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Getting your money in order is no easy task, and most of us need all the help we can get. Here are some of our best money guides, explainers, and tips from 2015.

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We all have little indulgences we know we shouldn’t take part in. The concert we shouldn’t have spent money on, the ice cream that breaks our diet. It’s fine to want to break those habits, but if you’re indulging a little, don’t beat yourself up with guilt.

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Beautifully wrapped gifts make a great impression and look beautiful when you give them, but can be hard to do right. This video offers a few simple tips to master gift wrapping and present those perfect presents in just a few minutes.

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Be honest: you could probably stand to save a few bucks next year. Money challenges, like the 52-week challenge , are a great way to save some cash and get started with personal finance in the process. Let’s start one together next year. Your pick.

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The ideal way to hard cook an egg is to steam it and then drop it in ice water. The shells practically jump off the egg and the egg holds its beautiful shape.

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Listen up, creators: Don’t wait until that thing you’re making is “perfect” or absolutely finished. Ship version 1.0 when it’s good enough but you might even be embarrassed by it.

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We already know UPS is renting additional vehicles to help with the onslaught of holiday deliveries, but it seems that’s not enough to help the company stay ahead of the avalanche of online orders this time of year.

United Parcel Service is facing more holiday volume than it was expecting because everyone likes shopping online for the holidays, reports The Wall Street Journal, which could have a big impact on the season: according to an analysis of millions of packages by software developer ShipMatrix Inc, on-time delivery rates for UPS ground packages based on their usual shipping transit times last week fell to 91%, compared to an on-time rate of 97% during the same week last year.

(UPS isn’t alone in slowing down, however, as FedEx’s early numbers were lower than usual at around 95% on-time rate, the WSJ points out).

Some sources in the know tell the WSJ that UPS is being dragged under the waves by unexpectedly high volumes, high pickups and just not enough people and equipment to get the job done in some locations.

“Volumes are coming in much higher than planned,” John Haber, CEO of Spend Management Experts, which advises retailers on shipping matters told the WSJ. “You can only process so much volume so quickly.”

To try to combat the slowdown, UPS dispatched managers from its corporate headquarters in Atlanta and other locations to work at delivery centers in areas that need help handling the additional packages.

A UPS spokesman acknowledged that the company “did experience some high impact areas” driven by volume in some places that came in at “levels greater than the original peak plan for those locations.” That’s typical, he says, as retailers often might have more volume than expected and UPS usually sends management teams every year to sites that are affected.

The reason UPS often gets singled out in these shipping situations is simply because it does more residential deliveries than FedEx. But combined, UPS, FedEx and the U.S. Postal Service are expecting to ship more than 1.5 billion packages over the holidays, which is a boost of 10% over last year.

Everyone is just trying to keep the past from repeating itself, namely, the 2013 holiday season when UPS and FedEx were so overwhelmed at the last minute that many customers saw their packages arriving after the holidays. No one wants an empty scene under that tree.

UPS Struggles to Keep Up With Surge in Web Orders [The Wall Street Journal]

Although Chipotle CEO and co-founder Steve Ells apologized yesterday to customers who have gotten sick from eating at the chain recently — whether from E. Coli or norovirus — it’s worth remembering that there are some folks who’ve had to wait a bit longer for that mea culpa.

There’s no question that Chipotle is having a bad year, after temporarily closing 43 restaurants in the Pacific Northwest amid an E. coli outbreak that resulted in 52 sick customers in nine states. Heck, just this week, the chain announced that a Boston Chipotle had to be shuttered after being linked to around 80 illnesses, and a Seattle location is closing its doors for repeated violations.

But there were other incidents, as far back as July this year, points out the New York Post, when five people in Seattle contracted E. coli after eating at a local Chipotle, according to the county public health department.

A string of outbreaks followed elsewhere in the U.S., which didn’t get as much attention as the more recent strings of illnesses: at the end of August, more than 100 customers in Simi Valley, CA came down with norovirus after eating at a local Chipotle and a salmonella outbreak in mid-September in Minnesota was eventually linked to tomatoes served at 22 locations that resulted in a reported 64 illnesses.

Chipotle called the summer and early fall outbreaks “a small number of isolated and unrelated incidents — in terms of geography and incident,” in an email to The Post from spokesman Chris Arnold.

“There really wasn’t a pattern,” he added. “Since all of this began, we have completed a comprehensive reassessment of all of our food safety and handling practices … and we have begun implementing that program.”

After offering up his apology for those customers who’ve been taken down by a Chipotle-related illness, CEO Ells said that the company would be beefing up its food safety procedures, vowing that the

Turns out Chipotle’s been making people sick for months [New York Post]

We knew it: the Boston commuter train that left the station with a driver yesterday didn’t suddenly become self-aware and decide to drive off all on its own. Instead, investigators reportedly found a cord wrapped around the train’s accelerator.

On Thursday morning, a Red Line train rolled away from the station with 50 passengers aboard and made it through four stations before humans were able to stop it.

After the incident, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority said it seemed likely that someone had deliberately messed with the train, and a new report indicates that’s the case: WBZ-TV cites sources familiar with the investigation that a rubber telephone cord was used to inhibit the normal movement of the train.

It was reportedly wrapped around a control called the Cineston valve, which acts as either an accelerator or a brake control. It requires constant pressure to set the train in forward motion.

