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 Earlier this year, Mitt Romney nearly landed in a politically perilous controversy when the Huffington Post reported that in 1999 the GOP presidential candidate had been part of an investment group that invested $75 million in Stericycle, a medical-waste disposal firm that has been attacked by anti-abortion groups for disposing aborted fetuses collected from family planning clinics. Coming during the heat of the GOP primaries, as Romney tried to sell South Carolina Republicans on his pro-life bona fides, the revelation had the potential to damage the candidate’s reputation among values voters already suspicious of his shifting position on abortion.

 But Bain Capital, the private equity firm Romney founded, tamped down the controversy. The company said Romney left the firm in February 1999 to run the troubled 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City and likely had nothing to with the deal. The matter never became a campaign issue. But documents filed by Bain and Stericycle with the Securities and Exchange Commission—and obtained by Mother Jones—list Romney as an active participant in the investment. And this deal helped Stericycle, a company with a poor safety record, grow, while yielding tens of millions of dollars in profits for Romney and his partners. The documents—one of which was signed by Romney—also contradict the official account of Romney’s exit from Bain.

 The Stericycle deal—the abortion connection aside—is relevant because of questions regarding the timing of Romney’s departure from the private equity firm he founded. Responding to a recent Washington Post story reporting that Bain-acquired companies outsourced jobs, the Romney campaign insisted that Romney exited Bain in February 1999, a month or more before Bain took over two of the companies named in the Post‘s article. The SEC documents undercut that defense, indicating that Romney still played a role in Bain investments until at least the end of 1999.

 Here’s what happened with Stericycle. In November 1999, Bain Capital and Madison Dearborn Partners, a Chicago-based private equity firm, filed with the SEC a Schedule 13D, which lists owners of publicly traded companies, noting that they had jointly purchased $75 million worth of shares in Stericycle, a fast-growing player in the medical-waste industry. (That April, Stericycle had announced plans to buy the medical-waste businesses of Browning Ferris Industries and Allied Waste Industries.) The SEC filing lists assorted Bain-related entities that were part of the deal, including Bain Capital (BCI), Bain Capital Partners VI (BCP VI), Sankaty High Yield Asset Investors (a Bermuda-based Bain affiliate), and Brookside Capital Investors (a Bain offshoot). And it notes that Romney was the “sole shareholder, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President of BCI, BCP VI Inc., Brookside Inc. and Sankaty Ltd.”

 The document also states that Romney “may be deemed to share voting and dispositive power with respect to” 2,116,588 shares of common stock in Stericycle “in his capacity as sole shareholder” of the Bain entities that invested in the company. That was about 11 percent of the outstanding shares of common stock. (The whole $75 million investment won Bain, Romney, and their partners 22.64 percent of the firm’s stock—the largest bloc among the firm’s owners.) The original copy of the filing was signed by Romney.

 Another SEC document filed November 30, 1999, by Stericycle also names Romney as an individual who holds “voting and dispositive power” with respect to the stock owned by Bain. If Romney had fully retired from the private equity firm he founded, why would he be the only Bain executive named as the person in control of this large amount of Stericycle stock?

 The documents—one of which was signed by Romney—also call into question the account of Romney’s exit from Bain that the company and the Romney campaign have provided.

 Stericycle was a lucrative investment for Romney and Bain. The company had entered the medical-waste business a decade earlier, when it took over a food irradiation plant in Arkansas and began zapping medical waste, rather than strawberries, with radiation. The company subsequently replaced irradiation with a technology that used low-frequency radio waves to sterilize medical waste—gowns, masks, gloves, and other medical equipment—before it was transported to an incinerator. By mid-1997, Stericycle was the second-largest medical-waste disposal business in the nation. Two years later, it was the largest. With 240,000 customers, its operations spanned the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. Fortune ranked it No. 10 on its list of the 100 fastest growing companies in the nation.

 But the company had its woes, accumulating a troubling safety record along the way. In 1991, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited its Arkansas operation for 11 workplace safety violations. The facility had not provided employees with sufficient protective gear, and it had kept body parts, fetuses, and dead experimental animals in unmarked storage containers, placing workers at risk. In 1995, Stericycle was fined $3.3 million—later decreased to $800,000—by Rhode Island for knowingly exposing workers to life-threatening diseases at its medical-waste treatment facility in Woonsocket. Two years later, workers at another of its medical-waste processing plants in Morton, Washington, were exposed to tuberculosis. In 2002 and 2003—after Bain and its partners had bought their major interest in the firm—Stericycle reached settlements with the attorneys general in Arizona and Utah after it was accused of violating antitrust laws. It paid Arizona $320,000 in civil penalties and lawyers’ fees, and paid Utah $580,000.

 Despite the firm’s regulatory run-ins, the deal worked out well for Bain. In 2001, the Bain-Madison Dearborn partnership that had invested in the company sold 40 percent of its holdings in Stericycle for about $88 million—marking a hefty profit on its original investment of $75 million. The Bain-related group sold the rest of its holdings by 2004. By that point it had earned $49.5 million. It was not until six years later that anti-abortion activists would target Stericycle for collecting medical waste at abortion clinics. This campaign has compared Stericycle to German firms that provided assistance to the Nazis during the Holocaust. A Stericycle official told Huffington Post that its abortion clinics business constitutes a “small” portion of its total operations. (Stericycle declined a request for comment from Mother Jones.)

 In 1995, Stericycle was fined by Rhode Island for knowingly exposing workers to life-threatening diseases at its medical-waste treatment facility.

 In response to questions from Mother Jones, a spokeswoman for Bain maintained that Romney was not involved in the Stericycle deal in 1999, saying that he had “resigned” months before the stock purchase was negotiated. The spokeswoman noted that following his resignation Romney remained only “a signatory on certain documents,” until his separation agreement with Bain was finalized in 2002. And Bain issued this statement: “Mitt Romney retired from Bain Capital in February 1999. He has had no involvement in the management or investment activities of Bain Capital, or with any of its portfolio companies since that time.” (The Romney presidential campaign did not respond to requests for comment.)

 But the document Romney signed related to the Stericycle deal did identify him as a participant in that particular deal and the person in charge of several Bain entities. (Did Bain and Romney file a document with the SEC that was not accurate?) Moreover, in 1999, Bain and Romney both described his departure from Bain not as a resignation and far from absolute. On February 12, 1999, the Boston Herald reported, “Romney said he will stay on as a part-timer with Bain, providing input on investment and key personnel decisions.” And a Bain press release issued on July 19, 1999, noted that Romney was “currently on a part-time leave of absence”—and quoted Romney speaking for Bain Capital. In 2001 and 2002, Romney filed Massachusetts state disclosure forms noting he was the 100 percent owner of Bain Capital NY, Inc.—a Bain outfit that was incorporated in Delaware on April 13, 1999—two months after Romney’s supposed retirement from the firm. A May 2001 filing with the SEC identified Romney as “a member of the Management Committee” of two Bain entities. And in 2007, the Washington Post reported that R. Bradford Malt, a Bain lawyer, said Romney took a “leave of absence” when he assumed the Olympics post and retained sole ownership of the firm for two more years.

 All of this undermines Bain’s contention that Romney, though he maintained an ownership interest in the firm and its funds, had nothing to do with the firm’s activities after February 1999. The Stericycle deal may raise red flags for anti-abortion activists. But it also raises questions about the true timing of Romney’s departure from Bain and casts doubt on claims by the company and the Romney campaign that he had nothing to do with Bain business after February 1999. ||||| WASHINGTON -- One of the highest performing companies in which the private equity firm founded by Mitt Romney invested is now a top target of the most vehement anti-abortion groups in the nation.

 Stericycle, a massive medical waste disposal service company, received a $75 million investment from Bain Capital in 1999 and soon became an industry leader. Today, it has more than 485,000 customers worldwide. Its clients include hospitals, blood banks, and pharmaceutical manufacturers. But it has also helped dispose of medical waste from Planned Parenthood and abortion clinics -- waste that included aborted fetuses -- and that has attracted the ire of the pro-life community and establishment Republicans.

