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NEW DELHI -- Five female activists working for an organization backed by a Christian missionary group were gang-raped at gunpoint in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand this week, police said on Friday. The women were accompanied by four men and two nuns as they performed a street play to raise awareness of human trafficking in the Khunti district on Tuesday when at least six armed men attacked them. They attackers beat the male members of the team and forced the five women into a car, took them to a nearby forest and raped them for three hours before releasing them, police officials have told CBS News. "We have taken the statement of the victims," Homkar Amol Venukant, Deputy Inspector General of Police in Ranchi, the state capital of Jarkhand, told CBS News on Friday. The victims told officers that the attackers "filmed the act on their mobile phones," and threatened to publish the videos on the internet if the crime was reported. The two nuns, who were part of the activists' team working to raise awareness of human trafficking, were not hurt, police told CBS News. India's women revolt against a culture of rape The attackers were reportedly agitated over the activists' entering the village without their permission. An anti-establishment self-rule movement, Pathalgadi, is popular in several tribal villages in the Indian state. Members don't recognize the authority of the local or national governments in their villages and have banned the entry of outsiders without permission. Police had not made any arrests in the case as of Friday. "We have detained some suspects and are questioning them," Venukant told CBS News. It was not yet clear whether the people in custody were members of the local Pathalgadi. "This is a very sensitive case, we won't be able to share their identities at this stage," he said. "The investigation is on. We will look at all angles to ascertain who is behind this heinous crime," Superintendent of Police, Ashwini Kumar Sinha, told CBS News. The victims worked for an NGO called Asha Kiran, which is supported by a local Christian missionary group. Like several other NGOs, Asha Kiran is active in Jharkhand, which is considered to be the capital of human trafficking in India. Hundreds of children and adults are trafficked in India for commercial sexual exploitation and forced labour, most of them from the region. India has a distressing record of sexual violence against women. About 40,000 rape cases were reported in 2016, according to government data. Last month, two teen girls were set on fire after being raped in Jharkhand. There has been renewed outrage amid a rash of new high-profile sexual assault cases in India, and women's safety is gaining resonance as a political issue ahead of general elections next year. ||||| Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Jharkhand has been in the spotlight after three teenagers were raped and burnt alive Five Indian anti-trafficking activists performing a street play were gang-raped at gunpoint in the eastern state of Jharkhand, police have confirmed. The women were forced into cars and raped in a "secluded area", police told BBC Hindi. Police say they are investigating the incident but have not made any arrests. The women were working with a non-governmental organisation (NGO) to raise awareness about human trafficking in the remote Khunti district. About 40,000 rape cases were reported in India in 2016. Many cases, however, are believed to go unreported because of the stigma that is attached to rape and sexual assault. What happened to the five women? "After performing, they headed towards a local mission school," senior police official AV Homkar told BBC Hindi's Niraj Sinha. "Around the same time, some armed people reached the school. They abducted five girls from their team and took them to a jungle and raped them. We have dedicated three teams of police to interrogate several people. Another police official told BBC Hindi the five women were now safe under police protection, awaiting the results of medical tests. Who might have been behind the attack? Officials believe the rapists could be supporters of a group that that is extremely hostile to "outsiders" entering the region. The group, which enjoys popular support among the district's tribal population, has even put up signs warning visitors about entering the area. Scrutiny of sexual violence in India has grown since the 2012 gang rape and murder of a student on a Delhi bus. This latest incident comes as the country continues to reel from a string of recent attacks. A shocking case of child rape in Kashmir made international headlines in April. Jharkhand has also been in the spotlight recently after three teenage girls were raped and set on fire in separate incidents in May. ||||| At least five women working for an NGO have been abducted and gang-raped at gunpoint in eastern India's Jharkhand state, police have said. "An FIR (First Information Report) and a statement in court has been lodged. We are trying to identify the criminals. Our probe is ongoing," Ashwini Kumar Sinha, superintendent of police in Khunti, told Al Jazeera. "A team of street play artists had gone to perform in a school in Kochan, the remotest area of Khunti when some men came and threatened them. Nine men and women were abducted. Five women were raped while the men were beaten," he said. The women were performing a play raising awareness of human trafficking in the Khunti district on Tuesday when armed men abducted them at gunpoint, it was reported on Friday. Attackers filmed the assault and used the video to blackmail the women not to go to the police. The women were working for Asha Kiran, an NGO supported by Christian missionaries, police officer Rajesh Prasad told AFP news agency. "We have been questioning several people," Prasad told AFP. Police rounded up some supporters of Pathalgadi, a self-rule movement associated with hostility to outsiders. The National Women's Commission on Friday ordered state police to provide them with a report about the gang rapes. Sister Julia George, project director at Asha Kiran in Ranchi, told Al Jazeera that men arrived at the scene on bikes and overpowered the NGO workers. "They put them in the same vehicle by which the Asha Kiran group were travelling and drove some kilometres away from the place. Then they were raped," George said. This is the latest high-profile sexual assault in India. Three girls were raped and set on fire in India in one week in May, two of them in Jharkhand state. In 2012, the fatal gang rape of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student on a moving bus in New Delhi sparked street protests. In 2016, 39,000 rape cases were reported in the country. Additional reporting by Zeenat Saberin in New Delhi

– Five female activists were performing a street play in remote India this week when men kidnapped them at gunpoint and gang-raped them in a forest, CBS News reports. Police say the activists were working with an NGO backed by local Christian missionaries—and were accompanied by two nuns and four men—when the assault occurred in the Khunti district of Jharkhand state. The assailants recorded video of the rapes on the activists' cellphones in an apparent attempt to blackmail them into staying away from police, Al Jazeera reports. "We discovered the video during examination of the victims' cellphones," a police official tells the Hindustan Times. The survivors, described as "four girls and a married woman," are under police protection and awaiting medical-test results. Now 10 people including a Christian priest have been detained and released on bond, and sketches of the accused are circulating with a $3,500 reward offer. The priest, Alfanso Aien, is accused of intervening to rescue only the nuns and then failing to report the crime. Officials say the rapists could be members of a group devoted to keeping "outsiders" from Jharkhand’s hinterland, the BBC reports. Supported by many tribal villages, the so-called Pathalgarhi movement rejects state governments and posts signs warning outsiders to stay away. Violence against women is a chronic problem in India, where roughly 40,000 rape cases were alleged in 2016 and two teenage girls were raped and set on fire in Jharkhand last month.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.NEW DELHI -- Five female activists working for an organization backed by a Christian missionary group were gang-raped at gunpoint in the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand this week, police said on Friday. The women were accompanied by four men and two nuns as they performed a street play to raise awareness of human trafficking in the Khunti district on Tuesday when at least six armed men attacked them. They attackers beat the male members of the team and forced the five women into a car, took them to a nearby forest and raped them for three hours before releasing them, police officials have told CBS News. "We have taken the statement of the victims," Homkar Amol Venukant, Deputy Inspector General of Police in Ranchi, the state capital of Jarkhand, told CBS News on Friday. The victims told officers that the attackers "filmed the act on their mobile phones," and threatened to publish the videos on the internet if the crime was reported. The two nuns, who were part of the activists' team working to raise awareness of human trafficking, were not hurt, police told CBS News. India's women revolt against a culture of rape The attackers were reportedly agitated over the activists' entering the village without their permission. An anti-establishment self-rule movement, Pathalgadi, is popular in several tribal villages in the Indian state. Members don't recognize the authority of the local or national governments in their villages and have banned the entry of outsiders without permission. Police had not made any arrests in the case as of Friday. "We have detained some suspects and are questioning them," Venukant told CBS News. It was not yet clear whether the people in custody were members of the local Pathalgadi. "This is a very sensitive case, we won't be able to share their identities at this stage," he said. "The investigation is on. We will look at all angles to ascertain who is behind this heinous crime," Superintendent of Police, Ashwini Kumar Sinha, told CBS News. The victims worked for an NGO called Asha Kiran, which is supported by a local Christian missionary group. Like several other NGOs, Asha Kiran is active in Jharkhand, which is considered to be the capital of human trafficking in India. Hundreds of children and adults are trafficked in India for commercial sexual exploitation and forced labour, most of them from the region. India has a distressing record of sexual violence against women. About 40,000 rape cases were reported in 2016, according to government data. Last month, two teen girls were set on fire after being raped in Jharkhand. There has been renewed outrage amid a rash of new high-profile sexual assault cases in India, and women's safety is gaining resonance as a political issue ahead of general elections next year. ||||| Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Jharkhand has been in the spotlight after three teenagers were raped and burnt alive Five Indian anti-trafficking activists performing a street play were gang-raped at gunpoint in the eastern state of Jharkhand, police have confirmed. The women were forced into cars and raped in a "secluded area", police told BBC Hindi. Police say they are investigating the incident but have not made any arrests. The women were working with a non-governmental organisation (NGO) to raise awareness about human trafficking in the remote Khunti district. About 40,000 rape cases were reported in India in 2016. Many cases, however, are believed to go unreported because of the stigma that is attached to rape and sexual assault. What happened to the five women? "After performing, they headed towards a local mission school," senior police official AV Homkar told BBC Hindi's Niraj Sinha. "Around the same time, some armed people reached the school. They abducted five girls from their team and took them to a jungle and raped them. We have dedicated three teams of police to interrogate several people. Another police official told BBC Hindi the five women were now safe under police protection, awaiting the results of medical tests. Who might have been behind the attack? Officials believe the rapists could be supporters of a group that that is extremely hostile to "outsiders" entering the region. The group, which enjoys popular support among the district's tribal population, has even put up signs warning visitors about entering the area. Scrutiny of sexual violence in India has grown since the 2012 gang rape and murder of a student on a Delhi bus. This latest incident comes as the country continues to reel from a string of recent attacks. A shocking case of child rape in Kashmir made international headlines in April. Jharkhand has also been in the spotlight recently after three teenage girls were raped and set on fire in separate incidents in May. ||||| At least five women working for an NGO have been abducted and gang-raped at gunpoint in eastern India's Jharkhand state, police have said. "An FIR (First Information Report) and a statement in court has been lodged. We are trying to identify the criminals. Our probe is ongoing," Ashwini Kumar Sinha, superintendent of police in Khunti, told Al Jazeera. "A team of street play artists had gone to perform in a school in Kochan, the remotest area of Khunti when some men came and threatened them. Nine men and women were abducted. Five women were raped while the men were beaten," he said. The women were performing a play raising awareness of human trafficking in the Khunti district on Tuesday when armed men abducted them at gunpoint, it was reported on Friday. Attackers filmed the assault and used the video to blackmail the women not to go to the police. The women were working for Asha Kiran, an NGO supported by Christian missionaries, police officer Rajesh Prasad told AFP news agency. "We have been questioning several people," Prasad told AFP. Police rounded up some supporters of Pathalgadi, a self-rule movement associated with hostility to outsiders. The National Women's Commission on Friday ordered state police to provide them with a report about the gang rapes. Sister Julia George, project director at Asha Kiran in Ranchi, told Al Jazeera that men arrived at the scene on bikes and overpowered the NGO workers. "They put them in the same vehicle by which the Asha Kiran group were travelling and drove some kilometres away from the place. Then they were raped," George said. This is the latest high-profile sexual assault in India. Three girls were raped and set on fire in India in one week in May, two of them in Jharkhand state. In 2012, the fatal gang rape of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student on a moving bus in New Delhi sparked street protests. In 2016, 39,000 rape cases were reported in the country. Additional reporting by Zeenat Saberin in New Delhi

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

IMDb/Warner Bros. But a careful look at the public record reveals a startling truth: There’s nothing new about America’s love affair with terrifying clowns trying to lure our children away. Consider just a few of the clown encounters reported over the past 35 years, which I just looked up today while researching this article and are definitely not written out by hand in a notebook labeled “CLOWN INFESTATION: THE SECRET HISTORY” at the bottom of my desk drawer, so I don’t know where you even got that idea: Advertisement May 1981, Brookline, Massachusetts: America’s decades of clown sorrow begin at Lawrence Elementary when children report two clowns driving a black van offering them candy. School principals are warned about the clown threat, leading to a rash of reported sightings across Boston. No clowns are ever found. May 1981, Kansas City, Missouri: A few days after the Brookline incidents begin, police in Kansas City receive multiple reports of a knife-wielding clown in a yellow van. Parents of children attending Our Lady & St. Rose school are informed of the situation via a letter from school administrators reading, in part, “There have been reports of a character called Killer Clown jumping out of bushes and threatening children with a knife.” June 1981: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Reports of “menacing clowns” begin in Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh police are the first to draw a connection between the clown sightings—which occurred in black neighborhoods in Pittsburgh and Kansas City—and the Atlanta Child Murders the summer before, which also targeted black children. However, the Boston-area clowns were sighted mostly in white neighborhoods. March 1988, Louisville, Kentucky: Across a three-county area, children suddenly begin calling police with stories of a malevolent clown offering rides in a red pickup truck, and, in one case, pursuing a child on foot. No arrests are made and the pickup truck–driving clown vanishes without a trace. Advertisement Oct. 1991, Erie, Pennsylvania: More than 40 children (and some of their parents) report a clown prowling area backyards and looking through windows. A local bank is robbed by a man in a clown suit, but police dismiss him as “a copycat clown” once he is apprehended. The original clown gets away clean. Oct. 1991, Chicago: As things in Erie get eerie, the Chicago police are also overwhelmed with reports from local schoolchildren of a man dressed as Homey D. Clown from In Living Color, offering them candy to ride in his van. Children variously report the van to be blue, white, or red but agree that it has the words, “Ha-ha” painted on the side. An eighth-grader claims to have punched the clown in the nose. At least one elementary school sends a letter home to parents warning them about the clown epidemic; another schedules more patrols of the school grounds. Several weeks later, in Elgin, an adult reports seeing a clown abduct a girl. By this point, “suspicious clowns” have been reported to police in Evanston and Joliet, too. Total number of clowns behind bars at the end of this clown spree: no clowns. Sept. 1992, Rock Hill, South Carolina: A wave of clown sightings comes to an end when four teenage boys are arrested for dressing as clowns and terrorizing local children. The boys aren’t charged, as authorities cannot find a law they broke. At the subdivision that is the epicenter of the clown appearances, one resident has put a hand-painted sign reading “Mr. Clown, We Are All Watching You.” Oct. 1992, Galveston, Texas: The police and local news outlets are flooded with calls about an evil clown after a small girl reports that a clown attempted to kidnap her. This time, the clown is sighted almost exclusively near schools. Police downplay the veracity of the reports after their investigations lead to the capture of exactly zero clowns. Advertisement June 1994, Washington, D.C.: In the Seventh District, police receive multiple reports of a clown trying to lure children into his van. They decline to investigate. By November, the lack of police attention to this case—as well as the disappearance of a small boy in the neighborhood—is held up by local activists as examples of police ignoring or disbelieving crimes reported by black citizens. Aug. 1997, South Brunswick, New Jersey: Six clown incidents occur in South Brunswick and Howell in a matter of weeks. Local children report a clown leaping from behind trees outside local housing projects then laughing maniacally. Police step up patrols in the area but claim the sightings are unrelated. In late August, a man who, according to police, did not have “an adult’s mental capacity” is identified as the clown and sent for psychiatric evaluation. The man offers no explanation for his actions. Oct. 2008, Chicago: Exactly 17 years after the Homie D. Clown incidents, Chicago is again visited by a mysterious child-luring clown. The story is ignored by the newspapers, but the local news lets parents know about the police alert warning of a clown driving “a white or brown van.” Oct. 2014, Fishers, Indiana: A local resident manages to take a picture of a creepy clown that starts appearing around town. The clown does not have a van for once but is holding balloons. Advertisement Aug. 2016, Greenville, South Carolina: The current wave of clown sightings begins. Since stories of evil clowns terrorizing children are often met with skepticism—I assume—I offer a partial bibliography. If you have a free wall in your apartment, you’ll probably want to get copies of these and thumbtack them to a giant map of the United States, just to get the full picture: “Pupils Warned of Clowns,” Boston Globe, May 7, 1981 “ ‘Killer Clown’ Menaces Schoolchildren,” Arizona Republic, May 23, 1981 “ ‘Clown’ is Sought in Kansas, Missouri,” St. Louis Post Dispatch, May 24, 1981 “Police Find Reports of Clowns Not Funny,” the Courier-Journal, March 18, 1988 “Too Much Clowning Around,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Oct. 5, 1991 “Police Taking Clown Sightings Seriously,” Chicago Tribune, Oct. 11, 1991 “Police Aren’t Laughing at These Clowns,” Northwest Herald, Oct. 21, 1991 “Teen-agers Play Clown Prank,” Greenwood Index-Journal, Sept. 4, 1992 “Clown Calls Pour In,” Galveston Daily News, Oct. 30, 1992 “Clown No Laughing Matter,” Afro-American Red Star, June 11, 1994 “Police Doubt Link Between Clown Sightings,” Asbury Park Press, Aug. 21, 1997 “Howell Police Say Mystery of Clown Solved,” Asbury Park Press, Aug. 28, 1997 “ ‘Creepy Clown’ Creates a Stir,” Indianapolis Star, Oct. 18, 2014 And those are only the incidents that made the papers! Now, apropos of nothing, here are a few facts about Pennywise the Clown, an ostensibly fictional creature who preys on children, as described in Stephen King’s novel It: Advertisement FACT: Pennywise, with his red tufts of hair and ruffled collar, loosely resembles Bozo the Clown and—significantly—“Homey D. Clown” from In Living Color. FACT: Pennywise emerges roughly every 27 years to go on a rampage in the (fictional) town of Derry, Maine. So Pennywise appearances come in waves—much like the 1981, 1991, and 2016 clusters of evil clown sightings. FACT: Although Pennywise can be seen by some adults, for the most part he targets children. Similarly, very few adults have reported seeing evil clowns, but many children have. This is just what you’d expect if a Pennywise—or even several Pennywises—were on the loose. FACT: Residents and officials of Derry downplay reports of clown sightings and generally find a scapegoat each time Pennywise appears—in one case, a teenager. Sounds an awful lot like those poor teenagers in Rock Hill, doesn’t it? FACT: Rather than train an elite clown-fighting brigade, the Derry police department attempts to battle Pennywise through flyers warning children about a curfew. Notice anything familiar about this flyer from Greenwood, South Carolina? FACT: Pennywise often carries a bunch of balloons—just like the clown in Fishers, Indiana. FACT: Upon rereading It, you may notice that many of the “voices” that character Richie Tozier becomes famous for turn out to be super-duper racist. FACT: It was published in Sept. 1986, after the first wave of clown sightings. The law of causality scientifically proves that Stephen King’s book can’t have caused the wave of evil clowns in 1981. However, it is possible that the evil clowns—or people trying to warn us about the evil clowns—caused It to be written. ||||| READING, Ohio (AP) — Police say an 18-year-old Ohio woman lied about being attacked by a knife-wielding clown as an excuse for being late for work. Police in the Cincinnati suburb of Reading say investigators found inconsistencies in 18-year-old Alexsandra Conley's story and charged her with making a false alarm, a misdemeanor. WCPO-TV reports Conley said someone dressed like a clown jumped a fence Saturday, waved a knife at her and cut her thumb. No phone listing could be found for the Hamilton woman. It couldn't immediately be determined whether she has an attorney. There have been several recent reports nationwide of people having frightening encounters involving clowns. A report last week of a clown grabbing a woman by the throat and threatening Reading schools led to classes being canceled for the day. ||||| READING, Ohio -- A woman made up a report that she was attacked by a clown with a knife because she was running late to her job at McDonald’s, according to police. This incident was not related to the Friday morning incident that resulted in the closure of all Reading Community Schools. Alexsandra Conley, 18, of Hamilton called police around 6 a.m. Saturday, saying a clown jumped over a fence, waved a knife at her and cut her left thumb at Jefferson and Southern Avenue, police said. RELATED: Clown attack forces schools in Reading to cancel Friday's classes Conley described the suspect as a male wearing a clown suit with a red wig, white facial makeup and a teardrop on his left cheek. Police said Conley was calm as she was being examined by medics, even using her cellphone to access Facebook. After an in-depth investigation, police found several inconsistencies in her report. Conley admitted to making up the story, police said, because she was running late to work and didn’t want to lose her job . Conley was charged with one count of making false alarms, according to police.

– Police say an 18-year-old Ohio woman lied about being attacked by a knife-wielding clown as an excuse for being late for her job at McDonald's, reports WCPO-TV. Police in the Cincinnati suburb of Reading say 18-year-old Alexsandra Conley said someone dressed like a clown jumped a fence Saturday, waved a knife at her, and cut her thumb. Cops noted that she was calm during a medical exam, as WCPO describes it, "even using her cellphone to access Facebook." Investigators subsequently found inconsistencies in Conley's story and charged her with making a false report, reports the AP. There have been several recent reports nationwide of frightening encounters involving clowns, some of them hoaxes, and Slate notes that such sightings make headlines every few years.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.IMDb/Warner Bros. But a careful look at the public record reveals a startling truth: There’s nothing new about America’s love affair with terrifying clowns trying to lure our children away. Consider just a few of the clown encounters reported over the past 35 years, which I just looked up today while researching this article and are definitely not written out by hand in a notebook labeled “CLOWN INFESTATION: THE SECRET HISTORY” at the bottom of my desk drawer, so I don’t know where you even got that idea: Advertisement May 1981, Brookline, Massachusetts: America’s decades of clown sorrow begin at Lawrence Elementary when children report two clowns driving a black van offering them candy. School principals are warned about the clown threat, leading to a rash of reported sightings across Boston. No clowns are ever found. May 1981, Kansas City, Missouri: A few days after the Brookline incidents begin, police in Kansas City receive multiple reports of a knife-wielding clown in a yellow van. Parents of children attending Our Lady & St. Rose school are informed of the situation via a letter from school administrators reading, in part, “There have been reports of a character called Killer Clown jumping out of bushes and threatening children with a knife.” June 1981: Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Reports of “menacing clowns” begin in Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh police are the first to draw a connection between the clown sightings—which occurred in black neighborhoods in Pittsburgh and Kansas City—and the Atlanta Child Murders the summer before, which also targeted black children. However, the Boston-area clowns were sighted mostly in white neighborhoods. March 1988, Louisville, Kentucky: Across a three-county area, children suddenly begin calling police with stories of a malevolent clown offering rides in a red pickup truck, and, in one case, pursuing a child on foot. No arrests are made and the pickup truck–driving clown vanishes without a trace. Advertisement Oct. 1991, Erie, Pennsylvania: More than 40 children (and some of their parents) report a clown prowling area backyards and looking through windows. A local bank is robbed by a man in a clown suit, but police dismiss him as “a copycat clown” once he is apprehended. The original clown gets away clean. Oct. 1991, Chicago: As things in Erie get eerie, the Chicago police are also overwhelmed with reports from local schoolchildren of a man dressed as Homey D. Clown from In Living Color, offering them candy to ride in his van. Children variously report the van to be blue, white, or red but agree that it has the words, “Ha-ha” painted on the side. An eighth-grader claims to have punched the clown in the nose. At least one elementary school sends a letter home to parents warning them about the clown epidemic; another schedules more patrols of the school grounds. Several weeks later, in Elgin, an adult reports seeing a clown abduct a girl. By this point, “suspicious clowns” have been reported to police in Evanston and Joliet, too. Total number of clowns behind bars at the end of this clown spree: no clowns. Sept. 1992, Rock Hill, South Carolina: A wave of clown sightings comes to an end when four teenage boys are arrested for dressing as clowns and terrorizing local children. The boys aren’t charged, as authorities cannot find a law they broke. At the subdivision that is the epicenter of the clown appearances, one resident has put a hand-painted sign reading “Mr. Clown, We Are All Watching You.” Oct. 1992, Galveston, Texas: The police and local news outlets are flooded with calls about an evil clown after a small girl reports that a clown attempted to kidnap her. This time, the clown is sighted almost exclusively near schools. Police downplay the veracity of the reports after their investigations lead to the capture of exactly zero clowns. Advertisement June 1994, Washington, D.C.: In the Seventh District, police receive multiple reports of a clown trying to lure children into his van. They decline to investigate. By November, the lack of police attention to this case—as well as the disappearance of a small boy in the neighborhood—is held up by local activists as examples of police ignoring or disbelieving crimes reported by black citizens. Aug. 1997, South Brunswick, New Jersey: Six clown incidents occur in South Brunswick and Howell in a matter of weeks. Local children report a clown leaping from behind trees outside local housing projects then laughing maniacally. Police step up patrols in the area but claim the sightings are unrelated. In late August, a man who, according to police, did not have “an adult’s mental capacity” is identified as the clown and sent for psychiatric evaluation. The man offers no explanation for his actions. Oct. 2008, Chicago: Exactly 17 years after the Homie D. Clown incidents, Chicago is again visited by a mysterious child-luring clown. The story is ignored by the newspapers, but the local news lets parents know about the police alert warning of a clown driving “a white or brown van.” Oct. 2014, Fishers, Indiana: A local resident manages to take a picture of a creepy clown that starts appearing around town. The clown does not have a van for once but is holding balloons. Advertisement Aug. 2016, Greenville, South Carolina: The current wave of clown sightings begins. Since stories of evil clowns terrorizing children are often met with skepticism—I assume—I offer a partial bibliography. If you have a free wall in your apartment, you’ll probably want to get copies of these and thumbtack them to a giant map of the United States, just to get the full picture: “Pupils Warned of Clowns,” Boston Globe, May 7, 1981 “ ‘Killer Clown’ Menaces Schoolchildren,” Arizona Republic, May 23, 1981 “ ‘Clown’ is Sought in Kansas, Missouri,” St. Louis Post Dispatch, May 24, 1981 “Police Find Reports of Clowns Not Funny,” the Courier-Journal, March 18, 1988 “Too Much Clowning Around,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Oct. 5, 1991 “Police Taking Clown Sightings Seriously,” Chicago Tribune, Oct. 11, 1991 “Police Aren’t Laughing at These Clowns,” Northwest Herald, Oct. 21, 1991 “Teen-agers Play Clown Prank,” Greenwood Index-Journal, Sept. 4, 1992 “Clown Calls Pour In,” Galveston Daily News, Oct. 30, 1992 “Clown No Laughing Matter,” Afro-American Red Star, June 11, 1994 “Police Doubt Link Between Clown Sightings,” Asbury Park Press, Aug. 21, 1997 “Howell Police Say Mystery of Clown Solved,” Asbury Park Press, Aug. 28, 1997 “ ‘Creepy Clown’ Creates a Stir,” Indianapolis Star, Oct. 18, 2014 And those are only the incidents that made the papers! Now, apropos of nothing, here are a few facts about Pennywise the Clown, an ostensibly fictional creature who preys on children, as described in Stephen King’s novel It: Advertisement FACT: Pennywise, with his red tufts of hair and ruffled collar, loosely resembles Bozo the Clown and—significantly—“Homey D. Clown” from In Living Color. FACT: Pennywise emerges roughly every 27 years to go on a rampage in the (fictional) town of Derry, Maine. So Pennywise appearances come in waves—much like the 1981, 1991, and 2016 clusters of evil clown sightings. FACT: Although Pennywise can be seen by some adults, for the most part he targets children. Similarly, very few adults have reported seeing evil clowns, but many children have. This is just what you’d expect if a Pennywise—or even several Pennywises—were on the loose. FACT: Residents and officials of Derry downplay reports of clown sightings and generally find a scapegoat each time Pennywise appears—in one case, a teenager. Sounds an awful lot like those poor teenagers in Rock Hill, doesn’t it? FACT: Rather than train an elite clown-fighting brigade, the Derry police department attempts to battle Pennywise through flyers warning children about a curfew. Notice anything familiar about this flyer from Greenwood, South Carolina? FACT: Pennywise often carries a bunch of balloons—just like the clown in Fishers, Indiana. FACT: Upon rereading It, you may notice that many of the “voices” that character Richie Tozier becomes famous for turn out to be super-duper racist. FACT: It was published in Sept. 1986, after the first wave of clown sightings. The law of causality scientifically proves that Stephen King’s book can’t have caused the wave of evil clowns in 1981. However, it is possible that the evil clowns—or people trying to warn us about the evil clowns—caused It to be written. ||||| READING, Ohio (AP) — Police say an 18-year-old Ohio woman lied about being attacked by a knife-wielding clown as an excuse for being late for work. Police in the Cincinnati suburb of Reading say investigators found inconsistencies in 18-year-old Alexsandra Conley's story and charged her with making a false alarm, a misdemeanor. WCPO-TV reports Conley said someone dressed like a clown jumped a fence Saturday, waved a knife at her and cut her thumb. No phone listing could be found for the Hamilton woman. It couldn't immediately be determined whether she has an attorney. There have been several recent reports nationwide of people having frightening encounters involving clowns. A report last week of a clown grabbing a woman by the throat and threatening Reading schools led to classes being canceled for the day. ||||| READING, Ohio -- A woman made up a report that she was attacked by a clown with a knife because she was running late to her job at McDonald’s, according to police. This incident was not related to the Friday morning incident that resulted in the closure of all Reading Community Schools. Alexsandra Conley, 18, of Hamilton called police around 6 a.m. Saturday, saying a clown jumped over a fence, waved a knife at her and cut her left thumb at Jefferson and Southern Avenue, police said. RELATED: Clown attack forces schools in Reading to cancel Friday's classes Conley described the suspect as a male wearing a clown suit with a red wig, white facial makeup and a teardrop on his left cheek. Police said Conley was calm as she was being examined by medics, even using her cellphone to access Facebook. After an in-depth investigation, police found several inconsistencies in her report. Conley admitted to making up the story, police said, because she was running late to work and didn’t want to lose her job . Conley was charged with one count of making false alarms, according to police.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

(CNN) After convicted murderers David Sweat and Richard Matt pulled off their brazen escape from an upstate New York prison, their relationship quickly began to sour, according to a law enforcement official briefed on Sweat's interviews with investigators. Sweat has told investigators that Matt, who was fatally shot last week, was out of shape and unable to keep up with him, the law enforcement official told CNN on Wednesday. In particular, Sweat told investigators, he was irked that the older man began getting drunk after they broke into a cabin, the official said. The discord prompted the fugitives to split up. After a border patrol agent caught up with and killed Matt on Friday, authorities said officers could smell alcohol on his body from a few feet away, according to a law enforcement source briefed on the investigation. From his hospital bed in Albany, Sweat has been revealing details about the prison break and their time on the run that seem to baffle almost everyone -- except himself. Sweat and Matt pulled off the sensational escape not once, but twice, the inmate told investigators. Through it all, Sweat was the mastermind, or at least that's what he's telling authorities, a local district attorney said. And while authorities initially spoke of the possible use of power tools in the escape, Sweat has said that he and Matt actually found a sledgehammer in an underground passageway. It was probably left behind inadvertently by a construction worker, according to the law enforcement official briefed on his interviews. The men supposedly used the sledgehammer to break down a brick wall on their way out of the maximum security prison, the official said. During their time on the lam, the fugitives had several close calls as authorities closed in, Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie told CNN. While hiding in the hunting cabin, they heard voices of people nearby at one point. And after the pair split up, Wylie said, Sweat saw a law enforcement officer walk right by him as he hid in a tree stand used by hunters. An escape before the escape Sweat said the plot to break out of Clinton Correctional Facility actually started in January, Wylie said. After five months of hashing out strategies, Sweat and Matt made a practice run One night before prison tailor Joyce Mitchell was supposed to meet them at a manhole, Sweat and Matt escaped from their cells, a New York state official said. They navigated a maze of tunnels and pipes before popping out of a manhole. But Sweat said they saw too many houses near that manhole and decided to try for a different one the next night, Wylie said. So why didn't the guards notice? It's not clear, but the state inspector general's office has been looking into whether guards had fallen asleep, officials told CNN. Just hacksaws Speculation has raged over what power tools the pair used, but Sweat told investigators that he and Matt used only hacksaws to cut through their cell walls and a steam pipe inside the prison, the district attorney told CNN. After interviewing Sweat for several hours over the past two days, state police investigators had no plans for now to speak with him further, spokesman Beau Duffy said. JUST WATCHED Investigators looking into prison escape details Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Investigators looking into prison escape details 02:23 Duffy did not have information on where Sweat will go once he's released but said he will be turned over to the corrections department. Sweat is listed in fair condition and is expected to remain at Albany Medical Center for at least a few more days, according to the hospital. Mitchell, the prison tailor, has admitted to smuggling hacksaw blades by hiding them in frozen hamburger meat and then having the meat delivered to Matt, a law enforcement official said last week. She has been arrested and charged with promoting prison contraband and criminal facilitation. Another employee, Gene Palmer, is accused of taking the meat to the inmates. He's charged with promoting dangerous prison contraband, two counts of destroying evidence and one count of official misconduct. A dozen prison employees put on leave But the investigation extends beyond Mitchell and Palmer -- and well beyond the escape. Steven Racette Three members of the prison's executive team, along with nine security staff employees, have been placed on paid administrative leave as part of the review of the escape, said the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. Superintendent Steven Racette and Deputy Superintendent Stephen Brown are among the executives on leave, a state official told CNN on Tuesday. The other is First Deputy Superintendent Donald Quinn, according to a source familiar with the investigation. Michael Kirkpatrick, a former first deputy superintendent of the Elmira Correctional Facility and head of the Corrections Emergency Response Team, on Wednesday was named the new superintendent of the Clinton Correctional Facility. Since the escape, other measures have been taken: -- Every cell at Clinton is being inspected once a week, with supervision from a senior security staff member. -- The number of cells searched daily and randomly for contraband has tripled, with each cell being searched at least once every two months. -- All tunnels are being inspected monthly instead of biannually. -- The so-called "honor block," where the escaped prisoners had been housed, has been eliminated pending further review, according to the department. JUST WATCHED FBI probes possible drug ring inside New York prison Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH FBI probes possible drug ring inside New York prison 03:08 The FBI is investigating possible broader corruption at the prison, law enforcement officials briefed on the case said. Agents are looking into whether drug trafficking or other criminal behavior among employees and inmates took place, officials said. Some employees who have been questioned told investigators that there was heroin use among prisoners and an alleged drug trade involving employees. How the plan derailed According to Sweat, officials said, this is how the plan was supposed to play out: Sweat and Matt would come out of a manhole and meet Mitchell, who would drive them away. The convicted murderers would then kill Mitchell's husband, Lyle, before fleeing to Mexico Sweat has told investigators that it was Mitchell's idea for them to kill her husband, according to the law enforcement official briefed on his interviews. But her attorney denied that accusation Wednesday. And Mitchell has also told authorities that Matt and Sweat hatched the plan to kill her husband. In his interview, Sweat also denied any sexual contact with Joyce Mitchell and said it was Matt who had a sexual relationship with her, officials said. Authorities have said that Matt had a sexual relationship with Mitchell, and that she had been investigated in the past for an inappropriate relationship with Sweat that led corrections officials to move him out of the tailor shop where she worked. The night of the escape, Mitchell did not show up, forcing the fugitives to improvise on the run for more than three weeks. Police caught up with and killed Matt on Friday. Two days later, an officer shot and wounded Sweat less than two miles from the Canadian border. Sweat told investigators that he was upset when he learned that Matt had been killed and decided to try to make it to Canada, the official said. Matt's family members at first had said they wouldn't claim his body, but they changed their minds, Franklin County Coroner Brian Langdon told CNN. Langdon believes the body will be turned over to Matt's son. The Heald Funeral Home in Plattsburgh will handle the body's transfer, Langdon said. Matt's body is at Alice Hyde Medical Center's morgue in Malone. ||||| As allegations emerged about the potential relationship between two escaped convicted felons and a prison employee, one former female corrections officer is providing an insider perspective on forbidden love behind bars. Interested in ? Add as an interest to stay up to date on the latest news, video, and analysis from ABC News. Add Interest According to Robin Kay Miller, 53, a corrections officer for nearly 20 years until she retired in 2005, sex between officers and inmates has always been an issue in prison. Miller is writing a book about her experience working in the prison system. “Inmates are con artists,” she said. “They know how to play the game and they know how to manipulate.” Joyce Mitchell, a 51-year-old prison tailor shop worker, was arrested last month on charges that she helped convicted murderers David Sweat and Richard Matt escape from a maximum security prison in upstate New York. She has pleaded not guilty to promoting prison contraband and criminal facilitation. Officials also investigated Mitchell for a suspected relationship with Sweat during the past year, but no action was taken against her at the time. Prison officials were investigating whether she may have been having sex with other inmates. Mitchell’s lawyer said she consistently denied the allegation. Former inmate Erik Jensen, who worked at the prison tailor shop with Matt, Sweat and employee Joyce Mitchell three years ago, said Sweat paid Mitchell a lot of attention. “We had a joke,” Jensen said. “It was like, that was his boo, that was his girl… she would bring him like barbeque chicken, spareribs, things that were cooked on her home grill.” Miller, who did not work at the prison where Matt and Sweat escaped from, the Clinton Correctional Facility, said in her experience usually male inmates will target the female officers. “They look for the weak. They look for insecurity,” she said. “They look if they’re beautiful, body parts, the unintelligent, the not so bright, and then they look for the hustler, hustler females, and then they look for the promiscuous females.” “The inmate would throw the compliments you know, ‘Baby you look good today, oh your hair looks nice,’” Miller continued. “Men know there are things that woman like to hear.” According to federal government reports, sexual relationships between inmates and prison employees are fairly common. The U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics released a report in January 2014 reviewing data collected on sexual victimization in prisons from 2009 to 2011, in which they found that almost half – 48 percent -- of substantiated incidents of sexual victimization involved guards and inmates, while the other 52 percent involved only inmates. Gender appeared to play some kind of role in the nature of the banned relationships, as 84 percent of the relationships that female staffers had with inmates "appeared to be willing," whereas only 37 percent of the relationships between male guards and inmates qualified as such, according to the report. Although the inmates are supposed to be monitored 24/7, Miller said, that it’s “very easy” for a female corrections officer to have sex with an inmate inside a prison. “You have blind spots,” she said. “They’re taking them in the officers’ bathroom… or you have female officers that have steady posts like sanitation or where they can take the inmate out of the housing area.” A string of recent cases of prison misconduct have focused on female officers and workers inside the prison system having relationships with inmates. Aside from the case of Sweat and Mitchell, there was a second case in June of a female prison employee’s alleged sexual relationship with an inmate having a connection with a North Carolina jailbreak. Earlier this year in Oregon, two jail staffers, Brett Robinson and Jill Curry, admitted to sneaking an inmate out for sex. Both are now behind bars after being charged with custodial sexual misconduct. In 2013, a Baltimore inmate and notorious gang leader was accused of having sexual relations with multiple female officers and impregnating four of them. That same year in New York, prison guard Nancy Gonzalez was arrested – and later sentenced to a year and a day – for sexual abuse after getting pregnant by an inmate she was guarding who was doing time for killing a police officer. Not to mention that the number of female corrections officers in male prison facilitates has gone up in recent years – up from 24 percent to 40 percent between 2001 and 2007, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Miller said some female corrections officers are willing to risk their jobs for the sake of having the relationship with an inmate because they like the attention and they get emotionally attached. “Them dealing with an inmate in jail is no different than them dealing with a man in the street,” Miller said. “Female corrections officers, we’re on that job basically eight to 16 hours a day doing overtime. Every day. That’s basically our second home and if they don’t have anybody at home or their man is not treating them right and then they come to work and this man is full of compliments and just telling them that he loves and them and he gone suck them in. Once you get sucked in, you not thinking it’s wrong.” ABC's Meghan Keneally contributed to this report. ||||| David Sweat claims he did not have a sexual relationship with Clinton Correctional Facility tailor Joyce Mitchell, instead pinning that aspect of the escape plan on his late partner, Richard Matt. Speaking with investigators from his heavily guarded hospital bed at Albany Medical Center, Sweat said that it was Matt who had sex with Mitchell, The New York Daily News reported. She agreed to drive their getaway car in return, Sweat claims. This contradicts earlier claims by investigators that she had sex with both escapees, and the claim of former prisoner Erik Jensen, who said Sweat and Mitchell had sex four times a week in a storage closet. Sweat also told investigators that Mitchell hatched the plan to have the convicts kill her husband Lyle. This again contradicts Mitchell's own statement, and the statement of her lawyer, that she decided not to go through with the plan because she was afraid they would kill Lyle. Investigators have finished interviewing Sweat, who is recovering from two gunshot wounds sustained when law enforcement apprehended him less than two miles from the Canadian border. Sweat has provided a steady stream of new information about his and Matt's escape. He confirmed that the pair used hacksaws smuggled to them in frozen meat by Mitchell to escape the facility, and that planning for the getaway started in January. Sweat claimed to be the mastermind behind the plan, and said he ditched Matt after he sustained injuries and began drinking heavily. Sweat also claimed that he nearly ran into law enforcement several times while on the lam. Matt was shot and killed five days after Sweat left him, and Sweat was captured two days later. Matt's son, Nick Harris, claimed his father's body, and said he was wrongfully killed.

– Captured escapee David Sweat is apparently continuing to talk, and per CNN, he's talking about sex. A former inmate of the prison who worked in the tailor shop with Sweat and Joyce Mitchell three years ago had this to say about their relationship to ABC News: “We had a joke. It was like, that was his boo, that was his girl… she would bring him like barbeque chicken, spareribs, things that were cooked on her home grill." But Sweat allegedly told investigators nothing sexual occurred between the two of them—and that Richard Matt and Mitchell did have sex. Syracuse.com points out that the former inmate, Erik Jensen, also claimed Sweat and Mitchell had sex multiple times a week in a storage closet. CNN's info comes by way of law enforcement officials briefed on the case, who, along with the local DA, shared three more tidbits of note: The official says Matt's desire to get drunk after they broke into a cabin was at the root of the men's split; Sweat allegedly also found Matt to be out of shape. As for that practice run, Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie tells CNN the men emerged from a manhole but found the area to be fairly populated with homes. They decided to try to exit via a different manhole the next night. And as for how they got out in the first place, Sweat says they stumbled upon a sledgehammer in an underground passageway, possibly a forgotten remnant of prior construction work. They may have used it to bust through a brick wall.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.(CNN) After convicted murderers David Sweat and Richard Matt pulled off their brazen escape from an upstate New York prison, their relationship quickly began to sour, according to a law enforcement official briefed on Sweat's interviews with investigators. Sweat has told investigators that Matt, who was fatally shot last week, was out of shape and unable to keep up with him, the law enforcement official told CNN on Wednesday. In particular, Sweat told investigators, he was irked that the older man began getting drunk after they broke into a cabin, the official said. The discord prompted the fugitives to split up. After a border patrol agent caught up with and killed Matt on Friday, authorities said officers could smell alcohol on his body from a few feet away, according to a law enforcement source briefed on the investigation. From his hospital bed in Albany, Sweat has been revealing details about the prison break and their time on the run that seem to baffle almost everyone -- except himself. Sweat and Matt pulled off the sensational escape not once, but twice, the inmate told investigators. Through it all, Sweat was the mastermind, or at least that's what he's telling authorities, a local district attorney said. And while authorities initially spoke of the possible use of power tools in the escape, Sweat has said that he and Matt actually found a sledgehammer in an underground passageway. It was probably left behind inadvertently by a construction worker, according to the law enforcement official briefed on his interviews. The men supposedly used the sledgehammer to break down a brick wall on their way out of the maximum security prison, the official said. During their time on the lam, the fugitives had several close calls as authorities closed in, Clinton County District Attorney Andrew Wylie told CNN. While hiding in the hunting cabin, they heard voices of people nearby at one point. And after the pair split up, Wylie said, Sweat saw a law enforcement officer walk right by him as he hid in a tree stand used by hunters. An escape before the escape Sweat said the plot to break out of Clinton Correctional Facility actually started in January, Wylie said. After five months of hashing out strategies, Sweat and Matt made a practice run One night before prison tailor Joyce Mitchell was supposed to meet them at a manhole, Sweat and Matt escaped from their cells, a New York state official said. They navigated a maze of tunnels and pipes before popping out of a manhole. But Sweat said they saw too many houses near that manhole and decided to try for a different one the next night, Wylie said. So why didn't the guards notice? It's not clear, but the state inspector general's office has been looking into whether guards had fallen asleep, officials told CNN. Just hacksaws Speculation has raged over what power tools the pair used, but Sweat told investigators that he and Matt used only hacksaws to cut through their cell walls and a steam pipe inside the prison, the district attorney told CNN. After interviewing Sweat for several hours over the past two days, state police investigators had no plans for now to speak with him further, spokesman Beau Duffy said. JUST WATCHED Investigators looking into prison escape details Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Investigators looking into prison escape details 02:23 Duffy did not have information on where Sweat will go once he's released but said he will be turned over to the corrections department. Sweat is listed in fair condition and is expected to remain at Albany Medical Center for at least a few more days, according to the hospital. Mitchell, the prison tailor, has admitted to smuggling hacksaw blades by hiding them in frozen hamburger meat and then having the meat delivered to Matt, a law enforcement official said last week. She has been arrested and charged with promoting prison contraband and criminal facilitation. Another employee, Gene Palmer, is accused of taking the meat to the inmates. He's charged with promoting dangerous prison contraband, two counts of destroying evidence and one count of official misconduct. A dozen prison employees put on leave But the investigation extends beyond Mitchell and Palmer -- and well beyond the escape. Steven Racette Three members of the prison's executive team, along with nine security staff employees, have been placed on paid administrative leave as part of the review of the escape, said the New York State Department of Corrections and Community Supervision. Superintendent Steven Racette and Deputy Superintendent Stephen Brown are among the executives on leave, a state official told CNN on Tuesday. The other is First Deputy Superintendent Donald Quinn, according to a source familiar with the investigation. Michael Kirkpatrick, a former first deputy superintendent of the Elmira Correctional Facility and head of the Corrections Emergency Response Team, on Wednesday was named the new superintendent of the Clinton Correctional Facility. Since the escape, other measures have been taken: -- Every cell at Clinton is being inspected once a week, with supervision from a senior security staff member. -- The number of cells searched daily and randomly for contraband has tripled, with each cell being searched at least once every two months. -- All tunnels are being inspected monthly instead of biannually. -- The so-called "honor block," where the escaped prisoners had been housed, has been eliminated pending further review, according to the department. JUST WATCHED FBI probes possible drug ring inside New York prison Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH FBI probes possible drug ring inside New York prison 03:08 The FBI is investigating possible broader corruption at the prison, law enforcement officials briefed on the case said. Agents are looking into whether drug trafficking or other criminal behavior among employees and inmates took place, officials said. Some employees who have been questioned told investigators that there was heroin use among prisoners and an alleged drug trade involving employees. How the plan derailed According to Sweat, officials said, this is how the plan was supposed to play out: Sweat and Matt would come out of a manhole and meet Mitchell, who would drive them away. The convicted murderers would then kill Mitchell's husband, Lyle, before fleeing to Mexico Sweat has told investigators that it was Mitchell's idea for them to kill her husband, according to the law enforcement official briefed on his interviews. But her attorney denied that accusation Wednesday. And Mitchell has also told authorities that Matt and Sweat hatched the plan to kill her husband. In his interview, Sweat also denied any sexual contact with Joyce Mitchell and said it was Matt who had a sexual relationship with her, officials said. Authorities have said that Matt had a sexual relationship with Mitchell, and that she had been investigated in the past for an inappropriate relationship with Sweat that led corrections officials to move him out of the tailor shop where she worked. The night of the escape, Mitchell did not show up, forcing the fugitives to improvise on the run for more than three weeks. Police caught up with and killed Matt on Friday. Two days later, an officer shot and wounded Sweat less than two miles from the Canadian border. Sweat told investigators that he was upset when he learned that Matt had been killed and decided to try to make it to Canada, the official said. Matt's family members at first had said they wouldn't claim his body, but they changed their minds, Franklin County Coroner Brian Langdon told CNN. Langdon believes the body will be turned over to Matt's son. The Heald Funeral Home in Plattsburgh will handle the body's transfer, Langdon said. Matt's body is at Alice Hyde Medical Center's morgue in Malone. ||||| As allegations emerged about the potential relationship between two escaped convicted felons and a prison employee, one former female corrections officer is providing an insider perspective on forbidden love behind bars. Interested in ? Add as an interest to stay up to date on the latest news, video, and analysis from ABC News. Add Interest According to Robin Kay Miller, 53, a corrections officer for nearly 20 years until she retired in 2005, sex between officers and inmates has always been an issue in prison. Miller is writing a book about her experience working in the prison system. “Inmates are con artists,” she said. “They know how to play the game and they know how to manipulate.” Joyce Mitchell, a 51-year-old prison tailor shop worker, was arrested last month on charges that she helped convicted murderers David Sweat and Richard Matt escape from a maximum security prison in upstate New York. She has pleaded not guilty to promoting prison contraband and criminal facilitation. Officials also investigated Mitchell for a suspected relationship with Sweat during the past year, but no action was taken against her at the time. Prison officials were investigating whether she may have been having sex with other inmates. Mitchell’s lawyer said she consistently denied the allegation. Former inmate Erik Jensen, who worked at the prison tailor shop with Matt, Sweat and employee Joyce Mitchell three years ago, said Sweat paid Mitchell a lot of attention. “We had a joke,” Jensen said. “It was like, that was his boo, that was his girl… she would bring him like barbeque chicken, spareribs, things that were cooked on her home grill.” Miller, who did not work at the prison where Matt and Sweat escaped from, the Clinton Correctional Facility, said in her experience usually male inmates will target the female officers. “They look for the weak. They look for insecurity,” she said. “They look if they’re beautiful, body parts, the unintelligent, the not so bright, and then they look for the hustler, hustler females, and then they look for the promiscuous females.” “The inmate would throw the compliments you know, ‘Baby you look good today, oh your hair looks nice,’” Miller continued. “Men know there are things that woman like to hear.” According to federal government reports, sexual relationships between inmates and prison employees are fairly common. The U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics released a report in January 2014 reviewing data collected on sexual victimization in prisons from 2009 to 2011, in which they found that almost half – 48 percent -- of substantiated incidents of sexual victimization involved guards and inmates, while the other 52 percent involved only inmates. Gender appeared to play some kind of role in the nature of the banned relationships, as 84 percent of the relationships that female staffers had with inmates "appeared to be willing," whereas only 37 percent of the relationships between male guards and inmates qualified as such, according to the report. Although the inmates are supposed to be monitored 24/7, Miller said, that it’s “very easy” for a female corrections officer to have sex with an inmate inside a prison. “You have blind spots,” she said. “They’re taking them in the officers’ bathroom… or you have female officers that have steady posts like sanitation or where they can take the inmate out of the housing area.” A string of recent cases of prison misconduct have focused on female officers and workers inside the prison system having relationships with inmates. Aside from the case of Sweat and Mitchell, there was a second case in June of a female prison employee’s alleged sexual relationship with an inmate having a connection with a North Carolina jailbreak. Earlier this year in Oregon, two jail staffers, Brett Robinson and Jill Curry, admitted to sneaking an inmate out for sex. Both are now behind bars after being charged with custodial sexual misconduct. In 2013, a Baltimore inmate and notorious gang leader was accused of having sexual relations with multiple female officers and impregnating four of them. That same year in New York, prison guard Nancy Gonzalez was arrested – and later sentenced to a year and a day – for sexual abuse after getting pregnant by an inmate she was guarding who was doing time for killing a police officer. Not to mention that the number of female corrections officers in male prison facilitates has gone up in recent years – up from 24 percent to 40 percent between 2001 and 2007, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Miller said some female corrections officers are willing to risk their jobs for the sake of having the relationship with an inmate because they like the attention and they get emotionally attached. “Them dealing with an inmate in jail is no different than them dealing with a man in the street,” Miller said. “Female corrections officers, we’re on that job basically eight to 16 hours a day doing overtime. Every day. That’s basically our second home and if they don’t have anybody at home or their man is not treating them right and then they come to work and this man is full of compliments and just telling them that he loves and them and he gone suck them in. Once you get sucked in, you not thinking it’s wrong.” ABC's Meghan Keneally contributed to this report. ||||| David Sweat claims he did not have a sexual relationship with Clinton Correctional Facility tailor Joyce Mitchell, instead pinning that aspect of the escape plan on his late partner, Richard Matt. Speaking with investigators from his heavily guarded hospital bed at Albany Medical Center, Sweat said that it was Matt who had sex with Mitchell, The New York Daily News reported. She agreed to drive their getaway car in return, Sweat claims. This contradicts earlier claims by investigators that she had sex with both escapees, and the claim of former prisoner Erik Jensen, who said Sweat and Mitchell had sex four times a week in a storage closet. Sweat also told investigators that Mitchell hatched the plan to have the convicts kill her husband Lyle. This again contradicts Mitchell's own statement, and the statement of her lawyer, that she decided not to go through with the plan because she was afraid they would kill Lyle. Investigators have finished interviewing Sweat, who is recovering from two gunshot wounds sustained when law enforcement apprehended him less than two miles from the Canadian border. Sweat has provided a steady stream of new information about his and Matt's escape. He confirmed that the pair used hacksaws smuggled to them in frozen meat by Mitchell to escape the facility, and that planning for the getaway started in January. Sweat claimed to be the mastermind behind the plan, and said he ditched Matt after he sustained injuries and began drinking heavily. Sweat also claimed that he nearly ran into law enforcement several times while on the lam. Matt was shot and killed five days after Sweat left him, and Sweat was captured two days later. Matt's son, Nick Harris, claimed his father's body, and said he was wrongfully killed.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Survival Food and Emergency Food Being prepared for whatever comes means stocking up on emergency food. With a little foresight, you can pull together enough supplies to be ready for a natural disaster or any other unexpected event that keeps you from going to the store. Before building your emergency food supply kit, start keeping a record of what everyone in your family eats in a day. In addition to emergency survival food staples like rice, beans and canned or powdered milk, you'll find a wide variety of emergency foods, including freeze-dried survival foods, that will let you approximate your family's normal diet. For breakfast, you'll find scrambled egg mix, pancake mix, oatmeal and other hot cereals and more. You'll also find a wide variety of soups, chilis, fruits and vegetables, as well as pasta, rice and meat dishes in a wide range of flavors. Including a few treats, like hot cocoa and pudding, can help your family maintain morale when times are tough. At Walmart, you'll find a wide variety of emergency foods, survival foods, freeze-dried foods and other meal solutions, all at Every Day Low Prices. Save money. Live better. ||||| share tweet pin email Whether you live in a hurricane zone, or you're worried about nuclear bomb threats — or you just don’t want to go grocery shopping for an entire year — Costco’s got you covered. ED BETZ / AP Costo Wholesale The buy-in-bulk warehouse store sells a 1-year emergency food kit that comes with 6,200 servings of food. According to the product’s description, it can provide enough meals for 1,200 calories per day for one adult for a year and has a 25-year shelf life. From the brand Nutristore, a budget, shelf-stable food storage company, the kit features grains, dairy and freeze-dried and dehydrated fruits and vegetables. Items include cans of red wheat, instant rice, dehydrated apples, freeze-dried sweet corn, lentils, chicken and beef. There’s also sugar and salt because taste is important ... even during the apocalypse. costco.com Nutristore 1 Year Emergency Food Kit 6,200 Servings Customer reviews of the meal kit date back to two years ago with mixed feelings. One five-star review praised its reasonable price and decent assortment. Another gave it only one-star because some of the cans came damaged. But none of the reviews appear to mention how the food actually tastes — which is a good thing since it means no one has found themselves in a major disaster, yet. But one customer commented that it would have been nice if there was a recipe book that came along with the package. We’re not sure how much you’ll really be worried about cooking if the world is coming to an end, but we supposed a few recipes wouldn't hurt. A representative for Costco confirmed to TODAY Food that the superstore has been selling the kit for three years, but it's been brought into spotlight this weekend after The Detroit Free Press featured it in the article, “Seeking to Survive a Disaster?” in light of recent tragic events like Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria which decimated parts of Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. "The idea came about making a great starter kit for a family who wanted to prepare for any kind of disaster,” a representative from Costco told the paper. “This is a great value with shipping included." The company declined to give out specific sales data for the product, but there must be a demand out there considering they also sell an even bigger kit: Nutristore’s premium emergency food kit retails for$6,000. "We have had the emergency food category for over 10 years," the Costco rep added to TODAY. "This [the $1,000 kit] is one of our top selling items right now." Of course, if you’re more of a minimalist when it comes to disaster preparedness, they’ve got smaller kits available, too. A one-month supply, aptly called The ARK 390 by Chef’s Banquet, is full of just-add-water culinary treats such as Cheddar Cheese Grits with Green Chilies, Rice & Orzo Pilaf and Creamy Mashed Potatoes. And it retails for just $99. ||||| Screenshot from Costco.com of Nutristore 1 Year Emergency Food Kit with 6,200 Servings for $999. (Photo: Costco.com) Capitalists have a solution to everything, even surviving the end of the world. Take Costco’s 1-year emergency food kit for $999.99, including shipping. It is made up of nearly 100 cans — 1-gallon each and making 6,200 servings of food — of wheat, rice, granola, apples, bananas, peaches, strawberries, potatoes, carrots beans, onions, corn, beef, chicken, milk, sugar and salt. The cans, the company said, will last up to 25 years. The Issaquah, Wash.-based warehouse club declined to offer much more about the items — or on how many people are buying the kit. "We don't normally give out sales data," the company said in an e-mail to the Free Press. "The idea came about making a great starter kit for a family who wanted to prepare for any kind of disaster. This is a great value with shipping included." Obviously, the disaster would have to be catastrophic for someone to need that much food. Dickerson: Duck and cover drills to survive a nuclear attack -- What were they thinking? The end is nigh Entrepreneurs have long found ways to profit from people’s fears, especially when they involve an apocalyptic scenario: being wiped out by a massive hurricane, getting caught in clashes among groups with fanatical beliefs and facing fallout from a nuclear war. How much of a market is there for these emergency kits? “Right now, it’s too small of a trend to track,” said Jeff Gelski, associate editor of Food Business News in Kansas City who has been writing about the food industry for more than a decade. “But, if Costco’s in it, it might be something that’s about to pop.” There are smaller and larger emergency food kits for sale, too. In addition to a variety of online sellers, Walmart offers emergency food storage kits with enough food for two days, three days, a month, and a year that sell for $25.88, $58.99, $134.99, and 1,290.99, respectively. Costco is offering even bigger food kits, too, for $3,999.99 and $5,999.99. The customers are "working people who fear for their lives," said Ken Dalto, a retail expert with Kenneth J. Dalto in Bingham Farms. He added that it's too soon to know how well these emergency kits are selling, but that with a nation of 320 million, there are plenty of people who are nervous about the future. A Costco store in North Miami Beach, Fla. (Photo: Wilfredo Lee, AP) "You have hurricanes. You saw what that did," he said, referring to Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, which battered Texas, Louisiana, Florida and Puerto Rico. "You add to that climate change, and terrorism, and the idea of nuclear war, which is very much in the news with North Korea, and they can develop a missile that might be able to hit California — even Seattle.” In August, a month after North Korea tested an intercontinental ballistic missile, three-quarters of Americans said that North Korea's nuclear program is a critical threat facing the U.S., according to a Chicago Council on Global Affairs survey. Last year, the survey showed 60% of Americans feared North Korea. It was 55% in 2015. Dalto said people feel they can't prevent these disasters, so they do what they can: They shop. Read more: Peace of mind Profiting from things that make people feel more secure is not new. Remember businesses that marketed backyard bomb shelters during the Cold War? Or all the computer software upgrades aimed at preventing the end of the world in a Y2K meltdown at the turn of the millennium? "There's always that flip side that during tragedy, there's someone that's going to come out on top," said Adam Lovett, a salesman at Harry's Army Surplus in Dearborn. "You're in the business of: The worse it gets, the more you make. It's sad, but true." How scared are folks now? "There's a lot of people coming in now who are quite worried," he said, adding that most of them seem to be most troubled by political discord. "It's not at panic status or anything like that, but there are heightened concerns." Mostly, he said, people are seeking to buy fire-starters, such as flint and steel strikers or waterproof matches; water purifiers, such as filters and chemical tablets, and simple outdoor shelters such as tents and lean-to devices. Some people, he added, are even seeking survival kits in backpacks in case they have to leave their homes a hurry. Those run less than $100. Activists wearing masks to look like President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un pose next to a Styrofoam effigy of a nuclear bomb in front of the American embassy on Sept.13, 2017 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo: Omer Messinger, Getty Images) Still, academics say no matter how convincing businesses are, sometimes it makes sense to invest more in information than in stuff. "There's a new fear all the time," said Brian Bierley, director of media relations at Oakland University. "The people in Florida are living off the hurricane fear, and if they don't get hit, there's always something. On Twitter, there's a new threat every day." To help address one of those fears, OU, in cooperation with three other educational institutions, is holding a student and community forum, Nukes and Your Future, from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, in Room 1050 of the Human Health Building. The free forum, which is open to the public, is set to include professors from OU, the University of Detroit-Mercy, Wayne State University and Henry Ford College and will examine the threats of nuclear weapons. "Instead of buying a backyard bunker, we're talking through the realities," Bierley said. "Instead of buying these meals ready to eat that can be put in storage for 25 years, I'd arm myself with education and knowledge." Contact Frank Witsil: 248-351-3690 or [email protected] Read or Share this story: http://on.freep.com/2yBSIrX ||||| Standard shipping via common carrier is included in the quoted price. Curbside delivery *, signature required. Carrier will call to set up a delivery time. Extraordinary delivery requirements may necessitate an additional fee to the carrier.*Delivery is available to Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. An additional shipping and handling fee will be applied at check out and additional transit time will be required. Locations outside of a regular delivery area may be restricted. Click Here to view restricted areas. To inquire about delivery to these areas, please contact customer service Costco.com products can be returned to any of our more than 700 Costco warehouses worldwide. SHOP CONFIDENTLY We are committed to offering the best value to our members, with a risk-free 100% satisfaction guarantee on both your membership and merchandise. If you have questions about your membership or products you've purchased at Costco, please visit the membership counter at your local Costco or Contact Customer Service. View Costco's Return Policy For information or a written copy of the manufacturer's warranty, please contact us at: [email protected]. Costco Concierge Services | Technical Support Free technical support exclusive to Costco members for select electronics and consumer goods. How To Return Costco.com Orders

– The end of the world didn't arrive on Sept. 23 as foretold (by some), but if you're still hedging your bets on a rescheduled apocalypse or other disaster that may put you in a bunker, you may want to stop by Costco. The Detroit Free Press reports the warehouse superstore is offering a one-year emergency food kit for $1,000, which includes shipping charges (though the Costco website says the item is currently out of stock, at least online). For that cool grand, a survival-intent consumer would get close to 100 1-gallon cans of victuals said to be able to last for a quarter-century and provide 6,200 servings of everything from wheat, rice, and milk to beef, peaches, and potatoes. "The idea came about [to make] a great starter kit for a family who wanted to prepare for any kind of disaster," Costco tells the newspaper, calling this particular kit a "great value." Costco offers other "emergency preparedness" in bulk, with kit prices ranging from $3,300 to $6,000 for a premium package that will feed a family of four for a year. A Costco rep tells Today the chain has sold such items for about a decade, but it's making headlines now because of the Free Press article. Walmart has similar offerings, as do Amazon and retailers specializing in long-term food storage. It's not clear how many people are stocking up on such kits (Costco, for one, isn't revealing sales numbers), but a consultant tells the Free Press that, with natural disasters, terrorism, and fears of nuclear war, there's likely a solid customer base who are at least thinking about it. Who are those consumers? "Working people who fear for their lives," he says. (If the world survives the dire forecasts, you can always do what this guy did with his stockpile.)

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Survival Food and Emergency Food Being prepared for whatever comes means stocking up on emergency food. With a little foresight, you can pull together enough supplies to be ready for a natural disaster or any other unexpected event that keeps you from going to the store. Before building your emergency food supply kit, start keeping a record of what everyone in your family eats in a day. In addition to emergency survival food staples like rice, beans and canned or powdered milk, you'll find a wide variety of emergency foods, including freeze-dried survival foods, that will let you approximate your family's normal diet. For breakfast, you'll find scrambled egg mix, pancake mix, oatmeal and other hot cereals and more. You'll also find a wide variety of soups, chilis, fruits and vegetables, as well as pasta, rice and meat dishes in a wide range of flavors. Including a few treats, like hot cocoa and pudding, can help your family maintain morale when times are tough. At Walmart, you'll find a wide variety of emergency foods, survival foods, freeze-dried foods and other meal solutions, all at Every Day Low Prices. Save money. Live better. ||||| share tweet pin email Whether you live in a hurricane zone, or you're worried about nuclear bomb threats — or you just don’t want to go grocery shopping for an entire year — Costco’s got you covered. ED BETZ / AP Costo Wholesale The buy-in-bulk warehouse store sells a 1-year emergency food kit that comes with 6,200 servings of food. According to the product’s description, it can provide enough meals for 1,200 calories per day for one adult for a year and has a 25-year shelf life. From the brand Nutristore, a budget, shelf-stable food storage company, the kit features grains, dairy and freeze-dried and dehydrated fruits and vegetables. Items include cans of red wheat, instant rice, dehydrated apples, freeze-dried sweet corn, lentils, chicken and beef. There’s also sugar and salt because taste is important ... even during the apocalypse. costco.com Nutristore 1 Year Emergency Food Kit 6,200 Servings Customer reviews of the meal kit date back to two years ago with mixed feelings. One five-star review praised its reasonable price and decent assortment. Another gave it only one-star because some of the cans came damaged. But none of the reviews appear to mention how the food actually tastes — which is a good thing since it means no one has found themselves in a major disaster, yet. But one customer commented that it would have been nice if there was a recipe book that came along with the package. We’re not sure how much you’ll really be worried about cooking if the world is coming to an end, but we supposed a few recipes wouldn't hurt. A representative for Costco confirmed to TODAY Food that the superstore has been selling the kit for three years, but it's been brought into spotlight this weekend after The Detroit Free Press featured it in the article, “Seeking to Survive a Disaster?” in light of recent tragic events like Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria which decimated parts of Texas, Florida, Puerto Rico and the Caribbean. "The idea came about making a great starter kit for a family who wanted to prepare for any kind of disaster,” a representative from Costco told the paper. “This is a great value with shipping included." The company declined to give out specific sales data for the product, but there must be a demand out there considering they also sell an even bigger kit: Nutristore’s premium emergency food kit retails for$6,000. "We have had the emergency food category for over 10 years," the Costco rep added to TODAY. "This [the $1,000 kit] is one of our top selling items right now." Of course, if you’re more of a minimalist when it comes to disaster preparedness, they’ve got smaller kits available, too. A one-month supply, aptly called The ARK 390 by Chef’s Banquet, is full of just-add-water culinary treats such as Cheddar Cheese Grits with Green Chilies, Rice & Orzo Pilaf and Creamy Mashed Potatoes. And it retails for just $99. ||||| Screenshot from Costco.com of Nutristore 1 Year Emergency Food Kit with 6,200 Servings for $999. (Photo: Costco.com) Capitalists have a solution to everything, even surviving the end of the world. Take Costco’s 1-year emergency food kit for $999.99, including shipping. It is made up of nearly 100 cans — 1-gallon each and making 6,200 servings of food — of wheat, rice, granola, apples, bananas, peaches, strawberries, potatoes, carrots beans, onions, corn, beef, chicken, milk, sugar and salt. The cans, the company said, will last up to 25 years. The Issaquah, Wash.-based warehouse club declined to offer much more about the items — or on how many people are buying the kit. "We don't normally give out sales data," the company said in an e-mail to the Free Press. "The idea came about making a great starter kit for a family who wanted to prepare for any kind of disaster. This is a great value with shipping included." Obviously, the disaster would have to be catastrophic for someone to need that much food. Dickerson: Duck and cover drills to survive a nuclear attack -- What were they thinking? The end is nigh Entrepreneurs have long found ways to profit from people’s fears, especially when they involve an apocalyptic scenario: being wiped out by a massive hurricane, getting caught in clashes among groups with fanatical beliefs and facing fallout from a nuclear war. How much of a market is there for these emergency kits? “Right now, it’s too small of a trend to track,” said Jeff Gelski, associate editor of Food Business News in Kansas City who has been writing about the food industry for more than a decade. “But, if Costco’s in it, it might be something that’s about to pop.” There are smaller and larger emergency food kits for sale, too. In addition to a variety of online sellers, Walmart offers emergency food storage kits with enough food for two days, three days, a month, and a year that sell for $25.88, $58.99, $134.99, and 1,290.99, respectively. Costco is offering even bigger food kits, too, for $3,999.99 and $5,999.99. The customers are "working people who fear for their lives," said Ken Dalto, a retail expert with Kenneth J. Dalto in Bingham Farms. He added that it's too soon to know how well these emergency kits are selling, but that with a nation of 320 million, there are plenty of people who are nervous about the future. A Costco store in North Miami Beach, Fla. (Photo: Wilfredo Lee, AP) "You have hurricanes. You saw what that did," he said, referring to Hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, which battered Texas, Louisiana, Florida and Puerto Rico. "You add to that climate change, and terrorism, and the idea of nuclear war, which is very much in the news with North Korea, and they can develop a missile that might be able to hit California — even Seattle.” In August, a month after North Korea tested an intercontinental ballistic missile, three-quarters of Americans said that North Korea's nuclear program is a critical threat facing the U.S., according to a Chicago Council on Global Affairs survey. Last year, the survey showed 60% of Americans feared North Korea. It was 55% in 2015. Dalto said people feel they can't prevent these disasters, so they do what they can: They shop. Read more: Peace of mind Profiting from things that make people feel more secure is not new. Remember businesses that marketed backyard bomb shelters during the Cold War? Or all the computer software upgrades aimed at preventing the end of the world in a Y2K meltdown at the turn of the millennium? "There's always that flip side that during tragedy, there's someone that's going to come out on top," said Adam Lovett, a salesman at Harry's Army Surplus in Dearborn. "You're in the business of: The worse it gets, the more you make. It's sad, but true." How scared are folks now? "There's a lot of people coming in now who are quite worried," he said, adding that most of them seem to be most troubled by political discord. "It's not at panic status or anything like that, but there are heightened concerns." Mostly, he said, people are seeking to buy fire-starters, such as flint and steel strikers or waterproof matches; water purifiers, such as filters and chemical tablets, and simple outdoor shelters such as tents and lean-to devices. Some people, he added, are even seeking survival kits in backpacks in case they have to leave their homes a hurry. Those run less than $100. Activists wearing masks to look like President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un pose next to a Styrofoam effigy of a nuclear bomb in front of the American embassy on Sept.13, 2017 in Berlin, Germany. (Photo: Omer Messinger, Getty Images) Still, academics say no matter how convincing businesses are, sometimes it makes sense to invest more in information than in stuff. "There's a new fear all the time," said Brian Bierley, director of media relations at Oakland University. "The people in Florida are living off the hurricane fear, and if they don't get hit, there's always something. On Twitter, there's a new threat every day." To help address one of those fears, OU, in cooperation with three other educational institutions, is holding a student and community forum, Nukes and Your Future, from 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, in Room 1050 of the Human Health Building. The free forum, which is open to the public, is set to include professors from OU, the University of Detroit-Mercy, Wayne State University and Henry Ford College and will examine the threats of nuclear weapons. "Instead of buying a backyard bunker, we're talking through the realities," Bierley said. "Instead of buying these meals ready to eat that can be put in storage for 25 years, I'd arm myself with education and knowledge." Contact Frank Witsil: 248-351-3690 or [email protected] Read or Share this story: http://on.freep.com/2yBSIrX ||||| Standard shipping via common carrier is included in the quoted price. Curbside delivery *, signature required. Carrier will call to set up a delivery time. Extraordinary delivery requirements may necessitate an additional fee to the carrier.*Delivery is available to Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico. An additional shipping and handling fee will be applied at check out and additional transit time will be required. Locations outside of a regular delivery area may be restricted. Click Here to view restricted areas. To inquire about delivery to these areas, please contact customer service Costco.com products can be returned to any of our more than 700 Costco warehouses worldwide. SHOP CONFIDENTLY We are committed to offering the best value to our members, with a risk-free 100% satisfaction guarantee on both your membership and merchandise. If you have questions about your membership or products you've purchased at Costco, please visit the membership counter at your local Costco or Contact Customer Service. View Costco's Return Policy For information or a written copy of the manufacturer's warranty, please contact us at: [email protected]. Costco Concierge Services | Technical Support Free technical support exclusive to Costco members for select electronics and consumer goods. How To Return Costco.com Orders

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

A luxury steamship that went to the bottom of the Atlantic in 1838 with half its affluent passengers may have been found more than 40 miles off the coast of North Carolina. An underwater exploration venture based out of Florida said it has found enough evidence to convince backers they’ve found the wreck of the Pulaski sitting under 100 feet of water. That evidence includes Spanish and U.S. silver coins that date up until the time of the wreck, along with wreckage that closely parallels survivors’ stories of a starboard boiler explosion that sank the ship in 45 minutes. To say the discovery is important is an understatement, historians said. SIGN UP Help us deliver journalism that makes a difference in our community. Our journalism takes a lot of time, effort, and hard work to produce. If you read and enjoy our journalism, please consider subscribing today. SUBSCRIBE TODAY The disappearance of the Pulaski remains one of the nation’s most dramatic and deadly maritime disasters, partly because half of the people on board died, but also because its passengers included some of the most prominent families in the Southeast. Among those lost was New York congressman William B. Rochester and six members of the Lamar family, then among the richest families in the Southeast. The Pulaski explodes, from Page 170 of an 1848 book by Charles Ellms. North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources The ship was bound for Baltimore from Savannah when it exploded around 11 p.m. on June 13, 1838. One hundred of the roughly 200 people on board died, including many who were scalded to death by steam. Newspaper accounts tell dramatic stories of “panicky passengers in their night clothes, seeking refuge on the promenade deck as the bow rose out of the water and ripped apart.” By one account, the scene at 3 a.m. was of an ocean filled with “the wailing of the hopeless beings who were floating in every direction, upon pieces of the wreck.” Among the survivors was the well-reported case of an heiress and a New Orleans businessman who got engaged as they floated along on a raft. Writers have called the disaster story “the Titanic of its time.” “Finding the Pulaski is a big deal,” said Dr. Joseph Schwarzer, director of the North Carolina Maritime Museums. “Saying something was the ‘Titanic of its time’ is an overworked metaphor, since the Titanic was among the greatest maritime disasters in humankind. … But I will say it’s one of the more significant disasters in American maritime history. It was the ‘Titanic of its time’ in terms of the people who were on it. It was a who’s who of the colonial South, and the loss of life was significant. Entire families were lost.” SHARE COPY LINK The site of the shipwreck of the Condor, a blockade runner sunk in the Atlantic near Ft. Fisher, N.C. is slated to become a historic dive park. Schwarzer has been in contact with organizers of the recovery and is keeping an open mind that they may have found the Pulaski. He said proof positive would include finding the ship’s bell (which would have the name etched in it) or some numbers on the copper plating of the boilers, which could be traced to the maker. Blue Water Ventures International said divers have yet to find either. However, Keith Webb of Blue Water Ventures is convinced he’s in the right spot and will find the necessary proof historians seek over the next two years. He expects the survey area to expand during that time, from the size of half a football field to a few miles in each direction. Blue Water Ventures is partnering with Endurance Exploration Group on the project. “We haven’t found a saucer or cup that says ‘Pulaski’ on it. (But) two variables would lead you to believe it’s the Pulaski,” Webb said. “All coins we are finding are from the time up until the wreck, and we’ve found 25 specimens. And then there are the boilers themselves. Survivors say one of the boilers just blew apart and the other split up the side. And we have located those in that state. In my mind, there is no doubt this is the wreck of the Pulaski. A lot of history is going to be coming off this vessel.” A filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission described the discoveries made so far as “passenger valuables.” The coins have included silver Spanish and American pieces, as well as a Mexican peso the size of a half dollar. Webb said other discoveries include an encrusted men’s stainless steel straight razor, a candlestick holder, and a turkey platter big enough to hold a 25-pound turkey. “With not a single scratch on it,” Webb said. This is believed to be part of the boiler system on the Pulaski. The boilers exploded after some experts believe the ship may have pushed itself to its limits in a race to reach Baltimore ahead of its competition. Blue Water Ventures International He does not expect to find human remains on the wreck after 180 years. The wreckage sits in 58-degree waters and is “dangerously close to the Gulf Stream,” Webb said. Visibility in the area is 70 to 90 feet. However, what divers see does not resemble a ship, Webb said. “It’s a 30-foot by 60-foot pile of copper, from the boilers to the copper walls that surrounded the boilers. They are lapped onto each other. We’ve got bolts, rivets, brass fittings and lots of 5-inch-thick fire bricks, which would have been on the floor. There’s no wood left and nothing of the structure.” Endurance Exploration owns the wreck site, having filed an admiralty claim in federal court. That means it has legal right to salvage the spot and owns whatever is recovered. Blue Water Ventures was brought on board because it specializes in recovering historical artifacts. It will get a percentage of the recovery, Webb said. Representatives from Blue Water Ventures and Endurance Group reached out to the North Carolina Maritime Museum to see if it would take donated items from the wreckage for its historical displays. Schwarzer said he’d love such artifacts – if the wreck is authenticated to be the Pulaski. Travelers of the era were apt to take large sums of money with them, and folklore has it that some of the passengers lost their entire fortune when the ship went down. Valuable coins, jewelry and a purser’s safe are among the valuables the divers expect to find. Some of the coins found so far date back to the early 1700s. Webb said the discoveries could help “tell the history of the American coin.” Schwarzer said he’s also hoping the expeditions will “help fill out the story of the Pulaski.” That could including solving the mystery of why the boilers exploded. The Pulaski was a early steamship, built in a period of experimentation, and explosions were not uncommon. Competition was so fierce at the time that steamships practically raced to their destinations, hoping to best the arrival times of competitors. It’s entirely possible that forensics done by Blue Water Ventures will reveal cracks in the boiler walls proving the ship had pushed itself to its limits, causing the boilers to explode. As for the ship’s bell, Webb believes the violent nature of the explosion means it could be anywhere on the bottom. “Only time will tell, as we move from the main copper pile into the debris field,” he says. ||||| JACKSONVILLE, FL, Jan. 25, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Joint venture partners , Inc. (OTCPK: BWVI) and Endurance Exploration Group, Inc. (OTCQB: EXPL) are pleased to announce that the crew of the Blue Water Rose has put their first gold coins and additional silver coins on the decks! The coins were recovered from a steamship wreck believed to be the steamship Pulaski which sank June 14, 1838. BWVI Marine Archaeologist, James Sinclair, accompanied the crew and dove the site earlier this month. Mr. Sinclair, MA, states, "The fact that even in this highly damaged area the crew of the Blue Water Rose are making recoveries of coins is very telling. This evidence supports the reports at the time of her sinking that valuables, including gold and silver, were onboard the Pulaski when she sank almost 180 years ago. Coins from these dates are extremely valuable in the collector marketplace." Watch video of the coins as they are being found by one of the BWVI diver, click on this link; https://player.vimeo.com/video/252700247 The main area of the wreck lies under approximately two to three feet of sand overburden. Blue Water Rose divers noticed a small depression in the sand, and used a metal detector at close range to scan the area. After hand fanning the sand one gold coin was discovered. With further fanning a total of 14 gold coins and 24 silver coins of various origin and dates was recovered. All coins were brought to the deck for immediate conservation. Also recovered was a fascinating, small brass key and ceramic ware. Blue Water divers and Endurance personnel have been on the wreck site for approximately two months, and continue to work as weather permits. About , Inc.: The Company is engaged in the business of conducting archaeologically-sensitive recoveries of cargo and artifacts from shipwrecks. Its operations to date have focused on shallow water search and recovery projects in less than 150 feet of water. The Company is now expanding its focus to include deep-water salvage of historic and modern-day shipwrecks. For more information go to http://www.bwvint.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/BlueWaterVenturesInternational. About Endurance Exploration Group, Inc.: Endurance Exploration Group, Inc. specializes in historic shipwreck research, subsea search, survey and recovery of lost ship containing valuable cargoes. Over the last 5 years, Endurance has developed a research database of over 1,400 ships that are known to be lost with valuable cargoes in the world oceans. For more information go to www.eexpl.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/EnduranceExplorationGroup. Forward Looking Statements: This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Such forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to: ability to further strengthen our balance sheet, ability to raise funding for continued operations, ability to successfully and profitably locate additional wrecks and cargo, ability to establish ownership, and other factors. Therefore, actual results may differ materially from those indicated or implied by such forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any obligation to publicly update such statements. Contact: , Inc. Keith Webb 904-215-7601 [email protected] Endurance Exploration Group, Inc. Micah Eldred 727-533-5555 [email protected] ||||| JACKSONVILLE, FL, Jan. 03, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Blue Water Ventures International (OTC PINK: BWVI), and Endurance Exploration Group (OTCQB: EXPL) are pleased to announce they have begun recovery of coins and other artifacts from a shipwreck site believed to be the Pulaski, a paddlewheel steamship that sank in the waters off North Carolina June 18, 1838. The coins being found by the operations dive team are dated no later than 1836 and consist of early United States silver issues AND Spanish silver coins from the late 1700’s. These recoveries provide further evidence that will lead to the identity of this shipwreck. “Discovery of these coins and other artifacts validate the methodology of our recovery plan. We are looking forward to these next months, as our team continues to recover this shipwreck, bringing pieces of our past back to the present,” states Keith Webb, President of Blue Water Ventures International. The companies are currently working on preparations to expand field operations in the 1st and 2nd quarter of 2018. Dive operations on the wreck site are ongoing and will continue throughout the winter months, weather permitting. For further information about Blue Water Ventures International (OTC PINK: BWVI ) please visit our website at http://www.bwvint.com/ and check out a brief video of our first recoveries at https://vimeo.com/249385106 About Blue Water Ventures International, Inc.: The Company is engaged in the business of conducting archaeologically-sensitive recoveries of cargo and artifacts from shipwrecks. Its operations to date have focused on shallow water search and recovery projects in less than 150 feet of water. The Company is now expanding its focus to include deep-water salvage of historic and modern-day shipwrecks. For more information go to http://www.bwvint.com About Endurance Exploration Group, Inc.: Endurance Exploration Group, Inc. specializes in historic shipwreck research, subsea search, survey and recovery of lost ship containing valuable cargoes. Over the last 5 years, Endurance has developed a research database of over 1,400 ships that are known to be lost with valuable cargoes in the world oceans. For more information go to www.eexpl.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/EnduranceExplorationGroup. Forward Looking Statements: This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Such forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to: ability to further strengthen our balance sheet, ability to raise funding for continued operations, ability to successfully and profitably locate additional wrecks and cargo, ability to establish ownership, and other factors. Therefore, actual results may differ materially from those indicated or implied by such forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any obligation to publicly update such statements. Contact: Blue Water Ventures International, Inc. Keith Webb 904-215-7601 [email protected] Micah Eldred Endurance Exploration Group 727-533-5555 [email protected]

– It was "the Titanic of its time." A luxury steamboat carrying some of the wealthiest and most high-profile families in the Southeast exploded while traveling from Savannah, Ga., to Baltimore, Md. on June 13, 1838. Half of the roughly 200 people aboard the Pulaski died—including whole families and a US congressman from New York, reports the Charlotte Observer. Divers now believe they've found the 180-year-old wreck site, says Keith Webb of Blue Water Ventures. It's partnering with Endurance Exploration—which the Tampa Bay Business Journal reports is also trying to search for a wreck in the Indian Ocean—and says the Pulaski lies beneath 115 feet of water 40 miles off the coast of North Carolina. There's not a trace of wood left. But a 30-foot by 60-foot debris pile includes two copper boilers, one blown apart, the other split. That’s just how survivors described the state of the Pulaski's boilers after the explosion, which reportedly caused the boat to sink in 45 minutes, Webb says. "In my mind, there is no doubt this is the wreck of the Pulaski." In addition to Spanish and US silver coins dated before the Pulaski's demise, they've found a straight razor, brass key, candlestick holder, and turkey platter. As "it's one of the more significant disasters in American maritime history," Joseph Schwarzer of the North Carolina Maritime Museums says "finding the Pulaski is a big deal." But he would like to see the ship's bell, boiler plate numbers, or some other definitive evidence. Webb hopes to find it. Per a press release, dives at the site will continue through the winter if the weather allows. (The last American slave ship might also be found.)

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.A luxury steamship that went to the bottom of the Atlantic in 1838 with half its affluent passengers may have been found more than 40 miles off the coast of North Carolina. An underwater exploration venture based out of Florida said it has found enough evidence to convince backers they’ve found the wreck of the Pulaski sitting under 100 feet of water. That evidence includes Spanish and U.S. silver coins that date up until the time of the wreck, along with wreckage that closely parallels survivors’ stories of a starboard boiler explosion that sank the ship in 45 minutes. To say the discovery is important is an understatement, historians said. SIGN UP Help us deliver journalism that makes a difference in our community. Our journalism takes a lot of time, effort, and hard work to produce. If you read and enjoy our journalism, please consider subscribing today. SUBSCRIBE TODAY The disappearance of the Pulaski remains one of the nation’s most dramatic and deadly maritime disasters, partly because half of the people on board died, but also because its passengers included some of the most prominent families in the Southeast. Among those lost was New York congressman William B. Rochester and six members of the Lamar family, then among the richest families in the Southeast. The Pulaski explodes, from Page 170 of an 1848 book by Charles Ellms. North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources The ship was bound for Baltimore from Savannah when it exploded around 11 p.m. on June 13, 1838. One hundred of the roughly 200 people on board died, including many who were scalded to death by steam. Newspaper accounts tell dramatic stories of “panicky passengers in their night clothes, seeking refuge on the promenade deck as the bow rose out of the water and ripped apart.” By one account, the scene at 3 a.m. was of an ocean filled with “the wailing of the hopeless beings who were floating in every direction, upon pieces of the wreck.” Among the survivors was the well-reported case of an heiress and a New Orleans businessman who got engaged as they floated along on a raft. Writers have called the disaster story “the Titanic of its time.” “Finding the Pulaski is a big deal,” said Dr. Joseph Schwarzer, director of the North Carolina Maritime Museums. “Saying something was the ‘Titanic of its time’ is an overworked metaphor, since the Titanic was among the greatest maritime disasters in humankind. … But I will say it’s one of the more significant disasters in American maritime history. It was the ‘Titanic of its time’ in terms of the people who were on it. It was a who’s who of the colonial South, and the loss of life was significant. Entire families were lost.” SHARE COPY LINK The site of the shipwreck of the Condor, a blockade runner sunk in the Atlantic near Ft. Fisher, N.C. is slated to become a historic dive park. Schwarzer has been in contact with organizers of the recovery and is keeping an open mind that they may have found the Pulaski. He said proof positive would include finding the ship’s bell (which would have the name etched in it) or some numbers on the copper plating of the boilers, which could be traced to the maker. Blue Water Ventures International said divers have yet to find either. However, Keith Webb of Blue Water Ventures is convinced he’s in the right spot and will find the necessary proof historians seek over the next two years. He expects the survey area to expand during that time, from the size of half a football field to a few miles in each direction. Blue Water Ventures is partnering with Endurance Exploration Group on the project. “We haven’t found a saucer or cup that says ‘Pulaski’ on it. (But) two variables would lead you to believe it’s the Pulaski,” Webb said. “All coins we are finding are from the time up until the wreck, and we’ve found 25 specimens. And then there are the boilers themselves. Survivors say one of the boilers just blew apart and the other split up the side. And we have located those in that state. In my mind, there is no doubt this is the wreck of the Pulaski. A lot of history is going to be coming off this vessel.” A filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission described the discoveries made so far as “passenger valuables.” The coins have included silver Spanish and American pieces, as well as a Mexican peso the size of a half dollar. Webb said other discoveries include an encrusted men’s stainless steel straight razor, a candlestick holder, and a turkey platter big enough to hold a 25-pound turkey. “With not a single scratch on it,” Webb said. This is believed to be part of the boiler system on the Pulaski. The boilers exploded after some experts believe the ship may have pushed itself to its limits in a race to reach Baltimore ahead of its competition. Blue Water Ventures International He does not expect to find human remains on the wreck after 180 years. The wreckage sits in 58-degree waters and is “dangerously close to the Gulf Stream,” Webb said. Visibility in the area is 70 to 90 feet. However, what divers see does not resemble a ship, Webb said. “It’s a 30-foot by 60-foot pile of copper, from the boilers to the copper walls that surrounded the boilers. They are lapped onto each other. We’ve got bolts, rivets, brass fittings and lots of 5-inch-thick fire bricks, which would have been on the floor. There’s no wood left and nothing of the structure.” Endurance Exploration owns the wreck site, having filed an admiralty claim in federal court. That means it has legal right to salvage the spot and owns whatever is recovered. Blue Water Ventures was brought on board because it specializes in recovering historical artifacts. It will get a percentage of the recovery, Webb said. Representatives from Blue Water Ventures and Endurance Group reached out to the North Carolina Maritime Museum to see if it would take donated items from the wreckage for its historical displays. Schwarzer said he’d love such artifacts – if the wreck is authenticated to be the Pulaski. Travelers of the era were apt to take large sums of money with them, and folklore has it that some of the passengers lost their entire fortune when the ship went down. Valuable coins, jewelry and a purser’s safe are among the valuables the divers expect to find. Some of the coins found so far date back to the early 1700s. Webb said the discoveries could help “tell the history of the American coin.” Schwarzer said he’s also hoping the expeditions will “help fill out the story of the Pulaski.” That could including solving the mystery of why the boilers exploded. The Pulaski was a early steamship, built in a period of experimentation, and explosions were not uncommon. Competition was so fierce at the time that steamships practically raced to their destinations, hoping to best the arrival times of competitors. It’s entirely possible that forensics done by Blue Water Ventures will reveal cracks in the boiler walls proving the ship had pushed itself to its limits, causing the boilers to explode. As for the ship’s bell, Webb believes the violent nature of the explosion means it could be anywhere on the bottom. “Only time will tell, as we move from the main copper pile into the debris field,” he says. ||||| JACKSONVILLE, FL, Jan. 25, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Joint venture partners , Inc. (OTCPK: BWVI) and Endurance Exploration Group, Inc. (OTCQB: EXPL) are pleased to announce that the crew of the Blue Water Rose has put their first gold coins and additional silver coins on the decks! The coins were recovered from a steamship wreck believed to be the steamship Pulaski which sank June 14, 1838. BWVI Marine Archaeologist, James Sinclair, accompanied the crew and dove the site earlier this month. Mr. Sinclair, MA, states, "The fact that even in this highly damaged area the crew of the Blue Water Rose are making recoveries of coins is very telling. This evidence supports the reports at the time of her sinking that valuables, including gold and silver, were onboard the Pulaski when she sank almost 180 years ago. Coins from these dates are extremely valuable in the collector marketplace." Watch video of the coins as they are being found by one of the BWVI diver, click on this link; https://player.vimeo.com/video/252700247 The main area of the wreck lies under approximately two to three feet of sand overburden. Blue Water Rose divers noticed a small depression in the sand, and used a metal detector at close range to scan the area. After hand fanning the sand one gold coin was discovered. With further fanning a total of 14 gold coins and 24 silver coins of various origin and dates was recovered. All coins were brought to the deck for immediate conservation. Also recovered was a fascinating, small brass key and ceramic ware. Blue Water divers and Endurance personnel have been on the wreck site for approximately two months, and continue to work as weather permits. About , Inc.: The Company is engaged in the business of conducting archaeologically-sensitive recoveries of cargo and artifacts from shipwrecks. Its operations to date have focused on shallow water search and recovery projects in less than 150 feet of water. The Company is now expanding its focus to include deep-water salvage of historic and modern-day shipwrecks. For more information go to http://www.bwvint.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/BlueWaterVenturesInternational. About Endurance Exploration Group, Inc.: Endurance Exploration Group, Inc. specializes in historic shipwreck research, subsea search, survey and recovery of lost ship containing valuable cargoes. Over the last 5 years, Endurance has developed a research database of over 1,400 ships that are known to be lost with valuable cargoes in the world oceans. For more information go to www.eexpl.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/EnduranceExplorationGroup. Forward Looking Statements: This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Such forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to: ability to further strengthen our balance sheet, ability to raise funding for continued operations, ability to successfully and profitably locate additional wrecks and cargo, ability to establish ownership, and other factors. Therefore, actual results may differ materially from those indicated or implied by such forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any obligation to publicly update such statements. Contact: , Inc. Keith Webb 904-215-7601 [email protected] Endurance Exploration Group, Inc. Micah Eldred 727-533-5555 [email protected] ||||| JACKSONVILLE, FL, Jan. 03, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Blue Water Ventures International (OTC PINK: BWVI), and Endurance Exploration Group (OTCQB: EXPL) are pleased to announce they have begun recovery of coins and other artifacts from a shipwreck site believed to be the Pulaski, a paddlewheel steamship that sank in the waters off North Carolina June 18, 1838. The coins being found by the operations dive team are dated no later than 1836 and consist of early United States silver issues AND Spanish silver coins from the late 1700’s. These recoveries provide further evidence that will lead to the identity of this shipwreck. “Discovery of these coins and other artifacts validate the methodology of our recovery plan. We are looking forward to these next months, as our team continues to recover this shipwreck, bringing pieces of our past back to the present,” states Keith Webb, President of Blue Water Ventures International. The companies are currently working on preparations to expand field operations in the 1st and 2nd quarter of 2018. Dive operations on the wreck site are ongoing and will continue throughout the winter months, weather permitting. For further information about Blue Water Ventures International (OTC PINK: BWVI ) please visit our website at http://www.bwvint.com/ and check out a brief video of our first recoveries at https://vimeo.com/249385106 About Blue Water Ventures International, Inc.: The Company is engaged in the business of conducting archaeologically-sensitive recoveries of cargo and artifacts from shipwrecks. Its operations to date have focused on shallow water search and recovery projects in less than 150 feet of water. The Company is now expanding its focus to include deep-water salvage of historic and modern-day shipwrecks. For more information go to http://www.bwvint.com About Endurance Exploration Group, Inc.: Endurance Exploration Group, Inc. specializes in historic shipwreck research, subsea search, survey and recovery of lost ship containing valuable cargoes. Over the last 5 years, Endurance has developed a research database of over 1,400 ships that are known to be lost with valuable cargoes in the world oceans. For more information go to www.eexpl.com or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/EnduranceExplorationGroup. Forward Looking Statements: This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Such forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to: ability to further strengthen our balance sheet, ability to raise funding for continued operations, ability to successfully and profitably locate additional wrecks and cargo, ability to establish ownership, and other factors. Therefore, actual results may differ materially from those indicated or implied by such forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, the Company disclaims any obligation to publicly update such statements. Contact: Blue Water Ventures International, Inc. Keith Webb 904-215-7601 [email protected] Micah Eldred Endurance Exploration Group 727-533-5555 [email protected]

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Nothing says "I've resigned myself to all the dreary bits of adulthood; never again will I gurgle with childish joy at some delightful sight in nature; there is no such thing as magic" quite as clearly as the decision to make oneself a LinkedIn. Advertisement Making a LinkedIn is a sad first step towards identifying oneself as a "young professional"; making a LinkedIn means realizing that you are never going to be a pop star or a very famous actor or, at the very least, someone who wears fashion culottes and lives in a very nice apartment despite never seeming to be employed. And now, the company's taken a step to limit the tender glimmer of childhood even more: they're opening LinkedIn to 14-year-olds in America and 13-year-olds in the rest of the world. According to a post on their blog: Advertisement I knew that hidden in millions of member profiles were powerful insights about the career outcomes of educations from universities around the world. If harnessed, these insights could provide incredible value for students — helping them explore possible futures and build a support network to help them succeed on campus and beyond... I’m delighted to announce the launch of University Pages on LinkedIn — one cornerstone of our strategy to help students at every critical milestone from campus to fulfilling, successful careers. University Pages will allow students to Internet-stalk universities in an attempt to glean which will lead to the most fulfilling future. A few suggestions offered on the blog: check out universities online ("then, explore the careers of graduates to see which schools will get you to your goal")! Build your network! Explore the careers of philosophy or physics graduates ("you might be surprised at the diverse professional paths they’ve taken")! While it's nice to equip young children with the proper tools for forging their own futures — and tweens are very good at Internet-stalking, so this is pretty user-friendly — the idea of a 14-year-old networking with a variety of adults who have followed "diverse professional paths" makes me want to set up a shrine to the lost Spirit of Youth. Upon it, I will place a lanyard, a Frisbee, and like 12 troll dolls. RIP adolescence. I miss when the only thing laying siege upon you was sexting. ||||| What’s scarier than a 14-year-old girl choosing her sexiest Facebook profile pic? Maybe a 14-year-old girl inflating her résumé on her new LinkedIn profile. Childhood used to be a time of self-exploration, but the Internet is pushing kids to define themselves early and put that facade on display. This dynamic gained momentum today as LinkedIn opened to U.S. teenagers 14 and up, with kids age 13 and older allowed on the platform in some countries. The idea is to let them get a head start on building a professional network, as well as scope out the new university pages LinkedIn launched today. These show the companies and the fields that a college’s graduates get hired in to help young students find the right fit. In terms of security and privacy, LinkedIn’s doing everything it can to keep kids physically safe: They’re hidden in search results; don’t show their full last names, and can’t share much publicly. But what about the mental, developmental and emotional impact of plotting your career just as you hit puberty? It used to be enough to get good grades and a summer job. Soon that could leave kids looking like slackers. Where are your internships? What student club did you start? Have you chosen between robotics and computer science? It’s never too early to search for your passion. Kids should try things out. Dabble in different areas, take some art classes, learn an instrument, or try some temp work at Mom’s office. I wish I’d given journalism a shot when I was younger. I didn’t discover how much I enjoyed it until after I graduated from college. Maybe LinkedIn prodding me to get a column in the Brighton High School Trapezoid or a mailroom job at the local paper would have catalyzed my career. The problem isn’t teens doing things that could fill out their LinkedIn profile. It’s them choosing what to try after judging themselves through the hypothetical eyes of recruiters and college admissions officers lurking the web. That could pressure them into making decisions based on what others want, rather than what excites them — a social network-propelled Observer Effect. “I love painting but should probably go to coding camp because college recruiters will like it.” “Political science is cool but economics gets people better jobs.” These thoughts could derail the next Picasso or Obama. Kids had enough to feel subconscious about without a professional network presence. For instance, their bodies. And now their Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest profiles. They’ll have their whole lives to feel overly proud or utterly insignificant because of their jobs. People are fulfilled and often contribute more to the world when they do what they love. That’s a process filled with lots of trial and error. But boxing up life into a profile could discourage teens from taking the scenic route to a career path. Parents should be counteracting this by telling their children they’ll support whatever makes them happy. Too often they do the opposite, pressuring them to do what they’re best at, what’s lucrative, and what’s traditionally respected. That’s the real root of the problem, not technology, but tech can exacerbate it. And it’s not just LinkedIn. Facebook increasingly has professional significance, and kids already need to watch out for posting inappropriate content to social media. Lots of services allow young users in hopes of locking them in as their influence and discretionary income grows. LinkedIn could get left behind if it stayed adults-only. And it’s not just self-serving.There’s no denying that LinkedIn could benefit kids by getting them to think about their careers in the first place. Most don’t, and many end up underemployed or with generic jobs they hate. Perhaps the same “everyone is doing it” temptation of social networks could get teens on LinkedIn’s professional one. Some families don’t provide any job guidance at home, and with still-high unemployment in the US and abroad, there are plenty of kids who can use all the help they can get. And for privileged kids with grand ambitions, LinkedIn could offer another leg-up. It might help them connect with peers with similar interests, find mentors, or ask adults for opportunities. LinkedIn’s university pages may bring more transparency to how well different schools prepare students for their future. Unfortunately, if parents don’t step up, it might force that future on some kids before they’ve discovered who they are. [Image Credits: Mustachifier, The Blaze] ||||| LinkedIn is opening its website to teenagers over 13 with a new feature called University Pages that lets students connect with universities. Brian Fitzgerald discusses on digits. Photo: AP. For LinkedIn Corp., the next frontier for the professional-networking site is high school. The social network said Monday it is lowering the minimum age of its membership to 14 years old in the U.S. next month to try to become a go-to resource for college-bound teenagers. LinkedIn is also offering a new feature, "University Pages," to encourage colleges to build out their profiles on LinkedIn, in the same way that companies currently do. By changing its minimum age—which had been 18—the Silicon Valley company is following in the footsteps of Facebook Inc., which initially targeted college students but later expanded to high-school students and has been open to users 13 and older since 2006. LinkedIn's move isn't expected to immediately boost profits, but it could ensure young users stay on the site and eventually purchase premium features, while giving recruiters more reason to buy services. The effort also raises new challenges, such as offering greater privacy protections for younger users. LinkedIn is trying to find new ways to power its growth and replicate its success with college students, its fastest-growing age group. During the 2012 academic year, for instance, the number of college students with accounts on the service more than doubled, the company says. LinkedIn said it has roughly 30 million college students and recent graduates on the site, representing about 13% of the network's total user base. Most of its college-age users come from the U.S., India, Brazil, the U.K. and Canada. "Getting younger people accustomed to the capabilities of LinkedIn is important," said Ken Sena, an analyst for Evercore Partners. "It's about creating a knee-jerk reaction, so students will turn to LinkedIn whenever they have a question that is career-oriented." With University Pages, users—especially prospective and current students—can follow updates from colleges, such as campus news or information about activities, and discover and connect with other students or alumni. Members will also be able to trace the careers of alumni, who selected particular majors, a potentially useful tool for students trying to decide which track to take. So far, about 200 schools have signed up. Still, LinkedIn says it is treading carefully as it opens its business to high-school students. If a new user indicates that he or she attends high school, that person's account will automatically have higher security settings, the company says. For example, if a high-school student submits a complaint, it gets bumped to the front of the cue and is handled by a special team. Further, these profiles cannot be viewed by third-party tools. LinkedIn is limiting advertising to this group, said Deep Nishar, LinkedIn's senior vice president of products and user experience. Although high-school students might see sitewide ads, advertisers cannot specifically target the under-18 demographic. Teens can be a tricky group for social networks, which can be affected by different laws in different countries. Facebook, for example, in Spain and South Korea has set a minimum age of 14 because of local laws instead of 13. LinkedIn picked 14 for the U.S. because that is the legal age to work, the company says, but set the age of 13 for many other countries. In markets where labor laws are stricter, like the Netherlands where the legal age to work is 16, LinkedIn has also adjusted its policy. The changes to the minimum age go into effect Sept. 12. Jeffrey Chester, who heads the Center for Digital Democracy, a consumer-advocacy group, said LinkedIn's controls are fairly strong. But he said it could still do more, such as preventing teens from changing their privacy settings. Teens, he said, need to be told explicitly what will happen if they water down the safeguards. "Companies have to go the extra mile in terms of transparency and control," he said. "They can't treat teens as little adults." —Brian R. Fitzgerald contributed to this article. A version of this article appeared August 20, 2013, on page B3 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: LinkedIn Drops Minimum Age to 14.

– Your LinkedIn feed could soon be full of such awesome networking connections as "paperboy" and "babysitter": The site is dropping its minimum age next month, and come Sept. 12, 14-year-olds will be able to sign up, the Wall Street Journal reports. Why 14? That's the legal age at which US kids can start working, and they're also presumably in high school at that age. LinkedIn is also adding "University Pages" in the hopes that colleges will fill out profiles similar to the company profiles that already exist on the social networking site; young teens could then connect to colleges in the same way adults (the minimum age for the site is currently 18) connect to potential employers. LinkedIn will, of course, put higher security settings on high school students' accounts. Even so, not everyone thinks this is a great idea: "What’s scarier than a 14-year-old girl choosing her sexiest Facebook profile pic? Maybe a 14-year-old girl inflating her résumé on her new LinkedIn profile," writes Josh Constine on TechCrunch. "Childhood used to be a time of self-exploration, but the Internet is pushing kids to define themselves early and put that facade on display." "Nothing says 'I've resigned myself to all the dreary bits of adulthood; never again will I gurgle with childish joy at some delightful sight in nature; there is no such thing as magic' quite as clearly as the decision to make oneself a LinkedIn," writes Callie Beusman on Jezebel. "RIP adolescence. I miss when the only thing laying siege upon you was sexting."

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Nothing says "I've resigned myself to all the dreary bits of adulthood; never again will I gurgle with childish joy at some delightful sight in nature; there is no such thing as magic" quite as clearly as the decision to make oneself a LinkedIn. Advertisement Making a LinkedIn is a sad first step towards identifying oneself as a "young professional"; making a LinkedIn means realizing that you are never going to be a pop star or a very famous actor or, at the very least, someone who wears fashion culottes and lives in a very nice apartment despite never seeming to be employed. And now, the company's taken a step to limit the tender glimmer of childhood even more: they're opening LinkedIn to 14-year-olds in America and 13-year-olds in the rest of the world. According to a post on their blog: Advertisement I knew that hidden in millions of member profiles were powerful insights about the career outcomes of educations from universities around the world. If harnessed, these insights could provide incredible value for students — helping them explore possible futures and build a support network to help them succeed on campus and beyond... I’m delighted to announce the launch of University Pages on LinkedIn — one cornerstone of our strategy to help students at every critical milestone from campus to fulfilling, successful careers. University Pages will allow students to Internet-stalk universities in an attempt to glean which will lead to the most fulfilling future. A few suggestions offered on the blog: check out universities online ("then, explore the careers of graduates to see which schools will get you to your goal")! Build your network! Explore the careers of philosophy or physics graduates ("you might be surprised at the diverse professional paths they’ve taken")! While it's nice to equip young children with the proper tools for forging their own futures — and tweens are very good at Internet-stalking, so this is pretty user-friendly — the idea of a 14-year-old networking with a variety of adults who have followed "diverse professional paths" makes me want to set up a shrine to the lost Spirit of Youth. Upon it, I will place a lanyard, a Frisbee, and like 12 troll dolls. RIP adolescence. I miss when the only thing laying siege upon you was sexting. ||||| What’s scarier than a 14-year-old girl choosing her sexiest Facebook profile pic? Maybe a 14-year-old girl inflating her résumé on her new LinkedIn profile. Childhood used to be a time of self-exploration, but the Internet is pushing kids to define themselves early and put that facade on display. This dynamic gained momentum today as LinkedIn opened to U.S. teenagers 14 and up, with kids age 13 and older allowed on the platform in some countries. The idea is to let them get a head start on building a professional network, as well as scope out the new university pages LinkedIn launched today. These show the companies and the fields that a college’s graduates get hired in to help young students find the right fit. In terms of security and privacy, LinkedIn’s doing everything it can to keep kids physically safe: They’re hidden in search results; don’t show their full last names, and can’t share much publicly. But what about the mental, developmental and emotional impact of plotting your career just as you hit puberty? It used to be enough to get good grades and a summer job. Soon that could leave kids looking like slackers. Where are your internships? What student club did you start? Have you chosen between robotics and computer science? It’s never too early to search for your passion. Kids should try things out. Dabble in different areas, take some art classes, learn an instrument, or try some temp work at Mom’s office. I wish I’d given journalism a shot when I was younger. I didn’t discover how much I enjoyed it until after I graduated from college. Maybe LinkedIn prodding me to get a column in the Brighton High School Trapezoid or a mailroom job at the local paper would have catalyzed my career. The problem isn’t teens doing things that could fill out their LinkedIn profile. It’s them choosing what to try after judging themselves through the hypothetical eyes of recruiters and college admissions officers lurking the web. That could pressure them into making decisions based on what others want, rather than what excites them — a social network-propelled Observer Effect. “I love painting but should probably go to coding camp because college recruiters will like it.” “Political science is cool but economics gets people better jobs.” These thoughts could derail the next Picasso or Obama. Kids had enough to feel subconscious about without a professional network presence. For instance, their bodies. And now their Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest profiles. They’ll have their whole lives to feel overly proud or utterly insignificant because of their jobs. People are fulfilled and often contribute more to the world when they do what they love. That’s a process filled with lots of trial and error. But boxing up life into a profile could discourage teens from taking the scenic route to a career path. Parents should be counteracting this by telling their children they’ll support whatever makes them happy. Too often they do the opposite, pressuring them to do what they’re best at, what’s lucrative, and what’s traditionally respected. That’s the real root of the problem, not technology, but tech can exacerbate it. And it’s not just LinkedIn. Facebook increasingly has professional significance, and kids already need to watch out for posting inappropriate content to social media. Lots of services allow young users in hopes of locking them in as their influence and discretionary income grows. LinkedIn could get left behind if it stayed adults-only. And it’s not just self-serving.There’s no denying that LinkedIn could benefit kids by getting them to think about their careers in the first place. Most don’t, and many end up underemployed or with generic jobs they hate. Perhaps the same “everyone is doing it” temptation of social networks could get teens on LinkedIn’s professional one. Some families don’t provide any job guidance at home, and with still-high unemployment in the US and abroad, there are plenty of kids who can use all the help they can get. And for privileged kids with grand ambitions, LinkedIn could offer another leg-up. It might help them connect with peers with similar interests, find mentors, or ask adults for opportunities. LinkedIn’s university pages may bring more transparency to how well different schools prepare students for their future. Unfortunately, if parents don’t step up, it might force that future on some kids before they’ve discovered who they are. [Image Credits: Mustachifier, The Blaze] ||||| LinkedIn is opening its website to teenagers over 13 with a new feature called University Pages that lets students connect with universities. Brian Fitzgerald discusses on digits. Photo: AP. For LinkedIn Corp., the next frontier for the professional-networking site is high school. The social network said Monday it is lowering the minimum age of its membership to 14 years old in the U.S. next month to try to become a go-to resource for college-bound teenagers. LinkedIn is also offering a new feature, "University Pages," to encourage colleges to build out their profiles on LinkedIn, in the same way that companies currently do. By changing its minimum age—which had been 18—the Silicon Valley company is following in the footsteps of Facebook Inc., which initially targeted college students but later expanded to high-school students and has been open to users 13 and older since 2006. LinkedIn's move isn't expected to immediately boost profits, but it could ensure young users stay on the site and eventually purchase premium features, while giving recruiters more reason to buy services. The effort also raises new challenges, such as offering greater privacy protections for younger users. LinkedIn is trying to find new ways to power its growth and replicate its success with college students, its fastest-growing age group. During the 2012 academic year, for instance, the number of college students with accounts on the service more than doubled, the company says. LinkedIn said it has roughly 30 million college students and recent graduates on the site, representing about 13% of the network's total user base. Most of its college-age users come from the U.S., India, Brazil, the U.K. and Canada. "Getting younger people accustomed to the capabilities of LinkedIn is important," said Ken Sena, an analyst for Evercore Partners. "It's about creating a knee-jerk reaction, so students will turn to LinkedIn whenever they have a question that is career-oriented." With University Pages, users—especially prospective and current students—can follow updates from colleges, such as campus news or information about activities, and discover and connect with other students or alumni. Members will also be able to trace the careers of alumni, who selected particular majors, a potentially useful tool for students trying to decide which track to take. So far, about 200 schools have signed up. Still, LinkedIn says it is treading carefully as it opens its business to high-school students. If a new user indicates that he or she attends high school, that person's account will automatically have higher security settings, the company says. For example, if a high-school student submits a complaint, it gets bumped to the front of the cue and is handled by a special team. Further, these profiles cannot be viewed by third-party tools. LinkedIn is limiting advertising to this group, said Deep Nishar, LinkedIn's senior vice president of products and user experience. Although high-school students might see sitewide ads, advertisers cannot specifically target the under-18 demographic. Teens can be a tricky group for social networks, which can be affected by different laws in different countries. Facebook, for example, in Spain and South Korea has set a minimum age of 14 because of local laws instead of 13. LinkedIn picked 14 for the U.S. because that is the legal age to work, the company says, but set the age of 13 for many other countries. In markets where labor laws are stricter, like the Netherlands where the legal age to work is 16, LinkedIn has also adjusted its policy. The changes to the minimum age go into effect Sept. 12. Jeffrey Chester, who heads the Center for Digital Democracy, a consumer-advocacy group, said LinkedIn's controls are fairly strong. But he said it could still do more, such as preventing teens from changing their privacy settings. Teens, he said, need to be told explicitly what will happen if they water down the safeguards. "Companies have to go the extra mile in terms of transparency and control," he said. "They can't treat teens as little adults." —Brian R. Fitzgerald contributed to this article. A version of this article appeared August 20, 2013, on page B3 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: LinkedIn Drops Minimum Age to 14.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) – The U.S. Marshal’s Service located the mother of a girl who died in a house fire in Youngstown early Monday morning and brought her to the Youngstown Police Department for an interview Monday afternoon. Mahoning County prosecutors believe that Robert Seman, Jr., 46, raped that same girl, who was one of three people who died in the fire. Monday morning, Mahoning County Assistant Prosecutor Jennifer McLaughlin asked for Seman’s trial, scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. Monday, to be delayed. Prosecutors said they had been looking for the girl’s mom for some time in advance of Seman’s trial but had been unable to locate her. Authorities have not charged the mother in connection with either the girl’s rape or Monday’s fire and have not said that she is a suspect in either incident. When questioned by a WKBN reporter Monday afternoon on her way in to the police department, the woman did not respond. Authorities said that they found the girl’s mom at a house in Canfield that is listed in court records as Seman’s house arrest address. Those same authorities told WKBN that they checked at that house earlier Monday and did not find the woman. McLaughlin also said that the Youngstown Police Department believes Seman tried to bribe a potential witness in the case. McLaughlin called Seman a “danger to the public.” Judge Maureen Sweeney revoked Seman’s bond and granted the request for the delay. McLaughlin said she, for one, is suspicious of the timing of the fire. “On literally the eve of trial, hours before this trial was supposed to begin, this victim dies in a fire,” McLaughlin said, adding that she thinks Seman should be a suspect in the fire. Mahoning County Sheriff Jerry Greene has told WKBN that Seman will be placed in a protective custody area. Goshen Police arrested Seman on March 15, 2014, after court authorities issued a warrant for his arrest. A Mahoning County grand jury later indicted Seman. The victim’s mother contacted police March 10, 2014 to report that her daughter told her Seman had been engaging in sexual conduct with her for several years. The girl was a fourth-grade student at South Range Elementary and had been a student there since kindergarten, according to school Principal Steve Matos. South Range Schools administrators are providing grief counselors for students Monday and will make those counselors available at the district’s K-12 campus Monday evening from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., according to a press release sent by the school district. The counselors will also be available starting at 7 a.m. Tuesday, according to the release. Firefighters arrived at a house at 3631 Powers Way on Youngstown’s south side around 3 a.m. Monday after neighbors heard an explosion and called 911. The windows of the house were shattered, but firefighters were not sure if an explosion occurred. Firefighters at the scene said they believe the fire started in the basement but were not sure of the cause of the fire. Firefighters searched the house and have confirmed that three people died in the fire. Prosecutors confirmed in court that the three people were the 10-year-old girl believed to be the rape victim and her grandparents, who were hearing impaired. Dr. Joseph Ohr, forensic pathologist for the Mahoning County Coroner’s Office, said he positively identified the male victim as William E. Schmidt, 63, through tattoos and surgical implants. He said he believes the female victim is Judy Schmidt, 61. He said a positive identification has not yet been made, but it likely is her. Family members also identified her. The 10-year-old girl was identified through forensic dentistry, Ohr said. WKBN is not naming her because she was an alleged sexual assault victim. WKBN is working to find out what type of smoke detectors were in the house. Easter Seals Youngstown Hearing and Speech Center Community Center Director Steve Leland told WKBN that the local deaf community has suffered a great loss with the death of the grandparents. According to Leland, smoke detectors for the hearing impaired are not the same for the general population. Smoke detectors can send vibrations, sound and light to alert the hearing-impaired of a fire. Leland also said that some homes have two smoke detectors: A typical one with sound and a second one that “hears” that sound, triggering strobe lights. Easter Seals Youngstown Hearing and Speech recommends the following website for those looking to purchase these smoke detectors, Leland said. To hear the 911 calls, click the links below: ||||| The three victims were all found on the second floor. They are identified by the family as 63-year-old William Schmidt, his 61-year old wife Judith and their ten-year-old granddaughter. The Arson Squad, the Ohio Fire Marshal and city police detectives are investigating the fire. Authorities say that so far they have found no evidence that the fire was suspicious in origin. Neighbors told 21 News that they heard what sounded like two explosions at about 3:30 a.m. Monday. Youngstown Fire Chief John O'Neil confirmed that crews discovered three people dead inside the home. He said they arrived to a scene engulfed in heavy fire. Chief O'Neil also said firefighters faced difficulties in the home while trying to get the victims out, such as floors falling through. This is a developing story. 21 News will have more information as it becomes available. South Range School officials say the girl was a 4th grade elementary student and have assembled a crisis team to make counseling available to students and staff affected by the loss.Counselors will also be available Monday evening from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm at the K-12 Complex, and will be open at 7:00 am on Tuesday, March 31st for students, staff and parents.The girl was the alleged victim in a rape case against Seman, who was supposed to go on trial today on four counts of rape and four counts of gross sexual imposition.According to an indictment handed up one year ago, the alleged assaults took place over a period of four and a half years, from the time the girl was only four years old, and continued until she was eight.Investigators tell 21 News that they revoked Seman's bond because of a bribery allegation, and his incarceration has nothing to do with the fire.Seman had been under electronically monitored house arrest since April of last year.Relatives of the victims tell 21 News that they have no reason to believe that Seman had anything to do with the fire. ||||| Play Facebook Twitter Embed Alleged Sex Abuse Victim Dies in Fire Before Trial 1:21 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog A 10-year-old Ohio girl died in a house fire early Monday just hours before a trial she was set to testify in against her accused rapist was supposed to begin, officials said. Robert Seman Jr., 46, was scheduled to be tried in Mahoning County on four counts of gross sexual imposition Monday, but the start of the trial was delayed when the Youngstown home of the 10-year-old he is accused of raping caught fire around 3:45 a.m. ET, according to NBC affiliate WKYC. The girl died along with two others. Seman had been out on bond pending the rape trial, but Mahoning County Commons Pleas Court Judge Maureen Sweeney revoked his bond Monday. She made the decision based on related bribery allegations, and not the fire, Mahoning County prosecutor Paul Gains told NBC News. Seman's lawyer, Thomas Zena, could not immediately be reached for comment Monday. Seman had been electronically monitored on house arrest since last April when he was indicted, Gains said. He was booked Monday in the Mahoning County Jail, according to sheriff's office documents. One of the other two who died in the fire was identified as the 10-year-old girl's grandfather, William E. Schmidt, 63, the Mahoning County Coroner's Office told WKYC. The third person is unidentified, but believed to be the girl's grandmother. Gains said the cause of the fire had not been determined and the Youngstown Fire Department was investigating. "We have to wait," Gains said. "If it's natural causes, it's a hell of a coincidence," he added. — Elisha Fieldstadt

– A 10-year-old Ohio girl and her grandparents died in a house fire just hours before she was supposed to testify against her alleged rapist, and prosecutors are having a hard time believing it could just be a tragic coincidence. Robert Seman Jr., 46, was to go on trial Monday on charges of rape and gross sexual imposition, but the trial was delayed after the 3:30am blaze killed the girl and her maternal grandparents at their Youngstown home, WKYC reports. Seman, who's accused of abusing the girl from when she was 4 years old until she was 8, according to WFMJ, had been under electronically monitored house arrest since last April but was booked into jail on Monday for what authorities say was an attempt to bribe a witness. WKBN reports a disturbing development: The girl's mother, who had been sought by prosecutors ahead of the trial, was interviewed by police Monday after she was found at the address that court records list as Seman's home. WKBN also reports that the girl's grandparents were deaf and it's not clear what kind of smoke detector their home had. Mahoning County prosecutor Paul Gains tells NBC News that the Youngstown Fire Department is still investigating the cause of the blaze. "We have to wait," he says. "If it's natural causes, it's a hell of a coincidence." (In December, a Navy veteran in Louisiana died saving his son from a house fire.)

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) – The U.S. Marshal’s Service located the mother of a girl who died in a house fire in Youngstown early Monday morning and brought her to the Youngstown Police Department for an interview Monday afternoon. Mahoning County prosecutors believe that Robert Seman, Jr., 46, raped that same girl, who was one of three people who died in the fire. Monday morning, Mahoning County Assistant Prosecutor Jennifer McLaughlin asked for Seman’s trial, scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. Monday, to be delayed. Prosecutors said they had been looking for the girl’s mom for some time in advance of Seman’s trial but had been unable to locate her. Authorities have not charged the mother in connection with either the girl’s rape or Monday’s fire and have not said that she is a suspect in either incident. When questioned by a WKBN reporter Monday afternoon on her way in to the police department, the woman did not respond. Authorities said that they found the girl’s mom at a house in Canfield that is listed in court records as Seman’s house arrest address. Those same authorities told WKBN that they checked at that house earlier Monday and did not find the woman. McLaughlin also said that the Youngstown Police Department believes Seman tried to bribe a potential witness in the case. McLaughlin called Seman a “danger to the public.” Judge Maureen Sweeney revoked Seman’s bond and granted the request for the delay. McLaughlin said she, for one, is suspicious of the timing of the fire. “On literally the eve of trial, hours before this trial was supposed to begin, this victim dies in a fire,” McLaughlin said, adding that she thinks Seman should be a suspect in the fire. Mahoning County Sheriff Jerry Greene has told WKBN that Seman will be placed in a protective custody area. Goshen Police arrested Seman on March 15, 2014, after court authorities issued a warrant for his arrest. A Mahoning County grand jury later indicted Seman. The victim’s mother contacted police March 10, 2014 to report that her daughter told her Seman had been engaging in sexual conduct with her for several years. The girl was a fourth-grade student at South Range Elementary and had been a student there since kindergarten, according to school Principal Steve Matos. South Range Schools administrators are providing grief counselors for students Monday and will make those counselors available at the district’s K-12 campus Monday evening from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., according to a press release sent by the school district. The counselors will also be available starting at 7 a.m. Tuesday, according to the release. Firefighters arrived at a house at 3631 Powers Way on Youngstown’s south side around 3 a.m. Monday after neighbors heard an explosion and called 911. The windows of the house were shattered, but firefighters were not sure if an explosion occurred. Firefighters at the scene said they believe the fire started in the basement but were not sure of the cause of the fire. Firefighters searched the house and have confirmed that three people died in the fire. Prosecutors confirmed in court that the three people were the 10-year-old girl believed to be the rape victim and her grandparents, who were hearing impaired. Dr. Joseph Ohr, forensic pathologist for the Mahoning County Coroner’s Office, said he positively identified the male victim as William E. Schmidt, 63, through tattoos and surgical implants. He said he believes the female victim is Judy Schmidt, 61. He said a positive identification has not yet been made, but it likely is her. Family members also identified her. The 10-year-old girl was identified through forensic dentistry, Ohr said. WKBN is not naming her because she was an alleged sexual assault victim. WKBN is working to find out what type of smoke detectors were in the house. Easter Seals Youngstown Hearing and Speech Center Community Center Director Steve Leland told WKBN that the local deaf community has suffered a great loss with the death of the grandparents. According to Leland, smoke detectors for the hearing impaired are not the same for the general population. Smoke detectors can send vibrations, sound and light to alert the hearing-impaired of a fire. Leland also said that some homes have two smoke detectors: A typical one with sound and a second one that “hears” that sound, triggering strobe lights. Easter Seals Youngstown Hearing and Speech recommends the following website for those looking to purchase these smoke detectors, Leland said. To hear the 911 calls, click the links below: ||||| The three victims were all found on the second floor. They are identified by the family as 63-year-old William Schmidt, his 61-year old wife Judith and their ten-year-old granddaughter. The Arson Squad, the Ohio Fire Marshal and city police detectives are investigating the fire. Authorities say that so far they have found no evidence that the fire was suspicious in origin. Neighbors told 21 News that they heard what sounded like two explosions at about 3:30 a.m. Monday. Youngstown Fire Chief John O'Neil confirmed that crews discovered three people dead inside the home. He said they arrived to a scene engulfed in heavy fire. Chief O'Neil also said firefighters faced difficulties in the home while trying to get the victims out, such as floors falling through. This is a developing story. 21 News will have more information as it becomes available. South Range School officials say the girl was a 4th grade elementary student and have assembled a crisis team to make counseling available to students and staff affected by the loss.Counselors will also be available Monday evening from 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm at the K-12 Complex, and will be open at 7:00 am on Tuesday, March 31st for students, staff and parents.The girl was the alleged victim in a rape case against Seman, who was supposed to go on trial today on four counts of rape and four counts of gross sexual imposition.According to an indictment handed up one year ago, the alleged assaults took place over a period of four and a half years, from the time the girl was only four years old, and continued until she was eight.Investigators tell 21 News that they revoked Seman's bond because of a bribery allegation, and his incarceration has nothing to do with the fire.Seman had been under electronically monitored house arrest since April of last year.Relatives of the victims tell 21 News that they have no reason to believe that Seman had anything to do with the fire. ||||| Play Facebook Twitter Embed Alleged Sex Abuse Victim Dies in Fire Before Trial 1:21 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog A 10-year-old Ohio girl died in a house fire early Monday just hours before a trial she was set to testify in against her accused rapist was supposed to begin, officials said. Robert Seman Jr., 46, was scheduled to be tried in Mahoning County on four counts of gross sexual imposition Monday, but the start of the trial was delayed when the Youngstown home of the 10-year-old he is accused of raping caught fire around 3:45 a.m. ET, according to NBC affiliate WKYC. The girl died along with two others. Seman had been out on bond pending the rape trial, but Mahoning County Commons Pleas Court Judge Maureen Sweeney revoked his bond Monday. She made the decision based on related bribery allegations, and not the fire, Mahoning County prosecutor Paul Gains told NBC News. Seman's lawyer, Thomas Zena, could not immediately be reached for comment Monday. Seman had been electronically monitored on house arrest since last April when he was indicted, Gains said. He was booked Monday in the Mahoning County Jail, according to sheriff's office documents. One of the other two who died in the fire was identified as the 10-year-old girl's grandfather, William E. Schmidt, 63, the Mahoning County Coroner's Office told WKYC. The third person is unidentified, but believed to be the girl's grandmother. Gains said the cause of the fire had not been determined and the Youngstown Fire Department was investigating. "We have to wait," Gains said. "If it's natural causes, it's a hell of a coincidence," he added. — Elisha Fieldstadt

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Rescuers prepare dive gear at the entrance of a cave complex where 12 boys and their soccer coach are trapped inside in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province, in northern Thailand, Wednesday, July 4, 2018. The... (Associated Press) Rescuers prepare dive gear at the entrance of a cave complex where 12 boys and their soccer coach are trapped inside in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province, in northern Thailand, Wednesday, July 4, 2018. The Thai soccer teammates stranded more than a week in a partly flooded cave said they were healthy on... (Associated Press) MAE SAI, Thailand (AP) — With more rain coming, Thai rescuers are racing against time to pump out water from a flooded cave before they can extract 12 boys and their soccer coach with minimum risk, officials said Thursday. A firefighter who has been working on draining the water said that levels in parts of a passage leading to a chamber where the boys and the coach were found on Monday after missing for 10 days was still flooded all the way to the ceiling, making diving the only way out. "What we worry most is the weather," Chiang Rai provincial Gov. Narongsak Osatanakorn told reporters. "We can't risk having the flood back into the cave." He said he asked Thai navy SEALs in charge of extraction plans to estimate what sort of a risk would be involved to take them out and "what kind of readiness we can have today and decide if we can take that chance." He said that not all 13 may be extracted at the same time depending on their condition. He said earlier that the boys have been practicing wearing diving masks and breathing, but he doesn't believe they have attempted any practice dives. "This morning, I have asked for 13 sets of (diving) equipment to be prepared and checked the equipment lists and place them inside (the cave) in case we have to bring them out in this condition with less than 100 percent readiness," he said. Officials have said they prefer to get the boys out as soon as possible because heavy rain is expected to start by Saturday, which almost surely will raise water levels again in the cave, making passage in some areas even more difficult if not impossible. They are hoping that an upgraded draining effort can lower the water level in an area where it is still at the ceiling or just about. The idea is to get some headroom so the boys would not be reliant on scuba apparatus for a long stretch and could keep their heads above water. The boys, aged 11-16, and their 25-year-old coach disappeared after they went exploring in the Tham Luang Nang Non cave in the northern province after a soccer game June 23. Authorities said the boys, who appeared skinny but in good health in several videos released by the Thai navy, were being looked after by seven members of the Thai SEALs, including medics, who were staying with them inside the cave. They were mostly in stable condition and have received high-protein drinks. In all of the videos, the boys appeared in good spirits. In the most recent video, a navy SEAL is shown treating minor cuts on the feet and legs of the boys with antibiotic ointment. Several of the boys are seen smiling as they interact with the navy SEAL, who cracks jokes. Seeing the boys has boosted the mood of their family members, and officials are working to install an internet cable to the cave so that parents can talk to their children. Kian Kamluang, whose 16-year-old son, Pornchai, is in the cave, said she had thought there was a 50 percent chance that her son would be found. "It's like he has been given a new life," she said, adding that she'll never let her son go into a cave or near water again. While efforts to pump out floodwaters are continuing, some Thai officials have indicated that heavy rains forecast for this weekend could force them to decide the boys should swim and dive out using the same complicated route of narrow passageways through which their rescuers entered. Authorities said they were still exploring other options, such as scouring the mountainside for other ways into the cave and finding faster ways to pump water from the cave. Cave rescue experts have said it could be safest to simply supply the boys where they are for now, and wait for the water to go down. That could take months, however, given that Thailand's rainy season typically lasts through October. Experienced divers are wary of taking out the boys through the dark and dangerous waters still in the cave, especially since they are untrained. "We are talking kilometers of transport under the water with zero visibility," said Claus Rasmusen, a certified cave diving instructor based in Thailand who has been helping Thai SEAL team with logistics. "It's difficult." He said it was awkward, but possible, to teach them minimal skills. "Nobody will teach anyone a full cave course, but trying to get them comfortable with masks, with the breathing, (is) completely different," he said. "Creating an environment that can make them safely get away, that's feasible." ||||| Image copyright Reuters Image caption Rescue workers are concerned about what might happen when monsoon rains hit Rescuers are racing against the rains to free 12 boys and their football coach, who are trapped in a flooded cave in northern Thailand. A deluge is expected to hit in a matter of days that could force the water level up, threatening to flood the pocket where the group took refuge. The teenage boys and their 25-year-old coach have been trapped for 12 days. They were found on Monday night by rescue divers, on a rock shelf about 4km (2.5 miles) from the cave mouth. The boys have now received food, foil blankets, and medical attention, and rescuers are trying to run cables through the cave tunnel so they can speak to their families. When are the rains coming? The region of Chiang Rai where the boys are trapped has for the past few days experienced a dry spell, and rescuers have taken advantage of this to pump water out of the cave complex. About 128 million litres of water had been pumped out by Thursday, with the water levels coming down at an average rate of 1.5cm per hour. Rescue workers are now able to walk through a 1.5km (0.9 mile) stretch from the entrance to what's being called the third chamber. Image copyright Reuters Image caption Water is being pumped out of the cave complex around the clock But heavy monsoon rains are forecast for Sunday. Chiang Rai Governor Narongsak Osotthanakorn said they were "racing against water". "We are calculating how much time we have it if rains, how many hours and days," he said. The Tham Luang cave complex is regularly flooded during the rainy season until September or October, raising fears that a delay could leave the boys trapped in the cave for months. What is being done to rescue the boys? There is hope that enough water can be pumped out of the cave tunnels for the boys to be able to wade - or be floated - out. But rescuers are also planning for other eventualities. A team are exploring the forested mountain land above the cave complex to see if they can find a chimney down to the cavern sheltering the boys. They have enlisted the help of bird-watchers, who are specialists in finding hidden holes, the AFP news agency reports. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Bill Whitehouse from the British Cave Rescue Council explains how the boys and their coach might be rescued Thai Navy Seal divers are also teaching the boys the basics of diving, with a view to guiding them out through flooded waters if necessary. But such a rescue would be fraught with risk, say experts. Many of the boys cannot swim or dive, and there is a high risk they might panic in the dark, murky, narrow waterways. The journey for the group to travel up to the cave entrance would take around five hours, rescue divers say. The Thai military has previously said that if the boys can't dive out, the group may have to wait for up to four months for flooding to recede before they can leave. Food and other supplies are being put in place for that eventuality. 'The boys are my brothers' Helier Cheung, BBC News, Tham Luang cave Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Teams of volunteers are each playing their part in the rescue effort Rescue teams are working in extremely difficult conditions. The heat has been sweltering and unrelenting, at over 30C, while much of the site is submerged in squelchy mud that is several inches thick in places and extremely slippery. But the work has continued at an unrelenting pace. Everyone is aware that once the monsoon rains start, rescue efforts will be much more difficult. Meanwhile, hundreds of workers are helping to keep the site in order, with road engineers laying gravel to try and secure the mud, workers for the Thai royal kitchen providing hot food for everyone, and volunteers handing out water bottles and ice lollies to those on site. One local civil servant, who had volunteered to help hand out supplies, said he did not know the boys personally but had decided to help because "I consider the boys in the caves as my brothers". How are the boys coping? Video from Thai Navy special forces on Monday showed the boys looking emaciated but smiling and at times laughing. The arrival of food, foil blankets and the prospect of speaking to their loved ones will have buoyed their spirits. But concern is mounting for both their physical and mental health after 12 days below ground - and it is not clear how they would be helped to survive months more in the cave. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Chilean miner sends message to Thai boys The boys and their coach had gone on their bikes up to the caves on Saturday 23 June after football practice. It was one boy's 16th birthday, and the team had taken a picnic. They knew the caves, and some reports suggest they had wanted to explore deeper than on previous occasions. They entered the cave when it was dry but sudden heavy rains quickly flooded the exit and rushed through the narrow passages, clogging them with mud and debris. ||||| Hundreds of pumps clearing water along 4km path in hope of avoiding need for scuba gear Thai rescuers say 12 boys trapped deep inside a cave complex may be able to walk out, provided the route can be drained before the monsoon showers predicted for the weekend. A military operation in the Tham Luang Nang Non cave complex is employing hundreds of industrial pumps to drain the water along the 2.5-mile (4km) path from the entrance to the area where the children and their football coach have been sheltering for 12 days. Poonsak Woongsatngiem, a rescue official with Thailand’s interior ministry, told the Guardian the water had been reduced by 40% in the past few days, clearing a 1.5km stretch of dark, jagged and muddy cave channels that the boys would need to traverse. The focus of Thursday’s operations is a third major basin along the route, Woongsatngiem said. The boys, who are not strong swimmers, are being trained in how to dive using scuba equipment. But forcing them to exit through the water is considered very risky. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Soldiers and rescue workers walk past water pumped out of the cave complex. Photograph: Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters “We [are] target[ing] the water in the third chamber to reduce to the point that no diving equipment is needed, like to the waistline, so one can wear just life jackets and walk out,” Woongsatngiem said on Thursday. Clearing the third basin would leave another 2.5km of path to the boys, whose ages range from 11 to 16. A Chinese diver at the site, Wang Ying Jie, said about half that remaining path would be walkable in the right conditions; the maximum water depth they would need to cross is about six metres. It is unclear how long the remaining area would take to drain, but monsoon rains are predicted for Saturday and would quickly refill the cave complex, potentially cutting the boys off for months. Rain was the biggest worry, said Narongsak Osatanakorn, the governor of Chiang Rai province, who is coordinating the rescue efforts. “We were racing against time before we found them,” he said. “Now we’re racing against water. It keeps seeping through the cave.” A fibre-optic cable was being laid inside the cave and would reach the boys soon, he added, so the children would be able to speak to and possibly see their parents on video. Wang said most of the boys remained in good health but three had intestinal issues and were in some pain. Divers were positioned at the third basin waiting to ferry medicine to the children. With wet weather looming, authorities are also calculating how long they are willing to allow rescuers to remain in the cave before they order an evacuation. Updates on the condition of the boys and the water levels were being slowed by the length of the journey to reach the children. “It’s about 11 hours – six on the way from the entrance to where the kids are and five on the way back,” he said. Play Video 1:00 Chilean miner has message of hope for trapped Thai boys – video He said the boys and their 25-year-old coach had started practising diving but did not confirm whether they would try to bring any out on Thursday. Those considered strong enough to go could do so first, he said. “They don’t need to be brought out as a team,” Osatanakorn said. “Whosoever is ready can come out first.” Thailand cave rescue: where were the boys found and how can they be rescued? Read more Officials were also scouring the jungle above the complex to find new openings that could be drilled to extract the boys more easily. The children were breathing, he said, so there was very likely a shaft somewhere to the top. “We have around 20 to 30 teams surveying on top to find the closest and most precise spot,” he said. One Thai navy Seal member who spent time with the boys said they “were always asking about the World Cup. I told them that all the big teams had gone home.” Additional reporting by Veena Thoopkrajae in Mae Sai and the Associated Press

– The weekend weather forecast has provided an ominous deadline for rescuers scrambling to get 12 young soccer players and their coach out of a flooded cave in northern Thailand. The area has been dry for days but heavy rains are expected to hit soon, potentially driving water levels up, thwarting rescue efforts, or even flooding the dry spot the boys fled to after heavy rains cut them off from the cave system's exit on June 23, the BBC reports. "We are racing against time before we found them," Chiang Rai Governor Narongsak Osotthanakorn said early Thursday. "Now we are racing against water." Experts believe waiting for the waters to recede could be the safest option, but that could take months. The boys are getting diving lessons and unless efforts to find a shaft in the jungle above the cave succeed, rescuers are expected to try to get the boys out within days, starting with those best able to make the difficult journey through narrow tunnels. The military has been running hundreds of pumps in an effort to lower the water level enough for the boys to simply walk out, though one major chamber remains flooded to the ceiling, the Guardian reports. Rescuers are also trying to install an Internet cable so the boys can communicate with their parents. "It's like he has been given a new life," the mother of a 16-year-old in the cave tells the AP. She says if he makes it out, she will never let him go near a cave again.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Rescuers prepare dive gear at the entrance of a cave complex where 12 boys and their soccer coach are trapped inside in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province, in northern Thailand, Wednesday, July 4, 2018. The... (Associated Press) Rescuers prepare dive gear at the entrance of a cave complex where 12 boys and their soccer coach are trapped inside in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai province, in northern Thailand, Wednesday, July 4, 2018. The Thai soccer teammates stranded more than a week in a partly flooded cave said they were healthy on... (Associated Press) MAE SAI, Thailand (AP) — With more rain coming, Thai rescuers are racing against time to pump out water from a flooded cave before they can extract 12 boys and their soccer coach with minimum risk, officials said Thursday. A firefighter who has been working on draining the water said that levels in parts of a passage leading to a chamber where the boys and the coach were found on Monday after missing for 10 days was still flooded all the way to the ceiling, making diving the only way out. "What we worry most is the weather," Chiang Rai provincial Gov. Narongsak Osatanakorn told reporters. "We can't risk having the flood back into the cave." He said he asked Thai navy SEALs in charge of extraction plans to estimate what sort of a risk would be involved to take them out and "what kind of readiness we can have today and decide if we can take that chance." He said that not all 13 may be extracted at the same time depending on their condition. He said earlier that the boys have been practicing wearing diving masks and breathing, but he doesn't believe they have attempted any practice dives. "This morning, I have asked for 13 sets of (diving) equipment to be prepared and checked the equipment lists and place them inside (the cave) in case we have to bring them out in this condition with less than 100 percent readiness," he said. Officials have said they prefer to get the boys out as soon as possible because heavy rain is expected to start by Saturday, which almost surely will raise water levels again in the cave, making passage in some areas even more difficult if not impossible. They are hoping that an upgraded draining effort can lower the water level in an area where it is still at the ceiling or just about. The idea is to get some headroom so the boys would not be reliant on scuba apparatus for a long stretch and could keep their heads above water. The boys, aged 11-16, and their 25-year-old coach disappeared after they went exploring in the Tham Luang Nang Non cave in the northern province after a soccer game June 23. Authorities said the boys, who appeared skinny but in good health in several videos released by the Thai navy, were being looked after by seven members of the Thai SEALs, including medics, who were staying with them inside the cave. They were mostly in stable condition and have received high-protein drinks. In all of the videos, the boys appeared in good spirits. In the most recent video, a navy SEAL is shown treating minor cuts on the feet and legs of the boys with antibiotic ointment. Several of the boys are seen smiling as they interact with the navy SEAL, who cracks jokes. Seeing the boys has boosted the mood of their family members, and officials are working to install an internet cable to the cave so that parents can talk to their children. Kian Kamluang, whose 16-year-old son, Pornchai, is in the cave, said she had thought there was a 50 percent chance that her son would be found. "It's like he has been given a new life," she said, adding that she'll never let her son go into a cave or near water again. While efforts to pump out floodwaters are continuing, some Thai officials have indicated that heavy rains forecast for this weekend could force them to decide the boys should swim and dive out using the same complicated route of narrow passageways through which their rescuers entered. Authorities said they were still exploring other options, such as scouring the mountainside for other ways into the cave and finding faster ways to pump water from the cave. Cave rescue experts have said it could be safest to simply supply the boys where they are for now, and wait for the water to go down. That could take months, however, given that Thailand's rainy season typically lasts through October. Experienced divers are wary of taking out the boys through the dark and dangerous waters still in the cave, especially since they are untrained. "We are talking kilometers of transport under the water with zero visibility," said Claus Rasmusen, a certified cave diving instructor based in Thailand who has been helping Thai SEAL team with logistics. "It's difficult." He said it was awkward, but possible, to teach them minimal skills. "Nobody will teach anyone a full cave course, but trying to get them comfortable with masks, with the breathing, (is) completely different," he said. "Creating an environment that can make them safely get away, that's feasible." ||||| Image copyright Reuters Image caption Rescue workers are concerned about what might happen when monsoon rains hit Rescuers are racing against the rains to free 12 boys and their football coach, who are trapped in a flooded cave in northern Thailand. A deluge is expected to hit in a matter of days that could force the water level up, threatening to flood the pocket where the group took refuge. The teenage boys and their 25-year-old coach have been trapped for 12 days. They were found on Monday night by rescue divers, on a rock shelf about 4km (2.5 miles) from the cave mouth. The boys have now received food, foil blankets, and medical attention, and rescuers are trying to run cables through the cave tunnel so they can speak to their families. When are the rains coming? The region of Chiang Rai where the boys are trapped has for the past few days experienced a dry spell, and rescuers have taken advantage of this to pump water out of the cave complex. About 128 million litres of water had been pumped out by Thursday, with the water levels coming down at an average rate of 1.5cm per hour. Rescue workers are now able to walk through a 1.5km (0.9 mile) stretch from the entrance to what's being called the third chamber. Image copyright Reuters Image caption Water is being pumped out of the cave complex around the clock But heavy monsoon rains are forecast for Sunday. Chiang Rai Governor Narongsak Osotthanakorn said they were "racing against water". "We are calculating how much time we have it if rains, how many hours and days," he said. The Tham Luang cave complex is regularly flooded during the rainy season until September or October, raising fears that a delay could leave the boys trapped in the cave for months. What is being done to rescue the boys? There is hope that enough water can be pumped out of the cave tunnels for the boys to be able to wade - or be floated - out. But rescuers are also planning for other eventualities. A team are exploring the forested mountain land above the cave complex to see if they can find a chimney down to the cavern sheltering the boys. They have enlisted the help of bird-watchers, who are specialists in finding hidden holes, the AFP news agency reports. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Bill Whitehouse from the British Cave Rescue Council explains how the boys and their coach might be rescued Thai Navy Seal divers are also teaching the boys the basics of diving, with a view to guiding them out through flooded waters if necessary. But such a rescue would be fraught with risk, say experts. Many of the boys cannot swim or dive, and there is a high risk they might panic in the dark, murky, narrow waterways. The journey for the group to travel up to the cave entrance would take around five hours, rescue divers say. The Thai military has previously said that if the boys can't dive out, the group may have to wait for up to four months for flooding to recede before they can leave. Food and other supplies are being put in place for that eventuality. 'The boys are my brothers' Helier Cheung, BBC News, Tham Luang cave Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Teams of volunteers are each playing their part in the rescue effort Rescue teams are working in extremely difficult conditions. The heat has been sweltering and unrelenting, at over 30C, while much of the site is submerged in squelchy mud that is several inches thick in places and extremely slippery. But the work has continued at an unrelenting pace. Everyone is aware that once the monsoon rains start, rescue efforts will be much more difficult. Meanwhile, hundreds of workers are helping to keep the site in order, with road engineers laying gravel to try and secure the mud, workers for the Thai royal kitchen providing hot food for everyone, and volunteers handing out water bottles and ice lollies to those on site. One local civil servant, who had volunteered to help hand out supplies, said he did not know the boys personally but had decided to help because "I consider the boys in the caves as my brothers". How are the boys coping? Video from Thai Navy special forces on Monday showed the boys looking emaciated but smiling and at times laughing. The arrival of food, foil blankets and the prospect of speaking to their loved ones will have buoyed their spirits. But concern is mounting for both their physical and mental health after 12 days below ground - and it is not clear how they would be helped to survive months more in the cave. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Chilean miner sends message to Thai boys The boys and their coach had gone on their bikes up to the caves on Saturday 23 June after football practice. It was one boy's 16th birthday, and the team had taken a picnic. They knew the caves, and some reports suggest they had wanted to explore deeper than on previous occasions. They entered the cave when it was dry but sudden heavy rains quickly flooded the exit and rushed through the narrow passages, clogging them with mud and debris. ||||| Hundreds of pumps clearing water along 4km path in hope of avoiding need for scuba gear Thai rescuers say 12 boys trapped deep inside a cave complex may be able to walk out, provided the route can be drained before the monsoon showers predicted for the weekend. A military operation in the Tham Luang Nang Non cave complex is employing hundreds of industrial pumps to drain the water along the 2.5-mile (4km) path from the entrance to the area where the children and their football coach have been sheltering for 12 days. Poonsak Woongsatngiem, a rescue official with Thailand’s interior ministry, told the Guardian the water had been reduced by 40% in the past few days, clearing a 1.5km stretch of dark, jagged and muddy cave channels that the boys would need to traverse. The focus of Thursday’s operations is a third major basin along the route, Woongsatngiem said. The boys, who are not strong swimmers, are being trained in how to dive using scuba equipment. But forcing them to exit through the water is considered very risky. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Soldiers and rescue workers walk past water pumped out of the cave complex. Photograph: Soe Zeya Tun/Reuters “We [are] target[ing] the water in the third chamber to reduce to the point that no diving equipment is needed, like to the waistline, so one can wear just life jackets and walk out,” Woongsatngiem said on Thursday. Clearing the third basin would leave another 2.5km of path to the boys, whose ages range from 11 to 16. A Chinese diver at the site, Wang Ying Jie, said about half that remaining path would be walkable in the right conditions; the maximum water depth they would need to cross is about six metres. It is unclear how long the remaining area would take to drain, but monsoon rains are predicted for Saturday and would quickly refill the cave complex, potentially cutting the boys off for months. Rain was the biggest worry, said Narongsak Osatanakorn, the governor of Chiang Rai province, who is coordinating the rescue efforts. “We were racing against time before we found them,” he said. “Now we’re racing against water. It keeps seeping through the cave.” A fibre-optic cable was being laid inside the cave and would reach the boys soon, he added, so the children would be able to speak to and possibly see their parents on video. Wang said most of the boys remained in good health but three had intestinal issues and were in some pain. Divers were positioned at the third basin waiting to ferry medicine to the children. With wet weather looming, authorities are also calculating how long they are willing to allow rescuers to remain in the cave before they order an evacuation. Updates on the condition of the boys and the water levels were being slowed by the length of the journey to reach the children. “It’s about 11 hours – six on the way from the entrance to where the kids are and five on the way back,” he said. Play Video 1:00 Chilean miner has message of hope for trapped Thai boys – video He said the boys and their 25-year-old coach had started practising diving but did not confirm whether they would try to bring any out on Thursday. Those considered strong enough to go could do so first, he said. “They don’t need to be brought out as a team,” Osatanakorn said. “Whosoever is ready can come out first.” Thailand cave rescue: where were the boys found and how can they be rescued? Read more Officials were also scouring the jungle above the complex to find new openings that could be drilled to extract the boys more easily. The children were breathing, he said, so there was very likely a shaft somewhere to the top. “We have around 20 to 30 teams surveying on top to find the closest and most precise spot,” he said. One Thai navy Seal member who spent time with the boys said they “were always asking about the World Cup. I told them that all the big teams had gone home.” Additional reporting by Veena Thoopkrajae in Mae Sai and the Associated Press

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Furious French bathers have urged Francois Hollande, the French president, to step in after a Saudi Arabian king blocked access to a public beach that runs alongside his luxury villa on the Riviera. Plans for an elevator allowing Saudi royals easier access to the sand have already been approved by the French authorities, while a huge lump of concrete was recently installed on the beach. Not even fishermen and swimmers are allowed in the area during the king's visit, with the coastguard instructed to move on anyone who dares to swim within three hundred yards of the villa. Under French law the picturesque Mirandole beach, situated between Antibes and Cannes, is supposed to be open for all to enjoy. But King Salman has announced plans to block its only entrance with wire fencing ahead of an impending visit. Now residents have hit back at the royal arrangements with a petition claiming the beach's closure is an affront to France's "most precious democratic values." King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud In a letter addressed to Mr Hollande and other senior socialist politicians, the group demands that the French government re-open the beach, part of which is reserved for local nudists. It reads: "We recall that this natural zone, as with all public coastal areas, is an inalienable public good from which everyone must benefit - inhabitants, tourists, Frenchmen, foreigners, residents and travelers alike. "We hope that the leaders of our nation will hear and acknowledge the wave of unanimous indignation which has arisen. "This is a grave affair, one which resonates like a symbol of the suppression of our most precious democratic values." The petition has already been signed by three thousand people and its organisers hope their message will attract Mr Hollande's attention if it exceeds five thousand signatures. Workers have already begun constructing a huge concrete slab in the sand as part of King's Salman's bid to enjoy his visit to the property - which he bought around twenty years ago - undisturbed. "They take the decision and there's nothing we can say," local fisherman Mohamed told AFP, "It's a good fishing spot and blocking access is not acceptable." Faitma, a local nurse, also spoke of her frustration at the beauty spot being closed off to the public. "Whether it's him or another billionaire, they always have priority over ordinary people," she said. "On the other hand, they are good for business, coming here with 400 people in their entourage. I heard they might even fix the roads." French officials said the beach would be closed for the entire duration of the royal family's stay for safety reasons. It is by no means the first run-in between locals and the Saudi royals at Vallauris. In 1995, King Fahd lost a legal battle to close a coastal path that ran close to his property and was ordered to remove a machine gun pointing out to sea. He was also blocked from building a parking bay for his megayacht. In 2012, local environmentalists and anti-corruption group Anticor 06 filed a legal complaint after local politicians granted the royals the right to build two huge luxury villas with swimming pools and outside bars worth €64 million (£45 million) on nearby protected land around the chateau Robert, a ruined castle. The local prosecutor is due to decide shortly whether to pursue an investigation into the complaint. ||||| The famously golden beaches and azure blue seas of the French Riviera are proving to be the rocky point where republican ideals meet realpolitik. When a Saudi royal and his 500-strong retinue want to close a stretch of seafront on the Côte d’Azur, the locals can shout “liberté, égalité, fraternité” all they want – the beach is closed. Bathers at La Mirandole – a narrow sliver of rocks and sands at Vallauris six miles from Cannes – have been told the area will be sealed off any day now on the arrival of King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the grounds of whose mansion stretch along a kilometre of coastline. French officials also plan a 300-metre exclusion zone out to sea. The decision has caused widespread outrage among locals in Vallauris used to bathing and fishing at the beach. “The point we wish to make is that not everything can be bought,” councillor Jean-Noel Falcou told the Guardian. “The Saudis have been coming here for 40 years and they are welcome; all we ask is that they respect French law.” Falcou has launched a petition to stop the beach closure. “A public beach is an inalienable public property, like the Mona Lisa, open to anyone and everyone whoever they are. This has nothing to do with security and everything to do with personal pleasure. “The impression the French state, which is supposed to support republican values, is giving of there being one law for the rich and one for the poor is extremely disturbing and an unfortunate precedent.” King Salman is spending his summer holiday at the 1930s villa formerly known as the Château de l’Horizon, where Winston Churchill and Hollywood celebrities once stayed. Up to 500 members of the royal court are expected to join him either in the villa or in luxury hotels in Cannes. The property, which has its own private port, was described by Punch magazine in the 1930s as a “white palace set on the water”. The French authorities say closing a small beach is the least they can do to protect the head of a country engaged with them in air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq. Local businesses are not complaining either. At Cannes, hoteliers met at the weekend to discuss how best to welcome their visitors. Michel Chevillon, president of the local hoteliers union, told the newspaper Nice Matin: “When the King comes, other Saudis follow ... They reserve 20, 30 up to 50 or 60 rooms at a time … a total of between 500 and 1,000 rooms. “This business hasn’t just fallen in our laps. We’ve worked at it. And contrary to common wisdom, the results doesn’t only profit [fashion retailers] Chanel and Dior. The Saudis have a very strong spending power and don’t count the cost. They order 10,000-15,000 flowers every day and hundreds of limousines that give jobs to as many chauffeurs.” But Falcou said the economic benefits for Vallauris were almost zero. “Most of the money goes to Cannes. If you were to ask them if they prefer to have the use of the beach or the economic benefit for a month, the response would be unanimous,” he said. Philippe Castanet, deputy prefect at nearby Grasse, said papers ordering the closure of the beach were ready to be signed as soon as the Saudi royal arrived. The monarch is expected some time this week. Castanet said the beach would remain closed while someone of “high importance” was at the villa as a measure to “avoid putting the king of a country at war in danger”. On Nice Matin’s website, there have been mostly angry responses to the closure. Johnp wrote: “Everyone prostrates themselves before money. If only there was as much motivation for taking care of the environment.” Claudy W added: “It’s unthinkable that a king can impose his wishes in a ’republic’. The security pretext is fallacious … What he wants is that his family can, when he wishes, come and bathe on his private beach and too bad for the citizens.” The Gaullist politician Nicolas Dupont-Aignan told radio station France Inter: “What shocks me is that we appear to have returned to the ancien régime in our country. It’s the end of the equality of rights … There are security reasons and perhaps compromises to be found, but as a general rule what revolts our citizens is that the law is different if you are rich than if you are poor. “There’s a need for justice and equality. It’s the appropriation of a public space by a foreign head of state.” White palace set on the water Originally called the Chateau de l”Horizon, the modernist villa was built in 1932 for the American actor Maxine Elliott, a friend of Churchill and his mother. Churchill was a regular guest between 1934 and 1940 as well as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, David Lloyd George, Noël Coward, Elizabeth Taylor and members of the Kennedy family. During the second world war it was requisitioned by the Germans who used it as accommodation for Gestapo officers. Prince Aly Khan bought it in 1948 and celebrated his marriage to Rita Hayworth, perfuming the swimming pool with eau de cologne and having their initials created in flower petals on the surface. It was bought by King Fahd in 1979, while he was heir to the Saudi throne, and has been used by Saudi royals as a summer retreat ever since.

– The French got rid of their monarchy more than 200 years ago and they do not take kindly to being ordered around on behalf of the kings of other countries. Saudi Arabia's King Salman plans to spend the summer on the French Riviera—with an entourage of 500—and locals are infuriated by plans to close the public beach that runs alongside his villa at La Mirandole, a few miles from Cannes, the Telegraph reports. The beach, which is popular with swimmers, nude sunbathers, and fishermen, will be fenced off while the Saudi royals are in residence, with the exclusion zone extending far out to sea. Local authorities have already approved plans for the Saudis to build an elevator from their mansion to the beach, reports the Telegraph. Outraged locals have started a petition, arguing that under French law, the beach should be open to everybody, and that closing it for a monarch goes against the ideals modern France was founded on. "A public beach is an inalienable public property, like the Mona Lisa, open to anyone and everyone whoever they are. This has nothing to do with security and everything to do with personal pleasure," the petition states, per the Guardian. "The impression the French state, which is supposed to support republican values, is giving of there being one law for the rich and one for the poor is extremely disturbing and an unfortunate precedent."

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Furious French bathers have urged Francois Hollande, the French president, to step in after a Saudi Arabian king blocked access to a public beach that runs alongside his luxury villa on the Riviera. Plans for an elevator allowing Saudi royals easier access to the sand have already been approved by the French authorities, while a huge lump of concrete was recently installed on the beach. Not even fishermen and swimmers are allowed in the area during the king's visit, with the coastguard instructed to move on anyone who dares to swim within three hundred yards of the villa. Under French law the picturesque Mirandole beach, situated between Antibes and Cannes, is supposed to be open for all to enjoy. But King Salman has announced plans to block its only entrance with wire fencing ahead of an impending visit. Now residents have hit back at the royal arrangements with a petition claiming the beach's closure is an affront to France's "most precious democratic values." King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud In a letter addressed to Mr Hollande and other senior socialist politicians, the group demands that the French government re-open the beach, part of which is reserved for local nudists. It reads: "We recall that this natural zone, as with all public coastal areas, is an inalienable public good from which everyone must benefit - inhabitants, tourists, Frenchmen, foreigners, residents and travelers alike. "We hope that the leaders of our nation will hear and acknowledge the wave of unanimous indignation which has arisen. "This is a grave affair, one which resonates like a symbol of the suppression of our most precious democratic values." The petition has already been signed by three thousand people and its organisers hope their message will attract Mr Hollande's attention if it exceeds five thousand signatures. Workers have already begun constructing a huge concrete slab in the sand as part of King's Salman's bid to enjoy his visit to the property - which he bought around twenty years ago - undisturbed. "They take the decision and there's nothing we can say," local fisherman Mohamed told AFP, "It's a good fishing spot and blocking access is not acceptable." Faitma, a local nurse, also spoke of her frustration at the beauty spot being closed off to the public. "Whether it's him or another billionaire, they always have priority over ordinary people," she said. "On the other hand, they are good for business, coming here with 400 people in their entourage. I heard they might even fix the roads." French officials said the beach would be closed for the entire duration of the royal family's stay for safety reasons. It is by no means the first run-in between locals and the Saudi royals at Vallauris. In 1995, King Fahd lost a legal battle to close a coastal path that ran close to his property and was ordered to remove a machine gun pointing out to sea. He was also blocked from building a parking bay for his megayacht. In 2012, local environmentalists and anti-corruption group Anticor 06 filed a legal complaint after local politicians granted the royals the right to build two huge luxury villas with swimming pools and outside bars worth €64 million (£45 million) on nearby protected land around the chateau Robert, a ruined castle. The local prosecutor is due to decide shortly whether to pursue an investigation into the complaint. ||||| The famously golden beaches and azure blue seas of the French Riviera are proving to be the rocky point where republican ideals meet realpolitik. When a Saudi royal and his 500-strong retinue want to close a stretch of seafront on the Côte d’Azur, the locals can shout “liberté, égalité, fraternité” all they want – the beach is closed. Bathers at La Mirandole – a narrow sliver of rocks and sands at Vallauris six miles from Cannes – have been told the area will be sealed off any day now on the arrival of King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the grounds of whose mansion stretch along a kilometre of coastline. French officials also plan a 300-metre exclusion zone out to sea. The decision has caused widespread outrage among locals in Vallauris used to bathing and fishing at the beach. “The point we wish to make is that not everything can be bought,” councillor Jean-Noel Falcou told the Guardian. “The Saudis have been coming here for 40 years and they are welcome; all we ask is that they respect French law.” Falcou has launched a petition to stop the beach closure. “A public beach is an inalienable public property, like the Mona Lisa, open to anyone and everyone whoever they are. This has nothing to do with security and everything to do with personal pleasure. “The impression the French state, which is supposed to support republican values, is giving of there being one law for the rich and one for the poor is extremely disturbing and an unfortunate precedent.” King Salman is spending his summer holiday at the 1930s villa formerly known as the Château de l’Horizon, where Winston Churchill and Hollywood celebrities once stayed. Up to 500 members of the royal court are expected to join him either in the villa or in luxury hotels in Cannes. The property, which has its own private port, was described by Punch magazine in the 1930s as a “white palace set on the water”. The French authorities say closing a small beach is the least they can do to protect the head of a country engaged with them in air strikes against Islamic State in Iraq. Local businesses are not complaining either. At Cannes, hoteliers met at the weekend to discuss how best to welcome their visitors. Michel Chevillon, president of the local hoteliers union, told the newspaper Nice Matin: “When the King comes, other Saudis follow ... They reserve 20, 30 up to 50 or 60 rooms at a time … a total of between 500 and 1,000 rooms. “This business hasn’t just fallen in our laps. We’ve worked at it. And contrary to common wisdom, the results doesn’t only profit [fashion retailers] Chanel and Dior. The Saudis have a very strong spending power and don’t count the cost. They order 10,000-15,000 flowers every day and hundreds of limousines that give jobs to as many chauffeurs.” But Falcou said the economic benefits for Vallauris were almost zero. “Most of the money goes to Cannes. If you were to ask them if they prefer to have the use of the beach or the economic benefit for a month, the response would be unanimous,” he said. Philippe Castanet, deputy prefect at nearby Grasse, said papers ordering the closure of the beach were ready to be signed as soon as the Saudi royal arrived. The monarch is expected some time this week. Castanet said the beach would remain closed while someone of “high importance” was at the villa as a measure to “avoid putting the king of a country at war in danger”. On Nice Matin’s website, there have been mostly angry responses to the closure. Johnp wrote: “Everyone prostrates themselves before money. If only there was as much motivation for taking care of the environment.” Claudy W added: “It’s unthinkable that a king can impose his wishes in a ’republic’. The security pretext is fallacious … What he wants is that his family can, when he wishes, come and bathe on his private beach and too bad for the citizens.” The Gaullist politician Nicolas Dupont-Aignan told radio station France Inter: “What shocks me is that we appear to have returned to the ancien régime in our country. It’s the end of the equality of rights … There are security reasons and perhaps compromises to be found, but as a general rule what revolts our citizens is that the law is different if you are rich than if you are poor. “There’s a need for justice and equality. It’s the appropriation of a public space by a foreign head of state.” White palace set on the water Originally called the Chateau de l”Horizon, the modernist villa was built in 1932 for the American actor Maxine Elliott, a friend of Churchill and his mother. Churchill was a regular guest between 1934 and 1940 as well as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, David Lloyd George, Noël Coward, Elizabeth Taylor and members of the Kennedy family. During the second world war it was requisitioned by the Germans who used it as accommodation for Gestapo officers. Prince Aly Khan bought it in 1948 and celebrated his marriage to Rita Hayworth, perfuming the swimming pool with eau de cologne and having their initials created in flower petals on the surface. It was bought by King Fahd in 1979, while he was heir to the Saudi throne, and has been used by Saudi royals as a summer retreat ever since.

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Christopher Duntsch Christopher Duntsch via Facebook Christopher Duntsch, the Dallas doctor convicted last week of paralyzing an elderly patient during a botched 2012 surgery, is going to prison for life. A Dallas County jury took a little more than an hour to sentence him Monday afternoon. Duntsch, 45, was stripped of his medical license in 2013 following a series of surgeries that ended with two patients dead, four crippled and several others with surgical waste sewn up inside of them. In 2015, Dallas police arrested the Duntsch on five aggravated assault charges, but he ended up only being tried for injuring Mary Efurd, who was left in a wheelchair and constant pain following back surgery. Jurors heard from multiple patients who'd sought relief from back pain, only to end immobilized or disfigured by Duntsch. Prosecutors painted the doctor as amoral and willing to hurt patients for cash, while Duntsch's defense team claimed that he was merely improperly trained to carry out the types of surgeries he attempted. Many injuries from his surgery were often due to massive blood loss. Dallas County District Attorney Faith Johnson said at a press conference that the fact that Duntsch continued to perform surgeries after causing so many injuries elevated his case from mere malpractice to criminal assault. "He obviously knew at some point that what he was doing was criminal," Johnson said. Prior to practicing in Dallas, Duntsch was a doctor in Tennessee. There, prosecutors said, multiple patients sued him, leaving him in tremendous debt. "We think that he saw dollar signs as a way to eliminate his debt from school and from lawsuits ... and to live the high life," Dallas County Assistant District Attorney Stephanie Martin said. "That's what's so great about today's sentence, he can't harm anyone else anywhere in America." ||||| Jurors heard from patient after patient who sought surgery from Duntsch to fix back problems, only to be left disfigured or immobilized and in excruciating pain. They heard from Philip Mayfield, who cries when he thinks of all of his son's football games that he hasn't been able to watch because he often passes out from chronic pain, and Barry Morgaloff, who limps with a brace and a cane as a result of irreparable nerve damage in his spine. They heard from Jeff Cheney, who woke up paralyzed from the neck down on his right side, and Jackie Troy, who talks in a permanent whisper and almost died from an infection after she was left with puncture wounds in her throat after Duntsch performed neck surgery on her. "I'm just trying to stay focused and be thankful that I'm one of the lucky ones in this situation," said Troy, who's alive to talk about her encounter with Duntsch, unlike two of his patients: Kellie Martin and Floella Brown, who died after undergoing back surgery in 2012. ||||| Lee Passmore can’t feel his feet. His right leg is as stiff as his pressed blue jeans, and when he walks, he appears to use his hips to heave it forward. He also vibrates—his chest shakes, his right hand jitters. But Passmore is one of the lucky ones. He’ll tell you as much. He’s alive. In November 2011, Passmore was hooked on prescription opiates. They numbed the pain radiating from his lower back, down each of his legs. He thought surgery might give him some relief, eliminate the need for drugs, solve both problems at once. His pain management specialist advised against an operation. But then he gave Passmore the card of a neurosurgeon named Christopher Duntsch. Duntsch had only been in the Dallas area for a few months. He was taller than 6 feet, with a stubby nose and neatly cropped hair above bright blue eyes, and he had crafted a strategy that endeared him to patients and to referring physicians: I’m the best, he’d tell them. He always had a plan, always had a pitch, always had a way to fix you. His fellow neurosurgeons found him to be fast-talking and cocksure, a bit of a loner. And yet nearly all who met him said they liked him immediately. But he’d make troubling, bizarre pronouncements, like “Everybody’s doing it wrong. I’m the only clean minimally invasive guy in the whole state.” That’s according to Dr. Mark Hoyle, who was the general surgeon during Passmore’s surgery. He met Duntsch that day in the physician lounge at Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano, where the operation occurred. “I thought he was either really, really good, or he’s just really, really arrogant and thought he was good,” Hoyle says now. This would be the first and last time Hoyle worked next to Duntsch. Hoyle’s job was to cut Passmore open and sew him up, and on December 30, 2011, he made a small incision just above the 36-year-old’s groin and moved the blood vessels and organs out of the way, allowing Duntsch clear access to the lower spine to remove a herniated disc. The disc was pressing on a nerve, which caused the pain. But as Duntsch worked, Hoyle looked over and saw blood and not much else. It was pouring out of the epidural blood vessels and pooling in the disc space. But Duntsch kept going, as if he were fishing in a pond at night, saying he was working by feel, not sight. He announced that he would be removing the ligament that separates the disc from the spinal canal. This posterior longitudinal ligament is one of the spine’s two major stabilizers. It’s less than a millimeter from the spinal canal. Hoyle stepped in front of Duntsch to block his way. “We need to talk about this,” Hoyle said, locking eyes with him. “That’s dangerous—even that attitude is dangerous.” Duntsch relented, allowing Hoyle to move in, stop the bleeding, and clean out the wound. The operation continued. Duntsch placed a surgical cage where the disc was, to widen the opening around the nerve roots and relieve the pressure that was causing Passmore’s pain. But Hoyle says an X-ray later showed it was positioned too far to the left. When Duntsch tried to reposition it, he stripped a screw; the cage wasn’t going anywhere. Hoyle called the whole surgery sloppy, enough so that he canceled the remaining three or four operations he had scheduled with Duntsch and vowed never to work with him again. He was the first surgeon to do so, but not the last. Duntsch’s patient outcomes would draw lots of attention over the years. There was Kellie Martin, who died from massive blood loss after a surgery at Baylor Plano. There was Floella Brown, whose sliced vertebral artery triggered the stroke that killed her at Dallas Medical Center. There was Duntsch’s childhood friend, Jerry Summers, who woke up from a procedure unable to move his arms and legs. There was a dissection of one patient’s esophagus, and screws that an indictment labeled “far too long” that caused significant blood loss in another patient. One surgeon described these as “never events.” They shouldn’t ever happen in someone’s entire career. And yet they occurred in Duntsch’s operating rooms over a period of just two years. As these cases became public record, rumors circulated of late-night partying leading into early-morning rounds, and whispers of drug and alcohol abuse became shouts. Investigations took patients and attorneys back to where Duntsch had had such a promising beginning—in Memphis, at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, where he earned both an M.D. and a Ph.D. He ran two labs, is listed as one of three inventors on a successful patent, raised millions of dollars in grant funding, and once gave a tour to the governor of Tennessee as he explained the stem cell research occurring at the university. But today, about five years after the Passmore surgery, Duntsch sits in Lew Sterrett Justice Center awaiting trial, the rare physician to be indicted on multiple counts of aggravated assault related to what happened in his operating rooms. He wears a gray-and-black-striped uniform, not unlike a set of scrubs. On paper, the 40-year-old man who arrived in Dallas in the summer of 2011 was a completely different Christopher Duntsch than the one who was introduced to the public after more than a dozen allegations of severely botched surgeries. Duntsch had a comfortable upbringing. He was born in Montana, but his family settled in a suburb east of Memphis where the median household income is about $30,000 higher than the rest of the country. He was the oldest of four—he has two brothers, Nathan and Matt, and a sister, Liz—and attended a private high school. His father, Donald, was a missionary and a physical therapist. His mother, Susan, taught school. He stayed in town for his undergraduate degree, emerging from the University of Memphis in 1994. He stayed local for medical school, enrolling the next year at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. His CV proclaims that he earned a doctorate in microbiology from the prestigious St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, graduating summa cum laude. St. Jude says there was no such program at the hospital at that time. (He also appears in no yearbooks from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center at the time in which he says he earned his Ph.D., and the school declined to verify his claims, citing a federal privacy law.) He did earn his M.D., doing so well that he was among the 12 percent of medical school graduates in his class named to the elite Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society. He stayed at the University of Tennessee for his surgical residency, spending the standard five years on neurosurgery and one year learning general surgery. In 2005, about a third of the way through the six-year program, department chairman Dr. Jon Robertson appointed him program director of the school’s tissue bank, where he’d supply samples to scientists and oversee two labs. He gained experience writing grants, and earned more than $3 million in local, state, and federal funding for research projects where he served as principal or co-principal investigator. He was constantly involved in research, and, around 2006, he saw a way to commercialize discoveries by renowned Russian stem cell scientists Valery Kukekov and Tatyana Ignatova, a husband-and-wife team. It is during this period that Duntsch’s carefully built façade began showing its first cracks. Kukekov had discovered stem cells in human brain tumors, which presented a huge potential for the development of new cancer drugs. He also discovered a way to produce stem cells from intervertebral discs in cultures outside the body. Creating cells from a culture would eliminate the need for human extraction; there was huge potential upside. Duntsch filed patents for each discovery, and two companies were soon created. NovoStem Therapeutics, which attempted to monetize the cancer stem cell discovery, failed after taking a funding hit during the 2008 recession. The other, Discgenics, was more successful; it still owns the patent for the technology. Duntsch, Kukekov, and Ignatova are listed as its inventors. Or, they should be: the scientists’ names are misspelled. “Nobody can recognize whether it was ours or not!” Ignatova says. While Ignatova and Kukekov say they were in the labs, Duntsch focused on raising money. He secured investments in Discgenics from local spine surgeons, including Robertson and Dr. Kevin Foley, a prominent Memphis neurosurgeon under whom Duntsch would spend a year training as part of a minimally invasive spine surgery fellowship at the Semmes-Murphey Clinic, one of the largest neurosurgery practices in the United States. Kukekov and Ignatova say Duntsch took more credit than he deserved for the discoveries. “It wasn’t his invention,” Kukekov says. “It was the invention of me and my wife, because we made all primary experiments. We discovered it.” Around that same time, Duntsch’s behavior was becoming erratic. During a deposition with Passmore’s lawyer, attorney James Girards, a woman named Megan Kane recalls Duntsch eating a paper blotter of LSD and taking prescription painkillers on his birthday in either 2006 or 2007. She also says they snorted cocaine from a small pile that he kept on a dresser in his home office. Also present, according to Kane, was Jerry Summers, the childhood friend who would later wake up a quadriplegic after a Duntsch operation. Kane dated Summers for a year. After they all partied through the night, powered by LSD and cocaine, she said she saw Duntsch put on his lab coat to make rounds the next morning. “I thought it was pretty amazing that he was even able to go to work the next day,” she said in the deposition. “Like, he wasn’t scared. He didn’t not want to. He wasn’t paranoid. After you’ve spent a night using cocaine, most people become paranoid and want to stay in the house. They don’t want to go participate in any extraneous activities, and he was totally fine going to work.” Summers declined an interview in Memphis and would not answer questions on the phone. Duntsch declined a jailhouse interview, but he has called the allegations preposterous. It wasn’t until lawsuits were filed that the alleged drug use became public. Dr. Robert Henderson, a spine surgeon who has practiced in Dallas for more than 30 years, started digging after being assigned corrective surgery on two of Duntsch’s patients. He was so appalled at the results of the procedures that he faxed a photo of Duntsch to the University of Tennessee to see if the surgeon was an impostor. He recorded a conversation with Dr. Frederick Boop, who followed Robertson as the chairman of the department of neurosurgery. Boop told Henderson that Duntsch had been sent to an impaired physician program when he refused to take a drug test after an anonymous woman called to say she had seen him use cocaine, but he had been allowed to return to finish his residency. Boop also said that Duntsch spent his final year operating as an attending physician, and was not allowed to operate independently. Duntsch also said he was prepared to embrace the very darkest part of himself. “You, my child, are the only one between me and the other side,” he wrote. “I am ready to leave the love and kindness and goodness and patience that I mix with everything else that I am and become a cold blooded killer.” “It was something that made us all nervous, but we never had any proof,” Boop said in the phone call. “The university said, ‘We can’t let you see his personnel file. All we can say is he’s fine.’ ” By 2011, Duntsch had been sued by Discgenics’ former chief operating officer, a high school pal who joined when it was founded. He alleged that Duntsch promised to pay him in stocks and out of his own salary but failed to follow through. That July, Duntsch was firing off panicked emails to his business partners at 4 am on a Monday morning: “My reputation has been ruined,” he wrote. “I have lost both companies.” He would file for bankruptcy years later, and the filings show that Duntsch has had no managerial role with Discgenics since 2012, when he was removed as a board member and as chief science officer. For years, he’d focused on research. But it was growing increasingly clear that his opportunities were running out. He decided to turn to clinical work. Around this time, Drs. Michael Rimlawi and Douglas Won—the pair then owned the Minimally Invasive Spine Institute in North Dallas—recruited him from Memphis to join the practice. Soon, when Duntsch was requesting privileges at Baylor Plano, Robertson sent a letter to the hospital verifying Duntsch’s training. “His work ethic, character, and ability to get along with others were beyond reproach,” Robertson wrote. On July 1, 2011, Duntsch and Baylor Plano agreed to an inducement deal. By November, he had surgical privileges to operate on patients. Lee Passmore’s friends and family heard him before they saw him. His screams poured out of Baylor Plano’s intensive care unit and down the hallway, creating a panic in his mother. Patrick Clerkin, a longtime friend, stopped at the doorway with his two kids as well as Passmore’s 7- and 9-year-old girls. They turned around, away from the yelling. Duntsch soon appeared and tried to calm them, assuring them that Passmore would be fine in one or two days. “Don’t worry about it,” he repeated. But on January 6, 2012, a week after the surgery, Duntsch went back in. Passmore says the space above a disc in his lower spine had been blown out in the first surgery, and Duntsch returned to pick out the pieces. Passmore later learned that a ligament in his leg had been severed. Nerve pain now fires through his back, the result of a screw lodged in a nerve bundle. He can’t run or swim with his children. He struggles with incontinence. When he stepped off the bed for the first time after surgery, the feeling on the bottom of his feet had vanished. It still feels as if his feet are asleep. A longtime field agent for the Collin County Medical Examiner, Passmore needed knowledge from his training at scenes. He also needed his legs. If a person died in the fourth-floor apartment of a complex in Collin County, Passmore was the one who hiked up those four flights with somewhere around 20 pounds of gear on his back and got that body back down. He would climb a ladder and take aerial photos of crime scenes to aid in the death investigation. “I don’t have feeling in my feet, and I will slip and fall off that damn ladder,” he says today. In April 2012, just over four months removed from that initial surgery, Passmore returned to work. Sort of. He rode the desk until he couldn’t, when things in the county got too busy and all the examiners were required to take calls away from the office to cover the 200-odd scene visits. Passmore was allowed to resign and still access his long-term disability insurance, which he says he’d paid into for more than 10 years. But before he left, he happened to see a fax come in to the medical examiner’s office. It had come from Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano. There were two names on the top page: Kellie Martin and Christopher Duntsch. Wendy Renee Young says she met Duntsch in 2011 at the Beauty Shop in Memphis, a bar and restaurant that borrowed its shtick from its past life as a curl-and-dye shop owned by Elvis Presley’s ex-wife. Young let him buy her an appletini, and they hit it off. They eventually went back to his home, dancing to music under a disco ball he had in his office. “He was friendly, and we had good conversation. It’s hard to find good conversation with a random person,” Young says. “We talked about marriage pretty quickly. We moved in together within three months, and then I became pregnant.” Young was 27 when they met; Duntsch was 40. She’s 33 now and doesn’t live in Dallas anymore. It got to be too much. She describes investigators with binoculars camped out on their street in a white van, trying to see into their home. Later, attorneys would sit on the stairwell of her Skillman Street apartment. Plus, she was struggling financially. She was a stay-at-home mom to their two children, Preston and Aiden; her income was tied to Duntsch’s. Young was evicted at least twice. And so she’s here, in a Christian coffee shop tucked into a corner of the town square of Springtown, west of Fort Worth, where she lives with her new boyfriend’s parents. Her bright blond hair is pulled back into a ponytail, and she’s wearing a tank top with yoga pants. Last week, she had her third child, this one with her new partner. But she smiles softly as she talks about those early days with Duntsch, when they were still learning about each other’s lives. Before he cheated, before he lied. They met as Duntsch was looking for opportunities in an operating room somewhere. Within months, she says, he had offers in Dallas, San Diego, and New York. She had family in Dallas and decided she’d go with him if he chose that city. She was dancing at a strip club then, and Duntsch’s business problems were growing more severe. Moving made sense for both of them. They lived in a future colleague’s condo at the W Hotel while they looked for a home in Plano, close to where Duntsch would be practicing. He signed a physician services agreement on May 24, 2011, with Rimlawi and Won’s Minimally Invasive Spine Institute. (Neither responded to requests for comment for this story.) The deal required Duntsch to gain privileges at Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano. Base compensation was $600,000 a year for two years, beginning on June 14, 2011. Duntsch also received 40 percent of all revenue he generated beyond $800,000 each year. According to court documents, Rimlawi soon grew suspicious of Duntsch. “Something was wrong,” one lawsuit alleges, “whether it be impairment from drugs, alcohol, mental illness, or a combination of all three.” His first and only surgery with Minimally Invasive Spine Institute was on a Thursday at Baylor Plano. Duntsch allegedly performed the operation and flew out to Las Vegas without securing a call physician. He was gone until Monday. The hospital called Rimlawi when it couldn’t reach his colleague. Days after Duntsch returned, he was fired. Duntsch maintains that the practice didn’t meet the promises it agreed to, and that it still owes him money. He says that surgery happened earlier in the week, and that it was he who called Rimlawi and asked him to check on the patient. Whatever happened, he was gone from Minimally Invasive Spine Institute—but not from Baylor Plano. In the months following his surgery, Passmore focused on recovery and getting back to work. He didn’t contact a lawyer, although he wrestled with the decision. Instead, he thought about all those years he spent working and educating himself, all those years of paying bills on time to keep his credit high, of saving money to support his family. He thought about how all that might have been stolen from him in a matter of hours. But then came that fax, and he saw Duntsch’s name next to Kellie Martin’s. Martin was a 55-year-old woman who had lived with back pain for nearly a year after a fall in her kitchen. She enlisted Duntsch to help fix it. Her body was in the Collin County Medical Examiner’s office in March 2012. The autopsy had not been finished when Passmore accidentally saw the fax from Baylor Plano. But upon seeing that name, he took it to his boss, Dr. William Rohr. He couldn’t help it. “Dr. Rohr is a very professional man,” Passmore says. “He said, ‘It’s not your case, it’s another case, and we’re looking into it.’ I trust that man wholly.” But, he says, “It all started coming together in my head that this isn’t a one-time mistake.” Passmore later discovered that, less than a week after his second surgery, Duntsch had operated on 45-year-old Barry Morguloff. According to his lawsuit, Morguloff wound up with searing pain in his back and left leg from bone fragments lodged in his spinal canal during the operation, which were only discovered eight months later when he sought a second opinion. Duntsch calls this—and most other claims—nonsense. He has left a novel’s worth of defenses on the web, in PDFs, and in comments below news stories. He says he showed the postoperative imaging to “16 radiologists over six months,” all of whom said Morguloff was normal. Duntsch contends the patient was just trying to get painkillers. But Morguloff’s suit describes him being in “excruciating pain” and telling nurses that his pain was a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10. Passmore also learned about Kenneth Fennell, a 68-year-old who alleged in a lawsuit that, during a November procedure, Duntsch operated on the wrong body part. Duntsch, again, maintains this wasn’t true. He says Fennell’s surgery went so well that he agreed to be in a commercial for Baylor Plano. Martin, it turned out, had bled to death in the intensive care unit while undergoing a relatively common procedure known as a laminectomy, which involves removing spongy tissue between the discs to relieve pressure. Six weeks after her death on March 12, 2012, the medical examiner ruled her fate an accident. But Dr. William Rohr did editorialize in his conclusion: “The collection of blood was most likely the result of a therapeutic misadventure.” Duntsch blames the death on an allergy to fentanyl, a powerful narcotic often used in intubation. “Not a single doctor, surgeon, staff, or the pathologist of the autopsy every [sic] stated that I surgically caused vascular injury,” he wrote. Passmore, an investigator by trade and by nature, started digging. He went back to the source—the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. He wanted to find who Duntsch trained under, who his supervisors were. He wanted to ask them questions. “That’s when we stumbled across the gap,” Passmore says. He’d found a few months that were not accounted for in Duntsch’s educational history. “You don’t get to walk away from two or three years of medical training, in the middle of an internship or a residency, get to take time off and be slotted directly in the position you left in with no questions asked. Maybe that’s how they do it in Tennessee, but according to my training, that’s not how they do it here. Then it just started to all unravel.” At first, Passmore didn’t think much about the way Duntsch and his assistant, Kimberly Morgan, interacted. “It was clear to anyone who’s not a complete idiot that they were a thing,” he says. But they were also, presumably, two consenting adults, and both were, presumably, qualified to fix the pain that was wrecking his lower body. Duntsch hired Morgan while he was still with the Minimally Invasive Spine Institute, and she began on August 29, 2011. He kept her on after splitting from Rimlawi and Won. In October 2011, she registered articles of incorporation to form Duntsch’s practice, the Texas Neurosurgical Institute. That was the same month the two started having sex. Their trysts were largely confined to his office at Baylor Plano, the same place where, she said in her deposition, he often drank vodka and did research after hours. He kept a handle of Stoli under his desk and said it was because he used to work with Russians. In many ways, Morgan was the opposite of Young. She had clinical experience and often spent time with Duntsch when he was conducting research. She had brown hair, parted near the middle, that fell just below her shoulders. In a video recording of her deposition, she fidgets often, angling her head to look at a jug of Stoli, shaking her head yes or no, furrowing her brow at some of the questions. Duntsch had moved from the W to Hotel Zaza and then, finally, to a five-bedroom house not far from the hospital. Young lived there, too, and she says Morgan was a frequent visitor. She didn’t think much of it at first. She assumed Morgan was only helping with research. Duntsch told Morgan a different story. He said Young—who by now had given birth to their son, Aiden—was just his secretary and friend. By this time, Summers, the childhood friend, had come to live with Duntsch, too. He had a room upstairs in the Plano house. He also had a credit card in his name connected to Duntsch’s account and would drive him around, balance his checkbooks, pick up dry cleaning. Morgan says they spent a lot of time in clubs. Ghostbar, Dragonfly at Hotel Zaza. “If he wasn’t doing research, he was out with Jerry Summers, partying,” Morgan said in the deposition. Young puts Morgan there, too, although Morgan denied it in her deposition. Most of the time, she said, their relationship was confined to his office. Morgan was present in the operating room during Passmore’s surgery. She says she didn’t hear or see any altercation between Duntsch and Mark Hoyle—her view was blocked by a microscope, and the combined hum of the EKG machine and the oxygen cylinder drowned out the sound of Hoyle’s pleading, if there was any. She was also present for Summers’ operation. But she wasn’t in the room when he woke up a quadriplegic, telling anyone with ears that Duntsch had been using cocaine the night before the procedure. Summers had come in for an elective spinal fusion to relieve the pain he’d carried for years after a car accident. According to Texas Medical Board records, Summers’ vertebral artery was damaged, and he lost more than two liters of blood while intubated. When his patient woke up in the recovery room unable to move his extremities, Duntsch failed to perform a CAT scan or MRI. In her deposition, Morgan said Baylor Plano President Jerri Garison called both of them to her office and told them what Summers had said. Namely, that he’d been up all night snorting eight balls of cocaine (3.5 grams each) with Duntsch. She needed drug tests. Talking to the Dallas Morning News in 2014, Duntsch said he provided the test and was clean. Morgan, in her deposition, said Duntsch called her to say he got lost going to the lab and never took the test. After Summers’ procedure, Morgan says Duntsch “was not allowed to operate” at Baylor Plano until March 2012. Martin was his first patient back, and it was the last operation he performed at that hospital. Multiple lawsuits allege that Baylor did not report Duntsch to the National Practitioner Data Bank, which was created by Congress to be a private clearinghouse of physicians who have been suspended or had their privileges revoked. It’s accessible only to hospitals, and facilities are federally mandated to report their delinquents. According to court filings, he was supposed to be overseen by an attending physician in the operating room; this allegedly was not adhered to, either. On April 20, Duntsch submitted a letter to Baylor Plano’s medical staff services director, Patricia Sproles, saying he was moving his practice and resigning his clinical privileges. Sproles issued a letter to Duntsch that read: “There have been no summary or administrative restrictions or suspensions of Dr. Duntsch’s Medical Staff membership or clinical privileges during the time he has practiced at Baylor Reg. Medical Center at Plano.” Morgan didn’t follow Duntsch after Baylor Plano. She says she even filed a temporary protective order against him in April 2012, after he showed up banging on her window at 2 am. She also never reported Duntsch up the ladder. She says she never saw him drunk or high or suffering from withdrawal symptoms. She says he was prone to hyperbole, and, yeah, he had a questionable sense of humor. She says his “favorite saying” was “You can kiss my black ass while I’m watching black-girl porn on my monitor.” Which may help explain why she didn’t report the three-page email he sent on December 9, 2011. It was sent on a Friday at 4 am. The message alluded to a week where “everything unraveled” with their relationship. Duntsch suspected that this had something to do with his “vodka bottle” and “neurostimulants.” It said he was $1 million in debt. It said, “Anyone close to me thinks that I likely am something between god, einstein, and the antichrist. Because how can I do anything I want and cross every discipline boundary like its [sic] a playground and never ever lose.” Duntsch also said he was prepared to embrace the very darkest part of himself. “You, my child, are the only one between me and the other side,” he wrote. “I am ready to leave the love and kindness and goodness and patience that I mix with everything else that I am and become a cold blooded killer.” On average, a neurosurgeon generates more revenue for a hospital than all other specialties but invasive cardiology and orthopedic surgery. According to Irving-based physician recruitment firm Merritt Hawkins, a single neurosurgeon produced his or her hospital an average revenue of $2.45 million in 2015. Armed with Baylor’s declaration that it never amended his privileges, Duntsch found work in four months. He performed his first operation at Dallas Medical Center on July 24, 2012; the hospital issued temporary privileges while it verified his credentials. During this time, out of three procedures, one patient died and another was partially paralyzed. Like Summers, Floella Brown’s vertebral artery was damaged, causing massive bleeding. Unlike Summers, Brown, 63, suffered from hypertension and was a stroke risk. She suffered a “massive posterior circulation stroke” and was transferred to UT Southwestern Medical Center. She arrived brain-dead. “No autopsy was done (at the family’s request) but it is well-documented that the stroke was due to a left vertebral artery injury due to Dr. Duntsch’s horrendous surgical technique,” wrote surgeon Randall Kirby in a letter to the Texas Medical Board. Kirby reported having “direct knowledge” of seven patients that “Dr. Duntsch has maimed or killed.” Hoyle, the surgeon who exposed the incision in Passmore, had also filed a complaint with the board. “I agree completely with Dr. Hoyle’s complaint to the board when he stated that Dr. Duntsch is the most careless, clueless, and dangerous spine surgeon either of us has ever seen,” Kirby wrote. Duntsch grew accustomed to having his mug shot taken, whether for assault, DWI, or shoplifting. Duntsch had another surgery scheduled the day that Brown suffered her stroke. It was a revision of a patient whom he originally operated on at Baylor Plano. Mary Efurd, 53, was to have two vertebrae fused, linked by a metal plate. She woke up with severe pain and couldn’t stand. Henderson was brought in to operate two days later. He was shocked at the CT scan: the spinal fusion hardware sat in her soft tissue. The nerve root had been amputated. There were multiple screw holes nowhere near where they were supposed to be, and a screw had been lodged in another nerve root near the bottom of the spine. At that point, the administration revoked his privileges. Duntsch says he was so distraught by Brown’s outcome that he placed a screw in Efurd 3 millimeters away from where it should’ve been, damaging a nerve root. But that’s all. “There is no way to communicate what happened there, without a 20-page document of disclosures and events and responsible parties,” Duntsch once wrote of Brown and Efurd. “That venue is a civil or federal jury trial, and I would accept that if it gave the way forward to disclose, remedy, address what happened at DMC with these patients.” Henderson, like Passmore, began his own investigation. He recorded conversations with Foley, the head of the fellowship program, and Boop, the chairman. He called Baylor Plano President Jerri Garison, who was clearly familiar with Duntsch and was just as clear about how little she could say on the matter: “He no longer has privileges here, and I have to be very careful about what I say to you.” Baylor said it was unable to provide its executives for interviews because of Passmore’s pending lawsuit. In a statement, the hospital said it cooperated with the Texas Medical Board when asked, and did not file its own complaint because it was aware someone else already had. Baylor calls the allegations against it “extremely frustrating and difficult” and reiterates that Duntsch came with “references from multiple sources who worked with him in his residency and fellowship training programs.” “To put these misleading allegations into fair context, Baylor Plano is part of a hospital system that has made substantial investments over several decades to continuously enhance the quality of care we provide our patients, and we have gained many recognitions for these processes. We certainly would not knowingly allow one person to compromise the level of quality care that we have worked so hard and invested so much to achieve for our patients and our community.” By December, Duntsch wrangled privileges at Legacy Surgery Center of Frisco, and Kirby, in his letter to the Texas Medical Board, narrated another grim outcome: Jacqueline Troy’s vocal cord was paralyzed, and her esophagus and trachea had become connected, “an unheard of complication.” A corrective surgery happened two weeks later, after she arrived at the emergency room of Texas Health Presbyterian Dallas, where Kirby practiced. But Duntsch soldiered on. Around May 2013, Henderson got a call from Foley, the fellowship supervisor. He’d received a letter from University General Hospital in South Dallas, verifying Duntsch’s training. Foley said Duntsch was satisfactory in his fellowship, that he saw no evidence of the things he was accused of in Dallas happening in Memphis. And, seeing as how the hospital was asking specifically about that training, Foley said he didn’t feel comfortable expressing concern about what he’d heard was happening in Dallas. He hadn’t seen it with his own eyes. It was hearsay, he contended. “I can’t write on this form, Oh, by the way, I heard from Dr. Henderson about what sounds like major patient issues that you ought to look into,” Foley said in the call. “There’s no blank here for that.” Duntsch made a major miscalculation when he ventured south into Dallas to practice. He may have figured, at first, that he was protected. Texas’ tort reform laws cap the amount that patients can sue physicians for malpractice at $250,000. And, to successfully sue a hospital, they must prove that the facility acted with malice—that, in granting a physician privileges, it intended to harm the patient. An incredibly difficult thing to prove. But what Duntsch hadn’t counted on was the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office. After another disastrous outcome, this time at University General, Kirby and malpractice attorney Kay Van Wey decided to turn to the criminal justice system. At University General Hospital, Kirby had been granted emergency privileges to operate on a Duntsch patient named Jeffery Glidewell. He discovered a significant esophageal injury that belabored Glidewell’s breathing and found a sponge that had been left in the soft tissue of his neck. He, too, had an injury to his left vertebral artery, and the incision was far from where it should’ve been and had begun to leak pus. Despite receiving complaints dating back to 2012, the Texas Medical Board didn’t revoke Duntsch’s privileges until June 2013. That same month, Kirby wrote, he, along with the Glidewell family, brought the case to prosecutors and asked to press charges. “I am beginning to think the police are the only ones intellectually and physically capable of getting to the bottom of this matter,” he wrote. Meanwhile, Duntsch was struggling financially and started racking up a series of strange arrests. While staying with his parents outside Denver, he was stopped for driving under the influence. The arrest report says that he was driving on two flat tires, and one was “completely gone and was on the rim.” Officers found an empty bottle of Mike’s Hard Lemonade on the floorboard and a full one in the console. In September 2014, after he and Young had separated, Duntsch was arrested for jumping the fence of Young’s sister’s Garland home and attempting to take their child, Aiden. At the time, Young was giving birth to their second boy. (She says this was a misunderstanding, that she had asked him to retrieve Aiden and bring him to the hospital.) In April 2015, he was arrested for stealing $887.30 in Walmart merchandise: five pairs of sunglasses, five watches, two pairs of shoes, four ties, two briefcases, a wallet, cologne, necklaces, a walkie-talkie. He filed for bankruptcy in Denver, and wound up selling off the shares in Discgenics for a tenth of their value. Duntsch was also picked up wandering near a Chase Bank in North Dallas and taken to Green Oaks psychiatric hospital for an evaluation. Young says he’d been breaking into her apartment, and one day she came home to find him inside, covered in blood. He told her he had been attacked by an investigator for the attorneys representing his patients, but that was never corroborated. Finally, in July 2015, the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office followed through. A grand jury returned five indictments of aggravated assault and one of harming an elderly person. “I cannot recall a physician being indicted for aggravated assault for acts committed during surgery,” says Toby Shook, a Dallas defense attorney who spent 23 years working as a Dallas County prosecutor. “And not just Dallas County—I don’t recall hearing about it anywhere.” Duntsch pleaded not guilty. He’s jailed on a $600,000 bond, and his trial is set for January 31, 2017. In emails, he alleges that he was at the center of a vast conspiracy to bilk money from the hospitals where he practiced. He argues that the patients were just telling stories and that Passmore was fine after his operation. Why else would his daughter have sent Duntsch a card thanking him? But patient advocates and the surgeons that mobilized to rid him of his license say that Duntsch was the perfect storm. Nobody stopped him soon enough. The hospitals didn’t do their due diligence until it was too late, and those who could’ve spoken up didn’t. Every patient mentioned in this story who has sued, except for Passmore, has settled. They all signed nondisclosure agreements that prohibit them from discussing their cases or their monetary awards. As one lawyer told me off the record, they faced an almost impossible dilemma: settle and give their families a financial cushion for the future medical costs but sacrifice their right to tell their stories. Passmore is still fighting. He has taken Baylor Plano to court to change the Texas law requiring patients to prove that a hospital intended to harm them when it granted privileges to someone who was unsafe. Governor Greg Abbott, then the attorney general, even waded into the whole mess, filing a brief in Passmore’s suit in support of the law. But Passmore knows it’s his battle to fight. Who else is left? “I don’t have Facebook, I don’t Myspace. I have taken one selfie in my life—on a dare. I don’t want my name out there. I don’t want to be in your magazine, sir, I apologize,” Passmore told me. “I don’t want to be on Channel 8, I don’t want to be on Inside Edition. But it’s the only way to get anybody to listen. It might be Baylor, it might be somebody down in Austin, it might be somebody somewhere, but it’s the only way you can get your voice out there. The thing is, if you don’t push this, with everybody else settling, they’re getting away with it again.” This story, when first published, contained inaccuracies concerning Duntsch’s relationship with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, which were taken from his CV. They have since been corrected. ||||| Follow CBSDFW.COM: Facebook | Twitter DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – Christopher Duntsch has been sentenced to life in prison. It took the jury one hour to sentence Duntsch to the maximum penalty for a series of botched spinal surgeries. Thirty-two patients in all. Two were paralyzed and two others were killed. The DA’s office called this a historic case with regard to prosecuting a doctor who had done wrong during surgery. “This is a great day,” said Dallas County DA Faith Johnson during a news conference shortly after the verdict. “We have done something historic. We are so elated about the life sentence.” The former North Texas neurosurgeon was convicted of intentionally injuring the patients he was supposed to be helping. After the sentencing, Don Martin, whose said his wife died at the hands of Duntsch said, “We’re overwhelmed. This was a voice for Kelly. And we’re just so thankful. And hopefully move on with our lives.” “I’m just so grateful, from the bottom of my heart,” said Caitlin Linhuf, whose mother died after a surgery performed by Duntsch. “This will not bring my mother back, but this is some sense of justice.” “Really who he is was someone who called himself a cold blooded killer,” said Justin McCants of the Dallas County DA’s Office. “Someone who calls himself a god at times. Who believed he was a god at times.” It took the jury just fours hours last Tuesday to find Duntsch guilty of intentionally causing serious bodily injury to an elderly person. Victim Mary Efurd testified in the case. Duntsch botched her spinal surgery in 2012 – a procedure that has left her wheelchair bound. Prosecutors say Duntsch was malicious and reckless while he performed surgery. And apparently Efurd wasn’t his only victim. Jurors heard from several people who shared their nightmares, saying he maimed them on purpose. Prosecutors accused Duntsch of also maiming four patients and causing the death of at least two, between July 2012 and June 2013. Duntsch’s attorneys argued he wasn’t a criminal, just a lousy surgeon. Mary Efurd said the verdict had been a long time coming. “Relief. Finally justice has been done after 4 1/2 years,” she said. “And I hope I’m speaking for all the other families and their loved ones also. I think we feel real good about it. We feel like justice was done.” Efurd also said she’s grateful the 45-year-old is no longer practicing medicine. “You know, when they finally got his license suspended I cried for two days. It was just relief that didn’t stop.” (©2017 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

