Write a summary based on this article:

UPDATED: Royalty Exchange has signed a letter of intent to purchase at least 15 percent of an income stream of royalties derived from Eminem’s music, with plans to buy other musical assets and take the company public, according to media reports published Monday morning.

 The Exchange has formed a new company for the endeavor, Royalty Flow, which is expected to file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to raise between $11 million and $50 million via a Regulation A+ crowdfunding effort. The basis of the initial deal will come from brothers Jeff and Mark Bass, who invested in Eminem’s catalog early in his career. They have agreed to sell up to 25 percent of their interest to Royalty Flow, which will buy the stake with money raised an IPO. If the enterprise meets its minimum funding target, it will then file to list list with NASDAQ.

 However, the arrangement has no involvement from the rapper himself. A rep for Eminem sent Variety the following statement: “Eminem is not involved in any deals for the sale of recording royalties and has no connection to this company. The decision to offer the royalty stream for sale or otherwise was made independently by a third party who retains royalties for an early portion of his catalog and Eminem was not consulted.”

 Related Watch Jay-Z Imitate Eminem and Snoop Dogg in Preview for Letterman’s Netflix Show How Def Jam's Nicki Farag Navigated the Boys' Club to Become Head of Promotion

 That being said, the company will allow fans and smaller investors the opportunity to invest directly in Eminem’s business, and could set a model for future endeavors.

 “If you’re a fan and wanna bet on that artist, you’ve got some skin in the game,” Joel Martin, a business partner of the Bass brothers, told Bloomberg. “It takes the average investor and puts them in a position they wouldn’t be in before.” Royalty Flow’s Matt Smith and Jeff Schneider said the company is seeking to raise $11 million to $50 million. The Bass brothers agreed to sell 15 percent of their interest and can receive the first $9.75 million from the stock sale, or $18.8 million if they agree to sell 25 percent. Earnings from the brothers’ Eminem holdings grew 43 percent to $5.07 million last year, Bloomberg said; a press release claims that Eminem’s catalog has sold some 172 million albums worldwide.

 The deal comes in the wake of a wildly optimistic report from Goldman Sachs, which in August predicted that worldwide revenues from streaming will reach a whopping $28 billion in revenue and paid streaming users worldwide will reach 847 million by 2030. By contrast, earlier this year IFPI reported global recorded music revenues of $15.7 billion — of which half are from digital — and 112 million users of paid streaming services worldwide. ||||| Royalty Exchange has formed a new company and signed a letter of intent to buy at least a 15 percent slice of an income stream of royalties derived from Eminem music, with plans to buy other musical assets and take the company public.

 Today (Sept. 25), the new company, Royalty Flow, is expected to file with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to raise between $11 million and $50 million via a Regulation A+ crowdfunding effort. If it's successful in meeting its minimum funding target, it will then list with NASDAQ, provided it meets the exchange’s qualifications.

 Depending on how much money is raised, Royalty Flow will buy either 15 percent or 25 percent of an Eminem income stream based on royalties paid to FBT Productions, the Bass Brothers company that often works with and produces Eminem’s music, from the artist’s studio albums released between 1999 and 2013 via Aftermath Entertainment/Interscope Records. That includes albums like The Marshall Mathers LP and The Eminem Show. The royalties also come from some Eminem tracks on side projects as well.

 According to a press release made available to Billboard in advance of the filing, the Eminem catalog has sold 172 million albums worldwide, while Nielsen Music says 47.4 million of them have been sold in the United States.

 According to Joel Martin, who manages FBT Productions, and Royalty Flow CEO and Royalty Exchange president Jeff Schneider, the plan is to let Eminem fans and investors share in income from royalties for his music through dividends paid by the company, once it is listed on NASDAQ. For its initial offering, minimum investment is $2,250 for 150 shares, which works out to $15 a share.

 A memo on the filing for the SEC stated FBT has been paid $47.2 million since 2011, or an average of $7.9 million a year, although the amounts vary widely: In 2012, the company received $3.7 million; in 2014, $14.5 million. So far in fiscal 2017, FBT has been paid $1.94 million as of March 31, 2017 with the fiscal year ending Sept. 30. In order to meet SEC qualifications, the last four to five years of those royalties have been audited, even though the agency only requires two years of audited numbers for a Regulation A Tier 2 filing.

 The Regulation A+ filing to allow for crowdsourced funding was created by the JumpStart Our Business Start-up (JOBS) Act, signed into law by then-President Barack Obama in 2012.

 While Royalty Flow is using a broker dealer for assistance in meeting the compliance requirements of a Regulation A filing, the offering doesn’t need and will not have an underwriting investment bank.

 Intercope, Emimem’s label, issued a statement on the deal, saying, “Eminem is not involved in any deals for the sale of recording royalties and has no connection to this company. The decision to offer the royalty stream for sale or otherwise was made independently by a third party who retains royalties for an early portion of his catalog and Eminem was not consulted.”

 While the first investment it is making is in master recordings, Royalty Flow will also consider investments in publishing catalogs as well, but expects to remain a passive investor, without control of the assets. The company says it intends to acquire and hold royalties from music catalogs of the world’s biggest music artists. While there are plenty of investment opportunities in music assets, so far not many superstar assets have come up for a partial purchase like this.

 In fact, Royalty Flow may be creating a new business model for other superstar artists, if their approach proves successful. Indeed, the company calls itself one-of-a kind, designed to acquire and hold royalty catalogs of music and other media.

 “Royalty Flow gives investors the opportunity to participate in assets that are uncorrelated with public markets, and directly benefit in the music industry’s growth,” Royalty Exchange CEO and Royalty Flow’s chairman Matt Smith said in a statement. “It also gives artists, producers, labels, songwriters, publishers and other rights holders a powerful new financing option with a level of transparency seldom found in the music industry.”

 Depending on how much it raises, Royalty Flow has the option to buy 15 percent of the FBT royalties from Eminem music recordings or 25 percent. Applied against last year, that comes out to between approximately $714,000 and $1.19 million.

 Thanks to a landmark lawsuit in 2012 in which FBT sued the Universal Music Group claiming they were entitled to 50 percent of money received from downloads and streaming because the music was provided to Apple and streaming services through licensing deals, the ruling said digital deals constituted a license, thus FBT gets a 50 percent percentage in perpetuity.

 If the proceeds from the crowdsourced offering are less than $25 million, Royalty Flow will exercise the 15 percent option and pay FBT $9.75 million. If they raise more than $25 million, they will buy 25 percent of the income stream for $18.75 million.

 While Royalty Exchange executives say they will sell up to 80 percent of Royalty Flow, there are two classes of stock and management will likely retain complete control of the company through its sole ownership of class B shares, which will have 10 votes per share, while the class A shares will have one vote per share.

 Beyond the Eminem investments, the company will pay out some of the income it gets as dividends and re-deploy some of the funds to make additional investments. “We hope to buy assets that will appreciate over time and as that occurs, it could increase the value of the stock prices,” says Royalty Flow CEO and Royalty Exchange president Schneider.

 Royalty Flow will be run separately from Royalty Exchange because they are two different business models. Royalty Exchange is an auction platform that allows investors to bid and buy an asset with one winning bid in the end; while Royalty Flow allows for multiple investors to own a piece of the assets.

 Since its inception, Royalty Exchange’s auctions have sold songwriter royalties for music recorded by Rick Ross, Kevin Gates, Dr. Dre, George Clinton, Britney Spears, Kacey Musgraves and the Bee Gees.

 “We believe Royalty Exchange is the new model for music financing,” said FBT manager Martin. “We’ve supported increased transparency for artists our entire career, and Royalty Exchange is no different. They give investors simple, direct access to royalty opportunities that previously were available only to industry insiders. This changes everything.”

 Martin chose to use the Royalty Flow model because FBT didn’t want to sell their copyrights, just an income stream. “We were approached by many people who wanted to buy our assets, but we are not interested in selling the entire asset,” Martin says. “Now thanks to the Obama JOBS act, you can actually sell an interest in royalty streams.”

 The other difference between the model is the size of assets involved, with Royalty Exchange likely to deal with smaller assets that one investor can afford to buy, while Royalty Flow will buy larger assets.

 Schneider says now is the right time to do this public offering because the music industry appears to be entering a bull market thanks to streaming, similar to the one it experienced when the CD was introduced back in the 1980s and 1990s.

 “We think this one will dwarf what happened with the CD,” Schneider says. But music fans who are investors have no way to participate because the three major companies are themselves not publicly traded, with both Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group part of larger publicly-traded companies, Sony Corp. and Vivendi, respectively, while the Warner Music Group only has publicly-traded bonds.

 Yet, thanks to their participation in buying publishing assets, many institutional investors are familiar with music assets. “Music is an asset class that investors are interested in and understand,” Schneider says.

 This is not the first time the music industry has become involved in securitization. Back in the 1990s, Bowie Bonds were issued against music publishing catalogs from the likes of David Bowie, James Brown, the Isley Brothers and Holland-Dozier-Holland, among others. Also, Continuum, an independent record label that has since gone out of business, was publicly traded.

 During that time, some industry insiders speculated that a publishing catalog would make the perfect vehicle for a stock offering because they have a predictable income stream investors would appreciate. Yet that never occurred. But if the Royalty Flow gambit is successful, will it serve as the catalyst for a new round of experimentation in the securitization of music assets? Time will tell. ||||| Investors will soon be able to purchase shares of Eminem's "My Name Is," "Lose Yourself" and every other song he released from 1999 to 2013 on an exchange much like the stock market, at a minimum of $2,250. The rapper's former production duo, the Funky Bass Team (aka FBT Productions), signed Eminem years before he turned into a superstar, and will auction portions of his future song royalties in October as part of a new company called Royalty Flow. "If you own any Apple stocks, for instance, it's exactly the same," Matthew Smith, head of Royalty Exchange, the Denver company running the auction, tells Rolling Stone. "Not only do you potentially get to earn along with Eminem's catalog, but you also win the ultimate bragging rights to say 'hey, I own that!' anytime you hear one of his songs."

