News article:

Amazon declined to give police any of the information that the Echo logged on its servers, but it did hand over Bates' account details and purchases. Police say they were able to pull data off of the speaker, but it's unclear what info they were able to access. Due to the so-called always on nature of the connected device, the authorities are after any audio the speaker may have picked up that night. Sure, the Echo is activated by certain words, but it's not uncommon for the IoT gadget to be alerted to listen by accident.

 Police say Bates had several other smart home devices, including a water meter. That piece of tech shows that 140 gallons of water were used between 1AM and 3AM the night Collins was found dead in Bates' hot tub. Investigators allege the water was used to wash away evidence of what happened off of the patio. The examination of the water meter and the request for stored Echo information raises a bigger question about privacy. At a time when we have any number of devices tracking and automating our habits at home, should that information be used against us in criminal cases?

 Bates' attorney argues that it shouldn't. "You have an expectation of privacy in your home, and I have a big problem that law enforcement can use the technology that advances our quality of life against us," defense attorney Kimberly Weber said. Of course, there's also the question of how reliable information is from smart home devices. Accuracy can be an issue for any number of IoT gadgets. However, an audio recording would seemingly be a solid piece of evidence, if released.

 Just as we saw with the quest to unlock an iPhone in the San Bernardino case, it will be interesting to see how authorities and the companies who make smart home devices work out the tension between serving customers, maintaining privacy and pursuing justice.

 Update: An Amazon spokesperson gave Engadget the following statement on the matter:

 "Amazon will not release customer information without a valid and binding legal demand properly served on us. Amazon objects to overbroad or otherwise inappropriate demands as a matter of course."

 As a refresher, Echo only captures audio and streams it to the cloud when the device hears the wake word "Alexa." A ring on the top of the device turns blue to give a visual indication that audio is being recorded. Those clips, or "utterances" as the company calls them, are stored in the cloud until a customer deletes them either individually or all at once. When that's done, the "utterances" are permanently deleted. What's more, the microphones on an Echo device can be manually turned off at any time. ||||| Please enable Javascript to watch this video

 BENTONVILLE (KFSM) -- Bentonville police arrested a suspect Monday (Feb. 22) in connection to a death investigation that began in November 2015.

 James Andrew Bates, 31, of Bentonville was taken into custody on suspicion of first-degree murder in the death of Victor Parris Collins, 47, of Centerton, according to a probable cause affidavit released by the Benton County prosecutor.

 The affidavit states the Arkansas State Crime Lab ruled Collins death a homicide by strangulation with a contributing cause of drowning.

 Bates called 911 at about 9:30 a.m. on Nov. 22, 2015 and notified dispatchers Collins was dead in his hot tub on the back patio at his home on SW Elm Manor Avenue, the affidavit states.

 Bates told officers he had invited Collins and two other friends, Owen McDonald and Sean Henry, to his home the night before to watch a Razorback football game during which they drank beer and took several shots of vodka, according to the affidavit.

 After Henry left, the suspect, the victim and McDonald decided to get in the hot tub where they continued to drink until about 1 a.m. when Bates went to bed for the night leaving Collins and McDonald in the hot tub, the affidavit states.

 Bates said he found Collins floating face down in the hot tub when he woke up several hours later, according to the affidavit.

 After getting consent to search Bates’ home, detectives found Collins floating face up in the hot tub and noticed the water was tinted red and appeared to contain bodily fluids and blood, the affidavit states. They also noticed Collins had a black eye, a cut on his eyelid, his lips were swollen and bruised, and he was bleeding from his mouth and nose, according to the affidavit.

 Detectives observed the rim of the hot tub and the patio had been sprayed down with water and two hot tub head cushions and three hot tub knobs were lying on the ground nearby, the affidavit states. One of the head cushions appeared to have diluted blood spots on it, according to the affidavit. Investigators also found watered down blood spots on the sides of the hot tub and another large area of blood spatter on the hot tub cover, the affidavit states.

 The crime lab later determined the blood belonged to Collins, according to the affidavit.

 Detectives also noticed the hose had been used, which they noted was unusual given the freezing temperatures, the affidavit states. They determined the evidence pointed to a struggle and a cover-up, according to the affidavit.

 Over the course of the next several days, detectives interviewed Bates and several witnesses and collected more evidence, the affidavit states.

 Phone records show Bates had texted a woman throughout the evening, then placed several calls to his father, friends, including McDonald, and the Flying Fish restaurant overnight, according to the affidavit. All of the calls were cancelled before they had a chance to go through, the affidavit states.

 Bates told investigators he didn’t remember making the calls and claimed they had been so-called butt dials, according to the affidavit. Detectives discredited that claim since Bates kept his phone locked by pass code or finger print ID and noted the call times were not consistent with his statement that he had gone to bed at 1 a.m., the affidavit states.

 During one of their interviews with Bates, investigators took photos of small cuts and scratches on his hands, which Bates claimed were caused by his cats and Crossfit workouts, according to the affidavit.

 Police then interviewed McDonald who told them Collins was alive when he left Bates’ house and McDonald’s wife confirmed her husband returned home at around 12:30 a.m., the affidavit states.

 Detectives determined McDonald also got a ride from a concerned neighbor who saw him walking through the neighborhood while intoxicated. Investigators note there was no physical indication that McDonald had been in a struggle with someone.

 Detectives then went back to Bates’ home and did a more extensive search of his hot tub where they found a broke pair of glasses belonging to Collins, Collins’ wedding ring and a broken shot glass at the bottom of the spa, according to the affidavit.

 They also took photographs of Bates’ whole body and discovered he had a large bruise, as well as several deep scratches on his abdomen, back and arms, the affidavit states.

 In December, detectives obtained water and electrical usage data from the Bentonville Utilities Department for the hours Bates said he was in bed the morning Collins died, according to the affidavit. The data showed the residence used 50 gallons of water between 1 to 2 a.m. on Nov. 22 and an additional 90 gallons of water between 2 and 3 a.m. In comparison, the residence only used 10 gallons of water when the men were together earlier that evening.

 Detectives determined the extra water usage between 1 and 3 a.m. was consistent with the patio being sprayed down, the affidavit states. They also determined that much water usage had never occurred at the residence since October 2013, according to the affidavit.

 Investigators concluded Bates was the only person with Collins at his home after midnight, the affidavit states.

 Bates is currently being held at the Benton County Jail without bond.

 People who said they've known Bates for years told 5NEWS everything in the probable cause affidavit is completely out of character.

 According to a Go Fund Me page set up for the Collins family, memorial services for Collins were held in Bentonville and in his native Georgia.

 Jamie Gianfala, a long-time friend of Collins', said he was shocked to hear his friend had been murdered.

 "For him to die this way, and for it to be a homicide, it really does bother me," Gianfala said. "Because, he was the kind of guy who prevented that kind of stuff."

 Collins was a former law enforcement officer before moving to Arkansas with his family. The Canton Police Department in Canton, Georgia confirmed Collins was a police officer there from 1998 until 2010. Prior to that he had worked as a deputy at the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office in Georgia.

 A lieutenant with the Canton Police Department said Collins had had several knee surgeries and moved to Louisiana and then Arkansas after his wife, Kristine, was transferred to those states for her job with Walmart.

 The Go Fund Me page states Victor and his wife were married for more than 18 years and had five children. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– In November 2015, police found 47-year-old Victor Collins dead in a hot tub on the back patio of 31-year-old James Bates' Arkansas home. More than a year later, Bates is charged with Collins' murder, and Bentonville police think the data from his Amazon Echo could help them solve the case. The device listens for voice commands but is often triggered into "listen" mode by accident and could, thus, have "overheard" something useful, Engadget reports. Authorities have issued a warrant asking Amazon.com to turn over audio and other records from the device in what The Information says "may be the first case of its kind." Bates says he had Collins and two other friends over to watch a football game and drink on the evening of Nov. 21, 2015, 5 News reported in February, when Bates was arrested. Bates says one friend left, but Collins and the other friend got in the hot tub and kept drinking. He says he left them there when he went to bed, and found Collins floating face down in the hot tub the next morning. (The other friend is not a suspect.) Authorities found the hot tub water tinted red and Collins with a black eye, swollen and bruised lips, a cut on his eyelid, and blood coming from his nose and mouth; it was ultimately ruled that Collins died by strangulation, with drowning as a contributing cause. Detectives learned that 140 gallons of water were used between 1am and 3am on the morning Collins died, and a hose was used. They believe the patio was sprayed down in an attempt to wash away evidence; they found hot tub knobs and head cushions lying on the ground and Collins' blood spattered on the hot tub cover, one of the cushions, and the sides of the tub. Bates was found to have bruises and scratches all over his body, and police found Collins' wedding ring and a broken shot glass at the bottom of the tub, as well as a broken pair of Collins' glasses. So far, Amazon has only turned over Bates' account details and purchases, but police say they have been able to get data that was picked up by the Echo's speaker, the Daily Beast reports. Bates' attorney argues that the request for data from Amazon is an invasion of privacy, and an example of law enforcement using "technology that advances our quality of life against us."


Article:
The New Year has a lot brought with it lots of celebration, lots of fiscal cliff drama and probably, lots of determined resolutions. 2013 also comes with a slew of strange new laws, and some of them might crush a few dreams. Always wanted to a pop a wheelie on your motorcycle in Illinois? Now, sadly, you’re out of luck.

 You also better think twice before you decide steal some cooking oil or use a plastic water bottle. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Study up and check out of 8 of the strangest new laws of 2013, below.

 You are seeing this message because you have javascript disabled. To use our slideshows you need to enable javascript. There's no cross domain hackery or tracking voodoo, it's just some sweet jQuery animations. Please, think of the animations. In the meantime, enjoy the html version below. I guess. If that's your thing.