– Mary Efurd came out of back surgery in 2012 unable to use her legs and missing a third of her blood. Her Texas neurosurgeon has now been sentenced to life in prison as a result, reports the Dallas Morning News. A jury found Christopher Duntsch, 45, guilty of intentionally causing injury to an elderly person last week before delivering his sentence in a Dallas County court on Monday after an hour of deliberation, per CBS DFW. Though the trial focused on Efurd's case, the jury heard how two patients died after surgery performed by Duntsch. More than 30 others said Duntsch left them with chronic pain, permanent nerve damage, or surgical waste inside their bodies, while one man said he awoke from surgery to find he was paralyzed on one side of his body. In Efurd's case, a doctor said Duntsch had "done virtually everything wrong," including drilling a screw into her spinal cavity and attaching implants to muscle instead of bone. "It's as egregious as you can imagine," he said. Lawyers for Duntsch—who was stripped of his medical license in 2013, per the Dallas Observer—argued he was "not a skilled surgeon" and "was on his own and doing the best he could." But prosecutors pointed to disturbing emails in which Duntsch referred to himself as "something between god, Einstein, and the antichrist" and said he was "ready to … become a cold-blooded killer," per D Magazine, which nicknamed him "Dr. Death." "He obviously knew at some point that what he was doing was criminal," one prosecutor said.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Christopher Duntsch Christopher Duntsch via Facebook Christopher Duntsch, the Dallas doctor convicted last week of paralyzing an elderly patient during a botched 2012 surgery, is going to prison for life. A Dallas County jury took a little more than an hour to sentence him Monday afternoon. Duntsch, 45, was stripped of his medical license in 2013 following a series of surgeries that ended with two patients dead, four crippled and several others with surgical waste sewn up inside of them. In 2015, Dallas police arrested the Duntsch on five aggravated assault charges, but he ended up only being tried for injuring Mary Efurd, who was left in a wheelchair and constant pain following back surgery. Jurors heard from multiple patients who'd sought relief from back pain, only to end immobilized or disfigured by Duntsch. Prosecutors painted the doctor as amoral and willing to hurt patients for cash, while Duntsch's defense team claimed that he was merely improperly trained to carry out the types of surgeries he attempted. Many injuries from his surgery were often due to massive blood loss. Dallas County District Attorney Faith Johnson said at a press conference that the fact that Duntsch continued to perform surgeries after causing so many injuries elevated his case from mere malpractice to criminal assault. "He obviously knew at some point that what he was doing was criminal," Johnson said. Prior to practicing in Dallas, Duntsch was a doctor in Tennessee. There, prosecutors said, multiple patients sued him, leaving him in tremendous debt. "We think that he saw dollar signs as a way to eliminate his debt from school and from lawsuits ... and to live the high life," Dallas County Assistant District Attorney Stephanie Martin said. "That's what's so great about today's sentence, he can't harm anyone else anywhere in America." ||||| Jurors heard from patient after patient who sought surgery from Duntsch to fix back problems, only to be left disfigured or immobilized and in excruciating pain. They heard from Philip Mayfield, who cries when he thinks of all of his son's football games that he hasn't been able to watch because he often passes out from chronic pain, and Barry Morgaloff, who limps with a brace and a cane as a result of irreparable nerve damage in his spine. They heard from Jeff Cheney, who woke up paralyzed from the neck down on his right side, and Jackie Troy, who talks in a permanent whisper and almost died from an infection after she was left with puncture wounds in her throat after Duntsch performed neck surgery on her. "I'm just trying to stay focused and be thankful that I'm one of the lucky ones in this situation," said Troy, who's alive to talk about her encounter with Duntsch, unlike two of his patients: Kellie Martin and Floella Brown, who died after undergoing back surgery in 2012. ||||| Lee Passmore can’t feel his feet. His right leg is as stiff as his pressed blue jeans, and when he walks, he appears to use his hips to heave it forward. He also vibrates—his chest shakes, his right hand jitters. But Passmore is one of the lucky ones. He’ll tell you as much. He’s alive. In November 2011, Passmore was hooked on prescription opiates. They numbed the pain radiating from his lower back, down each of his legs. He thought surgery might give him some relief, eliminate the need for drugs, solve both problems at once. His pain management specialist advised against an operation. But then he gave Passmore the card of a neurosurgeon named Christopher Duntsch. Duntsch had only been in the Dallas area for a few months. He was taller than 6 feet, with a stubby nose and neatly cropped hair above bright blue eyes, and he had crafted a strategy that endeared him to patients and to referring physicians: I’m the best, he’d tell them. He always had a plan, always had a pitch, always had a way to fix you. His fellow neurosurgeons found him to be fast-talking and cocksure, a bit of a loner. And yet nearly all who met him said they liked him immediately. But he’d make troubling, bizarre pronouncements, like “Everybody’s doing it wrong. I’m the only clean minimally invasive guy in the whole state.” That’s according to Dr. Mark Hoyle, who was the general surgeon during Passmore’s surgery. He met Duntsch that day in the physician lounge at Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano, where the operation occurred. “I thought he was either really, really good, or he’s just really, really arrogant and thought he was good,” Hoyle says now. This would be the first and last time Hoyle worked next to Duntsch. Hoyle’s job was to cut Passmore open and sew him up, and on December 30, 2011, he made a small incision just above the 36-year-old’s groin and moved the blood vessels and organs out of the way, allowing Duntsch clear access to the lower spine to remove a herniated disc. The disc was pressing on a nerve, which caused the pain. But as Duntsch worked, Hoyle looked over and saw blood and not much else. It was pouring out of the epidural blood vessels and pooling in the disc space. But Duntsch kept going, as if he were fishing in a pond at night, saying he was working by feel, not sight. He announced that he would be removing the ligament that separates the disc from the spinal canal. This posterior longitudinal ligament is one of the spine’s two major stabilizers. It’s less than a millimeter from the spinal canal. Hoyle stepped in front of Duntsch to block his way. “We need to talk about this,” Hoyle said, locking eyes with him. “That’s dangerous—even that attitude is dangerous.” Duntsch relented, allowing Hoyle to move in, stop the bleeding, and clean out the wound. The operation continued. Duntsch placed a surgical cage where the disc was, to widen the opening around the nerve roots and relieve the pressure that was causing Passmore’s pain. But Hoyle says an X-ray later showed it was positioned too far to the left. When Duntsch tried to reposition it, he stripped a screw; the cage wasn’t going anywhere. Hoyle called the whole surgery sloppy, enough so that he canceled the remaining three or four operations he had scheduled with Duntsch and vowed never to work with him again. He was the first surgeon to do so, but not the last. Duntsch’s patient outcomes would draw lots of attention over the years. There was Kellie Martin, who died from massive blood loss after a surgery at Baylor Plano. There was Floella Brown, whose sliced vertebral artery triggered the stroke that killed her at Dallas Medical Center. There was Duntsch’s childhood friend, Jerry Summers, who woke up from a procedure unable to move his arms and legs. There was a dissection of one patient’s esophagus, and screws that an indictment labeled “far too long” that caused significant blood loss in another patient. One surgeon described these as “never events.” They shouldn’t ever happen in someone’s entire career. And yet they occurred in Duntsch’s operating rooms over a period of just two years. As these cases became public record, rumors circulated of late-night partying leading into early-morning rounds, and whispers of drug and alcohol abuse became shouts. Investigations took patients and attorneys back to where Duntsch had had such a promising beginning—in Memphis, at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, where he earned both an M.D. and a Ph.D. He ran two labs, is listed as one of three inventors on a successful patent, raised millions of dollars in grant funding, and once gave a tour to the governor of Tennessee as he explained the stem cell research occurring at the university. But today, about five years after the Passmore surgery, Duntsch sits in Lew Sterrett Justice Center awaiting trial, the rare physician to be indicted on multiple counts of aggravated assault related to what happened in his operating rooms. He wears a gray-and-black-striped uniform, not unlike a set of scrubs. On paper, the 40-year-old man who arrived in Dallas in the summer of 2011 was a completely different Christopher Duntsch than the one who was introduced to the public after more than a dozen allegations of severely botched surgeries. Duntsch had a comfortable upbringing. He was born in Montana, but his family settled in a suburb east of Memphis where the median household income is about $30,000 higher than the rest of the country. He was the oldest of four—he has two brothers, Nathan and Matt, and a sister, Liz—and attended a private high school. His father, Donald, was a missionary and a physical therapist. His mother, Susan, taught school. He stayed in town for his undergraduate degree, emerging from the University of Memphis in 1994. He stayed local for medical school, enrolling the next year at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. His CV proclaims that he earned a doctorate in microbiology from the prestigious St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, graduating summa cum laude. St. Jude says there was no such program at the hospital at that time. (He also appears in no yearbooks from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center at the time in which he says he earned his Ph.D., and the school declined to verify his claims, citing a federal privacy law.) He did earn his M.D., doing so well that he was among the 12 percent of medical school graduates in his class named to the elite Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society. He stayed at the University of Tennessee for his surgical residency, spending the standard five years on neurosurgery and one year learning general surgery. In 2005, about a third of the way through the six-year program, department chairman Dr. Jon Robertson appointed him program director of the school’s tissue bank, where he’d supply samples to scientists and oversee two labs. He gained experience writing grants, and earned more than $3 million in local, state, and federal funding for research projects where he served as principal or co-principal investigator. He was constantly involved in research, and, around 2006, he saw a way to commercialize discoveries by renowned Russian stem cell scientists Valery Kukekov and Tatyana Ignatova, a husband-and-wife team. It is during this period that Duntsch’s carefully built façade began showing its first cracks. Kukekov had discovered stem cells in human brain tumors, which presented a huge potential for the development of new cancer drugs. He also discovered a way to produce stem cells from intervertebral discs in cultures outside the body. Creating cells from a culture would eliminate the need for human extraction; there was huge potential upside. Duntsch filed patents for each discovery, and two companies were soon created. NovoStem Therapeutics, which attempted to monetize the cancer stem cell discovery, failed after taking a funding hit during the 2008 recession. The other, Discgenics, was more successful; it still owns the patent for the technology. Duntsch, Kukekov, and Ignatova are listed as its inventors. Or, they should be: the scientists’ names are misspelled. “Nobody can recognize whether it was ours or not!” Ignatova says. While Ignatova and Kukekov say they were in the labs, Duntsch focused on raising money. He secured investments in Discgenics from local spine surgeons, including Robertson and Dr. Kevin Foley, a prominent Memphis neurosurgeon under whom Duntsch would spend a year training as part of a minimally invasive spine surgery fellowship at the Semmes-Murphey Clinic, one of the largest neurosurgery practices in the United States. Kukekov and Ignatova say Duntsch took more credit than he deserved for the discoveries. “It wasn’t his invention,” Kukekov says. “It was the invention of me and my wife, because we made all primary experiments. We discovered it.” Around that same time, Duntsch’s behavior was becoming erratic. During a deposition with Passmore’s lawyer, attorney James Girards, a woman named Megan Kane recalls Duntsch eating a paper blotter of LSD and taking prescription painkillers on his birthday in either 2006 or 2007. She also says they snorted cocaine from a small pile that he kept on a dresser in his home office. Also present, according to Kane, was Jerry Summers, the childhood friend who would later wake up a quadriplegic after a Duntsch operation. Kane dated Summers for a year. After they all partied through the night, powered by LSD and cocaine, she said she saw Duntsch put on his lab coat to make rounds the next morning. “I thought it was pretty amazing that he was even able to go to work the next day,” she said in the deposition. “Like, he wasn’t scared. He didn’t not want to. He wasn’t paranoid. After you’ve spent a night using cocaine, most people become paranoid and want to stay in the house. They don’t want to go participate in any extraneous activities, and he was totally fine going to work.” Summers declined an interview in Memphis and would not answer questions on the phone. Duntsch declined a jailhouse interview, but he has called the allegations preposterous. It wasn’t until lawsuits were filed that the alleged drug use became public. Dr. Robert Henderson, a spine surgeon who has practiced in Dallas for more than 30 years, started digging after being assigned corrective surgery on two of Duntsch’s patients. He was so appalled at the results of the procedures that he faxed a photo of Duntsch to the University of Tennessee to see if the surgeon was an impostor. He recorded a conversation with Dr. Frederick Boop, who followed Robertson as the chairman of the department of neurosurgery. Boop told Henderson that Duntsch had been sent to an impaired physician program when he refused to take a drug test after an anonymous woman called to say she had seen him use cocaine, but he had been allowed to return to finish his residency. Boop also said that Duntsch spent his final year operating as an attending physician, and was not allowed to operate independently. Duntsch also said he was prepared to embrace the very darkest part of himself. “You, my child, are the only one between me and the other side,” he wrote. “I am ready to leave the love and kindness and goodness and patience that I mix with everything else that I am and become a cold blooded killer.” “It was something that made us all nervous, but we never had any proof,” Boop said in the phone call. “The university said, ‘We can’t let you see his personnel file. All we can say is he’s fine.’ ” By 2011, Duntsch had been sued by Discgenics’ former chief operating officer, a high school pal who joined when it was founded. He alleged that Duntsch promised to pay him in stocks and out of his own salary but failed to follow through. That July, Duntsch was firing off panicked emails to his business partners at 4 am on a Monday morning: “My reputation has been ruined,” he wrote. “I have lost both companies.” He would file for bankruptcy years later, and the filings show that Duntsch has had no managerial role with Discgenics since 2012, when he was removed as a board member and as chief science officer. For years, he’d focused on research. But it was growing increasingly clear that his opportunities were running out. He decided to turn to clinical work. Around this time, Drs. Michael Rimlawi and Douglas Won—the pair then owned the Minimally Invasive Spine Institute in North Dallas—recruited him from Memphis to join the practice. Soon, when Duntsch was requesting privileges at Baylor Plano, Robertson sent a letter to the hospital verifying Duntsch’s training. “His work ethic, character, and ability to get along with others were beyond reproach,” Robertson wrote. On July 1, 2011, Duntsch and Baylor Plano agreed to an inducement deal. By November, he had surgical privileges to operate on patients. Lee Passmore’s friends and family heard him before they saw him. His screams poured out of Baylor Plano’s intensive care unit and down the hallway, creating a panic in his mother. Patrick Clerkin, a longtime friend, stopped at the doorway with his two kids as well as Passmore’s 7- and 9-year-old girls. They turned around, away from the yelling. Duntsch soon appeared and tried to calm them, assuring them that Passmore would be fine in one or two days. “Don’t worry about it,” he repeated. But on January 6, 2012, a week after the surgery, Duntsch went back in. Passmore says the space above a disc in his lower spine had been blown out in the first surgery, and Duntsch returned to pick out the pieces. Passmore later learned that a ligament in his leg had been severed. Nerve pain now fires through his back, the result of a screw lodged in a nerve bundle. He can’t run or swim with his children. He struggles with incontinence. When he stepped off the bed for the first time after surgery, the feeling on the bottom of his feet had vanished. It still feels as if his feet are asleep. A longtime field agent for the Collin County Medical Examiner, Passmore needed knowledge from his training at scenes. He also needed his legs. If a person died in the fourth-floor apartment of a complex in Collin County, Passmore was the one who hiked up those four flights with somewhere around 20 pounds of gear on his back and got that body back down. He would climb a ladder and take aerial photos of crime scenes to aid in the death investigation. “I don’t have feeling in my feet, and I will slip and fall off that damn ladder,” he says today. In April 2012, just over four months removed from that initial surgery, Passmore returned to work. Sort of. He rode the desk until he couldn’t, when things in the county got too busy and all the examiners were required to take calls away from the office to cover the 200-odd scene visits. Passmore was allowed to resign and still access his long-term disability insurance, which he says he’d paid into for more than 10 years. But before he left, he happened to see a fax come in to the medical examiner’s office. It had come from Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano. There were two names on the top page: Kellie Martin and Christopher Duntsch. Wendy Renee Young says she met Duntsch in 2011 at the Beauty Shop in Memphis, a bar and restaurant that borrowed its shtick from its past life as a curl-and-dye shop owned by Elvis Presley’s ex-wife. Young let him buy her an appletini, and they hit it off. They eventually went back to his home, dancing to music under a disco ball he had in his office. “He was friendly, and we had good conversation. It’s hard to find good conversation with a random person,” Young says. “We talked about marriage pretty quickly. We moved in together within three months, and then I became pregnant.” Young was 27 when they met; Duntsch was 40. She’s 33 now and doesn’t live in Dallas anymore. It got to be too much. She describes investigators with binoculars camped out on their street in a white van, trying to see into their home. Later, attorneys would sit on the stairwell of her Skillman Street apartment. Plus, she was struggling financially. She was a stay-at-home mom to their two children, Preston and Aiden; her income was tied to Duntsch’s. Young was evicted at least twice. And so she’s here, in a Christian coffee shop tucked into a corner of the town square of Springtown, west of Fort Worth, where she lives with her new boyfriend’s parents. Her bright blond hair is pulled back into a ponytail, and she’s wearing a tank top with yoga pants. Last week, she had her third child, this one with her new partner. But she smiles softly as she talks about those early days with Duntsch, when they were still learning about each other’s lives. Before he cheated, before he lied. They met as Duntsch was looking for opportunities in an operating room somewhere. Within months, she says, he had offers in Dallas, San Diego, and New York. She had family in Dallas and decided she’d go with him if he chose that city. She was dancing at a strip club then, and Duntsch’s business problems were growing more severe. Moving made sense for both of them. They lived in a future colleague’s condo at the W Hotel while they looked for a home in Plano, close to where Duntsch would be practicing. He signed a physician services agreement on May 24, 2011, with Rimlawi and Won’s Minimally Invasive Spine Institute. (Neither responded to requests for comment for this story.) The deal required Duntsch to gain privileges at Baylor Regional Medical Center at Plano. Base compensation was $600,000 a year for two years, beginning on June 14, 2011. Duntsch also received 40 percent of all revenue he generated beyond $800,000 each year. According to court documents, Rimlawi soon grew suspicious of Duntsch. “Something was wrong,” one lawsuit alleges, “whether it be impairment from drugs, alcohol, mental illness, or a combination of all three.” His first and only surgery with Minimally Invasive Spine Institute was on a Thursday at Baylor Plano. Duntsch allegedly performed the operation and flew out to Las Vegas without securing a call physician. He was gone until Monday. The hospital called Rimlawi when it couldn’t reach his colleague. Days after Duntsch returned, he was fired. Duntsch maintains that the practice didn’t meet the promises it agreed to, and that it still owes him money. He says that surgery happened earlier in the week, and that it was he who called Rimlawi and asked him to check on the patient. Whatever happened, he was gone from Minimally Invasive Spine Institute—but not from Baylor Plano. In the months following his surgery, Passmore focused on recovery and getting back to work. He didn’t contact a lawyer, although he wrestled with the decision. Instead, he thought about all those years he spent working and educating himself, all those years of paying bills on time to keep his credit high, of saving money to support his family. He thought about how all that might have been stolen from him in a matter of hours. But then came that fax, and he saw Duntsch’s name next to Kellie Martin’s. Martin was a 55-year-old woman who had lived with back pain for nearly a year after a fall in her kitchen. She enlisted Duntsch to help fix it. Her body was in the Collin County Medical Examiner’s office in March 2012. The autopsy had not been finished when Passmore accidentally saw the fax from Baylor Plano. But upon seeing that name, he took it to his boss, Dr. William Rohr. He couldn’t help it. “Dr. Rohr is a very professional man,” Passmore says. “He said, ‘It’s not your case, it’s another case, and we’re looking into it.’ I trust that man wholly.” But, he says, “It all started coming together in my head that this isn’t a one-time mistake.” Passmore later discovered that, less than a week after his second surgery, Duntsch had operated on 45-year-old Barry Morguloff. According to his lawsuit, Morguloff wound up with searing pain in his back and left leg from bone fragments lodged in his spinal canal during the operation, which were only discovered eight months later when he sought a second opinion. Duntsch calls this—and most other claims—nonsense. He has left a novel’s worth of defenses on the web, in PDFs, and in comments below news stories. He says he showed the postoperative imaging to “16 radiologists over six months,” all of whom said Morguloff was normal. Duntsch contends the patient was just trying to get painkillers. But Morguloff’s suit describes him being in “excruciating pain” and telling nurses that his pain was a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10. Passmore also learned about Kenneth Fennell, a 68-year-old who alleged in a lawsuit that, during a November procedure, Duntsch operated on the wrong body part. Duntsch, again, maintains this wasn’t true. He says Fennell’s surgery went so well that he agreed to be in a commercial for Baylor Plano. Martin, it turned out, had bled to death in the intensive care unit while undergoing a relatively common procedure known as a laminectomy, which involves removing spongy tissue between the discs to relieve pressure. Six weeks after her death on March 12, 2012, the medical examiner ruled her fate an accident. But Dr. William Rohr did editorialize in his conclusion: “The collection of blood was most likely the result of a therapeutic misadventure.” Duntsch blames the death on an allergy to fentanyl, a powerful narcotic often used in intubation. “Not a single doctor, surgeon, staff, or the pathologist of the autopsy every [sic] stated that I surgically caused vascular injury,” he wrote. Passmore, an investigator by trade and by nature, started digging. He went back to the source—the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. He wanted to find who Duntsch trained under, who his supervisors were. He wanted to ask them questions. “That’s when we stumbled across the gap,” Passmore says. He’d found a few months that were not accounted for in Duntsch’s educational history. “You don’t get to walk away from two or three years of medical training, in the middle of an internship or a residency, get to take time off and be slotted directly in the position you left in with no questions asked. Maybe that’s how they do it in Tennessee, but according to my training, that’s not how they do it here. Then it just started to all unravel.” At first, Passmore didn’t think much about the way Duntsch and his assistant, Kimberly Morgan, interacted. “It was clear to anyone who’s not a complete idiot that they were a thing,” he says. But they were also, presumably, two consenting adults, and both were, presumably, qualified to fix the pain that was wrecking his lower body. Duntsch hired Morgan while he was still with the Minimally Invasive Spine Institute, and she began on August 29, 2011. He kept her on after splitting from Rimlawi and Won. In October 2011, she registered articles of incorporation to form Duntsch’s practice, the Texas Neurosurgical Institute. That was the same month the two started having sex. Their trysts were largely confined to his office at Baylor Plano, the same place where, she said in her deposition, he often drank vodka and did research after hours. He kept a handle of Stoli under his desk and said it was because he used to work with Russians. In many ways, Morgan was the opposite of Young. She had clinical experience and often spent time with Duntsch when he was conducting research. She had brown hair, parted near the middle, that fell just below her shoulders. In a video recording of her deposition, she fidgets often, angling her head to look at a jug of Stoli, shaking her head yes or no, furrowing her brow at some of the questions. Duntsch had moved from the W to Hotel Zaza and then, finally, to a five-bedroom house not far from the hospital. Young lived there, too, and she says Morgan was a frequent visitor. She didn’t think much of it at first. She assumed Morgan was only helping with research. Duntsch told Morgan a different story. He said Young—who by now had given birth to their son, Aiden—was just his secretary and friend. By this time, Summers, the childhood friend, had come to live with Duntsch, too. He had a room upstairs in the Plano house. He also had a credit card in his name connected to Duntsch’s account and would drive him around, balance his checkbooks, pick up dry cleaning. Morgan says they spent a lot of time in clubs. Ghostbar, Dragonfly at Hotel Zaza. “If he wasn’t doing research, he was out with Jerry Summers, partying,” Morgan said in the deposition. Young puts Morgan there, too, although Morgan denied it in her deposition. Most of the time, she said, their relationship was confined to his office. Morgan was present in the operating room during Passmore’s surgery. She says she didn’t hear or see any altercation between Duntsch and Mark Hoyle—her view was blocked by a microscope, and the combined hum of the EKG machine and the oxygen cylinder drowned out the sound of Hoyle’s pleading, if there was any. She was also present for Summers’ operation. But she wasn’t in the room when he woke up a quadriplegic, telling anyone with ears that Duntsch had been using cocaine the night before the procedure. Summers had come in for an elective spinal fusion to relieve the pain he’d carried for years after a car accident. According to Texas Medical Board records, Summers’ vertebral artery was damaged, and he lost more than two liters of blood while intubated. When his patient woke up in the recovery room unable to move his extremities, Duntsch failed to perform a CAT scan or MRI. In her deposition, Morgan said Baylor Plano President Jerri Garison called both of them to her office and told them what Summers had said. Namely, that he’d been up all night snorting eight balls of cocaine (3.5 grams each) with Duntsch. She needed drug tests. Talking to the Dallas Morning News in 2014, Duntsch said he provided the test and was clean. Morgan, in her deposition, said Duntsch called her to say he got lost going to the lab and never took the test. After Summers’ procedure, Morgan says Duntsch “was not allowed to operate” at Baylor Plano until March 2012. Martin was his first patient back, and it was the last operation he performed at that hospital. Multiple lawsuits allege that Baylor did not report Duntsch to the National Practitioner Data Bank, which was created by Congress to be a private clearinghouse of physicians who have been suspended or had their privileges revoked. It’s accessible only to hospitals, and facilities are federally mandated to report their delinquents. According to court filings, he was supposed to be overseen by an attending physician in the operating room; this allegedly was not adhered to, either. On April 20, Duntsch submitted a letter to Baylor Plano’s medical staff services director, Patricia Sproles, saying he was moving his practice and resigning his clinical privileges. Sproles issued a letter to Duntsch that read: “There have been no summary or administrative restrictions or suspensions of Dr. Duntsch’s Medical Staff membership or clinical privileges during the time he has practiced at Baylor Reg. Medical Center at Plano.” Morgan didn’t follow Duntsch after Baylor Plano. She says she even filed a temporary protective order against him in April 2012, after he showed up banging on her window at 2 am. She also never reported Duntsch up the ladder. She says she never saw him drunk or high or suffering from withdrawal symptoms. She says he was prone to hyperbole, and, yeah, he had a questionable sense of humor. She says his “favorite saying” was “You can kiss my black ass while I’m watching black-girl porn on my monitor.” Which may help explain why she didn’t report the three-page email he sent on December 9, 2011. It was sent on a Friday at 4 am. The message alluded to a week where “everything unraveled” with their relationship. Duntsch suspected that this had something to do with his “vodka bottle” and “neurostimulants.” It said he was $1 million in debt. It said, “Anyone close to me thinks that I likely am something between god, einstein, and the antichrist. Because how can I do anything I want and cross every discipline boundary like its [sic] a playground and never ever lose.” Duntsch also said he was prepared to embrace the very darkest part of himself. “You, my child, are the only one between me and the other side,” he wrote. “I am ready to leave the love and kindness and goodness and patience that I mix with everything else that I am and become a cold blooded killer.” On average, a neurosurgeon generates more revenue for a hospital than all other specialties but invasive cardiology and orthopedic surgery. According to Irving-based physician recruitment firm Merritt Hawkins, a single neurosurgeon produced his or her hospital an average revenue of $2.45 million in 2015. Armed with Baylor’s declaration that it never amended his privileges, Duntsch found work in four months. He performed his first operation at Dallas Medical Center on July 24, 2012; the hospital issued temporary privileges while it verified his credentials. During this time, out of three procedures, one patient died and another was partially paralyzed. Like Summers, Floella Brown’s vertebral artery was damaged, causing massive bleeding. Unlike Summers, Brown, 63, suffered from hypertension and was a stroke risk. She suffered a “massive posterior circulation stroke” and was transferred to UT Southwestern Medical Center. She arrived brain-dead. “No autopsy was done (at the family’s request) but it is well-documented that the stroke was due to a left vertebral artery injury due to Dr. Duntsch’s horrendous surgical technique,” wrote surgeon Randall Kirby in a letter to the Texas Medical Board. Kirby reported having “direct knowledge” of seven patients that “Dr. Duntsch has maimed or killed.” Hoyle, the surgeon who exposed the incision in Passmore, had also filed a complaint with the board. “I agree completely with Dr. Hoyle’s complaint to the board when he stated that Dr. Duntsch is the most careless, clueless, and dangerous spine surgeon either of us has ever seen,” Kirby wrote. Duntsch grew accustomed to having his mug shot taken, whether for assault, DWI, or shoplifting. Duntsch had another surgery scheduled the day that Brown suffered her stroke. It was a revision of a patient whom he originally operated on at Baylor Plano. Mary Efurd, 53, was to have two vertebrae fused, linked by a metal plate. She woke up with severe pain and couldn’t stand. Henderson was brought in to operate two days later. He was shocked at the CT scan: the spinal fusion hardware sat in her soft tissue. The nerve root had been amputated. There were multiple screw holes nowhere near where they were supposed to be, and a screw had been lodged in another nerve root near the bottom of the spine. At that point, the administration revoked his privileges. Duntsch says he was so distraught by Brown’s outcome that he placed a screw in Efurd 3 millimeters away from where it should’ve been, damaging a nerve root. But that’s all. “There is no way to communicate what happened there, without a 20-page document of disclosures and events and responsible parties,” Duntsch once wrote of Brown and Efurd. “That venue is a civil or federal jury trial, and I would accept that if it gave the way forward to disclose, remedy, address what happened at DMC with these patients.” Henderson, like Passmore, began his own investigation. He recorded conversations with Foley, the head of the fellowship program, and Boop, the chairman. He called Baylor Plano President Jerri Garison, who was clearly familiar with Duntsch and was just as clear about how little she could say on the matter: “He no longer has privileges here, and I have to be very careful about what I say to you.” Baylor said it was unable to provide its executives for interviews because of Passmore’s pending lawsuit. In a statement, the hospital said it cooperated with the Texas Medical Board when asked, and did not file its own complaint because it was aware someone else already had. Baylor calls the allegations against it “extremely frustrating and difficult” and reiterates that Duntsch came with “references from multiple sources who worked with him in his residency and fellowship training programs.” “To put these misleading allegations into fair context, Baylor Plano is part of a hospital system that has made substantial investments over several decades to continuously enhance the quality of care we provide our patients, and we have gained many recognitions for these processes. We certainly would not knowingly allow one person to compromise the level of quality care that we have worked so hard and invested so much to achieve for our patients and our community.” By December, Duntsch wrangled privileges at Legacy Surgery Center of Frisco, and Kirby, in his letter to the Texas Medical Board, narrated another grim outcome: Jacqueline Troy’s vocal cord was paralyzed, and her esophagus and trachea had become connected, “an unheard of complication.” A corrective surgery happened two weeks later, after she arrived at the emergency room of Texas Health Presbyterian Dallas, where Kirby practiced. But Duntsch soldiered on. Around May 2013, Henderson got a call from Foley, the fellowship supervisor. He’d received a letter from University General Hospital in South Dallas, verifying Duntsch’s training. Foley said Duntsch was satisfactory in his fellowship, that he saw no evidence of the things he was accused of in Dallas happening in Memphis. And, seeing as how the hospital was asking specifically about that training, Foley said he didn’t feel comfortable expressing concern about what he’d heard was happening in Dallas. He hadn’t seen it with his own eyes. It was hearsay, he contended. “I can’t write on this form, Oh, by the way, I heard from Dr. Henderson about what sounds like major patient issues that you ought to look into,” Foley said in the call. “There’s no blank here for that.” Duntsch made a major miscalculation when he ventured south into Dallas to practice. He may have figured, at first, that he was protected. Texas’ tort reform laws cap the amount that patients can sue physicians for malpractice at $250,000. And, to successfully sue a hospital, they must prove that the facility acted with malice—that, in granting a physician privileges, it intended to harm the patient. An incredibly difficult thing to prove. But what Duntsch hadn’t counted on was the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office. After another disastrous outcome, this time at University General, Kirby and malpractice attorney Kay Van Wey decided to turn to the criminal justice system. At University General Hospital, Kirby had been granted emergency privileges to operate on a Duntsch patient named Jeffery Glidewell. He discovered a significant esophageal injury that belabored Glidewell’s breathing and found a sponge that had been left in the soft tissue of his neck. He, too, had an injury to his left vertebral artery, and the incision was far from where it should’ve been and had begun to leak pus. Despite receiving complaints dating back to 2012, the Texas Medical Board didn’t revoke Duntsch’s privileges until June 2013. That same month, Kirby wrote, he, along with the Glidewell family, brought the case to prosecutors and asked to press charges. “I am beginning to think the police are the only ones intellectually and physically capable of getting to the bottom of this matter,” he wrote. Meanwhile, Duntsch was struggling financially and started racking up a series of strange arrests. While staying with his parents outside Denver, he was stopped for driving under the influence. The arrest report says that he was driving on two flat tires, and one was “completely gone and was on the rim.” Officers found an empty bottle of Mike’s Hard Lemonade on the floorboard and a full one in the console. In September 2014, after he and Young had separated, Duntsch was arrested for jumping the fence of Young’s sister’s Garland home and attempting to take their child, Aiden. At the time, Young was giving birth to their second boy. (She says this was a misunderstanding, that she had asked him to retrieve Aiden and bring him to the hospital.) In April 2015, he was arrested for stealing $887.30 in Walmart merchandise: five pairs of sunglasses, five watches, two pairs of shoes, four ties, two briefcases, a wallet, cologne, necklaces, a walkie-talkie. He filed for bankruptcy in Denver, and wound up selling off the shares in Discgenics for a tenth of their value. Duntsch was also picked up wandering near a Chase Bank in North Dallas and taken to Green Oaks psychiatric hospital for an evaluation. Young says he’d been breaking into her apartment, and one day she came home to find him inside, covered in blood. He told her he had been attacked by an investigator for the attorneys representing his patients, but that was never corroborated. Finally, in July 2015, the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office followed through. A grand jury returned five indictments of aggravated assault and one of harming an elderly person. “I cannot recall a physician being indicted for aggravated assault for acts committed during surgery,” says Toby Shook, a Dallas defense attorney who spent 23 years working as a Dallas County prosecutor. “And not just Dallas County—I don’t recall hearing about it anywhere.” Duntsch pleaded not guilty. He’s jailed on a $600,000 bond, and his trial is set for January 31, 2017. In emails, he alleges that he was at the center of a vast conspiracy to bilk money from the hospitals where he practiced. He argues that the patients were just telling stories and that Passmore was fine after his operation. Why else would his daughter have sent Duntsch a card thanking him? But patient advocates and the surgeons that mobilized to rid him of his license say that Duntsch was the perfect storm. Nobody stopped him soon enough. The hospitals didn’t do their due diligence until it was too late, and those who could’ve spoken up didn’t. Every patient mentioned in this story who has sued, except for Passmore, has settled. They all signed nondisclosure agreements that prohibit them from discussing their cases or their monetary awards. As one lawyer told me off the record, they faced an almost impossible dilemma: settle and give their families a financial cushion for the future medical costs but sacrifice their right to tell their stories. Passmore is still fighting. He has taken Baylor Plano to court to change the Texas law requiring patients to prove that a hospital intended to harm them when it granted privileges to someone who was unsafe. Governor Greg Abbott, then the attorney general, even waded into the whole mess, filing a brief in Passmore’s suit in support of the law. But Passmore knows it’s his battle to fight. Who else is left? “I don’t have Facebook, I don’t Myspace. I have taken one selfie in my life—on a dare. I don’t want my name out there. I don’t want to be in your magazine, sir, I apologize,” Passmore told me. “I don’t want to be on Channel 8, I don’t want to be on Inside Edition. But it’s the only way to get anybody to listen. It might be Baylor, it might be somebody down in Austin, it might be somebody somewhere, but it’s the only way you can get your voice out there. The thing is, if you don’t push this, with everybody else settling, they’re getting away with it again.” This story, when first published, contained inaccuracies concerning Duntsch’s relationship with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, which were taken from his CV. They have since been corrected. ||||| Follow CBSDFW.COM: Facebook | Twitter DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) – Christopher Duntsch has been sentenced to life in prison. It took the jury one hour to sentence Duntsch to the maximum penalty for a series of botched spinal surgeries. Thirty-two patients in all. Two were paralyzed and two others were killed. The DA’s office called this a historic case with regard to prosecuting a doctor who had done wrong during surgery. “This is a great day,” said Dallas County DA Faith Johnson during a news conference shortly after the verdict. “We have done something historic. We are so elated about the life sentence.” The former North Texas neurosurgeon was convicted of intentionally injuring the patients he was supposed to be helping. After the sentencing, Don Martin, whose said his wife died at the hands of Duntsch said, “We’re overwhelmed. This was a voice for Kelly. And we’re just so thankful. And hopefully move on with our lives.” “I’m just so grateful, from the bottom of my heart,” said Caitlin Linhuf, whose mother died after a surgery performed by Duntsch. “This will not bring my mother back, but this is some sense of justice.” “Really who he is was someone who called himself a cold blooded killer,” said Justin McCants of the Dallas County DA’s Office. “Someone who calls himself a god at times. Who believed he was a god at times.” It took the jury just fours hours last Tuesday to find Duntsch guilty of intentionally causing serious bodily injury to an elderly person. Victim Mary Efurd testified in the case. Duntsch botched her spinal surgery in 2012 – a procedure that has left her wheelchair bound. Prosecutors say Duntsch was malicious and reckless while he performed surgery. And apparently Efurd wasn’t his only victim. Jurors heard from several people who shared their nightmares, saying he maimed them on purpose. Prosecutors accused Duntsch of also maiming four patients and causing the death of at least two, between July 2012 and June 2013. Duntsch’s attorneys argued he wasn’t a criminal, just a lousy surgeon. Mary Efurd said the verdict had been a long time coming. “Relief. Finally justice has been done after 4 1/2 years,” she said. “And I hope I’m speaking for all the other families and their loved ones also. I think we feel real good about it. We feel like justice was done.” Efurd also said she’s grateful the 45-year-old is no longer practicing medicine. “You know, when they finally got his license suspended I cried for two days. It was just relief that didn’t stop.” (©2017 CBS Local Media, a division of CBS Radio Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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The 2012 primary race just got more interesting. Rick Santorum was the toast of the GOP last night and Mitt Romney went home without any gold medals in one of the most surprising evenings yet in the presidential nominating contest. Santorum broke out the broom and had a clean sweep of the three races in Colorado, Missouri and Minnesota. Text Size - + reset Allen and VandeHei break down Santorum’s big win Below are POLITICO’s seven takeaways from the results: 1) Boston, we have a problem Romney is still by far the likely nominee. He is still the only candidate with resources and an organized team. Tuesday’s elections were “non-binding beauty contests.” And this is likely a temporary stall: Mitt Romney will regain momentum heading into Arizona, Michigan and Super Tuesday. But Romney was locked out of first place in all three races Tuesday night, including Colorado, a state where he won more than 60 percent in 2008. He was expected to win two of the races a few days ago and viewed as the likely victor in Colorado a few hours before voting began. Even with the Romney campaign’s pre-spinning of the losses, the Rick Santorum clean sweep was a stinging rebuke of the front-runner. In the end, he got just over half the percentage he took in Colorado four years ago. The expectation heading into February was that this would be a strong month for the former Massachusetts governor. But his Florida momentum evaporated with his comments about concern for the “very poor,” which may have turned off conservative voters in these races. Now, Santorum has more statewide wins than Romney, and Arizona — which has a sizable Mormon population but also a conservative-leaning GOP electorate — is the stage of the next big Republican battle. Romney’s ongoing struggles with the conservative base of his party may not matter once he becomes the nominee. But it’s going to be awfully hard for Romney boosters to argue those problems are being overhyped by the news media in light of Tuesday night’s outcome and the lack of enthusiasm it speaks to. This is not a near-death experience for Romney like his loss in South Carolina. But it underscores the fact that his team is still searching for a message — and for a candidate who has done limited conservative outreach. His election night speech — his wife, Ann, was not on hand for this one — was muted. He spoke in platitudes and campaign slogans but offered up little that was new — save for anecdotes about his father as a from-the-ground-up success, which was noticeable given how often Santorum speaks about his own humble beginnings. Romney’s campaign, as the results in Minnesota and Missouri came in, sent out an op-ed he has written focusing on deficit reduction, an issue that will play well with fiscal hawks. But given how little meat he’s put on the bones of his own message, he’s going to be pressed to put out more by way of policy and his ideas for how to lead the nation. 2) Santorum pressed the reset button with gusto Santorum’s wins Tuesday night let him claim some of the spoils he lost when he was called the runner-up in Iowa on caucus night, only to be declared the winner well after the fact. Santorum’s task now is to try to get any semblance of a bounce out of his win. That eluded him after Iowa, despite the fact that he made the race extremely close on a shoestring budget and after being largely ignored by the political press throughout 2011. ||||| Rick Santorum ’s victories on Tuesday represent his first breakout moments in the Republican presidential contest since he belatedly scraped to the top in Iowa more than a month ago. They certainly give him bragging rights. They will probably earn him a second look from voters who had once dismissed him. They may help him raise money. Down the road, they will add to his delegate count. But how much they will matter to Mr. Santorum in the long run remains unclear. He now faces two major questions: Can he eclipse his immediate rival, Newt Gingrich, and become the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney? And will he be able to pose a realistic threat to Mr. Romney, who remains better financed and better organized in other states? Mr. Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania, has sought to put both questions to rest. After Mr. Gingrich finished a distant second to Mr. Romney in Nevada on Saturday, Mr. Santorum, who came in fourth, said Mr. Gingrich had “had his chance” to challenge Mr. Romney and had come up short. In his victory speech on Tuesday night, Mr. Santorum looked past his Republican rivals and focused on President Obama. His theme was that Mr. Obama might have been listening to his speech but did not normally listen to the American people. “He thinks he knows better,” Mr. Santorum said of the president. “He thinks he’s smarter than you. He thinks he’s someone who is a privileged person who should be able to rule over all of you.” The Republican presidential contest dips into a lull now. The candidates will not have a chance to rekindle their supporters’ enthusiasm until a debate in Arizona on Feb. 22, and the next voting will not be until Feb. 28, when Arizona and Michigan hold primaries. As of now, those two states do not appear to be particularly strong for Mr. Santorum, so he is looking ahead to Super Tuesday, March 6, for another breakout moment. His scheduling reveals as much. While Mr. Santorum delivered his victory speech from Missouri on Tuesday night, he was heading to Texas on Wednesday and to Oklahoma on Thursday. Oklahoma does not vote until Super Tuesday, and Texas not until April 3. Like the other candidates, Mr. Santorum will use this lull to raise money and build organizations in those states. Mr. Gingrich, who was not on the ballot in Missouri and did not contest Colorado or Minnesota, shows no signs of bowing out. He, too, is looking toward Super Tuesday and spent time in Ohio this week. Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Santorum are equally disadvantaged on Super Tuesday by having failed to qualify for the ballot in Virginia. But Mr. Gingrich may have a leg up that day because he can probably count on strong support from Georgia. If both remain in the race, the likely beneficiary will be Mr. Romney. One thing Mr. Santorum has going for him right now is his relatively high favorability rating. “Santorum’s personal popularity is the main reason for his sudden re-emergence as a relevant player in the G.O.P. race,” Tom Jensen, a Democratic pollster and director of Public Policy Polling, wrote in an analysis of Tuesday’s votes. Until recently, he added, Mr. Romney and Mr. Gingrich had ignored Mr. Santorum, leaving his reputation largely intact. But that is changing quickly. Tim Pawlenty, a former Minnesota governor who is backing Mr. Romney, dismissed Mr. Santorum this week as “a nice guy” but not one who is ready to be president. Mr. Santorum continues to insist that Mr. Romney would be a weak nominee in the general election, saying he would not present a strong contrast to Mr. Obama. On Tuesday night, he declared himself the “conservative alternative” not only to Mr. Romney, but also to Mr. Obama. ||||| The Missouri primary is the only so-called “beauty contest” in the Republican presidential race this year. But it might be remembered as where things got a little ugly for Mitt Romney. Rick Santorum’s massive win in the meaningless Show Me State primary on Tuesday highlighted a strong day overall for the former Pennsylvania senator. With big wins in Missouri and Minnesota — two of the three states holding contests Tuesday — Santorum has cast at least some doubt on Romney’s presumptive nominee status for the entire three-week lull period before another state casts its votes. And Missouri, despite being the most inconsequential race of the day when it comes to the GOP delegate race, may actually have been the most important to the narrative going forward. The reason: Missouri is a confluence of odd circumstances that all seemed to play into Santorum’s hands. First, the state legislature failed to move a Feb. 7 primary date that violates Republican party rules that prohibit most states from holding primaries before March. Instead, the party set a caucus for March and, to avoid being penalized, made it so Tuesday’s primary had no bearing on the state’s delegates. Then, Newt Gingrich didn’t qualify for the ballot. We didn’t know it at the time, but this created a near-perfect setup for Santorum in the current four-way matchup. Gingrich didn’t compete because he couldn’t, Ron Paul didn’t compete in the state because there were no delegates at stake (he’s got a delegate-focused strategy), and Romney didn’t compete in the state because it was supposed to be pointless. But Santorum didn’t see it that way. In fact, he saw it as a great way to make a point. Given his win in the neighboring Iowa caucuses, his strength with Midwestern voters, the low turnout that was expected Tuesday, and the fact that Romney invested basically nothing in the state, it fell to Santorum to pull out a victory to prove he can beat Romney head-to-head. Romney’s campaign did a good job of setting expectations in the runup to its loss in Missouri and the other states Tuesday, noting that there were no delegates at stake in Missouri and the caucus in Minnesota doesn’t directly lead to delegate allocation either. Because of this, many reporters and analysts declared before Tuesday’s elections that they were effectively meaningless. That’s an entirely fair argument. After all, if Romney were to have mobilized his full campaign in Missouri, we likely would have seen a far different outcome. But he didn’t. Thus, his campaign has a headache on its hands — especially given that he lost by 30 full points in Missouri and close to that amount in Minnesota. At this point in the presidential race, it’s about expectations and momentum. And the perceptions of both have changed post-Missouri at least somewhat. By winning in Missouri, Santorum proved three things: 1) That Romney can lose 2) That he can beat Romney head-to-head under the right set of circumstances 3) That this race isn’t yet over Santorum is not a front-runner yet; that’s still clearly Romney. But the former Pennsylvania senator did do something to call into question Romney’s coronation. On Wednesday morning, there will be a bigger sliver of doubt about that coronation than there was on Tuesday morning. And Santorum, rather than Gingrich, will at least momentarily take the role of the guy who can fill the void. Even if he didn’t win any delegates on Tuesday, that’s a victory nonetheless. ||||| Remember the second Florida GOP debate on Thursday night, January 26, in Jacksonville? Mitt Romney came out pummeling Newt Gingrich, Gingrich was ineffectual in response, and Romney sailed on to a decisive victory five days later in Florida. This was soon followed by Romney's easy triumph in Nevada last Saturday. The Romney inevitabilists were once again out in force. And once again they were premature. Or perhaps even wrong? Could it be that the most significant feature of the Jacksonville debate will turn out not to have been Romney's thumping of Gingrich early on, but the exchange late in the debate between Rick Santorum and Romney on health care? Santorum effectively prosecuted the case against Romneycare that night, and he's kept at it aggressively ever since, arguing that Romneycare disables Romney from prosecuting the crucial case against Obamacare. Santorum has now won landslide victories in Missouri and Minnesota. It's true no delegates were at stake in Missouri—but it's also true that about 240,000 people cast ballots there. And now, though Romney of course remains ahead in delegates and in total votes, and Gingrich and Paul will continue to fight, we have a situation where Santorum has won in three states, Romney in three, and Gingrich in one (I'm writing before the results in Colorado are known). ||||| You are signed in as . Saving... Saving... Oops. It looks like you’ve already voted. Sorry , you can react up to three times. Share This & Help It Go Viral Your Email Your Friend’s Email Note (optional) Cancel Thanks for sharing! Why not tell some other friends?

– Rick Santorum's stunning sweep of Colorado, Minnesota, and Missouri yesterday has thrown another plot twist into the Republican nominating contest. Here's what you need to know: Santorum may finally get the bounce that largely eluded him after Iowa, helping him raise money and pique voter interest, the New York Times predicts. His first order of business is staying ahead of Newt Gingrich. After Nevada, he said Gingrich had "had his chance" to beat Romney. While the Colorado and Minnesota caucuses were non-binding, if delegates do honor them Santorum picks up 28 convention votes, vaulting him into second place with 45 delegates by the AP's count. Gingrich has 32, while Romney boasts 107. Missouri awarded no delegates, but wasn't meaningless after all, the Washington Post observes. With Gingrich off the ballot, Santorum proved he could beat Romney in a head-to-head race. Of course, Romney didn't exactly break a sweat in the state, but his 30-point loss looks really ugly. This is "not a near-death experience for Romney," who is still the most likely nominee, writes Maggie Haberman at Politico. But it makes it really hard to argue that his problems with conservatives are being overhyped, and puts a serious dent in his aura of inevitability. William Kristol of the Weekly Standard is convinced Romney lost because of Santorum's assault on Romneycare. Another possible explanation: Romney's super PAC didn't blanket any of these states with ads. Gingrich emerges looking irrelevant, having won one state to Santorum's four. He's low on cash, and sources tell Politico that Sheldon Adelson isn't planning on another super PAC deposit ... perhaps because Adelson is weighing jumping ship. Voter turnout was down in all three states—a sign that Republicans aren't terribly excited to vote for any of these candidates. (Maybe they'd prefer the Sweet Meteor of Death.) Click to read Buzzfeed's top 10 GOP tweets in response to Santorum's sweep.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.The 2012 primary race just got more interesting. Rick Santorum was the toast of the GOP last night and Mitt Romney went home without any gold medals in one of the most surprising evenings yet in the presidential nominating contest. Santorum broke out the broom and had a clean sweep of the three races in Colorado, Missouri and Minnesota. Text Size - + reset Allen and VandeHei break down Santorum’s big win Below are POLITICO’s seven takeaways from the results: 1) Boston, we have a problem Romney is still by far the likely nominee. He is still the only candidate with resources and an organized team. Tuesday’s elections were “non-binding beauty contests.” And this is likely a temporary stall: Mitt Romney will regain momentum heading into Arizona, Michigan and Super Tuesday. But Romney was locked out of first place in all three races Tuesday night, including Colorado, a state where he won more than 60 percent in 2008. He was expected to win two of the races a few days ago and viewed as the likely victor in Colorado a few hours before voting began. Even with the Romney campaign’s pre-spinning of the losses, the Rick Santorum clean sweep was a stinging rebuke of the front-runner. In the end, he got just over half the percentage he took in Colorado four years ago. The expectation heading into February was that this would be a strong month for the former Massachusetts governor. But his Florida momentum evaporated with his comments about concern for the “very poor,” which may have turned off conservative voters in these races. Now, Santorum has more statewide wins than Romney, and Arizona — which has a sizable Mormon population but also a conservative-leaning GOP electorate — is the stage of the next big Republican battle. Romney’s ongoing struggles with the conservative base of his party may not matter once he becomes the nominee. But it’s going to be awfully hard for Romney boosters to argue those problems are being overhyped by the news media in light of Tuesday night’s outcome and the lack of enthusiasm it speaks to. This is not a near-death experience for Romney like his loss in South Carolina. But it underscores the fact that his team is still searching for a message — and for a candidate who has done limited conservative outreach. His election night speech — his wife, Ann, was not on hand for this one — was muted. He spoke in platitudes and campaign slogans but offered up little that was new — save for anecdotes about his father as a from-the-ground-up success, which was noticeable given how often Santorum speaks about his own humble beginnings. Romney’s campaign, as the results in Minnesota and Missouri came in, sent out an op-ed he has written focusing on deficit reduction, an issue that will play well with fiscal hawks. But given how little meat he’s put on the bones of his own message, he’s going to be pressed to put out more by way of policy and his ideas for how to lead the nation. 2) Santorum pressed the reset button with gusto Santorum’s wins Tuesday night let him claim some of the spoils he lost when he was called the runner-up in Iowa on caucus night, only to be declared the winner well after the fact. Santorum’s task now is to try to get any semblance of a bounce out of his win. That eluded him after Iowa, despite the fact that he made the race extremely close on a shoestring budget and after being largely ignored by the political press throughout 2011. ||||| Rick Santorum ’s victories on Tuesday represent his first breakout moments in the Republican presidential contest since he belatedly scraped to the top in Iowa more than a month ago. They certainly give him bragging rights. They will probably earn him a second look from voters who had once dismissed him. They may help him raise money. Down the road, they will add to his delegate count. But how much they will matter to Mr. Santorum in the long run remains unclear. He now faces two major questions: Can he eclipse his immediate rival, Newt Gingrich, and become the conservative alternative to Mitt Romney? And will he be able to pose a realistic threat to Mr. Romney, who remains better financed and better organized in other states? Mr. Santorum, a former senator from Pennsylvania, has sought to put both questions to rest. After Mr. Gingrich finished a distant second to Mr. Romney in Nevada on Saturday, Mr. Santorum, who came in fourth, said Mr. Gingrich had “had his chance” to challenge Mr. Romney and had come up short. In his victory speech on Tuesday night, Mr. Santorum looked past his Republican rivals and focused on President Obama. His theme was that Mr. Obama might have been listening to his speech but did not normally listen to the American people. “He thinks he knows better,” Mr. Santorum said of the president. “He thinks he’s smarter than you. He thinks he’s someone who is a privileged person who should be able to rule over all of you.” The Republican presidential contest dips into a lull now. The candidates will not have a chance to rekindle their supporters’ enthusiasm until a debate in Arizona on Feb. 22, and the next voting will not be until Feb. 28, when Arizona and Michigan hold primaries. As of now, those two states do not appear to be particularly strong for Mr. Santorum, so he is looking ahead to Super Tuesday, March 6, for another breakout moment. His scheduling reveals as much. While Mr. Santorum delivered his victory speech from Missouri on Tuesday night, he was heading to Texas on Wednesday and to Oklahoma on Thursday. Oklahoma does not vote until Super Tuesday, and Texas not until April 3. Like the other candidates, Mr. Santorum will use this lull to raise money and build organizations in those states. Mr. Gingrich, who was not on the ballot in Missouri and did not contest Colorado or Minnesota, shows no signs of bowing out. He, too, is looking toward Super Tuesday and spent time in Ohio this week. Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Santorum are equally disadvantaged on Super Tuesday by having failed to qualify for the ballot in Virginia. But Mr. Gingrich may have a leg up that day because he can probably count on strong support from Georgia. If both remain in the race, the likely beneficiary will be Mr. Romney. One thing Mr. Santorum has going for him right now is his relatively high favorability rating. “Santorum’s personal popularity is the main reason for his sudden re-emergence as a relevant player in the G.O.P. race,” Tom Jensen, a Democratic pollster and director of Public Policy Polling, wrote in an analysis of Tuesday’s votes. Until recently, he added, Mr. Romney and Mr. Gingrich had ignored Mr. Santorum, leaving his reputation largely intact. But that is changing quickly. Tim Pawlenty, a former Minnesota governor who is backing Mr. Romney, dismissed Mr. Santorum this week as “a nice guy” but not one who is ready to be president. Mr. Santorum continues to insist that Mr. Romney would be a weak nominee in the general election, saying he would not present a strong contrast to Mr. Obama. On Tuesday night, he declared himself the “conservative alternative” not only to Mr. Romney, but also to Mr. Obama. ||||| The Missouri primary is the only so-called “beauty contest” in the Republican presidential race this year. But it might be remembered as where things got a little ugly for Mitt Romney. Rick Santorum’s massive win in the meaningless Show Me State primary on Tuesday highlighted a strong day overall for the former Pennsylvania senator. With big wins in Missouri and Minnesota — two of the three states holding contests Tuesday — Santorum has cast at least some doubt on Romney’s presumptive nominee status for the entire three-week lull period before another state casts its votes. And Missouri, despite being the most inconsequential race of the day when it comes to the GOP delegate race, may actually have been the most important to the narrative going forward. The reason: Missouri is a confluence of odd circumstances that all seemed to play into Santorum’s hands. First, the state legislature failed to move a Feb. 7 primary date that violates Republican party rules that prohibit most states from holding primaries before March. Instead, the party set a caucus for March and, to avoid being penalized, made it so Tuesday’s primary had no bearing on the state’s delegates. Then, Newt Gingrich didn’t qualify for the ballot. We didn’t know it at the time, but this created a near-perfect setup for Santorum in the current four-way matchup. Gingrich didn’t compete because he couldn’t, Ron Paul didn’t compete in the state because there were no delegates at stake (he’s got a delegate-focused strategy), and Romney didn’t compete in the state because it was supposed to be pointless. But Santorum didn’t see it that way. In fact, he saw it as a great way to make a point. Given his win in the neighboring Iowa caucuses, his strength with Midwestern voters, the low turnout that was expected Tuesday, and the fact that Romney invested basically nothing in the state, it fell to Santorum to pull out a victory to prove he can beat Romney head-to-head. Romney’s campaign did a good job of setting expectations in the runup to its loss in Missouri and the other states Tuesday, noting that there were no delegates at stake in Missouri and the caucus in Minnesota doesn’t directly lead to delegate allocation either. Because of this, many reporters and analysts declared before Tuesday’s elections that they were effectively meaningless. That’s an entirely fair argument. After all, if Romney were to have mobilized his full campaign in Missouri, we likely would have seen a far different outcome. But he didn’t. Thus, his campaign has a headache on its hands — especially given that he lost by 30 full points in Missouri and close to that amount in Minnesota. At this point in the presidential race, it’s about expectations and momentum. And the perceptions of both have changed post-Missouri at least somewhat. By winning in Missouri, Santorum proved three things: 1) That Romney can lose 2) That he can beat Romney head-to-head under the right set of circumstances 3) That this race isn’t yet over Santorum is not a front-runner yet; that’s still clearly Romney. But the former Pennsylvania senator did do something to call into question Romney’s coronation. On Wednesday morning, there will be a bigger sliver of doubt about that coronation than there was on Tuesday morning. And Santorum, rather than Gingrich, will at least momentarily take the role of the guy who can fill the void. Even if he didn’t win any delegates on Tuesday, that’s a victory nonetheless. ||||| Remember the second Florida GOP debate on Thursday night, January 26, in Jacksonville? Mitt Romney came out pummeling Newt Gingrich, Gingrich was ineffectual in response, and Romney sailed on to a decisive victory five days later in Florida. This was soon followed by Romney's easy triumph in Nevada last Saturday. The Romney inevitabilists were once again out in force. And once again they were premature. Or perhaps even wrong? Could it be that the most significant feature of the Jacksonville debate will turn out not to have been Romney's thumping of Gingrich early on, but the exchange late in the debate between Rick Santorum and Romney on health care? Santorum effectively prosecuted the case against Romneycare that night, and he's kept at it aggressively ever since, arguing that Romneycare disables Romney from prosecuting the crucial case against Obamacare. Santorum has now won landslide victories in Missouri and Minnesota. It's true no delegates were at stake in Missouri—but it's also true that about 240,000 people cast ballots there. And now, though Romney of course remains ahead in delegates and in total votes, and Gingrich and Paul will continue to fight, we have a situation where Santorum has won in three states, Romney in three, and Gingrich in one (I'm writing before the results in Colorado are known). ||||| You are signed in as . Saving... Saving... Oops. It looks like you’ve already voted. Sorry , you can react up to three times. Share This & Help It Go Viral Your Email Your Friend’s Email Note (optional) Cancel Thanks for sharing! Why not tell some other friends?

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

This month, the full moon falls on Friday the 13th. Freaky? Nah, probably not. Despite many myths, the full moon does not actually embolden criminals, bring about births or make people mad, studies show. And while Friday the 13th superstitions may be well entrenched, there's nothing particularly special about a full moon falling on this date. Sign up for top Science news delivered direct to your inbox This Friday's full moon will be the lowest in the sky this year, however, since it will occur so close to the summer solstice. You can watch this freaky full moon rising in a live webcast on Live Science, beginning at 9:30 p.m. EDT tonight (June 12). [Gallery: Fantastic Photos of Full Moons] Play Facebook Twitter Google Plus Embed World Cup Excitement in Zero Gravity 0:27 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog The June full moon is nicknamed the "Strawberry Moon," a moniker that goes back to the Algonquin Native American tribe, according to the Farmer's Almanac. June is strawberry season, and the full moon would have traditionally coincided with the harvest. The June full moon is frequently the one nearest to the summer solstice, which falls on June 21 this year. Because of a neat bit of galactic geometry, this means the full moon on Friday will be the lowest in the sky of any in 2014. The June full moon, called the Strawberry Moon, occurs on Friday the 13th. Here a full moon climbs its way to the top of the Washington Monument, Sunday, June 23, 2013. Bill Ingalls / NASA Here's how it works: The Earth rotates on a tilted axis; in June — summer in the Northern Hemisphere — the North Pole is tilted about 23.5 degrees toward the sun, while the South Pole is tilted 23.5 degrees away from the sun. On the solstice, the sun reaches its farthest point north of the equator. Full moons happen when Earth's satellite is opposite the sun; that's why viewers on Earth see the entire face of the moon illuminated. Thus, when the full moon is directly opposite the sun when our host star appears at its highest point, the moon is at its lowest point with respect to the equator. That's why winter full moons rise higher above the horizon than summer full moons. June's moon reaches its fullest point at 12:11 a.m. EDT (0411 GMT) on Friday, June 13. Of course, this means that for people in the Central, Mountain and Pacific time zones in the United States, this full moon isn't a Friday the 13th full moon at all: It technically falls on June 12. Friday the 13th full moons occur sporadically. The last one fell on Aug. 13, 2011. The next Friday the 13th full moon will be on Aug. 13, 2049. Even those who live in the Eastern time zone should not stress over the confluence of the full moon with Friday the 13th. Contrary to myth, the full moon does not affect human behavior or health. For example, a 1985 review published in the journal Psychological Bulletin tracked hospital admissions, psychiatric disturbances, homicides and other crime over several months and found no uptick in any of those variables around the time of the full moon. Alas for heavily pregnant women, a 2001 study in the Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society looked at about 70 million births in the United States and found no link between the phase of the moon and labor starting. So don't expect to finish your pregnancy just because the moon is full. ||||| The superstitious may want to steer clear of black cats this Friday the 13th, but venturing outside very early in the morning will be worthwhile—you'll be able to catch the spectacular full "honey moon" in the night sky. The honey moon officially reaches its full moon phase at 12:13 a.m. EDT on Friday morning for eastern North America. But its honey hues will shine most brightly in the early evening. With the sun's path across the sky at its highest during this month of the summer solstice, the moon is at its lowest, which keeps the lunar orb close to the horizon and makes it appear more amber than other full moons this year. The amber colors are due to the scattering of longer wavelengths of light by dust and pollution in our atmosphere. "It is a similar phenomenon as seen at sunset, when sunlight is scattered towards the red end of the spectrum, making the sun's disk appear orange-red to the naked-eye," says astronomer Raminder Singh Samra of the H. R. MacMillan Space Centre in Vancouver, Canada. The most spectacular part of the so-called honey moon begins hours before midnight, due to an illusion by which the moon appears larger to sky-watchers when it's near the horizon than when it hangs high in the sky. Researchers aren't quite sure what causes this optical illusion of a larger moon near the horizon, but they suspect it has something to do with the human mind trying to make sense of the moon's proximity to more familiar objects like mountains, trees and houses in the foreground. The Moon at Its Closest The monthly full moon always looks like a big disk, but because its orbit around the Earth is egg-shaped, there are times in the lunar cycle when the moon is at its shortest distance from Earth (called perigee), some 224,976 miles (362,065 kilometers) away. This month the perigee just happens to coincide with the full phase, which may make it appear unusually large to some keen-eyed sky-watchers. "The moon illusion should be more prominent during this full moon as it will graze closer to the horizon than at any other time of the year," Samra says. "This will make the moon appear more amber than other full moons of the year. A full moon coinciding on Friday the 13th is not all that uncommon, occurring every three or so years. But having the combination of a honey moon and Friday the 13th is rare, last occurring on June 13, 1919, according to the popular astronomy site Universe Today. We'll have to wait until June 13, 2098, for the next one. Marital Traditions? Astronomer Bob Berman says that the honey-hued moon, which always occurs in June around the summer solstice, may have given us the modern term "honeymoon," with weddings traditionally held in June in some cultures. "That phrase dates back nearly half a millennium, to 1552, but one thing has changed: Weddings have shifted and are now most often held in August or September," said Berman, who works with the astronomy group Slooh, in a statement. "The idea back then was that a marriage is like the phases of the moon, with the full moon being analogous to a wedding," Berman said. "Meaning, it's the happiest and 'brightest' time in a relationship." Armchair astronomers can catch the sky show virtually through a live high-definition webcast of the honey moon by the Slooh telescopes in the Canary Islands, off the coast of Africa. The online show starts on Thursday, June 12, at 9:30 p.m. EDT (link for international times). Follow Andrew Fazekas, the Night Sky Guy, on Twitter, Facebook, and his website.

– If the fact that it's Friday the 13th has you shaking in your boots, we hope you didn't look out your window early this morning. For the first time in nearly 100 years, what's known as a "honey moon" or "strawberry moon" coincided with the 13th, reaching the full moon phase at 12:13am ET. The honey moniker comes from the moon's golden color caused by its low position in the sky thanks to the proximity to the summer solstice, while the latter refers to June's strawberry harvest, NBC News and National Geographic report. The next Friday the 13th "honey moon" won't happen again until June 13, 2098; the last happened on June 13, 1919. Too many rarities for your liking? Well, there's no need to be unnerved. Contrary to myth, the full moon doesn't actually affect human behavior or health, NBC News notes, citing a 1985 study which found no increase in hospital admissions, psychiatric disturbances, homicides, or other crimes around the full moon.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.This month, the full moon falls on Friday the 13th. Freaky? Nah, probably not. Despite many myths, the full moon does not actually embolden criminals, bring about births or make people mad, studies show. And while Friday the 13th superstitions may be well entrenched, there's nothing particularly special about a full moon falling on this date. Sign up for top Science news delivered direct to your inbox This Friday's full moon will be the lowest in the sky this year, however, since it will occur so close to the summer solstice. You can watch this freaky full moon rising in a live webcast on Live Science, beginning at 9:30 p.m. EDT tonight (June 12). [Gallery: Fantastic Photos of Full Moons] Play Facebook Twitter Google Plus Embed World Cup Excitement in Zero Gravity 0:27 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog The June full moon is nicknamed the "Strawberry Moon," a moniker that goes back to the Algonquin Native American tribe, according to the Farmer's Almanac. June is strawberry season, and the full moon would have traditionally coincided with the harvest. The June full moon is frequently the one nearest to the summer solstice, which falls on June 21 this year. Because of a neat bit of galactic geometry, this means the full moon on Friday will be the lowest in the sky of any in 2014. The June full moon, called the Strawberry Moon, occurs on Friday the 13th. Here a full moon climbs its way to the top of the Washington Monument, Sunday, June 23, 2013. Bill Ingalls / NASA Here's how it works: The Earth rotates on a tilted axis; in June — summer in the Northern Hemisphere — the North Pole is tilted about 23.5 degrees toward the sun, while the South Pole is tilted 23.5 degrees away from the sun. On the solstice, the sun reaches its farthest point north of the equator. Full moons happen when Earth's satellite is opposite the sun; that's why viewers on Earth see the entire face of the moon illuminated. Thus, when the full moon is directly opposite the sun when our host star appears at its highest point, the moon is at its lowest point with respect to the equator. That's why winter full moons rise higher above the horizon than summer full moons. June's moon reaches its fullest point at 12:11 a.m. EDT (0411 GMT) on Friday, June 13. Of course, this means that for people in the Central, Mountain and Pacific time zones in the United States, this full moon isn't a Friday the 13th full moon at all: It technically falls on June 12. Friday the 13th full moons occur sporadically. The last one fell on Aug. 13, 2011. The next Friday the 13th full moon will be on Aug. 13, 2049. Even those who live in the Eastern time zone should not stress over the confluence of the full moon with Friday the 13th. Contrary to myth, the full moon does not affect human behavior or health. For example, a 1985 review published in the journal Psychological Bulletin tracked hospital admissions, psychiatric disturbances, homicides and other crime over several months and found no uptick in any of those variables around the time of the full moon. Alas for heavily pregnant women, a 2001 study in the Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society looked at about 70 million births in the United States and found no link between the phase of the moon and labor starting. So don't expect to finish your pregnancy just because the moon is full. ||||| The superstitious may want to steer clear of black cats this Friday the 13th, but venturing outside very early in the morning will be worthwhile—you'll be able to catch the spectacular full "honey moon" in the night sky. The honey moon officially reaches its full moon phase at 12:13 a.m. EDT on Friday morning for eastern North America. But its honey hues will shine most brightly in the early evening. With the sun's path across the sky at its highest during this month of the summer solstice, the moon is at its lowest, which keeps the lunar orb close to the horizon and makes it appear more amber than other full moons this year. The amber colors are due to the scattering of longer wavelengths of light by dust and pollution in our atmosphere. "It is a similar phenomenon as seen at sunset, when sunlight is scattered towards the red end of the spectrum, making the sun's disk appear orange-red to the naked-eye," says astronomer Raminder Singh Samra of the H. R. MacMillan Space Centre in Vancouver, Canada. The most spectacular part of the so-called honey moon begins hours before midnight, due to an illusion by which the moon appears larger to sky-watchers when it's near the horizon than when it hangs high in the sky. Researchers aren't quite sure what causes this optical illusion of a larger moon near the horizon, but they suspect it has something to do with the human mind trying to make sense of the moon's proximity to more familiar objects like mountains, trees and houses in the foreground. The Moon at Its Closest The monthly full moon always looks like a big disk, but because its orbit around the Earth is egg-shaped, there are times in the lunar cycle when the moon is at its shortest distance from Earth (called perigee), some 224,976 miles (362,065 kilometers) away. This month the perigee just happens to coincide with the full phase, which may make it appear unusually large to some keen-eyed sky-watchers. "The moon illusion should be more prominent during this full moon as it will graze closer to the horizon than at any other time of the year," Samra says. "This will make the moon appear more amber than other full moons of the year. A full moon coinciding on Friday the 13th is not all that uncommon, occurring every three or so years. But having the combination of a honey moon and Friday the 13th is rare, last occurring on June 13, 1919, according to the popular astronomy site Universe Today. We'll have to wait until June 13, 2098, for the next one. Marital Traditions? Astronomer Bob Berman says that the honey-hued moon, which always occurs in June around the summer solstice, may have given us the modern term "honeymoon," with weddings traditionally held in June in some cultures. "That phrase dates back nearly half a millennium, to 1552, but one thing has changed: Weddings have shifted and are now most often held in August or September," said Berman, who works with the astronomy group Slooh, in a statement. "The idea back then was that a marriage is like the phases of the moon, with the full moon being analogous to a wedding," Berman said. "Meaning, it's the happiest and 'brightest' time in a relationship." Armchair astronomers can catch the sky show virtually through a live high-definition webcast of the honey moon by the Slooh telescopes in the Canary Islands, off the coast of Africa. The online show starts on Thursday, June 12, at 9:30 p.m. EDT (link for international times). Follow Andrew Fazekas, the Night Sky Guy, on Twitter, Facebook, and his website.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Army Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl was fed up. He was five weeks into a deployment in southeastern Afghanistan and frustrated with his mission and his leaders. He and his fellow soldiers weren’t going after the Taliban as aggressively as he wanted, and his sense of disillusion added to the disgust for the Army that he had begun developing while still in basic training. Looking to make a stand, Bergdahl hatched a plan: He would run away from his platoon’s tiny outpost in Paktika province late on June 29, 2009. He would stay away from the Army a day, maybe two, and then reappear about 19 miles away at a larger installation and demand to air his grievances with a general. He knew that the region was crawling with insurgents, but he had “outsize impressions of his own capabilities,” according to an investigating officer, and was determined to create enough chaos to get the attention of senior commanders. Those were among the details that emerged in a preliminary hearing here late last week. The soldier, carrying just a disguise, a knife and some provisions, was captured by insurgents by 10 a.m. the following morning, beginning four years and 11 months of captivity and torture by the Haqqani network, a group affiliated with the Taliban, according to Maj. Gen. Kenneth Dahl, the senior officer who carried out an investigation of Bergdahl’s actions and interviewed him at length. [Bergdahl’s attorneys raised mental health issues] The case against Bergdahl, who is charged with desertion and misbehaving before the enemy, is the most closely scrutinized desertion prosecution in the military in decades — perhaps since that of Pvt. Eddie Slovik, a soldier who became the only American executed for desertion since the Civil War. The officer overseeing the Bergdahl hearing, Lt. Col. Mark A. Visger, is expected to make a recommendation in the coming days to U.S. Army Forces Command, at Fort Bragg, N.C., about whether Bergdahl should be court-martialed. Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was captured by Taliban and held for nearly five years. So why is he facing a court martial? Here's what happened, explained in 70 seconds. (Gillian Brockell/The Washington Post) Bergdahl, now 29 and a sergeant, was recovered in May 2014 in a controversial swap in which the White House approved the release of five Taliban detainees from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. They are now in Qatar. Emotional testimony has underscored the relentless brutality that Bergdahl had to endure, as well as the chaos caused by his disappearance and the lingering resentment of some of his comrades. The case has also raised questions about the Obama administration’s handling of it, which included inviting Bergdahl’s parents to speak at the White House after the soldier was recovered, with national security adviser Susan E. Rice saying he served with “honor and distinction.” [Bergdahl will require lifetime of care for injuries suffered in captivity] The White House has since concluded that it badly misplayed the optics of Bergdahl’s release, according to administration officials. Bergdahl’s parents were in Washington the day he was recovered, and a quick decision was made to include them in a Rose Garden announcement, with little thought given to the ramifications of making Bergdahl appear to be a hero, the officials said. Bergdahl joined the Army a few years after washing out of initial training for the Coast Guard. The Washington Post reported previously that it was for psychological reasons, but Bergdahl’s lawyer and Dahl were more specific in the hearing: The future Taliban captive was diagnosed with depression and sent home after he was found in distress in a Coast Guard barracks, sitting on a floor with blood in his hands, possibly from a bloody nose, Dahl testified. “He wasn’t ready for it,” Dahl said of life in the Coast Guard. “He was overwhelmed, found himself in the hospital and was released.” 1 of 33 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Taliban-held U.S. soldier released in exchange for Afghan detainees View Photos U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the only U.S. service member known to be held hostage in Afghanistan, was handed over on May 31 by members of the Taliban in exchange for five Afghan detainees held at the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, U.S. officials said. Caption U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was handed over May 31 by members of the Taliban. U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is seen in this undated photo. Courtesy of Kim Harrison Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. Bergdahl received a waiver to enlist in the Army. He was physically fit and well regarded for his work ethic, but quickly became disenchanted with his fellow soldiers and the Army’s training program. Among his gripes: He couldn’t believe higher-ranking soldiers wanted him to lock his wall locker to prevent theft and saw pre-deployment training at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., as “lame,” Dahl said. Bergdahl was assigned to the 25th Infantry Division’s 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, of Fort Richardson, Alaska. There, he took offense to a motivational speech made by the senior enlisted soldier to the entire battalion. The command sergeant major said in jest that, like other soldiers, he liked to pillage and plunder, but Bergdahl took it literally, Dahl said. In Afghanistan, there was another misunderstanding, Dahl said. Soldiers from Bergdahl’s unit weren’t all wearing their whole uniforms one day, a violation that upset then-Lt. Col. Clinton Baker, Bergdahl’s battalion commander. Baker launched into a tirade to get his point across, kicking rocks in the process. Bergdahl was convinced that Baker had disturbed an Afghan grave, a suggestion that perplexed the others present, Dahl said. The general found that Bergdahl’s childhood living at “the edge of the grid” in Idaho in relative isolation hurt his ability to relate to other people. As a result, he was an extremely harsh judge of character and “unrealistically idealistic,” Dahl said. “I think he absolutely believed that the things he perceived were absolutely true,” he added. [Bergdahl’s writing reveal a fragile young man] Bergdahl could have gone to a number of people in his chain of command with concerns about his platoon. But he thought that they were in the Army for the money, or otherwise incapable of responding, Dahl said. In some ways, the soldier did consider others before running away from Observation Post Mest, Dahl said. He told Dahl that he picked the night he disappeared in part because he knew another platoon already would be on the way in the morning to relieve Bergdahl’s, thus providing additional manpower to deal with his vanishing. He didn’t want to take his 5.56mm squad automatic machine gun with him alone outside the wire because he figured it would draw attention, but also decided against stealing a 9mm pistol because that would have gotten a fellow soldier in trouble, Dahl said. Bergdahl’s disappearance was noticed around dawn, when he was due to take a guard shift. Capt. John Billings, his former platoon leader, testified that he was in shock that one of his men could have vanished, and initially thought his soldiers were pulling a joke on him. Reality eventually set in, though, and he informed his company commander, then-Capt. Silvino Silvino. “I felt sick to my stomach,” said Silvino, now a major. “I didn’t know what was going to come after that. . . . I instructed him to go look high and low, and everywhere he could.” Coalition forces across eastern Afghanistan altered their operations that summer looking for Bergdahl, exposing soldiers to additional and dangerous missions. That remains a sensitive point, amid allegations from Bergdahl’s fellow soldiers that at least six U.S. troops died because of his actions. Dahl said he examined a variety of evidence, and found nothing that connected the deaths directly to Bergdahl. But the search-and-rescue operations undoubtedly altered security in the region, military officials said, and plunged the units involved into hastily planned missions. Baker, the former battalion commander, recalled that one platoon conducted 37 consecutive days of operations — long enough that new socks and T-shirts had to be delivered to the soldiers, since theirs were rotting on their bodies. Bergdahl, meanwhile, was already in Pakistan. He was relentlessly beaten in captivity with rubber hoses and copper cables. He repeatedly tried to escape, said Terrence Russell, an official with the Pentagon’s Joint Personnel Recovery Agency, who interviewed Bergdahl after his return. Bergdahl was moved to at least six different locations, including one referred to as a Taliban prison. After escaping once for nearly nine days, Bergdahl was put in a 7-foot cage, blindfolded and left there for most of his last 3½ years in captivity, Russell said. Bergdahl has been accused often of cooperating with the insurgents or even seeking them out, but Russell said there is no evidence to support those claims. The Haqqani network forced him to make videos that were released online. Russell grew visibly agitated while describing the conditions Bergdahl faced, wiping tears away at one point. While the sergeant has been accused of many things, Russell said, he was “an organization of one,” with no fellow prisoners who could keep his spirits up. “He did the best job he could do,” Russell said, “And I respect him for it.” Bergdahl’s attorney, Eugene Fidell, argued during closing arguments at the preliminary hearing that his client should not be court-martialed for either of the charges he now faces. There is probable cause, Fidell acknowledged, to charge him with a lesser offense, being absent without leave for one day, but the moment he was taken captive, Fidell said, that designation should have ended. The maximum penalty for being AWOL for one day is 30 days of confinement. An Army prosecutor, Maj. Margaret Kurz, said that Bergdahl’s actions hurt the Army, his fellow soldiers and the mission in Afghanistan, and he must be punished. “One does not just walk away into the Afghan wilderness,” she said, “and then return as though nothing happened.” Karen DeYoung contributed to this report. Read more: Bergdahl’s former officer: ‘Absolute disbelief that I couldn’t find one of my men.’ In sparse prose, Bergdahl details his captivity for the first time Bowe Bergdahl, once-missing U.S. soldier, charged with desertion ||||| During the final day of testimony at a military hearing to decide whether Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl will face a court-martial on desertion charges, a general ordered to investigate his capture discussed his findings for the first time and testified for the defense about why Bergdahl does not belong in jail. Maj. Gen. Kenneth Dahl said Bergdahl was “unrealistically idealistic” when he left his remote post in Afghanistan six years ago for a nearby base, hoping to draw the attention of a commander to problems that he believed were putting his unit at risk. Bergdahl, now 29, was a private when he vanished June 30, 2009, and was captured by the Taliban and held for nearly five years by members of the militant Haqqani network. On Friday, an expert who debriefed him described the conditions as the worst endured by any captive since the Vietnam War. Bergdahl was freed last year after President Obama agreed to release five Taliban prisoners, a controversial swap he defended even after the military announced Bergdahl would be charged. Dahl said Bergdahl, whom he interviewed for a day and a half as part of his investigation, admitted during the interview that he had been “young, naive and inexperienced” at the time of his capture, and was “truthful” and “remorseful” about endangering fellow soldiers forced to search for him. But Dahl noted that no soldiers died searching for Bergdahl and said he did “not believe there is a jail sentence at the end of this process” for the sergeant, calling it “inappropriate.” Bergdahl's lead defense attorney, Eugene R. Fidell of Yale Law School, said in his closing statements Friday that instead of a court-martial, his client should face a medical evaluation board and a less serious hearing for going absent without leave before his capture. He said the days Bergdahl spent in captivity are the greatest mitigating factor in his case, displaying the total on a screen: 1,797. Sgt. Bergdahl perceived a problem in the leadership of his platoon and that the problem was so severe that it put members of the platoon in danger. — Maj. Gen. Kenneth Dahl The defense also called a nurse practitioner who testified that she treated Bergdahl after his return for debilitating injuries he suffered in captivity to his shoulder, lower legs and back that rendered him “nondeployable.” The defense team said a military medical board found that at the time of his capture, Bergdahl also suffered from a “severe mental disease or defect,” although commanders testified that they were not aware of that. Former Sgt. Greg Leatherman, who supervised Bergdahl, testified Friday that he had worried about him becoming alienated and tried to alert a superior, who dismissed his concerns. The lead prosecutor countered that Bergdahl acted with “deliberate disregard” in abandoning his post and shirking hazardous duty, “exponentially endangered” fellow soldiers and upended the chain of command to get attention. “He planned,” said the prosecutor, Maj. Margaret Kurz. She said that Bergdahl had purchased Afghan clothing for a disguise and had currency “for bribes,” and had mailed home his journal, books and his laptop before he left his post the night before his unit was due to return to the same base he is accused of heading for when he was captured. She quoted from Bergdahl's interview: “I'm going to get my chance to talk to a general.” She said Bergdahl's victims include those who searched for him, and “the Army as a whole.” “He has suffered greatly,” Kurz said, but added: “He still committed a crime and still needs to be held accountable.” Hearing officer Lt. Col. Mark Visger, an Army lawyer, will recommend to the commanding general of U.S. Army Forces Command whether Bergdahl should face court-martial on charges of desertion and “misbehavior before the enemy,” which carries a potential life sentence. Bergdahl did not testify at the hearing, but as he looked on, sitting ramrod-straight in his dress uniform, his face impassive, Dahl described what he learned about the soldier during a two-month investigation that included 57 interviews conducted with the help of nearly two dozen people. The general spoke of a young man whose sheltered upbringing in Hailey, Idaho, shaped his view of not just the world but himself. Raised “at the edge of the grid,” home-schooled and denied normal social interactions, Bergdahl was “bright” and “well-read,” Dahl said, but introverted, with outsized expectations of himself and others. He said Bergdahl emulated the individualist character John Galt in Ayn Rand's “Atlas Shrugged,” who was “willing to sacrifice himself for the cause.” He said Bergdahl also mentioned his interest in the “samurai code,” which says “if you see what you perceive to be a moral wrong, you act immediately,” regardless of the consequences. Bergdahl's idealism was partly why, before joining the Army, he had “washed out” of the Coast Guard during boot camp, Dahl said. Once he joined the Army, Bergdahl found fault with his training and commanders, but was “very motivated to deploy” and not “sympathetic to the other side,” Dahl said. Rather, he was frustrated that he couldn't “play a bigger role.” “Sgt. Bergdahl perceived a problem in the leadership of his platoon and that the problem was so severe that it put members of the platoon in danger,” Dahl said. Bergdahl didn't think he could turn to lower-level commanders, Dahl said, because he believed they were “only in it for the money, only in it for the rank.” So he left his gun behind and slipped out after 10 p.m., intending to run to the base 20 miles away, turn himself in and demand to speak with a general, Dahl said. Instead, by 10 a.m. the next morning, Bergdahl was captured, he said. The soldier escaped and was caught twice, eventually locked by captors in a 7-square-foot metal cage for more than three years, according to Terence Russell, a Defense Department expert who debriefed Bergdahl. Russell choked up as he described how Bergdahl was tortured: blindfolded, tied to a bed and beaten with a rubber hose and copper wire, denied food and water even as his muscles atrophied and he suffered “uncontrollable diarrhea” for more than three years. While Bergdahl appeared in videos released by his captors, Russell said the soldier never disclosed classified information and did his best to comply with the Army's code of conduct and resist. “Sgt. Bergdahl did that — did the best he could do — and I respect him for it,” said Russell, who served for years as an Air Force survival instructor. “He had to fight the enemy alone. … You can't underestimate how hard that is.”

– Stories of Bowe Bergdahl's brutal captivity by the Taliban are already well-documented, but it's what was reportedly going through his head before his 2009 disappearance from his Afghanistan base that emerged at a hearing last week at Joint Base San Antonio in Texas. Specifically, that he didn't feel fellow soldiers were being aggressive enough in going after the Taliban and that he had hoped to reach another larger base nearly 20 miles away and "demand to air his grievances with a general," the Washington Post reports. These revelations came to light based on a senior officer's investigation and extensive interviews with Bergdahl, charged with desertion and "misbehaving before the enemy"—with Maj. Gen. Kenneth Dahl concluding jail for Bergdahl would be "inappropriate," per the Los Angeles Times. Part of the reason for Dahl's assessment: Bergdahl was an "unrealistically idealistic" soldier who was "naive" when he was captured and "remorseful" when asked about the soldiers forced to look for him, the Los Angeles Times notes; Dahl added that no soldiers died during that search. Dahl said Bergdahl—who was raised "at the edge of the grid" in Idaho—was enamored by things like the "samurai code," which holds that one acts immediately, whatever the consequences, when presented with a "moral wrong." The Post has details on a few things about the Army that allegedly bothered Bergdahl, like the fact that he was told to lock his wall locker to deter thieves. A hearing officer will soon recommend whether Bergdahl will be court-martialed.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Army Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl was fed up. He was five weeks into a deployment in southeastern Afghanistan and frustrated with his mission and his leaders. He and his fellow soldiers weren’t going after the Taliban as aggressively as he wanted, and his sense of disillusion added to the disgust for the Army that he had begun developing while still in basic training. Looking to make a stand, Bergdahl hatched a plan: He would run away from his platoon’s tiny outpost in Paktika province late on June 29, 2009. He would stay away from the Army a day, maybe two, and then reappear about 19 miles away at a larger installation and demand to air his grievances with a general. He knew that the region was crawling with insurgents, but he had “outsize impressions of his own capabilities,” according to an investigating officer, and was determined to create enough chaos to get the attention of senior commanders. Those were among the details that emerged in a preliminary hearing here late last week. The soldier, carrying just a disguise, a knife and some provisions, was captured by insurgents by 10 a.m. the following morning, beginning four years and 11 months of captivity and torture by the Haqqani network, a group affiliated with the Taliban, according to Maj. Gen. Kenneth Dahl, the senior officer who carried out an investigation of Bergdahl’s actions and interviewed him at length. [Bergdahl’s attorneys raised mental health issues] The case against Bergdahl, who is charged with desertion and misbehaving before the enemy, is the most closely scrutinized desertion prosecution in the military in decades — perhaps since that of Pvt. Eddie Slovik, a soldier who became the only American executed for desertion since the Civil War. The officer overseeing the Bergdahl hearing, Lt. Col. Mark A. Visger, is expected to make a recommendation in the coming days to U.S. Army Forces Command, at Fort Bragg, N.C., about whether Bergdahl should be court-martialed. Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was captured by Taliban and held for nearly five years. So why is he facing a court martial? Here's what happened, explained in 70 seconds. (Gillian Brockell/The Washington Post) Bergdahl, now 29 and a sergeant, was recovered in May 2014 in a controversial swap in which the White House approved the release of five Taliban detainees from the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. They are now in Qatar. Emotional testimony has underscored the relentless brutality that Bergdahl had to endure, as well as the chaos caused by his disappearance and the lingering resentment of some of his comrades. The case has also raised questions about the Obama administration’s handling of it, which included inviting Bergdahl’s parents to speak at the White House after the soldier was recovered, with national security adviser Susan E. Rice saying he served with “honor and distinction.” [Bergdahl will require lifetime of care for injuries suffered in captivity] The White House has since concluded that it badly misplayed the optics of Bergdahl’s release, according to administration officials. Bergdahl’s parents were in Washington the day he was recovered, and a quick decision was made to include them in a Rose Garden announcement, with little thought given to the ramifications of making Bergdahl appear to be a hero, the officials said. Bergdahl joined the Army a few years after washing out of initial training for the Coast Guard. The Washington Post reported previously that it was for psychological reasons, but Bergdahl’s lawyer and Dahl were more specific in the hearing: The future Taliban captive was diagnosed with depression and sent home after he was found in distress in a Coast Guard barracks, sitting on a floor with blood in his hands, possibly from a bloody nose, Dahl testified. “He wasn’t ready for it,” Dahl said of life in the Coast Guard. “He was overwhelmed, found himself in the hospital and was released.” 1 of 33 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Taliban-held U.S. soldier released in exchange for Afghan detainees View Photos U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the only U.S. service member known to be held hostage in Afghanistan, was handed over on May 31 by members of the Taliban in exchange for five Afghan detainees held at the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, U.S. officials said. Caption U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl was handed over May 31 by members of the Taliban. U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl is seen in this undated photo. Courtesy of Kim Harrison Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. Bergdahl received a waiver to enlist in the Army. He was physically fit and well regarded for his work ethic, but quickly became disenchanted with his fellow soldiers and the Army’s training program. Among his gripes: He couldn’t believe higher-ranking soldiers wanted him to lock his wall locker to prevent theft and saw pre-deployment training at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif., as “lame,” Dahl said. Bergdahl was assigned to the 25th Infantry Division’s 1st Battalion, 501st Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, of Fort Richardson, Alaska. There, he took offense to a motivational speech made by the senior enlisted soldier to the entire battalion. The command sergeant major said in jest that, like other soldiers, he liked to pillage and plunder, but Bergdahl took it literally, Dahl said. In Afghanistan, there was another misunderstanding, Dahl said. Soldiers from Bergdahl’s unit weren’t all wearing their whole uniforms one day, a violation that upset then-Lt. Col. Clinton Baker, Bergdahl’s battalion commander. Baker launched into a tirade to get his point across, kicking rocks in the process. Bergdahl was convinced that Baker had disturbed an Afghan grave, a suggestion that perplexed the others present, Dahl said. The general found that Bergdahl’s childhood living at “the edge of the grid” in Idaho in relative isolation hurt his ability to relate to other people. As a result, he was an extremely harsh judge of character and “unrealistically idealistic,” Dahl said. “I think he absolutely believed that the things he perceived were absolutely true,” he added. [Bergdahl’s writing reveal a fragile young man] Bergdahl could have gone to a number of people in his chain of command with concerns about his platoon. But he thought that they were in the Army for the money, or otherwise incapable of responding, Dahl said. In some ways, the soldier did consider others before running away from Observation Post Mest, Dahl said. He told Dahl that he picked the night he disappeared in part because he knew another platoon already would be on the way in the morning to relieve Bergdahl’s, thus providing additional manpower to deal with his vanishing. He didn’t want to take his 5.56mm squad automatic machine gun with him alone outside the wire because he figured it would draw attention, but also decided against stealing a 9mm pistol because that would have gotten a fellow soldier in trouble, Dahl said. Bergdahl’s disappearance was noticed around dawn, when he was due to take a guard shift. Capt. John Billings, his former platoon leader, testified that he was in shock that one of his men could have vanished, and initially thought his soldiers were pulling a joke on him. Reality eventually set in, though, and he informed his company commander, then-Capt. Silvino Silvino. “I felt sick to my stomach,” said Silvino, now a major. “I didn’t know what was going to come after that. . . . I instructed him to go look high and low, and everywhere he could.” Coalition forces across eastern Afghanistan altered their operations that summer looking for Bergdahl, exposing soldiers to additional and dangerous missions. That remains a sensitive point, amid allegations from Bergdahl’s fellow soldiers that at least six U.S. troops died because of his actions. Dahl said he examined a variety of evidence, and found nothing that connected the deaths directly to Bergdahl. But the search-and-rescue operations undoubtedly altered security in the region, military officials said, and plunged the units involved into hastily planned missions. Baker, the former battalion commander, recalled that one platoon conducted 37 consecutive days of operations — long enough that new socks and T-shirts had to be delivered to the soldiers, since theirs were rotting on their bodies. Bergdahl, meanwhile, was already in Pakistan. He was relentlessly beaten in captivity with rubber hoses and copper cables. He repeatedly tried to escape, said Terrence Russell, an official with the Pentagon’s Joint Personnel Recovery Agency, who interviewed Bergdahl after his return. Bergdahl was moved to at least six different locations, including one referred to as a Taliban prison. After escaping once for nearly nine days, Bergdahl was put in a 7-foot cage, blindfolded and left there for most of his last 3½ years in captivity, Russell said. Bergdahl has been accused often of cooperating with the insurgents or even seeking them out, but Russell said there is no evidence to support those claims. The Haqqani network forced him to make videos that were released online. Russell grew visibly agitated while describing the conditions Bergdahl faced, wiping tears away at one point. While the sergeant has been accused of many things, Russell said, he was “an organization of one,” with no fellow prisoners who could keep his spirits up. “He did the best job he could do,” Russell said, “And I respect him for it.” Bergdahl’s attorney, Eugene Fidell, argued during closing arguments at the preliminary hearing that his client should not be court-martialed for either of the charges he now faces. There is probable cause, Fidell acknowledged, to charge him with a lesser offense, being absent without leave for one day, but the moment he was taken captive, Fidell said, that designation should have ended. The maximum penalty for being AWOL for one day is 30 days of confinement. An Army prosecutor, Maj. Margaret Kurz, said that Bergdahl’s actions hurt the Army, his fellow soldiers and the mission in Afghanistan, and he must be punished. “One does not just walk away into the Afghan wilderness,” she said, “and then return as though nothing happened.” Karen DeYoung contributed to this report. Read more: Bergdahl’s former officer: ‘Absolute disbelief that I couldn’t find one of my men.’ In sparse prose, Bergdahl details his captivity for the first time Bowe Bergdahl, once-missing U.S. soldier, charged with desertion ||||| During the final day of testimony at a military hearing to decide whether Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl will face a court-martial on desertion charges, a general ordered to investigate his capture discussed his findings for the first time and testified for the defense about why Bergdahl does not belong in jail. Maj. Gen. Kenneth Dahl said Bergdahl was “unrealistically idealistic” when he left his remote post in Afghanistan six years ago for a nearby base, hoping to draw the attention of a commander to problems that he believed were putting his unit at risk. Bergdahl, now 29, was a private when he vanished June 30, 2009, and was captured by the Taliban and held for nearly five years by members of the militant Haqqani network. On Friday, an expert who debriefed him described the conditions as the worst endured by any captive since the Vietnam War. Bergdahl was freed last year after President Obama agreed to release five Taliban prisoners, a controversial swap he defended even after the military announced Bergdahl would be charged. Dahl said Bergdahl, whom he interviewed for a day and a half as part of his investigation, admitted during the interview that he had been “young, naive and inexperienced” at the time of his capture, and was “truthful” and “remorseful” about endangering fellow soldiers forced to search for him. But Dahl noted that no soldiers died searching for Bergdahl and said he did “not believe there is a jail sentence at the end of this process” for the sergeant, calling it “inappropriate.” Bergdahl's lead defense attorney, Eugene R. Fidell of Yale Law School, said in his closing statements Friday that instead of a court-martial, his client should face a medical evaluation board and a less serious hearing for going absent without leave before his capture. He said the days Bergdahl spent in captivity are the greatest mitigating factor in his case, displaying the total on a screen: 1,797. Sgt. Bergdahl perceived a problem in the leadership of his platoon and that the problem was so severe that it put members of the platoon in danger. — Maj. Gen. Kenneth Dahl The defense also called a nurse practitioner who testified that she treated Bergdahl after his return for debilitating injuries he suffered in captivity to his shoulder, lower legs and back that rendered him “nondeployable.” The defense team said a military medical board found that at the time of his capture, Bergdahl also suffered from a “severe mental disease or defect,” although commanders testified that they were not aware of that. Former Sgt. Greg Leatherman, who supervised Bergdahl, testified Friday that he had worried about him becoming alienated and tried to alert a superior, who dismissed his concerns. The lead prosecutor countered that Bergdahl acted with “deliberate disregard” in abandoning his post and shirking hazardous duty, “exponentially endangered” fellow soldiers and upended the chain of command to get attention. “He planned,” said the prosecutor, Maj. Margaret Kurz. She said that Bergdahl had purchased Afghan clothing for a disguise and had currency “for bribes,” and had mailed home his journal, books and his laptop before he left his post the night before his unit was due to return to the same base he is accused of heading for when he was captured. She quoted from Bergdahl's interview: “I'm going to get my chance to talk to a general.” She said Bergdahl's victims include those who searched for him, and “the Army as a whole.” “He has suffered greatly,” Kurz said, but added: “He still committed a crime and still needs to be held accountable.” Hearing officer Lt. Col. Mark Visger, an Army lawyer, will recommend to the commanding general of U.S. Army Forces Command whether Bergdahl should face court-martial on charges of desertion and “misbehavior before the enemy,” which carries a potential life sentence. Bergdahl did not testify at the hearing, but as he looked on, sitting ramrod-straight in his dress uniform, his face impassive, Dahl described what he learned about the soldier during a two-month investigation that included 57 interviews conducted with the help of nearly two dozen people. The general spoke of a young man whose sheltered upbringing in Hailey, Idaho, shaped his view of not just the world but himself. Raised “at the edge of the grid,” home-schooled and denied normal social interactions, Bergdahl was “bright” and “well-read,” Dahl said, but introverted, with outsized expectations of himself and others. He said Bergdahl emulated the individualist character John Galt in Ayn Rand's “Atlas Shrugged,” who was “willing to sacrifice himself for the cause.” He said Bergdahl also mentioned his interest in the “samurai code,” which says “if you see what you perceive to be a moral wrong, you act immediately,” regardless of the consequences. Bergdahl's idealism was partly why, before joining the Army, he had “washed out” of the Coast Guard during boot camp, Dahl said. Once he joined the Army, Bergdahl found fault with his training and commanders, but was “very motivated to deploy” and not “sympathetic to the other side,” Dahl said. Rather, he was frustrated that he couldn't “play a bigger role.” “Sgt. Bergdahl perceived a problem in the leadership of his platoon and that the problem was so severe that it put members of the platoon in danger,” Dahl said. Bergdahl didn't think he could turn to lower-level commanders, Dahl said, because he believed they were “only in it for the money, only in it for the rank.” So he left his gun behind and slipped out after 10 p.m., intending to run to the base 20 miles away, turn himself in and demand to speak with a general, Dahl said. Instead, by 10 a.m. the next morning, Bergdahl was captured, he said. The soldier escaped and was caught twice, eventually locked by captors in a 7-square-foot metal cage for more than three years, according to Terence Russell, a Defense Department expert who debriefed Bergdahl. Russell choked up as he described how Bergdahl was tortured: blindfolded, tied to a bed and beaten with a rubber hose and copper wire, denied food and water even as his muscles atrophied and he suffered “uncontrollable diarrhea” for more than three years. While Bergdahl appeared in videos released by his captors, Russell said the soldier never disclosed classified information and did his best to comply with the Army's code of conduct and resist. “Sgt. Bergdahl did that — did the best he could do — and I respect him for it,” said Russell, who served for years as an Air Force survival instructor. “He had to fight the enemy alone. … You can't underestimate how hard that is.”

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Published on Jun 11, 2014 Meghan Trainor's official music video for 'All About That Bass'. Click to listen to Meghan Trainor on Spotify: http://smarturl.it/MegTSpotify?IQid=M... As featured on Title. Click to buy the track or album via iTunes: http://smarturl.it/MTTitleiTunes?IQid... Google Play: http://smarturl.it/MTThatBassPlay?IQi... Amazon: http://smarturl.it/MTTitleAz?IQid=MTr... More from Meghan Trainor Dear Future Husband: https://youtu.be/ShlW5plD_40 Like I'm Gonna Lose You: https://youtu.be/2-MBfn8XjIU Lips Are Movin: https://youtu.be/qDc_5zpBj7s More great global hits videos here: http://smarturl.it/GlobalHits?IQid=MT... Follow Meghan Trainor Website: http://www.meghan-trainor.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/meghantraino... Twitter: https://twitter.com/meghan_trainor Instagram: https://instagram.com/meghan_trainor Subscribe to Meghan Trainor on YouTube: http://smarturl.it/MeghanTSub?IQid=MT... Choreographed by: Charm La’ Donna #MeghanTrainor #AllAboutThatBass #Vevo #Pop #OfficialMusicVideo --------- Lyrics: Because you know I'm all about that bass 'Bout that bass, no treble I'm all about that bass 'Bout that bass, no treble I'm all about that bass 'Bout that bass, no treble I'm all about that bass 'Bout that bass... bass... bass... bass Yeah, it's pretty clear, I ain't no size two But I can shake it, shake it, like I'm supposed to do 'Cause I got that boom boom that all the boys chase And all the right junk in all the right places I see the magazine workin' that Photoshop We know that shit ain't real, come on now, make it stop If you got beauty, beauty, just raise 'em up 'Cause every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to the top Yeah, my mama she told me don't worry about your size (Shoo wop wop, sha-ooh wop wop) She says, Boys like a little more booty to hold at night (That booty, uh, that booty booty) You know I won't be no stick figure silicone Barbie doll So if that what you're into, then go 'head and move along" ||||| A In 2008 Amy Winehouse didn’t make it to the Grammy Awards because she was a denied a U.S. Visa to enter the country. The troubled singer – who died of alcohol poisoning three years later – was in the midst of her drug addiction and had just left rehab. Despite the setback she performed for the show from London via satellite and that night walked away with three Grammy Awards for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for her single, “Rehab.”

– The Grammys are off and running, with AC/DC opening the show with a performance and host LL Cool J skipping the full monologue to instead hand the stage over to Taylor Swift, who presented the first award. Best New Artist went to Sam Smith, who kept his acceptance speech blissfully short. Check back—we'll keep you updated throughout the night. Another performance, of course, by Ariana Grande, followed by Jessie J and Tom Jones dueting on "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'." The duo then presented Best Pop Solo Performance to Pharrell Williams for "Happy." The producers are apparently not messing around—Williams got played off the stage after, by one Twitter user's estimation, 15 seconds. After Dierks Bentley introduced Miranda Lambert for a performance, Best Pop Vocal Album went to In the Lonely Hour by Sam Smith. He again managed to keep things short and sweet enough to avoid getting played off. Kanye West performed, singing (with Auto-Tune) the entire time with not a rap in sight. Then a bunch of dancers dressed as, apparently, bulls took the stage for a Madonna performance, which would explain her red carpet outfit. Best Rock Album was presented to Beck for Morning Phase. He got played off. Best R&B Performance went to Beyonce for "Drunk in Love," featuring hubby Jay Z. She was, of course, not played off, though she did keep things pretty short. After an Ed Sheeran-John Mayer performance, Jeff Lynne's ELO performed (and got Paul McCartney up dancing and singing along in the audience). And then it was time for the unholy union of Adam Levine and Gwen Stefani performing a Maroon 5 song. Oh, you thought there might be another award right about now? No. Instead, Hozier performed "Take Me to Church," joined by Annie Lennox. Then a Jonas brother and the "All About That Bass" lady presented Best Country Album to Platinum by Miranda Lambert. And then, yes, another performance: Pharrell Williams' "Happy," with a strangely ominous intro. Then it was time for a prerecorded message from President Obama, calling for an end to violence against women and girls, followed by an impassioned speech by domestic violence survivor and activist Brooke Axtell and a performance of "By the Grace of God" from Katy Perry. Thanks to what was apparently a very, very long Target commercial, the world then watched Imagine Dragons perform from somewhere in Las Vegas (i.e., not the Grammy stage). Back at the Grammys, Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett performed a duet. Hey, look, it's LL Cool J! The host made a triumphant return to the stage to introduce Usher's performance of a Stevie Wonder tribute. Then, yes, another performance (Eric Church, "Give Me Back My Hometown"). It had been approximately 44 minutes since the last award was handed out. But instead of handing out another one, Brandy Clark performed, followed by a collaboration: Rihanna, Kanye West (still singing instead of rapping, but this time apparently sans Auto-Tune), and Paul McCartney. Closing in on an hour with no actual awards being given out, Taylor Swift presented Sam Smith performing with Mary J. Blige, which was followed by yet another performance (Latin rock star Juanes singing "Juntos"). Finally, an hour and seven minutes later, another award: Prince presented Album of the Year to Beck for Morning Phase. Beck got played off again. (And apparently almost got Kanyed by Kanye.) Shia LaBeouf, for some reason, took the stage to introduce a very confusing performance of Sia's "Chandelier," apparently featuring Kristen Wiig and interpretive dance. Song of the Year then went to—surprise, surprise—Sam Smith for "Stay With Me." Chris Martin and Beck teamed up for a performance, then Record of the Year went to, yes, Sam Smith again for "Stay With Me." He thanked his ex for breaking his heart "because you got me four Grammys." It's worth mentioning that pretty much every other commercial is Matthew McConaughey hawking Lincoln cars. After the "In Memoriam" segment, as the official end time of 11:30pm neared and it became increasingly unclear whether there were actual awards remaining to be handed out or whether viewers were just waiting for more Grammy officials to talk about copyright law, Twitter began to wonder if the show will actually go until midnight. No, there were no more awards to be handed out. Gwyneth Paltrow introduced her "beautiful friend" Beyonce singing a hymn, John Legend and Common performed "Glory," and the Grammys ended, with absolutely no farewell words from LL Cool J, nine minutes past schedule. Click for the best moments from the Grammys or scandals that have rocked the Grammys.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Published on Jun 11, 2014 Meghan Trainor's official music video for 'All About That Bass'. Click to listen to Meghan Trainor on Spotify: http://smarturl.it/MegTSpotify?IQid=M... As featured on Title. Click to buy the track or album via iTunes: http://smarturl.it/MTTitleiTunes?IQid... Google Play: http://smarturl.it/MTThatBassPlay?IQi... Amazon: http://smarturl.it/MTTitleAz?IQid=MTr... More from Meghan Trainor Dear Future Husband: https://youtu.be/ShlW5plD_40 Like I'm Gonna Lose You: https://youtu.be/2-MBfn8XjIU Lips Are Movin: https://youtu.be/qDc_5zpBj7s More great global hits videos here: http://smarturl.it/GlobalHits?IQid=MT... Follow Meghan Trainor Website: http://www.meghan-trainor.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/meghantraino... Twitter: https://twitter.com/meghan_trainor Instagram: https://instagram.com/meghan_trainor Subscribe to Meghan Trainor on YouTube: http://smarturl.it/MeghanTSub?IQid=MT... Choreographed by: Charm La’ Donna #MeghanTrainor #AllAboutThatBass #Vevo #Pop #OfficialMusicVideo --------- Lyrics: Because you know I'm all about that bass 'Bout that bass, no treble I'm all about that bass 'Bout that bass, no treble I'm all about that bass 'Bout that bass, no treble I'm all about that bass 'Bout that bass... bass... bass... bass Yeah, it's pretty clear, I ain't no size two But I can shake it, shake it, like I'm supposed to do 'Cause I got that boom boom that all the boys chase And all the right junk in all the right places I see the magazine workin' that Photoshop We know that shit ain't real, come on now, make it stop If you got beauty, beauty, just raise 'em up 'Cause every inch of you is perfect from the bottom to the top Yeah, my mama she told me don't worry about your size (Shoo wop wop, sha-ooh wop wop) She says, Boys like a little more booty to hold at night (That booty, uh, that booty booty) You know I won't be no stick figure silicone Barbie doll So if that what you're into, then go 'head and move along" ||||| A In 2008 Amy Winehouse didn’t make it to the Grammy Awards because she was a denied a U.S. Visa to enter the country. The troubled singer – who died of alcohol poisoning three years later – was in the midst of her drug addiction and had just left rehab. Despite the setback she performed for the show from London via satellite and that night walked away with three Grammy Awards for Record of the Year, Song of the Year and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance for her single, “Rehab.”

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

CLOSE John D. Miller has been arrested and charged with child molestation and murder. Ethan May, IndyStar John D. Miller (Photo: Allen County Sheriff's Department) Thirty years after the murder of 8-year-old April Tinsley, police arrested a man in connection to her death on the same day the cold case was to be examined during a prime-time crime documentary. John D. Miller, 59, of Grabill, was arrested at his home Sunday morning by members of the Fort Wayne Police Department and the Indiana State Police, according to court documents. Hours later, Investigation Discovery's "On the Case with Paula Zahn" was set to air an episode about the search for the man who taunted law enforcement for years after the crime. Saloon shooting case: Arrest made in January double homicide at Sawmill Saloon Indianapolis teen killed: Indianapolis woman facing murder charge in slaying of 13-year-old boy Court documents said that when police arrived at Miller's home Sunday, they asked him if he knew why they were there. He answered "April Tinsley," before admitting the crime to investigators, according to court documents. April Marie Tinsley, 8 (Photo: FBI.gov) According to the FBI, the investigation began April 1, 1988, when April was abducted from her Fort Wayne neighborhood while walking from a friend's house. Three days later, a jogger discovered April's body about 20 miles to the north in a ditch along a country road in DeKalb County. Officials also found one of April's shoes about 1,000 feet from the body. Police said April had been raped. The killer left his DNA, but authorities couldn't find a match. The case saw new life in 1990, when her killer scrawled a message on a barn door: "I kill 8-year-old April Marie Tinsley. I will kill again." In 2004, 16 years after April's death, the killer left threatening notes, photos and used condoms on three girl's bicycles and in a mailbox in the Fort Wayne area. The pictures showed a man's nude lower body. DNA in the condoms matched that found on April's body. "Hi honey. I been watching you," one note released by the FBI read. "I am the same person that kidnapped, raped and killed April Tinsley. You are my next victim." Court documents reveal a break in the case in May of 2018. That is when a detective arranged for DNA testing and analysis to be done on the suspect's evidence sample at Parabon NanoLabs. On July 2, the lab was able to narrow the DNA sample to two brothers, one being Miller. Investigators then began conducting surveillance on Miller. On July 6, police searched Miller's trash in an attempt to find items bearing the suspect's DNA, according to court documents. In the trash, they found three used condoms. On July 9, investigators learned that the DNA from the used condoms found in Miller's trash matched the DNA from the condoms found in 2004, and the DNA found on the victim. On Sunday morning, police explained to Miller that they had connected his DNA to the 1988 slaying. When asked to explain what happened to Tinsley, Miller looked at police and said "I can't," according to court documents. Miller then admitted to abducting April from Hoagland Avenue in Fort Wayne on April 1, 1988, taking her to his trailer, sexually assaulting her and killing her, court documents said. Miller told police that he choked the victim so that she wouldn't tell police what happened, and that it took 10 minutes for the little girl to die. He then told police that he drove April's body to Spencerville the next morning and dumped her in a ditch. Miller was taken to the Allen County Jail, where he is being held on suspicion of murder, child molesting and confinement. He is slated to make his first court appearance Monday. IndyStar reporter Vic Ryckaert contributed to this story. Call IndyStar reporter Justin L. Mack at 317-444-6138. Follow him on Twitter: @justinlmack. Read or Share this story: https://indy.st/2JpdCQa ||||| John D. Miller arraigned with Tinsley supporters feet away Copyright 2019 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. John D. Miller [ + - ] Copyright 2019 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Video Video The man arrested in connection with Fort Wayne's most notorious cold case was formally arraigned Thursday morning. John D. Miller, 59, of Grabill faces felony charges of murder and child molesting related to the April 1988 abduction, rape and killing of 8-year-old April Marie Tinsley out of Fort Wayne. Prosecutors filed the charges Wednesday afternoon in Allen Superior Court. Thursday morning, Miller - dressed in an orange-and-white Allen County Jail jumpsuit and shackled at the wrists and ankles - shuffled into the Circuit Courtroom. He answered Judge John Surbeck's questions - name, date of birth, age and whether he could afford an attorney - with a slow, gravely voice before he was assigned a public defender, Anthony Churchward. In the courtroom was an unusually large police presence, with at least 12 uniformed Allen County Sheriff's deputies and other law enforcement officials, along with several friends and family of Tinsley, a half dozen clothed in memorial shirts for the girl they seek justice for. The proceedings lasted about 15 minutes, and Miller was ordered held without bond. A hearing to set a trial date was scheduled for Aug. 3. Miller faces up to 100 years in prison if convicted of murder and felony child molesting, according to Indiana Code sentencing guidelines. Copyright 2019 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. John D. Miller Copyright 2019 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. John D. Miller Thirty years ago, the 8-year-old Tinsley was abducted from her south-central Fort Wayne neighborhood as she walked to a friend's home to pick up an umbrella. The first-grader's body was found by a jogger three days later in a ditch along a road in southern DeKalb County. She had been sexually molested, suffocated and dead for at least two days. According to the affidavit, police approached Miller after a DNA technology company that was working with Fort Wayne Police narrowed a suspect to two brothers: Miller and another man. After that early July development, police began surveillance on Miller's Grabill mobile home and began to analyze his trash. From there, police recovered three used condoms from Miller's trash. The DNA pulled from those was used to tie him to Tinsley's rape and death. Police went to Miller's home on Sunday. When detectives asked him if he had any idea why there were there, Miller reportedly responded, "April Tinsley," the affidavit said. Miller then admitted to police that he abducted Tinsley and took her to his trailer in Grabill, where he said he had sex with her and then killed her, the affidavit said. Miller told police he choked her for about 10 minutes until she died, so she would not report him to the police, the affidavit said. He said he then sodomized the deceased body, according to the affidavit. Miller said he then drove Tinsley's body to C.R. 68 in Spencerville and dumped her. He then found her shoe in the car and tossed it out in a ditch, as well, the affidavit said. Copyright 2019 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The mobile home of John D. Miller inside the Grabill Mobile Home Park in Grabill is shown. Copyright 2019 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The mobile home of John D. Miller inside the Grabill Mobile Home Park in Grabill is shown. In the years since Tinsley's death, the cold case has been featured on "America's Most Wanted" and "Crime Watch Daily," among others, in no small part because the killer appeared at times to taunt investigators. In 1990, two years after the killing, authorities found "I kill 8 year old April M Tinsley did you find her other shoe haha I will kill agin" scrawled on a Schwartz Road barn. Then, in 2004, police were called to an address in Fort Wayne and two addresses in Grabill, where used condoms and notes were found that claimed the person who left them had killed young April. A DNA profile was established with those condoms and notes. Suspect's Neighbor Reacts To April... In 2015, Virginia-based DNA technology company Parabon released a next-generation forensic composite of what young April Marie Tinsley's killer could look like. In 2016, then, the company released an updated - and more detailed - image of that suspect, extrapolated from genetic history and traits from DNA that police have gathered since Tinsley's death. As it turned out, Parabon's work was vital. Police and prosecutors have said said they will not discuss the case. At a Tuesday press conference Tuesday, Prosecutor Karen Richards said she would not try the case through the public, but rather in a court room. Miller has no criminal record other than one speeding citation and two citations for failure to stop, each in Allen County. ||||| Pink balloons tied with purple ribbons adorned a bush Sunday at April's Garden, a memorial built for an 8-year-old girl whose 1988 abduction, sexual assault and slaying shocked Fort Wayne and kept its residents' attention for more than three decades. Constructed in 2015, the garden at Hoagland and Masterson avenues has been the site of regular somber vigils of pink and purple – April Tinsley's favorite colors. Sunday was different. For once, the balloons that fluttered in the breeze symbolized hope and closure rather than loss and sadness. Allen County prosecutors announced the arrest of John D. Miller, 59, of Grabill, in the girl's death. He is charged with murder, child molesting and criminal confinement. “I'm glad now the garden can be a place to celebrate,” said Colleen Obergfell, who owns the property where the memorial is located. “When we heard the news, we thought we had to celebrate. It seemed like balloons were the way to celebrate.” It's the first arrest in a case that received attention from national media outlets, stretched from the 20th into the 21st century and featured dozens of investigators from the Fort Wayne Police Department, the Allen County Sheriff's Department, Indiana State Police and other law enforcement agencies. The case has been featured twice on the now-defunct “America's Most Wanted” program. “On the Case with Paula Zahn,” a true crime newsmagazine on Investigation Discovery, profiled the case Sunday night. April left her family's West Williams Street home on April�1, 1988 – Good Friday – to go to a friend's house. She never returned, and her body was found three days later in a ditch on a county road in DeKalb County. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled. Those details and others including messages taunting investigators have been public for decades, but detectives had been stumped until recently despite evidence that included DNA samples. Police used DNA taken from April's clothes and from used condoms recovered July�6 from outside Miller's home and in 2004 from locations in Fort Wayne and Grabill to focus in on Miller, according to court documents. Investigators also looked to genealogy databases to narrow the search for the alleged killer, a probable cause affidavit states. The search method was used by investigators in California to locate alleged Golden State Killer Joseph James DeAngelo in April. It's not clear specifically how detectives Brian Martin of the Fort Wayne Police Department and Clint Hetrick of the Indiana State Police used DNA information in the Tinsley case, but the affidavit says they worked with “highly trained genealogist” CeCe Moore, a genetic genealogist who has commented on the California case in news articles and is famous for her work on the PBS show “Finding Your Roots.” A police department spokesman did not return messages Sunday. Officials with the Allen County prosecutor's office also declined to comment, citing ethics rules regarding attorneys discussing pending cases. The prosecutor's office said a news conference is scheduled for Tuesday morning. The break in the case that investigators had been waiting decades for came July�9, when Martin of the city police department said in court documents he learned from the Indiana State Police laboratory that DNA taken from condoms in the trash at Miller's mobile home in Grabill “was consistent with the DNA profile recovered in 2004, which also match the DNA recovered in April M. Tinsley's underwear” in 1988. Police arrived Sunday at Miller's home, 13722 Main St., Lot�4, in Grabill, according to the affidavit. “I then asked John Miller if he had any idea why the police wanted to talk to him,” Martin wrote in the affidavit. “John Miller then looked at detectives and said 'April Tinsley.'” Miller admitted kidnapping, killing and sexually assaulting the girl at his Main Street home in Grabill, according to court documents. Miller allegedly told police he dumped the girl's body early on April�2 and later drove by the site. When he didn't see the story on the news, Miller threw one of April's shoes that was still in his car in the ditch. Detectives found the shoe near her body, according to the affidavit. The case left an indelible mark on city residents who remember the little girl with the mop of blond hair, and among public officials who were left to grieve with their constituents. Paul Helmke was the city's mayor in 1988, and he took office a few months before April was killed. He said he had two young daughters at the time, and April's death affected him personally. Helmke had wondered whether an arrest would ever happen. There always was hope that periodic updates from investigators – police twice released sketches showing what the killer might look like – and coverage locally and through national news outlets might lead to an arrest, he said. “This case – it was one that stayed with us, stayed with me,” Helmke said. “Thirty years is a long time. You'd keep thinking, maybe someone will come forward this time. Maybe something will happen. “It was like a gash in the community's heart.” Angelo Mante, a Fort Wayne pastor, had planned a few weeks ago to hold a cookout near April's Garden on Sunday. He arrived to find the pink balloons and said he grew up on the city's south side and remembers when April was killed. “I remember the fear that swept this city, even at 6 years old,” he said. Miller does not appear to have a serious criminal record. Online court records reveal three traffic-related offenses dating back to 1994. He is scheduled to appear in Allen Superior Court today. [email protected]

– Police in Indiana believe they have finally caught a suspect whose sickening crime has haunted investigators for more than 30 years. Grabill resident John D. Miller, 59, was arrested early Sunday and police say he has confessed to kidnapping, raping, and strangling 8-year-old Fort Wayne girl April Tinsley on Good Friday, 1988, the Indianapolis Star reports. Miller was arrested just hours before Investigation Discovery's On the Case With Paula Zahn aired an episode on the cold case and the search for the killer, who is believed to have repeatedly taunted police in the 30 years since the little girl's murder. In 1990, the words "I kill 8 year old April M Tinsley did you find her other shoe haha I will kill agin" were found scrawled on a barn, WANE reports. In 2004, threatening notes, used condoms, and photos of a man's lower body were left at four locations in the Fort Wayne area, including on the bicycles of young girls. The DNA matched that found on April's body, and police say testing of evidence samples led them to Miller, who was placed under surveillance earlier this month. According to an affidavit, when police went to his trailer Sunday and asked if he knew why they were there, he said: "April Tinsley." Paul Helmke, who was Fort Wayne's mayor in 1988, tells the Journal Gazette that the murder was like a "gash in the community's heart" and he never stopped hoping for a breakthrough.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.CLOSE John D. Miller has been arrested and charged with child molestation and murder. Ethan May, IndyStar John D. Miller (Photo: Allen County Sheriff's Department) Thirty years after the murder of 8-year-old April Tinsley, police arrested a man in connection to her death on the same day the cold case was to be examined during a prime-time crime documentary. John D. Miller, 59, of Grabill, was arrested at his home Sunday morning by members of the Fort Wayne Police Department and the Indiana State Police, according to court documents. Hours later, Investigation Discovery's "On the Case with Paula Zahn" was set to air an episode about the search for the man who taunted law enforcement for years after the crime. Saloon shooting case: Arrest made in January double homicide at Sawmill Saloon Indianapolis teen killed: Indianapolis woman facing murder charge in slaying of 13-year-old boy Court documents said that when police arrived at Miller's home Sunday, they asked him if he knew why they were there. He answered "April Tinsley," before admitting the crime to investigators, according to court documents. April Marie Tinsley, 8 (Photo: FBI.gov) According to the FBI, the investigation began April 1, 1988, when April was abducted from her Fort Wayne neighborhood while walking from a friend's house. Three days later, a jogger discovered April's body about 20 miles to the north in a ditch along a country road in DeKalb County. Officials also found one of April's shoes about 1,000 feet from the body. Police said April had been raped. The killer left his DNA, but authorities couldn't find a match. The case saw new life in 1990, when her killer scrawled a message on a barn door: "I kill 8-year-old April Marie Tinsley. I will kill again." In 2004, 16 years after April's death, the killer left threatening notes, photos and used condoms on three girl's bicycles and in a mailbox in the Fort Wayne area. The pictures showed a man's nude lower body. DNA in the condoms matched that found on April's body. "Hi honey. I been watching you," one note released by the FBI read. "I am the same person that kidnapped, raped and killed April Tinsley. You are my next victim." Court documents reveal a break in the case in May of 2018. That is when a detective arranged for DNA testing and analysis to be done on the suspect's evidence sample at Parabon NanoLabs. On July 2, the lab was able to narrow the DNA sample to two brothers, one being Miller. Investigators then began conducting surveillance on Miller. On July 6, police searched Miller's trash in an attempt to find items bearing the suspect's DNA, according to court documents. In the trash, they found three used condoms. On July 9, investigators learned that the DNA from the used condoms found in Miller's trash matched the DNA from the condoms found in 2004, and the DNA found on the victim. On Sunday morning, police explained to Miller that they had connected his DNA to the 1988 slaying. When asked to explain what happened to Tinsley, Miller looked at police and said "I can't," according to court documents. Miller then admitted to abducting April from Hoagland Avenue in Fort Wayne on April 1, 1988, taking her to his trailer, sexually assaulting her and killing her, court documents said. Miller told police that he choked the victim so that she wouldn't tell police what happened, and that it took 10 minutes for the little girl to die. He then told police that he drove April's body to Spencerville the next morning and dumped her in a ditch. Miller was taken to the Allen County Jail, where he is being held on suspicion of murder, child molesting and confinement. He is slated to make his first court appearance Monday. IndyStar reporter Vic Ryckaert contributed to this story. Call IndyStar reporter Justin L. Mack at 317-444-6138. Follow him on Twitter: @justinlmack. Read or Share this story: https://indy.st/2JpdCQa ||||| John D. Miller arraigned with Tinsley supporters feet away Copyright 2019 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. John D. Miller [ + - ] Copyright 2019 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Video Video The man arrested in connection with Fort Wayne's most notorious cold case was formally arraigned Thursday morning. John D. Miller, 59, of Grabill faces felony charges of murder and child molesting related to the April 1988 abduction, rape and killing of 8-year-old April Marie Tinsley out of Fort Wayne. Prosecutors filed the charges Wednesday afternoon in Allen Superior Court. Thursday morning, Miller - dressed in an orange-and-white Allen County Jail jumpsuit and shackled at the wrists and ankles - shuffled into the Circuit Courtroom. He answered Judge John Surbeck's questions - name, date of birth, age and whether he could afford an attorney - with a slow, gravely voice before he was assigned a public defender, Anthony Churchward. In the courtroom was an unusually large police presence, with at least 12 uniformed Allen County Sheriff's deputies and other law enforcement officials, along with several friends and family of Tinsley, a half dozen clothed in memorial shirts for the girl they seek justice for. The proceedings lasted about 15 minutes, and Miller was ordered held without bond. A hearing to set a trial date was scheduled for Aug. 3. Miller faces up to 100 years in prison if convicted of murder and felony child molesting, according to Indiana Code sentencing guidelines. Copyright 2019 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. John D. Miller Copyright 2019 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. John D. Miller Thirty years ago, the 8-year-old Tinsley was abducted from her south-central Fort Wayne neighborhood as she walked to a friend's home to pick up an umbrella. The first-grader's body was found by a jogger three days later in a ditch along a road in southern DeKalb County. She had been sexually molested, suffocated and dead for at least two days. According to the affidavit, police approached Miller after a DNA technology company that was working with Fort Wayne Police narrowed a suspect to two brothers: Miller and another man. After that early July development, police began surveillance on Miller's Grabill mobile home and began to analyze his trash. From there, police recovered three used condoms from Miller's trash. The DNA pulled from those was used to tie him to Tinsley's rape and death. Police went to Miller's home on Sunday. When detectives asked him if he had any idea why there were there, Miller reportedly responded, "April Tinsley," the affidavit said. Miller then admitted to police that he abducted Tinsley and took her to his trailer in Grabill, where he said he had sex with her and then killed her, the affidavit said. Miller told police he choked her for about 10 minutes until she died, so she would not report him to the police, the affidavit said. He said he then sodomized the deceased body, according to the affidavit. Miller said he then drove Tinsley's body to C.R. 68 in Spencerville and dumped her. He then found her shoe in the car and tossed it out in a ditch, as well, the affidavit said. Copyright 2019 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The mobile home of John D. Miller inside the Grabill Mobile Home Park in Grabill is shown. Copyright 2019 Nexstar Broadcasting, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The mobile home of John D. Miller inside the Grabill Mobile Home Park in Grabill is shown. In the years since Tinsley's death, the cold case has been featured on "America's Most Wanted" and "Crime Watch Daily," among others, in no small part because the killer appeared at times to taunt investigators. In 1990, two years after the killing, authorities found "I kill 8 year old April M Tinsley did you find her other shoe haha I will kill agin" scrawled on a Schwartz Road barn. Then, in 2004, police were called to an address in Fort Wayne and two addresses in Grabill, where used condoms and notes were found that claimed the person who left them had killed young April. A DNA profile was established with those condoms and notes. Suspect's Neighbor Reacts To April... In 2015, Virginia-based DNA technology company Parabon released a next-generation forensic composite of what young April Marie Tinsley's killer could look like. In 2016, then, the company released an updated - and more detailed - image of that suspect, extrapolated from genetic history and traits from DNA that police have gathered since Tinsley's death. As it turned out, Parabon's work was vital. Police and prosecutors have said said they will not discuss the case. At a Tuesday press conference Tuesday, Prosecutor Karen Richards said she would not try the case through the public, but rather in a court room. Miller has no criminal record other than one speeding citation and two citations for failure to stop, each in Allen County. ||||| Pink balloons tied with purple ribbons adorned a bush Sunday at April's Garden, a memorial built for an 8-year-old girl whose 1988 abduction, sexual assault and slaying shocked Fort Wayne and kept its residents' attention for more than three decades. Constructed in 2015, the garden at Hoagland and Masterson avenues has been the site of regular somber vigils of pink and purple – April Tinsley's favorite colors. Sunday was different. For once, the balloons that fluttered in the breeze symbolized hope and closure rather than loss and sadness. Allen County prosecutors announced the arrest of John D. Miller, 59, of Grabill, in the girl's death. He is charged with murder, child molesting and criminal confinement. “I'm glad now the garden can be a place to celebrate,” said Colleen Obergfell, who owns the property where the memorial is located. “When we heard the news, we thought we had to celebrate. It seemed like balloons were the way to celebrate.” It's the first arrest in a case that received attention from national media outlets, stretched from the 20th into the 21st century and featured dozens of investigators from the Fort Wayne Police Department, the Allen County Sheriff's Department, Indiana State Police and other law enforcement agencies. The case has been featured twice on the now-defunct “America's Most Wanted” program. “On the Case with Paula Zahn,” a true crime newsmagazine on Investigation Discovery, profiled the case Sunday night. April left her family's West Williams Street home on April�1, 1988 – Good Friday – to go to a friend's house. She never returned, and her body was found three days later in a ditch on a county road in DeKalb County. She had been sexually assaulted and strangled. Those details and others including messages taunting investigators have been public for decades, but detectives had been stumped until recently despite evidence that included DNA samples. Police used DNA taken from April's clothes and from used condoms recovered July�6 from outside Miller's home and in 2004 from locations in Fort Wayne and Grabill to focus in on Miller, according to court documents. Investigators also looked to genealogy databases to narrow the search for the alleged killer, a probable cause affidavit states. The search method was used by investigators in California to locate alleged Golden State Killer Joseph James DeAngelo in April. It's not clear specifically how detectives Brian Martin of the Fort Wayne Police Department and Clint Hetrick of the Indiana State Police used DNA information in the Tinsley case, but the affidavit says they worked with “highly trained genealogist” CeCe Moore, a genetic genealogist who has commented on the California case in news articles and is famous for her work on the PBS show “Finding Your Roots.” A police department spokesman did not return messages Sunday. Officials with the Allen County prosecutor's office also declined to comment, citing ethics rules regarding attorneys discussing pending cases. The prosecutor's office said a news conference is scheduled for Tuesday morning. The break in the case that investigators had been waiting decades for came July�9, when Martin of the city police department said in court documents he learned from the Indiana State Police laboratory that DNA taken from condoms in the trash at Miller's mobile home in Grabill “was consistent with the DNA profile recovered in 2004, which also match the DNA recovered in April M. Tinsley's underwear” in 1988. Police arrived Sunday at Miller's home, 13722 Main St., Lot�4, in Grabill, according to the affidavit. “I then asked John Miller if he had any idea why the police wanted to talk to him,” Martin wrote in the affidavit. “John Miller then looked at detectives and said 'April Tinsley.'” Miller admitted kidnapping, killing and sexually assaulting the girl at his Main Street home in Grabill, according to court documents. Miller allegedly told police he dumped the girl's body early on April�2 and later drove by the site. When he didn't see the story on the news, Miller threw one of April's shoes that was still in his car in the ditch. Detectives found the shoe near her body, according to the affidavit. The case left an indelible mark on city residents who remember the little girl with the mop of blond hair, and among public officials who were left to grieve with their constituents. Paul Helmke was the city's mayor in 1988, and he took office a few months before April was killed. He said he had two young daughters at the time, and April's death affected him personally. Helmke had wondered whether an arrest would ever happen. There always was hope that periodic updates from investigators – police twice released sketches showing what the killer might look like – and coverage locally and through national news outlets might lead to an arrest, he said. “This case – it was one that stayed with us, stayed with me,” Helmke said. “Thirty years is a long time. You'd keep thinking, maybe someone will come forward this time. Maybe something will happen. “It was like a gash in the community's heart.” Angelo Mante, a Fort Wayne pastor, had planned a few weeks ago to hold a cookout near April's Garden on Sunday. He arrived to find the pink balloons and said he grew up on the city's south side and remembers when April was killed. “I remember the fear that swept this city, even at 6 years old,” he said. Miller does not appear to have a serious criminal record. Online court records reveal three traffic-related offenses dating back to 1994. He is scheduled to appear in Allen Superior Court today. [email protected]

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Darrow Montgomery Recent comments by an up-and-coming District pol have some observers asking: What was he thinking? Last Friday morning, as light snow fell on D.C., Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White posted a video on his personal Facebook page in which he promoted a conspiracy theory that accuses a prominent Jewish family of manipulating the climate. White, 33, was driving on a District highway while recording the video. “Man, it just started snowing out of nowhere this morning, man," he said. "Y’all better pay attention to this climate control, man, this climate manipulation. And D.C. keep talking about, ‘We a resilient city.’ And that’s a model based off the Rothschilds controlling the climate to create natural disasters they can pay for to own the cities, man. Be careful.” The very affluent family has long been the target of conspiracies. It is unclear what White, currently the youngest representative on the 13-member D.C. Council, meant by "climate control," or where he picked up this narrative. But as the Washington Post, which was the first to report the video, points out, fringe Internet users have falsely linked the Rothschilds to weather changes. Established by another dynastic family, the Rockefeller Foundation runs an initiative called 100 Resilient Cities to help cities adapt to major challenges. Conspiracies have also centered around the Rockefellers. White has reportedly mused aloud about supposed connections between the Rothschilds and climate change before. At a February working breakfast between the D.C. Council and Mayor Muriel Bowser, he asked the Bowser administration about links between the Rothschilds, the Rockefellers, the World Bank, and D.C.'s recently created Office of Resilience, according to a District official who was present. Following the Post story and fierce criticism on Twitter, White removed the video from his Facebook page on Sunday evening and issued a written apology on social media. He texted a version of it to City Paper: In response to my social media post on Friday, as I leader I work hard everyday to combat racism and prejudices of all kinds. I want to apologize to the Jewish Community and anyone I have offended. The Jewish community have been allies with me in my journey to help people. I did not intend to be Anti-Semitic, and I see I should not have said that after learning from my colleagues. I have spoke to leaders and my friends at Jews United for Justice and they are helping me to understand the history of comments made against Jews and I am committed to figuring out ways to continue to be allies with them and others. He did not answer specific questions about what he meant by his comments in the video and where he had heard about the Rothschilds controlling the climate. "I have to be the example," he added on Twitter. A former state education board member, White represents the District's poorest ward—once the base of Marion Barry, his mentor. He was elected in 2016 after losing a 2015 special election to fill Barry's seat. He has distinguished himself as a loyal Ward 8 advocate. Jews United for Justice, a progressive advocacy group based in D.C., wrote in a tweet that it spoke with White "about how his comments played into the long history of antisemitism." "We look forward to working with him toward deeper understanding of antisemitism and toward our collective liberation," JUFJ wrote. Ward 1 Councilmember Brianne Nadeau said in a statement that she also spoke with White, who'd reached out to her. "He reiterated, 'that's not who I am, and that's not what I'm about,'" Nadeau said in a post on her official Facebook page. "I believe he is being truthful when he says he didn't realize what his statement implied." She chairs the human services committee, on which White sits. "That said," Nadeau continued, "as a Jewish leader I know how scary these times are, with anti-semitism and white supremacy on the rise across our country, stoked by the hateful words and actions of our own President. It's all the more important that our leaders across the country focus on eradicating hate and bigotry in all forms, and not make them worse, purposefully or unwittingly." The Anti-Defamation League found that Anti-Semitic incidents in the United States rose 57 percent from 2016 to 2017—to about 2,000. In D.C., reported hate crimes increased from 2015 to 2016, to more than 100, with a significant jump in those motivated by religious bias. On Tuesday, At-Large Councilmember Elissa Silverman, who is also Jewish, said she discussed White's comments with him. Calling his remarks "disturbing," she said in a statement that she told White she was concerned both that "he had been exposed to anti-Semitic beliefs akin to what had been used in Nazi Germany either through materials he had read or people he trusts" and that "he subscribed to a conspiracy theory." "We both agreed that hate speech of any kind has no place at the D.C. Council or in our city," Silverman said. "I believe that Trayon is remorseful about what he said, and I believe he is taking steps to understand why these comments were so offensive—not only to Jewish residents but to all who want an inclusive, welcoming city." White has 5,000 friends on Facebook, the maximum number that the social network allows per account. This post has been updated with comment from Silverman. ||||| A D.C. lawmaker responded to a brief snowfall Friday by publishing a video in which he espoused a conspiracy theory that Jewish financiers control the weather. D.C. Council member Trayon White Sr. (D-Ward 8) posted the video to his official Facebook page at 7:21 a.m. as snow flurries were hitting the nation’s capital. The video, shot through the windshield of a car driving west on Interstate 695 through downtown Washington, shows snowy skies while White narrates. “Man, it just started snowing out of nowhere this morning, man. Y’all better pay attention to this climate control, man, this climate manipulation,” he says. “And D.C. keep talking about, ‘We a resilient city.’ And that’s a model based off the Rothschilds controlling the climate to create natural disasters they can pay for to own the cities, man. Be careful.” The Rothschilds are a famous European business dynasty descended from Mayer Amschel Rothschild, an 18th-century Jewish banker who lived in what is today Frankfurt, Germany. The family has repeatedly been subject over the years to anti-Semitic conspiracy theories alleging that they and other Jews clandestinely manipulate world events for their advantage. [The Rothschilds, a pamphlet by ‘Satan’ and conspiracy theories tied to a battle 200 years ago] Rabbi Daniel Zemel of Temple Micah in Northwest Washington denounced White’s remarks, saying they contribute to a growing mood of intolerance in the United States. “This kind of anti-Semitism is unacceptable in any public official. This so diminishes what America is about and adds to the oppressive feeling going on in the country right now,” Zemel said. “We all have to be better. Public officials have to learn not to say the first ignorant thing that comes into their head.” The Anti-Defamation League reported last month that ­anti-Semitic incidents in the District more than doubled in 2017, compared with 2015. That follows a similar escalation nationwide. White did not return calls for comment. In a series of text messages, he confirmed the voice in the video is his but expressed surprise that his remarks might be construed as anti-Semitic. Asked to clarify what he meant, he wrote, “The video says what it says.” However, about four hours after The Washington Post published this story online Sunday, White sent a statement of apology via text message. “I work hard everyday to combat racism and prejudices of all kinds. I want to apologize to the Jewish Community and anyone I have offended,” he said. “The Jewish community have been allies with me in my journey to help people. I did not intend to be anti-Semitic, and I see I should not have said that after learning from my colleagues.” White said his “friends” at Jews United for Justice, a group that advocates for progressive causes and endorsed him in 2016, were “helping me to understand the history of comments made against Jews and I am committed to figuring out ways continue to be allies with them and others.” D.C. Council member Brianne K. Nadeau (D-Ward 1), who is Jewish, released a statement Sunday night saying White had apologized and “expressed his sincere regret . . . for having offended members of the Jewish community.” She added: “It is my sincere hope that my colleague has learned from this experience, and that together we can serve the diverse people of the District of Columbia with a focus on lifting each other up, rather than tearing one another down.” White’s video statements appear to echo beliefs, found lurking in corners of the Internet, that the Rockefeller Foundation’s Resilient Cities initiative — which provides grants to cities, including the District, to address environmental and economic problems — is actually part of a secret scheme to control and reduce the population of North America. [What are resilient cities?] Some conspiracy theorists also think the Rothschilds, acting in conjunction with the Rockefeller family, have technology to manipulate the weather — for example, by causing freak storms that wreak havoc on people, farms and livestock. In a video posted to YouTube this year titled “Kill Cities — Designed by Rothschild and Rockefeller: Resilient Cities Are Human Death Zones,” Internet commentator Deborah Tavares — a Northern California resident who argues, among other things, that climate change and wireless electricity meters are tools in a plot of global domination — calls the Resilient Cities program a “diabolical” effort to manipulate people. “This a genocide program,” she says. “We are being moved now into what they call ‘resilient cities.’ And it’s important to get this word out, start looking it up: Resilient cities. Understand what this is: This is a plan brought in by Rothschild and Rockefeller.” She adds, “We’re being categorized as lunatics, but we know that the weather is massively and completely, artificially controlled.” Conspiracy theories alleging nefarious plots by elites such as the Rothschilds and Rockefellers — as well as other boogeymen such as the illuminati and Freemasons — have increasingly bobbed to the surface of American politics in recent years. The Republican Party’s 2012 platform embraced what had previously been fringe fears of a 1992 United Nations environmental accord known as Agenda 21, stating that it was “erosive of American sovereignty.” Assertions that the pact was cover for a global plot had become popular among tea party groups battling local, state and federal environmental regulations. Speculation that high-ranking Democratic Party officials, including former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, were involved in a child sex-trafficking ring run out of a D.C. restaurant led to the infamous “Pizzagate” episode in December 2016. A North Carolina man showed up with a Colt AR-15 military-style rifle and a .38-caliber Colt revolver at Comet Ping Pong, a pizza joint in Northwest Washington, saying he planned to investigate the allegations. [Pizzagate, from hashtag to gunfire] He fired multiple shots inside the restaurant before police arrested him. No one was harmed.

– A DC council member is apologizing after he pushed a conspiracy theory that a wealthy Jewish family controlled the weather. In a story first reported by the Washington Post, Trayon White posted a video to Facebook Friday with the following narration: "Man, it just started snowing out of nowhere this morning, man. Y'all better pay attention to this climate control, man, this climate manipulation. And DC keep talking about, 'We a resilient city.' And that's a model based off the Rothschilds controlling the climate to create natural disasters they can pay for to own the cities, man. Be careful." The criticism began quickly, and White eventually offered a mea culpa: "I work hard everyday to combat racism and prejudices of all kinds," said the African-American lawmaker, before apologizing "to the Jewish community" and adding, "I did not intend to be anti-Semitic." The Washington City Paper describes the 33-year-old as an "up-and-coming District pol" but says observers were wondering, "What was he thinking?" White declined to comment on the source of his original comments, but the Post notes that the Rothschilds "are a famous European business dynasty" and the subject of numerous conspiracy theories in the nether regions of the internet. The "resilient city" remark apparently refers to an initiative by another prominent family, the Rockefellers, about which similar conspiracy theories abound. Fellow council member Brianne Nadeau, who's Jewish, took note of White's apology and sounded forgiving about the mess: "It is my sincere hope that my colleague has learned from this experience."

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Darrow Montgomery Recent comments by an up-and-coming District pol have some observers asking: What was he thinking? Last Friday morning, as light snow fell on D.C., Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White posted a video on his personal Facebook page in which he promoted a conspiracy theory that accuses a prominent Jewish family of manipulating the climate. White, 33, was driving on a District highway while recording the video. “Man, it just started snowing out of nowhere this morning, man," he said. "Y’all better pay attention to this climate control, man, this climate manipulation. And D.C. keep talking about, ‘We a resilient city.’ And that’s a model based off the Rothschilds controlling the climate to create natural disasters they can pay for to own the cities, man. Be careful.” The very affluent family has long been the target of conspiracies. It is unclear what White, currently the youngest representative on the 13-member D.C. Council, meant by "climate control," or where he picked up this narrative. But as the Washington Post, which was the first to report the video, points out, fringe Internet users have falsely linked the Rothschilds to weather changes. Established by another dynastic family, the Rockefeller Foundation runs an initiative called 100 Resilient Cities to help cities adapt to major challenges. Conspiracies have also centered around the Rockefellers. White has reportedly mused aloud about supposed connections between the Rothschilds and climate change before. At a February working breakfast between the D.C. Council and Mayor Muriel Bowser, he asked the Bowser administration about links between the Rothschilds, the Rockefellers, the World Bank, and D.C.'s recently created Office of Resilience, according to a District official who was present. Following the Post story and fierce criticism on Twitter, White removed the video from his Facebook page on Sunday evening and issued a written apology on social media. He texted a version of it to City Paper: In response to my social media post on Friday, as I leader I work hard everyday to combat racism and prejudices of all kinds. I want to apologize to the Jewish Community and anyone I have offended. The Jewish community have been allies with me in my journey to help people. I did not intend to be Anti-Semitic, and I see I should not have said that after learning from my colleagues. I have spoke to leaders and my friends at Jews United for Justice and they are helping me to understand the history of comments made against Jews and I am committed to figuring out ways to continue to be allies with them and others. He did not answer specific questions about what he meant by his comments in the video and where he had heard about the Rothschilds controlling the climate. "I have to be the example," he added on Twitter. A former state education board member, White represents the District's poorest ward—once the base of Marion Barry, his mentor. He was elected in 2016 after losing a 2015 special election to fill Barry's seat. He has distinguished himself as a loyal Ward 8 advocate. Jews United for Justice, a progressive advocacy group based in D.C., wrote in a tweet that it spoke with White "about how his comments played into the long history of antisemitism." "We look forward to working with him toward deeper understanding of antisemitism and toward our collective liberation," JUFJ wrote. Ward 1 Councilmember Brianne Nadeau said in a statement that she also spoke with White, who'd reached out to her. "He reiterated, 'that's not who I am, and that's not what I'm about,'" Nadeau said in a post on her official Facebook page. "I believe he is being truthful when he says he didn't realize what his statement implied." She chairs the human services committee, on which White sits. "That said," Nadeau continued, "as a Jewish leader I know how scary these times are, with anti-semitism and white supremacy on the rise across our country, stoked by the hateful words and actions of our own President. It's all the more important that our leaders across the country focus on eradicating hate and bigotry in all forms, and not make them worse, purposefully or unwittingly." The Anti-Defamation League found that Anti-Semitic incidents in the United States rose 57 percent from 2016 to 2017—to about 2,000. In D.C., reported hate crimes increased from 2015 to 2016, to more than 100, with a significant jump in those motivated by religious bias. On Tuesday, At-Large Councilmember Elissa Silverman, who is also Jewish, said she discussed White's comments with him. Calling his remarks "disturbing," she said in a statement that she told White she was concerned both that "he had been exposed to anti-Semitic beliefs akin to what had been used in Nazi Germany either through materials he had read or people he trusts" and that "he subscribed to a conspiracy theory." "We both agreed that hate speech of any kind has no place at the D.C. Council or in our city," Silverman said. "I believe that Trayon is remorseful about what he said, and I believe he is taking steps to understand why these comments were so offensive—not only to Jewish residents but to all who want an inclusive, welcoming city." White has 5,000 friends on Facebook, the maximum number that the social network allows per account. This post has been updated with comment from Silverman. ||||| A D.C. lawmaker responded to a brief snowfall Friday by publishing a video in which he espoused a conspiracy theory that Jewish financiers control the weather. D.C. Council member Trayon White Sr. (D-Ward 8) posted the video to his official Facebook page at 7:21 a.m. as snow flurries were hitting the nation’s capital. The video, shot through the windshield of a car driving west on Interstate 695 through downtown Washington, shows snowy skies while White narrates. “Man, it just started snowing out of nowhere this morning, man. Y’all better pay attention to this climate control, man, this climate manipulation,” he says. “And D.C. keep talking about, ‘We a resilient city.’ And that’s a model based off the Rothschilds controlling the climate to create natural disasters they can pay for to own the cities, man. Be careful.” The Rothschilds are a famous European business dynasty descended from Mayer Amschel Rothschild, an 18th-century Jewish banker who lived in what is today Frankfurt, Germany. The family has repeatedly been subject over the years to anti-Semitic conspiracy theories alleging that they and other Jews clandestinely manipulate world events for their advantage. [The Rothschilds, a pamphlet by ‘Satan’ and conspiracy theories tied to a battle 200 years ago] Rabbi Daniel Zemel of Temple Micah in Northwest Washington denounced White’s remarks, saying they contribute to a growing mood of intolerance in the United States. “This kind of anti-Semitism is unacceptable in any public official. This so diminishes what America is about and adds to the oppressive feeling going on in the country right now,” Zemel said. “We all have to be better. Public officials have to learn not to say the first ignorant thing that comes into their head.” The Anti-Defamation League reported last month that ­anti-Semitic incidents in the District more than doubled in 2017, compared with 2015. That follows a similar escalation nationwide. White did not return calls for comment. In a series of text messages, he confirmed the voice in the video is his but expressed surprise that his remarks might be construed as anti-Semitic. Asked to clarify what he meant, he wrote, “The video says what it says.” However, about four hours after The Washington Post published this story online Sunday, White sent a statement of apology via text message. “I work hard everyday to combat racism and prejudices of all kinds. I want to apologize to the Jewish Community and anyone I have offended,” he said. “The Jewish community have been allies with me in my journey to help people. I did not intend to be anti-Semitic, and I see I should not have said that after learning from my colleagues.” White said his “friends” at Jews United for Justice, a group that advocates for progressive causes and endorsed him in 2016, were “helping me to understand the history of comments made against Jews and I am committed to figuring out ways continue to be allies with them and others.” D.C. Council member Brianne K. Nadeau (D-Ward 1), who is Jewish, released a statement Sunday night saying White had apologized and “expressed his sincere regret . . . for having offended members of the Jewish community.” She added: “It is my sincere hope that my colleague has learned from this experience, and that together we can serve the diverse people of the District of Columbia with a focus on lifting each other up, rather than tearing one another down.” White’s video statements appear to echo beliefs, found lurking in corners of the Internet, that the Rockefeller Foundation’s Resilient Cities initiative — which provides grants to cities, including the District, to address environmental and economic problems — is actually part of a secret scheme to control and reduce the population of North America. [What are resilient cities?] Some conspiracy theorists also think the Rothschilds, acting in conjunction with the Rockefeller family, have technology to manipulate the weather — for example, by causing freak storms that wreak havoc on people, farms and livestock. In a video posted to YouTube this year titled “Kill Cities — Designed by Rothschild and Rockefeller: Resilient Cities Are Human Death Zones,” Internet commentator Deborah Tavares — a Northern California resident who argues, among other things, that climate change and wireless electricity meters are tools in a plot of global domination — calls the Resilient Cities program a “diabolical” effort to manipulate people. “This a genocide program,” she says. “We are being moved now into what they call ‘resilient cities.’ And it’s important to get this word out, start looking it up: Resilient cities. Understand what this is: This is a plan brought in by Rothschild and Rockefeller.” She adds, “We’re being categorized as lunatics, but we know that the weather is massively and completely, artificially controlled.” Conspiracy theories alleging nefarious plots by elites such as the Rothschilds and Rockefellers — as well as other boogeymen such as the illuminati and Freemasons — have increasingly bobbed to the surface of American politics in recent years. The Republican Party’s 2012 platform embraced what had previously been fringe fears of a 1992 United Nations environmental accord known as Agenda 21, stating that it was “erosive of American sovereignty.” Assertions that the pact was cover for a global plot had become popular among tea party groups battling local, state and federal environmental regulations. Speculation that high-ranking Democratic Party officials, including former presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, were involved in a child sex-trafficking ring run out of a D.C. restaurant led to the infamous “Pizzagate” episode in December 2016. A North Carolina man showed up with a Colt AR-15 military-style rifle and a .38-caliber Colt revolver at Comet Ping Pong, a pizza joint in Northwest Washington, saying he planned to investigate the allegations. [Pizzagate, from hashtag to gunfire] He fired multiple shots inside the restaurant before police arrested him. No one was harmed.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

CLOSE On USA TODAY's Capital Download, Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson sits down with Susan Page. Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson (Photo: Michael Monday, for USA TODAY) NEW YORK — Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon who trails only Donald Trump at the top of the Republican presidential field, says the lesson of the nation's latest mass shooting isn't to enact more limits on guns but to consider whether gun-free zones actually may be drawing shooters. In a wide-ranging interview with Capital Download, Carson endorsed expanding efforts to identify and treat the mentally ill before they commit acts of violence. He also suggested it might make sense to arm kindergarten teachers, and he rejected as wrong-headed proposals to restore the ban on military-style assault weapons. "Would that have prevented this? No," Carson told USA TODAY's weekly newsmaker series. "Would it have prevented the one before? No. I'm for doing things that work, not for things that stroke the emotions." Carson outlines how he says his political philosophy on gun control and other issues is grounded in the Constitution in a new book, A More Perfect Union, being published Tuesday by Sentinel. One of the trio of outsiders who have shaken the GOP race this year, the renowned pediatric neurosurgeon combines a soft-spoken manner with strongly held and hard-edged conservative views, particularly on social issues. Ben Carson's new book, "A More Perfect Union: What We the People Can Do to Reclaim Our Constitutional Liberties" (Photo: Courtesy Sentinel) "If I had a little kid in kindergarten somewhere I would feel much more comfortable if I knew on that campus there was a police officer or somebody who was trained with a weapon," he says. Including the teacher? "If the teacher was trained in the use of that weapon and had access to it, I would be much more comfortable if they had one than if they didn't." He says the idea of declaring gun-free zones may be counterproductive. The gunmen "tend to pick places that are gun-free zones," he says. "They aren't likely to go into a place where they are likely to get shot." He keeps a gun himself at a home he owns in a secluded area, "way out in the country, away from the police, away from anybody," he says. "If someone is, you know, threatening your life or the life of your family and you don't have ready access to the police, I would prefer to have a mechanism for protecting myself." But he's never had to use it. The nation's continuing debate over gun control has been spotlighted by the shooting rampage last week at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore., that left nine victims dead before the shooter allegedly killed himself. Umpqua bans guns and other weapons, but state law allows people with concealed permits to carry guns on the campus. While Carson once supported the idea of banning assault weapons and armor-piercing ammunition, he says he changed his mind after he read more about the history of tyranny, a subject explored in his new 240-page book. Ben Carson greets audience members following a town hall meeting on Oct. 2, 2015, in Ankeny, Iowa. (Photo: Charlie Neibergall, AP) "Reading people like Daniel Webster, who talked about tyranny in Europe and said it would never occur in America because the American people were armed," he says. "When you look at tyranny and how it occurs, the pattern is so consistent: Get rid of the guns for the people first so you can go in and dominate them." Asked whether many Americans worried less about the threat from the government and more about the threat of fellow citizens armed with assault rifles, Carson replied: "You need to be able to protect yourself from both." Carson, now 64, admits to being surprised with his political rise since his address to the National Prayer Breakfast in 2013 drew the attention of evangelical Christians and others who urged him to get into politics. In the RealClearPolitics average of recent national polls, Trump runs first in the Republican field at 23%, followed by Carson at 17% and former CEO Carly Fiorina at 11%. Among the more traditional contenders — that is, those who have previously held elective office —only Florida Sen. Marco Rubio breaks into double digits, at 10%. "It says that the people are actually starting to wake up and recognize that politics-as-usual is not taking us where we want to be," Carson says of the strength of the outsider candidates. "In fact, it's leading us in exactly the opposite direction." He rejects any parallel to the observation that a president should have experience in politics, just as most people wouldn't choose a brain surgeon who had never been in an operating room before. "Neurosurgery is considerably more complicated than politics," he scoffs. "You don't need to know nearly as much to be able to maneuver in the political world as you do in the operating room inside of somebody's brain. It's not even close." Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1LfuwP2 ||||| EDITOR’S NOTE: The original story identified a source as a combat veteran and former Navy SEAL. A records search has since revealed that he significantly exaggerated his military record. His comments have been removed from the article, and the headline has been changed. We apologize to our readers. Ready to fight back? Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! Support Progressive Journalism The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. Fight Back! Sign up for Take Action Now and we’ll send you three meaningful actions you can take each week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and we’ll send you three meaningful actions you can take each week. Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue Travel With The Nation Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and explore the world with kindred spirits. Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and explore the world with kindred spirits. Sign up for our Wine Club today. Did you know you can support The Nation by drinking wine? Wayne LaPierre, the head of the National Rifle Association (NRA), has famously claimed that “the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun.” Ad Policy Much of today’s opposition to stronger gun safety regulations rests on the gun lobby’s Hobbesian vision of self-sufficient, heavily-armed citizens standing up to vicious thugs. This Die Hard argument is constantly parroted by politicians and conservative pundits. But the statistical reality is that for every justifiable homicide in the United States—for every lethal shooting in defense of life or property—guns are used to commit 34 murders and 78 suicides, and are the cause of two accidental deaths, according to an analysis of FBI data by The Washington Post. LaPierre, a career lobbyist, has no clue what it’s like to use a firearm in anger. But The Nation spoke to several people who do—including combat veterans and former law enforcement officers—and who believe that the NRA’s heroic gunslinger mythology is a dangerous fantasy that bears little resemblance to reality. Retired Army Sergeant Rafael Noboa y Rivera, who led a combat team in Iraq, says that most soldiers only function effectively after they’ve been exposed to fire a number a times. “I think there’s this fantasy world of gunplay in the movies, but it doesn’t really happen that way,” he says. “When I heard gunfire [in Iraq], I didn’t immediately pick up my rifle and react. I first tried to ascertain where the shooting was coming from, where I was in relation to the gunfire and how far away it was. I think most untrained people are either going to freeze up, or just whip out their gun and start firing in that circumstance,” Noboa said. “I think they would absolutely panic.” Those interviewed for this article agreed that the key distinction isn’t between “good guys” and “bad guys,” because intentions are less important than the rigorous—and continuous—training that it takes to effectively handle firearms in high-stress situations. Dr. Pete Blair, an associate professor of criminal justice at Texas State University and director of the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center (ALERRT), has studied mass shooting incidents and trains law enforcement personnel to respond to active-shooter situations. The cops who go through his course conduct live-fire exercises using real firearms which are re-chambered to fire “soap rounds” that leave only welts when they hit. For every justifiable homicide in the US, guns are used to commit 34 murders and 78 suicides. Blair’s trainees run through a number of real-world scenarios—“force on force training” that’s designed to “inoculate” officers against the problems people naturally encounter in high-stress situations. That stress response, says Blair, includes “tunnel vision, audio exclusion and time dilation,” and one would expect people who weren’t trained in these situations to “freeze up or not know what to do, and to have difficulty performing actions correctly.” Weekend-long tactical training courses for civilians are growing in popularity. But these courses offer only a shadow of what’s required, says David Chipman, a former agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Chipman, who spent several years on the agency’s SWAT team, says, “Training for a potentially deadly encounter meant, at a minimum, qualifying four times a year throughout my 25-year career. And this wasn’t just shooting paper—it meant doing extensive tactical exercises. And when I was on the SWAT team we had to undergo monthly tactical training.” Tactical officers typically receive training in “judgmental shooting,” which includes knowing when it’s prudent to hold their fire, and “blue-on-blue awareness,” which drills into them the importance of considering whether other cops are present, including officers who aren’t in uniform. They’re trained to overcome tunnel vision by looking not only at their target but also maintaining an awareness of who or what is behind it. THE NATION IS READER FUNDED. YOUR SUPPORT IS VITAL TO OUR WORK. DONATE NOW! “The notion that you have a seal of approval just because you’re not a criminal—that you walk into a gun store and you’re ready for game-day—is ridiculous,” says Chipman. A case in Texas two weeks ago highlights the risks of civilians intervening in chaotic situations. Police say that as two carjackers struggled with the owner of a car at a gas station in northeast Houston, a witness decided to take action into his own hands. He fired several shots, but missed the perpetrators and shot the owner of the car in the head. He then picked up his shell casings and fled the scene. Police are still looking for the shooter. The potential for that kind of outcome is why most police agencies strongly recommend that concealed carry holders only use their weapons as an absolute last resort, and not intervene in robberies or other crimes in which they’re not directly involved. David Chipman notes that even police officers are told that if they encounter a crime in progress while off-duty, “maybe the best thing to do at that time is not to take lethal action but instead try to be the best witness you can be.” Not pulling a weapon is often the wisest course of action in active-shooter situations. While a number of conservatives declared that Oregon’s Umpqua Community College, the scene of a mass shooting last week, was a gun-free zone, the truth is that several concealed carry holders were present, and they wisely decided to leave their guns holstered. Veteran John Parker later explained to MSNBC, “We could have opened ourselves up to be potential targets ourselves, and not knowing where SWAT was… if we had our guns ready to shoot, they could think that we were bad guys.” “I think there’s this fantasy world of gunplay in the movies, but it doesn’t really happen that way.” —Retired Army Sargeant Rafael Noboa y Rivera David Chipman says the Secret Service’s history is instructive. “Here’s an agency that has all the weaponry that they could ever need, all the training that they could ever need, and they’ve never fired a weapon in defense of a president during an assassination attempt. You’re trained to throw your body in front of the protectee, not to open fire. Just look at the picture taken immediately after Reagan was shot and count the guns in that photograph. They’re all being held by highly-trained experts and not one of them fired. They didn’t shoot [would-be assassin John] Hinckley. And that’s because you’re likely to do more harm than good in that situation.” The gun lobby and some conservative politicians have seized on a “study” by Davi Barker, a conservative blogger, which purports to show that when a “good guy with a gun” is present during a mass shooting, an average of 2.5 people die, but in similar situations where nobody is armed, there are an average of 18 deaths. It’s provided the basis for claims that gun-free zones are, in former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee’s words, “sitting duck zones.” But Barker later admitted that his methodology entailed analyzing “10 shootings I found listed on some timeline somewhere.… I honestly don’t even remember where.” And Pete Blair from Texas State notes that by definition, shootings with fewer than four casualties aren’t “mass shootings,” and incidents with as many as 18 casualties are exceedingly rare. Blair acknowledges the possibility that shooters may be more likely to seek out places they see as soft targets, like gun-free zones, but adds, “Trying to prove that is difficult to do.” A firearm makes a person almost twice as likely to become the victim of a homicide and three times more likely to commit suicide. Blair co-authored a study for the FBI that looked at 185 mass shooting events over a 13-year period. It found that while around one-in-five were stopped by civilians before police arrived, in only one case was it done by a typical “good guy with a gun” (professionals—an off-duty cop and an armed security guard—used their guns to stop two others). In most cases Blair and his colleague studied, civilians ended a rampage by tackling the assailant. None of this has prevented the gun manufacturers’ lobby from insisting that more guns make a society safer. And many Americans have come to believe it. According to the Pew Research Center, the share of gun owners who cite “protection” as “the main reason they own a gun” almost doubled between 1999 and 2013, from 26 percent to 48 percent. But a large body of empirical evidence finds the opposite to be true. Last year, epidemiologists at the University of California, San Francisco, conducted an extensive analysis of data from 16 previous peer-reviewed studies, and found that having access to a firearm makes a person almost twice as likely to become the victim of a homicide and three times more likely to commit suicide. Previous research has shown that countries with higher rates of gun ownership also have higher rates of gun deaths and states with more guns have higher homicide rates. (The gun lobby’s side of the scholarly debate rests largely on the discredited and allegedly fraudulent work of economist John Lott.) Rafael Noboa y Rivera scoffed at the idea, adding that he’s personally wary of “untrained yahoos” who “think they’re Wyatt Earp.” “Despite what we see on TV, the presence of a firearm is a greater risk, especially in the hands of an untrained person,” says David Chipman, the former ATF agent. “Someone can always say, ‘If your mother is being raped by 5 people, wouldn’t you want her to have a gun?’ Well, OK, if you put it that way, I’d say yes, but that’s not a likely scenario. The question is: If you see someone running out of a gas station with a gun in their hand, do you want an untrained person jumping out and opening fire. For me, the answer is clearly ‘no.’” Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this piece incorrectly stated that last week’s shootings in Oregon ended when the shooter was tackled. ||||| This is a set of web collections curated by Mark Graham using the Archive-IT service of the Internet Archive. They include web captures of the ISKME.org website as well as captures from sites hosted by IGC.org.These web captures are available to the general public.For more information about this collection please feel free to contact Mark via Send Mail ||||| Archive-It Partner 1067: The Political TV Ad Archive, a project of the Internet Archive, collects political TV ads and social media sites in key 2016 primary election states, unlocking the metadata underneath and highlighting quality journalism to provide journalists, civic organizations, academics, and the general public with reliable information on who is trying to influence them & how. ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. ||||| Looking for news you can trust? Subscribe to our free newsletters. Editor’s note: A version of this piece was first published in the March 25 edition of USA Today. Ever since the massacres in Aurora, Colorado, and Newtown, Connecticut, it’s been repeated like some surreal requiem: The reason mass gun violence keeps happening is because the United States is full of places that ban guns. Second Amendment activists have long floated this theme, and now lawmakers across the nation are using it too. During a recent floor debate in the Colorado Legislature, Republican state Rep. Carole Murray put it this way: “Most of the mass killings that we talk about have been effected in gun-free zones. So when you have a gun-free zone, it’s like saying, ‘Come and get me.'” The argument claims to explain both the motive behind mass shootings and how they play out. The killers deliberately choose sites where firearms are forbidden, gun-rights advocates say, and because there are no weapons, no “good guy with a gun” will be on hand to stop the crime. With its overtones of fear and heroism, the argument makes for slick sound bites. But here’s the problem: Both its underlying assumptions are contradicted by data. Not only is there zero evidence to support them, our in-depth investigation of America’s mass shootings indicates they are just plain wrong. Among the 62 mass shootings over the last 30 years that we studied, not a single case includes evidence that the killer chose to target a place because it banned guns. To the contrary, in many of the cases there was clearly another motive for the choice of location. For example, 20 were workplace shootings, most of which involved perpetrators who felt wronged by employers and colleagues. Last September, when a troubled man working at a sign manufacturer in Minneapolis was told he would be let go, he pulled out a 9mm Glock and killed six people and injured another before putting a bullet in his own head. Similar tragedies unfolded at a beer distributor in Connecticut in 2010 and at a plastics factory in Kentucky in 2008. Or consider the 12 school shootings we documented, in which all but one of the killers had personal ties to the school they struck. FBI investigators learned from one witness, for example, that the mass shooter in Newtown had long been fixated on Sandy Hook Elementary School, which he’d once attended. Or take the man who opened fire in suburban Milwaukee last August: Are we to believe that a white supremacist targeted the Sikh temple there not because it was filled with members of a religious minority he despised, but because it was a place that allegedly* banned firearms? Thirty-six of the killers committed suicide at or near the crime scene. These were not people whose priority was identifying the safest place to attack. Proponents of this argument also ignore that the majority of mass shootings are murder-suicides. Thirty-six of the killers we studied took their own lives at or near the crime scene, while seven others died in police shootouts they had no hope of surviving (a.k.a. “suicide by cop”). These were not people whose priority was identifying the safest place to attack. No less a fantasy is the idea that gun-free zones prevent armed civilians from saving the day. Not one of the 62 mass shootings we documented was stopped this way. Veteran FBI, ATF, and police officials say that an armed citizen opening fire against an attacker in a panic-stricken movie theater or shopping mall is very likely to make matters worse. Law enforcement agents train rigorously for stopping active shooters, they say, a task that requires extraordinary skills honed under acute duress. In cases in Washington and Texas in 2005, would-be heroes who tried to take action with licensed firearms were gravely wounded and killed. In the Tucson mass shooting in 2011, an armed citizen admitted to coming within a split second of gunning down the wrong person—one of the bystanders who’d helped tackle and subdue the actual killer. True security in our schools and other designated gun-free places may require more. Forbidding firearms alone clearly won’t keep violence away—not least because of how easily bad guys can get their hands on guns. Nearly 80 percent of the mass shooters we documented obtained their weapons legally. Indeed, America is anything but gun free. We now have more than 300 million firearms in private hands. In the last four years, nearly 100 state laws have loosened restrictions on them. To varying degrees, every state except Illinois now allows guns to be carried in public. All of which raises an obvious question: If more guns in more places is a solution to the bloodshed, then why did we just witness the worst year for mass shootings in recent history? *Guns were in fact legal at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, contrary to a false report from Fox News. Wisconsin state law allows firearms to be carried in houses of worship unless explicitly barred on the premises; Amardeep Kaleka, whose father founded the temple and was killed during the attack, confirmed to me that there was no such ban in place then.

– Ben Carson is doubling down after catching flak for comments he made about gun control after last week's UCC shooting in Oregon. Reaction to the ensuing hubbub: In a Facebook Q&A Monday, Carson said, "There is no doubt that this senseless violence is breathtaking—but I never saw a body with bullet holes that was more devastating than taking the right to arm ourselves away." He's also reiterating that gun-free zones are useless, saying that shooters "tend to pick places that are gun-free zones," per USA Today. "They aren't likely to go into a place where they are likely to get shot." (Mother Jones has disputed that claim before.) "I would not just stand there and let [the gunman] shoot me," Carson said in a Fox & Friends interview Tuesday. "I would say: 'Hey, guys, everybody attack him! He may shoot me, but he can't get us all.'" Tuesday night on The Kelly File, Megyn Kelly noted "you appeared tone deaf and ... callous in the laughter about a massacre." Carson's response: He was just laughing at the "silliness" in that accusation and wasn't judging the victims, but simply looking at the "big picture" so that he can "plant the seed in people's minds so that if this happens again ... they don't all get killed." Tuesday on The View, Carson discussed arming kindergarten teachers. "Not all kindergarten teachers," he noted. "People who are trained and understand all the implications, and ...the weapon would be secured in a place where kids can't get to it." When Joy Behar asked him how someone would be able to get to the weapon in time to protect the classroom, Carson replied, "I want that teacher trained in diversionary tactics." Donald Trump came to Carson's defense Wednesday, tweeting, "Ben Carson was speaking in general terms as to what he would do if confronted with a gunman, and was not criticizing the victims. Not fair!" Lindsey Graham didn't concur, saying Wednesday on CNN's New Day, "I think Mr. Carson has no idea of what he would do. … You don't know what's going to happen … you're overwhelmed"—a theory backed by a Nation article in which combat veterans decimate the "NRA's heroic gunslinger fantasy." And a spokesman for the DNC tells the Times, "It's not brain surgery. Fewer guns in the wrong hands equal fewer deaths from gun violence. Ben Carson should stick to what he knows."

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.CLOSE On USA TODAY's Capital Download, Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson sits down with Susan Page. Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson (Photo: Michael Monday, for USA TODAY) NEW YORK — Ben Carson, the retired neurosurgeon who trails only Donald Trump at the top of the Republican presidential field, says the lesson of the nation's latest mass shooting isn't to enact more limits on guns but to consider whether gun-free zones actually may be drawing shooters. In a wide-ranging interview with Capital Download, Carson endorsed expanding efforts to identify and treat the mentally ill before they commit acts of violence. He also suggested it might make sense to arm kindergarten teachers, and he rejected as wrong-headed proposals to restore the ban on military-style assault weapons. "Would that have prevented this? No," Carson told USA TODAY's weekly newsmaker series. "Would it have prevented the one before? No. I'm for doing things that work, not for things that stroke the emotions." Carson outlines how he says his political philosophy on gun control and other issues is grounded in the Constitution in a new book, A More Perfect Union, being published Tuesday by Sentinel. One of the trio of outsiders who have shaken the GOP race this year, the renowned pediatric neurosurgeon combines a soft-spoken manner with strongly held and hard-edged conservative views, particularly on social issues. Ben Carson's new book, "A More Perfect Union: What We the People Can Do to Reclaim Our Constitutional Liberties" (Photo: Courtesy Sentinel) "If I had a little kid in kindergarten somewhere I would feel much more comfortable if I knew on that campus there was a police officer or somebody who was trained with a weapon," he says. Including the teacher? "If the teacher was trained in the use of that weapon and had access to it, I would be much more comfortable if they had one than if they didn't." He says the idea of declaring gun-free zones may be counterproductive. The gunmen "tend to pick places that are gun-free zones," he says. "They aren't likely to go into a place where they are likely to get shot." He keeps a gun himself at a home he owns in a secluded area, "way out in the country, away from the police, away from anybody," he says. "If someone is, you know, threatening your life or the life of your family and you don't have ready access to the police, I would prefer to have a mechanism for protecting myself." But he's never had to use it. The nation's continuing debate over gun control has been spotlighted by the shooting rampage last week at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore., that left nine victims dead before the shooter allegedly killed himself. Umpqua bans guns and other weapons, but state law allows people with concealed permits to carry guns on the campus. While Carson once supported the idea of banning assault weapons and armor-piercing ammunition, he says he changed his mind after he read more about the history of tyranny, a subject explored in his new 240-page book. Ben Carson greets audience members following a town hall meeting on Oct. 2, 2015, in Ankeny, Iowa. (Photo: Charlie Neibergall, AP) "Reading people like Daniel Webster, who talked about tyranny in Europe and said it would never occur in America because the American people were armed," he says. "When you look at tyranny and how it occurs, the pattern is so consistent: Get rid of the guns for the people first so you can go in and dominate them." Asked whether many Americans worried less about the threat from the government and more about the threat of fellow citizens armed with assault rifles, Carson replied: "You need to be able to protect yourself from both." Carson, now 64, admits to being surprised with his political rise since his address to the National Prayer Breakfast in 2013 drew the attention of evangelical Christians and others who urged him to get into politics. In the RealClearPolitics average of recent national polls, Trump runs first in the Republican field at 23%, followed by Carson at 17% and former CEO Carly Fiorina at 11%. Among the more traditional contenders — that is, those who have previously held elective office —only Florida Sen. Marco Rubio breaks into double digits, at 10%. "It says that the people are actually starting to wake up and recognize that politics-as-usual is not taking us where we want to be," Carson says of the strength of the outsider candidates. "In fact, it's leading us in exactly the opposite direction." He rejects any parallel to the observation that a president should have experience in politics, just as most people wouldn't choose a brain surgeon who had never been in an operating room before. "Neurosurgery is considerably more complicated than politics," he scoffs. "You don't need to know nearly as much to be able to maneuver in the political world as you do in the operating room inside of somebody's brain. It's not even close." Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1LfuwP2 ||||| EDITOR’S NOTE: The original story identified a source as a combat veteran and former Navy SEAL. A records search has since revealed that he significantly exaggerated his military record. His comments have been removed from the article, and the headline has been changed. We apologize to our readers. Ready to fight back? Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and get three actions in your inbox every week. Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue Subscribe now for as little as $2 a month! Support Progressive Journalism The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. The Nation is reader supported: Chip in $10 or more to help us continue to write about the issues that matter. Fight Back! Sign up for Take Action Now and we’ll send you three meaningful actions you can take each week. You will receive occasional promotional offers for programs that support The Nation’s journalism. You can read our Privacy Policy here. Sign up for Take Action Now and we’ll send you three meaningful actions you can take each week. Thank you for signing up. For more from The Nation, check out our latest issue Travel With The Nation Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and explore the world with kindred spirits. Be the first to hear about Nation Travels destinations, and explore the world with kindred spirits. Sign up for our Wine Club today. Did you know you can support The Nation by drinking wine? Wayne LaPierre, the head of the National Rifle Association (NRA), has famously claimed that “the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun.” Ad Policy Much of today’s opposition to stronger gun safety regulations rests on the gun lobby’s Hobbesian vision of self-sufficient, heavily-armed citizens standing up to vicious thugs. This Die Hard argument is constantly parroted by politicians and conservative pundits. But the statistical reality is that for every justifiable homicide in the United States—for every lethal shooting in defense of life or property—guns are used to commit 34 murders and 78 suicides, and are the cause of two accidental deaths, according to an analysis of FBI data by The Washington Post. LaPierre, a career lobbyist, has no clue what it’s like to use a firearm in anger. But The Nation spoke to several people who do—including combat veterans and former law enforcement officers—and who believe that the NRA’s heroic gunslinger mythology is a dangerous fantasy that bears little resemblance to reality. Retired Army Sergeant Rafael Noboa y Rivera, who led a combat team in Iraq, says that most soldiers only function effectively after they’ve been exposed to fire a number a times. “I think there’s this fantasy world of gunplay in the movies, but it doesn’t really happen that way,” he says. “When I heard gunfire [in Iraq], I didn’t immediately pick up my rifle and react. I first tried to ascertain where the shooting was coming from, where I was in relation to the gunfire and how far away it was. I think most untrained people are either going to freeze up, or just whip out their gun and start firing in that circumstance,” Noboa said. “I think they would absolutely panic.” Those interviewed for this article agreed that the key distinction isn’t between “good guys” and “bad guys,” because intentions are less important than the rigorous—and continuous—training that it takes to effectively handle firearms in high-stress situations. Dr. Pete Blair, an associate professor of criminal justice at Texas State University and director of the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center (ALERRT), has studied mass shooting incidents and trains law enforcement personnel to respond to active-shooter situations. The cops who go through his course conduct live-fire exercises using real firearms which are re-chambered to fire “soap rounds” that leave only welts when they hit. For every justifiable homicide in the US, guns are used to commit 34 murders and 78 suicides. Blair’s trainees run through a number of real-world scenarios—“force on force training” that’s designed to “inoculate” officers against the problems people naturally encounter in high-stress situations. That stress response, says Blair, includes “tunnel vision, audio exclusion and time dilation,” and one would expect people who weren’t trained in these situations to “freeze up or not know what to do, and to have difficulty performing actions correctly.” Weekend-long tactical training courses for civilians are growing in popularity. But these courses offer only a shadow of what’s required, says David Chipman, a former agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). Chipman, who spent several years on the agency’s SWAT team, says, “Training for a potentially deadly encounter meant, at a minimum, qualifying four times a year throughout my 25-year career. And this wasn’t just shooting paper—it meant doing extensive tactical exercises. And when I was on the SWAT team we had to undergo monthly tactical training.” Tactical officers typically receive training in “judgmental shooting,” which includes knowing when it’s prudent to hold their fire, and “blue-on-blue awareness,” which drills into them the importance of considering whether other cops are present, including officers who aren’t in uniform. They’re trained to overcome tunnel vision by looking not only at their target but also maintaining an awareness of who or what is behind it. THE NATION IS READER FUNDED. YOUR SUPPORT IS VITAL TO OUR WORK. DONATE NOW! “The notion that you have a seal of approval just because you’re not a criminal—that you walk into a gun store and you’re ready for game-day—is ridiculous,” says Chipman. A case in Texas two weeks ago highlights the risks of civilians intervening in chaotic situations. Police say that as two carjackers struggled with the owner of a car at a gas station in northeast Houston, a witness decided to take action into his own hands. He fired several shots, but missed the perpetrators and shot the owner of the car in the head. He then picked up his shell casings and fled the scene. Police are still looking for the shooter. The potential for that kind of outcome is why most police agencies strongly recommend that concealed carry holders only use their weapons as an absolute last resort, and not intervene in robberies or other crimes in which they’re not directly involved. David Chipman notes that even police officers are told that if they encounter a crime in progress while off-duty, “maybe the best thing to do at that time is not to take lethal action but instead try to be the best witness you can be.” Not pulling a weapon is often the wisest course of action in active-shooter situations. While a number of conservatives declared that Oregon’s Umpqua Community College, the scene of a mass shooting last week, was a gun-free zone, the truth is that several concealed carry holders were present, and they wisely decided to leave their guns holstered. Veteran John Parker later explained to MSNBC, “We could have opened ourselves up to be potential targets ourselves, and not knowing where SWAT was… if we had our guns ready to shoot, they could think that we were bad guys.” “I think there’s this fantasy world of gunplay in the movies, but it doesn’t really happen that way.” —Retired Army Sargeant Rafael Noboa y Rivera David Chipman says the Secret Service’s history is instructive. “Here’s an agency that has all the weaponry that they could ever need, all the training that they could ever need, and they’ve never fired a weapon in defense of a president during an assassination attempt. You’re trained to throw your body in front of the protectee, not to open fire. Just look at the picture taken immediately after Reagan was shot and count the guns in that photograph. They’re all being held by highly-trained experts and not one of them fired. They didn’t shoot [would-be assassin John] Hinckley. And that’s because you’re likely to do more harm than good in that situation.” The gun lobby and some conservative politicians have seized on a “study” by Davi Barker, a conservative blogger, which purports to show that when a “good guy with a gun” is present during a mass shooting, an average of 2.5 people die, but in similar situations where nobody is armed, there are an average of 18 deaths. It’s provided the basis for claims that gun-free zones are, in former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee’s words, “sitting duck zones.” But Barker later admitted that his methodology entailed analyzing “10 shootings I found listed on some timeline somewhere.… I honestly don’t even remember where.” And Pete Blair from Texas State notes that by definition, shootings with fewer than four casualties aren’t “mass shootings,” and incidents with as many as 18 casualties are exceedingly rare. Blair acknowledges the possibility that shooters may be more likely to seek out places they see as soft targets, like gun-free zones, but adds, “Trying to prove that is difficult to do.” A firearm makes a person almost twice as likely to become the victim of a homicide and three times more likely to commit suicide. Blair co-authored a study for the FBI that looked at 185 mass shooting events over a 13-year period. It found that while around one-in-five were stopped by civilians before police arrived, in only one case was it done by a typical “good guy with a gun” (professionals—an off-duty cop and an armed security guard—used their guns to stop two others). In most cases Blair and his colleague studied, civilians ended a rampage by tackling the assailant. None of this has prevented the gun manufacturers’ lobby from insisting that more guns make a society safer. And many Americans have come to believe it. According to the Pew Research Center, the share of gun owners who cite “protection” as “the main reason they own a gun” almost doubled between 1999 and 2013, from 26 percent to 48 percent. But a large body of empirical evidence finds the opposite to be true. Last year, epidemiologists at the University of California, San Francisco, conducted an extensive analysis of data from 16 previous peer-reviewed studies, and found that having access to a firearm makes a person almost twice as likely to become the victim of a homicide and three times more likely to commit suicide. Previous research has shown that countries with higher rates of gun ownership also have higher rates of gun deaths and states with more guns have higher homicide rates. (The gun lobby’s side of the scholarly debate rests largely on the discredited and allegedly fraudulent work of economist John Lott.) Rafael Noboa y Rivera scoffed at the idea, adding that he’s personally wary of “untrained yahoos” who “think they’re Wyatt Earp.” “Despite what we see on TV, the presence of a firearm is a greater risk, especially in the hands of an untrained person,” says David Chipman, the former ATF agent. “Someone can always say, ‘If your mother is being raped by 5 people, wouldn’t you want her to have a gun?’ Well, OK, if you put it that way, I’d say yes, but that’s not a likely scenario. The question is: If you see someone running out of a gas station with a gun in their hand, do you want an untrained person jumping out and opening fire. For me, the answer is clearly ‘no.’” Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this piece incorrectly stated that last week’s shootings in Oregon ended when the shooter was tackled. ||||| This is a set of web collections curated by Mark Graham using the Archive-IT service of the Internet Archive. They include web captures of the ISKME.org website as well as captures from sites hosted by IGC.org.These web captures are available to the general public.For more information about this collection please feel free to contact Mark via Send Mail ||||| Archive-It Partner 1067: The Political TV Ad Archive, a project of the Internet Archive, collects political TV ads and social media sites in key 2016 primary election states, unlocking the metadata underneath and highlighting quality journalism to provide journalists, civic organizations, academics, and the general public with reliable information on who is trying to influence them & how. ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites. ||||| Looking for news you can trust? Subscribe to our free newsletters. Editor’s note: A version of this piece was first published in the March 25 edition of USA Today. Ever since the massacres in Aurora, Colorado, and Newtown, Connecticut, it’s been repeated like some surreal requiem: The reason mass gun violence keeps happening is because the United States is full of places that ban guns. Second Amendment activists have long floated this theme, and now lawmakers across the nation are using it too. During a recent floor debate in the Colorado Legislature, Republican state Rep. Carole Murray put it this way: “Most of the mass killings that we talk about have been effected in gun-free zones. So when you have a gun-free zone, it’s like saying, ‘Come and get me.'” The argument claims to explain both the motive behind mass shootings and how they play out. The killers deliberately choose sites where firearms are forbidden, gun-rights advocates say, and because there are no weapons, no “good guy with a gun” will be on hand to stop the crime. With its overtones of fear and heroism, the argument makes for slick sound bites. But here’s the problem: Both its underlying assumptions are contradicted by data. Not only is there zero evidence to support them, our in-depth investigation of America’s mass shootings indicates they are just plain wrong. Among the 62 mass shootings over the last 30 years that we studied, not a single case includes evidence that the killer chose to target a place because it banned guns. To the contrary, in many of the cases there was clearly another motive for the choice of location. For example, 20 were workplace shootings, most of which involved perpetrators who felt wronged by employers and colleagues. Last September, when a troubled man working at a sign manufacturer in Minneapolis was told he would be let go, he pulled out a 9mm Glock and killed six people and injured another before putting a bullet in his own head. Similar tragedies unfolded at a beer distributor in Connecticut in 2010 and at a plastics factory in Kentucky in 2008. Or consider the 12 school shootings we documented, in which all but one of the killers had personal ties to the school they struck. FBI investigators learned from one witness, for example, that the mass shooter in Newtown had long been fixated on Sandy Hook Elementary School, which he’d once attended. Or take the man who opened fire in suburban Milwaukee last August: Are we to believe that a white supremacist targeted the Sikh temple there not because it was filled with members of a religious minority he despised, but because it was a place that allegedly* banned firearms? Thirty-six of the killers committed suicide at or near the crime scene. These were not people whose priority was identifying the safest place to attack. Proponents of this argument also ignore that the majority of mass shootings are murder-suicides. Thirty-six of the killers we studied took their own lives at or near the crime scene, while seven others died in police shootouts they had no hope of surviving (a.k.a. “suicide by cop”). These were not people whose priority was identifying the safest place to attack. No less a fantasy is the idea that gun-free zones prevent armed civilians from saving the day. Not one of the 62 mass shootings we documented was stopped this way. Veteran FBI, ATF, and police officials say that an armed citizen opening fire against an attacker in a panic-stricken movie theater or shopping mall is very likely to make matters worse. Law enforcement agents train rigorously for stopping active shooters, they say, a task that requires extraordinary skills honed under acute duress. In cases in Washington and Texas in 2005, would-be heroes who tried to take action with licensed firearms were gravely wounded and killed. In the Tucson mass shooting in 2011, an armed citizen admitted to coming within a split second of gunning down the wrong person—one of the bystanders who’d helped tackle and subdue the actual killer. True security in our schools and other designated gun-free places may require more. Forbidding firearms alone clearly won’t keep violence away—not least because of how easily bad guys can get their hands on guns. Nearly 80 percent of the mass shooters we documented obtained their weapons legally. Indeed, America is anything but gun free. We now have more than 300 million firearms in private hands. In the last four years, nearly 100 state laws have loosened restrictions on them. To varying degrees, every state except Illinois now allows guns to be carried in public. All of which raises an obvious question: If more guns in more places is a solution to the bloodshed, then why did we just witness the worst year for mass shootings in recent history? *Guns were in fact legal at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin, contrary to a false report from Fox News. Wisconsin state law allows firearms to be carried in houses of worship unless explicitly barred on the premises; Amardeep Kaleka, whose father founded the temple and was killed during the attack, confirmed to me that there was no such ban in place then.

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Please enable Javascript to watch this video CHESTER COUNTY, Tenn. -- The state is working to find out exactly how and when 2-year-old Noah Chamberlin died. The toddler disappeared seven days ago, sparking a massive search deep in the woods. His body was found Thursday by law enforcement. It was the announcement many prepared for but nobody wanted to hear. Two-year-old Noah Chamberlin was found dead Thursday afternoon in the woods a mile and a half from where he went missing at his grandmother's home. The community was left in shock and the family members in pain. "I'm asking right now that they have time to mourn and to love on each other and go through this time of loss," said a spokesperson. A loss coming almost a week to the hour from when the toddler first disappeared near his grandmother's home in Pinson. Noah was found out in the open just hours before crippling weather nearly forced law enforcement to call off their search. The hunt for the little boy was massive. Hundreds of volunteers and law enforcement agencies from across the country covered more than 1,000 acres of rough terrain. Community members rallied around the Chester County Sheriff Blair Weaver as they prayed for Noah and his family. They wanted Noah's life to be honored. He brought a community together, they said. ||||| Play Facebook Twitter Google Plus Embed Body of Missing Tennessee Toddler Found 2:05 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog The body of a 2-year-old boy missing in the Tennessee woods for a week has been found, authorities announced Thursday. Noah Chamberlin had been lost since last Thursday, January 14. He disappeared while hiking with his grandmother and sister in the woods near his family's home in Pinson, Tennessee. Officials said Noah was found about 1.5 miles from where he went was last seen. Authorities said it appeared the boy just ran off, and couldn't be caught. Noah Chamberlin Tennessee Bureau of Investigation "Everybody we talked to talked about how he ran all the time, jumped over tables, ran, just nonstop," said Madison County Sheriff John Mehr. "He loved to hide. We had people tell us that even adults would run after him, and they couldn't catch him." "Just like grandma said, she turned her head for a minute and he was gone," said Chester County Sheriff Blair Weaver. "There were trails everywhere." Hundreds of volunteers had been braving brutal cold in the last few days to comb the woods for the boy. Authorities said they didn't suspect foul play, and asked the public to keep the family in their thoughts. "They are a very faith-oriented family, and it's remarkable to see their faith in God," Mehr said. "It's tough. It makes us look at our own. So, just, think about the family and pray for them."

– The search for missing 2-year-old Noah Chamberlin came to a heartbreaking end on Thursday afternoon when the little boy's body was found in a forest clearing. Officials say Noah was found around 1.5 miles from where he disappeared a week ago near his grandmother's home in Pinson, Tenn., NBC News reports. The body was found hours before bitterly cold weather would have forced law enforcement to suspend the search, which had been joined by hundreds of volunteers who scoured more than a thousand acres of rugged terrain, WREG reports. The Madison County fire chief says Noah's body was found near the edge of the search zone, in an area that had only been searched once before, the Jackson Sun reports. Authorities believe Noah ran off while walking in the woods with his grandmother and 4-year-old sister; police don't suspect foul play. Andy Morris, the family's pastor, tells the Sun that the toddler's family want him to be remembered for the way he brought the community together. "They're asking right now that they have time to mourn and to love on each other as they go through this time of loss," he says, but "they beg you to continue to pray and continue to keep this heart of service and heart of compassion for other people and other humans." He tells the Sun that he remembers Noah as a lively boy who was "100mph with whatever he did." "And I know this, and feel confident being able to share this, the mom just got through praying, 'Jesus better have his ice skates on to keep up with him,'" he says.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Please enable Javascript to watch this video CHESTER COUNTY, Tenn. -- The state is working to find out exactly how and when 2-year-old Noah Chamberlin died. The toddler disappeared seven days ago, sparking a massive search deep in the woods. His body was found Thursday by law enforcement. It was the announcement many prepared for but nobody wanted to hear. Two-year-old Noah Chamberlin was found dead Thursday afternoon in the woods a mile and a half from where he went missing at his grandmother's home. The community was left in shock and the family members in pain. "I'm asking right now that they have time to mourn and to love on each other and go through this time of loss," said a spokesperson. A loss coming almost a week to the hour from when the toddler first disappeared near his grandmother's home in Pinson. Noah was found out in the open just hours before crippling weather nearly forced law enforcement to call off their search. The hunt for the little boy was massive. Hundreds of volunteers and law enforcement agencies from across the country covered more than 1,000 acres of rough terrain. Community members rallied around the Chester County Sheriff Blair Weaver as they prayed for Noah and his family. They wanted Noah's life to be honored. He brought a community together, they said. ||||| Play Facebook Twitter Google Plus Embed Body of Missing Tennessee Toddler Found 2:05 autoplay autoplay Copy this code to your website or blog The body of a 2-year-old boy missing in the Tennessee woods for a week has been found, authorities announced Thursday. Noah Chamberlin had been lost since last Thursday, January 14. He disappeared while hiking with his grandmother and sister in the woods near his family's home in Pinson, Tennessee. Officials said Noah was found about 1.5 miles from where he went was last seen. Authorities said it appeared the boy just ran off, and couldn't be caught. Noah Chamberlin Tennessee Bureau of Investigation "Everybody we talked to talked about how he ran all the time, jumped over tables, ran, just nonstop," said Madison County Sheriff John Mehr. "He loved to hide. We had people tell us that even adults would run after him, and they couldn't catch him." "Just like grandma said, she turned her head for a minute and he was gone," said Chester County Sheriff Blair Weaver. "There were trails everywhere." Hundreds of volunteers had been braving brutal cold in the last few days to comb the woods for the boy. Authorities said they didn't suspect foul play, and asked the public to keep the family in their thoughts. "They are a very faith-oriented family, and it's remarkable to see their faith in God," Mehr said. "It's tough. It makes us look at our own. So, just, think about the family and pray for them."

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

An employee closing up shop at a Little Caesars restaurant in Florida on Saturday night shot and killed a man in a clown mask after he was attacked with a wooden post, according to authorities. Police in Holly Hill, Florida, said the employee exited the back door of the pizza place just before midnight when a man in a grotesque clown mask jumped him with a wooden post. According to the police report, the post broke over the man's back, upon which the attacker tried to stab the employee with a pair of scissors. The victim responded by pulling out his concealed firearm and firing "four or five shots" at the attacker, according to the police report. When authorities responded, the attacker was found lying in the parking lot with the mask still on and scissors by his body, police said. He was taken to Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach where he was pronounced dead. Holly Hill Police Department Security footage from the Holly Hill Police Department shows the man in the clown mask lurking outside the store prior to the attack, and then a camera from inside the Little Caesars shows the employee being attacked once he leaves. It does not show the shooting. "I'm glad that he was able to defend himself and that he's OK," Police Chief Steve Aldrich told Orlando ABC affiliate WFTV. "It's just unfortunate that this whole episode occurred." Aldrich said the man in the mask appears to be the only one involved in the attack. No charges have been pressed against the shooter and the incident is still under investigation. The attacker has not been identified. Holly Hill is located just north of Daytona Beach on the east coast of Florida. ||||| - A man in Volusia County was shot and killed Saturday night after he allegedly attacked a Little Caesars employee. Surveillance footage from inside the Little Caesars' pizza shop shows the attack: a worker closing shop for the night, he steps outside and a man hits him with a wooden board over and over again until the board breaks. Cops said the attacker got him on the ground and tried to stab him with scissors. Holly Hill Police Chief Stephen Aldrich said the victim quickly turned the tables. “Even though he's being attacked he's able to pull out a concealed firearm he has and fires multiple rounds at the suspect,” he said. The attacker lay bleeding in the parking lot when police showed up. He died at the hospital. Police said he was wearing a clown mask to hide his face. Before the attack, surveillance video showed the man wearing the mask, walking near the pizza place. “This is very unusual for this area,” Aldrich said, “we're obviously aggressively pursuing this to find out where this individual came from and why this attack occurred. Very unusual.” Carlton Akins lives nearby. “It just gets so outrageous now,” he said, “people are unpredictable. It's really crazy, man. It really is! And that's scary!” Akins said the violent crook got what was coming to him. “I'm sorry the guy got killed, but he got what he deserved.” Police say the worker came away with only minor injuries.

– Donning a clown mask and attacking an armed Little Caesars employee with a piece of wood and a pair of scissors was the last bad life choice a Florida man ever made. Cops say the man was shot dead after he ambushed the worker around midnight Saturday, ABC News reports. According to officers, the attacker repeatedly bashed the worker with a wooden board and then tried to stab him with scissors when he was on the ground. The worker then pulled out a concealed firearm and fired four or five shots at the man, police say. Authorities found the bleeding man in the parking lot outside the Holly Hill restaurant, still wearing the grotesque mask. He was pronounced dead at a hospital in nearby Daytona Beach. Police say security cameras captured the masked man lurking near the restaurant. "This is very unusual for this area," says Holly Hill Police Chief Stephen Aldrich, per Fox 51. "We're obviously aggressively pursuing this to find out where this individual came from and why this attack occurred. Very unusual." The worker, who suffered minor injuries, has not been charged. "I'm glad that he was able to defend himself and that he's OK," the chief says. "It's just unfortunate that this whole episode occurred." The attacker has yet to be identified.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.An employee closing up shop at a Little Caesars restaurant in Florida on Saturday night shot and killed a man in a clown mask after he was attacked with a wooden post, according to authorities. Police in Holly Hill, Florida, said the employee exited the back door of the pizza place just before midnight when a man in a grotesque clown mask jumped him with a wooden post. According to the police report, the post broke over the man's back, upon which the attacker tried to stab the employee with a pair of scissors. The victim responded by pulling out his concealed firearm and firing "four or five shots" at the attacker, according to the police report. When authorities responded, the attacker was found lying in the parking lot with the mask still on and scissors by his body, police said. He was taken to Halifax Medical Center in Daytona Beach where he was pronounced dead. Holly Hill Police Department Security footage from the Holly Hill Police Department shows the man in the clown mask lurking outside the store prior to the attack, and then a camera from inside the Little Caesars shows the employee being attacked once he leaves. It does not show the shooting. "I'm glad that he was able to defend himself and that he's OK," Police Chief Steve Aldrich told Orlando ABC affiliate WFTV. "It's just unfortunate that this whole episode occurred." Aldrich said the man in the mask appears to be the only one involved in the attack. No charges have been pressed against the shooter and the incident is still under investigation. The attacker has not been identified. Holly Hill is located just north of Daytona Beach on the east coast of Florida. ||||| - A man in Volusia County was shot and killed Saturday night after he allegedly attacked a Little Caesars employee. Surveillance footage from inside the Little Caesars' pizza shop shows the attack: a worker closing shop for the night, he steps outside and a man hits him with a wooden board over and over again until the board breaks. Cops said the attacker got him on the ground and tried to stab him with scissors. Holly Hill Police Chief Stephen Aldrich said the victim quickly turned the tables. “Even though he's being attacked he's able to pull out a concealed firearm he has and fires multiple rounds at the suspect,” he said. The attacker lay bleeding in the parking lot when police showed up. He died at the hospital. Police said he was wearing a clown mask to hide his face. Before the attack, surveillance video showed the man wearing the mask, walking near the pizza place. “This is very unusual for this area,” Aldrich said, “we're obviously aggressively pursuing this to find out where this individual came from and why this attack occurred. Very unusual.” Carlton Akins lives nearby. “It just gets so outrageous now,” he said, “people are unpredictable. It's really crazy, man. It really is! And that's scary!” Akins said the violent crook got what was coming to him. “I'm sorry the guy got killed, but he got what he deserved.” Police say the worker came away with only minor injuries.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Cliff Stearns Concedes Defeat By Joshua Miller UPDATED 1:15 p.m. | Rep. Cliff Stearns, who was first elected to the House in 1988, conceded defeat to tea-party-affiliated veterinarian Ted Yoho today. Yoho upset the longtime Member in Florida’s 3rd district GOP primary Tuesday. “Based upon the results from last night, it would appear that there are not enough provisional ballots to make up the difference for me to win this primary election,” Stearns said in a statement. “Therefore, I am conceding the election to Ted Yoho and I talked with him wishing him the best in his effort to represent the wonderful people of north central Florida. I have had an excellent and rewarding experience working in Congress for my fellow Floridians.” With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Yoho had 34 percent to Stearns’ 33 percent. Yoho had a more-than-800-vote advantage, according to the Associated Press, though the AP had not yet called the race because of pending overseas and provisional ballots. “I stand proud of my 24-year record of conservative leadership and of defending our traditional values in Congress,” the Congressman said. “It has been an honor, privilege, and the high calling of my life to serve the many outstanding citizens of Florida in our nation’s capital. I will leave the House of Representatives with a joyful heart and the satisfaction that I did all I could to advance the conservative cause.” ||||| It’s all over for Rep. Cliff Stearns in Florida’s Republican primary, which delivered a stunning upset victory to a veterinarian who has never held elected office. Stearns conceded the race to political novice Ted Yoho on Wednesday, the Associated Press reported. The outcome in Tuesday’s election was an unexpected fall from power for Stearns, who had used his chairmanship of a key House Energy and Commerce subcommittee to put the White House on the hot seat over Solyndra and help trigger this year's Komen-Planned Parenthood blow-up. Text Size - + reset Yoho, leading by 829 votes out of 63,690 counted with all precincts reporting, didn't wait to celebrate victory Tuesday night. "I'm going to thank God,” the self-proclaimed “Christian and conservative Republican” told the Times. “I'm going to do a Tebow right here.” As of early Wednesday morning, it was still possible that still-to-be-counted provisional ballots and overseas absentee ballots could eat into Yoho's lead, or even reverse the outcome. For now, though, Yoho's margin is 1.3 percent, outside the 0.5-percent margin that Florida law sets for an automatic recount. Yoho had 34.4 percent of the vote to Stearns's 33.1 percent in a four-candidate field. Still, the outcome was an unexpected rebuke for Stearns, an incumbent whose $2.1 million campaign war chest far outweighed Yoho's $129,500 as of late July — and who, as recently as March, appeared to be a rising Republican rock star. As chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's oversight subpanel, Stearns was in charge of an aggressive investigation of Solyndra that had put the Obama administration's clean-energy programs on trial. Stearns was also behind an investigation of Planned Parenthood that Susan G. Komen for the Cure cited as its justification for cutting off cancer-screening grant money to the women’s health organization. Komen reversed itself amid a nationwide outcry, but it lost public support and has had much turnover since then among its top leadership. The Planned Parenthood probe heightened Stearns's national profile for a time, especially among social conservatives. But his investigation — into whether Planned Parenthood was improperly using federal funds for abortions, which it denied — soon faded from the headlines.