 Romney's relationship to the company, which was flagged by the Democratic opposition research group American Bridge and further examined through an independent review of documents, is tangential. By the time Bain Capital had made the investment in Stericycle, he had left the firm to run the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. He maintained ownership in Bain and kept holdings in its private equity funds, which included Stericycle stock, but he had no say in the managerial or strategic decisions at the firm, according to Bain officials.

 But at a time when Romney is attempting to sell South Carolina voters on his pro-life record -- running values-themed radio ads and defending himself from attacks that say he governed as pro-abortion lawmaker -- the link between Stericycle and Bain could still cause him problems.

 "It is pretty significant. A lot of these companies, unfortunately, don't know what is going on," said Michael Marcavage, director of the Campaign to Stop Stericycle, an offshoot of the evangelistic organization Repent America. "You need to put morality before money and a lot of these companies need to look at who they are investing with ... Just imagine if the company was involved in discrimination against blacks? Who would want to be involved in that?"

 "If they knew that was going on and still looked at it as a business venture we would certainly speak heavily against it," Marcavage added.

 Stericycle's work with abortion clinics constitutes a "small" portion of its overall operations, an official with the company told The Huffington Post (the official declined to confirm whether or not Planned Parenthood specifically is still a client). And anti-abortion activists' decision to target it seems misdirected; what would those clinics be left to do without the services provided by Stericycle and companies like it?

 There is no publicly available data showing that either Romney or other officials at Bain knew of Stericycle's work with Planned Parenthood and abortion clinics before the investment. Nor would it be unreasonable if they knew about it and found it irrelevant. Bain, after all, is not a religious outfit, unless the religion is money-making.

 The Romney campaign did not return a request for comment.

 Bain's $75 million investment in the company was announced in August and finalized in November of 1999. An official with the firm told The Huffington Post that such deals are usually planned three or four months before the announcement date, which means it was likely conceived of after February 1999, when Romney left for the Olympics. The first reported documentation of Stericycle servicing an abortion clinic came in 2003, one year before Bain sold its stake in the company.

 Repent America itself only became aware of the issue in 2010, when it was reported that Stericycle had picked up “biohazardous waste” at an abortion clinic in Richmond, Virginia. The group subsequently put pressure on Penske and Ryder, the truck-leasing companies that Stericycle had hired, to stop working with the medical waste disposal company.

 More than suggesting Bain's indifference to the abortion debate, the story the firm's involvement with Stericycle illustrates how the private equity chapter of Romney's career has complicated his political ambitions. Every company Bain has invested in has a story of its own, whether it's the use of generous tax breaks and government subsidies to build a steel company in Indiana or the rapid growth of Staples.

 With Stericycle, that story is as much about leveraging money to make more as the politics of abortion.

 The company was only a decade old when Bain began contemplating an investment. What the private equity firm found alluring was that Stericycle had a straightforward, fairly fail-safe strategy for growth. The waste and recycling behemoth Allied Waste Industries had spent $10 billion to acquire Browning-Ferris Industries in 1999 and was looking to sell its medical waste department in order to pay off the debt from that acquisition. Stericycle decided it would buy that division, which was, at the time, the country's largest. The company just needed help with funding. In stepped Bain and another private equity firm, Madison Dearborn Partners.

 On paper, it was a win-win situation. By consuming its number one competitor, Stericycle became the largest company in the industry. It added 200,000 new customers, saw a reported 266 percent increase in revenue within a year and was named the tenth-fastest growing company in the country by Fortune magazine. According to SEC data, it would go on to make more than $900 million in profits during the Bain years, from 1999 to 2004, and employment would increase by 1,200 -- owed largely to the company taking on workers from Browning-Ferris Industries.

 The deal was good for Bain too. According to an investment prospectus from December 2003, the return rate that Bain received on its investment in Stericycle was approximately 66 percent, or 49.5 million dollars.

 Romney had become governor of Massachusetts by then. But according to financial disclosure reports flagged by American Bridge and a review of SEC data, both he and his wife maintained investments in Bain Capital funds, including ones that had the Stericycle stock.

 Also on HuffPost: |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– Another Bain Capital controversy for Mitt Romney: He may have still been involved with the private-equity firm when it invested $75 million in Stericycle, a medical-waste disposal company that disposes of aborted fetuses, thus making it a target of anti-abortion activists. The Huffington Post first revealed the Romney-Stericycle connection, but Bain kept it from blowing up into a controversy by claiming that Romney left the firm in February 1999, before the deal was made. But SEC documents obtained by Mother Jones list Romney as "sole shareholder, Chairman, CEO, and President" of Bain and as a definite participant in the deal—a deal that made him and his partners millions; one document even includes his signature. The documents are relevant not only because of the abortion controversy, but because of Romney's departure from Bain. He has used the official account of the timing of his exit to defend himself—not just with regard to the Stericycle deal, but also with regard to the recent article about Bain's connections to major job outsourcing. In that case, the Romney campaign noted that his February 1999 exit came at least a month before Bain acquired two of the companies that outsourced jobs. But these documents indicate Romney was still playing a role at the company until the end of that year. Mother Jones has a detailed look at the documents—as well as Stericycle's troubled safety record.


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 Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items. ||||| “Normally, we forget things in little pieces,” Dr. Speigel said. “These people forget things in large pieces that involve what they’ve done for the last year or two years.”

 During a lengthy interview with The New York Times five months after her ordeal, Ms. Upp recalled nothing of her travels throughout the city. “I went from going for a run to being in the ambulance,” she said. “It was like 10 minutes had passed. But it was almost three weeks.”

 With the help of the police and security camera footage, Ms. Upp was able to retrace some of her journey, which included stops at Starbucks, the Midtown Apple store and several New York Sports Clubs. But she was left with plenty of questions.

 “It’s weird,” she said at the time. “How do you feel guilty for something you didn’t even know you did? It’s not your fault, but it’s still somehow you. So it’s definitely made me reconsider everything. Who was I before? Who was I then — is that part of me? Who am I now?”

 Ms. Upp left New York in 2010 and worked at a Quaker study and retreat center outside of Philadelphia, according to a newsletter written by her father. She then became a teaching assistant in Montessori schools, including one in Maryland. There, in September 2013, Ms. Upp experienced another dissociative fugue episode, this time disappearing for two days.

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 She moved to St. Thomas the next year for a new job teaching 3- to 6-year-olds at the Virgin Islands Montessori School.

 “Whenever we do a tour for a new family, the first classroom we visit is Hannah Upp’s,” said Michael Bornn, the head of the school. “She’s one heck of an example; she’s not just a Montessori teacher, she’s a passionate Montessori teacher.”

 While Ms. Upp may be suffering another dissociative fugue episode, it is far from a foregone conclusion. She could be caught up in the chaos following the two storms. Members of her family, who declined to be interviewed, instead released a statement emphasizing the unknown nature of her present condition:

 “Our beloved Hannah has disappeared. We do not know what has happened and we are hopeful that she will be found alive and well. Our thoughts and prayers are with Hannah and all those who continue to search tirelessly for her. We know our fear and uncertainty is shared by many others, and our hearts go out to all who wait.”

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 With much of St. Thomas and the surrounding region heavily damaged and many people still missing throughout the Caribbean, Ms. Upp’s disappearance “couldn’t have happened at a more difficult time,” Mr. Bornn said. Federal searchers and the Coast Guard are preoccupied with hurricane recoveries, he added, and Ms. Upp may not be “on the top of their radar.”

 Some of Ms. Upp’s friends and colleagues have taken matters into their own hands: Jake Bradley, an emergency medical technician who has helped to lead the search for Ms. Upp, told The Virgin Islands Daily News that “we’ve done all the physical searching that I think we can do, other than having her posters put up everywhere.” The hope, he added, is that even if Ms. Upp is in a fugue state, she will see a poster and recognize that something is wrong.

 Mr. Bornn, who has been in frequent communication with Ms. Upp’s family while trying to raise money to keep his school’s doors open, stressed that even in a fugue state, Ms. Upp would still be fully functional — just not as herself.

 “That’s one of the frustrating things we haven’t been able to get across to the public,” Mr. Bornn said. “Just because she said ‘hi’ to you, don’t take her off your radar screen.