 Visiting An Illinois Strip Club? You're Doing A Good Deed! Strip clubs in Illinois must now charge $3 at the door and even better, all the proceeds must go to charity. It's called a “skin” tax and all the proceeds will go to rape crisis centers. Kentucky Says Wild Pigs Can't Be Released Into...The Wild Apparently, Kentucky wants to make wild pigs the next "man's best friend." Domesticated pigs? Sure! Starting today, it's illegal to send the wild little guys, well, back to the wild! Don't Even Think Of Stealing That Unused Cooking Oil In NC! In North Carolina, stealing unused cooking oil worth more than $1000 is now a felony. I guess they really had to crack down on all that culinary theft. CA: No Driver? No problem! In California, it's now legal for "driverless" cars to go on the road. Who does this law effect, you ask? I'm not really sure but don't get too excited: a human must always be in the passenger seat of all computer-driven cars. Five Cats In Kansas? One Too Many! In Wellington, Kansas, a new law limits each household to no more than four cats. Want to adopt more homeless kitties? Too bad! Plastic Bottle? In MA, You're In Trouble With The Law Concord, Massachusetts took a big environmental leap forward and outlawed plastic bottles today. Watch out with your Poland Spring at the gym: they're now considered contraband. Sad Bikers In Illinois Did you ever dream of moving to Illinois, buying a motorcyle and popping a wheelie? (Because, really, who doesn't?) Well, it's a little too late for your dream because Illinois outlawed motorcycle wheelies, starting today. No More Shark Fin Soup In Illinois Although Illinois doesn't appear to be close to any major shark fishing outlets, there's good news for the Hammerheads and Great Whites: the state has banned the sale and trade of shark fins.

 —

 >> Follow Anjali Sareen (@AnjaliSareen) On Twitter

 Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com ||||| While much attention has been paid to the ‘fiscal cliff’ and the federal legislation behind it, thousands of new state laws took effect more quietly at the start of 2013.

 As global ocean is confirmed for Saturn moon, scientists hope for new mission

 The Los Angeles Unified School District All-City Honor Band marches in the Rose Parade on New Year's Day 2013.

 Starting Tuesday, California hunters better not get caught using their dog to chase a bear or bobcat. Kentuckians should think twice about releasing a feral hog, and New Yorkers can get slapped with a $1,000 fine for selling even electronic cigarettes to minors.

 While much attention has been paid to the federal legislation poised to kick in Jan. 1 – the automatic spending cuts and tax hikes collectively known as the “fiscal cliff” – thousands of new state laws took effect more quietly at the start of 2013.

 “Each legislative session, lawmakers pass laws that range from extremely important to ridiculous,” says Robert Stern, former president of the Center for Governmental Studies in California, in an e-mail.

 Overall, he notes, fewer laws are being enacted these days, primarily because tea party legislators campaigned on a platform of getting government out of the lives of ordinary people.

 In 2009, 40,697 state laws were passed, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. But in 2012, under 30,000 went through.

 “Many bills are passed to clean up past mistakes or to eliminate archaic laws passed decades ago,” Mr. Stern writes. Indeed, Kentucky just got around to deleting phrases from its constitution that spell out guidelines on pensions for Confederate soldiers.

 In many other cases, state legislation can offer a window into what’s on the public’s mind. Here are some new laws that analysts say came out of recent, wide concerns:

 • Prompted by the case of former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, who was convicted of sexually abusing 10 boys, California coaches and administrators in K-12 schools and higher-education employees who have regular contact with children are now mandated to report suspected child abuse.

 • “Caylee’s Laws” take effect in both California and Illinois. The legislation – named after the 2-year-old daughter of Florida’s Casey Anthony, who was acquitted of the girl’s murder despite waiting a month before reporting her disappearance – imposes strong penalties for a parent or guardian who fails to report the disappearance or death of a child within 24 hours.

 • Gay marriage becomes legal in Maryland, following the same move this past Saturday in Maine. Same-sex couples from other states are also now recognized in Maine.

 • New Hampshire enacts a ban on so-called “partial-birth abortions,” and Montana now requires parental notification for any minor who wants to have an abortion.

 • California becomes the first state to write into law expanded official authority to investigate mortgage fraud. Also, large lenders are now prohibited from foreclosing while evaluating a homeowner request for loan modifications. "Homeowners in all 50 states deserve these same strong protections and more," said Norma Garcia, Consumers Union financial services manager, in a statement.

 • Pennsylvania now requires that contractors on public-works projects use the E-Verify system to confirm employees’ citizenship. E-Verify measures take effect in several other states as well. Also, Montana moves to withhold state services from illegal immigrants.

 • After civil liberties groups and others criticized the practice of employers asking job applicants for passwords to their Facebook and Twitter accounts, that is now illegal in Illinois.

 Some say that such a list is evidence that state governments are indeed addressing public concerns, despite polls showing that voters have extremely low opinions of their legislatures.

 “For anyone who says our representatives do nothing, just have them take a look at all of the new state laws going into effect on Jan.1. Many of our state lawmakers do a whole lot of something,” says Jessica Levinson, former director of political reform for the Center for Governmental Studies, in an e-mail.

 But one question is “whether legislation is the proper avenue through which to fix or solve that problem,” adds Ms. Levinson, who is now a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. |||||Summary:

– While everyone fretted about the fiscal cliff, thousands of new state laws quietly took effect at midnight. The Christian Science Monitor, the Washington Post, and Mediaite run down a few notable ones, from the weird (feral hogs?) to the more conventional: Caylee's Law: Legislation named after Caylee Anthony took effect in California and Illinois. Parents now face big penalties if they don't report the disappearance or death of a child within one day. Abortion: Partial-birth abortions are now banned in New Hampshire. In Montana, minors wanting an abortion must notify their parents. Illegal immigration: Employers in some states are now required to use the E-Verify system to confirm citizenship of their employees. Facebook: Employers can no longer ask job applicants for Facebook or Twitter passwords. Food safety: In Maryland, it's now illegal to use chicken feed that includes arsenic. Though it's the first state to pass such a ban, the practice is already illegal in Canada and the EU. Driverless cars: Are now legal on California roads, though a human must always be in the passenger seat. Weirder laws: No releasing feral hogs in Kentucky, and no using a dog to chase a bear or a bobcat in California. Strip clubs in Illinois must now charge $3 at the door and donate it to rape crisis centers. Also in Illinois, motorcycle wheelies are now banned. Also today, same-sex marriage became legal in Maryland.


News article:

CLOSE Aerial footage of the aftermath from Saturday night's unrest in Milwaukee. Mike De Sisti

 For a second night, disorder hit Milwaukee's Sherman Park neighborhood late Sunday. By 1:30 a.m., a group of police boarded two buses and pulled back from the area as tensions subsided.

 Buy Photo A Milwaukee police officer walks near the burned gas station at N. Sherman Blvd. and W. Burleigh St. (Photo: Mike De Sisti / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)Buy Photo

 For a second night, disorder hit Milwaukee's Sherman Park neighborhood late Sunday, with protesters throwing rocks, bricks and glass bottles at police, shots ringing out and a shooting victim rescued by officers and whisked to a hospital in an armored vehicle.

 The disturbances came as the city coped with the aftermath of Saturday night's violence that followed a police shooting of an armed suspect.

 At around 11 p.m., police dressed in riot gear had to move in and disperse a crowd at Sherman Blvd. and Burleigh St., after protesters started throwing objects.

 An 18-year-old man was rushed to a hospital with a serious gunshot injury, Milwaukee Police said. The shooting occurred in the in the 3000 block of N. Sherman Blvd.

 Police said an officer was also taken to a hospital after suffering an injury when a thrown rock broke the windshield of a squad car.

 Just after midnight, lines of police began moving down Burleigh St. telling people they were in an unlawful assembly. Several protesters were handcuffed and taken into custody after they refused repeated requests to leave the area.

 Early Monday morning, police responded to a car fire at 45th St. and Hadley St.

 By 1:30 a.m., a group of police boarded two buses and pulled back from the area as tensions subsided.

 With neighbors sweeping debris from scorched businesses, and political and religious leaders urging calm, Milwaukee began to come to terms Sunday with the night of fire and violence that followed the fatal shooting of a 23-year-old armed suspect by a 24-year-old police officer.

 Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn provided details of Saturday afternoon's shooting and confirmed that the officer is African-American. So was the suspect, Sylville K. Smith.

 "We are concerned for his safety," Flynn said of the officer, who was not identified. "He has been staying with relatives out of town."

 Businesses in the Sherman Park neighborhood were torched, cars overturned and set ablaze, and gunfire erupted Saturday night following the fatal police shooting. Gov. Scott Walker activated the Wisconsin National Guard to assist if needed.

 Flynn said that based on his review of the officer's body camera video, the chain of events leading to the shooting of Smith took 20 to 25 seconds. Smith, who has a lengthy record, was fleeing a traffic stop about 3:30 p.m. Saturday near W. Auer Ave. and N. 44th St. when the confrontation occurred, officials said.

 "I mean, there was virtually no time between the officer unhooking his seat belt, turning on his body camera, getting out of the car and immediately he was in a foot chase. That foot chase went maybe a few dozen feet before he encountered this individual in a fenced yard," Flynn said.

 "The individual was armed. The individual did turn toward the officer with the firearm in his hand. You can't tell when the officer discharges his firearm."

 Flynn said he doesn't know how soon the body camera video would be released, but he and Mayor Tom Barrett said transparency was important and they hoped it could be released soon. That decision will be up to the state Department of Justice. Flynn said the quickest release he knew of was one week, in a Chicago case.

 "It's a delicate balance between what the community needs to know ... and the criminal justice process."

 Flynn said Smith was wounded in the chest and arm. The chief didn't know how many times he was shot or how many shots the officer fired. He said that based on the video, the officer faced a credible threat. He said Smith did not comply with an officer's command to drop his gun. There is no indication that Smith fired a shot.

 "It (the gun) was in his (Smith's) hand. He was raising up with it."

 Flynn said there have been threats to officers since the incident, but he didn't have information on who made the threats or how many there have been.

 Flynn said during the ensuing violence, no police officers used any force — no gunshots, no Taser or spray, no batons, no force by hand.

 The late night unrest came at the end of a day filled with sorrow, reflection and recriminations.

