Write an article based on this summary:

– After Robin Williams' sudden death, the tributes are rolling in, with many recalling a comic genius grappling with private challenges. A sampling: When it comes to comedy, "there wasn't a faster brain on the planet," writes Tony Hicks in the Contra Costa Times. We'll be hearing "a litany of tributes about one of the great comedians who ever lived. Much of it will be some of the same adjectives used when any great performer dies—especially before their time. But in Williams' case, most of it will be true." Early in his career, "it was clear that Mr. Williams was one of the most explosively, exhaustingly, prodigiously verbal comedians who ever lived," AO Scott writes in the New York Times. And beyond that, "his essential persona as an entertainer combined neediness and generosity, intelligence and kindness, in ways that were charming and often unexpectedly moving." Williams may have gotten his start long before Aladdin, but he gave a "generous and humble" gift to the millennial generation, writes Daniel D'Addario at Salon. "Williams will be remembered for his edgy comedy and for dramatic turns, but for people my age, Williams was our childhood," from Mrs. Doubtfire to Jumanji to Flubber. In the Los Angeles Times, Kenneth Turan recalls a moment when, facing an onslaught of photographers, Williams asked him—in the voice of a fly from a 1950s sci-fi flick—to "help me, Ken. Help me." The experience stuck with him and seems particularly resonant today, he writes.

Robin Williams, who died unexpectedly today at 63, was hugely admired among his own generation -- the genuine affection in the room, say, when he won his "Good Will Hunting" Oscar speaks to just how well-liked he was in Hollywood. And yet unlike many of his contemporaries, Williams had a particular impact on the slice of the population now in our mid-to-late 20s and early 30s. Through the 1990s, Williams, an established film star, shifted into a new gear in his career; he generously and humbly took on entertainment for kids. Williams will be remembered for his edgy comedy and for dramatic turns, but for people my age, Williams was our childhood.

 Williams' filmography in the 1980s and early 1990s is full of prestige projects ("Good Morning, Vietnam," "Awakenings," "Dead Poets Society"), but something shifted with "Hook"; the movie about Peter Pan rediscovering the joy of Neverland had the same effect, perhaps, on Williams, who'd always been wacky and loose on-screen but was suddenly acting like he'd never grown up. It took a fairly humble A-lister to play a supporting role in an animated film at a time when voice acting was an anonymous profession, and a fairly brave comic known for working blue to abandon anything that wasn't safe for young children. And yet Williams' performance as the Genie in "Aladdin" was straightforwardly a triumph, lending one of Disney's grimmer stories its imaginative expansiveness. Without Williams, it's impossible to imagine "Aladdin" becoming the VHS classic it was through the 1990s; people in my age bracket, even those who may not be able to quote chapter and verse, can easily call to mind the sense of fun and comfort Williams' voice conjured. He was generous enough to erase his recognizable face and body entirely, and yet as a blue drawing was more vivid and lifelike than the vast majority of TV characters.

 Again and again, Williams went to extremes in his desire to please. In "Mrs. Doubtfire," simply one of the best family films ever made, the actor buried his face under makeup and his body in a fat suit in order to pull off physical comedy that felt, for kids, somehow illicit. We weren't supposed to be seeing something so strangely charged, even if the moral (about parental love) was brought home safely.

 Certain themes emerged. In "Mrs. Doubtfire," Williams plays a voice actor who's too childlike to sustain his marriage to Sally Field; in "Jumanji," Williams played a man who'd been trapped inside a board game since childhood and who'd never lived in the real world; in "Jack," he played a boy trapped in the body of a man; in "Flubber," he was a professor unable to deal with the very real pressures of running a lab and bedeviled by magical, fun green goo. It hardly needed to be made this explicit to the children in the multiplex seats or, more likely, watching on Blockbuster rental that Williams was like us. He was strangely innocent of adult-world concerns and, better yet, he was utterly unselfish about lowering himself to the level of kids. What he found funny was funny to his audience, who cared not at all about his Oscar nominations or public profile or past comedy career.

 As the century turned, Williams got interested, again, in serious projects, but it didn't help that the mid-budget adult drama was beginning its disappearance. He'd been out of leading-man roles in adult movies for so long that something was off his fastball -- movies like "Jakob the Liar" and "Bicentennial Man" had conceits (a man tries to spread hope among his friends with fanciful lies during the Holocaust; a robot can live forever but just wants to be human) that were two degrees removed from the sunny, high-concept optimism of kids' movies. (He'd lately, fittingly enough, rebooted his children's movie career as Theodore Roosevelt in the "Night at the Museum" movies.)

 It hardly mattered, though, to the now-early-teens who'd been raised on Williams' movies. For them -- for me -- Williams has a place in the pantheon simply by virtue of being that rare star who seemed excited to work on projects we cared about. Giving joy is as important as evoking tears or provoking thought, and Williams' legacy, perhaps, can be measured in the imprints his movies left in rec-room carpets, as kids parked in front of the TV rewound his movies again and again. ||||| Fate threw me in Robin Williams' path more than once, and I never forgot any of the encounters. He was such a wired, complex, brilliantly funny individual, no connection with him was anything like ordinary.

 Though Williams, who died Monday at age 63, appeared in dozens of films, getting Oscar nominated for four performances and finally winning for 1997's "Good Will Hunting," it was as a dazzling, unknown stand-up comedian that I first met him. In a pair of linked meetings, he made an impression on me that in an unnerving way connects in my mind to the tragic way his life ended.

 The year was 1978, I was a freelance journalist newly arrived in Los Angeles when an editor I knew at Rolling Stone called me with a quick last-minute assignment.

 A TV show called "Mork & Mindy" was being filmed, and though it hadn't aired yet, the word was already out that its star, a young comedian named Robin Williams, was going to break out.

 In addition to filming the show, Williams was doing occasional stand-up at the Comedy Store on Sunset Boulevard. Would I catch one of his shows, do a brief interview and write a small story for the magazine? Who could say no to that?

 Asphyxia from an apparent suicide is what officials are initially saying is the cause of death for 63-year-old comedian Robin Williams, ahead of an official coroner's report. Asphyxia from an apparent suicide is what officials are initially saying is the cause of death for 63-year-old comedian Robin Williams, ahead of an official coroner's report. See more videos

 The Comedy Store was half-asleep and half-empty that night, Williams was the last performer on the bill, and did he wake the place up. The astounding routine he went into would defy description even if I could remember it word for word.

 He took on different characters with different accents, roamed to all kinds of locations, both physical and metaphysical, made lightning-fast comic connections in time and space that were at once hysterically funny and like nothing I had ever experienced before. It was no surprise people in the know were buzzing about Robin Williams, no surprise at all.

 After the show Williams and I had a quick bite in a bustling place on the Strip called the Copper Kettle. It was jammed with people, and absolutely no one cared or even looked up when he walked into the room. How are you going to handle it, I asked him, when your show airs and everyone knows your name, when you won't be able to walk into a place like this without causing a firestorm.

 Oh no, Williams insisted, stubbornly — or perhaps nervously, at this point I can't be sure — refusing to acknowledge the tsunami everyone around him knew was headed his way. That's not going to happen, he said, confidently shaking his head, nothing like that is ever going to happen.

 Cut to several months later. "Mork & Mindy" is the hottest show on television, and Williams is the talk of the town. I was covering the AFI Life Achievement Award for the Washington Post and, by pure chance, walked into the hotel entrance right behind Robin and his date.

 I tapped him on the shoulder, he turned around and gave me a big surprised grin. So, I asked him, as the line to the ballroom snaked forward, how has this celebrity business turned out for you? He was about to say something when we turned a corner and the mass phalanx of photographers caught sight of him.

 "Robin, Robin, look this way, Robin, over here," they screamed in a "Day of the Locust" frenzy as waves of flashbulbs flashed in unison. Robin smiled, waved and mugged and then all of a sudden turned back to me. With the brilliant improvisational mind that defined him, he said something in a stage whisper that was immediately recognizable as a riff on the terrifying plea for help that closes the 1950s science fiction classic "The Fly."

 "Help me, Ken," he said in a perfect imitation of the film's tiny, doomed fly voice. "Help me." Then he turned back to the photographers and was gone.

 Because it was as stand-up of genius that I first encounter Williams, that's how I always thought of him, even when he transformed into a formidable actor Oscar-nominated for "Good Morning, Vietnam," "Dead Poets Society" and "The Fisher King" before his "Good Will Hunting" triumph.

 It always seemed to me that the restlessness, the search for experience and knowledge that characterized his comedy as well as his very physical presence compelled him to go into drama, to take on not only comic roles but also dark ones. Roles that in some ways seemed out of character with his stand-up voice but from another point of view fit right in.

 I ran into Williams one more time, several years later at a press lunch at the Cannes Film Festival where he was in full performance mode, keeping a table full of journalists roaring with laughter at the frenzied nimbleness of his attack. But even at those high-octane moments, even when he won his Oscar, I could never get that "Help me" moment out of my mind. When word came in Monday about his death, the thought of it made me shudder, it really did. |||||


The move by the three lawmakers to seek Robert Mueller’s resignation is a sign of intensifying frustration among Trump’s allies during the same week Mueller issued his first indictments in the probe. | Alex Wong/Getty Images Conservatives introduce measure demanding Mueller’s resignation It’s the latest sign of GOP resistance to the special counsel’s Russia probe.

 Three House Republicans on Friday moved to pressure special counsel Robert Mueller to resign over what they contend are “obvious conflicts of interest,” the latest instance of rising GOP resistance to his Russia probe.

 Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) and Louie Gohmert (R-Texas), introduced a measure that, while nonbinding, would put the House on record describing Mueller, a former FBI director, as unfit to lead the probe because of his relationship with James Comey, his successor at the bureau.

 Story Continued Below

 “[B]e it Resolved, That House of Representatives expresses its sense that Robert Mueller is compromised and should resign from his special counsel position immediately,” the resolution states.

 Mueller is investigating whether any Americans aided Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election as well as whether figures in the Trump administration may have obstructed justice in part by moving to oust Comey in May, when the FBI’s Russia investigation was picking up steam. Mueller was appointed by deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein after an uproar following President Donald Trump’s decision to fire Comey.

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 The move by the three lawmakers to seek Mueller’s resignation is a sign of intensifying frustration among Trump’s allies during the same week Mueller issued his first indictments in the probe: money laundering charges against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his deputy Rick Gates. Mueller also secured a guilty plea from George Papadopoulos, a low-level campaign foreign policy adviser, who lied to the FBI about his attempts to arrange a meeting between Russian officials and the Trump campaign.

 The anger from Republicans appears to mirror the feelings of Trump, who on Friday unloaded in a series of tweets urging his own Justice Department to investigate Democrats — not him — for transgressions he says occurred during the 2016 election.

 "This is real collusion and dishonesty. Major violation of Campaign Finance Laws and Money Laundering," he said, accusing Democrats of the same charges that Manafort was hit with. "[W]here is our Justice Department?”

 Most Republicans, including those in GOP leadership, are not on board with dismissing Mueller.

 But the conservative push has worried some on the left, who are urging Democratic lawmakers to step up their defense of Mueller.

 “While it might be ideal to wait to speak out until Mueller finishes his investigation, Trump’s defenders in Congress are not waiting to defend the President’s actions or to pass judgment on the investigation,” CAP Action Fund wrote in a memo being prepared for lawmakers and obtained by POLITICO. “The heightened risk to Trump from Mueller’s investigation also means there is a heightened risk to the Mueller investigation from Trump.”

 Other conservatives, like Reps. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) and Ron DeSantis (R-Fla.), have already called for Mueller’s departure.

 DeSantis, too, has ramped up his efforts to hinder Mueller’s investigation. He recently pushed an amendment, which failed to gain traction, that would have curtailed Mueller’s probe within six months and limited its scope.

 And in a Thursday interview with Breitbart Radio, DeSantis blamed Rosenstein for a “clumsy” decision to appoint Mueller without putting strict limits on his scope.

 “Rosenstein really muffed this,” he said.

 Breitbart News Editor Alex Marlow, who interviewed DeSantis, promised to give his proposal a lot of airtime and ink.

 “We’re going to be pushing it heavily or at least content on it heavily,” he said.

 In his interview, DeSantis also foreshadowed the end of the House Intelligence Committee’s separate investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

 “The good news on the congressional side, at least in the House, is from what I understand, they’ve really increased the frequency of the interviews of the people and I think on the House side this Russia-Trump [probe] is going to come to an end soon,” he said.

 DeSantis isn’t on the intelligence panel but said talking to committee members, he’s convinced it’ll be done “certainly before the end of the year.”

 He also said he’s been urging Speaker Paul Ryan to curtail the House investigation.

 “I said, ‘Mr. Speaker, we’ve been spinning these wheels. There’s no evidence. If there is, produce it. I think we’d all like to see it. But if not, then we’ve got to get on with our business,’” adding, “I think that message has been received.”

 While the new resolution faults Mueller for leading the probe despite his professional relationship with Comey, it also includes a broader broadside against the FBI.

 The three lawmakers say the agency should be investigated for “willful blindness” over a seven-year-old sale of uranium production facilities to Russian interests, which conservatives have argued was approved in part by the Hillary Clinton-led State Department at the same time a party to the deal was making donations to the Clinton Foundation.

 Mueller, they note, was presiding over the FBI at the time the agency was investigating a Russian bribery and extortion scheme connected to the uranium deal, but the agency declined to notify Congress of its investigation and prevented a confidential informant from notifying lawmakers.

 “Any thorough and honest investigation into the corruption of American-uranium related business must include investigating the willful blindness of the FBI and its leaders,” according to the resolution.

 CORRECTION: This story has been updated to correct the name of President Donald Trump's former campaign manager. ||||| Thomson Reuters Robert Mueller.

 Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida is calling for Robert Mueller to resign as the special counsel investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 US election.

 Gaetz cites a lack of charges relating to a 2010 uranium deal approved by US government agencies under Mueller's watch as the reason.

 WASHINGTON - A group of conservative Republican lawmakers introduced a resolution on Friday calling for Robert Mueller to recuse himself as the special counsel investigating Russia's interference in the 2016 US election and whether President Donald Trump's campaign team colluded with Moscow.

 Reps. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Andy Biggs of Arizona, and Louie Gohmert of Texas say Mueller should step down because he was the FBI director in 2010 when US government agencies approved the sale of Uranium One, a Canadian energy company, to a Russian nuclear-energy firm. The deal required approval because Uranium One had mining operations in the US.

 Gaetz says the issue is that Mueller's FBI had found evidence of criminal activity that may have been relevant to the deal but did not bring any charges, and that Mueller therefore should recuse himself from the current investigation.

 "These deeply troubling events took place when Mr. Mueller was the Director of the FBI. As such, his impartiality is hopelessly compromised," Gaetz said in a statement. "He must step down immediately."

 Many of Gaetz's Republican colleagues, however, have previously expressed support for Mueller and his investigation. Senate Republicans have even introduced bills to create a barrier between Trump and Mueller in the event the president attempts to fire him.

 Some conservatives have latched on to the Uranium One deal recently, pointing to a report tangentially tying the deal to the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, who was the secretary of state at the time, and her husband, former President Bill Clinton. ||||| Three GOP congressmen introduced a resolution Friday calling for special counsel Robert Mueller to resign from the Russia collusion probe, citing his ties to the FBI and its role in controversies involving Russia.

 Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., a member of the House Judiciary Committee, along with co-sponsors, Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., and Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, introduced the resolution on Friday.

 “Evidence has emerged that the FBI withheld information from Congress and from the American people about Russian corruption of American uranium companies,” Gaetz said in a statement Friday. “A confidential U.S. witness, working in the Russian nuclear industry, revealed that Russia had deeply compromised an American uranium trucking firm through bribery and financial kickbacks.”

 Gaetz was referring to Mueller’s supervision of a bribery probe involving a subsidiary of Russia’s Rosatom, which eventually got approval from the U.S. to buy a Canadian mining company, Uranium One, that controlled a swath of American uranium reserves. At the time of the probe, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller as special counsel, was a U.S. attorney and Mueller was FBI director. Republicans want to know how that deal was approved despite the evidence gathered in the bribery probe.

 MUELLER FACING NEW REPUBLICAN PRESSURE TO RESIGN IN RUSSIA PROBE

 Gaetz also pointed to the FBI informant, whose gag order was lifted by the Justice Department last week, and is now able to provide information to Congress, free of the FBI’s nondisclosure agreement he signed when Mueller served as director.

 “Although federal agents possessed this information in 2010, the Department of Justice continued investigating this “matter” for over four years. The FBI, led at the time by Robert Mueller, required the confidential witness to sign a non-disclosure agreement. When the witness attempted to contact Congress and federal courts about the bribery and corruption he saw, he was threatened with legal action,” Gaetz said in a statement. “By silencing him, Obama’s Justice Department and Mueller’s FBI knowingly kept Congress in the dark about Russia’s significant and illegal involvement with American uranium companies.”

 Gaetz said that due to these “deeply troubling” events, Mueller’s “impartiality is hopelessly compromised.”

 “He must step down immediately,” Gaetz said Friday.

 Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., has also called for Mueller’s resignation.

 Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, has called for an independent special counsel to investigate the Obama-era Uranium One deal.

 There are currently two pieces of legislation in the Senate, with bipartisan sponsorship, that would ensure a judicial check on the executive branch’s ability to remove a special counsel. Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., are behind the bills, along with Democratic senators.

 The proposed resolution comes just days after Mueller’s team announced the first charges in their investigation into Russian meddling and potential collusion with Trump campaign officials in the 2016 presidential election.

 Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his associate Rick Gates were indicted on 12 counts by a federal grand jury as part of the probe. Both pleaded not guilty. And Former Trump foreign policy campaign volunteer George Papadopoulos entered a guilty plea on Monday after admittedly making false statements to the FBI. |||||

Write a summary.

– In a sign of just how frustrated some in the GOP are with special counsel Robert Mueller after "indictment week," three House Republicans introduced a measure Friday that would pressure Mueller to step down. The nonbinding measure, introduced by Reps. Matt Gaetz, Andy Biggs, and Louie Gohmert, would put the House on record as believing Mueller should resign because he's unfit to lead the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, Politico reports. Why? Due to "obvious conflicts of interest," including his relationship with James Comey, who succeeded him at the FBI and was later ousted from his post by President Trump; among other things, Mueller is investigating whether anyone in the Trump administration obstructed justice during that ouster. Per Fox News, the measure also makes note of Mueller's supervision of a bribery probe when he was FBI director that involved a Russian nuclear-energy company that got approval from US government agencies to buy a Canadian energy company that had mining operations in the US. "Evidence has emerged that the FBI withheld information from Congress and from the American people about Russian corruption of American uranium companies," Gaetz said in a statement wondering how the deal got US approval despite the bribery probe. The representatives say that's another reason Mueller should recuse himself as special counsel, as his "impartiality is hopelessly compromised." But, as multiple outlets including Business Insider note, most Republicans so far support keeping Mueller in place, including those in leadership positions.


