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 Ford wants people to know that its new F-Series Super Duty Limited is a whole lotta truck, but not just in the sense that you can do all kinds of truck stuff with it. Indeed, Ford says the F-450 Limited 4x4 can tow the equivalent of an F-35 fighter jet, which for those of you outside the aerospace industry means 30,000 pounds. Rather, Ford is adamant – almost boasting even – that the Limited starts at $80,835 for the F-250, and can reach $94,455 for a loaded F-450. For the record, that’s enough coin to put you in the driver’s seat of a new Mercedes-Benz S-Class – a vehicle considered by many to be the pinnacle of luxury and technology.

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 Granted, we’re comparing apples to oranges here, but that’s some serious coin for a pickup truck designed first and foremost to be a workhorse. Ford feels the new Limited series will be the pinnacle of pickup luxury and technology, however, and its list of features is an enviable one at that. Two-tone Camelback leather adorns the seats, of which the front are both heated and ventilated while rear seats are only heated. The headliner is Miko suede, or at least, the parts not affected by a panoramic moonroof. Dark ash wood trim is found throughout the interior, and for those who love numbers, each Limited will have its serial number laser-etched on the center console armrest.

 From a technology standpoint, Super Duty Limited models get a host of driving assists as standard equipment, including blind-spot monitoring, adaptive steering and cruise control, lane-keeping alerts, and forward collision warnings with brake support. A 360-degree camera with trailer reverse assistance will help drivers maneuver the rig, and because these trucks are designed to pull things, the blind spot monitoring offers trailer coverage as well.

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 Outside, the extra bling is relegated a satin-finish twin-bar grille with chrome accents, flanked by quad-beam LED headlamps. The satin look is carried around the back on the tailgate as well. As for power, Ford lists the 6.7-liter Power Stroke V8 diesel as the only engine option across the Limited line. Rated at 440 horsepower and 925 pound-feet of torque, it should be plenty to pull even the largest trailers across the country.

 Ford is confident that the luxury-minded Super Duty Limited series will have buyers, saying that it’s a truck for “successful ranchers to contractors to RV owners.” To back that up, the automaker points out that Lariat, King Ranch and Platinum trim levels account for over half of its Super Duty sales for 2017. Still, Ford is keen to tell the, um, less successful ranchers that the base-model F-250 XL starts at $32,890.

 The new F-Series Super Duty Limited will arrive at Ford dealerships this winter in either single or dual-rear-wheel configurations.

 Source: Ford ||||| Luxury pickup trucks aren't just a fad. Many buyers want that one-car balance that covers both comfort and capability. If that's what you're after, consider Ford's latest, which can run up to nearly $100,000.

 The Ford F-Series Super Duty Limited is the cream of the crop of Ford's heavy-duty pickup lineup. It's meant for, as Ford says, "boat captains to captains of industry," and it brings both luxury appointments and outright capability to the table in a way that's hard to top.

 This truck even looks fancy, thanks to a special chrome-accented grille, LED headlights and a satin tailgate appliqué. Inside, it's like a luxury apartment, with two-tone leather seats, hand-finished dark ash trim and leather-wrapped parts as far as the eye can see.

 Enlarge Image Ford

 The VIN is also laser-etched into the center console armrest, because when you're spending nearly six figures on a pickup, you want it to feel as special as humanly possible.

 The Super Duty Limited is also packed to the gills with Ford's latest truck tech. The infotainment system runs Ford's new Sync 3. A 360-degree camera makes parking a breeze, and there's a dial that makes reversing with a trailer just about the easiest thing ever. It can warn you when you leave the lane, and it even packs forward collision warning, a rarity in the pickup segment.

 Equipped with Ford's 6.7-liter Power Stroke diesel V8, the F-Series Super Duty Limited can tow up to 30,000 pounds. Ford points out that this is roughly the weight of the Air Force's F-35 fighter. Odds are, if you can drop this much on a truck, you probably own the plane already.

 This truck does not come cheap. The F-250 Limited starts at $80,835 including destination. The F-350 will set you back $82,010, and the F-450 runs about $87,100. If you tick literally every possible options box on the F-450, you can bring the price up to $94,455. That's Mercedes-Benz S-Class territory. What a world. ||||| Ford again establishes new top end for trucks with the new Super Duty Limited, specially tailored for high-end heavy-duty truck customers – from boat captains to captains of industry

 Custom touches – inside and out – come standard on Limited, along with Super Duty capability and smart tech

 Ford continues offering a heavy-duty pickup truck for every customer – from the work-ready F-250 XL starting at $32,890 to this top-of-the-line F-450 Limited

 DALLAS, Sept. 28, 2017 – Ford – America’s truck leader – today pulls the wraps off a new F-Series Super Duty Limited that sets new luxury standards for high-end heavy-duty truckers.

 With pricing at $87,100, the F-450 Limited delivers technology and comfort previously reserved only in premium flagship sedans, and it’s capable enough to tow more than 30,000 pounds – about the weight of a stealthy Air Force F-35 fighter plane.

 “The Super Duty lineup is a win for all of our customers, from successful ranchers to contractors to RV owners,” said Todd Eckert, Ford truck group marketing manager. “Super Duty Limited is the most luxurious and advanced heavy-duty pickup truck ever created by Ford for those accomplished buyers with an appetite for the high life and the hard-earned dollars to match.”

 Starting MSRPs (including $1,295 destination; taxes and fees not included) are:

 F-250 Super Duty Limited 4x4 $80,835

 F-350 Super Duty Limited 4x4 $82,010

 F-450 Super Duty Limited 4x4 $87,100

 Customers who check every option box can top one out for as much as $94,455.

 What’s the point?

 “There are heavy-duty truck customers who need Super Duty-level capability and want true luxury,” Eckert said. “We created this new truck to answer the call for even more premium choices in the Super Duty range as we see more and more truck customers trending to more premium models.”

 More than 50 percent of the Super Duty lineup’s retail sales this year are high-end models – including Lariat, King Ranch and Platinum series. Limited goes even further.

 “Imagine opening the door to your humidor and sinking into your favorite leather lounge chair – that’s the sensation new Super Duty Limited inspires,” said Ford design manager Aileen Barraza.

 Custom Camelback two-tone leather seats, premium stitched leather-wrapped steering wheel, armrests and instrument panel, Miko® suede headliner, hand-finished dark ash wood trim and special badging set the interior apart. Outside, a special twin-bar satin grille with chrome accents, quad-beam LED lights and satin-finished tailgate appliqué are Limited’s unique calling cards. Each Limited also has a dedicated serial number laser-etched on the center console armrest.

 Most Super Duty tech ever

 Beyond the handcrafting, Super Duty Limited comes standard with advanced and innovative features to get the job done on ranches, in marinas and everywhere in between. This includes:

 Class-exclusive high-definition 360-degree camera with Trailer Reverse Guidance

 Class-exclusive SYNC ® 3

 3 Class-exclusive BLIS ® with trailer coverage

 with trailer coverage Class-exclusive adaptive cruise control

 Class-exclusive adaptive steering

 Lane-keeping alert

 Forward collision warning with brake support

 Class-exclusive flat rear load floor with fold-up locking storage

 Class-exclusive quad-beam LED headlamps

 Full panoramic moonroof with retractable shade

 Heated and ventilated front seats, plus heated rear seats

 Leather-trimmed, heated steering wheel

 Is Ford backing away from heavy-duty truck buyers with fewer greenbacks? No way!

 Ford has a heavy-duty pickup truck for every customer – from work-ready F-250 XL starting at $32,890 to this top-of-the-line F-450 Limited.

 Super Duty Limited Crew Cab arrives this winter with Ford’s 6.7-liter Power Stroke® diesel V8 across F-250, F-350 and F-450 single- or dual-rear-wheel configurations. ||||| Photo: Ford

 It is time. We knew the luxo-truck onslaught that’s been wreaking havoc across this great nation was going to bring us to this moment. But now, it’s finally here: Ford has thrown down the gauntlet with its new “Super Duty Limited” line, whose crown jewel is an F-450 that can cost over $100,000.

 With the Texas State Fair coming up tomorrow, Ford’s new Super Duty Limited line offers Texans three new ways to waste spend their hard-earned cash on Super Duty trucks. They can buy an $80,835 F-250 Super Duty Limited, an $82,010 F-350 Super Duty Limited, or the crème de la crème model, the F-450 Super Duty Limited (all of which are 4x4s).

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 The big boy in the lineup starts at $87,100, but with all the boxes ticked, that price can reach $94,445. Throw on your state’s 6 or 7 percent sales tax, and you’re hovering right around 100 large.

 Photo: Ford

 In its press release, Ford says over half of its Super Duty sales are of Lariat, King Ranch or Platinum trims, so it only makes sense to keep cranking that luxo-truck dial, with Ford Truck Group marketing Manager Todd Eckert saying:

 There are heavy-duty truck customers who need Super Duty-level capability and want true luxury...We created this new truck to answer the call for even more premium choices in the Super Duty range as we see more and more truck customers trending to more premium models.

 Among the features these premium Limited models offer, are: two-tone heated and vented front leather seats, heated rear seats, premium leather-wrapped steering wheel, suede headliner, hand-finished ash wood trim, a unique grille and tailgate, 360-degree camera, adaptive cruise control, adaptive steering, lane-keep alert, forward collision warning, LED headlamps, and a panoramic moonroof.

 Photo: Ford

 As we’ve learned from the Lariats, King Ranches, LTZs and Rubicon Recons of the world, people are totally willing to drop heavy coin on vehicles built on platforms that could have been built in the 1940s. That’s great news for truck companies (these body-on-frame rigs have to be cash cows), and if the buyers are happy, then it’s a win-win, right?

