Write an article based on this summary:

– Jennifer Livingston, the Wisconsin news anchor who responded on-air to a viewer who criticized her weight, has a Hollywood actor in her corner: Her brother, Office Space and Sex and the City star Ron Livingston. Ron has issued a statement in support of his sister, Radar reports, noting that she "brings an exceptional dedication to her job, her family, and her community, and has been a role model of mine for many, many years." Later on Soledad O'Brien's show, Jennifer Livingston talked about her decision to air her response, Mediaite reports. Seems her husband, also a news anchor, first posted the critical email to his Facebook page and responders were supportive of Livingston, so her news director supported the idea of her going on air. But Kenneth Krause, who originally criticized Jennifer, isn't backing down and instead offered a follow-up statement to WKBT-TV. "Given this country’s present epidemic of obesity and the many truly horrible diseases related thereto, and considering Jennifer Livingston’s fortuitous position in the community, I hope she will finally take advantage of a rare and golden opportunity to influence the health and psychological well-being of Coulee Region by transforming herself for all of her viewers to see over the next year," he said. Jezebel has a picture of Krause, a personal injury lawyer, and notes that he "looks exactly like you'd expect, multiplied by 100."

By Adam S. Levy – Radar Staff Writer

 Actor Ron Livingston, famous for his roles in HBO smash Sex and the City and the cult hit Office Space, issued a statement Wednesday defending his sister Jennifer, the La Crosse, Wisconsin news anchor whose emotional responseto a viewer’s insulting letter went viral.

 “My sister Jennifer … brings an exceptional dedication to her job, her family, and her community, and has been a role model of mine for many, many years,” said the 45-year-old actor, who played the love interest of Jennifer Aniston and Sarah Jessica Parker in the aforementioned productions.

 As we previously reported, the author of the e-mail, Kenneth Krause, told the WKBT-TV anchor that her “physical condition hasn’t improved for many years,” and that she shouldn’t consider herself “a suitable example for this community’s young people, girls in particular.”

 PHOTOS: Celebrity Death Threats

 In wake of the video of Livingston’s response going viral, Krause issued a statement to the TV station, and didn’t seem too apologetic despite the emotional nerve his initial words struck with Jennifer, a 37-year-old mother-of-three who said she felt bullied by his suggestion.

 PHOTOS: Demi Lovato Shows Off Curves

 “Given this country’s present epidemic of obesity and the many truly horrible diseases related thereto, and considering Jennifer Livingston’s fortuitous position in the community, I hope she will finally take advantage of a rare and golden opportunity to influence the health and psychological well-being of Coulee Region by transforming herself for all of her viewers to see over the next year, and, to that end, I would be absolutely pleased to offer Jennifer any advice or support she would be willing to accept.”

 RELATED STORIES:

 TV News Anchor: I Wanted To Call Out Viewer For ‘Uncalled For’ Weight Jabs

 TV News Anchor Slams Viewer Who Sent ‘You’re Obese’ Email

 Ann Curry To Be Featured More On TODAY Show In Attempt To Stop Ratings Plunge

 Fox News Apologizes For Airing Man’s Horrifying Suicide On Live TV After Police Car Chase ||||| On Thursday, Starting Point host Soledad O’Brien took a look at the story of Wisconsin anchor Jennifer Livingston, the woman who became a viral hit for her response to a concern troll’s email about her weight.

 RELATED: Local News Anchor Smacks Down Viewer Who Called Her Overweight

 O’Brien asked Livingston whether she’d had to ask her bosses if she could, essentially, “take out” the email writer on air. Livingston explained that there had been some talk prior to her going on air with her speech, adding that her news director supported her decision, particularly after the positive response Livingston received after her husband, a fellow anchor, posted the email to his Facebook page.

 While Livingston had chosen not to name the man who had written the email, O’Brien went ahead and called him out.

 “Oh, let’s name him anyway, Jennifer,” she said. “Because yesterday I was thinking, ‘if I were Jennifer, I would go ahead and name him.’ And, so, his name is Kenneth Krause, and he actually is standing by his email. He’s gone on to say this in his statement — and I should mention first, you got a ton of support, as you mentioned, and tons of people Tweeting and supporting you, famous people. Your brother is a well-known actor, Ron Livingston, so a lot of the people he, including other actors as well, really came to your side. But here is what Kenneth Krause, the evil e-mailer, said in his statement.”

 “I know, I know,” O’Brien added as Livingston began to laugh. “You’re refined and a lady and I’m not.”

 She then read Krause’s response, wherein he expressed hope that Livingston “take advantage” of the opportunity here and “transform” herself in front of her viewers, even offering to give her tips and advice should she want it.

 Have a look, via CNN: |||||


Article:
An envelope sent to the Washington, D.C., office of Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) included a substance that has tested positive for the toxic substance ricin.

 The Senate mail facility on Tuesday notified the U.S. Capitol Police that it had received an envelope containing “a white granular substance,” according to a release. The envelope “was immediately quarantined” at the off-site facility, and Capitol Police hazardous material personnel responded.

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 reset Latest from White House on suspicious letters PHOTOS: Roger Wicker Play Slideshow

 “Preliminary tests indicate the substance found was Ricin,” said the police statement, which was released late Tuesday night. “The material is being forwarded to an accredited laboratory for further analysis.”

 (PHOTOS: Roger Wicker's career)

 The Capitol Police says it is partnering with the FBI for an “ongoing investigation.” The statement added that the Capitol complex has not been affected.

 The U.S. Senate mail facility is currently closed for more testing — all mail bound for Capitol Hill is now being directed through a U.S. House facility.

 The letter was postmarked Memphis, Tenn., and had no suspicious markings or return address, according to a message sent to congressional staffers by Senate Sergeant at Arms Terrance Gainer. Gainer indicated that the Senate mail facility would be closed for two to three days “while testing and the law enforcement investigation continues.”

 (Also on POLITICO: Napolitano: No sign of 'broader plot')

 Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) said members were briefed that the substance had been found in a letter and that a suspect has been identified.

 McCaskill said the letter came from an individual who frequently writes to lawmakers. She wouldn’t identify the person but confirmed officials were investigating someone.

 McCaskill said state offices have been told what to look for if there are more letters containing the toxic substance.

 (Also on POLITICO: What is ricin?)

 The Senate went into recess shortly after 6 p.m. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and FBI Director Robert Mueller began briefing senators shortly afterward about the incident. A Homeland Security official said that the briefing was intended to address cybersecurity but that the subject pivoted after the ricin substance was discovered.

 All congressional mail is screened ever since Capitol Hill-bound letters laced with anthrax were discovered in October 2001, which contributed to the death of five people and infected 17 more. Senate offices were closed for several days in 2004 when ricin was found in the offices of then-Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.).

 Follow @politico ||||| Federal officials discovered Tuesday a poison-laced letter sent to Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), uncovering the material at an off-site location where congressional mail has been screened since anthrax-laced letters were sent to Capitol Hill in 2001.

 Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) and other senators exiting an FBI briefing on the Boston attacks, told reporters that the letter was tested at the facility and came up positive for ricin. Officials gave no indication why the letter was sent to Wicker, a low-profile senator in his second term. ||||| Story highlights Laboratory tests confirmed the presence of ricin, Senate official says

 The letter had a Memphis, Tennessee, postmark and no return address

 It was addressed to Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Mississippi

 Ricin is a highly toxic substance derived from castor beans

 An envelope that tested positive for the deadly poison ricin was intercepted Tuesday afternoon at the U.S. Capitol's off-site mail facility in Washington, congressional and law enforcement sources tell CNN.

 Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he was told the letter was addressed to the office of Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Mississippi. A laboratory in Maryland confirmed the presence of ricin after initial field tests indicated the poison was present, according to Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Terrance Gainer.

 However, the FBI said additional testing is needed as field and preliminary tests produce inconsistent results.