Article:
Security at Bush Intercontinental Airport stand at the bottom of the escalators as police investigate a shooting near Terminal B on Thursday, May 2, 2013 in Houston. / Cody Duty,AP Photo/Houston Chronicle

 Updated at 11:02 p.m. ET

 HOUSTON A man who had fired a gun inside a ticketing area at Houston's largest airport was killed after being confronted by a law enforcement official during an incident that sent people in the terminal scrambling and screaming, police said Thursday.

 CBS News correspondent John Miller reported that the suspect, who is identified as Carnell Moore, walked into Terminal B at Bush International Airport, sat down, produced a pistol and began firing into the ceiling. The two rounds that were fired sent passengers scattering in panic. The shot were heard by a special agent of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). The HSI office is about 150 feet from the shooting.

 The agent ran toward the gunfire, continued Miller, identified himself as a federal agent and ordered Moore to drop the gun. Moore turned toward the agent who fired, striking Moore in the upper body. At the same moment, Moore turned his own gun on himself and fired. Moore was dead at the scene. Inside a black suitcase next to where Moore was sitting, HSI, FBI and Houston PD found a black suitcase contains a Smith & Wesson AR15 assault weapon with a fully loaded magazine.

 In Moore's car, more .223 ammo for the weapon was found. Earlier in the day, Moore had posted on social media that he intended to commit a mass shooting today. A handwritten note found on Moore's body said he had changed his mind and wanted to kill himself.

 An autopsy will be conducted Friday.

 The terminal was closed immediately after the shooting. But later Thursday, parts of the terminal were reopened to passengers. The rest of the airport remained open after the shooting.

 Darian Ward, a spokeswoman for the Houston Airport System, said some passengers who were scheduled to leave from Terminal B were rerouted to other terminals.

 Dale Howard, of Tomball, was at the baggage handling area of the airport waiting for his sister to arrive on an incoming flight when he heard two shots fired from the floor above. A few seconds later, he said he heard three more shots.

 "People were screaming. I knew exactly what it was  gunfire," Howard said.

 Police from an adjacent station rushed in, and Howard said he directed them to the floor above.

 Greg Newburn, who was in the terminal waiting for a flight to Oklahoma City, said he was sitting in a cafe area when he heard two gunshots and after a pause, several more.

 "It seemed like quite a few shots. Everyone was scrambling, running left and running right, turning tables up and hiding behind tables. Nobody knew what was happening. I couldn't tell where the shots were coming from," he said.

 Newburn, from Gainesville, Fla., said it took him a few seconds to realize that the shots had come from the ticketing area, near the security checkpoint. ||||| The seed for this crawl was a list of every host in the Wayback Machine

 This crawl was run at a level 1 (URLs including their embeds, plus the URLs of all outbound links including their embeds)

 The WARC files associated with this crawl are not currently available to the general public. ||||| Page 1 of 1

 UPDATE: Houston police just released this portion of Carnell Marcus Moore's suicide note that they say was written on Hotel Derek stationery:

 "Here in the last hour, I yield to mercy when this could have turned bad. Jehovah found a path to my heart, that love would conquer anger. The monster within me was getting stronger and while I could not save myself I could spare others. [redacted] Peace is within sight. I ask that authorities handle my disposal – Carnell Marcus Moore"

 ________

 A Beaumont man shot and killed Thursday at Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport was a reserved person of few words, neighbors said.

 But 29-year-old Carnell Marcus Moore wrote of death on his Facebook page earlier Thursday and, according to Houston police, apparently left a suicide note that said he was having trouble controlling his "monster inside."

 Moore was killed in gunfire about 1:35 p.m. near a Terminal B ticket counter. It is unclear who fired the fatal shot.

 HPD spokesman Kese Smith said an armed male in his early 30s entered the airport and fired at least once into the ceiling just inside the doors of the terminal's pre-security departure area.

 Hearing the gunfire, a Homeland Security Investigations agent came out of his office and confronted Moore, ordering him to put down the gun, Smith said.

 When Moore refused the command, the officer pulled out his weapon and the man turned toward him, Smith said.

 The agent fired once, and Moore shot himself - apparently at the same time, according to Smith. Moore died at the scene. No one else was injured.

 Tricia Bentley, a spokeswoman for the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences, said an autopsy was expected to be performed on Friday.

 Hours after the shooting, officers were at Moore's home in Beaumont, carrying out computer equipment, a neighbor said.

 Marietta Kidd said she looked out a window toward the duplex where Moore lived and counted seven unmarked cars in her parking lot about the time school let out on Thursday. Kidd said her father owns the home and that her sister is Moore's neighbor.

 Kidd, who owns a beauty salon on the same street where Moore lived, said he had been in the duplex for several years and that he never talked much.

 Moore spoke of death on his Facebook page three times since Wednesday.

 'When I go to meet God'

 The first status update was posted nearly 24 hours before he was killed. "I recently had the chance of staring death in the face, and she was beautiful," he wrote at 1:26 p.m. Wednesday.

 About 12:45 a.m. Thursday, he proclaimed that "This Life Will Crash Tomorrow!"

 And about 12:42 p.m., he posted: "45 minutes and 59 seconds in God's Shadow and Time Stops."

 His timeline also includes a video of a strained and sorrowful spoken word piece called "When I go to meet God."

 The lyrics include: "What makes a mother's son decide that death is better than tomorrow?" and "This is not a life worth living. I already ruined it."

 According to his Facebook profile, Beaumont was Moore's hometown, though he finished high school in a Georgia community south of Atlanta. He graduated from the heating, ventilation and air conditioning program at the Lamar Institute of Technology.

 'He was a good guy'

 Colleagues remembered Moore as an affable and kind man.

 "He was a friendly guy who talked to everybody," said Tim Knobloch, 29, one of Moore's tech school classmates in 2004 and later his co-worker at a Beaumont air conditioning company. "He was a good guy."

 The shooting scene was chaotic, passengers and employees reported.

 Tina Gellinger, a 40-year-old Kansan who went outside between flights, was coming into Terminal B when she heard shouts to "run!"

 She and others scrambled toward elevators and hid behind walls as gunfire rang out.

 Nearby at the McDonald's in the food court, employee Tiffany Rigmaiden heard two shots, then shouting, then three more shots. The 23-year-old said a Transportation Security Administration agent running by told her and other workers to get down. Instead, they escaped through a back door and took an elevator to a lower floor.

 According to Houston Airport System spokeswoman Darian Ward, Houston police and the FBI "interviewed quite a few people." She added that there was no "visible damage" to the facility.

 The incident also interrupted flights.

 Terminal B, where mostly smaller, regional jets land and take off, was shut down for hours. Incoming passengers were rerouted to enter through terminals C and E. At one point, a ground stop prevented planes from landing at Terminal B.

 Mike Glenn and Cindy George contributed to this report. Guiseppe Barranco reported from Beaumont. |||||Summary:

– The gunman who was killed—possibly by his own hand—at a Houston airport yesterday left a number of chilling posts on Facebook the day before, prompting CBS News to suggest he was planning a mass shooting. But a note he was carrying, discovered after he was shot, said he'd opted to drop a larger plot and kill himself, KHOU reports; the note cited a "monster within." Suspect Carnell Moore, 29, entered Bush Intercontinental Airport's Terminal B yesterday, where he sat down and shot two rounds at the ceiling with a pistol, CBS reports. That's when a Homeland Security special agent told him to drop his gun. Moore didn't, says a Homeland Security spokesman, per the Houston Chronicle. He turned to face the agent, who shot Moore just as he was shooting himself, CBS notes. A suitcase next to him held a loaded AR15 assault rifle; his car contained more ammunition. Among his earlier Facebook posts was one on Wednesday: "I recently had the chance of staring death in the face, and she was beautiful." Later that night, he wrote, "This Life Will Crash Tomorrow!"


Here is a news article: The suspects in the December slaying of a Griswold couple and their son had conspired with the son to exchange drugs for guns kept in a safe inside his parents’ home, court records unsealed Tuesday reveal.

 The Hartford woman charged in the killings, Ruth Correa, told investigators that the incident turned violent when the son, Matthew Lindquist, panicked and backed out of the plan to make the deal look like a robbery, a 17-page arrest warrant affidavit shows.

 In a text exchange, Matthew Lindquist wrote to one of the suspects, “If u pull up street from my house and give me a stack, I’ll show u right where safe is,�? the court records said. The texts came hours before authorities discovered the bodies of Kenneth and Janet Lindquist in their burned out Kenwood Estates home on Dec. 20.

 In another text reviewed by state police detectives, Matthew Lindquist told the suspect that his father usually goes to bed after dinner, around 6 or 7 p.m., and they should wait until then before carrying out the plan. Ruth Correa told investigators the plan included tying up Matthew and blaming the theft of the guns on two black men.

 Ruth Correa, 23, also told investigators that she had gone to the quiet Griswold neighborhood with her brother, Sergio Correa, and that he was responsible for much of the violence that night, the arrest warrant affidavit said.

 In the days after Kenneth and Janet Lindquist were found, state police said their son Matthew was a person of interest. Friends and family told authorities he had problems with drugs that had recently resurfaced.

 Matthew Lindquist’s remains were found in May by state police in woods not far from the home.

 A witness said that Ruth Correa told him that she and her brother drugged the son and killed him before going to the house, killing the mother and father and setting the house on fire, the affidavit read.

 The witness said he had seen Matthew at the same Hartford apartment complex where Ruth Correa lived at least once before the killings. When questioned, Ruth Correa admitted to stabbing Matthew Lindquist about 10 times. She said Sergio Correa also stabbed him and hit both parents with a bat before setting the home on fire, the affidavit said.