 “We’re still optimistic,” he added. “We still have hope.” ||||| A young schoolteacher with a rare form of amnesia disappeared in the U.S. Virgin Islands on September 14, and remained missing as Hurricane Maria struck the region.

 Hannah Upp was last seen leaving her apartment on St. Thomas about 8 a.m. last Thursday. Her car was later found in a parking lot at Sapphire Beach, where locals often go to swim, and her sandals, sarong and dress were found on the beach, her colleagues tell Newsweek.

 Upp has a rare form of amnesia called dissociative fugue—best known as the medical condition that affected the character Jason Bourne—which can cause people to forget who they are for days or months at a time.

 The 32-year-old went missing in similar circumstances twice before. Upp went for a run in Manhattan in 2008 and disappeared for almost three weeks before she was found floating in the water off the southern point of the island, with no memory of the preceding weeks. She disappeared again for about two days in 2013 in Maryland, again telling police after she was found that she had no memory of where she had been or what she had done while she was missing. Facebook, courtesy Maggie Guzman

 Her latest disappearance is especially troubling because it comes while St. Thomas rebuilds from Hurricane Irma and as residents sheltered from Hurricane Maria late Tuesday and early Wednesday.

 “Last night we had six hours of heavy, heavy rain and winds, so I’m worried that she was hiding out somewhere that wasn’t safe,” Maggie Guzman, a friend and fellow teacher, tells Newsweek. “There’s a lot of things to worry about. But my hope is that she found somewhere safe to hide.”

 The search for Upp has been complicated and slowed by the hurricane and by poor cellphone service on the island. Upp’s colleagues filed a police report and the U.S. Coast Guard searched the ocean, but the Coast Guard had to call off the search as Hurricane Maria approached the island, according to Michael Bornn, the head of school at Virgin Islands Montessori School.

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 “We’re ducking between Category 5 hurricanes,” says Bornn, who described Upp as an energetic and loving teacher who taught 3- to 5-year-old children in both English and Spanish. “It’s hard to find her in the best of situations, and it’s even harder now with the hurricane chaos.” REUTERS/Jonathan Drake

 Guzman first noticed Upp was missing on Friday, when she didn’t show up at school—where Guzman and other teachers were working to rebuild. Guzman called Upp’s roommates and friends but nobody had seen her, and Upp didn’t answer her phone.

 “She may be confused and disoriented or not know who she is. Remember her face and look out for her,” Guzman wrote in a post on the Facebook group “What’s Going on St. Thomas,” which storm survivors have used to exchange information and search for missing people. Guzman later posted a rumor that Upp was sighted at a bar called Rum Hut—wearing a dirty tank top and a bandage on her arm—in an attempt to find out whether anyone else had seen her there. (Another resident posted that the woman in the tank top was a friend and not Upp.)

 Upp called her mother Tuesday after a staff meeting at Virgin Islands Montessori School and said she was safe and planned to stay on the island. “According to her mother, she sounded coherent,” Bornn, the head of school, tells Newsweek, adding that Thursday morning she left a note for friends saying she was going for a swim at Sapphire Beach and would then go to school. Photo courtesy Beverly Millard

 “To me, that was the last conscious act that we know of,” says Bornn, adding that Upp’s colleagues and friends have hung paper fliers around the island and have checked the hospital and shelters.

 Hurricane Irma hit St. Thomas last week and devastated the U.S. territory of about 50,000 people, tearing the roof off the hospital, destroying many buildings and killing at least four people.

 Stressful situations can trigger the symptoms of dissociative amnesia, which include “difficulty remembering important information about one’s self,” and can last from minutes to years, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Facebook, Courtesy Maggie Guzman

 When Upp was missing in 2008, police reports said she spent a lot of time in places like Riverside Drive, which overlooks the Hudson River, according to The New York Times. After she was found, she said her attraction to the area made sense—an answer that may also shed light on why she found her way to Sapphire Beach almost 10 years later. “Not only is it one of my favorite places, but there’s something soothing about the sound of water and just not feeling trapped in the concrete jungle,” she told the newspaper in 2009.

 Upp’s friends worry she drowned at Sapphire Beach, was the victim of a crime or was once again struck by amnesia and is now wandering around the island, confused and hiding. Guzman says: “We’re all hoping it’s the third thing, because that’s more likely that she’s OK.” |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– "It's definitely made me reconsider everything. Who was I before? Who was I then—is that part of me? Who am I now?" The New York Times reports Hannah Upp, a 32-year-old teacher in St. Thomas, disappeared Sept. 14, a week after Hurricane Irma hit the Virgin Islands. Her clothes, car, keys, cellphone, passport, and wallet were found at a beach where she had gone for a swim. Upp was still missing five days later when Hurricane Maria battered the Caribbean. Upp is far from the only person missing in the wake of the storms, but her case is unique in that she may not even know she's missing. Upp has dissociative fugue, a very rare type of amnesia made famous by the fictional Jason Bourne. "Normally, we forget things in little pieces," Dr. David Spiegel says. "These people forget things in large pieces that involve what they've done for the last year or two years." In 2008, Upp was found floating face down in New York Harbor by a ferry captain. She had been missing for three weeks at that point and remembered nothing of that period. "I went from going for a run to being in the ambulance," Upp said after her rescue. Newsweek reports Upp disappeared again in 2013 in Maryland—this time for two days. Now friends and family are hoping Upp has once again entered a fugue state and didn't drown or fall victim to a crime. "My hope is that she found somewhere safe to hide," friend Maggie Guzman says. Official resources are stretched thin responding to the two hurricanes, so Upp's friends have been searching for her and putting up posters, hoping she sees one. "If she’s in her fugue state, it would at least get her to the point where she realizes something’s wrong," friend Jake Bradley tells the Virgin Islands Daily News.


News article:

Asked if he thought Mr. Trump’s Twitter posts were appropriate given Mr. Lewis’s biography and record, Mr. Pence said that the president-elect “has the right to defend himself” and that Mr. Trump had wished to call attention to Democratic policy failures in America’s cities.

 A spokesman for the Trump transition team said it would have no further comment.

 Many of the members of Congress who will not attend Mr. Trump’s inauguration said they planned to instead meet with activists and focus on how to push back against Mr. Trump’s administration.

 Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the dean of the House of Representatives, was among those announcing that he would not be attending the inauguration and was gearing up to fight Mr. Trump. “I will do everything in my power to ensure that accountability is brought to bear on the administration and that the Constitution and our nation’s laws are adhered to, as no one is above the law,” he wrote in a statement.

 Representative Barbara Lee of California said Mr. Trump “has demeaned and insulted the African-American community, and we are going to have to really raise our voices and resist this if these views are going to be reflected in his policies.”

 Others skipping the event include Representatives Raúl M. Grijalva of Arizona; Maxine Waters of California; Luis V. Gutiérrez of Illinois; Katherine M. Clark of Massachusetts; William Lacy Clay of Missouri; Nydia M. Velázquez, Jerrold Nadler and José E. Serrano of New York; Marcia L. Fudge of Ohio; Earl Blumenauer and Kurt Schrader of Oregon; and Mark Pocan of Wisconsin.

 Mr. Trump had scant support in the black community before his transition began; only about 8 percent of blacks voted for him on Nov. 8. The relationship seemed further imperiled when Mr. Trump appointed his White House chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, the former head of Breitbart News, who some people fear will bring nationalist and racist views to the West Wing.

 The Rev. Al Sharpton, who led a march on Saturday in Washington, said Mr. Trump’s Twitter posts drove more people to brave the cold to demonstrate. ||||| Yes, it is. In fact, it’s an act of patriotism.

 By any reasonable standard, the 2016 election was deeply tainted. It wasn’t just the effects of Russian intervention on Mr. Trump’s behalf; Hillary Clinton would almost surely have won if the F.B.I. hadn’t conveyed the false impression that it had damaging new information about her, just days before the vote. This was grotesque, delegitimizing malfeasance, especially in contrast with the agency’s refusal to discuss the Russia connection.