 "Only a full analysis performed at an accredited laboratory can determine the presence of a biological agent such as ricin," according to the bureau. "Those tests are in the process of being conducted and generally take from 24 to 48 hours."

 A law enforcement source said more tests would be conducted at the Army's biomedical research laboratory at Fort Detrick, Maryland.

 The letter had a Memphis, Tennessee, postmark and no return address, Gainer wrote in an e-mail to senators and aides.

 Sen. Claire McCaskill told reporters after a briefing for lawmakers that a suspect has already been identified in the incident, but a knowledgeable source said no one was in custody Tuesday night.

 Wicker, the junior senator from Mississippi, has been assigned a protective detail, according to a law enforcement source.

 JUST WATCHED Letter laced with ricin sent to Senate Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Letter laced with ricin sent to Senate 02:31

 JUST WATCHED Envelope to Senator positive for poison Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Envelope to Senator positive for poison 03:18

 Postal workers started handling mail at a site off Capitol Hill after the 2001 anthrax attacks that targeted then-Majority Leader Tom Daschle and Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy, among others. Senators were told the post office would be temporarily shut down "to make sure they get everything squared away," McCaskill, D-Missouri, said Tuesday afternoon.

 "The bottom line is, the process we have in place worked," she said. Members will be warning their home-state offices to look out for similar letters, she added.

 A previous ricin scare hit the Capitol in 2004, when tests identified a letter in a Senate mailroom that served then-Majority Leader Bill Frist's office. The discovery forced 16 employees to go through decontamination procedures, but no one reported any ill effects afterward, Frist said.

 Ricin is a highly toxic substance derived from castor beans. As little as 500 micrograms -- an amount the size of the head of a pin -- can kill an adult. There is no specific test for exposure and no antidote once exposed.

 It can be produced easily and cheaply, and authorities in several countries have investigated links between suspect extremists and ricin. But experts say it is more effective on individuals than as a weapon of mass destruction.

 Ricin was used in the 1978 assassination of Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov. The author, who had defected nine years earlier, was jabbed by the tip of an umbrella while waiting for a bus in London and died four days later.

 Wicker, 61, was first appointed by former Republican Gov. Haley Barbour to the U.S. Senate in December 2007 after the resignation of then-Sen. Trent Lott. He was then elected to the seat in 2008 and won re-election in 2012 to a second term.

 Before joining the Senate, he was a U.S. representative in the House from 1995 to 2007. Before that, he served in the Mississippi Senate. |||||Summary:

– Scary story breaking out of DC: A letter addressed to Republican Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker tested positive for the poison ricin, reports Politico. The envelope never got to him, reports CNN, which says it was intercepted at an off-site facility that sorts mail for the Capitol. Three separate tests turned up positive for the highly toxic poison. Authorities have identified a suspect, said Sen. Claire McCaskill, adding only that it was someone who writes lots of letters to lawmakers. It's not clear why the apparent target was Wicker, described by the Washington Post as a "low-profile senator in his second term." (He replaced Trent Lott in 2008.) The envelope got detected at a facility set up in 2001 after some senators were sent letters tainted with anthrax. "The bottom line is, the process we have in place worked," said McCaskill. FBI chief Robert Mueller and Homeland Security chief Janet Napolitano briefed senators today, though it's not clear when the letter was received.


« More on the stolen emails | Main | Willis Eschenbach caught lying about temperature trends »

 Category: Global Warming

 Posted on: December 8, 2009 9:52 PM, by Tim Lambert

 Not content with publishing George Will's fabrications about the stolen emails (for which, see Carl Zimmer), they now have a piece by climate expert Sarah Palin. The Washington Post simply does not care about the accuracy of the columns it publishes. Let's look at just one paragraph:

 The e-mails reveal that leading climate "experts" deliberately destroyed records, manipulated data to "hide the decline" in global temperatures, and tried to silence their critics by preventing them from publishing in peer-reviewed journals. What's more, the documents show that there was no real consensus even within the CRU crowd. Some scientists had strong doubts about the accuracy of estimates of temperatures from centuries ago, estimates used to back claims that more recent temperatures are rising at an alarming rate.

 I didn't add the link to this paragraph. It's a link to the WaPo's own report on the email theft and it directly contradicts Palin. For example, the WaPo's news story says:

 Phil Jones, the unit's director, wrote a colleague that he would "hide" a problem with data from Siberian tree rings with more accurate local air temperature measurements.

 But Palin says that he tried to "hide the decline" in global temperatures, when in fact he showed the increase in global temperatures since 1960.

 The Wapo's report does not support any of the false claims in Palin's paragraph. No they didn't deliberately destroy data, no, they didn't try to stop their critics from publishing. And while the emails show there are many things that the scientists disagree on, they doesn't mean there is no consensus about anything -- they agree that it is getting warmer and that we are causing it.

 So what use is the Washington Post? If they are not going to do even the most perfunctory fact checking on the stuff they publish, what value do they add? ||||| Wednesday's edition of the Washington Post features an op-ed by Sarah Palin, who reprises her call -- first made in a Facebook post last week -- for President Obama to "boycott" the major climate talks in Copenhagen due to the "Climate-gate" controversy (actually a non-controversy).

 "Policy decisions require real science and real solutions," Palin argued on Facebook, "not junk science and doomsday scare tactics pushed by an environmental priesthood that capitalizes on the public's worry and makes them feel that owning an SUV is a 'sin' against the planet."

 The reaction to Palin's latest piece, however, is focused not on what she wrote, but on the fact that the Washington Post chose to run it in the first place.

 Shortly after the op-ed was published online, Post media reporter Howard Kurtz tweeted that his paper was being "ripped for running Palin op-ed." Kurtz highlighted a blog post whose author refused to link to the op-ed because "[t]hey shouldn't be rewarded with the clicks, which is pretty much what this is about, I figure."

 Politico's Ben Smith wrote on Twitter that it "struck me as slightly odd [that the Post] published an expanded version of her Facebook piece." He added later, "I agree she's relevant and boycott call is news."

 The Atlantic's Marc Ambinder begged to differ with Smith's latter point. "Her boycott call is like a video press release," he wrote. "She's looking for a way to inject herself into this and found it." Ambinder published a critical "annotated" version of Palin's piece, noting at the onset, "Once again, the Washington Post has given Sarah Palin the chance to harness herself to the political story of the hour." ||||| by Mark Silva and updated

 In the practice of preaching to the choir, Sarah Palin appears to have all but patented the art of saying what a few want to hear -- and it's an all-new tune now.

 Palin, who was the Republican Party's nominee for vice president, is suggesting that President Barack Obama "boycott'' an international conference on climate change underway in Copenhagen, because some hacked emails questioning the ethics of some scientists at a university in Great Britain have given the obstinate opposition to the concept of global warming, let alone the science involving man's hand in climate change, all the fuel it needs to declare the case closed, conference over, thank you ma'am.

 The president's withdrawal from the conference, with an appearance planned near the summit's finish next week, would come as quite a surprise to a global community that has witnessed the reengagement of the United States in an international dialog about the fate of the planet from which the previous president had all but withdrawn until the end of his second term.

 But, for a share of the American electorate which fears the consequences of limitations on the emissions of pollutants that could force the U.S. to find alternative, and in some cases more costly, sources of energy - the fabled "energy tax'' - talk such as Palin's comes straight from the wand of the maestro.

 From Palin's new viewpoint, the consensus of world science on the question of global warming represents "the radical environmental movement'' -- though this was not the same tune Palin was whistling when she ran for national office last year: "We've got to reduce emissions,'' she said during the 2008 campaign, and get other nations to "come along.''

 From the world's viewpoint, Palin's apparent new opposition to any dialog involving the United States in Copenhagen represents the politics of radical retrenchment.