 Sergio Correa told her that an unidentified man owed him money and that he was going to pretend to give the man drugs in exchange for guns, the affidavit said.

 Sergio Correa, who is in prison on unrelated charges, has not been charged in connection with the killings. His lawyer, William Gerace, said Tuesday that he hasn’t seen the arrest affidavit and that Sergio Correa “maintains he had nothing to do with this.�?

 On the day of the slayings, Ruth Correa told the investigators, a man who she did not know got into her brother’s car asking about the drugs, which she thought was heroin.

 She said that Sergio Correa told the man that he was not going to get the drugs until Sergio Correa got what he wanted, the affidavit said.

 The two men then talked about a fake robbery and that the basement door to the home was unlocked, she told investigators.

 She said after they drove down the street and parked the car, the man got out and panicked, the affidavit said.

 The affidavit reveals the brutal details of the killings as told to investigators by Ruth Correa:

 When he ran off, Ruth Correa told investigators, her brother ran after him with a machete, hitting him in the back of the head. She told investigators Sergio Correa then threatened to tie Matthew Lindquist up with tape and zip ties, but he began to yell and “freak out,�? the affidavit said.

 Ruth Correa said her brother then began to stab the man, the affidavit said.

 At one point, her brother handed her the knife and guided it into the man, she told investigators. She said the stabbing happened about 50 feet from the road in some trees, the affidavit said.

 Ruth and Sergio Correa then went into the house through the open basement and found the safe bolted to the floor, she told investigators. She said that they went upstairs and were confronted by the man’s father, who went after her brother, the affidavit said.

 The two men fought over the keys to the safe, which he refused to hand over, Ruth Correa told investigators. She said her brother struck the man multiple times with a bat.

 Ruth Correa said the man’s wife came out from another room, but Ruth Correa told police she guided her into a bedroom, according to the affidavit.

 When the woman asked Ruth Correa why they were doing this, she responded it was because the woman’s son had set them up, the affidavit said.

 While with the woman, Ruth Correa said, her brother had gotten the keys to the safe and brought a gun to the bedroom, which he pointed at the woman, the affidavit said.

 With her brother having the gun trained on the woman, Ruth Correa said she walked around the house collecting items, including a purple laptop from an office in the home, the affidavit said.

 She then returned to the bedroom and told her brother it was time to go, but left again to grab more items. When she returned to the bedroom a second time, she said she saw her brother with a rope or string around the woman’s neck and his foot in her back. She told police that the woman appeared to be choking, according to the affidavit

 After the woman stopped making noise, Ruth Correa said she and Sergio Correa started taking bags of items out to the car.

 During their last trip back into the house, Ruth Correa said she saw her brother again using the rope or string to choke the woman because she was going for her phone, the affidavit said. Her brother grabbed a bat and hit the woman four or five times, Ruth Correa told investigators, the affidavit said.

 On their way out, Ruth Correa said her brother told her to look for something flammable. She said Sergio handed her cans of strong smelling liquid, the affidavit said.

 She told investigators she dumped a whole can in one spot and went outside. She said she returned briefly to see her brother on the first floor ignite an exercise ball, the affidavit said.

 They loaded all the stolen property into a silver car outside the home and drove to her brother’s car. She got into her brother’s car and she drove off, following her brother out of the neighborhood, the affidavit said.

 They drove for about 30 minutes until they found an abandonded building and parked, she told investigators. They put all the stolen property into Sergio Correa’s car before he drove off in the stolen car. Ruth Correa told investigators he returned about five minutes later, sat in the passenger seat and they left for Hartford.

 Matthew Lindquist’s car was found ablaze in a parking lot of a Glastonbury apartment complex not long after. ||||| Newly-released court documents reveal new details on the brutal murder of a Griswold man and his parents.

 The Hartford woman who was charged with the slayings of a Griswold husband and wife and their 21-year-old son told police that she committed the slayings with her brother and that the couple’s son was involved with the plan to rob the house, according to court documents.

 Ruth Correa, 23, of Hartford, was charged with murder, murder with special circumstances, robbery, arson and home invasion in connection with the deaths of 56-year-old Kenneth Lindquist, his 61-year-old wife, Janet Lindquist, and their 21-year-old son, Matthew Lindquist on Dec. 20, 2017.

 Correa’s brother, 26-year-old Sergio Correa, has not been charged in the case. His attorney told NBC Connecticut that he has been made aware an arrest warrant has been issued for his client for murder in the case in New London County. The attorney said his client maintains his innocence.

 Court documents released Tuesday reveal new, graphic information about the case, what led police to arrest Correa and what she told them about what happened on that December night.

 Text messages detailed in the court documents show that Matthew Lindquist promised to give one of the Correas guns in exchange for drugs and cash.

 Lindquist wrote: “U give me the cash when I show u safe right?”

 “Cause I know there’s at least 2 guns”

 The response from the Correa phone: “Text me where to meet you”

 Lindquist suggested Walmart, but someone wrote back: “Too many cameras I want to pay you and leave this car is registered to me”

 Lindquist responded: “If u pull up street from my house and give me a stack I’ll show you right where the safe is”

 According to her arrest warrant, Ruth Correa told police her brother said that Lindquist owed him money and that he was going to pretend to give him drugs and get guns. In another text message, Lindquist wrote to the Correa phone: “U got the 10 b of white fire?”

 Ruth Correa told police that her brother had asked her to join him that night and told her that “this guy owed him money and he was going to pretend to give this guy drugs and he was going to get guns,” then he told her she was “going to pretend to pick a lock to the safe at the guy’s house,” according to the arrest warrant application.

 When the brother and sister were in the car together, a guy Ruth Correa did not know got into the back of the vehicle and asked her brother if he had the drugs. Her brother responded that “he was not getting anything unless he got what he was promised,” Ruth Correa said. That was when the man, Matthew Lindquist, mentioned a fake robbery and told the brother and sister that the basement door was unlocked, Correa told police.

 The two men also discussed tying Matthew up and making it look like a robbery but Matthew Lindquist got “panicky and fidgety” and ran, Ruth Correa said. Her brother then chased after him with a machete and hit him in the back of the head.

 Then, as her brother started tying him up, Matthew Lindquist started to “yell and freak out” and her brother stabbed him until Matthew stopped moving, Ruth Correa told police.

 She said she hesitated, but her brother grabbed her hand, guided her and she stabbed Matthew Lindquist in the chest around 10 times, Ruth Correa told police.

 After the stabbing, Ruth Correa and her brother went into the house through the basement.

 When they went upstairs, Kenneth Lindquist was awake and went after her brother, Ruth Correa told police. The family’s dog was also in the house and came after them, so Ruth Correa said she hit it with a golf club she had brought from her brother’s car because they had been warned about the dog.

 Ruth Correa said her brother was the one to beat Kenneth Lindquist up, using a bat, and he was also trying to get the keys to the safe, but Kenneth Lindquist refused.

 Janet Lindquist emerged from another room as the dog barked and her husband was yelling and Ruth Correa grabbed the woman by the hand, led her to a bedroom and told her she didn’t have to see what was happening,” Ruth Correa told police.

 After Ruth Correa told the woman she did not want to hurt her and said she needed the keys to the safe, Janet Lindquist asked where her son was and Ruth Correa told her he was the reason this was happening and “her son had set her up,” according to the arrest warrant application.

 After getting the keys to the safe, Ruth Correa’s brother showed up in the bedroom with a gun, pointed it at the mother and taunted her as Ruth Correa walked around the house, grabbing items, the arrest warrant application says.

 When Ruth Correa went back into the bedroom, her brother had a rope around Janet Lindquist’s neck and a foot on her back, the arrest warrant application states.

 As they were going bath through the basement, her brother told her to look for something flammable and they poured a liquid in several locations, then her brother set the fire, according to the arrest warrant application.

 Connecticut state police began investigating when dispatchers received a 911 call at 5:12 a.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 20 about a fire at the home at 70 Kenwood Drive in Griswold and state police, the Griswold Fire Department and several fire companies responded.

 The bodies of 56-year-old Kenneth Lindquist and his 61-year-old wife, Janet Lindquist, were later found inside their burned-out home, according to police.

 The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined that Janet Lindquist died of “homicidal violence including blunt impact injuries to the head” and smoke inhalation with thermal injuries and Kenneth Lindquist died of homicidal violence, including skull fractures, cerebral contusions and additional injuries. His death was ruled a homicide.

 A person who was walking his dog found Matthew Lindquist’s body on Saturday, May 5. An autopsy revealed several stab wounds and his death was ruled a homicide. |||||
A summary of this is?

– For more than four months, 21-year-old Matthew Lindquist was considered a suspect in the murders of his parents, found inside their burned-out home in Griswold, Conn., on Dec. 20. All the time, he was lying dead 1,500 feet away, a third victim of what police describe as a fake robbery turned real. According to an arrest affidavit released Tuesday, Lindquist had offered his father's guns to a man in exchange for drugs, so long as the man staged the scene to look like a burglary. That's not what happened. Now charged in the case, 23-year-old Ruth Correa reportedly told police her brother, Sergio Correa, hit Lindquist in the head with a machete after Lindquist panicked, per the Washington Post. The siblings then stabbed Lindquist, leaving his body in the woods near his parents' home, which they entered through a basement door they knew to be unlocked, per the affidavit. When Kenneth and Janet Lindquist appeared, 26-year-old Sergio hit Kenneth, 56, with a baseball bat while Ruth told Janet that "her son had set her up," the affidavit states, per NBC Connecticut. The document says Sergio then choked Janet, 61, and hit her in the head with the bat before he and his sister set the house alight and took off with stolen goods and Matthew Lindquist's car, later found burned. After reportedly telling police that her brother might be planning to kill her, Ruth Correa was arrested on charges of murder, home invasion, arson, and robbery on May 12, a week after Matthew Lindquist's body was found. At the time, police said additional arrests were expected. Sergio Correa has yet to be charged, though. He's in police custody following a February arrest for probation violations and "maintains he had nothing to do with this," his lawyer tells the Hartford Courant.


