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– Melania Trump, master troller? While what Donald Trump's wife was wearing during the "ugliest debate in American history" at first glance didn't seem newsworthy, it's now creating buzz based on name alone, the Hill reports. There was no "wardrobe malfunction," but Melania's bright fuchsia $1,100 Gucci silk crepe de chine shirt set Twitter aflutter because the style is one of the fashion house's "signature silhouettes" known as the pussy-bow—which immediately brings to mind Trump's recently revealed "hot mic" tape from 2005. CBS News notes that the style—also known as the pussycat bow—was popular in the mid-1900s and a favorite of Margaret Thatcher. Quartz reports that this "sartorial reverberation" of Donald Trump's 2005 comments—which Melania called "unacceptable and offensive"—wasn't any kind of jab or joke on her part, per CBS journalist Sopan Deb, who tweeted, "Campaign spokeswoman says this was not intentional." But the Internet is a cynical bunch, with the Cut's Stella Bugbee wistfully noting, "I really want to believe the Pussy Bow was an artful act of silent rebellion," while George Takei is simply incredulous: "You can't make this stuff up." (Here's who won and lost the debate.)

In the lead-up to the second US presidential debate tonight (Oct. 9), the electorate waited anxiously to see how Donald Trump would respond to video surfaced by the Washington Post in which Trump talked about forcibly kissing and groping women. By now the comments are familiar to many, including the part where Trump boasts he can grab women “by the pussy” if he feels like it.

 Given the highly charged situation, the top that Melania Trump, the candidate’s wife, chose for the evening was risky, to say the least. She opted for what’s called a “pussy-bow” blouse—a sartorial reverberation of her husband’s lewd remarks, apparently by Gucci in silk crepe de chine.

 There’s no indication that the choice was meant to symbolize anything. The Trump campaign told CBS the choice was not intentional. But it didn’t keep people from noticing.

 Campaign spokeswoman says this was not intentional. https://t.co/Yuka1Pli2j — Sopan Deb (@SopanDeb) October 10, 2016

 The style, which has actually come back into fashion in recent months due largely to Gucci’s influence, has a mixed history of its own—especially among feminists, as I’ve written. Some loathe it, because it recalls the way women entering the workforce en masse in the 1970s and 1980s had to conform to office dress codes established by men: The blouse was seen as the women’s equivalent of the shirt and tie.

 Other women embrace that history, and the empowerment they find in the name, which some believe started because of the bow’s resemblance to a vagina. (It’s more likely the name is derived from the bows people used to tie on their cats’ necks, as implied by the style’s other name: the pussycat-bow.)

 The shirt also became closely associated with Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s prime minister throughout the 1980s. The conservative leader wore them because she found them “rather softening and pretty,” as a contrast with her notoriously tough persona.

 Whatever Melania Trump meant to convey with her look, her pink bow unfortunately managed to remind many of her husband’s comments about women—which weren’t pretty. ||||| Just a few days before the second presidential debate between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, a video surfaced in which the Republican nominee boasts about participating in a form of sexual assault. Specifically, Trump tells then-“Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush that he just goes up to “beautiful” women and “grab[s] them by the p***y.” What’s more, Trump explains, “When you’re a star, they let you do it.”

 For the Trump campaign, “P***gate” is the stuff of nightmares. In the minds of many pundits, it’s a near fatal blow that has cost the business magnate crucial endorsements, female votes and any edge running mate Mike Pence had won for their ticket in last week’s vice presidential debate.

 For the political party of the elephant, it was undoubtedly the elephant in the room. So, imagine fashion connoisseurs’ surprise when they noticed that Melania Trump walked into the debate hall wearing Gucci’s fuchsia pussy-bow blouse.

 WWW.NET-A-PORTER.COM

 Yes, you read right. In the fashion world, a women’s blouse with a bow tied at the neck is known as a pussy bow or pussycat bow. The look became popular in the mid-20th century, thanks to such designers as Coco Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent and Omar Kiam. In fact, after Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 1979, the pussy bow became a signature part of her look.

 Rick Wilking-Pool/Getty Images

 According to retail website MatchesFashion.com, “A pussybow blouse is one of the prettiest ways to embrace Gucci’s new-found eclecticism. This fuchsia-pink design is cut in Italy from silk-georgette, and detailed with softly gathered shoulders and buttoned cuffs to maximise the vintage vibes. Tuck it into a knife-pleated skirt, finishing with statement accessories.”

 Melania, for her part, chose to pair the ironically named blouse with a pair of matching fuchsia-pink pants -- a choice that set social media on fire.

 The Trump campaign maintains that the choice of blouses was made exclusively for aesthetics, not monikers. The Internet, it seems, will agree to disagree. ||||| An unfortunate choice? Melania Trump was stylish in a fuchsia top paired with matching pants while supporting husband Donald Trump at the second presidential debate on Sunday, October 9.

 But while she looked great, the $1,100 Gucci shirt was perhaps not quite the best fashion choice given the blouse's style: pussy bow. Just two days earlier, a 2005 video surfaced in which the Republican presidential nominee was recorded on an Access Hollywood bus bragging about groping women's genitals.

 "You know, I'm automatically attracted to beautiful — I just start kissing them. It's like a magnet. Just kiss. I don't even wait. When when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything," the business mogul, 70, told then Access Hollywood host Billy Bush during the conversation. "Grab them by the p—y. You can do anything."

 He also boasted about trying to seduce a married woman, who Access Hollywood has since identified as Nancy O'Dell.

 A spokesperson for the Trump campaign told CBS News Sunday night that the former model's shirt choice "was not intentional."

 Viewers of the debate were quick to ponder on Twitter why she may have selected to wear this particular style after the presidential hopeful's latest scandal:

 Melania is going to vote for HRC the #PussyBow and matching pants (suit) confirm that she is a double agent. pic.twitter.com/uUscYfEOOG — Christen Clifford (@cd_clifford) October 10, 2016

 Love Melania's pussy-bow blouse, wonder if her husband grabbed it from the closet for her? — Lizabeth (@lilbit_liebs) October 10, 2016

 https://twitter.com/stellabugbee/status/785323907184222208

 It seems both Melania Trump's speech writer and stylist do not read the news and/or do their research #pussybow #debates via @MegletNY pic.twitter.com/icOfAsZCjg — Kristen Massaro (@KreeBeau) October 10, 2016

 Though Melania, 46, attended the debate, she did condemn her husband's lewd remarks. "The words my husband used are unacceptable and offensive to me," she said in a statement Saturday. "This does not represent the man that I know. He has the heart and mind of a leader. I hope people will accept his apology, as I have."

 But according to The New York Times, the former model refused to do a joint TV appearance with her husband to address his 2005 comments.

 The presidential hopeful initially labeled his words as "locker room banter," which he reiterated again during Sunday's presidential debate. After co-moderator Anderson Cooper pressed him on the topic, the former Apprentice star denied that he had sexually assaulted women.

 Bush, 44, who was heard also making inappropriate comments in the leaked video, has been suspended from the Today show.

 Sign up now for the Us Weekly newsletter to get breaking celebrity news, hot pics and more delivered straight to your inbox!

 Want stories like these delivered straight to your phone? Download the Us Weekly iPhone app now! ||||| Melania Trump opted to wear a Gucci garment to the second presidential debate with an eyebrow-raising name: a “pussy-bow” shirt.

 The hot pink blouse, which retails for $1,100, was identified by multiple fashion mavens on social media as the one Donald Trump Donald John TrumpMcMaster complained that Trump 'thinks he can be friends with Putin': report Manafort requests Virginia trial be moved, citing media coverage Giuliani: Mueller needs to prove Trump committed crime before agreeing to interview MORE’s wife was sporting at the Sunday debate in St. Louis.

 ADVERTISEMENT

 “Pussy-bow shirts are one of Gucci’s signature silhouettes,” a product description for the “pussy-bow silk crepe de chine shirt” reads. “We think it’s a chic way to elevate office or weekend looks.”

 The fashion choice came just days after Trump, the Republican was widely condemned following the Friday release of an audiotape from 2005 in which he described, in vulgar terms, his attempts to have sex with women.

 Saying he’s “automatically attracted to beautiful” women and “just starts [kissing] them,” Trump told then-“Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush, “And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything. Whatever you want. Grab them by the p---y.”

 Melania Trump, the GOP presidential nominee’s wife of 10 years, released a statement Saturday calling her husband’s remarks “offensive” and “unacceptable.” She said she had accepted an apology from Trump. |||||


Article:

It would probably be going too far to say that there is a war on between Maury Rubin’s pretzel croissant and Dominique Ansel’s Cronut—going too far because the two things can and do coexist grudgingly, one at Rubin’s City Bakery, off lower Fifth, and the other at Ansel’s self-named bakery, in SoHo, and also because, truth be told, Rubin’s combination of croissant sweetness and pretzel salt is by now a familiar staple of the lower-Manhattan breakfast, while the crowd for Ansel’s deep-fried croissant-doughnut is still a phenomenon, creating lines that sometimes start crawling around the block at Spring and Thompson Streets at five in the morning. But it would not be going too far to say that the coexistence of the pretzel croissant and the Cronut is worth thinking of as a form of competition, if only on purely Darwinian terms, in which all coexistence is competition held briefly in equilibrium, particularly because their coexistence is representative of something new, pervasive, and quite possibly perverse: the hybridized and fetishized schnecken. Oblivious of the peril, we wake and find ourselves in an age of mutated pastry, cross-bread, trying to be two things at once. Doughnuts cross with croissants, croissants cross with pretzels; Montreal bagels are made puffier for New York tastes, and New York bagels are made as thin and sweet as the ones in Montreal. The Crumbs Bake Shop chain, having almost gone bankrupt pushing cupcakes, comes back to life to push the “baissant,” a bagel-croissant chimera. (A significant baker in Canada long ago crossed the brioche and the croissant to create the “broissant,” but, the baker being my mom, it so far remains blessedly uncommodified, and eaten only by her grandchildren.) Let us look, then, at these case studies of how stale bread becomes fresh and familiar sweets take mutant forms, and ask why people line up at an ungodly hour to eat sweets that taste odd and look new. Is the pretzel croissant the forerunner of the Cronut or merely its parallel creature? Is the Cronut a craze that, like the designer cupcake, is doomed to walk the avenues briefly and then die in shame and embarrassment, or is it a true contribution—as the croissant and the doughnut and the pretzel all were in their day—and likely to become part of the common cupboard?

