People wait in line to vote in the primary Tuesday, March 22, 2016, in Chandler, Ariz. A document obtained from the Maricopa County Recorder's Office shows that five polling places in metro Phoenix still... (Associated Press)

 PHOENIX (AP) — Gustavo Mendez waited four hours to vote in Arizona's presidential primary, marking his ballot just as poll workers brought out food for people stuck in line way past dark.

 The 25-year-old looked forward to voting for Sen. Bernie Sanders, bringing his former girlfriend, who carried their young daughter, and a friend to line up at a west Phoenix church around 6 p.m. March 22.

 After two hours, his fussy daughter and her mother had to leave. Mendez didn't vote for until just after 10 p.m.

 "That's when they came in with food for people still there," said Mendez, who saw pizza boxes coming out as he made his exit. "We didn't expect it to take four hours."

 His wait wasn't the longest. Some voters were forced to linger until 1 a.m. because of a steep cutback in polling places.

 The Associated Press obtained a document from the Maricopa County Recorder's Office that shows the time each of the 60 polling sites closed, providing a more complete picture of the painstaking lines voters experienced outside churches, recreation centers and other locations.

 Maricopa County, with its 2 million registered voters, had 200 polling places in the 2012 presidential primary and 400 in 2008.

 The last polling place closed at 12:58 a.m., meaning the final voters had to wait nearly six hours. The polls officially closed at 7 p.m., but anyone in line at that point was allowed vote. It was one of five places that stayed open past midnight. In all, people were still voting at 10 p.m. or later at 20 out of 60 locations in the county.

 The document is among those the U.S. Justice Department is seeking as it investigates a complaint by the Phoenix mayor that the election disproportionately affected minority voters.

 A letter from the department released Monday by the recorder's office asked for information on 10 specific items, including a description of how election officials determined how many polling places were needed and whether potential effects on minority voters were examined.

 The department declined further comment on its inquiry.

 The frustrating waits come after the Arizona Legislature slashed funding last year for counties to carry out the presidential election. Election officials in Phoenix responded with scaled-back polling, citing a lack of money and the belief that people would vote by mail.

 Despite the investigation, Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan on Monday certified results of the presidential primary, which Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton won.

 As the state's top election official, Reagan didn't have the ability to reject the official canvass from the 15 counties, despite acknowledging problems that led some voters to be incorrectly left off rolls. The certification does, however, clear the way for any possible court challenges.

 Reagan said her office and the Legislature may consider proposed changes in the way counties run future elections. Such changes previously required federal approval, but a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court decision threw out that portion of the Voting Rights Act.

 Reagan has sidestepped questions about why she didn't review the changes in the presidential primary herself in the absence of federal oversight since the other parts of the law remain in force.

 Her certification of the results opens a five-day window for a challenge, something an attorney for Sanders is considering. Attorney Chris Sautter said last week that there was evidence an unknown number of voters had their ballots thrown out because of problems with voter rolls.

 "What's at stake are delegates," Sautter said. "Obviously, the outcome of the election for the primary is not going to be changed, but delegate counts could be changed."

 Sanders lost to Hillary Clinton, but because Democrats allow delegates to their national convention proportionally, challenging the results could add to Sanders' numbers. The state has 10 superdelegates and 75 at-large allocated in the primary.

 Sautter is a veteran election attorney who was in Florida throughout the 2000 presidential fiasco, saying the Arizona "election is pretty close to as bad as that one."

 ___

 Associated Press writer Terry Tang contributed to this report. ||||| The Latest on long lines at polling places during Arizona's presidential primary (all times local):

 4 p.m.

 Arizona's top election official has certified the results of the March 22 presidential primary despite ongoing concerns that long lines and other problems may have affected people's right to vote.

 Secretary of State Michele Reagan certified the official canvass Monday and said she had no authority to do anything except sign off on the election.

 She says anyone who wants to sue over the results now has five days to file a court challenge.

 Maricopa County records show that five polling places in metro Phoenix still had voters in line after midnight, including one location where the final ballot was cast at nearly 1 a.m.

 The U.S. Justice Department is inquiring about the lines and other problems to evaluate whether the largest county in the state complied with voting rights laws.

 ———

 2:10 p.m.

 The U.S. Justice Department is inquiring about long lines and other problems seen during Arizona's presidential primary to evaluate whether the largest county in the state complied with voting rights laws.

 Maricopa County records show that five polling places in metro Phoenix still had voters in line after midnight, including one location where the final ballot was cast at nearly 1 a.m.

 The Maricopa County Recorder's Office on Monday released a letter it received from federal law enforcement officials.

 Justice Department Voting Section Chief Chris Herron asked for information on 10 specific items including a description of how county election officials determined how many polling places were needed on March 22 and whether potential impacts on minority voters were examined.

 Citing budget issues, Maricopa County cut the number of polling places from 200 in 2012 to just 60 this year.

 ———

 11:30 p.m.

 Records show 20 of the 60 polling places in Arizona's largest county still had people waiting in line to vote in the state's presidential primary more than three hours after the polls officially closed.

 The records obtained by The Associated Press from the Maricopa County Recorder's Office also show five polling places saw their last ballot cast more than five hours after the 7 p.m. poll closing. One north Phoenix location saw its last voter just two minutes before 1 a.m.

 Fourteen of the 20 sites were in Phoenix or its western suburbs, while six were in the eastern part of the Phoenix metro area.

 The breakdown illustrates the extent of problems at the March 22 elections, which saw thousands wait for hours to cast a ballot.

 Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan is expected to certify Monday that Democrat Hilary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump won their party's election.

 ———

 3:10 a.m.

 Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan is set to certify results of the March 22 presidential primary that prompted lines of more than five hours after Maricopa County slashed the number of polling places.

 Reagan is the state's top election official and will officially release the statewide vote courts and is expected to certify the results on Monday.

 The official canvass will trigger an opportunity for candidates or individual voters to challenge the results. Lawyers for Democrat Bernie Sanders are considering whether a challenge is possible. Sanders' supporters believe he might gain additional delegates to the Democratic convention because many provisional ballots were thrown out in Maricopa County, but any challenge is legally difficult.

 Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump won statewide. |||||

Write a summary.

– Long lines at polling sites in Arizona's March 22 primary led Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton to call the night a "fiasco"—and the Justice Department to now investigate whether there were civil rights violations regarding what Stanton called "unacceptably disparate distribution of polling locations," Reuters reports. The DoJ's civil rights division penned a letter Friday asking Maricopa County, the state's most populous, to determine if federal law was violated regarding, among other things, the number and location of polling sites (the county cut them from 200 to 60 in 2012 in an apparent bid to save money). The Justice Department's reason for this request: reports of "disproportional burden in waiting times … in some areas with substantial racial or language minority populations," the letter noted. Those waiting times were incredibly inconvenient: The AP notes that some voters waited nearly six hours, with the last vote cast at almost 1am at one site; polls had closed at 7pm, but voters already in line at that point were allowed to cast ballots. Poll workers even reportedly brought pizza to hungry voters. Maricopa County has until April 22 to respond to the DoJ's letter, which included 10 specific requests for information, including polling locations, procedures, and response to public backlash, the Arizona Republic reports. "We are going to gather the information … and we will make it public," the county elections director says. Despite these issues, Arizona's secretary of state certified the primary results on Monday, calling it for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, per the AP. (Here's hoping Wisconsin's big night Tuesday goes more smoothly.)


A young mother, banned from breastfeeding her 11 month old son because of the risk of HIV transmission after she had a tattoo done, has made an urgent application to the Family Court to have the order overturned.

 The 20-year-old, who is known as Ms Jackson for legal reasons, had a finger and a foot tattooed on May 6 without telling the tattooist she was breastfeeding.

 Soon after, the boy's father, known as Mr Macek, who is separated from the mother, took the toddler to live with him and his mother.

 He claimed his former partner had mental health and drug issues.

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 Ms Jackson petitioned the Federal Circuit Court to return the boy to her care.

 In an interim hearing in Newcastle on June 5, Judge Matthew Myers said the mother should have primary care of her son but ordered that he spend time with the father several times a week.

 However, he ordered her not to breastfeed the child because of the risk that she had contracted a blood-borne disease when she got the tattoos.

 Hepatitis B and C and HIV can be transmitted if tattooing equipment is not cleaned and sterilised properly between users.

 The court heard that, although the mother has since tested negative to HIV, she was still in a "window period" during which a positive result may not yet show up.

 The Australian Breastfeeding Association says HIV can be transmitted from mother to baby via breast milk.

 The owner of the tattoo studio, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, told the court via a letter that, "as a rule", he does not tattoo pregnant or breastfeeding women.

 However, the mother did not inform him she was breastfeeding.

 Judge Myers said he weighed up the benefits of breastfeeding for an 11-month-old infant against the life-long harm caused to a child who contracted HIV.

 "It is the view of the court that it is not in the best interests of the child that the mother continue to breastfeed the child, and in those circumstances the court will make the order sought by the father, that is, that the mother be prevented from breastfeeding the child," he said.

 He also said it was "disappointing" that the mother had smoked cannabis on May 22 while she was breastfeeding.

 Both parents provided the court with clean drug screens. Judge Myers also ordered both the mother and father to abstain from using illicit drugs in the 48 hours prior to or during the care of their son.

 He also ordered them not to "partake in any criminal activity" while the boy was with them.

 Further, he ordered the mother to live with the child's maternal great-grandmother and the father to live with the child's paternal grandmother to ensure there was a "responsible adult" around the child.

 The mother, who has been diagnosed with post-natal depression, was told to obtain and follow a mental health plan.