Article:

Importance Among nontraditional cardiovascular risk factors, recent influenzalike infection is associated with fatal and nonfatal atherothrombotic events.

 Objectives To determine if influenza vaccination is associated with prevention of cardiovascular events.

 Data Sources and Study Selection A systematic review and meta-analysis of MEDLINE (1946-August 2013), EMBASE (1947-August 2013), and the Cochrane Library Central Register of Controlled Trials (inception-August 2013) for randomized clinical trials (RCTs) comparing influenza vaccine vs placebo or control in patients at high risk of cardiovascular disease, reporting cardiovascular outcomes either as efficacy or safety events.

 Data Extraction and Synthesis Two investigators extracted data independently on trial design, baseline characteristics, outcomes, and safety events from published manuscripts and unpublished supplemental data. High-quality studies were considered those that described an appropriate method of randomization, allocation concealment, blinding, and completeness of follow-up.

 Main Outcomes and Measures Random-effects Mantel-Haenszel risk ratios (RRs) and 95% CIs were derived for composite cardiovascular events, cardiovascular mortality, all-cause mortality, and individual cardiovascular events. Analyses were stratified by subgroups of patients with and without a history of acute coronary syndrome (ACS) within 1 year of randomization.

 Results Five published and 1 unpublished randomized clinical trials of 6735 patients (mean age, 67 years; 51.3% women; 36.2% with a cardiac history; mean follow-up time, 7.9 months) were included. Influenza vaccine was associated with a lower risk of composite cardiovascular events (2.9% vs 4.7%; RR, 0.64 [95% CI, 0.48-0.86], P = .003) in published trials. A treatment interaction was detected between patients with (RR, 0.45 [95% CI, 0.32-0.63]) and without (RR, 0.94 [95% CI, 0.55-1.61]) recent ACS (P for interaction = .02). Results were similar with the addition of unpublished data.

 Conclusions and Relevance In a meta-analysis of RCTs, the use of influenza vaccine was associated with a lower risk of major adverse cardiovascular events. The greatest treatment effect was seen among the highest-risk patients with more active coronary disease. A large, adequately powered, multicenter trial is warranted to address these findings and assess individual cardiovascular end points. ||||| Get a flu shot to ward off a case of influenza, and as an added bonus you’ll reduce your risk of a heart attack, stroke or other type of unpleasant “cardiovascular event,” a new study finds.

 For some time, researchers have suspected that flu shots can protect heart health as well as respiratory health. They have tested this theory in a handful of clinical trials, and the results have been mixed.

 Now an international group of researchers has compiled data from a dozen randomized clinical trials to see if they could get a clearer answer to the question. What they found was “a consistent association between influenza vaccination and a lower risk of cardiovascular events,” according to their report in Wednesday’s edition of the Journal of the American Medical Assn.

 Five of the trials the team examined were published in peer-reviewed journals and compared a flu vaccine to a placebo vaccine or other type of control. In those trials, 3,238 patients got a real vaccine and 95 of them – 2.9% – went on to experience “a major adverse cardiovascular event,” the JAMA report said. For the sake of comparison, 3,231 patients in those trials got a placebo or control and 151 of them – or 4.7% – later had a cardiovascular event, according to the study.

 That translates into a 36% reduced risk of a serious heart problem simply by getting a flu shot – something everyone over the age of 6 months should be doing anyway. Based on these figures, the researchers calculated that one death or serious illness due to heart trouble could be prevented by vaccinating 58 additional people.

 Three of the trials the researchers examined focused on patients with coronary artery disease. Some of those patients had recently experienced acute coronary syndrome, and they benefited the most by getting a flu shot. Patients who got the vaccine were 55% less likely to have a serious heart problem than patients in the control groups, the researchers found. The team calculated that for these patients, only eight additional people would need to get a flu shot in order to prevent one case of death or serious illness.

 When the researchers considered cardiovascular deaths on their own, they found no statistically significant difference between the 1.3% of people who died after getting a flu shot and the 1.7% who died after being assigned to a placebo or control group.

 Experts aren’t sure why the flu increases the risk of serious heart problems, but they have their theories. It may cause a plaque that has built up inside the arteries to rupture, or it may cause the heart muscle to become inflamed, among other possibilities. Knowing what’s going on inside the body would help figure out who would get an extra boost from a flu shot, and why.

 Even with those uncertainties, the conclusion that a flu shot can protect patients with heart disease is convincing, according to an editorial that accompanies the study in JAMA.

 “The estimate of 1.7 major cardiovascular events prevented for every 100 persons with cardiovascular disease vaccinated is plausible and would represent a significant public health benefit,” wrote Dr. Kathleen Neuzil, a vaccine expert at PATH, a Seattle-based nonprofit that focuses on global health.

 If you're interested in news that helps you stay healthy, you like the things I write about. Follow me on Twitter and "like" Los Angeles Times Science & Health on Facebook.

 ALSO:

 It works: HPV vaccine reduces infections by 56%, CDC says

 Air pollution causes lung cancer, World Health Organization says

 45% of Americans got a flu shot last year; CDC says we can do better ||||| NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Getting a seasonal flu shot may do more than just prevent influenza. It may also lower a person's risk of heart problems, suggests a new study.

 Researchers who took a fresh look at previously collected data found people who got flu shots were less likely to have heart problems during the next year than those who were given a fake shot, or placebo. That was especially true for people with recent heart troubles.

 "If there are those out there who for whatever reason don't get the flu shot or don't feel that they need it … this is one more reason why they might help," Dr. Jacob Udell said.

 Udell is the study's lead author from the University of Toronto's Women's College Hospital and Peter Munk Cardiac Center at Toronto General Hospital.

 Previous reports have shown people who come down with the flu have an increased risk over the near term of having a stroke, heart failure and heart disease, he told Reuters Health.

 It's thought the infection triggers inflammation throughout the body and can aggravate existing heart problems.

 For the new study, the researchers searched several databases for trials that compared people who received the flu shot to others who did not.

 They found five published studies and one unpublished study that included 6,735 participants. Participants were in their late 60s, on average. A little more than a third had a history of heart problems.

 Overall, 3 percent of those who received a flu shot went on to have a heart problem including a heart attack or stroke within a year. That compared to about 5 percent of those in the placebo groups.

 Among those with recent heart disease, the difference was more dramatic.

 The researchers found about 10 percent of participants with a recent heart problem went on to have another after they received the flu shot. That compared to about 23 percent in the placebo groups.

 "Clearly if you had a recent heart attack our research is showing … they're going to derive the most protection," Udell said.

 "I think it adds a stronger bit of evidence to the recommendations that are currently being made," Dr. David Frid said.

 Frid, a preventative cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, was not involved with the new study.

 "From the clinical perspective, it gives us more supporting data to say to our patients, ‘Here's a recent study confirming what we've been telling you that if you have heart disease you should be getting the flu vaccine,'" he told Reuters Health.

 Dr. Kathleen Neuzil from the global health nonprofit organization PATH in Seattle wrote an editorial accompanying the new study in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

 She cautions that the findings can't say the flu shot prevents heart problems. However, Neuzil writes that the known complications of flu among older people warrant the vaccine's use.

 SOURCE: bit.ly/JOTmp1 The Journal of the American Medical Association, online October 22, 2013. ||||| Font Size A A A

 Your Flu Shot May Also Help Your Heart

 Study found one-third lower risk of problems including heart attacks in vaccinated people

 WebMD News from HealthDay

 By Serena Gordon

 HealthDay Reporter

 TUESDAY, Oct. 22 (HealthDay News) -- If avoiding an achy, feverish week or so laid up with the flu doesn't motivate you to get a flu shot, a new study linking flu shots to a lower incidence of heart disease might persuade you to roll up your sleeve.

 People in the study who got flu shots were one-third less likely to have heart issues, such as heart failure or a heart attack, compared to those who opted against vaccination. The flu shot was associated with an even greater reduction of heart problems if someone had heart disease to start with, according to the study.

 "This is one further piece of evidence to convince patients to go out and get their flu shot," said the study's lead author, Dr. Jacob Udell, a cardiology and clinician scientist, at Women's College Hospital at the University of Toronto.

 Results of the study are published in the Oct. 23/30 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

 Past research has suggested a link between the influenza virus -- the virus that causes the flu -- and an increased risk of heart events. And, conversely, previous research done on the influenza vaccine has suggested an association between the vaccine and a reduced risk of heart issues. But, most of these studies were small and none looked specifically for a heart-protective effect from the influenza vaccine.

 The flu vaccine is currently recommended for everyone over 6 months of age in the United States, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The vaccine is highly recommended for certain groups, including people with heart disease.

 To get an idea of how well the vaccine might protect against heart events, the researchers reviewed all of the clinical trials done on the influenza vaccine from 1947 through mid-2013.

 The investigators included six randomized clinical trials comprising nearly 7,000 people in their analysis. The average age of the study participants was 67, and about half were women. Just over 36 percent had a history of cardiac disease.

 The researchers found that those who received an influenza vaccine were 36 percent less likely to have a heart event than those who hadn't had a vaccine.

 When the researchers looked at just the three trials that included people with recent heart disease, they found an even greater potential protective effect. People with recent heart problems who got the flu vaccine were 55 percent less likely to have another event compared to those who didn't get the vaccine.

