Summarize this article:

On July 7th, a young girl battling cancer named Naomi got a huge surprise when her favorite singer, Taylor Swift, donated $50,000 to her GoFundMe campaign. Naomi and her family were understandably surprised and grateful for such a generous gift.

 “Taylor Swift’s donation was so generous that it required us to increase the donation limit on the platform,” said Rob Solomon, GoFundMe CEO. GoFundMe’s previous donation limit was set at $15,000, but has now been increased to $50,000. There are never any limits on how much a campaign can raise.

 Including gifts to other campaigns, Taylor Swift has given more than any other donor in GoFundMe history. Solomon added, “What Ms. Swift has done for Naomi and others can inspire the next generation of giving.”

 To visit Naomi’s campaign and see her reaction video, please visit this link: http://www.gofundme.com/teamnaomi ||||| My niece Naomi has Leukemia.

 My sister Shannon (Naomi's Mom) and her family are some of the happiest, most compasionate, loving people you could ever meet. If you have had them touch your life in some way or another, you know what I mean. Sadly, this tragedy has hit the family very unexpectedly.

 Here's Dan Oakes (Naomi's Father) post taken from Facebook just days after it all started:

 "We are so grateful for all the calls, texts, emails, visits, hugs, prayers, and kind words for our sweet Naomi.

 For those friends that dont know we took Naomi to the Dr on Wednesday after noticing excessive bruises on her legs and torso. They examined her and did some blood work and told us they would call us with the results. On Thursday morning their office called and told us that we needed to take Naomi to Cardon Children"s Hospital ASAP.

 We were met there by wonderful... doctors and nurses that examined and tested her. They informed us that Naomi's blood counts were consistent with Leukemia. They scheduled a bone marrow biopsy for this morning at 9am to verify the diagnosis and determine treatment. After the biopsy the doctor later confirmed the diagnosis of AML (Acute Myelogenous Leukemia).

 She said this was the type of Leukemia they were hoping not to find. It is more aggressive than other kinds and will require 6-9 mo of intensive therapy in the hospital. We are obviously scared and concerned for our girl, but she has been a trooper and is positive about getting better. We are so blessed to have the gospel in our lives as it gives us hope and faith in what is beyond this moment. I think she has a hard road to travel, we are honored to be with her for the difficult journey. We have deep faith in our Father in Heaven and we will seek his comfort and grace during this time."

 -----------------

 With permission from my sister and her husband, I have started this GoFundMe page to help cover the medical expenses and I'm asking for your donation to help them through this tough time...every dollar helps.

 We all know that the battle against cancer is a tough one, and that it can be lengthy. This is especially true with Leukemia.

 Shannon, Naomi's mother, was met with a $2,000 medical bill within their first 48 hours of this journey, and the medical expenseses keep growing.

 Our goal is set at $30,000 but we aren't really sure how much more these expenses will grow over the coming months.

 Go #teamnaomi

 Thank you. ||||| Taylor Swift's $50,000 Donation to Cancer Patient Causes GoFundMe to Raise Giving Limit

 Once in a while (more like all the time), Taylor Swift likes to reach out to her fans on a personal level.From interacting with them on Tumblr to sending Christmas presents with handwritten notes, Swift, 25, is all about giving back. But what she did for Naomi, a young girl battling cancer, was life-changing – and once again changed how a company conducts its business.Due to her diagnosis, Naomi was forced to miss Swift's upcoming concert. After hearing about her situation, Swift donated $50,000 to Naomi's GoFundMe campaign "To the beautiful and brave Naomi, I'm sorry you have to miss [my concert], but there will always be more concerts," wrote Swift when giving the donation. "Let's focus on getting you feeling better. I'm sending the biggest hugs to you and your family."Because the site's donation limit was set at $15,000, Swift made four separate donations, totaling $50,000.The company was so inspired by Swift's generosity that it raised the giving limit to match the singer's donation. People can now donate in transactions up to $50,000."Taylor Swift's donation was so generous that it required us to increase the donation limit on the platform," said Rob Solomon, GoFundMe's CEO. "What Ms. Swift has done for Naomi and others can inspire the next generation of giving."Naomi and her family were so blown away with Swift's donation that they posted a video response to thank the singer.This isn't the first time that Swift's influence has caused a company to change its policies. Earlier this summer she wrote an open letter to Apple asking for the company to pay artists during the free trial period of its streaming service. Apple execs took notice of Swift's concerns and complied with her demands |||||

– When Taylor Swift heard that Naomi, one of her young fans, had to miss her concert because she had been diagnosed with cancer, Swift jumped onto Naomi's GoFundMe page and promptly donated $50,000, People reports. "To the beautiful and brave Naomi, I'm sorry you have to miss [my concert], but there will always be more concerts," she wrote. "Let's focus on getting you feeling better." But because the site caps donations at $15,000, the singer had to carry out four separate transactions—a limit that's now been lifted after GoFundMe got word of Taylor's gesture. "Taylor Swift's donation was so generous that it required us to increase the donation limit on the platform," CEO Rob Solomon said in a release, noting that now the max users can give in one pop is $50,000. He adds that Swift has given more to various GoFundMe campaigns than any other donor in the site's history. As for how Naomi felt about her idol's donation—well, you can see her reaction in this video. (Taylor recently got Apple to bow down before her, too.)


Article:

"My rallies are not covered properly by the media," Donald Trump tweeted. | Getty Trump blames 'disgusting' media: 'I would be beating Hillary by 20%'

 In a series of tweets Sunday, Donald Trump launched a new tirade against the media, calling it “disgusting” and blaming it for his drop in polls.

 His latest tweet storm first targeted The New York Times, which published an article Saturday about the GOP nominee’s allegedly failing campaign, but quickly expanded as an indictment of the media in general.

 Story Continued Below

 “The failing @nytimes talks about anonymous sources and meetings that never happened. Their reporting is fiction. The media protects Hillary!”

 In the article, colleagues who spoke on the condition of anonymity described Trump as “exhausted, frustrated and still bewildered by fine points of the political process.”

 “The failing @nytimes, which never spoke to me, keeps saying that I am saying to advisers that I will change. False, I am who I am-never said,” Trump tweeted.

 The GOP nominee later tweeted Sunday afternoon saying Hillary Clinton is "being protected by the media."

 "She is not a talented person or politician. The dishonest media refuses to expose!" The tweet said.

 He then added: "I am not only fighting Crooked Hillary, I am fighting the dishonest and corrupt media and her government protection process. People get it!"

 Trump’s relationship with the news media has been shaky, at times denying reporters credentials to cover his rallies, including those from POLITICO, BuzzFeed and The Washington Post.

 If the disgusting and corrupt media covered me honestly and didn't put false meaning into the words I say, I would be beating Hillary by 20% — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2016

 My rallies are not covered properly by the media. They never discuss the real message and never show crowd size or enthusiasm. — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 14, 2016

 At a rally on Saturday, hours after The New York Times article was released, Trump said “the newspaper is going to hell.” He even suggested he would take away its reporters’ credentials.

 “When they write dishonest stories we should be a little bit tough,” Trump said at his rally in Fairfield, Connecticut.

 He also tweeted yesterday: “The failing @nytimes has become a newspaper of fiction. Their stories about me always quote non-existent unnamed sources. Very dishonest!” ||||| Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at Sacred Heart University, Saturday, Aug. 13, 2016, in Fairfield, Conn. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) (Associated Press)

 WASHINGTON (AP) — The Latest on Campaign 2016 (all times EDT):

 10:20 p.m.

 Republican Donald Trump will declare an end to nation building if elected president, replacing it with what aides described as "foreign policy realism" focused on destroying the Islamic State group and other terrorist organizations.

 The Republican presidential nominee will deliver a speech in Ohio Monday laying out his vision.

 He'll argue the country needs to work with anyone that shares that mission, regardless of other disagreements.

 Trump is also expected to propose a new immigration policy under which the U.S. would stop issuing visas in cases where adequate screenings can't be performed.

 And he's expected to propose creating a new, ideological test for admission to the country that would assess a candidate's stances on issues like religious freedom.

 ___

 5 p.m.

 Vice President Joe Biden will declare Donald Trump the most uninformed presidential nominee in history when he campaigns with Hillary Clinton on Monday.

 That's when Biden is set to hold his first campaign rally for Clinton. They'll be in his hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania. Biden's office says he'll argue that Trump is less prepared on national security than any previous nominee. He'll also say that Trump's erratic rhetoric and "bluster" will make Pennsylvanians and all Americans less safe.

 Biden's office says he'll praise Clinton as offering solutions for the middle class on jobs and education. He'll also cast Clinton as key to building on the Obama administration's legacy.

 The vice president also plans to say Trump is clueless on the needs of working families.

 ___

 3 p.m.

 Hillary Clinton's campaign is launching a new effort to tap into the political power of young, undocumented immigrants.

 She's hoping to capitalize on Donald Trump's promises to deport them.

 Clinton's national voter registration program is being launched on the four year anniversary of President Barack Obama's 2012 executive order that temporarily shielded some young immigrants brought to the country illegally as children.

 Organizers will remind voters that a Trump presidency would end that program, according to the campaign. It's already at risk after a deadlocked Supreme Court decision in June.

 The 730,000 young people known as DREAMERs are prohibited from voting but they've helped mobilize many Latinos who can.

 The program is part of an effort by Clinton to woo the record 27.3 million Latinos eligible to vote in 2016.

 ___

 9:40 a.m.

 Donald Trump's campaign is on a tear against the media just as his GOP backers are urging him — again — to focus his attacks on his Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.

 Trump's campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, on Sunday blamed news organizations for the GOP nominee's difficult week, saying the press focused on a pair of Trump comments for days rather than doing more stories about the economic plan Trump announced.

 Dominating news last week were Trump's remark that Second Amendment backers could "do something" if Hillary Clinton is elected president and appoints liberal judges. He also insisted on a plain falsehood, that President Barack Obama "founded" the Islamic State group, multiple times.

 Trump went on a Twitter rant against the press, complaining that the "disgusting" media is not showing the crowd size of his rallies and is putting "false meaning into the words I say." He also called a New York Times story Sunday about his struggling campaign "fiction."

