Here is a news article: A U.S. official says two more Americans were killed in the hostage standoff at a natural gas complex in Algeria, taking the final death toll of U.S. citizens to three.

 Seven Americans made it out safely.

 The official said Monday that the FBI had recovered the bodies of the Americans and notified their families.

 The official had no details on how the Americans died. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak publicly on the matter. ||||| ALGIERS Algeria's prime minister accused a Canadian of coordinating last week's raid on a desert gas plant and, praising the storming of the complex where 38 mostly foreign hostages were killed, he pledged to resist the rise of Islamists in the Sahara.

 Algeria will never succumb to terrorism or allow al Qaeda to establish "Sahelistan", an Afghan-style power base in arid northwest Africa, Abdelmalek Sellal told a news conference in Algiers where he also said at least 37 foreign hostages died.

 "There is clear political will," the prime minister said.

 Claimed by an Algerian al Qaeda leader as a riposte to France's attack on his allies in neighboring Mali the previous week, the four-day siege drew global attention to Islamists in the Sahara and Sahel regions and brought promises of support to African governments from Western powers whose toppling of Libya's Muammar Gaddafi helped flood the region with weapons.

 The attack on a valuable part of its vital energy industry raised questions about the security capacity of an establishment that took power from French colonists 50 years ago, held off a bloody Islamist insurgency in the 1990s and has avoided the democratic upheavals the Arab Spring brought to North Africa.

 Sellal said a Canadian citizen whom he named only as Chedad, a surname found among Arabs in the region, was among 29 gunmen killed and added that he had "coordinated" the attack. Another three militants were taken alive and were in custody.

 Among hostages confirmed dead by their own governments were three Americans, seven Japanese, six Filipinos and three Britons; others from Britain, Norway and elsewhere were listed as unaccounted for. Sellal said seven of the 37 foreign dead were unidentified, while a further five foreigners were missing.

 Nearly 700 Algerians and 100 other foreigners survived.

 An Algerian security source said investigators pursuing the possibility that the attackers had inside help to map the complex and gain entry were questioning at least two employees.

 Prime Minister David Cameron told parliament in London that Britain would increase its help to Algeria's intelligence and security forces and might do more for France in Mali, though he ruled out sending many of its stretched armed forces to Africa.

 Noting a shift in the source of threats to British interests from Afghanistan to Africa, he also noted Sellal's rundown of a multinational group of gunmen from across north and west Africa and said the region was becoming "a magnet for jihadists".

 Alongside a "strong security response", however, he called for efforts to address long-standing grievances, such as poverty and political exclusion, which foster support for violence. Some militants in Algeria want autonomy for the south and complain of domination by an unchanging establishment in Algiers.

 DEATH AND SURVIVAL

 As Algerian forces combed the Tigantourine plant near the town of In Amenas for explosives and the missing, survivors and the bereaved told tales of terror, narrow escapes and of death.

 "The terrorists lined up four hostages and assassinated them ... shot them in the head," a brother of Kenneth Whiteside told Sky News, in an account of the Briton's death given to the family by an Algerian colleague who witnessed it. "Kenny just smiled the whole way through. He'd accepted his fate."

 Filipino survivor Joseph Balmaceda said gunmen used him for cover: "Whenever government troops tried to use a helicopter to shoot at the enemy, we were used as human shields."

 Another Briton, Garry Barlow, called his wife from within the site before he was killed and said: "I'm sat here at my desk with Semtex strapped to my chest."

 Several hostages died on Thursday when Algerian helicopters blasted jeeps in which the militants were trying to move them.

 An Algerian security source had earlier told Reuters that documents found on the bodies of two militants had identified them as Canadians: "A Canadian was among the militants. He was coordinating the attack," Sellal said.

 In Ottawa, Canada's foreign affairs department said it was seeking information. Security experts noted that some Canadian citizens had been involved with international militants before.

 Officials have also named other militants in recent days as having leadership roles among the attackers. Veteran Islamist Mokhtar Belmokhtar claimed responsibility on behalf of al Qaeda.

 In a video distributed on the Internet, the one-eyed veteran of Afghan wars of the 1980s, of Algeria's civil war and of the lucrative trans-Sahara cigarette smuggling trade, said: "We in al Qaeda announce this blessed operation."

 Dressed in combat fatigues, Belmokhtar demanded an end to French attacks on Islamist fighters in Mali.

 The jihadists had planned the attack two months ago in neighboring Mali, Sellal added. They had traveled from there through Niger and Libya, hence evading Algeria's strong security services, until close to In Amenas. Their aim, he said, had been to take foreign hostages to Mali, and they made a first attempt to take captives from a bus near the site early on Wednesday.

 Normally producing 10 percent of Algeria's natural gas, the facility was shut down during the incident. The government said it aimed to reopen it this week, although officials at Britain's BP and Norway's Statoil, which operate the plant with Algeria's state energy firm, said the plans were not clear.

 MALI CONFLICT

 An Algerian newspaper said the jihadists had arrived in cars painted in the colors of Algerian state energy firm Sonatrach but registered in Libya, a country awash with weaponry since Western powers backed a revolt to oust Gaddafi in 2011.

 Using his oil wealth, the Libyan dictator exercised a degree of influence in the region and the consequences of his death are still unfolding.

 In a sign of the complexities wrought by the Arab Spring revolts, Egypt, a former military dictatorship now led by one of the generals' Islamist foes, criticized France's intervention in Mali on Monday. President Mohamed Mursi called instead for more spending to address rebels' grievances and warned that the military moves would "inflame the conflict in this region".

 The bloodshed also increased the strains in Algeria's long fraught relations with Western powers, where some complained about being left in the dark while the decision to storm the compound was being taken.

 But this week, Britain and France both defended the military action by Algeria, the strongest military power in the Sahara and an ally the West needs in combating the militants.

 Chafik Mesbah, a former Algerian presidential security adviser, said: "The West did not criticize Algeria because it knows an assault was inevitable in the circumstances ... The victims were a minimum price to pay to solve the crisis."

 (Writing by Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Mark Heinrich) ||||| The debate over how the Algerians handled one of the worst hostage-taking episodes in recent memory reflects conflicting ideas over how to manage such mass abductions in an age of suicidal terrorist acts in a post-9/11 world.

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 The Algerians — and some Western supporters — argue that the loss of innocent lives is unavoidable when confronting fanatics who will kill their captives anyway, while others say modern technology provides some means of minimizing the deaths.

 At a news conference in Algiers, the prime minister, Abdelmalek Sellal, portrayed the military’s deadly assaults on the Islamist militants who had stormed and occupied an internationally run gas-producing complex last Wednesday in remote eastern Algeria as a matter of national character and pride.

 “The whole world has understood that the reaction was courageous,” Mr. Sellal said, calling the abductions an attack “on the stability of Algeria.”

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 “Algerians are not people who sell themselves out,” he said. “When the security of the country is at stake, there is no possible discussion.”

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 It was the Algerian government’s first detailed public explanation of its actions during the siege, a brazen militant assault that has raised broad new concerns about the strength of extremists who have carved out enclaves in neighboring Mali and elsewhere in North Africa.

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 Mr. Sellal said that the 37 foreign workers killed during the episode — a toll much higher than the 23 previously estimated — came from eight countries and that five captives remained unaccounted for. It was unclear how many had died at the hands of the kidnappers or the Algerian Army. The United States said that three Americans were among the dead and that seven had survived.

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 The prime minister also said that 29 kidnappers had been killed, including the leader, and that three had been captured alive. The militants were from Egypt, Mali, Niger, Mauritania, Tunisia and Canada, he said — an assertion the Canadian government said it was investigating. Mr. Sellal said the group began the plot in Mali and entered Algeria through Libya, close to the site.

 Other countries, notably Japan and Britain, have raised concerns about what they considered Algeria’s harsh and hasty response. The United States has not publicly criticized Algeria, which it regards as an ally in the fight to contain jihadist groups in Africa. But law enforcement and military officials said Monday that they almost certainly would have handled such a crisis differently.

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 First, the United States would have engaged in longer discussions with the captors to identify the leaders and buy time, the officials said. In the meantime, the Pentagon, the C.I.A. and possibly allied security services could have moved surveillance drones, high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft and electronic eavesdropping equipment into place to help identify the locations of the hostages and the assailants.

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 “It would have been a precision approach as opposed to a sledgehammer approach,” said Lt. Gen. Frank Kearney, a retired deputy commander of the United States military’s Special Operations Command.

 A senior American official said the Algerians had allowed an unarmed American surveillance drone to fly over the gas field on Thursday. But it was unclear what role, if any, it had played in the Algerian Army’s assault that day. American officials said they had not been told of the strike in advance.