 Innovation is baked before it is sautéed or simmered. The molecular-minded chef Ferran Adrià has argued that all innovation in cooking happens first in pastry. He notes that Antonin Carême, the early-nineteenth-century chef who is generally considered both the Washington and the Madison of French cuisine, was, by training, a pastry chef; he specialized in great pièces montées—mounted displays of cakes and pastry and nougat, rising toward the sky at banquets and diplomatic conferences. Carême created pastry temples in evocative ruin, resting on marzipan rocks; pastry pediments and pyramids and Chinese pavilions. This ascent toward architecture guaranteed the seriousness of cooking, and helped move it from peasant lore to contagious classifications—toward fixed recipes. And so, Adrià insists, at every step along the way the pastry chefs have led the “straight” chefs. There is another reason for the priority of pastry: pastry chefs are the only ones in the kitchen who are alchemists by necessity. Where the rôtisseur or the man with the sauté pan does his best work when he does least, it is in the nature of pastry-making that you begin with ingredients that don’t at all resemble what you end up with. It is de rigueur for the fish chef to say that he wants his fish to shine through, but the cakemaker does not want his cake to taste anything like the flour that constitutes it. Baking is always making new. But there is perhaps a deeper hidden pressure. Among those who bake, three separate activities are gathered under one head. To use the French designations, which are as unsettled as their English counterparts, a boulanger bakes breads; a pâtissier is typically a guy with a storefront; and a chef pâtissier, a pastry chef, produces desserts in a restaurant kitchen, and, turning out mousses and gels and meringues, may rarely make pastry properly so called. (A fourth kind of sweetmaker is the confiseur, who makes candies.) The triple track means that bakers, pastry-makers, and pastry chefs live in an atmosphere of mutual recrimination and suspicion, the blurred lines between them leading each to think that he is the real sweetmaker, the others mere attendants—more or less the way comp-lit, English, and women’s-studies departments all make simultaneous bad-tempered claims on Virginia Woolf. This subtler, less visible competition among the kinds, as much as the alchemical possibilities of the craft, may be the real fire of innovation. Retuning the pastry temperament has been transatlantic work, taken on mostly by Americans who learned to bake in France or by French people who learned the tradition and then emancipated themselves in these parts. Although France is still the best place to learn to bake, the French remain conservative, turning out the same things today that they did a century ago—the brioche, the croissant, the cream puff, the éclair. To the French, toying with these things has seemed like toying with the sequence of blues chords or the order of sharps. The basic arrangement works fine without your “improvements.”

 Maury Rubin became an innovator only after he returned from Parisian training, in the nineties. Rubin was an early avatar of what has recently become a classic American culinary type: the successful professional who, turning to cooking as a second career, goes to Europe to learn how to press grapes or make pasta or bake bread, and then, coming home as a pro, uses the entrepreneurial expertise of his earlier experience to change how cooking or baking or winemaking happens. But few can have made as large a jump as Rubin, whose professional past was not, as often happens in cooking, that of a philosopher or a graphic designer or an English professor or a journalist. He was, instead, an Emmy-winning television producer and director, working for the sportscaster Howard Cosell, whose stentorian tones live on in amateur impressions long after the death of their maker. (“I knew that, being Howard’s producer, I was condemning myself to a lifetime of hearing impressions from strangers,” he says ruefully.) When Cosell entered his bitter retirement—“It’s a shame Howard wasn’t taking victory laps, but he was brooding in his tent”—Rubin decided to go to France and learn to bake. Nothing in his previous life suggested a career in baking, and even now he can hardly explain it. He took a course at a school in central France, and then found a low-level job in a small artisanal bakery (“All pastry; not bread or boulanger work of any kind”) in Paris’s blue-collar Nineteenth Arrondissement. Speaking scarcely a word more than classroom French, he enriched it with kitchen French—“I knew all the words for kinds of pastry dough before I knew how to ask the way to the bathroom”—and then the necessary amount of bedroom French. Once he had learned the basics, he came home and, in 1990, opened the original City Bakery, on Seventeenth Street off Union Square. “That first bakery was, I think, a moment in bakery time, I really do,” he says now, sitting at a front table in the bakery’s current quarters, on Eighteenth Street, where it has resided since 2001. City Bakery is a modernist kind of place: a loftlike two-story space, with sleek tables running around the front room, a huge salad bar in back, and tables upstairs. Famous as a setting in “Sex and the City,” it has a vibe that continues to resonate with that era, somehow at once retro-diner and meatpacking-district performance space. “The tarts were the first sort of popular thing, and their design was all just lines and dots—that was the look, the whole look,” Rubin explains, showing old photographs. “If you learned pastry in France, the only question was, which pastry tip were you going to use—Rosette No. 7 or Rosette No. 3? I thought, No rosettes!” The pretzel croissant appeared six years later. Rubin explains that, when you have a bakery, many different things get made side by side. “You’re surrounded by all these materials all day long,” he says. “Here’s the chocolate section, here’s the pastry section. In this case, a German woman who came to New York as a graphic designer just couldn’t get going, and asked if she could borrow some space in the kitchen.” She wanted to try a German-style-pretzel business, and she set up a small table in the kitchen, next to where the croissants were being made. Another baker sprinkled some of the rock salt with which she topped off her pretzels on the standard croissant, crossed its two legs to give it a pretzel shape, and a new thing was born. Asked if it was a playful moment of invention, Rubin responds sternly, almost Cosellianly, “It wasn’t playful. I hate play. It was just a process. You have scores and scores of those moments when you try these things out. I remember in ’96, the first time I tasted it, I thought”—his voice goes high and giddy—“Yeeaahh! And the next day we made a bunch more, and I remember everybody saying, ‘Wow, that’s really good.’ And I said ‘O.K., fine, try it out.’ ” The pretzel croissant—though on the surface simply a croissant transitioning into a soft pretzel, with the salt highlighting the sweet-butter taste by contrast, a flavor cliché now but striking back then—holds a secret. That is the bagel-like application of sesame seeds, allowing the thing to be nutty, salty, buttery, and sweet all at once, and eliding one of the world’s great divisions—between those who want something savory to start the day and those who prefer something sweet. From that day to this, the pretzel croissant has been a standby and profit center for Rubin, where the tarts and cakes that preceded it in his line of inventions are now rarely baked or sold, Rubin having discovered the sad truth that the superior-baked-goods business is a brutal one in New York, while the lunch business—City Bakery includes not only the salad bar but a large prepared-foods area—can be a very good one. For Rubin, the most significant fact on the pastry-making horizon, easily overlooked by outsiders, is that the costs have accelerated wildly in the past several years. The price of oil, which surged past a hundred dollars a barrel in 2008, took a breather, and then started to climb again, determines the cost of transportation, and thus of food, whether the flour is milled in Iowa or the butter churned in New Zealand. “Here’s a real number,” Rubin says. “Around 1990, I was paying thirty-four cents a pound for organic flour, and in 2009 forty-four cents—a ten-cent difference in nineteen years. Then, overnight, the price went to ninety-two cents, and now it’s settled in the sixties. Butter went from a dollar twenty-five a pound to four-fifty a pound, and in a French-driven pastry bakery the croissant is literally fifty per cent butter, so half of most of what you buy at City Bakery is butter. If you’re making bread, you’re buying flour, water, and salt. Here you’re buying butter.” The margins are unforgiving, and potential markups are limited: people will pay three dollars for a croissant but not five, even if that is closer to what it costs to make one. One solution is to make the pastry so essential that its market becomes fairly price-insensitive. “The Cronut!” Rubin exclaims. He has views on the subject. “I’m a student of bakeries and baking. When I hear somebody’s opened a new bakery, I love it—I’m there every time.” In that spirit, he went to Dominique Ansel’s shop, back in the pre-Cronut era. “I thought the pastry was terrible, and I thought his croissant was especially terrible,” Rubin says. “I wasn’t surprised, because he’s a high-end dessert-maker.” Ansel, he knew, had made his reputation as the pastry chef—i.e., dessert chef—at the restaurant Daniel. “It was no surprise that that person would be so bad at pâtisserie and boulangerie. They’re like cardiology and podiatry. That a pastry chef is going to make a lousy croissant? You know what? I’m not even going to hold that against him, because most people make lousy croissants. That made more sense to me than not, but I certainly noted that the viennoiserie was really underwhelming.” Rubin says, “When the Cronut became a thing, I just thought, Oh, my God, that’s perfect! His croissant sucked, so he threw it in oil. And I think, Brilliant! He must have known, so he threw it in hot oil. What do I think of it? Because I’ve done this a long time now, and I care deeply about it, when someone comes along with something innovative I think deeply about it. “I struggle to separate the blogosphere’s role in it as compared to what’s real work,” he goes on. “I think of it as a hula-hoop moment, and unlike anything else in pastry time. It couldn’t exist without the blogosphere. Most people don’t know anything about good pastry anymore. What goes around is ‘O.M.G.!’ in a Yelp review, and I’ve seen the regard for really well-made pastry go down and down and down.” Although he hastens to add that, however dubious the Cronut’s origins, he likes it as a finished thing, the craze clearly sticks in his throat. “The Cronut thing is what a bunch of musicians felt when they first saw Chubby Checker,” he says. Chubby Checker, for the innocent, sang the early sixties hit “The Twist,” which managed to cheapen R. & B. and degrade American pop-dance music at the same time. “It’s still amazing to me how few places make really good pastry, and on the innovative front I may be a tough critic,” he says. “But I think there are no critics out there.”

