pileofcrapola

Every fight has a winner and a loser, and unless you spend some serious time training, there’s a good chance you’ll be the loser at least once. Hopefully, it’ll never happen, but if it does, these techniques will help you roll with the punches and walk away with only a few scrapes and bruises.

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While we here in America argue over seemingly unending security lines at our nation’s airports, there’s another discussion going on in China over airport security, now that women have a separate lane designated for their use only.

The authorities in charge of China’s airports have decided women need their own line because they say women don’t want to be frisked by men. Hence, the new women-specific lines at Beijing Capital International Airport has only women screeners, reports The New York Times.

The government also says women have bags of personal products that need to be opened and inspected, which takes more time, a security guard told state media. That’s perhaps an implication that women are slowing down the lines for men, with their unfussy luggage.

Can’t find those women-only lanes? Just look for bright pink signs reading “Female Only” in Chinese and English.

Some say the policy is right on cue, echoing what they point to as a countrywide shift back toward paternalistic customs. Others, including some women, seem to have no problem with the separate treatment, as they say the lines move faster than the unisex versions.

China Offers Airport Security for Women, and Their Makeup [The New York Times]

It’s bleak out there for a clothing retailer, with sales slumping at many chains, leading some — American Apparel, Aeropostale, Pacsun, among others — to declare bankruptcy. So if we aren’t shopping for items to clad our bodies, what are we shopping for?

As it turns out, we’re buying stuff to deck out our homes, with many retailers, including those that also sell clothing, seeing healthy numbers in the home goods category, MarketWatch reports.

Urban Outfitters said while reporting its first-quarter earnings recently that home merchandise was part of the reason the company beat estimates. The company has its namesake chain, which sells clothing and home furnishings, as well as Anthropologie, Free People, home brand Terrain, and others.

“Strong, double-digit growth in the expanded categories like home, beauty, intimates, Terrain and BHLDN helped to drive these results and were partially offset by declines in certain apparel categories,” said David McCreight, president of Urban Outfitters on the call, adding that home is “one of the largest contributors” to the company’s growth plans.

Home Depot and Lowe’s also had higher-than-expected earnings, while Target said home goods were a highlight for its business as well, with same-stores sales for the category up 4%.

“And we certainly recognize that within overall categories, today’s consumer, our guests, [are] reinvesting in their homes,” said Chief Executive Brian Cornell during the Target earnings call. “They’re spending money on home improvement.”

Retailers are pushing to get in on the action, with Sears moving to invest in home-goods with it first appliance-focused store this week. Then there’s JCPenney, which announced recently that it’s expanding its new appliance showroom to 500 stores.

“[M]ore than ever, customers are spending their money to update and beautify their homes, and we believe JC Penney is in a unique position to offer a compelling assortment within major appliances, window treatments, furniture and flooring,” said Chief Executive Marvin Ellison on an earnings call last Friday reported by MarketWatch.

This all points to a change in mood: we’d rather spend our money to spiff up our dwellings rather than adorn our bodies. Now excuse me, my kitchen needs a new outfit and NO it can not wear what it wore last Monday.

Since no one is buying clothes, here’s what stores are selling instead [MarketWatch]

Bayer officially wants to expand its CropSciences business and become the world’s largest producer of seeds, pesticides and agricultural chemicals, bidding $62 billion for Monsanto.

Bayer announced Monday that it presented an all cash offer to Missouri-based Monsanto’s board of directors on May 10, with hopes that it would soon become the largest player in seed production.

The deal is valued at $122 per share for all of Monsanto’s common stock.

“The acquisition of Monsanto would be a compelling opportunity to create a global agriculture leader, while reinforcing Bayer as a Life Science company with a deepened position in a long-term growth industry,” the company said in a statement.

Bayer expects annual savings of around $1.5 billion after year three plus additional integrated offer benefits in future years.

“We have long respected Monsanto’s business and share their vision to create an integrated business that we believe is capable of generating substantial value for both companies’ shareholders,” Werner Baumann, CEO of Bayer AG, said in a statement.

Last year, Monsanto attempted to buy Swiss seed/chemical giant Syngenta in a move that would have given that combined company control of 40% of the U.S. pesticide market. However, Syngenta balked at the Monsanto offer before subsequently agreeing to sell itself for $43 billion to China National Chemical Corp.

Bayer and Monsanto also face competition from Dow and DuPont, who agreed to a massive $130 billion merger in Dec. 2015.

For 17 seasons, NBC’s The Biggest Loser has proven that anyone can lose weight with a strict diet, lots of exercise, access to world-class trainers and training facilities, a few months away from your job and family, the incentive of a huge cash reward, and the knowledge that millions of TV viewers are scrutinizing your every move. According to some former contestants, it also involved some show-provided pills.

Joelle Gwynn, who appeared on the show in 2008, tells the NY Post that trainer Bob Harper and his assistant tried to convince her to try some unknown pills.

“[Harper] goes away and his assistant comes in,” says Gwynn. “He’s got this brown paper bag that’s bundled up. He says, ‘Take this drug, it’ll really help you.’ It was yellow and black. I was like, ‘What the f- -k is this?’”

An unnamed source tells the Post that Harper and an assistant supplied staff with Adderall and ephedra pills dubbed “yellow jackets” for their yellow and black coloring.

Gwynn says she only took a single pill because it made her feel “jittery and hyper.”

Of greater concern is her allegation that when she alerted the show’s physician, Dr. Rob Huizenga, about the pills he “gave us some lame explanation of why they got added to our regimen and that it was up to us to take them.”

Suzanne Mendonca, a contestant on Season 2 of the show, told the Post that “People would take amphetamines, water pills, diuretics, and throw up in the bathroom.”

She claims she vomited every day, and that Harper allegedly encouraged this sort of bulimic behavior.

At her finale, where all the contestants are expected to weigh in and show off their huge losses, Mendonca claims that other contestants were passing out in Dr. Huizenga’s office.

“On my season, five people had to be rushed to the hospital,” she alleges. “He knew exactly what we were doing and never tried to stop it.”

For his part, Huizenga denies all the claims made in the Post story.

“Nothing could be further from the truth,” reads a statement from the doctor. “Contestants are told at the start of the show that there is zero tolerance for any weight-loss drugs. Urine drug screens and the evaluation of serial weights are repeatedly used to flush out possible illicit use.”