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 Prime Minister Sellal conceded no mistakes as he provided the government’s first distinct timeline in the sequence of events, breaking it down into three episodes.

 First, the militants attacked a guarded bus carrying foreign plant workers to the airport at In Amenas, and two people aboard were killed. “They wanted to take control of this bus and take the foreign workers directly to northern Mali so they could have hostages, to negotiate with foreign countries,” he said. “But when they opened fire on the bus, there was a strong response from the gendarmes guarding it.”

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 After they failed to capture the bus, the prime minister said, the militants split into two groups: one to seize the complex’s living quarters, the other to capture the gas plant itself, a maze of pipes and machinery. They invaded both sections, taking dozens of hostages, attaching bombs to some and booby-trapping the plant.

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 At this point, he said, the facility was ringed by security forces.

 Perhaps late Wednesday or early Thursday morning — Mr. Sellal described it as a nighttime episode — the kidnappers attempted a breakout. “They put explosives on the hostages. They wanted to put the hostages in four-wheel-drive vehicles and take them to Mali.”

 Mr. Sellal then suggested that government helicopters immobilized the kidnappers. Witnesses have described an intense army assault, resulting in both militant and hostage deaths.

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 “A great number of workers were put in the cars; they wanted to use them as human shields,” the prime minister said. “There was a strong response from the army, and three cars exploded,” he said. One contained an Algerian militant whom the prime minister identified as the leader, Mohamed-Lamine Bouchneb.

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 The second and final operation happened Saturday, Mr. Sellal said, when the 11 remaining kidnappers moved into the gas-producing part of the complex, a hazardous area that he said they had already tried to ignite.

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 “The aim of the terrorists was to explode the gas compound,” he said. In this second assault, he said, there were “a great number of hostages,” and the kidnappers were ordered to kill them all. It was then, he said, that army snipers killed the kidnappers.

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 None of the Algerian reporters questioned the prime minister’s version of events, and some spoke of a disconnect between foreign complaints about the way Algeria had managed the crisis and Algeria’s protracted struggle with Islamic militancy over the past three decades.

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 “The terrorists came with a precise plan: Kidnap foreigners and destroy the gas plant,” said Hamid Guemache, a journalist at TSA-Tout sur l’Algérie, an online news site, dismissing criticism of the government. “Did it really have a choice? If the assault hadn’t been undertaken quickly, maybe the terrorists would have succeeded in killing all the hostages, and blowing up the factory.”

 Some American counterterrorism officials conceded that point.

 “If the terrorists were shooting hostages or at least putting explosives around their necks and their intent was to sabotage the plant, this might have been a suicide mission to blow up the plant, and not negotiate,” said Henry A. Crumpton, a retired career C.I.A. officer and formerly the State Department’s top counterterrorism official.

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 “It sounds horrible to say, but given the number of hostages and scope of this, this is not as bad an outcome as what could have happened, if that was their intent.”

 In all, 790 workers were on the site — including 134 foreigners of 26 nationalities — when it was first seized, the prime minister said.

 From the start of the siege, the Algerians were bound to respond with force, said Mansouria Mokhefi, a professor who heads the Middle East and Maghreb program at the French Institute for International Relations in Paris. The question, she said, was how bloody the outcome would be.

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 “Everyone knows the Algerians do not negotiate,” Dr. Mokhefi said, and surely the attackers knew this as well.

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 After all, she said, the foundation of the Algerian government is its longstanding defeat of Islamist militancy and its restoration of a “certain peace” to the country after the civil war during the 1990s, when tens of thousands died.

 “The legitimacy of this government in Algeria is its fight against terrorism and the security of the country,” Dr. Mokhefi said.

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 Criticizing the Algerians for their harsh tactics, as the British and Japanese have done, simply shows “a deep lack of knowledge about this regime, of its functioning,” she said.

 But the French understand the Algerians, Dr. Mokhefi said.

 French officials have publicly supported Algeria’s actions, in part because France needs to use Algerian airspace for its military intervention in Mali and wants Algeria to work harder to seal its borders with Mali.

 “There isn’t a military unit that would have done better, given the strategic conditions, the place where this unfolded, the number of assailants and the number of hostages,” said Christian Prouteau, who was chief of security under President François Mitterrand. “I challenge any Western country confronting this kind of operation to do better.” |||||
A summary of this is?

– The hostages weren't the only Westerners involved in the Sahara gas plant crisis, according to Algerian authorities. Security sources say two Canadian Islamists were among the attackers found dead after the crisis came to a bloody end, Reuters reports. Authorities say the militants, who claimed the attack on behalf of al-Qaeda, included people from other African and Arab countries. At least 37 foreign hostages, hailing from eight different countries, died during the raid, Algeria's prime minister announced today, according to the New York Times. Five more remain unaccounted for. Among the dead are at least two Americans, the AP reports; seven other Americans made it to safety. Twenty-nine militants were also killed in the attack.


Here is a news article: — Police were summoned to a Rock Hill school last week when a student became so disorderly that it took three teachers and an administrator to restrain him, according to a police report.

 Several students became upset after an Oakdale Elementary teacher took away their iPads because they were too loud while using the tablets, the report states. A 9-year-old boy became so upset he crawled under a desk, then flipped over a chair. He then went to another part of the classroom and flipped several more chairs, according to the report.

 The teacher took the boy into the hallway, where he repeatedly stomped on the teacher’s foot. Two other teachers and an administrator helped to restrain the boy, who would not calm down for some time.

 When officers arrived, the student had managed to calm himself down. He was released to his mother.

 Two other students became disorderly during the incident, the report states, but they were able to be separated and calmed. ||||| OCTOBER 3--Cops were called to a South Carolina school after a nine-year-old boy went on a rampage after a teacher took away an iPad he was using in class, according to police.

 The young suspect became enraged last week after a 26-year-old teacher at Oakdale Elementary School in Rock Hill confiscated iPads being used by several students who were being loud and unruly.

 Deprived of his Apple tablet, the child crawled under a desk, then emerged to begin flipping over chairs in the classroom. After being ushered into a hallway by the teacher, the 5’ 2”, 125-pound boy “began to stomp on her feet repeatedly.”

 The child, whose name is redacted from the police report, had to subsequently be restrained by two other teachers and an assistant principal. The boy’s stomping left his teacher with a “bruised and swollen” left foot, according to a Rock Hill Police Department incident report.

 After officers arrived at the school, the boy--who was not arrested for his iPad outburst--was released into his mother’s custody.

 Two fellow students “were disorderly” during the September 26 iPad incident and had to be separated by school administrators, though they “were able to be calmed.” (2 pages) |||||
A summary of this is?

– Lots of schools are using iPads and other gizmos in the classroom, but now a few downsides are surfacing. Widespread hacking might be expected, but teacher assault by a 9-year-old? The Smoking Gun reports that police in Rock Hill, South Carolina, were summoned when a boy erupted into a rage after his 26-year-old female teacher confiscated his iPad in class. After he started to flip chairs, the teacher escorted him into the hallway, where he proceeded to repeatedly stomp her foot, leaving it bruised and swollen. It took four adults to restrain the youth, notes the State. Police released him into the custody of his mother instead of arresting him.


Here is a news article: These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. ||||| Sabrina: 'They need therapy and condoms'

 Best-selling author Sabrina Lamb is wearing many hats these days. Not only is she the CEO of a non-profit organization for children, she’s also the woman behind the nationwide petition to put a stop to Shawty Lo’s “All My Babies’ Mamas” reality show on Oxygen.

 After viewing the pilot for the impending reality show that a friend sent her, Sabrina said she was horrified and saddened.

 “He didn’t remember the names of his children, then the mothers of his children were sparring against each other in these juvenile, catty fights, [and] he has a 19-year-old girlfriend…that’s not cute, people,” she said.

 And after a brief moment of thought, she logged into Change.org.

 Sabrina’s petition currently has over 27,000 signatures (and counting), but she said she had no idea that her petition would have swept the nation in two weeks.

 “I didn’t know what the outcome was going to be. You can never say, ‘Well, I have to have this certain outcome in order to stand up and say something is wrong.’ This is wrong, no matter what the outcome is,” she told S2S. “When children are involved, I say no more, enough is enough!”

 Last month, Oxygen Media released a press release that stated the show would “be filled with outrageous and authentic over-the-top moments that our young, diverse female audience can tweet and gossip about.”

 Sabrina said she thinks reality TV has created a dangerous precedent and is sending the wrong message, especially to young, impressionable females.