 On Sunday morning, city and community leaders gathered to discuss the unrest and the underlying concerns of residents.

 Common Council President Ashanti Hamilton, who took part in the meeting with community leaders, said organizations that work in the Sherman Park neighborhood have begun outreach in the community.

 "What we want is to make sure now that this does not spread to other parts of the city," Hamilton said. "And we'll be sharing information with the community so they are aware of what's going on and understand that things will be moving forward."

 "We need to continue to address the issues that people are frustrated by," Hamilton said. "People want to feel like they're getting a fair shake."

 Ald. Khalif Rainey, who represents the neighborhood where the incident occurred, had suggested that failure to deal with the frustrations of Milwaukee's black residents — poverty, joblessness, lack of opportunity — could lead to unrest elsewhere in the city, including downtown where hundreds of millions of dollars are being invested in redevelopment.

 Walker said he put the Guard on alert after a request from Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr., and after conferring with Barrett and Maj. Gen. Donald Dunbar.

 Barrett said the Guard would not be deployed unless requested by Flynn. "I'm hopeful that that will not be necessary, that calm will remain in this community."

 Clarke, who was out of town when the violence took place, said he called Walker at 8:14 a.m. to ask for the Guard to be called out and later notified Barrett.

 "I'm not going to get caught like Ferguson and Baltimore," Clarke said during a news conference at the sheriff substation in Wauwatosa Sunday evening.

 Live: Updates from the scene

 RELATED: Man shot by Milwaukee police subject of witness intimidation case

 RELATED: In the aftermath: 'A lot of us are lost'

 RELATED: Violence erupts Saturday after officer-involved shooting

 RELATED: Four officers injured during unrest

 RELATED: 6 businesses burned in unrest

 In the Sherman Park neighborhood, a sense of unease seemed to prevail much of the day.

 A few hundred people gathered at a BP gas station at N. Sherman Blvd. and W. Burleigh St., one of several buildings destroyed by fire Saturday night. Some people came out to look at the destruction. Others cleaned up.

 Three teenage friends who live in the area were among the latter group. They all said a lack of good education and jobs had boiled over and led to the uprising. And while they didn’t defend what happened, they weren’t surprised.

 “It’s energy that just keeps building up, and it boiled over,” said Naeem Hunter, 18.

 “If nothing new happens, it’s going to happen again,” said Dread Sxott, 19. “There is a lot of anger.”

 Tony Whitley Jr., a pastor at Resurrection Life Worship Center, on W. Fond du Lac Ave., said he doesn’t attribute the unrest to police relations but rather to a generation of young people who have not been parented and who have needs that are not being met.

 He said it is a calling for churches including his own to go into the homes to help address those needs.

 “We have to take responsibility. We can’t say it is the police or whatever,” he said. “We have grandparents who are in their 20s and 30s and that’s a problem. This is the result of un-parented kids with no values or morals. They are hurting.”

 Mark Hale, 52, who works the third shift at the Hilton hotel downtown, said he was driving home and stopped by on his own to pick up trash.

 “Instead of being part of the problem, I wanted to be part of the solution,” he said. “I figured if I started picking up trash, other people might do the same.”

 Hale, who is African-American and his lived in the city his whole life, said he attributed the fires to “a lot of idiots who don’t have jobs and don’t want to have jobs.”

 Hale said he has four grown children, three of whom are in training or studying to be in law enforcement.

 “Point blank, I support the police,” he said.

 For the most part, the people who gathered on the streets reflected varying attitudes toward the shooting and police relations, and in a broader sense toward the persistent segregation and economic instability that haunts Milwaukee.

 Most people called for peace and understanding, encouraging better dialogue between rich and poor, black and white, those in power and those subjected to it. As a show of solidarity, more than 100 people linked arms in prayer and called for peace.

 Some denounced the overnight violence but welcomed the attention it is bringing to the issues confronting the community. DeShawn Ewing, who grew up several blocks from the shooting site, said he was troubled by the uprising. But he said it should bring a renewed focus to the poverty, shortage of economic investment, and failure of the city's political leaders to address residents' concerns.

 "I don't approve of reactionary actions. I do approve of having your voice heard," Ewing said. "It's unfortunate that this is the way the voices were heard."

 A group of about 30 people gathered at the O'Reilly Auto Parts store on N. 35th St. and W. Fond du Lac Ave., one of the stores destroyed Saturday.

 "It's sad. Despite what's going on, O'Reilly didn't do anything" to warrant the destruction, said Jimmie Butler, the store's commercial manager.

 He said he's not sure if the store will be rebuilt.

 In midafternoon, state Sen. Lena Taylor (D-Milwaukee) arrived at the BP station to address the crowd, which included several onlookers hostile toward her message.

 Taylor implored the community to vote, encouraging change through politics, while calling on local and state leaders to better respond to the area's residents.

 "Today, what we need to do is clean up our community," Taylor said. "Then what we need to do is demand what we need from our city and our county. Don't tell me what won't change without trying."

 Some in the crowd grew frustrated, questioning when political leaders will deliver more fairness and opportunity to Milwaukee. One speaker, addressing the crowd with a microphone, called for residents to arm themselves, saying there's a war going on in the neighborhood.

 A point of tension Sunday came when a group of about 50 people marched to a police station near N. 36th St. and W. Fond du Lac Ave., where about a dozen officers were briefly stationed outside. The protesters blocked traffic for a few minutes as police watched, then moved one block south to a busy intersection. The group formed a large circle and sat for about 10 minutes, causing cars to navigate around it. Nobody was hurt.

 The Milwaukee Police Association, the police union, issued a statement Sunday defending the officers' use of force and calling the unrest "terrorist-like" and denouncing the suggestion that there is racism in its ranks.

 "Our ranks are broad and diverse. ... These officers deserve respect and support ... which must begin with leadership," union President Mike Crivello said. He called the people who set buildings on fire and fired weapons "thugs" and "terrorists" and said they "must be held accountable."

 Crivello said the Police Department is understaffed and called on the department to permanently institute two-man squads, which were adopted temporarily after a recent police shooting.

 Sunday night there was a visible police presence in the Sherman Park neighborhood. Milwaukee police were also present at the Midtown Court mall, which was largely vacant.

 At a vigil for the victim, held at the spot where he died on 44th St., prayers were offered and grieving members of Smith's family released about a dozen blue and silver balloons in his memory.

 Maria Hamilton, whose son Dontre was shot and killed in a confrontation with a police officer in Red Arrow Park in 2014, was among the speakers. She said the Smith family will be facing something "harder than anything they've faced in their lives. ... The pain will never be gone."

 After the vigil, several hundred people marched peacefully to nearby Sherman Park.

 Reporting by:

 Bill Glauber, John Diedrich, Ashley Luthern, Raquel Rutledge, Maggie Angst, Annysa Johnson, Tom Kertscher, Daniel Bice, Jacob Carpenter, Meg Jones, Cary Spivak, Hannah Schwarz

 Read or Share this story: http://on.jsonl.in/2bhk9ws ||||| Story highlights Police body camera footage shows suspect was holding gun during encounter, mayor says

 "Last night was unlike anything I've seen. I hope I never see it again," he says of protests

 (CNN) After a night of violent protests, tensions remained high in Milwaukee as residents gathered Sunday to mourn an armed man shot to death by police.

 Family and friends of Sylville Smith, 23, held a candlelight vigil at the site of Saturday's shooting in a residential area of North Milwaukee.

 The shooting triggered unrest in the city's north side Saturday night as protesters torched businesses and threw rocks at officers. Four officers were injured and 17 people were arrested, Mayor Tom Barrett said.

 Aftermath of last night. #milwaukee A photo posted by Ryan Young (@tvryanyoung) on Aug 14, 2016 at 8:39am PDT

 Smith's sister, Sherelle Smith, urged protesters to take the violence elsewhere, sobbing as she lamented that she would never be able to again hug her brother.

 "Take that s*** to the suburbs. Burn that s*** down," Smith said. "You all want to hurt somebody, take that further out. Don't bring it here."

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

– One person was shot and a police officer was injured as unrest gripped Milwaukee on Sunday for a second night after the fatal shooting of a black suspect. Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn says the officer who shot 23-year-old Sylville K. Smith is also black, and that officer is now staying with relatives out of town amid concerns for his safety, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. Flynn says Smith had a lengthy criminal record and was shot after fleeing a traffic stop on foot Saturday afternoon. The chief says Smith had a gun that he didn't drop when he was ordered to and, per body camera footage, "the individual did turn toward the officer with the firearm in his hand. You can't tell when the officer discharges his firearm." Flynn says the officer "certainly appeared to be within lawful bounds." Officials earlier said Smith was carrying a stolen handgun with 23 rounds of ammunition, Reuters reports. Before protests turned violent Sunday night, several of his sisters addressed a peaceful vigil. "My brother was no felon," said Kimberly Neal. "My brother was running for his life. He was shot in his back." Sherelle Smith, another sister, condemned the Saturday night violence that left businesses burned and four police officers injured, CNN reports. The National Guard was activated but not deployed during Sunday night's protest. Police say the person shot during Sunday's unrest is an 18-year-old man who was rushed to a hospital with serious injuries. His connection to the protests is unclear.


Summarize this article:

Truth rating: 0

 By Andrew Shuster |

 Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are not working out a deal for the actor to reunite with estranged daughter Suri, despite a false tabloid report. Gossip Cop can correct the story. A rep for the actress says it’s false.

 The movie star hasn’t been in contact with his 12-year-old daughter for several years, but according to Star, he’s hatching up plans for a reunion with the young girl. An alleged insider tells the magazine Cruise has been “rounding up his lawyers to find a way to see her again,” but first needs to convince his ex-wife to sign off on the get-together.

 The outlet’s supposed source adds that when Holmes and Cruise settled their divorce in 2012, “she agreed to stay mum about [Scientology] as long as Tom didn’t try to see Suri.” The questionable tipster says Holmes is concerned that her ex-husband may try to “lure Suri back into the church if he starts seeing her again,” but she’s “slowly warming up to the idea of a reunion” because Suri misses her dad and Cruise “assured he won’t bring religion into it.”