 The Eminem catalog is among the first of what Smith and others expect to be a new way for fans to invest in musicians and songs. With streaming revenues expected to boom over the next few years, the returns could become substantial. Royalty Exchange has already sold shares of Wiz Khalifa's "See You Again," Chris Brown's "Drunk Texting" and the Ariana Grande-Lil Wayne track "Let Me Love You" as part of investment packages, some for as much as $71,000. The portion of "See You Again," made available by a background singer who owned part of the recording rights, generated $11,372 before it went on sale through Royalty Exchange — and Eminem has far more revenue potential.

 "With that big growth, there's an opportunity for investors to participate," Smith says.

 Eminem declined to comment for this story, though one of his reps said he was "not consulted" about the upcoming investment package. "Eminem is not involved in any deals for the sale of recording royalties and has no connection to this company," the rep tells Rolling Stone.

 One music-business expert argues tearing apart an artist's catalog and selling it piecemeal, without involving him, is disrespectful. "It starts to look like human slavery," says Aram Sinnreich, an American University media professor and author of The Piracy Crusade. "For Joe Investor, sure, it's no more or less meaningful than any other kind of commodity traded on exchanges — but we need to think about what kind of commodity we want human expression to be. It's very different than iron ore or rare earths or something like that."

 A rep for Jeff and Mark Bass of FBT Productions, though, responds that publishers and record labels constantly profit off artists' work and Royalty Flow is just another way of doing that. Joel Martin, FBT's manager, says the company considered selling its catalog to a bigger company within the music business but ran into roadblocks. "They wanted to buy the controlling rights," he recalls. "This is way more attractive." Eminem worked with the Bass brothers for years, until, as Jeff Bass said in 2013, "Life just moves on. It's not like [Eminem] said, 'Jump! You’re fired.' It was just, 'I'm gonna go in a different direction.' 'Cool, I wish you the best of luck.'"

 Royalty Flow will file for its initial public offering on Monday; after three weeks, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission will decide whether to approve the filing, and if it does, investors can buy in for 150 shares or more at the minimum $2,250 price. Later this year, those investors will be able to buy and sell shares on a public exchange.

 When it's all over, investors will own either 15 or 25 percent of FBT's Eminem royalties as part of a broader package that could eventually include other artists' songs. "You're going to find a class of artists that will certainly be looking into this," Martin says. "[They'll] find out the real value of their income streams, as opposed to going to [major labels] Sony or EMI and taking a deal that looks good but may not be the best deal." ||||| Jeff Bass, a former producer and songwriting partner with Eminem, recently spoke about how their relationship has changed since their last collaboration on 2009’s Relapse.

 “I still love him and everything and I’m sure he still loves me,” said Bass, who with his brother Mark is collectively known as The Bass Brothers, the production and songwriting duo who worked extensively with Eminem on his first few releases, during an interview with grantland.com. “But we don’t communicate like we used to. He told me he had to experiment with other writers, other producers. It was very fair. All artists probably do that. We could only have our vision of what he should be. Life happened. Life just moves on. It’s not like he said, ‘Jump! You’re fired.’ It was just, ‘I’m gonna go in a different direction.’ ‘Cool, I wish you the best of luck.’ I can guarantee that we could sit down today and write a song, and we could still put something out that the fans would love. And maybe someday that’ll happen.”

 During the interview, Bass also spoke about what he saw in Eminem’s music when they first met, prior to Em’s fame.

 “When Marshall came into the picture, I wasn’t quite sure about his ability because I couldn’t understand what he was saying,” Bass said. “He was triple-timing, spitting rhymes. I was just trying to comprehend him. Then I started writing tracks for him. And it became apparent that he was amazing.”

 Bass also said he and his brother coached Eminem through compositions.

 “In between Infinite [Eminem’s independently released first album] and The Slim Shady EP, we figured out how to communicate with him,” Bass said. “Because he doesn’t come from a musical background. We had to figure out a way emotionally to get through to him. So how I approached it is, any song that had a happy feel we’d call a happy tune. Angry, sad, violent — we’d use adjectives to get through to him. So that he could write the type of lyrics that’d go with the track.”

 Jeff Bass Details Dr. Dre’s Discovery Of Eminem

 During the interview, Bass also speaks about Eminem’s journey to being signed.

 “He was doing the Rap Olympics, and he was winning all over the place,” Bass said. “And then he lost in L.A., but when we were there we had a bunch of The Slim Shady EPs. At that particular show, there was somebody in the audience watching. A young kid, 17 years old, and he saw all the passion that Marshall was putting into his show and his lyrics. And he came up to us after, ‘Can I get a CD?’ Little did we know, he worked in the mail room at Interscope Records. And he loved Eminem. And what he did for us, on his own, is slip the CD in Jimmy Iovine’s listening bag that he used to take home every Friday. And Jimmy actually listened to it, and said ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa. What is this?’ And he called Dre, and then Dre came and listened to it. It’s not like Dre found it on the floor in his garage. The true story was that he was called by Jimmy. And then it all snowballed from there.”

 Bass also talked about Eminem’s emotions during this period.

 “He was really excited, first of all, that Dr. Dre was gonna be involved,” Bass said. “[Dre] was a big star in ’98. He was freaked out. ‘Oh my god, I can’t believe it!’ Me and my brother were excited. ‘Dr. Dre wants to talk to us!’ And Marshall went out to L.A. with my brother first. They got there a week before me. And it started immediately. Meeting Dre, talking with Jimmy, meeting all these people, this whole crazy period. I think it was February of ‘98.”

 Jeff Bass Discusses Eminem’s Marriage With Former Wife Kim

 During the interview, Jeff Bass also spoke about Eminem’s marriage with his former wife Kim and the long-standing friendship he built with the rapper.

 “He’s been with me since ‘95,” Bass said of Eminem. “When he was a young buck. I was with him when Hailie was just born. I knew Kim. She used to come into the studio with us all the time. We used to take Marshall out to the different clubs in Detroit. She would come with us, be her crazy self.”

 Bass was also asked if the couple was dysfunctional.

 “It was always obvious,” Bass said. “He basically lived with us in the studio on 8 Mile road. And you got to know the person. We had to deal with his mother. We had to deal with Kim. We had to deal with uncles and friends trying to be hangers-on. You really get to know a person. And it was amazing. As he would come up with the stories [on the songs], those of us who were close to him working on the project, we knew there was so much truth in what he was saying. That’s pure emotion. That’s realism. And he told it like he was speaking to every kid out there that was going through the same thing. He was their voice. It was quite incredible.”

 In addition to his songwriting and production credits on various Eminem albums, Bass also appeared on various Eminem skits, including “Soap,” “Lounge,” and throughout “Bad Meets Evil,” off The Slim Shady LP.

 RELATED: Eminem “The Marshall Mathers LP 2” Release Date, Cover Art, Tracklisting & Album Stream |||||

– Between 1999 and 2013, Eminem released some of his most famous work, including 1999's The Slim Shady LP, 2000's The Marshall Mathers LP, and 2002's The Eminem Show. Now a new company has formed to nab the royalties income stream from his songs from that period, and fans may eventually be able to fatten their wallets by investing via a rather unusual opportunity. Per Billboard, Royalty Exchange has created a new business called Royalty Flow and inked a letter of intent to buy either a 15% or 25% portion of the performer's income stream (depending on how much money it raises via crowdfunding efforts) and then allow fans and investors to share in income from those royalties via dividends if and when the company becomes listed on NASDAQ—a template that Billboard says may prove to be "new business model for other superstar artists." Variety notes the deal comes via brothers Jeff and Mark Bass of FBT Productions, who invested in Eminem's catalog early and are now said to be estranged from him. Although Royalty Exchange's CEO says in a statement the plan offers "a powerful new financing option with a level of transparency seldom found in the music industry," one industry expert tells Rolling Stone that selling an artist's catalog piece by piece "starts to look like human slavery." Meanwhile, Eminem's statement, via a rep: "Eminem is not involved in any deals for the sale of recording royalties and has no connection to this company. The decision to offer the royalty stream for sale or otherwise was made independently by a third party who retains royalties for an early portion of his catalog and Eminem was not consulted." Billboard dives deeper into the financial and legal complexities of this setup.


Write a summary based on this article:

Sebastian Woodroffe, 41, was believed to be a patient of indigenous healer Olivia Arévalo, 81

 Canadian lynched in Peru after being accused of shaman's death

 A Canadian man was beaten and lynched in the Peruvian Amazon after local people accused him of killing an 81-year-old indigenous healer, a police officer leading the murder investigation told the Guardian.

 Olivia Arévalo, a female shaman with the native Shipibo-Konibo people, was shot twice and died on Thursday near her home in the village of Victoria Gracia in Peru’s central Amazon region of Ucayali.

 Some villagers blamed Arévalo’s murder on a Canadian citizen Sebastian Woodroffe, 41, who lived in the region and was believed to be one of her patients.

 Six farmers shot dead over land rights battle in Peru Read more

 Police found the Canadian’s body buried in a shallow grave about one kilometre (0.6 miles) from Arévalo’s home on Saturday.

 A cameraphone recording of the lynching was released in the local press and on social media. The video shows a bloodied man crying out as he lies in a puddle in front of a wooden home with a thatched roof.

 Two men put a rope or rubber hose around his neck and drag him along the ground until he goes limp and falls silent. A group of people, including children, look on.

 General Jorge Lam, the police officer leading the double murder inquiry, said police were following several lines of investigation.

 “The body had been fully identified (as that of Sebastian Woodroffe) using fingerprints,” he said.

 Ronald Suárez, the highest authority of the 40,000-strong Shipibo-Konibo people, said the men responsible for the lynching had “acted on the spur of the moment and resorted to traditional justice”.

 “But we are a peaceful people who have always lived in harmony with nature,” he insisted.

 “We have little confidence in the police as, so often, crimes against us go unpunished,” said Suárez, who is president of the Shipibo Konibo and Xetebo council.

 Arévalo was a “walking library of our traditional knowledge, the maximum expression of our culture,” he said, describing her death as “very painful”. The Shipibo Konibo people are known for their art and use of psychoactive plant brew Ayahuasca.

 Arévalo’s killing follows the unsolved murders of indigenous activists who repeatedly faced death threats for protecting their ancestral lands.

