pileofcrapola

HOUSTON (AP) — A Houston police officer has fatally shot an unarmed man suspected of damaging a traffic sign and charging toward the officer three times.

Police spokesman John Cannon said Sunday that investigators believe the man was on drugs.

The officer was on patrol Saturday afternoon when he saw an agitated man damage a street sign, pace and yell obscenities.

Cannon says the officer, identified as K. Levi, tried to calm the man but the suspect charged at him twice. Levi used a Taser on the man twice, but it was unsuccessful.

When the man came at him a third time, Levi fatally shot him. The man’s name wasn’t immediately released.

Levi was put on administrative duty. The suspect and officer are both black.

The post Texas officer fatally shoots man suspected of damaging sign appeared first on WTOP.

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Preventing the long-imperiled Atlantic salmon from disappearing from American waters will require the U.S. to put pressure on Inuit fishermen in Greenland to stop harvesting a fish that has fed them for hundreds of years, federal officials say.

The salmon were once found from Long Island Sound to Canada, but their population has cratered in the face of river damming, warming ocean waters, competition for food with non-native fish and, officials say, continued Greenlandic fishing.

Now, federal officials have outlined an ambitious plan to try to save the Atlantic salmon that they say will require removing dams, creating fish passages and fostering cooperation from Inuit fishermen some 2,000 miles away from Maine, where most of America’s last wild Atlantic salmon spawn.

“We’ve tried everything possible to negotiate with Greenland to find alternatives to find out how they can lessen impacts on U.S. fish,” said Dan Kircheis, a fisheries biologist with the National Marine Fisheries Service. “This is part of their culture, this is part of who they are, this is something they’ve always done. We are trying to work with them to realize the fish they are fishing for originate in Canada, in U.S. waters, in Europe, and these populations are in decline.”

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has said the final remnants of the wild Atlantic salmon population in U.S. waters live in a handful of rivers and streams in central and eastern Maine. A 2014 count found less than 300 salmon in the Penobscot River, which has the largest wild Atlantic salmon population in the country.

Federal authorities listed the Gulf of Maine’s Atlantic salmon population as endangered in 2000. They were once found in almost every river north of the Hudson, but since the 18th century they have declined to just 11 rivers, NOAA has said. The Atlantic salmon and the Pacific Chinook salmon are the largest salmon species.

Atlantic are the most commonly farmed species of salmon, and demand has grown exponentially since the 1990s. Farms produced more than 2 million tons of the salmon, prized for its high protein content and omega-3 fatty acids, for the first time in 2012.

The wild fish leave Maine rivers in the spring, and most eventually end up off Greenland, an autonomous country that is part of the Danish Realm, along with Denmark and the Faroe Islands. NOAA issued a report in February that identified the salmon as one of a handful of species listed under the Endangered Species Act that need “immediate, targeted efforts” to stabilize their populations and stave off extinction.

NOAA’s report states that a critical negotiating point will be the annual meeting of the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization, scheduled for June in Germany. National leaders and non-governmental organizations will attend the meeting.

NOAA’s plan states that the U.S. and other nations need to negotiate with Greenland’s government to establish measures to minimize the country’s impact on salmon of U.S. origin. It also states that more Maine dams need to be removed so salmon can spawn in rivers, and that watershed areas need to be restored so young salmon can thrive.

Greenland decided on a 45-ton quota for 2015, 2016 and 2017 during an international summit last year — a reduction in catch from the previous 57 tons, but nowhere near as dramatic a rollback as U.S. officials wanted. Some U.S. conservationists have said the only sustainable salmon quota for Greenland is zero.

That doesn’t sit well in Greenland, where officials said they are happy to continue working with the U.S., but they disagree that a halt to Inuit fishing would save the fish. Katrine Kærgaard, a spokeswoman for the country’s ministry of fisheries, said Greenland has “continuously reduced” its salmon fishery over the past two decades, and the fish population’s status has not improved.

Greenland’s salmon fishery is conducted close to shore and is mostly based out of small dinghies with nets, Kærgaard said. The fishing is solely for local use, and the salmon can’t be exported.

Taking salmon fishing away would devastate the Inuit population, which makes up 90 percent of Greenland, Kærgaard said.

“Surviving off the resources that nature can offer has been the way that the tough Inuit of Greenland has survived for thousands of years, and it is still the way that a large part of the people survive today — and here the salmon plays a vital part of the history and culture,” Kærgaard said.

The post In Atlantic salmon fight, Greenland proves a sticking point appeared first on WTOP.

PHOENIX (AP) — A dog that was left in a garbage bag behind a South Korea meat market has a new life — and new limbs — on the other side of the world in Arizona.

Chi Chi, a golden retriever mix, hit the ground walking but not quite running Saturday at her new home in Phoenix. The 2-year-old dog has spent the two months in a veterinary clinic in Seoul learning how to live with prosthetic paws. Now she will be living with Richard and Elizabeth Howell and their 12-year-old daughter Megan.

“She can run. She can walk,” Megan Howell said. “She can pretty much do anything a real dog can do except go up the stairs.”

Chi Chi was shepherded over by Los Angeles-based Animal Rescue, Media & Education, or ARME. Chi Chi, which means “loving” in Korean, was likely intended to be slaughtered for food, president Shannon Keith said.

Ju Yu, who heads an animal rescue group in South Korea, said the dog was found among the garbage outside a meat market in the countryside. In Korea, dogs are considered a traditional delicacy and have only recently become popular as pets. Chi Chi’s legs were bound with wire. Her tendons and bone visible were visible.

