– Those hoping to avoid the world's biggest sharks would do well to stay away from Portugal's Azore Islands. That's where whale sharks—the biggest fish in the sea—are making a new home, likely due to climate change, a study finds. The creatures have a very specific set of temperatures they can tolerate, ranging from 78.8 degrees to 86 degrees Fahrenheit, Discovery notes. The Azores are currently fulfilling the needs of the animals, which, LiveScience notes, can be up to 41.5 feet long and weigh a whopping 47,000 pounds. The temperatures around the Azores, off western Europe, appear to be linked to higher amounts of a favorite whale shark food: chlorophyll-a. Researchers in the area came to their shark population conclusions by assessing 16 years of data from tuna fishermen who've spotted the animals. Indeed, so many sharks have headed there that the region, previously in the northernmost part of the sharks' territory, is experiencing a boom in tourists' "whale shark watching." These tourists, it seems, needn't fear: Whale sharks are by no means ferocious, LiveScience points out. Great whites are a little scarier.

Expand this summary.

The largest living fish, whale sharks, may increasingly be using volcanic islands off the western coast of Europe as a new home as sea surface temperatures rise, researchers say.

 This finding could shed light on how climate change might alter the behavior of fish globally, the scientists added.

 The whale shark is a titan, known to reach up to 41.5 feet (12.65 meters) in length and 47,000 lbs. (21,500 kilograms) in weight, and some anecdotes suggest they can get even larger. Unlike predators such as great white sharks, whale sharks are gentle giants, using rows of their tiny teeth as a filter to strain out tiny creatures in the water for meals, just like the largest whales do.

 "Whale sharks are the largest living fish, yet they are also very elusive," said lead study author Pedro Afonso, a marine and fisheries ecologist at the University of the Azores.

 Whale sharks prefer warm tropical waters that are 79 to 86 degrees Fahrenheit (26.5 to 30 degrees Celsius). However, in recent years, fishermen have increasingly sighted these giant fish around the Azores Islands, nine volcanic isles in the central North Atlantic west of Portugal. These islands lie along the colder northern edge of the waters that whale sharks historically have preferred. [Image Gallery: Mysterious Lives of Whale Sharks]

 To better understand why these gargantuan fish appear more often around the Azores, the scientists analyzed data on whale shark sightings gathered over 16 years, from 1998 to 2013, by observers on tuna fishing boats. Fishermen in the Azores have long detected tuna by looking for whale sharks, locally known as 'pintados' — Portuguese for "spotted," referring to the sharks' spotted skin.

 "They know that a whale shark will almost always carry a school of tuna underneath it," Afonso told Live Science. (It remains a mystery as to why tuna accompany whale sharks, he added.)

 Afonso noted "there was no way we would get to know anything about whale shark occurrences" without observers on these tuna fishing boats. The area in which the whale sharks are seen around the Azores "is 1 million square kilometers [386,000 square miles], easy," Afonso said.

 The researchers used computer models to investigate the patterns of whale shark sightings over time and space, in relation to factors such as food, sea surface temperatures and seafloor features. The scientists found a sharp rise in whale shark sightings in the exceptionally warm year of 2008, and the giant fish became regular visitors to the region afterward.

 The scientists also found that sea surface temperatures helped predict whale shark sightings. For example, higher water temperatures around the southernmost Azores Island of Santa Maria were associated with more sightings of the fish. Observers also spotted the sharks more often in areas with underwater hills and mountains; these seafloor features coincide with large amounts of photosynthetic organisms that feed the creatures that the whale sharks eat.

 These findings are a window into what might happen as climate changes globally, the scientists said. "Large marine animals such as the whale shark can change their oceanic distributions depending on regional conditions," Afonso said.

 Future research could investigate why whale sharks remain in this area during the summer. "Is it only the food around the seamounts, or something else — maybe the presence of other whale sharks to mate with?" Afonso said.

 Afonso and his colleagues Niall McGinty and Miguel Machete detailed their findings online today (July 16) in the journal PLOS ONE.

 Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science. ||||| The reef manta ray, shown here, is among the world's largest fishes. Both it and the giant manta ray can grow several feet across. They are slow growing, however, typically giving birth to only one pup every two to three years. They are migratory and occur in small, highly fragmented populations that are sparsely distributed across the world’s tropics. Manta rays are captured in targeted fisheries and incidentally as bycatch. In addition, manta rays are used for human consumption, shark bait, and -- as for devil rays -- are increasingly sought for their gill rakers. "The international trade in shark and ray products, including fins, meat, and other body parts, is driving shark and ray fisheries around the world, and most of these are unmanaged or only minimally managed," said Dr. John Robinson, WCS's executive vice president for Conservation and Science. "Lack of controls on fisheries and international trade puts species at risk, but also jeopardizes sustainable fisheries, ecosystems, and food security." The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora will meet in Thailand in March 2013. PHOTOS:Shark Teeth Weapons Reveal Surprises

 Many rays, such as these, are also in peril. The Wildlife Conservation Society and over 35 government agencies and NGO partners at the congress additionally highlighted population loss problems associated with so-called "devil rays," which feed on planktonic crustaceans. Small schooling fishes become trapped on their specialized gill rakers. Rays are frequently captured in target fisheries and as bycatch across much of their range. One reason is that the gill rakers are dried and exported for the Asian medicinal market.

 Scalloped hammerhead sharks are endangered all around the globe. This tropical species forms large migratory schools at certain times of the year. The aggregating behavior, distinct from that of other sharks, makes the shark particularly vulnerable to fishing. "We estimate that many millions of sharks are killed annually through both legal and illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing for the trade in fins, the prime ingredient in shark fin soup," said Dr. Rachel Graham, director of WCS's Gulf and Caribbean Sharks and Rays Program. "The high price for fins has caused the global shark fishery to expand far beyond what is sustainable. The need for international regulation and enforcement has never been greater." Shark Paradise Found

 The oceanic whitetip shark is critically endangered in the Northwest and Central Atlantic Ocean. It's frequently sought after for its fins, used to make shark fin soup. Usually the rest of the dead or dying shark is then tossed back into the sea. Andrew Brierley, a University of St. Andrews marine ecologist, told Discovery News that when sharks like this die off, the deaths can cause a domino effect of other ecosystem losses. Shellfish, for example, may go into decline because they are consumed more by predators that the sharks would normally prey upon. "The trophic cascade brought about by the increasing demand for shark fin soup has not only left once economically valuable bivalve fisheries in crisis, but has precipitated an ecological and culinary bankruptcy," explained Brierley.

 -- Five rays and sharks are receiving priority attention at this week's IUCN World Conservation Congress held in Jeju, Republic of Korea. The congress is the world's largest conservation event. One of the five sharks is the porbeagle, shown here. Porbeagles are vulnerable globally, and are classified as critically endangered in the Northeast Atlantic. Their low reproductive capacity combined with over-fishing has led to severe population declines over several parts of its range. "Sharks and rays have traveled the Earth for more than 400 million years," said Dr. Cristián Samper, president and CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society and keynote speaker at the Jeju congress. "Yet, in only recent decades, many of these species have become threatened from overfishing and, in some instances, have disappeared entirely from major portions of their range." He added, "The potential loss of one of only two groups of the world's living fishes is a crisis the world community must take decisive action to address. We are calling for governments around the world to vigorously support CITES international trade regulations and strengthen fisheries management and protection measures for shark and ray species. We cannot continue to allow the destruction of these wonders of evolution." Manta Rays Fate Worse Than Sharks

 Whale sharks are flocking to waters off of the Azore islands, a Portuguese archipelago in the North Atlantic Ocean, a new study has found.

 Whale sharks tend to enjoy warmer temperatures, but even this species has been affected by climate change, according to the study, which is published in the latest issue of the journal PLoS ONE.

 It appears to be a Goldilocks effect where the sharks prefer temperatures that aren’t too hot or too cold. Things must be just right — at least for the momen t– in the Azores, which is becoming whale shark central.

 5 Sharks, Rays Needing Urgent Protection: Photos

 Pedro Afonso of the University of the Azores and his colleagues wrote that the “occurrence of the whale shark in the wider Azores region increased drastically in 2008. Prior to this, and for a full decade, these large animals had only been sighted sporadically,” but the sharks keep coming.

 Whale sharks, the world’s largest sharks, are slow-moving filter feeders known for their large mouths. They usually inhabit tropical and warm-temperate seas, preferring temperatures from 78.8 degrees Fahrenheit to 86 degrees.

 In Portugal, the authors note that “whale sharks — local name ‘pintados’ — are known by Azorean fishermen to sometimes occur during the summer and associate with tuna, and have been used for a long time as an aid to locating and fishing the tuna schools.”

 But the sharks have been coming even more often than that, to the point that "whale shark watching" tourism has become a growing business in the region.