 Police are also examining a theory a possible motive may have been that Arévalo’s son owed money to the Canadian. There are also unconfirmed reports the killer may have been a gang member looking to collect a debt from Arévalo’s son.

 Woodroffe is believed to have travelled to Peru from his home in Vancouver Island, Canada, to learn how use traditional medicine to treat drug addictions. He used the crowdfunding website Indiegogo to raise more than $2,000 to fund the trip.

 Peru’s human rights Ombudsman’s office has called for an investigation, and tweeted its “empathic rejection of the lynching and murder of the alleged perpetrator of the murder of indigenous leader Olivia Arévalo”.

 “Canada extends its deepest condolences following the reported assassination of Olivia Arévalo Lomas, an indigenous elder and human rights defender of the Shipobo-Konibo people in Peru’s Ucayali region,” a spokesman for Canada’s foreign affairs department, said.

 “We are also aware that a Canadian was killed in a related incident. Consular services are being provided to the family of the Canadian.” ||||| A friend fears that a man allegedly lynched in Peru is his friend of 12 years, Sebastian Woodroffe, whom he describes as a gentle person on a journey to find enlightenment.

 Yarrow Willard said the Comox Valley-area man had travelled to Peru several times to experiment with ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic drink, at rainforest retreats.

 Ayahuasca, a concoction combining an Amazonian vine and dimethyltryptamine (DMT), is not normally associated with violence.

 On Saturday night, Willard learned that Woodroffe is feared dead in Peru, the place he went seeking "deeper meaning."

 Global Affairs Canada has not yet confirmed his identity, though the death of a Canadian has been confirmed. Peruvian authorities released Woodroffe's name.

 The 41-year-old was allegedly lynched by people in the Ucayali region of the Amazon rainforest, who Peruvian authorities say believed that Woodroffe was involved in the shooting death of an 81-year-old traditional healer.

 Olivia Arevalo Lomas of the Shipibo-Conibo ethnic group, an Indigenous healer and rights activist, was fatally shot on Thursday and Peruvian authorities described Woodroffe as her client.

 "We've just been in shock. It's pretty traumatic to hear. It just felt like a scam because there is no way this person [Woodroffe] is capable of that," said Willard.

 Traditional healer and elder Olivia Arevalo Lomas of the Shipibo-Conibo Indigenous people of Peru was shot and killed at her home by an unknown assailant or assailants. (Temple of the Way of Light/YouTube)

 Word of this sent Willard searching for news of his friend. That's when he watched the online video purportedly showing a man being lynched.

 He said he's barely slept since witnessing the sickening attack on a man who seems to moan the word mother, as he is allegedly about to die. It is difficult to identify the attack victim's face, but Willard believes it is Woodroffe.

 Woodroffe grew up in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island.

 In recent years, he worked odd jobs and did some professional diving, living around Courtenay and Cumberland, at times in an RV, said Willard.

 A man who 'tests the boundaries'

 Woodroffe's son often played with Willard's child.

 "He is a little bit of a, I'll call it a shit disturber. One of these people who likes to poke, and likes to test the boundaries of people's beliefs, but is very much a gentle person underneath all that. This man has never had a gun or talked about anything along that line."

 Peruvian news reports suggest that Woodroffe was killed by a group in reprisal for his suspected involvement in the brutal shooting of Arevalo Lomas.

 Her killing has sparked outrage, following other unsolved murders of Indigenous activists who had repeatedly faced death threats related to efforts to keep illegal loggers and oil palm growers off Indigenous peoples' lands.

 A Colombian healer measures a dose of the psychoactive drink ayahuasca in preparation for a healing ceremony. Ayahuasca is traditionally brewed from plants found in the jungles of South America. (Eitan Abramovich/AFP/Getty Images)

 The elder from the Shipbo-Conibo ethnic group died at her home in the Ucayali region of the Peruvian Amazon rainforest.

 Willard can't believe his friend — the attentive father of a nine-year-old boy — could be involved in a murder or any violence.

 "This is not right at all," said Willard.

 Willard said contacts in Peru told him Arevalo Lomas was attracting tourist dollars and could have been a target of many political forces. She advocated for the environment and had recently opened up a lucrative healing centre offering ayahuasca experiences to so-called "gringos."

 Willard fears that his friend, who could be "disruptive" may have become a scapegoat in the complex political environment around this kind of tourism.

 "He was a big personality," he said.

 Friends say Woodroffe, who first travelled to Peru in 2016 to find natural healing and plant medicines, had become more distant after trying ayahuasca.

 "He had a beautiful spark to him that people respected and loved," Willard said.

 But Willard said he'd come back from experiences in South America "not broken, but troubled."

 Woodroffe's family, who have been contacted by Peruvian and Canadian authorities, declined comment at this time. ||||| LIMA, Peru (AP) — A 41-year-old Canadian who traveled to Peru to study hallucinogenic medicine was killed by a mob in a remote corner of the Amazon rain forest after people blamed him for the slaying of an elderly shaman, authorities said Sunday.

 Peru's attorney general's office said Sebastian Woodroffe was dragged by the neck shortly after the killing of Olivia Arevalo, an octogenarian plant healer from the Shipibo-Konibo tribe of northeastern Peru. Officials backed away from initial reports that Woodroffe was the principal suspect in Arevalo's killing.

 Arevalo and Woodroffe were both killed Thursday in the indigenous community of Victoria Gracia, officials said. But police did not begin to investigate until a cellphone video appeared in local media showing a man purported to be Woodroffe begging for mercy while being dragged between thatch-roofed homes. He was then left motionless on the muddy ground.

 On Saturday, officials dug up Woodroffe's body from an unmarked grave where he had been hastily buried.

 Every year thousands of foreign tourists travel to the Peruvian Amazon to experiment with ayahuasca, a bitter, dark-colored brew made of a mixture of native plants. The hallucinogenic cocktail, also known as yage, has been venerated for centuries by indigenous tribes in Brazil, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia as a cure for all sorts of ailments. But it's also increasingly consumed by Western tourists looking for mind-altering experiences, sometimes with deadly consequences.

 Arevalo was a staunch defender of indigenous people's rights in the region. She also practiced a traditional form of singing medicine that the Shipibo believe removes negative energies from individuals and a group alike.

 She can be heard singing a traditional plant song on the website of the Temple of the Way of Lights, which describes itself as a plant-shamanic healing center in the Peruvian Amazon.

 In 2015, a Canadian fatally stabbed a fellow tourist from England after the two drank ayahuasca together in a spiritual ceremony a few hours' drive from where Woodroffe was killed.

 Woodroffe, from the town of Courtenay on Victoria island in British Columbia, said before going to Peru that he hoped an apprenticeship with a plant healer from the Shipibo tribe would help his goal of changing careers to become an addiction counselor using hallucinogenic medicine.

 "The plant medicine I have the opportunity of learning is far deeper than ingesting a plant and being healed. It is not about getting 'high' either. It is true some of the plants I will be learning about do have a perception-altering effect, but these are a few plants out of thousands I will be working with," he wrote on the Indiegogo crowd-funding website seeking financial help to advance his studies.

 "I am in this for the long haul. This is more than a 'job' to me. I want not only for people to recover ... I want to turn them on to the wonders of existence, and have them leave as a renewed friend and lover of this thing we call life," he added. ||||| Image copyright Facebook/Sebastian Woodroffe Image caption Sebastian Woodroffe went to Peru to learn from indigenous plant healers, a friend said

 Officials in Peru are investigating the lynching of a Canadian man in the remote Amazon region of Peru.

 Police found the body of Sebastian Woodroffe, 41, on Saturday buried near where an indigenous spiritual healer had been killed days previously.

 Investigators say locals suspected Mr Woodroffe of the murder of 81-year-old Olivia Arévalo, who was shot dead on Thursday.

 Officials said they would not rest until both murders had been solved.

 Who was Sebastian Woodroffe?

 Mr Woodroffe was a Canadian citizen from the town of Courtenay on the east coast of Vancouver Island in British Columbia.

 Canadian broadcaster CBC quoted a friend of Mr Woodroffe as saying that the 41-year-old had travelled to Peru on a number of occasions to experiment with ayahuasca, a hallucinogenic drug.

 Yarrow Willard described Mr Woodroffe as a gentle person on a journey to find enlightenment and "deeper meaning".

 According to Canadian news portal Canoe.com, Mr Woodroffe went to the Ucayali region in Peru's rainforest hoping to do an apprenticeship with a plant healer from the Shipibo indigenous group.

 "I feel responsible trying to support this culture and retain some of their treasure in me and my family, and share it with those that wish to learn," Mr Woodroffe wrote on a fundraising site.

 His goal was to change careers to become an addiction counsellor using hallucinogenic medicine.

 A family member's struggle with alcoholism inspired Mr Woodroffe's decision to help "fix the family spirit", he said in a 2013 YouTube video.

 What happened to him?

 Police launched a search for the Canadian after a video emerged on social media showing a man identified by Peruvian prosecutors as Mr Woodroffe lying in a puddle groaning while another man puts a rope around his neck and drags him along.

 A group of locals stands by and watches while the man with the rope around his neck appears to go limp.

 Mr Woodroffe's body was found in a shallow unmarked grave on Saturday.

 Peruvian officials say forensic tests carried out on his body show that he died by strangulation and that he had received several blows across his body.

 Why was he killed?

 Local prosecutor Ricardo Palma Jimenez says officials are still investigating several theories as to why Mr Woodroffe was killed but local media say some villagers blamed him for the killing of Olivia Arévalo.

 Mr Woodroffe had not been named as a suspect in Ms Arévalo's murder but villagers suspected him because he was allegedly one of the spiritual healer's clients.

 "A foreigner can come and kill us, day after day, like dogs or cats, and nothing happens, the state does nothing," one local woman told a Peruvian official on television, according to the Washington Post.

 "We want the communities of the Amazon to know that there is justice," Jimenez told TV Peru in Ucayali. "But not justice by their own hands."

 Who was Olivia Arévalo?