The rescuers whisked the dog away to the veterinary clinic where it was determined that for any chance of survival, all four legs would need to be amputated.

Afterward, the dog was fitted with prosthetics.

ARME has been showcasing Chi Chi’s recovery on YouTube and Facebook, which is how the Howells learned about her. Ardent supporters of rescuing dogs, they were initially just going to give money.

“When it came down to it, the biggest need was that she needed a place to live,” Richard Howell said. “I think ultimately as we progressed with her story, we just felt a connection with her. Chi Chi is different. She might actually change the world.”

The family has three other dogs.

The Howells know Chi Chi will require a team for the rehab she has ahead of her, Elizabeth Howell said.

“We are still in the process of figuring out what she needs,” she said. “She’s already got some appointments this week.”

Chi Chi’s apparent triumph over adversity, however, could make her the perfect therapy dog.

“Maybe she can encourage people who have to have amputations themselves like soldiers and kids,” Richard Howell said. “We want to use her story to make the lives of humans better. I think if we do that, we’re doing something positive in the world.”

___

Follow Terry Tang on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ttangAP

The post Dog with no legs leaves Korea for new life in Arizona appeared first on WTOP.

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The Latest on the Iditarod Sled Dog Race (all times local):

4 p.m.

An Alaska man accused of intentionally driving a snowmobile into two Iditarod teams at speeds as high as 100 mph has appeared in court for the first time.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner (http://is.gd/Zwk0tb ) reports that bail was set at $50,000 on Sunday for 26-year-old Arnold Demoski. He faces charges including assault and reckless endangerment after authorities say he rammed into the dog sled teams of Aliy Zirkle and four-time Iditarod champion Jeff King early Saturday.

One of King’s dogs died and at least two others were injured.

Court documents say Demoski was going about 100 mph when he crashed into King’s team and about 40 mph when he struck Zirkle’s team.

Demoski appeared in court in Fairbanks by teleconference. Attorney Bill Satterberg declined to comment to the newspaper.

___

3:15 p.m.

Mushers are pressing their dog sled teams closer to the finish line in Alaska’s famous Iditarod after authorities say a snowmobiler intentionally rammed into two top competitors, killing one dog and injuring others.

Experts say the crash wasn’t the first encounter between teams and snowmobiles, but they’re rare. It’s just one of the perils of the 1,000-mile race, which covers long stretches of unforgiving terrain.

Besides blinding snow and ripping winds, mushers also contend with fatigue, brutal cold and the occasional encounter with wildlife, such as moose.

A 26-year-old man arrested in the crash Saturday is accused of intentionally driving a snowmobile into the team of Aliy Zirkle and then the team of four-time Iditarod champion Jeff King. One of King’s dogs died and at least two others were injured.

___

11:30 a.m.

Defending champion Dallas Seavey is leading in Alaska’s Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, gunning for his fourth win in the nearly 1,000-mile (1,600-kilometer) contest, with his father the closest rival.

The younger Seavey left the checkpoint at the coastal village of Shaktoolik, 171 miles (275.19 kilometers) from the Nome finish line, mid-Sunday morning. As of late morning, his father, Mitch Seavey, was the only other musher to reach the village.

Meanwhile, a 26-year-old man was set to appear in court Sunday afternoon following his arrest Saturday on allegations he intentionally drove a snowmobile into the teams of two other top mushers, killing one dog and injuring at least two other dogs. Arnold Demoski of the checkpoint village of Nulato (noo-LAH-toh) has said he was returning home from a night of drinking when he struck the teams.

The incident prompted the Nulato Tribal Council to issue a statement Saturday, saying it was “disturbed and saddened” by the incident and offering condolences to the mushers.

The post The Latest: Man accused in Iditarod crash has $50,000 bail appeared first on WTOP.

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A University of Central Florida police officer found a small amount of marijuana in a car last year, and he gave passenger Jared Boler the typical paperwork: a notice to appear in court that resembled a traffic ticket. It gave the 19-year-old engineering student two choices: simply pay a fine at the clerk of court’s office or contest it by appearing in court. Boler didn’t want his parents to find out, so he paid the $428 even though he refused to acknowledge that the marijuana was his, according to his attorney.

Boler thought that was the end of it. But almost a year later, his application for an apartment was rejected, and it was only then that Boler discovered he had a conviction for the case on his record.

In a typical month, the judicial circuit that covers the Orlando area has at least four dozen of these cases, in which defendants with misdemeanor charges pay fines and can end up with convictions without their realizing it. A majority of the charges are for underage drinking or possessing small amounts of marijuana. Experts say they know of no other place where such a practice occurs in criminal cases, and several defense attorneys say it’s unconstitutional because it sidesteps defendants’ rights to an attorney and to due process in open court.

Now, after three decades in place, the surprise-conviction practice is ending. On Monday, the chief judge for the court reversed course and said he would stop the procedure, one week after The Associated Press questioned him about it.

“We don’t want to trick someone into entering a plea for a crime,” said Frederick Lauten, chief judge of Florida’s Ninth Judicial Circuit Court.

Last year, he appointed a committee to look into the practice, which was established by a different chief judge. The committee determined that the procedure complied with the rules of Florida criminal procedure.

But on Monday, Lauten said he would issue an order ending the practice within six weeks. All misdemeanor defendants will then have to show up in court before a judge.

Florida criminal procedure, as well as U.S. constitutional law, guarantees a defendant’s right to an attorney, even if the defendant can’t afford one. Florida criminal procedure also says that no plea should be accepted without a hearing in open court where a judge can determine that the plea is being entered voluntarily and is in the defendant’s best interest.