The train’s operator stepped outside to set a bypass switch because of a signal problem, but the cord hadn’t been removed, which made it keep going without him, the sources say.

Transportation Secretary Stephanie Pollack would not confirm the cause Friday to WBZ-TV, citing the ongoing investigation.

The conductor involved was brushed by the train and suffered a minor leg injury. He’s now been placed on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation.

The MBTA says going forward, it will require the presence of a second technician during a bypass procedure, instead of relying on a single operator to man the train.

Cord Reportedly Found Wrapped Around Accelerator Of Runaway Red Line Train [CBS Boston/WBZ-TV]

WASHINGTON — This weekend, especially on Sunday and Monday night, we will enjoy the peak time for what I think is the best meteor shower of the year — the Geminids. I call it the best because it reliably produces a large number of meteors per hour (60+) in a dark sky, and many of them are bright. The Geminids is the only major meteor shower that lets you see a good number of meteors starting at 10 p.m. local time, instead of the hours just before dawn.

The predicted peak of the 2015 Geminid Meteor Shower is the night of Dec. 13-14, but you can see them from Dec. 12 through Dec. 16. Each year at this time, the planet encounters a debris stream of rock particles made by Asteroid 3200 Phaethon. The Geminids is the only meteor shower caused by an asteroid, or what astronomers call a rock comet — all others are due to cometary debris.

As Earth moves in its orbit around the sun, it collides with this rocky debris stream and the particles hit the atmosphere at 22 miles per second to become shooting, or falling, stars. It is thought that the Geminds are brighter than other meteor showers because they involve larger and heavier debris than normal cometary dust and penetrate deeper into the atmosphere.

The best place to see the Geminids is a location that is away from lights and obstructions such as trees and buildings. If you are a city dweller, you still may see the brightest Geminids as long as you are not staring into a streetlight or nestled in among tall buildings. The view of the Geminids is worth it from the suburbs, as long as you minimize lights and obstructions as best you can. Out in the country or along the beach are the best places to be.

You do not need any equipment or know-how to enjoy the show — just find a place where you can put a lounge chair or blanket to see the sky. Starting at 9 p.m., look in the east for the constellation Gemini, for which this meteor shower is named. A meteor that is part of the shower can be traced back to Gemini. Sporadic meteors that are not part of the shower can be seen during the night as well.

The shower will continue all night until before dawn — about 4 a.m. The Moon will not be in the sky, which helps a lot to see fainter meteors. The key to watching the shower is being comfortable — in other words, warm. The Geminids can appear anywhere in the sky, but looking straight up gives you the widest viewing area — this is where the lounge chair or blanket come in handy.

Enjoy the shower with family, friends or your significant other. Some music, food and beverages are an added plus. You can also tune in on Dec. 13 to a NASA live chat on the Geminids from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. EST.

The weather may cloud us out in the WTOP viewing area. The best bet is to check the sky to see whether it is clear when you want to go out to look for Geminids. If it is cloudy you can still observe the Geminid meteor shower by a very novel and cool means.

As I write this I am listening to meteor radar — yes, radar that scans for incoming meteors as well as satellites and space debris. It is a fascinating way — just heard one! — to monitor a meteor shower like the Geminids. Essentially, the louder a ping is, the brighter the meteor would be in the sky.

You can listen during the day and night.

Good hunting, clear skies or not!

Follow me on Twitter @SkyGuyinVA and my daily blog.

The post The Geminids will make a great show in the sky this weekend appeared first on WTOP.

Cat found dangling from phone line in Southeast Washington Washington Post Law enforcement officers found a cat Wednesday as it dangled from a phone line across an alley in the 400 block of Newcomb Street in Southeast Washington, the Washington Humane Society said. The incident happened Tuesday evening or early ... and more »

It may sound like the perfect marriage of the cold war era, but it’s 21st century business all over: Dow and DuPont, the two oldest, biggest chemical companies in the country, today announced their plans to merge in a whopping $130 billion deal.

As Reuters reports, the deal is being arranged with an eye toward shifting away from the all-encompassing conglomerate model of the 20th century, and pulling the platforms apart into discrete business units.

Eventually, the companies say, the post-merger plan is to take what was once two companies, make it one, and then split it up again into three separate, publicly-traded entities. One DowDuPont business would focus entirely on agriculture, another on materials science (which includes infrastructure, consumer goods, and inventing stuff like Teflon), and the last (and smallest) on “specialty products,” which is basically everything that doesn’t fit in one of the other two.

Although neither business distributes goods directly to consumers under their main brand names, between them the two have their hands in, well, pretty much everything. In short, these are the companies that make all the things that make all the other things possible.

Dow, for example, makes plastics of every type, both for industrial use (as in car factories) and for retail products (as in diapers or water bottles). They also make a wide range of chemicals, used for everything from pesticides to paint.

DuPont, probably best known to consumers for inventing materials like Tyvek, Teflon, Lycra, and Kevlar, has in recent years done some consolidation and reorganization to focus most heavily on agriculture, including genetically modified crops; biofuels and increased-efficiency products; and continuing their “advanced materials” research.

The TL;DR of the deal is that some kind of chemical or polymer made by one or the other of these two companies is involved with basically everything we do or buy, from the processed food we eat, to the plastic it’s wrapped in, to the truck that delivers it to the store, to the factory that made that truck.