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 I know it’s tempting for us to laugh at a solid-axled, body-on-frame pickup that pushes six-figures, but there are rich folks out there who make a living by doing honest, hard work. And if they want to treat themselves with a bit of supple leather rubbing against their butt-cheeks, who are we to judge?

 I guess you could call me a luxo-truck sympathizer. ||||| Skip in Skip x Embed x Share CLOSE Pushing the price boundaries again, Ford debuted the 2018 F-Series Super Duty Limited pickup truck Thursday at the State Fair of Texas that inches the once-humble haulers closer to the $100,000 mark. USA TODAY

 The 2018 Ford F-Series Super Duty Limited pickup truck. (Photo: Ford)

 Talk about heavy duty -- when it comes to price.

 Pushing the price boundaries again, Ford debuted the 2018 F-Series Super Duty Limited pickup truck Thursday at the State Fair of Texas that inches the once-humble haulers closer to the $100,000 mark.

 With the most capability and all optional packages selected, the F-450 Super Duty Limited tops out at a price of $94,455. For that, you can tow trailers that weigh more than 30,000 pounds.

 It's not that the other Super Duty versions are much cheaper. The starting prices for the F-250, F-350 and F-450 Super Duty Limited pickups range from $80,835 to $87,100.

 “There are heavy-duty truck customers who need Super Duty-level capability and want true luxury,” Ford trucks marketing manager Todd Eckert said in a statement. "We created this new truck to answer the call for even more premium choices in the Super Duty range as we see more and more truck customers trending to more premium models.”

 The Super Duty Limited is no ordinary work truck. Standard features include 360-degree camera coverage and easier parking and backing up to a trailer, adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping alert, forward collision warning, panoramic moon roof, heated and ventilated seats and leather-trimmed heated steering wheel.

 The crew-cab pickup gets a 6.7-liter, eight-cylinder diesel engine.

 Skip in Skip x Embed x Share CLOSE The U.S. automaker says it'll deploy its self-driving vehicles on Lyft's network within four years. As Fred Katayama reports, this expands Lyft's partnerships beyond Google and GM. Video provided by Reuters Newslook

 Follow USA TODAY reporter Nathan Bomey on Twitter @NathanBomey.

 Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2yv3iAX |||||

Write a summary.

– In a move that's being called "outrageous" and "luxury on steroids," Ford has debuted a new pickup truck ... that costs $94,445. To be fair, you don't have to spend nearly $100,000 to get your hands on a 2018 F-450 Super Duty Limited truck, but should you "check every option box," as Ford puts it in a press release, that is how much you'll spend. Starting prices for the trucks in the F-Series Super Duty line, which debuted Thursday at the State Fair of Texas and also includes an F-250 and an F-350, range from $80,835 to $87,100. So what do you get for that amount of money? Well, the F-450 can tow trailers weighing upwards of 30,000 pounds (CNET calls it "a luxury condo that can tow a jet"); standard features on the line include 360-degree camera coverage, a panoramic moon roof, heated and ventilated seats, and a leather-trimmed heated steering wheel, among other things, USA Today reports. "I know it’s tempting for us to laugh at a solid-axled, body-on-frame pickup that pushes six-figures, but there are rich folks out there who make a living by doing honest, hard work," writes David Tracy at Jalopnik. "And if they want to treat themselves with a bit of supple leather rubbing against their butt-cheeks, who are we to judge?"


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SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea approved a plan on Thursday to send $8 million worth of aid to North Korea, as China warned the crisis on the Korean peninsula was getting more serious by the day and the war of words between Pyongyang and Washington continued.

 FILE PHOTO: North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho walks as he exits after a courtesy call with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte for the 50th ASEAN Foreign Ministers’ Meeting at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay city, metro Manila, Philippines August 8, 2017. REUTERS/Romeo Ranoco

 North Korea’s foreign minister likened U.S. President Donald Trump to a “barking dog” on Thursday, after Trump warned he would “totally destroy” the North if it threatened the United States and its allies.

 Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said the situation on the Korean peninsula was getting more serious by the day and could not be allowed to spin out of control.

 “We call on all parties to be calmer than calm and not let the situation escalate out of control,” Wang said, according to a report from the state-run China News Service on Thursday.

 Meeting separately with his South Korean counterpart, Kang Kyung-wha, Wang reiterated a call for South Korea to remove the U.S.-built THAAD anti-missile system, which China says is a threat to its own security.

 “China hopes South Korea will make efforts to reduce tension,” a report on China’s official Xinhua news agency quoted Wang as saying.

 The decision to send aid to North Korea was not popular in South Korea, hitting President Moon Jae-in’s approval rating. It also raised concerns in Japan and the United States, and followed new U.N. sanctions against North Korea over its sixth nuclear test earlier this month.

 The South’s Unification Ministry said its aid policy remained unaffected by geopolitical tensions with the North. The exact timing of when the aid would be sent, as well as its size, would be confirmed later, the ministry said in a statement.

 The South said it aimed to send $4.5 million worth of nutritional products for children and pregnant women through the World Food Programme and $3.5 million worth of vaccines and medicinal treatments through UNICEF.

 “We have consistently said we would pursue humanitarian aid for North Korea in consideration of the poor conditions children and pregnant women are in there, apart from political issues,” said Unification Minister Cho Myong-gyon.

 UNICEF’s regional director for East Asia and the Pacific Karin Hulshof said in a statement before the decision the problems North Korean children face “are all too real”.

 “Today, we estimate that around 200,000 children are affected by acute malnutrition, heightening their risk of death and increasing rates of stunting,” Hulshof said.

 “Food and essential medicines and equipment to treat young children are in short supply,” she said.

 The last time the South had sent aid to the North was in December 2015 through the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) under ex-president Park Geun-hye.

 DOG BARKING

 South Korea’s efforts aimed at fresh aid for North Korea dragged down Moon’s approval rating. Realmeter, a South Korean polling organization, said on Thursday Moon’s approval rating stood at 65.7 percent, weakening for a fourth straight month.

 Although the approval rate is still high, those surveyed said Moon had fallen out of favor due to North Korea’s continued provocations and the government’s decision to consider sending aid to North Korea, Realmeter said.

 Moon will meet Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Trump later on Thursday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, where North Korea was expected to be the core agenda item.

 In an address on Tuesday, Trump escalated his standoff with North Korea over its nuclear challenge, threatening to “totally destroy” the country of 26 million people if the North threatened the United States and its allies.

 Trump also mocked its leader, Kim Jong Un, calling him a “rocket man”.

 North Korea’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho called Trump’s comments “the sound of a dog barking”.

 “There is a saying that goes: ‘Even when dogs bark, the parade goes on’,” Ri said in televised remarks to reporters in front of a hotel near the U.N. headquarters in New York.

 “If (Trump) was thinking about surprising us with dog-barking sounds then he is clearly dreaming,” he said.

 Asked by reporters what he thought of Trump calling North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “rocket man”, Ri quipped: “I feel sorry for his aides.”

 North Korea conducted its sixth and largest nuclear test on Sept. 3 and has launched numerous missiles this year, including two intercontinental ballistic missiles and two other rockets that flew over Japan.

 Such provocations have sparked strong disapproval from the international community, especially from the United States and Japan. ||||| (CNN) North Korea's foreign minister has delivered a scornful response to US President Donald Trump's threat to destroy the hermit kingdom, likening it to the sound of "a dog barking."

 Ri Yong Ho, who is in the US for the United Nations General Assembly, said he "felt sorry" for the President's advisers after a fiery speech to the UN on Tuesday.

 In his debut address to world leaders, Trump vowed to "totally destroy" North Korea if the US was forced to defend its allies.

 Referring North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by a nickname he first used in in a tweet Sunday , Trump said: "Rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself and for his regime."

 Ri, in his country's first response to Trump's speech, was derisive. "If he was thinking he could scare us with the sound of a dog barking, that's really a dog dream," Ri told reporters outside his hotel in New York. In Korean, a dog dream is one that is absurd and makes little sense.

 When asked about Trump's use of the "rocket man" nickname, Ri said: "I feel sorry for his aides."

 North Korean diplomats were not present for Trump's speech.

 North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho, left, shakes hands with North Korean Vice Foreign Minister Pak Myong Guk as he leaves the Pyongyang Airport on Tuesday.

 Little chance of meeting

 US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is also in New York, but played down the possibility of a meeting with his North Korean counterpart.

 Pyongyang and Washington do not maintain formal diplomatic relations and the presence of North Korea's top diplomat in the US could have afforded a rare chance for high-level, face-to-face dialogue.

 Tillerson told reporters he did not believe he could have a "matter-of-fact discussion with North Korea because we don't know how their means of communication and behavior will be."

 JUST WATCHED N. Korean FM at UN poses chance for dialogue Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH N. Korean FM at UN poses chance for dialogue 02:50

 Tillerson claimed there were signs that increased international pressure on North Korea was starting to bear fruit. He said there was evidence of fuel shortages in the country after the passage of recent UN sanctions , which targeted oil imports among other things.

 However, analysts pointed out that fuel shortages did not necessarily prove that sanctions were having an effect, as most North Koreans don't own cars or use fuel at anywhere near the rate of the rest of the world.

 Anthony Ruggiero, an expert in the use of targeted financial measures at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, said sanctions rarely hit fast. Any lines for gas were "probably more due to the regime stockpiling fuel in anticipation that China would implement the restriction," Ruggiero, who worked at both the State Department and Treasury Department, told CNN.

 Humanitarian aid

 Trump is scheduled to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in Thursday, two important US allies on North Korea's doorstop.

 Top of the agenda is likely to be South Korea's surprise decision to send an $8 million aid package to North Korea. The move, which runs contrary to the US and Japan's calls for an increase in economic and diplomatic pressure, marks a resumption in South Korean aid after a break of almost two years.