 The unreliable tabloid further contends that Holmes and Cruise’s legal teams are currently in discussions to set up a meeting in London, but the actress’s father, who’s a lawyer, must be on hand for the reunion. “You can bet that Katie is going to make him jump through plenty of hoops,” adds the seemingly phony source. “And Tom will!”

 The magazine’s account of events is coming from an anonymous and untraceable “insider,” but Holmes’ spokesperson is going on the record to refute the story. It’s also worth noting, Star has proven to have zero insight into the relationship between the movie star and his daughter. Gossip Cop busted the publication earlier this year for wrongly reporting that Cruise was quitting Scientology to reunite with Suri. As time has shown, that didn’t happen.

 Last October, the magazine made up a story about Cruise asking the church of Scientology to allow him to visit Suri. The outlet’s sister publication, OK!, has also been pushing this false reunion narrative for years. In December 2015, the tabloid falsely claimed that Cruise would be spending Christmas with his daughter. In April 2013, the magazine said he would surprise Suri by visiting her on her birthday.

 These countless articles surrounding Cruise’s supposed plans to reunite with his daughter never pan out. This latest report about the movie star getting his legal team involved is equally bogus. ||||| Scarlett Johansson is putting an end to one former Scientologist's claim that she "auditioned" to date Tom Cruisefollowing his 2001 divorce from Nicole Kidman.

 During an appearance on Megyn Kelly Today, Brendan Tighe said he was working as a member of the actor's Scientology security team when he accidentally came across "reports" revealing the names of women who allegedly auditioned to enter a relationship with Cruise. According to Tighe, one of those women was Johansson.

 In a statement to E! News, the actress rejected his assertion, saying, "The very idea of any person auditioning to be in a relationship is so demeaning. I refuse for anyone to spread the idea that I lack the integrity to choose my own relationships. Only a man aka Brendan Tighe would come up with a crazy story like that." ||||| Erika Christensen is opening up about her association with Scientology.

 The actress, who is expecting her second child with husband Cole Maness, spoke with her Parenthood costar and on-screen brother Dax Shepard for an episode of his podcast, Armchair Expert, on Monday, when they discussed the religion.

 “I can justify things in all kinds of different ways, but basically, like, as a Scientologist. And I definitely cannot speak for every Scientologist about anything because everybody has their own beliefs and comes at it from even other religions and all kinds of stuff. However, I don’t believe this is the first time I have lived on this planet and I basically think I’ve probably done absolutely everything before,” said Christensen, 35.

 Christensen confirmed to Shepard that she was raised Scientologist, but clarified, “It’s funny because I really like to be specific about that too because it’s hard to raise someone as a Scientologist because it’s something that you do, it’s not something that you believe.”

 She shared of her upbringing, “My parents definitely are Scientologists, approached parenting from a Scientology viewpoint. I know that now as an adult. I can see that in the way that they approached me as a kid and really tried to do what I’m doing now as a parent, which is trying to temper absolutely necessary discipline and rules and structure with fostering independent thought and freedom of personality. It has to be true for you. Don’t take anybody’s word for anything ever, basically, without being a cynic or without being some kind of paranoiac. It’s just: What do you have if you don’t have yourself?”

 The former child actress, who was home-schooled, praised her parents for “making themselves safe to talk to” and revealed that they never told her “you need to go to church” but rather encouraged her to “check it out.”

 “When I was 12, I started doing a bunch of the little introductory courses that they still have now that are maybe a few hours each,” she explained.

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 When asked about Scientologists’ views on drugs and alcohol, Christensen confirmed that drinking is allowed, but drugs are “off the table.”

 “Drinking and drugs and stuff like that, we basically think it’s counter-productive,” she explained.

 “As the action of Scientology, when you are picking apart the chronology of your life and its effects upon you, it really helps to have that lucidity,” said the star. “It’s almost just selfish on my part. I want to be able to remember everything. I want to be smart,” she said, and added, “I want to consider that I’m always just driving toward my best self.”

 WATCH: Leah Remini says Scientology tried to get her to convert Kevin James—Why She Never Did

 During the podcast interview, Shepard, who starred opposite Christensen for six seasons on Parenthood, also inquired about the criticism that the church has faced.

 “I don’t think that it comes from an actual place of, like, your critiques,” explained Christensen, who said that she hasn’t consumed any of the criticism. “I don’t think it comes from critical thinking.”

 Shepard also brought up the Emmy-winning and controversial Scientology documentary Going Clear, and posed the question of why his friends who are members of the religion won’t watch the film.

 “Honestly it doesn’t have anything to do with … anything that I’ve ever learned about the group or organization as a group or organization,” she said.

 “To be specific about [Going Clear], if somebody has read a book, read Dianetics or some Scientology book, and wants to philosophically tell me what they disagree with, cool. That is a totally different thing. … But specifically with that documentary, the documentary was based on a book, the book was not even published in certain English-speaking countries because the libel laws are stricter than they are here,” she shared.

 Added Christensen, “There’s so much that is actually — talking about sources. … They have proved themselves to be irrelevant. …That’s what I look at mostly is the source and I get to evaluate the source and go, ‘Oh, okay, that person has been convicted of perjury previously.’ So no, there’s no relevance in what they’re saying.” ||||| Get the latest from TODAY Sign up for our newsletter

 After being raised in the Church of Scientology, Brendan Tighe says he signed a “Billion-Year Contract” with the Sea Organization, which is devoted to the most devout members of the church. Tighe says that reports of auditions to be in a relationship with Tom Cruise were accidentally sent to his printer, which is how he learned that an interaction with Cruise and actress Scarlett Johansson didn’t go well. He left scientology in 2011, and joins Megyn Kelly TODAY with his story. |||||

– During an appearance on Megyn Kelly Today Wednesday, former Scientologist Brendan Tighe said that Scarlett Johansson once auditioned to be Tom Cruise's girlfriend. Johansson was having none of it, quickly hitting back with a statement to E! News. "The very idea of any person auditioning to be in a relationship is so demeaning," it reads. "I refuse for anyone to spread the idea that I lack the integrity to choose my own relationships. Only a man aka Brendan Tighe would come up with a crazy story like that." In his interview with Kelly, Tighe claimed to have learned of the audition when reports from Cruise's handler were accidentally printed on Tighe's printer. The report said "it didn't go well," Tighe said of the audition, adding that another actress, Scientologist Erika Christensen, had to "disconnect" from Johansson as a result of it not going well. "Because Scarlett wasn't interested?" Kelly said. "Correct," Tighe said. The Church of Scientology also disputed Tighe's claims. As for Cruise, he's also in the tabloids due to a report that he's trying to make plans to see Suri, his daughter with Katie Holmes. Gossip Cop says those reports are false, though the site does note Cruise hasn't seen Suri, 12, in several years.


The previously unseen picture, captured by Lance Corporal Guy Adderley of British Intelligence in May 1945, shows the Nazi second-in-command lying dead after biting a cyanide pill, still wearing his trademark round glasses.

 Himmler, who had been arrested by Army officers, was due to be interrogated over his war crimes the following day.

 After his death, propaganda photographs of his corpse slumped on a makeshift bed were released. But Adderley kept this grainy photograph among his wartime mementoes.

 Adderley’s family will sell the photograph at the auctioneer Dreweatt’s sale of militaria in Bristol on March 29, with a pre-sale estimate of £2,000-£3,000.

 Malcolm Claridge, the auctioneer and militaria expert, said: “This is a very important and historic collection. Himmler was Hitler’s Reichsführer, the second most powerful man in Nazi Germany.

 “He oversaw the Gestapo and the concentration camps and is regarded as the architect of the Holocaust.

 “Adderley’s collection takes us right to the heart of Himmler’s arrest and into the very room in the British safe house in Lüneburg where he bit into the cyanide capsule he had concealed in his mouth.

 “Guy Adderley was one of the team that arrested Himmler, and there are also two photographs showing British and Russian officers in the safe house with Adderley in the background.”

 Conspiracy theories surrounded Himmler’s death after Army personnel were ordered to sign the Official Secrets Act, keeping the details under wraps for 100 years.

 The mystery has been compounded by the fact that four British soldiers took Himmler’s body from the safe house and buried it in an unmarked grave on Lüneburg Heath. It has never been found. ||||| By Toby Axelrod , August 2, 2016

 Long-lost sections of a work journal kept by the notorious, high-ranking Nazi Heinrich Himmler have been found in an archive in Moscow, according to reports in the German tabloid BILD.

 Himmler, who was head of the SS and a chief architect of the genocide against the Jews, reportedly took assiduous notes on his daily activities. Parts of his wartime diary are known, particular from the later years. The newly discovered sections were in a file marked "diary".

 Some 1,000 pages in all, the documents are being studied by the German Historical Institute in Moscow, whose director, Nikolaus Katzen, told BILD they are "of outstanding historical significance" and made him "shudder".

 He noted everything from the banal details about his various working trips and leisure activities, to his observation of a gassing of hundreds of prisoners. The same evening, he attended an SS banquet.

 Early diaries of Himmler were found in the 1950s. Hundreds of letters turned up in Tel Aviv several years ago.

 Researcher Matthias Uhl told BILD that the newly uncovered documents help complete the picture of Himmler, who was "a beast full of contradictions. He was on one hand the unscrupulous executioner, who uttered death sentences in passing and who planned the Holocaust. On the other hand, he went to great lengths to please his SS elite, their families, friends and acquaintances."