Though Dow and DuPont spin the significant overlap in their business, particularly in the agricultural sphere, as “synergy,” regulators are more likely to think of that duplication as “competition,” and keep an eye on it during what will be months of review. Officials at the FTC and the Department of Justice can add it to their already-lengthy list of mergers to plow through in 2016.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The rape convictions that could put a fired Oklahoma City police officer behind bars for life are vindication for some of the women he targeted, and also a reminder of how difficult it is to achieve justice in such cases.

Most victims never report sexual assaults, and those who accused ex-officer Daniel Holtzclaw were even more vulnerable as poor black women, many with checkered histories of crime and addiction.

A grandmother’s bravery in telling her story made all the difference this time. After Holtzclaw pulled her over, forced her to expose herself and perform oral sex, she filed a complaint that triggered a search for other victims.

In this case at least, it changed a narrative all too common in sex crimes: The jury found him guilty of rape.

“I didn’t do anything wrong,” the grandmother said Friday, showing her face on camera and revealing her name as Jannie Ligons, a daycare worker in her 50s. “So all I can say is, I was innocent and he just picked the wrong lady to stop that night.”

Holtzclaw was found guilty of sex crimes against eight women, and acquitted of charges involving five others he encountered on night patrol. Jurors recommended 263 years, including 30-year sentences for each of four first-degree rape convictions.

Holtzclaw trembled and sobbed as his verdict was read Thursday night, on his 29th birthday. His emotional outburst prompted jail authorities to keep him on a 24-hour watch.

Though prosecutors assembled a damning case with GPS pinpoints, records of computer background checks and other evidence, some worried the all-white jury might doubt the testimony of his victims, all of whom are black. Holtzclaw is half-white, half-Japanese.

“It shows that there is a hope for our country, there is hope for society and there is hope for all our sisters, mothers, wives, daughters, who are victims of rape, no matter what race they are, what ethnicity they are, what social-economic class and status they’re in,” said Benjamin Crump, a lawyer who plans to sue the city on behalf of some of the women.

Crump was flanked by Ligons and Shardayreon Hill, who testified that Holtzclaw assaulted her while she was handcuffed to a hospital bed.

The AP does not identify victims of sex crimes without their consent, but these two women spoke publicly and agreed to be identified.

The verdict left the Rev. Al Sharpton “somewhere between jumping and shouting ‘Hallelujah’ and feeling aggrieved for the women.”

“If an all-white jury in Oklahoma City would convict a policeman of this amount of grievances, of charges, then it gives us hope that our marching and continued organizing is not in vain,” Sharpton said.

Oklahoma’s African-American community isn’t completely satisfied. The jury did not convict on Hill’s allegations, and her father, Tyral Muhammad, said Holtzclaw’s supervisors and others should have caught him sooner.

“We are not being rocked to sleep because of this verdict,” Muhammad said. “We want more black officers patrolling the northeast side of town.”

Most rapes go unpunished in America, and sex crime convictions are even more unlikely when law enforcement officers are accused, said Kimberly Lonsway, a research director at End Violence Against Women International.

This verdict is “remarkable,” she said. “The odds were completely against it.”

Just one-third of all rapes and sexual assaults were reported to police in 2014, lower than any other category of crime, according to the National Crime Victimization Survey by the Bureau of Justice Statistics. Only 40 percent of these led to an arrest or some other kind of closure, according to an FBI study of rapes reported in 2010.

Even when a reluctant victim comes forward and an arrest is made, prosecutors may decide they lack the evidence to win a conviction.

When they do go to trial, a courtroom win is never assured: 68 percent of rape cases adjudicated in the 75 largest U.S. counties in 2009 led to a conviction, according to the federal data. And even when convictions are won in cases where rape was the most serious charge, 11 percent don’t go to prison.

“It’s difficult all the way through the system,” said Scott Berkowitz, president of the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network.

The “he said-she said” nature of such cases make them even more difficult when officers are accused. The very few who are tried in court can be portrayed as heroes, swaying juries.

Holtzclaw’s case was among those examined in an Associated Press investigation of sexual misconduct by law enforcement.

The AP’s yearlong probe revealed about 1,000 officers had lost their licenses for sex crimes or other sexual misconduct over a six-year period; many were never charged, let alone prosecuted.

“There’s a natural tendency to believe the officer,” said Joshua Marquis, the district attorney in Clatsop County, Oregon, who has prosecuted numerous cases against police, including some sexual offenses. “A lot of people have a hard time wrapping their head around the idea that they could ever do this.”

The accused officer typically has no criminal background, passionate supporters often show up in the gallery, and juries may believe an officer’s firing is punishment enough, Marquis said.

Meanwhile, their alleged victims often “are not sympathetic people” — they may have criminal records or don’t testify convincingly.

“That’s not an accident,” he said. “All kinds of sex offenders, particularly intelligent ones, they pick their victims because they know they’re less likely to be believed.”

