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– Harry Reid says he's ready—no really, he means it this time—to use the so-called "nuclear option" to reform the filibuster. Reid says that unless Republicans allow him to move forward on a host of Obama administration nominees, he'll use a parliamentary maneuver to change the rules allowing them to block the nominees in the first place, the New York Times reports. The threat sent a jolt through the Senate yesterday. Some highlights from the fracas: "The place doesn't work," Reid said of the Senate in a floor speech justifying the move. "The American people know the dysfunction we have here. And all we're asking is let the president have his team." Mitch McConnell was apoplectic. "This will kill the Senate," he declared at one point, saying Reid would go down as "the worst leader of the Senate ever." "Please. Please," Reid rejoined. "If anyone thinks ... the norms and traditions of the Senate have been followed by the Republican leader, they’re living in Gaga Land." That back and forth followed a closed-door heart to heart with Democrats in which Reid apologized for past deals to avoid the nuclear option (particularly this one) and lamented all the Bush nominees he'd let through after relenting in a similar 2005 filibuster showdown. "I ate sh-- on some of those nominees," Reid said, according to Politico. Republican Bob Corker wants to mend fences. "We need to understand your grievances more," he told Reid. Roger Wicker, meanwhile, has asked Reid to hold a bipartisan meeting in the Old Senate Chamber on Monday. The change Reid is proposing is actually pretty modest, New York explains, saying he's killing only "the newest and most abusive use of the filibuster." McConnell and Co. have been blocking any nominees necessary to enforce laws Republicans disagree with, but can't change. But many worry the change could signal the doom of the filibuster entirely. Asked if Democrats were stepping on a slippery slope, Barbara Mikulski quipped, "Every slope is slippery. That's why they call it a slope."

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s threat to change filibuster rules is supposed to narrowly focus on presidential nominees to the executive branch.

 But his potential move to invoke the “nuclear option” is raising a bigger and more sweeping question that could have huge consequences for future presidents of both parties: Is this the beginning of the end of the filibuster? If the filibuster goes, the Senate would lose a crucial check on majority rights — and it could start looking very much like the House, where the majority always gets its way.

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 reset Reid's rant on nominee block McConnell: Crisis manufactured

 For years, the filibuster has been increasingly used as a tool to block, delay and frustrate the will of the majority party to push through its agenda. While the filibuster has been changed periodically over the years, senators have never successfully made good on their threat to impose the “nuclear option” — changing Senate cloture rules by 51 votes, rather than 67 — for fear it would hurt them one day when they were back in the minority.

 (PHOTOS: Longest filibusters in history)

 But those days may now be over.

 On Monday, Reid informed President Barack Obama about his intention to use the nuclear option if no deal is struck, sources said, and Obama signaled he would support the effort.

 Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who is trying to head off the high-stakes fight, privately reached out to Vice President Joe Biden, but it’s expected that Biden would vote with Democrats in case there’s a 50-50 tie.

 The crisis could still be averted. Reid signaled that he would drop the threat of the nuclear option if Republicans ended their filibusters on pending Obama nominees.

 But senators in both parties agreed Thursday that if Reid moves to change the rules by 51 votes, it would be used by the majority in the future to further weaken the filibuster, potentially eliminating the potent procedural weapon altogether one day. While Democrats said they were willing to roll the dice on the nuclear option, believing the GOP would go that route anyway when they get back in the majority, Republicans said Reid’s move all but assured a continued weakening — and eventual demolition — of the filibuster.

 (Also on POLITICO: Reid slams McConnell, ready for nuclear option)

 But Reid said privately it is time to make a change.

 In a closed-door caucus meeting Thursday, Reid began by apologizing to his colleagues for cutting bipartisan deals to avert the nuclear option, including at the beginning of this year. And the Nevada Democrat complained that he allowed votes on scores of conservative nominees under former President George W. Bush after a bipartisan coalition headed off the nuclear option in 2005. But Reid said it had been the right thing to do because Bush had won a second term in the White House.

 Now, Reid argued, times have changed.

 “I ate sh— on some of those nominees,” Reid told his colleagues, according to sources who were present.

 On Thursday, the Senate continued to inch closer to a battle that could have dramatic implications for the institution.

 “I don’t know how you open that door and not go to the next level. First, it’s executive nominations, next thing it’ll be judicial nominations, then it will be legislative filibusters,” said South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the No. 3 Senate Republican. “The precedent they set here will be not only long-lasting but far-reaching.”

 (POLITICO podcast: Immigration reform & Obamacare setbacks)

 Under Reid’s proposal, the Senate would no longer need 60 votes to break a filibuster on executive branch positions, bringing down that threshold to 51 votes. Senators would face a 60-vote requirement to end filibusters on legislation and judicial nominees.

 At the heart of the fight are a handful of nominees Reid has been pushing to confirm. On Thursday, he set up procedural votes on a slate of nominees, but Republicans are poised to block Richard Cordray to lead the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as well as nominees for the National Labor Relations Board. These nominees are at the center of an ongoing legal struggle over the legality of Obama’s use of recess appointment power to place them at the agencies. ||||| “This will kill the Senate,” thundered Mitch McConnell, rising in opposition to Democratic plans to reform the filibuster. Would that it were true! The Senate exists because the Founding Fathers, who hated the idea of a Senate, gave in to threats from small-state senators demanding disproportionate representation.

 Sadly, Democrats are not about to kill the Senate. They’re not even going to kill the filibuster. What they’re threatening to do is to eliminate the newest and most abusive use of the filibuster. In addition to massively expanding the use of the filibuster to block legislation, Senate Republicans have started using it to block qualified executive branch nominees in order to block the execution of laws they find distasteful.

 Senate Republicans object to existing labor laws and the Dodd-Frank financial reform law. But they also lack the votes to pass changes to them. Instead, they have announced that they will block any nominee to vacant spots in those agencies — not just those deemed unfit or ideologically extreme — which has effectively paralyzed them from carrying out their work, unless Obama agrees to change the laws to suit the GOP. Senate Republicans have managed to largely paralyze labor law and financial reform this way.

 Congressional scholars Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein have called this “the new nullification” — which is to say, a radical tactic to prevent the execution of duly passed laws. McConnell, unsurprisingly, loathes Ornstein, a consummate establishmentarian who has taken the unusual step of fingering Republicans in general and McConnell in particular as the primary agents of Washington dysfunction:

 Senate Democrats are threatening to change the rules of the Senate to allow executive branch nominees to be seated with a simple majority vote. They’re doing it now for several reasons: It’s taken years for the excesses of this tactic to wear down Senate Democrats' inertia. The Senate just passed immigration reform and has no other pending bills that might be threatened if the place blows up. And Democrats are laying the groundwork for Obama to devote his term mainly to executing unilateral laws, not futilely trying to reason with Congress. Obama needs to staff his administration to do this.

 In a fiery speech, McConnell made a series of arguments against this change. One is that Democrats should worry about what will happen when Republicans want to nominate people they don’t like: “They’re not even interested in what this would mean down the road when Republicans are the ones making the nominations.”

 Well, yes, it would prevent Democrats from blocking a Republican president’s attempts to fill his own administration. Democrats did block numerous Bush administration executive branch appointments for various reasons, though never as leverage to force Bush to change the law. The next Republican president will be able to fill out his own administration with a simple majority Senate vote. Not so scary!

 McConnell’s other argument is insanely Orwellian. The issue, he says, is just a handful of “illegal” administration appointments. There’s a short backstory you need to know to understand what an insane argument McConnell is making here. Presidents often respond to blocked nominees by appointing them when Congress is in recess. Congress blocked Obama from doing this by holding pro forma sessions during its recess, which Democrats also used against Republicans. Obama tried to circumvent that tactic by declaring the pro forma sessions (when one Republican was around to gavel in and gavel out) a sham. The Republican-majority D.C. Circuit Court ruled against this tactic.

 Here is how McConnell puts it: "So this isn’t really a fight over nominees at all. It’s a fight over these illegal, unconstitutional nominees."

 But of course they’re only illegal nominees in the first place because McConnell insisted he wouldn’t seat them without changes to the laws they carry out. The attempt to seat them during a sham recess isn’t the cause of the conflict. The cause is McConnell’s blocking of otherwise acceptable nominees in order to force Obama to accept changes to the law he wouldn’t otherwise sign.

 The deeper subtext of McConnell’s argument is not one aimed at the public but at his fellow senators. It’s that the Senate is wonderful and unique, and any changes to its byways would threaten the character of the institution they all love so dearly. This is a deeply held belief by senators. In Washington, senators occupy a place of immense power and political security, catered to by sycophants at every turn, and basking across parties in their senatorial splendor and superiority to the common House. It is certainly true that, for the purposes of maintaining a dignified lifestyle for 100 senators, the Senate continues to function brilliantly. What’s very hard to defend is that the Senate functions perfectly as a vehicle for advancing the national interest. ||||| Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, one of the Republicans who has been reaching out to Democrats to see how they might find a compromise, pleaded with Mr. Reid. “We need to understand your grievances more,” he said.

 Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi tried to broker a joint meeting of Republicans and Democrats next week, and his suggestion underscored the gravity with which senators consider any alteration of their governing rules. He called for a summit in the Old Senate Chamber, the domed, red-velvet-draped room in the Capitol where the Senate met in the 19th century. Mr. Reid ultimately agreed and set the gathering for Monday at 6 p.m.

 Mr. McConnell and other Republicans insisted that their efforts to oppose certain nominees were the norm. They are behaving, they said, just as Democrats did when they wanted to block disputed appointments by Republican presidents, whether it was judges under Mr. Bush or the attorney general under Ronald Reagan.

 Mr. McConnell and other Republicans have signaled in recent days that they were willing to relent on some of the nominees that remain held up, including Gina McCarthy to be director of the Environmental Protection Agency and Thomas E. Perez to be secretary of labor.

 Mr. Reid and Democratic leaders rejected that compromise as unsatisfactory. And a compromise seems unlikely unless the nominees for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the National Labor Relations Board, which is of considerable importance to the labor unions that are so crucial to the Democratic Party, are approved as well.