 Walk about twenty blocks south, continuing in a straight line down Fifth, jogging through Washington Square and onto Thompson Street, and you arrive at Dominique Ansel’s bakery, on Spring Street, and, if you get there early enough, his line. Although skeptics consider the Cronut to be what the great New York restaurant writer Seymour Britchky once called “a New Yorker trap”—something that is local but still essentially ersatz, like a checked-tablecloth neighborhood restaurant where the food is terrible and the mom-and-pop proprietors are hostile to newcomers—the line is real, and long. The Cronut now has a TM added to it in any communication from the Ansel bakery, so that, like Xerox and Kleenex, it can try to protect itself from becoming a common term in everyday usage. But any thoughts that its maker might be more a shrewd P.R. man than an artist are dispelled in conversation over morning coffee and a few fresh-baked madeleines in an airy, glass-walled back-garden space—the Cronuts having all gone in the dawn hours. Dominique Ansel turns out to have had a classical French culinary education: recruited from a working-class family in his mid-teens, and bullied in a kitchen by a mean head chef, he slowly worked his way up the ladder of French cooking. He comes from the gray, grim northern city of Beauvais. “I grew up in a poor neighborhood,” he says. “My dad was working in a factory, and we lived with my cousin and grandmom. My dad always had a small salary—you know, in France you are paid at the end of the month, and near the end of the month we rarely had money. We’d just buy bread to have dinner, bread dipped in milk. I remember being hungry—so hungry. I remember seeing the ribs on my chest.” After an apprenticeship at a local bakery and one at a better local restaurant, he gathered the courage to go to Paris and distribute résumés, offering his services to anyone who would take them. He did some work at Peltier (as Rubin might be surprised to learn), a place once legendary for its croissants, and then got hired for the Christmas rush at Fauchon—the period when every French family must have a bûche de Noël and a galette des rois. Hired along with twenty or so other young French pâtissiers, with the Navy Seal-like guarantee that only one or two of them would ever make the permanent kitchen team, Ansel prevailed and was rapidly promoted. When, in 2004, Daniel Boulud went looking for a new pastry chef for his main New York restaurant, someone in Paris suggested Ansel, and though on his arrival here he spoke scarcely a word of English—he now speaks it with crisp, aphoristic clarity—he had a very successful run in the high-end restaurant. But his real ambition was always to have his own shop. So he began looking for a space where he could bake. “I was looking for quite some time,” he says. “And I was really looking at different locations, and my designer walked by and saw this place.” He adds, innocently, “I thought, SoHo, it’s very artistic, very trendy, there’s a lot of galleries and art and culture. It is not where all the tourists are.” Ansel was determined to be as avant-garde as the art scene he imagined still existed in the neighborhood. “I didn’t want to do anything classic,” he says. “All these people giving advice: cupcakes, sandwiches. I wanted a place where I’ll be happy. I didn’t want old-school—chandeliers, sculpture, gold everywhere. I wanted a place where you could get Parisian-quality pastry but it felt like New York. But I wanted the pastries to be creative and innovative—more like SoHo.” The previous tenant had been a showroom for a Japanese oven company. It left the ovens, and the renovation took seven weeks. “Then I opened the bakery. I remember peeling off the paper and seeing people outside and thinking, Oh, my God, there are people waiting for us.” Part of the appeal of the new place was that he could take some of the habits of a restaurant kitchen and apply them to a daily bakery. “I wanted a place where I could do things that were seasonal,” he says. “I remember in December switching to apple desserts and people coming in and asking about strawberry desserts. And I would say, ‘Oh, no strawberries.’ And they would say, ‘Yes, there are some in the deli next to my house.’ Yes, there is some, but not ripe and sweet, and you’re not going to enjoy it. We have pumpkins, apples, and pears, some flavors of wine—try the new things. First, they were kind of upset, they don’t see strawberry tart. And a few weeks later you see the same people coming back.” He looks from the glass-enclosed garden toward the kitchen: “As you can see, our kitchen is very small—small batches of everything all day long.” It is indeed tiny, hardly more than a galley with two stacked ovens. The feeling in his place, after the morning crush, is more Williamsburg than SoHo, glass and sun and constant baking smells, with several hipster types nursing one of our many period variants of espresso and steamed milk. “We bake things all day long. I want fresh-baked cookies all day long. They’ll wait, people will wait, ten minutes, and leave the bakery with a hot cookie, a fresh-baked madeleine—this is one of the stories of the life and the time of ingredients. No shelf life! We pipe them, put them in the oven, and we give them to you hot from the oven. It’s a moment in time. I remember going to the bakery, always getting hot bread, with my grandmother. It’s something I want to have. People will bake at night and put it on the shelf—and I refuse doing that.” “Creativity” was his watchword—it is the watchword of his entire generation of chefs—and over time he began introducing variants on French favorites. His first was an updated version of the kouign amann. Despite sounding like the name of a battle lost by the colonial French in the Indochina War, the kouign amann is a traditional Breton butter cake, which Ansel learned from a Breton chef at Fauchon. “I was doing it at Fauchon, and I thought, We’ll make it flakier, lighter, and less sweet than it could be in France. I remember doing this as a snack for the staff at Daniel, and they were crazy about it.” The D.K.A.—Dominique’s Kouign Amann—was launched shortly after the bakery opened, and it was an immediate hit. “Now they go to France and they ask bakeries, Do you have a D.K.A., and they say, ‘What?’ ” Nothing prepared him, though, for the reaction to his next creative act. “Someone mentioned, Maybe we should do a doughnut. And I was, like, Doughnut? I’m French, so I don’t have a recipe for doughnuts. But I have croissants. I can try to do a doughnut with that. I worked on the dough for about two and a half months. It is not croissant dough. And we thought, Fry it! Fry it in grapeseed oil! I said, It’s good. Let’s put it on the Mother’s Day menu. Someone from Grub Street”—the New York food blog—“was walking by and wrote an article about it.” By the same strange magic that guarantees the success or failure of a movie on its first afternoon, the post went viral before anyone had tasted the product. The Cronut was a hit essentially before there were Cronuts. “The next day, we had a good fifty people outside. People are coming, and, like, Can I have twelve, twenty-four? And the third day we had more than a hundred people. So, I guess, the first day I made thirty, and then fifty, and on the third day a hundred. Very early on, you realize you should limit the quantity.” Now, no matter how long the wait, no one can buy more than two Cronuts, nor can anyone, no matter what his credentials, cut the line. If the mayor or a Nobel laureate gets in line for a Cronut, he waits for his Cronut. Ansel poses the question he is often asked: “Why did it become this?” His own theory is that it’s the ideal mixture of two separate yet familiar pleasures, newly joined into one good bite. “American culture grew up with doughnuts. Everyone likes doughnut; everyone knows what is a good doughnut. But Americans love croissants, too. Everyone has had a croissant at least once. Croissant inside a doughnut? It’s fun, it’s new! Unique and different! It’s in people’s minds very exciting.” The commercialization, or, rather, over-commercialization, of the Cronut, which currently sells for five dollars, is something that Ansel has resisted. “It is like a lot of decisions I had to make very early on,” he says. “I had to be strict with myself, and tell myself what I was living. I didn’t want our creations to kill our creativity. The Cronut’s a wonderful creation, but I don’t want to turn my shop into a Cronut shop. People have approached me to mass-produce it, sell it frozen, put it in a box. Would it make money? Yes. Would it be good? No. Would I be proud of it? No. I would kill my own creation.” Instead, he has become its caretaker. “We keep the constancy, and we serve the line—we go serving hot chocolate and hot baked madeleine to the people in line,” he says. “We have security because, think about it, when you have a line of people it attracts solicitors, homeless people, and others who might harass our customers. So we have security.” He is alive to the irony of having a pastry item so successful that it is necessary to hand out, free, other pastry items to the people waiting for it, as he is to the irony of having to hire a private security force to protect his supplicants from other supplicants. “It’s New York,” he says, with a pilgrim’s pride in his adopted city. ||||| NEW YORK (AP) — Dunkin' Donuts plans to roll out a croissant-doughnut hybrid in the U.S. next week, but the company says please don't call it a "Cronut."

 This product image provided by Dunkin' Donuts shows the chain's new "Croissant Donut," which will be launched nationally for a limited time starting Nov. 3, 2014. It comes more than a year after the Dominique... (Associated Press)

 The chain tells The Associated Press it will launch its "Croissant Donut" nationally for a limited time starting Nov. 3. It comes more than a year after the Dominique Ansel Bakery in New York City introduced its now trademarked Cronut, which became a viral sensation and spawned numerous knockoffs. Last summer, Dunkin' also introduced a croissant-doughnut in South Korea it dubbed a "New York Pie Donut."

 John Costello, Dunkin's president of global marketing and innovation, said in a phone interview that bakers around the country have been mixing doughnuts and croissants for at least 20 years. He said Dunkin' is constantly tracking consumer and bakery trends and has been looking at pastry "combinations" for several years now.