 Was there even more to it? Did the Trump campaign actively coordinate with a foreign power? Did a cabal within the F.B.I. deliberately slow-walk investigations into that possibility? Are the lurid tales about adventures in Moscow true? We don’t know, although Mr. Trump’s creepy obsequiousness to Vladimir Putin makes it hard to dismiss these allegations. Even given what we do know, however, no previous U.S. president-elect has had less right to the title. So why shouldn’t we question his legitimacy?

 And talking frankly about how Mr. Trump gained power isn’t just about truth-telling. It may also help to limit that power.

 It would be one thing if the incoming commander in chief showed any hint of humility, of realizing that his duty to the nation requires showing some respect for the strong majority of Americans who voted against him despite Russian meddling and the F.B.I.’s disinformation dump. But he hasn’t and won’t.

 Instead, he’s lashing out at and threatening anyone and everyone who criticizes him, while refusing even to admit that he lost the popular vote. And he’s surrounding himself with people who share his contempt for everything that is best in America. What we’re looking at, all too obviously, is an American kakistocracy — rule by the worst. ||||| Archive-It Partner 1067: The Political TV Ad Archive, a project of the Internet Archive, collects political TV ads and social media sites in key 2016 primary election states, unlocking the metadata underneath and highlighting quality journalism to provide journalists, civic organizations, academics, and the general public with reliable information on who is trying to influence them & how. ||||| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. ||||| Image copyright AFP Image caption Donald Trump was widely criticised for his attack on civil rights hero John Lewis

 The number of Democratic members of Congress saying they will boycott Donald Trump's inauguration on Friday has increased to 26.

 Many have cited as a reason the president-elect's recent attack on civil rights icon and fellow congressman John Lewis.

 Mr Trump lashed out at Mr Lewis on Twitter on Friday after Mr Lewis said he was not a "legitimate president".

 He said that Mr Lewis was: "All talk, talk, talk - no action or results."

 Mr Lewis was a prominent member of America's civil rights movement and is a hero to many Americans. He was among those beaten by police during the infamous Selma-Montgomery voting rights march of 1965.

 As Americans celebrate Martin Luther King Day, the children of the slain civil rights leader - a contemporary of Mr Lewis - have spoken out about the spat.

 Martin Luther King III played down the row following a meeting with Mr Trump in New York that he described as "very constructive".

 He said that in the heat of the moment "a lot of things get said on both sides".

 But his sister Bernice King told a church audience in Atlanta that "God can triumph over Trump".

 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption John Lewis tells Americans to continue to speak out against hate in MLK day address.

 Mr Lewis joined the House of Representatives in 1987 and has served Georgia's fifth congressional district, which Mr Trump went on to call "crime-infested", ever since.

 The president-elect's insults, made just days ahead of Martin Luther King Day, were the final straw for a number of Democrats, who will break with tradition by missing the inauguration ceremony on Friday.

 "When you insult Rep John Lewis, you insult America," said Yvette Clarke, one of five representatives for New York who will boycott the event. There are 535 members of Congress, across both houses.

 More on this story

 John Lewis book sales soar after Donald Trump row

 Inauguration blues: Why pop stars won't play for Trump

 Anthony Zurcher: Ethics concerns swirl around Trump team

 California representative Ted Lieu said: "For me, the personal decision not to attend Inauguration is quite simple: Do I stand with Donald Trump, or do I stand with John Lewis? I am standing with John Lewis."

 Illinois representative Luis Gutierrez was the first member of Congress to say he would boycott the inauguration - announcing his decision in December.

 "I could not look my wife, my daughters, or my grandson in the eye if I sat there and attended, as if everything that the candidate said about the women, the Latinos, the blacks, the Muslims, or any of those other things he said in those speeches and tweets, and that all of that is OK or erased from our collective memory," Mr Gutierrez told the House.

 He has said he will attend the alternative Women's March on Washington the following day.

 Image copyright AP Image caption Representative Katherine Clark (centre) is among those who will boycott the ceremony

 Mr Lewis's announcement of his own boycott in an interview with NBC News, in which he said that Mr Trump was an illegitimate president, prompted the outburst from the president-elect.

 Mr Trump's inauguration will be the second not attended by Mr Lewis in his 30 years in Congress.

 The Georgia congressman cited alleged Russian interference in the election among his reasons for regarding Mr Trump as illegitimate.

 He also did not attend George W Bush's inauguration in 2001.

 "You cannot be at home with something that you feel that is wrong," he told NBC News.

 Sales of Mr Lewis's memoir soared to the top of Amazon's US best-seller list following Mr Trump's attack, eventually selling out completely.

 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Democrat lawmaker, Mark DeSaulnier, tells the BBC why he is boycotting Trump's inauguration

 Mr Lewis led a sit-in protest at the House of Representatives in July to demand a vote on gun control legislation, in the wake of the deadly Orlando shooting.

 Republicans adjourned the House early to try to quash the sit-in, switching off the TV cameras, but the C-Span network picked up live streams from some Democrats' phones.

 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The moment congressman John Lewis asked Democrats to take action

 Katherine Clark, a representative for Massachusetts, was among the first to join Mr Lewis for the gun control protest. Ms Clark said last week she would skip Mr Trump's inauguration.

 "Families in my district are fearful that the anti-woman, anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim and divisive promises that drove the Trump campaign will become the policies affecting the health and safety of every American," she said in a statement.

 "I do not feel that I can contribute to the normalisation of the president-elect's divisive rhetoric by participating in the inauguration."

 Mr Trump has struggled to book any established musicians to perform at his ceremony, despite his team appearing to have cast a wide net.

 The event will feature Jackie Evancho, a 16-year-old America's Got Talent contestant, alongside military bands and the Radio City Rockettes, although some members of the Rockettes troupe have publicly refused to take part.

 Country music stars including Toby Keith will play a concert on the eve of the inauguration.

 Update 23 January 2017: This story has been updated following confirmation from John Lewis's office that he also missed Mr Bush's inauguration ceremony in 2001. ||||| At a Dr. Martin Luther King Day Jr. breakfast in his honor, civil rights icon and recent target of President-elect Donald Trump's ire — Georgia Democrat Rep. John Lewis — eschewed his prepared remarks and spoke candidly about his remarkable personal journey. He described his impoverished childhood in Alabama and his career as an activist, which eventually sparked a long political career.

 Lewis delivered the address to a group of young African-American men as part of the 5000 Role Models' of Excellence Project's annual scholarship breakfast in Miami on Monday. His comments came amid a firestorm generated by his recent assertion on NBC's "Meet the Press" that Trump is not a "legitimate" president-elect. The president-elect quickly took to Twitter to deem the lawmaker as "all talk" and call his congressional district "crime infested."

 Related: Rep. Lewis: I Would Not Invite Trump to Selma

 On Monday, Lewis chose not to rehash the controversy or engage Trump, instead focusing on his political evolution and the cause of his life — expanding the right to vote to as many eligible people as possible.

 "The vote is precious is almost sacred it is the most powerful not violent instrument or tool that we have in a democratic society and we must use it," Lewis said Monday.

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 The Democrat also reiterated the virtues of non-violence, which he championed as a young activist alongside Dr. Martin Luther King at the height of the Civil Rights Movement.

 "The way of love is a better way, the way of peace is a better way," Lewis said.

 In the speech, Lewis was also defiant about the need to stand up for your principles regardless of the risks.

 "Never give up, never give in. Stand up, speak up. When you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have a moral obligation to do something, to say something and not be quiet," Lewis said, his voice rising with emotion. "The scars and stains of racism are deeply embedded in American society."

 He went on to tell the audience at the scholarship breakfast that they are "more than lucky" to live in a world shaped by King's sacrifices.

 From left center, John Lewis (holding bottle), Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Ralph Abernathy, march for civil rights from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama, March 19, 1965. Others unidentified. AP

 "If it hadn’t been for Martin Luther King, Jr. I wouldn’t be a member of the House of Representatives since 1987," said Lewis. "He freed us he helped liberate us to make our nation a better place, to make our world a better place."

 Lewis, who King nicknamed "the boy from Troy" because of his courageous efforts to integrate what would eventually become Troy University in Alabama, is the lone surviving keynote speaker from the historic 1963 March on Washington. He is one of the only figures involved whose speech was censored by the organizers because it was deemed too politically incendiary.