___

The AP’s “Betrayed by the Badge” series:

AP: Hundreds of officers lose licenses over sex misconduct: http://apne.ws/1J0bVlI

AP: Officer sex cases plagued by lax supervision, policies: http://apne.ws/1SSnNf4

AP: Broken system lets problem officers jump from job to job: http://apne.ws/1QARkuu

AP investigation into officer sex misconduct, by the numbers: http://apne.ws/1J0c6gU

A look inside AP’s investigation on officer sex misconduct: http://apne.ws/1lB6J2L

___

Contributors include Nomaan Merchant in Dallas. Sedensky, an AP national writer, reported from West Palm Beach, Florida and can be reached at msedensky@ap.org or https://twitter.com/sedensky.

The post Fired officer’s convictions a rare triumph for rape victims appeared first on WTOP.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — One of the more visible protesters during last year’s unrest in Ferguson has been sentenced to eight years in prison for starting a fire at a gas station during demonstrations after a fatal police shooting in nearby Berkeley.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports (http://bit.ly/1RHvk25 ) a St. Louis County circuit judge sentenced 19-year-old Joshua Williams on Thursday. Williams pleaded guilty last month to arson, burglary and stealing.

The fire at a QuikTrip was lit during protests over the killing of Antonio Martin, who was fatally shot in December by a police officer at a gas station across the street.

Prosecutors had asked for a 15-year sentence, while Williams’ attorney asked for a suspended or lesser sentence.

Williams was frequently quoted and photographed while protesting the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson.

___

Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com

The post Ferguson protester sentenced to 8 years in QuikTrip arson appeared first on WTOP.

MARKSVILLE, La. (AP) — A grandmother wept to hear a judge read the indictments of two deputy city marshals on second-degree murder charges for the fatal shooting of her 6-year-old autistic grandson in a small Louisiana town.

Hours before an Avoyelles Parish grand jury handed up the indictments Thursday, Cathy Mardis called for authorities to release video from a police body camera of the encounter that killed her grandson, Jeremy Mardis, and severely wounded his father, Chris Few.

After the judge who read the indictments lifted a gag order in the case, Louisiana Attorney General James “Buddy” Caldwell’s office released a court filing that provides investigators’ first description of the video’s contents.

A police officer who witnessed the two city marshals, Derrick Stafford and Norris Greenhouse Jr., open fire on Few and his son told investigators he didn’t fire his own weapon because “he didn’t fear for his life,” according to the filing.

The document also said Marksville Police Sgt. Kenneth Parnell III’s body camera shows that Christopher Few’s empty hands are raised and visible inside the vehicle “when gunfire becomes audible.” Few was critically wounded by two gunshots, while his son, Jeremy Mardis, received five gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police say Stafford, a full-time police lieutenant, and Greenhouse, a former police officer, were moonlighting as deputy city marshals in Marksville on the night of Nov. 3 when they fired at least 18 rounds at Few’s car. The court filing released Thursday doesn’t explain why Greenhouse began pursuing the vehicle before Stafford and another deputy marshal joined in the pursuit of the fleeing vehicle.

Stafford and Greenhouse were arrested on second-degree murder charges last month but not formally charged until Thursday. The indictment charged Stafford, 32, of Mansura, and Greenhouse, 23, of Marksville, with one count each of second-degree murder and attempted second-degree murder.

“The body camera video is approximately 13 minutes and 47 seconds long. At approximately 26 seconds into the video, the driver, Christopher Few’s empty hands are raised and visible when gunfire becomes audible,” the document states.

Caldwell vowed Thursday to “continue (a) detailed and thorough investigation as we prepare for trial.”

Few shook hands with one of his attorneys after state District Judge William Bennett read the indictment aloud in court. Few’s mother consoled Cathy Mardis, the boy’s other grandmother, during the brief court proceedings.

“We don’t get Jeremy back, but we got what we wanted today,” Cathy Mardis said.

Earlier, she spoke to the news media outside the courthouse, describing the pain the shooting had inflicted on the family.

“It’s been pure hell. I can’t explain what it’s like to bury your 6-year-old grandchild,” said Mardis, 46, of Hattiesburg, Mississippi.

Although Bennett lifted a gag order on people involved in the case, prosecutors declined to disclose any additional details about the incident. Defense attorneys said prosecutors haven’t turned over any evidence for them to review yet.

George Higgins III, an attorney for Greenhouse, said, “We’ve yet to see any evidence for ourselves. I just know there’s a lot more to this story than what has been talked about.”

Jonathan Goins, a lawyer for Stafford, declined to describe his client’s account of the incident, but said evidence will show he “acted in a very lawful way.”

State Police Col. Mike Edmonson cited the video when he announced the arrest of the two officers, calling it the most disturbing thing he’s seen. But he gave no indication of what’s on the video.

Last month, an attorney for Few told The Associated Press that video from another officer’s body camera showed Few had his hands up inside the vehicle and didn’t pose a threat when the officers opened fire. The judge hearing the case then swiftly imposed a gag order, keeping those involved from speaking to the news media.

Cathy Mardis said she has not seen the tape and can only imagine what is on there but added: “I thank God the tape is there.”

“I want justice for Jeremy. I want justice for Chris,” she said. She said the family had an open casket funeral for her grandson even though there were signs of trauma on his body.

She quoted the funeral director as saying, “Don’t touch his head. It might fall back apart.”

The grandmother wore a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles T-shirt, in honor of her grandson, who loved the characters. Standing by her side outside the courthouse was Samantha Few, the mother of Chris Few.

Cathy Mardis spoke lovingly of her grandson. He was autistic and non-verbal but very bright, she said.

