Here is a news article: For wannabe thieves, nothing is more tantalizing than an empty street and a vulnerable ATM. Soon, though, they could be facing more than just failure. Taking design cues from mother nature herself, researchers are building ATMs that fend off thieves with a spray of hot, steaming foam.

 The inspiration for this dastardly defense mechanism comes from none other than the bombardier beetle, which sprays near-boiling acid at any foes who coming knocking. It keeps the ingredients for its deadly concoction (hydrogen peroxide and hydroquinone) in two separate chambers in its abdomin. That way, the chemicals don't mix until they come shooting out, at which point the resulting reaction heats up and nearly vaporizes the noxious liquid. Here's our little friend in action.

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 Researchers at ETH Zurich University took cues from the deadly beetle and built two chemical filled honeycomb chambers. Except this time, hydrogen peroxide was paired with manganese dioxide. Since the two are only separate by a thin sheet of lacquer, any tampering will cause the chamber to break immediately, triggering a reaction that produces water vapor, oxygen, and heat. A much less expensive—not to mention non-face melting—variation on the bomardier's own tactics.

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 Even though the thief might not walk away with a half-eaten face, this is a much more effective way of rendering ATM-theft useless. The oozing foam from the reaction will be laden with dye, marking the banknotes (rendering them useless) as well as the thieves themselves. What's more, researchers say that including DNA nanoparticles will allow them to trace the cash back to the source. Thieves may be able to run, but thankfully, it's getting much harder for them to hide.

 GIF

 Hopefully that barrier is thick enough to withstand the occasional (and inevitable( innocent, frustrated shake. And while this all still just being tested—no plans for immediate rollout yet—we could all use a few more acid-spitting objects in our lives. [Journal of Materials Chemistry via The Atlantic]

 Image: Getty Images/Sion Touhig ||||| The bombardier beetle inspired the researchers of ETH Zurich. (Photo: jayvee18 – Fotolia)

 Its head and pronotum are usually rusty red, and its abdomen blue or shiny green: the bombardier beetle is approximately one centimetre long and common to Central Europe. At first glance, it appears harmless, but it possesses what is surely the most aggressive chemical defence system in nature. When threatened, the bombardier beetle releases a caustic spray, accompanied by a popping sound. This spray can kill ants or scare off frogs. The beetle produces the explosive agent itself when needed. Two separately stored chemicals are mixed in a reaction chamber in the beetle's abdomen. An explosion is triggered with the help of catalytic enzymes.

 “When you see how elegantly nature solves problems, you realise how deadlocked the world of technology often is,” says Wendelin Jan Stark, a professor from the ETH Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences. He and his team therefore looked to the bombardier beetle for inspiration and developed a chemical defence mechanism designed to prevent vandalism – a self-defending surface composed of several sandwich-like layers of plastic. If the surface is damaged, hot foam is sprayed in the face of the attacker. This technology could be used to prevent vandalism or protect valuable goods. “This could be used anywhere you find things that shouldn't be touched,” said Stark. In agriculture and forestry, for example, it could be used to keep animals from gnawing on trees.

 Like a fuse

 The researchers use plastic films with a honeycomb structure for their self-defending surface. The hollow spaces are filled with one of two chemicals: hydrogen peroxide or manganese dioxide. The two separate films are then stuck on top of each another. A layer of clear lacquer separates the two films filled with the different chemicals. When subjected to an impact, the interlayer is destroyed, causing the hydrogen peroxide and manganese dioxide to mix. This triggers a violent reaction that produces water vapour, oxygen and heat. Whereas enzymes act as catalysts in the bombardier beetle, manganese dioxide has proven to be a less expensive alternative for performing this function in the lab.

 The researchers report that the product of the reaction in the film is more of a foam than a spray when compared to the beetle, as can be seen in slow motion video footage. Infrared images show that the temperature of the foam reaches 80 degrees. Just as in nature, very little mechanical energy is required in the laboratory to release a much greater amount of chemical energy – quite similar to a fuse or an electrically ignited combustion cycle in an engine. ||||| Megan, a reader who voted for Hillary Clinton, shares a powerful confession:

 I’ve been thinking about the election a lot for the past two days, and the idea that I keep coming back to is that in some ways this is my fault.

 It’s my fault because I voted for Clinton when she ran against Obama in the 2008 primary, but I didn’t tell anyone because she was the unpopular choice. I wasn’t embarrassed about my decision, but being a real liberal seemed to mean voting for Obama. So I voted quietly in the primary, felt my disappointment quietly when she lost, and seamlessly joined the Obama supporters in the general election.

 It’s my fault because I voted for Clinton when she ran against Sanders in the 2016 primary, and I didn’t tell anyone because again she was the unpopular choice. She was even more qualified this time around and I had a greater appreciation for the depth of her public service, but being a real liberal seemed to mean supporting Sanders. So I voted quietly in the primary, and rarely mentioned my preference for her.

 It’s my fault because during the long months of the primary and the general election I didn’t tell anyone how strongly I felt about Clinton. I didn’t put a sticker on my car, I didn’t put a sign in my yard, and I didn’t wear a T-shirt. My loudest statement of support was the tiny pin I purchased after the convention, at a time that it felt safe to be a Clinton supporter.

 It’s my fault because when I ran into people who were voting for Trump—at the grocery store, in the gym, in my neighborhood—I changed the subject because I didn’t want to get into an argument. I told myself that it wasn’t worth it and that they wouldn’t change their minds.

 It’s my fault because though I knew my mother was genuinely torn between the two candidates I didn’t engage with her. I didn’t want to know that she actually thought there was a real choice to be made.

 It’s my fault because I never once asked my sister what she was thinking. She’d supported the Tea Party in the past, and I assumed she was leaning towards Trump. I didn’t want to know.

 It’s my fault because my father and I had a massive fight about Clinton over Easter, and in an effort to preserve our relationship I stopped talking to him about politics. If we didn’t talk about it, then I didn’t have to deal with the possibility that he was sexist and racist in a way I’d never considered.

 It’s my fault because I capitulated to the expectation that I not express my emotions publicly. I’m upset right now, and it isn’t lost on me that expressing this upset is potentially disqualifying. It isn’t lost on me that saying I’m angry will make me vulnerable to the accusation I’m too emotional. I’ve spent a lifetime calming down. It’s something that I try to do when interacting with men professionally, and it’s something that I try to do when I interact with men personally. And every time I do this in my private life, I normalize it and make it harder for women to succeed in public life.

 And it’s also my fault because when I did support her, I did so in a provisional and caveated way. I said things like, “I realize she’s not a perfect candidate” and “I’m not arguing that she isn’t flawed.” And every time I said something like this I affirmed that there was a need to apologize, I singled her out as somehow different from other candidates (in both parties) who were worthy of unequivocal support, and I created the space for the impression that she was critically flawed. I did this nearly every time I spoke about her, and I saw this language in dozens of articles and editorials and statements of support (including The Atlantic’s editorial, though there doesn’t appear to be similarly caveated language in the Lincoln or Johnson endorsements). In fact, I don’t remember seeing this type of language in the editorials written for any of the similarly flawed men who have run for president over the past twenty years. And this, I think, is the thing I regret the most. |||||
A summary of this is?

– The ATM is getting a lesson in self-defense—from a bug. Researchers in Switzerland were inspired by the bombardier beetle, which shoots out a gas that can burn skin, the Atlantic reports. The beetle's mechanism works by mixing two chemicals normally kept separate in its abdomen. When under attack, the beetle combines the hydrogen peroxide and hydroquinone to spray its attack gas. The researchers copied this system by putting hydrogen peroxide and manganese dioxide side-by-side, separated by only a lacquer. Break that lacquer, and you get the reaction. ATM makers could employ the principle in their machines by rigging them to ooze foam if someone begins tampering, say the researchers. Instead of burning acid, the ATMs could cover bills with dye and DNA, making the cash hard to use and easy to track. "Thieves may be able to run," notes Gizmodo, but "it's getting much harder for them to hide." In fact, the mechanism "could be used anywhere you find things that shouldn't be touched," a researcher tells ETH Zurich—whether to fight vandalism or keep animals off crops. (Click to read about another odd method of self-defense in the animal kingdom.)


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– NYPD cops better watch it when they get tough with Occupy Wall Street protesters from now on, because the Marines are coming—to help protect the demonstrators. "I'm heading up there tonight in my dress blues," announced a Marine veteran in a message reposted by another anti-war vet on his Facebook page. "So far, 15 of my fellow Marine buddies are meeting me there, also in uniform. I didn't fight for Wall Street. I fought for America." The vet adds that his "true hope is that we, as veterans, can act as a first line of defense between the police and protesters. If they want to mace them, they will have to get through the effing Marine Corps first. Let's see a cop mace a bunch of decorated war vets." Marines and other vets have already been spotted in the growing movement. A photo posted on a protest tweet shows two Marines recently in an Occupy Wall Street demonstration. One holds a sign reading: "Second time I've fought for my country. First time I've known my enemy." The 1971 Army Infantry vet who reposted the Marine's message said he plans to be at the anti-corporate demonstration planned in Washington with "hundreds of my fellow veterans." Protests are planned throughout the week in New York and several other cities. (Click to see which celebrities are voicing their support.)