Huizenga also takes issue with claims that contestants were consuming only half the calories they claimed, and doing so under the direction of show staffers. One former contestant says her daily diet consisted of only seven asparagus sticks and 3 ounces of turkey.

“I educate contestants that proper caloric intake is essential to fat loss both over the short and long term,” said the doctor.

Harper did not reply to the Post’s request for comment, but the producers told the paper that “The safety and well-being of our contestants is, and always has been, paramount… We prohibit the use of any illegal substances, in addition to the many other rules and procedures of the show that are designed to ensure safety.”

They say some people wear their hearts on their sleeves, but more and more it seems consumers are wearing their appetites on their shirts, pants, and shoes, among other things. One company looking to fill the tasty clothing arena is Nike and its newfound taste for food-themed sneakers.

AdWeek reports that Nike recently released a pair of kicks that any coffee lover will want to their hands on, or at least that’s probably the athletic wear company’s hope.

The Nike SB Dunk Low “Starbucks” Premium sneakers feature just about everything synonymous with the mega-coffee chain: a mocha-like swirl, along with kelly green and white piping and Swoosh reminiscent of the company’s cups and logo.

Consumers interested in decking out their feet in Starbucks may want to skip the coffee line for a few days: the sneakers cost about $100 — or a few weeks worth of Java.

The new retro-canvas sneakers are just the latest in a line of weird food-footwear pairings from Nike.

The company previously released another limited-run pair of sneakers, this time featuring chicken and waffles.

The high-top kicks, which retailed for around $110 earlier this spring, mimicked the comfort food dish with a waffle pattern and syrup-drizzled Nike Swoosh.

Following that foodie-inspired shoe pairing, the company decided to take its food love in another direction by selling basketball star Kyrie Irving’s latest sneaker release though a Krispy Kreme—themed campaign.

The company created a Krispy Kreme commercial and a truck that delivered the sneakers — inside a Krispy Kreme box — in Cleveland, Baltimore, Manhattan and Brooklyn, AdWeek reports.

While it’s unclear why Nike is focusing on food-shoe combos lately, we have a few theories. The company’s designers are constantly hungry, and mixing up their lunch orders with their sneaker mock-ups, or Nike could be trying to capitalize on the idea that hungry shoppers will buy more at the store — in this case maybe even shoes.

Nike Unveils a Starbucks Sneaker, Which Will Go Nicely With the Krispy Kreme One [AdWeek]

Nearly eight years after Bank of America bailed out Countrywide Financial, a federal appeals court has ruled that BofA should not have been held liable for Countrywide’s “Hustle” scam in which the company sold Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac a ton of poorly underwritten mortgages knowing that they were worthless.

Before Countrywide’s disastrous collapse, it sought to approve and resell as many mortgages as possible, so the lender launched a program it dubbed the High Speed Swim Lane (or HSSL, or Hustle) that effectively removed all the regular underwriting roadblocks in the mortgage approval process.

“Move forward, never backward,” was the directive, meaning trained underwriters sometimes never even saw mortgage applications. Instead, according to the Justice Department, loan review was handed off to mere processors who “were previously considered unqualified even to answer questions.”

Billions of dollars in Hustle loans were sold off to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac before anyone realized that about half of these mortgages were about to be worthless. Because the government had bailed these two mortgage-backers out, it meant taxpayers were on the hook when these loans failed.

Meanwhile, the executive in charge of the Hustle went on to run JPMorgan Chase’s foreclosure review program.

In Oct. 2012, the Justice Dept. sued BofA over Hustle, alleging that BofA — through Countrywide — had violated the False Claims Act by making fraudulent claims for payment to government officials.

The DOJ also accused the bank under the Financial Institutions Reform, Recovery and Enforcement Act (FIRREA), a law that grew out of the savings and loan scandal in the late ’80s and involves the making of false statements to a federally insured financial institution.

In Aug. 2013, the court dismissed the False Claims part of the case, noting that the Hustle had ended before the bailouts of Fannie and Freddie. However, the FIRREA case was allowed to proceed, and in Oct. 2013 a federal jury found BofA liable.

It wasn’t until July 2014 that the court finally settled on the financial penalty, hitting BofA for $1.27 billion.

The bank immediately appealed this judgment, arguing that the DOJ had failed to prove their was any actual fraud involved.

This morning, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals agreed [PDF], finding that the “proof at trial is insufficient under the mail and wire fraud statutes as a matter of law.”

BofA successfully argued that Countrywide did not commit fraud, even if the lender intentionally breached its contracts with Fannie and Freddie by selling them a bunch of worthless loans.

At issue is when did Countrywide intend to breach those contracts. If the lender entered into those contracts honestly and did not immediately start reselling toxic mortgages, BofA contends that no fraud exists. In BofA’s view, Countrywide would have needed to enter into those contracts knowing it would never honor them for fraud to have occurred.

The Second Circuit found this line of thinking convincing.

“[W]here allegedly fraudulent misrepresentations are promises made in a contract, a party claiming fraud must prove fraudulent intent at the time of contract execution,” reads the opinion, “evidence of a subsequent, willful breach cannot sustain the claim.”

The panel points to a Second Circuit ruling in a 1994 case, in which the court explicitly stated that “A breach of contract does not amount to mail fraud. Failure to comply with a contractual obligation is only fraudulent when the promisor never intended to honor the contract.”

Thus, writes the court in this opinion, “a subsequent breach of that promise — even where willful and intentional — cannot in itself transform the promise into a fraud.”

Since the DOJ failed to provide sufficient evidence that Countrywide entered into its contracts with Fannie and Freddie with the intent to defraud, “the jury had no legally sufficient basis on which to conclude that the misrepresentations alleged were made with contemporaneous fraudulent intent.”

Today’s ruling reverses the jury’s decision and the District Court’s penalty, and remands the case to the lower court with the instruction to enter judgment in favor of BofA and the executive.

We’ve reached out to the DOJ for comment on this story but have not yet heard back.

BALTIMORE (AP) — The Latest on the trial for an officer charged in the arrest of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who died a week after he was critically injured in police custody (all times local):

1:15 p.m.

The attorney for the family of Freddie Gray is commending the judge who acquitted a police officer charged in Gray’s arrest and says the family respects the verdict.