None of that happens when a suspect pays a fine to the clerk of court, according to a challenge Boler filed after learning of his conviction.

“It fools him into thinking he isn’t involved in a criminal proceeding. … But you get a record with a conviction,” said his attorney, Donald Lykkebak. He said Boler didn’t want to talk about his case, preferring to put it behind him. Prosecutors dropped the charge earlier this month, after Boler had hired Lykkebak and had a chance to appear before a judge.

Had Boler gone to court in the first place, he would have learned about a pretrial diversion program that allows charges to be dismissed if successfully completed, or an attorney could have found grounds to challenge the police stop, Lykkebak said.

Criminal justice experts contacted by The AP at law schools at Yale University, University of Pennsylvania, New York University, George Washington University and Yeshiva University said they knew of no other place using this practice in criminal cases. Other jurisdictions give civil citations for possessing small amounts of marijuana but don’t leave a criminal charge on the record.

For someone who chooses to pay the fine in the Florida cases, the court record lists the charge and shows the disposition as “adjudication withheld.”

That can affect job or housing prospects for someone like Boler, or it can be considered an aggravating circumstance if the defendant faces sentencing in another case.

“The real action is around the cascading number of consequences that come out automatically … if you have a conviction. Housing, financial,” said Issa Kohler-Hausmann, an associate professor at Yale Law School. “It sounds like they’re making the process seem like what you’re getting yourself into is a traffic ticket.”

Chase Zahalka, 19, chose to pay a $328 fine instead of going to court after he was caught drinking near the UCF campus last December. When he enlisted in the Army a short time later, he told his recruiter about it pre-emptively because he was certain it would haunt him in a background check.

“I had to tell them about it, so they wouldn’t think I was lying about it,” said Zahalka, who was accepted into the Army.

Lauten, the chief judge, said he decided to change the procedure after doing research and learning that the practice made his circuit unique. He said he pondered the long-term consequences for young adults who may lose opportunities because of offenses on their records.

“We want to make sure they make fully informed, intelligent decisions,” Lauten said. “Our concern is right now they may be pleading without understanding the consequences.”

___

Follow Mike Schneider on Twitter: http://twitter.com/mikeschneiderap

The post APNewsBreak: Florida judge ends surprise-conviction practice appeared first on WTOP.

Dumbbells are the unsung workhorse of the exercise world. They’re great in a home gym , and you can always grab a few even at a busy fitness center . Even people who work out with heavy iron or with nothing but their body tend to sneak in a few dumbbell moves from time to time.

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Combine smores ingredients with waffle ingredients in your waffle maker, and you’ve got a treat for any time of the day. It’s like a waffle sandwich—A chocolate-y, marshmallow-y, graham-cracker-seasoned sandwich.

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The more you do something, the better you are at it, right? Not exactly. If you’re practicing a skill, but you’re never doing anything differently, you’re not going to get better.

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There are a number of options for making a great tasting cup of joe , but those options can differ quite a bit. This infographic runs down the basics and helps you pick the best method, depending on your preferences.

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Easter candy is the best seasonal candy, and Cadbury eggs are the ultimate in Easter candy. Eating them fresh from the foil is delightful, but wrapping and baking them in crescent roll dough takes them to a warm, gooey, ridiculous place.

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WASHINGTON — Some area kids who came up with an award-winning idea for a mobile app are now getting expert help building it.

Last month, a team of six students from three Montgomery County middle schools was named one of the national winners of the Verizon Innovative App Challenge.

The goal of their mobile app concept, AutBuddy, is to help kids with autism.

Now, Kristin Violette, a member of the MIT App Inventor Master Trainers, is helping the students turn their idea into a real, working app.

Violette had been meeting with the team through almost weekly Google Hangouts, but last week she visited in person. And she was very impressed.

“So far the process is moving a lot quicker than expected. These kids are simply amazing,” she told WTOP.

“The students are using App Inventor, which is a very user-friendly, block-style programming software.  It’s located online.  It’s free.  It’s created by MIT.  So the students don’t have to have any programming knowledge, but by using this app they get to learn programming concepts and a lot of important skills that they’ll need in the future.”

Eleven-year-old Ojas Jagtap already has programming experience.

“I have used Scratch …(and) my dad has taught me JavaScript a little bit.”

He’s really happy to be part of the AutBuddy team.

“It’s really amazing, because we’re learning so many things about user interface.  How a child really connects with a device.”

“Before I used to be like, coding is so hard, and it looked really complicated,” says 11-year-old team member Madhuri Kola. “Now I feel like it’s not as hard.  You just have to think through it and make sure it makes sense first.”

Kola says mobile apps aimed at helping children on the autism spectrum already exist, but her team’s is different.

“There’s an app for timer, an app for reward systems.  But our app combines all of them instead of the parent having to download multiple apps, and then the child getting confused between them.”

Both Jagtap and Kola are 6th graders at Rocky Hill Middle School in Clarksburg.

Violette says the original idea the kids proposed was extensive, and because they have limited time to build it, she asked the team to scale the idea back.

“I encouraged them to develop what version 1.0 would look like.  And then as soon as we get that working, we’ll layer on more features that will ultimately become version 2.0 and get them to their end game.”

The app must be finished by June 1, when it’s scheduled to be made available for download from Google Play.

“We’re hoping to have a beta version several weeks before that, because there’s a lot of troubleshooting that needs to happen,” says Violette.

The post Local students take on task of building app for autistic kids appeared first on WTOP.

CHARLOTTE HALL, Md. (AP) — Authorities have rescued a bald eagle after it was found entangled in a cord in the woods in Charles County.