 The researchers analyzed a 16-year (1998-2013) observer data set from tuna fishermen around the region. They also used models to investigate the movement of the sharks in relation to factors such as food, sea surface temperature and seafloor features.

 Photos: Shark Paradise Found

 Since 2008, whale shark presence around the Azores has been steadily increasing, which appears to coincide with water temperature changes.

 Usually the Azores fall into the colder side of the sharks’ preferred range, but water temperature rises at this location are proving to be a draw for sharks. Conversely, temperatures that are too hot or too cold in other spots are becoming less desirable for them.

 The temperature increase in the Azores correlated with larger amounts of chlorophyll — a, a type of whale shark food.

 The researchers also found that whale shark populations are higher in areas of increased seafloor slope and closer to seamounts. That’s because these regions tend to be richer in chlorophyll-a.

 “Our findings underline the potential for an increase of the wider Azores region’s importance as an oceanic habitat for the whale shark in the North Atlantic in years of exceptionally high water temperature, and for a concomitant shift in the whale shark distribution within the Atlantic Ocean, as predicted by global modeling studies,” Afonso and his team concluded.

 “In the future, such shifts need to be placed in the context of decadal and very long-term changes in this ocean.”

 Photo: A whale shark. Credit: ThinkStock |||||


Write a summary based on this article:

Even here in Alabama, which has the highest prevalence of diabetes in the country, the rate of new cases has begun to taper. According to figures for 2013, the most recent available by state, 12.7 percent of Alabama’s residents had the disease.

 In the tiny town of Eutaw, Lynette Carpenter got serious about staving off diabetes around the time her cousin’s leg was amputated because of the disease. She started to make a dish she called Sexy Pork Chops, involving a bell pepper, an onion and the oven. She weaned herself off Coca-Cola, going from about 50 cans a week to fewer than seven. And she started walking, leaving rubber bands in her mailbox to pull onto her arm — one for each mile walked — to remind her how many miles she had gone. The result made her doctor proud: She lost 42 pounds, and two years later has still not developed full-blown diabetes.

 Diabetes “has got my respect and attention,” she said. “I take it real serious.”

 Robin Williams, a music teacher in Birmingham, lost 33 pounds by cutting out candy, packing her lunch and not buying fast food during long bus trips to band practice, habits she learned in a Y.M.C.A. program on diabetes prevention. She started watching “My 600-lb Life,” a television show about people losing weight, with her teenage daughter. The show frightened her, as did her father’s leg amputations two years ago. She is down to 222 pounds, and is determined to keep going.

 “I want to see my child grow up,” Ms. Williams said. She uses an app on her phone to track her calories. “It made me much more conscious of what I was putting in my mouth.”

 Diabetes has been particularly devastating here in what is known as the Black Belt, a strip of counties that originally got its name for its fertile soil. Its majority black populations were once slaves, and later, after the Civil War, they were sharecroppers. The area had some of the worst racial violence of the Jim Crow era, said Hasan Kwame Jeffries, an associate professor of history at Ohio State University, and today is among the poorest in the country.

 “Black folk in the Black Belt have never not been living in poverty,” Professor Jeffries said. “It’s not a cycle, it’s linear. It’s an unbroken line from slavery forward. And it’s really critical for understanding why there’s such a health crisis in these counties.” ||||| CDC works 24/7 to protect America from health, safety and security threats, both foreign and in the U.S. Whether diseases start at home or abroad, are chronic or acute, curable or preventable, human error or deliberate attack, CDC fights disease and supports communities and citizens to do the same. ||||| New diabetes cases are down in the U.S. for the first time in decades, according to a new CDC report.

 There were 1.4 million new cases of diabetes in 2014, a drop from 1.7 million in 2008.

 It's the first time in a quarter century there's been a significant decline, the CDC reported. Over that period, the number of adults between 18 and 79 with newly diagnosed diabetes cases more than tripled -- jumping from 493,000 to more than 1.4 million new cases a year. About 21.9 million Americans now live with the disease.

 A study last year estimated that nearly 10 percent of U.S. adults have type 2 diabetes, and other research finds more than a third of adults have prediabetes, a high blood sugar condition that may lead to diabetes.

 But this latest CDC data shows a small but promising reversal.

 "This is the first time I think we can really comfortably say we've seen a decrease in incidence in the rate of new cases. For a while we were calling it a plateau," Edward Gregg, chief of epidemiology and statistics in the division of diabetes translation at the CDC, told CBS News.

 Whether prevention efforts are finally bearing fruit, or if the disease has peaked, is unclear.

 "When you see changes like this in a major public health problem it's always difficult to dissect what caused it. We think it's the gradual diffusion of science and education that's occurred over this last decade," Gregg said.

 Health officials have been trying for years to encourage exercise and better dietary habits to help reduce the risk of diabetes.

 "We learned in the last decade you could prevent diabetes. The lifestyle changes and education are not easy and it takes a while, but I think that's what we're seeing," Gregg said.

 There's still a lot to be done, though, he added.

 "Our incidence rate is 60 percent higher than it was back in the early nineties. If we use that as a benchmark of where we could be and should be, we have a long way to go," Gregg said. He is presenting the new data at a diabetes conference in Vancouver on Wednesday. |||||

– Some big news in America's public health arena: The number of new cases of diabetes is clearly falling for the first time in 25 years, reports the New York Times. Stats released Tuesday by the CDC show a nearly 20% drop from 2008 to 2014 in what the newspaper calls "the first sustained decline" since diabetes began booming in the 1990s. Specifically, the US saw 1.4 million new cases in 2014, down from 1.7 million in 2008. There's still plenty of major trouble spots: The decline is pronounced among white people and less so for AfricanAmericans and Hispanics, and a notable gap remains in regard to education levels. "It's not yet time for a parade," says the head of the diabetes program at Massachusetts General Hospital. But, he adds, "It has finally entered into the consciousness of our population that the sedentary lifestyle is a real problem, that increased body weight is a real problem." CBS notes that 10% of adults in the US are believed to have type 2 diabetes and that more than a third have prediabetes—a condition that can lead to the full disease—which makes any sign that the numbers have peaked welcome. A CDC researcher calls the results "a little surprising" given the decades-long increases. But "it seems pretty clear now that incidence rates have actually started to drop." (Meanwhile, a novel new treatment could one day make daily insulin injections a thing of the past.)


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– JPMorgan's $2 billion trading loss has become a $3 billion-and-counting loss with dizzying speed, insiders tell the New York Times. CEO Jamie Dimon predicted that the loss could double within a few quarters, but the extra billion in trading losses has come in just four trading days as hedge funds and other investors smell blood and bet against the positions the bank is believed to have held to hedge against defaults. JPMorgan's "London whale" trader was such a big player on the obscure indexes at the heart of the bank's problems that other traders are finding it easy to identify his trading positions, Reuters notes. "When someone is that big in the market, anonymity really goes out the window," notes a debt trader. The Justice Department and Federal Reserve are probing the losses, which experts say should never have been allowed to happen at a bank with government-backed deposits. But JPMorgan remains relatively healthy, despite the losses. The $3 billion loss would need to double to wipe out its profit from the second quarter of this year.

(Reuters) - It's the biggest parlor game on Wall Street: Estimating how large JPMorgan Chase & Co's (JPM.N) trading loss will be from a hedging strategy that went wrong.

 The biggest U.S. bank by assets has already disclosed $2 billion of paper losses, and Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said it could lose another $1 billion or more.

 The losses will grow, some traders say, because it appears JPMorgan has only sold a small portion of its position, leaving it vulnerable to price swings in a thinly traded market. Others are not so sure the bank will suffer much more than it already has. Dimon said the bank won't rashly sell, and any additional losses could arise throughout the year. A JPMorgan spokeswoman declined comment.

 The source of JPMorgan's problems is an obscure group of indexes that track the performance of corporate bonds. One of the indexes, the Markit CDX NA IG Series 9 maturing in 2017, is essentially a portfolio of credit default swaps - basically contracts that protect against default by a borrower.

 This particular index is tied to the credit quality of 121 North American investment-grade bond issuers, including such names as Kraft Foods KFT.N and Wal-Mart Stores (WMT.N).

 JPMorgan used that index, and others, to bet that credit markets would strengthen. Because that position is widely known on Wall Street, many traders are betting the opposite way in the hope of profiting as the bank's losses increase. The index has been moving against JPMorgan in recent days.

 Oppenheimer & Co used the average of the index in 2011 - 141 - to estimate on a straight line basis a theoretical additional loss for the bank of $5.9 billion. Oppenheimer analysts, however, cautioned that such a large loss was unlikely. "We think the number will be less" than a $5 billion estimate, they said.

 For starters, they said, JPMorgan likely offset the trading position before announcing the loss. Their analysis also reflects a trade in a vacuum without any counter-bets. Additionally, credit quality has been improving so "the underlying market has moved in JPM's favor," they said.