 Image copyright Tom Askew Image caption Olivia Arévalo was a spiritual healer as well as a rights activist

 Ms Arévalo was a member of the indigenous Shipibo-Conibo group, who was known as a spiritual healer and shaman in her local community.

 She was also a vocal advocate for the group's culture and rights.

 She was shot dead outside her home on Thursday. Her killing sparked outrage among the local community who have seen a number of indigenous leaders killed over recent years.

 Image copyright Reuters Image caption Some members of Ms Arévalo's community blamed Mr Woodroffe for her killing

 As a spiritual healer, Ms Arévalo would have had extensive knowledge about ayahuasca, the hallucinogenic drug Mr Woodroffe went to the Amazon to study.

 The Shipibo have been using ayahuasca for centuries as part of their "healing ceremonies".

 What's ayahuasca?

 Ayahuasca is considered one of the strongest psychedelic drugs in the world.

 Read more about ayahuasca:

 Also known as yage, it is a blend of two plants - the ayahuasca vine (Banisteriopsis caapi) and a shrub called chacruna (Psychotria viridis), which contains the hallucinogenic drug dimethyltryptamine (DMT).

 DMT - and therefore ayahuasca - is illegal in the UK, the US and many other countries although some exceptions are made for members of particular churches which use the tea as part of their religious ceremonies.

 It has been used by shamans, or healers, in the Amazon for centuries for medical and spiritual purposes.

 It has become increasingly popular with backpackers who take part in ayahuasca ceremonies in the rainforest.

 A number of deaths has been attributed to the drug, including that of British gap-year student Henry Miller in Colombia in 2014 and that of New Zealander Matthew Dawson-Clarke last year.

 In at least one case, a Briton was stabbed to death during an ayahuasca ceremony when he allegedly attacked a Canadian who was also taking part in the ceremony.

 Read: Briton Unais Gomes killed in Peru 'during shamanic ceremony'

 Are lynchings common in the area?

 Remote areas of the Amazon have a very thin police presence and crimes often go unpunished.

 Communities sometimes bypass the police altogether, choosing to punish those they suspect of committing crimes themselves.

 Local media report that villagers were outraged by the murder of Ms Arévalo, who was an influential figure.

 It is not clear, however, why their anger focussed on the Canadian as other indigenous leaders have in the past been targeted by landowners. |||||

– The death of a Canadian man is making headlines for its location, manner, and the murkiness around it. The body of Sebastian Woodroffe was found in a shallow grave Saturday in the Ucayali region of Peru's Amazon by police who began searching for the 41-year-old after a video was posted to social media that showed him being dragged on the ground with a rope around his neck until his body goes limp. One early theory, according to local media and a police officer who spoke with the Guardian, is that he was killed over the murder of Olivia Arévalo, an octogenarian shaman from the Shipibo-Konibo tribe who was shot dead Thursday. Woodroffe's body was buried a little more than half-a-mile from the site where she was killed, and he was thought to be one of her clients. But while one potential motive being investigated is that Arévalo's son owed Woodroffe money, another theory is that the same son owed money to a gang member who pulled the trigger. And the AP says authorities have "backed away" from reports that Woodroffe is even a suspect. The BBC reports Woodroffe had been in Peru previously to try the hallucinogen ayahuasca, and that he was looking to start a new career involving the use of "plant medicine" in drug addiction treatment. The Guardian cites a years-old Indiegogo campaign that helped fund a trip from his Vancouver Island home to Peru; on the campaign page he referenced a relative's alcohol addiction and wrote, "Traditional Detox Centres have a 5-8% success rate. Unacceptable." The CBC reports Woodroffe, who was apparently also killed Thursday, leaves behind a 9-year-old son.


Article:
Image copyright Tasnim News Agency/Reuters Image caption Vahid Mazloumin (R) was said to have amassed two tonnes of gold coins

 Iran has executed a currency trader known as the "Sultan of Coins" for amassing some two tonnes of gold coins.

 Vahid Mazloumin and another member of his currency trading network received the death penalty for "spreading corruption on earth".

 According to the Iranian Students' News Agency, Mr Mazloumin and associates had hoarded the coins to manipulate prices.

 Rights group Amnesty International described the executions as "horrific" and a violation of international law.

 "Use of the death penalty is appalling under any circumstances," Amnesty said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that under international law "the death penalty is absolutely forbidden for non-lethal crimes, such as financial corruption".

 Amnesty went on to say that the manner in which the trials were "fast-tracked" displayed a "brazen disregard" for due process.

 How did these executions come about?

 Mr Mazloumin was arrested in July for operating as a speculator and accused of hoarding gold coins with the aim of later manipulating prices on the local market.

 In August, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei approved a judicial request to set up special courts to deal with those suspected of financial crimes.

 Since then, these courts have sentenced several people to death in trials often broadcast live on state television.

 The second man executed, who was also convicted of "spreading corruption", was linked to Mr Mazloumin's network and was reportedly involved in the sale of gold coins, according to Mizan, the official website of Iran's judiciary.

 Both men were executed by hanging.

 Why are gold coins in high demand in Iran?

 Demand for gold coins and US dollars in Iran has soared as the country's currency has declined in value.

 In the wake of the latest round of US sanctions on Iran, the rial has fallen about 70% against the US dollar, while gold coins have grown more expensive.

 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Gold coins have increased in value as Iran's currency, the rial, has fallen

 As a result, a cost of living crisis has seen demonstrators take to the streets against perceived corruption.

 The tough US sanctions on Iran target the country's oil and finance sectors. Iran is heavily dependent on its exports of oil, and the renewed sanctions, if effective, would cause yet further damage to the economy.

 Tehran has been battling instability in its financial markets since April, when the government attempted to stabilise currency prices by introducing a single official dollar exchange rate. ||||| Just a day earlier, traders said, about 130 small-time currency and gold dealers were arrested in downtown and the nearby Grand Bazaar. The rial was trading at 12,900 to the dollar on Wednesday, slightly better than the day before — but down from about 40,000 a year ago. |||||Summary:

– Iran has executed the so-called “Sultan of Coins” for the crime of “spreading corruption on earth.” Per the BBC, Vahid Mazloumin was convicted of hoarding gold coins to manipulate prices. He and another financial trader, Mohammad Esmaeel Qasemi, were hanged after the Iranian Supreme Court upheld the convictions, the Los Angeles Times reports. A third person, who also was convicted, has an appeal pending. According to state media reports, Mazloumin, 58, amassed two tons of gold coins. He was reportedly arrested in July and later tried by a special court recently set up to adjudicate suspected financial crimes. Several other people, often in televised trials, have also been convicted and sentenced to death, according to reports. Earlier this year, financial traders in Iran did “brisk business,” per the Times, as financial mismanagement by the government and renewed US sanctions decimated the Iranian rial and many people traded their cash for dollars or gold. The Iranian government blamed traders for the currency crisis and shortages of basic items, such as medicine and diapers, leading to police raids and the establishment of the special courts for economic crimes. Amnesty International tells the BBC that the resulting executions are “horrific,” saying that international law forbids the death penalty for “non-lethal crimes, such as financial corruption.” (Iran warns of "war situation" amid renewed sanctions.)


Write a summary based on this article:

poster="https://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201705/3949/1155968404_5420376308001_5420366772001-vs.jpg?pubId=1155968404" true Upton, Long reverse themselves and back Obamacare repeal bill GOP leaders are tweaking the bill to lure resistant House members as the White House pushes for a vote as soon as Thursday.

 Two prominent Republican opponents of the House GOP’s Obamacare repeal bill reversed course and backed the measure Wednesday morning, after negotiating a last-minute amendment with President Donald Trump at the White House.

 Reps. Fred Upton of Michigan and Billy Long of Missouri, whose defections this week rattled rank-and-file Republicans, emerged from their session with the president and said an amendment to add $8 billion to help cover people with pre-existing conditions would return them to the "yes" column on the bill.

 Story Continued Below

 Though there were concerns the revised measure might repel conservatives already reluctant to back the GOP plan, early signals suggested most would remain on board.

 "I believe they will find broad support among [House Freedom Caucus] members for their amendment," said caucus Chairman Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) in a statement to POLITICO.

 Some White House officials want a vote on the bill quickly, and House Republican leaders are warning Democrats that the bill might come up for a vote as early as Thursday. Two senior White House officials said they feared members leaving for recess without voting could doom eventual passage, but many in Congress have grown frustrated with the White House's timetables.

 Upton, the former chairman of the House energy and commerce committee and author of several Obamacare repeal bills, had declared Tuesday that the House plan fell short of GOP promises to protect people with preexisting conditions. His opposition threatened to derail delicate last-minute negotiations to pass the legislation, known as the American Health Care Act. Long, a staunch Trump ally, also threatened to scramble the GOP whip count.

 After the White House meeting, Long told reporters at first he resisted pressure from Trump to support the bill.

 “We need you, we need you, we need you,” Long said Trump told him in phone calls on Tuesday. “I said, ‘I’m a no' and I stayed a no. I said, ‘Fred Upton and I have been working on some language, if we can get [it] in there, it can get us both in a position we need to be on pre-existing conditions and make sure those people are covered. Because they need to be covered. Period.’”

 Even as he switched his position, Upton expressed caution, noting that the measure will almost certainly not become law in its current form.

 “This bill will change from where it is today" once the Senate takes it up, Upton said.

 The last-minute talks appeared to pay dividends with some fence-sitting moderates in the House. Shortly after Upton and Long's White House visit, Rep. Mike Coffman (R-Colo.) said in a statement that if House leaders "work to tighten" protections for people with preexisting conditions, he would support the bill. A spokeswoman Rep. Carlos Curbelo (R-Fla.) said the congressman would "review" the amendment to see whether it addressed his concerns with earlier versions of the bill.

 The White House now feels as though they are on the precipice of passage, an administration official said after the announcement. A vote isn’t necessarily vital this week, the official said, but would be “preferable.”

 Early Wednesday, the White House began to lean on House leadership to call a vote on the measure — known as the American Health Care Act — this week.

 "If I were the speaker of the House, and I'm not — and by the way I'm thankful that I'm not, it's a miserable job — I’d probably go to the floor because it’s just that close," said Trump's budget director Mick Mulvaney, during an appearance on "Fox & Friends."