 Himmler committed suicide in May 1945 rather than face post-war justice. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Among their 1,000 pages, the newly found diaries of Holocaust architect Heinrich Himmler track his hourly schedule—filled with activities both mundane and grotesque—over the years 1938, 1943, and 1944. The Jewish Chronicle reports that some of Himmler's diaries were discovered in the 1950s, and hundreds of letters surfaced in Tel Aviv more recently; these "service diaries" were reportedly taken by the Red Army, archived in Podolsk near Moscow, and forgotten. Germany's Bild newspaper on Tuesday began serializing the diaries, and the Times of London has details. Himmler began many days with a lengthy massage in an effort to assuage chronic stomach cramps. Hours of meetings would follow (one entry shows 19 policy meetings in a four-hour span); meetings occurred with 1,600 people over the course of the diaries. The Times reports plenty of innocuous moments: looking at the stars and planned phone calls with his daughter Gudrun, identified as "Puppi." But interspersed are execution orders, the purchase of guard dogs for Auschwitz, and movements that sound innocuous but were anything but. A February 2, 1943, entry lists a visit to the Sobibor death camp for “inspection of special commando”; the Times reports his visit was to include a demonstration of gassing, and 400 women and girls were reportedly brought to the camp from a nearby city for that purpose. The German Historical Institute has authenticated the diaries, and its director says that what appears to be "rather dry" is actually very valuable. "We get a better structural understanding of the last phase of the war," says Nikolaus Katzer. Himmler killed himself with a cyanide pill in May 1945. (A trove of personal documents revealed more about Himmler.)


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 This product is currently out of stock ||||| Scottish distilleries are in shock after a Japanese single malt was named the best whisky in the world.

 Whisky expert Jim Murray described the Yamazaki Single Malt Sherry Cask 2013 as a drink of “near incredible genius”, awarding it 97.5 marks out of 100 in the 2015 World Whisky Bible.

 To add insult to injury it is the first time in the Whisky Bible’s 12-year history that a Scottish malt has failed to make the top five drams. It is also the first year that a Japanese whisky claimed the highest accolade.

 Mr Murray, who oversees the review that samples over 4,500 different whiskies, labelled the results a “wake up call” for Scottish distilleries, claiming the winner was “a single malt which no Scotch can at the moment get anywhere near”. The review unfortunately awarded the best European whisky of the year to English tipple Chapter 14 Not Peated, from the English Whisky Company.

 After personally tasting nearly 1,000 whiskies, Mr Murray said Scottish distilleries were in danger of churning out drab or mediocre malts and said it was time for “a little dose of humility” from the northern whisky makers so they could “realised something is missing.”

 He praised praised the Yamazaki’s “nose of exquisite boldness” and finish of “light, teasing spice”.

 But whisky-lovers may need to be quick. There were only 18,000 bottles of the winning whisky made – and retail in only a few hundred specialist shops in the UK for around £100. |||||

Write a summary.

– Each time a new edition of the World Whisky Bible comes out, you can expect to see a Scottish distillery at the top—but the 2015 version is full of firsts. A Japanese whiskey has stolen the No. 1 rank for the first time, while no Scottish whisky even made it into the top five, the Independent reports, noting that "to add insult to injury," Europe's best whiskey hailed from ... well, England. Japan's Yamazaki Single Malt Sherry Cask 2013 shows "near incredible genius," says expert Jim Murray, adding that it's "a single malt which no Scotch can at the moment get anywhere near." Murray, who sampled some 1,000 whiskies, says this should be a "wake-up call" for Scotland. The US, meanwhile, boasts the runner-up position, the Whisky Exchange reports: William Larue Weller Bourbon, from Kentucky, took the No. 2 spot.


We heard you. We made some mistakes. And we are fixing them.

 The news of 157 new emojis in 2018 came earlier this month and if it proved one thing: people are passionate about how their emojis look.

 Each year Emojipedia creates sample images for the new emoji release that display how these new characters might look when they hit phones later in the year.

 Today we're updating three of these designs to address public feedback: Skateboard, DNA, and Lobster.

 Skateboard

 Skateboarding legend (and technology enthusiast) Tony Hawk loves that there is a new skateboard emoji, but wasn't impressed with our design. Speaking to New York Magazine, Tony noted we had plenty of room for improvement:

 “Firstly, the shape, and the top of it. The way the grip tape is cut, it’s called a die cut — doing grip tape, then leaving a big blank spot in the middle. It just is very much a mid-’80s skateboard, but at a beginner level, and definitely not representative of modern skateboarding”

 So we invited him on board as an emoji advisor to help us get it right:

 Hoping to help bring the skateboard emoji closer to 2018 than 1985... https://t.co/TIWWbGk1i2 — Tony Hawk (@tonyhawk) February 8, 2018

 Above: Tony Hawk comes in to rescue the skateboard emoji.

 After a helpful DM exchange we settled on a new design to address all of these issues. No more grip tape, no gap in the middle, hopefully more 2018 than 1985:

 Above: The old skateboard emoji design (left) has been replaced by a newer design (right).

 This new design is based on Tony's own skateboard, with some minor tweaks to ensure this still works at emoji sizes.

 When you're given source material like this, it might as well be used to its fullest potential.

 Above: Tony Hawk's own skateboard (left) was the inspiration behind the updated skateboard emoji design (right).

 DNA Double Helix

 Apparently we designed our DNA Double Helix to be left handed. This is, I gather, is the wrong way to show it.

 So here it is the correct way, shown as a right-handed double-helix:

 Above: The previous (left-handed) DNA emoji (left) has been replaced with a right-handed DNA emoji (right) on Emojipedia.

 Lobster

 Senator Angus King from Maine has certainly been vocal about his love of the lobster emoji, but was kind enough to spare us the indignity of pointing out that we left off two legs.

 Great news for Maine - we're getting a lobster emoji!!! Thanks to @unicode for recognizing the impact of this critical crustacean, in Maine and across the country.

 Yours truly,

 Senator 🐮👑 — Senator Angus King (@SenAngusKing) February 7, 2018

 Above: An appreciative US Sentaor appreciates the lobster, with or without the correct number of legs.

 Reports showed that our lobster emoji is anatomically inaccurate due to the fact that it's missing a pair of legs.

 We've now updated the design, and the correct number of legs has been restored.

 Portland Maine's Press Herald goes on to describe the tail as “grossly malformed” but, well, at emoji-sizes we think the correction of the legs is enough to get this one over the line.

 Hearts

 One of the new emoji approvals for 2018 is a Unicode character called Smiling Face With Smiling Eyes and Three Hearts which we chose to display with four hearts.

 Why? To us, it looked better. As with any emoji design, while Unicode sets the names of new emojis, it's up to vendors to decide how to implement them. Take the 🤗 hugging face which looks like jazz hands on so many platforms as an example.

 Alright @Emojipedia someone forgot how to count 🤣 pic.twitter.com/EGWmIOEP3h — noah fence (@mattballinger9) February 7, 2018

 Above: Many people pointed out that our face has four hearts, contrary to the name.

 The origin of this emoji is from Facebook's “in love” face which can be applied to status updates. We felt that the sentiment could be expressed with any number of hearts.

 Above: Facebook's “in love face” has three hearts, but ours has four.

 This one we're going to leave as it is. The average user isn't too concerned with the name of an emoji when using it, but mostly cares how it looks on their phone and others.

 Release

 Emojis approved as part of Emoji 11.0 will come to most major operating systems in the second half of 2018. Our latest designs have been released as part of Emojipedia 11.1 and now also appear on the latest Unicode emoji charts.

 As with all emojis, each vendor will create their own designs when it comes time to implement and these may or may not resemble sample images used at this time. ||||| AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) — After an outcry, the organization that controls the release of emojis has added two more legs to the forthcoming lobster emoji to make it correct.

 The Portland Press Herald reports soon after the Unicode Consortium released proposed images of 157 new emojis to be made available this year, Maine residents took umbrage at the lobster emoji's eight legs instead of the correct 10.

 Emojipedia Chief Emoji Officer Jeremy Burge wrote Monday the consortium had heard people's complaints and is releasing updated designs for the lobster emoji, alongside updates for a skateboard and DNA emoji.

 The lobster emoji is expected to be available later this year.

 ___

 Information from: Portland Press Herald, http://www.pressherald.com ||||| Score one for advocates of anatomically correct emojis.

 Responding to outrage from lobster leg aficionados and the Accuracy in Emojis movement (OK, not really), the organization that decides which digital images can dress up the world’s emails, texts and tweets has literally given its new lobster emoji two more legs to stand on.

 Soon after the Unicode Consortium released proposed images of the 157 new emojis expected to be available in 2018, some folks noticed the little red lobster came up a bit short. Lobsters have 10 legs – including their tasty claws – but the proposed emoji showed only eight legs plus a tail that appeared somewhat malformed.

 While a common mistake even among businesses that should arguably know better (ahem, Red Lobster), an eight-legged lobster even in digital cartoonish form didn’t sit well with some people.

 “The #lobsteremoji is happening! Hopefully the final version will have the right number of legs,” tweeted the folks from Rockland’s annual Maine Lobster Festival on Feb. 12 above a picture of an anatomically correct, 10-legged version.

 Well, the reference site that creates emoji images took note.

 “We heard you. We made some mistakes. And we are fixing them,” Jeremy Burge, chief emoji officer at Emojipedia, wrote in a blog post Monday unveiling changes to the digital icons for lobster, skateboards and DNA. Emojipedia designs the sample images for emojis, which are then displayed by the Unicode Consortium.

 The new proposed emoji has two more legs just behind the cartoon crustacean’s carapace as well as a slightly tweaked tail.

 In an email, Burge noted that Emojipedia’s lobster emoji is just a “sample image” of what could eventually be available. The companies that make the emojis available to users, such as Apple and Adobe, could come up with their own versions.

 “I have to say that I’m a bit embarrassed we didn’t get the leg count right the first time, but I’m happy it was brought to our attention so quickly!” Burge wrote. “I hope to visit Maine one day and will be sure to make liberal use of the lobster emoji when I do.”

 Of course, Mainers and lobster lovers weren’t the only ones to critique the accuracy of the new emojis. Emojipedia also “fixed” the DNA emoji to show that the double-helix that carries genetic data twists to the right, not to the left as originally proposed. And Burge wrote in his blog post that skateboarding legend Tony Hawk was brought in as an “emoji advisor” to inform Emojipedia’s second attempt at a skateboard after Hawk pointed out a few foibles in the original.