 "Are we copying a specific bakery in New York? The answer is no," Costello said in a phone interview.

 The Croissant Donut is one of several new offerings Dunkin' has in the pipeline after reporting disappointing quarterly sales last week and warning it might struggle to make its long-term growth targets this year. Among the challenges the company is facing is increased competition, with chains including Taco Bell going after the breakfast crowd.

 Dunkin', based in Canton, Massachusetts, has nevertheless been opening new U.S. locations and last week said it sees potential for more than 17,000 U.S. locations over time, up from its current 8,000.

 As for the Croissant Donut, Dunkin' says the pastry will cost $2.49. That's less than the $5 for a Cronut, but more than twice the $1 or so for other Dunkin' doughnuts, making it more profitable for the company.

 The Croissant Donut will be covered with the same glaze used for its Glazed Donut, giving it a familiar taste, but won't have any cream filling like the Cronut. Costello said Dunkin' is looking at fillings and glazes for future versions.

 An email sent to the Dominique Ansel's press contact was not returned.

 When asked to explain how the Croissant Donut and Cronut differ, Dunkin's Executive Chef Jeff Miller said: "I've tried the product that you mention. As the executive chef of Dunkin', I like ours better."

 Rob Branca, a franchisee who's on Dunkin's committee that develops new products, said his friends and acquaintances have been asking when the company would roll out a version of the Cronut. He said he thinks the Croissant Donut will be a hit because the popularity of Cronuts hasn't faded. But he noted it took some time for Dunkin' to come out with its croissant-doughnut hybrid.

 "We're going to be selling a lot more of them than a single shop bakery, so it was important to do it right," Branca said.

 ____

 Follow Candice Choi at www.twitter.com/candicechoi |||||
What is a summary?

– Starting next week, you'll be able to nosh on a croissant-donut hybrid if you live near a Dunkin' Donuts—but don't call the delectable dessert a Cronut. The chain says that starting Nov. 3, it will churn out a limited run of its "Croissant Donut," which some are already comparing to the now-trademarked Cronut treat first made famous by New York City's Dominique Ansel Bakery, the AP reports. The new offering will have the same glaze as Dunkin's Glazed Donut, won't have filling (for now), and will sell for $2.49—more than twice what the chain's regular donuts go for, making it more profitable for a company that's seen flagging sales, the AP notes. DD won't cop to any Cronut copycat crime, though. "Are we copying a specific bakery in New York? The answer is no," Dunkin's president of global marketing and innovation says. So what's the difference between the actual Cronut—which comes with a caveat on Dominique Ansel's website that the "creation is not to be mistaken as simply croissant dough that has been fried"—and DD's version? Dunkin's executive chef tells the AP, "I've tried the product that you mention. As the executive chef of Dunkin', I like ours better." Others might agree: The owner of a rival NYC bakery tells the New Yorker that Dominique Ansel makes a "lousy croissant" anyway. (Election time's coming—if you like Dunkin' Donuts, you might be a Republican.)


Summarize this article:

Lotte New York Palace Hotel

 New York, New York

 1:31 P.M. EDT

 PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much, General. I appreciate it. And I'm greatly honored to host this lunch, to be joined by the leaders of Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda, and South Africa. In particular, I want to thank President Condé, who is representing the African Union. Thank you. Thank you.

 In this room, I see partners for promoting prosperity and peace on a range of economic, humanitarian, and security issues. We hope to extend our economic partnerships with countries who are committed to self-reliance and to fostering opportunities for job creation in both Africa and the United States.

 Africa has tremendous business potential. I have so many friends going to your countries, trying to get rich. I congratulate you. They're spending a lot of money. But it does -- it has a tremendous business potential and representing huge amounts of different markets. And for American firms it's really become a place that they have to go -- that they want to go.

 of the world’s ten fastest-growing economies are in Africa. Increasing American trade and investment across diverse industries -- including agriculture, energy, transportation, healthcare, travel, and tourism -- will further transform lives throughout the continent. Secretary Tillerson and the U.S. Millennium Challenge Corporation are already considering an investment worth hundreds of millions of dollars in Côte d’Ivoire, which has made impressive economic reforms. Really, you've done a tremendous job.

 We also hope that African firms -- like the company Sasol --consider making investments in the United States. Sasol, as an example, is building a $9 billion petrochemical plant in Louisiana, which will bring new jobs to the state and, really, hardworking Americans will be manning those jobs.

 we cannot have prosperity if we're not healthy. We will continue our partnership on critical health initiatives. Uganda has made incredible strides in the battle against HIV/AIDS. In Guinea and Nigeria, you fought a horrifying Ebola outbreak. Namibia’s health system is increasingly self-sufficient. My Secretary of Health and Human Services will be traveling to Africa to promote our Global Health Security Agenda.

 Yet, we know that our prosperity depends, above all, on peace. The United States will partner with the countries and organizations, like the African Union, that lead successful efforts to end violence, to prevent the spread of terrorism, and to respond to humanitarian crises. I commend your troops currently serving in the field. Very brave. Very, very brave what they’re going through.

 you well know, too many people are suffering from conflict in Africa. In the Central African Republic, the Congo, Libya, Mali, Somalia, and South Sudan, among others, they’re going through some very, very tough and very dangerous times. Terrorist groups, such as ISIS, al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, and al Qaeda also threaten African peace. The United States is proud to work with you to eradicate terrorist safe havens, to cut off their finances, and to discredit their depraved ideology. And a number of you have told me -- actually, last night -- that we’ve been doing a very good job over the last six or seven months in particular.

 We're closely monitoring and deeply disturbed by the ongoing violence in South Sudan and in the Congo. Millions of lives are at risk, and we continue to provide humanitarian assistance. But real results in halting this catastrophe will require an African-led peace process and a sincere -- really sincere commitment of all parties involved. And I know you’re working on that, and you’re working on that very hard. To assist in these efforts, I'm sending Ambassador Nikki Haley to Africa to discuss avenues of conflict and resolution and, most importantly, prevention.

 I want to discuss our partnership against a global challenge. Today, the world faces an enormous security threat from North Korean regime. We must all stand together and be accountable in implementing United Nations sanctions and resolutions in response to North Korea’s hostile and menacing actions.

 We believe that a free, independent, and democratic nation, in all cases, is the best vehicle for human happiness and success. Thank you for joining me for this critical discussion of the challenges and the opportunities facing our nations.

 Africa, I have to say, is a continent of tremendous, tremendous potential. The outlook is bright. I look forward to hearing from you and your advice during the meal. I thought rather than just eating, we’ll have long discussions -- and I look forward to that very much. But I also look forward to getting to know so many of you, and so many of you I do know. And it’s an honor. It’s an honor.

 And I really want to congratulate you -- growing very fast economically and in every other way. You’ve done a terrific job, you’ve had some tremendous obstacles placed in your path, but you have done, really, an absolutely incredible job.

 So I want to thank you, and I look forward to our discussion. Thank you.

 Thank you all very much. (Applause.)

 END 1:36 P.M. EDT ||||| Tweet with a location

 You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| Namibia is a real country in southern African and on Wednesday it got its 15 minutes of fame in America after President Donald Trump mistakenly referred to it as “Nambia” at a United Nations summit in New York. And, you guess it, the moment went viral.

 It happened at a gathering with African leaders when Trump made the unfortunate mispronunciation in this line: “In Guinea and Nigeria, you fought a horrifying Ebola outbreak. Nambia’s health system is increasingly self-sufficient.”

 https://twitter.com/davidmackau/status/910558586799099904

 Of course, there is no African country called “Nambia” — there’s Zambia and Namibia, but not “Nambia.” But people on Twitter took off with it, promptly cracking jokes and taking shots at the president’s speaking skills. Soon after, the word “Nambia” became a trending topic on Twitter.

 https://twitter.com/taureanb/status/910560630536642560

 https://twitter.com/anirvanghosh/status/910598814486204418

 https://twitter.com/claudiajordan/status/910618357136683009

 Jokes aside, a communications director for ONE — an advocacy group in Africa — argued that Trump said some valid points about African countries and the opportunities they present for American investors as Trump noted in his address.

 https://twitter.com/iankoski/status/910566507700260864

 https://twitter.com/iankoski/status/910565344141602823

 So, where is Namibia and why is it so important?

 https://twitter.com/RunGomez/status/910897240721387520

 Namibia is on the southern end of Africa on the Atlantic Ocean coast and it shares borders with South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and Angola. It has a recorded population of almost 2.5 million, according to the CIA’s factbook. Namibia has been an independent country since 1990 when it earned sovereignty from South Africa.

 Trump said Africa has some of the fastest-growing economies in the world, but Namibia is not one of them. Rather, one of the big reasons Trump and the world is interested in the region is the vast supply of minerals.

 Namibia is one of the world’s top producers of uranium. About half of the world’s supply of vanadium, platinum and diamonds also come from that region, a southern Africa news outlet reported this week.

 Namibia may still be largely obscure to some people in the world but if Trump’s blunder was worth anything, it was this: the world now knows about Namibia.

 https://twitter.com/GwenLister1/status/910620978790768641

 Have some thoughts to share?

 Join me in a conversation: Shoot me a private email with your thoughts or ideas on a different approach to this story. As always, you can also send us a tweet.

 Email: luis.gomez@sduniontribune.com

 Twitter: @RunGomez

 Read The Conversation on Flipboard. ||||| Story highlights Trump spoke during a speech to African leaders

 "Nambia's health system is increasingly self-sufficient," he said

 (CNN) President Donald Trump lavished praise on the health care system of Nambia during a speech at the United Nations. But there's one little problem -- there's no such country.