 In statement Wednesday, the South's Unification Ministry said the decision to resume aid was in line with "the government's stance that it separates the provision of humanitarian aid from politics and it continues to provide aid to improve the humanitarian situation of North Korean residents and the quality of their lives."

 The South said it planned to send $4.5 million worth of medical treatments, nursery facilities and nutritional products for children and pregnant women through the World Food Programme, and $3.5 million worth of medicinal treatments and nutritional products through UNICEF.

 The precise timing and actual provision would be dependent on various factors, including "inter-Korean relations," the ministry said in a statement.

 Trump spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping about the North Korean situation in a phone call Monday, the White House said. Accounting for about 90% of North Korea's imports, Beijing is seen by many as the key to any North Korea strategy.

 While China voted in favor of the two most recent UN resolutions against North Korea, Chinese diplomats have called for calm as Trump's rhetoric has heated up, and editorials in Chinese state media have continued to assail the US President's approach to diplomacy.

 "It is time for the US to realize that irresponsible words and actions are backing the DPRK into a corner with no way out, and it would be a tragedy if Trump's risky game of chicken with the DPRK crosses the point of no return," read an editorial published Thursday in the People's Daily , the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party.

 "Rather than hurl threats and try to pass the buck to China, the US should accept its responsibility, and do more to resolve the issue through dialogue and negotiation." ||||| Image copyright AFP/Getty Images Image caption Mr Trump has taken to calling Kim Jong-un "rocket man"

 North Korea's top diplomat has called US President Donald Trump's speech to the UN "the sound of a barking dog".

 Speaking to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, Mr Trump said he would "totally destroy" North Korea if it posed a threat to the US or its allies.

 Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho's comments were North Korea's first official response to the speech.

 The North has continued to develop its nuclear and weapons programmes, in defiance of a UN ban.

 Mr Ri told reporters near the UN headquarters in New York: "There is a saying that goes: 'Even when dogs bark, the parade goes on'."

 "If [Trump] was thinking about surprising us with the sound of a barking dog then he is clearly dreaming."

 Speaking about North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, Mr Trump had told the UN: "Rocket man is on a suicide mission for himself and his regime."

 When asked what he thought of Mr Trump calling Mr Kim "rocket man", Mr Ri responded: "I feel sorry for his aides."

 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Trump: 'Rocket Man's suicide mission'

 Mr Ri is set to make a speech to the UN on Friday.

 Separately, on Thursday South Korea said it would send fresh humanitarian aid to the North for the first time in nearly two years.

 The unification ministry in Seoul plans to provide $8m (£6m) through UN programmes aimed at children, pregnant women and improving medical supplies.

 The decision comes days after the UN approved new sanctions against Pyongyang, restricting oil imports and banning textile exports - an attempt to starve the North of fuel and income for its weapons programmes.

 The UN sanctions came in response to the North's latest nuclear test on 3 September.

 Experts say North Korea has made surprisingly quick progress in its development of long-range missiles and nuclear weapons. |||||

– North Korea has joined a host of other countries in condemning President Trump's speech at the UN. Trump's Tuesday speech, in which he vowed to "totally destroy" North Korea if the country threatened the US or its allies, amounted to "the sound of a barking dog," Ri Yong-ho said from New York on Wednesday, per the BBC. "There is a saying that goes: 'Even when dogs bark, the parade goes on,'" said Ri, who is due to make a speech at the UN General Assembly on Friday. "If he was thinking he could scare us with the sound of a dog barking, that's really a dog dream," meaning ludicrous, he added. Asked what he thought of Trump referring to Kim Jong Un as "Rocket Man," Ri simply said, "I feel sorry for his aides." The UN General Assembly presents a rare opportunity for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to meet face-to-face with Ri, but Tillerson suggested the US couldn't have a "matter-of-fact discussion with North Korea because we don't know how their means of communication and behavior will be," reports CNN. Trump is due to meet with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Thursday after speaking with Chinese President Xi Jinping by phone on Monday. Though the US wants China to pressure North Korea, which gets 90% of its imports from Beijing, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi repeated Thursday that removing the THAAD anti-missile system in South Korea was key to reducing tensions, per Reuters.


JERUSALEM — New archaeological tests have confirmed that the site many Christians believe to be the tomb of Jesus Christ dates back 1,700 years to A.D. 325, the same era when the Romans first identified the place as holy.

 With invasions, fires and even earthquakes occurring at Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre over the centuries, historians had questioned whether the tomb had been destroyed or moved.

 To date the tomb, known as the Holy Edicule, conservators from the National Technical University of Athens looked at radioactive elements in the architectural glue that fit it together. They also used ground-penetrating radar and laser scanning.

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 The tomb is the size of a coat closet, and was open for just 60 hours while restoration work was also carried out.

 The results of the tests were first reported Tuesday by National Geographic.

 "Scientists and archaeologists are very excited about this because, what it does is, it corroborates our historical accounts," said National Geographic archaeology writer Kristin Romey, who was on site during the nine-month renovation project.

 Experts believe the site was identified around A.D. 325 A.D., when the Roman emperor Constantine the Great came to the city with his team to locate places associated with the life of Jesus.

 A holy fire ceremony is held at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem on April 15. Atef Safadi / EPA file

 The Romans are said to have torn down a temple in Jerusalem where they found the cave that they believed to be his burial site. They then built a shrine and a church around that site.

 Three different Christian denominations — Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Orthodox — share custody over the church, and there have been turf wars and brawls in the past over the management of the site.

 Even the restoration took decades to settle. In 1959, the various denominations agreed to conserve the edicule, but it took until 2016 to actually agree on a plan for the restoration, National Geographic archaeologist-in-residence Fredrik Hiebert said.

 The same Greek team that restored the Acropolis in Athens was chosen to carry out the project.

 Archaeologists believe there may be more surprises to come at the site.

 “There is so much information in the data that was collected by the restorers during the conservation project,” Hiebert said. “There are many, many stories still to be told.” ||||| Over the centuries, Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre has suffered violent attacks, fires, and earthquakes. It was totally destroyed in 1009 and subsequently rebuilt, leading modern scholars to question whether it could possibly be the site identified as the burial place of Christ by a delegation sent from Rome some 17 centuries ago.

 Now the results of scientific tests provided to National Geographic appear to confirm that the remains of a limestone cave enshrined within the church are remnants of the tomb located by the ancient Romans.

 Mortar sampled from between the original limestone surface of the tomb and a marble slab that covers it has been dated to around A.D. 345. According to historical accounts, the tomb was discovered by the Romans and enshrined around 326.

 View Images A restorer removes debris beneath a broken marble slab to expose the original rock surface of what is considered the burial place of Jesus. Photograph by Oded Balilty, AP for National Geographic

 Until now, the earliest architectural evidence found in and around the tomb complex dated to the Crusader period, making it no older than 1,000 years.

 While it is archaeologically impossible to say that the tomb is the burial site of an individual Jew known as Jesus of Nazareth, who according to New Testament accounts was crucified in Jerusalem in 30 or 33, new dating results put the original construction of today's tomb complex securely in the time of Constantine, Rome's first Christian emperor.

 The tomb was opened for the first time in centuries in October 2016, when the shrine that encloses the tomb, known as the Edicule, underwent a significant restoration by an interdisciplinary team from the National Technical University of Athens.

 Several samples of mortar from different locations within the Edicule were taken at that time for dating, and the results were recently provided to National Geographic by Chief Scientific Supervisor Antonia Moropoulou, who directed the Edicule restoration project.

 When Constantine's representatives arrived in Jerusalem around 325 to locate the tomb, they were allegedly pointed to a Roman temple built some 200 years earlier. The Roman temple was razed and excavations beneath it revealed a tomb hewn from a limestone cave. The top of the cave was sheared off to expose the interior of the tomb, and the Edicule was built around it.

 A feature of the tomb is a long shelf, or "burial bed," which according to tradition was where the body of Jesus Christ was laid out following crucifixion. Such shelves and niches, hewn from limestone caves, are a common feature in tombs of wealthy 1st-century Jerusalem Jews.

 The marble cladding that covers the "burial bed" is believed to have been installed in 1555 at the latest, and most likely was present since the mid-1300s, according to pilgrim accounts.

 When the tomb was opened on the night of October 26, 2016, scientists were surprised by what they found beneath the marble cladding: an older, broken marble slab incised with a cross, resting directly atop the original limestone surface of the "burial bed."

 Some researchers speculated that this older slab may have been laid down in the Crusader period, while others offered an earlier date, suggesting that it may have already been in place and broken when the church was destroyed in 1009. No one, however, was ready to claim that this might be the first physical evidence for the earliest Roman shrine on the site.

 Is This Really The Tomb Of Christ? Scholars discuss whether the tomb of Christ is actually the tomb of Christ and how it would have looked.

 The new test results, which reveal the lower slab was most likely mortared in place in the mid-fourth century under the orders of Emperor Constantine, come as a welcome surprise to those who study the history of the sacred monument.

 "Obviously that date is spot-on for whatever Constantine did," says archaeologist Martin Biddle, who published a seminal study on the history of the tomb in 1999. "That's very remarkable."

 During their year-long restoration of the Edicule, the scientists were also able to determine that a significant amount of the burial cave remains enclosed within the walls of the shrine. Mortar samples taken from remains of the southern wall of the cave were dated to 335 and 1570, which provide additional evidence for construction works from the Roman period, as well as a documented 16th-century restoration. Mortar taken from the tomb entrance has been dated to the 11th century and is consistent with the reconstruction of the Edicule following its destruction in 1009.

 "It is interesting how [these] mortars not only provide evidence for the earliest shrine on the site, but also confirm the historical construction sequence of the Edicule," Moropoulou observes.

