call. ||||| President Obama and Senate Democrats sought on Sunday to generate momentum from the House's passage of health-care legislation, even as a new hurdle emerged: profound dismay among abortion-rights supporters over antiabortion provisions inserted into the House bill.

 The House passed its version of health-care legislation Saturday night by a vote of 220 to 215 after the approval of an amendment that would sharply restrict the availability of coverage for abortions, which many insurance plans now offer. The amendment goes beyond long-standing prohibitions against public funding for abortions, limiting abortion coverage even for women paying for it without government subsidies.

 The abortion issue had been rumbling within the House Democratic caucus for weeks, but Saturday's votes revealed the depths of the fault lines. The amendment passed with the support of 64 Democrats, roughly a quarter of the party caucus.

 But abortion-rights supporters are vowing to strip the amendment out, as the focus turns to the Senate and the conference committee that would resolve differences between the two bills.

 Although House liberals voted for the bill with the amendment to keep the process moving forward, Rep. Diana DeGette (Colo.) said she has collected more than 40 signatures from House Democrats vowing to oppose any final bill that includes the amendment -- enough to block passage.

 "There's going to be a firestorm here," DeGette said. "Women are going to realize that a Democratic-controlled House has passed legislation that would prohibit women paying for abortions with their own funds. . . . We're not going to let this into law."

 Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) is waiting for cost estimates of provisions of the bill he is cobbling together, and he hopes to bring it to the Senate floor before Thanksgiving. The battle over abortion has been more muted in the Senate, but Jim Manley, Reid's spokesman, predicted that would change.

 "The debate in the House highlighted some of these issues that we're going to have to face here in the Senate, and on this issue in particular, it's something [Reid] is going to have to talk with his caucus about," Manley said.

 Obama left the abortion issue unmentioned Sunday when he appeared in the White House Rose Garden to give brief remarks congratulating the House on its "courageous" passage of the bill. "Now it falls on the United States Senate to take the baton and bring this effort to the finish line on behalf of the American people," he said. "And I'm absolutely confident that they will."

 Other issues remain unresolved. The House bill's primary new revenue source to pay for the bill is an income tax surcharge on families earning more than $1 million; the Senate bill will probably rely on a proposed new excise tax on costly insurance plans. The House and Senate also differ on a government-run insurance plan to be offered on the new marketplace where small businesses and people without employer-provided coverage -- about 30 million in all -- would buy coverage.

 The Senate version would limit this "public option" by allowing states to opt out of it, but even in that form, the bill's prospects are unclear. Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), whose vote Democrats will probably need to break a filibuster, warned again Sunday on Fox News that he will withhold his support if the bill includes a public option.

 The bills also differ in their requirements for employers to provide coverage -- the House's language is tougher -- and in the subsidies for those who cannot afford coverage, which are larger in the House version. Both bills deny subsidies to illegal immigrants, but the Senate version goes further by also barring them from buying coverage on the new marketplace with their own money. |||||

– The abortion funding ban included in the health-care bill passed by the House Saturday could doom it down the road, as abortion supporters in the Senate threaten revolt, and those who voted for it in the House vow they won't back the final bill if it's still included, the Washington Post reports. The 11th-hour provision, which was pushed through with the help of the Roman Catholic bishops, "is going to make it that much more challenging on the Senate side," the president of NARAL-Pro Choice America tells the New York Times. And even if the bill somehow manages to squeak by in the Senate, a group of House liberals who voted for the amendment just to keep the bill moving has vowed to block its final passage. "We're not going to let this into law," said Rep. Diana DeGette. For those on both sides of the abortion debate, the stakes are high. "This would be the greatest restriction on a woman's right to get an abortion with her own money in our lifetime," the pro-choice activist said.


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The mother of Muhammad Musallam, an Israeli Arab held by Islamic State in Syria as an alleged spy, weeps as she holds his photograph in her East Jerusalem home February 12, 2015.

 BEIRUT A video posted online by Islamic State militants on Tuesday showed a boy fatally shooting Muhammad Musallam, an Israeli Arab accused by the group of having signed up as a jihadi to spy for Israel's intelligence service.

 The video, published by the group's Furqan media outlet, showed Musallam, 19, sitting in a room wearing an orange jumpsuit, talking about how he had been recruited and trained by Mossad. He said his father and elder brother had encouraged him.

 After that, it showed Musallam being escorted to a field and then being shot in the head by a boy, described by an older, French-speaking fighter as one of the "cubs of the caliphate".