 Some analysts are frustrated at how difficult it is to determine the source of the bank's losses. "I've been through this exercise a few times, and I can't make the numbers make sense," said Michael Johnson, chief market strategist at brokerage M.S. Howells, who helped put together earlier versions of the credit derivatives index.

 The Markit CDX NA IG 9 index maturing in 2017 stood at 128 on May 10, just before Dimon announced the losses, up from 112 at end-March, according to Markit. Higher values for the index indicate the market sees credit quality as having deteriorated, which hurts JPMorgan. On May 11, the index jumped to 139, and on Wednesday, it traded near 150.

 Without knowing the specific details of JPMorgan's trades, precise figures for the bank's losses are hard to determine. The total size of JPMorgan's bets and the dates and prices it paid to place the bets are not known. It's also not known what trades the bank has made to counteract the losses.

 What's more, the current higher value of the index may entice hedge funds and other investors to sell credit protection on the index, which amounts to buying exposure to the portfolio of credits. If that happens it could help JPMorgan by moving the index level lower.

 WHALE SPOTTING

 JPMorgan's trades are based on credit derivative indexes conceived by JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley (MS.N) a decade ago to allow banks, hedge funds and corporate treasury departments to buy and sell insurance against the risk that corporate bonds they own might default.

 JPMorgan sold credit insurance on the CDX index maturing in 2017 as a way of gaining exposure to the portfolio of credits, according to traders. On its own, that position would perform well if credit quality improves or stays more or less the same.

 The traders don't know JPMorgan's precise trading positions but believe they can at least partially identify them given that the index is traded relatively infrequently and given the size of JPMorgan's presence in it. JPMorgan was such a significant player in the CDX NA IG 9 index that one of its traders, Bruno Iksil, was dubbed the "London whale" in the markets.

 "When someone is that big in the market, anonymity really goes out the window," a New York-based debt trader said.

 The bank is believed to have had offsetting bets to the same index maturing at the end of this year. Put together properly, the combination of selling default protection on the 2017 index and buying protection on the 2012 index would protect the bank against massive weakening in the credit market.

 In addition, the bank is also believed to have made bets that a high-yield index would rise - that is, that high-yield debt would deteriorate - and an investment-grade index would fall or stay stable, traders said. This trade is also widely believed to have generated losses, according to the traders, though again they can't say with any certainty.

 A key job for the bank's Chief Investment Office - which oversaw the index trading - was to hedge the bank against risks of default. As one of the world's biggest lenders, JPMorgan has hundreds of billions of dollars of exposure to credit, so it makes sense for the bank to hedge against the credit market doing poorly. The bank's hedge position is believed to have been crafted to generate few changes in value if the credit markets barely budged.

 INCREASINGLY COSTLY

 Over time, though, keeping the trade as a bet on the market turning down would have become prohibitively expensive, because as the 2012 index got closer to expiration it would offer less of a hedge against movements in the 2017 position. If the bank wanted to keep the trade hedged effectively it would have had to buy more and more of the 2012 credit default protection.

 So, by January, JPMorgan faced a decision, according to credit derivatives traders: either reduce the size of its overall trade, or allow it to turn into more of an outright bet on credit markets improving.

 JPMorgan opted to allow its protection against disaster to turn into a bet on markets improving, traders said.

 There may have been merit to that decision initially.

 In January, investors began to have a more optimistic view of the global economy, thanks in part to the European Central Bank's decision in December to give European banks cheap access to 489 billion euros ($623 billion) of financing. The ECB followed in February with another 529 billion euros of funding.

 For a time that flood of money eased investor concern about the European debt crisis - and bolstered the view that corporations would be able to pay off their debt. Signs of strength in the U.S. economy and job market helped, too.

 The corporate credit index began falling, a sign of credit fears abating. In October, the index hit 182, meaning it cost $182,000 to insure against $10 million of default through December 2017. By January, the index had fallen to as low as 121. In late March, the index hit 106. Those declines likely translated to healthy gains in the first quarter.

 But in April and May, the indexes began rising as investors grew concerned about the durability of a recovery. The weakening credit market likely resulted in increasing losses for JPMorgan.

 Matters worsened for the bank as hedge funds began betting against JPMorgan. That pushed up the index, giving the bank more losses. In the first nine days of May, the index climbed. On the 10th day, the bank stunned markets by announcing it had racked up more than $2 billion in losses.

 ($1 = 0.7849 euros)

 (By Dan Wilchins and Carrick Mollenkamp in New York; Editing By Alwyn Scott, Martin Howell and Ian Geoghegan) ||||| Simon Dawson/Bloomberg News

 The trading losses suffered by JPMorgan Chase have surged in recent days, surpassing the bank’s initial $2 billion estimate by at least $1 billion, according to people with knowledge of the losses.

 When Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan’s chief executive, announced the losses last Thursday, he indicated they could double within the next few quarters. But that process has been compressed into four trading days as hedge funds and other investors take advantage of JPMorgan’s distress, fueling faster deterioration in the underlying credit market positions held by the bank.

 A spokeswoman for the bank declined to comment, although Mr. Dimon has said the total paper trading losses will be volatile depending on day-to-day market fluctuations.

 Related Links Graphic: A Complex Strategy That Backfired

 The Federal Reserve is examining the scope of the growing losses and the original bet, along with whether JPMorgan’s chief investment office took risks that were inappropriate for a federally insured depository institution, according to several people with knowledge of the examination. They spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is still under way.

 The overall health of the bank remains strong, even with the additional losses, and JPMorgan has been able to increase its stock dividend faster than its rivals because of stronger earnings and a more solid capital buffer.

 Still, the huge trading losses rocked Wall Street and reignited the debate over how tightly giant financial institutions should be regulated. Bank analysts say that while the bank’s stability is not threatened, if the losses continue to mount, the outlook for the bank’s dividend will grow uncertain.

 The bank’s leadership has discussed the impact of the losses on future earnings, although a dividend cut remains highly unlikely for now. In March, the company raised the quarterly dividend by 5 cents, to 30 cents, which will cost the bank about $190 million more this quarter.

 A spokeswoman for the bank said a dividend cut has not been discussed internally.

 At the bank’s annual meeting in Tampa, Fla., on Tuesday, Mr. Dimon did not definitively rule out cutting the dividend, although he said that he “hoped” it would not be cut.

 John Lackey, a shareholder from Richmond, Va., who attended the meeting precisely to ask about the dividend, was not reassured. “That wasn’t a very clear answer,” he said of Mr. Dimon’s response. “I expect that shareholders are going to suffer because of this.”

 Analysts expect the bank to earn $4 billion in the second quarter, factoring in the original estimated loss of $2 billion. Even if the additional trading losses were to double, the bank could still earn a profit of $2 billion.

 And many analysts and investors remain optimistic about the bank’s long-term prospects.

 Glenn Schorr, a widely followed analyst with Nomura, reiterated on Wednesday his buy rating on JPMorgan shares, which are down more than 10 percent since the trading loss became public last week.

 What’s more, the chief investment office earned more than $5 billion in the last three years, which leaves it ahead over all, even given the added red ink.

 But the underlying problem is that while these sharp swings are expected at a big hedge fund, they should not be occurring at a bank whose deposits are government-backed and which has access to ultralow cost capital from the Federal Reserve, experts said.

 “JPMorgan Chase has a big hedge fund inside a commercial bank,” said Mark Williams, a professor of finance at Boston University, who also served as a Federal Reserve bank examiner. “They should be taking in deposits and making loans, not taking large speculative bets.”

 Not long after Mr. Dimon’s announcement of a dividend increase in March, the notorious bet by JPMorgan’s chief investment office began to fall apart.

 Traders at the unit’s London desk and elsewhere are now frantically trying to defuse the huge bet that was built up over years, but started generating erratic returns in late March. After a brief pause, the losses began to mount again in late April, prompting Mr. Dimon’s announcement on May 10.

 Beginning on Friday, the same trends that had been causing the losses for six weeks accelerated, since traders on the opposite side of the bet knew the bank was under pressure to unwind the losing trade and could not double down in any way.

 Another issue is that the trader who executed the complex wager, Bruno Iksil, is no longer on the trading desk. Nicknamed the London Whale, Mr. Iksil had a firm grasp on the trade — knowledge that is hard to replace, even though his anticipated departure is seen as sign of the bank’s taking responsibility for the debacle.

 “They were caught short,” said one experienced credit trader who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the situation is still fluid. The market player, who does not stand to gain from JPMorgan’s losses and is not involved in the trade, added, “this is a very hard trade to get out of because it’s so big.”

 He estimated that the initial loss of just over $2 billion was caused by a move of a quarter percentage point, or 25 basis points, on a portfolio with a notional value of $150 billion to $200 billion — in other words, the total value of the contracts traded, not JPMorgan’s exposure. In the four trading days since Mr. Dimon’s disclosure, the market has moved at least 15 to 20 basis points more against JPMorgan, he said.