The Tamiment Library Economic and Social Justice Web Collection, first began by Tamiment in 2010, contains webpages of organizations and other entities concerned with issues related to economic and social justice from a left and/or progressive perspective. These entities focus on issues ranging from corporate accountability, immigrant rights, unemployment, homelessness, urban justice, healthcare reform, wealth redistribution, and other issues. In addition, there is a huge focus in this collection on the Occupy Wall Street Movement, established in September 2011. Occupy Wall Street is a social movement, started in New York City, that works to reform both the private and public sector. The websites in the collection focus on different aspects and working groups of the movement. On the public page, these websites are tagged “Occupy Wall Street.” They make up their own series in this finding aid. These websites contain a huge variety of media, which include YouTube videos, pdfs, blog postings (including Tumblr and Wordpress blogs), petitions, news feeds, audio, and other media. These websites often act to document and update upon the organizations’ activities, schedule upcoming events, build awareness of their cause, or other media. Most websites are captured quarterly, but during periods of rapid update, the website are captured weekly or monthly. The web collection documents the publicly available content of the web page, it does not archive material that is password protected or blocked due to robot txt exclusions. Although attempts are made to completely archive the entirety of a website, linked pages are often not captured as can be pages within the host URL. ||||| Posted 2 years ago on Aug. 27, 2016, 10:58 a.m. EST by OccupyWallSt

 Tags: Micah White, The End of Protest, Innovation

 “Micah White argues convincingly that established modes of protest are outdated and sketches the outlines for how activists can and must innovate. His book is a love letter to activists of the future.” — Michael Hardt

 Is protest broken? Micah White, co-creator of Occupy Wall Street, thinks so. Recent years have witnessed the largest protests in human history. Yet these mass mobilizations no longer change society. Now activism is at a crossroads: innovation or irrelevance.

 In The End of Protest White declares the end of protest as we know it and heralds the future of activism. Drawing on his unique experience with Occupy Wall Street, a contagious protest that spread to eighty-two countries, White articulates a unified theory of revolution and eight principles of tactical innovation that are destined to catalyze the next generation of social movements. Sweeping from contemporary uprisings to spiritual and pre-modern revolutions, The End of Protest is a far-reaching inquiry into the miraculous power of collective epiphanies.

 Despite global challenges—catastrophic climate change, economic collapse and the decline of democracy—White finds reason for optimism: the end of protest inaugurates a new era of social change. He argues that Occupy Wall Street was a constructive failure that exposed the limits of protest at the same time as it revealed a practical way forward. On the horizon are increasingly sophisticated movements that will emerge in a bid to dominate elections, govern cities and reorient the way we live.

 In this provocative playbook, White offers three bold revolutionary scenarios for harnessing the creativity of people from across the political spectrum.

 White also shows:

 How social movements are created and how they spread

 How materialism limits contemporary activism

 Why we must re-conceive protest in timescales of centuries, not days

 Ultimately, the end of protest is the beginning of the spiritual revolution within ourselves, the political revolution in our communities and the social revolution on Earth.

 Rigorous, original and compelling, The End of Protest is an exhilarating vision of an all-encompassing revolution of revolution.

 About the Author

 MICAH WHITE, PhD is the influential social activist who co-created the Occupy Wall Street movement while an editor of Adbusters magazine. White has a twenty-year record of innovative activism, including conceiving the debt-forgiveness tactic used by the Rolling Jubilee and popularizing the critique of clicktivism. His essays and interviews on the future of activism have been published internationally in periodicals including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian Weekly and Folha de São Paulo. He has been profiled by The New Yorker, and Esquire recently named him one of the most influential young thinkers alive today. White directs Boutique Activist Consultancy—an activist think tank specializing in impossible campaigns. Dr. Micah White lives with his wife and son in Nehalem, a rural town on the coast of Oregon. |||||


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– The inspector general's IRS report is out (read it in full at the Washington Post, if 54 pages of dry analysis and liberal use of the underline function sound like your thing), and some pundits say it's not exactly as jaw-droppingly scandalous as it was made out to be. The delays for organizations seeking tax-exempt status caused by the IRS heaping extra scrutiny on them is certainly unacceptable, writes Ezra Klein at the Washington Post, but there's "no allegation here of politicization," he writes. Just confusion and incompetence. "The most hotly anticipated IRS probe since Watergate didn't exactly live up to the hype," write Kelsey Snell and Lauren French at Politico, offering some takeaways from the report: First, they agree IRS agents weren't motivated by partisanship, but asking organizations for donor records was burdensome and unnecessary. And the IRS has more work to do to fix the problems: The report makes nine recommendations, but the agency has agreed to only seven. One it hasn't agreed to is drafting new guidelines for how it should investigate politically-oriented groups. But given how touchy the subject is right now, it may not be able to for some time, say Snell and French—and that means it may now be impossible to actually police which groups really are crossing the line.

The document isn't clear on whether the IRS misled Congress. 5 takeaways from IRS report

 The most hotly anticipated IRS probe since Watergate didn’t exactly live up to the hype.

 The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration report leaked on Tuesday evening doesn’t nail anyone for lying to Congress. It didn’t out rogue liberal IRS agents with an ax to grind against nonprofit tea party groups.

 Story Continued Below

 But the watchdog report did break new ground, clearly declaring that the IRS crossed the line in asking about donors to conservative groups. It reveals the IRS to be a stubborn agency that isn’t ready to fix all the problems in the report. And it warns that a crackdown on these 501(c)(4) groups isn’t coming any time soon.

 ( PHOTOS: 10 slams on the IRS)

 Here’s the top five things takeaways from the Inspector General report:

 IRS agents weren't partisan

 Republicans looking for a smoking gun on partisan motive will have to keep looking — the report stops short of calling the IRS intentionally partisan, even if the questions might have been inappropriate.

 Most of the report focuses on reprimanding the IRS for choosing ineffective criteria that could be construed as partisan rather than focusing on a partisan motive. Only about 15 percent of the potential cases had the terms “Tea Party,” “patriots” and “9/12” in their organization name. The remaining cases were flagged for other reasons.

 The report found that the narrow focus of the criteria “gives the appearance that the IRS is not impartial in conducting its mission.”

 “Using the names or policy positions of organizations is not an appropriate basis for identifying applications for review by the team of specialists,” the inspector general said.

 ( Also on POLITICO: Watchdog: IRS used 'inappropriate criteria')

 The report never directly accuses the IRS of bias, just the appearance of impropriety.

 Despite the inappropriate search criteria, the majority of applications flagged by the Cincinnati office had indications of significant violations of tax policy. The report found that about 69 percent of the fully documented cases on the list were properly identified.

 Unclear on whether the IRS misled Congress

 The report remains silent on what is emerging as the biggest Republican grievance — how Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller and former Commissioner Doug Shulman failed to disclose to Congress what they learned about the targeting program after May 2012.

 Miller wrote letters to the House Ways and Means Committee and Senate Republicans months after he was briefed but never disclosed that the agency was giving an extra critical eye to conservative groups. Government oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) also accused division head Lois Lerner of misleading Congress after her June 2011 discovery.

 “It appears that you provided false or misleading information on four separate occasions last year in response to the committee’s oversight of the IRS’s treatment of conservative groups applying for tax exempt status,” Issa and committee member Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) wrote.

 But you won’t read about that in the IG report.

 The controversial answers from Miller on why top agency employees did not tell Congress about the extra scrutiny will likely come forth during the Ways and Means hearing this Friday.

 Asking about donors crossed the line

 If tea party groups thought the questions were intrusive, even the Inspector General agrees that asking about donors and books read was a bridge too far.

 The Inspector General said donor lists and details were an unnecessary, burdensome request in the vetting process. That may be the biggest victory for frustrated conservatives.

 The report also makes clear that the IRS knew that it overstepped its bounds when it asked for donor records.

 “Officials informed us that they decided to destroy all donor lists that were sent in for potential political cases that the IRS determined it should not have requested,” the report said. ||||| This just out: The Treasury Department's Inspector General report argues that the IRS developed “inappropriate criteria” in focusing on conservative groups. Here are the key findings:

 The IRS used inappropriate criteria that identified for review Tea Party and other organizations applying for tax-exempt status based upon their names or policy positions instead of indications of potential political campaign intervention. Ineffective management: 1) allowed inappropriate criteria to be developed and stay in place for more than 18 months, 2) resulted in substantial delays in processing certain applications, and 3) allowed unnecessary information requests to be issued.

 And here's the full report:

 http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/files/2013/05/201310053fr-revised-redacted-1.pdf

 My colleagues Juliet Eilperin and Zachary Goldfarb have a write-up of the report as well. ||||| "Inappropriate Criteria Were Used to Identify Tax-Exempt Applications for Review."