 "In Guinea and Nigeria, you fought a horrifying Ebola outbreak," Trump told African leaders gathered Wednesday. "Nambia's health system is increasingly self-sufficient."

 Namibia has stunning scenery such as this private reserve where visitors can see giraffes and other animals.

 Trump mentioned Nambia twice during the session attended by leaders of several nations, including Ghana, Namibia and Uganda.

 The gaffe lit up social media, with many speculating whether he meant Namibia, Zambia or Gambia. ||||| Archive-It Partner 1067: The Political TV Ad Archive, a project of the Internet Archive, collects political TV ads and social media sites in key 2016 primary election states, unlocking the metadata underneath and highlighting quality journalism to provide journalists, civic organizations, academics, and the general public with reliable information on who is trying to influence them & how. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption President Donald Trump on 'Nambia' and Africa's 'business potential'

 "Nambia's health system is increasingly self-sufficient," said US President Donald Trump at a lunch with African leaders in New York on Wednesday, reeling off a list of their nations' achievements.

 But no such country exists.

 Could the US leader have been referring to Namibia? Zambia? Or perhaps, The Gambia?

 Social media users wasted no time in offering their own explanations.

 One person shared an image of US race activist Rachel Dolezal, who identifies as black despite being born white, and who recently visited South Africa:

 Find out more about Namibia, Zambia and The Gambia here:

 Namibia facts and figures

 Zambia facts and figures

 The Gambia facts and figures

 Africa Live: More on this and other stories

 Namibia's President Hage Geingob was present when Mr Trump made the gaffe. He has not yet commented.

 Some Twitter users also bristled at President Trump's comments about Africa's "tremendous business potential".

 "I have so many friends going to your countries trying to get rich. I congratulate you, they're spending a lot of money," Mr Trump said.

 "It [represents] huge amounts of different markets... It's really become a place they have to go, that they want to go."

 Others defended Mr Trump, saying that aside from the "Nambia" blunder, he made some valid points.

 Translator defends Trump speech omissions |||||

– The nation that seems to be showing up in most headlines Thursday is Nambia, mainly because it doesn't actually exist. In a speech to African leaders Wednesday, President Trump referred to "Nambia" not once but twice, first in his general introduction and then later when he mentioned that "Nambia's health system is increasingly self-sufficient." As the BBC notes, that led to plenty of online jokes, along with people wondering whether he meant Gambia, Zambia, or Namibia. Turns out, it was the last of those. Coverage: For the record: The official White House transcript of the speech made the correction without mention of the mispronunciation. (You can hear for yourself in this video.) But that hasn't slowed a barrage of coverage making light of the president's mistake. One example: At CNN, Anderson Cooper referred to Nambia as a "magical land far, far away" in his recap. Namibia 101: The gaffe has led to a slew of civics-type primers about Namibia. Time, for instance, notes the tiny nation of fewer than 2.5 million people is relatively young, having achieved its independence in 1990. Among the factoids it highlights: Namibia is a big producer of diamonds and it has environmental protection written into its constitution. Silver lining: "If Trump's blunder was worth anything, it was this: The world now knows about Namibia," writes Luis Gomez at the San Diego Union-Tribune. He notes that Namibia also is one of the top global producers of uranium. The main point: The gist of Trump's speech was to tout the region's economic potential (he said he has friends who go there "trying to get rich"), and a member of the African advocacy group ONE praised the intent. "I know 'Nambia' will be the narrative that comes from those remarks, but POTUS is right on this: Africa has tremendous business potential," tweeted rep Ian Koski. Namibia's reaction: Officially, nada. No major government official, including President Hage Geingob, who was present, has said anything publicly about the mistake. But the Washington Post reports that Namibians themselves sound a little miffed and are mocking Trump, like so.


Article:

Facebook, Inc. (Facebook) is engaged in building products to create utility for users, developers, and advertisers. People use Facebook to stay connected with their friends and family, to discover what is going on in the world around them, and to share and express what matters to them to the people they care about. Developers can use the Facebook Platform to build applications and Websites that integrate with Facebook to reach its global network of users and to build personalized and social products. Advertisers can engage with more than 900 million monthly active users (MAUs) on Facebook or subsets of its users based on information they have chosen to share with the Company, such as their age, location, gender, or interests. In September 2013, Mail.Ru Group Limited sold its remaining shares in Facebook Inc. Effective September 25, 2013, Facebook Inc acquired Mobile Technologies, a developer of online applications. In October 2013, Facebook Inc acquired Onavo Inc. ||||| Graph Search: Facebook’s Way of Keeping You Inside of Facebook (Video)

 At its Menlo Park headquarters on Tuesday, Facebook unveiled its take on search, the social giant’s major push into helping its users find content from within Facebook.

 For as big as Facebook has grown, something like this has been sorely needed. More than one billion people are on Facebook’s network, with upward of 240 billion photos and more than a trillion connections within the social graph. For anyone looking for a specific topic of information, place or person, that’s a lot of stuff to sort through.

 “Indexing all this content and making it so you can find it easily is a really hard problem,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said. “Graph search is designed to take a precise query and return to you the precise answer.”

 What does that mean? Essentially, Facebook wants to make it easier for users to find stuff from within a user’s network of social connections, without having to exit the site. A search box topping the page prompts you to enter a search string that returns information relevant to your network.

 The thesis is this: Web search is about returning links to keywords and phrases. Google made its impact serving up the most relevant Web sites based on Page Rank. But Facebook’s Graph Search is built on the idea that you’re better served by finding content that’s been shared within Facebook. It’s your network of social connections, after all, and the philosophy is that you’d rather see things from that network.

 The search paramaters are all about the stuff that circulates inside of Facebook — namely, content. Games, videos, pictures and people. Enter a phrase like, “games my friends play,” and you’ll get a list of content spit back out at you based on the connections that you’ve already made within Facebook.

 Sound familiar? That’s because it is — Google is trying to do this exact same thing with Search Plus Your World. The way that Google+ works, if you or your friends +1 content on Google+, it’ll show up within your Google search results. The idea is, adding that social element into the mix makes users more apt to click on the content.

 But Google’s problem is that Google+ isn’t as widely adopted or used as much as Facebook is. Facebook has the one-billion-strong network of users to suggest content to one another.

 This also bodes ill for companies like Yelp, Foursquare and even the small startup Path, all of which aim to serve up recommendations to users based on their history of ratings, “Likes,” visits, etc. That’s problematic for these smaller companies, all of which work on vastly smaller data sets than Facebook’s gigantic network.

 Looking for something that isn’t on Facebook? There’s an answer to that, too. Facebook has partnered with Microsoft’s Bing search engine to serve up any Web content that isn’t shared within the social network. Yet another slap in the face to Google there.

 But ultimately that isn’t Facebook’s goal. Facebook wants to keep users inside Facebook to find things. The more stuff we share, use and look for inside of Facebook, the less often we’ll have to leave the network.

 Good luck with that, Mark. ||||| Bloomberg News

 Facebook is holding an event at 1 p.m. ET to unveil something new at its Menlo Park campus.

 It issued an invitation for the mystery event last week, which offered no clues other than to say: “Come see what we’re building.”

 This press conference could be held for any number of reasons — it could be some kind of new product launch or a redesign of a popular component of Facebook. Many tech pundits are reporting that it could be a new search feature.

 WSJ reporter Evelyn Rusli will be reporting live from the event. |||||
What is a summary?

– Facebook held a major press event today, but kept the media guessing about what it would be unveiling. The answer was what Mark Zuckerberg described as the "third pillar" of Facebook: Graph Search. Basically, the idea is to allow people to search for people, places, and things to do through their networks, the official announcement explains. For example, if you were trying to set up a Game of Thrones viewing party, you might search for "friends in [your town] who like Game of Thrones." Going out? Search "movies my friends like." Dating? Search "friends of friends in [your town] who are single." The system will be "privacy aware," Zuckerberg said, so "you can only search for content that has been shared with you." It will also integrate Bing results, broadening the kind of information it can find—though at one point Zuckerberg added that he "would love to work with Google." The system is being rolled out as a limited beta release starting today. Right now, Zuckerberg says there are no plans to monetize the feature, though he said it "could potentially be a business over time." Some instant reactions: Farhad Manjoo: "This is the most natural-language search I've ever seen. It's a completely different paradigm from searching Google. Phrases, not keywords." Mike Isaac: "Google built web search first, then tried to slap Google+ on top of it for personalization. Facebook taking the backwards approach." (See more from Isaac here.) Henry Blodget: "I don't see how Facebook cashes in with this thing. Search could coin it for them. This, as executed, is just another feature." The stock market: Shortly after the rollout, Facebook's stock was down 2%, according to the Wall Street Journal.


Summarize this article:

NEWS

 A 19-year-old man has been arrested by the Metropolitan Police Central e-Crime Unit following an investigation into network intrusions and distributed denial-of-service attacks against international businesses and intelligence agencies.

 ZDNet UK on Facebook ZDNet UK on Facebook Interested in joining the discussions on open source, broadband or security? 'Like' us on Facebook and become part of our network. Read more

 According to a statement from the Met on Tuesday, searches took place at a residential address in Wickford, Essex, and the teenager was arrested on Monday night on suspicion of offences under the Computer Misuse Act and Fraud Act. The investigation involved the FBI and, according to some reports, the attacks may correlate to those perpetrated by the LulzSec and Anonymous activist groups.

 LulzSec has previously hacked the US Senate, the CIA, the NHS and an FBI partner company, as well as various games and entertainment companies. On Sunday, the group teamed up with distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) specialists Anonymous to launch an operation called AntiSec, or Anti-Security.