The Charles County Sheriff’s Office’s announced that Department of Natural Resource officers and private wildlife rescue personnel worked with the sheriff’s office to free the bird on Friday near Charlotte Hall.

Authorities say the bird was being choked by the cord and couldn’t free its talons. After saving the bird, rescuers checked it for injuries and then released it safely into the wild.

The post Bald eagle rescued from cord, freed appeared first on WTOP.

Prince William County community calendar Washington Post Boy Scout Troop 964 Model Train Show Several local model train clubs participate in this show, which features HO, N-, G-, O-, S- and Z-gauge model trains, Lionel, Lego and steam-powered model trains., 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Saunders Middle School, 13557 ... and more »

On Sunday’s Last Week Tonight, host John Oliver looked at length at the ongoing, complicated legal battle between Apple and the FBI, which has asked a court to compel the tech company to rewrite its software to allow authorities to search crime suspects’ locked iPhones. And while Oliver ultimately came down in defense of Apple’s position in the matter, he also believes the company could be more direct about presenting the reality of the situation.

In the 18-minute report, Oliver made the case that Apple and other tech companies shouldn’t have to weaken their encryption as it’s the only thing preventing our data from being stolen and hackers have proven time and again that they will find ways around security devices.

That said, the host notes that Apple “could help both their customers and the government understand this a lot better if they were a little more honest regarding security in their ads.”

And so, with the help of Mad Men‘s Rich Sommer and comedian Eugene Mirman in the memorable role of “Gary” the self-pleasuring hacker, Oliver created a new ad for Apple:

“Here’s something you should know,” clarifies the ad. “We’re barely one step ahead of hackers at all times, so that when you idiots lose your phone your information doesn’t wind up in the hands of guys like Gary.”

It continues: “So when the FBI comes to us as asks us if we can undermine our encryption without compromising everyone else’s emails, texts, and skateboarding videos, this is our response: ‘Are you f*cking kidding me? We’re engineers, not wizards.”

In the fake Apple ad, the company acknowledges some past failures: “We made the Newton; we made that one Mac that looked like a toaster; we actually thought the Apple Watch was cool…. We put a U2 album on your phone — you know, the one you’ve been struggling to delete but that thing keeps coming back.”

It concludes: “Best case scenario, we can keep hackers out of your stuff for about six months… so please, keep enjoying our products. Just know this shaky edifice could crumble at any moment.”

The company’s new, more honest slogan: “Apple. Join us as we dance madly on the lip of the volcano.”

Don’t like your cereal excessively soggy? Kellogg doesn’t either: the company says there’s a criminal investigation underway after a video surfaced that appears to show a factory worker urinating on a Rice Krispies assembly line.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Office of Criminal Investigation is on the case, the company said in a statement (via the Associated Press), after Kellogg learned of the video Friday. The company says it immediately alerted law enforcement and regulators.

The video can be found online in full, but it is pretty disturbing, so approach with caution. It shows a man emptying his bladder on an assembly line, with the camera then moving over to show a sign with the Kellogg logo. The company says the video was recorded at a Memphis, TN factory in 2014.

Here’s the good news, first: any products that might have been affected would be “very limited,” Kellogg says, and past their expiration dates. Those products could include Rice Krispies treats, granola clusters used in some items, and puffed rice treats that the company doesn’t make any more.

The bad news is, of course, that if you ate one of those products two years ago, you might not have known it.

“We are outraged by this completely unacceptable situation, and we will work closely with authorities to prosecute to the full extent of the law,” the company said.

As for who the mystery micturator is, that is still unclear, Kellogg says.

Kellogg: Investigation under way after graphic video [Associated Press]

The federal government’s courtroom war with Apple over iPhone encryption may be grabbing all the headlines, but a number of tech companies offer devices, apps, and messaging services with privacy settings that frustrate police investigations. And according to a new report, the Facebook-owned WhatsApp instant messaging app could be the next to face a legal challenge from the feds.

This is according to a NY Times story, which claims that WhatsApp — the world’s most popular instant messaging service — has been fighting law enforcement efforts to access users’ conversations.

Not that long ago, WhatsApp was one of many messaging apps that was light on encryption, meaning that even though messages were encrypted in transit, the folks at WhatsApp could still access that content if it chose to.

But the company has since added encryption that effectively locks out eavesdropping at any point in the transmission. Even if a court grants police wiretap order, this end-to-end encryption bars them from accessing users’ conversations.

And in fact, reports the Times, courts have been issuing these wiretap orders only to find out that the sought-after transmissions can not be decrypted.

This dispute is slightly different from Apple’s battle with the FBI. In that case, the court has ordered Apple to aid law enforcement in unlocking a terrorist’s iPhone; it’s not a matter of monitoring a text or voice conversation.

With WhatsApp, the issue issue is the government’s current inability to listen in on these transmissions or access any old conversations.

The question is: Should law enforcement officials be able to get a court to compel WhatsApp and other companies into weakening their encryption to comply with wiretap orders?

Yes, it would allow police to monitor conversations between suspects in a criminal investigation. But it would also leave open a door for hackers to listen in on any user’s WhatsApp chat.

The issue of app and messaging security may be a more controversial privacy question than the ongoing iPhone debate. After all, even if police are able to unlock a secure phone, the messages and other content on that device may still be locked down through means that have nothing to do with the phone’s operating system.

So why hasn’t the Justice Department made a huge legal stink about the WhatsApp encryption? Possibly because the government is waiting for a case like the Apple dispute, where a company’s failure to comply with a court order could be used against them in the public sphere.