 Democrats pushing for the rules change argued that it was a targeted approach — inapplicable in most instances — and would not be as egregious as Republicans claim.

 “Now and into the future, Republicans and Democrats should be able to have an up-or-down vote on the team they want to put in place,” said Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, as she walked into the meeting to discuss how Democrats plan to proceed. “I do not view that as an extraordinary step. I do not view it as a nuclear option. I view it as something we sadly had to come to because of the way they’ve obstructed putting really good people in place without cause.”

 Many seemed to agree.

 “The filibuster is a needed tradition, but the methodology needs to change for a new century,” said Senator Barbara A. Mikulski, Democrat of Maryland. Asked whether they were stepping onto a slippery slope, Ms. Mikulski responded blithely: “Every slope is slippery. That’s why they call it a slope.” |||||


Article:
Focused crawls are collections of frequently-updated webcrawl data from narrow (as opposed to broad or wide) web crawls, often focused on a single domain or subdomain. ||||| Queen Elizabeth II has stressed the importance of family and friendship in her annual, pre-recorded Christmas message to the nation.

 Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, right, speaks with Britain's Prince Harry as they arrive arrive to attend a Christmas Service with other members of the royal family at St. Mary's church in the grounds of... (Associated Press)

 Britain's Prince William, back left, Prince Charles, front left, Kate Duchess of Cambridge, center, Camilla Duchess of Cornwall, foreground right, and Prince Harry, back right, arrive to attend a Christmas... (Associated Press)

 From left, Britain's Prince Andrew, Prince William, Prince Charles, Kate Duchess of Cambridge, Camilla Duchess of Cornwall and Prince Harry arrive to attend a Christmas Service at St Mary's church on... (Associated Press)

 Britain's Prince William, back left, Prince Charles, front left, Kate Duchess of Cambridge, center, and Camilla Duchess of Cornwall arrive to attend a Christmas Service at St Mary's church on the grounds... (Associated Press)

 Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, follows her husband Prince William, as they arrive arrive to attend a Christmas Service with other members of the royal family at St. Mary's church in the grounds of Sandringham... (Associated Press)

 Britain's Prince William and other members of Britain's royal family arrive for a Christmas Service at St. Mary's church on the grounds of Sandringham Estate, the Queen's Norfolk retreat, England, Sunday,... (Associated Press)

 Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, follows her husband Prince William, as they arrive arrive to attend a Christmas Service with other members of the royal family at St. Mary's church in the grounds of Sandringham... (Associated Press)

 Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, left, and Princess Anne arrive at Papworth Hospital to visit Prince Philip, in Cambridge, England, Saturday, Dec. 24, 2011. Philip, 90, was taken to the hospital from the... (Associated Press)

 From left, Britain's Prince William, Prince Charles, and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, arrive to attend a Christmas Service at St Mary's church on the grounds of Sandringham Estate, the Queen's Norfolk... (Associated Press)

 Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, right, and her son Prince Edward make their way to the royal helicopter as they leave Papworth Hospital after visiting Prince Philip, in Cambridge, England, Saturday, Dec.... (Associated Press)

 From left, Britain's Prince Andrew, Prince William, Kate Duchess of Cambridge, Prince Charles, Prince Harry and Camilla Duchess of Cornwall arrive to attend a Christmas Service at St Mary's church on... (Associated Press)

 The theme of her broadcast was especially poignant Sunday as Elizabeth's husband, Prince Philip, remained in hospital recovering from a heart procedure. The message was recorded Dec. 9, before he was hospitalized.

 Wearing a festive red dress, the Queen said that the importance of family was driven home by the marriages of two of her grandchildren this year.

 She spoke of the strength family can provide during times of hardship and how friendships are often formed in difficult times.

 Elizabeth pointed to the Commonwealth nations as an example that family "does not necessarily mean blood relatives but often a description of a community."

 THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

 LONDON (AP) _ Britain's royal family celebrated Christmas on Sunday with one notable absence _ Queen Elizabeth II's husband Prince Philip, who remains hospitalized following a heart procedure.

 The 90-year-old prince was recovering from having a coronary stent put in after doctors determined the heart pains that sent him to the hospital on Friday were caused by a blocked artery.

 Buckingham Palace said "he's in good spirits" and family members will visit Philip, also known as the Duke of Edinburgh, in the hospital after lunch.

 The royal family's Christmas schedule kicked off with a traditional morning service at St. Mary Magdelene Church, on the queen's sprawling Sandringham estate in Norfolk.

 The huge crowds that gathered outside the church got an early peek when the royals made a quick private visit to the church ahead of the services. Less than two hours later, they were back _ in different clothes _ for the Christmas service.

 The Queen arrived first _ dressed in a lavender-colored coat and hat _ in a royal limousine, leading the way into the church. Her oldest son, Prince Charles, and his wife, Camilla, trailed behind.

 Prince Harry walked in with his brother William and new sister-in-law Kate_ now known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Kate, whose style is closely watched around the world and who sends any dress she wears flying off the shelves in Britain, wore an eggplant-colored coat and matching hat.

 Among the other royals present was the queen's granddaughter, Zara Philips, who was joined by her new husband Mike Tindall, an English rugby player.

 After the service, children lined up to give bouquets of flowers to the queen. Thanking each well-wisher, the queen then handed the bouquets to her granddaughters, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.

 Well-wisher Camilla Fitt, 71, said Charles told her that his father, Philip, was "very determined" to get well.

 "Charles said he is coming on," said Fitt.

 The royal family then traveled back to the house for lunch, an integral part of their celebration.

 Another key part of their Christmas festivities is the queen's annual message to the nation, which this year will focus on family and community.

 The 85-year-old queen has made a prerecorded Christmas broadcast on radio since 1952 and on television since 1957. She writes the speeches herself, and the broadcasts mark the rare occasion on which the queen voices her own opinion without government consultation.

 ___

 Cassandra Vinograd can be reached at http://twitter.com/CassVinograd |||||Summary:

– Britain's Prince Philip remained hospitalized today, recovering from coronary stenting, but the royal show must go on, and so it did: Queen Elizabeth and her entire brood attracted throngs of Brits as they attended Christmas services this morning at the queen's retreat in Sandringham. Kate, in her first Christmas as Duchess of Cambridge, likely boosted the number of watchers, notes People, and impressed in an eggplant-colored coat and hat. The royals were also joined by Mike Tindall, who married the queen's granddaughter, Zara Phillips, this year. The matriarch herself stressed the importance of family in a pre-recorded Christmas address, notes the AP, though she said that family might "not necessarily mean blood relatives, but often a description of a community." Members of the family were to visit Philip later today. Click through the gallery above for more scenes.


CLOSE More women are buying breat milk online, but a study by Nationwide Children's Hospital discovered high levels of bacteria. Courtesy Nationwide Children's Hospital Nationwide Children's Hospital

 Researchers find high levels of bacteria that can make infants sick in breast milk purchased via the Internet.

 Despite safety concerns, new mothers are increasingly buying and selling milk over the Internet. A recent study by researchers at Nationwide Children's Hospital found that 75% of the breast milk they bought online was contaminated with high levels of bacteria. (Photo: Nationwide Children's Hospital) Story Highlights The selling of breast milk to others over the Web has become a growing trend

 Researchers found high counts of harmful bacteria and even fecal contamination in the milk

 The findings were likely the result of poor collection, storage or shipping practices

 Thanks to the Internet, women who produce an abundant supply of breast milk and those in need of it for their babies have more opportunities than ever to connect. But a first-of-its-kind study finds high levels of harmful bacteria and contamination in breast milk purchased via the Web.

 Researchers' analysis of 100 samples of breast milk bought on a public milk-sharing website found three in four samples contained either high levels of bacterial growth overall or contained disease-causing bacteria, including fecal contamination.

 The findings were likely the result of poor hygiene during milk collection, the use of either unclean containers or unsanitary breast milk pump parts, or compromised shipping practices, says epidemiologist Sarah Keim, lead author of the study in November's Pediatrics, published online today.

 Nineteen percent of sellers did not include dry ice or another cooling method when shipping, according to the study.

 It is unknown exactly how common purchasing breast milk online is, but a soon-to-be published journal article by Keim found 13,000 postings on U.S. milk sharing websites in 2011.

 It is "totally normal" for there to be certain bacteria in human breast milk, says Keim, a principal investigator with the Center for Biobehavioral Health at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. Some are "very important and healthy for babies and the development of their immune system and digestive system," she says.

 This study focused on bacteria which "are generally pretty harmless as long as they don't grow out of control" but have also been associated with illnesses in infants linked to contaminated milk, including staphylococcus and streptococcus, says Keim. It also focused on bacteria associated with disease even at low levels, such as salmonella and E. coli.

 Researchers compared the online-purchased breast milk samples to samples of unpasteurized breast milk donated to a non-profit milk bank.

 Twelve such banks throughout the U.S. follow strict guidelines set by the Human Milk Banking Association of North America and provide pasteurized milk from carefully screened donors to fragile and premature infants, primarily in hospitals. Pasteurization kills the harmful bacteria before the milk reaches an infant.

 In all the samples analyzed, the Web-purchased milk had higher bacteria counts and were more likely to contain disease-related types of bacteria, even though the donated milk from the milk banks had yet to be pasteurized:

 -- 72% had any detectable gram-negative bacteria, which are associated with bloodstream infections, wound or surgical site infections, meningitis and fecal contamination vs. 35% of milk bank samples

 -- 63% tested positive for staphylococcus vs. 25% of milk bank samples

 -- 36% tested positive for streptococcus vs. 20% of milk bank samples

 -- 3% were contaminated with salmonella vs. none of the milk bank samples.

 All of the samples tested negative for HIV, says Keim, but the laboratory analysis to determine "the authenticity" of the breast milk is just beginning, she says, adding: "We're a little suspicious of some of the milk."