 That's the title of the Inspector General's report on the IRS's treatment of tea-party related groups. It's not a very good title. A better one might be "How a group of I.R.S. employees created a politically biased test for 501(c)(4) applicants, got smacked down, quietly created another politically biased test, and then got smacked down even harder -- but in the process, created a lot of delays and trouble for the groups caught in their net."

 Okay, so that's not such a good title, either.

 The key story of the report seems to be this: In the summer of 2010, in response to a huge surge in 501(c)(4) applications and media stories that some of these groups were illegally acting like political organizations, a group of IRS officials developed inappropriate criteria for identifying overly politicized 501(c)(4)s applicants. Those criteria included looking for the words "tea party" or related terms. In July 2011, the director of the IRS told them to knock it off and use more politically neutral criteria that focused on the activities of the group rather than the name or ideology of the group.

 Here's where things get interesting: In January 2012, that same group of IRS officials goes rogue and changes the test back without getting management approval. According to the IG report, "they believed the July 2011 criteria were too broad." They're found out three months later and, in May 2012, a new IRS director again demands the test is revised to "more clearly focus on activities permitted under the Treasury Regulations." That's the test the IRS is using now, and the IG seems comfortable with it.

 Management, however, isn't happy with what's been going on. They issue "a memorandum requiring all original entries and changes to criteria...be approved at the executive level prior to implementation."

 So that's the core of the story. But it's not the whole story. Much of the report is about confusion, incompetence, and unacceptable delays in the IRS unit that manages questionable 501(c)(4) applications. There's no allegation here of politicization. But it's nevertheless unacceptable:

 Many organizations waited much longer than 13 months for a decision, while others have yet to receive a decision from the IRS. For example, as of December 17, 2012, the IRS had been processing several potential political cases for more than 1,000 calendar days. Some of these organizations received requests for additional information in Calendar Year 2010 and then did not hear from the IRS again for more than a year while the Determinations Unit waited for assistance from the Technical Unit. For the 296 potential political cases we reviewed, 33 as of December 17, 2012, 108 applications had been approved, 28 were withdrawn by the applicant, none had been denied, and 160 cases were open from 206 to 1,138 calendar days (some crossing two election cycles).

 Those aren't reasonable delays. Then there's this charming tidbit: Some of the "letters requested that the information be provided in two or three weeks (as is customary in these letters) despite the fact that the IRS had done nothing with some of the applications for more than one year." Imagine you're the director of a hopeful 501(c)(4) that applied to the IRS a year ago, got no response, and then all of a sudden you receive a letter demanding tons of information within two or three weeks. It's absurd.

 These delays impose a real cost, too. It's been noted that none of the groups caught in this net were rejected for 501(c)(4) status. That's true. But many of them are still waiting for a ruling, and others saw their activities held up for over two years.

 Some of the information the IRA requested was also inappropriate, and could've revealed donor information that the 501(c)(4) designation is designed to keep secret. Again, quoting the IG report: "The Determinations Unit requested donor information from 27 organizations that it would be required to make public if the application was approved, even though this information could not be disclosed by the IRS when provided by organizations whose tax-exempt status had been approved."

 The key question related to the political test remains: Why hasn't anyone been fired? It's not definitive whether there's any evidence that the IRS employees who created the tea-party-focused test and then recreated it after the director objected did so for political reasons. It certainly seems possible. And even if their actions were entirely non-political there was a lot of incompetence and a bit of insubordination. What were the consequences?

 The key procedural questions related to uncertainty and delays in the 501(c)(4) designation process are laid out in the report. Of the IG's nine recommendations, the IRS has agreed to implement seven of them, and has proposed alternatives for the remaining two (the disagreements are over how to document the reasons that applications are chosen for review and how to train IRS specialists on the issue).

 Unless significant further evidence comes out, however, this doesn't look like the rot went particularly deep. The most cynical interpretation of the facts of the case laid out by the IG are that a group of mid-level IRS employees created a politically motivated screening process for 501(c)(4) applications. They were stopped, twice, by IRS management, and procedures were put in place to ensure they couldn't do anything like it again. The employees failed, but the system seems to have worked, though not before a lot of groups received some pretty shabby treatment. |||||


CLOSE Jayme Closs of Barron remains missing. Here is what we know. Trent Tetzlaff, USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

 Jayme Closs (Photo: Courtesy of the Barron County Sheriff's Department)

 BARRON, Wis. — A 100-person search party and some 800 tips still have not led Barron County authorities to Jayme Closs, a 13-year-old girl missing since her parents were found shot to death in their home early Monday.

 Police from Wausau sent a school resource officer and therapy dog Thursday to help Barron students cope with the mysterious disappearance of a schoolmate and double murder in their community.

 The state justice department's Office of School Safety also plans to send a team of counselors by the end of the week.

 Barron residents James Closs, 56, and Denise Closs, 46, were found dead about 1 a.m. Monday after police responded to a cellphone call to 911 from inside the home. Their daughter Jayme was nowhere to be found.

 The incident, and the fact that authorities still don't know what transpired in the Closs home Sunday night, has rattled the quiet town of fewer than 3,500 people.

 “We don’t know anything and that’s hard,” said Cyndi Bragg, who owns InFocus Eyewear in Barron and has lived in the area for 25 years.

 Volunteers search a ditch near Barron, Wisconsin, on Thursday, Oct. 18, 2018, looking for any evidence related to missing 13-year-old Jayme Closs. The girl hasn't been seen since before her parents were discovered shot to death early Monday in the family home. (Photo: Haley BeMiller/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)

 She said the whole community is on edge and “stuck in limbo” as they await more information. Meanwhile, she’s told her children to be aware of their surroundings, and her family is taking extra care to lock their door.

 On Thursday afternoon, Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald posted a plea on Facebook for 100 "able-bodied volunteers" to help in the search for evidence related to her disappearance. The volunteers then spread out to search specific areas near the community.

 The sheriff called it a "routine search for articles of evidentiary value." Two hours after the search began, he posted a Facebook update that said nothing had been found related to Jayme's disappearance.

 One of the volunteers out in the field was Ashley Vandenvrink, who lives roughly 30 minutes from Barron. Volunteers were looking for just about anything that might seem suspicious, she said.

 Vandenvrink is a mother of four, which inspired her to help with the search.

 “It’s heartbreaking,” she said. “That could’ve been my daughter. That could’ve been anybody’s kid.”

 Fitzgerald also wrote that the sheriff's office had received more than 800 tips since Monday morning and asked that people with information to call 855-744-3879.

 Badge, the Wausau Police Department's trained therapy dog, awaits her chance to help students in Barron cope with the disappearance of 13-year-old schoolmate Jayme Closs. (Photo: Haley BeMiller/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)

 Wausau Police Chief Ben Bliven, whose department was affected by a mass shooting in March 2017 that drew national attention, said he was eager to help Barron — though the communities are more than two hours apart.

 "There comes a time in every community when help is needed; we have certainly experienced that need for help,” Bliven said in a statement.

 More: Missing Wisconsin girl: What we know about Jayme Closs' disappearance

 More: Missing Wisconsin girl's parents died from gunshots, sheriff says

 Wausau School Resource Officer Nick Stetzer visited the Barron schools with his therapy dog, Badge. Stetzer said students and staff enjoyed seeing the dog and one girl even asked if she could take Badge home with her.

 Trauma is difficult for everyone to handle, Stetzer said, but the therapy dog can provide love to anyone without judgment.

 “A couple seconds of relief of petting the dog and not thinking about stuff definitely helps when it comes to trauma,” he said.

 Wausau School Resource Officer Nick Stetzer works with his therapy dog, Badge, outside Barron schools on Thursday, Oct. 18. Stetzer and Badge visited with students and staff reeling from the disappearance of schoolmate Jayme Closs and the shooting deaths of her parents, James and Denise Closs. (Photo: Haley BeMiller/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)

 Kristen Devitt, director of the state's Office of School Safety, said the additional counseling and therapy resources can help the community now and going forward. The office is working with Barron County Human Services on crisis response so the county can eventually take on that role full time.

 Trying to cope with the traumatic losses in Barron is frightening and anxiety-producing for local residents, Devitt said.

 “There isn’t anyone in this community that this hasn’t touched,” she said.

 The Wisconsin Safe and Healthy Schools Training & Technical Assistance Center will also provide training to school staff and counselors on trauma-informed practices and PREPaRE, which outlines how school professionals can provide mental health support in a crisis.

 All services will be funded through an emergency grant from the state justice department, according to Attorney General Brad Schimel.

 Investigators use a canine Tuesday to help search the grounds near the Closs home in Barron. (Photo: TZ Kha/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)

 Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/10/19/jayme-closs-wausau-police-department-send-aid-barron-schools/1693888002/ ||||| (CNN) Volunteers and law enforcement combed the side of a highway on Thursday looking for evidence in the disappearance of a missing Wisconsin teenager whose parents were found dead in their home this week.

 But the search along Highway 8 in Barron County, Wisconsin, didn't turn up anything of value, according to Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald.