 ___

 9:20 a.m.

 Donald Trump's running mate, Mike Pence, says the Republican presidential candidate will offer "real specifics" this week on how make the country safer.

 Pence declined to preview Trump's plan in an interview on "Fox News Sunday," saying only that Trump will offer a "change of direction" in counterterrorism policies.

 Trump has called President Barack Obama the "founder" of the Islamic State group. Pence says Trump was trying to make the point that Obama is to blame for the group's rise in power.

 Pence also brushed off a recent letter from the nation's top national security experts, all Republicans, who say Trump can't be trusted as president. He said he understands that "people in the establishment" may have "anxiety about the clear-eyed leadership" Trump will bring. ||||| Donald Trump lashed out at the media on Sunday after more stories describing dysfunction inside his presidential campaign. “If the disgusting and corrupt media covered me honestly and didn’t put false meaning into the words I say, I would be beating Hillary by 20%,” Mr. Trump averred on Twitter.

 Mr. Trump is right that most of the media want him to lose, but then that was also true of George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan. It’s true of every Republican presidential nominee. The difference is that Mr. Trump has... ||||| A New York Times investigation into Paul Manafort’s time consulting for Ukraine’s pro-Russia political party has revealed that the top adviser to GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump Donald TrumpPoll: Majority of Americans believe Russian hacking didn't sway election Trump facing low expectations, poll finds Why you can't just ignore the CIA report on Russia hacking MORE has ties to a large network that Ukrainian government investigators say was used to loot assets and influence elections.

 Manafort’s involvement in Russian and Ukrainian politics has previously been reported but has come under increasing scrutiny as the U.S. election cycle’s focus rests on the region.

 The New York Times said its Sunday report “offers new details of how [Manafort] mixed politics and business out of public view and benefited from powerful interests now under scrutiny by the new government in Kiev.”

 It created a stir on Twitter when former top Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, who was fired after clashing with Manafort over campaign strategy, tweeted a link to the article minutes after it was posted.

 Secret Ledger in Ukraine Lists Cash for Donald Trump’s Campaign Chief https://t.co/7bh7iIHHaY — Corey Lewandowski (@CLewandowski_) August 15, 2016

 Many jumped on board, retweeting the article and noting the awkwardness of the former Trump adviser seemingly calling out his successor.

 If Corey recommends this story, it's probably worth the read. https://t.co/9IlWtNDJWl — Brian Fallon (@brianefallon) August 15, 2016

 Stay tuned for more recommendations from Corey's summer reading list. https://t.co/jsVXFa9WTH — Brian Fallon (@brianefallon) August 15, 2016

 Doesnt really feel like Lewandowski and Manafort parted on the best of terms. https://t.co/B4C5X6yktu — Jennifer Palmieri (@jmpalmieri) August 15, 2016

 former Trump campaign manager openly knifing his successor -> https://t.co/VYlssfDg4f — Alex Altman (@aaltman82) August 15, 2016

 After leaving the Trump campaign, Lewandowski got a job doing commentary on CNN.

 "ok so now even the WSJ is being a bitch at least we still have corey at CNN to do damage contr..."@hunterwalk https://t.co/4B2RgCSdew — darth™ (@darth) August 15, 2016

 The media lies. Unless, of course, it reports something you like. pic.twitter.com/TiduRZIEox — Hunter Schwarz (@hunterschwarz) August 15, 2016

 Fairly remarkable tweet-retweet combo from the one and only Corey Lewandowski. cc: @nytimes pic.twitter.com/526yKMk9jh — Matt Pearce (@mattdpearce) August 15, 2016

 when you can't wait to tweet it https://t.co/dw4SIGFNl1 — Kate Bennett (@KateBennett_DC) August 15, 2016 |||||
What is a summary?

– Donald Trump's campaign chief may have closer—and more illegal—ties to pro-Russia interests in Ukraine than he has let on, according to a New York Times report on secret ledgers that anti-corruption investigators have uncovered in Kiev. Investigators say the ledgers list $12.7 million in payments to Paul Manafort from the pro-Russia Party of Regions between 2007 and 2012, when he worked as a consultant for the party. It isn't clear whether Manafort actually received the cash, which investigators say is linked to a network that also bribed election officials. Manafort's lawyer says his client never received the payments and any suspicions are "probably heavily politically tinged." In other coverage: The Hill reports that there doesn't appear to be any love lost between Manafort and former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski: Lewandowski, who was fired after clashing with Manafort, tweeted a link to the NYT Ukraine story minutes after it first appeared. The AP reports that Trump plans to deliver a major foreign policy speech in Ohio Monday that will focus on "realism," with policies including destroying ISIS without engaging in "nation-building"—and on new ideological tests for people seeking to enter the US. Politico reports that Trump targeted the media in a series of tweets Sunday, claiming that he would be beating Hillary Clinton by 20% if the "disgusting" media covered him honestly. "I am not only fighting Crooked Hillary, I am fighting the dishonest and corrupt media and her government protection process," he tweeted. "It is not 'freedom of the press' when newspapers and others are allowed to say and write whatever they want even if it is completely false!" he added. The Wall Street Journal editorial board warned Sunday that Trump's "window for a turnaround" is closing and his GOP supporters now face a "moment of truth" before he is written off as a lost cause. "The tragedy is that this is happening in a year when Republicans should win," they write.


Write an article based on this summary:

– A New York state lawmaker running for re-election killed himself Friday, four days before the state's Republican primary, the Democrat and Chronicle reports. Police were called about a distraught man at an area cemetery and arrived to see Bill Nojay shoot and kill himself. He died next to his brother's grave in his family's burial plot. It's unclear what led Nojay to kill himself, but the lawmaker had recently become embroiled in a number of controversies. According to the New York Times, he was accused of embezzling $1.8 million from a legal client and was supposed to be in court on those charges Friday. And federal investigators are looking into an agricultural business Nojay started in Cambodia after he allegedly took a $1 million donation from a Cambodian dentist and had nothing to show for it. He was also being investigated for his role in a $1.3 billion deal to modernize schools, the Albany Times Union reports. The 59-year-old father of three was first elected to the state assembly in 2012. Nojay was known for going against Democrats and Republicans alike and for his anti-gun control work. He hosted a local radio show and had been championing Donald Trump for president since 2013. He also worked on elections in Afghanistan and Ukraine. Nojay will remain on the primary ballot. If he ends up winning Tuesday, party leaders will have to nominate a replacement for the general election. Nojay's Republican challenger, Richard Milne, says he's "devastated" by the news and is "suspending all political activity until further notice."

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 Photo: Lori Van Buren Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Image 1 of 3 Assemblyman Bill Nojay speaks during an Anti-SAFE Act rally at the West Capitol Park on Tuesday, June 11, 2013, in Albany, N.Y. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union archive) Assemblyman Bill Nojay speaks during an Anti-SAFE Act rally at the West Capitol Park on Tuesday, June 11, 2013, in Albany, N.Y. (Lori Van Buren / Times Union archive) Photo: Lori Van Buren Image 2 of 3 Assemblyman Bill Nojay addresses a press conference at the Legislative Office Building on Wednesday, July 10, 2013 in Albany, NY. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union archive) Assemblyman Bill Nojay addresses a press conference at the Legislative Office Building on Wednesday, July 10, 2013 in Albany, NY. (Paul Buckowski / Times Union archive) Photo: Paul Buckowski Image 3 of 3 Bill Nojay, conservative assemblyman, 59 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

 Albany

 State lawmakers reacted with shock to the news of the apparent suicide of Rochester-area Assemblyman Bill Nojay, who according to local law enforcement shot himself Friday morning at the city's Riverside Cemetery.

 An officer responding to a 9:22 a.m. call to check the welfare of a man spotted in the cemetery saw Nojay shoot himself, Rochester Police investigator Frank Camp said in a news conference.

 Multiple reports said the 59-year-old Republican lawmaker killed himself at the family cemetery plot.

 The news was followed by reports that Nojay's death might have been connected to a far more common phenomenon at the Capitol: an criminal investigation.

 The Daily News reported that his suicide came as Nojay failed to show up in court to turn himself in for fraud charges. The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle reported those charges were related to a trust fund he handled as an attorney.

 The newspaper reported earlier in the day that the FBI also had been probing a business deal related to the city's $1.3 billion school modernization program, which Nojay played a central role in. The newspaper had reported earlier this year that Nojay was involved behind the scenes in forming a company that sought a major contract part of the modernization program.

 In a bizarre twist, the lawmaker also was involved in unrelated business dealings that had fallen under legal scrutiny in Southeast Asia. Cambodian prosecutors sought to question him as part of a fraud investigation in 2014 after a dentist in that nation had accused him of defrauding her of $1 million, according to reports. The trial in that case was delayed earlier this year, according to reports.

 Nojay was a member of Akra Group, a company promoting agriculture products in Southeast Asia, according to his 2015 financial disclosure form on file with the state Joint Commission on Public Ethics.

 Nojay was recalled by his colleagues as a staunch and outspoken conservative who was unafraid of attacking opponents regardless of party affiliation.

 He worked as one of two election attorneys for Assembly GOP Leader Brian Kolb in a hotly contested February 2000 special election that first sent Kolb to Albany.

 "Quite frankly, I don't think I would have gotten in the Assembly without his assistance," Kolb said in an interview. " ... He's always been a friend, he's been loyal to me as leader of our conference."

 First elected in 2012, Nojay represented the 133rd Assembly District, which includes Livingston County and parts of Monroe and Steuben counties. He faced a primary challenge on Tuesday from Rick Milne, mayor of Honeoye Falls. Milne and Democratic candidate Barbara Baer both suspended their campaigns Friday.

 When it came to legislative business, Nojay often went against the grain He voted aye 59 percent of the time in 2016, one of the lowest percentages for any Assembly member, according to an analysis by New York StateWatch. He voted nay 32 percent of the time, the second highest percentage in the chamber. Nojay voted with a majority of his fellow Assembly Republicans 68 percent of the time, again one of the lowest percentages in the Assembly, even with Democrats factored in.