Billy Murphy said Monday that Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams should be commended for “not bending to public opinion in analyzing this case.”

Murphy obtained a $6.4 million settlement for Gray’s family. He says he doesn’t think anyone should be upset by the verdict. He says Gray’s family was looking for a fair process based on evidence, and that there’s no reason to remove Williams from the rest of the cases.

Of the Gray family, Murphy said they respect the judge’s decision.

Murphy says judges are trained to compartmentalize their decision and Williams has demonstrated his ability to do that.

___

12:45 p.m.

The attorney for the officer acquitted of charges stemming from the arrest of the young black man Freddie Gray say he is “elated that this nightmare is finally over.”

In a statement Monday, attorney Marc Zayon says Officer Edward Nero is appreciative of the reasoned judgment by Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams and hopes the state re-evaluates the charges against five other officers and dismisses them.

Gray died April 19, 2015, from injuries he suffered while handcuffed and shackled but left unrestrained in the back of a police transport van.

Zayon says the state rushed to charge Nero. He says Nero is still a proud member of the police department. The department said in an earlier statement that despite the end of the criminal case, an internal investigation is ongoing. Nero is on administrative duty.

___

11:50 a.m.

The Baltimore Police Department says that although an officer charged in the death of Freddie Gray has been acquitted, he remains on administrative duty while an internal investigation continues.

A judge acquitted Officer Edward Nero of all charges Monday. The police statement says Nero’s investigation won’t be completed until the criminal cases against all officers are complete. Six officers were charged.

Freddie Gray was a 25-year-old black man. His death set off protests, looting and rioting. His name became a rallying cry in the national conversation about police treatment of black men.

Three of the officers charged are black; Nero and two others are white.

Nero was the second officer to stand trial. William Porter’s manslaughter trial ended with a hung jury. Porter is black.

Other officers are set to have separate trials over the summer and into the fall.

__

11:45 a.m.

The judge who acquitted an officer of charges stemming from the death of the young black man Freddie Gray in Baltimore says he acted as any reasonable officer would have.

Baltimore Circuit Judge Barry Williams said Monday in comments from the bench that Officer Edward Nero wasn’t involved in the actual arrest of Gray and that Nero touched Gray only after he was in handcuffs.

Gray died in April 2015 from injuries he suffered after his arrest in the back of a police van.

Nero’s attorney had argued that it was the police van driver’s responsibility to buckle in detainees. The judge says Nero could have thought the driver or supervisor would have buckled Gray in.

The judge rejected the prosecution argument that there was recklessness or negligence on Nero’s part.

After Williams spoke, Nero appeared to wipe away a tear.

___

11:35 a.m.

The Baltimore police officers’ union says Officer Edward Nero is relieved by his acquittal on charges stemming from the death of Freddie Gray.

Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 3 President Gene Ryan said in a statement Monday that Nero’s relief is tempered by the fact that five other officers await trial.

Ryan says: “Officer Nero prays that justice will serve each of the remaining officers with the same fairness that it served him.”

Ryan says none of the officers did anything wrong. He says prosecutors rushed to charge them without a meaningful investigation.

Ryan says the charges are politically motivated. He says the prosecution of the officers has destroyed their lives and demolished the relationship between the city’s police department and the state’s attorney’s office.

___

11:35 a.m.

About a dozen protesters are gathered outside the courtroom in a largely peaceful scene after the acquittal of an officer in the death of the young black man Freddie Gray.

On Monday, shortly after the judge gave his verdict, reporters outnumbered protesters, some of whom were being interviewed.

Gray’s death April 19, 2015, set off more than a week of protests followed by looting, rioting and arson that prompted a citywide curfew. The mayor said Monday that the city is prepared to respond to any disturbances in response to the acquittal.

Officer Edward Nero is the second officer to stand trial. Officer William Porter’s manslaughter trial ended with a hung jury.

___

11:25 a.m.

Baltimore’s mayor says the city is prepared to respond to any disturbance after the acquittal of an officer in the death of the young black man Freddie Gray.

In her statement Monday, Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake says the city will protect neighborhoods, businesses and residents. Gray’s death April 19, 2015, set off more than a week of protests followed by looting, rioting and arson that prompted a citywide curfew.

Rawlings-Blake’s statements asks residents to be patient and allow “the entire process to come to a conclusion.”

She released it shortly after a judge found Officer Edward Nero not guilty of misconduct in office and reckless endangerment. She says, “This is our American system of justice and police officers must be afforded the same justice system as every other citizen.”

She says Nero now faces a Police Department administrative review.

___

11 a.m.

A Baltimore police officer has been acquitted of assault and other charges in the arrest of Freddie Gray, a young black man who died a week after he was critically injured in police custody.

A judge found Officer Edward Nero not guilty of misconduct in office and reckless endangerment. The judge announced his verdict on Monday.

Nero was one of six Baltimore police officers charged in the case. He waived his right to a jury trial, opting instead to argue his case before Circuit Judge Barry Williams.

An earlier trial for an officer charged with manslaughter in the case ended in a hung jury in December.

Gray’s death about a year ago led to protests and rioting in the city and fueled the Black Lives Matter movement.

___

3:45 a.m.

A Baltimore judge is expected to announce his verdict in the trial of a police officer charged in the arrest and subsequent death of Freddie Gray.

Officer Edward Nero is charged with assault, misconduct in office and reckless endangerment.

Gray died April 19, 2015, a week after his neck was broken in the back of a police transport van while he was handcuffed and shackled, but left unrestrained by a seat belt. His death set off protests and rioting that month.

Prosecutors say Nero unlawfully arrested Gray and was negligent when he failed to buckle him into a seat belt. Nero’s attorney says the officer wasn’t directly involved in Gray’s arrest, adding it’s the driver’s responsibility to ensure a prisoner’s safety.

Both the state and defense delivered closing arguments Thursday.

The post The Latest: Attorney: Freddie Gray family respects verdict appeared first on WTOP.

Earlier this year Paramount Pictures and CBS Studios filed a lawsuit against the makers of a Star Trek inspired fan film, accusing them of copyright infringement.

The dispute centers around the well-received short film Star Trek: Prelude to Axanar and the planned follow-up feature film Axanar.

Among other things, the Star Trek rightsholders claim ownership over various Star Trek related settings, characters, species, clothing, colors, shapes, words, short phrases and even the Klingon language.