 “[Oxygen] is saying to these young women, it's okay to have unprotected sex, it's okay to be a 'babies’ mama' and the other baby mama is your enemy,” she said. “You can’t exploit these innocent children and then tell your viewers to tweet and gossip about them. It offers really dangerous stereotypes about us.”

 Sabrina went on to say that the term “babies’ mama” is a slur and an insult to children.

 “They didn’t ask to come into your chaos, they didn’t ask to be born into your situation,” she said. “Those women don’t need a TV show, they need therapy and condoms.”

 She said she had no idea that volumes of people all around the world would stand beside her, and she thinks the signatures will keep rolling in. But if Oxygen does decide to air the show, Sabrina said it would be like watching children sold at a slave auction.

 “A modern-day minstrel, that’s what it is,” she said.

 You can check out Sabrina’s petition here.

 —Kimberley Glascoe

 Do you agree with Sabrina? Are you for or against the show? Leave your comments below. ||||| Shawty Lo is no stranger to drama. Whether it's in the street or in rap, the Atlanta representative has held his own when things got troublesome, so what's a couple of baby mothers to him?

 The premise of Lo's upcoming reality show "All My Babies' Mamas" got critics in a tizzy, but it doesn't seem like the "Dey Know" rapper is sweating things very much.

 In an exclusive interview with MTV News, L-O made it clear that he was not at liberty to discuss the upcoming Oxygen show, but he did spell out his life story for us, including his role as a father of 11 and the balancing act he must maintain among his 10 baby mamas.

 "You can hate all you want to, I didn't ask for it. It just happened. Now that it happened, I'm supposed to turn my back against it?" Shawty Lo told MTV News about his 11 children and untraditional family structure. "If I wasn't taking care of my kids then you would really dog me out, but I'm taking care of my kids, providing for my family. I don't know what else to say."

 Growing up, the ATL trap rapper faced many hardships. His mother was hooked on drugs, his dad wasn't around and his grandmother who raised him died from cancer by the time he turned 17. Having to fend for himself, Shawty Lo turned to the streets to make ends meet.

 "I came to be one of the largest drug dealers to come from Atlanta, Bankhead area and I started havin' kids. When the money came, a lot of women came," he said, estimating he was a millionaire by the time he turned 21. "Once you feel like a girl was your girlfriend or whatever, the rubber probably came off," he said candidly. "They wouldn't have an abortion. They used to take the money and run with it, and they'd have a baby by the most popular guy in the street, and that's how I had all them kids."

 After the pilot for "All My Babies' Mamas" hit the Net in late December, Lo and show producers came under a ton of scrutiny, with some even calling for a boycott. But Shawty Lo insists he is a good dad, and contrary to what people may feel, he doesn't have as much baby-mama drama as folks think.

 "I take care of all my kids. ... Outta all the 10 baby mamas, I just have problems outta one. That's it," he said. "She has two kids by me, and she feel like I'm supposed to do more for her kids, and she don't wanna work. She just want me to straight take care of them, but it's all love. I handle it."

 The proud papa doesn't want people to focus on the amount of kids he has, but the fact that he takes care of all of his offspring. "It's a lot of fathers don't take care of one; I gotta deal with 11. I gotta deal with nine girls and two boys," he said.

 It isn't just about spending money either, Shawty Lo advises all fathers to spend time with their children.

 "Even if you ain't got the money, you gotta be a father to your child. You need to be in your child's life, 'cause that means a lot to them," he said. "Comin' up, we didn't have Thanksgiving, we didn't have Christmas, but if I had my father there, if I even had my mother there, I probably wouldn't have been that person I was in the streets."

 Do you agree with Shawty Lo's take on fatherhood? Let us know in the comments. ||||| Just when you thought reality television couldn’t go any lower…

 Advocacy group the Parents Television Council (PTC) has this week turned its attention to Oxygen’s in-development reality television special “All My Babies’ Mamas,” which features rapper Shawty Lo and the 11 children he has fathered with ten different women.

 “Hollywood doesn’t think there is such a thing as ‘too low,’ so it will continue to find even more base material.,” Dan Isett, director for public policy at the PTC, told FOX411’s Pop Tarts column. “The premise of this show is crass, irresponsible and exploitative. Oxygen should be more responsible. And, yes, we (will) hold advertisers publicly accountable for their sponsorship of this program.”

 A separate petition calling for the Comcast/NBCUniversal network to halt any further development of the show has since been launched by Sabrina Lamb at Change.org, and has attracted almost 28,000 signatures.

 “Enough is enough! This is not just an attack on African-American parents and children....but all parents and children,” Lamb states on the petition. “As dysfunctional and violent as so-called reality shows are, could you ever imagine a one hour spectacle where 11 children are forced to witness their 10 unwed mothers clamor for financial support, emotional attention and sexual reward from Shawty-Lo, the apathetic ‘father’? Could you imagine that Oxygen Media, known for violent programming targeting young women with stereotypical images, would consider the embarrassment that these children will experience, being used as entertainment?”

 However, it seems the network has no intention of backing away from the controversial production.

 “Oxygen’s one-hour special in development is not meant to be a stereotypical representation of everyday life for any one demographic or cross section of society,” an Oxygen rep stated. “It is a look at one unique family and their complicated, intertwined life. Oxygen Media’s diverse team of creative executives will continue developing the show with this point of view.”

 Others, independent of the production, have also defended its right to air.

 “Clearly it’s offensive and awful to promote anyone as a role model who has eleven with ten different women, but it is reality and let’s hope that parents teach their kids that just because someone is on TV doesn’t make them a role model,” added Ronn Torossian, CEO of 5WPR. “As one who owns a PR firm and works in marketing, I make sure that my kids understand that just because something is on TV doesn’t mean it is good – and I hope all others educate their kids the same way.” |||||
A summary of this is?

– Move over Honey Boo Boo, a new reality show is coming along to rile up critics. Oxygen is developing one called All My Babies' Mamas, featuring rapper Shawty Lo along with the 10 women with whom he has fathered kids, and, of course, the 11 kids themselves. The Parents Television Council is already threatening advertiser boycotts, and black author Sabrina Lamb has a petition on Change.org calling for its cancellation, reports Fox News. The show has yet to air. Lamb: Oxygen "is saying to these young women, it's OK to have unprotected sex, it's OK to be a 'babies’ mama,' and the other baby mama is your enemy,” she tells S2Smagazine. “You can’t exploit these innocent children and then tell your viewers to tweet and gossip about them. It offers really dangerous stereotypes about us.” Rapper Lo: "You can hate all you want to, I didn't ask for it. It just happened. Now that it happened, I'm supposed to turn my back against it?" he tells MTV News. "If I wasn't taking care of my kids then you would really dog me out, but I'm taking care of my kids, providing for my family. I don't know what else to say." Oxygen spokeswoman: It's "not meant to be a stereotypical representation of everyday life for any one demographic or cross section of society. It is a look at one unique family and their complicated, intertwined life."


Article:

LANSDOWNE - The black Ford F-150 is the focus of Baltimore County police detectives. Pictures are taken and the child car seat is eventually pulled from the truck.

 "Somebody don't have no heart. I can't believe it," said Aura Mendez, a neighbor.

 It's tough on neighbors, knowing now a 16-month-old girl was found in cardiac arrest and later died at the hospital. She's identified as Sabriya Towels.

 "No common sense. You don't need an education to do that. It's just sad," said Brian Salvato, a neighbor.

 Towels was found around 1 p.m. on McDowell Ln. in Lansdowne. Now police say it may have been an accident.

 A relative, not a parent, was supposed to drop her off at the Highland Village Head Start Center. But instead, he drove to their home on South Paca St. and went inside to sleep.

 Four hours later, he went to pick up the child but ran back out and found her in the truck. At this point, police do not think it was intentional but it's still tough on neighbors.

 "We had no idea that someone would leave a baby in this type of heat in a truck with leather seats," said Veronica Towson, a neighbor.

 It was 88 degrees outside. Inside a black car would be hotter. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner will determine how she died.

 "You don't even leave a dog in the car for that amount of time. I don't care if it's two minutes. It's too hot out here," said Shanda Thomas.

 The relative has not been named and no criminal charges have been filed.

 Employees at the Head Start Center would not talk to us about the case. ||||| An Alexandria woman named Zoraida Magali Conde Hernandez has been charged with felony child neglect after her 8-month-old baby died due to being left in a hot parked car in Arlington.

 Continue reading

 The suspect car is towed from Inova Alexandria Hospital. More on this story Toddler dies after being left in car in Lansdowne, Md.