Peter Eckersley from the Electronic Frontier Foundation tells the Times that the FBI and DOJ are “waiting for the case that makes the demand look reasonable.”

Even though Facebook and WhatsApp have yet to face serious legal consequences in the U.S., end-to-end encryption has landed the company in hot water elsewhere in the world.

Earlier this month, Brazilian authorities arrested Facebook exec Diego Dzodan after the company balked on complying with a court order to turn over WhatsApp-related information to police in a drug trafficking case. Dzodan has since been released.

SanDisk flash storage, a cheap Chromebook, and a $15 french press kick off Monday’s best deals. Bookmark Kinja Deals and follow us on Twitter to never miss a deal. Commerce Content is independent of Editorial and Advertising, and if you buy something through our posts, we may get a small share of the sale. Click here to learn more, and don’t forget to sign up for our email newsletter.

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Kindle memoirs, swimwear, and an OXO mandoline slicer lead off Sunday’s best deals. Bookmark Kinja Deals and follow us on Twitter to never miss a deal. Commerce Content is independent of Editorial and Advertising, and if you buy something through our posts, we may get a small share of the sale. Click here to learn more.

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OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Despite Oklahoma’s bungling of its last three scheduled executions, the state’s top law enforcement officer said justice demands that lethal injections resume once his office’s probe into the last two drug mix-ups are complete.

Republican Attorney General Scott Pruitt said a grand jury directed by his office is nearing completion of a months-long, closed-door investigation into how the wrong drug was used to execute an inmate in January 2015 and then delivered again to death row for a scheduled lethal injection in September that was halted just before the inmate was to die.

Pruitt declined to discuss details while the probe was ongoing, but said state officials have a duty to Oklahoma citizens, who overwhelmingly support the death penalty, that it is carried out properly.

“It’s important that as state officials, when the people of Oklahoma have said unequivocally that the death penalty is the right form of punishment in certain instances … that we carry that out in a very sober and thoughtful way,” Pruitt told The Associated Press.

Since Pruitt launched the investigation in October, three key players connected to Oklahoma’s last several executions have resigned after showing up to testify — Oklahoma State Penitentiary Warden Anita Trammell, former Department of Corrections Director Robert Patton, and Gov. Mary Fallin’s general counsel, Steve Mullins.

Pruitt declined to say whether the resignations were connected to his probe, and all three have been asked not to publicly discuss their grand jury testimony.

Oklahoma ranks second only to Texas in the number of executions carried out since the death penalty was reinstated in the United States in 1976, and has the busiest death chamber in the nation based on its population, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes capital punishment.

The drug mix-ups in Oklahoma followed a botched lethal injection in 2014 that left inmate Clayton Lockett writhing on the gurney and mumbling in an execution that Patton tried unsuccessfully to halt before the inmate died 43 minutes after the procedure began.

An investigation later revealed that a faulty insertion of the intravenous line and lack of training of the execution team contributed to the problems.

Pruitt acknowledged Oklahoma has struggled to obtain the necessary drugs needed to carry out executions because manufacturers of the most effective execution drugs have prohibited states from purchasing them for lethal injection. Pruitt has even suggested the state set up its own compounding laboratory as a potential solution to that problem.

“It’s just something policymakers need to wrestle with — the securing and sourcing of these drugs for the long term,” Pruitt said.

Since executions have been on hold in Oklahoma for most of the last two years amid two separate investigations, five death row inmates have exhausted their appeals and are awaiting execution dates. There are 49 inmates on death row in the state, including one woman.

Pruitt has said he won’t request any execution dates until at least 150 days after his investigation is complete and the results are made public.

The state’s interim prisons director said the execution team at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester is continuing to prepare and practice for when lethal injections resume.

“I can guarantee the people of Oklahoma that when the time comes to carry out this duty, it will be performed humanely and properly,” said interim Department of Corrections Director Joe Allbaugh.

But amid a budget crisis that has prompted deep cuts to state agencies across the state, death penalty opponents question the wisdom of Oklahoma leaders continuing to defend an increasingly expensive and problem-plagued policy of putting people to death.

“It’s painful to know how much money we’re spending to kill people,” said Adam Leathers, a spokesman for the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty. “It may or may not bring some people a degree of catharsis, we don’t know, but it sure seems to be costing the taxpayers a lot of money.”

___

Follow Sean Murphy at www.twitter.com/apseanmurphy

The post Despite botched executions, Oklahoma to resume death penalty appeared first on WTOP.

SAN ANTONIO (AP) — A third former operator of a San Antonio day care center was sentenced Friday to 20 years in prison for forcing his three adopted children to sleep in a shower, bite each other and pour bleach on wounds.

Tim Archuleta agreed to the 20-year sentence in a deal with prosecutors in which he pleaded guilty to injury to a child with serious bodily injury by omission. His sentencing comes a week after his wife, Iliana Archuleta, was sentenced to 30 years in prison and his brother, Rogelio Archuleta, received a 35-year sentence. Both pleaded no contest to injury to a child and other charges.

Prosecutor Stephanie Boyd told state District Judge Ron Rangel that the three adopted the children, who had been born drug-addicted, to collect the state support of more than $90,000. “They got $90,000 tax-free and blew it all on themselves,” Boyd said.

Nevertheless, defense attorney James Tocci appealed for probation for his client.

“Should he have done more? Yeah, OK, I’ll give you that. But did he intend to starve those kids out? No,” Tocci said.

Rangel told Archuleta that he “buried his head in the sand” while the children were abused and starved.