 The overall losses are not directly proportional to the move in basis points because of the complexity of the trade. Many of the positions are highly illiquid, making them difficult to value for regulators and the bank itself.

 In its simplest form, traders said, the complex position assembled by the bank included a bullish bet on an index of investment-grade corporate debt, later paired with a bearish bet on high-yield securities, achieved by selling insurance contracts known as credit-default swaps.

 A big move in the interest rate spread between the investment grade securities and risk-free government bonds in recent months hurt the first part of the bet, and was not offset by equally large moves in the price of the insurance on the high yield bonds.

 As the credit yield curve steepened, the losses piled up on the corporate grade index, overwhelming gains elsewhere on the trades. Making matters worse, there was a mismatch between the expiration of different instruments within the trade, increasing losses.

 The additional losses represent a worsening of what is already the most embarrassing misstep for JPMorgan since Mr. Dimon became chief executive in 2005. No one has blamed Mr. Dimon for the trade, which was under the oversight of the head of the chief investment office, Ina Drew, but he has repeatedly apologized, calling it “stupid” and “sloppy.”

 Ms. Drew resigned Monday and more departures are anticipated. |||||


Summarize this article:

A New Jersey preschooler killed last month by a respiratory virus that is spreading across the U.S. showed symptoms only of pinkeye before he died in his sleep, health officials said.

 Four-year-old Eli Waller, of Hamilton Township, was kept home from school by his mother on Wednesday, Sept. 23, because he was developing a little bit of pinkeye, said Jeff Plunkett, the health officer for the township. He was otherwise fine and had been in school on Sept. 21 and 22.

 Waller, a triplet with two sisters, never woke up.

 “Between the time his mom put him to bed Wednesday night and when she went to wake him up on Thursday morning, he passed,” Plunkett said in a telephone interview yesterday. “He had no other symptoms whatsoever.”

 Related:

 The Mercer County medical examiner’s office on Oct. 4 listed Waller’s cause of death as Enterovirus D68, or EV-D68, a virus that reemerged in the U.S. in August and has spread to at least 43 states. It can be particularly hard-hitting, and has put hundreds of children in the hospital with breathing difficulties and caused paralysis in dozens more.

 The virus has been documented in the deaths of four people so far in the U.S., based on testing by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s not entirely clear what role the virus played in those deaths. A 10-year-old girl from Rhode Island who died in late September was the first reported fatality linked to the disease.

 Photographer: Scott Ketterer/The Trentonian via AP Images A blue and gold ribbon wrap around a tree in front of Yardville Elementary School in Hamilton Township, New Jersey, on Oct. 4, 2014, in memory of a preschooler who died on Sept. 25 of enterovirus 68. Close A blue and gold ribbon wrap around a tree in front of Yardville Elementary School in... Read More Close Open Photographer: Scott Ketterer/The Trentonian via AP Images A blue and gold ribbon wrap around a tree in front of Yardville Elementary School in Hamilton Township, New Jersey, on Oct. 4, 2014, in memory of a preschooler who died on Sept. 25 of enterovirus 68.

 The U.S. is in the middle of the enterovirus season, though it is expected to ease later in the fall, the CDC said Oct. 3. The relatively rare D68 strain appears to be the dominant type of enterovirus circulating this year and may be contributing to the increase in severe respiratory illness, the agency said.

 There are no special methods to treat or prevent EV-D68, Plunkett said. People should follow typical hand hygiene practices, such as covering their coughs, washing hands with warm water for at least 20 seconds several times a day, and staying home when feeling unwell.

 To contact the reporter on this story: Michelle Fay Cortez in Minneapolis at mcortez@bloomberg.net

 To contact the editors responsible for this story: Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net Drew Armstrong, Bruce Rule ||||| Eli Waller, the 4-year-old New Jersey boy whose death is the first blamed on the respiratory disease enterovirus 68 was "a beautiful mix of eagerness and hesitancy, need and striving, caution and surprise, all of which were grounded in a pure, unconditional love," his father said today.

 Eli, of Hamilton, N.J., was the youngest of three triplets, born "smaller and lighter than his sisters," but he was never one to let that stand in his way, his father Andy Waller said in a letter released this evening.

 "Eli was not the type to give up, and even though things never really came easily to him, he would just plug away, day after day, practicing sounds, or movements, or skills, until he would eventually get them," his father said.

 "He did this entirely in an effort to make his Mom and Dad proud, and we can unequivocally say that we were, and will continue to be, so very proud of our little Eli," he said.

 He compared his son to "a shy little puppy who wants only to make people proud and happy, maybe tripping a bit over his own paws, but truly full of unconditional love."

 Andy Waller said the family was establishing The First Day of School Foundation, to provide support for students involved in Special Education.

 "Like so many kids his age, Eli was both nervous and excited about starting school, and it is our sincere hope that this Foundation can work to help kids in a way that will make Eli proud of us all, in the same way that we were all so proud of him," he said.

 Courtesy of the Waller family PHOTO: Eli Waller, the 4-year-old New Jersey boy who was the first child confirmed to have died of the Enterovirus-68, seen in a family photo.

 Hamilton Township, N.J., Health officer Jeff Plunkett said Saturday that after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed Friday that Eli was infected with the enterovirus 68 when he died last week, the Mercer county medical examiner deterimined the preschooler's death was directly related to the disease.

 Brain and lymph node swelling in the child was then determined to be a result of the virus.

 While the virus has appeared to be particularly dangerous for asthmatic children or children with underlying health issues, Plunkett said Eli had no known health issues.

 At least four other patients who tested positive for the enterovirus 68 have died, and CDC and local medical officials are investigating whether the virus played a role in their deaths.

 Another child in Rhode Island died last week from a combination of bacterial and viral infections. The Rhode Island Department of Health said the 10-year-old girl died of Staphylococcus aureus sepis "associated with" enterovirus 68.

 The respiratory disease is suspected of sickening children in at least 43 states, according to the CDC. The virus often starts out similar to a common cold with patients usually complaining of coughing or a runny nose. In rare cases the respiratory problems can become severe, particularly for asthmatic patients.

 In Colorado, CDC and local health officials are investigating whether limb weakness and paralysis reported in nine children was associated with the enterovirus 68.

 The Associated Press contributed to this story.

 -- This embed didnt make it to copy for story id = 25982791. |||||

– A 4-year-old New Jersey boy who died after contracting enterovirus-68 had no symptoms other than pinkeye when his mom put him to sleep on the night of Sept. 24; by the time she went in the next morning to wake him up, he had died, Bloomberg reports. Eli Waller stayed home from school on the 24th because of the pinkeye, but had attended school earlier in the week. And unlike other children hard-hit by the virus, Eli was not asthmatic. He was "a beautiful mix of eagerness and hesitancy, need and striving, caution and surprise, all of which were grounded in a pure, unconditional love," his father tells ABC News. Born last in a birthing of triplets, Eli came out "smaller and lighter" than his two sisters but didn't let that hold him back, his dad says: "Eli was not the type to give up, and even though things never really came easily to him, he would just plug away, day after day." Enterovirus-68 has struck at least 43 states, hospitalizing hundreds of children, paralyzing others, and apparently playing a role in at least four US deaths. On the brighter side, the enterovirus season should subside later this fall—but with the rare 68 strain dominating, experts say it's smart to follow basic hygiene practices like covering coughs, staying home when unwell, and washing hands in warm water. (Meanwhile, the CDC is trying to confirm links between EV-68 and cases of paralysis.)


Image caption Researchers were surprised to see liquid water coming up through the drill hole as temperatures were below freezing

 Researchers say they have discovered a large reservoir of melt water that sits under the Greenland ice sheet all year round.

 The scientists say the water is stored in the air space between particles of ice, similar to the way that fruit juice stays liquid in a slush drink.

 The aquifer, which covers an area the size of Ireland, could yield important clues to sea level rise.

 The research is published in the journal, Nature Geoscience.

 The melting of the Greenland ice sheet has been a significant contributor to a rise in sea levels over the past 100 years.

 The water is stored in the air space between the ice particles, like the juice in a snow cone Prof Rick Forster, University of Utah

 According to the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the ice sheet lost 34 billion tonnes of ice per year between 1992 and 2001 - but this increased to 215 billion tonnes between 2002 and 2011

 Scientists still have many unanswered questions about the direction and speed and ultimate destination of this melted water.

 Ice free liquid

 This new research finds that a significant amount is stored in partially compacted snow called firn.

 In the spring of 2011, researchers drilled deep into this slushy layer and to their surprise, found liquid water flowing back to the surface even though air temperatures were -15 degrees C.

 As this was well before the onset of the summer melt, the team concluded the water had persisted in a liquid state through the Greenland winter.