 An apprehended domestic violence order against the father, granted by a Local Court on May 14, remains in place.

 On Friday, three judges of the Family Court in Sydney will hear an appeal against Judge Myers' orders. ||||| Judge bans mother from breastfeeding 11-month-old son because she got a tattoo

 Updated

 A judge has banned a mother from breastfeeding because she got a tattoo, ruling the woman's decision to get it four weeks earlier exposed her 11-month-old baby to an unacceptable risk of harm.

 Federal Circuit Court Judge Matthew Myers' decision to grant an injunction to stop the woman from breastfeeding her son comes despite the mother recording negative results on hepatitis and HIV tests.

 Judge Myers said there was still an unacceptable risk to the baby because the tests were not conclusive.

 The case came before the court because the baby's father raised concerns about the mother's tattoo during a bitter parenting dispute.

 The decision has shocked breastfeeding advocates like Dr Karleen Gribble from the University of Western Sydney.

 "I think if it were reasonable then we would have very, very many women in Australia who would be quite horrified and perhaps child protection authorities should be taking action because many mothers who are breastfeeding get tattoos — very often of their children's names," she said.

 In making the ruling, Judge Myers relied on material published by the Australian Breastfeeding Association.

 Does that mean that women who expose themselves to any sort of risks around the contraction of a blood-borne virus... shouldn't be allowed to breastfeed? Australian Breastfeeding Association's Rebecca Naylor

 Chief executive officer Rebecca Naylor said she is worried a dangerous precedent could be set.

 "Tattooing is a regulated industry, so if you go to a tattoo parlour that is reputable then the chances [of contracting an infection] are very low," she said.

 "I think unless there's evidence that she has contracted an infection as a result of that tattoo, then it is unreasonable.

 "Tattooing in and of itself, as long as it's done in reputable way and that the infection control procedures are followed, the risk is low and so no, we would absolutely encourage women who have had tattoos to breastfeed their babies for as long as they choose to."

 Ms Naylor also flagged broader concerns about the wider implications of the ruling, saying it raised questions about a judge's right to control the risk taking behaviours of women.

 "Does that mean that women who expose themselves to any sort of risks around the contraction of a blood-borne virus... shouldn't be allowed to breast feed?" she said.

 "Of course we have to consider the risk to babies, and I'm not in any way dismissing that.

 "Women do need to be careful. "They're feeding a child, it's going to be their main source of nutrition up until they're 12 months of age, so you do have to be careful.

 "But it doesn't mean that you have to wrap yourself in glad wrap."

 Dr Gribble said she had never seen a case like this before.

 "I'm only aware of one case where somebody contracted HIV from tattooing and that was somebody who'd got a tattoo in Bali, not somebody who'd gotten it in Australia," she said.

 "I think when it comes to mothers and breastfeeding, we need to consider that mothers are people, they do things.

 "Sometimes there's a risk associated with what they do, but we generally think that they don't need to protect their children from all risk and it [comes down to] considering, is this a reasonable risk?

 "Most people consider that the risk of contracting HIV or hepatitis from using a tattoo parlour, and particularly if they've been careful about checking it out, is infinitesimally small."

 A full bench of the Family Court has agreed to hear an urgent appeal against the ruling in Sydney on Friday.

 Topics: breast-feeding, breastfeeding, women, womens-health, australia

 First posted |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– The mother of an 11-month-old baby in Australia can once again breastfeed her child, but it took the intervention of a court. Sydney's Family Court today overturned a previous decision barring the woman from breastfeeding because she had gotten a tattoo a month ago, reports 9 News. The earlier judge thought that put the child at risk for diseases such as HIV or hepatitis and ordered the unidentified woman to stop breastfeeding, but a Family Court judge ridiculed the decision as one that seems to have resulted purely from "surfing the Internet." The unusual case stems from a nasty custody dispute, explains the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The child's parent's aren't together, and the father complained to the court that the mother was unfit, in part because of the tattoo. The woman tested negative for any diseases, but the first judge deemed the results inconclusive. "It is the view of the court that it is not in the best interests of the child that the mother continue to breastfeed," he ruled, per the Sydney Morning Herald. The strange thing is that he cited guidelines from the Australian Breastfeeding Association, but the leader of that group thinks he overreacted. "Women do need to be careful," she says. "But it doesn't mean that you have to wrap yourself in Glad wrap." (Dad can take heart: He lost, but his kid may end up earning more in the long run.)


– Under circumstances that sound straight out of a Le Carre novel, Mohamed Morsi has met with an outsider for the first time since being dumped by Egypt's military, holding a midnight meeting with the European Union's top diplomat at an "undisclosed location" last night, the Wall Street Journal. Though many have feared for Morsi's well-being after almost a month in captivity, Catherine Ashton, the EU's foreign affairs and security policy chief, reports that he is well and has access to TV and newspapers, Reuters reports. The pair had a "very long and in-depth conversation," Ashton says. Ashton, who has met with several other Egyptian political figures while in the country, says she wasn't there to help Morsi break out, but rather to facilitate discussions toward a peaceful end to the country's political unrest, the Washington Post reports. "First of all, we are here to help. We are not here to impose," she says. "The people of Egypt will determine their own future." But will Morsi play ball? "He's a very proud man," says a source close to the former leader, per the Journal. "I think the idea of doing anything on (the) army's terms will not work with him."

Expand this summary.

Article Excerpt

 CAIRO—The European Union's top diplomat met with Mohammed Morsi late Monday night in what people close to the ousted president said was his first meeting with someone outside Egypt's military since he was deposed nearly a month ago.

 Catherine Ashton, the EU's high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, had an in-depth conversation during her two-hour meeting with Mr. Morsi at an undisclosed location, said Michael Mann, Ms. Ashton's spokesman.

 Ms. Ashton's comments about her meeting with Mr. Morsi are the first news of the former president's condition from a source outside the military in nearly a month.

 His ... ||||| CAIRO |

 CAIRO (Reuters) - European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said on Tuesday she found that deposed Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi was well and had access to television and newspapers when she visited him.

 Ashton was speaking to journalists after meeting Mursi at an undisclosed location on Monday night. "I've tried to make sure that his family know he is well," said Ashton.

 Ashton, who is trying to mediate a resolution to Egypt's political crisis, added: "I said I wouldn't come unless I could see him (Mursi)." Asked about a media report that she had offered Mursi a "safe exit", she replied: "I did nothing of the kind."

 (Reporting By Shadia Nasralla/Maggie Fick; Editing by Tom Perry) ||||| A woman waves the Egyptian flag during a protest supporting ousted president Mohamed Morsi in Cairo’s Nasr City area. European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Tuesday that she had met with deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, the first contact he has had with an independent official since he was taken into military custody almost a month ago.

 July 31, 2013 A woman waves the Egyptian flag during a protest supporting ousted president Mohamed Morsi in Cairo’s Nasr City area. European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Tuesday that she had met with deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, the first contact he has had with an independent official since he was taken into military custody almost a month ago. Mohammed Saber/European Pressphoto Agency

 European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton met Monday night with deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, two days after clashes between security forces and Morsi supporters left about 80 dead. Last week, prosecutors announced that Morsi was being investigated over allegations of espionage and murder — accusations that his supporters have dismissed as politically motivated.

 European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton met Monday night with deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, two days after clashes between security forces and Morsi supporters left about 80 dead. Last week, prosecutors announced that Morsi was being investigated over allegations of espionage and murder — accusations that his supporters have dismissed as politically motivated.

 European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton met Monday night with deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, two days after clashes between security forces and Morsi supporters left about 80 dead. Last week, prosecutors announced that Morsi was being investigated over allegations of espionage and murder — accusations that his supporters have dismissed as politically motivated.

 European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Tuesday that she had met with deposed Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi, the first contact he has had with an independent official since he was taken into military custody almost a month ago.

 By allowing the meeting, Egypt’s military signaled that it may be willing to work with Morsi toward a political solution to the country’s ongoing crisis, which has spawned repeated violence between security forces and the ousted president’s supporters. Ashton, a low-key British diplomat, said she was taken by military helicopter late Monday to meet with Morsi. She declined to go into detail about her two-hour conversation with him, but she said he had access to newspapers and television and was in good condition.

 “He’s well, and we had a friendly and open and very frank discussion,” Ashton said at a brief news conference Tuesday. She told reporters that she did not know precisely where Morsi, who has been held incommunicado since his July 3 ouster, is being detained.

 Last week, prosecutors announced that Morsi is under investigation over allegations of espionage and murder, accusations that his supporters in the Muslim Brotherhood have dismissed as politically motivated. Criminal charges based on the allegations could carry the death penalty.

 After her meeting with Morsi, Ashton met Tuesday with Egypt’s interim vice president, Mohamed ElBaradei, a liberal leader and key interlocutor for the military-backed interim government. He said at a joint appearance with Ashton that he thought Morsi had “failed” during his year in power but that his Muslim Brotherhood allies should be part of the new political “road map” going forward.

 “We would very much like them to be part of the political process,” said ElBaradei, a Nobel laureate and former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency who has been slow to criticize the security forces’ crackdown on pro-Morsi demonstrations.

 Ashton’s two-day visit appeared to have at least temporarily calmed the tense capital after a weekend of violence left at least 80 pro-Morsi demonstrators and a police officer dead, according to the Health Ministry. Morsi’s supporters rallied in Cairo on Tuesday night and marched toward the military intelligence headquarters, although no violence had been reported by early Wednesday.