 "This study confirms what people have suspected in terms of online milk purchases," says Anne Eglash, a family medicine physician with University of Wisconsin Health in Mt. Horeb and a co-founder of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine. She was not involved in the new study.

 "You don't know what you're getting, you don't know the quality, how honest people are about how old the milk is, and so many other issues. It's important to realize that this may not be the safest way to get breast milk when you don't have enough," she says.

 But Eglash, co-medical director of the still-in-development Mother's Milk Bank of the Western Great Lakes, cautions against "throwing the baby out with the bathwater" when it comes to the sharing of raw, unpasteurized human breast milk between lactating women and those who cannot, for medical or other reasons, provide their own milk for their healthy, full-term babies.

 "I don't think the message should be that women should never share milk, but that this behavior of buying it on the Web from someone you don't know should not happen," she says. Eglash emphasizes that "you don't want unpasteurized milk that has various bacteria going to an infant whose immune system is vulnerable," but says there are safe ways to share human breast milk with healthy infants who are not your own, as well as pasteurize it at home.

 The Food and Drug Administration warns against feeding babies breast milk acquired directly from individuals or through the Internet, citing safety concerns; the American Academy of Pediatrics discourages feeding preterm infants human breast milk from unscreened donors.

 Keim, author of the new study, says her findings "may not apply to situations where milk is shared among friends or relatives or donated rather than sold. The potential risks of those situations are less well understood."

 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1gwTueV ||||| “We worried at first,” she said. “We wanted to be mindful that the donors were healthy, but there was never a moment when we were afraid. We’ve had the milk of about 30 women and have never had a problem.”

 Women who do not wish to rely on an informal network may turn to breast milk banks, which store and sell breast milk from donors. Thirteen banks in the United States and Canada follow voluntary guidelines set up by the Human Milk Banking Association of North America, which require that donors and donations be screened, and that milk be pasteurized.

 But milk banks give priority to premature infants with significant medical complications, and the milk is available only by prescription. A bank will supply milk by prescription to healthy infants, but only if sufficient supplies are available — and they rarely are. The association’s banks distributed 2.15 million ounces in 2011, but the current annual need is 9 million ounces.

 Even when it is available, milk from banks is expensive, as much as $6 an ounce, and the average intake of a 1-month-old is about 25 ounces a day.

 All of this encourages new parents, often scrambling to find breast milk on short notice, to shop for cheaper or more convenient sources, and Web sites including onlythebreast.com and eatsonfeets.org have sprung up to fill the demand. In 2011, there were more than 13,000 postings on the four leading milk-sharing Web sites, according to Sarah Keim, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Ohio State and a researcher at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

 Photo

 In using any of these services, the buyer relies on the representations of the seller. The new study suggests that may prove hazardous.

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 Dr. Keim and her colleagues collected 101 samples from milk-sharing Web sites, recording the sellers’ assertions about their own health and their methods of handling and storage. Then the researchers analyzed the bacterial content in the samples, comparing them with unpasteurized breast milk from screened donors at banks.

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 The researchers found that 64 percent of the samples from milk-sharing sites were contaminated with staph, 36 percent with strep, and almost three-quarters with other bacterial species. Three of the samples contained salmonella. Seventy-four percent of the samples would have failed milk bank criteria.

 The unpasteurized milk bank samples were not entirely free of contamination either, but they were considerably cleaner than those from the online milk-sharers — 25 percent were contaminated with staph, 20 percent with strep, and 35 percent with other types of bacteria. Twenty-five percent of the milk bank samples contained no detectable bacteria at all, compared with 9 percent of the samples from milk-sharing sites.

 “Most staph and strep are harmless at normal levels,” Dr. Keim said. “But some of the levels we found were very high.” Nine percent of the milk-sharing samples contained dangerous levels of staph, and a handful had unusually high strep levels. Salmonella “doesn’t belong in milk at all,” she said.

 Dr. Keim gave high marks to the milk banks. “When you donate to one of the H.M.B.A.N.A. banks, you know it’s been processed and made safe for a baby who really needs it.”

 All milk shipped from milk banks is pasteurized, which kills skin and gastrointestinal bacteria, as well as many viruses, including those that cause colds. But pasteurization also destroys some of the beneficial substances in breast milk.

 Kim Updegrove, president of the milk bank association, believes that however well intended, informal sharing of breast milk can be hazardous.

 “If you get milk from an unscreened sharer, you put your child at risk,” she said. “I hate to say this to an informal sharer, because they are trying to do good. But they are playing a game of Russian roulette.”

 The Food and Drug Administration does not regulate the buying or selling of breast milk, but the agency discourages both online and person-to-person sharing. Only three states — California, Maryland and New York — regulate milk banks. New York, for instance, specifies rules for collection and storage of breast milk, and requires that donors be screened and periodically re-evaluated in a process overseen by a physician.

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 Dr. Keim said there is no way for a consumer to be certain what she is getting from an online source.

 “We looked at everything a buyer could know herself — temperature, the condition of the containers, how long it took to ship, what sellers were saying in their ads — and only the time in transit had any effect on contamination.

 “Buyers have no way of knowing even what they’re getting — it could be cow’s milk or formula.” ||||| Informal sharing of human milk has been gaining popularity in the U.S., spurred by research suggesting breast-fed babies are healthier than those fed formula. But a study being published Monday in the journal Pediatrics found that 72% of breast-milk samples purchased over the Internet contained infection-causing bacteria and 21% had potentially harmful viruses.

 As news of the forthcoming study spread, one milk-selling site,... |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– With the rise of sharing breast milk, a disturbing new study finds that 72% of samples bought online contained bacteria that could cause infections and 21% contained viruses. In 74% of the 101 samples purchased anonymously from two popular websites, the total bacteria count was significantly higher than the level generally considered safe. Bacteria found included E. coli, staphylococcus, streptococcus, and even salmonella, the Wall Street Journal reports. The FDA does not regulate the breast milk market, though it discourages sharing, the New York Times reports. Breast milk can be sold or donated on dozens of websites, and while some suppliers hand off the milk in person, others ship it. Problems during collection (improper hand-washing, dirty breast pumps or containers), improper storage (19% of the samples in the study were not cooled), and long shipping times (some of the samples took as long as six days to arrive) likely contributed to the health hazards. Another potential problem: Researchers say they are "a little suspicious of some of the milk," and are now working to determine if it's authentic breast milk, USA Today reports. In response to the study, at least one site that sells milk will stop allowing mothers to purchase from other mothers; donors will instead sell to a company that processes breast milk.


Article:
'Put 'em in a coffin' prank damages Houston BMW

 The latest bizarre internet "meme" to take off has made a splash on the web – and a giant dent in the hood of a Houston man's BMW.

 According to KPRC-TV, teens trying to emulate the popular "Put 'Em in a Coffin" videos left a crater in the hood of Houston resident James McHugh's white BMW, as well as his wife's car. The damage has left McHugh with a $4,000 repair bill.

 "Put 'Em in a Coffin" videos started popping up online in May after a member of the rap group ThotBoyz posted a video of himself flopping back first across the hood of a car with his arms crossed in front of him like a body in a coffin.

 The original Vine video was viewed more than 3 million times (see above). Soon, copycat videos started making their way around the internet, with teens flopping on cars, fast food counters, cafeteria tables, classroom desks and elsewhere.

 For more stupid games kids play, check out the slideshow above. ||||| KIDS DO? [NO AUDIO] PUT THEM IN THE COFFIN. PUT HIM IN THE KEVIN. PUT HIM IN A KOCH. PUT HIM IN A COFFIN. Reporter: IT'S THE VERY LATEST SOCIAL MEDIA-DRIVEN DEINSTRUCTIVE ATTENTION-GETTING PRANK TO HIT THE INTERNET. YOU CAN FIND IT ALL OVER YOUTUBE. IT'S CALLED PUT 'EM IN A COFFIN. PUT THEM IN A KEVIN. Reporter: AND IT'S ALL ABOUT -- COFFIN. Reporter: AND IT'S ALL ABOUT DANGEROUS TEENAGERS FILMING THEMSELVES DOING A BACKWARD DIVE. WHAT KIND OF DAMAGE DID THEY DO? SOMEBODY ELSE OBVIOUSLY JUMPED ON TO THE HOOD AND SO THE WHOLE HOOD IS NOW CAVED IN. Reporter: 28-YEAR-OLD JAMES McCUE HAD BOTH THE HOOD OF HIS WHITE BMW AND THE HOOD OF HIS WIFE'S CAR SMASHED IN. HE SAYS BY ONE OF THESE COFFIN CREWS. HIS HOME SECURITY SYSTEM HE SAYS CAPTURED THIS VIDEO OF A GROUP OF SEVEN YOUNG MEN WALKING UP TO HIS CAR LAST FRIDAY NIGHT ON PLAZA DEL SOL PARK. ANY IDEA WHAT ALL THIS IS GOING TO COST KNEW DAMAGES? THEY SAID ABOUT $4,000 FOR BOTH OF THEM, JUST BASED ON PICTURES. PUT THEM IN A COFFIN. ? Reporter: YES, KIDS ARE CALLING IT A GAME. JAMES CALLS IT A RIDICULOUS SENSELESS, INFURIATING CRIME. IT'S GOING TO COST HIM THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS. THAT'S PRETTY FRUSTRATING, YOU KNOW. YOU WORK HARD AND TO HAVE THAT MUCH MONEY WASHED AWAY IN -- YOU KNOW, FOR 10 SECONDS OF LAUGHS, THAT'S PRETTY FRUSTRATING. Reporter: NOW, YOU SAW FROM THE VIDEO, THIS DOESN'T INVOLVE JUST TEENAGERS JUMPING ON THE CARS. THEY'RE JUMPING ON TO STORE DISPLAYS, THEY'RE JUMPING ON TO TRASH BINS OR EVEN JUMPING ON EACH OTHER. THIS IS ALL PART OF THIS NEW GAME. AGAIN, JAMES SAYS ALL OF THIS SHOULD COST HIM AROUND $4,000.