 The first AntiSec victim appears to have been the UK's Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca), which on Tuesday confirmed it came under DDoS attack on Monday.

 The teenager arrested on Monday is currently in custody at a central London police station, where he is being held for questioning. ||||| Update: New information from a self-purported Anon member, quoting an anonymous (lowercase a) source. Via Twitter:

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 "The good news everybody: Ryan has little to do with #LulzSec besides running IRC. All 6 members of @LulzSec are fine and safe." #AntiSec

 So! This, if it's true, means that the perp is named Ryan, but wasn't part of LulzSec's integral fuck-shit-up operations. It would also suggest that there are only six members of LulzSec's core team. But again, if it's true.

 Update 2: Another Anon Twitter account has chimed in, downplaying the significance of the arrest:

 Sponsored

 If it is Ryan then they're alright. lol #LulzSec

 The "if" in there indicates there may be some internal confusion within the AntiSec campaign as to who has actually been arrested.

 Update 3: LulzSec's official Twitter account has joined the this-doesn't-matter chorus:

 Seems the glorious leader of LulzSec got arrested, it's all over now... wait... we're all still here! Which poor bastard did they take down?

 Update 4: Well this just got a bit more interesting! Yet another Anon Twitter user is claiming the Ryan in question is Ryan Cleary—a kid previously associated with attacking Anonymous in an attempted "coup d'etat" of sorts, Hacker News reported in May: "Mr Cleary was accused of stealing passwords and targeting the network servers used to keep Anonymous's websites running."

 Advertisement

 Cleary's personal information was then revenge-posted online—pinning him to Wickford, Essex, exactly as the BBC said earlier this morning.

 So this is strange. Ryan was apparently despised by Anonymous, and described today as a LulzSec IRC admin. With the two forces united for the time being, his place in all of this seems... tense.

 Advertisement

 Update 5: LulzSec's put out a further clarifying tweet, this one more conclusive than the last:

 Ryan Cleary is not part of LulzSec; we house one of our many legitimate chatrooms on his IRC server, but that's it.

 So, despite whatever beef Ryan had with Anon, LulzSec's just been using him for his servers, and is distancing itself from him in any other capacity. |||||

– British police have arrested a 19-year-old that they believe is involved with LulzSec’s recent wave of “AntiSec” digital attacks—though the group seems to be denying it. Investigators found the teen with help from the FBI, and have charged him under the Computer Misuse Act and the Fraud Act, ZDNet reports. But LulzSec’s official Twitter account chimed in, saying, “Seems the glorious leader of LulzSec got arrested, it's all over now... wait... we're all still here! Which poor bastard did they take down?” Some tweets from LulzSec’s new ally, Anonymous, might shed some light on that. “The good news everybody: Ryan has little to do with #LulzSec besides running IRC,” one Anonymous member tweeted, according to Gizmodo. Another member identified the Ryan in question as Ryan Cleary, a hacker who last gained notoriety for, of all things, attacking Anonymous. Cleary lived in Wickford, Essex, the same location as the man arrested today. “If it is Ryan then they’re alright. lol,” another Anonymous member tweeted.


Article:
At the request of the Malaysian Government, Australia has accepted responsibility for the search for missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) is leading the underwater search for MH370 in the southern Indian Ocean.

 Joint Agency Coordination Centre

 MH370 Operational Search Update

 11 January 2017

 This operational report has been developed to provide regular updates on the progress of the search effort for MH370. Our work will continue to be thorough and methodical, so sometimes weekly progress may seem slow. Please be assured that work is continuing and is aimed at finding MH370 as quickly as possible.

 Key developments this week

 Fugro Equator continues to conduct underwater search operations using the Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) . In the past week the AUV has completed five missions. Operations have been delayed due to weather conditions impacting the recovery of the AUV after its underwater missions and required maintenance.

 Search Status

 At a meeting of Ministers from Malaysia, Australia and the People’s Republic of China held on 22 July 2016, it was agreed that should the aircraft not be located in the current search area, and in the absence of credible new evidence leading to the identification of a specific location of the aircraft, the search would be suspended upon completion of the current search area.

 Ministers have reiterated that this does not mean the termination of the search. Should credible new information emerge that can be used to identify the specific location of the aircraft, consideration will be given to determining next steps.

 Fugro Equator is completing its final swing and gathering sonar data in areas that haven’t previously been completed. It is expected the search operations currently being undertaken by Fugro Equator may be completed in January 2017.

 Click image to enlarge

 Weather in the search area is not expected to affect AUV operations to any great extent over the next week.

 Previous versions:

 MH370 Operational Search Updates ||||| The towfish and 14,700 feet of cable broke free from the ship and are now resting on floor of the southern Indian Ocean.

 “There were no injuries to crew and it is believed it will be possible to recover the towfish at a later date,” the JACC said in a statement. A spare towfish is being readied.

 It was the first of two setbacks this week in the hunt for the missing Boeing 777, which disappeared in March 2014 en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing with 239 people on board.

 In a separate operational update Wednesday, the JACC said another ship involved in the mission, the Havila Harmony, sustained damage when a fish net bent its underwater communications pole.

 The vessel is being repaired in a dry dock at the BAE Systems facility in Henderson, near Perth, Australia, and is expected to set sail again Thursday to restart searches on Feb. 2, the JACC said.

 Just over 70 percent of the internationally-agreed 46,000 square mile search zone has been covered so far in the hunt for the missing airliner — an area of ocean floor larger than the state of South Carolina.

 The operation is due to be completed by the middle of this year. The JACC says that if no “credible new information” about the jet’s location emerges, the search will end.

 The only piece of the plane found so far is a flaperon that that washed up July on the French island of Reunion, near Madagascar.

 However, the sonar operation has turned up a 19th-century shipwreck. ||||| Story highlights A vehicle called a towfish strikes a 2,200-meter-high mud volcano, sinks to the ocean floor

 The vessel towing it will return to Western Australia for a replacement cable, officials say

 A search of the complete area is still expected to take until mid-2017, authorities say

 (CNN) A sonar vehicle used in the search for the wreckage of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 has been lost after striking an underwater volcano in the southern Indian Ocean, according to search officials.

 The vehicle -- called a towfish -- was being towed behind the Fugro Discovery, a specialist search vessel engaged in the hunt for the missing airliner, when it struck the 2,200-meter-high mud volcano Sunday, according to the Joint Agency Coordination Center, or JACC.

 As a result, the towfish's cable broke, sending the vehicle and 4.5 kilometers (2.8 miles) of cable to the ocean floor.

 JUST WATCHED Has a piece of MH370 been found? Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Has a piece of MH370 been found? 02:49

 The JACC, an Australian government agency created to coordinate search efforts for MH370, said that no crew members were injured.

 It was believed the towfish, which scans the ocean floor, could be recovered, the JACC said in a statement. |||||Summary:

– A "towfish" sonar vehicle searching for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 didn't find the missing plane, but it did find a 7,400-foot-tall underwater volcano…when it crashed right into it on Sunday, NBC News reports. The towfish was being dragged by a search vessel and scanning the floor of the Indian Ocean when it hit the volcano. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, searchers plan to recover the million-dollar towfish, which is sitting under more than 8,500 feet of water, sometime in the future. The search vessel has a backup towfish but has to travel to Australia to replace the 2.8-mile cable it also lost in the accident, CNN reports. The trip will cause a 12-day delay in the search for the missing plane. Flight MH370 has been missing since March 2014, when it disappeared with 239 people onboard while traveling from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, NBC reports. Searchers have covered about 70%—more than 32,000 square miles—of the search zone so far. If they haven't turned up any "credible new information" on the location of the missing plane by the time they complete the entire zone in mid-2016, they'll call the search off. In the meantime, the Joint Agency Coordination Center will be investigating to find out exactly how a giant underwater volcano (which the Australian Transport Safety Bureau has a 3D image of) snuck up on its towfish, according to the Morning Herald.


Write an article based on this summary:

– There have been more than 160 drug-related deaths in Milwaukee County, Wis., this year, 70 of them in the last seven weeks, and that is more than just a grim statistic for Chief Medical Examiner Brian Peterson. His own son, Adam Peterson, a 29-year-old with a history of drug use, was found on the floor of a friend's apartment Monday and was pronounced dead after failing to respond to anti-overdose drug Narcan, WISN reports. Brian Peterson, who has asked for privacy, told a conference earlier this month that his office was dealing with more overdose deaths than murders, car accident deaths, and sleep-related infant deaths combined, the Journal Sentinel reports. "We had a 1-year-old found dead on a mattress of methadone poisoning," Peterson told the round table. "Unfortunately, that's not uncommon either." He described medical examiners as "kind of the last responders," whose job it is "to help with clean data to help everybody understand." "I was sitting at the same table as Brian two weeks ago in Milwaukee discussing the trail of tragedies and heartbreak that addiction leaves in its wake," Sen. Ron Johnson tells the Journal Sentinel. "No family is immune. My prayers go out to Brian and his family at this time. I will continue to fight this fight for all those who have lost loved ones." (This small city in West Virginia had to deal with 27 overdoses in less than five hours.)

The son of Milwaukee County's chief medical examiner died this week of an suspected drug overdose.

 Adam Peterson, 29, on Monday became one of the more than 140 people whose death in Milwaukee County is believed to be related to narcotics.

 Peterson was staying on the 2700 block of West Clybourn Street in Milwaukee and was found by a friend laying face down on a floor. First responders administered Narcan, a drug used as an antidote to opiates. He did not react to the drug and was pronounced dead at around 7:30 p.m., an investigative report said.