 During her trip, Ashton met with a wide range of Egyptian political figures, including Gen. Abdel Fatah al-Sissi, the commander of the armed forces; liberal activists and politicians who supported the coup; and a hard-line Islamist party that backed Morsi’s removal but has since wavered in its support for the military. She also met with representatives of the Muslim Brotherhood.

 Ashton said Monday that she hoped the meetings would facilitate conversations that might lead to a political solution. But she stressed that Egyptians, and particularly those in power, must ensure that the country moves forward along a democratic path.

 “In all of my conversations, we have emphasized a few things,” Ashton said. “First of all, we are here to help. We are not here to impose. The people of Egypt will determine their own future.”

 Although Ashton has sometimes struggled during her E.U. tenure to publicly articulate a unified message on behalf of the bloc’s 28 member nations, she is known as a charming envoy behind closed doors. She has previously been involved in tough international negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

 In Cairo on Tuesday, her reticence about the substance of her conversation with Morsi appeared at least partly intended to help jump-start discussions between the interim government and the ousted Brotherhood-backed leaders.

 Officials from the Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, from which Morsi hails, told Ashton that any political solution for Egypt must be based on “the return of the president,” the party said in a statement.

 The statement said the demonstrations in support of Morsi would not stop until “constitutional legitimacy” was restored. His backers have used that phrase to refer to returning him to power, as well as to reinstating the country’s Islamist-dominated parliament and the constitution ratified under Morsi through a popular referendum.

 U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel spoke by telephone Tuesday with Sissi, a Hagel spokesman said, adding that the secretary urged “restraint” in dealing with protesters and called for “an inclusive reconciliation process.”

 Sharaf al-Hourani contributed to this report. |||||


Police arrested a Disneyland employee on suspicion of putting a so-called dry ice bomb in a theme park trash can where it exploded, authorities said Wednesday.

 No one was injured in the small blast, but Disneyland briefly evacuated the Mickey's Toontown section where the incident occurred Tuesday.

 Christian Barnes, 22, was arrested for investigation of possessing a destructive device, just hours after the blast, said Anaheim police Sgt. Bob Dunn.

 Disneyland spokeswoman Suzi Brown released a statement Wednesday saying the resort was working closely with authorities.

 Barnes, who worked as an outdoor vendor for the resort, was held on $1 million bail and is cooperating with investigators, Dunn said.

 Detectives found fragments of a water bottle in the trash can and believe Barnes placed dry ice inside it to create the explosion, the police spokesman said.

 A telephone listing for a Christian Barnes rang unanswered Wednesday.

 Mickey's Toontown, designed to make visitors feel like they've entered an old-fashioned cartoon, "is an interactive metropolis full of topsy turvy architecture and screwy sculptures," according to the Disneyland website. ||||| A 22-year-old Disneyland employee has been arrested in connection with the detonation of a so-called dry ice bomb in the park's Toontown, Anaheim police said Wednesday.

 Long Beach resident Christian Barnes, an outdoor vending "cast member," was booked on suspicion of possession of a destructive device and is being held in lieu of bail of $1 million.

 The explosion in a trash can on Tuesday evening forced the evacuation of Toontown. No one was injured, but the explosion caused some brief chaos in a portion of Disneyland popular with young children.

 "Barnes is cooperating with investigators and has indicated this is an isolated incident with unanticipated impacts," Anaheim police Sgt. Bob Dunn said.

 Police described Barnes as a vendor who peddled sodas and water on a mobile cart. They did not give a motive for the incident, which did not cause any significant damage.

 "We take matters like this very seriously and are working closely with local authorities," Disneyland spokeswoman Suzi Brown said in a statement.

 The dry ice appeared to have been placed in a plastic bottle that was left in a trash can in Toontown. The explosion was confined to the can, according to the Anaheim Police Department.

 It does not appear to be connected to similar dry-ice explosions in Anaheim in recent months, Dunn said.

 The mixture exploded about 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, forcing officials to evacuate people from the area for two hours, police said.

 "You wouldn't expect situations like that coming to a place like this. That is crazy, that's wild," said West Covina resident Jonathan Rosario, who was at the park with a toddler as music to the "It's a Small World" echoed in the background. "It reminds us we all need to do our part to be safe."

 ALSO:

 Palmdale boy's torture death triggers L.A. County probe

 Police say two witnesses dispute Justin Bieber's Ferrari story

 Cops who took car on joyride to Vegas blame 'momentary' lapse

 Twitter: @anblanx

 andrew.blankstein@latimes.com |||||

Write a summary.

– Police have arrested one of Disneyland's own employees after yesterday's dry-ice explosion in the Toontown section of the park, reports the Los Angeles Times. Christian Barnes, a 22-year-old vendor who sold soda and water from a cart, is being held on $1 million bond. Police say he filled a bottle with dry ice and dropped it in a trash can. The ensuing blast caused a lot of noise and chaos, but no injuries or serious damage, reports AP. No word on motive, but police don't think it's related to previous dry-ice bombs in the Anaheim area.


Write an article based on this summary:

– Dinosaurs may have been much more like modern birds than we knew—and not just because some had feathers. A new study suggests that mighty dinosaurs of yore didn't roar, contrary to every dinosaur movie you've ever seen. Instead, they made a decidedly less scary sound called a "closed-mouth vocalization." Think of a dove cooing or perhaps an ostrich doing this grunting thing. As the scientists explain in the journal Evolution, per UT News, the sound actually comes out of the neck area after air is pushed through an esophageal pouch. In fact, the animal's mouth is shut the whole time. Lots of birds do this today, and because birds descended from dinosaurs, scientists suspect they may have communicated in a similar way. The fossil record can't prove it, though the Washington Post notes that previous research meshes with the idea, including the belief that dinosaurs had air sacs instead of vocal chords. “A cool thing about this work is the demonstration that closed-mouth behavior evolved many times,” says the lead author. “That suggests it can emerge fairly easily and be incorporated into mating displays" among different types of animals. A co-author says the study gives the impression of "a very different Jurassic world. Not only were dinosaurs feathered, but they may have had bulging necks and made booming, closed-mouth sounds." But if so, the makers of Jurassic Park didn't get it all wrong: The hiss of the film's velociraptors came from a goose, per Vulture. (Scientists have grown chickens with dinosaur legs.)

The T. rex's roar has struck fear into audiences from the days of King Kong to Jurassic World, but new research found that dinosaurs probably didn't sound anything like that. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)

 Picture, if you will, the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex.

 The odds are good what you envision has been brought to you in part by “Jurassic Park,” a plastic toy or some other facet of pop culture. (Perhaps you’re a fan of stop-motion master Ray Harryhausen.) But what Hollywood won’t teach you is that T. rex may have had feathers.

 After all, today’s birds are living dinosaurs.

 Now listen closely to your fearsome and possibly feathered friend. If you imagine it roaring, as both Steven Spielberg and “The Valley of Gwangi” did, we are sorry to say that sound is complete fiction. The roar of “Jurassic Park”‘s CGI tyrannosaur can be traced to a sound studio rather than the fossil record. It was a witches’ brew of baby elephant cries, tiger chuffs and a gargling alligator, remixed into a cinematically terrifying but completely artificial aural blast.

 Were a dinosaur to vocalize in defense of its territory — or as a mating call — it might have sounded like one of today’s birds, scientists say. In fact, a journal article published online Monday argues that the ancient reptiles made sounds closer to the coo of a pigeon or the mumble of an ostrich. Those are far cries from mammalian screams.

 [Grooves in the ground may reveal a bird-like dinosaur mating dance]

 According to the new research, dino sounds may be what scientists call “closed-mouth vocalizations.” Unlike the high-pitched chirps and tweets from the open beaks of songbirds, the closed-mouth sounds are low, throaty whooshes of air. A flesh sac called an esophageal pouch enables birds with proportionally large bodies — think pigeons or doves — to produce the low murmurs.

 A cooing dove with its mouth closed. (Tobias Riede/Midwestern University)

 The researchers figured out the common bird sound like this: First, they collected vocal data on all sorts of animals called archosaurs, which include birds and crocodiles. And, notably, the long-dead dinosaurs. Writing in the journal Evolution, scientists from universities in Texas, Arizona, Utah and Canada analyzed the noises made by many living bird and crocodilian species.

 They divided the types of sounds into various groups, including the close-mouth noises. Roughly a quarter of 200 birds species analyzed emitted the bulging closed-mouth sounds. Small birds, like sparrows and finches, did not make the noise. But birds with proportionally larger body types — like doves, ostriches and the giant New Zealand cassowary — do. This, the researchers say, suggest large-bodied dinosaurs may have had similar vocal abilities.

 “Looking at the distribution of closed-mouth vocalization in birds that are alive today could tell us how dinosaurs vocalized,” said study author and University of Texas biologist Chad Eliason in a statement.

 [These chickens now have dinosaur legs — but that’s not as weird as you might think]

 Moreover, because not all birds had the trait, the scientists say it evolved separately in different groups of animals. It appeared in 16 distinct animal lineages, including crocodiles and birds. The scientists feel confident it could have evolved in dinosaurs, too.

 A model dinosaur at the recent International Tokyo Toy show. (Kazuhiro Nogikazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images)

 “A cool thing about this work is the demonstration that closed-mouth behavior evolved many times,” Tobias Riede, Midwestern University physiology expert and lead author of the paper, said in a news release. “That suggests it can emerge fairly easily and be incorporated into mating displays.”

 The researchers were handicapped in their study because vocal organs, made of soft tissue, do not fossilize the way dinosaur bones do. So it’s much easier to build a big scary creature than to reconstruct what it sounded like.