 Police say the mother, who lives in Alexandria, had intended to drop the child off at daycare on her way to work in Arlington, but apparently forgot and went on to work.

 When she left work, she still didn't notice the child. She only noticed at some point while she was driving that the child was in the vehicle and immediately drove to Inova Alexandria Hospital, where the child was declared dead at about 4:20 p.m.

 Police believe the child died long before it got to the hospital. The high temperature Friday was 90. |||||
What is a summary?

– A mother is facing felony charges of child neglect after her 8-month-old son died from being left in a hot car for hours, reports the Washington Post. Police in Arlington, Virginia, don't think Zoraida Magali Conde Hernandez, 32, did so deliberately. She apparently meant to drop the boy at day care on her way to work yesterday, but forgot. She worked for six hours, then discovered the child in the back seat only after going to pick up another child at day care, reports WJLA. The high temperature reached about 90. In suburban Baltimore, meanwhile, a 16-month-old girl died yesterday when a relative mistakenly left her in his vehicle for about four hours, reports the Baltimore Sun. Police say the man picked her up from one spot and was supposed to drop her at day care. Instead, he drove home, took a long nap, then drove to the day care to pick her up. "After learning that the child had not been dropped off, he ran back out to the truck and found the child in the vehicle," say police. No charges have been filed, reports ABC2News, which says the relative is not the girl's father.


Article:
Jeffrey Zaslow, the West Bloomfield-based author who wrote best-sellers such as "The Last Lecture” about a professor dying of pancreatic cancer and a recent book on U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ recovery from a gunshot wound to the head, was killed Friday in a car accident in northern Michigan.

 Mr. Zaslow, 53, was a Philadelphia native who was married to Sherry Margolis, a Fox 2 Detroit news anchor since 1987, and the father of three daughters.

 Fox 2 Detroit confirmed Zaslow’s death late this afternoon.

 The station said Zaslow was killed in auto accident in northern Michigan, according to the Antrim County Sheriff’s Department. It happened around 9 a.m. on M-32, near Elmira. Police said Zaslow lost control of his car and was hit by a semi-truck on a snow-covered road. He had been in Petoskey previously for a book-signing.

 Supremely outgoing and equally self-deprecating, Zaslow had a knack for ferreting out details that riveted a reader. He wrote books that inspired millions, unleashing the insight of Randy Pausch, the computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon whose lecture about dying from pancreatic cancer and achieving childhood fantasies became “The Last Lecture” (Hyperion, $21.95) in 2008. Another book, “The Girls from Ames” about 11 childhood friends in Iowa and their bonds while growing up, also became a bestseller.

 Zaslow also profiled Captain Chesley (Sully) Sullenberger, the US Airways pilot who successfully landed a distressed airliner full of passengers on the Hudson River in New York in "Highest Duty" (William Morrow, $25.99). Last year, he also documented the saga of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, the Arizona congresswoman, as she recovered from a bullet wound to the brain after a gunman shot her and killed six others. Along with Giffords' husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, Zaslow coauthored "Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope" (Scribner, $26.99).

 He first shot to notoriety when, as a Wall Street Journal reporter writing about a national contest to replace Ann Landers, ended up winning the contest to become her replacement at the Chicago Sun-Times. He currently was writing a column about relationships for the Wall Street Journal

 His latest book is “The Magic Room,” the chronicle of what transpires at Becker’s Bridal in Fowler, near Lansing, a bridal store with nearly 2,500 dresses, owned and operated by fourth-generation bridal shop owner Shelley Becker Mueller.

 He followed eight brides, including one who had her first kiss the day she became engaged and a widow who found love again, from the bridal store to the wedding altar. And he chronicled the ups-and-downs of the store owner, whose marriage failed.

 "It's like sitting down with a brother, " Becker Mueller told the Free Press for a story about the book and how she allowed Zaslow to park himself for days while eavesdropping on conversations and searching for brides-to-be with compelling tales. "He's very comfortable to be around. And there was never a feeling that ‘I can't answer this' when he asked a question."

 Zaslow said the love he has for his own three daughters, Jordan, 22; Alex, 20, and Eden, 16; was the inspiration for “The Magic Room.”

 In an interview televised last week with Fox 2 Detroit, Zaslow described why he wrote “The Magic Room.”

 “I realized when I was there. One bride she went in there. She tried on a dress. She looked great, then she left the store and 12 hours later she was in a car accident. She lost fingers on one hand. Her fiancé stood by her,” said Zaslow. “Just to chronicle those kind of stories was very moving to me. And I realized from being in that store, my job as a father is not to tell my daughters what dress to wear, not to tell them what to do. My job is to tell my girls I love them. And Sherry, that I love her, too, obviously.”

 He said he learned from Prof. Randy Pausch to take more moments with his daughters. When “The Last Lecture” came out, Zaslow said he would email Pausch with links to stories about him popping up on the web.

 Zaslow said Pausch emailed him back: “Will you stop googling my name and go hug your kids.”.

 “And when I hug my kids now, what a gift it is to be able to do that. And that’s sort of the story I’m telling in this book,” said Zaslow, “which is we’ve got to hug our kids and make the most of each moment, because you never know.” ||||| Wall Street Journal reporter Jeffrey Zaslow was tragically killed in an automobile accident on Friday. Kelsey Hubbard spoke to Deputy Managing Editor Mike Miller about the beloved journalist, whose work touched and inspired millions of people around the world.

 Jeffrey Zaslow, a longtime Wall Street Journal writer and best-selling author with a rare gift for writing about love, loss, and other life passages with humor and empathy, died at age 53 on Friday of injuries suffered in a car crash in northern Michigan.

 He died after losing control of his car while driving on a snowy road and colliding with a truck, according to his wife and the Antrim County Sheriff's Office. The condition of the truck driver wasn't available.

 McLean & Eakin Booksellers Jeffrey Zaslow giving his last lecture Thursday night in Michigan.

 In addition to writing hundreds of memorable Journal articles and columns, Mr. Zaslow did a long stint as an advice columnist at the Chicago Sun-Times, succeeding Ann Landers—a job he won after he entered a competition for the position as an angle for a Journal front-page feature.

 At the Journal his subjects ranged from the anguish of losing a car in the Disney World parking lot, to the power of fathers' lunchbox letters to their daughters, to the distinctive pain of watching a beloved childhood stadium go under the wrecking ball.

 Auditioning for Ann Landers's Job Dear Jeffrey: Take Our Advice, Stick to Reporting 3/25/1987

 More recently, he became one of America's best-selling nonfiction writers, known internationally for such books as "The Girls from Ames," the story of a 40-year friendship among 10 women, and "The Last Lecture," about Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon University computer-science professor who in 2007 was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and given only a few months to live.

 After Mr. Pausch gave an inspirational multimedia presentation about his life's lessons, Mr. Zaslow—a 1980 Carnegie Mellon graduate—wrote a Journal column about the lecture and posted it on the Journal's website with a video that became an online sensation. The resulting book spent more than a year on best-seller lists and was translated into dozens of languages.

 He was twice named best columnist by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists and in 2000 he received its Will Rogers Humanitarian Award.

 In a statement Friday to the staff of the Journal, editor Robert Thomson said: "Jeff's writing, for the Journal and in his books, has been a source of inspiration for many people around the world and his journalistic life has been a source of inspiration for all journalists."

 In 2011, he collaborated with Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and her husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, on their memoir, "Gabby: A Story of Courage and Hope," following the congresswoman's shooting. He is also the author of "Highest Duty," about the airline captain Chesley Sullenberger, who safely landed a damaged jetliner in the Hudson River in New York.

 "Over the last year we got to know and appreciate the talented and caring professional that Jeff was. He was one of a kind and we feel very fortunate for the time we had with him," Mr. Kelly wrote in an email to the Journal Friday. "He touched so many lives in such a positive way. Gabby and I express our deepest condolences to his wife Sherry Margolis and their three daughters - Jordan, Alex and Eden. We will miss Jeff very much."

 His latest, "The Magic Room: A Story About the Love We Wish for our Daughters," is set in a Fowler, Mich., bridal store where he looked at American weddings. "I found a place with an awful lot of emotion. And I have been writing books with emotion for all these years so I was just grateful to find this place," he told an interviewer.

 A native of the Philadelphia suburb of Broomall, Mr. Zaslow majored in creative writing in college.

 The Giffords book

 In a 2006 feature, Mr. Zaslow wrote about how the rise of iPods meant that everyone could walk around with a personal soundtrack, so he set about creating one for a day in his own life—including a "scene" with his wife, Sherry Margolis. "Aware of my soundtrack project in recent weeks, Sherry wondered what music I'd pick as a tribute to her," he wrote. "No, I didn't choose 'Wind Beneath My Wings' or the 'Jaws' theme. I finally selected Orleans's bouncy 1976 hit, 'Still the One.' Because she is."