 "With the publication of damaging e-mails from a climate research center in Britain, the radical environmental movement appears to face a tipping point,'' Palin writes in an Op-ed essay appearing in Wednesday's Washington Post. "The revelation of appalling actions by so-called climate change experts allows the American public to finally understand the concerns so many of us have articulated on this issue.

 "Climate-gate," Palin writes of the e-mails and other documents obtained from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia by hackers, "exposes a highly politicized scientific circle -- the same circle whose work underlies efforts at the Copenhagen climate change conference. The agenda-driven policies being pushed in Copenhagen won't change the weather,'' the former governor of Alaska writes, "but they would change our economy for the worse.''

 "Drill, baby, drill": A hole so deep that no one but the most radicalized base of the Republican Party might possibly take seriously the pivoting of Palin on the question. Now she has a memoir and a book-tour, Going Rogue, apparently taking the title to heart.

 "I've always believed that policy should be based on sound science, not politics,'' writes Palin, who also has entertained creationism as a reasonable counterpoint to evolutionary theory, at least something worthy of teaching in the schools.

 "I am a proponent of teaching both,'' she said during her campaign for governor in 2006. "And you know, I say this too as the daughter of a science teacher. Growing up with being so privileged and blessed to be given a lot of information on, on both sides of the subject -- creationism and evolution. It's been a healthy foundation for me. But don't be afraid of information and let kids debate both sides."

 "Snake oil,'' Palin called the science of climate change in a recent radio interview, suggesting: "The fact is, the Caribou population is increasing.''

 Yet Palin was far more generous about the challenge of climate change and what the world should do about it during last year's debate with Vice President Joe Biden, who then asserted flatly that global warming is "man-made.''

 This is what Palin said in debate with Biden in October 2008:

 " Well, as the nation's only Arctic state and being the governor of that state, Alaska feels and sees impacts of climate change more so than any other state. And we know that it's real.

 "I'm not one to attribute every man -- activity of man to the changes in the climate. There is something to be said also for man's activities, but also for the cyclical temperature changes on our planet. But there are real changes going on in our climate. And I don't want to argue about the causes. What I want to argue about is, how are we going to get there to positively affect the impacts?

 "We have got to clean up this planet. We have got to encourage other nations also to come along with us with the impacts of climate change, what we can do about that.''

 And just eight months ago, at an Interior Department hearing, the then-governor of Alaska said this: "We Alaskans are living with the changes that you are observing in Washington, The dramatic decreases in the extent of summer sea ice, increased coastal erosion, melting of permafrost, decrease in alpine glaciers and overall ecosystem changes are very real to us.''

 Yet this is no cause for curtailing drilling for new oil, she maintained: "Stopping domestic energy production of preferred fuels does not solve the issues associated with global warming and threatened or endangered species, but it can make them worse....Simply waiting for low-carbon-emitting renewable capacity to be large enough will mean that it will be too late to meet the mitigation goals for reducing [carbon dioxide] that will be required under most credible climate-change models.''

 (Sarah Paln's book-signing in Fairfax, Va., over the weekend saw some snow flurries. . Photo by Paul J. Richards / AFP /Getty Images)

 "As governor, I was the first governor to form a climate change sub-cabinet to start dealing with the impacts. We've got to reduce emissions,'' Palin said in the October 2008 vice presidential debate with Biden. "John McCain is right there with an "all of the above" approach to deal with climate change impacts.

 "We've got to become energy independent for that reason. Also as we rely more and more on other countries that don't care as much about the climate as we do, we're allowing them to produce and to emit and even pollute more than America would ever stand for. So even in dealing with climate change, it's all the more reason that we have an "all of the above" approach, tapping into alternative sources of energy and conserving fuel, conserving our petroleum products and our hydrocarbons so that we can clean up this planet and deal with climate change.''

 Palin has staked a new stance on the issue little more than a year later - no more of that encouraging other nations "to come along with us with the impacts of climate change.''

 Now, it's "come along'' for a new ride, preaching to the chorus of "Climate-gate'' protesters who maintain that all the world's science suddently has been reduced to rubble with a pile of hacked emails from England -- regardless of all the other science that has been conducted throughout the world.

 "As governor of Alaska,'' Palin writes in the Post Op-ed, "I took a stand against politicized science when I sued the federal government over its decision to list the polar bear as an endangered species despite the fact that the polar bear population had more than doubled.

 "I got clobbered for my actions by radical environmentalists nationwide, but I stood by my view that adding a healthy species to the endangered list under the guise of "climate change impacts" was an abuse of the Endangered Species Act. This would have irreversibly hurt both Alaska's economy and the nation's, while also reducing opportunities for responsible development.

 "Our representatives in Copenhagen should remember that good environmental policymaking is about weighing real-world costs and benefits -- not pursuing a political agenda. That's not to say I deny the reality of some changes in climate -- far from it. I saw the impact of changing weather patterns firsthand while serving as governor of our only Arctic state. I was one of the first governors to create a subcabinet to deal specifically with the issue and to recommend common-sense policies to respond to the coastal erosion, thawing permafrost and retreating sea ice that affect Alaska's communities and infrastructure.

 "But while we recognize the occurrence of these natural, cyclical environmental trends, we can't say with assurance that man's activities cause weather changes,'' she writes. "We can say, however, that any potential benefits of proposed emissions reduction policies are far outweighed by their economic costs. And those costs are real..

 "President Obama has proposed serious cuts in our own long-term carbon emissions,'' Palin writes. "Meeting such targets would require Congress to pass its cap-and-tax proposals, which will result in job losses and higher energy costs (as Obama admitted during the campaign). That's not exactly what most Americans are hoping for these days. And as public opposition continues to stall Congress's cap-and-tax plans, Environmental Protection Agency bureaucrats plan to regulate carbon emissions themselves, doing an end run around the American people.''

 Palin writes: "In his inaugural address, President Obama declared his intention to "restore science to its rightful place."

 "But instead of staying home from Copenhagen and sending a message that the United States will not be a party to fraudulent scientific practices, the president has upped the ante. He plans to fly in at the climax of the conference in hopes of sealing a "deal." Whatever deal he gets, it will be no deal for the American people.

 "What Obama really hopes to bring home from Copenhagen is more pressure to pass the Democrats' cap-and-tax proposal,'' Palin writes. "This is a political move. The last thing America needs is misguided legislation that will raise taxes and cost jobs -- particularly when the push for such legislation rests on agenda-driven science.

 "Without trustworthy science and with so much at stake, Americans should be wary about what comes out of this politicized conference. The president should boycott Copenhagen.''

  |||||

Write a summary.

– The Washington Post's decision to run an op-ed piece by Sarah Palin on the "Climategate" emails is attracting almost as much derision as Palin's call for President Obama to boycott the Copenhagen conference, the Huffington Post notes. Here's an attitude roundup: Palin was "looking for a way to inject herself into this and found it," writes Marc Ambinder, who dissects the piece paragraph by paragraph in a highly critical "annotated" version at the Atlantic. Scientific consensus on climate change now appears to represent "the radical environmental movement" to Palin, writes Mark Silva at the Chicago Tribune, noting that she was singing a different tune on the campaign trail last year. "What use is the Washington Post?" asks Tim Lambert at Science Blogs, complaining that even the links embedded in Palin's piece contradict her claim that there is no consensus on global warming. "If they are not going to do even the most perfunctory fact checking on the stuff they publish, what value do they add?"


Article:

WikiLeaks is opening a new front in its battle to break the financial blockade imposed by credit card giants Visa and MasterCard, the group said Wednesday, saying it could now accept donations through a French non-profit.

 Visa and MasterCard were among half a dozen U.S. payment firms to pull the plug on WikiLeaks, shortly after the group made its controversial decision to begin publishing some 250,000 secret State Department cables in December 2010.

 It's not clear whether Visa or MasterCard would tolerate the move, which would route money through France's Fund for the Defense of Net Neutrality. In 2011 WikiLeaks briefly opened a funding gateway - through Icelandic payment processor DataCell - only to see it shut down by Visa on short notice.