 But there are a few other hints in addition to this study. Based on what scientists know about birds, dinosaurs likely did not have vocal cords — those tough membranes that vibrate when a lion roars or a human speaks. Instead, they had air sacs, and it is possible dinosaurs had a birdlike syrinx, too (an organ similar to our larynxes but two-pronged and lower in the chest).

 [How to find the dinosaurs that hide inside modern birds]

 If a non-avian dinosaur whooshed like a bird, with its throat puffed up, the scientists suggest it may have sounded like the most intimidating large-bodied birds of today: ostriches and cassowaries.

 Though ostriches are imposing creatures, their hoots leave Hollywood-trained ears wanting. The ostrich mating call is a low buzz, a sound about as ferocious as the gasps from a dying vacuum cleaner.

 That said, the sound-smiths behind “Jurassic Park” were able to call on the dinosaurs’ living cousins in a few tense scenes — just not for T. rex.

 As designer Gary Rydstrom told Vulture in 2013, the sibilant velociraptors — specifically, the sounds emitted right before a certain clever raptor ambushes game warden Robert Muldoon — have avian influences.

 “That’s a goose,” Rydstrom said to Vulture. “Birds make pretty raspy sounds, but geese are famous for being the nastiest. You’ve got to get a goose mad and then they hiss at you, and it doesn’t take much to get a goose mad because they seem to get mad at everything.”

 [The most outlandish theory yet for what killed off the dinosaurs]

 For creatures that so readily capture both popular imagination and scientific study, much remains unknown about dinosaurs.

 The vast majority of dinosaur species have yet to be found, argued University of Pennsylvania researchers in 2006. “It’s a safe bet that a child born today could expect a very fruitful career in dinosaur paleontology,” said paleontologist Peter Dodson at the time, after he and his co-author estimated that humans had discovered only 29 percent of dinosaur genera — the taxonomic rank made of a bundle of many species.

 Dino sounds are no exception to the mystery. It is safe to say dinosaurs made sounds, as American Museum of Natural History Mark Norell put it. But exact specifics — like certainty of dino whooshes, hoots or coos — died with the animals, 65 million years ago. ||||| This post originally ran in April 2013. We are rerunning it with Jurassic WorldÂ opening this weekend.

 "If people knew where the sounds in Jurassic Park came from, it'd be rated R!" laughed Gary Rydstrom. The sound designer rang me up last week to discuss his work on the Steven Spielberg action classic, newly rereleased in 3-D; when the movie came out in 1993, it netted him two Academy Awards for sound design and mixing (he's been nominated an astonishing 17 times over his career, winning seven statuettes). Though the Jurassic job was fun, Rydstrom remembers it as a tall order: He had to create dozens of distinct dinosaur noises essentially from scratch, since no one really knows what these long-dead animals would have sounded like. His solution was to spend months recording animal noises — some exotic, some not — then tweaking those homegrown sounds to create something otherworldly but still organic. What recognizable animals did he use to mix together the raptor, the T. rex, and all of Jurassic Park's other dinosaurs? Read on, if you dare: As Rydstrom implied, some of the sounds are sorta smutty.

 Velociraptors

 The intelligent raptors appear to have their own simple language, and it turns out that it's the language of love. "It's somewhat embarrassing, but when the raptors bark at each other to communicate, it's a tortoise having sex," said Rydstrom. "It's a mating tortoise! I recorded that at Marine World … the people there said, 'Would you like to record these two tortoises that are mating?' It sounded like a joke, because tortoises mating can take a long time. You've got to have plenty of time to sit around and watch and record them."

 Still, that wasn't the only animal element used to create the raptor noises. "When the raptor shows up in the door window in the kitchen, the breathing noise is a horse," said Rydstrom. "We used the horse in about three to four different dinosaurs." What about the hiss that raptor makes when it ambushes the game warden Muldoon (which prompts him to mutter, "Clever girl")? "That’s a goose. Birds make pretty raspy sounds, but geese are famous for being the nastiest. You’ve got to get a goose mad and then they hiss at you, and it doesn't take much to get a goose mad because they seem to get mad at everything. All you have to do is get close to one and stick a mic near its beak and you'll get that hiss, and that's the hiss that Muldoon hears before he dies."

 Gallimimus

 If the Gallimimus flock recalls a stampede of wild horses, there's good reason for it. "I remember recording a female horse, and the male horse came right by her and she squealed because she was in heat," laughed Rydstrom. "A lot of animals in heat make a very unique sound, and she squealed at this male because he got a little too close and she was excited about the male, I assume. And that’s the squeal the Gallimimuses make when they’re passing by, and the squeal one makes when it's getting eaten by a T. rex. One of the key elements of the raptor screams was a boy dolphin in heat, so you can see a pattern here!"

 Tyrannosaurus rex

 The fearsome Tyrannosaurus rex is one of the biggest animals in Jurassic Park, but some of its key noises came from Rydstrom's tiny Jack Russell terrier, Buster. "The way they animated the T. rex was very doglike, especially when it grabs the Gallimimus and the lawyer and shakes them to death," said Rydstrom. "Every day I would see my dog playing with the rope toy and doing exactly that, pretending like he's killing his prey." Was Buster's Jurassic Park cameo an isolated incident? "No, I use my pets all the time," laughed Rydstrom. "In Terminator 2, I recorded the sound of Buster eating puppy chow, and that became the crunch when the T-1000 spiked that guy’s eye socket."

 "One of the fun things in sound design is to take a sound and slow it down: It becomes much bigger," he continued. "That was inspired by Ben Burtt, the great sound designer from the Star Wars movies and a mentor of mine: He did the Rancor beast in Return of the Jedi by slowing a chihuahua sound down. It's one of the secrets of sound design that if you slow something down, something small, it brings out elements of the sound that you could probably never get if you recorded something big."

 As for that bone-shivering, theater-shaking T. rex roar: "The key element of the T. rex roar is not a full-grown elephant but a baby elephant," said Rydstrom. "So once again, a small animal making a small sound slowed down a little bit has more interest to us than what a big animal might do."

 Brachiosaurus

 "The brachiosaur’s singing is one of my favorite sounds in the movie because it’s beautiful, but like all good sound design, it's made from a non-beautiful source, which is donkeys," said Rydstrom. "You think of donkeys, and they kind of yodel, you know? There's this pitch shift in donkey vocals, and if you slow them way down, you get almost a hooting, songlike quality. That's the brachiosaur when it’s in its splendor mode." And what about later in the movie, when it's in its sneezing mode? "That's a whale blowhole and a fire hydrant."

 Triceratops

 "I work at Skywalker Ranch, which has a lot of cattle around, so I used a lot of cows for the triceratops," said Rydstrom. "But the main sound of the sick triceratops is its breathing — this long, slow inhale and exhale — and that's actually one of the only elements of the movie that isn't an organic sound. I used this long cardboard tube with a spring in it, a reverb device that makes sounds seem stretched out and deeper and weird. So when Sam Neill puts his ear right up to the chest cavity of the triceratops and listens to its breathing, there's a lot of cow in there, but the key element of the breathing is mostly me breathing into a tube."

 Rydstrom admitted that he did sneak one other human voice into the movie: his friend Dietrich. "He was visiting me and I turned on the mic and said, 'Can you make any weird sounds?' And he did this phlegmy, guttural growl. In the kitchen attack scene, there’s a close-up of the raptor slowly opening its mouth when it's about to attack Lex as she's hiding in a cabinet, and that sound is mostly my friend Dietrich doing this weird guttural growl. At the time, it felt like cheating when I would use myself or any other human to make a dinosaur sound — I felt like I was cheating the sound-design gods!"

 Baby Raptor

 The sounds Rydstrom used to animate the newly hatched dinosaur are just as adorable as the creature itself. "It's just been born, so at first it’s really squeaky and cute, and we recorded a lot of baby animals: baby owls, baby foxes, and things like that," he said. And no, your ears aren't deceiving you: When Sam Neill finds out that the cute baby dino is actually a vicious velociraptor, the sounds it emits become more … unsettling. "That's exactly right; as soon as he asks, 'What kind of dinosaur is this?' you start hearing these raspier baby owl sounds," said Rydstrom. "I already knew what the adult raptor would sound like, that it would have this screechy, raspy sound, so I tried to find a baby animal that has that rasp in it."

 Dilophosaurus

 When we first meet the Dilophosaurus, it cocks its head at Dennis Nedry and lets out an appealing trill. "Made from a swan," revealed Rydstrom. "Swans make a cute hooting sound, so the cute version of the Dilophosaurus sounds like a swan, for the most part." He chuckled. "Part of the fun of doing these kind of jobs is that I had no idea what a swan sounded like before!"