 In addition to being an accomplished stylist, Mr. Zaslow reported his stories in exemplary depth. For "The Last Lecture" he spent weeks talking to Mr. Pausch.

 "Randy would spend an hour each morning on a stationary bike to try to keep himself fit, and in that hour he'd be on the phone with Jeff," said Robert Miller, who was president of Walt Disney Co.'s Hyperion book-publishing unit when the title was published in 2008. "They never missed a day." But, added Mr. Miller, "He was mindful of Randy's time, because Randy didn't have much left."

 Mr. Pausch's sister, Tamara Pausch Mason, said Mr. Zaslow learned so much about her brother and his childhood that he became a "vicarious member of the family" who knew all the family's stories and stayed in close contact with them after Mr. Pausch died.

 During the period in his career when he wrote the advice column, Mr. Zaslow received many letters from people who were lonely—which became the inspiration for the Zazz Bash, an annual party at Chicago's Navy Pier. Thousands would attend. Hot dogs and chips were piled up on tables for singles looking for love. "He got these letters from lonely people and, being Jeff, he thought he should do something. So he orchestrated this enormous party for them," said Neil Steinberg, a longtime friend of Mr. Zaslow's and a columnist at the Sun-Times.

 Mr. Zaslow is survived by his wife, who is an anchor at a Fox television station in Detroit; three daughters, Jordan, Alex and Eden; and his parents, Harry and Naomi Zaslow. Mr. Zaslow adorned his cubicle in the Journal's Detroit bureau with dozens of photos of his wife and girls.

 Journal colleagues recalled that while working on columns and books, Mr. Zaslow would collect voluminous notes that he organized in piles that spilled off his desk, sat in uneven rows around his chair and cluttered an empty cubicle adjacent to his. When he took his work home at night, he packed his notes into a wheeled carry-on suitcase.

 Arrangements for Mr. Zaslow will be handled by Ira Kaufman Chapel in Southfield, Mich. No details were yet available.

 —Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg and Jack Nicas contributed to this article.

 Write to Douglas Belkin at doug.belkin@wsj.com

 A version of this article appeared February 11, 2012, on page A6 in some U.S. editions of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Journal Columnist Jeffrey Zaslow Dies at 53. |||||Summary:

– Author and newspaper columnist Jeffrey Zaslow is dead at age 53 after a car accident in Michigan today, reports the Detroit Free Press and Wall Street Journal. Zaslow is perhaps best known for his book Last Lecture, about the final lecture of the late Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch, but he first gained fame in the late 1980s as a writer for the Journal. He wrote a first-person article about the Chicago Sun-Times' search for a replacement for Ann Landers—and ended up getting the job himself over 12,000 applicants. He wrote the advice column until 2001. Zaslow, who had returned to the Journal as a columnist, also co-authored the recent biography of Gabrielle Giffords (Gabby) and wrote a bio of Hudson River hero Sully Sullenberger (Highest Duty). The Free Press recounts Zaslow talking about Pausch's advice to him to hug his three daughters. “What a gift it is to be able to do that. And that’s sort of the story I’m telling in this book,” Zaslow said of his latest, The Magic Room. "We’ve got to hug our kids and make the most of each moment, because you never know.”


Article:

CLOSE The FDA recommended expanding the screening process for all blood donations in the U.S. WIBBITZ

 Municipal workers clean the streets in Miami Beach to control the spread of mosquitoes. Local authorities are taking steps to prevent an outbreak of Zika in the city while they are waiting to confirm Miami Beach as the new zone of the virus transmission. (Photo: CRISTOBAL HERRERA, EPA)

 The Food and Drug Administration on Friday recommended expanding the screening process for all blood donations in the U.S. as a precaution against contaminating the blood supply with the mosquito-borne Zika virus.

 The new recommendation expands the guidance to all U.S. states and territories. Previously, the FDA only advised screening in areas with active Zika cases, such as parts of Florida and throughout Puerto Rico.

 “At this time, the recommendation for testing the entire blood supply will help ensure that safe blood is available for all individuals who might need transfusion," said Peter Marks, the director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, in a statement.

 The new order comes in the wake of the first locally acquired Zika cases in the continental U.S. More than 40 people in Miami-Dade and Palm Beach counties in Florida have been diagnosed with the virus since officials announced its appearance there earlier this month. Previously, all cases within the continental U.S. were travel-related.

 Florida Surgeon General Celeste Philip said the state's largest blood collection centers have been testing all donations for Zika since the beginning of August, when health officials confirmed the first locally transmitted case of Zika near downtown Miami. She said expanding that makes sense since the Aedes aegypti mosquito that carries the virus is prevalent throughout most of the southern United States.

 "I think there is scientific rationale for why that is important," she said after a meeting of government officials in Miami Beach, the latest area hit by locally-transmitted Zika cases.

 The FDA updated its guidance due to the potential serious health consequences of Zika to pregnant women and children born to women exposed to the virus during pregnancy. The Zika virus is transmitted primarily by the Aedes mosquito but can also be spread by sexual contact. Although most people infected with the virus never develop symptoms, an infection during pregnancy can cause serious birth defects and is associated with other adverse pregnancy outcomes, the FDA warns.

 Around 2,200 Zika cases have been reported in the continental U.S. and more than 13,000 in Puerto Rico, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Most of the cases within the continental U.S. involved individuals who contracted the virus while traveling in another country, while most of the Puerto Rico cases were locally acquired.

 Florida Gov. Rick Scott announced Friday he would travel to Washington when Congress reconvenes next month to urge legislators to pass emergency Zika funding for his state and others that will soon be affected by the virus. He said his requests for assistance — from Zika tests kits from the CDC to research money to find a vaccine — have not been met and he worries that the federal government hasn't done enough to corral the fast-spreading virus.

 "Congress went on recess," he said. "So I'd say that no, the federal government has not been a good partner."

 Contributing: Alan Gomez in Miami

 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/2buGpE0 ||||| All U.S. Blood Donations Should Be Screened For Zika, FDA Says

 Enlarge this image toggle caption Toby Talbot/AP Toby Talbot/AP

 The Food and Drug Administration is recommending that blood banks screen all blood donations in the U.S. for the Zika virus.

 It's a major expansion from a Feb. 16 advisory that limited such screening to areas with active Zika virus transmission.

 In a statement released Friday, the FDA says all those areas are currently in compliance with blood screening, but that expanded testing is now needed.

 "As new scientific and epidemiological information regarding Zika virus has become available, it's clear that additional precautionary measures are necessary," the FDA's acting chief scientist, Luciana Borio, said in the statement.

 The expansion of testing won't happen all at once. The FDA is advising blood establishments in 11 states to begin testing within the next four weeks. Those states include Alabama, Arizona, California, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, New York, South Carolina and Texas.

 These states are in proximity to areas where Zika is actively spreading via mosquitoes or where there are a significant number of cases related to other exposures, including sexual transmission.

 Within 12 weeks, blood facilities in all states should be testing donations for Zika, the FDA says.

 Currently, Zika is being spread by mosquitoes in South Florida, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, as well as most countries in the Caribbean and Central and South America. There are a total of 2,517 cases of Zika in the U.S. states and D.C., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, with 9,011 more in U.S. territories.

 Most of the cases within the U.S. are related to travel abroad or sexual transmission. The cases in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands are a mix of travel-related cases and locally acquired infections via mosquitoes or sex.

 In issuing the new recommendations, the agency noted that 4 out of 5 people infected with Zika virus never develop symptoms. Thus, questions that blood banks routinely ask about the risks of disease might not catch people who have been exposed and who have been infected with the Zika virus.

 Zika virus infection during pregnancy has caused serious birth defects in a few cases in the U.S. and hundreds of cases in Central and South America where infants have been born with microcephaly, a condition where the brain and skull are malformed.

 There have been no cases of Zika related to blood transfusions in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 "There is still much uncertainty regarding the nature and extent of Zika virus transmission," says Peter Marks, director of the FDA's Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research. "At this time, the recommendation for testing the entire blood supply will help ensure that safe blood is available for all individuals who might need transfusion."

 In a news conference Friday, Marks said that there had been one case in Florida where a unit of donated blood was tested and taken out of the blood supply. Other units where Zika is suspected are currently under investigation, he said. |||||
What is a summary?