– After 24 years in the House, Cliff Stearns has been booted by a Tea Partier with no political experience. Stearns conceded defeat in the Florida GOP primary today, Roll Call reports, saying in a statement that "there are not enough provisional ballots to make up the difference" he would need to win. The congressman says he has spoken to veterinarian Ted Yoho and that he "[wishes] him the best in his effort to represent the wonderful people of north central Florida." Yoho had 34% of the vote and Stearns 33% in what Politico calls a "stunning" upset.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Cliff Stearns Concedes Defeat By Joshua Miller UPDATED 1:15 p.m. | Rep. Cliff Stearns, who was first elected to the House in 1988, conceded defeat to tea-party-affiliated veterinarian Ted Yoho today. Yoho upset the longtime Member in Florida’s 3rd district GOP primary Tuesday. “Based upon the results from last night, it would appear that there are not enough provisional ballots to make up the difference for me to win this primary election,” Stearns said in a statement. “Therefore, I am conceding the election to Ted Yoho and I talked with him wishing him the best in his effort to represent the wonderful people of north central Florida. I have had an excellent and rewarding experience working in Congress for my fellow Floridians.” With 100 percent of precincts reporting, Yoho had 34 percent to Stearns’ 33 percent. Yoho had a more-than-800-vote advantage, according to the Associated Press, though the AP had not yet called the race because of pending overseas and provisional ballots. “I stand proud of my 24-year record of conservative leadership and of defending our traditional values in Congress,” the Congressman said. “It has been an honor, privilege, and the high calling of my life to serve the many outstanding citizens of Florida in our nation’s capital. I will leave the House of Representatives with a joyful heart and the satisfaction that I did all I could to advance the conservative cause.” ||||| It’s all over for Rep. Cliff Stearns in Florida’s Republican primary, which delivered a stunning upset victory to a veterinarian who has never held elected office. Stearns conceded the race to political novice Ted Yoho on Wednesday, the Associated Press reported. The outcome in Tuesday’s election was an unexpected fall from power for Stearns, who had used his chairmanship of a key House Energy and Commerce subcommittee to put the White House on the hot seat over Solyndra and help trigger this year's Komen-Planned Parenthood blow-up. Text Size - + reset Yoho, leading by 829 votes out of 63,690 counted with all precincts reporting, didn't wait to celebrate victory Tuesday night. "I'm going to thank God,” the self-proclaimed “Christian and conservative Republican” told the Times. “I'm going to do a Tebow right here.” As of early Wednesday morning, it was still possible that still-to-be-counted provisional ballots and overseas absentee ballots could eat into Yoho's lead, or even reverse the outcome. For now, though, Yoho's margin is 1.3 percent, outside the 0.5-percent margin that Florida law sets for an automatic recount. Yoho had 34.4 percent of the vote to Stearns's 33.1 percent in a four-candidate field. Still, the outcome was an unexpected rebuke for Stearns, an incumbent whose $2.1 million campaign war chest far outweighed Yoho's $129,500 as of late July — and who, as recently as March, appeared to be a rising Republican rock star. As chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's oversight subpanel, Stearns was in charge of an aggressive investigation of Solyndra that had put the Obama administration's clean-energy programs on trial. Stearns was also behind an investigation of Planned Parenthood that Susan G. Komen for the Cure cited as its justification for cutting off cancer-screening grant money to the women’s health organization. Komen reversed itself amid a nationwide outcry, but it lost public support and has had much turnover since then among its top leadership. The Planned Parenthood probe heightened Stearns's national profile for a time, especially among social conservatives. But his investigation — into whether Planned Parenthood was improperly using federal funds for abortions, which it denied — soon faded from the headlines.

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You can bet left-wing activists are going to call for a boycott Under Armour now. On Tuesday, Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank was effusive in his praise of President Donald Trump in an interview on CNBC. Plank commended the president, saying “To have such a pro-business president is something that is a real asset for the country.” Going further, Plank alluded to Trump’s plan for the wall: “He wants to build things. He wants to make bold decisions and be really decisive.” The CEO liked this action, he said, because he is “a big fan of people that operate in the world of ‘publish and iterate’ versus ‘think, think, think, think, think.” It won’t be long before liberals attempt to shame people into silencing Plank and his business. Since Trump was elected in November, they have gone after brands like New Balance and L.L. Bean for their support of the nation’s leader. We’ll have to see if any lefties post videos of themselves burning their Under Armour clothing, like they did with New Balance. For some reason, it seems unlikely that many of these social media warriors own much sports apparel to begin with. This is a good time for people who don’t oppose our president to show their appreciation of Under Armour’s respect for President Trump. As American patriots demonstrated by downloading Lady Gaga music after her apolitical Super Bowl performance, there is a lot of money to be made by those who refuse to sing paeans to the gods of social justice activism. Support Under Armour and Get FREE Standard Shipping On Orders Over $49 and FREE Returns Have a suggestion for a cool product or great deal that you think Daily Caller readers need to know about? Email the Daily Dealer at [email protected]. Follow The Daily Dealer on Twitter and Facebook Follow Jack on Twitter The Daily Caller is devoted to showing you things that you’ll like or find interesting. We do have partnerships with affiliates, so The Daily Caller may get a small share of the revenue from any purchase. ||||| Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is not happy with the CEO of Under Armour, Kevin Plank, for making pro-Trump comments, but says he's still sticking with the sports apparel company that manufactures clothing bearing his name. Plank is a part of President Trump’s American Manufacturing Council. After the group's meeting Tuesday, Plank said having "such a pro-business President is something that is a real asset for the country. People can really grab that opportunity.” Johnson, who supported George W. Bush in 2000, wrote that he "appreciate[s] and welcome[s] the feedback" of his fans who both agree and disagree with Plank's comments, but wanted to personally put some distance between himself and the CEO's opinion. DWAYNE JOHNSON IS THE WORLD'S HIGHEST-PAID ACTOR "[Plank] inadvertently creat[ed] a situation where the personal political opinions of UA's partners and its employees were overshadowed by the comments of its CEO," Johnson wrote. "A good company is not solely defined by its CEO. A good company is not defined by the athlete or celebrity who partners with them." Johnson, who promotes UA's Project Rock line, said that his responsibility was to "the thousands of workers who pour blood, sweat, and tears into making Under Armour strong. A diverse group of hardworking men and women who possess integrity, respect and compassion for one another and the world they live in. Debate is healthy. But in a time of widespread disagreement, so is loyalty. I feel an obligation to stand with this diverse team, the American and global workers, who are the beating heart and soul of Under Armour and the reason I chose to partner with them." Johnson joins Under Armour Misty Copeland and basketball star Stephen Curry -- both of whom have contracts with Under Armour -- in criticizing Plank's comments. FANS CALL OUR MISTY COPELAND FOR NEW PHOTO Copeland wrote in an Instagram post she was so concerned about Plank's comments that she spoke to him directly. Curry told them Mercury News on Wednesday that he "spent all day yesterday on the phone with countless people at Under Armour, countless people in Kevin Plank's camp, my team, trying to understand what was going on and where everybody stood on the issue." The company issued a statement saying it engages in "policy, not politics." None of the three athletes has severed ties with the company. The Associated Press contributed to this report. ||||| Related Articles Exclusive: Stephen Curry responds to Trump love from Under Armour’s CEO Q&A with Stephen Curry: Under Armour, Donald Trump, his own political voice Here is Under Armour’s full statement after CEO Kevin Plank praised President Donald Trump as an “asset” to America. Plank, in a CNBC interview on Tuesday, lauded Trump’s business acumen. His comments started a #BoycottUnderArmour trend on Twitter and surprised Warriors star Stephen Curry, one of the company’s primary athlete endorsers. Plank and Under Armour clarified Plank’s meaning. “To have such a pro-business president is something that is a real asset for the country,” Plank said. “People can really grab that opportunity.” “At Under Armour, our culture has always been about optimism, teamwork, and unity. We have engaged with both the prior and the current administrations in advocating on business issues that we believe are in the best interests of our consumers, teammates, and shareholders. Kevin Plank was recently invited at the request of the President of the United States, to join the American Manufacturing Council as part of a distinguished group of business leaders. He joined CEOs from companies such as Dow Chemical, Dell, Ford, GE and Tesla, among others to begin an important dialogue around creating jobs in America. We believe it is important for Under Armour to be a part of that discussion. “We have always been committed to developing innovative ways to support and invest in American jobs and manufacturing. For years, Under Armour has had a long-term strategy for domestic manufacturing and we recently launched our first women’s collection made in our hometown of Baltimore, MD. We are incredibly proud of this important first step in the evolution of creating more jobs at home. “We engage in policy, not politics. We believe in advocating for fair trade, an inclusive immigration policy that welcomes the best and the brightest and those seeking opportunity in the great tradition of our country, and tax reform that drives hiring to help create new jobs globally, across America and in Baltimore. “We have teammates from different religions, races, nationalities, genders and sexual orientations; different ages, life experiences and opinions. This is the core of our company. At Under Armour, our diversity is our strength, and we will continue to advocate for policies that Protect Our House, our business, our team, and our community.” ||||| Once again, Stephen Curry has found himself in the middle of a political issue. Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank, in an interview with CNBC, said President Donald Trump is an “asset” to the country. var _ndnq = _ndnq || []; _ndnq.push([’embed’]); “I agree with that description,” Curry said, “if you remove the ‘et’” from asset. Related Articles Under Armour’s full statement after CEO’s praise of Trump causes controversy Q&A with Stephen Curry: Under Armour, Donald Trump, his own political voice In an exclusive interview Wednesday, Curry did what he doesn’t like to do — talk politics — but is clearly getting comfortable doing. His stance was much the same when his vague comments about the controversial North Carolina bill drew the ire of some in the LGBTQ community: where he stands is clear per his track record. He thought he was sure where Plank stood based on his track record. So Curry, one of the most popular endorsers of Under Armour products, said he was surprised to see the CEO praising Trump. “I spent all day yesterday on the phone,” Curry said, “with countless people at Under Armour, countless people in Kevin Plank’s camp, my team, trying to understand what was going on and where everybody stood on the issue. Based off the release that KP sent out this morning, and what he told me last night, that’s the Under Armour that I know. That’s the brand I know he’s built and one that, as of Wednesday afternoon, is something that I’m standing on.” Plank explained his stance to Curry on Tuesday, how his comments were meant exclusively from a business perspective. He distanced himself from Trump’s controversial policies and comments that have enranged women, Muslims, Mexicans, African-Americans and the impoverished across the nation. On Wednesday, Under Armour released a statement that explained Plank was part of a collaboration of private industry powers putting their brains together to effect change. Curry said that statement reflects what he believed to be true about Plank and Under Armour. Reading this on your phone or tablet? Stay up to date on Bay Area sports news with our new, free mobile app. Get it from the Apple app store or the Google Play store. Curry, who has a contract with Under Armour that runs through 2024, said Plank working with Trump isn’t a deal-breaker for him.. He is more concerned about Under Armour adopting Trump’s values, he said. “It’s a fine line but it’s about how we’re operating,” Curry said, “how inclusive we are, what we stand for. He’s the President. There are going to be people that are tied to them. But are we promoting change? Are we doing things that are going to look out for everybody? And not being so self-serving that it’s only about making money, selling shoes, doing this and that. That’s not the priority. It’s about changing lives. I think we can continue to do that.” But would Curry really leave Under Armour, the company that helped launch his empire, if he didn’t like the direction of the company? “If there is a situation where I can look at myself in the mirror and say they don’t have my best intentions, they don’t have the right attitude about taking care of people,” Curry said. “If I can say the leadership is not in line with my core values, then there is no amount of money, there is no platform I wouldn’t jump off if it wasn’t in line with who I am. So that’s a decision I will make every single day when I wake up. If something is not in line with what I’m about, then, yeah, I definitely need to take a stance in that respect.” Curry said he and Plank don’t talk politics and he doesn’t have interest in doing so. His relationship with Under Armour is a business relationship and his primary concern is carrying out his own mission. However, he made it clear he did not vote for Trump and is against several of Trump’s actions. “I feel like if you know who I am, you know what I stand for, and I can live with that,” Curry said. “I feel when you see my name, when you see people wearing my stuff, when you see anybody attached to me, that they share that same passion for people that I do. And that’s what I’ve been really serious about using this platform to share. I don’t get in people’s faces and out in the streets with a bullhorn doing it that way. But every opportunity I have to show love, to show respect, to show just that positivity, I feel like that’s my job and that’s what I stand for.” ||||| Plank: We are a team that knows how to win 3:22 PM ET Tue, 7 Feb 2017 | 01:09 Wall Street critics should consider Under Armour's track record of success before counting it out, CEO Kevin Plank told CNBC. (Full interview below) "You look in my eyes and tell me: Do you believe this is the team that's done this for 21 years, 11 years public and knows how to win?," Plank said on CNBC's "Halftime Report." "You know, I think a lot of people bet against Tom Brady the other night, too," he said. Shares of Under Amour have taken a beating after the sportswear company reported lower-than-expected quarterly sales — its second disappointing quarter in a row. It also announced that its chief financial officer, Chip Molloy, will step down. The news initially wiped a quarter off the company's market value. In midday trading Tuesday, Class A shares were little changed, while Class C shares were about 1 percent lower. Both sets of shares have declined more than 30 percent in the past three months. (12-month performance of Under Armour Class A shares; Source: FactSet) The company's sales were hurt by intense competition and slowing growth in North America. Under Armour's net revenue rose about 12 percent to $1.31 billion, its slowest sales growth in eight years. Under Amour also said its CFO is leaving for personal reasons, but did not elaborate. Molloy had joined the company last January. On Tuesday, Plank said even though the company lost one of its key players, he is confident in the progress of his executive team. "We've got an executive team that is robust and full and the same people that got us here. One of the lessons that we learned and we know, you ask is this the end? No this is not the end," he said. In order for the company to progress it has to change its narrative, Plank said. "We have a growth company. You'll never hear us not say that. Current outlook has double digit growth which is close to industry in the sector leading among the leaders there. Our business is so young, our business is really just getting started," he said. "This company throws punches. That's what we do and it's how we continue to expect to be able to run again," he said. "But there are tweaks. This is not to say the world is rosy." Plank also mentioned his meeting with President Donald Trump to discuss jobs in U.S. Plank described Trump as "highly passionate" and a pro-business man who is a "real asset" for U.S. companies. Last month, Plank said in a speech that "We should be bringing jobs back, not just to America, but tightening supply chains all over the world. We have the ability to do it better. It's time for all of us to make an investment."

– Celebrities sponsored by Under Armour are speaking out after the company's CEO praised President Trump this week, triggering #BoycottUnderArmour to trend on Twitter, per the San Jose Mercury News. In an interview with CNBC Tuesday, CEO Kevin Plank said he's "a big fan" of the "pro-business president," whom he called "a real asset to this country." As with New Balance and LL Bean, "you can bet left-wing activists are going to call for a boycott [of] Under Armour now," predicted the Daily Caller. But it's been sports celebs who have contracts with the brand who've been the subject of most headlines. Chief among them: NBA star Stephen Curry, who tells the Mercury News, "I agree with that description, if you remove the 'et' from 'asset.'" Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson adds, "These are neither my words, nor my beliefs. His words were divisive and lacking in perspective." Ballerina Misty Copeland says she also disagrees with Plank and has spoken to him about his comments. "It is important to me that he, and UA, take public action to clearly communicate and reflect our common values in order for us to … motivate ALL people to be their best selves," Copeland writes on Instagram. In a statement Wednesday, Under Armour says it engages "in policy, not politics" and supports "inclusive immigration policy," adding "our diversity is our strength." Fox News notes none of the three athletes went so far as to break ties with the company.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.You can bet left-wing activists are going to call for a boycott Under Armour now. On Tuesday, Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank was effusive in his praise of President Donald Trump in an interview on CNBC. Plank commended the president, saying “To have such a pro-business president is something that is a real asset for the country.” Going further, Plank alluded to Trump’s plan for the wall: “He wants to build things. He wants to make bold decisions and be really decisive.” The CEO liked this action, he said, because he is “a big fan of people that operate in the world of ‘publish and iterate’ versus ‘think, think, think, think, think.” It won’t be long before liberals attempt to shame people into silencing Plank and his business. Since Trump was elected in November, they have gone after brands like New Balance and L.L. Bean for their support of the nation’s leader. We’ll have to see if any lefties post videos of themselves burning their Under Armour clothing, like they did with New Balance. For some reason, it seems unlikely that many of these social media warriors own much sports apparel to begin with. This is a good time for people who don’t oppose our president to show their appreciation of Under Armour’s respect for President Trump. As American patriots demonstrated by downloading Lady Gaga music after her apolitical Super Bowl performance, there is a lot of money to be made by those who refuse to sing paeans to the gods of social justice activism. Support Under Armour and Get FREE Standard Shipping On Orders Over $49 and FREE Returns Have a suggestion for a cool product or great deal that you think Daily Caller readers need to know about? Email the Daily Dealer at [email protected]. Follow The Daily Dealer on Twitter and Facebook Follow Jack on Twitter The Daily Caller is devoted to showing you things that you’ll like or find interesting. We do have partnerships with affiliates, so The Daily Caller may get a small share of the revenue from any purchase. ||||| Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is not happy with the CEO of Under Armour, Kevin Plank, for making pro-Trump comments, but says he's still sticking with the sports apparel company that manufactures clothing bearing his name. Plank is a part of President Trump’s American Manufacturing Council. After the group's meeting Tuesday, Plank said having "such a pro-business President is something that is a real asset for the country. People can really grab that opportunity.” Johnson, who supported George W. Bush in 2000, wrote that he "appreciate[s] and welcome[s] the feedback" of his fans who both agree and disagree with Plank's comments, but wanted to personally put some distance between himself and the CEO's opinion. DWAYNE JOHNSON IS THE WORLD'S HIGHEST-PAID ACTOR "[Plank] inadvertently creat[ed] a situation where the personal political opinions of UA's partners and its employees were overshadowed by the comments of its CEO," Johnson wrote. "A good company is not solely defined by its CEO. A good company is not defined by the athlete or celebrity who partners with them." Johnson, who promotes UA's Project Rock line, said that his responsibility was to "the thousands of workers who pour blood, sweat, and tears into making Under Armour strong. A diverse group of hardworking men and women who possess integrity, respect and compassion for one another and the world they live in. Debate is healthy. But in a time of widespread disagreement, so is loyalty. I feel an obligation to stand with this diverse team, the American and global workers, who are the beating heart and soul of Under Armour and the reason I chose to partner with them." Johnson joins Under Armour Misty Copeland and basketball star Stephen Curry -- both of whom have contracts with Under Armour -- in criticizing Plank's comments. FANS CALL OUR MISTY COPELAND FOR NEW PHOTO Copeland wrote in an Instagram post she was so concerned about Plank's comments that she spoke to him directly. Curry told them Mercury News on Wednesday that he "spent all day yesterday on the phone with countless people at Under Armour, countless people in Kevin Plank's camp, my team, trying to understand what was going on and where everybody stood on the issue." The company issued a statement saying it engages in "policy, not politics." None of the three athletes has severed ties with the company. The Associated Press contributed to this report. ||||| Related Articles Exclusive: Stephen Curry responds to Trump love from Under Armour’s CEO Q&A with Stephen Curry: Under Armour, Donald Trump, his own political voice Here is Under Armour’s full statement after CEO Kevin Plank praised President Donald Trump as an “asset” to America. Plank, in a CNBC interview on Tuesday, lauded Trump’s business acumen. His comments started a #BoycottUnderArmour trend on Twitter and surprised Warriors star Stephen Curry, one of the company’s primary athlete endorsers. Plank and Under Armour clarified Plank’s meaning. “To have such a pro-business president is something that is a real asset for the country,” Plank said. “People can really grab that opportunity.” “At Under Armour, our culture has always been about optimism, teamwork, and unity. We have engaged with both the prior and the current administrations in advocating on business issues that we believe are in the best interests of our consumers, teammates, and shareholders. Kevin Plank was recently invited at the request of the President of the United States, to join the American Manufacturing Council as part of a distinguished group of business leaders. He joined CEOs from companies such as Dow Chemical, Dell, Ford, GE and Tesla, among others to begin an important dialogue around creating jobs in America. We believe it is important for Under Armour to be a part of that discussion. “We have always been committed to developing innovative ways to support and invest in American jobs and manufacturing. For years, Under Armour has had a long-term strategy for domestic manufacturing and we recently launched our first women’s collection made in our hometown of Baltimore, MD. We are incredibly proud of this important first step in the evolution of creating more jobs at home. “We engage in policy, not politics. We believe in advocating for fair trade, an inclusive immigration policy that welcomes the best and the brightest and those seeking opportunity in the great tradition of our country, and tax reform that drives hiring to help create new jobs globally, across America and in Baltimore. “We have teammates from different religions, races, nationalities, genders and sexual orientations; different ages, life experiences and opinions. This is the core of our company. At Under Armour, our diversity is our strength, and we will continue to advocate for policies that Protect Our House, our business, our team, and our community.” ||||| Once again, Stephen Curry has found himself in the middle of a political issue. Under Armour CEO Kevin Plank, in an interview with CNBC, said President Donald Trump is an “asset” to the country. var _ndnq = _ndnq || []; _ndnq.push([’embed’]); “I agree with that description,” Curry said, “if you remove the ‘et’” from asset. Related Articles Under Armour’s full statement after CEO’s praise of Trump causes controversy Q&A with Stephen Curry: Under Armour, Donald Trump, his own political voice In an exclusive interview Wednesday, Curry did what he doesn’t like to do — talk politics — but is clearly getting comfortable doing. His stance was much the same when his vague comments about the controversial North Carolina bill drew the ire of some in the LGBTQ community: where he stands is clear per his track record. He thought he was sure where Plank stood based on his track record. So Curry, one of the most popular endorsers of Under Armour products, said he was surprised to see the CEO praising Trump. “I spent all day yesterday on the phone,” Curry said, “with countless people at Under Armour, countless people in Kevin Plank’s camp, my team, trying to understand what was going on and where everybody stood on the issue. Based off the release that KP sent out this morning, and what he told me last night, that’s the Under Armour that I know. That’s the brand I know he’s built and one that, as of Wednesday afternoon, is something that I’m standing on.” Plank explained his stance to Curry on Tuesday, how his comments were meant exclusively from a business perspective. He distanced himself from Trump’s controversial policies and comments that have enranged women, Muslims, Mexicans, African-Americans and the impoverished across the nation. On Wednesday, Under Armour released a statement that explained Plank was part of a collaboration of private industry powers putting their brains together to effect change. Curry said that statement reflects what he believed to be true about Plank and Under Armour. Reading this on your phone or tablet? Stay up to date on Bay Area sports news with our new, free mobile app. Get it from the Apple app store or the Google Play store. Curry, who has a contract with Under Armour that runs through 2024, said Plank working with Trump isn’t a deal-breaker for him.. He is more concerned about Under Armour adopting Trump’s values, he said. “It’s a fine line but it’s about how we’re operating,” Curry said, “how inclusive we are, what we stand for. He’s the President. There are going to be people that are tied to them. But are we promoting change? Are we doing things that are going to look out for everybody? And not being so self-serving that it’s only about making money, selling shoes, doing this and that. That’s not the priority. It’s about changing lives. I think we can continue to do that.” But would Curry really leave Under Armour, the company that helped launch his empire, if he didn’t like the direction of the company? “If there is a situation where I can look at myself in the mirror and say they don’t have my best intentions, they don’t have the right attitude about taking care of people,” Curry said. “If I can say the leadership is not in line with my core values, then there is no amount of money, there is no platform I wouldn’t jump off if it wasn’t in line with who I am. So that’s a decision I will make every single day when I wake up. If something is not in line with what I’m about, then, yeah, I definitely need to take a stance in that respect.” Curry said he and Plank don’t talk politics and he doesn’t have interest in doing so. His relationship with Under Armour is a business relationship and his primary concern is carrying out his own mission. However, he made it clear he did not vote for Trump and is against several of Trump’s actions. “I feel like if you know who I am, you know what I stand for, and I can live with that,” Curry said. “I feel when you see my name, when you see people wearing my stuff, when you see anybody attached to me, that they share that same passion for people that I do. And that’s what I’ve been really serious about using this platform to share. I don’t get in people’s faces and out in the streets with a bullhorn doing it that way. But every opportunity I have to show love, to show respect, to show just that positivity, I feel like that’s my job and that’s what I stand for.” ||||| Plank: We are a team that knows how to win 3:22 PM ET Tue, 7 Feb 2017 | 01:09 Wall Street critics should consider Under Armour's track record of success before counting it out, CEO Kevin Plank told CNBC. (Full interview below) "You look in my eyes and tell me: Do you believe this is the team that's done this for 21 years, 11 years public and knows how to win?," Plank said on CNBC's "Halftime Report." "You know, I think a lot of people bet against Tom Brady the other night, too," he said. Shares of Under Amour have taken a beating after the sportswear company reported lower-than-expected quarterly sales — its second disappointing quarter in a row. It also announced that its chief financial officer, Chip Molloy, will step down. The news initially wiped a quarter off the company's market value. In midday trading Tuesday, Class A shares were little changed, while Class C shares were about 1 percent lower. Both sets of shares have declined more than 30 percent in the past three months. (12-month performance of Under Armour Class A shares; Source: FactSet) The company's sales were hurt by intense competition and slowing growth in North America. Under Armour's net revenue rose about 12 percent to $1.31 billion, its slowest sales growth in eight years. Under Amour also said its CFO is leaving for personal reasons, but did not elaborate. Molloy had joined the company last January. On Tuesday, Plank said even though the company lost one of its key players, he is confident in the progress of his executive team. "We've got an executive team that is robust and full and the same people that got us here. One of the lessons that we learned and we know, you ask is this the end? No this is not the end," he said. In order for the company to progress it has to change its narrative, Plank said. "We have a growth company. You'll never hear us not say that. Current outlook has double digit growth which is close to industry in the sector leading among the leaders there. Our business is so young, our business is really just getting started," he said. "This company throws punches. That's what we do and it's how we continue to expect to be able to run again," he said. "But there are tweaks. This is not to say the world is rosy." Plank also mentioned his meeting with President Donald Trump to discuss jobs in U.S. Plank described Trump as "highly passionate" and a pro-business man who is a "real asset" for U.S. companies. Last month, Plank said in a speech that "We should be bringing jobs back, not just to America, but tightening supply chains all over the world. We have the ability to do it better. It's time for all of us to make an investment."

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

ROBERTO SCHMIDT / AFP / Getty Images A man holds a burning poster of Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi in Benghazi, Libya, in March 2011 Was the October 2011 killing of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi amid a crowd of insurgents in fact a professional hit by French intelligence services — with an assist from Syrian strongman Bashar Assad? That’s the speculation that has emerged from overlapping European media reports in recent weeks, suggesting Gaddafi’s death may have been a bid to prevent him from revealing damaging secrets about the government of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy. That speculation arose from a Sept. 29 article by Italian daily Corriere della Sera looking into recent claims by former Libyan official Mahmoud Jibril. Jibril, an opposition leader who served as Prime Minister for Libya’s transitional government, told Egypt’s Dream TV on Sept. 26 that “a foreign agent had been infiltrated into the revolutionary brigades to kill Colonel Gaddafi,” who at the time was on the run in western Libya. The Italian report goes on to quote an unidentified European diplomat arguing that the assassination-bent spy had to be French — noting that France and its then President Sarkozy had much to lose if Gaddafi had been allowed to go public with their secret dealings. Why would France be more vulnerable than other nations that also dealt with Libya under the unsavory Gaddafi? In large part because of Sarkozy’s once cozy relationship with the Libyan. Just three months into his presidency, Sarkozy persuaded Gaddafi to release five Bulgarian health workers who had been imprisoned for years in Libya on what were considered bogus charges that they’d intentionally infected children with HIV. That bargain took place amid murky financial and diplomatic transactions. Later, Sarkozy hosted Gaddafi during a high-profile state visit to Paris — a trip that was supposed to serve as the reformed Libyan’s return to polite global company, but which turned into an embarrassing fiasco for France. That was when the pair’s friendship began to sour; it ended entirely when Sarkozy spearheaded the NATO operation that resulted in Gaddafi’s ouster. It was during those hostilities that Gaddafi intimates repeatedly aired claims that the dictator had provided illegal funds to finance Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential campaign. Sarkozy has steadfastly denied those charges, though they have continued to dog him. But even if Paris may have had motives for taking Gaddafi out, did it also have the means and opportunity? Perhaps so, according to the British Daily Telegraph. On Sept. 30 it published a story quoting the former head of rebel intelligence services as stating Syria helped France locate Gaddafi in his final hiding place. According to the story, Syrian President Assad offered to give Sarkozy the secret satellite phone number of Assad’s friend and fellow tyrant Gaddafi in exchange for Paris’ letting up on Damascus’ attempts to violently smother its own domestic uprising. Under this theory, rather than stumbling upon Gaddafi cowering in a concrete drainpipe in Sirte, Libyan rebels were directed to the area after French intelligence had tracked Gaddafi down via his satellite phone. In the chaos surrounding his capture, shots were fired that ended the dictator’s life — though even cell-phone video taken at the scene doesn’t reveal who actually killed the bloodied despot. Doubts about who did may grow further still, with news preceding the reports crediting a French intelligence operative. On Sept. 25, the young Libyan rebel fighter whom many people considered responsible for Gaddafi’s capture and killing died in a Paris hospital from injuries suffered during his July abduction by Gaddafi loyalists. All these new developments concerning Gaddafi’s last days and minutes raise new questions about exactly who brought them to an end. ||||| French spies operating in Sirte, Gaddafi's last refuge, were able to set a trap for the Libyan dictator after obtaining his satellite telephone number from the Syrian government, they said. In what would amount to an extraordinary betrayal of one Middle East strongman by another, President Bashar al-Assad sold out his fellow tyrant in an act of self-preservation, a former senior intelligence official in Tripoli told the Daily Telegraph. With international attention switching from Libya to the mounting horrors in Syria, Mr Assad offered Paris the telephone number in exchange for an easing of French pressure on Damascus, according to Rami El Obeidi. "In exchange for this information, Assad had obtained a promise of a grace period from the French and less political pressure on the regime – which is what happened," Mr El Obeidi said. While it was not possible independently to verify his allegation, Nicolas Sarkozy, the former French president, played a leading role in both the Nato mission to bomb Libya and in bringing international pressure to bear on the Assad regime. The claims by Mr El Obeidi, the former head of foreign intelligence for the movement that overthrew Gaddafi, followed comments by Mahmoud Jibril, who served as prime minister in the transitional government and now leads one of Libya's largest political parties. He confirmed over the weekend that a foreign "agent" was involved in the operation that killed Gaddafi. He did not identify his nationality. However the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera quoted Western diplomats in Tripoli as saying that if a foreign agent was involved "he was almost certainly French". The news of the Syria deal could potentially embarrass Nato, which initially claimed that it did "not target individuals". According to the alliance's official version, an RAF reconnaissance plane spotted a large convoy of vehicles trying to flee Sirte on Oct 20th last year, two months after Gaddafi fled Tripoli. Nato warplanes then bombed the convoy, apparently unaware of who was travelling in it, before militia fighters later found Gaddafi hiding in a drainpipe. He is believed to have been killed by his captors en route to the city of Misurata, west of Sirte. But Mr El Obeidi said that France had essentially masterminded the operation by directing Libyan militiamen to an ambush spot where they could intercept Gaddafi's convoy. He also suggested that France had little interest in how Gaddafi was treated once captured, although the fighters were encouraged to try to take him alive. "French intelligence played a direct tole in the death of Gaddafi, including his killing," Mr El Obeidi said. "They gave directions that he was to be apprehended, but they didn't care if he was bloodied or beaten up as long as he was delivered alive." Bashar al-Assad, right, and his brother Maher According to Mr El Obeidi, French intelligence began to monitor Gaddafi’s Iridium satellite telephone and made a vital breakthrough when he rang a senior loyalist, Yusuf Shakir and Ahmed Jibril, a Palestinian militant leader, in Syria. As a result, they were able to pinpoint his location and monitor his movements. Although Turkish and British military intelligence officers – including the SAS – who were in Sirte at the time were informed of the ambush plans in advance they played no role in what was "an exclusive French operation", Mr El Obeidi said. At the time of Gaddafi's death, Mr El Obeidi had fallen out of favour with the most powerful faction in Libya's transitional government because of his links with Gen Abdul Fatah Younes, a senior rebel commander killed by his own side in July last year. Even so, he continued in his intelligence role in a semi-official but senior capacity. Sources quoted by Corriere della Sera said one reason for the French lead in the operation was that then President Nicolas Sarkozy wanted Gaddafi dead after the Libyan leader openly threatened to reveal details of the large amounts of money he had donated to Sarkozy for his 2007 election campaign. "Sarkozy had every reason to want to get rid of the colonel as quickly as possible," Western diplomats said, according to the newspaper. A spokesman at the French foreign ministry refused to confirm or deny the claims.

– Conspiracy theorists, start your engines. In a new account of Moammar Gadhafi's death, the former Libyan dictator was tracked and killed by a French agent in order to protect France's then-President Nicolas Sarkozy, Time reports. First told by an Italian newspaper, this version of events hinges on the notion that Gadhafi had a big secret to reveal: his secret donations to Sarkozy's 2007 election campaign. What's more, according to a former Libyan official, Syrian President Bashar Assad contacted Sarkozy and offered him a way to find Gadhafi in return for "a grace period" in squashing Syria's rebellion, reports the Telegraph. There's also the Libyan rebel who reportedly killed Gadhafi, was later wounded in Libya, and died in a French hospital. For more, read about the French website that claimed Gadhafi had offered to pump $66 million into Sarkozy's campaign.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.ROBERTO SCHMIDT / AFP / Getty Images A man holds a burning poster of Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi in Benghazi, Libya, in March 2011 Was the October 2011 killing of Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi amid a crowd of insurgents in fact a professional hit by French intelligence services — with an assist from Syrian strongman Bashar Assad? That’s the speculation that has emerged from overlapping European media reports in recent weeks, suggesting Gaddafi’s death may have been a bid to prevent him from revealing damaging secrets about the government of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy. That speculation arose from a Sept. 29 article by Italian daily Corriere della Sera looking into recent claims by former Libyan official Mahmoud Jibril. Jibril, an opposition leader who served as Prime Minister for Libya’s transitional government, told Egypt’s Dream TV on Sept. 26 that “a foreign agent had been infiltrated into the revolutionary brigades to kill Colonel Gaddafi,” who at the time was on the run in western Libya. The Italian report goes on to quote an unidentified European diplomat arguing that the assassination-bent spy had to be French — noting that France and its then President Sarkozy had much to lose if Gaddafi had been allowed to go public with their secret dealings. Why would France be more vulnerable than other nations that also dealt with Libya under the unsavory Gaddafi? In large part because of Sarkozy’s once cozy relationship with the Libyan. Just three months into his presidency, Sarkozy persuaded Gaddafi to release five Bulgarian health workers who had been imprisoned for years in Libya on what were considered bogus charges that they’d intentionally infected children with HIV. That bargain took place amid murky financial and diplomatic transactions. Later, Sarkozy hosted Gaddafi during a high-profile state visit to Paris — a trip that was supposed to serve as the reformed Libyan’s return to polite global company, but which turned into an embarrassing fiasco for France. That was when the pair’s friendship began to sour; it ended entirely when Sarkozy spearheaded the NATO operation that resulted in Gaddafi’s ouster. It was during those hostilities that Gaddafi intimates repeatedly aired claims that the dictator had provided illegal funds to finance Sarkozy’s 2007 presidential campaign. Sarkozy has steadfastly denied those charges, though they have continued to dog him. But even if Paris may have had motives for taking Gaddafi out, did it also have the means and opportunity? Perhaps so, according to the British Daily Telegraph. On Sept. 30 it published a story quoting the former head of rebel intelligence services as stating Syria helped France locate Gaddafi in his final hiding place. According to the story, Syrian President Assad offered to give Sarkozy the secret satellite phone number of Assad’s friend and fellow tyrant Gaddafi in exchange for Paris’ letting up on Damascus’ attempts to violently smother its own domestic uprising. Under this theory, rather than stumbling upon Gaddafi cowering in a concrete drainpipe in Sirte, Libyan rebels were directed to the area after French intelligence had tracked Gaddafi down via his satellite phone. In the chaos surrounding his capture, shots were fired that ended the dictator’s life — though even cell-phone video taken at the scene doesn’t reveal who actually killed the bloodied despot. Doubts about who did may grow further still, with news preceding the reports crediting a French intelligence operative. On Sept. 25, the young Libyan rebel fighter whom many people considered responsible for Gaddafi’s capture and killing died in a Paris hospital from injuries suffered during his July abduction by Gaddafi loyalists. All these new developments concerning Gaddafi’s last days and minutes raise new questions about exactly who brought them to an end. ||||| French spies operating in Sirte, Gaddafi's last refuge, were able to set a trap for the Libyan dictator after obtaining his satellite telephone number from the Syrian government, they said. In what would amount to an extraordinary betrayal of one Middle East strongman by another, President Bashar al-Assad sold out his fellow tyrant in an act of self-preservation, a former senior intelligence official in Tripoli told the Daily Telegraph. With international attention switching from Libya to the mounting horrors in Syria, Mr Assad offered Paris the telephone number in exchange for an easing of French pressure on Damascus, according to Rami El Obeidi. "In exchange for this information, Assad had obtained a promise of a grace period from the French and less political pressure on the regime – which is what happened," Mr El Obeidi said. While it was not possible independently to verify his allegation, Nicolas Sarkozy, the former French president, played a leading role in both the Nato mission to bomb Libya and in bringing international pressure to bear on the Assad regime. The claims by Mr El Obeidi, the former head of foreign intelligence for the movement that overthrew Gaddafi, followed comments by Mahmoud Jibril, who served as prime minister in the transitional government and now leads one of Libya's largest political parties. He confirmed over the weekend that a foreign "agent" was involved in the operation that killed Gaddafi. He did not identify his nationality. However the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera quoted Western diplomats in Tripoli as saying that if a foreign agent was involved "he was almost certainly French". The news of the Syria deal could potentially embarrass Nato, which initially claimed that it did "not target individuals". According to the alliance's official version, an RAF reconnaissance plane spotted a large convoy of vehicles trying to flee Sirte on Oct 20th last year, two months after Gaddafi fled Tripoli. Nato warplanes then bombed the convoy, apparently unaware of who was travelling in it, before militia fighters later found Gaddafi hiding in a drainpipe. He is believed to have been killed by his captors en route to the city of Misurata, west of Sirte. But Mr El Obeidi said that France had essentially masterminded the operation by directing Libyan militiamen to an ambush spot where they could intercept Gaddafi's convoy. He also suggested that France had little interest in how Gaddafi was treated once captured, although the fighters were encouraged to try to take him alive. "French intelligence played a direct tole in the death of Gaddafi, including his killing," Mr El Obeidi said. "They gave directions that he was to be apprehended, but they didn't care if he was bloodied or beaten up as long as he was delivered alive." Bashar al-Assad, right, and his brother Maher According to Mr El Obeidi, French intelligence began to monitor Gaddafi’s Iridium satellite telephone and made a vital breakthrough when he rang a senior loyalist, Yusuf Shakir and Ahmed Jibril, a Palestinian militant leader, in Syria. As a result, they were able to pinpoint his location and monitor his movements. Although Turkish and British military intelligence officers – including the SAS – who were in Sirte at the time were informed of the ambush plans in advance they played no role in what was "an exclusive French operation", Mr El Obeidi said. At the time of Gaddafi's death, Mr El Obeidi had fallen out of favour with the most powerful faction in Libya's transitional government because of his links with Gen Abdul Fatah Younes, a senior rebel commander killed by his own side in July last year. Even so, he continued in his intelligence role in a semi-official but senior capacity. Sources quoted by Corriere della Sera said one reason for the French lead in the operation was that then President Nicolas Sarkozy wanted Gaddafi dead after the Libyan leader openly threatened to reveal details of the large amounts of money he had donated to Sarkozy for his 2007 election campaign. "Sarkozy had every reason to want to get rid of the colonel as quickly as possible," Western diplomats said, according to the newspaper. A spokesman at the French foreign ministry refused to confirm or deny the claims.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A traveler detained for more than 20 hours after a search of energy bars and a sports watch in his carry-on bag at an airport has sued the Transportation Security Administration and accused a TSA supervisor of lying. Architect and runner Roger Vanderklok speaks during an interview with The Associated Press Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2015, in Philadelphia. Vanderklok, who was detained for more than 20 hours after a search... (Associated Press) Architect and runner Roger Vanderklok speaks during an interview with The Associated Press Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2015, in Philadelphia. Vanderklok, who was detained for more than 20 hours after a search... (Associated Press) Architect and runner Roger Vanderklok speaks during an interview with The Associated Press Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2015, in Philadelphia. Vanderklok, who was detained for more than 20 hours after a search... (Associated Press) Architect and runner Roger Vanderklok listens to a question during an interview with The Associated Press Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2015, in Philadelphia. Vanderklok, who was detained for more than 20 hours... (Associated Press) Architect and runner Roger Vanderklok said he was arrested after asking TSA workers how to file a complaint. He said he spent nearly a day in a holding cell without being questioned by police or given the chance to call his wife, who was frantic. "It's difficult to lose control of your existence. That's what it amounts to," Vanderklok said Wednesday. "I was absolutely terrified." According to Vanderklok, the TSA supervisor lied to police and again in court when he said the 58-year-old runner had made a verbal threat during the January 2013 security check at Philadelphia International Airport. Vanderklok was on his way to Miami for a half-marathon. The TSA said it was concerned about the gear in his bag: what turned out to be the watch and the power bars, wrapped in a small PVC pipe for protection. Electronics and "organic mass" can be used to make bombs, TSA Supervisor Charles Kieser testified at an April 2013 criminal trial. But Vanderklok's lawyer, Thomas Malone, argued in court: "I don't think PowerBars are consistent with bombings, nor are watches." A judge quickly dismissed threat charges against Vanderklok, who filed his lawsuit Jan. 23, seeking unspecified damages for what he considers a retaliatory arrest. The Philadelphia Daily News first reported on the lawsuit Wednesday. Malone doesn't challenge the TSA's effort to investigate the items in the carry-on but says airport security footage contradicts Kieser's testimony. Kieser testified an agitated Vanderklok raised his hands and repeatedly pointed a finger at his face. "The passenger made a bomb threat to me," Kieser testified, according to a transcript. "(He said) I'll bring a bomb through here any day that I want ... and you'll never find it." Vanderklok insists he said nothing about a bomb. The security video shows him standing calmly with his arms in front of him holding a laptop, his lawsuit says. The TSA does not comment on pending lawsuits, a spokesman said. Kieser does not appear to have a listed phone number. The city's chief deputy solicitor, Craig Straw, said his office had not seen the lawsuit. Vanderklok flies frequently for work and had set a goal of running 60 half-marathons by his 60th birthday. He never made it to Miami. And a back injury has stalled his tally at 38. "I'm not going to get there," he said Wednesday, sitting in the book-lined condominium he shares with his wife. He said he hopes to return to form soon and avoid any more travel drama. In another TSA case in Philadelphia, a former college student recently won a $25,000 Department of Justice settlement and police retraining after he was held for five hours over Arabic flashcards in his pocket that included the words for "bomb" and "kill." ||||| This Philly high school lost 64 grads in Vietnam. Now it will have a new life | Ronnie Polaneczky This Philly high school lost 64 grads in Vietnam. Now it will have a new life | Ronnie Polaneczky Nov 9 Ronnie Polaneczky, a journalist for 30 years, is a Metro columnist at the Daily News, where she has won numerous journalism awards for listening to the city she loves and telling its stories in ways that get to the heart of who we are. She is the 2015 winner of the Eugene C. Pulliam Journalism Fellowship for her coverage of elderly parents who are still responsible for the care of their intellectually disabled, aging children. You can watch her TEDxPhiladelphia Talk, "The Power of Deliberate Listening," at: https://youtu.be/A343tlP5iUA Roger Vanderklok and his wife, Eleanor, who thought the worst when her husband went off the grid after a bag screening at PHL. DAVID MAIALETTI / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Roger Vanderklok and his wife, Eleanor, who thought the worst when her husband went off the grid after a bag screening at PHL. DAVID MAIALETTI / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER APPARENTLY, working as a supervisor for the Transportation Security Administration at Philadelphia International Airport comes with a perk: You get to throw people in jail for no good reason and still keep your job. If that's not the case, why is Charles Kieser still employed by the TSA? Roger Vanderklok had the misfortune of going through Kieser's security-screening area at 8 a.m. Jan. 26, 2013, in Terminal B. Vanderklok, 57, is a Philly architect who runs half-marathons. Twice a month, he flies around the country for weekend races. On this day, he was headed to Miami. In his carry-on bag was a packet of PowerBars and a heart-monitoring watch. When the bag went through the X-ray scanner, the items looked suspicious to a TSA agent whom Kieser supervises. For the next 30 minutes, screeners checked the bag several times. Vanderklok told them that a tube-shaped case in the bag contained his watch. Then he was asked if his bag contained "organic matter." Vanderklok said no, as he thought "organic matter" meant fruits or vegetables. PowerBars, which contain milk, grain and sugar, are considered "organic matter" and can resemble a common explosive. Terrorists often use a small electronic device, like a watch, to detonate the explosive. Hence the agent's concern. Once the items were deemed harmless, Vanderklok says, he told Kieser that if someone had only told him what "organic matter" meant, he could have saved everyone a lot of trouble. Kieser then became confrontational. Vanderklok says he calmly asked to file a complaint. He then waited while someone was supposedly retrieving the proper form. Instead, Kieser summoned the Philadelphia Police. Vanderklok was taken to an airport holding cell, and his personal belongings - including his phone - were confiscated while police "investigated" him. Vanderklok was detained for three hours in the holding cell, missing his plane. Then he was handcuffed, taken to the 18th District at 55th and Pine and placed in another cell. He says that no one - neither the police officers at the airport nor the detectives at the 18th - told him why he was there. He didn't find out until he was arraigned at 2 a.m. that he was being charged with "threatening the placement of a bomb" and making "terroristic threats." Vanderklok's Kafkaesque odyssey finally ended at 4 a.m., when his wife paid 10 percent of his $40,000 bail. When I heard this story, my first thought was that Vanderklok had to have said or done something outrageous for others to respond with such alarm. In fact, Kieser said as much at Vanderklok's trial on April 8, 2013. Under oath, Kieser told the court that he had been monitoring Vanderklok's interaction with the bag screener because "I saw a passenger becoming agitated. Hands were in the air. And it's something we deal with regularly. But I don't let it go on on my checkpoint." Kieser intervened, he said, and that's when Vanderklok complained that the screening was "delaying him." While he said this, he "had both hands with fingers extended up toward the ceiling up in the air at the time and shaking them." Vanderklok also "put his finger in my face. And he said, 'Let me tell you something. I'll bring a bomb through here any day I want.' And he said you'll never find it." Vanderklok repeated the aggressive finger-pointing two more times, Kieser testified. But here's the thing: Airport surveillance videos show nothing of the sort. Throughout the search, Vanderklok appears calm. His laptop computer is tucked under his arms and his hands are clasped in front of him the entire time. Without any fuss, he follows TSA agents when they move from one part of the screening area to another. He even smiles a little. Not once does he raise his hands. Not once does he point a finger in Kieser's face. If anyone is becoming agitated, the video shows, it is Kieser. Neither Kieser nor his colleagues appear alarmed about the bomb threat Vanderklok has allegedly made. They chat and laugh with one another behind a desk, check their cellphones. One sips a soda, another wanders around the area, straightening bins. Two more assist an elderly couple with their wheelchairs. They do not summon the FBI, clear passengers from the area, don protective gear or appear to do anything suggesting there's looming danger. And here's another thing: Kieser alleged that Vanderklok told him, "I'll bring a bomb through here any day I want. And . . . you'll never find it." But that's not what Kieser told police, according to the report taken by the responding officer. The report reads that Vanderklok, frustrated, told Kieser, "Anybody could bring a bomb in here and nobody would know." The first statement is a threat, forbidden by law. The second is an opinion, protected by it. Vanderklok says he made neither statement. Yet he was treated like the Shoe Bomber. Even talking about it now, two years later, rattles him. "I was scared to death. I have never been arrested in my life, never had handcuffs put on," he says. "Throughout the night, I was in a dark place; no one knew where I was. I thought, 'I could fall off the face of the earth right now, and no one would know it.' " While Vanderklok was worrying, so was his wife, Eleanor. When her husband travels, his routine is to call her when he boards the plane, when he lands and when he arrives at his hotel. This time, no calls. Nor did he respond to the increasingly panicked messages she left him. She called his Miami hotel. He'd never checked in. She called the airline. He'd never boarded the plane. She called the city's hospitals. He wasn't in any of them. Finally, she called 9-1-1. "I was so scared. I didn't know what to do with myself," says Eleanor Vanderklok. "A million scenarios go through your head." She was waiting for an officer to arrive at the couple's Center City home to take her report when the phone rang. A police officer told her that her husband had been arrested and was awaiting arraignment. When she learned why, she was shocked. "My husband has been on planes hundreds of times," she says. "Not once was there a problem. This was out of the blue." At trial, Kieser was the first and only witness to testify. Municipal Judge Felice Stack acquitted Vanderklok of all charges within minutes of hearing Kieser's testimony. Vanderklok's lawyer, Thomas Malone, didn't get a chance to question the Philadelphia police officers and detectives who were involved in Vanderklok's arrest. Nor did he get to show the surveillance video that contradicted Kieser. "The police at the airport never even questioned Mr. Vanderklok. They just detained him," says Malone. "The detectives at the 18th [District] also never spoke with him. He was charged based on a single allegation by one TSA employee." Last week, Malone filed a suit on Vanderklok's behalf against the TSA, the Philadelphia Police Department and the Department of Homeland Security, alleging that Vanderklok was willfully deprived of his liberty because he had the gall to say that he wanted to file a complaint. The city and the TSA declined to comment on the case. So allow me to. Vanderklok's arrest reeks of payback from a TSA supervisor who - to give him the benefit of the doubt - was perhaps having a bad day on Jan. 26, 2013. But that same supervisor's behavior on April 8, when he swore under oath to things that were not true, is not evidence of a bad day. It's evidence of someone who will stick to his story even if it means an innocent man may go to jail. I don't know if that makes Kieser a bad man. But it sure doesn't make him a very good TSA employee. It's unbelievable that he still has his job. Email: [email protected] Phone: 215-854-2217 On Twitter: @RonniePhilly Blog: ph.ly/RonnieBlog Columns: ph.ly/Ronnie ||||| A Philadelphia man has filed a lawsuit against a TSA agent at Philadelphia International Airport and the City of Philadelphia because of what happened at an airport screening checkpoint just over two years ago.Roger Vanderklok, who gave his only television interview to Action News, was on his way to run a marathon in Miami, but something in his luggage caught the eye of a TSA screener.Vanderklok had his usual running gear in his carry-on, including some PowerBars and a watch.They apparently looked like a possible bomb.In video surveillance supplied by Vanderklok's lawyer, things seemed to be going well for about 15 minutes as the bags are checked and rechecked.And Vanderklok appears to be cooperating, even when they lead him to a back area for more screening."He didn't raise his voice. He didn't use any profanity. But at some point he happened to file a complaint and it wasn't too long after that the TSA supervisor called police and had him arrested," lawyer Thomas Malone said.The lawsuit claims TSA agent Charles Kieser called the airport police and had Vanderklok arrested."I was scared. I was confused," Vanderklok said.He spent the next 23 hours behind bars, not even knowing what he had been charged with and unable to contact his wife, who was frantically looking for him."I was terrified at the fact that I had kind of fallen off the face of the earth, and that I hadn't had the opportunity to call anybody. I hadn't had the opportunity to use e-mail, and no one who I knew really knew where I was," Vanderklok said.Vanderklok had never been arrested before.His lawyer says the TSA agent came up with three different stories about what happened and lied when he testified at Vanderklok's trial.He said Vanderklok was waiving his hands in the air and claimed he said he could bring a bomb through the checkpoint any time and they wouldn't even know it."By the time he testified under oath, he was saying Mr. Vanderklok was pointing in his face multiple times. The video surveillance footage clearly shows that Mr. Vanderklok was standing there holding on to his laptop during the whole incident," Malone said.The judge acquitted Vanderklok on the spot saying there was no evidence he had committed a crime.Now he has filed a civil lawsuit against the TSA, agent Kieser, several police officers and the City of Philadelphia.Both the city and the TSA say they can't comment as long as the matter is in litigation.Agent Kieser remains on the job at Philadelphia International Airport.

– A Philadelphia man suing the TSA says he went through a terrifying 23-hour ordeal—just because he asked to file a complaint. Roger Vanderklok, a 58-year-old architect, says he was on his way to run a half-marathon in Miami in January 2013 when TSA agents at Philadelphia International Airport interrogated him about a packet of PowerBars and a heart-monitoring watch in his bag, which apparently resembled bomb-making materials. He says that after he asked how to file a complaint, supervisor Charles Kieser summoned police, and Vanderklok ended up locked in holding cells for nearly 24 hours, unable to contact his wife, who was frantically searching for him. "It's difficult to lose control of your existence. That's what it amounts to," he tells the AP. "I was absolutely terrified." Vanderklok was eventually charged with "threatening the placement of a bomb" and making "terroristic threats," but when the case went to court in April 2013, a judge acquitted him on the spot after hearing Kieser's testimony, the Philadelphia Daily News reports. The supervisor claimed that Vanderklok had become agitated, jabbed a finger in his face repeatedly, and said he could "bring a bomb through here any day." But surveillance footage showed that Vanderklok stood calmly throughout the encounter, and according to a police report, Kieser originally said a frustrated Vanderklok told him "anybody could bring a bomb in here." Vanderklok says he didn't make either statement. Kieser, who is also named in the lawsuit, is still in his job at the airport, reports 6ABC. (In another controversial case, the TSA detained a wheelchair-bound 12-year-old.)

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A traveler detained for more than 20 hours after a search of energy bars and a sports watch in his carry-on bag at an airport has sued the Transportation Security Administration and accused a TSA supervisor of lying. Architect and runner Roger Vanderklok speaks during an interview with The Associated Press Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2015, in Philadelphia. Vanderklok, who was detained for more than 20 hours after a search... (Associated Press) Architect and runner Roger Vanderklok speaks during an interview with The Associated Press Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2015, in Philadelphia. Vanderklok, who was detained for more than 20 hours after a search... (Associated Press) Architect and runner Roger Vanderklok speaks during an interview with The Associated Press Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2015, in Philadelphia. Vanderklok, who was detained for more than 20 hours after a search... (Associated Press) Architect and runner Roger Vanderklok listens to a question during an interview with The Associated Press Wednesday, Feb. 4, 2015, in Philadelphia. Vanderklok, who was detained for more than 20 hours... (Associated Press) Architect and runner Roger Vanderklok said he was arrested after asking TSA workers how to file a complaint. He said he spent nearly a day in a holding cell without being questioned by police or given the chance to call his wife, who was frantic. "It's difficult to lose control of your existence. That's what it amounts to," Vanderklok said Wednesday. "I was absolutely terrified." According to Vanderklok, the TSA supervisor lied to police and again in court when he said the 58-year-old runner had made a verbal threat during the January 2013 security check at Philadelphia International Airport. Vanderklok was on his way to Miami for a half-marathon. The TSA said it was concerned about the gear in his bag: what turned out to be the watch and the power bars, wrapped in a small PVC pipe for protection. Electronics and "organic mass" can be used to make bombs, TSA Supervisor Charles Kieser testified at an April 2013 criminal trial. But Vanderklok's lawyer, Thomas Malone, argued in court: "I don't think PowerBars are consistent with bombings, nor are watches." A judge quickly dismissed threat charges against Vanderklok, who filed his lawsuit Jan. 23, seeking unspecified damages for what he considers a retaliatory arrest. The Philadelphia Daily News first reported on the lawsuit Wednesday. Malone doesn't challenge the TSA's effort to investigate the items in the carry-on but says airport security footage contradicts Kieser's testimony. Kieser testified an agitated Vanderklok raised his hands and repeatedly pointed a finger at his face. "The passenger made a bomb threat to me," Kieser testified, according to a transcript. "(He said) I'll bring a bomb through here any day that I want ... and you'll never find it." Vanderklok insists he said nothing about a bomb. The security video shows him standing calmly with his arms in front of him holding a laptop, his lawsuit says. The TSA does not comment on pending lawsuits, a spokesman said. Kieser does not appear to have a listed phone number. The city's chief deputy solicitor, Craig Straw, said his office had not seen the lawsuit. Vanderklok flies frequently for work and had set a goal of running 60 half-marathons by his 60th birthday. He never made it to Miami. And a back injury has stalled his tally at 38. "I'm not going to get there," he said Wednesday, sitting in the book-lined condominium he shares with his wife. He said he hopes to return to form soon and avoid any more travel drama. In another TSA case in Philadelphia, a former college student recently won a $25,000 Department of Justice settlement and police retraining after he was held for five hours over Arabic flashcards in his pocket that included the words for "bomb" and "kill." ||||| This Philly high school lost 64 grads in Vietnam. Now it will have a new life | Ronnie Polaneczky This Philly high school lost 64 grads in Vietnam. Now it will have a new life | Ronnie Polaneczky Nov 9 Ronnie Polaneczky, a journalist for 30 years, is a Metro columnist at the Daily News, where she has won numerous journalism awards for listening to the city she loves and telling its stories in ways that get to the heart of who we are. She is the 2015 winner of the Eugene C. Pulliam Journalism Fellowship for her coverage of elderly parents who are still responsible for the care of their intellectually disabled, aging children. You can watch her TEDxPhiladelphia Talk, "The Power of Deliberate Listening," at: https://youtu.be/A343tlP5iUA Roger Vanderklok and his wife, Eleanor, who thought the worst when her husband went off the grid after a bag screening at PHL. DAVID MAIALETTI / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Roger Vanderklok and his wife, Eleanor, who thought the worst when her husband went off the grid after a bag screening at PHL. DAVID MAIALETTI / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER APPARENTLY, working as a supervisor for the Transportation Security Administration at Philadelphia International Airport comes with a perk: You get to throw people in jail for no good reason and still keep your job. If that's not the case, why is Charles Kieser still employed by the TSA? Roger Vanderklok had the misfortune of going through Kieser's security-screening area at 8 a.m. Jan. 26, 2013, in Terminal B. Vanderklok, 57, is a Philly architect who runs half-marathons. Twice a month, he flies around the country for weekend races. On this day, he was headed to Miami. In his carry-on bag was a packet of PowerBars and a heart-monitoring watch. When the bag went through the X-ray scanner, the items looked suspicious to a TSA agent whom Kieser supervises. For the next 30 minutes, screeners checked the bag several times. Vanderklok told them that a tube-shaped case in the bag contained his watch. Then he was asked if his bag contained "organic matter." Vanderklok said no, as he thought "organic matter" meant fruits or vegetables. PowerBars, which contain milk, grain and sugar, are considered "organic matter" and can resemble a common explosive. Terrorists often use a small electronic device, like a watch, to detonate the explosive. Hence the agent's concern. Once the items were deemed harmless, Vanderklok says, he told Kieser that if someone had only told him what "organic matter" meant, he could have saved everyone a lot of trouble. Kieser then became confrontational. Vanderklok says he calmly asked to file a complaint. He then waited while someone was supposedly retrieving the proper form. Instead, Kieser summoned the Philadelphia Police. Vanderklok was taken to an airport holding cell, and his personal belongings - including his phone - were confiscated while police "investigated" him. Vanderklok was detained for three hours in the holding cell, missing his plane. Then he was handcuffed, taken to the 18th District at 55th and Pine and placed in another cell. He says that no one - neither the police officers at the airport nor the detectives at the 18th - told him why he was there. He didn't find out until he was arraigned at 2 a.m. that he was being charged with "threatening the placement of a bomb" and making "terroristic threats." Vanderklok's Kafkaesque odyssey finally ended at 4 a.m., when his wife paid 10 percent of his $40,000 bail. When I heard this story, my first thought was that Vanderklok had to have said or done something outrageous for others to respond with such alarm. In fact, Kieser said as much at Vanderklok's trial on April 8, 2013. Under oath, Kieser told the court that he had been monitoring Vanderklok's interaction with the bag screener because "I saw a passenger becoming agitated. Hands were in the air. And it's something we deal with regularly. But I don't let it go on on my checkpoint." Kieser intervened, he said, and that's when Vanderklok complained that the screening was "delaying him." While he said this, he "had both hands with fingers extended up toward the ceiling up in the air at the time and shaking them." Vanderklok also "put his finger in my face. And he said, 'Let me tell you something. I'll bring a bomb through here any day I want.' And he said you'll never find it." Vanderklok repeated the aggressive finger-pointing two more times, Kieser testified. But here's the thing: Airport surveillance videos show nothing of the sort. Throughout the search, Vanderklok appears calm. His laptop computer is tucked under his arms and his hands are clasped in front of him the entire time. Without any fuss, he follows TSA agents when they move from one part of the screening area to another. He even smiles a little. Not once does he raise his hands. Not once does he point a finger in Kieser's face. If anyone is becoming agitated, the video shows, it is Kieser. Neither Kieser nor his colleagues appear alarmed about the bomb threat Vanderklok has allegedly made. They chat and laugh with one another behind a desk, check their cellphones. One sips a soda, another wanders around the area, straightening bins. Two more assist an elderly couple with their wheelchairs. They do not summon the FBI, clear passengers from the area, don protective gear or appear to do anything suggesting there's looming danger. And here's another thing: Kieser alleged that Vanderklok told him, "I'll bring a bomb through here any day I want. And . . . you'll never find it." But that's not what Kieser told police, according to the report taken by the responding officer. The report reads that Vanderklok, frustrated, told Kieser, "Anybody could bring a bomb in here and nobody would know." The first statement is a threat, forbidden by law. The second is an opinion, protected by it. Vanderklok says he made neither statement. Yet he was treated like the Shoe Bomber. Even talking about it now, two years later, rattles him. "I was scared to death. I have never been arrested in my life, never had handcuffs put on," he says. "Throughout the night, I was in a dark place; no one knew where I was. I thought, 'I could fall off the face of the earth right now, and no one would know it.' " While Vanderklok was worrying, so was his wife, Eleanor. When her husband travels, his routine is to call her when he boards the plane, when he lands and when he arrives at his hotel. This time, no calls. Nor did he respond to the increasingly panicked messages she left him. She called his Miami hotel. He'd never checked in. She called the airline. He'd never boarded the plane. She called the city's hospitals. He wasn't in any of them. Finally, she called 9-1-1. "I was so scared. I didn't know what to do with myself," says Eleanor Vanderklok. "A million scenarios go through your head." She was waiting for an officer to arrive at the couple's Center City home to take her report when the phone rang. A police officer told her that her husband had been arrested and was awaiting arraignment. When she learned why, she was shocked. "My husband has been on planes hundreds of times," she says. "Not once was there a problem. This was out of the blue." At trial, Kieser was the first and only witness to testify. Municipal Judge Felice Stack acquitted Vanderklok of all charges within minutes of hearing Kieser's testimony. Vanderklok's lawyer, Thomas Malone, didn't get a chance to question the Philadelphia police officers and detectives who were involved in Vanderklok's arrest. Nor did he get to show the surveillance video that contradicted Kieser. "The police at the airport never even questioned Mr. Vanderklok. They just detained him," says Malone. "The detectives at the 18th [District] also never spoke with him. He was charged based on a single allegation by one TSA employee." Last week, Malone filed a suit on Vanderklok's behalf against the TSA, the Philadelphia Police Department and the Department of Homeland Security, alleging that Vanderklok was willfully deprived of his liberty because he had the gall to say that he wanted to file a complaint. The city and the TSA declined to comment on the case. So allow me to. Vanderklok's arrest reeks of payback from a TSA supervisor who - to give him the benefit of the doubt - was perhaps having a bad day on Jan. 26, 2013. But that same supervisor's behavior on April 8, when he swore under oath to things that were not true, is not evidence of a bad day. It's evidence of someone who will stick to his story even if it means an innocent man may go to jail. I don't know if that makes Kieser a bad man. But it sure doesn't make him a very good TSA employee. It's unbelievable that he still has his job. Email: [email protected] Phone: 215-854-2217 On Twitter: @RonniePhilly Blog: ph.ly/RonnieBlog Columns: ph.ly/Ronnie ||||| A Philadelphia man has filed a lawsuit against a TSA agent at Philadelphia International Airport and the City of Philadelphia because of what happened at an airport screening checkpoint just over two years ago.Roger Vanderklok, who gave his only television interview to Action News, was on his way to run a marathon in Miami, but something in his luggage caught the eye of a TSA screener.Vanderklok had his usual running gear in his carry-on, including some PowerBars and a watch.They apparently looked like a possible bomb.In video surveillance supplied by Vanderklok's lawyer, things seemed to be going well for about 15 minutes as the bags are checked and rechecked.And Vanderklok appears to be cooperating, even when they lead him to a back area for more screening."He didn't raise his voice. He didn't use any profanity. But at some point he happened to file a complaint and it wasn't too long after that the TSA supervisor called police and had him arrested," lawyer Thomas Malone said.The lawsuit claims TSA agent Charles Kieser called the airport police and had Vanderklok arrested."I was scared. I was confused," Vanderklok said.He spent the next 23 hours behind bars, not even knowing what he had been charged with and unable to contact his wife, who was frantically looking for him."I was terrified at the fact that I had kind of fallen off the face of the earth, and that I hadn't had the opportunity to call anybody. I hadn't had the opportunity to use e-mail, and no one who I knew really knew where I was," Vanderklok said.Vanderklok had never been arrested before.His lawyer says the TSA agent came up with three different stories about what happened and lied when he testified at Vanderklok's trial.He said Vanderklok was waiving his hands in the air and claimed he said he could bring a bomb through the checkpoint any time and they wouldn't even know it."By the time he testified under oath, he was saying Mr. Vanderklok was pointing in his face multiple times. The video surveillance footage clearly shows that Mr. Vanderklok was standing there holding on to his laptop during the whole incident," Malone said.The judge acquitted Vanderklok on the spot saying there was no evidence he had committed a crime.Now he has filed a civil lawsuit against the TSA, agent Kieser, several police officers and the City of Philadelphia.Both the city and the TSA say they can't comment as long as the matter is in litigation.Agent Kieser remains on the job at Philadelphia International Airport.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Image copyright CATERS NEWS Image caption Simon was expected to become the world's largest rabbit, UK media reported United Airlines is investigating the death of a giant rabbit which was being transported on one of its planes. The 90cm-long bunny, called Simon, was found dead in the cargo hold when the flight arrived at Chicago's O'Hare airport from London Heathrow. Reports in UK media say the 10 month-old giant rabbit was being delivered to a new "celebrity" owner. United, which has had a torrid few weeks of bad publicity, said it was "saddened" by Simon's death. 'Well-being important' Animals dying on planes is rare but not unheard of. US Department of Transportation figures show that in 2015, the most recent data available, US airlines reported 35 animal deaths. Of those, 14 deaths were on United flights, with a further nine creatures injured. Across the year, United carried 97,156 animals, meaning there were 2.37 incidents for every 10,000 animals transported during the period. That was the highest rate seen on any US airline, according to the data. Image copyright CATERS NEWS Image caption Darius the giant rabbit - held up by owner Annette Edwards - was Simon's father In a statement sent to the BBC, United said: "We were saddened to hear this news. The safety and well-being of all the animals that travel with us is of the utmost importance to United Airlines and our PetSafe team. "We have been in contact with our customer and have offered assistance. We are reviewing this matter." The Sun newspaper reported that Simon was the 10-month-old son of the world's largest rabbit - a 1.3m-long continental giant rabbit called Darius - and was expected to have grown larger than his father. Owner Annette Edwards told the paper: "Simon had a vet's check-up three hours before the flight and was fit as a fiddle. "Something very strange has happened and I want to know what. I've sent rabbits all around the world and nothing like this has happened before." Image copyright Reuters Image caption United faced a backlash over its handling of a passenger Criticised United has been in damage control mode this month after passenger Dr David Dao lost two front teeth and suffered a broken nose when he was forcibly removed from an overbooked flight at Chicago's O'Hare airport. The incident caused outrage and widespread condemnation of the airline after footage was shared and watched by millions of people online. The firm has apologised and reviewed its policies on overbooking planes,. In late March, United was heavily criticised on social media after two girls were reportedly barred from flying for wearing leggings on a flight from Denver to Minneapolis United said the girls were travelling on a special pass, for employees and their guests, which has a dress code. Have you transported your pet on a plane? You can share your experience by emailing [email protected]. Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways: WhatsApp: +44 7555 173285 Send pictures/video to [email protected] Upload your pictures / video here Tweet: @BBC_HaveYourSay Text an SMS or MMS to 61124 (UK) or +44 7624 800 100 (international) Get news from the BBC in your inbox, each weekday morning ||||| United Airlines Would-Be World's Biggest Rabbit Dies Onboard Flight to U.S. United Airlines Catches More Heat After Would-Be World's Biggest Rabbit Dies on Flight United Airlines is catching more flak this week after a rabbit set to become the world's biggest bunny died on-board one of its flights. The 3-foot bunny named Simon reportedly died Monday night on a United flight from Heathrow to O'Hare -- yes, really. The breeder, Annette Edwards, says Simon was healthy before boarding ... but was found dead in the plane's cargo hold upon landing. It was reportedly on its way to a new celeb owner in the States. The rabbits cost around $6,400 to raise, and Edwards sells them for $640 a pop. Simon, who was 10 months old, was expected to surpass his 4-foot, 4-inch dad ... and snag the record for world's biggest. United -- which is already dealing with a PR nightmare -- reportedly said it was saddened to hear this news and that it's trying to determine why Simon died.

– United Airlines' latest headache is a 3-foot-long one: A giant rabbit traveling from London Heathrow to Chicago's O'Hare was found dead in the cargo hold upon arrival, though his owner tells the Sun a pre-flight vet's check revealed Simon was "fit as a fiddle. Something very strange has happened and I want to know what," says Annette Edwards. "I've sent rabbits all around the world and nothing like this has happened before." Things like this do happen, though, but rarely, reports the BBC. It cites US Department of Transportation data that shows 35 animals died in the course of air transport in 2015. Of those, United was responsible for the most of any US airline: 14. Edwards says Simon was bound for a "very famous" person's home. Simon himself registered somewhere on the fame scale, being the son of the world's largest rabbit, a 4-foot, 4-inch creature named Darius. Edwards says she expected the 10-month-old to ultimately take the title. TMZ reports Edwards sells the rabbits for $640 each, and spends 10 times that raising them. The airline said it was "saddened" in a statement. "We have been in contact with our customer and have offered assistance. We are reviewing this matter." (United also dealt with bad press surrounding a scorpion.)

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Image copyright CATERS NEWS Image caption Simon was expected to become the world's largest rabbit, UK media reported United Airlines is investigating the death of a giant rabbit which was being transported on one of its planes. The 90cm-long bunny, called Simon, was found dead in the cargo hold when the flight arrived at Chicago's O'Hare airport from London Heathrow. Reports in UK media say the 10 month-old giant rabbit was being delivered to a new "celebrity" owner. United, which has had a torrid few weeks of bad publicity, said it was "saddened" by Simon's death. 'Well-being important' Animals dying on planes is rare but not unheard of. US Department of Transportation figures show that in 2015, the most recent data available, US airlines reported 35 animal deaths. Of those, 14 deaths were on United flights, with a further nine creatures injured. Across the year, United carried 97,156 animals, meaning there were 2.37 incidents for every 10,000 animals transported during the period. That was the highest rate seen on any US airline, according to the data. Image copyright CATERS NEWS Image caption Darius the giant rabbit - held up by owner Annette Edwards - was Simon's father In a statement sent to the BBC, United said: "We were saddened to hear this news. The safety and well-being of all the animals that travel with us is of the utmost importance to United Airlines and our PetSafe team. "We have been in contact with our customer and have offered assistance. We are reviewing this matter." The Sun newspaper reported that Simon was the 10-month-old son of the world's largest rabbit - a 1.3m-long continental giant rabbit called Darius - and was expected to have grown larger than his father. Owner Annette Edwards told the paper: "Simon had a vet's check-up three hours before the flight and was fit as a fiddle. "Something very strange has happened and I want to know what. I've sent rabbits all around the world and nothing like this has happened before." Image copyright Reuters Image caption United faced a backlash over its handling of a passenger Criticised United has been in damage control mode this month after passenger Dr David Dao lost two front teeth and suffered a broken nose when he was forcibly removed from an overbooked flight at Chicago's O'Hare airport. The incident caused outrage and widespread condemnation of the airline after footage was shared and watched by millions of people online. The firm has apologised and reviewed its policies on overbooking planes,. In late March, United was heavily criticised on social media after two girls were reportedly barred from flying for wearing leggings on a flight from Denver to Minneapolis United said the girls were travelling on a special pass, for employees and their guests, which has a dress code. Have you transported your pet on a plane? You can share your experience by emailing [email protected]. Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways: WhatsApp: +44 7555 173285 Send pictures/video to [email protected] Upload your pictures / video here Tweet: @BBC_HaveYourSay Text an SMS or MMS to 61124 (UK) or +44 7624 800 100 (international) Get news from the BBC in your inbox, each weekday morning ||||| United Airlines Would-Be World's Biggest Rabbit Dies Onboard Flight to U.S. United Airlines Catches More Heat After Would-Be World's Biggest Rabbit Dies on Flight United Airlines is catching more flak this week after a rabbit set to become the world's biggest bunny died on-board one of its flights. The 3-foot bunny named Simon reportedly died Monday night on a United flight from Heathrow to O'Hare -- yes, really. The breeder, Annette Edwards, says Simon was healthy before boarding ... but was found dead in the plane's cargo hold upon landing. It was reportedly on its way to a new celeb owner in the States. The rabbits cost around $6,400 to raise, and Edwards sells them for $640 a pop. Simon, who was 10 months old, was expected to surpass his 4-foot, 4-inch dad ... and snag the record for world's biggest. United -- which is already dealing with a PR nightmare -- reportedly said it was saddened to hear this news and that it's trying to determine why Simon died.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

poster="http://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201606/3946/1155968404_4963518183001_4963475263001-vs.jpg?pubId=1155968404" true 2016 Trump team axes campaign manager Lewandowski The manager's critics within the campaign are openly celebrating his ouster. Corey Lewandowski has been fired as Donald Trump's campaign manager, ending the tenure of the fiery operative who faced a steady string of controversies while guiding Trump's skeleton campaign operation to a shocking victory in the 2016 Republican presidential primary. “The Donald J. Trump Campaign for President, which has set a historic record in the Republican Primary having received almost 14 million votes, has today announced that Corey Lewandowski will no longer be working with the campaign,” spokeswoman Hope Hicks told The New York Times, which reported the news on Monday. “The campaign is grateful to Corey for his hard work and dedication and we wish him the best in the future.” Story Continued Below A senior Trump aide confirms Lewandowski was fired by the campaign. Another source briefed on the departure said Trump's adult children have been pushing for Lewandowski's ouster since he was accused of assaulting then-Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields. Ivanka Trump, especially, was said to be concerned about the effect of Lewandowski on the Trump family brand. And on Monday afternoon, Donald Trump Jr. said the family had played a part in Trump's decision to fire Lewandowski. "In many respects he was coming to that decision on his own, and we were there to augment that," the candidate's son said on Bloomberg Politics' "With All Due Respect." He continued: "I thought it was the right and appropriate decision to make. But my father is always going to make up his own mind." Earlier Monday, Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks had pushed back on the assertion that Trump's family influenced the decision. It’s unclear when the decision came down, but it seems to have surprised Lewandowski and his allies in and around the campaign. One campaign official who was hired by Lewandowski said that during a Sunday morning conversation about campaign strategy with Lewandowski, the erstwhile campaign manager gave no indication anything was amiss. It was “a good chat,” the official said. Still, the campaign that morning removed Lewandowski from a scheduled appearance on Fox News Sunday, instead dispatching prominent Trump backer Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama. Another source, however, says the personal affinity between Lewandowski and Trump, built up over the year-long run to the top of the GOP, remains intact despite the firing. And in a statement Monday, Lewandowski reaffirmed his support for his now-former boss. "I stand by the fact that Mr. Trump is a great candidate and is better than Hilary Clinton ever will be," he said. The now-former campaign manager had worked for Trump's campaign since it launched last June, but he had clashed with campaign chairman Paul Manafort since Manafort was brought on board this spring. The senior Trump aide said the decision to oust Lewandowski stemmed from necessity, faulting Lewandowski for not getting along with the Republican National Committee and for Trump's operation falling behind Hillary Clinton from an infrastructure perspective. There was recognition, the aide said, that Lewandowski was no longer up to the job. According to another source, Lewandowski's departure comes amid a sense of disorder within the campaign and Lewandowski taking much of the blame for it. The source said he was under fire for blocking hires, refusing to install more traditional elements of the campaign and generally causing friction. Lewandowski's critics openly celebrated his ouster. Michael Caputo, a Trump adviser and Manafort ally within the campaign, appears to have mocked Lewandowski on Twitter. He tweeted out a still image from the movie "The Wizard of Oz" showing the witch buried under Dorothy's house and linking to a YouTube video featuring the "Ding dong, the witch is dead" song from the film. (Later on Monday, Caputo emailed his resignation to Manafort over the tweet). Jim Baker, who served as Trump's state director for multiple states before being fired by Lewandowski in May (some say for recognizing Manafort's authority above the campaign manager’s), texted Lewandowski a mocking job offer as soon as news of his firing broke. The offer: "Hey bud, I see you're looking for work now - I may be willing to have you interview for a field rep position I have open in Binghamton." Baker now manages the congressional campaign of independent candidate Martin Babinec in New York's 22nd district. He said Lewandowski has not yet responded. With Lewandowski out, Manafort is the de facto head of the campaign, Trump adviser Barry Bennett said Monday on Fox News. But Bennett said the change at the top would not significantly alter Trump's strategy. "I don't think we'll see dramatic changes," he said. "I wouldn't call it a pivot, because that makes it sound like it’s a big move. The campaign has always been about the Mexican heroin problem and schools that don't work and government that is wasteful and people who can't find jobs and no one is getting a raise. That’s kind of things this campaign has been about over a year. We need to talk about that more for sure." Upon news of Lewandowski's departure, Fields, now a reporter for the Huffington Post, tweeted, "Hey @CLewandowski_ I hear @BreitbartNews is hiring" Fields worked for Breitbart News until March, when she and the outlet's editor-at-large left the company over how it handled an incident the previous week in Florida at which Lewandowski grabbed Fields' arm to move her away from Trump as she tried to answer a question. Lewandowski was charged with simple battery but the state declined to prosecute. Ben Schreckinger, Ken Vogel, Patrick Reis and Shane Goldmacher contributed to this report. ||||| Donald J. Trump fired his divisive campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, on Monday as he confronts urgent challenges heading into the general election — a strategic shift after months of concerns from party officials and donors about Mr. Lewandowski’s stewardship of the campaign. The exit occurred a month before Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is to secure the official nomination at the party’s convention in Cleveland. It reflected a broader adjustment by the campaign as it grapples with a late start to fund-raising, anxiety among party leaders and a skeletal staff — all while Mr. Trump’s likely Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, swiftly builds out her operations in swing states. Mr. Trump had faced increasing concerns from allies and donors, as well as his children, over whether Mr. Lewandowski, who had never before worked on a national race, was able to direct a battle against Mrs. Clinton. Among those who had voiced concern was Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, who told Mr. Trump last week that relations between his committee and Mr. Lewandowski had become increasingly strained, and that a change would be welcome, according to three people briefed on the discussion. Republicans across the spectrum welcomed the firing as a positive step, but they suggested that it needed to be followed by consistent changes in performance from the candidate himself.

– For those wondering what it would take for Donald Trump to part ways with Corey Lewandowski, we have reached that juncture where the presumptive GOP nominee is shopping for a new campaign manager, reports the New York Times. “The Donald J. Trump Campaign for President ... has today announced that Corey Lewandowski will no longer be working with the campaign,” a Trump rep said in a statement Monday. “The campaign is grateful to Corey for his hard work and dedication and we wish him the best in the future." The reported cause of the split was infighting and Lewandowski's caustic relationship with many in the GOP leadership, as well as political media. "It's a total cage fight in there now," a source recently told Politico of the Trump campaign after another strategist was brought in in March. "Everywhere Corey looks, he sees a threat, so he’s trying to neutralize those threats." The firing was greeted with no small amount of glee in certain circles, with reporter Michelle Fields tweeting, "Hey @CLewandowski_ I hear @BreitbartNews is hiring."

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.poster="http://v.politico.com/images/1155968404/201606/3946/1155968404_4963518183001_4963475263001-vs.jpg?pubId=1155968404" true 2016 Trump team axes campaign manager Lewandowski The manager's critics within the campaign are openly celebrating his ouster. Corey Lewandowski has been fired as Donald Trump's campaign manager, ending the tenure of the fiery operative who faced a steady string of controversies while guiding Trump's skeleton campaign operation to a shocking victory in the 2016 Republican presidential primary. “The Donald J. Trump Campaign for President, which has set a historic record in the Republican Primary having received almost 14 million votes, has today announced that Corey Lewandowski will no longer be working with the campaign,” spokeswoman Hope Hicks told The New York Times, which reported the news on Monday. “The campaign is grateful to Corey for his hard work and dedication and we wish him the best in the future.” Story Continued Below A senior Trump aide confirms Lewandowski was fired by the campaign. Another source briefed on the departure said Trump's adult children have been pushing for Lewandowski's ouster since he was accused of assaulting then-Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields. Ivanka Trump, especially, was said to be concerned about the effect of Lewandowski on the Trump family brand. And on Monday afternoon, Donald Trump Jr. said the family had played a part in Trump's decision to fire Lewandowski. "In many respects he was coming to that decision on his own, and we were there to augment that," the candidate's son said on Bloomberg Politics' "With All Due Respect." He continued: "I thought it was the right and appropriate decision to make. But my father is always going to make up his own mind." Earlier Monday, Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks had pushed back on the assertion that Trump's family influenced the decision. It’s unclear when the decision came down, but it seems to have surprised Lewandowski and his allies in and around the campaign. One campaign official who was hired by Lewandowski said that during a Sunday morning conversation about campaign strategy with Lewandowski, the erstwhile campaign manager gave no indication anything was amiss. It was “a good chat,” the official said. Still, the campaign that morning removed Lewandowski from a scheduled appearance on Fox News Sunday, instead dispatching prominent Trump backer Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama. Another source, however, says the personal affinity between Lewandowski and Trump, built up over the year-long run to the top of the GOP, remains intact despite the firing. And in a statement Monday, Lewandowski reaffirmed his support for his now-former boss. "I stand by the fact that Mr. Trump is a great candidate and is better than Hilary Clinton ever will be," he said. The now-former campaign manager had worked for Trump's campaign since it launched last June, but he had clashed with campaign chairman Paul Manafort since Manafort was brought on board this spring. The senior Trump aide said the decision to oust Lewandowski stemmed from necessity, faulting Lewandowski for not getting along with the Republican National Committee and for Trump's operation falling behind Hillary Clinton from an infrastructure perspective. There was recognition, the aide said, that Lewandowski was no longer up to the job. According to another source, Lewandowski's departure comes amid a sense of disorder within the campaign and Lewandowski taking much of the blame for it. The source said he was under fire for blocking hires, refusing to install more traditional elements of the campaign and generally causing friction. Lewandowski's critics openly celebrated his ouster. Michael Caputo, a Trump adviser and Manafort ally within the campaign, appears to have mocked Lewandowski on Twitter. He tweeted out a still image from the movie "The Wizard of Oz" showing the witch buried under Dorothy's house and linking to a YouTube video featuring the "Ding dong, the witch is dead" song from the film. (Later on Monday, Caputo emailed his resignation to Manafort over the tweet). Jim Baker, who served as Trump's state director for multiple states before being fired by Lewandowski in May (some say for recognizing Manafort's authority above the campaign manager’s), texted Lewandowski a mocking job offer as soon as news of his firing broke. The offer: "Hey bud, I see you're looking for work now - I may be willing to have you interview for a field rep position I have open in Binghamton." Baker now manages the congressional campaign of independent candidate Martin Babinec in New York's 22nd district. He said Lewandowski has not yet responded. With Lewandowski out, Manafort is the de facto head of the campaign, Trump adviser Barry Bennett said Monday on Fox News. But Bennett said the change at the top would not significantly alter Trump's strategy. "I don't think we'll see dramatic changes," he said. "I wouldn't call it a pivot, because that makes it sound like it’s a big move. The campaign has always been about the Mexican heroin problem and schools that don't work and government that is wasteful and people who can't find jobs and no one is getting a raise. That’s kind of things this campaign has been about over a year. We need to talk about that more for sure." Upon news of Lewandowski's departure, Fields, now a reporter for the Huffington Post, tweeted, "Hey @CLewandowski_ I hear @BreitbartNews is hiring" Fields worked for Breitbart News until March, when she and the outlet's editor-at-large left the company over how it handled an incident the previous week in Florida at which Lewandowski grabbed Fields' arm to move her away from Trump as she tried to answer a question. Lewandowski was charged with simple battery but the state declined to prosecute. Ben Schreckinger, Ken Vogel, Patrick Reis and Shane Goldmacher contributed to this report. ||||| Donald J. Trump fired his divisive campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, on Monday as he confronts urgent challenges heading into the general election — a strategic shift after months of concerns from party officials and donors about Mr. Lewandowski’s stewardship of the campaign. The exit occurred a month before Mr. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is to secure the official nomination at the party’s convention in Cleveland. It reflected a broader adjustment by the campaign as it grapples with a late start to fund-raising, anxiety among party leaders and a skeletal staff — all while Mr. Trump’s likely Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, swiftly builds out her operations in swing states. Mr. Trump had faced increasing concerns from allies and donors, as well as his children, over whether Mr. Lewandowski, who had never before worked on a national race, was able to direct a battle against Mrs. Clinton. Among those who had voiced concern was Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, who told Mr. Trump last week that relations between his committee and Mr. Lewandowski had become increasingly strained, and that a change would be welcome, according to three people briefed on the discussion. Republicans across the spectrum welcomed the firing as a positive step, but they suggested that it needed to be followed by consistent changes in performance from the candidate himself.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Firefighters are removing the body of a skydiver who died when he crashed into the roof of a Perris home pic.twitter.com/g31kX5QQmo — Rob McMillan (@abc7robmcmillan) January 23, 2018 Tragic scene where a #skydiver lost their life after a primary parachute failed to deploy, crashing onto a rooftop of home near the #PerrisValleyAirport @ABC7 #Air7HD pic.twitter.com/CMoTIiDDIo — J.T. Alpaugh (@ABC7JT) January 23, 2018 A skydiver was killed Monday afternoon when he fell onto the roof of a home in Perris, officials said.The incident was reported shortly before 3 p.m. in the 200 block of Caldera Street, according to the Riverside County Fire Department."He hit the roof pretty hard," said witness Ali Muhassen, adding that the man appeared to be unconscious during the freefall. "I don't think that chute did anything to break his fall."Firefighter-paramedics arrived to find the skydiver on the tiled roof of the two-story house. The unidentified person was pronounced dead at the scene.Coroner's officials and firefighters used a ladder truck to access the roof and removed the body on a stretcher.The skydiver's primary parachute was apparently visible in the victim's backpack after the crash. What seemed to be his orange emergency chute was seen on the rooftop; Muhassen said it had deployed shortly before the impact, to no avail.Christina Blanco was inside the home at the time of the incident."I was in complete shock," she said. "I was like, no, this can't be happening. ... And then it took so long for us to find out if he was OK or not, just waiting. My heart just dropped when they were like, no, he's not OK." ||||| Police are investigating how a skydiver fatally landed on the roof of a home in Perris while he was competing in a skydiving competition. Marin Austin reports for Today in LA on Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2018. (Published Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2018) The Kidnapping The Investigation The Testimony The Manhunt The Escape The Interview A skydiver was killed Monday when he came down on the roof of a Perris house, just south of Perris Valley Airport. The fatality occurred about 3 p.m. in the 200 block of Caldera Street, near Goetz Road, according to the Riverside County Fire Department. The parachutist, whose identity was not immediately released, was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics. The victim made a jump from an aircraft reportedly associated with the skydiving academy located at the airport, which is less than a mile northeast of where the hard landing occurred. No one at the residence was injured, but it was unclear whether the home sustained damage. The Federal Aviation Administration will be investigating the death. Skydiving around Perris Valley Airport is a routine occurrence, and in good weather, most commercial and recreational air traffic is routed away from the space within three or four miles of the field due to the regularity of jumps and potential conflicts. Three parachuting exercises in the vicinity of the airport resulted in fatalities in the last five years. Copyright City News Service

– A skydiver was killed after he slammed into the roof of a California home Monday afternoon after it appeared his main parachute didn't open, KABC reports. "He hit the roof pretty hard," a witness says, adding that the unidentified man's orange emergency chute, which didn't appear to soften the impact, had opened up right before the apparently unconscious skydiver fell onto the Perris residence. The man was pronounced dead at the scene, and firefighters and other emergency responders who answered the call around 3pm removed his body on a stretcher with the help of a ladder firetruck. Though a Riverside County Sheriff's Department rep tells the Los Angeles Times that other details on the fall were sparse, NBC Los Angeles reports the plane the skydiver jumped from appeared to be from a skydiving school at nearby Perris Valley Airport. Reuters notes Perris is a hot spot for skydiving, with NBC adding that there've been three local parachuting deaths over the past five years. However, the Times notes that skydiving fatalities overall are rare: Out of 3.2 million jumps in 2016, a total of 21 people died, per the United States Parachute Association. A woman who was inside the Perris home was in disbelief over the accident. "I was like, no, this can't be happening," Christina Blanco tells KABC. "And then it took so long for us to find out if he was OK or not, just waiting. My heart just dropped when they were like, no, he's not OK." There were no other reported injuries. (A Florida skydiver sent his wife a "disturbing" video before his fatal jump.)

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Firefighters are removing the body of a skydiver who died when he crashed into the roof of a Perris home pic.twitter.com/g31kX5QQmo — Rob McMillan (@abc7robmcmillan) January 23, 2018 Tragic scene where a #skydiver lost their life after a primary parachute failed to deploy, crashing onto a rooftop of home near the #PerrisValleyAirport @ABC7 #Air7HD pic.twitter.com/CMoTIiDDIo — J.T. Alpaugh (@ABC7JT) January 23, 2018 A skydiver was killed Monday afternoon when he fell onto the roof of a home in Perris, officials said.The incident was reported shortly before 3 p.m. in the 200 block of Caldera Street, according to the Riverside County Fire Department."He hit the roof pretty hard," said witness Ali Muhassen, adding that the man appeared to be unconscious during the freefall. "I don't think that chute did anything to break his fall."Firefighter-paramedics arrived to find the skydiver on the tiled roof of the two-story house. The unidentified person was pronounced dead at the scene.Coroner's officials and firefighters used a ladder truck to access the roof and removed the body on a stretcher.The skydiver's primary parachute was apparently visible in the victim's backpack after the crash. What seemed to be his orange emergency chute was seen on the rooftop; Muhassen said it had deployed shortly before the impact, to no avail.Christina Blanco was inside the home at the time of the incident."I was in complete shock," she said. "I was like, no, this can't be happening. ... And then it took so long for us to find out if he was OK or not, just waiting. My heart just dropped when they were like, no, he's not OK." ||||| Police are investigating how a skydiver fatally landed on the roof of a home in Perris while he was competing in a skydiving competition. Marin Austin reports for Today in LA on Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2018. (Published Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2018) The Kidnapping The Investigation The Testimony The Manhunt The Escape The Interview A skydiver was killed Monday when he came down on the roof of a Perris house, just south of Perris Valley Airport. The fatality occurred about 3 p.m. in the 200 block of Caldera Street, near Goetz Road, according to the Riverside County Fire Department. The parachutist, whose identity was not immediately released, was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics. The victim made a jump from an aircraft reportedly associated with the skydiving academy located at the airport, which is less than a mile northeast of where the hard landing occurred. No one at the residence was injured, but it was unclear whether the home sustained damage. The Federal Aviation Administration will be investigating the death. Skydiving around Perris Valley Airport is a routine occurrence, and in good weather, most commercial and recreational air traffic is routed away from the space within three or four miles of the field due to the regularity of jumps and potential conflicts. Three parachuting exercises in the vicinity of the airport resulted in fatalities in the last five years. Copyright City News Service

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

(Photo: Christine Pitawanich) PORTLAND, Ore. — Most of the 112 protesters arrested in Portland last week didn’t vote in Oregon, according to state election records. Approximately 30 percent did cast a ballot in Oregon or in another state. At least seventy-nine demonstrators either didn’t turn in a ballot or weren’t registered to vote in the state. Following Tuesday's presidential election of Donald Trump, thousands of people took to the streets in downtown Portland for five straight nights. The activity included at least one night that the police declared to be a riot, with more than $1 million in property damage. The bulk of the arrests happened on Friday and Saturday evenings as protesters faced off against police. KGW compiled a list of the 112 people arrested by the Portland Police Bureau during recent protests. Those names and ages, provided by police, were then compared to state voter logs by Multnomah County Elections officials. Records show 39 of the protesters arrested were registered in the state but didn’t return a ballot for the November 8 election. Thirty-five of the demonstrators taken into custody weren’t registered to vote in Oregon. Kevin Grigsby was one of 71 arrested during the Saturday night protest. He said he didn't do anything wrong, but told KGW he also did not vote. "I did not (vote) and the reason why is because we know that the electoral college is really what matters the most. And I think that we need to change that because your vote doesn’t matter if you don’t have enough electoral college points.," said Grigsby. Another protester said those arrested are not representative of the thousands who took to the streets last week. “You just look at your sample and it’s the people who got arrested. And the people who got arrested, I just don’t think they’re representative of the majority of the people who are out protesting.” It is unclear if those who aren't registered in Oregon are registered to vote in other states. Most of those gave Oregon addresses as their official residence in court records. Four of the 112 arrestees are under the age of 18 and thus not eligible to vote, and 34 of the protesters did vote. There have been theories floating around the internet that protesters are being brought in from elsewhere and encouraged by outside agitators. Our analysis of court records shows the majority of those arrested in Portland are from either Oregon or Washington. Of the 112 arrested protesters we looked at, 89 listed Oregon addresses and seven listed Washington addresses. One listed a California address and one listed a Texas address. Fourteen protesters didn’t have addresses listed in court records. Discuss this story on our Facebook page now Statewide, nearly 79 percent of Oregon's registered voters cast their ballots, representing just over 2 million votes. While nearly 9 out of every 10 Republican and Democratic voters did vote, only 63 percent of those not registered with one of those parties did participate. Officials attribute some of the lack of voting to Oregon's new motor voter law, which has automatically registered hundreds of thousands of people as new voters. This article originally stated that 35 people were registered to vote and did not. One woman who was arrested told KGW she recently moved to Washington and did vote in Washington. She was also registered to vote in Oregon. ||||| Roughly a third of the people arrested in the past week of anti-Trump demonstrations in Portland apparently didn't vote in the election they were protesting. Thirty-six of the 112 arrested people -- 32 percent -- were registered in Oregon but didn't return ballots, according to data compiled by the Multnomah County Elections Division. The data showed 31 people -- 28 percent -- did vote in Oregon. But the figures leave unanswered questions: The Elections Division determined that another 36 of the people weren't registered in Oregon at the time of the Nov. 8 election -- but that doesn't mean they weren't registered in another state, said spokesman Eric Sample. There's no specific time period when someone living in Oregon must register to vote here instead of their home state, he said. That's particularly common among out-of-state college students. So it's possible that some or all of those 36 people who weren't registered in Oregon could have voted in other states. What's more, Sample said, a state-by-state search would be necessary to determine whether those 36 people are registered elsewhere. The Election Division also wasn't able to account for the voter participation of five protesters because it lacked middle names for those people or birth dates. Of the 112 protesters who were arrested, four were under age 18 -- in other words, too young to vote. The Elections Division came up with the results after running the names and ages of the protesters through its Oregon database and looking for matches in response to a public records request by KGW-TV. The Elections Division also provided the results Tuesday to The Oregonian/OregonLive, but the numbers are different from those reported by KGW, in part because the division had updated information. The Oregonian/OregonLive is independently researching who among the arrested protesters voted in Oregon as well as Washington, by checking voter participation records. But, like the Elections Division, the news organization has run into some roadblocks, such as acquiring the arrested person's date of birth to make a match to voter records. Stay tuned for a story about those results when they're available. -- Aimee Green [email protected] 503-294-5119 o_aimee

– Portland, Ore., saw some of the fiercest protests against Donald Trump being elected—but more than a third of those arrested didn't bother to vote against him, according to KGW, which compared a list of 112 people arrested to state voter logs. At least 39 of those arrested were registered to vote in Oregon but did not return a ballot. Another 35 of those arrested were not registered to vote in the state, while 34 were registered to vote in the state and did so. Another four were under 18 and ineligible to vote. The proportion of protesters who exercised their democratic right to vote appears dismal, though Multnomah County Elections Division election official Jeff Sample tells the Oregonian that some of the 35 not registered in Oregon could have voted in other states. Hillary Clinton won the state and Kevin Grigsby, a protester arrested Saturday night, tells KGW that he didn't vote because the electoral college vote is the one that really counts. "I think that we need to change that because your vote doesn’t matter if you don’t have enough electoral college points," he says. (Trump tweeted that the protests were "very unfair.")

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.(Photo: Christine Pitawanich) PORTLAND, Ore. — Most of the 112 protesters arrested in Portland last week didn’t vote in Oregon, according to state election records. Approximately 30 percent did cast a ballot in Oregon or in another state. At least seventy-nine demonstrators either didn’t turn in a ballot or weren’t registered to vote in the state. Following Tuesday's presidential election of Donald Trump, thousands of people took to the streets in downtown Portland for five straight nights. The activity included at least one night that the police declared to be a riot, with more than $1 million in property damage. The bulk of the arrests happened on Friday and Saturday evenings as protesters faced off against police. KGW compiled a list of the 112 people arrested by the Portland Police Bureau during recent protests. Those names and ages, provided by police, were then compared to state voter logs by Multnomah County Elections officials. Records show 39 of the protesters arrested were registered in the state but didn’t return a ballot for the November 8 election. Thirty-five of the demonstrators taken into custody weren’t registered to vote in Oregon. Kevin Grigsby was one of 71 arrested during the Saturday night protest. He said he didn't do anything wrong, but told KGW he also did not vote. "I did not (vote) and the reason why is because we know that the electoral college is really what matters the most. And I think that we need to change that because your vote doesn’t matter if you don’t have enough electoral college points.," said Grigsby. Another protester said those arrested are not representative of the thousands who took to the streets last week. “You just look at your sample and it’s the people who got arrested. And the people who got arrested, I just don’t think they’re representative of the majority of the people who are out protesting.” It is unclear if those who aren't registered in Oregon are registered to vote in other states. Most of those gave Oregon addresses as their official residence in court records. Four of the 112 arrestees are under the age of 18 and thus not eligible to vote, and 34 of the protesters did vote. There have been theories floating around the internet that protesters are being brought in from elsewhere and encouraged by outside agitators. Our analysis of court records shows the majority of those arrested in Portland are from either Oregon or Washington. Of the 112 arrested protesters we looked at, 89 listed Oregon addresses and seven listed Washington addresses. One listed a California address and one listed a Texas address. Fourteen protesters didn’t have addresses listed in court records. Discuss this story on our Facebook page now Statewide, nearly 79 percent of Oregon's registered voters cast their ballots, representing just over 2 million votes. While nearly 9 out of every 10 Republican and Democratic voters did vote, only 63 percent of those not registered with one of those parties did participate. Officials attribute some of the lack of voting to Oregon's new motor voter law, which has automatically registered hundreds of thousands of people as new voters. This article originally stated that 35 people were registered to vote and did not. One woman who was arrested told KGW she recently moved to Washington and did vote in Washington. She was also registered to vote in Oregon. ||||| Roughly a third of the people arrested in the past week of anti-Trump demonstrations in Portland apparently didn't vote in the election they were protesting. Thirty-six of the 112 arrested people -- 32 percent -- were registered in Oregon but didn't return ballots, according to data compiled by the Multnomah County Elections Division. The data showed 31 people -- 28 percent -- did vote in Oregon. But the figures leave unanswered questions: The Elections Division determined that another 36 of the people weren't registered in Oregon at the time of the Nov. 8 election -- but that doesn't mean they weren't registered in another state, said spokesman Eric Sample. There's no specific time period when someone living in Oregon must register to vote here instead of their home state, he said. That's particularly common among out-of-state college students. So it's possible that some or all of those 36 people who weren't registered in Oregon could have voted in other states. What's more, Sample said, a state-by-state search would be necessary to determine whether those 36 people are registered elsewhere. The Election Division also wasn't able to account for the voter participation of five protesters because it lacked middle names for those people or birth dates. Of the 112 protesters who were arrested, four were under age 18 -- in other words, too young to vote. The Elections Division came up with the results after running the names and ages of the protesters through its Oregon database and looking for matches in response to a public records request by KGW-TV. The Elections Division also provided the results Tuesday to The Oregonian/OregonLive, but the numbers are different from those reported by KGW, in part because the division had updated information. The Oregonian/OregonLive is independently researching who among the arrested protesters voted in Oregon as well as Washington, by checking voter participation records. But, like the Elections Division, the news organization has run into some roadblocks, such as acquiring the arrested person's date of birth to make a match to voter records. Stay tuned for a story about those results when they're available. -- Aimee Green [email protected] 503-294-5119 o_aimee

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - Jun 9, 2015) - An amended class action complaint (Case No. C-15-0569 EMC) was filed late yesterday against Nestlé Purina PetCare Company on behalf of consumers who purchased Beneful brand dog food and had pets suffer from internal organ distress, injury, or failure and death. The complaint, brought in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges that Purina failed to disclose that Beneful contains substances that are toxic to animals, including Industrial Grade Glycols (IGG), lead, arsenic and mycotoxins. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) categorizes Pharmaceutical Grade Propylene Glycol as Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) for ingestion; however, the FDA prohibits the use of IGG in food products due to concerns over contamination and impurities in the manufacturing process. In addition, the Association for Truth in Pet Food conducted independent testing of Beneful Original dog food and found that it contained mycotoxins, toxins produced by fungus that occurs in grains, which are a principal ingredient in the dog food. The amended complaint adds 26 more dog owners from across the country who allege Beneful caused their pet's injuries and, in some cases, deaths. The class action now includes plaintiffs in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington. The suit also alleges Purina has been contacting injured consumers soon after they post on social media about their dogs getting sick or the dangers of Beneful. Plaintiffs claim that Purina offers some consumers a settlement that requires them to sign an agreement prohibiting any conversations about the settlement or their experiences with Purina. "Despite Purina's aggressive defense of its product, the company is paying pet owners' claims and demanding secrecy. 'Why?' is a question Purina should answer," said Jeff Cereghino, one of the attorneys involved in the class action. The products named in the complaint include Purina Beneful Healthy Weight, Purina Beneful Original, Purina Beneful Incredibites, Purina Beneful Healthy Growth For Puppies, Purina Beneful Healthy Smile, Purina Beneful Healthy Fiesta, Purina Beneful Healthy Radiance and Purina Beneful Playful Life. Symptoms of those affected include stomach and related internal bleeding, liver malfunction or failure, vomiting, diarrhea, dehydration, weight loss, seizures, bloating and kidney failure, sometimes resulting in death. In addition, the suit accuses Purina of negligence, misrepresentation, product liability and unfair business practices. The original complaint, Lucido v. Nestlé Purina, was filed on February 5, 2015. ||||| In this section of the Purina News Center, you'll find our statements. Statements display in chronological order and below you can find links to archived statements. If you are a member of the media seeking a statement, please reach out to our media relations contacts. Thank you. ||||| The seed for this crawl was a list of every host in the Wayback Machine This crawl was run at a level 1 (URLs including their embeds, plus the URLs of all outbound links including their embeds) The WARC files associated with this crawl are not currently available to the general public. ||||| Pet food giant Purina launched a national campaign in support of its Beneful brand last week — just as an ongoing lawsuit against the brand expanded its allegations that the popular feed is making dogs sick. The amended complaint against Nestlé Purina PetCare Company's Beneful dry kibble dog food was filed on June 8 in California federal court, adding 26 additional pet owners from states spanning coast to coast. The lawsuit now alleges that Beneful contains toxins and that Purina has been offering cash settlements in exchange for silence from those who voice complaints about the brand. The amendments to the suit come on the heels of a national campaign launched by Purina last week defending its products. The "I Stand Behind Beneful" campaign features a full-page advertisement in the New York Times and a TV commercial showing workers who both make Beneful and feed it to their own pets, the company said. "This really boils down to the fact that we're really proud of the Beneful product and there are no issues with the quality," Keith Schopp, vice president of corporate relations for Purina, told NBC News. "We thought one of the best ways to show that pride would be actually through the men and women who make Beneful and feed it to their own pets." An ad for Purina Beneful appearing in The New York Times on June 14. Purina The company featured a second full-page in the New York Times on Sunday after the initial launch this week. Plaintiff and pet owner Frank Lucido, who claims one of his dogs died and two others became ill after eating Beneful, initiated the original lawsuit against Purina in early February of this year. Jeffrey B. Cereghino, the lawyer spearheading the case against Purina, said he and the law firms participating in the suit have been contacted by thousands of people who believe Beneful may have poisoned their dogs. "The immediacy of folks willing to participate was really quite extraordinary," he said. The amended suit includes 26 additional plaintiffs with similar stories and claims that Purina failed to disclose that the brand contains substances toxic to animals — including Industrial Grade Glycols (IGG), lead, arsenic and mycotoxins. The suit is seeking class-action status and $5,000,000 in damages. Purina has continued to deny the allegations in the suit, publishing an extensive statement on its website on June 9 in response to the amended complaint. "We're really disturbed by the ongoing false and unsubstantiated allegations," Schopp told NBC News. The company said in the statement that Beneful is not formulated with IGG, but rather "high-quality human food-grade levels" of propylene glycol. While Industrial Grade Glycols are not approved for use in food by the FDA, food-grade propylene glycol is approved as safe for use in human and dog food. The original lawsuit listed propylene glycol in its complaint, instead of IGG. The Purina statement also says the company tests "for well over 150 substances," including mycotoxins, lead and arsenic as part of its food safety and ingredient surveillance programs. Dr. Kurt Venator, director of veterinary strategy and programs at Purina, said the strict testing standards extend to their ingredient suppliers as well. Purina products "meet or exceed food quality and safety standards," he said. The pets listed in the lawsuit vary in age and in length of time consuming Beneful before becoming ill, but the consistent symptoms, according to the suit, include: vomiting, diarrhea, loss of appetite, liver or kidney malfunction and failure, seizures, and even death. Plaintiff Rob Benham, of Versailles, Indiana, told NBC News he and his family believe Beneful is responsible for the death of Sadie, a 7-year-old Miniature Fox terrier, and the ailing health of their 5-year-old Shih Tzu Willie. Willie, top, a 5-year-old Shih Tzu, suffered liver and kidney problems and is still recovering. The Benhams believe switching his diet to Beneful is to blame. Sadie, below, a 7-year-old Miniature Fox Terrier, died in Oct. 2013 within four months of switching her diet to Beneful. Rob Benham Benham, 47, began feeding his dogs Beneful in June 2013, partially for financial reasons, he said. "Purina is a household word, we felt very safe in doing that," he said. Within a month, Sadie began losing weight dramatically, Benham said. When they took her to their veterinarian, they were informed Sadie had developed problems with her liver and would need medication. But the vet was unable to find the cause of the problem. "He was baffled," Benham said. "He could think of no reason for it." The symptoms only got worse. "She started having trouble with her vision and was staggering everywhere," he said. "She had always been very healthy." "On October 19 of 2013, we lost her," Benham said through tears. Cereghino said there was a disconnect between the company's new campaign and how Purina has treated concerned customers. The amended suit claims that Purina has been contacting consumers who post negative experiences with Beneful to social media, denying liability while offering them cash settlements in exchange for restrictive confidentiality agreements. The lawsuit claims to include a copy of a non-disclosure agreement for a complaint involving Beneful. Schopp, the Purina spokesman, said any customer service agreements and compensation were "good-will gestures" by the company and a common practice in many industries. "Anytime consumers have questions they can contact us, whether validated or not we have at times responded to them and offered compensation as a good-will gesture," he said. "The notion that this is something we just started or there is some sort of a negative motive here is nonsense." The dry kibble variations named in the suit include Purina Beneful Healthy Weight, Purina Beneful Original, Purina Beneful Incredibites, and Purina Beneful Healthy Growth For Puppies, Purina Beneful Healthy Smile, Purina Beneful Healthy Fiesta, Purina Beneful Healthy Radiance, and Purina Beneful Playful Life.

– Frank Lucido is no longer the only plaintiff in a lawsuit alleging Beneful food kills dogs. An amended complaint filed in California last week against the Nestle Purina brand has added 26 more pet owners from across the country, as well as accusations that Beneful contains toxins and that Purina has been sliding money across the table to people who've complained about the brand, NBC News reports. "The immediacy of folks willing to participate was really quite extraordinary," Jeff Cereghino, the lawyer leading the class-action case, tells NBC. Purina continues to refute these claims, noting in a statement that "the class action lawyers clearly care more about dollars than dogs," while Keith Schopp, a VP of corporate relations, tells NBC that "we're really disturbed by the ongoing false and unsubstantiated allegations." Another way Purina's countering: an "I Stand Behind Beneful" ad campaign with full-page ads in the New York Times and a TV commercial showing Purina employees promoting Beneful, NBC notes. "We're really proud of the Beneful product and there are no issues with the quality," Schopp says. "We thought one of the best ways to show that pride would be actually through the men and women who make Beneful and feed it to their own pets." In its statement, the company also takes on complaints that its dog food contains toxins and says that compensation offered to customers who complained were merely a "goodwill gesture [that] companies in every industry do … to provide the best customer service." Cereghino, for one, isn't buying it. "Despite Purina's aggressive defense of its product, the company is paying pet owners' claims and demanding secrecy. 'Why?' is a question Purina should answer," he says, per Digital Journal. (Here's what the TSA feeds its bomb-sniffing canines.)

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - Jun 9, 2015) - An amended class action complaint (Case No. C-15-0569 EMC) was filed late yesterday against Nestlé Purina PetCare Company on behalf of consumers who purchased Beneful brand dog food and had pets suffer from internal organ distress, injury, or failure and death. The complaint, brought in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges that Purina failed to disclose that Beneful contains substances that are toxic to animals, including Industrial Grade Glycols (IGG), lead, arsenic and mycotoxins. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) categorizes Pharmaceutical Grade Propylene Glycol as Generally Recognized as Safe (GRAS) for ingestion; however, the FDA prohibits the use of IGG in food products due to concerns over contamination and impurities in the manufacturing process. In addition, the Association for Truth in Pet Food conducted independent testing of Beneful Original dog food and found that it contained mycotoxins, toxins produced by fungus that occurs in grains, which are a principal ingredient in the dog food. The amended complaint adds 26 more dog owners from across the country who allege Beneful caused their pet's injuries and, in some cases, deaths. The class action now includes plaintiffs in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Washington. The suit also alleges Purina has been contacting injured consumers soon after they post on social media about their dogs getting sick or the dangers of Beneful. Plaintiffs claim that Purina offers some consumers a settlement that requires them to sign an agreement prohibiting any conversations about the settlement or their experiences with Purina. "Despite Purina's aggressive defense of its product, the company is paying pet owners' claims and demanding secrecy. 'Why?' is a question Purina should answer," said Jeff Cereghino, one of the attorneys involved in the class action. The products named in the complaint include Purina Beneful Healthy Weight, Purina Beneful Original, Purina Beneful Incredibites, Purina Beneful Healthy Growth For Puppies, Purina Beneful Healthy Smile, Purina Beneful Healthy Fiesta, Purina Beneful Healthy Radiance and Purina Beneful Playful Life. Symptoms of those affected include stomach and related internal bleeding, liver malfunction or failure, vomiting, diarrhea, dehydration, weight loss, seizures, bloating and kidney failure, sometimes resulting in death. In addition, the suit accuses Purina of negligence, misrepresentation, product liability and unfair business practices. The original complaint, Lucido v. Nestlé Purina, was filed on February 5, 2015. ||||| In this section of the Purina News Center, you'll find our statements. Statements display in chronological order and below you can find links to archived statements. If you are a member of the media seeking a statement, please reach out to our media relations contacts. Thank you. ||||| The seed for this crawl was a list of every host in the Wayback Machine This crawl was run at a level 1 (URLs including their embeds, plus the URLs of all outbound links including their embeds) The WARC files associated with this crawl are not currently available to the general public. ||||| Pet food giant Purina launched a national campaign in support of its Beneful brand last week — just as an ongoing lawsuit against the brand expanded its allegations that the popular feed is making dogs sick. The amended complaint against Nestlé Purina PetCare Company's Beneful dry kibble dog food was filed on June 8 in California federal court, adding 26 additional pet owners from states spanning coast to coast. The lawsuit now alleges that Beneful contains toxins and that Purina has been offering cash settlements in exchange for silence from those who voice complaints about the brand. The amendments to the suit come on the heels of a national campaign launched by Purina last week defending its products. The "I Stand Behind Beneful" campaign features a full-page advertisement in the New York Times and a TV commercial showing workers who both make Beneful and feed it to their own pets, the company said. "This really boils down to the fact that we're really proud of the Beneful product and there are no issues with the quality," Keith Schopp, vice president of corporate relations for Purina, told NBC News. "We thought one of the best ways to show that pride would be actually through the men and women who make Beneful and feed it to their own pets." An ad for Purina Beneful appearing in The New York Times on June 14. Purina The company featured a second full-page in the New York Times on Sunday after the initial launch this week. Plaintiff and pet owner Frank Lucido, who claims one of his dogs died and two others became ill after eating Beneful, initiated the original lawsuit against Purina in early February of this year. Jeffrey B. Cereghino, the lawyer spearheading the case against Purina, said he and the law firms participating in the suit have been contacted by thousands of people who believe Beneful may have poisoned their dogs. "The immediacy of folks willing to participate was really quite extraordinary," he said. The amended suit includes 26 additional plaintiffs with similar stories and claims that Purina failed to disclose that the brand contains substances toxic to animals — including Industrial Grade Glycols (IGG), lead, arsenic and mycotoxins. The suit is seeking class-action status and $5,000,000 in damages. Purina has continued to deny the allegations in the suit, publishing an extensive statement on its website on June 9 in response to the amended complaint. "We're really disturbed by the ongoing false and unsubstantiated allegations," Schopp told NBC News. The company said in the statement that Beneful is not formulated with IGG, but rather "high-quality human food-grade levels" of propylene glycol. While Industrial Grade Glycols are not approved for use in food by the FDA, food-grade propylene glycol is approved as safe for use in human and dog food. The original lawsuit listed propylene glycol in its complaint, instead of IGG. The Purina statement also says the company tests "for well over 150 substances," including mycotoxins, lead and arsenic as part of its food safety and ingredient surveillance programs. Dr. Kurt Venator, director of veterinary strategy and programs at Purina, said the strict testing standards extend to their ingredient suppliers as well. Purina products "meet or exceed food quality and safety standards," he said. The pets listed in the lawsuit vary in age and in length of time consuming Beneful before becoming ill, but the consistent symptoms, according to the suit, include: vomiting, diarrhea, loss of appetite, liver or kidney malfunction and failure, seizures, and even death. Plaintiff Rob Benham, of Versailles, Indiana, told NBC News he and his family believe Beneful is responsible for the death of Sadie, a 7-year-old Miniature Fox terrier, and the ailing health of their 5-year-old Shih Tzu Willie. Willie, top, a 5-year-old Shih Tzu, suffered liver and kidney problems and is still recovering. The Benhams believe switching his diet to Beneful is to blame. Sadie, below, a 7-year-old Miniature Fox Terrier, died in Oct. 2013 within four months of switching her diet to Beneful. Rob Benham Benham, 47, began feeding his dogs Beneful in June 2013, partially for financial reasons, he said. "Purina is a household word, we felt very safe in doing that," he said. Within a month, Sadie began losing weight dramatically, Benham said. When they took her to their veterinarian, they were informed Sadie had developed problems with her liver and would need medication. But the vet was unable to find the cause of the problem. "He was baffled," Benham said. "He could think of no reason for it." The symptoms only got worse. "She started having trouble with her vision and was staggering everywhere," he said. "She had always been very healthy." "On October 19 of 2013, we lost her," Benham said through tears. Cereghino said there was a disconnect between the company's new campaign and how Purina has treated concerned customers. The amended suit claims that Purina has been contacting consumers who post negative experiences with Beneful to social media, denying liability while offering them cash settlements in exchange for restrictive confidentiality agreements. The lawsuit claims to include a copy of a non-disclosure agreement for a complaint involving Beneful. Schopp, the Purina spokesman, said any customer service agreements and compensation were "good-will gestures" by the company and a common practice in many industries. "Anytime consumers have questions they can contact us, whether validated or not we have at times responded to them and offered compensation as a good-will gesture," he said. "The notion that this is something we just started or there is some sort of a negative motive here is nonsense." The dry kibble variations named in the suit include Purina Beneful Healthy Weight, Purina Beneful Original, Purina Beneful Incredibites, and Purina Beneful Healthy Growth For Puppies, Purina Beneful Healthy Smile, Purina Beneful Healthy Fiesta, Purina Beneful Healthy Radiance, and Purina Beneful Playful Life.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. ||||| share tweet pin email When 12-year-old Taylor Smith wrote a special letter to herself last spring, to be read in 10 years’ time, she didn’t know it would be opened before even a year had passed -- and that it wouldn’t be her eyes reading the words. Instead, it was opened by Taylor’s parents after she died in early January. They posted the letter to Facebook, hoping Taylor’s words would inspire others. Today The envelope was marked "confidential," and for "Taylor's eyes only." It has. “[We’ve gotten] letters from lots of parents who’ve said it’s encouraged them to love their kids and love each other,” said Taylor’s mother, Mary Ellen Smith. In the letter, Taylor congratulates herself on graduating high school and asks, “Are you [we] in college?” She also wanted to know if she’d been on a plane yet and if the show “Doctor Who” was still on the air. And she reminds herself to stay close to God. Today "She had told me that she had written a letter to herself, and she was excited that she was going open it when she was older," said Taylor's mother, Mary Ellen Smith. Taylor also had some words for her future kids. After contemplating the idea of selling her iPad and getting an iPad mini instead, she tells her future self to make sure she mentions to her kids that “We’re older than the tablet!” She included a drawing of an iPad for them to see. Taylor died suddenly of pneumonia, leaving behind both her parents and an older brother. Today Taylor wrote the letter just six days after returning from a church-related mission trip. “I just want people to know just what an awesome, awesome person she was,” her father, Tim Smith, told NBC’s Mike Taibbi. Her mother said, “I can’t physically resurrect her, I can’t bring her back, but I’m so grateful people have been inspired by her story." Taylor's father read the closing words of her letter to Taibbi, which said, “It’s been 10 years since I wrote this. Stuff has happened, good and bad. That’s just how life works, and you have to go with it.”

– Taylor Smith died suddenly of pneumonia on Jan. 5, but months beforehand, the 12-year-old wrote a two-page letter to her future self. The Tennessee girl intended to open it in 2023, when she was 22, and excitedly told her mom about it. Instead, her parents opened it after her death—and shared it with the world, in the hopes that people would be inspired by Taylor's words, Today reports. In addition to the type of things you'd expect from a pre-teen ("Is Doctor Who still on the air?" she asks her adult self. "You should go watch some Doctor Who!"), Taylor talks a lot about the importance of her faith—and shares some particularly touching advice at the end. "Remember, it’s been 10 years since I wrote this. Stuff has happened, good and bad," Taylor wrote. "That’s just how life works, and you have to go with it." The letter can be read in full on Facebook. Why share it? "I just want people to know just what an awesome, awesome person she was," says her dad, Tim. Taylor, who also talked a lot about her relationship with God in the letter, "had the wisdom of an adult but the faith of a child," her aunt tells the Johnson City Press. Adds mom Mary Ellen, "I can't physically resurrect her, I can't bring her back, but I'm so grateful people have been inspired by her story. ... [We’ve gotten] letters from lots of parents who've said it's encouraged them to love their kids and love each other." (Click for the story of another inspiring young person who died recently.)

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. ||||| share tweet pin email When 12-year-old Taylor Smith wrote a special letter to herself last spring, to be read in 10 years’ time, she didn’t know it would be opened before even a year had passed -- and that it wouldn’t be her eyes reading the words. Instead, it was opened by Taylor’s parents after she died in early January. They posted the letter to Facebook, hoping Taylor’s words would inspire others. Today The envelope was marked "confidential," and for "Taylor's eyes only." It has. “[We’ve gotten] letters from lots of parents who’ve said it’s encouraged them to love their kids and love each other,” said Taylor’s mother, Mary Ellen Smith. In the letter, Taylor congratulates herself on graduating high school and asks, “Are you [we] in college?” She also wanted to know if she’d been on a plane yet and if the show “Doctor Who” was still on the air. And she reminds herself to stay close to God. Today "She had told me that she had written a letter to herself, and she was excited that she was going open it when she was older," said Taylor's mother, Mary Ellen Smith. Taylor also had some words for her future kids. After contemplating the idea of selling her iPad and getting an iPad mini instead, she tells her future self to make sure she mentions to her kids that “We’re older than the tablet!” She included a drawing of an iPad for them to see. Taylor died suddenly of pneumonia, leaving behind both her parents and an older brother. Today Taylor wrote the letter just six days after returning from a church-related mission trip. “I just want people to know just what an awesome, awesome person she was,” her father, Tim Smith, told NBC’s Mike Taibbi. Her mother said, “I can’t physically resurrect her, I can’t bring her back, but I’m so grateful people have been inspired by her story." Taylor's father read the closing words of her letter to Taibbi, which said, “It’s been 10 years since I wrote this. Stuff has happened, good and bad. That’s just how life works, and you have to go with it.”

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

FILE - In this Feb. 5, 2016, file photo WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange speaks on the balcony of the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. President Barack Obama’s decision to commute Chelsea Manning’s sentence... (Associated Press) FILE - In this Feb. 5, 2016, file photo WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange speaks on the balcony of the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. President Barack Obama’s decision to commute Chelsea Manning’s sentence quickly brought fresh attention to another figure involved in the Army leaker’s case: Julian Assange.... (Associated Press) FILE - In this Feb. 5, 2016, file photo WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange speaks on the balcony of the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. President Barack Obama’s decision to commute Chelsea Manning’s sentence quickly brought fresh attention to another figure involved in the Army leaker’s case: Julian Assange.... (Associated Press) FILE - In this Feb. 5, 2016, file photo WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange speaks on the balcony of the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. President Barack Obama’s decision to commute Chelsea Manning’s sentence... (Associated Press) WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's decision Tuesday to commute Chelsea Manning's sentence brought fresh attention to another figure involved in the Army leaker's case: Julian Assange. On Twitter last week, Assange's anti-secrecy site WikiLeaks posted, "If Obama grants Manning clemency Assange will agree to US extradition despite clear unconstitutionality of DoJ case." Obama's move will test the promise. The president commuted Manning's 35-year sentence, freeing her in May, nearly three decades early. Manning has acknowledged leaking a trove of diplomatic cables and national security documents to WikiLeaks in 2010. In a statement, Assange called Manning "a hero, whose bravery should be applauded." Assange went on to demand that the U.S. government "should immediately end its war on whistleblowers and publishers, such as WikiLeaks and myself," but he made no mention of the Twitter pledge. His lawyer said he has been pressing the Justice Department for updates on an investigation concerning WikiLeaks. Assange has been holed up for more than four years at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. He has refused to meet prosecutors in Sweden, where he remains wanted on an allegation of rape, fearing he would be extradited to the U.S. to face espionage charges if he leaves the embassy. The Justice Department has never announced any indictment of Assange, and it's not clear that any charges have been brought under seal. The department, in refusing to turn over investigative documents sought by Manning under the Freedom of Information Act, has acknowledged that the FBI is continuing to investigate the publication of national security information on WikiLeaks arising from Manning's disclosures. "That investigation concerns potential violations of federal criminal laws, in the form of serious threats to the national security, and the investigation continues today," Justice Department lawyers wrote in a court filing last year. "From the terms of her request, it is clear that Manning seeks to obtain documents concerning that investigation. Separately, the FBI is also investigating Russian meddling through hacking in the U.S. presidential election. Hacked emails from top Democratic officials and Hillary Clinton campaign officials were posted on WikiLeaks in the final weeks of the presidential race. With the commutation coming just days before Obama leaves office, any decision on whether to charge or seek to extradite Assange will now fall to the Trump administration. In a statement Tuesday, a lawyer for Assange did not address whether Assange intended to come to the U.S. "For many months, I have asked the DOJ to clarify Mr. Assange's status. I hope it will soon," Assange's lawyer, Barry Pollack, said in the statement. "The Department of Justice should not pursue any charges against Mr. Assange based on his publication of truthful information and should close its criminal investigation of him immediately." Another Assange lawyer, Melinda Taylor, suggested he wouldn't go back on his word. "Everything that he has said he's standing by," she said in a brief telephone conversation with The Associated Press. ____ Associated Press writers Danika Kirka and Raphael Satter contributed from London. ___ Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP ||||| At the moment, it's not certain why Cartwright is receiving the pardon. He was the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from his nomination in 2007 through to his retirement from Marine Corps service in 2011, but he wasn't Obama's golden boy. Cartwright was denied the top Chairman spot in 2011 in part because of questions surrounding his staff management practices, including an alleged (though never punished) "unduly familiar relationship" with a female Captain. One theory is that the outgoing White House administration wants to put a lid on discussion of Stuxnet. The Washington Post claimed that the investigation into Cartwright ran aground when officials realized they might have to confirm details of the malware in order to secure a conviction. That would have been particularly problematic at the time, when the US was negotiating the eventual Iranian nuclear shutdown agreement -- did it really want to admit to a cyberattack at such a critical moment? We wouldn't rule out any motivations at this point, but the guilty plea and pardon might spare the government from disclosing secrets. ||||| Image: Image: AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth The news that President Obama has commuted Chelsea Manning’s sentence—with her release slated for May of this year instead of 2045—is a huge relief to many. A major exception to that is Julian Assange, who managed to trip on his own dick in a big way. Last week, the Wikileaks Twitter account made a promise no one really asked for or expected: If Chelsea Manning were to be released, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange would extradite himself to the US, thus ending his years-long stay in London’s Ecuadorian embassy where he’s been holed up dodging a Swedish rape investigation. It’s entirely possible Assange felt secure in making this hollow promise. Few people suspected Manning would go free. And it’s completely unlikely this single tweet did anything to change President Obama’s decision-making whatsoever. The Wikileaks Task Force (which was initially unable to remember the number 5 earlier this evening) counted Manning’s clemency as a “big win” for their organization and Assange himself. But the fact remains: with Manning’s sentence thusly reduced, will Assange extradite himself? Despite a series of combative tweets earlier today, Wikileaks finally confirmed that its organizations’ founder will apparently go through with his agreement—though for some reason the word “deal” is in quotes and his lawyer’s words are vague. It’s totally possible Assange will still find some way to weasel out of this. As one of the individuals who arguably had the biggest impact on destabilizing the US elections, however, it’s hard to imagine a more fitting punishment for Assange sending him to the same country he helped to ruin. ||||| (CNN) It must have stuck in President Barack Obama's craw to deliver a win for WikiLeaks. But that is effectively what he had to do to commute the 35 year sentence of Pvt. Chelsea Manning, who was convicted of committing one of the biggest and most embarrassing leaks of classified information in US history. The move came with the hours fast running down on Obama's presidency and rocked the political, intelligence and military intelligence establishments in Washington. And it will now rest forever on the 44th President's legacy as one of the most controversial moments of his tenure, judging by the furious bipartisan reaction to his decision to free someone regarded by many in Washington as as a traitor. His decision to announce the commutation on the eve of his final presidential news conference on Wednesday indicates he wanted to explain the reasons for his decision to the American people in person. That opportunity may go some way to ensuring that the move does not sow controversy at the start of his post-presidency, as Bill Clinton's controversial pardon for fugitive financier Marc Rich did in 2001. Senior officials told CNN that Obama decided to act because Manning had expressed remorse and responsibility for her actions, and she had already served six years of a long sentence. Obama may also have been motivated by humanitarian considerations, given that Manning is a transgender woman facing decades in an all-male prison and has attempted suicide several times. He may also have reasoned that with President-elect Donald Trump about to take office, the chances of Manning winning release for years to come were slim. The President also came under intense pressure from LGBT groups that have been stalwart supporters throughout his political career to show eleventh hour compassion towards Manning. A source with knowledge of the White House's thinking told CNN's Gloria Borger that Obama's decision took into account the fact that Manning -- unlike fugitive leaker Edward Snowden -- had pleaded guilty in a court of law to her offenses. But in many ways, the decision appeared to run counter to some of Obama's own instincts as president and the sensitivity of the political moment. To begin with, Obama has cultivated a reputation as showing zero tolerance to leakers of classified secrets during his administration. "We're a nation of laws, we don't make our own individual decision about how the laws operate," Obama told protestors who heckled him over the US government's treatment of Manning at a fundraiser in 2011. Wikileaks declares 'victory' Obama's disdain for WikiLeaks itself, which published hundreds of thousands of classified documents stolen by Manning, is well known even though it didn't prevent him, in the end, from showing mercy to Manning. The whistle-blowing website run by Julian Assange published hundreds of thousands of documents stolen by Manning, including battlefield logs from Iraq and Afghanistan and diplomatic cables that caused deep US embarrassment. Now, the organization is at the center of the storm over alleged Russian hacking of Democratic servers during the election, and Assange is being accused of directly subverting American democracy. Obama had sent his then secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, around the world to apologize to US allies for embarrassingly frank disclosures by US diplomats on cables from American embassies to Washington published on the site. Then Clinton herself, in the eyes of many Democrats, was deprived of the presidency because of the stolen emails from her campaign that were blasted around the world by WikiLeaks during the election. Military officials are likely to be especially angry about the move, given the fact that they argued the Wikileaks cables and disclosures endangered US service members, diplomats and those who cooperated with them in Iraq and Afghanistan. It did not take long for WikiLeaks to declare victory over the commutation -- something that could further Obama's public discomfort. "Victory," Wikileaks said in a series of tweets welcoming the move. Snowden, who is exiled in Russia and has also been linked to Wikileaks, also congratulated Manning, tweeting "Thanks, Obama." Let it be said here in earnest, with good heart: Thanks, Obama. https://t.co/IeumTasRNN — Edward Snowden (@Snowden) January 17, 2017 The political reaction to Manning's impending release from prison -- by May 17 -- was swift and critical. "Manning stabbed his fellow soldiers in the back by releasing classified information and putting their lives at risk," Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham told CNN's Dana Bash. "President Obama, by granting clemency to Manning, slapped all those who serve honorably in the face," Graham said. But Manning's supporters, who have spent years calling on Obama to grant clemency, arguing that her act was motivated by a desire to expose abuses by US troops on the battlefield. Manning's sentence was "grossly disproportionate, it was far longer than any any that had previously been imposed for offenses related to the leak of sensitive information," Maria McFarland Sanchez-Moreno, of the US division of Human Rights Watch, told CNN International. "The message that was sent by such a long sentence was that people who release classified information even if it is released in the pubic interest, even if it doesn't cause severe harm, will be prosecuted. That could have a chilling effect going forward on other whistleblowers who might have information about abuses, human rights violations, fraud, corruption to disclose." This story has been updated

– Is Julian Assange about to swap Ecuadorian embassy cuisine for American prison chow? President Obama commuted most of Chelsea Manning's sentence on Tuesday and the WikiLeaks chief appears to be willing to stand by his promise to go to a US prison if Manning is granted clemency. No US indictment of Assange has been announced, but WikiLeaks repeated the promise last week, tweeting: "If Obama grants Manning clemency Assange will agree to US extradition despite clear unconstitutionality of DoJ case." Assange lawyer Melinda Taylor tells the AP that Assange, who has been holed up in the London embassy since 2012, meant what he said. "Everything that he has said he's standing by," she says. A roundup of developments: CNN looks at Obama's decision to free Manning, which it says will count as one of the most controversial moments of his entire presidency. Sources say a key factor in the president's decision was the fact that Manning had already pleaded guilty, unlike fellow leaker Edward Snowden. On Friday, White House spokesman Josh Earnest drew a contrast between the Manning and Snowden cases. "Mr. Snowden fled into the arms of an adversary and has sought refuge in a country that most recently made a concerted effort to undermine confidence in our democracy," he said. Gizmodo takes a look at the background to what it calls Assange's "dumbass promise" to turn himself in, noting that it is probably unlikely that the pledge affected Obama's decision. The New York Times reports that the decision to free Manning angered some leading Republicans, with John McCain calling her leaks of military information "espionage" and Paul Ryan describing the move as "outrageous." Engadget looks at another person who received clemency Tuesday: General James Cartwright, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about the Stuxnet malware. Some analysts suspect the administration wants to stifle discussion of the malware. The Washington Post reports on another one of the days's 64 pardons: Oscar Lopez Rivera, a Puerto Rican independence activist who served 35 years for plotting against the US government. Bernie Sanders personally campaigned for his release.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.FILE - In this Feb. 5, 2016, file photo WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange speaks on the balcony of the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. President Barack Obama’s decision to commute Chelsea Manning’s sentence... (Associated Press) FILE - In this Feb. 5, 2016, file photo WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange speaks on the balcony of the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. President Barack Obama’s decision to commute Chelsea Manning’s sentence quickly brought fresh attention to another figure involved in the Army leaker’s case: Julian Assange.... (Associated Press) FILE - In this Feb. 5, 2016, file photo WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange speaks on the balcony of the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. President Barack Obama’s decision to commute Chelsea Manning’s sentence quickly brought fresh attention to another figure involved in the Army leaker’s case: Julian Assange.... (Associated Press) FILE - In this Feb. 5, 2016, file photo WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange speaks on the balcony of the Ecuadorean Embassy in London. President Barack Obama’s decision to commute Chelsea Manning’s sentence... (Associated Press) WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's decision Tuesday to commute Chelsea Manning's sentence brought fresh attention to another figure involved in the Army leaker's case: Julian Assange. On Twitter last week, Assange's anti-secrecy site WikiLeaks posted, "If Obama grants Manning clemency Assange will agree to US extradition despite clear unconstitutionality of DoJ case." Obama's move will test the promise. The president commuted Manning's 35-year sentence, freeing her in May, nearly three decades early. Manning has acknowledged leaking a trove of diplomatic cables and national security documents to WikiLeaks in 2010. In a statement, Assange called Manning "a hero, whose bravery should be applauded." Assange went on to demand that the U.S. government "should immediately end its war on whistleblowers and publishers, such as WikiLeaks and myself," but he made no mention of the Twitter pledge. His lawyer said he has been pressing the Justice Department for updates on an investigation concerning WikiLeaks. Assange has been holed up for more than four years at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London. He has refused to meet prosecutors in Sweden, where he remains wanted on an allegation of rape, fearing he would be extradited to the U.S. to face espionage charges if he leaves the embassy. The Justice Department has never announced any indictment of Assange, and it's not clear that any charges have been brought under seal. The department, in refusing to turn over investigative documents sought by Manning under the Freedom of Information Act, has acknowledged that the FBI is continuing to investigate the publication of national security information on WikiLeaks arising from Manning's disclosures. "That investigation concerns potential violations of federal criminal laws, in the form of serious threats to the national security, and the investigation continues today," Justice Department lawyers wrote in a court filing last year. "From the terms of her request, it is clear that Manning seeks to obtain documents concerning that investigation. Separately, the FBI is also investigating Russian meddling through hacking in the U.S. presidential election. Hacked emails from top Democratic officials and Hillary Clinton campaign officials were posted on WikiLeaks in the final weeks of the presidential race. With the commutation coming just days before Obama leaves office, any decision on whether to charge or seek to extradite Assange will now fall to the Trump administration. In a statement Tuesday, a lawyer for Assange did not address whether Assange intended to come to the U.S. "For many months, I have asked the DOJ to clarify Mr. Assange's status. I hope it will soon," Assange's lawyer, Barry Pollack, said in the statement. "The Department of Justice should not pursue any charges against Mr. Assange based on his publication of truthful information and should close its criminal investigation of him immediately." Another Assange lawyer, Melinda Taylor, suggested he wouldn't go back on his word. "Everything that he has said he's standing by," she said in a brief telephone conversation with The Associated Press. ____ Associated Press writers Danika Kirka and Raphael Satter contributed from London. ___ Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP ||||| At the moment, it's not certain why Cartwright is receiving the pardon. He was the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from his nomination in 2007 through to his retirement from Marine Corps service in 2011, but he wasn't Obama's golden boy. Cartwright was denied the top Chairman spot in 2011 in part because of questions surrounding his staff management practices, including an alleged (though never punished) "unduly familiar relationship" with a female Captain. One theory is that the outgoing White House administration wants to put a lid on discussion of Stuxnet. The Washington Post claimed that the investigation into Cartwright ran aground when officials realized they might have to confirm details of the malware in order to secure a conviction. That would have been particularly problematic at the time, when the US was negotiating the eventual Iranian nuclear shutdown agreement -- did it really want to admit to a cyberattack at such a critical moment? We wouldn't rule out any motivations at this point, but the guilty plea and pardon might spare the government from disclosing secrets. ||||| Image: Image: AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth The news that President Obama has commuted Chelsea Manning’s sentence—with her release slated for May of this year instead of 2045—is a huge relief to many. A major exception to that is Julian Assange, who managed to trip on his own dick in a big way. Last week, the Wikileaks Twitter account made a promise no one really asked for or expected: If Chelsea Manning were to be released, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange would extradite himself to the US, thus ending his years-long stay in London’s Ecuadorian embassy where he’s been holed up dodging a Swedish rape investigation. It’s entirely possible Assange felt secure in making this hollow promise. Few people suspected Manning would go free. And it’s completely unlikely this single tweet did anything to change President Obama’s decision-making whatsoever. The Wikileaks Task Force (which was initially unable to remember the number 5 earlier this evening) counted Manning’s clemency as a “big win” for their organization and Assange himself. But the fact remains: with Manning’s sentence thusly reduced, will Assange extradite himself? Despite a series of combative tweets earlier today, Wikileaks finally confirmed that its organizations’ founder will apparently go through with his agreement—though for some reason the word “deal” is in quotes and his lawyer’s words are vague. It’s totally possible Assange will still find some way to weasel out of this. As one of the individuals who arguably had the biggest impact on destabilizing the US elections, however, it’s hard to imagine a more fitting punishment for Assange sending him to the same country he helped to ruin. ||||| (CNN) It must have stuck in President Barack Obama's craw to deliver a win for WikiLeaks. But that is effectively what he had to do to commute the 35 year sentence of Pvt. Chelsea Manning, who was convicted of committing one of the biggest and most embarrassing leaks of classified information in US history. The move came with the hours fast running down on Obama's presidency and rocked the political, intelligence and military intelligence establishments in Washington. And it will now rest forever on the 44th President's legacy as one of the most controversial moments of his tenure, judging by the furious bipartisan reaction to his decision to free someone regarded by many in Washington as as a traitor. His decision to announce the commutation on the eve of his final presidential news conference on Wednesday indicates he wanted to explain the reasons for his decision to the American people in person. That opportunity may go some way to ensuring that the move does not sow controversy at the start of his post-presidency, as Bill Clinton's controversial pardon for fugitive financier Marc Rich did in 2001. Senior officials told CNN that Obama decided to act because Manning had expressed remorse and responsibility for her actions, and she had already served six years of a long sentence. Obama may also have been motivated by humanitarian considerations, given that Manning is a transgender woman facing decades in an all-male prison and has attempted suicide several times. He may also have reasoned that with President-elect Donald Trump about to take office, the chances of Manning winning release for years to come were slim. The President also came under intense pressure from LGBT groups that have been stalwart supporters throughout his political career to show eleventh hour compassion towards Manning. A source with knowledge of the White House's thinking told CNN's Gloria Borger that Obama's decision took into account the fact that Manning -- unlike fugitive leaker Edward Snowden -- had pleaded guilty in a court of law to her offenses. But in many ways, the decision appeared to run counter to some of Obama's own instincts as president and the sensitivity of the political moment. To begin with, Obama has cultivated a reputation as showing zero tolerance to leakers of classified secrets during his administration. "We're a nation of laws, we don't make our own individual decision about how the laws operate," Obama told protestors who heckled him over the US government's treatment of Manning at a fundraiser in 2011. Wikileaks declares 'victory' Obama's disdain for WikiLeaks itself, which published hundreds of thousands of classified documents stolen by Manning, is well known even though it didn't prevent him, in the end, from showing mercy to Manning. The whistle-blowing website run by Julian Assange published hundreds of thousands of documents stolen by Manning, including battlefield logs from Iraq and Afghanistan and diplomatic cables that caused deep US embarrassment. Now, the organization is at the center of the storm over alleged Russian hacking of Democratic servers during the election, and Assange is being accused of directly subverting American democracy. Obama had sent his then secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, around the world to apologize to US allies for embarrassingly frank disclosures by US diplomats on cables from American embassies to Washington published on the site. Then Clinton herself, in the eyes of many Democrats, was deprived of the presidency because of the stolen emails from her campaign that were blasted around the world by WikiLeaks during the election. Military officials are likely to be especially angry about the move, given the fact that they argued the Wikileaks cables and disclosures endangered US service members, diplomats and those who cooperated with them in Iraq and Afghanistan. It did not take long for WikiLeaks to declare victory over the commutation -- something that could further Obama's public discomfort. "Victory," Wikileaks said in a series of tweets welcoming the move. Snowden, who is exiled in Russia and has also been linked to Wikileaks, also congratulated Manning, tweeting "Thanks, Obama." Let it be said here in earnest, with good heart: Thanks, Obama. https://t.co/IeumTasRNN — Edward Snowden (@Snowden) January 17, 2017 The political reaction to Manning's impending release from prison -- by May 17 -- was swift and critical. "Manning stabbed his fellow soldiers in the back by releasing classified information and putting their lives at risk," Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham told CNN's Dana Bash. "President Obama, by granting clemency to Manning, slapped all those who serve honorably in the face," Graham said. But Manning's supporters, who have spent years calling on Obama to grant clemency, arguing that her act was motivated by a desire to expose abuses by US troops on the battlefield. Manning's sentence was "grossly disproportionate, it was far longer than any any that had previously been imposed for offenses related to the leak of sensitive information," Maria McFarland Sanchez-Moreno, of the US division of Human Rights Watch, told CNN International. "The message that was sent by such a long sentence was that people who release classified information even if it is released in the pubic interest, even if it doesn't cause severe harm, will be prosecuted. That could have a chilling effect going forward on other whistleblowers who might have information about abuses, human rights violations, fraud, corruption to disclose." This story has been updated

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

CLOSE Princess Eugenie and longtime boyfriend Jack Brooksbank are tying the knot after more than six years together. USA TODAY Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank pose in the Picture Gallery at Buckingham Palace after they announced their engagement in London, Jan. 22, 2018. (Photo: Jonathan Brady, AP) LONDON — Another royal wedding is in the cards in Britain this year. Buckingham Palace announced Monday that one of Queen Elizabeth II's granddaughters, Princess Eugenie, will marry her long-term boyfriend, Jack Brooksbank. The couple was introduced by friends during a ski break in Verbier, Switzerland, and have been dating for more than six years. They got engaged in Nicaragua earlier this month, the palace said. Eugenie, 27, is the daughter of the queen's son Prince Andrew the Duke of York, 57, and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, 58. Princess Eugenie attends The Serpentine Galleries Summer Party at The Serpentine Gallery on June 28, 2017 in London, England. (Photo: Jeff Spicer, Jeff Spicer/Getty Images) “The Duke and Duchess of York are delighted to announce the engagement of Princess Eugenie to Mr. Jack Brooksbank,” the palace said in the statement. “The wedding will take place in the Autumn of 2018 at George's Chapel in Windsor, with further details to be announced in due course.” St. George's Chapel, the mini-cathedral at Windsor Castle, will be busy this year: it's also the venue for the much-anticipated May wedding of Prince Harry, 33, and his fiancée, American actress Meghan Markle, 36. Engagement photos of Eugenie and Brooksbank were taken in the Picture Gallery at Buckingham Palace, where Eugenie, wearing an Erdem dress and Jimmy Choo pumps, showed off her ring, a padparadscha sapphire (a pinkish orange gem) surrounded by diamonds. The wedding will take place in the Autumn of 2018 at St George's Chapel in Windsor, with further details to be announced in due course. pic.twitter.com/3oL6F6hoYG — The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) January 22, 2018 The son of an accountant, Brooksbank, 31, was educated at a posh British school and grew up among the upper-class, aristocratic socialites who hang out with the young royals. Instead of college, he went into the restaurant and bar industry, and first worked as a bartender. He's been the manager of Mahiki, a tropical-themed Mayfair nightspot for the rich and famous, including Eugenie's cousins, Princes William and Harry. And since 2016, he's worked as a U.K. brand representative for Casamigos Tequila, the spirits brand co-founded by George Clooney. Princess Eugenie's engagement ring contains a padparadscha sapphire surrounded by diamonds. (Photo: Jonathan Brady, AP) The princess and Brooksbank had a long-distance relationship for several years when she moved to New York in 2013 to work for Paddle8, an online auction house. Eugenie, who graduated in 2013 from Newcastle University with a degree in art history and English literature, has worked at Christie's in London and at the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace. Both her parents expressed joy; the Duchess of York gushed in a series of tweets: "They float with laughter and love," she wrote in one post. "Jack is an absolutely outstanding young man and Eugenie and he have got to know each other over a number of years, and I'm really thrilled for them," Andrew tweeted. The couple traveled to the queen's retreat, Balmoral Castle in Scotland, during Prince Harry's 32nd birthday celebration in September 2016 to ask the queen to give them her blessing to get married, British media reported at the time. HRH - 'We are overjoyed at the news today that Eugenie and Jack have got engaged. Jack is an absolutely outstanding young man and Eugenie and he have got to know each other over a number of years, and I'm really thrilled for them.' — The Duke of York (@TheDukeOfYork) January 22, 2018 Eugenie is eighth in line to the throne — and will move down to ninth when Prince William's third child is born in April — so technically, she doesn't need the queen's permission to marry. But she is close to her grandmother and would be expected to consult her before making a public announcement. Princess Eugenie of York and her boyfriend Jack Brooksbank at the wedding of Pippa Middleton and James Matthews on May 20, 2017. (Photo: JUSTIN TALLIS, AFP/Getty Images) Eugenie's older sister, Princess Beatrice, 29, had been expected to announce her engagement to her American-born boyfriend, Dave Clark, a few years ago but they broke up in 2016. Beatrice is expected to play a prominent role in her sister's wedding. The princesses are two of the 91-year-old queen's eight grandchildren, with her now-retired husband, Prince Philip, 96. It is not clear yet whether Brooksbank will be given a title by the queen on the day of the wedding, as is typical when a princess marries a non-royal. It's also unclear where they will live, but one possibility is a cottage or apartment at Kensington Palace, where they'd join her royal cousins. Prince Andrew Duke of York and his daughters, Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice, on June 10, 2016 after attending a national service of thanksgiving for the 90th birthday ofQueen Elizabeth II at St Paul's Cathedral in London. (Photo: JUSTIN TALLIS, AFP/Getty Images) The York princesses are the daughters of the queen's second-eldest son and "Fergie," divorced since 1996, who are still close and living in the same house, Royal Lodge. (They've even been subjected to will-they-remarry rumors in recent years.) Although Beatrice and Eugenie are relatively high up in the royal succession, neither is expected to ever reign. More: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle make their first appearance of year Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2DvSI31 ||||| Tweet with a location You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| There will be two royal weddings in 2018, after it was announced today that the queen’s favorite granddaughter, Princess Eugenie, is to marry her boyfriend Jack Brooksbank. Buckingham Palace said in a statement issued this morning on behalf of her parents, Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, that the couple “became engaged in Nicaragua earlier this month.” The wedding will take place in autumn this year at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor, the same location chosen by Harry and Meghan Markle. In a break with tradition, the palace published a highly informal picture of the couple that appears to have been taken on a cellphone in a bar. Brooksbank wears a white, collared shirt and jacket and his fiancée wears an unzipped leather jacket. The couple has been dating for seven years and an announcement has been expected for some time. Brooksbank works in hospitality. According to the Daily Mail, Brooksbank was privately educated and skipped university in favor of starting work, taking a job at a Chelsea pub beloved by London’s jeunesse d’oree—the Admiral Codrington, commonly known as the Cod. He was then hired by London club promoter Piers Adam and his partner Guy Pelly to manage their club, Mahiki. He left that role in 2016 to set up Jack Brooksbank Ltd., which specializes in the “wholesale of wine, beer, spirits, and other alcoholic beverages,” reports the Mail. The groom’s parents were quick to voice their delight to the Daily Express:

– Prince Harry won't be the only British royal to tie the knot this year—and he'll share not just a calendar year but a wedding venue with his cousin. Princess Eugenie, 27, will marry longtime boyfriend Jack Brooksbank this fall, per a Monday statement from Buckingham Palace. Eugenie is the daughter of the Duke and Duchess of York, that is, Queen Elizabeth II's son Prince Andrew and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson. The BBC reports the princess will retain her title upon marrying and may choose to take Brooksbank's name if she wishes; she is currently eighth in line to the throne. USA Today reports the couple have been together for six years after meeting via friends while on a ski holiday in Verbier, Switzerland. The two got engaged in Nicaragua in January and will wed at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. The Daily Beast notes the palace seemingly "[broke] with tradition" in pairing the announcement with a casual photo of the couple that looks as if it was taken using a cellphone in a bar.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.CLOSE Princess Eugenie and longtime boyfriend Jack Brooksbank are tying the knot after more than six years together. USA TODAY Princess Eugenie and Jack Brooksbank pose in the Picture Gallery at Buckingham Palace after they announced their engagement in London, Jan. 22, 2018. (Photo: Jonathan Brady, AP) LONDON — Another royal wedding is in the cards in Britain this year. Buckingham Palace announced Monday that one of Queen Elizabeth II's granddaughters, Princess Eugenie, will marry her long-term boyfriend, Jack Brooksbank. The couple was introduced by friends during a ski break in Verbier, Switzerland, and have been dating for more than six years. They got engaged in Nicaragua earlier this month, the palace said. Eugenie, 27, is the daughter of the queen's son Prince Andrew the Duke of York, 57, and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York, 58. Princess Eugenie attends The Serpentine Galleries Summer Party at The Serpentine Gallery on June 28, 2017 in London, England. (Photo: Jeff Spicer, Jeff Spicer/Getty Images) “The Duke and Duchess of York are delighted to announce the engagement of Princess Eugenie to Mr. Jack Brooksbank,” the palace said in the statement. “The wedding will take place in the Autumn of 2018 at George's Chapel in Windsor, with further details to be announced in due course.” St. George's Chapel, the mini-cathedral at Windsor Castle, will be busy this year: it's also the venue for the much-anticipated May wedding of Prince Harry, 33, and his fiancée, American actress Meghan Markle, 36. Engagement photos of Eugenie and Brooksbank were taken in the Picture Gallery at Buckingham Palace, where Eugenie, wearing an Erdem dress and Jimmy Choo pumps, showed off her ring, a padparadscha sapphire (a pinkish orange gem) surrounded by diamonds. The wedding will take place in the Autumn of 2018 at St George's Chapel in Windsor, with further details to be announced in due course. pic.twitter.com/3oL6F6hoYG — The Royal Family (@RoyalFamily) January 22, 2018 The son of an accountant, Brooksbank, 31, was educated at a posh British school and grew up among the upper-class, aristocratic socialites who hang out with the young royals. Instead of college, he went into the restaurant and bar industry, and first worked as a bartender. He's been the manager of Mahiki, a tropical-themed Mayfair nightspot for the rich and famous, including Eugenie's cousins, Princes William and Harry. And since 2016, he's worked as a U.K. brand representative for Casamigos Tequila, the spirits brand co-founded by George Clooney. Princess Eugenie's engagement ring contains a padparadscha sapphire surrounded by diamonds. (Photo: Jonathan Brady, AP) The princess and Brooksbank had a long-distance relationship for several years when she moved to New York in 2013 to work for Paddle8, an online auction house. Eugenie, who graduated in 2013 from Newcastle University with a degree in art history and English literature, has worked at Christie's in London and at the Royal Collection at Buckingham Palace. Both her parents expressed joy; the Duchess of York gushed in a series of tweets: "They float with laughter and love," she wrote in one post. "Jack is an absolutely outstanding young man and Eugenie and he have got to know each other over a number of years, and I'm really thrilled for them," Andrew tweeted. The couple traveled to the queen's retreat, Balmoral Castle in Scotland, during Prince Harry's 32nd birthday celebration in September 2016 to ask the queen to give them her blessing to get married, British media reported at the time. HRH - 'We are overjoyed at the news today that Eugenie and Jack have got engaged. Jack is an absolutely outstanding young man and Eugenie and he have got to know each other over a number of years, and I'm really thrilled for them.' — The Duke of York (@TheDukeOfYork) January 22, 2018 Eugenie is eighth in line to the throne — and will move down to ninth when Prince William's third child is born in April — so technically, she doesn't need the queen's permission to marry. But she is close to her grandmother and would be expected to consult her before making a public announcement. Princess Eugenie of York and her boyfriend Jack Brooksbank at the wedding of Pippa Middleton and James Matthews on May 20, 2017. (Photo: JUSTIN TALLIS, AFP/Getty Images) Eugenie's older sister, Princess Beatrice, 29, had been expected to announce her engagement to her American-born boyfriend, Dave Clark, a few years ago but they broke up in 2016. Beatrice is expected to play a prominent role in her sister's wedding. The princesses are two of the 91-year-old queen's eight grandchildren, with her now-retired husband, Prince Philip, 96. It is not clear yet whether Brooksbank will be given a title by the queen on the day of the wedding, as is typical when a princess marries a non-royal. It's also unclear where they will live, but one possibility is a cottage or apartment at Kensington Palace, where they'd join her royal cousins. Prince Andrew Duke of York and his daughters, Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice, on June 10, 2016 after attending a national service of thanksgiving for the 90th birthday ofQueen Elizabeth II at St Paul's Cathedral in London. (Photo: JUSTIN TALLIS, AFP/Getty Images) The York princesses are the daughters of the queen's second-eldest son and "Fergie," divorced since 1996, who are still close and living in the same house, Royal Lodge. (They've even been subjected to will-they-remarry rumors in recent years.) Although Beatrice and Eugenie are relatively high up in the royal succession, neither is expected to ever reign. More: Prince Harry and Meghan Markle make their first appearance of year Read or Share this story: https://usat.ly/2DvSI31 ||||| Tweet with a location You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| There will be two royal weddings in 2018, after it was announced today that the queen’s favorite granddaughter, Princess Eugenie, is to marry her boyfriend Jack Brooksbank. Buckingham Palace said in a statement issued this morning on behalf of her parents, Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson, that the couple “became engaged in Nicaragua earlier this month.” The wedding will take place in autumn this year at St. George’s Chapel in Windsor, the same location chosen by Harry and Meghan Markle. In a break with tradition, the palace published a highly informal picture of the couple that appears to have been taken on a cellphone in a bar. Brooksbank wears a white, collared shirt and jacket and his fiancée wears an unzipped leather jacket. The couple has been dating for seven years and an announcement has been expected for some time. Brooksbank works in hospitality. According to the Daily Mail, Brooksbank was privately educated and skipped university in favor of starting work, taking a job at a Chelsea pub beloved by London’s jeunesse d’oree—the Admiral Codrington, commonly known as the Cod. He was then hired by London club promoter Piers Adam and his partner Guy Pelly to manage their club, Mahiki. He left that role in 2016 to set up Jack Brooksbank Ltd., which specializes in the “wholesale of wine, beer, spirits, and other alcoholic beverages,” reports the Mail. The groom’s parents were quick to voice their delight to the Daily Express:

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Tweet with a location You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| CLOSE Tony Dungy gives his advice on a better way for NFL players to protest and his thoughts on whether Colin Kaepernick will play in the NFL again. USA TODAY Sports Eagles strong safety Malcolm Jenkins (27) and free safety Rodney McLeod stand in protest during the national anthem. (Photo: Eric Hartline, USA TODAY Sports) New ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro told reporters Friday that the network does not plan to televise the national anthem as part of its Monday Night Football broadcasts this season. Pitaro, who was hired March 5 following the abrupt departure of John Skipper, told reporters at a media event on ESPN's campus in Bristol, Conn., that the network has not previously shown the national anthem during its Monday Night Football broadcasts and does not have plans to change — at least, not in the immediate future. According to Axios, Pitaro also said that ESPN has informed the league of its plans "as (a) courtesy" given their partnership. Earlier, he had told reporters that he has spent much of his young tenure at ESPN working to strengthen the company's relationship with the NFL. ESPN pays about $2 billion per year for the right to broadcast Monday Night Football , according to the Associated Press. Demonstrations during the national anthem have become a hot-button issue for the NFL over the past two years, dating back to former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick's decision to first take a knee during the anthem in 2016. Players have described the demonstrations as a means of protesting police brutality and racial inequality, but critics — including the president — have denounced them as disrespectful to the military and unpatriotic. MORE: Patriots lose first-rounder Isaiah Wynn to torn Achilles, per reports MORE: Teddy Bridgewater should be Jets' Week 1 quarterback instead of Sam Darnold The league and the NFL Players' Association are currently working toward a mutually agreeable policy for conduct during the national anthem, and it is unclear whether a new policy will be unveiled prior to the beginning of the regular season Sept. 6. Later in his Friday remarks, Pitaro bristled at the notion that ESPN is a political organization, but told reporters the network will continue to cover the intersections of sports and politics and sports and culture. Contact Tom Schad at [email protected] or on Twitter @Tom_Schad.

– Those looking to see for themselves how NFL players are responding to the national anthem will be out of luck on ESPN broadcasts of Monday Night Football this year. The network tells Axios that it does not plan to broadcast the anthem in the upcoming season. "We generally have not broadcasted the anthem, and I don't think that will change this year," says ESPN chief Jimmy Pitaro, as tweeted by Axios' Sara Fischer. Meanwhile, the league and the Players' Association continue to try to work out a policy for player conduct during the anthem, and USA Today reports that it's not certain one will be in place for the Sept. 6 start of the regular season. (President Trump has a suggestion for those who don't kneel.)

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Tweet with a location You can add location information to your Tweets, such as your city or precise location, from the web and via third-party applications. You always have the option to delete your Tweet location history. Learn more ||||| CLOSE Tony Dungy gives his advice on a better way for NFL players to protest and his thoughts on whether Colin Kaepernick will play in the NFL again. USA TODAY Sports Eagles strong safety Malcolm Jenkins (27) and free safety Rodney McLeod stand in protest during the national anthem. (Photo: Eric Hartline, USA TODAY Sports) New ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro told reporters Friday that the network does not plan to televise the national anthem as part of its Monday Night Football broadcasts this season. Pitaro, who was hired March 5 following the abrupt departure of John Skipper, told reporters at a media event on ESPN's campus in Bristol, Conn., that the network has not previously shown the national anthem during its Monday Night Football broadcasts and does not have plans to change — at least, not in the immediate future. According to Axios, Pitaro also said that ESPN has informed the league of its plans "as (a) courtesy" given their partnership. Earlier, he had told reporters that he has spent much of his young tenure at ESPN working to strengthen the company's relationship with the NFL. ESPN pays about $2 billion per year for the right to broadcast Monday Night Football , according to the Associated Press. Demonstrations during the national anthem have become a hot-button issue for the NFL over the past two years, dating back to former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick's decision to first take a knee during the anthem in 2016. Players have described the demonstrations as a means of protesting police brutality and racial inequality, but critics — including the president — have denounced them as disrespectful to the military and unpatriotic. MORE: Patriots lose first-rounder Isaiah Wynn to torn Achilles, per reports MORE: Teddy Bridgewater should be Jets' Week 1 quarterback instead of Sam Darnold The league and the NFL Players' Association are currently working toward a mutually agreeable policy for conduct during the national anthem, and it is unclear whether a new policy will be unveiled prior to the beginning of the regular season Sept. 6. Later in his Friday remarks, Pitaro bristled at the notion that ESPN is a political organization, but told reporters the network will continue to cover the intersections of sports and politics and sports and culture. Contact Tom Schad at [email protected] or on Twitter @Tom_Schad.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

"Happiest Night of my life last night!" 's beau put a ring on it! The 30-year-old made the big announcement on Twitter Saturday. “I’M ENGAGED!!!!! I wanted y’all to know!! Happiest night of my life last night! I am so lucky and am with the greatest man ever:)” That greatest man ever is Brandon Blackstock, who has been dating the American Idol winner since February 2012. While the couple have been dating for less than a year, Clarkson and Blackstock have known each other for a long time. The 35-year-old is the son of the “Catch My Breath” singer’s longtime manager Narvel Blackstock and the stepson of Reba McEntire. kelly clarkson lists texas ranch for $1.5m The engagement comes just one month after Clarkson told Life & Style that there was “no rush” to get hitched to her talent manager boyfriend. “We will totally get married in the future.” The two currently live together in Nashville. What do you think of Kelly Clarkson’s big announcement? Share your well wishes below! Celebuzz Single Player No Autoplay (CORE) No changes are to be made to this player ||||| Now that’s a diamond ring. Hours after announcing her engagement on Twitter Saturday night, Kelly Clarkson shared a personal snapshot of her giant sparkler (after the jump). “Everyone has been asking about my engagement ring, so here it is :)” she wrote on her WhoSay account. “It’s a yellow canary diamond with diamonds around it and Brandon designed it with Jonathan Arndt! They did an amazing job! I can’t wait to make Brandon’s ring with Jonathon as well!” Clarkson’s talent manager beau Brandon Blackstock got down on one knee on Friday night, after dating the American Idol winner for some 10 months. Kelly Clarkson on WhoSay On Saturday, Clarkson, 30, made sure her fans were one of the first to know about her big news. “I’M ENGAGED!!!!! I wanted y’all to know!! Happiest night of my life last night! I am so lucky and am with the greatest man ever:)” she wrote on Twitter. The “Stronger” singer and Blackstock have known each other for quite some time. The 35-year-old is the son of Clarkson’s longtime managerand the stepson of country legend On Sunday, Clarkson will join a slew of the music industry’s hottest female performers for the annual VH1 Divas show in Los Angeles. Kelly Rowland, Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato are all set to make appearances, along with Pitbull, Metric andhost Adam Lambert. What do you think of Kelly Clarkson’s engagement ring? Weigh in below. Celebuzz Single Player No Autoplay (CORE) No changes are to be made to this player ||||| Kat Tattoos Gaga Kat Von D puts some new ink on Mother Monster. MORE >> isn’t the only celebrity who got engaged this weekend. Kat Von D is also a bride-to-be, after accepting an online proposal from her Canadian beau DJ Deadmau5. “I can’t wait for Christmas so…. Katherine Von Drachenberg, will you marry me?” Deadmau5, whose real name is Joel Zimmerman, wrote on Twitter Saturday. Zimmerman also included a photo of the engagement ring, which had a caption explaining what the final project will look like: “Changing the diamond to a black diamond FYI . . . .theyll finish the actual ring soon i hope.” After a tweet of exclamation marks, Von D, 30, thanked her fans for their “lovely congratulations.” “Please excuse me while I go squeeze the hell out of my fiancé!” The tattoo artist’s engagement to her 31-year-old boyfriend comes some five weeks after the couple announced their split , also on Twitter. The pair, who cited that things “happened too fast,” got back together shortly after. Von D was previously engaged to Sandra Bullock’s ex Jesse James. What do you think of Kat Von D and DJ Deadmau5’s online engagement? Weigh in below. Celebuzz Single Player No Autoplay (CORE) No changes are to be made to this player ||||| Add a location to your Tweets When you tweet with a location, Twitter stores that location. You can switch location on/off before each Tweet and always have the option to delete your location history. Learn more

– How romantic: Kat Von D and Deadmau5 are engaged, after the Canadian DJ proposed to his tattoo artist and reality star girlfriend ... over Twitter. "I can't wait for Christmas so.... Katherine Von Drachenberg, will you marry me?" tweeted Deadmau5, real name Joel Zimmerman, on Saturday. He also posted a picture of the engagement ring, which will be a black diamond buffeted by two skulls. Von D responded by tweeting simply, "!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" followed by a declaration that she needed to "go squeeze the hell out of my fiancé!" Celebuzz reports that the two also tweeted that they were splitting up ... just five weeks ago. (Priceless line, from Von D: "But at least he made it a no-brainer to break that off.") Perhaps Jesse James' engagement spurred Kat's change of heart? Von D wasn't the only celeb with something to celebrate this weekend: Kelly Clarkson and Brandon Blackstock got engaged, too, Celebuzz reports. Blackstock, son of Clarkson's longtime manager and stepson of Reba McEntire, has been dating the former American Idol since February. "I'M ENGAGED!!!!! I wanted y'all to know!! Happiest night of my life last night! I am so lucky and am with the greatest man ever :)," she tweeted. Click to see a picture of her ring, which is yellow.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary."Happiest Night of my life last night!" 's beau put a ring on it! The 30-year-old made the big announcement on Twitter Saturday. “I’M ENGAGED!!!!! I wanted y’all to know!! Happiest night of my life last night! I am so lucky and am with the greatest man ever:)” That greatest man ever is Brandon Blackstock, who has been dating the American Idol winner since February 2012. While the couple have been dating for less than a year, Clarkson and Blackstock have known each other for a long time. The 35-year-old is the son of the “Catch My Breath” singer’s longtime manager Narvel Blackstock and the stepson of Reba McEntire. kelly clarkson lists texas ranch for $1.5m The engagement comes just one month after Clarkson told Life & Style that there was “no rush” to get hitched to her talent manager boyfriend. “We will totally get married in the future.” The two currently live together in Nashville. What do you think of Kelly Clarkson’s big announcement? Share your well wishes below! Celebuzz Single Player No Autoplay (CORE) No changes are to be made to this player ||||| Now that’s a diamond ring. Hours after announcing her engagement on Twitter Saturday night, Kelly Clarkson shared a personal snapshot of her giant sparkler (after the jump). “Everyone has been asking about my engagement ring, so here it is :)” she wrote on her WhoSay account. “It’s a yellow canary diamond with diamonds around it and Brandon designed it with Jonathan Arndt! They did an amazing job! I can’t wait to make Brandon’s ring with Jonathon as well!” Clarkson’s talent manager beau Brandon Blackstock got down on one knee on Friday night, after dating the American Idol winner for some 10 months. Kelly Clarkson on WhoSay On Saturday, Clarkson, 30, made sure her fans were one of the first to know about her big news. “I’M ENGAGED!!!!! I wanted y’all to know!! Happiest night of my life last night! I am so lucky and am with the greatest man ever:)” she wrote on Twitter. The “Stronger” singer and Blackstock have known each other for quite some time. The 35-year-old is the son of Clarkson’s longtime managerand the stepson of country legend On Sunday, Clarkson will join a slew of the music industry’s hottest female performers for the annual VH1 Divas show in Los Angeles. Kelly Rowland, Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato are all set to make appearances, along with Pitbull, Metric andhost Adam Lambert. What do you think of Kelly Clarkson’s engagement ring? Weigh in below. Celebuzz Single Player No Autoplay (CORE) No changes are to be made to this player ||||| Kat Tattoos Gaga Kat Von D puts some new ink on Mother Monster. MORE >> isn’t the only celebrity who got engaged this weekend. Kat Von D is also a bride-to-be, after accepting an online proposal from her Canadian beau DJ Deadmau5. “I can’t wait for Christmas so…. Katherine Von Drachenberg, will you marry me?” Deadmau5, whose real name is Joel Zimmerman, wrote on Twitter Saturday. Zimmerman also included a photo of the engagement ring, which had a caption explaining what the final project will look like: “Changing the diamond to a black diamond FYI . . . .theyll finish the actual ring soon i hope.” After a tweet of exclamation marks, Von D, 30, thanked her fans for their “lovely congratulations.” “Please excuse me while I go squeeze the hell out of my fiancé!” The tattoo artist’s engagement to her 31-year-old boyfriend comes some five weeks after the couple announced their split , also on Twitter. The pair, who cited that things “happened too fast,” got back together shortly after. Von D was previously engaged to Sandra Bullock’s ex Jesse James. What do you think of Kat Von D and DJ Deadmau5’s online engagement? Weigh in below. Celebuzz Single Player No Autoplay (CORE) No changes are to be made to this player ||||| Add a location to your Tweets When you tweet with a location, Twitter stores that location. You can switch location on/off before each Tweet and always have the option to delete your location history. Learn more

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Part of an ongoing series looking at the reality behind health claims. Claims: FreezeAwayFat Cool Shape shorts ($99.95)are equipped with gel inserts that, when cooled, “could help you activate brown fat cells that burn more calories, diminish appearance of white fat deposits and help contour problem areas,” according to the press material. Simply tuck the cold packs into the shorts (around the thighs, buttocks, hips and tummy) “to target white fat cells and place one in the small of the back where brown fat cells are more dense, to create a slimmer shape,” the company says. Reality: Our bodies contain both brown and white fat cells. Brown fat cells, which are loaded with mitochondria, are considered higher quality than white fat cells and thought to help burn incoming calories. White fat cells store excess energy from food in blobby, shapeless lumps throughout the body. Standing in a cool room (60 to 62 degrees Fahrenheit), or cooling a part of the body by wearing a cooling vest “can activate brown fat cells and energy expenditure,” said Dr. Ronald Kahn, a professor of medicine at the Joslin Diabetes Center and Harvard Medical School, whose research suggests that brown fat cells could have a role in metabolism. “But this is different from claims of destroying subcutaneous white fat cells by cold temperature,” said Kahn, who is skeptical of the statements. “Generally speaking, if you get rid of subcutaneous fat (which is also what liposuction does) it does not improve metabolism. Any effects are strictly cosmetic.” Research has shown healthy people tend to have more active brown fat than their less healthy, older or more overweight counterparts. But it’s not known whether the brown fat contributed to better health or whether healthier people have more brown fat. Scientists also don’t yet know whether brown fat actually plays a protective role against obesity, though some animal studies have shown that eliminating brown fat in rodents leads to excessive weight gain. The sisters who developed the cooling shorts, Jamie Burke and Lark MacPhail, are targeting women who try to eat a healthy diet and exercise but can’t get rid of the fat in problematic areas. MacPhail said that when she wore the shorts for 30 minutes a day, her once-snug clothes felt loose after about five weeks. That’s not exactly rigorous science. Still, even if there’s no evidence showing the polyester/lyrca shorts can help you freeze your butt off, they are certainly refreshing and could be great for athletes who want to cool down after a hard workout. Or simply wear them on a hot July day. You can walk around, empty the dishwasher, make dinner or sit at a desk--and the icepacks stay in place. (Photo courtesy of FreezeAwayFat.) ||||| According to George King, MD professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, Exposing even small parts of the body to cold activates brown fat which will help you burn more calories. Read the entire article from the Bottom Line October 2014 issue! Read More Intrigued by the observation that children who habitually sucked on frozen ice-popsicles lost volume in their cheeks, scientists around the world discovered that fat cells are highly sensitive to cold temperatures. Embracing this research Freeze Away Fat developed the Cool Shapes™ slimming system which offers a new and effective, easy, safe and affordable way to lose those stubborn fat deposits. Your satisfaction is Guaranteed! We are confident you will see exciting results as so many of our customers report. If after having used as directed, you are not totally satisfied with your Cool Shapes™ purchase, simply return the Cool Shapes garment, along with the 4 gel packs to us within 30 days for a full, prompt refund (less shippingand handling).

– The latest way to burn fat without actually doing anything: FreezeAwayFat Cool Shape shorts, which promise to—you guessed it—freeze away fat. Turns out there may actually be something to it, writes Julie Deardorff in the Chicago Tribune. The shorts, which come with gel inserts to freeze and then wear, promise to activate “good” brown fat cells, which burn calories, while killing off “bad” white fat cells. Cool temperatures can in fact activate brown fat cells, says one doctor, but he’s less sure about the claim that cold will also kill white fat cells. It’s “not exactly rigorous science,” Deardorff concludes. “Still, even if there’s no evidence showing the polyester/[Lycra] shorts can help you freeze your butt off, they are certainly refreshing”—so if you don’t mind the $99.95 price tag, “simply wear them on a hot July day.”

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Part of an ongoing series looking at the reality behind health claims. Claims: FreezeAwayFat Cool Shape shorts ($99.95)are equipped with gel inserts that, when cooled, “could help you activate brown fat cells that burn more calories, diminish appearance of white fat deposits and help contour problem areas,” according to the press material. Simply tuck the cold packs into the shorts (around the thighs, buttocks, hips and tummy) “to target white fat cells and place one in the small of the back where brown fat cells are more dense, to create a slimmer shape,” the company says. Reality: Our bodies contain both brown and white fat cells. Brown fat cells, which are loaded with mitochondria, are considered higher quality than white fat cells and thought to help burn incoming calories. White fat cells store excess energy from food in blobby, shapeless lumps throughout the body. Standing in a cool room (60 to 62 degrees Fahrenheit), or cooling a part of the body by wearing a cooling vest “can activate brown fat cells and energy expenditure,” said Dr. Ronald Kahn, a professor of medicine at the Joslin Diabetes Center and Harvard Medical School, whose research suggests that brown fat cells could have a role in metabolism. “But this is different from claims of destroying subcutaneous white fat cells by cold temperature,” said Kahn, who is skeptical of the statements. “Generally speaking, if you get rid of subcutaneous fat (which is also what liposuction does) it does not improve metabolism. Any effects are strictly cosmetic.” Research has shown healthy people tend to have more active brown fat than their less healthy, older or more overweight counterparts. But it’s not known whether the brown fat contributed to better health or whether healthier people have more brown fat. Scientists also don’t yet know whether brown fat actually plays a protective role against obesity, though some animal studies have shown that eliminating brown fat in rodents leads to excessive weight gain. The sisters who developed the cooling shorts, Jamie Burke and Lark MacPhail, are targeting women who try to eat a healthy diet and exercise but can’t get rid of the fat in problematic areas. MacPhail said that when she wore the shorts for 30 minutes a day, her once-snug clothes felt loose after about five weeks. That’s not exactly rigorous science. Still, even if there’s no evidence showing the polyester/lyrca shorts can help you freeze your butt off, they are certainly refreshing and could be great for athletes who want to cool down after a hard workout. Or simply wear them on a hot July day. You can walk around, empty the dishwasher, make dinner or sit at a desk--and the icepacks stay in place. (Photo courtesy of FreezeAwayFat.) ||||| According to George King, MD professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, Exposing even small parts of the body to cold activates brown fat which will help you burn more calories. Read the entire article from the Bottom Line October 2014 issue! Read More Intrigued by the observation that children who habitually sucked on frozen ice-popsicles lost volume in their cheeks, scientists around the world discovered that fat cells are highly sensitive to cold temperatures. Embracing this research Freeze Away Fat developed the Cool Shapes™ slimming system which offers a new and effective, easy, safe and affordable way to lose those stubborn fat deposits. Your satisfaction is Guaranteed! We are confident you will see exciting results as so many of our customers report. If after having used as directed, you are not totally satisfied with your Cool Shapes™ purchase, simply return the Cool Shapes garment, along with the 4 gel packs to us within 30 days for a full, prompt refund (less shippingand handling).

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Marijuana may raise people's risk of developing prediabetes, a condition in which blood sugar levels are abnormally high but not high enough to warrant a diagnosis with type 2 diabetes, a new study finds. In the study, researchers found that people who used large amounts of marijuana during young adulthood were 40 percent more likely to develop prediabetes as middle-age adults than those who had never tried the drug. However, marijuana use was not linked to an increased risk of having type 2 diabetes, according to the study, published today (Sept. 13) in the journal Diabetologia. [Marijuana vs. Alcohol: Which Is Worse for Your Health?] Previous studies looking at marijuana use had found that users have lower rates of diabetes compared with nonusers, said Michael Bancks, a Ph.D. student at the University of Minnesota and lead author of the study. But in those studies, both marijuana use and diabetes were assessed at the time, meaning it was unclear whether people were using the drug before they developed diabetes, or afterward, he said. "We felt we could address the potential limitations of previous research and add new information to our understanding of the relationship between marijuana use and subsequent metabolic health," Bancks told Live Science. Diabetes is a metabolic condition. The results of the new study, however, contradict the results of previous studies that found that using marijuana may reduce the risk of developing diabetes, he said. In addition, "it's unclear how marijuana use could place an individual at increased risk for prediabetes, yet not diabetes," the researchers wrote. The researchers offered several reasons to explain this observation. For one, it's possible that people who were more likely to develop diabetes were left out of the study, because in order to be included, people had to be free of diabetes at the start of the follow-up period, the researchers wrote. It is also possible that marijuana may have a larger impact on blood sugar levels in the prediabetes range than the diabetes range, the researchers wrote. Bancks said more research is needed to study the possible link, adding that researchers should look at different groups of people, how marijuana is consumed and the amount consumed, he said. Still, Bancks encourages doctors to discuss the potential risks of using the drug with their patients. People who use marijuana should be informed that it may increase their risk of developing prediabetes, he said. And doctors should monitor the blood sugar levels of patients with "an extensive history of marijuana use," he said. Marijuana use is on the rise, and other researchers are also taking a hard look at the health effects of the drug. In a 2014 review, researchers highlighted other health risks of marijuana, including an increased risk of cognitive impairment and psychoses. Indeed, "there are many questions about the health effects of marijuana use where the answers are unknown," Bancks said. "The increased legalization and use of marijuana will draw more attention from researchers and users, and we will learn more as research on the health effects of marijuana use increases." Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on Live Science. ||||| New research published in Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes) shows that current and former users of marijuana are more likely to have prediabetes--the state of poor blood sugar control that can progress to type 2 diabetes--than never users of marijuana. However the researchers, led by Mike Bancks (University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Minneapolis, MN, USA) failed to establish a direct link between marijuana use and type 2 diabetes. Marijuana is the most frequently used illicit drug in America (and is estimated to be so globally), with an estimated 18.9 million people aged 12 or older in the USA identifying as current users in 2012. The prevalence of marijuana use for these individuals has increased since 2002. This trend can be expected to continue as states across the USA enact policies to permit medicinal or recreational use. Despite the growing movement to legalise marijuana, little is known about its effect on metabolic health. Previous studies on this subject have revealed conflicting results, with some suggesting marijuana can reduce the risk of diabetes, despite others showing that the drug is associated with an increased calorie consumption. In this new study, the authors investigated the association between self-reported marijuana use and concurrent and incident prediabetes and full blown type 2 diabetes, considering both quantity used and status of current use. They also aimed to examine the role of body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference as potential confounding and/or mediating factors to these associations. Lastly, given the varying diabetes risk profiles by race and gender, they looked at the effects of sex and race on the associations. Data from the community-based Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study were used to determine marijuana use and presence of prediabetes and diabetes. Individuals in the CARDIA study were 18-30 years of age at study recruitment in 1985-1986 and are currently in their 30th year of observation. The association between marijuana use and prevalence of prediabetes and diabetes was examined in 3,034 participants at CARDIA exam Year 25 (2010-2011) and incidence of prediabetes and diabetes according to previous marijuana use was assessed in 3,151 individuals free from prediabetes and diabetes at Year 7 (1992-1993) who returned for at least one of the four subsequent follow-up examinations over the next 18 years. The percentage of individuals who self-reported current use of marijuana declined over follow-up, from 28% in 1985-1986 to 12% in 2010-2011. After adjustment for behavioural/lifestyle and physiological characteristics, there was a 65% increased odds of currently having prediabetes in individuals who reported current use of marijuana, and a 49% increased odds of currently having prediabetes in individuals who reported lifetime use of 100 times or more, in both cases compared to individuals who reported never using marijuana. However, there was no association between marijuana use and full blown type 2 diabetes at CARDIA exam Year 25. In the case of these results, the researchers did not distinguish which came first, marijuana use or prediabetes, and it was not possible to take into account if individuals choose to alter their marijuana use because of concern for their health status. The authors then did further analyses where marijuana use was assessed prior to the development or not of prediabetes. Over 18 years follow-up, a 40% greater risk for developing prediabetes (but not diabetes) was found for individuals who reported lifetime use of 100 times or more compared to individuals who reported never using marijuana. BMI and waist circumference did not affect the associations. "It is unclear how marijuana use could place an individual at increased risk for prediabetes yet not diabetes," say the authors. But they suggest that it could be because individuals excluded from the study (due to missing information on important factors) generally had higher levels of marijuana use and greater potential for development of diabetes, or that marijuana may have a greater effect on blood sugar control in the prediabetic range than for full blown type 2 diabetes, when other traditional diabetes risk factor levels are exceedingly less favourable. The authors conclude: "In conclusion, marijuana use, by status or lifetime frequency, was not associated with incidence or presence of diabetes after adjustment for potential confounding factors. However, marijuana use was associated with the development and prevalence of prediabetes after adjustment. Specifically, occurrence of prediabetes in middle adulthood was significantly elevated for individuals who reported using marijuana in excess of 100 times by young adulthood. These results contrast with those previously reported on marijuana use and metabolic health. Future studies should look to objectively measure mode and quantity of marijuana use in relation to prospective metabolic health." ###

– Some potentially unsettling health news for pot smokers: A new study has identified a link between marijuana usage and blood sugar control issues later in life, though there are some caveats and question marks. A press release explains that American researchers arrived at their conclusion using data from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults study, which began in 1985 by studying participants between the ages of 18 and 30 and who have now been studied for some 30 years. Study lead Michael Bancks explains to LiveScience that prior studies had indicated pot smokers may have a lower rate of diabetes than non-users, but due to those studies' design they couldn't determine whether diabetes came before or after the pot use. The setup of this study, published in Diabetologia, changed that, at least in terms of prediabetes. The researchers write that "occurrence of prediabetes in middle adulthood was significantly elevated for individuals who reported using marijuana in excess of 100 times by young adulthood." Specifically, among 3,151 participants who were free from prediabetes and diabetes at Year 7 (1992-1993) and had at least one study-related follow-up exam over the next 18 years, individuals who used at least 100 times had a 40% greater risk for developing prediabetes than those who never used the drug. But the researchers didn't find a link between pot use and full-blown diabetes, and it's "unclear" why that's the case, they write. One possibility: "The effect of marijuana use might have a more noticeable impact on glucose metabolism in the prediabetes range compared with the diabetes range." (Here's what marijuana might do to sperm.)

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Marijuana may raise people's risk of developing prediabetes, a condition in which blood sugar levels are abnormally high but not high enough to warrant a diagnosis with type 2 diabetes, a new study finds. In the study, researchers found that people who used large amounts of marijuana during young adulthood were 40 percent more likely to develop prediabetes as middle-age adults than those who had never tried the drug. However, marijuana use was not linked to an increased risk of having type 2 diabetes, according to the study, published today (Sept. 13) in the journal Diabetologia. [Marijuana vs. Alcohol: Which Is Worse for Your Health?] Previous studies looking at marijuana use had found that users have lower rates of diabetes compared with nonusers, said Michael Bancks, a Ph.D. student at the University of Minnesota and lead author of the study. But in those studies, both marijuana use and diabetes were assessed at the time, meaning it was unclear whether people were using the drug before they developed diabetes, or afterward, he said. "We felt we could address the potential limitations of previous research and add new information to our understanding of the relationship between marijuana use and subsequent metabolic health," Bancks told Live Science. Diabetes is a metabolic condition. The results of the new study, however, contradict the results of previous studies that found that using marijuana may reduce the risk of developing diabetes, he said. In addition, "it's unclear how marijuana use could place an individual at increased risk for prediabetes, yet not diabetes," the researchers wrote. The researchers offered several reasons to explain this observation. For one, it's possible that people who were more likely to develop diabetes were left out of the study, because in order to be included, people had to be free of diabetes at the start of the follow-up period, the researchers wrote. It is also possible that marijuana may have a larger impact on blood sugar levels in the prediabetes range than the diabetes range, the researchers wrote. Bancks said more research is needed to study the possible link, adding that researchers should look at different groups of people, how marijuana is consumed and the amount consumed, he said. Still, Bancks encourages doctors to discuss the potential risks of using the drug with their patients. People who use marijuana should be informed that it may increase their risk of developing prediabetes, he said. And doctors should monitor the blood sugar levels of patients with "an extensive history of marijuana use," he said. Marijuana use is on the rise, and other researchers are also taking a hard look at the health effects of the drug. In a 2014 review, researchers highlighted other health risks of marijuana, including an increased risk of cognitive impairment and psychoses. Indeed, "there are many questions about the health effects of marijuana use where the answers are unknown," Bancks said. "The increased legalization and use of marijuana will draw more attention from researchers and users, and we will learn more as research on the health effects of marijuana use increases." Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Originally published on Live Science. ||||| New research published in Diabetologia (the journal of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes) shows that current and former users of marijuana are more likely to have prediabetes--the state of poor blood sugar control that can progress to type 2 diabetes--than never users of marijuana. However the researchers, led by Mike Bancks (University of Minnesota School of Public Health, Minneapolis, MN, USA) failed to establish a direct link between marijuana use and type 2 diabetes. Marijuana is the most frequently used illicit drug in America (and is estimated to be so globally), with an estimated 18.9 million people aged 12 or older in the USA identifying as current users in 2012. The prevalence of marijuana use for these individuals has increased since 2002. This trend can be expected to continue as states across the USA enact policies to permit medicinal or recreational use. Despite the growing movement to legalise marijuana, little is known about its effect on metabolic health. Previous studies on this subject have revealed conflicting results, with some suggesting marijuana can reduce the risk of diabetes, despite others showing that the drug is associated with an increased calorie consumption. In this new study, the authors investigated the association between self-reported marijuana use and concurrent and incident prediabetes and full blown type 2 diabetes, considering both quantity used and status of current use. They also aimed to examine the role of body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference as potential confounding and/or mediating factors to these associations. Lastly, given the varying diabetes risk profiles by race and gender, they looked at the effects of sex and race on the associations. Data from the community-based Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) study were used to determine marijuana use and presence of prediabetes and diabetes. Individuals in the CARDIA study were 18-30 years of age at study recruitment in 1985-1986 and are currently in their 30th year of observation. The association between marijuana use and prevalence of prediabetes and diabetes was examined in 3,034 participants at CARDIA exam Year 25 (2010-2011) and incidence of prediabetes and diabetes according to previous marijuana use was assessed in 3,151 individuals free from prediabetes and diabetes at Year 7 (1992-1993) who returned for at least one of the four subsequent follow-up examinations over the next 18 years. The percentage of individuals who self-reported current use of marijuana declined over follow-up, from 28% in 1985-1986 to 12% in 2010-2011. After adjustment for behavioural/lifestyle and physiological characteristics, there was a 65% increased odds of currently having prediabetes in individuals who reported current use of marijuana, and a 49% increased odds of currently having prediabetes in individuals who reported lifetime use of 100 times or more, in both cases compared to individuals who reported never using marijuana. However, there was no association between marijuana use and full blown type 2 diabetes at CARDIA exam Year 25. In the case of these results, the researchers did not distinguish which came first, marijuana use or prediabetes, and it was not possible to take into account if individuals choose to alter their marijuana use because of concern for their health status. The authors then did further analyses where marijuana use was assessed prior to the development or not of prediabetes. Over 18 years follow-up, a 40% greater risk for developing prediabetes (but not diabetes) was found for individuals who reported lifetime use of 100 times or more compared to individuals who reported never using marijuana. BMI and waist circumference did not affect the associations. "It is unclear how marijuana use could place an individual at increased risk for prediabetes yet not diabetes," say the authors. But they suggest that it could be because individuals excluded from the study (due to missing information on important factors) generally had higher levels of marijuana use and greater potential for development of diabetes, or that marijuana may have a greater effect on blood sugar control in the prediabetic range than for full blown type 2 diabetes, when other traditional diabetes risk factor levels are exceedingly less favourable. The authors conclude: "In conclusion, marijuana use, by status or lifetime frequency, was not associated with incidence or presence of diabetes after adjustment for potential confounding factors. However, marijuana use was associated with the development and prevalence of prediabetes after adjustment. Specifically, occurrence of prediabetes in middle adulthood was significantly elevated for individuals who reported using marijuana in excess of 100 times by young adulthood. These results contrast with those previously reported on marijuana use and metabolic health. Future studies should look to objectively measure mode and quantity of marijuana use in relation to prospective metabolic health." ###

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Andy Cross, Denver Post via Getty Images The words may sound silly, but the event is anything but. It looks like pollution is getting so severe in Peru's Lake Titicaca that it's seriously harming an already critically endangered species. Recently, hundreds of Titicaca water frogs (known as "scrotum frogs" for their very baggy skin) have been found floating dead in the waters of Lake Titicaca in Peru, the only place the species can be found in the world. The frog is entirely aquatic, and its numbers have declined dramatically in the last few years -- 80 percent over three generations of frog, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. The species is being collected for food, despite the waters becoming poisoned by pollution. It's also thought that introduced North American trout are eating the frog's eggs and larvae. This mass death has caused the Peruvian National Forestry and Wildlife Service to launch an investigation. "Based on local residents' statements and samples taken in the days after the incident, it is believed that more than 10,000 frogs were affected over about 30 miles," it said in a statement. The event was brought to the attention of the National Forestry and Wildlife Service by protest group Committee Against the Pollution of the Coata River, whose members brought 100 dead frogs to capital city Puno on the Titicaca lakeshore. ||||| Peru is investigating what killed some 10,000 Titicaca water frogs, a critically endangered species affectionately known as the "scrotum frog," in a river that is feared to be polluted, authorities said Monday. Hundreds of the large, wrinkly green frogs have been found floating on the surface of the Coata river in southern Peru in recent days, prompting the National Forestry and Wildlife Service (Serfor) to launch an investigation. "Based on local residents' statements and samples taken in the days after the incident, it is believed that more than 10,000 frogs were affected over about 30 miles," Serfor said in a statement. The alert was sounded by an environmental group called the Committee Against the Pollution of the Coata River, which accused the authorities of ignoring the river's severe pollution. To protest, its supporters brought 100 of the dead frogs to the central square in the regional capital, Puno. Protest leader Maruja Inquilla urged the authorities to take the dead frogs as a wake-up call. RELATED: Frog Sings Like a Bird, Bobs Head for Mates "I've had to bring them the dead frogs. The authorities don't realize how we're living. They have no idea how major the pollution is. The situation is maddening," said Inquilla. "Why is the state so apathetic? We need a sewage treatment plant now." The frogs live only in Lake Titicaca, South America's largest lake, and its tributaries. Known officially as Telmatobius culeus, they got their nickname from their many folds of skin, which help them breathe in their high-altitude habitat in the Andes mountains. The species is classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which says the population is estimated to have declined by 80 percent in the past 15 years. WATCH: Frog Hears with Its Mouth

– Approximately 10,000 scrotum frogs are dead near Lake Titicaca. And there's nothing funny about that. Seeker reports thousands of the frogs—scientific name Telmatobius culeus—have been found dead and floating along 30 miles of Peru's Coata river, a Lake Titicaca tributary, in recent days. The scrotum frogs, so named because of the baggy skin that helps them breathe in the thin air of their natural habitat, are "critically endangered," according to CNN. Experts say the scrotum frog population has shrunk by 80% over the past 15 years due to habitat destruction, the introduction of North American trout into Lake Titicaca, and locals over-harvesting the frogs for food. But no one is quite sure what's behind the recent mass die-off. Environmentalists, who brought 100 dead scrotum frogs to the regional capital's town center in protest, blame sewage runoff from a town near the river. Sludge and solid waste have been seen where the frogs live. "They have no idea how major the pollution is," Seeker quotes the leader of the protest as saying. "The situation is maddening." The Committee Against the Pollution of the Coata River says the government has ignored residents' demands for a sewage treatment plant in the area, the BBC reports. According to CNET, the Peruvian National Forestry and Wildlife Service is investigating the recent deaths. It's important authorities find an answer, as scrotum frogs live only in the waters around Lake Titicaca. (Toughie the frog, likely the last of his species, has died.)