 Of course, things quickly escalate with the Dilophosaurus as it grows a fearsome cowl and expectorates all over its prey. "When it's the scary spitter, there’s definitely a rattlesnake sound in there as it fans out its canopy around its head, and the raspy sounds in its voice are from a hawk," said Rydstrom, adding with a laugh, "Whenever I give lectures to people about getting sounds for movies, one of the key things I tell them is that when you’re recording dangerous animals like lions and alligators and rattlesnakes, then you have your assistant do it! On Jurassic Park, I had an assistant, the lovely Chris Boyd — who's still alive — and if we needed a rattlesnake, I’d say, 'Chris, please record the rattlesnake.' And I’d record the dogs and the kittens!" ||||| This is a set of web collections curated by Mark Graham using the Archive-IT service of the Internet Archive. They include web captures of the ISKME.org website as well as captures from sites hosted by IGC.org.These web captures are available to the general public.For more information about this collection please feel free to contact Mark via Send Mail ||||| Most birds vocalize with an open beak, but vocalization with a closed beak into an inflating cavity occurs in territorial or courtship displays in disparate species throughout birds. Closed‐mouth vocalizations generate resonance conditions that favor low‐frequency sounds. By contrast, open‐mouth vocalizations cover a wider frequency range. Here we describe closed‐mouth vocalizations of birds from functional and morphological perspectives and assess the distribution of closed‐mouth vocalizations in birds and related outgroups. Ancestral‐state optimizations of body size and vocal behavior indicate that closed‐mouth vocalizations are unlikely to be ancestral in birds and have evolved independently at least 16 times within Aves, predominantly in large‐bodied lineages. Closed‐mouth vocalizations are rare in the small‐bodied passerines. In light of these results and body size trends in nonavian dinosaurs, we suggest that the capacity for closed‐mouth vocalization was present in at least some extinct nonavian dinosaurs. As in birds, this behavior may have been limited to sexually selected vocal displays, and hence would have co‐occurred with open‐mouthed vocalizations. ||||| Colors show probability of each branch being an open-mouth vocalizer (blue) or a closed-mouth vocalizer (red). Pies show the probabilities that the ancestors of birds and crocodiles, palaeognath birds, and neognath birds used closed-mouth vocalization. Tobias Riede

 AUSTIN, Texas — Dinosaurs are often depicted in movies as roaring ferociously, but it is likely that some dinosaurs mumbled or cooed with closed mouths, according to a study posted online in the journal Evolution that will be published in the August print issue.

 The research examines the evolution of a specialized way birds emit sound — closed-mouth vocalization. The study emerges from a new collaboration, funded by a grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, to understand the origin and evolution of the unique vocal organ of birds and the large array of sounds it can produce. Because birds descended from dinosaurs, the research may also shed light on how dinosaurs made sound.

 X-ray image of a ring dove (Streptopelia risoria) producing cooing sounds with a closed mouth. Tobias Riede

 Closed-mouth vocalizations are sounds that are emitted through the skin in the neck area while the beak is kept closed. To make them, birds typically push air that drives sound production into an esophageal pouch rather than exhale through the open beak. The coos of doves are an example of this behavior. Compared with sounds emitted through an open beak, closed-mouth vocalizations are often much quieter and lower in pitch. Birds making closed-mouth vocalizations usually do so only to attract mates or defend their territory. At other times, they emit sounds through an open mouth.

 To understand when and how closed-mouth vocalization evolved, researchers with The University of Texas at Austin, Midwestern University in Arizona, Memorial University of Newfoundland and the University of Utah used a statistical approach to analyze the distribution of this vocal ability among birds and other reptilian groups. In total, the researchers identified 52 out of 208 investigated bird species that use closed-mouth vocalization.

 “Looking at the distribution of closed-mouth vocalization in birds that are alive today could tell us how dinosaurs vocalized,” said Chad Eliason, a postdoctoral researcher at The University of Texas Jackson School of Geosciences and the study’s co-author. “Our results show that closed-mouth vocalization has evolved at least 16 times in archosaurs, a group that includes birds, dinosaurs and crocodiles. Interestingly, only animals with a relatively large body size (about the size of a dove or larger) use closed-mouth vocalization behavior.”

 Tobias Riede, a physiology professor at Midwestern University and the study’s first author, said the association with large bodies is a matter of physics.

 “The inflation of an elastic cavity could present a size-dependent challenge,” Riede said. “The lung pressure required to inflate a cavity depends on the tension in the wall of the cavity, and this tension increases for smaller body sizes.”

 Researchers still are not certain about how the ancestors of modern archosaurs vocalized. But the occurrence of closed-mouth vocalization across birds and crocodiles — the two surviving groups of archosaurs — indicates that closed-mouth vocalization can emerge in diverse archosaur species depending on behavioral or environmental circumstances, Riede said.

 “A cool thing about this work is the demonstration that closed-mouth behavior evolved many times,” Riede said. “That suggests it can emerge fairly easily and be incorporated into mating displays.”

 An ostrich inflates its neck to make closed-mouth vocalizations. Credit: Ryan Mayock

 Because dinosaurs are members of the archosaur group, and many had large body sizes, it is likely that some dinosaurs made closed-mouthed vocalizations in a manner similar to birds today, perhaps during mating displays. However, at this point in time, no direct fossil evidence exists to reveal what dinosaurs sounded like.

 Julia Clarke, a professor at the Jackson School of Geosciences and co-author, said the study offers clues.

 “To make any kind of sense of what nonavian dinosaurs sounded like, we need to understand how living birds vocalize,” she said. “This makes for a very different Jurassic world. Not only were dinosaurs feathered, but they may have had bulging necks and made booming, closed-mouth sounds.”

 Future research by this collaboration will integrate information from fossils, experimental physiology, gene expression and sound modeling to understand the sounds that extinct early avian species, and perhaps their dinosaur ancestors, produced. |||||


This will appear next to all of your comments

 This will NOT appear anywhere on Newser ||||| A new poll finds that just 24 percent of voters support the Graham-Cassidy ObamaCare repeal bill.

 The poll from the left-leaning Public Policy Polling finds that less than a quarter of respondents approve of the Senate GOP's latest repeal and replacement bill, while 50 percent disapprove.

 The low approval comes as the Senate is heading toward a possible vote on the legislation next week, and backers are still trying to rally support.

 The bill, named after Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham Lindsey Olin GrahamOn The Money: Senators propose 'crushing' Russia sanctions | Trump calls for food stamp work requirements in farm bill | China tells US to 'chill' on trade | Apple hits trillion in value Hillicon Valley: Trump officials deliver show of force on election security | Apple hits trillion | How fake Facebook groups manipulated real activists | Senate group seeks new Russia sanctions Senators introduce bill to slap 'crushing' new sanctions on Russia MORE (S.C.) and Bill Cassidy William (Bill) Morgan CassidyEnergy Department clears ‘small-scale’ natural gas exports for fast approval GOP senators introduce resolution endorsing ICE Lawmakers pitch dueling plans for paid family leave MORE (La.), aims to give more control over health care to states. It would convert ObamaCare's insurer subsidies and Medicaid expansion funds into block grants, so that states can design their own programs.

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 The poll was highlighted by several Democratic groups seeking to defend the Affordable Care Act.

 In addition, 46 percent of voters said they would be less likely to vote for a member of Congress if he or she voted for Graham-Cassidy, while 23 percent would be more likely.

 Seventy-seven percent said they agreed with late-night host Jimmy Kimmel that no one should be denied coverage because they cannot afford it.

 The Senate is set to possibly vote next week even without a Congressional Budget Office analysis of the measure’s effect on premiums and the number of people covered. In the poll, 68 percent of voters said lawmakers should wait to get that analysis, and 21 percent said they should vote anyway.

 This bill does appear to be polling at least somewhat higher than the earlier GOP ObamaCare repeal bill, which got just 12 percent approval in a USA Today/Suffolk University poll in June.

 The latest survey came the same day as a study from the Brookings Institution that found that at least 21 million people would lose health-care coverage under the new plan by 2026. ||||| (CNN) Sen. John McCain announced Friday in a statement that he cannot "in good conscience" vote for the GOP's latest plan to overhaul Obamacare, likely ending Republicans' latest effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

 "I cannot in good conscience vote for the Graham-Cassidy proposal," the Arizona Republican said in a statement. "I believe we could do better working together, Republicans and Democrats, and have not yet really tried. Nor could I support it without knowing how much it will cost, how it will (affect) insurance premiums, and how many people will be helped or hurt by it. Without a full CBO score, which won't be available by the end of the month, we won't have reliable answers to any of those questions."

 McCain's "no" vote means it is likely Republicans won't be able to repeal and replace Obamacare before September 30, as Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky said he would not back Graham-Cassidy and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine has said she is leaning "no" on the proposal. But there are still questions as to where Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski is at the moment. It's also unclear if senators on the fence would support a procedural motion on the bill even if they decide they are against Graham-Cassidy in the end.

 Republicans need at least 50 votes to pass the measure under the process of reconciliation.

 Murkowski, Paul and Collins also under scrutiny

 McCain was one of three most-watched members on the fence and considered a key vote on the bill. Without his support, Republicans would need to get Murkowski as well as Collins to sign on. It's unlikely considering the fact that Collins said Friday afternoon that she was leaning against the bill and had key concerns that the legislation did not do enough to protect individuals with pre-existing conditions.

 "I'm leaning against the bill," Collins said Friday at a Portland, Maine, event, according to The Portland Press Herald.

 A Republican aide involved in the process said Friday afternoon that GOP leaders are at the "evaluating options" stage right now.

 The aide added, "I'm not breaking news telling you this isn't good."

 Paul, the only other Republican other than McCain who has so far definitively come out against Graham-Cassidy, is "unlikely" to change his mind even if changes are made to the bill, his spokesman Sergio Gor told CNN.

 Graham and McCain's close friendship

 McCain's announcement comes despite that one of the bill's key sponsors -- Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina -- is a close confidant. The thinking was if anyone could convince McCain to vote "yes," it would be Graham.

 "I take no pleasure in announcing my opposition. Far from it," McCain said. "The bill's authors are my dear friends, and I think the world of them. I know they are acting consistently with their beliefs and sense of what is best for the country. So am I."

 McCain has said for weeks that he would not support health care legislation that had not gone through "regular order," meaning Senate hearings, an amendment process and a rigorous floor debate.