 The mortar samples were independently dated at two separate labs using optically stimulated luminescence (OSL), a technique that determines when quartz sediment was most recently exposed to light. The scientific results will be published by Moropoulou and her team in a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.

 Secrets of Christ’s Tomb premieres Sunday December 3 at 9/8c on the National Geographic Channel. The immersive, 3-D exhibition " Tomb of Christ: The Church of the Holy Sepulchre Experience" is open at the National Geographic Museum in Washington D.C. through the fall of 2018. |||||

Write a summary.

– Millions of people flock to Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre each year. Many believe it to house the tomb of Jesus Christ, though scientists have thus far been unable to date the tomb to the time when the Romans built a church around it. Now, however, a new series of tests "corroborates our historical accounts" as a National Geographic writer puts it to NBC News. It's easiest to understand the significance by understanding the history: Around AD 325, experts believe Roman Emperor Constantine the Great arrived in Jerusalem on the hunt for places linked to Jesus; his team identified the cave that they believed Jesus was buried in and built a shrine (known as the Edicule) to enclose the tomb and then a church around it. That church was destroyed in 1009, recounts National Geographic. It was rebuilt, and all archaeological dating coincided with that rebuilding—proving it was at most about 1,000 years old. The tomb was opened for the first time in centuries in October 2016 to allow for the Edicule to be restored. A marble slab was discovered beneath marble cladding, and mortar samples taken from the slab dated to around AD 345. National Geographic's take: "While it is archaeologically impossible to say that the tomb is the burial site of an individual Jew known as Jesus of Nazareth ... [the] results put the original construction of today's tomb complex securely in the time of Constantine." (Scientists have issued a dire warning about the site.)


Summarize this article:

Screenshot: Saturday Night Live

 “Our lives are short and love is rare, now we do the turkey dance.”

 “I’m not an actor, I’m a [comedy, drama, now comedy again?] star!”

 The big news that all the kids will be buzzing about is that rumored reboot of The Office that some people apparently really want and tonight’s host Steve Carell says wouldn’t work anyway, for some reasons having to do with “today’s climate.” In his opening monologue, Carell got the old “unexpected questions from the audience” treatment, as former The Office-mates Ellie Kemper, Ed Helms, and Jenna Fischer all stood up to urge their former TV boss to sign on so they can get paid, already. (Kenan wants it, too, responding to Carell asking if he’s Kenan or a “fake audience member” by telling Carell, “If I was acting, you would know.”) That was pretty much the only laugh in the bit, as Carell played straight man to the same-y jokes about how he’s being a dick (Fischer’s words), and how his actual wife and kids don’t really need him around as much as he thinks. He did tease the audience by inviting his Office pals up on stage to guarantee . . . that it would be a great show. (It wasn’t.)

 The other joke hammered all week has been how Steve Carell is a big drama guy now, something the show didn’t so much refute as remind viewers of how funny Steve Carell would have been if he were given any decent sketches to act in. Woof, this was a congested wheeze of an episode, packed with sketch after sketch of unimaginative premises, indifferently executed. And that goes for Carell, too, frankly, who seemed listless and uncommitted most of the time. A couple of musical sketches offered him the chance to really belt out some silly material with the confident abandon he’s justifiably renowned for, but, in each, he matched the dullness of the writing in performance. In his third time hosting, Carell and SNL both seemed to be just running out the clock in what was the most deeply disappointing episode of a very uneven season so far.

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 Weekend Update update

 After last week’s news-grabbing, feel-good official apology for a nothing joke (to a newly elected congressman with some seriously questionable views himself), it’s like SNL decided to play defense this week. Or maybe play dead, hoping for the national, not-at-all-manufactured outrage cycle to die down through the upcoming off week. Che and Jost sped past some fairly innocuous political material (Che’s references to the brazen spree of criminal Republican voter suppression tactics aside) in favor of some lame Amazaon jokes. Jost mocking New Yorkers’ complaints about the new Queens Amazon HQ for bringing “25,000 jobs” takes the laziest laugh line from what is a complicated issue, something SNL has long been prone to, but that Jost and Che have occasionally risen above. This, coupled with the other big Amazon piece tonight (see below) smacks of the sort of corporate coziness that just makes SNL look bad, especially with the big news story of Amazon’s move taking place in the show’s backyard, and the attendant controversies.

 Tossing to the big post-election satirical landscape, SNL scanned the trees and brought back—Bigfoot porn. The fact that newly elected Republican Congressman Denver Riggleman apparently is way into Bigfoot-themed erotica has predictably dominated media coverage of his campaign. And, sure, that’s some funny stuff right there. But he’s also been allegedly associated with some avowed white supremacists, which is both less funny and more relevant, satirically speaking. So trotting out Mikey Day to portray Riggleman nearly talking himself off to his own Sasquatch porn with some relatively graphic supposed excerpts and even more disturbing grunting noises is picking the lowest-hanging fruit of a satirical target and heavy-breathing on it. Again, if SNL is going to choose to do politics, then it’s going to be judged (by me, at least) on the choices it makes in how to approach the jokes. There are a myriad premises to be plucked from the recent midterm elections. That this was the best they got this week is embarrassing.

 Kenan came on again as overbearing and hyperbolic NBA dad LaVar Ball, which is always pleasantly silly. Here, Kenan’s Ball maintained his self-promoting, reality-averse egomania, even as he slipped in the fact that Lakers star LeBron James supposedly has a restraining order against him (They have brunch, “always a respectable 500 feet away” from each other), and bragging about his younger sons’ dad-financed Latvian b-ball careers. (They feast on “the briniest cabbage this side of Bucharest!”) I love Kenan, and this is the sort of thing he’s wonderful at.

 Best/worst sketch of the night

 On a night like tonight, it’s a matter of picking out kernels (or “cornels”) of ideas or performances than whole decent sketches, of which none were in evidence. In what was a mostly disastrous ten-to-one (but one) sketch, astronauts having space Thanksgiving with their alien hosts ate screaming purple corn (or “kern”) on the cob. Complete with dropped props, a failed chroma key effect, Pete Davidson’s sped-up corn screams, flubbed lines, and either unwritten or abandoned ending, the debacle played like something infamously intransigent SNL legend Michael O’Donoghue might have written during his ill-fated 1981 head writing stint under Lorne Michaels’ replacement producer Dick Ebersol, when the show was alternately a vehicle for the notoriously uncompromising Mr. Mike’s bizarro visions or his legitimate attempt to turn the floundering post-Lorne enterprise into “a Viking death ship.”

 There was a similarly dark, throwback vibe to the space station sketch, too, with Carell’s mission commander attempting to tell stilted astronaut jokes and fun facts to Skyped-in school kids, only for a malfunction to flood the camera feed with dead, frozen monkeys, a cat with its face sucked inside out, and, finally, Kate McKinnon’s very deceased cosmonaut floating rigidly outside the ISS’ bubble window. It didn’t all work—again, Carell never seemed filly into his third hosting gig. But there was some real effort in the physical acting of the bit—apart from the dead McKinnon, Carell, Leslie Jones, and Mikey Day did some fine fake floating, and SNL has room for some darkness in it. After we hear about the unfortunate fate of the poor station kitty, there’s a moment where the beast floats into view with its back to us before it—very slowly—rotates to show just what the vacuum of space can do to a cat-face. That, plus some rictus-frozen, space-suited monkey puppets felt energizingly transgressive, in a way that SNL could stand to risk more often.

 The “Beauty School Drop Out” parody musical number had a scrap of a funny idea in that Carell’s apparently heavenly, permed guardian angel is actually teenager Aidy Bryant’s dad, interrupting her 1950s sleepover to croon to her high school dropout friend. The concept that Carell’s dad has been touring the country for six weeks with a carful of sexy backup singer-dancers busting into teenage girls bedrooms has a nice, loony energy to it, and Aidy’s horrified reactions are good. (“God, what a small man you are.”) Throughout the episode, there was a refreshing attempt at doing some self-contained, conceptual sketches, but this one just didn’t ever lift off.

 The Thanksgiving song sketch should have worked better. It, too, took an odd little idea—dinner guests Carell and Cecily Strong maintain there’s a famous Thanksgiving rock song which they proceed to sing in all its specifically inappropriate, boner-shrinking glory—that has the potential to soar along with the musical conceit. But then it, too, just didn’t, as Carell’s seeming diffidence sapped the momentum. It’s not a total loss—the turn that no one actually knows Strong’s character goes from Carell’s conviction that she was some sort of spirit to the revelation that she’s stolen everyone’s car keys and stabbed Beck Bennett’s host is more ambitiously weird than expected. But this one should have been a show-stopper, with everyone eventually remembering the song’s lyrics about a pair of lovers, a shy penis, and a cameo-ing squirrel and joining in the song, so its just-okay aftertaste is a bummer.

 Chris Redd and Pete Davidson’s pro-Ruth Bader Ginsburg rap is the sort of thing they (especially Redd) have done better before, with the paean to the ailing but hopefully indestructible Supreme Court justice never expanding appreciably past its premise. It gave Kate McKinnon a chance to wheel out her RBG for some of her signature gyrating as “the one lady holding the whole damn thing together,” but it’s unlikely to garner another musical SNL Emmy for Redd and company.

 The RV sketch, in which Heidi Gardner’s wife unsuccessfully hides how miserable she is since husband Carell cashed out to make her live out his cross-country camper fantasy worked to the extent that it did because Gardner, once more, showed what a fine actress she is on SNL. The sketch had slack pacing, no ending, another blah turn by Carell as the clueless husband, and a very nervous-looking great dane. But it also had Gardner’s peerless squeaking, eyes-averted denial to power it, with her secretly stewing wife not complaining about having to ride in the back (the dog gets carsick), sleep sitting up at the camper’s cramped table, and being in charge of emptying the vehicle’s septic tank before she finally explodes.