 Related: Trump is Not a Legitimate President: Civil Rights Icon Rep. John Lewis

 And while those efforts helped turn Lewis into a hero for many Americans (including Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who described the Congressman "as the most extraordinary figures in America, a true American hero" at Monday's event), it also left him with a fractured skull, which he suffered at the end of billy club wielded by police on the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma during a protest gone awry in 1965.

 Today, Lewis looks back on his acts of civil disobedience as an effort to cause "good trouble" for a noble cause. And he hasn't slowed down, despite the fact that he will turn 77 this year.

 I'm on the House floor with @repjohnlewis & Dems staging a sit-in to demand action on commonsense gun legislation pic.twitter.com/byIivby5gG — Rep. John Yarmuth (@RepJohnYarmuth) June 22, 2016

 In just the past year, he's drawn criticism (and praise) for leading a late-night sit-in on Capital Hill to protest inaction on gun control legislation and for testifying against Trump's pick for attorney general, Sen. Jeff Sessions.

 He concluded Monday's event by making the case for being ambitious about education and participation in the democratic process, telling the young men: "Never give up your dreams ... just go for it." ||||| ATLANTA — In his war of words with Democratic U.S. Rep. John Lewis, President-elect Donald Trump took to Twitter , scolding the longtime representative but also taking swipes at his district, saying it was “falling apart” and “crime-infested.”

 News of the dilapidated and crime-ridden state of the Fifth Congressional District of Georgia came as a surprise to many of the more than 700,000 people who live here, an area that covers much... ||||| One of the highest elected officials in one of Georgia’s most diverse counties waded into controversial territory over the weekend when he wrote a Facebook post calling U.S. Rep. John Lewis – a Civil Rights legend already locked in a war of words with president-elect Donald Trump – a “racist pig.”

 The reaction to Gwinnett County Commissioner Tommy Hunter, a Republican, taking on Lewis a few days before the holiday honoring the life of counterpart Martin Luther King Jr. was varied – but swift.

 Many took to the comments section of Hunter’s Facebook posts to support him. Others did quite the opposite.

 “Hunter is a disgrace to Gwinnett County in particular and Georgia in general, and he should apologize for those comments,” Gwinnett Democratic Party Chairman Gabe Okoye told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

 He later called for Hunter to resign.

 Hunter, who was first elected to Gwinnett’s Board of Commissioners in 2012 and narrowly won re-election in November, made the Facebook post in question on Saturday afternoon. It came amid a well-publicized feud between Lewis and Trump, which started when Lewis told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he didn’t view Trump as a “legitimate president.”

 Trump then responded on Twitter, calling Lewis “all talk” and proclaiming his Congressional district — which includes most of the city of Atlanta — to be “in terrible shape and falling apart.”

 In addition to calling Lewis “a racist pig,” the subsequent Facebook post from Hunter – whose Gwinnett district lies many miles east of Lewis’ congressional one – referred to “Demonrats” as “a bunch of idiots.”

 A recent Facebook post from Gwinnett County Commissioner Tommy Hunter. (Facebook screenshot)

 On Sunday afternoon, Hunter addressed Lewis on Facebook a second time, calling his election wins “all illegitimate.”

 A recent Facebook post from Gwinnett County Commissioner Tommy Hunter.

 Hunter later posted an image that included this phrase: “If you’re easily offended and looking for a ‘safe place’ my page ain’t it.. Move along snowflake.”

 Sometime shortly before 11 a.m. Monday, however, the “racist pig” post was no longer on Hunter’s timeline. The page’s privacy settings also appeared to be changed, but the other posts mentioned above were still visible to “friends” and “followers” — along with additional posts mocking U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson, asking if there were “any white guys" on the University of Alabama’s football team and criticizing Gov. Nathan Deal’s decision to declare a state of emergency ahead of last weekend’s ultimately uneventful winter storm.

 In November, he used the word “libtard” in a comment on one of his own Facebook posts.

 The privacy changes on Hunter’s Facebook page were likely in response to an influx of nasty comments, many of which called the commissioner disparaging names or urged him to “stay classy.”

 Hunter is the vice president of a local environmental testing firm and, prior to his time on the Board of Commissioners, worked in the county’s department of public utilities and served on its water and sewage authority (2005-09) and its planning commission (2011-12). Controversial or contentious votes are generally few and far between for Gwinnett’s Board of Commissioners, but Hunter represents himself as a staunch conservative.

 He represents District 3, which covers a wide (and diverse) swath of southern and eastern Gwinnett, including parts of Snellville, Loganville, Grayson and Dacula.

 Though much of suburban Gwinnett remains a Republican stronghold, Hillary Clinton won the county in November’s presidential election. It was the first time a Democrat took Gwinnett since Jimmy Carter in 1976.

 Gwinnett is the second-most populous county in Georgia and is also a majority-minority county, meaning non-white residents account for more than half of its population.

 Hunter’s fellow commissioners, all Republicans, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday. Nor did several other local, state and federal Republican party members with Gwinnett ties.

 Some local Democrats were happy to weigh in, however.

 Georgia State Rep. Dar’shun Kendrick, whose District 93 touches part of Hunter’s Gwinnett territory, shared her thoughts on Twitter, saying she was “ashamed” of him.

 I'm ashamed he represents the GWINNETT portion of my district. https://t.co/NNfAY1FM3Z — Dar'shun Kendrick (@DarshunKendrick) January 16, 2017

 For his part, Hunter later told The AJC that his “racist pig” comment was “probably an overreaction out of aggravation” — but he didn’t back down from the rest of his message.

 In a lengthy message sent to a reporter, he defended Trump, saying the president-elect isn’t racist and downplaying reports of Russian hacking possibly influencing the election.

 “While I am grateful for what the Congressman did in Selma and other times during the civil rights movement, you get respect by showing respect,” Hunter wrote. “He is using his fame as a way to continually divide the races and in this case standing on the very much unsubstantiated claim that the guy I voted for [Trump] is racist and only won because of Russians hacking the election—which, of course, we all know didn't occur.”

 “So, true to exactly what the political pundits said would happen, he makes the claim that Trump, and all of us that voted for him, are illegitimate,” Hunter’s message continued. “Therefore I claim [Lewis] is illegitimate and make just as many unsubstantiated claims as [Trump] does. After all, in today's world, it's not about the evidence, but the seriousness of the charges.”

 Shortly after sending that message, Hunter took to Facebook again — this time to wish his followers a “Happy MLK Day.”

 A recent Facebook post from Gwinnett County Commissioner Tommy Hunter.

 Gwinnett County’s annual parade celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. was held Monday morning in Lawrenceville. Donna McLeod, a Democrat who narrowly lost her bid last year for Georgia House District 105, which is partially in Hunter’s district, was there.

 She said she wasn’t surprised by Hunter’s comments.

 “This is the kind of campaign that the president-elect ran,” McLeod said.

 Susan Clymer, another member of the Gwinnett County Democratic Party, said she thinks Lewis represents everything that King would have – fighting injustice and inequality.

 “This Tommy Hunter is painting a horrible picture of Gwinnett County,” Clymer said. “He’s reflecting poorly on all of us, black, white or whatever.”

 Not all of the feedback on Hunter’s comments was negative, though. On Monday afternoon, a woman who described herself as a personal friend of Hunter’s posted on his Facebook page.

 “He is a fantastic man with an exceptional heart, and that’s all that matters,” she wrote. “So what if he openly put his view on [Facebook]. We ALL do a little too much of that. So if expressing yourself on [Facebook] is now wrong we all need to get off.”

 Hunter and the rest of Gwinnett’s Board of Commissioners are scheduled to have their next bi-monthly meeting on Tuesday.

 —Staff writer Lauren Foreman contributed to this article. Please return to AJC.com for updates. ||||| Donald Trump met with Martin Luther King III on Monday, a holiday commemorating the life of King's father, which this year was marked by Trump’s quarrel with Rep. John Lewis, a hero of the civil rights struggle.

 King, the oldest surviving child of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., described the meeting at Trump Tower as constructive and said it had centered on efforts to improve the voting system.

 Asked by reporters about Trump’s characterization Saturday of Lewis as “all talk … no action,” King said he “absolutely” disagreed.