 U.S. Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent who pushed hard for an emoji honoring the state’s $500 million commercial lobster fishery, was pleased with the revisions.

 “Senator King knows that many around the world were rightly steamed by the exclusion of two legs from the original design, and is grateful that Emojipedia took quick action to ensure that Maine’s delicious decapod will be accurately represented when it crawls onto phones in the coming months,” King spokesman John Faherty said in a statement.

 The updated lobster emoji is expected to be available later this year – hopefully in time for Maine tourists to spice up their tweets, snaps and Facebook posts about chowing down on the real thing.

 Kevin Miller can be contacted at 791-6312 or at:

 [email protected]

 Twitter: KevinMillerPPH

 ____________________

 CORRECTION: This story was updated at 1:56 p.m. on Feb. 20, 2018, to say that Emojipedia designs the sample emojis, which are then displayed by the Unicode Consortium.

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

– After an outcry, the organization that controls the release of emojis has added two more legs to the forthcoming lobster emoji to make it correct. The Portland Press Herald reports that soon after the Unicode Consortium released proposed images of 157 new emojis, Maine residents took umbrage at the lobster emoji's eight legs instead of the correct 10. Emojipedia Chief Emoji Officer Jeremy Burge wrote in a blog post Monday that the consortium had heard people's complaints and is releasing updated designs for the lobster emoji, alongside updates for a skateboard and DNA emoji. (The post has before and after images.) The lobster emoji is expected to be available later this year, per the AP.


Summarize this article:

Calcific myonecrosis is a rare condition. This condition was first reported in two patients by Gallie and Thomson following Volkmann's ischemic contracture[1]. The exact pathophysiology of this condition is unknown. A patient with calcific myonecrosis usually has muscle necrosis that usually occurs following high-energy trauma or compartment syndrome especially in cases that have peripheral nerve injury[2, 3]. There were also reports in which this condition was found after repeated trauma during epileptic seizures[4] and patients with a history of dermatomyositis[5]. O'Keefe et al. suspected progressive enlargement happened from repeated intralesional hemorrhage[6].

 Calcific myonecrosis following snake bite is rarely reported. In the present study, the patient had a history of snake bite and the physical examination showed sequelae of untreated compartment syndrome. Compartment syndrome following snake bite has been reported[7]. The patient in this present study who had sequelae from compartment syndrome developed calcific myonecrosis.

 The most common area of calcific myonecrosis is the anterolateral part of the leg[8, 9]. This condition is usually found at the anterior compartment of the leg followed by the lateral and deep posterior compartments[2, 3]. The location of disease in the present report was consistent with previous reports. However, calcified myonecrosis at other areas has also been reported such as at the forearm[10] and foot[11]. The onset of this condition usually presented in the sixth and seventh decades of life but there were reports which showed this disease could happen in a wide range of ages from the third decade to the seventh decade[10, 12]. The intervals from history taking of the injuries until the patients’ visits for treatment varied from 10 to 60 years according to reports[12].

 The clinical presentation of this condition was a gradually enlarging painless mass with occasional tenderness. A plain radiograph of the mass usually showed fusiform mass with longitudinal peripheral plaque-like calcification involving the entire compartment[2, 6]. Bone erosion could be found but the periosteal reaction was smooth[12]. In some cases cortical scalloping could happen due to the chronic pressure effect of the gradually enlarging mass. An MRI of the mass showed central liquefaction with homogeneous signal on T1-weighted and T2-weighted images and heterogeneous signal on T2-weighted image. T1- and T2-weighted images showed low signal at the peripheral calcification without enhancement after gadolinium injection[13]. However, Okada et al. reported one case in which MRI demonstrated peripheral ring enhancement on postcontrast fat-suppressed T1-weighted images[14].

 A differential diagnosis of this condition included soft tissue sarcoma and myositis ossificans. Soft tissue sarcoma with radiographic soft tissue calcification could be synovial sarcoma, epithelioid sarcoma or soft tissue osteosarcoma; soft tissue sarcoma has a more aggressive radiographic appearance than calcific myonecrosis and mineralization is usually distributed throughout the mass which is different from calcific myonecrosis which usually has peripheral calcification with central liquefaction[3]. Radiographic images of myositis ossificans usually show a central trabeculation and marrow signal in MRI without a history of progressive enlargement of the mass[11].

 A biopsy in calcific myonecrosis is not recommended due to the high risk of infection[2]. The infection could develop in cases as high as 30% after surgery[12]. However, there were some patients who had infection at the first presentation without any surgical interventions[11]. Prevention of this condition is early detection and treatment of patients who have compartment syndrome[15]. In an asymptomatic patient, a recent report suggested observation of the clinical symptoms and signs due to the benign nature of the disease to avoid complications from surgery which has a high rate of postoperative infection[2].

 In a symptomatic patient, complete mass excision with flap coverage and primary closure with a suction drain or open wound for secondary intentional healing were recommended[3, 11]. In the present study, we performed a primary closure and retained a prolonged vacuum drain for 12 days for seroma prevention by draining serous fluid from the dead space after mass excision. Postoperative antibiotics recommended in previous reports were combined with antibiotics that covered Gram-positive and Gram-negative microorganisms and then were adjusted based on the intraoperative culture. The antibiotics should be continued for 6 to 8 weeks[3, 8, 9]. ||||| More than 50 years after being bitten by a venomous snake, a woman developed a large mass in her lower leg, according to a new report of her case.

 The 66-year-old woman in Thailand had been bitten by a Malayan pit viper, a venomous snake native to Southeast Asia, when she was 14.

 The painless mass had become noticeable 10 years earlier, and on an X-ray it looked like an enlarged cavity wrapped in a tough, calcified membrane, resembling an eggshell. It ultimately grew so large that it broke through the woman's skin. Doctors surgically removed the mass, and the wound completely healed by one month after the surgery, they wrote in their report, published June 16 in the Journal of Medical Case Reports.

 Such masses have rarely been reported following a snakebite, but they have been seen following other types of traumatic injury to muscles, according to the report's authors, who are researchers at the Prince of Songkla University in Thailand. [16 Oddest Medical Cases]

 A calcified mass can form as muscle tissue starts to die after a crushing injury or disruption of the blood supply, usually in the lower leg, said Dr. Darren Fitzpatrick, an assistant professor of Radiology at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York, who wasn't involved in the woman's case.

 The result is usually a firm, hard, palpable mass that can be examined using X-ray or MRI scans. [Image of the mass]

 "It's very common for it to be mistaken for a tumor, but usually, the imaging helps with the diagnosis," Fitzpatrick told Live Science.

 In the case of this patient, doctors suspected that, because of the snakebite, the woman had developed a condition called compartment syndrome; the name refers to sections of muscle that are held together, along with nerves and blood vessels, by a tough tissue called the fascia, which does not stretch easily.

 The woman's compartment syndrome had been left untreated, according to the report.

 "Compartment syndrome usually happens below the knee," Fitzpatrick said. "You have a big group of muscles there, and they are in kind of a tight compartment.

 "If the muscles start to swell from trauma or injury, they can run out of space, and that could result in compromised blood flow," he added. "That's certainly a very plausible reason as to why this could have happened in this case."

 Editor's Note: This article was updated at 5:00 p.m. ET. It incorrectly referred to the snake as poisonous rather than venomous.

 Email Bahar Gholipour. Follow LiveScience @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on Live Science. |||||

– It was a slowww reaction. When she was 14, a girl in Thailand got bit in the leg by a poisonous snake called the Malayan pit viper. A half-century later, she showed up at the doctor with a painful mass in that same leg, reports LiveScience, picking up on a writeup in the Journal of Medical Case Reports. Doctors first diagnosed the mass as calcific myonecrosis, the result of the venom destroying muscle tissue, when the woman was 66. Five years later, the still-growing mass actually came through her skin, and doctors surgically removed it without further complications. (Click to read about the discovery of a snake long thought extinct.)


Write a summary based on this article:

Oscar-winner Vittorio Storaro weighs in on the recent accusations that director Bernardo Bertolucci and star Marlon Brando took advantage of Maria Schneider during the filming of the sexually charged 1972 release.

 Vittorio Storaro is considered a legend in the cinematography world. The three-time Oscar winner, known for his lush visual style in classics like Apocalypse Now, Reds and The Last Emperor, has been a longtime collaborator of 76-year-old Italian auteur Bernardo Bertolucci's, beginning in 1970 with the groundbreaking Italian drama The Conformist, which is considered one of the most strikingly cinematic films of all time.

 Storaro worked with Bertolucci two years later on Last Tango in Paris. Starring Marlon Brando, who was then basking in the acclaim of his unlikely comeback in Francis Coppola’s The Godfather, the film is a provocative meditation on love and sex that finds Brando’s depressed, recently widowed American become sexually involved with a young Parisian woman portrayed by then-newcomer Maria Schneider. Lauded for its adventurousness by critics and honored with two Academy Award nominations for Brando and Bertolucci, the film nevertheless instantly stirred controversy — it was banned or censored in multiple countries and was initially given an X-rating by the MPAA. The most controversial moment in the film remains the infamous “butter” scene, in which Brando, then 48, employs the substance as a lubricant for anal sex with Schneider, who was 19 at the time.

 Now, 44 years after its initial release, Tango is once again generating outrage after a 2013 video interview on Dutch television resurfaced in which Bertolucci discusses how some aspects of that infamous scene were sprung on Schneider at the last minute. According to Bertolucci, he and Brando came up with the idea of using butter just before the scene was shot on the set of the Parisian apartment where much of the film takes place. The video interview, which includes Bertolucci expressing regret over how he handled the situation, led to an Internet firestorm, with headlines claiming the director and Brando conspired together to shoot what many felt was a nonconsensual sex scene.

 The backlash in Hollywood was immediate, with stars like Jessica Chastain, Chris Evans and Evan Rachel Wood taking to Twitter to condemn both Bertolucci and Brando. Wrote Chastain: “To all the people that love this film — you're watching a 19yr old get raped by a 48yr old man. The director planned her attack. I feel sick.”