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Andy Cross, Denver Post via Getty Images The words may sound silly, but the event is anything but. It looks like pollution is getting so severe in Peru's Lake Titicaca that it's seriously harming an already critically endangered species. Recently, hundreds of Titicaca water frogs (known as "scrotum frogs" for their very baggy skin) have been found floating dead in the waters of Lake Titicaca in Peru, the only place the species can be found in the world. The frog is entirely aquatic, and its numbers have declined dramatically in the last few years -- 80 percent over three generations of frog, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. The species is being collected for food, despite the waters becoming poisoned by pollution. It's also thought that introduced North American trout are eating the frog's eggs and larvae. This mass death has caused the Peruvian National Forestry and Wildlife Service to launch an investigation. "Based on local residents' statements and samples taken in the days after the incident, it is believed that more than 10,000 frogs were affected over about 30 miles," it said in a statement. The event was brought to the attention of the National Forestry and Wildlife Service by protest group Committee Against the Pollution of the Coata River, whose members brought 100 dead frogs to capital city Puno on the Titicaca lakeshore. ||||| Peru is investigating what killed some 10,000 Titicaca water frogs, a critically endangered species affectionately known as the "scrotum frog," in a river that is feared to be polluted, authorities said Monday. Hundreds of the large, wrinkly green frogs have been found floating on the surface of the Coata river in southern Peru in recent days, prompting the National Forestry and Wildlife Service (Serfor) to launch an investigation. "Based on local residents' statements and samples taken in the days after the incident, it is believed that more than 10,000 frogs were affected over about 30 miles," Serfor said in a statement. The alert was sounded by an environmental group called the Committee Against the Pollution of the Coata River, which accused the authorities of ignoring the river's severe pollution. To protest, its supporters brought 100 of the dead frogs to the central square in the regional capital, Puno. Protest leader Maruja Inquilla urged the authorities to take the dead frogs as a wake-up call. RELATED: Frog Sings Like a Bird, Bobs Head for Mates "I've had to bring them the dead frogs. The authorities don't realize how we're living. They have no idea how major the pollution is. The situation is maddening," said Inquilla. "Why is the state so apathetic? We need a sewage treatment plant now." The frogs live only in Lake Titicaca, South America's largest lake, and its tributaries. Known officially as Telmatobius culeus, they got their nickname from their many folds of skin, which help them breathe in their high-altitude habitat in the Andes mountains. The species is classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, which says the population is estimated to have declined by 80 percent in the past 15 years. WATCH: Frog Hears with Its Mouth

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks Monday, Oct. 19, 2015, in Anderson, S.C. (Ken Ruinard/The Independent-Mail via AP) MIAMI -- Donald Trump was interrupted repeatedly by protesters during a rowdy presidential campaign rally before hundreds here Friday night. Speaking in a ballroom at his own Trump National Doral Miami luxury resort, Trump paused during at least three disturbances, acknowledging them each time. "See the first group, I was nice. Oh, take your time," he said. "The second group, I was pretty nice. The third group, I'll be a little more violent. And the fourth group, I'll say get the hell out of here!" Trump's supporters tried to drown out the protesters with chants of "USA! USA!" "Equality! Equality!" chanted one protester as she was being removed from the event. Another said: "We are not the enemy. We need to unite so we can have policies to benefit the American people and their families. Keep families together. Stop the deportations." "Don't hurt 'em. You can get 'em out, but don't hurt 'em," Trump said after the first wave of protesters interrupted him. Pro-immigration activists from several groups organized a gathering outside the resort. "Donald Trump is not welcome in Miami, this is our city," said Bertha Sanlés, a member of United Families, in a statement. "His words and the anti-immigrant hatred he has promoted against immigrant families like mine, do not make this country great. On the contrary, immigrants have made this country great with our hard work and our contributions." Toward the end of his speech, Trump reiterated his call to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, drawing cheers from the crowd. "In this group, I wasn't so sure I should be talking about walls," he said. The Republican White House hopeful is making his first campaign swing through Florida. On Saturday afternoon, he will head north to campaign in Jacksonville, where he has predicted some 15,000 people will turn out. The real estate mogul took aim at several Democratic and Republican presidential rivals, including Hillary Rodham Clinton, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and Ben Carson. Carson, a soft-spoken retired neurosurgeon, has taken the lead over Trump in the key early state of Iowa, recent polls show. Trump quipped that he informed Carson about his lead, "but he was sleeping." Much of Trump's remarks centered on telling his supporters how well he is doing the polls. "I'm winning Florida. I'm beating Bush and Rubio," he said to cheers from the crowd. Indeed, recent polls show Trump leading the two home-state Republican contenders. Trump also defended remarks he made last week holding George W. Bush at least partly culpable for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. But he suggested that Bill Clinton deserves some blame as well. "In all fairness to Bush, he was only president for about nine months," said Trump. About four miles away from Jeb Bush's nondescript campaign headquarters, preparations for Trump's evening rally were well underway here hours before he took the stage. "Hey guys, we're opening up the house!" an organizer yelled before throngs of supporters spilled into the room an hour and 45 minutes before of Trump's speech. The first wave moved in swiftly, some running to the front of the room to position themselves nearest to Trump's podium as more waited outside. "We need Trump!" the crowd chanted at one point. At another, a man started playing "When the Saints go Marching In" on his soprano saxophone. ||||| OF THE STAFF WILL REMAIN. BUSH SLASHING BUDGET EXCEPT FOR DOLLARS PUT TO TV ADS. YOU KNOW, MR. TRUMP, IF YOU COULD DO THE SAME FOR THE UNITED STATES AS YOU DID HERE, IT WOULD BE UNBELIEVABLE, UNBELIEVABLE. A MUCH DIFFERENT STORY FOR BILLIONAIRE RIVAL AS THEY ROLL IN. WELCOMED BY A HUGE CROWD THERE IN DORAL. OUR OWN AMY IS. THERE WHAT DID DONALD HAVE TO SAY? THINGS ARE PRETTY QUIET NOW WITH THE BALLROOM AND EMPTY STAGE BEHIND ME. BUT HOURS AGO T CONTROVERSY T YAL CANDIDATE WAS STIRRING UP MORE CONTROVERSY. THOUSAND ISN'T AEDES PACKED FOR THIS EVENT INCLUDING GROUPS OF PROTESTERS THAT SECURITY HAD TO KICK OUT. ALSO, MAJOR SPANISH LANGUAGE TELEVISION NETWORK THAT'S INVOLVED IN AN ONGOING DISPUTE WITH THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE. SUPPORTERS RUSHED THE STAGE AT THE TRUMP NATIONAL RESORT IN DORAL, EVERYONE WANTING A MOMENT WITH TRUMP. HE STANDS FOR EVERYTHING THAT I BELIEVE. I'M SO HAPPY. HE SCORED AN AUTOGRAPH ON HIS CELLPHONE. THE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE TOOK THE STAGE AROUND 7:20 AND MOODILY TALKED ABOUT HIS CONNECTION WITH SOUTH FLORIDA. IS THERE NOTHING LIKE MIAMI? NOTHING, NOTHING! TRUMP SHOWED LESS AFFECTION FOR NETWORK UNI VISION. WHEN CREWS ARRIVED, THEY WERE NOT ALLOWED TO COVER THE EVENT. THE TRUCK STAYED JUST OFF PROPERTY. HE SAID IT WOULD BE CONFLICT OF INTEREST AS TRUMP'S SUING FOR $5 MILLION. DEMONSTRATORS RALLIED OUTSIDE, PUSHING BACK AGAINST WHAT THEY FEEL IS TRUMP'S ANTIIMMIGRANT STANCE. OPPOSITION MADE IT INSIDE THE EVENT TOO. GO AHEAD, GET THEM OUT. TRUMP HAD TO STOP SEVERAL TIMES AS THEY PUSHED OUT DEMONSTRATORS. THE FIRST GROUP, I WAS NICE. TAKE YOUR TIME. THE SECOND GROUP, I WAS PRETTY NICE. THE THIRD GROUP, I'LL BE A LITTLE MORE VIOLENT. THE FOURTH GROUP, I'LL SAY GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE. HE DIDN'T SHY AWAY AND HAD PLENTY OF SUPPORT FROM THE SOUTH FLORIDA CROWD. LET ME TELL YOU WHO WANTS TO STOP ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION MORE THAN ANYBODY, THE HISPANICS IN OUR COUNTRY ILLEGALLY. THAT'S WHAT THEY WANT, INCLUDING SEVERAL WHO IMMIGRATED TO THE U.S. IF WE'RE NOT CAREFUL, WHAT I CAME HERE FOR IS NOT GOING TO BE HERE ANYMORE. SO DEFINITELY AN EVENTFUL EVENING FOR EVERYONE WHO CAME OUT HERE TO SUPPORT DONALD TRUMP TONIGHT. HE GETS TO DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN TOMORROW MORNING. HE'S HEADED TO JACKSONVILLE WHERE HE'S HOLDING ANOTHER EVENT DORAL, Fla. - Univision says a crew from its network and a crew from its local affiliate were asked to leave the Trump National Doral Friday while attempting to cover Donald Trump's campaign event. The station said both crews were told that they were cleared to cover the event, but when they showed up, they were told that they were not allowed on the property by what appeared to be an off-duty Doral police officer. The incident comes as pro-immigration organizations and members of the South Florida Hispanic community came out hours ahead of the event to protest Trump's visit to Doral. "He's not going to come to our town, our community that's mostly immigrants, and come and spread his word of hate," Paula Munoz said. Friday marked Trump's first Florida appearance as a Republican presidential candidate, and he tweeted earlier in the day that he expected a big crowd to come out in support of him. Indeed, many did come out to show their support. Many told Local 10 News reporter Amy Viteri that they're sick of politicians and appreciate Trump's bluntness. "I am Hispanic. I was born in Cuba. I don't think he has said anything that has actually offended me," Hope Reynolds said. "What he has done is actually be honest." To critics who find him offensive, they say he is simply speaking the truth. Trump was expected to take the stage at the Trump National Doral at 7 p.m. ||||| Story highlights Trump knocked Carson's reserved persona and questioned his competence before a revved-up crowd of supporters He added that Carson could not aggressively tackle trade in the way Trump has pledged to do Jake Tapper's full interview with Donald Trump airs Sunday at 9 a.m. ET on CNN's "State of the Union." Miami (CNN) Donald Trump on Friday downplayed the results of two Iowa polls that show him slipping to second place in the key first state, and he took shots at Iowa's new front-runner: Ben Carson. First, in an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper, Trump launched a volley of attacks against Carson, saying the retired neurosurgeon was "very weak" on immigration. Then, speaking at a rally at Trump National Doral Miami resort, the billionaire businessman knocked Carson's reserved personality and questioned his competence before a revved-up crowd of supporters. "Donald Trump falls to second place behind Ben Carson," Trump said, reading the headline of the day. "We informed Ben, but he was sleeping." He added that Carson could not aggressively tackle trade in the way Trump has pledged to do and said the country needs a "special leader" with "tremendous energy" as president. And in more subtle ways, Trump hinted at a contrast between him and Carson as he pointed out that the U.S. needs a strong leader in the face of "medieval times" in which ISIS is beheading Christians. The attacks mark an end to the détente Trump and Carson have mutually maintained, though Carson said earlier Friday that he would not respond to incoming fire from Trump. But Trump's unprompted assault could change the tone of their relationship, which was cordial if not friendly during the previous debate, and threatens to undermine Trump's claim that he only punches back when attacked. Read More ||||| Univision crews were ordered to leave Donald Trump’s campaign event at the Trump National Doral hotel in Florida on Friday. Univision said crews from both the network and local affiliate were asked to leave Trump’s event, according to Doral’s Local 10 News. The station was reportedly cleared to cover the event, but crew members were told upon arrival by someone who appeared to be an off-duty police officer that they were not allowed on the property, which is owned by Trump, according to Local 10 News. The event at the Trump National Doral is being held near Univision’s South Florida headquarters. Univision has battled publicly with Trump, the leading candidate for the GOP presidential nomination, since July when it pulled out of broadcasting the Trump-owned Miss USA beauty pageant because of Trump’s disparaging comments about Mexican immigrants. Trump filed a $500 million lawsuit against Univision for backing out of the five-year contract to carry the Miss Universe francise. That lawsuit was the reason the Univision crews were turned away from the campaign rally, according to Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks. “Mr. Trump is suing Univision for $500 million and until that is resolved it is a conflict of interest,” she said. Hours before the event, pro-immigration organizations and members of the South Florida Hispanic community showed up to protest. Friday’s incident comes after Univision anchor Jorge Ramos was thrown out of another Trump event in August when he tried to ask the presidential hopeful a question. Ramos tweeted about Univision being booted out of Trump’s Friday event, writing, “Journalists from Univision were not allowed to cover a Donald Trump political event today in Doral, Florida.” Journalists from Univision were not allowed to cover a Donald Trump political event today in Doral, Florida. — JORGE RAMOS (@jorgeramosnews) October 23, 2015 At the time that Univision dropped the Miss USA pageant, Univision also issued a ban on any of its employees conducting company business at Trump-owned hotels or resorts, including the National Doral, which is adjacent to Univision’s Florida headquarters. At the time, a Univision spokeswoman said the company’s “decision to end our business relationship with Mr. Trump was influenced solely by our responsibility to speak up for the community we serve.”

– A Univision crew was kicked out of a Donald Trump rally in Florida yesterday—and they weren't the only ones to get the boot. The campaign event was being held at the Trump National Doral hotel, near Univision's headquarters in south Florida, and the station says crews from both its national network and its local affiliate were asked to leave, Local 10 reports. A Trump spokeswoman confirmed that the news crews had been asked to leave and said it was because of Trump's lawsuit against the network," Variety reports. "Mr. Trump is suing Univision for $500 million and until that is resolved it is a conflict of interest," she said. Univision anchor Jorge Ramos was kicked out of a Trump event in August. During the rally, three groups of protesters were chucked out after interrupting Trump, who told supporters not to injure them as they were jostled on the way out, reports the Washington Post. "Don't hurt 'em. You can get 'em out, but don't hurt 'em," he said. Trump told the crowd that he didn't believe a poll showing that Ben Carson—whom he described as low-energy and "weak on immigration"—has taken the lead in Iowa, CNN reports. He read the headline "Donald Trump falls to second place behind Ben Carson" and quipped: "We informed Ben, but he was sleeping."

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks Monday, Oct. 19, 2015, in Anderson, S.C. (Ken Ruinard/The Independent-Mail via AP) MIAMI -- Donald Trump was interrupted repeatedly by protesters during a rowdy presidential campaign rally before hundreds here Friday night. Speaking in a ballroom at his own Trump National Doral Miami luxury resort, Trump paused during at least three disturbances, acknowledging them each time. "See the first group, I was nice. Oh, take your time," he said. "The second group, I was pretty nice. The third group, I'll be a little more violent. And the fourth group, I'll say get the hell out of here!" Trump's supporters tried to drown out the protesters with chants of "USA! USA!" "Equality! Equality!" chanted one protester as she was being removed from the event. Another said: "We are not the enemy. We need to unite so we can have policies to benefit the American people and their families. Keep families together. Stop the deportations." "Don't hurt 'em. You can get 'em out, but don't hurt 'em," Trump said after the first wave of protesters interrupted him. Pro-immigration activists from several groups organized a gathering outside the resort. "Donald Trump is not welcome in Miami, this is our city," said Bertha Sanlés, a member of United Families, in a statement. "His words and the anti-immigrant hatred he has promoted against immigrant families like mine, do not make this country great. On the contrary, immigrants have made this country great with our hard work and our contributions." Toward the end of his speech, Trump reiterated his call to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, drawing cheers from the crowd. "In this group, I wasn't so sure I should be talking about walls," he said. The Republican White House hopeful is making his first campaign swing through Florida. On Saturday afternoon, he will head north to campaign in Jacksonville, where he has predicted some 15,000 people will turn out. The real estate mogul took aim at several Democratic and Republican presidential rivals, including Hillary Rodham Clinton, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio and Ben Carson. Carson, a soft-spoken retired neurosurgeon, has taken the lead over Trump in the key early state of Iowa, recent polls show. Trump quipped that he informed Carson about his lead, "but he was sleeping." Much of Trump's remarks centered on telling his supporters how well he is doing the polls. "I'm winning Florida. I'm beating Bush and Rubio," he said to cheers from the crowd. Indeed, recent polls show Trump leading the two home-state Republican contenders. Trump also defended remarks he made last week holding George W. Bush at least partly culpable for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. But he suggested that Bill Clinton deserves some blame as well. "In all fairness to Bush, he was only president for about nine months," said Trump. About four miles away from Jeb Bush's nondescript campaign headquarters, preparations for Trump's evening rally were well underway here hours before he took the stage. "Hey guys, we're opening up the house!" an organizer yelled before throngs of supporters spilled into the room an hour and 45 minutes before of Trump's speech. The first wave moved in swiftly, some running to the front of the room to position themselves nearest to Trump's podium as more waited outside. "We need Trump!" the crowd chanted at one point. At another, a man started playing "When the Saints go Marching In" on his soprano saxophone. ||||| OF THE STAFF WILL REMAIN. BUSH SLASHING BUDGET EXCEPT FOR DOLLARS PUT TO TV ADS. YOU KNOW, MR. TRUMP, IF YOU COULD DO THE SAME FOR THE UNITED STATES AS YOU DID HERE, IT WOULD BE UNBELIEVABLE, UNBELIEVABLE. A MUCH DIFFERENT STORY FOR BILLIONAIRE RIVAL AS THEY ROLL IN. WELCOMED BY A HUGE CROWD THERE IN DORAL. OUR OWN AMY IS. THERE WHAT DID DONALD HAVE TO SAY? THINGS ARE PRETTY QUIET NOW WITH THE BALLROOM AND EMPTY STAGE BEHIND ME. BUT HOURS AGO T CONTROVERSY T YAL CANDIDATE WAS STIRRING UP MORE CONTROVERSY. THOUSAND ISN'T AEDES PACKED FOR THIS EVENT INCLUDING GROUPS OF PROTESTERS THAT SECURITY HAD TO KICK OUT. ALSO, MAJOR SPANISH LANGUAGE TELEVISION NETWORK THAT'S INVOLVED IN AN ONGOING DISPUTE WITH THE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE. SUPPORTERS RUSHED THE STAGE AT THE TRUMP NATIONAL RESORT IN DORAL, EVERYONE WANTING A MOMENT WITH TRUMP. HE STANDS FOR EVERYTHING THAT I BELIEVE. I'M SO HAPPY. HE SCORED AN AUTOGRAPH ON HIS CELLPHONE. THE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE TOOK THE STAGE AROUND 7:20 AND MOODILY TALKED ABOUT HIS CONNECTION WITH SOUTH FLORIDA. IS THERE NOTHING LIKE MIAMI? NOTHING, NOTHING! TRUMP SHOWED LESS AFFECTION FOR NETWORK UNI VISION. WHEN CREWS ARRIVED, THEY WERE NOT ALLOWED TO COVER THE EVENT. THE TRUCK STAYED JUST OFF PROPERTY. HE SAID IT WOULD BE CONFLICT OF INTEREST AS TRUMP'S SUING FOR $5 MILLION. DEMONSTRATORS RALLIED OUTSIDE, PUSHING BACK AGAINST WHAT THEY FEEL IS TRUMP'S ANTIIMMIGRANT STANCE. OPPOSITION MADE IT INSIDE THE EVENT TOO. GO AHEAD, GET THEM OUT. TRUMP HAD TO STOP SEVERAL TIMES AS THEY PUSHED OUT DEMONSTRATORS. THE FIRST GROUP, I WAS NICE. TAKE YOUR TIME. THE SECOND GROUP, I WAS PRETTY NICE. THE THIRD GROUP, I'LL BE A LITTLE MORE VIOLENT. THE FOURTH GROUP, I'LL SAY GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE. HE DIDN'T SHY AWAY AND HAD PLENTY OF SUPPORT FROM THE SOUTH FLORIDA CROWD. LET ME TELL YOU WHO WANTS TO STOP ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION MORE THAN ANYBODY, THE HISPANICS IN OUR COUNTRY ILLEGALLY. THAT'S WHAT THEY WANT, INCLUDING SEVERAL WHO IMMIGRATED TO THE U.S. IF WE'RE NOT CAREFUL, WHAT I CAME HERE FOR IS NOT GOING TO BE HERE ANYMORE. SO DEFINITELY AN EVENTFUL EVENING FOR EVERYONE WHO CAME OUT HERE TO SUPPORT DONALD TRUMP TONIGHT. HE GETS TO DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN TOMORROW MORNING. HE'S HEADED TO JACKSONVILLE WHERE HE'S HOLDING ANOTHER EVENT DORAL, Fla. - Univision says a crew from its network and a crew from its local affiliate were asked to leave the Trump National Doral Friday while attempting to cover Donald Trump's campaign event. The station said both crews were told that they were cleared to cover the event, but when they showed up, they were told that they were not allowed on the property by what appeared to be an off-duty Doral police officer. The incident comes as pro-immigration organizations and members of the South Florida Hispanic community came out hours ahead of the event to protest Trump's visit to Doral. "He's not going to come to our town, our community that's mostly immigrants, and come and spread his word of hate," Paula Munoz said. Friday marked Trump's first Florida appearance as a Republican presidential candidate, and he tweeted earlier in the day that he expected a big crowd to come out in support of him. Indeed, many did come out to show their support. Many told Local 10 News reporter Amy Viteri that they're sick of politicians and appreciate Trump's bluntness. "I am Hispanic. I was born in Cuba. I don't think he has said anything that has actually offended me," Hope Reynolds said. "What he has done is actually be honest." To critics who find him offensive, they say he is simply speaking the truth. Trump was expected to take the stage at the Trump National Doral at 7 p.m. ||||| Story highlights Trump knocked Carson's reserved persona and questioned his competence before a revved-up crowd of supporters He added that Carson could not aggressively tackle trade in the way Trump has pledged to do Jake Tapper's full interview with Donald Trump airs Sunday at 9 a.m. ET on CNN's "State of the Union." Miami (CNN) Donald Trump on Friday downplayed the results of two Iowa polls that show him slipping to second place in the key first state, and he took shots at Iowa's new front-runner: Ben Carson. First, in an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper, Trump launched a volley of attacks against Carson, saying the retired neurosurgeon was "very weak" on immigration. Then, speaking at a rally at Trump National Doral Miami resort, the billionaire businessman knocked Carson's reserved personality and questioned his competence before a revved-up crowd of supporters. "Donald Trump falls to second place behind Ben Carson," Trump said, reading the headline of the day. "We informed Ben, but he was sleeping." He added that Carson could not aggressively tackle trade in the way Trump has pledged to do and said the country needs a "special leader" with "tremendous energy" as president. And in more subtle ways, Trump hinted at a contrast between him and Carson as he pointed out that the U.S. needs a strong leader in the face of "medieval times" in which ISIS is beheading Christians. The attacks mark an end to the détente Trump and Carson have mutually maintained, though Carson said earlier Friday that he would not respond to incoming fire from Trump. But Trump's unprompted assault could change the tone of their relationship, which was cordial if not friendly during the previous debate, and threatens to undermine Trump's claim that he only punches back when attacked. Read More ||||| Univision crews were ordered to leave Donald Trump’s campaign event at the Trump National Doral hotel in Florida on Friday. Univision said crews from both the network and local affiliate were asked to leave Trump’s event, according to Doral’s Local 10 News. The station was reportedly cleared to cover the event, but crew members were told upon arrival by someone who appeared to be an off-duty police officer that they were not allowed on the property, which is owned by Trump, according to Local 10 News. The event at the Trump National Doral is being held near Univision’s South Florida headquarters. Univision has battled publicly with Trump, the leading candidate for the GOP presidential nomination, since July when it pulled out of broadcasting the Trump-owned Miss USA beauty pageant because of Trump’s disparaging comments about Mexican immigrants. Trump filed a $500 million lawsuit against Univision for backing out of the five-year contract to carry the Miss Universe francise. That lawsuit was the reason the Univision crews were turned away from the campaign rally, according to Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks. “Mr. Trump is suing Univision for $500 million and until that is resolved it is a conflict of interest,” she said. Hours before the event, pro-immigration organizations and members of the South Florida Hispanic community showed up to protest. Friday’s incident comes after Univision anchor Jorge Ramos was thrown out of another Trump event in August when he tried to ask the presidential hopeful a question. Ramos tweeted about Univision being booted out of Trump’s Friday event, writing, “Journalists from Univision were not allowed to cover a Donald Trump political event today in Doral, Florida.” Journalists from Univision were not allowed to cover a Donald Trump political event today in Doral, Florida. — JORGE RAMOS (@jorgeramosnews) October 23, 2015 At the time that Univision dropped the Miss USA pageant, Univision also issued a ban on any of its employees conducting company business at Trump-owned hotels or resorts, including the National Doral, which is adjacent to Univision’s Florida headquarters. At the time, a Univision spokeswoman said the company’s “decision to end our business relationship with Mr. Trump was influenced solely by our responsibility to speak up for the community we serve.”

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Officers arrive at the scene where police shot and killed a man in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, Wednesday, April 4, 2018, in New York, as they responded to reports of a man threatening people... (Associated Press) Officers arrive at the scene where police shot and killed a man in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, Wednesday, April 4, 2018, in New York, as they responded to reports of a man threatening people with a gun. (AP Photo/Kevin Hagen) (Associated Press) NEW YORK (AP) — Police officers responding to reports of a man threatening people with a gun on Wednesday fatally shot a man carrying a metal pipe, mistaking it for a firearm, police said. It happened just before 5 p.m. in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn after three 911 callers said a "man was pointing a silver firearm at people on the street," according to NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan. Five officers, three in plainclothes and two in uniform, responded and encountered a man matching the description in the 911 calls. "The suspect took a two-handed shooting stance and pointed an object at the approaching officers, two of whom were in uniform, said Monahan. Four of the officers then fired a total of 10 rounds, striking the man, who was later found to be holding a "pipe with some sort of knob at the end," he said. The unidentified man was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Four officers were treated for minor injuries. Dozens of police cars converged on the area, and a crowd of about 200 people gathered around the cordoned-off intersection, said 33-year-old resident Shaya Tenenbaum, who added that a few people in the crowd shouted at police. Andre Wilson, 38, told the Daily News that he has known the victim for 20 years, describing him as a quirky neighborhood character. "All he did was just walk around the neighborhood," he said. "He speaks to himself, usually he has an orange Bible or a rosary in his hand. He never had a problem with anyone." Wilson said he was shocked that it would come to this. "The officers from the neighborhood, they know him. He has no issue with violence. Everybody just knows he's just mentally challenged. This shouldn't have happened at all." The shooting comes after the police killing of an unarmed black man on March 18 in Sacramento, California, sparked two weeks of protests and calls for police reform. Stephon Clark, 22, was shot by officers responding to a report of someone breaking car windows. Police said they thought he had a gun, but he was carrying only a cellphone. In a private autopsy commissioned by Clark's family, prominent pathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu announced that Clark was hit by eight bullets — six in the back, one in the neck and one in the thigh — and took three to 10 minutes to die. Police waited about five minutes before rendering medical aid. ||||| "He was a good father. He wasn't a bad person. No matter how they want to spin it, he wasn't a bad person," Smith said. "Too many black people are dying at hands of police officers and it's about time something be done."

– NYPD officers responding to reports of a man threatening people with a gun on Wednesday fatally shot a black man carrying a metal pipe, mistaking it for a firearm, police say. It happened just before 5pm in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn after three 911 callers said a "man was pointing a silver firearm at people on the street," according to NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan. Five officers, three in plainclothes and two in uniform, responded and encountered a man matching the description in the 911 calls. "The suspect took a two-handed shooting stance and pointed an object at the approaching officers," says Monahan, per the AP. Four of the officers then fired a total of 10 rounds, striking the man. The man was later found to be holding a "pipe with some sort of knob at the end," Monahan says. Andre Wilson, 38, tells the New York Daily News that he has known the victim for 20 years. He describes him as a quirky neighborhood character. "All he did was just walk around the neighborhood," he says. "He speaks to himself, usually he has an orange Bible or a rosary in his hand. He never had a problem with anyone." He says neighborhood officers knew him and "this shouldn’t have happened at all." Family members have identified the man as Saheed Vassell, the 34-year-old father of a teenage son. Vassell's father says his son struggled with bipolar disorder but refused treatment. The NYPD has declined to confirm witness accounts that officers opened fire without warning.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Officers arrive at the scene where police shot and killed a man in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, Wednesday, April 4, 2018, in New York, as they responded to reports of a man threatening people... (Associated Press) Officers arrive at the scene where police shot and killed a man in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, Wednesday, April 4, 2018, in New York, as they responded to reports of a man threatening people with a gun. (AP Photo/Kevin Hagen) (Associated Press) NEW YORK (AP) — Police officers responding to reports of a man threatening people with a gun on Wednesday fatally shot a man carrying a metal pipe, mistaking it for a firearm, police said. It happened just before 5 p.m. in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn after three 911 callers said a "man was pointing a silver firearm at people on the street," according to NYPD Chief of Department Terence Monahan. Five officers, three in plainclothes and two in uniform, responded and encountered a man matching the description in the 911 calls. "The suspect took a two-handed shooting stance and pointed an object at the approaching officers, two of whom were in uniform, said Monahan. Four of the officers then fired a total of 10 rounds, striking the man, who was later found to be holding a "pipe with some sort of knob at the end," he said. The unidentified man was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Four officers were treated for minor injuries. Dozens of police cars converged on the area, and a crowd of about 200 people gathered around the cordoned-off intersection, said 33-year-old resident Shaya Tenenbaum, who added that a few people in the crowd shouted at police. Andre Wilson, 38, told the Daily News that he has known the victim for 20 years, describing him as a quirky neighborhood character. "All he did was just walk around the neighborhood," he said. "He speaks to himself, usually he has an orange Bible or a rosary in his hand. He never had a problem with anyone." Wilson said he was shocked that it would come to this. "The officers from the neighborhood, they know him. He has no issue with violence. Everybody just knows he's just mentally challenged. This shouldn't have happened at all." The shooting comes after the police killing of an unarmed black man on March 18 in Sacramento, California, sparked two weeks of protests and calls for police reform. Stephon Clark, 22, was shot by officers responding to a report of someone breaking car windows. Police said they thought he had a gun, but he was carrying only a cellphone. In a private autopsy commissioned by Clark's family, prominent pathologist Dr. Bennet Omalu announced that Clark was hit by eight bullets — six in the back, one in the neck and one in the thigh — and took three to 10 minutes to die. Police waited about five minutes before rendering medical aid. ||||| "He was a good father. He wasn't a bad person. No matter how they want to spin it, he wasn't a bad person," Smith said. "Too many black people are dying at hands of police officers and it's about time something be done."

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Oleksandr Rupeta/NurPhoto via Getty The San people of southern Africa are among the most-studied indigenous groups in the world. Legions of researchers have investigated their hunter-gatherer lifestyles, click languages and ancient rock art, and San individuals were some of the first from Africa to have their whole genomes sequenced. But some San want a greater say in such research. On 2 March, three communities in South Africa issued their own research-ethics code — thought to be the first from any indigenous group in Africa. Although the rules will carry no legal weight, their authors hope that scientists will feel compelled to submit proposals for research in San communities to a review panel of community members. And the San may refuse to collaborate with institutions whose staff do not comply, the rules warn. The code was developed by traditional leaders of the !Xun, Khwe and !Khomani groups of San, which represent around 8,000 people in South Africa. “We’ve been bombarded by researchers over the years,” says Hennie Swart, director of the South African San Institute in Kimberley, which helped to develop the code. “It’s not a question of not doing the research. It’s a question of doing it right.” The impetus for the ethics code was the 2010 publication, in Nature1, of the first human genome sequences from southern Africa: those of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, winner of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize, and four San men from Namibia. The Namibian government and ethics committees at the scientists’ universities in Australia, South Africa and the United States approved the study. The researchers also filmed the San men giving verbal consent with the help of a translator. But some San leaders were upset that the team did not consult them, and were concerned about how the researchers obtained informed consent from the San men, according to Roger Chennells, a human-rights lawyer based in Stellenbosch, South Africa, who helped draft the code (see go.nature.com/2nwyj1m). The study was a “massive catalyst”, he says. The paper also used terms, including “Bushman”, that some San individuals consider offensive. “No other recent research has been perceived as being so insulting and arrogant to San leaders,” says Chennells. He anticipates that communities in Namibia and Botswana will formally adopt the code in the future. Until then, researchers working with those communities will be encouraged to take note of the code, adds Chennells. However, Stephan Schuster, a genome scientist who co-led the study while at Pennsylvania State University in State College, asks whether the views of San leaders in South Africa are representative of other San groups. “Why would a San council in South Africa know what we are doing in northern Namibia?” asks Schuster, who is now at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. After the genome paper came out, San leaders held workshops with scientists, ethicists and lawyers to draft research guidelines. The TRUST Project, a European effort to promote global research ethics, funded the drive. The process for endorsing research under the guidelines is still taking shape, says Swart, but researchers will be encouraged to submit proposals to the South African San Council. The council “undertakes not to unduly curb or hinder good research”, adds Chennells. Both Chennells and Swart hope that the research code will achieve the same influence as guidelines for working with Aboriginal communities in Australia. There, researchers must typically gain approval from groups that represent local or regional indigenous communities. A 2011 study2 reporting the first genome of an Aboriginal Australian (taken from an early-twentieth-century hair sample) was nearly scrapped because the scientists had not initially sought the endorsement of an Aboriginal group. “We are learning from Australians,” says Swart. “If researchers want to work among the San and that’s the protocol, they should honour it. That’s what social justice is all about,” says Himla Soodyall, a geneticist at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, who co-authored a 2012 paper3 analysing the genomes of San individuals. That team sought permission for its research from the South African San Council and another San organization, the Working Group of Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa. The researchers communicated their findings to San communities and told individuals what they had learnt about their genetic ancestry. Emma Kowal, an anthropologist at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, who works on indigenous research ethics, thinks the code will encourage scientists to consider the interests of San communities. “Our experience in Australia is that researchers will come to the table and change the way that they practise,” she says. ||||| Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a "think tank" that provides research reports to members of Congress on a variety of topics relevant to current political events. However, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) does not provide direct public access to its reports, nor are they released to the public via the Federal Library Depository Program (FDLP). There are several organizations that collect and give access to subsets of published CRS Reports. This collection attempts to bring all CRS Reports together in one place. For more information on CRS, see the Sunlight Foundations CRS Reports backgrounder (http://bit.ly/CRSReports). Please contact James Jacobs (jrjacobs AT stanford DOT edu) if you know of additional sites hosting CRS reports. ||||| San people of Africa draft code of ethics for researchers CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA—Scientists have studied the San people of Southern Africa for decades, intrigued by their age-old rituals and ancient genetic fingerprints. Now, after more than a century of being scrutinized by science, the San are demanding something back. Earlier this month the group unveiled a code of ethics for researchers wishing to study their culture, genes, or heritage. The code, published here on 3 March, asks researchers to treat the San respectfully and refrain from publishing information that could be viewed as insulting. Because such sensitivities may not be clear to researchers, the code asks that scientists let communities read and comment on findings before they are published. It also asks that researchers keep their promises and give something back to the community in return for its cooperation. “We’re not saying that everybody is bad. But you get those few individuals who don’t respect the San,” says Leana Snyders, head of the South African San Council in Upington, which helped create the code. The San created the code because of past transgressions, including use of insulting language such as the term “Bushmen,” using jargon when communicating with the San, failing to consult study communities about findings before publication, and approaching individuals before asking community leaders for permission. Snyders cited a 2010 study in Nature that she says committed several of these mistakes and raised awareness in the community about the issues. Approval by university research ethics committees is not sufficient to comply with the code, Snyders adds. The San community needs to be involved in reviewing research proposals and have a say in the design and conclusions, she says. Snyders also notes that despite all the interest from scientists, the San have not benefited from their star research status. “When a researcher comes they enrich themselves of our culture and our knowledge. But our communities remain in poverty; their daily life does not change. We want to change that,” she says. Benefits to the community do not have to be monetary, but could be in the form of knowledge, or educational or job opportunities. Communicating research results back to the community is paramount, Snyders adds, in order to avoid derogatory terms. “Before somebody publishes anything they need to discuss it with the community. Then the community can say: You don’t understand, or that it’s damaging.” Researchers that flout the code will be blacklisted. “If it comes to that, we will blacklist and close the door and make sure you don’t come back,” Snyders says. The San are not the first indigenous population group to impose such codes on research. The Aboriginal Australians and Canada’s First Nations and Inuit have drawn up similar codes, which standardize consultation, the benefits due to participating communities, and data storage and access. But this is the first research code produced by an African group. For now it is formally adopted only in South Africa; Snyders and her colleagues hope to roll it out to San who live in neighboring Botswana and Namibia. The code does not place unrealistic demands on scientists, says Himla Soodyall, director of the Human Genomic Diversity and Disease Research Unit at South Africa’s University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. But others point out that the code focuses on past transgressions, and doesn’t refer to recent efforts to respect and involve communities, such as guidelines for genomics work on vulnerable populations prepared in 2014 by the Human Heredity and Health in Africa program. As a result, the code may present an overly negative view of researchers and discourage communities from participating in studies, says Charles Rotimi, founding director of the National Institutes of Health Center for Research on Genomics and Global Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Reuse of data is another potential stumbling block. The San refuse to grant broad consent for other researchers to reuse data for purposes not specified in the original agreement. This restriction is not spelled out in the code, but is the position of the South African San Council, Snyders says. “Should any other research institution want to use the data, they need to acquire informed consent from the council.” But good scientific practice allows other scientists to try to replicate analyses, says geneticist David Reich of Harvard Medical School in Boston. He is a leader of the recently assembled Simons Genome Diversity Project, which contains 300 high-quality genomes from 142 populations, including the San. “Other researchers need to be free to reanalyze the data to come to their own conclusions. … If this is not possible, then science cannot be done,” he says. *Correction, 22 March, 4:42 p.m.: This story has been corrected to remove any implication that because the San's ancestors branched off early from other human populations, living San are unusually closely related to ancestral humans.

– The San people of South Africa, an indigenous group often called "bushmen" by Westerners, have been the subject of countless scientific investigations into everything from their rituals and click languages to their genomes. Now the San are asking for something in return: Respect. They've published a code of ethics as part of the Trust Project, asking that scientists adhere to certain conditions, such as: submit research requests in advance to San councils, not just with their universities; don't take photos of individuals without consent; and don't misrepresent the work, notes the Smithsonian. They also ask that researchers share the benefits of the study, which may mean knowledge, not money, reports Science. The dicey part: They want researchers to present their studies to the San prior to publication to be vetted for inaccuracies or offenses. “We’ve been bombarded by researchers over the years,” says Hennie Swart, director of the South African San Institute. “It’s not a question of not doing the research. It’s a question of doing it right.” The code is not legally binding, though researchers who run afoul of it risk being blacklisted from further study. The San become the first indigenous group in Africa to adopt such a code, though groups in Australia and Canada have done so previously. Nature reports that the code was developed by leaders of the !Xun, Khwe and !Khomani groups of San, representing 8,000 people in South Africa. It's not clear if San groups outside the country will follow suit. Researchers "should honor it," says a geneticist in South Africa who has analyzed the genomes of San people. "That's what social justice is all about."

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Oleksandr Rupeta/NurPhoto via Getty The San people of southern Africa are among the most-studied indigenous groups in the world. Legions of researchers have investigated their hunter-gatherer lifestyles, click languages and ancient rock art, and San individuals were some of the first from Africa to have their whole genomes sequenced. But some San want a greater say in such research. On 2 March, three communities in South Africa issued their own research-ethics code — thought to be the first from any indigenous group in Africa. Although the rules will carry no legal weight, their authors hope that scientists will feel compelled to submit proposals for research in San communities to a review panel of community members. And the San may refuse to collaborate with institutions whose staff do not comply, the rules warn. The code was developed by traditional leaders of the !Xun, Khwe and !Khomani groups of San, which represent around 8,000 people in South Africa. “We’ve been bombarded by researchers over the years,” says Hennie Swart, director of the South African San Institute in Kimberley, which helped to develop the code. “It’s not a question of not doing the research. It’s a question of doing it right.” The impetus for the ethics code was the 2010 publication, in Nature1, of the first human genome sequences from southern Africa: those of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, winner of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize, and four San men from Namibia. The Namibian government and ethics committees at the scientists’ universities in Australia, South Africa and the United States approved the study. The researchers also filmed the San men giving verbal consent with the help of a translator. But some San leaders were upset that the team did not consult them, and were concerned about how the researchers obtained informed consent from the San men, according to Roger Chennells, a human-rights lawyer based in Stellenbosch, South Africa, who helped draft the code (see go.nature.com/2nwyj1m). The study was a “massive catalyst”, he says. The paper also used terms, including “Bushman”, that some San individuals consider offensive. “No other recent research has been perceived as being so insulting and arrogant to San leaders,” says Chennells. He anticipates that communities in Namibia and Botswana will formally adopt the code in the future. Until then, researchers working with those communities will be encouraged to take note of the code, adds Chennells. However, Stephan Schuster, a genome scientist who co-led the study while at Pennsylvania State University in State College, asks whether the views of San leaders in South Africa are representative of other San groups. “Why would a San council in South Africa know what we are doing in northern Namibia?” asks Schuster, who is now at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. After the genome paper came out, San leaders held workshops with scientists, ethicists and lawyers to draft research guidelines. The TRUST Project, a European effort to promote global research ethics, funded the drive. The process for endorsing research under the guidelines is still taking shape, says Swart, but researchers will be encouraged to submit proposals to the South African San Council. The council “undertakes not to unduly curb or hinder good research”, adds Chennells. Both Chennells and Swart hope that the research code will achieve the same influence as guidelines for working with Aboriginal communities in Australia. There, researchers must typically gain approval from groups that represent local or regional indigenous communities. A 2011 study2 reporting the first genome of an Aboriginal Australian (taken from an early-twentieth-century hair sample) was nearly scrapped because the scientists had not initially sought the endorsement of an Aboriginal group. “We are learning from Australians,” says Swart. “If researchers want to work among the San and that’s the protocol, they should honour it. That’s what social justice is all about,” says Himla Soodyall, a geneticist at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, who co-authored a 2012 paper3 analysing the genomes of San individuals. That team sought permission for its research from the South African San Council and another San organization, the Working Group of Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa. The researchers communicated their findings to San communities and told individuals what they had learnt about their genetic ancestry. Emma Kowal, an anthropologist at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia, who works on indigenous research ethics, thinks the code will encourage scientists to consider the interests of San communities. “Our experience in Australia is that researchers will come to the table and change the way that they practise,” she says. ||||| Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a "think tank" that provides research reports to members of Congress on a variety of topics relevant to current political events. However, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) does not provide direct public access to its reports, nor are they released to the public via the Federal Library Depository Program (FDLP). There are several organizations that collect and give access to subsets of published CRS Reports. This collection attempts to bring all CRS Reports together in one place. For more information on CRS, see the Sunlight Foundations CRS Reports backgrounder (http://bit.ly/CRSReports). Please contact James Jacobs (jrjacobs AT stanford DOT edu) if you know of additional sites hosting CRS reports. ||||| San people of Africa draft code of ethics for researchers CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA—Scientists have studied the San people of Southern Africa for decades, intrigued by their age-old rituals and ancient genetic fingerprints. Now, after more than a century of being scrutinized by science, the San are demanding something back. Earlier this month the group unveiled a code of ethics for researchers wishing to study their culture, genes, or heritage. The code, published here on 3 March, asks researchers to treat the San respectfully and refrain from publishing information that could be viewed as insulting. Because such sensitivities may not be clear to researchers, the code asks that scientists let communities read and comment on findings before they are published. It also asks that researchers keep their promises and give something back to the community in return for its cooperation. “We’re not saying that everybody is bad. But you get those few individuals who don’t respect the San,” says Leana Snyders, head of the South African San Council in Upington, which helped create the code. The San created the code because of past transgressions, including use of insulting language such as the term “Bushmen,” using jargon when communicating with the San, failing to consult study communities about findings before publication, and approaching individuals before asking community leaders for permission. Snyders cited a 2010 study in Nature that she says committed several of these mistakes and raised awareness in the community about the issues. Approval by university research ethics committees is not sufficient to comply with the code, Snyders adds. The San community needs to be involved in reviewing research proposals and have a say in the design and conclusions, she says. Snyders also notes that despite all the interest from scientists, the San have not benefited from their star research status. “When a researcher comes they enrich themselves of our culture and our knowledge. But our communities remain in poverty; their daily life does not change. We want to change that,” she says. Benefits to the community do not have to be monetary, but could be in the form of knowledge, or educational or job opportunities. Communicating research results back to the community is paramount, Snyders adds, in order to avoid derogatory terms. “Before somebody publishes anything they need to discuss it with the community. Then the community can say: You don’t understand, or that it’s damaging.” Researchers that flout the code will be blacklisted. “If it comes to that, we will blacklist and close the door and make sure you don’t come back,” Snyders says. The San are not the first indigenous population group to impose such codes on research. The Aboriginal Australians and Canada’s First Nations and Inuit have drawn up similar codes, which standardize consultation, the benefits due to participating communities, and data storage and access. But this is the first research code produced by an African group. For now it is formally adopted only in South Africa; Snyders and her colleagues hope to roll it out to San who live in neighboring Botswana and Namibia. The code does not place unrealistic demands on scientists, says Himla Soodyall, director of the Human Genomic Diversity and Disease Research Unit at South Africa’s University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. But others point out that the code focuses on past transgressions, and doesn’t refer to recent efforts to respect and involve communities, such as guidelines for genomics work on vulnerable populations prepared in 2014 by the Human Heredity and Health in Africa program. As a result, the code may present an overly negative view of researchers and discourage communities from participating in studies, says Charles Rotimi, founding director of the National Institutes of Health Center for Research on Genomics and Global Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Reuse of data is another potential stumbling block. The San refuse to grant broad consent for other researchers to reuse data for purposes not specified in the original agreement. This restriction is not spelled out in the code, but is the position of the South African San Council, Snyders says. “Should any other research institution want to use the data, they need to acquire informed consent from the council.” But good scientific practice allows other scientists to try to replicate analyses, says geneticist David Reich of Harvard Medical School in Boston. He is a leader of the recently assembled Simons Genome Diversity Project, which contains 300 high-quality genomes from 142 populations, including the San. “Other researchers need to be free to reanalyze the data to come to their own conclusions. … If this is not possible, then science cannot be done,” he says. *Correction, 22 March, 4:42 p.m.: This story has been corrected to remove any implication that because the San's ancestors branched off early from other human populations, living San are unusually closely related to ancestral humans.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

DEVASTATED friends and family are mourning Hope Carnevali who died after Monday night’s thunderstorm asthma ­disaster. Ms Carnevali, 20, died in her family’s arms in front of their Hoppers Crossing home. It was reported she was a “lifelong asthma sufferer” and had a “severe attack” during the storm. An ambulance did not arrive until 31 minutes later. media_camera Hope Carnevali, 20, from Werribee, died after a thunderstorm asthma outbreak in Melbourne. Picture: Supplied The law student’s uncle, John Carnevali, said Ambulance Victoria should let people know if there were going to be long delays. “So maybe we can take them straight to hospital where it can save a life, because I’ve lost my niece, maybe for that reason,” he said in tears. A second person is also believed to have died after a perfect storm triggered hundreds of thunderstorm asthma attacks and plunged Melbourne’s hospitals into their busiest night. Victoria ran out of ambulances as emergency calls jumped 450 per cent, while several hospitals enacted disaster management plans. WHAT IS THUNDERSTORM ASTHMA? media_camera The stormfront hits the city. Picture: Norm Oorloff The perfect storm of a high pollen count, northerly winds and humid conditions triggered the rare phenomenon of thunderstorm asthma from 7pm on Monday, with emergency services receiving ­triple 0 calls every four to five seconds and Ambulance Victoria deploying 60 extra crews. More than 1870 calls for ambulances were made between 6pm and 11pm. AV regional services general manager Mick Stephenson said he was aware two people had died while waiting for ambulances but it was not known if the asthma ­phen­omenon was responsible. Mr Carnevali described his niece as a beautiful woman who died too soon. “She was a very kind-hearted, beautiful gorgeous little girl. She’d do anything for anyone,” he said. “If somebody needed her, she’d be there. She was an angel. We’re going to miss her so much.” Friends also paid tribute on social media. Erin Carlile said: “A beautiful soul taken away too soon.” Ashleigh Zammit wrote: “Fly high beautiful girl. ­Heaven has gained another angel.” Premier’s sons suffered ‘significant asthma attacks’ Premier Daniel Andrews expressed his condolences for the families of the two people who died during the thunderstorm asthma disaster. He promised a full investigation into what went wrong. “Our thoughts and our prayers and our best wishes are with the families of those two Victorians who had everything in front of them, and for those families to have to deal with this tragedy is desperately sad,” Mr Andrews said. “Our commitment to those families is we will learn from what has gone on here, we will make the necessary improvements.” The Premier said his two sons had suffered “quite significant asthma attacks” during Monday’s storm. Health Minister Jill Hennessy said claims that two people died while waiting for ambulances would be the subject of a full investigation. “No doubt, there will be lessons to learn, there always are in these cases, but every part of our emergency management surge occurred correctly,” Ms Hennessy said. Extra staff were brought into hospitals, the MFB increased its cap­acity to work as first responders and police conducted welfare checks, while private hospitals opened their emergency departments for public patients. Royal Melbourne Hospital ran out of Ventolin and spacers while the Royal Children’s Hospital had almost 500 emergency presentations. State health commander Paul Holman said this was a first in his 40 years in the job, calling it a “state disaster”. But the man who discovered the phenomenon of thunderstorm asthma in 1992, Deakin University’s Assoc Prof Cenk Suphioglu, said it could have been predicted. He said resources were needed to set up an alert system. media_camera The storm front near Torquay yesterday afternoon amid high winds and hundreds of lightning strikes. Picture: Pete James/ @killershotphoto media_camera Tile damage to homes in Altona North. Picture: Norm Oorloff While his Deakin AIRwatch website predicted this weather combination would trigger an extreme event, Assoc Prof Suphioglu said more resources were needed to set up an alert system. “If it is well resourced we can give alerts — how seriously they (emergency authorities) take those alerts will be up to them,” Assoc Prof Suphioglu said. “This is a well know thing. Melbourne is dubbed as not only the allergy capital of the world, but also the thunderstorm capital of the world.” Royal Melbourne Hospital’s director of Emergency Professor George Braitberg said they had to borrow Ventalin from neighbouring centres after seeing a day’s worth of patients in 12 hours. “There really wasn’t any warning,” he said. “Most people I saw weren’t asthmatics or hadn’t had it for 25 years. It was an extraordinary situation; the worse I’ve experienced in 30 years in the job.” St Vincent’s Hospital had to enact it’s emergency management plan reserved for disasters and set up a second six-bed emergency department in its day unit when it became overwhelmed with 216 presentations — more than double what sees on a typical night. Out of The Royal Children’s Hospital’s 500 emergency presentations — two and a half times the normal number off sick children — resulted in about 50 cases being admitted. “Just the sheer number of patients. it is unprecedented in our history,” RCH director of general medicine Dr Tom Connell said. “There will certainly be lessons learnt about dealing with demands, but it is hard to predict these and I think we have all coped very well by pulling together in a true team spirit.” media_camera Stacee Krepis was forced to drive Nicholas to the Royal Children's Hospital. Picture: Jake Nowakowski Harrowing hospital dash as son struggled to breath A MUM has described the harrowing moment she was told to drive her son to the hospital while he struggled to breathe — because there weren’t enough ambulances to take him. Stacee Krepis called 000 at 4am on November 21 after her son Nicholas, 11, had chest pains, and had struggled to breathe from about 6pm the night before. But when the paramedic arrived to her Coburg home in a station wagon shortly after, he urged Ms Krepis she needed to take Nicholas straight to the Royal Children’s Hospital while suffering from “Thunderstorm asthma”. “I rang the ambulance, but a paramedic came on his own, and when he saw Nicholas, he said yes, I needed to take him to the Royal Children’s straight away,” Ms Krepis said. But after a dash to the hospital, Ms Krepis was confronted with dozens of children in the waiting room, coughing and wheezing. “Looking at some of those kids in there, they were really struggling; it was really scary, especially seeing your child unable to breathe,” Ms Krepis said. Ms Krepis said when she finally got to see a doctor, he told her the “line was out the door with children with similar symptoms” by midnight. media_camera Chris Wookey had his first asthma attack last night. Picture: David Caird Perfect storm a rare event “THUNDERSTORM asthma” is a rare Spring event, which occurs when a thunderstorm, sudden change in humidity, a northerly wind change and high pollen count are combined. This perfect storm causes pollen “packages” to be blown from the north. The humidity change bursts these capsules, which explode tiny pollens at concentrations million times higher than what is usually in the air which irritate airways. People with mild asthma, or who have never experienced an asthma attack, are often most affected because they aren’t actively taking treatment or have management plans. Melbourne is the “thunderstorm” capital of the world; with epidemics recorded in 1987, 1989, and November 2010. Royal Melbourne Hospital’s head of respiratory medicine, Associate Professor Lou Irving said the event was a reminder to mild asthmatics that their condition could suddenly become severe and they needed an action plan and current medication. [email protected] ||||| At least four people have died after the sudden outbreak of "thunderstorm asthma", prompting an investigation into the emergency response to the medical crisis that swept across Melbourne on Monday. Forty-eight hours after the massive asthma event pushed the city's healthcare system to its limits, two more people were confirmed dead. SHARE Share on Facebook SHARE Share on Twitter TWEET Link Dr Mark Hotu with Asthma suferer Angelique Harkins. Photo: Jason South Noble Park father-of-two, Clarence Leo, and 35-year-old man, Apollo Papadopoulos, died after suffering asthma attacks that are believed to be due to the unprecedented weather event. As more information about the emergency response came to light on Wednesday - including details of after-hour clinics, doctors and pharmacies struggling to cope with a surge in patients - questions were raised about why a public warning was not sent out to asthma sufferers. Health Minister Jill Hennessy, who commissioned the Inspector-General for Emergency Management to review the emergency response, said the thunderstorm asthma event could not have been predicted, but that work was underway to create new models to anticipate the effect of extreme weather on health. "Unpredictable weather patterns and the impact on health I think is a new emerging frontier for public health risks," she said. Advertisement The National Home Doctor Service sent doctors to more than 100 asthma sufferers between Monday night and Tuesday morning. Doctor Mark Hotusaid he arrived at 16-year-old Angelique's Altona home about 4am Tuesday after she had woken up "unable to breathe" and been turned away from hospital. He sent her back to hospital with a note for a doctor to see her immediately and she was finally admitted. On Wednesday morning, Ms Hennessy said there were two confirmed deaths - 20-year-old law student Hope Carnevali and Greenvale high-school student Omar Moujalled. But within hours, the grieving families and friends of two other men spoke of their loss after thunderstorm asthma struck. Mr Leo, a bouncer, was well known in Melbourne's nightclub scene. His business partner, Andrew Christodoulou, described him as a "gentle giant". Friend Danny Saddoo remembered Mr Leo as a doting father and husband and "a really lovely, kind-hearted man". He said he suffered a "massive" asthma attack at 4.30am on Tuesday and died before paramedics arrived. Mr Papadopoulos' sister, Bianca Becker, said her brother was "the best man you'll ever meet. We're devastated." His mother, Emma Papadopoulos, said the "chaos" she witnessed at the hospital on Monday night was unlike anything she had ever seen. "I can't believe the amount of people there that were having problems breathing," she told Channel 10. Charles Guest, chief health officer for the Department of Health and Human Services, would not comment on the number of fatalities, saying the department was aware of a "number of deaths" that may be associated with the event. He declined to comment further until a cause of death had been "attributed" for these cases. At least eight people were still in intensive care on Wednesday evening. It is understood one man is in a critical condition after suffering a cardiac arrest during the thunderstorm asthma. Hospitals were inundated with more than 1000 people seeking help on Monday night after the sudden change in weather triggered respiratory problems in people across the city. There were almost 2000 calls for ambulances in five hours and about 30 people were admitted into intensive care units. Sunshine Hospital was one of the worst hit, with 18 ambulances banked up in the early hours of Tuesday morning as crews frantically worked on patients. A Western Health spokeswoman said it was "unheard of" to have that many ambulances waiting outside the suburban emergency department at one time. After-hours clinics and pharmacies were also swamped with patients as they struggled to treat people with dwindling drug supplies. The Age spoke to 10 Melbourne late night pharmacies, six of them completely sold out of Ventolin on Monday night. Staff at 24-hour Mill Park Superclinic described the night thunderstorm asthma hit Melbourne as like "a bomb had gone off". Ambulance Employees Australia acting general secretary, Danny Hill, said ambulance crews were flat out during the emergency. "It's almost the equivalent of a major terrorist attack," he said, adding that crews reported the system functioned well. "So while there would have been quite a lot of ramping across the city [paramedics] were pretty happy the crooker patients got dealt with quite quickly." Asthma Foundation Victoria chief executive Robin Ould said he would write to Ms Hennessy calling for an action plan to deal with future asthma events. But asthma sufferers also needed ensure they were managing their condition, Mr Ould said. "We need to make people aware of what their own triggers are so they can manage their asthma."

– Four people are dead after an intense thunderstorm in Australia—but flooding or even lightning aren't to blame, reports the Age. In a rare case of "thunderstorm asthma," strong winds near Melbourne on Monday sent massive amounts of rye grass pollen into the air, making it difficult for many to breathe, reports the BBC. Ambulance Victoria took more than 1,870 calls—six times the daily average—in just five hours during the storm, including 800 related to asthma or respiratory issues. One 15-minute span averaged a call every 4.5 seconds, reports 9News. "It was extraordinarily busy, it was unprecedented," a rep says, adding that many calls came from people who "had never had asthma before." The high number of calls meant wait times were longer than usual. Asthma sufferer Hope Carnevali, 20, waited 30 minutes for an ambulance, reports the Herald Sun, and she eventually died, as did three others, including an 18-year-old two days before his high school graduation. The ambulance service says it "will carry out a full clinical review." The BBC notes 10% of Australians have asthma, but rye grass pollen is usually too large to get into lungs. Rain from the storm, however, would have broken down particles that were then whipped up by the wind. On Monday, Asthma Victoria reported a rye grass particle count of 102, more than double the typical "high" count. (Here's why Amish kids have low rates of asthma.)

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.DEVASTATED friends and family are mourning Hope Carnevali who died after Monday night’s thunderstorm asthma ­disaster. Ms Carnevali, 20, died in her family’s arms in front of their Hoppers Crossing home. It was reported she was a “lifelong asthma sufferer” and had a “severe attack” during the storm. An ambulance did not arrive until 31 minutes later. media_camera Hope Carnevali, 20, from Werribee, died after a thunderstorm asthma outbreak in Melbourne. Picture: Supplied The law student’s uncle, John Carnevali, said Ambulance Victoria should let people know if there were going to be long delays. “So maybe we can take them straight to hospital where it can save a life, because I’ve lost my niece, maybe for that reason,” he said in tears. A second person is also believed to have died after a perfect storm triggered hundreds of thunderstorm asthma attacks and plunged Melbourne’s hospitals into their busiest night. Victoria ran out of ambulances as emergency calls jumped 450 per cent, while several hospitals enacted disaster management plans. WHAT IS THUNDERSTORM ASTHMA? media_camera The stormfront hits the city. Picture: Norm Oorloff The perfect storm of a high pollen count, northerly winds and humid conditions triggered the rare phenomenon of thunderstorm asthma from 7pm on Monday, with emergency services receiving ­triple 0 calls every four to five seconds and Ambulance Victoria deploying 60 extra crews. More than 1870 calls for ambulances were made between 6pm and 11pm. AV regional services general manager Mick Stephenson said he was aware two people had died while waiting for ambulances but it was not known if the asthma ­phen­omenon was responsible. Mr Carnevali described his niece as a beautiful woman who died too soon. “She was a very kind-hearted, beautiful gorgeous little girl. She’d do anything for anyone,” he said. “If somebody needed her, she’d be there. She was an angel. We’re going to miss her so much.” Friends also paid tribute on social media. Erin Carlile said: “A beautiful soul taken away too soon.” Ashleigh Zammit wrote: “Fly high beautiful girl. ­Heaven has gained another angel.” Premier’s sons suffered ‘significant asthma attacks’ Premier Daniel Andrews expressed his condolences for the families of the two people who died during the thunderstorm asthma disaster. He promised a full investigation into what went wrong. “Our thoughts and our prayers and our best wishes are with the families of those two Victorians who had everything in front of them, and for those families to have to deal with this tragedy is desperately sad,” Mr Andrews said. “Our commitment to those families is we will learn from what has gone on here, we will make the necessary improvements.” The Premier said his two sons had suffered “quite significant asthma attacks” during Monday’s storm. Health Minister Jill Hennessy said claims that two people died while waiting for ambulances would be the subject of a full investigation. “No doubt, there will be lessons to learn, there always are in these cases, but every part of our emergency management surge occurred correctly,” Ms Hennessy said. Extra staff were brought into hospitals, the MFB increased its cap­acity to work as first responders and police conducted welfare checks, while private hospitals opened their emergency departments for public patients. Royal Melbourne Hospital ran out of Ventolin and spacers while the Royal Children’s Hospital had almost 500 emergency presentations. State health commander Paul Holman said this was a first in his 40 years in the job, calling it a “state disaster”. But the man who discovered the phenomenon of thunderstorm asthma in 1992, Deakin University’s Assoc Prof Cenk Suphioglu, said it could have been predicted. He said resources were needed to set up an alert system. media_camera The storm front near Torquay yesterday afternoon amid high winds and hundreds of lightning strikes. Picture: Pete James/ @killershotphoto media_camera Tile damage to homes in Altona North. Picture: Norm Oorloff While his Deakin AIRwatch website predicted this weather combination would trigger an extreme event, Assoc Prof Suphioglu said more resources were needed to set up an alert system. “If it is well resourced we can give alerts — how seriously they (emergency authorities) take those alerts will be up to them,” Assoc Prof Suphioglu said. “This is a well know thing. Melbourne is dubbed as not only the allergy capital of the world, but also the thunderstorm capital of the world.” Royal Melbourne Hospital’s director of Emergency Professor George Braitberg said they had to borrow Ventalin from neighbouring centres after seeing a day’s worth of patients in 12 hours. “There really wasn’t any warning,” he said. “Most people I saw weren’t asthmatics or hadn’t had it for 25 years. It was an extraordinary situation; the worse I’ve experienced in 30 years in the job.” St Vincent’s Hospital had to enact it’s emergency management plan reserved for disasters and set up a second six-bed emergency department in its day unit when it became overwhelmed with 216 presentations — more than double what sees on a typical night. Out of The Royal Children’s Hospital’s 500 emergency presentations — two and a half times the normal number off sick children — resulted in about 50 cases being admitted. “Just the sheer number of patients. it is unprecedented in our history,” RCH director of general medicine Dr Tom Connell said. “There will certainly be lessons learnt about dealing with demands, but it is hard to predict these and I think we have all coped very well by pulling together in a true team spirit.” media_camera Stacee Krepis was forced to drive Nicholas to the Royal Children's Hospital. Picture: Jake Nowakowski Harrowing hospital dash as son struggled to breath A MUM has described the harrowing moment she was told to drive her son to the hospital while he struggled to breathe — because there weren’t enough ambulances to take him. Stacee Krepis called 000 at 4am on November 21 after her son Nicholas, 11, had chest pains, and had struggled to breathe from about 6pm the night before. But when the paramedic arrived to her Coburg home in a station wagon shortly after, he urged Ms Krepis she needed to take Nicholas straight to the Royal Children’s Hospital while suffering from “Thunderstorm asthma”. “I rang the ambulance, but a paramedic came on his own, and when he saw Nicholas, he said yes, I needed to take him to the Royal Children’s straight away,” Ms Krepis said. But after a dash to the hospital, Ms Krepis was confronted with dozens of children in the waiting room, coughing and wheezing. “Looking at some of those kids in there, they were really struggling; it was really scary, especially seeing your child unable to breathe,” Ms Krepis said. Ms Krepis said when she finally got to see a doctor, he told her the “line was out the door with children with similar symptoms” by midnight. media_camera Chris Wookey had his first asthma attack last night. Picture: David Caird Perfect storm a rare event “THUNDERSTORM asthma” is a rare Spring event, which occurs when a thunderstorm, sudden change in humidity, a northerly wind change and high pollen count are combined. This perfect storm causes pollen “packages” to be blown from the north. The humidity change bursts these capsules, which explode tiny pollens at concentrations million times higher than what is usually in the air which irritate airways. People with mild asthma, or who have never experienced an asthma attack, are often most affected because they aren’t actively taking treatment or have management plans. Melbourne is the “thunderstorm” capital of the world; with epidemics recorded in 1987, 1989, and November 2010. Royal Melbourne Hospital’s head of respiratory medicine, Associate Professor Lou Irving said the event was a reminder to mild asthmatics that their condition could suddenly become severe and they needed an action plan and current medication. [email protected] ||||| At least four people have died after the sudden outbreak of "thunderstorm asthma", prompting an investigation into the emergency response to the medical crisis that swept across Melbourne on Monday. Forty-eight hours after the massive asthma event pushed the city's healthcare system to its limits, two more people were confirmed dead. SHARE Share on Facebook SHARE Share on Twitter TWEET Link Dr Mark Hotu with Asthma suferer Angelique Harkins. Photo: Jason South Noble Park father-of-two, Clarence Leo, and 35-year-old man, Apollo Papadopoulos, died after suffering asthma attacks that are believed to be due to the unprecedented weather event. As more information about the emergency response came to light on Wednesday - including details of after-hour clinics, doctors and pharmacies struggling to cope with a surge in patients - questions were raised about why a public warning was not sent out to asthma sufferers. Health Minister Jill Hennessy, who commissioned the Inspector-General for Emergency Management to review the emergency response, said the thunderstorm asthma event could not have been predicted, but that work was underway to create new models to anticipate the effect of extreme weather on health. "Unpredictable weather patterns and the impact on health I think is a new emerging frontier for public health risks," she said. Advertisement The National Home Doctor Service sent doctors to more than 100 asthma sufferers between Monday night and Tuesday morning. Doctor Mark Hotusaid he arrived at 16-year-old Angelique's Altona home about 4am Tuesday after she had woken up "unable to breathe" and been turned away from hospital. He sent her back to hospital with a note for a doctor to see her immediately and she was finally admitted. On Wednesday morning, Ms Hennessy said there were two confirmed deaths - 20-year-old law student Hope Carnevali and Greenvale high-school student Omar Moujalled. But within hours, the grieving families and friends of two other men spoke of their loss after thunderstorm asthma struck. Mr Leo, a bouncer, was well known in Melbourne's nightclub scene. His business partner, Andrew Christodoulou, described him as a "gentle giant". Friend Danny Saddoo remembered Mr Leo as a doting father and husband and "a really lovely, kind-hearted man". He said he suffered a "massive" asthma attack at 4.30am on Tuesday and died before paramedics arrived. Mr Papadopoulos' sister, Bianca Becker, said her brother was "the best man you'll ever meet. We're devastated." His mother, Emma Papadopoulos, said the "chaos" she witnessed at the hospital on Monday night was unlike anything she had ever seen. "I can't believe the amount of people there that were having problems breathing," she told Channel 10. Charles Guest, chief health officer for the Department of Health and Human Services, would not comment on the number of fatalities, saying the department was aware of a "number of deaths" that may be associated with the event. He declined to comment further until a cause of death had been "attributed" for these cases. At least eight people were still in intensive care on Wednesday evening. It is understood one man is in a critical condition after suffering a cardiac arrest during the thunderstorm asthma. Hospitals were inundated with more than 1000 people seeking help on Monday night after the sudden change in weather triggered respiratory problems in people across the city. There were almost 2000 calls for ambulances in five hours and about 30 people were admitted into intensive care units. Sunshine Hospital was one of the worst hit, with 18 ambulances banked up in the early hours of Tuesday morning as crews frantically worked on patients. A Western Health spokeswoman said it was "unheard of" to have that many ambulances waiting outside the suburban emergency department at one time. After-hours clinics and pharmacies were also swamped with patients as they struggled to treat people with dwindling drug supplies. The Age spoke to 10 Melbourne late night pharmacies, six of them completely sold out of Ventolin on Monday night. Staff at 24-hour Mill Park Superclinic described the night thunderstorm asthma hit Melbourne as like "a bomb had gone off". Ambulance Employees Australia acting general secretary, Danny Hill, said ambulance crews were flat out during the emergency. "It's almost the equivalent of a major terrorist attack," he said, adding that crews reported the system functioned well. "So while there would have been quite a lot of ramping across the city [paramedics] were pretty happy the crooker patients got dealt with quite quickly." Asthma Foundation Victoria chief executive Robin Ould said he would write to Ms Hennessy calling for an action plan to deal with future asthma events. But asthma sufferers also needed ensure they were managing their condition, Mr Ould said. "We need to make people aware of what their own triggers are so they can manage their asthma."

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

An Indiana man has been federally charged with several counts of child abuse after allegedly forcing his three young grandsons on brutal Grand Canyon hikes this month. He is accused of beating them, making them walk on ulcerated blisters, denying them food and water, and forcing them to run up the trail under the intense sun. According to a complaint filed Tuesday by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Flagstaff, rangers and passersby took note of several instances regarding alleged abuse by Christopher A. Carlson, of Indianapolis, against the boys, ages 12, 9 and 8, on two trips to the Grand Canyon during a summer cross-country trip. One of these hikes, a 19-mile trek, occurred last weekend, when temperatures reached 108 degrees at Phantom Ranch along the Colorado River. A law enforcement ranger intervened on the first trip, on Aug. 15, when she saw Carlson and the boys at the day-use area at Indian Garden. According to the complaint, other park visitors had told the ranger that they were concerned for the boys, who looked exhausted. The group had already hiked that day from the South Rim to Plateau Point and back to Indian Garden, a distance of about 7 1/2 miles, and Carlson was reportedly intent on taking the boys to the Colorado River and back to the rim that evening. CHILD ENDANGERMENT The ranger said it would have been child endangerment to take the boys to the river and back and that she would not allow them to go because it was too late -- 5 p.m. when she spoke with them -- too far and too strenuous for the tired children. A trip to the river and back would have added about 8 miles to the hike back to the rim, itself about 4 miles from Indian Garden. Carlson, reportedly defensive and aggressive, eventually complied and hiked the children back out. He also reportedly declined the ranger's offer of food and said everybody was "fine," the complaint stated. The ranger contacted other rangers at the Three Mile Rest House and the rim to keep an eye out for the group. After hiking out, the group reportedly left the park. They returned this past weekend. On Sunday afternoon, another ranger in the Indian Garden area of the Bright Angel Trail spotted the man and boys and contacted the law enforcement ranger who had met the group on the earlier trip to say she was concerned for the children. Not long after, a passing hiker used the emergency phone at the Three Mile Rest House to report the group after the oldest child secretly asked for help. The children were described as hyperventilating and running, and another ranger in the area said Carlson was threatening to make them hike faster and that the youngest boy was crying. TRAILSIDE CONFRONTATION AVOIDED Coordinated efforts among rangers led to another law enforcement ranger on the rim spotting the group with binoculars and watching them on the last three-quarter-mile of trail before the trailhead. During that time, the ranger on the rim noted Carlson allegedly shoving the oldest boy and whipping him with a rolled-up shirt as he hiked. Rangers chose to meet the group at the trailhead to avoid a risky confrontation on the narrow, exposed trail. The boys told investigators that they had been hit, pushed, choked, pinched, squeezed and whipped during the day's hike, and that they had vomited several times, sometimes when the man forced their fingers down their throats. They also said they were not allowed to drink water until they reached Phantom Ranch and sneaked water from the Colorado River, and that they had been limited to little food. Rangers fed and hydrated the boys inside an ambulance. On Sunday, the day the children were separated from their grandfather, an adult hiker died on Tanner Trail after suffering hyperthermia and dehydration. Rangers and trail signs regularly remind park visitors of the extreme summertime heat and urge precautions. Heat-related illnesses, deaths and rescues of distressed hikers are common. LIPS SUNBURNED OFF The children were placed in the care of Child Protective Services. A medical exam showed several injuries in various stages of healing, implying chronic abuse. The boys' lips had been sunburned off and they had several cuts and bruises. The eldest boy described some symptoms of potentially fatal heat stroke from Sunday's hike, including dizziness, double vision and sounds around him becoming hushed. The boys also had badly chafed groins, because Carlson did not allow them to wear underwear. Carlson remains in custody at the Coconino County jail. He will be back in court Thursday for additional hearings. Hillary Davis can be reached at [email protected] or 556-2261. ||||| An Indiana man is accused of forcing his three young grandsons on brutal hikes at the Grand Canyon, beating them, making them walk on ulcerated blisters, denying them food and water and pushing them to run up the trail under the intense sun. Christopher A. Carlson, of Indianapolis, was charged with child abuse. Rangers and passers-by noted the alleged abuse by Carlson against the boys, ages 12, 9 and 8, according to a court documents. One of the hikes down the most popular trail at the Grand Canyon lasted 18 miles last weekend, when temperatures reached up to 108 degrees at Phantom Ranch along the Colorado River. A ranger spotted the group with binoculars on a trail and saw Carlson shoving the oldest boy and whipping him with a rolled up a T-shirt, authorities said. When asked about the condition of the boys during a hike on Aug. 15, Carlson became defensive, the ranger said. He refused to let the boys cool off in a water fountain and also refused to let the boys eat food the ranger offered, NBC Indianapolis affiliate WTHR reported. When Carlson left the area briefly, the ranger asked the younger boys how they felt. The boys said they were tired, sore and didn't want to continue the hike. After Carlson returned, the ranger said, he became aggressive, but agreed to hike out of the park with the boys, WTHR reported. The boys later said that Carlson told them to "look happy" if they passed people on the trail and say they were "fine" if asked. On Aug. 28, during the 18-mile hike, one of the boys told a passing hiker to "call the emergency," which later led to rangers confronting Carlson on the steep trail, WTHR reported. According to court documents, the boys had injuries that were consistent with ongoing abuse. The boys were badly sunburned and had severely chafed groins because Carlson allegedly didn't let them wear underwear, the Arizona Daily Sun reported. The boys' mother, Tara Danaher, of Indianapolis, sobbed and covered her face during a hearing Thursday to determine whether Carlson should remain in custody. She said her children went on a series of trips with their grandfather this summer, including to Central America and Jamaica. The highlight of the latest trip that included the Grand Canyon was supposed to be Disneyland, she said. Danaher, 28, said she talked with her children throughout the summer and that they never expressed any concerns. "I don't want to say I can't believe it because anything is possible in this world," she said during breaks in the court hearing. "I want to know what the hell happened." The boys told investigators that they had been hit, pushed, choked, pinched, squeezed and whipped, and had vomited several times when Carlson forced their fingers down their throats. Photo of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. They also said they were not allowed to drink water and had been limited to little food. Rangers fed and hydrated the boys inside an ambulance and they were placed in the care of child protective services. The same day the rangers confronted Carlson, an adult died hiking in the Grand Canyon from hyperthermia and dehydration, reported the Arizona Daily Sun. The trail that the group hiked on two separate times last month can be deceiving. The Bright Angel Trail starts around 7,000 feet in elevation and drops to 2,400 feet at the river, and the temperature varies widely. The National Park Service advises hikers not to make the trip to the river and back in one day but people do it sometimes. Carlson took the children on the latest hike on Aug. 28. Park Service Special Agent Chris Smith testified Thursday that Carlson told authorities that the boys had been overweight and he thought the hike would get them into shape. "He told me that he loved his grandchildren very much but at the same time there were tough people in the world and his grandchildren needed to be tough as well," Smith said. Defense attorney Luke Mulligan suggested that rangers could have done more if they believed the children were at risk of serious injury or death. Carlson has not yet entered a plea in the case. The boys are in the custody of the state. Police didn't place the boys with their mother because the best interests of the boys are "not her primary concern," WTHR reported.

– A 45-year-old Indiana grandfather has been charged with child abuse after trying to toughen up his three grandsons with brutal hikes in the Grand Canyon, according to park rangers. He was busted after rangers and tourists observed him abusing the boys, ages 12, 9, and 8, MSNBC reports. The boys told police they had been hit, choked, whipped, forced to run up trails under the blazing sun at temperatures as high as 108 degrees, and denied food and water during the hikes. Carlson had told them to "look happy" if they passed other people on the trail. On the day Carlson was arrested last weekend, the boys were forced on a 19-mile hike in extremely hot conditions that left another hiker dead. After one of the boys secretly asked a passerby for help, rangers observed Carlson whipping one boy with a rolled-up T-shirt and confronted him. On a hike two weeks earlier, rangers found him with the children, exhausted from a 7-mile hike and told him to take the boys out of the park instead of hiking another 12 miles as planned. Medical examiners found that the boys had suffered injuries that were in various stages of healing, severe sunburn, and symptoms of heat stroke, reports the Arizona Daily Sun.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.An Indiana man has been federally charged with several counts of child abuse after allegedly forcing his three young grandsons on brutal Grand Canyon hikes this month. He is accused of beating them, making them walk on ulcerated blisters, denying them food and water, and forcing them to run up the trail under the intense sun. According to a complaint filed Tuesday by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Flagstaff, rangers and passersby took note of several instances regarding alleged abuse by Christopher A. Carlson, of Indianapolis, against the boys, ages 12, 9 and 8, on two trips to the Grand Canyon during a summer cross-country trip. One of these hikes, a 19-mile trek, occurred last weekend, when temperatures reached 108 degrees at Phantom Ranch along the Colorado River. A law enforcement ranger intervened on the first trip, on Aug. 15, when she saw Carlson and the boys at the day-use area at Indian Garden. According to the complaint, other park visitors had told the ranger that they were concerned for the boys, who looked exhausted. The group had already hiked that day from the South Rim to Plateau Point and back to Indian Garden, a distance of about 7 1/2 miles, and Carlson was reportedly intent on taking the boys to the Colorado River and back to the rim that evening. CHILD ENDANGERMENT The ranger said it would have been child endangerment to take the boys to the river and back and that she would not allow them to go because it was too late -- 5 p.m. when she spoke with them -- too far and too strenuous for the tired children. A trip to the river and back would have added about 8 miles to the hike back to the rim, itself about 4 miles from Indian Garden. Carlson, reportedly defensive and aggressive, eventually complied and hiked the children back out. He also reportedly declined the ranger's offer of food and said everybody was "fine," the complaint stated. The ranger contacted other rangers at the Three Mile Rest House and the rim to keep an eye out for the group. After hiking out, the group reportedly left the park. They returned this past weekend. On Sunday afternoon, another ranger in the Indian Garden area of the Bright Angel Trail spotted the man and boys and contacted the law enforcement ranger who had met the group on the earlier trip to say she was concerned for the children. Not long after, a passing hiker used the emergency phone at the Three Mile Rest House to report the group after the oldest child secretly asked for help. The children were described as hyperventilating and running, and another ranger in the area said Carlson was threatening to make them hike faster and that the youngest boy was crying. TRAILSIDE CONFRONTATION AVOIDED Coordinated efforts among rangers led to another law enforcement ranger on the rim spotting the group with binoculars and watching them on the last three-quarter-mile of trail before the trailhead. During that time, the ranger on the rim noted Carlson allegedly shoving the oldest boy and whipping him with a rolled-up shirt as he hiked. Rangers chose to meet the group at the trailhead to avoid a risky confrontation on the narrow, exposed trail. The boys told investigators that they had been hit, pushed, choked, pinched, squeezed and whipped during the day's hike, and that they had vomited several times, sometimes when the man forced their fingers down their throats. They also said they were not allowed to drink water until they reached Phantom Ranch and sneaked water from the Colorado River, and that they had been limited to little food. Rangers fed and hydrated the boys inside an ambulance. On Sunday, the day the children were separated from their grandfather, an adult hiker died on Tanner Trail after suffering hyperthermia and dehydration. Rangers and trail signs regularly remind park visitors of the extreme summertime heat and urge precautions. Heat-related illnesses, deaths and rescues of distressed hikers are common. LIPS SUNBURNED OFF The children were placed in the care of Child Protective Services. A medical exam showed several injuries in various stages of healing, implying chronic abuse. The boys' lips had been sunburned off and they had several cuts and bruises. The eldest boy described some symptoms of potentially fatal heat stroke from Sunday's hike, including dizziness, double vision and sounds around him becoming hushed. The boys also had badly chafed groins, because Carlson did not allow them to wear underwear. Carlson remains in custody at the Coconino County jail. He will be back in court Thursday for additional hearings. Hillary Davis can be reached at [email protected] or 556-2261. ||||| An Indiana man is accused of forcing his three young grandsons on brutal hikes at the Grand Canyon, beating them, making them walk on ulcerated blisters, denying them food and water and pushing them to run up the trail under the intense sun. Christopher A. Carlson, of Indianapolis, was charged with child abuse. Rangers and passers-by noted the alleged abuse by Carlson against the boys, ages 12, 9 and 8, according to a court documents. One of the hikes down the most popular trail at the Grand Canyon lasted 18 miles last weekend, when temperatures reached up to 108 degrees at Phantom Ranch along the Colorado River. A ranger spotted the group with binoculars on a trail and saw Carlson shoving the oldest boy and whipping him with a rolled up a T-shirt, authorities said. When asked about the condition of the boys during a hike on Aug. 15, Carlson became defensive, the ranger said. He refused to let the boys cool off in a water fountain and also refused to let the boys eat food the ranger offered, NBC Indianapolis affiliate WTHR reported. When Carlson left the area briefly, the ranger asked the younger boys how they felt. The boys said they were tired, sore and didn't want to continue the hike. After Carlson returned, the ranger said, he became aggressive, but agreed to hike out of the park with the boys, WTHR reported. The boys later said that Carlson told them to "look happy" if they passed people on the trail and say they were "fine" if asked. On Aug. 28, during the 18-mile hike, one of the boys told a passing hiker to "call the emergency," which later led to rangers confronting Carlson on the steep trail, WTHR reported. According to court documents, the boys had injuries that were consistent with ongoing abuse. The boys were badly sunburned and had severely chafed groins because Carlson allegedly didn't let them wear underwear, the Arizona Daily Sun reported. The boys' mother, Tara Danaher, of Indianapolis, sobbed and covered her face during a hearing Thursday to determine whether Carlson should remain in custody. She said her children went on a series of trips with their grandfather this summer, including to Central America and Jamaica. The highlight of the latest trip that included the Grand Canyon was supposed to be Disneyland, she said. Danaher, 28, said she talked with her children throughout the summer and that they never expressed any concerns. "I don't want to say I can't believe it because anything is possible in this world," she said during breaks in the court hearing. "I want to know what the hell happened." The boys told investigators that they had been hit, pushed, choked, pinched, squeezed and whipped, and had vomited several times when Carlson forced their fingers down their throats. Photo of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. They also said they were not allowed to drink water and had been limited to little food. Rangers fed and hydrated the boys inside an ambulance and they were placed in the care of child protective services. The same day the rangers confronted Carlson, an adult died hiking in the Grand Canyon from hyperthermia and dehydration, reported the Arizona Daily Sun. The trail that the group hiked on two separate times last month can be deceiving. The Bright Angel Trail starts around 7,000 feet in elevation and drops to 2,400 feet at the river, and the temperature varies widely. The National Park Service advises hikers not to make the trip to the river and back in one day but people do it sometimes. Carlson took the children on the latest hike on Aug. 28. Park Service Special Agent Chris Smith testified Thursday that Carlson told authorities that the boys had been overweight and he thought the hike would get them into shape. "He told me that he loved his grandchildren very much but at the same time there were tough people in the world and his grandchildren needed to be tough as well," Smith said. Defense attorney Luke Mulligan suggested that rangers could have done more if they believed the children were at risk of serious injury or death. Carlson has not yet entered a plea in the case. The boys are in the custody of the state. Police didn't place the boys with their mother because the best interests of the boys are "not her primary concern," WTHR reported.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Leonardo da Vinci's painting of Mona Lisa contains several clues as to the model's identity, Vinceti claims. Photograph: Gianni Dagli Orti/Corbis An Italian researcher has sparked new controversy over the world's most famous painting by claiming Leonardo da Vinci painted tiny letters into the eyes of the Mona Lisa which may finally reveal the disputed identity of his model. To arrive at a theory worthy of The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown's 2003 bestseller, researcher Silvano Vinceti avoided the Mona Lisa's enigmatic smile and instead gazed deep into her eyes with the help of high-resolution images. "Invisible to the naked eye and painted in black on green-brown are the letters LV in her right pupil, obviously Leonardo's initials, but it is what is in her left pupil that is far more interesting," said Vinceti, the chairman of the Italian national committee for cultural heritage. Vinceti said that the letters B or S, or possibly the initials CE, were discernible, a vital clue to identifying the model who sat for the Renaissance artist. She has often been named as Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine merchant, but Vinceti disagreed, claiming Leonardo painted the Mona Lisa in Milan. He said he would announce his conclusions next month. "On the back of the painting are the numbers '149', with a fourth number erased, suggesting he painted it when he was in Milan in the 1490s, using as a model a woman from the court of Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan," said Vinceti, who claimed earlier this year that he had identified the lost remains of the painter Michelangelo da Caravaggio. In The Da Vinci Code, Brown suggests Mona Lisa is an anagram for Amon l'Isa, referring to ancient Egyptian deities. "Leonardo was keen on symbols and codes to get messages across, and he wanted us to know the identity of the model using the eyes, which he believed were the door to the soul and a means for communication," said Vinceti. He said that while researching the model's identity he had been inspired by a 1960s book by a French art historian, which mentions the letters in her eyes. "Under the right-hand arch of the bridge seen in the background, Leonardo also painted 72, or L2, another possible clue," he added. "Two expert painters we consulted on this tell us that all these marks, painted using a tiny brush and a magnifying glass, cannot be an error." ||||| Leonardo Da Vinci's 500-year-old Renaissance masterpiece has long been steeped in mystery, and even today the true identity of the woman with the alluring smile still far from certain. Now members of Italy 's National Committee for Cultural Heritage have revealed that by magnifying high resolution images of the Mona Lisa's eyes letters and numbers can be seen. "To the naked eye the symbols are not visible but with a magnifying glass they can clearly be seen," said Silvano Vinceti, president of the Committee. In the right eye appear to be the letters LV which could well stand for his name Leonardo Da Vinci while in the left eye there are also symbols but they are not as defined. He said: "It is very difficult to make them out clearly but they appear to be the letters CE or it could be the letter B - you have to remember the picture is almost 500 years old so it is not as sharp and clear as when first painted. "While in the arch of the bridge in the background the number 72 can be seen, or it could be an L and the number 2." The painting also featured in the Dan Brown blockbuster The Da Vinci Code, which was turned into a 2006 film starring Tom Hanks. His character interprets secret messages hidden in the Mona Lisa and Da Vinci's other works, including The Last Supper. Mr Vinceti, who has travelled to Paris to examine the painting in the Louvre gallery where it is on display, explained that in true Dan Brown style they were put onto the mystery after fellow committee member Luigi Borgia discovered a musty book in an antique shop. The 50 year old volume describes how the Mona Lisa's eyes are full of various signs and symbols and he added: "We are only at the start of this investigation and we hope to be able to dig deeper into this mystery and reveal further details as soon as possible. "It's remarkable that no-one has noticed these symbols before and from the preliminary investigations we have carried out we are confident they are not a mistake and were put there by the artist." Mr Vinceti is part of the group asking French authorities for permission to exhume Da Vinci's remains from his tomb at Amboise Castle in the Loire Valley. They want to see if the artist's skull is there so that they can try and recreate his face and establish if the Mona Lisa is a self portrait of the artist, as many people believe. Some historians believe that Da Vinci was homosexual and that his love of riddles led him to paint himself as a woman. Another theory is that the Mona Lisa is Lisa Gheradini, the wife of Florence merchant - or possibly even the artist's mother. Six months ago Mr Vinceti also made headlines around the world after discovering the bones of Renaissance wild man artist Michelangelo Merisi, otherwise known as Caravaggio, in a long forgotten crypt at Porto Ercole on Italy's Tuscan coast. Mr Vinceti added: ”Da Vinci put a special emphasis on the Mona Lisa and we know that in the last years of his life he took the painting with him everywhere - he didn’t like it to leave his side and carried it in a secure case. ”We also know that Da Vinci was very esoteric and used symbols in his work to give out messages and we have examined other paintings and have not found any similar numbers or letters. ”Painters we have spoken to have also said they are unlikely to have been put there by mistake so we are confident that they are a message from Da Vinci and were specifically inserted into the eyes by him. ”What adds to the intrigue is that they are in the pupils, the darkest part of the eyes, so they would only be none by him - if he had wanted them to be more widely seen then he would have put them into the more visible white parts of the eyes. ”The question now is what to they mean - we are fairly confident that the LV is probably his signature but the other numbers and letters? Who knows they may even possibly be a love message to the figure in the painting.” The Mona Lisa is an oil on panel painting owned by the French government and is known in Italy, where it was painted, as La Gioconda. The image is so widely recognised and caricatured that it is considered the most famous painting in the world. Da Vinci started to paint it in 1503 or 1504 and finished it in 1519, shortly before his death, and after he had moved to France. In August 1911 the painting was stolen by an Italian employee at the Louvre who felt that it should be returned to its native Italy and it was only returned two years later after being put on display widely across the country. It suffered two vandal attacks in 1956 and since then has been behind bullet proof glass - which protected it from the last assault last year when a Russian woman angry at being refused French citizenship threw a tea mug at it which shattered as it hit the glass.

– Want to know the true identity of the Mona Lisa? Just look deep into her eyes. Art historians have discovered miniscule numbers and letters painted there, and believe they might give a clue as to who sat for Leonardo Da Vinci's 500-year-old masterpiece. A group in Italy magnified high resolution images of the painting in order to find the "code," which is not visible to the naked eye, one researcher tells the Telegraph. "LV" appears in the right eye, likely standing for the artist's own name. In the left eye, the letters are more difficult to make out and could be "CE" or possibly "B" or "S," the Guardian adds. In the background, the number "72" appears—or it could be "L2." Researchers were alerted to the mystery after finding a 50-year-old book claiming that signs and symbols were present in the painting. "We are confident they are not a mistake and were put there by the artist," says one, adding that the number "149," with a fourth number erased, on the back indicates Da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa in Milan in the 1490s and used a woman from the Duke of Milan's court as a model. Click here for more secrets of the Mona Lisa.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Leonardo da Vinci's painting of Mona Lisa contains several clues as to the model's identity, Vinceti claims. Photograph: Gianni Dagli Orti/Corbis An Italian researcher has sparked new controversy over the world's most famous painting by claiming Leonardo da Vinci painted tiny letters into the eyes of the Mona Lisa which may finally reveal the disputed identity of his model. To arrive at a theory worthy of The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown's 2003 bestseller, researcher Silvano Vinceti avoided the Mona Lisa's enigmatic smile and instead gazed deep into her eyes with the help of high-resolution images. "Invisible to the naked eye and painted in black on green-brown are the letters LV in her right pupil, obviously Leonardo's initials, but it is what is in her left pupil that is far more interesting," said Vinceti, the chairman of the Italian national committee for cultural heritage. Vinceti said that the letters B or S, or possibly the initials CE, were discernible, a vital clue to identifying the model who sat for the Renaissance artist. She has often been named as Lisa Gherardini, the wife of a Florentine merchant, but Vinceti disagreed, claiming Leonardo painted the Mona Lisa in Milan. He said he would announce his conclusions next month. "On the back of the painting are the numbers '149', with a fourth number erased, suggesting he painted it when he was in Milan in the 1490s, using as a model a woman from the court of Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan," said Vinceti, who claimed earlier this year that he had identified the lost remains of the painter Michelangelo da Caravaggio. In The Da Vinci Code, Brown suggests Mona Lisa is an anagram for Amon l'Isa, referring to ancient Egyptian deities. "Leonardo was keen on symbols and codes to get messages across, and he wanted us to know the identity of the model using the eyes, which he believed were the door to the soul and a means for communication," said Vinceti. He said that while researching the model's identity he had been inspired by a 1960s book by a French art historian, which mentions the letters in her eyes. "Under the right-hand arch of the bridge seen in the background, Leonardo also painted 72, or L2, another possible clue," he added. "Two expert painters we consulted on this tell us that all these marks, painted using a tiny brush and a magnifying glass, cannot be an error." ||||| Leonardo Da Vinci's 500-year-old Renaissance masterpiece has long been steeped in mystery, and even today the true identity of the woman with the alluring smile still far from certain. Now members of Italy 's National Committee for Cultural Heritage have revealed that by magnifying high resolution images of the Mona Lisa's eyes letters and numbers can be seen. "To the naked eye the symbols are not visible but with a magnifying glass they can clearly be seen," said Silvano Vinceti, president of the Committee. In the right eye appear to be the letters LV which could well stand for his name Leonardo Da Vinci while in the left eye there are also symbols but they are not as defined. He said: "It is very difficult to make them out clearly but they appear to be the letters CE or it could be the letter B - you have to remember the picture is almost 500 years old so it is not as sharp and clear as when first painted. "While in the arch of the bridge in the background the number 72 can be seen, or it could be an L and the number 2." The painting also featured in the Dan Brown blockbuster The Da Vinci Code, which was turned into a 2006 film starring Tom Hanks. His character interprets secret messages hidden in the Mona Lisa and Da Vinci's other works, including The Last Supper. Mr Vinceti, who has travelled to Paris to examine the painting in the Louvre gallery where it is on display, explained that in true Dan Brown style they were put onto the mystery after fellow committee member Luigi Borgia discovered a musty book in an antique shop. The 50 year old volume describes how the Mona Lisa's eyes are full of various signs and symbols and he added: "We are only at the start of this investigation and we hope to be able to dig deeper into this mystery and reveal further details as soon as possible. "It's remarkable that no-one has noticed these symbols before and from the preliminary investigations we have carried out we are confident they are not a mistake and were put there by the artist." Mr Vinceti is part of the group asking French authorities for permission to exhume Da Vinci's remains from his tomb at Amboise Castle in the Loire Valley. They want to see if the artist's skull is there so that they can try and recreate his face and establish if the Mona Lisa is a self portrait of the artist, as many people believe. Some historians believe that Da Vinci was homosexual and that his love of riddles led him to paint himself as a woman. Another theory is that the Mona Lisa is Lisa Gheradini, the wife of Florence merchant - or possibly even the artist's mother. Six months ago Mr Vinceti also made headlines around the world after discovering the bones of Renaissance wild man artist Michelangelo Merisi, otherwise known as Caravaggio, in a long forgotten crypt at Porto Ercole on Italy's Tuscan coast. Mr Vinceti added: ”Da Vinci put a special emphasis on the Mona Lisa and we know that in the last years of his life he took the painting with him everywhere - he didn’t like it to leave his side and carried it in a secure case. ”We also know that Da Vinci was very esoteric and used symbols in his work to give out messages and we have examined other paintings and have not found any similar numbers or letters. ”Painters we have spoken to have also said they are unlikely to have been put there by mistake so we are confident that they are a message from Da Vinci and were specifically inserted into the eyes by him. ”What adds to the intrigue is that they are in the pupils, the darkest part of the eyes, so they would only be none by him - if he had wanted them to be more widely seen then he would have put them into the more visible white parts of the eyes. ”The question now is what to they mean - we are fairly confident that the LV is probably his signature but the other numbers and letters? Who knows they may even possibly be a love message to the figure in the painting.” The Mona Lisa is an oil on panel painting owned by the French government and is known in Italy, where it was painted, as La Gioconda. The image is so widely recognised and caricatured that it is considered the most famous painting in the world. Da Vinci started to paint it in 1503 or 1504 and finished it in 1519, shortly before his death, and after he had moved to France. In August 1911 the painting was stolen by an Italian employee at the Louvre who felt that it should be returned to its native Italy and it was only returned two years later after being put on display widely across the country. It suffered two vandal attacks in 1956 and since then has been behind bullet proof glass - which protected it from the last assault last year when a Russian woman angry at being refused French citizenship threw a tea mug at it which shattered as it hit the glass.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

A photograph of the wives and spouses of the NATO leaders has gone viral - because of the inclusion of Gauthier Destenay, the husband of Luxembourg's gay prime minister Xavier Bettel. Destenay joined the likes of Melania Trump for an official photo, as the likes of Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron engaged in speeches and awkward handshakes. The group toured the Magritte Museum before going their separate ways, but social media applauded the inclusion of Mr Destenay. On twitter, Bjorn Nordlund said: "Situations like this do more for the gay community than any Pride ever will." Matt di Toro said: "I love this so much omg!" Gauthier Destenay married Bettel in 2015 shortly after the country legalised same-sex marriage. As the leaders' spouses spent time together, the US President made headlines over a series of bizarre handshakes, momentary snubs and aggressive shoves during his visit to Brussels. Trump was first seen sharing an extraordinarily aggressive handshake with newly elected French President Emmanuel Macron during their first face-to-face meeting, before then being spotted shoving the Prime Minister of Montenegro out the way during a photo call. ||||| While President Donald Trump has met with many male heads of government, First Lady Melania Trump has often mingled with their wives. But on Thursday, Mrs. Trump was introduced to the First Gentleman of Luxembourg. Gauthier Destenay, the husband of Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, joined Trump and other spouses for a dinner while their significant others attended a gathering as part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) conference in Brussels, Belgium. Prime Minister Bettel, 44, and Belgian architect Destenay entered a civil partnership in 2010 and married in 2015 after Luxembourg’s legislators approved gay marriage. Bettel became the first openly gay Prime Minister of Luxembourg in December 2013, after an election campaign in which his sexuality was not a secret nor an issue. Bettel is the world’s only gay head of government since Iceland’s former Prime Minister Johanna Sigurðardóttir, a lesbian, and Belgium’s Elio Di Rupo finished their mandates in 2013 and 2015 respectively. YORICK JANSENS/AFP/Getty “I have just one life, and I don’t want to hide my life,” Bettel previously said in an interview. “But I was not the ‘gay candidate.’ People didn’t vote for me because I’m gay or I’m straight.” In April, Bettel and Destenay irked conservative members of the Catholic Church when they were invited to Rome by Pope Francis to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the European Union’s founding Treaty Of Rome. Others saw the visit as a “powerful message” on the Vatican’s position on gay rights. FROM PEN: Learn The Process Behind Time Selecting The 100 Most Influential People Also in attendance at the dinner with Destenay and Trump were First Lady of France Brigitte Macron, First Lady of Turkey Emine Gulbaran Erdogan, Queen Mathilde of Belgium, Ingrid Schulerud, Desislava Radeva, Amelie Derbaudrenghien, Mojca Stropnik and First Lady of Iceland Thora Margret Baldvinsdottir. Earlier in the day, President Trump came under fire for appearing to shove Montenegro Prime Minister Dusko Markovic aside to get to the front of a group during a photo-op with NATO leaders. Members were seen walking together to get to a meeting when Trump emerged from behind and pushed Markovic aside, stepping in front of him. The president then smugly straightened in his jacket. “Some of the leaders interacted with one another on stage, but not Trump,” members of the press stated in a pool report. “He stood silently, shifting his stance at moments and looking around.” They said, “Trump smiled for a brief moment, but otherwise kept a serious, perhaps even stern, expression on his face for the duration of the photo-op.”

– The internet is applauding a photo of an international assortment of first ladies taken during this week's NATO activities for containing—gasp—a man. People reports that's Gauthier Destenay, husband of Luxembourg's Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, posing along with Melania Trump and the first ladies of France, Turkey, Iceland, and more. The International Business Times shares a typical Twitter reaction to the photo: "I love this so much omg." Destenay, an architect, married Bettel in 2015 after Luxembourg legalized gay marriage. Bettel is Luxembourg's first openly gay prime minister and currently the only openly gay head of government in the world.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.A photograph of the wives and spouses of the NATO leaders has gone viral - because of the inclusion of Gauthier Destenay, the husband of Luxembourg's gay prime minister Xavier Bettel. Destenay joined the likes of Melania Trump for an official photo, as the likes of Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron engaged in speeches and awkward handshakes. The group toured the Magritte Museum before going their separate ways, but social media applauded the inclusion of Mr Destenay. On twitter, Bjorn Nordlund said: "Situations like this do more for the gay community than any Pride ever will." Matt di Toro said: "I love this so much omg!" Gauthier Destenay married Bettel in 2015 shortly after the country legalised same-sex marriage. As the leaders' spouses spent time together, the US President made headlines over a series of bizarre handshakes, momentary snubs and aggressive shoves during his visit to Brussels. Trump was first seen sharing an extraordinarily aggressive handshake with newly elected French President Emmanuel Macron during their first face-to-face meeting, before then being spotted shoving the Prime Minister of Montenegro out the way during a photo call. ||||| While President Donald Trump has met with many male heads of government, First Lady Melania Trump has often mingled with their wives. But on Thursday, Mrs. Trump was introduced to the First Gentleman of Luxembourg. Gauthier Destenay, the husband of Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Xavier Bettel, joined Trump and other spouses for a dinner while their significant others attended a gathering as part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) conference in Brussels, Belgium. Prime Minister Bettel, 44, and Belgian architect Destenay entered a civil partnership in 2010 and married in 2015 after Luxembourg’s legislators approved gay marriage. Bettel became the first openly gay Prime Minister of Luxembourg in December 2013, after an election campaign in which his sexuality was not a secret nor an issue. Bettel is the world’s only gay head of government since Iceland’s former Prime Minister Johanna Sigurðardóttir, a lesbian, and Belgium’s Elio Di Rupo finished their mandates in 2013 and 2015 respectively. YORICK JANSENS/AFP/Getty “I have just one life, and I don’t want to hide my life,” Bettel previously said in an interview. “But I was not the ‘gay candidate.’ People didn’t vote for me because I’m gay or I’m straight.” In April, Bettel and Destenay irked conservative members of the Catholic Church when they were invited to Rome by Pope Francis to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the European Union’s founding Treaty Of Rome. Others saw the visit as a “powerful message” on the Vatican’s position on gay rights. FROM PEN: Learn The Process Behind Time Selecting The 100 Most Influential People Also in attendance at the dinner with Destenay and Trump were First Lady of France Brigitte Macron, First Lady of Turkey Emine Gulbaran Erdogan, Queen Mathilde of Belgium, Ingrid Schulerud, Desislava Radeva, Amelie Derbaudrenghien, Mojca Stropnik and First Lady of Iceland Thora Margret Baldvinsdottir. Earlier in the day, President Trump came under fire for appearing to shove Montenegro Prime Minister Dusko Markovic aside to get to the front of a group during a photo-op with NATO leaders. Members were seen walking together to get to a meeting when Trump emerged from behind and pushed Markovic aside, stepping in front of him. The president then smugly straightened in his jacket. “Some of the leaders interacted with one another on stage, but not Trump,” members of the press stated in a pool report. “He stood silently, shifting his stance at moments and looking around.” They said, “Trump smiled for a brief moment, but otherwise kept a serious, perhaps even stern, expression on his face for the duration of the photo-op.”

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Federal authorities are searching for a flight attendant they say bolted from a security screening at Los Angeles International Airport, leaving behind about 70 pounds of cocaine stashed in her luggage. Transportation Security Administration officers stopped the woman at random Friday, and she remained at large Monday, said Special Agent Timothy Massino with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The flight attendant was sent to a secondary screening area, but she quickly dropped her bag, ditched a pair of Gucci heels and fled barefoot downward in an upward-moving escalator, said Marshall McClain, president of the union representing LAX airport police officers. Police were called to investigate an unattended bag and later uncovered 69 pounds of cocaine inside, McClain said. McClain expressed concern that officers were alerted about the unattended bag but not a suspicious person running through the airport, he said Monday. He said the case also shows why all flight attendants and other airport employees need to be screened. "With her bringing this amount of narcotics in the airport, chances are this wasn't her first time through," said McClain, head of the Los Angeles Airport Peace Officers Association. "We're hoping this is a wake-up call to airport management as well as federal legislators." Security threats from "insiders" — airline and airport employees, as well as workers hired by contractors — have been a focus of the TSA, particularly after the December 2014 arrest of several Delta Air Lines baggage handlers. Prosecutors allege they smuggled guns, including an AK-47, from Atlanta to New York. Federal authorities said last year that they busted a marijuana smuggling ring at Oakland International Airport, with arrests including baggage handlers. A separate arrest in December involved a TSA worker accused of allowing drug runners to pass their bags through X-ray machines without being stopped. Four former baggage handlers at San Diego's airport were sentenced in September in a drug-smuggling case. The TSA has said that full screening of all employees would cost too much. Instead, the agency has urged airports to increase random screenings of workers and to keep background checks up to date. "We will pay particular attention to the insider threat," TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger told a Senate committee earlier this month. ||||| A flight attendant dropped her bags and ran when she was selected for random screening at Los Angeles international airport – prompting a search that turned up 66lb (30kg) of cocaine in her carry-on luggage, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Woman with cocaine hidden in breast implants arrested at Madrid airport Read more The woman, who had arrived at the terminal on Friday for a flight, abandoned her belongings before escaping on foot, said Special Agent Timothy Massino. The DEA declined further comment on the case while an investigation was under way. A law enforcement source said the flight attendant had been identified by investigators but not apprehended as of Monday evening. Authorities did not say which airline she worked for and there were conflicting media reports. NBC News reported that the woman ran from the terminal after making a nervous phone call in a language not recognised by officers and left behind a pair of designer shoes as she fled on an escalator. Comment was sought from Los Angeles airport police and the Transportation Safety Administration.

– Federal authorities are searching for a flight attendant they say bolted from a security screening at Los Angeles International Airport, leaving behind about 70 pounds of cocaine stashed in her luggage—and her Gucci heels. TSA officers stopped the woman at random Friday, and she remained at large Monday, a DEA spokesman says.The flight attendant was sent to a secondary screening area, but she quickly dropped her bag, ditched her heels, and fled barefoot down an upward-moving escalator, says Marshall McClain, president of the union representing LAX airport police officers. Police were called to investigate an unattended bag and later uncovered 69 pounds of cocaine inside, McClain says. McClain expressed concern that officers were alerted about the unattended bag but not a suspicious person running through the airport. He says the case also shows why all flight attendants and other airport employees need to be screened. "With her bringing this amount of narcotics in the airport, chances are this wasn't her first time through," he tells the AP. "We're hoping this is a wake-up call to airport management as well as federal legislators." A law enforcement source tells the Guardian that the flight attendant has been identified, though it's not clear what airline she worked for. (This smuggler was given away by fresh operation scars.)

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.LOS ANGELES (AP) — Federal authorities are searching for a flight attendant they say bolted from a security screening at Los Angeles International Airport, leaving behind about 70 pounds of cocaine stashed in her luggage. Transportation Security Administration officers stopped the woman at random Friday, and she remained at large Monday, said Special Agent Timothy Massino with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The flight attendant was sent to a secondary screening area, but she quickly dropped her bag, ditched a pair of Gucci heels and fled barefoot downward in an upward-moving escalator, said Marshall McClain, president of the union representing LAX airport police officers. Police were called to investigate an unattended bag and later uncovered 69 pounds of cocaine inside, McClain said. McClain expressed concern that officers were alerted about the unattended bag but not a suspicious person running through the airport, he said Monday. He said the case also shows why all flight attendants and other airport employees need to be screened. "With her bringing this amount of narcotics in the airport, chances are this wasn't her first time through," said McClain, head of the Los Angeles Airport Peace Officers Association. "We're hoping this is a wake-up call to airport management as well as federal legislators." Security threats from "insiders" — airline and airport employees, as well as workers hired by contractors — have been a focus of the TSA, particularly after the December 2014 arrest of several Delta Air Lines baggage handlers. Prosecutors allege they smuggled guns, including an AK-47, from Atlanta to New York. Federal authorities said last year that they busted a marijuana smuggling ring at Oakland International Airport, with arrests including baggage handlers. A separate arrest in December involved a TSA worker accused of allowing drug runners to pass their bags through X-ray machines without being stopped. Four former baggage handlers at San Diego's airport were sentenced in September in a drug-smuggling case. The TSA has said that full screening of all employees would cost too much. Instead, the agency has urged airports to increase random screenings of workers and to keep background checks up to date. "We will pay particular attention to the insider threat," TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger told a Senate committee earlier this month. ||||| A flight attendant dropped her bags and ran when she was selected for random screening at Los Angeles international airport – prompting a search that turned up 66lb (30kg) of cocaine in her carry-on luggage, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. Woman with cocaine hidden in breast implants arrested at Madrid airport Read more The woman, who had arrived at the terminal on Friday for a flight, abandoned her belongings before escaping on foot, said Special Agent Timothy Massino. The DEA declined further comment on the case while an investigation was under way. A law enforcement source said the flight attendant had been identified by investigators but not apprehended as of Monday evening. Authorities did not say which airline she worked for and there were conflicting media reports. NBC News reported that the woman ran from the terminal after making a nervous phone call in a language not recognised by officers and left behind a pair of designer shoes as she fled on an escalator. Comment was sought from Los Angeles airport police and the Transportation Safety Administration.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

WASHINGTON | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Thursday called out his likely opponent for the White House by name for the second time this week and said he "cannot wait" for the chance to pit his vision for America against the Republicans in this year's election. In remarks that underscore the president's shift into full general election-fighting mode, Obama acknowledged Mitt Romney was the front-runner to win the Republican nomination to face him on November 6, and said he relished the upcoming contest. "We are going to have a big and important debate in this country, and I cannot wait," the Democrat told supporters at a fundraising event in Washington. "This is going to be a big debate and it's going to be a fun debate. It's always good to have the truth on your side," he said. The president had barely mentioned the former Massachusetts governor by name for months but has done so twice this week. Romney moved closer to clinching the Republican presidential nomination on Tuesday when he won three primary contests. Obama fiercely attacked Republican budget plans earlier this week. On Thursday he again warned supporters the plan would gut many popular social programs, adding that it was "a budget that Governor Romney, who is the front-runner on the Republican side, has embraced ... the budget was marvelous, he said." (Reporting By Alister Bull; Editing by Paul Simao) ||||| HARRISBURG, Pa. — Mitt Romney's shift from Republican primary partisan to general election candidate has begun in earnest. On the rooftop of an old office building that houses his Pennsylvania headquarters, Romney signaled the start of his effort to appeal to voters in the middle of the political spectrum, who will be critical to his chances in a race against President Obama. "I know that you know how important this is. That it isn't about one person or about even one party," Romney told a group of supporters Thursday under flawless skies. "We're Republicans and Democrats in this campaign, but we're all connected with one destiny for America, and that destiny is greatness and exceptionalism." The call for unity had a strange ring after months of a Republican slugfest that has also demonized Democratic leaders and seems finally to have produced a likely nominee in Romney. In the last couple of days, Romney has virtually ignored his remaining GOP rivals, engaging instead in a back-and-forth with Obama over which of the two is more out of touch with average Americans. On Thursday, he again hit the president for his Ivy League credentials — credentials that they share. "We have a president who I think is a nice guy," Romney said, "but he spent too much time at Harvard, perhaps, or maybe just not enough time working in the real world." It is a potentially self-defeating line of attack: Romney spent four years at Harvard, receiving a law degree and an MBA; Obama spent three years there, graduating from the law school. Also, three of Romney's five sons attended Harvard Business School. Later Thursday, in a part of the state where a natural gas drilling boom has bolstered the economy, Romney found another point in common with the president. In response to a reporter's question, Romney said he believed women should be admitted to the Augusta National Golf Club. "Well, of course," he said. "I'm not a member of Augusta. I don't know if I would qualify — my golf game is not that good — but certainly if I were a member and I could run Augusta, which isn't likely to happen, but of course I'd have women in Augusta. Sure." Obama, an avid golfer, believes the same thing, his spokesman said earlier in the day. During a speech at a company that transports fluids used in the energy extraction process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, Romney criticized Obama's "all of the above" approach to energy production — meaning oil, gas and coal as well as green technologies such as solar and wind power. "I realize he probably meant he's for all of the energy sources that come from above the ground, not the coal, oil and gas that come from below," Romney said. "I am for everything that comes from above and everything that comes from below." Len Crawford, owner of Crawford Technical Services, said that he didn't necessarily blame the president for the fact that 40% of his company's revenues go toward payroll taxes and other employee contributions, but that he was looking forward to electing a Republican president who would be more sensitive to the needs of business. "I think he can win," Crawford said of Romney. "He's doing a better job of articulating free enterprise than he has in the past." Romney's speeches on Wednesday and Thursday have had the air of a victory lap after a trio of important wins this week in Wisconsin, Maryland and the District of Columbia. But Thursday he seemed to hedge a bit, telling reporters who watched him call supporters from a phone bank that he expected former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania to carry the state on April 24. "I think everybody expects someone to win his home state," Romney said, sitting between campaign volunteers Jordan Furr, 20, and Sherrie-Kaye Miller, 51, who did their best not to let his presence distract them from their phone calls to likely Republican voters. "Newt Gingrich won his home state; I won mine." But Romney said he hoped to "pick up a lot of delegates" in Pennsylvania, and also win the other states holding contests that day, to give him "an even stronger lead." As soon as Romney had entered the small phone bank room, he sat down and began making calls. He did not acknowledge the four volunteers on the phone bank until after he'd made his calls. Romney called three voters, all of whom were apparently already planning to vote for him. "These are obviously stacked calls," he said. "I am getting very positive response." His side of the first call went like this: "Good morning, Lois. This is Mitt Romney calling. How are you this morning? Well, good. Have you ever heard of me? You have, huh? [He laughed.] Well, thank you. It sounds like you plan on supporting me, is that right? Well, wonderful. I appreciate your willingness to help out.... I will hopefully get a chance to see you at a rally someday. Thanks so much Lois. Bye-bye." Lois "was a person who said she believes I am the right person to be president, that I can save the country," he told reporters afterward. "I thought that was a pretty good start." [email protected]

– As Mitt Romney campaigns in Pennsylvania, he's traded harsh attacks for a more centrist tone—mostly. The campaign "isn't about one person or about even one party," Romney told backers. "We're Republicans and Democrats in this campaign, but we're all connected with one destiny for America." But Romney took one swing at Obama, trying to paint him as out of touch. He "spent too much time at Harvard, perhaps," Romney said—an odd comment given that he himself spent four years at Harvard to Obama's three, the Los Angeles Times notes. But in more same-page news, the former governor was also in agreement with President Obama over the controversy at the Augusta National Golf Club. "Of course I'd have women in Augusta," he said. His energy stance appeared to echo Obama's as well, though he characterized it differently. Romney suggested Obama's "all of the above" energy strategy referred to all energy sources "above the ground," whereas the GOP hopeful is "for everything that comes from above and everything that comes from below," he told a fracking company. For his part, Obama "cannot wait" to take on Romney as November approaches, Reuters reports.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.WASHINGTON | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Thursday called out his likely opponent for the White House by name for the second time this week and said he "cannot wait" for the chance to pit his vision for America against the Republicans in this year's election. In remarks that underscore the president's shift into full general election-fighting mode, Obama acknowledged Mitt Romney was the front-runner to win the Republican nomination to face him on November 6, and said he relished the upcoming contest. "We are going to have a big and important debate in this country, and I cannot wait," the Democrat told supporters at a fundraising event in Washington. "This is going to be a big debate and it's going to be a fun debate. It's always good to have the truth on your side," he said. The president had barely mentioned the former Massachusetts governor by name for months but has done so twice this week. Romney moved closer to clinching the Republican presidential nomination on Tuesday when he won three primary contests. Obama fiercely attacked Republican budget plans earlier this week. On Thursday he again warned supporters the plan would gut many popular social programs, adding that it was "a budget that Governor Romney, who is the front-runner on the Republican side, has embraced ... the budget was marvelous, he said." (Reporting By Alister Bull; Editing by Paul Simao) ||||| HARRISBURG, Pa. — Mitt Romney's shift from Republican primary partisan to general election candidate has begun in earnest. On the rooftop of an old office building that houses his Pennsylvania headquarters, Romney signaled the start of his effort to appeal to voters in the middle of the political spectrum, who will be critical to his chances in a race against President Obama. "I know that you know how important this is. That it isn't about one person or about even one party," Romney told a group of supporters Thursday under flawless skies. "We're Republicans and Democrats in this campaign, but we're all connected with one destiny for America, and that destiny is greatness and exceptionalism." The call for unity had a strange ring after months of a Republican slugfest that has also demonized Democratic leaders and seems finally to have produced a likely nominee in Romney. In the last couple of days, Romney has virtually ignored his remaining GOP rivals, engaging instead in a back-and-forth with Obama over which of the two is more out of touch with average Americans. On Thursday, he again hit the president for his Ivy League credentials — credentials that they share. "We have a president who I think is a nice guy," Romney said, "but he spent too much time at Harvard, perhaps, or maybe just not enough time working in the real world." It is a potentially self-defeating line of attack: Romney spent four years at Harvard, receiving a law degree and an MBA; Obama spent three years there, graduating from the law school. Also, three of Romney's five sons attended Harvard Business School. Later Thursday, in a part of the state where a natural gas drilling boom has bolstered the economy, Romney found another point in common with the president. In response to a reporter's question, Romney said he believed women should be admitted to the Augusta National Golf Club. "Well, of course," he said. "I'm not a member of Augusta. I don't know if I would qualify — my golf game is not that good — but certainly if I were a member and I could run Augusta, which isn't likely to happen, but of course I'd have women in Augusta. Sure." Obama, an avid golfer, believes the same thing, his spokesman said earlier in the day. During a speech at a company that transports fluids used in the energy extraction process known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, Romney criticized Obama's "all of the above" approach to energy production — meaning oil, gas and coal as well as green technologies such as solar and wind power. "I realize he probably meant he's for all of the energy sources that come from above the ground, not the coal, oil and gas that come from below," Romney said. "I am for everything that comes from above and everything that comes from below." Len Crawford, owner of Crawford Technical Services, said that he didn't necessarily blame the president for the fact that 40% of his company's revenues go toward payroll taxes and other employee contributions, but that he was looking forward to electing a Republican president who would be more sensitive to the needs of business. "I think he can win," Crawford said of Romney. "He's doing a better job of articulating free enterprise than he has in the past." Romney's speeches on Wednesday and Thursday have had the air of a victory lap after a trio of important wins this week in Wisconsin, Maryland and the District of Columbia. But Thursday he seemed to hedge a bit, telling reporters who watched him call supporters from a phone bank that he expected former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania to carry the state on April 24. "I think everybody expects someone to win his home state," Romney said, sitting between campaign volunteers Jordan Furr, 20, and Sherrie-Kaye Miller, 51, who did their best not to let his presence distract them from their phone calls to likely Republican voters. "Newt Gingrich won his home state; I won mine." But Romney said he hoped to "pick up a lot of delegates" in Pennsylvania, and also win the other states holding contests that day, to give him "an even stronger lead." As soon as Romney had entered the small phone bank room, he sat down and began making calls. He did not acknowledge the four volunteers on the phone bank until after he'd made his calls. Romney called three voters, all of whom were apparently already planning to vote for him. "These are obviously stacked calls," he said. "I am getting very positive response." His side of the first call went like this: "Good morning, Lois. This is Mitt Romney calling. How are you this morning? Well, good. Have you ever heard of me? You have, huh? [He laughed.] Well, thank you. It sounds like you plan on supporting me, is that right? Well, wonderful. I appreciate your willingness to help out.... I will hopefully get a chance to see you at a rally someday. Thanks so much Lois. Bye-bye." Lois "was a person who said she believes I am the right person to be president, that I can save the country," he told reporters afterward. "I thought that was a pretty good start." [email protected]

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

FILE - In this Aug. 30, 2013 file photo, Swedish DJ-producer, Avicii poses for a portrait, in New York. Swedish-born Avicii, whose name is Tim Bergling, was found dead, Friday April 20, 2018, in Muscat,... (Associated Press) FILE - In this Aug. 30, 2013 file photo, Swedish DJ-producer, Avicii poses for a portrait, in New York. Swedish-born Avicii, whose name is Tim Bergling, was found dead, Friday April 20, 2018, in Muscat, Oman. He was 28. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Invision/AP, File) (Associated Press) NEW YORK (AP) — The Swedish-born producer and DJ known as Avicii has been found dead in Oman. Publicist Diana Baron said in a statement that the 28-year-old DJ, born Tim Bergling, was in Muscat, Oman. "The family is devastated and we ask everyone to please respect their need for privacy in this difficult time," the statement said. Avicii was a pioneer of the contemporary Electronic Dance Movement and a rare DJ capable of worldwide arena tours. He won two MTV Music Awards, one Billboard Music Award and earned two Grammy nominations. His biggest hit was "Le7els." His death comes just days after he was nominated for a Billboard Music Award for top dance/electronic album for his EP "Avicii (01)." He was nominated alongside his peers, who have taken EDM mainstream of late — The Chainsmokers, Calvin Harris and Kygo. Avicii's hits include "Wake Me Up!" ''The Days" and "You Make Me." He is the subject of the 2017 Levan Tsikurishvil documentary "Avicii: True Stories." Avicii had in the past suffered acute pancreatitis, in part due to excessive drinking. After having his gallbladder and appendix removed in 2014, he canceled a series of shows in attempt to recover. He quit touring in 2016 but continued making music in the studio. "It's been a very crazy journey. I started producing when I was 16. I started touring when I was 18. From that point on, I just jumped into 100 percent," Avicii told Billboard magazine in 2016. "When I look back on my life, I think: whoa, did I do that? It was the best time of my life in a sense. It came with a price - a lot of stress a lot of anxiety for me - but it was the best journey of my life." Last year, he posted this message on his website, promising to keep creating: "The next stage will be all about my love of making music to you guys. It is the beginning of something new." ___ AP Entertainment Writer Mark Kennedy contributed to this report. ||||| Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later.

– The Swedish-born producer and DJ known as Avicii has been found dead in Oman. TMZ calls the 28-year-old, real name Tim Bergling, "one of the most famous DJs in the world." Publicist Diana Baron said in a statement that Avicii died in Muscat, Oman, though the circumstances were unclear. Avicii was a pioneer of the contemporary Electronic Dance Movement and a rare DJ capable of worldwide arena tours, per the AP. He won two MTV Music Awards, one Billboard Music Award, and earned two Grammy nominations. His biggest hit was "Le7els." His death comes just days after he was nominated for a Billboard Music Award for top dance/electronic album for his EP Avicii (01). He was nominated alongside his peers, who have taken EDM mainstream of late—The Chainsmokers, Calvin Harris, and Kygo. Avicii's hits include "Wake Me Up!" ''The Days," and "You Make Me." He is the subject of the 2017 Levan Tsikurishvil documentary Avicii: True Stories. Avicii had in the past suffered acute pancreatitis, in part due to excessive drinking. After having his gallbladder and appendix removed in 2014, he canceled a series of shows in an attempt to recover. He quit touring in 2016 but continued making music in the studio. "It's been a very crazy journey," Avicii told Billboard magazine in 2016. "I started producing when I was 16. I started touring when I was 18. From that point on, I just jumped in 100%." Last year, he posted this message on his website, promising to keep creating: "The next stage will be all about my love of making music to you guys. It is the beginning of something new."

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.FILE - In this Aug. 30, 2013 file photo, Swedish DJ-producer, Avicii poses for a portrait, in New York. Swedish-born Avicii, whose name is Tim Bergling, was found dead, Friday April 20, 2018, in Muscat,... (Associated Press) FILE - In this Aug. 30, 2013 file photo, Swedish DJ-producer, Avicii poses for a portrait, in New York. Swedish-born Avicii, whose name is Tim Bergling, was found dead, Friday April 20, 2018, in Muscat, Oman. He was 28. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Invision/AP, File) (Associated Press) NEW YORK (AP) — The Swedish-born producer and DJ known as Avicii has been found dead in Oman. Publicist Diana Baron said in a statement that the 28-year-old DJ, born Tim Bergling, was in Muscat, Oman. "The family is devastated and we ask everyone to please respect their need for privacy in this difficult time," the statement said. Avicii was a pioneer of the contemporary Electronic Dance Movement and a rare DJ capable of worldwide arena tours. He won two MTV Music Awards, one Billboard Music Award and earned two Grammy nominations. His biggest hit was "Le7els." His death comes just days after he was nominated for a Billboard Music Award for top dance/electronic album for his EP "Avicii (01)." He was nominated alongside his peers, who have taken EDM mainstream of late — The Chainsmokers, Calvin Harris and Kygo. Avicii's hits include "Wake Me Up!" ''The Days" and "You Make Me." He is the subject of the 2017 Levan Tsikurishvil documentary "Avicii: True Stories." Avicii had in the past suffered acute pancreatitis, in part due to excessive drinking. After having his gallbladder and appendix removed in 2014, he canceled a series of shows in attempt to recover. He quit touring in 2016 but continued making music in the studio. "It's been a very crazy journey. I started producing when I was 16. I started touring when I was 18. From that point on, I just jumped into 100 percent," Avicii told Billboard magazine in 2016. "When I look back on my life, I think: whoa, did I do that? It was the best time of my life in a sense. It came with a price - a lot of stress a lot of anxiety for me - but it was the best journey of my life." Last year, he posted this message on his website, promising to keep creating: "The next stage will be all about my love of making music to you guys. It is the beginning of something new." ___ AP Entertainment Writer Mark Kennedy contributed to this report. ||||| Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

'Frasier' Star John Mahoney Dead at 77 'Frasier' Star John Mahoney Dead at 77 EXCLUSIVE John Mahoney, the beloved dad on "Frasier," has died in Chicago ... TMZ has learned. According to John's publicist ... he passed away Sunday in hospice care. The British-born actor famously played Martin Crane, the father of Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce's characters, for 11 seasons of "Frasier." John most recently had a recurring role in "Hot in Cleveland." Besides his TV success, John was in tons of movies -- like 'American President,' "Say Anything..." and "Eight Men Out" -- during more than 30 years in show biz. He was my father. I loved him. pic.twitter.com/3mGcyEMxoy — Kelsey Grammer (@KelseyGrammer) February 7, 2018 He won a SAG Award in 2000 for "Frasier" -- and was nominated for 2 Emmys and 2 Golden Globes. John was also active in theater, and won a Tony in 1986. John was 77. RIP ||||| The Tony-winning actor also appeared in such films as 'Tin Men,' 'Moonstruck' and 'Eight Men Out.' John Mahoney, best known as Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce's irascible dad, Martin Crane, on Frasier, has died. He was 77. An Englishman, Mahoney died Sunday in his adopted hometown of Chicago, publicist Paul Martino told The Hollywood Reporter. The cause of death was complications from cancer. Playing a curmudgeonly retired cop, Mahoney received two supporting actor Emmy nominations for his work on the 1993-2004 NBC hit. Grammer paid tribute to his TV dad upon news of Mahoney's death: "He was my father. I loved him." A former Midwestern medical-magazine editor who quit his day job at nearly 40 to study acting in Chicago, Mahoney had taught English at Western Illinois University in the early 1970s. He became a fixture at Chicago's fabled Steppenwolf Theatre — he was an ensemble member for 39 years — and ventured to the New York stage, where he distinguished himself in an off-Broadway production of Orphans, for which he received a Theatre World Award. Mahoney won a 1986 Tony Award for best featured actor in a play for his performance in John Guare's The House of Blue Leaves. The production was videotaped for PBS' Theatre in America series. In 2007, he was back on Broadway in a revival of Craig Lucas' Prelude to a Kiss. In movies, Mahoney garnered recognition in Barry Levinson's Tin Men (1987), playing Richard Dreyfuss' business partner. The same year, he was memorable in Moonstruck as a depressed college professor who regularly had affairs with his students. His other film credits include a performance as a trial judge in Suspect (1987), as the manager of the White Sox in Eight Men Out (1988) and as a protective father beleaguered by John Cusack's interest in his daughter in Say Anything (1989). Although he was offered numerous series after Frasier, Mahoney moved back to Illinois in 2003 and began acting again with the Steppenwolf company, first starring as Tom Garrison in I Never Sang for My Father. The following year, he played Sir in The Dresser. "John was a beloved member of our Steppenwolf family who was known for his extraordinary kindness, generosity of spirit and quick smile," the theater said in a statement. "He performed in more than 30 Steppenwolf productions — from his breakthrough role in Orphans in 1985 to most recently in The Rembrandt this past September. John’s impact on this institution, on Chicago theater, and the world of arts and entertainment is great and will endure." Mahoney's dulcet warble was recognizable in voice work on such animated films as Antz (1998), The Iron Giant (1999) and Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001). John Mahoney was born on June 20, 1940, in Blackpool, England, where his family had been evacuated following a Nazi bombing of Manchester. He developed an early interest in acting, joining the Stretford Youth Theatre. After World War II, he ventured to Illinois, where his older sister lived as a war bride. He studied at Quincy University and, to speed up his citizenship application, enlisted in the U.S. Army and, not surprisingly, lost his British accent. (He could readily call up that accent, though, as when he tweaked Daphne Moon (Jane Leeves), his English therapist and housekeeper, on Frasier.) In Chicago, Mahoney quickly distinguished himself, winning roles in such works as The Misanthrope, The Price, What the Butler Saw and The Water Engine. In 1977, he met actor John Malkovich, a founder of the Steppenwolf Theatre, and was invited by him to join the troupe. At Steppenwolf, Mahoney thrived, performing in such productions as The Hothouse, And a Nightingale Sang, Loose Ends, Of Mice and Men, Balm in Gilead and Death of a Salesman. Fittingly, one of Mahoney's first TV credits was for a part on NBC's Chicago Story in 1982. More recently, he had a recurring role as Betty White's love interest on Hot in Cleveland. His film résumé also included The Russia House (1990), Love Hurts (1990), Barton Fink (1991), In the Line of Fire (1993), The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), Reality Bites (1994), The American President (1995), She's the One (1996) and Dan in Real Life (2007).

– John Mahoney, the actor most famous for playing the curmudgeonly father of Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce on Frasier, has died at age 77, reports TMZ. The cause of the death isn't clear, but Mahoney died while in hospice care in Chicago, according to the website. Mahoney had plenty of other acting credits, including parts in the movies Tin Men, Moonstruck, and Eight Men Out, but he's best known for his role playing retired cop Martin Crane in the TV series, which ran from 1993-2004. He picked up two supporting actor Emmy nominations along the way. The Hollywood Reporter has an interesting nugget: Mahoney worked as editor of a medical magazine until he was nearly 40 before quitting to pursue acting. Prior to that, he taught English.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.'Frasier' Star John Mahoney Dead at 77 'Frasier' Star John Mahoney Dead at 77 EXCLUSIVE John Mahoney, the beloved dad on "Frasier," has died in Chicago ... TMZ has learned. According to John's publicist ... he passed away Sunday in hospice care. The British-born actor famously played Martin Crane, the father of Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce's characters, for 11 seasons of "Frasier." John most recently had a recurring role in "Hot in Cleveland." Besides his TV success, John was in tons of movies -- like 'American President,' "Say Anything..." and "Eight Men Out" -- during more than 30 years in show biz. He was my father. I loved him. pic.twitter.com/3mGcyEMxoy — Kelsey Grammer (@KelseyGrammer) February 7, 2018 He won a SAG Award in 2000 for "Frasier" -- and was nominated for 2 Emmys and 2 Golden Globes. John was also active in theater, and won a Tony in 1986. John was 77. RIP ||||| The Tony-winning actor also appeared in such films as 'Tin Men,' 'Moonstruck' and 'Eight Men Out.' John Mahoney, best known as Kelsey Grammer and David Hyde Pierce's irascible dad, Martin Crane, on Frasier, has died. He was 77. An Englishman, Mahoney died Sunday in his adopted hometown of Chicago, publicist Paul Martino told The Hollywood Reporter. The cause of death was complications from cancer. Playing a curmudgeonly retired cop, Mahoney received two supporting actor Emmy nominations for his work on the 1993-2004 NBC hit. Grammer paid tribute to his TV dad upon news of Mahoney's death: "He was my father. I loved him." A former Midwestern medical-magazine editor who quit his day job at nearly 40 to study acting in Chicago, Mahoney had taught English at Western Illinois University in the early 1970s. He became a fixture at Chicago's fabled Steppenwolf Theatre — he was an ensemble member for 39 years — and ventured to the New York stage, where he distinguished himself in an off-Broadway production of Orphans, for which he received a Theatre World Award. Mahoney won a 1986 Tony Award for best featured actor in a play for his performance in John Guare's The House of Blue Leaves. The production was videotaped for PBS' Theatre in America series. In 2007, he was back on Broadway in a revival of Craig Lucas' Prelude to a Kiss. In movies, Mahoney garnered recognition in Barry Levinson's Tin Men (1987), playing Richard Dreyfuss' business partner. The same year, he was memorable in Moonstruck as a depressed college professor who regularly had affairs with his students. His other film credits include a performance as a trial judge in Suspect (1987), as the manager of the White Sox in Eight Men Out (1988) and as a protective father beleaguered by John Cusack's interest in his daughter in Say Anything (1989). Although he was offered numerous series after Frasier, Mahoney moved back to Illinois in 2003 and began acting again with the Steppenwolf company, first starring as Tom Garrison in I Never Sang for My Father. The following year, he played Sir in The Dresser. "John was a beloved member of our Steppenwolf family who was known for his extraordinary kindness, generosity of spirit and quick smile," the theater said in a statement. "He performed in more than 30 Steppenwolf productions — from his breakthrough role in Orphans in 1985 to most recently in The Rembrandt this past September. John’s impact on this institution, on Chicago theater, and the world of arts and entertainment is great and will endure." Mahoney's dulcet warble was recognizable in voice work on such animated films as Antz (1998), The Iron Giant (1999) and Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001). John Mahoney was born on June 20, 1940, in Blackpool, England, where his family had been evacuated following a Nazi bombing of Manchester. He developed an early interest in acting, joining the Stretford Youth Theatre. After World War II, he ventured to Illinois, where his older sister lived as a war bride. He studied at Quincy University and, to speed up his citizenship application, enlisted in the U.S. Army and, not surprisingly, lost his British accent. (He could readily call up that accent, though, as when he tweaked Daphne Moon (Jane Leeves), his English therapist and housekeeper, on Frasier.) In Chicago, Mahoney quickly distinguished himself, winning roles in such works as The Misanthrope, The Price, What the Butler Saw and The Water Engine. In 1977, he met actor John Malkovich, a founder of the Steppenwolf Theatre, and was invited by him to join the troupe. At Steppenwolf, Mahoney thrived, performing in such productions as The Hothouse, And a Nightingale Sang, Loose Ends, Of Mice and Men, Balm in Gilead and Death of a Salesman. Fittingly, one of Mahoney's first TV credits was for a part on NBC's Chicago Story in 1982. More recently, he had a recurring role as Betty White's love interest on Hot in Cleveland. His film résumé also included The Russia House (1990), Love Hurts (1990), Barton Fink (1991), In the Line of Fire (1993), The Hudsucker Proxy (1994), Reality Bites (1994), The American President (1995), She's the One (1996) and Dan in Real Life (2007).

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A top Iranian general says his forces are ready if President Donald Trump follows through on his warning that Iran will "suffer consequences" if Tehran threatens the United States. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday there was no need for him to "respond to any nonsensical comment" but Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who heads the elite Quds Force of Iran's hard-line paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said on Thursday it was his duty as a soldier to reply. He was quoted by news website yjc.ir, affiliated with state-run television, as saying "we are ready to confront you." Soleimani called Trump a "gambler" and says: "You will start the war but we will end it." Following Sunday's warning tweet, Trump suggested Tuesday talks were an option, saying "we're ready to make a real deal." ||||| "Iran is not the same country anymore, that I can say," President Donald Trump said during the VFW National Convention in Kansas City, Mo. "And we'll see what happens, but we're ready to make a real deal, not the deal that was done by the previous administration which was a disaster." | Evan Vucci/AP Photo Trump says U.S. ready to make 'real deal' with Iran President Donald Trump Tuesday said the United States is ready to make a "real deal" with Iran just days after he threatened the country "will suffer consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before." "Iran is not the same country anymore, that I can say," Trump said during the VFW National Convention in Kansas City, Missouri. "And we'll see what happens, but we're ready to make a real deal, not the deal that was done by the previous administration which was a disaster." Story Continued Below Trump on Sunday sent a tweet to Iran President Hassan Rouhani, saying "NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE." The tweet was seemingly in response to comments Rouhani made that day cautioning Trump about the devastation of a U.S.-Iran wartime conflict. He also pressured Trump to not interfere with Tehran's government. The president in May pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal struck by the Obama administration, which he called "horrible" and "one-sided" on Tuesday. The most reliable politics newsletter. Sign up for POLITICO Playbook and get the latest news, every morning — in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. By exiting the deal, Trump reimposed sanctions that had been waived in exchange for curbs on Iran's nuclear program. In addition, Trump is demanding that countries reduce their oil imports from Iran to zero by Nov. 4. ||||| ANKARA (Reuters) - A powerful commander of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards said on Thursday that Donald Trump should address any threats against Tehran directly to him, and mocked the U.S. president as using the language of “night clubs and gambling halls”. The comments by Major-General Qassem Soleimani, who heads the Quds Force of the Guards, were the latest salvo in a war of words between the two countries. “As a soldier, it is my duty to respond to your threats ... If you wants to use the language of threat ... talk to me, not to the president (Hassan Rouhani). It is not in our president’s dignity to respond to you,” Soleimani was quoted as saying by Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency. Soleimani’s message was in essence a warning to the United States to stop threatening Iran with war or risk exposing itself to an Iranian response. “We are near you, where you can’t even imagine ... Come. We are ready ... If you begin the war, we will end the war,” Tasnim news agency quoted Soleimani as saying. “You know that this war will destroy all that you possess.” Israel’s Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said the fiery rhetoric of Soleimani was only “empty talk” because Iran was aware of “the strength and might of the U.S. military”. On Sunday night, Trump said in a tweet directed at Rouhani: “Never, ever threaten the United States again or you will suffer consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before. We are no longer a country that will stand for your demented words of violence & death. Be cautious!” A few hours earlier, Rouhani had addressed Trump in a speech, saying that hostile U.S. policies could lead to “the mother of all wars”. Fanning the heightened tensions, U.S. national security adviser John Bolton said in a statement on Monday: “President Trump told me that if Iran does anything at all to the negative, they will pay a price like few countries have ever paid before.” Bolton is a proponent of interventionist foreign policy and was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in the administration of George W. Bush during the Iraq war. “You (Trump) threaten us with paying a price like few countries have ever paid. Trump, this is the language of night clubs and gambling halls,” said Soleimani, who as Quds Force commander is in charge of the Revolutionary Guards’ overseas operations. Iran’s Guards commanders have threatened to destroy U.S. military bases across the Middle East and target Israel, which Iran refuses to recognize, within minutes of being attacked. WAR OF WORDS White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said on Thursday that the Trump administration was “working with our partners and allies to try to get Iran to change its behavior and stop its actions across the region.” Gidley, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One flying with Trump to Washington, D.C., from St. Louis, declined to comment on whether a strike was among options. Since Trump’s decision in May to withdraw the United States from a 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers, Tehran’s clerical establishment has been under increasing U.S. pressure and the prospect of possible sanctions. Washington aims to force Tehran to end its nuclear program and its support of militant groups in the Middle East, where Iran is involved in proxy wars from Yemen to Syria. Despite the bellicose rhetoric, there is limited appetite in Washington for a conflict with Iran, not least because of the difficulties the U.S. military faced in Iraq after its 2003 invasion but also because of the impact on the global economy if conflict raised oil prices. Mounting U.S. economic pressure, a faltering economy, sliding currency and state corruption are rattling Iran’s clerical rulers, but analysts and insiders rule out any chance of a seismic shift in Iran’s political landscape. “This is a war of words. Neither side want a military confrontation. But of course, if America attacks Iran, our response will be crushing,” a senior Iranian official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters. Trump suggested on Tuesday that talks with Iran were an option, saying “we’re ready to make a real deal”. But Iran rejected it. “But eventually, within a few months, half a year, they’ll have no choice and will return to negotiation table with the United States and give up their nuclear program,” Steinitz told Israeli Reshet TV on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: Iranian Revolutionary Guard Commander Qassem Soleimani (L) stands at the frontline during offensive operations against Islamic State militants in the town of Tal Ksaiba in Salahuddin province March 8, 2015. REUTERS/Stringer While the United States is pushing countries to cut all imports of Iranian oil from November, Iran has warned of counter-measures and has threatened to block Gulf oil exports if its own exports are halted. “The Red Sea which was secure is no longer secure today with the presence of American forces,” Soleimani said. Saudi Arabia said on Thursday it was temporarily halting all oil shipments through the Red Sea shipping lane of Bab al-Mandeb after an attack on two oil tankers by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement.

– Iranian President Hassan Rouhan says he sees no need to respond to any "nonsensical" threat from President Trump. The head of Iran's Revolutionary Guard is not so restrained. "As a soldier, it is my duty to respond to Trump’s threats," says Gen. Qassem Soleimani, per Reuters. "If he wants to use the language of threat, he should talk to me, not to the president." His message to Trump, then: "We are ready to confront you," reports the AP. "Trump should know that we are nation of martyrdom and that we await him," Soleimani was quoted as saying by website yjc.ir, which is affiliated with state TV. He also scoffed that Trump has the "language of night clubs and gambling halls." Trump's initial all-caps threat that Iran would suffer unprecedented consequences if it threatened the US was followed days later by his suggestion of talks. "We'll see what happens, but we're ready to make a real deal, not the deal that was done by the previous administration which was a disaster," he told a crowd in Missouri, reports Politico.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A top Iranian general says his forces are ready if President Donald Trump follows through on his warning that Iran will "suffer consequences" if Tehran threatens the United States. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday there was no need for him to "respond to any nonsensical comment" but Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who heads the elite Quds Force of Iran's hard-line paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said on Thursday it was his duty as a soldier to reply. He was quoted by news website yjc.ir, affiliated with state-run television, as saying "we are ready to confront you." Soleimani called Trump a "gambler" and says: "You will start the war but we will end it." Following Sunday's warning tweet, Trump suggested Tuesday talks were an option, saying "we're ready to make a real deal." ||||| "Iran is not the same country anymore, that I can say," President Donald Trump said during the VFW National Convention in Kansas City, Mo. "And we'll see what happens, but we're ready to make a real deal, not the deal that was done by the previous administration which was a disaster." | Evan Vucci/AP Photo Trump says U.S. ready to make 'real deal' with Iran President Donald Trump Tuesday said the United States is ready to make a "real deal" with Iran just days after he threatened the country "will suffer consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before." "Iran is not the same country anymore, that I can say," Trump said during the VFW National Convention in Kansas City, Missouri. "And we'll see what happens, but we're ready to make a real deal, not the deal that was done by the previous administration which was a disaster." Story Continued Below Trump on Sunday sent a tweet to Iran President Hassan Rouhani, saying "NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE." The tweet was seemingly in response to comments Rouhani made that day cautioning Trump about the devastation of a U.S.-Iran wartime conflict. He also pressured Trump to not interfere with Tehran's government. The president in May pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal struck by the Obama administration, which he called "horrible" and "one-sided" on Tuesday. The most reliable politics newsletter. Sign up for POLITICO Playbook and get the latest news, every morning — in your inbox. Email Sign Up By signing up you agree to receive email newsletters or alerts from POLITICO. You can unsubscribe at any time. By exiting the deal, Trump reimposed sanctions that had been waived in exchange for curbs on Iran's nuclear program. In addition, Trump is demanding that countries reduce their oil imports from Iran to zero by Nov. 4. ||||| ANKARA (Reuters) - A powerful commander of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards said on Thursday that Donald Trump should address any threats against Tehran directly to him, and mocked the U.S. president as using the language of “night clubs and gambling halls”. The comments by Major-General Qassem Soleimani, who heads the Quds Force of the Guards, were the latest salvo in a war of words between the two countries. “As a soldier, it is my duty to respond to your threats ... If you wants to use the language of threat ... talk to me, not to the president (Hassan Rouhani). It is not in our president’s dignity to respond to you,” Soleimani was quoted as saying by Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency. Soleimani’s message was in essence a warning to the United States to stop threatening Iran with war or risk exposing itself to an Iranian response. “We are near you, where you can’t even imagine ... Come. We are ready ... If you begin the war, we will end the war,” Tasnim news agency quoted Soleimani as saying. “You know that this war will destroy all that you possess.” Israel’s Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz said the fiery rhetoric of Soleimani was only “empty talk” because Iran was aware of “the strength and might of the U.S. military”. On Sunday night, Trump said in a tweet directed at Rouhani: “Never, ever threaten the United States again or you will suffer consequences the likes of which few throughout history have ever suffered before. We are no longer a country that will stand for your demented words of violence & death. Be cautious!” A few hours earlier, Rouhani had addressed Trump in a speech, saying that hostile U.S. policies could lead to “the mother of all wars”. Fanning the heightened tensions, U.S. national security adviser John Bolton said in a statement on Monday: “President Trump told me that if Iran does anything at all to the negative, they will pay a price like few countries have ever paid before.” Bolton is a proponent of interventionist foreign policy and was U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in the administration of George W. Bush during the Iraq war. “You (Trump) threaten us with paying a price like few countries have ever paid. Trump, this is the language of night clubs and gambling halls,” said Soleimani, who as Quds Force commander is in charge of the Revolutionary Guards’ overseas operations. Iran’s Guards commanders have threatened to destroy U.S. military bases across the Middle East and target Israel, which Iran refuses to recognize, within minutes of being attacked. WAR OF WORDS White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said on Thursday that the Trump administration was “working with our partners and allies to try to get Iran to change its behavior and stop its actions across the region.” Gidley, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One flying with Trump to Washington, D.C., from St. Louis, declined to comment on whether a strike was among options. Since Trump’s decision in May to withdraw the United States from a 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers, Tehran’s clerical establishment has been under increasing U.S. pressure and the prospect of possible sanctions. Washington aims to force Tehran to end its nuclear program and its support of militant groups in the Middle East, where Iran is involved in proxy wars from Yemen to Syria. Despite the bellicose rhetoric, there is limited appetite in Washington for a conflict with Iran, not least because of the difficulties the U.S. military faced in Iraq after its 2003 invasion but also because of the impact on the global economy if conflict raised oil prices. Mounting U.S. economic pressure, a faltering economy, sliding currency and state corruption are rattling Iran’s clerical rulers, but analysts and insiders rule out any chance of a seismic shift in Iran’s political landscape. “This is a war of words. Neither side want a military confrontation. But of course, if America attacks Iran, our response will be crushing,” a senior Iranian official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters. Trump suggested on Tuesday that talks with Iran were an option, saying “we’re ready to make a real deal”. But Iran rejected it. “But eventually, within a few months, half a year, they’ll have no choice and will return to negotiation table with the United States and give up their nuclear program,” Steinitz told Israeli Reshet TV on Thursday. FILE PHOTO: Iranian Revolutionary Guard Commander Qassem Soleimani (L) stands at the frontline during offensive operations against Islamic State militants in the town of Tal Ksaiba in Salahuddin province March 8, 2015. REUTERS/Stringer While the United States is pushing countries to cut all imports of Iranian oil from November, Iran has warned of counter-measures and has threatened to block Gulf oil exports if its own exports are halted. “The Red Sea which was secure is no longer secure today with the presence of American forces,” Soleimani said. Saudi Arabia said on Thursday it was temporarily halting all oil shipments through the Red Sea shipping lane of Bab al-Mandeb after an attack on two oil tankers by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi movement.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) held a rally after winning the Democratic primary in Wisconsin. (AP) Bernie Sanders sat down with the New York Daily News editorial board last Friday, seeking its endorsement in the upcoming April 19 Empire State primary. It did not go well for the senator from Vermont. Time and again, when pressed to get beyond his rhetoric on the evils of corporate America and Wall Street, Sanders struggled. Often mightily. (The Daily News published the full transcript of the interview today so you can check it out for yourself.) A few examples make the point. Here’s an exchange between the editorial board and Sanders on how, specifically, he would break up the biggest banks in the country: Daily News: And then, you further said that you expect to break them up within the first year of your administration. What authority do you have to do that? And how would that work? How would you break up JPMorgan Chase? Sanders: Well, by the way, the idea of breaking up these banks is not an original idea. It’s an idea that some conservatives have also agreed to. You’ve got head of, I think it’s, the Kansas City Fed, some pretty conservative guys, who understands. Let’s talk about the merit of the issue, and then talk about how we get there. ... Daily News: Okay. Well, let’s assume that you’re correct on that point. How do you go about doing it? Sanders: How you go about doing it is having legislation passed, or giving the authority to the secretary of treasury to determine, under Dodd-Frank, that these banks are a danger to the economy over the problem of too-big-to-fail. Daily News: But do you think that the Fed, now, has that authority? Sanders: Well, I don’t know if the Fed has it. But I think the administration can have it. And this back-and-forth over the consequences of forcing the closure or fundamental reorganization of the big banks: Daily News: So if you look forward, a year, maybe two years, right now you have ... JPMorgan has 241,000 employees. About 20,000 of them in New York. $192 billion in net assets. What happens? What do you foresee? What is JPMorgan in year two of ... Sanders: What I foresee is a stronger national economy. And, in fact, a stronger economy in New York State, as well. What I foresee is a financial system which actually makes affordable loans to small and medium-size businesses. Does not live as an island onto themselves concerned about their own profits. And, in fact, creating incredibly complicated financial tools, which have led us into the worst economic recession in the modern history of the United States. Daily News: I get that point. I’m just looking at the method because, actions have reactions, right? There are pluses and minuses. So, if you push here, you may get an unintended consequence that you don’t understand. So, what I’m asking is, how can we understand? If you look at JPMorgan just as an example, or you can do Citibank, or Bank of America. What would it be? What would that institution be? Would there be a consumer bank? Where would the investing go? Sanders: I’m not running JPMorgan Chase or Citibank. There’s more — lots more — including an exchange over what law, exactly, Wall Street executives broke during the economic collapse and how Sanders would actually prosecute them. But the two passages above give you some idea of how the bulk of the interview went: the Daily News pressing Sanders for specifics and asking him to evaluate the consequences of his proposals, and Sanders, largely, dodging as he sought to scramble back to his talking points. [As Wisconsin votes, both front-runners are playing defense] Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders challenged rival Hillary Clinton to release the transcripts to speeches she made to bankers at a rally in Miami, Fla., on March 8. "I think if it's such a brilliant speech, you want to share it with the American people," he said. (AP) For Sanders’s critics — including Hillary Clinton — the Daily News interview is the “ah ha!” moment that they have been insisting will come for Sanders, a time when his pie-in-the-sky proposals are closely examined and found wanting. Sure, free college tuition sounds good, but how, exactly, do you pay for it? And, yes, breaking up the biggest banks seems appealing — particularly if you saw “The Big Short” — but (a) can you actually do it? and (b) what does it mean for all the people those banks employ? 1 of 42 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Highlights from Bernie Sanders’s campaign, in pictures View Photos The senator from Vermont is Hillary Clinton’s rival in the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination. Caption The senator from Vermont is Hillary Clinton’s rival in the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination. June 14, 2016 Bernie Sanders arrives at the Capital Hilton to meet with Hillary Clinton in D.C. Matt McClain/The Washington Post Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. A large part of Sanders’s appeal to the throngs who back him is his insistence that we are in need of a political revolution. And, for those people, the Daily News interview will be much ado about nothing. But what the interview exposes is that once the revolution happens there will be lots of loose ends to tie up. Loose ends that Sanders either hasn’t grappled with — or doesn’t want to. Remember that Sanders’s campaign began as the longest of long shots. He could propose the world and more because no one thought that he ever had a chance at winning. I could tell you 100 radical changes I would make to the NBA if I were commissioner — raise the age limit to 21, move the three-point line back, etc. — but I would never have to really explain how I was going to do it because you would know there’s a zero percent chance I am going to run the NBA. But if suddenly my name started to pop up on lists to replace Adam Silver — please please please let this happen — then a more careful examination of how I was going to accomplish all of my proposals would be in order. The Daily News interview amounts to a moment of reckoning for Sanders. Okay, let’s say you get elected — now what? And have you thought through what it might mean to the American worker and the American economy if all of the things you insist have to happen actually did happen? Judging by Sanders’s responses, he hasn’t. ||||| Watch CNN and NY1's Democratic debate, moderated by Wolf Blitzer, Thursday, April 14 at 9 p.m. ET. Los Angeles (CNN) Bernie Sanders' interview with the New York Daily News ahead of the state's primary later this month didn't go as planned. The Vermont senator's April 1 sit down with the paper's editorial board, a transcript of which was published Monday , showed him having difficulty clearly answering some questions about both foreign and domestic policy, including the implementation of his much-touted plan to reform Wall Street. Several times during the interview, Sanders expressed uncertainty over facts, said he couldn't give a proper answer to a question because he didn't have all the relevant information, or simply stated, "I don't know." In one exchange, Sanders acknowledged that he wasn't sure exactly how he intended to break up the big banks, a proposal that has been a centerpiece of his Wall Street reform agenda. In an interview Wednesday with CNN's Chris Cuomo, Clinton ripped Sanders for his answer about how he would break up the banks and how the Dodd-Frank regulatory bill works. "If you're concerned about income inequality and holding the banks accountable, you have to know how it works and what you have to do to make it work," she said. Earlier, on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Clinton said, "I think the [Sanders] interview raised a lot of really serious questions." JUST WATCHED Bernie Sanders feeling media heat after new interview Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Bernie Sanders feeling media heat after new interview 01:23 She added, "I'd think he hadn't done his homework and he has been talking for more than a year about ... things that he obviously hadn't really studied or understood and that does raise a lot of questions and really what it does is for voters to ask themselves, can he deliver what he is talking about, can he really help people." For some political observers, the Sanders' difficulty in providing direct answers to some questions reinforced their belief that he lacks a concrete plan to implement his domestic agenda and is ill-prepared to handle the global challenges he would face as president. "If Hillary [Clinton] gave answers like this to [an editorial] board, she would be crucified," tweeted Mark Halperin, the Bloomberg television host and co-author of "Game Change." Typical extreme anti-Clinton double standard: if Hillary gave answers like this to ed board, she would be crucified https://t.co/q8vqOXT9NF — Mark Halperin (@MarkHalperin) April 5, 2016 Sanders' remarks drew an onslaught of criticism from the press: "Bernie Sanders Admits He Isn't Sure How to Break Up Big Banks," Vanity Fair's headline read. "How Much Does Bernie Sanders Know About Policy?" asked The Atlantic. "This New York Daily News interview was pretty close to a disaster for Bernie Sanders," The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza wrote. The Sanders campaign defended itself Wednesday on CNN. "I understand when you go to New York you're going to get hit by the tabloids, that's what the primaries are about," Sanders senior adviser Tad Devine said on CNN. On Tuesday night, the Clinton campaign even sent the entire, unedited interview transcript to its own supporters in a fundraising email. "We've said for a long time that this primary is about who's really going to be able to get things done. And from reading this interview, you get the impression Senator Sanders hasn't thought very much about that," the email read. "In fact, even on his signature issue of breaking up the banks, he's unable to answer basic questions about how he'd go about doing it, and even seems uncertain whether a president does or doesn't already have that authority under existing law." It wasn't like Sanders was in enemy territory. The Daily News has been quite favorable to Sanders in the run up to the Empire State's primary on April 19, although Wednesday's front page takes Sanders to task for supporting gun makers against the families of Newtown victims . The paper has yet to endorse in the Democratic primary. When Sanders was asked, according to the transcript, if there are particular statutes that allow the prosecution of Wall Street executives, he said: "I suspect that there are. Yes." Daily News: You believe that? But do you know? "I believe that that is the case," Sanders went on. "Do I have them in front of me, now, legal statutes? No, I don't. But if I would...yeah, that's what I believe, yes." On foreign affairs, the Daily News asked: "Expanding [Israeli] settlements is one thing; coming into office as a President who said as a baseline that you want Israel to pull back settlements, that changes the dynamic in the negotiations, and I'm wondering how far and what you want Israel to do in terms of pulling back." Sanders responded: "Well, again, you're asking me a very fair question, and if I had some paper in front of me, I would give you a better answer." When Sanders was asked, aside from Guantanamo Bay, where would he hold and interrogate a "captured ISIS commander," Sanders said: "Actually I haven't thought about it a whole lot. I suppose, somewhere near the locale where that person was captured. The best location where that individual would be safely secured in a way that we can get information out of him." ||||| Sanders: Well, I've talked about it, you have seen it. What the agenda is is very similar to where to where President Obama is. President Obama said at that Oregon speech…… with a great deal of emotion. That he thought this was an issue that's never going to be permanently solved. Nobody can guarantee that some lunatic is not going to pick up a gun today and kill people. But we have to do the best that we can to prevent those type of killings. And what we do, in my view, is significantly strengthen and expand the instant background check. What we do is do away with the gun show loophole, where people now are buying guns from unlicensed dealers. What we do is do away with the straw man provision, where you can buy a gun legally and then sell it to somebody who's a criminal. I think what we also is significantly expand mental health capabilities to try to address the fact that we have thousands of people walking in this country today who are suicidal and homicidal. So I support pretty much the President's agenda.

– Bernie Sanders had a great night in Wisconsin, but he's not having such a great time with media reaction to an interview he gave the New York Daily News editorial board. Critics are pouncing on him for not having specific answers to questions about how he would go about breaking up big banks or prosecuting bankers, and on other policy points. The transcript in full is here, but USA Today says Sanders seems to be taking the most flak for his answer about the logistics of breaking up banks. One snippet: "Do you think that the Fed, now, has that authority?" asked the interviewer. "Well, I don’t know if the Fed has it." At another point, he says he doesn't know, but does "suspect" that statutes are on the books that could be used for Wall Street indictments. On a question about an issue not as central to his campaign—Israeli settlements—he said, "If I had some paper in front of me, I would give you a better answer." Some reaction: "Pretty close to a disaster," reads the headline on an assessment by Chris Cillizza in the Washington Post. For critics, this is "the 'ah ha!' moment that they have been insisting will come for Sanders, a time when his pie-in-the-sky proposals are closely examined and found wanting." In fact, the Clinton campaign emailed the transcript to donors, reports CNN. "Typical extreme anti-Clinton double standard: if Hillary gave answers like this to ed board, she would be crucified," tweeted Mark Halperin of Bloomberg. It "raises some questions about his policy chops," writes David A. Graham at the Atlantic. "Sanders isn’t running for chief ideologue—he’s running for chief executive, and so it’s also important for him to know what policies he would use to turn those beliefs into practice."

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) held a rally after winning the Democratic primary in Wisconsin. (AP) Bernie Sanders sat down with the New York Daily News editorial board last Friday, seeking its endorsement in the upcoming April 19 Empire State primary. It did not go well for the senator from Vermont. Time and again, when pressed to get beyond his rhetoric on the evils of corporate America and Wall Street, Sanders struggled. Often mightily. (The Daily News published the full transcript of the interview today so you can check it out for yourself.) A few examples make the point. Here’s an exchange between the editorial board and Sanders on how, specifically, he would break up the biggest banks in the country: Daily News: And then, you further said that you expect to break them up within the first year of your administration. What authority do you have to do that? And how would that work? How would you break up JPMorgan Chase? Sanders: Well, by the way, the idea of breaking up these banks is not an original idea. It’s an idea that some conservatives have also agreed to. You’ve got head of, I think it’s, the Kansas City Fed, some pretty conservative guys, who understands. Let’s talk about the merit of the issue, and then talk about how we get there. ... Daily News: Okay. Well, let’s assume that you’re correct on that point. How do you go about doing it? Sanders: How you go about doing it is having legislation passed, or giving the authority to the secretary of treasury to determine, under Dodd-Frank, that these banks are a danger to the economy over the problem of too-big-to-fail. Daily News: But do you think that the Fed, now, has that authority? Sanders: Well, I don’t know if the Fed has it. But I think the administration can have it. And this back-and-forth over the consequences of forcing the closure or fundamental reorganization of the big banks: Daily News: So if you look forward, a year, maybe two years, right now you have ... JPMorgan has 241,000 employees. About 20,000 of them in New York. $192 billion in net assets. What happens? What do you foresee? What is JPMorgan in year two of ... Sanders: What I foresee is a stronger national economy. And, in fact, a stronger economy in New York State, as well. What I foresee is a financial system which actually makes affordable loans to small and medium-size businesses. Does not live as an island onto themselves concerned about their own profits. And, in fact, creating incredibly complicated financial tools, which have led us into the worst economic recession in the modern history of the United States. Daily News: I get that point. I’m just looking at the method because, actions have reactions, right? There are pluses and minuses. So, if you push here, you may get an unintended consequence that you don’t understand. So, what I’m asking is, how can we understand? If you look at JPMorgan just as an example, or you can do Citibank, or Bank of America. What would it be? What would that institution be? Would there be a consumer bank? Where would the investing go? Sanders: I’m not running JPMorgan Chase or Citibank. There’s more — lots more — including an exchange over what law, exactly, Wall Street executives broke during the economic collapse and how Sanders would actually prosecute them. But the two passages above give you some idea of how the bulk of the interview went: the Daily News pressing Sanders for specifics and asking him to evaluate the consequences of his proposals, and Sanders, largely, dodging as he sought to scramble back to his talking points. [As Wisconsin votes, both front-runners are playing defense] Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders challenged rival Hillary Clinton to release the transcripts to speeches she made to bankers at a rally in Miami, Fla., on March 8. "I think if it's such a brilliant speech, you want to share it with the American people," he said. (AP) For Sanders’s critics — including Hillary Clinton — the Daily News interview is the “ah ha!” moment that they have been insisting will come for Sanders, a time when his pie-in-the-sky proposals are closely examined and found wanting. Sure, free college tuition sounds good, but how, exactly, do you pay for it? And, yes, breaking up the biggest banks seems appealing — particularly if you saw “The Big Short” — but (a) can you actually do it? and (b) what does it mean for all the people those banks employ? 1 of 42 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Highlights from Bernie Sanders’s campaign, in pictures View Photos The senator from Vermont is Hillary Clinton’s rival in the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination. Caption The senator from Vermont is Hillary Clinton’s rival in the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination. June 14, 2016 Bernie Sanders arrives at the Capital Hilton to meet with Hillary Clinton in D.C. Matt McClain/The Washington Post Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. A large part of Sanders’s appeal to the throngs who back him is his insistence that we are in need of a political revolution. And, for those people, the Daily News interview will be much ado about nothing. But what the interview exposes is that once the revolution happens there will be lots of loose ends to tie up. Loose ends that Sanders either hasn’t grappled with — or doesn’t want to. Remember that Sanders’s campaign began as the longest of long shots. He could propose the world and more because no one thought that he ever had a chance at winning. I could tell you 100 radical changes I would make to the NBA if I were commissioner — raise the age limit to 21, move the three-point line back, etc. — but I would never have to really explain how I was going to do it because you would know there’s a zero percent chance I am going to run the NBA. But if suddenly my name started to pop up on lists to replace Adam Silver — please please please let this happen — then a more careful examination of how I was going to accomplish all of my proposals would be in order. The Daily News interview amounts to a moment of reckoning for Sanders. Okay, let’s say you get elected — now what? And have you thought through what it might mean to the American worker and the American economy if all of the things you insist have to happen actually did happen? Judging by Sanders’s responses, he hasn’t. ||||| Watch CNN and NY1's Democratic debate, moderated by Wolf Blitzer, Thursday, April 14 at 9 p.m. ET. Los Angeles (CNN) Bernie Sanders' interview with the New York Daily News ahead of the state's primary later this month didn't go as planned. The Vermont senator's April 1 sit down with the paper's editorial board, a transcript of which was published Monday , showed him having difficulty clearly answering some questions about both foreign and domestic policy, including the implementation of his much-touted plan to reform Wall Street. Several times during the interview, Sanders expressed uncertainty over facts, said he couldn't give a proper answer to a question because he didn't have all the relevant information, or simply stated, "I don't know." In one exchange, Sanders acknowledged that he wasn't sure exactly how he intended to break up the big banks, a proposal that has been a centerpiece of his Wall Street reform agenda. In an interview Wednesday with CNN's Chris Cuomo, Clinton ripped Sanders for his answer about how he would break up the banks and how the Dodd-Frank regulatory bill works. "If you're concerned about income inequality and holding the banks accountable, you have to know how it works and what you have to do to make it work," she said. Earlier, on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Clinton said, "I think the [Sanders] interview raised a lot of really serious questions." JUST WATCHED Bernie Sanders feeling media heat after new interview Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Bernie Sanders feeling media heat after new interview 01:23 She added, "I'd think he hadn't done his homework and he has been talking for more than a year about ... things that he obviously hadn't really studied or understood and that does raise a lot of questions and really what it does is for voters to ask themselves, can he deliver what he is talking about, can he really help people." For some political observers, the Sanders' difficulty in providing direct answers to some questions reinforced their belief that he lacks a concrete plan to implement his domestic agenda and is ill-prepared to handle the global challenges he would face as president. "If Hillary [Clinton] gave answers like this to [an editorial] board, she would be crucified," tweeted Mark Halperin, the Bloomberg television host and co-author of "Game Change." Typical extreme anti-Clinton double standard: if Hillary gave answers like this to ed board, she would be crucified https://t.co/q8vqOXT9NF — Mark Halperin (@MarkHalperin) April 5, 2016 Sanders' remarks drew an onslaught of criticism from the press: "Bernie Sanders Admits He Isn't Sure How to Break Up Big Banks," Vanity Fair's headline read. "How Much Does Bernie Sanders Know About Policy?" asked The Atlantic. "This New York Daily News interview was pretty close to a disaster for Bernie Sanders," The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza wrote. The Sanders campaign defended itself Wednesday on CNN. "I understand when you go to New York you're going to get hit by the tabloids, that's what the primaries are about," Sanders senior adviser Tad Devine said on CNN. On Tuesday night, the Clinton campaign even sent the entire, unedited interview transcript to its own supporters in a fundraising email. "We've said for a long time that this primary is about who's really going to be able to get things done. And from reading this interview, you get the impression Senator Sanders hasn't thought very much about that," the email read. "In fact, even on his signature issue of breaking up the banks, he's unable to answer basic questions about how he'd go about doing it, and even seems uncertain whether a president does or doesn't already have that authority under existing law." It wasn't like Sanders was in enemy territory. The Daily News has been quite favorable to Sanders in the run up to the Empire State's primary on April 19, although Wednesday's front page takes Sanders to task for supporting gun makers against the families of Newtown victims . The paper has yet to endorse in the Democratic primary. When Sanders was asked, according to the transcript, if there are particular statutes that allow the prosecution of Wall Street executives, he said: "I suspect that there are. Yes." Daily News: You believe that? But do you know? "I believe that that is the case," Sanders went on. "Do I have them in front of me, now, legal statutes? No, I don't. But if I would...yeah, that's what I believe, yes." On foreign affairs, the Daily News asked: "Expanding [Israeli] settlements is one thing; coming into office as a President who said as a baseline that you want Israel to pull back settlements, that changes the dynamic in the negotiations, and I'm wondering how far and what you want Israel to do in terms of pulling back." Sanders responded: "Well, again, you're asking me a very fair question, and if I had some paper in front of me, I would give you a better answer." When Sanders was asked, aside from Guantanamo Bay, where would he hold and interrogate a "captured ISIS commander," Sanders said: "Actually I haven't thought about it a whole lot. I suppose, somewhere near the locale where that person was captured. The best location where that individual would be safely secured in a way that we can get information out of him." ||||| Sanders: Well, I've talked about it, you have seen it. What the agenda is is very similar to where to where President Obama is. President Obama said at that Oregon speech…… with a great deal of emotion. That he thought this was an issue that's never going to be permanently solved. Nobody can guarantee that some lunatic is not going to pick up a gun today and kill people. But we have to do the best that we can to prevent those type of killings. And what we do, in my view, is significantly strengthen and expand the instant background check. What we do is do away with the gun show loophole, where people now are buying guns from unlicensed dealers. What we do is do away with the straw man provision, where you can buy a gun legally and then sell it to somebody who's a criminal. I think what we also is significantly expand mental health capabilities to try to address the fact that we have thousands of people walking in this country today who are suicidal and homicidal. So I support pretty much the President's agenda.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

One of the Trump Organization’s new endeavors, Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., set up in a once rundown federal building that the Trump family spent $200 million to renovate, had revenue of about $20 million, the disclosure said. The hotel opened its doors in September and since Election Day it has become a magnet for foreigners and lobbyists, with executives explicitly pitching the hotel as smart place for foreign diplomats to hold events. The hotel has been the site of Bahrain’s National Day celebration, and a prominent conference on United States-Turkey relations. It also served as the host of the American Petroleum Institute board meeting in March — an event that drew two members of Mr. Trump’s cabinet — while also making the family company a considerable fee. Revenue from his international operations — including residential buildings, golf courses and hotels in Latin America, Asia and the Middle East — did not change significantly in the last year even though several properties, for which he collects a licensing fee, opened recently including in Manila and Dubai. There were some exceptions, including a new tower in Vancouver, which produced at least $5 million in revenue, and an entity affiliated connected to Kolkata, India, which brought in $100,000 to $1 million. Renewed sales of his 1987 book, The Art of the Deal, also increased. The title brought in at least $100,000, double the minimum revenue listed last year. Lawyers involved in suing Mr. Trump, based on allegations that he is violating the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution because his businesses are accepting payments from foreign governments, said that the financial disclosure, while helpful, left many of their questions unresolved. “It just elevates questions,” said Maryland state Attorney General Brian E. Frosh, who this week sued Mr. Trump, along with the attorney general from Washington, D.C., in what is one of at least three such lawsuits. “Just how much money is he getting from foreign sources, who is he getting it from and what impact does it have on his foreign policy and his actions as president?” Mr. Trump has vowed to donate profits that his hotel makes from foreign governments and officials. But his company has found that to be more difficult in practice, because it is hard to identify foreign government officials who conduct business there. In total, he listed at least $310 million in liabilities, about the same amount as last year, although that is debt held only by companies that his family has majority control over. His creditors include a range of financial companies and banks, from big names like Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch, to lesser-known ones like Amboy Bank in New Jersey. Mr. Trump has said his net worth is more than $10 billion, but other analyses have concluded that he is worth less. In March, Forbes estimated Mr. Trump’s net worth at $3.5 billion, $200 million less than a year earlier. It attributed the decrease to money he spent on the campaign, the real estate conditions around Trump Tower and other factors, such as the sale of his liquid assets, like stocks. ||||| WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump had personal liabilities of at least $315.6 million to German, U.S. and other lenders as of mid-2017, according to a federal financial disclosure form released late on Friday by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. He had roughly $20 million in income from his new marquee Washington hotel, which opened just down the street from the White House last September. Revenues also increased at Mar-a-Lago, the Florida resort known as the “Winter White House.” Trump reported income of at least $594 million for 2016 and early 2017 and assets worth at least $1.4 billion. (bit.ly/2sah0ZM) The 98-page disclosure document posted on the ethics office’s website showed liabilities for Trump of at least $130 million to Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas [DBKGK.UL], a unit of German-based Deutsche Bank AG. For example, Trump disclosed a liability to Deutsche exceeding $50 million for the Old Post Office, a historic Washington property where he has opened a hotel. Trump reported liabilities of at least $110 million to Ladder Capital Corp , a commercial real estate lender with offices in New York, Los Angeles and Boca Raton, Florida. The largest component of Trump’s income was $115.9 million listed as golf-resort related revenues from Trump National Doral in Miami, down from $132 million he reported a year ago. Income from many of his other hotels and resorts largely held steady. Revenue from Trump Corporation, his real-estate management company, nearly tripled, to $18 million, and revenue from Mar-a-Lago grew by 25 percent, to $37.25 million. The private club doubled its initiation fee to $200,000 after Trump’s election. He earned $11 million from the Miss Universe pageant, after selling the beauty contest back in 2015. Revenue from television shows like “The Apprentice” fell to $1.1 million, down from $6 million a year earlier. His assets probably exceeded $1.4 billion because the disclosure form provided ranges of values. The document showed Trump held officer positions in 565 corporations or other entities before becoming U.S. president. His tenure in most of those posts ended on Jan. 19, the day before his inauguration, and in others in 2015 and 2016. Most of the entities involved were based in the United States, with a handful in Scotland, Ireland, Canada, Brazil, Bermuda and elsewhere. Trump has refused to release his tax returns, which would give a much clearer indication of his wealth and business interests. But he has submitted federal forms disclosing his and his family’s income, assets and liabilities. “President Trump welcomed the opportunity to voluntarily file his personal financial disclosure form,” the White House said in a statement, adding that the form was “certified by the Office of Government Ethics pursuant to its normal procedures.” U.S. President Donald Trump delivers a speech on US-Cuba relations at the Manuel Artime Theater in Miami, Florida, U.S., June 16, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria An Office of Government Ethics spokesman declined to comment on the contents of the report, other than to say that it was certified by the office, which is an ethics watchdog for federal government employees. Trump released a disclosure form in May 2016 that his campaign at the time said showed his net worth was $10 billion. Some critics disputed that figure as overblown. Before taking office in January, Trump was a New York real estate developer and television celebrity. ||||| Getty Images Share Pinterest Email President Trump’s financial disclosure form, released on Friday by the Office of Government Ethics, contained information about a series of Trump-owned companies that distribute kosher-for-Passover vodka for the Israeli market. The 98-page form states that Trump Drinks Israel LLC and Trump Drinks Israel Member Corp are inactive, though the form also noted that Trump served as a president of both entities until the day before he was inaugurated. Trump’s American vodka business was largely seen as a failure and was discontinued in 2011, but found a second life in Israel later that year after selling licensing rights for Trump-branded vodka and energy drinks to an Israeli firm. Trump vodka is made from potatoes, making it kosher for Passover and therefore a hot item for religious Jews during the spring holiday. But an Israeli shopkeeper told the Times of Israel last year that they “don’t really keep it the rest of the year because it doesn’t sell that well.” The disclosure form, which lists income through April 15, reported $37.2 million in income from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, where the president frequently goes on weekends. That is $7.4 million higher than last year’s figures, CNN reported. Trump has been criticized by ethics experts for refusing to outright sell his assets, instead placing them in a trust and receiving periodic reports on his businesses from his sons. Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter @aidenpink. ||||| New financial disclosure forms provide insight into where and how Donald Trump has reaped profits since he launched his bid for the presidency. The 98-page filing with the Office of Government Ethics, released on Friday afternoon, provides an incomplete snapshot of Trump’s financial picture. But since Trump has broken presidential precedent by refusing to release his taxes, it’s the closest look into his investments the public has gotten so far. The documents provide financial information for the period of time between last January and this spring — encompassing the lead-up to the presidential election and Trump’s transition into the White House. Trump’s sprawling business empire is difficult to definitively quantify. However, the filings do show that the properties Trump has visited frequently as president have seen significant gains in income, the D.C. hotel at the center of an ethical controversy has generated millions in revenue, and the royalties for Trump’s books have soared. Advertisement Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, where he spent most of his weekends immediately after his inauguration, returned millions more in income after his campaign and subsequent election. Trump reported about $16 million in profits for Mar-a-Lago in his report filed in 2015, about $30 million in his report filed in 2016, and about $37 million in his most recent report. Trump didn’t hide the fact that his presidency made Mar-a-Lago a more profitable venture for him. The initiation fee for the so-called “Winter White House” doubled to $200,000 — a figure that doesn’t include taxes and $14,000 annual dues — immediately after Trump was inaugurated. As the Atlantic details, the other Trump properties that did not receive frequent visits from the president did not see a sharp jump in revenue. Trump-branded golf courses throughout the United States generated roughly the same amount of income for Trump this year as they did in 2016. According to the filings, the Trump International Hotel — the downtown D.C. property Trump leases from the federal government that’s located just blocks from the White House — has also generated nearly $20 million in profits for the president this year. Advertisement Previous reporting has revealed some of those profits come from foreign government officials who opt to stay there when they’re in the nation’s capital. Earlier this month, the attorneys general of Maryland and D.C. filed suit against the president, arguing it violates the U.S. Constitution for Trump to profit off foreign governments through this hotel. As Trump gained power over the U.S. government, he generated interest in his products. The reported royalties for Trump’s book The Art of the Deal jumped from $100,000 last year to $1 million this year. “President Trump welcomed the opportunity to voluntarily file his personal financial disclosure form,” White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said in a statement released Friday, emphasizing that the filing was “voluntary.” Trump may have opted to file these forms with the Office of Government Ethics, but the president also ignored advice from the independent office to fully divest from his businesses and sell his assets. According to reporting from the Center for Public Integrity, OGE has had a very rocky relationship with Trump officials in the first months of his presidency. ||||| (CNN) President Donald Trump released a 98-page financial disclosure form Friday , detailing the broad outlines of his wealth but still leaving a number of unanswered questions about the specifics of not only Trump's income but also the details of his vast holdings. In short, Trump's financial disclosure is nice. His tax returns -- which he became the first presidential candidate in four decades to refuse to release -- would be far better. Trump voluntarily filed the disclosure forms with the Office of Government Ethics on Friday. He was not required to file the forms, which cover his earnings over the past 15 and a half months, until next spring. (Past presidents including Barack Obama and George W. Bush have also released them early, according to the Washington Post .) Trump's wealth, as documented in the report, is vast. He took in hundreds of millions of dollars in income over the past 15 months while carrying liabilities north of $300 million. (The Post estimated that Trump's assets are worth at least $1.4 billion.) Trump raked in $288 million from his golf courses alone; he made at least $37 million from Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort and a frequent weekend stomping ground for the first family. The big problem with financial disclosure forms is that they only require ranges of assets and liability -- making it extremely difficult to get an accurate sense of what Trump true's wealth is. "Overall, Trump reported liabilities of at least $311 million -- mortgages and loans. But the number could be much higher because he was required only to report a range in value for each loan." "Of the 16 loans he reported, five were worth more than $50 million each; one is worth between $25 million and $50 million; and seven were worth between $5 million and $25 million apiece. Another three loans combined were worth less than $1 million." There is also the fact that, unlike a tax return, these financial disclosure forms don't require Trump to detail how much he paid in taxes, the profits and losses from his various businesses, whether he has any holdings in foreign companies and whether (and how much) he has donated to charity. (Read this great Jeanne Sahadi piece for a comprehensive look at what tax returns tell you that financial disclosures don't.) All of which makes the rhetoric coming from Trump and his top aides regarding his level of transparency about his finances misleading. In February 2016, Trump tweeted this : "Just for your info, tax returns have 0 to do w/ someone's net worth. I have already filed my financial statements w/ FEC. They are great!" He has repeated that line whenever he has been asked about his income tax returns since that time. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in April tha t "the president has released plenty of information and has given more financial disclosure than anybody else," adding: "I think the American population has plenty of information on his taxes." That isn't accurate. But you can bet that Trump's decision to voluntarily file his financial disclosure forms months ahead of time will become a new talking point for Trump and his aides whenever the questions regarding his taxes inevitably arise again. The key point to remember: Financial disclosures are simply no substitute for tax returns when it comes to understanding someone's financial standing and various commitments. Think of it this way. You go to a baseball game. Financial disclosure forms are like sitting near the top of the upper deck. You can see a baseball game is going on but it's tough to make out the individual players or figure out what pitch the pitcher is throwing. Tax returns are like having front-row seats behind home plate. You can see the reaction on the batter's face when he disagrees with a call. You can see how the teams interact -- both with each other and amongst themselves. You can hear the pop of the fastball hitting the catcher's mitt. It's an entirely different game and experience. Right now, the American public is sitting way up in the rafters of Trump Financial Stadium. You have a vague sense of what's going on. But unless and until he releases his tax returns -- BREAKING: He probably won't! -- we'll all be squinting to try to figure out exactly what we're looking at. ||||| President Trump on Sunday circulated a doctored video clip on Twitter that showed him physically attacking a crudely rendered stand-in for CNN, a post that drew rebukes from critics as an incitement to violence, but prompted renewed expressions of support from backers. In doing so, Trump also ignored pleas to stop tweeting or at least take a more presidential tone -- from lawmakers in his own party -- after he took his war against news media to new heights last week with a coarse post on the appearance and intellect of cable television host Mika Brzezinski. On Saturday he also posted several anti-media messages as Americans began their Fourth of July celebration. ||||| President Donald Trump’s financial disclosure released today by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics has provided the greatest detail yet of the CEO-turned-Commander-in-Chief since he ran and became President of the United States. The 98-page filing dropped today doesn’t include his much-discussed still-private tax returns, but it does show Trump’s income related to his Hollywood interests, including his annual SAG pension totaling $84,292, and monies from his production businesses that co-produced The Apprentice and The Celebrity Apprentice. In the filing (read it in full here) submitted by Trump on June 14, Trump reported assets totaling around $1.4 billion, with $596.3 million in total for the reporting period through April 15. His debts totaled more than $300 million. We have posted the President’s newly filed financial disclosure report here: https://t.co/toV6a2HrB8 — U.S. OGE (@OfficeGovEthics) June 16, 2017 Among his Hollywood assets, Trump reported income from Miss Universe LLP of $10,973,722, and his Trump Productions LLC — noted as the television production and entertainment business arm of the privately held Trump Organization — brought in income of $1,103,161 and is valued between $1 million-$5 million. He also received stock dividends during the period that included from such entertainment-industry related companies as Comcast, 21st Century Fox, NBCUniversal Media LLC, Apple, Yahoo, Alphabet, Verizon and Microsoft. Among the 12 books listed in the filing, royalties for 1987’s The Art Of The Deal grew to as much as $1 million as his profile rose during the GOP primaries and general election. Crippled America, published in 2015 the year he announced his POTUS run, netted royalties as high as $5 million. Among his numerous golf holdings is Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes, which was valued at more than $50 million, earning $14,982,417 in golf-related income and $12,035,000 in land sales.

– President Trump owes at least $315.6 million to various lenders—including at least $130 million to a division of Germany's Deutsche Bank and at least $110 million to a commercial real estate lender—according to a federal financial disclosure form released Friday by the US Office of Government Ethics. Reuters reports the form covers 2016 and the first few months of 2017. Trump reported income of at least $594 million—including about $20 million from his new hotel in DC—and assets worth at least $1.4 billion (and it's likely much more). The biggest chunk of his income came from his Trump National Doral golf resort in Miami. Here's what else you need to know about Trump's financial disclosure: The Los Angeles Times highlights how complex Trump's disclosure is: 98 pages listing 565 separate roles the president holds or held in LLCs, corporations, and more, along with hundreds of different income sources and assets. For comparison, President Obama's 2016 financial disclosure form was just eight pages. The disclosure form is evidence Trump is "profiting off the presidency," according to ThinkProgress. Royalties for his books and profits at properties he frequently visits as president have skyrocketed. The Art of the Deal royalties increased from $100,000 to $1 million, and Mar-a-Lago alone has seen profits jump by millions. But the New York Times reports not all of Trump's income sources have gotten a boost from the presidency. Revenue was down 12% at Trump National Doral—his biggest income source—and about 3% overall. Deadline picks out how Trump is doing in show business, with the disclosure form showing more than $84,000 from his Screen Actors Guild pension, more than $1.1 million from Trump Productions, and nearly $11 million from Miss Universe. And Forward explains one of the odder nuggets in the disclosure: kosher potato vodka sold in Israel for Passover. Finally, Chris Cillizzza at CNN argues this doesn't mean we don't need to see Trump's tax returns. The financial disclosure form only gives a range for assets and liabilities—meaning it's hard to get an accurate idea of them—and doesn't include what Trump paid in taxes, his holdings in foreign companies, or what he donated to charity.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.One of the Trump Organization’s new endeavors, Trump International Hotel in Washington, D.C., set up in a once rundown federal building that the Trump family spent $200 million to renovate, had revenue of about $20 million, the disclosure said. The hotel opened its doors in September and since Election Day it has become a magnet for foreigners and lobbyists, with executives explicitly pitching the hotel as smart place for foreign diplomats to hold events. The hotel has been the site of Bahrain’s National Day celebration, and a prominent conference on United States-Turkey relations. It also served as the host of the American Petroleum Institute board meeting in March — an event that drew two members of Mr. Trump’s cabinet — while also making the family company a considerable fee. Revenue from his international operations — including residential buildings, golf courses and hotels in Latin America, Asia and the Middle East — did not change significantly in the last year even though several properties, for which he collects a licensing fee, opened recently including in Manila and Dubai. There were some exceptions, including a new tower in Vancouver, which produced at least $5 million in revenue, and an entity affiliated connected to Kolkata, India, which brought in $100,000 to $1 million. Renewed sales of his 1987 book, The Art of the Deal, also increased. The title brought in at least $100,000, double the minimum revenue listed last year. Lawyers involved in suing Mr. Trump, based on allegations that he is violating the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution because his businesses are accepting payments from foreign governments, said that the financial disclosure, while helpful, left many of their questions unresolved. “It just elevates questions,” said Maryland state Attorney General Brian E. Frosh, who this week sued Mr. Trump, along with the attorney general from Washington, D.C., in what is one of at least three such lawsuits. “Just how much money is he getting from foreign sources, who is he getting it from and what impact does it have on his foreign policy and his actions as president?” Mr. Trump has vowed to donate profits that his hotel makes from foreign governments and officials. But his company has found that to be more difficult in practice, because it is hard to identify foreign government officials who conduct business there. In total, he listed at least $310 million in liabilities, about the same amount as last year, although that is debt held only by companies that his family has majority control over. His creditors include a range of financial companies and banks, from big names like Deutsche Bank and Merrill Lynch, to lesser-known ones like Amboy Bank in New Jersey. Mr. Trump has said his net worth is more than $10 billion, but other analyses have concluded that he is worth less. In March, Forbes estimated Mr. Trump’s net worth at $3.5 billion, $200 million less than a year earlier. It attributed the decrease to money he spent on the campaign, the real estate conditions around Trump Tower and other factors, such as the sale of his liquid assets, like stocks. ||||| WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump had personal liabilities of at least $315.6 million to German, U.S. and other lenders as of mid-2017, according to a federal financial disclosure form released late on Friday by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics. He had roughly $20 million in income from his new marquee Washington hotel, which opened just down the street from the White House last September. Revenues also increased at Mar-a-Lago, the Florida resort known as the “Winter White House.” Trump reported income of at least $594 million for 2016 and early 2017 and assets worth at least $1.4 billion. (bit.ly/2sah0ZM) The 98-page disclosure document posted on the ethics office’s website showed liabilities for Trump of at least $130 million to Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas [DBKGK.UL], a unit of German-based Deutsche Bank AG. For example, Trump disclosed a liability to Deutsche exceeding $50 million for the Old Post Office, a historic Washington property where he has opened a hotel. Trump reported liabilities of at least $110 million to Ladder Capital Corp , a commercial real estate lender with offices in New York, Los Angeles and Boca Raton, Florida. The largest component of Trump’s income was $115.9 million listed as golf-resort related revenues from Trump National Doral in Miami, down from $132 million he reported a year ago. Income from many of his other hotels and resorts largely held steady. Revenue from Trump Corporation, his real-estate management company, nearly tripled, to $18 million, and revenue from Mar-a-Lago grew by 25 percent, to $37.25 million. The private club doubled its initiation fee to $200,000 after Trump’s election. He earned $11 million from the Miss Universe pageant, after selling the beauty contest back in 2015. Revenue from television shows like “The Apprentice” fell to $1.1 million, down from $6 million a year earlier. His assets probably exceeded $1.4 billion because the disclosure form provided ranges of values. The document showed Trump held officer positions in 565 corporations or other entities before becoming U.S. president. His tenure in most of those posts ended on Jan. 19, the day before his inauguration, and in others in 2015 and 2016. Most of the entities involved were based in the United States, with a handful in Scotland, Ireland, Canada, Brazil, Bermuda and elsewhere. Trump has refused to release his tax returns, which would give a much clearer indication of his wealth and business interests. But he has submitted federal forms disclosing his and his family’s income, assets and liabilities. “President Trump welcomed the opportunity to voluntarily file his personal financial disclosure form,” the White House said in a statement, adding that the form was “certified by the Office of Government Ethics pursuant to its normal procedures.” U.S. President Donald Trump delivers a speech on US-Cuba relations at the Manuel Artime Theater in Miami, Florida, U.S., June 16, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria An Office of Government Ethics spokesman declined to comment on the contents of the report, other than to say that it was certified by the office, which is an ethics watchdog for federal government employees. Trump released a disclosure form in May 2016 that his campaign at the time said showed his net worth was $10 billion. Some critics disputed that figure as overblown. Before taking office in January, Trump was a New York real estate developer and television celebrity. ||||| Getty Images Share Pinterest Email President Trump’s financial disclosure form, released on Friday by the Office of Government Ethics, contained information about a series of Trump-owned companies that distribute kosher-for-Passover vodka for the Israeli market. The 98-page form states that Trump Drinks Israel LLC and Trump Drinks Israel Member Corp are inactive, though the form also noted that Trump served as a president of both entities until the day before he was inaugurated. Trump’s American vodka business was largely seen as a failure and was discontinued in 2011, but found a second life in Israel later that year after selling licensing rights for Trump-branded vodka and energy drinks to an Israeli firm. Trump vodka is made from potatoes, making it kosher for Passover and therefore a hot item for religious Jews during the spring holiday. But an Israeli shopkeeper told the Times of Israel last year that they “don’t really keep it the rest of the year because it doesn’t sell that well.” The disclosure form, which lists income through April 15, reported $37.2 million in income from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, where the president frequently goes on weekends. That is $7.4 million higher than last year’s figures, CNN reported. Trump has been criticized by ethics experts for refusing to outright sell his assets, instead placing them in a trust and receiving periodic reports on his businesses from his sons. Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter @aidenpink. ||||| New financial disclosure forms provide insight into where and how Donald Trump has reaped profits since he launched his bid for the presidency. The 98-page filing with the Office of Government Ethics, released on Friday afternoon, provides an incomplete snapshot of Trump’s financial picture. But since Trump has broken presidential precedent by refusing to release his taxes, it’s the closest look into his investments the public has gotten so far. The documents provide financial information for the period of time between last January and this spring — encompassing the lead-up to the presidential election and Trump’s transition into the White House. Trump’s sprawling business empire is difficult to definitively quantify. However, the filings do show that the properties Trump has visited frequently as president have seen significant gains in income, the D.C. hotel at the center of an ethical controversy has generated millions in revenue, and the royalties for Trump’s books have soared. Advertisement Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, where he spent most of his weekends immediately after his inauguration, returned millions more in income after his campaign and subsequent election. Trump reported about $16 million in profits for Mar-a-Lago in his report filed in 2015, about $30 million in his report filed in 2016, and about $37 million in his most recent report. Trump didn’t hide the fact that his presidency made Mar-a-Lago a more profitable venture for him. The initiation fee for the so-called “Winter White House” doubled to $200,000 — a figure that doesn’t include taxes and $14,000 annual dues — immediately after Trump was inaugurated. As the Atlantic details, the other Trump properties that did not receive frequent visits from the president did not see a sharp jump in revenue. Trump-branded golf courses throughout the United States generated roughly the same amount of income for Trump this year as they did in 2016. According to the filings, the Trump International Hotel — the downtown D.C. property Trump leases from the federal government that’s located just blocks from the White House — has also generated nearly $20 million in profits for the president this year. Advertisement Previous reporting has revealed some of those profits come from foreign government officials who opt to stay there when they’re in the nation’s capital. Earlier this month, the attorneys general of Maryland and D.C. filed suit against the president, arguing it violates the U.S. Constitution for Trump to profit off foreign governments through this hotel. As Trump gained power over the U.S. government, he generated interest in his products. The reported royalties for Trump’s book The Art of the Deal jumped from $100,000 last year to $1 million this year. “President Trump welcomed the opportunity to voluntarily file his personal financial disclosure form,” White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said in a statement released Friday, emphasizing that the filing was “voluntary.” Trump may have opted to file these forms with the Office of Government Ethics, but the president also ignored advice from the independent office to fully divest from his businesses and sell his assets. According to reporting from the Center for Public Integrity, OGE has had a very rocky relationship with Trump officials in the first months of his presidency. ||||| (CNN) President Donald Trump released a 98-page financial disclosure form Friday , detailing the broad outlines of his wealth but still leaving a number of unanswered questions about the specifics of not only Trump's income but also the details of his vast holdings. In short, Trump's financial disclosure is nice. His tax returns -- which he became the first presidential candidate in four decades to refuse to release -- would be far better. Trump voluntarily filed the disclosure forms with the Office of Government Ethics on Friday. He was not required to file the forms, which cover his earnings over the past 15 and a half months, until next spring. (Past presidents including Barack Obama and George W. Bush have also released them early, according to the Washington Post .) Trump's wealth, as documented in the report, is vast. He took in hundreds of millions of dollars in income over the past 15 months while carrying liabilities north of $300 million. (The Post estimated that Trump's assets are worth at least $1.4 billion.) Trump raked in $288 million from his golf courses alone; he made at least $37 million from Mar-a-Lago, his Florida resort and a frequent weekend stomping ground for the first family. The big problem with financial disclosure forms is that they only require ranges of assets and liability -- making it extremely difficult to get an accurate sense of what Trump true's wealth is. "Overall, Trump reported liabilities of at least $311 million -- mortgages and loans. But the number could be much higher because he was required only to report a range in value for each loan." "Of the 16 loans he reported, five were worth more than $50 million each; one is worth between $25 million and $50 million; and seven were worth between $5 million and $25 million apiece. Another three loans combined were worth less than $1 million." There is also the fact that, unlike a tax return, these financial disclosure forms don't require Trump to detail how much he paid in taxes, the profits and losses from his various businesses, whether he has any holdings in foreign companies and whether (and how much) he has donated to charity. (Read this great Jeanne Sahadi piece for a comprehensive look at what tax returns tell you that financial disclosures don't.) All of which makes the rhetoric coming from Trump and his top aides regarding his level of transparency about his finances misleading. In February 2016, Trump tweeted this : "Just for your info, tax returns have 0 to do w/ someone's net worth. I have already filed my financial statements w/ FEC. They are great!" He has repeated that line whenever he has been asked about his income tax returns since that time. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in April tha t "the president has released plenty of information and has given more financial disclosure than anybody else," adding: "I think the American population has plenty of information on his taxes." That isn't accurate. But you can bet that Trump's decision to voluntarily file his financial disclosure forms months ahead of time will become a new talking point for Trump and his aides whenever the questions regarding his taxes inevitably arise again. The key point to remember: Financial disclosures are simply no substitute for tax returns when it comes to understanding someone's financial standing and various commitments. Think of it this way. You go to a baseball game. Financial disclosure forms are like sitting near the top of the upper deck. You can see a baseball game is going on but it's tough to make out the individual players or figure out what pitch the pitcher is throwing. Tax returns are like having front-row seats behind home plate. You can see the reaction on the batter's face when he disagrees with a call. You can see how the teams interact -- both with each other and amongst themselves. You can hear the pop of the fastball hitting the catcher's mitt. It's an entirely different game and experience. Right now, the American public is sitting way up in the rafters of Trump Financial Stadium. You have a vague sense of what's going on. But unless and until he releases his tax returns -- BREAKING: He probably won't! -- we'll all be squinting to try to figure out exactly what we're looking at. ||||| President Trump on Sunday circulated a doctored video clip on Twitter that showed him physically attacking a crudely rendered stand-in for CNN, a post that drew rebukes from critics as an incitement to violence, but prompted renewed expressions of support from backers. In doing so, Trump also ignored pleas to stop tweeting or at least take a more presidential tone -- from lawmakers in his own party -- after he took his war against news media to new heights last week with a coarse post on the appearance and intellect of cable television host Mika Brzezinski. On Saturday he also posted several anti-media messages as Americans began their Fourth of July celebration. ||||| President Donald Trump’s financial disclosure released today by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics has provided the greatest detail yet of the CEO-turned-Commander-in-Chief since he ran and became President of the United States. The 98-page filing dropped today doesn’t include his much-discussed still-private tax returns, but it does show Trump’s income related to his Hollywood interests, including his annual SAG pension totaling $84,292, and monies from his production businesses that co-produced The Apprentice and The Celebrity Apprentice. In the filing (read it in full here) submitted by Trump on June 14, Trump reported assets totaling around $1.4 billion, with $596.3 million in total for the reporting period through April 15. His debts totaled more than $300 million. We have posted the President’s newly filed financial disclosure report here: https://t.co/toV6a2HrB8 — U.S. OGE (@OfficeGovEthics) June 16, 2017 Among his Hollywood assets, Trump reported income from Miss Universe LLP of $10,973,722, and his Trump Productions LLC — noted as the television production and entertainment business arm of the privately held Trump Organization — brought in income of $1,103,161 and is valued between $1 million-$5 million. He also received stock dividends during the period that included from such entertainment-industry related companies as Comcast, 21st Century Fox, NBCUniversal Media LLC, Apple, Yahoo, Alphabet, Verizon and Microsoft. Among the 12 books listed in the filing, royalties for 1987’s The Art Of The Deal grew to as much as $1 million as his profile rose during the GOP primaries and general election. Crippled America, published in 2015 the year he announced his POTUS run, netted royalties as high as $5 million. Among his numerous golf holdings is Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes, which was valued at more than $50 million, earning $14,982,417 in golf-related income and $12,035,000 in land sales.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

The National Security Agency has obtained direct access to the systems of Google, Facebook, Apple and other US internet giants, according to a top secret document obtained by the Guardian. The NSA access is part of a previously undisclosed program called Prism, which allows officials to collect material including search history, the content of emails, file transfers and live chats, the document says. The Guardian has verified the authenticity of the document, a 41-slide PowerPoint presentation – classified as top secret with no distribution to foreign allies – which was apparently used to train intelligence operatives on the capabilities of the program. The document claims "collection directly from the servers" of major US service providers. Although the presentation claims the program is run with the assistance of the companies, all those who responded to a Guardian request for comment on Thursday denied knowledge of any such program. In a statement, Google said: "Google cares deeply about the security of our users' data. We disclose user data to government in accordance with the law, and we review all such requests carefully. From time to time, people allege that we have created a government 'back door' into our systems, but Google does not have a back door for the government to access private user data." Several senior tech executives insisted that they had no knowledge of Prism or of any similar scheme. They said they would never have been involved in such a program. "If they are doing this, they are doing it without our knowledge," one said. An Apple spokesman said it had "never heard" of Prism. The NSA access was enabled by changes to US surveillance law introduced under President Bush and renewed under Obama in December 2012. The program facilitates extensive, in-depth surveillance on live communications and stored information. The law allows for the targeting of any customers of participating firms who live outside the US, or those Americans whose communications include people outside the US. It also opens the possibility of communications made entirely within the US being collected without warrants. Disclosure of the Prism program follows a leak to the Guardian on Wednesday of a top-secret court order compelling telecoms provider Verizon to turn over the telephone records of millions of US customers. The participation of the internet companies in Prism will add to the debate, ignited by the Verizon revelation, about the scale of surveillance by the intelligence services. Unlike the collection of those call records, this surveillance can include the content of communications and not just the metadata. Some of the world's largest internet brands are claimed to be part of the information-sharing program since its introduction in 2007. Microsoft – which is currently running an advertising campaign with the slogan "Your privacy is our priority" – was the first, with collection beginning in December 2007. It was followed by Yahoo in 2008; Google, Facebook and PalTalk in 2009; YouTube in 2010; Skype and AOL in 2011; and finally Apple, which joined the program in 2012. The program is continuing to expand, with other providers due to come online. Collectively, the companies cover the vast majority of online email, search, video and communications networks. The extent and nature of the data collected from each company varies. Companies are legally obliged to comply with requests for users' communications under US law, but the Prism program allows the intelligence services direct access to the companies' servers. The NSA document notes the operations have "assistance of communications providers in the US". The revelation also supports concerns raised by several US senators during the renewal of the Fisa Amendments Act in December 2012, who warned about the scale of surveillance the law might enable, and shortcomings in the safeguards it introduces. When the FAA was first enacted, defenders of the statute argued that a significant check on abuse would be the NSA's inability to obtain electronic communications without the consent of the telecom and internet companies that control the data. But the Prism program renders that consent unnecessary, as it allows the agency to directly and unilaterally seize the communications off the companies' servers. A chart prepared by the NSA, contained within the top-secret document obtained by the Guardian, underscores the breadth of the data it is able to obtain: email, video and voice chat, videos, photos, voice-over-IP (Skype, for example) chats, file transfers, social networking details, and more. The document is recent, dating to April 2013. Such a leak is extremely rare in the history of the NSA, which prides itself on maintaining a high level of secrecy. The Prism program allows the NSA, the world's largest surveillance organisation, to obtain targeted communications without having to request them from the service providers and without having to obtain individual court orders. With this program, the NSA is able to reach directly into the servers of the participating companies and obtain both stored communications as well as perform real-time collection on targeted users. The presentation claims Prism was introduced to overcome what the NSA regarded as shortcomings of Fisa warrants in tracking suspected foreign terrorists. It noted that the US has a "home-field advantage" due to housing much of the internet's architecture. But the presentation claimed "Fisa constraints restricted our home-field advantage" because Fisa required individual warrants and confirmations that both the sender and receiver of a communication were outside the US. "Fisa was broken because it provided privacy protections to people who were not entitled to them," the presentation claimed. "It took a Fisa court order to collect on foreigners overseas who were communicating with other foreigners overseas simply because the government was collecting off a wire in the United States. There were too many email accounts to be practical to seek Fisas for all." The new measures introduced in the FAA redefines "electronic surveillance" to exclude anyone "reasonably believed" to be outside the USA – a technical change which reduces the bar to initiating surveillance. The act also gives the director of national intelligence and the attorney general power to permit obtaining intelligence information, and indemnifies internet companies against any actions arising as a result of co-operating with authorities' requests. In short, where previously the NSA needed individual authorisations, and confirmation that all parties were outside the USA, they now need only reasonable suspicion that one of the parties was outside the country at the time of the records were collected by the NSA. The document also shows the FBI acts as an intermediary between other agencies and the tech companies, and stresses its reliance on the participation of US internet firms, claiming "access is 100% dependent on ISP provisioning". In the document, the NSA hails the Prism program as "one of the most valuable, unique and productive accesses for NSA". It boasts of what it calls "strong growth" in its use of the Prism program to obtain communications. The document highlights the number of obtained communications increased in 2012 by 248% for Skype – leading the notes to remark there was "exponential growth in Skype reporting; looks like the word is getting out about our capability against Skype". There was also a 131% increase in requests for Facebook data, and 63% for Google. The NSA document indicates that it is planning to add Dropbox as a PRISM provider. The agency also seeks, in its words, to "expand collection services from existing providers". The revelations echo fears raised on the Senate floor last year during the expedited debate on the renewal of the FAA powers which underpin the PRISM program, which occurred just days before the act expired. Senator Christopher Coons of Delaware specifically warned that the secrecy surrounding the various surveillance programs meant there was no way to know if safeguards within the act were working. "The problem is: we here in the Senate and the citizens we represent don't know how well any of these safeguards actually work," he said. "The law doesn't forbid purely domestic information from being collected. We know that at least one Fisa court has ruled that the surveillance program violated the law. Why? Those who know can't say and average Americans can't know." Other senators also raised concerns. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon attempted, without success, to find out any information on how many phone calls or emails had been intercepted under the program. When the law was enacted, defenders of the FAA argued that a significant check on abuse would be the NSA's inability to obtain electronic communications without the consent of the telecom and internet companies that control the data. But the Prism program renders that consent unnecessary, as it allows the agency to directly and unilaterally seize the communications off the companies' servers. When the NSA reviews a communication it believes merits further investigation, it issues what it calls a "report". According to the NSA, "over 2,000 Prism-based reports" are now issued every month. There were 24,005 in 2012, a 27% increase on the previous year. In total, more than 77,000 intelligence reports have cited the PRISM program. Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU's Center for Democracy, that it was astonishing the NSA would even ask technology companies to grant direct access to user data. "It's shocking enough just that the NSA is asking companies to do this," he said. "The NSA is part of the military. The military has been granted unprecedented access to civilian communications. "This is unprecedented militarisation of domestic communications infrastructure. That's profoundly troubling to anyone who is concerned about that separation." A senior administration official said in a statement: "The Guardian and Washington Post articles refer to collection of communications pursuant to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. This law does not allow the targeting of any US citizen or of any person located within the United States. "The program is subject to oversight by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the Executive Branch, and Congress. It involves extensive procedures, specifically approved by the court, to ensure that only non-US persons outside the US are targeted, and that minimize the acquisition, retention and dissemination of incidentally acquired information about US persons. "This program was recently reauthorized by Congress after extensive hearings and debate. "Information collected under this program is among the most important and valuable intelligence information we collect, and is used to protect our nation from a wide variety of threats. "The Government may only use Section 702 to acquire foreign intelligence information, which is specifically, and narrowly, defined in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. This requirement applies across the board, regardless of the nationality of the target." Additional reporting by James Ball and Dominic Rushe ||||| Being at the center of a debate is a comfortable place for Mr. Greenwald, 46, who came to mainstream journalism through his own blog, which he started in 2005. Before that he was a lawyer, including working 18 months at the high-powered New York firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, where he represented large corporate clients. Advertisement Continue reading the main story “I approach my journalism as a litigator,” he said. “People say things, you assume they are lying, and dig for documents to prove it.” Mr. Greenwald’s writings at The Guardian — and before that, for Salon and on his own blog — can resemble a legal brief, with a list of points, extended arguments and detailed references and links. As Andrew Sullivan, a frequent sparring partner and sometime ally, put it, “once you get into a debate with him, it can be hard to get the last word.” While Mr. Greenwald notes that he often conducts interviews and breaks news in his columns, he describes himself as an activist and an advocate. But with this leak about the extremely confidential legal apparatus supporting the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, he has lifted the veil on some of the government’s most closely held secrets. Advertisement Continue reading the main story The leak, he said, came from “a reader of mine” who was comfortable working with him. The source, Mr. Greenwald said, “knew the views that I had and had an expectation of how I would display them.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story Mr. Greenwald’s experience as a journalist is unusual, not because of his clear opinions but because he has rarely had to report to an editor. He began his blog Unclaimed Territory in 2005 after the news of warrantless surveillance under the Bush administration. When his blog was picked up by Salon, said Kerry Lauerman, the magazine’s departing editor in chief, Salon agreed that Mr. Greenwald would have direct access to their computer system so that he could publish his blog posts himself without an editor seeing them first if he so chose. Advertisement Continue reading the main story “It basically is unheard of, but I never lost a moment of sleep over it,” Mr. Lauerman said. “He is incredibly scrupulous in the way a lawyer would be — really, really careful.” Photo The same independence has carried over at The Guardian, though Mr. Greenwald said that for an article like the one about the N.S.A. letter he agreed that the paper should be able to edit it. Because he has often argued in defense of Bradley Manning, the army private who was charged as the WikiLeaks source, he said he considered publishing the story on his own, and not for The Guardian, to assert that the protections owed a journalist should not require the imprimatur of an established publisher. Mr. Greenwald said he has had to get up to speed in the security precautions that are expected from a reporter covering national security matters, including installing encrypted instant chat and e-mail programs. Advertisement Continue reading the main story “I am borderline illiterate on these matters, but I had somebody who is really well-regarded actually come and physically do my whole computer,” he said. Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up Receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. That computer is in Brazil, where Mr. Greenwald spends most of his time and lives with his partner, who cannot emigrate to the United States because the federal government does not recognize same-sex marriages as a basis for residency applications. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Mr. Greenwald grew up in Lauderdale Lakes, Fla., feeling like an odd figure. “I do think political posture is driven by your personality, your relationship with authority, how comfortable are you in your life,” he said. “When you grow up gay, you are not part of the system, it forces you to evaluate: ‘Is it me, or is the system bad?’ ” By the time Mr. Greenwald was studying law at New York University, “he was always passionate about constitutional issues and issues of equal justice and equal treatment,” said Jennifer Bailey, now an immigration lawyer with a nonprofit organization in Maine, who shared a tiny apartment with Mr. Greenwald in the early 1990s. Advertisement Continue reading the main story She emphasized that his passion did not translate into partisanship. “He is not a categorizeable guy,” Ms. Bailey said. “He was not someone who played party politics. He was very deep into the issues and how it must come out. He was tireless and relentless about pursuing this. Nobody worked longer hours.” As Mr. Greenwald tells it, the last decade has been a slow political awakening. “When 9/11 happened, I thought Bush was doing a good job,” he said. “I was sucking up uncritically what was in the air.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story His writing has made him a frequent target from ideological foes who accuse him of excusing terrorism or making false comparisons between, for example, Western governments’ drone strikes, and terrorist attacks like the one in Boston. Gabriel Schoenfeld, a national security expert and senior fellow at the Hudson Institute who is often on the opposite ends of issues from Mr. Greenwald, called him, “a highly professional apologist for any kind of anti-Americanism no matter how extreme.” Mr. Sullivan wrote in an e-mail: “I think he has little grip on what it actually means to govern a country or run a war. He’s a purist in a way that, in my view, constrains the sophistication of his work.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story Ms. Bailey has a slightly different take. Because of his passions, she said, “he is just as willing to make enemies of anybody.”