 Hours earlier, Fitzgerald asked for 100 volunteers to help in the routine search for evidence that could be related to the case as the search for Jayme Closs entered its fourth day.

 The 13-year-old was likely at her family's Barron home, located on Highway 8, when her parents were shot dead, and she vanished moments later, investigators believe. Her whereabouts and safety are still in question.

 "We believe Jayme was in the home at the time of the homicides and we believe she's still in danger," Fitzgerald said this week.

 Thursday's search took place about 3 miles from the family's home, according to CNN affiliate WCCO

 Since authorities received a cryptic 911 call and discovered the bodies of Jayme's parents in their home near the town of Barron early Monday, investigators have received more than 800 tips and have not confirmed any credible sightings of the girl.

 But the sheriff said he has a "100% expectation that she's alive."

 #FBIMilwaukee needs your help, as the search continues to bring home 13 year old Jayme Closs, now missing & endangered after her parents were found dead in their home in Barron, WI early this week. Call the tip line 1-855-744-3879.#FindJayme pic.twitter.com/rNELlQKJb6 — FBI Milwaukee (@FBIMilwaukee) October 17, 2018

 An Amber Alert was issued Monday for Jayme and several law enforcement agencies have joined the search.

 Motive in parents' death is unclear

 Deputies are also trying to solve the killings of Jayme's parents, James Closs, 56, and Denise Closs, 46, in the small city of Barron.

 During a 911 call shortly before 1 a.m. Monday, the dispatcher heard a disturbance in the background. But no one spoke directly to the dispatcher, Fitzgerald said.

 When deputes arrived to the home less than four minutes later, Fitzgerald said, no one was in sight and no vehicles were in the immediate area.

 Closs' parents were shot and their deaths have been ruled homicides, Fitzgerald said Wednesday. No gun was found at the scene, he said.

 It's not clear how long James and Denise Closs had been dead when their bodies were discovered Monday.

 On HLN's "Crime & Justice" Wednesday night, Fitzgerald told host Ashleigh Banfield that deputies had recovered the cell phone from which the 911 call was made.

 Fitzgerald said additional agencies, including the FBI, are involved. "They are the experts in breaking down 911 tapes, looking at our phones, and taking care of all evidence in that manner," he said.

 Authorities said they have determined whose cell phone the call came from, but declined to identify the owner.

 Investigators also believe Jayme was at home during the shooting based on details from the 911 call and evidence from the home.

 "Is it a random attack or a targeted attack? I don't know that answer," Fitzgerald told reporters. "That's why those leads are so important."

 Joan Smrekar, who lives next door to the Closs home, told Banfield she heard two shots a couple of seconds apart just after 12:30 a.m. Monday.

 "It was just, 'bang' and 'bang,'" Smrekar said.

 Relatives wait in agony

 Seara Closs said she wishes she were the one endangered, not her cousin Jayme. Seara wrote an open letter to Jayme on Facebook.

 "I'm going thru our family pictures, worrying sick about you :( wishing we could trade places just to get you home and out of harms way," Seara Closs posted

 In her post, Seara reminded her cousin that her family -- including her slain parents -- love her dearly.

 "Grandpa Jim (James) Closs, your Momma Bear, Denise Closs and your very own night [in] shinning armor, your Daddyo Jim JR Closs ... love all of you!" Seara Closs wrote.

 Authorities said they don't believe Jayme Closs ran away.

 Barron Area School District administrator Diane Tremblay said Jayme, a member of her school's cross-country team, is a "sweet girl who is a loyal friend and loves to dance."

 During a recent school assignment, Jayme was asked what she would do with $1 million, Tremblay said. Jayme wrote that she would "feed the hungry and give the rest to the poor."

 Both James and Denise Closs were long-time employees of the Jennie-O Turkey Store in Barron, Jennie-O's parent company Hormel said.

 "Our thoughts are with the Closs family and the entire Barron community," said a statement from Jennie-O Turkey Store officials.

 "This is a difficult time for our entire team and we are mourning this loss and are still processing this terrible tragedy. We are also hopeful for the safe return of their daughter, Jayme, and are keeping her and the Closs family in our thoughts."

 Jayme Closs is 5 feet tall, weighs 100 pounds and has green eyes and blond or strawberry blond hair, the sheriff's department said. Anyone with information can call the tip line at 1-855-744-3879.

 Correction: A prior version of this story incorrectly spelled the missing girl's last name. ||||| Tweet with a location

 You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| If you have any information regarding the whereabouts of Jayme Closs, or if you have had contact with Closs, please contact the Barron County Sheriff's Office tip line at 1-855-744-3879. You may also contact your local FBI office , or the nearest American Embassy or Consulate ||||| The FBI says it's expanded its search nationwide for a 13-year-old Wisconsin girl missing since her parents were found shot to death in their home Monday morning. Authorities say Jayme Closs was in the house when her parents – 46-year-old Denise and 56-year-old James Closs – were killed.

 The girl, who was ruled out as a suspect on the first day, was gone when deputies arrived. Relatives of Jayme told CBS News the front door to the house was shot in.

 When officers responded minutes after a 911 call to the home in Barron, about 80 miles northeast of Minneapolis, they found no suspicious vehicles, says CBS Minnesota.

 The FBI said Thursday that, "out of an abundance of caution," it was sending a digital Missing Person poster to local media partners across the country for display.

 Jayme Closs, age 13, has been missing from Barron, Wisconsin, since Monday, October 15, 2018. Help the #FBI find her: https://t.co/s0fHKjY3hc pic.twitter.com/XRzoQzLxxH — FBI Most Wanted (@FBIMostWanted) October 18, 2018

 More than 100 local and state FBI agents have been working on the case, and officials say hundreds of tips have come in from the community and people around the country, the station reports.

 One-hundred volunteers have joined the search for Jayme, authorities said Thursday, after Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald asked for people to pitch in.

 He said Wednesday investigators believe she's alive but in danger and he urged the public to continue calling in tips.

 The sheriff's office posted on Facebook Thursday afternoon that so far "nothing of evidentiary value has been recovered."

 She's described as standing 5-feet tall, weighing 100 pounds, with green eyes and blonde hair. ||||| A missing teenager has been added to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s top missing persons list. Jayme Closs, a 13-year-old from Barron County, Wisconsin, was reported missing on Monday, October 15, after both of her parents were found dead inside their home.

 The FBI announced on Thursday it was expanding its search for Jayme, who was described as 5 feet tall and 100 pounds, with blonde hair and green eyes. The FBI said it considered the girl “endangered.”

 Police officers located the bodies of James Closs, 56, and Denise Closs, 46, at their home in Barron County on Monday, dead of apparent gunshot wounds, after a 911 call was placed. Their daughter Jayme was not in the house. Authorities had not located any suspects and had not yet determined whether the adults were targeted or whether the killings were random. The motive in the killings remained unknown, and it was not immediately clear who made the 911 call. Authorities reportedly found out whose cellphone the 911 call was dialed from but did not share the information.

 Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald announced on Wednesday that autopsy results ruled the deaths homicides, and that both adults were killed by gunshot wounds.

 “We believe Jayme was in the home at the time of the homicides, and we believe she’s in danger,” said Fitzgerald, according to CNN.

 Hundreds of tips have poured in related to the case, but authorities still have not located Jayme. In a press release on Thursday, the Barron County Sheriff's Office said "nothing of evidentiary value has been recovered."

 An extensive search was underway for the girl, with authorities and volunteers scouring Barron County for traces of the teenager. Fitzgerald said he had a "100 percent expectation that she's alive," according to CNN.

 “At the end of the day, I want a 13-year-old here safe and sound,” said Fitzgerald. “That’s our goal. That’s our only goal right now.”

 Anyone with information was asked to contact the Barron County Sheriff’s Office at 1-855-744-9879, their local FBI office or the nearest American embassy or consulate.

 FBI |||||

Write a summary.

– "Every second counts" in the search for Jayme Closs, and authorities say they've so far received about 800 tips on the disappearance of the Wisconsin teen. The 5-foot-tall 13-year-old with strawberry-blond hair and green eyes was found to be missing early Monday when cops responded to a 911 call at her Barron home; her parents were found there shot to death. In addition to hundreds of tips being called in, USA Today notes that a team of 100 volunteers, recruited on Facebook by Barron County Sheriff Chris Fitzgerald, has been scouring the area in a "routine search for articles of evidentiary value." The hunt for Jayme—who Fitzgerald seems certain is still alive, per CNN—isn't just in Barron: CBS News and Newsweek report the FBI has expanded the search nationwide, with the agency placing Jayme on its top missing-persons list and blasting out a missing-persons poster "out of an abundance of caution" to media across the country. More than 100 local and state FBI agents are said to be helping to find her. "At the end of the day, I want a 13-year-old here safe and sound," Fitzgerald said Wednesday. "That's our goal. That's our only goal right now." (So far, not much has turned up.)


Summarize this article:

Shortly after the U.S. government shutdown ended, President Barack Obama declared that he wanted immigration legislation back on Congress’s agenda, with the goal of passage by year’s end. Some fellow Democrats are in no hurry.