 HOUSTON -

 Teenagers are throwing themselves on cars and property and recording it in a new trend spreading around the web.

 One Houston man was left with a big bill after several teens damaged his car.

 James McHugh's BMW has part of its hood smashed in as the result of teenagers engaging in a practical joke popping up on YouTube and social media.

 "Put 'em in a coffin" is the latest social media-driven attention-getting prank where teens basically do a backward dive onto the hood of a car.

 "They jumped on the hood and now the whole hood is caved in," McHugh said.

 McHugh, 28, had both the hood of his white BMW and the hood his wife's car dented. He says his home security camera captured video of a group of seven young men walking up to his car last Friday on Plaza del Sol Park.

 McHugh says the damage is going to cost him about $4,000.

 "You work hard, and then to have that much money washed away for 10 seconds of laughter," he said. "It's very frustrating." |||||Summary:

– The latest prank that all the kids are into is a little more destructive than the toilet paper of yesteryear: Called "Put 'em in a coffin" and based on a Vine video from May that's gone viral, it involves throwing yourself back-first onto the tops of cars (and grocery displays, and classroom desks, and one another, etc.). And for at least one Houston man and his wife, the damage is into the thousands. Last Friday, James McHugh, 28, found both his BMW and his wife's car seriously dented across the hoods, reports KPRC-TV, and a home security camera caught grainy footage of seven young men approaching his property. He says it'll cost about $4,000 for the repairs. "You work hard, and then to have that much money washed away for 10 seconds of laughter—it's very frustrating," McHugh says. People have been posting videos on YouTube, Vine, and other social media sites since rapper VonMar of the group ThotBoyz posted the original back in May, reports the Houston Chronicle. Since then, his video has been viewed more than 3 million times on Vine. As for McHugh, there's no word yet on whether his own security footage will help identify the vandals. (This high school prank resulted in 62 arrests.)


Summarize this article:

Solberg said the estimated 50,000 women labelled "German girls," who had or were suspected of having intimate wartime relations with Nazi troops, ended up marked "for the rest of their lives."

 Seven decades later, most have since died. After Norway's liberation in 1945, reprisals inflicted included job dismissals, detentions, expulsions and removal of nationality.

 "For many, this was just teenage love, for some, the love of their lives," said Solberg Wednesday, adding that their treatment breached the principle that no citizen should be punished outside the court system.

 Read more: No compensation for 'stolen children'

 The prime minister delivered the government apology at an event to mark the 70th anniversary of the UN's universal declaration of human rights.

 German girls were treated shamefully, says Solberg

 Neutral Norway was occupied from April 1940 by more than 300,000 German soldiers.

 SS chief Heinrich Himmler encouraged German troops to partner and breed with local women. It was part of Nazi Germany's white supremacist agenda that also led to the establishment of a "Lebensborn" reproduction center in Norway in 1941.

 In 2000, Norway formally apologized to the estimated 10,000 to 12,000 children who also suffered reprisals because they were the offspring of Norwegian mothers and German soldiers.

 Many were placed in host families or special institutions and later battled for compensation.

 Late but important

 Reidar Gabler, the son of a Norwegian woman who was expelled in 1945 along with her German husband, told the Aftenposten newspaper that apology delivered by Solberg had come late but said it was" important for history."

 "The people directly affected are no longer with us… but this also touches their families and the children," Gabler said.

 Historian Guri Hjeltnes presented a study on Norway's post-war treatment of various groups.

 None of the 28 Norwegian men married to German women during the war were subsequently expelled or deprived of their nationality, she said.

 "We cannot say women who had personal relations with German soldiers were helping the German war effort," said Hjeltnes. "Their only crime was breaking the unwritten rules."

 ipj/msh (AFP, AP) ||||| Image copyright AFP Image caption Many of the women were expelled from the country with their children

 Norway's Prime Minister Erna Solberg has issued an official government apology to Norwegian women who were mistreated over World War Two-era relationships with German soldiers.

 Norway, a neutral country, was invaded by Nazi forces in April 1940.

 Up to 50,000 Norwegian women are thought to have had intimate relationships with German soldiers.

 The Germans were also encouraged to have children with them by SS leader Heinrich Himmler.

 Himmler, one of the most powerful men under Adolf Hitler, favoured Norwegian women, hoping they could help promote the Nazi concept of an Aryan master race.

 Many of the Norwegian-German children were born in the German-administered Lebensborn (Fountain of Life) maternity facilities set up from 1941 by the Nazis in the country.

 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption A swastika in the Norwegian capital Oslo following the Nazi takeover

 The women who had relationships with the soldiers became known by the nickname the "German Girls", and were targeted for reprisals in Norway when the war ended - standing accused of betraying the country.

 Punishments included being deprived of civil rights, detained or expelled from the country to Germany along with their children.

 'Undignified treatment'

 "Young Norwegian girls and women who had relations with German soldiers or were suspected of having them, were victims of undignified treatment," Ms Solberg said at an event to mark the 70th anniversary of the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights on Wednesday.

 "Our conclusion is that Norwegian authorities violated the rule fundamental principle that no citizen can be punished without trial or sentenced without law."

 "For many, this was just a teenage love, for some, the love of their lives with an enemy soldier or an innocent flirt that left its mark for the rest of their lives.

 "Today, in the name of the government, I want to offer my apologies."

 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Lebensborn facilities were set up in Germany and Nazi-conquered countries

 The apology was based on a report about Norway's post-war actions published by the country's Centre for Holocaust and Minorities Studies.

 More than seven decades on from the war, not many of the women directly affected are likely to still be alive to hear it.

 "A good apology can have a lot of power. An apology can mean that groups receive answers to their treatment," Guri Hjeltnes the head of the centre said.

 Reidar Gabler attended the event and told Norwegian media that the apology meant a lot to his family.

 His mother, Else Huth from Sarpsborg was just 22 in 1944 when she fell in love with a 25-year-old German soldier.

 "The people directly affected are no longer with us... but this also touches their families and the children," said Mr Gabler.

 "We just had to come. This is amazing," he said, after meeting Ms Solberg.

 Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Erna Solberg admitted Norwegian authorities had violated fundamental rights with their actions

 About 10-12,000 children are thought to have been born as a result of relationships between Norwegian women and German soldiers.

 Some of the children were also targeted for acts of revenge, given up to foster families or placed in institutions.

 In 2007 a group of children took Norway to the European Court of Human Rights, but their case was ruled inadmissible because of the amount of time that had passed since the offences occurred. |||||

– When Germany invaded Norway in 1940, Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler endorsed the concept of German soldiers hooking up with Norwegian women, as that would help bring the Nazis closer to the Aryan master race they wished for. Per the BBC, about 50,000 Norwegian women ended up in relationships with the Germans, and they became known as the "German Girls"—a label that led to harsh punishments after WWII ended when their country turned on them for what was viewed as a betrayal. Now, Norway's prime minister is officially offering an apology to those women, calling them "victims of undignified treatment" and noting that Norwegian authorities back then acted outside of usual conventions in punishing these women and the children they bore. "For many, this was just a teenage love," Norwegian PM Erna Solberg said Wednesday at a UN human rights event. "For some, the love of their lives with an enemy soldier or an innocent flirt ... left its mark for the rest of their lives. Today, in the name of the government, I want to offer my apologies." Punishments included getting fired from their jobs, detentions, being stripped of their nationality, and even expulsions to Germany. Meanwhile, many of the more than 10,000 children who came out of these relationships were sent to foster homes or "special institutions," Deutsche Welle notes. A historian says that Norwegian men who married German women during the same period weren't similarly punished. "[The women's] only crime was breaking the unwritten rules," he says. (As one woman headed to the Auschwitz gas chamber, she wrote this.)


Article:

The $43,000 phone booth that then-EPA administrator Scott Pruitt installed in his office may not have been worth all the headaches it caused him.

 He placed only one phone call to the White House, newly released records from the agency show. It lasted five minutes.

 The head of the Environmental Protection Agency resigned last month after coming under fire for how he spent tax dollars and treated his staff. He made the five-minute call on Jan. 29, according to Verizon phone logs released in response to litigation filed by the Sierra Club, an environmental advocacy group.

 [Scott Pruitt’s $25,000 soundproof phone booth? It actually cost more like $43,000.]

 The new documents do not show how many incoming calls Pruitt received in the soundproof booth, which he installed last year. In April, Pruitt testified before the House Energy and Commerce Committee that he used the booth sparingly.

 “It’s for confidential communications, and it’s rare,” he told Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.).

 Then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt at the White House in June. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

 Previously Pruitt had likened the booth to a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF), which government officials use to conduct secure conversations, arguing that he needed it to discuss matters with the White House. The EPA has a SCIF at its headquarters on a different floor from the administrator’s office.

 “Cabinet-level officials need to have access to secure communications,” the then-administrator testified in December. “It’s necessary for me to be able to do my job.”

 EPA officials said Monday that they could not specify how many incoming calls Pruitt received from the White House in the soundproof booth.

 “EPA has learned from Verizon that in order to request complete phone logs of all incoming and outgoing calls to or from these lines, EPA would need to supply Verizon with a subpoena for the records,” said EPA spokesman James Hewitt, who declined to say what the call was about.

 The agency identified two phone lines associated with the booth, according to correspondence between EPA attorneys and Sierra Club lawyers. The phone numbers released through billing records for November involve calls technicians made to test the lines, EPA lawyers said.

 The EPA voluntarily provided billing records for the booth through June 20, just two weeks before Pruitt resigned his post, that show no other outgoing calls from the booth. The Sierra Club’s original public-records request covered the period ending Dec. 6.

 The Government Accountability Office concluded that Pruitt violated federal spending laws when he built the phone booth, because he spent more than $5,000 without providing advance notice to Congress.

 While the original contract for the phone booth was slated to cost roughly $25,000, the agency ended up paying contractors an additional $18,000 to convert a closet space that could house it. That work included removing closed-circuit television equipment, pouring 55 square feet of concrete, installing a drop ceiling and patching and painting the room.