– How did word of the NSA's massive Internet and phone surveillance programs leak to the press? We don't know much, but it looks like the story comes from one or more insiders who object to the government's actions. Here's what we know: Tucked at the end of its piece on the PRISM program, the Washington Post identifies its source as a "career intelligence officer" with "firsthand experience" with PRISM and "horror at [its] capabilities." Said the source, "They quite literally can watch your ideas form as you type." Glenn Greenwald, who broke both stories for the Guardian, tells the New York Times that his source is "a reader of mine," who "knew the views that I had and had an expectation of how I would display them." It's not clear from his comments if that reader was the source for both stories. Greenwald, for those unfamiliar, is a Guardian blogger known for railing against the surveillance state and being in favor of civil liberties. He's now expected to fall under a Justice Department investigation of his own, the Times reports. He also says that he considered releasing the info without the Guardian, because, as a frequent defender of Bradley Manning, he believes journalists should be protected even without an established publisher behind them.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.The National Security Agency has obtained direct access to the systems of Google, Facebook, Apple and other US internet giants, according to a top secret document obtained by the Guardian. The NSA access is part of a previously undisclosed program called Prism, which allows officials to collect material including search history, the content of emails, file transfers and live chats, the document says. The Guardian has verified the authenticity of the document, a 41-slide PowerPoint presentation – classified as top secret with no distribution to foreign allies – which was apparently used to train intelligence operatives on the capabilities of the program. The document claims "collection directly from the servers" of major US service providers. Although the presentation claims the program is run with the assistance of the companies, all those who responded to a Guardian request for comment on Thursday denied knowledge of any such program. In a statement, Google said: "Google cares deeply about the security of our users' data. We disclose user data to government in accordance with the law, and we review all such requests carefully. From time to time, people allege that we have created a government 'back door' into our systems, but Google does not have a back door for the government to access private user data." Several senior tech executives insisted that they had no knowledge of Prism or of any similar scheme. They said they would never have been involved in such a program. "If they are doing this, they are doing it without our knowledge," one said. An Apple spokesman said it had "never heard" of Prism. The NSA access was enabled by changes to US surveillance law introduced under President Bush and renewed under Obama in December 2012. The program facilitates extensive, in-depth surveillance on live communications and stored information. The law allows for the targeting of any customers of participating firms who live outside the US, or those Americans whose communications include people outside the US. It also opens the possibility of communications made entirely within the US being collected without warrants. Disclosure of the Prism program follows a leak to the Guardian on Wednesday of a top-secret court order compelling telecoms provider Verizon to turn over the telephone records of millions of US customers. The participation of the internet companies in Prism will add to the debate, ignited by the Verizon revelation, about the scale of surveillance by the intelligence services. Unlike the collection of those call records, this surveillance can include the content of communications and not just the metadata. Some of the world's largest internet brands are claimed to be part of the information-sharing program since its introduction in 2007. Microsoft – which is currently running an advertising campaign with the slogan "Your privacy is our priority" – was the first, with collection beginning in December 2007. It was followed by Yahoo in 2008; Google, Facebook and PalTalk in 2009; YouTube in 2010; Skype and AOL in 2011; and finally Apple, which joined the program in 2012. The program is continuing to expand, with other providers due to come online. Collectively, the companies cover the vast majority of online email, search, video and communications networks. The extent and nature of the data collected from each company varies. Companies are legally obliged to comply with requests for users' communications under US law, but the Prism program allows the intelligence services direct access to the companies' servers. The NSA document notes the operations have "assistance of communications providers in the US". The revelation also supports concerns raised by several US senators during the renewal of the Fisa Amendments Act in December 2012, who warned about the scale of surveillance the law might enable, and shortcomings in the safeguards it introduces. When the FAA was first enacted, defenders of the statute argued that a significant check on abuse would be the NSA's inability to obtain electronic communications without the consent of the telecom and internet companies that control the data. But the Prism program renders that consent unnecessary, as it allows the agency to directly and unilaterally seize the communications off the companies' servers. A chart prepared by the NSA, contained within the top-secret document obtained by the Guardian, underscores the breadth of the data it is able to obtain: email, video and voice chat, videos, photos, voice-over-IP (Skype, for example) chats, file transfers, social networking details, and more. The document is recent, dating to April 2013. Such a leak is extremely rare in the history of the NSA, which prides itself on maintaining a high level of secrecy. The Prism program allows the NSA, the world's largest surveillance organisation, to obtain targeted communications without having to request them from the service providers and without having to obtain individual court orders. With this program, the NSA is able to reach directly into the servers of the participating companies and obtain both stored communications as well as perform real-time collection on targeted users. The presentation claims Prism was introduced to overcome what the NSA regarded as shortcomings of Fisa warrants in tracking suspected foreign terrorists. It noted that the US has a "home-field advantage" due to housing much of the internet's architecture. But the presentation claimed "Fisa constraints restricted our home-field advantage" because Fisa required individual warrants and confirmations that both the sender and receiver of a communication were outside the US. "Fisa was broken because it provided privacy protections to people who were not entitled to them," the presentation claimed. "It took a Fisa court order to collect on foreigners overseas who were communicating with other foreigners overseas simply because the government was collecting off a wire in the United States. There were too many email accounts to be practical to seek Fisas for all." The new measures introduced in the FAA redefines "electronic surveillance" to exclude anyone "reasonably believed" to be outside the USA – a technical change which reduces the bar to initiating surveillance. The act also gives the director of national intelligence and the attorney general power to permit obtaining intelligence information, and indemnifies internet companies against any actions arising as a result of co-operating with authorities' requests. In short, where previously the NSA needed individual authorisations, and confirmation that all parties were outside the USA, they now need only reasonable suspicion that one of the parties was outside the country at the time of the records were collected by the NSA. The document also shows the FBI acts as an intermediary between other agencies and the tech companies, and stresses its reliance on the participation of US internet firms, claiming "access is 100% dependent on ISP provisioning". In the document, the NSA hails the Prism program as "one of the most valuable, unique and productive accesses for NSA". It boasts of what it calls "strong growth" in its use of the Prism program to obtain communications. The document highlights the number of obtained communications increased in 2012 by 248% for Skype – leading the notes to remark there was "exponential growth in Skype reporting; looks like the word is getting out about our capability against Skype". There was also a 131% increase in requests for Facebook data, and 63% for Google. The NSA document indicates that it is planning to add Dropbox as a PRISM provider. The agency also seeks, in its words, to "expand collection services from existing providers". The revelations echo fears raised on the Senate floor last year during the expedited debate on the renewal of the FAA powers which underpin the PRISM program, which occurred just days before the act expired. Senator Christopher Coons of Delaware specifically warned that the secrecy surrounding the various surveillance programs meant there was no way to know if safeguards within the act were working. "The problem is: we here in the Senate and the citizens we represent don't know how well any of these safeguards actually work," he said. "The law doesn't forbid purely domestic information from being collected. We know that at least one Fisa court has ruled that the surveillance program violated the law. Why? Those who know can't say and average Americans can't know." Other senators also raised concerns. Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon attempted, without success, to find out any information on how many phone calls or emails had been intercepted under the program. When the law was enacted, defenders of the FAA argued that a significant check on abuse would be the NSA's inability to obtain electronic communications without the consent of the telecom and internet companies that control the data. But the Prism program renders that consent unnecessary, as it allows the agency to directly and unilaterally seize the communications off the companies' servers. When the NSA reviews a communication it believes merits further investigation, it issues what it calls a "report". According to the NSA, "over 2,000 Prism-based reports" are now issued every month. There were 24,005 in 2012, a 27% increase on the previous year. In total, more than 77,000 intelligence reports have cited the PRISM program. Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU's Center for Democracy, that it was astonishing the NSA would even ask technology companies to grant direct access to user data. "It's shocking enough just that the NSA is asking companies to do this," he said. "The NSA is part of the military. The military has been granted unprecedented access to civilian communications. "This is unprecedented militarisation of domestic communications infrastructure. That's profoundly troubling to anyone who is concerned about that separation." A senior administration official said in a statement: "The Guardian and Washington Post articles refer to collection of communications pursuant to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. This law does not allow the targeting of any US citizen or of any person located within the United States. "The program is subject to oversight by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the Executive Branch, and Congress. It involves extensive procedures, specifically approved by the court, to ensure that only non-US persons outside the US are targeted, and that minimize the acquisition, retention and dissemination of incidentally acquired information about US persons. "This program was recently reauthorized by Congress after extensive hearings and debate. "Information collected under this program is among the most important and valuable intelligence information we collect, and is used to protect our nation from a wide variety of threats. "The Government may only use Section 702 to acquire foreign intelligence information, which is specifically, and narrowly, defined in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. This requirement applies across the board, regardless of the nationality of the target." Additional reporting by James Ball and Dominic Rushe ||||| Being at the center of a debate is a comfortable place for Mr. Greenwald, 46, who came to mainstream journalism through his own blog, which he started in 2005. Before that he was a lawyer, including working 18 months at the high-powered New York firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, where he represented large corporate clients. Advertisement Continue reading the main story “I approach my journalism as a litigator,” he said. “People say things, you assume they are lying, and dig for documents to prove it.” Mr. Greenwald’s writings at The Guardian — and before that, for Salon and on his own blog — can resemble a legal brief, with a list of points, extended arguments and detailed references and links. As Andrew Sullivan, a frequent sparring partner and sometime ally, put it, “once you get into a debate with him, it can be hard to get the last word.” While Mr. Greenwald notes that he often conducts interviews and breaks news in his columns, he describes himself as an activist and an advocate. But with this leak about the extremely confidential legal apparatus supporting the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, he has lifted the veil on some of the government’s most closely held secrets. Advertisement Continue reading the main story The leak, he said, came from “a reader of mine” who was comfortable working with him. The source, Mr. Greenwald said, “knew the views that I had and had an expectation of how I would display them.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story Mr. Greenwald’s experience as a journalist is unusual, not because of his clear opinions but because he has rarely had to report to an editor. He began his blog Unclaimed Territory in 2005 after the news of warrantless surveillance under the Bush administration. When his blog was picked up by Salon, said Kerry Lauerman, the magazine’s departing editor in chief, Salon agreed that Mr. Greenwald would have direct access to their computer system so that he could publish his blog posts himself without an editor seeing them first if he so chose. Advertisement Continue reading the main story “It basically is unheard of, but I never lost a moment of sleep over it,” Mr. Lauerman said. “He is incredibly scrupulous in the way a lawyer would be — really, really careful.” Photo The same independence has carried over at The Guardian, though Mr. Greenwald said that for an article like the one about the N.S.A. letter he agreed that the paper should be able to edit it. Because he has often argued in defense of Bradley Manning, the army private who was charged as the WikiLeaks source, he said he considered publishing the story on his own, and not for The Guardian, to assert that the protections owed a journalist should not require the imprimatur of an established publisher. Mr. Greenwald said he has had to get up to speed in the security precautions that are expected from a reporter covering national security matters, including installing encrypted instant chat and e-mail programs. Advertisement Continue reading the main story “I am borderline illiterate on these matters, but I had somebody who is really well-regarded actually come and physically do my whole computer,” he said. Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up Receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. That computer is in Brazil, where Mr. Greenwald spends most of his time and lives with his partner, who cannot emigrate to the United States because the federal government does not recognize same-sex marriages as a basis for residency applications. Advertisement Continue reading the main story Mr. Greenwald grew up in Lauderdale Lakes, Fla., feeling like an odd figure. “I do think political posture is driven by your personality, your relationship with authority, how comfortable are you in your life,” he said. “When you grow up gay, you are not part of the system, it forces you to evaluate: ‘Is it me, or is the system bad?’ ” By the time Mr. Greenwald was studying law at New York University, “he was always passionate about constitutional issues and issues of equal justice and equal treatment,” said Jennifer Bailey, now an immigration lawyer with a nonprofit organization in Maine, who shared a tiny apartment with Mr. Greenwald in the early 1990s. Advertisement Continue reading the main story She emphasized that his passion did not translate into partisanship. “He is not a categorizeable guy,” Ms. Bailey said. “He was not someone who played party politics. He was very deep into the issues and how it must come out. He was tireless and relentless about pursuing this. Nobody worked longer hours.” As Mr. Greenwald tells it, the last decade has been a slow political awakening. “When 9/11 happened, I thought Bush was doing a good job,” he said. “I was sucking up uncritically what was in the air.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story His writing has made him a frequent target from ideological foes who accuse him of excusing terrorism or making false comparisons between, for example, Western governments’ drone strikes, and terrorist attacks like the one in Boston. Gabriel Schoenfeld, a national security expert and senior fellow at the Hudson Institute who is often on the opposite ends of issues from Mr. Greenwald, called him, “a highly professional apologist for any kind of anti-Americanism no matter how extreme.” Mr. Sullivan wrote in an e-mail: “I think he has little grip on what it actually means to govern a country or run a war. He’s a purist in a way that, in my view, constrains the sophistication of his work.” Advertisement Continue reading the main story Ms. Bailey has a slightly different take. Because of his passions, she said, “he is just as willing to make enemies of anybody.”

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A Rhinoderma darwinii frog is seen in an undated handout photo from the Zoological Society of London. A frog named after Charles Darwin has gone extinct because of a deadly amphibian skin disease, scientists believe. A Rhinoderma darwinii frog is seen in an undated handout photo from the Zoological Society of London. A frog named after Charles Darwin has gone extinct because of a deadly amphibian skin disease, scientists believe. LONDONA frog named after Charles Darwin has gone extinct because of a deadly amphibian skin disease, scientists believe. Darwin's frogs were named after the father of evolution, who discovered them in 1834 in Chile during his voyage around the world on the ship HMS Beagle. They are notable for having evolved to escape predators by looking like a dead leaf, with a pointy nose, and the fact that the males carry young tadpoles around inside their vocal sacs. Researchers think the northern Darwin's frog, one of two species, has been killed off completely by a fungal disease called chytridiomycosis that infects their skin. Numbers of the related southern species have plunged dramatically. An analysis into the spread of the disease by a team from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and Chile's Universidad Andres Bello found that habitat loss contributed to the decline, but this alone could not explain the animal's demise. "Only a few examples of the 'extinction by infection' phenomenon exist," said Andrew Cunningham, from ZSL's Institute of Zoology. "Although not entirely conclusive, the possibility of chytridiomycosis being associated with the extinction of the northern Darwin's frog gains further support with this study." The scientists' findings were published online on Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE. (Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Gareth Jones) ||||| Abstract Darwin’s frogs (Rhinoderma darwinii and R. rufum) are two species of mouth brooding frogs from Chile and Argentina that have experienced marked population declines. Rhinoderma rufum has not been found in the wild since 1980. We investigated historical and current evidence of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) infection in Rhinoderma spp. to determine whether chytridiomycosis is implicated in the population declines of these species. Archived and live specimens of Rhinoderma spp., sympatric amphibians and amphibians at sites where Rhinoderma sp. had recently gone extinct were examined for Bd infection using quantitative real-time PCR. Six (0.9%) of 662 archived anurans tested positive for Bd (4/289 R. darwinii; 1/266 R. rufum and 1/107 other anurans), all of which had been collected between 1970 and 1978. An overall Bd-infection prevalence of 12.5% was obtained from 797 swabs taken from 369 extant individuals of R. darwinii and 428 individuals representing 18 other species of anurans found at sites with current and recent presence of the two Rhinoderma species. In extant R. darwinii, Bd-infection prevalence (1.9%) was significantly lower than that found in other anurans (7.3%). The prevalence of infection (30%) in other amphibian species was significantly higher in sites where either Rhinoderma spp. had become extinct or was experiencing severe population declines than in sites where there had been no apparent decline (3.0%; x2 = 106.407, P<0.001). This is the first report of widespread Bd presence in Chile and our results are consistent with Rhinoderma spp. declines being due to Bd infection, although additional field and laboratory investigations are required to investigate this further. Citation: Soto-Azat C, Valenzuela-Sánchez A, Clarke BT, Busse K, Ortiz JC, et al. (2013) Is Chytridiomycosis Driving Darwin’s Frogs to Extinction? PLoS ONE 8(11): e79862. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0079862 Editor: Michael Sears, Clemson University, United States of America Received: July 11, 2013; Accepted: September 25, 2013; Published: November 20, 2013 Copyright: © 2013 Soto-Azat et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: This research was funded by the Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and the ZSL EDGE Fellowship Programme; the Dirección General de Investigación y Doctorados, Universidad Andres Bello; the Field Veterinary Programme, Wildlife Health Fund, Wildlife Conservation Society; and a Fundación Futuro Scholarship. AAC is supported by a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Introduction There are two species of Darwin’s frogs, both of which inhabit the temperate forests of South America: the northern Darwin’s frog (Rhinoderma rufum), which is endemic to central Chile, and the southern Darwin’s frog (R. darwinii), which is found in south and southern Chile and also in adjacent areas of Argentina [1], [2]. The behaviour that sets these frogs apart from all other amphibians is that the males care for their young by incubating them in their vocal sacs for at least part of their development, a process known as neomelia [3], [4]. In recent decades, both species have undergone marked population declines and R. rufum has not been recorded since 1980 [5]. The reasons for these apparent disappearances remain poorly understood [6], [7]. Throughout the historical distribution of R. rufum, and within the northern range of R. darwinii, there has been extensive habitat degradation, due to the large-scale replacement of native forest with pine (Pinus radiata) and eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus) plantations, and land use change to agriculture [1], [2]. Habitat loss, however, does not fully explain the enigmatic disappearances of R. rufum from its entire historical range or of the declines of R. darwinii from undisturbed ecosystems, including National Parks [8]. In this context, it has been hypothesised that amphibian chytridiomycosis, an infectious disease caused by the nonhyphal zoosporic chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), might be implicated in the disappearances of Darwin’s frogs [1], [2], [8]. Amphibian chytridiomycosis, a recently-described emerging disease of amphibians [9], [10], has been associated with amphibian epizootic mass mortalities, population declines and global extinctions in different regions of the world [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17]. Different genotypes of the fungus have been described, with the most virulent being a recombinant lineage, termed the global panzootic lineage (BdGPL) [18]. Recently, Bd whole-genome sequencing has demonstrated a higher genetic differentiation than previously recognised (including within BdGPL) [18], [19] and a complex evolutionary history that predates contemporary amphibian declines [20]. This highly-pathogenic and readily-transmissible pathogen appears to be capable of infecting an entire class of organism (the Amphibia), with devastating effects [21]. It has been described as: “the worst infectious disease ever recorded among vertebrates in terms of the number of species impacted and its propensity to drive them to extinction” [22]. In 2007, chytridiomycosis was identified as the cause of death of a group of 30 wild-caught R. darwinii exported to Germany for captive breeding [23]. Infection with Bd has been reported in populations of the invasive African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis [24] in central Chile. Additionally, Bourke et al. [25], [26] recently described Bd infection in R. darwinii and two other native frog species in the south of the country. The impacts of this emerging disease on amphibian populations in Chile, including Darwin’s frogs, however, have not been studied. Here, we investigate whether amphibian chytridiomycosis is implicated in the population declines of Darwin’s frogs. We looked for evidence of historical Bd infection in Rhinoderma spp. and amphibians at current and former Rhinoderma sp. sites prior to and post the onset of declines. Also, we determined how widespread Bd infection is both in contemporary populations of R. darwinii across its current range and in other anuran species at sites of Rhinoderma spp. population decline or recent extinction. Materials and Methods Ethics statement This study was carried out in strict accordance with the recommendations in the guidelines for use of live amphibians and reptiles in field research compiled by the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (ASIH). Research was approved by the ZSL Ethics Committee and was conducted following Chilean and Argentinian wildlife regulations and according to permits 1241/08, 7377/09, 7993/10 and 300/12 of the Livestock and Agriculture Service (SAG) and 20/09, XI-01/09, 28/11 and X-03/11 of the National Forestry Corporation (CONAF) both in Chile, and permit 1119/11 of the National Parks Administration (APN) in Argentina. Archived amphibians were examined in their museum of origin, by the authors with specific permission given by all 5 zoological institutions. Study area Archived amphibian specimens from museum collections in Europe and Chile were examined for evidence of Bd infection. Also, extensive surveys for Bd infection throughout the historical ranges of R. rufum and R. darwinii were conducted from October 2008 to March 2012. These ranges extended from Zapallar (32° 33’ 03’’S, 71° 26’ 37’’W) to Aysén (45° 24’ 24’’S, 72° 41’ 52’’W) in Chile, and included adjacent areas in the Andes in the Neuquén and Río Negro Provinces in Argentina (Figure 1). PPT PowerPoint slide PowerPoint slide PNG larger image ( ) larger image ( ) TIFF original image ( ) Download: Figure 1. Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis infection prevalence at sites with extant or recently extinct Rhinoderma spp. Map of central-south Chile and Argentina showing sites from which Rhinoderma spp. and sympatric anurans were sampled for Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) detection between 2008 and 2012. Sample size is represented by the size of the circles, with Bd prevalence shown in the red segments. Inset: Graph showing the relationship between latitude and prevalence of Bd infection by site (R2 = 0.405, P<0.001). Squares: sites with recent extinction or population decline of Rhinoderma spp. Triangles: sites with extant populations and no evidence of population decline of R. darwinii. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0079862.g001 Archived anurans A retrospective study was carried out by examining 555 postmetamorphic Rhinoderma spp. and 107 sympatric anuran specimens, from the collections of the Zoologisches Museum Hamburg (ZMH, n = 321); Natural History Museum, London (BMNH, n = 142); Museo de Zoología, Universidad de Concepción, Chile (MZUC, n = 121); Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig, Bonn (ZFMK, n = 46); and Centro de Investigaciones Zoológicas, Universidad de Chile (CIZ, n = 32). Specimens were preserved in 70% ethanol (or 70% industrial methylated spirits for BMNH amphibians) and had been collected in central and south Chile between 1835 and 1989 (Table 1) for purposes other than disease investigation. PPT PowerPoint slide PowerPoint slide PNG larger image ( ) larger image ( ) TIFF original image ( ) Download: Table 1. Archived Darwin’s frogs (Rhinoderma spp.) and sympatric amphibians from European and Chilean museums examined for Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) infection. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0079862.t001 Living anurans Cross-sectional studies were carried out at sites where R. darwinii was extant and at sites where Rhinoderma spp. had recently (since 1966) become extinct. Sites were delimited and a search effort of one hour by two researchers was conducted during daylight hours using a standardised methodology, as previously described [8]. Sampling Archived anurans. The skin of the ventral pelvis and ventral hind limbs of each amphibian museum specimen was sampled by brushing with a tapered inter-dental brush (3.2 to 6.0 mm; Oral B Laboratories), following Soto-Azat et al. [27]. Where multiple specimens were held in a single jar, they were rinsed with running tap water prior to sampling to remove possible surface contamination with Bd. Each specimen was handled using a new pair of disposable nitrile or latex gloves. Live anurans. Only post-metamorphic and adult anurans were sampled. Frogs were captured by hand, safely contained in individual sealed plastic bags and put back immediately after the capture session in the exact place of capture. Each individual was handled with the use of clean disposable nitrile gloves. A sterile dry, rayon-tipped swab (MW100, Medical & Wire Equipment Co.) was firmly run five times each over the ventral abdomen and pelvis, each ventral hind limb (femur and tibia) and the plantar surface of each hind foot, to complete a total of 35 strokes. Dorsal and ventral pattern photographs were taken of each Darwin’s frog sampled for identification purposes. In order to minimize any Bd contamination of samples or the spread of pathogens within or between study sites by researchers, equipment or materials, a strict field sampling and disinfection protocol was followed according to that recommended by the Amphibian and Reptile Groups, UK: ARG Advice Note 4 (http://www.arguk.org/advice-and-guidance​/view-category). All samples were stored at −80 °C until processed. Diagnostic analysis Post sampling, whole interdental brushes and swab tips were deposited separately in 1.5 ml Eppendorf tubes containing 50 and 60 µl, respectively, of PrepMan Ultra (Applied Biosystems) and between 30 to 40 mg of Zirconium/silica beads of 0.5 mm diameter (Biospec Products). For each sample, DNA was extracted following the protocol of Boyle et al. [28]. Extracted DNA was diluted (1:10) in double-distilled water and analysed using a quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction Taqman assay (qPCR) with primers specific for the ITS-1/5.8S ribosomal DNA region of Bd. In addition, bovine serum albumin (BSA) was included in the Taqman mastermix to minimise inhibition of the PCR [29]. For each sample, diagnostic assays were performed in duplicate, and standards of known zoospore concentration were included within each PCR plate, as were negative controls. A result was considered positive when: (1) amplification (i.e. a clearly sigmoid curve) occurred in both replicated PCR assays, (2) values higher than 0.1 genomic equivalents (GE) were obtained from both replicated reactions, and (3) average GE from both replicates were higher than its standard deviation. Extracted DNA from any positive sample was re-tested in duplicate and only determined to be positive for the purposes of this study if Bd DNA was clearly amplified in duplicate wells for a second time. Data analysis Areas with historical and current presence of Rhinoderma spp. > 2 km from each other were determined to be separate sites or populations [30]. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS (v. 20.0) to detect any significant difference between: 1) Bd prevalence and time in archived R. darwinii (using Fisher’s exact test for small sample sizes), 2) Bd prevalence in extant R. darwinii and sympatric amphibians (using the chi-squared test), 3) Bd intensity in extant R. darwinii and all other amphibian species tested (using the Mann-Whitney U-test), and 4) Bd prevalence at sites with and without evidence of recent Rhinoderma spp. population decline in extant R. darwinii (using the chi-squared test). Data on Rhinoderma spp. abundance is scarce. To consider a population having evidence of recent decline, we used data from a previous study [8], which investigated population sizes and the extent of declines in Darwin’s frogs. Briefly, populations categorised as having declined comprised those known to have disappeared since 1966, or (in one case) known to have undergone a recent marked population decline. A relationship between Bd prevalence at sites with historical and current Rhinoderma spp. populations and latitude was also tested using a simple linear regression model. Discussion Museum amphibian specimens have been increasingly recognised as a valuable source of information for retrospective epidemiological studies [31], [32], [33], [34], [35]. Using such specimens, we demonstrated historical evidence of Bd infection in three species of native frogs from south Chile (R. darwinii, R. rufum and P. thaul). Although we examined similar numbers of frogs that had been collected prior to 1970 and post-1970, all six Bd-positive archived amphibians were collected from 1970 to 1978 inclusive: a time coincident with the onset of the global amphibian population decline phenomenon, including the disappearance of R. rufum, and the occurrence of the first amphibian global extinctions subsequently associated with Bd [16], [35], [36]. The only R. rufum Bd-positive animal was an individual kept in a jar with 179 other R. rufum specimens, all of which had been collected from Chiguayante (Biobío Region, near Concepción) during a two-day collection session in December 1975. As the fixation history of the examined archived amphibians is not known, the overall infection prevalence (0.9%) and intensity of infection (GE values 0.1−0.6) obtained are likely an underestimation of the true situation. For example, although all of the archived specimens examined were preserved in alcohol, it is highly possible that many had been initially fixed in formalin, a chemical known to degrade DNA, reducing the likelihood of Bd detection [27]. Also, the fixative, IMS, can inhibit PCR. A previous study, however, was successful in detecting Bd DNA from the skin of amphibian specimens fixed in IMS [35] and in the current study we incorporated BSA to the PCR protocol to minimize the effect of any PCR inhibiters present [29]. Our field surveys failed to detect R. rufum, but infection with Bd was found in extant R. darwinii, but at a lower prevalence (1.9%) than in the other sympatric amphibian species tested (prevalence 7.3%), possibly as a consequence of different habitat use by the studied species (e.g. dependence of water for breeding). If highly susceptible to chytridiomycosis, however, it is possible that R. darwinii die soon after infection. This also would result in a low infection prevalence and might explain the disappearance of Rhinoderma spp. from many of the sites where Bd was found, especially if other amphibians act as reservoirs of infection, as might be predicted from their higher Bd prevalences [17], [37]. Amphibian chytridiomycosis is thought to have caused 100% mortality of 30 wild-caught R. darwinii exported to Germany in 2007 [23], [25]. According to these authors [25], travel stress and lack of isolation between individuals during transportation might have contributed to this high mortality rate. In the current study, two of seven Bd-positive wild R. darwinii had infection loads > 1,000 GE; including an individual found dead with chytridiomycosis. Disease and mortality caused by chytridiomycosis have been associated with infections higher than 1,000 GE in experimentally-infected green tree frogs (Litoria caerulea) [38], [39]. Experimental Bd infection trials in R. darwinii, similar to those performed with the Critically Endangered New Zealand Archey’s frog (Leiopelma archeyi) [40], [41] and with the Panamanian golden frog (Atelopus zeteki) [42], should be considered to further investigate the susceptibility of R. darwinii to chytridiomycosis. As the outcomes of Bd infection often are highly context-specific, experimental infection studies using R. darwinii under different hydric environments could help to infer the likely effects of Bd infection on R. darwinii under different climate and land-use change scenarios [43], [44], [45]. In a declining species like R. darwinii, however, promoting the survival of the species has to take priority: the use of animals in experiments should be internationally justifiable and only surplus captive-bred animals not suitable for conservation programmes should be used. Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis is a waterborne pathogen and stream-living has been identified as a risk factor for Bd-associated declines [46]. Rhinoderma darwinii has evolved to develop an extreme case of parental care in which the species does not depend on water bodies for tadpole development [47]. In contrast, while R. rufum tadpoles spend their first two weeks of development in the vocal sacs of their male parents, they are then released into water as larvae where they live for the next approximately 120 days until metamorphosis takes place [48]. This association of R. rufum with streams in central Chile could render this species even more susceptible to population declines and extinction due to chytridiomycosis. Although found in only a single archived specimen, evidence of Bd infection was found in possibly the largest known R. rufum population [8] five years before the species was last recorded [5]. This, along with a positive association between Bd prevalence and Rhinoderma spp. population extinction/decline, suggests a possible association between chytridiomycosis and the disappearance of R. rufum. We detected an inverse relationship between Bd prevalence and latitude, similar to that found by Kriger et al. [49] in the stony creek frog (Litoria lesueuri) in eastern Australia. Whether this is a reflection of the historical introduction and spread of Bd in Chile, with the organism not yet having reached the south of the country, or if it is due to environmental factors (e.g. temperature) is not yet clear. Longitudinal sampling of sites across the gradient would help to answer this question. That such a gradient exists, however, indicates that northern populations of R. darwinii are likely to be under a greater threat from chytridiomycosis than those in the south. It also suggests that the instigation of biosecurity measures might decrease the rate of spread of the disease to the southern populations of R. darwinii (assuming that Bd has not already reached this region and is less readily detected due to the low temperatures there limiting its growth). It is not known if the Bd detected in the archived or extant specimens in the current study is the hypervirulent BdGPL, a BdGPL-hybrid, or perhaps an endemic lineage (or lineages) of the fungus. If BdGPL is present in Chile, its spread to the country might have occurred via the introduction of X. laevis [32]. Feral populations of this invasive species, which have been established in central Chile since the 1970s, are known to be Bd-positive, although other mechanisms of pathogen introduction cannot be excluded [24]. Conclusions This is the first report of widespread Bd presence in Chile and our results provide evidence of an association between the presence of Bd and mortality in wild R. darwinii. Although, assessing the role of pathogens in extinctions remains problematic and infectious diseases are probably an underestimated cause of biodiversity loss [16], retrospective and prospective epidemiological data provide evidence that Bd infection is probably implicated in the enigmatic disappearance of R. rufum and the declines of R. darwinii, particularly from the northern part of their historical range. Nevertheless, further studies, such as the isolation and DNA sequencing of Bd in Chile, are required to further investigate the possible role of Bd in Rhinoderma spp. declines. Acknowledgments We thank J. Reardon, H. Meredith, S. Wren, R. Monsalve, A. Toro, C. Espinoza, R. Sánchez, G. Harding and E. Flores for their important fieldwork support. We also thank S. Sarmiento for laboratory assistance. We are very grateful to Parque Tantauco, Fundación Huilo Huilo, Parque Oncol and Parque Pumalín. This study was carried out as part fulfilment of the Conservation Medicine Ph. D. degree (by CSA) at the Faculty of Ecology and Natural Resources, Universidad Andres Bello, Chile.

– Charles Darwin discovered them in 1834, during a stop in Chile by way of the HMS Beagle, a species unique in that "the males care for their young by incubating them in their vocal sacs for at least part of their development." Now, one of the two species found by and named after him can only be referred to in the past tense. Researchers believe the northern Darwin's frog (Rhinoderma rufum), last seen in the wild in 1980, has been wiped from the planet in part by the skin-infecting fungal disease chytridiomycosis; the population of the southern Rhinoderma darwinii has plunged precipitously, reports Reuters. The findings, published last week in PLOS ONE, were the work of Chile's Universidad Andres Bello and Zoological Society of London. Noted a professor with the latter: "Only a few examples of the 'extinction by infection' phenomenon exist." Meanwhile, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature today announced that two species have inched closer to extinction: the giraffe-like Okapi and the White-winged Flufftail. The Okapi, found only in the Democratic Republic of Congo's rainforests, is being battered by poaching, rebel occupation, and illegal mining; IUCN notes the animal has special importance for the country, though, and appears on Congolese franc banknotes. The bird, found in Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa, has suffered a loss of its wetland habitat. But one glimmer of good news, per the AFP: Two kinds of albatross, the Leatherback Turtle, and the Island Fox are starting to bounce back.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.A Rhinoderma darwinii frog is seen in an undated handout photo from the Zoological Society of London. A frog named after Charles Darwin has gone extinct because of a deadly amphibian skin disease, scientists believe. A Rhinoderma darwinii frog is seen in an undated handout photo from the Zoological Society of London. A frog named after Charles Darwin has gone extinct because of a deadly amphibian skin disease, scientists believe. LONDONA frog named after Charles Darwin has gone extinct because of a deadly amphibian skin disease, scientists believe. Darwin's frogs were named after the father of evolution, who discovered them in 1834 in Chile during his voyage around the world on the ship HMS Beagle. They are notable for having evolved to escape predators by looking like a dead leaf, with a pointy nose, and the fact that the males carry young tadpoles around inside their vocal sacs. Researchers think the northern Darwin's frog, one of two species, has been killed off completely by a fungal disease called chytridiomycosis that infects their skin. Numbers of the related southern species have plunged dramatically. An analysis into the spread of the disease by a team from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and Chile's Universidad Andres Bello found that habitat loss contributed to the decline, but this alone could not explain the animal's demise. "Only a few examples of the 'extinction by infection' phenomenon exist," said Andrew Cunningham, from ZSL's Institute of Zoology. "Although not entirely conclusive, the possibility of chytridiomycosis being associated with the extinction of the northern Darwin's frog gains further support with this study." The scientists' findings were published online on Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE. (Reporting by Ben Hirschler; Editing by Gareth Jones) ||||| Abstract Darwin’s frogs (Rhinoderma darwinii and R. rufum) are two species of mouth brooding frogs from Chile and Argentina that have experienced marked population declines. Rhinoderma rufum has not been found in the wild since 1980. We investigated historical and current evidence of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) infection in Rhinoderma spp. to determine whether chytridiomycosis is implicated in the population declines of these species. Archived and live specimens of Rhinoderma spp., sympatric amphibians and amphibians at sites where Rhinoderma sp. had recently gone extinct were examined for Bd infection using quantitative real-time PCR. Six (0.9%) of 662 archived anurans tested positive for Bd (4/289 R. darwinii; 1/266 R. rufum and 1/107 other anurans), all of which had been collected between 1970 and 1978. An overall Bd-infection prevalence of 12.5% was obtained from 797 swabs taken from 369 extant individuals of R. darwinii and 428 individuals representing 18 other species of anurans found at sites with current and recent presence of the two Rhinoderma species. In extant R. darwinii, Bd-infection prevalence (1.9%) was significantly lower than that found in other anurans (7.3%). The prevalence of infection (30%) in other amphibian species was significantly higher in sites where either Rhinoderma spp. had become extinct or was experiencing severe population declines than in sites where there had been no apparent decline (3.0%; x2 = 106.407, P<0.001). This is the first report of widespread Bd presence in Chile and our results are consistent with Rhinoderma spp. declines being due to Bd infection, although additional field and laboratory investigations are required to investigate this further. Citation: Soto-Azat C, Valenzuela-Sánchez A, Clarke BT, Busse K, Ortiz JC, et al. (2013) Is Chytridiomycosis Driving Darwin’s Frogs to Extinction? PLoS ONE 8(11): e79862. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0079862 Editor: Michael Sears, Clemson University, United States of America Received: July 11, 2013; Accepted: September 25, 2013; Published: November 20, 2013 Copyright: © 2013 Soto-Azat et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Funding: This research was funded by the Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and the ZSL EDGE Fellowship Programme; the Dirección General de Investigación y Doctorados, Universidad Andres Bello; the Field Veterinary Programme, Wildlife Health Fund, Wildlife Conservation Society; and a Fundación Futuro Scholarship. AAC is supported by a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Introduction There are two species of Darwin’s frogs, both of which inhabit the temperate forests of South America: the northern Darwin’s frog (Rhinoderma rufum), which is endemic to central Chile, and the southern Darwin’s frog (R. darwinii), which is found in south and southern Chile and also in adjacent areas of Argentina [1], [2]. The behaviour that sets these frogs apart from all other amphibians is that the males care for their young by incubating them in their vocal sacs for at least part of their development, a process known as neomelia [3], [4]. In recent decades, both species have undergone marked population declines and R. rufum has not been recorded since 1980 [5]. The reasons for these apparent disappearances remain poorly understood [6], [7]. Throughout the historical distribution of R. rufum, and within the northern range of R. darwinii, there has been extensive habitat degradation, due to the large-scale replacement of native forest with pine (Pinus radiata) and eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus) plantations, and land use change to agriculture [1], [2]. Habitat loss, however, does not fully explain the enigmatic disappearances of R. rufum from its entire historical range or of the declines of R. darwinii from undisturbed ecosystems, including National Parks [8]. In this context, it has been hypothesised that amphibian chytridiomycosis, an infectious disease caused by the nonhyphal zoosporic chytrid fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), might be implicated in the disappearances of Darwin’s frogs [1], [2], [8]. Amphibian chytridiomycosis, a recently-described emerging disease of amphibians [9], [10], has been associated with amphibian epizootic mass mortalities, population declines and global extinctions in different regions of the world [11], [12], [13], [14], [15], [16], [17]. Different genotypes of the fungus have been described, with the most virulent being a recombinant lineage, termed the global panzootic lineage (BdGPL) [18]. Recently, Bd whole-genome sequencing has demonstrated a higher genetic differentiation than previously recognised (including within BdGPL) [18], [19] and a complex evolutionary history that predates contemporary amphibian declines [20]. This highly-pathogenic and readily-transmissible pathogen appears to be capable of infecting an entire class of organism (the Amphibia), with devastating effects [21]. It has been described as: “the worst infectious disease ever recorded among vertebrates in terms of the number of species impacted and its propensity to drive them to extinction” [22]. In 2007, chytridiomycosis was identified as the cause of death of a group of 30 wild-caught R. darwinii exported to Germany for captive breeding [23]. Infection with Bd has been reported in populations of the invasive African clawed frog, Xenopus laevis [24] in central Chile. Additionally, Bourke et al. [25], [26] recently described Bd infection in R. darwinii and two other native frog species in the south of the country. The impacts of this emerging disease on amphibian populations in Chile, including Darwin’s frogs, however, have not been studied. Here, we investigate whether amphibian chytridiomycosis is implicated in the population declines of Darwin’s frogs. We looked for evidence of historical Bd infection in Rhinoderma spp. and amphibians at current and former Rhinoderma sp. sites prior to and post the onset of declines. Also, we determined how widespread Bd infection is both in contemporary populations of R. darwinii across its current range and in other anuran species at sites of Rhinoderma spp. population decline or recent extinction. Materials and Methods Ethics statement This study was carried out in strict accordance with the recommendations in the guidelines for use of live amphibians and reptiles in field research compiled by the American Society of Ichthyologists and Herpetologists (ASIH). Research was approved by the ZSL Ethics Committee and was conducted following Chilean and Argentinian wildlife regulations and according to permits 1241/08, 7377/09, 7993/10 and 300/12 of the Livestock and Agriculture Service (SAG) and 20/09, XI-01/09, 28/11 and X-03/11 of the National Forestry Corporation (CONAF) both in Chile, and permit 1119/11 of the National Parks Administration (APN) in Argentina. Archived amphibians were examined in their museum of origin, by the authors with specific permission given by all 5 zoological institutions. Study area Archived amphibian specimens from museum collections in Europe and Chile were examined for evidence of Bd infection. Also, extensive surveys for Bd infection throughout the historical ranges of R. rufum and R. darwinii were conducted from October 2008 to March 2012. These ranges extended from Zapallar (32° 33’ 03’’S, 71° 26’ 37’’W) to Aysén (45° 24’ 24’’S, 72° 41’ 52’’W) in Chile, and included adjacent areas in the Andes in the Neuquén and Río Negro Provinces in Argentina (Figure 1). PPT PowerPoint slide PowerPoint slide PNG larger image ( ) larger image ( ) TIFF original image ( ) Download: Figure 1. Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis infection prevalence at sites with extant or recently extinct Rhinoderma spp. Map of central-south Chile and Argentina showing sites from which Rhinoderma spp. and sympatric anurans were sampled for Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) detection between 2008 and 2012. Sample size is represented by the size of the circles, with Bd prevalence shown in the red segments. Inset: Graph showing the relationship between latitude and prevalence of Bd infection by site (R2 = 0.405, P<0.001). Squares: sites with recent extinction or population decline of Rhinoderma spp. Triangles: sites with extant populations and no evidence of population decline of R. darwinii. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0079862.g001 Archived anurans A retrospective study was carried out by examining 555 postmetamorphic Rhinoderma spp. and 107 sympatric anuran specimens, from the collections of the Zoologisches Museum Hamburg (ZMH, n = 321); Natural History Museum, London (BMNH, n = 142); Museo de Zoología, Universidad de Concepción, Chile (MZUC, n = 121); Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig, Bonn (ZFMK, n = 46); and Centro de Investigaciones Zoológicas, Universidad de Chile (CIZ, n = 32). Specimens were preserved in 70% ethanol (or 70% industrial methylated spirits for BMNH amphibians) and had been collected in central and south Chile between 1835 and 1989 (Table 1) for purposes other than disease investigation. PPT PowerPoint slide PowerPoint slide PNG larger image ( ) larger image ( ) TIFF original image ( ) Download: Table 1. Archived Darwin’s frogs (Rhinoderma spp.) and sympatric amphibians from European and Chilean museums examined for Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) infection. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0079862.t001 Living anurans Cross-sectional studies were carried out at sites where R. darwinii was extant and at sites where Rhinoderma spp. had recently (since 1966) become extinct. Sites were delimited and a search effort of one hour by two researchers was conducted during daylight hours using a standardised methodology, as previously described [8]. Sampling Archived anurans. The skin of the ventral pelvis and ventral hind limbs of each amphibian museum specimen was sampled by brushing with a tapered inter-dental brush (3.2 to 6.0 mm; Oral B Laboratories), following Soto-Azat et al. [27]. Where multiple specimens were held in a single jar, they were rinsed with running tap water prior to sampling to remove possible surface contamination with Bd. Each specimen was handled using a new pair of disposable nitrile or latex gloves. Live anurans. Only post-metamorphic and adult anurans were sampled. Frogs were captured by hand, safely contained in individual sealed plastic bags and put back immediately after the capture session in the exact place of capture. Each individual was handled with the use of clean disposable nitrile gloves. A sterile dry, rayon-tipped swab (MW100, Medical & Wire Equipment Co.) was firmly run five times each over the ventral abdomen and pelvis, each ventral hind limb (femur and tibia) and the plantar surface of each hind foot, to complete a total of 35 strokes. Dorsal and ventral pattern photographs were taken of each Darwin’s frog sampled for identification purposes. In order to minimize any Bd contamination of samples or the spread of pathogens within or between study sites by researchers, equipment or materials, a strict field sampling and disinfection protocol was followed according to that recommended by the Amphibian and Reptile Groups, UK: ARG Advice Note 4 (http://www.arguk.org/advice-and-guidance​/view-category). All samples were stored at −80 °C until processed. Diagnostic analysis Post sampling, whole interdental brushes and swab tips were deposited separately in 1.5 ml Eppendorf tubes containing 50 and 60 µl, respectively, of PrepMan Ultra (Applied Biosystems) and between 30 to 40 mg of Zirconium/silica beads of 0.5 mm diameter (Biospec Products). For each sample, DNA was extracted following the protocol of Boyle et al. [28]. Extracted DNA was diluted (1:10) in double-distilled water and analysed using a quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction Taqman assay (qPCR) with primers specific for the ITS-1/5.8S ribosomal DNA region of Bd. In addition, bovine serum albumin (BSA) was included in the Taqman mastermix to minimise inhibition of the PCR [29]. For each sample, diagnostic assays were performed in duplicate, and standards of known zoospore concentration were included within each PCR plate, as were negative controls. A result was considered positive when: (1) amplification (i.e. a clearly sigmoid curve) occurred in both replicated PCR assays, (2) values higher than 0.1 genomic equivalents (GE) were obtained from both replicated reactions, and (3) average GE from both replicates were higher than its standard deviation. Extracted DNA from any positive sample was re-tested in duplicate and only determined to be positive for the purposes of this study if Bd DNA was clearly amplified in duplicate wells for a second time. Data analysis Areas with historical and current presence of Rhinoderma spp. > 2 km from each other were determined to be separate sites or populations [30]. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS (v. 20.0) to detect any significant difference between: 1) Bd prevalence and time in archived R. darwinii (using Fisher’s exact test for small sample sizes), 2) Bd prevalence in extant R. darwinii and sympatric amphibians (using the chi-squared test), 3) Bd intensity in extant R. darwinii and all other amphibian species tested (using the Mann-Whitney U-test), and 4) Bd prevalence at sites with and without evidence of recent Rhinoderma spp. population decline in extant R. darwinii (using the chi-squared test). Data on Rhinoderma spp. abundance is scarce. To consider a population having evidence of recent decline, we used data from a previous study [8], which investigated population sizes and the extent of declines in Darwin’s frogs. Briefly, populations categorised as having declined comprised those known to have disappeared since 1966, or (in one case) known to have undergone a recent marked population decline. A relationship between Bd prevalence at sites with historical and current Rhinoderma spp. populations and latitude was also tested using a simple linear regression model. Discussion Museum amphibian specimens have been increasingly recognised as a valuable source of information for retrospective epidemiological studies [31], [32], [33], [34], [35]. Using such specimens, we demonstrated historical evidence of Bd infection in three species of native frogs from south Chile (R. darwinii, R. rufum and P. thaul). Although we examined similar numbers of frogs that had been collected prior to 1970 and post-1970, all six Bd-positive archived amphibians were collected from 1970 to 1978 inclusive: a time coincident with the onset of the global amphibian population decline phenomenon, including the disappearance of R. rufum, and the occurrence of the first amphibian global extinctions subsequently associated with Bd [16], [35], [36]. The only R. rufum Bd-positive animal was an individual kept in a jar with 179 other R. rufum specimens, all of which had been collected from Chiguayante (Biobío Region, near Concepción) during a two-day collection session in December 1975. As the fixation history of the examined archived amphibians is not known, the overall infection prevalence (0.9%) and intensity of infection (GE values 0.1−0.6) obtained are likely an underestimation of the true situation. For example, although all of the archived specimens examined were preserved in alcohol, it is highly possible that many had been initially fixed in formalin, a chemical known to degrade DNA, reducing the likelihood of Bd detection [27]. Also, the fixative, IMS, can inhibit PCR. A previous study, however, was successful in detecting Bd DNA from the skin of amphibian specimens fixed in IMS [35] and in the current study we incorporated BSA to the PCR protocol to minimize the effect of any PCR inhibiters present [29]. Our field surveys failed to detect R. rufum, but infection with Bd was found in extant R. darwinii, but at a lower prevalence (1.9%) than in the other sympatric amphibian species tested (prevalence 7.3%), possibly as a consequence of different habitat use by the studied species (e.g. dependence of water for breeding). If highly susceptible to chytridiomycosis, however, it is possible that R. darwinii die soon after infection. This also would result in a low infection prevalence and might explain the disappearance of Rhinoderma spp. from many of the sites where Bd was found, especially if other amphibians act as reservoirs of infection, as might be predicted from their higher Bd prevalences [17], [37]. Amphibian chytridiomycosis is thought to have caused 100% mortality of 30 wild-caught R. darwinii exported to Germany in 2007 [23], [25]. According to these authors [25], travel stress and lack of isolation between individuals during transportation might have contributed to this high mortality rate. In the current study, two of seven Bd-positive wild R. darwinii had infection loads > 1,000 GE; including an individual found dead with chytridiomycosis. Disease and mortality caused by chytridiomycosis have been associated with infections higher than 1,000 GE in experimentally-infected green tree frogs (Litoria caerulea) [38], [39]. Experimental Bd infection trials in R. darwinii, similar to those performed with the Critically Endangered New Zealand Archey’s frog (Leiopelma archeyi) [40], [41] and with the Panamanian golden frog (Atelopus zeteki) [42], should be considered to further investigate the susceptibility of R. darwinii to chytridiomycosis. As the outcomes of Bd infection often are highly context-specific, experimental infection studies using R. darwinii under different hydric environments could help to infer the likely effects of Bd infection on R. darwinii under different climate and land-use change scenarios [43], [44], [45]. In a declining species like R. darwinii, however, promoting the survival of the species has to take priority: the use of animals in experiments should be internationally justifiable and only surplus captive-bred animals not suitable for conservation programmes should be used. Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis is a waterborne pathogen and stream-living has been identified as a risk factor for Bd-associated declines [46]. Rhinoderma darwinii has evolved to develop an extreme case of parental care in which the species does not depend on water bodies for tadpole development [47]. In contrast, while R. rufum tadpoles spend their first two weeks of development in the vocal sacs of their male parents, they are then released into water as larvae where they live for the next approximately 120 days until metamorphosis takes place [48]. This association of R. rufum with streams in central Chile could render this species even more susceptible to population declines and extinction due to chytridiomycosis. Although found in only a single archived specimen, evidence of Bd infection was found in possibly the largest known R. rufum population [8] five years before the species was last recorded [5]. This, along with a positive association between Bd prevalence and Rhinoderma spp. population extinction/decline, suggests a possible association between chytridiomycosis and the disappearance of R. rufum. We detected an inverse relationship between Bd prevalence and latitude, similar to that found by Kriger et al. [49] in the stony creek frog (Litoria lesueuri) in eastern Australia. Whether this is a reflection of the historical introduction and spread of Bd in Chile, with the organism not yet having reached the south of the country, or if it is due to environmental factors (e.g. temperature) is not yet clear. Longitudinal sampling of sites across the gradient would help to answer this question. That such a gradient exists, however, indicates that northern populations of R. darwinii are likely to be under a greater threat from chytridiomycosis than those in the south. It also suggests that the instigation of biosecurity measures might decrease the rate of spread of the disease to the southern populations of R. darwinii (assuming that Bd has not already reached this region and is less readily detected due to the low temperatures there limiting its growth). It is not known if the Bd detected in the archived or extant specimens in the current study is the hypervirulent BdGPL, a BdGPL-hybrid, or perhaps an endemic lineage (or lineages) of the fungus. If BdGPL is present in Chile, its spread to the country might have occurred via the introduction of X. laevis [32]. Feral populations of this invasive species, which have been established in central Chile since the 1970s, are known to be Bd-positive, although other mechanisms of pathogen introduction cannot be excluded [24]. Conclusions This is the first report of widespread Bd presence in Chile and our results provide evidence of an association between the presence of Bd and mortality in wild R. darwinii. Although, assessing the role of pathogens in extinctions remains problematic and infectious diseases are probably an underestimated cause of biodiversity loss [16], retrospective and prospective epidemiological data provide evidence that Bd infection is probably implicated in the enigmatic disappearance of R. rufum and the declines of R. darwinii, particularly from the northern part of their historical range. Nevertheless, further studies, such as the isolation and DNA sequencing of Bd in Chile, are required to further investigate the possible role of Bd in Rhinoderma spp. declines. Acknowledgments We thank J. Reardon, H. Meredith, S. Wren, R. Monsalve, A. Toro, C. Espinoza, R. Sánchez, G. Harding and E. Flores for their important fieldwork support. We also thank S. Sarmiento for laboratory assistance. We are very grateful to Parque Tantauco, Fundación Huilo Huilo, Parque Oncol and Parque Pumalín. This study was carried out as part fulfilment of the Conservation Medicine Ph. D. degree (by CSA) at the Faculty of Ecology and Natural Resources, Universidad Andres Bello, Chile.

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Seahorses are notoriously slow and awkward. But as scientists have just learned, their unique shape allows them to overcome these limitations. Despite their cute and unassuming appearance, seahorses are actually proficient killers. Seahorses are slow. Like, ridiculously slow. In fact, the researchers who conducted the study say they're slowest swimming fish known to science. But they can capture prey that swim at incredible speeds — and at an incredibly proficient rate; in ideal conditions, seahorses catch their intended prey 90% of the time, a success rate that would be amazing for any predator. So how's this possible? New research shows it all has to do with the unique shape of the seahorse's head and a technique known as "pivot" feeding — a strategy requiring a sudden, rapid movement at extremely close range. But getting close to prey is not easy underwater, as many of these tasty creatures have evolved to become hydrodynamically sensitive. An approaching animal can often trigger an escape response. Seahorse prey, namely copepods, can detect waves from incoming predators and then jolt away at speeds of more than 500 body lengths per second. That's like a human swimming at 2,000 mph (3,218 km/h)! Advertisement So, for pivot feeding to work, seahorses have evolved a rather unique morphology. Its head creates what the scientists call a reduced fluid deformation zone, or "no wake zone." Essentially, its a perfectly crafted shape, particularly above the end of the snout, that minimizes the degree to which water is disturbed by an object moving through it. This allows seahorses to approach highly sensitive copepod prey undetected. And then, using a quick and deadly strike, it's game over. To reach this conclusion, a research team from the University of Texas at Austin used a special technique to capture the movement of water around the seahorses in 3D. The technique, called holographic and particle image velocimetry (PIV), utilizes a microscope fitted with a laser and a high-speed digital camera. Read the entire study at Nature Communications: "Morphology of seahorse head hydrodynamically aids in capture of evasive prey". ||||| What does it take to catch your prey 90 percent of the time? For the seahorse, the shape of its head, along with its stealthy approach and lightning speed, literally makes a meal of some of the ocean’s most sought after prey: the copepod, according to a new study. “When you’re a copepod everything in the ocean essentially wants to eat you,” said study author Brad Gemmell, a marine biologist at the University of Texas at Austin. “They’ve evolved some pretty impressive ways to avoid being captured by predators.” This includes sensitivity and speed. Copepods, a type of small crustacean, can’t see images and rely on a remarkable sensitivity to fluid disturbances to sense predators approaching. Once they detect them, they’re outta there, roadrunner style. “They have one of the shortest response length times seen in the animal kingdom,” Gemmell said: About two or three milliseconds from the time they sense a signal to the time they scram. They can reach speeds of over 500 body lengths per second. To catch something that fast you have to be just a bit faster, and a previous study had shown that seahorses were better at getting copepods under calm conditions than other fish. Gemmell says they had a 90 percent success rate compared to the 30-40 percent success rate of other predators. (Related: “First Video of Rare Brightly Colored Seahorse.”) This remarkable lead prompted the question of why seahorses are such wicked predators, and the new study shows that the head shape of the seahorse, “creates this zone with very little disturbance, which allows them to get really close to these very sensitive, highly evasive copepods,” said Gemmell. Speedy Seahorse It might seem counterintuitive: the head of a sea horse seems bulkier than other, sleeker fish, but they have what’s called pivot or pipette method of feeding, a trait of the Syngnathid fish family which includes seahorses, pipefish, and sea dragons. The seahorse snout is narrow, elongated, and rounded on top, and since it’s quite small, it creates less disturbance in the water, allowing it to get within one millimeter of a copepod. It then sucks in prey with its mouth, which isn’t much bigger than the prey itself. It can also extend its mouth away from the thicker part of its head and swing it “forward and upward and cover the distance to the prey in about one millisecond.” (Related: “How Seahorses Evolved to Swim ‘Standing Up.’“) So even the zippy copepod’s getaway speed of two or three milliseconds is no match for the one millisecond strike of the seahorse. “Once the seahorse gets within range the story is pretty much written, as far as the fate of the copepod goes,” said Gemmell, whose study is published today in the journal Nature Communications. According to the study, large tendons of the epaxial muscles—muscles along the vertebrae—are “hypothesized to store and release energy to accelerate the head.” The researchers used high-speed digital techniques to capture the movements of the live dwarf seahorse, Hippocampus zosterae, and fluid disturbance in 3-D imagery at the strike zone. They also used preserved seahorse specimens and positioned them in flume studies, a method that allows researchers to control the flow of the water so that any disturbance would be clearly generated by the head of the animal. “The result was this zone of low disturbance is still there, even on a dead fish, so it can be done merely with the shape of the head,” added Gemmell. Calmer Seas Crucial Seahorses, Gemmell points out, are less successful in more turbulent environments where other fish have an easier time capturing copepods. The slow, deliberate stealth of the seahorse works in the calmer environments of deep water and coral reefs. The study refers to the calm space in the water that the seahorse’s head creates as a “quiet zone,” which, combined with other factors, is bad for the copepod. Guess they’re not familiar with the old stand by, “Things are quiet… a little too quiet.” Follow Liz Langley on Facebook and Twitter.

– The seahorse is one of the lousiest, slowest swimmers in the ocean, and yet it manages to catch one of the fastest-swimming creatures of the deep with an astonishing success rate of 90%, reports the BBC. What gives? Thank that ingenious snout. Researchers discovered that it's shaped in such a way that it allows the seahorse to ever-so-slowly creep up on its prey without creating a telltale wake. Once it gets within a millimeter, it's game over, thanks to a quick-strike movement known as "pivot" feeding, explains i09. The shape of the head "creates this zone with very little disturbance, which allows them to get really close to these very sensitive, highly evasive copepods,” one of the Texas researchers tells National Geographic. As for those copepods, they are tiny crustaceans that can pick up on the wave movements of predators and zip away at speeds that Aquaman would envy—500 body lengths per second, or the equivalent of a human swimming 2,000mph. All the more incredible that the poky seahorse "can overcome one of the most talented escape artists in the aquatic world," says the researcher.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Seahorses are notoriously slow and awkward. But as scientists have just learned, their unique shape allows them to overcome these limitations. Despite their cute and unassuming appearance, seahorses are actually proficient killers. Seahorses are slow. Like, ridiculously slow. In fact, the researchers who conducted the study say they're slowest swimming fish known to science. But they can capture prey that swim at incredible speeds — and at an incredibly proficient rate; in ideal conditions, seahorses catch their intended prey 90% of the time, a success rate that would be amazing for any predator. So how's this possible? New research shows it all has to do with the unique shape of the seahorse's head and a technique known as "pivot" feeding — a strategy requiring a sudden, rapid movement at extremely close range. But getting close to prey is not easy underwater, as many of these tasty creatures have evolved to become hydrodynamically sensitive. An approaching animal can often trigger an escape response. Seahorse prey, namely copepods, can detect waves from incoming predators and then jolt away at speeds of more than 500 body lengths per second. That's like a human swimming at 2,000 mph (3,218 km/h)! Advertisement So, for pivot feeding to work, seahorses have evolved a rather unique morphology. Its head creates what the scientists call a reduced fluid deformation zone, or "no wake zone." Essentially, its a perfectly crafted shape, particularly above the end of the snout, that minimizes the degree to which water is disturbed by an object moving through it. This allows seahorses to approach highly sensitive copepod prey undetected. And then, using a quick and deadly strike, it's game over. To reach this conclusion, a research team from the University of Texas at Austin used a special technique to capture the movement of water around the seahorses in 3D. The technique, called holographic and particle image velocimetry (PIV), utilizes a microscope fitted with a laser and a high-speed digital camera. Read the entire study at Nature Communications: "Morphology of seahorse head hydrodynamically aids in capture of evasive prey". ||||| What does it take to catch your prey 90 percent of the time? For the seahorse, the shape of its head, along with its stealthy approach and lightning speed, literally makes a meal of some of the ocean’s most sought after prey: the copepod, according to a new study. “When you’re a copepod everything in the ocean essentially wants to eat you,” said study author Brad Gemmell, a marine biologist at the University of Texas at Austin. “They’ve evolved some pretty impressive ways to avoid being captured by predators.” This includes sensitivity and speed. Copepods, a type of small crustacean, can’t see images and rely on a remarkable sensitivity to fluid disturbances to sense predators approaching. Once they detect them, they’re outta there, roadrunner style. “They have one of the shortest response length times seen in the animal kingdom,” Gemmell said: About two or three milliseconds from the time they sense a signal to the time they scram. They can reach speeds of over 500 body lengths per second. To catch something that fast you have to be just a bit faster, and a previous study had shown that seahorses were better at getting copepods under calm conditions than other fish. Gemmell says they had a 90 percent success rate compared to the 30-40 percent success rate of other predators. (Related: “First Video of Rare Brightly Colored Seahorse.”) This remarkable lead prompted the question of why seahorses are such wicked predators, and the new study shows that the head shape of the seahorse, “creates this zone with very little disturbance, which allows them to get really close to these very sensitive, highly evasive copepods,” said Gemmell. Speedy Seahorse It might seem counterintuitive: the head of a sea horse seems bulkier than other, sleeker fish, but they have what’s called pivot or pipette method of feeding, a trait of the Syngnathid fish family which includes seahorses, pipefish, and sea dragons. The seahorse snout is narrow, elongated, and rounded on top, and since it’s quite small, it creates less disturbance in the water, allowing it to get within one millimeter of a copepod. It then sucks in prey with its mouth, which isn’t much bigger than the prey itself. It can also extend its mouth away from the thicker part of its head and swing it “forward and upward and cover the distance to the prey in about one millisecond.” (Related: “How Seahorses Evolved to Swim ‘Standing Up.’“) So even the zippy copepod’s getaway speed of two or three milliseconds is no match for the one millisecond strike of the seahorse. “Once the seahorse gets within range the story is pretty much written, as far as the fate of the copepod goes,” said Gemmell, whose study is published today in the journal Nature Communications. According to the study, large tendons of the epaxial muscles—muscles along the vertebrae—are “hypothesized to store and release energy to accelerate the head.” The researchers used high-speed digital techniques to capture the movements of the live dwarf seahorse, Hippocampus zosterae, and fluid disturbance in 3-D imagery at the strike zone. They also used preserved seahorse specimens and positioned them in flume studies, a method that allows researchers to control the flow of the water so that any disturbance would be clearly generated by the head of the animal. “The result was this zone of low disturbance is still there, even on a dead fish, so it can be done merely with the shape of the head,” added Gemmell. Calmer Seas Crucial Seahorses, Gemmell points out, are less successful in more turbulent environments where other fish have an easier time capturing copepods. The slow, deliberate stealth of the seahorse works in the calmer environments of deep water and coral reefs. The study refers to the calm space in the water that the seahorse’s head creates as a “quiet zone,” which, combined with other factors, is bad for the copepod. Guess they’re not familiar with the old stand by, “Things are quiet… a little too quiet.” Follow Liz Langley on Facebook and Twitter.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption John Feeley spent most of his life working on Latin American issues The US ambassador to Panama has quit because he says he is no longer able to serve under President Donald Trump. John Feeley, a former Marine Corps helicopter pilot, said he was "honour-bound" to resign. The US Department of State, which oversees American diplomats, learned of his resignation in late December. It was not a direct response to Mr Trump's alleged use of the term "shithole" to describe Haiti and African countries. "As a junior foreign service officer, I signed an oath to serve faithfully the president and his administration in an apolitical fashion, even when I might not agree with certain policies," Mr Feeley said in his resignation letter. "My instructors made clear that if I believed I could not do that, I would be honor bound to resign. That time has come." Under Secretary of State Steve Goldstein confirmed he was aware of Mr Feeley's planned departure ahead of the president's alleged remarks on Thursday. He said the ambassador, a career diplomat who spent most of his life working on Latin American issues, was leaving for "personal reasons". Some of Mr Trump's policies have caused uproar in the region, including most recently his decision to remove residency permits for thousands of Salvadorean, Haitian and Nicaraguan immigrants living in the US after natural disasters. Mr Feeley is not the first State Department official to leave their post. Elizabeth Shackelford, who worked in Nairobi for the US mission to Somalia, resigned in December. She wrote in her resignation letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that she was quitting because the US had abandoned human rights as a priority, according to Foreign Policy. Mr Feeley will leave his post on 9 March 2018. ||||| U.S. Diplomat’s Resignation Signals Wider Exodus From State Department An award-winning U.S. diplomat who was seen as a rising star at the State Department has issued a scathing resignation letter, accusing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the Donald Trump administration of undercutting the State Department and damaging America’s influence in the world. Elizabeth Shackelford, who most recently served as a political officer based in Nairobi for the U.S. mission to Somalia, wrote to Tillerson that she reluctantly had decided to quit because the administration had abandoned human rights as a priority and shown disdain for the State Department’s diplomatic work, according to her letter, obtained by Foreign Policy. “I have deep respect for the career Foreign and Civil Service staff who, despite the stinging disrespect this Administration has shown our profession, continue the struggle to keep our foreign policy on the positive trajectory necessary to avert global disaster in increasingly dangerous times,” Shackelford wrote in her Nov. 7 letter, which is published below. One phrase was redacted on Shackelford’s request. “With each passing day, however, this task grows more futile, driving the Department’s experienced and talented staff away in ever greater numbers,” she wrote. Her former colleagues said her departure — and the sentiments expressed in her letter — reflect a wider exodus of midcareer diplomats who have lost confidence in Tillerson’s management and the Trump administration’s approach toward diplomacy. “She’s emblematic of what we’re losing across the board,” said one of Shackelford’s former State Department colleagues. “She is the best among us. We should not be losing the best among us. And that should concern people that we are,” the former colleague said. In her letter, Shackelford said she was leaving with a “heavy heart” as she recognized the potential of the State Department’s mission. She said she was “shocked” when Tillerson appeared to cast doubt on the importance of human rights in remarks to department employees on May 3. The State Department’s role in internal government debates also had “diminished,” she wrote, with the White House handing over authority to the Pentagon to shape the country’s foreign policy. Meanwhile, unfilled vacancies and proposed budget and staffing cuts had left the department adrift, with weakened influence inside the administration and on the ground, she wrote. “The cost of this is visible every day in Mission Somalia, my current post, where State’s diplomatic influence, on the country and within our own interagency, is waning,” she wrote. In the closing paragraph of her letter, Shackelford called on Tillerson “to stem the bleeding by showing leadership and a commitment to our people, our mission, and our mandate as the foreign policy arm of the United States. “If you are unable to do so effectively within this Administration, I would humbly recommend you follow me out the door.” Shackelford was singled out as an especially promising diplomat and was selected for future senior leadership roles, which a veteran foreign service officer said was unusual at her age. “Let me underscore that Lizzy Shackelford was one of the most promising officers and an exceptional leader in the Foreign Service,” the senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told FP. “An officer who makes it into the service and leaves because she was not supported means we must work harder to mentor, reform our system, and support outstanding officers like Lizzy.” When asked about the criticisms in the letter, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said: “We are not able to comment on the career choices of each person at the Department.” “However, I can say that the Secretary has made clear that his objective is to make the State Department more efficient, more effective, and for staff to have a much more rewarding and satisfying career,” she added. Tillerson has faced a wave of criticism from lawmakers and former senior diplomats about what they say is the dismantling of the State Department amid a hemorrhaging of top talent, a hiring freeze, and plummeting morale. He has firmly rejected the criticism, insisting the media mischaracterizes the rate of those leaving the department and that his plan to “redesign” the State Department is employee-driven and prioritizes the staff’s well-being. “What it’s done,” Tillerson said of the hiring freeze on Friday, “was just a little bit of a blunt instrument to have everyone be a little more disciplined about filling their positions.” But even his harshest critics say much of the blame for the troubled state of the foreign service rests with the president, who has shown an impatience with diplomacy and has often sidelined Tillerson. Shackelford’s sentiments also reflect a long-held but growing concern among diplomats and experts that U.S. policy is increasingly dominated and shaped by the military, particularly in Africa. The Pentagon has expanded its footprint and operations on the continent with additional funding while the State Department and USAID face steep budget cuts and a dearth of ambassadors or top appointees in Washington. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, a retired career diplomat and former assistant secretary of state for African affairs, said the U.S. military has a vital role to play in Africa and elsewhere but said the pendulum was swinging too far away from diplomacy. “You can’t just do military. You have to have the complement of diplomatic and development working alongside the military colleagues,” she told FP. Somalia reflects a balance that clearly favors the military, as the State Department lacks the manpower and resources of its Pentagon counterparts. In recent months, the U.S. military has expanded its role with hundreds of troops and more strikes against al-Shabab militants, while diplomatic efforts have ebbed following the departure of U.S. Ambassador to Somalia Stephen Schwartz in October. The staff at the U.S. mission have repeatedly asked Washington for permission to meet Somali political leaders at Villa Somalia, the presidential residence, but the State Department has rejected the request on security grounds. U.S. military officers are able to meet Somali officials at the presidential palace, and other foreign diplomatic missions regularly visit the building for talks. Friday was Shackelford’s last day as a foreign service officer after nearly eight years in the State Department. Born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi, the 38-year-old Shackelford graduated first in her class at the University of Pittsburgh Law School. She worked at a law firm, then the consulting company Booz Allen Hamilton on foreign aid projects before joining the foreign service in 2010. Shackelford distinguished herself in South Sudan for overseeing the evacuation of 1,000 Americans and other foreign nationals when violence erupted in Juba in December 2013. For her leadership skills and crisis planning in the evacuation effort, she received a department-wide Barbara M. Watson award for consular excellence. During her stint in South Sudan, Shackelford worked to document and focus attention on human rights abuses, according to those she worked with and a personal statement she submitted as part of an employee evaluation. She cultivated contacts with South Sudanese civil society organizations and met with victims and witnesses of atrocities committed in the country’s conflict. Convinced that there could be no lasting peace without coming to terms with crimes committed on both sides, she co-wrote a dissenting cable backed by some of her fellow diplomats making that argument. “Her view was if we don’t deal with accountability now, whatever peace that’s achieved is going to be temporary,” said another former colleague, who worked with her in Juba. “She made it her mission to get human rights material out the door.” Shackelford is not alone in accusing the Trump administration of backsliding on America’s support for human rights and democracy over the past ten months. Republican Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Sen. Ben Cardin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote a letter to the president on Friday accusing his administration of failing to assert America’s commitment to human rights. The lawmakers wrote that “for much of the past year, our national voice on international human rights issues has been largely silent.” But Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday that in a recent tour of Africa, he repeatedly raised human rights concerns with governments in Ethiopia and Sudan, saying it was a crucial element in the fight against terrorist threats. “The United States continues to emphasize respect for human rights as a fundamental part of our counterterrorism strategy,” Sullivan told lawmakers. Six months ago, when Shackelford began considering leaving the foreign service, her mentors and colleagues encouraged her to stay the course, telling her she had a promising career ahead of her and that the difficulties would pass, she told FP. But in a sign of plunging morale in the foreign service, when she spoke to those same colleagues two months ago about resigning, she got a much different response. “It had completely changed to a person,” she said. “Nobody tried to talk me out of it. Everybody said, ‘Yep, I get it.’” This article was updated on Dec. 10 with comment from a senior State Department official. ||||| WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House physician pronounced Donald Trump to be in “excellent health” after Trump had his first medical exam as U.S. president on Friday, capping off a week in which his mental fitness for the job has come under intense scrutiny. Trump spent about three hours with military doctors at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, an exam that White House doctor Ronny Jackson said went “exceptionally well.” “The president is in excellent health and I look forward to briefing some of the details on Tuesday,” Jackson said in a brief statement distributed by the White House. The exam came after a new best-selling book portrayed Trump, 71, as unfocused and childlike. The White House has faced a barrage of questions over his contradictory messages on key policies and an incident last month where he slurred some words while giving a speech. The White House determines what data will be released from the exam. Trump is not compelled to release any information, and there is no template for the presidential exam. Jackson is expected to take questions about the results from reporters on Tuesday. Past presidents are not known to have been tested for mental acuity while in office - including Ronald Reagan, who five years after leaving the White House was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. The White House had made clear that Trump’s examination would not include a psychiatric exam. Results of past presidential physicals have included basic data like weight, blood pressure and cholesterol levels. There is a long history of the White House picking and choosing what to reveal about the commander in chief’s health, said Barbara Perry, director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. For example, John F. Kennedy disclosed war injuries but not the fact he suffered from Addison’s disease, a degenerative condition. Perry said she believed presidents should be subject to a raft of tests to establish they are fit to serve. Slideshow (4 Images) When he was running for office, Trump released a glowing report from his personal physician in New York, who said Trump would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.” The public report from Trump’s upcoming exam was also likely to be short and sweet, said George Annas, head of the Center for Health Law, Ethics and Human Rights at Boston University School of Public Health. “I don’t think you could expect to see anything else, unless it’s something that makes him look good,” Annas said.

– The US ambassador to Panama will no longer have that title as of March 9. John Feeley has submitted his resignation and cited President Trump as the motivating factor. Reuters quotes from part of the longtime diplomat's resignation letter: "As a junior foreign service officer, I signed an oath to serve faithfully the president and his administration in an apolitical fashion, even when I might not agree with certain policies. My instructors made clear that if I believed I could not do that, I would be honor bound to resign. That time has come." The State Department was made aware of his decision Dec. 27, with Reuters noting it had no connection to the president's alleged use of "shithole" in a Thursday discussion about Haiti and African countries. Per the BBC, Under Secretary of State Steve Goldstein's only elaboration was to say Feeley—described as a Latin America specialist—was leaving for "personal reasons." It flags one other diplomat to recently resign: Elizabeth Shackelford, whom Foreign Policy called a "rising star" in the State Department, resigned her post in Nairobi for the US mission to Somalia in December, citing the administration's "stinging disrespect ... [for] our profession."

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Image copyright Reuters Image caption John Feeley spent most of his life working on Latin American issues The US ambassador to Panama has quit because he says he is no longer able to serve under President Donald Trump. John Feeley, a former Marine Corps helicopter pilot, said he was "honour-bound" to resign. The US Department of State, which oversees American diplomats, learned of his resignation in late December. It was not a direct response to Mr Trump's alleged use of the term "shithole" to describe Haiti and African countries. "As a junior foreign service officer, I signed an oath to serve faithfully the president and his administration in an apolitical fashion, even when I might not agree with certain policies," Mr Feeley said in his resignation letter. "My instructors made clear that if I believed I could not do that, I would be honor bound to resign. That time has come." Under Secretary of State Steve Goldstein confirmed he was aware of Mr Feeley's planned departure ahead of the president's alleged remarks on Thursday. He said the ambassador, a career diplomat who spent most of his life working on Latin American issues, was leaving for "personal reasons". Some of Mr Trump's policies have caused uproar in the region, including most recently his decision to remove residency permits for thousands of Salvadorean, Haitian and Nicaraguan immigrants living in the US after natural disasters. Mr Feeley is not the first State Department official to leave their post. Elizabeth Shackelford, who worked in Nairobi for the US mission to Somalia, resigned in December. She wrote in her resignation letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson that she was quitting because the US had abandoned human rights as a priority, according to Foreign Policy. Mr Feeley will leave his post on 9 March 2018. ||||| U.S. Diplomat’s Resignation Signals Wider Exodus From State Department An award-winning U.S. diplomat who was seen as a rising star at the State Department has issued a scathing resignation letter, accusing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the Donald Trump administration of undercutting the State Department and damaging America’s influence in the world. Elizabeth Shackelford, who most recently served as a political officer based in Nairobi for the U.S. mission to Somalia, wrote to Tillerson that she reluctantly had decided to quit because the administration had abandoned human rights as a priority and shown disdain for the State Department’s diplomatic work, according to her letter, obtained by Foreign Policy. “I have deep respect for the career Foreign and Civil Service staff who, despite the stinging disrespect this Administration has shown our profession, continue the struggle to keep our foreign policy on the positive trajectory necessary to avert global disaster in increasingly dangerous times,” Shackelford wrote in her Nov. 7 letter, which is published below. One phrase was redacted on Shackelford’s request. “With each passing day, however, this task grows more futile, driving the Department’s experienced and talented staff away in ever greater numbers,” she wrote. Her former colleagues said her departure — and the sentiments expressed in her letter — reflect a wider exodus of midcareer diplomats who have lost confidence in Tillerson’s management and the Trump administration’s approach toward diplomacy. “She’s emblematic of what we’re losing across the board,” said one of Shackelford’s former State Department colleagues. “She is the best among us. We should not be losing the best among us. And that should concern people that we are,” the former colleague said. In her letter, Shackelford said she was leaving with a “heavy heart” as she recognized the potential of the State Department’s mission. She said she was “shocked” when Tillerson appeared to cast doubt on the importance of human rights in remarks to department employees on May 3. The State Department’s role in internal government debates also had “diminished,” she wrote, with the White House handing over authority to the Pentagon to shape the country’s foreign policy. Meanwhile, unfilled vacancies and proposed budget and staffing cuts had left the department adrift, with weakened influence inside the administration and on the ground, she wrote. “The cost of this is visible every day in Mission Somalia, my current post, where State’s diplomatic influence, on the country and within our own interagency, is waning,” she wrote. In the closing paragraph of her letter, Shackelford called on Tillerson “to stem the bleeding by showing leadership and a commitment to our people, our mission, and our mandate as the foreign policy arm of the United States. “If you are unable to do so effectively within this Administration, I would humbly recommend you follow me out the door.” Shackelford was singled out as an especially promising diplomat and was selected for future senior leadership roles, which a veteran foreign service officer said was unusual at her age. “Let me underscore that Lizzy Shackelford was one of the most promising officers and an exceptional leader in the Foreign Service,” the senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told FP. “An officer who makes it into the service and leaves because she was not supported means we must work harder to mentor, reform our system, and support outstanding officers like Lizzy.” When asked about the criticisms in the letter, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said: “We are not able to comment on the career choices of each person at the Department.” “However, I can say that the Secretary has made clear that his objective is to make the State Department more efficient, more effective, and for staff to have a much more rewarding and satisfying career,” she added. Tillerson has faced a wave of criticism from lawmakers and former senior diplomats about what they say is the dismantling of the State Department amid a hemorrhaging of top talent, a hiring freeze, and plummeting morale. He has firmly rejected the criticism, insisting the media mischaracterizes the rate of those leaving the department and that his plan to “redesign” the State Department is employee-driven and prioritizes the staff’s well-being. “What it’s done,” Tillerson said of the hiring freeze on Friday, “was just a little bit of a blunt instrument to have everyone be a little more disciplined about filling their positions.” But even his harshest critics say much of the blame for the troubled state of the foreign service rests with the president, who has shown an impatience with diplomacy and has often sidelined Tillerson. Shackelford’s sentiments also reflect a long-held but growing concern among diplomats and experts that U.S. policy is increasingly dominated and shaped by the military, particularly in Africa. The Pentagon has expanded its footprint and operations on the continent with additional funding while the State Department and USAID face steep budget cuts and a dearth of ambassadors or top appointees in Washington. Linda Thomas-Greenfield, a retired career diplomat and former assistant secretary of state for African affairs, said the U.S. military has a vital role to play in Africa and elsewhere but said the pendulum was swinging too far away from diplomacy. “You can’t just do military. You have to have the complement of diplomatic and development working alongside the military colleagues,” she told FP. Somalia reflects a balance that clearly favors the military, as the State Department lacks the manpower and resources of its Pentagon counterparts. In recent months, the U.S. military has expanded its role with hundreds of troops and more strikes against al-Shabab militants, while diplomatic efforts have ebbed following the departure of U.S. Ambassador to Somalia Stephen Schwartz in October. The staff at the U.S. mission have repeatedly asked Washington for permission to meet Somali political leaders at Villa Somalia, the presidential residence, but the State Department has rejected the request on security grounds. U.S. military officers are able to meet Somali officials at the presidential palace, and other foreign diplomatic missions regularly visit the building for talks. Friday was Shackelford’s last day as a foreign service officer after nearly eight years in the State Department. Born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi, the 38-year-old Shackelford graduated first in her class at the University of Pittsburgh Law School. She worked at a law firm, then the consulting company Booz Allen Hamilton on foreign aid projects before joining the foreign service in 2010. Shackelford distinguished herself in South Sudan for overseeing the evacuation of 1,000 Americans and other foreign nationals when violence erupted in Juba in December 2013. For her leadership skills and crisis planning in the evacuation effort, she received a department-wide Barbara M. Watson award for consular excellence. During her stint in South Sudan, Shackelford worked to document and focus attention on human rights abuses, according to those she worked with and a personal statement she submitted as part of an employee evaluation. She cultivated contacts with South Sudanese civil society organizations and met with victims and witnesses of atrocities committed in the country’s conflict. Convinced that there could be no lasting peace without coming to terms with crimes committed on both sides, she co-wrote a dissenting cable backed by some of her fellow diplomats making that argument. “Her view was if we don’t deal with accountability now, whatever peace that’s achieved is going to be temporary,” said another former colleague, who worked with her in Juba. “She made it her mission to get human rights material out the door.” Shackelford is not alone in accusing the Trump administration of backsliding on America’s support for human rights and democracy over the past ten months. Republican Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, and Sen. Ben Cardin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote a letter to the president on Friday accusing his administration of failing to assert America’s commitment to human rights. The lawmakers wrote that “for much of the past year, our national voice on international human rights issues has been largely silent.” But Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday that in a recent tour of Africa, he repeatedly raised human rights concerns with governments in Ethiopia and Sudan, saying it was a crucial element in the fight against terrorist threats. “The United States continues to emphasize respect for human rights as a fundamental part of our counterterrorism strategy,” Sullivan told lawmakers. Six months ago, when Shackelford began considering leaving the foreign service, her mentors and colleagues encouraged her to stay the course, telling her she had a promising career ahead of her and that the difficulties would pass, she told FP. But in a sign of plunging morale in the foreign service, when she spoke to those same colleagues two months ago about resigning, she got a much different response. “It had completely changed to a person,” she said. “Nobody tried to talk me out of it. Everybody said, ‘Yep, I get it.’” This article was updated on Dec. 10 with comment from a senior State Department official. ||||| WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House physician pronounced Donald Trump to be in “excellent health” after Trump had his first medical exam as U.S. president on Friday, capping off a week in which his mental fitness for the job has come under intense scrutiny. Trump spent about three hours with military doctors at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, an exam that White House doctor Ronny Jackson said went “exceptionally well.” “The president is in excellent health and I look forward to briefing some of the details on Tuesday,” Jackson said in a brief statement distributed by the White House. The exam came after a new best-selling book portrayed Trump, 71, as unfocused and childlike. The White House has faced a barrage of questions over his contradictory messages on key policies and an incident last month where he slurred some words while giving a speech. The White House determines what data will be released from the exam. Trump is not compelled to release any information, and there is no template for the presidential exam. Jackson is expected to take questions about the results from reporters on Tuesday. Past presidents are not known to have been tested for mental acuity while in office - including Ronald Reagan, who five years after leaving the White House was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. The White House had made clear that Trump’s examination would not include a psychiatric exam. Results of past presidential physicals have included basic data like weight, blood pressure and cholesterol levels. There is a long history of the White House picking and choosing what to reveal about the commander in chief’s health, said Barbara Perry, director of presidential studies at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center. For example, John F. Kennedy disclosed war injuries but not the fact he suffered from Addison’s disease, a degenerative condition. Perry said she believed presidents should be subject to a raft of tests to establish they are fit to serve. Slideshow (4 Images) When he was running for office, Trump released a glowing report from his personal physician in New York, who said Trump would be “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.” The public report from Trump’s upcoming exam was also likely to be short and sweet, said George Annas, head of the Center for Health Law, Ethics and Human Rights at Boston University School of Public Health. “I don’t think you could expect to see anything else, unless it’s something that makes him look good,” Annas said.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

EXCLUSIVE: 'Person of interest' in hunt for missing Hannah Graham is a nursing assistant who admits he bought her drinks but claims he did NOT drive off with her in his car Jesse 'LJ' Matthew has been reviewed as the man who was being sought in connection with the disappearance of Hannah Graham in Virginia Matthew is a nursing assistant at UVA Hospital Police converged on his building just outside Charlottesville, Virginia, to execute a search warrant Close friends identify Matthew as the man in the footage but remain skeptical he could have been behind the disappearance Police have said they've contacted the 'person of interest' but have no probable cause to arrest him Graham, a British-born sophomore raised in Virginia, was last seen on September 12 Jesse 'LJ' Matthew was a 'person of interest' in the search for Hannah Graham The ‘person of interest’ in the case of missing UVA student Hannah Graham admits that he bought her drinks but denies he drove off with her in his car, MailOnline can reveal exclusively. Jesse ‘LJ’ Matthew has confirmed he met the 18-year-old in Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall on the night she went missing and bought her drinks at a local bar. But Matthew, a nursing assistant at UVA Hospital, told his mother that Hannah did not get into his car and that the pair ‘went their separate ways.' Matthew’s grandmother, Christine Carr, told MailOnline on Saturday: ‘I have been talking with his mother. ‘He said he went his way and she went hers. He told his mother he bought her some drinks. He said she did not get into his car. ‘The girl went her way and he went his.’ Matthew has lived in Charlottesville his whole life, where he works in the operating room of the UVA Hospital, sources told MailOnline. He is a nursing assistant who transports patients to the operating room. His grandmother, Mrs Carr, says she instantly recognized her grandson ‘LJ’ when she watched the video tape released by police investigating Hannah’s disappearance. She told MailOnline: ‘I saw the video tape. That is him, that is LJ. The police went through his car and his apartment. ‘They took away his car and three bags out of his apartment.’ Mystery man: Police released this footage in their search for a man in dreadlocks. He has now been revealed to be Jesse 'LJ' Matthew, a nursing assistant at UVA Hospital Acquaintances immediately recognized this man as Matthew Big break: The local police chief described the find of Matthew as a 'person of interest' as a major break in the disappearance of University of Virginia student Hannah Graham (pictured) Several acquaintances corroborated Mrs Carr's story to MailOnline. 'That's definitely him!' one close friend said. 'He is always wearing those dumb shorts.' Mrs Carr added she was confident her 32-year-old grandson, who has dreadlocks, has nothing to do with the disappearance of Hannah, who has not been seen since the early hours of last Saturday morning. ‘LJ would never hurt anybody,' Mrs Carr, 82, from Charlottesville, told MailOnline. 'I know he is a good boy. I have known him all his life. ‘I’m sure he had nothing to do with it. He is a good boy. He has worked ever since he was able to work. He has never been in trouble. He would do anything to help anybody. ‘I practically raised LJ,' Mrs Carr added. 'His mom was working and I looked after him and his sister, Nicky. ‘He had a live-in girlfriend but I don’t know what happened. They lived together at his apartment.' Mrs Carr said she last saw her grandson on Thursday, when he visited her house along with his mother. ‘He had two bowls of greens and he took some with him,' Mrs Carr said. 'He loves my cooking.’ UVA community members raise their candles in support of the missing during a student-led vigill Top cop: Charlottesville Police Chief Tim Longo talks to reporters Friday about new leads in the Graham case Officers scoured Matthew's the building in search of evidence all day Friday Chief Tim Longo, of the Charlottesville PD, had identified a dreadlocked man — now identified as Matthew — as the ‘person of interest’ in the hunt for Graham. He was spotted in surveillance footage with his arm round her waist before apparently vanishing in his car together, police said on Friday. Police believe he bought the underage girl an alcoholic drink and have 'every reason to believe' that she was with him when he left 15 minutes later in his 1998 burnt orange Chrysler coupe. The car was searched and seized by police after it was found parked outside a housing complex on Hessian Hills Way, where Matthew lives. Officers spent most of Friday scouring through Matthew's apartment just outside Charlottesville, located about 3 miles from the Downtown Mall where Graham was last seen. Longo told MailOnline that investigators were carrying out a 'forensic search' of the two-bedroom apartment in Hessian Hills Way, Albemarle County. 'They will be looking for blood, hair, fibers, the things we are interested in these kind of cases,' he told MailOnline. ‘We’re interested in him,’ Longo added to reporters. ‘We’re interested in talking to him, we’re interested in his interactions with Hannah.’ Law enforcement officials have been issued with multiple warrants for properties within Charlottesville. Details of the warrants remain sealed on the orders of a judge, and will remain secret for up to 180 days, unless the judge changes the ruling. Chief Longo described the finding of Matthew's apartment as a 'big break' in the case. He later tempered his declaration by saying, 'I would hope that is is.' Heartbroken and hopeful: Hannah with her brother, James, mother, Sue and father, John. The Graham's issued a joint statement on Tuesday saying they are hopeful Hannah will be found With friends: Hannah with a group of friends who have all described her disappearance as extremely uncharacteristic On Thursday night, thousands gathered for a vigil in the University of Virginia Amphitheater in honor of Graham. Students held candles and played music, all with one message: bring Graham home. In a statement released through the police, parents John and Susan Graham, said: 'Hannah is beyond precious to us, and we are devastated by her disappearance. It is totally out of character for us not to have heard from her, and we fear foul play.' The huge search for Hannah Graham involving hundreds of volunteers from across Virginia was still underway on Saturday. Authorities have said they do not know why she texted her friends at 1.20am on September 12 to say she was lost near to the UVA campus — an area she knows very well. Hannah was last seen by friends at Camden Plaza Apartments, in Charlottesville at 11.50pm on Friday night at a party with another male friend and police have said she was heavily intoxicated. At 1.20am, friends waiting at a party for the student got a text from her saying that she was lost in the area around 14th and Wertland Streets, which is near the student;s own off-campus home. Surveillance footage released on Wednesday places her half-a-mile away at the Charlottesville downtown mall just 20 minutes before the text. The 5'11' softball player, whose parents are English, was wearing black pants and a gold top that had black mesh cut outs on the evening she went missing a week and a day ago. Confusion: This map shows Hannah Graham's movements on the night of Friday 12 and Saturday 13. At 11.50pm she was seen at a party by friends with another male friend. She then seemed to head westward toward the Charlottesville downtown mall ||||| We are now hearing from the parents of 18-year-old Hannah Graham, the University of Virginia student who vanished more than a week ago. An emotional Charlottesville Police Chief Tim Longo and the parents of Graham faced the media late Sunday afternoon at a press conference to demand answers in Hannah's disappearance.Chief Longo released new investigation details about a person of interest seen with Graham Friday night on Charlottesville's downtown mall. He publicly named the person of interest they're looking for as Jesse Matthew. Matthew was seen walking with Hannah Graham in security footage from businesses on Charlottesville's downtown mall. Witnesses say the last place he was seen with Graham was at Tempo restaurant early in the morning on Saturday September 13."I believe Jesse Matthew was the last person she was seen with before she vanished off the face of the earth because it's been a week and we can't find her,” said Longo. Chief Longo said Matthew showed up at police headquarters Saturday afternoon to talk with investigators. He said he asked for a lawyer and spent about an hour inside the station. Longo said detectives got nothing out of Matthew because he didn't talk but arrest warrants are now out for him. Longo said authorities were tailing Matthew in Albemarle County when he took off in a car at a high rate of speed and police had to back off. Matthew is now charged with two counts of reckless driving. "Virginia State Police have obtained arrest warrants for Jesse Matthew, charging him with reckless driving - 2 counts because he had somebody in the car with him," Chief Longo stated. On Friday police raided Matthew's Hessian Hills apartment and seized his car. Police released pictures of the car Sunday hoping people will come forward. They also says forensic testing should be complete either Monday or Tuesday.Police did confirm they used a helicopter with infrared Saturday night in the search for Hannah Graham. Police say they have received 900 tips and have talked to 75 people at this point.Hannah Graham's parents put a call out to the community. Hannah's father, John Graham, said, "We need to find out what happened to Hannah and make sure it doesn't happen to anybody else."Hannah's father described the havoc her disappearance has brought on their family. "Think of our parents as well, Hannah's grandparents. They are literally an ocean away and they're not knowing what happened to their little girl, their little granddaughter, and they're unable to help, and it's awful for them,"Graham thanked the community for its support, and asked for more help to bring Hannah home. "Did you see Hannah? Did you see Hannah, did you see Hannah? Who saw Hannah? Somebody did. Please please please if you have anything, however insignificant you think it may be, call the police tip line," he stated.If you know anything about the Hannah Graham case, or if you know where Jesse Matthew is, please call the dedicated tip line for this case at 434 - 295 - 3851.

– Jesse "LJ" Matthew may or may not be the last person seen with missing UVa student Hannah Graham, but police say that he is now being sought on reckless driving charges. Police monitoring Matthew after his appearance at the Charlottesville police station Saturday saw the nursing assistant speed off at a rate that was "reckless and placed others in danger, so much so that they had to disengage for their protection and protection of other people," the police chief tells the Daily Progress. While at the station, Matthew asked for a lawyer, conferred with the lawyer, then left without speaking to police. On Friday, police had searched Matthew's apartment and seized his car, reports NBC29. "I believe Jesse Matthew was the last person she was seen with before she vanished off the face of the Earth," the police chief said yesterday, adding that they want to question Matthew. Matthew's grandmother tells the Daily Mail that he claims to have bought the 18-year-old UVa second-year drinks but that the two then went their separate ways. Meanwhile, hundreds of volunteers continue to search for Graham and any clues as to her whereabouts more than a week after her disappearance. (One witness told police Graham looked "physically distressed" before walking away with the man who appears to be Matthew.)

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.EXCLUSIVE: 'Person of interest' in hunt for missing Hannah Graham is a nursing assistant who admits he bought her drinks but claims he did NOT drive off with her in his car Jesse 'LJ' Matthew has been reviewed as the man who was being sought in connection with the disappearance of Hannah Graham in Virginia Matthew is a nursing assistant at UVA Hospital Police converged on his building just outside Charlottesville, Virginia, to execute a search warrant Close friends identify Matthew as the man in the footage but remain skeptical he could have been behind the disappearance Police have said they've contacted the 'person of interest' but have no probable cause to arrest him Graham, a British-born sophomore raised in Virginia, was last seen on September 12 Jesse 'LJ' Matthew was a 'person of interest' in the search for Hannah Graham The ‘person of interest’ in the case of missing UVA student Hannah Graham admits that he bought her drinks but denies he drove off with her in his car, MailOnline can reveal exclusively. Jesse ‘LJ’ Matthew has confirmed he met the 18-year-old in Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall on the night she went missing and bought her drinks at a local bar. But Matthew, a nursing assistant at UVA Hospital, told his mother that Hannah did not get into his car and that the pair ‘went their separate ways.' Matthew’s grandmother, Christine Carr, told MailOnline on Saturday: ‘I have been talking with his mother. ‘He said he went his way and she went hers. He told his mother he bought her some drinks. He said she did not get into his car. ‘The girl went her way and he went his.’ Matthew has lived in Charlottesville his whole life, where he works in the operating room of the UVA Hospital, sources told MailOnline. He is a nursing assistant who transports patients to the operating room. His grandmother, Mrs Carr, says she instantly recognized her grandson ‘LJ’ when she watched the video tape released by police investigating Hannah’s disappearance. She told MailOnline: ‘I saw the video tape. That is him, that is LJ. The police went through his car and his apartment. ‘They took away his car and three bags out of his apartment.’ Mystery man: Police released this footage in their search for a man in dreadlocks. He has now been revealed to be Jesse 'LJ' Matthew, a nursing assistant at UVA Hospital Acquaintances immediately recognized this man as Matthew Big break: The local police chief described the find of Matthew as a 'person of interest' as a major break in the disappearance of University of Virginia student Hannah Graham (pictured) Several acquaintances corroborated Mrs Carr's story to MailOnline. 'That's definitely him!' one close friend said. 'He is always wearing those dumb shorts.' Mrs Carr added she was confident her 32-year-old grandson, who has dreadlocks, has nothing to do with the disappearance of Hannah, who has not been seen since the early hours of last Saturday morning. ‘LJ would never hurt anybody,' Mrs Carr, 82, from Charlottesville, told MailOnline. 'I know he is a good boy. I have known him all his life. ‘I’m sure he had nothing to do with it. He is a good boy. He has worked ever since he was able to work. He has never been in trouble. He would do anything to help anybody. ‘I practically raised LJ,' Mrs Carr added. 'His mom was working and I looked after him and his sister, Nicky. ‘He had a live-in girlfriend but I don’t know what happened. They lived together at his apartment.' Mrs Carr said she last saw her grandson on Thursday, when he visited her house along with his mother. ‘He had two bowls of greens and he took some with him,' Mrs Carr said. 'He loves my cooking.’ UVA community members raise their candles in support of the missing during a student-led vigill Top cop: Charlottesville Police Chief Tim Longo talks to reporters Friday about new leads in the Graham case Officers scoured Matthew's the building in search of evidence all day Friday Chief Tim Longo, of the Charlottesville PD, had identified a dreadlocked man — now identified as Matthew — as the ‘person of interest’ in the hunt for Graham. He was spotted in surveillance footage with his arm round her waist before apparently vanishing in his car together, police said on Friday. Police believe he bought the underage girl an alcoholic drink and have 'every reason to believe' that she was with him when he left 15 minutes later in his 1998 burnt orange Chrysler coupe. The car was searched and seized by police after it was found parked outside a housing complex on Hessian Hills Way, where Matthew lives. Officers spent most of Friday scouring through Matthew's apartment just outside Charlottesville, located about 3 miles from the Downtown Mall where Graham was last seen. Longo told MailOnline that investigators were carrying out a 'forensic search' of the two-bedroom apartment in Hessian Hills Way, Albemarle County. 'They will be looking for blood, hair, fibers, the things we are interested in these kind of cases,' he told MailOnline. ‘We’re interested in him,’ Longo added to reporters. ‘We’re interested in talking to him, we’re interested in his interactions with Hannah.’ Law enforcement officials have been issued with multiple warrants for properties within Charlottesville. Details of the warrants remain sealed on the orders of a judge, and will remain secret for up to 180 days, unless the judge changes the ruling. Chief Longo described the finding of Matthew's apartment as a 'big break' in the case. He later tempered his declaration by saying, 'I would hope that is is.' Heartbroken and hopeful: Hannah with her brother, James, mother, Sue and father, John. The Graham's issued a joint statement on Tuesday saying they are hopeful Hannah will be found With friends: Hannah with a group of friends who have all described her disappearance as extremely uncharacteristic On Thursday night, thousands gathered for a vigil in the University of Virginia Amphitheater in honor of Graham. Students held candles and played music, all with one message: bring Graham home. In a statement released through the police, parents John and Susan Graham, said: 'Hannah is beyond precious to us, and we are devastated by her disappearance. It is totally out of character for us not to have heard from her, and we fear foul play.' The huge search for Hannah Graham involving hundreds of volunteers from across Virginia was still underway on Saturday. Authorities have said they do not know why she texted her friends at 1.20am on September 12 to say she was lost near to the UVA campus — an area she knows very well. Hannah was last seen by friends at Camden Plaza Apartments, in Charlottesville at 11.50pm on Friday night at a party with another male friend and police have said she was heavily intoxicated. At 1.20am, friends waiting at a party for the student got a text from her saying that she was lost in the area around 14th and Wertland Streets, which is near the student;s own off-campus home. Surveillance footage released on Wednesday places her half-a-mile away at the Charlottesville downtown mall just 20 minutes before the text. The 5'11' softball player, whose parents are English, was wearing black pants and a gold top that had black mesh cut outs on the evening she went missing a week and a day ago. Confusion: This map shows Hannah Graham's movements on the night of Friday 12 and Saturday 13. At 11.50pm she was seen at a party by friends with another male friend. She then seemed to head westward toward the Charlottesville downtown mall ||||| We are now hearing from the parents of 18-year-old Hannah Graham, the University of Virginia student who vanished more than a week ago. An emotional Charlottesville Police Chief Tim Longo and the parents of Graham faced the media late Sunday afternoon at a press conference to demand answers in Hannah's disappearance.Chief Longo released new investigation details about a person of interest seen with Graham Friday night on Charlottesville's downtown mall. He publicly named the person of interest they're looking for as Jesse Matthew. Matthew was seen walking with Hannah Graham in security footage from businesses on Charlottesville's downtown mall. Witnesses say the last place he was seen with Graham was at Tempo restaurant early in the morning on Saturday September 13."I believe Jesse Matthew was the last person she was seen with before she vanished off the face of the earth because it's been a week and we can't find her,” said Longo. Chief Longo said Matthew showed up at police headquarters Saturday afternoon to talk with investigators. He said he asked for a lawyer and spent about an hour inside the station. Longo said detectives got nothing out of Matthew because he didn't talk but arrest warrants are now out for him. Longo said authorities were tailing Matthew in Albemarle County when he took off in a car at a high rate of speed and police had to back off. Matthew is now charged with two counts of reckless driving. "Virginia State Police have obtained arrest warrants for Jesse Matthew, charging him with reckless driving - 2 counts because he had somebody in the car with him," Chief Longo stated. On Friday police raided Matthew's Hessian Hills apartment and seized his car. Police released pictures of the car Sunday hoping people will come forward. They also says forensic testing should be complete either Monday or Tuesday.Police did confirm they used a helicopter with infrared Saturday night in the search for Hannah Graham. Police say they have received 900 tips and have talked to 75 people at this point.Hannah Graham's parents put a call out to the community. Hannah's father, John Graham, said, "We need to find out what happened to Hannah and make sure it doesn't happen to anybody else."Hannah's father described the havoc her disappearance has brought on their family. "Think of our parents as well, Hannah's grandparents. They are literally an ocean away and they're not knowing what happened to their little girl, their little granddaughter, and they're unable to help, and it's awful for them,"Graham thanked the community for its support, and asked for more help to bring Hannah home. "Did you see Hannah? Did you see Hannah, did you see Hannah? Who saw Hannah? Somebody did. Please please please if you have anything, however insignificant you think it may be, call the police tip line," he stated.If you know anything about the Hannah Graham case, or if you know where Jesse Matthew is, please call the dedicated tip line for this case at 434 - 295 - 3851.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Frequently Asked Questions Are you currently accepting new Flyer Discovery members? New enrollment in membership is currently closed. As we approach launch, we’re excited to engage our community and introduce Flyer to the whole world. Connect with us on social media and join our adventure in the air. Follow us on twitter @kittyhawkcorp. What type of vehicle is Flyer? Flyer is an ultralight aircraft. When can I get Flyer? Details to come at the end of 2017. How much will the Flyer cost? We’ll be announcing the price at launch. Will Flyer look like the prototype? The go-to-market Flyer will feature a brand new design. We can’t wait to share it with you. Can I purchase Flyer if I’m outside the US? Flyer will be available from any location except embargoed countries. But right now, we won’t be shipping abroad. You’ll have to take possession in the US and make delivery arrangements afterward. We recommend checking out the regulatory requirements and delivery options that are available where you live. What FAA category does Flyer fall under? Flyer operates under the FAR 103 Ultralight Category of US FAA regulations. That means you won’t need a pilot’s license to ride, and you’ll be able to fly over wide open areas for recreation. Where can I fly Flyer? Flyer was designed to be enjoyed over freshwater in uncongested areas. Is a pilot’s license required to operate Flyer? No license necessary! All you’ll need is a sense of adventure and a few minutes to learn. ||||| There are challenges, no doubt, with both the technology and government regulations. Perhaps the biggest hurdle will be convincing the public that the whole idea isn’t crazy. Video “I love the idea of being able to go out into my backyard and hop into my flying car,” said Brad Templeton, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who has served as a consultant on Google’s self-driving project. “I hate the idea of my next-door neighbor having one.” Kitty Hawk, the company backed by Mr. Page, is trying to be one of the first out of the gate and plans to start selling its vehicle by the end of the year. The company has attracted intense interest because of Mr. Page and its chief executive, Sebastian Thrun, an influential technologist and self-driving car pioneer who is the founding director of Google’s X lab. In 2013, Zee Aero, a Kitty Hawk division, became the object of Silicon Valley rumors when reports of a small air taxilike vehicle first surfaced. Mr. Page declined a request for an interview but said in a statement: “We’ve all had dreams of flying effortlessly. I’m excited that one day very soon I’ll be able to climb onto my Kitty Hawk Flyer for a quick and easy personal flight.” During his recent test flight, Cameron Robertson, the aerospace engineer, used two joysticklike controls to swing the vehicle back and forth above Clear Lake, sliding on the air as a Formula One car might shimmy through a racecourse. The flight, just 15 feet above the water, circled over the lake about 20 or 30 yards from shore, and after about five minutes Mr. Robertson steered back to a floating landing pad at the end of a dock. Advertisement Continue reading the main story The Kitty Hawk Flyer is one of several prototypes the start-up, based in Mountain View, Calif., is designing. The company hopes to create an audience of enthusiasts and hobbyists, who can pay $100 to sign up for a $2,000 discount on the retail price of a Flyer to “gain exclusive access to Kitty Hawk experiences and demonstrations where a select few will get the chance to ride the Flyer.” Flying Carmakers More than a dozen companies — from large to small — are now in various stages of creating flying vehicles. It is an unusual offer, since the company has yet to set a price for the vehicle, and Mr. Thrun’s and Mr. Page’s involvement can be taken as evidence that the company is aiming beyond hobbyists. Still, Kitty Hawk is clearly targeting a new kind of transportation — air flight that can be performed safely by most people and hopefully with government approval. “We have been in contact with the F.A.A. and we see the regulators as friends,” Mr. Thrun said in an interview. He agreed that concerns about vehicles flying over our heads were legitimate. “I believe that all of us have to work together to understand how new technologies will shape the future of society, ” he said. Two years ago, Mr. Thrun recruited two other pioneers, Mr. Robertson and Todd Reichert, aerospace engineers from AeroVelo, a University of Toronto spinoff company that won a coveted prize for a human-powered helicopter and set the land speed record for a bicycle last year. They are flying under a special Federal Aviation Administration category for ultralight aircraft that does not require a pilot’s license and is intended for recreational flying in uncongested areas. To add an extra margin of safety, the Kitty Hawk engineers are sticking to flying over open water. The company said the final commercial product would look different and be far quieter than the test model. “We hope that this is more of an exciting concept than what most people have had in their minds about flying cars,” Mr. Robertson said. “This is not yet that product in terms of what we will say and what it can do, but I think it demonstrates a vision of the future.” Kitty Hawk could face stiff competition, not just from about a half dozen start-ups, but from the giant Airbus, headquartered in Blagnac, France. The aerospace firm has announced two different vertical takeoff and landing, or VTOL, concepts and is reported to be planning an initial test flight before the end of the year. At the Geneva International Motor Show last month, Airbus proposed an autonomous vehicle named Pop.Up that would operate on the ground and in the air. And this year, the government of Dubai, in partnership with a Chinese firm, EHang, said it planned to begin operating an autonomous flying taxi in July. Also, Uber is expected on Tuesday to detail its “vision for the future of Urban Air Mobility” at a conference in Dallas. Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Get the Morning Briefing by Email What you need to know to start your day, delivered to your inbox Monday through Friday. Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. There is no shortage of skeptics happy to point out the roadblocks for these vehicles. There is already significant resistance to the idea of unmanned drones flying over urban areas, and flying cars could face substantial opposition, even if they can be quieted to automotive noise levels. Advertisement Continue reading the main story For these personal air vehicles to become a reality in the United States, the country would need a new air traffic control system. Two years ago, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration began development of an air traffic control system meant for managing all sorts of flying vehicles, including drones. One NASA developer described it as an air traffic control system, “for a sky dark with drones.” Researchers hope testing can begin by 2019. Batteries are also an issue. While electric propeller-driven motors seem promising, today’s battery technology cannot support flights of a reasonable distance, say a 30- or 50-mile commute. “How is this going to work? I don’t want to be a Debbie Downer, but we can’t even take our cellphones on airplanes today because of fears about battery fires,” said Missy Cummings, the director of the Humans and Autonomy Laboratory at Duke University, who is researching personal air transport for NASA. And don’t forget that flying cars will not be able to pull to the side of the road in an emergency, said John Leonard, a mechanical engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. “Silicon Valley is full of very smart people, but they don’t always get the laws of physics,” he said. “Gravity is a formidable adversary.”

– Airbus' flying car might have competition. Kitty Hawk, a Silicon Valley startup named for the location of the Wright brothers' first controlled flight and backed by Google co-founder Larry Page, has revealed its flying car prototype and says buyers will be able to get their hands on a similar design by the end of the year, per ABC News. For now, the Kitty Hawk Flyer looks less like a car and more like "a flying motorcycle," but riding it is a blast, Cimeron Morrissey writes at Medium. The rider mounts the 220-pound device and controls its eight, battery-powered propellers from a set of handlebars. Getting the hang of the controls takes only "minutes" and there's no need for a license, Kitty Hawk says. But riders won't be cruising over land anytime soon. The Flyer, which has two pontoons attached, is only legal to operate over fresh water "in uncongested areas of the US," according to Kitty Hawk's website. While such a "flying car" might not be what consumers envisioned, "I think it demonstrates a vision of the future," an engineer tells the New York Times. Interested? Kitty Hawk—run by the founding director of Google's X lab, Sebastian Thrun—says anyone who pays a $100 membership fee now will receive a $2,000 discount off a Flyer at a later date. The catch: Kitty Hawk has yet to reveal the retail price of the Flyer, which can now travel up to 25mph.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Frequently Asked Questions Are you currently accepting new Flyer Discovery members? New enrollment in membership is currently closed. As we approach launch, we’re excited to engage our community and introduce Flyer to the whole world. Connect with us on social media and join our adventure in the air. Follow us on twitter @kittyhawkcorp. What type of vehicle is Flyer? Flyer is an ultralight aircraft. When can I get Flyer? Details to come at the end of 2017. How much will the Flyer cost? We’ll be announcing the price at launch. Will Flyer look like the prototype? The go-to-market Flyer will feature a brand new design. We can’t wait to share it with you. Can I purchase Flyer if I’m outside the US? Flyer will be available from any location except embargoed countries. But right now, we won’t be shipping abroad. You’ll have to take possession in the US and make delivery arrangements afterward. We recommend checking out the regulatory requirements and delivery options that are available where you live. What FAA category does Flyer fall under? Flyer operates under the FAR 103 Ultralight Category of US FAA regulations. That means you won’t need a pilot’s license to ride, and you’ll be able to fly over wide open areas for recreation. Where can I fly Flyer? Flyer was designed to be enjoyed over freshwater in uncongested areas. Is a pilot’s license required to operate Flyer? No license necessary! All you’ll need is a sense of adventure and a few minutes to learn. ||||| There are challenges, no doubt, with both the technology and government regulations. Perhaps the biggest hurdle will be convincing the public that the whole idea isn’t crazy. Video “I love the idea of being able to go out into my backyard and hop into my flying car,” said Brad Templeton, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who has served as a consultant on Google’s self-driving project. “I hate the idea of my next-door neighbor having one.” Kitty Hawk, the company backed by Mr. Page, is trying to be one of the first out of the gate and plans to start selling its vehicle by the end of the year. The company has attracted intense interest because of Mr. Page and its chief executive, Sebastian Thrun, an influential technologist and self-driving car pioneer who is the founding director of Google’s X lab. In 2013, Zee Aero, a Kitty Hawk division, became the object of Silicon Valley rumors when reports of a small air taxilike vehicle first surfaced. Mr. Page declined a request for an interview but said in a statement: “We’ve all had dreams of flying effortlessly. I’m excited that one day very soon I’ll be able to climb onto my Kitty Hawk Flyer for a quick and easy personal flight.” During his recent test flight, Cameron Robertson, the aerospace engineer, used two joysticklike controls to swing the vehicle back and forth above Clear Lake, sliding on the air as a Formula One car might shimmy through a racecourse. The flight, just 15 feet above the water, circled over the lake about 20 or 30 yards from shore, and after about five minutes Mr. Robertson steered back to a floating landing pad at the end of a dock. Advertisement Continue reading the main story The Kitty Hawk Flyer is one of several prototypes the start-up, based in Mountain View, Calif., is designing. The company hopes to create an audience of enthusiasts and hobbyists, who can pay $100 to sign up for a $2,000 discount on the retail price of a Flyer to “gain exclusive access to Kitty Hawk experiences and demonstrations where a select few will get the chance to ride the Flyer.” Flying Carmakers More than a dozen companies — from large to small — are now in various stages of creating flying vehicles. It is an unusual offer, since the company has yet to set a price for the vehicle, and Mr. Thrun’s and Mr. Page’s involvement can be taken as evidence that the company is aiming beyond hobbyists. Still, Kitty Hawk is clearly targeting a new kind of transportation — air flight that can be performed safely by most people and hopefully with government approval. “We have been in contact with the F.A.A. and we see the regulators as friends,” Mr. Thrun said in an interview. He agreed that concerns about vehicles flying over our heads were legitimate. “I believe that all of us have to work together to understand how new technologies will shape the future of society, ” he said. Two years ago, Mr. Thrun recruited two other pioneers, Mr. Robertson and Todd Reichert, aerospace engineers from AeroVelo, a University of Toronto spinoff company that won a coveted prize for a human-powered helicopter and set the land speed record for a bicycle last year. They are flying under a special Federal Aviation Administration category for ultralight aircraft that does not require a pilot’s license and is intended for recreational flying in uncongested areas. To add an extra margin of safety, the Kitty Hawk engineers are sticking to flying over open water. The company said the final commercial product would look different and be far quieter than the test model. “We hope that this is more of an exciting concept than what most people have had in their minds about flying cars,” Mr. Robertson said. “This is not yet that product in terms of what we will say and what it can do, but I think it demonstrates a vision of the future.” Kitty Hawk could face stiff competition, not just from about a half dozen start-ups, but from the giant Airbus, headquartered in Blagnac, France. The aerospace firm has announced two different vertical takeoff and landing, or VTOL, concepts and is reported to be planning an initial test flight before the end of the year. At the Geneva International Motor Show last month, Airbus proposed an autonomous vehicle named Pop.Up that would operate on the ground and in the air. And this year, the government of Dubai, in partnership with a Chinese firm, EHang, said it planned to begin operating an autonomous flying taxi in July. Also, Uber is expected on Tuesday to detail its “vision for the future of Urban Air Mobility” at a conference in Dallas. Newsletter Sign Up Continue reading the main story Get the Morning Briefing by Email What you need to know to start your day, delivered to your inbox Monday through Friday. Please verify you're not a robot by clicking the box. Invalid email address. Please re-enter. You must select a newsletter to subscribe to. Sign Up You agree to receive occasional updates and special offers for The New York Times's products and services. Thank you for subscribing. An error has occurred. Please try again later. View all New York Times newsletters. There is no shortage of skeptics happy to point out the roadblocks for these vehicles. There is already significant resistance to the idea of unmanned drones flying over urban areas, and flying cars could face substantial opposition, even if they can be quieted to automotive noise levels. Advertisement Continue reading the main story For these personal air vehicles to become a reality in the United States, the country would need a new air traffic control system. Two years ago, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration began development of an air traffic control system meant for managing all sorts of flying vehicles, including drones. One NASA developer described it as an air traffic control system, “for a sky dark with drones.” Researchers hope testing can begin by 2019. Batteries are also an issue. While electric propeller-driven motors seem promising, today’s battery technology cannot support flights of a reasonable distance, say a 30- or 50-mile commute. “How is this going to work? I don’t want to be a Debbie Downer, but we can’t even take our cellphones on airplanes today because of fears about battery fires,” said Missy Cummings, the director of the Humans and Autonomy Laboratory at Duke University, who is researching personal air transport for NASA. And don’t forget that flying cars will not be able to pull to the side of the road in an emergency, said John Leonard, a mechanical engineer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. “Silicon Valley is full of very smart people, but they don’t always get the laws of physics,” he said. “Gravity is a formidable adversary.”

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CLOSE Skip in Skip x Embed x Share Two additional bodies have been recovered, bringing the official death toll to 16 after the massive landslide in Washington state, according to Snohomish County officials. Authorities have also located eight more bodies. VPC After the recovery of two more bodies, authorities raised the official death toll to 16. This aerial photo taken Monday shows the massive mudslide that killed at least 14 people near Arlington, Wash. (Photo: Ted S. Warren, AP) DARRINGTON, Wash. — People living in the tiny village destroyed by a mudslide knew there was a "high risk" of slides, a local official said Tuesday. "This entire year we have pushed message after message that there's a high risk of landslides," said John Pennington, director of Snohomish County Emergency Management. "The dangers and the risks are known." Snohomish County District 21 Fire Chief Travis Hots put the official death toll at 16 Tuesday night after the recovery of two more bodies, but he also said rescuers believe they've found another eight bodies. That discovery could bring the death toll to 24. The bodies of a U.S. Navy commander and his wife were among those found in the aftermath, the man's father confirmed to NBC 7 in San Diego. "He was a commander and would have made captain shortly too," John Regelbrugge Sr. told NBC 7 of his son, Cmdr. Leon "John" Regelbrugge III. The couple has five children. Scores more people were reported missing, but Pennington would not estimate how many bodies were still buried in the tons of mud and crumpled homes in Oso, about 55 miles northeast of Seattle. Pennington acknowledged that the chance of finding survivors was small, but said the effort remained a rescue and recovery operation. "I've said it before — I believe in miracles," he said. "I believe that people can survive these events." As rescuers dealt with a difficult search, members of the public dealt with the tragedy in their own way. About 200 people gathered in the cold and intermittent rain Tuesday night at a park in Arlington, Wash., to pray for the victims, family and friends of those lost in the Oso mudslide. "Hug each other. Wipe away each other's tears " said Pastor Chad Blood with the Lifeway Foursquare Church in Arlington. Even without that prodding, community members were taking care of each other through their pain, Blood said. "People are just responding," he said. "When a need arises they just come and take care of it until we have to turn them away. I'm speechless at times, and so very proud of out community." The collapse followed weeks of heavy rain. Still, Pennington had previously described the disaster as "completely unforeseen." The Seattle Times, however, reported this week that multiple geological reports had warned that the area was at risk. "No language seems more prescient than what appears in a 1999 report filed with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, warning of 'the potential for a large catastrophic failure,'" the Times reported. Pennington said work had been done to mitigate slide risk since a much smaller slide struck the area in 2006 "If I'd had any idea that this was going to break that Saturday morning. ... Come on guys, we're very liberal at using reverse 911," he said Tuesday. "There's a reason that we have a very high success rate of mitigating disasters in our county. This is just one that hit us." Pennington added that a small earthquake, measuring magnitude-1.1, had apparently struck behind the slide area on March 10. Some people who lived in the area said flooding, not landslides, had been their primary concern. "I wouldn't buy a house on the river myself, because rivers are unpredictable," said Marshia Armstrong, who lives in nearby Arlington. "Nobody could have predicted that whole huge slide. Another small slide, maybe, but nobody would have predicted that kind of movement." Armstrong, a real estate agent, said one thing the media have been reporting on was the presence of "pistol butt" trees on the bluff. Those are trees under which the ground has shifted, so their trunks grow out and then up, bending like the butt of a pistol. But in the rainy, wet Northwest "there are lots of places where the trees are growing up sideways," said Armstrong. The bluff that failed was "on the other side of the river from the houses, so they didn't think it was going to fall on their houses. They didn't think it was going to fill up the whole valley." President Obama signed an emergency declaration ordering federal aid to the area. "I would just ask all Americans to send their thoughts and prayers to Washington state," Obama said, speaking from the Nuclear Security Summit at The Hague, Netherlands. The landslide, which consumed a community of almost 50 homes, covers a 1-square-mile area. Darrington Mayor Dan Rankin thanked people for the outpouring of support Tuesday, adding that no additional volunteer help was needed. Federal, state and local responders were at the scene. Eric Jonas of Lake Stevens was one of the people who showed up early to lend a hand. That could include the discovery of more victims. "I've never had to deal with anything like that before, but they need help," Jonas said. "There could be some people alive out there." Hopes of finding survivors were dim, however, as the rain and muddy, unstable terrain continued to slow rescue and recovery efforts. Weather Channel meteorologist Jonathan Erdman said more than two inches of rain may fall over the next seven days from four separate weather systems. "Our crews are up against an enormous challenge. It's like quicksand out there," Snohomish County Fire District 21 Chief Travis Hots said. (Photo: Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY) EARLIER: 14 dead, 176 missing in Washington landslide Crews have to move extremely carefully as they work. "Some of my guys could only go 50 feet in five minutes," he said, because of the debris and danger of being sucked into the mud. Hots said earth-moving equipment and "lots of people with local knowledge of that specific area" were providing valuable assistance in determining the most likely areas where people could be trapped. Part of the hill had been logged in the 1980s, said University of Washington professor David Montgomery in Seattle. He studies geomorphology, how landscapes change through time. "There's no way to know if that contributed to the slide," said Montgomery. "The surface of the Earth is constantly changing. We humans just don't always notice it, because it happens slowly. There had been landslides in that area going back hundreds of year, you can see it in the geography." WEATHER: 'Extraordinary' precipitation a factor in Wash. mudslide Janet Kim reports for King 5 News. Contributing: David Jackson, Doyle Rice, USA TODAY Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1gUas0z ||||| Emergency officials say they expect the death toll from a massive mudslide in rural Washington state to rise as volunteers and responders pick through rubble. The mudslide, which struck the town of Oso on Saturday morning, has left 14 people dead and 176 missing, Snohomish County Fire District 21 Chief Travis Hots said Tuesday. Hots said authorities offer their “deepest sympathies and condolences to the families affected by this disaster.” He added that authorities believe the death toll will increase. “We are expecting that number to go up throughout the day,” he said. There are 156 people in the field looking for anyone who may be trapped under rubble, Hots said, but rain forecasted for Tuesday afternoon may hamper search efforts. A 50-member National Guard team is also en route to the area. Earlier in the day, officials looking to narrow the number of people unaccounted for said the operation is now shifting from a rescue effort to a recovery mission. "I never lose faith and a lot of the people in this community will never lose faith, but there's a realism element that's entered in,” John Pennington, Snohomish County's director of emergency management, said Tuesday on NBC’s “Today” show, according to Reuters. "We have responded as well as we can, and we will continue to do that, but ... we are turning that very delicate corner in the recovery operation.” Emergency responders and volunteers resumed searches Tuesday, but so far have not been able to locate anyone who still may be trapped under the rubble. A 22-week-old baby injured in the mudslide remained in critical condition Tuesday, Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center said. His mother was also among the injured. Late Monday, authorities announced that the official death toll had increased to 14 after searchers discovered six more bodies in the rubble. The main focus of the search operations has been to pin down the exact number of people unaccounted for after the disaster. Pennington told reporters late Monday that officials were working off a potential list of 176 people, but he stressed that authorities believed that included many duplicate names. "I believe very strongly [176] is not a number we're going to see in fatalities," Pennington said. "I believe it's going to drop dramatically." However, other authorities said they have not been able to determine whether there were multiple calls about the same missing person. The 1-square-mile mudslide struck Saturday morning. Authorities have described the search for additional survivors to be "grim" as crews battle uneven ground and rising waters. Monday’s search included specially trained dogs, firefighters, law enforcement, aircraft and search-and-rescue teams. Heavy equipment from the Washington State Department of Transportation helped to move trees, boulders and earth. “Most of us in these communities do not believe we'll find anyone alive,” Pennington said Monday, but then added, "I'm a man of faith and I believe in miracles." Authorities believe that the mudslide destroyed 35 homes, as well as 13 manufactured homes, including RVs, and at least one cabin. Part of the difficulty in determining the exact number of missing people comes from authorities not knowing how many of the homes, some of which are kept for vacationing visitors, were occupied at the time of the slide. Authorities also believe some nonresidents may have been working in the area, while some victims may have been passing through in their cars on nearby State Highway 530. Another obstacle has been the chaotic nature of the debris field itself. In some places, the ground is covered by 15 feet of rubble. "It's muddy in areas, it's like quicksand," said Hots. "One of the folks out there told me, 'Chief, sometimes it takes five minutes to walk 40 or 50 feet.'" Searchers are also running into gasoline and septic discharge and dealing with ground that geologists warn remains unstable. Authorities believe the slide was caused by ground made unstable by recent heavy rainfall. Ed Hrivnak, who was co-piloting an aircraft that was first to arrive at the scene Saturday, said a lot of the houses weren't buried. When they got hit, "the houses exploded." He said cars were crushed into little pieces, their tires the only signs that they had been vehicles. He said he saw people so thoroughly covered in mud that searchers could only spot them by the whites of their waving palms. His helicopter rescued eight people, including a 4-year-old boy, who was up to his knees in concrete-like compressed mud. The mud was so sticky, the rescuers were worried about getting stuck so the helicopter hovered about a foot away and the crew chief tried to pull him out. "He was suctioned in that mud so much that his pants came off," Hrivnak said. The boy was taken to a hospital and was reunited with his mom. Hrivnak said the boy's father and three siblings are still missing. Friends and families immediately launched their own rescue missions. Elaine Young and her husband, Don, picking their way through the devastation, heard tapping, a steady beat. They got closer and realized it was coming from their neighbors' buckled home. Trapped in an air pocket, Gary "Mac" McPherson, 78, was banging away for help with a loose stick. The Youngs managed to pull him out, but family members said his wife, Linda McPherson, 69, a former librarian and school board member, did not survive. Chainsaws buzzed as friends and families cut toppled houses open on Monday. Buddy, a large chocolate Labrador, was pulled muddy and cut from under the ruins Sunday after a house was searched. His owner has not been found. Gail Moffett, a retired firefighter who lives in Oso and works at the hardware store in Arlington, said she knows about 25 people who are missing. Among them, Moffett said, were entire families, including people with young children. Moffett said some of the people who are missing were working in the area Saturday morning. "There's so much pain going on in the community right now," she said. President Barack Obama Tuesday asked Americans to send their thoughts and prayers to Washington state as search operations continue. He said first responders have acted bravely and people have come forward to help fellow citizens. Obama says he's spoken with Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and signed an emergency declaration for the state, adding that his administration is in ongoing contact with state officials. Evacuation shelters were set up at Post Middle School in Arlington and the Darrington Community Center. Click for more from Q13Fox.com FoxNews.com's Cristina Corbin and The Associated Press contributed to this report. ||||| Originally published March 24, 2014 at 9:47 PM | Page modified March 25, 2014 at 5:57 PM This player was created in September 2012 to update the design of the embed player with chromeless buttons. It is used in all embedded video on The Seattle Times as well as outside sites. TIMES WATCHDOG: While a Snohomish County official said the area hit by the mudslide “was considered very safe,” the hillside’s history of slides dates back more than 60 years. One expert says he was shocked when homebuilding was permitted after a big 2006 slide. Use an interactive tool to see the landslide’s deadly path. Use an interactive to see how, even as warnings mounted, homes kept being built in slide-prone Steelhead Haven. A collection of stories and visuals about the disaster, why it may have happened and the people it affected. Since the 1950s, geological reports on the hill that buckled during the weekend in Snohomish County have included pessimistic analyses and the occasional dire prediction. But no language seems more prescient than what appears in a 1999 report filed with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, warning of “the potential for a large catastrophic failure.” That report was written by Daniel J. Miller and his wife, Lynne Rodgers Miller. When she saw the news of the mudslide Saturday, she knew right away where the land had given way. Her husband knew, too. “We’ve known it would happen at some point,” he told The Seattle Times on Monday. “We just didn’t know when.” Daniel Miller, a geomorph­ologist, also documented the hill’s landslide conditions in a report written in 1997 for the Washington Department of Ecology and the Tulalip Tribes. He knows the hill’s history, having collected reports and memos from the 1950s, 1960s, 1980s and 1990s. He has a half-dozen manila folders stuffed with maps, slides, models and drawings, all telling the story of an unstable hillside that has defied efforts to shore it up. That’s why he could not believe what he saw in 2006, when he returned to the hill within weeks of a landslide that crashed into and plugged the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River, creating a new channel that threatened homes on a street called Steelhead Drive. Instead of seeing homes being vacated, he saw carpenters building new ones. “Frankly, I was shocked that the county permitted any building across from the river,” he said. “We’ve known that it’s been failing,” he said of the hill. “It’s not unknown that this hazard exists.” Miller has done analyses for the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Forest Service, and was hired by King County in the 1990s to map out its geologically hazardous areas. “Considered very safe” His perspective stands in contrast to what John Pennington, head of Snohomish County’s Department of Emergency Management, said at a news conference Monday. “It was considered very safe,” Pennington said. “This was a completely unforeseen slide. This came out of nowhere.” The 2006 slide took place in winter, on Jan. 25. Three days later, as the new channel cut the land, “residents and agency staff reported the eerie sound of trees constantly snapping as the river pushed them over,” wrote the Stillaguamish Tribe’s Natural Resource Department on its website. But the sound of construction competed with the sound of snapping trees. “They didn’t even stop pounding nails,” said Tracy Drury, an environmental engineer and applied geomorphologist who assessed the area with Miller soon after the landslide. “We were surprised.” At least five homes were built in 2006 on Steelhead Drive, according to Snohomish County records. The houses were granted “flood hazard permits” that required them to be jacked up 1 to 2 feet above “base flood elevation,” according to county building-permit records. Another home was built in the neighborhood in 2009. Snohomish County Executive John Lovick and Public Works Director Steve Thomsen said Monday night they were not aware of the 1999 report. “A slide of this magnitude is very difficult to predict,” Thomsen said. “There was no indication, no indication at all.” Irvin Wood and his wife, Judith, of Bothell, owned the last home permitted in the slide zone, a double-wide mobile home they bought and moved onto a forested lot last year. The Woods used the property as a weekend getaway, sometimes bringing their grandkids. But they were not there on Saturday when the mudslide wiped out the mobile home and swept away neighbors who are now missing and presumed dead. Wood, who has owned other property in the area for decades, said “nobody was warning anybody” about the probability of a massive landslide. But he said it was “an unrealistic expectation” for people to think the government could prevent such disasters. “That’s like saying the river is going to flood,” Wood said. “If the hillsides were going to slough away, they were going to slough away. That’s kind of what happens around here.” Named for landslides The hill that collapsed last weekend is referred to by geologists with different names, including Hazel Landslide and Steelhead Haven Landslide, a reference to the hillside’s constant movement. Some residents, according to a 1967 Seattle Times story, referred to it simply as “Slide Hill.” After two landslides on the hill — one in 1949, another in 1951 — two state agencies, the Department of Game and the Department of Fisheries, commissioned a report from Seattle engineering firm William D. Shannon and Associates. The 1949 slide was nearly 1,000 feet long and took out about 2,600 feet of the river bank, according to the Shannon report. The scarp — the face of the cliff where the slide broke away — was 70 feet tall in places. There were no injuries and no reports of structural damage. In 1951, debris from the denuded slide area formed a mudflow that partially dammed the river. Shannon noted that the two creeks in the area are known as “Slide Creek” and “Mud Flow Creek.” The Shannon report was not commissioned out of safety concerns but over complaints that sediment from the slide was clogging the river and degrading the salmon fishery. Shannon concluded that a main cause of the slides is the river eroding the “toe” of a previous slide, which supports the millions of tons of dirt behind it, like someone with their back against a bulging door. Eventually, the toe would fail and gravity would pull the mountain down again. Asked if there was a way to control the slides, Shannon wrote that one possibility would be permanently diverting the river. He also suggested building berms and reinforcing the slide area. However, he noted that a professor he had hired to look at the issue from a geological standpoint, Howard Coombs of the University of Washington, concluded that any fix would likely be temporary and that the slide area could be expected to expand. “It is almost impossible from a practical standpoint to stabilize this slide in its present position. The slope will continue to slide and the area will increase,” Coombs concluded in an addendum to the Shannon report. “Drainage ditches, dikes, walls, etc., would give at best only temporary relief. The structures would need constant repair and replacement.” State records show that “no actual embankment control measures were done until the fall of 1960. At that time more than a thousand feet of berm was constructed at the upstream end of the slide,” using rocks and other material. The berm was “largely destroyed” by high water in the Stillaguamish the following year, state records show. In 1962, the state installed a “revetment” — a sort of rock barrier — to try to protect and support the riverbank. But oozing mud “overtopped” the barrier two years later. In 1967 the barrier was buried when a massive slide hit, damaging dozens of homes. In 1969, a geologist with the state Department of Natural Resources, Gerald Thorsen, submitted a memorandum after visiting the site of the slide. He explained that “aerial photographs taken as far back as 1932 show the river has cut at this clay bank for many years.” Thorsen noted that a 150-foot section of the scarp wall had caved, resulting in a dangerous, several-hundred-foot mudflow of the same sort — albeit small in comparison — that rescuers are facing today. “Travel across the slide surface is extremely treacherous,” Thorsen wrote, “because of hidden ‘pockets’ of saturated material that will not support a man’s weight.” An investigation done in the 1980s said the landslide activity had expanded from 10 acres in 1942 to 35 acres in 1970. Saturday’s monster slide left a scarp of nearly 600 feet, about nine times taller than the 1949 slide and four times taller than the one in 1967. The 2006 slide disrupted risk-mitigation projects already in the works. Officials planned to move the river’s flow 430 feet to the south, providing more buffer at the base of the hillside. The landslide, however, moved the river 730 feet. In the summer of 2006, crews went on to install a 1,300-foot “crib wall” of boom logs — some more than 3 feet in diameter — anchored with 9,000-pound concrete blocks every 50 feet. The wall was designed to protect fish by preventing sediment from washing into the river. It was no match for this week’s mudslide. “We always thought there was a possibility that a catastrophic event could come,” said Pat Stevenson, environmental manager of the Stillaguamish Tribe. “We were hoping that wouldn’t happen.” Drury, the environmental engineer, and Stevenson said there were discussions over the years about whether to buy out the property owners in the area, but those talks never developed into serious proposals. “I think we did the best that we could under the constraints that nobody wanted to sell their property and move,” Drury said. Stevenson said county officials who approved development seemed more focused on whether the homes were in flood areas than on the risk of a landslide. Lucky to be alive Ron and Gail Thompson moved into a one-bedroom cabin on five acres on Steelhead Drive in 2003, said their daughter, Jennifer Johnson, of Arlington. When the 2006 mudslide hit the area, the Thompsons made soup and tater tots for Army Corps of Engineers officials and a TV news crew, Johnson said. “I had conversations with the Army Corps of Engineers the last time this happened. They showed me a map and said Mom and Dad’s house would be safe,” she said Monday. “When we moved them in there, I never in a million years, never in a billion years, thought about (a mudslide) ... Dad was like, ‘We’re going to be fine,’ and I just believed him.” Johnson’s parents and 85-year-old grandmother left their house eight minutes before the slide hit on Saturday morning for a trip to Costco, Johnson said. The couple lost everything, including Ron’s new John Deere tractor and Gail’s Volkswagen. “I don’t regret them living there. ... I hurt for my parents, but that’s where they wanted to be,” Johnson said. Johnson said she won’t let her parents live on the water again. “They are in mourning; they’re in shock,” she said. “They’re heartbroken for their neighbors.” Reporters Sara Jean Green, Jim Brunner and Brian M. Rosenthal contributed. Ken Armstrong: [email protected] or 206-464-3730; Mike Carter: [email protected] or 206-464-3706. Four weeks for 99 cents of unlimited digital access to The Seattle Times. Try it now!

– "This came out of nowhere," a county official said yesterday of the landslide that killed at least 14 and left 176 more missing in Washington. "This was a completely unforseen slide." But geologists have actually been making dire predictions about the hill that collapsed since the 1950s, the Seattle Times reports. A 1999 report filed with the Army Corps of Engineers warned of "the potential for a large catastrophic failure." Report co-author Daniel Miller says he's always "known it would happen at some point." "Frankly, I was shocked that the county permitted any building across from the river," Miller says, particularly after a smaller slide hit in 2006. The risk is so well-known that geologists have given the hill nicknames like "Hazel Landslide," and residents once called it simply "Slide Hill." For much more on the area's history of instability, see the source. Meanwhile, rescue crews are hoping to "whittle down" the missing list today, and officials tell Fox News that they doubt all 176 are dead. But rain and fears the hill will slide more are hampering the search, USA Today reports. "It's like quicksand out there," the county fire chief says.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.CLOSE Skip in Skip x Embed x Share Two additional bodies have been recovered, bringing the official death toll to 16 after the massive landslide in Washington state, according to Snohomish County officials. Authorities have also located eight more bodies. VPC After the recovery of two more bodies, authorities raised the official death toll to 16. This aerial photo taken Monday shows the massive mudslide that killed at least 14 people near Arlington, Wash. (Photo: Ted S. Warren, AP) DARRINGTON, Wash. — People living in the tiny village destroyed by a mudslide knew there was a "high risk" of slides, a local official said Tuesday. "This entire year we have pushed message after message that there's a high risk of landslides," said John Pennington, director of Snohomish County Emergency Management. "The dangers and the risks are known." Snohomish County District 21 Fire Chief Travis Hots put the official death toll at 16 Tuesday night after the recovery of two more bodies, but he also said rescuers believe they've found another eight bodies. That discovery could bring the death toll to 24. The bodies of a U.S. Navy commander and his wife were among those found in the aftermath, the man's father confirmed to NBC 7 in San Diego. "He was a commander and would have made captain shortly too," John Regelbrugge Sr. told NBC 7 of his son, Cmdr. Leon "John" Regelbrugge III. The couple has five children. Scores more people were reported missing, but Pennington would not estimate how many bodies were still buried in the tons of mud and crumpled homes in Oso, about 55 miles northeast of Seattle. Pennington acknowledged that the chance of finding survivors was small, but said the effort remained a rescue and recovery operation. "I've said it before — I believe in miracles," he said. "I believe that people can survive these events." As rescuers dealt with a difficult search, members of the public dealt with the tragedy in their own way. About 200 people gathered in the cold and intermittent rain Tuesday night at a park in Arlington, Wash., to pray for the victims, family and friends of those lost in the Oso mudslide. "Hug each other. Wipe away each other's tears " said Pastor Chad Blood with the Lifeway Foursquare Church in Arlington. Even without that prodding, community members were taking care of each other through their pain, Blood said. "People are just responding," he said. "When a need arises they just come and take care of it until we have to turn them away. I'm speechless at times, and so very proud of out community." The collapse followed weeks of heavy rain. Still, Pennington had previously described the disaster as "completely unforeseen." The Seattle Times, however, reported this week that multiple geological reports had warned that the area was at risk. "No language seems more prescient than what appears in a 1999 report filed with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, warning of 'the potential for a large catastrophic failure,'" the Times reported. Pennington said work had been done to mitigate slide risk since a much smaller slide struck the area in 2006 "If I'd had any idea that this was going to break that Saturday morning. ... Come on guys, we're very liberal at using reverse 911," he said Tuesday. "There's a reason that we have a very high success rate of mitigating disasters in our county. This is just one that hit us." Pennington added that a small earthquake, measuring magnitude-1.1, had apparently struck behind the slide area on March 10. Some people who lived in the area said flooding, not landslides, had been their primary concern. "I wouldn't buy a house on the river myself, because rivers are unpredictable," said Marshia Armstrong, who lives in nearby Arlington. "Nobody could have predicted that whole huge slide. Another small slide, maybe, but nobody would have predicted that kind of movement." Armstrong, a real estate agent, said one thing the media have been reporting on was the presence of "pistol butt" trees on the bluff. Those are trees under which the ground has shifted, so their trunks grow out and then up, bending like the butt of a pistol. But in the rainy, wet Northwest "there are lots of places where the trees are growing up sideways," said Armstrong. The bluff that failed was "on the other side of the river from the houses, so they didn't think it was going to fall on their houses. They didn't think it was going to fill up the whole valley." President Obama signed an emergency declaration ordering federal aid to the area. "I would just ask all Americans to send their thoughts and prayers to Washington state," Obama said, speaking from the Nuclear Security Summit at The Hague, Netherlands. The landslide, which consumed a community of almost 50 homes, covers a 1-square-mile area. Darrington Mayor Dan Rankin thanked people for the outpouring of support Tuesday, adding that no additional volunteer help was needed. Federal, state and local responders were at the scene. Eric Jonas of Lake Stevens was one of the people who showed up early to lend a hand. That could include the discovery of more victims. "I've never had to deal with anything like that before, but they need help," Jonas said. "There could be some people alive out there." Hopes of finding survivors were dim, however, as the rain and muddy, unstable terrain continued to slow rescue and recovery efforts. Weather Channel meteorologist Jonathan Erdman said more than two inches of rain may fall over the next seven days from four separate weather systems. "Our crews are up against an enormous challenge. It's like quicksand out there," Snohomish County Fire District 21 Chief Travis Hots said. (Photo: Elizabeth Weise, USA TODAY) EARLIER: 14 dead, 176 missing in Washington landslide Crews have to move extremely carefully as they work. "Some of my guys could only go 50 feet in five minutes," he said, because of the debris and danger of being sucked into the mud. Hots said earth-moving equipment and "lots of people with local knowledge of that specific area" were providing valuable assistance in determining the most likely areas where people could be trapped. Part of the hill had been logged in the 1980s, said University of Washington professor David Montgomery in Seattle. He studies geomorphology, how landscapes change through time. "There's no way to know if that contributed to the slide," said Montgomery. "The surface of the Earth is constantly changing. We humans just don't always notice it, because it happens slowly. There had been landslides in that area going back hundreds of year, you can see it in the geography." WEATHER: 'Extraordinary' precipitation a factor in Wash. mudslide Janet Kim reports for King 5 News. Contributing: David Jackson, Doyle Rice, USA TODAY Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1gUas0z ||||| Emergency officials say they expect the death toll from a massive mudslide in rural Washington state to rise as volunteers and responders pick through rubble. The mudslide, which struck the town of Oso on Saturday morning, has left 14 people dead and 176 missing, Snohomish County Fire District 21 Chief Travis Hots said Tuesday. Hots said authorities offer their “deepest sympathies and condolences to the families affected by this disaster.” He added that authorities believe the death toll will increase. “We are expecting that number to go up throughout the day,” he said. There are 156 people in the field looking for anyone who may be trapped under rubble, Hots said, but rain forecasted for Tuesday afternoon may hamper search efforts. A 50-member National Guard team is also en route to the area. Earlier in the day, officials looking to narrow the number of people unaccounted for said the operation is now shifting from a rescue effort to a recovery mission. "I never lose faith and a lot of the people in this community will never lose faith, but there's a realism element that's entered in,” John Pennington, Snohomish County's director of emergency management, said Tuesday on NBC’s “Today” show, according to Reuters. "We have responded as well as we can, and we will continue to do that, but ... we are turning that very delicate corner in the recovery operation.” Emergency responders and volunteers resumed searches Tuesday, but so far have not been able to locate anyone who still may be trapped under the rubble. A 22-week-old baby injured in the mudslide remained in critical condition Tuesday, Seattle’s Harborview Medical Center said. His mother was also among the injured. Late Monday, authorities announced that the official death toll had increased to 14 after searchers discovered six more bodies in the rubble. The main focus of the search operations has been to pin down the exact number of people unaccounted for after the disaster. Pennington told reporters late Monday that officials were working off a potential list of 176 people, but he stressed that authorities believed that included many duplicate names. "I believe very strongly [176] is not a number we're going to see in fatalities," Pennington said. "I believe it's going to drop dramatically." However, other authorities said they have not been able to determine whether there were multiple calls about the same missing person. The 1-square-mile mudslide struck Saturday morning. Authorities have described the search for additional survivors to be "grim" as crews battle uneven ground and rising waters. Monday’s search included specially trained dogs, firefighters, law enforcement, aircraft and search-and-rescue teams. Heavy equipment from the Washington State Department of Transportation helped to move trees, boulders and earth. “Most of us in these communities do not believe we'll find anyone alive,” Pennington said Monday, but then added, "I'm a man of faith and I believe in miracles." Authorities believe that the mudslide destroyed 35 homes, as well as 13 manufactured homes, including RVs, and at least one cabin. Part of the difficulty in determining the exact number of missing people comes from authorities not knowing how many of the homes, some of which are kept for vacationing visitors, were occupied at the time of the slide. Authorities also believe some nonresidents may have been working in the area, while some victims may have been passing through in their cars on nearby State Highway 530. Another obstacle has been the chaotic nature of the debris field itself. In some places, the ground is covered by 15 feet of rubble. "It's muddy in areas, it's like quicksand," said Hots. "One of the folks out there told me, 'Chief, sometimes it takes five minutes to walk 40 or 50 feet.'" Searchers are also running into gasoline and septic discharge and dealing with ground that geologists warn remains unstable. Authorities believe the slide was caused by ground made unstable by recent heavy rainfall. Ed Hrivnak, who was co-piloting an aircraft that was first to arrive at the scene Saturday, said a lot of the houses weren't buried. When they got hit, "the houses exploded." He said cars were crushed into little pieces, their tires the only signs that they had been vehicles. He said he saw people so thoroughly covered in mud that searchers could only spot them by the whites of their waving palms. His helicopter rescued eight people, including a 4-year-old boy, who was up to his knees in concrete-like compressed mud. The mud was so sticky, the rescuers were worried about getting stuck so the helicopter hovered about a foot away and the crew chief tried to pull him out. "He was suctioned in that mud so much that his pants came off," Hrivnak said. The boy was taken to a hospital and was reunited with his mom. Hrivnak said the boy's father and three siblings are still missing. Friends and families immediately launched their own rescue missions. Elaine Young and her husband, Don, picking their way through the devastation, heard tapping, a steady beat. They got closer and realized it was coming from their neighbors' buckled home. Trapped in an air pocket, Gary "Mac" McPherson, 78, was banging away for help with a loose stick. The Youngs managed to pull him out, but family members said his wife, Linda McPherson, 69, a former librarian and school board member, did not survive. Chainsaws buzzed as friends and families cut toppled houses open on Monday. Buddy, a large chocolate Labrador, was pulled muddy and cut from under the ruins Sunday after a house was searched. His owner has not been found. Gail Moffett, a retired firefighter who lives in Oso and works at the hardware store in Arlington, said she knows about 25 people who are missing. Among them, Moffett said, were entire families, including people with young children. Moffett said some of the people who are missing were working in the area Saturday morning. "There's so much pain going on in the community right now," she said. President Barack Obama Tuesday asked Americans to send their thoughts and prayers to Washington state as search operations continue. He said first responders have acted bravely and people have come forward to help fellow citizens. Obama says he's spoken with Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and signed an emergency declaration for the state, adding that his administration is in ongoing contact with state officials. Evacuation shelters were set up at Post Middle School in Arlington and the Darrington Community Center. Click for more from Q13Fox.com FoxNews.com's Cristina Corbin and The Associated Press contributed to this report. ||||| Originally published March 24, 2014 at 9:47 PM | Page modified March 25, 2014 at 5:57 PM This player was created in September 2012 to update the design of the embed player with chromeless buttons. It is used in all embedded video on The Seattle Times as well as outside sites. TIMES WATCHDOG: While a Snohomish County official said the area hit by the mudslide “was considered very safe,” the hillside’s history of slides dates back more than 60 years. One expert says he was shocked when homebuilding was permitted after a big 2006 slide. Use an interactive tool to see the landslide’s deadly path. Use an interactive to see how, even as warnings mounted, homes kept being built in slide-prone Steelhead Haven. A collection of stories and visuals about the disaster, why it may have happened and the people it affected. Since the 1950s, geological reports on the hill that buckled during the weekend in Snohomish County have included pessimistic analyses and the occasional dire prediction. But no language seems more prescient than what appears in a 1999 report filed with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, warning of “the potential for a large catastrophic failure.” That report was written by Daniel J. Miller and his wife, Lynne Rodgers Miller. When she saw the news of the mudslide Saturday, she knew right away where the land had given way. Her husband knew, too. “We’ve known it would happen at some point,” he told The Seattle Times on Monday. “We just didn’t know when.” Daniel Miller, a geomorph­ologist, also documented the hill’s landslide conditions in a report written in 1997 for the Washington Department of Ecology and the Tulalip Tribes. He knows the hill’s history, having collected reports and memos from the 1950s, 1960s, 1980s and 1990s. He has a half-dozen manila folders stuffed with maps, slides, models and drawings, all telling the story of an unstable hillside that has defied efforts to shore it up. That’s why he could not believe what he saw in 2006, when he returned to the hill within weeks of a landslide that crashed into and plugged the North Fork of the Stillaguamish River, creating a new channel that threatened homes on a street called Steelhead Drive. Instead of seeing homes being vacated, he saw carpenters building new ones. “Frankly, I was shocked that the county permitted any building across from the river,” he said. “We’ve known that it’s been failing,” he said of the hill. “It’s not unknown that this hazard exists.” Miller has done analyses for the Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Forest Service, and was hired by King County in the 1990s to map out its geologically hazardous areas. “Considered very safe” His perspective stands in contrast to what John Pennington, head of Snohomish County’s Department of Emergency Management, said at a news conference Monday. “It was considered very safe,” Pennington said. “This was a completely unforeseen slide. This came out of nowhere.” The 2006 slide took place in winter, on Jan. 25. Three days later, as the new channel cut the land, “residents and agency staff reported the eerie sound of trees constantly snapping as the river pushed them over,” wrote the Stillaguamish Tribe’s Natural Resource Department on its website. But the sound of construction competed with the sound of snapping trees. “They didn’t even stop pounding nails,” said Tracy Drury, an environmental engineer and applied geomorphologist who assessed the area with Miller soon after the landslide. “We were surprised.” At least five homes were built in 2006 on Steelhead Drive, according to Snohomish County records. The houses were granted “flood hazard permits” that required them to be jacked up 1 to 2 feet above “base flood elevation,” according to county building-permit records. Another home was built in the neighborhood in 2009. Snohomish County Executive John Lovick and Public Works Director Steve Thomsen said Monday night they were not aware of the 1999 report. “A slide of this magnitude is very difficult to predict,” Thomsen said. “There was no indication, no indication at all.” Irvin Wood and his wife, Judith, of Bothell, owned the last home permitted in the slide zone, a double-wide mobile home they bought and moved onto a forested lot last year. The Woods used the property as a weekend getaway, sometimes bringing their grandkids. But they were not there on Saturday when the mudslide wiped out the mobile home and swept away neighbors who are now missing and presumed dead. Wood, who has owned other property in the area for decades, said “nobody was warning anybody” about the probability of a massive landslide. But he said it was “an unrealistic expectation” for people to think the government could prevent such disasters. “That’s like saying the river is going to flood,” Wood said. “If the hillsides were going to slough away, they were going to slough away. That’s kind of what happens around here.” Named for landslides The hill that collapsed last weekend is referred to by geologists with different names, including Hazel Landslide and Steelhead Haven Landslide, a reference to the hillside’s constant movement. Some residents, according to a 1967 Seattle Times story, referred to it simply as “Slide Hill.” After two landslides on the hill — one in 1949, another in 1951 — two state agencies, the Department of Game and the Department of Fisheries, commissioned a report from Seattle engineering firm William D. Shannon and Associates. The 1949 slide was nearly 1,000 feet long and took out about 2,600 feet of the river bank, according to the Shannon report. The scarp — the face of the cliff where the slide broke away — was 70 feet tall in places. There were no injuries and no reports of structural damage. In 1951, debris from the denuded slide area formed a mudflow that partially dammed the river. Shannon noted that the two creeks in the area are known as “Slide Creek” and “Mud Flow Creek.” The Shannon report was not commissioned out of safety concerns but over complaints that sediment from the slide was clogging the river and degrading the salmon fishery. Shannon concluded that a main cause of the slides is the river eroding the “toe” of a previous slide, which supports the millions of tons of dirt behind it, like someone with their back against a bulging door. Eventually, the toe would fail and gravity would pull the mountain down again. Asked if there was a way to control the slides, Shannon wrote that one possibility would be permanently diverting the river. He also suggested building berms and reinforcing the slide area. However, he noted that a professor he had hired to look at the issue from a geological standpoint, Howard Coombs of the University of Washington, concluded that any fix would likely be temporary and that the slide area could be expected to expand. “It is almost impossible from a practical standpoint to stabilize this slide in its present position. The slope will continue to slide and the area will increase,” Coombs concluded in an addendum to the Shannon report. “Drainage ditches, dikes, walls, etc., would give at best only temporary relief. The structures would need constant repair and replacement.” State records show that “no actual embankment control measures were done until the fall of 1960. At that time more than a thousand feet of berm was constructed at the upstream end of the slide,” using rocks and other material. The berm was “largely destroyed” by high water in the Stillaguamish the following year, state records show. In 1962, the state installed a “revetment” — a sort of rock barrier — to try to protect and support the riverbank. But oozing mud “overtopped” the barrier two years later. In 1967 the barrier was buried when a massive slide hit, damaging dozens of homes. In 1969, a geologist with the state Department of Natural Resources, Gerald Thorsen, submitted a memorandum after visiting the site of the slide. He explained that “aerial photographs taken as far back as 1932 show the river has cut at this clay bank for many years.” Thorsen noted that a 150-foot section of the scarp wall had caved, resulting in a dangerous, several-hundred-foot mudflow of the same sort — albeit small in comparison — that rescuers are facing today. “Travel across the slide surface is extremely treacherous,” Thorsen wrote, “because of hidden ‘pockets’ of saturated material that will not support a man’s weight.” An investigation done in the 1980s said the landslide activity had expanded from 10 acres in 1942 to 35 acres in 1970. Saturday’s monster slide left a scarp of nearly 600 feet, about nine times taller than the 1949 slide and four times taller than the one in 1967. The 2006 slide disrupted risk-mitigation projects already in the works. Officials planned to move the river’s flow 430 feet to the south, providing more buffer at the base of the hillside. The landslide, however, moved the river 730 feet. In the summer of 2006, crews went on to install a 1,300-foot “crib wall” of boom logs — some more than 3 feet in diameter — anchored with 9,000-pound concrete blocks every 50 feet. The wall was designed to protect fish by preventing sediment from washing into the river. It was no match for this week’s mudslide. “We always thought there was a possibility that a catastrophic event could come,” said Pat Stevenson, environmental manager of the Stillaguamish Tribe. “We were hoping that wouldn’t happen.” Drury, the environmental engineer, and Stevenson said there were discussions over the years about whether to buy out the property owners in the area, but those talks never developed into serious proposals. “I think we did the best that we could under the constraints that nobody wanted to sell their property and move,” Drury said. Stevenson said county officials who approved development seemed more focused on whether the homes were in flood areas than on the risk of a landslide. Lucky to be alive Ron and Gail Thompson moved into a one-bedroom cabin on five acres on Steelhead Drive in 2003, said their daughter, Jennifer Johnson, of Arlington. When the 2006 mudslide hit the area, the Thompsons made soup and tater tots for Army Corps of Engineers officials and a TV news crew, Johnson said. “I had conversations with the Army Corps of Engineers the last time this happened. They showed me a map and said Mom and Dad’s house would be safe,” she said Monday. “When we moved them in there, I never in a million years, never in a billion years, thought about (a mudslide) ... Dad was like, ‘We’re going to be fine,’ and I just believed him.” Johnson’s parents and 85-year-old grandmother left their house eight minutes before the slide hit on Saturday morning for a trip to Costco, Johnson said. The couple lost everything, including Ron’s new John Deere tractor and Gail’s Volkswagen. “I don’t regret them living there. ... I hurt for my parents, but that’s where they wanted to be,” Johnson said. Johnson said she won’t let her parents live on the water again. “They are in mourning; they’re in shock,” she said. “They’re heartbroken for their neighbors.” Reporters Sara Jean Green, Jim Brunner and Brian M. Rosenthal contributed. Ken Armstrong: [email protected] or 206-464-3730; Mike Carter: [email protected] or 206-464-3706. Four weeks for 99 cents of unlimited digital access to The Seattle Times. Try it now!

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Last month, several Tea Party activists formed a right-wing coalition to oust Rep. Joe Straus (R) as Texas House Speaker. They began circulating emails with anti-Semitic messages against Straus, who is Jewish. The groups ran robo-calls and sent out e-mails demanding a “true Christian leader,” and calling Straus’ opponent, Rep. Ken Paxton (R), “a Christian Conservative who decided not to be pushed around by the Joe Straus thugs.” Last week, the Texas Observer’s Abby Rapoport reported that she had obtained an email exchange between two members of the Texas State Republican Executive Committee (SREC) — Rebecca Williamson and John Cook. “We elected a house with Christian, conservative values. We now want a true Christian, conservative running it,” Cook said in one of the emails. “Since the SREC governs state Republican Party affairs,” Rapoport wrote, “this marked the first time an elected party leader had semi-openly called for a ‘Christian conservative’ Speaker.” Cook then explained his views to Rapoport in a subsequent telephone interview: “When I got involved in politics, I told people I wanted to put Christian conservatives in leadership positions,” he told me, explaining that he only supports Christian conservative candidates in Republican primary races. “I want to make sure that a person I’m supporting is going to have my values. It’s not anything about Jews and whether I think their religion is right or Muslims and whether I think their religion is right. … I got into politics to put Christian conservatives into office. They’re the people that do the best jobs over all.” Cook insisted he is not prejudiced against Jews: “They’re some of my best friends,” he said of Jews, naming two friends of his. “I’m not bigoted at all; I’m not racist.” [...] “My favorite person that’s ever been on this earth is a Jew,” he said. “How can they possibly think that if Jesus Christ is a Jew, and he’s my favorite person that’s ever been on this earth?” “Ah, I see,” the Washington Monthly’s Steve Benen observed, “It’s not ‘about Jews,’ it’s just that Cook doesn’t think Jews can do the job well because they’re Jews.” Benen addded, “Someday, folks will have to understand that ‘some of my best friends are [fill in the blank with a minority group]‘ is a cliche repeated by bigots. I would have hoped that was obvious by now.” ||||| ANOTHER SETBACK IN THE GOP OUTREACH TO MINORITY COMMUNITIES.... Ordinarily, who gets elected Speaker of the Texas state House would only be of interest to those in Texas. But the current dispute in Austin has a larger significance. The current state House Speaker is Joe Straus, a conservative Republican leading a conservative Republican majority. He's currently facing a challenge from state Rep. Ken Paxton, who appears to agree with Straus on nearly everything. So what makes this noteworthy? Straus is Jewish, and some far-right activists in Texas have a problem with that. A few weeks ago, a coalition of Tea Party and right-wing Republican groups began lobbying for Paxton to replace Straus, with coalition activists circulating anti-Semitic emails. The message from conservatives was that the GOP state House needed a "Christian conservative" leader. This week, the Texas Observer reported on an email exchange between two members of the State Republican Executive Committee, which governs state GOP affairs. One of the two party leaders, John Cook, insisted in a message, "We elected a house with Christian, conservative values. We now want a true Christian, conservative running it." The Observer's Abby Rapoport connected with Cook to ask about his efforts to replace the current state House Speaker. "When I got involved in politics, I told people I wanted to put Christian conservatives in leadership positions," he told me, explaining that he only supports Christian conservative candidates in Republican primary races. "I want to make sure that a person I'm supporting is going to have my values. It's not anything about Jews and whether I think their religion is right or Muslims and whether I think their religion is right. ... I got into politics to put Christian conservatives into office. They're the people that do the best jobs over all." Ah, I see. It's not "about Jews," it's just that Cook doesn't think Jews can do the job well because they're Jews. He added that he prefers Christian candidates, but isn't anti-Semitic. "They're some of my best friends," he said of Jews, naming two friends of his. Someday, folks will have to understand that "some of my best friends are [fill in the blank with a minority group]" is a cliche repeated by bigots. I would have hoped that was obvious by now. As for the bigger picture, I'm inclined to consider this yet another setback in the Republican Party's minority outreach efforts.

– A story about internal Texas politics (and religion) is percolating up to the national wires: A member of the state's Republican Executive Committee defends the movement to dump current state House speaker Joe Straus and says it's largely because of his pro-choice politics. But it apparently doesn't help that Straus is Jewish: "I got into politics to put Christian conservatives into office," John Cook tells the Texas Observer. "They're the people that do the best jobs over all." And the line everyone's been waiting for: "They're some of my best friends," he says of Jews. "I'm not bigoted at all." Think Progress has picked up on the story, noting emails calling for a "true Christian leader" in the position, as has Steve Benen in the Washington Monthly: "Ah, I see. It's not 'about Jews,'" he writes. "It's just that Cook doesn't think Jews can do the job well because they're Jews."

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Last month, several Tea Party activists formed a right-wing coalition to oust Rep. Joe Straus (R) as Texas House Speaker. They began circulating emails with anti-Semitic messages against Straus, who is Jewish. The groups ran robo-calls and sent out e-mails demanding a “true Christian leader,” and calling Straus’ opponent, Rep. Ken Paxton (R), “a Christian Conservative who decided not to be pushed around by the Joe Straus thugs.” Last week, the Texas Observer’s Abby Rapoport reported that she had obtained an email exchange between two members of the Texas State Republican Executive Committee (SREC) — Rebecca Williamson and John Cook. “We elected a house with Christian, conservative values. We now want a true Christian, conservative running it,” Cook said in one of the emails. “Since the SREC governs state Republican Party affairs,” Rapoport wrote, “this marked the first time an elected party leader had semi-openly called for a ‘Christian conservative’ Speaker.” Cook then explained his views to Rapoport in a subsequent telephone interview: “When I got involved in politics, I told people I wanted to put Christian conservatives in leadership positions,” he told me, explaining that he only supports Christian conservative candidates in Republican primary races. “I want to make sure that a person I’m supporting is going to have my values. It’s not anything about Jews and whether I think their religion is right or Muslims and whether I think their religion is right. … I got into politics to put Christian conservatives into office. They’re the people that do the best jobs over all.” Cook insisted he is not prejudiced against Jews: “They’re some of my best friends,” he said of Jews, naming two friends of his. “I’m not bigoted at all; I’m not racist.” [...] “My favorite person that’s ever been on this earth is a Jew,” he said. “How can they possibly think that if Jesus Christ is a Jew, and he’s my favorite person that’s ever been on this earth?” “Ah, I see,” the Washington Monthly’s Steve Benen observed, “It’s not ‘about Jews,’ it’s just that Cook doesn’t think Jews can do the job well because they’re Jews.” Benen addded, “Someday, folks will have to understand that ‘some of my best friends are [fill in the blank with a minority group]‘ is a cliche repeated by bigots. I would have hoped that was obvious by now.” ||||| ANOTHER SETBACK IN THE GOP OUTREACH TO MINORITY COMMUNITIES.... Ordinarily, who gets elected Speaker of the Texas state House would only be of interest to those in Texas. But the current dispute in Austin has a larger significance. The current state House Speaker is Joe Straus, a conservative Republican leading a conservative Republican majority. He's currently facing a challenge from state Rep. Ken Paxton, who appears to agree with Straus on nearly everything. So what makes this noteworthy? Straus is Jewish, and some far-right activists in Texas have a problem with that. A few weeks ago, a coalition of Tea Party and right-wing Republican groups began lobbying for Paxton to replace Straus, with coalition activists circulating anti-Semitic emails. The message from conservatives was that the GOP state House needed a "Christian conservative" leader. This week, the Texas Observer reported on an email exchange between two members of the State Republican Executive Committee, which governs state GOP affairs. One of the two party leaders, John Cook, insisted in a message, "We elected a house with Christian, conservative values. We now want a true Christian, conservative running it." The Observer's Abby Rapoport connected with Cook to ask about his efforts to replace the current state House Speaker. "When I got involved in politics, I told people I wanted to put Christian conservatives in leadership positions," he told me, explaining that he only supports Christian conservative candidates in Republican primary races. "I want to make sure that a person I'm supporting is going to have my values. It's not anything about Jews and whether I think their religion is right or Muslims and whether I think their religion is right. ... I got into politics to put Christian conservatives into office. They're the people that do the best jobs over all." Ah, I see. It's not "about Jews," it's just that Cook doesn't think Jews can do the job well because they're Jews. He added that he prefers Christian candidates, but isn't anti-Semitic. "They're some of my best friends," he said of Jews, naming two friends of his. Someday, folks will have to understand that "some of my best friends are [fill in the blank with a minority group]" is a cliche repeated by bigots. I would have hoped that was obvious by now. As for the bigger picture, I'm inclined to consider this yet another setback in the Republican Party's minority outreach efforts.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Cover of 'Horton and the Kwuggerbug and More Lost Stories' by Dr. Suess (Photo: Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P.) From the literary lost and found – like the ones in the back of elementary school classrooms – come four "new" illustrated stories by Dr. Seuss that will be published for the first time collected in a book. Horton and the Kwuggerbug and Other Lost Stories, to be released by Random House on Sept. 9, contains tales originally published in Redbook magazine between 1950 and 1955, then largely forgotten. Seuss, christened Theodor Seuss Geisel, died in 1991 at the age of 87. (He took on the Dr. title as a joke about the doctorate in literature he abandoned to spend more time doodling.) He wrote and illustrated 43 books for kids (The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham) that changed the way we think about children's literature. He championed what he called "logical insanity," by imbedding morals into silly rhymes as he made learning to read fun. Seuss's ever-popular book for grads, Oh, the Places You'll Go!, was No. 3 on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list as recently as May 29. Full page from 'Horton and the Kwuggerbug' by Dr. Suess (Photo: TM & copyright © by Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. 2014) Charles D. Cohen, a scholar and collector of all-things Seussian, tracked down copies of the magazines that published Seuss. "For the most part, those magazines were tossed out when the next month's issue arrived and the stories were largely forgotten," Cohen writes in an introduction to the new collection. He call the four stories "fresh encounters with old friends and familiar places." "Horton and the Kwuggerbug" stars Seuss' faithful elephant who confronts a crafty and manipulative insect. "Marco Comes Late" explains why Marco, the imaginative kid in Seuss's first kids' book, And To Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street (1937), is late for school. Full page from 'Marco Comes Late' by Dr. Suess. (Photo: TM & copyright © by Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. 2014) "How Officer Pat Saved the Whole Town" is set on Mulberry Street and stars a vigilant police officer. "The Hoobub and the Grinch" features another Grinch - not the one who stole Christmas in Seuss's 1957 book - but one that similarly believes, as Cohen puts it, "that everyone is a mindless consumer who can be manipulated." (Seuss would know: he worked in advertising.) Cohen, 53, a dentist in South Deerfield, Mass. -- what would Seuss make of that? -- also wrote the introduction to an earlier collection of seven magazine stories: The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories in 2011. Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1rFCMyQ ||||| Horton and the Kwuggerbug: And More Lost Stories Dr. Seuss. Random, $15 (56p) ISBN 978-0-385-38298-4 More By and About This Author Charles D. Cohen, the avid Seussian behind The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories, presents another four little-known manuscripts by Theodor Seuss Geisel. In his introduction, Cohen contextualizes the tales, which were published in Redbook and never became full-fledged picture books. In the title tale, “Horton and the Kwuggerbug” (1951), an insect and “terrible fellow! That Kwuggerbug guy” fools gentle Horton into ferrying him across an alligator-infested river and up a mountain to a delicious, out-of-reach Beezlenut tree. “Marco Comes Late” (1950) reprises And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street as Marco exaggerates his reasons for arriving late to school. Mulberry Street’s escalating formula likewise figures in “How Officer Pat Saved the Whole Town” (1950), about a policeman who anticipates trouble on a quiet day. The most interesting entry is a two-page fragment, “The Hoobub and the Grinch” (1955), in which a proto-Grinch character urges a gullible creature to pay 98¢ for some string. By no means gems, these archives suggest how Geisel tinkered with characters, developed his signature tetrameter, and commented on ethical issues, circa 1950. Ages 4–8. (Sept.) ||||| Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase "Horton and the Kwuggerbug and More Lost Stories" gives a new generation of readers some fresh, but classic, Dr. Seuss stories. Charles D. Cohen is to be congratulated for having the tenacity to find these "lost" four Seuss works. He should be lauded for his generosity in sharing the stories with Dr. Seuss fans - old and young. This volume contains four stories; each one features a familiar character that appeared in other Seuss classics. Once again, the 100% faithful Horton the Elephant meets a less ethical critter - the Kwuggerbug - who imposes on Horton's good nature. Once again, Horton prevails. The imaginative Marco - "To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street - creatively parses words to explain his tardy arrival at school. Marco is definitely a politician in the making. Officer Pat, a less familiar Seuss character, saves the town from disaster - or what he thinks may be a disaster - in a series of hilarious actions. Finally, the Grinch - before he stole Christmas - cleverly markets a piece of green string to the Hoobub. The stories in "Horton and the Kwuggerbug and More Lost Stories" are all imaginative, absurd enough to delight children and adults, alike, and wonderful to read alone or to someone you love. Each story, whether rhymed or written in prose form, has a moral or lesson to be learned. Dr. Seuss' ability to create words and imbue characters with so much personality they cannot be forgotten shines through every tale. The rhymed stories flow smoothly and are easy to read aloud. Even when Dr. Seuss creates new words so that a rhyme is possible, the words seem to make sense and to be "real" words. Whether you are adding a new book to your own library or helping a child you love grow their own book collection, "Horton and the Kwuggerbug and More Lost Stories" is one book that must be included. Five stars!

– Horton heard a Who—and his ears might be ringing right now with the news that he's about to make a comeback. Random House is republishing four Dr. Seuss stories on Sept. 9 that haven't been seen since the 1950s, when they first made their appearance in Redbook magazine, reports USA Today. A Massachusetts collector who previously helped the book publisher exhume other long-forgotten Seuss tales is also the source of this new collection, entitled Horton and the Kwuggerbug and More Lost Stories. The new tongue-twisting tales by Theodor Seuss Geisel, who died in 1991, feature our old friend Horton; an appearance by Marco, the subject of Seuss' first children's book, And to Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street; and a slightly different Grinch than Whoville's villain—though this one also thinks that "that everyone is a mindless consumer who can be manipulated," according to collector Charles Cohen via USA Today. "For the most part, those [Redbook] magazines were tossed out … and the stories were largely forgotten," Cohen adds. A review in Publishers Weekly says the stories may not be "gems," but they do show Geisel honing his craft and characters.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Cover of 'Horton and the Kwuggerbug and More Lost Stories' by Dr. Suess (Photo: Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P.) From the literary lost and found – like the ones in the back of elementary school classrooms – come four "new" illustrated stories by Dr. Seuss that will be published for the first time collected in a book. Horton and the Kwuggerbug and Other Lost Stories, to be released by Random House on Sept. 9, contains tales originally published in Redbook magazine between 1950 and 1955, then largely forgotten. Seuss, christened Theodor Seuss Geisel, died in 1991 at the age of 87. (He took on the Dr. title as a joke about the doctorate in literature he abandoned to spend more time doodling.) He wrote and illustrated 43 books for kids (The Cat in the Hat, Green Eggs and Ham) that changed the way we think about children's literature. He championed what he called "logical insanity," by imbedding morals into silly rhymes as he made learning to read fun. Seuss's ever-popular book for grads, Oh, the Places You'll Go!, was No. 3 on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list as recently as May 29. Full page from 'Horton and the Kwuggerbug' by Dr. Suess (Photo: TM & copyright © by Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. 2014) Charles D. Cohen, a scholar and collector of all-things Seussian, tracked down copies of the magazines that published Seuss. "For the most part, those magazines were tossed out when the next month's issue arrived and the stories were largely forgotten," Cohen writes in an introduction to the new collection. He call the four stories "fresh encounters with old friends and familiar places." "Horton and the Kwuggerbug" stars Seuss' faithful elephant who confronts a crafty and manipulative insect. "Marco Comes Late" explains why Marco, the imaginative kid in Seuss's first kids' book, And To Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street (1937), is late for school. Full page from 'Marco Comes Late' by Dr. Suess. (Photo: TM & copyright © by Dr. Seuss Enterprises, L.P. 2014) "How Officer Pat Saved the Whole Town" is set on Mulberry Street and stars a vigilant police officer. "The Hoobub and the Grinch" features another Grinch - not the one who stole Christmas in Seuss's 1957 book - but one that similarly believes, as Cohen puts it, "that everyone is a mindless consumer who can be manipulated." (Seuss would know: he worked in advertising.) Cohen, 53, a dentist in South Deerfield, Mass. -- what would Seuss make of that? -- also wrote the introduction to an earlier collection of seven magazine stories: The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories in 2011. Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1rFCMyQ ||||| Horton and the Kwuggerbug: And More Lost Stories Dr. Seuss. Random, $15 (56p) ISBN 978-0-385-38298-4 More By and About This Author Charles D. Cohen, the avid Seussian behind The Bippolo Seed and Other Lost Stories, presents another four little-known manuscripts by Theodor Seuss Geisel. In his introduction, Cohen contextualizes the tales, which were published in Redbook and never became full-fledged picture books. In the title tale, “Horton and the Kwuggerbug” (1951), an insect and “terrible fellow! That Kwuggerbug guy” fools gentle Horton into ferrying him across an alligator-infested river and up a mountain to a delicious, out-of-reach Beezlenut tree. “Marco Comes Late” (1950) reprises And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street as Marco exaggerates his reasons for arriving late to school. Mulberry Street’s escalating formula likewise figures in “How Officer Pat Saved the Whole Town” (1950), about a policeman who anticipates trouble on a quiet day. The most interesting entry is a two-page fragment, “The Hoobub and the Grinch” (1955), in which a proto-Grinch character urges a gullible creature to pay 98¢ for some string. By no means gems, these archives suggest how Geisel tinkered with characters, developed his signature tetrameter, and commented on ethical issues, circa 1950. Ages 4–8. (Sept.) ||||| Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase "Horton and the Kwuggerbug and More Lost Stories" gives a new generation of readers some fresh, but classic, Dr. Seuss stories. Charles D. Cohen is to be congratulated for having the tenacity to find these "lost" four Seuss works. He should be lauded for his generosity in sharing the stories with Dr. Seuss fans - old and young. This volume contains four stories; each one features a familiar character that appeared in other Seuss classics. Once again, the 100% faithful Horton the Elephant meets a less ethical critter - the Kwuggerbug - who imposes on Horton's good nature. Once again, Horton prevails. The imaginative Marco - "To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street - creatively parses words to explain his tardy arrival at school. Marco is definitely a politician in the making. Officer Pat, a less familiar Seuss character, saves the town from disaster - or what he thinks may be a disaster - in a series of hilarious actions. Finally, the Grinch - before he stole Christmas - cleverly markets a piece of green string to the Hoobub. The stories in "Horton and the Kwuggerbug and More Lost Stories" are all imaginative, absurd enough to delight children and adults, alike, and wonderful to read alone or to someone you love. Each story, whether rhymed or written in prose form, has a moral or lesson to be learned. Dr. Seuss' ability to create words and imbue characters with so much personality they cannot be forgotten shines through every tale. The rhymed stories flow smoothly and are easy to read aloud. Even when Dr. Seuss creates new words so that a rhyme is possible, the words seem to make sense and to be "real" words. Whether you are adding a new book to your own library or helping a child you love grow their own book collection, "Horton and the Kwuggerbug and More Lost Stories" is one book that must be included. Five stars!

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

La porte de la maison de la famille disparue fermée par des scellés, à Orvault (Loire-Atlantique) le 24 février. JEAN-SEBASTIEN EVRARD / AFP Le temps passe et le mystère s’épaissit, à Orvault (Loire-Atlantique), où une famille a disparu depuis le 16 février. Personne n’a revu Pascal Troadec, 49 ans, son épouse, Brigitte, et leurs deux enfants, Sébastien, 21 ans, et Charlotte, 18 ans. Leurs téléphones restent muets et aucun mouvement n’a été constaté sur leurs comptes bancaires depuis leur disparition. Dimanche 26 février, le procureur de la République de Nantes, Pierre Sennès, a confirmé que les traces de sang découvertes dans le pavillon des parents appartenaient aux membres de la famille, tout en se refusant à donner « plus d’éléments ». Les enquêteurs ont passé de longues heures, jeudi 23 février, dans le pavillon familial, situé dans une rue tranquille de la périphérie de Nantes. C’est ce jour-là que la sœur de Brigitte Troadec a donné l’alerte. Inquiète de n’avoir aucune nouvelle, alors qu’elles étaient très régulièrement en contact, elle avait finalement appelé la police. Une patrouille s’était alors immédiatement rendue sur les lieux. Deux voitures étaient stationnées devant le pavillon aux stores partiellement baissés : une Audi A4 et une BMW. L’une était utilisée par Pascal Troadec, opérateur au sein de la société Visotec Arlux, spécialisée dans la fabrication d’enseignes lumineuses, à Orvault. L’autre l’était par son épouse, employée au centre des finances de Nantes. Tous deux auraient dû reprendre le travail le 20 février. Mais leurs employeurs respectifs sont restés, eux aussi, sans nouvelles. « C’est comme si la maison s’était arrêtée de vivre à un instant T » Après avoir poussé la porte d’entrée de la maison désertée, les premiers policiers présents sur les lieux ont fait de troublantes découvertes. Dans la salle de bains, ils n’ont trouvé ni brosses à dents ni brosses à cheveux. Dans le réfrigérateur, plusieurs aliments étaient périmés. Le chauffage était coupé et aucun drap ne recouvrait les lits. Des draps, pas tout à fait secs, séchaient à l’intérieur, sur un étendoir. Et du linge humide se trouvait encore dans la machine à laver. « C’est comme si la maison s’était arrêtée de vivre à un instant T », a commenté, dimanche, M. Sennès. Quelques minutes plus tard, les enquêteurs de l’antenne de police judiciaire de Nantes, immédiatement saisis de l’affaire, investissaient les lieux à leur tour. Leurs constatations se sont avérées plus inquiétantes encore. Sous l’escalier, ils ont découvert des traces rosâtres, « comme si du sang avait été essuyé sommairement », indique un proche du dossier. Dans une pièce, au rez-de-chaussée, un téléphone portable et ses oreillettes étaient maculés de sang. Une paire de chaussettes l’était également. Une famille « très discrète, voire distante » Une enquête a alors été immédiatement ouverte pour « homicides volontaires, enlèvements et séquestrations ». Le jardin, situé à l’arrière de la maison, a été passé au peigne fin. Les deux voitures ont été placées sous scellés pour expertises et des perquisitions ont rapidement été diligentées aux domiciles des deux enfants, situés dans le Maine-et-Loire et en Vendée. Sébastien, le fils, suivait un BTS informatique à Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre (Vendée). Charlotte poursuivait ses études dans le secteur des services et prestations des secteurs sanitaire et social à Fontenay-le-Comte (Vendée). Dimanche, les investigations se poursuivaient tambour battant. « A la suite des résultats du laboratoire que nous avions sollicité en urgence pour analyser les prélèvements sanguins, je vous confirme que les traces de sang retrouvées appartiennent aux membres de la famille, mais je ne souhaite pas donner plus d’éléments pour ne pas entraver l’enquête », a déclaré M. Sennès. Les policiers recherchent notamment activement la voiture du fils, qui ne se trouvait pas devant le pavillon jeudi. Le signalement de cette Peugeot a été diffusé sur l’ensemble du territoire national. « Fragilités psychologiques » Les enquêteurs multiplient également les auditions dans l’environnement de cette famille décrite par tous comme étant « très discrète, voire distante ». Ils cherchent notamment à cerner plus précisément les personnalités du père et du fils, dépeints comme ayant connu des épisodes de « fragilités psychologiques », par le passé. Le premier a souffert de « troubles dépressifs », selon un proche du dossier. Le second est décrit par des voisins et des connaissances comme étant « un peu spécial ». Julie, une amie de lycée de Charlotte, contactée par l’AFP dimanche, décrit le jeune homme comme quelqu’un « qui vit comme dans une bulle, dans son monde ». En 2012, alors qu’il était lycéen à Orvault, Sébastien Troadec avait proféré des menaces de mort sur un blog. L’année suivante, sur un forum de passionnés de jeux vidéo, il avait posté des messages qui traduisaient un mal-être. L’adolescent écrivait notamment : « La chose que je déteste le plus ? Mon reflet. » Et un peu plus loin : « Qu’est-ce qui me rend triste ? Ma vie. » Parmi les nombreux messages retrouvés aujourd’hui via Twitter, l’adolescent disait : « Si ont savait réellement ce qui se passer dans ma tête ont me prendrer pour un fou sans morale. » Où est la famille Troadec ? Et que lui est-il arrivé ? Pour l’instant, toutes les pistes restent à l’étude. « Il n’est pas possible à ce stade de déterminer avec précision le déroulement des faits, les enquêteurs de la police judiciaire retenant toutes les hypothèses envisageables », indiquait dimanche le procureur de la République de Nantes. A de nombreux Nantais, cette disparition inexpliquée rappelle l’affaire Dupont de Ligonnès. En 2011, la famille avait disparu. Les corps de la mère et de ses quatre enfants avaient été découverts, enterrés sous la terrasse de leur maison. Xavier, le père, n’a jamais été retrouvé. Lire aussi : A Nantes, sur les traces de Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès ||||| Image copyright AFP Image caption The Troadec family was last seen on 16 February French police have opened a murder investigation into the mysterious disappearance of a family of four in western France two weeks ago. Bloodstains found in the family's house near the city of Nantes match the DNA of three of them, officials say. There has been no activity in any of their bank accounts or mobile phones since they disappeared, they add. A document and a pair of trousers of one of the missing have now been found some 300km (186 miles) from Nantes. The Troadec family - Pascal and Brigitte, both aged around 50, their son Sebastien, 21, and daughter Charlotte, 18 - were last seen on 16 February. Authorities were informed of the family's disappearance by Brigitte's sister. Investigators searched their two-storey house and found bloodstains matching DNA of the parents and Sebastian, but not of the daughter. Traces of blood were found on Sebastien's phone, on Brigitte's watch and under the stairs, and it appeared that someone had tried to wipe them away, prosecutor Pierre Sennes said. The beds had been stripped, with some sheets drying on an indoor rack. Wet clothes were still in the washing machine and food was going off in the refrigerator. "It's as if the life of the house was frozen in time," Mr Sennes said. The family's two cars were still parked in front of the house but investigators have not yet found Sebastien's car. On Wednesday, a social security card and a pair of trousers belonging to Charlotte were found near the city of Brest. But authorities have not released more details. Reports suggested the father once suffered from depression while his son had psychological problems. Sebastien had been sentenced to carry out community service after being convicted in 2013, when he was a minor, of making death threats on his blog, Mr Sennes added. French newspaper Le Monde reported that Sebastien had posted on a video game online forum: "What do I hate the most? My reflection." And: "What makes me sad? My life." And on Twitter, he had written: "If you really knew what was going on in my head, you would think I was a crazy person with no morals." An investigation into murder, abduction and illegal confinement has been opened, the prosecutor says. Local media have compared the case with a murder of five members of the same family also in the region of Nantes, in 2011. The father, Xavier Dupont de Ligonnes, is a suspect and is still at large. ||||| French investigators have opened a murder probe after bloodstains were found at the home of a family of four whose mysterious disappearance has stumped the nation. The Troadec family -- Pascal and Brigitte, both aged around 50, their son Sebastien, 21, and his sister Charlotte, 18 -- have not been seen since February 16. Bloodstains found in their house, in a suburb of the western city of Nantes, so far match the DNA of three of the four missing persons, prosecutor Pierre Sennès said late Monday. Sennès said a probe has been opened into murder, abduction and illegal confinement in a case that has baffled the French press. Several media reports recalled a murder in 2011 of five members of the same family, also in the Nantes area, noting that Sebastien attended the same high school as one of the victims. The father, Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès, remains at large and is the target of an international arrest warrant. House ‘frozen in time’ Sennès said bloodstains were found throughout the Troadec’s two-storey house, including on Sebastien's cellphone and on Brigitte's watch, as well as efforts to wipe some of them away. No toothbrushes or hairbrushes were found in the house, and the beds had been stripped, with some sheets drying on an indoor rack. Food was going off in the refrigerator and there were dishes in the sink, the prosecutor said, adding that there had been no activity in any of the four family members' bank accounts, and their cellphones had not been activated since February 17. Sebastien's cellphone was the last to be switched off, he said. "It's as if the life of the house was frozen in time," Sennès said. Missing car Neighbours and a source close to the probe said Sebastien had had psychological problems and Pascal had suffered from depression in the past. Sennes noted that Sebastien had been sentenced to carry out community service after being convicted in 2013, when he was a minor, for making death threats on his blog. But classmates of Sebastien's interviewed by French media described a quiet, friendly youth, with one saying he was "always ready to help out". Both Sebastien and Charlotte had been at the family home during the just-ended school holidays. Sennès said the parents' car was parked outside the house, but investigators have been unable to find Sebastien's car. (FRANCE 24 with AFP) Date created : 2017-02-28

– France has been transfixed by the mysterious disappearance of a family of four near Nantes. Parents Pascal and Brigitte Troadec, both around 50, and children Sebastien, 21, and Charlotte, 18, have not been seen since Feb. 16, the BBC reports. Bloodstains—and evidence of attempts to wipe them away—were found throughout the home, investigators say. Beds in the home had been stripped, and there were no toothbrushes or hairbrushes to be found. With food in the fridge and wet clothes in the washing machine, "it's as if the life of the house was frozen in time," says prosecutor Pierre Sennès. The prosecutor says bloodstains match the DNA of three of the four missing Troadecs and police have opened an investigation into suspected abduction, illegal confinement, and murder, France24 reports. The family's cell phones and bank accounts have not been active since Feb. 17, investigators say—with Sebastien's the last to be switched off. The parents' car was outside the house, but investigators are still trying to find Sebastien's vehicle. Le Monde reports that investigators say both father and son had suffered from "psychological frailties" in the past, with the father suffering from depression. In 2013, Sebastien was sentenced to community service for making death threats on his blog. (A woman vanished on a cruise, and her husband is under suspicion after not reporting it.)