 Reuters could not immediately verify the authenticity of the footage, which also appeared on Twitter feeds used by Islamic State supporters.

 Israeli security officials said they were aware of the video but could not confirm that it was authentic.

 The video, which was about 13 minutes long, showed Musallam on his knees as he listened to the older fighter delivering the verdict in French.

 Then the boy, wearing a military uniform and armed with a pistol, stands face to face with Musallam and fires one bullet into his forehead. After Musallam collapsed, the child shot him three more times and chanted "Allahu Akbar!" (God is greatest).

 In the video, Musallam repeated what he had said last month in an interview published by the group's English language magazine Dabiq, in which he said he had joined Islamic State to report to the Israelis on weapons caches, bases and Palestinian recruits. Israel and his family denied that he was an Israeli spy.

 "I tell my father and my son: Repent to God. I say to the spies who spy on Islamic State: You will not be successful, they will expose you," Musallam said in the latest video, in Arabic.

 An Israeli security official had said Musallam went to Syria to fight for Islamic State in October last year.

 Musallam's father has denied his son was a spy, saying a month ago that his son had gone missing while on a tourist trip to Turkey.

 Said Musallam and the youth's mother, Um Ahmad, wept at their home in East Jerusalem when they learned of his death. Clutching her son's photograph, Um Ahmad told reporters: "A spy of 19? How is that possible? Why would he have gone there if he were a spy?"

 Said Musallam said his son had been trying to return home when he was captured. He accused the militants of forcing his son to say he was a spy before killing him just for show.

 "Mohammad was told by them to say about himself that he works for the Israelis," Said Musallam said. "They took him as a victim, only to show the world, so the world would be afraid of them."

 (Reporting by Mariam Karouny and by Ali Abdellati in Cairo; Editing by Kevin Liffey and Ken Wills) ||||| Story highlights A video claims to show the killing of Mohamed Said Ismail Musallam

 Musallam's family says ISIS recruited him

 ISIS claims the 19-year-old is an Israeli spy

 Jerusalem (CNN) A newly released ISIS video shows a child shooting a man the group claims is an Israeli spy.

 The video identifies the man as 19-year-old Mohamed Said Ismail Musallam, an Israeli citizen of Palestinian descent.

 In the video, ISIS shows Musallam's Israeli passport and claims he's an agent sent to infiltrate the group. The 19-year-old's family told CNN Tuesday that he had no ties with the Mossad, Israel's spy agency, and had, in fact, been recruited by ISIS.

 "Mohamed told me and his brother that ISIS took him," according to Said Musallam, his father. "They sent him money through the Western Union. They said you will have girls, money, cars, villas, paradise, but afterwords he discovered that there is nothing."

 It wasn't long before Musallam's family members didn't recognize him when they talked to him on Skype. The man they knew as a kind and funny brother and son who was once a volunteer firefighter had grown a long beard and was carrying a rifle.

 Read More ||||| Image copyright AFP Image caption Mohammed Musallam's parents said he had he left for Syria four months ago without telling them

 Islamic State (IS) militants have posted a video online which appears to show a young boy shooting dead an Israeli Arab prisoner.

 The man, identified as Mohammed Said Ismail Musallam, was accused by IS of working for Israel's Mossad foreign intelligence service.

 The 19-year-old left his home in East Jerusalem for Turkey last year, apparently intending to fight in Syria.

 Israeli officials and Mr Musallam's family denied he was an Israeli spy.

 The video footage has not been independently verified and Israeli officials said they could not confirm its authenticity.

 'Own initiative'

 Mr Musallam's family said he had left for Turkey four months ago without telling them. Soon after his departure, he told his brother that he planned to join IS in Syria.

 A spokesman for the Shin Beth security service also told the AFP news agency that he had left home "on his own initiative".

 At the scene: Yolande Knell, BBC News, East Jerusalem

 Comforted by her remaining three sons, Umm Ahmed sits weeping for 19-year-old Mohammed Musallam.

 She recalls her shock when she discovered that he had run away to join Islamic State fighters in northern Syria. "They recruited him through the internet," she says. "They told him: 'Come and we'll give you a house, money, you can get married - we have beautiful girls.'"

 By the time Mohammed contacted his family from Raqqa late last year, the clean-shaven teenager had grown a beard and was carrying a Kalashnikov rifle. But his father says he had become disillusioned and wanted to return home.

 Said Musallam tells me that Mohammed, an Israeli citizen, tried to escape but was caught and accused of being an Israeli spy.