 Pruitt told members of the Energy Committee in April that he did not know the project’s price tag had escalated to $43,000. “I was not aware of the approval of the $43,000, and if I had known about it . . . I would not have approved it,” he said.

 A few hours later, Pruitt remarked to members of a House Appropriations subcommittee that in retrospect, the decision to install the booth “should not have been made.”

 Melinda Pierce, legislative director for the Sierra Club, said in a statement that the incident underscored the kind of managers President Trump has picked to run the federal government.

 “With each new revelation it becomes clearer and clearer that Donald Trump enabled the most corrupt cabinet member ever to hang on far past his expiration date,” Pierce said, adding that Pruitt’s successor continues to advance policies that benefit corporate interests. “We need leadership at the EPA that can be trusted to protect our health, not polluter profits.”

 Shortly after taking the helm of the EPA, acting administrator Andrew Wheeler indicated in an interview with E&E News that he does not intend to dismantle the phone booth. He added that he would maintain a policy Pruitt instituted in the spring that requires that at least two senior EPA officials beyond the administrator sign off on any expense over $5,000.

 “It’s there,” Wheeler said of the booth. “It would be expensive to tear it apart. I don’t see any sense in tearing it apart. And in this day and age, I don’t know what the assessment was for the need of it.”

 Read more

 Pruitt’s $25,000 phone booth cost more like $43,000, records show

 Pruitt blames aides and staff for spending missteps at EPA

 Scott Pruitt resigns amid ethics, management scandals ||||| THE LIGHTBULB

 Acting Environmental Protection Agency chief Andrew Wheeler listens as President Trump leads a cabinet meeting in the White House this month. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

 Investigators in Congress and reporters played a role in unearthing information about Scott Pruitt’s suspect spending decisions. But much of the credit for exposing the activities of the former Environmental Protection Agency chief goes to the Sierra Club.

 Now the group is making its move against his successor, acting administrator Andrew Wheeler.

 The nation’s oldest environmental advocacy group overwhelmed the agency with requests for emails and other documents sent by Pruitt and his closest aides. When the EPA failed to cough up the correspondence requested under the Freedom of Information Act, the Sierra Club sued. By April, the lawsuit yielded a trove of documents used by reporters, including those at The Washington Post, to share with the public details of his behavior in office that sparked a firestorm of criticism.

 This week the Sierra Club filed an amendment to a lawsuit against the EPA in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, asking the agency to release yet more communications from EPA staff — including those, for the first time, from Wheeler.

 “With these FOIAs, we're keeping an eye on their external communication, which will allow us to see how they're getting information, how they're making decisions,” Sierra Club senior attorney Elena Saxonhouse said. “That was the same approach that we took with the Pruitt FOIA, and it's really the same strategy here.”

 The organization is not letting up after its past FOIA requests yielded documents that helped whittle down President Trump’s support for Pruitt -- even though the former EPA chief was lauded by conservatives for reducing regulatory burdens for businesses.

 For example, one of the more unusual emails unearthed by the Sierra Club was a request from Pruitt's scheduler to Dan Cathy, the chief executive of Chick-fil-A. The aide asked Cathy whether he would meet with Pruitt to discuss “a potential business opportunity.” The fast-food company eventually confirmed to The Post that Pruitt told a Chick-fil-A representative over the phone that he wanted his wife to become a franchisee.

 Another exchange revealed the agency spent $1,560 on a dozen customized fountain pens emblazoned the Pruitt's signature.

 Of course, the Sierra Club did not originally file its public-records requests on Pruitt with fancy pens or fried chicken in mind. “He had many ties to polluting industries,” said Saxonhouse, who was recently profiled in Slate for overseeing the Sierra Club's FOIA efforts.

 “There is still a lot of people at EPA there to carry out the agenda of granting industry wish lists,” she added.

 In total, the Sierra Club is seeking the records of 25 more staffers with its suit in San Francisco. The agency did not reply to a request for comment from The Post.

 Environmentalists see a similar pro-industry streak in Wheeler. After working for years for Sen. James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), one of the most ardent opponents of climate science in the Senate, Wheeler went on to lobby for several industries, including coal and nuclear companies, before joining the Trump campaign as an energy adviser.

 Programming note: I am off next week, but the Energy 202 is not. Several of my colleagues will be filling in for me during my vacation.

 POWER PLAYS

 Environmental Protection Agency Acting Administrator Andrew Wheeler. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

 — More on Wheeler: The acting administrator pledged upon taking office that he would avoid potential conflicts of interest. But E&E News reports that since taking over as acting chief of the agency, Wheeler has taken three meetings with former clients that “may have violated the Trump administration’s ethics pledge,” and attended events that included the head of a company that Wheeler agreed not to meet with through 2020. The meetings, which E&E News reports are mentioned on Wheeler’s public schedule, “stand in stark contrast to the acting EPA chief's claims that he is taking pains to avoid helping his former clients advance their interests,” per the report. “It's possible that the meetings with former clients weren't about a 'particular matter' that Wheeler previously worked on for them. But that's difficult to determine from the public calendars, and EPA didn't provide additional information about the focus of the events.”

 Vehicles sit in rush hour traffic at the interchange between the Interstate 405 and 10 freeways in Los Angeles, California. (Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg)

 — EPA rolls forward with some Pruitt deregulation... The Trump administration is set to halt Obama-era fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks, Wheeler told USA Today, adding that the previous administration “jumped the gun” on increasing fuel-economy standards. The Obama-era agreement was to boost fuel-economy levels to an average of 34.5 mpg by 2016 and increase it yearly up to 54.5 mpg by the end of 2025, per the report.

 ...and reverses it elsewhere: In a 180, the EPA said Thursday it would enforce stricter pollution limits on “glider trucks,” which The Post’s Juliet Eilperin and Brady Dennis report emit dozens of times more soot and contaminants than diesel engine trucks. The move reverses ex-administrator Pruitt’s final act as the head of the agency. In a three-page memo, Wheeler said he would withdraw Pruitt’s “no action assurance” to manufacturers of glider trucks that said they would not have to limit their production to 300 trucks through the end of 2019. “In his memo Wheeler noted that the agency suspends enforcement only in rare circumstances and that after consulting with EPA lawyers and policy experts, 'I have concluded that the application of the current regulations to the glider industry does not represent the kind of extremely unusual circumstances that support the EPA’s use of enforcement discretion,’” per Eilperin and Dennis.

 Former Republican Senate candidate and former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship. (Craig Hudson/Charleston Gazette-Mail via AP)

 — Bye-bye (again), Blankenship: West Virginia blocked convicted former coal baron Don Blankenship from running for Senate as a third-party candidate. Blankenship, who finished third in the May Republican primary, had hoped to get on the ballot as the Constitution Party's nominee. But Secretary of State Mac Warner said Blankenship’s bid would violate the state's “sore loser law,” Politico reports.

 But don’t count Blankenship out yet. He previously vowed to take legal action were the secretary of state to deny his bid and said in a statement Thursday he was "confident" the decision would be overturned.

 Secretary of Energy Rick Perry stands with the main cyrogenic heat exchange as he speaks with reporters at Dominion Energy's Cove Point LNG liquefaction Project facility in Lusby, Md. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

 — Perry tweet violated federal law: The Government Accountability Office has determined that a July 2017 tweet from the Energy Department sharing a column by Secretary Rick Perry that criticized Obamacare violated federal appropriations law. The tweet was in violation “because Energy did not show that its appropriation was available for the purpose of informing the public about health care,” the GAO concludes in its report.

 The offending tweet: The @EnergyPressSec account said “Time to discard the burdens and costs of Obamacare: @SecretaryPerry” along with a link to a column written by Perry.

 View from my office window as the White House makes a bad weather call - meaning the president will take a car to Andrews, rather than depart via his helicopter from the South Lawn where reporters can gather to shout questions at him. pic.twitter.com/csRYnCmbGI — Hallie Jackson (@HallieJackson) July 26, 2018

 — Clear with a chance of hot air: The White House on Thursday decided to have the president take the motorcade on his way to Air Force Once rather than take Marine One, citing “bad weather” per a pool report filed shortly before 9 a.m. on Wednesday. But some pointed out that it may have been a tactic to avoid reporters who gather on the South Lawn, where Trump would have had to board the helicopter. The National Weather Service said the bit of ground fog at Joint Base Andrews at 6:30 a.m. had cleared up by 7 a.m., according to BuzzFeed News.

 THERMOMETER

 — Man it’s a hot one: More specifically, The Post’s Joel Achenbach and Angela Fritz write, it’s been a “hot, strange and dangerous summer across the planet.” Scorching temperatures and wildfires have impacted regions all over the world, with record temperatures in Japan, Algeria, Oman and Canada, and deadly wildfires in Greece. In the United States, 35 different weather stations have reported new warm overnight temperature records.

 “The brutal weather has been supercharged by human-induced climate change, scientists say,” Achenbach and Fritz write. “Climate models for three decades have predicted exactly what the world is seeing this summer. And they predict that it will get hotter — and that what is a record today could someday be the norm.”

 Temperature difference from normal (20th-century average) in June 1976 and June 2018. (NOAA)

 ...and if there were any doubt that summers are getting hotter: Two separate maps showing data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration comparing June 1976 and June 2018 tell you what you need to know about the warming earth, The Post’s Jason Samenow reports. “Look at how much more red there is in 2018 vs. 1976,” he writes. “The headlines you see touting a global heat wave are not hyperbole. While there are cool pockets, most of the Northern Hemisphere, where it is currently summer, is hotter to much hotter than normal" compared with the 20th century baseline.

 — Trump vs. vaquita: The United States Court of International Trade ruled Thursday that the federal government must ban seafood imports from Mexico that are caught in gillnets, fishing nets dropped in the water to entangle fish and shrimp, a method that the court ruling notes is putting the critically endangered vaquita porpoise at risk. The court denied a motion from the Trump administration to dismiss the case brought by environmental groups. The ruling notes that scientists estimate there are only about 15 vaquita left is existence, and the population could be extinct by 2021 “if current levels of gillnet fishing in vaquita’s habitat continue.”

 Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. (Jacqueline Nell/Disneyland Resort via Getty Images)

 — The last straw: Walt Disney is joining the growing number of companies that are pledging to eliminate single-use plastic straws and stirrers. The theme-park giant said Thursday it will remove those products from all parks by mid-2019, a move it said will eliminate the more than 175 million straws and 13 million stirrers it uses annually, according to USA Today.

 A photo from 2017 of one of 15 critically endangered Kemp's ridley sea turtles. (Larry Benvenuti/Florida Keys News Bureau via AP)

 — Some less happy news from Florida: Already this year, hundreds of sea turtles have washed up on beaches in South Florida and scientists are pointing fingers at a red tide algae bloom. Since the bloom started in October, there have been 287 sea turtle deaths in waters along the southwest Florida coast as documented by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the Associated Press reports. Heather Barron, who leads the Center for the Rehabilitation of Wildlife veterinarian hospital warned about how the high number of deaths may affect the protected species long term in an interview with the News-Press in Fort Myers. "This is so devastating to the population of sea turtles that was really starting to come back, and I fear this event will have an impact for years to come," she said.

 DAYBOOK

 Coming Up

 EPA acting administrator Andrew Wheeler is scheduled to testify before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on August 1.

 The Women’s Council on Energy and the Environment holds a discussion on the role of science in public policy on August 2.

 EXTRA MILEAGE

 Salt Lake Tribune cartoonist Pat Bagley calls B.S. on Zinke's national monument review, which has already shrunk the size of two monuments in the state: |||||
What is a summary?

– Scott Pruitt is no longer head of the Environmental Protection Agency, but the saga of his $43,000 phone booth isn't quite over. The Washington Post is out with one last financial tidbit courtesy of the Sierra Club, which sued the EPA to access records related to Pruitt. It learned, per Verizon phone logs, that Pruitt made a single outgoing call from the soundproof phone booth. The five-minute call was placed to the White House on Jan. 29. The EPA on Monday said it learned it couldn't provide the incoming call logs without subpoenaing Verizon, so any details on calls Pruitt may have received from the White House in the booth aren't available.


News article:

WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the Senate Intelligence Committee says the CIA improperly searched a stand-alone computer network established for Congress as part of its investigation into allegations of CIA abuse in a Bush-era detention and interrogation program.

 Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California defended her committee's work and challenged the CIA on Tuesday as she sought to set the record straight amid various reports of disputes between Congress and the agency.

 The California Democrat said the CIA searched the network this past January.

 At issue is whether the CIA violated an agreement made with the committee about monitoring the panel's use of CIA computers. The CIA provided the computers to congressional staffers in a secure room at its headquarters so that the committee could review millions of pages of top secret documents. ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.

 CIA Director John Brennan told NBC News' Andrea Mitchell that the agency did not snoop on Senate Intelligence Committee computers to thwart an investigation into illegal detention and interrogations under President George W. Bush.

 "We weren't trying to block anything," Brennan said. "The matter is being dealt with in an appropriate way, being looked at by the right authorities, and the facts will come out," he added.

 "But let me assure you the CIA was in no way spying on [the committee] or the Senate."

 The exclusive Tuesday interview was Brennan's first since the head of the Senate Intelligence Committee charged that the CIA had searched the panel's computers, possibly violating the law.

 "The CIA just went and searched the committee's computers," California Democrat Sen. Dianne Feinstein said in a lengthy speech on the Senate floor, calling the the matter a "defining moment" for the oversight of the Intelligence Committee.

 "I have grave concerns that the CIA's search may well have violated the separation of powers principles embodied by the United States Constitution, including the speech and debate clause," she said.

 "It may have undermined the Constitutional framework essential to effective congressional oversight of intelligence activity or any other government function."

 Feinstein added that the search may also have violated the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and an executive order that prohibits the CIA from conducting domestic searches or surveillance.

 She said she has asked for an apology and an acknowledgment that the CIA's actions were wrong but that "I have received neither."

 The Intelligence Committee is investigating CIA detention and interrogation practices that date back to when Brennan was directing that program.

 WATCH: Sen. Dianne Feinstein accuses CIA of spying on Intelligence Commitee

 Asked about Feinstein's allegations, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney would not comment on whether the CIA broke any laws but said that "the president has great confidence in John Brennan, and confidence in our inteligence community and in our professionals at the CIA."

 Brennan said that he had not seen Feinstein's speech but was aware of "all sorts of claims out there" that the CIA was meddling in the Senate investigation.

 "That is not the case at all," he said.

 "We greatly respect the separation of powers between the executive branch and the legislative branch," he added.

 Feinstein said the CIA's inspector general turned the matter over to the Justice Department, but Sen. John McCain said an independent probe may be necessary.

 After the interview, in a discussion with the Council on Foreign Relations, Brennan said that he supported any effort to ferret out wrongdoing with respect to commitee computers.

 "I will be the first one to say we need to get to the bottom of it," he said. "And if I did something wrong, I will go to the president and I will explain to him exactly what I did and what the findings were. And he is the one who can ask me to stay or to go." ||||| The head of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Tuesday sharply accused the CIA of violating federal law and undermining the constitutional principle of congressional oversight as she detailed publicly for the first time how the agency secretly removed documents from computers used by her panel to investigate a controversial interrogation program.

 Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said that the situation amounted to an attempted intimidation of congressional investigators, adding: "I am not taking it lightly."

 She confirmed that an internal agency investigation of the action has been referred to the Justice Department for possible criminal prosecution. And she accused the CIA of violating the Fourth Amendment, various federal laws and a presidential executive order that bars the agency from conducting domestic searches and surveillance.

 She has sought an apology and recognition that the CIA search of the committee's computers was inappropriate, but said: "I have received neither."

 Her comments blow wide open a dispute that has simmered behind the scenes in recent weeks after press reports said that the CIA had searched computers intended to be used solely by the panel to in an effort to determine how committee staff members gained access to a draft version of an internal agency review of its controversial interrogation program. The computers were provided by the CIA and housed at a separate facility in Virginia operated by an agency contractors.

 Feinstein confirmed that committee investigators had obtained documents detailing the interrogation policy, but said she didn't know whether they were provided intentionally, unintentionally or by agency whistleblowers.

 "The staff had asked the CIA about documents made available for our investigation. At times, the CIA has simply been unaware that these specific documents were provided to the committee," she said. "And while this is alarming, it is important to know that more than 6.2 million pages of documents have been provided. This is simply a massive amount of records."

 Reading from a prepared text throughout her remarks, Feinstein said she was speaking out "reluctantly" but that she wanted to speak in order to clarify the situation. "The increasing amount of inaccurate information circulating now cannot be allowed to stand unanswered," she said.

 After she spoke, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) said, "In 40 years here, it was one of the best speeches I'd ever heard and one of the most important."

 And Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) credited Feinstein for speaking out and defending the separation of powers. "There is no one who has more courage and conviction than Dianne Feinstein," he said. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– CIA Director John Brennan is hitting back after Sen. Dianne Feinstein confirmed reports that the CIA illegally searched Senate Intelligence Committee computers. "We weren't trying to block anything," Brennan tells NBC. "The CIA was in no way spying on [the committee] or the Senate." Feinstein had earlier equated the surveillance with intimidation, notes the Washington Post, saying, "I am not taking it lightly." The CIA has broken federal laws, an executive order against domestic spying, and the Fourth Amendment, she says. The agency's own probe of the claims has been referred to the Justice Department, and criminal prosecution could be on the table, Feinstein notes. The searching occurred in January, the senator says, per the AP. Her claims come after reports that the CIA spied on computers it had provided to the committee for use in reviewing a trove of millions of top secret documents. The committee was looking into information on interrogation techniques. Further reports suggested that Senate staffers took classified documents from the computers. Feinstein, for her part, says she doesn't know how certain interrogation documents ended up in committee hands—whether they were offered by the CIA, mistakenly provided, or handed over by whistleblowers. Sen. Patrick Leahy called Feinstein's speech "one of the best" he'd "ever heard" on the Hill, "and one of the most important."


Summarize this article:

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 "New User Registration" to register. If you were shopping prior to logging in, you may access your items in the shopping cart upon login. Thank you! ||||| We are a team of students, staff, professors, and alumni from Point Loma Nazarene University (PLNU) on a mission to bring a college education to survivors of human trafficking.

 Our campaign, to seed The Beauty for Ashes Fund at PLNU with $40,000, is about hope. Sex and labor trafficking has reached epidemic proportions in the United States and around the world. PLNU's Center for Justice and Reconciliation (CJR) is engaged in the issue of human trafficking locally, nationally and internationally providing leadership in research and community organizing. As the CJR works with direct service providers, law enforcement and other movement leaders - and when we talk to survivors, we keep hearing the same message - survivors dream of a college education! Our campaign, to seed The Beauty for Ashes Fund at PLNU with $40,000, is about hope. Sex and labor trafficking has reached epidemic proportions in the United States and around the world. PLNU's Center for Justice and Reconciliation (CJR) is engaged in the issue of human trafficking locally, nationally and internationally providing leadership in research and community organizing. As the CJR works with direct service providers, law enforcement and other movement leaders - and when we talk to survivors, we keep hearing the same message - survivors dream of a college education! Securing the resources to fund a college education can seem impossible to a survivor. We don't think it should be. We believe one of the most critical components to the long-term rehabilitation of a survivor is a university education. And you can play a part. The money raised from this campaign will go to support the education of survivors of human trafficking. We look at it this way - an education in the loving, academically challenging and carefully mentored environment of a Christian university can take someone from Victim to Survivor to Thriver.

 Our Goal and Your Part

 Here's the plan: The funds raised during our campaign will predominantly go toward the tuition, room and board of survivors who are accepted as students at PLNU. A small portion will go for student vocational discernment and an even smaller proportion for the administrative support of these students.

 It's our plan to fund more than one student. With other financial aid, $40,000 can go along way. But remember that this is only seed money!