– The FDA is getting even more serious about stopping the spread of Zika, recommending Friday that all blood donations in the US be screened for the virus, USA Today reports. Previously, it had recommended screening donations only in areas where Zika was spreading—mostly Florida and Puerto Rico. According to NPR, none of the more than 2,000 Zika cases in the continental US have come from tainted blood transfusions, but at least one unit of donated blood in Florida tested positive for the virus. “At this time, the recommendation for testing the entire blood supply will help ensure that safe blood is available for all individuals who might need transfusion," says an FDA statement. Eleven states are asked to start testing their blood donations within the next four weeks. Those are: Alabama, Arizona, California, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, New York, South Carolina, and Texas. The rest are asked to start testing within 12 weeks.


Summarize this article:

The recent assault on the National Security Five is only the most recent example of the fear our elites have about discussing and understanding radical Islamists.

 When an orchestrated assault is launched on the right to ask questions in an effort to stop members of Congress from even inquiring about a topic — you know the fix is in.

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 The intensity of the attack on Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) as well as Republican Reps. Trent Franks of Arizona, Louie Gohmert of Texas, Tom Rooney of Florida and Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia is a reminder of how desperate our elites are to avoid this discussion. Yet consider this rush to silence questions in light of our history of unpleasant surprises during the Cold War.

 Given all the painful things we learn about people every day and the surprises that shock even the experts (the head of the FBI anti-spy effort was a Russian spy, for example), you have to wonder why people would aggressively assert we shouldn’t ask about national security concerns.

 Remember the shock in 2001 when we learned that FBI agent Robert Hanssen had been spying for 22 years — first for the Soviet Union and then the Russian Federation. This disaster came just seven years after the 1994 arrest of Aldrich Ames, a CIA counterintelligence officer who was a Soviet spy for eight years.

 Why should we assume we’re in better shape today, when political correctness is passionately opposed to tough counterintelligence screening? It’s as though our leaders have forgotten every lesson of the 1930s about fascism, Nazism and communism and every lesson from 1945 to 1991 about communism.

 We have replaced tough mindedness about national security with a refusal to think seriously and substituted political correctness and a “solid” assurance that people must be OK because they are “nice” and “hard working” for the systematic, intense investigations of the past.

 I’m not suggesting that our primary threat is espionage. Our greatest problem is getting the wrong analysis, advice and policy proposals. It is the bias of the advisers and the disastrous policies they propose that are our gravest danger at this stage of the long struggle with radical Islamists.

 Our elites refuse to even consider that the advice they are getting is biased, tainted, distorted — or just plain wrong.

 The underlying driving force behind this desperate desire to stop unpleasant questions is the elite’s fear that an honest discussion of radical Islamism will spin out of control. They fear if Americans fully understood how serious radical Islamists are, they would demand a more confrontational strategy. ||||| When Politico first began spewing its pollution back in 2007, I wrote a series of posts examining its ownership and management, its heavy reliance on Drudge links, its biases, and its tawdry methods, and had a lengthy exchange with its Editor, John Harris, about those critiques. I long ago stopped doing that: aside from the handful of genuinely good reporters they have, it is widely recognized that Politico is little more than a glorified gossip rag, the belly of the media beast, the embodiment of everything vapid, reckless, and petty that drives America's media rot. Pointing out the latest examples is pointless and redundant.

 But today Politico descended into territory so toxic that one would be remiss to ignore it. They gave Newt Gingrich almost 5,000 words to warn America of the grave danger posed by Muslims, to condemn "elites" for covering up the threat, and to defend the recent McCarthyite attack by GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann and four other members of Congress on Huma Abedin, the long-time Muslim aide to Hillary Clinton and wife of former Rep. Anthony Weiner, whom Bachmann essentially accused -- with zero evidence -- of being a secret agent for the Muslim Brotherhood (Politico gave Gingrich 2,500 words for the Op-Ed itself -- headlined: "In defense of Michele Bachmann, Muslim Brotherhood probes" -- and then another 1,800 words for an "appendix" prepared by the neocon-funded, Muslim-obsessed Foundation for the Defense of Democracies). This was the crux of the Bachmann accusations which Gingrich is defending:

 "It appears that there has been deep penetration in the halls of our United States government by the Muslim Brotherhood," Bachmann told radio host Sandy Rios in June. "It appears that there are individuals who are associated with the Muslim Brotherhood who have positions, very sensitive positions, in our Department of Justice, our Department of Homeland Security, potentially even in the National Intelligence Agency."

 Then, "Bachmann singled out Huma Abedin" and "question[ed] why Abedin . . . was able to receive a security clearance despite having family members that Bachmann believes are connected to the Brotherhood." Bachmann wrote: "I am particularly interested in exactly how, given what we know from the international media about Ms. Abedin’s documented family connections with the extremist Muslim Brotherhood, she was able to avoid being disqualified for a security clearance." Bachmann was joined in her crusade by four other House members (Gingirch calls them "The National Security Five," because nobody does self-victimizing, self-martyring melodrama like neocon Tough Guys).

 So noxious was this attack that even people like John McCain and Wolf Blitzer -- along with Catholic bishops and other religious groups -- harshly condemned it (though it seems clear that the anger in official Washington was due more to Abedin's being deeply ensconced in Beltway power circles than it was due to revulsion over the rank Islamophobia underlying the attack; said Blitzer: "I have been very upset about a McCarthy-like attempt to smear one of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's closest aides, Huma Abedin, someone I have known for years"). Let me know when Islamophobic law enforcement and Surveillance State practices aimed at marginalized, powerless Muslims provoke similar rage in those circles. ||||| Prepared by staff at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies

 1)Global Counterterrorism Conference Without Israel

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 The Global Counterterrorism Forum was founded on Sept. 22, 2011, by Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. It brings together 29 countries and the European Union to discuss ways to strengthen security and limit extremism. The forum meets with experts, as well as representatives from international organizations, including the United Nations. Israel is not a member.

 In May 2010, the Israeli Defense Forces boarded the Mavi Marmara, part of a Turkish sponsored flotilla to Gaza. Fighting broke out, and nine Turkish activists were killed. The Turkish government has since demanded an apology from the Israeli government, compensation for the victims’ families, and an end to the blockade of Gaza.

 When these stipulations were not realized, despite U.S. pressure, the Turkish government indicted four influential Israeli military officials in May 2012.

 Sen. Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), as well as others in Congress, say this fractured relationship prevented Israel from attending the forum’s meeting on June 7. Some Israeli officials said this as well. They contend that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan pressured the U.S. to keep Israel out.

 But other Israeli Foreign Ministry officials denied this. “We did not plan on going to that meeting anyway,” the officials said, “…We will take part in working groups on different issues of this forum; that’s confirmed. We’re not estranged.”

 The meeting was sponsored by the United States and held in Turkey. The U.S. sponsorship led Lieberman, Kirk and other members of Congress, to condemn the U.S. government on June 10 for its acquiescence to Turkey’s demands. The State Department’s official response stated, “Our idea with the GCTF was to bring together a limited number of traditional donors, front line states, and emerging powers develop a more robust, yet representative, counterterrorism capacity-building platform. A number of our close partners with considerable experience countering and preventing terrorism are not included among the GCTF’s founding members.”

 Lieberman and Kirk, however, argued that Israel’s unparalleled experience with countering terrorism, especially when compared to forum members like Switzerland, should have merited an invitation.

 Israel had been specifically excluded, according to a July 10, Washington Free Beacon story, which cited a congressional source.

 Meanwhile, Maria Otero, undersecretary for civilian security, democracy and Human Rights, in a speech at the Global Counterterrorism Forum High-Level Conference on Victims of Terrorism, in Madrid, Spain, did not mention Israel and Israelis as victims of terrorism.

 Reporters who asked the State Department about this were first stonewalled. Finally, on July 12, State officials said, “We believe that Israel would make a valuable contribution to the Global Counterterrorism Forum. We have raised the issue of Israeli participation in relevant GCTF activities with a number of GCTF partners at very senior levels. We will continue to do so as we move forward. Our discussion with Israel concerning the GCTF – our discussions have focused on Israeli participation and relevant activities to allow Israel to share its counterterrorism expertise with CT practitioners from GCTF-member and other countries… So Israel is one potential member….”

 2) Engagement with Taliban

 For more than a year, U.S. officials have attempted to engage with the Taliban. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that the talks with the Taliban were “not a pleasant business, but a necessary one.”