 The risk of dying from cardiovascular disease was nearly 20 percent lower for those who received the flu vaccine versus those who hadn't, according to the study.

 Udell said this study wasn't designed to prove that influenza vaccine can lower heart disease risk, but he said that the researchers believe they've come close to proving cause and effect without conducting a clinical trial specifically designed to look for a protective effect from the flu vaccine. |||||
What is a summary?

– This year's public service announcements urging people to get a flu shot might have just gotten some extra ammo: New research suggests the shots not only help ward off the flu but protect the heart as well, reports the LA Times. An analysis of previous studies found that 3% of people who got the flu vaccine went on to have some kind of "cardiovascular event," as opposed to 5% who got a placebo, according to the study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. That is, those who got flu shots reduced their risk by about a third of having a heart attack. "If there are those out there who for whatever reason don't get the flu shot or don't feel that they need it … this is one more reason why they might help," the lead researcher tells Reuters. So what's going on? WebMD explains a leading theory: The flu triggers an inflammatory immune response in the body, and that inflammation could spell trouble for arteries, especially ones already compromised. If the shot keeps the flu away, all that is avoided. The researchers say those who already have heart disease should be especially vigilant about getting the yearly flu vaccine.


News article:

Russia’s track and field team is barred from competing in the Olympic Games this summer because of a far-reaching doping conspiracy, an extraordinary punishment without precedent in Olympics history.

 The International Association of Athletics Federations, the governing body for track and field, announced the decision Friday, ruling in a unanimous vote that Russia had not done enough to restore global confidence in the integrity of its athletes.

 Russia won 18 medals in track and field — including eight golds — at the last Summer Olympics. But when the Rio Games begin on Aug. 5, no track and field athletes will compete under the Russian flag. Not even East Germany, which conducted a notorious doping scheme throughout the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, faced such a penalty.

 “Politics was not playing a part in that room today,” Sebastian Coe, the head of the track and field organization, said about the vote Friday. “It was unambiguous.” ||||| CLOSE USA TODAY Sports' Rachel Axon discusses the International Association of Athletics Federation's decision to ban Russia's track and field athletes from the upcoming Rio Olympics. USA TODAY Sports

 IAAF President Sebastian Coe speaks during a meeting of the IAAF Council at the Grand Hotel on June 17, 2016 in Vienna, Austria. (Photo: Christian Hofer, Getty Images for IAAF)

 Russia’s track and field athletes will not be able to compete in the Rio Olympics, the International Association of Athletics Federations announced Friday, but individual athletes do have a way forward to compete as a neutral athlete.

 In a historic decision, the IAAF voted unanimously to extend a ban of the All-Russia Athletics Federation (ARAF or RusAF) that has kept its athletes out of international competition since a World Anti-Doping Agency independent commission report released in November concluded Russia was running a state-sponsored doping program in athletics.

 Noting significant progress toward satisfying verification criteria being monitored by an IAAF task force, Rune Andersen, chair of that group, said several other criteria have not been satisfied.

 “In particular, the deep-seated culture of tolerance, or worse, for doping, that got RusAF suspended in the first place appears not to have been changed materially, to date,” he said in a news conference announcing the IAAF decision.

 “The head coach of the Russian athletic team and many of the athletes on that team appear unwilling to acknowledge the nature and extent of the doping problem in Russian athletics, and certain athletes and coaches appear willing to ignore the doping rules. A strong and effective anti-doping infrastructure capable of detecting and deterring doping has still not been created.”

 The IAAF council accepted the following recommendations from its task force monitoring the verification process:

 ► That Russia’s track and field federation not be reinstated.

 ► That the council pass a rule amendment allowing individual athletes who can “clearly and convincingly” show they have been subject to effective anti-doping systems and have not been tainted by the Russian system be able to apply to compete in international competitions as a neutral athlete.

 ► That athletes who have made “an extraordinary contribution to the fight against doping” be able to apply for that exception, particularly that the case of whistleblower Yuliya Stepanova be viewed favorably.

 ► That no RusAF officials, athletes or support personnel take part in international competition or IAAF affairs.

 In the news conference, Andersen said efforts to test athletes in Russia have “encountered serious obstacles.” Additionally, RusAF is unable to enforce all doping bans and the Russian Anti-Doping Agency is 18-24 months away from compliance with the WADA code.

 “The statement that we’ve made today is a very clear indication that over the long haul, our responsibility is to protect clean athletes and this is what this says,” IAAF President Sebastien Coe said. “In a system that has so badly failed the athletes in Russia, it is extremely difficult to define or have any presumption that athletes are in a safe and secure enough system for us to conclude that they are eligible for international competition.”

 Already, the decision is set to face challenges. Pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, told Russian news agency TASS that she would file a discrimination case in the court for human rights.

 In a statement, the Russian Ministry of Sport said it felt it had met the IAAF’s criteria and appealed to the International Olympic Committee, which is holding a summit Tuesday to discuss “the difficult decision between collective responsibility and individual justice.”

 The statement said, in part, “Clean athletes’ dreams are being destroyed because of the reprehensible behavior of other athletes and officials. They have sacrificed years of their lives striving to compete at the Olympics and now that sacrifice looks likely to be wasted.”

 Andersen made clear that the exception for athletes would be narrow, saying the task force was advised by legal counsel to head off legal challenges that could come to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

 “The crack in the door, or the opening to apply for this is quite narrow,” Andersen said, “so there won’t be many athletes that will manage to get through the crack of that door because it’s clearly, they have to demonstrate that they have been subject to a credible anti-doping control system and that they are not tainted by the system in Russia.”

 Doping entrenched in Russia

 In the task force’s report to the IAAF council, it made clear how entrenched the culture of doping is in the country.

 While the Russian federation replaced its entire council, decided to bar any athlete with a serious anti-doping rules violation from being considered for Olympic team selection and announced anti-doping classes would be taught in schools, among other improvements, it fell short of several other criteria.

 In an interviews with the task force, Isinbayeva and Yuriy Burzakovskiy, the head coach of the Russian national team, acknowledged they have not read the independent commission report although both have made public statements dismissing its contents.

 After retesting of samples from the Beijing and London Olympics revealed that 16 Russian track and field athletes had tested positive, Tatyana Firova, a 400-meter runner and one of those athletes, told the task force last week, “A normal person can take banned substances if they want to, so why can’t athletes take them as well? How else can we achieve high results?”

 While the IAAF criteria required the Russian federation to create an environment that encourages whistleblowing, the task force found the federation, Russian Olympic Committee and Ministry of Sport “have adopted at best a highly ambivalent attitude” toward Stepanova. Last week, a spokesman for President Vladimir Putin referred to her as “Judas,” the report noted.

 The task force noted a preliminary finding from a WADA investigation being led by Richard McLaren that there is sufficient evidence of “a mandatory state-directed manipulation of laboratory analytical results” in the Moscow lab from at least 2011 forward, a time period that includes the IAAF World Championships in Moscow in 2013. The Ministry of Sport advised the lab which findings to report to WADA and which to cover up, according to the task force report.

 Such is the culture that no athlete can be presumed to be clean as a record of negative tests “is no guarantee of anything,” the report noted. It referenced a letter sent to the IAAF council in November by 14 “clean” Russian athletes asking not to be held responsible for others’ doping.

 Two of those athletes have since tested positive in the retesting of Beijing and London samples.

 The task force considered in preparing its report information released by WADA on Wednesday detailed attempts at obstruction, obfuscation and avoidance of drug testing in the country as recently as last month.

 Of the 2,947 tests of Russian athletes in all sports from Nov. 18 to May 25, the IAAF conducted 655 and UKAD 455. From Feb. 15 to May 29, 736 tests were declined or canceled and there were 111 whereabouts failures.

 “Certainly from all of the evidence that I saw, and I would expect they would have had more, it was clear the Russians had not done much to change their ways, even though they had lots of time to do it if they wanted to,” said former WADA president Dick Pound, who led the independent commission.

 “Having seen that the IAAF was prepared to suspend them provisionally on the basis of the independent commission report, and you know they’ve appointed a task force with an independent chair to follow up things, you know that the German television program was pretty damning, you know that the WADA report about the difficulties they were having in Russia doing testing — you add all that together and you say what is possessing them to persist with that course of conduct? And why would they think that the IAAF would change its mind?”

 IAAF action draws praise

 The decisive action by the IAAF drew praise from athletes and anti-doping officials who were previously skeptical of whether meaningful sanctions would follow the uncovering of such widespread doping. Russian officials have for months wavered between flat-out denials of doping outside of a few bad apples to saying they were changing the culture around anti-doping in the country.

 “I think it’s a really monumental and historic day in many ways for clean athletes and for clean, fair sports,” said Canadian Beckie Scott, chair of the WADA athletes’ committee. “We really commend the IAAF for siding on what we feel is the right side of the sport.”

 Scott and Sarah Konrad, chair of the U.S. Olympic Committee’s athletic advisory council, have been among those calling for a greater investigation into Russia since November, when the independent commission report suggested doping could be a problem in other sports.

 WADA is now conducting an investigation, led by McLaren, into doping at the Sochi Olympics after Grigory Rodchenkov, the former director of the Moscow lab, alleged in the New York Times last month that he had not only doped Russian athletes at the Games but that he swapped out the urine in those doping samples with the assistance of someone he believed to be from Russia’s security service.

 WADA expects that report to be complete its report by July 15.

 In light of those allegations, plus what is known about doping in athletics, confidence in sport organizations to respond appropriately has wavered.