 Graham said he "respectfully" disagrees with McCain and will "press on" with his legislation.

 "My friendship with John McCain is not based on how he votes but respect for how he's lived his life and the person he is," Graham said in a statement and on Twitter, adding later, "I feel an obligation to fix this disaster and intend to push forward for state-centric health care versus Washington-knows-best health care."

 My friendship with @SenJohnMcCain is not based on how he votes but respect for how he's lived his life and the person he is. — Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) September 22, 2017

 McCain voted "no" on the last health care proposal in July for the same reason. McCain's dramatic floor vote, which happened just weeks after he was diagnosed with brain cancer, came in the early morning and was captured as one of his most "maverick" moments in the Senate.

 What the White House is thinking

 A senior White House official told CNN that McCain's opposition "undeniably hurts" the effort to repeal and replace Obamacare but that President Donald Trump is not ready to give up on the effort yet.

 "The President has been engaged all along, and I think you will continue to see him reach out," the official said. "We have been having conversations with Graham and Cassidy for a couple months and ... even though there may be members who want to give up, the President does not."

 Top White House aides have been talking with Graham and Sen. Bill Cassidy for months now, and in between events at the United Nations this week, Trump called senators to talk about the upcoming health care vote, White House officials said. Trump was hoping to solidify Republicans around the deal struck by the two senators and urged many of the lawmakers to stay loyal to him.

 The White House official, though, added that even though chances of passing health care look bleak, the White House intends to juggle between Graham-Cassidy and tax reform next week.

 Vice President Mike Pence indirectly addressed the decision during a speech Friday afternoon in Anderson, Indiana.

 "The vote could come as early as next week and this is not going to be easy. Even now, the opposition is forming up and some have gone so far to announce their opposition already. But President Trump and I are undeterred," Pence said.

 "We cannot in good conscious abandon this cause," Pence said to applause in his home state.

 Democrats praise McCain

 Just moments after McCain announced his opposition, Democrats seized on the opportunity to bring back bipartisan talks that had stalled last week.

 Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington and Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee had held bipartisan hearings over the last month on how to stabilize Obamacare marketplaces and were making progress in their negotiations. But the House leadership made it clear last week that the chamber probably would not be able to pass such a bill.

 As soon as McCain announced his opposition, Murray announced she was still open to reigniting those talks.

 "I agree with Senator McCain that the right way to get things done in the Senate — especially on an issue as important to families as their health care — is through regular order and working together to find common ground," Murray said. "I'm still at the table ready to keep working, and I remain confident that we can reach a bipartisan agreement as soon as this latest partisan approach by Republican leaders is finally set aside."

 Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also praised McCain shortly after his announcement.

 "John McCain shows the same courage in Congress that he showed when he was a naval aviator," the New York Democrat said in a statement. "I have assured Senator McCain that as soon as repeal is off the table, we Democrats are intent on resuming the bipartisan process."

 For her part, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said her members would continue working "to put the stake in the heart of this monstrous bill."

 "This weekend, we will continue to highlight the devastating costs Republicans are trying to inflict on hard-working Americans," she said in a letter to colleagues.

 This story has been updated and will update with additional developments. |||||

Write a summary.

– The latest Republican effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act may very well be dead after Sen. John McCain announced his opposition to it Friday, the AP reports. "I cannot in good conscience vote for the Graham-Cassidy proposal," CNN quotes McCain as saying in a statement. "I believe we could do better working together, Republicans and Democrats, and have not yet really tried." This would be the second time McCain has put a nail in the coffin of Republican efforts to end ObamaCare. McCain said he couldn't vote for the Graham-Cassidy bill without a CBO score, which wouldn't be available until later this month, to let him know "how much it will cost, how it will affect insurance premiums, and how many people will be helped or hurt by it." Republicans could only afford to have two senators side with Democrats in opposition to the bill. Sen. Rand Paul was already opposed and Sen. Susan Collins was leaning that way. A recent poll found only 24% of Americans support the Graham-Cassidy bill and 50% disapprove of it, the Hill reports.


– Algeria's defense ministry says 257 people died when a military plane crashed soon after takeoff in a farm field in northern Algeria on Wednesday, per the AP. The Soviet-designed Il-76 military transport plane had departed Boufarik air base, 20 miles southwest of the capital Algiers, for a military base in Bechar in southwest Algeria, a civil protection agency rep tells the AP. Another rep, who initially gave the "provisional" death toll as 181, says some passengers were "extracted with deep burns caused by the fuselage catching fire" and more than 300 emergency workers are working at the scene, per the AP. Footage showed thick black smoke coming off the field, as well as ambulances and Red Crescent vehicles at the site. The defense ministry says an investigation is underway.

Expand this summary.

ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — The Latest on the crash of a military plane in Algeria (all times local):

 11:40 a.m.

 Algerian emergency services say 181 people have been killed in a military plane crash and some survivors have been rescued.

 Civil protection agency spokesman Farouk Achour told The Associated Press that the "provisional" death toll from the crash on Wednesday is 181. He said some passengers were "extracted with deep burns caused by the fuselage catching fire."

 He said more than 300 emergency workers are working at the scene.

 Algerian TV network Ennahar published images of body bags lined up in a field after the crash.

 The crash occurred soon after takeoff from the Boufarik air base southwest of the capital Algiers.

 ____

 10 a.m.

 Algerian state radio says that more than 100 people were killed in a military plane crash southwest of the capital.

 The radio report said the cause of the crash Wednesday near an air base in Boufarik remains unclear.

 Algerian state news agency said the Soviet-designed Il-76 plane was headed for Bechar in southwest Algeria.

 Emergency services have been dispatched to the site of the crash.

 Boufarik is located in northern Algeria some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the capital, Algiers.

 ____

 9:40 a.m.

 Algeria's state news agency says that a military plane has crashed near the military base of Boufarik in Algeria.

 The Algerie Presse service agency said the Ilyushin-type plane was headed for Bechar in southwest Algeria.

 Emergency services have been dispatched to the site of the crash. No death toll was immediately available.

 Boufarik is located in northern Algeria, near the Mediterranean sea, some 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the capital, Algiers. ||||| ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — At least 100 people were killed when a military plane carrying soldiers crashed soon after takeoff in a farm field in northern Algeria on Wednesday, officials said.

 The cause of the crash was unclear, and an investigation has been opened, according to a Defense Ministry statement.

 Local media reported that the plane crashed just after taking off. Emergency services converged on the area near the Boufarik military base after the crash. Footage from the scene showed thick black smoke coming off the field, as well as ambulances and Red Crescent vehicles arriving at the site.

 "There are more than 100 deaths. We can't say exact how many at this point," Mohammed Achour, chief spokesman for the civil protection agency, told The Associated Press.

 He said the plane was carrying soldiers. The Defense Ministry did not provide a death toll but expressed condolences to the victims' families.

 The flight had just taken off from Boufarik, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) southwest of the capital Algiers, for a military base in Bechar in southwest Algeria, Achour said. It was scheduled to make a layover in Tindouf in southern Algeria, home to many refugees from the neighboring Western Sahara, a disputed territory annexed by Morocco.

 The Soviet-designed Il-76 military transport plane crashed in an agricultural zone with no residents, Achour said.

 The Il-76 model has been in production since 1970s and has an overall good safety record. It is widely used for both commercial freight and military transport.

 The Algerian military operates several of the planes. ||||| This will appear next to all of your comments

 This will NOT appear anywhere on Newser |||||


Write a summary based on this article:

The comments represented an extraordinary moment in the investigation, which centers in part on the administration’s contacts with Russian officials: A day after firing the man leading that inquiry, Mr. Trump disparaged him — to Russian officials.

 The White House document that contained Mr. Trump’s comments was based on notes taken from inside the Oval Office and has been circulated as the official account of the meeting. One official read quotations to The Times, and a second official confirmed the broad outlines of the discussion.

 Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, did not dispute the account.

 In a statement, he said that Mr. Comey had behaved politically and put unnecessary pressure on the president’s ability to conduct diplomacy with Russia on matters such as Syria, Ukraine and the Islamic State.

 “By grandstanding and politicizing the investigation into Russia’s actions, James Comey created unnecessary pressure on our ability to engage and negotiate with Russia,” Mr. Spicer said. “The investigation would have always continued, and obviously, the termination of Comey would not have ended it. Once again, the real story is that our national security has been undermined by the leaking of private and highly classified conversations.”

 The day after firing Mr. Comey, Mr. Trump hosted Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, in the Oval Office, along with the Russian ambassador to the United States, Sergey I. Kislyak. The meeting ignited controversy this week when it was revealed that Mr. Trump had disclosed intelligence from an Israeli counterterrorism operation.

 A third government official briefed on the meeting defended the president, saying that Mr. Trump, whose discursive speaking style has hindered him in office, was using a negotiating tactic when he told Mr. Lavrov about the “pressure” he was under. The idea, the official suggested, was to create a sense of obligation with Russian officials and to coax concessions out of Mr. Lavrov — on Syria, Ukraine and other issues — by saying that Russian meddling in last year’s election had created enormous political problems for Mr. Trump. ||||| The law enforcement investigation into possible coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign has identified a current White House official as a significant person of interest, showing that the probe is reaching into the highest levels of government, according to people familiar with the matter.

 The senior White House adviser under scrutiny by investigators is someone close to the president, according to these people, who would not further identify the official.

 The revelation comes as the investigation appears to be entering a more overtly active phase, with investigators shifting from work that has remained largely hidden from the public to conducting interviews and using a grand jury to issue subpoenas. The intensity of the probe is expected to accelerate in the coming weeks, the people said.