 Their concern: a compromise with Republicans might take the edge off an issue that tops the agenda for Hispanics, a group that gave Obama 71 percent of its votes in the 2012 presidential election. Democrats want to hold onto that decisive margin in their bid to keep control of the U.S. Senate and win a House majority in next year’s congressional races.

 “There are some Democrats who would rather get it done -- and others who would rather have the issue” linger, said Tamar Jacoby, president of ImmigrationWorks USA, a network of business groups that promotes legal immigration. “Either way, they win,” said Jacoby, who has spoken with many Democratic lawmakers. “I hope Obama wants a bill.”

 The reluctance of some Democrats to press the issue now is only one of the hurdles facing legislation this year. A majority of House Republicans oppose providing a pathway to citizenship for undocumented workers. And a White House-backed push by pro-immigration groups -- including high-technology companies eager to obtain visas for workers -- was derailed by the 16-day government shutdown and fight over the debt limit.

 That confrontation, some Republicans say, further poisoned the president’s relations with the party.

 ‘No Discussion’

 “There’s no discussion about immigration” by either party, said Texas Republican John Carter, who last month left a bipartisan House group that was working on a bill. “I have a heart for fixing immigration, but not sure the will is there.”

 With the fiscal crisis temporarily resolved, the president has been forced to focus on fixing website failures on his health-care law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

 Speaking to reporters at the White House today, spokesman Jay Carney said the questions surrounding the health-care law shouldn’t hold up progress on immigration. “There’s no connection between the Affordable Care Act and comprehensive immigration reform,” he said.

 Obama this morning urged Congress to approve legislation, casting the bill as a way to boost the U.S. economy.

 “We should pass immigration reform,” the president said at a White House event. “It’s good for our economy, it’s good for our national security, it’s good for our people, and we should do it this year.”

 Political Repercussions

 He hinted of political repercussions to come for Republicans who prevent legislation from moving forward.

 “Anyone still standing in the way of this bipartisan reform should at least have to explain why,” he said. “It’s up to Republicans in the House to decide if reform becomes a reality or not.”

 The fate of the legislation rests largely in the hands of House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, who must decide whether to bring a bill to the full House.

 The Senate in June passed an immigration bill on a bipartisan vote that included a path to citizenship for the country’s estimated 11 million undocumented workers.

 Supporters of immigration legislation say if Obama pushes hard, it might make it tougher for Republicans to support a priority of the Democratic administration.

 “If he leans into it too aggressively, it makes it harder for Republicans to get to ‘yes,’” said Frank Sharry, executive director of Washington-based America’s Voice. “He wants a result so badly that he’s willing to step back so Republicans can step forward.”

 Immigration First

 The president has no nationwide barnstorming tour scheduled to promote the issue, according to administration officials, who asked for anonymity to discuss internal strategy.

 In remarks after the partial government shutdown ended last week, Obama listed immigration first among three legislative priorities, along with action on the budget and passage of a farm bill.

 He then scolded the same Republican lawmakers whose votes he’ll need for the House to approve Senate-passed legislation.

 “There are folks on the other side who think that my policies are misguided,” he said. “We shouldn’t fail to act on areas that we do agree or could agree just because we don’t think it’s good politics, just because the extremes in our party don’t like the word ‘compromise.’”

 ‘Same People’

 Democrats say Republicans will suffer politically if they fail to move a bill forward. “We are going to hold Republicans accountable for everything: the bad things they do and the good things that they don’t do,” said Representative Steve Israel of New York, chairman of the House Democratic campaign committee.

 Should Republicans block legislation, that would create an opening for Democrats to paint them as obstructionists, say some lawmakers, who argue that Republican opposition to a bill could be paired with the party’s role in the government shutdown.

 “The same people who caused the government shutdown and stopped us from opening the government for two and a half weeks are the people who are blocking immigration reform,” said Representative Joaquin Castro, a Texas Democrat.

 While House Republican leaders have expressed interest in moving forward with legislation, many party lawmakers say Obama’s decision not to negotiate over the shutdown and debt ceiling has soured relations.

 Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, said the president’s tactics undermined his efforts to build a consensus.

 Limited Window

 “Now, this notion that they’re going to get in a room and negotiate a deal with the president on immigration is much more difficult to do,” Rubio said in the Oct. 20 interview, “because of the way that president has behaved towards his opponents over the last few weeks.”

 Advocates for an immigration overhaul, including Jacoby, see a limited congressional window for movement on comprehensive legislation, possibly limited to the next several weeks before new fiscal deadlines hit in the coming months.

 Some Democrats have hinted that action could come further in the future, possibly in the early summer after primary election filing deadlines are past. Then, they say, Republicans will begin turning their focus to the general election, making them more eager to take up the legislation as a way to woo Hispanic voters in battleground states such as Florida, Nevada and Colorado.

 “I’m going to do everything I can to get it done this year,” Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat, told Univision television on Oct. 18. “But remember this is a two-year Congress.”

 Coalition Lobbies

 A coalition of business groups, religious leaders and agricultural companies has spent much of the year lobbying for legislation. Next week, the Partnership for a New American Economy, an association of mayors and business leaders, is flying in 400 business, religious and technology leaders to make the case for a bill on Capitol Hill. They’re targeting House Republicans from more than 20 states.

 Anti-tax activist Grover Norquist, the American Farm Bureau, the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, FWD.US, an advocacy group co-founded by Facebook Inc. (FB) Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce will join them for a rally in urging Republicans to take action.

 The Partnership for a New American Economy was formed by Mayor Michael Bloomberg, the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP.

 ‘Conservative Movement’

 “The goal is to say. ‘Look, this is the conservative movement,’” said Jeremy Robbins, director of the Partnership for a New American Economy. “This is good for the economy, it’s good for America and it’s good for the party.”

 Boehner has said the House won’t back the Senate bill and instead will take action on smaller-scale measures. Speaking to reporters in Washington yesterday, he said he’s still hopeful the House will move on legislation. Senate leaders say they won’t support scaled-down bills.

 The House Judiciary Committee has approved legislation dealing with enforcement, employment verification, and agricultural and high-skilled workers.

 California Republican Darrell Issa, the chairman of the House Oversight panel, is working on a proposal that would offer temporary legal status to qualifying undocumented immigrants, according to spokesman Frederick Hill.

 Lawmakers will also need to shift to the budget as deadlines approach in December, January and February for funding the government and raising the debt ceiling. Representative Tom Cole, an Oklahoma Republican, said an immigration revamp is “dead” until Democrats and Republicans resolve those issues.

 The bitterness left over from the recent budget battle will be hard to overcome, say some lawmakers.

 “He’s tried to destroy the Republican Party,” Representative Raul Labrador, an Idaho Republican, said of Obama, at a forum of Republicans on Oct. 16. “Anything we do right now with this president on immigration will be with that same goal in mind, which is to destroy the Republican Party and not to get good policies.”

 To contact the reporters on this story: Lisa Lerer in Washington at llerer@bloomberg.net; Roxana Tiron in Washington at rtiron@bloomberg.net

 To contact the editors responsible for this story: Steven Komarow at skomarow1@bloomberg.net; Jodi Schneider at jschneider50@bloomberg.net ||||| House Republican leadership has no plans to vote on any immigration reform legislation before the end the year.

 The House has just 19 days in session before the end of 2013, and there are a number of reasons why immigration reform is stalled this year.

 Text Size -

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 reset Mike Allen analysis

 Following the fiscal battles last month, the internal political dynamics are tenuous within the House Republican Conference. A growing chorus of GOP lawmakers and aides are intensely skeptical that any of the party’s preferred piecemeal immigration bills can garner the support 217 Republicans — they would need that if Democrats didn’t lend their votes. Republican leadership doesn’t see anyone coalescing around a single plan, according to sources across GOP leadership. Leadership also says skepticism of President Barack Obama within the House Republican Conference is at a high, and that’s fueled a desire to stay out of a negotiating process with the Senate. Republicans fear getting jammed.

 (WATCH: Barack Obama on immigration: 'Let's do it now')

 Of course, the dynamics could change. Some, including Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), are eager to pass something before the end of the year. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has signaled publicly that he would like to move forward in 2013 on an overhaul of the nation’s immigration laws. If Republicans win some Democratic support on piecemeal bills, they could move forward this year. But still, anything that makes its way to the floor needs to have significant House Republican support

 And Obama is also ramping up his messaging on immigration reform. “It’s good for our economy, it’s good for our national security, it’s good for our people, and we should do it this year,” Obama said Thursday. That same afternoon his chief of staff Denis McDonough met with business CEOs to strategize on immigration reform. Attendees included representatives from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers.

 Getting immigration through this deeply divided Congress in 2014 — an election year — would be incredibly difficult. That’s why immigration reform supporters are growing increasingly worried that the window for a bigger reform package could be slipping away since it would be even more difficult to try and forge ahead in an election year.

