Making a good beef stew takes some time, but a longer cook time doesn’t necessarily translate to better flavor and texture for your beef. In fact, shortening the recommended cook time of most recipes will make for juicier, less-pulpy beef stew.
The first stage of dating someone can be exciting, invigorating, and intoxicating—but it can also be perilous if you’re not careful. If you see too many of these red flags flying instead of fireworks, you might want to look for love elsewhere.
by Stephanie Lee on Vitals, shared by Andy Orin to Lifehacker
The microwave is everyone’s go-to when it comes to reheating the previous night’s meatloaf, but you should take extra care to make sure those leftovers are safe enough to be today’s lunch. Here’s how.
by Claire Lower on Skillet, shared by Andy Orin to Lifehacker
We’ve all heard that some tastes have to be “acquired” but sometimes it can be hard to know how to acquire them. Luckily, Andrew Zimmern (a man who knows a thing or two about expanding your palate) has a tip: a little flavor dash of the familiar.
If you live with roommates, being on the same page as them when it comes to security is key to a safe home. Here are some questions to ask before moving in to make sure you have the same priorities on home security.
by Beth Skwarecki on Vitals, shared by Andy Orin to Lifehacker
Pharma companies are obviously rolling in it: Ads with heroic toenails don’t come cheap when they’re sandwiched between Super Bowl plays, and neither does a certain Wu-Tang album. But many of the priciest medications are available for free if you have a coupon. Something’s wrong here.
COLONIE, N.Y. (AP) — A police officer with no prior history of domestic violence fatally shot his wife and one of their sons, and then set the family’s suburban Albany house on fire before killing himself, according to authorities who said Thursday they’re baffled by the veteran cop’s actions.
Surveillance video from a neighbor’s home shows that before the shootings on Tuesday, Israel Roman, 44, placed items for the couple’s 15-year-old son inside a car parked outside the house in Colonie, police said. The teen was at a high school basketball game when his family was killed.
Roman, who served the past 12 years on the town police force, used his service handgun to kill his wife, Deborah, 44, and their 10-year-old son, Nathan, said state police Capt. Robert Patnaude. Police believe Roman placed their bodies on the bed in the master bedroom, started a fire and shot himself.
Firefighters responding to the home discovered the bodies. Dispatchers had alerted them that it was the home of a police officer, and officials said the sound of what appeared to be exploding ammunition was heard at the scene.
Israel Roman was a hunter and had sold three of his guns at a local firearms dealer earlier Tuesday, police said.
Deborah Roman had a doctor’s appointment that morning and took the day off from her job as an English teacher in a nearby school district, authorities said.
The couple’s 15-year-old was being cared for by family members, officials said.
Colonie police officials described Israel Roman as a hardworking, decorated officer who had no history of behavioral problems prior to Tuesday.
“We had absolutely no indicators of any kind of misbehavior,” said Colonie Police Chief Jonathan Teale. “This was completely out of character for him.”
Roman served in the U.S. Army Reserve in the 1990s and previously worked as a corrections officer and sheriff’s deputy in neighboring Rensselaer County, Teale said.
BROWNSVILLE, Pa. (AP) — Police say a Pennsylvania man kept a 15-year-old girl in shackles as collateral for a loan to her father.
Thirty-year-old Christopher Wiley Brown, of Brownsville, was jailed Thursday on kidnapping, indecent assault and other charges.
The (Uniontown) Herald-Standard (http://bit.ly/20XY1uI ) reports that the girl agreed to care for Brown’s disabled fiancee as part of the loan agreement, which also required her father to repair Brown’s home.
But the girl tells police Brown restrained her Tuesday with leg shackles, handcuffs and a ball gag. She says Brown made her touch his genitals, then sleep in the leg shackles.
Police say the girl freed herself and texted her father, who called 911.
The girl’s father isn’t facing charges.
Brown’s preliminary hearing is Feb. 17. He doesn’t have an attorney listed in court records.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) — The owners of a private northeast Iowa zoo must remove their tigers and lemurs after a federal judge ruled Thursday that they failed to provide appropriate living conditions for the animals.
The ruling gives the owners of the roadside Cricket Hollow Zoo, near Manchester, 90 days to transfer any tigers and lemurs to a facility licensed with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Both animals are endangered species. The zoo can still display its other animals, including birds, a camel, sheep and a bear.