 By dint of it being the first sketch after the monologue, I’m disinclined to cut the clueless dad sketch much slack. Of all its worst instincts, Saturday Night Live’s need to over-explain a premise is more damaging than musical monologues, game- and talk show sketches, and recurring characters combined. Here, dad Carell’s 5 a.m. announcement that he’s taking his four kids to Disney World sees his progeny immediately asking “Oh my god, does he not know?,” “Oh no, is our dad dumb?,” and “How can we know all this and our dad has no idea?” to let us know that Carell’s dad character is dumb and doesn’t know stuff. (Namely that their mom/his wife is sleeping with his boss, has left and moved to Arizona, and two of the kids aren’t his.) Carell, coming out for his first character work of the night, tentatively sets up the sketch-deadening explanatory lines, which leave viewers asking exactly how slow SNL thinks we are.

 “What do you call that act?” “The Californians!”—Recurring sketch report

 LaVar Ball, Ingraham Angle. Speaking of . . .

 “It was my understanding there would be no math”—Political comedy report

 We got another Ingraham Angle cold open tonight, with Kate McKinnon mugging it up as Fox News’ smirking white supremacist and, as she translates from Telemundo’s nickname for her, “La madre del diablo,” Laura Ingraham. McKinnon’s impression is more about pitch-perfect sneering contempt than vocal verisimilitude, but it’s still a decent vehicle to mock Ingraham’s ongoing campaign against facts, actual reporting, and anything darker than eggshell. Still, this showed the writing already letting the air out of the Alec Baldwin-replacing opening bit, as Ingraham’s breathless report on nonexistent Democratic voter fraud made eye-rolling jabs at Tyler Perry and Eddie Murphy showing up as Madea and the entire Klump family, respectively, to vote multiple times. The joke about Ingraham still scrambling for advertisers willing to sponsor someone who mocked school shooting survivors and, well, lots of other stuff is the sharpest weapon SNL wielded here, with Ingraham happily shilling for the likes of a bejeweled catheter (“Ouch.”), teeny, tiny turkeys (because you’ve alienated your entire family in time for Thanksgiving), and Volkswagen (“You know why.”) Cecily Strong made a welcome reappearance as Fox News legal shouter Jeanine Pirro. (“I hate them Laura!” “Who?” “Sorry, that’s my vocal warmup.”) And Alex Moffat continued the show’s questionable choice to portray Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg as being somewhere on the autism spectrum as the whole joke, although him finally blurting, “When I do bad things, I get money” at least addressed the most(?) recent Facebook disinformation scandal obliquely. It wasn’t outstanding, but if it keeps Baldwin’s dull and obvious Trump offscreen for another week, I’ll allow it.

 Carell’s biggest showcase was in the filmed Amazon piece, where his bald-capped Jeff Bezos smugly outlined all the ways the online behemoth’s new ventures are in no way intended to merely troll Donald Trump. You know, even with drones topped with bad wigs (instead of shaving their heads “like a real man would”), new headquarters in Trump’s home town and Washington-area residence (and Florida resort vicinity), and the Bezos-owned Washington Post featuring stories like “Immigration Lawyers Suing for Apprentice tapes of Trump using the N-Word.” Carell digs in to the part more than anywhere else on the episode, serenely jabbing at Trump being approximately 100 times less wealthy than he is, or how Trump’s book is so heavy to ship because “it has four Chapter 11s.” (As the commercial chirpily concludes, “This has been a sick burn by Jeff Bezos.”) Fair enough stuff. But, as with Jost’s Update material, there’s a simplistic sameness to the joke here as—while Carell’s Bezos glides over the fact that his new HQs are pleasing everyone “except for the people who live there, and the people who live in all the places we didn’t choose”—the pandering Trump-burning here ignores the parallel dynamic of two rich assholes screwing with people’s lives for petty reasons. If people are going to clap at the idea of Bezos using the Post to attack Trump, it undermines the Post’s actual journalism as just the grimy sniping of one said asshole at another. The crowd erupted in groans at the joke that Amazon’s Arlington National Cemetery-adjacent HQ will allow the company to pay tribute to the nation’s war dead “even when it’s raining,” but, well, Trump made such jokes fair game recently. It’s just that satire works better (or at all) if it isn’t deliberately or through laziness ignoring the whole picture.

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 I am hip to the musics of today

 Ella Mai has a pretty vibrato and some serviceable slow jams. Plus, she got to use the stage fog left over from Carell’s sleepover sketch for her second number.

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 Most/Least Valuable (Not Ready For Prime Time) Player

 Seemingly not content to continue keeping Ego Nwodim on the bench, the episode actually reduced her in size, as she was one of the students in the ISS sketch, asking her question from a tiny box in the corner of the screen.

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 Nobody rose above this listless episode enough to warrant the top spot. Tough, but fair.

 “What the hell is that thing?”—The Ten-To-Oneland Report

 After the space corn fiasco (which, for or because of its faults, should have been the last sketch), the “GP Yass” commercial that actually ended the show fizzled out badly. The joke that you can set your default GPS voice to “drag entertainer” sort-of enchants car passengers Steve Carell and Heidi Gardner, who express enjoyment of the “sassy” directions and traffic warnings with a square deadpan that aims for . . . something? Honestly, it feels like a cut-for-time piece that was only plugged in because the actual ten-to-one sketch crapped out so badly. Directionless is as good a place to get off of this review as any.

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 Stray observations

 In addition to being Mrs. Steve Carell/monologue prop (along with their kids), Nancy Carell (née Walls) was a cast member on SNL from 1995-1996. (Something her husband was not.) Kind of strange the show wouldn’t make mention/comedic use of that.

 “You can’t dismiss that idea simply because it isn’t true and sounds insane.”

 Gardner’s dog-hating mom, feigning love for the huge new pet crowding her out of the RV: “Did you know that a dog can punch you?”

 Che, suspiciously eyeing the picture of a handful of smiling black men standing with Trump as he announces some suspiciously not-racist-seeming prison reform legislation, states that, whenever he sees such a gathering, he thinks, “Oh lord, how much they sell us for?”

 We’re off next week, gang. See you back on December 1 for host Claire Foy, with musical guest and copy editor’s nightmare Anderson .Paak.

  ||||| Aaaaaaaaaaaah! NBC

 Is there anything funnier than an unexpected corpse? Comedians have wrestled with the question since the dawn of time, or at least since Arsenic and Old Lace, but it wasn’t until 2016 that Saturday Night Live found an answer: The only thing funnier than an unexpected corpse is the unexpected corpse of a parasailing instructor gently drifting back and forth with the currents outside the window of an underwater honeymoon suite. And this week, the show announced another scientific breakthrough: The only thing funnier than the unexpected corpse of a parasailing instructor gently drifting back and forth with the currents outside the window of an underwater honeymoon suite is the unexpected corpses of a bunch of flash-frozen monkeys plus one extremely dead cosmonaut, floating around gracefully in the zero-gravity environment of the International Space Station:

 It’s hard to say if Taran Killam back in 2016 or Kate McKinnon this week did a better job of playing a dead body, but one thing is clear: they’re fighting over third place, well behind the icicled monkey props featured in this sketch. Besides the monkeys, the other clear improvement in corpse-floating-outside-the-window technology is the addition of Steve Carell, who hosted this week. Carell has had an effortless command of the voice of bland, oblivious authority since his Daily Show days, and he puts it to great use here, particularly in the moment when he regains his composure after Snowpiercer-ing a monkey’s arm. In retrospect, it’s surprising that this is the first time Steve Carell has been asked to put a brave face on a space station full of dead monkeys for an audience of schoolchildren. Calling it now: It will not be the last. ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.

 By Phil Helsel

 More fake news about the midterm blues. "Saturday Night Live" took to the airwaves to poke fun at conspiracy theories about voter fraud following the midterms, using a parody of conservative commentator Laura Ingraham’s Fox News show.

 The sketch featured Kate McKinnon as Ingraham teasing an upcoming segment about how "celebrities in California are whining about some tiny wildfires, while our heroic president is under constant attack — from rain."

 Cecily Strong played firebrand Fox News host Judge Jeanine Pirro warning about what McKinnon’s Ingraham called "rampant voter fraud that allowed Democrats to literally steal the election."

 "Some have claimed that suburban women revolted against the Republican Party — but doesn’t it feel more true that all Hispanics voted twice?" McKinnon’s Ingraham said. "You can’t dismiss that idea simply because it isn’t true and sounds insane."

 More "feel facts" designed to pander to the stereotypical Fox News crowd followed, like "Santa is Jesus's dad," "blackface is a compliment" and "If the Earth is so warm, then why are my feet cold?"

 Strong’s Pirro offered up examples that included one person being able to impersonate many — holding up Eddie Murphy’s "Nutty Professor II: The Klumps" — and a "huge increase in what people call stacking, where multiple children will stack on top of each other, under a trench coat and then vote as an adult." (The segment later posted online by the show dropped the Murphy reference.)

 The sketch also lampooned parody advertisers on the faux-Fox show, including a fashion catheter company, the manufacturer of baptism kits for dogs and a brand of "whites only" eggs — "it's just egg whites, and it’s just for us." A parody of a derided real-life "vape god" segment also made an appearance.

 "SNL" was hosted by Steve Carell, the boss from the hit show "The Office," who returned to host for the third time.

 He started his monologue by trying to talk about the movies he’s been in since his TV role — only to be interrupted by former cast members Ed Helms, Jenna Fischer and Ellie Kemper, who pleaded with Carell to accept a reboot of the program.

 "Do you remember the last words that Pam secretly whispered to Michael as she left for Denver?" Fischer, who played Pam in the series, asked.

 When Carell responded he did not, Fischer replied: "She said: ‘Steve, don’t be a d--k, do the reboot.”