 "This discovery was a surprise," said Prof Rick Forster from the University of Utah.

 "Instead of the water being stored in the air space between subsurface rock particles, the water is stored in the air space between the ice particles, like the juice in a snow cone."

 The scientists have also come up with a rough estimate for the amount of water that is contained in the aquifer which itself covers an area of 70,000 sq km.

 Image caption The researchers drilled in areas with large accumulations of snow on the surface

 They believe that it holds roughly 140 billion tonnes of water, which is the equivalent to 0.4mm of sea level rise per year - about half of what Greenland contributes to the sea every year.

 But crucially the scientists don't know the ultimate destination of the water in the reservoir.

 "It depends on whether it is currently connected to a system that is draining into the ocean or if it is a bit isolated and completely acting as a storage source without a current connection," said Prof Forster.

 "We don't know the answer to this right now. It's massive, it's a new system we haven't seen before - we need to understand it more completely if we are to predict sea level rise."

 The scientists say the water is prevented from freezing by the large amounts of snow that fall on the surface of the ice sheet late in the summer.

 This insulates the water from the air temperatures which are below freezing, allowing the water to persist as liquid all year long.

 Other researchers believe this discovery may help explain disparities between projections of mass loss by climate models and observations from satellites.

 "The large mass of liquid water in firn also represents a heat sink that could be playing a role in Greenland's interaction with the climate system," wrote Dr Joel Harper from the University of Montana, in a comment piece published alongside the study.

 "As the intensity of surface melt in Greenland increases and expands upwards to the higher elevations that are covered by firn, liquid water storage may play an expanding role in the ice sheet's future response to climate change."

 Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc. ||||| A drill rig was used to extract old snow (firn) cores from within the Greenland snow aquifer.

 Big surprises still hide beneath the frozen surface of snowy Greenland. Despite decades of poking and prodding by scientists, only now has the massive ice island revealed a hidden aquifer.

 In southeast Greenland, more than 100 billion tons of liquid water soaks a slushy snow layer buried anywhere from 15 to 160 feet (5 to 50 meters) below the surface. This snow aquifer covers more than 27,000 square miles (70,000 square kilometers) — an area bigger than West Virginia — researchers report today (Dec. 22) in the journal Nature Geoscience.

 "We thought we had an understanding of how things work in Greenland, but here is this entire storage system of water we didn't realize was there," said Richard Forster, lead study author and a glaciologist at the University of Utah.

 The discovery will help scientists better understand the fate of Greenland's annual surface melt, which contributes to sea level rise. When the summer sun warms the Arctic island, a giant water world of stunning blue lakes and streams appears atop the ice. Tracking this surface runoff helps scientists account for ice lost to melting each year. Until now, researchers thought most of this water went to the ocean or refroze on the ice. Now they've found a new hiding place.

 "This throws an additional complexity into the system," Forster told LiveScience.

 There is enough water in the snow aquifer to raise global sea level by 0.015 inches (0.4 millimeters), according to a separate study by the same team published Nov. 30 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters (GRL). Every year, Greenland adds 0.03 inches (0.7 mm) of water to global sea level rise from melting snow and ice, Forster said. [Top 10 Surprising Results of Global Warming]

 Where water flows

 No one yet knows how old the water in the aquifer is, and whether it stays trapped in the snow or reaches the ocean in slow streams or catastrophic floods. However, the top of the water table rose after Greenland's huge surface melt in 2012, the researchers report in their GRL study.

 Water from the Greenland snow aquifer draining from a drill core extracted 40 feet (12 meters) below the surface of the ice sheet in April, before the summer surface melt, with air temperatures of 5 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 15 degrees Celsius). Credit: Ludovic Brucker

 The group will return to southeast Greenland in the coming years to answer these and other questions, Forster said. "Just seeing how old it is would answer a lot of questions," he said.

 The final destination of Greenland's melt water is also key to understanding how the ice sheet ebbs and flows, because water under the ice sheet lubricates flowing glaciers. Researchers know some melt water goes to the bottom of the ice, trickling through cracks and racing through vertical pipes called moulins. Some of the water also simply refreezes on the surface when winter comes. Liquid water sitting in buried snow layers can also slowly warm and melt the ice sheet.

 "The existence of this rather flavorless natural snow cone has many implications for the future of the ice sheet, some that may make the ice go away faster and others that help keep the ice a little longer," said Richard Alley, a glaciologist at Pennsylvania State University, who was not involved in the study. "We would like to understand these implications better so we can help reduce the uncertainties about future changes."

 Soppy surprise

 Forster and his colleagues discovered the aquifer in 2011, when a drill punched into sopping wet snow, as mushy as a summer snow cone treat or a Slurpee. (This was a year before the big surface melt of 2012.) "Water was pouring out of the core," Forster said — not what one wants to find when all the electronics are mounted outside the drill. A video of the event reveals both excitement and a few choice words among the scientists. [Watch: Discover Greenland's Hidden Aquifer]

 The water was stored in hard, compacted snow called firn — the remains of the previous year's snowfall. Forster thinks the aquifer went undiscovered because so much snow falls in this corner of Greenland.

 In Southeast Greenland, frequent storms crash into tall mountains, dumping more winter snow there than anywhere else on the icy island. The thick, insulating snow blanket keeps the watery firn liquid during the freezing winter, like a down coverlet, Forster said.

 Many drillers have skipped over this part of Greenland because the snow layers are so thick, Forster said, and most people who are drilling cylinders of ice from the ice sheet are looking to see the layers compacted over hundreds and thousands of years. "People who extract ice cores don't want to go through high accumulation layers," he said. But Forster's team was interested in the past 10 years of snowfall, so the southeast was a good research spot, he said.

 Ground-penetrating radar, towed by snowmobile, helped the researchers locate more water nearby, which the group confirmed by drilling in 2011 and 2013. When the researchers returned home, they searched airborne radar data from NASA's Operation IceBridge and discovered the true extent of the buried snow aquifer, all in areas with heavy snowfall. Most of the water is in the southeast, but a few pockets appeared in the south and southwest, Forster said. "It all corresponds to these areas of high snow accumulation," he said.

 Greenland's future

 Researchers estimate Greenland has lost more than 200 million tons of ice and snow each year since 2003. The ice sheet will completely disappear when the planet's average temperature rises by 2 to 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit (1 to 4 degrees Celsius) above preindustrial temperatures, as predicted by the latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, released in September.

 Earth's surface temperatures are already up 1.3 F (0.7 C) from preindustrial temperatures, with average temperatures rising faster in Greenland.

 "This doesn't change our knowledge that too much carbon dioxide in the air will melt Greenland's ice, but it will help us make better estimates of how much and how fast," Alley said.

 Email Becky Oskin or follow her @beckyoskin. Follow us @livescience, Facebook& Google+. Original article on LiveScience. |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– As far as discoveries go, this one is literally huge: An aquifer holding more than 100 billion tons of water that covers an area larger than West Virginia has been discovered beneath Greenland's snow-covered ice sheet. And it caught the researchers who stumbled on it in 2011 off-guard, with lead study author Richard Forster telling LiveScience, "We thought we had an understanding of how things work in Greenland, but here is this entire storage system of water we didn't realize was there." As for the "where," the aquifer was identified in the southeast part of the country, ranging from 15 to 160 feet beneath the surface, whose snow acts as an insulator, keeping the water liquid year-round. Forster gives this great description of how the water is stored, per the BBC: "in the air space between the ice particles, like the juice in a snow cone." But the find has raised plenty of questions, like: How old is the water? Does it stay where it is, or trickle to the sea ... or rush toward the sea in a flood? In a separate study, the team determined that if released, the aquifer's water could push global sea levels up 0.015 inches. And in terms of sea level rise, LiveScience explains that scientists have long assumed that most of the water produced in the country's annual surface melt streams toward the ocean, or eventually refroze; the aquifer is essentially a "new hiding place," one that researchers can study to get a better grasp on the annual melt. Says Forster, "We need to understand it more completely if we are to predict sea level rise."


Article:
Newly released court documents explain that President Trump's former campaign manager Paul Manafort is being kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day ahead of his July 25 trial, citing that his safety cannot be guaranteed otherwise while in prison.

 The big picture: Manafort's bail was revoked by a judge, and his legal team is currently appealing that decision arguing that being imprisoned in such a manner at a facility two hours away from his legal team is hampering his ability to defend himself. Manafort has been indicted on charges including money laundering and bank fraud. ||||| Paul Manafort is all alone.

 Paul Manafort is being kept in solitary confinement in a Virginia jail in order to “guarantee his safety,” his lawyer said in court documents filed this week. “He is locked in his cell for at least 23 hours per day (excluding visits from his attorneys),” defense attorney Kevin Downing wrote.