 “I would say John Lewis has demonstrated that he is action,” King said.

 But, he added, “Things get said on both sides in the heat of emotion. And at some point in this nation, we’ve got to move forward.”

 The conflict between the president-elect and Lewis began Friday when NBC’s “Meet the Press” released video of Lewis saying he did not consider Trump a legitimate president.

 On Saturday, Trump responded via Twitter, criticizing Lewis and referring to his Atlanta-area congressional district as downtrodden and crime-ridden. Actually, it includes many of the city's high-end areas.

 King said that Trump told him that he intended to represent all Americans.

 “I believe that’s his intent,” King said. “I believe we have to consistently engage with pressure, public pressure.”

 In his reference to voting, King appeared to be referring to difficulties faced by African American voters, many of them due to restrictive laws put into effect by Republican legislators.

 Trump, during his campaign, suggested that voters in overwhelmingly African American cities like Philadelphia could be planning to steal the election via voter fraud.

 After the meeting, Trump accompanied King down the elevator and shook his hand before returning upstairs. He did not speak to reporters. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– Donald Trump's feud with civil rights icon Rep. John Lewis of Georgia was making political headlines on Martin Luther King Day. (The background on the feud is here.) Coverage: The New York Times explores how it further frays Trump's ties with an African-American community already wary of him. "I don't think we have ever had a president so publicly condescending to what black politics means," says a Duke professor. A GOP county commissioner in Georgia's Gwinnett County, Tommy Hunter, is facing calls to resign after he wrote online that Lewis is a "racist pig." See the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. In a speech marking MLK Day, Lewis did not mention Trump, instead telling personal stories of his own civil rights battles and preaching non-violence. "The way of love is a better way," he said, per NBC News. Michelle Obama tweeted her support of Lewis today. Martin Luther King III met with Trump Monday, and while he praised Lewis, he also sought to tamp down the controversy. “Things get said on both sides in the heat of emotion. And at some point in this nation, we’ve got to move forward.” See the Los Angeles Times. So far, nearly 28 Democratic members of Congress vow to skip the inauguration, reports the BBC. A blogger at the liberal Daily Kos says Lewis went too far in saying Trump was not a "legitimate president." Democrats must admit it or face charges of hypocrisy, reads the post here. Mike Pence is "so disappointed" in Lewis, he tells Fox News. Trump slammed Lewis' Atlanta district as crime-ridden and "falling apart," and those who live there were surprised to hear it and eager to rebut the charge. See the Wall Street Journal. Columnist Paul Krugman defends Lewis' original slam of Trump as "an act of patriotism." Read it in the New York Times. Columnist David Weigel writes that Democrats, including Lewis, appear to have learned that "explosive rhetoric" of the sort mastered by Trump is the new normal. Welcome to the "New Rudeness," he writes at the Washington Post.


Article:
Queensland

 A Marsden State High School student suspended for throwing a vegemite sandwich at the Prime Minister has confronted her on radio to protest his innocence.

 Kyle Thomson phoned in to B105 radio station as Prime Minister Julia Gillard was trying to spruik the bipartisan agreement reached to sign DisabilityCare in Queensland.

 ‘‘I’d like to say I’m sorry that it’s come to this, all over the news and everything, but I’m innocent and I didn’t throw it,’’ he said.

 Anna Thomson and her son Kyle Thomson who says he was wrongfully suspended for throwing sandwich at Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Photo: Nine News

 Ms Gillard laughed it off, conceding she ‘‘sort of’’ sympathised but would not be using any parliamentary powers to appeal his three-week suspension.

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 ‘‘I think Kyle really has to have a chat with the school principal because it’s not my job to be saying anything different to a very good school principal,’’ she said.

 ‘‘His name is Alan Jones if you can believe it, but he has led that school so it’s now an Australia wide leader in getting kids through to vocational education and training.’’

 One of the radio hosts joked the bigger issue was that Kyle was a ‘‘patsy’’ set up by the Australian government and there was a second sandwich thrower in the book depository.

 ‘‘I think we might all be getting a little bit carried away,’’ Ms Gillard said.

 On a day when a bipartisan agreement was reached between Queensland and the Commonwealth to sign up to DisabilityCare, a sandwich dominated headlines after it was thrown while Ms Gillard was visiting the Logan school.

 Kyle was suspended just hours after Wednesday’s incident, but said the school needs to "get its facts right".

 ‘‘Everyone started crowding her and that and someone threw a sandwich and the teacher witnessed I did it,’’ he told Channel Nine.

 ‘‘... I hit the sandwich out of the kid’s hand because he threw it and there was another one so I hit it out of his hand.’’

 Kyle’s mother Anna Thomson backs the teenager’s version of events, saying he hit the sandwich out of another student’s hand to stop them throwing another one.

 ‘‘I think it’s been thrown out of proportion a lot,’’ she said.

 ‘‘I mean I’m sure she’s had more than a sandwich thrown at her throughout her life.’’

 Ms Thomson called on the school to investigate it further.

 ‘‘Kyle is no angel, don’t get me wrong, but I think there is a lot more to the circumstances,’’ she said.

 ‘‘I honestly wonder if he would have been suspended on the first day without all the investigations being done if it wasn’t the Prime Minister.’’

  ||||| A high school kid in Australia was suspended for two weeks for an attempted assault on Prime Minister Julia Gillard with a Vegemite sandwich. But the kid says he's just a patsy set up to take the fall the second sandwich thrower.

 The whole thing started Wednesday when Gillard paid a visit to a Brisbane high school for a routine photo op. But the day became anything but routine as she made her way through the excited crowd of pupils, and her security detail let down its guard just enough to allow the half-eaten lunch to be hurled in her direction.

 Here's the video that shocked a nation:

 School offiicals immediately named 16-year-old Kyle Thomson as the lone hurler and suspended him for 15 days. But in a shocking turn of events, Thomson denies that he did anything wrong, and in fact claims that he threw himself in front of the real sandwich thrower in order to protect the PM from near-certain breading.

 Listen to Kyle explain to an incredulous reporter how he knocked one sandwich out of the real assailant's hand and then reveals another shocking twist ... there was a second sandwich.

 Naturally, the conflicting stories got conspiracy theorists roiling online, with Aussies posting their own thoughts, hypotheses, and jokes to the riveting #sandwichgate hashtag.

 I refuse to believe @jonathanvswan's interview on #Sandwichgate until we get video from the grassy knoll: bit.ly/13CycTs — David Ramli (@Davidramli) May 9, 2013

 so turns out he was prevented a double sandwich throw - Victoria Cross in order?#sandwichgate #hero #auspol media.smh.com.au/national/selec… — Daniel (@dankarney) May 9, 2013

 Julia finally gets her legacy We can rest easy Australia, it's over#gillard #sandwichgate #auspol twitter.com/brnfst/status/… — Wot do ya call this? (@brnfst) May 9, 2013

 Adding to the intriguing puzzle, some are now claiming the sandwich was not even Vegemite! (Perhaps suggesting a foreign agent?)

 It was a chicken sandwich, not vegemite! 15 y/o Kyle will be back at school tomorrow - video showed he didn't throw it at PM #sandwichgate — Alissa Thibault (@AlissaThibault) May 9, 2013

 Anti-Gillard sandwich was chicken, not Vegemite; now no longer classified as a deadly biological weapon #Sandwichgate — Baz McAlister (@bazmcalister) May 9, 2013

 It's not the first time Gillard or other Australian PMs have been targeted either.

 Nine News uncovers a third occasion when a projectile was thrown at the PM see it tonight @9newsbrisbane #sandwichgate — Sophie Walsh (@sophie_walsh9) May 9, 2013

 Obviously, there are worse things that can be thrown at you, like shoes. As Gillard's predecessor, John Howard, once found out. And apparently it was an egg toss at then-PM Billy Hughes back in 1917 that led to the formation of Australia's Federal Police force. Gillard, however, took the sandwich assault in stride showing a brave face as she laughed off the incident. Though there are obviously still many unanswered questions that only a special parliamentary commission can uncover. (Like "Is this is all a massive inside joke that Australians are pulling on the rest of us?)