 Similar comments have irked House leaders in the past because they're conducting a delicate whip operation to try to corral hesitant colleagues. And despite Mulvaney's pronouncement, House Speaker Paul Ryan declined to commit to holding a vote when asked Wednesday morning. He said the House leaders were "extremely close" to securing enough support to pass the AHCA.

 But leaders seemed cautiously optimistic they had struck the right balance.

 "I think we have a solution that addresses some of their concerns, gives us the ability to bring more people into the yes column without losing any of our current yes votes," said Majority Whip Steve Scalise on Fox News on Wednesday morning.

 GOP leaders can only afford to lose 22 votes and still pass the bill. Already about 20 lawmakers, mostly moderates concerned about the bill's impact on constituents, have said publicly they will vote "no." Even more have said they're undecided and have yet to make up their minds.

 Trump is pouring a lot of political capital into the latest effort to pass the bill. The president made at least a dozen phone calls seeking support for the bill Tuesday.

 The White House is hoping changes to the bill will win over wary moderates, and they're crossing their fingers that Trump can secure an endorsement from those opponents after his meeting with lawmakers Wednesday.

 Jennifer Haberkorn, Burgess Everett and Matthew Nussbaum contributed to this report. ||||| Rep. Upton: Health bill 'likely now to pass' in the House 6:23 PM ET Wed, 3 May 2017 | 01:12

 The Republican effort to replace Obamacare got a much-needed boost Wednesday when two congressmen agreed after meeting with President Donald Trump to drop their opposition to the GOP bill and vote for it.

 Reps. Billy Long and Fred Upton said they are now "yes" votes on the bill because of the addition of an amendment that will add $8 billion in federal funding to reduce insurance costs for people with pre-existing health conditions.

 "I think it [the bill] is likely now to pass in the House," Upton told reporters at the White House after meeting with Trump.

 Long, R-Mo., and Upton, R-Mich., earlier this week said they would oppose the bill because it could harm people with pre-existing conditions by allowing states to win waivers for insurers who wanted to charge such customers higher premiums under certain conditions.

 Bloomberg reported that a White House official said the GOP is still two or three votes away from being able to ensure the bill would pass the House.

 Republican leaders have said they won't call for a vote until they know it will pass.

 Leslie Dach, director of the Obamacare-supporting group Protect Our Care Campaign, said the amendment that swayed Upton and Long is "nothing more than a bailout for House Republicans as their latest desperate attempts to repeal health care continue to face strong public opposition."

 "This possible amendment doesn't change the underlying truth of the Republican health-care repeal — it guts protections for people with pre-existing conditions. The GOP plan requires people with pre-existing conditions to get special insurance that costs more and covers less," Dach said.

 "Now they think they can fix it by handing $62 per person to the estimated 129 million people with pre-existing conditions in this country? It isn't a solution, it's an insult," he said. "The health-care repeal will cut coverage from millions, raise your premiums and eliminate your protections, and nothing they are proposing changes those facts."

 A Politico/Morning Consult poll released Wednesday found that 50 percent of Americans oppose allowing states to opt out of requiring that insurers cover pre-existing conditions. Another 38 percent support the idea of that.

 And nearly 60 percent of poll respondents said that Congress should wait for the Congressional Budget Office to analyze the revised bill before voting on it. A CBO study of a past version of the bill found that it would lead to 24 million more people becoming uninsured over the next decade, and sharp premium hikes over the next two years for individual health plans.

 Watch: Health care breakout? |||||

– Two Republican representatives who announced earlier this week they wouldn't support the GOP bill to repeal and replace ObamaCare have done a 180, giving new hope to the American Health Care Act, the Hill reports. Fred Upton of Michigan and Billy Long of Missouri switched to "yes" votes after meeting with President Trump on Wednesday and successfully adding an amendment to the AHCA. According to Politico, the amendment puts $8 billion in federal funding toward helping people with pre-existing conditions get insurance. "They need to be covered. Period," Long says he told Trump. Upton says he thinks the AHCA now has enough votes to pass the House. With the addition of Upton's amendment, at least two other Republican representatives say they'll consider voting for the bill. There was some concern Upton's amendment would scare off the more conservative members of the House, but that doesn't appear to have been the case. Upton says a House vote on the AHCA is possible as soon as Thursday. CNBC reports one ObamaCare advocate says Upton's amendment won't actually do anything to help people with pre-existing conditions afford the increased cost of insurance under the AHCA; it amounts to an extra $62 for each American with a pre-existing condition.


PHOENIX (AP) — Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump criticized U.S. immigration and trade policies on Saturday in speeches that veered from accusing Mexico of deliberately sending criminals across the border to professing respect for the Mexican government and love for its people.

 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump waves to the crowd as he arrives to speak at a rally before a crowd of 3,500 Saturday, July 11, 2015, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin) (Associated Press)

 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at FreedomFest, Saturday, July 11, 2015, in Las Vegas. Trump said his comments about immigration have become a movement and has pointed to violence... (Associated Press)

 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump waves to supporters as he arrives speaks before a crowd of 3,500 Saturday, July 11, 2015, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin) (Associated Press)

 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump shakes hands prior to speaking at a rally before a crowd of 3,500 Saturday, July 11, 2015, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin) (Associated Press)

 Speaking to a gathering of Libertarians in Las Vegas before headlining an event in Phoenix, Trump repeated his charge that Mexico was sending violent offenders to the U.S. to harm Americans and that U.S. officials were being "dumb" in dealing with immigrants in the country illegally.

 "These people wreak havoc on our population," he told a few thousand people attending the Libertarian gathering FreedomFest inside a Planet Hollywood ballroom on the Las Vegas Strip.

 In the 4,200-capacity Phoenix convention center packed with flag-waving supporters, Trump took a different view — for a moment — and said: "I love the Mexican people. I love 'em. Many, many people from Mexico are legal. They came in the old-fashioned way. Legally."

 He quickly returned to the sharp tone that has brought him scorn as well as praise. "I respect Mexico greatly as a country. But the problem we have is their leaders are much sharper than ours, and they're killing us at the border and they're killing us on trade."

 His speeches in both venues were long on insults aimed at critics and short on solutions to the problems he cited. When he called for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, the audience in Las Vegas groaned.

 In a break from the immigration rhetoric that has garnered him condemnation and praise, Trump asserted that he would have more positive results in dealing with China and Russia if he were president and said he could be pals with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

 Asked by an audience member in Las Vegas about U.S.-Russia relations, Trump said the problem is that Putin doesn't respect Obama.

 "I think we would get along very, very well," he said.

 Trump has turned to victims of crime to bolster his argument that immigrants in the U.S. illegally have killed and raped. In Las Vegas and Phoenix, he brought on stage Jamiel Shaw Sr., a Southern California man whose 17-year-old son was shot and killed in 2008 by a man in the country illegally. Shaw vividly described how his son was shot — in the head, stomach and hands while trying to block his face — and how he heard the gunshots as he talked to his son on the phone.

 Shaw said he trusted Trump, and encouraged the crowds in both cities to do the same.

 Trump's speeches were filled with tangents and insults leveled at business partners such as Univision and NBC that have dropped him in the wake of his comments that Mexican immigrants bring drugs and crime to the U.S. and are rapists. He also directed familiar barbs at other presidential contenders, including Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton ("the worst secretary of state in the history of the country"), news media figures ("lyin' Brian Williams") and President Barack Obama ("such a divisive person"). He called journalists "terrible people."

 As Trump lambasted Univision for cancelling its broadcast of the Miss USA pageant, one of his many business enterprises, a group of young Latinos unfurled a banner pointed toward the stage and began chanting insults. They were quickly drowned out by the crowd, and nearby Trump supporters began to grab at them, tearing at the banner and pulling and pushing at the protesters. Security staff managed to get to the group and escorted them out as Trump resumed speaking.

 "I wonder if the Mexican government sent them over here," he said. "I think so."

 Arizona's tough-on-immigration Sheriff Joe Arpaio introduced Trump in Phoenix after outlining the things he and the candidate have in common, including skepticism that Obama was born in the United States. He went on to criticize the federal government for what he called a revolving door for immigrants, saying many of them end up in his jails.

 "He's been getting a lot of heat, but you know, there's a silent majority out here," Arpaio said, borrowing from a phrase Richard Nixon popularized during his presidency in a speech about the Vietnam War.

 A single protester standing outside the room where Trump spoke in Las Vegas was more concerned about the businessman being tied to the Libertarian Party.

 "I've been a Libertarian for 43 years and Trump ain't no Libertarian," said Linda Rawles, who asserted that including Trump in FreedomFest set back the party's movement.

 ___

 Pierceall reported from Las Vegas. ||||| Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, whose caustic comments about Mexicans have inflamed the immigration debate, told thousands of cheering supporters here Saturday that “we have to take back the heart of our country.”

 In a rambling, defiant speech delivered in this border state that has been the epicenter of the nation’s divisive battle over immigration reform, Trump declared: “These are people that shouldn’t be in our country. They flow in like water.” One man in the crowd of 4,200 shouted back, “Build a wall!”

 Basking in polls that show he has risen to the top of the crowded Republican field, Trump took obvious glee in mocking former Florida governor Jeb Bush, the establishment favorite who is setting fundraising records.

 “Jeb Bush, let’s say he’s president — Oy, yoy, yoy,” Trump said. He asked the crowd: “How can I be tied with this guy? He’s terrible. Terrible. He’s weak on immigration.”

 Trump’s 70-minute address here, which sounded more like a stream-of-consciousness rant than a presidential-style stump speech, put an exclamation point on his bombastic push since his presidential announcement last month to return immigration to the forefront of the national conversation.

 Republican Presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses supporters during a political rally in Phoenix on Saturday. (Charlie Leight/Getty Images)

 Bush and illegal immigrants were not the only targets of Trump’s scorn: He also criticized Macy’s, NBC, NASCAR, U.S. ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton and, several times, the media.

 Republican leaders say they believe the celebrity billionaire has virtually no chance of being their nominee, much less of making it to the White House. And, for now at least, his following seems limited to the far right as opposed to the party’s mainstream.