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.La porte de la maison de la famille disparue fermée par des scellés, à Orvault (Loire-Atlantique) le 24 février. JEAN-SEBASTIEN EVRARD / AFP Le temps passe et le mystère s’épaissit, à Orvault (Loire-Atlantique), où une famille a disparu depuis le 16 février. Personne n’a revu Pascal Troadec, 49 ans, son épouse, Brigitte, et leurs deux enfants, Sébastien, 21 ans, et Charlotte, 18 ans. Leurs téléphones restent muets et aucun mouvement n’a été constaté sur leurs comptes bancaires depuis leur disparition. Dimanche 26 février, le procureur de la République de Nantes, Pierre Sennès, a confirmé que les traces de sang découvertes dans le pavillon des parents appartenaient aux membres de la famille, tout en se refusant à donner « plus d’éléments ». Les enquêteurs ont passé de longues heures, jeudi 23 février, dans le pavillon familial, situé dans une rue tranquille de la périphérie de Nantes. C’est ce jour-là que la sœur de Brigitte Troadec a donné l’alerte. Inquiète de n’avoir aucune nouvelle, alors qu’elles étaient très régulièrement en contact, elle avait finalement appelé la police. Une patrouille s’était alors immédiatement rendue sur les lieux. Deux voitures étaient stationnées devant le pavillon aux stores partiellement baissés : une Audi A4 et une BMW. L’une était utilisée par Pascal Troadec, opérateur au sein de la société Visotec Arlux, spécialisée dans la fabrication d’enseignes lumineuses, à Orvault. L’autre l’était par son épouse, employée au centre des finances de Nantes. Tous deux auraient dû reprendre le travail le 20 février. Mais leurs employeurs respectifs sont restés, eux aussi, sans nouvelles. « C’est comme si la maison s’était arrêtée de vivre à un instant T » Après avoir poussé la porte d’entrée de la maison désertée, les premiers policiers présents sur les lieux ont fait de troublantes découvertes. Dans la salle de bains, ils n’ont trouvé ni brosses à dents ni brosses à cheveux. Dans le réfrigérateur, plusieurs aliments étaient périmés. Le chauffage était coupé et aucun drap ne recouvrait les lits. Des draps, pas tout à fait secs, séchaient à l’intérieur, sur un étendoir. Et du linge humide se trouvait encore dans la machine à laver. « C’est comme si la maison s’était arrêtée de vivre à un instant T », a commenté, dimanche, M. Sennès. Quelques minutes plus tard, les enquêteurs de l’antenne de police judiciaire de Nantes, immédiatement saisis de l’affaire, investissaient les lieux à leur tour. Leurs constatations se sont avérées plus inquiétantes encore. Sous l’escalier, ils ont découvert des traces rosâtres, « comme si du sang avait été essuyé sommairement », indique un proche du dossier. Dans une pièce, au rez-de-chaussée, un téléphone portable et ses oreillettes étaient maculés de sang. Une paire de chaussettes l’était également. Une famille « très discrète, voire distante » Une enquête a alors été immédiatement ouverte pour « homicides volontaires, enlèvements et séquestrations ». Le jardin, situé à l’arrière de la maison, a été passé au peigne fin. Les deux voitures ont été placées sous scellés pour expertises et des perquisitions ont rapidement été diligentées aux domiciles des deux enfants, situés dans le Maine-et-Loire et en Vendée. Sébastien, le fils, suivait un BTS informatique à Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre (Vendée). Charlotte poursuivait ses études dans le secteur des services et prestations des secteurs sanitaire et social à Fontenay-le-Comte (Vendée). Dimanche, les investigations se poursuivaient tambour battant. « A la suite des résultats du laboratoire que nous avions sollicité en urgence pour analyser les prélèvements sanguins, je vous confirme que les traces de sang retrouvées appartiennent aux membres de la famille, mais je ne souhaite pas donner plus d’éléments pour ne pas entraver l’enquête », a déclaré M. Sennès. Les policiers recherchent notamment activement la voiture du fils, qui ne se trouvait pas devant le pavillon jeudi. Le signalement de cette Peugeot a été diffusé sur l’ensemble du territoire national. « Fragilités psychologiques » Les enquêteurs multiplient également les auditions dans l’environnement de cette famille décrite par tous comme étant « très discrète, voire distante ». Ils cherchent notamment à cerner plus précisément les personnalités du père et du fils, dépeints comme ayant connu des épisodes de « fragilités psychologiques », par le passé. Le premier a souffert de « troubles dépressifs », selon un proche du dossier. Le second est décrit par des voisins et des connaissances comme étant « un peu spécial ». Julie, une amie de lycée de Charlotte, contactée par l’AFP dimanche, décrit le jeune homme comme quelqu’un « qui vit comme dans une bulle, dans son monde ». En 2012, alors qu’il était lycéen à Orvault, Sébastien Troadec avait proféré des menaces de mort sur un blog. L’année suivante, sur un forum de passionnés de jeux vidéo, il avait posté des messages qui traduisaient un mal-être. L’adolescent écrivait notamment : « La chose que je déteste le plus ? Mon reflet. » Et un peu plus loin : « Qu’est-ce qui me rend triste ? Ma vie. » Parmi les nombreux messages retrouvés aujourd’hui via Twitter, l’adolescent disait : « Si ont savait réellement ce qui se passer dans ma tête ont me prendrer pour un fou sans morale. » Où est la famille Troadec ? Et que lui est-il arrivé ? Pour l’instant, toutes les pistes restent à l’étude. « Il n’est pas possible à ce stade de déterminer avec précision le déroulement des faits, les enquêteurs de la police judiciaire retenant toutes les hypothèses envisageables », indiquait dimanche le procureur de la République de Nantes. A de nombreux Nantais, cette disparition inexpliquée rappelle l’affaire Dupont de Ligonnès. En 2011, la famille avait disparu. Les corps de la mère et de ses quatre enfants avaient été découverts, enterrés sous la terrasse de leur maison. Xavier, le père, n’a jamais été retrouvé. Lire aussi : A Nantes, sur les traces de Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès ||||| Image copyright AFP Image caption The Troadec family was last seen on 16 February French police have opened a murder investigation into the mysterious disappearance of a family of four in western France two weeks ago. Bloodstains found in the family's house near the city of Nantes match the DNA of three of them, officials say. There has been no activity in any of their bank accounts or mobile phones since they disappeared, they add. A document and a pair of trousers of one of the missing have now been found some 300km (186 miles) from Nantes. The Troadec family - Pascal and Brigitte, both aged around 50, their son Sebastien, 21, and daughter Charlotte, 18 - were last seen on 16 February. Authorities were informed of the family's disappearance by Brigitte's sister. Investigators searched their two-storey house and found bloodstains matching DNA of the parents and Sebastian, but not of the daughter. Traces of blood were found on Sebastien's phone, on Brigitte's watch and under the stairs, and it appeared that someone had tried to wipe them away, prosecutor Pierre Sennes said. The beds had been stripped, with some sheets drying on an indoor rack. Wet clothes were still in the washing machine and food was going off in the refrigerator. "It's as if the life of the house was frozen in time," Mr Sennes said. The family's two cars were still parked in front of the house but investigators have not yet found Sebastien's car. On Wednesday, a social security card and a pair of trousers belonging to Charlotte were found near the city of Brest. But authorities have not released more details. Reports suggested the father once suffered from depression while his son had psychological problems. Sebastien had been sentenced to carry out community service after being convicted in 2013, when he was a minor, of making death threats on his blog, Mr Sennes added. French newspaper Le Monde reported that Sebastien had posted on a video game online forum: "What do I hate the most? My reflection." And: "What makes me sad? My life." And on Twitter, he had written: "If you really knew what was going on in my head, you would think I was a crazy person with no morals." An investigation into murder, abduction and illegal confinement has been opened, the prosecutor says. Local media have compared the case with a murder of five members of the same family also in the region of Nantes, in 2011. The father, Xavier Dupont de Ligonnes, is a suspect and is still at large. ||||| French investigators have opened a murder probe after bloodstains were found at the home of a family of four whose mysterious disappearance has stumped the nation. The Troadec family -- Pascal and Brigitte, both aged around 50, their son Sebastien, 21, and his sister Charlotte, 18 -- have not been seen since February 16. Bloodstains found in their house, in a suburb of the western city of Nantes, so far match the DNA of three of the four missing persons, prosecutor Pierre Sennès said late Monday. Sennès said a probe has been opened into murder, abduction and illegal confinement in a case that has baffled the French press. Several media reports recalled a murder in 2011 of five members of the same family, also in the Nantes area, noting that Sebastien attended the same high school as one of the victims. The father, Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès, remains at large and is the target of an international arrest warrant. House ‘frozen in time’ Sennès said bloodstains were found throughout the Troadec’s two-storey house, including on Sebastien's cellphone and on Brigitte's watch, as well as efforts to wipe some of them away. No toothbrushes or hairbrushes were found in the house, and the beds had been stripped, with some sheets drying on an indoor rack. Food was going off in the refrigerator and there were dishes in the sink, the prosecutor said, adding that there had been no activity in any of the four family members' bank accounts, and their cellphones had not been activated since February 17. Sebastien's cellphone was the last to be switched off, he said. "It's as if the life of the house was frozen in time," Sennès said. Missing car Neighbours and a source close to the probe said Sebastien had had psychological problems and Pascal had suffered from depression in the past. Sennes noted that Sebastien had been sentenced to carry out community service after being convicted in 2013, when he was a minor, for making death threats on his blog. But classmates of Sebastien's interviewed by French media described a quiet, friendly youth, with one saying he was "always ready to help out". Both Sebastien and Charlotte had been at the family home during the just-ended school holidays. Sennès said the parents' car was parked outside the house, but investigators have been unable to find Sebastien's car. (FRANCE 24 with AFP) Date created : 2017-02-28

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Members of the Rapa Nui people are calling on the British government to return a sacred moai monument it stole from the Chilean island 150 years ago. The British government has agreed to start talks with Chileans on Easter Island to potentially return a moai, an ancient and sacred rock carving, that the British Navy stole from the island 150 years ago to give to Queen Victoria. Five representatives from the island's Rapa Nui tribe penned a letter addressed to the British government asking to begin a dialogue with their officials for the return of the important monument that has been on display at the British Museum in London since 1869, donated by the Queen a year after she first received it in 1868. Locals on the island want the massive ritual rock, considered by many to be one of the most important pieces in Rapa Nui culture being that its back showcases the history of the island, as well as images related to Bird Man, needs to return to their home island located 3,800 km off of Chile's mainland. This particular moai, known as Hoa Hakananai’a, or 'lost friend', was taken from Orongo, a ceremonial place on Easter Island where rituals in honor of Bird Man, a pivotal part of the island's religious lore, were performed. The return of the carved rock is “an important symbol to close the sad chapter of the violation of our rights by European navigators who devastated the island in the XIX century,” say the Rapa Nui. Previously, the UK rejected giving back the monument saying it was unsure the country could properly look after the religious figure in that many on the island had previously fallen over. “The circumstances have changed and we hope that there's a possibility to discuss (the stone's return to Chile) with the museum and the British government”, Chile's ministry of national assets, Felipe Ward said on Monday. According to the Rapa Nui official, Mata-U’iroa Atan, there are 12 moai figures outside of Easter Island, mostly in Europe. There is another in the UK, but its location is uncertain. ||||| This article is over 5 months old Hoa Hakananai’a was taken by Royal Navy captain 150 years ago as gift for Queen Victoria Easter Island’s indigenous people have asked Chile’s government to help them recover a unique Moai statue removed 150 years ago and now kept in the British Museum in London. The seven-foot-tall (2.4-metre) Hoa Hakananai’a sculpture was removed from the island by Richard Powell, captain of HMS Topaze, in 1868 and given to Queen Victoria, who donated it to the museum in 1869. “It’s a unique piece, the only tangible link that accounts for two important stages in our ancestral history,” the island’s Rapa Nui authorities said on Tuesday. Of the more than 900 giant humanoid sculptures on the island, most were carved from volcanic ash between the sixth and 17th centuries, but the Hoa Hakananai’a, which means “the stolen or hidden friend” in the Rapa Nui language, is unique as it was made from basalt. Figures associated with the Tangata Manu (“bird man”) cult were carved on its back. This request “seems appropriate given the new coordination and conservation functions being carried out on the island with regards the Moai,” said Felipe Ward, Chile’s national treasures minister. Since December, the Rapa Nui have taken over the conservation, preservation and management of their archeological heritage. Part of that involves the attempted recovery of priceless artefacts they say were illegally taken, including another Moai residing in the Quai Branly museum in Paris. The Rapa Nui believe that the spiritual force which protects them resides in Moai and other sacred objects. Recovering stolen statues would also be “an important symbol in closing the sad chapter of violation of our rights by European navigators” that visited the island in the 19th century, local leaders said. Easter Island is a Unesco world heritage site about 2,000 miles (3,700km) off the coast of Chile, and whose indigenous inhabitants are a Polynesian people closely related to those in Tahiti. Easter Island candidate puts self-rule on ballot in Chile election Read more The Pacific Ocean island was first recorded by European navigators in 1722 and visited several times, including by the Briton James Cook, before it was annexed by Chile in 1888. By then, much of its population had been decimated by European diseases such as smallpox, or carted off into slavery. Chile recently announced measures to limit the time tourists can stay on the island and the number of non-Rapa Nui mainlanders allowed to settle there. ||||| GO London Newsletter Enter your email address Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid Email cannot be used. Try another or register with your social account As a museum of pretty much anything, from largely anywhere and from almost every period of human history, you can bet the British Museum offers quite a bit to see. London’s most famous museum is home to an astounding collection of over 8 million objects, within which you’ll find thousands of years of history and some pretty significant mileage – but what if you’ve only got an hour or two to hand? From places distant in time and space to closer-to-home finds, these are the five historical marvels you need to see at the British Museum. The Rosetta Stone This stone slab may not look particularly awe-inspiring, but the Rosetta Stone it is in fact the key that has unravelled some of the greatest mysteries of ancient Egypt. Inscribed with a governmental decree, it isn’t what it is says that is so extraordinary, but the languages it’s written in. The meaning of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics (the little animal symbols used as an alphabet) had gone undeciphered for over 1000 years until this fragment was found in 1799, showing the same statement written in three scripts including ancient Greek and hieroglyphics. This allowed linguists to finally crack the code, an immeasurable tool in finding out more about the ancient civilisation. The Sutton Hoo Helmet This extraordinary archeological find was many thousands of miles from the banks of the Nile – in Sutton, to be precise. In 1939, historians discovered the undisturbed remains of a ship-burial dating back to the 7th century. While the wooden ship had largely rotted away, inside remained an unprecedented bounty of early Anglo-Saxon objects, including this opulently decorated, full face helmet, thought to have belonged to King Rædwald of East Anglia. The helmet, which is thought to have been equivalent to a crown, is one of the most extraordinary artefacts ever uncovered from this period in British history. Hoa Hakananai'a The Moai figures that stretched across the bays of Rapa Nui – or Easter Island – are one of the true artistic marvels of the world. Hoa Hakananai'a – a name meaning either “lost or stolen friend” or “breaking wave” – was brought to the UK in the 19th century. While not one of the largest examples of the iconic monolithic statues, it is widely considered one of the finest examples still intact today. Its face is extraordinarily expressive, demonstrating true artistry from its makers, and the myriad carvings on its back – featuring a bird, a ring and even female genitalia – demonstrate symbols important to the “bird man” religion once practiced on the island. The Lewis Chessmen Aside from all the mead-drinking, Medieval folk loved a bit of fun and games – chess, in this case. One day in 1831, this 12th century chess set was found on a sand dune on the Island of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. No one is entirely sure how it got there, but it is thought to have been brought over from Norway and got a little lost along the way. Not only is it possibly one of the few complete chess sets from the period, but its walrus ivory and whales tooth figures are full of cheeky, characterful expression. 82 of the 93 figures are now in the collection of the British Museum. Egyptian Mummy You didn’t think we’d forget the mummies did you? The British Museum is famous the world over for its extraordinary collection of ancient Egyptian artefacts, constituting the largest in the world outside of Egypt itself. Among this spectacular hoard are 120 human mummies. This guy, who is believed to have been called Djeho from an inscription on his elaborate cartonnage, is one of them. The mask on the exterior of his coffin is gilded with real gold, while inside his nose bears a fracture, indicating the common mummification practice of pulling a dead man’s brain out through his nostril.

– It's been called one of the British Museum's must-see marvels. But Hoa Hakananai'a won't remain there, if Easter Island's indigenous people get their way. The 7-foot-tall Moai statue housed in London since it was taken 150 years ago from what's now a Chilean territory is "the only tangible link that accounts for two important stages in our ancestral history," Rapa Nui leaders said Tuesday, calling on Chile's government to help in recovering it, reports AFP. According to Felipe Ward, Chile's national treasures minister, the request "seems appropriate" given that the Rapa Nui in December took over conservation of their archaeological past, including the more than 900 human figures carved mostly from volcanic ash from the sixth century to the 17th century. Hoa Hakananai'a, meaning "stolen or hidden friend," was uniquely carved from basalt. "It is widely considered one of the finest examples still intact today," with an "extraordinarily expressive" face, as well as symbols of the "bird man" religion once practiced there on its back, per the Evening Standard. Taken from the Pacific island 2,000 miles off the Chilean coast in 1868 by British Navy Commodore Richard Powell, Hoa Hakananai'a was presented to Queen Victoria, who donated it to the British Museum in 1869. Believing a protective spiritual force inhabits the Moai, the Rapa Nui describe the statue as stolen, though the UK rejected a previous request to return it based on concerns about its care, reports Telesur. Ward says "the circumstances have changed" since then, while Rapa Nui leaders say the statue's recovery, and that of another Moai kept in Paris, would help close "the sad chapter of violation of our rights by European navigators."

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Members of the Rapa Nui people are calling on the British government to return a sacred moai monument it stole from the Chilean island 150 years ago. The British government has agreed to start talks with Chileans on Easter Island to potentially return a moai, an ancient and sacred rock carving, that the British Navy stole from the island 150 years ago to give to Queen Victoria. Five representatives from the island's Rapa Nui tribe penned a letter addressed to the British government asking to begin a dialogue with their officials for the return of the important monument that has been on display at the British Museum in London since 1869, donated by the Queen a year after she first received it in 1868. Locals on the island want the massive ritual rock, considered by many to be one of the most important pieces in Rapa Nui culture being that its back showcases the history of the island, as well as images related to Bird Man, needs to return to their home island located 3,800 km off of Chile's mainland. This particular moai, known as Hoa Hakananai’a, or 'lost friend', was taken from Orongo, a ceremonial place on Easter Island where rituals in honor of Bird Man, a pivotal part of the island's religious lore, were performed. The return of the carved rock is “an important symbol to close the sad chapter of the violation of our rights by European navigators who devastated the island in the XIX century,” say the Rapa Nui. Previously, the UK rejected giving back the monument saying it was unsure the country could properly look after the religious figure in that many on the island had previously fallen over. “The circumstances have changed and we hope that there's a possibility to discuss (the stone's return to Chile) with the museum and the British government”, Chile's ministry of national assets, Felipe Ward said on Monday. According to the Rapa Nui official, Mata-U’iroa Atan, there are 12 moai figures outside of Easter Island, mostly in Europe. There is another in the UK, but its location is uncertain. ||||| This article is over 5 months old Hoa Hakananai’a was taken by Royal Navy captain 150 years ago as gift for Queen Victoria Easter Island’s indigenous people have asked Chile’s government to help them recover a unique Moai statue removed 150 years ago and now kept in the British Museum in London. The seven-foot-tall (2.4-metre) Hoa Hakananai’a sculpture was removed from the island by Richard Powell, captain of HMS Topaze, in 1868 and given to Queen Victoria, who donated it to the museum in 1869. “It’s a unique piece, the only tangible link that accounts for two important stages in our ancestral history,” the island’s Rapa Nui authorities said on Tuesday. Of the more than 900 giant humanoid sculptures on the island, most were carved from volcanic ash between the sixth and 17th centuries, but the Hoa Hakananai’a, which means “the stolen or hidden friend” in the Rapa Nui language, is unique as it was made from basalt. Figures associated with the Tangata Manu (“bird man”) cult were carved on its back. This request “seems appropriate given the new coordination and conservation functions being carried out on the island with regards the Moai,” said Felipe Ward, Chile’s national treasures minister. Since December, the Rapa Nui have taken over the conservation, preservation and management of their archeological heritage. Part of that involves the attempted recovery of priceless artefacts they say were illegally taken, including another Moai residing in the Quai Branly museum in Paris. The Rapa Nui believe that the spiritual force which protects them resides in Moai and other sacred objects. Recovering stolen statues would also be “an important symbol in closing the sad chapter of violation of our rights by European navigators” that visited the island in the 19th century, local leaders said. Easter Island is a Unesco world heritage site about 2,000 miles (3,700km) off the coast of Chile, and whose indigenous inhabitants are a Polynesian people closely related to those in Tahiti. Easter Island candidate puts self-rule on ballot in Chile election Read more The Pacific Ocean island was first recorded by European navigators in 1722 and visited several times, including by the Briton James Cook, before it was annexed by Chile in 1888. By then, much of its population had been decimated by European diseases such as smallpox, or carted off into slavery. Chile recently announced measures to limit the time tourists can stay on the island and the number of non-Rapa Nui mainlanders allowed to settle there. ||||| GO London Newsletter Enter your email address Please enter an email address Email address is invalid Fill out this field Email address is invalid Email cannot be used. Try another or register with your social account As a museum of pretty much anything, from largely anywhere and from almost every period of human history, you can bet the British Museum offers quite a bit to see. London’s most famous museum is home to an astounding collection of over 8 million objects, within which you’ll find thousands of years of history and some pretty significant mileage – but what if you’ve only got an hour or two to hand? From places distant in time and space to closer-to-home finds, these are the five historical marvels you need to see at the British Museum. The Rosetta Stone This stone slab may not look particularly awe-inspiring, but the Rosetta Stone it is in fact the key that has unravelled some of the greatest mysteries of ancient Egypt. Inscribed with a governmental decree, it isn’t what it is says that is so extraordinary, but the languages it’s written in. The meaning of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics (the little animal symbols used as an alphabet) had gone undeciphered for over 1000 years until this fragment was found in 1799, showing the same statement written in three scripts including ancient Greek and hieroglyphics. This allowed linguists to finally crack the code, an immeasurable tool in finding out more about the ancient civilisation. The Sutton Hoo Helmet This extraordinary archeological find was many thousands of miles from the banks of the Nile – in Sutton, to be precise. In 1939, historians discovered the undisturbed remains of a ship-burial dating back to the 7th century. While the wooden ship had largely rotted away, inside remained an unprecedented bounty of early Anglo-Saxon objects, including this opulently decorated, full face helmet, thought to have belonged to King Rædwald of East Anglia. The helmet, which is thought to have been equivalent to a crown, is one of the most extraordinary artefacts ever uncovered from this period in British history. Hoa Hakananai'a The Moai figures that stretched across the bays of Rapa Nui – or Easter Island – are one of the true artistic marvels of the world. Hoa Hakananai'a – a name meaning either “lost or stolen friend” or “breaking wave” – was brought to the UK in the 19th century. While not one of the largest examples of the iconic monolithic statues, it is widely considered one of the finest examples still intact today. Its face is extraordinarily expressive, demonstrating true artistry from its makers, and the myriad carvings on its back – featuring a bird, a ring and even female genitalia – demonstrate symbols important to the “bird man” religion once practiced on the island. The Lewis Chessmen Aside from all the mead-drinking, Medieval folk loved a bit of fun and games – chess, in this case. One day in 1831, this 12th century chess set was found on a sand dune on the Island of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. No one is entirely sure how it got there, but it is thought to have been brought over from Norway and got a little lost along the way. Not only is it possibly one of the few complete chess sets from the period, but its walrus ivory and whales tooth figures are full of cheeky, characterful expression. 82 of the 93 figures are now in the collection of the British Museum. Egyptian Mummy You didn’t think we’d forget the mummies did you? The British Museum is famous the world over for its extraordinary collection of ancient Egyptian artefacts, constituting the largest in the world outside of Egypt itself. Among this spectacular hoard are 120 human mummies. This guy, who is believed to have been called Djeho from an inscription on his elaborate cartonnage, is one of them. The mask on the exterior of his coffin is gilded with real gold, while inside his nose bears a fracture, indicating the common mummification practice of pulling a dead man’s brain out through his nostril.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A Missouri man connected to two Kansas City-area women who disappeared about 10 years apart was charged Thursday with their murders. Cass County authorities charged Kylr Yust with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of abandoning a corpse in the deaths of Kara Kopetsky, 17, of Belton, and 21-year-old Jessica Runions of Raymore. He is being held on $1 million bond. Authorities had long suspected Yust was involved in Kopetsky's and Runions' disappearances. Runions was seen leaving a gathering with Yust before she disappeared in September 2016 and Kopetsky had filed a protection order against Yust in April 2007, a month before she went missing after walking out of Belton High School. In the protection order, Kopetsky said Yust had kidnapped and restrained her, choked her and threatened to cut her throat during their nine-month relationship. KCTV "I'm unsure what he will do next, because the abuse has gotten worse over time," the application for the court intervention read, alleging Yust stalked Kopetsky and inflicted emotional and physical abuse. A hearing was scheduled for May 10, 2007 but Kopetsky went missing six days before the hearing. In April, a mushroom hunter found human remains that were quickly identified as Jessica Runions in a wooded area south of Belton. The next day, Kopetsky's remains were discovered nearby but not positively identified until August. Yust was already jailed on a charge that he burned Runions' car. Online court records do not indicate that Yust has an attorney. In the years after Kopetsky disappeared, Yust confessed to friends, roommates and cellmates that he killed her because he was upset that she wanted to end their on-and-off relationship, according to a probable cause statement released Thursday. He allegedly kidnapped Kopetsky as she left her job about a week before she disappeared and drove around for several hours arguing before she was allowed out of the car. Phone records showed Yust and Kopetsky exchanged phone calls within minutes of her leaving Belton High School on May 4, 2007, the last time she was seen alive, the statement said. A friend told police in April 2010 that Yust had told him about his volatile relationship with Kopetsky. "(The witness) stated Yost then told him the victim K.E.K. wouldn't love him and that he was angry with her because he didn't want her to love someone else," according to the statement. "Yust then told (the witness) that he had just snapped, and that something bad happened to the victim." Other witnesses told investigators that Yust confessed to choking Kopetsky to death and said he stared at her body for a long time before putting the body in a car and taking it to the woods. He also said no one would ever find the body, the statement said. In the Runions case, witnesses told police she and Yust were arguing and he was drunk and being possessive toward her before they left a party in Grandview. Two days later, Kansas City firefighters responded to a burning vehicle report and determined the car belonged to Runions. A friend told police he was with Yust when he burned the vehicle and took him to his house to recover after Yust suffered burns on his hands and face. The friend notified Belton police that Yust told him he had strangled Runions and taken her body into a wooded area, according to the statement. Yust was arrested on Sept. 11, 2016 at an Edwards, Missouri, mobile home. Kopetsky's mother Rhonda Beckford and Runions' mother Jamie Runions have long suspected Yust in their daughters disappearances, reports CBS affiliate KCTV. "I can't put it any other way but I hate him," Beckford told the station after his arrest. "I hate him for taking not only my child, but now possibly taking another." The families said they'll work together to seek justice for their daughters and thanked the community for their support. "Their strength, their support, their prayers – it's just unbelievable how much they love our girls," Jamie Runions said. ||||| A Missouri man believed to be responsible for the disappearances of two women nearly a decade apart has been charged with their murders, PEOPLE confirms. Kylr Yust, 29, faces two counts each of first-degree murder and abandonment of a corpse in the deaths of Jessica Runions and Kara Kopetsky, according to Cass County, Missouri, jail officials. He was reportedly charged on Thursday. Runions, 21, was last seen leaving a friend’s house party in September 2016. She allegedly left the party with Yust, a friend of her boyfriend. Days after she vanished, Yust was arrested for allegedly burning Runions’ vehicle, which was found after she went missing, according to police in Kansas City, Missouri. That case has since been dropped in light of the murder counts, according to local TV station WDAF. It was not immediately clear what led to the newly upgraded charges against Yust, who has been in custody since his arrest. The remains of both Kopetsky and Runions were found earlier this year. Prosecutors and court officials could not be reached for comment on Monday. Authorities alleged in a probable cause statement released Thursday that Yust confessed to choking Kopetsky to death after she said she wanted to end their on-again-off-again relationship, according to the Associated Press and CBS News. According to one witness account in the statement: “[The witness] stated Yost then told him the victim [Kopetsky] wouldn’t love him and that he was angry with her because he didn’t want her to love someone else. Yust then told [the witness] that he had just snapped, and that something bad happened to the victim.” The probable cause statement reportedly claims that Yust confessed to a friend that he killed Runions in a similar manner last year, strangling her before taking her body into the woods. • Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter. Jessica Runions (left) and Kara Kopetsky Kansas City PD; Rhonda Beckford Less than a week after Runions was reported missing, Kopetsky’s mother told PEOPLE she believed there was a connection between her daughter’s 2007 disappearance and Runions’ case. Kopetsky and Yust dated for nine months in 2007, when they were both teenagers, her mother said. Days before she went missing, Kopetsky filed a restraining order against Yust, alleging he was violent towards her, according to a Cass County official. Kopetsky was last seen leaving her high school in Belton, Missouri, during a free period on May 4, 2007. She was never seen or heard from again. She was 17 years old. Her remains were found in April, in a rock quarry about nine miles from the school, about 20 to 30 yards away from where Runions’ remains were discovered. “It has been a long 10 years and a long four months, and we finally found her and she is back where she belongs and we can finally put her to rest,” Kara’s mother, Rhonda Beckford, previously PEOPLE. “The next step is going to be properly laying her to rest and looking onward to a prosecution.” A History of Violence Since his Kopetsky’s disappearance, Yust’s violent behavior has landed him in court, according to documents obtained by PEOPLE. In September 2011, Yust pleaded guilty to domestic violence after choking and striking his then-pregnant 18-year-old girlfriend, according to a police report obtained by PEOPLE. The victim claimed Yust told her, “I’ve killed people before, even ex-girlfriends out of sheer jealousy. I will kill you,” the report states. Yust remains behind bars at the Cass County Jail on $1 million bond, records show. He is next scheduled to appear in court on May 10. His attorney, who has reportedly said he plans to plead not guilty, could not be reached for comment on Monday.

– On Thursday a 29-year-old Missouri man was charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of two women who disappeared nearly a decade apart, People reports. According to a probable cause statement, authorities say Kylr Yust admitted to choking Kara Kopetsky to death in 2007 after she said she wanted to end their relationship. In that same statement, Yust is said to have confessed to killing Jessica Runions in a similar fashion after leaving a party with her in September 2016. Yust has been in jail since September 2016 on charges that he burned Runions' car, per CBS News. Yust has long been a suspect in both cases. A month before she disappeared, Kopetsky filed a protection order against him, claiming he had kidnapped her and choked her during their relationship. And Yust was the last person ever seen with Runions before she disappeared. Runions was 21 years old when she vanished, Kopetsky just 17. Yust was released from prison last February after serving time on drug charges. He has also been convicted of assault, theft, and animal cruelty after stomping a kitten and tossing it into a river. He is currently being held on $1 million bond.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- A Missouri man connected to two Kansas City-area women who disappeared about 10 years apart was charged Thursday with their murders. Cass County authorities charged Kylr Yust with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of abandoning a corpse in the deaths of Kara Kopetsky, 17, of Belton, and 21-year-old Jessica Runions of Raymore. He is being held on $1 million bond. Authorities had long suspected Yust was involved in Kopetsky's and Runions' disappearances. Runions was seen leaving a gathering with Yust before she disappeared in September 2016 and Kopetsky had filed a protection order against Yust in April 2007, a month before she went missing after walking out of Belton High School. In the protection order, Kopetsky said Yust had kidnapped and restrained her, choked her and threatened to cut her throat during their nine-month relationship. KCTV "I'm unsure what he will do next, because the abuse has gotten worse over time," the application for the court intervention read, alleging Yust stalked Kopetsky and inflicted emotional and physical abuse. A hearing was scheduled for May 10, 2007 but Kopetsky went missing six days before the hearing. In April, a mushroom hunter found human remains that were quickly identified as Jessica Runions in a wooded area south of Belton. The next day, Kopetsky's remains were discovered nearby but not positively identified until August. Yust was already jailed on a charge that he burned Runions' car. Online court records do not indicate that Yust has an attorney. In the years after Kopetsky disappeared, Yust confessed to friends, roommates and cellmates that he killed her because he was upset that she wanted to end their on-and-off relationship, according to a probable cause statement released Thursday. He allegedly kidnapped Kopetsky as she left her job about a week before she disappeared and drove around for several hours arguing before she was allowed out of the car. Phone records showed Yust and Kopetsky exchanged phone calls within minutes of her leaving Belton High School on May 4, 2007, the last time she was seen alive, the statement said. A friend told police in April 2010 that Yust had told him about his volatile relationship with Kopetsky. "(The witness) stated Yost then told him the victim K.E.K. wouldn't love him and that he was angry with her because he didn't want her to love someone else," according to the statement. "Yust then told (the witness) that he had just snapped, and that something bad happened to the victim." Other witnesses told investigators that Yust confessed to choking Kopetsky to death and said he stared at her body for a long time before putting the body in a car and taking it to the woods. He also said no one would ever find the body, the statement said. In the Runions case, witnesses told police she and Yust were arguing and he was drunk and being possessive toward her before they left a party in Grandview. Two days later, Kansas City firefighters responded to a burning vehicle report and determined the car belonged to Runions. A friend told police he was with Yust when he burned the vehicle and took him to his house to recover after Yust suffered burns on his hands and face. The friend notified Belton police that Yust told him he had strangled Runions and taken her body into a wooded area, according to the statement. Yust was arrested on Sept. 11, 2016 at an Edwards, Missouri, mobile home. Kopetsky's mother Rhonda Beckford and Runions' mother Jamie Runions have long suspected Yust in their daughters disappearances, reports CBS affiliate KCTV. "I can't put it any other way but I hate him," Beckford told the station after his arrest. "I hate him for taking not only my child, but now possibly taking another." The families said they'll work together to seek justice for their daughters and thanked the community for their support. "Their strength, their support, their prayers – it's just unbelievable how much they love our girls," Jamie Runions said. ||||| A Missouri man believed to be responsible for the disappearances of two women nearly a decade apart has been charged with their murders, PEOPLE confirms. Kylr Yust, 29, faces two counts each of first-degree murder and abandonment of a corpse in the deaths of Jessica Runions and Kara Kopetsky, according to Cass County, Missouri, jail officials. He was reportedly charged on Thursday. Runions, 21, was last seen leaving a friend’s house party in September 2016. She allegedly left the party with Yust, a friend of her boyfriend. Days after she vanished, Yust was arrested for allegedly burning Runions’ vehicle, which was found after she went missing, according to police in Kansas City, Missouri. That case has since been dropped in light of the murder counts, according to local TV station WDAF. It was not immediately clear what led to the newly upgraded charges against Yust, who has been in custody since his arrest. The remains of both Kopetsky and Runions were found earlier this year. Prosecutors and court officials could not be reached for comment on Monday. Authorities alleged in a probable cause statement released Thursday that Yust confessed to choking Kopetsky to death after she said she wanted to end their on-again-off-again relationship, according to the Associated Press and CBS News. According to one witness account in the statement: “[The witness] stated Yost then told him the victim [Kopetsky] wouldn’t love him and that he was angry with her because he didn’t want her to love someone else. Yust then told [the witness] that he had just snapped, and that something bad happened to the victim.” The probable cause statement reportedly claims that Yust confessed to a friend that he killed Runions in a similar manner last year, strangling her before taking her body into the woods. • Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter. Jessica Runions (left) and Kara Kopetsky Kansas City PD; Rhonda Beckford Less than a week after Runions was reported missing, Kopetsky’s mother told PEOPLE she believed there was a connection between her daughter’s 2007 disappearance and Runions’ case. Kopetsky and Yust dated for nine months in 2007, when they were both teenagers, her mother said. Days before she went missing, Kopetsky filed a restraining order against Yust, alleging he was violent towards her, according to a Cass County official. Kopetsky was last seen leaving her high school in Belton, Missouri, during a free period on May 4, 2007. She was never seen or heard from again. She was 17 years old. Her remains were found in April, in a rock quarry about nine miles from the school, about 20 to 30 yards away from where Runions’ remains were discovered. “It has been a long 10 years and a long four months, and we finally found her and she is back where she belongs and we can finally put her to rest,” Kara’s mother, Rhonda Beckford, previously PEOPLE. “The next step is going to be properly laying her to rest and looking onward to a prosecution.” A History of Violence Since his Kopetsky’s disappearance, Yust’s violent behavior has landed him in court, according to documents obtained by PEOPLE. In September 2011, Yust pleaded guilty to domestic violence after choking and striking his then-pregnant 18-year-old girlfriend, according to a police report obtained by PEOPLE. The victim claimed Yust told her, “I’ve killed people before, even ex-girlfriends out of sheer jealousy. I will kill you,” the report states. Yust remains behind bars at the Cass County Jail on $1 million bond, records show. He is next scheduled to appear in court on May 10. His attorney, who has reportedly said he plans to plead not guilty, could not be reached for comment on Monday.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

KABUL (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's Afghanistan troop withdrawal is likely to be accompanied by cuts in billions of dollars of civilian aid, bringing a precipitous shift of control many fear could tip the country into further corruption and chaos. Parallel with Obama's draw-down of combat troops by 2014, the United States plans to pull back hundreds of civilian advisers involved in helping govern Afghanistan, whether helping organize the annual budget or FBI agents setting up crime units. The aim is to wean Afghanistan off foreign aid to form a sustainable state, allowing the West to exit without being accused of abandonment -- an image that has haunted the international community since the Soviet exit in 1989 ended in civil war. The strategy risks leaving fewer resources for one of the world's poorest countries. Giving what is left to President Hamid Karzai's government -- widely criticized for endemic corruption -- may just end in unchecked graft and political interference in civil projects. The U.S. disengagement will deprive the economy of spending generated by the presence of more than 100,000 troops and it could bring a drop in aid from bilateral donors and the United Nations, especially if the Taliban insurgency quickens. "The president has even said we are living in a picnic," Karzai's spokesman Waheed Omer told Reuters. "We are living a luxurious life because lots of countries, including the U.S., are pumping money here and that is not sustainable." U.S. aid has fallen from $4.2 billion in 2010 to a budgeted $2.5 billion this year and could fall further because of an increasingly skeptical U.S. Congress. Total international aid of around $10 billion may drop by half, according to defense analyst Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution think tank. That may mean cold turkey for a country where a U.S. Senate report has estimated 97 percent of its GDP is derived from spending related to the international military and aid organizations'' presence. "Over the past two months the president has started an intensive round of meetings ... over the fact that our economic situation in 2014 will not be the same as it is today," Omer said. "We will have a reduced flow of aid, a reduced interest on the part of the donor community." RAMPANT CORRUPTION The question is not just whether there will be enough funds. In many ways, some analysts say Afghanistan was getting too much aid given its small GDP. Much of the $18 billion in U.S. aid since 2001 was wasted on short-term projects linked to winning hearts and minds in the battle against the Taliban. In an effort to make aid more accountable to Afghans, donors have promised to channel more than half of aid through the Afghan government, compared with about 20 percent now. But the concern is whether Karzai's government will be able to implement what aid there is without billions of dollars being funneled out to provincial strongmen or government supporters. Washington plans to withdraw from some 80 field locations to between two and four regional hubs or consulates with fewer than 200 people, down from 400 now. The aim is to end aid projects through ad hoc Provincial Reconstruction Teams that Karzai has blamed for creating parallel, unaccountable institutions. More funds would be channeled through the government and provincial governors. The move comes as a scandal over the failed Kabulbank, in which hundreds of millions of dollars were lost thought a mix of corruption, bad loans and mismanagement, has highlighted worries of unchecked governance by Afghanistan's elites. RULE OF LAW WEAK There has been progress since the chaos after the Taliban were overthrown in 2001, especially with schools. There have been a myriad of small steps, often unnoticed outside Afghanistan. The FBI, for example, has helped set up a police investigation unit, while the Federation Aviation Administration is setting up an Afghan equivalent. But the tasks facing Afghanistan are huge. Many Afghan ministers have not even spent their funds because they don't have the capacity to implement projects. "Afghanistan is lodged at the bottom of the transparency index, civil service capability is weak, the rule of law is absent or predatory in many areas," NATO's former senior civilian representative to Afghanistan Mark Sedwill said in a speech earlier this year. "Many district posts are vacant and half the district governors lack offices, transport, facilities and staff." While many experts agree the international community must move away from the kind of war-dominated aid projects of the past 10 years, there is a sinking feeling that Afghanistan may not be up to the task. "It's the right thing to do," said Thomas Ruttig, co-director of the Kabul-based Afghanistan Analysts Network. "But first there is the question of the absorption capacities of ministries. And second there is the problem of corruption." "I don't think it (the transition) is feasible by 2014." The nightmare scenario is that transition will end in a more corrupt Karzai government, unable to spend its own aid funds while outside donors dry up, combined with a growing Taliban insurgency against a weak Afghan army and police. "By 2014 there will be still probably at least a low-level of insurgency. They are going to be fighting narco-trafficking gangs, there's going to be violence in the country," said a senior U.S. official. "If democratic representative government does not hold here and indeed strengthen ... our concern is that it will all collapse again and we'd be back here paying an even bigger price." (Editing by Paul Tait and John Chalmers) ||||| Dow Jones Reprints: This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers, use the Order Reprints tool at the bottom of any article or visit www.djreprints.com

– Political leaders in Afghanistan are concerned that President Obama's decision to start withdrawing US forces could lead to a repeat of the US withdrawal in 1989, when Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence was allowed to gain major influence. "We don't want to go back 20 years when [ISI was] making the decisions about Afghanistan," one mayor tells the Wall Street Journal. Adding to the concern is the fact that billions of dollars in aid cuts will likely accompany the withdrawal, Reuters reports. For his part, Afghan President Hamid Karzai appeared supportive of Obama's speech. The withdrawal announcement proves that "a very important process of the liberty of Afghanistan, governance of Afghanistan, and the protection of Afghanistan by Afghans has begun," Karzai said in a statement. But he must now make sure his government is stable enough to fight off both Pakistani interference and the Taliban. Though the Taliban dismissed the announcement as simply a "symbolic step," some leaders believe the move could actually facilitate peace talks including the Taliban. Others, however, worry the Taliban will see any US withdrawal as "a victory."

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.KABUL (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's Afghanistan troop withdrawal is likely to be accompanied by cuts in billions of dollars of civilian aid, bringing a precipitous shift of control many fear could tip the country into further corruption and chaos. Parallel with Obama's draw-down of combat troops by 2014, the United States plans to pull back hundreds of civilian advisers involved in helping govern Afghanistan, whether helping organize the annual budget or FBI agents setting up crime units. The aim is to wean Afghanistan off foreign aid to form a sustainable state, allowing the West to exit without being accused of abandonment -- an image that has haunted the international community since the Soviet exit in 1989 ended in civil war. The strategy risks leaving fewer resources for one of the world's poorest countries. Giving what is left to President Hamid Karzai's government -- widely criticized for endemic corruption -- may just end in unchecked graft and political interference in civil projects. The U.S. disengagement will deprive the economy of spending generated by the presence of more than 100,000 troops and it could bring a drop in aid from bilateral donors and the United Nations, especially if the Taliban insurgency quickens. "The president has even said we are living in a picnic," Karzai's spokesman Waheed Omer told Reuters. "We are living a luxurious life because lots of countries, including the U.S., are pumping money here and that is not sustainable." U.S. aid has fallen from $4.2 billion in 2010 to a budgeted $2.5 billion this year and could fall further because of an increasingly skeptical U.S. Congress. Total international aid of around $10 billion may drop by half, according to defense analyst Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institution think tank. That may mean cold turkey for a country where a U.S. Senate report has estimated 97 percent of its GDP is derived from spending related to the international military and aid organizations'' presence. "Over the past two months the president has started an intensive round of meetings ... over the fact that our economic situation in 2014 will not be the same as it is today," Omer said. "We will have a reduced flow of aid, a reduced interest on the part of the donor community." RAMPANT CORRUPTION The question is not just whether there will be enough funds. In many ways, some analysts say Afghanistan was getting too much aid given its small GDP. Much of the $18 billion in U.S. aid since 2001 was wasted on short-term projects linked to winning hearts and minds in the battle against the Taliban. In an effort to make aid more accountable to Afghans, donors have promised to channel more than half of aid through the Afghan government, compared with about 20 percent now. But the concern is whether Karzai's government will be able to implement what aid there is without billions of dollars being funneled out to provincial strongmen or government supporters. Washington plans to withdraw from some 80 field locations to between two and four regional hubs or consulates with fewer than 200 people, down from 400 now. The aim is to end aid projects through ad hoc Provincial Reconstruction Teams that Karzai has blamed for creating parallel, unaccountable institutions. More funds would be channeled through the government and provincial governors. The move comes as a scandal over the failed Kabulbank, in which hundreds of millions of dollars were lost thought a mix of corruption, bad loans and mismanagement, has highlighted worries of unchecked governance by Afghanistan's elites. RULE OF LAW WEAK There has been progress since the chaos after the Taliban were overthrown in 2001, especially with schools. There have been a myriad of small steps, often unnoticed outside Afghanistan. The FBI, for example, has helped set up a police investigation unit, while the Federation Aviation Administration is setting up an Afghan equivalent. But the tasks facing Afghanistan are huge. Many Afghan ministers have not even spent their funds because they don't have the capacity to implement projects. "Afghanistan is lodged at the bottom of the transparency index, civil service capability is weak, the rule of law is absent or predatory in many areas," NATO's former senior civilian representative to Afghanistan Mark Sedwill said in a speech earlier this year. "Many district posts are vacant and half the district governors lack offices, transport, facilities and staff." While many experts agree the international community must move away from the kind of war-dominated aid projects of the past 10 years, there is a sinking feeling that Afghanistan may not be up to the task. "It's the right thing to do," said Thomas Ruttig, co-director of the Kabul-based Afghanistan Analysts Network. "But first there is the question of the absorption capacities of ministries. And second there is the problem of corruption." "I don't think it (the transition) is feasible by 2014." The nightmare scenario is that transition will end in a more corrupt Karzai government, unable to spend its own aid funds while outside donors dry up, combined with a growing Taliban insurgency against a weak Afghan army and police. "By 2014 there will be still probably at least a low-level of insurgency. They are going to be fighting narco-trafficking gangs, there's going to be violence in the country," said a senior U.S. official. "If democratic representative government does not hold here and indeed strengthen ... our concern is that it will all collapse again and we'd be back here paying an even bigger price." (Editing by Paul Tait and John Chalmers) ||||| Dow Jones Reprints: This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers, use the Order Reprints tool at the bottom of any article or visit www.djreprints.com

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

The deaths of five teenagers in a fiery wreck after their vehicle ran a stop sign and collided with a tanker loaded with fuel affected families throughout the Texas Panhandle, a local official said Tuesday. "It's had a big effect on the whole area, and I think it always seems more tragic when you have a loss of life when people are so young," said Dr. David Bonner, the mayor pro tem of Dumas. Two of the teens were sisters from Dumas, a town of about 15,000. The others were from a nearby small town. Authorities say the teens died at the scene. The truck driver, Ezequiel Garcia, was in critical condition Tuesday with burns over 90 percent of his body. The collision occurred Sunday near Dumas, about 45 miles north of Amarillo. Preliminary reports indicate that alcohol was not a factor, authorities said. Authorities say Jacob Paul Stipe, 16, of Sunray, was driving when the Chevy pickup went through a stop sign and was hit on the passenger side by the tanker. Stipe was killed, along with Derrek Lee Hager and Christopher Lee Moore, both 17 and from Sunray, and October Dawn Roys, 17, and her younger sister, Elizabeth Kay Roys, 15. Area schools are on spring break this week, so news of the tragedy hadn't yet reached many people, Bonner said. "A lot of people are gone," he added. Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman Juan Medrano said he did not know where the teens were going when the accident occurred. The investigation continues. The Texas accident was the second nationwide that happened Sunday involving multiple deaths. Early Sunday, five teens and a young woman were killed in an accident in Ohio. ||||| NBC Chicago Emergency personnel at the scene where a car crashed into a creek in Illinois, killing four teens. Four Chicago-area teens were killed when their car plunged into a rain-swollen creek early Tuesday -- the latest in a string of horrific traffic accidents involving young people. The toll -- 15 dead in three major accidents since Sunday -- underscores how dangerous driving can be for teenagers. Crash injuries are the leading cause of death for people ages 13-19, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, even though deadly crashes have been on the decline for decades. The Illinois victims -- two boys and two girls, ages 15 to 17 -- left their homes Monday evening and never returned, NBCChicago.com reported. Their bodies were found in an overturned car in Forked Creek near Wilmington, about an hour from Chicago, about 7:30 a.m. Will County Sheriff's spokesman Ken Kaupas said it appears the accident was weather-related. "There may have been water coming over the roadway just before the bridge," he said. "We've had a tremendous amount of runoff and melting as everyone in the area has experienced, and that may have contributed to this horrific crash." The grim discovery came amid word of another devastating wreck in Texas that left five teenagers dead over the weekend. Three boys and two girls, who were sisters, were killed when their Chevy SUV ran a stop sign and collided with a fuel tanker on Sunday afternoon in Dumas, about 45 miles north of Amarillo. The truck driver, identified by The Associated Press as Ezequiel Garcia, was burned over much of his body and was in critical condition. That same day, six Ohio teens were killed when an SUV sped off a stretch of road known as dead man's curve and flipped into a pond. The State Highway Patrol revealed Tuesday that the driver, Alexis Cayson, 19, did not have a valid license. The owner of the vehicle says it was stolen and it's not clear how the teens ended up in it. Cayson was killed, along with five boys ages 14 to 19. Two boys survived by smashing a rear window and swimming to safety. One of them told police the driver may have been going 80 mph as she rounded a bend in the two-lane road in Warren, about 60 miles from Cleveland. “The car had jerked out of control,” another survivor, Brian Henry, 18, told Youngstown TV station WYTV. “I don’t know if she did it on purpose, or how fast she was going.” Teen deaths from car crashes are on the decline in the United States, dropping from 8,748 in 1975 to 3,115 in 2010, according to the insurance institute, but the risk of being in an accident is three times higher for teens than older drivers. The Associated Press contributed to this report. This story was originally published on ||||| Will County Sheriff's deputy Ken Kaupas leads a press conference Tuesday for the Wilmington crash that killed four teens, saying that the teens did not respond to calls from family, friends (WGN TV). Micalah Sembach had been only 30 minutes late when her family began to panic Monday. The 15-year-old had promised, without complaint, to be home by 5 p.m. to finish her chores and work on a math project. It wasn't like her to miss curfew, so relatives called the police Monday evening and quickly formed a search party that included her father, aunt, uncle and half of their neighbors. Part of the group scoured Wilmington's rural streets on foot, while others drove around the town's unlit back roads for hours in a desperate, nightlong search for the high school freshman and her three teenage friends. Micalah's aunt Melissa Robertson even woke up a local hotel manager in the middle of the night on the remote chance the kids had rented a room there. As their panic intensified, they called Micalah's cellphone repeatedly, coordinated with the other teens' families, asked for help on social media and prayed against the obvious. Even if they didn't give voice to it, everyone knew something horrible must have happened. "When she was told to be home, give or take two minutes, she was home," said Robertson, who lived with Micalah and her parents. "That's how much of a good kid she was. So we knew." What the family didn't know, however, was that their search would come to a heartbreaking end on the outskirts of town shortly after sunrise. The four teens — Micalah, Cheyenne Fender, 17, Matthew Bailey, 14, and Cody Carter, 15 — had all gone out together after school Monday. They had crammed into Cheyenne's Mitsubishi Eclipse, even though state law allows only one passenger younger than 20 to be in the vehicle during the driver's first year of licensing. As the two-door hatchback traveled along Ballou Road some time later, it smashed into the guardrail west of Warner Bridge Road and flipped into the swollen Forked Creek, a normally shallow tributary that had risen significantly in recent days amid rain and melting snow. The car sank, roof first, to the bottom. The small sports coupe would remain there throughout the night, cloaked from view until a school bus driver noticed a tire sticking out of the water. The four friends all drowned in the car, sending the tiny Kankakee River town into mourning and striking fear in the heart of every parent with a teenage driver. "(I was) praying, begging, pleading, willing to trade," Robertson said, her eyes filling with tears. "Fifteen years old. I'm already tired. She didn't even have a chance to get tired. ... I'm old and tired. I would have gladly gone in her place." Just before 7:30 a.m., Robertson received a call from a parent of one of the other teens, saying someone had spotted the Mitsubishi in Forked Creek. Robertson, who had been on her way to meet with a media outlet to get a picture of Micalah on the news, switched on her hazard lights and turned the car around. Breathless and shaking, she barely lifted her foot off the gas for the next 10 miles, she said. At one point she turned to her husband, Aaron Johnson, and handed him her cellphone. She planned to jump in the water and search for Micalah as soon as she got there. "I was just like, 'Please don't let it be her,'" Johnson said. When the Will County Sheriff's Department dive team located the car, it was submerged in more than 5 feet of fast-moving water. Authorities believe the creek was higher at the time of the accident, with one nearby resident telling officers that the creek flooded into the roadway as a wintry mix of ice and snow fell Monday. Investigators have begun a lengthy accident reconstruction effort to determine the cause. They are considering the possibility that the car hydroplaned on a patch of ice or water and crashed through the guardrail. The accident occurred on an arrow-straight, unlit section of Ballou Road just a fraction of a mile west of Warner Bridge Road in a rural section of Wesley Township, about 8 miles outside Wilmington. The impact of the crash tore the guardrail from the concrete bridge. The rail, which was supported by six steel posts, fell into the water, where a swift current ran past it in swirls Tuesday. The car's windows were all closed, and only one of the teens was wearing a seat belt when divers located the vehicle, Will County Deputy Chief Ken Kaupas said. The rescuers could not see clearly in the murky water, so they relied upon touch to determine that multiple bodies were in the car, including three people in the back seat.

– The young woman driving the SUV that crashed into a pond Sunday in Ohio, leaving six teens dead, did not have a driver's license, reports AP. And based on accounts from the two male survivors, police say Alexis Cayson was driving way too fast on a curvy road with a 35mph limit. In fact, the survivors say she sped up as she approached a turn known as Dead Man's Curve and lost control. Meanwhile, nine more teens have been killed in two more accidents, reports NBC News: In rural Will County, Illinois, four high school students ages 15 to 17 were pulled from their vehicle this morning after it ended up overturned in a creek last night, reports the Chicago Tribune. It looks like the car went through a guardrail and over a bridge, perhaps after hitting ice or standing water. In Dumas, Texas, five teens were killed when the car they were in ran a stop sign and collided with a fuel tanker, reports AP. All five, ranging in age from 15 to 17, were pronounced dead at the scene Sunday. The truck driver is in critical condition.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.The deaths of five teenagers in a fiery wreck after their vehicle ran a stop sign and collided with a tanker loaded with fuel affected families throughout the Texas Panhandle, a local official said Tuesday. "It's had a big effect on the whole area, and I think it always seems more tragic when you have a loss of life when people are so young," said Dr. David Bonner, the mayor pro tem of Dumas. Two of the teens were sisters from Dumas, a town of about 15,000. The others were from a nearby small town. Authorities say the teens died at the scene. The truck driver, Ezequiel Garcia, was in critical condition Tuesday with burns over 90 percent of his body. The collision occurred Sunday near Dumas, about 45 miles north of Amarillo. Preliminary reports indicate that alcohol was not a factor, authorities said. Authorities say Jacob Paul Stipe, 16, of Sunray, was driving when the Chevy pickup went through a stop sign and was hit on the passenger side by the tanker. Stipe was killed, along with Derrek Lee Hager and Christopher Lee Moore, both 17 and from Sunray, and October Dawn Roys, 17, and her younger sister, Elizabeth Kay Roys, 15. Area schools are on spring break this week, so news of the tragedy hadn't yet reached many people, Bonner said. "A lot of people are gone," he added. Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman Juan Medrano said he did not know where the teens were going when the accident occurred. The investigation continues. The Texas accident was the second nationwide that happened Sunday involving multiple deaths. Early Sunday, five teens and a young woman were killed in an accident in Ohio. ||||| NBC Chicago Emergency personnel at the scene where a car crashed into a creek in Illinois, killing four teens. Four Chicago-area teens were killed when their car plunged into a rain-swollen creek early Tuesday -- the latest in a string of horrific traffic accidents involving young people. The toll -- 15 dead in three major accidents since Sunday -- underscores how dangerous driving can be for teenagers. Crash injuries are the leading cause of death for people ages 13-19, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, even though deadly crashes have been on the decline for decades. The Illinois victims -- two boys and two girls, ages 15 to 17 -- left their homes Monday evening and never returned, NBCChicago.com reported. Their bodies were found in an overturned car in Forked Creek near Wilmington, about an hour from Chicago, about 7:30 a.m. Will County Sheriff's spokesman Ken Kaupas said it appears the accident was weather-related. "There may have been water coming over the roadway just before the bridge," he said. "We've had a tremendous amount of runoff and melting as everyone in the area has experienced, and that may have contributed to this horrific crash." The grim discovery came amid word of another devastating wreck in Texas that left five teenagers dead over the weekend. Three boys and two girls, who were sisters, were killed when their Chevy SUV ran a stop sign and collided with a fuel tanker on Sunday afternoon in Dumas, about 45 miles north of Amarillo. The truck driver, identified by The Associated Press as Ezequiel Garcia, was burned over much of his body and was in critical condition. That same day, six Ohio teens were killed when an SUV sped off a stretch of road known as dead man's curve and flipped into a pond. The State Highway Patrol revealed Tuesday that the driver, Alexis Cayson, 19, did not have a valid license. The owner of the vehicle says it was stolen and it's not clear how the teens ended up in it. Cayson was killed, along with five boys ages 14 to 19. Two boys survived by smashing a rear window and swimming to safety. One of them told police the driver may have been going 80 mph as she rounded a bend in the two-lane road in Warren, about 60 miles from Cleveland. “The car had jerked out of control,” another survivor, Brian Henry, 18, told Youngstown TV station WYTV. “I don’t know if she did it on purpose, or how fast she was going.” Teen deaths from car crashes are on the decline in the United States, dropping from 8,748 in 1975 to 3,115 in 2010, according to the insurance institute, but the risk of being in an accident is three times higher for teens than older drivers. The Associated Press contributed to this report. This story was originally published on ||||| Will County Sheriff's deputy Ken Kaupas leads a press conference Tuesday for the Wilmington crash that killed four teens, saying that the teens did not respond to calls from family, friends (WGN TV). Micalah Sembach had been only 30 minutes late when her family began to panic Monday. The 15-year-old had promised, without complaint, to be home by 5 p.m. to finish her chores and work on a math project. It wasn't like her to miss curfew, so relatives called the police Monday evening and quickly formed a search party that included her father, aunt, uncle and half of their neighbors. Part of the group scoured Wilmington's rural streets on foot, while others drove around the town's unlit back roads for hours in a desperate, nightlong search for the high school freshman and her three teenage friends. Micalah's aunt Melissa Robertson even woke up a local hotel manager in the middle of the night on the remote chance the kids had rented a room there. As their panic intensified, they called Micalah's cellphone repeatedly, coordinated with the other teens' families, asked for help on social media and prayed against the obvious. Even if they didn't give voice to it, everyone knew something horrible must have happened. "When she was told to be home, give or take two minutes, she was home," said Robertson, who lived with Micalah and her parents. "That's how much of a good kid she was. So we knew." What the family didn't know, however, was that their search would come to a heartbreaking end on the outskirts of town shortly after sunrise. The four teens — Micalah, Cheyenne Fender, 17, Matthew Bailey, 14, and Cody Carter, 15 — had all gone out together after school Monday. They had crammed into Cheyenne's Mitsubishi Eclipse, even though state law allows only one passenger younger than 20 to be in the vehicle during the driver's first year of licensing. As the two-door hatchback traveled along Ballou Road some time later, it smashed into the guardrail west of Warner Bridge Road and flipped into the swollen Forked Creek, a normally shallow tributary that had risen significantly in recent days amid rain and melting snow. The car sank, roof first, to the bottom. The small sports coupe would remain there throughout the night, cloaked from view until a school bus driver noticed a tire sticking out of the water. The four friends all drowned in the car, sending the tiny Kankakee River town into mourning and striking fear in the heart of every parent with a teenage driver. "(I was) praying, begging, pleading, willing to trade," Robertson said, her eyes filling with tears. "Fifteen years old. I'm already tired. She didn't even have a chance to get tired. ... I'm old and tired. I would have gladly gone in her place." Just before 7:30 a.m., Robertson received a call from a parent of one of the other teens, saying someone had spotted the Mitsubishi in Forked Creek. Robertson, who had been on her way to meet with a media outlet to get a picture of Micalah on the news, switched on her hazard lights and turned the car around. Breathless and shaking, she barely lifted her foot off the gas for the next 10 miles, she said. At one point she turned to her husband, Aaron Johnson, and handed him her cellphone. She planned to jump in the water and search for Micalah as soon as she got there. "I was just like, 'Please don't let it be her,'" Johnson said. When the Will County Sheriff's Department dive team located the car, it was submerged in more than 5 feet of fast-moving water. Authorities believe the creek was higher at the time of the accident, with one nearby resident telling officers that the creek flooded into the roadway as a wintry mix of ice and snow fell Monday. Investigators have begun a lengthy accident reconstruction effort to determine the cause. They are considering the possibility that the car hydroplaned on a patch of ice or water and crashed through the guardrail. The accident occurred on an arrow-straight, unlit section of Ballou Road just a fraction of a mile west of Warner Bridge Road in a rural section of Wesley Township, about 8 miles outside Wilmington. The impact of the crash tore the guardrail from the concrete bridge. The rail, which was supported by six steel posts, fell into the water, where a swift current ran past it in swirls Tuesday. The car's windows were all closed, and only one of the teens was wearing a seat belt when divers located the vehicle, Will County Deputy Chief Ken Kaupas said. The rescuers could not see clearly in the murky water, so they relied upon touch to determine that multiple bodies were in the car, including three people in the back seat.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

The White House is catching plenty of flak for its nomination of Chuck Hagel as defense secretary. Not just from Republicans seeking to fight the nomination, but from other corners decrying the lack of diversity at the top of President Obama’s Cabinet. The Washington Post ran a story Monday that noted the discrepancy between a president who made women’s issues core to his reelection campaign and yet named new top advisers — John F. Kerry as secretary of state, Chuck Hagel at Defense and John Brennan at the top of the CIA — who were all white men. On Tuesday, the New York Times ran its own story featuring a cringe-inducing photo from the Oval Office that looks more like the makings of a corporate softball team than the president’s top group of advisers. Jena McGregor writes a daily column analyzing leadership in the news for the Washington Post’s On Leadership section. View Archive Meanwhile, Bloomberg View columnist Margaret Carlson offered the ultimate critique with an op-ed titled “Obama to Romney: Send me your Binders Full of Women,” writing that “at the rate he is going, Obama is going to have a Cabinet that looks more like the Augusta National Golf Club than America.” Ouch. The lack of women at the very top of the still-forming new Cabinet is a cause for concern—not just because of the missing diverse inputs they’d bring to the president’s decision-making, but, as I’ve written before, because of the particular contributions certain women could make. However, the debate over diversity in the president’s Cabinet shouldn't just be about how many women there are, but how many new voices are present on a team that has long been criticized as too insular. In naming new Cabinet members, the president needs to balance selecting not just women vs. men, but people he trusts and knows well vs. those who could add fresh perspectives and alternative outside views. Consider the names he’s already chosen and those who are seen as front-runners for the spots that remain open. Kerry, the senior senator from Massachusetts, may not have served in the president’s Cabinet thus far, but he was a leading surrogate for the president during the campaign and stood in as Mitt Romney in debate preparation. Hagel, a former senator from Nebraska, has spent recent years as a professor at Georgetown, but he has already been co-chairman of Obama’s Intelligence Advisory Board. Brennan, meanwhile, is currently the White House counterterrorism adviser and has worked in the administration since the 2008 campaign. Others being considered for top jobs are also insiders. Jack Lew, the president’s current chief of staff, is being nominated to lead the Treasury Department. Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough and former Biden Chief of Staff Ron Klain are both rumored to be possible contenders to then fill Lew’s job. And top names for the attorney general’s job, meanwhile, if and when Eric H. Holder Jr. steps down, include current Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and current Deputy Attorney General James Cole. I’m not saying any of these picks would be bad ones. And it’s understandable that the president would want to choose people with whom he’s comfortable, who know the inner workings of an agency or who have been witness to the ups and downs of the top jobs by previously serving in deputy roles. In many cases, it’s simply good leadership to promote people from within and form a team that’s familiar enough with each other that they can get to work quickly. That said, especially when it comes to forming an advisory team, leaders also need to make sure they’re looking far enough afield in order to get the most diverse insights. As with most things leaders do, selecting a team is all about striking the right balance—between men and women, between various ethnic groups, and between experienced old hands and unconventional voices. Diversity is not a one-dimensional issue. Those critiquing the president — especially given his traditionally close inner circle — should be just as concerned about the backgrounds of the people on his team as they are about the makeup of their gender. Jena McGregor is a columnist for the Washington Post’s On Leadership section. ||||| President Barack Obama suffers from Groucho Marx syndrome: He favors those in the club he doesn’t belong to. Otherwise how to explain why he is fighting for Chuck Hagel to be secretary of defense but didn't for Susan Rice to be secretary of state? At the rate he is going, Obama is going to have a Cabinet that looks more like the Augusta National Golf Club than America. The four top Cabinet posts will probably go to white men: John Kerry at State; Jack Lew at Treasury; Hagel; and the replacement for Attorney General Eric Holder at Justice -- the short list of which consists of, you guessed it, men. Obama to Mitt Romney: Could you please send me your binders full of women? Actually Obama doesn’t need help. Washington is bursting with qualified women. Hagel is a fine choice, but there’s never only one. In plain sight was Michele Flournoy, the undersecretary of defense for policy until about a year ago. In the financial sector, there’s the economist Janet Yellen, vice chairman of the Federal Reserve; Lael Brainard, undersecretary of Treasury for international affairs; and stars from the private sector such as PepsiCo Chief Executive Officer Indra Nooyi and Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg. As for lawyers, there are outstanding lawyers on practically every corner in Washington. Obama does have a chance to get a woman in a Top Four slot when Holder hands in his expected resignation. The Great Mentioner mostly lists (highly qualified) men to replace him: Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, U.S. Attorney Neil MacBride of Virginia, Deputy Attorney General James Cole. What about state attorneys general such as Martha Coakley of Massachusetts or Lisa Madigan of Illinois? Just because they weren’t good gubernatorial candidates doesn’t mean they don't have fine records. Senators Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Claire McCaskill of Missouri have long legal experience. Either would be a great loss to the Senate -- but you can do so much more from atop the Justice Department. This is not to say that Patrick or Lew, who’s managed the often unmanageable White House well, shouldn’t be elevated. Obama’s problem is that he doesn’t look beyond his nose. Hagel was already on his foreign policy advisory board. Kerry hung out with him during debate prep. Obama may be resting on his laurels. His first-term appointments were among the most diverse in history. He can’t help that many of his stalwarts are gone or going: Christina Romer of the Council of Economic Advisers; Carol Browner of the Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy; Lisa Jackson of the Environmental Protection Agency; and of course Hillary Clinton. Maybe the lack of women on short lists is actually a good thing: After all, those names are often orchestrated by ambitious aides. And now that women see who Obama fights for and doesn’t, not being on the list may be advisable. No woman wants to be Riced. (Margaret Carlson is a Bloomberg View columnist. Follow her on Twitter.) Read more breaking commentary from Bloomberg View at the Ticker.

– Barack Obama's new Cabinet is coming into focus, and at this rate, it's going to look "more like the Augusta National Golf Club than America," quips Margaret Carlson in a Bloomberg column derisively titled "Obama to Romney: Send Me Your Binders Full of Women." All of Obama's new nominees are white men, and all of the people being talked about to replace Eric Holder are male as well. And it's telling that Obama was willing to go to bat for Chuck Hagel, but not Susan Rice. Obama shouldn't need a binder. "Washington is bursting with qualified women," Carlson argues, like undersecretary of defense Michele Flournoy, Fed vice chairman Janet Yellen, or undersecretary of Treasury Lael Brainard. "Obama's problem is that he doesn't look beyond his nose," picking people close to him. Indeed, Jena McGregor at the Washington Post thinks that in itself is a reason for concern. Obama needs diversity not just in gender and race, she argues, but in people "who could add fresh perspective and alternative outside views."

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.The White House is catching plenty of flak for its nomination of Chuck Hagel as defense secretary. Not just from Republicans seeking to fight the nomination, but from other corners decrying the lack of diversity at the top of President Obama’s Cabinet. The Washington Post ran a story Monday that noted the discrepancy between a president who made women’s issues core to his reelection campaign and yet named new top advisers — John F. Kerry as secretary of state, Chuck Hagel at Defense and John Brennan at the top of the CIA — who were all white men. On Tuesday, the New York Times ran its own story featuring a cringe-inducing photo from the Oval Office that looks more like the makings of a corporate softball team than the president’s top group of advisers. Jena McGregor writes a daily column analyzing leadership in the news for the Washington Post’s On Leadership section. View Archive Meanwhile, Bloomberg View columnist Margaret Carlson offered the ultimate critique with an op-ed titled “Obama to Romney: Send me your Binders Full of Women,” writing that “at the rate he is going, Obama is going to have a Cabinet that looks more like the Augusta National Golf Club than America.” Ouch. The lack of women at the very top of the still-forming new Cabinet is a cause for concern—not just because of the missing diverse inputs they’d bring to the president’s decision-making, but, as I’ve written before, because of the particular contributions certain women could make. However, the debate over diversity in the president’s Cabinet shouldn't just be about how many women there are, but how many new voices are present on a team that has long been criticized as too insular. In naming new Cabinet members, the president needs to balance selecting not just women vs. men, but people he trusts and knows well vs. those who could add fresh perspectives and alternative outside views. Consider the names he’s already chosen and those who are seen as front-runners for the spots that remain open. Kerry, the senior senator from Massachusetts, may not have served in the president’s Cabinet thus far, but he was a leading surrogate for the president during the campaign and stood in as Mitt Romney in debate preparation. Hagel, a former senator from Nebraska, has spent recent years as a professor at Georgetown, but he has already been co-chairman of Obama’s Intelligence Advisory Board. Brennan, meanwhile, is currently the White House counterterrorism adviser and has worked in the administration since the 2008 campaign. Others being considered for top jobs are also insiders. Jack Lew, the president’s current chief of staff, is being nominated to lead the Treasury Department. Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough and former Biden Chief of Staff Ron Klain are both rumored to be possible contenders to then fill Lew’s job. And top names for the attorney general’s job, meanwhile, if and when Eric H. Holder Jr. steps down, include current Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and current Deputy Attorney General James Cole. I’m not saying any of these picks would be bad ones. And it’s understandable that the president would want to choose people with whom he’s comfortable, who know the inner workings of an agency or who have been witness to the ups and downs of the top jobs by previously serving in deputy roles. In many cases, it’s simply good leadership to promote people from within and form a team that’s familiar enough with each other that they can get to work quickly. That said, especially when it comes to forming an advisory team, leaders also need to make sure they’re looking far enough afield in order to get the most diverse insights. As with most things leaders do, selecting a team is all about striking the right balance—between men and women, between various ethnic groups, and between experienced old hands and unconventional voices. Diversity is not a one-dimensional issue. Those critiquing the president — especially given his traditionally close inner circle — should be just as concerned about the backgrounds of the people on his team as they are about the makeup of their gender. Jena McGregor is a columnist for the Washington Post’s On Leadership section. ||||| President Barack Obama suffers from Groucho Marx syndrome: He favors those in the club he doesn’t belong to. Otherwise how to explain why he is fighting for Chuck Hagel to be secretary of defense but didn't for Susan Rice to be secretary of state? At the rate he is going, Obama is going to have a Cabinet that looks more like the Augusta National Golf Club than America. The four top Cabinet posts will probably go to white men: John Kerry at State; Jack Lew at Treasury; Hagel; and the replacement for Attorney General Eric Holder at Justice -- the short list of which consists of, you guessed it, men. Obama to Mitt Romney: Could you please send me your binders full of women? Actually Obama doesn’t need help. Washington is bursting with qualified women. Hagel is a fine choice, but there’s never only one. In plain sight was Michele Flournoy, the undersecretary of defense for policy until about a year ago. In the financial sector, there’s the economist Janet Yellen, vice chairman of the Federal Reserve; Lael Brainard, undersecretary of Treasury for international affairs; and stars from the private sector such as PepsiCo Chief Executive Officer Indra Nooyi and Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg. As for lawyers, there are outstanding lawyers on practically every corner in Washington. Obama does have a chance to get a woman in a Top Four slot when Holder hands in his expected resignation. The Great Mentioner mostly lists (highly qualified) men to replace him: Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, U.S. Attorney Neil MacBride of Virginia, Deputy Attorney General James Cole. What about state attorneys general such as Martha Coakley of Massachusetts or Lisa Madigan of Illinois? Just because they weren’t good gubernatorial candidates doesn’t mean they don't have fine records. Senators Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Claire McCaskill of Missouri have long legal experience. Either would be a great loss to the Senate -- but you can do so much more from atop the Justice Department. This is not to say that Patrick or Lew, who’s managed the often unmanageable White House well, shouldn’t be elevated. Obama’s problem is that he doesn’t look beyond his nose. Hagel was already on his foreign policy advisory board. Kerry hung out with him during debate prep. Obama may be resting on his laurels. His first-term appointments were among the most diverse in history. He can’t help that many of his stalwarts are gone or going: Christina Romer of the Council of Economic Advisers; Carol Browner of the Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy; Lisa Jackson of the Environmental Protection Agency; and of course Hillary Clinton. Maybe the lack of women on short lists is actually a good thing: After all, those names are often orchestrated by ambitious aides. And now that women see who Obama fights for and doesn’t, not being on the list may be advisable. No woman wants to be Riced. (Margaret Carlson is a Bloomberg View columnist. Follow her on Twitter.) Read more breaking commentary from Bloomberg View at the Ticker.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Teacher promises students he'll shake off final exam if Taylor Swift calls share share tweet pin email Students at one Billings, Montana school are hoping a teacher's promise to them isn't something Taylor Swift will just shake off. World history teacher Colter Pierce, who teaches at Skyview High School, promised student Ike Stoner that he wouldn't administer finals if Stoner got Taylor Swift to give Pierce a call. Colter signed the agreement on a whiteboard and shook hands with Stoner on it, and the photo went up on Twitter May 20. From there it just took off. "It got out of hand fast," Pierce told KTVQ. "It escalated quickly ... at last check, 107,000 [Facebook shares]." (It's now over 267,000.) "It was kind of a joke, really. I just wanted to see if I could get more followers on Twitter," said Stoner. So far, no call from Swift and no acknowledgement of the "joke" on her Twitter feed has emerged (and since she is on tour, she may have other things keeping her busy). This isn't the first Swift connection to final exams; back in 2012 the Lins brothers made a funny video about how they incorporated the pop princess' music into their studying routine. Meanwhile, Stoner lives in hope: "Come on, Taylor," he said. "Please call for us." She has just under two weeks to make good; either way there'll hopefully be no bad blood between her and the students. Follow Randee Dawn on Google+ and Twitter. ||||| All you had to do was stay call! Students at Skyview High School in Billings, Mont., are crossing their fingers this week that one famous celebrity will be calling their teacher sooner rather than later. To get you caught up, world history professor Colter Pierce promised his class that he wouldn't administer finals if student Ike Stoner could get Taylor Swift to call him. The bet turned into an agreement displayed crystal clear on the classroom's whiteboard. "If Taylor Swift calls me, my students don't have to take their finals," the note read. ||||| The shares have greatly increased since this photo was taken on Friday afternoon. A call from pop star Taylor Swift would nix a formal final in the history class. Since posted on Wednesday, these photos have gone viral, being shared more than 100 times a minute. With school finals just around the corner, students might think of any way to get out of a test. A Skyview High School history teacher and his students are gaining national attention for a simple request to a pop culture icon to help "Shake It Off." Step into Colter Pierce's classroom and you'll learn world history. Take a look online and you'll find Pierce shaking the hand of student Ike Stoner, who came up with a simple pact that asks one woman to make what students in the class feel is a very important call. "Pretty much all semester, I've been talking about Taylor Swift," Pierce conceded when asked why she was picked as the celebrity. He admitted to having a celebrity crush on the singer. When it was posted on social media on Wednesday following Stoner's idea, it wasn't met with high expectations. "It was kind of a joke really," Stoner said. "I just wanted to see if I could get more followers on Twitter." Stoner posted the 13 word message on Twitter. Fellow student Ashton Goodell helped the cause by sharing the photo of the agreement on Facebook. "It got out of hand fast. It escalated quickly," Pierce said. And maybe the punchline of what started out as a joke is people aren't kidding about their support. Shares on the Facebook post climbed rapidly. "Twenty-two thousand. 40,000. 45,000, 49. Then when I went to bed last night 55,000. When I got here this morning 83,000. And last check was 107,000," Pierce laughed. "According to our math, it's about 100 a minute." Even if the call from Swift does happen, Pierce will administer some sort of exam to test the knowledge of students, but it will be much easier so he can honor the contract which school officials agreed to. It shows history is happening in this history class with students experiencing the age of social media. "I think if Taylor Swift called, everyone's going to go and try to get a celebrity's attention," Goodell said. "Everybody wants to meet a celebrity. Taylor Swift? That'd be pretty crazy." Pierce said he's been impressed with his student's excitement on it, but also said it's not a distraction from learning in the classroom. "It's not so much trying to get these kids out of their final as it is seeing that celebrities are still normal, down to earth people," he said. "And I think that's the biggest driving force behind it." So, Taylor Swift, are you listening? "Come on Taylor," Stoner said. "Please call for us." As of Friday, Swift has not called but finals does not start for another two weeks giving her more time. The post had been shared more than 134,000 times as of Friday afternoon.

– Does world history teacher Colter Pierce at Skyview High School set a tough final exam? This year's students will never have to find out if Taylor Swift gives the Billings, Mont., teacher a call. He has promised the exam will be canceled if the star calls him, and a Facebook post with a copy of the promise has now been shared more than 276,000 times and even mentioned on Today, E! Online reports. School officials somehow agreed to the deal thought up last week by student Ike Stoner, though some kind of test, presumably an easier one, will still have to be given if the singer grants Pierce's wish, reports KTVQ. Why Taylor Swift? Pierce tells KTVQ that he has a "celebrity crush" on her and admits he has been talking about her "pretty much all semester." Despite her record-breaking 20 Billboard Music Award wins, Swift's place in world history will have to be determined by future historians, but Pierce says students are still learning from the experience—perhaps about social media's place in history. But "it's not so much trying to get these kids out of their final as it is seeing that celebrities are still normal, down-to-earth people," he adds. "And I think that's the biggest driving force behind it." (Earlier this year, Swift tangled with the Princeton Review over grammar.)

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Teacher promises students he'll shake off final exam if Taylor Swift calls share share tweet pin email Students at one Billings, Montana school are hoping a teacher's promise to them isn't something Taylor Swift will just shake off. World history teacher Colter Pierce, who teaches at Skyview High School, promised student Ike Stoner that he wouldn't administer finals if Stoner got Taylor Swift to give Pierce a call. Colter signed the agreement on a whiteboard and shook hands with Stoner on it, and the photo went up on Twitter May 20. From there it just took off. "It got out of hand fast," Pierce told KTVQ. "It escalated quickly ... at last check, 107,000 [Facebook shares]." (It's now over 267,000.) "It was kind of a joke, really. I just wanted to see if I could get more followers on Twitter," said Stoner. So far, no call from Swift and no acknowledgement of the "joke" on her Twitter feed has emerged (and since she is on tour, she may have other things keeping her busy). This isn't the first Swift connection to final exams; back in 2012 the Lins brothers made a funny video about how they incorporated the pop princess' music into their studying routine. Meanwhile, Stoner lives in hope: "Come on, Taylor," he said. "Please call for us." She has just under two weeks to make good; either way there'll hopefully be no bad blood between her and the students. Follow Randee Dawn on Google+ and Twitter. ||||| All you had to do was stay call! Students at Skyview High School in Billings, Mont., are crossing their fingers this week that one famous celebrity will be calling their teacher sooner rather than later. To get you caught up, world history professor Colter Pierce promised his class that he wouldn't administer finals if student Ike Stoner could get Taylor Swift to call him. The bet turned into an agreement displayed crystal clear on the classroom's whiteboard. "If Taylor Swift calls me, my students don't have to take their finals," the note read. ||||| The shares have greatly increased since this photo was taken on Friday afternoon. A call from pop star Taylor Swift would nix a formal final in the history class. Since posted on Wednesday, these photos have gone viral, being shared more than 100 times a minute. With school finals just around the corner, students might think of any way to get out of a test. A Skyview High School history teacher and his students are gaining national attention for a simple request to a pop culture icon to help "Shake It Off." Step into Colter Pierce's classroom and you'll learn world history. Take a look online and you'll find Pierce shaking the hand of student Ike Stoner, who came up with a simple pact that asks one woman to make what students in the class feel is a very important call. "Pretty much all semester, I've been talking about Taylor Swift," Pierce conceded when asked why she was picked as the celebrity. He admitted to having a celebrity crush on the singer. When it was posted on social media on Wednesday following Stoner's idea, it wasn't met with high expectations. "It was kind of a joke really," Stoner said. "I just wanted to see if I could get more followers on Twitter." Stoner posted the 13 word message on Twitter. Fellow student Ashton Goodell helped the cause by sharing the photo of the agreement on Facebook. "It got out of hand fast. It escalated quickly," Pierce said. And maybe the punchline of what started out as a joke is people aren't kidding about their support. Shares on the Facebook post climbed rapidly. "Twenty-two thousand. 40,000. 45,000, 49. Then when I went to bed last night 55,000. When I got here this morning 83,000. And last check was 107,000," Pierce laughed. "According to our math, it's about 100 a minute." Even if the call from Swift does happen, Pierce will administer some sort of exam to test the knowledge of students, but it will be much easier so he can honor the contract which school officials agreed to. It shows history is happening in this history class with students experiencing the age of social media. "I think if Taylor Swift called, everyone's going to go and try to get a celebrity's attention," Goodell said. "Everybody wants to meet a celebrity. Taylor Swift? That'd be pretty crazy." Pierce said he's been impressed with his student's excitement on it, but also said it's not a distraction from learning in the classroom. "It's not so much trying to get these kids out of their final as it is seeing that celebrities are still normal, down to earth people," he said. "And I think that's the biggest driving force behind it." So, Taylor Swift, are you listening? "Come on Taylor," Stoner said. "Please call for us." As of Friday, Swift has not called but finals does not start for another two weeks giving her more time. The post had been shared more than 134,000 times as of Friday afternoon.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE By Jonathan Riskind [email protected] MaineToday Media Washington Bureau Chief WASHINGTON -- Maine Republican Party Chairman Charlie Webster said Friday that he doesn't know whether Mitt Romney will be declared the winner of the Maine caucuses' GOP presidential straw poll or suffer a setback to Ron Paul. Maine GOP Chairman Charlie Webster Staff photo by David Leaming Select images available for purchase in the Maine Today Photo Store But Webster said he's pretty sure of two things: the race is close and the winner of the previously low-profile Maine caucuses will get a needed boost. "What will happen is that either Paul or Romney will win by 200 votes, in my opinion, one way or the other," Webster said Friday, although he did not know the tally from the caucuses that have been held statewide. Webster and independent analysts say Maine won't make or break Romney, who lost the front-runner status he gained with wins in Florida and Nevada by losing Tuesday to Rick Santorum in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri. But a win by Romney would help change a narrative that his campaign is struggling. Romney visited the state Friday night in a last-ditch effort to win some votes. The Maine Republican Party is holding what it is calling a preferance poll announcement tonight in Portland. Many of the state's 16 counties have already caucused and those results will be announced at the event. Counties in the heavily populated southern portion of the state, including York, Cumberland and Androscoggin, are caucusing today. A handful of communities plan caucuses for next Saturday. A win by Paul would show that the U.S. House member from Texas can actually come in first in a 2012 GOP contest, something he hasn't done. Paul spent two days in Maine last month, drawing large crowds, and is spending today in Maine, visiting caucus sites in Sanford, Lewiston and New Gloucester and holding a party in Portland. "I think it will be important see what (Maine Republicans) think," Webster said. "I do think it is important to Romney and Paul that they do well here." Romney easily won the Maine caucuses in 2008 over eventual GOP nominee John McCain and third-place finisher Paul. Romney is a former Massachusetts governor who should do well in Maine, analysts say. Maine's nonbinding caucus event today is the first step to select the state's 24 delegates to the Republican National Convention, though three slots go automatically to the Maine GOP chairman and two other party officials. Overall, 1,144 delegates are needed nationally to capture the GOP presidential nomination. Santorum and Newt Gingrich haven't campaigned in Maine and aren't thought to be factors in the state's contest. Christian Potholm, a government professor at Bowdoin College, said the Romney campaign may feel pressure to win in Maine. But a muddled GOP primary season won't become clearer until the 11-state round of Super Tuesday contests on March 6 and even beyond, he said. "Winning in Maine won't do anything to change that dynamic," Potholm said. Maine Democrats are reveling in a GOP nominating season that appears likely to stretch a long way, and suggesting that a Romney loss in Maine would be downright embarrassing because he won the state caucuses four years ago with more than 50 percent of the vote. "(Romney) needs to at least equal that," said Janet Mills, vice chair of the Maine Democratic Party. "He is coming here with his tail between his legs. "Morale-wise and from a momentum perspective, he absolutely needs to win Maine and he needs to win big." The Romney campaign says it wants to win in Maine, but discounts the suggestion that any one state is vital. "Governor Romney is running a national campaign and competing in nominating contests across the country," Ryan Williams, a Romney campaign spokesman, said Friday. "We hope to do as well as possible on Saturday and look forward to securing the support needed to win the nomination and defeat President Obama in November." Jonathan Riskind -- 791-6280 [email protected] Twitter: Twitter.com/MaineTodayDC ||||| Mitt Romney hoped to avoid a fourth straight election setback Saturday in the GOP presidential nomination race, but feisty Ron Paul could extend that losing streak with a victory in Maine's caucuses. Romney, the one-time front-runner, stepped up efforts to court Republicans in recent days, reflecting growing concern about the outcome of what has become a two-man race in Maine. Neither Newt Gingrich nor Rick Santorum, who won in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado on Tuesday, is actively competing in Maine, where party officials planned to declare a winner Saturday evening. Paul was optimistic as he greeted morning caucus-goers in Sanford, where a few hundred Republicans gathered in a nearly-filled high school gymnasium. "I think we have a very good chance," Paul said. Romney will "be better off if he wins it and I'm going to be a lot better off if I win. So this will give me momentum and it will just maintain his. It's a pretty important state as far as I'm concerned." Romney wants Maine voters to help in his struggle to convince his party's conservative wing that he should be the candidate they back. The former Massachusetts governor said in a Washington speech Friday that he was "a severely conservative Republican governor." He echoed that message in Sanford minutes after Paul left, and later in the day at a crowded Portland caucus. "In my home with my mom and dad I learned conservative values," Romney said. "I want to ask you and the people of Maine for your vote. If I get your vote, it'll help me become our nominee. If I become our nominee, I'm going to beat this guy and bring America back." Paul, a libertarian-minded Texas congressman, is fighting to prove he's capable of winning at all, particularly in a state where his campaign has focused considerable attention. He has scored a few top three finishes in other early voting states, but his strategy is based on winning some of the smaller caucus contests where his passionate base of support can have an oversized impact. Paul suggested his candidacy was at a critical juncture. Asked whether he would stay in the contest until the GOP's national convention in August, he answered: "I'm going to stay in as long as I'm in the race. And right now I'm in the race." There is no reliable polling to gauge the state of the Maine election, which drew fewer than 5,500 voters from across the state four years ago. But Romney's recent activities suggest a victory is by no means assured, despite the natural advantages of being a former New England governor competing in a state he won with more than 50 percent of the vote four years ago. He changed his schedule Friday night to add personal appearances at two caucuses Saturday; he had planned to take the day off. Romney faced a rowdy crowd at a town hall-style meeting in Portland Friday night, where one heckler was removed by police. Others asked pointed questions about his off-shore bank accounts, feelings about the nation's poor, and his continued support for the natural gas extraction process known as fracking. On Saturday morning, he suggested that he's the only one in the race who isn't a Washington insider. "I have never spent a day in Washington working," Romney said. "I expect to go there, get it fixed, and then go home. I'm not going to stay in Washington." Some crowd members chanted, "Ron Paul," as Romney left the crowded gymnasium. Maine's nonbinding presidential straw poll, which began Feb. 4, has drawn virtually none of the hype surrounding recent elections in Florida and Nevada, where candidates poured millions of dollars into television and radio advertising. Romney and his allies spent a combined $15.9 million in Florida. But his campaign had placed only a small cable television ad buy airing Friday and Saturday, at a cost of several thousand dollars. But he sent surrogates to the state in recent days and hosted a telephone town hall in addition to Friday's campaign stop. Maine's caucuses are spread over a week. The state party will announce a winner Saturday evening, although a few contests will be held Sunday. Washington County, in the state's far eastern region, postponed its caucuses until Feb. 18 because of a snow storm, disappointing some participants. Helen Saccone, who's from Lubec, said she understands that weather could create problems, but that those who wanted to caucus should have had the chance. "It's Maine. Life goes on when it snows in Maine," she said. The rural region is likely stronger territory for Paul, who has been more active than Romney in the state. Paul did reasonably well in Maine four years ago, earning more than 18 percent of the vote, and his support has grown since then in a state whose electorate isn't afraid to support candidates outside the mainstream. The tea party, hardly a Romney ally, has exerted significant influence, taking over the GOP platform and helping to elect Gov. Paul LePage. "Paul needs to show he can win somewhere," GOP strategist Phil Musser said. "My sense is a win in Maine for Romney would be nice. But to be honest, Ron Paul is camped out up there and he needs to win one." The timing of the contest also raises the stakes. The narrative coming out of Maine will likely reverberate in the political echo chamber for weeks, given there isn't another election until Arizona and Michigan host their contests Feb. 28. Romney hopes that narrative will be more positive than it has been over the last week, arguably his worst of the year.

– The GOP chairman in Maine thinks tonight's results from a straw poll linked to caucuses will be close—as in fewer than 200 votes separating Mitt Romney and Ron Paul, reports the Kennebec Journal. He's just not predicting which candidate will finish on top. It's a nonbinding poll, meaning no delegates will be awarded, but both Romney and Paul are in the state to rally supporters. "I think we have a very good chance," said Paul today at a caucus in Sanford, according to AP. Romney will "be better off if he wins it and I'm going to be a lot better off if I win. So this will give me momentum and it will just maintain his. It's a pretty important state as far as I'm concerned." Romney, meanwhile, played himself up as a conservative, as he did yesterday at CPAC. "In my home with my mom and dad I learned conservative values," he said. "I want to ask you and the people of Maine for your vote." Neither Newt Gingrich nor Rick Santorum is competing in the state.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE By Jonathan Riskind [email protected] MaineToday Media Washington Bureau Chief WASHINGTON -- Maine Republican Party Chairman Charlie Webster said Friday that he doesn't know whether Mitt Romney will be declared the winner of the Maine caucuses' GOP presidential straw poll or suffer a setback to Ron Paul. Maine GOP Chairman Charlie Webster Staff photo by David Leaming Select images available for purchase in the Maine Today Photo Store But Webster said he's pretty sure of two things: the race is close and the winner of the previously low-profile Maine caucuses will get a needed boost. "What will happen is that either Paul or Romney will win by 200 votes, in my opinion, one way or the other," Webster said Friday, although he did not know the tally from the caucuses that have been held statewide. Webster and independent analysts say Maine won't make or break Romney, who lost the front-runner status he gained with wins in Florida and Nevada by losing Tuesday to Rick Santorum in Colorado, Minnesota and Missouri. But a win by Romney would help change a narrative that his campaign is struggling. Romney visited the state Friday night in a last-ditch effort to win some votes. The Maine Republican Party is holding what it is calling a preferance poll announcement tonight in Portland. Many of the state's 16 counties have already caucused and those results will be announced at the event. Counties in the heavily populated southern portion of the state, including York, Cumberland and Androscoggin, are caucusing today. A handful of communities plan caucuses for next Saturday. A win by Paul would show that the U.S. House member from Texas can actually come in first in a 2012 GOP contest, something he hasn't done. Paul spent two days in Maine last month, drawing large crowds, and is spending today in Maine, visiting caucus sites in Sanford, Lewiston and New Gloucester and holding a party in Portland. "I think it will be important see what (Maine Republicans) think," Webster said. "I do think it is important to Romney and Paul that they do well here." Romney easily won the Maine caucuses in 2008 over eventual GOP nominee John McCain and third-place finisher Paul. Romney is a former Massachusetts governor who should do well in Maine, analysts say. Maine's nonbinding caucus event today is the first step to select the state's 24 delegates to the Republican National Convention, though three slots go automatically to the Maine GOP chairman and two other party officials. Overall, 1,144 delegates are needed nationally to capture the GOP presidential nomination. Santorum and Newt Gingrich haven't campaigned in Maine and aren't thought to be factors in the state's contest. Christian Potholm, a government professor at Bowdoin College, said the Romney campaign may feel pressure to win in Maine. But a muddled GOP primary season won't become clearer until the 11-state round of Super Tuesday contests on March 6 and even beyond, he said. "Winning in Maine won't do anything to change that dynamic," Potholm said. Maine Democrats are reveling in a GOP nominating season that appears likely to stretch a long way, and suggesting that a Romney loss in Maine would be downright embarrassing because he won the state caucuses four years ago with more than 50 percent of the vote. "(Romney) needs to at least equal that," said Janet Mills, vice chair of the Maine Democratic Party. "He is coming here with his tail between his legs. "Morale-wise and from a momentum perspective, he absolutely needs to win Maine and he needs to win big." The Romney campaign says it wants to win in Maine, but discounts the suggestion that any one state is vital. "Governor Romney is running a national campaign and competing in nominating contests across the country," Ryan Williams, a Romney campaign spokesman, said Friday. "We hope to do as well as possible on Saturday and look forward to securing the support needed to win the nomination and defeat President Obama in November." Jonathan Riskind -- 791-6280 [email protected] Twitter: Twitter.com/MaineTodayDC ||||| Mitt Romney hoped to avoid a fourth straight election setback Saturday in the GOP presidential nomination race, but feisty Ron Paul could extend that losing streak with a victory in Maine's caucuses. Romney, the one-time front-runner, stepped up efforts to court Republicans in recent days, reflecting growing concern about the outcome of what has become a two-man race in Maine. Neither Newt Gingrich nor Rick Santorum, who won in Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado on Tuesday, is actively competing in Maine, where party officials planned to declare a winner Saturday evening. Paul was optimistic as he greeted morning caucus-goers in Sanford, where a few hundred Republicans gathered in a nearly-filled high school gymnasium. "I think we have a very good chance," Paul said. Romney will "be better off if he wins it and I'm going to be a lot better off if I win. So this will give me momentum and it will just maintain his. It's a pretty important state as far as I'm concerned." Romney wants Maine voters to help in his struggle to convince his party's conservative wing that he should be the candidate they back. The former Massachusetts governor said in a Washington speech Friday that he was "a severely conservative Republican governor." He echoed that message in Sanford minutes after Paul left, and later in the day at a crowded Portland caucus. "In my home with my mom and dad I learned conservative values," Romney said. "I want to ask you and the people of Maine for your vote. If I get your vote, it'll help me become our nominee. If I become our nominee, I'm going to beat this guy and bring America back." Paul, a libertarian-minded Texas congressman, is fighting to prove he's capable of winning at all, particularly in a state where his campaign has focused considerable attention. He has scored a few top three finishes in other early voting states, but his strategy is based on winning some of the smaller caucus contests where his passionate base of support can have an oversized impact. Paul suggested his candidacy was at a critical juncture. Asked whether he would stay in the contest until the GOP's national convention in August, he answered: "I'm going to stay in as long as I'm in the race. And right now I'm in the race." There is no reliable polling to gauge the state of the Maine election, which drew fewer than 5,500 voters from across the state four years ago. But Romney's recent activities suggest a victory is by no means assured, despite the natural advantages of being a former New England governor competing in a state he won with more than 50 percent of the vote four years ago. He changed his schedule Friday night to add personal appearances at two caucuses Saturday; he had planned to take the day off. Romney faced a rowdy crowd at a town hall-style meeting in Portland Friday night, where one heckler was removed by police. Others asked pointed questions about his off-shore bank accounts, feelings about the nation's poor, and his continued support for the natural gas extraction process known as fracking. On Saturday morning, he suggested that he's the only one in the race who isn't a Washington insider. "I have never spent a day in Washington working," Romney said. "I expect to go there, get it fixed, and then go home. I'm not going to stay in Washington." Some crowd members chanted, "Ron Paul," as Romney left the crowded gymnasium. Maine's nonbinding presidential straw poll, which began Feb. 4, has drawn virtually none of the hype surrounding recent elections in Florida and Nevada, where candidates poured millions of dollars into television and radio advertising. Romney and his allies spent a combined $15.9 million in Florida. But his campaign had placed only a small cable television ad buy airing Friday and Saturday, at a cost of several thousand dollars. But he sent surrogates to the state in recent days and hosted a telephone town hall in addition to Friday's campaign stop. Maine's caucuses are spread over a week. The state party will announce a winner Saturday evening, although a few contests will be held Sunday. Washington County, in the state's far eastern region, postponed its caucuses until Feb. 18 because of a snow storm, disappointing some participants. Helen Saccone, who's from Lubec, said she understands that weather could create problems, but that those who wanted to caucus should have had the chance. "It's Maine. Life goes on when it snows in Maine," she said. The rural region is likely stronger territory for Paul, who has been more active than Romney in the state. Paul did reasonably well in Maine four years ago, earning more than 18 percent of the vote, and his support has grown since then in a state whose electorate isn't afraid to support candidates outside the mainstream. The tea party, hardly a Romney ally, has exerted significant influence, taking over the GOP platform and helping to elect Gov. Paul LePage. "Paul needs to show he can win somewhere," GOP strategist Phil Musser said. "My sense is a win in Maine for Romney would be nice. But to be honest, Ron Paul is camped out up there and he needs to win one." The timing of the contest also raises the stakes. The narrative coming out of Maine will likely reverberate in the political echo chamber for weeks, given there isn't another election until Arizona and Michigan host their contests Feb. 28. Romney hopes that narrative will be more positive than it has been over the last week, arguably his worst of the year.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Virgin Galactic conducted its fourth powered test flight of the SpaceShipTwo Unity on Dec. 13, 2018, marking the first time the ship reached space , and the photos are incredible. See photos from the test flight here. This image here is shows Unity as it climbs toward space during the Dec. 13 test flight. It was the fastest, highest one yet. ||||| Virgin Galactic launched a spacecraft more than 50 miles high Thursday, reaching the Federal Aviation Administration’s definition of space and capturing a long-elusive goal for the company founded by Richard Branson that one day wants to fly tourists through the atmosphere. Though it did not reach orbit, the flight was the first launch of a spacecraft from U.S. soil with humans on board to reach the edge of space since the Space Shuttle was retired in 2011. And it effectively opens a new era in human spaceflight, one where companies are working to end governments’ long held monopoly on space, aiming to push farther faster. Though it just scratched the lowest edge of where many believe space begins, the launch had huge implications for a growing industry aiming to fly civilians on a regular basis. The flight was bold and risky, and following a fatal crash from four years ago, reminiscent in its daring of a bygone era of human spaceflight. It comes at a time when NASA is still forced to rely on Russia to fly its astronauts to orbit and faces criticism that its aversion to risk has replaced the youthful audacity that helped it put men on the moon. With the flight — taking place on a chilly morning shortly after sunrise — Virgin can claim an edge in the race for human spaceflight, as a number of companies, including SpaceX, Blue Origin and Boeing, work to develop spacecraft capable of flying people. With two seasoned pilots in the cockpit — Mark “Forger” Stucky and C.J. Sturckow — the vehicle known as SpaceShipTwo was ferried to an altitude of about 43,000 feet by a mother ship. Like a bomb, the spacecraft was released into a free fall before the pilot ignited the engine, propelling the spaceplane faster than the speed of sound. Soon, the vehicle pointed almost straight up, as it streaked through the same skies over the California desert where Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier in 1947. The spacecraft reached a height of 51.4 miles, hitting a top speed of Mach 2.9, before descending and returning the company’s space port in Mojave. [Virgin Galactic’s quest for space] On the ground, a gaggle of press, space enthusiasts, including Branson and his guests watched the flight, tilting their heads skyward. Branson, wearing a leather bomber jacket, hugged his son as the spacecraft raced upward and a commentator called out the altitude. “It’s been 14 long years to get here. We’ve had tears, real tears, and moments of joy. So the tears today were tears of joy,” he told reporters afterward. “It was maybe tears of relief as well. When you are in the test flight program of a space company you can never be completely 100 percent sure.” Stucky, the pilot in command for the mission, said it went as smoothly as it could have — and well enough for him to perform a victory barrel roll as the spacecraft returned to Earth. 1 of 12 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo test flight reaches space View Photos Virgin Galactic launched a spacecraft more than 50 miles high, meeting the Federal Aviation Administration’s definition of space. Caption Virgin Galactic launched a spacecraft more than 50 miles high, meeting the Federal Aviation Administration’s definition of space. Handout/Reuters Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. “That was rather incredible,” he said. Seeing “the dark sky was great. Everything just worked great. ...We had tons of extra propellant. Had plenty of time to look around.” Virgin Galactic has nearly 700 people who have paid as much as $250,000 for its suborbital joyrides — more than the 560 or so people who have ever been to space. Eventually the company wants to fly six passengers at a time. The FAA plans to formally honor the pilots of Thursday’s flight by awarding them commercial astronaut wings at a ceremony in Washington next year. For Branson, the launch was the culmination of years’ worth of lofty dreams and tragic setbacks as he sought to build what he calls “the world’s first commercial spaceline.” He founded Virgin Galactic after buying the rights in 2004 to the technology behind SpaceShipOne, the spacecraft funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen that made it to the edge of space three times that year, winning the $10 million Ansari X prize and becoming the first privately funded vehicle to fly humans to space. Thursday’s launch was also a major milestone for a growing commercial space industry, which for all its triumphs has yet to show it can routinely fly humans into space. But that may soon change. Blue Origin, the space company founded by Jeffrey P. Bezos, also plans to fly tourists, though to a higher altitude and with a rocket that launches vertically, not a spaceplane. (Bezos owns The Washington Post.) Its first test flights with humans on board are scheduled for next year. SpaceX, the company founded by Elon Musk, and Boeing are under contract with NASA to fly astronauts to the International Space Station, the orbiting laboratory, as early as next year. As the plight of Virgin Galactic shows, ending government’s long-held monopoly on human spaceflight has been difficult. Despite the long odds, Branson started his quest to open space to the masses with his typical bravado, vowing the company would soon be taking tourists by the hundreds on awe-inspiring jaunts to the cosmos. But years passed, the program suffered delay after delay and in 2014, a fatal setback: The spacecraft came apart midflight, killing Michael Alsbury, the pilot. As federal investigators probed what caused the crash, Branson pondered whether to continue, ultimately vowing to press on. [Companies in the Cosmos: Entrepreneurs are defining a new space age] In 2016, he unveiled a new spaceplane, dubbed Unity, and the company started its test program again, slowly pushing the envelope on test flight after test flight. Thursday’s flight was a key milestone that the company says will push it closer to flying tourists from Spaceport America, Virgin Galactic’s futuristic launch facility in New Mexico. Branson said he has invested nearly $1 billion of his own money into the venture. “Space is not cheap,” he said. Now Virgin is looking forward to selling more tickets and making the company commercially viable, he said. Once the test program is finished, he said the operation will move next year to Spaceport America, the futuristic facility in New Mexico where it intends to fly its tourist flights. Branson has said he intends to be on the first commercial flight. The company is now building two more spaceships in anticipation of the price coming down and more people signing up to fly. Virgin’s ultimate goal is to build spaceports around the globe, “and we’re operating multiple times a week at each one of those and enabling tens of thousands of people to experience space,” George Whitesides, Virgin Galactic’s chief executive, said in a recent interview. Eventually, the company would like to turn those spaceports into “future hubs for a network of intercontinental transportation nodes” where the spaceships can transport people across the globe in a matter of hours. In the long term, the company wants to fly “into major airports because we have a winged vehicle that can integrate smoothly in traffic patterns,” Whitesides said. That goal is still “many years out,” he said. “But that’s the evolution — so that at the end of it you’ve built up, step-by-step, a capability to go between continents in an hour or two.” Read more: Rockets and airplanes may begin to share airspace even more. Here’s how it works NASA is about to launch astronauts into space again — and a massive business for big companies He flew with NASA before. Now, he’s returning as a private astronaut.

– Virgin Galactic has officially reached space. Sir Richard Branson's company launched a spacecraft more than 50 miles into the air Thursday, not reaching orbit but successfully meeting the Federal Aviation Administration's definition of space, the Washington Post reports. It was the first spacecraft with humans aboard to be launched from US soil and reach space since the space shuttle was retired in 2011, and it marked a milestone for the commercial space industry, which also includes companies like Elon Musk's SpaceX, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin, and Boeing. The Mojave, Calif., launch was the fourth test flight of the SpaceShipTwo Unity, reports Space.com, which has photos. Two pilots were in the cockpit as the spaceplane, unveiled in 2016, was ferried to around 43,000 feet by a mothership and then released into a freefall. The pilots then ignited the engine and the spacecraft accelerated to faster than the speed of sound (hitting a top speed of Mach 2.9), eventually pointing nearly straight up as it traveled to a height of 51.4 miles before returning to earth to land at Virgin Galactic's Mojave space port. Branson has for years been aiming to create "the world’s first commercial spaceline," and founded Virgin Galactic in 2004. Space.com notes that Branson eventually plans to ferry passengers to space on VSS Unity for $250,000 per ticket for a brief period of weightlessness and a view of the earth's curvature. (A Virgin Galactic pilot was killed in 2014.)

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Virgin Galactic conducted its fourth powered test flight of the SpaceShipTwo Unity on Dec. 13, 2018, marking the first time the ship reached space , and the photos are incredible. See photos from the test flight here. This image here is shows Unity as it climbs toward space during the Dec. 13 test flight. It was the fastest, highest one yet. ||||| Virgin Galactic launched a spacecraft more than 50 miles high Thursday, reaching the Federal Aviation Administration’s definition of space and capturing a long-elusive goal for the company founded by Richard Branson that one day wants to fly tourists through the atmosphere. Though it did not reach orbit, the flight was the first launch of a spacecraft from U.S. soil with humans on board to reach the edge of space since the Space Shuttle was retired in 2011. And it effectively opens a new era in human spaceflight, one where companies are working to end governments’ long held monopoly on space, aiming to push farther faster. Though it just scratched the lowest edge of where many believe space begins, the launch had huge implications for a growing industry aiming to fly civilians on a regular basis. The flight was bold and risky, and following a fatal crash from four years ago, reminiscent in its daring of a bygone era of human spaceflight. It comes at a time when NASA is still forced to rely on Russia to fly its astronauts to orbit and faces criticism that its aversion to risk has replaced the youthful audacity that helped it put men on the moon. With the flight — taking place on a chilly morning shortly after sunrise — Virgin can claim an edge in the race for human spaceflight, as a number of companies, including SpaceX, Blue Origin and Boeing, work to develop spacecraft capable of flying people. With two seasoned pilots in the cockpit — Mark “Forger” Stucky and C.J. Sturckow — the vehicle known as SpaceShipTwo was ferried to an altitude of about 43,000 feet by a mother ship. Like a bomb, the spacecraft was released into a free fall before the pilot ignited the engine, propelling the spaceplane faster than the speed of sound. Soon, the vehicle pointed almost straight up, as it streaked through the same skies over the California desert where Chuck Yeager first broke the sound barrier in 1947. The spacecraft reached a height of 51.4 miles, hitting a top speed of Mach 2.9, before descending and returning the company’s space port in Mojave. [Virgin Galactic’s quest for space] On the ground, a gaggle of press, space enthusiasts, including Branson and his guests watched the flight, tilting their heads skyward. Branson, wearing a leather bomber jacket, hugged his son as the spacecraft raced upward and a commentator called out the altitude. “It’s been 14 long years to get here. We’ve had tears, real tears, and moments of joy. So the tears today were tears of joy,” he told reporters afterward. “It was maybe tears of relief as well. When you are in the test flight program of a space company you can never be completely 100 percent sure.” Stucky, the pilot in command for the mission, said it went as smoothly as it could have — and well enough for him to perform a victory barrel roll as the spacecraft returned to Earth. 1 of 12 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad × Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo test flight reaches space View Photos Virgin Galactic launched a spacecraft more than 50 miles high, meeting the Federal Aviation Administration’s definition of space. Caption Virgin Galactic launched a spacecraft more than 50 miles high, meeting the Federal Aviation Administration’s definition of space. Handout/Reuters Buy Photo Wait 1 second to continue. “That was rather incredible,” he said. Seeing “the dark sky was great. Everything just worked great. ...We had tons of extra propellant. Had plenty of time to look around.” Virgin Galactic has nearly 700 people who have paid as much as $250,000 for its suborbital joyrides — more than the 560 or so people who have ever been to space. Eventually the company wants to fly six passengers at a time. The FAA plans to formally honor the pilots of Thursday’s flight by awarding them commercial astronaut wings at a ceremony in Washington next year. For Branson, the launch was the culmination of years’ worth of lofty dreams and tragic setbacks as he sought to build what he calls “the world’s first commercial spaceline.” He founded Virgin Galactic after buying the rights in 2004 to the technology behind SpaceShipOne, the spacecraft funded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen that made it to the edge of space three times that year, winning the $10 million Ansari X prize and becoming the first privately funded vehicle to fly humans to space. Thursday’s launch was also a major milestone for a growing commercial space industry, which for all its triumphs has yet to show it can routinely fly humans into space. But that may soon change. Blue Origin, the space company founded by Jeffrey P. Bezos, also plans to fly tourists, though to a higher altitude and with a rocket that launches vertically, not a spaceplane. (Bezos owns The Washington Post.) Its first test flights with humans on board are scheduled for next year. SpaceX, the company founded by Elon Musk, and Boeing are under contract with NASA to fly astronauts to the International Space Station, the orbiting laboratory, as early as next year. As the plight of Virgin Galactic shows, ending government’s long-held monopoly on human spaceflight has been difficult. Despite the long odds, Branson started his quest to open space to the masses with his typical bravado, vowing the company would soon be taking tourists by the hundreds on awe-inspiring jaunts to the cosmos. But years passed, the program suffered delay after delay and in 2014, a fatal setback: The spacecraft came apart midflight, killing Michael Alsbury, the pilot. As federal investigators probed what caused the crash, Branson pondered whether to continue, ultimately vowing to press on. [Companies in the Cosmos: Entrepreneurs are defining a new space age] In 2016, he unveiled a new spaceplane, dubbed Unity, and the company started its test program again, slowly pushing the envelope on test flight after test flight. Thursday’s flight was a key milestone that the company says will push it closer to flying tourists from Spaceport America, Virgin Galactic’s futuristic launch facility in New Mexico. Branson said he has invested nearly $1 billion of his own money into the venture. “Space is not cheap,” he said. Now Virgin is looking forward to selling more tickets and making the company commercially viable, he said. Once the test program is finished, he said the operation will move next year to Spaceport America, the futuristic facility in New Mexico where it intends to fly its tourist flights. Branson has said he intends to be on the first commercial flight. The company is now building two more spaceships in anticipation of the price coming down and more people signing up to fly. Virgin’s ultimate goal is to build spaceports around the globe, “and we’re operating multiple times a week at each one of those and enabling tens of thousands of people to experience space,” George Whitesides, Virgin Galactic’s chief executive, said in a recent interview. Eventually, the company would like to turn those spaceports into “future hubs for a network of intercontinental transportation nodes” where the spaceships can transport people across the globe in a matter of hours. In the long term, the company wants to fly “into major airports because we have a winged vehicle that can integrate smoothly in traffic patterns,” Whitesides said. That goal is still “many years out,” he said. “But that’s the evolution — so that at the end of it you’ve built up, step-by-step, a capability to go between continents in an hour or two.” Read more: Rockets and airplanes may begin to share airspace even more. Here’s how it works NASA is about to launch astronauts into space again — and a massive business for big companies He flew with NASA before. Now, he’s returning as a private astronaut.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Police believe a woodchuck, not unlike this one, could be responsible for the desecration of American flags at the Bellevue Cemetery in Adams. This sounds like a job for Carl Spackler. A curious critter is apparently to blame for the desecration and removal of American flags that were placed next to veterans’ graves in the town of Adams, according to officials. “Of all the things that go on in today’s world,” said Police Chief Richard Tarsa, “we have a woodchuck problem in our cemetery, stealing flags.” Advertisement At first, residents thought the flags were being taken up and stolen from the Bellevue Cemetery by a nefarious vandal. Get Fast Forward in your inbox: Forget yesterday's news. Get what you need today in this early-morning email. Sign Up Thank you for signing up! Sign up for more newsletters here Earlier this month, someone posted about the desecrations in a Facebook group for people from Adams, a small community in Berkshire County. People upset by the news took it upon themselves to go out and replace the flags by hand. Then more flags went missing, according to the Berkshire Eagle, so the issue was raised with police. After receiving the complaints, officers dug into the case. Tarsa said officers discovered a hole in the ground near where the flags were planted — and shreds of evidence leading to their alleged perpetrator. “There is an active woodchuck burrow up there, and if you look around in the dirt there are pieces of fabric and pieces of a wooden stake,” Tarsa said in a telephone interview. “Right now, there is every indication that it’s quite possible a woodchuck is using [the flags] in its burrow.” Advertisement On the Facebook discussion about the flags, residents conceded that they’ve seen the rodents in the cemetery, “ripping and eating them” and “doing the breaking of the flags.” Tarsa said around 12 to 18 flags were either stolen or damaged, but as the story has circulated online and been told around town, that number has fluctuated considerably. “It has been blown out of proportion,” he said. “We had 75, we had 50, we had 100 — it’s nowhere near that.” Tarsa said he was curious about why a woodchuck — also known as a groundhog — would steal flags for its home, so he looked it up online. Sure enough, he said, there was a similar incident in Hudson, New York, in 2012. In that instance, a camera was set up after roughly 75 flags went missing from graves at the Cedar Park Cemetery. Police were able to capture a picture of a woodchuck standing by the flags, and later found a hole providing “circumstantial evidence” that the animal was to blame. Advertisement According to MassWildlife, the “chunky, ground-dwelling squirrels” are abundant statewide, and are known to stack mounds of dirt and rocks at the entrance of their burrows. While there’s no concrete evidence that a person is responsible for the crime, police said the case is still under investigation and they’re “keeping an eye on the cemetery.” Tarsa, who has been police chief since 2013 and worked in the town of Adams since the 1980s, said police often deal with animal-related incidents, specifically, bears. But this? “This is a new one,” he said. Steve Annear can be reached at [email protected] . Follow him on Twitter @steveannear ||||| ADAMS, Mass. (AP) — Authorities say furry critters, not vandals, are likely to blame for American flags that disappeared from veterans' graves in Massachusetts. The flags at Bellevue Cemetery, in Adams, were first reported missing earlier this month. Residents volunteered to replace the flags by hand, but then those went missing, too. Police were called to investigate, and Chief Richard Tarsa told The Boston Globe on Monday that officers found evidence that a woodchuck is likely using the flags in its burrow. Tarsa says a similar incident happened in New York in 2012, where police linked a woodchuck to about 75 flags that disappeared from Cedar Park Cemetery. He says about 12 to 18 flags were damaged in Adams. Police say they still plan to keep an eye on the cemetery.

– Authorities say furry critters, not vandals, are likely to blame for American flags that disappeared from veterans' graves in Massachusetts, per the AP. The flags at Bellevue Cemetery, in Adams, were first reported missing earlier this month. Residents volunteered to replace the flags by hand, but then those went missing, too. Police were called to investigate, and Chief Richard Tarsa tells the Boston Globe that officers found evidence that a groundhog, aka woodchuck, is likely using the flags in its burrow. Tarsa says a similar incident happened in New York in 2012, where police linked a groundhog to about 75 flags that disappeared from Cedar Park Cemetery. He says about 12 to 18 flags were damaged in Adams. Police say they still plan to keep an eye on the cemetery.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Police believe a woodchuck, not unlike this one, could be responsible for the desecration of American flags at the Bellevue Cemetery in Adams. This sounds like a job for Carl Spackler. A curious critter is apparently to blame for the desecration and removal of American flags that were placed next to veterans’ graves in the town of Adams, according to officials. “Of all the things that go on in today’s world,” said Police Chief Richard Tarsa, “we have a woodchuck problem in our cemetery, stealing flags.” Advertisement At first, residents thought the flags were being taken up and stolen from the Bellevue Cemetery by a nefarious vandal. Get Fast Forward in your inbox: Forget yesterday's news. Get what you need today in this early-morning email. Sign Up Thank you for signing up! Sign up for more newsletters here Earlier this month, someone posted about the desecrations in a Facebook group for people from Adams, a small community in Berkshire County. People upset by the news took it upon themselves to go out and replace the flags by hand. Then more flags went missing, according to the Berkshire Eagle, so the issue was raised with police. After receiving the complaints, officers dug into the case. Tarsa said officers discovered a hole in the ground near where the flags were planted — and shreds of evidence leading to their alleged perpetrator. “There is an active woodchuck burrow up there, and if you look around in the dirt there are pieces of fabric and pieces of a wooden stake,” Tarsa said in a telephone interview. “Right now, there is every indication that it’s quite possible a woodchuck is using [the flags] in its burrow.” Advertisement On the Facebook discussion about the flags, residents conceded that they’ve seen the rodents in the cemetery, “ripping and eating them” and “doing the breaking of the flags.” Tarsa said around 12 to 18 flags were either stolen or damaged, but as the story has circulated online and been told around town, that number has fluctuated considerably. “It has been blown out of proportion,” he said. “We had 75, we had 50, we had 100 — it’s nowhere near that.” Tarsa said he was curious about why a woodchuck — also known as a groundhog — would steal flags for its home, so he looked it up online. Sure enough, he said, there was a similar incident in Hudson, New York, in 2012. In that instance, a camera was set up after roughly 75 flags went missing from graves at the Cedar Park Cemetery. Police were able to capture a picture of a woodchuck standing by the flags, and later found a hole providing “circumstantial evidence” that the animal was to blame. Advertisement According to MassWildlife, the “chunky, ground-dwelling squirrels” are abundant statewide, and are known to stack mounds of dirt and rocks at the entrance of their burrows. While there’s no concrete evidence that a person is responsible for the crime, police said the case is still under investigation and they’re “keeping an eye on the cemetery.” Tarsa, who has been police chief since 2013 and worked in the town of Adams since the 1980s, said police often deal with animal-related incidents, specifically, bears. But this? “This is a new one,” he said. Steve Annear can be reached at [email protected] . Follow him on Twitter @steveannear ||||| ADAMS, Mass. (AP) — Authorities say furry critters, not vandals, are likely to blame for American flags that disappeared from veterans' graves in Massachusetts. The flags at Bellevue Cemetery, in Adams, were first reported missing earlier this month. Residents volunteered to replace the flags by hand, but then those went missing, too. Police were called to investigate, and Chief Richard Tarsa told The Boston Globe on Monday that officers found evidence that a woodchuck is likely using the flags in its burrow. Tarsa says a similar incident happened in New York in 2012, where police linked a woodchuck to about 75 flags that disappeared from Cedar Park Cemetery. He says about 12 to 18 flags were damaged in Adams. Police say they still plan to keep an eye on the cemetery.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Architect and producer Kai Cole has posted a devastating account of her and Joss Whedon’s 16-year marriage, which ended after a very private five-year separation. In her piece, Cole reveals that Whedon cheated on her multiple times and lied about it, and she accuses Whedon of “the hypocrisy of being out in the world preaching feminist ideals, while at the same time, taking away my right to make choices for my life and my body based on the truth.” “He deceived me for 15 years,” Cole writes, “so he could have everything he wanted. I believed, everyone believed, that he was one of the good guys, committed to fighting for women’s rights, committed to our marriage, and to the women he worked with. But I now see how he used his relationship with me as a shield, both during and after our marriage, so no one would question his relationships with other women or scrutinize his writing as anything other than feminist.” I encourage you to read the whole post. Cole writes that Whedon first began cheating on her on the set of Buffy, but more affairs followed after that – affairs which he hid from her. He only revealed his cheating when he filed for divorce after their nearly two decades together. A lot of what Cole describes from Whedon sounds like sounds like classic “nice guy” behavior and entitlement; it’s the sort of stuff we’ve all seen before. For example, Whedon reportedly described his Buffy affair like this: “When I was running Buffy, I was surrounded by beautiful, needy, aggressive young women. It felt like I had a disease, like something from a Greek myth. Suddenly I am a powerful producer and the world is laid out at my feet and I can’t touch it.” I mean, ew. And Cole writes that she doubted her own suspicions, because of Whedon’s public commitments to feminism. “There were times in our relationship that I was uncomfortable with the attention Joss paid other women,” she says. “He always had a lot of female friends, but he told me it was because his mother raised him as a feminist, so he just liked women better. He said he admired and respected females, he didn’t lust after them. I believed him and trusted him.” Now, just so we can get it out of the way: yes, this piece comes with the caveats that (1) people who are recently divorced sometimes say shitty, exaggerated things about one another because they’re in a lot of pain (2) monogamy, especially given its patriarchal history, is not a pre-condition for a feminist life. (Honesty with your partner(s) is, though!) It’s fine to consider these two points when absorbing this piece, but don’t try and use them to dismiss it, okay? This must’ve been an incredibly difficult piece for Cole to write, and – whatever positive impact Whedon’s work may have had on the industry, or on any of us personally – it sounds like he was a pretty terrible husband. I’m sorry she had to put up with this so quietly for so long, and I hope speaking up will help her heal. (Via The Wrap; image via Shutterstock) Want more stories like this? Become a subscriber and support the site! —The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.— ||||| I’ve been asked some questions by the press recently about my divorce from Joss Whedon, to whom I was married for 16 years. There is misinformation out there and I feel the best way to clear up the situation is to tell my truth. Let me begin by saying I am a very private person and the act of writing this is antithetical to who I am and everything I stand for. Yet, at the same time, I feel compelled to go on the record and clear up some misperceptions. I don’t think it is fair to me or other women to remain silent any longer. I met Joss in 1991. I was driving across the country from Massachusetts on a whim, and met him when I was passing through Los Angeles. We fell in love and I moved to L.A. so we could be together. I was with him when his “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” script was adapted, and the resulting movie released. It was painful to see how his vision was interpreted by the production team and on our honeymoon to England in 1995, I urged him to figure out how to turn it into a TV show. He didn’t want to work in television anymore, following in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps, but I convinced him it was the fastest way to get the experience he needed, so he could direct his own films someday. I had no idea, in that lovely garden in Bath, that it would change everything. Also Read: Joss Whedon Fan Site Shuts Down After Ex-Wife's Explosive Essay There were times in our relationship that I was uncomfortable with the attention Joss paid other women. He always had a lot of female friends, but he told me it was because his mother raised him as a feminist, so he just liked women better. He said he admired and respected females, he didn’t lust after them. I believed him and trusted him. On the set of “Buffy,” Joss decided to have his first secret affair. Fifteen years later, when he was done with our marriage and finally ready to tell the truth, he wrote me, “When I was running ‘Buffy,’ I was surrounded by beautiful, needy, aggressive young women. It felt like I had a disease, like something from a Greek myth. Suddenly I am a powerful producer and the world is laid out at my feet and I can’t touch it.” But he did touch it. He said he understood, “I would have to lie — or conceal some part of the truth — for the rest of my life,” but he did it anyway, hoping that first affair, “would be ENOUGH, that THEN we could move on and outlast it.” Joss admitted that for the next decade and a half, he hid multiple affairs and a number of inappropriate emotional ones that he had with his actresses, co-workers, fans and friends, while he stayed married to me. He wrote me a letter when our marriage was falling apart, but I still didn’t know the whole truth, and said, “I’ve never loved anyone or wanted to be with anyone in any real or long-term way except for you ever. And I love our life. I love how you are, how we are, who you are and what we’ve done both separately and together, how much fun we have…” He wanted it all; he didn’t want to choose, so he accepted the duality as a part of his life. Also Read: Joss Whedon's Planned Parenthood PSA Paints Grim Picture (Video) Then later, after he confessed everything, he told me, “I let myself love you. I stopped worrying about the contradiction. As a guilty man I knew the only way to hide was to act as though I were righteous. And as a husband, I wanted to be with you like we had been. I lived two lives.” When he walked out of our marriage, and was trying to make “things seem less bewildering” to help me understand how he could have lied to me for so long, he said, “In many ways I was the HEIGHT of normal, in this culture. We’re taught to be providers and companions and at the same time, to conquer and acquire — specifically sexually — and I was pulling off both!” Also Read: 'Justice League:' Zack Snyder Steps Down as Director After Family Tragedy, Joss Whedon to Take Over Despite understanding, on some level, that what he was doing was wrong, he never conceded the hypocrisy of being out in the world preaching feminist ideals, while at the same time, taking away my right to make choices for my life and my body based on the truth. He deceived me for 15 years, so he could have everything he wanted. I believed, everyone believed, that he was one of the good guys, committed to fighting for women’s rights, committed to our marriage, and to the women he worked with. But I now see how he used his relationship with me as a shield, both during and after our marriage, so no one would question his relationships with other women or scrutinize his writing as anything other than feminist. I thought we were a couple, a team. I was a powerful influence on the career choices Joss made during the 20 years we were together (we lived together for four years before marrying). I kept him grounded, and helped him find the quickest way to the success he so deeply craved. I loved him. And in return, he lied to me. A lot. He said, after he left, he understood: “It’s not just like I killed you, but that I’d done it subtly, over years. That I’d been poisoning you. Chipping away at you.” He made me doubt my own instincts and watched me move further away from my personal values and social mores, trying to connect with him, never telling me it was impossible. By the time he finally confessed the truth, 15 years after his first affair on the set of “Buffy,” I was broken. My brain could not fit my experience of our life together, through the new lens of his deceit. Also Read: 'Avengers' Director Joss Whedon Fears US Will Start Killing Gays My entire reality changed overnight, and I went from being a strong, confident woman, to a confused, frightened mess. I was eventually diagnosed with Complex PTSD and for the last five years, I have worked hard to make sense of everything that happened and find my balance again. It has not been easy, because even though in my personal life I have been completely open about what happened, publicly people only know his superficial presentation of us: him as the lovable geek-feminist and me in the background, as his wife and supporter. We’re finally divorced; I’m doing architecture again, and slowly getting my life and self-esteem back. Until recently, Joss was still letting the illusion of our marriage stay intact. Now that it is finally public, I want to let women know that he is not who he pretends to be. I want the people who worship him to know he is human, and the organizations giving him awards for his feminist work, to think twice in the future about honoring a man who does not practice what he preaches. But no matter what happens, or how people interpret this statement, I no longer have to carry the burden of Joss’ long-term deceit and confessions. I am free. Editor’s Note: A spokesperson for Joss Whedon provided the following response, “While this account includes inaccuracies and misrepresentations which can be harmful to their family, Joss is not commenting, out of concern for his children and out of respect for his ex-wife.” ||||| I’ve been asked some questions by the press recently about my divorce from Joss Whedon, to whom I was married for 16 years. There is misinformation out there and I feel the best way to clear up the situation is to tell my truth. Let me begin by saying I am a very private person and the act of writing this is antithetical to who I am and everything I stand for. Yet, at the same time, I feel compelled to go on the record and clear up some misperceptions. I don’t think it is fair to me or other women to remain silent any longer. I met Joss in 1991. I was driving across the country from Massachusetts on a whim, and met him when I was passing through Los Angeles. We fell in love and I moved to L.A. so we could be together. I was with him when his “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” script was adapted, and the resulting movie released. It was painful to see how his vision was interpreted by the production team and on our honeymoon to England in 1995, I urged him to figure out how to turn it into a TV show. He didn’t want to work in television anymore, following in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps, but I convinced him it was the fastest way to get the experience he needed, so he could direct his own films someday. I had no idea, in that lovely garden in Bath, that it would change everything. Also Read: Joss Whedon Fan Site Shuts Down After Ex-Wife's Explosive Essay There were times in our relationship that I was uncomfortable with the attention Joss paid other women. He always had a lot of female friends, but he told me it was because his mother raised him as a feminist, so he just liked women better. He said he admired and respected females, he didn’t lust after them. I believed him and trusted him. On the set of “Buffy,” Joss decided to have his first secret affair. Fifteen years later, when he was done with our marriage and finally ready to tell the truth, he wrote me, “When I was running ‘Buffy,’ I was surrounded by beautiful, needy, aggressive young women. It felt like I had a disease, like something from a Greek myth. Suddenly I am a powerful producer and the world is laid out at my feet and I can’t touch it.” But he did touch it. He said he understood, “I would have to lie — or conceal some part of the truth — for the rest of my life,” but he did it anyway, hoping that first affair, “would be ENOUGH, that THEN we could move on and outlast it.” Joss admitted that for the next decade and a half, he hid multiple affairs and a number of inappropriate emotional ones that he had with his actresses, co-workers, fans and friends, while he stayed married to me. He wrote me a letter when our marriage was falling apart, but I still didn’t know the whole truth, and said, “I’ve never loved anyone or wanted to be with anyone in any real or long-term way except for you ever. And I love our life. I love how you are, how we are, who you are and what we’ve done both separately and together, how much fun we have…” He wanted it all; he didn’t want to choose, so he accepted the duality as a part of his life. Also Read: Joss Whedon's Planned Parenthood PSA Paints Grim Picture (Video) Then later, after he confessed everything, he told me, “I let myself love you. I stopped worrying about the contradiction. As a guilty man I knew the only way to hide was to act as though I were righteous. And as a husband, I wanted to be with you like we had been. I lived two lives.” When he walked out of our marriage, and was trying to make “things seem less bewildering” to help me understand how he could have lied to me for so long, he said, “In many ways I was the HEIGHT of normal, in this culture. We’re taught to be providers and companions and at the same time, to conquer and acquire — specifically sexually — and I was pulling off both!” Also Read: 'Justice League:' Zack Snyder Steps Down as Director After Family Tragedy, Joss Whedon to Take Over Despite understanding, on some level, that what he was doing was wrong, he never conceded the hypocrisy of being out in the world preaching feminist ideals, while at the same time, taking away my right to make choices for my life and my body based on the truth. He deceived me for 15 years, so he could have everything he wanted. I believed, everyone believed, that he was one of the good guys, committed to fighting for women’s rights, committed to our marriage, and to the women he worked with. But I now see how he used his relationship with me as a shield, both during and after our marriage, so no one would question his relationships with other women or scrutinize his writing as anything other than feminist. I thought we were a couple, a team. I was a powerful influence on the career choices Joss made during the 20 years we were together (we lived together for four years before marrying). I kept him grounded, and helped him find the quickest way to the success he so deeply craved. I loved him. And in return, he lied to me. A lot. He said, after he left, he understood: “It’s not just like I killed you, but that I’d done it subtly, over years. That I’d been poisoning you. Chipping away at you.” He made me doubt my own instincts and watched me move further away from my personal values and social mores, trying to connect with him, never telling me it was impossible. By the time he finally confessed the truth, 15 years after his first affair on the set of “Buffy,” I was broken. My brain could not fit my experience of our life together, through the new lens of his deceit. Also Read: 'Avengers' Director Joss Whedon Fears US Will Start Killing Gays My entire reality changed overnight, and I went from being a strong, confident woman, to a confused, frightened mess. I was eventually diagnosed with Complex PTSD and for the last five years, I have worked hard to make sense of everything that happened and find my balance again. It has not been easy, because even though in my personal life I have been completely open about what happened, publicly people only know his superficial presentation of us: him as the lovable geek-feminist and me in the background, as his wife and supporter. We’re finally divorced; I’m doing architecture again, and slowly getting my life and self-esteem back. Until recently, Joss was still letting the illusion of our marriage stay intact. Now that it is finally public, I want to let women know that he is not who he pretends to be. I want the people who worship him to know he is human, and the organizations giving him awards for his feminist work, to think twice in the future about honoring a man who does not practice what he preaches. But no matter what happens, or how people interpret this statement, I no longer have to carry the burden of Joss’ long-term deceit and confessions. I am free. Editor’s Note: A spokesperson for Joss Whedon provided the following response, “While this account includes inaccuracies and misrepresentations which can be harmful to their family, Joss is not commenting, out of concern for his children and out of respect for his ex-wife.”

– Hollywood's Joss Whedon has the reputation of creating strong female characters and championing feminist values, but his ex-wife has just delivered a stinging assault to that image. In a guest blog at the Wrap, Kai Cole alleges that Whedon cheated on her, a lot, going back 15 years to the set of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. She quotes his own apologetic letters to her years after the fact in which he explains that he was "surrounded by beautiful, needy, aggressive young women" as he adjusted to his new role as a powerful Hollywood producer. "Despite understanding, on some level, that what he was doing was wrong, he never conceded the hypocrisy of being out in the world preaching feminist ideals, while at the same time, taking away my right to make choices for my life and my body based on the truth," writes Cole, an architect and producer. When he finally 'fessed up, Cole says she was shattered and diagnosed with PTSD, and now she's out to deflate her ex-husband's image. "I want to let women know that he is not who he pretends to be," she writes, adding that organizations that plan to honor him for his feminist work should "think twice." In an editor's note at the end of the piece, a spokesperson for Whedon says that the blog contains "inaccuracies and misrepresentations" but that Whedon won't comment in detail to shield their kids and out of respect for Cole. A post sympathetic to Cole at the Mary Sue notes that the recently divorced often say terrible things about their exes and that monogamy isn't necessarily a feminist ideal, "but don't try and use them to dismiss it, okay?" (Read Cole's blog in full here.)

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Architect and producer Kai Cole has posted a devastating account of her and Joss Whedon’s 16-year marriage, which ended after a very private five-year separation. In her piece, Cole reveals that Whedon cheated on her multiple times and lied about it, and she accuses Whedon of “the hypocrisy of being out in the world preaching feminist ideals, while at the same time, taking away my right to make choices for my life and my body based on the truth.” “He deceived me for 15 years,” Cole writes, “so he could have everything he wanted. I believed, everyone believed, that he was one of the good guys, committed to fighting for women’s rights, committed to our marriage, and to the women he worked with. But I now see how he used his relationship with me as a shield, both during and after our marriage, so no one would question his relationships with other women or scrutinize his writing as anything other than feminist.” I encourage you to read the whole post. Cole writes that Whedon first began cheating on her on the set of Buffy, but more affairs followed after that – affairs which he hid from her. He only revealed his cheating when he filed for divorce after their nearly two decades together. A lot of what Cole describes from Whedon sounds like sounds like classic “nice guy” behavior and entitlement; it’s the sort of stuff we’ve all seen before. For example, Whedon reportedly described his Buffy affair like this: “When I was running Buffy, I was surrounded by beautiful, needy, aggressive young women. It felt like I had a disease, like something from a Greek myth. Suddenly I am a powerful producer and the world is laid out at my feet and I can’t touch it.” I mean, ew. And Cole writes that she doubted her own suspicions, because of Whedon’s public commitments to feminism. “There were times in our relationship that I was uncomfortable with the attention Joss paid other women,” she says. “He always had a lot of female friends, but he told me it was because his mother raised him as a feminist, so he just liked women better. He said he admired and respected females, he didn’t lust after them. I believed him and trusted him.” Now, just so we can get it out of the way: yes, this piece comes with the caveats that (1) people who are recently divorced sometimes say shitty, exaggerated things about one another because they’re in a lot of pain (2) monogamy, especially given its patriarchal history, is not a pre-condition for a feminist life. (Honesty with your partner(s) is, though!) It’s fine to consider these two points when absorbing this piece, but don’t try and use them to dismiss it, okay? This must’ve been an incredibly difficult piece for Cole to write, and – whatever positive impact Whedon’s work may have had on the industry, or on any of us personally – it sounds like he was a pretty terrible husband. I’m sorry she had to put up with this so quietly for so long, and I hope speaking up will help her heal. (Via The Wrap; image via Shutterstock) Want more stories like this? Become a subscriber and support the site! —The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.— ||||| I’ve been asked some questions by the press recently about my divorce from Joss Whedon, to whom I was married for 16 years. There is misinformation out there and I feel the best way to clear up the situation is to tell my truth. Let me begin by saying I am a very private person and the act of writing this is antithetical to who I am and everything I stand for. Yet, at the same time, I feel compelled to go on the record and clear up some misperceptions. I don’t think it is fair to me or other women to remain silent any longer. I met Joss in 1991. I was driving across the country from Massachusetts on a whim, and met him when I was passing through Los Angeles. We fell in love and I moved to L.A. so we could be together. I was with him when his “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” script was adapted, and the resulting movie released. It was painful to see how his vision was interpreted by the production team and on our honeymoon to England in 1995, I urged him to figure out how to turn it into a TV show. He didn’t want to work in television anymore, following in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps, but I convinced him it was the fastest way to get the experience he needed, so he could direct his own films someday. I had no idea, in that lovely garden in Bath, that it would change everything. Also Read: Joss Whedon Fan Site Shuts Down After Ex-Wife's Explosive Essay There were times in our relationship that I was uncomfortable with the attention Joss paid other women. He always had a lot of female friends, but he told me it was because his mother raised him as a feminist, so he just liked women better. He said he admired and respected females, he didn’t lust after them. I believed him and trusted him. On the set of “Buffy,” Joss decided to have his first secret affair. Fifteen years later, when he was done with our marriage and finally ready to tell the truth, he wrote me, “When I was running ‘Buffy,’ I was surrounded by beautiful, needy, aggressive young women. It felt like I had a disease, like something from a Greek myth. Suddenly I am a powerful producer and the world is laid out at my feet and I can’t touch it.” But he did touch it. He said he understood, “I would have to lie — or conceal some part of the truth — for the rest of my life,” but he did it anyway, hoping that first affair, “would be ENOUGH, that THEN we could move on and outlast it.” Joss admitted that for the next decade and a half, he hid multiple affairs and a number of inappropriate emotional ones that he had with his actresses, co-workers, fans and friends, while he stayed married to me. He wrote me a letter when our marriage was falling apart, but I still didn’t know the whole truth, and said, “I’ve never loved anyone or wanted to be with anyone in any real or long-term way except for you ever. And I love our life. I love how you are, how we are, who you are and what we’ve done both separately and together, how much fun we have…” He wanted it all; he didn’t want to choose, so he accepted the duality as a part of his life. Also Read: Joss Whedon's Planned Parenthood PSA Paints Grim Picture (Video) Then later, after he confessed everything, he told me, “I let myself love you. I stopped worrying about the contradiction. As a guilty man I knew the only way to hide was to act as though I were righteous. And as a husband, I wanted to be with you like we had been. I lived two lives.” When he walked out of our marriage, and was trying to make “things seem less bewildering” to help me understand how he could have lied to me for so long, he said, “In many ways I was the HEIGHT of normal, in this culture. We’re taught to be providers and companions and at the same time, to conquer and acquire — specifically sexually — and I was pulling off both!” Also Read: 'Justice League:' Zack Snyder Steps Down as Director After Family Tragedy, Joss Whedon to Take Over Despite understanding, on some level, that what he was doing was wrong, he never conceded the hypocrisy of being out in the world preaching feminist ideals, while at the same time, taking away my right to make choices for my life and my body based on the truth. He deceived me for 15 years, so he could have everything he wanted. I believed, everyone believed, that he was one of the good guys, committed to fighting for women’s rights, committed to our marriage, and to the women he worked with. But I now see how he used his relationship with me as a shield, both during and after our marriage, so no one would question his relationships with other women or scrutinize his writing as anything other than feminist. I thought we were a couple, a team. I was a powerful influence on the career choices Joss made during the 20 years we were together (we lived together for four years before marrying). I kept him grounded, and helped him find the quickest way to the success he so deeply craved. I loved him. And in return, he lied to me. A lot. He said, after he left, he understood: “It’s not just like I killed you, but that I’d done it subtly, over years. That I’d been poisoning you. Chipping away at you.” He made me doubt my own instincts and watched me move further away from my personal values and social mores, trying to connect with him, never telling me it was impossible. By the time he finally confessed the truth, 15 years after his first affair on the set of “Buffy,” I was broken. My brain could not fit my experience of our life together, through the new lens of his deceit. Also Read: 'Avengers' Director Joss Whedon Fears US Will Start Killing Gays My entire reality changed overnight, and I went from being a strong, confident woman, to a confused, frightened mess. I was eventually diagnosed with Complex PTSD and for the last five years, I have worked hard to make sense of everything that happened and find my balance again. It has not been easy, because even though in my personal life I have been completely open about what happened, publicly people only know his superficial presentation of us: him as the lovable geek-feminist and me in the background, as his wife and supporter. We’re finally divorced; I’m doing architecture again, and slowly getting my life and self-esteem back. Until recently, Joss was still letting the illusion of our marriage stay intact. Now that it is finally public, I want to let women know that he is not who he pretends to be. I want the people who worship him to know he is human, and the organizations giving him awards for his feminist work, to think twice in the future about honoring a man who does not practice what he preaches. But no matter what happens, or how people interpret this statement, I no longer have to carry the burden of Joss’ long-term deceit and confessions. I am free. Editor’s Note: A spokesperson for Joss Whedon provided the following response, “While this account includes inaccuracies and misrepresentations which can be harmful to their family, Joss is not commenting, out of concern for his children and out of respect for his ex-wife.” ||||| I’ve been asked some questions by the press recently about my divorce from Joss Whedon, to whom I was married for 16 years. There is misinformation out there and I feel the best way to clear up the situation is to tell my truth. Let me begin by saying I am a very private person and the act of writing this is antithetical to who I am and everything I stand for. Yet, at the same time, I feel compelled to go on the record and clear up some misperceptions. I don’t think it is fair to me or other women to remain silent any longer. I met Joss in 1991. I was driving across the country from Massachusetts on a whim, and met him when I was passing through Los Angeles. We fell in love and I moved to L.A. so we could be together. I was with him when his “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” script was adapted, and the resulting movie released. It was painful to see how his vision was interpreted by the production team and on our honeymoon to England in 1995, I urged him to figure out how to turn it into a TV show. He didn’t want to work in television anymore, following in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps, but I convinced him it was the fastest way to get the experience he needed, so he could direct his own films someday. I had no idea, in that lovely garden in Bath, that it would change everything. Also Read: Joss Whedon Fan Site Shuts Down After Ex-Wife's Explosive Essay There were times in our relationship that I was uncomfortable with the attention Joss paid other women. He always had a lot of female friends, but he told me it was because his mother raised him as a feminist, so he just liked women better. He said he admired and respected females, he didn’t lust after them. I believed him and trusted him. On the set of “Buffy,” Joss decided to have his first secret affair. Fifteen years later, when he was done with our marriage and finally ready to tell the truth, he wrote me, “When I was running ‘Buffy,’ I was surrounded by beautiful, needy, aggressive young women. It felt like I had a disease, like something from a Greek myth. Suddenly I am a powerful producer and the world is laid out at my feet and I can’t touch it.” But he did touch it. He said he understood, “I would have to lie — or conceal some part of the truth — for the rest of my life,” but he did it anyway, hoping that first affair, “would be ENOUGH, that THEN we could move on and outlast it.” Joss admitted that for the next decade and a half, he hid multiple affairs and a number of inappropriate emotional ones that he had with his actresses, co-workers, fans and friends, while he stayed married to me. He wrote me a letter when our marriage was falling apart, but I still didn’t know the whole truth, and said, “I’ve never loved anyone or wanted to be with anyone in any real or long-term way except for you ever. And I love our life. I love how you are, how we are, who you are and what we’ve done both separately and together, how much fun we have…” He wanted it all; he didn’t want to choose, so he accepted the duality as a part of his life. Also Read: Joss Whedon's Planned Parenthood PSA Paints Grim Picture (Video) Then later, after he confessed everything, he told me, “I let myself love you. I stopped worrying about the contradiction. As a guilty man I knew the only way to hide was to act as though I were righteous. And as a husband, I wanted to be with you like we had been. I lived two lives.” When he walked out of our marriage, and was trying to make “things seem less bewildering” to help me understand how he could have lied to me for so long, he said, “In many ways I was the HEIGHT of normal, in this culture. We’re taught to be providers and companions and at the same time, to conquer and acquire — specifically sexually — and I was pulling off both!” Also Read: 'Justice League:' Zack Snyder Steps Down as Director After Family Tragedy, Joss Whedon to Take Over Despite understanding, on some level, that what he was doing was wrong, he never conceded the hypocrisy of being out in the world preaching feminist ideals, while at the same time, taking away my right to make choices for my life and my body based on the truth. He deceived me for 15 years, so he could have everything he wanted. I believed, everyone believed, that he was one of the good guys, committed to fighting for women’s rights, committed to our marriage, and to the women he worked with. But I now see how he used his relationship with me as a shield, both during and after our marriage, so no one would question his relationships with other women or scrutinize his writing as anything other than feminist. I thought we were a couple, a team. I was a powerful influence on the career choices Joss made during the 20 years we were together (we lived together for four years before marrying). I kept him grounded, and helped him find the quickest way to the success he so deeply craved. I loved him. And in return, he lied to me. A lot. He said, after he left, he understood: “It’s not just like I killed you, but that I’d done it subtly, over years. That I’d been poisoning you. Chipping away at you.” He made me doubt my own instincts and watched me move further away from my personal values and social mores, trying to connect with him, never telling me it was impossible. By the time he finally confessed the truth, 15 years after his first affair on the set of “Buffy,” I was broken. My brain could not fit my experience of our life together, through the new lens of his deceit. Also Read: 'Avengers' Director Joss Whedon Fears US Will Start Killing Gays My entire reality changed overnight, and I went from being a strong, confident woman, to a confused, frightened mess. I was eventually diagnosed with Complex PTSD and for the last five years, I have worked hard to make sense of everything that happened and find my balance again. It has not been easy, because even though in my personal life I have been completely open about what happened, publicly people only know his superficial presentation of us: him as the lovable geek-feminist and me in the background, as his wife and supporter. We’re finally divorced; I’m doing architecture again, and slowly getting my life and self-esteem back. Until recently, Joss was still letting the illusion of our marriage stay intact. Now that it is finally public, I want to let women know that he is not who he pretends to be. I want the people who worship him to know he is human, and the organizations giving him awards for his feminist work, to think twice in the future about honoring a man who does not practice what he preaches. But no matter what happens, or how people interpret this statement, I no longer have to carry the burden of Joss’ long-term deceit and confessions. I am free. Editor’s Note: A spokesperson for Joss Whedon provided the following response, “While this account includes inaccuracies and misrepresentations which can be harmful to their family, Joss is not commenting, out of concern for his children and out of respect for his ex-wife.”

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

As police continue searching for a missing Raymore, Missouri, woman, they have arrested a man with ties to her case and that of another unsolved disappearance that dates back to 2007. Jessica Runions was last seen at a party Thursday night in Grandview. Her burned car was found in an area near 95th Street and Blue River Road in south Kansas City over the weekend. "She's super-sweet, has such a kind heart," said friend Elizabeth Humphrey. "She works at a retirement home and so she was server there and got moved up to cook. It's crazy to think that it could happen to her." The last man Runions was known to be with, Kylr Yust, 28, was arrested without incident Sunday in Benton County. He’s charged with burning Runions’ car. Yust is also the former boyfriend of missing Belton teenager Kara Kopetsky, who vanished in 2007 while trying to sever ties with him. Rhonda Beckford, Kopetsky’s mother, said a week before her daughter disappeared, she had a terrifying incident with Yust. “She actually had to jump out of his moving vehicle,” Beckford said. “Her phone saved her that time because people were starting to call her and she was able to answer the phone, and then people knew that he had her, so he turned around and headed back to Belton. She jumped out of his car and she made the choice to call the police that night.” A few days later, Kopetsky was seeing leaving Belton High School after talking on the phone with Yust. She has not been seen since. Yust has since spent time in prison for drug sales and was just released in February. Beckford said she's confident Yust is the key to both cases. "More than suspicions," she said. "I mean, we knew when she went missing that he was responsible." She said she felt that Yust would probably do something else upon his release. "Kylr isn't going to change," she said. Beckford said she’s focused on the Jessica Runions case and hopes that police will be able to find answers for her family soon. She said she knows someone out there can provide those answers. "Please call in and tell what you know," she said. "You may not think it's important, but it could be the missing piece of the puzzle in finding her." Anyone with information in the case is asked to call the Crime Stoppers TIPS Hotline at 816-474-8477. ||||| RAYMORE, Mo. - Kylr Yust, the man arrested in connection to the disappearance of Jessica Runions, was transferred to the Jackson County Jail from Benton County. Kylr Yust now in custody of KCPD. Headed back to KCMO.@41ActionNews pic.twitter.com/LOkle8XVgC — Richard Sharp (@RichardKSHB) September 14, 2016 KSHB reporter Richard Sharp was able to question Yust as he was escorted out of the Benton County Jail but he declined to comment on Runion's disappearance. Previous story: Kylr Yust, man questioned in Jessica Runions' disappearance, has violent past Yust arrested in Benton County Benton County Sheriff deputies arrested Yust Sunday morning in southeast Benton County. He was held on a $50,000 cash only bond. According to police, Yust was taken into custody on an arrest warrant on charges for knowingly burning in relation to Jessica Runions's vehicle. Missouri Search and Rescue has searched two large areas twice with negative results. Days before police arrested Yust, a Kansas City, Kansas tattoo parlor considered hiring him for a piercing apprenticeship. However, red flags caused some of the owners to rethink the decision. “I didn’t resonate with this guy. I did not like his presence, I felt uncomfortable,” said Jeff Ollerich, a co-owner of Tried and True Tattoo. Ollerich told 41 Action News he and other owners sat down and decided not to hire Yust. The next day, he was arrested in Benton County in connection to burning Runions’ car. “I didn’t want to believe this was going on. I thought I was dreaming or something,” said Cordis Woods, another co-owner of Tried and True Tattoo. Police search for missing Jessica Runions Police are looking for 21-year-old Jessica Runions. She is a white female and was last seen on September 8 at 9:30 p.m. driving a 2012 black Chevy Equinox with license plate number MN2-C8B. Just before 2 a.m. on Saturday, Runions's vehicle was located in the area of 95th Street and Blue River Road. Her vehicle was found unoccupied and burned. The vehicle was towed to a KCPD vehicle processing facility where it is being processed. Her aunt Michele Runions is simply distraught. "She's loving, caring, she helped raise her sisters. She's strong, independent," her aunt said. Runions's family told 41 Action News that Jessica Runions went to a house party with her boyfriend Thursday night. This was the last time she spoke with her mother. "She had constant contact it's not like her to not return phone calls maybe a long period of time but she would eventually get back with you," Michele Runions said. She added at the party was also Jessica Runions's boyfriend's childhood buddy - Kylr Yust. Yust is the same man who was the boyfriend of Kara Kopetsky. The young woman vanished in 2007; her case remains unsolved. He's also the same man who was convicted of assaulting another woman, stealing from a tattoo shop and of animal cruelty for stomping a kitten and tossing it into a river. Runions's aunt said Jessica's boyfriend left early, leaving Yust and the 21-year-old woman behind. "We just know that they left the party together," Michele Runions said. Runions’s mother called police Friday around 10:30 p.m. Just before 2 a.m. police found Jessica’s car burned near an underpass. "Just locating her vehicle in that condition that just that's just suspicious in nature and we're just concerned for her welfare," Captain Stacey Graves, a spokesperson with KCPD said. So is her family. "We just want her to come home safe," Michele Runions said. Please call KCPD Missing Persons at 816-234-5136, TIPS Hotline at 816-474-8477(TIPS) or 911 if you have any information. ---------------------- Follow 41 Action News on Twitter: Follow @41ActionNews Like 41 Action News on Facebook: ||||| Family members of a young Raymore woman missing since Thursday see an ominous parallel to a girl who disappeared in 2007. The family has been told by her friends that Kylr Yust — the off-and-on boyfriend of Kara Kopetsky, then 17, before she disappeared nine years ago — was the last person seen last week with 21-year-old Jessica Runions of Raymore. He was taken into custody Sunday and was being held in Missouri’s Benton County jail. Multiple Kansas City police sources confirmed that Yust, 27, was a person of interest in the Runions case but wasn’t the only person being sought for questioning. Authorities arrested Yust at 8:30 a.m. Sunday on charges of “knowingly burning” Runion’s 2012 black Chevy Equinox, which police found about 2 a.m. Saturday near 95th Street and Blue River Road. Premium content for only $0.99 For the most comprehensive local coverage, subscribe today. “Right now I have positive news that my daughter wasn’t in the car when they found it,” Jamie S. Runions told The Star on Sunday. “And that’s what’s going to keep me going right now. There’s hope.” Missouri Search and Rescue scoured two large areas twice looking for Runions, without results, according to a Kansas City police news release. Yust’s grandfather said Sunday night that he doesn’t know what’s going on with his grandson. “I don’t know what they’re saying. I don’t know what all went on,” said the grandfather, who asked that his name not be used. “He hasn’t been around for a while.” The Raymore woman was at a gathering of friends Thursday evening with Yust, against whom Kopetsky had filed for an order of protection days before she vanished in May 2007. Since that gathering, no one has reported seeing Runions. She failed to meet her mother at a doctor’s office on Friday for a critical follow-up to an appendectomy. Jessica’s mother doesn’t know Yust and said she only knew he was a longtime friend of her daughter’s boyfriend. On Sunday, Jamie S. Runions spoke with Kopetsky’s mother, Rhonda Beckford, and leaned on her for support. “People say they understand what you’re going through, but they don’t really understand. She does,” Runions told The Star. “She knows this numbness I’m feeling, this anger I’m feeling because I can’t do anything.” Beckford said when she first learned of the missing Raymore woman, and that Jessica Runions had last been seen with Yust, her heart sank. SHARE COPY LINK Rhonda Beckford of Belton, Mo., mother of Kara Kopetsky, 17, whose has been missing for nine years, expressed her concerns for family members of missing 21-year-old Jessica Runions of Raymore. Runions has been missing since Thursday. Anxious waiting The last text Runions received from Jessica was Wednesday evening. Jessica wrote: “Sweet dreams.” And her mom responded by sharing a selfie of herself with Jessica’s little sister. Jessica then sent back a picture of her with her cat, Tig. On Thursday around 2 p.m., Jessica responded to a post on Facebook. From there, her mother heard nothing. Jessica works in the restaurant at the Foxwood Springs senior living community in Raymore. A family member said she’s moved up to baker. A text message Runions sent Jessica around 8 p.m. Thursday wasn’t read. After that, calls to her phone went straight to voicemail, as if the device was turned off. “This girl can never be without her phone on,” Runions said. “Her phone will be on silent, but it’s never turned off.” On Friday, Runions went to the doctor’s office to meet Jessica there. She never showed. But her mother knew how important the appointment was. Jessica needed clearance after her surgery to go back to work. Runions reported her daughter missing Friday night. Detectives spent Saturday night interviewing everyone they could find who may have seen Runions in the past few days. Family and friends wait by the phone. “She’s just the sweetest girl,” said Linda Runions, Jessica’s grandmother. “She never hardly gets mad. She’s a loving sister. She’s loving to everyone. “We’re all praying every single minute,” Linda Runions said. “Just to hear that she’s OK.” Jamie Runions doesn’t want to focus her attention on Yust. The police will do that, she said. She wants to make sure everyone sees Jessica’s face and knows she needs help. “If she’s trying to get away and runs, I want someone to find her,” she said. “That is my hope. … If she’s seen, I want someone to say, ‘That’s Jessica Runions, I saw her on Facebook.’ “I just want her home.” Long missing On April 24, 2007, Kara wrote on her Myspace page: “So life hasn’t been the greatest for me lately, over the last 9 months of my life iv dedicated my life to kylr ... I made no other time for any of my friends nor my family. over those 9 months i forgot the person that I was. im trying to find that person again.” Police said then that a few days before she disappeared, Yust and Kara had a conflict that resulted in an order of protection requiring Yust to stay away from her. Kara hasn’t been heard from since. Yust was never charged in the case, although he did serve time in Jackson County for stealing, according to online court records. Earlier this month, Yust was ordered by the federal Bureau of Prisons to serve a weekend in confinement for an undisclosed probation violation. He had been sentenced to 45 months in federal prison in 2013 on a drug trafficking charge and was placed on three years’ supervised probation. A security camera showed Kara leaving Belton High School just before 10:30 a.m on May 4, 2007. That was about the same time as the last call on her cellphone. Law enforcement officers have searched various locations over the years, but the mystery continues. Kara decided to walk to school on that Friday morning. She did not come home, and she did not show up for work after school. Kara’s mother and her stepfather, Jim Beckford, reported her missing that evening. More than 50 people turned out in May for an annual walk on Missouri 58 in Belton to remember Kara. The walk takes place on the closest Sunday to May 4 each year. A website, searchingforkara.com, has more information. Signs along the highway read “Still searching. Nine years is too long” and “Kara is loved. We won’t give up.” Now, Rhonda Beckford’s focus is on supporting Jessica’s mom. When the two talked she could understand Jamie Runions’ need to concentrate on the positive. “When you’re going through something like this, you have to hold on to hope,” Beckford said. “If you don’t, you end up in a very dark place. That’s what helps you go on, that sliver of hope you have to hold on to, because you just don’t know.” She clung to that for years, she said. But admits, after nine years without her daughter, that’s harder to do. “As time goes by and coming up on 10 years, if there was any way she could come home or contact us, she would have,” Beckford said. With Yust in custody, she hoped her family will learn more about Kara. “That is what we pray for every day,” Beckford told The Star. “To get resolution to this, to find Kara’s remains and put her to rest.” Anyone with information should call the Kansas City Police Department’s missing persons hotline at 816-234-5136, or the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (816-474-8477).

– After 17-year-old Kara Kopetsky disappeared without a trace in 2007, ex-boyfriend Kylr Yust was considered a person of interest but was never charged. Now Yust, said to be 27 or 28, is a suspect in another disappearance—and the circumstances are chilling. Witnesses say Yust was the last person seen with 21-year-old Jessica Runions, who disappeared Thursday evening and whose burnt-out car was discovered early Saturday in Raymore in suburban Kansas City, Mo., the Kansas City Star reports. Yust was arrested early Sunday on charges of "knowingly burning" the vehicle and is being held in the Benton County jail. “Right now I have positive news that my daughter wasn’t in the car when they found it,” says Runions' mother. "There’s hope.” Family members tell KSHB that Runions was at a party Thursday with her boyfriend, who has been Yust's friend since childhood. The boyfriend reportedly left the party early, leaving Yust with Runions. KMBC reports that Yust was released in February from prison, where he was serving time on a drug conviction; his other convictions include assault, theft, and animal cruelty for stomping a kitten and throwing it in a river. Runions' mother says she has received support from Kopetsky's mother. "People say they understand what you're going through, but they don't really understand," she tells the Star. "She does." (Cops are digging for the remains of a Cal Poly student who disappeared 20 years ago.)

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.As police continue searching for a missing Raymore, Missouri, woman, they have arrested a man with ties to her case and that of another unsolved disappearance that dates back to 2007. Jessica Runions was last seen at a party Thursday night in Grandview. Her burned car was found in an area near 95th Street and Blue River Road in south Kansas City over the weekend. "She's super-sweet, has such a kind heart," said friend Elizabeth Humphrey. "She works at a retirement home and so she was server there and got moved up to cook. It's crazy to think that it could happen to her." The last man Runions was known to be with, Kylr Yust, 28, was arrested without incident Sunday in Benton County. He’s charged with burning Runions’ car. Yust is also the former boyfriend of missing Belton teenager Kara Kopetsky, who vanished in 2007 while trying to sever ties with him. Rhonda Beckford, Kopetsky’s mother, said a week before her daughter disappeared, she had a terrifying incident with Yust. “She actually had to jump out of his moving vehicle,” Beckford said. “Her phone saved her that time because people were starting to call her and she was able to answer the phone, and then people knew that he had her, so he turned around and headed back to Belton. She jumped out of his car and she made the choice to call the police that night.” A few days later, Kopetsky was seeing leaving Belton High School after talking on the phone with Yust. She has not been seen since. Yust has since spent time in prison for drug sales and was just released in February. Beckford said she's confident Yust is the key to both cases. "More than suspicions," she said. "I mean, we knew when she went missing that he was responsible." She said she felt that Yust would probably do something else upon his release. "Kylr isn't going to change," she said. Beckford said she’s focused on the Jessica Runions case and hopes that police will be able to find answers for her family soon. She said she knows someone out there can provide those answers. "Please call in and tell what you know," she said. "You may not think it's important, but it could be the missing piece of the puzzle in finding her." Anyone with information in the case is asked to call the Crime Stoppers TIPS Hotline at 816-474-8477. ||||| RAYMORE, Mo. - Kylr Yust, the man arrested in connection to the disappearance of Jessica Runions, was transferred to the Jackson County Jail from Benton County. Kylr Yust now in custody of KCPD. Headed back to KCMO.@41ActionNews pic.twitter.com/LOkle8XVgC — Richard Sharp (@RichardKSHB) September 14, 2016 KSHB reporter Richard Sharp was able to question Yust as he was escorted out of the Benton County Jail but he declined to comment on Runion's disappearance. Previous story: Kylr Yust, man questioned in Jessica Runions' disappearance, has violent past Yust arrested in Benton County Benton County Sheriff deputies arrested Yust Sunday morning in southeast Benton County. He was held on a $50,000 cash only bond. According to police, Yust was taken into custody on an arrest warrant on charges for knowingly burning in relation to Jessica Runions's vehicle. Missouri Search and Rescue has searched two large areas twice with negative results. Days before police arrested Yust, a Kansas City, Kansas tattoo parlor considered hiring him for a piercing apprenticeship. However, red flags caused some of the owners to rethink the decision. “I didn’t resonate with this guy. I did not like his presence, I felt uncomfortable,” said Jeff Ollerich, a co-owner of Tried and True Tattoo. Ollerich told 41 Action News he and other owners sat down and decided not to hire Yust. The next day, he was arrested in Benton County in connection to burning Runions’ car. “I didn’t want to believe this was going on. I thought I was dreaming or something,” said Cordis Woods, another co-owner of Tried and True Tattoo. Police search for missing Jessica Runions Police are looking for 21-year-old Jessica Runions. She is a white female and was last seen on September 8 at 9:30 p.m. driving a 2012 black Chevy Equinox with license plate number MN2-C8B. Just before 2 a.m. on Saturday, Runions's vehicle was located in the area of 95th Street and Blue River Road. Her vehicle was found unoccupied and burned. The vehicle was towed to a KCPD vehicle processing facility where it is being processed. Her aunt Michele Runions is simply distraught. "She's loving, caring, she helped raise her sisters. She's strong, independent," her aunt said. Runions's family told 41 Action News that Jessica Runions went to a house party with her boyfriend Thursday night. This was the last time she spoke with her mother. "She had constant contact it's not like her to not return phone calls maybe a long period of time but she would eventually get back with you," Michele Runions said. She added at the party was also Jessica Runions's boyfriend's childhood buddy - Kylr Yust. Yust is the same man who was the boyfriend of Kara Kopetsky. The young woman vanished in 2007; her case remains unsolved. He's also the same man who was convicted of assaulting another woman, stealing from a tattoo shop and of animal cruelty for stomping a kitten and tossing it into a river. Runions's aunt said Jessica's boyfriend left early, leaving Yust and the 21-year-old woman behind. "We just know that they left the party together," Michele Runions said. Runions’s mother called police Friday around 10:30 p.m. Just before 2 a.m. police found Jessica’s car burned near an underpass. "Just locating her vehicle in that condition that just that's just suspicious in nature and we're just concerned for her welfare," Captain Stacey Graves, a spokesperson with KCPD said. So is her family. "We just want her to come home safe," Michele Runions said. Please call KCPD Missing Persons at 816-234-5136, TIPS Hotline at 816-474-8477(TIPS) or 911 if you have any information. ---------------------- Follow 41 Action News on Twitter: Follow @41ActionNews Like 41 Action News on Facebook: ||||| Family members of a young Raymore woman missing since Thursday see an ominous parallel to a girl who disappeared in 2007. The family has been told by her friends that Kylr Yust — the off-and-on boyfriend of Kara Kopetsky, then 17, before she disappeared nine years ago — was the last person seen last week with 21-year-old Jessica Runions of Raymore. He was taken into custody Sunday and was being held in Missouri’s Benton County jail. Multiple Kansas City police sources confirmed that Yust, 27, was a person of interest in the Runions case but wasn’t the only person being sought for questioning. Authorities arrested Yust at 8:30 a.m. Sunday on charges of “knowingly burning” Runion’s 2012 black Chevy Equinox, which police found about 2 a.m. Saturday near 95th Street and Blue River Road. Premium content for only $0.99 For the most comprehensive local coverage, subscribe today. “Right now I have positive news that my daughter wasn’t in the car when they found it,” Jamie S. Runions told The Star on Sunday. “And that’s what’s going to keep me going right now. There’s hope.” Missouri Search and Rescue scoured two large areas twice looking for Runions, without results, according to a Kansas City police news release. Yust’s grandfather said Sunday night that he doesn’t know what’s going on with his grandson. “I don’t know what they’re saying. I don’t know what all went on,” said the grandfather, who asked that his name not be used. “He hasn’t been around for a while.” The Raymore woman was at a gathering of friends Thursday evening with Yust, against whom Kopetsky had filed for an order of protection days before she vanished in May 2007. Since that gathering, no one has reported seeing Runions. She failed to meet her mother at a doctor’s office on Friday for a critical follow-up to an appendectomy. Jessica’s mother doesn’t know Yust and said she only knew he was a longtime friend of her daughter’s boyfriend. On Sunday, Jamie S. Runions spoke with Kopetsky’s mother, Rhonda Beckford, and leaned on her for support. “People say they understand what you’re going through, but they don’t really understand. She does,” Runions told The Star. “She knows this numbness I’m feeling, this anger I’m feeling because I can’t do anything.” Beckford said when she first learned of the missing Raymore woman, and that Jessica Runions had last been seen with Yust, her heart sank. SHARE COPY LINK Rhonda Beckford of Belton, Mo., mother of Kara Kopetsky, 17, whose has been missing for nine years, expressed her concerns for family members of missing 21-year-old Jessica Runions of Raymore. Runions has been missing since Thursday. Anxious waiting The last text Runions received from Jessica was Wednesday evening. Jessica wrote: “Sweet dreams.” And her mom responded by sharing a selfie of herself with Jessica’s little sister. Jessica then sent back a picture of her with her cat, Tig. On Thursday around 2 p.m., Jessica responded to a post on Facebook. From there, her mother heard nothing. Jessica works in the restaurant at the Foxwood Springs senior living community in Raymore. A family member said she’s moved up to baker. A text message Runions sent Jessica around 8 p.m. Thursday wasn’t read. After that, calls to her phone went straight to voicemail, as if the device was turned off. “This girl can never be without her phone on,” Runions said. “Her phone will be on silent, but it’s never turned off.” On Friday, Runions went to the doctor’s office to meet Jessica there. She never showed. But her mother knew how important the appointment was. Jessica needed clearance after her surgery to go back to work. Runions reported her daughter missing Friday night. Detectives spent Saturday night interviewing everyone they could find who may have seen Runions in the past few days. Family and friends wait by the phone. “She’s just the sweetest girl,” said Linda Runions, Jessica’s grandmother. “She never hardly gets mad. She’s a loving sister. She’s loving to everyone. “We’re all praying every single minute,” Linda Runions said. “Just to hear that she’s OK.” Jamie Runions doesn’t want to focus her attention on Yust. The police will do that, she said. She wants to make sure everyone sees Jessica’s face and knows she needs help. “If she’s trying to get away and runs, I want someone to find her,” she said. “That is my hope. … If she’s seen, I want someone to say, ‘That’s Jessica Runions, I saw her on Facebook.’ “I just want her home.” Long missing On April 24, 2007, Kara wrote on her Myspace page: “So life hasn’t been the greatest for me lately, over the last 9 months of my life iv dedicated my life to kylr ... I made no other time for any of my friends nor my family. over those 9 months i forgot the person that I was. im trying to find that person again.” Police said then that a few days before she disappeared, Yust and Kara had a conflict that resulted in an order of protection requiring Yust to stay away from her. Kara hasn’t been heard from since. Yust was never charged in the case, although he did serve time in Jackson County for stealing, according to online court records. Earlier this month, Yust was ordered by the federal Bureau of Prisons to serve a weekend in confinement for an undisclosed probation violation. He had been sentenced to 45 months in federal prison in 2013 on a drug trafficking charge and was placed on three years’ supervised probation. A security camera showed Kara leaving Belton High School just before 10:30 a.m on May 4, 2007. That was about the same time as the last call on her cellphone. Law enforcement officers have searched various locations over the years, but the mystery continues. Kara decided to walk to school on that Friday morning. She did not come home, and she did not show up for work after school. Kara’s mother and her stepfather, Jim Beckford, reported her missing that evening. More than 50 people turned out in May for an annual walk on Missouri 58 in Belton to remember Kara. The walk takes place on the closest Sunday to May 4 each year. A website, searchingforkara.com, has more information. Signs along the highway read “Still searching. Nine years is too long” and “Kara is loved. We won’t give up.” Now, Rhonda Beckford’s focus is on supporting Jessica’s mom. When the two talked she could understand Jamie Runions’ need to concentrate on the positive. “When you’re going through something like this, you have to hold on to hope,” Beckford said. “If you don’t, you end up in a very dark place. That’s what helps you go on, that sliver of hope you have to hold on to, because you just don’t know.” She clung to that for years, she said. But admits, after nine years without her daughter, that’s harder to do. “As time goes by and coming up on 10 years, if there was any way she could come home or contact us, she would have,” Beckford said. With Yust in custody, she hoped her family will learn more about Kara. “That is what we pray for every day,” Beckford told The Star. “To get resolution to this, to find Kara’s remains and put her to rest.” Anyone with information should call the Kansas City Police Department’s missing persons hotline at 816-234-5136, or the TIPS Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (816-474-8477).

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Wednesday, April 23 2014, 09:23 AM MDT Fined For Posting a Negative Review Online ||||| Lots of quasi-legal action has been taken over negative reviews left by customers at sites like Ripoff Report and Yelp. Usually, it takes the form of post-review threats about defamation and libel. Every so often, though, a company will make proactive moves (usually bad ones) to head off negative reviews. Nicci Stevens sends in this report from Salt Lake City's KUTV, which details the actions taken by one company against a dissatisfied purchaser who left a negative review at Ripoff Report. For Christmas several years ago, Jen Palmer's husband ordered her a number of trinkets from the website kleargear.com. But for 30 days, Kleargear.com never sent the products so the transaction was automatically cancelled by Paypal, Jen said. Wanting an explanation, Jen says she tried to call the company but could never reach anyone. So frustrated, she turned to the internet writing a negative review on ripoffreport.com. "There is absolutely no way to get in touch with a physical human being," it says. And it accuses kleargear.com of having "horrible customer service practices." That was the end of it, Jen thought, until three years later when Jen's husband got an email from Kleargear.com demanding the post be removed or they would be fined. Non-Disparagement Clause In an effort to ensure fair and honest public feedback, and to prevent the publishing of libelous content in any form, your acceptance of this sales contract prohibits you from taking any action that negatively impacts KlearGear.com, its reputation, products, services, management or employees. Should you violate this clause, as determined by KlearGear.com in its sole discretion, you will be provided a seventy-two (72) hour opportunity to retract the content in question. If the content remains, in whole or in part, you will immediately be billed $3,500.00 USD for legal fees and court costs until such complete costs are determined in litigation. Should these charges remain unpaid for 30 calendar days from the billing date, your unpaid invoice will be forwarded to our third party collection firm and will be reported to consumer credit reporting agencies until paid. There are many posts in addition to Jen's on Ripoffreport.com as well as other online consumer complaint boards. In 2010, the company was slapped with an "F rating" by the Better Business Bureau for "not delivering products purchased online in a timely manner," says the BBB's website. Kleargear.com today has a "B" rating. Kleargear, unfortunately, was not simply bluffing. Up until August 2013 at least (the date of the last crawl by the Internet Archive), Kleargear had this atrocious bit of wording on its "Terms of Sale and Use" page.Nice. I'm not sure what part of "fair and honest feedback" includes threatening unhappy purchasers with a $3,500 fine for publicly expressing their displeasure, especially considering Kleargear has made the clause entirely "eye of the beholder" by including the phrase "in its sole discretion." There's nothing "fair or honest" about this policy or the people looking to enforce it.It's especially shady considering the page has now been yanked by Kleargear . It no longer exists in its sitemap and reroutes to its "Bestsellers" page if the URL is typed directly into the address bar . The "Terms of Use" link simply puts you right back on its generic "Help" page . The nasty clause is gone and it's only gone because Matt Gephardt at KUTV started asking questions.Why would Kleargear insert such a customer-unfriendly bit of wording into its "terms of sales?" Maybe because its reputation used to be atrocious. (I mean, more so...)This clause makes you question the validity of its shiny "B" rating. (Not that a BBB rating isn't questionable in its own right …) If it's been heading off complaints with borderline extortionary tactics, that "B" is worthless. When Gephardt finally got an (anonymous) response from someone with Kleargear on its "Smile or Get Fined" policy, the person reachedthe $3,500 fee, stating that the threat towards Jen wasn't "blackmail," but rather "a diligent effort to help them avoid the fine."Obviously, the company doesn't truly believe this tactic is truly justifiable or it wouldn't have memory-holed the page with the non-disparagement clause. Even worse, it's made no move to undo the damage it has already done to this customer's credit by sending the unpaid, completely bogus fine to collections.According to the Internet Archive, that clause didn't exist in 2008 , when Jen wrote her review, so there's no way the company can claim that charge is legitimate, even by its own shady metrics. It actually doesn't appear until June of 2012 , suggesting that its battle to raise its BBB rating wasn't going as well as it had hoped, but rather than overhaul its customer service, it decided to bill its way back to the top at $3,500 a review.Now, it would appear that if you're dissatisfied with your Kleargear experience, you're free to let the internet know about without getting hit with a $3,500 bill... for the moment. The clause may have been removed because the company's currently feeling a little heat, but if it was willing to use this sort of underhanded tactic to quiet unsatisfied customers, then there's a good chance it will put something like this back in its "Terms of Sales" once it feels the worst has blown over.Or maybe, just maybe, it will finally, after a half-decade, make an attempt to fix the underlying problem.

– A Utah woman is facing a massive fine for having the temerity to tell the Internet about a lousy shopping experience. Jen Palmer's husband bought some items for her from Kleargear.com back in 2008. The items never arrived, Paypal canceled the transaction, and Palmer wrote a scathing review on Ripoffreport.com. All seemed right with the world … until three years later, when Kleargear sent her an ultimatum demanding she remove the post, or pay a $3,500 fine, she tells KUTV. "This is fraud," she says. "They're blackmailing us for telling the truth." Kleargear says a clause in its terms of sale forbids customers from "taking any action that negatively impacts kleargear.com" or its reputation, and allows Kleargear to, "at its sole discretion" fine violators $3,500. Palmer, terrified, tried to remove the review—but Ripoffreport refused to take it down unless she paid them $2,000. When she didn't pay, Kleargear reported her to credit bureaus, and they haven't been able to get that ding removed. It's unclear if the terms of sale were even in force back in 2008—archives don't show them then—and Techdirt observes that, in the wake of KUTV's report, they've completely disappeared from Kleargear's site.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Wednesday, April 23 2014, 09:23 AM MDT Fined For Posting a Negative Review Online ||||| Lots of quasi-legal action has been taken over negative reviews left by customers at sites like Ripoff Report and Yelp. Usually, it takes the form of post-review threats about defamation and libel. Every so often, though, a company will make proactive moves (usually bad ones) to head off negative reviews. Nicci Stevens sends in this report from Salt Lake City's KUTV, which details the actions taken by one company against a dissatisfied purchaser who left a negative review at Ripoff Report. For Christmas several years ago, Jen Palmer's husband ordered her a number of trinkets from the website kleargear.com. But for 30 days, Kleargear.com never sent the products so the transaction was automatically cancelled by Paypal, Jen said. Wanting an explanation, Jen says she tried to call the company but could never reach anyone. So frustrated, she turned to the internet writing a negative review on ripoffreport.com. "There is absolutely no way to get in touch with a physical human being," it says. And it accuses kleargear.com of having "horrible customer service practices." That was the end of it, Jen thought, until three years later when Jen's husband got an email from Kleargear.com demanding the post be removed or they would be fined. Non-Disparagement Clause In an effort to ensure fair and honest public feedback, and to prevent the publishing of libelous content in any form, your acceptance of this sales contract prohibits you from taking any action that negatively impacts KlearGear.com, its reputation, products, services, management or employees. Should you violate this clause, as determined by KlearGear.com in its sole discretion, you will be provided a seventy-two (72) hour opportunity to retract the content in question. If the content remains, in whole or in part, you will immediately be billed $3,500.00 USD for legal fees and court costs until such complete costs are determined in litigation. Should these charges remain unpaid for 30 calendar days from the billing date, your unpaid invoice will be forwarded to our third party collection firm and will be reported to consumer credit reporting agencies until paid. There are many posts in addition to Jen's on Ripoffreport.com as well as other online consumer complaint boards. In 2010, the company was slapped with an "F rating" by the Better Business Bureau for "not delivering products purchased online in a timely manner," says the BBB's website. Kleargear.com today has a "B" rating. Kleargear, unfortunately, was not simply bluffing. Up until August 2013 at least (the date of the last crawl by the Internet Archive), Kleargear had this atrocious bit of wording on its "Terms of Sale and Use" page.Nice. I'm not sure what part of "fair and honest feedback" includes threatening unhappy purchasers with a $3,500 fine for publicly expressing their displeasure, especially considering Kleargear has made the clause entirely "eye of the beholder" by including the phrase "in its sole discretion." There's nothing "fair or honest" about this policy or the people looking to enforce it.It's especially shady considering the page has now been yanked by Kleargear . It no longer exists in its sitemap and reroutes to its "Bestsellers" page if the URL is typed directly into the address bar . The "Terms of Use" link simply puts you right back on its generic "Help" page . The nasty clause is gone and it's only gone because Matt Gephardt at KUTV started asking questions.Why would Kleargear insert such a customer-unfriendly bit of wording into its "terms of sales?" Maybe because its reputation used to be atrocious. (I mean, more so...)This clause makes you question the validity of its shiny "B" rating. (Not that a BBB rating isn't questionable in its own right …) If it's been heading off complaints with borderline extortionary tactics, that "B" is worthless. When Gephardt finally got an (anonymous) response from someone with Kleargear on its "Smile or Get Fined" policy, the person reachedthe $3,500 fee, stating that the threat towards Jen wasn't "blackmail," but rather "a diligent effort to help them avoid the fine."Obviously, the company doesn't truly believe this tactic is truly justifiable or it wouldn't have memory-holed the page with the non-disparagement clause. Even worse, it's made no move to undo the damage it has already done to this customer's credit by sending the unpaid, completely bogus fine to collections.According to the Internet Archive, that clause didn't exist in 2008 , when Jen wrote her review, so there's no way the company can claim that charge is legitimate, even by its own shady metrics. It actually doesn't appear until June of 2012 , suggesting that its battle to raise its BBB rating wasn't going as well as it had hoped, but rather than overhaul its customer service, it decided to bill its way back to the top at $3,500 a review.Now, it would appear that if you're dissatisfied with your Kleargear experience, you're free to let the internet know about without getting hit with a $3,500 bill... for the moment. The clause may have been removed because the company's currently feeling a little heat, but if it was willing to use this sort of underhanded tactic to quiet unsatisfied customers, then there's a good chance it will put something like this back in its "Terms of Sales" once it feels the worst has blown over.Or maybe, just maybe, it will finally, after a half-decade, make an attempt to fix the underlying problem.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

BERLIN (AP) — Police say a World War II bomb has exploded during construction work in a western German town, killing one person and wounding at least eight others. The dpa news agency reported that police in Euskirchen, near Bonn, said the driver of a bulldozer was killed in Friday's explosion. Two people were seriously injured and six others suffered lighter injuries. Unexploded World War II-era bombs are still discovered frequently in Germany, though it's relatively rare for those finds to result in death or injury. ||||| Story highlights The blast killed a bulldozer driver and at least 13 other people at a rubble storage site Unexploded World War II-era bombs are still found in Germany decades after conflict Bombs are common enough that disposal teams check for them before construction Three bomb disposal squad members died in 2010 when a device exploded in Gottingen A bulldozer struck what authorities believe was a World War II-era bomb in a western German town Friday afternoon, causing a blast that killed the bulldozer driver, injured 13 other people and damaged homes, police said. The blast occurred at a rubble storage site in Euskirchen, Germany, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) southeast of Cologne, police spokesman Helmut Conrads said. Information on why police suspected a World War II bomb wasn't immediately available, though the unearthing of such ordnance in Germany -- where unexploded Allied bombs still are being discovered decades after the conflict -- wouldn't be unusual. Two people were critically injured in Friday's blast, and 11 others suffered minor injuries, Conrads said. The explosion happened at site that was storing construction rubble destined for recycling, according to Conrads. "We can be lucky this hasn't happened earlier," he said. The blast damaged homes in a 400-meter radius around the explosion, Conrads said. The presence of unexploded World War II ordnance in Germany is common enough that companies hire private bomb disposal teams to check that sites are safe when construction is planned. Last April, authorities briefly evacuated hundreds of people from an area in central Berlin after a Russian-made aerial bomb weighing about 100 kilograms (220 pounds) was unearthed 2 meters from a train track. Bomb disposal experts safely disabled the device. In August 2012, a 250-kilogram (550-pound) bomb was discovered in central Munich. It had to be detonated where it lay because the fuse was unstable; the explosion damaged nearby buildings. In 2011, 45,000 residents were evacuated from the city of Koblenz, on the Rhine and Moselle rivers, as bomb squads dealt with two bombs and a military fog-producing device that were dropped by American and British warplanes in the last years of the war. One was a 1.8-metric ton British bomb that could have wiped out the city center, according to the local fire brigade. Three members of a bomb disposal squad were killed in 2010 when the device they were trying to defuse in the German town Gottingen went off. ||||| German construction worker killed by unexploded World War Two bomb as he dug a trench: Digger driver dies instantly in explosion near Bonn Bomb from World War II detonated in Euskirchen, west Germany One man dead, at least eight others injured in blast on industrial site Shock wave 'felt for miles' and windows shattered in the town centre A World War II bomb has detonated in west Germany this afternoon, killing at least one man, and injuring several others. The shock wave shattered windows within several miles of the site where the bomb went off, in the city of Euskirchen, and could be heard 16miles away in nearby Bonn. The bomb, which has laid undetected for more than 70 years, is thought to be one of thousands dropped by Allied forces on the Euskirchen area in 1944. Explosion: A bomb from World War II exploded during digging work in Euskirchen near Bonn, killing thee digger operator and injuring eight Hidden fire: The partially destroyed digger is cordoned off near the site where the bomb went off The bomb exploded around 12.30 this afternoon during a dig on the outskirts of the city, Der Spiegel reports. It reportedly detonated on a building site and the dead man is believed to be the operator of the excavator. The man and his colleagues were moving debris when the bomb went off, Euskirchen Police spokesman Norbert Hardt told Spiegel Online. The man died at the scene. Eight others were injured in the blast, two are in critical condition in hospital. Boom: A caravan has been destroyed by the blast from the bomb on the worksite This car standing nearby did not have much hope - all the windows on the doors have been blown out and the windscreen is shattered Powerful: Windows were bent by the force of the shock wave from the explosion which could be heard 16miles away in nearby Bonn Bomb: The roof tiles on nearby buildings are damaged following the shock wave from the bomb Destruction: A resident posted this image on twitter of a shop window on the high street which has shattered

– Germany today lost one more person to the Allied bombing campaign of 70 years ago. A construction worker in the city of Euskirchen was killed and eight others injured when a bulldozer hit a buried bomb at a dig site, reports the AP. It's not unusual to unearth unexploded bombs from World War II in Germany, reports CNN, though having them claim modern-day casualties is relatively uncommon. Euskirchen is in western Germany, near Bonn, the target of heavy bombing around 1944, notes the Daily Mail.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.BERLIN (AP) — Police say a World War II bomb has exploded during construction work in a western German town, killing one person and wounding at least eight others. The dpa news agency reported that police in Euskirchen, near Bonn, said the driver of a bulldozer was killed in Friday's explosion. Two people were seriously injured and six others suffered lighter injuries. Unexploded World War II-era bombs are still discovered frequently in Germany, though it's relatively rare for those finds to result in death or injury. ||||| Story highlights The blast killed a bulldozer driver and at least 13 other people at a rubble storage site Unexploded World War II-era bombs are still found in Germany decades after conflict Bombs are common enough that disposal teams check for them before construction Three bomb disposal squad members died in 2010 when a device exploded in Gottingen A bulldozer struck what authorities believe was a World War II-era bomb in a western German town Friday afternoon, causing a blast that killed the bulldozer driver, injured 13 other people and damaged homes, police said. The blast occurred at a rubble storage site in Euskirchen, Germany, about 30 kilometers (19 miles) southeast of Cologne, police spokesman Helmut Conrads said. Information on why police suspected a World War II bomb wasn't immediately available, though the unearthing of such ordnance in Germany -- where unexploded Allied bombs still are being discovered decades after the conflict -- wouldn't be unusual. Two people were critically injured in Friday's blast, and 11 others suffered minor injuries, Conrads said. The explosion happened at site that was storing construction rubble destined for recycling, according to Conrads. "We can be lucky this hasn't happened earlier," he said. The blast damaged homes in a 400-meter radius around the explosion, Conrads said. The presence of unexploded World War II ordnance in Germany is common enough that companies hire private bomb disposal teams to check that sites are safe when construction is planned. Last April, authorities briefly evacuated hundreds of people from an area in central Berlin after a Russian-made aerial bomb weighing about 100 kilograms (220 pounds) was unearthed 2 meters from a train track. Bomb disposal experts safely disabled the device. In August 2012, a 250-kilogram (550-pound) bomb was discovered in central Munich. It had to be detonated where it lay because the fuse was unstable; the explosion damaged nearby buildings. In 2011, 45,000 residents were evacuated from the city of Koblenz, on the Rhine and Moselle rivers, as bomb squads dealt with two bombs and a military fog-producing device that were dropped by American and British warplanes in the last years of the war. One was a 1.8-metric ton British bomb that could have wiped out the city center, according to the local fire brigade. Three members of a bomb disposal squad were killed in 2010 when the device they were trying to defuse in the German town Gottingen went off. ||||| German construction worker killed by unexploded World War Two bomb as he dug a trench: Digger driver dies instantly in explosion near Bonn Bomb from World War II detonated in Euskirchen, west Germany One man dead, at least eight others injured in blast on industrial site Shock wave 'felt for miles' and windows shattered in the town centre A World War II bomb has detonated in west Germany this afternoon, killing at least one man, and injuring several others. The shock wave shattered windows within several miles of the site where the bomb went off, in the city of Euskirchen, and could be heard 16miles away in nearby Bonn. The bomb, which has laid undetected for more than 70 years, is thought to be one of thousands dropped by Allied forces on the Euskirchen area in 1944. Explosion: A bomb from World War II exploded during digging work in Euskirchen near Bonn, killing thee digger operator and injuring eight Hidden fire: The partially destroyed digger is cordoned off near the site where the bomb went off The bomb exploded around 12.30 this afternoon during a dig on the outskirts of the city, Der Spiegel reports. It reportedly detonated on a building site and the dead man is believed to be the operator of the excavator. The man and his colleagues were moving debris when the bomb went off, Euskirchen Police spokesman Norbert Hardt told Spiegel Online. The man died at the scene. Eight others were injured in the blast, two are in critical condition in hospital. Boom: A caravan has been destroyed by the blast from the bomb on the worksite This car standing nearby did not have much hope - all the windows on the doors have been blown out and the windscreen is shattered Powerful: Windows were bent by the force of the shock wave from the explosion which could be heard 16miles away in nearby Bonn Bomb: The roof tiles on nearby buildings are damaged following the shock wave from the bomb Destruction: A resident posted this image on twitter of a shop window on the high street which has shattered

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

ABC News When Brooklyn-based designer and developer Larry Fox took a job as a pizza delivery man to make ends meet, he was horrified at the number of bad tippers he encountered. So last year, the 20-year-old created the Tumblr blog "15%" so colleagues in the food industry could post horrible tips and call out customers publicly, and it was soon flooded with submissions. Luckily there are some tippers out there so generous that we momentarily forget about out all the bad ones. One Houston waiter learned that firsthand this Memorial Day weekend when he received a $5,000 tip on a $26 bill -- that's a 19,000 percent tip. The generous gratuity was left Saturday by a couple dining at D’Amico’s Italian Market Café in Houston, according to the blog 29-95. The couple were regulars at the restaurant and were often served by Greg Rubar, a waiter there for the past 16 years. When the couple learned the Rubar's car had been ruined recently by thunderstorms, they were understandably concerned. According to the Houston Examiner, Rubar, who is married with a small child, had struggled with transportation ever since his car was destroyed and had been lately borrowing vehicles from coworkers and taking taxis. To relieve Rubar of his transportation burdens, the couple left a $5,000 tip on their next bill -- which totaled just $26.95 -- and told Rubar to "go buy himself a car." "The couple, who do not want to be identified, thought anyone who has worked as hard and as proficiently as Rubar has for so long, shouldn’t be punished for something so out of his control," D'Amico's Italian Market Café said in a press release. "They had gone to the restaurant that night to present him with the money." HoustonPress reported that Rubar burst into tears upon receiving the money. He is now shopping around for a new ride. ||||| Rice Village waiter receives $5,000 tip HOUSTON—A waiter at a Rice Village restaurant said he’s speechless after receiving a $5,000 tip. Greg Rubar has worked at D’Amico’s Italian Market for 16 years. Over the weekend, a married couple, who are his regular customers, handed him the big tip. “I told them thank you when they gave it to me, I knew it was money, but I didn’t know how much,” he said. “Maybe like a half hour after they left I went in the bathroom and I opened it, and looked at it and I could tell it was $5,000 because it was still wrapped, it still had the band on it from the bank.” Rubar said the couple knew that his car was destroyed in recent thunderstorms in Houston. When they gave him the check they told him to go buy himself a car. He said that’s what he plans to do.

– An antidote to all those stories about terrible tippers: A waiter at a Houston restaurant just pulled in one for $5,000. Two of his regulars, a married couple, finished their meal and handed Greg Rubar the wad of cash, reports local station KHOU. Rubar says the couple had heard his car was wrecked in recent thunderstorms and told him to buy a new one. “I knew it was money, but I didn’t know how much,” says the waiter at D'Amico's Italian Market. “Maybe like a half hour after they left I went in the bathroom and I opened it, and looked at it and I could tell it was $5,000 because it was still wrapped, it still had the band on it from the bank.” The Huffington Post figures it's a tip of about 19,000%.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.ABC News When Brooklyn-based designer and developer Larry Fox took a job as a pizza delivery man to make ends meet, he was horrified at the number of bad tippers he encountered. So last year, the 20-year-old created the Tumblr blog "15%" so colleagues in the food industry could post horrible tips and call out customers publicly, and it was soon flooded with submissions. Luckily there are some tippers out there so generous that we momentarily forget about out all the bad ones. One Houston waiter learned that firsthand this Memorial Day weekend when he received a $5,000 tip on a $26 bill -- that's a 19,000 percent tip. The generous gratuity was left Saturday by a couple dining at D’Amico’s Italian Market Café in Houston, according to the blog 29-95. The couple were regulars at the restaurant and were often served by Greg Rubar, a waiter there for the past 16 years. When the couple learned the Rubar's car had been ruined recently by thunderstorms, they were understandably concerned. According to the Houston Examiner, Rubar, who is married with a small child, had struggled with transportation ever since his car was destroyed and had been lately borrowing vehicles from coworkers and taking taxis. To relieve Rubar of his transportation burdens, the couple left a $5,000 tip on their next bill -- which totaled just $26.95 -- and told Rubar to "go buy himself a car." "The couple, who do not want to be identified, thought anyone who has worked as hard and as proficiently as Rubar has for so long, shouldn’t be punished for something so out of his control," D'Amico's Italian Market Café said in a press release. "They had gone to the restaurant that night to present him with the money." HoustonPress reported that Rubar burst into tears upon receiving the money. He is now shopping around for a new ride. ||||| Rice Village waiter receives $5,000 tip HOUSTON—A waiter at a Rice Village restaurant said he’s speechless after receiving a $5,000 tip. Greg Rubar has worked at D’Amico’s Italian Market for 16 years. Over the weekend, a married couple, who are his regular customers, handed him the big tip. “I told them thank you when they gave it to me, I knew it was money, but I didn’t know how much,” he said. “Maybe like a half hour after they left I went in the bathroom and I opened it, and looked at it and I could tell it was $5,000 because it was still wrapped, it still had the band on it from the bank.” Rubar said the couple knew that his car was destroyed in recent thunderstorms in Houston. When they gave him the check they told him to go buy himself a car. He said that’s what he plans to do.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

State Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald announced Friday a new record return for the Great Iowa Treasure Hunt. The program works to return unclaimed property to Iowans. Fitzgerald said $2.3 million in unclaimed property was returned to the estate of Maurice Wittrock. "I'm very excited to announce the Maurice Wittrock unclaimed properties were claimed through his estate," Fitzgerald said in a news release. "Many of the properties have been in the Great Iowa Treasure Hunt for years. Throughout the years, we tried to reach out and contact Mr. Wittrock, but he chose not to come forward to claim his property. During that time, finders reached out to him as well, offering to reunite him for a fee. I'm pleased his attorney and the estate were able to claim the money at no cost. Our mission is to reunite unclaimed property to its rightful owners and we do that at no cost." Officials report that over the years the program, started by Fitzgerald in 1983, has returned more than $195 million in unclaimed property to more than 465,000 people. Search to see if you have unclaimed property at http://www.greatiowatreasurehunt.com ||||| Few pictures of Louis Passerini exist. This photo of him was taken at his first Holy Communion. Passerini died at 84 in 1994 at Bellevue Hospital. He hadn't been in touch with anyone from his family for 27 years. He left behind $1 million in bank accounts and safety deposit boxes scattered around the country. The accounts lay unclaimed and dormant until 2000, when Passerini's brother learned of his death and started searching for the money. View Full Caption Courtesy of Allen Fitzpatrick NEW YORK CITY — When Louis Passerini died in 1994 at Bellevue Hospital, his passing barely registered with the rest of the world. No one was there to mourn the eccentric 84-year-old. He hadn’t been in touch with any of his family for 27 years. None of his relatives, including a nephew on the Upper West Side, knew that he was living alone in a boarding home in Manhattan. None were even told Passerini had died. He didn’t leave behind contact numbers or addresses to reach loved ones — let alone any information about his life or belongings. All that remained from his 84 years on Earth were more than 30 bank accounts and safety deposit boxes containing cryptic messages scattered around the country. Collectively, they held nearly $1 million. The news wire service UPI wrote a story about a 25-year-old Louis Passerini bicycling from his home in Hartford, Conn., to college in Springfield, Mass., twice a week. The Los Angeles Times ran the story on April 27, 1936. View Full Caption Los Angeles Times via the New York Public Library But since no one knew he had died and no paperwork existed to alert anyone to the accounts, the fruits of Passerini’s frugal living and constant saving remained a secret and stayed that way for another six years. “He was very private,” his brother Joseph Passerini said. “He never had a telephone or a car, so you couldn’t track him that way.” That’s why Joseph said he was shocked to hear news about his brother in 2000, when Jaisan Inc., a Manhattan-based agency that searches for unclaimed bank accounts, contacted him and another brother, Henry Passerini. Jaisan informed them that Louis had died and that it had discovered two of Louis’s bank accounts in New York that held $81,155 but had been dormant for years. Henry who, unlike Joseph, was near in age to Louis and at one time had a close relationship with him, suspected that the $81,155 was just the tip of the iceberg. Henry knew Louis had been a miser his whole life — even during the Great Depression. The brother also knew Louis had a long career in the Air Force, meaning he moved around the country and could have held banks accounts anywhere. With that gnawing hunch, Henry embarked on what could be one of the longest and farthest-reaching scavenger hunts — all to find more of Louis’ hidden money. The search started in 2001 with Henry identifying hundreds of banks and other financial institutions in the immediate neighborhoods in which his brother had lived during his life. Henry hired lawyers who sent letters to each of these institutions, asking if they held accounts in Louis’ name. More than 60 letters went to New York City banks alone. Another set of letters was sent to the 18 largest banks in Canada because the family had lived there at one time. Henry reached out to government agencies and people who might have information on where his brother’s money was. And he contacted the unclaimed funds' administrator in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. He also reviewed Internal Revenue Service records to see if any banks reported interest on accounts held by Louis from 1996 to 2001. Joseph said what Henry uncovered left him and his family “very surprised.” Louis was born in 1910. He was the oldest of six siblings to Italian parents who immigrated to Canada before settling in New Britain, Conn. Not much is known about Louis’ life. Joseph said he barely spent time with Louis and was only 1 when his brother left home. He said Louis only kept in touch with some siblings. But Louis' brilliant mind and quirkiness made him a fixture of family lore. “He was kind of a mathematical genius as well as being an eccentric,” said Allen Fitzpatrick, 60, one of Louis’ nephews. “The whole family, they were pretty much on the smart end, but I guess he was the biggest brain of them all.” Louis’ eccentricity garnered him notoriety in the press in 1936 when the news wire service UPI wrote about his quirky commute to college. At the time he was 25, working as a bookkeeper in Hartford, Conn. He would bike from Hartford to the Springfield, Mass., branch of Northeastern University twice a week. He covered 56 miles on each round-trip ride for a total of 112 miles a week, the wire service reported. During World War II, he was drafted into the Air Force and made a career out of the military. Joseph, who lives in Florida, said he didn’t know much about his brother’s life after that, nor did he know how he ended up living out his final days in a boarding home. Henry, 92, could not be reached for comment at his Falls Church, Va., home, and his lawyer declined to comment until she got his approval. But Henry’s hunt paid off. By 2004 he identified more than 30 bank accounts in Virginia, Connecticut and New York that Louis held. Henry also located four safety deposit boxes that Louis had. Those boxes contained passbooks, keys to other safety deposit boxes and notes written in a little-used version of shorthand that referred to the location of other assets. In all Henry discovered about $912,000 that his penny-pinching brother had kept scattered around the country. But doling out the money has proven just as challenging as tracking it down. Court papers in Manhattan Surrogate’s Court show that the funds are to be divvied up among Louis’ two surviving brothers, Joseph and Henry, and six nieces and nephews who are the heirs to his other deceased siblings. But distributions haven’t been made because Joseph and Henry, who are the administrators of Louis’ estate, have been locked in a legal fight over how much to pay Henry’s lawyers for preparing tax filings on the $912,000. Last year, Joseph asked a surrogate’s court judge to remove Henry as an administrator. Joseph declined to comment on the case, calling it “a private family matter.” Earlier this year, Henry filed a legal response that cited the lengths he went to to track down the money and demanded that a judge dismiss Joseph’s request. Fitzpatrick, whose mother was one of Louis’s sisters, said the delay is “because of roadblocks set up by other family members.” “It’s the longest legal case I’ve ever seen,” he said. Fitzpatrick, who lives in Seattle, never met his Uncle Louis. He said he might have if the family knew he was living in Manhattan. At the time of Louis’ death, Fitzpatrick lived on the Upper West Side. “Obviously, I certainly would have said hello to him,” he said. “It’s weird.”

– A New York City eccentric left behind nearly $1 million scattered around the country when he died—triggering a scavenger hunt and in-fighting among his surviving family members, DNA Info reports. "He was very private," says Joseph Passerini of his brother, Louis, who lived alone and died 21 years ago at age 84. "He never had a telephone or a car, so you couldn’t track him that way." In fact, Joseph and his brother Henry only heard about Louis' death in 2000, when contacted by a company that looks for unclaimed bank money. Louis had left $81,155 in one account, but Henry, knowing Louis as a miser who had traveled in his long Air Force career, figured there was more. So Henry reached out to hundreds of banks through attorneys, contacted government agencies, and talked to administrators of unclaimed funds across the US. Sure enough, 92-year-old Henry hit gold: $912,000 in safety deposit boxes and bank accounts in several states. Some safety deposit boxes contained notes in a rare shorthand pointing Henry to other hidden assets. Why the secrecy? "He was kind of a mathematical genius as well as being an eccentric," says one of Louis' newphews. Louis generated news in 1936 for his eye-popping, 56-mile round-trip commute to college in Springfield, Mass., then got drafted into the Air Force in World War II. Beyond that, family members aren't saying much about him. They're also in a legal battle over how much to give Henry's lawyers before divvying up the findings. "It’s the longest legal case I’ve ever seen," says a relative. If $912,000 sounds high, KCCI reports that Iowa just returned $2.3 million in property to the estate of a man who showed no interest in claiming it.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.State Treasurer Michael Fitzgerald announced Friday a new record return for the Great Iowa Treasure Hunt. The program works to return unclaimed property to Iowans. Fitzgerald said $2.3 million in unclaimed property was returned to the estate of Maurice Wittrock. "I'm very excited to announce the Maurice Wittrock unclaimed properties were claimed through his estate," Fitzgerald said in a news release. "Many of the properties have been in the Great Iowa Treasure Hunt for years. Throughout the years, we tried to reach out and contact Mr. Wittrock, but he chose not to come forward to claim his property. During that time, finders reached out to him as well, offering to reunite him for a fee. I'm pleased his attorney and the estate were able to claim the money at no cost. Our mission is to reunite unclaimed property to its rightful owners and we do that at no cost." Officials report that over the years the program, started by Fitzgerald in 1983, has returned more than $195 million in unclaimed property to more than 465,000 people. Search to see if you have unclaimed property at http://www.greatiowatreasurehunt.com ||||| Few pictures of Louis Passerini exist. This photo of him was taken at his first Holy Communion. Passerini died at 84 in 1994 at Bellevue Hospital. He hadn't been in touch with anyone from his family for 27 years. He left behind $1 million in bank accounts and safety deposit boxes scattered around the country. The accounts lay unclaimed and dormant until 2000, when Passerini's brother learned of his death and started searching for the money. View Full Caption Courtesy of Allen Fitzpatrick NEW YORK CITY — When Louis Passerini died in 1994 at Bellevue Hospital, his passing barely registered with the rest of the world. No one was there to mourn the eccentric 84-year-old. He hadn’t been in touch with any of his family for 27 years. None of his relatives, including a nephew on the Upper West Side, knew that he was living alone in a boarding home in Manhattan. None were even told Passerini had died. He didn’t leave behind contact numbers or addresses to reach loved ones — let alone any information about his life or belongings. All that remained from his 84 years on Earth were more than 30 bank accounts and safety deposit boxes containing cryptic messages scattered around the country. Collectively, they held nearly $1 million. The news wire service UPI wrote a story about a 25-year-old Louis Passerini bicycling from his home in Hartford, Conn., to college in Springfield, Mass., twice a week. The Los Angeles Times ran the story on April 27, 1936. View Full Caption Los Angeles Times via the New York Public Library But since no one knew he had died and no paperwork existed to alert anyone to the accounts, the fruits of Passerini’s frugal living and constant saving remained a secret and stayed that way for another six years. “He was very private,” his brother Joseph Passerini said. “He never had a telephone or a car, so you couldn’t track him that way.” That’s why Joseph said he was shocked to hear news about his brother in 2000, when Jaisan Inc., a Manhattan-based agency that searches for unclaimed bank accounts, contacted him and another brother, Henry Passerini. Jaisan informed them that Louis had died and that it had discovered two of Louis’s bank accounts in New York that held $81,155 but had been dormant for years. Henry who, unlike Joseph, was near in age to Louis and at one time had a close relationship with him, suspected that the $81,155 was just the tip of the iceberg. Henry knew Louis had been a miser his whole life — even during the Great Depression. The brother also knew Louis had a long career in the Air Force, meaning he moved around the country and could have held banks accounts anywhere. With that gnawing hunch, Henry embarked on what could be one of the longest and farthest-reaching scavenger hunts — all to find more of Louis’ hidden money. The search started in 2001 with Henry identifying hundreds of banks and other financial institutions in the immediate neighborhoods in which his brother had lived during his life. Henry hired lawyers who sent letters to each of these institutions, asking if they held accounts in Louis’ name. More than 60 letters went to New York City banks alone. Another set of letters was sent to the 18 largest banks in Canada because the family had lived there at one time. Henry reached out to government agencies and people who might have information on where his brother’s money was. And he contacted the unclaimed funds' administrator in all 50 states and Washington, D.C. He also reviewed Internal Revenue Service records to see if any banks reported interest on accounts held by Louis from 1996 to 2001. Joseph said what Henry uncovered left him and his family “very surprised.” Louis was born in 1910. He was the oldest of six siblings to Italian parents who immigrated to Canada before settling in New Britain, Conn. Not much is known about Louis’ life. Joseph said he barely spent time with Louis and was only 1 when his brother left home. He said Louis only kept in touch with some siblings. But Louis' brilliant mind and quirkiness made him a fixture of family lore. “He was kind of a mathematical genius as well as being an eccentric,” said Allen Fitzpatrick, 60, one of Louis’ nephews. “The whole family, they were pretty much on the smart end, but I guess he was the biggest brain of them all.” Louis’ eccentricity garnered him notoriety in the press in 1936 when the news wire service UPI wrote about his quirky commute to college. At the time he was 25, working as a bookkeeper in Hartford, Conn. He would bike from Hartford to the Springfield, Mass., branch of Northeastern University twice a week. He covered 56 miles on each round-trip ride for a total of 112 miles a week, the wire service reported. During World War II, he was drafted into the Air Force and made a career out of the military. Joseph, who lives in Florida, said he didn’t know much about his brother’s life after that, nor did he know how he ended up living out his final days in a boarding home. Henry, 92, could not be reached for comment at his Falls Church, Va., home, and his lawyer declined to comment until she got his approval. But Henry’s hunt paid off. By 2004 he identified more than 30 bank accounts in Virginia, Connecticut and New York that Louis held. Henry also located four safety deposit boxes that Louis had. Those boxes contained passbooks, keys to other safety deposit boxes and notes written in a little-used version of shorthand that referred to the location of other assets. In all Henry discovered about $912,000 that his penny-pinching brother had kept scattered around the country. But doling out the money has proven just as challenging as tracking it down. Court papers in Manhattan Surrogate’s Court show that the funds are to be divvied up among Louis’ two surviving brothers, Joseph and Henry, and six nieces and nephews who are the heirs to his other deceased siblings. But distributions haven’t been made because Joseph and Henry, who are the administrators of Louis’ estate, have been locked in a legal fight over how much to pay Henry’s lawyers for preparing tax filings on the $912,000. Last year, Joseph asked a surrogate’s court judge to remove Henry as an administrator. Joseph declined to comment on the case, calling it “a private family matter.” Earlier this year, Henry filed a legal response that cited the lengths he went to to track down the money and demanded that a judge dismiss Joseph’s request. Fitzpatrick, whose mother was one of Louis’s sisters, said the delay is “because of roadblocks set up by other family members.” “It’s the longest legal case I’ve ever seen,” he said. Fitzpatrick, who lives in Seattle, never met his Uncle Louis. He said he might have if the family knew he was living in Manhattan. At the time of Louis’ death, Fitzpatrick lived on the Upper West Side. “Obviously, I certainly would have said hello to him,” he said. “It’s weird.”