The decision followed a lawsuit filed by the Animal Legal Defense Fund in June 2014. The suit was filed on behalf of five Iowa residents who alleged the zoo was mistreating animals and maintaining deplorable living conditions that violated the Endangered Species Act.
In the ruling, Chief Magistrate Judge Jon Stuart referred to statements from plaintiffs who said they’d seen animals at the zoo kept in tight spaces, many of which were filled with feces. The lawsuit also said some animals had minimal access to water, and the water that was available appeared to be dirty.
A telephone message seeking comment from the zoo’s owners, Tom and Pamela Sellner, wasn’t immediately returned Thursday. They previously denied mistreating the animals.
The judge wrote that the zoo’s violations were “pervasive, long-standing, and ongoing,” and ruled that social isolation, improper sanitation and lack of veterinary care or environmental enrichment for the animals violated the Endangered Species Act.
“If the endangered species are not removed from the defendants’ care, then the violations are likely to continue,” Stuart wrote.
The zoo owners are also barred from acquiring any new endangered animals until they can demonstrate an ability to care for them properly, according the ruling.
Jessica Blome, a senior attorney with the Animal Legal Defense Fund, applauded the decision but said she wished the judge would have given her organization a role in finding new homes for the tigers and lemurs. Members of the nonprofit have reached out to defense attorneys, she said, hoping the zoo owners will transfer the animals to sanctuaries capable of meeting the animals’ needs instead of another roadside zoo.
POINT PLEASANT BEACH, N.J. (AP) — A proposed dune project at the New Jersey shore could cut off access to the beach for 22 property owners, including the brother of Gov. Chris Christie, a lawyer for homeowners fighting the project said.
Todd Christie is among the Point Pleasant Beach homeowners whose oceanfront property is being targeted by his brother’s administration for the shore protection project. The governor’s brother, who lives in Morris County but owns a summer home at the shore, says he supports the plan, but is only one member of a larger homeowner’s association that has thus far refused to grant permission for the work to begin.
The beach behind the oceanfront homes of Todd Christie and others is owned by the homeowner’s association for the use of its 22 members.
Attorney Anthony DellaPelle said Thursday that the dunes could cut off access to the beach for oceanfront homeowners, forcing them to walk or even drive down the street and around the corner to access the shoreline instead of simply walking out the back door onto the beach, as they do now.
“You pay millions for a beach house with a private beach, and what you now get is a public beach that you may have to ride a bike to or drive to,” he told The Associated Press. “Do you think that this makes the house less valuable? Why not just buy one a few blocks inland to begin with? It probably sells for 40 to 50 percent less than the one on the beach.”
He also noted that most of the homes on the beach already have dunes that they paid for themselves.
In a court filing Thursday, DellaPelle wrote that the dunes would “destroy and eliminate the owners’ access to and from” the beach by eliminating four walkways from the homes to the sand, and change the nature of the beach from privately owned to public.
But in its lawsuit seeking to seize the beach, the state Department of Environmental Protection said the homeowner’s association will still have the right to build walkways over the top of the dunes, so long as the structures don’t affect the integrity of the dunes.
DellaPelle said homeowners can take little comfort from that.
“The state has not offered to rebuild what it removes or to pay to rebuild it,” he said. “While the state has indicated that the owners may apply for a permit to build a new walkover at the owners’ expense, the state has control over whether that permit will be approved or denied, and there is no way of knowing what will happen in the future.”
A spokesman for the state Attorney General’s office declined comment Thursday.
Since shortly after Superstorm Sandy devastated the coast in October 2012 — including destroying some homes on Todd Christie’s street — Chris Christie has been pushing to build dunes along the state’s entire coast. But he has gotten unexpectedly strong pushback from oceanfront homeowners in several spots. They have fought to a draw in court.
DellaPelle’s court filing also asserted the DEP does not have the legal authority to take the land by using several laws, including eminent domain. That law enables governments to seize private property for a public purpose after paying compensation. The filing also says the state exceeded the limits of an executive order Christie issued in 2013 to advance the dune project.
___
Follow Wayne Parry at http://twitter.com/WayneParryAC
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A judge ruled Thursday that a former Cub Scout leader in the San Diego area is the former child television show host “Mr. Wonder,” who fled Louisiana in 1979 amid allegations that he sexually abused children on a camping trip.
The decision sets the stage for Frank John Selas III, 76, to be extradited to Louisiana, where he is wanted on two counts of obscene behavior with a juvenile. Authorities say he settled in the San Diego area by 1985 and legally changed his name to Frank Szeles.