 We will fund someone as early as September 2015 and already have survivors in the process of applying

 Your donation is tax deductible!

 Perks or No Perks?

 Crowdfund campaigns often focus on "perks". We have a different approach. We believe that you want the money to go to survivors, too, so we're banking on the fact that it's not the perks that will get you to participate - it's making the dream a reality that matters. The perks we have are donated by campaign supporters.

 If we don't reach our goal of $40,000 PLNU will still receive all of the funds raised and all of the money raised will still go to the Beauty for Ashes Fund at PLNU.

 If we don't reach our goal of $40,000 PLNU will still receive all of the funds raised and all of the money raised will still go to the Beauty for Ashes Fund at PLNU.

 Because it Matters

 Did you know? Human trafficking is the act of recruiting, harboring, transporting, providing or obtaining a person for compelled labor or commercial sex acts through the use of force, fraud or coercion.

 Many don't know that it happens in our own neighborhoods, but it does. Possibly as close to you as the nearest high school or hotel.

 It's not just an immigrant issue, but involves scores of our own teens. It’s organized, seductive and at times extremely violent, with traffickers representing every social and racial group, working independently and in nationwide rings.

 Using force, drugs, emotional tactics and financial methods to control their victims, the perpetrators abuse, coerce and control adults, youth and children as young as 12-14 years old. Facing the epidemic proportion of the problem of sex and labor trafficking is daunting. But from the highest levels of government to “on the street” direct service providers there is a movement sweeping our nation to end modern day slavery in America. More victims are being rescued. More perpetrators are being prosecuted. More organizations are stepping up to provide rescue, rehabilitation and a future for survivors.

 Why it Matters to Us

 Point Loma Nazarene University, in San Diego, California, is a nationally prominent Christian university. The university exists to provide higher education in a vital Christian community where minds are engaged and challenged, character is modeled and formed, and service becomes an expression of faith. It is precisely because of this mission that human trafficking matters to us. PLNU is an institution of the Church of the Nazarene. If you've looked into the roots of the Church of the Nazarene you'll know that the church was founded on the principles of reaching the marginalized. It's who we are at our core - always have been and always will be.

 With this Fund we are standing behind our mission statement, not just for the privileged youth of our culture, but also for the most vulnerable. We are a university for those who were once captives, as well as for those who want to set the captives free.

 Other Ways You Can Help We understand that some people just can't contribute, but that doesn't mean you can't help: Help us get the word out about our campaign. Tell your friends. Share it on social media. Every voice matters.

 Like our Facebook page and share, comment and like our posts

 Use the Share tools on Indigogo! Talk about it on your blog. Tweet it. Facebook it. Spread the word.

 Want to get involved in our work at PLNU or find out how you can plug in to the movement in your community? Contact us at BeautyforAshes@pointloma.edu.

 Our Campaign in the Press

 KPBS San Diego TV interview with Dr. Jamie Gates and Charisma De Los Reyes

 Fox San Diego TV: Interview with Dr. Jamie Gates

 Fox News: Christian College to offer free education

 The Examiner: PLNU offers first of its kind scholarship

 USA TODAY College edition: Human Trafficking Survivors offered scholarship

 Thank you for being a part of this story. Because it matters.

 More Scoop on the Perks - and some NEW Perks

 New Perk Added!

 A PLNU alum has designed and donated a beautiful Rising Lotus Soap for the Beauty for Ashes Fund.

 Designed for and donated to the Beauty for Ashes Fund by The Moontree. The Moontree specializes in handmaking quality items from fair trade and organic materials.The Rising Lotus soap bar was created by a PLNU alum. The symbol of the lotus represents resilience and beauty, a balance of grace and strength - rising above the surface to spread beauty.All proceeds from sales of the Rising Lotus soap will be donated to the Beauty for Ashes Fund by The Moontree. www.ShopTheMoontree.com We're excited to provide a variety of perks for this campaign, all of which have been donated by campaign supporters.

 Newest perk - featuring Micah who brought it at our Just Saying! event and Fund launch last week:

 One of a kind Perk - artist Ellen Maley generously donated her work to our Fund. Ellen painted this work during our Just Saying! event last week:

 You can claim your perk or not. If you claim the perk, the value of the perk is deducted from your donation for tax deduction purposes. Your receipt will indicate the full amount of your donation. It is your responsibility to claim the fair market value of the perk.

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– A comatose woman who roused to deliver her baby and a Holocaust survivor who gets a special night are among the week's most uplifting stories: Woman Emerges From Coma, Delivers Baby: Jenny Quiles was 33 weeks pregnant when she was hit by a truck as she crossed the street. Two weeks later, the Florida woman emerged from a coma, and on Wednesday, she began having contractions. Four hours later, she gave birth to a "miracle" baby girl. Her daughter is fine, while Quiles is in critical condition but "improving every day," says her doctor. Holocaust Survivor to Play Lincoln Center: A musician makes her solo debut in a Lincoln Center concert next week, but it's a safe bet you've never heard of her. Emily Kessler, a 97-year-old Holocaust survivor who now lives in New York City, will strum her mandolin and sing folk songs to help raise money for other survivors. She was picked for her amazing story of bravery as a teen evading the Nazis. Widower's Dinner Date: Photo of Late Wife: Determined not to forget his true love after her death five years ago, an elderly man has been bringing along a photo of her during his outings to a California burger joint. Patrons have noticed, and photos of the loving husband have gone viral. Off-Duty Cop Finds $120K, Returns It to Owner: It could have been easy money. But when an off-duty sergeant with the California Highway Patrol found two bags on the road stuffed with $120,000 in cash, she reported the find instead of helping herself. Turns out, it was apparently someone's life savings. University's Plan: Help Sex Slavery Survivors: A Christian university in California has launched what it says is a first-of-its-kind scholarship to help survivors of sex trafficking start new lives. Point Loma Nazarene University has started a crowdfunding campaign and a longer-term donation page. Click for more uplifting stories.


News article:

Woman with baby kangaroo asked to leave Beaver Dam McDonald's

 By Todd Hicks. CREATED Feb 3, 2015 - UPDATED: Feb 3, 2015

 Click above to listen to the call made to the Dodge County Sheriff's Office

 BEAVER DAM -- Customers weren't loving what they discovered when they went to a McDonald's to grab a burger - it was an animal that's usually only seen down under.

 After a call was made to the Dodge County Sheriff's Office, an officer responded to the restaurant and found the joey with its owner.

 "[She] had indeed brought a small kangaroo, about a one-foot in size kangaroo, inside of a child's car seat," says Detective Ryan Klavekoske.

 Diane Moyer and her husband Larry own the animal, named Jimmy. You may remember them from a few years ago. The couple drove to Florida with a different kangaroo and a goat. They were stranded after their RV caught fire.

 "They look at us like 'what the hell kind of weird vehicle is that that went by?', or weird people that just went by in that vehicle. I understand," explains pet owner Larry Moyer. "I guess I would kind of look at it weird in my own way, but we never had anybody say anything negative, you know."

 Detective Klavekoske says the two are well known around the city.

 "We've dealt with them in the City of Beaver Dam before under similar circumstances," he says.

 Diane, who's battling cancer, says Jimmy is a therapeutic animal. But the city and its attorney disagrees. The Moyers left the restaurant after an officer told them to leave. They did not receive a ticket. ||||| Owning a kangaroo is a commitment, but owning five of them along with sheep, goats, emu, seven white tail deer, horses, ducks, geese, chickens, a dog and peacocks is a labor of love.

 It’s a commitment that Diana Moyer, who lives near Columbus on a 70-acre farm, loves every second of, especially with her kangaroos. She has owned seven kangaroos over eight years.

 “They are one of the most loving, trustworthy animals that I have ever had,” she said.

 Moyer recently was asked to leave a Beaver Dam McDonald’s after a customer complained that the baby Kangaroo — which is eight-months-old and named Jimmy — was not appropriate or safe to have in the restaurant.

 She said she has been visiting the McDonald’s at 840 Park Ave. for three months with Jimmy and no one has ever complained. In fact, she said she takes Jimmy everywhere, including her church — Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Beaver Dam — and to the east side of Madison. Recently she and Jimmy drove to Eastgate Cinema in Madison to watch Taken 3.

 “I wish the person in McDonald’s would have just come and talked to me instead,” she said.

 According to Moyer, Jimmy is quite popular. She said when she takes him out in public people ask to pet Jimmy and they have a lot of questions.

 She describes Jimmy as a support or therapy animal. According to her, a support animal is similar to a service animal, but a support animal does not have a specific task. She didn’t want to go into detail, but she said she is disabled and visits a doctor in Madison who approved of the use of a support/therapy animal. She declined to share the doctor’s name.

 Jimmy is the youngest of her current five kangaroos. There are also Perry, 2, Anna, 3, Ruby, 5, and Charles, 7. Ruby and Charles are the mother and father of Perry and Anna.

 Moyer transported the kangaroos to Wisconsin after purchasing them from a livestock market called Lolli Bros. in Missouri. She purchased her kangaroos as babies and said a female kangaroo costs $1,000 and a male kangaroo costs $2,000. The Lolli Bros. website lists “alternative livestock” such as elk, llamas, camels, zebra, bison and many other animals.

 According to Moyer, kangaroos can live for 20 years in captivity and they usually stop growing when they are 5 years old.

 Moyer has been training and caring for all of her kangaroos as well as the rest of the animals for the 23 years she has lived on the farm. She lives with her mother and her husband, Larry. She said Larry helps a lot too and loves doing it.

 She said Terry Crandall, who went by the name “Spiderman” helped feed and care for the animals for more than seven years until he passed away in October.

 Moyer’s farm is licensed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to house all of her animals. She paid $200 for the license and then her farm was inspected to make sure it was suitable for kangaroos, as well as the other animals.

 “They mostly [inspect] the health,” she said. “The animals need to be taken care of right.”

 Because of the white tail deer she owns, she works with the Department of Natural Resources as well to keep her farm up-to-par.