 (Also on POLITICO: Darrell Issa to introduce immigration bill)

 “I think there are a lot of folks who are concerned about this issue not getting solved, and I think legitimately so,” Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) told POLITICO. “Because I do think that every day that goes by, it makes it more and more difficult.”

 Other prominent immigration supporters like Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) have also backed off any deal, saying the Obama administration has “undermined” negotiations by not defunding his signature health care law. Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) went further, saying Obama is trying to “destroy the Republican Party” and that GOP leaders would be “crazy” to enter into talks with Obama.

 That rhetoric combined with signals in private conversations with lawmakers and staff has led some immigration advocates to say they see the writing on the wall and they aren’t going to invest heavily until there’s more momentum.

 (PHOTOS: Immigration reform rally on the National Mall)

 “After Obama poisoned the well in the fiscal showdown and [House Minority Leader Nancy] Pelosi now is actively trying to use immigration as a political weapon, the chances for substantive reforms, unfortunately, seem all but gone,” said one GOP operative involved in the conservative pro-immigration movement. |||||

– Republicans in Congress might still be smarting over the fallout from the shutdown, but the New York Times reports that another potential "schism" for the party is right around the corner—immigration reform. Conservatives vow to block any legislation from passing the House, while John Boehner and others support the idea of getting at least piecemeal measures through. Things might come to a head next week when a wide range of groups—from the US Chamber of Commerce to FWD.us, the group set up by Mark Zuckerberg and tech leaders—descends on Capitol Hill to pressure GOP lawmakers to get something done. That doesn't look likely anytime soon, however. Fewer than 20 legislative days are left this year, Politico notes, and next year is dicey because it's an election year. Further complicating things is that some Democrats are not agitating for a vote because they see political benefit in the issue, reports Bloomberg. As the leader of ImmigrationWorks USA puts it, “There are some Democrats who would rather get it done, and others who would rather have the issue” linger. "Either way they win." (The Senate passed its reform bill in June, with a 13-year pathway to citizenship for current immigrants a central part of it.)


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 The only thing missing was a red carpet outside — and the witty woman with a microphone at the end making wisecracks about what all the celebrities were wearing.

 Fabulous comedienne Joan Rivers got the star-studded Upper East Side send-off she wanted Sunday, complete with a Howard Stern eulogy, standing ovations and bagpipers playing “New York, New York.”

 “I hope Joan is somewhere right now chasing Johnny Carson with a baseball bat,’’ Stern quipped, referring to Carson’s infamous years-long snub of Rivers after she started a rival late-night talk show.

 “She was my hero” — and the “crazy aunt at a bar mitzvah,’’ the shock jock said of Rivers, who died Thursday at age 81.

 Rivers’ daughter, Melissa, on hand with her son, Cooper, 13, read a light-hearted letter she wrote to her mother.

 In the crowd were stars including David Letterman, Kathy Griffin, Matthew Broderick and wife Sarah Jessica Parker, Diane Sawyer, Geraldo Rivera, Donald Trump, Whoopi Goldberg, Barbara Walters, Rosie O’Donnell, Charlie Rose and Kelly Osbourne.

 “I’m grateful for everything you’ve done for Cooper and me,” Melissa Rivers said of her mother.

 Film and Broadway star Hugh Jackman — who rode his bicycle to the service in a gray shirt and black pants with tie — sang a tune from “The Boy from Oz.’’

 “Joan, this is for you,” Jackman said before performing at Temple Emanu-El on Fifth Avenue, just a few blocks from Rivers’ condo at 1 E. 62nd St. “But since you asked for it, you already know that.”

 In Rivers’ book, “I Hate Everyone . . . Starting with me,’’ she talked about her hopes for a funeral that’s “a huge showbiz affair with lights, cameras, action” and “Hollywood all the way.”

 In a hilarious excerpt included in the funeral program, Rivers said she didn’t want a rabbi chatting away nonstop but instead wished for “Meryl Streep crying, in five different accents” and “a wind machine so that even in the casket my hair is blowing just like Beyoncé’s.”

 The simple paper booklet listed three classic Rivers’ lines on the back: “Can we talk?”, “Who are you wearing?” and “Because I’m a funny person.”

 During the service, there were jokes about Joan Rivers’ plastic surgery. There were jokes about her sex life. There were jokes about her jokes.

 “There were a lot of tears mixed with laughter,” movie producer Howard Rosenman said. “It was packed. It was beautiful. ”

 Some fans in the crowd lining the block outside wore designer duds to honor the late “Fashion Police” host.

 “For me to get dressed up is very unusual, especially on a Sunday morning. but I did it for Joan,” said Jane Colton, 62, from the Upper East Side. “I thought, ‘It’s Joan, you have to.’ She would want us to. She’s one of us.”

 TV host Deborah Norville recalled for the crowd how Rivers, during a recent Ice Bucket Challenge, dumped water over her head twice, just for laughs.

 “I think the thing that set Joan apart was the fact that when you were with Joan, she made you better,” Norville told reporters later. “You upped your game.”

 Sunday night, an emotional Melissa Rivers, still in her black funeral dress, came out of her mother’s home to address the 50 or so fans gathered outside, and had cupcakes sent out for them, too.

 “I wanted to thank you all for showing support for me and my son and my mother,” Melissa said, fighting back tears.

 “It has been heard by both me and Cooper, and it has truly gotten us through this.”

 Megan Hodges, 22, of Midtown, who was among the fans, said afterward,

 “I was so surprised when Melissa came out and addressed all of us. She was so beautiful and warm.”

 Joan Rivers died after undergoing a throat procedure at an Upper East Side clinic on Aug. 28.

 Additional reporting by Frank Rosario and David K. Li ||||| NEW YORK (AP) — Even in death, Joan Rivers got what she wanted: A star-studded funeral, with the worlds of Hollywood, fashion, media and money all among the mourners.

 FILE - In this Feb. 14, 2012 file photo, Joan Rivers tours backstage with her camera crew for E!'s "Fashion Police," before the Badgley Mischka show during Fashion Week in New York. In the intense, high-stakes... (Associated Press)

 On Sunday morning, a legion of notables turned out at New York's Temple Emanu-El to remember Rivers, who died Thursday at 81: Kathy Griffin, whose edgy, biting comedy career was largely made possible by Rivers; colleague and friend Kelly Osbourne; Sarah Jessica Parker and Whoopi Goldberg; Howard Stern.

 Theater stars Bernadette Peters, Alan Cumming and Tommy Tune were there. Record producer Clive Davis arrived, too. Fashion designers Carolina Herrera and Michael Kors were there. Stars from TV such as Barbara Walters, Geraldo Rivera, Diane Sawyer, Kathie Lee, Hoda Kotb and Andy Cohen. And moguls Barry Diller, Donald Trump and Steve Forbes.

 Mourners lined up outside the Fifth Avenue synagogue and waited for their names to be checked against a list before entering. Barricades lined several blocks of Manhattan's Fifth Avenue, and a crowd of fans and media stood watch across the street.

 The comedian detailed in her 2012 book "I Hate Everyone ... Starting With Me" that she hoped for "a huge showbiz affair with lights, cameras, action" and "Hollywood all the way." Instead of a rabbi talking, Rivers asked for "Meryl Streep crying, in five different accents" and "a wind machine so that even in the casket my hair is blowing just like Beyonce's."

 Rivers was a trailblazer for all comics, but especially for women. The raspy-voiced blonde with the brash New York accent was a TV talk show host, actress, fashion critic, and she sold a line of jewelry.

 The cause of death is being investigated. Rivers was hospitalized on Aug. 28 after she went into cardiac arrest during a routine procedure at a doctor's office. The New York state health department is investigating the circumstances, and the New York City medical examiner said tests to determine the cause of death were inconclusive.

 In her book, Rivers joked that dying of natural causes was boring. "It's the grand finale, act three, the eleven o'clock number — make it count. If you're going to die, die interesting! Is there anything worse than a boring death? I think not."

 Her publicist said that in lieu of flowers, donations can be made to God's Love, We Deliver; Guide Dogs for the Blind; or Our House.

 ____

 Associated Press writer Alicia Rancilio contributed to this report. |||||
A summary of this is?

– No word on whether Meryl Streep is crying in five different accents, but Joan Rivers' funeral is under way at Temple Emanu-El in New York, and the private event is basically one rather large name-drop. Luminaries including Howard Stern, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Griffin, Whoopi Goldberg, Barbara Walters, Kelly Osbourne, Diane Sawyer began lining up this morning, reports the AP. Stern paid tribute to Rivers, notes People, calling her "the best friend in the world … a big sister ... a crazy aunt at Bar Mitzvah." Fans also turned out, with one telling Page Six, "I used to see her walking around Manhattan. She was so real. What you saw was who she was." The back of the program read thusly, as per People: "Can we talk?" "Who are you wearing?" " ... Because I'm a funny person ... " – JOAN RIVERS


Here is a news article: Teenager Autumn Veatch, one of three passengers on a missing plane presumed crashed in the North Cascades, survived in rugged terrain for two days before being found and taken to an Okanogan County hospital Monday with minor injuries.