 Yet Trump has reignited a heated debate over an issue, immigration, that the GOP had been determined to settle after it hurt Republicans in the most recent presidential election.

 Party leaders increasingly fear that Trump could do damage to more viable candidates, such as Bush, who could lose their own footing on immigration. These candidates confront a familiar challenge: During the primary season, they must deal with the anger and anxiety that many on the right feel about illegal immigration. But they must do it in a way that will not damage their appeal to a broader electorate in November 2016.

 Republicans are handling Trump delicately for another reason as well: They fear that he could leave the GOP entirely and wage a well-funded third-party campaign, a possibility that Trump has not ruled out.

 [GOP leaders fear damage to party’s image as Donald Trump doubles down]

 After Trump repeatedly referred to illegal immigrants in the harshest of terms — calling them, among other things, killers and rapists — Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus called Trump and asked him to tone things down. But that, if anything, has reinvigorated Trump and his vocal supporters.

 1 of 9 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Cutting ties with Trump: Who has dumped him and why View Photos The Republican presidential hopeful has faced an avalanche of criticism over his characterization of illegal immigrants as “rapists,” drug dealers and other criminals. Caption The GOP presidential hopeful has faced an avalanche of criticism over his characterization of illegal immigrants. José Andrés, chef Chef José Andrés has backed out of a deal with Trump, saying in a statement, “Donald Trump’s recent statements disparaging immigrants make it impossible for my company and I to move forward with opening a successful Spanish restaurant in Trump International’s upcoming hotel in Washington, D.C.” Sarah L. Voisin/The Washington Post Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.

 The crowd in Phoenix began lining up outside the convention center before dawn, with many spending hours in temperatures that exceeded 100 degrees. Hundreds of people, who stood in lines snaking down several downtown blocks, did not make it into the ballroom for his speech.

 Many of Trump’s supporters blame illegal immigrants for crime and economic problems but also express dismay over cultural changes.

 “We don’t recognize our country anymore,” said Jan Drake, 72, who lives in a retirement community outside Phoenix. “If you’re coming into our country, you have got to conform to what we stand for. You speak English. You don’t try to change our country to what your country was.”

 After watching Trump on television the past couple of weeks, Drake said that she has become convinced that “he would be a very strong president. He doesn’t kowtow to anybody. The Republican Party will try to squeeze him out because they’re afraid of him. But he can tell them where to go — to pound sand.”

 After he walked onto a catwalk stage here like a rock star, Trump basked in his crowd. “The word is getting out that we have to stop illegal immigration,” he said.

 While Trump was railing against Spanish-language broadcaster Univision, a handful of protesters in the crowd interrupted. Trump’s security guards arrived to break up the skirmish that followed. His supporters screamed “USA! USA! USA!” in the protesters’ faces as the guards escorted them out of the convention hall.

 “I wonder if the Mexican government sent them over here,” Trump said from the stage. He assured the crowd, “Don’t worry, we’ll take our country back.”

 Trump also had harsh words for Islamic State terrorists. If he becomes president, Trump said, “They will be in such trouble . . . ISIS, believe me, I would take them out so fast. You have to do it.”

 But it was his crusade against illegal immigrants that had Trump’s crowd most enthused. After expressing shock that his immigration message has resonated so strongly with the GOP base, Trump said, “The silent majority is back, and we’re going to take the country back.” He walked off the stage to Twisted Sister’s “We’re Not Gonna Take It.”

 Earlier, as his plush Boeing 757 headed from an appearance in Las Vegas to Phoenix, Trump sat in a leather chair, surrounded by binders of articles about him and sipping a Coca-Cola — the full-calorie kind, he noted, because, “Have you ever seen a thin person drinking Diet Coke?”

 “Something is happening in America. You may not want to see it, but something big is happening. People are sick and tired of politicians, and I’m here for them,” he said in an interview. “I’m ready to go right at the Mexican government. I’m going to charge them $25,000 per illegal immigrant and, oh, I’ll make them pay.”

 (In his Phoenix speech, Trump put the figure at $100,000.)

 “Would Bush do that? Would Rubio? I don’t think so,” Trump added, taking aim at two of his more mainstream rivals, Bush and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.).

 Polls consistently show that a majority of Americans, including most Republicans, support an overhaul of the law to give millions of undocumented immigrants a means of staying in this country legally. But a passionate fraction of the Republican electorate believe otherwise.

 Lou Brudnock, 71, said he is attracted to Trump’s brash “truthfulness” on immigration and his willingness to be politically incorrect.

 “This country today is sad, sad, sad,” Brudnock said. “You can’t say anything or they call you ‘a racist.’ It’s like we’re back in Nazi Germany. But look around, man. It’s people here reading and listening to his message.”

 Trump, by virtue of his celebrity, has provoked a backlash far more widespread than ever seen toward lesser-known immigration hard-liners, such as former Colorado congressman Tom Tancredo (R). That means he could leave lasting damage to the GOP and whoever turns out to be its 2016 standard-bearer.

 All of those cross-pressures were in play Saturday at Trump’s appearances here and in Las Vegas. More mainstream Republicans had anticipated the spectacle and made no secret of their concern.

 “I had hoped that we had moved on from some of the coarse rhetoric,” said Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.). “When there’s so many candidates, you can appeal to a very small segment of the population and get news and get elevated.” Flake is a leading proponent of a comprehensive immigration measure that would include a path to citizenship for those who are in the country illegally.

 Arizona has been a hotbed of anti-immigration sentiment, having passed a 2010 law that requires law enforcement officials to check the immigration status of people they detain and suspect are in the country illegally.

 Maricopa County, Ariz., Sheriff Joe Arpaio — who in some ways is the face of that law, having been the subject of racial-profiling lawsuits — helped warm up the crowd before Trump’s arrival.

 “I know that Donald Trump is speaking out,” Arpaio said. “He’s getting a lot of heat. But, you know, there’s a silent majority out here.”

 “We’re not silent anymore!” a man in the crowd shouted.

 Arpaio brought up the mostly dormant questioning of President Obama’s birth certificate. He and Trump are perhaps the most vocal of the “birthers,” who falsely contend that Obama was not born in the United States.

 Immigration also has gained new attention after the June 30 shooting death of a woman along San Francisco’s heavily touristed waterfront, allegedly by an illegal immigrant who had been deported five times from the United States.

 Trump — along with much of the rest of the Republican field — has criticized the policies of “sanctuary cities,” where officials cannot detain those they suspect of being in the country illegally unless they have other grounds to do so.

 Republican strategists say that it is possible to address anxiety over illegal immigration within the GOP base without alienating the electorate at large. Advisers to Bush and Rubio, for instance, say that their candidates can play a long game on the issue, continuing to make a case for comprehensive changes to the law, while waiting for the Trump boomlet to subside.

 “You can give a fuller picture of those types of people who are coming to America who are not documented, who are not legal,” said Peter Wehner, who was a top official in George W. Bush’s White House. “And you can speak about them in a humane and decent and true way.”

 Karen Tumulty in Washington contributed to this report. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– As Donald Trump continues to trade volleys with Latinos, he took his unrepentant show to Phoenix last night, where he told an enthusiastic crowd that waited hours in 100-degree temps that "we have to take back the heart of our country" and that he was "ready to go right at the Mexican government. I’m going to charge them $25,000 per illegal immigrant and, oh, I’ll make them pay." Trump used the 70-minute speech, which the Washington Post characterizes as more a "stream-of-consciousness rant than a presidential-style stump speech," which "put an exclamation point on his bombastic push" to focus on immigration. "These are people that shouldn’t be in our country," Trump told the crowd of between 3,500 and 4,200. "They flow in like water." He also took the opportunity to further hammer away at GOP golden boy Jeb Bush, saying, "let's say he's president—oy, yoy, yoy. How can I be tied with this guy? He's terrible. Terrible. He's weak on immigration." Bush wasn't Trump's only whipping boy: Also attracting the candidate's scorn, per the Post, were "Macy’s, NBC, NASCAR, Caroline Kennedy, Hillary Rodham Clinton and, several times, the media." (The candidate avoided attracting Neil Young's wrath again and left the stage to "We're Not Gonna Take It" by Twisted Sister.) Trump spoke earlier in the day to a Libertarian crowd in Las Vegas, notes the AP, striking a slightly more nuanced tone: "I love the Mexican people. I respect Mexico greatly as a country. But the problem we have is their leaders are much sharper than ours, and they're killing us at the border and they're killing us on trade." (Even as Trump spoke, Mexico was having a little trouble keeping a notorious drug lord on lockdown.)


– Thousands of students, from university down to elementary-school level, are rallying today across the US to protest the ever-more-dismal state of education funding. California demonstrators, who also included faculty and parents, have been most visible, and mainly peaceful, though a car windshield was smashed during the gathering at the University of California-Santa Cruz, authorities tell the San Francisco Chronicle, and punches were thrown at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the AP adds. Students from UC-Davis tried to march from that campus to the state capitol in Sacramento, 15 miles away, using Interstate 80, but were turned away by police using pepper spray. At the Cal State-Dominguez Hills campus, protestors played a mock Wheel of Fortune game, where spins could yield “graduating in 4 years with a good education” and “a 30% fee increase,” the Los Angeles Times adds.

Expand this summary.

Students staged raucous rallies on nationwide college campuses Thursday in protests against deep education cuts that turned violent as demonstrators threw punches and ice chunks in Wisconsin and blocked university gates and smashed car windows in California.

 Students block Sather Gate on the University of California at Berkeley campus Thursday, March 4, 2010, in Berkeley, Calif. Demonstrations, marches, teach-ins and walkouts are planned nationwide Thursday... (Associated Press)

 Demonstrators march past Royce Hall on the campus at UCLA in Los Angeles Thursday, March 4, 2010. Students, teachers, parents and others rallied throughout California and many other states to protest... (Associated Press)

 Demonstrators attend a rally on the campus at UCLA in Los Angeles Thursday, March 4, 2010. Students, teachers, parents and others rallied throughout California and many other states to protest deep cuts... (Associated Press)

 University of California, Berkeley, students Griffin Cassara, 19, left, and Katherine Cole, 18, walk past the state Capitol after a participating in a ralley against funding cut to higher education in... (Associated Press)

 Student protestors march on the University of California at Berkeley campus Thursday, March 4, 2010, in Berkeley, Calif. Demonstrations, marches, teach-ins and walkouts are planned nationwide Thursday... (Associated Press)

 At least 15 protesters were arrested by University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee police after as many as 150 students gathered at the student union then moved to an administrative building to deliver petitions to the school chancellor.