 In a brief filed Thursday, Downing wrote that Manafort is unable to adequately prepare for his two upcoming trails, the first of which starts later this month, while locked up. Manafort’s lawyers also argued that the witness-tampering charges that landed him in jail are not so bad because they did not include threats of physical violence. So they’re asking that Manafort be released.

 Prosecutors from special counsel Robert Mueller’s office were having none of it. In its own filing, Mueller’s team said Manafort’s attempt to tamper with witnesses is “no less damaging to the justice system when committed through covert corrupt persuasion than through overt violence.” Last month, Manafort was accused of trying to influence witness testimony while he was under house arrest.

 They also wrote that Manafort does not deserve special treatment since the limitations he’s facing “are common to defendants incarcerated pending trial.”

 Manafort has reportedly been locked away in the “VIP” section of Virginia’s Northern Neck Regional Jail since he arrived on June 15. John Dowd, former lawyer to President Trump, has called the imprisonment “harsh” and an “outrageous violation” of Manafort’s civil liberties. |||||Summary:

– Paul Manafort's lawyers are pushing to get him out of jail to prepare for his upcoming trials, and their newly filed court documents reveal something of a surprise: President Trump's former campaign manager is being kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, reports Axios. The reason? The Northern Neck Regional Jail in Virginia "cannot otherwise guarantee his safety," the lawyers write. What's more, the jail is about a two-hour drive for his defense team, and all of this "makes it effectively impossible for Mr. Manafort to prepare" for his trials on money laundering and bank fraud. Manafort had his bail revoked and got sent to jail last month after he was accused of tampering with witnesses. His lawyers are appealing that decision, but prosecutors say the limitations he's facing behind bars "are common to defendants incarcerated pending trial," per New York. The court documents do not provide details on the safety concerns regarding Manafort. His first trial is scheduled to start on July 25, and the charges he's facing are unrelated to his work on the Trump campaign of 2016.


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– It's long seemed unthinkable, but US military personnel could soon see cuts to their pay and benefits. Top commanders are considering such cuts as they deal with a decreasing budget, the Joint Chiefs of Staff chair said this weekend. While acknowledging that "we can't pay [soldiers] enough," Gen. Martin Dempsey added, "We also have an institution to manage." No specifics have been revealed; details will be released along with the proposed military budget in February, the Wall Street Journal reports. Dempsey did say benefits wouldn't be immediately cut, no changes will be made to the retirement system, and that the plan is a multi-year effort to slow down compensation. Pay and benefits will soon make up 60% of the military budget (currently, the cost of military personnel is about 50% of the budget), meaning that if they're not curbed, there won't be enough money for new weapons or training within the decade, Dempsey said. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and President Obama must approve the plan, then Congress, and so far it's not looking too popular with lawmakers. The news comes days after a Congressional Budget Office report that said cutting military pay is one of many options to reduce the budget deficit, Military.com reports.

Military members, retirees and veterans have a few more reasons to be wary of politicians who say their top priority is to cut federal spending.

 The Congressional Budget Office on Wednesday released a report of more than 100 options for reducing budget deficits. It's a timely product as House and Senate conferees strive to negotiate by mid-December a new debt-cutting deal to replace automatic budget cuts of sequestration.

 More than a few of the CBO options are fresh ideas to roll back compensation for categories of veterans or to raise TRICARE fees for military retirees, on suggestions that the government is being too generous.

 To be fair, CBO is not singling out veterans here. There are options in the report to make nervous many segments of society dependent on federal payments, from social security recipients to drug manufacturers.

 But for select veterans' programs, CBO makes some hard-edged points that lawmakers bent on cutting spending might find compelling, if not persuasive, to help address the nation's debt crisis.

 Here are some of those ideas:

 Cap Military Pay Raises – From 2000 through 2010, Congress approved basic pay raises that averaged a half percentage point above private sector wage growth. The military could save $25 billion from 2015 to 2023 by reversing course, capping raises yearly at .5 percent below civilian wage growth. CBO predicts only a "minor" effect on force retention.

 Evidence in favor of this move are data showing cash compensation for enlisted members now exceeds wages of 90 percent of civilian counterparts, well above the Defense Department's goal of keeping service pay ahead of 70 percent of civilians of similar age and educational background. CBO says officer compensation exceeds 86 percent of private sector peers.

 The case against capping raises is that recruiting and retention goals could be compromised, CBO says, and smaller raises also dampen other elements of military compensation including retirement annuities.

 Raise TRICARE Fees – CBO floats two options to have military retirees pay more for health care. One is to have TRICARE-for-Life users -- retirees, spouses and survivors age 65 and older -- pay the first $550 of costs not covered by Medicare and then 50 percent of the next $4950. CBO says this would slow TRICARE costs by $31 billion from 2015 to 2023 but also save Medicare dollars as older beneficiaries seek fewer health services.

 The drawback is some TLF users might not seek needed preventive care or manage their chronic conditions as closely as they do now.

 The second option targets "working age" retirees and families enrolled in TRICARE Prime by raising fees, deductibles and co-pays in a complex combination too detailed to describe here. The Prime changes for retirees could save from $2 billion to $11 billion by 2023, depending on final details.

 Concurrent Receipt – Until 2003, military retirees who drew tax-free compensation from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for service-connected disabilities saw retired pay reduced by an equal amount. Congress phased out this ban on "concurrent receipt" over several years to for retirees with disability ratings of 50 percent or higher. As a result, last year 420,000 retirees received $7 billion in concurrent receipt payments.

 Lifting this ban, CBO suggests, encouraged many more retirees to seek a VA disability rating. In 2005, only 33 percent who served 20 or more years received VA disability pay. By 2012, that proportion of longevity retirees drawing disability pay had climbed to 45 percent.

 CBO says $108 billion could be saved from 2015 to 2023 if the ban on concurrent receipt were restored for current and future retirees. They "would still receive higher after-tax payments than would retirees who are not disabled," CBO noted.

 The argument against is that retired pay and VA pay compensate for "different characteristics of military service: rewarding longevity in the former case and remunerating for pain and suffering in the latter…Moreover, some retirees would find the loss of income financially difficult."

 That CBO floated such an option could dampen hope among military retirees with disabilities rated 40 percent and less that Congress someday will lift the concurrent receipt ban for them too.

 Narrow Eligibility for VA Compensation – The law requires VA to define "service-connected" ailments broadly so if symptoms occur in service the condition usually is compensable. Last year, CBO says, VA paid 520,000 veterans a total of $2.9 billion "for seven medical conditions that…are generally neither caused nor aggravated by military service."

 VA could save $20 billion, from 2015 to 2023, if it stopped compensating veterans for the following: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; arteriosclerotic heart disease; hemorrhoids; uterine fibroids; multiple sclerosis; Crohn's disease and osteoarthritis.

 Indeed, if Congress eliminated "compensation for all disabilities unrelated to military duties," CBO says, the savings would be far greater, though, admittedly, this "would be more difficult to administer."

 The argument in support is that VA disability pay should be more comparable to civilian systems, which "do not typically compensate individuals for all medical problems" that develop during employment.

 The opposing argument is that military service "imposes extraordinary risks" and hardships, which justify current pays and benefits including compensation for those who become disabled in any way while in service.

 Tighten VA "IU" Benefits – VA will supplement regular disability compensation for veterans not rated 100-percent disabled if they are deemed "unable to engage in substantial work," CBO explains. The "Individual Unemployability" (IU) benefit is paid today to 300,000 veterans, boosting monthly incomes by an average of $1800 a month.

 A third of IU veterans, however, are over 65, the age by which many American workers are retired and drawing full social security benefits. CBO said VA could save $15 billion by 2023 if it stopped IU to older veterans.

 These are not recommendations, CBO says, only options intended to inform lawmakers.

 To comment, write Military Update, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, VA, or email milupdate@aol.com or twitter: Tom Philpott @Military_Update ||||| SIMI VALLEY, Calif.—The U.S. military's top commanders, groping for ways to cope with a shrinking Pentagon budget, have agreed to a plan that would curb the growth of pay and benefits for housing, education and health—prized features of military life that for years have been spared from cuts.

 Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a weekend interview that without such changes, the cost of military... |||||


Article:
Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. ||||| This story was originally published on Dec. 2. To mark the fourth anniversary of the Sandy Hook school shooting, it is being republished.

 Sandy Hook Promise, an organization devoted to protecting children from gun violence that was launched in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, has issued a powerful public service announcement urging people to look for warning signs of potential shooters.

 Get push notifications with news, features and more.

 In the Dec. 2 PSA, part of the organization’s “Know the Signs” campaign, viewers are introduced to Evan, a typical teenager, trying to find summer love as the school year winds down. We see Evan scratch “I am bored” into a desk in his school’s library, and he returns the next day to find a response from a female student.