 She added that USDA inspectors can arrive without notice and perform an inspection, but she hasn’t seen them in awhile.

 “I haven’t seen them in five years,” she said. “They could show up tomorrow. It’s just one of those things.”

 She’s confident she would pass an inspection if they were to arrive today.

 The kangaroos need to have a six-foot high fences that are three feet apart. Currently the kangaroos live in a barn to stay warm.

 Keeping the kangaroos fed is a costly endeavor. Moyer said the milk is imported from Australia and sent to Colorado. It costs her $200 a month for milk and the food is made in Missouri. She usually orders three bags and treats, which costs about $150 a month.

 “They love sweet potatoes, too,” she said.

 The price per month varies, as the kangaroos will go on “eating sprees” that rack up costs.

 Moyer said she rarely receives negative responses about her kangaroos or other animals.

 But, why kangaroos? Well, Moyer said, “it just happened.” And after owning and caring for animals for more than 27 years she said she doesn’t want to give it up and hopes to own more in the future. |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– While she may not have been hopping mad, a Wisconsin woman certainly wasn't happy about being told to leave a McDonald's in Beaver Dam with the animal she says is her support kangaroo. According to TMJ4, police told Diane Moyer to leave the restaurant after a customer complained about Jimmy, the 8-month-old kangaroo she had sitting in an infant car seat. She explained that the kangaroo is considered a therapy animal and that she has a doctor's note of approval, but she was still asked to leave by a police officer who told her a customer had said it wasn't appropriate or safe to have the kangaroo in the restaurant. Moyer, who lives on a 70-acre farm with Jimmy, four other kangaroos, and assorted other animals, tells the Daily Citizen that the marsupials are among the "most loving, trustworthy animals that I have ever had" and that authorities have fully inspected her farm to make sure it's suitable for kangaroos. She says she has taken Jimmy to that McDonald's many times before, as well as to the movies and her church, and nobody else has complained. "I wish the person in McDonald's would have just come and talked to me instead," she says. (Last year, an Iraq vet in Ohio was ordered to get rid of his 14 "therapy ducks.")


Here is a news article: The arrest warrant for Gustavo Falcon, one of the infamous "Cocaine Cowboys," was first issued on April 10, 1991. Twenty-six years and two days later, Falcon was finally in custody.

 Falcon, now 55, was nabbed while riding his bike Wednesday in Kissimmee, Florida, according to the U.S. Marshals for the Southern District of Florida.

 Falcon — whose brother, kingpin Augusto “Willie” Falcon, is in prison after smuggling 75 tons of cocaine into South Florida with his partner Salvador Magluta — was last spotted in Miami. He had evaded U.S. law enforcement, who suspected Falcon was living in Mexico or Colombia, according to the Miami Herald.

 This Wednesday April 12, 2017 mugshot shows Gustavo Falcon after he was captured by U.S. Marshals in Kissimmee, Florida. Orange County Jail

 The case finally turned after a group of U.S. Marshals traveled from Miami to the Orlando-Kissimmee area, according to U.S. Marshals in Southern District of Florida Spokesman Barry Golden.

 There, the U.S. Marshals performed surveillance on a rental property, Golden said. It is unclear how long the U.S. Marshals monitored Falcon before confirming his identity on Wednesday.

 When the man the U.S. Marshals suspected of being Falcon and his wife went for a bike ride, the officers followed. Golden said the U.S. Marshals were able to confirm the man was Falcon, and stopped him at a traffic light before taking him in to custody.

 Officers discovered fraudulent driver’s licenses, which were dated back to 1997, according to Golden.

 The driver’s licenses, some of which were for Falcon’s wife and adult children, were listed under Miami addresses.

 Golden said although Falcon tried to maintain the name on his license, he eventually confirmed his identity before being booked without resistance in the Orange County Jail. ||||| FILE - This undated photo provided by Orange County Corrections shows Gustavo Falcon, the last of South Florida's "Cocaine Cowboys". Falcon was arrested Wednesday, April 12, 2017, some 26 years after... (Associated Press)

 FILE - This undated photo provided by Orange County Corrections shows Gustavo Falcon, the last of South Florida's "Cocaine Cowboys". Falcon was arrested Wednesday, April 12, 2017, some 26 years after he went on the lam, while on a 40-mile bike ride with his wife near the Orlando suburb where they apparently... (Associated Press)

 MIAMI (AP) — A quarter-century after he vanished on the eve of a major drug indictment, the last of Miami's fabled "cocaine cowboys" was in custody Thursday, nabbed on a suburban bike ride with his wife near Disney World.

 Prosecutors say the man living under an assumed name is Gustavo "Taby" Falcon, who was part of a homegrown drug gang that used super-fast speedboats to smuggle 75 tons of cocaine in the 1980s "Miami Vice" era.

 Falcon, 55, had been on the lam since 1991, when his older brother Augusto "Willie" Falcon and fellow drug kingpin Salvador "Sal" Magluta were indicted by a federal grand jury. U.S. Marshals spokesman Barry Golden said investigators were surprised to find him living in a typical pink stucco home in a quiet, middle-class Kissimmee suburb.

 "Nobody thought Gustavo Falcon was still in the United States," Golden said.

 At his initial court hearing Thursday in Orlando, Gustavo Falcon agreed to be sent to South Florida to face charges of conspiracy to import cocaine into the U.S. He was ordered held without bond, court records show.

 Augusto Falcon and Magluta were small-time drug dealers when they dropped out of high school in the late 1970s to begin building their cocaine empire that would amass more than $2 billion, according to trial evidence. They eventually owned world-class ocean racing boats and lived like royalty.

 Mickey Munday, who did prison time for flying cocaine loads for Colombia's Medellin Cartel, said the pair was known for their honesty in business deals — legal or otherwise — and the expertise of their boat-building operation.

 They also drove flashy cars and lived in seaside mansions, even when murders and shootings linked to their organization brought police scrutiny.

 "They were so flamboyant," Munday said. "Everybody in the world knew what they were doing. Why attract attention to yourself?"

 Gustavo Falcon was not viewed as a top leader of the organization, and vanished just ahead of a 1991 indictment that charged him along with his brother, Magluta and others. He had not been seen since until Wednesday, when U.S. marshals surveilling his rented home in Kissimmee watched him and his wife leave their garage for a bike ride.

 A neighbor, David Pera, said he frequently saw the couple riding their bikes and never saw them in a car. An older model pickup truck sitting in the driveway never moved, he said.

 "I'd say hi, they would say hi, and that was about it," Pera said Thursday.

 It took an exhaustive records search to bring the marshals there. Weeks earlier, they discovered a Florida driver's license issued to a Luis Reiss, traced back to a South Florida home that had been owned by Gustavo Falcon. Then they found 2013 car accident involving Reiss, which eventually led to the house he was sharing with his wife, Amelia. She also had fake identification, in the name of Maria Reiss.

 Marshals followed as the couple got on their bikes and headed out Wednesday for what turned into a 40-mile ride. Because they were both wearing helmets and sunglasses, it took a while for investigators to make a positive identification, Golden said. Once they felt sure enough, marshals with guns drawn stopped the couple at an intersection a few blocks from their house.

 "We had to be 100 percent certain this was the guy," Golden said.

 After his arrest, Gustavo Falcon told authorities he had been living in the Orlando area since 2009 and in the rental house since 2012. It's not clear where he was during all the other years, but officials say it's believed he was living overseas for some of that time. Authorities said they did not know if Falcon had a job. His wife was not arrested.

 His brother and Magluta were acquitted of all charges at their trial in 1996, leading to the resignation of then-Miami U.S. Attorney Kendall Coffey. Despondent at the loss, Coffey and others went to a strip club where he got into an altercation involving the biting of a stripper.

 Later, it turned out that Augusto Falcon and Magluta had bought off witnesses and at least one member of the jury, a foreman who did 17 years in prison after accepting $400,000. Magluta, now 62, was tried a second time, convicted of drug-related money laundering in 2002 and sentenced to 205 years in prison. That was reduced to 195 years in 2006.

 Augusto Falcon, now 61, then accepted a plea deal in 2003 on similar charges. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison and is scheduled for release from a Kentucky facility on June 17.

 Their mansions, boats, cars, planes, bank accounts and other ill-gotten gains are long gone, seized and sold by the government.

 Munday, the former cartel pilot, said Augusto Falcon and Magluta should have disappeared as well, after their initial not-guilty verdicts.

 "They were guys who went from nothing to having just about anything they could imagine that they wanted," he said. "As soon as they got the innocent verdict, they should have hauled out of here to Argentina."

 _____

 Associated Press contributors include John Raoux. Follow Curt Anderson at http://twitter.com/miamicurt ||||| 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. |||||
A summary of this is?

– The "last of the Cocaine Cowboys"—on the lam for almost exactly 26 years—was finally arrested Wednesday while on a 40-mile bike ride with his wife, the Miami Herald reports. During South Florida's "Miami Vice era," Gustavo Falcon allegedly helped his brother, kingpin Augusto Falcon, smuggle tons of cocaine into the US via speedboat, according to the AP. The so-called Cocaine Cowboys, apparently unworried about drawing attention to themselves, lived large in fast cars and oceanfront mansions. Gustavo Falcon disappeared in 1991, just before indictments that would land his brother in prison. A warrant was issued for his arrest on April 10 of that year, NBC News reports. Twenty-six years and two days later, Falcon and his wife were stopped at an intersection on their bikes when they were confronted by a gaggle of armed US marshals. Falcon, 55, was arrested without incident. "Nobody thought he was in the United States," says Barry Golden, a spokesperson for the US Marshals Service, which believed Falcon was living out his days in Mexico or Colombia. Instead, he was renting a forgettable home in a suburb near Disney World. Authorities were tipped off by a fake driver's license used by Falcon during a 2013 car accident. "We figured this all out a month ago," Golden says. Falcon is facing charges of conspiracy to import cocaine. His brother, the former kingpin, is scheduled to be released from prison in June.