The children, 8 to 10 years old at the time, had been taken from an abusive home before being placed with the couple, who operated a day care. They slept in a shower, forced to sit with their knees pulled tight against their chests, Bexar County sheriff’s investigator Tony Kobryn said. The shower drain and a bucket served as toilets, and boxes were stacked against the glass door to prevent the children from opening it.

They ate mostly bread and butter, with some broth and the occasional half sandwich, he said, and weren’t allowed to eat with the Archuletas or their two biological children.

The mistreatment was discovered when one child was taken to a hospital for seizures and staff found him malnourished and bruised.

The case had highlighted long-standing questions about the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, which a federal judge last year ruled was unconstitutionally broken. The judge said many kids often leave state custody in worse shape than before.

The system has nearly 30,000 children and is one of the largest child protection agencies in the U.S. Caseworkers face massive workloads and struggle to provide necessary oversight, with only about 100 residential Child Care Licensing investigators to ensure that the state’s roughly 10,000 foster homes are providing adequate care, according to Dimple Patel, senior policy analyst with The Texas Association for the Protection of Children.

The post Man gets 20-year term for starving, beating foster children appeared first on WTOP.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling and his wife, Shelly Sterling, have decided to remain in their six-decade marriage.

The Sterlings are opting out of the divorce that Donald Sterling filed for in August just two weeks before their 60th anniversary, according to a filing this week in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

The move is the latest twist in the long, strange saga of the Sterlings, who ended up selling the Clippers for $2 billion to ex-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer in the aftermath of racist comments Donald Sterling made on a recording to a friend that saw him banned from the NBA.

Donald Sterling, 81, cited irreconcilable differences in his divorce filings last year and said the couple had been separated since 2012.

“Notwithstanding all the difficult events of the last two years, the Sterlings have resolved their differences,” Donald Sterling’s attorney, Bobby Samini, wrote in an email Friday to the Los Angeles Times, which first reported on the couple’s reconciliation.

Pierce O’Donnell, Shelly Sterling’s attorney, did not immediately reply to a request for comment from The Associated Press.

In 2014, a recording of Donald Sterling telling friend V. Stiviano not to associate with black people led the NBA to ban him for life and fine him $2.5 million. The recording was leaked weeks after Shelly Sterling sued Stiviano, alleging she was her husband’s mistress.

Donald Sterling gave caustic, combative testimony during a 2014 trial over the team’s sale, saying Shelly Sterling duped him. He called her a “pig” when she tried to approach him after her testimony.

Yet the couple testified at trial last year about their enduring love for each other, displaying cards they gave each other for anniversaries and birthdays.

The post Ex-Clippers owners Sterlings decide to call off divorce appeared first on WTOP.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A woman who said she was raped several times by an assistant marching band director at her New Jersey high school can’t sue the school, according to an appellate court ruling that found public schools weren’t meant to be held liable through the state’s child sex abuse law.

The woman was a junior at Southern Regional High School in Manahawkin and the daughter of its band director when she said Gregory Smith first assaulted her in 2000, according to court documents. She said Smith continued to assault her over the next several months, including at her home and when the band traveled out of state for competition.

It wasn’t until 2014 that she filed a lawsuit, citing the state’s child sex abuse law and a state Supreme Court ruling that private boarding schools can be held liable if such acts occur “within the household” while a teacher or other adult was responsible for the child’s welfare.

But the appellate court ruling issued this week said there’s no indication the Legislature intended for that provision to apply to public schools. The panel also found the woman missed deadlines to file a notice of her intent to sue. Her suit sought unspecified compensation for physical and psychological damages.

The woman is identified by only her initials in the suit, and The Associated Press generally does not name people alleging sexual assault unless they give their consent.

The woman told her parents about the assaults after she became pregnant, which caused her to faint during a performance. She eventually had an abortion.

The woman said she was locked out of her family home when she turned 18, forcing her to live in her car. She also developed an addiction to opioids and started seeing a psychologist who diagnosed her in July 2013 with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.

Smith was charged in 2014 and pleaded guilty later that year to criminal sexual contact with a 16- or 17-year-old, according to court records. He was sentenced to 157 days in jail and two years of probation. An attorney who represented him in the case didn’t return a phone call seeking comment and a number for Smith couldn’t be located.

After the woman sued Smith, the school and other defendants in 2014, the school argued it wasn’t liable because it wasn’t considered the plaintiff’s “household.” In New Jersey, boarding schools are considered households because they have the responsibility of ensuring students living there are safe.

She contended that the “household” rule should have applied to the school because her father held marching band meetings at the family’s home, where Smith sometimes stayed as a guest of the family.

Robert Fuggi, a Toms River lawyer who represents the woman, said he believes that all of the elements that the state Supreme Court cited in the earlier decision were present in this matter. Fuggi said that he is encouraging his client to take her case to the state Supreme Court, but that the decision is up to her.

Fuggi said he thinks the case is a good reason for the Supreme Court to look back at the sex abuse law to “see if they want to expand it or include public schools.”

“We think public students are now at disadvantage, because equal protection under the law means they deserve that protection,” Fuggi said.

Jerald Howarth, the high school’s lawyer, did not respond to a message left with his office.

The sex abuse law stems from the state Supreme Court’s 2006 ruling in Hardwicke v. American Boychoir School, in which the court ruled that churches, schools and other charitable organizations can be held responsible for the intentional acts of their employees.

Frank Belluscio, spokesman for the New Jersey School Boards Association, whose group did not participate in the case that resulted in this week’s ruling, said it was still reviewing the case. It plans to make a report to its members.

The post Court: Woman can’t sue high school over abuse by employee appeared first on WTOP.