William Hilton, a detective assigned to the case in 1979 who is now sheriff of Rapides Parish, argued in an affidavit that matching physical appearance, Social Security numbers and dates of birth helped prove the man arrested at his home last month in the San Diego suburb of Bonita was the fugitive.
Prosecutors also cited statements that the defendant allegedly made on his arrest, which were not detailed in court. Steve Jurman, supervisory deputy U.S. marshal in San Diego, has said Selas acknowledged changing his name.
Marc Carlos, an attorney for Selas, noted there were no matching fingerprints but Superior Court Judge Jay Bloom ruled swiftly, offering no explanation.
Selas, who stood slightly hunched with his hair disheveled and glasses resting below his eyes, said nothing during a hearing that lasted about five minutes. He is being held without bail.
“He’s traumatized,” Carlos told reporters. “He’s not in good shape.”
In the late 1970s, Selas hosted the “Mr. Wonder” show on KNOE-TV in north Louisiana. Authorities say he fled to Brazil in 1979 after parents complained to Rapides Parish authorities that he abused their children on a camping trip.
The man known as Frank Szeles advertised swim lessons and other activities for young children from his home in a well-to-do neighborhood about 10 miles southeast of downtown San Diego. A husband and father, he once served as a Cub Scouts pack leader in Bonita and was active in the Mormon church.
The Boy Scouts of America said he was removed from his position several years ago for failing to comply with the organization’s “youth protection policies and procedures” after a parent made an unspecified complaint that didn’t relate to scouting. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said it removed him from “all positions related to children” for failing to comply with the church’s child protection policies.
The Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office says investigators have identified seven alleged victims in Louisiana, but the charges only relate to two of them. No alleged victims have emerged publicly in San Diego.
When the sun is down, your dog should go home. And you both should sleep in on the weekend.
That is the message from Fairfax County, which has slightly altered the hours of county dog parks to align with the county’s new noise ordinance. The Fairfax County Park Authority says new operating hours will go info effect on Feb. 17.
In the past, operating hours at the county’s off-leash dog parks, including Reston’s location at Baron Cameron Park, were consistent with overall park operating hours, which are dawn to dusk.
The new hours will be 7 a.m. to one half-hour after sunset Monday through Friday. On weekends and federal holidays, the hours will be 8 a.m. to one half-hour after sunset.
All of the county dog parks will have signs posted showing the new operating hours.
After several years of discussion, Fairfax County’s Board of Supervisors in November voted on a new ordinance. The new rules provide guidelines on everything from lawn mowers to garbage collection to dogs.
The new ordinance put into place the amended dog park hours. It also made some rules about rouge animals noises in your own home (if the neighbors hear and complain). The new ordinance says no “barking, howling, meowing, squawking or quacking animals between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. when it can be heard inside a home with its doors and windows closed, or if these sounds can be heard 7 a.m. and 10 p.m. for more than five minutes consecutively or non-consecutively during a 10-minute period.”
Violators of the ordinance can face both criminal and civil penalties. Criminal penalties for violation, a Class 2 misdemeanor, can be include jail time (up to six months) and/or a $1,000 fine. There can also be civil penalties of $250 (and $500 for subsequent offenses).
The dog park noise has been a subject of concern for some Reston residents who live near Baron Cameron Park.
A group of residents from Longwood Grove, a subdivision located across Wiehle Avenue from the park, has spent more than two years lobbying to get the location of the dog run changed to the park’s interior and filed a lawsuit ordering the park to cease.
“On its worst days, the noise is incessant,” says the lawsuit filed in 2014. “The nuisance noise at the dog park disrupts the Longwood Grove Plaintiffs’ reasonable use and enjoyment of their properties.”
Fairfax County Park Authority Board Chair Bill Bouie has previously said the county has listened to the affected residents and installed noise-reducing fencing. He also said the county has done its own tests and found no measurable noise coming from the park.
Last April, a Fairfax County judge partially dismissed the lawsuit against the park authority. The homeowners continued with a case against Reston Dogs, Inc., the nonprofit that supports the park, but that was also recently dismissed as the nonprofit has disbanded, said Bouie.
Though perhaps you have the distinction of having frequented 46 McDonald’s restaurants in your lifetime, one brave soul decided he’d add 46 locations to his list in one day. The plan? To hit all of London’s McDonald’s locations in 24 hours — and chronicle his journey for YouTube, of course.