 Evan and the mystery girl scratch flirtatious messages back and forth, and Evan tries to find out who his secret pen pal is. On the final day of school, as yearbooks are being passed around for signatures, Evan’s chat partner recognizes his handwriting and reveals herself. But while she does, an ominous figure emerges through a door in the background, drops a large duffel bag, and cocks an assault rifle.

 Viewers are then shown a shortened version of the same PSA: The message is that while viewers were distracted by Evan’s romance, they neglected the warning signs of a male student in the background who reads gun-enthusiast magazines, searches for gun videos on YouTube, and is bullied in the school’s halls. Towards the end of the PSA, viewers see the male student make a menacing gesture towards his teacher after receiving a poor test grade.

 Text appears in the ad: “While you were watching Evan, another student was showing signs of planning a shooting. But no one noticed.”

 The ad says, “Gun violence is preventable when you know the signs.”

 “The PSA demonstrates how easy it is for one to overlook the signs of an at-risk individual demonstrating signs of violence, particularly gun violence, and that when one knows the signs, it can be prevented,” says a statement from Sandy Hook Promise.

 The organization hopes the PSA will teach people how to recognize someone exhibiting at-risk behaviors and empower them to intervene.

 Sandy Hook Promise states that 80 percent of school shooters and 70 percent of individuals who killed themselves told someone of their violent plans prior to taking action — yet nobody intervened. ||||| What Would You Do: Mother Uses Harsh Punishments on Son | What Would You Do? | WWYD

 - Duration: 7:22.

 What Would You Do?

 22,198,732 views ||||| The onset of this PSA from Sandy Hook Promise, an organization created in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, begins innocently enough. The video follows a boy, Evan (the same name as the video), exchanging messages on a desk in the school library with an unknown classmate.

 The flirtatious messages are sent back and forth until the end of the school year, leaving a dissuaded Evan without a chance to learn the identity of his secret crush. However, in a last-ditch effort to learn who the person is, he exchanges yearbook signatures with classmates — one of which recognizes his handwriting from the desk.

 While the two begin talking, however, an ominous figure emerges from the entrance of the building, taking out an assault rifle and cocks the gun as the screen fades to black.

 "While you were watching Evan, another student was showing signs of planning a shooting," the corresponding text reads. "But no one noticed."

 The PSA then relays the scenes of Evan at school, and in the background are several alarming signs of another student looking at gun videos on YouTube, being bullied by classmates, sharing photos with a gun on Instagram and reading a gun enthusiast magazine.

 Giphy The warning signs

 "It's important to know that one warning sign on its own does not mean a person is planning an act of violence," the Sandy Hook Promise website reads under the "Know the Signs" program. "But when many connected or cumulative signs are observed over a period of time, it could mean that the person is heading down a pathway towards violence or self-harm. By knowing the signs, you have the power to intervene and get help for that person. Your actions can save lives."

 The organization was founded by several family members whose children were killed in the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting in 2012. The nonprofit's goal is to protect children from gun violence.

 Watch the powerful PSA from Sandy Hook Promise below: ||||| Sandy Hook Promise is a national non-profit organization founded and led by several family members whose loved ones were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School on December 14, 2012.

 Based in Newtown, Connecticut, our intent is to honor all victims of gun violence by turning our tragedy into a moment of transformation by providing programs and practices that protect children and prevent the senseless, tragic loss of life. |||||Summary:

– Meet Evan. He's a bored high school kid who starts defacing school property, er, doodling on a table in the library one day. Someone writes back. Messages are swapped as days pass, mystery and romance bloom. Evan wanders the halls, eyeing his classmates, wondering who his mystery penpal is, and as AdWeek puts it, "there ensues a back-and-forth that's pretty captivating. Perhaps too captivating." (To avoid spoilers, stop reading and watch the video.) The end result has been described as "jarring" (Kansas City Star), "chilling" (Mic), and "powerful" (People). While you and Evan are busy being captivated—especially as Evan meets his mystery penpal—one of Evan's classmates is lurking in the background providing warning signs that he's planning a shooting, which in fact interrupts that very meeting we've been waiting for. The ad comes courtesy of Sandy Hook Promise, run by family of the victims of the school shooting in Newtown, Conn. "When you don't know what to look for, or can't recognize what you are seeing, it can be easy to miss warning signs or dismiss them as unimportant," says Nicole Hockley, whose 6-year-old son, Dylan, died in the massacre. The organization, which says 80% of shooters tell someone what they're planning, aims to shine a light on the need to watch for those signs. (In Utah, a teen's own parents disarmed him inside a school.)


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MORE VIDEO Arrest made in Midwest City disappearance case Palma now in Oklahoma County Jail

 Midwest City Police think they've had a break in an 18-year-old homicide case. On Tuesday FOX 25 learned more about the man police say kidnapped and murdered a young girl. 56-year-old Anthony Palma is now in police custody.

 Kirsten Hatfield was kidnapped out of her bedroom window in her Midwest City home in 1997. That home is located on Jet Drive, near S.E. 15th and Air Depot Blvd. Police found her ripped panties with blood on them left on the window sill of her bedroom. She hasn't been heard from since and police never made an arrest until now.

 "We want to take this opportunity to let all of our family and friends know that we're OK and please continue to pray for us," said Kirsten's step-father Chris Hazen.

 Hazen along with Kirsten's mom Shannon say they're tired but hopeful this nightmare they've been living in for 18 years could soon be over.

 "We have worked continuously on this case for 18 years," said Midwest City Police Chief Brandon Clabes. "We're emotionally invested in this case."

 Midwest City Police revealed in a press conference on Tuesday that DNA evidence links Palma to Kirsten's disappearance. The connection comes from evidence taken the day Kirsten was taken. Police kept cigarettes, a syringe, a beer bottle and blood found on both Kirsten's panties and her windowsill. Police say none of that evidence was DNA tested and could say why it wasn't.

 "We're realizing more and more as technology advances, we see the ability to conduct more sensitive testing," said OSBI director Stan Florence.

 With the DNA in hand, Midwest City Police tracked down at least ten men associated with the case and re-interviewed them and obtained their DNA samples. In July of 2015, the OSBI revealed the DNA from the scene and Palma's DNA matched. Police arrested Palma this past Monday night.

 "This is the initial stage of this case," said Chief Clabes. "We have a lot more work to do in reference to this case."

 Police are confident that Palma killed Kirsten, but her body has never been located. Her family is hoping that's the next step in this investigation.

 "I wanted to say thank you to all the police, law enforcement that's helping solve this case because it's just been a terrible nightmare to my wife ever since it happened," Hazen said.

 Palma will be tranported to the Oklahoma County Jail. He faces charges of kidnapping and first degree murder.

  ||||| An arrest has been made in the case of Kirsten Hatfield, who went missing in 1997.

 KOCO learned Monday that Anthony Palma had been arrested in connection with her disappearance after 18 years of investigation.

 Video: Kirsten Hatfield's family members speak on break in investigation

 Palma was arrested on complaints of first-degree murder and kidnapping. He has been transferred to Oklahoma County Jail.

 READ: Affidavit released in Midwest City cold case

 According to court documents, on July 22, a DNA sample matching Palma was found in evidence collected in 1997. The match came after items were sent to OSBI for testing that had not been tested before, according to the court documents.

 Investigators said they believe Palma targeted Hatfield for sexual assault. They said evidence supported that claim, including his blood being on her partially ripped underwear and her window sill.

 Video: Authorities discuss arrest in investigation of Midwest City's girl's disappearance

 “It’s proverbial needle in a haystack -- how fortunate, lucky we were in this case,” Midwest City Police Chief Brandon Clabes said.

 Police said because Hatfield has not been sighted since 1997, it can be concluded that she was killed shortly after her abduction.

 Hatfield went missing on May 14, 1997. Midwest City police said evidence indicated that she had been taken from her bedroom window. Police said the trail went cold, but on June 13, 2015, an officer was assigned to follow up on the cold case.

 The officer said he went through all the evidence previously collected and decided to re-submit some evidence for testing. The investigators continued working the case and said they collected DNA from all men they interviewed.

 On June 1, investigators said they interviewed Palma, who was also interviewed twice in 1997. The investigators said his interview was inconsistent with information gathered in 1997. Officers said Palma's DNA match to evidence found at the scene was one in 293 sextillion.

 Video: Midwest City neighborhood where girl was kidnapped continues to be at center of investigation

 Midwest City police are continuing to investigate the case, and say there could possibly be additional suspects. Investigators said Palma had been under their surveillance for some time.

 Chris Hazen, who married Hatfield's mother, Shannon, two years after Kirsten disappeared, spoke briefly to the media Tuesday, and called the situation a "terrible nightmare for my wife."

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 A suspect was arrested in the 1997 disappearance of 8-year-old Oklahoma girl Kirsten Hatfield only because the new investigator on the case discovered that crucial evidence was never tested 18 years ago, court documents show.