 A woman who was allowed to go inside encouraged protesters to rush the building after she emerged, university spokesman Tom Luljak said.

 No serious injuries were reported in the melee that followed.

 "We have no problem with a protest," Luljak said. "We do have a serious problem when individuals decide to become violent."

 Kas Schwerdtfeger, a national organizer for Milwaukee Students for a Democratic Society, said demonstrators were peaceful but persistent in approaching the hall.

 "What we did was try to assert ourselves peacefully and nonviolently," Schwerdtfeger said. "Police started pushing, shoving, using mace on somewhere around 20 to 25 people."

 The school was among dozens of nationwide campuses hit with marches, strikes, teach-ins and walkouts in what was billed as the March 4th National Day of Action for Public Education.

 Organizers said hundreds of thousands of students, teachers and parents were expected to participate in the nationwide demonstrations.

 The steep economic downturn has forced states to slash funding to K-12 schools, community colleges and universities to cope with plummeting tax revenue.

 Experts said schools and colleges could face more severe financial trouble over the next few years as they drain federal stimulus money that temporarily prevented widespread layoffs and classroom cuts.

 Some university officials said they supported the protests as long as they remained peaceful.

 "My heart and my support are with everybody and anybody who wants to stand up for public education," University of California President Mark Yudof said in a statement. "Public education drives a society's ability to progress and to prosper."

 In Wisconsin, more than 25,000 students have been put on a waiting list after the state's premier financial aid program ran out of money because of increased demand.

 At the University of Illinois, about 200 professors, instructors and graduate faculty marched through campus carrying signs that read "Furlough Legislators" _ a reference to recent furloughs and 4 percent pay cuts imposed on thousands of university employees.

 The state is $487 million behind on payments to the University of Illinois. State government has a budget deficit of $13 billion.

 In Olympia, Wash., a group of about 75 protesters arrived at the Capitol bearing a faux coffin emblazoned with the slogan "R.I.P. Education."

 They were later ejected from the state Senate gallery after interrupting a debate with a protest song that followed the tune of "Amazing Grace."

 "I once could eat, but now I find, I can't afford the food," they sang.

 Several Democratic senators applauded the performance, as security guards escorted the protesters from the building.

 In Northern California, rowdy protesters blocked major gates at two universities and smashed the windows of a car.

 Protesters at the University of California, Santa Cruz surrounded the car while its uninjured driver was inside. Earlier, demonstrators blocked campus gates.

 University provost David Kliger said there were reports of protesters carrying clubs and knives, but Santa Cruz police Capt. Steve Clark could not confirm those reports. No arrests had been made.

 An advisory posted on the school Web site urged people to avoid the campus because of safety concerns.

 At the University of California, Berkeley, a small group of protesters formed a human chain blocking a main gate to the campus. Later in the day, hundreds gathered for a peaceful rally.

 "We're one of the largest economies in the world, and we can't fund the basics," said Mike Scullin, 29, a graduate student in education who plans to become a high school teacher. "We're throwing away a generation of students by defunding education."

 At the University of Texas at Austin, about 100 students and staff rallied on campus to protest a 5.4 percent hike in tuition and fees approved by regents a day earlier. Protesters complained the quality of education was taking a backseat to the university's bottom line.

 Officials said the tuition hikes, which include another 3.89 percent jump for the fall of 2011, were necessary to avoid cuts in the face of declining endowment payouts and an anticipated cut in state aid.

 In Alabama, Broderick Thomas, a 23-year-old Auburn senior, attended an annual higher education rally in Montgomery and said he feels "it's the moral duty of the state to give back what they promised."

 However, the chairman of the state Senate education budget committee, Sen. Hank Sanders, D-Selma, curbed the enthusiasm, saying it would be hard to find additional funds for higher education this year.

 "I wish we could give all the money higher education needs," Sanders said, as some in the crowd groaned. "We're having to cut up to $460 million out of the budget the governor recommended."

 Students, teachers, parents and school employees from across California gathered in Sacramento for a midday rally at the Capitol to urge lawmakers to restore funding to public schools.

 Linda Wall, a state Department of Mental Health employee, said she had two children attending Sacramento State University. Hikes in student fees and mandatory furloughs for state workers have strained her budget.

 "Their tuition has taken a big chunk of my paycheck and my paycheck is shrinking, so it's a double whammy," Wall said.

 ___

 Associated Press Writers Marcus Wohlsen in San Francisco, Robin Hindery in Sacramento, Calif., David Mercer in Urbana, Ill., April Castro in Austin, Texas, Bob Johnson in Montgomery, Ala., Curt Woodward in Olympia, Wash., and Dinesh Ramde in Milwaukee contributed to this report. ||||| A national day of protests against education funding cuts began Thursday with generally peaceful rallies, walkouts and teach-ins at universities and high schools. But an incident in which demonstrators smashed the windshield of a car trying to enter UC Santa Cruz brought a warning against any other violence.

 At Cal State Dominguez Hills in the Carson area, about 50 students gathered in front of the student union with some shouting "Give My Education Back!" and carrying signs that proclaimed: "From Pre-K to Ph.D., Let Me Go to School." They played a mock “Wheel of Fortune” game with stops that included "graduating in four years with a good education" and "getting a 30% fee increase."

 One of the organizers, Kevin Orantes, 23, a junior majoring in public administration and communications, said he became involved because he was upset about the effects of budget cuts on access to education and wanted to leave a better legacy for his own children. "Today’s generation is reaping the benefits of sacrifice that generations before had to accomplish, like civil rights and women’s rights," Orantes said. "If we don’t do anything for the next generation, it will all be in vain." ||||| (03-05) 12:12 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- Gathering for a series of feisty rallies on college campuses, in civic plazas and in the streets, thousands of protesters lashed out Thursday against the budget cuts and neglect that they say are breaking down the state's public education system.

 The historic day of demonstrations in the Bay Area and beyond was largely peaceful, with students and others carrying signs like "Chop from the top," a reference to what they see as puffed-up executive salaries. They chanted, recited poetry and shared personal stories.

 But amid an often festive atmosphere, there were also efforts to make more forceful statements during the protests, called the Day of Action to Defend Public Education.

 More than 150 protesters were arrested on Interstate 880 in Oakland after using an exit ramp to walk onto the freeway and shut it down for nearly an hour. Many wore black, identified themselves as anarchists and carried a banner that read, "Occupy everything."

 The action just before 5 p.m., which backed up rush-hour traffic for miles, came after a peaceful rally at Oakland City Hall. Police in riot gear chased and tackled some demonstrators. One was taken away in an ambulance after falling from the freeway onto a road below, witnesses said. Police said the man was expected to survive.

 Schools of all kinds

 The I-880 closure came near the end of a day that saw protests organized by students, labor unions, activist groups and others on campuses of all kinds, from elementary schools to UC Berkeley. They ripped state officials, who have cut millions of dollars from education budgets at all levels during the recession.

 Hundreds rallied at the state Capitol in Sacramento, where speeches included calls to lower the two-thirds requirement in the Legislature to pass a state budget and to tax oil production and tobacco to fund higher education.

 Some students at Oceana High School in Pacifica formed an "SOS" on a beach, while in San Francisco more than 50 Commodore Sloat Elementary fifth-graders boarded a Muni bus to the State Building. Each wore a handmade sandwich board sign protesting budget cuts to schools.

 Students also rallied in Texas - where a day earlier regents had approved a tuition hike at state universities - as well as in Illinois and Alabama.

 Many elected officials, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, responded with statements of support for the protesters. A spokesman for Schwarzenegger said he wanted a constitutional amendment guaranteeing that higher education received more funding than the state's prison system.

 Many of the day's protesters, including Jennie Lew, said the issue was personal. Wearing a "Pissed-off parent" T-shirt at San Francisco State University, the mother of three college students - one at San Francisco State, another at UC Riverside and a third at De Anza College in Cupertino - said she and her husband were struggling to keep up with rising tuition.

 Seeking return on dollar

 The couple are graduates of UC Berkeley and were educated on federal aid and scholarships, Lew said, becoming members of what she described as the "educated middle class." Now, she said, her sons' graduation dates have been delayed because classes have been trimmed and teachers laid off.

 "I'm not getting what I'm paying for," Lew said. "My husband and I were educated by the system, and now we're able to provide for our sons - just as it is supposed to work in society. But they may be the first generation who can't afford their education, much less receive it."

 California's $20 billion budget gap this year, on top of $60 billion last year, has resulted in soaring tuition at the University of California and California State University. Courses are jammed, and many students can't get in at all. Lecturers have been laid off and employees furloughed. CSU wouldn't let new students enroll at all this semester.

 Students turned away |||||


News article:

As Detroit’s water provider continues to carry out its plan to turn off the taps for tens of thousands of nonpaying customers across the city, activists are resorting to civil disobedience in an attempt to stop what they call a human rights violation.

 Some 50 demonstrators on Thursday held a protest outside the offices of Homrich, a company contracted by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department (DWSD) to stop the flow to residences at least two months past due on their accounts. At least nine of the activists were arrested by Detroit police and charged with disorderly conduct when they temporarily blocked trucks from leaving the company’s parking lot. They were released on bail hours later.

 While the protest was relatively small, activists say it’s a sign of things to come if DWSD continues shutting off water lines. The activists say that in a city with a poverty rate of 44 percent, and where water bills are higher than in much of the country, Detroit should work out a solution with poor residents instead of leaving them dry. Otherwise, they say, they’ll have no other choice but to take to the streets.

 “I warned the water department that if they did not immediately stop the shutoffs, these things will take place,” said Demeeko Williams, an activist with the Detroit Water Brigade. “People are mad. This is the first resistance, and there will be more.”