 The crowd cheered the suggestion, and Carell brought the actors on stage. But fans who expected a new series were left wanting: He instead said "I am proud to announce, officially, that ... we have a great show tonight!” (The band did play the theme song from the show).

 Carell hosted "Saturday Night Live" in 2005 and 2008. The musical guest Saturday was Ella Mai. ||||| Saturday Night Live saved its best Donald Trump jokes for guest host Steve Carell.

 While the latest episode's cold open sketch ripped Trump's favorite propaganda network, Fox News, Carell put on a bald cap and transformed himself into Amazon CEO and founder Jeff Bezos.

 His three-minute message is ostensibly a broad overview of where Amazon is at now that its HQ2 locations in New York and northern Virginia have been selected. But really, this video is just an extended string of Trump burns, targeting his hair, his Twitter addiction, his bullying behavior, and his repeated failures as a businessman. |||||

– Saturday Night Live again deployed Kate McKinnon as Laura Ingraham to lampoon Fox News in its Cold Open, reports NBC News, lamenting how "celebrities in California are whining about some tiny wildfires, while our heroic president is under constant attack—from rain." Steve Carell stopped by to host his third time, in what the AV Club calls "a congested wheeze of an episode, packed with sketch after sketch of unimaginative premises, indifferently executed." Slate, however, likes a sketch in which Carell broadcasts from the space station as corpses float by a window in the background. And Mashable highlights a sketch of Carell as Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, which is "just an extended string of Trump burns, targeting his hair, his Twitter addiction, his bullying behavior, and his repeated failures as a businessman." Highlights in the gallery.


Ayala, 32, was diagnosed December of 2015 with a rare tumor in her uterus. It spread to her ovaries and into the lining of her stomach. (Photo: Screengrab of Facebook video)

 The woman whose dance moves stole the hearts of so many on social media has lost her battle to cancer.

 Ana- Alecia Ayala died Wednesday afternoon while at the hospital after her year-long battle with uterine sarcoma.

 Ana- Alecia's sister tells News 8 she was surrounded by her family, loved ones and family priest at the time of her passing.

 Ayala, 32, was diagnosed in December of 2015 with a rare tumor in her uterus. It spread to her ovaries and into the lining of her stomach. Ayala, who is a mother of a 3-year-old, told KVUE she and her husband were trying for another baby before they found out about her diagnosis.

 Weeks after the diagnosis, a surgery removed the majority of it. In July however, a new tumor popped up on her spleen, leading doctors to put her through a more aggressive chemo approach. This forced her to be in-patient for four days.

 "In-patient treatment was rough at first," Ayala said. "Being away from our 3-year-old was the hardest part. We had her birthday party in my hospital room in July, and the nurses came in and sang to her."

 Ayala met her dance partner in the video through a fitness group in 2015.

 "She would come sit with me in my chemo session always bringing me entertainment -- magazines, arts and crafts. Things to keep me distracted," Ayala said. "But she loves a good dance party. We did a dance to Meghan Trainor's "Me Too" song last time, but never posted it online. This time she encouraged me to post it and everyone has been so sweet to share it and get it out there."

 Ayala said as she continues her treatments, she hopes to inspire others to "not look at cancer as a death sentence and try to make the most of bad situations."

 "I also want to encourage cancer patients loved ones to step out of their comfort zones (as Danielle did for me) and be silly, have a dance party, be present in the moment and have a great time," she said. "Laughter is the best medicine and I hope to make people smile, even at the expense of my bad dance moves."

 To continue to donate to her GoFundMe page click here.

 She's dancing her way through chemo, through cancer, and right onto my show. pic.twitter.com/ZRf7YYErJl — Ellen DeGeneres (@TheEllenShow) November 1, 2016

 Copyright 2016 WFAA ||||| Ayala, 32, was diagnosed December of 2015 with a rare tumor in her uterus. It spread to her ovaries and into the lining of her stomach. (Photo: Screengrab of Facebook video)

 DALLAS, TEXAS - "Who says cancer and chemo have to get you down?"

 That's a question Ana-Alecia Ayala asked and answered by having a dance party in her hospital room. She posted to Instagram and Facebook a video of herself and her "chemo buddy," Danielle Andrus, putting the "Juju on that chemo" as they danced to the song, "Juju On That Beat." In the first 19 hours after the video was posted to Facebook, it was viewed about 25,000 times.

 Ayala, 32, was diagnosed in December of 2015 with a rare tumor in her uterus. It spread to her ovaries and into the lining of her stomach. Ayala, who is a mother of a 3-year-old, told KVUE she and her husband were trying for another baby before they found out about her diagnosis.

 Weeks after the diagnosis, a surgery removed the majority of it. In July however, a new tumor popped up on her spleen, leading doctors to put her through a more aggressive chemo approach. This forced her to be in-patient for four days.

 "In-patient treatment was rough at first," Ayala said. "Being away from our 3-year-old was the hardest part. We had her birthday party in my hospital room in July, and the nurses came in and sang to her."

 Ayala met her dance partner in the video through a fitness group in 2015.

 "She would come sit with me in my chemo session always bringing me entertainment -- magazines, arts and crafts. Things to keep me distracted," Ayala said. "But she loves a good dance party. We did a dance to Meghan Trainor's "Me Too" song last time, but never posted it online. This time she encouraged me to post it and everyone has been so sweet to share it and get it out there."

 Ayala said as she continues her treatments, she hopes to inspire others to "not look at cancer as a death sentence and try to make the most of bad situations."

 "I also want to encourage cancer patients loved ones to step out of their comfort zones (as Danielle did for me) and be silly, have a dance party, be present in the moment and have a great time," she said. "Laughter is the best medicine and I hope to make people smile, even at the expense of my bad dance moves." |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– The internet is mourning a woman who danced into the hearts of many when a video of her dancing in a hospital gown went viral. Ana-Alecia Ayala died Wednesday after a yearlong cancer battle, WFAA reports. The Dallas woman gained fame in October after posting a video to social media showing her and a friend, in Ayala's hospital room, dancing to "Juju on That Beat" around medical equipment, Ayala in her hospital gown. It became known as "Juju on That Chemo." Ayala told KVUE at the time that her dance partner was a friend she met through a fitness group the year prior, who often came to her chemo treatments and tried to keep her positive. Ayala, 32, found out she had a rare uterine tumor in Dec. 2015 while trying for a second baby with her husband. It had spread to her ovaries and the lining of her stomach, and though most of it was removed within weeks in a surgery, a new tumor appeared on her spleen in July. When her video went viral, Ayala said she hoped to encourage others fighting cancer to "be silly, have a dance party, be present in the moment, and have a great time. Laughter is the best medicine, and I hope to make people smile, even at the expense of my bad dance moves." She leaves behind a husband and 3-year-old daughter.


– Mad Men will be back with creator Matthew Weiner at the helm for two more seasons and possibly a third. After tough negotiations, Weiner has signed a deal with AMC and Lionsgate believed to be worth around $30 million, reports the New York Times. The cable hit's fifth season will begin in early 2012. The deal ensures a sixth season and has an option for a seventh, which Weiner says he expects will be the last. "That’s how long the show is," he says. "I'm just thrilled I get to finish it." "I'm not Don Draper, I don't have the stomach for this," Weiner—who was under pressure to cut costs—said of the negotiations. He says the new contract includes a stipulation that cast members will only be cut for creative reasons, not financial ones. "The cast will be intact and people's characters will only leave the story if it suits the story creatively," he tells the Los Angeles Times.

Expand this summary.

Michael Yarish/AMC

 Lionsgate, the studio behind the critically acclaimed AMC drama “Mad Men,” said Thursday that it had signed a long-term deal with the creator of the series, Matthew Weiner.

 The new deal ensures that Mr. Weiner will continue running the show for two more seasons, and includes an option for a third. That option would take “Mad Men” through its seventh season. The deal was said to be worth $30 million, one of the biggest payouts of its kind in cable television.

 Mr. Weiner said in an interview Thursday evening that he expected the seventh season of “Mad Men” to be its last. “That’s how long the show is,” he said. “I’m just thrilled I get to finish it.”

 Past seasons of “Mad Men” have started in the summer, but AMC affirmed on Thursday that the show, which is now entering its fifth season, would not return until early 2012.

 The future of “Mad Men” had been in doubt since last October when the fourth season ended and Mr. Weiner’s contract expired. Earlier this week, Mr. Weiner said that AMC was insisting on cuts to the cast budget and cuts to the length of each episode. He said in an interview on Tuesday, “All I want to do is continue to make my show, and make it in the way I want to, with the people I want to make it with.”

 After that public statement, the parties involved apparently made peace pretty quickly. In a statement on Thursday evening, Mr. Weiner thanked “Mad Men” fans for their support and thanked AMC and Lionsgate “for agreeing to support the artistic freedom of myself, the cast and the crew so that we can continue to make the show exactly as we have from the beginning.”

 In an interview, Mr. Weiner said his new contract stipulated that cast members “will not be cut for financial considerations,” only for creative reasons.

 In a compromise of sorts, the length of the show may change, but only on television. Mr. Weiner’s new contract specifies that the first and last episode of each season will remain 47 minutes long, the same length as the episodes in previous seasons. For the episodes in between, Mr. Weiner said he will create a 45-minute version for AMC to televise, and a 47-minute “final cut” that will be available in digital formats, like in Apple’s iTunes store.

 “I get to make the show the way I’ve made it” in the past, he said.

 He indicated that AMC planned all along for the show to skip its usual summer premiere this year. “In October, I was told that the show would be on in March 2012,” he said, adding that his attempts to move up the start of the fifth season were stymied. The reason, according to AMC, was that it had other shows in its production pipeline.