 Peterson is the son of Dr. Brian Peterson, who heads the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office. Data released from the office on Wednesday showed that this year is on track to outpace the previous five in heroin-related deaths and will exceed the number of deaths classified as homicides in each of the four years from 2011 to 2014.

 There have been 71 overdose deaths in the county in the previous seven weeks, officials said.

 Back in April, WISN 12 partnered with IMPACT, a Milwaukee organization which assists residents through health and productivity issues, including drug addiction, on an awareness campaign. If you or someone you love is struggling with addiction, contact IMPACT at 866-211-3380.

 Photos: 25 facts about heroin The 25 heroin facts in this slideshow are provided by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. More ||||| Seventy deaths in seven weeks drive unprecedented drug toll. (Photo: Journal Sentinel)

 Earlier this month, Brian Peterson tried to give those gathered at a local opioid round-table discussion a sense of the scale of drug-related deaths in Milwaukee.

 While homicides, motor vehicle and infant sleep-related deaths have loomed large in the news, Milwaukee's chief medical examiner said, when all three are added together "that's less than the number of overdoses we've had."

 On Thursday, Peterson's office announced that 70 people have died from probable drug overdoses in Milwaukee County in the past seven weeks.

 One of them was Peterson's son.

 Adam Peterson, 29, died Monday at a friend's apartment in the 2700 block of W. Clybourn St., according to a medical examiner's report. Peterson, according to the report, had a history of drug use and was believed to be homeless when he died.

 U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, who hosted the round-table discussion, said: “I was sitting at the same table as Brian two weeks ago in Milwaukee discussing the trail of tragedies and heartbreak that addiction leaves in its wake. No family is immune. My prayers go out to Brian and his family at this time. I will continue to fight this fight for all those who have lost loved ones.”

 According to the report:

 Adam Peterson had been staying at the apartment for several days. His roommate told police he awoke from a nap around 6:45 p.m. and found Peterson face down on the floor, vomit coming from his mouth. An emergency medical team was unable to resuscitate Peterson, who was pronounced dead shortly before 7:30 p.m.

 In a messenger-style bag that belonged to Peterson, investigators found a plastic bag that contained topiramate, which is a nerve pain and anticonvulsant medication, and citalopram, which is used to treat depression. A razor blade and a small bag containing cotton balls were also found on the floor.

 ARCHIVE: Side Effects - Money, Medicine, and Patients

 At the discussion hosted by Johnson at Milwaukee Area Technical College, Brian Peterson said that one out of three cases autopsied in one month earlier this year were overdose cases.

 The ages of the dead spanned "63 years or so at the high end, down to 1 year old," he said.

 "We had a 1-year-old found dead on a mattress of methadone poisoning," he said. "Unfortunately, that's not uncommon either."

 The job of the medical examiner, he said, "is to help with clean data to help everybody understand."

 "We're kind of the last responders," he said.

 On Thursday, Peterson, who became the county's medical examiner in 2008, had no comment and asked for privacy for himself and his family.

 His office described the number of deaths announced Thursday as "unprecedented."

 "We have tossed out our projected number of total drug-related deaths for 2016," said Karen Domagalski, the medical examiner's office's operations manager. The office had estimated that there would be a record 288 deaths in 2016, she said.

 As of July 27, there had been 168 confirmed deaths, more than the total for 2012. A record 254 people died from drug-related causes in 2015.

 Bill Glauber of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.

 Read or Share this story: http://on.jsonl.in/2d3dbPy |||||


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Getty Images House Speaker John Boehner

 Congress is working through the weekend to resolve a standoff that could prompt a government shutdown next week. Here’s a look at what’s happening, and why, ahead of the Monday night deadline to approve new funding for federal agencies.

 Q. What are the next steps in Congress to avoid a government shutdown?

 A. The House voted early Sunday morning to approve a plan to fund federal agencies through Dec. 15, which would also include conditions related to the new federal health law. Those conditions include delay the start of the health law for one year and repeal the law’s tax on medical devices.

 Q. Senate Democrats say they will reject any changes to the health law, and President Barack Obama would veto such a bill. Why did House Speaker John Boehner (R., Ohio) move to delay the law?

 A. Mr. Boehner has a powerful incentive to continue to press his party’s fight against the health law: Conservatives in the House Republican conference are clamoring for a confrontation over it, and they have the votes to make trouble for Mr. Boehner on this and many other fiscal matters. Mr. Boehner does not want to stand down from a fight too soon.

 If the House eventually accepts a spending bill with no major changes to the health law, Republicans will be unlikely to do so until the last minute. It may even be that a short government shutdown will have to take place to satisfy the conservatives’ desire to show they fought as much as they could.

 Moreover, Republicans believe there is some chance that the Senate will agree to repeal the medical device tax, giving the House GOP a victory. Test votes earlier this year in the Senate showed broad, bipartisan support for the repeal. However, the leading Democratic proponent of the repeal –Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota — has said she does not favor tacking it onto the spending bill. Senate leadership aides say they are confident they have the votes to beat the amendment.

 Republicans argue that their new proposal to delay the health care law for a year represents a compromise between their earlier efforts to repeal it entirely and Democrats’ desire to make no changes in it for now.

 Q. What options does the Senate have after the House acts?

 A. Senate is not scheduled to reconvene until Monday afternoon—close to the midnight deadline for passing legislation to avoid a government shutdown. Democratic leaders could call senators into session on Sunday or earlier on Monday, but aides say they have no plans to do so.

 Democrats could receive the bill and then table the amendments to delay the health law and to repeal the medical device tax, which could be achieved with a 51-vote majority.

 Aides do not expect there to be an opportunity for delaying tactics such as a filibuster. But if an opening arises, one lawmaker who has already shown an inclination to use delaying tactics is Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas), who has been trying to strip all money for the health care law from the spending bill.

 Q. What scenarios are there for how this gets resolved?

 A. The window is closing on the opportunities for avoiding a government shutdown. The House and Senate could agree to a compromise between now and Monday night, but it is not clear how that would materialize or how it could be passed quickly—especially through the rule-laden Senate.

 One possibility: Once it becomes clear that the impasse will not be broken by the deadline, the House and Senate could pass a very short-term funding bill—for a week or so—to buy a little more time to reach an agreement. Or, the partial government shutdown could hit, which would then ratchet up pressure on both parties to reach a compromise in the subsequent days.

 More

 Politics Counts: Shutdown Impact? Depends on Where You Live

 What to Expect When You’re Expecting a Shutdown

 Updates in the Budget Battle stream

 Video: Damian Paletta on how the clock is ticking on on a government shutdown.

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  ||||| Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has been the most ardent proponent of President Barack Obama taking a hard line with House Republicans in the latest fiscal crisis engulfing Washington.

 And so far, Reid is getting his way.

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 reset Heckler at House GOP rally Reid: Won't bow to 'anarchists'

 When the president considered sitting down with the four congressional leaders in the White House ahead of the deadline to avert a government shutdown, Reid privately urged Obama to call off the meeting, according to several people familiar with the situation. Reid believed that it would amount to nothing more than a photo-op that would give the false impression that a serious negotiation was occurring, even warning he wouldn’t attend such a session. Obama scrapped it.

 (Government shutdown full coverage)

 As Washington barrels forward to the first government shutdown in 17 years on Tuesday, the wily Reid has taken the lead role in pushing a hardball Democratic legislative strategy that can be summed up like this: Make the Republicans cave.

 “He’s been the rock … and he’s had our whole caucus behind him,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), a close Reid ally who spoke with the majority leader nine times on Saturday afternoon. “Because if we negotiate on a short-term [government funding bill], what are [Republicans] going to do on a long-term bill? What are they going to do on the debt ceiling?”

 So far in this fight, the party’s leadership, senior White House officials and the president have been on the same page. They will not let Republicans gut or delay Obamacare — or concede an inch to the GOP despite the ramifications of a shutdown. For now, even Republicans privately concede House Republicans could suffer much of the political backlash for a looming shutdown.

 (Also on POLITICO: Republicans toss insults at Reid)

 But Reid’s no-compromise stance is not without its own risks. With Washington held in such low regard, politicians of all stripes are certain to incur fury from constituents once government services are suspended, parks are closed and hundreds of thousands of federal workers are furloughed. And Reid now is protecting a fragile Democratic Senate majority, with Republicans just six seats away from returning to power — so any misstep by the Nevada Democrat could hurt vulnerable senators in red states.

 A shutdown appears a near certainty at this point. After the Senate stripped out language to defund Obamacare in a bill to keep the government running until mid-November, the House in a rare Saturday session added in a yearlong delay of major portions of the health care law and a repeal of the law’s 2.3 percent tax on medical-device makers. On Monday afternoon, Reid will reconvene the Senate and quickly move to kill the House’s anti-Obamacare provisions on the votes of just Democratic senators.

 At that point, the ball will be back in Speaker John Boehner’s court: Pass a $986-billion continuing resolution that would continue to fund Obamacare, or send back another plan taking aim at the health law that Republicans collectively hate. If they choose the latter, Democrats plan to vote it down in the Senate. And if the House refuses to pass a clean stopgap measure, a partial government shutdown would occur for the first time since the Clinton era.

 (PHOTOS: 17 times the government has shut down)

 Reid said in an interview Friday there was little point for Obama to engage directly in the fiscal fights. “Not on the debt ceiling and not on the CR,” he told POLITICO. “Maybe on something else — but not these two. We have to fund the government and pay our bills.”