NEW YORK (AP) — Police divers late Sunday stopped searching inside a sunken tugboat for the body of a third crew member who went missing after the boat crashed into a barge on the Hudson River north of New York City.

“It has moved from a rescue and recovery operation to a salvage operation,” said Westchester County Police spokesman Kieran O’Leary, who added that county police helicopter and marine unit boats will resume searching the river surface Monday on the remote chance the body of Harry Hernandez, 56, of Staten Island, New York, was ejected from the boat.

O’Leary said police dive operations ceased permanently because divers were not able to access a section of the tugboat where they believe his body is located due to severe damage.

The 90-foot tugboat named Specialist hit a barge early Saturday morning near where the new Tappan Zee Bridge, which connects two counties north of New York City, is being built. The tugboat sank, spilling about 5,000 gallons of fuel into the water.

Earlier, divers recovered the body of Timothy Conklin, 29, of Westbury, Long Island, New York. His body was brought back to shore after divers found him inside the tugboat around 11 a.m. Sunday.

The body of Paul Amon, 62, of Bayville, New Jersey, was pulled from the water Saturday.

Authorities said three tugboats were pushing a barge from Albany to Jersey City, New Jersey, when one of the three — situated on the right side as it headed south — hit a stationary barge that was part of the Tappan Zee Bridge construction project. A tugboat on the left side of the barge that was being pushed, as well as one that was pushing the barge from the rear, were not involved in the accident.

But there were reports of radio transmissions from the tug that crashed saying, according to Cuomo, “We are too close. We have to move left.” But it apparently was too late, the governor said.

Authorities believed the sunken tug is wedged directly underneath the barge it struck at the mid-span of the bridge.

Cuomo said he had been “hoping for a miracle” that the men would be found alive.

Instead, the governor said Sunday that he spent some time with the Conklin family, “which is obviously still in shock.”

Cuomo said in a statement that 21 workers were on the bridge construction barge that was hit, but none was injured. He added the construction barge was illuminated at the time of the pre-dawn collision.

Commercial divers from a salvage company retained by the tugboat owner are expected to arrive on the scene Monday to assess the damage and figure out how to remove the wreckage from the river, O’Leary said. The company will then submit a salvage plan to the Coast Guard for approval, he said.

“When that’s under way, police will be present if they find a body,” O’Leary added.

The accident occurred near the center of the existing Tappan Zee Bridge, and the Specialist sank in about 40 feet of water within minutes, authorities said. The water temperature in the area was about 40 degrees, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Cuomo said a team was on site to contain the leaking diesel fuel and he did not expect any long-term damage as a result of the spill.

James Mercante, an attorney for the owner of Specialist, said the crew was licensed, competent and experienced personnel. He called the crash “a shocking, horrific marine tragedy.”

A spokeswoman for Tappan Zee Constructors, a consortium of companies building the new bridge, said the company is cooperating in the investigation.

The crash occurred near the scene of a 2013 boat crash that killed a bride-to-be and her fiancé’s best man.

The new bridge is to replace an adjacent aging span that now connects Westchester and Rockland counties. Construction on the $3.9 billion project began in October 2013 and is expected to be completed by 2018.

The post Divers stop search for 3rd Hudson River tugboat crash victim appeared first on WTOP.

All bulldogs are Irish bulldogs at Lake Anne Plaza Saturday.

PetMAC at Lake Anne Plaza is holding a fundraiser from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Stop by the bulldog kissing booth, where the Rebound Bulldog Rescue Foundation will be bringing an assortment of pooches decked out in their St. Paddy’s Day best.

Kiss a dog for dollars and help support the rescue group.

PetMAC is located at 11412 Washington Plaza West.

The post Saturday: Kiss a Bulldog for a Good Cause appeared first on WTOP.

WASHINGTON — A D.C. firefighter hailed as a hero for sharing his breathing mask with a woman in a burning building is heading home after his release from the hospital Friday.

On Wednesday afternoon, 65-year-old Phyllis Terrell says she was preparing to jump from her third-floor apartment in the 1700 block of Minnesota Avenue in Southeast when firefighter Danny Lovato climbed a ladder to reach her. Lovato removed his mask and shared air from his tank with Terrell until other firefighters could reach her from the inside.

Both were treated for smoke inhalation. Lovato, 39, was released from Medstar Washington Hospital Center Friday. Terrell has been upgraded to “fair” condition.

Lovato, an 11-year veteran, said Friday he was surprised by the impact of the smoke.

“It’s pretty amazing how fast that smoke takes your breath away. I thought being outside that I would be OK by giving her the mask, but I wasn’t,” he said. “We had to share it. So in just that little time, it affects you greatly.”

After his release from the hospital Friday, the humble firefighter says he was acting on instinct during the rescue.

“This is what we’ve been trained to do. You may hear that it was extraordinary, but it’s not,” Lovato said at a news conference Friday. “My instinct was to help Phyllis. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to pull her over the railing because we were so high. I knew it would risk both of our lives. So I just gave her my air.”

Lovato’s wife, Adrienne says his actions are indicative of the kind of man and firefighter he is.

“I’m not surprised that he did it because it’s not something that they have to think about, it’s just what they do,” she said.

“I know that he, thinking back on it, wouldn’t have done anything different. He would have just done it again. And he may do it again.”

WTOP’s Jamie Forzato and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The post D.C. firefighter: Instinct told him to share breathing mask, save woman appeared first on WTOP.

GLENARDEN, Md. (AP) — Prince George’s County authorities say they have arrested a robber who used hashtags in his notes to bank tellers, linking him to at least nine bank robberies in the Maryland.