 He concluded the interview by saying, “I’m overwhelmed by the expressions of support from the fans and friends of the show. It’s been an incredible experience.” |||||

 "I'm not Don Draper, I don't have the stomach for this," said Matt Weiner about the tough negotiations surrounding his just-completed new deal to stay on as executive producer of the cult cable drama "Mad Men" for at least two seasons.

 In an interview, Weiner said his issues with AMC, the cable network that airs "Mad Men" and Lionsgate, the production company behind the show, was not about how much he was getting paid. "Mad Men" is AMC's signature show and follows the lives of ad men in 1960s New York who struggle to adjust to the social and political changes going on around them. It has won three Emmy Awards for best drama.

 "It is beyond money for me, I didn't want to make something that wasn't the show," he said. Weiner's deal will pay him close to $10 million per season, according to people familiar with the terms.

 Weiner, who was under pressure from AMC and Lionsgate to trim costs and be open to adding additional commercial breaks to "Mad Men" said his battle "was always about trying to keep doing the show the way we've done the show."

 There was some compromise from the hands-on producer. While the first and last episodes of the next season of "Mad Men" will run 47 minutes, the rest of the episodes will run 45 minutes, giving AMC a chance to make more money from commercials. Weiner will be able to film 47 minute episodes though for DVDs, iTunes and video on demand.

 Weiner was also resistant to having to trim production costs and potentially lose cast members. The deal for "Mad Men" with AMC runs for two seasons with the current cast.

 "The cast will be intact and people's characters will only leave the story if it suits the story creatively," he said. If the bulk of the cast is on board for a third season, then Weiner will return as well.

 RELATED:

 'Mad Men' creator Matt Weiner agrees to new deal

 Talks stall between "Mad Men" creator Matt Weiner and AMC, Lionsgate

 Full Show Tracker coverage of 'Mad Men'

 -- Joe Flint

 Top photo: Actor Jon Hamm plays hard-drinking advertising executive Don Draper in AMC's "Mad Men." Credit: AMC

 Bottom photo: "Mad Men" creator Matthew Weiner. Credit: Francois Durand / Getty Images

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Summarize this article:

The details were horrifying. Ukrainian officials had nailed a 3-year-old, clad in just his underwear, to a wooden board “just like Jesus,” right before his mother’s eyes, according to Russian state television. Then, said Galina Pyshniak, Channel One’s sole witness and a pro-Russian refugee, the military in Slovyansk had grabbed the mother, tied her to a tank, and dragged her three times around the city’s central Lenin Square. “The Ukrainian army are not liberators—they’re bastards,” she said.

 “One’s mind refuses to understand how anything like that could happen today in the center of Europe, while one’s heart does not believe that such thing is possible at all,” Channel One’s anchor philosophized.

 But Russian opposition leaders said Monday that there was no evidence that such a public execution had taken place in Slovyansk. Alexei Navalny and Boris Nemtsov called the story “dangerously false” and called for the management of Channel One, Russia’s most popular channel, to be put on trial for broadcasting it.

 The calls came after the independent Moscow-based newspaper Novaya Gazeta dispatched a reporter, Yevgeny Feldman, to Slovyansk last weekend to search for more witnesses of the alleged execution. “Nobody I spoke with in Slovyansk has heard a thing about this,” he tweeted.

 Now Russian bloggers and opposition activists are accusing Channel One of manipulating its viewers’ minds. “On seeing the horrors of such inhuman torture, an ordinary viewer would have only one intention: to join the volunteer forces and ‘seek revenge against the Ukrainian fascists,’” Nemtsov wrote on his Facebook page. Navalny, a former candidate for Moscow mayor, insisted that misinformation on both sides of the conflict in Ukraine has become just as important as combat operations.

 Over the last few months, any criticism of Russian state politics in Ukraine has been greeted harshly by pro-Kremlin patriotic organizations, which have condemned critics as betrayers of the Russian people. Both Nemtsov and Navalny have appeared on lists of “Fifth Columnists,” or traitors, for their opposition views. On Monday, activists from the art collective Glavplakat bicycled along anti-Putin marchers’ favorite protest routes wearing masks depicting the faces of opposition leaders and T-shirts with gay pride rainbows across their chests. The collective’s public action, dubbed “The Fifth Velo-column,” carried with it a message for Muscovites: “Strangers are still among us.” To many Russian intellectuals who disagree with the politics of the Kremlin but are still patriotic, such actions appear intimidating and hostile.

 Who is more of a Russian patriot, someone who demands better quality television or someone who goes to the front as a volunteer to join the Russian Spring movement and fight the Ukrainian army? “Of course volunteers going to the front show real patriotism for Russia and the Russian nation,” said Sergei Surkov, a young Russian nationalist in St. Petersburg who said he planned to join the Rezerv Patriotic Club, a recruiting and training organization, to prepare dozens of young people for combat in Ukraine.

 “Most of the guys I know decided to join the fighting in Ukraine after the Odessa fire,” Surkov, a former history student at Moscow State University, told The Daily Beast. “When I hear on television how Ukrainians are killing children, my blood boils.” ||||| Maxim Stulov / Vedomosti

 Russian state-run television station Channel One has come under fire after airing what was reported to be an eyewitness account of a 3-year-old boy having been tortured and crucified by the Ukrainian military in a public square in Slovyansk.

 In a report that aired Saturday, a woman named Galina Pyshnyak claimed to have witnessed the grisly incident. At the time, she was speaking with Channel One from a refugee camp in Russia's Rostov region.

 In the immediate aftermath of the broadcast, a number of prominent politicians, bloggers and journalists reacted to the report with suspicion and indignation, saying it represented a new low for Russia's state-run media in the ongoing information war over Ukraine.

 "For the sake of their goal, these scumbags from the Kremlin and Channel One are prepared to surpass even [Joseph] Goebbels. And they already have," opposition politician Boris Nemtsov wrote on his Facebook page Sunday.

 As Pyshnyak told it, Ukrainian troops nailed a 3-year-old boy to a post in a city square, slit his sides open and forced his mother to watch as he bled out.

 The mother was then tied to a tank and dragged through the square, Pyshnyak said.

 Critics have argued that the report was a complete work of fiction.

 "Are they completely sick to come up with something like that? … The people who orchestrate such things are dangerous for society, and what they are doing is a crime," opposition campaigner Alexei Navalny wrote on his blog Sunday.

 Several journalists suggested that inspiration for the story — if it is indeed fictional — may have come from Alexander Dugin, a ultraconservative political scientist with known ties to the Kremlin.

 On July 9, Dugin posted a story almost identical to Pyshnyak's via Facebook, though in that account the victim was six years old and the father was also executed.

 Channel One has yet to comment on the matter. A request for comment sent Monday afternoon remained unanswered by print time.

 Pyshnyak claimed that there had been several witnesses to the event. Yet there has been no video confirmation that such a killing took place — something critics have seized upon as a sign of foul play.

 Russian journalist Yevgeny Feldman of the opposition-minded Novaya Gazeta newspaper went to the scene of the purported incident in Slovyansk to ask residents whether they'd seen or heard of any such atrocity. In a nine-minute video posted on YouTube, the local residents he approached consistently said that no such scene had occurred.

 "This is the first I'm hearing of it, from you," one woman said.

 Alan Cullison of The Wall Street Journal, who was in Slovyansk the day after the execution was alleged to have taken place, also said he had heard nothing of the sort.

 "I spoke with dozens of people, but strangely, none of them mentioned anything about the crucifixion of a 3-year-old boy," Cullison wrote on Facebook on Monday.

 Other journalists have poked holes in the story as well. Although Pyshnyak said the incident occurred in Slovyansk's Lenin Square, critics have asserted that the city has no square by that name. Rather, the city has an October Revolution Square. Many have also asserted that all contact information available for Pyshnyak online says she is from Donetsk, not Slovyansk.

 See also:

 Russian Investigators Target Ukraine Minister in 'Organized Murder' Probe

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– Viewers of Russian state TV recently learned about a 3-year-old boy nailed to a board by Ukrainian officials in front of his mother; it was "just like Jesus," the report said. Afterward, the mother, who was said to have committed a crime, was reportedly dragged around a central square in Slovyansk behind a tank. It's a story that would shock any viewer, but the thing is: There's no indication that it actually happened, Russian opposition leaders say, per the Daily Beast. They suggest the story was made up to stir anti-Ukraine sentiment. Russia's most popular TV station cited just one witness, and opposition figure Boris Nemtsov is calling the story "dangerously false." A Wall Street Journal reporter did some investigating of his own: "I spoke with dozens of people, but strangely, none of them mentioned anything about the crucifixion of a 3-year-old boy," Alan Cullison noted, according to the Moscow Times. A Russian journalist's video comes to a similar conclusion, the Times reports. But "on seeing the horrors of such inhuman torture, an ordinary viewer would have only one intention: to join the volunteer forces and ‘seek revenge against the Ukrainian fascists,'" Nemtsov posted on Facebook.


Posted Tuesday, November 21, 2017 5:27 pm

 How to help ... Anyone with information regarding this case is asked to call Pittsfield Police Officer Brenna Dorr at 413-448-9700, ext 384.

 PITTSFIELD — Two men are facing charges for allegedly participating in a citywide prostitution ring involving multiple women — one of whom may have been as young as 15 — who were allegedly plied with drugs and threats.

 Joseph E. Van Wert, 65, of Becket, and Randy W. Lambach, 45, of Pittsfield, are being held on charges including human trafficking pending dangerousness hearing Nov. 29 to determine if bail should be set and in what amount.

 The investigation began in the spring of 2017 after police began receiving calls and complaints regarding apparent increases in prostitution throughout the city.

 Most of the activity seemed to be centered around the areas of First, Adam, North, Linden and Wahconah streets, police said. Many of the women had been recruited by a white male named "Randy."