 Reid’s strategy boils down to a few factors: If Democrats give even a few small concessions on a short-term stopgap funding measure, Republicans will demand even bigger concessions to avoid a debt default in mid-October. Since Republicans have been engulfed in an intraparty war over how far to take a shutdown threat, Reid and his top lieutenants are convinced that the political backlash from a shutdown would be devastating to the GOP, potentially costing them their majority in the House.

 (WATCH: Obamacare timeline)

 Republicans on Sunday furiously sought to change that narrative and put the blame squarely on Reid. About 20 House members rallied in front of the Senate steps on Sunday afternoon, accusing Reid of angling for a government shutdown to hurt Republicans politically. They called on the Senate to come back into session Sunday and negotiate with House Republicans.

 (WATCH: Romney: There's a better way to stop Obamacare)

 “The fact that the senators aren’t here and Harry Reid is off somewhere is all the evidence that you need to know that they want to shut down the government,” said Rep. Tim Griffin of Arkansas. “I personally believe that Sen. Reid and the president — for political purposes — want to shut down the government.”

 Whether the party can stick together when the political heat intensifies remains to be seen given that Democrats haven’t always been unified in fiscal fights during Obama’s time in office.

 Reid and top Democrats were infuriated by the White House’s handling of the fiscal cliff fight that led to a New Year’s Eve 2012 deal between Vice President Joe Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. In late 2010, when the White House cut a deal with Senate Republicans to extend Bush-era tax cuts for two years, Democrats were also furious. And in 2011, Democrats feared Obama would cut a grand-bargain deal with Boehner that would slash too deeply into entitlement programs they have vowed to protect.

 Now, the White House and Reid both plan to furiously make the argument that the burden will be squarely on Boehner to pass a temporary stopgap measure to keep the government funded — or risk the wrath from voters tired of political brinksmanship.

 (Obamacare full coverage)

 And Democrats say they will make sure neither they — nor the White House — will bend. Eventually, they believe, Boehner will be forced to acquiesce to Democratic demands to keep the government funded without any anti-Obamacare provisions.

 “I think Harry Reid and the Democratic Senate Caucus have been the group that has been the strongest,” Schumer told POLITICO Sunday.

 John Bresnahan contributed to this report. ||||| The Washington region, home to the largest concentration of federal workers and contractors in the nation, could lose an estimated $200 million a day and could see more than 700,000 jobs take a financial hit if the federal government shuts down Monday night, according to a local economist’s projections.

 And that’s not counting the blow to tourism, one of the region’s economic mainstays, if the Smithsonian museums, the National Zoo, Civil War battlefields and other federally funded attractions are shuttered, said Stephen Fuller, director of George Mason University’s Center for Regional Analysis.

 “This is serious,” Fuller said. “The national economy may not notice a shutdown much unless it lasts three or four weeks. But for the Washington area, this is a tsunami.”

 In addition to the economic impact, area residents could also see cuts in federal services: no new applications for benefits such as Medicare, Social Security and child-care subsidies, no new housing or small-business loans, no new clinical trials for research funded by the National Institutes of Health and a murky prognosis for the safety net for those most in need.

 Child-care centers in federal agencies would close, parents said, and child-care workers, who are not employed by the federal government, likewise would be sent home.

 1 of 50 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Behind the scenes of the shutdown debate View Photos Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill are scrambling before the Oct. 1 deadline. If a spending plan isn’t passed, many federal agencies will close their doors. Caption Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill are scrambling before the Oct. 1 deadline. If a spending plan isn’t passed, many federal agencies will close their doors. Sept. 29, 2013 Cathryn Carroll of the District yells at Republican House members outside the Capitol as they called on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) to summon the Senate back to vote on their budget bill. The United States is bracing for a partial government shutdown after the White House and congressional Democrats declared that they would reject a bill approved by the Republican-led House to delay implementing President Obama's signature health-care law. Cliff Owen/AP Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.

 Mail will continue to be delivered, as the U.S. Postal Service is an independent agency. Amtrak officials have said trains will continue to run.

 And while the District is the only jurisdiction that could have basic services — such as trash pickup and libraries — halted, Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) is attempting to avoid that by declaring every city employee essential, a distinction that could keep them working through a federal shutdown.

 Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D) has been pushing a bill in Congress to exempt the city from a potential shutdown, as it did in 1995, when a federal shutdown had what Norton called a “disastrous” impact on the District.

 “It was horrific,” Norton said. “In a shutdown, the garbage does not get picked up, no matter what, for a week. Then you can declare a health emergency.”

 ‘We’re really bleeding’

 The possible shutdown comes at a time when the region’s economy is weak, said Fuller, the economist. The across-the-board sequestration cuts earlier this year cost the region 26,500 net jobs in August, Fuller said. With furloughs and agencies not filling positions, the $42 billion annual federal payroll is down $2 billion from last year, and federal contracting is down $5 billion.

 “We’re really bleeding,” Fuller said. “A shutdown will have real costs.”

 Fuller, who made his calculations over the weekend thinking that a shutdown would be inevitable, projected that 60 percent of the area’s 377,000 federal workers would be deemed “nonessential” and would stay home.

 View Graphic Countdown to the (possible) shutdown

 Likewise, he projected that the shutdown would affect about 20 percent of the government’s contractors, who receive about $75 billion a year from the federal government. And each person furloughed means less money spent at local businesses or vendors, he said.

 Rep. Gerald E. Connolly (D-Va.) said a shutdown would have a disproportionate effect on the Washington region, where the federal government’s presence accounts for one-third of the economy.

 In 1995 and 1996 — when a political impasse between President Bill Clinton and a Republican-controlled House led by Speaker Newt Gingrich resulted in the shutdown of the federal government for three weeks — several appropriations bills had already passed. This time, not a single appropriations bill has made it through Congress, so a shutdown could affect every federal agency in some way.

 Air traffic controllers are considered essential, so planes will fly. But without “nonessential” support staff, those planes could be delayed. Federal benefits may continue to be processed, but with fewer workers to process them, no new applications would be accepted and “serious backlogs” would be expected.

 Lawmakers passed legislation to continue paying active military members, but veterans’ benefits could run out if a shutdown lasts more than a few weeks, administration officials have said.

 Widespread ripple effects

 “The ripple effects of a shutdown can be devastating,” Connolly said. “A federal pullback may mean the difference for state and local governments on whether they can continue Meals on Wheels or hire an additional police officer or do more emergency preparedness training. All of this stuff is under the radar, but it’s very critical to the health of our communities.”

 Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-Va.) is concerned about how a shutdown could affect the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the CIA, the U.S. Marshals Service and other agencies, many of whose employees live in the area. “Congressman Wolf has been saying for weeks that shutting down the government is not a good idea,” said Daniel Scandling, a spokesman for Wolf.

 The Congressional Research Service, in a recent report, said the 1996 federal government shutdowns shuttered national parks and monuments, stopped the processing of passport applications and the visa applications of foreigners, halted new patient enrollments in clinical trials at the NIH, and delayed work on bankruptcy and delinquent child-support cases.

 In 2011, the federal judiciary estimated that it could operate courts for two weeks after a shutdown but that “serious disruptions” would follow.

 The D.C. region could be hit hard by lost income tax revenue from tens of thousands of idled federal workers: Maryland officials estimate the state would lose $5 million a day. Prince George’s County officials say they could lose $270,000 in income tax revenue daily during a shutdown.

 To stave off such effects, local governments have been setting aside pots of money in anticipation of a shutdown. Montgomery County accounted for a possible $60 million loss in revenue in its current budget. Arlington County set aside $3 million, and Fairfax County has $8 million. Maryland and Virginia officials say they are looking at the possibility of tapping reserve funds. |||||

– Washington is braced for the first government shutdown in 17 years, which will happen at midnight tonight unless lawmakers manage to break the deadlock over funding and hammer out a deal. Here's what to expect from a day of drama in DC: The House has passed legislation to delay ObamaCare for a year and repeal a tax on medical devices, so the measure will return to the Senate this afternoon, just hours before the shutdown is due to kick in. Harry Reid is expected to table the anti-ObamaCare amendments with a simple Democratic majority and quickly send it back to the House—but if any opportunity arises for Senate Republicans to use delaying tactics, expect Ted Cruz to lead the way, the Wall Street Journal predicts. There's a chance of a straight up-or-down vote in the House, but if it becomes clear that it will be impossible to break the deadlock by midnight—which appears to be the likeliest scenario—the partial shutdown could still be averted if lawmakers pass a short-term funding bill to buy another week or so of debating time. So who will blink first? Neither Reid nor John Boehner appears likely to give way. Reid is determined to play hardball and not give an inch on ObamaCare, Politico reports. Reid and his allies believe that giving any concessions now will only lead to bigger concessions to avoid a debt default next month—and they think the backlash from a government shutdown will hit the GOP hardest. Boehner, meanwhile, will face the wrath of his party's conservatives if he gives way too soon—but polls show the public will blame his House Republicans if there is a shutdown. If there is a shutdown, it won't be an abrupt halt to government, but more "like a spending freeze that will gradually spread through the government like ice forming in water," Quartz explains. Federal employees, 800,000 of whom will be sent home without pay, will be the first affected, and the shutdown will also affect scientific research, trade negotiations, and the federal programs that guarantee home loans and provide capital to business. Air traffic controllers will still be at work, however, and agencies that deal with national security and law enforcement are exempt from the shutdown. A shutdown of a few days might not do too much damage, but experts warn that the national economy will take a serious hit if it is prolonged. In Washington, DC, however, even a brief shutdown will cost the district an estimated $200 million a day—and affect basic services like trash collection. "This is serious," the director of George Mason University’s Center for Regional Analysis tells the Washington Post. "The national economy may not notice a shutdown much unless it lasts three or four weeks. But for the Washington area, this is a tsunami."