While the legal battle has barely got going it now appears it will soon end. During a Star Trek fan event on Friday, director J.J. Abrams announced that the case will be over soon, thanks to Star Trek Beyond director Justin Lin.

“We started talking about this realizing that this is not an appropriate way to deal with the fans. The fans should be celebrating this thing,” Abrams said.

“Fans of Star Trek are part of this world. So Justin went to the studio and pushed them to stop this lawsuit and now, within the next few weeks, it will be announced this is going away, and the fans will be able to work on their project,” he adds.

The news is welcomed by Axanar director Alec Peters, who posted a short message on Facebook a few hours ago.

“A huge THANK YOU to JJ Abrams and Justin Lin for their announcement last night that Paramount is dropping the suit against Axanar,” he writes.

However, the case isn’t completely over yet. The parties are still working on finalizing a settlement agreement and no official paperwork has yet been filed in court.

A settlement means that the case won’t be dismissed outright, but that the parties are coming to an agreement they are all satisfied with. Whether they intend to release any details on the nature of their agreement remains unclear at this point.

When Paramount and CBS filed the lawsuit earlier this year they accused the makers of exploiting the Star Trek franchise, so it’s likely that they are looking for financial compensation.

Source: TF, for the latest info on copyright, file-sharing, torrent sites and ANONYMOUS VPN services.

Stock up on essential kitchenware and shoes or up your backyard entertainment game in today’s best deals.

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Identity theft rates are up, and the problem is worse in some areas than others. 24/7 Wall St. looked at data from the Federal Trade Commission to reveal the states with the highest rates of identity theft.

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Gift cards usually don’t expire for five years, so you generally have quite a bit of time to use them—that is, unless the store goes out of business. Over at Rather Be Shopping, Kyle James tells us which store gift cards you should probably use sooner rather than later.

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If you find yourself with an uninvited mouse guest and want a humane solution to catch the critter, you can easily make a non-lethal trap with just a soda bottle mounted on a pivot.

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It might feel strange to head to the baby food aisle when you don’t need to feed a baby, but if you ever make a dish that requires pureed fruit or vegetables and you don’t want to do it yourself, it’s your best destination. You’ll get a flavorful puree without unnecessary additives or ingredients.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — The one-year anniversary of an oil spill on the California coast was no celebration for the company responsible for the corroded pipe that sprung a leak and dumped more than 120,000 gallons of crude. The occasion was marked by action from state prosecutors and federal regulators, who concluded investigations of Plains All American Pipeline and the spill blamed for killing scores of birds and sea lions and soiling pristine Santa Barbara County beaches.

Here are some things to know about the spill and action taken in the past week.

PIPELINE TO THE SEA

The May 19, 2015 spill was discovered just after noon by Santa Barbara County firefighters investigating reports of a strong petroleum stench near Refugio State Beach.

Once the source was located more than an hour later — and about 2½ hours after the rupture — firefighters tried in vain with shovels to stop oil from flowing through a culvert under a highway toward the ocean. The culvert was dammed around 3 p.m. after additional equipment and more people were brought in.

Initial estimates put the spill at just over 100,000 gallons with about a fifth of that volume reaching the ocean. Plains later upped the estimate to about 142,000 gallons, though federal regulators said 123,000 gallons were released.

Tar balls washed ashore 100 miles away in Los Angeles County and more than 220 birds and about 140 marine mammals, mostly sea lions, died.

ACCIDENT OR A CRIME?

A Santa Barbara County Superior Court grand jury indicted the company Monday on 46 criminal charges.

State and county prosecutors said Plains faces up to $2.8 million in fines if convicted of all charges, which include four felonies for spilling oil in state waters and three dozen misdemeanor counts of harming wildlife. The company and an employee were charged with misdemeanor counts of failing to quickly notify state emergency officials.

Texas-based Plains said the spill was an accident not a crime and it would vigorously fight the charges.

SERIES OF FAILURES

The federal agency overseeing the safety of interstate pipelines said Thursday that the company failed on “multiple levels” to prevent, detect and respond to the incident.

“The investigation found that numerous factors contributed to the release, including the company’s failure to protect the pipeline from corrosion, as well as the failure to detect and respond to the pipeline rupture once it occurred,” said Marie Therese Dominguez, administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

A lengthy report detailed events leading to the spill as operators in a remote control room in Midland, Texas, failed recognize a spill occurred and didn’t quickly shut down the pipeline. A controller even restarted the pipeline after it had shut down during the spill.

A Plains employee initially doubted the oil came from its pipeline because it was isolated from the ocean by U.S. Highway 101. But the company had failed to note in emergency plans that the culvert could provide a path to the sea, the report said.

The company declined to comment on the report because of ongoing investigations and litigation.

PIPELINE SHUTDOWN

The pipeline remains shut down under federal orders and won’t restart until the agency is confident it is safe, Dominguez said. Plains said there’s no timeline for restarting it.

The company has begun repairing two sections, but other work has been put on hold because of litigation, said Peter Cantle of the Santa Barbara County Planning and Development Department. A lawsuit by landowners claims an easement for the pipeline isn’t big enough to allow the repair work.

Cantle said he is not sure if Plains will repair the pipeline or replace it with a higher grade pipeline, which he said the company has discussed.

“Do you try to put lipstick on the pig?” Cantle said. “Can they bring it back to operational capacity with sufficient integrity to make it a go? That’s what they’re looking at.”

Meanwhile, seven offshore platforms are idle because the pipeline transported crude from them to refineries.

NEW LAWS

The spill inspired legislation aimed at preventing oil spills, minimizing damage and speeding cleanups.

Three bills signed into law last year by Gov. Jerry Brown would require annual pipeline inspections by the state fire marshal and installation of best spill-control technology, such as automatic shut-off valves.

The pipeline, once regulated by the state marshal and Santa Barbara County, came under federal jurisdiction in 2013 because it’s part of a larger interstate network of pipes.

Because of litigation against the county by the original owner, it was also the only pipeline in the county that didn’t have automatic shut-off valves.

Federal legislation related to pipeline safety is also pending.

The post Things to know about California oil spill a year ago appeared first on WTOP.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin on Friday vetoed legislation to make it a felony for doctors to perform an abortion, a measure that would have effectively outlawed the procedure in the state.