“He was the most loving child you could have met. He was always smiling and happy. He taught himself to read at 3 years old just from watching YouTube,” she said. Jeremy Mardis has a younger sister who still cannot understand what happened, the grandmother said.

“She’s still asking to see her brother every day,” she said.

The post Family ‘got what we wanted’ with marshals’ indictment appeared first on WTOP.

The post Top 50 news images of 2015 appeared first on WTOP.

WASHINGTON — If you’re choosing a kennel for your pet, asking the right questions and comparison shopping  can save a lot of money.

According to an evaluation by Washington Consumers’ Checkbook, boarding a medium-sized dog for a week can cost between $147 and $455 — and that doesn’t even count extras.

“Some of these kennels charge $3 a pill to administer a pill, or $10 to $12 a day for extra attention or extra exercise,” says Checkbook executive editor Kevin Brasler.

Before deciding whether a particular kennel is right for your pet, you might want to request a look around. Key questions to consider are, “Do they have enough space? Does it pass the sniff test?”

The smell test question is more than a metaphor. If the kennel keeping a lot of dogs, it might smell a little bit. “But it shouldn’t smell overly bad,” Brasler says. “It should be clean.”

Animals should be well contained. This not only prevents them from escaping, but keeps them from harming each other, Brasler says.

If you’re not a fan of kennels, consider hiring a professional. Pet sitters who care for pets in your home can cost two or three times what a kennel charges, but it still might be a good deal.

“A lot of these pet sitters don’t charge per pet; they charge per day,” Brasler says. “The kennels charge per pet.”

The post Need a kennel? Asking the right questions could save you money appeared first on WTOP.

BALTIMORE (AP) — The defense rested Friday in the manslaughter trial of Baltimore police officer William Porter after a department captain testified Porter went beyond the call of duty in assisting the driver of the police van in which Freddie Gray’s neck was broken.

Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams sent the jury of seven women and five men home for the weekend after the defense rested early in the afternoon. Lawyers argued about jury instructions later Friday. The jury will hear the instructions and closing arguments Monday.

Gray was a 25-year-old black man arrested April 12 after he ran from police in a West Baltimore neighborhood. His death a week later set off protests and rioting in the city, and became a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement.

Porter, 26, who is also black, is the first of six officers to stand trial for Gray’s death. He is charged with manslaughter, second-degree assault, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment. He could face about 25 years in prison if convicted on all charges.

The trial began Nov. 30.

Porter’s lawyers called 12 witnesses over three days, ending with Porter’s mother, Helena. Like three other character witnesses, she described Porter as truthful, honest and peaceful, but all acknowledged they had never worked with him.

Earlier Friday, Capt. Justin Reynolds, testifying as an expert in police training and policies, said Porter did nothing wrong on the day Gray was hurt. Porter says he interacted with Gray at two of the van’s six stops after responding in his patrol car to calls for assistance. The van’s 45-minute trip ended with Gray unconscious at the Western District police station.

Porter told investigators that at the fourth stop, he helped the handcuffed and shackled prisoner move from the wagon floor to the bench and asked Gray if he needed medical help. After Gray said, “yes,” Porter contends he advised van driver Officer Caesar Goodson that Gray wanted to go to the hospital.

Porter says he told a supervisor, Sgt. Alicia White, the same thing at the van’s fifth stop.

Reynolds said those actions “go beyond what many officers would have done.”

“An officer expects, when they tell a supervisor something, that the supervisor is going to act upon it,” Reynolds said.

Prosecutors say Porter is partly responsible for Gray’s death because he didn’t call a medic immediately after Gray indicated he needed aid, and failed to buckle Gray in with a seat belt, a violation of department policy.

But Reynolds testified Porter’s only duty was to check on Gray, as Goodson requested, and that his job was done after he lifted Gray onto the bench.

Porter testified earlier this week that Gray showed no signs of injury or distress when he assisted him to the bench, and that’s why he didn’t call an ambulance to the scene. Prosecutors contend Gray was already gravely injured by then.

Because Gray was in Goodson’s custody, Goodson was primarily responsible for the prisoner’s safety and well-being, Reynolds said.

An expert witness for the prosecution testified earlier that Porter had a shared duty to take care of Gray.

Reynolds said the department’s seat belt policies are guidelines, not binding directives.

“It’s a guideline you couple with good judgment and common sense,” Reynolds said.

Reynolds testified that officers often take prisoners to hospitals in police transport vans, rather than calling an ambulance, if the detainee isn’t having a medical emergency. He said at least 20 percent of people arrested complain of injuries, but that in 2014, less than 2 percent of prisoners were rejected for medical reasons at the Baltimore jail.

Prosecutors and defense lawyers offered conflicting views on how the judge should instruct jurors about deliberations. Defense attorneys don’t want jurors told they can convict Porter for things he didn’t do — such as failing to seat belt the prisoner or failing to call an ambulance.

Prosecutors want jurors instructed they need only reach a consensus on either omission to reach a unanimous verdict on the manslaughter and assault charges.

Williams said he’ll consider the arguments over the weekend.

The post Defense rests after testimony that Porter exceeded his duty appeared first on WTOP.

BALTIMORE (AP) — Animal control officers have removed dozens of sickly snakes from an apartment in Reservoir Hill.