 Anthony Joseph Palma, 56, was arrested Monday at his home in the town of Midwest City — just two homes down the street from the house Kirsten's family was living in when she vanished in May 1997. He was being held without bond on suspicion of first-degree murder and kidnapping.

 Kristin is still missing but her family was "hopeful" and "grateful" for news of the arrest, said Chris Hazen, the current husband of Kirsten's mother, Shannon.

 Kirsten Hatfield in 1997 at age 8 and in a computer projection of what she would have looked like in 2013 at age 24. National Center for Missing and Exploited Children

 "We're OK," Hazen said, according to NBC station KFOR of Oklahoma City. "This has just been a terrible nightmare to my wife ever since it happened."

 The break in the case came when it was reassigned in June to Midwest City police Detective Darrell Miller.

 According to an arrest warrant affidavit filed Monday in Oklahoma County District Court, Miller requested FBI assistance in reviewing all of the old evidence and discovered that several key pieces — most notable among them bloodstains on Kirsten's underwear, which was found in the backyard, and on her bedroom windowsill — either went untested or came back inconclusive because the technology to test it at the time was limited.

 Anthony Palma in an undated photo provided by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Midwest City, Oklahoma, Police Department via AP

 The State Bureau of Investigation's crime lab found a DNA match to Palma in July, putting its odds of certainty at 263 sextillion to 1, according to the affidavit.

 "The evidence shows that Kirsten may have been targeted by Palma for sexual assault," Miller wrote in the affidavit. "It is likely that Palma has been motivated to stay in the same home to conceal evidence of the crime and/or the location of Kristen's body."

 State corrections records show that Palma — who has lived at the same Midwest City address since 1991 — was convicted of assault and/or battery with a dangerous weapon in the early 1980s and was released from prison in 1986. Details of that conviction weren't immediately available. |||||

– Investigators believe an ex-con in an Oklahoma City suburb murdered his 8-year-old neighbor and got away with it for 18 years. Kirsten Hatfield disappeared from her bedroom in Midwest City on the night of May 14, 1997, and Anthony Palma, who lived two houses away, was arrested this week on charges of kidnapping and first-degree murder, KOCO reports. The breakthrough in the cold case came after a new investigator took over in June and discovered that key pieces of evidence—including bloodstains on the girl's bedroom window sill and on her underwear, found in her backyard—were never tested for DNA, reports NBC News. Palma, who was released from prison in 1986 after serving time for assault with a dangerous weapon, still lives in the same home, and an arrest warrant states that he probably stayed there "to conceal evidence of the crime and/or the location of [Kirsten's] body," reports NBC. Fox 25 reports that the 56-year-old was interviewed after the 1997 disappearance and provided a DNA sample this year when investigators finally tested the evidence and spoke to 10 suspects in the case. Court documents state that the DNA match to the evidence was 293 sextillion to 1. Police believe Palma targeted the girl for sexual assault and killed her soon after her abduction, reports KOCO. Her body has never been found. (A woman thought to have been murdered in 1984 was found alive and well in Dusseldorf.)


– At least seven people were killed in Acapulco yesterday in what police believe was a clash between rival drug gangs. Guns and grenades were used to attack a house in a residential part of the resort city, AP reports. Further north, suspected cartel hitmen killed the mayor of a small town outside Monterrey as he drove to his ranch. Mayor Prisciliano Rodriguez is the fourth public official assassinated in Mexico in just over a month, Reuters reports. As cartel violence continues to plague Mexico with no end in sight, mob justice is on the rise, reports NPR. In a small town in Chihuahua state where kidnapping and extortion have soared over the last two years, a mob pursued a gang that had kidnapped a teen girl, killing one and beating two others. Police took the beaten pair to a military base, where a crowd of around 1,000 broke through the gates, seized the men, and locked them in a hot vehicle where they eventually died. The town's mayor fired all 14 of the town's police officers the next day.

Expand this summary.

MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) - Suspected drug hitmen killed the mayor of a town outside Mexico's northern business city of Monterrey on Thursday, the fourth public official slain in little over a month, police said.

 Mayor Prisciliano Rodriguez was shot and killed by gunmen as he drove to his ranch in his town of Doctor Gonzalez, 30 miles (50 km) east of Monterrey in Nuevo Leon state, an official at the attorney general's office said.

 It was not immediately clear why Rodriguez, who won the mayorship last year for the opposition Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, was targeted, but Nuevo Leon and the neighbouring state of Tamaulipas have become major drug war flashpoints since the start of the year.

 Another person travelling with Rodriguez was also killed in the attack, Reforma newspaper reported, but police declined to comment.

 Last month, drug gangs killed a mayor in the Nuevo Leon tourist town of Santiago and another mayor in the Tamaulipas municipality of Hidalgo that lies on a highway to Monterrey.

 Another mayor was killed by suspected drug gangs in the central Mexican state of San Luis Potosi this month.

 President Felipe Calderon, who has staked his presidency on a military-led assault on drug cartels, condemned the two killings in August and has vowed to continue his fight, saying that spiralling violence is a sign that the gangs are desperate and in disarray.

 Rival hitmen from the Gulf cartel and its former armed wing, the Zetas, are fighting over smuggling routes into the United States. Both gangs increasingly target public officials, police and journalists who stand in their way.

 Calderon has blamed the surge in violence around Monterrey and in Tamaulipas on the split between the Gulf and Zetas gang, but faces increasing pressure to calm the killings. More than 29,000 people have been killed in drug violence since Calderon sent more than 45,000 troops and federal police across Mexico in 2006 to battle warring drug gangs, prompting fears that bloodshed could undermine tourism and investment as Mexico slowly recovers from its worst recession since 1932.

 The U.S. government in August told staff at its consulate in Monterrey to send their children out of the city, once considered one of Latin America's safest cities and a top regional business centre. There have been more than 450 drug killings in Monterrey and Nuevo Leon state this year.

 (Reporting by Tomas Bravo; editing by Mohammad Zargham) ||||| Fed Up, A Mexican Town Resorts To Mob Justice

 itoggle caption Jesus Alcazar/AFP/Getty Images

 Unprecedented levels of violence in Mexico led residents of a small town in the northern state of Chihuahua to take justice into their own hands.

 This week an angry mob of citizens pursued and allegedly killed two suspected kidnappers, storming a military base to get at the alleged culprits believed to have nabbed a teenage girl.

 With police incapable of stopping the violent crime epidemic in Mexico amid the brutal drug war, it seems some locals in the town of Ascension have had enough.

 Ascension is a farming community of some 15,000 people, about 100 miles south of the border with New Mexico. In the past two years, kidnapping and extortion have been rampant.

 "Our problems with public security have spoiled our progress in this town," says Rafael Camarillo, the outgoing mayor.

 The public fury happened Tuesday when an armed group allegedly kidnapped a 16-year-old girl from her family's seafood restaurant. The kidnappers escaped down a gravel road, and word of the missing girl spread quickly.

 Soon, a group of about 200 residents began the chase. Three of the alleged kidnappers were captured by the Mexican military, who have a presence in the town.

 If the authorities can't protect us, we must protect ourselves.

 Three others fled into a nearby cotton field, where one was later found dead. The other two were hunted down and beaten by the mob from Ascension.

 "When they found them, it was a direct aggression," says Ignacio Rodriguez, a local kitchen-cabinet maker who was elected to head city council next month.

 The girl was rescued unharmed by the residents.

 "We are a small community," says Mari Cruz Salazar Soto, the girl's aunt. "In the past year, we've averaged three kidnappings a week."

 Rodriguez says he knows many people in town whose family members have been kidnapped, and many of them were among the angry crowd.

 "In that moment there was a lot of resentment mixed with rage," he says.

 Rodriguez says people in the mob recognized the two alleged kidnappers, 17-year-old boys who grew up in Ascension. "We don't know why they chose to get mixed up in crime," he says.

 Federal police eventually took custody of the two young men and drove them to the town's small military base.

 Residents say at least 1,000 people then caught up with them at the base and broke through the gates. The mob got ahold of the suspected kidnappers and beat them a second time.

 The crowd then held them for seven hours, locked in a hot vehicle where they eventually died.

 The next day, Mayor Camarillo fired all 14 of the town's police officers and requested assistance from state and federal police. The camera of a local television station captured residents as they stormed city hall on Wednesday morning and demanded the firings.

 Jorge Leyva, a representative of the Chihuahua state police, said an investigation into the deaths of the two suspected kidnappers is under way.

 Three other suspects were detained on charges of kidnapping and illegal weapon possession in the case.

 Rodriguez, the future city councilman, says he's not proud of how his town responded to the kidnapping. Mob violence is not common in Chihuahua, one of the most violent states in the country.

 Rodriguez says citizens in Ascension are forming a sort of neighborhood watch committee and are still deciding how the committee will operate.

 "If the authorities can't protect us," he says, "we must protect ourselves." |||||