 As further evidence of his outspoken nature, he also was a vocal critic of the election of Long Island Republican John Flanagan as Senate majority leader in 2015, so much so that earlier this year he said he was seeking GOPers to run against Sen. Michael Nozzolio, R-Seneca County, who backed Flanagan during the 2015 leadership battle. Nozzolio decided not to seek re-election.

 Flanagan in a statement Friday called Nojay "an outspoken advocate for conservative values, for his district, and for Upstate New York."

 An early supporter of Donald Trump's political ambitions, Nojay was among the Legislature's most relentless critics of the SAFE Act gun control law. As such, he was an organizer of the pro-Second Amendment concert called Freedompalooza, held in Altamont in August 2013.

 A conservative talk radio host, Nojay also listed work as vice president and counsel for Commodity Resource Corp., a California commodity futures advisory and brokerage firm, and as director and president of the Empire Page, a news aggregation website.

 mhamilton@timesunion.com • 518-454-5449 • @matt_hamilton10 ||||| Suicide is impossible to pin on any one factor, and there was no way to say on Friday what had driven Mr. Nojay, 59, to his. But a number of his business dealings outside the Assembly had drawn the attention of federal investigators, one involving possible fraud in an agricultural marketing business he had started in Cambodia. On Friday, according to The Democrat & Chronicle of Rochester, he was to appear in court to face charges that he had embezzled $1.8 million from a legal client.

 By the usual laws of Albany, Mr. Nojay, a junior upstate Republican in a legislative chamber dominated by New York City Democrats, should never have come within sniffing distance of prominence.

 But then, he never limited himself to the backbenches. Not in the Capitol. Not in the headlines. Not in his goals.

 Even his political-awakening story stood out: He said the moment came when he was 17, during a trip to the first Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington, where he listened starry-eyed to President Ronald Reagan’s “city upon a hill” speech and shook Mr. Reagan’s hand. As a teenager, another push into local politics came from his family’s experiences caring for his severely disabled older brother. He got his law degree from Columbia Law School and practiced law in his native Rochester before winning his Assembly seat in 2012.

 There was his audacious pitch, as a freshman lawmaker, to Mr. Trump: Run for governor of New York, he told Mr. Trump in 2013, and the path to the White House would be clear. (“Springboards to the Presidency,” Mr. Nojay’s four-page memo was called.)

 Photo

 Three years later, he was a co-chairman of Mr. Trump’s New York campaign committee.

 There was his penchant for speaking up for upstate concerns, using his radio show to denounce state leaders in Albany — Democrats and establishment Republicans — for what he called their indifference. Among his signature issues: railing against the SAFE Act, the New York gun-control legislation passed in 2013.

 “I’m not on the governor’s Christmas card list, and you know something? That’s something I wear as a badge of honor,” he said on Thursday, in one of his final radio interviews. “Because I think that when you forcefully and strongly advocate for your district and you make that mark, even people that disagree with you respect your views.”

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 The force of Mr. Nojay’s advocacy was not lost on anyone in the Legislature: “You knew exactly where he stood,” said Brian Kolb, the Assembly minority leader. “He ruffled feathers because he spoke it as he saw it.”

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 And there were his far-flung business and nation-building ventures. In Afghanistan, he was an election monitor with the International Republican Institute. In Odessa, Ukraine, he consulted on an election between pro-Western and pro-Russian candidates. In Iran, he held the title “director and secretary/treasurer of the Foundation for Democracy,” according to his Assembly biography.

 In Cambodia, which he said he had visited for various reasons since the 1980s, he started an agricultural marketing business with three partners, including Sichan Siv, the Cambodian-American former United States ambassador to the United Nations. The Akra Group, as it was called, solicited a $1 million investment from a wealthy Phnom Penh dentist around the end of 2012, said her American lawyer, Robert A. Simon. By 2014, Mr. Simon said, Akra showed no signs of marketing rice or of returning the $1 million, and his client, Dr. Lykuong Eng, filed a fraud complaint in Cambodia.

 Despite being tried in absentia on and off since 2014, Mr. Nojay had brushed off the Cambodian investigation. “He said there’s nothing to it, just a feud among partners — one of them was disgruntled,” said Bill Reilich, the Monroe County Republican chairman, who knew Mr. Nojay for 20 years. Mr. Nojay was, he added, “kind of nonchalant” about the matter.

 By this spring, federal agents in Rochester had subpoenaed documents related to the Cambodian investment from Mr. Simon, he said on Friday.

 “It’s a shock,” said David DiPietro, a Republican assemblyman from the Buffalo area who was close to Mr. Nojay. “All of a sudden, hearing all these rumors, it’s amazing what you don’t know about somebody.”

 Mr. Nojay faced a primary challenge on Tuesday. He lived in Pittsford, near Rochester, with his wife, Debra, with whom he had three children.

 At 9:20 a.m. on Friday, a 911 call came in to the Rochester police, asking that they check on someone on at the Riverside Cemetery, a police spokesman said.

 An officer arrived at the cemetery six minutes later, just as Mr. Nojay’s gun went off. |||||


Image copyright Hallie Twomey

 In November 2013, Hallie Twomey turned to social media to ask people across the world to scatter her son's ashes. One year on CJ's ashes have been taken to more than 100 countries and have even been sent into space.

 Of the many photographs you can see on the Scattering CJ Facebook page, one appears more often than any other. It is a picture of a young man, smiling into the camera, sunglasses resting on his head and wearing a Boston Red Sox T-shirt.

 He is CJ Twomey from Maine in the United States - a former member of the US air force who loved to travel and loved adventure. On 14 April 2010, when he was 20 years old, CJ took his own life.

 Last November, as his mother was looking at the urn filled with her son's ashes sitting on the mantelpiece, she decided that she wanted to send him on a journey.

 "It dawned on me that his ashes would be sitting in that urn forever," says Hallie Twomey. "He didn't get to see the world and I wanted to give CJ something he didn't get a chance to have."

 After discussing it with her husband John, Hallie set up a Facebook page asking if anyone would be willing to scatter a small amount of CJ's ashes in a place of their choosing.

 Image copyright Facebook/Scattering CJ Image caption CJ's ashes have been scattered in Machu Picchu, Peru...

 Image copyright Facebook/Scattering CJ Image caption ... and on a tea plantation in Tamil Nadu, India

 At the beginning, the offers were slow to come in - Hallie and her family thought they would be lucky to get a few hundred people making contact.

 But one year on, more than 9,000 people have offered to take some of her son's ashes on their travels and Hallie now has to be selective.

 Find out more Hallie Twomey spoke to Weekend on the BBC World Service

 She chooses people going to places that are particularly unique or where CJ's remains haven't yet been. "I wish we could involve every person that offers but we only have a finite amount of ash," says Hallie.

 When someone makes contact and the offer is accepted, Hallie places a small amount of CJ's ashes into a little bag and posts it along with a letter and the photo of CJ in his Red Sox shirt.

 "I ask them to let CJ know that we loved him," says Hallie. "And the thing I need people to do most for me is to tell CJ I'm sorry. Because I am - I feel I let my son down."

 Image copyright Facebook/Scattering CJ Image caption CJ's ashes have been skydiving several times, including on this occasion in Arizona

 Image copyright Facebook/Scattering CJ Image caption Scattering the ashes on sand dunes near Swakopmund in Namibia...

 Image copyright Facebook/Scattering CJ Image caption ... and from a hot air balloon over Cappadocia, Turkey

 Those who scatter CJ's ashes are asked to take a picture and send back a few words about their chosen location. The Scattering CJ Facebook page is filled with photographs from around the world - famous landmarks, snowy mountains and tropical islands all make an appearance.

 Most of the photographs include the little bag of ashes and CJ's picture in the foreground - many show a small amount of ash held in someone's outstretched hand, ready to be scattered.

 The page also shows an impressive list of destinations where CJ's ashes have been scattered - ranging from Alabama to Afghanistan and Cambodia to Cape Verde.

 Image copyright Facebook/Scattering CJ Image caption On the Zugspitze, the highest mountain in Germany...

 Image copyright Facebook/Scattering CJ Image caption ... and 16m below the sea surface near the Dominican Republic

 Despite so many packets being sent to so many destinations, there have been relatively few issues in getting CJ's ashes to those who wish to scatter them.

 But a few envelopes have arrived at their destination damaged - some with the ashes missing. "That can be hard to hear but we decided to believe that wherever CJ's ashes ended up, that's where they were meant to be," says Hallie.

 Sending cremated remains by post

 Image copyright Reuters

 Postal systems around the world have different rules about sending cremated human remains by post

 The US Postal Service (USPS) allows the shipment of cremated remains both domestically and internationally

 The Royal Mail in the UK considers human remains, including ashes, a "prohibited item" and will not transport them

 If posting ashes internationally, the USPS advises to check whether the destination country permits it or if certain procedures apply

 (Source: USPS / Royal Mail)

 Occasionally some of CJ's ashes are returned - perhaps people have changed their minds or their travel plans have fallen through. It's something they are asked to do if they feel they can't fulfil their offer.

 But it can be difficult for Hallie to receive those packets in the post. "I'm not sure why that makes me feel sad when it has always been an option," writes Hallie on Facebook.

 The people who have offered to scatter CJ's ashes are from different backgrounds, age groups and nationalities. Some of them have had their lives affected by suicide or perhaps contemplated it themselves.

 "Because of CJ and his journey, some people have shared with us that they no longer want to end their life," says Hallie. "We never for even one moment imagined that our son's story could save others."

 Image copyright Facebook/Scattering CJ Image caption Port Willunga Beach in South Australia

 Image copyright Facebook/Scattering CJ Image caption Overlooking Haikou City on Hainan Island in China

 Image copyright Facebook/Scattering CJ Image caption One of the US Winter Olympic team offered to scatter CJ at the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi

 Although his ashes have been scattered across seven continents including Antarctica, there are still a few locations his family would love CJ to get to - the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, the Galapagos Islands, the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt and under the ancient Angel Oak Tree in South Carolina.

 CJ's journey hasn't only been confined to Earth - his ashes were part of a rocket's payload launched from the New Mexican desert in October. "It allowed our larger than life son to reach farther than we ever imagined," says Hallie.