 The sources emphasized that investigators remain keenly interested in people who previously wielded influence in the Trump campaign and administration but are no longer part of it, including former national security adviser Michael Flynn and former campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

 Flynn resigned in February after disclosures that he had lied to administration officials about his contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. Current administration officials who have acknowledged contacts with Russian officials include President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as well as Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

 (Peter Stevenson,Jason Aldag,Whitney Leaming/The Washington Post)

 [Graphic: What we know so far about Team Trump’s ties to Russian interests]

 People familiar with the investigation said the intensifying effort does not mean criminal charges are near, or that any such charges will result. Earlier this week, Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein appointed former FBI director Robert S. Mueller III to serve as special counsel and lead the investigation into Russian meddling.

 It is unclear exactly how Mueller’s leadership will affect the direction of the probe, and he is already bringing in new people to work on the team. Those familiar with the case said its significance had increased before Mueller’s appointment.

 Although the case began quietly last July as an effort to determine whether any Trump associates coordinated with Russian operatives to meddle in the presidential election campaign, the investigative work now being done by the FBI also includes determining whether any financial crimes were committed by people close to the president. The people familiar with the matter said the probe has sharpened into something more fraught for the White House, the FBI and the Justice Department — particularly because of the public steps investigators know they now need to take, the people said.

 When subpoenas are issued or interviews are requested, it is possible the people being asked to talk or provide documents will reveal publicly what they were asked about.

 A small group of lawmakers known as the Gang of Eight was notified of the change in tempo and focus in the investigation at a classified briefing Wednesday evening, the people familiar with the matter said. Then-FBI Director James B. Comey publicly confirmed the existence of the investigation in March.

 Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores said, “I can’t confirm or deny the existence or nonexistence of investigations or targets of investigations.” An FBI spokesman declined to comment.

 White House spokesman Sean Spicer said, “As the president has stated before, a thorough investigation will confirm that there was no collusion between the campaign and any foreign entity.’’

 While there has been a loud public debate in recent days over the question of whether the president might have attempted to obstruct justice in his private dealings with Comey, whom Trump fired last week, people familiar with the matter said investigators on the case are more focused on Russian influence operations and possible financial crimes.

 The FBI’s investigation seeks to determine whether and to what extent Trump associates were in contact with Kremlin operatives, what business dealings they might have had in Russia, and whether they in any way facilitated the hacking and publishing of emails from the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, during the presidential campaign. Several congressional committees are also investigating, though their probes could not produce criminal charges.

 [Appointment of Mueller could complicate other probes into alleged Russian meddling]

 A grand jury in Alexandria, Va., recently issued a subpoena for records related to Flynn’s business, the Flynn Intel Group, which was paid more than $500,000 by a company owned by a Turkish American businessman close to top Turkish officials, according to people familiar with the matter.

 The Flynn Intel Group was paid for research on Fethullah Gulen, a cleric who Turkey’s current president believes was responsible for a coup attempt last summer. Flynn retroactively registered with the Justice Department in March as a paid foreign agent for Turkish interests.

 Separately from the probe now run by Mueller, Flynn is being investigated by the Pentagon’s top watchdog for his foreign payments. Flynn also received $45,000 to appear in 2015 with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a dinner for RT, a Kremlin-controlled media organization.

 Flynn discussed U.S. sanctions against Russia with Russia’s ambassador to the United States during the month before Trump took office, and he withheld that fact from the vice president. That prompted then-acting attorney general Sally Yates to warn the White House’s top lawyer that Flynn might be susceptible to blackmail. Flynn stepped down after The Washington Post reported on the contents of the call.

 The president has nonetheless seemed to defend his former adviser. A memo by Comey alleged that Trump asked that the probe into Flynn be shut down.

 [Notes made by FBI Director Comey say Trump pressured him to end Flynn probe]

 The White House also has acknowledged that Kushner met with Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the United States, in late November. Kushner also has acknowledged that he met with the head of a Russian development bank, Vnesheconombank, which has been under U.S. sanctions since July 2014. The president’s son-in-law initially omitted contacts with foreign leaders from a national security questionnaire, though his lawyer has said publicly he submitted the form prematurely and informed the FBI soon after that he would provide an update.

 Vnesheconombank handles development for the state, and in early 2015, a man purporting to be one of its New York-based employees was arrested and accused of being an unregistered spy.

 That man — Evgeny Buryakov — ultimately pleaded guilty and was eventually deported. He had been in contact with former Trump adviser Carter Page, though Page has said he shared only “basic immaterial information and publicly available research documents” with the Russian. Page was the subject of a secret warrant last year issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, based on suspicions he might have been acting as an agent of the Russian government, according to people familiar with the matter. Page has denied any wrongdoing, and accused the government of violating his civil rights.

 Ellen Nakashima and Ashley Parker contributed to this report.

 Read more:

 What’s next in the Russia investigation? The week’s biggest bombshells.

 White House offers shifting explanations of Trump’s disclosures to Russians

 Trump revealed highly classified information to Russian foreign minister and ambassador |||||

– President Trump told Russian officials that firing James Comey took a "great pressure" off him in regard to the ongoing investigation into his campaign's possible collusion with Russia, the New York Times reports. He also told Russian officials the former FBI director was "crazy, a real nut job." The quotes come from a document summarizing Trump's May 10 meeting with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov and ambassador Sergey Kislyak in the Oval Office. The document is being treated as the official account of the meeting, and Sean Spicer didn't dispute its contents. It appears to be another incidence of Trump claiming he fired Comey because of the Russian investigation, contradicting the official reason given by the White House. One official says Trump was attempting a negotiating tactic on the Russians, making them feel bad about the political pressure they caused for him. Meanwhile, the Washington Post reports the investigation into possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign now includes a current White House official as a significant person of interest. Sources close to the investigation say it's now looking at a senior White House adviser close to the president. While the official isn't being identified, current White House officials that have admitted to having contact with Russian officials include Jared Kushner, Jeff Sessions, and Rex Tillerson. While the investigation is ramping up to interviews and subpoenas, sources with knowledge of it say that doesn't mean criminal charges are a given.


Image copyright Rex Features Image caption The image of the cockatoo was widely shared

 A bedraggled cockatoo that was pictured stripped of its feathers in a cyclone-hit Australian forest has died.

 The bird - dubbed "Debbie", after the cyclone - was rescued among broken twigs in Queensland on Tuesday.

 A photograph of the cockatoo, by the Townsville Bulletin's Alix Sweeney, became a ubiquitous image of the storm.

 The newspaper reported that the bird had been found dead in its box on Thursday and was returned to the forest where it had been buried.

 The cockatoo had probably suffered injuries during the cyclone, a wildlife carer said.

 On Tuesday, Ms Sweeney said she "couldn't miss" the white bird among the greenery.

 "There was a whole group of cockatoos sitting way up in the trees just clinging on during the gale force winds," she said. ||||| A dead shark found in Ayr, Queensland, Australia after Cyclone Debbie made landfall this week (Queensland Fire and Emergency Services Twitter)

 The Australian state of Queensland was hit hard this week by a vicious tropical cyclone. And while there has been property damage, thankfully no one was seriously injured by Cyclone Debbie. Well, no one, unless you count this 5-foot long shark that was found dead this morning near the floodwaters.

 The bull shark was found in a puddle in the town of Ayr, just north of where Cylcone Debbie made landfall. Queensland Fire and Emergency Services shared photos of the poor shark on Twitter, warning people to stay out of the flood waters that are currently swamping the area.

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 But nobody seems to want to call this what it is: a real life sharknado. The sharknado is, of course, when a cyclone that has become infested with sharks exacts destruction on a populated area. The rare phenomenon gained public attention after the 2013 documentary Sharknado.

 Heavy rains are continuing in the region and emergency crews are still performing rescue operations for people trapped in the flooding. The hardest hit areas of Queensland have seen over 15 inches of rain and roughly 50,000 homes have been without power. As many as 400 schools will remain closed tomorrow.

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 Sharks and schools aside, Australians were perhaps most devastated when they learned that the chaos of Cyclone Debbie had caused the beloved XXXX Brewery to catch fire on Tuesday. But Australians have been told not to worry—the fire won’t affect the beer supply.

 Which is good. Because after the flood water recedes everyone is going to need a drink to tell the story of where they were when a sharknado hit Australia. Because it did. This was a sharknado. Don’t question science.

 [7 News Australia] |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Emergency crews traipsing through the Australian town of Ayr after Cyclone Debbie made landfall came across a rather odd sight Thursday: a shark roadblock. The 5-foot-long bull shark, surrounded by little more than a puddle, had washed up on a road and died, reports the West Australian. And it wasn't the only high-profile animal to succumb to the storm, which Gizmodo is now calling "a real life sharknado." A battered cockatoo that became famous around Australia after a photographer rescued it from a tree on Tuesday has also died, though it initially showed signs of improvement, reports the BBC.


Summarize this article:

President Obama on Tuesday called on Congress to find budget cuts and tax changes to delay the sequester for a few more months until Congress finds “a smarter solution.” (The Washington Post)

 President Obama on Tuesday called on Congress to find budget cuts and tax changes to delay the sequester for a few more months until Congress finds “a smarter solution.” (The Washington Post)

 President Obama on Tuesday called on Congress to pass a small package of spending cuts and tax changes to delay the start next month of deep reductions in domestic and defense spending that could deliver a fresh blow to a fragile economic recovery.