 “It’s been hard to keep faith in the system over the past year,” Konrad said. “I guess we’ll see what the next steps are. This is a lot bigger than athletics. There are more decisions to be made, but it’s a really, really great step in the right direction.

 “This was just an incredibly and necessary decision, actually, to allow the Olympic movement to survive.”

 USA Track & Field president and IAAF council member Stephanie Hightower called the process “thorough and fair” in a statement. Few in Russia are likely to agree, but outside of Russia, support echoed for the decision.

 “What would we give to go back and hold East Germany accountable. It wasn’t,” said U.S. Anti-Doping CEO Travis Tygart. “Today, those who value the Olympic movement can be proud. We said a state and a federation infected by this level of corruption can be held accountable. And hopefully it sends a loud message that scares off any state in the future. If they attempt to get away (with it) … it’s not worth the risk.”

 Contributing: Nancy Armour, Paul Myerberg

 GALLERY: U.S. ATHLETES WHO HAVE QUALIFIED FOR RIO |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– In what the New York Times calls "an extraordinary punishment that might be without precedent in Olympics history," the Russian track and field team has been banned from competition at the Summer Olympics. Seven months ago, the World Anti-Doping Agency published a scathing report accusing Russia of a doping scheme involving the government, law enforcement, athletes and coaches, and even doctors, a lab, and Russia's anti-doping agency. Since then, the nation's track and field athletes have been suspended from international competition; Russian authorities did not fight that suspension, though Russia has denied the allegations. The IAAF, track and field's global governing body, made the decision about the Rio Games Friday. USA Today says it will almost certainly be challenged, naming one pole vaulter who has threatened to file a discrimination case. Russian officials had volunteered to send only athletes who had never been disciplined for drug use. But, per a source familiar with the IAAF's decision, officials say Russia hasn't done enough to convince the world its athletes are clean. The International Olympic Committee will discuss the IAAF's decision next week, but the Times says it would be unusual for the IOC to amend the ruling. Whistleblowers have alleged that Russia's doping scheme has allowed athletes to appear clean even when they're not. Before the IAAF's vote Friday, Russia's sports minister released an open letter insisting that the country was fighting doping and noting that UK authorities recently conducted independent testing of Russian athletes. But WADA had earlier alleged that many Russian athletes evaded that testing and that Russian officials threatened the testing authorities.


[Full Text]This HRC study examines key factors in people’s decisions to either adopt or give up a vegetarian or vegan diet, and the first set of findings being released compares individuals who currently eat a vegetarian or vegan diet with those who have been vegetarian or vegan in the past but now consume meat. The findings of the study offer some potentially disappointing but illuminating conclusions that could inform advocacy and outreach strategies.

 Abstract:

 In the US, the population of current vegetarians/vegans sits at approximately 2%, while approximately 10% of the population are former vegetarians/vegans and about 88% have never been veg. This study, published by HRC, looks closely at that 12% of the population that identifies as either current or former vegetarians/vegans, and tries to better understand what makes people lapse, and in turn, what factors might help keep people veg. The findings presented here offer a lot of possible avenues for new strategic thinking in veg advocacy, and how we might move the vegetarian/vegan diet from the margins more towards the center.

 Though there is rarely just one reason for people adopting or giving up a veg diet, it is not completely clear if lapses are due more to social pressures (eating a diet that seems unusual or outside the norm), or based on some other difficulty inherent to the diet itself. That being said, the findings do illuminate some things that many lapsed vegetarians/vegans have in common, such as transitioning to the diet too quickly, not being involved socially with other veg folks, and not being able to address certain food cravings. The study also shows that current vegetarians/vegans have a wide range of motivations that keep them veg, which may mean that more diverse messaging and outreach could have a positive impact.

 This phase of release is part of a larger study of U.S. vegetarians and vegans. You can read more about the key findings, as well as the see the tables and methodologies, in the attached PDFs. ||||| In 1995 I decided to stop eating meat. I could never really quite explain why, I think it was something to do with watching a documentary where they cooked a cat and partly because I had a really crap job working for Wolves Poly and felt my life was slipping away. It definitely wasn't anything to do with any 'vegetarian month'.

 I did a number of weird things. I experimented with stopping washing my hair (it got greasy), I stopped watching TV after catching Newsnight really stoned and deciding that Jeremy Paxman was fundamentally a comedian so there was little difference between the news and Beadle's About. I also stopped eating meat.

 First it was just red meat. I said goodbye in a Birmingham Burger King; the sandwich was greasy and unpleasant and I thought 'good riddance'.

 I found eating only white meat was hard. People didn't know what to cook for me - they'd tell me I was just being awkward. They were right, so there was only one thing for it, cutting out all meat altogether.

 So I simply stopped putting it in my mouth. It was that simple. I didn't feel any different and what I cooked didn't really change as I was a complete povvo and didn't bother buying much meat anyway.

 To be honest, I was the world's worst vegetarian. You see - I didn't really like vegetables very much. I'd spent most of my childhood terrified of them - horrid bland mushy things. It's only as an adult I realise that part of the problem is my mother's cooking - she hates using salt and has a tendency to over boil things. Thanks, Mum.

 So there we are. A vegetarian who hates vegetables and mostly lives on pasta and cheese. Healthy.

 Fast-forward nearly 15 years and I'm a father of two and increasingly aware of my diet. My wife stopped her vegetarian ways when pregnancy brought cravings for meat.

 With her help (this makes her sound like my sponsor in Fussy Eaters Anonymous) I'd managed to eat more vegetables - by the time our second child was in the womb she was having spinach cravings and I didn't complain once about having to eat boiled green leaves every day. For six months. So I was doing better with a wider diet but still no drinking from the meaty cup.

 My four-year-old son has the restricted palate that children often have. He mostly refuses to eat anything that isn't sausages or fruit, so dining out was becoming difficult. There was the small circle of cheesy carbs I'd eat, and the intersection with the circle of sausages that my son wants to eat was - well, if you understand your Venn diagrams you'll know there wasn't much in the middle.

 It was a trip to Hastings that finally did it. At a fish 'n' chip shop pretty much the only thing on the menu I could eat was a microwaved cheese pasty. I simply couldn't face it and ordered fish.

 Can't say I particularly enjoyed it. I found the portion of thick white flesh alarmingly large and I didn't want to think about the skin at all. However it did leave me feeling satisfied in a way that I haven't felt in a long time. Every cell in my body screaming "protein - that's what you need."

 My wife was very impressed with me. She asked me what I wanted to try next and the thing that had been filling my thoughts since deciding to allow meat back into my life was pepperoni pizza. Those little toasted cups of fat that make for a party in the mouth everyone can afford. Although to ponce it up a bit we ate it in Hampstead. Lardy dah.

 Bacon. Let's talk about bacon. There's no meat more glorious than bacon. You can add it to pasta instead of cheese. You can stick it in a sandwich, er ... instead of cheese. Or even rub it on to attract men (a top tip there ladies).

 On telling my friends I was eating meat, one looked proud and said, "Welcome back to Man Club." Although my new macho credentials were severely dented by the admission that largely I'd been eating chicken - "Chicken? Why, us men class chicken as a vegetable."

 I still haven't tried real meat. I can do a spag bog or even a burger but no steaks. I'm still a bit frightened of them. All too fleshy.

 Many people must have had a similar experience. If you're a lapsed vegetarian (or a resurgent meat eater), what was it that made you fall off the vegetarian wagon? ||||| After decades of a growing appetite for meat, U.S. consumption is finally dropping after hitting "peak meat" a decade ago. But while many people are eating less meat, giving it up totally is much harder. Few people stick with their decision to become vegetarian or vegan.

 In an attempt to move animal-free diets "from the margins more towards the center," the Humane Research Council just put out the first study to put numbers to the lapsed vegetarian phenomenon. Their main takeaway is essentially what people have said for years: getting people to reduce their meat and dairy intake will be more effective overall than demanding "purity," or complete elimination of animal products from their diet.

 According to their research, drawn from a representative sample of more than 11,000 adults over age 17 in the U.S., while only 2% of the U.S. population is currently vegetarian or vegan, another 10% used to be. Put another way, they found that only 1 in 5 vegetarians and vegans maintains their diet; a full 84% eventually revert back to eating meat or other animal products.

 The study also shows how and why many people lapse. Most former vegetarians and vegans (65%) said they first transitioned to their veg diet in just a few days or weeks, while fewer current vegetarians (53%) transitioned that quickly, suggesting that perhaps a slower approach leads to longer-lasting results. They also found that the "window of opportunity is limited," when it comes to getting people to stick to their diets: A third-of people abandoned their animal-free diets in three months or less, and more than half abandoned it within the first year.

 Reasons for quitting varied, but perhaps intuitively, a lot comes down to relationships. A third of all former vegetarians lived with a non-vegetarians or non-vegan partner when they went back to eating meat. The study also found that current vegetarians were more likely to cite multiple reasons for being vegetarian—such as animal welfare, environmentalism, and personal health—while many former vegetarians (58%) cited health as the main motivator. In other words, from the advocacy group’s perspective, health can be an effective "foot in the door" approach to increasing the number of vegetarians and vegans, but often not enough to keep people animal-free for the long-term.

 The Humane Research Council also says advocates need to change the culture around being vegetarian or vegan and acknowledge its challenges. More than 60% of former vegetarians/vegans disliked sticking out from the crowd because of their diet, and 58% did not see their diet as part of their identity. Nearly 50% said they found it too difficult to maintain a "pure diet."