 The Office’s Jenna Fischer called on all copies of the film to be destroyed, claiming it contained an “actual rape.”

 On Dec. 5, Bertolucci, released a new statement in which he defended the simulated scene, adding that the only thing unknown to Schneider, who, he said, read and agreed to the explicit nature of the script before signing onto the role, was “the idea of the butter.”

 Storaro, who was on set throughout the shoot, says he had not been following the renewed controversy, but was sent a story from a friend about the resurfaced interview and was shocked that a three-year-old discussion about a film released in 1972 was being turned into a “ridiculous” scandal.

 Speaking exclusively to THR about the new controversy, Storaro maintains that nothing malicious occurred on set during the shooting of the film, and that the surprise nature of the scene was simply part of Bertolucci’s filmmaking process. Moreover, he claims that Schneider was nothing but thrilled to be a part of the film.

 THR spoke with Storaro in Rome about the media firestorm, what the actual process was like on set and why he believes Last Tango in Paris still hits a nerve with viewers after 44 years.

 What was your reaction to the media response to the resurfaced interview with Bertolucci?

 It’s something that some ignorant journalist put together. I was really disgusted by what was written, which is not true at all. I think the journalists are making an issue that is not really an issue. I read that there was a kind of violence made on her but that’s not true. That’s not true at all. That’s terrible. I was there. We were doing a movie. You don’t do it for real. I was there with two cameras and nothing happened.… Nobody was raping anybody. That was something made up by a journalist.

 Don't make a big issue over this story, because it’s ridiculous. The problem is someone made up a major headline to create a scandal. If I remember the interview correctly, probably Bernardo felt that maybe he didn’t explain it completely to Maria from the beginning and that’s why he felt a little guilty and nothing more than that. What Bernardo said later was he would like to apologize to Maria, only because he probably didn’t explain to her at the beginning what was discussed with Brando. Nothing happened during the shooting.

 Was it normal for last-minute story details to be changed on set?

 Every morning we would arrive in the apartment and Bernardo had a meeting with Brando to discuss how they would do the scene. Brando wanted to add his own opinion. And after, Bernardo would come to me and explain how he wanted to do the scene, in agreement with Brando. We put together the sequence in any normal way we would do a movie. There is a possibility that Bernardo didn’t mention a specific detail to her.... [Maria] knew perfectly well what she was doing. She knew pretty well what was happening in every scene. She was an actress and had no problems with this. It was an acting job, not something else.

 What happened on set the day you shot the butter scene?

 I only know that Maria was there like every normal scene and knew we were doing a love scene even if it was a quite unusual film scene.… Everything was written down, but every morning Bernardo loved to add something. They added something with Brando in every scene, but that was quite normal. They loved to do this. We knew the script and we knew what we wanted to do, but every morning you come up with different ideas, so you are specifically discussing that scene in that moment.

 What do you remember about the atmosphere of the set?

 It was a fantastic period, from the very first day. Brando was a very intelligent person, so he knew very well the way that Bernardo and I wanted to visualize the story. It was a wonderful atmosphere. Brando was so nice, so generous. In the apartment there was a great energy. When you came into the apartment every morning you could feel that it was a wonderful way to make a movie. We were a very small crew and we had a wonderful time in doing the movie together.

 In fact, Maria in the beginning she was kind of snobbish in a French way. [As if] to say, "I don’t care about Brando, a big American movie star and Bertolucci, a great Italian director," and so on. But as we went on in the film, she was crying that the film was ending, that this fantastic experience was coming to an end too soon. That’s something I remember very well. Like everybody in this wonderful atmosphere, she was so sorry that the movie was ending.

 We had a great wonderful time with Brando and Bernardo. I worked with Bernardo on The Conformist and The Last Emperor, but Tango was a very special one. It was a really magical moment. You could feel the creative energy coming together, the fantastic way to work together in a very small crew. We stayed in that apartment for seven weeks, because we had very few exteriors. It is one of greatest memories of my life.

 Were you surprised at the reaction to the film at the time?

 The movie was at that time attacked, particularly in Italy. In Italy they banned the movie. They wanted to burn it. In this time period they were doing so many movies that were much more erotic or violent than Last Tango but Last Tango was touching some principle in connection with a character that is upset with the structure of the family, the structure of the government, the structure of the country. As a principle, when he was making love to her it was like making love to the rest of the world.

 That’s why Tango was seen as a movie that should be censored. That’s why it is a great movie. It’s not only erotic, but it touched a difficult moment that one person can have. And [Brando’s character] putting his own life in relation to the world around him, starting from his wife who betrayed him to the moral issues of the world and so on. That’s something written from the very first dialogue. That’s why Brando loved to do the movie, because he loved to put himself in that kind of role. ||||| FILE - In this Oct. 15, 2016, file photo, director Bernardo Bertolucci poses for photographers during a photo call at the Rome Film festival in Rome. A recently unearthed video interview with Bertolucci... (Associated Press)

 FILE - In this Oct. 15, 2016, file photo, director Bernardo Bertolucci poses for photographers during a photo call at the Rome Film festival in Rome. A recently unearthed video interview with Bertolucci... (Associated Press)

 ROME (AP) — Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci is clarifying details about the infamous butter rape scene in the "Last Tango in Paris."

 Bertolucci says the only novelty sprung on actress Maria Schneider was the butter — not the simulated rape, which he said was written into the script.

 "Some people thought, and think, that Maria wasn't informed about the rape," said a Bertolucci statement carried by the ANSA news agency Monday.

 "False! Maria knew everything because she had read it in the script, where it was described," he said. "The only novelty was the idea of the butter."

 The controversial film made headlines in recent days after a 2013 interview surfaced in which Bertolucci said neither he nor Marlon Brando had told Schneider of their plans to use the stick of butter during the scene.

 He said he and Brando came up with the idea on the morning of the shoot and decided not to tell Schneider because he wanted her to react "as a girl, not as an actress." Bertolucci wanted her, he said, to feel "the rage and the humiliation."

 Schneider, who died in 2011, spoke often about the scene between her, then aged 19, and Marlon Brando, then 48, even saying in a 2007 Daily Mail interview that she "felt a little raped" by her co-star and director.

 In the statement, Bertolucci said the controversy was "ridiculous." He criticized commentators for being so "naive" as to think that what they see on screen actually happens.

 "Those who don't know that in film, sex is (almost) always simulated, probably also think that every time John Wayne fires, someone actually dies."

 ___

 This story has been corrected to show that comments were made Monday, not Wednesday. |||||

– The butter was the surprise, not the simulated rape. That's what director Bernardo Bertolucci is adding to the conversation on the recent dustup about one of his most famous movie scenes. Outrage ensued after an interview with him from 2013 emerged in which he said he and Marlon Brando decided the morning of shooting to use a stick of butter (as lubricant) on actress Maria Schneider during the rape scene in Last Tango in Paris, but Bertolucci says the scene itself wasn't a shock to Schneider, the AP reports. "Some people thought, and think, that Maria wasn't informed about the rape," he said Monday, per ANSA. "False! Maria knew everything because she had read it in the script, where it was described. The only novelty was the idea of the butter." Schneider, who died in 2011, was 19 when the scene was shot with 48-year-old Brando; she said in 2007 that she "felt a little raped" by both men. The movie's cinematographer, Vittorio Storaro, weighs in, telling the Hollywood Reporter that Schneider loved being in the film and that the element of surprise was part of Bertolucci's moviemaking MO. "I was there with two cameras and nothing happened," he says. "Nobody was raping anybody. That was something made up by a journalist." He adds Bertolucci likely felt "a little guilty and nothing more than that" for not completely explaining the butter to Schneider before the scene was shot. Bertolucci also calls anyone who thought Schneider was actually raped "naive" and the controversy "ridiculous." "Those who don't know that in film, sex is [almost] always simulated, probably also think that every time John Wayne fires, someone actually dies," he said in the statement. He admitted in the 2013 interview that Schneider "hated me for all of her life," per the Express. More from Storaro.


Last week, Facebook's data analysis team published some interesting facts about its users based on an analysis of 1 million status updates from English speakers in the United States.

 Here's some of what they found out:

 Old people tend to babble--length of status updates was the best predictor of a user's age. Religious terms, social processes, and family were also more common among older users

 Kids skip words--there was a strong correlation between age and the use of articles and prepositions. Younger users were also more likely to swear, express anger, and use the word "I."

 Using the word "you" is a sign that you have lots of friends.

 People are most positive in the morning--that's when status updates contained the most positive emotional messages. Negative emotions spiked after 10 p.m.

 References to time peak in the morning. This is probably people posting about how late they were up last night, how late they are for work, and so on.

 Updates with negative emotions receive more comments than those with positive emotions, probably as friends race to console each other.

 People tend to use the same kind of words in status updates as their friends--particularly if they're referring to their family, using religious words, or swearing.

 To get these results, the company used 68 word categories from the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) Dictionary, a textual analysis program that identifies parts of speech (like prepositions and articles) as well as content (such as religious references or terms that indicate a strong emotion). It then correlated Facebook status messages against user characteristics like age, number of friends, and time of day.

 The statistics could be very useful to advertisers and marketers. For instance, if a rock band wants to match the habits of younger users, its updates should be angry and full of curse words and sexual references--not much of a stretch, really. Or, if an event planner wants to get users out that night, the promotional push should start around 4 p.m., when references to leisure activities begin to spike. ||||| People use status updates to share what’s on their minds, to tell others what they’re doing, and to gather feedback from friends. The different ways people use status updates form some interesting patterns. In this study, we looked at the usage of words in different “word categories�? in status updates. This led us to discover some patterns in how people use status updates differently, and how their friends interact with different status updates.

 The Word Categories Explained

 The word categories we used are from the LIWC dictionary. It provides 68 word categories of different types corresponding to meaningful psychological and linguistic constructs, along with a list of words belonging to each category. Words are categorized based on their part of speech (pronouns, articles, past-tense verbs, etc.), their emotional content (positive emotions, negative emotions, sadness, anger, etc.), or the topic they are related to (school, work, religion, etc). See [1] for a full list of word categories.