County police spokeswoman Julie Parker announced Friday that 45-year-old Leroy Earl Daley, of Landover, likely will be charged with five bank robberies in the county that occurred between September 2015 and March 2016.

Parker says Daley passed notes to the tellers demanding money and using hashtags such as “#nopolice” and “#becarefull” (sic).

Police believe Daley also robbed three Montgomery County banks in a 15-minute span Thursday.

Prince George’s County Police Sgt. Craig Winegardner says he spotted the suspect’s vehicle parked next to his cruiser in Glenarden on Thursday and arrested Daley when he returned. It is unclear whether Daley has an attorney.

The post #Caught: Man accused of using hashtags to demand bank money appeared first on WTOP.

PotomacLocal.com

Police search for gunman who killed dog PotomacLocal.com On March 8, 2016, at approximately 9:45 p.m., Manassas Park Emergency Communications Center received calls of gunshots in the area of 111 Runyon Court. Officers responded and found a tan colored, Pitbull suffering from a single gunshot wound. Manassas Park police searching for two men who killed dogInside NoVA all 2 news articles »

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While it’s not uncommon to hear about chicken products that end up containing wayward bits of plastic (like this nugget issue, this sausage situation, and yet another nugget problem), federal officials are on the case of an incident at a poultry processing line in Missouri that might be a case of deliberate sabotage, instead of a run-of-the-mill accident.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Inspector General has been called in to lead an investigation into an incident on March 3 at a Wayne Farms plant in Laurel, MS, to see if foreign material — plastic — was deliberately planted.

“It was the beginning of second shift, all product was put on hold for further investigation,” the company said in a statement. “Wayne Farms is working in collaboration with the USDA, and can make no further comment until the investigation is complete.”

The company owns and operates 11 fresh and further-processed facilities in the Southeast. The plant in question has gone back into production, and company officials say there’s no food safety concern for consumers.

We’ve talked about privacy policies a lot before. While they exist to give consumers information about what data is being collected and how it’s being used, they tend to share one big problem in common: aside from a few exceptions, most privacy policies are utterly impenetrable for the average reader.

They’re long. They’re dry. They’re in a particularly tortuous form of legalese, designed to maximize corporate butt-covering and not consumer understanding. They’re hard to find. And they’re so ubiquitous and dull that we ignore them.

So this week, a team of researchers from two universities are trying to make those policies a little more accessible, with a tool they call Usable Privacy.

Usable Privacy is a website launched jointly by Carnegie Mellon University and Fordham Law School to share some of their findings on privacy policy research. Right now, at launch, it has annotated privacy policies available for 193 websites; the researchers plan for that number to go up.

In a press statement, the researchers pointed out that studies show it would take an average user 600 hours to read all the privacy policies for their regularly-viewed sites. That’s 25 24-hour days — a month of your life, or 37.5 days of your life if you took sleeping breaks and nothing else — devoted entirely to learning where you stand… and that’s ridiculous.

“Our objective is to produce succinct yet informative summaries that can be included in browser plug-ins or interactively conveyed to users by privacy assistants that inform users about salient privacy practices,” said Norman Sadeh, the lead principal investigator of the study.

“While navigating our site, people will notice how complex and fragmented many privacy policies are,” Sadeh said. “The vast majority of statements are about first-party collection and third-party sharing and contain significant levels of ambiguity when it comes to determining exactly what is being collected and with whom it is shared.”

The tool is designed to let “lay users” — folks who don’t sit around reading privacy policies for fun, profit, and/or education all day long, so basically everyone — get a quick sense for what types of statements are being made in a privacy policy, without having to read the entire thing from start to finish with a notebook and a magnifying glass. It uses color coding to show how policies are organized and what types of collection, sharing, or retention practices they address.

With the color coding, visual bookmarking, highlighting and annotation all put together, Usable Privacy aims to reach two goals. The first is to demonstrate research and show off trends in the policies they’ve analyzed. For example, the visual bookmark sidebar shows how related concepts are not necessarily grouped together at all, but instead spread out into several different paragraphs or sections.

The other, though, is for the end users to be able to figure out more quickly just what’s going on. For example, NBC.com:

Usable Privacy finds that NBCU’s privacy policy is written at a college-or-higher reading level and that it contains 256 total statements about data collection, use, sharing, and retention.

Those statements are grouped together into nine discrete buckets, with “First Party Collection/Use” being the biggest. (That pattern holds for the vast majority of sites that Usable Privacy annotates, although to different degrees.) 132 statements in NBCU’s privacy policy are identified as relating to how they, specifically, collect and use data and what data they collect.

Falling under that umbrella are familiar statements like, “When you use our online services we collect information through the user of Cookies and Other technologies” and “we use information to provide the services you have requested,” which are basically how the internet works. However, it also warns of data bleed-through: “If you visit our online services on a device through which you also interact with social networks or if you interact with us through a social media function such as a plug-in (for example, a Facebook “like” button) then you may be permitting us to have on-going access to some information from your social network profile.”

The nest most common statements (57, total) concern third-party sharing and collection, like “we may disclose your personal information to … protect our legal rights,” or their right to sell your data as an asset belonging to a business unit if they sell that business unit.

About Do Not Track, they only say, “NBCUniversal does not currently take actions to respond to Do Not Track signals because a uniform technological standard has not yet been developed. We continue to review new technologies and may adopt a standard once one is created.”

The analysis goes on from there, and readers can navigate using either side panel to go directly to certain kinds of content, as well as just scrolling through the core policy text itself.