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Melania Trump raked in six figures in royalties from photos that some news organizations used in coverage of the first lady. The photos came with a requirement that they only be used in “positive coverage.” NBC News’s Andrew W. Lehren, Emily R. Siegel, and Merritt Enright report that President Donald Trump’s 2017 financial disclosure forms revealed that Melania Trump had earned between $100,000 and $1,000,000 from Getty Images, a photo agency that many news outlets (including Vox) use to illustrate stories. The royalties came from a series of more than 180 posed photographs, which were shot by Belgian photographer Regine Mahaux between 2010 and 2016. The photographs are posed shots and portraits of Melania, often with her husband and their son Barron. They’ve also been featured on a few magazine covers. The photographer, Mahaux, also took Melania Trump’s official White House portrait. The big caveat about this arrangement, according to NBC News: Agencies were only allowed to use the photos for positive coverage. According to NBC News, Getty included that requirement in its catalog. But it doesn’t seem as if it were made obvious to the news organizations that Melania Trump would be getting a cut of the photo revenue herself. A lot of news organizations apparently used these photos at some point, including NBC News itself. Yahoo News, the Daily Mail, and the Houston Chronicle are among the publications that used these photos while the Trumps were in office. Some of the photos were also used prior to 2017, but how much the Trumps earned from them isn’t clear as it wasn’t itemized on the financial disclosure form. (According to NBC News, some news organizations have now removed the images.) The whole story is strange for two reasons. First, it’s odd for news organizations would use photographs that came with any strings attached to its coverage — though it’s not clear how closely that rule was followed. Second, most subjects of photographs don’t get to take a share of the profits — at least not if they’re politicians or public figures. (Other celebrities sometimes receive royalties for their images, according to NBC.) Getty Images told NBC News that confidential agreements dictate the terms of the deal. The White House said in a statement that Trump’s financial disclosures — which included this detail about the photo royalties — was certified by the White House Ethics Counsel and Office of Government Ethics. This photo deal adds to the list of ethics concerns about the Trump administration, and whether the president and those in his orbit are profiting from his presidency. Trump is currently being sued over whether he’s in violation of the Constitution because his businesses, including his DC hotel, accepted payments from foreign governments. Other transactions have raised eyebrows, including the approval of Trump trademarks in China, and Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner’s combined $82 million in outside income in 2017 — and raised questions about potential conflicts of interest. ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. / Updated By Andrew W. Lehren, Emily R. Siegel and Merritt Enright Since her husband took office Melania Trump has earned six figures from an unusual deal with a photo agency in which major media organizations have indirectly paid the Trump family despite a requirement that the photos be used only in positive coverage. President Donald Trump's most recent financial disclosure reveals that in 2017 the first lady earned at least $100,000 from Getty Images for the use of any of a series of 187 photos of the first family shot between 2010 and 2016 by Belgian photographer Regine Mahaux. It's not unheard of for celebrities to earn royalties from photos of themselves, but it's very unusual for the wife of a currently serving elected official. More problematic for the many news organizations that have published or broadcast the images, however, is that Getty's licensing agreement stipulates the pictures can be used in "positive stories only." According to the revenue statement in President Trump's May financial disclosure, Melania Trump earned between $100,000 and $1,000,000 in photo royalties in 2017 from the Getty deal. A photo of Barron and Melania Trump taken by Regine Mahaux and licensed via Getty Images was used in a 2016 NBC Nightly News segment. Federal officials are only required to give an income range in their filings, and both Getty and the White House declined requests to provide more precise figures or list the places the images had appeared. But NBC News found at least a dozen organizations that had paid to use Mahaux's restricted images of the Trumps in 2017, resulting in indirect payment to the first family. Yahoo News, NBC News, Marie Claire, the Daily Mail, My San Antonio, Houston Chronicle, House Beautiful, and SF Gate, the website for The San Francisco Chronicle, are among those that have featured Mahaux's highly stylized family portraits since Trump took office. The February 2017 issue of the Russian edition of the fashion magazine Elle included a gilded Mahaux portrait of the first family. A Mahaux group portrait of Donald, Melania and son Barron Trump was featured on the May page of the White House 2017 calendar that was on sale in the White House gift shop for $14. Bent Publishing, which publishes the calendars, confirmed that it licensed the Mahaux photo for the 2017 calendar. The 2018 calendar now on sale at the gift shop does not include any Mahaux images. NBC News also found that numerous entities had used the images before President Trump took office, though no income from the Getty deal was itemized in any financial disclosure prior to 2017. In August 2016, Mahaux's portrait of then-candidate Trump and his wife was featured in the official Republican National Convention guide book that was given to each delegate. Campaign finance records show the money to pay for the guide came from political donations to the Republican National Committee. The program was produced by Great Lakes Publishing, which said it got the image from a committee involved in arranging the convention. Jeff Larson, a political consultant who ran that committee, said, "We didn't pay any royalties that I know of for that photo." NBC's Nightly News included the images in a Nightly News segment on Melania Trump that aired July 18, 2016, during the Republican National Convention. The French edition of Vanity Fair put one of the pictures on the cover of its August 2016 issue. Fox News used the photos in a variety of news segments in 2016. Greta Van Susteren's show "On the Record" included two portraits of Melania Trump during an interview Van Susteren did with the future first lady. In November 2016, after Trump's upset election win, the first episode of the Fox News show "OBJECTified," hosted by TMZ founder Harvey Levin, depicted the life and rise of Donald Trump. The episode included two of the images taken by Mahaux. A Fox News Channel spokesperson said in a statement that the Mahaux photos used by Fox "were provided by the Trump campaign and Melania Trump's office, who told us they had full ownership and rights to the photos." A screenshot of a My San Antonio/San Antonio Express article featuring a Regine Mahaux image of Melania Trump. My San Antonio took the story down after an inquiry from NBC News. An NBC News spokesperson said NBC News did not agree or sign a statement that the image would be used for positive coverage, and was never informed that a portion of the royalties would go to the Trump family. Several news organizations removed the images from their websites after inquiries by NBC News. Yahoo took them down and said in a statement: "We were not aware of this specific arrangement with Getty nor was our editorial influenced by it. We have removed the image from Yahoo Lifestyle." The San Francisco Chronicle deleted the images from its website as well, and said it was looking into how they came to be used. The photographs were also pulled from the websites for The Houston Chronicle and The San Antonio Express-News following inquiries by NBC News. Hearst Communications Inc. owns the three newspapers and their websites. The images remained on other Hearst websites like those for the magazines House Beautiful and Marie Claire. Representatives for those publications did not return repeated calls and emails. French Vanity Fair, Russian Elle, and the Daily Mail and Paris Match, which also used the photographs, did not respond to requests for comment. A 2017 calendar featuring Donald, Melania and Barron Trump was offered for sale at the White House gift shop, and included a Regine Mahaux photo. A portion of the gift shop's revenues is donated to rural police departments. In a standard photo contract, the photographer gets royalties and the photo agency receives fees for each use of an image. Models are not paid royalties. Paying royalties to the Trumps and limiting the use to only positive stories is unusual for news organizations, according to Akili Ramsess, executive director of the National Press Photographers Association. She said that celebrity wedding or baby photographs are sometimes licensed so part of the fees flows back to the celebrity. Keith Major, another Getty photographer who has also photographed Melania Trump, said he does not share royalties with her. Getty's licensing agreement does not offer any hint that money is also paid to the Trumps, and the arrangement did not appear to have become public until the income was listed in the president's May financial filing. However, Getty does make clear in its catalog that the images can only be licensed with permission by Getty or, in some cases, Mahaux, and that the images may be used for "positive stories only." News organizations likely would not have known about the payments to Melania Trump, but could have been aware of the published stipulation about positive coverage in the catalog. Indira Lakshmanan, a media ethicist at the Poynter Institute, said, "If I'm a news editor, I would use photos that don't have any restriction attached to them. There's a lesson for editors, for public figures. There are plenty of photos out there that you can use that don't have these restrictions." Getty Images told NBC News that the details and amounts of payments to the Trumps are covered by confidential agreements. The agency declined to say whether there are separate royalty arrangements with other members of the Trump families, and declined all comment on the deal other than to say that once a photo has been licensed, Getty pays "contracted royalties back to the photographer and/or individual(s) as covered by their confidential agreement." In a statement, a White House spokesperson said: "President Trump's recent Public Disclosure Report, which included information regarding Mrs. Trump's income and assets, was filed after being certified by the White House Ethics Counsel and the Office of Government Ethics. The report speaks for itself." When NBC News reached photographer Regine Mahaux by phone, she said "everything is legal" and then asked that any questions be submitted to her by email. NBC repeatedly emailed her questions but did not get a reply. Mahaux took the photos during sessions in 2010, 2011 and 2016. Most feature some combination of Trump, Melania and son Barron. At least one of the photos, depicting the future first lady floating inside a swan boat on a still lake, and her swinging from a chandelier, combines images into a composite. Getty noted in its online catalog that many of the images of the Trumps have been "retouched," including those that later appeared in various news publications. Mahaux has worked closely with the Trumps since 2010. Several albums on the Getty website feature her intimate photoshoots with the family in Trump Tower. "I like working with the family's image – it speaks to me. It inspires me," Mahaux told a French news outlet in 2017. Mahaux also took Melania Trump's official White House portrait, which is public and not subject to the licensing arrangement. Melania's 2017 income from the Mahaux photos is an increase from previous years, based on the president's financial filings. Royalties from Getty Images do not appear in any of the financial statements submitted by Trump in the three prior years. Melania Trump likely earned some money during those years, but the income was below the federal government's threshold required for declaring the income. Most modern first ladies have launched books and other commercial products during their stints in the White House — and then donated the entire proceeds to charity. Laura Bush donated a book advance to education charities, and Michelle Obama gave the proceeds from her book American Grown to the National Park Foundation. Among Trump administration spouses, Vice President Mike Pence's wife, Karen, announced that revenues from her children's book would be donated to a children's hospital in Indiana and an anti-sex-trafficking nonprofit. In 2017, Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter and wife of senior adviser Jared Kushner, said she would give most of the advance and any future royalties from her book "Women Who Work" to charity. The White House declined to comment on whether the Trumps have steered any of the proceeds from the Getty deal, which was consummated before Melania Trump became first lady, to a charity. Absent a public announcement, their annual tax returns might provide a hint — but unlike all other modern first families, the Trumps have not released them. However, some of the proceeds from at least one of Mahaux's pictures of the first lady seem to have made their way to charity through another means. The White House gift shop, which sold the 2017 White House calendar, donates part of its earnings to help rural police departments.

– NBC News spotted an oddity in the latest financial disclosure report from President Trump: It shows that first lady Melania Trump earned at least $100,000 in 2017 from certain photos used in mainstream news outlets. The story breaks it down: Melania Trump has posed for nearly 200 photos by Belgian photographer Regine Mahaux since 2010, often with her husband and son Barron. Those photos are available for a fee at Getty Images, and at least a dozen media outlets have used them over the years—including NBC News, Fox News, Yahoo News, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Houston Chronicle, and the Daily Mail. The kicker: Getty stipulates that the photos can be used only for positive coverage. When NBC reporters contacted reps at the various news organizations, including their own, they generally found that the outlets were unaware of the fine print stipulating positive coverage and had no idea royalties were going to the Trumps. Yahoo, for example, took down a photo in question. "We were not aware of this specific arrangement with Getty nor was our editorial influenced by it," it says in a statement. "We have removed the image from Yahoo Lifestyle." The whole thing is odd on two fronts, notes Vox: First, that "news organizations would use photographs that came with any strings attached to its coverage—though it's not clear how closely that rule was followed." And second, that someone other than a celebrity would be receiving royalties from photos of them, particularly a first lady.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Melania Trump raked in six figures in royalties from photos that some news organizations used in coverage of the first lady. The photos came with a requirement that they only be used in “positive coverage.” NBC News’s Andrew W. Lehren, Emily R. Siegel, and Merritt Enright report that President Donald Trump’s 2017 financial disclosure forms revealed that Melania Trump had earned between $100,000 and $1,000,000 from Getty Images, a photo agency that many news outlets (including Vox) use to illustrate stories. The royalties came from a series of more than 180 posed photographs, which were shot by Belgian photographer Regine Mahaux between 2010 and 2016. The photographs are posed shots and portraits of Melania, often with her husband and their son Barron. They’ve also been featured on a few magazine covers. The photographer, Mahaux, also took Melania Trump’s official White House portrait. The big caveat about this arrangement, according to NBC News: Agencies were only allowed to use the photos for positive coverage. According to NBC News, Getty included that requirement in its catalog. But it doesn’t seem as if it were made obvious to the news organizations that Melania Trump would be getting a cut of the photo revenue herself. A lot of news organizations apparently used these photos at some point, including NBC News itself. Yahoo News, the Daily Mail, and the Houston Chronicle are among the publications that used these photos while the Trumps were in office. Some of the photos were also used prior to 2017, but how much the Trumps earned from them isn’t clear as it wasn’t itemized on the financial disclosure form. (According to NBC News, some news organizations have now removed the images.) The whole story is strange for two reasons. First, it’s odd for news organizations would use photographs that came with any strings attached to its coverage — though it’s not clear how closely that rule was followed. Second, most subjects of photographs don’t get to take a share of the profits — at least not if they’re politicians or public figures. (Other celebrities sometimes receive royalties for their images, according to NBC.) Getty Images told NBC News that confidential agreements dictate the terms of the deal. The White House said in a statement that Trump’s financial disclosures — which included this detail about the photo royalties — was certified by the White House Ethics Counsel and Office of Government Ethics. This photo deal adds to the list of ethics concerns about the Trump administration, and whether the president and those in his orbit are profiting from his presidency. Trump is currently being sued over whether he’s in violation of the Constitution because his businesses, including his DC hotel, accepted payments from foreign governments. Other transactions have raised eyebrows, including the approval of Trump trademarks in China, and Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner’s combined $82 million in outside income in 2017 — and raised questions about potential conflicts of interest. ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. / Updated By Andrew W. Lehren, Emily R. Siegel and Merritt Enright Since her husband took office Melania Trump has earned six figures from an unusual deal with a photo agency in which major media organizations have indirectly paid the Trump family despite a requirement that the photos be used only in positive coverage. President Donald Trump's most recent financial disclosure reveals that in 2017 the first lady earned at least $100,000 from Getty Images for the use of any of a series of 187 photos of the first family shot between 2010 and 2016 by Belgian photographer Regine Mahaux. It's not unheard of for celebrities to earn royalties from photos of themselves, but it's very unusual for the wife of a currently serving elected official. More problematic for the many news organizations that have published or broadcast the images, however, is that Getty's licensing agreement stipulates the pictures can be used in "positive stories only." According to the revenue statement in President Trump's May financial disclosure, Melania Trump earned between $100,000 and $1,000,000 in photo royalties in 2017 from the Getty deal. A photo of Barron and Melania Trump taken by Regine Mahaux and licensed via Getty Images was used in a 2016 NBC Nightly News segment. Federal officials are only required to give an income range in their filings, and both Getty and the White House declined requests to provide more precise figures or list the places the images had appeared. But NBC News found at least a dozen organizations that had paid to use Mahaux's restricted images of the Trumps in 2017, resulting in indirect payment to the first family. Yahoo News, NBC News, Marie Claire, the Daily Mail, My San Antonio, Houston Chronicle, House Beautiful, and SF Gate, the website for The San Francisco Chronicle, are among those that have featured Mahaux's highly stylized family portraits since Trump took office. The February 2017 issue of the Russian edition of the fashion magazine Elle included a gilded Mahaux portrait of the first family. A Mahaux group portrait of Donald, Melania and son Barron Trump was featured on the May page of the White House 2017 calendar that was on sale in the White House gift shop for $14. Bent Publishing, which publishes the calendars, confirmed that it licensed the Mahaux photo for the 2017 calendar. The 2018 calendar now on sale at the gift shop does not include any Mahaux images. NBC News also found that numerous entities had used the images before President Trump took office, though no income from the Getty deal was itemized in any financial disclosure prior to 2017. In August 2016, Mahaux's portrait of then-candidate Trump and his wife was featured in the official Republican National Convention guide book that was given to each delegate. Campaign finance records show the money to pay for the guide came from political donations to the Republican National Committee. The program was produced by Great Lakes Publishing, which said it got the image from a committee involved in arranging the convention. Jeff Larson, a political consultant who ran that committee, said, "We didn't pay any royalties that I know of for that photo." NBC's Nightly News included the images in a Nightly News segment on Melania Trump that aired July 18, 2016, during the Republican National Convention. The French edition of Vanity Fair put one of the pictures on the cover of its August 2016 issue. Fox News used the photos in a variety of news segments in 2016. Greta Van Susteren's show "On the Record" included two portraits of Melania Trump during an interview Van Susteren did with the future first lady. In November 2016, after Trump's upset election win, the first episode of the Fox News show "OBJECTified," hosted by TMZ founder Harvey Levin, depicted the life and rise of Donald Trump. The episode included two of the images taken by Mahaux. A Fox News Channel spokesperson said in a statement that the Mahaux photos used by Fox "were provided by the Trump campaign and Melania Trump's office, who told us they had full ownership and rights to the photos." A screenshot of a My San Antonio/San Antonio Express article featuring a Regine Mahaux image of Melania Trump. My San Antonio took the story down after an inquiry from NBC News. An NBC News spokesperson said NBC News did not agree or sign a statement that the image would be used for positive coverage, and was never informed that a portion of the royalties would go to the Trump family. Several news organizations removed the images from their websites after inquiries by NBC News. Yahoo took them down and said in a statement: "We were not aware of this specific arrangement with Getty nor was our editorial influenced by it. We have removed the image from Yahoo Lifestyle." The San Francisco Chronicle deleted the images from its website as well, and said it was looking into how they came to be used. The photographs were also pulled from the websites for The Houston Chronicle and The San Antonio Express-News following inquiries by NBC News. Hearst Communications Inc. owns the three newspapers and their websites. The images remained on other Hearst websites like those for the magazines House Beautiful and Marie Claire. Representatives for those publications did not return repeated calls and emails. French Vanity Fair, Russian Elle, and the Daily Mail and Paris Match, which also used the photographs, did not respond to requests for comment. A 2017 calendar featuring Donald, Melania and Barron Trump was offered for sale at the White House gift shop, and included a Regine Mahaux photo. A portion of the gift shop's revenues is donated to rural police departments. In a standard photo contract, the photographer gets royalties and the photo agency receives fees for each use of an image. Models are not paid royalties. Paying royalties to the Trumps and limiting the use to only positive stories is unusual for news organizations, according to Akili Ramsess, executive director of the National Press Photographers Association. She said that celebrity wedding or baby photographs are sometimes licensed so part of the fees flows back to the celebrity. Keith Major, another Getty photographer who has also photographed Melania Trump, said he does not share royalties with her. Getty's licensing agreement does not offer any hint that money is also paid to the Trumps, and the arrangement did not appear to have become public until the income was listed in the president's May financial filing. However, Getty does make clear in its catalog that the images can only be licensed with permission by Getty or, in some cases, Mahaux, and that the images may be used for "positive stories only." News organizations likely would not have known about the payments to Melania Trump, but could have been aware of the published stipulation about positive coverage in the catalog. Indira Lakshmanan, a media ethicist at the Poynter Institute, said, "If I'm a news editor, I would use photos that don't have any restriction attached to them. There's a lesson for editors, for public figures. There are plenty of photos out there that you can use that don't have these restrictions." Getty Images told NBC News that the details and amounts of payments to the Trumps are covered by confidential agreements. The agency declined to say whether there are separate royalty arrangements with other members of the Trump families, and declined all comment on the deal other than to say that once a photo has been licensed, Getty pays "contracted royalties back to the photographer and/or individual(s) as covered by their confidential agreement." In a statement, a White House spokesperson said: "President Trump's recent Public Disclosure Report, which included information regarding Mrs. Trump's income and assets, was filed after being certified by the White House Ethics Counsel and the Office of Government Ethics. The report speaks for itself." When NBC News reached photographer Regine Mahaux by phone, she said "everything is legal" and then asked that any questions be submitted to her by email. NBC repeatedly emailed her questions but did not get a reply. Mahaux took the photos during sessions in 2010, 2011 and 2016. Most feature some combination of Trump, Melania and son Barron. At least one of the photos, depicting the future first lady floating inside a swan boat on a still lake, and her swinging from a chandelier, combines images into a composite. Getty noted in its online catalog that many of the images of the Trumps have been "retouched," including those that later appeared in various news publications. Mahaux has worked closely with the Trumps since 2010. Several albums on the Getty website feature her intimate photoshoots with the family in Trump Tower. "I like working with the family's image – it speaks to me. It inspires me," Mahaux told a French news outlet in 2017. Mahaux also took Melania Trump's official White House portrait, which is public and not subject to the licensing arrangement. Melania's 2017 income from the Mahaux photos is an increase from previous years, based on the president's financial filings. Royalties from Getty Images do not appear in any of the financial statements submitted by Trump in the three prior years. Melania Trump likely earned some money during those years, but the income was below the federal government's threshold required for declaring the income. Most modern first ladies have launched books and other commercial products during their stints in the White House — and then donated the entire proceeds to charity. Laura Bush donated a book advance to education charities, and Michelle Obama gave the proceeds from her book American Grown to the National Park Foundation. Among Trump administration spouses, Vice President Mike Pence's wife, Karen, announced that revenues from her children's book would be donated to a children's hospital in Indiana and an anti-sex-trafficking nonprofit. In 2017, Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter and wife of senior adviser Jared Kushner, said she would give most of the advance and any future royalties from her book "Women Who Work" to charity. The White House declined to comment on whether the Trumps have steered any of the proceeds from the Getty deal, which was consummated before Melania Trump became first lady, to a charity. Absent a public announcement, their annual tax returns might provide a hint — but unlike all other modern first families, the Trumps have not released them. However, some of the proceeds from at least one of Mahaux's pictures of the first lady seem to have made their way to charity through another means. The White House gift shop, which sold the 2017 White House calendar, donates part of its earnings to help rural police departments.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Albert Einstein predicted that whenever light from a distant star passes by a closer object, gravity acts as a kind of magnifying lens, brightening and bending the distant starlight. Yet, in a 1936 article in the journal Science, he added that because stars are so far apart "there is no hope of observing this phenomenon directly." Now, an international research team directed by Kailash C. Sahu has done just that, as described in their June 9, 2017 article in Science. The study is believed to be the first report of a particular type of Einstein's "gravitational microlensing" by a star other than the sun. In a related perspective piece in Science, entitled "A centennial gift from Einstein," Terry Oswalt of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University says the discovery opens a new window to understanding "the history and evolution of galaxies such as our own." More specifically, Oswalt adds, "The research by Sahu and colleagues provides a new tool for determining the masses of objects we can't easily measure by other means. The team determined the mass of a collapsed stellar remnant called a white dwarf star. Such objects have completed their hydrogen-burning life cycle, and thus are the fossils of all prior generations of stars in our Galaxy, the Milky Way." Oswalt, an astronomer and chair of the Department of Physical Sciences at Embry-Riddle's Daytona Beach, Florida campus, says further, "Einstein would be proud. One of his key predictions has passed a very rigorous observational test." Understanding 'Einstein Rings' The gravitational microlensing of stars, predicted by Einstein, has previously been observed. Famously, in 1919, measurements of starlight curving around a total eclipse of the Sun provided one of the first convincing proofs of Einstein's general theory of relativity - a guiding law of physics that describes gravity as a geometric function of both space and time, or spacetime. "When a star in the foreground passes exactly between us and a background star," Oswalt explains, "gravitational microlensing results in a perfectly circular ring of light - a so-called 'Einstein ring.'" Sahu's group observed a much more likely scenario: Two objects were slightly out of alignment, and therefore an asymmetrical version of an Einstein ring formed. "The ring and its brightening were too small to be measured, but its asymmetry caused the distant star to appear off-center from its true position," Oswalt says. "This part of Einstein's prediction is called 'astrometric lensing' and Sahu's team was the first to observe it in a star other than the Sun." Sahu, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, took advantage of the superior angular resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Sahu's team measured shifts in the apparent position of a distant star as its light was deflected around a nearby white dwarf star called Stein 2051 B on eight dates between October 2013 and October 2015. They determined that Stein 2051 B - the sixth-closest white dwarf star to the Sun - has a mass that is about two-thirds that of the sun. "The basic idea is that the apparent deflection of the background star's position is directly related to the mass and gravity of the white dwarf - and how close the two came to exactly lining up," explains Oswalt. Among astronomers, the findings are significant for at least three reasons, according to Oswalt: First, the research "solves a long-standing mystery about the mass and composition of Stein 2051 B," he says. Second, he notes, "Sahu's team nicely confirms astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar's 1930 Nobel Prize-winning theory about the relationship between the mass and radius of white dwarf stars. We now know that Stein 2051 B is perfectly normal; it's not a massive white dwarf with an exotic composition, as has been believed for nearly a century." Third, Oswalt concludes, "This new tool for determining masses will be very valuable as huge new surveys uncover many other chance alignments over the next few years." For the average star-gazer, he says, the findings are meaningful because "at least 97 percent of all the stars that have ever formed in the Galaxy, including the Sun, will become or already are white dwarfs - they tell us about our future, as well as our history." Editors of the journal Science, published by the nonprofit American Association for the Advancement of Science - the world's largest general scientific society - invited Oswalt to write a perspective essay on the Sahu paper because of his expertise on white dwarf stars. Oswalt received his bachelor's degree in astronomy from Indiana University in Bloomington and his Ph.D. degree in astronomy from The Ohio State University in Columbus. Before joining Embry-Riddle in 2013, he served as head of Physics & Space Sciences and held other faculty positions at the Florida Institute of Technology (1982-2013). During a sabbatical (1998-2000), he served as National Science Foundation program director for Stellar Astronomy & Astrophysics. He serves as chair of the Southeastern Association for Research in Astronomy (SARA). ### "A centennial gift from Einstein: Deflection of light by another star provides a solution to the mass of a white dwarf star," by Terry D. Oswalt, appears in the June 9, 2017 issue of Science, vol. 356, issue 6342, page 7. (DOI 10.1126/science.aan2996) The research article, "Relativistic deflection of background starlight measures the mass of a nearby white dwarf star," by Kailash C. Sahu et al., appears in the same edition of Science. Additional authors on the paper were Sahu's colleagues at the Space Telescope Science Institute: Jay Anderson, Stefano Casertano, Edmund P. Nelan, Laurent Pueyo, Thomas M. Brown, Andrea Bellini, Zoltan G. Levay, Joshua Sokol, Annalisa Calamida and Noé Kains; along with Howard E. Bond of Pennsylvania State University; Pierre Bergeron of the Université de Montréal in Canada; Martin Dominik of the University of St. Andrews in the United Kingdom; and Mario Livio of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. (DOI 10.1126/science.aal2879) Dr. Oswalt will be pleased to offer third-party commentary on this breaking research news. Please contact Ginger Pinholster, (386) 226-4811 (office), or (571) 382-0537 (mobile), [email protected]. Original video is available from Embry-Riddle. Additional multimedia and copies of the papers are available upon request from the Science Press Package team at [email protected] or (202) 326-6440. About Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University ||||| General relativity weighs a white dwarf Light from a background star is deflected by the gravitational field of the Sun. This effect was used in 1919 to provide some of the first evidence for general relativity. Sahu et al. applied the concept to another star: a nearby white dwarf called Stein 2051 B, which passed close in front of a more distant normal star (see the Perspective by Oswalt). The authors measured the tiny shifts in the apparent position of the background star, an effect called astrometric microlensing. The apparent motion matched the predictions of general relativity, which allowed the authors to determine the mass of the white dwarf. Science, this issue p. 1046; see also p. 1015 Abstract Gravitational deflection of starlight around the Sun during the 1919 total solar eclipse provided measurements that confirmed Einstein’s general theory of relativity. We have used the Hubble Space Telescope to measure the analogous process of astrometric microlensing caused by a nearby star, the white dwarf Stein 2051 B. As Stein 2051 B passed closely in front of a background star, the background star’s position was deflected. Measurement of this deflection at multiple epochs allowed us to determine the mass of Stein 2051 B—the sixth-nearest white dwarf to the Sun—as 0.675 ± 0.051 solar masses. This mass determination provides confirmation of the physics of degenerate matter and lends support to white dwarf evolutionary theory. One of the key predictions of general relativity set forth by Einstein (1) was that the curvature of space near a massive body causes a ray of light passing near it to be deflected by twice the amount expected from classical Newtonian gravity. The subsequent experimental verification of this effect during the 1919 total solar eclipse (2, 3) confirmed Einstein’s theory, which was declared “one of the greatest—perhaps the greatest—of achievements in the history of human thought” (4). In a paper in this journal 80 years ago, Einstein (5) extended the concept to show that the curvature of space near massive objects allows them to act like lenses, with the possibility of substantially increasing the apparent brightness of a background star. Despite Einstein’s pessimistic view that “there is no hope of observing this phenomenon directly” (5), the prospect of detecting dark matter through this effect (6), now known as microlensing, revived interest in this subject. Coupled with improvements in instrumentation, this led to the detection of large numbers of microlensing brightening events in the Galactic bulge (7), the Magellanic Clouds (8, 9), and the Andromeda Galaxy (10). Monitoring of these events has led to the discovery of several extrasolar planets (11, 12). Other forms of gravitational lensing by intervening massive galaxies and dark matter produce multiple or distorted images of background galaxies (13). Within the Milky Way, all microlensing encounters discovered so far have been brightening events. No shift in the apparent position of a background star caused by an intervening massive body has been observed outside the solar system—which is not surprising, because the deflections are tiny. Even for the nearest stars, the angular offset is two to three orders of magnitude smaller than the deflection of 1.75 arcsec measured during the 1919 solar eclipse. Relativistic deflections by foreground stars When a foreground star (the lens) is perfectly superposed on a background star (the source), the lensed image of the source will form a circle, called the Einstein ring. The angular radius of the Einstein ring is (14) (1)where M is the lens mass and D r is the reduced distance to the lens, given by 1/D r = 1/D l − 1/D s , D l and D s being the distances to the lens and to the source, respectively. For typical cases like the Galactic bulge and Magellanic Clouds brightening events, the radius of the Einstein ring is less than a milliarcsecond (mas). However, for very nearby stellar lenses, it can be as large as tens of mas. In the more general case where the lens is not exactly aligned with the source, the source is split into two images, the minor image lying inside and the major image outside the Einstein ring. The major image is always the brighter, with the brightness contrast increasing rapidly as the lens-source separation increases. In practical cases of lensing by stars, the two images either cannot be resolved or the minor image is too faint to be detected. In both cases, the net effect is an apparent shift in the centroid position of the source. This phenomenon is referred to as astrometric microlensing (15). In cases where the angular separation between the lens and the source is large compared to θ E , so that the minor image is well resolved but is too faint and too close to the bright lens to be detected, only the major image can be monitored. In that situation, the change in angular position of the source caused by the deflection of the light rays, δθ, can be expressed as (16) (2)where u = Δθ/θ E , and Δθ is the lens-source angular separation. Equations 1 and 2 show that the mass of the lens can be determined by measuring the deflection of the background source’s position at a known angular separation from the lens, provided the reduced distance to the lens is known. Astrometric microlensing thus provides a technique for direct determination of stellar masses, in those favorable cases of a nearby star fortuitously passing closely in front of a distant background source. Unlike classical methods involving binaries, this method can be applied to mass measurements for single stars. Predicting astrometric microlensing events due to nearby stars We carried out a large-scale search for events in which nearby stars with large proper motions (PMs) would pass closely in front of background sources. We used an input PM catalog (17) of ~5000 stars, with updated positions and PMs based on modern sky-survey data (18, 19). Parallaxes were also included when available. We then projected the positions of all ~5000 stars forward and searched for close passages near fainter background stars contained in the Guide Star Catalog version 2.3 (20). One of the predicted events was a close passage of the nearby white dwarf (WD) star Stein 2051 B in front of a background star with V-band magnitude of 18.3, located at right ascension (RA) = 4:31:15.004 and declination (Dec) = +58:58:13.70 (J2000 equinox). This encounter was also predicted in an independent list of upcoming microlensing events (21). We estimated that the closest encounter would occur during March 2014, with an impact parameter of ~0′′.1. The Stein 2051 binary system Stein 2051 is a nearby visual binary whose brighter but less-massive component, Stein 2051 A, is an 11th-magnitude (V band) main-sequence star of spectral type M4 (19). The 12.4-magnitude companion, Stein 2051 B (also known as WD 0426+588), is the sixth-nearest known WD (22). It is currently at an angular separation of ~10′′.1 from Stein 2051 A. Stein 2051 B is the nearest and brightest known featureless-spectrum WD of spectral type DC, having a helium-rich photosphere. We determined its effective temperature to be T eff = 7122 ± 181 K, based on calibrated broadband photometry and model atmospheres (23, 24). Combining the photometry and temperature with the measured parallax (discussed below), we find the radius of the WD to be 0.0114 ± 0.0004 solar radii (R ). At this radius, Stein 2051 B would be expected to have a mass of ~0.67 solar masses (M ) if it obeys a normal mass-radius relation for carbon-oxygen (CO) core WDs (25). For these parameters, the WD’s Einstein ring would have a radius of about 31 mas. At a separation of 0′′.5 from Stein 2051 B, the background star would be displaced by ~2 mas. Actual measurement of such a deflection, especially so close to the glare of the bright foreground star, would be extremely challenging for seeing-limited ground-based telescopes. However, the measurement is within the capabilities of the instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The actual mass of Stein 2051 B has been a matter of debate. Photographic observations extending back to 1908 have been used to claim departures from linear PMs of A and B (26, 27), implying a detection of orbital motion and a mass ratio of M B /M A = 2.07. Assuming A to be a normal M4 main-sequence star of 0.24 M , the mass of B was estimated (26, 27) to be 0.50 M . A mass this low, combined with its inferred radius, would lead to the requirement for the WD to have an iron core. Such a result would be in conflict with normal single-star evolution, in which the stellar core only undergoes hydrogen and then helium fusion, resulting in a CO core composition for the WD remnant (25). Moreover, a WD cooling age of ~2.0 billion years (Gy) derived for Stein 2051 B (22), combined with the implied long main-sequence lifetime of the progenitor of a low-mass WD (28), would give the system a total age uncomfortably close to the age of the universe. However, the detection of nonlinear PMs was not confirmed by subsequent measurements (29), implying that the orbital period of the A-B pair exceeds ~1000 years, and appearing to invalidate the earlier mass determination. Hubble Space Telescope observations and analysis We imaged the field of Stein 2051 with the Wide Field Camera 3 at eight epochs (denoted E1 through E8) between October 2013 and October 2015. The HST observing log is given in Table 1. We employed a range of exposure times (24), depending on how close the WD was to the source star, in three filters: F606W (a wide V band), F763M (a medium red band), and F814W (equivalent to I band). We used the long-exposure broadband F606W and F814W images for the deflection measurements of the source star. For determining the location of the WD, we used short-exposure F606W and F814W images and all the F763M frames (in which the WD did not saturate the detector). Table 1 Details of the HST Observations. The numbers in the “No. of exp.” column correspond to the number of exposures taken with the corresponding “Exp. time” specified in the previous column. The last column gives the projected separation between the lens and the undeflected position of the source. View this table: Figure 1 shows a color image of the region around Stein 2051 B, created by superposing F606W and F814W frames at epoch E1. The path of the WD past the source, due to PM and parallax, is depicted by the wavy line. Closest approach to the source star occurred on 5 March 2014, at an angular separation of 103 mas. Even at closest separation, the photometric microlensing amplification would be only 1.0% and thus swamped by light from the bright WD, so we did not attempt to measure it. For measurements of the deflection, we obtained data at separations ranging from 203 to 3897 mas. (The amplification at our observed minimum separation of 203 mas is even less, 0.1%, which is undetectable.) We used the observations at all eight epochs to determine the parallax and PM of the WD. However, the presence of the 400-times-brighter WD adjacent to the faint source made the deflection measurements possible only at separations larger than ~450 mas. In the epoch E2 frames, the source lay on a diffraction spike of the WD, and consequently the measurements had large uncertainties of ∼0.1 pixels. We thus used only the observations taken at epochs E1, E6, E7, and E8 for the deflection analysis. Fig. 1 Hubble Space Telescope image showing the close passage of the nearby white dwarf Stein 2051 B in front of a distant source star. This color image was made by combining the F814W (orange) and F606W (blue) frames, obtained at epoch E1. The path of Stein 2051 B across the field due to its proper motion toward southeast, combined with its parallax due to the motion of Earth around the Sun, is shown by the wavy cyan line. The small blue squares mark the position of Stein 2051 B at each of our eight observing epochs, E1 through E8. Its proper motion in 1 year is shown by an arrow. Labels give the observation date at each epoch. The source is also labeled; the motion of the source is too small to be visible on this scale. Linear features are diffraction spikes from Stein 2051 B and the red dwarf star Stein 2051 A, which falls outside the lower right of the image. Stein 2051 B passed 0.103 arcsec from the source star on 5 March 2014. Individual images taken at all the eight epochs, and an animated video showing the images at all epochs are shown in fig. S1 and movie S1 (24). Full details of our data-analysis procedures are given in the online supplementary material (24), but we summarize them here. We used the flat-fielded images produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute pipeline reductions (30) for the analysis. We used empirical effective point spread functions (PSFs) (31) to measure the positions of the 26 reference stars in the surrounding field, and then applied distortion corrections (32) to convert the measured positions into locations in an undistorted reference frame. We used empirical PSFs to determine the source positions at epochs E1, E7, and E8, during which the source was sufficiently separated from the WD that it did not suffer from any contamination from the WD. At E6, when the source was 11.3 pixels away from the WD, the contamination from the WD was estimated to be about 5% of the source flux. We therefore performed an optimal PSF subtraction of the WD before measuring the position of the source (24). We estimated distances to the reference stars and source by obtaining their magnitudes and colors determined from our HST frames, the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) survey (33), and the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) (34). Theoretical stellar models (35) were then used to determine individual distances of the reference stars, which lie in the range ~0.8 to 2.1 kiloparsecs (kpc). The source itself is estimated to be a K dwarf at a distance of ~2.0 kpc. To establish a fixed reference frame, we first determined the PM of each reference star with respect to the ensemble, using an iterative procedure (24). Then at each epoch, the reference-star positions were corrected for PM, and the positions of the source and the WD were determined relative to this adjusted frame. The estimated uncertainty in the position of the source star relative to the adjusted frame is ~0.4 mas in each individual exposure. Parallax and proper motion of Stein 2051 B From our measurements of Stein 2051 B at the eight epochs, we find a parallax of 180.7 ± 1.0 mas relative to the background frame, or an absolute parallax of 181.5 ± 1.0 mas after correction by the mean of our estimated reference-star parallaxes of 0.8 ± 0.2 mas. Absolute parallaxes for the Stein 2051 system have been measured previously (36–38), giving a weighted mean of 180.9 ± 0.5 mas, in statistical agreement with our result. The corresponding distance is 5.52 ± 0.01 parsecs (pc). We measure PM components for Stein 2051 B of (μ α , μ δ ) = (+1336.3 ± 1.0, −1947.5 ± 1.0) mas year−1, where μ α is the PM in the RA direction and μ δ is the PM in the Dec direction. These again are not absolute, but relative to our background reference frame. The PM of Stein 2051 B relative to a different selection of nearby reference stars has been measured previously to be (μ α , μ δ ) = (+1361.8 ± 2.0, −1930.4 ± 2.0) mas year−1 (36), and the absolute PM to be (μ α , μ δ ) = (+1335.6 ± 2.5, −1962.6 ± 2.5) mas year−1 (39). The differences between these values show sensitivity to the bulk motion of the chosen reference frame, but do not affect our interpretation of the event as long as our measurements are consistently in the same reference frame for both the source and the WD (24). The position of the WD at each epoch relative to our reference frame is thus known to an accuracy that will cause only a small additional uncertainty of ≲0.5% of its mass derived from the relativistic deflection of the source, even at the E6 separation of 0′′.46 (24). Combined with its radial velocity of +29 km s−1 (40), the total space velocity of the Stein 2051 system is 68.8 km s−1 with respect to the Sun. Relativistic deflection and mass of Stein 2051 B Figure 2 plots the measured source positions at the four epochs that we analyzed, showing the relativistic deflections. At each epoch, they are in the direction away from the foreground WD, and by an amount inversely proportional to the angular distance between the source and the WD, as expected from Eq. 2. Fig. 2 Hubble Space Telescope measurements of the background star’s positions at epochs 1, 6, 7, and 8. The solid dots are the observed positions of the source for each exposure, color-coded for each epoch. The origin corresponds to the undeflected source position at E1, and the relative RA on the x axis corresponds to –ΔRA × cos (Dec). The undeflected positions of the source are plotted as solid diamonds, connected with a solid line showing its small parallax and slow proper motion to the southeast. Solid arrows indicate the direction toward the white dwarf at each epoch. At each epoch, the source position is seen to be deflected from its undeflected location, along the direction away from the white dwarf. We modeled the measurements with an Einstein ring of radius 31.53 mas. The model-predicted deflected positions are shown as open triangles, which are joined to the undeflected source positions by dotted lines. We performed a model fit to the observed shifts shown in Fig. 2 using six parameters: the initial RA and Dec positions of the source, its two PM components along RA and Dec, its parallax with respect to the reference frame used, and θ E , and adopting a chi-square minimization approach (41). An additional constraint is that the deflection must lie along the line joining the WD and the source. Fitting this model to the 19 pairs of observed RA/Dec positions at the four useful epochs yields the predicted positions shown in Fig. 2. The observed positions are consistent with the positions expected from the model within the measurement uncertainties. The time evolution of the angular shifts is also consistent with our model (Fig. 3). Fig. 3 Measured and model undeflected RA and Dec positions of the background source as a function of time. The positions are relative to the undeflected source position at E1. Solid diamonds show the undeflected positions, color-coded with the same colors as in Fig. 2 and connected by dashed lines showing the small parallax and proper motion. The measured deflected positions are plotted as filled black circles, and their mean at each epoch is shown as a diamond along with the standard deviations of the mean. Our model fit, with an Einstein ring radius of 31.53 mas, is shown as a solid purple curve. The RA and Dec residuals after subtracting the model from the mean observed positions are shown in separate panels. The resulting fitting parameters of our model are a source PM of (μ α ,μ δ ) = (−0.4 ± 0.05, +0.2 ± 0.05) mas year−1, a parallax of 0.25 ± 0.1 mas with respect to the mean parallax of the reference stars, and an Einstein ring radius of θ E = 31.53 ± 1.20 mas. Using Eq. 1 and the measured parallax, we find Stein 2051 B to have a mass of 0.675 ± 0.051 M . Astrophysics of the cool white dwarf Stein 2051 B Most stars end their lives as WDs—as will the Sun—and then slowly cool. Composed of degenerate matter, WDs are expected to obey a mass-radius relation (MRR) such that, as the mass of the WD increases from ~0.5 M to the Chandrasekhar limit of ~1.4 M (42), its radius decreases approximately as the inverse cube root of its mass (43). The MRR has a relatively large dependence on core composition, and smaller dependencies on photospheric composition, thicknesses of the H and/or He envelopes lying above the degenerate interior, and a continued small amount of shrinkage as the WD gradually cools (44). The vast majority of WD masses cannot be measured directly, but have to be inferred from model-dependent determinations of their surface gravities and estimates of their radii from parallax determinations and photometric or spectroscopic flux measurements (44), or from gravitational redshifts in cases where the true radial velocity of the WD is known from measurements of a companion star (45). The number of WDs whose masses and radii have been directly measured with sufficient precision to test theoretical MRRs includes just three WDs in nearby wide visual binaries [Sirius B (46), Procyon B (47), and 40 Eri B (43)] and about 10 WDs in short-period eclipsing binaries (44). However, the stars in the latter group have undergone common-envelope events and have therefore not evolved in the same way as isolated single stars. The mass of a WD in a transiting binary system with an 88-day orbital period was recently measured through the photometric microlensing caused by the WD as it periodically passes in front of the G-dwarf companion (48). Our direct measurement of the mass of Stein 2051 B, with an uncertainty of 0.051 M , provides an additional data point for comparison with theoretical MRRs and evolutionary cooling tracks. The location of Stein 2051 B in the MRR is shown in Fig. 4. We overlay an MRR for He-atmosphere, CO-core WDs (23) interpolated to the effective temperature of Stein 2051 B. For comparison, the MRR for zero-temperature WDs with iron cores (49) is also shown, but is excluded by our measurement. For a CO core, the diagram shows that our radius determination implies an expected mass of Stein 2051 B of 0.67 ± 0.03 M , in agreement with our measured value of 0.675 ± 0.051 M . Fig. 4 Mass-radius diagram for Stein 2051 B and three nearby white dwarfs in visual binaries. Data points with error bars show the masses and radii for Stein 2051 B (this paper; black), 40 Eridani B [(43); dark brown], Sirius B [(46); blue)], and Procyon B [(47); orange]. The black curve plots a theoretical mass-radius relation (23) for carbon-oxygen core white dwarfs with the parameters of Stein 2051 B (thin hydrogen layer, q H = M H /M WD = 10−10; effective temperature 7122 K). This curve is also appropriate for the similar white dwarf Procyon B. The blue curve shows the relation (23) for thick hydrogen-layer CO white dwarfs with the effective temperature of Sirius B, and the dark brown curves plot the relations for thick and thin hydrogen-layer CO white dwarfs with the temperature of 40 Eri B. The green curve shows the theoretical relation for zero-temperature white dwarfs with iron cores (48). The mass of Stein 2051 B inferred from the astrometric microlensing, 0.675 ± 0.051 M ☉, is consistent with the CO core expected from normal stellar evolution. The position of Stein 2051 B in the theoretical Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (luminosity versus surface effective temperature) is shown in Fig. 5, along with evolutionary cooling sequences with their cooling ages marked for CO-core WDs of masses 0.5 to 0.8 M (23). These models have thin H (M H /M WD = 10−10) layers, which are appropriate for helium-atmosphere compositions. The implied WD cooling age of Stein 2051 B is 1.9 ± 0.4 Gy. The progenitor of the WD had a mass of 2.6 ± 0.6 M , based on a recent determination of the initial-mass/final-mass relation (50). The corresponding theoretical pre-WD evolutionary lifetimes of these progenitors range from 0.4 to 1.3 Gy (51). Combining these with the cooling age, we find that the Stein 2051 system has a total age in the range of 1.9 to 3.6 Gy. Unlike previous conclusions of an iron core WD, our measurement does not conflict with the age of the universe. The derived age of the system is consistent with its moderately high space velocity, suggesting that it may be a member of the Galaxy’s thick disk. Fig. 5 Theoretical WD cooling tracks ( 23 ). Cooling tracks are shown for four masses (solid lines), along with isochrones showing the WD cooling ages (dashed lines). The position of Stein 2051 B agrees within the uncertainties with that expected for our measured mass. The implied cooling age of Stein 2051 B is 1.9 ± 0.4 Gy. Supplementary Materials www.sciencemag.org/content/356/6342/1046/suppl/DC1 Materials and Methods Supplementary Text Table S1 Figs. S1 to S10 References (52–57) Movies S1 and S2 ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites.

– Astronomers just proved the great Albert Einstein wrong—by proving him right. Einstein's 1915 theory of relativity says gravity can distort light and alter its path. National Geographic reports Einstein posited that would create a phenomenon called gravitational microlensing between two stars appearing to pass in front of each other. The light from the star in the background would be bent by the gravity of the star in the foreground, according to the Los Angeles Times. "Of course, there is no hope of observing this phenomenon directly," Einstein wrote for Science in 1936. Guess again, Einstein. Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope observed that very phenomena, publishing their findings in Science on Wednesday. Astronomers had observed gravitational microlensing in the past using entire galaxies or the Sun, but never with individual distant stars, which are comparatively microscopic in size. The leader of the team that proved Einstein right/wrong says observing the phenomena with distant stars is like trying to see a firefly moving across a quarter from 1,500 miles away while a bright light bulb is glaring next to it. So, it's understandable Einstein was doubtful it would ever be seen. The observation allowed astronomers to measure the mass of a white dwarf star—about 68% that of the Sun—and confirm an 87-year-old theory about the stars, according to a press release. "Einstein would be proud," one astronomer says. (A 40-year-old signal from space has finally been explained.)

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Albert Einstein predicted that whenever light from a distant star passes by a closer object, gravity acts as a kind of magnifying lens, brightening and bending the distant starlight. Yet, in a 1936 article in the journal Science, he added that because stars are so far apart "there is no hope of observing this phenomenon directly." Now, an international research team directed by Kailash C. Sahu has done just that, as described in their June 9, 2017 article in Science. The study is believed to be the first report of a particular type of Einstein's "gravitational microlensing" by a star other than the sun. In a related perspective piece in Science, entitled "A centennial gift from Einstein," Terry Oswalt of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University says the discovery opens a new window to understanding "the history and evolution of galaxies such as our own." More specifically, Oswalt adds, "The research by Sahu and colleagues provides a new tool for determining the masses of objects we can't easily measure by other means. The team determined the mass of a collapsed stellar remnant called a white dwarf star. Such objects have completed their hydrogen-burning life cycle, and thus are the fossils of all prior generations of stars in our Galaxy, the Milky Way." Oswalt, an astronomer and chair of the Department of Physical Sciences at Embry-Riddle's Daytona Beach, Florida campus, says further, "Einstein would be proud. One of his key predictions has passed a very rigorous observational test." Understanding 'Einstein Rings' The gravitational microlensing of stars, predicted by Einstein, has previously been observed. Famously, in 1919, measurements of starlight curving around a total eclipse of the Sun provided one of the first convincing proofs of Einstein's general theory of relativity - a guiding law of physics that describes gravity as a geometric function of both space and time, or spacetime. "When a star in the foreground passes exactly between us and a background star," Oswalt explains, "gravitational microlensing results in a perfectly circular ring of light - a so-called 'Einstein ring.'" Sahu's group observed a much more likely scenario: Two objects were slightly out of alignment, and therefore an asymmetrical version of an Einstein ring formed. "The ring and its brightening were too small to be measured, but its asymmetry caused the distant star to appear off-center from its true position," Oswalt says. "This part of Einstein's prediction is called 'astrometric lensing' and Sahu's team was the first to observe it in a star other than the Sun." Sahu, an astronomer at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, took advantage of the superior angular resolution of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Sahu's team measured shifts in the apparent position of a distant star as its light was deflected around a nearby white dwarf star called Stein 2051 B on eight dates between October 2013 and October 2015. They determined that Stein 2051 B - the sixth-closest white dwarf star to the Sun - has a mass that is about two-thirds that of the sun. "The basic idea is that the apparent deflection of the background star's position is directly related to the mass and gravity of the white dwarf - and how close the two came to exactly lining up," explains Oswalt. Among astronomers, the findings are significant for at least three reasons, according to Oswalt: First, the research "solves a long-standing mystery about the mass and composition of Stein 2051 B," he says. Second, he notes, "Sahu's team nicely confirms astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar's 1930 Nobel Prize-winning theory about the relationship between the mass and radius of white dwarf stars. We now know that Stein 2051 B is perfectly normal; it's not a massive white dwarf with an exotic composition, as has been believed for nearly a century." Third, Oswalt concludes, "This new tool for determining masses will be very valuable as huge new surveys uncover many other chance alignments over the next few years." For the average star-gazer, he says, the findings are meaningful because "at least 97 percent of all the stars that have ever formed in the Galaxy, including the Sun, will become or already are white dwarfs - they tell us about our future, as well as our history." Editors of the journal Science, published by the nonprofit American Association for the Advancement of Science - the world's largest general scientific society - invited Oswalt to write a perspective essay on the Sahu paper because of his expertise on white dwarf stars. Oswalt received his bachelor's degree in astronomy from Indiana University in Bloomington and his Ph.D. degree in astronomy from The Ohio State University in Columbus. Before joining Embry-Riddle in 2013, he served as head of Physics & Space Sciences and held other faculty positions at the Florida Institute of Technology (1982-2013). During a sabbatical (1998-2000), he served as National Science Foundation program director for Stellar Astronomy & Astrophysics. He serves as chair of the Southeastern Association for Research in Astronomy (SARA). ### "A centennial gift from Einstein: Deflection of light by another star provides a solution to the mass of a white dwarf star," by Terry D. Oswalt, appears in the June 9, 2017 issue of Science, vol. 356, issue 6342, page 7. (DOI 10.1126/science.aan2996) The research article, "Relativistic deflection of background starlight measures the mass of a nearby white dwarf star," by Kailash C. Sahu et al., appears in the same edition of Science. Additional authors on the paper were Sahu's colleagues at the Space Telescope Science Institute: Jay Anderson, Stefano Casertano, Edmund P. Nelan, Laurent Pueyo, Thomas M. Brown, Andrea Bellini, Zoltan G. Levay, Joshua Sokol, Annalisa Calamida and Noé Kains; along with Howard E. Bond of Pennsylvania State University; Pierre Bergeron of the Université de Montréal in Canada; Martin Dominik of the University of St. Andrews in the United Kingdom; and Mario Livio of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. (DOI 10.1126/science.aal2879) Dr. Oswalt will be pleased to offer third-party commentary on this breaking research news. Please contact Ginger Pinholster, (386) 226-4811 (office), or (571) 382-0537 (mobile), [email protected]. Original video is available from Embry-Riddle. Additional multimedia and copies of the papers are available upon request from the Science Press Package team at [email protected] or (202) 326-6440. About Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University ||||| General relativity weighs a white dwarf Light from a background star is deflected by the gravitational field of the Sun. This effect was used in 1919 to provide some of the first evidence for general relativity. Sahu et al. applied the concept to another star: a nearby white dwarf called Stein 2051 B, which passed close in front of a more distant normal star (see the Perspective by Oswalt). The authors measured the tiny shifts in the apparent position of the background star, an effect called astrometric microlensing. The apparent motion matched the predictions of general relativity, which allowed the authors to determine the mass of the white dwarf. Science, this issue p. 1046; see also p. 1015 Abstract Gravitational deflection of starlight around the Sun during the 1919 total solar eclipse provided measurements that confirmed Einstein’s general theory of relativity. We have used the Hubble Space Telescope to measure the analogous process of astrometric microlensing caused by a nearby star, the white dwarf Stein 2051 B. As Stein 2051 B passed closely in front of a background star, the background star’s position was deflected. Measurement of this deflection at multiple epochs allowed us to determine the mass of Stein 2051 B—the sixth-nearest white dwarf to the Sun—as 0.675 ± 0.051 solar masses. This mass determination provides confirmation of the physics of degenerate matter and lends support to white dwarf evolutionary theory. One of the key predictions of general relativity set forth by Einstein (1) was that the curvature of space near a massive body causes a ray of light passing near it to be deflected by twice the amount expected from classical Newtonian gravity. The subsequent experimental verification of this effect during the 1919 total solar eclipse (2, 3) confirmed Einstein’s theory, which was declared “one of the greatest—perhaps the greatest—of achievements in the history of human thought” (4). In a paper in this journal 80 years ago, Einstein (5) extended the concept to show that the curvature of space near massive objects allows them to act like lenses, with the possibility of substantially increasing the apparent brightness of a background star. Despite Einstein’s pessimistic view that “there is no hope of observing this phenomenon directly” (5), the prospect of detecting dark matter through this effect (6), now known as microlensing, revived interest in this subject. Coupled with improvements in instrumentation, this led to the detection of large numbers of microlensing brightening events in the Galactic bulge (7), the Magellanic Clouds (8, 9), and the Andromeda Galaxy (10). Monitoring of these events has led to the discovery of several extrasolar planets (11, 12). Other forms of gravitational lensing by intervening massive galaxies and dark matter produce multiple or distorted images of background galaxies (13). Within the Milky Way, all microlensing encounters discovered so far have been brightening events. No shift in the apparent position of a background star caused by an intervening massive body has been observed outside the solar system—which is not surprising, because the deflections are tiny. Even for the nearest stars, the angular offset is two to three orders of magnitude smaller than the deflection of 1.75 arcsec measured during the 1919 solar eclipse. Relativistic deflections by foreground stars When a foreground star (the lens) is perfectly superposed on a background star (the source), the lensed image of the source will form a circle, called the Einstein ring. The angular radius of the Einstein ring is (14) (1)where M is the lens mass and D r is the reduced distance to the lens, given by 1/D r = 1/D l − 1/D s , D l and D s being the distances to the lens and to the source, respectively. For typical cases like the Galactic bulge and Magellanic Clouds brightening events, the radius of the Einstein ring is less than a milliarcsecond (mas). However, for very nearby stellar lenses, it can be as large as tens of mas. In the more general case where the lens is not exactly aligned with the source, the source is split into two images, the minor image lying inside and the major image outside the Einstein ring. The major image is always the brighter, with the brightness contrast increasing rapidly as the lens-source separation increases. In practical cases of lensing by stars, the two images either cannot be resolved or the minor image is too faint to be detected. In both cases, the net effect is an apparent shift in the centroid position of the source. This phenomenon is referred to as astrometric microlensing (15). In cases where the angular separation between the lens and the source is large compared to θ E , so that the minor image is well resolved but is too faint and too close to the bright lens to be detected, only the major image can be monitored. In that situation, the change in angular position of the source caused by the deflection of the light rays, δθ, can be expressed as (16) (2)where u = Δθ/θ E , and Δθ is the lens-source angular separation. Equations 1 and 2 show that the mass of the lens can be determined by measuring the deflection of the background source’s position at a known angular separation from the lens, provided the reduced distance to the lens is known. Astrometric microlensing thus provides a technique for direct determination of stellar masses, in those favorable cases of a nearby star fortuitously passing closely in front of a distant background source. Unlike classical methods involving binaries, this method can be applied to mass measurements for single stars. Predicting astrometric microlensing events due to nearby stars We carried out a large-scale search for events in which nearby stars with large proper motions (PMs) would pass closely in front of background sources. We used an input PM catalog (17) of ~5000 stars, with updated positions and PMs based on modern sky-survey data (18, 19). Parallaxes were also included when available. We then projected the positions of all ~5000 stars forward and searched for close passages near fainter background stars contained in the Guide Star Catalog version 2.3 (20). One of the predicted events was a close passage of the nearby white dwarf (WD) star Stein 2051 B in front of a background star with V-band magnitude of 18.3, located at right ascension (RA) = 4:31:15.004 and declination (Dec) = +58:58:13.70 (J2000 equinox). This encounter was also predicted in an independent list of upcoming microlensing events (21). We estimated that the closest encounter would occur during March 2014, with an impact parameter of ~0′′.1. The Stein 2051 binary system Stein 2051 is a nearby visual binary whose brighter but less-massive component, Stein 2051 A, is an 11th-magnitude (V band) main-sequence star of spectral type M4 (19). The 12.4-magnitude companion, Stein 2051 B (also known as WD 0426+588), is the sixth-nearest known WD (22). It is currently at an angular separation of ~10′′.1 from Stein 2051 A. Stein 2051 B is the nearest and brightest known featureless-spectrum WD of spectral type DC, having a helium-rich photosphere. We determined its effective temperature to be T eff = 7122 ± 181 K, based on calibrated broadband photometry and model atmospheres (23, 24). Combining the photometry and temperature with the measured parallax (discussed below), we find the radius of the WD to be 0.0114 ± 0.0004 solar radii (R ). At this radius, Stein 2051 B would be expected to have a mass of ~0.67 solar masses (M ) if it obeys a normal mass-radius relation for carbon-oxygen (CO) core WDs (25). For these parameters, the WD’s Einstein ring would have a radius of about 31 mas. At a separation of 0′′.5 from Stein 2051 B, the background star would be displaced by ~2 mas. Actual measurement of such a deflection, especially so close to the glare of the bright foreground star, would be extremely challenging for seeing-limited ground-based telescopes. However, the measurement is within the capabilities of the instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The actual mass of Stein 2051 B has been a matter of debate. Photographic observations extending back to 1908 have been used to claim departures from linear PMs of A and B (26, 27), implying a detection of orbital motion and a mass ratio of M B /M A = 2.07. Assuming A to be a normal M4 main-sequence star of 0.24 M , the mass of B was estimated (26, 27) to be 0.50 M . A mass this low, combined with its inferred radius, would lead to the requirement for the WD to have an iron core. Such a result would be in conflict with normal single-star evolution, in which the stellar core only undergoes hydrogen and then helium fusion, resulting in a CO core composition for the WD remnant (25). Moreover, a WD cooling age of ~2.0 billion years (Gy) derived for Stein 2051 B (22), combined with the implied long main-sequence lifetime of the progenitor of a low-mass WD (28), would give the system a total age uncomfortably close to the age of the universe. However, the detection of nonlinear PMs was not confirmed by subsequent measurements (29), implying that the orbital period of the A-B pair exceeds ~1000 years, and appearing to invalidate the earlier mass determination. Hubble Space Telescope observations and analysis We imaged the field of Stein 2051 with the Wide Field Camera 3 at eight epochs (denoted E1 through E8) between October 2013 and October 2015. The HST observing log is given in Table 1. We employed a range of exposure times (24), depending on how close the WD was to the source star, in three filters: F606W (a wide V band), F763M (a medium red band), and F814W (equivalent to I band). We used the long-exposure broadband F606W and F814W images for the deflection measurements of the source star. For determining the location of the WD, we used short-exposure F606W and F814W images and all the F763M frames (in which the WD did not saturate the detector). Table 1 Details of the HST Observations. The numbers in the “No. of exp.” column correspond to the number of exposures taken with the corresponding “Exp. time” specified in the previous column. The last column gives the projected separation between the lens and the undeflected position of the source. View this table: Figure 1 shows a color image of the region around Stein 2051 B, created by superposing F606W and F814W frames at epoch E1. The path of the WD past the source, due to PM and parallax, is depicted by the wavy line. Closest approach to the source star occurred on 5 March 2014, at an angular separation of 103 mas. Even at closest separation, the photometric microlensing amplification would be only 1.0% and thus swamped by light from the bright WD, so we did not attempt to measure it. For measurements of the deflection, we obtained data at separations ranging from 203 to 3897 mas. (The amplification at our observed minimum separation of 203 mas is even less, 0.1%, which is undetectable.) We used the observations at all eight epochs to determine the parallax and PM of the WD. However, the presence of the 400-times-brighter WD adjacent to the faint source made the deflection measurements possible only at separations larger than ~450 mas. In the epoch E2 frames, the source lay on a diffraction spike of the WD, and consequently the measurements had large uncertainties of ∼0.1 pixels. We thus used only the observations taken at epochs E1, E6, E7, and E8 for the deflection analysis. Fig. 1 Hubble Space Telescope image showing the close passage of the nearby white dwarf Stein 2051 B in front of a distant source star. This color image was made by combining the F814W (orange) and F606W (blue) frames, obtained at epoch E1. The path of Stein 2051 B across the field due to its proper motion toward southeast, combined with its parallax due to the motion of Earth around the Sun, is shown by the wavy cyan line. The small blue squares mark the position of Stein 2051 B at each of our eight observing epochs, E1 through E8. Its proper motion in 1 year is shown by an arrow. Labels give the observation date at each epoch. The source is also labeled; the motion of the source is too small to be visible on this scale. Linear features are diffraction spikes from Stein 2051 B and the red dwarf star Stein 2051 A, which falls outside the lower right of the image. Stein 2051 B passed 0.103 arcsec from the source star on 5 March 2014. Individual images taken at all the eight epochs, and an animated video showing the images at all epochs are shown in fig. S1 and movie S1 (24). Full details of our data-analysis procedures are given in the online supplementary material (24), but we summarize them here. We used the flat-fielded images produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute pipeline reductions (30) for the analysis. We used empirical effective point spread functions (PSFs) (31) to measure the positions of the 26 reference stars in the surrounding field, and then applied distortion corrections (32) to convert the measured positions into locations in an undistorted reference frame. We used empirical PSFs to determine the source positions at epochs E1, E7, and E8, during which the source was sufficiently separated from the WD that it did not suffer from any contamination from the WD. At E6, when the source was 11.3 pixels away from the WD, the contamination from the WD was estimated to be about 5% of the source flux. We therefore performed an optimal PSF subtraction of the WD before measuring the position of the source (24). We estimated distances to the reference stars and source by obtaining their magnitudes and colors determined from our HST frames, the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) survey (33), and the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) (34). Theoretical stellar models (35) were then used to determine individual distances of the reference stars, which lie in the range ~0.8 to 2.1 kiloparsecs (kpc). The source itself is estimated to be a K dwarf at a distance of ~2.0 kpc. To establish a fixed reference frame, we first determined the PM of each reference star with respect to the ensemble, using an iterative procedure (24). Then at each epoch, the reference-star positions were corrected for PM, and the positions of the source and the WD were determined relative to this adjusted frame. The estimated uncertainty in the position of the source star relative to the adjusted frame is ~0.4 mas in each individual exposure. Parallax and proper motion of Stein 2051 B From our measurements of Stein 2051 B at the eight epochs, we find a parallax of 180.7 ± 1.0 mas relative to the background frame, or an absolute parallax of 181.5 ± 1.0 mas after correction by the mean of our estimated reference-star parallaxes of 0.8 ± 0.2 mas. Absolute parallaxes for the Stein 2051 system have been measured previously (36–38), giving a weighted mean of 180.9 ± 0.5 mas, in statistical agreement with our result. The corresponding distance is 5.52 ± 0.01 parsecs (pc). We measure PM components for Stein 2051 B of (μ α , μ δ ) = (+1336.3 ± 1.0, −1947.5 ± 1.0) mas year−1, where μ α is the PM in the RA direction and μ δ is the PM in the Dec direction. These again are not absolute, but relative to our background reference frame. The PM of Stein 2051 B relative to a different selection of nearby reference stars has been measured previously to be (μ α , μ δ ) = (+1361.8 ± 2.0, −1930.4 ± 2.0) mas year−1 (36), and the absolute PM to be (μ α , μ δ ) = (+1335.6 ± 2.5, −1962.6 ± 2.5) mas year−1 (39). The differences between these values show sensitivity to the bulk motion of the chosen reference frame, but do not affect our interpretation of the event as long as our measurements are consistently in the same reference frame for both the source and the WD (24). The position of the WD at each epoch relative to our reference frame is thus known to an accuracy that will cause only a small additional uncertainty of ≲0.5% of its mass derived from the relativistic deflection of the source, even at the E6 separation of 0′′.46 (24). Combined with its radial velocity of +29 km s−1 (40), the total space velocity of the Stein 2051 system is 68.8 km s−1 with respect to the Sun. Relativistic deflection and mass of Stein 2051 B Figure 2 plots the measured source positions at the four epochs that we analyzed, showing the relativistic deflections. At each epoch, they are in the direction away from the foreground WD, and by an amount inversely proportional to the angular distance between the source and the WD, as expected from Eq. 2. Fig. 2 Hubble Space Telescope measurements of the background star’s positions at epochs 1, 6, 7, and 8. The solid dots are the observed positions of the source for each exposure, color-coded for each epoch. The origin corresponds to the undeflected source position at E1, and the relative RA on the x axis corresponds to –ΔRA × cos (Dec). The undeflected positions of the source are plotted as solid diamonds, connected with a solid line showing its small parallax and slow proper motion to the southeast. Solid arrows indicate the direction toward the white dwarf at each epoch. At each epoch, the source position is seen to be deflected from its undeflected location, along the direction away from the white dwarf. We modeled the measurements with an Einstein ring of radius 31.53 mas. The model-predicted deflected positions are shown as open triangles, which are joined to the undeflected source positions by dotted lines. We performed a model fit to the observed shifts shown in Fig. 2 using six parameters: the initial RA and Dec positions of the source, its two PM components along RA and Dec, its parallax with respect to the reference frame used, and θ E , and adopting a chi-square minimization approach (41). An additional constraint is that the deflection must lie along the line joining the WD and the source. Fitting this model to the 19 pairs of observed RA/Dec positions at the four useful epochs yields the predicted positions shown in Fig. 2. The observed positions are consistent with the positions expected from the model within the measurement uncertainties. The time evolution of the angular shifts is also consistent with our model (Fig. 3). Fig. 3 Measured and model undeflected RA and Dec positions of the background source as a function of time. The positions are relative to the undeflected source position at E1. Solid diamonds show the undeflected positions, color-coded with the same colors as in Fig. 2 and connected by dashed lines showing the small parallax and proper motion. The measured deflected positions are plotted as filled black circles, and their mean at each epoch is shown as a diamond along with the standard deviations of the mean. Our model fit, with an Einstein ring radius of 31.53 mas, is shown as a solid purple curve. The RA and Dec residuals after subtracting the model from the mean observed positions are shown in separate panels. The resulting fitting parameters of our model are a source PM of (μ α ,μ δ ) = (−0.4 ± 0.05, +0.2 ± 0.05) mas year−1, a parallax of 0.25 ± 0.1 mas with respect to the mean parallax of the reference stars, and an Einstein ring radius of θ E = 31.53 ± 1.20 mas. Using Eq. 1 and the measured parallax, we find Stein 2051 B to have a mass of 0.675 ± 0.051 M . Astrophysics of the cool white dwarf Stein 2051 B Most stars end their lives as WDs—as will the Sun—and then slowly cool. Composed of degenerate matter, WDs are expected to obey a mass-radius relation (MRR) such that, as the mass of the WD increases from ~0.5 M to the Chandrasekhar limit of ~1.4 M (42), its radius decreases approximately as the inverse cube root of its mass (43). The MRR has a relatively large dependence on core composition, and smaller dependencies on photospheric composition, thicknesses of the H and/or He envelopes lying above the degenerate interior, and a continued small amount of shrinkage as the WD gradually cools (44). The vast majority of WD masses cannot be measured directly, but have to be inferred from model-dependent determinations of their surface gravities and estimates of their radii from parallax determinations and photometric or spectroscopic flux measurements (44), or from gravitational redshifts in cases where the true radial velocity of the WD is known from measurements of a companion star (45). The number of WDs whose masses and radii have been directly measured with sufficient precision to test theoretical MRRs includes just three WDs in nearby wide visual binaries [Sirius B (46), Procyon B (47), and 40 Eri B (43)] and about 10 WDs in short-period eclipsing binaries (44). However, the stars in the latter group have undergone common-envelope events and have therefore not evolved in the same way as isolated single stars. The mass of a WD in a transiting binary system with an 88-day orbital period was recently measured through the photometric microlensing caused by the WD as it periodically passes in front of the G-dwarf companion (48). Our direct measurement of the mass of Stein 2051 B, with an uncertainty of 0.051 M , provides an additional data point for comparison with theoretical MRRs and evolutionary cooling tracks. The location of Stein 2051 B in the MRR is shown in Fig. 4. We overlay an MRR for He-atmosphere, CO-core WDs (23) interpolated to the effective temperature of Stein 2051 B. For comparison, the MRR for zero-temperature WDs with iron cores (49) is also shown, but is excluded by our measurement. For a CO core, the diagram shows that our radius determination implies an expected mass of Stein 2051 B of 0.67 ± 0.03 M , in agreement with our measured value of 0.675 ± 0.051 M . Fig. 4 Mass-radius diagram for Stein 2051 B and three nearby white dwarfs in visual binaries. Data points with error bars show the masses and radii for Stein 2051 B (this paper; black), 40 Eridani B [(43); dark brown], Sirius B [(46); blue)], and Procyon B [(47); orange]. The black curve plots a theoretical mass-radius relation (23) for carbon-oxygen core white dwarfs with the parameters of Stein 2051 B (thin hydrogen layer, q H = M H /M WD = 10−10; effective temperature 7122 K). This curve is also appropriate for the similar white dwarf Procyon B. The blue curve shows the relation (23) for thick hydrogen-layer CO white dwarfs with the effective temperature of Sirius B, and the dark brown curves plot the relations for thick and thin hydrogen-layer CO white dwarfs with the temperature of 40 Eri B. The green curve shows the theoretical relation for zero-temperature white dwarfs with iron cores (48). The mass of Stein 2051 B inferred from the astrometric microlensing, 0.675 ± 0.051 M ☉, is consistent with the CO core expected from normal stellar evolution. The position of Stein 2051 B in the theoretical Hertzsprung-Russell diagram (luminosity versus surface effective temperature) is shown in Fig. 5, along with evolutionary cooling sequences with their cooling ages marked for CO-core WDs of masses 0.5 to 0.8 M (23). These models have thin H (M H /M WD = 10−10) layers, which are appropriate for helium-atmosphere compositions. The implied WD cooling age of Stein 2051 B is 1.9 ± 0.4 Gy. The progenitor of the WD had a mass of 2.6 ± 0.6 M , based on a recent determination of the initial-mass/final-mass relation (50). The corresponding theoretical pre-WD evolutionary lifetimes of these progenitors range from 0.4 to 1.3 Gy (51). Combining these with the cooling age, we find that the Stein 2051 system has a total age in the range of 1.9 to 3.6 Gy. Unlike previous conclusions of an iron core WD, our measurement does not conflict with the age of the universe. The derived age of the system is consistent with its moderately high space velocity, suggesting that it may be a member of the Galaxy’s thick disk. Fig. 5 Theoretical WD cooling tracks ( 23 ). Cooling tracks are shown for four masses (solid lines), along with isochrones showing the WD cooling ages (dashed lines). The position of Stein 2051 B agrees within the uncertainties with that expected for our measured mass. The implied cooling age of Stein 2051 B is 1.9 ± 0.4 Gy. Supplementary Materials www.sciencemag.org/content/356/6342/1046/suppl/DC1 Materials and Methods Supplementary Text Table S1 Figs. S1 to S10 References (52–57) Movies S1 and S2 ||||| These crawls are part of an effort to archive pages as they are created and archive the pages that they refer to. That way, as the pages that are referenced are changed or taken from the web, a link to the version that was live when the page was written will be preserved.Then the Internet Archive hopes that references to these archived pages will be put in place of a link that would be otherwise be broken, or a companion link to allow people to see what was originally intended by a page's authors.The goal is to fix all broken links on the web . Crawls of supported "No More 404" sites.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Elin Ersson refused to sit down on Gothenburg flight until man being sent to Afghanistan was removed A lone student activist on board a plane at Gothenburg airport has prevented the deportation of an Afghan asylum seeker from Sweden by refusing to sit down until the man was removed from the flight. Her successful protest, footage of which spread rapidly across the internet, shines a spotlight on domestic opposition to Sweden’s tough asylum regime, at a time when immigration and asylum are topping the agenda of a general election campaign in which the far right is polling strongly. “I hope that people start questioning how their country treats refugees,” Elin Ersson, 21, told the Guardian in an interview. “We need to start seeing the people whose lives our immigration [policies] are destroying.” The social work student at Gothenburg University bought a ticket for the flight from Gothenburg to Turkey on Monday morning, after she and other asylum activists found out that a young Afghan was due to be deported on it. In fact he was not on the plane but activists discovered another Afghan man in his 50s was onboard for deportation. Swedish plane protester Elin Ersson: ‘I knew I couldn't back down – I had to do what I could' Read more As she entered the plane, Ersson started to livestream her protest in English. The video received more than 4m hits on Tuesday. Facing both sympathy and hostility from passengers, the footage shows Ersson struggling to keep her composure. “I don’t want a man’s life to be taken away just because you don’t want to miss your flight,” she says. “I am not going to sit down until the person is off the plane.” Repeatedly told by a steward to stop filming, Ersson says: “I am doing what I can to save a person’s life. As long as a person is standing up the pilot cannot take off. All I want to do is stop the deportation and then I will comply with the rules here. This is all perfectly legal and I have not committed a crime.” When an angry passenger, who appears to be English, tries to seize her phone, she tells him: “What is more important, a life, or your time? … I want him to get off the plane because he is not safe in Afghanistan. I am trying to change my country’s rules, I don’t like them. It is not right to send people to hell.” After a tense standoff, during which the airport authorities declined to use force to eject Ersson, passengers broke into applause when the asylum seeker was taken off the plane. Ersson told the Guardian she had been volunteering with refugee groups for about a year. “People [in Afghanistan] are not sure of any safety,” she said. “They don’t know if they’re going to live another day. As I’ve been working and meeting people from Afghanistan and heard their stories, I’ve been more and more in the belief that no one should be deported to Afghanistan because it’s not a safe place. The way that we are treating refugees right now, I think that we can do better, especially in a rich country like Sweden.” As the country heads towards a general election in September, Sweden’s centre-left coalition government is keen to keep up expulsions of asylum seekers whose applications have been turned down. “If you get rejected, you have to go home – otherwise we will not have a proper migration system,” the prime minister, Stefan Löfven, said last year after an Uzbek asylum seeker whose claim had been rejected drove a truck into shoppers in Stockholm, killing five people. After Taliban violence increased in January, the country briefly halted deportations to Afghanistan. But the Swedish migration board stands by its assessment that the country is a safe destination for asylum seekers whose claims have been turned down. In its most recent assessment, the migration board said Taliban attacks had been aimed mainly at the military or foreigners, and violence against Afghan civilians was rare. As for a bomb in an ambulance in January that killed at least 95 and injured many more in Kabul, the board said it was “unclear whether the purpose was really to attack civilians”. Tens of thousands of deportation cases are expected to be handed over to the police as the country continues to process a backlog of asylum applications, after 163,000 people claimed asylum in Sweden in 2015. Last year, the border police deported 12,500 people, while the rate of expulsions so far this year is slightly higher. Normally deportations go peacefully, according to a spokesperson for the police in Sweden’s west region. But occasionally the process is disrupted by demonstrators such as Ersson or by asylum seekers themselves. “You do it once or twice, and if it doesn’t work we rent a private plane to send them back to Afghanistan, or wherever,” the spokesperson said. 'Sweden sends us to be killed': young Afghans face perilous deportation Read more Ersson’s protest was a civil and not a criminal case, he said. Should the airline and passengers decide to prosecute, Ersson could face a substantial fine. When the refugee crisis began to escalate 2015, Sweden made it much harder for refugees to get into the country and asylum applications fell sharply. In 2016 almost 29,000 people claimed asylum, followed by just under 26,000 last year. So far this year, asylum applications are running at about 1,500 a month. The fates of the young man due to be deported on Monday, and the man who was on the plane, are unknown. A spokesperson for the Swedish Prison and Probation Service confirmed that the young man would be deported again, once transport was found. The Swedish border police in Kalmar, responsible for the attempted deportation, did not return calls from the Guardian. Ersson believes the young man was taken to Stockholm and put on a flight there already. “This is how deportations in Sweden work. The people involved know nothing and they are not allowed to reach out to their lawyers or family,” she said. “My ultimate goal is to end deportations to Afghanistan.” ||||| This Swedish woman held up the departure of a plane because someone from Afghanistan was being sent home by the Swedish Government. I'm sure he went through all the proper processes, so she has no right to do this. Do u know about this Paul @PrisonPlanet https://t.co/TfAwpOWdiE ||||| As passengers know, a plane cannot take off until all on board have taken their seats and buckled their seat belts. On Monday, a young Swedish activist named Elin Ersson used that rule to keep a flight carrying a 52-year-old Afghan man being deported to Kabul from taking off in Gothenborg. The flight was scheduled to travel to Istanbul where the man was to be transferred to another plane to Afghanistan. With everyone else on the plane seated, the young Swede took out her cellphone and began livestreaming video on Facebook. She then proceeded to film herself speaking in English as she walked through the plane, explaining that the man was being deported to Afghanistan, "where he will most likely get killed." Read more: Horst Seehofer faces calls to resign after deportee suicide As the video began, one could hear flight personnel ordering her to sit down, as well as angry passengers doing the same. Another flight attendant called for her to turn off the phone and take her, seat which she once again refused to do. Ersson insisted that she was not doing anything illegal, adding that as soon as the Afghan was taken off the plane she would follow the pilot's orders. Watch video 02:34 Now live 02:34 mins. Share Facing deportation from Germany Send Facebook google+ Whatsapp Tumblr linkedin stumble Digg reddit Newsvine Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/2ztAF Building a life in Germany despite threat of deportation Annoyance and solidarity At one point, an English passenger chided her for her action and attempted to take her phone away, saying she was scaring the other passengers. About half way through the 14-minute video, other passengers began to join her in the protest. Among the cries of a number of children, she was told that the man would be let off the plane and she would also be removed by airport security. Ersson protested Swedish deportation policy with a group of 25 other activists before boarding the plane. Her video was clicked more than 1.9 million times in the last 24 hours and she has been applauded by many for her civil courage. Critics have called her selfish for singlehandedly making a decision on the country's deportation stance. Read more: How do deportations work in Germany? Could face fines and jail Despite the young woman's claims that she had done nothing wrong, Swedish authorities see the matter differently. Police pointed out that passengers who refuse to obey a pilot's orders while on board a plane can face fines or up to six months in jail. Authorities also said the Afghan man was in custody and would be deported, though they did not say when.

– A Swedish student took a stand—literally—against an Afghan man's deportation from her country, and it worked, at least temporarily. Asylum activist Elin Ersson learned the man was to be flown to Istanbul from Gothenburg and then on to Kabul and bought a ticket for that same Monday flight. She boarded and began a campaign in support of the 52-year-old asylum seeker. At some point she began live-streaming her effort. "I don't want a man's life to be taken away just because you don't want to miss your flight," she says in what BuzzFeed News reports is a 14-minute video that's been viewed 2.4 million times. "I am not going to sit down until the person is off the plane," she says, repeatedly telling the flight attendant she won't quit, even as he calls her unruly and continually tells her to turn off her phone. Ersson didn't waver, saying the pilot could not depart so long as she was standing, that her actions were legal, and that the pilot had the power to order the man removed from the plane. The Washington Post reports things got heated, with a passenger at one point grabbing for her phone; a flight attendant returned it. The Guardian has more from her: "I want him to get off the plane because he is not safe in Afghanistan. I am trying to change my country’s rules, I don't like them. It is not right to send people to hell." Some passengers clapped; others stood with her, and the Afghan man and the security personnel accompanying him ultimately deplaned. Deutsche Welle reports authorities still plan to deport the man, and adds that Ersson could face fines or jail time for refusing a pilot's orders, though it's unclear whether any action will be taken. One Facebook commenter called her "our Young Swedish hero!!"

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Elin Ersson refused to sit down on Gothenburg flight until man being sent to Afghanistan was removed A lone student activist on board a plane at Gothenburg airport has prevented the deportation of an Afghan asylum seeker from Sweden by refusing to sit down until the man was removed from the flight. Her successful protest, footage of which spread rapidly across the internet, shines a spotlight on domestic opposition to Sweden’s tough asylum regime, at a time when immigration and asylum are topping the agenda of a general election campaign in which the far right is polling strongly. “I hope that people start questioning how their country treats refugees,” Elin Ersson, 21, told the Guardian in an interview. “We need to start seeing the people whose lives our immigration [policies] are destroying.” The social work student at Gothenburg University bought a ticket for the flight from Gothenburg to Turkey on Monday morning, after she and other asylum activists found out that a young Afghan was due to be deported on it. In fact he was not on the plane but activists discovered another Afghan man in his 50s was onboard for deportation. Swedish plane protester Elin Ersson: ‘I knew I couldn't back down – I had to do what I could' Read more As she entered the plane, Ersson started to livestream her protest in English. The video received more than 4m hits on Tuesday. Facing both sympathy and hostility from passengers, the footage shows Ersson struggling to keep her composure. “I don’t want a man’s life to be taken away just because you don’t want to miss your flight,” she says. “I am not going to sit down until the person is off the plane.” Repeatedly told by a steward to stop filming, Ersson says: “I am doing what I can to save a person’s life. As long as a person is standing up the pilot cannot take off. All I want to do is stop the deportation and then I will comply with the rules here. This is all perfectly legal and I have not committed a crime.” When an angry passenger, who appears to be English, tries to seize her phone, she tells him: “What is more important, a life, or your time? … I want him to get off the plane because he is not safe in Afghanistan. I am trying to change my country’s rules, I don’t like them. It is not right to send people to hell.” After a tense standoff, during which the airport authorities declined to use force to eject Ersson, passengers broke into applause when the asylum seeker was taken off the plane. Ersson told the Guardian she had been volunteering with refugee groups for about a year. “People [in Afghanistan] are not sure of any safety,” she said. “They don’t know if they’re going to live another day. As I’ve been working and meeting people from Afghanistan and heard their stories, I’ve been more and more in the belief that no one should be deported to Afghanistan because it’s not a safe place. The way that we are treating refugees right now, I think that we can do better, especially in a rich country like Sweden.” As the country heads towards a general election in September, Sweden’s centre-left coalition government is keen to keep up expulsions of asylum seekers whose applications have been turned down. “If you get rejected, you have to go home – otherwise we will not have a proper migration system,” the prime minister, Stefan Löfven, said last year after an Uzbek asylum seeker whose claim had been rejected drove a truck into shoppers in Stockholm, killing five people. After Taliban violence increased in January, the country briefly halted deportations to Afghanistan. But the Swedish migration board stands by its assessment that the country is a safe destination for asylum seekers whose claims have been turned down. In its most recent assessment, the migration board said Taliban attacks had been aimed mainly at the military or foreigners, and violence against Afghan civilians was rare. As for a bomb in an ambulance in January that killed at least 95 and injured many more in Kabul, the board said it was “unclear whether the purpose was really to attack civilians”. Tens of thousands of deportation cases are expected to be handed over to the police as the country continues to process a backlog of asylum applications, after 163,000 people claimed asylum in Sweden in 2015. Last year, the border police deported 12,500 people, while the rate of expulsions so far this year is slightly higher. Normally deportations go peacefully, according to a spokesperson for the police in Sweden’s west region. But occasionally the process is disrupted by demonstrators such as Ersson or by asylum seekers themselves. “You do it once or twice, and if it doesn’t work we rent a private plane to send them back to Afghanistan, or wherever,” the spokesperson said. 'Sweden sends us to be killed': young Afghans face perilous deportation Read more Ersson’s protest was a civil and not a criminal case, he said. Should the airline and passengers decide to prosecute, Ersson could face a substantial fine. When the refugee crisis began to escalate 2015, Sweden made it much harder for refugees to get into the country and asylum applications fell sharply. In 2016 almost 29,000 people claimed asylum, followed by just under 26,000 last year. So far this year, asylum applications are running at about 1,500 a month. The fates of the young man due to be deported on Monday, and the man who was on the plane, are unknown. A spokesperson for the Swedish Prison and Probation Service confirmed that the young man would be deported again, once transport was found. The Swedish border police in Kalmar, responsible for the attempted deportation, did not return calls from the Guardian. Ersson believes the young man was taken to Stockholm and put on a flight there already. “This is how deportations in Sweden work. The people involved know nothing and they are not allowed to reach out to their lawyers or family,” she said. “My ultimate goal is to end deportations to Afghanistan.” ||||| This Swedish woman held up the departure of a plane because someone from Afghanistan was being sent home by the Swedish Government. I'm sure he went through all the proper processes, so she has no right to do this. Do u know about this Paul @PrisonPlanet https://t.co/TfAwpOWdiE ||||| As passengers know, a plane cannot take off until all on board have taken their seats and buckled their seat belts. On Monday, a young Swedish activist named Elin Ersson used that rule to keep a flight carrying a 52-year-old Afghan man being deported to Kabul from taking off in Gothenborg. The flight was scheduled to travel to Istanbul where the man was to be transferred to another plane to Afghanistan. With everyone else on the plane seated, the young Swede took out her cellphone and began livestreaming video on Facebook. She then proceeded to film herself speaking in English as she walked through the plane, explaining that the man was being deported to Afghanistan, "where he will most likely get killed." Read more: Horst Seehofer faces calls to resign after deportee suicide As the video began, one could hear flight personnel ordering her to sit down, as well as angry passengers doing the same. Another flight attendant called for her to turn off the phone and take her, seat which she once again refused to do. Ersson insisted that she was not doing anything illegal, adding that as soon as the Afghan was taken off the plane she would follow the pilot's orders. Watch video 02:34 Now live 02:34 mins. Share Facing deportation from Germany Send Facebook google+ Whatsapp Tumblr linkedin stumble Digg reddit Newsvine Permalink https://p.dw.com/p/2ztAF Building a life in Germany despite threat of deportation Annoyance and solidarity At one point, an English passenger chided her for her action and attempted to take her phone away, saying she was scaring the other passengers. About half way through the 14-minute video, other passengers began to join her in the protest. Among the cries of a number of children, she was told that the man would be let off the plane and she would also be removed by airport security. Ersson protested Swedish deportation policy with a group of 25 other activists before boarding the plane. Her video was clicked more than 1.9 million times in the last 24 hours and she has been applauded by many for her civil courage. Critics have called her selfish for singlehandedly making a decision on the country's deportation stance. Read more: How do deportations work in Germany? Could face fines and jail Despite the young woman's claims that she had done nothing wrong, Swedish authorities see the matter differently. Police pointed out that passengers who refuse to obey a pilot's orders while on board a plane can face fines or up to six months in jail. Authorities also said the Afghan man was in custody and would be deported, though they did not say when.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Businessman Yoo Byung-un headed family that owns operator of Sewol ferry which sank in April, killing 300 South Korean police said on Tuesday that a body found last month in the south of the country belonged to a fugitive businessman who headed the family that owned the operator of a ferry that capsized in April, killing more than 300 people. Police said at a press conference that a badly decomposed body found on June 12 had been identified by DNA evidence as well as fingerprints as that of Yoo Byung-un, who had been the subject of the country's largest manhunt. The discovery ended a massive, months-long manhunt for the 73-year-old billionaire whose family owns the Sewol ferry operator, Chonghaejin Marine Co. The heavily decomposed corpse was recovered on June 12 from a plum field in Suncheon, a city 300 kilometres (186 miles) south of Seoul. Tests matched the DNA of the body to Yoo's elder brother, leading police to believe the body was that of the reclusive billionaire.Yoo went on the run shortly after the 6,825-tonne Sewol capsized and sank on April 16 with 476 people on board, including 325 high school students. The number of confirmed dead currently stands at 294, with 10 victims still unaccounted for. The ferry disaster stunned South Korea and unleashed widespread public anger, as it emerged that incompetence, corruption and greed had all contributed to the scale of the disaster. President Park Geun-Hye and her administration have been bitterly criticised for their response to the tragedy. The captain and 14 surviving crew members are currently on trial, some of them on charges of wilful homicide which carry the death penalty. A summons was issued for Yoo shortly after the sinking, but he refused to surrender to police and eventually went on the run. A reward of 500 million won ($490,000) was offered for information leading to his capture, and 100 million won for that of his eldest son, Yoo Dae-Kyun. Yoo was wanted for questioning on possible charges of embezzlement and criminal negligence, related to regulatory violations. Many of his family members have been arrested, including his wife and his brother. A daughter is fighting an extradition bid from Paris. Earlier this month, South Korean prosecutors filed embezzlement charges against his 71-year-old wife, Kwon Yun-Ja. The charges were unrelated to the ferry sinking, and involved the alleged embezzlement of money from a splinter religious group established by Kwon's father. In June, thousands of police officers conducted a raid on a major church complex looking for Yoo. ||||| Image copyright AP Image caption A nationwide manhunt for ferry company owner Yoo Byung-eun was launched after the disaster Police in South Korea have said that a body they found in June is that of the fugitive boss of the operator of a ferry that sank in April, killing more than 300 people. The billionaire businessman Yoo Byung-eun went missing shortly after the disaster, sparking a massive manhunt. DNA samples from the body matched those of Mr Yoo's brother, police spokesman Woo Hyung-ho said. Police had wanted to question him on possible criminal negligence charges. Mr Yoo, 73, was head of the family that owned ferry operator Chonghaejin Marine Co. He went on the run shortly after the vessel, whose passengers were mostly schoolchildren, went down near Jindo island. Image copyright AP Image caption The Sewol ferry had been carrying 476 passengers, mainly school children, when it capsized in April Image copyright Reuters Image caption The tragedy triggered widespread grief and anger over corruption and poor emergency response Yonhap news agency reported that police found a heavily decomposed body last month in a plum field in Suncheon, a city 300 km (186 miles) south of Seoul. Mr Yoo was wanted for questioning on possible charges of embezzlement and criminal negligence, as prosecutors investigate whether the disaster was caused by mismanagement. Many of his family members have been arrested and his daughter, who lives in France, is currently fighting an extradition bid. His eldest son is still on the run. Image copyright Reuters Image caption Police raided a church belonging to Mr Yoo last month and arrested several people accused of helping him In June, some 6,000 police officers stormed a church complex in Anseong city belonging to Mr Yoo. Four church followers were detained on charges of assisting his escape and police said they were looking for several more who had helped the billionaire. Outside the church, supporters held up a large banner that read: "We'll protect Yoo Byung-eun even if 100,000 church members are all arrested." A reward of 500m won ($490,000) had been offered for information leading to his capture and 100m won for that of his son, Yoo Dae-Kyun. The sinking of the Sewol triggered widespread grief and anger at the government, which has promised to overhaul its bureaucracy and improve emergency response. Two separate trials, one for the ferry's captain and crew, and another for Chonghaejin Marine Co officials, began last month.

– A decaying body found in a plum field is that of the fugitive billionaire who owned a ferry that sank in April, South Korean cops have confirmed. Yoo Byung-un, patriarch of the family that owned the ferry operator, went on the run soon after the Sewol sank and had been the subject of the country's biggest-ever manhunt, reports the Guardian. Police say DNA and fingerprints have confirmed the identity of the body that was found last month, soon after police raided a compound belonging to a Christian splinter group, of which Yoo was a leading member. The 73-year-old was wanted for questioning on charges including embezzlement and criminal negligence, and many of his family members have already been arrested, including his wife, the BBC reports. His eldest son is still on the run. The number of dead from the Sewol disaster stands at 294—most of them high school students—and 10 people are still listed as missing. After the sinking, investigators found that the ferry was routinely and severely overloaded. Company officials are now on trial—a separate trial than that of the ferry captain and crew members, who were charged with murder.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Businessman Yoo Byung-un headed family that owns operator of Sewol ferry which sank in April, killing 300 South Korean police said on Tuesday that a body found last month in the south of the country belonged to a fugitive businessman who headed the family that owned the operator of a ferry that capsized in April, killing more than 300 people. Police said at a press conference that a badly decomposed body found on June 12 had been identified by DNA evidence as well as fingerprints as that of Yoo Byung-un, who had been the subject of the country's largest manhunt. The discovery ended a massive, months-long manhunt for the 73-year-old billionaire whose family owns the Sewol ferry operator, Chonghaejin Marine Co. The heavily decomposed corpse was recovered on June 12 from a plum field in Suncheon, a city 300 kilometres (186 miles) south of Seoul. Tests matched the DNA of the body to Yoo's elder brother, leading police to believe the body was that of the reclusive billionaire.Yoo went on the run shortly after the 6,825-tonne Sewol capsized and sank on April 16 with 476 people on board, including 325 high school students. The number of confirmed dead currently stands at 294, with 10 victims still unaccounted for. The ferry disaster stunned South Korea and unleashed widespread public anger, as it emerged that incompetence, corruption and greed had all contributed to the scale of the disaster. President Park Geun-Hye and her administration have been bitterly criticised for their response to the tragedy. The captain and 14 surviving crew members are currently on trial, some of them on charges of wilful homicide which carry the death penalty. A summons was issued for Yoo shortly after the sinking, but he refused to surrender to police and eventually went on the run. A reward of 500 million won ($490,000) was offered for information leading to his capture, and 100 million won for that of his eldest son, Yoo Dae-Kyun. Yoo was wanted for questioning on possible charges of embezzlement and criminal negligence, related to regulatory violations. Many of his family members have been arrested, including his wife and his brother. A daughter is fighting an extradition bid from Paris. Earlier this month, South Korean prosecutors filed embezzlement charges against his 71-year-old wife, Kwon Yun-Ja. The charges were unrelated to the ferry sinking, and involved the alleged embezzlement of money from a splinter religious group established by Kwon's father. In June, thousands of police officers conducted a raid on a major church complex looking for Yoo. ||||| Image copyright AP Image caption A nationwide manhunt for ferry company owner Yoo Byung-eun was launched after the disaster Police in South Korea have said that a body they found in June is that of the fugitive boss of the operator of a ferry that sank in April, killing more than 300 people. The billionaire businessman Yoo Byung-eun went missing shortly after the disaster, sparking a massive manhunt. DNA samples from the body matched those of Mr Yoo's brother, police spokesman Woo Hyung-ho said. Police had wanted to question him on possible criminal negligence charges. Mr Yoo, 73, was head of the family that owned ferry operator Chonghaejin Marine Co. He went on the run shortly after the vessel, whose passengers were mostly schoolchildren, went down near Jindo island. Image copyright AP Image caption The Sewol ferry had been carrying 476 passengers, mainly school children, when it capsized in April Image copyright Reuters Image caption The tragedy triggered widespread grief and anger over corruption and poor emergency response Yonhap news agency reported that police found a heavily decomposed body last month in a plum field in Suncheon, a city 300 km (186 miles) south of Seoul. Mr Yoo was wanted for questioning on possible charges of embezzlement and criminal negligence, as prosecutors investigate whether the disaster was caused by mismanagement. Many of his family members have been arrested and his daughter, who lives in France, is currently fighting an extradition bid. His eldest son is still on the run. Image copyright Reuters Image caption Police raided a church belonging to Mr Yoo last month and arrested several people accused of helping him In June, some 6,000 police officers stormed a church complex in Anseong city belonging to Mr Yoo. Four church followers were detained on charges of assisting his escape and police said they were looking for several more who had helped the billionaire. Outside the church, supporters held up a large banner that read: "We'll protect Yoo Byung-eun even if 100,000 church members are all arrested." A reward of 500m won ($490,000) had been offered for information leading to his capture and 100m won for that of his son, Yoo Dae-Kyun. The sinking of the Sewol triggered widespread grief and anger at the government, which has promised to overhaul its bureaucracy and improve emergency response. Two separate trials, one for the ferry's captain and crew, and another for Chonghaejin Marine Co officials, began last month.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Advertisement G The press and locals who were waiting for the Royal family outside the Lindo wing of St. Mary’s Hospital in London got a real treat as the new parents of two came out very soon after their daughter’s birth. G At around 4pm local time, Prince William left the hospital to “pick up George,” he told photographers as he got into the driver’s side of a black van. Advertisement W When he returned, Wills carried his son—who was matching his daddy in blue and white!—as they waved to onlookers and walked into the hospital. W George’s wave was adorable as he headed in to begin his duties as big brother. W Then at 6:12 pm local time, less than 12 hours after Kate gave birth to the new princess, she and William introduced their baby daughter to the public on the steps of the hospital, as per Royal tradition. Kate wore a yellow and white floral Jenny Packham dress and her signature bouncy blow-out. The parents stood outside for no more than a minute, waving to the public while holding their little girl. W The threesome then went back inside and about five minutes later, came back out with the little baby in a carseat. They strapped her in and drove away in a large SUV, with Prince William at the wheel and Duchess Kate in the passenger’s seat. W This introduction was a lot shorter than it was after George’s birth in 2013. The first time around, the new parents did brief interviews with reporters waiting outside, but this time there was no interaction. ||||| The official account of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex and their Royal Foundation, based at Kensington Palace. London, UK ||||| Britain's Prince William and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, hold their newborn daughter as they as they pose for the media outside St. Mary's Hospital's exclusive Lindo Wing, London, Saturday, May 2, 2015.... (Associated Press) LONDON (AP) — Soldiers on horseback have rode out in procession in London to fire gun salutes in honor of Britain's newborn princess. Dozens of deafening volleys were fired Monday from Hyde Park and the Tower of London to celebrate the birth of Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge's second child. The name of the princess, born Saturday, has not yet been revealed. The couple waited two days to name their first child, Prince George, in 2013. They may now be waiting until they tell the queen, or until the monarch has met her fifth great-grandchild, before revealing the name to the public. Bookmakers have taken huge amounts of bets on the name, with Alice, Charlotte, Elizabeth, Victoria, Olivia and Diana among the most popular guesses. ||||| The little princess may be nameless a little while longer. Princess Kate and Prince William are still mulling a name for their newborn daughter. The royal parents are “talking it through with their family,” a royal aide tells PEOPLE. While bookmaker William Hill says Alice is back in top spot, the couple is content to keep people guessing. The new parents and their two children are spending a quiet morning at their residence in London’s Kensington Palace, where they had a stream of high-profile visitors Sunday. Despite widespread speculation that they are required to see great-granny Queen Elizabeth and tell her the name in person, a well-placed palace source says there is no protocol for that. Accordingly, they will not necessarily drive to Sandringham Monday in order to see her there, PEOPLE understands. News could come as soon as later Monday afternoon, U.K. Time. “Obviously family is very important to them and they are speaking to everyone, but they don’t have to see the Queen,” the source says. “They will see people when they see them. “They had the family around yesterday. They will continue to discuss things and when they’re ready to make a decision there’ll announce it.” ||||| Some parents have a strict no-guests policy when they first bring their newborn home, choosing instead to relax and get to know their child a bit before entertaining outside visitors. We can imagine Kate Middleton and Prince William do not have that luxury because their new baby girl is also the country's newest princess. Kate and Will have been at their Kensington Palace home for just one day, and have already welcomed a slew of family members—though you may be surprised to hear who hasn't met their baby yet. Kate's mom, Carole Middleton, has reportedly been the most involved member of either family so far. She stepped up to the plate and watched Prince George while Kate and Will were at the hospital giving birth, and she and Kate's younger sister, Pippa Middleton (whom we hear may also be chosen as godmother to the princess), returned to the palace on Sunday, with dad Michael right behind them, to visit their new granddaughter again. Other Sunday visitors included Prince Charles and Camilla and Will and Kate's good friend Emilia Jardine-Paterson, who is little George's godmother. More from The Stir: The Inside Scoop On Naming the Royal Baby 'Diana' Prince Harry is working in Australia at the moment and hasn't been able to meet his new niece yet, but called them right after she was born and put out a statement letting the world know she is "beautiful." It's a bit surprising to learn that Queen Elizabeth has yet to meet her great-granddaughter, but at the same time, she's 89, for God's sake. We're sure she'll get around to it as soon as possible. And she did sweetly wear all pink at her first public appearance after Kate and Will gave birth. We're glad to hear Kate and Will have so much support and help because transitioning to two children can feel more like going from one to five children overnight. Would you be happy about entertaining so many guests so soon after giving birth? Image via Danny E. Martindale/Getty Images

– The royal baby has a name. "The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are delighted to announce that they have named their daughter Charlotte Elizabeth Diana," Kensington Palace announced on Twitter. "The baby will be known as Her Royal Highness Princess Charlotte of Cambridge." The name, of course, appears to honor Prince William's father, grandmother, and mother. In terms of Britons making bets on the name, Charlotte had been the favorite for a while but was recently replaced by Alice. Both Elizabeth and Diana had also been popular guesses, the AP reports. Last time around, Wills and Kate also took two days to announce Prince George's name. Earlier, a royal aide told People the couple was "talking [names] through with their family," and another palace source noted that there was no protocol requiring them to tell Queen Elizabeth the name in person before announcing it: "Obviously family is very important to them and they are speaking to everyone, but they don't have to see the Queen." More updates on the royal babe: Charlotte was honored with a gun salute today at 2pm in London, with soldiers on horseback firing dozens of volleys from Hyde Park and the Tower of London. The baby has met grandpa Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, both of her Middleton grandparents, and Aunt Pippa, Kensington Palace noted on Twitter yesterday. (And big brother George, of course.) As for Prince Harry, he released an official statement about his niece: "She is absolutely beautiful. I can't wait to meet her." (He's working in Australia at the moment, the Stir notes.) Great-grandma may not have met Charlotte quite yet, but the queen did wear all pink in her first public outing after the baby's birth. Click for more pictures of William and Kate leaving the hospital with Charlotte.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Advertisement G The press and locals who were waiting for the Royal family outside the Lindo wing of St. Mary’s Hospital in London got a real treat as the new parents of two came out very soon after their daughter’s birth. G At around 4pm local time, Prince William left the hospital to “pick up George,” he told photographers as he got into the driver’s side of a black van. Advertisement W When he returned, Wills carried his son—who was matching his daddy in blue and white!—as they waved to onlookers and walked into the hospital. W George’s wave was adorable as he headed in to begin his duties as big brother. W Then at 6:12 pm local time, less than 12 hours after Kate gave birth to the new princess, she and William introduced their baby daughter to the public on the steps of the hospital, as per Royal tradition. Kate wore a yellow and white floral Jenny Packham dress and her signature bouncy blow-out. The parents stood outside for no more than a minute, waving to the public while holding their little girl. W The threesome then went back inside and about five minutes later, came back out with the little baby in a carseat. They strapped her in and drove away in a large SUV, with Prince William at the wheel and Duchess Kate in the passenger’s seat. W This introduction was a lot shorter than it was after George’s birth in 2013. The first time around, the new parents did brief interviews with reporters waiting outside, but this time there was no interaction. ||||| The official account of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex and their Royal Foundation, based at Kensington Palace. London, UK ||||| Britain's Prince William and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, hold their newborn daughter as they as they pose for the media outside St. Mary's Hospital's exclusive Lindo Wing, London, Saturday, May 2, 2015.... (Associated Press) LONDON (AP) — Soldiers on horseback have rode out in procession in London to fire gun salutes in honor of Britain's newborn princess. Dozens of deafening volleys were fired Monday from Hyde Park and the Tower of London to celebrate the birth of Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge's second child. The name of the princess, born Saturday, has not yet been revealed. The couple waited two days to name their first child, Prince George, in 2013. They may now be waiting until they tell the queen, or until the monarch has met her fifth great-grandchild, before revealing the name to the public. Bookmakers have taken huge amounts of bets on the name, with Alice, Charlotte, Elizabeth, Victoria, Olivia and Diana among the most popular guesses. ||||| The little princess may be nameless a little while longer. Princess Kate and Prince William are still mulling a name for their newborn daughter. The royal parents are “talking it through with their family,” a royal aide tells PEOPLE. While bookmaker William Hill says Alice is back in top spot, the couple is content to keep people guessing. The new parents and their two children are spending a quiet morning at their residence in London’s Kensington Palace, where they had a stream of high-profile visitors Sunday. Despite widespread speculation that they are required to see great-granny Queen Elizabeth and tell her the name in person, a well-placed palace source says there is no protocol for that. Accordingly, they will not necessarily drive to Sandringham Monday in order to see her there, PEOPLE understands. News could come as soon as later Monday afternoon, U.K. Time. “Obviously family is very important to them and they are speaking to everyone, but they don’t have to see the Queen,” the source says. “They will see people when they see them. “They had the family around yesterday. They will continue to discuss things and when they’re ready to make a decision there’ll announce it.” ||||| Some parents have a strict no-guests policy when they first bring their newborn home, choosing instead to relax and get to know their child a bit before entertaining outside visitors. We can imagine Kate Middleton and Prince William do not have that luxury because their new baby girl is also the country's newest princess. Kate and Will have been at their Kensington Palace home for just one day, and have already welcomed a slew of family members—though you may be surprised to hear who hasn't met their baby yet. Kate's mom, Carole Middleton, has reportedly been the most involved member of either family so far. She stepped up to the plate and watched Prince George while Kate and Will were at the hospital giving birth, and she and Kate's younger sister, Pippa Middleton (whom we hear may also be chosen as godmother to the princess), returned to the palace on Sunday, with dad Michael right behind them, to visit their new granddaughter again. Other Sunday visitors included Prince Charles and Camilla and Will and Kate's good friend Emilia Jardine-Paterson, who is little George's godmother. More from The Stir: The Inside Scoop On Naming the Royal Baby 'Diana' Prince Harry is working in Australia at the moment and hasn't been able to meet his new niece yet, but called them right after she was born and put out a statement letting the world know she is "beautiful." It's a bit surprising to learn that Queen Elizabeth has yet to meet her great-granddaughter, but at the same time, she's 89, for God's sake. We're sure she'll get around to it as soon as possible. And she did sweetly wear all pink at her first public appearance after Kate and Will gave birth. We're glad to hear Kate and Will have so much support and help because transitioning to two children can feel more like going from one to five children overnight. Would you be happy about entertaining so many guests so soon after giving birth? Image via Danny E. Martindale/Getty Images

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Add a location to your Tweets When you tweet with a location, Twitter stores that location. You can switch location on/off before each Tweet and always have the option to delete your location history. Learn more ||||| Presidential Transition Trump private security force ‘playing with fire’ The president-elect continues to employ a battalion of retired cops and FBI agents to protect him and clamp down on protesters. GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — President-elect Donald Trump has continued employing a private security and intelligence team at his victory rallies, and he is expected to keep at least some members of the team after he becomes president, according to people familiar with the plans. The arrangement represents a major break from tradition. All modern presidents and presidents-elect have entrusted their personal security entirely to the Secret Service, and their event security mostly to local law enforcement, according to presidential security experts and Secret Service sources. Story Continued Below But Trump — who puts a premium on loyalty and has demonstrated great interest in having forceful security at his events — has opted to maintain an aggressive and unprecedented private security force, led by Keith Schiller, a retired New York City cop and Navy veteran who started working for Trump in 1999 as a part-time bodyguard, eventually rising to become his head of security. Security officials warn that employing private security personnel heightens risks for the president-elect and his team, as well as for protesters, dozens of whom have alleged racial profiling, undue force or aggression at the hands of Trump’s security, with at least 10 joining a trio of lawsuits now pending against Trump, his campaign or its security. “It’s playing with fire,” said Jonathan Wackrow, a former Secret Service agent who worked on President Barack Obama’s protective detail during his 2012 reelection campaign. Having a private security team working events with Secret Service “increases the Service’s liability, it creates greater confusion and it creates greater risk,” Wackrow said. “You never want to commingle a police function with a private security function,” he said, adding, “If you talk to the guys on the detail and the guys who are running the rallies, that’s been a little bit difficult because it’s so abnormal.” Wackrow, who left the Secret Service in 2014 and is now executive director of a security company called RANE (short for Risk Assistance Network + Exchange), said if he were the lead agent at a Trump rally, “I wouldn’t allow it.” But he suggested it’s a tricky situation for the Secret Service. “What are they going to do, pick a fight with the president-elect and his advisers? That’s not a way to start a romance.” Several past presidential nominees have used private security or, in the case of governors running for president, state police details. But the experts could not think of another example of a president-elect continuing with any private security after Election Day, when Secret Service protection expands dramatically for the winner. In fact, most candidates drop any outside security the moment they’re granted Secret Service protection. Trump’s spending on private security, on the other hand, actually increased after he was granted Secret Service protection in November 2015. Through the end of last month, Trump’s campaign had spent more than $1 million on private security contracting, compared with $360,000 spent by the campaign of his vanquished Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, according to Federal Election Commission reports. That’s despite the fact that every other aspect of her campaign operation dwarfed his. Overall, her campaign outspent his by nearly 75 percent. Whereas Clinton’s security spending — like that of most presidential campaigns — went mostly to protection for her offices and payments to local law enforcement or security companies for ad hoc event security, Trump’s campaign took it to a whole different level. It built a robust private security force that traveled the country supplementing the protective personal security supplied by the Secret Service, and working to identify and remove possible protesters — or just people Trump and his allies had a bad feeling about — from his events. The private security team has been present at each of the seven rallies on Trump’s post-election “Thank You Tour” and has removed protesters — sometimes roughly — at many stops. That included about a dozen protesters during a rally here on Dec. 9 in a minor-league arena called the Deltaplex, where Trump mostly shrugged off the interruptions until he became impatient with a particularly disruptive protester. “Get ‘em out!” the president-elect instructed his private security. That appeared to spur Trump’s security director, Schiller, to venture away from the stage, where he arrived with Trump, and wade deep into the crowd to assist other private security personnel with the removal. Before the end of the rally, Schiller returned to his place by Trump’s side, along with a Secret Service contingent of which he is often misidentified as a member. (Despite being — at 58 years old — significantly older than most agents, Schiller looks the part, invariably sporting a uniform of dark suits and white shirts, along with a Secret Service-issued perimeter pin, and maintaining an athletic 6-foot-4-inch, 210-pound frame.) Together, the entourage accompanied Trump back to the airport, onto his plane and back to New York. It was the same routine as Schiller and Trump repeated countless times during the campaign, and it likely will be repeated countless more times over the coming years, since Schiller is expected to follow Trump into the White House, according to multiple sources on the transition team. In interviews with about a dozen people who interact with Trump, they said even as the president-elect’s Secret Service detail has expanded significantly since the election, he remains most comfortable with Schiller and his team. A native of New Paltz, New York, and father of two, Schiller has been director of security for The Trump Organization since 2004. The Trump associates say Schiller is expected to become a personal White House aide who would serve as the incoming president’s full-time physical gatekeeper, though he might not be able to offer his boss the wide range of services he has in the past. For instance, federal law prohibits anyone other than law enforcement officers from bringing firearms into federal buildings, and there are even stricter rules about who can carry on the White House grounds or around Secret Service protectees. Schiller had been armed at times early in the campaign, but it’s unclear whether he continued carrying a firearm after Trump was granted Secret Service protection. Even after the arrival of Trump’s Secret Service detail, which typically marks the end of any pre-existing security arrangement, Schiller never strayed from his boss’ side. The associates say Schiller provides more than just security. Trump has been known to ask Schiller’s opinion on all manner of subjects. When people want to reach Trump, they often call Schiller’s cellphone and he decides who gets through to the boss. Photos often show Schiller looming over Trump’s shoulder as he works crowds, standing sentry by the stage as Trump speaks, or ejecting protesters from rallies. He’s developed a small but avid fan base on Twitter, where Trump supporters cheer Schiller’s confrontations with protesters, pose for selfies with him at events and backstage, and praise him as a brave “American Eagle” who kept Trump “safe & sound.” And Schiller, a registered Republican, showed signs of reveling in Trump’s campaign, creating his own Twitter account just before the first primaries to promote the campaign and chronicle his unique perspective from the trail. He occasionally channeled his boss’ attacks on rivals like Ted Cruz (“Wow Lyin Ted is becoming unhinged! So sad...,” he tweeted as Trump was clinching the GOP nomination over the Texas senator) and spread false claims about Democrats, including that 20 percent of Clinton’s campaign cash came from people who were responsible for the September 2001 terrorist attacks, that a grand jury had been convened to investigate her use of a private email server for State Department business and that Obama encouraged undocumented immigrants to vote illegally. Yet Schiller mostly remains — as one former campaign aide put it — “the most important man no one has ever heard of.” That influence comes from Schiller’s ability to essentially control access to Trump, acting as his liaison to everyone from staff and well-wishers to dignitaries — and even Secret Service agents. “Keith is kind of a consigliere,” said a transition team official. “He knows all the players, all the properties. He has the confidence of Trump and of the family. To describe him as a body guy would be very, very beneath the role that he actually plays.” A younger aide — possibly the campaign’s trip director John McEntee — likely will be tapped for the traditional body man valet-like role, while Schiller would fill a new type of a hybrid staff-security role, the official explained. “Keith knows Trump inside and out. He knows when he turns right and when it turns left,” the official said. Yet Schiller’s tight relationship with — and protectiveness of — his boss has already complicated the Secret Service’s rigid protection protocols, say allies of the agency and independent security experts. In March, when a 32-year-old man jumped a barricade and rushed toward the stage as Trump was speaking at a rally in Dayton, Ohio, Secret Service agents immediately descended on Trump from opposite sides of the dais, encircling him in a human shield as a handful of other agents tackled the man before he could leap onto the stage. About a second after the first two agents reached Trump, Schiller leapt onto the stage and moved to position himself between the scrum and his boss. The response appeared tightly choreographed to the untrained eye — a phalanx of men in dark suits and close-cropped hair swarming to protect their charge. But in law enforcement circles, Schiller’s reaction was panned as too slow and was the subject of disapproving conversation among agents, according to a law enforcement source briefed on the conversations. The source said one agent described Schiller as the “JV trying to keep up in a varsity game.” Specifically, the source said that Schiller came from a position on the dais that the agents would have used to evacuate Trump if that were to have been necessary. “If that happened, they would have run right into Keith. He was about three seconds too late,” the source said. Joe Funk, a former Secret Service agent who worked several presidential campaigns, said agents throughout their careers are “trained nonstop to react to different situations based on your position and distance from the protectee in what they call AOP, or assaults on the principal.” That includes intensive drilling as a detail before being deployed to protect a presidential candidate or president “to familiarize yourself with the people who you are going to be working with.” Stressing that he wasn’t assessing the response to the Dayton incident, Funk said “without any slight to Keith or to any of the guys on his team, they just haven’t had the opportunity to go through the Secret Service training that would allow them to respond to a situation like a Secret Service agent would.” Since retiring from the Secret Service in 2005, Funk has provided private security for presidential candidates, including Obama in the early stages of the 2008 campaign and Mitt Romney in 2012. In both those cases, he said that when the Secret Service took over, he almost immediately stepped aside. “My assignment was over. That was it.” So Funk said that he was “very surprised,” while providing security for Jeb Bush’s 2016 campaign, to witness firsthand Trump’s “composite detail” including the Service and private security at multicandidate events during the primary. “I was under the impression that at some point this would be weeded out,” or that the private security would revert to more of a traditional staff role, said Funk, who is senior vice president at a private security firm called TorchStone Global. As for why that appears not to have occurred, Funk said “there may be a very good reason for it, but as a layperson on the outside looking in, I’m just kind of scratching my head. In my experience, this is unprecedented.” Agents and their associates told POLITICO that Schiller and his team initially bristled at the Secret Service’s move to take the lead, and that the continued presence of the private security brigade at events has caused tension and in some cases gotten in the way of the Secret Service’s protocols. During the campaign, Schiller and his team could be seen at rallies appearing to direct Secret Service agents, local police and employees of security companies hired for specific events. Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks declined to respond to a series of questions about the private security officials, who is paying them, their relationship with the Secret Service, whether they’re armed and what their roles will be after inauguration. Instead, she said in a statement, “Trump rallies are incredibly safe events and are executed with support from USSS, local law enforcement and private security to ensure the safety and enjoyment of all guests in attendance. For further details please reach out to the USSS.” Secret Service spokeswoman Nicole Mainor issued a statement saying, “The Secret Service does not provide information regarding our protective operations,” and referring to a section of the U.S. Code that outlines the agency’s obligations to protect the president-elect. As for the agency’s relationship with Trump’s security personnel and whether the Service has asked Trump to dial back his security or whether the security carry firearms, Mainor responded only: “The individuals you are referring to are staff personnel.” Schiller did not respond to requests for comment. In a little-noticed video interview recorded in Trump Tower less than two months after then-candidate Trump was granted Secret Service protection, Schiller said his team had “a great working relationship” with the Secret Service. “They bring their own set of assets, which is right now, we can use everything we can get, as far as the way the world is right now, and the campaign in itself. It’s inherently a risky business every day,” Schiller said in the interview, which was posted in January of this year. But he also noted that he had received “some dignitary protection training through the Secret Service” when he was on the New York City police force, and he touted the capacity of the private security team he oversees. “We have the best assets money can buy, I can assure you of that, as far as protecting him, his family and his property,” Schiller told the interviewer, Rich Siegel, one of his childhood buddies from New Paltz. Schiller explained that he has “more than a dozen people” working for him. While he said that “I’m no stranger to putting my hands on people,” thanks to his days in the New York City Police Department’s narcotics units, he added, “Things are different right now. I hire big guys who do all the fighting.” The identities and numbers of the employees who constitute Trump’s private security operation — as well as other details — are not entirely clear. That’s partly because at least some of the costs — including Schiller’s salary at one point in the campaign — appeared to be split between The Trump Organization corporate structure and Trump’s presidential campaign, and also because the campaign paid many of its security officials, including several who continued working for Trump after the election, through opaque corporate structures. Schiller himself was paid $181,000 for campaign work from July 2015 through mid-November, according to FEC filings, with some of it coming in the form of in-kind payments, likely indicating money paid to Schiller by The Trump Organization, and possibly reimbursed by Trump personally. The campaign also paid $50,000 for “security services” during the second half of the year to a company called KS Global Group LLC. While the company, which was registered anonymously in Delaware in October 2015, bears Schiller’s initials, neither he nor the Trump transition team would comment on who is behind it. Another company, Black Tie Protection Services, which a Trump campaign operative said is linked to Schiller’s team, was paid more than $106,000 in the final four months of the campaign. And the campaign paid $28,000 for security services to a company called ASIT Consulting, which is owned by a 62-year-old former FBI agent named Don Albracht, who has been known to film and occasionally taunt protesters. But by far the biggest recipient of Trump security cash is a company called XMark LLC, which boasts on its website that its employees have expertise in surveillance, “close quarter battle” and “tactical shooting skills" and that the firm “provided all PPD [personal protection detail] for Mr. Trump’s campaign travel to include all advance work and coordination with local law enforcement agencies, in support, throughout the country, until being relieved by the United States Secret Service in mid-November of 2015.” Yet the company continued receiving payments from Trump’s campaign after that point, with $89,000 coming after Election Day. Its officials — including president Eddie Deck and vice president Gary Uher, both of whom are retired FBI agents — were seen policing the crowds at Trump rallies throughout the campaign, as well as during the post-election "Thank You Tour." The pair — combined with XMark and a retired New York City cop named Michael Sharkey, who also is associated with the company — have been paid nearly $579,000 and counting by the campaign. Trump transition team sources say the thank you rallies are being funded by Trump’s campaign committee, but that Trump, as president, might headline rallies funded and organized by a still-in-the-works outside group that will be able to accept huge donations unbound by federal campaign limits. While Trump’s Saturday rally in Mobile, Alabama, was the last one scheduled on the tour, he hinted to the crowd that he intends to resume the rallies as president. “This is the last time I’ll be speaking at a rally for maybe a while. You know, they’re saying as president he shouldn’t be doing rallies, but I think we should, right?” he said, prompting loud applause. “We’ve done everything else the opposite. Well, no, this is the way you get an honest word out, because you can’t give it to [he press] because they’re so dishonest.” If Trump’s team continues funding the rallies using private money, it would have the right to “decide who can attend their events, including which opinions or speech they deem acceptable by attendees,” said Lee Rowland, a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union. She co-wrote a post in March on the ACLU’s website bemoaning that the removal of protesters of color from this year’s presidential campaign rallies is “certainly not what we want our democracy to look like.” Nonetheless, Rowland told POLITICO that as long as Trump’s campaign or an outside group “organizes and sets the rules for a private event, and a politician, including the president, is an invited guest, then the host can decide whether and when to revoke attendees’ invitations. That would make them trespassers and allow them to be legally removed.” If the rallies were funded or organized by the government, on the other hand, then only law enforcement could identify protesters for ejection and actually remove them, and only then for breaking the law, she said. Trump’s private security team has taken full advantage of that latitude, and Deck, who appears to be the leader of the rally security unit, has served as the point of the spear. Deck, a buff 62-year-old who at various times took to wearing street clothes to blend into rally crowds so he could sleuth out protesters, has drawn repeated complaints about excessive force and ejecting people solely because they don’t look like Trump supporters. At an April rally in Harrington, Delaware, Deck was captured on video calling for assistance from Delaware state troopers to remove two young African-Americans separately. When one, Anwar Dyer, protested “I didn’t say anything,” Deck responded “I don’t care. You’re leaving. You’re leaving. And if you don’t leave, you’re gonna get hooked up, and I know you don’t want to get hooked up.” A college student who attended a Trump rally in Tucson, Arizona, in March told POLITICO that Deck “grabbed my arm and angrily pulled me through the crowd,” adding: “I genuinely believe I was kicked out because I am transgender.” At an August rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, Deck removed an 18-year-old Indian-American Trump supporter named Jake Anantha, who Deck accused of having protested at past Trump rallies. Anantha, a registered Republican who was wearing a Trump shirt, later complained to The Charlotte Observer, “Why are all these white people allowed to attend and I’m not?” Messages left for Albracht and at XMark email and phone numbers were not returned. And it was not clear whether they would continue working with Trump’s security team in any rallies he might do as president. Henry Brousseau — who alleges that he was punched in the stomach by Trump supporters after shouting “Black Lives Matter” at a March rally in Louisville, Kentucky — said Trump’s security “did not seem to be interested at all in public safety. They were there to keep the rally on message. They were being speech police.” Brousseau, who was a high school senior at the time, and two fellow protesters were ejected. And now they’re suing Trump and his campaign, as well as the convention center for failing to provide adequate security, while also claiming that Trump’s calls to “get 'em out” were “calculated to incite violence against the plaintiffs.” Brousseau said “it is a pattern of silencing his opponents" that is "unpresidential, undemocratic and un-American.” Another lawsuit was filed three weeks before the election, in part by an African-American man who alleges he was punched, kicked and called racial slurs by Trump supporters at a November 2015 Trump rally in Birmingham, even after security arrived on the scene — all while Trump yelled “get him the hell out of here!” It calls on Trump’s campaign, the convention center and the city of Birmingham “to pay for damages, institute new procedures for security and issue a public apology to those who attended the rally in question and to the residents of Birmingham.” A third lawsuit alleges that Schiller, Deck, Uher and two other Trump security officers assaulted a handful of protesters during a raucous protest outside the campaign’s Manhattan headquarters in September. In an affidavit in the case, Schiller acknowledged that he struck one of the protesters in the head. But he says that was because he felt the protester “physically grab me from behind and also felt that person’s hand on my firearm, which was strapped on the right side of my rib cage in a body holster. Based on my years of training, I instinctively reacted by turning around in one movement and striking the person with my open hand.” The protesters’ lawyers deposed Schiller, Deck and Uher in the days leading up to the Grand Rapids rally. The judge in June ruled that Trump would not have to provide a deposition in the case, despite the assertion by the protesters’ lawyers that “Trump has had a substantial role in bringing about violence on the part of his security guards.”

– Donald Trump says he's giving up his business, but he has no plans to give up his private security team when he enters the White House next month, reports Politico. Though he'll have the Secret Service at his disposal, Trump will keep at least part of his private force of retired police officers and FBI agents, according to insiders. Politico notes the move will be "unprecedented," as no president has ever maintained a private security force while in office. In fact, no president-elect has maintained such a force after Election Day. Trump, of course, is the exception to the latter, and continues to employ a security detail led by retired New York City cop Keith Schiller—seen escorting protesters from rallies—whom Trump hired as a bodyguard in 1999. But insiders suggest that Schiller's role goes beyond simple protection and also includes acting as an informal adviser and gatekeeper to Trump, with a former campaign aide calling him "the most important man no one has ever heard of." "He knows all the players, all the properties. He has the confidence of Trump and of the family. To describe him as a body guy would be very, very beneath the role that he actually plays," a transition official says. A former Secret Service agent says a private security team "increases the Service's liability, it creates greater confusion and it creates greater risk." But a Trump rep downplayed concerns Monday while confirming that Schiller will remain close to Trump, noting the Politico story is "blowing [the issue] out of proportion," per the Huffington Post.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Add a location to your Tweets When you tweet with a location, Twitter stores that location. You can switch location on/off before each Tweet and always have the option to delete your location history. Learn more ||||| Presidential Transition Trump private security force ‘playing with fire’ The president-elect continues to employ a battalion of retired cops and FBI agents to protect him and clamp down on protesters. GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — President-elect Donald Trump has continued employing a private security and intelligence team at his victory rallies, and he is expected to keep at least some members of the team after he becomes president, according to people familiar with the plans. The arrangement represents a major break from tradition. All modern presidents and presidents-elect have entrusted their personal security entirely to the Secret Service, and their event security mostly to local law enforcement, according to presidential security experts and Secret Service sources. Story Continued Below But Trump — who puts a premium on loyalty and has demonstrated great interest in having forceful security at his events — has opted to maintain an aggressive and unprecedented private security force, led by Keith Schiller, a retired New York City cop and Navy veteran who started working for Trump in 1999 as a part-time bodyguard, eventually rising to become his head of security. Security officials warn that employing private security personnel heightens risks for the president-elect and his team, as well as for protesters, dozens of whom have alleged racial profiling, undue force or aggression at the hands of Trump’s security, with at least 10 joining a trio of lawsuits now pending against Trump, his campaign or its security. “It’s playing with fire,” said Jonathan Wackrow, a former Secret Service agent who worked on President Barack Obama’s protective detail during his 2012 reelection campaign. Having a private security team working events with Secret Service “increases the Service’s liability, it creates greater confusion and it creates greater risk,” Wackrow said. “You never want to commingle a police function with a private security function,” he said, adding, “If you talk to the guys on the detail and the guys who are running the rallies, that’s been a little bit difficult because it’s so abnormal.” Wackrow, who left the Secret Service in 2014 and is now executive director of a security company called RANE (short for Risk Assistance Network + Exchange), said if he were the lead agent at a Trump rally, “I wouldn’t allow it.” But he suggested it’s a tricky situation for the Secret Service. “What are they going to do, pick a fight with the president-elect and his advisers? That’s not a way to start a romance.” Several past presidential nominees have used private security or, in the case of governors running for president, state police details. But the experts could not think of another example of a president-elect continuing with any private security after Election Day, when Secret Service protection expands dramatically for the winner. In fact, most candidates drop any outside security the moment they’re granted Secret Service protection. Trump’s spending on private security, on the other hand, actually increased after he was granted Secret Service protection in November 2015. Through the end of last month, Trump’s campaign had spent more than $1 million on private security contracting, compared with $360,000 spent by the campaign of his vanquished Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton, according to Federal Election Commission reports. That’s despite the fact that every other aspect of her campaign operation dwarfed his. Overall, her campaign outspent his by nearly 75 percent. Whereas Clinton’s security spending — like that of most presidential campaigns — went mostly to protection for her offices and payments to local law enforcement or security companies for ad hoc event security, Trump’s campaign took it to a whole different level. It built a robust private security force that traveled the country supplementing the protective personal security supplied by the Secret Service, and working to identify and remove possible protesters — or just people Trump and his allies had a bad feeling about — from his events. The private security team has been present at each of the seven rallies on Trump’s post-election “Thank You Tour” and has removed protesters — sometimes roughly — at many stops. That included about a dozen protesters during a rally here on Dec. 9 in a minor-league arena called the Deltaplex, where Trump mostly shrugged off the interruptions until he became impatient with a particularly disruptive protester. “Get ‘em out!” the president-elect instructed his private security. That appeared to spur Trump’s security director, Schiller, to venture away from the stage, where he arrived with Trump, and wade deep into the crowd to assist other private security personnel with the removal. Before the end of the rally, Schiller returned to his place by Trump’s side, along with a Secret Service contingent of which he is often misidentified as a member. (Despite being — at 58 years old — significantly older than most agents, Schiller looks the part, invariably sporting a uniform of dark suits and white shirts, along with a Secret Service-issued perimeter pin, and maintaining an athletic 6-foot-4-inch, 210-pound frame.) Together, the entourage accompanied Trump back to the airport, onto his plane and back to New York. It was the same routine as Schiller and Trump repeated countless times during the campaign, and it likely will be repeated countless more times over the coming years, since Schiller is expected to follow Trump into the White House, according to multiple sources on the transition team. In interviews with about a dozen people who interact with Trump, they said even as the president-elect’s Secret Service detail has expanded significantly since the election, he remains most comfortable with Schiller and his team. A native of New Paltz, New York, and father of two, Schiller has been director of security for The Trump Organization since 2004. The Trump associates say Schiller is expected to become a personal White House aide who would serve as the incoming president’s full-time physical gatekeeper, though he might not be able to offer his boss the wide range of services he has in the past. For instance, federal law prohibits anyone other than law enforcement officers from bringing firearms into federal buildings, and there are even stricter rules about who can carry on the White House grounds or around Secret Service protectees. Schiller had been armed at times early in the campaign, but it’s unclear whether he continued carrying a firearm after Trump was granted Secret Service protection. Even after the arrival of Trump’s Secret Service detail, which typically marks the end of any pre-existing security arrangement, Schiller never strayed from his boss’ side. The associates say Schiller provides more than just security. Trump has been known to ask Schiller’s opinion on all manner of subjects. When people want to reach Trump, they often call Schiller’s cellphone and he decides who gets through to the boss. Photos often show Schiller looming over Trump’s shoulder as he works crowds, standing sentry by the stage as Trump speaks, or ejecting protesters from rallies. He’s developed a small but avid fan base on Twitter, where Trump supporters cheer Schiller’s confrontations with protesters, pose for selfies with him at events and backstage, and praise him as a brave “American Eagle” who kept Trump “safe & sound.” And Schiller, a registered Republican, showed signs of reveling in Trump’s campaign, creating his own Twitter account just before the first primaries to promote the campaign and chronicle his unique perspective from the trail. He occasionally channeled his boss’ attacks on rivals like Ted Cruz (“Wow Lyin Ted is becoming unhinged! So sad...,” he tweeted as Trump was clinching the GOP nomination over the Texas senator) and spread false claims about Democrats, including that 20 percent of Clinton’s campaign cash came from people who were responsible for the September 2001 terrorist attacks, that a grand jury had been convened to investigate her use of a private email server for State Department business and that Obama encouraged undocumented immigrants to vote illegally. Yet Schiller mostly remains — as one former campaign aide put it — “the most important man no one has ever heard of.” That influence comes from Schiller’s ability to essentially control access to Trump, acting as his liaison to everyone from staff and well-wishers to dignitaries — and even Secret Service agents. “Keith is kind of a consigliere,” said a transition team official. “He knows all the players, all the properties. He has the confidence of Trump and of the family. To describe him as a body guy would be very, very beneath the role that he actually plays.” A younger aide — possibly the campaign’s trip director John McEntee — likely will be tapped for the traditional body man valet-like role, while Schiller would fill a new type of a hybrid staff-security role, the official explained. “Keith knows Trump inside and out. He knows when he turns right and when it turns left,” the official said. Yet Schiller’s tight relationship with — and protectiveness of — his boss has already complicated the Secret Service’s rigid protection protocols, say allies of the agency and independent security experts. In March, when a 32-year-old man jumped a barricade and rushed toward the stage as Trump was speaking at a rally in Dayton, Ohio, Secret Service agents immediately descended on Trump from opposite sides of the dais, encircling him in a human shield as a handful of other agents tackled the man before he could leap onto the stage. About a second after the first two agents reached Trump, Schiller leapt onto the stage and moved to position himself between the scrum and his boss. The response appeared tightly choreographed to the untrained eye — a phalanx of men in dark suits and close-cropped hair swarming to protect their charge. But in law enforcement circles, Schiller’s reaction was panned as too slow and was the subject of disapproving conversation among agents, according to a law enforcement source briefed on the conversations. The source said one agent described Schiller as the “JV trying to keep up in a varsity game.” Specifically, the source said that Schiller came from a position on the dais that the agents would have used to evacuate Trump if that were to have been necessary. “If that happened, they would have run right into Keith. He was about three seconds too late,” the source said. Joe Funk, a former Secret Service agent who worked several presidential campaigns, said agents throughout their careers are “trained nonstop to react to different situations based on your position and distance from the protectee in what they call AOP, or assaults on the principal.” That includes intensive drilling as a detail before being deployed to protect a presidential candidate or president “to familiarize yourself with the people who you are going to be working with.” Stressing that he wasn’t assessing the response to the Dayton incident, Funk said “without any slight to Keith or to any of the guys on his team, they just haven’t had the opportunity to go through the Secret Service training that would allow them to respond to a situation like a Secret Service agent would.” Since retiring from the Secret Service in 2005, Funk has provided private security for presidential candidates, including Obama in the early stages of the 2008 campaign and Mitt Romney in 2012. In both those cases, he said that when the Secret Service took over, he almost immediately stepped aside. “My assignment was over. That was it.” So Funk said that he was “very surprised,” while providing security for Jeb Bush’s 2016 campaign, to witness firsthand Trump’s “composite detail” including the Service and private security at multicandidate events during the primary. “I was under the impression that at some point this would be weeded out,” or that the private security would revert to more of a traditional staff role, said Funk, who is senior vice president at a private security firm called TorchStone Global. As for why that appears not to have occurred, Funk said “there may be a very good reason for it, but as a layperson on the outside looking in, I’m just kind of scratching my head. In my experience, this is unprecedented.” Agents and their associates told POLITICO that Schiller and his team initially bristled at the Secret Service’s move to take the lead, and that the continued presence of the private security brigade at events has caused tension and in some cases gotten in the way of the Secret Service’s protocols. During the campaign, Schiller and his team could be seen at rallies appearing to direct Secret Service agents, local police and employees of security companies hired for specific events. Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks declined to respond to a series of questions about the private security officials, who is paying them, their relationship with the Secret Service, whether they’re armed and what their roles will be after inauguration. Instead, she said in a statement, “Trump rallies are incredibly safe events and are executed with support from USSS, local law enforcement and private security to ensure the safety and enjoyment of all guests in attendance. For further details please reach out to the USSS.” Secret Service spokeswoman Nicole Mainor issued a statement saying, “The Secret Service does not provide information regarding our protective operations,” and referring to a section of the U.S. Code that outlines the agency’s obligations to protect the president-elect. As for the agency’s relationship with Trump’s security personnel and whether the Service has asked Trump to dial back his security or whether the security carry firearms, Mainor responded only: “The individuals you are referring to are staff personnel.” Schiller did not respond to requests for comment. In a little-noticed video interview recorded in Trump Tower less than two months after then-candidate Trump was granted Secret Service protection, Schiller said his team had “a great working relationship” with the Secret Service. “They bring their own set of assets, which is right now, we can use everything we can get, as far as the way the world is right now, and the campaign in itself. It’s inherently a risky business every day,” Schiller said in the interview, which was posted in January of this year. But he also noted that he had received “some dignitary protection training through the Secret Service” when he was on the New York City police force, and he touted the capacity of the private security team he oversees. “We have the best assets money can buy, I can assure you of that, as far as protecting him, his family and his property,” Schiller told the interviewer, Rich Siegel, one of his childhood buddies from New Paltz. Schiller explained that he has “more than a dozen people” working for him. While he said that “I’m no stranger to putting my hands on people,” thanks to his days in the New York City Police Department’s narcotics units, he added, “Things are different right now. I hire big guys who do all the fighting.” The identities and numbers of the employees who constitute Trump’s private security operation — as well as other details — are not entirely clear. That’s partly because at least some of the costs — including Schiller’s salary at one point in the campaign — appeared to be split between The Trump Organization corporate structure and Trump’s presidential campaign, and also because the campaign paid many of its security officials, including several who continued working for Trump after the election, through opaque corporate structures. Schiller himself was paid $181,000 for campaign work from July 2015 through mid-November, according to FEC filings, with some of it coming in the form of in-kind payments, likely indicating money paid to Schiller by The Trump Organization, and possibly reimbursed by Trump personally. The campaign also paid $50,000 for “security services” during the second half of the year to a company called KS Global Group LLC. While the company, which was registered anonymously in Delaware in October 2015, bears Schiller’s initials, neither he nor the Trump transition team would comment on who is behind it. Another company, Black Tie Protection Services, which a Trump campaign operative said is linked to Schiller’s team, was paid more than $106,000 in the final four months of the campaign. And the campaign paid $28,000 for security services to a company called ASIT Consulting, which is owned by a 62-year-old former FBI agent named Don Albracht, who has been known to film and occasionally taunt protesters. But by far the biggest recipient of Trump security cash is a company called XMark LLC, which boasts on its website that its employees have expertise in surveillance, “close quarter battle” and “tactical shooting skills" and that the firm “provided all PPD [personal protection detail] for Mr. Trump’s campaign travel to include all advance work and coordination with local law enforcement agencies, in support, throughout the country, until being relieved by the United States Secret Service in mid-November of 2015.” Yet the company continued receiving payments from Trump’s campaign after that point, with $89,000 coming after Election Day. Its officials — including president Eddie Deck and vice president Gary Uher, both of whom are retired FBI agents — were seen policing the crowds at Trump rallies throughout the campaign, as well as during the post-election "Thank You Tour." The pair — combined with XMark and a retired New York City cop named Michael Sharkey, who also is associated with the company — have been paid nearly $579,000 and counting by the campaign. Trump transition team sources say the thank you rallies are being funded by Trump’s campaign committee, but that Trump, as president, might headline rallies funded and organized by a still-in-the-works outside group that will be able to accept huge donations unbound by federal campaign limits. While Trump’s Saturday rally in Mobile, Alabama, was the last one scheduled on the tour, he hinted to the crowd that he intends to resume the rallies as president. “This is the last time I’ll be speaking at a rally for maybe a while. You know, they’re saying as president he shouldn’t be doing rallies, but I think we should, right?” he said, prompting loud applause. “We’ve done everything else the opposite. Well, no, this is the way you get an honest word out, because you can’t give it to [he press] because they’re so dishonest.” If Trump’s team continues funding the rallies using private money, it would have the right to “decide who can attend their events, including which opinions or speech they deem acceptable by attendees,” said Lee Rowland, a senior staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union. She co-wrote a post in March on the ACLU’s website bemoaning that the removal of protesters of color from this year’s presidential campaign rallies is “certainly not what we want our democracy to look like.” Nonetheless, Rowland told POLITICO that as long as Trump’s campaign or an outside group “organizes and sets the rules for a private event, and a politician, including the president, is an invited guest, then the host can decide whether and when to revoke attendees’ invitations. That would make them trespassers and allow them to be legally removed.” If the rallies were funded or organized by the government, on the other hand, then only law enforcement could identify protesters for ejection and actually remove them, and only then for breaking the law, she said. Trump’s private security team has taken full advantage of that latitude, and Deck, who appears to be the leader of the rally security unit, has served as the point of the spear. Deck, a buff 62-year-old who at various times took to wearing street clothes to blend into rally crowds so he could sleuth out protesters, has drawn repeated complaints about excessive force and ejecting people solely because they don’t look like Trump supporters. At an April rally in Harrington, Delaware, Deck was captured on video calling for assistance from Delaware state troopers to remove two young African-Americans separately. When one, Anwar Dyer, protested “I didn’t say anything,” Deck responded “I don’t care. You’re leaving. You’re leaving. And if you don’t leave, you’re gonna get hooked up, and I know you don’t want to get hooked up.” A college student who attended a Trump rally in Tucson, Arizona, in March told POLITICO that Deck “grabbed my arm and angrily pulled me through the crowd,” adding: “I genuinely believe I was kicked out because I am transgender.” At an August rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, Deck removed an 18-year-old Indian-American Trump supporter named Jake Anantha, who Deck accused of having protested at past Trump rallies. Anantha, a registered Republican who was wearing a Trump shirt, later complained to The Charlotte Observer, “Why are all these white people allowed to attend and I’m not?” Messages left for Albracht and at XMark email and phone numbers were not returned. And it was not clear whether they would continue working with Trump’s security team in any rallies he might do as president. Henry Brousseau — who alleges that he was punched in the stomach by Trump supporters after shouting “Black Lives Matter” at a March rally in Louisville, Kentucky — said Trump’s security “did not seem to be interested at all in public safety. They were there to keep the rally on message. They were being speech police.” Brousseau, who was a high school senior at the time, and two fellow protesters were ejected. And now they’re suing Trump and his campaign, as well as the convention center for failing to provide adequate security, while also claiming that Trump’s calls to “get 'em out” were “calculated to incite violence against the plaintiffs.” Brousseau said “it is a pattern of silencing his opponents" that is "unpresidential, undemocratic and un-American.” Another lawsuit was filed three weeks before the election, in part by an African-American man who alleges he was punched, kicked and called racial slurs by Trump supporters at a November 2015 Trump rally in Birmingham, even after security arrived on the scene — all while Trump yelled “get him the hell out of here!” It calls on Trump’s campaign, the convention center and the city of Birmingham “to pay for damages, institute new procedures for security and issue a public apology to those who attended the rally in question and to the residents of Birmingham.” A third lawsuit alleges that Schiller, Deck, Uher and two other Trump security officers assaulted a handful of protesters during a raucous protest outside the campaign’s Manhattan headquarters in September. In an affidavit in the case, Schiller acknowledged that he struck one of the protesters in the head. But he says that was because he felt the protester “physically grab me from behind and also felt that person’s hand on my firearm, which was strapped on the right side of my rib cage in a body holster. Based on my years of training, I instinctively reacted by turning around in one movement and striking the person with my open hand.” The protesters’ lawyers deposed Schiller, Deck and Uher in the days leading up to the Grand Rapids rally. The judge in June ruled that Trump would not have to provide a deposition in the case, despite the assertion by the protesters’ lawyers that “Trump has had a substantial role in bringing about violence on the part of his security guards.”

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Follow CBSMIAMI.COM: Facebook | Twitter NORTH MIAMI (CBSMiami) — The parents of an infant who died shortly after birth and was discovered tossed in a North Miami dumpster has been awarded $28 million after a funeral home was found negligent in the transfer of the child. Police said a homeless man found the dead child while he was rummaging through the trash behind a U-Gas station at 5235 N.W. 7th Avenue on Sept. 5, 2014. Later that day, the son of the funeral home owner, Jarren Hood, was arrested. He works for Carey Royal Ram’n Funeral Home and told police that someone broke into his van and stole the box carrying the child while he was delivering him to the crematorium. In 2015, Hood was found negligent for misconduct in the transportation of the baby and the funeral home was fined for breaking state law, according to CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald. Hood, however, was only charged with resisting arrest. At the civil trial, no one from the funeral home appeared. ||||| The seed for Wide00014 was: - Slash pages from every domain on the web: -- a ranking of all URLs that have more than one incoming inter-domain link (rank was determined by number of incoming links using Wide00012 inter domain links) -- up to a maximum of 100 most highly ranked URLs per domain - Top ranked pages (up to a max of 100) from every linked-to domain using the Wide00012 inter-domain navigational link graph ||||| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.

– Catheryne Lucero and Raul Manzano thought the body of their infant son, who died soon after his birth on Sept. 1, 2014, was being cremated. Instead, his remains ended up in a dumpster behind a gas station in North Miami, Fla., four days later. Now the couple have been awarded $28 million after a jury determined that the Carey Royal Ram'n Mortuary was negligent in its transport of the child's body, CBS Miami reports. A homeless man searching for food amid the trash found the baby in a cardboard box. A toe tag provided police with "a big clue," the Miami Herald reported at the time, as it suggested the boy had been dead for some time and perhaps came from a funeral home. The discovery was heavily covered by the media, and "the really bad part is the parents had been watching the reports ... and were thinking what a tragedy this is," Neal Hirschfeld, their lawyer in the civil trial, tells the Miami Herald. "They were so distraught." Shortly after the baby was found, Jarren Hood, son of the funeral home owner, told the police that he was supposed to take the body to the crematorium but went home instead; someone then stole the box from his van. A state panel in May found that Hood "committed negligence, incompetency, or misconduct" during the transport, and the funeral home, which is still in operation, was fined, per Hirschfeld. Hood was charged only with resisting arrest in the incident. (Another funeral home laid out the wrong body.)

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Follow CBSMIAMI.COM: Facebook | Twitter NORTH MIAMI (CBSMiami) — The parents of an infant who died shortly after birth and was discovered tossed in a North Miami dumpster has been awarded $28 million after a funeral home was found negligent in the transfer of the child. Police said a homeless man found the dead child while he was rummaging through the trash behind a U-Gas station at 5235 N.W. 7th Avenue on Sept. 5, 2014. Later that day, the son of the funeral home owner, Jarren Hood, was arrested. He works for Carey Royal Ram’n Funeral Home and told police that someone broke into his van and stole the box carrying the child while he was delivering him to the crematorium. In 2015, Hood was found negligent for misconduct in the transportation of the baby and the funeral home was fined for breaking state law, according to CBS4 news partner The Miami Herald. Hood, however, was only charged with resisting arrest. At the civil trial, no one from the funeral home appeared. ||||| The seed for Wide00014 was: - Slash pages from every domain on the web: -- a ranking of all URLs that have more than one incoming inter-domain link (rank was determined by number of incoming links using Wide00012 inter domain links) -- up to a maximum of 100 most highly ranked URLs per domain - Top ranked pages (up to a max of 100) from every linked-to domain using the Wide00012 inter-domain navigational link graph ||||| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

For a candidate competing in the Democratic nomination process, opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline is a relatively simple decision. That Hillary Clinton finally announced hers on Tuesday -- apparently taking strategic advantage of the attention being lavished on the arrival of Pope Francis to bury the news after long punting on this issue -- says something significant about how she sees her position for 2016. The long-stalled pipeline became a focal point of fierce environmental opposition several years ago, thanks to the amount of tar sands oil it would transport. Tar sands oil requires more processing than other forms of oil and therefore, studies have found, produces more of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. Since the pipeline would cross the U.S.-Canada border, it requires approval from the executive branch. The first permit approval fell to then-Secretary of State Clinton's State Department, where it languished. President Obama rejected the permit in early 2012, prompting the company behind the pipeline to revamp its plans and try again. In a March 2015 poll, Fox News found that the majority of Americans who had an opinion about the pipeline objected to Obama's opposition. But there was a strong partisan split: 69 percent of Republicans favored approving the permit, and 56 percent of Democrats favored the veto. That mirrors Pew findings from last year, showing that liberals opposed the pipeline most strongly. In this Aug. 6, 2015, photo, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton listens to a home care worker during a roundtable discussion on home care in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) Addressing environmental challenges, as it turns out, is one of the most partisan issues before government. Eighty-nine percent of liberal Democrats believe the effects of warming are happening or will happen in their lifetimes, and 81 percent accept that human activity is the primary cause. Only two-thirds of moderate Democrats, by contrast, agree that human activity is to blame for climate change. There's something else that moderate and liberal Democrats disagree on: Who should be the Democratic nominee for president. In CNN/ORC's most recent poll, released earlier this week, Clinton's standing improved over that of Bernie Sanders, but she still faces stronger opposition among liberals than among more moderate members of her party. Similarly, Pew polling has shown less-liberal Democrat-leaning groups are significantly less opposed -- and actually, pretty clearly in favor of -- the Keystone pipeline. In other words, the group with which Clinton is doing worse more strongly believes that people are causing climate change and more strongly opposes Keystone XL. The politics explain themselves. Unless you're looking ahead to a national election. For months, Clinton has balked at saying how she feels about Keystone, which could easily be interpreted as not wanting to take a stand -- and hoping the issue would go away before the election arrived. Given that a plurality of Americans oppose blocking the pipeline -- being less concerned about climate effects and supporting the jobs it would create -- opposing the pipeline might make a general election fight slightly harder. But that's the lesson: Clinton is now willing to make her November case slightly more difficult if she can make her spring fight easier. Why did Clinton oppose it? Here's what she said. Here is what Hillary Clinton said as she came out against the Keystone XL pipeline. (h/t @betsy_klein) pic.twitter.com/iVzU07U12o — Dan Merica (@danmericaCNN) September 22, 2015 That's not an argument based on the merits; it's an argument based on expediency. And it's not really consistent. She claims to have wanted to speak out for a long time -- but then only calls it a "distraction" from "important" issues. She added that Keystone wouldn't really add many jobs, which is true, but the statement itself reads like a political decision, not a moral one. Bernie Sanders clearly recognizes the politics at play. In a statement, he made pointed reference to Clinton joining him on this issue. Clinton is late to the party on Keystone, but she's clearly interested in being where the party is. At least, the more liberal members of the party. The ones who will go to the polls in February. ||||| Add a location to your Tweets When you tweet with a location, Twitter stores that location. You can switch location on/off before each Tweet and always have the option to delete your location history. Learn more ||||| Story Highlights Majorities of other political identities believe global warming will happen soon Most conservative Republicans don't think humans cause rising temperatures WASHINGTON, D.C. -- While notable majorities of all other political party/ideology groups say the effects of global warming will happen within their lifetime, fewer than four in 10 conservative Republicans (37%) agree, a sign of that political identity's strident skepticism on this issue. Conservative Republicans not only decisively reject the notion that the effects of global warming will happen in this lifetime -- a position in sharp contrast to all other political identities -- but another 40% say global warming will never happen. This is significantly higher than the percentages of moderate/liberal Republicans (16%), non-leaning independents (14%), conservative/moderate Democrats (5%) and liberal Democrats (3%) who say the same. These results are based on an aggregate of more than 6,000 interviews conducted as part of Gallup's annual Environment poll each March from 2010 to 2015. Both party affiliation and ideological association are self-reported. The party definitions take into account both respondents' initial party preference -- as Democratic, Republican or independent -- and independents' leanings toward either party, which are ascertained in a follow-up question. Therefore, the group of "Republicans" reported here includes Republican identifiers and Republican-leaning independents. "Democrats" includes Democratic identifiers and Democratic-leaning independents, and "non-leaning independents" are the residual independents who do not lean toward either major party. Global warming views are marked by a large partisan gap; Republicans typically treat the concept and consequences of global warming with a heavy dose of skepticism, while Democrats usually express concern about global warming's impact on the environment. To a lesser but still significant extent, Americans describing their political ideology as "conservative" -- regardless of party affiliation -- tend to cast doubt on global warming and its effects, while ideological moderates and especially liberals are more apt to see the matter as a serious challenge for society. It is at the intersection of these two key components of one's political identity -- party affiliation and ideology -- where the sharpest fissures in this debate occur. Gallup has fielded a set of questions designed to measure the public's understanding, skepticism and concern about global warming, and reviewing these data by political identity reveals that for some questions a particular political identity -- in this instance, conservative Republicans -- is driving the disagreement rather than the entire political party. Majority of Conservative Republicans Say Global Warming Due to Natural Changes Policymakers fiercely contest whether global warming is principally due to human-produced pollution or to natural changes in the environment. Of the major political identities, conservative Republicans are the only group in which a clear majority (70%) attribute increasing terrestrial temperatures to natural changes in the environment. By contrast, majorities of Democrats and independents say global warming is due to effects of pollution from human activities. Moderate/liberal Republicans are split on the issue. Earlier this year, the Senate failed to pass a proposal that would have officially recognized human pollution as a cause of global warming; two of the three announced Republican presidential primary candidates -- Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio -- voted against the measure. Rand Paul was alone among the "official" GOP candidates in supporting the proposal. Liberal Democrats Alone Say Global Warming Is Serious Threat to Way of Life Similar dynamics are revealed on another Gallup question, but in an opposite direction. Nearly six in 10 liberal Democrats (58%) assess global warming as a serious threat to their way of life, a judgment not reflected in any of the alternate political identities. Less than half of conservative/moderate Democrats (46%), 35% of independents, 30% of moderate/liberal Republicans and 12% of conservative Republicans agree with this viewpoint. In this instance, then, it is the other "extreme" political identity -- liberal Democrats rather than conservative Republicans -- whose views diverge with the mainstream opinions of the other political identities. Bottom Line President Barack Obama will visit the Florida Everglades on Earth Day to discuss the threats posed to the planet by global warming, which is almost certain to draw both criticism and acclaim. But despite the political volley match, Americans have, for the last several years, reported a consistent viewpoint on this topic: A majority believe the effects of global warming have already begun to happen, and blame human activity for increases in the Earth's temperature. This stable consensus belies the sharp political divisions that have paralyzed the national government's ability to grapple with this issue, at least in a way that both Congress and the president approve of. While Obama may pursue international accords aimed at combating greenhouse gases, the Republican Congress unabashedly opposes these endeavors. In what amounts to a perfect summation of the distance between the two parties, Obama recently identified global warming as the biggest threat to future generations, while the Republican Chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, James Inhofe, has previously called global warming a "hoax." Inhofe, considered by the National Journal as one of the most conservative U.S. senators, undoubtedly represents an extreme viewpoint, just as Obama's heightened language may not accurately capture how many Americans interpret the consequences of global warming. But even as the viewpoints of Obama and Inhofe -- and politicians of a similar ideological profile to either of these two men -- might seem irreconcilable, there appears to be evidence that many Americans agree on issues related to global warming, even if a consensus is not found at the extremes of the American political/ideological spectrum. Survey Methods Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted in March of each year from 2010 to 2015, with an aggregated random sample of 6,154 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is ±1 percentage point at the 95% confidence level. For results based on the total sample of 1,073 liberal Democrats, the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. For results based on the total sample of 1,536 moderate/conservative Democrats, the margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. For results based on the total sample of 916 moderate/liberal Republicans, the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. For results based on the total sample of 1,877 conservative Republicans, the margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. All reported margins of sampling error include computed design effects for weighting. Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 50% cellphone respondents and 50% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods. Learn more about how Gallup Poll Social Series works. ||||| A mock oil pipeline is carried during a Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline demonstration near the White House in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 6, 2011. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg) President Obama is fond of telling Congress that it should pass things with the overwhelming support of the American people, including (among other things) comprehensive immigration reform, increasing the minimum wage, and increasing gun background checks. And yet, Obama could soon be in a position of vetoing something with a similar amount of support: the Keystone XL pipeline. Poll after poll has shown support for Keystone is somewhere between very strong and overwhelming. A Pew Research Center survey this month showed support for the project at nearly two-to-one, 59 percent to 31 percent. And that was about the lowest level of support we've seen to date. Support has registered as high as two-thirds of Americans. And as another recent Pew poll showed, it's not just Republicans and independents driving support for the project. In fact, basically the only group that opposes it is the most liberal of Democrats. According to Pew's breakdown from June, three of the four Democratic-leaning groups -- including religious Democrats, young Democrats and the most moderate Democratic leaners -- all supported the project two-to-one. Which is a long way of saying that Obama would likely have very few supporters were he to wield his veto pen, as the White House suggests he will following votes by the House and Senate -- which by all indications will approve the bill. The White House, if it does veto the bill, will apparently argue that it can't approve it before the lengthy State Department review of the project's environmental impact is complete -- along with a Supreme Court case in Nebraska concerning a key part of the pipeline's route. That's fine, but it still remains that a strong majority of Americans are pretty keen on getting the pipeline done. The question from there is how strongly Americans feel. On issues like the raising the minimum wage and increasing background checks, support is overwhelming but soft, and the opposition is often louder than the proponents, despite being a small minority. Which means there is little outcry when Congress doesn't comply with public opinion. On Keystone, a March Washington Post-ABC News poll showed 62 percent of American believed "strongly" that the project would create a significant number of jobs -- though we would note that the vast majority of the jobs would be temporary -- while just 28 percent "strongly" believed that it would pose significant risks to the environment. The first thing to know about the Keystone pipeline? It already exists. Here's a breakdown of the pipeline's various parts. (Gillian Brockell, Jhaan Elker and Kate M. Tobey/The Washington Post) Obama has only vetoed two pieces of legislation so far in his presidency. Such is the benefit of controlling one of chambers of Congress (the Senate) for all six years. Republicans hope having control of both chambers will mean, rather than the Senate effectively vetoing bills from the GOP-controlled House by not voting on them, they will be able to put the decision in Obama's hands, at which point public pressure on something like Keystone could be brought to bear. And it looks like Obama will quickly be forced into making one of his toughest veto decisions -- at least when it comes to the court of public opinion.

– Take a step back from the general election, but take two steps forward toward the Democratic primary. That seems to be the strategy behind Hillary Clinton's announcement yesterday that she opposed the Keystone XL pipeline, writes Philip Bump for the Washington Post, asserting that Clinton may have purposely timed her anti-pipeline statements to lure liberal Democrats who've been more amenable to competitor Bernie Sanders, per CNN/ORC polling—even if those Dems may not be the ones to push her over the top in November 2016. "The politics explain themselves," Bump writes. "Clinton is now willing to make her November case slightly more difficult if she can make her spring fight easier." According to a Gallup poll cited by the Post, while only 67% of moderate and conservative Democrats believe global warming is caused by human activity, a more substantial number—81%—of liberal Democrats think that's the case. And because of environmental concerns swirling around the pipeline, it may make political sense for Clinton to bring that up now to pull liberal Democrats in—even though polls from late last year and earlier this year show that support among Americans overall for the Keystone project is strong, Bump notes. And Sanders knows what's the what, he adds, welcoming her to the opposition party yesterday in a tweet. "Clinton is late to the party on Keystone, but she's clearly interested in being where the party is," Bump writes. Click for his full column.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.For a candidate competing in the Democratic nomination process, opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline is a relatively simple decision. That Hillary Clinton finally announced hers on Tuesday -- apparently taking strategic advantage of the attention being lavished on the arrival of Pope Francis to bury the news after long punting on this issue -- says something significant about how she sees her position for 2016. The long-stalled pipeline became a focal point of fierce environmental opposition several years ago, thanks to the amount of tar sands oil it would transport. Tar sands oil requires more processing than other forms of oil and therefore, studies have found, produces more of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. Since the pipeline would cross the U.S.-Canada border, it requires approval from the executive branch. The first permit approval fell to then-Secretary of State Clinton's State Department, where it languished. President Obama rejected the permit in early 2012, prompting the company behind the pipeline to revamp its plans and try again. In a March 2015 poll, Fox News found that the majority of Americans who had an opinion about the pipeline objected to Obama's opposition. But there was a strong partisan split: 69 percent of Republicans favored approving the permit, and 56 percent of Democrats favored the veto. That mirrors Pew findings from last year, showing that liberals opposed the pipeline most strongly. In this Aug. 6, 2015, photo, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton listens to a home care worker during a roundtable discussion on home care in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) Addressing environmental challenges, as it turns out, is one of the most partisan issues before government. Eighty-nine percent of liberal Democrats believe the effects of warming are happening or will happen in their lifetimes, and 81 percent accept that human activity is the primary cause. Only two-thirds of moderate Democrats, by contrast, agree that human activity is to blame for climate change. There's something else that moderate and liberal Democrats disagree on: Who should be the Democratic nominee for president. In CNN/ORC's most recent poll, released earlier this week, Clinton's standing improved over that of Bernie Sanders, but she still faces stronger opposition among liberals than among more moderate members of her party. Similarly, Pew polling has shown less-liberal Democrat-leaning groups are significantly less opposed -- and actually, pretty clearly in favor of -- the Keystone pipeline. In other words, the group with which Clinton is doing worse more strongly believes that people are causing climate change and more strongly opposes Keystone XL. The politics explain themselves. Unless you're looking ahead to a national election. For months, Clinton has balked at saying how she feels about Keystone, which could easily be interpreted as not wanting to take a stand -- and hoping the issue would go away before the election arrived. Given that a plurality of Americans oppose blocking the pipeline -- being less concerned about climate effects and supporting the jobs it would create -- opposing the pipeline might make a general election fight slightly harder. But that's the lesson: Clinton is now willing to make her November case slightly more difficult if she can make her spring fight easier. Why did Clinton oppose it? Here's what she said. Here is what Hillary Clinton said as she came out against the Keystone XL pipeline. (h/t @betsy_klein) pic.twitter.com/iVzU07U12o — Dan Merica (@danmericaCNN) September 22, 2015 That's not an argument based on the merits; it's an argument based on expediency. And it's not really consistent. She claims to have wanted to speak out for a long time -- but then only calls it a "distraction" from "important" issues. She added that Keystone wouldn't really add many jobs, which is true, but the statement itself reads like a political decision, not a moral one. Bernie Sanders clearly recognizes the politics at play. In a statement, he made pointed reference to Clinton joining him on this issue. Clinton is late to the party on Keystone, but she's clearly interested in being where the party is. At least, the more liberal members of the party. The ones who will go to the polls in February. ||||| Add a location to your Tweets When you tweet with a location, Twitter stores that location. You can switch location on/off before each Tweet and always have the option to delete your location history. Learn more ||||| Story Highlights Majorities of other political identities believe global warming will happen soon Most conservative Republicans don't think humans cause rising temperatures WASHINGTON, D.C. -- While notable majorities of all other political party/ideology groups say the effects of global warming will happen within their lifetime, fewer than four in 10 conservative Republicans (37%) agree, a sign of that political identity's strident skepticism on this issue. Conservative Republicans not only decisively reject the notion that the effects of global warming will happen in this lifetime -- a position in sharp contrast to all other political identities -- but another 40% say global warming will never happen. This is significantly higher than the percentages of moderate/liberal Republicans (16%), non-leaning independents (14%), conservative/moderate Democrats (5%) and liberal Democrats (3%) who say the same. These results are based on an aggregate of more than 6,000 interviews conducted as part of Gallup's annual Environment poll each March from 2010 to 2015. Both party affiliation and ideological association are self-reported. The party definitions take into account both respondents' initial party preference -- as Democratic, Republican or independent -- and independents' leanings toward either party, which are ascertained in a follow-up question. Therefore, the group of "Republicans" reported here includes Republican identifiers and Republican-leaning independents. "Democrats" includes Democratic identifiers and Democratic-leaning independents, and "non-leaning independents" are the residual independents who do not lean toward either major party. Global warming views are marked by a large partisan gap; Republicans typically treat the concept and consequences of global warming with a heavy dose of skepticism, while Democrats usually express concern about global warming's impact on the environment. To a lesser but still significant extent, Americans describing their political ideology as "conservative" -- regardless of party affiliation -- tend to cast doubt on global warming and its effects, while ideological moderates and especially liberals are more apt to see the matter as a serious challenge for society. It is at the intersection of these two key components of one's political identity -- party affiliation and ideology -- where the sharpest fissures in this debate occur. Gallup has fielded a set of questions designed to measure the public's understanding, skepticism and concern about global warming, and reviewing these data by political identity reveals that for some questions a particular political identity -- in this instance, conservative Republicans -- is driving the disagreement rather than the entire political party. Majority of Conservative Republicans Say Global Warming Due to Natural Changes Policymakers fiercely contest whether global warming is principally due to human-produced pollution or to natural changes in the environment. Of the major political identities, conservative Republicans are the only group in which a clear majority (70%) attribute increasing terrestrial temperatures to natural changes in the environment. By contrast, majorities of Democrats and independents say global warming is due to effects of pollution from human activities. Moderate/liberal Republicans are split on the issue. Earlier this year, the Senate failed to pass a proposal that would have officially recognized human pollution as a cause of global warming; two of the three announced Republican presidential primary candidates -- Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio -- voted against the measure. Rand Paul was alone among the "official" GOP candidates in supporting the proposal. Liberal Democrats Alone Say Global Warming Is Serious Threat to Way of Life Similar dynamics are revealed on another Gallup question, but in an opposite direction. Nearly six in 10 liberal Democrats (58%) assess global warming as a serious threat to their way of life, a judgment not reflected in any of the alternate political identities. Less than half of conservative/moderate Democrats (46%), 35% of independents, 30% of moderate/liberal Republicans and 12% of conservative Republicans agree with this viewpoint. In this instance, then, it is the other "extreme" political identity -- liberal Democrats rather than conservative Republicans -- whose views diverge with the mainstream opinions of the other political identities. Bottom Line President Barack Obama will visit the Florida Everglades on Earth Day to discuss the threats posed to the planet by global warming, which is almost certain to draw both criticism and acclaim. But despite the political volley match, Americans have, for the last several years, reported a consistent viewpoint on this topic: A majority believe the effects of global warming have already begun to happen, and blame human activity for increases in the Earth's temperature. This stable consensus belies the sharp political divisions that have paralyzed the national government's ability to grapple with this issue, at least in a way that both Congress and the president approve of. While Obama may pursue international accords aimed at combating greenhouse gases, the Republican Congress unabashedly opposes these endeavors. In what amounts to a perfect summation of the distance between the two parties, Obama recently identified global warming as the biggest threat to future generations, while the Republican Chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, James Inhofe, has previously called global warming a "hoax." Inhofe, considered by the National Journal as one of the most conservative U.S. senators, undoubtedly represents an extreme viewpoint, just as Obama's heightened language may not accurately capture how many Americans interpret the consequences of global warming. But even as the viewpoints of Obama and Inhofe -- and politicians of a similar ideological profile to either of these two men -- might seem irreconcilable, there appears to be evidence that many Americans agree on issues related to global warming, even if a consensus is not found at the extremes of the American political/ideological spectrum. Survey Methods Results for this Gallup poll are based on telephone interviews conducted in March of each year from 2010 to 2015, with an aggregated random sample of 6,154 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. For results based on the total sample of national adults, the margin of sampling error is ±1 percentage point at the 95% confidence level. For results based on the total sample of 1,073 liberal Democrats, the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. For results based on the total sample of 1,536 moderate/conservative Democrats, the margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. For results based on the total sample of 916 moderate/liberal Republicans, the margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. For results based on the total sample of 1,877 conservative Republicans, the margin of sampling error is ±3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. All reported margins of sampling error include computed design effects for weighting. Each sample of national adults includes a minimum quota of 50% cellphone respondents and 50% landline respondents, with additional minimum quotas by time zone within region. Landline and cellular telephone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods. Learn more about how Gallup Poll Social Series works. ||||| A mock oil pipeline is carried during a Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline demonstration near the White House in Washington, D.C., on Nov. 6, 2011. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg) President Obama is fond of telling Congress that it should pass things with the overwhelming support of the American people, including (among other things) comprehensive immigration reform, increasing the minimum wage, and increasing gun background checks. And yet, Obama could soon be in a position of vetoing something with a similar amount of support: the Keystone XL pipeline. Poll after poll has shown support for Keystone is somewhere between very strong and overwhelming. A Pew Research Center survey this month showed support for the project at nearly two-to-one, 59 percent to 31 percent. And that was about the lowest level of support we've seen to date. Support has registered as high as two-thirds of Americans. And as another recent Pew poll showed, it's not just Republicans and independents driving support for the project. In fact, basically the only group that opposes it is the most liberal of Democrats. According to Pew's breakdown from June, three of the four Democratic-leaning groups -- including religious Democrats, young Democrats and the most moderate Democratic leaners -- all supported the project two-to-one. Which is a long way of saying that Obama would likely have very few supporters were he to wield his veto pen, as the White House suggests he will following votes by the House and Senate -- which by all indications will approve the bill. The White House, if it does veto the bill, will apparently argue that it can't approve it before the lengthy State Department review of the project's environmental impact is complete -- along with a Supreme Court case in Nebraska concerning a key part of the pipeline's route. That's fine, but it still remains that a strong majority of Americans are pretty keen on getting the pipeline done. The question from there is how strongly Americans feel. On issues like the raising the minimum wage and increasing background checks, support is overwhelming but soft, and the opposition is often louder than the proponents, despite being a small minority. Which means there is little outcry when Congress doesn't comply with public opinion. On Keystone, a March Washington Post-ABC News poll showed 62 percent of American believed "strongly" that the project would create a significant number of jobs -- though we would note that the vast majority of the jobs would be temporary -- while just 28 percent "strongly" believed that it would pose significant risks to the environment. The first thing to know about the Keystone pipeline? It already exists. Here's a breakdown of the pipeline's various parts. (Gillian Brockell, Jhaan Elker and Kate M. Tobey/The Washington Post) Obama has only vetoed two pieces of legislation so far in his presidency. Such is the benefit of controlling one of chambers of Congress (the Senate) for all six years. Republicans hope having control of both chambers will mean, rather than the Senate effectively vetoing bills from the GOP-controlled House by not voting on them, they will be able to put the decision in Obama's hands, at which point public pressure on something like Keystone could be brought to bear. And it looks like Obama will quickly be forced into making one of his toughest veto decisions -- at least when it comes to the court of public opinion.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

FILE - In this early June 4, 1989 file photo, a student protester puts barricades in the path of an already burning armored personnel carrier that rammed through student lines during an army attack on... (Associated Press) BEIJING (AP) — China's last-known prisoner held in relation to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests will reportedly be released Saturday, but he'll face freedom a frail and mentally ill man, a rights group and a fellow former inmate said. Miao Deshun's expected release follows an 11-month sentence reduction, according to the Dui Hua Foundation, a San Francisco-based group that advocates for the rights of political prisoners in China. The 51-year-old former factory worker is severely ill after spending more than half his life behind bars, said Dui Hua's executive director, John Kamm, in an email. Tanks and troops converged in Beijing to quash pro-democracy protests on the night of June 3-4, 1989, killing hundreds, possibly thousands, of people. Authorities later jailed more than 1,600 people around the country for crimes linked to the demonstrations. Nearly three decades later, young Chinese know little of the events that marked the last major popular challenge to Communist rule in the mainland and remain a taboo. Dui Hua said in May that Miao was due to be released Saturday. The date could not be independently verified. The Ministry of Public Security and the Beijing Higher People's Court did not respond to faxed requests for comment. Miao was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve in 1989 for throwing a basket into a burning tank, an act considered arson by the court. His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 1991, and further reduced over the years. "No one other than prison officials or other prisoners in the ward for sick and disabled prisoners have seen him for many years," Kamm said. Miao suffers from hepatitis B and schizophrenia and is being held at the Yanqing Prison, a facility in a Beijing suburb that has a ward for elderly and ill prisoners, Dui Hua said. During his time at the Beijing No. 1 Prison, Miao refused to accept the charges leveled against him or sign declarations of repentance, according to a former fellow inmate, Wu Wenjian. Wu, then a factory worker, was also serving a sentence for involvement in the Tiananment protest. He spent four years in the same prison units as Miao. "As time passed, Miao became very stubborn and refused to do hard labor, refused re-education, refused to write repentance letters," Wu said in an interview. "That's why he was moved to another unit reserved for the 'diehards.'" For that, Miao often endured heavier punishments than other inmates, and prison guards frequently beat him and tortured him with electric batons, Wu said. "It is already a miracle that he is alive. We all thought he would not make it out of this," Wu said. According to Dui Hua, Miao has spent time in solitary confinement and has had no contact with the outside world for many years. He was transferred to Yanqing in 2003. China has never fully disclosed what happened when the military crushed the 1989 weeklong protests, which authorities branded a "counterrevolutionary riot." The decades since have seen breakneck economic growth and the ruling Communist Party relinquish much of its day-to-day control over many aspects of society. The party retains a tight grip on dissent that has intensified under President Xi Jinping. ___ Associated Press writer Gillian Wong contributed to this report. ||||| A rights group said the country’s last-known prisoner held in relation to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests would be released on Saturday, but he would face freedom as a frail and mentally ill man. Miao Deshun’s release follows an 11-month sentence reduction, according to the Dui Hua Foundation, a San Francisco-based group that advocates for the rights of political prisoners in China. Dui Hua executive director John Kamm said the 51-year-old former factory worker was severely ill after spending more than half his life behind bars. Voices from Tiananmen: Eyewitnesses look back to the spring of 1989 Miao’s release date could not be independently verified. The authorities did not respond to requests for comment. Troops converged in Beijing to quash pro-democracy protests on the night of June 3-4, 1989, killing hundreds of people. Miao, then 24, received a suspended death sentence for arson after he was convicted of throwing a basket at a burning tank with other four workers during the protest. His sentence was commuted to life in jail in 1991 and reduced several times afterwards. Only Beijing can heal people’s June 4 Tiananmen pain, says Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen In May, Dui Hua said Miao’s term had been cut by 11 months for good behaviour. It said he would be released from Beijing’s Yanqing Prison on Saturday. Miao had never admitted his wrongdoings in the protest, the foundation said at the time, quoting a former inmate. Dui Hua also said Miao ­suffered from hepatitis B and schizophrenia. Miao is widely seen as the last person to remain behind bars for his involvement in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. How Tiananmen spurred veteran lawyer to defend activists when no-one else dared Hu Xijin, the editor-in-chief of state-run Global Times, previously wrote in a commentary about Miao that “the life of anyone who bet on the wrong side of history weighs less than a feather”. Additional reporting by Eva Li ||||| A student protester puts barricades in the path of an already burning armored personnel carrier in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989. (Jeff Widener/AP) On Saturday, China plans to release the final prisoner held for the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, but after more than 27 years behind bars, he will rejoin the world a physically and mentally ill man, a rights group said. Miao Deshun, a factory worker from Beijing, was not a leading figure in the pro-democracy demonstrations. Nevertheless, he was given a suspended death sentence for arson after he threw a basket at a burning tank during the June 4, 1989, crackdown on the protests. His sentence was later commuted to life in prison and was subsequently reduced further, according to the Dui Hua Foundation, a San Francisco-based group that advocates for the rights of political prisoners in China. At 51, Miao has spent more than half his life behind bars and has had no contact with the outside world for many years: His family stopped visiting him more than 10 years ago, reportedly at his own request, Dui Hua said in a statement. He suffers from hepatitis B and schizophrenia: Former prison inmates remember him as a very thin man who refused to admit wrongdoing and participate in prison labor, who was both tortured and given periods of solitary confinement as a result. “No one other than prison officials or other prisoners in the ward for sick and disabled prisoners have seen him for many years,” Dui Hua’s executive director, John Kamm, told the Associated Press in an email, adding that Miao was severely ill. Tens of thousands of troops and tanks converged on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square to quash months of protests on the night of June 3-4, 1989. Several hundred people were killed — possibly several thousand — and more than 1,600 people around the country were subsequently jailed. Today, young Chinese people know little of the events that marked the last major popular challenge to Communist Party rule on the mainland, but in Hong Kong, the anniversary is always marked with a candlelight vigil attended by tens of thousands. Wu Wenjian, a dissident and painter who was in jail with Miao Deshun in Beijing from 1990 to 1994, said Miao’s “persistent” refusal to accept that he had committed a crime, participate in hard labor or sign repentance letters, was partly why he had remained in jail so long. “He’s a loner,” Wu said. “At that time, whoever got a suspended death sentence would at least pretend to accept the sentence and the reform education, but he wouldn’t. He kept appealing and refused to be reformed.” Wu said prison guards had frequently beaten Miao, including with electric batons, and even then he had not been in good health. “The main problem was with his mental health,” he said. “It’s quite understandable, given that he got a suspended death sentence and was under immense pressure.” The Dui Hua Foundation said Miao was due to be released Saturday from Yanqing Prison, northeast of Beijing, after being given an 11-month sentence reduction this year, but the AP said the date could not be independently verified, as the Ministry of Public Security and the Beijing Higher People’s Court were not responding to faxed requests for comment. Hu Jia, a prominent human rights activist, said Miao’s life had been ruined, adding that he would need to re-adapt himself to a society very different from the one that existed when he was jailed. “He might find himself leaving a small jail but entering a bigger prison,” he said. “He’s likely to find himself surrounded by state security police upon his release, something unimaginable before he went to jail. Release from jail does not necessarily mean more freedom.” But Qi Zhiyong, who lost a leg in the crackdown near Tiananmen Square, said he was “excited” by the news of Miao’s release. “We are from the same generation — an oppressed generation,” he said. Luna Lin contributed to this report. Read more: Witnesses to Tiananmen Square struggle with what to tell their children 25 years after Tiananmen, is China losing Hong Kong? China tried to erase memories of Tiananmen. But it lives on in the work of dissident artists. Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

– The final known person still imprisoned over his role in China's 1989 Tiananmen Square protests is due to be released on Saturday, the AP reports. Miao Deshun—who reportedly suffers from schizophrenia and hepatitis B—refused to admit guilt or repent for participating in the pro-democracy protests. Miao, 51, has spent half his life in prison for throwing a basket at a flaming tank, which was deemed an act of arson. He was originally sentenced to death but had his term reduced several times for good behavior. Still, according to a former fellow prisoner, Miao's refusal to repent alienated him from the other prisoners and made him a frequent target of abuse from the guards. "It is already a miracle that he is alive," says that ex-prisoner, Wu Wenjian. "We all thought he would not make it out of this." Miao will be released into a world that bears little resemblance to the one he left. Speaking with the Washington Post, human rights activist Hu Jia said Miao is "likely to find himself surrounded by state security police upon his release, something unimaginable before he went to jail. Release from jail does not necessarily mean more freedom.” While the government might be letting Miao go free, Chinese state media isn't too sympathetic to the abuse he suffered. The English-language South China Morning Post reports that state-run paper Global Times recently ran an editorial saying "the life of anyone who bet on the wrong side of history weighs less than a feather."

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.FILE - In this early June 4, 1989 file photo, a student protester puts barricades in the path of an already burning armored personnel carrier that rammed through student lines during an army attack on... (Associated Press) BEIJING (AP) — China's last-known prisoner held in relation to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests will reportedly be released Saturday, but he'll face freedom a frail and mentally ill man, a rights group and a fellow former inmate said. Miao Deshun's expected release follows an 11-month sentence reduction, according to the Dui Hua Foundation, a San Francisco-based group that advocates for the rights of political prisoners in China. The 51-year-old former factory worker is severely ill after spending more than half his life behind bars, said Dui Hua's executive director, John Kamm, in an email. Tanks and troops converged in Beijing to quash pro-democracy protests on the night of June 3-4, 1989, killing hundreds, possibly thousands, of people. Authorities later jailed more than 1,600 people around the country for crimes linked to the demonstrations. Nearly three decades later, young Chinese know little of the events that marked the last major popular challenge to Communist rule in the mainland and remain a taboo. Dui Hua said in May that Miao was due to be released Saturday. The date could not be independently verified. The Ministry of Public Security and the Beijing Higher People's Court did not respond to faxed requests for comment. Miao was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve in 1989 for throwing a basket into a burning tank, an act considered arson by the court. His sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 1991, and further reduced over the years. "No one other than prison officials or other prisoners in the ward for sick and disabled prisoners have seen him for many years," Kamm said. Miao suffers from hepatitis B and schizophrenia and is being held at the Yanqing Prison, a facility in a Beijing suburb that has a ward for elderly and ill prisoners, Dui Hua said. During his time at the Beijing No. 1 Prison, Miao refused to accept the charges leveled against him or sign declarations of repentance, according to a former fellow inmate, Wu Wenjian. Wu, then a factory worker, was also serving a sentence for involvement in the Tiananment protest. He spent four years in the same prison units as Miao. "As time passed, Miao became very stubborn and refused to do hard labor, refused re-education, refused to write repentance letters," Wu said in an interview. "That's why he was moved to another unit reserved for the 'diehards.'" For that, Miao often endured heavier punishments than other inmates, and prison guards frequently beat him and tortured him with electric batons, Wu said. "It is already a miracle that he is alive. We all thought he would not make it out of this," Wu said. According to Dui Hua, Miao has spent time in solitary confinement and has had no contact with the outside world for many years. He was transferred to Yanqing in 2003. China has never fully disclosed what happened when the military crushed the 1989 weeklong protests, which authorities branded a "counterrevolutionary riot." The decades since have seen breakneck economic growth and the ruling Communist Party relinquish much of its day-to-day control over many aspects of society. The party retains a tight grip on dissent that has intensified under President Xi Jinping. ___ Associated Press writer Gillian Wong contributed to this report. ||||| A rights group said the country’s last-known prisoner held in relation to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests would be released on Saturday, but he would face freedom as a frail and mentally ill man. Miao Deshun’s release follows an 11-month sentence reduction, according to the Dui Hua Foundation, a San Francisco-based group that advocates for the rights of political prisoners in China. Dui Hua executive director John Kamm said the 51-year-old former factory worker was severely ill after spending more than half his life behind bars. Voices from Tiananmen: Eyewitnesses look back to the spring of 1989 Miao’s release date could not be independently verified. The authorities did not respond to requests for comment. Troops converged in Beijing to quash pro-democracy protests on the night of June 3-4, 1989, killing hundreds of people. Miao, then 24, received a suspended death sentence for arson after he was convicted of throwing a basket at a burning tank with other four workers during the protest. His sentence was commuted to life in jail in 1991 and reduced several times afterwards. Only Beijing can heal people’s June 4 Tiananmen pain, says Taiwan’s President Tsai Ing-wen In May, Dui Hua said Miao’s term had been cut by 11 months for good behaviour. It said he would be released from Beijing’s Yanqing Prison on Saturday. Miao had never admitted his wrongdoings in the protest, the foundation said at the time, quoting a former inmate. Dui Hua also said Miao ­suffered from hepatitis B and schizophrenia. Miao is widely seen as the last person to remain behind bars for his involvement in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. How Tiananmen spurred veteran lawyer to defend activists when no-one else dared Hu Xijin, the editor-in-chief of state-run Global Times, previously wrote in a commentary about Miao that “the life of anyone who bet on the wrong side of history weighs less than a feather”. Additional reporting by Eva Li ||||| A student protester puts barricades in the path of an already burning armored personnel carrier in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on June 4, 1989. (Jeff Widener/AP) On Saturday, China plans to release the final prisoner held for the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, but after more than 27 years behind bars, he will rejoin the world a physically and mentally ill man, a rights group said. Miao Deshun, a factory worker from Beijing, was not a leading figure in the pro-democracy demonstrations. Nevertheless, he was given a suspended death sentence for arson after he threw a basket at a burning tank during the June 4, 1989, crackdown on the protests. His sentence was later commuted to life in prison and was subsequently reduced further, according to the Dui Hua Foundation, a San Francisco-based group that advocates for the rights of political prisoners in China. At 51, Miao has spent more than half his life behind bars and has had no contact with the outside world for many years: His family stopped visiting him more than 10 years ago, reportedly at his own request, Dui Hua said in a statement. He suffers from hepatitis B and schizophrenia: Former prison inmates remember him as a very thin man who refused to admit wrongdoing and participate in prison labor, who was both tortured and given periods of solitary confinement as a result. “No one other than prison officials or other prisoners in the ward for sick and disabled prisoners have seen him for many years,” Dui Hua’s executive director, John Kamm, told the Associated Press in an email, adding that Miao was severely ill. Tens of thousands of troops and tanks converged on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square to quash months of protests on the night of June 3-4, 1989. Several hundred people were killed — possibly several thousand — and more than 1,600 people around the country were subsequently jailed. Today, young Chinese people know little of the events that marked the last major popular challenge to Communist Party rule on the mainland, but in Hong Kong, the anniversary is always marked with a candlelight vigil attended by tens of thousands. Wu Wenjian, a dissident and painter who was in jail with Miao Deshun in Beijing from 1990 to 1994, said Miao’s “persistent” refusal to accept that he had committed a crime, participate in hard labor or sign repentance letters, was partly why he had remained in jail so long. “He’s a loner,” Wu said. “At that time, whoever got a suspended death sentence would at least pretend to accept the sentence and the reform education, but he wouldn’t. He kept appealing and refused to be reformed.” Wu said prison guards had frequently beaten Miao, including with electric batons, and even then he had not been in good health. “The main problem was with his mental health,” he said. “It’s quite understandable, given that he got a suspended death sentence and was under immense pressure.” The Dui Hua Foundation said Miao was due to be released Saturday from Yanqing Prison, northeast of Beijing, after being given an 11-month sentence reduction this year, but the AP said the date could not be independently verified, as the Ministry of Public Security and the Beijing Higher People’s Court were not responding to faxed requests for comment. Hu Jia, a prominent human rights activist, said Miao’s life had been ruined, adding that he would need to re-adapt himself to a society very different from the one that existed when he was jailed. “He might find himself leaving a small jail but entering a bigger prison,” he said. “He’s likely to find himself surrounded by state security police upon his release, something unimaginable before he went to jail. Release from jail does not necessarily mean more freedom.” But Qi Zhiyong, who lost a leg in the crackdown near Tiananmen Square, said he was “excited” by the news of Miao’s release. “We are from the same generation — an oppressed generation,” he said. Luna Lin contributed to this report. Read more: Witnesses to Tiananmen Square struggle with what to tell their children 25 years after Tiananmen, is China losing Hong Kong? China tried to erase memories of Tiananmen. But it lives on in the work of dissident artists. Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

CHICAGO (CBS) — Three daycare workers have been charged with child endangerment, after they allegedly admitted giving gummy bears laced with Melatonin to a class of 2-year-olds to get them to calm down for nap time. “This is just a horrible case of bad judgement,” Des Plaines Police Chief William Kushner said. Des Plaines Police said officers were called to the Kiddie Junction Daycare Center at 1619 E. Oakton St. on Friday afternoon. Child Drug Overdoses Linked To Laced Gummy Bears A manager there told police one of the teachers had been distributing gummy bears laced with melatonin to her class of 2-year-olds without the parents’ authorization. Police said there were four gummy bears left in a bottle that contained 120. “Allegedly, this was done in an effort to calm them down before nap time,” Des Plaines Police said in a statement on Monday. Three teachers were taken into custody, and during questioning, they allegedly admitted to giving the children the laced gummy bears. Police said the women didn’t think what they did was inappropriate, because melatonin is an over-the-counter sleep aid. Police said the parents of every child at the daycare were notified about what happened The women, 32-year-old Kristen Lauletta, 19-year-old Jessica Heyse, and 25-year-old Ashley Helfenbein, each were charged with two counts of child endangerment and two counts of battery. The daycare center has had no prior violations. All three were due to appear in court on April 4 at the Skokie Courthouse. “Fortunately, no child was seriously injured that we know of at this point. It’s limited to the one classroom,’ said Kushner. Police say the daycare center is cooperating. DCFS is conducting their own investigation. ||||| Three Illinois daycare teachers were arrested Friday for allegedly giving toddlers gummy bears laced with the over-the-counter sleep aid melatonin. Kristen Lauletta, 32, Jessica Heyse, 19, and Ashley Helfenbein, 25, were each charged with two counts of endangering the life or health of a child and two counts of battery. Des Plaines Police allege they were called to the Kiddie Junction Daycare Center in Des Plaines by daycare management after they discovered one of the teachers had been distributing gummy bears to the class of two-year-olds to “calm the kids down for nap time,” Commander Chris Mierzwa tells PEOPLE. Mierzwa says during a police interview the teacher told them that two other co-workers were also allegedly giving out the gummy bears. Mierzwa alleges the teachers had been giving the toddlers at the daycare the gummy bears since November 2016. “Not every child was given it,” he says. Des Plaines Police • For more compelling True Crime coverage, follow our Crime magazine on Flipboard Mierzwa says the teachers admitted to giving the toddlers the gummy bears but said they didn’t think administering the sleep aid was inappropriate because it was an over-the-counter medication. “The bottle specifically said it shouldn’t be given to children under 15,” he says. “The problem is you shouldn’t be giving anything to a child that hasn’t been authorized by the parents, even if it is an over the counter supplement. I talked to one mother personally and she said she was wondering why her son came home a little more groggy than usual from school.” • Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter. Since Friday, Mierzwa says investigators have reached out to all the parents. “We didn’t want parents to not know what was going on.” Additional charges may be pending, police say. The three teachers are out on bail and have a court appearance on April 4. It was not immediately clear if any had retained attorneys, and PEOPLE’s efforts to reach the suspects were not immediately successful. The Kiddie Junction Daycare Center did not return a call for comment.

– Three daycare workers who allegedly gave toddlers melatonin-laced gummy bears to ensure smoother nap times are facing serious criminal charges. A police spokesman in Des Plaines, Ill., tells People that managers at the Kiddie Junction Daycare Center called authorities after discovering workers had been giving the gummy bears to 2-year-olds to "calm the kids down for nap time." Commander Chris Mierzwa says the teacher told police two of her colleagues had been doing the same thing, and it had been going on for more than a year. Kristen Lauletta, 32; Jessica Heyse, 19; and Ashley Helfenbein, 25, have been charged with two counts of child endangerment and two counts of battery each. Mierzwa says the teachers—who did not inform parents or check whether any of the toddlers were allergic to melatonin—told police they didn't think they were doing anything wrong by giving the children the over-the-counter sleep aid. But "the bottle specifically said it shouldn't be given to children under 15," he says. "The problem is you shouldn't be giving anything to a child that hasn't been authorized by the parents, even if it is an over-the-counter supplement." CBS Chicago reports that Des Plaines Police Chief William Kushner says no child was injured that they know of, although some parents noticed that their children were coming home groggy. "This is just a horrible case of bad judgement," he says. (This North Carolina woman complained after a daycare worker breastfed her son.)

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.CHICAGO (CBS) — Three daycare workers have been charged with child endangerment, after they allegedly admitted giving gummy bears laced with Melatonin to a class of 2-year-olds to get them to calm down for nap time. “This is just a horrible case of bad judgement,” Des Plaines Police Chief William Kushner said. Des Plaines Police said officers were called to the Kiddie Junction Daycare Center at 1619 E. Oakton St. on Friday afternoon. Child Drug Overdoses Linked To Laced Gummy Bears A manager there told police one of the teachers had been distributing gummy bears laced with melatonin to her class of 2-year-olds without the parents’ authorization. Police said there were four gummy bears left in a bottle that contained 120. “Allegedly, this was done in an effort to calm them down before nap time,” Des Plaines Police said in a statement on Monday. Three teachers were taken into custody, and during questioning, they allegedly admitted to giving the children the laced gummy bears. Police said the women didn’t think what they did was inappropriate, because melatonin is an over-the-counter sleep aid. Police said the parents of every child at the daycare were notified about what happened The women, 32-year-old Kristen Lauletta, 19-year-old Jessica Heyse, and 25-year-old Ashley Helfenbein, each were charged with two counts of child endangerment and two counts of battery. The daycare center has had no prior violations. All three were due to appear in court on April 4 at the Skokie Courthouse. “Fortunately, no child was seriously injured that we know of at this point. It’s limited to the one classroom,’ said Kushner. Police say the daycare center is cooperating. DCFS is conducting their own investigation. ||||| Three Illinois daycare teachers were arrested Friday for allegedly giving toddlers gummy bears laced with the over-the-counter sleep aid melatonin. Kristen Lauletta, 32, Jessica Heyse, 19, and Ashley Helfenbein, 25, were each charged with two counts of endangering the life or health of a child and two counts of battery. Des Plaines Police allege they were called to the Kiddie Junction Daycare Center in Des Plaines by daycare management after they discovered one of the teachers had been distributing gummy bears to the class of two-year-olds to “calm the kids down for nap time,” Commander Chris Mierzwa tells PEOPLE. Mierzwa says during a police interview the teacher told them that two other co-workers were also allegedly giving out the gummy bears. Mierzwa alleges the teachers had been giving the toddlers at the daycare the gummy bears since November 2016. “Not every child was given it,” he says. Des Plaines Police • For more compelling True Crime coverage, follow our Crime magazine on Flipboard Mierzwa says the teachers admitted to giving the toddlers the gummy bears but said they didn’t think administering the sleep aid was inappropriate because it was an over-the-counter medication. “The bottle specifically said it shouldn’t be given to children under 15,” he says. “The problem is you shouldn’t be giving anything to a child that hasn’t been authorized by the parents, even if it is an over the counter supplement. I talked to one mother personally and she said she was wondering why her son came home a little more groggy than usual from school.” • Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter. Since Friday, Mierzwa says investigators have reached out to all the parents. “We didn’t want parents to not know what was going on.” Additional charges may be pending, police say. The three teachers are out on bail and have a court appearance on April 4. It was not immediately clear if any had retained attorneys, and PEOPLE’s efforts to reach the suspects were not immediately successful. The Kiddie Junction Daycare Center did not return a call for comment.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

A teenager struck by a suspected drunken driver who plowed into a crowd near the South by Southwest festival in Austin has died, bringing the death toll from the crash to four, police said Thursday. DeAndre Tatum, 18, died from injuries he sustained in the March 13 collision in which about two dozen people were mowed down on a street closed to vehicles, Austin Police said. He had been listed in critical condition. DeAndre Tatum, the 4th victim of the #SXSW crash, passed away as a result of his injuries. His family is in our thoughts and prayers. — Austin Police Dept (@Austin_Police) March 27, 2014 Two people hit by the driver — Jamie West, 27, and Steven Craenmehr, 35 — died the day of the crash. A third person, Sandy Le, 26, died from her injuries on March 17. Tatum's girlfriend, Curtisha Davis, 19, suffered critical injuries stemming from the crash — including broken bones and a neck injury. She was released from the hospital March 18, according to NBC affiliate KXAN. Rashad Charjuan Owens, 21, from Killeen, Texas, has already been charged with one count of capital murder and is being held on $3 million bond, the Austin Police Department said on its website. More charges are likely. Owens had been asked to pull over at a sobriety checkpoint and instead sped away from a police car. He smashed through a police barricade and then plowed down people — some of them lined up outside the Mohawk nightclub, a popular downtown venue — over a span of city blocks. Owens then tried to flee on foot but was subdued by an officer with the stun gun. He had a blood alcohol level of .114, well over the legal limit of .08, breath test results showed. — Daniel Arkin ||||| CLOSE The fourth victim of the South By Southwest crash died Thursday after he and his girlfriend were hit by a man who plowed into a crowd of people at the festival on March 13. VPC Curtisha Davis, left, and her boyfriend, De'Andre Tatum, were injured when a suspected drunken driver ran from police and plowed into a crowd at South By Southwest in Austin on March 13, 2014. Tatum died from his injuries on March 27, 2014. Davis is recovering from her injuries at home in Texas. (Photo: WFAA-TV, Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas) FORT WORTH — A fourth person has died from injuries sustained in the March 13 tragedy in which a suspected drunken driver plowed through a crowd outside a nightclub at the South By Southwest music festival in Austin. De'Andre Tatum, 18, died Thursday, his pastor and the Fort Worth Independent School District confirmed. The Fort Worth native was in a medically induced coma at the University Medical Center Brackenridge in Austin after the deadly crash. He was the last of the victims still in critical condition at the hospital. Tatum was with his girlfriend on Red River Street when police say Rashad Owens, 21, of Killeen, Texas, in the midst of a chase with police drove through a road block and into the crowd. Jamie West, 27, of Austin, and Steven Craenmehr, 35, of Amsterdam, were killed that night. More than 20 others were injured. Tatum was among eight victims transported to the hospital. Sandy Le, 26, died of her injuries March 17, while Tatum remained in the hospital in critical condition. STORY: SXSW accident victim leaves hospital STORY: SXSW crash claims third life "He has a broken leg, a broken pelvis bone and a severe brain injury," said his mother, Tamara O'Neal, while by his side at the hospital on March 13. His girlfriend, 17-year-old Curtisha Davis, also was struck by the car. She was released from the hospital and back home in North Texas on March 18. Dr. Christopher Ziebell, head of the emergency room at UMC Brackenridge, expressed the seriousness of Tatum's injuries after he was transported to the hospital. "These are some of the worst injuries that we see and not everybody with these kinds of injuries survives," he said. Owens has been charged with capital murder, which means he will face the death penalty in court, and aggravated assault with a motor vehicle. Prosecutors are expected to seek additional charges against him from a grand jury. Owens is accused of driving drunk and fleeing from police, then intentionally steering into the festival crowd and accelerating. He remains jailed on a $3 million bond. Contributing: Jessica Vess, KVUE-TV, Austin, Texas; The Associated Press Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1jT4sJl

– The March 13 crash at Austin's South by Southwest festival has claimed a fourth life: Fort Worth native DeAndre Tatum, the last of the crash victims in critical condition, succumbed to his injuries yesterday, USA Today reports. He had been in a medically induced coma since the crash. That brings the death toll to four; two died the day of the crash, a third a few days later. Rapper and alleged drunk driver Rashad Owens of Texas has been charged with capital murder and is being held on $3 million bond; NBC News reports more charges are expected. Tatum, 18, had been outside an Austin club with his girlfriend, Curtisha Davis, when the pair were struck by the speeding car, which careened through a police barricade. Davis suffered broken bones and a neck injury but was released from the hospital within days. Shortly after the crash, Tatum's mother noted her son had "a broken leg, a broken pelvis bone, and a severe brain injury," which a doctor at University Medical Center Brackenridge called "some of the worst injuries that we see and not everybody with these kinds of injuries survives."