 BELLINGHAM — The voice on the phone was a miracle.

 It wasn’t another reporter, wasn’t search-and-rescue officials, wasn’t more supportive friends.

 It was Autumn Veatch, 16, calling Monday from a hospital in Brewster, Okanogan County, telling her father, David Veatch, and friends an unbelievable tale of survival.

 It was a voice most of them had privately feared they would never hear again.

 Autumn Veatch was not, as many had feared, dead in a small-plane crash in the North Cascades. She was alive, and aside from some minor burns, dehydration and exhaustion from a two-day ordeal that surely will qualify as an epic survival tale, Autumn was OK.

 And she was more than ready to come home, she told her father and family friends gathered around a speakerphone in the family’s Bellingham apartment.

 “I just can’t believe she went through all that she did,” the 49-year-old father said late Monday after driving four hours to the hospital.

 Details of her ordeal during the brief hospital call were sparse, but rejoicing was immense, said Santina Lampman, a longtime family friend in the room Monday afternoon who later recounted the call to The Seattle Times.

 During the call, Autumn quickly explained how the small plane she’d been traveling in with her step-grandparents, Leland and Sharon Bowman, of Marion, Mont., had crashed in the rugged North Cascades. Autumn somehow survived the impact and futilely tried to pull the Bowmans from the wreckage.

 She stuck by the scene for some time, hoping for help, Autumn told them. But ultimately, she decided she needed to get out of the mountains on her own.

 The Bellingham High School junior-to-be had little outdoor training, but she did what survival experts probably would have advised: She followed drainage down to a river, then the river, via a trail, downstream to the nearest road, Lampman said.

 Authorities identified the trail as the Easy Pass trail, a popular but difficult hike in the rugged mountain terrain. It led Autumn to Highway 20, the North Cascades Highway, where she caught a ride with hikers to the nearest community — Mazama, in the Methow Valley — and contacted authorities.

 Listen to the 911 call

 When Autumn walked into the Mazama Store on Monday, store manager Serena Lockwood said she looked “dazed and not fully aware of what was going on.”

 C.B. Thomas, the first responder from Aero Methow and another manager at the store, said Veatch arrived at 2:45 p.m. wearing a loose sweater, jeans and sneakers. He said she hadn’t had anything to eat or drink for “about three days.”

 “She was obviously upset and distraught,” Thomas said. “She was shaking. She was certainly able to communicate her situation and kind of apologized for being upset and not speaking clearly.”

 She was taken to Three Rivers Hospital in Brewster with non-life-threatening injuries, but she was suffering from dehydration and exposure to the elements, officials said. She was admitted overnight and diagnosed with treatable rhabdomyolysis, a breakdown of muscle tissue that leads to damaging protein in the blood.

 Autumn was pretty “drugged up” when Veatch and two family friends arrived at the hospital late Monday, but she seemed happy to see them, he said. She had one request: McDonald’s.

 “I hear there’s one down the hill,” Veatch said. “I’m going to get her nuggets.”

 During her phone call home to her father, Autumn’s brief description of the crash gave the impression that the Bowmans died “on impact, or shortly after,” Lampman said.

 Authorities have not confirmed the conditions of Leland Bowman, 62, and Sharon Bowman, 63, as of Monday night.

 Veatch said he had never met Autumn’s step-grandparents, but he knew that Autumn thought they were wonderful.

 “These people were really playing the part of grandparents,” he said.

 He declined to comment on whether he knew anything about the crash.

 The couple’s downed plane hadn’t been found by Tuesday morning, according to WSDOT Emergency Management and Security Coordinator John Himmel. But information provided by Autumn helped narrow down the search area where the plane is believed to have crashed, officials said.

 Searching for the plane is difficult because authorities are dealing with “rocks and trees and lots of nooks and crannies,” Himmel added.

 “Probably the most difficult terrain to try and do the search in the state of Washington,” he said.

 The Beech A-35 left Montana about 1 p.m. PDT Saturday. Family members notified authorities when the plane did not arrive.

 The plane crossed the Idaho-Washington border about 2:20 p.m. PDT Saturday, but it dropped off the radar near Omak, Okanogan County, about an hour later, transportation officials said. The last cellphone signal from one of the plane’s occupants was detected around 3:50 p.m.

 During her call home Monday, both Autumn and her father were understandably overwhelmed, Lampman said.

 “I think she’s just happy she’s alive,” said Lampman, a former neighbor of the Veatches’ whose daughter, Amber Shockey, has been a friend of Autumn’s since first grade. “She did joke that it was a good thing she’d watched all those ‘Survivor’ shows that she didn’t like, but her dad made her watch anyway.”

 The Easy Pass trail has a gain in elevation of 2,800 feet, according to the Washington Trails Association, which called it “anything but easy” on its website and described one portion of the trail as “quite a climb.”

 The trail was originally called “Easy” Pass because it was the only place to put a trail across “ragged ridges” in the area, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

 The Lampmans were at the Veatches’ apartment at 5 p.m. Monday when David Veatch left, with friends, for the four-hour drive on Highway 20 to reunite with Autumn and bring her home. They arrived late Monday.

 The jubilation over Autumn’s survival was tinged with regret at the possible deaths of the Bowmans.

 “I feel terrible for the family of the grandparents,” Lampman said.

 Autumn Veatch, a former Sehome High School student, continued to live with her father after her parents divorced and her mother, Misty Bowman, relocated to Montana a couple of years ago, friends said. The mother declined to comment Monday night.

 “She’s an amazing, witty, creative, loving human being,” said Chelsey Clark, a family friend of Autumn’s and her father. “She loves art, she’s amazing at drawing, she loves music and she’s a quirky, sarcastic girl.”

 Even as Autumn was making her way out of the mountains, a data trail from previous activity on her cellphone was helping searchers locate the plane’s last known position.

 Lampman’s 16-year-old daughter provided searchers with screen grabs of times and contents of Autumn’s last text messages to her friends — apparently providing the last known cell signal used to establish a search area, Lampman said.

 When Amber heard the news that her friend was alive, “She lost it. She freaked out,” Lampman said.

 Several hours after Autumn’s phone call Monday, her friends still seemed in a state of giddy shock that she was likely to be on her way home soon.

 “We were refusing to accept” that she was gone, Lampman said. “We never really lost hope.” ||||| SEATTLE (AP) — A teenage girl who survived a small-plane crash in the craggy, thickly forested mountains of north-central Washington state emerged from the wilderness after hiking "for a couple of days" and was picked up by a motorist who drove her to safety, authorities said Monday. But the fate of her two step-grandparents, who were also on board, remained unclear.

 David Veatch, father of Bellingham High student Autumn Veatch, 16, talks to the media at the Civil Air Patrol station at Bellingham International Airport in Bellingham, Wash., Monday, July 13, 2015. Autumn... (Associated Press)

 Family members alerted authorities after the Beech A-35 failed to complete its flight from Kalispell, Montana, to Lynden, Washington, on Saturday afternoon. Rescuers narrowed down a search area based on cellphone data and typical flight patterns. But there was no sign of the aircraft or its occupants until Autumn Veatch, 16, followed a trail to state Route 20, near the east entrance to North Cascades National Park.

 A motorist picked her up Monday afternoon and drove her 30 miles east to a general store in Mazama, where employees called 911. The Aero Methow Rescue Service sent a paramedic team to check her out before she was taken to a hospital in Brewster for treatment of what appeared to be minor injuries, said Cindy Button, director of services at the organization.

 "Our initial information is she sustained no life-threatening injuries and is somewhat dehydrated due to being out in the elements," said Scott Graham, CEO of Three Rivers Hospital.

 Okanogan County Sheriff Frank Rogers said Monday afternoon that the girl had been "walking for a couple of days." He declined to comment on the status of the other two people aboard the plane.

 Serena Lockwood, the manager at the Mazama Store, said the girl and a motorist came in Monday afternoon, saying she had been in a plane crash.

 "She was obviously pretty traumatized," Lockwood said.

 Rescuers celebrated Veatch's survival, but they immediately returned their focus to finding the wreckage, aided by Veatch's description of the crash site, said Lt. Col. Jeffrey Lustick of the Civil Air Patrol. Lustick said he could not confirm any details about the condition of the grandparents, Leland and Sharon Bowman of Marion, Montana.

 "We're so happy about this," Lustick said. "I've spent 30 years in the Civil Air Patrol and in search-and-rescue. Moments of joy like this can be hard to find."

 Lustick said he had spoken with Veatch's father, who said his daughter told him the plane crashed and caught fire after flying into a bank of clouds. She remained at the crash site for a day before deciding to hike down, eventually finding a trail and following it to the trailhead on Highway 20.

 Five aircraft equipped with special radios for detecting the missing plane's emergency-locator transmitter searched the mountains Monday, while ground crews focused on areas between Mazama and Rainy Pass, officials said. The planes halted their search for the night by 8 p.m. while a couple of Navy helicopters from the Whidbey Island Naval Air Station continued to sweep the area, said Barbara LaBoe, a state Transportation Department spokeswoman.