 In his statement, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange - who remains holed up at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, where he is seeking asylum -??dared Visa to try to foil his latest fundraising plan."Let them shut it down," he said. "We're waiting. Our lawyers are waiting."

 Assange is currently fighting extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning about allegations of sexual misconduct, and he has long complained of funding difficulties.

 Those became particularly acute once Visa, MasterCard, and others took action against his site. U.S. and foreign officials had warned that their publication of secret cables would have calamitous consequences for American diplomats and their informants, with some accusing WikiLeaks of being a terrorist organization.

 But as many of the worst predictions failed to materialize, the ongoing blockade began raising concerns about corporate censorship, with U.N. officials and media watchdog groups such as Reporters Without Borders describing it as a potential attack on free expression.

 WikiLeaks is in the process of taking Visa, MasterCard, and their local European partners to court over the blockade - recently winning a case in Iceland against payment processor Valitor.WikiLeaks' latest move would see it take advantage of France's debit card system, known as Carte Bleue, to send donations via the Net Neutrality fund.

 The precise mechanics of the proposed transactions remains unclear. The Fund for the Defense of Net Neutrality and Visa did not immediately return messages seeking comment.

 ___

 Sarah DiLorenzo in Paris contributed to this report.

 ___

 Raphael Satter can be reached at: http://raphae.li/twitter ||||| Dow Jones Reprints: This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers, use the Order Reprints tool at the bottom of any article or visit www.djreprints.com

 WikiLeaks said it is close to running out of money, a problem the site blamed on Visa and MasterCard, which have prohibited users from donating to the site.

 WikiLeaks' cash reserves have fallen from €800,000 ($983,600) in December 2010 to less than €100,000 at the end of June, the site said, adding that its funds would run out "within a few months" unless donations dramatically increase.

 In the first six months of 2012, WikiLeaks said it spent €246,600 while collecting donations of just €32,800. According to a two-page financial report released by the ... |||||
What is a summary?

– WikiLeaks needs "a minimum" of a million euros ASAP in order to "effectively continue its mission," it announced in a news release today. The anti-secrecy organization has seen its cash reserves plummet from around $983,600 in December 2010 to less than $120,000 at the end of June, and that reserve will dwindle to nothing "within a few months," it said, according to the Wall Street Journal. It blames these financial woes on Visa and MasterCard's joint ban on the site. WikiLeaks says it has at last figured out a workaround for would-be donors with Visa and MasterCard, saying they can send donations through France's Carte Bleue system, which in turn would route the donations through France's Fund for the Defense of Net Neutrality, a nonprofit organization, the AP reports. Carte Bleue has a contract with Visa and MasterCard forbidding them from cutting off merchants. "Let them shut it down," Julian Assange said in statement. "We're waiting. Our lawyers are waiting."


Article:
Tweet with a location

 You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| “They’re very hostile. These are very hostile people. These are very angry people,” President Donald Trump told Fox News Channel’s Sean Hannity of the media. Interviewing Trump tonight, Hannity said, “The New York Times, CNN, NBC, they’ve used the word ‘liar’ to describe you, as it relates, if you’re talking about crowd size.”

 “They also colluded against you in a campaign,” Hannity continued. “And my question to you is — “

 “They’re very dishonest people,” interrupted Trump, who wasn’t finished with his thought. “The media is very dishonest. I’ve been saying it. I say it openly.”

 “I said journalism is dead. So we agree,” said the Fox News Channel personality.

 “Never dead,” Trump disagreed.”But they’re very dishonest people, in many cases,” Trump conceded. “You have some very honest ones. But I get stories that are so false and so dishonest.”

 “Martin Luther King’s bust?” Hannity mentioned, helpfully. (In a White House pool report about Trump’s first actions after being sworn in, Time magazine journalist Zeke Miller had reported that the bust of Martin Luther King, Jr. had been removed from the Oval Office. Miller corrected the report minutes later, explaining the bust had been obscured by a door and a Secret Service agent. White House press secretary Sean Spicer called it “a reminder of the media danger of tweet first, check facts later.”)

 “That’s a very serious change,” Trump told Hannity tonight. “Because they’re not saying the bust was taken out. What they’re saying is that I’m a racist.”

 “When it was revealed that it was wrong, it wasn’t even a story. Nobody even knows it.” ||||| President Donald Trump defended his forthcoming executive orders that are expected to suspend the United States’ refugee program and halt the issuing of visas to citizens of certain countries, saying, "We can't take any chances."

 "Right now, the FBI has over 1,000 [terrorism] investigations going on … and these are people that we let in," Trump told Fox News' Sean Hannity in an exclusive cable interview from the White House Thursday. "We don’t need this. Some people have come in with evil intentions. Most haven’t, I guess, but we can’t take chances."

 A draft executive order, which Trump could sign as early as Saturday, reportedly would halt the United States' broader refugee program for 120 days and prohibit citizens of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria or Yemen from obtaining U.S. visas for at least 30 days.

 "We’ve taken in tens of thousands of people. We know nothing about them. They can say they vetted them. They didn’t vet them, they have no papers. How can you vet somebody when you don’t know anything about them and they have no papers?" Trump asked.

 TRUMP TO ORDER CONSTRUCTION OF US-MEXICO BORDER WALL; EXPECTED TO SUSPEND REFUGEE PROGRAM

 Trump also defended his executive order to construct a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, a key promise of his presidential campaign.

 "The wall is necessary," Trump said. "That’s not just politics, and yet it is good for the heart of the nation because people want protection and a wall protects. All you’ve got to do is ask Israel."

 The president also revisited the issue of torture, saying that he believes methods such as waterboarding are effective. However, Trump added that he would follow the advice of Defense Secretary James Mattis, who has argued against the use of such tactics.

 "Look, I spoke with people who were in this world that we’re talking about," Trump told Hannity. "They said, ‘Absolutely, it works.’ Now, General Mattis said that he doesn’t intend to use it. I’m with him all the way. Do I believe it works? Yes, I do."

 The president also swiped at the media, which he said was made up of "very hostile people" and "very angry people."

 WATCH: TRUMP STRATEGIST BANNON TORCHES NY TIMES, MAINSTREAM MEDIA

 "The media — much of the media, not all of it – is very, very dishonest," Trump said. "Honestly, it’s fake news. It’s fake. They make things up."

 Trump covered a range of other topics in the interview, including his goal of repealing and replacing ObamaCare, which he called a "horror show” and a “disaster.”

 “It actually explodes [this year]," Trump said, "and I told [congressional] Republicans. I said, 'Look if you really want to do something, just let it explode, and then [the Democrats will] come begging us to fix it.’ But that’s not the right thing for the public because we have to get it fixed."

 "I do believe we're going to have a much better plan, we're going to have a cheaper plan, I think it's going to be a lot less expensive,” he added.

 Trump also disclosed that he had decided on his nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court "pretty much in my mind." He had previously said he would announce his choice Feb. 2.

 The president blasted Democrats threatening to hold up his eventual nominee – and said he would want Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to use the so-called “nuclear option” if they filibuster.

 “I would. We have obstructionists,” Trump said, complaining about Democrats’ treatment of other nominees, including Attorney General pick Jeff Sessions. The “nuclear option,” if pursued, would allow majority Republicans to seek approval of Trump’s Supreme Court nominee with just a simple majority, as opposed to a 60-vote threshold.

 The president also said he was examining the case of Navy sailor Kristian Saucier for a possible pardon. Saucier, 29, was sentenced to a year in prison for taking photos of parts of a submarine's nuclear propulsion system. As a candidate, Trump contrasted Saucier's treatment with the FBI's decision not to charge Hillary Clinton for using personal email while secretary of state.