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.A teenager struck by a suspected drunken driver who plowed into a crowd near the South by Southwest festival in Austin has died, bringing the death toll from the crash to four, police said Thursday. DeAndre Tatum, 18, died from injuries he sustained in the March 13 collision in which about two dozen people were mowed down on a street closed to vehicles, Austin Police said. He had been listed in critical condition. DeAndre Tatum, the 4th victim of the #SXSW crash, passed away as a result of his injuries. His family is in our thoughts and prayers. — Austin Police Dept (@Austin_Police) March 27, 2014 Two people hit by the driver — Jamie West, 27, and Steven Craenmehr, 35 — died the day of the crash. A third person, Sandy Le, 26, died from her injuries on March 17. Tatum's girlfriend, Curtisha Davis, 19, suffered critical injuries stemming from the crash — including broken bones and a neck injury. She was released from the hospital March 18, according to NBC affiliate KXAN. Rashad Charjuan Owens, 21, from Killeen, Texas, has already been charged with one count of capital murder and is being held on $3 million bond, the Austin Police Department said on its website. More charges are likely. Owens had been asked to pull over at a sobriety checkpoint and instead sped away from a police car. He smashed through a police barricade and then plowed down people — some of them lined up outside the Mohawk nightclub, a popular downtown venue — over a span of city blocks. Owens then tried to flee on foot but was subdued by an officer with the stun gun. He had a blood alcohol level of .114, well over the legal limit of .08, breath test results showed. — Daniel Arkin ||||| CLOSE The fourth victim of the South By Southwest crash died Thursday after he and his girlfriend were hit by a man who plowed into a crowd of people at the festival on March 13. VPC Curtisha Davis, left, and her boyfriend, De'Andre Tatum, were injured when a suspected drunken driver ran from police and plowed into a crowd at South By Southwest in Austin on March 13, 2014. Tatum died from his injuries on March 27, 2014. Davis is recovering from her injuries at home in Texas. (Photo: WFAA-TV, Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas) FORT WORTH — A fourth person has died from injuries sustained in the March 13 tragedy in which a suspected drunken driver plowed through a crowd outside a nightclub at the South By Southwest music festival in Austin. De'Andre Tatum, 18, died Thursday, his pastor and the Fort Worth Independent School District confirmed. The Fort Worth native was in a medically induced coma at the University Medical Center Brackenridge in Austin after the deadly crash. He was the last of the victims still in critical condition at the hospital. Tatum was with his girlfriend on Red River Street when police say Rashad Owens, 21, of Killeen, Texas, in the midst of a chase with police drove through a road block and into the crowd. Jamie West, 27, of Austin, and Steven Craenmehr, 35, of Amsterdam, were killed that night. More than 20 others were injured. Tatum was among eight victims transported to the hospital. Sandy Le, 26, died of her injuries March 17, while Tatum remained in the hospital in critical condition. STORY: SXSW accident victim leaves hospital STORY: SXSW crash claims third life "He has a broken leg, a broken pelvis bone and a severe brain injury," said his mother, Tamara O'Neal, while by his side at the hospital on March 13. His girlfriend, 17-year-old Curtisha Davis, also was struck by the car. She was released from the hospital and back home in North Texas on March 18. Dr. Christopher Ziebell, head of the emergency room at UMC Brackenridge, expressed the seriousness of Tatum's injuries after he was transported to the hospital. "These are some of the worst injuries that we see and not everybody with these kinds of injuries survives," he said. Owens has been charged with capital murder, which means he will face the death penalty in court, and aggravated assault with a motor vehicle. Prosecutors are expected to seek additional charges against him from a grand jury. Owens is accused of driving drunk and fleeing from police, then intentionally steering into the festival crowd and accelerating. He remains jailed on a $3 million bond. Contributing: Jessica Vess, KVUE-TV, Austin, Texas; The Associated Press Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/1jT4sJl

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Mrs. Clinton made the remarks at the Women in the World conference in Manhattan, where she was interviewed by the New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof before an audience of about 3,000 people. It was her first extensive interview since her loss in November to Donald J. Trump. She did not stint on criticism of the Trump White House. “I don’t take any pleasure in seeing the kind of chaotic functioning” of the current administration, Mrs. Clinton said. “Here’s what I don’t understand — I don’t understand the commitment to hurt so many people that this administration, this White House, seems to be pursuing.” Women in particular, she said, are under attack by Mr. Trump’s policies. “The targeting of women — which is what’s going on — is absolutely beyond any political agenda,” Mrs. Clinton said, pointing in particular to the State Department’s move to defund the United Nations Population Fund, among other programs. She criticized efforts to strip maternity care and other treatments from Republicans’ failed bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. “They had not a clue what that meant,” she said. “I don’t know if any of them had ever even read the bill.” She also noted that it was mostly men who were behind the push to curtail women’s health benefits. “The things that come out of some of these men’s mouths — like, ‘Why do we have to cover maternity care?’” she said with a laugh. “Well I don’t know, maybe you were dropped by immaculate conception?” ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. / Updated By Kendall Breitman Almost four months after her stunning defeat, Hillary Clinton on Thursday primarily blamed her loss to President Donald Trump on four factors that were beyond her control. The former Democratic presidential candidate cited Russian meddling in the election, FBI Director James Comey's involvement toward the end of the race, WikiLeaks' theft of emails from her campaign chairman, and misogyny. Clinton’s comments came during her first post-election interview at Tina Brown’s eighth annual Women in the World Summit in New York City. She was questioned by Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times. She largely cited these factors for her defeat: - Russia. "A foreign power meddled with our election," she said, labeling it "an act of aggression." She called for an independent, bipartisan investigation into the Kremlin's involvement and said the probe should examine whether there was collusion with the Trump campaign. - Misogyny. "Certainly, misogyny played a role. That has to be admitted," she said. Clinton added that "some people — women included — had real problems" with the idea of a woman president. - Comey. Clinton cited as damaging to her campaign his unusual decision to release of a letter on October 28, less than two weeks before Election Day, that said he was looking at additional emails related to the FBI probe of the former secretary of state's use of a private server. - WikiLeaks. Weeks of disclosures of stolen emails from the personal account of then-Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, were particularly harmful, Clinton said, adding that it "played a much bigger role than I think many people yet understand." She said the combination of Comey's actions and the WikiLeaks' revelations "had the determinative effect.” About her own role, she said, "There were things I could have done better." While Clinton said there were “lots of contributing factors” to her failure to secure the nation’s highest office, she called Russia’s interference the “weaponization of information.” “I didn’t fully understand how impactful that was and so it created doubts in people,” Clinton said. “But then the Comey letter coming as it did — just 10 days before the election — really raised questions in a lot of people.” Two days before the election, Comey announced that none of the emails would lead to criminal charges — leaving in place the FBI's determination from July. Officials told NBC News that nearly all of the emails were duplicates of emails that had been examined already. Kristof also asked Clinton about Trump. “I don’t understand the commitment to hurt so many people that this administration, this White House, seems to be pursuing,” Clinton said, pointing to the immigration ban, the slashing of U.S. funding for the UN Population Fund, and the failed health care bill. “What they did or tried to do on the health care bill, which I will confess to this — having listened to them talking about repeal and replace for 8 years, or 7 years now, and they had not a clue what that meant," she said. "They had no idea. I don’t know that any of them had ever even read the bill.” Clinton, who is writing a book that she said would examine her defeat last year, said she doubted she would ever seek public office again. "Devastating," was how she described her loss. Watch the full Clinton remarks here: ||||| This article is over 1 year old In first post-election interview, former Democratic presidential candidate calls for US intervention in Syria and a ‘patriotic’ investigation into Russia In her first interview since losing the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton said misogyny had played a role in her election loss. Clinton “spends a lot of time wrestling” with the fact that 53% of white women voted for Trump and the impact of her gender on her loss, she said at the Women in the World summit. “Certainly misogyny played a role,” she said. In a wide-ranging interview, Clinton also called for US intervention in Syria, spoke about how being an ambitious woman had turned her into “Typhoid Mary”, and called for a bipartisan investigation into Russian interference in the election. Clinton called on politicians on both sides to “start acting like patriotic Americans” by investigating Russian involvement in the election. “What was done to us was an act of aggression and it was carried out by a foreign power under the control of someone who has a deep desire to dominate Europe and to send us into a tailspin,” Clinton said at the Women in the World summit. “What Putin wanted to do was sow distrust and confusion as well as influence our election.” The destruction of Hillary Clinton: sexism, Sanders, and the millennial feminists | Susan Bordo Read more The former secretary of state explained that she believed Russian’s interference was “the weaponization of information” in the form of “a thousand agents, bots and trolls” and that an independent, non-partisan investigation was needed. “I’m hopeful Congress will pull together and realize because of the success the Kremlin feels it had, they’re not going to go away,” she said. The New York Times reporter Nicholas Kristof, who conducted the interview in front of thousands at a Lincoln Center theater, asked if Syria policy had been the biggest mistake of the Obama administration. Clinton reiterated that in 2012, she and the then CIA director, David Petraeus, had devised a plan to arm rebels, but it was rejected. “I thought we should have done more at that point,” she said. She noted that most of the civilian deaths came because of airstrikes and argued that more could still be done to stop Assad’s airforce and protect civilians. “I really believe we should have and still should take out his airfields and prevent him from being able to bomb innocent people and drop sarin gas on them,” said Clinton. As for what comes next, Clinton is working on a book that delves into why she failed to win the election. Research shows that for men, success and ambition are correlated, while for women it’s the opposite, noted Clinton. She pointed out that when she left the state department, she had a high 65% approval rating. “It was a job I was asked to do by a man,” said Clinton, noting that public opinion changed when she declared her interest in running for the highest office in the land. “By the time they finished with me, I was Typhoid Mary,” said Clinton. Mary Mallon, the first person in the US with typhoid, was quarantined and kept alone for decades. “Poor Mary, she didn’t deserve it either, when you go back and look at the history,” said Clinton. Clinton also took some digs at the man who took the job she had sought. When talking about Vladimir Putin’s attempts to destabilize the US, she pointed out that he did not like strong women, “although he did shake hands with me”, a clear reference to Donald Trump’s refusal to shake Angela Merkel’s hand during a White House meeting. The crowd, which gave Clinton a standing ovation when she appeared, laughed and cheered. She also dryly quipped that she found Trump’s failed attempt to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act “somewhat gratifying”.

– Hillary Clinton gave her first public post-election interview at the Women in the World Summit in New York City Thursday—and the election was one of the main topics. Clinton, who was interviewed by Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times after being introduced by Samantha Bee from Full Frontal, said Russian meddling, FBI Director James Comey's release of information on the investigation of her emails, and WikiLeaks releases all played a role, as did misogyny. She said that while she believes Comey and WikiLeaks "had the determinative effect," there were certainly some people who had "real problems" with the idea of a woman president, NBC News reports. Clinton said she believes the reason she was a popular secretary of state but an unpopular presidential candidate is that the former role is one she was "asked to do by a man." She said that she's taking no pleasure from witnessing the "chaotic functioning" of the Trump White House, and she's especially disturbed by what she sees as anti-woman policies. "The targeting of women—which is what's going on—is absolutely beyond any political agenda," she said. Asked about Obama administration policy on Syria, Clinton said she still believes that we "should take out his airfields and prevent him from being able to bomb innocent people and drop sarin gas on them," the Guardian reports. Hours later, US missiles hit a Syrian airfield.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Mrs. Clinton made the remarks at the Women in the World conference in Manhattan, where she was interviewed by the New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof before an audience of about 3,000 people. It was her first extensive interview since her loss in November to Donald J. Trump. She did not stint on criticism of the Trump White House. “I don’t take any pleasure in seeing the kind of chaotic functioning” of the current administration, Mrs. Clinton said. “Here’s what I don’t understand — I don’t understand the commitment to hurt so many people that this administration, this White House, seems to be pursuing.” Women in particular, she said, are under attack by Mr. Trump’s policies. “The targeting of women — which is what’s going on — is absolutely beyond any political agenda,” Mrs. Clinton said, pointing in particular to the State Department’s move to defund the United Nations Population Fund, among other programs. She criticized efforts to strip maternity care and other treatments from Republicans’ failed bill to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. “They had not a clue what that meant,” she said. “I don’t know if any of them had ever even read the bill.” She also noted that it was mostly men who were behind the push to curtail women’s health benefits. “The things that come out of some of these men’s mouths — like, ‘Why do we have to cover maternity care?’” she said with a laugh. “Well I don’t know, maybe you were dropped by immaculate conception?” ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings. / Updated By Kendall Breitman Almost four months after her stunning defeat, Hillary Clinton on Thursday primarily blamed her loss to President Donald Trump on four factors that were beyond her control. The former Democratic presidential candidate cited Russian meddling in the election, FBI Director James Comey's involvement toward the end of the race, WikiLeaks' theft of emails from her campaign chairman, and misogyny. Clinton’s comments came during her first post-election interview at Tina Brown’s eighth annual Women in the World Summit in New York City. She was questioned by Nicholas Kristof of The New York Times. She largely cited these factors for her defeat: - Russia. "A foreign power meddled with our election," she said, labeling it "an act of aggression." She called for an independent, bipartisan investigation into the Kremlin's involvement and said the probe should examine whether there was collusion with the Trump campaign. - Misogyny. "Certainly, misogyny played a role. That has to be admitted," she said. Clinton added that "some people — women included — had real problems" with the idea of a woman president. - Comey. Clinton cited as damaging to her campaign his unusual decision to release of a letter on October 28, less than two weeks before Election Day, that said he was looking at additional emails related to the FBI probe of the former secretary of state's use of a private server. - WikiLeaks. Weeks of disclosures of stolen emails from the personal account of then-Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta, were particularly harmful, Clinton said, adding that it "played a much bigger role than I think many people yet understand." She said the combination of Comey's actions and the WikiLeaks' revelations "had the determinative effect.” About her own role, she said, "There were things I could have done better." While Clinton said there were “lots of contributing factors” to her failure to secure the nation’s highest office, she called Russia’s interference the “weaponization of information.” “I didn’t fully understand how impactful that was and so it created doubts in people,” Clinton said. “But then the Comey letter coming as it did — just 10 days before the election — really raised questions in a lot of people.” Two days before the election, Comey announced that none of the emails would lead to criminal charges — leaving in place the FBI's determination from July. Officials told NBC News that nearly all of the emails were duplicates of emails that had been examined already. Kristof also asked Clinton about Trump. “I don’t understand the commitment to hurt so many people that this administration, this White House, seems to be pursuing,” Clinton said, pointing to the immigration ban, the slashing of U.S. funding for the UN Population Fund, and the failed health care bill. “What they did or tried to do on the health care bill, which I will confess to this — having listened to them talking about repeal and replace for 8 years, or 7 years now, and they had not a clue what that meant," she said. "They had no idea. I don’t know that any of them had ever even read the bill.” Clinton, who is writing a book that she said would examine her defeat last year, said she doubted she would ever seek public office again. "Devastating," was how she described her loss. Watch the full Clinton remarks here: ||||| This article is over 1 year old In first post-election interview, former Democratic presidential candidate calls for US intervention in Syria and a ‘patriotic’ investigation into Russia In her first interview since losing the 2016 election, Hillary Clinton said misogyny had played a role in her election loss. Clinton “spends a lot of time wrestling” with the fact that 53% of white women voted for Trump and the impact of her gender on her loss, she said at the Women in the World summit. “Certainly misogyny played a role,” she said. In a wide-ranging interview, Clinton also called for US intervention in Syria, spoke about how being an ambitious woman had turned her into “Typhoid Mary”, and called for a bipartisan investigation into Russian interference in the election. Clinton called on politicians on both sides to “start acting like patriotic Americans” by investigating Russian involvement in the election. “What was done to us was an act of aggression and it was carried out by a foreign power under the control of someone who has a deep desire to dominate Europe and to send us into a tailspin,” Clinton said at the Women in the World summit. “What Putin wanted to do was sow distrust and confusion as well as influence our election.” The destruction of Hillary Clinton: sexism, Sanders, and the millennial feminists | Susan Bordo Read more The former secretary of state explained that she believed Russian’s interference was “the weaponization of information” in the form of “a thousand agents, bots and trolls” and that an independent, non-partisan investigation was needed. “I’m hopeful Congress will pull together and realize because of the success the Kremlin feels it had, they’re not going to go away,” she said. The New York Times reporter Nicholas Kristof, who conducted the interview in front of thousands at a Lincoln Center theater, asked if Syria policy had been the biggest mistake of the Obama administration. Clinton reiterated that in 2012, she and the then CIA director, David Petraeus, had devised a plan to arm rebels, but it was rejected. “I thought we should have done more at that point,” she said. She noted that most of the civilian deaths came because of airstrikes and argued that more could still be done to stop Assad’s airforce and protect civilians. “I really believe we should have and still should take out his airfields and prevent him from being able to bomb innocent people and drop sarin gas on them,” said Clinton. As for what comes next, Clinton is working on a book that delves into why she failed to win the election. Research shows that for men, success and ambition are correlated, while for women it’s the opposite, noted Clinton. She pointed out that when she left the state department, she had a high 65% approval rating. “It was a job I was asked to do by a man,” said Clinton, noting that public opinion changed when she declared her interest in running for the highest office in the land. “By the time they finished with me, I was Typhoid Mary,” said Clinton. Mary Mallon, the first person in the US with typhoid, was quarantined and kept alone for decades. “Poor Mary, she didn’t deserve it either, when you go back and look at the history,” said Clinton. Clinton also took some digs at the man who took the job she had sought. When talking about Vladimir Putin’s attempts to destabilize the US, she pointed out that he did not like strong women, “although he did shake hands with me”, a clear reference to Donald Trump’s refusal to shake Angela Merkel’s hand during a White House meeting. The crowd, which gave Clinton a standing ovation when she appeared, laughed and cheered. She also dryly quipped that she found Trump’s failed attempt to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act “somewhat gratifying”.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

PICO DE ORIZABA, Mexico, March 7 (UPI) -- Two frozen, mummified bodies were recently discovered by climbers on Mexico's Pico de Orizaba. The climbers were on their way to the top of Pico de Orizaba, the country's tallest mountain, when they saw a head and hand sticking out of the snow. They then noticed another corpse a few hundred feet away. Experts are speculating the bodies may belong to people who were lost in an avalanche on the mountain over 50 years ago. An attempt was made to recover the bodies on Friday. Two families have come forward to claim the bodies, assuming they belong to the people they are thought to belong to. Forensic experts plan to identify the bodies using pieces of clothing that remain intact. Related UPI Stories ||||| Two mummified bodies found of climbers who disappeared on Mexico's highest peak 55 years ago A team of Mexican climbers searching for a frozen body on the country's highest mountain stumbled onto a second mummified cadaver during their expedition on Thursday. The 12 local civil protection mountaineers had embarked on their mission after climbers reported seeing a frozen skull 1,000ft from the peak of the 18,000ft Pico de Orizaba on Monday. The second body was found 400ft away, and it was also frozen and mummified, said Juan Navarro, mayor of the town of Chalchicomula de Sesma, near the mountain in central Puebla state. "It was impossible to conduct the rescue this time. Fog prevented the work," Navarro told AFP, adding that only two of the climbers were able to reach the location of the bodies. After the first body was spotted, Mexican authorities received phone calls from people in Spain and Germany who believe it could be a relative, he said said. But local officials suspect that the cadavers correspond to two of three Mexicans who went missing after an avalanche 55 years ago. Pieces of clothing found on both bodies could help identify them, Navarro said. The recovery effort will resume Friday with the help of a helicopter. The bodies will be taken to the Puebla state prosecutor's office to undergo DNA identification tests. The mountain, also known as the Citlaltepetl volcano, is popular among climbers, though some have got lost or suffered fatal accidents in the past. ||||| Share This The remains of a mummified mountaineer were found at the Pico de Orizaba volcano in the state of Puebla, in Central Mexico. The Pico de Orizaba, is a stratovolcano, the highest mountain in Mexico and the third highest in North America, after Mount McKinley of the United States, and Mount Logan of Canada. It rises 5,636 metres (18,491 ft) above sea level in the eastern end of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, on the border between the states of Veracruz and Puebla. The volcano is currently dormant but not extinct with the last eruption taking place during the 19th century. It is the second most prominent volcanic peak in the world after Africa’s Mount Kilimanjaro. The human remains may be older than 50 years, according to government sources and were found at 4,300 meters (2.6 miles) above sea level. Juan Navarro, mayor of Chalchicomula, said that the remains will be retrieved from the mountain by a ministerial agent accompanied by Civil Protection personnel and a group of climbers from Ciudad Serdán. Hilario Aguilar, president of the Mexican Alpine Club in Chalchicomula de Sesma, said that the remains were accidentally found by a climber who saw a skull and a hand when he was trying to stop his fall. He added that 50 years ago climbers from Mexico City had an accident and that one of them was never found. Mexico Travel Care Comments comments

– A team of climbers trekked some 17,000 feet up Mexico's Pico de Orizaba in search of one set of frozen, mummified remains only to stumble upon a second set some 400 feet away, reports the Telegraph. "It was impossible to conduct the rescue this time," says a local official; rescuers were to try again to pull the bodies off the dormant volcano, which the Yucatan Times notes is the third-tallest peak in North America at 18,491 feet above sea level. Officials aren't exactly sure who the corpses might be, notes UPI, but they're speculating that they may belong to two of three people killed in an avalanche more than 50 years ago, and that a third corpse may be nearby. Officials hope to identify the bodies through still-intact clothing on them and DNA. (A mummified monk was recently found inside a Buddha statue.)

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.PICO DE ORIZABA, Mexico, March 7 (UPI) -- Two frozen, mummified bodies were recently discovered by climbers on Mexico's Pico de Orizaba. The climbers were on their way to the top of Pico de Orizaba, the country's tallest mountain, when they saw a head and hand sticking out of the snow. They then noticed another corpse a few hundred feet away. Experts are speculating the bodies may belong to people who were lost in an avalanche on the mountain over 50 years ago. An attempt was made to recover the bodies on Friday. Two families have come forward to claim the bodies, assuming they belong to the people they are thought to belong to. Forensic experts plan to identify the bodies using pieces of clothing that remain intact. Related UPI Stories ||||| Two mummified bodies found of climbers who disappeared on Mexico's highest peak 55 years ago A team of Mexican climbers searching for a frozen body on the country's highest mountain stumbled onto a second mummified cadaver during their expedition on Thursday. The 12 local civil protection mountaineers had embarked on their mission after climbers reported seeing a frozen skull 1,000ft from the peak of the 18,000ft Pico de Orizaba on Monday. The second body was found 400ft away, and it was also frozen and mummified, said Juan Navarro, mayor of the town of Chalchicomula de Sesma, near the mountain in central Puebla state. "It was impossible to conduct the rescue this time. Fog prevented the work," Navarro told AFP, adding that only two of the climbers were able to reach the location of the bodies. After the first body was spotted, Mexican authorities received phone calls from people in Spain and Germany who believe it could be a relative, he said said. But local officials suspect that the cadavers correspond to two of three Mexicans who went missing after an avalanche 55 years ago. Pieces of clothing found on both bodies could help identify them, Navarro said. The recovery effort will resume Friday with the help of a helicopter. The bodies will be taken to the Puebla state prosecutor's office to undergo DNA identification tests. The mountain, also known as the Citlaltepetl volcano, is popular among climbers, though some have got lost or suffered fatal accidents in the past. ||||| Share This The remains of a mummified mountaineer were found at the Pico de Orizaba volcano in the state of Puebla, in Central Mexico. The Pico de Orizaba, is a stratovolcano, the highest mountain in Mexico and the third highest in North America, after Mount McKinley of the United States, and Mount Logan of Canada. It rises 5,636 metres (18,491 ft) above sea level in the eastern end of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, on the border between the states of Veracruz and Puebla. The volcano is currently dormant but not extinct with the last eruption taking place during the 19th century. It is the second most prominent volcanic peak in the world after Africa’s Mount Kilimanjaro. The human remains may be older than 50 years, according to government sources and were found at 4,300 meters (2.6 miles) above sea level. Juan Navarro, mayor of Chalchicomula, said that the remains will be retrieved from the mountain by a ministerial agent accompanied by Civil Protection personnel and a group of climbers from Ciudad Serdán. Hilario Aguilar, president of the Mexican Alpine Club in Chalchicomula de Sesma, said that the remains were accidentally found by a climber who saw a skull and a hand when he was trying to stop his fall. He added that 50 years ago climbers from Mexico City had an accident and that one of them was never found. Mexico Travel Care Comments comments

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As my colleague Mark Landler reports, the White House said on Thursday that United States intelligence agencies believe with “varying degrees of confidence” that Syria has used chemical weapons against its own people in recent months as President Bashar al-Assad has sought to put down a violent uprising against his family’s four decades in power. The disclosure was made in a letter from the White House to Congressional leaders. The United States has called the use of chemical weapons in Syria a “red line” that could provoke military intervention, but officials said on Thursday that they would need “credible and corroborated facts” before deciding on a course of action. United States officials said they believed that the chemical agent sarin had been used and that the culprit was probably the Assad regime and not rebel forces, but they would not specify the dates or locations of the suspected chemical attacks. Britain has been less reticent. In a letter to the United Nations last month requesting a formal investigation, it cited three suspected attacks: two on March 19 in a village west of Aleppo and on the outskirts of Damascus, and one on Dec. 24 in Homs. Multiple videos posted online by Syrian citizen journalists claim to show the aftermath of chemical attacks in Ateibeh, a village outside Damascus, on March 19, one of the dates cited in Britain’s letter to the United Nations. Three videos posted to YouTube on March 19 by an account associated with rebels in the Eastern Ghouta region outside Damascus show men being treated in a clinic for injuries they say were sustained during a government attack on Ateibeh that involved chemical weapons. The first video shows two men: one who lies quietly on a clinic bed, writhing, with an IV tube in his arm, and a second who sits in front of him, describing the attack. The hiss of an oxygen tank can be heard in the background. “Missiles came and they exploded, and they discharged something like water, but it was dark. It emitted a very foul smell,” says the second man, who does not identify himself. “There are still a lot of people in their homes.” The cameraman asks if someone brought them to the clinic, and the man replies, “Yes, there is no shortage of good people.” The cameraman then says the date — March 19, 2013 — and pans across the room to show two other injured people lying on beds in the clinic. A second video begins with close-up footage of the same injured men shown at the end of the first video. One young man lies still, the skin on his face ashen and mottled. “A new massacre of civilians has been committed in the town of Ateibeh during a chemical strike on the town,” the cameraman says. He then pans across the room to show two more men, one lying on a clinic bed and another, in camouflage pants, breathing through an oxygen mask. “March 19, 2013,” the cameraman says. “A chemical strike on the town of Ateibeh in Eastern Ghouta.” The camera continues to pan across the room, and the two men from the first video become visible again. Someone standing off-camera asks the seated man from the first video if many people were injured in the attack, and he begins to answer before the video ends. “There were no injured, my brother,” the seated man says. “The missiles would fall and spread something like liquid.” A third video posted by the same YouTube account on March 19 claims to show another person injured by a chemical agent in Ateibeh. The injured person in this video is a young man in a green hooded sweatshirt. He wheezes heavily as someone sticks a thin suction tube in his mouth, up his nose and down his throat. His eyes appear cloudy and vacant, and there is mucus smeared on his cheeks. The cameraman describes him as “injured by a chemical strike in the town of Ateibeh on March 19, 2013.” A fourth video that claims to be posted from Ateibeh on March 19 shows an interview with a man dressed in medical scrubs, a surgical mask and surgical cap, whom the cameraman identifies as a doctor. He stands next to an unconscious man connected to an IV tube and wearing an oxygen mask. The cameraman repeats the date and asks the doctor a series of questions about his patients. “We have with us one of the doctors who deal with the victims of indiscriminate shelling on the town of Ateibeh with toxic substances whose composition is unknown,” the cameraman says. “Doctor, please, can you tell us about the symptoms that are caused by this shelling? What are the possibilities of verifying the substances being dropped on this area?” “Unfortunately, most cases we’re getting are deaths,” the doctor says. “The cases we’re getting that are still alive are exhibiting asphyxiation, spasms, slow heart rate, very low blood pressure. Truth be told, it is probably the material organic phosphate.” “Doctor, what are the substances or drugs you are giving to those patients to revive them or save their lives?” the cameraman asks. “We are using salt serums and we’re giving them atropine,” the doctor says. “Atropine is for when the heart slows down. We keep giving them atropine until they seem to react. Unfortunately, we rarely get a reaction.” “Doctor, what do you ask the world to do in the wake of this shelling? What is the response?” the cameraman asks. “Or what kind of substances can we provide for people, antidotes to those chemicals?” The doctor responds: ||||| Syrian President Bashar Assad speaks Jan. 6 in Damascus. Assad's regime has been locked in a bloody battle against opposition rebels for two years now. (Photo: SANA via AP) WASHINGTON – Establishing solid evidence that Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime used chemical weapons would require a combination of gathering soil samples, witness accounts, and evidence such as spent shells or other armaments, chemical weapons analysts say. Tracking down that kind of evidence in a war zone is nearly impossible. MORE: U.S. believes Syria had chemical weapons FIRST TAKE: Calls for action in Syria intensify "The gold standard would be samples from a munition or fragment of a munition that tested positive for a known military chemical agent," said Gregory Koblentz, a chemical weapons expert at the Council on Foreign Relations. "The best thing is to have an investigation team go to a site," said Ralf Trapp, a chemical weapons consultant based in France. U.N. inspectors have not been allowed into the country. It is likely that the United States and allied intelligence officials are relying on soil samples or other physical evidence that was gathered at a site and then smuggled out of the country, possibly by opposition groups, analysts say. That raises its own set of problems. "The problem you face is how do you demonstrate that the sample you have came from the alleged incident, in other words, that it is authentic and it hasn't been tampered with," Trapp said. The White House said Thursday it assesses "with varying degrees of confidence that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale" in Syria. The Obama administration was careful to qualify its assessment, saying it is based "in part on physiological samples" and further corroboration is required. It is not clear whether the physiological sample was referring to soil samples or other physical evidence gathered in Syria. "For example, the chain of custody is not clear, so we cannot confirm how the exposure occurred and under what conditions," the White House said in a letter to lawmakers. The White House assessment follows similar statements by Great Britain, France and Israel. Brig. Gen. Itai Brun, the head of research and analysis in Israeli military intelligence, referred to victims' symptoms when he accused Syria of using chemical weapons. "Shrunken pupils, foaming at the mouth and other signs indicate, in our view, that lethal chemical weapons were used," he said. The flawed intelligence that helped launch the Iraq War has made the Obama administration more wary of placing too much faith in intelligence. In letters to Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and John McCain, R-Ariz., the White House said "intelligence assessments alone are not sufficient." "The Iraq WMD fiasco is a cautionary tale here," Koblentz said. The White House assessment said the regime's use of chemical weapons was on a "small scale," making it even more challenging to gather proof, analysts say. Large-scale attacks, such as the gassing of Kurds in Halabja, Iraq, in 1988, are hard to hide because they produce mass casualties, Trapp said. Evidence usually includes video, eyewitness accounts and other details. Analysts are also puzzled over the motivation for limited use of chemical weapons, which are usually used on a large scale to shock and terrorize an opposing army or civilian population. Using chemicals on a small scale would risk further political alienation without achieving anything militarily, which "doesn't make that much sense," Koblentz said. It's possible the weapons fell into the hands of a rogue commander, but that raises question of whether some of the stockpiles remain under under Assad's control, analysts said. The Obama administration said it is pressing for a U.N. investigation

– After Chuck Hagel cautiously acknowledged potential Syrian chemical attacks, a batch of new videos appears to support the claims. The YouTube videos, via an account linked to Syria rebels, show apparently injured men on IVs and oxygen masks alongside others described as doctors, the New York Times reports. The clips cite a chemical attack on March 19. "Missiles came and they exploded, and they discharged something like water, but it was dark. It emitted a very foul smell," says a man in one clip. Another appears to show a doctor who calls on "the world" to send medications to help victims. "If they can provide us with Obidoxime, we don’t want anything else from them, neither weapons nor support." The US has called for "credible and corroborated facts" to support the attack claims. Chemical experts tell USA Today what kind of evidence they'd ideally like to have: Soil samples, descriptions from witnesses, and, ideally, "samples from a munition or fragment of a munition that tested positive for a known military chemical agent," says one expert with the Council on Foreign Relations. USA Today notes that it's "nearly impossible" to gather such evidence in a war zone.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.As my colleague Mark Landler reports, the White House said on Thursday that United States intelligence agencies believe with “varying degrees of confidence” that Syria has used chemical weapons against its own people in recent months as President Bashar al-Assad has sought to put down a violent uprising against his family’s four decades in power. The disclosure was made in a letter from the White House to Congressional leaders. The United States has called the use of chemical weapons in Syria a “red line” that could provoke military intervention, but officials said on Thursday that they would need “credible and corroborated facts” before deciding on a course of action. United States officials said they believed that the chemical agent sarin had been used and that the culprit was probably the Assad regime and not rebel forces, but they would not specify the dates or locations of the suspected chemical attacks. Britain has been less reticent. In a letter to the United Nations last month requesting a formal investigation, it cited three suspected attacks: two on March 19 in a village west of Aleppo and on the outskirts of Damascus, and one on Dec. 24 in Homs. Multiple videos posted online by Syrian citizen journalists claim to show the aftermath of chemical attacks in Ateibeh, a village outside Damascus, on March 19, one of the dates cited in Britain’s letter to the United Nations. Three videos posted to YouTube on March 19 by an account associated with rebels in the Eastern Ghouta region outside Damascus show men being treated in a clinic for injuries they say were sustained during a government attack on Ateibeh that involved chemical weapons. The first video shows two men: one who lies quietly on a clinic bed, writhing, with an IV tube in his arm, and a second who sits in front of him, describing the attack. The hiss of an oxygen tank can be heard in the background. “Missiles came and they exploded, and they discharged something like water, but it was dark. It emitted a very foul smell,” says the second man, who does not identify himself. “There are still a lot of people in their homes.” The cameraman asks if someone brought them to the clinic, and the man replies, “Yes, there is no shortage of good people.” The cameraman then says the date — March 19, 2013 — and pans across the room to show two other injured people lying on beds in the clinic. A second video begins with close-up footage of the same injured men shown at the end of the first video. One young man lies still, the skin on his face ashen and mottled. “A new massacre of civilians has been committed in the town of Ateibeh during a chemical strike on the town,” the cameraman says. He then pans across the room to show two more men, one lying on a clinic bed and another, in camouflage pants, breathing through an oxygen mask. “March 19, 2013,” the cameraman says. “A chemical strike on the town of Ateibeh in Eastern Ghouta.” The camera continues to pan across the room, and the two men from the first video become visible again. Someone standing off-camera asks the seated man from the first video if many people were injured in the attack, and he begins to answer before the video ends. “There were no injured, my brother,” the seated man says. “The missiles would fall and spread something like liquid.” A third video posted by the same YouTube account on March 19 claims to show another person injured by a chemical agent in Ateibeh. The injured person in this video is a young man in a green hooded sweatshirt. He wheezes heavily as someone sticks a thin suction tube in his mouth, up his nose and down his throat. His eyes appear cloudy and vacant, and there is mucus smeared on his cheeks. The cameraman describes him as “injured by a chemical strike in the town of Ateibeh on March 19, 2013.” A fourth video that claims to be posted from Ateibeh on March 19 shows an interview with a man dressed in medical scrubs, a surgical mask and surgical cap, whom the cameraman identifies as a doctor. He stands next to an unconscious man connected to an IV tube and wearing an oxygen mask. The cameraman repeats the date and asks the doctor a series of questions about his patients. “We have with us one of the doctors who deal with the victims of indiscriminate shelling on the town of Ateibeh with toxic substances whose composition is unknown,” the cameraman says. “Doctor, please, can you tell us about the symptoms that are caused by this shelling? What are the possibilities of verifying the substances being dropped on this area?” “Unfortunately, most cases we’re getting are deaths,” the doctor says. “The cases we’re getting that are still alive are exhibiting asphyxiation, spasms, slow heart rate, very low blood pressure. Truth be told, it is probably the material organic phosphate.” “Doctor, what are the substances or drugs you are giving to those patients to revive them or save their lives?” the cameraman asks. “We are using salt serums and we’re giving them atropine,” the doctor says. “Atropine is for when the heart slows down. We keep giving them atropine until they seem to react. Unfortunately, we rarely get a reaction.” “Doctor, what do you ask the world to do in the wake of this shelling? What is the response?” the cameraman asks. “Or what kind of substances can we provide for people, antidotes to those chemicals?” The doctor responds: ||||| Syrian President Bashar Assad speaks Jan. 6 in Damascus. Assad's regime has been locked in a bloody battle against opposition rebels for two years now. (Photo: SANA via AP) WASHINGTON – Establishing solid evidence that Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime used chemical weapons would require a combination of gathering soil samples, witness accounts, and evidence such as spent shells or other armaments, chemical weapons analysts say. Tracking down that kind of evidence in a war zone is nearly impossible. MORE: U.S. believes Syria had chemical weapons FIRST TAKE: Calls for action in Syria intensify "The gold standard would be samples from a munition or fragment of a munition that tested positive for a known military chemical agent," said Gregory Koblentz, a chemical weapons expert at the Council on Foreign Relations. "The best thing is to have an investigation team go to a site," said Ralf Trapp, a chemical weapons consultant based in France. U.N. inspectors have not been allowed into the country. It is likely that the United States and allied intelligence officials are relying on soil samples or other physical evidence that was gathered at a site and then smuggled out of the country, possibly by opposition groups, analysts say. That raises its own set of problems. "The problem you face is how do you demonstrate that the sample you have came from the alleged incident, in other words, that it is authentic and it hasn't been tampered with," Trapp said. The White House said Thursday it assesses "with varying degrees of confidence that the Syrian regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale" in Syria. The Obama administration was careful to qualify its assessment, saying it is based "in part on physiological samples" and further corroboration is required. It is not clear whether the physiological sample was referring to soil samples or other physical evidence gathered in Syria. "For example, the chain of custody is not clear, so we cannot confirm how the exposure occurred and under what conditions," the White House said in a letter to lawmakers. The White House assessment follows similar statements by Great Britain, France and Israel. Brig. Gen. Itai Brun, the head of research and analysis in Israeli military intelligence, referred to victims' symptoms when he accused Syria of using chemical weapons. "Shrunken pupils, foaming at the mouth and other signs indicate, in our view, that lethal chemical weapons were used," he said. The flawed intelligence that helped launch the Iraq War has made the Obama administration more wary of placing too much faith in intelligence. In letters to Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and John McCain, R-Ariz., the White House said "intelligence assessments alone are not sufficient." "The Iraq WMD fiasco is a cautionary tale here," Koblentz said. The White House assessment said the regime's use of chemical weapons was on a "small scale," making it even more challenging to gather proof, analysts say. Large-scale attacks, such as the gassing of Kurds in Halabja, Iraq, in 1988, are hard to hide because they produce mass casualties, Trapp said. Evidence usually includes video, eyewitness accounts and other details. Analysts are also puzzled over the motivation for limited use of chemical weapons, which are usually used on a large scale to shock and terrorize an opposing army or civilian population. Using chemicals on a small scale would risk further political alienation without achieving anything militarily, which "doesn't make that much sense," Koblentz said. It's possible the weapons fell into the hands of a rogue commander, but that raises question of whether some of the stockpiles remain under under Assad's control, analysts said. The Obama administration said it is pressing for a U.N. investigation

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Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Princess Charlotte comes to the role with experience Three-year-old Princess Charlotte will be one of six young bridesmaids at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Kensington Palace has said. Her elder brother, Prince George, aged four, will be a pageboy alongside three other young boys. So far, the details of the bridesmaids' dresses and the pageboys' uniforms remain under wraps. Ms Markle, 36, will not have a maid of honour as she wanted to avoid choosing just one of her closest friends. As well as his niece and nephew, Prince Harry has picked three godchildren - three-year-old Florence van Cutsem, two year-old Zalie Warren and Jasper Dyer, six - to have starring roles on his big day. Jasper is the son of Prince Harry's close friend Mark Dyer, a former royal equerry to Prince Charles, who supported Harry after the death of his mother, Princess Diana. The pair travelled together on Harry's gap year and Mr Dyer inspired the prince's charity work in Lesotho, Africa. Ms Markle's goddaughters, Remi Litt, six, and her elder sister, Rylan, seven, will also be joining the procession of bridesmaids. And the three children of one of her best friends, Jessica Mulroney - Ivy, four, and seven-year-old twins Brian and John - will complete the picture. Jessica, a stylist, is married to Ben Mulroney, a Canadian TV host and son of former Canadian prime minister, Brian Mulroney. She was photographed arriving at Heathrow Airport with her family on Tuesday night. Image copyright PA Image caption Prince George was pageboy at his aunt's wedding Image copyright AFP Image caption Prince George, second from right, concentrates on his duties Ask me hide Prince George, the son of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, will have experience to lean on - he was pageboy at his aunt Pippa Middleton's wedding to James Matthews last May. His sister, Charlotte, a bridesmaid at her aunt's wedding, recently showed she was undaunted by the limelight when she visited her little brother, Prince Louis, at hospital after his birth. With the world's cameras trained on her, she seemed to enjoy the attention, waving sweetly and smiling at the bank of photographers. Meanwhile, a petition organised by campaign group Republic has been handed to MPs. Signed by 32,000 people, the petition calls on MPs to make the Royal Family pay for the security and policing surrounding Saturday's wedding and for the government to publish a report of all costs to taxpayers. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption "The royals should be paying for this wedding" - Republic Republic chief executive Graham Smith said: "There is nothing inevitable about the public spending on a royal wedding. If the royals don't want to pay a big security bill they could have had a private wedding in Sandringham or Balmoral." Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption George and Charlotte visit royal baby Image copyright EPA Image caption Prince Harry and Ms Markle will be hoping for good behaviour from their bridesmaids and pageboys - all seven or under. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption At his brother Prince William's wedding in 2011, the young bridesmaids and pageboys patiently posed in the Throne Room at Buckingham Palace Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Prince Harry was on hand to accompany the youngest ones in a carriage to Buckingham Palace

– Prince George and Princess Charlotte will have prominent roles in Saturday's royal wedding. Kensington Palace said Wednesday that 4-year-old George will be a page boy and 3-year-old Charlotte will be a bridesmaid at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, per the AP. The third child of Prince William and his wife Kate, Prince Louis, was born last month and won't be attending. The palace says there will be six bridesmaids, ranging from 2 to 7 years old, and four page boys, ranging from 4 to 7. Per the BBC, the youngest members of the bridal party will also include several of the couple's godchildren, as well as the three kids of one of Markle's best friends. There's no word on what the children will be wearing for the big day. William will be Harry's best man, while Markle has chosen not to have a maid of honor for the ceremony in St. George's Chapel at Windsor Castle, reportedly so she didn't have to choose from among her good friends.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Princess Charlotte comes to the role with experience Three-year-old Princess Charlotte will be one of six young bridesmaids at the wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, Kensington Palace has said. Her elder brother, Prince George, aged four, will be a pageboy alongside three other young boys. So far, the details of the bridesmaids' dresses and the pageboys' uniforms remain under wraps. Ms Markle, 36, will not have a maid of honour as she wanted to avoid choosing just one of her closest friends. As well as his niece and nephew, Prince Harry has picked three godchildren - three-year-old Florence van Cutsem, two year-old Zalie Warren and Jasper Dyer, six - to have starring roles on his big day. Jasper is the son of Prince Harry's close friend Mark Dyer, a former royal equerry to Prince Charles, who supported Harry after the death of his mother, Princess Diana. The pair travelled together on Harry's gap year and Mr Dyer inspired the prince's charity work in Lesotho, Africa. Ms Markle's goddaughters, Remi Litt, six, and her elder sister, Rylan, seven, will also be joining the procession of bridesmaids. And the three children of one of her best friends, Jessica Mulroney - Ivy, four, and seven-year-old twins Brian and John - will complete the picture. Jessica, a stylist, is married to Ben Mulroney, a Canadian TV host and son of former Canadian prime minister, Brian Mulroney. She was photographed arriving at Heathrow Airport with her family on Tuesday night. Image copyright PA Image caption Prince George was pageboy at his aunt's wedding Image copyright AFP Image caption Prince George, second from right, concentrates on his duties Ask me hide Prince George, the son of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, will have experience to lean on - he was pageboy at his aunt Pippa Middleton's wedding to James Matthews last May. His sister, Charlotte, a bridesmaid at her aunt's wedding, recently showed she was undaunted by the limelight when she visited her little brother, Prince Louis, at hospital after his birth. With the world's cameras trained on her, she seemed to enjoy the attention, waving sweetly and smiling at the bank of photographers. Meanwhile, a petition organised by campaign group Republic has been handed to MPs. Signed by 32,000 people, the petition calls on MPs to make the Royal Family pay for the security and policing surrounding Saturday's wedding and for the government to publish a report of all costs to taxpayers. Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption "The royals should be paying for this wedding" - Republic Republic chief executive Graham Smith said: "There is nothing inevitable about the public spending on a royal wedding. If the royals don't want to pay a big security bill they could have had a private wedding in Sandringham or Balmoral." Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption George and Charlotte visit royal baby Image copyright EPA Image caption Prince Harry and Ms Markle will be hoping for good behaviour from their bridesmaids and pageboys - all seven or under. Image copyright Getty Images Image caption At his brother Prince William's wedding in 2011, the young bridesmaids and pageboys patiently posed in the Throne Room at Buckingham Palace Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Prince Harry was on hand to accompany the youngest ones in a carriage to Buckingham Palace

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. ||||| Ajoutée le 24 oct. 2016 Pepe the Frog was stolen by white supremacists. His creator is trying to save him. #savepepe SUBSCRIBE for NEW VIDEOS EVERY DAY - http://sprdlx.co/1jMsrza CONNECT for BONUS CONTENT - FACEBOOK: http://sprdlx.co/1lMtTTs INSTAGRAM: http://sprdlx.co/1YWKySU TWITTER: http://sprdlx.co/1YWKHFW TUMBLR: http://sprdlx.co/1Uk5jaQ SNAPCHAT: https://www.snapchat.com/add/superdel... Super Deluxe is a community of creative weirdos making videos that are (we hope) more substantial than much of what you see on the internet today. Subscribe for original shorts, series, animations, and more things that are, as one of our beloved commenters put it, “Always weird to watch but hard to look away.” Super Deluxe now has an email newsletter that does pretty much what email newsletters are supposed to do. Sign up here: http://www.superdeluxe.com/newsletter We want to hear from you! Fill out this survey and tell us what you think about Super Deluxe: http://www.superdeluxe.com/survey ||||| CBR – Privacy Policy We respect your privacy and we are committed to safeguarding your privacy while online at our site. The following discloses the information gathering and dissemination practices for this Web site. This Privacy Policy was last updated on May 10, 2018. Legal Ownership CBR (the “Website”) is owned and operated by Valnet inc. (“us” or “we”), a corporation incorporated under the laws of Canada, having its head office at 7405 Transcanada Highway, Suite 100, Saint Laurent, Quebec H4T 1Z2. 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These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here. Advertisers, as third-party vendors, use cookies to collect usage and demographic data in order to serve ads on our site. For example, Google’s use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to our users based on their visit to our sites and other sites on the Internet. Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy. We have reviewed all of our advertising partners’ policies to ensure that they comply with all applicable data privacy laws and recommended data security practices. We use the following advertisers: Links to Other Websites This site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site, and to read the privacy statements of each and every website that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this Website. Purpose of Data Collection We use the information we collect in order to: Administer our Website, including troubleshooting, and statistical or data analysis; To improve our Website and enhancing user experience by ensuring you have access to personalized content in line with your interests; Analyze user use and optimize our services. To ensure that our Website remains secure and is not subject to any hacking or fraud. Share information with our partners to provide targeted advertising and social media features. Data Shared with Third Parties We do not sell or rent your personal data to third parties. However, our partners, including ad partners, may collect data in relation to your Website usage as disclosed herein. Please see our “advertisers” section above for details. How your Data is Stored All data collected through our Website is stored on servers located in the United States. Our servers are certified under the EU-US Privacy Shield. IP address and user agent string data from all visitors is stored in rotating log files on Amazon servers for up to 7 days. All of our employees, agents and partners are committed to keeping your data confidential. We have reviewed our partners privacy policies to ensure that they comply with similar policies in order to ensure your data security. Consent under Applicable Laws If you are based in the European Economic Area (“EEA”), a consent window will appear when accessing this website. If you have clicked “yes”, your consent will be stored on our servers for twelve (12) months and your data will be processed as disclosed in this privacy policy. After twelve months, you will be asked to provide consent again. We comply with the IAB Europe Transparency & Consent Framework. You can withdraw consent at any time. Withdrawing consent may impede your ability to access certain services and will not allow us to provide the personalized Website experience. Data Security Our servers comply with ISO 27018, a code of practice that focuses on protection of personal data in the cloud. We comply with all reasonable precautions in order to ensure your data’s safety. In the event that we become aware of any data security breach, alteration, unauthorized access or disclosure of any personal data, we will take all reasonable precautions to protect your data and will notify you as required by all applicable laws. Accessing, Amending and Deleting your Data You have the right to request information regarding the data we have on file for you, to request correction and/or deletions of your personal information. Please contact us at [email protected] or at the postal address listed above, attention: Data compliance department. Age This Website does not target people below the age of 16. By visiting this Website. You hereby warrant that you are 16 years of age or older or are visiting the Website under parental supervision. Legal Disclaimer Though we make every effort to preserve user privacy, we may need to disclose personal information when required by law wherein we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process served on any of our sites. Notification of Changes Whenever we change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this Privacy Policy page, and other places we deem appropriate, so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. Contact Information If users have any questions or suggestions regarding our privacy policy, please contact us at [email protected] or by mail at the postal address listed above, attention: Data Compliance Department. ||||| Fantagraphics Books and Matt Furie, the creator of the eternally chill comic book character Pepe the Frog, condemn the illegal and repulsive appropriations of the character by racist fringe groups linked to the alt right movement and the Donald Trump presidential campaign. Furie’s character has been categorized as a hate symbol by the Anti-Defamation League as a result of these uses, creating significant emotional and financial harm for the creator. Most media reports now routinely default to a narrow description of Pepe as a representation of white supremacy, ignoring the mellow, positive-vibed frog that he is in the hands of his creator, Matt Furie, within the pages of Furie’s Boy’s Club comics (as collected by Fantagraphics Books). Yet the myriad copyright violations of recent weeks have resulted in Furie’s name now turning up in Anti-Defamation League database search results. Having your creation appropriated without consent is never something an artist wants to suffer, but having it done in the service of such repellent hatred — and thereby dragging your name into the conversation, as well — makes it considerably more troubling. Fantagraphics Books wants to state for the record that the one, true Pepe the frog, as created by the human being and artist Matt Furie, is a peaceful cartoon amphibian who represents love, acceptance, and fun. (And getting stoned.) Both creator and creation reject the nihilism fueling Pepe’s alt-right appropriators, and all of us at Fantagraphics encourage you to help us reclaim Pepe as a symbol of positivity and togetherness, and to stand by Matt Furie. We encourage reporters and others citing Furie as the character’s creator to also note that he condemns these illegal representations of his character. Matt is available for interviews through Fantagraphics. We encourage fans and others who support Furie to block, report, and denounce the illegal uses of the character by individuals and groups pirating him to foment hatred. #SolidarityWithMattFurie #MakePepeGreatAgain Boy’s Club by Matt Furie fantagraphics.com/boysclub etsy.com/shop/futurecolors mattfurie.com Media contact: Jacq Cohen ||||| Matt Furie has launched a campaign to transform the cartoon frog from a symbol of hate used by racist Donald Trump supporters to a symbol of peace How could you reclaim a meme that’s been appropriated by white supremacists? That’s the challenge faced by Pepe the Frog’s creator Matt Furie. Furie has launched the #SavePepe campaign in an attempt to transform the cartoon frog from a symbol of hate used by racist Donald Trump supporters to a symbol of peace. He’s urging people to flood the internet with their own “peaceful or nice” versions of Pepe to claw the character back from the alt-right. “We are in uncharted territory right now,” said Furie, an artist and author of children’s books as well as a Hillary Clinton supporter, “But I have to take some responsibility for him because he’s like my kid or something.” Furie created Pepe back in 2005 as one of four anthropomorphic characters in a comic book called Boy’s Club to amuse his friends at work. “The frog was just a chilled-out frog who likes to eat snacks and talk on the phone, smoke weed,” he said. “All the characters are an extension of different parts of my personality, but particularly Pepe. He has these heavy eyelids and laid-back nature that I think I have.” Pepe first became a meme in around 2008. People were lifting frames from the comic book, particularly one where Pepe has pulled his pants all the way down to pee and says “feels good, man” and another where Pepe is consoling himself about his lack of success with women, saying “at least I have time for a pizza on a bagel” and adding their own captions. “Then the Sad Frog took off,” said Furie, referencing a meme that flipped “feels good man” on its head. “It just started to have a life of its own. All these versions of Pepe having different personalities – smug, sad or really violent and weird,” said Furie, citing a “scatological and weirdly graphic” version known as Poo Poo Pee Pee Pepe [NSFW]. Pepe’s success was international, and he won major followings in China and Korea. “Pepe transcends all these kind of sociological boundaries. He’s just a cartoon frog that’s sad and people can relate to that.” That all changed on 12 September, when Hillary Clinton posted an explainer about Pepe the Frog becoming a racist hate symbol. Over the previous few weeks, Pepe had been appropriated by the alt-right and was being used as a mascot for white supremacy by some Trump supporters. Two weeks later, Pepe was added to the Anti-Defamation League’s database of hate symbols, joining the swastika, the triangular Klan symbol and other iconography associated with racism. Pepe’s face is a common profile icon for Trump supporters on Twitter. Furie acknowledges that he lost control of Pepe the day he became a meme. “It doesn’t really matter who creates the meme. It becomes an internet thing.” However, when ADL credited him as the creator of Pepe, he realized he had to intervene. “It’s the worst-case scenario for any artist to lose control of their work and eventually have it labelled like a swastika or a burning cross,” he said. “I had to step up and speak on the cartoon frog’s behalf.” Furie has collected about 600 positive or peaceful frog memes being generated by the #SavePepe campaign. He plans to incorporate these into what he calls a “Peace Pepe Database of Love”, an online resource for people who want to support his campaign to cement Pepe’s reputation as a “stoned, chilled frog”. “I would like to get the frog off the hate database. It means a lot to me as he’s an extension of myself.” This article contains affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if a reader clicks through and makes a purchase. All our journalism is independent and is in no way influenced by any advertiser or commercial initiative. The links are powered by Skimlinks. By clicking on an affiliate link, you accept that Skimlinks cookies will be set. More information. ||||| Matt Furie concedes defeat after months of attempting to wrench back his ‘peaceful frog-dude’ who had been appropriated as a racist hate symbol The creator of Pepe the Frog has symbolically killed off the cartoon frog, effectively surrendering control of the character to the far right. Matt Furie, an artist and children’s book author, created the now-infamous frog as part of his “Boy’s Club” series on MySpace in 2005. Pepe took on a life of its own online as a meme, before being eventually adopted as a symbol by the “alt-right” in the lead-up to last year’s US election. In September, Hillary Clinton identified Pepe the Frog as a racist hate symbol, and Pepe was added to the Anti-Defamation League’s database of hate symbols. Furie launched a campaign to “Save Pepe”, flooding the internet with “peaceful or nice” depictions of the character in a bid to shake its association with white supremacy and antisemitism. #SavePepe: cartoon frog's creator tries to take meme back from alt-right Read more But he now seems to have conceded defeat, killing the character off in a one-page strip for the independent publisher Fantagraphics’ Free Comic Book Day. It showed Pepe laid to rest in an open casket, being mourned by his fellow characters from Boy’s Club. Furie had been attempting to wrench back his “peaceful frog-dude” – whom he has often said he imagined as an extension of his personality – for more than six months. Pepe’s passing has been interpreted of his ceding control of the character. Shaun Manning wrote in Comic Book Resources that “the rehabilitation of Pepe was always going to be a struggle, and it’s hard to imagine Furie taking much joy in creating new Pepe strips knowing that, whatever his own intentions, the character would be read through tinted lenses”. “While it’s unlikely Pepe’s official death will stop extremists from co-opting his image, this was, perhaps, the most effective way for Furie to reclaim his character; Pepe’s soul has returned to his creator. Rest in Peace.” Angela Nagle, a writer and academic whose book on the culture of the alt-right will be published at the end of next month, told the Guardian Furie’s campaign to reclaim his creation, while understandable, had been misguided. Zara pulls denim skirt over likeness to 'alt-right' mascot Pepe the Frog Read more “I can see why he must be dismayed that his own creation is being used in this way, so I don’t blame him for trying. In general though, I think it’s a dead end, yes.” One of the ways the alt-right resisted easy interpretation was “through the kind of subcultural elitism and vague ironic in-jokey tone that Pepe represents well”, she wrote. “Critics of the alt-right have a tendency to try to outdo them at their own game by ‘trolling the trolls’. This should be rejected in its entirety and not ‘reclaimed’ in any way ... There are many wonderful ideals for us to reclaim like beauty, utopianism, internationalism. Let them have their tedious nihilistic juvenile symbols.” Furie wrote in Time magazine last October that the experience of having his copyrighted creation appropriated as a hate symbol had been a “nightmare”. Fantagraphics issued a statement denouncing the appropriation of the “mellow, positive-vibed frog that he is in the hands of his creator”, which had led to it being categorised as a hate symbol, causing Furie “significant emotional and financial harm”. “Having your creation appropriated without consent is never something an artist wants to suffer, but having it done in the service of such repellent hatred — and thereby dragging your name into the conversation, as well — makes it considerably more troubling.” Furie and Fantagraphics have been contacted for comment.

– He tried to #SavePepe but in the end, Matt Furie had to let the frog go. The Guardian reports that Furie, the cartoonist who created the amphibian character that was appropriated by the alt-right in internet memes, killed off Pepe the Frog to coincide with Free Comic Book Day on Sunday. Furie—who said in an October YouTube video that the hijacking of Pepe "melts my spirit"—decided that, despite his best efforts, he couldn't reclaim Pepe after white supremacists and a contingent of President Trump supporters (and even Trump himself) embraced Pepe as their own, earning the "Sad Frog" a place on the Anti-Defamation League's list of hate symbols. And so Furie worked up a panel showing his "chill frog" in a casket, a smiling memorial photo by the coffin's side. Furie created Pepe in 2005 as a character for his Boy's Club series, and he described the frog as an extension of himself, "a chilled-out frog who likes to eat snacks and talk on the phone, smoke weed," and who had the same "heavy eyelids" and "laid-back nature" as Furie himself. Publisher Fantagraphics Books had joined Furie in his mission to take back Pepe from nefarious corners of the internet, noting Pepe is a "peaceful cartoon amphibian who represents love, acceptance, and fun. (And getting stoned.)" But some say the effort was futile from the start, with Comic Book Resources noting it would've been difficult for Furie to work up new Pepe cartoons knowing some could be viewing the frog through "tinted lenses." "Pepe's soul has returned to his creator. Rest in Peace," CBR notes. (A white nationalist wearing a Pepe the Frog pin got punched at Trump's inauguration.)

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period. ||||| Ajoutée le 24 oct. 2016 Pepe the Frog was stolen by white supremacists. His creator is trying to save him. #savepepe SUBSCRIBE for NEW VIDEOS EVERY DAY - http://sprdlx.co/1jMsrza CONNECT for BONUS CONTENT - FACEBOOK: http://sprdlx.co/1lMtTTs INSTAGRAM: http://sprdlx.co/1YWKySU TWITTER: http://sprdlx.co/1YWKHFW TUMBLR: http://sprdlx.co/1Uk5jaQ SNAPCHAT: https://www.snapchat.com/add/superdel... Super Deluxe is a community of creative weirdos making videos that are (we hope) more substantial than much of what you see on the internet today. Subscribe for original shorts, series, animations, and more things that are, as one of our beloved commenters put it, “Always weird to watch but hard to look away.” Super Deluxe now has an email newsletter that does pretty much what email newsletters are supposed to do. Sign up here: http://www.superdeluxe.com/newsletter We want to hear from you! Fill out this survey and tell us what you think about Super Deluxe: http://www.superdeluxe.com/survey ||||| CBR – Privacy Policy We respect your privacy and we are committed to safeguarding your privacy while online at our site. The following discloses the information gathering and dissemination practices for this Web site. This Privacy Policy was last updated on May 10, 2018. Legal Ownership CBR (the “Website”) is owned and operated by Valnet inc. (“us” or “we”), a corporation incorporated under the laws of Canada, having its head office at 7405 Transcanada Highway, Suite 100, Saint Laurent, Quebec H4T 1Z2. Personal Data Collected When you visit our Website, we collect certain information related to your device, such as your IP address, what pages you visit on our Website, whether you were referred to by another website, and at what time you accessed our Website. We do not collect any other type of personal data. If you are accessing our website through a social media account, please refer to the social media provider’s privacy policy for information regarding their data collection. Log Files Like most standard Web site servers, we use log files. This includes internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, platform type, date/timestamp, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s movement in the aggregate, and gather broad demographic information for aggregate use. Cookies A cookie is a piece of data stored on the user’s computer tied to information about the user. We and some of our business partners (for example, advertisers) use cookies on our Website. These cookies track usage of the site for security, analytics and targeted advertising purposes. We use the following type of cookies: Essential cookies: these cookies are essential to the provision of our Website. Functionality cookies: these cookies help us remember choices you have made while on our website, remember your preferences, and personalize your Website experience. Analytics and performance cookies: these cookies help us collect statistical and analytical usage to help up analyze website usage. Social media cookies: These cookies allow you to interact with content on certain social media platforms, such a “liking” our articles. Depending on your social media setting, the social media network will have record of this and may display your name or identifier in relation to this action. 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These companies may use information (not including your name, address, email address or telephone number) about your visits to this and other Web sites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, click here. Advertisers, as third-party vendors, use cookies to collect usage and demographic data in order to serve ads on our site. For example, Google’s use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to our users based on their visit to our sites and other sites on the Internet. Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy. We have reviewed all of our advertising partners’ policies to ensure that they comply with all applicable data privacy laws and recommended data security practices. We use the following advertisers: Links to Other Websites This site contains links to other sites. Please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other sites. We encourage our users to be aware when they leave our site, and to read the privacy statements of each and every website that collects personally identifiable information. This privacy statement applies solely to information collected by this Website. Purpose of Data Collection We use the information we collect in order to: Administer our Website, including troubleshooting, and statistical or data analysis; To improve our Website and enhancing user experience by ensuring you have access to personalized content in line with your interests; Analyze user use and optimize our services. To ensure that our Website remains secure and is not subject to any hacking or fraud. Share information with our partners to provide targeted advertising and social media features. Data Shared with Third Parties We do not sell or rent your personal data to third parties. However, our partners, including ad partners, may collect data in relation to your Website usage as disclosed herein. Please see our “advertisers” section above for details. How your Data is Stored All data collected through our Website is stored on servers located in the United States. Our servers are certified under the EU-US Privacy Shield. IP address and user agent string data from all visitors is stored in rotating log files on Amazon servers for up to 7 days. All of our employees, agents and partners are committed to keeping your data confidential. We have reviewed our partners privacy policies to ensure that they comply with similar policies in order to ensure your data security. Consent under Applicable Laws If you are based in the European Economic Area (“EEA”), a consent window will appear when accessing this website. If you have clicked “yes”, your consent will be stored on our servers for twelve (12) months and your data will be processed as disclosed in this privacy policy. After twelve months, you will be asked to provide consent again. We comply with the IAB Europe Transparency & Consent Framework. You can withdraw consent at any time. Withdrawing consent may impede your ability to access certain services and will not allow us to provide the personalized Website experience. Data Security Our servers comply with ISO 27018, a code of practice that focuses on protection of personal data in the cloud. We comply with all reasonable precautions in order to ensure your data’s safety. In the event that we become aware of any data security breach, alteration, unauthorized access or disclosure of any personal data, we will take all reasonable precautions to protect your data and will notify you as required by all applicable laws. Accessing, Amending and Deleting your Data You have the right to request information regarding the data we have on file for you, to request correction and/or deletions of your personal information. Please contact us at [email protected] or at the postal address listed above, attention: Data compliance department. Age This Website does not target people below the age of 16. By visiting this Website. You hereby warrant that you are 16 years of age or older or are visiting the Website under parental supervision. Legal Disclaimer Though we make every effort to preserve user privacy, we may need to disclose personal information when required by law wherein we have a good-faith belief that such action is necessary to comply with a current judicial proceeding, a court order or legal process served on any of our sites. Notification of Changes Whenever we change our privacy policy, we will post those changes to this Privacy Policy page, and other places we deem appropriate, so our users are always aware of what information we collect, how we use it, and under what circumstances, if any, we disclose it. Contact Information If users have any questions or suggestions regarding our privacy policy, please contact us at [email protected] or by mail at the postal address listed above, attention: Data Compliance Department. ||||| Fantagraphics Books and Matt Furie, the creator of the eternally chill comic book character Pepe the Frog, condemn the illegal and repulsive appropriations of the character by racist fringe groups linked to the alt right movement and the Donald Trump presidential campaign. Furie’s character has been categorized as a hate symbol by the Anti-Defamation League as a result of these uses, creating significant emotional and financial harm for the creator. Most media reports now routinely default to a narrow description of Pepe as a representation of white supremacy, ignoring the mellow, positive-vibed frog that he is in the hands of his creator, Matt Furie, within the pages of Furie’s Boy’s Club comics (as collected by Fantagraphics Books). Yet the myriad copyright violations of recent weeks have resulted in Furie’s name now turning up in Anti-Defamation League database search results. Having your creation appropriated without consent is never something an artist wants to suffer, but having it done in the service of such repellent hatred — and thereby dragging your name into the conversation, as well — makes it considerably more troubling. Fantagraphics Books wants to state for the record that the one, true Pepe the frog, as created by the human being and artist Matt Furie, is a peaceful cartoon amphibian who represents love, acceptance, and fun. (And getting stoned.) Both creator and creation reject the nihilism fueling Pepe’s alt-right appropriators, and all of us at Fantagraphics encourage you to help us reclaim Pepe as a symbol of positivity and togetherness, and to stand by Matt Furie. We encourage reporters and others citing Furie as the character’s creator to also note that he condemns these illegal representations of his character. Matt is available for interviews through Fantagraphics. We encourage fans and others who support Furie to block, report, and denounce the illegal uses of the character by individuals and groups pirating him to foment hatred. #SolidarityWithMattFurie #MakePepeGreatAgain Boy’s Club by Matt Furie fantagraphics.com/boysclub etsy.com/shop/futurecolors mattfurie.com Media contact: Jacq Cohen ||||| Matt Furie has launched a campaign to transform the cartoon frog from a symbol of hate used by racist Donald Trump supporters to a symbol of peace How could you reclaim a meme that’s been appropriated by white supremacists? That’s the challenge faced by Pepe the Frog’s creator Matt Furie. Furie has launched the #SavePepe campaign in an attempt to transform the cartoon frog from a symbol of hate used by racist Donald Trump supporters to a symbol of peace. He’s urging people to flood the internet with their own “peaceful or nice” versions of Pepe to claw the character back from the alt-right. “We are in uncharted territory right now,” said Furie, an artist and author of children’s books as well as a Hillary Clinton supporter, “But I have to take some responsibility for him because he’s like my kid or something.” Furie created Pepe back in 2005 as one of four anthropomorphic characters in a comic book called Boy’s Club to amuse his friends at work. “The frog was just a chilled-out frog who likes to eat snacks and talk on the phone, smoke weed,” he said. “All the characters are an extension of different parts of my personality, but particularly Pepe. He has these heavy eyelids and laid-back nature that I think I have.” Pepe first became a meme in around 2008. People were lifting frames from the comic book, particularly one where Pepe has pulled his pants all the way down to pee and says “feels good, man” and another where Pepe is consoling himself about his lack of success with women, saying “at least I have time for a pizza on a bagel” and adding their own captions. “Then the Sad Frog took off,” said Furie, referencing a meme that flipped “feels good man” on its head. “It just started to have a life of its own. All these versions of Pepe having different personalities – smug, sad or really violent and weird,” said Furie, citing a “scatological and weirdly graphic” version known as Poo Poo Pee Pee Pepe [NSFW]. Pepe’s success was international, and he won major followings in China and Korea. “Pepe transcends all these kind of sociological boundaries. He’s just a cartoon frog that’s sad and people can relate to that.” That all changed on 12 September, when Hillary Clinton posted an explainer about Pepe the Frog becoming a racist hate symbol. Over the previous few weeks, Pepe had been appropriated by the alt-right and was being used as a mascot for white supremacy by some Trump supporters. Two weeks later, Pepe was added to the Anti-Defamation League’s database of hate symbols, joining the swastika, the triangular Klan symbol and other iconography associated with racism. Pepe’s face is a common profile icon for Trump supporters on Twitter. Furie acknowledges that he lost control of Pepe the day he became a meme. “It doesn’t really matter who creates the meme. It becomes an internet thing.” However, when ADL credited him as the creator of Pepe, he realized he had to intervene. “It’s the worst-case scenario for any artist to lose control of their work and eventually have it labelled like a swastika or a burning cross,” he said. “I had to step up and speak on the cartoon frog’s behalf.” Furie has collected about 600 positive or peaceful frog memes being generated by the #SavePepe campaign. He plans to incorporate these into what he calls a “Peace Pepe Database of Love”, an online resource for people who want to support his campaign to cement Pepe’s reputation as a “stoned, chilled frog”. “I would like to get the frog off the hate database. It means a lot to me as he’s an extension of myself.” This article contains affiliate links, which means we may earn a small commission if a reader clicks through and makes a purchase. All our journalism is independent and is in no way influenced by any advertiser or commercial initiative. The links are powered by Skimlinks. By clicking on an affiliate link, you accept that Skimlinks cookies will be set. More information. ||||| Matt Furie concedes defeat after months of attempting to wrench back his ‘peaceful frog-dude’ who had been appropriated as a racist hate symbol The creator of Pepe the Frog has symbolically killed off the cartoon frog, effectively surrendering control of the character to the far right. Matt Furie, an artist and children’s book author, created the now-infamous frog as part of his “Boy’s Club” series on MySpace in 2005. Pepe took on a life of its own online as a meme, before being eventually adopted as a symbol by the “alt-right” in the lead-up to last year’s US election. In September, Hillary Clinton identified Pepe the Frog as a racist hate symbol, and Pepe was added to the Anti-Defamation League’s database of hate symbols. Furie launched a campaign to “Save Pepe”, flooding the internet with “peaceful or nice” depictions of the character in a bid to shake its association with white supremacy and antisemitism. #SavePepe: cartoon frog's creator tries to take meme back from alt-right Read more But he now seems to have conceded defeat, killing the character off in a one-page strip for the independent publisher Fantagraphics’ Free Comic Book Day. It showed Pepe laid to rest in an open casket, being mourned by his fellow characters from Boy’s Club. Furie had been attempting to wrench back his “peaceful frog-dude” – whom he has often said he imagined as an extension of his personality – for more than six months. Pepe’s passing has been interpreted of his ceding control of the character. Shaun Manning wrote in Comic Book Resources that “the rehabilitation of Pepe was always going to be a struggle, and it’s hard to imagine Furie taking much joy in creating new Pepe strips knowing that, whatever his own intentions, the character would be read through tinted lenses”. “While it’s unlikely Pepe’s official death will stop extremists from co-opting his image, this was, perhaps, the most effective way for Furie to reclaim his character; Pepe’s soul has returned to his creator. Rest in Peace.” Angela Nagle, a writer and academic whose book on the culture of the alt-right will be published at the end of next month, told the Guardian Furie’s campaign to reclaim his creation, while understandable, had been misguided. Zara pulls denim skirt over likeness to 'alt-right' mascot Pepe the Frog Read more “I can see why he must be dismayed that his own creation is being used in this way, so I don’t blame him for trying. In general though, I think it’s a dead end, yes.” One of the ways the alt-right resisted easy interpretation was “through the kind of subcultural elitism and vague ironic in-jokey tone that Pepe represents well”, she wrote. “Critics of the alt-right have a tendency to try to outdo them at their own game by ‘trolling the trolls’. This should be rejected in its entirety and not ‘reclaimed’ in any way ... There are many wonderful ideals for us to reclaim like beauty, utopianism, internationalism. Let them have their tedious nihilistic juvenile symbols.” Furie wrote in Time magazine last October that the experience of having his copyrighted creation appropriated as a hate symbol had been a “nightmare”. Fantagraphics issued a statement denouncing the appropriation of the “mellow, positive-vibed frog that he is in the hands of his creator”, which had led to it being categorised as a hate symbol, causing Furie “significant emotional and financial harm”. “Having your creation appropriated without consent is never something an artist wants to suffer, but having it done in the service of such repellent hatred — and thereby dragging your name into the conversation, as well — makes it considerably more troubling.” Furie and Fantagraphics have been contacted for comment.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Apple says that international customers waiting for the iPad will have to wait until the end of May because of strong U.S. demand for the iPad. The company said Wednesday that with 500,000 Wi-Fi-only iPad units sold in the first week, demand is "far higher" than the company predicted. Demand will outstrip supply over the next few weeks. Apple had originally planned on selling the iPad overseas in late April, when it was also planning on shipping 3G iPad units here in the United States. Now international customers can preorder their iPads online on May 10 for delivery in late May. Flash fight: The feud between Apple and Adobe Systems could be headed to court. There are rumblings that Adobe is preparing to sue Apple over Apple's denial of Flash on the iPhone platform. ITWorld is reporting that sources close to Adobe say a lawsuit is just a few weeks away. Apple has shot down the use of Flash for Web applications and last week changed the rules of the iPhone developer agreement to prohibit the use of cross-platform development tools that would have allowed developers to reuse code and convert it for the iPhone operating system. If a lawsuit is filed, it will not only ratchet up the animosity between Apple and Adobe, but it could also provide a good measure of how much power Apple has to protect its own platform. Facebook safety: Facebook has overhauled its Safety Center with more information for its 400 million users, especially parents, educators and teenagers, to learn how to protect themselves while on the social network. With the help of a board of Internet safety experts and organizations, the page provides information and resources on topics ranging from how to maintain a professional page to what to do about cyber abuse. It also includes links to online forms for reporting sex offenders or suspected terrorist activities. The revamped page comes as Facebook has come under fire for making too much of member's private information public and faces legislative pressures to kick convicted sex offenders off the social network. Tweet search: Google Inc. on Wednesday announced a new tool that it says will eventually allow comprehensive searching of Twitter updates for the first time. Specifically, the new search feature will allow users to hop to any point on a visual timeline and replay what people were tweeting about given topics. The Mountain View company says this ability is increasingly important as tweets become an integral part of the public dialogue about breaking news and world events. The service will be rolled out in the next few days. For now, the tool will dig through tweets going back to only Feb. 11, but down the road it will reach all the way back to the first tweet in March 2006. Google introduced real-time search of live updates from Twitter and FriendFeed in December, allowing users to see what people were saying at that moment. Since then, the company has added content from MySpace, Facebook and its own Buzz product. This article appeared on page D - 2 of the San Francisco Chronicle ||||| By RON FRIEDMAN Apple's iPad. Photo: AP Israelis planning to buy Apple’s popular new iPad tablet computer may want to reconsider, as the Communications Ministry has banned the entrance of the product into the country.The ministry said on Tuesday evening that the new product’s Wi-Fi specifications did not match Israeli standards and was not permitted to be used here.Custom officials at Ben-Gurion Airport have been instructed to confiscate iPads from incoming travelers and according to Communications Ministry officials, 10 devices have been confiscated from passengers who passed through the “red line” at customs, declaring they had them in their possession.“Just to be clear, we have nothing against the iPad specifically and would like to see it introduced to Israel,” said Nati Shubert, the senior deputy director general of spectrum management at the ministry. “There are thousands of new products that come out every year. It is our job to make sure that they meet the Israeli standards. From inquiries we made with the United States Federal Communications Commission, we determined that the Wi-Fi specifications of the device was set to the American standard and not the European standard, which is the one the Israeli standard is based on. The moment Apple markets a device that meets the specifications, we will be happy to approve it.”Shubert likened the problem of standards to road safety issues.“Traffic can flow smoothly on the road as long as everyone obeys the traffic laws. It’s the same thing with wireless communications. All we want is to prevent disruptions, and since the American specifications allow higher broadcast levels, introducing them here on a large scale would cause disruptions to the network.”The Communications Ministry has come under criticism for not alerting consumers to the problem earlier.Chaim Zagoury, the owner of I-phone Israel, an importer of Apple devices, said he has received many calls from people interested in buying the iPad.“Thankfully, I haven’t ordered any yet, but I know of many other people who have. Now, they’re in trouble. They are either stuck with stock that nobody will buy until things clear up, or they are waiting for the devices to arrive and praying they are not confiscated in customs’” he said.“It’s annoying that they didn’t say anything sooner,” said Keren Arush, who recently bought an iPad for her niece’s bat mitzva. “They could have anticipated that people would rush to buy them, seeing how popular they are abroad. Now I’m worried that she won’t get her present.”Shubert said the ministry was not so much worried about individuals bringing the device in for their own use, but rather the big importers. “In small amounts the disruptions to the network may be negligible, but if they are brought in on a large scale, it risks harming the system,” Shubert said.“I know Israelis and I know that not everybody rushes to declare they are bringing in an electronic device. I imagine they’ll find ways to smuggle the iPads in regardless. We have already contacted Apple’s licensed distributors in Israel, I-Digital, to receive all the information that will allow us to authorize its entrance.”Apple has already announced that it will sell the iPad in European countries, so it is probably only a matter of time before the Wi-Fi specifications are adjusted and the devices are allowed into the country.People considering bringing in the device without declaring it to customs officials should know that the fine for not declaring it is NIS 650 as well as 16% value-added tax. ||||| Web wide crawl with initial seedlist and crawler configuration from March 2011. This uses the new HQ software for distributed crawling by Kenji Nagahashi. What’s in the data set: Crawl start date: 09 March, 2011 Crawl end date: 23 December, 2011 Number of captures: 2,713,676,341 Number of unique URLs: 2,273,840,159 Number of hosts: 29,032,069 The seed list for this crawl was a list of Alexa’s top 1 million web sites, retrieved close to the crawl start date. We used Heritrix (3.1.1-SNAPSHOT) crawler software and respected robots.txt directives. The scope of the crawl was not limited except for a few manually excluded sites. However this was a somewhat experimental crawl for us, as we were using newly minted software to feed URLs to the crawlers, and we know there were some operational issues with it. For example, in many cases we may not have crawled all of the embedded and linked objects in a page since the URLs for these resources were added into queues that quickly grew bigger than the intended size of the crawl (and therefore we never got to them). We also included repeated crawls of some Argentinian government sites, so looking at results by country will be somewhat skewed. We have made many changes to how we do these wide crawls since this particular example, but we wanted to make the data available “warts and all” for people to experiment with. We have also done some further analysis of the content. If you would like access to this set of crawl data, please contact us at info at archive dot org and let us know who you are and what you’re hoping to do with it. We may not be able to say “yes” to all requests, since we’re just figuring out whether this is a good idea, but everyone will be considered.

– Disappointed Apple fans outside the US will have to wait at least another month to get their hands on an iPad, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. The company says demand has been much higher than expected, with 500,000 tablets sold in the first week, so it has pushed the tablet's original late April international release date forward to the end of May. Some observers believe Apple is still working out glitches with wireless compatibility and may be having trouble with component supplies. Many international travelers have been bringing iPads back from trips to the US, but Israelis may want to think twice. The country has banned imports of the iPad for now, saying its Wi-Fi specifications don't match national standards. Israeli customs officers have seized at least 10 iPads from incoming travelers, according to the Jerusalem Post.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Apple says that international customers waiting for the iPad will have to wait until the end of May because of strong U.S. demand for the iPad. The company said Wednesday that with 500,000 Wi-Fi-only iPad units sold in the first week, demand is "far higher" than the company predicted. Demand will outstrip supply over the next few weeks. Apple had originally planned on selling the iPad overseas in late April, when it was also planning on shipping 3G iPad units here in the United States. Now international customers can preorder their iPads online on May 10 for delivery in late May. Flash fight: The feud between Apple and Adobe Systems could be headed to court. There are rumblings that Adobe is preparing to sue Apple over Apple's denial of Flash on the iPhone platform. ITWorld is reporting that sources close to Adobe say a lawsuit is just a few weeks away. Apple has shot down the use of Flash for Web applications and last week changed the rules of the iPhone developer agreement to prohibit the use of cross-platform development tools that would have allowed developers to reuse code and convert it for the iPhone operating system. If a lawsuit is filed, it will not only ratchet up the animosity between Apple and Adobe, but it could also provide a good measure of how much power Apple has to protect its own platform. Facebook safety: Facebook has overhauled its Safety Center with more information for its 400 million users, especially parents, educators and teenagers, to learn how to protect themselves while on the social network. With the help of a board of Internet safety experts and organizations, the page provides information and resources on topics ranging from how to maintain a professional page to what to do about cyber abuse. It also includes links to online forms for reporting sex offenders or suspected terrorist activities. The revamped page comes as Facebook has come under fire for making too much of member's private information public and faces legislative pressures to kick convicted sex offenders off the social network. Tweet search: Google Inc. on Wednesday announced a new tool that it says will eventually allow comprehensive searching of Twitter updates for the first time. Specifically, the new search feature will allow users to hop to any point on a visual timeline and replay what people were tweeting about given topics. The Mountain View company says this ability is increasingly important as tweets become an integral part of the public dialogue about breaking news and world events. The service will be rolled out in the next few days. For now, the tool will dig through tweets going back to only Feb. 11, but down the road it will reach all the way back to the first tweet in March 2006. Google introduced real-time search of live updates from Twitter and FriendFeed in December, allowing users to see what people were saying at that moment. Since then, the company has added content from MySpace, Facebook and its own Buzz product. This article appeared on page D - 2 of the San Francisco Chronicle ||||| By RON FRIEDMAN Apple's iPad. Photo: AP Israelis planning to buy Apple’s popular new iPad tablet computer may want to reconsider, as the Communications Ministry has banned the entrance of the product into the country.The ministry said on Tuesday evening that the new product’s Wi-Fi specifications did not match Israeli standards and was not permitted to be used here.Custom officials at Ben-Gurion Airport have been instructed to confiscate iPads from incoming travelers and according to Communications Ministry officials, 10 devices have been confiscated from passengers who passed through the “red line” at customs, declaring they had them in their possession.“Just to be clear, we have nothing against the iPad specifically and would like to see it introduced to Israel,” said Nati Shubert, the senior deputy director general of spectrum management at the ministry. “There are thousands of new products that come out every year. It is our job to make sure that they meet the Israeli standards. From inquiries we made with the United States Federal Communications Commission, we determined that the Wi-Fi specifications of the device was set to the American standard and not the European standard, which is the one the Israeli standard is based on. The moment Apple markets a device that meets the specifications, we will be happy to approve it.”Shubert likened the problem of standards to road safety issues.“Traffic can flow smoothly on the road as long as everyone obeys the traffic laws. It’s the same thing with wireless communications. All we want is to prevent disruptions, and since the American specifications allow higher broadcast levels, introducing them here on a large scale would cause disruptions to the network.”The Communications Ministry has come under criticism for not alerting consumers to the problem earlier.Chaim Zagoury, the owner of I-phone Israel, an importer of Apple devices, said he has received many calls from people interested in buying the iPad.“Thankfully, I haven’t ordered any yet, but I know of many other people who have. Now, they’re in trouble. They are either stuck with stock that nobody will buy until things clear up, or they are waiting for the devices to arrive and praying they are not confiscated in customs’” he said.“It’s annoying that they didn’t say anything sooner,” said Keren Arush, who recently bought an iPad for her niece’s bat mitzva. “They could have anticipated that people would rush to buy them, seeing how popular they are abroad. Now I’m worried that she won’t get her present.”Shubert said the ministry was not so much worried about individuals bringing the device in for their own use, but rather the big importers. “In small amounts the disruptions to the network may be negligible, but if they are brought in on a large scale, it risks harming the system,” Shubert said.“I know Israelis and I know that not everybody rushes to declare they are bringing in an electronic device. I imagine they’ll find ways to smuggle the iPads in regardless. We have already contacted Apple’s licensed distributors in Israel, I-Digital, to receive all the information that will allow us to authorize its entrance.”Apple has already announced that it will sell the iPad in European countries, so it is probably only a matter of time before the Wi-Fi specifications are adjusted and the devices are allowed into the country.People considering bringing in the device without declaring it to customs officials should know that the fine for not declaring it is NIS 650 as well as 16% value-added tax. ||||| Web wide crawl with initial seedlist and crawler configuration from March 2011. This uses the new HQ software for distributed crawling by Kenji Nagahashi. What’s in the data set: Crawl start date: 09 March, 2011 Crawl end date: 23 December, 2011 Number of captures: 2,713,676,341 Number of unique URLs: 2,273,840,159 Number of hosts: 29,032,069 The seed list for this crawl was a list of Alexa’s top 1 million web sites, retrieved close to the crawl start date. We used Heritrix (3.1.1-SNAPSHOT) crawler software and respected robots.txt directives. The scope of the crawl was not limited except for a few manually excluded sites. However this was a somewhat experimental crawl for us, as we were using newly minted software to feed URLs to the crawlers, and we know there were some operational issues with it. For example, in many cases we may not have crawled all of the embedded and linked objects in a page since the URLs for these resources were added into queues that quickly grew bigger than the intended size of the crawl (and therefore we never got to them). We also included repeated crawls of some Argentinian government sites, so looking at results by country will be somewhat skewed. We have made many changes to how we do these wide crawls since this particular example, but we wanted to make the data available “warts and all” for people to experiment with. We have also done some further analysis of the content. If you would like access to this set of crawl data, please contact us at info at archive dot org and let us know who you are and what you’re hoping to do with it. We may not be able to say “yes” to all requests, since we’re just figuring out whether this is a good idea, but everyone will be considered.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Prof Olaf Kaper, an archaeologist at Leiden University in the Netherlands, believes he may have solved one of the greatest mysteries in ancient history – what happened to the 50,000-man army of Persian King Cambyses II in the Egyptian desert around 524 BC. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, Cambyses II, the oldest son of Cyrus the Great, sent his army to destroy the Oracle of Amun at Siwa Oasis. 50,000 warriors entered the Egypt’s western desert near Luxor. Somewhere in the middle of the desert the army was overwhelmed by a sandstorm and destroyed. Although many scientists regard the story as a myth, amateur as well as professional archaeologists have searched for the remains of the Persian soldiers for many decades. Prof Kaper never believed this story. “Some expect to find an entire army, fully equipped. However, experience has long shown that you cannot die from a sandstorm,” he said. Prof Kaper argues that the lost army of Cambyses II did not disappear, but was defeated. “My research shows that the army was not simply passing through the desert, its final destination was the Dakhla Oasis.” “This was the location of the troops of the Egyptian rebel leader Petubastis III.” “He ultimately ambushed the army of Cambyses II, and in this way managed from his base in the oasis to reconquer a large part of Egypt, after which he let himself be crowned Pharaoh in the capital, Memphis.” The fact that the fate of the army of Cambyses II remained unclear for such a long time is probably due to the Persian King Darius I, who ended the Egyptian revolt with much bloodshed two years after Cambyses II’s defeat. “Darius I attributed the shameful defeat of his predecessor to natural elements. Thanks to this effective manipulation, 75 years after the event all Herodotus could do was take note of the sandstorm story.” During the past ten years, Prof Kaper has been involved in excavations in Amheida, in the Dakhla Oasis. Earlier this year, he deciphered the full list of titles of Petubastis III on ancient temple blocks. “That’s when the puzzle pieces fell into place,” Prof Kaper said. “The temple blocks indicate that this must have been a stronghold at the start of the Persian period. Once we combined this with the limited information we had about Petubastis III, the excavation site and the story of Herodotus, we were able to reconstruct what happened.” The discovery was presented today at the International Conference of the ERC project BABYLON held in Leiden, the Netherlands, June 18-20, 2014. ______ Olaf Kaper. Policies of Darius I in the Western Desert of Egypt. International Conference of the ERC project BABYLON. June 19, 2014 ||||| Around 524 BC, a Persian army of 50,000 strong disappeared in the Egyptian desert in what is one of the greatest archaeological mysteries of all time. Now, an Egyptologist has finally solved this vanishing act. Leiden Professor Olaf Kaper made this accidental discovery while conducting his decade-long excavation in Amheida, in the Dachla Oasis of Egypt. He unearthed ancient temple blocks detailing a full list of titles of Petubastis III, an Egyptian rebel leader, and let the puzzle pieces "fall into place." It turns out that the army's disappearance was really just a cover-up. According to the writings of anchient Greek historian Herodotus, King Cambyses led his Persian troops into the desert near Thebes (modern-day Luxor) and never returned. Supposedly, they were swallowed by sand dunes, but this myth has long been debated. Egyptologist Kaper, for one, never believed it. "Since the 19th century, people have been looking for this army: amateurs, but also professional archaeologists. Some expect to find somewhere under the ground an entire army, fully equipped. However, experience has long shown that you cannot die from a sand storm, let alone have an entire army disappear," he said in a Universiteit Leiden news release. Based on his discovery, Kaper now argues that the army didn't disappear but was defeated. His research indicates that the Persians were not simply passing through the desert, but were headed for the Dachla Oasis. There, Petubastis III and his troops were waiting. "He ultimately ambushed the army of Cambyses, and in this way managed from his base in the oasis to reconquer a large part of Egypt, after which he let himself be crowned Pharaoh in the capital, Memphis," Kaper explained. Persian King Darius I later ended the Egyptian revolt two years after Cambyses' defeat. Rather than upsetting the newly restored balance, he attributed the shameful defeat of his predecessor to natural elements. It is because of this manipulation of historical events that the army's fate has remained a mystery for 75 years. "The temple blocks indicate that this," Kaper said, referring to the Dachla Oasis, "must have been a stronghold at the start of the Persian period. Once we combined this with the limited information we had about Petubastis III, the excavation site and the story of Herodotus, we were able to reconstruct what happened." The discovery will be announced on Thursday at an international conference. ||||| Leiden Egyptologist unravels ancient mystery It is one of the greatest archaeological mysteries of all times: the disappearance of a Persian army of 50,000 men in the Egyptian desert around 524 BC. Leiden Professor Olaf Kaper unearthed a cover-up affair and solved the riddle. It must have been a sand storm, writes the Greek historian Herodotus. He tells the story of the Persian King Cambyses, who entered the Egyptian desert near Luxor (then Thebes) with 50,000 men. The troops supposedly never returned; they were swallowed by a sand dune. A fantastic tale that was long the subject of many debates. Egyptologist Olaf Kaper never believed it: ‘Since the 19th century, people have been looking for this army: amateurs, as well as professional archaeologists. Some expect to find somewhere under the ground an entire army, fully equipped. However, experience has long shown that you cannot die from a sandstorm, let alone have an entire army disappear.’ Kaper is now putting forward an entirely different explanation. He argues that the army did not disappear, but was defeated. ‘My research shows that the army was not simply passing through the desert; its final destination was the Dachla Oasis. This was the location of the troops of the Egyptian rebel leader Petubastis III. He ultimately ambushed the army of Cambyses, and in this way managed from his base in the oasis to reconquer a large part of Egypt, after which he had himself crowned Pharaoh in the capital, Memphis.’ The fact that the fate of the army of Cambyses remained unclear for such a long time is probably due to the Persian King Darius I, who ended the Egyptian revolt with much bloodshed two years after Cambyses’ defeat. Like a true spin doctor, he attributed the shameful defeat of his predecessor to natural elements. Thanks to this effective manipulation, 75 years after the events, all Herodotus could do was take note of the sandstorm story. Kaper made this discovery accidentally; he was not looking for it actively. In collaboration with New York University and the University of Lecce, he was involved for the last ten years in excavations in Amheida, in the Dachla Oasis. Earlier this year, he deciphered the full list of titles of Petubastis III on ancient temple blocks. ‘That’s when the puzzle pieces fell into place’, says the Egyptologist. ‘The temple blocks indicate that this must have been a stronghold at the start of the Persian period. Once we combined this with the limited information we had about Petubastis III, the excavation site and the story of Herodotus, we were able to reconstruct what happened.’ The discovery will be announced on Thursday at an international conference. Kaper: ‘I expect there to be a great deal of interest in the subject. I look forward to the discussions that will follow.’’ (19 June 2014) International congress on 'Political Memory in and after the Persian Empire', Leiden University, 18-20 June. About the excavations in Amheida (in Dutch) Bachelor's Ancient Cultures of the Meditarranean World Master's Classics and Ancient Civilisations (MA) Classics and Ancient Civilisations (research) Town and Country in the Mediterranean Region and the Near East (Research) Archaeology of Europe and Historical Archaeology

– An expert on Egyptian history thinks he's figured out what happened to an army of 50,000 men that seemingly vanished in the Egyptian desert around 524 BC, reports Nature World News. Legend has it that the "lost army of Cambyses" got swallowed up in a sandstorm, an account passed on by none other than Greek historian Herodotus. But if so, then why hasn't any trace of the men turned up despite scores of archaeological expeditions? Because there was no sandstorm, says professor Olaf Kaper at Leiden University in the Netherlands. Instead, he argues via a university news release, the soldiers suffered a far more conventional fate: They got whupped by a rebel army. "Since the 19th century, people have been looking for this army: amateurs, as well as professional archaeologists," says Kaper. "Some expect to find somewhere under the ground an entire army, fully equipped." By his account, Persian King Cambyses sent the troops into the desert toward a place called the Dachla Oasis to put down a revolt, but a rebel leader named Petubastis III ambushed and defeated them, then named himself pharaoh. Two years later, Persian King Darius I put an end to the revolt and, according to Kaper's theory, practiced some spin control. He made up the story about the sandstorm because he figured it would be better for people to think that natural elements, not a military foes, were responsible. Kaper says he pieced all this together based on inscriptions of ancient temple blocks unearthed in the Dachla Oasis, reports Sci-News. He was to present his theory at an international conference, and there's no word yet whether other Egyptologists are on board. (Elsewhere in Egypt, archaeologists have turned up "end of the world" plague victims from the third century.)

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Prof Olaf Kaper, an archaeologist at Leiden University in the Netherlands, believes he may have solved one of the greatest mysteries in ancient history – what happened to the 50,000-man army of Persian King Cambyses II in the Egyptian desert around 524 BC. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, Cambyses II, the oldest son of Cyrus the Great, sent his army to destroy the Oracle of Amun at Siwa Oasis. 50,000 warriors entered the Egypt’s western desert near Luxor. Somewhere in the middle of the desert the army was overwhelmed by a sandstorm and destroyed. Although many scientists regard the story as a myth, amateur as well as professional archaeologists have searched for the remains of the Persian soldiers for many decades. Prof Kaper never believed this story. “Some expect to find an entire army, fully equipped. However, experience has long shown that you cannot die from a sandstorm,” he said. Prof Kaper argues that the lost army of Cambyses II did not disappear, but was defeated. “My research shows that the army was not simply passing through the desert, its final destination was the Dakhla Oasis.” “This was the location of the troops of the Egyptian rebel leader Petubastis III.” “He ultimately ambushed the army of Cambyses II, and in this way managed from his base in the oasis to reconquer a large part of Egypt, after which he let himself be crowned Pharaoh in the capital, Memphis.” The fact that the fate of the army of Cambyses II remained unclear for such a long time is probably due to the Persian King Darius I, who ended the Egyptian revolt with much bloodshed two years after Cambyses II’s defeat. “Darius I attributed the shameful defeat of his predecessor to natural elements. Thanks to this effective manipulation, 75 years after the event all Herodotus could do was take note of the sandstorm story.” During the past ten years, Prof Kaper has been involved in excavations in Amheida, in the Dakhla Oasis. Earlier this year, he deciphered the full list of titles of Petubastis III on ancient temple blocks. “That’s when the puzzle pieces fell into place,” Prof Kaper said. “The temple blocks indicate that this must have been a stronghold at the start of the Persian period. Once we combined this with the limited information we had about Petubastis III, the excavation site and the story of Herodotus, we were able to reconstruct what happened.” The discovery was presented today at the International Conference of the ERC project BABYLON held in Leiden, the Netherlands, June 18-20, 2014. ______ Olaf Kaper. Policies of Darius I in the Western Desert of Egypt. International Conference of the ERC project BABYLON. June 19, 2014 ||||| Around 524 BC, a Persian army of 50,000 strong disappeared in the Egyptian desert in what is one of the greatest archaeological mysteries of all time. Now, an Egyptologist has finally solved this vanishing act. Leiden Professor Olaf Kaper made this accidental discovery while conducting his decade-long excavation in Amheida, in the Dachla Oasis of Egypt. He unearthed ancient temple blocks detailing a full list of titles of Petubastis III, an Egyptian rebel leader, and let the puzzle pieces "fall into place." It turns out that the army's disappearance was really just a cover-up. According to the writings of anchient Greek historian Herodotus, King Cambyses led his Persian troops into the desert near Thebes (modern-day Luxor) and never returned. Supposedly, they were swallowed by sand dunes, but this myth has long been debated. Egyptologist Kaper, for one, never believed it. "Since the 19th century, people have been looking for this army: amateurs, but also professional archaeologists. Some expect to find somewhere under the ground an entire army, fully equipped. However, experience has long shown that you cannot die from a sand storm, let alone have an entire army disappear," he said in a Universiteit Leiden news release. Based on his discovery, Kaper now argues that the army didn't disappear but was defeated. His research indicates that the Persians were not simply passing through the desert, but were headed for the Dachla Oasis. There, Petubastis III and his troops were waiting. "He ultimately ambushed the army of Cambyses, and in this way managed from his base in the oasis to reconquer a large part of Egypt, after which he let himself be crowned Pharaoh in the capital, Memphis," Kaper explained. Persian King Darius I later ended the Egyptian revolt two years after Cambyses' defeat. Rather than upsetting the newly restored balance, he attributed the shameful defeat of his predecessor to natural elements. It is because of this manipulation of historical events that the army's fate has remained a mystery for 75 years. "The temple blocks indicate that this," Kaper said, referring to the Dachla Oasis, "must have been a stronghold at the start of the Persian period. Once we combined this with the limited information we had about Petubastis III, the excavation site and the story of Herodotus, we were able to reconstruct what happened." The discovery will be announced on Thursday at an international conference. ||||| Leiden Egyptologist unravels ancient mystery It is one of the greatest archaeological mysteries of all times: the disappearance of a Persian army of 50,000 men in the Egyptian desert around 524 BC. Leiden Professor Olaf Kaper unearthed a cover-up affair and solved the riddle. It must have been a sand storm, writes the Greek historian Herodotus. He tells the story of the Persian King Cambyses, who entered the Egyptian desert near Luxor (then Thebes) with 50,000 men. The troops supposedly never returned; they were swallowed by a sand dune. A fantastic tale that was long the subject of many debates. Egyptologist Olaf Kaper never believed it: ‘Since the 19th century, people have been looking for this army: amateurs, as well as professional archaeologists. Some expect to find somewhere under the ground an entire army, fully equipped. However, experience has long shown that you cannot die from a sandstorm, let alone have an entire army disappear.’ Kaper is now putting forward an entirely different explanation. He argues that the army did not disappear, but was defeated. ‘My research shows that the army was not simply passing through the desert; its final destination was the Dachla Oasis. This was the location of the troops of the Egyptian rebel leader Petubastis III. He ultimately ambushed the army of Cambyses, and in this way managed from his base in the oasis to reconquer a large part of Egypt, after which he had himself crowned Pharaoh in the capital, Memphis.’ The fact that the fate of the army of Cambyses remained unclear for such a long time is probably due to the Persian King Darius I, who ended the Egyptian revolt with much bloodshed two years after Cambyses’ defeat. Like a true spin doctor, he attributed the shameful defeat of his predecessor to natural elements. Thanks to this effective manipulation, 75 years after the events, all Herodotus could do was take note of the sandstorm story. Kaper made this discovery accidentally; he was not looking for it actively. In collaboration with New York University and the University of Lecce, he was involved for the last ten years in excavations in Amheida, in the Dachla Oasis. Earlier this year, he deciphered the full list of titles of Petubastis III on ancient temple blocks. ‘That’s when the puzzle pieces fell into place’, says the Egyptologist. ‘The temple blocks indicate that this must have been a stronghold at the start of the Persian period. Once we combined this with the limited information we had about Petubastis III, the excavation site and the story of Herodotus, we were able to reconstruct what happened.’ The discovery will be announced on Thursday at an international conference. Kaper: ‘I expect there to be a great deal of interest in the subject. I look forward to the discussions that will follow.’’ (19 June 2014) International congress on 'Political Memory in and after the Persian Empire', Leiden University, 18-20 June. About the excavations in Amheida (in Dutch) Bachelor's Ancient Cultures of the Meditarranean World Master's Classics and Ancient Civilisations (MA) Classics and Ancient Civilisations (research) Town and Country in the Mediterranean Region and the Near East (Research) Archaeology of Europe and Historical Archaeology

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Expand Rumors of Solange Knowles’s nuptials have been swirling since the summer, and today the 28-year-old singer and her 51-year-old video director boyfriend Alan Ferguson made it official, after weekend wedding festivities in New Orleans. “Everyone I worked with on the wedding are friends who I love,” said Solange via email earlier today. “Everything was a labor of love.” And given that there have been several sightings of her friend and collaborator Humberto Leon in NOLA over the past few months, we weren’t surprised to hear that the dress was by Humberto Leon for Kenzo. Knowles commissioned photographer Rog Walker to take the official wedding portraits, and the stunning all-female family tableau which includes sister Beyoncé and mother Tina Knowles is a nod to the work of contemporary Italian artist Vanessa Beecroft. It’s a far cry from the conservative strapless frock she wore to wed her first husband Daniel Smith, in 2004, and shows just how beautifully Knowles has come into her own. Expand 1 / 4 Expand __SLIDE_TITLE__ __SLIDE_CAPTION__ __SLIDE_CREDIT__ See more photos of: Read Caption __SLIDE_TITLE__ __SLIDE_CAPTION__ __SLIDE_CREDIT__ Vogue may earn compensation on these sales through affiliate programs. See more photos of: Expand Solange Knowles in a Humberto Leon for Kenzo dress, Jill for Lady Grey bracelets, and Stuart Weitzman shoes; Alan Ferguson in Lanvin Photographed by Rog Walker See more photos of: Expand Photographed by Rog Walker See more photos of: Expand Solange Knowles in Stephane Rolland Photographed by Rog Walker See more photos of: Expand Photographed by Rog Walker See more photos of: Eschewing the traditional stretch limo, Knowles arrived at the ceremony in the Bywater district of the city on a white-painted bicycle decorated with cream roses and wearing an ivory-toned look by(note to modern brides, a jumpsuit won’t get caught in the spokes). She walked down the aisle to one of the couple’s favorite songs, a symphonic instrumental of Donny Hathaway’s, “I Love the Lord, He Heard My Cry.” With performances by musician friendsand—and an adorable dance-off between Knowles and her ten-year-old sonto “No Flex Zone,”—it was truly a family affair.​ ||||| Solange Knowles and Alan Ferguson arrive at their wedding on white bicycles. Solange wore a white backless jumpsuit to her New Orleans nuptials. As promised, Solange Knowles and Alan Ferguson married in New Orleans this past weekend. As expected, it was a wedding for the Instagram Hall of Fame. The festivities began on Friday with the rehearsal dinner, which included a screening of a mini-doc about the couple’s courtship (eh, fine) and Mahogany, the movie they watched on their first date. The actual wedding took place on Sunday and, judging by the photos, had an all-white dress code. Here are a few shots nabbed from Instagram: Solange’s pre-wedding jumpsuit and cape were by Stephane Rolland. Ferguson’s wedding tux was a white Lanvin number. Solange's wedding dress was by Humberto Leon for Kenzo. It also included a cape. It’s official: Solange just made wedding capes a thing. Everyone wore white. Here, a wedding tableau that could double as the opening scene from a music video. It was shot by Rog Walker. Here, a shot from Solange’s first wedding in 2004. Time is everyone’s friend. what a decade hath wrought pic.twitter.com/sshwaDvu1N — Naomi Zeichner (@nomizeichner) November 16, 2014 A mini-doc about the relationship, matching white vintage bikes, the platonic ideal of a wedding jumpsuit, and a New York Times wedding announcement that barely acknowledged Beyoncé's existence? Dreamy. Excuse me while I go update my secret Pinterest wedding board. ||||| Instagram/Beyonce It can’t be easy to have Beyoncé in your bridal party, to know that Beyoncé is going to be in all of your wedding photos, just hanging out by your side. (Even if you pick out some awful dress for her, that dress, by definition, becomes no longer awful once Beyoncé puts it on.) But Solange, who got married over the weekend—to 51-year-old music-video director Alan Ferguson—seemed to lean into the Beyoncé Factor, we’ll call it, even letting her sister (and everyone else in her bridal party) wear white for the festivities. The three-day New Orleans extravaganza began with a “movie night” Friday, at which Solange and Ferguson played the movie they saw on their first date, Diana Ross’s Mahogany (which was preceded by a short film about the couple). On Sunday, Solange and Feguson biked to the ceremony—like characters out of a Zooey Deschanel romantic comedy that hasn’t been written yet; post-ceremony, the group paraded down the street in the French Quarter, waving sparklers and dancing. To answer some lingering questions you might have: — No, Beyoncé did not perform during the ceremony. (We get this decision, obviously, but, at the same time, you had the chance to have BEYONCÉ SING AT YOUR WEDDING, you know?) — Yes, Jay Z was in attendance, naturally, months after the infamous elevator altercation that captivated a nation (proving that there is no weird family drama that cannot be bounced back from, which is probably good for all of us to keep in mind with Thanksgiving a week away). — No word on whether or not Blue Ivy was the flower girl, but we have to think she was, if only because: having the option of Blue Ivy Carter being your flower girl is like having the option of Oprah being your live-in best friend. Saying “no” would not be fathomable. Now let’s take a look at the photos Beyoncé posted to her Instagram late last night!

– Solange Knowles got married to Alan Ferguson, 51, in New Orleans yesterday, and her wedding was just about everything you'd expect from the sister of Beyonce. She wore a futuristic-looking white gown complete with cape, plus some very intense gold cuffs, according to pictures featured in Vogue. The rest of her female family members also wore white (and extremely serious expressions) in the official wedding portraits; in fact, Yahoo reports, Solange asked all the guests to wear white. The 28-year-old arrived at the ceremony on a white bicycle, wearing a white jumpsuit. Thus, the nuptials inspired such headlines as "Solange Had an Aesthetically Superior Wedding" and "Solange Breaks All the Fashion Rules at Her Wedding." Other details that probably differentiate her wedding from yours: At the rehearsal dinner, there was a mini-documentary about Knowles' and Ferguson's courtship, plus a screening of the movie they saw on their first date; and Jay Z was in attendance, Vanity Fair reports ... despite that whole elevator incident. Click to see pictures from the wedding.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Expand Rumors of Solange Knowles’s nuptials have been swirling since the summer, and today the 28-year-old singer and her 51-year-old video director boyfriend Alan Ferguson made it official, after weekend wedding festivities in New Orleans. “Everyone I worked with on the wedding are friends who I love,” said Solange via email earlier today. “Everything was a labor of love.” And given that there have been several sightings of her friend and collaborator Humberto Leon in NOLA over the past few months, we weren’t surprised to hear that the dress was by Humberto Leon for Kenzo. Knowles commissioned photographer Rog Walker to take the official wedding portraits, and the stunning all-female family tableau which includes sister Beyoncé and mother Tina Knowles is a nod to the work of contemporary Italian artist Vanessa Beecroft. It’s a far cry from the conservative strapless frock she wore to wed her first husband Daniel Smith, in 2004, and shows just how beautifully Knowles has come into her own. Expand 1 / 4 Expand __SLIDE_TITLE__ __SLIDE_CAPTION__ __SLIDE_CREDIT__ See more photos of: Read Caption __SLIDE_TITLE__ __SLIDE_CAPTION__ __SLIDE_CREDIT__ Vogue may earn compensation on these sales through affiliate programs. See more photos of: Expand Solange Knowles in a Humberto Leon for Kenzo dress, Jill for Lady Grey bracelets, and Stuart Weitzman shoes; Alan Ferguson in Lanvin Photographed by Rog Walker See more photos of: Expand Photographed by Rog Walker See more photos of: Expand Solange Knowles in Stephane Rolland Photographed by Rog Walker See more photos of: Expand Photographed by Rog Walker See more photos of: Eschewing the traditional stretch limo, Knowles arrived at the ceremony in the Bywater district of the city on a white-painted bicycle decorated with cream roses and wearing an ivory-toned look by(note to modern brides, a jumpsuit won’t get caught in the spokes). She walked down the aisle to one of the couple’s favorite songs, a symphonic instrumental of Donny Hathaway’s, “I Love the Lord, He Heard My Cry.” With performances by musician friendsand—and an adorable dance-off between Knowles and her ten-year-old sonto “No Flex Zone,”—it was truly a family affair.​ ||||| Solange Knowles and Alan Ferguson arrive at their wedding on white bicycles. Solange wore a white backless jumpsuit to her New Orleans nuptials. As promised, Solange Knowles and Alan Ferguson married in New Orleans this past weekend. As expected, it was a wedding for the Instagram Hall of Fame. The festivities began on Friday with the rehearsal dinner, which included a screening of a mini-doc about the couple’s courtship (eh, fine) and Mahogany, the movie they watched on their first date. The actual wedding took place on Sunday and, judging by the photos, had an all-white dress code. Here are a few shots nabbed from Instagram: Solange’s pre-wedding jumpsuit and cape were by Stephane Rolland. Ferguson’s wedding tux was a white Lanvin number. Solange's wedding dress was by Humberto Leon for Kenzo. It also included a cape. It’s official: Solange just made wedding capes a thing. Everyone wore white. Here, a wedding tableau that could double as the opening scene from a music video. It was shot by Rog Walker. Here, a shot from Solange’s first wedding in 2004. Time is everyone’s friend. what a decade hath wrought pic.twitter.com/sshwaDvu1N — Naomi Zeichner (@nomizeichner) November 16, 2014 A mini-doc about the relationship, matching white vintage bikes, the platonic ideal of a wedding jumpsuit, and a New York Times wedding announcement that barely acknowledged Beyoncé's existence? Dreamy. Excuse me while I go update my secret Pinterest wedding board. ||||| Instagram/Beyonce It can’t be easy to have Beyoncé in your bridal party, to know that Beyoncé is going to be in all of your wedding photos, just hanging out by your side. (Even if you pick out some awful dress for her, that dress, by definition, becomes no longer awful once Beyoncé puts it on.) But Solange, who got married over the weekend—to 51-year-old music-video director Alan Ferguson—seemed to lean into the Beyoncé Factor, we’ll call it, even letting her sister (and everyone else in her bridal party) wear white for the festivities. The three-day New Orleans extravaganza began with a “movie night” Friday, at which Solange and Ferguson played the movie they saw on their first date, Diana Ross’s Mahogany (which was preceded by a short film about the couple). On Sunday, Solange and Feguson biked to the ceremony—like characters out of a Zooey Deschanel romantic comedy that hasn’t been written yet; post-ceremony, the group paraded down the street in the French Quarter, waving sparklers and dancing. To answer some lingering questions you might have: — No, Beyoncé did not perform during the ceremony. (We get this decision, obviously, but, at the same time, you had the chance to have BEYONCÉ SING AT YOUR WEDDING, you know?) — Yes, Jay Z was in attendance, naturally, months after the infamous elevator altercation that captivated a nation (proving that there is no weird family drama that cannot be bounced back from, which is probably good for all of us to keep in mind with Thanksgiving a week away). — No word on whether or not Blue Ivy was the flower girl, but we have to think she was, if only because: having the option of Blue Ivy Carter being your flower girl is like having the option of Oprah being your live-in best friend. Saying “no” would not be fathomable. Now let’s take a look at the photos Beyoncé posted to her Instagram late last night!

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

How long a healthy pregnancy lasts can vary by as much as five weeks, even when doctors precisely determined the date of conception, a new study suggests. Although the length of a healthy pregnancy is known to be variable, some of this variation was thought to be due to errors in determining the age of the baby, the researchers said. The new study was able to pinpoint the exact day of conception by analyzing urine samples from 125 women who were trying to become pregnant in the early 1980s. Changes in hormone levels in the urine were used to determine the day of ovulation — presumed to be the same day as conception — as well as the day the embryo implanted in the uterus. On average, pregnancies lasted 38 weeks from the day of conception to the day the baby was born, or about 40 to 41 weeks from the day of the women's last menstrual period. (The latter measure is more commonly used to determine a woman's due date.) But even after excluding babies who were born preterm, the length of pregnancy ranged from about 35 to 40 weeks from the day of conception to the day of birth (or about 38 to 43 weeks from the day of a woman's last menstrual period.) [See Are Firstborns More Likely to Be Late?] The researchers were surprised to see such variation even with a precise determination of the day of conception, said study researcher Dr. Anne Marie Jukic, a postdoctoral fellow in the Epidemiology Branch at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Durham, N.C. The findings suggest that the practice of giving a woman a precise due date may not be the best way to communicate pregnancy duration. Only about 4 percent of women actually deliver on their due date, which is typically estimated to be 280 days after the woman's last menstrual period. "The emphasis on a single due date may make the length of pregnancy seem more predictable than it really is," Jukic said. Providing women with a range of due dates may be a better way to communicate the length of pregnancy, Jukic said. The length of participants' previous pregnancies was also strongly linked to the length of their current pregnancy, suggesting that this measure might also be helpful in determining a woman's "natural" pregnancy length, the researchers said. The study also found that characteristics of early pregnancy may provide some clues about due date: Embryos that took longer to implant also took longer to deliver, and pregnancies for embryos that showed a late rise in a hormone called progesterone were about 12 days shorter than those with an early rise. However, some experts were critical of the study. Dr. Tomer Singer, a reproductive endocrinologist and infertility specialist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, said the study did not provide much information that wasn't already known. When speaking with pregnant women, doctors already emphasize that few women give birth on their due date, Singer said. Singer said he tells patients that they're likely to give birth sometime between 37 and 42 weeks from the date of their last menstrual period (a five-week range). In addition, the study was small, and included mostly young, white women who did not have fertility problems, so the results may not apply to the general population, Singer said. The study was also conducted 30 years ago, when fewer obstetric interventions to prolong pregnancy were preformed, Singer said. The study is published today (Aug. 6) in the journal Human Reproduction. Follow Rachael Rettner @RachaelRettner. Follow LiveScience @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com. ||||| Image caption This is the first study to look at pregnancy this way The length of pregnancy can vary naturally by as much as five weeks, research suggests. The study of 125 women is the first to calculate gestation by pinpointing the exact time of conception. It found age, time to implantation and their own weight as babies were also linked to pregnancy length. An expert said the findings, in the journal Human Reproduction, challenged whether a "due date" for women was helpful. Due dates can be calculated from working out 280 days after the start of the woman's last menstrual period, or more accurately by ultrasound. Yet only 4% of women deliver when predicted and only 70% within 10 days of their estimated due date. Researchers 'surprised' The research team at the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences measured hormone concentrations in daily urine samples taken from women trying to conceive naturally to determine exactly when ovulation and implantation of the fertilised egg had occurred. They found that the average length from ovulation to birth was 268 days, just over 38 weeks. Once they had excluded six premature births, they found that gestation varied naturally by as much as 37 days. Dr Anne Marie Jukic said: "We were a bit surprised by this finding. We know that length of gestation varies among women, but some part of that variation has always been attributed to errors in the assignment of gestational age. This is a very interesting piece of work and knowing when is the right time to deliver is a huge issue Dr Virginia Beckett, Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists "Our measure of length of gestation does not include these sources of error, and yet there is still five weeks of variability. It's fascinating." The study also showed that embryos that took longer to implant also took longer from implantation to delivery. Older women were more likely to have longer pregnancies and there was also a link between gestation and a mother's weight when she was born. The researchers also found that length of previous or subsequent pregnancies was related to the length of the one being studied, suggesting a consistency about when women deliver. But they said it was too early to make any clinical recommendations. "I think the best that can be said is that natural variability may be greater than we have previously thought and, if that is true, clinicians may want to keep that in mind when trying to decide whether to intervene on a pregnancy," said Dr Jukic. Dr Virginia Beckett, spokesperson for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said very little was known about the exact mechanisms that determine when labour begins. "This is a very interesting piece of work and knowing when is the right time to deliver is a huge issue." She added it supports the suggestion that giving someone a "due date" may not be a great idea and can make women feel anxious when they go over. "It would be better to say, 'You will be delivered by this time' to take the pressure off."

– A new study throws the whole concept of a "due date" into question, finding the length of pregnancy can naturally vary by as much as five weeks. The study of 125 women expands upon what the BBC reports are some fairly broad stats: Only 4% of women actually deliver when predicted, and 30% do not give birth within 10 days of their due dates. As LiveScience explains, that variation was previously attributed to inaccurate calculations of the baby's age. But the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences study used urine samples to determine precise ovulation and implantation dates, and, after excluding premature births, found the natural gestation period varied by up to 37 days. (The average ovulation-to-birth time was 268 days.) The study also found there was a link between gestation length and the age of a mother, the weight she was at birth, and the time it took for embryos to implant. "The emphasis on a single due date may make the length of pregnancy seem more predictable than it really is," says a study researcher. The upshot? Perhaps a "delivered by" date would be better than a "due date," suggests a spokesperson for the UK's Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.How long a healthy pregnancy lasts can vary by as much as five weeks, even when doctors precisely determined the date of conception, a new study suggests. Although the length of a healthy pregnancy is known to be variable, some of this variation was thought to be due to errors in determining the age of the baby, the researchers said. The new study was able to pinpoint the exact day of conception by analyzing urine samples from 125 women who were trying to become pregnant in the early 1980s. Changes in hormone levels in the urine were used to determine the day of ovulation — presumed to be the same day as conception — as well as the day the embryo implanted in the uterus. On average, pregnancies lasted 38 weeks from the day of conception to the day the baby was born, or about 40 to 41 weeks from the day of the women's last menstrual period. (The latter measure is more commonly used to determine a woman's due date.) But even after excluding babies who were born preterm, the length of pregnancy ranged from about 35 to 40 weeks from the day of conception to the day of birth (or about 38 to 43 weeks from the day of a woman's last menstrual period.) [See Are Firstborns More Likely to Be Late?] The researchers were surprised to see such variation even with a precise determination of the day of conception, said study researcher Dr. Anne Marie Jukic, a postdoctoral fellow in the Epidemiology Branch at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Durham, N.C. The findings suggest that the practice of giving a woman a precise due date may not be the best way to communicate pregnancy duration. Only about 4 percent of women actually deliver on their due date, which is typically estimated to be 280 days after the woman's last menstrual period. "The emphasis on a single due date may make the length of pregnancy seem more predictable than it really is," Jukic said. Providing women with a range of due dates may be a better way to communicate the length of pregnancy, Jukic said. The length of participants' previous pregnancies was also strongly linked to the length of their current pregnancy, suggesting that this measure might also be helpful in determining a woman's "natural" pregnancy length, the researchers said. The study also found that characteristics of early pregnancy may provide some clues about due date: Embryos that took longer to implant also took longer to deliver, and pregnancies for embryos that showed a late rise in a hormone called progesterone were about 12 days shorter than those with an early rise. However, some experts were critical of the study. Dr. Tomer Singer, a reproductive endocrinologist and infertility specialist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, said the study did not provide much information that wasn't already known. When speaking with pregnant women, doctors already emphasize that few women give birth on their due date, Singer said. Singer said he tells patients that they're likely to give birth sometime between 37 and 42 weeks from the date of their last menstrual period (a five-week range). In addition, the study was small, and included mostly young, white women who did not have fertility problems, so the results may not apply to the general population, Singer said. The study was also conducted 30 years ago, when fewer obstetric interventions to prolong pregnancy were preformed, Singer said. The study is published today (Aug. 6) in the journal Human Reproduction. Follow Rachael Rettner @RachaelRettner. Follow LiveScience @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on LiveScience.com. ||||| Image caption This is the first study to look at pregnancy this way The length of pregnancy can vary naturally by as much as five weeks, research suggests. The study of 125 women is the first to calculate gestation by pinpointing the exact time of conception. It found age, time to implantation and their own weight as babies were also linked to pregnancy length. An expert said the findings, in the journal Human Reproduction, challenged whether a "due date" for women was helpful. Due dates can be calculated from working out 280 days after the start of the woman's last menstrual period, or more accurately by ultrasound. Yet only 4% of women deliver when predicted and only 70% within 10 days of their estimated due date. Researchers 'surprised' The research team at the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences measured hormone concentrations in daily urine samples taken from women trying to conceive naturally to determine exactly when ovulation and implantation of the fertilised egg had occurred. They found that the average length from ovulation to birth was 268 days, just over 38 weeks. Once they had excluded six premature births, they found that gestation varied naturally by as much as 37 days. Dr Anne Marie Jukic said: "We were a bit surprised by this finding. We know that length of gestation varies among women, but some part of that variation has always been attributed to errors in the assignment of gestational age. This is a very interesting piece of work and knowing when is the right time to deliver is a huge issue Dr Virginia Beckett, Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists "Our measure of length of gestation does not include these sources of error, and yet there is still five weeks of variability. It's fascinating." The study also showed that embryos that took longer to implant also took longer from implantation to delivery. Older women were more likely to have longer pregnancies and there was also a link between gestation and a mother's weight when she was born. The researchers also found that length of previous or subsequent pregnancies was related to the length of the one being studied, suggesting a consistency about when women deliver. But they said it was too early to make any clinical recommendations. "I think the best that can be said is that natural variability may be greater than we have previously thought and, if that is true, clinicians may want to keep that in mind when trying to decide whether to intervene on a pregnancy," said Dr Jukic. Dr Virginia Beckett, spokesperson for the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, said very little was known about the exact mechanisms that determine when labour begins. "This is a very interesting piece of work and knowing when is the right time to deliver is a huge issue." She added it supports the suggestion that giving someone a "due date" may not be a great idea and can make women feel anxious when they go over. "It would be better to say, 'You will be delivered by this time' to take the pressure off."

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

The sun's rays may shape human lives in a surprising way: High levels of sun exposure during the year of birth may increase infant mortality and shorten the average life span of a population, a new study finds. Researchers looked at people in Norway who were born over two centuries, and compared those who were born during years of peaks in solar activity with those born during years of the lowest levels of solar activity. Results showed that people born during solar peaks lived 5.2 years less, on average, than individuals born in years with the lowest solar activity. Exactly how the sun's activity at the time of a person's birth may affect life span isn't known. But peak solar activity brings higher levels of ultraviolet radiation to Earth, and some evidence suggests that UV radiation may increase infant mortality by degrading folic acid, or vitamin B9, which is important for the rapid cell division and growth that happen during pregnancy. The upshot is, "if you are pregnant, don't get a tan," said Gine Roll Skjærvø, a biologist at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway, and co-author of the study published today (Jan. 6) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. "The best time for conception [would] be when there's lower ultraviolet radiation." [11 Big Fat Pregnancy Myths] Here comes the sun Scientists have long known that ultraviolet (UV) light can affect the development of living organisms by suppressing molecular and cellular processes. The effects of UV radiation on the health and reproduction of aquatic animals are well known, but only a handful of studies have looked at the effects on the human life span or on survival rates of human infants. In the new study, Skjærvø and her colleagues examined demographic data from more than 9,000 people born in Norway between 1676 and 1878. The researchers compared the data with historical evidence of cycles of solar radiation compiled by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Solar activity is measured as the number of dark patches, called sunspots, observed on the sun's surface. This activity varies according to a cycle that lasts about 11 years (although the length varies). Within an average cycle, there are eight years of low activity (known as the solar minimum) followed by three years of high activity (the solar maximum). [Photos: Sunspots on Earth's Star] The researchers found that people who were born during the years of high solar activity were less likely to survive to adulthood, with a high percentage of those deaths occurring before age 2. In addition, among women born in years of high solar activity, those who had lower incomes (and who likely would have spent more time outside, exposed to the sun) had lower fertility rates and fewer children who survived to age 20, compared with wealthier women, Skjærvø said. Too much UV? The study shows only a correlation between solar activity and life span; it does not show causation. However, the researchers were able to rule out other explanations for the findings, including socioeconomic status, birth cohort (people born in the same year) and ecology. It's impossible to rule out all possible factors, Skjærvø said, but the fact that the effects were seen over hundreds of years suggests that the sun's periodic flare-ups were the likeliest cause of the shortened life spans and reduced fertility. Mark Lucock, a nutritional geneticist at the University of Newcastle in Australia, who was not involved in the research, told Live Science the study is "a fascinating piece of work that provides further supporting evidence that early-life environmental factors help shape [human traits] in ways that have long-term consequences."Lucock and his colleagues previously found that exposure to some sunlight during the first few weeks after conception may affect levels of folic acid and vitamin D, both of which can influence the survival of embryos and the development of diseases in adulthood. Although "getting too much sun in pregnancy may not be good idea," getting some sun may help the body get enough vitamin D, said George Davis, a researcher at the company Psybernetics, Incorporated, in Augusta, Maine, who has also studied the effects of solar radiation on human health. "There's a balance between too much and too little in sunlight. The real question is, what's that magic breakpoint?" So what was the solar activity like the year you were born? The recent years with solar maximums were 1957, 1968, 1979, 1989, 2000 and 2013, and the recent years with solar minimums were 1954, 1964, 1976, 1986, 1996 and 2008. Follow Tanya Lewis on Twitter. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science. ||||| The Sun by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly of NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. Credit: NASA Could the Sun be your lucky—or unlucky—star? In an unusual study published Wednesday, Norwegian scientists said people born during periods of solar calm may live longer, as much as five years on average, than those who enter the world when the Sun is feisty. The team overlaid demographic data of Norwegians born between 1676 and 1878 with observations of the Sun. The lifespan of those born in periods of solar maximum—interludes marked by powerful flares and geomagnetic storms—was "5.2 years shorter" on average than those born during a solar minimum, they found. "Solar activity at birth decreased the probability of survival to adulthood," thus truncating average lifespan, according to the paper published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. There was a stronger effect on girls than boys, it said. The Sun has cycles that last 11 years, give or take, from one period of greatest activity or solar maximum, to the next. Solar maxima are marked by an increase in sunspots, solar flares and coronal mass ejections that can disrupt radio communications and electrical power on Earth, damage satellites and disturb navigational equipment. Solar activity is also linked to levels of ultraviolet radiation— an environmental stressor known to affect survival and reproductive performance, possibly by causing cell and DNA damage, according to the study authors. Credit: Robert A. Rohde/GNU General Public License Fertility reduced The team, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, based their study on demographic data from church records of some 8,600 individuals from two different mid-Norwegian populations, one poor and one wealthy. This was matched to maps of historical solar cycles. On top of lifespan, being born in a solar maximum period also "significantly reduced" fertility for women born into the poor category, but not for wealthier women or for men, said the authors. "We show for the first time that not only infant survival and thus lifespan but also fertility is statistically associated with solar activity at birth," they wrote. It was not clear whether the same would necessarily hold true for people born in the modern era. One explanation could be ultraviolet-induced degradation of the B vitamin folate, a shortage of which before birth has been linked to higher rates of illness and death, the team theorised. "Our findings suggest that maternal exposure to solar activity during gestation can affect the fitness of female children," the authors wrote. "The effect of socio-economic status on the relationship between solar activity and fertility suggests that high-status pregnant women were better able to avoid the adverse effects of high solar activity"—possibly by staying out of the Sun or because a healthier diet curbed the harm. The team did not have data about how early or late into a solar maximum event the children were born—a limitation of the study. And they could not fully distinguish between pre- or post-natal exposure to ultraviolet light. Further investigation is needed, they said, to test whether the results were repeated in people of different skin colours, and those living at different latitudes. "This study is the first to emphasise the importance of UVR (ultraviolet radiation) in early life," the authors said. "UVR is a global stressor with potential ecological impacts and the future levels of UVR are expected to increase due to climate change and variation in atmospheric ozone." Explore further: Suddenly, the sun is eerily quiet: Where did the sunspots go? More information: Solar activity at birth predicted infant survival and women's fertility in historical Norway, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, rspb.royalsocietypublishing.or … .1098/rspb.2014.2032 ||||| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.

– If the sun was calm when you were born, you might look forward to a longer life than someone born in a period of high solar activity. The sun's cycles last about 11 years, typically including three years of "solar maximum"—when activity like solar flares, sunspots, and solar storms are at their peak—and eight years of "solar minimum." In a new study in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, researchers looked at demographic data of Norwegians born between 1676 and 1878, and found that the lifespans of those born during "solar maximum" periods were, on average, 5.2 years shorter than the lifespans of people born during "solar minimum" periods, phys.org reports. "Solar activity at birth decreased the probability of survival to adulthood," thus causing the decrease in average lifespan, the researchers say. A high percentage of the deaths of those born during "solar maximums" occurred by age 2. The authors think ultraviolet radiation is behind the effect. Solar activity is linked to higher levels of UV radiation, which is known to have an impact on survival and reproduction; the authors say there's a possibility that's because it causes cell and DNA damage. There's also evidence suggesting UV radiation degrades vitamin B9, or folic acid—and a shortage of that vitamin before birth has been linked to higher illness and death rates. Interestingly, the study also found that being born during "solar maximum" significantly reduced fertility for women and decreased the number of children they had who survived to adulthood—but only if those women were born into a poor population, suggesting that more well-to-do women may have been better able to avoid the sun or mitigate the sun's harmful effects through a healthier diet. A good rule of thumb? "If you are pregnant, don't get a tan," says one co-author, according to LiveScience. (Another recent study finds that if you feel younger than your age, you'll likely live longer.)

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.The sun's rays may shape human lives in a surprising way: High levels of sun exposure during the year of birth may increase infant mortality and shorten the average life span of a population, a new study finds. Researchers looked at people in Norway who were born over two centuries, and compared those who were born during years of peaks in solar activity with those born during years of the lowest levels of solar activity. Results showed that people born during solar peaks lived 5.2 years less, on average, than individuals born in years with the lowest solar activity. Exactly how the sun's activity at the time of a person's birth may affect life span isn't known. But peak solar activity brings higher levels of ultraviolet radiation to Earth, and some evidence suggests that UV radiation may increase infant mortality by degrading folic acid, or vitamin B9, which is important for the rapid cell division and growth that happen during pregnancy. The upshot is, "if you are pregnant, don't get a tan," said Gine Roll Skjærvø, a biologist at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway, and co-author of the study published today (Jan. 6) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. "The best time for conception [would] be when there's lower ultraviolet radiation." [11 Big Fat Pregnancy Myths] Here comes the sun Scientists have long known that ultraviolet (UV) light can affect the development of living organisms by suppressing molecular and cellular processes. The effects of UV radiation on the health and reproduction of aquatic animals are well known, but only a handful of studies have looked at the effects on the human life span or on survival rates of human infants. In the new study, Skjærvø and her colleagues examined demographic data from more than 9,000 people born in Norway between 1676 and 1878. The researchers compared the data with historical evidence of cycles of solar radiation compiled by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Solar activity is measured as the number of dark patches, called sunspots, observed on the sun's surface. This activity varies according to a cycle that lasts about 11 years (although the length varies). Within an average cycle, there are eight years of low activity (known as the solar minimum) followed by three years of high activity (the solar maximum). [Photos: Sunspots on Earth's Star] The researchers found that people who were born during the years of high solar activity were less likely to survive to adulthood, with a high percentage of those deaths occurring before age 2. In addition, among women born in years of high solar activity, those who had lower incomes (and who likely would have spent more time outside, exposed to the sun) had lower fertility rates and fewer children who survived to age 20, compared with wealthier women, Skjærvø said. Too much UV? The study shows only a correlation between solar activity and life span; it does not show causation. However, the researchers were able to rule out other explanations for the findings, including socioeconomic status, birth cohort (people born in the same year) and ecology. It's impossible to rule out all possible factors, Skjærvø said, but the fact that the effects were seen over hundreds of years suggests that the sun's periodic flare-ups were the likeliest cause of the shortened life spans and reduced fertility. Mark Lucock, a nutritional geneticist at the University of Newcastle in Australia, who was not involved in the research, told Live Science the study is "a fascinating piece of work that provides further supporting evidence that early-life environmental factors help shape [human traits] in ways that have long-term consequences."Lucock and his colleagues previously found that exposure to some sunlight during the first few weeks after conception may affect levels of folic acid and vitamin D, both of which can influence the survival of embryos and the development of diseases in adulthood. Although "getting too much sun in pregnancy may not be good idea," getting some sun may help the body get enough vitamin D, said George Davis, a researcher at the company Psybernetics, Incorporated, in Augusta, Maine, who has also studied the effects of solar radiation on human health. "There's a balance between too much and too little in sunlight. The real question is, what's that magic breakpoint?" So what was the solar activity like the year you were born? The recent years with solar maximums were 1957, 1968, 1979, 1989, 2000 and 2013, and the recent years with solar minimums were 1954, 1964, 1976, 1986, 1996 and 2008. Follow Tanya Lewis on Twitter. Follow us @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science. ||||| The Sun by the Atmospheric Imaging Assembly of NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory. Credit: NASA Could the Sun be your lucky—or unlucky—star? In an unusual study published Wednesday, Norwegian scientists said people born during periods of solar calm may live longer, as much as five years on average, than those who enter the world when the Sun is feisty. The team overlaid demographic data of Norwegians born between 1676 and 1878 with observations of the Sun. The lifespan of those born in periods of solar maximum—interludes marked by powerful flares and geomagnetic storms—was "5.2 years shorter" on average than those born during a solar minimum, they found. "Solar activity at birth decreased the probability of survival to adulthood," thus truncating average lifespan, according to the paper published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. There was a stronger effect on girls than boys, it said. The Sun has cycles that last 11 years, give or take, from one period of greatest activity or solar maximum, to the next. Solar maxima are marked by an increase in sunspots, solar flares and coronal mass ejections that can disrupt radio communications and electrical power on Earth, damage satellites and disturb navigational equipment. Solar activity is also linked to levels of ultraviolet radiation— an environmental stressor known to affect survival and reproductive performance, possibly by causing cell and DNA damage, according to the study authors. Credit: Robert A. Rohde/GNU General Public License Fertility reduced The team, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, based their study on demographic data from church records of some 8,600 individuals from two different mid-Norwegian populations, one poor and one wealthy. This was matched to maps of historical solar cycles. On top of lifespan, being born in a solar maximum period also "significantly reduced" fertility for women born into the poor category, but not for wealthier women or for men, said the authors. "We show for the first time that not only infant survival and thus lifespan but also fertility is statistically associated with solar activity at birth," they wrote. It was not clear whether the same would necessarily hold true for people born in the modern era. One explanation could be ultraviolet-induced degradation of the B vitamin folate, a shortage of which before birth has been linked to higher rates of illness and death, the team theorised. "Our findings suggest that maternal exposure to solar activity during gestation can affect the fitness of female children," the authors wrote. "The effect of socio-economic status on the relationship between solar activity and fertility suggests that high-status pregnant women were better able to avoid the adverse effects of high solar activity"—possibly by staying out of the Sun or because a healthier diet curbed the harm. The team did not have data about how early or late into a solar maximum event the children were born—a limitation of the study. And they could not fully distinguish between pre- or post-natal exposure to ultraviolet light. Further investigation is needed, they said, to test whether the results were repeated in people of different skin colours, and those living at different latitudes. "This study is the first to emphasise the importance of UVR (ultraviolet radiation) in early life," the authors said. "UVR is a global stressor with potential ecological impacts and the future levels of UVR are expected to increase due to climate change and variation in atmospheric ozone." Explore further: Suddenly, the sun is eerily quiet: Where did the sunspots go? More information: Solar activity at birth predicted infant survival and women's fertility in historical Norway, Proceedings of the Royal Society B, rspb.royalsocietypublishing.or … .1098/rspb.2014.2032 ||||| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Pools of water on the floor and old, hard-to-clean equipment at a Colorado farm's cantaloupe-packing facility were probably to blame for the deadliest outbreak of foodborne illness in 25 years, the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday. Government investigators found positive samples of listeria bacteria on equipment in the Jensen Farms packing facility and on fruit that had been held there. In a six-page assessment of the conditions at the farm based on investigators' visits in September, the FDA said Jensen Farms had recently purchased used equipment that was corroded, dirty and hard to clean. The packing facility floors were also constructed so they were hard to clean, so pools of water potentially harboring the bacteria formed close to the packing equipment. The dirty equipment _ purchased in July, the same month the outbreak started _ was previously used to wash and dry potatoes, the agency said, and the listeria "could have been introduced as a result of past use of the equipment," according to the report. FDA officials said that they are not concerned about similar listeria contamination in the potatoes that were previously processed on the equipment because those vegetables are rarely eaten raw. Cooking can kill the bacteria. A warning letter from the agency to Jensen Farms said that a third of 39 swabs taken throughout the facility tested positive for listeria. "This significant percentage of swabs that tested positive for outbreak strains of (listeria) demonstrates widespread contamination throughout your facility and indicates poor sanitary practices in the facility," the letter said. Though the agency said the contamination likely happened in the packing house, the way the cantaloupes were cooled after being picked may have exacerbated the listeria growth. The farm did not use a process called "pre-cooling" that is designed to remove some condensation, thus creating moist conditions on the cantaloupe rind that are ideal for listeria bacteria growth. Listeria grows in cool environments, unlike most pathogens. FDA said that samples of cantaloupes in Jensen Farms' fields were negative for listeria, but bacteria coming off the field may have initially introduced the pathogen into the open-air packing house, where it then spread. Listeria contamination often comes from animal feces or decaying vegetation. Another possible source of contamination was a truck that frequently hauled cantaloupe to a cattle operation and was parked near the packing house. Contamination could have come from the cattle operation and then tracked into the house by people or equipment, the report said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 123 people have been sickened in the outbreak, including the 25 who died. It is the deadliest known outbreak of foodborne illness in the U.S. since an outbreak of listeria in Mexican-style cheese in 1985. The tainted fruit, which Jensen Farms recalled in mid-September, should be off store shelves by now. But the number of illnesses may continue to grow _ symptoms of listeria can take up to two months to appear. Barbara Mahon of the CDC said that the illnesses peaked from mid-August through September, but that the government would continue to monitor the situation for at least another two weeks. The CDC on Tuesday confirmed a sixth death in Colorado and a second in New York. Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Wyoming have also reported deaths. FDA officials said Wednesday that the agency has never visited the farm to do an inspection. But that would likely change under a new food safety law signed by President Barack Obama earlier this year that boosts the number of inspections the FDA conducts annually. Currently, the agency may only visit a food facility every five or 10 years, at the most. FDA officials said they have visited many food facilities over the years and the conditions at Jensen Farms were unique. "There is no reason to believe these practices are indicative of practices throughout the industry," said Sherri McGarry, a senior officer in FDA's office of foods. McGarry said the agency is still considering what enforcement actions it will take. Officials said the farm had cooperated in all aspects of the recall and investigation. Messages left for the farm's owners were not immediately returned. Listeria is rare but more deadly than well-known pathogens such as salmonella and E. coli. While most healthy adults can consume listeria with no ill effects, it can kill the elderly and those with compromised immune systems. The CDC said the median age of those sickened is 78, and most ill people are over 60 years old. It is also dangerous to pregnant women because it easily passes through to the fetus. CDC said it is aware of one miscarriage associated with the outbreak and four illnesses total associated with pregnancy. One newborn was born with listeria infection. Symptoms include fever and muscle aches, often with other gastrointestinal symptoms. ___ Associated Press writer P. Solomon Banda in Denver contributed to this report. ___ Find Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MCJalonick ||||| Federal health officials say they found listeria throughout the packing facility of the Colorado farm whose cantaloupe have so far caused 25 deaths and more than 125 illnesses. In a report released Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration cited multiple problems at the Jensen Farms facility in Holly, Colo., some of which could suggest how listeria came to enter the farm's packing shed. For instance, FDA officials said, a truck used to take waste cantaloupes to a nearby cattle farm was parked next to the open-air packing shed. Because cattle are known carriers of the listeria bacteria, manure carried on the truck's wheels could have contaminated the area around the packing facility. Other problems found included: •Equipment used to wash and dry the cantaloupe was impossible to clean thoroughly and had built-up dirt on it. •A refrigerator drain line allowed water to pool on the floor next to the packing equipment. •The floor of the packing shed was constructed such that it was very difficult to clean. •The company had purchased a used potato-washing machine to clean its cantaloupes, which may have been another way that listeria was introduced to the facility. •The cantaloupe, which typically come in from the fields at 80 degrees, were not pre-cooled to inhibit bacteria growth before being placed in cold storage. This could have created conditions that allowed for condensation, an environment ideal for growth of listeria. The outbreak is now one of deadliest of listeria in the USA. The deadliest known was in 1985 when a Mexican-style soft cheese contaminated with listeria from Jalisco Products killed 18 adults and 10 newborns, as well as caused 20 miscarriages, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It sickened 142 others. This outbreak has been linked to Rocky Ford-brand cantaloupes sold by Jensen Farms. The cantaloupes were recalled Sept. 14, and no melons under the recall should still be on store shelves. Most of the contaminated melons should be out of the food supply by now. The CDC and the FDA said any cantaloupes not from Jensen Farms are safe to eat. Symptoms of listeriosis can take up to two months to develop in someone who has eaten contaminated food, so illnesses could continue to show up into November, the CDC said. FDA officials announced the results of their findings today at a news conference in Washington D.C. The inspections at the farm, which included staff from FDA and Colorado state officials, took place on Sept. 10. They took 39 environmental samples from the facility, mostly swabs of surfaces. No samples from the fields were positive for the outbreak strains, but 12 from the packing facility were. Armed with those findings, FDA inspectors returned to the farm on Sept. 22 and 23 and conducted further inspections, where they found the problems listed above. The firm cooperated with the inspections. Consumers shouldn't be concerned about cantaloupe in general, says Sherri McGarry, an adviser to FDA's Coordinated Outbreak Response and Evaluation team. "We want to emphasize that there's no reason to believe that these factors are indicative of practices through the industry," McGarry said. "I'd say that they were fairly unique." Jim Gorny, FDA's senior adviser for produce safety, said that the conditions found at Jensens Farms were not normal for other cantaloupe facilities.

– Federal health inspectors discovered listeria inside the packing facility of the Colorado farm that shipped out lethal cantaloupes, killing 25 people so far, reports USA Today. FDA officials also found several sanitation problems, including dirty and contaminated equipment that could explain how listeria spread to the fruit. For example, a truck that ferried waste cantaloupes to a cattle farm was parked near the open-air packing facility. Cow manure on the wheels could have infected the produce, say officials. Other violations at Jensen Farms included pools of water on the floor and a dirty potato-washing machine (for the cantaloupes) that could have introduced listeria into the facility. The farm bought the hard-to-clean washer in July, the same month the outbreak started, notes AP.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Pools of water on the floor and old, hard-to-clean equipment at a Colorado farm's cantaloupe-packing facility were probably to blame for the deadliest outbreak of foodborne illness in 25 years, the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday. Government investigators found positive samples of listeria bacteria on equipment in the Jensen Farms packing facility and on fruit that had been held there. In a six-page assessment of the conditions at the farm based on investigators' visits in September, the FDA said Jensen Farms had recently purchased used equipment that was corroded, dirty and hard to clean. The packing facility floors were also constructed so they were hard to clean, so pools of water potentially harboring the bacteria formed close to the packing equipment. The dirty equipment _ purchased in July, the same month the outbreak started _ was previously used to wash and dry potatoes, the agency said, and the listeria "could have been introduced as a result of past use of the equipment," according to the report. FDA officials said that they are not concerned about similar listeria contamination in the potatoes that were previously processed on the equipment because those vegetables are rarely eaten raw. Cooking can kill the bacteria. A warning letter from the agency to Jensen Farms said that a third of 39 swabs taken throughout the facility tested positive for listeria. "This significant percentage of swabs that tested positive for outbreak strains of (listeria) demonstrates widespread contamination throughout your facility and indicates poor sanitary practices in the facility," the letter said. Though the agency said the contamination likely happened in the packing house, the way the cantaloupes were cooled after being picked may have exacerbated the listeria growth. The farm did not use a process called "pre-cooling" that is designed to remove some condensation, thus creating moist conditions on the cantaloupe rind that are ideal for listeria bacteria growth. Listeria grows in cool environments, unlike most pathogens. FDA said that samples of cantaloupes in Jensen Farms' fields were negative for listeria, but bacteria coming off the field may have initially introduced the pathogen into the open-air packing house, where it then spread. Listeria contamination often comes from animal feces or decaying vegetation. Another possible source of contamination was a truck that frequently hauled cantaloupe to a cattle operation and was parked near the packing house. Contamination could have come from the cattle operation and then tracked into the house by people or equipment, the report said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says 123 people have been sickened in the outbreak, including the 25 who died. It is the deadliest known outbreak of foodborne illness in the U.S. since an outbreak of listeria in Mexican-style cheese in 1985. The tainted fruit, which Jensen Farms recalled in mid-September, should be off store shelves by now. But the number of illnesses may continue to grow _ symptoms of listeria can take up to two months to appear. Barbara Mahon of the CDC said that the illnesses peaked from mid-August through September, but that the government would continue to monitor the situation for at least another two weeks. The CDC on Tuesday confirmed a sixth death in Colorado and a second in New York. Indiana, Kansas, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Wyoming have also reported deaths. FDA officials said Wednesday that the agency has never visited the farm to do an inspection. But that would likely change under a new food safety law signed by President Barack Obama earlier this year that boosts the number of inspections the FDA conducts annually. Currently, the agency may only visit a food facility every five or 10 years, at the most. FDA officials said they have visited many food facilities over the years and the conditions at Jensen Farms were unique. "There is no reason to believe these practices are indicative of practices throughout the industry," said Sherri McGarry, a senior officer in FDA's office of foods. McGarry said the agency is still considering what enforcement actions it will take. Officials said the farm had cooperated in all aspects of the recall and investigation. Messages left for the farm's owners were not immediately returned. Listeria is rare but more deadly than well-known pathogens such as salmonella and E. coli. While most healthy adults can consume listeria with no ill effects, it can kill the elderly and those with compromised immune systems. The CDC said the median age of those sickened is 78, and most ill people are over 60 years old. It is also dangerous to pregnant women because it easily passes through to the fetus. CDC said it is aware of one miscarriage associated with the outbreak and four illnesses total associated with pregnancy. One newborn was born with listeria infection. Symptoms include fever and muscle aches, often with other gastrointestinal symptoms. ___ Associated Press writer P. Solomon Banda in Denver contributed to this report. ___ Find Mary Clare Jalonick on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MCJalonick ||||| Federal health officials say they found listeria throughout the packing facility of the Colorado farm whose cantaloupe have so far caused 25 deaths and more than 125 illnesses. In a report released Wednesday, the Food and Drug Administration cited multiple problems at the Jensen Farms facility in Holly, Colo., some of which could suggest how listeria came to enter the farm's packing shed. For instance, FDA officials said, a truck used to take waste cantaloupes to a nearby cattle farm was parked next to the open-air packing shed. Because cattle are known carriers of the listeria bacteria, manure carried on the truck's wheels could have contaminated the area around the packing facility. Other problems found included: •Equipment used to wash and dry the cantaloupe was impossible to clean thoroughly and had built-up dirt on it. •A refrigerator drain line allowed water to pool on the floor next to the packing equipment. •The floor of the packing shed was constructed such that it was very difficult to clean. •The company had purchased a used potato-washing machine to clean its cantaloupes, which may have been another way that listeria was introduced to the facility. •The cantaloupe, which typically come in from the fields at 80 degrees, were not pre-cooled to inhibit bacteria growth before being placed in cold storage. This could have created conditions that allowed for condensation, an environment ideal for growth of listeria. The outbreak is now one of deadliest of listeria in the USA. The deadliest known was in 1985 when a Mexican-style soft cheese contaminated with listeria from Jalisco Products killed 18 adults and 10 newborns, as well as caused 20 miscarriages, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It sickened 142 others. This outbreak has been linked to Rocky Ford-brand cantaloupes sold by Jensen Farms. The cantaloupes were recalled Sept. 14, and no melons under the recall should still be on store shelves. Most of the contaminated melons should be out of the food supply by now. The CDC and the FDA said any cantaloupes not from Jensen Farms are safe to eat. Symptoms of listeriosis can take up to two months to develop in someone who has eaten contaminated food, so illnesses could continue to show up into November, the CDC said. FDA officials announced the results of their findings today at a news conference in Washington D.C. The inspections at the farm, which included staff from FDA and Colorado state officials, took place on Sept. 10. They took 39 environmental samples from the facility, mostly swabs of surfaces. No samples from the fields were positive for the outbreak strains, but 12 from the packing facility were. Armed with those findings, FDA inspectors returned to the farm on Sept. 22 and 23 and conducted further inspections, where they found the problems listed above. The firm cooperated with the inspections. Consumers shouldn't be concerned about cantaloupe in general, says Sherri McGarry, an adviser to FDA's Coordinated Outbreak Response and Evaluation team. "We want to emphasize that there's no reason to believe that these factors are indicative of practices through the industry," McGarry said. "I'd say that they were fairly unique." Jim Gorny, FDA's senior adviser for produce safety, said that the conditions found at Jensens Farms were not normal for other cantaloupe facilities.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

Simeon Wright, the cousin of Emmett Till who was in bed with the boy on the night he was kidnapped and later murdered, died Monday morning at his home in Countryside, his wife said. Wright died after suffering complications from a form of bone cancer, his wife, Annie Wright, said. He was 74. Simeon Wright grew up for part of his life in Money, Miss. A 14-year-old Emmett Till traveled to the town from Chicago in August 1955 to visit Wright and other relatives that summer. Wright was with Till when Till allegedly whistled at a white woman at a convenience store as a prank. And Wright was also with the teen the night Till was ordered out of bed at gunpoint by two angry white men, who accused him of flirting with their relative. Till was tortured, murdered and his body was tossed into the river. His death helped galvanize the civil rights movement. He became a symbol of racist violence that persisted in the South when his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, chose to have his mutilated body on display at his funeral. Photographs of Till's wounded corpse were published and circulated around the world. After a trial where the men accused of killing Till were acquitted, Wright and his family moved to west suburban Argo. He graduated from Argo High School in 1962 and began working as a pipe fitter. For much of his life, Wright lived quietly in various suburbs of Chicago, his wife said. But in the 2000s, Wright became more vocal about what happened to him. Newsmakers and celebrities with Chicago ties who died in 2017. "He really wanted people to know what happened that night," his wife said. "There were so many versions. When I first met him, he never talked about it. But then he wanted people to know the injustices and indignities." Wright was 12 when Till was killed and afterward his family fled in fear, said Airickca Gordon-Taylor, a spokeswoman for the family and the co-founding director of the Mamie Till-Mobley Memorial Foundation. The media spotlight was justifiably on Emmett Till, Gordon-Taylor said. But the rest of the family suffered immensely after the teen's death. "People often talked about Emmett, but Simeon had a story of his own," Gordon-Taylor said. "That incident changed him as a person. It ripped his own family apart. It disrupted his life. He became bitter and angry." In 2009, Wright published a book detailing his eyewitness account. After Till whistled at the white woman at the store, he made his cousins promise not to tell any of the adults because he didn't want to get sent back home to Chicago, Wright wrote. But that night, Wright awoke to loud, rumbling voices. Newsmakers and celebrities who died in 2017. "When I opened my eyes, I saw two white men at the foot of my bed. One had a flashlight and a gun," Wright told a Tribune columnist in 2014. "They ordered me back down. Emmett was still sleeping. They had to shake him to wake him up." The men took Till out of the house. His body was later found in the river, held down by a cotton gin fan. Shortly after the trial, the two men accused of killing Till bragged to Look magazine that they had murdered the boy. The entire incident filled Wright with an anger that he was able to subdue only with a religious conversion. "He got through it with the Lord's help," his wife said. He channeled his energy into mentoring young boys and trying to teach them how to set goals and manage life's setbacks and obstacles, she said. This year, Carolyn Bryant Donham, the woman at the center of the trial of Till's killers, acknowledged that she falsely testified that Till had made physical advances and verbal threats. The confession sparked a renewed interest into the Till tragedy and its role in history. Besides his wife, Wright is survived mainly by extended relatives. Services are pending. [email protected] Twitter @lollybowean ||||| Simeon Wright and his father, Mose Wright, sit at their home in the community of Money, Miss., on Sept. 1, 1955. Simeon was Emmett Till’s cousin. (AP) On a warm August night in 1955, Simeon Wright woke to the sound of unfamiliar voices. Opening his eyes, he found two white men standing at the foot of his bed, holding a flashlight and gun. They were after Wright’s cousin — 14-year-old Emmett Till — who was still asleep beside him but would soon be kidnapped, brutally murdered and dumped into a river. It was memories of that historically infamous night that Wright, who died on Monday, quietly carried with him until publishing his firsthand account in a 2010 book. Wright died on Monday morning from complications from bone cancer at his home in Countryside, Ill., according to the Chicago Tribune. He was 74 and is survived by his wife and extended family. Wright was 12 years old and living in Money, Miss., when his cousin visited from Chicago in the summer of 1955. He was there for the moments of that visit that would transform Till from an innocent teenager to the face of Southern Jim Crow violence and brutality throughout the civil rights era, down to this day. The two were together when Till allegedly whistled at a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, at the convenience store she owned with her husband, Roy. Wright said Till was “always joking around” and was likely trying to get a laugh out of his cousins. But the whistle struck Wright, who feared the overwhelming presence of the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi, to the core. Chicago magazine quoted Wright as saying the joke “scared us half to death … A black boy whistling at a white woman? In Mississippi? No.” The group promised not to tell Wright’s father about the incident, expecting that he would rush Till out of town if he ever found out. But it was at 2 a.m. on Aug. 28 that Roy Bryant and his half brother, J.W. Milam, arrived at the Wrights’ home. They snatched Till from the bed he shared with Wright. Till’s beaten body was later found in the Tallahatchie River, along with a 75-pound cotton-gin fan tied to his neck with barbed wire. Mamie Till-Mobley, mother of Emmett Till, pauses at her son’s casket at a Chicago funeral home in 1955. (Chicago Sun-Times/AP) The horrific scene became an instant symbol of racial violence. Till’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, arranged for her son’s body to be on display at the funeral, allowing photographers to capture lasting images of an anguished mother and her mutilated child. Bryant and Milam went on trial for murder, with Wright’s father even identifying them in court. But they were acquitted by an all-white jury, despite later confessing to the crime in Look magazine. The Wrights soon left Mississippi for the Chicago suburbs. As recounted in Chicago magazine, Wright got into plenty of fights after the move. He wasn’t meek in the face of slurs from white boys. Still, he graduated from Argo High School in 1962 and worked as a pipe fitter, according to the Chicago Tribune. In his 20s, Wright found a kind of comfort in Christianity, even forgiving his cousin’s killers. Later in life he was a deacon in the Argo Temple Church of God in Christ, according to Chicago magazine. The church was pastored by Till’s cousin and founded by his maternal grandmother. In a Chicago Tribune obituary, Wright’s wife, Annie Wright, said her husband “got through it with the Lord’s help,” adding that he focused his energy on mentoring young boys and teaching them how to navigate life’s setbacks. Simeon Wright speaks at a news conference on Aug. 28, 2009, at the church where his cousin’s funeral was held in Chicago. (M. Spencer Green/AP) Even with his newfound spirituality, Wright said he was haunted by historical inaccuracies surrounding Till’s death. His co-authored book, “Simeon’s Story: An Eyewitness Account of the Kidnapping of Emmett Till,” aims to clarify eyewitness accounts and other reports that lived on decades after the lynching, including the fact that Till’s wallet did not contain a photo of a white girl and that Till did not address Bryant on a dare. The book was also an eloquent, albeit chilling, recounting of life for a young black man in the Jim Crow era. “Any black person brave enough to violate this system,” he writes, “was immediately confronted by angry white men, usually with murder on their minds. There was nothing more feared in the South than one of those lynch mobs, which was invariably protected by the sheriff and his deputies — when they weren’t part of the mob themselves. For every courageous black man willing to speak out against the circumstances we faced, hundreds of white men were willing and able to make sure he paid the ultimate price.” More from Morning Mix Utah hospital to cops: Stay away from our nurses Robert E. Lee descendant — and denouncer — quits N.C. pastor post over ‘hurtful’ reaction to VMAs speech A ‘dreamer’ dies trying to save Harvey victims, days before Trump plans to end DACA

– "They had come for Bobo," the Clarion-Ledger quotes Simeon Wright as writing in his memoir. "No begging, pleading, or payment was going to stop them." Wright, cousin of Emmett Till, died Monday in Illinois at the age of 74 following a battle with cancer, the Chicago Tribune reports. According to the Washington Post, Wright—12 years old at the time—was with Till, who family called Bobo, when the 14-year-old whistled at a white woman in 1955 in Mississippi. Wright has said Till, who was visiting from Chicago, was probably trying to make the cousins laugh, but they were horrified due to the Ku Klux Klan's presence in the state. Later, Wright was sleeping next to Till when two white men pulled him from bed. It was the last time Wright saw his cousin, who was tortured, killed, and dumped in a river. The men who dragged Till from bed were acquitted, later bragging of his murder, and Wright's family fled Mississippi. "That incident changed him as a person," a family spokesperson says. "He became bitter and angry." Wright's wife, Annie, tells the Tribune religion helped Wright work through his anger, and he eventually forgave his cousin's killers. Wright spent most of life living in the suburbs of Chicago, only recently starting to talk about his final memories of Till. "He really wanted people to know what happened that night," Annie says. "He wanted people to know the injustices and indignities." Wright published a memoir in 2010 and had recently been speaking on civil rights to groups around the country.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.Simeon Wright, the cousin of Emmett Till who was in bed with the boy on the night he was kidnapped and later murdered, died Monday morning at his home in Countryside, his wife said. Wright died after suffering complications from a form of bone cancer, his wife, Annie Wright, said. He was 74. Simeon Wright grew up for part of his life in Money, Miss. A 14-year-old Emmett Till traveled to the town from Chicago in August 1955 to visit Wright and other relatives that summer. Wright was with Till when Till allegedly whistled at a white woman at a convenience store as a prank. And Wright was also with the teen the night Till was ordered out of bed at gunpoint by two angry white men, who accused him of flirting with their relative. Till was tortured, murdered and his body was tossed into the river. His death helped galvanize the civil rights movement. He became a symbol of racist violence that persisted in the South when his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, chose to have his mutilated body on display at his funeral. Photographs of Till's wounded corpse were published and circulated around the world. After a trial where the men accused of killing Till were acquitted, Wright and his family moved to west suburban Argo. He graduated from Argo High School in 1962 and began working as a pipe fitter. For much of his life, Wright lived quietly in various suburbs of Chicago, his wife said. But in the 2000s, Wright became more vocal about what happened to him. Newsmakers and celebrities with Chicago ties who died in 2017. "He really wanted people to know what happened that night," his wife said. "There were so many versions. When I first met him, he never talked about it. But then he wanted people to know the injustices and indignities." Wright was 12 when Till was killed and afterward his family fled in fear, said Airickca Gordon-Taylor, a spokeswoman for the family and the co-founding director of the Mamie Till-Mobley Memorial Foundation. The media spotlight was justifiably on Emmett Till, Gordon-Taylor said. But the rest of the family suffered immensely after the teen's death. "People often talked about Emmett, but Simeon had a story of his own," Gordon-Taylor said. "That incident changed him as a person. It ripped his own family apart. It disrupted his life. He became bitter and angry." In 2009, Wright published a book detailing his eyewitness account. After Till whistled at the white woman at the store, he made his cousins promise not to tell any of the adults because he didn't want to get sent back home to Chicago, Wright wrote. But that night, Wright awoke to loud, rumbling voices. Newsmakers and celebrities who died in 2017. "When I opened my eyes, I saw two white men at the foot of my bed. One had a flashlight and a gun," Wright told a Tribune columnist in 2014. "They ordered me back down. Emmett was still sleeping. They had to shake him to wake him up." The men took Till out of the house. His body was later found in the river, held down by a cotton gin fan. Shortly after the trial, the two men accused of killing Till bragged to Look magazine that they had murdered the boy. The entire incident filled Wright with an anger that he was able to subdue only with a religious conversion. "He got through it with the Lord's help," his wife said. He channeled his energy into mentoring young boys and trying to teach them how to set goals and manage life's setbacks and obstacles, she said. This year, Carolyn Bryant Donham, the woman at the center of the trial of Till's killers, acknowledged that she falsely testified that Till had made physical advances and verbal threats. The confession sparked a renewed interest into the Till tragedy and its role in history. Besides his wife, Wright is survived mainly by extended relatives. Services are pending. [email protected] Twitter @lollybowean ||||| Simeon Wright and his father, Mose Wright, sit at their home in the community of Money, Miss., on Sept. 1, 1955. Simeon was Emmett Till’s cousin. (AP) On a warm August night in 1955, Simeon Wright woke to the sound of unfamiliar voices. Opening his eyes, he found two white men standing at the foot of his bed, holding a flashlight and gun. They were after Wright’s cousin — 14-year-old Emmett Till — who was still asleep beside him but would soon be kidnapped, brutally murdered and dumped into a river. It was memories of that historically infamous night that Wright, who died on Monday, quietly carried with him until publishing his firsthand account in a 2010 book. Wright died on Monday morning from complications from bone cancer at his home in Countryside, Ill., according to the Chicago Tribune. He was 74 and is survived by his wife and extended family. Wright was 12 years old and living in Money, Miss., when his cousin visited from Chicago in the summer of 1955. He was there for the moments of that visit that would transform Till from an innocent teenager to the face of Southern Jim Crow violence and brutality throughout the civil rights era, down to this day. The two were together when Till allegedly whistled at a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, at the convenience store she owned with her husband, Roy. Wright said Till was “always joking around” and was likely trying to get a laugh out of his cousins. But the whistle struck Wright, who feared the overwhelming presence of the Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi, to the core. Chicago magazine quoted Wright as saying the joke “scared us half to death … A black boy whistling at a white woman? In Mississippi? No.” The group promised not to tell Wright’s father about the incident, expecting that he would rush Till out of town if he ever found out. But it was at 2 a.m. on Aug. 28 that Roy Bryant and his half brother, J.W. Milam, arrived at the Wrights’ home. They snatched Till from the bed he shared with Wright. Till’s beaten body was later found in the Tallahatchie River, along with a 75-pound cotton-gin fan tied to his neck with barbed wire. Mamie Till-Mobley, mother of Emmett Till, pauses at her son’s casket at a Chicago funeral home in 1955. (Chicago Sun-Times/AP) The horrific scene became an instant symbol of racial violence. Till’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, arranged for her son’s body to be on display at the funeral, allowing photographers to capture lasting images of an anguished mother and her mutilated child. Bryant and Milam went on trial for murder, with Wright’s father even identifying them in court. But they were acquitted by an all-white jury, despite later confessing to the crime in Look magazine. The Wrights soon left Mississippi for the Chicago suburbs. As recounted in Chicago magazine, Wright got into plenty of fights after the move. He wasn’t meek in the face of slurs from white boys. Still, he graduated from Argo High School in 1962 and worked as a pipe fitter, according to the Chicago Tribune. In his 20s, Wright found a kind of comfort in Christianity, even forgiving his cousin’s killers. Later in life he was a deacon in the Argo Temple Church of God in Christ, according to Chicago magazine. The church was pastored by Till’s cousin and founded by his maternal grandmother. In a Chicago Tribune obituary, Wright’s wife, Annie Wright, said her husband “got through it with the Lord’s help,” adding that he focused his energy on mentoring young boys and teaching them how to navigate life’s setbacks. Simeon Wright speaks at a news conference on Aug. 28, 2009, at the church where his cousin’s funeral was held in Chicago. (M. Spencer Green/AP) Even with his newfound spirituality, Wright said he was haunted by historical inaccuracies surrounding Till’s death. His co-authored book, “Simeon’s Story: An Eyewitness Account of the Kidnapping of Emmett Till,” aims to clarify eyewitness accounts and other reports that lived on decades after the lynching, including the fact that Till’s wallet did not contain a photo of a white girl and that Till did not address Bryant on a dare. The book was also an eloquent, albeit chilling, recounting of life for a young black man in the Jim Crow era. “Any black person brave enough to violate this system,” he writes, “was immediately confronted by angry white men, usually with murder on their minds. There was nothing more feared in the South than one of those lynch mobs, which was invariably protected by the sheriff and his deputies — when they weren’t part of the mob themselves. For every courageous black man willing to speak out against the circumstances we faced, hundreds of white men were willing and able to make sure he paid the ultimate price.” More from Morning Mix Utah hospital to cops: Stay away from our nurses Robert E. Lee descendant — and denouncer — quits N.C. pastor post over ‘hurtful’ reaction to VMAs speech A ‘dreamer’ dies trying to save Harvey victims, days before Trump plans to end DACA

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

DENVER -- Denver Health Medical Center confirms an anesthesiologist accused of posting a racially charged comment on Facebook is no longer seeing patients at the hospital until further notice. The post on a picture of a yelling Michelle Obama said, "doesn't seem to be speaking too eloquently here, thank god we can't hear her! Harvard??? That's a place for "entitled" folks said all the liberals!” The poster goes onto comment, "Monkey face and poor ebonic English!!! There! I feel better and am still not racist!!! Just calling it like it is!" The poster, Dr. Michelle Herren, is a pediatric anesthesiologist at Denver Health Medical Center and Children's Hospital Colorado and is listed online as an assistant professor at CU's School of Medicine. While the hospital told Denver7 Tuesday that it couldn't control the opinions their staff express as private individuals, on Thursday the company confirmed, "Until further notice, Michelle Herren, MD, will not be seeing patients or providing anesthesia services at Denver Health Medical Center." The University of Colorado School of Medicine has also begun the process of terminating Dr. Herren's faculty appointment. "She has expressed values that are at odds with ours and she has compromised her ability to meet the teaching and patient care missions of the School of Medicine," said School of Medicine Dean John J. Reilly, Jr. in a statement Thursday afternoon. The comment has since been removed and Herren has taken down her Facebook page. Dr. Herren told Denver 7's Molly Hendrickson over the phone that her comment was taken "out of context" and insists she didn't realize the term “monkey face” is offensive. Herren said she was responding to another post pointing out people say whatever they want about Melania Trump, but if they do the same about Michelle Obama they're considered racist. Denver Health said Dr. Herren had been employed there since October of 2007. Denver Health wrote on Facebook: "Denver Health is deeply disappointed by the remarks posted on social media by Dr. Michelle Herren against the First Lady of the United States. We are offended by the comments made by this individual, who was acting independently in her private capacity. Her views are contrary to the mission and values of Denver Health, and to our staff and patients. Denver Health proudly serves people of all races, genders, sexual orientations, and social backgrounds – and our staff and patient population truly reflect our diverse community and nation. We are reaching out to all of our patients, employees and physicians to reinforce our culture, mission and beliefs that all individuals regardless of their race, religion, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation are deserving of dignity and respect." Children's Hospital Colorado says Dr. Herren is neither employed by, nor caring for patients at the hospital. --------- Sign up for Denver7 email alerts to stay informed about breaking news and daily headlines. Or, keep up-to-date on the latest news and weather with the Denver7 apps for iPhone/iPads, Android and Kindle. ||||| The University of Colorado’s School of Medicine is planning to cut ties with Dr. Michelle Herren, a faculty member and pediatric anesthesiologist, who made a racist remark on Facebook. “We are beginning the process to terminate Dr. Herren’s faculty appointment,” Mark Couch, spokesman for the school, said Thursday. “She has expressed values that are at odds with ours and she has compromised her ability to meet the teaching and patient care mission of the School of Medicine.” Herren, who works at Denver Health Medical Center, holds a non-paid faculty appointment at the CU School of Medicine and a medical staff appointment at Children’s Hospital, where Denver Health physicians supervise residents and other medical practitioners in training. Herren responded to a Facebook post praising First Lady Michelle Obama with the statement: “Monkey face and poor ebonic English!!! There! I feel better and am still not racist!!! Just calling it like it is!” It remains unclear whether Denver Health will take similar action against her. “We are bumping up against a first amendment right,” said Kelli Christensen, Denver Health spokeswoman. “A lot of people are working very hard to resolve this situation.” After The Denver Post and other media covered the story, first reported by Denver7, the hospital said Herren would not be seeing patients or providing anesthesia services there until further notice. Denver Health also released a statement saying that officials were offended by the comments, which were made while Herren was “acting independently in her private capacity.” First Amendment protections for those in the public sector make it difficult to terminate or otherwise take action against an employee for offensive statements outside the workplace, according to legal experts. “Government employers can impose restrictions on statements made within the workplace or referring to the workplace, but they can’t act on statements made outside of the workplace unless they show a substantial likelihood of material impact on the employee’s performance or disruption within the workplace,” said Steven D. Zansberg, a First Amendment lawyer in Denver. The hospital is “a political subdivision of the state,” Christensen said. But a private employer can fire someone for comments made outside the work place, even if there is no obvious impact on their business, without worrying about First Amendment protections, said Lorri Ray, a lawyer with Mountain States Employers Council. If the public spotlight on the comments has an impact on the hospital, its legal department might find it easier to take adverse employment action, Ray said. “But I’m sure the lawyers are looking at it very carefully because the right of free speech is protected in the public sector.” In a letter obtained by The Denver Post, Dr. John Reilly Jr., the CU vice chancellor for health affairs, expressed concern to Herren over the remarks, saying community members distributed them to CU Regents, the School of Medicine, affiliated hospitals and local media. “I ask that you inform me of your perspective on whether you can continue to teach effectively given the multiple communications I have received from students, faculty and public expressing their opinion that your posting demonstrates that you should not be involved in the education of our students,” he wrote. Reilly’s letter also suggests that Herren’s comments has caused wide-spread damage. “Your comments and tone are harmful to the students we teach and the patients we care for,” he wrote. “Your derogatory, insensitive remarks have resulted in harm to others in our community and beyond.” CU’s Board of Regents requires faculty members “to remember that the public may judge their profession and institution by their utterances,” he wrote. ||||| DENVER -- It's the Facebook post Joann Nieto calls "entirely unacceptable." "I think it's sad," Nieto said. It depicts a picture of a yelling Michelle Obama with the comment, "doesn't seem to be speaking too eloquently here, thank god we can't hear her! Harvard??? That's a place for "entitled" folks said all the liberals!” The poster goes onto comment, "Monkey face and poor ebonic English!!! There! I feel better and am still not racist!!! Just calling it like it is!" "Hiding behind the excuse that you're not racist, doesn't negate the fact that you are being racist," Nieto said. What's worse, Nieto discovered the poster is Dr. Michelle Herren, a pediatric anesthesiologist who works at Denver Health Medical Center, Children's Hospital Colorado and is listed online as an assistant professor at CU's School of Medicine. "I think you have to hold yourself to a higher standard as being a public employee, as well as being a professor in such a critical field," Nieto said. The comment has since been removed and Herren has taken down her Facebook page. "It stayed on there for four days until I had said something to the CU Board of Regents, and I sent an email to them. If I never would have mentioned anything to them, how much longer would that comment have been out there in the public world?" Nieto said. Dr. Herren declined an on-camera interview, but told Denver 7's Molly Hendrickson over the phone that her comment was taken "out of context" and insists she didn't realize the term “monkey face” is offensive. Herren said she was responding to another post pointing out people say whatever they want about Melania Trump, but if they do the same about Michelle Obama they're considered racist. Denver Health released the following statement Tuesday night: Denver Health's mission is to provide high quality health care to all, regardless of income levels, ethnicity, gender or social background. Our staff and our patient population are reflective of the diverse Denver Community we serve. We don't condone nor do we agree with the statements Dr. Herren made, as they are inconsistent with Denver Health's mission and values. However, we cannot control the opinions our staff choose to express as private individuals. Denver Health said Dr. Herren has been employed there since October of 2007 and currently makes $363,600 a year. --------- Sign up for Denver7 email alerts to stay informed about breaking news and daily headlines. Or, keep up-to-date on the latest news and weather with the Denver7 apps for iPhone/iPads , Android and Kindle .

– A pediatric anesthesiologist at the University of Colorado's medical school is losing her job there after racist Facebook comments directed toward Michelle Obama were flagged, the Denver Post and Denver 7 report. Dr. Michelle Herren reportedly posted a photo that showed the first lady screaming with the comment, "Doesn't seem to be speaking too eloquently here, thank god we can't hear her! Harvard??? That's a place for 'entitled' folks said all the liberals!" She then added: "Monkey face and poor ebonic English!!! There! I feel better and am still not racist!!! Just calling it like it is!" Also calling it like it is: Joann Nieto, who informed the university of the comments after she saw the post stayed up for four days. A school spokesman said Thursday "we are beginning the process to terminate Dr. Herren's faculty appointment" (a nonpaid position), adding she has "compromised her ability" to teach and care for patients. It's not yet clear what the fate of her $363,00-a-year job at Denver Health Medical Center will be, though it confirms to Denver 7 she won't be seeing patients "until further notice." A rep adds, "We are bumping up against a First Amendment right," with the Post noting it's difficult to fire public-sector employees who make offensive remarks when they're not at work. Herren tells Denver 7 her remarks were taken "out of context" and were in response to another comment that argued people can criticize Melania Trump freely but the same isn't true for Obama. She added she had no idea "monkey face" might be considered offensive.

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary.DENVER -- Denver Health Medical Center confirms an anesthesiologist accused of posting a racially charged comment on Facebook is no longer seeing patients at the hospital until further notice. The post on a picture of a yelling Michelle Obama said, "doesn't seem to be speaking too eloquently here, thank god we can't hear her! Harvard??? That's a place for "entitled" folks said all the liberals!” The poster goes onto comment, "Monkey face and poor ebonic English!!! There! I feel better and am still not racist!!! Just calling it like it is!" The poster, Dr. Michelle Herren, is a pediatric anesthesiologist at Denver Health Medical Center and Children's Hospital Colorado and is listed online as an assistant professor at CU's School of Medicine. While the hospital told Denver7 Tuesday that it couldn't control the opinions their staff express as private individuals, on Thursday the company confirmed, "Until further notice, Michelle Herren, MD, will not be seeing patients or providing anesthesia services at Denver Health Medical Center." The University of Colorado School of Medicine has also begun the process of terminating Dr. Herren's faculty appointment. "She has expressed values that are at odds with ours and she has compromised her ability to meet the teaching and patient care missions of the School of Medicine," said School of Medicine Dean John J. Reilly, Jr. in a statement Thursday afternoon. The comment has since been removed and Herren has taken down her Facebook page. Dr. Herren told Denver 7's Molly Hendrickson over the phone that her comment was taken "out of context" and insists she didn't realize the term “monkey face” is offensive. Herren said she was responding to another post pointing out people say whatever they want about Melania Trump, but if they do the same about Michelle Obama they're considered racist. Denver Health said Dr. Herren had been employed there since October of 2007. Denver Health wrote on Facebook: "Denver Health is deeply disappointed by the remarks posted on social media by Dr. Michelle Herren against the First Lady of the United States. We are offended by the comments made by this individual, who was acting independently in her private capacity. Her views are contrary to the mission and values of Denver Health, and to our staff and patients. Denver Health proudly serves people of all races, genders, sexual orientations, and social backgrounds – and our staff and patient population truly reflect our diverse community and nation. We are reaching out to all of our patients, employees and physicians to reinforce our culture, mission and beliefs that all individuals regardless of their race, religion, ethnicity, gender or sexual orientation are deserving of dignity and respect." Children's Hospital Colorado says Dr. Herren is neither employed by, nor caring for patients at the hospital. --------- Sign up for Denver7 email alerts to stay informed about breaking news and daily headlines. Or, keep up-to-date on the latest news and weather with the Denver7 apps for iPhone/iPads, Android and Kindle. ||||| The University of Colorado’s School of Medicine is planning to cut ties with Dr. Michelle Herren, a faculty member and pediatric anesthesiologist, who made a racist remark on Facebook. “We are beginning the process to terminate Dr. Herren’s faculty appointment,” Mark Couch, spokesman for the school, said Thursday. “She has expressed values that are at odds with ours and she has compromised her ability to meet the teaching and patient care mission of the School of Medicine.” Herren, who works at Denver Health Medical Center, holds a non-paid faculty appointment at the CU School of Medicine and a medical staff appointment at Children’s Hospital, where Denver Health physicians supervise residents and other medical practitioners in training. Herren responded to a Facebook post praising First Lady Michelle Obama with the statement: “Monkey face and poor ebonic English!!! There! I feel better and am still not racist!!! Just calling it like it is!” It remains unclear whether Denver Health will take similar action against her. “We are bumping up against a first amendment right,” said Kelli Christensen, Denver Health spokeswoman. “A lot of people are working very hard to resolve this situation.” After The Denver Post and other media covered the story, first reported by Denver7, the hospital said Herren would not be seeing patients or providing anesthesia services there until further notice. Denver Health also released a statement saying that officials were offended by the comments, which were made while Herren was “acting independently in her private capacity.” First Amendment protections for those in the public sector make it difficult to terminate or otherwise take action against an employee for offensive statements outside the workplace, according to legal experts. “Government employers can impose restrictions on statements made within the workplace or referring to the workplace, but they can’t act on statements made outside of the workplace unless they show a substantial likelihood of material impact on the employee’s performance or disruption within the workplace,” said Steven D. Zansberg, a First Amendment lawyer in Denver. The hospital is “a political subdivision of the state,” Christensen said. But a private employer can fire someone for comments made outside the work place, even if there is no obvious impact on their business, without worrying about First Amendment protections, said Lorri Ray, a lawyer with Mountain States Employers Council. If the public spotlight on the comments has an impact on the hospital, its legal department might find it easier to take adverse employment action, Ray said. “But I’m sure the lawyers are looking at it very carefully because the right of free speech is protected in the public sector.” In a letter obtained by The Denver Post, Dr. John Reilly Jr., the CU vice chancellor for health affairs, expressed concern to Herren over the remarks, saying community members distributed them to CU Regents, the School of Medicine, affiliated hospitals and local media. “I ask that you inform me of your perspective on whether you can continue to teach effectively given the multiple communications I have received from students, faculty and public expressing their opinion that your posting demonstrates that you should not be involved in the education of our students,” he wrote. Reilly’s letter also suggests that Herren’s comments has caused wide-spread damage. “Your comments and tone are harmful to the students we teach and the patients we care for,” he wrote. “Your derogatory, insensitive remarks have resulted in harm to others in our community and beyond.” CU’s Board of Regents requires faculty members “to remember that the public may judge their profession and institution by their utterances,” he wrote. ||||| DENVER -- It's the Facebook post Joann Nieto calls "entirely unacceptable." "I think it's sad," Nieto said. It depicts a picture of a yelling Michelle Obama with the comment, "doesn't seem to be speaking too eloquently here, thank god we can't hear her! Harvard??? That's a place for "entitled" folks said all the liberals!” The poster goes onto comment, "Monkey face and poor ebonic English!!! There! I feel better and am still not racist!!! Just calling it like it is!" "Hiding behind the excuse that you're not racist, doesn't negate the fact that you are being racist," Nieto said. What's worse, Nieto discovered the poster is Dr. Michelle Herren, a pediatric anesthesiologist who works at Denver Health Medical Center, Children's Hospital Colorado and is listed online as an assistant professor at CU's School of Medicine. "I think you have to hold yourself to a higher standard as being a public employee, as well as being a professor in such a critical field," Nieto said. The comment has since been removed and Herren has taken down her Facebook page. "It stayed on there for four days until I had said something to the CU Board of Regents, and I sent an email to them. If I never would have mentioned anything to them, how much longer would that comment have been out there in the public world?" Nieto said. Dr. Herren declined an on-camera interview, but told Denver 7's Molly Hendrickson over the phone that her comment was taken "out of context" and insists she didn't realize the term “monkey face” is offensive. Herren said she was responding to another post pointing out people say whatever they want about Melania Trump, but if they do the same about Michelle Obama they're considered racist. Denver Health released the following statement Tuesday night: Denver Health's mission is to provide high quality health care to all, regardless of income levels, ethnicity, gender or social background. Our staff and our patient population are reflective of the diverse Denver Community we serve. We don't condone nor do we agree with the statements Dr. Herren made, as they are inconsistent with Denver Health's mission and values. However, we cannot control the opinions our staff choose to express as private individuals. Denver Health said Dr. Herren has been employed there since October of 2007 and currently makes $363,600 a year. --------- Sign up for Denver7 email alerts to stay informed about breaking news and daily headlines. Or, keep up-to-date on the latest news and weather with the Denver7 apps for iPhone/iPads , Android and Kindle .

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.

"Going Rogue: An American Life" (HarperCollins, 413 pages, $28.99), by Sarah Palin: There should be a feeling of palpable glee running through Sarah Palin's memoir: Now, finally, she gets to talk, unfiltered and unedited. This is, after all, a politician convinced that the media twists her words, who says she's been parodied and mocked by establishment elites, and who complains she was muzzled by her own party. "Going Rogue: An American Life" offers her a chance to answer back, without pesky interference from the likes of Katie Couric or Republican handlers. It is, to steal Nancy Reagan's memoir title, "My Turn." So why is there so little bloodletting, why no mustn't-miss gory bits? Her book, written with an assist from Lynn Vincent, is less the revealing autobiography of a straight-shooting maverick and more a lengthy campaign speech _ more lipstick, less pit bull. The book can be roughly divided into two halves _ the years before she was asked to join John McCain's ticket and the time since. The second half is the more lively: It's got her take on the designer clothes embarrassment; the vice presidential debate with Joe Biden; and the "campaign professionals" she blames for losing the White House. From the beginning, Palin seems determined to prove she has always been maverick-y and never a mental lightweight. She says her nose was always in a book while growing up and the first big word she learned to spell was "different." She casually mentions that Mount McKinley rises to 20,320 feet (6,194 meters), and she quotes Plato, Thomas Paine, Lou Holtz, Pearl S. Buck, Thomas Sowell and Mark Twain. She says she was riveted by Watergate at age 10. Her five children make adorable cameos and her husband Todd arrives with great promise _ he "roared" into her life in a Mustang _ but then largely disappears. He never becomes a flesh-and-blood man, only a remote repository of manly goodness. Ronald Reagan is more of a presence here, constantly evoked and cherished. Other things missing: No dissection or prognosis of the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq (though her eldest son is a veteran), no Iran, Israel, China or Russia. No race relations, Hurricane Katrina or Bush policies, either. McCain emerges unsullied, Dick Cheney is mentioned only in passing and Hillary Rodham Clinton gets an open invitation for coffee. More often than not, Palin spends chunks of time reciting campaign pablum. Not surprisingly, Palin, like a former beauty contestant, considers America's most precious resource to be our children. Oh, and the Constitution. There are a few moments of candor, such as her initial, fleeting reaction in New Orleans to discovering she was pregnant with her fifth baby _ "I'm out of town. No one knows I'm pregnant. No one would ever have to know" before snapping out of it to choose to have the child. But just as quickly, the curtain falls back down. Of finding out that her unwed 17-year-old daughter Bristol was pregnant, she writes that the family prayed and then made preparations for baby's arrival into the family. That's about it, except for saying that with God's help, good would come from it all. Other than a few smarmy asides directed at Democrats and the media, Palin reserves most of her attacks for McCain's advisers, with their emphasis on packaging. She says she was told to stick to a script and spout nonanswers, which remain unanswered in her book. She says she preferred her "simpler style" because she did not need "to spin." Of her future, she's coy. "I always tell my kids that God doesn't drive parked cars, so we'll talk about getting on the next road and gearing up for hard work to travel down it to reach new goals," she writes at the end, ever folksy, ever optimistic, weirdly ungrammatical. ||||| I fully understand that because I have made a documentary film about the media coverage of the 2008 election which features an exclusive interview with Sarah Palin and because I have relentlessly defended her against unprecedentedly unfair, inaccurate and dangerous media coverage, that my opinions on her book will be mostly discounted like a film endorsement made by Jay Leno or Larry King while they throw softballs to the movie’s star. After all, I have far too much real information at my disposal (like having actually spoken to her a few times) to be taken very seriously in this day and age, unless of course I had something really bad to say about Palin or her book. With that said, I was simply blown away by Going Rogue on almost every level. For many reasons, this is by far the best book and greatest literary achievement by a political figure in my lifetime. Why do I confidently go out on the type of limb that will make MSNBC hosts salivate? First, let’s consider the circumstances under which this book was written. Keep in mind that in the year and a half before she could have possibly really started writing the book that she had: given birth to a child with Down Syndrome, had her teenage daughter’s unwed pregnancy become world wide news, had her first son sent to Iraq, was picked as a VP candidate and was the target of the most inaccurate media coverage in modern history, got blamed for losing the race to a man whose election she rightly believes is horrible for our country, had rape jokes made about her fourteen-year-old daughter on national television, and was forced to resign from the governorship of the state she loves because a bunch of losers made it impossible for her to do her job productively. “For many reasons, this is by far the best book and greatest literary achievement by a political figure in my lifetime.” After all that, most people would have trouble spelling their own name and would have to disappear to a deserted island for at least a few months. Instead, Sarah Palin was somehow immediately able to produce a magnificent four hundred and thirteen page book, knowing it would receive unprecedented scrutiny, and did so several months ahead of schedule. Regardless of what you think about her or her politics, that is a remarkable human accomplishment (even with the help of a collaborator). So, what do we learn from Going Rogue? Tons. Lots more than the incredibly (though not surprisingly) biased media coverage of the book’s release would have you believe. Among other things, we discover that Sarah Palin has a ridiculously good memory. People who know me say that I have an amazing ability to recall events and I have written two books, but I was blown away by the level of detail in this project, which encompasses her entire life. Since the timing of Going Rogue did not allow for massive amounts of time and resources to be put into research it had to all be put together — in incredibly short order — by Palin’s own memory and notes. The notion that numerous “news�? outlets thirsting to find inaccuracies have yet to find one of major significance (no, a disagreement over the definition of “vetting�? does not count) may to be the greatest testament to the book’s remarkable credibility. As impressive as the details of the storytelling are, the real strength of Going Rogue is its brutal honesty. Quite simply, there has never been a memoir by someone with potential Presidential viability that has been nearly as open about what has really happened in his or her life and career. And I am not just referring here to Palin pulling no punches and naming names as to who did right and wrong by her and the campaign. I am also referencing the many times where Palin reveals episodes and intimate thoughts and feelings that she knows do not necessarily put her in the most positive light. Her candor goes way beyond typical political self-deprecation and into the realm of instructive human introspection, the type of which can only come from someone incredibly courageous, grounded, and self-aware. Going Rogue is actually several books in one. It is a compelling biography, a gripping campaign tell-all, an expose on the sad state of our news media, a substantive outline of a political philosophy and even a comprehensive refutation of juicy tabloid rumors (Andrew Sullivan, among others, will have a lot of explaining to do). There are even plenty of touching, humorous (I laughed out loud when she describes Joe Biden just before their debate), and insightful moments in the book. Next page: Palin explains her resignation, and the highlights of the book; clear signs she’ll run in 2012? Pages: 1 2 Have a tip we should know? [email protected] ||||| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.

– Most reviewers agree Sarah Palin's Going Rogue is intriguing—mostly for the swipes at the McCain campaign and what Palin writes about her life off the political stage. Some takes: The book is "a crackling read of grudges recalled, and settled, in her favor, a rewriting of the 2008 campaign that makes Palin the heroine of every encounter," Margaret Carlson writes for Bloomberg. The message appears to be that "if only Sarah could have been Sarah, the course of history might have been different." Going Rogue is "part cagey spin, part earnest autobiography, part payback hit job," Michiko Kakutani writes in the New York Times. The second half "often reads like a calculated attempt to position Ms. Palin for 2012." The "ever folksy, ever optimistic, weirdly ungrammatical" Palin tries to set the record straight about the 2008 campaign, Mark Kennedy writes for the AP. But though she says "she was told to stick to a script and spout nonanswers," they "remain unanswered in her book." Bravo! writes Palin booster John Ziegler on Mediaite. "Her candor goes way beyond typical political self-deprecation and into the realm of instructive human introspection, the type of which can only come from someone incredibly courageous, grounded, and self-aware."

You are a helpful assistant named xDAN-Agent,excellent in reading and summary. Heres the context you need to read and summary."Going Rogue: An American Life" (HarperCollins, 413 pages, $28.99), by Sarah Palin: There should be a feeling of palpable glee running through Sarah Palin's memoir: Now, finally, she gets to talk, unfiltered and unedited. This is, after all, a politician convinced that the media twists her words, who says she's been parodied and mocked by establishment elites, and who complains she was muzzled by her own party. "Going Rogue: An American Life" offers her a chance to answer back, without pesky interference from the likes of Katie Couric or Republican handlers. It is, to steal Nancy Reagan's memoir title, "My Turn." So why is there so little bloodletting, why no mustn't-miss gory bits? Her book, written with an assist from Lynn Vincent, is less the revealing autobiography of a straight-shooting maverick and more a lengthy campaign speech _ more lipstick, less pit bull. The book can be roughly divided into two halves _ the years before she was asked to join John McCain's ticket and the time since. The second half is the more lively: It's got her take on the designer clothes embarrassment; the vice presidential debate with Joe Biden; and the "campaign professionals" she blames for losing the White House. From the beginning, Palin seems determined to prove she has always been maverick-y and never a mental lightweight. She says her nose was always in a book while growing up and the first big word she learned to spell was "different." She casually mentions that Mount McKinley rises to 20,320 feet (6,194 meters), and she quotes Plato, Thomas Paine, Lou Holtz, Pearl S. Buck, Thomas Sowell and Mark Twain. She says she was riveted by Watergate at age 10. Her five children make adorable cameos and her husband Todd arrives with great promise _ he "roared" into her life in a Mustang _ but then largely disappears. He never becomes a flesh-and-blood man, only a remote repository of manly goodness. Ronald Reagan is more of a presence here, constantly evoked and cherished. Other things missing: No dissection or prognosis of the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq (though her eldest son is a veteran), no Iran, Israel, China or Russia. No race relations, Hurricane Katrina or Bush policies, either. McCain emerges unsullied, Dick Cheney is mentioned only in passing and Hillary Rodham Clinton gets an open invitation for coffee. More often than not, Palin spends chunks of time reciting campaign pablum. Not surprisingly, Palin, like a former beauty contestant, considers America's most precious resource to be our children. Oh, and the Constitution. There are a few moments of candor, such as her initial, fleeting reaction in New Orleans to discovering she was pregnant with her fifth baby _ "I'm out of town. No one knows I'm pregnant. No one would ever have to know" before snapping out of it to choose to have the child. But just as quickly, the curtain falls back down. Of finding out that her unwed 17-year-old daughter Bristol was pregnant, she writes that the family prayed and then made preparations for baby's arrival into the family. That's about it, except for saying that with God's help, good would come from it all. Other than a few smarmy asides directed at Democrats and the media, Palin reserves most of her attacks for McCain's advisers, with their emphasis on packaging. She says she was told to stick to a script and spout nonanswers, which remain unanswered in her book. She says she preferred her "simpler style" because she did not need "to spin." Of her future, she's coy. "I always tell my kids that God doesn't drive parked cars, so we'll talk about getting on the next road and gearing up for hard work to travel down it to reach new goals," she writes at the end, ever folksy, ever optimistic, weirdly ungrammatical. ||||| I fully understand that because I have made a documentary film about the media coverage of the 2008 election which features an exclusive interview with Sarah Palin and because I have relentlessly defended her against unprecedentedly unfair, inaccurate and dangerous media coverage, that my opinions on her book will be mostly discounted like a film endorsement made by Jay Leno or Larry King while they throw softballs to the movie’s star. After all, I have far too much real information at my disposal (like having actually spoken to her a few times) to be taken very seriously in this day and age, unless of course I had something really bad to say about Palin or her book. With that said, I was simply blown away by Going Rogue on almost every level. For many reasons, this is by far the best book and greatest literary achievement by a political figure in my lifetime. Why do I confidently go out on the type of limb that will make MSNBC hosts salivate? First, let’s consider the circumstances under which this book was written. Keep in mind that in the year and a half before she could have possibly really started writing the book that she had: given birth to a child with Down Syndrome, had her teenage daughter’s unwed pregnancy become world wide news, had her first son sent to Iraq, was picked as a VP candidate and was the target of the most inaccurate media coverage in modern history, got blamed for losing the race to a man whose election she rightly believes is horrible for our country, had rape jokes made about her fourteen-year-old daughter on national television, and was forced to resign from the governorship of the state she loves because a bunch of losers made it impossible for her to do her job productively. “For many reasons, this is by far the best book and greatest literary achievement by a political figure in my lifetime.” After all that, most people would have trouble spelling their own name and would have to disappear to a deserted island for at least a few months. Instead, Sarah Palin was somehow immediately able to produce a magnificent four hundred and thirteen page book, knowing it would receive unprecedented scrutiny, and did so several months ahead of schedule. Regardless of what you think about her or her politics, that is a remarkable human accomplishment (even with the help of a collaborator). So, what do we learn from Going Rogue? Tons. Lots more than the incredibly (though not surprisingly) biased media coverage of the book’s release would have you believe. Among other things, we discover that Sarah Palin has a ridiculously good memory. People who know me say that I have an amazing ability to recall events and I have written two books, but I was blown away by the level of detail in this project, which encompasses her entire life. Since the timing of Going Rogue did not allow for massive amounts of time and resources to be put into research it had to all be put together — in incredibly short order — by Palin’s own memory and notes. The notion that numerous “news�? outlets thirsting to find inaccuracies have yet to find one of major significance (no, a disagreement over the definition of “vetting�? does not count) may to be the greatest testament to the book’s remarkable credibility. As impressive as the details of the storytelling are, the real strength of Going Rogue is its brutal honesty. Quite simply, there has never been a memoir by someone with potential Presidential viability that has been nearly as open about what has really happened in his or her life and career. And I am not just referring here to Palin pulling no punches and naming names as to who did right and wrong by her and the campaign. I am also referencing the many times where Palin reveals episodes and intimate thoughts and feelings that she knows do not necessarily put her in the most positive light. Her candor goes way beyond typical political self-deprecation and into the realm of instructive human introspection, the type of which can only come from someone incredibly courageous, grounded, and self-aware. Going Rogue is actually several books in one. It is a compelling biography, a gripping campaign tell-all, an expose on the sad state of our news media, a substantive outline of a political philosophy and even a comprehensive refutation of juicy tabloid rumors (Andrew Sullivan, among others, will have a lot of explaining to do). There are even plenty of touching, humorous (I laughed out loud when she describes Joe Biden just before their debate), and insightful moments in the book. Next page: Palin explains her resignation, and the highlights of the book; clear signs she’ll run in 2012? Pages: 1 2 Have a tip we should know? [email protected] ||||| Starting in 1996, Alexa Internet has been donating their crawl data to the Internet Archive. Flowing in every day, these data are added to the Wayback Machine after an embargo period.

According to the context, please answer with the summary and highlights.