 Image copyright John Ottoway/Scattering CJ

 CJ's family don't intend to send all of his ashes away - a small amount will remain at home and some have already been incorporated into jewellery for Hallie to wear. They have never measured the exact amount of ash in CJ's urn but about two thirds of what they planned to share has now been sent.

 Their aim is to post the remaining third by early 2015 but there is no definite timeline. "I trust that I will know when it is time to be finished," says Hallie.

 Image copyright Hallie Twomey Image caption Hallie Twomey and her son CJ

 Hallie doesn't know how she will feel when the Scattering CJ project draws to a close and she sends off the last packet of CJ's ashes - but she is sure she will cry. "Mailing your child's ashes anywhere will never feel right because it's totally wrong that he's gone," she says, but she's glad she did it.

 "As his Mum, my single biggest fear is that CJ will be forgotten," says Hallie. And with more than 18,000 people now following the Scattering CJ Facebook page and new offers to scatter his ashes still arriving each day, she hopes that sending CJ on this journey will keep his memory alive.

 Hallie Twomey spoke to Weekend on the BBC World Service

 Subscribe to the BBC News Magazine's email newsletter to get articles sent to your inbox. ||||| AUBURN, Maine (AP) — A Maine mother who's using social media to have her son's ashes scattered all over the world has sent him on his greatest journey yet: to space.

 Using her Facebook page, which has more than 17,000 likes, Hallie Twomey has mailed hundreds of packets of her son C.J.'s ashes to strangers worldwide so they can be scattered at the many places he wasn't able to see before he died more than four years ago.

 On Thursday, a rocket containing a vial of his ashes was launched into space from the desert in New Mexico. The rocket spent a few minutes in space before landing in the nearby White Sands Missile Range.

 Twomey called it the perfect send off for her adrenaline-loving son, who was 20 years old when he shot himself after getting into an argument with his parents.

 His ashes have been scattered in nearly all 50 states and in dozens of places overseas, including Saudi Arabia, Thailand and Denmark.

 Twomey, who lives with her husband and 21-year-old son in Auburn, Maine, said that while she hasn't been able to get over her guilt, she has been touched by the kindness of strangers over the last year.

 "I have never experienced such a collective sort of hug," she said. "I feel less alone, and for me that has been huge."

 Twomey's ashes and those of about three dozen others were on the rocket. The roughly $1,000 to launch his ashes was paid by for by Celestis, the company that has completed 13 such memorial spaceflights. ||||| He Killed Himself After An Argument With His Mom. What She Did Next Is Unbelievable.

 Hallie Twomey is living a nightmare no mother should ever have to experience. The last things she ever said to her son were spoken during an argument. On April 14, 2010, after fighting with his mother, C.J. Twomey tragically took his own life. The former member of the Air Force was only 20 years-old when he died. His ashes used to sit upon a shelf in his mother’s home, but now, she is sending him on one last adventure with the help ofFacebook. What she is doing for him is simply unbelievable.

 Hallie didn’t want her son to just sit upon a shelf for her benefit. She wanted him to be able to travel the world one last time. So, this mother made a request on Facebook. She enlisted the help of others to take him to lands he never even dreamed of. At first just her friends were helping… but then after the original post was shared over 100 times, strangers began volunteering to help C.J. travel, too. At Lake Pattagansett in East Lyme, Connecticut. There are only two rules for helping scatter C.J.’s ashes. (This photo is at St. Paul’s Chapel in NYC.) 1.) They have to tell him that his mother will always love him. 2.) They have to tell him that she is sorry. (At St. Theresa’s Chapel Beach in Juneau, Alaska.) “YOU MUST AGREE TO SAY THAT,” Hallie posted on Facebook. (Near the Hollywood sign in California.) Given how Hallie and C.J. were before they were separated… (At the Gulf of Mexico.) She wants him to know, for sure, before he takes off into the world. (From Iron Mountain in California.) At Lake Erie in Cleveland, Ohio. In Jamaica. In Plymouth, Massachusetts. At Milford Lake in Kansas. At Kalapana-Kapoho Road in Hawaii. Inside the Banyan Tree at Rainbow Falls in Hawaii. These are all of the different places that C.J.’s ashes have been scattered across the US, but they aren’t the only places. Over 150 packets of his ashes have been sent around the world. One volunteer said they would even take him to the top of Mount Everest.

 This is a message from his mother, posted on the Facebook page dedicated to C.J.’s journey:

 SCATTERING CJ is a labor of love.

 It’s an idea born out of my broken mom’s heart following the tragic suicide of my beloved son CJ.

 CJ was only 20 years old when he ended his life.

 For the past three years, I have literally stumbled through life trying to wake from this horrible nightmare. I can’t change what happened although I would do anything to bring him back.

 As his mom, I want nothing more than to turn back the clock and fix whatever led him to this decision…repair what was broken…give him the life he no longer has…grant him the gift of time that he’ll never know.

 SCATTERING CJ is my attempt to give my son SOMETHING. It’s a mission to show my son – my crazy, life of the party, lover of people, smile so wide it entered a room before he did son – some of the world that he never got to see. It’s an effort to allow my child to forever rest in locations hand picked by caring friends, family and strangers alike.

 It’s simply a chance to put my faith in mankind (a faith that has completely disappeared since witnessing my son end his life) and ask that others help me complete CJ’s final journey.

 Please share this page and my mission with others if you are so inclined. So many people have already agreed to help take CJ on this journey but I truly hope many more will. This page will allow people to quickly and easily indicate that they are willing to scatter his ashes. It will also be a great way for me to share some of the pictures and video that I receive. Please feel free to comment or post as often as you’d like. Each time someone shares this page or leaves a quick note, CJ’s journey will grow.

 Thank you in advance to anyone that offers to take CJ on an adventure.

 I honestly can’t find words that adequately express how much I appreciate it.

 Please know that you are helping my very broken mom heart deal with the worst pain I have ever and will ever face.

 Share this story and help Hallie ease her pain… and maybe even help C.J. travel the world. No family should ever have to experience something like this.

 Source: Scattering CJ on Facebook

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 What do you think? ||||| Christopher John Twomey 1989 - 2010 "Fly High CJ" More Photos

 hristopher John Twomey, known to his loved ones as CJ, passed away unexpectedly on Thursday, April 15, 2010 at the age of 20. He was the beloved first born son of John and Hallie Twomey, arriving on July 3, 1989 in Stoneham, Massachusetts. Following his graduation from Edward Little High School in 2007, CJ spent time proudly serving as an enlisted aircrew member in the United States Air Force, successfully earning his enlisted aircrew wings. CJ was known as a friend to all, a natural comedian and the life of the party. His smile brought joy to his friends and his family alike. He was charismatic, extremely charming and always willing to lend a hand to a friend in need. CJ never met a mirror he didn’t like – he was handsome and he knew it! He loved unconditionally and made sure those people he cared about always felt special. His zest for life and his ability to see the good in all will never be forgotten. He was and always will be the world's greatest big brother to Connor. Their relationship was something to behold. They adored one another from day one and were the best of friends. CJ loved adventure and considered himself a bit of an adrenaline junky. He loved jumping out of planes as part of his military training as well as riding roller coasters, and he appreciated fast cars. He was the first to suggest an activity and liked to be the center of attention. He was a people person from the day he was born and felt comfortable in groups of all sizes. He loved loud music and was often found dancing his way through the house. He loved to give giant bear hugs and found great pleasure in poking his family until they begged him to stop. He loved military themed movies, goofy TV shows and could quote line after line from Monty Python. CJ often talked about his love of travel and dreamed of visiting distant lanes. He adored family vacations and was a beach bum at heart. He loved flying and was game to jump on a plane and head out to locations unknown at the drop of a hat. CJ’s death at such a young age prevented him from exploring the world around him. Believing that he would rather become part of the lands he never got to see rather than spend eternity in an urn on the shelf, CJ’s mother started the Scattering CJ journey. SCATTERING CJ is a mission to show her crazy, life-of-the-party, lover-of-people, smile-so-wide-it-entered-a-room-before-he-did son some of the world that he never got to see. It’s an effort to allow her child to forever rest in locations hand picked by caring friends, family and strangers alike. It is the last final gift a heartbroken mom can give her beloved son. No matter where CJ’s ashes land on this vast planet, sending him into space will forever remain as SCATTERING CJ’s greatest accomplishment. Charles Chafer and the Celestis family have given CJ’s family a gift they can never repay. Fly high CJ. You are missed and will never be forgotten. You are truly worth remembering. ~ |||||
What is a one-paragraph summary of the above article?

– Over the past year, CJ Twomey has been scuba diving in the waters off the Dominican Republic, flown over Turkey in a hot-air balloon, and ascended Peru's Machu Picchu. He's visited more than 100 countries, thanks to the kindness of hundreds of strangers who are helping CJ—who died in 2010 at the age of 20—see the world, the BBC reports. His mom, Hallie Twomey of Auburn, Maine, who has been guilt-ridden since CJ committed suicide four years ago after they had a fight, decided to set up the "Scattering CJ" Facebook page for her son last year to ask people around the globe to spread his ashes in "some of the world he never got to see," Worthy to Share reports. He's even been able to go to parts out of this world: In October, his ashed rode into space on a rocket as part of a Celestis memorial spaceflight, the AP reports. "It dawned on me that his ashes would be sitting in that urn forever," Hallie tells the BBC. "I wanted to give CJ something he didn't get a chance to have." She and her husband, John, anticipated a few hundred responses after their initial social-media appeal, but they've received more than 9,000 so far. Volunteers are sent a small bag of CJ's ashes, as well as a letter and a photo of the ex-Air Force member in his Red Sox shirt. Hallie asks that before they spread CJ's ashes, they tell him his mom loves him and that she's sorry. Hallie is even OK when she hears that envelopes with CJ's ashes sometimes arrive damaged or go missing due to postal problems. "We decided to believe that wherever CJ's ashes ended up, that's where they were meant to be," she tells the BBC. (Robin Williams' ashes were scattered over San Francisco Bay.)