 PARDON ME: NAVY SAILOR IN JAIL FOR SUBMARINE PHOTOS PLEADS FOR MERCY FROM TRUMP

 "I think it’s very unfair in light of what’s happened with other people," said Trump, who added that he wouldn't even consider a pardon if not for the outcome of the Clinton investigation. "How can you have somebody else get away with such a tremendous amount and then this person who takes a picture of his desk on an old submarine? Look, if China or Russia wanted information on that submarine, they’ve had it for many years. That I can tell you." |||||Summary:

– One night after sitting down for his first one-on-one interview as president with ABC News, Donald Trump granted Sean Hannity the same privilege at the White House Thursday evening, and he offered as many ear-perking nuggets as he had the day before. Still on his radar, per Deadline: the "very hostile" media, which he went on to describe as also being "very angry" and "very dishonest." "I get stories that are so false," he told Hannity, specifically calling out an erroneous report by Time magazine writer Zeke Miller that Trump had removed a Martin Luther King Jr. bust from the Oval Office (Miller later tweeted a correction for his mistake). "It's fake news. … They make things up," he added, per Fox News. Other snippets from the interview: He let fly his feelings about Madonna, who made headlines at the Women's March Saturday for saying she'd thought "an awful lot about blowing up the White House." "Honestly, she's disgusting," Trump told Hannity, adding that what she said was "disgraceful," per the Telegraph. "I think she hurt herself very badly. I think she hurt that whole cause." "Disgrace" is also a word he used to describe a recent tweet about his son, Barron, by now-suspended SNL writer Katie Rich. "I don't mind some humor, but it's terrible," Trump said. "For NBC to attack my 10-year-old son … it's a disgrace. He's a great boy. And it’s not an easy thing for him. Believe me." He had thoughts on President Obama as well, who rode with him in a limo on Inauguration Day. "What amazed me is that I was vicious to him in statements, he was vicious to me in statements, and here we are getting along … riding up Pennsylvania Avenue," he said, adding, "I like him, he likes me … you're going to have to ask him, but I think he likes me." Moving on to official presidential business, he labeled ObamaCare a "horror show" and a "disaster," said he had a Supreme Court justice nominee "pretty much in my mind," and noted that even though Secretary of Defense Mattis doesn't advocate waterboarding, he himself "absolutely" believes it is effective, per Fox. On his long-talked-about wall, Trump said it was "necessary." "People want protection and a wall protects," he said. "All you've got to do is ask Israel." (One possible way to pay for the wall: a 20% tax on Mexican imports.)


Article:

Britain will ban sales of new gasoline and diesel cars starting in 2040 as part of a bid to clean up the country's air.

 The decision to phase out the internal combustion engine heralds a new era of low-emission technologies with major implications for the auto industry, society and the environment.

 "We can't carry on with diesel and petrol cars," U.K. environment secretary Michael Gove told the BBC on Wednesday. "There is no alternative to embracing new technology."

 Almost 2.7 million new cars were registered in the U.K. in 2016, making it the second biggest market in Europe after Germany.

 Meeting the 2040 deadline will be a heavy lift. British demand for electric and fuel cell cars, as well as plug-in hybrids, grew 40% in 2015, but they only accounted for less than 3% of the market.

 Still, experts say sales of clean cars are likely to continue on their dramatic upward trajectory.

 "Ending diesel and petrol car sales by 2040 is a step in the right direction but given that electric cars are coming anyway this is probably pretty irrelevant. It's a bit like saying we're banning the sale of steam engines by 2040," said David Bailey, a professor of industrial strategy at Aston Business School.

 Related: These countries want to ditch gas and diesel cars

 The car industry says that demand for electric vehicles will only reach a tipping point once they're cheaper to own than conventional vehicles.

 "Much depends on the cost of these new technologies and how willing consumers are to adopt battery, plug-in hybrid and hydrogen cars," said Mike Hawes, CEO of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. "Consumers have concerns over affordability, range and charging points."

 Related: This hydrogen-powered train emits only water

 The deadline was announced by the government on Wednesday as part of a plan to reduce air pollution. The blueprint highlighted roughly £1.4 billion ($1.8 billion) in government investment designed to help ensure that every vehicle on the road in Britain produces zero emissions by 2050.

 Gove said action was needed because gasoline and diesel engines contribute to health problems, "accelerate climate change, do damage to the planet and the next generation."

 Roughly 40,000 deaths in Britain each year are attributable to outdoor air pollution, according to a study published last year by the Royal College of Physicians. Dirty air has been linked to cancer, asthma, stroke and heart disease, among other health issues.

 Related: BMW to build new electric Mini in the U.K. despite Brexit

 The problem is especially pronounced in big cities. London surpassed the European Union's annual limit for nitrogen dioxide exposure just five days into the new year, according to King's College. The university estimates that air pollution is responsible for 9,400 premature deaths in the city every year.

 The timeline for ending sales of internal combustion engines mirrors one proposed in early July by France. President Emmanuel Macron has given the auto industry the same deadline to make the switch to cleaner tech.

 "We are quite rightly in a position of global leadership when it comes to shaping new technology," Gove said.

 But the auto industry, which supports over 800,000 jobs in the U.K., is wary of hard deadlines.

 Andy Palmer, CEO of British luxury automaker Aston Martin, said that ditching conventional engines will require much more planning and investment.

 "To make a moonshot work, you need to have a NASA," he told CNNMoney. "If you don't want to export jobs out of the U.K., you need to create that capability and that infrastructure ... we're a long, long way from having that capability today."

 Related: France wants to ditch gas, diesel-powered cars by 2040

 Other countries have been even more ambitious than the U.K. India is planning to stop selling gas-powered vehicles by 2030.

 The German car industry and government officials will meet in early August to discuss the future of diesel engine technology. Manufacturers are trying to avoid diesel cars being banned from German towns and cities. ||||| Plans follow French commitment to take polluting vehicles off the road owing to effect of poor air quality on people’s health

 Britain to ban sale of all diesel and petrol cars and vans from 2040

 Britain is to ban all new petrol and diesel cars and vans from 2040 amid fears that rising levels of nitrogen oxide pose a major risk to public health.

 The commitment, which follows a similar pledge in France, is part of the government’s much-anticipated clean air plan, which has been at the heart of a protracted high court legal battle.

 The government warned that the move, which will also take in hybrid vehicles, was needed because of the unnecessary and avoidable impact that poor air quality was having on people’s health. Ministers believe it poses the largest environmental risk to public health in the UK, costing up to £2.7bn in lost productivity in one recent year.

 Ministers have been urged to introduce charges for vehicles to enter a series of “clean air zones” (CAZ). However, the government only wants taxes to be considered as a last resort, fearing a backlash against any move that punishes motorists.

 “Poor air quality is the biggest environmental risk to public health in the UK and this government is determined to take strong action in the shortest time possible,” a government spokesman said.

 “That is why we are providing councils with new funding to accelerate development of local plans, as part of an ambitious £3bn programme to clean up dirty air around our roads.”

 The final plan, which was due by the end of July, comes after a draft report that environmental lawyers described as “much weaker than hoped for”.

 The environment secretary, Michael Gove, will be hoping for a better reception when he publishes the final document on Wednesday following months of legal wrangling.

 A briefing on parts of the plan, seen by the Guardian, repeats the heavy focus on the steps that can be taken to help councils improve air quality in specific areas where emissions have breached EU thresholds.

 Measures to be urgently brought in by local authorities that have repeatedly breached EU rules include retrofitting buses and other public transport, changing road layouts and altering features such as roundabouts and speed humps.

 Reprogramming traffic lights will also be included in local plans, with councils being given £255m to accelerate their efforts. Local emissions hotspots will be required to layout their plans by March 2018 and finalise them by the end of the year. A targeted scrappage scheme is also expected to be included.

 Some want the countrywide initiative to follow in the footsteps of London, which is introducing a £10 toxic “T-charge” that will be levied on up to 10,000 of the oldest, most polluting vehicles every weekday.