 In the end, we think the assessment by Kyle Thomson, of the leader he bravely swore to defend, kind of sums up the whole matter:

 "She doesn't have a big nose like everyone's saying. She's small and ... yeah, famous."

 Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at dbennett at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.

 Dashiell Bennett |||||Summary:

– A story getting big play across Australian media today: On a visit to a high school yesterday, Prime Minister Julia Gillard had a Vegemite sandwich thrown at her by one of the students. The alleged thrower was suspended from school for three weeks, the Brisbane Times reports, but he claims he was actually trying to protect Gillard. "I’m innocent and I didn’t throw it," Kyle Thomson tells B105. "I hit the sandwich out of the kid’s hand because he threw it and there was another one so I hit it out of his hand." Amusingly, his mother chimes in, "Kyle is no angel, don’t get me wrong, but I think there is a lot more to the circumstances." She adds of Gillard, "I mean, I’m sure she’s had more than a sandwich thrown at her throughout her life." Sadly, Gillard said she would not appeal to the school principal to have Thomson's suspension overturned. Social media, not surprisingly, loves "Sandwichgate," the Atlantic Wire reports, and there have been a few "There was a second sandwich!" jokes. Click for more viral moments in Julia Gillard.


Write an article based on this summary:

– The wife of Louisiana shooter John Russel Houser sought a protective order against him in 2008 after he "exhibited extreme erratic behavior" and "made ominous as well as disturbing statements," according to court documents cited by the AP. The filing for the order, which was at least temporarily granted, says that his wife, Kellie Maddox Houser, had "become so worried about the defendant's volatile mental state that she … removed all guns and/or weapons from their marital residence." The papers also noted John Houser had "a history of mental health issues, i.e., manic depression and/or bi-polar disorder." It wasn't just his wife, who filed for divorce in March, who was concerned. Other family members also joined the court filing, saying that Houser had traveled from Phenix City, Ala., to where they lived in Carroll County, Ga., and "perpetrated various acts of family violence." Meanwhile, using info found on a LinkedIn page that appears to be that of the shooter, the Daily Beast tracked down several online forums and websites where Houser allegedly expressed "strong views on race, immigration, and the future of America," all under the names "John Russell Houser" ("Russell" spelled slightly differently than what's been reported in the media) and "Rusty Houser." "I am also sorry for what is to come for the other very few moral souls left in the entire US," he reportedly wrote in one forum lamenting the murder of a man in the deer-processing business. "I am not sorry for the 90% immoral population which will be meeting the same fate. Filth is rampant. That none have stood against it causes me to take rest in the worse than MAD MAX near future which approaches."

LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) — The latest on the shooting at a Lafayette, Louisiana, movie theater (times are local):

 Police tape surrounds the Grand Theatre following a deadly shooting Thursday, July 23, 2015, in Lafayette, La. (Brad Kemp/The Advocate via AP) (Associated Press)

 Theater goer Jacob Broussard said he was standing in line to go inside the Grand Theatre when a shooting occurred and police responded to the scene Thursday, July 23, 2015, in Lafayette, La. (Leslie Westbrook/The... (Associated Press)

 Police surround the Grand Theatre following a deadly shooting Thursday, July 23, 2015, in Lafayette, La. (Brad Kemp/The Advocate via AP) (Associated Press)

 Lafayette Police Department and Louisiana State Police units block an entrance road following a shooting at The Grand Theatre in Lafayette, La., Thursday, July 23, 2015. (Paul Kieu/The Daily Advertiser... (Associated Press)

 Law enforcement and other emergency personnel respond to the scene of a shooting at the Grand Theatre on Thursday, July 23, 2015, in Lafayette, La. (Leslie Westbrook/The Advocate via AP) (Associated Press)

 An officer walks with people near the scene of a shooting at the Grand Theatre on Thursday, July 23, 2015, in Lafayette, La. (Leslie Westbrook/The Advocate via AP) (Associated Press)

 An officer stands guard near the scene of a deadly shooting at the Grand Theatre on Thursday, July 23, 2015, in Lafayette, La. (Leslie Westbrook/The Advocate via AP) (Associated Press)

 10 a.m.

 The wife and other family members of the Louisiana theater gunman asked for a temporary protective order in 2008 against the man.

 Court documents seeking the order said John Houser, "exhibited extreme erratic behavior and has made ominous as well as disturbing statements."

 The documents said even though he lived in Phenix City, Alabama, he had come to Carroll County, Georgia, where they lived and "perpetrated various acts of family violence."

 Houser "has a history of mental health issues, i.e., manic depression and/or bi-polar disorder" the filing said.

 The filing says Houser's wife, Kellie Maddox Houser, "has become so worried about the defendant's volatile mental state that she has removed all guns and/or weapons from their marital residence."

 The protection order was at least temporarily granted.

 She filed for divorce in March.

 ___

 9 a.m.

 The father of a woman in the theater at the time of the shooting says his daughter was sitting with a friend in the same row as the shooter.

 "They heard a couple of pops and didn't know what it was," Randall Mann said. "And then they saw the muzzle flashes, and that's when they knew what was going on. She hit the floor immediately."

 Randall Mann said his daughter Emily and her friend escaped uninjured.

 "She's traumatized," he said.

 The gunman killed two woman and wounded nine other people before he killed himself Thursday night.

 ___

 8:35 a.m.

 Police and court records show the Louisiana movie theater gunman has been arrested and ticketed for several offenses in the past, ranging from arson to speeding.

 Police officials said at a news conference Friday that 59-year-old John Russel Houser's arrests date 10 to 15 years ago or more. Those include charges of arson and selling alcohol to a minor. He had been married once in the past but was not currently married.

 In Alabama, records show Houser had four speeding tickets and one no-seatbelt ticket between 1981 and 2003.

 Alabama court records show Houser filed a small claims court lawsuit in 2004 claiming he was injured when he donated plasma at a Phenix City donation center. He asked for $1,800 to pay his emergency room bill and for a narcotics prescription. The case was settled, according to court records.

 ___

 8:30 a.m.

 A 19-year-old college student who was watching a movie in a theater across the hall from the shooting says he heard three loud pops before the lights came on.

 Jacob Broussard said Friday that he didn't initially know there was a shooting, but as he was evacuating the theater, he saw a woman who had been shot in the leg.

 Authorities say a gunman stood up about 20 minutes into the movie and started firing, killing two women and wounding nine others.

 Broussard, a student at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, says he felt lucky.

 His father, Shannon Broussard, described gratitude for a teacher who apparently pulled the fire alarm to alert theatergoers that they needed to evacuate the building.

 ___

 8:10 a.m.

 The two victims who were killed when a gunman opened fire in a Lafayette, Louisiana, movie theater have been identified as 33-year-old Jillian Johnson and 21-year-old Mayci Breaux.

 The gunman, who authorities identified as 59-year-old John Russel Houser, killed himself after trying to flee the scene.

 Nine others were wounded in the Thursday night shooting that happened during a showing of the comedy "Trainwreck."

 ___

 7:20 a.m.

 Authorities are describing the gunman in the movie theater shooting as a 59-year-old man who previously lived in Alabama but is "kind of a drifter" who had been in the Lafayette area since early July.

 Police said Friday that the gunman fired a handgun 13 times inside the theater, killing two people and wounding at least nine others before fatally shooting himself.

 Lafayette Police Chief Jim Craft said the gunman parked his car near the theater's exit door and was intent on escaping, but couldn't because police arrived so quickly.

 Authorities have not determined a motive. They searched a motel room he had been staying in and found wigs and other disguises.

 ___

 5:15 a.m.

 About a dozen law enforcement personnel were gathered at a Motel 6 in Lafayette early Friday as authorities investigate a shooting at movie theater that killed three people, including the gunman.

 Louisiana State Police spokesman Maj. Doug Cain said the theater investigation led them to a room at the Motel 6. Cain said authorities were investigating whether the shooter had stayed there. He said the bomb squad swept the room before going in as a precaution.

 About a dozen police personnel could be seen outside the motel. At one point, an officer carried out a cardboard box from the room and other officers could be seen knocking on neighboring doors.

 ___

 3:50 a.m.

 The White House says President Barack Obama has been briefed on the shooting at a Louisiana movie theater that left three people dead, including the gunman.