 With time running out, Obama said, Congress should adopt measures to postpone the automatic spending reductions, known as the sequester, for a few months. Without any action, the cuts, worth $1.2 trillion over a decade, are scheduled to take effect March 1 and are causing deep anxiety among government workers and contractors.

 Obama did not outline a specific proposal, and he said he still favored a broad deal of spending cuts and tax changes — which would eliminate deductions and loopholes that benefit the wealthy and certain industries — to replace the sequester.

 “If Congress can’t act immediately on a bigger package, if they can’t get a bigger package done by the time the sequester is scheduled to go into effect,” Obama said in the White House briefing room, “then I believe that they should at least pass a smaller package of spending cuts and tax reforms that would delay the economically damaging effects of the sequester for a few more months.”

 To delay the sequester for several months, any plan passed by Congress would have to reduce borrowing by tens of billions of dollars through a combination of alternative spending cuts or tax increases. The White House said it would work with Congress on crafting the package.

 1 of 10 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Five truths and five myths about the debt ceiling View Photos Post staff writer Neil Irwin lays out some facts about the debt limit, while former government official Bruce Bartlett clears up some falsehoods. Caption Post staff writer Neil Irwin lays out some facts about the debt limit, while former government official Bruce Bartlett clears up some falsehoods. TRUTH: That gap between revenue and spending? It's the deficit. Irwin writes, "The U.S. government took in about $7,000 in revenue for every man, woman and child in the United States last year. It spent more than $11,000 per person. The gap between those numbers, about $4,000 per person, is the deficit, and it was covered by borrowing money. Some politicians speak as if high levels of government spending and a large budget deficit are the same thing. This isn’t so. You could have a government that spends $11,000 per person — but with taxes to match it — and no deficit. Or you could have a bare-bones government of a libertarian’s fantasy that spends only $7,000 per person but that runs a large deficit because it raises only $3,000 per person in taxes." Greg Kreller/AP Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue.

 While the sequester cuts domestic and defense spending almost indiscriminately, any new package backed by the White House could find alternative savings by targeting specific programs for cuts or closing tax breaks, such as those that benefit oil and gas companies or users of corporate jets.

 Republicans have been warming to the idea of allowing the sequester to go forward because it guarantees sharp cuts in spending. The GOP might agree to other reductions to replace the sequester — especially since many Republicans are concerned about slashing the defense budget — but any proposal to raise taxes would likely be a flashpoint. The president has made clear he expects wealthier Americans and industries with special tax advantages to pay more toward deficit reduction.

 Responding to news earlier in the day that Obama would make the announcement, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Republicans would oppose any tax increases and noted that Obama was the one who first proposed the sequester.

 “There is a better way to reduce the deficit, but Americans do not support sacrificing real spending cuts for more tax hikes,” Boehner said in a statement. “The president’s sequester should be replaced with spending cuts and reforms that will start us on the path to balancing the budget in 10 years.”

 The sequester is not the only looming deadline. A continuing resolution funding the government expires in late March, and the government will shut down without further action by Congress. And there is another deadline to raise the federal debt limit in the summer.

 A report last week showed that the economy contracted in the fourth quarter of 2012, in part because of sharp reductions in defense spending and concerns about the sequester.

 “Our economy right now is headed in the right direction. And it will stay that way, as long as there aren’t any more self-inflicted wounds coming out of Washington,” Obama said Tuesday.

 You’ve heard the word “sequester” mentioned by politicians a lot lately. The Washington Post’s Ed O’Keefe explains what the term means, and why it matters. (The Washington Post)

 Just before the president’s announcement, the Congressional Budget Office released its economic projections for the year ahead. The nonpartisan CBO said that by the end of 2013, the federal budget deficit will come in under $1 trillion — the first time in five years. The gap between taxes and spending is estimated to narrow to $845 billion in the fiscal year that ends in September, the release said.

 Attributed in large part to tax hikes adopted on Jan. 1 and the sequester set to hit next month, the CBO’s new projections show the deficit continuing its drop in 2014 and 2015, and falling to less than 3 percent of the overall economy for much of this decade.

 Obama’s push for a short-term solution picked up Democratic support in the Senate on Tuesday.

 “I agree with President Obama that if we can’t agree now on a long-term solution, the best thing for families and the economy would be to pass a balanced short-term sequestration replacement while the House and Senate work on our budget resolutions," said Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), chairwoman of the Senate Budget Committee.

 The sequester was a mechanism that Congress and the White House designed in 2011 to force policymakers to generate significant deficit reduction over the next 10 years.

 While they have made progress on that front — gaining more than $2.5 trillion in deficit savings — they have not come to a broad agreement as many hoped.

 The sequester would slice $1.2 trillion in domestic and defense spending over 10 years, indiscriminately cutting most programs. (Some programs, such as Medicaid and food stamps, are exempt.)

 The “fiscal cliff” deal at the start of the year postponed the sequester for two months.

 Obama favors a broader plan to permanently end the sequester and replace it with a series of reductions in health care and other mandatory spending as well as the elimination of tax breaks that benefit the wealthy and industries. He said on Tuesday his offer to Boehner from December, reflecting these principles, is still on the table.

 Republicans favor deep cuts to spending without raising taxes any more. ||||| Speaker John Boehner is signaling he will not accept revenue increases that President Barack Obama is expected to propose to delay the automatic spending cuts that take hold at the beginning of March.

 “President Obama first proposed the sequester and insisted it become law,” Boehner said in a statement. “Republicans have twice voted to replace these arbitrary cuts with common-sense cuts and reforms that protect our national defense.

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 (Also on POLITICO: What is sequestration?)

 “We believe there is a better way to reduce the deficit, but Americans do not support sacrificing real spending cuts for more tax hikes,” he added. “The president’s sequester should be replaced with spending cuts and reforms that will start us on the path to balancing the budget in 10 years.”

 Boehner — and House Republicans, broadly — have been opposed to delaying the sequester. Instead, Boehner is trying to use the scheduled cuts as a way to force the White House to accept reforms to federal spending and taxing.

 (Also on POLITICO: Obama to push for sequester delay) |||||

– President Obama wants to put off the dreaded sequester just a little while longer. In an address this afternoon, Obama called for a handful of small budget cuts to justify pushing the automatic spending cuts back again, this time until after Congress has crafted a new federal budget, the Washington Post reports. The extra time could be used, Obama said, to come up with a "balanced" long-term deficit fix. "There is no reason that the jobs of thousands of Americans … not to mention the growth of the entire economy should be put in jeopardy just because a few folks in Washington couldn't agree to eliminate a few special interest tax loopholes," he said. But before Obama had even spoken, John Boehner issued a statement dismissing the idea of any deal including more tax revenue, accurately predicting that Obama would call for it, Politico reports. "President Obama first proposed the sequester and insisted it become law," Boehner said. "We believe there is a better way to reduce the deficit, but Americans do not support sacrificing real spending cuts for more tax hikes."


News article:

PARIS, April 5 (UPI) -- A French court ordered Air France to pay damages and a fine for forcing a pro-Palestine activist off a flight to Tel Aviv, Israel, because she was not Jewish.

 The court Thursday gave the airline a 10,000 euro ($13,021) fine, and obligated it to pay 3,000 euros ($3,902) to Horia Ankour, 30, a nursing student who attempted to fly from France to Israel in April 2012 to participate in a "Welcome to Palestine" campaign which saw hundreds of activists seek access to Israel to travel to the Palestinian territories, Radio France Internationale reported Friday.

 Heavy pressure by Israel forced cancellation of about 300 flights in Europe that day. Ankour was taken off a plane in Nice, France, after an Air France employee asked if she had an Israeli passport and if she was Jewish. She answered no to both questions, and was escorted from the flight, RFI said.

 French prosecutors back her case in court, calling it a case of discrimination. Air France claimed Ankour's name was on a list of undesirables provided by the Israeli government. ||||| Air France fined for forcing non-Jewish passenger off flight

 PARIS — A French court on Thursday ordered Air France to pay a 10,000 euro ($12,800) fine for having ordered a pro-Palestinian activist off a flight to Tel Aviv because she was not Jewish.

 The court also ordered the French flagship carrier to pay 3,000 euros in damages to the passenger and her legal fees.

 Horia Ankour, a nursing student, had attempted to fly to Israel from France last April to take part in the "Welcome to Palestine" campaign, which saw hundreds of activists seek access to Israel in a bid to travel to the Palestinian territories.

 Europe's main airlines faced a wave of passenger fury during the campaign after cancelling some 300 tickets following heavy Israeli pressure.

 Ankour was taken off the plane in the southeastern city of Nice after an Air France employee asked whether she had an Israeli passport and then, when she replied "no", whether she was Jewish.

 When the 30-year-old answered "no" again she was escorted from the flight.

 French prosecutors had backed her in the case, saying it was a clear case of discrimination.

 Air France had said her name was on a list of undesirables provided by Israeli authorities and it was certain she would not be allowed into the country.

 Copyright © 2013 AFP. All rights reserved. More » |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– A French court has fined Air France nearly $13,000 for removing a pro-Palestinian activist from a flight headed for Tel Aviv, Israel, UPI reports. The airline was also ordered to pay about $3,900 to the passenger, 30-year-old Horia Ankour, who was trying to attend a "Welcome to Palestine" event in the Palestinian territories. It all started when an employee on the flight last April asked Ankour whether she had an Israeli passport. Ankour said no, and said no again when asked whether she was Jewish. At that point she was escorted from the plane. French prosecutors argued that Air France had discriminated against Ankour, and the court agreed. Following pressure from Israel, Europe's major airlines canceled about 300 tickets surrounding the pro-Palestinian campaign, AFP reports.