 Facebook Twitter Pinterest There have been calls for vehicles to be charged for entering ‘clean air zones’. Photograph: Alicia Canter for the Guardian

 Sources insisted that while the idea of charges were on the table, there was no plan to force councils to introduce them, and that other measures would be exhausted first.

 They hope the centrepiece of Wednesday’s strategywill be the plan to ban diesel and petrol sales completely by 2040, in line with Emmanuel Macron’s efforts across the Channel.

 The French president took the steps to help his country meet its targets under the Paris climate accord, in an announcement that came a day after Volvo said it would only make fully electric or hybrid cars from 2019 onwards.

 That decision was hailed as the beginning of the end for the internal combustion engine’s dominance of motor transport after more than a century.

 Prof David Bailey, an automotive industry expert at Aston University, said: “The timescale involved here is sufficiently long-term to be taken seriously. If enacted it would send a very clear signal to manufacturers and consumers of the direction of travel and may accelerate a transition to electric cars.”

 Britain’s air quality package also includes £1bn in ultra-low emissions vehicles including investing nearly £100m in the UK’s charging infrastructure and funding the ”plug-in car” and “plug-in grant” schemes.

 There will also be £290m for the national productivity investment fund, which will go towards the retrofitting, and money towards low-emission taxis.

 The report will also include an air quality grant for councils, a green bus fund for low carbon vehicles, £1.2bn for cycling and walking and £100m to help air quality on the roads.

 The strategy comes amid warnings that the UK’s high level of air pollution could be be responsible for 40,000 premature deaths a year.

 A judge had said the government’s original plans on tackling the issue, which included five clean air zones, were so poor as to be unlawful. The government was asked to present a new draft policy to tackle air pollution from diesel traffic before the election.

 It was then called to court to explain why it had made a last-minute application to delay publication of its draft policy until after the election.

 James Eadie QC, representing the government, said the policy was ready to be published but it would be controversial and should therefore be withheld until after the election.

 “If you publish a draft plan, it drops all the issues of controversy into the election … like dropping a controversial bomb,” he said, adding that it could risk breaching rules about civil service neutrality and lead to the policy being labelled a Tory plan.

 However, judges said the government did have to publish a draft plan with the final version needed by the end of July.

 Facebook Twitter Pinterest Michael Gove will publish the document on Wednesday. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

 May’s draft contained few concrete proposals and did not specify the cities and towns where polluting vehicles might face charges, the level of any charges or the scope or value of any scrappage scheme.

 Instead, the plan put the onus for action on local authorities: “Local authorities are already responsible for improving air quality in their area, but will now be expected to develop new and creative solutions to reduce emissions as quickly as possible, while avoiding undue impact on the motorist.”

 Analysis in the documents showed increasing the number of CAZs from the current six planned to 27 would make by far the greatest impact in cutting pollution and provide cost benefits of over £1bn. The CAZ policy would cut more than 1,000 times more NO2 than a scrappage scheme, even if that scheme required old diesels to be replaced by electric cars.

 But it required local authorities to exhaust all other options before introducing CAZ charging for diesel vehicles, such as removing speed bumps and retrofitting buses.

 The coalition government had already set out a vision for almost every car and van to be ultra-low emission by 2050 – a move which the government acknowledged would require “almost all new cars and vans sold to be near-zero emission at the tailpipe by 2040”. So it is unclear to what extent the new pledge will further boost Britain’s ability to achieve air quality requirements.

 Car makers say fossil-fuel vehicle ban will dent industry and stall sales Read more

 ClientEarth, the campaign group that has successfully pursued the government through the courts over the UK’s air pollution crisis, gave a cautious welcome to the announcement but said ministers must take immediate action to tackle the UK’s air pollution crisis.

 “The government has trumpeted some promising measures with its air quality plans, but we need to see the detail,” said CEO James Thornton. “A clear policy to move people towards cleaner vehicles by banning the sale of petrol and diesel cars and vans after 2040 is welcome, as is more funding for local authorities.

 “However, the law says ministers must bring down illegal levels of air pollution as soon as possible, so any measures announced in this plan must be focused on doing that.”

 The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, has been calling for tougher measures to tackle air pollution, which kills 9,000 people a year in the capital.

 A City Hall source was sceptical about the government’s announcement. “We need to look at the full details but what Londoners suffering from the terrible health impacts of air pollution desperately need is a fully-funded diesel scrappage fund – and they need it right now.”

 Areeba Hamid, clean air campaigner at Greenpeace, said: “The high court was clear that the government must bring down toxic air pollution in the UK in the shortest possible time. This plan is still miles away from that.

 “The government cannot shy away any longer from the issue of diesel cars clogging up and polluting our cities, and must now provide real solutions, not just gimmicks. That means proper clean air zones and funding to support local authorities to tackle illegal and unsafe pollution.” |||||
What is a summary?

– Just weeks after France unveiled a plan to ban sales of gas and diesel cars by 2040, its neighbor to the north is following suit. Britain's government on Wednesday unveiled a nearly $4 billion plan to improve air quality that would see sales of new gas and diesel cars end by 2040. "Poor air quality is the biggest environmental risk to public health in the UK and this government is determined to take strong action in the shortest time possible," a government rep says, per the Guardian. The plan, which includes few concrete promises, sets aside $1.3 billion in funding for ultra-low-emission vehicles, plus more for low-emission taxis, and nearly $1.6 billion to promote cycling and walking. Money is also designated to retrofit public transport and improve air quality on roadways. Poor air quality, worsened by rising levels of nitrogen oxides from car exhaust, is tied to an estimated 40,000 deaths in the UK each year, including some 9,000 in London, plus billions in lost productivity, per the BBC. "We can't carry on with diesel and [gas] cars," UK environment secretary Michael Gove told the BBC, via CNNMoney. "There is no alternative to embracing new technology." But meeting the government's goal won't be an easy feat. Demand for electric, fuel cell, and hybrid cars spiked 40% in the UK in 2015, but those cars only made up less than 3% of the market. The CEO of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders notes consumers still have "concerns over affordability, range, and charging points" for low-emission vehicles.


Article:

Police have not made any arrests after two students were injured in a shooting outside the Frederick High School gym Wednesday night as a junior varsity basketball game was played inside.

 Frederick Police on Thursday said they have not yet identified any suspects or a motive for the attack that left two Frederick County school students injured. Police continued to search around the building Thursday morning. School officials closed Frederick High and nearby West Frederick Middle to students. School staff, however, reported to work at their normal hours. All other Frederick County schools remained open.

 Police said it is unclear how many people were involved in the shooting.They continue to investigate the motive, though some students have reported to police that the incident might have been gang-related or connected to two rival teams.

 Investigators also are looking into reports from students who said they saw four to five males — dressed in big coats and hands in their pockets — walk into the gymnasium during the game and leave shortly before the gunfire rang out, Frederick Police Capt. Richard Hetherington said.

 Officers were called at about 8:10 p.m. at the school in the 600 block of Carroll Parkway for a report of shots fired.

 The Frederick junior varsity basketball team was playing a game against Gov. Thomas Johnson High, school officials said.

 Two junior varsity basketball games were going on at the time of the shooting, bringing students from at least two other high schools on campus, Frederick County public schools spokesman Michael Doerrer said.

 The victims attend a Frederick County school, but not Frederick High, Doerrer said.

 They were flown to a Baltimore hospital for non life-threatening injuries, Frederick Police said in a statement. They have not been identified and police have not given an update on their condition Thursday.

 The victims were teenagers, according to the Frederick County firefighter's union, IAFF Local 3666. Police did not provide their names or ages.

 Police confirm shooting at Frederick High School. Two students were injured. Police confirm shooting at Frederick High School. Two students were injured. SEE MORE VIDEOS

 The shooter or shooters are believed to have fled the scene on foot, Hetherington said.