 "There was no way they were going to let him go," he says. "He'd been there for three months and seen their weapons. They said: 'He betrayed us, we'll ruin his reputation.' And that's what they did."

 In February, the IS magazine Dabiq carried a long interview with Mr Musallam which contained what purported to be a confession that he had been sent by Israel to infiltrate the jihadist group.

 The BBC's Kevin Connolly in Jerusalem says the article gave sketchy details about his alleged training and mission, but its publication was a clear signal that he had fallen foul of the group and was in clear danger.

 Image copyright AFP Image caption Mohammed Musallam sent his family a photo of himself dressed in military fatigues, holding a rifle

 On Tuesday evening, Islamic State's Furqan media outlet published a 13-minute video showing a young man, identified as Mr Musallam, sitting in a room wearing an orange jumpsuit, talking about how he was recruited and trained by Israeli intelligence.

 He is later shown kneeling in an empty field, facing the camera. Behind him stand two figures in camouflage fatigues, one of whom appears to be a boy.

 The boy appears to shoot the kneeling figure in the head with a handgun and then to fire further shots into the body.

 The video then carries a warning from an older, French-speaking militant aimed at the Jewish people.

 French media and IS supporters identified the older militant as Sabri Essid. He is reportedly a half-brother of Mohamed Merah, who killed three unarmed French soldiers, a rabbi and three small children at a Jewish school in France in 2012. ||||| Sky News has spoken to a former member of Islamic State, who claims he witnessed the man known as Jihadi John murder Japanese hostage Kenji Goto.

 The former translator said that the masked man in the video was indeed Mohammed Emwazi, the 26-year-old Londoner who has become the face of the world's most notorious terrorist organisation.

 "Saleh" said Emwazi is employed as the chief killer of foreign hostages for Islamic State's media wing and that his murderous influence among the group is feared and respected.

 Speaking in March from Turkey, where he fled to escape IS, Saleh explained in broken English how he was employed by the group to convince foreign hostages they were safe.

 He is the only person to admit seeing Emwazi kill.

 Play video "Kuwaiti Ambassador On 'Jihadi John'" Video: Kuwaiti Ambassador On 'Jihadi John'

 He said: "When he killed Kenji Goto I live showed this [saw this] but not near, from a little [distance].

 "After he was killed him, three or four person come and take over the body and put in a car. After that, John went on a different road.

 "The big boss was there with them. Turkish man say 'put this camera there, change place there' but John [was] the big boss. All time, all time say to all 'fastly, fastly, fastly, we should finish'. So respect him. Only he talks orders – others do."

 Play video "Audio Recording Of Mohammed Emwazi" Video: Audio Recording Of Mohammed Emwazi

 Saleh suggested Emwazi commanded such respect within the group because of his willingness to murder foreigners.

 "Maybe because he use the knife," he said. "I cannot understand why he is so strong. One man can kill and all people will respect. A Syrian man anyone [in IS] can kill. But strangers [foreigners], only John."

 Saleh claims foreign hostages captured and murdered by the group were subjected to numerous mock executions until the procedure became normal. It could explain why many hostages appeared calm in execution videos published online by the group.

 1 / 6 Gallery: Jihadi John's email exhanges with Cage and a reporter This email Mohammed Emwazi sent to a Mail On Sunday reporter in 2010 revealed his first encounter and his fear of MI5

 He said: "He would say to me 'say to them, no problem, only video, we don't kill you, we want from your government [to] stop attacking Syria. We don't have any problem with you; you are only our visitors'.

 "So they don't worry. Always I say to them 'don't worry, doesn't matter, nothing dangerous for you. But at the end I was sure [they would die]."

 Emwazi grew up in northwest London and graduated from the University of Westminster with a degree in computer programming before travelling to Syria in 2013 and later joining IS. |||||

– More horror from ISIS' media wing: A boy who appears to be no older than 12 shoots dead an alleged Israeli spy in the latest video released by the militants. The video shows an older, French-speaking militant threatening Jews before the boy shoots a man identified as Muhammad Said Ismail Musallam, a 19-year-old Israeli Arab, in the forehead, the BBC reports. The older militant describes the boy as a "lion cub of the caliphate" in the video, which also shows Musallam confessing to spying on ISIS for Israel, reports Reuters. Israeli authorities say Musallam was not a spy but an ISIS recruit, which his father confirms to CNN from his home in East Jerusalem. The teenager was promised "girls, money, cars, villas, paradise," but tried to leave when he "discovered that there is nothing" and was captured as he tried to return home, the father says. Separately, an ISIS defector now in Turkey has explained why some hostages seem calm in beheading videos the group has released. In an interview with Sky News, the defector claims foreign hostages were subjected to many filmed mock executions before they were finally killed, and part of his job as a translator for ISIS was to convince the Westerners that they would not be harmed and the videos were only to put pressure on their governments.