In vetoing the measure just a day after the Legislature passed it, Fallin, a Republican who opposes abortion, said it was vague and would not withstand a legal challenge.

“The bill is so ambiguous and so vague that doctors cannot be certain what medical circumstances would be considered ‘necessary to preserve the life of the mother,'” Fallin said. “While I consistently have and continue to support a re-examination of the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade, this legislation cannot accomplish that re-examination.”

The bill’s sponsor, Republican Sen. Nathan Dahm, said the measure was aimed at ultimately overturning the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide. Dahm said he was considering whether to try to override the governor’s veto, which would require a two-thirds majority in each chamber, a threshold it did not meet in the House when it first passed. The bill passed on a 33-12 vote in the Senate with no debate on Thursday; it passed 59-9 in the 101-member House on April 21.

“Of course I’ll consider it,” Dahm said. “I’m weighing my options.”

The bill would have made it a felony punishable by up to three years in prison for anyone who performs an abortion, including doctors. State law already makes it a felony for anyone who’s not a doctor to perform an abortion, and Dahm’s bill would have removed the exemption for physicians.

The bill, which abortion-rights group Center for Reproductive Rights said was the first of its kind in the nation, also would restrict any physician who performs an abortion from obtaining or renewing a license to practice medicine in Oklahoma.

Dahm had said Thursday after the bill’s passage that he hoped it could lead to overturning Roe v. Wade.

“Since I believe life begins at conception, it should be protected, and I believe it’s a core function of state government to defend that life from the beginning of conception,” said Dahm, from Broken Arrow.

But abortion-rights supporters — and the state’s medical association — said the bill was unconstitutional. Sen. Ervin Yen, an Oklahoma City Republican and the only physician in the Senate, described the measure as “insane” and voted against it.

___

Senate Bill 1552: http://bit.ly/1SxRapC

Veto message: http://bit.ly/1Tsw2jt

The post Oklahoma governor vetoes bill criminalizing abortion appeared first on WTOP.

HILLSBORO, N.D. (AP) — A high-flying drone that will be used to test precision agriculture methods made its inaugural flight Friday in North Dakota amid handshakes and smiles from aircraft operators and farm officials.

The Israeli-manufactured Elbit Systems Hermes 450 aircraft took off from the Hillsboro airport to start a summer-long project that will take pictures of farmland in the fertile Red River Valley. The test is meant to show whether the larger drone is more efficient to capture imagery of agricultural land than satellites or smaller unmanned aircraft.

“Absolutely, this is really exciting,” said drone pilot Matthew Mason, a New Hampshire resident who is spending the summer in a Fargo hotel. “With this camera we can count seeds and all sorts of stuff. The capabilities are like, wow, this is crazy.”

North Dakota is believed to be the only state qualified to fly the aircraft because it has clearance from the Federal Aviation Administration to fly drones at higher altitudes. The FAA in 2013 selected North Dakota as one of six drone test sites in the U.S. and has since approved the site to fly above the current 200-foot blanket for most of the country.

The Hermes 450, which is 20 feet long with a 35-foot wing span, is expected to take pictures as high as 8,000 feet. It will cover an area about 4 miles wide by 40 miles long.

“You look around and you see grins on everybody’s faces,” said Eric Stoltz, mission manager for the Northern Plains UAS Test Site, which is partnering with North Dakota State University on the project. “As far as we know, this is the first time that a UAS of this size has flown out of a civilian airport with no special airspace or anything like that.”

The project is the brainchild of North Dakota State University researcher John Nowatzki, who has spent the last 18 months waiting for Friday’s debut. He believes the larger drone will be more cost-effective by collecting more data over a larger area more quickly.

“I feel pretty good about it,” Nowatzki said on the tarmac while handlers prepared the drone for takeoff. “There have been a lot of efforts with small ones. This is the first time with one this large.”

Half of the more than $700,000 project is being funded by a North Dakota Department of Commerce grant and the other half by Elbit Systems, which is hoping to eventually sell the imagery to producers and other farm groups. The drone, ground control station and other equipment were shipped from Tel Aviv, Israel, and assembled by a crew from the Israeli company.

North Dakota leads the nation in the production of 10 farm commodity classes. Alyssa Scheve, the Traill County extension agent who meets with area farmers on a daily basis, said after Friday’s flight most of the producers are eager to see the results from the drone.

“This is new technology. As we know, farmers are innovators, so this is right up their alley,” Scheve said. “This will give them a real-time aerial view how their fields are progressing and will give them an opportunity to make those management calls in a timelier manner.”

The post High-flying drone makes 1st flight to test farmland photos appeared first on WTOP.

WACO, Texas (AP) — Three bikers arrested after a shooting involving police outside a Waco restaurant have filed lawsuits against local officials, alleging civil rights violations.

The Waco Tribune-Herald reports (http://bit.ly/1U6pioL ) that Bradley Terwilliger, Benjamin Matcek and Jimmy Dan Smith filed suit Friday in a Travis County federal court seeking unspecified damages.

The suits name McLennan County District Attorney Abel Reyna, Waco Police Chief Brent Stroman, Waco police officer Manuel Chavez and an unidentified Texas Department of Public Safety agent as defendants.

Altogether, 10 bikers have filed civil suits alleging unlawful arrest and due-process violations. Nearly 200 people were arrested after the May 2015 shooting that left nine dead. Since November, a grand jury has indicted 154 people on charges of engaging in organized criminal activity.

No trial dates have been set.

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CUMBERLAND, Md. (AP) — Repair of a landslide that has kept Western Maryland Scenic Railroad excursions from reaching their Frostburg destination is expected to be completed by Aug. 1.

The landslide discovered during routine track inspection in late February was the result of a mine-related issue near a switch about two miles from Frostburg, said John Garner, the railroad’s superintendent. Land below the railroad tracks slipped away at an estimated 2 to 4 feet.

Garner said the Maryland Bureau of Mines is in the process of removing debris and coal from the former mine site and improving the drainage system in the area to prevent future incidents. The repairs are being funded with federal money administered by the state bureau.

In the meantime, the railroad’s 2016 season is offering tourist train rides between Cumberland and Switch No. 9.