 Officers took about 200 people who were at the game into the school cafeteria, secured the building and questioned witnesses, Hetherington said.

 Staff and security personnel were at the game and locked down the school. After police searched the building and conducted interviews, students were taken to the Terrace Lanes Bowling Alley parking lot where they were picked up by their parents.

 Just before midnight, a school bus and a police van pulled into the lot and let off about a dozen students, the first group to be released.

 Frederick High School junior Sofia McCluskey told the Associated Press that she was watching the game and heard a muffled shot. "Someone yelled, `Yo, they're shooting,"' she said. "And we just ran as fast as we could."

 She and her friend, Stephanie Sanchez, said they ran to the locker room and were taken to the cafeteria, where they waited and were briefly interviewed by police.

 Sanchez said it was a frightening experience. "I was, like, shaking the whole time. I still am," she said.

 Tim May said his company, May Investigations, provided two unarmed security guards during the game. One each was positioned at the front and back entrances of the gymnasium.

 "Our job is not to be outside," he said. "When the shooting occurred outside, they moved with the crowd down to the cafeteria."

 May said he spoke to the guards during the incident. He said after the shooting, the two students came into the corridor that leads to the gym.

 "I guess that's why there was a heightened panic," he said.

 Up until then, he said, "it was a very peaceful, very quiet game."

 He said the school's athletic director determines the number of guards needed, and that turnout was expected to be low. He said about 200 attended. A varsity game recently had much larger crowds, when seven guards were requested.

 May said the school typically will have an officer on campus during school hours but will hire unarmed security guards during evenings events, though sometimes police officers may be stationed at the school during football games.

 "I'm hoping they find out this was not school related," he said. "I think everyone was well pleased with the actions after the incidents. There is zero ways to prevent this. You can report it, you can protect. There's no guarantee." He added, "I don't know what could have been done differently."

 Frederick County Public Schools announced the incident on Twitter: "Earlier this evening, two students were wounded in an incident at Frederick High. They are receiving care."

 "All other staff and students at Frederick High are safe and accounted for," the school system said. "Stay tuned. We will have more updates later."

 As a precaution, Hood College was also placed on lock down Wednesday night, police said.

 Officials said a crisis team will be available to students and staff. School officials are making arrangements to return all personal items left at the school.

 If anyone has any information on the shooting, they are asked to call police.

 The Associated Press contributed to this story.

 cmcampbell@baltsun.com

 twitter.com/cmcampbell6 ||||| A patient is brought to a helicopter following a shooting outside Frederick High School. (Bill Green/Frederick News-Post via AP)

 Authorities in Frederick County expanded their investigation Thursday into a shooting outside a high school that left two teens wounded as a basketball game was played inside.

 Frederick High School, where the shooting occurred, and a nearby middle school will be open Friday after being closed Thursday as investigators searched the campuses for clues.

 The shooting occurred about 8 p.m. Wednesday as Frederick High School’s junior varsity basketball team was playing rival Gov. Thomas Johnson High.

 When police arrived, they found two people who had been shot outside the school, one 14 and the other 15, authorities said.

 Both are students in Frederick County public schools, authorities said. They suffered injuries that were not considered life-threatening and were listed in stable condition Thursday morning, police said.

 Theresa Alban, the superintendent of the county school system, and Brad W. Young, the school board president, responded to Wednesday's shooting at Frederick High School. (Frederick County Public Schools)

 One was shot in the leg; the other, in the back.

 Lt. Joe Hayer, a spokesman for the Frederick police, said officers were searching the grounds of the two schools Thursday “for any evidence that will help generate new leads.” He added that the “suspects are unknown at this time.” On Thursday night, Frederick police said in a statement that they believed the shooter knew the victims.

 Hayer said the shooting was a rarity in the area. “It is an uncommon thing for us to have a shooting event like this at a sporting event,” he said.

 As of Thursday afternoon, law enforcement officers had not notified the school system of any arrests or possible motives in the incident, said Michael Doerrer, a spokesman for the county school system. He said additional security would be provided at several campuses Friday “to reassure people that our schools are safe.”

 The scene at the high school was chaotic when police arrived Wednesday night. The school was locked down immediately after the shooting, and about 200 people who had attended the basketball game were questioned in the cafeteria. By 11 p.m., most of the students and parents were heading home.

 In a six-minute video posted on YouTube, two school officials — Theresa Alban, the county schools superintendent, and Brad W. Young, the school board president — explained that the basketball game was underway when the shooting occurred outside the gymnasium.

 “Several students who had been outside at the time of the shooting came back into the lobby of the gymnasium,” Alban said. “This obviously created some fear among those who were in the basketball game.”

 Officials enter Frederick High School on Wednesday. Police and school officials say students were shot outside the public high school while a basketball game was being played inside. (Bill Green/Frederick News-Post via AP)

 Frederick High School officials said they would have a “crisis team” to offer counseling to students and staff members.

 “What happened this evening does not define in any way what Frederick High School is all about,” Alban said in the video. “We all know that there are issues many times that are out there in the community that sometimes spill into our schools, and that’s exactly what happened.”

 In a Twitter message posted Wednesday night, Frederick County Executive Jan Gardner said she was “saddened by shooting at Frederick High School. Pray for those involved.”

 Clarence Williams contributed to this report. ||||| A Maryland high school will reopen Friday, even as police continue to search for suspects responsible for a shooting that left two teens injured. Mark Segraves reports. (Published Thursday, Feb. 5, 2015)

 One of the two teens who was shot outside a Maryland high school Wednesday night is in critical condition.

 Students will return to Frederick High School for the first time Friday. Two days ago, shots rang out about 8 p.m. outside the school's gymnasium along Carroll Parkway, where a junior varsity basketball game was being played.

 "I heard five shots really quickly. Not quite automatic, but really fast shots," Frederick resident Tom Thompson said.

 Investigators also are looking into reports from students who said they saw four to five males — dressed in big coats and hands in their pockets — walk into the gymnasium during the game and leave shortly before the gunfire rang out.

 The shooter or shooters are believed to have fled the scene on foot, and police believe the victims were targeted.

 "Gunshots going off around a gym packed with kids … You can imagine, everybody’s running," Frederick Police Capt. Richard Hetherington said.

 911 Operator in Fatal Crash: "Stop Whining"

 The two injured students, who did not attend Frederick High School, were flown to a hospital in Baltimore. One of them is now in critical condition, according to a hospital spokesperson.

 One was shot in the leg and the other was shot in the back. Hetherington did not know the students' ages or genders.

 Police said they're investigating a range of possibilities regarding the motive behind the shooting, including reports from students that it could be gang-related or stem from a rivalry between the two schools playing in the game. They've interviewed about 200 witnesses so far.

 "We have gang problems like any one else ... it's certainly an angle we're not overlooking," Hetherington added. "We're hoping some of the video we acquire can coroborate how many people we're actually looking for."

 School was closed Thursday for the police investigation, but will reopen Friday.

 Missing Girl, 12, Found Safe

 Late Wednesday, parents waited outside a nearby bowling alley for their children to be released following a lockdown, which ended about two hours after the shooting.

 10 Juveniles Assaulted Woman in D.C.; 4 Arrests Made

 "[I] just want to see my son and make sure he's straight and everything is good ... make sure his mind is in the right place," parent Shawn Rodriguez said.

 Students reunite w/ parents across St. from Frederick High. School was on lockdown. 2 teens shot @nbcwashington pic.twitter.com/uu4c0iTkJv — Shomari Stone (@shomaristone) February 5, 2015

 Frederick High School, on the city's west side, has about 1,300 students. The school district said in a statement that the high school and West Frederick Middle School would be closed Thursday for students.

 The Associated Press contributed to this report.

 Copyright Associated Press / NBC4 Washington ||||| Two students were shot outside a Maryland public high school Wednesday night while a basketball game was being played inside causing panic as parents rushed to the scene to make sure their children were OK.