 Obama was briefed aboard Air Force One on Thursday by Lisa Monaco, his homeland security adviser, while on his way to Africa for a two-nation visit.

 Obama asked his team to keep him updated on the investigation and the status of those wounded in the shooting.

 He also offered his thoughts and prayers to the community of Lafayette, Louisiana, where the movie theater is located, and to the families of those who were killed.

 ___

 3:30 a.m.

 Lafayette Police Chief Jim Craft told reporters that nine people in total were wounded in the shooting.

 He said at least one of those was in critical condition and being operated on at an area hospital.

 "At this point we have three dead, nine wounded and of the three dead one is definitely the shooter," he said.

 ___

 2:30 a.m.

 Lafayette Police Chief Jim Craft told reporters that based on the investigation so far, they believe the shooter stood up in the theater, started shooting, and then as people started fleeing, he began to leave as well.

 But, investigators believe, he spotted two police officers, who had been out in the parking lot when the shooting happened. The shooter then turned around against the crowd before firing a single shot.

 "It looks like he spotted the officers coming in and he turned around and he went against the crowd, and he fired a single gunshot," he said. "He was seated in the theater just like everybody else."

 "The information we have at this time indicates that he was by himself, sat by himself and the first two people he shot were sitting right in front of him," Craft said.

 ___

 1:10 a.m.

 Police say they are checking out suspicious packages inside the Lafayette movie theater where a gunman opened fire Thursday.

 Sgt. Brooks David of the Louisiana State Police said a dog alerted to a backpack and other small items in the theater.

 Three people were killed, including the gunman, and seven injured in the shooting. ||||| There are on the Patch.com story from Dec 3, 2012, titled Cumming Man Found Murdered in His Deer Processing Business. In it, Patch.com reports that:

 A 60-year-old Cumming man was found murdered Sunday night in his deer processing business in Hancock County, according to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation .

 Join the discussion below, or Read more at Patch.com. ||||| ELECTRONIC TRAIL

 The Lafayette theater shooter was a frequent online commenter, with numerous posts on immigration, free speech, and his fears about America’s future.

 The man named by police as the shooter inside a Lafayette, Louisiana, movie theater appears to have been a Tea Party sympathizer with strong views on race, immigration, and the future of America.

 John Russell Houser, most recently of Phenix City, Alabama, was a frequent poster in online forums on those topics. He appears to have gone by the nickname Rusty Houser—a name tied to him by an email address listed on a LinkedIn page of the man wanted in the shooting.

 Some news reports identify Houser spelling Russell as Russel. On his LinkedIn page, however, Houser identifies past self-employment as “John Russell Houser.”

 A Tea Party Nation page was registered to that name in 2013. He said he was from Phenix, Alabama, but does not appear to have been very active on the site.

 On PoliticalForum.com, a user identifying as Rusty Houser boasted about posting with his real name and that he “say(s) what he thinks.” In another foreboding post on the site in 2013, he welcomed a newcomer to the forum: “Jump in the deep end, I don’t think we have that long.”

 A Debate Politics page registered to Rusty Houser lists his political viewings as “very conservative.” Among his interests, Houser lists the Greek nationalist party Golden Dawn. It also identifies him as having a hometown of Phenix City, Alabama—and having a JD and CPA certification, just like on the John Russell Houser LinkedIn profile.

 Houser’s posts on the site were made in early 2014. In one about Golden Dawn, he called the group “a legitimate effort to solve problems.” “The leaders of the group are in fact leaders,” he wrote. “Intelligent, well spoken, and exercising good faith.”

 "Type in WHITE POWER GROUPS and you get mag articles about their never ending claims of racism, and no information of how to find White power groups you might want to join," he continued.

 A poster responded: “Evidently you’re from Alabama. You don’t need the Internet to find a white power group. Just stick a sheet over your head and run around in traffic. Somethings bound to hit you.”

 In multiple posts, Houser seemed obsessed with comparing America to Iran. On January 18, 2014, he posted a screed about censorship in response to a thread on coverage of Chris Christie’s scandals versus those of President Obama. “The US heavily censors. Why wouldn’t they twist. You say there is no censorship?” he wrote. ”Tell me how I can read any of the 30 newspapers printed in Iran. How to find White rights groups on the internet. What your computer gives you when you type AMERICA CENSORS INTERNET, or censors anything.”

 Another post on that site echoes distrust of mainstream media. Houser implied that he hopes young people “will not watch any source of ‘news.’”

 Yet Houser appeared on a local TV show many times in the early 1990s. He boasted on LinkedIn that he “Invited political controversy on every one of them, and loved every minute of it.” The host told NBC News on Friday morning that Houser was a “radical guy.” “He was on from time to time because he was a very radical person with radical views,” Calvin Floyd said. Floyd answered “no” when asked if he was surprised that Houser is accused of shooting up the Louisiana movie theater. “The association I had with him was for entertainment,” he said. “He was very entertaining. He made for good TV and when it was over, you would leave shaking your head.”

 On a forum about car parts, Houser described himself as “not brainwashed.”

 Other details of Houser's past also raise eyebrows. Authorities say he was arrested for arson in Columbus, Georgia, but don't have an exact date. The arson charge meant that Houser was denied a concealed carry permit in 2006. His violent streak continued when he was evicted from his home in 2014. Russell County, Georgia, Sheriff Heath Taylor said that Houser then damaged the Phenix City home, and disconnected the gas line to the fireplace.

 On a Topix thread, a Rusty Houser commented on an article about a Georgia farm hiring foreigners: “The more hard working people with family values we have, the better. What we need to worry about is those who WILL NOT WORK and have no concept of family. They may largely be identified by race also.”

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 He was obsessed with the idea that his rights to free speech were being censored, posting about that on multiple Topix forums. He also lamented the death of a man in the deer-processing business. “Most people over 50 in certain businesses are just as their parents were, rock solid morally,” he wrote. “I am also sorry for what is to come for the other very few moral souls left in the entire US.”

 It quickly got dark. “I am not sorry for the 90% immoral population which will be meeting the same fate. Filth is rampant. That none have stood against it causes me to take rest in the worse than MAD MAX near future which approaches,” he said.

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× Woman With Last Name of Crook Arrested After Allegedly Stealing Underwear From Alhambra Kohl’s Store

 A woman with the last name of Crook was arrested on suspicion of commercial burglary Friday after she allegedly stole ladies undergarments from a Kohl’s department store in Alhambra, police said.

 Josephine Crook was accused of concealing the items in an empty purse and failing to pay for them, according to an Alhambra Police Department Facebook post.

 The 49-year-old woman was taken into custody around 7: 15 p.m. and booked at the Alhambra Police Department, Los Angeles County inmate records showed.

 Crook’s bail was set at $20,000, according to inmate records.

 She was scheduled to make her first court appearance on Wednesday at the Alhambra Municipal Court.

 No further information was immediately available. ||||| Josephine Crook was arrested on Friday, Oct. 24, 2014 for allegedly stealing ladies' undergarments from a Kohl's department store in Alhambra.

 A woman with the last name of Crook was arrested for burglary at a department store in Alhambra Friday night, police said.

 Josephine Crook, 49, was arrested at a Kohl’s department store on the 1200 block of South Fremont Avenue and is suspected of commercial burglary and possession of burglary tools. Crook allegedly was in possession of a pair of wire cutters and a pair of scissors.

 Crook allegedly took ladies’ undergarments and failed to pay for the items she concealed in her empty purse, police said. |||||

– Much like a guy named "John Pirate" probably shouldn't try to make a living terrorizing the high seas, someone with the surname "Crook" raises eyebrows when they turn to a life of crime. California cops say they arrested one Josephine Crook on Friday on suspicion of commercial burglary after she allegedly walked out of her local Kohl's with women's underwear stuffed in her purse, KTLA reports. The 49-year-old was also said to have had wire cutters and scissors on her, NBC Los Angeles adds. Crook's bail is set at $20,000, and she's to appear in court tomorrow. The Alhambra Police Department's Facebook post about the incident pretty much sums it up: "I can't make this stuff up ..." (At least she didn't take a nap in the dressing room.)