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 Military experts and Libyan rebels say that Libya's abrupt promise of a cease-fire today, just hours after the U.N. voted for a no-fly zone, is canny brinksmanship by Col. Moammar Gadhafi designed to buy time in his escalating cat-and-mouse game with the West.Rebel commander Khalifa Heftir told reporters in Benghazi today that Gadhafi was "bluffing," and CNN reported today that residents in the battered coastal city of Misrata said they were still under bombardment."What cease-fire," asked a doctor in Misrata. "We're under the bombs. This morning they are burning the city. There are deaths everywhere."Gadhafi is secretly moving his heavy artillery out of the open and parking them in between houses so Libyans will be used as human shields to protect the weaponry from any Western air strikes, said a Libyan activist who just left the country."He's still bombarding cities, but what he's focusing on right now is protecting his artillery," Madghis Madi, a coordinator of the 17th of February Revolution, told AOL News today."He's moving about 250 tanks and rocket launchers in some towns in the Nafusa mountains. That way he can blame the West if any civilians are killed."Madi and others interviewed by AOL News say that while the cease-fire announcement could be genuine, it could be a tactical move to neutralize U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates' stated desire to take out Gadhafi's defense as part of a no-fly zone and confuse the West."This looks like mischief making," said former British Brigadier Ben Barry, a former battalion commander during the Bosnian war now with the International Institute for Strategic Studies."I think this could be a spoiling tactic to foul up the West's plans. We heard a lot of cease-fires announced in Bosnia, but not that many were genuine."Experts said the West will still go ahead with the no-fly zone despite Gadhafi's announcement. Britain took the lead today, sending Tornado and Typhoon fighters to air bases in Italy and Cyprus. Bases in Spain, Sicily, Crete and Malta may also be used in the operation."The clock is ticking," British Prime Minister David Cameron said in Parliament today.A large naval flotilla is stationed off the Libyan coast and includes three America warships and two British frigates. Britain, France and NATO were also holding emergency meetings today about the scope of military action under the no-fly zone."We are very determined," Yves Sorokobi, a spokesman for U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, said on Sky News today. "We mean business."But in the event of a cease-fire, rationale for a pre-emptive strike of Gadhafi's air and ground defense could evaporate despite the reports from Libya that government forces are still on the attack."With the announcement of a cease-fire, there could be less of a justification to take out his weaponry," military analyst Christian Le Miere said. "Gadhafi is a very shrewd operator, and that could be well what he wants."The high-stakes, High Noon standoff between Gadhafi and the West began to come to a head late Thursday when the United Nations Security Council voted to impose a wide-ranging no-fly zone over Libya and take "all necessary measures," including armed intervention, to prevent a humanitarian disaster.Just hours later, Gadhafi's deputy Foreign Minister Moussa Koussa told reporters at a Libya hotel that the Libyan government had begun an "immediate ceasefire and stoppage of all military operations."But Koussa's appearance in place of Gadhafi, who has not been shy about surfacing in public since the popular uprising began Feb. 17, made many very skeptical."These are part of the psychological games Gadhafi plays with Libyans and the rest of the world," said Mohamed Eljahmi, a Libyan-American activist who is contact with some of the rebels."Why was it Koussa and not Gadhafi? Could it be that Gadhafi can later say he never authorized Koussa to announce a no-fly zone? This distances Gadhafi and gives him an out. They can say Moussa Koussa went out on his own."Barry said he even wondered whether Koussa "represented some peace initiative within the Libyan government that is not in accordance with Gadhafi." ||||| Yesterday's UN Security Council vote authorizing a No-Fly Zone and more against Libya has brought the United States and its allies into another Middle Eastern war. The charge leveled by advocates of the war that Obama has been "dithering" is as silly as is the counter-argument that the West has been itching for an excuse to invade Libya to seize its oil. The administration clearly understands that military intervention in Libya is a terrible idea, and hoped for as long as possible that the Libyan opposition could prevail without outside military assistance. It only signed on to the intervention when it became clear that, as DNI James Clapper testifed to great public abuse, Qaddafi had tipped the balance and was likely to win. The prospect of Qaddafi surviving and taking his revenge on his people and the region is what forced the hand of the United States and the Security Council.

 I'm conflicted about the intervention, torn between the anguished appeals from Libyans and Arabs desperate for support against Qaddafi and concerns about the many deep, unanswered and at this point largely unasked questions about what comes next -- whether Qaddafi survives or falls. Now, the hope has to be that the UN's resolution will quickly lead Qaddafi's regime to crumble and create the conditions for a rapid political process to change that regime without the actual use of military force.

 The intervention is a high-stakes gamble. If it succeeds quickly, and Qaddafi's regime crumbles as key figures jump ship in the face of its certain demise, then it could reverse the flagging fortunes of the Arab uprisings. Like the first Security Council resolution on Libya, it could send a powerful message that the use of brutal repression makes regime survival less rather than more likely. It would put real meat on the bones of the "Responsibility to Protect" and help create a new international norm. And it could align the U.S. and the international community with al-Jazeera and the aspirations of the Arab protest movement. I have heard from many protest leaders from other Arab countries that success in Libya would galvanize their efforts, and failure might crush their hopes.

 But if it does not succeed quickly, and the intervention degenerates into a long quagmire of air strikes, grinding street battles, and growing pressure for the introduction of outside ground forces, then the impact could be quite different. Despite the bracing scenes of Benghazi erupting into cheers at the news of the Resolution, Arab support for the intervention is not nearly as deep as it seems and will not likely survive an extended war. If Libyan civilians are killed in airstrikes, and especially if foreign troops enter Libyan territory, and images of Arabs killed by U.S. forces replace images of brave protestors battered by Qaddafi's forces on al-Jazeera, the narrative could change quickly into an Iraq-like rage against Western imperialism. What began as an indigenous peaceful Arab uprising against authoritarian rule could collapse into a spectacle of war and intervention.

 The Libya intervention is also complicated by the trends in the rest of the region. There is currently a bloody crackdown going on in U.S.-backed Bahrain, with the support of Saudi Arabia and the GCC. The Yemeni regime of Ali Abdullah Saleh is currently carrying out some of its bloodiest repression yet. Will the Responsibility to Protect extend to Bahrain and Yemen? This is not a tangential point. One of the strongest reasons to intervene in Libya is the argument that the course of events there will influence the decisions of other despots about the use of force. If they realize that the international community will not allow the brutalization of their own people, and a robust new norm created, then intervention in Libya will pay off far beyond its borders. But will ignoring Bahrain and Yemen strangle that new norm in its crib?

 On my flight to Beirut earlier this month, I read the new book by Foreign Affairs editor Gideon Rose, How Wars End. Rose warns that leaders should never go into a military intervention without thinking through the political endgame. Again and again, he warns, the United States has gone into wars focused on the urgency of the need for action without thinking through where it really wants and needs to go. War advocates prefer to focus on the urgency of action, usually minimizing the likely risks and costs of war, exaggerating the likely benefits, and discounting the viability of all non-military courses of action -- exactly the script on Libya the last few weeks. Thinking about the messy endgame would only complicate such advocacy, and so it gets set aside.

 One might think that the disastrous post-war trajectories of Iraq and Afghanistan would have forever ended such an approach to military interventions, but here we are. Has anyone really seriously thought through the role the U.S. or international community might be expected to play should Qaddafi fall? Or what steps will follow should the No Fly Zone and indirect intervention not succeed in driving Qaddafi from power? No, there's no time for that... there never is. For now, I will be hoping, deeply and fervently, that the Libyan regime quickly crumbles in the face of the international community's actions. Reports that it has accepted the resolution and a ceasefire could provide the space for the kind of political settlement many of us have been advocating. Let's hope. |||||
A summary of this is?

– Marc Lynch hopes "fervently" that the UN's decision on Libya causes Moammar Gadhafi's regime to fall quickly. It could "reverse the flagging fortunes of the Arab uprisings" and put both the US and international community on the right side of the protest movement, he writes in Foreign Policy. But don't underestimate the risks, he warns, especially if the "intervention degenerates into a long quagmire of air strikes, grinding street battles, and growing pressure for the introduction of outside ground forces." The problem is that "Arab support for the intervention is not nearly as deep as it seems and will not likely survive an extended war," he writes. If Libyan civilians start getting killed by foreign troops, the current anti-Gadhafi narrative "could change quickly into an Iraq-like rage against Western imperialism." Gadhafi's quick declaration of a cease-fire suggests some kind of political settlement could be in the offing. "Let's hope." (Click to read about worries that Gadhafi's move is just a ploy.)


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– When an Australian ship heard pings possibly from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, officials saw a big lead open up in the search—but since then, investigators haven't been able to recapture the signal, Reuters reports. That's particularly worrying since the batteries on the jet's black boxes have likely just about run out. But "we need to continue (searching) for several days right up to the point at which there's absolutely no doubt that the batteries will have expired," says Angus Houston, the Australian official leading the search, per CBS News. "If we don't get any further transmissions, we have a reasonably large search area of the bottom of the ocean to prosecute and that will take a long, long time," Houston says. The ship is carrying an autonomous underwater vehicle that can search the depths for the plane, "literally crawling along the bottom of the ocean," Houston notes. Trouble is, findings so far point to "a large area for a small submersible that has a very narrow field of search." Once the vehicle, called Bluefin-21, does head downward, it will conduct 20-hour sonar missions to try to find the plane.

PERTH, Australia -- Search crews hunting for the missing Malaysia Airlines jet have failed to relocate faint sounds heard deep below the southern Indian Ocean that officials said were consistent with a plane's black boxes, the head of the search operation said Tuesday.

 Angus Houston, the retired Australian air chief marshal who is heading the search far off Australia's west coast, said sound locating equipment on board the Ocean Shield has picked up no trace of the signals since they were first heard late Saturday and early Sunday.

 Time may have already run out to find the devices, whose locator beacons have a battery life of about a month. Tuesday marks one month since the plane vanished. Once the beacons blink off, locating the black boxes in such deep water would be an immensely difficult, if not impossible, task.

 Up to 14 planes and 14 ships are scouring the 30,000-square-mile search zone.

 The wait has been devastating for weary families, CBS News correspondent Seth Doane reports. Many insist the search continues at all costs, despite the frustrations.

 It is unclear whether a sub on board the Ocean Shield will be deployed to try to chart out any debris on the sea floor when searchers are certain the black boxes' locator beacons have gone silent. If the sub maps out a debris field, the crew will replace the sonar system with a camera unit to photograph any wreckage.