 The crashed plane crossed the Idaho-Washington border about 2:20 p.m. PDT Saturday, but it dropped off the radar near Omak, Washington, about an hour later, transportation officials said. The last phone signal from one of the plane's occupants was detected around 3:50 p.m.

 ___

 Associated Press writer Phuong Le contributed to this report. |||||
A summary of this is?

– A 16-year-old girl in Washington state is bruised and dehydrated but very much alive after surviving a plane crash and a long trek through what authorities describe as some of the state's most rugged terrain. Autumn Veatch was on a small plane with her step-grandparents that crashed after departing Kalispell, Mont., on Saturday afternoon, the Bellingham Herald reports. There was no sign of the plane or its occupants until a motorist found Veatch on State Route 20 yesterday afternoon and took her to a general store, where employees called authorities, the AP reports. She was hospitalized with minor injuries. Her father tells the Herald that after the plane crashed into a mountain, it caught fire and she was unable to get her step-grandparents out. She spent about a day near the plane waiting for rescue before following a stream and then a trail out of the woods, her father says. Friends say both father and daughter are completely overwhelmed. "She did joke that it was a good thing she'd watched all those Survivor shows that she didn't like, but her dad made her watch anyway," a family friend tells the Seattle Times. Authorities are still searching for the missing Beech A-35. (In Colombia last month, a mother and baby survived four days in the jungle after a plane crash.)


Here is a news article: Yes, of course, presidents have no direct control over gas prices. But the American people know something about this president and his disdain for oil. The “fuel of the past,” he contemptuously calls it. To the American worker who doesn’t commute by government motorcade and is getting fleeced every week at the pump, oil seems very much a fuel of the present — and of the foreseeable future.

 President Obama incessantly claims energy open-mindedness, insisting that his policy is “all of the above.” Except, of course, for drilling:

 ●off the Mid-Atlantic coast (as Virginia, for example, wants);

 ●off the Florida Gulf Coast (instead, the Castro brothers will drill near there);

 ●in the broader Gulf of Mexico (where drilling in 2012 is expected to drop 30 percent below pre-moratorium forecasts);

 ●in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (more than half the size of England, the drilling footprint being the size of Dulles International Airport);

 ●on federal lands in the Rockies (where leases are down 70 percent since Obama took office).

 But the event that drove home the extent of Obama’s antipathy to nearby, abundant, available oil was his veto of the Keystone pipeline, after the most extensive environmental vetting of any pipeline in U.S. history. It gave the game away because the case for Keystone is so obvious and overwhelming. Vetoing it gratuitously prolongs our dependence on outside powers, kills thousands of shovel-ready jobs, forfeits a major strategic resource to China, damages relations with our closest ally, and sends billions of oil dollars to Hugo Chavez, Vladimir Putin and already obscenely wealthy sheiks.

 Obama boasts that, on his watch, production is up and imports down. True, but truly deceptive. These increases have occurred in spite of his restrictive policies. They are the result of Clinton- and Bush-era permitting. This has been accompanied by a gold rush of natural gas production resulting from new fracking technology that has nothing at all to do with Obama.

 “The American people aren’t stupid,” Obama said (Feb. 23), mocking “Drill, baby, drill.” The “only solution,” he averred in yet another major energy speech last week, is that “we start using less — that lowers the demand, prices come down.” Yet five paragraphs later he claimed that regardless of “how much oil we produce at home . . . that’s not going to set the price of gas worldwide.”

 So: Decreasing U.S. demand will lower oil prices, but increasing U.S. supply will not? This is ridiculous. Either both do or neither does. Does Obama read his own speeches?

 Obama says of drilling: “That’s not a plan.” Of course it’s a plan. We import nearly half of our oil, thereby exporting enormous amounts of U.S. wealth. Almost 60 percent of our trade deficit — $332 billion out of $560 billion — is shipped overseas to buy crude.

 Drill here and you stanch the hemorrhage. You keep those dollars within the U.S. economy, repatriating not just wealth but jobs and denying them to foreign unfriendlies. Drilling is the single most important thing we can do to spur growth at home while strengthening our hand abroad.

 Instead, Obama offers what he fancies to be the fuels of the future. You would think that he’d be a tad more modest today about his powers of divination after the Solyndra bankruptcy, the collapse of government-subsidized Ener1 (past makers of the batteries of the future) and GM’s suspension of production — for lack of demand — of another federally dictated confection, the flammable Chevy Volt.

 Deterred? Hardly. Our undaunted seer of the energy future has come up with his own miracle fuel: algae.

 Why, explained Obama, “we can grow it right here in the United States.” (Sounds like a miraculous local find — except that it grows just about everywhere on earth.) Accordingly, yet another $14 million of taxpayer money will be sprinkled on algae research by Steven Chu’s Energy Department.

 This is the very same Dr. Chu who famously said in 2008 that he wanted U.S. gas prices to rise to European levels of $8-$10 a gallon — and who on Tuesday, eight months before Election Day, publicly recanted before Congress, Galileo-style.

 Who do they think they’re fooling? An oil crisis looms, prices are spiking — and our president is extolling algae. After Solyndra, Keystone and promises of seaweed in their gas tanks, Americans sense a president so ideologically antipathetic to fossil fuels — which we possess in staggering abundance — that he is utterly unserious about the real world of oil in which the rest of us live.

 High gasoline prices are a major political problem for Obama. They are not just a pain at the pump, however. They are a constant reminder of three years of a rigid, fatuous, fantasy-driven energy policy that has rendered us scandalously dependent and excessively vulnerable.

 letters@charleskrauthammer.com ||||| To be a modern Republican in good standing, you have to believe — or pretend to believe — in two miracle cures for whatever ails the economy: more tax cuts for the rich and more drilling for oil . And with prices at the pump on the rise, so is the chant of “Drill, baby, drill.” More and more, Republicans are telling us that gasoline would be cheap and jobs plentiful if only we would stop protecting the environment and let energy companies do whatever they want.

 Thus Mitt Romney claims that gasoline prices are high not because of saber-rattling over Iran , but because President Obama won’t allow unrestricted drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Meanwhile, Stephen Moore of The Wall Street Journal tells readers that America as a whole could have a jobs boom, just like North Dakota , if only the environmentalists would get out of the way.

 The irony here is that these claims come just as events are confirming what everyone who did the math already knew, namely, that U.S. energy policy has very little effect either on oil prices or on overall U.S. employment. For the truth is that we’re already having a hydrocarbon boom, with U.S. oil and gas production rising and U.S. fuel imports dropping. If there were any truth to drill-here-drill-now, this boom should have yielded substantially lower gasoline prices and lots of new jobs. Predictably, however, it has done neither.

 Why the hydrocarbon boom? It’s all about the fracking. The combination of horizontal drilling with hydraulic fracturing of shale and other low-permeability rocks has opened up large reserves of oil and natural gas to production. As a result, U.S. oil production has risen significantly over the past three years, reversing a decline over decades, while natural gas production has exploded.

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 Given this expansion, it’s hard to claim that excessive regulation has crippled energy production. Indeed, reporting in The Times makes it clear that U.S. policy has been seriously negligent — that the environmental costs of fracking have been underplayed and ignored. But, in a way, that’s the point. The reality is that far from being hobbled by eco-freaks, the energy industry has been given a largely free hand to expand domestic oil and gas production, never mind the environment.

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 Strange to say, however, while natural gas prices have dropped, rising oil production and a sharp fall in import dependence haven’t stopped gasoline prices from rising toward $4 a gallon. Nor has the oil and gas boom given a noticeable boost to an economic recovery that, despite better news lately, has been very disappointing on the jobs front. |||||
A summary of this is?

– The US president may not directly control gas prices, but Barack Obama's "disdain" for oil is still hurting Americans terribly, writes Charles Krauthammer in the Washington Post. Restricting drilling, vetoing the Keystone pipeline, and similar anti-oil moves are killing thousands of local jobs, hurting relations with Canada, and sending billions of dollars to Venezuela, Russia, and Saudi Arabia. Trying to develop alternative fuels of the future is a waste of time and resources. "Drilling is the single most important thing we can do to spur growth at home while strengthening our hand abroad," writes Krauthammer. High gas prices are "a constant reminder of three years of a rigid, fatuous, fantasy-driven energy policy that has rendered us scandalously dependent and excessively vulnerable."  But calls for more drilling are just "intellectual bankruptcy," argues Paul Krugman in the New York Times. America is already in a "hydrocarbon boom," with oil and natural gas production on the rise, but that has not stopped oil prices from soaring. That's because increasing demand from developing countries and Mideast war worries "easily outweigh any downward pressure on prices from rising US production." The hydrocarbon boom has also had little effect on jobs—the 70,000 jobs gained since the middle of the last decade represent just .05% of total US employment. So why the GOP focus on fossil fuels? One, the oil and gas lobby. And, two, conservatives have no other ideas. "And intellectual bankruptcy, I’m sorry to say, is a problem that no amount of drilling and fracking can solve."