“In a situation like that (landslide repair), you would have to ensure that the remediation work you’re doing isn’t going to affect pollution, sedimentation that would be going into the river under the U.S. Clean Water Act,” said Mark Shaffer, communications director for the Maryland Department of the Environment.

Remediation deals with the removal of pollution or contaminants from the environment such as soil, ground water, sediment or surface water.

With environmental permits and engineering design completed, project construction bids are due May 31.

“We are expecting this (project) to be in the neighborhood of about $250,000,” Shaffer said.

Repair is expected to begin by mid-June. For at least one local business that depends on the scenic railroad for revenue, it can’t come fast enough.

“It’s terrible,” said John Saylor, co-owner and operator of the Trail Inn Lodging Campground and Cafe at the Frostburg Depot. “If we don’t get some business going on we just can’t survive.”

Saylor’s property is adjacent to the train’s turntable.

“When you lose as much business as we did with the train not running, it takes you down in a hurry,” Saylor said.

Saylor’s inn is doing well, he said, thanks to Great Allegany Passage cyclists, but his cafe is taking the hit.

“We’re not even doing 5 percent of what we had been doing last year at this time,” Saylor said. “The rooms are doing all right. Frostburg remodeled the trailhead and it made some difference.

“We’re doing the best we can and we’re still serving good food,” he said. “We probably won’t shut it down (business) because we feel an obligation to the bicycle trail. I don’t see us shutting down unless we just have to.”

When construction is complete, railroad inspectors will conduct a security check on the area.

“I don’t think that would take too terribly long,” Shaffer said. “But I’m sure the pressure is on given it’s the middle of the summer and it’s the scenic railroad.”

Garner said track inspectors will be on site within 24 hours after construction crews remove their equipment.

“WMSR track foreman Josh Nixon would come in and do the inspection,” Garner said. “We would ask the state inspector to join us, once they give us the thumb’s up (state inspector), we would commence operations to Frostburg.”

Excursions to Frostburg are normally scheduled for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Garner said the first available train will run immediately after inspection.

“If we released (track) on a Tuesday, the next train would go up Friday,” said Garner.

___

Information from: Cumberland (Md.) Times-News, http://www.times-news.com/timesnew.html

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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — A nonprofit focused on children’s legal advocacy has concluded that Virginia schools have been pushing students out of school through “widespread, discriminatory overuse” of suspension and expulsion.

Citing a recently released report from the Virginia Legal Aid Justice Center’s JustChildren program, news outlets report that black students and those with disabilities were suspended disproportionately to their peers.

That conclusion comes after the Charlottesville-based nonprofit analyzed data that schools reported to the Virginia Department of Education for the 2014-15 school year.

The report says more than 126,000 out-of-school suspensions were given to 70,000 students across the state during that time period.

Roanoke County school officials recently told The Roanoke Times (http://bit.ly/1U5aAOL ) that the district is trying to reduce both the length and the number of suspensions it gives.

___

Information from: The Roanoke Times, http://www.roanoke.com

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WASHINGTON (AP) — A group the White House recently identified as a key surrogate in selling the Iran nuclear deal gave National Public Radio $100,000 last year to help it report on the pact and related issues, according to the group’s annual report. It also funded reporters and partnerships with other news outlets.

The Ploughshares Fund’s mission is to “build a safe, secure world by developing and investing in initiatives to reduce and ultimately eliminate the world’s nuclear stockpiles,” one that dovetails with President Barack Obama’s arms control efforts. But its behind-the-scenes role advocating for the Iran agreement got more attention this month after a candid profile of Ben Rhodes, one of the president’s top foreign policy aides.

In The New York Times Magazine article, Rhodes explained how the administration worked with nongovernmental organizations, proliferation experts and even friendly reporters to build support for the seven-nation accord that curtailed Iran’s nuclear activity and softened international financial penalties on Tehran.

“We created an echo chamber,” said Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser, adding that “outside groups like Ploughshares” helped carry out the administration’s message effectively.

The magazine piece revived Republican criticism of the Iran agreement as they suggested it was evidence of a White House spin machine misleading the American people. The administration accused opponents of trying to re-litigate the deal after failing to defeat it in congressional votes last year.

Outside groups of all stripes are increasingly giving money to news organizations for special projects or general news coverage. Most news organizations, including The Associated Press, have strict rules governing whom they can accept money from and how to protect journalistic independence.

Ploughshares’ backing is more unusual, given its prominent role in the rancorous, partisan debate over the Iran deal.

The Ploughshares grant to NPR supported “national security reporting that emphasizes the themes of U.S. nuclear weapons policy and budgets, Iran’s nuclear program, international nuclear security topics and U.S. policy toward nuclear security,” according to Ploughshares’ 2015 annual report, recently published online.

“It is common practice for foundations to fund media coverage of underreported stories,” Ploughshares spokeswoman Jennifer Abrahamson said. Funding “does not influence the editorial content of their coverage in any way, nor would we want it to.”

Ploughshares has funded NPR’s coverage of national security since 2005, the radio network said. Ploughshares reports show at least $700,000 in funding over that time. All grant descriptions since 2010 specifically mention Iran.

“It’s a valued partnership, without any conditions from Ploughshares on our specific reporting, beyond the broad issues of national and nuclear security, nuclear policy, and nonproliferation,” NPR said in an emailed statement. “As with all support received, we have a rigorous editorial firewall process in place to ensure our coverage is independent and is not influenced by funders or special interests.”

Republican lawmakers will have concerns nonetheless, especially as Congress supplies NPR with a small portion of its funding. Just this week, the GOP-controlled House Oversight Committee tried to summon Rhodes to a hearing entitled “White House Narratives on the Iran Nuclear Deal,” but he refused.

Ploughshares’ links to media are “tremendously troubling,” said Rep. Mike Pompeo of Kansas, an Iran-deal critic.

Pompeo told the AP he repeatedly asked NPR to be interviewed last year as a counterweight to a Democratic supporter of the agreement, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, who he said regularly appeared on the network. But NPR refused to put Pompeo on the air, he said. The network said it had no record of Pompeo’s requests, and listed several prominent Republicans who were featured speaking about the deal or economic sanctions on Iran.

Another who appeared on NPR is Joseph Cirincione, Ploughshares’ president. He spoke about the negotiations on air at least twice last year. NPR identified Ploughshares as an NPR funder one of those times; the other time, it didn’t.