 Houston's comments about deploying the sub contradicted an earlier statement from Australia's acting prime minister, Warren Truss, who said search crews would launch the Bluefin 21 autonomous sub on Tuesday.

 The towed pinger locator detected late Saturday and early Sunday two distinct, long-lasting sounds underwater that are consistent with the pings from an aircraft's "black boxes" - the flight data and cockpit voice recorders, Houston said, dubbing the find a promising lead in the month-long hunt for clues to the plane's fate.

 Still, officials warned it could take days to determine whether the sounds were connected to Flight 370, which vanished March 8 on a flight from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to Beijing with 239 on board.

 "This is an herculean task - it's over a very, very wide area, the water is extremely deep," Defense Minister David Johnston said. "We have at least several days of intense action ahead of us."

 Houtson said finding the sound again was critical to narrowing down the search area before the sub can be used. If the vehicle went down now with the sparse data collected so far, it would take "many, many days" for it to cover all the places the pings might have come from.

 "It's literally crawling at the bottom of the ocean, so it's going to take a long, long time," Houston said.

 Despite the excitement surrounding the Ocean Shield's sound detections, Houston warned that the search had previously been marred by false leads - such as ships detecting their own signals. Because of that, other ships cannot be sent in to help with the underwater search, as they may add unwanted noise.

 "We're very hopeful we will find further evidence that will confirm the aircraft is in that location," Houston said. "There's still a little bit of doubt there, but I'm a lot more optimistic than I was one week ago."

 Finding the black boxes is key to unraveling what happened to the Boeing 777, because they contain flight data and cockpit voice recordings that could explain why the plane veered so far off-course.

 "Everyone's anxious about the life of the batteries on the black box flight recorders," said Truss, who is acting prime minister while Tony Abbott is overseas. "Sometimes they go on for many, many weeks longer than they're mandated to operate for - we hope that'll be the case in this instance. But clearly there is an aura of urgency about the investigation."

 The first sound picked up by the equipment on board the Ocean Shield lasted two hours and 20 minutes before it was lost, Houston said. The ship then turned around and picked up a signal again - this time recording two distinct "pinger returns" that lasted 13 minutes. That would be consistent with transmissions from both the flight data recorder and the cockpit voice recorder.

 The black boxes normally emit a frequency of 37.5 kilohertz, and the signals picked up by the Ocean Shield were both 33.3 kilohertz, U.S. Navy Capt. Mark Matthews said. But the manufacturer indicated the frequency of black boxes can drift in older equipment.

 Houston said the frequency of the sounds heard was considered "quite credible" by the manufacturer, and noted that the frequency from the Air France jet that crashed several years ago was 34 kilohertz. Pressure from being so deep below the surface and the age of the batteries can also affect the transmission level, he said.

 The frequency used by aircraft flight recorders was chosen because no other devices use it, and because nothing in the natural world mimics it, said William Waldock, a search-and-rescue expert who teaches accident investigation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, Ariz.

 But these signals are being detected by computer sweeps, and "not so much a guy with headphones on listening to pings," said U.S. Navy spokesman Chris Johnson. So until the signals are fully analyzed, it's too early to say what they are, he said.

 "We'll hear lots of signals at different frequencies," he said. "Marine mammals. Our own ship systems. Scientific equipment, fishing equipment, things like that. And then of course there are lots of ships operating in the area that are all radiating certain signals into the ocean."

 The Ocean Shield is dragging a ping locator at a depth of 1.9 miles. It is designed to detect signals at a range of 1.12 miles, meaning it would need to be almost on top of the recorders to detect them if they were on the ocean floor, which is about 2.8 miles deep.

 Meanwhile, the search for any trace of the plane on the ocean's surface continued Tuesday. It is taking place 1,400 miles northwest of the Australian west coast city of Perth, with good weather predicted, said the Joint Agency Coordination Center, which is overseeing the operation.

 One-hundred-thirty-three missions have been completed so far in the hunt from the air for debris that could be from Flight 370, but no debris from the plane has been found. ||||| 1 of 7. A fast response craft from Australian Defence Vessel Ocean Shield tows Able Seaman Clearance Diver Michael Arnold as he searches the ocean for debris in the search zone in the southern Indian Ocean for the missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 in this picture released by the Australian Defence Force April 8, 2014.

 SYDNEY/PERTH, Australia (Reuters) - An Australian ship which picked up possible "pings" from the black box recorders of a missing Malaysia Airlines jetliner has been unable to detect any further signals and time is running out to narrow the massive search, officials said on Tuesday.

 Angus Houston, head of the Australian agency coordinating the search for Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, said the month-long hunt in the Indian Ocean was at a critical stage given the batteries in the black box beacons had already reached the end of their 30-day expected life.

 A U.S. Navy "towed pinger locator" onboard Australia's Ocean Shield picked up two signals consistent with black box locator beacons over the weekend - the first for more than two hours and the second for about 13 minutes.

 Houston said the signals represented the best lead in the search yet, but efforts to pick up the pings again had so far been unsuccessful.

 "If we don't get any further transmissions, we have a reasonably large search area of the bottom of the ocean to prosecute and that will take a long, long time. It's very slow, painstaking work," said Houston.

 The black boxes record cockpit data and may provide answers about what happened to the plane, which was carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew when it vanished on March 8 and flew thousands of kilometers off its Kuala Lumpur-to-Beijing route.

 Authorities say evidence, including the loss of communications, suggests the plane was deliberately diverted by someone familiar with the aircraft, but have not ruled out mechanical problems.

 Analysis of satellite data led investigators to conclude the Boeing 777 came down in an area some 1,680 km (1,040 miles) northwest of Perth, near where possible pings were picked up and the search is now focused.

 BLUEFIN ON HOLD

 An autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) named Bluefin-21 is onboard the Ocean Shield and could be sent to look for wreckage on the sea floor, but narrowing the search zone first was critical, Houston said.

 "It is a large area for a small submersible that has a very narrow field of search, and of course, it is literally crawling along the bottom of the ocean," he said.

 "That's why it's so important to get another transmission and we need to continue until there's absolutely no chance the (black box) device is still transmitting."

 The Bluefin will scour the ocean floor in 20-hour missions using sonar in an attempt to find the aircraft, before its findings are downloaded and analyzed on board the Ocean Shield.

 If anything unusual is spotted, the sonar on board the robotic vehicle will be replaced with a camera to take a closer look. The potential search area is about 4.5 km (2.8 miles) deep, the outer reach of the Bluefin's range.

 Some 133 missions have been completed so far in the multinational aerial hunt for debris in the southern Indian Ocean and would continue, officials said.

 Up to 11 military planes, three civilian planes and 14 ships planned to take part in the search on Tuesday, with good weather in the search area. But so far, searchers have only turned up fishing gear and other detritus.

 "Even after the black box is found, the surface search will continue because they're looking for evidence to investigate why the aircraft went down," Lieutenant Commander Adam Schantz, the officer in charge of U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon search unit, told Reuters.

 "So, we'll continue for a while trying to find anything on the surface that might give a reasoning behind the accident."

 (Additional reporting by Jane Wardell in Sydney and Anuradha Raghu in Kuala Lumpur; Editing by Dean Yates and Michael Perry) |||||


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– Tonight’s the night! At 7pm CT, Iowa Republicans will gather to cast the first votes in the Republican nominating season. Consider this your pregame report, with info from Politico, Mother Jones, and the Des Moines Register: The frontrunners: Polls show Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, and Rick Santorum are poised to grab the proverbial “three tickets out of Iowa.” Romney doesn’t need to win to remain the favorite for the nomination, but anything less than a respectable second will be damaging. Turnout is everything: If it’s high, that’s probably a good sign for Romney. If it’s low, it’s a good sign for Paul and/or Santorum—depending on where it’s concentrated. Bad weather is thought to favor Paul’s band of enthusiastic supporters. Location, location, location: Romney’s support is strongest in eastern Iowa, Santorum should fare well in the northwest, and Paul is hoping for turnout in college towns such as Ames. Politico highlights 10 counties to watch here. The battle for fourth: If either Newt Gingrich or Rick Perry can pull out a closer-than-expected fourth, they might be able to stay in the race. Last-minute campaigning: Romney held rallies in four cities yesterday, his most since 2008. Paul held forth in a hotel full of journalists in Des Moines, hoping to grab media buzz. And Santorum appeared with the cast of 19 Kids and Counting, the TLC reality show beloved by Iowa homeschoolers. Some intriguing numbers: Paul’s favorability has fallen 21 points in the past week. Only 76% of Santorum’s supporters say they’ll definitely caucus for him. Romney, meanwhile, has at some point trailed five different candidates in Iowa—and is now polling at exactly the same 18% he was at in January.

Even before the final results are known, there are more than a few indicators of how the evening will go on caucus night.

 Performance in key counties is revealing, and turnout, weather, and energy all play a role, too. As the evening progresses, there will also be signs of who has the endurance and support to go beyond Iowa once the voting is over — and who doesn’t.

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 reset Gearing up for caucus day Branstad: Iowa will winnow field

 Below is POLITICO’s list of five things to watch on caucus night.

 1) How high can Mitt go?

 This is the most important question of the evening, after months of a primary season that has been, in one way or another, all about Mitt Romney.

 The former Massachusetts governor is, by all accounts, within striking distance of a win in Iowa. His crowds have been big and, just as important, energetic. Romney has seemed relaxed and confident about his chances.

 His backers have argued that he doesn’t need to win outright in order to be a winner, and that may prove true — but after closing-day polls showed him either winning or essentially tied for first place, anything lower than a close second will be tough to spin.

 Further, if Romney can’t climb higher than the mid-20s — like Bob Dole in 1996 — it will keep alive the lingering questions about whether he can win over the leery Republican base. If he doesn’t get 28 percent, it will be a tough night for Romney, many insiders believe.

 2) Turnout, turnout, turnout

 Every election comes down to turnout and which side gets their supporters out. Tuesday night is no exception.