Article:
NASHUA, N.H. — Herman Cain’s farther behind in the polls here in the home of the first primary than he is nationally or in Iowa, but he still has high hopes for his chances.

 “Well, let’s just say we always try to come in first,” Cain said after an event in a half-empty hotel ballroom. “But if we come in second, that’s not the end of the world. We still would consider that momentum.”

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 But his first day of campaigning in the state since August will likely make that task tougher.

 Cain’s remark came after he spent the bulk of a 22-minute speech to supporters pushing back on the controversies — sexual harassment, his stumbling answer on Libya on Monday to name two — that have engulfed his campaign.

 Cain himself added a new one Thursday morning when he blew off a scheduled meeting with the publisher, editorial page director and reporters at the Union Leader, the state’s largest and most influential newspaper.

 The cumulative effect has New Hampshire GOP Chairman Wayne MacDonald’s doubts about Cain’s chances growing.

 “It’s political reality that the more you get bombarded by a perceived lack of knowledge on foreign policy, which is obviously critical to the presidency and being the commander-in-chief, whether it’s character issues like sexual harassment or the whole Bill Clinton-type of perception, regardless of what it is it’s going to take its toll,” MacDonald told POLITICO in his Concord office. “You just can’t be having all that stuff come at you without it having an impact.”

 And indeed it has, at least in New Hampshire. While the latest polling by Bloomberg shows Cain in a four-way statistical tie in Iowa, he is in fourth place here with 8 percent support, well behind Romney, Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich.

 At Cain’s Nashua rally, which drew about 250 people to a room equipped to handle at least twice that number, he addressed what he called his “powerful pause that went viral on the Internet,” saying that he can’t be expected to have a deep knowledge of foreign affairs.

 “Who knows every detail of every country of every situation on the planet?” Cain asked the crowd. “Nobody! A leader is supposed to make sure we work on the right problems, we’re assigned the right priorities. Surround yourself with good people, put together plans and lead. We’ve got plenty of experts, and a leader knows how to use those experts. We need a leader, not a reader.”

 But despite Cain’s speech, the headline in the state’s largest newspaper was what the Union Leader dubbed his “no-show” for his sit-down at the conservative daily, which is typically a rite of passage for Republican candidates.

 The Cain campaign’s last-minute decision to back out of the event capped several days of drama as it first demanded C-SPAN cameras be barred from the room, then tried to limit the one-hour interview to 20 minutes — a request the newspaper immediately refused.

 The Union Leader’s endorsement is the state’s biggest prize for Republicans leading up to the primary — now just seven weeks away — and is seen as a conservative stamp of approval elsewhere in the country. The newspaper’s been a powerful force in New Hampshire Republican primaries since that primary took on its crucial role in picking GOP nominees, going back to the days of Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan. The newspaper’s 2008 endorsement helped boost John McCain to the New Hampshire win that revived his campaign, and it’s been eagerly sought after by most of this year’s field. ||||| Editorials

 Reaction to our story on Saturday about Manchester Police Chief Nick Willard's car accident in March was quite polarized.

 Manchester aldermen should experiment with a pilot program that aims to make trash collection safer, cleaner and cheaper.

 Responding to calls from people asking them to put out fires is costing the Portsmouth Fire Department millions of dollar per year. Shouldn’t they be able to bill homeowners for the service? |||||Summary:

– An interview Herman Cain had scheduled with New Hampshire’s largest newspaper fell through today, in what the New Hampshire Union Leader dubbed a “no-show.” Cain’s camp blamed the newspaper. Scheduled a week in advance, the sit-down was originally supposed to be an hour long and aired on C-SPAN. But after Cain’s Libya flub in a similar interview in Milwaukee, the campaign said it didn’t want the interview taped. “Videos are typically used for television and it’s a newspaper,” a Cain spokesman explains to Politico. Cain instead scheduled another event, telling the Union Leader he could stop by for only 20 minutes—which the paper deemed unacceptable. “We can catch Cain anywhere for 20 minutes,” the publisher said; the sit-down interview was intended to “really size up the candidate.” The implication? The interview—which three of Cain’s rivals have already done—is key to nabbing the paper’s influential endorsement.