Ploughshares boasts of helping to secure the deal. While success was “driven by the fearless leadership of the Obama administration and supporters in Congress,” board chairwoman Mary Lloyd Estrin wrote in the annual report, “less known is the absolutely critical role that civil society played in tipping the scales towards this extraordinary policy victory.”

The 33-page document lists the groups that Ploughshares funded last year to advance its nonproliferation agenda.

The Arms Control Association got $282,500; the Brookings Institution, $225,000; and the Atlantic Council, $182,500. They received money for Iran-related analysis, briefings and media outreach, and non-Iran nuclear work.

Other groups, less directly defined by their independent nuclear expertise, also secured grants.

J-Street, the liberal Jewish political action group, received $576,500 to advocate for the deal. More than $281,000 went to the National Iranian American Council.

Princeton University got $70,000 to support former Iranian ambassador and nuclear spokesman Seyed Hossein Mousavian’s “analysis, publications and policymaker engagement on the range of elements involved with the negotiated settlement of Iran’s nuclear program.”

Ploughshares has set its sights on other media organizations, too.

In a “Cultural Strategy Report” on its website, the group outlined a broader objective of “ensuring regular and accurate coverage of nuclear issues in reputable and strategic media outlets” such as The Guardian, Salon, the Huffington Post or Pro Publica.

Previous efforts failed to generate enough coverage, it noted. These included “funding of reporters at The Nation and Mother Jones and a partnership with The Center for Public Integrity to create a national security desk.” It suggested using “web videos, podcasts, photo-based stories” and other “attention-grabbing formats” for “creatively reframing the issue.”

The Center for Public Integrity’s CEO, Peter Bale, confirmed the grant.

“None of the funding received by Ploughshares was for coverage of the Iran deal,” said Bale, whose company received $70,000. “In general, we avoided that subject because the topic did not lend itself to the type of investigative reporting the Center does.”

Caitlin Graf, a spokeswoman at The Nation, said her outlet had no partnership with Ploughshares. She referred queries to The Nation Institute, a nonprofit associated with the magazine that seeks to strengthen the independent press and advance social justice. Taya Kitman, the institute’s director, said Ploughshares’ one-year grant supported reporting on U.S.-Iran policy, but strict editorial control was maintained.

Mother Jones’ media department didn’t respond to several messages seeking comment.

The AP has taken grants from nonpolitical groups and journalism foundations such as the Knight Foundation. As with all grants, “AP retains complete editorial control of the final news product, which must fully meet AP standards for independence and integrity,” Standards Editor Thomas Kent said.

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We’ve written in the past about how it’s illegal not to disclose when you’re getting paid to post about a product on social media like. There was nothing under-the-radar about a recent sponsored Instagram photo reality TV person Scott Disick posted, however.

In a very good lesson in how not to do the internet, Disick, who appears on a reality TV show about a wacky family called Keeping Up with the Kardashians, included instructions apparently provided by Skinny Tea’s marketing team for posting a caption on a photo of himself with their product, for all of his 19.5 million followers to see.

No one can say he didn’t do what he was told — the caption is there, after all. It reads, via @frankiegreek‘s screenshot on Twitter:

“Here you go, at 4pm est, write the below.
Caption: Keeping up with the summer workout routine with my morning @booteauk protein shake”

Sponsored posts can bring in lots of cash for social media influencers and celebrity endorsers: as Jezebel noted in January, Disick can make between $15,000 to $20,000 per sponsored post, just for putting products in front of the eyeballs of his millions of followers.

Despite this failure, we’re pretty sure most of Disick’s followers will stay put. After all, his previous sponsored posts worked out just fine — maybe the hoodie he wore in that one changed everything, or the fact that he’s standing in another part of the kitchen:

Here’s some great news for bargain-hunters, if not necessarily for retailers: dismal sales numbers from national retailers have experts worried about the future of American malls. Low sales numbers mean stores crammed with inventory that will have to be put on sale. That could boost total sales numbers, but hurt profits.

If this sounds familiar, it’s because it’s similar to what happened in department and specialty clothing stores at the end of 2015, too. Retailers blamed unseasonably warm weather for poor sales of winter clothes.

“Right now, retailers have started cutting back on deliveries for the third and fourth quarter,” a retail analyst explained to Reuters. That might mean stores end up ordering too little new merchandise during the back-to-school and holiday seasons during the second half of the year, or that they might still be trying to unload merchandise from the first half of the year.

Where you’re less likely to find deep discounts later this year are Walmart and off-price clothing and household goods stores like T.J. Maxx, Ross, and Marshalls, since shoppers have shifted a lot of their clothing spending to those stores.

Unsold U.S. retail inventory a challenge after dismal earnings season [Reuters]

While Google’s self-driving vehicles have been cruising around the streets, the company’s engineers have been working on a way to ensure pedestrians that may come into contact with the bumper of one of those autonomous vehicles are left relatively unscathed. Their apparent solution: an adhesive that makes people stick to the car’s hood. 

At least that’s the impression one might get from a recent Google patent intended to protect pedestrians during impact with a vehicle.

“Some efforts have been made to provide for the mitigation of injury to a pedestrian in a collision with an [autonomous] vehicle,” Google says in the patent, noting that when a vehicle has a person behind the wheel the operator is able to react in a way that can prevent injury, where as a fully self-driving vehicle can not.

According to the patent, the system is for protecting a colliding object from a secondary impact after initially hitting the vehicle.

That means while someone would have to actually be hit by Google’s self-driving car, they wouldn’t be pushed forward and hit a second time.

Here’s how it would work: an adhesive layer covered by a special coating would be placed on the front end of a vehicle.

Upon initial impact, the coating would be broken exposing the adhesive layer to “adhere the colliding object to the adhesive layer during the initial impact.”

Google says in the patent that the adhesive wouldn’t be relegated to the front of the vehicle; it could also be used on side panels, as well.

So far, Google’s self-driving vehicles have reportedly only been in accidents involving other cars, or in one case, a city bus. The patent suggests the company is taking the potential of a pedestrian versus car accident seriously.

Of course, we should point out that while Google has filed for the patent, that doesn’t mean the company will actually use it in the future.