 But not all ground games are equal. Romney and Ron Paul are the only two with the resources to turn out their supporters. Rick Santorum is running a shoestring operation based on momentum and, if he’s lucky, a late-breaking movement of the 2008 Mike Huckabee coalition in his direction — most notably social conservatives, evangelical voters, and home-schoolers.

 If the weather is bad, the wide perception is that it will favor Paul, whose supporters are generally seen as more motivated than anyone else. The days leading up to the caucuses have been cold but dry (and manageable), meaning it’s possible that older voters could turn out.

 Still, there has been a general enthusiasm gap among voters about a field that’s widely been panned as weak, and it remains to be seen if they’ll turn out in meaningful numbers.

 A major question is whether Paul’s army has the depth to compete — and whether the results will be treated as legitimate. If entrance polling shows a high number of Democrats and independents showed up and switched registration at the door to caucus for Paul, some top GOP-ers — already fearful of what a Paul victory would do to the legacy of the Iowa caucuses — will use that as evidence to suggest it’s not a true win.

 Another question is whether any of the mega-churches mobilize for Santorum. And aside from that, there is the matter of the broader role of evangelical voters — will they dominate or will the more secular question of electability, which is Romney’s calling card, end up ruling the day?

 If turnout is high, it’s seen as favoring Romney. Lower turnout would benefit Paul and Santorum.

 The turnout for the caucuses in 2008 was just under 120,000. Given the historic opportunity that Republicans see to beat President Barack Obama, anything less than that bar will add to the sense of restlessness that voters have about the field. ||||| Looking for news you can trust?

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 On Tuesday, after 13 debates, five different front-runners, and one unforgettable Gloria Allred press conference, the GOP presidential race will finally take its first, tentative steps toward clarity when upwards of 100,000 Iowans participate in the first-in-the-nation caucuses. A win on Tuesday isn’t exactly a ticket to the White House—no Republican caucus victor has gone on to win the presidency in the modern era—but a poor performance will almost certainly mark the end of the road for candidates like Rep. Michele Bachmann and former Sen. Rick Santorum.

 Here’s how it works: As in any election, each voter is assigned to a precinct. A city like Waterloo would have multiple precincts; a flyspeck town in northwest Iowa might have just one (there are 1,774 in all). To participate, you show up at 7 p.m. and, after listening to speeches from fellow precinct members on behalf of their favored candidates, cast your ballot. Often, the speakers are respected community leaders whose words carry some weight; revered former Iowa State wrestling coach Jim Gibbons, for instance, told me he might speak on behalf of Santorum at his precinct. Democratic caucuses usually entail multiple ballots, but Republicans will vote just once.

 So what should you watch for? Here’s a quick look at where the candidates stand, and how they’ve spent their final week before the big vote:

 Rick Santorum‘s final pitch to Iowa voters on Monday centered, as you would expect, on social issues. In Polk City, a farming community north of Des Moines, he was joined by 13 of the 21 Duggars—stars of the TLC reality show 19 Kids and Counting, and celebrities among conservative home-schoolers. It was folks like the Duggars who pushed Mike Huckabee over the top in 2008. By the numbers: Number of Iowa counties visited, out of 99: 99; number of Pizza Ranch franchises visited: 33; number of sleeves on his sweater of choice: 0; number of members of his immediate family, out of 9, who do not belong to the National Rifle Association: 1; percentage of supporters who say they will definitely show up for their caucus: 76.

 As my colleague Gavin Aronsen reports, Ron Paul’s path to victory depends heavily on an army of college activists who flew into the Hawkeye State for winter break. Over the last few weeks, GOP opponents have hit him hard for publishing a racist and anti-Semitic newsletter in the late ’80s and early ’90s, but he’s managed to climb toward the top of the polls and has saturated the airwaves with flashy ads touting his pro-life credentials and Chevy-truck-style consistency. By the numbers: Number of babies delivered, according to his campaign literature: ~4,000; number of volunteers his campaign paid to house at the YMCA camp in Boone: ~500; percent decrease in favorability ratings over the final week of the campaign, according to Public Polling Polling: 21.

 After her triumph at the Ames Straw Poll in August, Michele Bachmann looked like a serious contender for the Republican nomination, but her campaign has since fallen apart. Bachmann’s top Iowa aide switched his support to Ron Paul late last week in a move that underscored just how dysfunctional her organization in the state was. She says she’s in the race for the long haul, but barring a miracle, she’s pretty much done. By the numbers: Percentage of Iowa Republicans who said they’d caucus for her on July 10: 25; percentage of Iowa Republicans who said the same on January 1: 7; salary paid to former top strategist Ed Rollins, who now says he never would have worked for her if had just Googled her: $90,000.

 Rick Perry entered the race in August as a cocky, angry, anti-Obama candidate, but in the last week before the caucuses he’s resorted to taking shots—and cutting Jeopardy!-style radio ads—blasting Rick Santorum for helping secure funding for a teapot museum in North Carolina. He’s also more or less abandoned his original pitch as an economic miracle worker, and refocused his campaign around cracking down on gay and reproductive rights. Oh, and he still thinks gay sex should be illegal. By the numbers: Number of YouTube “dislikes” for his web ad, “Strong,” which lamented the end of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell: 731,755; number of likes: 24,813; points fallen in the polls in Iowa since August 21: 41.

 For a moment—a brief, eminently fascinating moment—Newt Gingrich looked like he might be the next Republican nominee. But after being swamped by negative ads from Ron Paul and a pro-Romney super-PAC, Gingrich has fallen back to earth hard. In Atlantic, Iowa, he was put on the defensive by his own supporters, who were concerned about his past support for global warming legislation, and his quasi-lobbying work for Freddie Mac (among other things). Gingrich is hoping outrage over a nonexistent EPA dust-regulation campaign will translate into support at the caucuses. By the numbers: Percentage points dropped from mid-December high-water mark: 20; number of days in between the launch of his campaign and the opening of a campaign office in Iowa: 183; date on which he told ABC’s Jake Tapper “I’m going to be the nominee”: January December 1.

 And then there’s Mitt Romney, who stands to all but lock up the Republican nomination with a win tonight. He’d be in pretty good shape with a loss, too, provided he at least outperforms a couple of key rivals. After initially keeping his distance from Iowa, the former Massachusetts governor poured considerable resources into the state over the last month of the race and plans to spend Tuesday night in Des Moines—a sign he expects to do well. As one Romney aide told Politico’s Roger Simon, “Iowa is about eliminating Gingrich and Perry without us having to spend a lot of money to do so.” By the numbers: Number of different Republican rivals he has trailed in the polls in Iowa at some point or another: 5; amount, in millions, spent by his super-PAC on ads targeting Newt Gingrich: $3.5; number of staffers it takes to hold his chair in place; 1; number of chemicals it takes to hold his hair in place: 0; percentage of Iowa voters who said they’d vote for him on July 11: 18; percent who said they’d vote for him on January 1: 18.

 How to watch: Check this space, and Twitter, for updates. Gavin Aronsen (@garonsen) and I (@timothypmurphy) will be reporting from Iowa all day. By 10 p.m., we should have some idea of how the night will turn out. ||||| Iowa became the stage for electrifying political theater on caucus eve as six GOP presidential candidates tried to make a last-minute connection with voters — all while hounded by hundreds of reporters who documented their every move in mini messages on Twitter.

 An expected 115,000 to 120,000 Iowa Republicans will record their choices tonight, GOP strategist John Stineman of West Des Moines estimated.

 The race has shaped up as a three-way dead heat among Mitt Romney, Ron Paul and Rick Santorum, according to The Des Moines Register’s Iowa Poll, conducted last week. But in a sign of how unsettled the race remains, 41 percent of those who have a first choice could still be persuaded to change their minds, the poll found.

 After 354 days of campaigning and more than 900 events, from the sweaty heat of the Iowa State Fair to skin-biting wind on Monday, the candidates are making their final arguments.

 They spent the final full day of campaigning before the first-in-the-nation vote in one last-gasp scramble, traveling from town to city.

 The words “mob scene” cropped up on Twitter throughout the day Monday to describe campaign events, but it was all relative.

 “Callista and I are overwhelmed by the turnout this week,” tweeted Newt Gingrich, who drew 125 in Independence, then 225 in Walford.

 A tiny cafe in Polk City, with a 49-person capacity, was quickly jammed for Santorum.

 “Our woman in IA, @ShushWalshe reports huge crowds at Santorum events. Like body-surfing huge. Get crushed in stampede huge,” ABC News’ @AmyEWalter tweeted.

 About 200 people were there, inside and outside, with a heavy load of reporters.

 At a supply warehouse in Dubuque, 600 people were treated to “Eye of the Tiger” and “Born Free” as they waited to see Romney. And before more than 600 in Marion, an upbeat Romney declared: “We’re going to win this thing.” (Aides said later he was referring to the nomination.)

 The frenetic politicking will continue yet tonight. All 4,000 to 6,000 caucusgoers in Black Hawk County will gather under one roof — inside the UNI-Dome, Black Hawk County GOP Chairman Mac McDonald said. They will be divided into precincts to vote, with cameras from Fox News and CNN watching, he said. At least two candidates — Michele Bachmann and Gingrich — are expected to make personal pitches there about 6 p.m.

 Here’s how the final day before the Iowa caucuses went down, per Twitter and Des Moines Register reporters on the scene:

 MITT ROMNEY

 On the road from Davenport (crowd of more than 300), one of Romney’s sons posted a Twitter photo of his father on the campaign bus.

 “One of the vents on the bus is blowing cold air, so the mittster is duct taping it closed. Typical dad,” Tagg Romney tweeted.

 Romney held rallies in four cities Monday, more campaigning than he’s done in Iowa on a single day since the 2008 cycle. The leader in the Iowa Poll is banking on his electability as a key to success.

 Ron Breitbach, 51, of Dubuque, who caucused for Romney in 2008 and plans to do so again tonight, said: “He’s a problem-solver. He’s a leader.”

 Breitbach, who owns a golf course and sports center, added: “He’s had so much success, and that’s what we need — we need someone with success for people to rally around.”

 RON PAUL

 Paul, who tweaks reporters for discounting him, descended into their lair Monday, the Marriott in downtown Des Moines.