 The Frederick High School students were flown to a Baltimore hospital. The injuries they suffered did not appear to be life-threatening, Frederick Police Capt. Richard Hetherington said. He did not know the ages or gender of the students.

 Hetherington said the shooter or shooters were still at large early Thursday.

 Frederick Police Department Lt. Bruce DeGrange told FoxNews.com the shooting took place at 8 p.m. and the authorities immediately locked down the building.

 Officers took about 200 people who were at the game into the cafeteria. Police secured the building and questioned witnesses, Hetherington said. Students were released to their parents in the parking of a nearby bowling alley.

 Frederick High School junior Sofia McCluskey said she was watching the game and heard a muffled shot. "Someone yelled, `Yo, they're shooting,"' she said. "And we just ran as fast as we could."

 She and her friend, Stephanie Sanchez, said they ran to the locker room and were taken to the cafeteria, where they waited and were briefly interviewed by police.

 Sanchez said it was a frightening experience. "I was, like, shaking the whole time. I still am," she said.

 Dejuan Jones, a sophomore, said, "You would expect it to happen at a varsity game, but it was like a JV game," he said. "Nobody hardly comes to those."

 Frederick County Public Schools officials tweeted that all other staff and students were safe and accounted for.

 The high school has about 1,300 students. The district said that the school would be closed Thursday for students.

 FoxNews.com's Karl de Vries and The Associated Press contributed to this report. |||||
What is a summary?

– Two teens were shot outside a basketball game at Frederick High School in Maryland last night, and as of this morning police were still looking for the shooter or shooters, who are believed to have escaped on foot. "Gunshots going off around a gym packed with kids," is how a police officer described the 8pm scene. "You can imagine, everybody's running." Students told investigators they saw four or five males in big coats, hands in pockets, walk into the gym during the game and leave just before shots were fired, NBC Washington reports. The victims were boys aged 14 and 15, but it's not clear what school or schools they attend, the Washington Post reports. Police are looking into various motives—possibilities include gang-related violence or a rivalry between the two teams (the other school playing was Gov. Thomas Johnson High, the Baltimore Sun reports). "You would expect it to happen at a varsity game, but it was like a JV game," one sophomore tells Fox News. "Nobody hardly comes to those." The injuries to the two students were not believed to be life-threatening. The rest of the students at the school were released after a two-hour lockdown; the high school as well as a nearby middle school are closed today. Frederick has been named one of the most secure American cities, and Frederick County borders some of the richest counties in the US.


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 A 20-year-old Burbank man whose body landed on an overhead exit ramp sign after a rollover crash near Griffith Park was passing vehicles on the right shoulder of the 5 Freeway before veering out of control, CHP announced Friday afternoon.

 The collision occurred just before 7 a.m. on the southbound freeway just north of the eastbound 134 Freeway overpass (map).

 Richard Pananian of Burbank was killed, according to Lt. David Smith of the Los Angeles County coroner's office.

 A witness told the California Highway Patrol that Pananian was driving his 2004 Ford Fiesta at a high rate of speed and passing vehicles on the right shoulder.

 The 45-year-old driver of a 2004 Ford F-150 was in the No. 4 lane going 50 mph when Pananian veered left from the right-hand shoulder and hit the pickup truck’s rear, according to a CHP collision report.

 The Fiesta then veered right, out of control, and overturned multiple times. As the Fiesta traveled up an embankment, Pananian was ejected about 20 feet into the air, colliding with an exit ramp sign overhead, the report stated.

 Pananian came to rest on the “ledge” in front of the sign. His severely damaged Fiesta rolled back onto the freeway.

 "Based on the injuries sustained and force of impact" with the F-150, it wasn’t clear exactly what killed Pananian, the CHP report stated.

 He was pronounced dead by Los Angeles Fire Department paramedics.

 The F-150 driver, who had two passengers in his truck, was not injured, nor were his passengers.

 It appeared Pananian was not wearing a seat belt, according to CHP.

 "Any time you speed and you don't wear your seat belt, there's a good chance you're going to get hurt, if not killed," CHP Officer Edgar Figueroa said on scene.

 It was not known if drugs or alcohol were a factor in the crash, the CHP report stated.

 Pananian's body was covered with a sheet after firefighters ascended a ladder and worked to remove the body in the 9 a.m. hour. The body remained there for several hours.

 He had landed on a sign alerting drivers to the Colorado Street exit, three-quarters of a mile away.

 Pananian apparently worked at a Van Nuys-based automobile sales company called L.A. Autostore. "Rest in peace," the company stated of "Tiko" on Facebook.

 All southbound and northbound lanes of the 5 Freeway were temporarily blocked, and the two southbound right lanes were closed for an extended period.

 All lanes reopened about 11 a.m., CHP's Southern Division stated on Twitter.

 The incident happened in the Griffith Park area, bordering on the northern section of the Atwater Village neighborhood of Los Angeles.

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 Please enable Javascript to watch this video ||||| California Highway Patrol received a call at 7 a.m. about the driver of a Ford Fiesta traveling recklessly down the southbound 5 Freeway just north of California 134. Shortly after, the car collided with another car, overturned and the driver was ejected, landing on the Colorado Street freeway sign, said Edgar Figueroa, a CHP public information officer. ||||| Man killed in 5 Freeway rollover crash, ejected onto freeway sign [ ] Hide Caption [ ] Show Caption According to reports from the scene, a car rolled over and ejected a person, whose body ended up perched atop a freeway sign. Local News Man killed in rollover crash, ejected onto freeway sign UPDATE: The driver's been identified as 20-year-old Richard Pananian of Burbank. Police say he was not wearing a seat-belt. No other injuries were reported.

 - UPDATE: The driver's been identified as 20-year-old Richard Pananian of Burbank. Police say he was not wearing a seat-belt. No other injuries were reported.

 A 20-year-old man died Friday in a high-speed rollover crash on the southbound Golden State (5) Freeway that propelled him onto a 20-foot-tall freeway sign, authorities said.

 The crash that killed Burbank resident Richard Pananian happened about 7 a.m. near Colorado Boulevard and the Ventura (134) Freeway interchange.

 Pananian, who was not wearing a seatbelt, was ejected when his Ford compact collided with another vehicle and rolled over several times, according to the California Highway Patrol.

 The momentum flung him 20 to 30 feet in the air onto the walkway of the Colorado Boulevard freeway sign.

 "It's something I've never seen...they had to use a ladder to climb up to the body..." - Rick Dickert Man killed in 5... Posted by Fox 11 Los Angeles on Friday, October 30, 2015

 Authorities covered the body, which remained there for about three hours. About 10 a.m., the CHP closed the freeway for around 20 minutes in both directions while firefighters removed the body.

 "Driving at a high rate of speed, not wearing (a) seatbelt, and rolling over ... people get ejected out of cars like that,'' CHP Officer Edgar Figueroa said.

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– Authorities were left in disbelief after a man's body landed on top of a freeway sign following a car crash Friday morning in Los Angeles, Fox 11 reports. "I've never seen anything like this or heard anything like this," a highway patrol spokesperson tells the Los Angeles Times. "It's the first time." The highway patrol received reports of a Ford Fiesta driving recklessly around 7am local time. According to Fox 11, the Fiesta hit another vehicle and rolled. The driver, who wasn't wearing a seatbelt, was launched 20 to 30 feet in the air, landing improbably on top of a nearby freeway sign. One witness told police that the driver had been passing cars on the right shoulder of the road, reports KTLA. Police say he eventually clipped the rear of a pickup, which caused his own car to spin out of control. The body of the man was covered by authorities but stayed on the sign for approximately three hours until the freeway could be closed to let firefighters remove it. He has been identified as 20-year-old Richard Pananian of Burbank. (In another car accident tragedy, a woman's husband and child were killed—and she lost all memory of them.)