 "The latest findings once again show that a message focused on reduction instead of elimination of animal products may be more effective to create an overall decline in animal product consumption," the report says. "Advocates would be well advised to soften their appeals to avoid suggesting the choice is all or nothing." |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– It seems becoming a vegetarian and staying a vegetarian are two very different things. A whopping 84% of vegetarians end up eating meat again, and most people shift back within a single year, according to a new study. Specifically, 53% of vegetarians are meat-eaters again within 12 months, while more than 30% go back to meat within three months, the Huffington Post reports. Of the 11,000 people studied, 2% were vegetarians, 10% former vegetarians, and 88% lifelong meat-eaters. A major reason for lapsing, it seems, was social: Those who returned to being omnivorous didn't have enough support among friends for their vegetarian lifestyles. Earlier research points to health issues from staying meat-free, the Smithsonian reports. Some 35% of respondents to a separate survey of lapsed vegetarians said their own poorer health drove them back to animal flesh, Skeptoid reports. "I will take a dead cow over anemia anytime," says one respondent. And in the Guardian, a lapsed vegetarian writes about the inconvenience of avoiding meat, as well as the feeling of "every cell in my body screaming 'protein—that's what you need.'" Perhaps the writer would agree with the conclusions of the new study, as Co.Exist reports them: "A message focused on reduction instead of elimination of animal products may be more effective to create an overall decline in animal product consumption." (Read about a veggie burger that "bleeds" like meat.)


Article:

Candidates for Indiana's U.S. Senate seat Democrat Joe Donnelly, left, Libertarian Andrew Horning, center, and Republican Richard Mourdock participate in a debate in New Albany, Ind., Tuesday, Oct. 23,... (Associated Press)

 Candidates for Indiana's U.S. Senate seat Democrat Joe Donnelly, left, Libertarian Andrew Horning, center, and Republican Richard Mourdock participate in a debate in New Albany, Ind., Tuesday, Oct. 23,... (Associated Press)

 Candidates for Indiana's U.S. Senate seat Democrat Joe Donnelly, left, Libertarian Andrew Horning, center, and Republican Richard Mourdock participate in a debate in New Albany, Ind., Tuesday, Oct. 23,... (Associated Press)

 Supporters for Democrat Joe Donnelly, candidate for Indiana's U.S. Senate seat, cheer outside the site of a debate between Donnelly, Republican Richard Mourdock and Libertarian Andrew Horning in New Albany,... (Associated Press)

 Supporters of Republican Richard Mourdock, candidate for Indiana's U.S. Senate seat, cheer outside the site of a debate between Mourdock, Democrat Joe Donnelly and Libertarian Andrew Horning in New Albany,... (Associated Press)

 Candidates for Indiana's U.S. Senate seat Libertarian Andrew Horning, left, Democrat Joe Donnelly, center, and Republican Richard Mourdock greet one and other following a debate in New Albany, Ind., Tuesday,... (Associated Press)

 Mourdock, who's been locked in one of the country's most watched Senate races, was asked during the final minutes of a debate with Democratic challenger Rep. Joe Donnelly whether abortion should be allowed in cases of rape or incest.

 "I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize that life is that gift from God. And, I think, even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen," Mourdock said.

 Mourdock became the second GOP Senate candidate to find himself on the defensive over comments about rape and pregnancy. Missouri Senate candidate Rep. Todd Akin said during a television interview in August that women's bodies have ways of preventing pregnancy in cases of what he called "legitimate rape." Since his comment, Akin has repeatedly apologized but has refused to leave his race despite calls to do so by leaders of his own party, from GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney on down.

 It was not immediately clear what effect Mourdock's comments might have during the final two weeks before the Nov. 6 election. But they could prove problematic. Romney distanced himself from Mourdock on Tuesday night _ a day after a television ad featuring the former Massachusetts governor supporting the GOP Senate candidate began airing in Indiana.

 "Gov. Romney disagrees with Richard Mourdock's comments, and they do not reflect his views," Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said in an email to The Associated Press. Romney aides would not say whether the ad would be pulled and if the Republican presidential nominee would continue to support Mourdock's Senate bid.

 Other Republicans did not immediately weigh in. Indiana Republican Party spokesman Pete Seat referred comment to the Mourdock campaign. A spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee and a spokeswoman for Romney did not immediately return a request for comment Tuesday night.

 National Democrats quickly picked up on Mourdock's statement and used it as an opportunity to paint him as an extreme candidate, calling him a tea party "zealot." DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz described Mourdock's comments as "outrageous and demeaning to woman" and called on Romney to take his pro-Mourdock ad off the air.

 Later Tuesday after the debate, Mourdock further explained he did not believe God intended the rape, but that God is the only one who can create life.

 "Are you trying to suggest somehow that God preordained rape, no I don't think that," said Mourdock. "Anyone who would suggest that is just sick and twisted. No, that's not even close to what I said."

 In response, Donnelly said after the debate in southern Indiana that he doesn't believe "my God, or any God, would intend that to happen."

 Along with Romney's ad, top Republicans have been flocking to Indiana as part of an effort to break open the high-stakes race for the Senate seat, currently held by veteran GOP Sen. Richard Lugar who was defeated by Mourdock in the May primary. Republicans need to gain three seats, or four if President Barack Obama wins re-election, and seats that were predicted to remain or turn Republican have grown uncertain.

 Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell came to Indianapolis for a fundraiser Monday, and Arizona Sen. John McCain and South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham campaigned for Mourdock last week. New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte is due in the state Wednesday.

 Romney's coattails carry special significance in deeply conservative Indiana, where Mourdock has underperformed Romney by 12 points in most public polls. Karl Rove's Crossroads GPS also has bought another $1 million of airtime in Indiana, making his group the biggest player in Indiana's Senate race. A message left for Crossroads GPS spokesman Nate Hodson was not immediately returned. ||||| In a Tuesday night debate with his Democratic rival and a Libertarian candidate for one of Indiana's U.S. Senate seats, Republican candidate Richard Mourdock suggested that pregnancies resulting from rape are "something that God intended to happen," despite the "horrible situation" from which they derived.

 Mourdock, a Tea Party-backed candidate who beat longtime moderate Senator Richard Lugar in the state's Republican nominating contest earlier this year, expressed his view that "life begins at conception" and that he would only allow abortions in circumstances in which the mother's life was in danger.

 "I struggled with it myself for a long time, but I came to realize life is that gift from God," Mourdock said. "And I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen."

 Democrats immediately pounced on his comments, and Donnelly -- who is also pro-life but who supports exceptions for rape and incest -- released a statement questioning the notion that God would "intend for rape to happen."

 "The God I believe in and the God I know most Hoosiers believe in, does not intend for rape to happen -- ever," Donnelly said. "What Mr. Mourdock said is shocking, and it is stunning that he would be so disrespectful to survivors of rape."

 Mourdock, seeking to clarify his comments in a press conference following the debate, said he had intended to say that "God creates life," and that any interpretation of his comments to mean God "pre-ordained rape" were "sick" and "twisted."

 "What I said was, in answering the question form my position of faith, I said I believe that God creates life. I believe that as wholly and as fully as I can believe it. That God creates life," Mourdock said. "Are you trying to suggest that somehow I think that God pre-ordained rape? No, I don't think that. That's sick. Twisted. That's not even close to what I said. What I said is that God creates life."

 While to the right on Lugar with regard to issues relating both to reproductive rights and others, Mourdock's stance on abortion is hardly an anomaly in the Republican party. His comments echo similar remarks made by former Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum, a staunch pro-life social conservative, while he was still in the midst of a bid for the White House.

 "I think the right approach is to accept this horribly created -- in the sense of rape -- but nevertheless a gift in a very broken way, the gift of human life, and accept what God has given to you," Santorum told CNN's Piers Morgan in January. "We have to make the best of a bad situation."

 At the GOP convention in Tampa this year, the party approved a platform with language calling for a constitutional amendment banning abortion. The language, which is the same as in the party's 2004 and 2008 platform, did not provide exceptions for victims of rape or incest, or to save the life of the mother.

 Mourdock isn't the first Republican Senate candidate this cycle to inspire headlines about comments relating to rape and abortion. Todd Akin, Missouri's embattled Republican Senate candidate, was rebuked even by his own party when he suggested that pregnancies resulting from what he called "legitimate rape" were "really rare."

 Akin's comments were roundly decried by Democrats and Republicans alike, and a spokesperson for the Romney campaign said that Romney and Ryan "disagree" with Akin's statement.

 Romney, who has endorsed Mourdock, recently appeared in a campaign video on behalf of Mourdock, and campaigned with him in Evansville, Indiana, on Aug. 4. Paul Ryan, who, like Mourdock, opposes all abortions except to save the life of the mother, appeared at an open press funder with him on Sept. 17. Romney opposes abortion with exceptions for the victims of rape and incest and if the life of the mother is at risk.

 In a statement released Tuesday night, Romney spokesperson Andrea Saul said Mourdock's remarks were not in line with Romney's views.

 "Gov. Romney disagrees with Richard Mourdock's comments, and they do not reflect his views," Saul said.

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What is a summary?

– The GOP is on damage control duty after controversial comments on rape from another one of its candidates. Senate candidate Richard Mourdock said that pregnancies resulting from rape are "something that God intended to happen," when answering a question on abortion in a debate in Indiana last night, CBS reports. Democrats quickly attacked the remarks from the Tea Party-backed candidate, labeling him a "zealot." MItt Romney distanced himself from Mourdock after his remarks, the AP reports. Romney "disagrees with Richard Mourdock's comments, and they do not reflect his views," a spokesman said, but aides wouldn't say whether Romney would drop his support for Mourdock's Senate bid. After the debate, the candidate tried to clarify his remarks, saying that he meant "God creates life." Any suggestion that he believes that "God preordained rape" is "sick and twisted," Mourdock told reporters.