 “Ron Paul no fool,” tweeted @RogerPolitico. “Holding rally in hotel where 400 reporters are staying. I think all of them are here.”

 Some of the bigfoots: Maggie Haberman of Politico, Joe Klein of Time, Soledad O’Brien of CNN, Dan Balz of the Washington Post, Carl Cameron of Fox News and Chris Matthews of MSNBC.

 Hundreds of people packed the hotel meeting room. Paul also drew 200 in Cedar Falls and 300 in Cedar Rapids.

 The TV camera crews beelined to the men in the Des Moines audience with heavy facial hair, tattoos and nose rings.

 Aaron Lea, a 34-year-old painter from Des Moines with a grunge look, was pressed for interviews by three news agencies within minutes.

 “You wouldn’t see people like this at a Bachmann or Mitt Romney rally, so it makes it a point of interest,” said Lea, an independent who will register as a Republican at the caucuses.

 The Huffington Post’s @mlcalderone: “Sign at Paul’s Marriott event: ‘A Ron Paul win will discredit the mainstream media.’ ”

 Paul, a libertarian-leaning Texas congressman in second place in the Iowa Poll, often starts out his speeches by attacking the sacred cow of military spending and predicts a looming global financial collapse. On Monday, he boiled down his message to one word: liberty.

 RICK SANTORUM

 Santorum, a Christian conservative from Pennsylvania, said at the Reising Sun Cafe in Polk City that he has raised more money in the last few days than he did in the last few months.

 The Register’s latest Iowa Poll shows Santorum in third place, and rising.

 Glenn Larson, a retired insurance underwriter from Clive, said Santorum represents his values: opposed to abortion, in favor of balancing the budget.

 “I think he has been neglected and pushed aside by the liberal news media because they think he can beat Obama. They don’t want him to win,” Larson said.

 Santorum knocked his rivals a bit.

 “We aren’t looking for a chief executive officer. We’re looking for a commander in chief,” said @JimAcostaCNN, who caught the jab at Romney.

 A bus with “Santorum for President” on the side appeared on the trail Monday.

 “Chuck Laudner says when Rick Santorum saw the big bus festooned with his name … he said ‘I’m not paying for THAT!’ ” the Los Angeles Times’ @RAbcarian said.

 The RV is just on loan, driven by the Duggar family of Arkansas, anti-abortion activists with 19 children.

 Santorum drew more than 200 at the Pizza Ranch in Boone, including Fox News’ Bret Baier. Later, 400 people chanted “We pick Rick!” at an Altoona Pizza Ranch.

 “Young woman just fainted at Santorum event it is so crowded,” reported the Register’s @WilliamPetroski from Boone.

 NEWT GINGRICH

 Gingrich, who last month declared certain victory in the nominating contest, talked again Monday about what he said was the unfair influence of negative ads in Iowa, and sounded a note of caucus defeat.

 “Newt on IA: ‘I don’t think I’m going to win … I think the volume of negativity has done enough damage,’ ” @SarahH_CBSNJ tweeted as Gingrich talked to reporters in Independence.

 Gingrich, a former U.S. House speaker, said: “It has nothing to do with governing America and solving our problems. It has everything to do with a very cheap and I think a very, very destructive model of politics, which is part of why Washington is sick today.”

 At a later stop, he called the comment a mistake in wording, and pinned his hopes on the voters who say they could still change their minds.

 Ed Larson and his wife, Janet, shook Gingrich’s hand, but they said they were not sure how they would caucus, since much of what happens depends on the consensus of their neighbors.

 The Larsons downplayed Gingrich’s fourth-place ranking in the Iowa Poll. “It isn’t a concern because the polls are media-generated, and it changes every hour,” Ed Larson said.

 RICK PERRY

 “Perry press corp traveling 375 miles on the last day of the Iowa bus tour, ending the day with the stop we’ve all waited for — Perry, IA,” tweeted ABC News’ @ArletteSaenz.

 When the Texas governor was introduced in Sioux City as the “next governor of the United States,” the crowd laughed. That got tweets with #oops hashtags.

 Perry, who is fifth in the Iowa Poll, made a final plea to the crowd of 100: Decide by conscience, not poll numbers.

 “A voter asks Perry what she can do to make him seem more electable in next 30 hours,” the Register’s @JoshHafner tweeted. “Perry says #iacaucus is just ‘mile one’ in a marathon.”

 Perry said his campaign has the organizational endurance to win the nomination.

 Jan Hansen, a teacher from Le Mars, decided in Sioux City that she’s caucusing for him. “I hear people saying all the time we need to choose the candidate that we feel is the most electable,” she said. “Vote your heart. That’s what he said.”

 MICHELE BACHMANN

 “Vote for a strong Iowa woman!” Bachmann told one backer amid a crush of people at Paula’s, a small restaurant in West Des Moines’ Valley Junction.

 “You got a camera? We should take a picture. And then go home and Facebook it. Tell everybody to come out and caucus,” the Minnesota congresswoman said.

 The crowd was in the dozens rather than hundreds. A team of 22 juniors and seniors from Blake School in Minneapolis was on a school-sponsored trip to witness the caucuses.

 “Mostly Obama fans. No love for hometown Bachmann,” messaged the Register’s @JasonNoble1.

 Bachmann, who had a horde of reporters turn up (Tucker Carlson, Andrea Mitchell and David Brooks),wandered to the Diggity Dog puppy treat shop, where her husband, Marcus, bought gifts for the family dog, Boomer.

 Bachmann was up at dawn for TV appearances on “The Early Show” on CBS and “Morning Joe” on MSNBC. She ended her day with a 9 p.m. rally at campaign headquarters in Urbandale.

 Standing on a pickup truck tailgate, Bachmann thanked perhaps 150 volunteers for their work on her behalf.

 Des Moines voter Sally Mead said after hearing Bachmann in West Des Moines: “I’ll follow with whatever she has in mind that she thinks is right. She’s genuine.” ||||| There are 99 counties in Iowa, but they’re not all equal in politics. Some matter more because of their sheer size. Others have a special relevance rooted in their history as bellwethers. Either way, those standout counties provide a revealing snapshot of what’s happening in the first presidential nominating contest.

 Here are 10 counties to follow on caucus night to get a feel for who’s doing well in the caucuses and who’s not.

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 Black Hawk County

 With the University of Northern Iowa and a strong organized labor presence, Black Hawk County is reliably Democratic. But Waterloo is the city where Michele Bachmann was born — and it might also be said to be the place where her campaign went off the rails after Rick Perry outshined her at the county GOP dinner there the day after the Ames Straw Poll. In 2008, it was Mike Huckabee territory, with the Arkansas governor winning 35 percent to Romney’s 27 percent.

 Dallas County

 A suburb of Des Moines, Dallas County is Iowa’s fastest-growing county. Mitt Romney and Huckabee battled to a near-tie here in 2008 — just 4 votes separated the two candidates, with Romney squeaking to victory. That made Dallas County something of an anomaly, since it was the only county in the Des Moines metro area to vote for Romney over Huckabee. Caucus turnout tends to be very high here; in 2008, it posted one of the highest turnout levels in the state at 30 percent.

 Dubuque County

 This was Romney country in 2008, a place where he ran strong (41 percent) and Huckabee ran poorly (15 percent) — it was the only county in the state where the Arkansas governor failed to finish either first or second. But northeastern Iowa is the most heavily Roman Catholic part of the state, and the city of Dubuque is also home to a large concentration of Catholics who might find the candidacies of Rick Santorum and converted Catholic Newt Gingrich appealing. Still, if Romney’s not winning here, he’s probably in trouble.

 Johnson County

 Even this liberal enclave, home to Iowa City and the University of Iowa, matters to the outcome Tuesday evening: It’s still home to more Republicans that most counties in Iowa. Four years ago, it handed Romney a 360-vote victory, and there’s no reason he can’t carry it again. But keep an eye on Ron Paul — his anti-war and anti-establishment views are popular with college students and he ran 5 percentage points higher than his statewide average here in 2008.

 Linn County

 Home to Cedar Rapids, the second-largest city in Iowa after Des Moines, Linn County counts healthy contingents of both moderates and social conservatives. Like much of eastern Iowa, this was Romney turf in 2008: He captured 31 percent here, 6 percentage points above his statewide average, while Huckabee won 26 percent, 8 points below his statewide performance. |||||


Article:

La Casa Pacifica is the most significant oceanfront estate in Southern California. Its 5.45 acres of pristine oceanfront property, with 450 linear feet on the beach, are enveloped in the most magnificent coastal gardens and grounds found in California. The completely walled compound affords panoramic views of the ocean and sunsets from its preferred elevation. The Spanish Colonial Revival architecture of the restored and modernized main residence, circa 1927, has been featured in Architectural Digest on three occasions. The gleaming white structures contrast perfectly against the vibrant colors of the impeccably kept seaside gardens. Stands of exotic palms and Monterey Cypress sway in the ocean breezes whilst overlooking wide expanses of emerald lawns. There is approximately 15,000 s. f. among the various buildings, which include the main residence of approximately. 9,000 s. f. ; a 3,000 s. f. entertaining pavilion (w/ guest wing), a two-bedroom guest house, and multiple staff accommodations. An oceanfront swimming pool, lighted N/S tennis court, and putting green complete the property. All of this rests behind three sets of gates. Once home to President Richard M. Nixon, La Casa Pacifica been the setting of numerous social and political events in its storied past. ||||| The oceanfront estate in San Clemente that was once owned by Richard M. Nixon and known as the Western White House during his presidency is back up for sale at $63.5 million — down from its $75-million asking price three years ago. |||||
What is a summary?

– A little piece of history is on the market in California. An oceanfront estate in San Clemente once owned by Richard Nixon and dubbed the Western White House while he was in office is up for sale for $63.5 million, reports the Los Angeles Times. Nixon hosted everyone from Leonid Brezhnev to Frank Sinatra at the 5.45-acre estate, now owned by former pharmaceuticals exec Gavin Herbert. In addition to a 9,000-square-foot main house, the walled estate features a guesthouse, swimming pool, tennis court, greenhouse, 450 feet of beach front, and—given its location on an isolated bluff—panoramic ocean views. See a photo gallery here.