Sharon Miller, Baltimore’s director of animal services, says officers rescued 56 snakes from the apartment on Tuesday. She says the reptiles were dehydrated and were infested with mites, and three had to be put down.

Miller says the snakes, which included ball pythons, reticulated pythons and boa constrictors, were removed after officers found them in squalid conditions.

The snakes were taken to an animal shelter.

Miller says an investigation is under way and citations or charges could result. A permit is required to own any kind of snake in Baltimore.

The post Dozens of snakes rescued from Baltimore apartment appeared first on WTOP.

Washington Post

Private clubs for smoking pot? Keep the law vague, activists say Washington Post Supporters of more liberal marijuana laws on Thursday delivered dramatic pleas that a temporary District law that bans consumption of the drug in private clubs be allowed to expire. If the ban remains, the District would be punishing the poor, the sick ... DC Council considers letting ban expire on marijuana use in private businessesWTOP all 2 news articles »

Hoverboards: they’re self-balancing scooters that are currently a hot toy in the sense that they’re very popular, and a hot toy in the sense that they keep bursting into much-publicized flames, sometimes while in use. Airlines all over the world have asked customers to kindly leave their hoverboards on the ground.

There’s nothing inherent in a self-balancing scooter without handlebars that’s making airlines ban them. The problem is their lithium ion batteries, and fears that poorly constructed boards could catch fire in transit, endangering everyone on board the plane.

While governments, including the U.S. Consumer Safety Products Commission and the U.K.’s National Trading Standards Office, are currently testing the boards to determine what could be causing sporadic fires, airlines are sure that they don’t want the scooters on board.

So far, Delta, American, and United have announced that they won’t allow the boards on planes, so plan your gift-giving accordingly. British Airways had already banned them, and so have smaller domestic carriers Virgin America, JetBlue, and Alaska Airways.

Until the airline industry has a unified policy to deal with the devices, individual carriers will set their own. If you’re planning to travel with a new gadget in the coming months, check with the airline ahead of time.

Airlines are banning ‘hoverboards’ after fires trigger safety concerns [Washington Post]

The next time you decide to perform a rousing rendition of “Happy Birthday To You” on TV, or in a movie or on your debut album, you won’t have to worry about paying anyone for the right to do so: after two years of legal wrangling over who owns the copyright to the classic tune, the parties involved have agreed to settle their differences.

Earlier this year, some filmmakers behind Happy Birthday, a documentary about the song’s history, sued the song’s publisher, Warner Music, to get back the $1,500 they were required to pay for its use in the film, claiming the company never had the rights to the lyrics in the first place (for more on the long, winding history of “Happy Birthday,” click here).

A federal judge then ruled in September [PDF] that Warner Music didn’t have a valid copyright claim to “Happy Birthday,” which brings in an estimated $2 million a year in royalties. But the future of the song was up for grabs, as well as Warner’s liability as a result, with a trial scheduled to start next week to determine what would happen next.

The parties in the case said in a filing this week in United States District Court in Los Angeles that they’d agreed to a settlement, which, if approved, will put the case to bed, and allow the song to formally enter the public domain. That means anyone can perform it or use it in a commercial venture — and of course, it’s still legal to sing it to your friends and family upon the occasion of their birth, as it always has been.

“While we respectfully disagreed with the court’s decision, we are pleased to have now resolved this matter,” Warner said in a statement, while an attorney for the artists said they were pleased with the settlement but declined to provide further details, Reuters reports.

Two years ago, the Food and Drug Administration — after decades of delay — paid lip service to the idea of reducing the use of medically important antibiotics for growth-promotion in farm animals, by asking the drug makers to voluntarily stop selling antibiotics specifically for that purpose. Critics called the FDA actions pointless while the drug and beef industries weren’t bothered in the least. And now, by the FDA’s own numbers, we can see why.

Today, the FDA released its annual report [PDF] on the sale of antimicrobials for use in farm animals, and the numbers are not a surprise to anyone who could see that merely asking drug companies to be more responsible was not going to cut it.

According to the FDA, between 2013 — when the voluntary guidance first went into effect — and 2014, sales of antibiotics for use in food-producing animals increased by 4%. Animals were also getting more drugs that are medically important for human health, with year-over-year sales of these antibiotics up 3%, in spite of the FDA’s weak-kneed efforts.

It’s these latter drugs — those that are vital to human health — that are often the biggest concern. Continuous exposure to low doses of such drugs can encourage the development of so-called “superbugs” that are resistant to the very antibiotics that are being used. These drug-resistant bacteria sicken some 2 million Americans — and kill thousands — every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Medically important drugs accounted for the large majority (62%) of drugs sold for use in food animals in 2014. Industry-backed critics of antibiotic regulation will likely point out that tetracycline — an older drug that is medically important, but no longer considered critical — represented 70% of these sales.

However, as researchers from Texas Tech and Texas A&M learned when they began using tetracycline in place of more urgently needed human antibiotics, drug-resistance only became more of a problem.

“We actually saw that resistance went up, which is not what we hypothesized,” Guy Loneragan from Texas Tech recently explained to Frontline. “Our viewpoint historically has been that, sure tetracyclines aren’t that important for human health so why worry about them in animal agriculture? But they may be more important than we think, not because of their use in human medicine, but because they can expand resistance to critically important drugs.”