 In December 2011, the United States was reportedly considering transferring a group of Guantanamo detainees to Afghan authorities in exchange for confidence-building measures from the Taliban. On the same day as the cited Reuters story, Vice President Joe Biden said that “the Taliban per se is not our enemy…There is not a single statement that the president has ever made in any of our policy assertions that the Taliban is our enemy because it threatens U.S. interests.” |||||

– In a six-page, 2,500-word Politico op-ed (with an attached three-page, 1,800-word appendix), Newt Gingrich makes it crystal clear that he is on the side of Michele Bachmann and her four fellow members of Congress who want an inquiry into whether the government is being infiltrated by Islamic extremists. (He refers to the group as "the National Security Five.") According to Gingrich, the quick and plentiful denouncements of Bachmann's theory are simply examples "of the fear our elites have about discussing and understanding radical Islamists," he writes. "You have to wonder why people would aggressively assert we shouldn’t ask about national security concerns." "It’s as though our leaders have forgotten every lesson of the 1930s about fascism, Nazism, and communism and every lesson from 1945 to 1991 about communism," Gingrich writes, noting that "political correctness" has taken precedence over security and that the "elites" worry that "if Americans fully understood how serious radical Islamists are, they would demand a more confrontational strategy." He quotes Tony Blair and JFK (and Wikipedia, notes The Blaze incredulously), and notes the Fort Hood shootings and the Times Square car bomb as evidence that we must be more vigilant. On Salon, Glenn Greenwald decries Politico ("a glorified gossip rag") in general and Gingrich's piece in particular, calling it a "bigoted, McCarthyite screed." Click for Gingrich's full piece, or Greenwald's response.


Here is a news article: The Flight Crew is cheering a win against their own team.

 The Jets cheerleaders scored a $325,000 settlement from Gang Green on Wednesday in a New Jersey court.

 The deal will give each of the 52 pompom pushers $2,500 per season they’ve worked. Squad members featured in photo shoots are also eligible for an additional $400 payment per shoot.

 The deal covers the 2012-13 and 2013-14 NFL seasons.

 The class-action suit, filed in 2014 by a cheerleader identified only as Krystal C., claimed the women made only $150 per game and nothing for practice time.

 In a joint statement about the deal, the Jets said they “deny the claims and the parties have agreed to a settlement to avoid the expense, time and distraction of litigation.”

 Both parties declined further comment.

 State Sen. Diane Savino (D-SI) applauded the settlement and called for “the Buffalo Bills to do the same, to ensure that their cheerleaders are not left out in the cold when it comes to fair pay and treatment.”

 Bills cheerleaders were recently granted class-action status in a similar wage suit against their team.

 In that Erie County lawsuit, the Buffalo Jills say they had to live by a strict code of conduct that dictated their appearance, eating habits — and even how they used feminine products.

 Savino also called on the NFL “to step forward as a leader and develop uniform rules for their teams to ensure that all cheerleaders in every state received the employee pay and protections they deserve.” ||||| The New York Jets cheerleaders have closed the book on their pay fight with the team.

 A New Jersey court approved a $325,000 settlement between the cheerleaders and the Jets on Wednesday. The settlement of the class action lawsuit brought by former cheerleader, Krystal C, was initially reached in August 2015.

 Each of the 52 cheerleaders will receive $2,500 for each season they worked in the two-year period covered by the suit.

 The final amount will include interest and will depend on how many football seasons they worked. If a cheerleader participated in photo shoots, she could receive up to $400 per shoot.

 In Krystal's 2014 suit against the Jets, she claimed the cheerleaders made only $150 per game and $100 for special event appearances. She also said cheerleaders didn't receive compensation for weekly practices or time spent rehearsing.

 Related: California cheerleaders win right to be paid like regular employees

 The cheerleader's attorney, Patricia Pierce, used the rates for games and special events to argue that the actual hourly pay was well below the minimum wage.

 "When you look at the actual hours worked versus what Krystal was paid, she only made $3.77 per hour," Pierce said. "When you factor in the required hair, makeup and transportation expenses, the hourly rate goes below $1.50 an hour."

 The Jets cheerleaders, called the Flight Crew, aren't the first to bring a wage suit against an NFL team.

 The teams have tried to justify the low pay by labeling cheerleaders as independent contractors and not employees. However, the courts haven't agreed with that distinction.

 The Cincinnati Bengals, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Oakland Raiders and Buffalo Bills have also been sued.

 The Buccaneers reached a settlement of $825,000, and the Bengals have reached a tentative pact with their cheerleaders.

 The Raiders also settled -- for $1.25 million in September 2014. The Raiderettes claimed they'd been paid less than $5 an hour.

 The cheerleaders for the Buffalo Bills, the Jills, were recently given authorization to bring a class action lawsuit against the team. |||||
A summary of this is?

– A New Jersey court on Wednesday gave the Flight Crew—aka the New York Jets cheerleaders—something to cheer about: a $325,000 settlement of the class-action lawsuit filed in 2014 by a cheerleader identified as Krystal C., CNNMoney reports. That amounts to each of the 52 cheerleaders getting $2,500 per season worked and $400 per photo shoot. The settlement covers the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons. New York State Sen. Diane Savino, per the New York Post, cheered the settlement, calling on the NFL to "develop uniform rules … to ensure that all cheerleaders in every state received the employee pay and protections they deserve." NFL teams have sought to justify low pay for cheerleaders by saying they're independent contractors, CNN notes. In the case of the Flight Crew, Krystal C.'s suit claimed that cheerleaders were compensated $150 per game and $100 for special appearances. But, when you factor in practices and rehearsals, that pans out to $3.77 per hour. Throw in hair, makeup, and transportation expenses and "the hourly rate goes below $1.50 an hour," says the cheerleaders' attorney. The Flight Crew isn't alone: Cheerleaders have taken to the courts to seek higher pay from the Cincinnati Bengals (tentative agreement reached), Tampa Bay Buccaneers (settled for $825,000), Oakland Raiders (settled for $1.25 million), and the Buffalo Bills (class-action suit on the horizon).


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– A group of female students at Virginia's University of Mary Washington is lodging a Title IX complaint against the school over the anonymous messaging app Yik Yak, reports CNN. The members of the campus group Feminists United say they've received so many abusive threats online that they feel unsafe on their own campus, and they accuse the school of doing too little to protect them. Last month, one of their members was killed, allegedly by a male roommate, though authorities have made no links between the Yik Yak threats and the death of Grace Rebecca Mann. Yik Yak is popular on college campuses because it allows users within a relatively small area to post and receive anonymous messages on their phones. Members of the feminists' group say they've endured cyber-stalking and repeated threats of rape and murder, in particular after two incidents: They spoke out against allowing frats on campus because of concerns over sexual abuse, and they got the rugby team suspended over an abusive chant. (Mann's accused killer is a former rugby player.) Afterward, the Yik Yak threats came pouring in. “It created an increasing level of fear and anxiety,” says attorney Lisa Banks. “They had no way to know if people who were posting messages were sitting next to them in class or walking next to them on campus.” The school says it has investigated all threats of violence, and Yik Yak says it is working to curb hate speech on its service, reports the Washington Post

The popular anonymous app Yik Yak finds itself at the center of a growing controversy after a prominent member of a feminist group was murdered at a Virginia university.

 Grace Rebecca Mann, a junior at the University of Mary Washington, and member of UMW's Feminists United, was killed in April. Mann was a vocal leader in the group, and she was particularly outspoken about an incident in which the school's rugby team engaged in chants calling for violence against women -- including rape and necrophilia.

 Mann was harassed on Yik Yak before her murder, after members of the rugby team incorrectly assumed that the Feminists United called for the college to suspend the team's members. Mann was named in the "Yaks" and she had said that she feared for her safety, though it's unclear whether her murder was related to the harassment on Yik Yak.

 Steven Vander Briel, a former UMW rugby club member and roommate of Mann's, has been charged with first-degree murder. He is accused of strangling Mann to death.

 The feminist group claims that the college's administration didn't go far enough to protect them from the harassment.

 With the help of the national women's rights organization Feminist Majority Foundation and attorneys Debra Katz and Lisa Banks, the campus group brought a Title IX complaint to the Department of Education on Thursday. They hope UMW will take action to stop the harassment and work to prevent it in the future.

 The complaint alleges that the group's members feared for their safety after more than 700 sexist, threatening Yaks were posted about Feminists United or the group's individual members.

 "Gonna tie these feminists to the radiator and grape them in the mouth," said one Yak. The app, which allows people to post social media messages without revealing their names, filters out certain words, such as "rape," but users have found ways to get around that by using similar sounding words.

 "Dandy's about to kill a bitch...or two," said another.

 "Can we euthanize whoever caused this bulls--t?" another said.

 The group says they complained to UMW's administration, but the university's staff told them to take up their case with Yik Yak.