 After removing identifiable information from the updates, we had our computers calculate the percentage of words in status updates belonging to each word category (so no human ever read your updates). In sum, about one million updates were analyzed, all from US English speakers. As an example of how the words are counted, 22% of the words in the update below fall into the “prepositions�? category (“to�?, “for�?, “since�?, and “in�?), 11% into the “past tense verbs�? category (“has�? and “missed�?), and 11% into the “inclusive�? category (“in�? and “this�?). A few other categories have nonzero word counts.

 Age and Popularity

 The charts below show the correlations between use of words from a given word category and age/friend count of the user. The word categories are ordered by correlation, with word categories most positively correlated with age/friend count at the top, and word categories most negatively correlated with age/friend count at the bottom [2]. (Click here for a higher resolution image.)

 The chart on left confirms the typical stereotypes about younger and older people. Younger people express more negative emotions (including anger) and swear more. They use more pronouns referring to oneself (“I�?, “my�?, etc.) and talk more about school. Older people write longer updates, use more prepositions and articles, and talk more about other people, including their family.

 Word usage of more “popular�? people also differs from people with a lower friend count. People with more friends tend to use more of the pronoun “you�? and other second person pronouns. They write longer updates, and use more words referring to music and sports. More "popular" people also talk less about their families, are less emotional overall, use fewer past tense and present tense verbs and words related to time.

 Timing is Everything

 It should be no surprise that people write about different topics at different times of the day. In the plot below we show how much more (or less) people use words from each given word category compared to the overall average. Generally, people tend to talk about what they are (or should be) doing at a particular time of day. For example, words about sleep increase at night and peak in the early mornings, when people should actually be sleeping. Words about occupation and school are increased in the mornings (perhaps while we’re on our way to work/school). Words about social processes and leisure are low during the mornings (when people are either in school or working), but they increase as the day goes on.

 Interestingly, the emotional content of status updates also varies depending on the time of the day. Positive emotional word use is higher in the mornings, when the corresponding usage of negative emotional words is low. Negative word use increases as the day goes on, as positivity decreases.

 What Our Friends Like

 Once we write a status update, it is no longer just about us; it’s about our friends too, and how they interact with our updates. How do our friends react to different status updates? To answer this question, we look at the correlation between percentage of an update’s words that fall into each word category, and the number of likes and comments the status update receives. Here are the word categories, ordered by correlation. Again, categories positively correlated with likes/comments are at the top, and those negatively correlated with likes/comments are at the bottom. (Click here for a higher resolution image.)

 Unsurprisingly, status updates with more positive emotional words receive more likes, and those with more negative emotional words receive less likes. Slightly less intuitive is the fact that positive emotional updates receive fewer comments (perhaps there’s nothing more to say) whereas negative emotional updates receive more comments (perhaps as a consolation).

 People also prefer to like a religious comment rather than commenting on it (perhaps it’s not a topic they wish to commit to). Status updates that use more pronouns receive more of both types of feedback, as do longer status updates. As for the one word category that correlates most negatively with both likes and comments? Sleep. [4]

 “Birds of a Feather Flock Together�?

 The word “homophily�? literally means “love of the same�?. It is the idea that people tend to associate with others similar to them. Homophily was apparent in one part of our analysis, where we looked at the correlation between how much a user uses certain words in his status updates, and how much similar words are used in his friends’ updates shown on his feeds. The correlation plot below shows a clear diagonal line, meaning there is a positive correlation between how much you use words from a word group, and how much your friends do. [5]

 Here's a version of the correlation plot with all the word groups. Not all word groups are labeled, but the diagonal line is much more visible.

 Notes

 [1] http://homepage.psy.utexas.edu/homepage/faculty/pennebaker/reprints/LIWC2001.pdf (pages 17-18) contains a list of word categories.

 [2] Partial correlations are used to account for the effects due to time of year, friend count, and age where appropriate.

 [3] “Hour of day�? is in Eastern time, although the sample includes US English speakers in other time zones. Corrections for daylight saving time were in place.

 [4] Yes, we did double check that the correlation between feedback and sleep words is negative even after taking into account the fact that people tend to post sleep-related status updates when their friends are, well, sleeping, and not on Facebook.

 [5] Here, we did not account for effects of age and other demographic similarities.

 Lisa Zhang, a data science intern at Facebook, wishes everyone a happy holiday season. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– You can learn a lot when you’re listening to 550 million people. Using linguistic software, Facebook analysts investigated what people were saying in status updates, and came up with a number of interesting trends, Business Insider reports: The oldsters chatter quite a bit: Status update length was the best way to predict age. Older people also tend to talk more about religion and family. The young, meanwhile, leave out articles and prepositions, tend to curse more, and use the word “I” frequently. Those who use “you” a lot tend to have more friends. People have positive outlooks in the morning, the time of more upbeat statuses. After 10pm, there’s a negativity surge. Negative status updates garner more comments than positive ones. Friends use similar vocabularies, especially when discussing family and religion or using swear words.


More About Endo Pharmaceuticals

 In support of the disaster relief efforts in Huntsville, Alabama, and the many other communities directly impacted by the recent spring storms, Endo has established this web site for employees to make donations directly to American Red Cross Disaster Relief. Endo will match all donations made through close of business on Wednesday, March 21, 2012.

 Thank you for your support and generosity. ||||| U.S. cell phone users donated more than $8 million by 8:25 a.m. EDT Friday in a Haiti earthquake relief text message appeal.

 The donations were pledged in $10 increments to the Red Cross for Haiti disaster relief, by far the largest outpouring of support via mobile devices in history.

 The response to the devastating earthquake produced the highest amount of mobile donations "that we have ever seen," said Jenifer Snyder, executive director of mGive Foundation, the nonprofit group that is working with the Red Cross and wireless carriers to channel the donations.

 To donate to the Red Cross, mobile users are texting the word "Haiti" to the number 90999. Snyder said the money is coming in at a rate of roughly $200,000 an hour. As of Thursday afternoon, people had donated $5.1 million.

 "We could be handling more," she said. "We are not at capacity."

 Red Cross spokesman Roger Lowe called the outpouring of $10 donations by hundreds of thousands of mobile users "nothing short of awe-inspiring." But he said the largest donations the organization is getting is still coming in online.

 So far, the Red Cross has released $10 million for earthquake relief in Haiti.

 On Thursday morning's "The Early Show" on CBS, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton asked Americans to contribute to the Red Cross via text donations. And on social networks Twitter and Facebook, users continued to urge one another to text money as well.

 Other charities, such as singer Wyclef Jean's Yele, were also collecting mobile donations. To send $5, donors can text "Yele" to the number 501501. The William J. Clinton Foundation was accepting $10 per text from users sending the word "Haiti" to 20222.

 Verizon Wireless said Thursday morning its users have pledged more than $1 million to the Red Cross through text donations. The outpouring easily surpassed earlier records for mobile giving.

 In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the Red Cross collected $400,000 from mobile users. A year earlier, following the Asian tsunami that left 230,000 people dead, the organization received $200,000 through text messages, Verizon Wireless said, citing industrywide figures.

 Jeffrey Nelson, a spokesman for Verizon Wireless, called mobile donations a "new stream of philanthropy."

 "So many folks who are texting $10 now might not have been at a place to write a check, or call a toll-free number or send mail," he said.

 Wireless carriers, including AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint, said they were not charging regular text-messaging fees on top of the donations.

 T-Mobile USA Inc., which is also waiving texting fees, said Thursday it is enabling international calls to Haiti free of charge through Jan. 31 and will retroactively credit accounts for such calls made since Tuesday. And T-Mobile users in Haiti will be able to make roaming calls on local networks Voila and Digicel thorough the end of the month, the company said.

 The Associated Press contributed to this report. ||||| Update 2: Sprint has also announced that it is waiving fees, retroactive to Wednesday. (Thanks to changebumpin!)

 Update: MSNBC has updated their article, and they say that AT&T; has announced it will waive fees for donations, and apply the exemption retroactively to those who have already donated. (Thanks to Mathew for the heads up.)

 MSNBC asked Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T;, and Sprint whether or not they're charging for the popular "text HAITI to 90999 to donate $10" meme that's been going around online for the past two days, and that so far has raked in over three million dollars. Verizon and T-Mobile say they're not. Sprint says they are, but that if you just upgrade to an unlimited text message package then you won't have to worry about it.

 What makes this even more ridiculous is that text messaging costs carriers next to nothing—it's almost pure profit. AT&T; and Sprint have apparently decided that they'd like to get in on the Haiti disaster and make a little something something off of the goodwill of their customers. My suggestion: if you're an AT&T; or a Sprint customer, donate some other way.

 Update: I'd take readers who stand up for companies more seriously if I saw more evidence that they thought like companies. A business like AT&T; should have known from the start that making those messages free, and then crowing about it softly via the magic of PR, would be good for the brand, and that means good for profits. The fact that two competitors did just that shows me that some carriers were indeed thinking about long-term self interest, and how to turn public tragedy into a plus sum scenario for the greater good as well as the company. AT&T; and Sprint just weren't.

 "Mobile giving to help Haiti exceeds $3 million" [MSNBC] (Thanks to Matthew!)

 From ConsumerReports.org: |||||

Write a summary.

– Text messaging has proven to be a wildly popular method of donating to the relief effort in Haiti. As of 8:25 this morning, the Red Cross had pulled in more than $8 million through text messages, Fox News reports. That’s the most mobile donations “that we have ever seen,” says the head of mGive, the nonprofit that set up the mobile donation service. Money is pouring in at a rate of roughly $200,000 an hour, in $10 increments. A Red Cross spokesman called the contributions “nothing short of awe-inspiring,” though he noted that the majority of donations are still coming through the organization's website, redcross.org. To donate, head there, or text the word “Haiti” to 90999, which automatically charges a $10 donation to your phone bill. The four major wireless providers have agreed to waive the charge for users whose accounts don't cover unlimited texting, the Consumerist blog reports.