Farmers and drug companies have long known that antibiotics can help promote growth in farm animals, resulting in a higher per-animal meat yield. The 2013 FDA guidance asked drug companies to, among other things, stop selling drugs that were solely used for growth-promotion. However, that had zero effect on sales because almost all drugs approved for growth-promotion use were already approved for therapeutic use. So anyone who had been buying an antibiotic primarily to get fatter pigs, cows, or chickens, just had to switch their reason from “growth-promotion” to “disease-prevention.”

Thus, per the FDA report, the percentage of therapeutic drugs sold that have known growth-promotion benefits remained flat at 72% in the year after the agency’s guidance was released.

Additionally, while the FDA has tried to impress upon the need for veterinary oversight on these antibiotics, 97% of all medically important drugs were available in 2014 without a prescription or a veterinary feed directive.

“The data released today shows us that, despite industry assurances to the contrary, the use of human antibiotics on the farm have continued to rise,” says Susan Vaughn Grooters, an analyst with Keep Antibiotics Working.

She points to the increased use of cephalosporins (up 12% from 2013 through 2014), an important class of antibiotics on which the FDA placed restrictions in Jan. 2012. In spite of those rules, which ban the “extra label” use of cephalosporins, sales continued to increase.

“This troubling trend reaffirms that an approach, based largely on voluntary industry reductions, is inadequate faced with the public health crisis of antibiotic resistance,” says Vaughn Grooters. “There is no indication that FDA’s change in policy has yet resulted in any meaningful reductions on antibiotic sales and usage in food animal production. Over the counter sales clearly indicate that veterinary oversight couldn’t come soon enough.”

Earlier this year, California became the first state to prohibit the use of medically important antimicrobial drugs on livestock — except in situations where they are prescribed by a veterinarian. Additionally, the state outlawed the use of antibiotics solely for the purpose of weight gain. That means it’s not just going to be a regulatory no-no, but an actual crime, in California to use antibiotics strictly for growth-promotion.

Avinash Kar, of the Natural Resources Defense Council, says this is the kind of regulation that’s needed on a national basis.

“Dangerous overuse of antibiotics by the agricultural industry has been on the rise at an alarming rate in recent years—putting the effectiveness of our lifesaving drugs in jeopardy for people when they get sick,” says Kar. “We can no longer rely on the meat and pharmaceutical industries to self-police the responsible handling of these precious drugs. FDA must follow the lead of California and outlaw routine use of antibiotics on animals that are not sick in meat production nationwide. If we want to keep our antibiotics working for people when we need them, the agency must take urgent action.”

Earlier this week, the UK government released a report highlighting the many ways — from manufacturing, through animal and human waste — that overused antibiotics can make their way into the environment, putting everyone at risk for infections that can’t be fought off with the antibiotics we have now.

The report called for a global plan to reduce antibiotics in agriculture, especially as rising global economies — like Brazil, Russia, India, and China — increase their use of these drugs to meet growing demand from consumers.

It’s been two weeks since Thanksgiving, and yet residents of one North Carolina town are still smelling burned sweet potatoes in the air. Was it an extremely serious baking mishap? Not exactly — but heat is definitely involved.

A silo full of dehydrated sweet potatoes has been smoldering in Farmville, N.C. since at least Nov. 27, when the fire was first noticed, the town’s manager told the Associated Press.

As a result, citizens have been complaining about the smoke (though the smell might be pretty nice, one might imagine), while firefighters and other town workers have been at the scene around the clock trying to put the fire out for good.

Thus far at least 25 million gallons of water have been directed at the silo, but there’s no still word on when the fire is expected to finally be tamed.

Officials say there’s no health threat to the town of almost 5,000 people, and that the company that owns the silo is expected to pay firefighting costs.

No one knows exactly when the fire started, but it could’ve been sparked when the company tried drilling holes to dislodge a hardened mass of sweet potatoes that got wet over the summer, then dried and solidified.

“It’s been described as harder than concrete,” the town manager said. Firefighters have switched from using a machine to continuously douse the silo to periodic bursts of 10,000 gallons of water into the top of the silo.

“What they’re trying to do is allow the silo to burn itself out,” he said.

Long Past Thanksgiving, Burnt Sweet Potatoes Vex Small Town [Associated Press]

Some days you just don’t want water or a soda to go with your lunch, so instead you pick up a bottle of something a little sweeter. But if that something else happens to be Sweet Leaf Tea, it might contain an extra ingredient: glass fragments. 

Sweet Leaf Tea Company, a subsidiary of Nestlé Waters North America, announced today that it would recall 1.5 million bottles of tea after pieces of glass were found floating in the drinks.

The recall covers certain 16-ounce glass bottles of original, raspberry, peach, half-and-half lemonade, mint-and-honey, and green tea with citrus teas distributed nationwide between Feb. 27 and Dec. 6.

According to the company, which has received four complaints of glass in the product but no injuries, the issue is the result of glass breakage during the bottle filling process.

The following Sweet Leaf Tea products are covered by the recall:

 

Consumers can check to see if their tea is affected by looking at the manufacturing date and best by date on the shoulder of the bottle.

Sweet Leaf says that all recalled bottles are being removed from store shelves. Customers who have bottles at home are urged not to drink them and to contact the company or return the item to the place of purchase for a refund.