 "While the University has no recourse for such cyber bullying, Yik Yak and other social media sites do," the University's Title IX coordinator Leah Cox told the students in an email, according to the complaint. "If you find yourself the subject of an abusive or threatening comment on social media, please immediately file a report so that the site can take administrative action."

 The university denied the group's request to shut down access to Yik Yak on campus, citing First Amendment concerns. That also would not have completely blocked access, since Yik Yak can be accessed on mobile networks that the university does not control.

 After members of Feminists United reached out to Yik Yak, they say the company did not respond to their requests. Though the complaint is not directed at Yik Yak, Katz, the group's attorney, said, "Yik Yak does have some responsibility here."

 "What we're seeing is increased use of Yik Yak for cyberbullying over race, gender and sexual orientation," Katz told CNNMoney.

 She also said that she believes prosecutors and the university need to get to the bottom of whether Mann's killer was posting on Yik Yak and directing threats at her. Since Yik Yak posts are anonymous, that could be tricky to pin down. In its privacy statement, Yik Yak says it doesn't collect users' names or contact information, but, upon request, it could provide law enforcement with certain identifying information, including a user's location IP address or data about a user's device.

 A spokesman for Yik Yak said the company is working to make changes to its app, including improving filters for abusive content.

 "It's always disappointing to see rare instances occur that simply don't represent what Yik Yak is all about, and guarding against misuse is something we take very seriously," the company told the Post. "We've taken significant measures so far by adding filters, pop-up warnings, reporting, and moderation within the app, and we will constantly work to enhance these measures."

 The university did not respond directly to the complaint. But a spokesman said the college responded to the students' complaints.

 "To the university's knowledge, no known reports of direct threats of violence and/or sexual assault have gone unheeded," the university said in a statement. "The University of Mary Washington's No. 1 priority has been and continues to be the creation and maintenance of a safe environment where all students can learn and grow."

 Related: Yik Yak chat app stirring up trouble in high schools

 Related: 'Secret' app shuts down ||||| Students, family and friends gather at the steps of George Washington Hall to honor Grace Mann's life on April 24 in Fredericksburg. (Reza A. Marvashti/For The Washington Post)

 A feminist group at the University of Mary Washington is accusing school officials of failing to act on threats against its members — one of whom was killed last month — on the popular and controversial messaging app Yik Yak, an attorney for the group said.

 Feminists United plans to announce at a news conference Thursday that it has filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education alleging that members were threatened with sexual assault and death and were cyber-stalked after speaking out in campus debates about Greek life and against a lewd chant by the rugby team this year, said attorney Lisa Banks.

 Authorities say that Grace Rebecca Mann, a 20-year-old from McLean, Va., who served on United’s board, was slain April 17 by a roommate. Steven Vander Briel was charged with first-degree murder and abduction. Police have not commented on an alleged motive.

 [At vigil, slain Mary Washington student recalled as a ‘force of nature’]

 Banks and United members said they have no evidence that Mann’s activism or the threats on Yik Yak were related to her slaying. But they said a flood of more than 700 messages — some of which targeted members by name — left them feeling afraid. They said school officials did nothing to stop the threats despite repeated requests throughout the year.

 Grace Rebecca Mann (Courtesy of Grace Rebecca Mann's family)

 “I felt deeply unsafe at many points,” said Paige McKinsey, the outgoing president of the university’s Feminists United group. “I made sure to walk with people. I made sure my apartment door was locked and told people where I was going.”

 School officials said they acted on all threats of violence or sexual assault on the social-media site and that student safety is their top priority.

 “If we receive any complaints, we investigate them and offer extra security as needed,” said school spokeswoman Anna Billingsley.

 Yik Yak’s popularity has exploded on campuses nationwide since it was introduced in the fall of 2013. The app allows smartphone users within a 1.5-mile radius to post and read messages anonymously in real time, making it well-suited to campus life.

 The vast majority of traffic includes gripes about finals, talk of drinking and jokes, but the app also has been a freewheeling forum for racism, misogyny and threats that have made it a lightning rod at many schools.

 During the past year, at least 13 students have been arrested on charges of threatening mass shootings, bombings and other mass violence through Yik Yak. A Virginia Tech senior was arrested last month after allegedly posting a message warning of another “4.16 moment” — a reference to the date of the 2007 campus massacre in which a student killed 32 people.

 After a black student at the University of Virginia was arrested by a group of white Alcoholic Beverage Control officers in March, the app was bombarded with racist comments and disparaging remarks about the victim, 20-year-old Martese Johnson. And Emory University’s student government passed a resolution denouncing the use of Yik Yak to spread hate speech and harassment.

 The University of Mary Washington student group "Feminists United" filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education, accusing the school of failing to act on online threats against its members, one of whom was killed last month. (WUSA9)

 [Racial tensions flare at U-Va. after arrest of black student]

 Yik Yak has said it has taken a number of steps to limit hateful speech on the app.

 “It’s always disappointing to see rare instances occur that simply don’t represent what Yik Yak is all about, and guarding against misuse is something we take very seriously,” the company said in a statement. “We’ve taken significant measures so far by adding filters, pop-up warnings, reporting, and moderation within the app, and we will constantly work to enhance these measures.”

 At Mary Washington, McKinsey said, problems began in November as students were talking about whether to allow fraternities and sororities on the 5,000-student campus in Fredericksburg.

 At a forum, McKinsey said she made a comment linking Greek life to sexual assault, and the reaction on Yik Yak was immediate and unrelenting. Hostile comments started flowing as soon as she stopped speaking, she said.

 McKinsey said a second wave of vitriol was unleashed after she wrote an op-ed in the student newspaper in January in which she discussed a recording that was made of rugby team members at a party. The recording captures them chanting a rhyme about having sex with a dead prostitute. The school eventually suspended the rugby team because of it.

 “There were waves,” McKinsey said of the abuse.

 Among the comments in the weeks and months that followed, McKinsey said, there was a riff on a line from “The Hunger Games” — “We burn. You burn with us.” Her movements around campus were posted, and she said someone urged students to make problems at a Feminists United meeting, so they asked police to attend.

 Banks, the attorney, said a majority of the 700 comments aimed at Feminists United were name-calling or sexist, but a handful were direct threats. In one, members were threatened with rape “in the mouth,” and at another point, someone posted about killing a “bitch.”

 Because Yik Yak is anonymous, the group has no idea who posted the comments. McKinsey said Feminists United members resorted to walking in groups and informing each other where they were going out of fear for their safety. “It created an increasing level of fear and anxiety,” Banks said. “They had no way to know if people who were posting messages were sitting next to them in class or walking next to them on campus.”

 On multiple occasions, Banks and McKinsey said that Feminists United met with the school president and other officials about the problems. Feminists United said that Mary Washington should have blocked Yik Yak on the school’s WiFi and taken action to identify the offenders.

 In March, school officials e-mailed students about Yik Yak, saying the university had “no recourse for cyberbullying” and urged them to report incidents to the social-media site. They told students to report any direct threats to the administration or campus police.

 Billingsley said that the school consulted with Virginia’s attorney general but that its options were constrained when it came to limiting access to Yik Yak. They worried that blocking it might impinge on other students’ right to free speech.

 “There are First Amendment concerns when you are a state institution,” Billingsley said.

 On the afternoon of April 17, Mann made a brief stop at the off-campus home she shared with Vander Briel, 30, and two other students.

 Mann and Vander Briel appeared to be on different trajectories. Mann was a member of the student Senate, active in the school’s gay and lesbian club, and an activist for gay rights. Vander Briel, a former rugby player, was on his third stint at Mary Washington and was involved in few campus activities.

 When Mann’s other roommates arrived that afternoon, they found her bound and unconscious, police said. Detectives say they believe that plastic shopping bags were used to asphyxiate her, according to a search warrant. Police said the two did not have a personal relationship.

 Vander Briel told the roommates that he assaulted her and then fled the home. He was arrested later that day and charged, according to police and a search warrant. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for May 19.

 Feminists United is not the first group to take issue with Yik Yak. Elizabeth Long, an 18-year-old from Atlanta, said she started a petition asking for Yik Yak to improve community standards after students at her school posted messages while she was recovering from a suicide attempt, telling her that she should take her life.

 “It really, really hurt,” Long said.

 Her petition has garnered more than 78,000 signatures.

 Danielle Citron, a University of Maryland law professor and the author of “Hate Crimes in Cyberspace”, said Yik Yak’s anonymity combined with geolocation can be a powerful tool in the wrong hands.

 “We’ve had threats on message boards since the ’80s,” Citron said. “Yik Yak compounds fear, because you know the individual is located nearby.” |||||