[via Engadget]

In the latest installment of our Arachnids On A Plane series* comes Spiders On A Plane: 2 Fast 2 Be In The Cabin. It’s the second occasion we’ve heard of spiders, specifically tarantulas, getting loose on a plane. But unlike the previous incident, this time the little suckers were scurrying around in the cabin. Otherwise known as, “where all the passengers sit.”

Passengers were reportedly screaming and standing on the their seats during a recent flight from the Dominican Republic to Montreal, reports The Guardian, while flight attendants told everyone to hide their ankles from two tarantulas roaming freely in the cabin.

Witnesses spotted the fuzzy creatures toward the end of the flight, and it felt their presence even more keenly soon after.

“I was wearing a skirt and a spider crawled up my leg,” one passenger told Radio-Canada. “It was during the meal. My husband managed to catch the spider in a plastic container, but it wriggled its legs out. My daughter was crying, she was in shock.”

Flight attendants appeared to be confused — is there protocol you learn in flight attendant training to deal with crawly creatures? Who knows! — and some were scared to approach the spiders. Because spiders.

The union representing Air Transat flight attendants said the crew tried their best to maintain calm, and instructed them to put their shoes on and cover their ankles.

As for the spiders, one was captured during the flight, but the other eluded its pursuers and skittered around in the plane until the flight landed in Montreal. A federal agent was then able to track it down and trap it.

According to an entomologist who spoke to The Guardian, the spiders were probably a species called Phormictopus cancerides (note: not the spider pictured above), which isn’t venomous, but he says they can be “aggressive,” and frankly, sounds terrifying: they’re anywhere between four and eight inches long, with fangs that can grow longer up to an inch, or possibly more.

It’s unclear how the spiders got loose, but with a demand for live tarantulas as pets, the entomologist speculated that perhaps someone had them in a carry-on.

Air Transat called it an “extraordinary and isolated event,” a spokesperson told The Guardian.

“Passengers who have seen the spiders (we have no confirmation of the species) were certainly surprised, but according to our flight report, they reacted calmly.”

*Because you can’t forget about those scorpions!

Aggressive spiders cause panic on Canada-bound plane [The Guardian]
Spiders spread panic in an Air Transat flight [Radio Canada]

Modern ATMs are just computers attached to machines stuffed with cash, and that means that ATMs can also be infected with malware and viruses. Back in 2009, a piece of malware that could make an ATM spit out cash or give out the card numbers of people who had recently used the machine was found in the wild, the not-very-creatively-named Skimer. Now the security company Kapersky Labs has discovered a new and better (if you’re not a bank or a consumer) version of Skimer out in the wild.

That isn’t a misspelling: the name is a play on the term “skimmer,” which is a device that records card numbers and PINs for customers who use an ATM or payment kiosk. The “Skimer” malware can record customer card numbers, but can also make the machine do even scarier things from a bank’s point of view, like spit out cash.

We’ve seen other pieces of malware that can take over an ATM and make it spit out money. They happen most often in other countries, but malware attacks on ATMs here in the United States do happen.

What does this look like in action? Here’s a team from Kapersky demonstrating how to insert a special card that activates the malware and

How can you protect yourself against these attacks? That’s the thing: you can’t. You can avoid cash machines that look particularly sketchy, but the point of using malware to compromise an ATM is that it’s invisible to customers, and sometimes invisible to bank employees.

ATM is a New Skimmer: Crooks Bring ATMs on Their Side [Kapersky Lab]

Earlier today, we heard that THINX customers were ticked off to find the company had suddenly disabled all the $10 gift codes they’d collected as part of a referral program. When we reached out to THINX for a comment on their referral program and any changes to it, the company said it had to disable all gift card codes after a few bad apples took advantage of the system.

The company told Consumerist in an emailed response that THINX saw “thousands of fraudulent orders created by ‘customers’ who were severely abusing the referral program as it was structured.”

According to THINX, those customers created fake bots and scripts that generated new email addresses, allowing them to then use those emails to sign up for the referral program. That brought them thousands of gift cards, THINX says, because the program was designed to send a $10 gift card to any new customer who created an account.

“Thousands of pairs were ‘purchased’ with these fake gift cards and sold on the second hand market. The loss was devastating,” THINX told Consumerist in the emailed statement.

“After we discovered this issue, we still had hundreds of thousands of dollars in unused, active gift cards from the program and a grand larceny investigation revealed as many as half could have been created maliciously,” THINX’s statement explains.

Because of that, THINX had to disable all the remaining codes.

“We let as many legitimate customers as possible know that we were disabling the current program and enabling a different one that would provide new $10 off codes that could not be combined together,” the company said.

As for any value the customers lost when those emailed codes were disabled, THINX says the company reached out to anyone with a significant number of legitimate gift cards and offered them “several different options for how they’d like their remaining credits handled.”

“If for some reason anyone affected has not been notified of this change, or has missed the original emails pertaining to the situation, we sincerely apologize and urge them to reach out to support@shethinx.com to have the matter rectified immediately,” THINX said.

As for the customer who claimed that her post had been deleted from THINX’s Facebook page, the company says: “We never delete comments and we’re working on answering her momentarily.”

Have you gone through all of the frozen vegetables and packaged food in your house to ensure that they aren’t on the list of items potentially contaminated by Listeria in an outbreak dating back to 2013? Yeah, me either, and I don’t even have a lot of frozen vegetables. That’s what public health officials are worried about: that people won’t check their freezers and could get sick years from now, with Listeria monocytogenes, a foodborne illness that is especially dangerous.

Listeria poses a unique hazard to pregnant women, since it can cause miscarriages and stillbirths. Symptoms of listeriosis include fever, fatigue, and aches for pregnant women, and other people may experience gastrointestinal symptoms followed by aches and fever. The most dangerous complication, which is more common in people who are elderly or immunocompromised, is meningitis. Symptoms of that complication include headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance, and convulsions.

If there is any good news about millions of pounds of fruit and vegetables potentially being contaminated with Listeria, it’s that frozen vegetables are usually cooked before people eat them.

An expert at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told the Associated Press that this is one possible reason why relatively few serious illnesses have been reported relative to the amount of food out there that was affected. Another possibility is that whatever caused the contamination spread it unevenly, and very few bags ended up with enough of the pathogen to make anyone sick.

Frozen vegetable products (Listeria monocytogenes) [FDA]
Multistate Outbreak of Listeriosis Linked to Frozen Vegetables [CDC]