[via The Wall Street Journal]

For better or worse, we’ve come to a point where shopping on Thanksgiving day is no longer a fringe case. But what about Dec. 25? With the exception of some vital retailers — drugstores, the occasional supermarket, gas stations, and, most importantly, movie theaters — most stores don’t even mess with the idea of opening on Christmas. But a new survey says that a not insignificant number of shoppers would be willing to buy stuff after they clean up all the wrapping paper.

This is according to research from LoyaltyOne Consulting, which surveyed nearly 1,300 shoppers from across the country and found that, overall, 18% of them said that if stores opened after 6 p.m. on Christmas day, they would be there, ready to do some shopping.

The eagerness to ditch their families in favor of the mall was particularly strong among those in the 18-24 age group. Nearly 1/3 (30%) said they would shop on Christmas. The numbers didn’t dip much for the next oldest age bracket, 25-to-34-year-olds, with 27% willing to skip the Christmas ham for potential post-Christmas savings.

But before the malls start ordering all their retailers to open up on Christmas or else (like they do on Thanksgiving), a larger number of people are pretty opposed to the idea of shopping on Dec. 25.

According to the survey, 24% of all respondents said they not only wouldn’t shop on Christmas, but that they would also be less likely to shop in the future at a store that does open on Christmas. More than half of the people (58%) simply said they have no intention of ever shopping on Christmas. While that percentage was smaller for the 18-24 (53%) and 25-34 (52%) age brackets, it still seems to indicate that a majority of consumers just want the day off from shopping.

Of course, online retailers don’t shut down their websites for the holiday, so consumers are more free than ever to make purchases at whatever hour — on whichever day — they choose.

We’d predict that — rather than risk the ire of shoppers who oppose opening on Christmas (and dealing with the extra cost of paying for employees who come in to work on Dec. 25) — retailers may simply start offering Christmas day deals online for those who want to test out their new phone by buying something on it with the gift card they got from the uncle who never visits.

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A six-car Boston commuter train carrying 50 passengers left a station and traveled through four stops with no one behind the controls this morning, before transit officials caught on and stopped it. Did the train suddenly gain awareness and decide to leave the station all by itself? Probably not.

A Red Line train left the southernmost stop on its route shortly after 6 a.m. on Thursday without an operator, and traveled north toward Boston. Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority operators were finally able to disable the train and bring it to a stop by cutting off the power to the electrified third rail, officials said in a statement (via the Associated Press).

Transit personnel hopped on at that point and drove it to another stop to allow passengers to disembark. The train was taken out of service while the MBTA investigates.

No one was hurt as a result of the train’s driverless joyride, the MBTA says, and officials are investigating whether someone possibly tampered with a safety device in the train’s cab.

“Passenger safety is the highest priority for the MBTA and this highly troubling incident is under investigation by Transit Police detectives,” Frank DePaola, general manager of the MBTA said in a statement.

Though we’re all used to seeing UPS delivery drivers cruising around the neighborhood in their signature brown vehicles, if your package comes off the back of a U-Haul truck, it’s not a cause for panic.

A local story out of Kentucky highlights a concern others around the country might share, especially during the holiday season, when deliveries are coming fast and furious, all day, everyday: residents worried that their UPS deliveries were coming off U-Haul trucks instead of the usual brown vans or trucks were calling the police to report the oddity.

Some folks thought that it was unusual, and were concerned that the drivers could just be wearing fake uniforms to pose as UPS workers and break in if they weren’t home.

“There has been some concern from our citizens that have seen UPS drivers driving U-Haul trucks — trucks that don’t look like UPS trucks,” a detective with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office told WDRB.com. “And UPS has also contacted us because there has been some interactions with some of the residents here and the drivers.”

But it’s totally normal to see the folks in brown driving non-UPS vehicles, the delivery company says, due to a shortage of company wheels during the busy holiday season. Those drivers are legit, and are not out to steal your stuff.

“That has definitely not been the case here,” a UPS spokesman said. “During the holiday season it is quite common for UPS to use U-Haul trucks to handle the extra package deliveries that are needed.” You could also see trucks from other companies as well, he added, like Budget and Penske.

An old Internet hoax that’s recently popped up involving terrorists who buy UPS uniforms to pose as drivers and deliver bombs is totally false as well, the spokesman added.

“There’s absolutely nothing to it,” he said of the rumor. “UPS closely controls its driver uniforms.”

If you’re worried about your delivery driver, you can look for other signs to verify the driver, like an identification badge, handheld computer and the correct UPS uniform.

Shelby Co. residents call police to report suspicious UPS drivers [WDRB.com]

When it launched, Amazon’s Prime Now service aimed to quickly provide customers with household necessities like toothpaste and paper towels. But now, just in time for the holidays, the company is apparently redefining what necessity means by adding some 4,000 items to the delivery roster including big-screen TVs, popular toys and baking supplies. 

Not only has Amazon added big-ticket items to its one- or two-hour delivery service, it now allows customers in Manhattan to purchase beer, wine and alcohol.

To ensure that all last-minute holiday disasters are averted — TV broke during the annual National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation showing? Ran out of wine during Aunt Eleanor’s long-winded story? — Prime Now will deliver up until midnight on Dec. 24.

With the exception of the Manhattan booze delivery, which is completed through Eataly, all new additions to the service are available in the 20 cities serviced by Prime Now, the company says.