 Randy would seek out women with a drug addiction, photograph them and post advertisements online, seeking clients for sexual services, police were told.

 While conducting patrols around First and Second streets, police interviewed multiple women, many of whom admitted to being prostitutes, but declined to identify who "tricked them out."

 One told police she didn't "street-walk," but instead got her "dates" through ads on backpage.com.

 Police also began receiving reports of suspected prostitution from a North Street senior living facility, where Randy had driven at least five women to and from Van Wert's third-floor apartment.

 Police were provided the plate number of the blue station wagon used to shuttle the women and identified Lambach as its owner. And witnesses identified Lambach via photographs as the man they knew as Randy.

 One woman told police she was prostituted by Lambach for about a year and had sex with him for money or to pay off a debt on multiple occasions. Lambach photographed her and placed advertisements on backpage.com.

 Men would contact Lambach via cellphone and a date, time, location and fee would be agreed upon. Rates were typically $80 for 30 minutes or between $160 and $200 for an hour.

 Lambach would then contact the woman and drive her to the appointment, police said. He would sometimes wait outside or watch from a closet or doorway.

 He would collect the money and keep anywhere from 50 to 90 percent of it. Sometimes he would keep all of the money and pay the woman with a few bags of heroin or some crack cocaine instead.

 One of the women told police Lambach would drive her to appointments outside of Pittsfield, and on at least one occasion, outside of the state.

 He allegedly recruited and transported about 10 other women in a similar manner and provided narcotics to those that used drugs to get them high before having sex.

 Lambach allegedly threatened to turn the women in if they stopped working for him, and warned them the police would not believe them because they were, "drug addicts and whores." Police were told some of the women Lambach had recruited used to be his foster children.

 He would host meetings between women and customers at Van Wert's apartment.

 Van Wert allegedly paid for sex with the women and was paid by Lambach in cash and drugs for use of his apartment.

 Another witness told police that Lambach approached her in August, telling her he ran a prostitution ring and showed her several photographs of women he said worked for him.

 That witness said it appeared several of the women in those photos were very young and estimated the age of one at about 15.

 Lambach allegedly said he also drives women to Springfield, where they prostitute themselves from a strip club.

 Another witness told police Lambach may have been involved in prostitution and trafficking for about 10 years.

 Other witnesses told police Lambach would threaten the women if he thought they were giving information to the police.

 By mid-November, police felt they had enough probable cause to arrest the men.

 Lambach was picked up without incident about 4 p.m. Nov. 14. Van Wert was arrested at his apartment shortly thereafter.

 Lambach has pleaded not guilty in Central Berkshire District Court to four counts of human trafficking. Van Wert has pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit human trafficking, deriving support from prostitution, maintaining a house of prostitution and sexual conduct for a fee.

 The investigation remains ongoing and additional charges may be coming.

 The Pittsfield Police Department detective bureau, anti-crime unit, drug unit as well as members of the state police detective unit assigned to the District Attorney's Office, are assisting with this investigation. Reach Bob Dunn at bdunn@berkshireeagle.com, at @BobDunn413 on Twitter and 413-496-6249.

  ||||| Two men were arrested for running a prostitution ring out of an apartment in a Massachusetts senior living facility, police said.

 Joseph VanWert, 65, and Randy Lambach, 45, of Berkshire County, were arrested and held on human trafficking charges ahead of a hearing later this month, according to Pittsfield Lt. Michael Maddalena.

 Police, who received reports of increased prostitution in Pittsfield earlier this year, said Lambach sought out women with “severe” drug addictions and advertised their services on social media.

 Lambach, who allegedly ran the prostitution ring for several years, would set up meetings and rates with prospective “johns”, police said.

 Violent pimp gets 12 years in prison after beating prostitute

 VanWert would allow some of the meetings to take place in his third-floor apartment at the facility in exchange for drugs and cash, according to the Berkshire Eagle.

 Lambach also worked as a chauffeur, transporting the women to and from specific locations and waiting until they were done, police said. He crossed state lines on at least one occasion, one of the prostitutes said.

 Lambach would take a significant cut of the women’s money — or pay them in heroin, cocaine or prescription drugs in lieu of cash, Maddalena said.

 Some of the women he recruited were formerly his foster children. A witness, whom Lambach reportedly approached with photos of the prostitutes, said the victims looked to be as young as 15.

 Pussycat Dolls deny band member’s ‘prostitution ring’ claims

 Police, who had been investigating for several months, arrested VanWert and Lambach last week.

 Lambach pleaded not guilty to four counts of human trafficking, while VanWert pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit human trafficking, deriving support from prostitution, maintaining a house of prostitution and sexual conduct for a fee.

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What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Two men have been charged with human trafficking after police arrested them for running a prostitution ring out of a senior living facility in Pittsfield, Mass. Police say Joseph Van Wert, 65, and Randy Lambach, 45, will face a hearing later this month, the New York Daily News reports. Lambach would allegedly seek out women with drug addictions and post their pictures online, then arrange meetings with clients. Some of these meetings took place in Van Wert's apartment in a senior facility. Van Wert offered his apartment in return for cash or drugs. The Berkshire Eagle reports that the police investigation began last spring in response to citizen complaints about increased prostitution across the city. Lambach would allegedly keep up to 90% of the money the women made, sometimes refusing them cash altogether and paying them in heroin or crack cocaine instead. At least one woman said Lambach drove her to an "appointment" across state lines. Police estimated one of the victims was 15 years old. They were also told that some of the women were Lambach's former foster children. Both men have pleaded not guilty, Lambach to four counts of human trafficking and Van Wert to conspiracy to commit human trafficking, deriving support from prostitution, maintaining a house of prostitution, and sexual conduct for a fee.


DEFUNIAK SPRINGS, Fla. (AP) — While his mother was preparing food in the kitchen, a 5-year-old Florida boy called 911 to invite law enforcement officers over for Thanksgiving dinner.

 Monica Webster of the Walton County Sheriff's Office tells the News Herald (http://bit.ly/2gs8nkH ) that with all the bad calls they receive every day, this was a happy call. But young Billy Nolin's family had no idea he'd invited guests to dinner.

 Mom Landi McCormick says she was cooking when Billy's grandfather noticed him talking to someone on an old cellphone. McCormick reprimanded Billy when he admitted calling 911. He was crying when Deputy Dannon Byrd drove up.

 She says the deputy thanked Billy for his kind invitation, then reminded him he should only use 911 for emergencies. The deputies gave Billy a sheriff's badge.

 ___

 Information from: The (Panama City, Fla.) News Herald, http://www.newsherald.com ||||| DeFUNIAK SPRINGS — The 911 call on Thursday was short and sweet.

 “Will you come over cause we’re eating Thanksgiving,” the young voice with the distinct southern accent inquired. “Thank you. Bye.”

 The caller hung up the phone immediately, leaving the Walton County 911 dispatcher puzzled, but happy.

 “With all the bad calls we take on a daily basis, this one was a welcomed happy call that made all of us smile,” said Walton County Sheriff’s Office Lead Communications Officer Monica Webster.

 The caller was 5-year-old Billy Nolin. And he'd extended the invitation to his family's feast without anyone in his house knowing.

 His mom, Landi McCormick, was in the kitchen preparing Thanksgiving dinner with her mom while Billy was outside with his grandfather and his little brother, 4-year-old Camden. Billy was playing with an old cell phone when his grandfather noticed that he was talking to someone.

 “I came out and asked him what he was doing,” McCormick recalled.

 Billy looked at his mother rather sheepishly and admitted that he had dialed 911.

 “I asked him, ‘Why did you do that? You know that you are only supposed to do that if there’s an emergency,’ ” McCormick said. “He started crying, and just a few minutes later Deputy (Dannon) Byrd from the Sheriff’s Office drove up.”

 The deputy walked up to McCormick and asked if Billy was the young man who had called 911. Rather than scold the little boy, Byrd knelt down and thanked Billy for his kind invitation.

 “He told us that Billy had made his day,” McCormick said. “But then he reminded him that we should only use 911 for emergencies.”

 As an added treat, Byrd and his partner, Deputy Aaron Ethridge, gave the boy a sheriff’s badge and allowed him to sit in their patrol car and activate the lights and siren.

 “They asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up,” McCormick said. “He said, ‘I want to be a cop, so I can be nice to little kids like you are some day.’ ”

 Billy said he first became aware of the Walton County Sheriff's Office when deputies visited his school, Maude Saunders Elementary, for Dads and Donuts Day.

 "I wanted them to have cheesecake with us," Billy said, explaining why he invited the deputies for dinner. "It's my favorite, so I wanted them to have some, too."

 WSCO Public Information Officer Corey Dobridnia posted some photos from the visit on the Sheriff’s Office Facebook page, and the post quickly went viral. Folks from all over the country praised the deputies and Billy for their kindness.

 “This is typical of the kind of professionalism our deputies display every day,” Dobridnia said. “It just goes to show that deputies aren’t just about arresting people and putting them in jail.

 "Billy’s call brightened all of our days, and the deputies’ visit gave Billy a Thanksgiving memory that will stay with him for the rest of his life.” |||||

Write a summary.

– While his mother was preparing food in the kitchen, a 5-year-old Florida boy called 911 to invite law enforcement officers over for Thanksgiving dinner, the AP reports. Monica Webster of the Walton County Sheriff's Office tells the News Herald that with all the bad calls they receive every day, this was a happy call. But young Billy Nolin's family had no idea he'd invited guests to dinner. Mom Landi McCormick says she was cooking when Billy's grandfather noticed him talking to someone on an old cellphone. McCormick reprimanded Billy when he admitted calling 911. He was crying when Deputy Dannon Byrd drove up. She says the deputy thanked Billy for his kind invitation, then reminded him he should only use 911 for emergencies. The deputies gave Billy a sheriff's badge.