 Critics say that DWSD has been unnecessarily aggressive in pursuing delinquent accounts since it began ramping up shutoffs in April. Williams said the department has shut off accounts of families with young children, as well as houses with the disabled and elderly residents.

 The water department says it needs to shut off the water to recoup some $175 million in outstanding bills. But DWSD has also been accused of ignoring the debts of large entities — like a golf course that owes $437,000 and the state of Michigan itself, which owes $70,000 — while going after people who owe as little as $150 on their accounts.

 DWSD says there are sufficient payment plans and assistance programs in place to help those who fall behind on their bills.

 But nearly 50 percent of DWSD’s accounts are behind on payments, according to the department, and Detroit’s already-high water prices are on the rise, now averaging $75 a household — almost double the national average.

 Activists say those high numbers give residents no choice but to protest.

 Last month, Detroit activists successfully petitioned a U.N. panel to call the water shutoffs a violation of human rights.

 “The households which suffered unjustified disconnections must be immediately reconnected,” the U.N. experts said.

 Earlier this week, a group from Windsor, Ontario, crossed the border to deliver 1,000 liters of water in a display of support for Detroit residents. And protests have been held outside DWSD’s offices every Friday since the shutoffs began.

 The pressure seems to be partially working: DWSD announced a $1 million fund on Tuesday for residents struggling to pay.

 But even with the $1 million, activists say many others are likely to lose access to water over the summer. If the shutoffs continue, they say, DWSD can expect larger protests.

 “We didn’t come out here as a symbolic gesture. This is serious. This is direct action, and it’s only the beginning,” said Elena Herrada, a Detroit school board member and candidate for the Michigan House of Representatives who was arrested during the protest on Thursday. “Nobody is coming to save us. This is what we have to do.” ||||| LATEST HEADLINES

 Georgea Kovanis: Yup, back to school shopping — already The Nordstrom Anniversary Sale ends Sunday. . If you haven't been yet, you need to get there now.

 Throwback Thursday recipe: Orange-Zucchini Pound Cake Here's a light and easy way to use up some of that home-grown zucchini from your market or garden.

 Going gluten-free: Berkley author's health journey results in cookbook Local author develops her own gluten-free recipes minus the fillers ||||| The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department announced Wednesday that it is intensifying efforts to collect unpaid debts from its delinquent commercial customers.

 Darryl Latimer, deputy director, said shut-off crews are now mobilizing to go out and cut service to delinquent commercial customers, which make up about 12% of the approximately 90,000 accounts that are at least 60 days past due.

 Meanwhile, the DWSD has been shutting off water service aggressively for its delinquent residential customers. Latimer said the department executed 7,210 shut-offs in June. Combined, shut-offs in April and May totaled 7,556.

 ■ Related: Nearly $1 million available for Detroit water customers who've received shut-off notices

 ■ Related: Emergency water supplies on tap for Detroiters faced with shutoffs

 Activists who have protested the shut-offs as an affront to human rights have for weeks criticized the water department for ignoring commercial deadbeats. In response, water officials steadfastly maintained that their collection efforts, which began in March, included commercial properties.

 But the department’s contractor to help carry out the shut-offs is equipped to handle only residential properties. The department had to make arrangements for its own employees to cut off service for commercial customers, Latimer said, adding that the recipients of the 46,000 shut-off notices sent out in May included commercial properties.

 “Some of those (commercial) customers probably have gotten shut-off notices. We just haven’t moved to shut them off. The contractor couldn’t shut them off,” Latimer said Wednesday. “They’re not equipped to shut off a larger industry like a Ford Field or what have you.”

 The department released a list of 40 commercial and industrial accounts with the highest delinquent balances. In addition to mailings, the department is physically posting shut-off notices on those buildings in case they house rentals for apartments or office spaces.

 Vargo Golf, which owns Palmer Park Golf Course and Chandler Park Golf Course, tops the list, with a delinquent account balance of $437,714. Another Vargo Golf account for a separate property has a delinquent balance of $100,528. The list, available at freep.com, includes an account for the State of Michigan, which owes $70,246.

 A message was left with Vargo Golf seeking comment.

 The list of delinquent commercial customers did not include Ford Field, the Detroit Lions or Olympia Entertainment, the Ilitch-owned company that leases the Joe Louis Arena. Activists protesting the water department shut-offs have claimed the operators of Joe Louis are let off the hook despite outstanding water bills. Latimer said Olympia Entertainment, which operates Joe Louis Arena, recently sent some checks for water payment.

 The water department’s shut-off campaign — which has coincided with Detroit’s landmark bankruptcy case — has drawn international attention.

 Water officials say shut-offs happened in past years, but the collection efforts intensified this year because the delinquent debt in Detroit forces higher rates for the city’s paying customers. An 8.7% rate hike took effect this month, increasing the average Detroiter’s bill from $65 to $70.

 Ann Rall, a founding member of the Detroit People’s Water Board and a volunteer with the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, said the water department is unfairly targeting residents.

 “Everybody who is involved in the struggle to the human right to water does point out that its inequitable to be picking on the least powerful people and only now going after the corporate accounts,” Rall said.

 A coalition of welfare rights organizations appealed to the United Nations to have service restored to customers and to prevent more shutoffs.

 Latimer said he has not had any interactions with the United Nations.

 He addressed the notion that water is a human right while stressing that the DWSD has to pay for water delivery and is a nonprofit enterprise.

 “I think that water may be a human rights issue. That’s not our issue,” Latimer said. “Water is a human right. But delivering to your home, purified. Who pays for that?” ||||| DETROIT, MI -- Detroit police on Thursday arrested eight people, including religious leaders, who were protesting controversial water shutoffs for overdue bills in Detroit, Officer LaShawn Peoples of the Public Information Office confirms.

 He said the arrests were for misdemeanor disorderly conduct and the ages of the arrested ranged from 28 to 70.

 According to activist Justin Wedes, an activist and co-founder of the Paul Robeson Freedom School, he and nine others were arrested during the protest.

 Detroit police could not immediately be reached for arrest count verification Friday afternoon.

 Watch police detain some of the protesters here.

 Nearly 50 picketed in Detroit outside of and blocked the gates of a company contracted by the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department to shut off water to delinquent customers beginning at 6:30 a.m. .

 The issue of Detroit customers, many of whom live below the poverty line, losing access to water has been call a civil rights issue and garnered national attention.

 Detroit congressman John Conyers sent off letters Friday to Pres. Barack Obama, Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell and Director and Chief Executive Office of the Detroit Water and Sewage Department Sue McCormick requesting "immediate federal action" in the form of funding for the problem.

 The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department on Wednesday announced plans to use $1 million from its Detroit Residential Water Assistance Program to help low-income customers avoid shutoffs.

 In May, about 46,000 notices were delivered to non-paying customers and water was cut off to about 4,500 of them. In total, officials report 90,000 city residents and businesses are behind on their water bills.

 The water department is reportedly responsible for about $6 billion of Detroit's $18 billion debt.

  |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– At least eight people were arrested yesterday in Detroit for protesting water shutoffs in a city where almost 40% of residents live below the poverty line. Dozens picketed in front of a facility affiliated with the city's Water and Sewerage Department to try to stop what activists call a “human rights violation,” reports Al Jazeera America. Police tell MLive that the individuals charged with misdemeanor disorderly conduct range in age from 58 to 70 and include members of the clergy. (Watch video of the protest and arrests here.) The Rev. Bill Wylie-Kellermann, one of the arrested protesters, tells the Detroit Free Press that police tried to "move us forcibly, and we sat down. … We [were] here to appeal to the workers to stop shutting off the water." The coordinator of a local activist group says "police officers should be arresting rapists and murderers instead of arresting peaceful people." A Detroit Police rep counters that protesters still have to follow rules: "You cannot impede pedestrian or vehicle traffic." The Free Press counts 7,210 shutoffs in June, up from 7,556 in April and May combined, as part of what Al Jazeera reports is an effort to recover $175 million in unpaid bills. As of March, nearly half of the city's 323,900 DWSD accounts were delinquent; activists have asked the UN to intervene.


– A 600-pound man escaped the possibility of a jail term because his weight and related illnesses would have made it too expensive to put him on trial. Instead, he struck a deal to plead guilty to scamming several fast-food restaurants for meals and to pay fines, reports AOL News. George Jolicoeur, 38, lives in a nursing home. "He's in his prison cell," a state attorney tells the Orlando Sentinel. "He's not getting out of that bed."

Expand this summary.

Seminole County Sheriff's Office

 http://xml.channel.aol.com/xmlpublisher/fetch.v2.xml?option=expand_relative_urls&dataUrlNodes;=uiConfig,feedConfig,localizationConfig,entry&id;=686529&pid;=686528&uts;=1270263488 http://www.aolcdn.com/ke/media_gallery/v1/ke_media_gallery_wrapper.swf Masterminds Need Not Apply George Jolicoeur, a 600-pound Florida man with a long record of scamming restaurants and convenience stores pleaded no contest April 1 to five charges that he sought refunds by making false claims, including one that a $50 order of beef jerky from a 7-Eleven was moldy. Seminole County Sheriffâs Office Seminole County Sheriffâs Office ||||| Speaking of "DUH" moments...

 We're weary of hurricane news and the season is a long way from over. Got us thinking. Why are we still living here???

 Because....

 1. We now own a generator, hurricane shutters, mountains of batteries, crates of SpaghettiOs and an ocean of bottled water. And we’re not leaving until we use everything.

 2. We’re trying to win back all the money we’ve lost at Hard Rock.

 3. We’re underwater on our house, even without a storm surge.

 4. We love the look of “tarpaulin blue” that bloomed on rooftops after Frances and Jeanne in 2004.

 5. We get to experience another no-Super Bowl Miami Dolphins season.

 6. We want to bond with neighbors we haven’t talked to since Wilma in 2005.

 7. We haven't used up all our two-for-one coupons.

 8. Iowa doesn’t have an ocean.

 9. California has earthquakes.

 10. We know we’ll never die of boredom.

 Please tell us, why are you still here?

 Image: NOAA

 More FloriDUH |||||