Sure, you might be thinking, I could eat some French fries at multiple fast food locations in one day and survive just fine, if not end up little bloated. But this guy didn’t make it that easy on himself.
“The idea is simple: to hit every McDonald’s restaurant in London in one day, trying a different dish at each and seeing if by the end I’m going to be lovin’ it or loathin’ it,” the YouTuber explains at the start of his McMarathon video posted yesterday.
He starts off with a bang, getting in a solid seven breakfasts, chowing down breakfast burritos, pancakes, McMuffins, and anything else his heart desired, before moving on to chicken McNuggets, burgers, wraps, and other daytime fare.
At about a dozen visits, he admits to finally starting to feel full… and celebrates by going for the Happy Meal to honor his inner child.
As the night gets on, he hops on a “Boris” bike, one of London’s rentable bicycles, and goes through the drive-thru on two wheels, much to the chagrin of the customer in a car behind him.
By the end, it sounds like body, soul, and wallet are weary — he estimates he spent “just under £90” ($130) on his McMarathon — but he’s still smiling as he eats his 46th order.
“I’ve learned about parts of London I didn’t know, foods I didn’t know, and areas of my body I didn’t know could feel pain,” he says. Sounds about right.
When shopping for a used car, buying from a private party in your real-life social network or who you found through an ad is cheaper than going through a dealership, but has some dangers that you may not think to look out for. There are small-time dealers who pretend to be individual sellers, and here’s another thing to keep in mind: cars can be the victim of identity theft.
Every car has a VIN, or Vehicle Identification Number, that you can most easily spot inside the driver’s side doorframe and engraved under the windshield. This is what you’d look up when checking the vehicle’s history on Carfax, and when checking its title. Only VINs can be stolen to mask that a car is stolen, too.
One man in California learned this the hard way when the California Highway Patrol showed up at his home one day to confiscate his car. It was evidence in a large investigation of car theft and VIN-switching. He says that he bought the 2009 Toyota from a seller on Craigslist five years ago, and nothing seemed amiss.
The CHP tracked him down after an investigation showed that his car was stolen back in 2010. Its VIN plates were switched out with a set from a presumably similar car that had been scrapped or was also stolen, and the car’s previous owner had his insurance claim paid out because the car couldn’t be found.
Now, using impeccable legal logic, the car will apparently be destroyed, and the man who bought it is out the money he paid for the car, and is left Camryless.
How could he have avoided this? When you’re about to buy a used car, you have the right to bring it to a mechanic of your choice, who will notice if the VIN engraved on various parts doesn’t match. If you don’t feel that you need to do that, at least look closely for signs that the VIN plates have been removed and replaced.
No one wants to — and virtually no one does — read the lengthy, legalese-filled user agreements. But for those who do choose to plow through the mouseprint, Amazon has left an amusing zombie-flavored treat in one of its contracts.
Lumberyard, which is free, allows users to create 3D, high-quality games connected to Amazon’s Web Services and Twitch.
Under the terms for the service, Amazon notes that the program is not intended for use with “life-critical or safety-critical systems, such as use in operation of medical equipment, automated transportation systems, autonomous vehicles, aircraft or air traffic control, nuclear facilities, manned spacecraft, or military use in connection with live combat.”
All of those restrictions go out the window, however, if the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention declare the presence of a “widespread viral infection transmitted by bites or contact with bodily fluids that cause human corpses to reanimate and seek to consumer living human flesh, blood, brain, or nerve tissue and is likely to result in the fall of organized civilization.”
In other words, if the zombie apocalypse happens, you can use the Lumberyard engine for whatever your heart desires.
A solid 25 years into the all-digital era, email continues to evolve. So this week, one of the world’s biggest providers is adding a few small features to help protect consumers.
GMail is giving its millions of users a heads up about two different security practices: encryption and authentication.
The analogy Google decided on for e-mail encryption back in 2014 was about using an envelope vs writing on a post card. Putting your mail in an envelope isn’t a surefire guarantee that nobody will intercept and open it if they’re really determined, they explained, but it does keep the more casual prying eyes out.
The presence or absence of encryption, in and of itself, doesn’t necessarily tell you anything about the safety of a message, its sender, or the content, Google reminds us, but it does tell you how easy it would be for a third party to eavesdrop.
GMail uses an encryption method called TLS and automatically applies it to your email if it can — but the sender or recipient of your message also has to be using it, and that’s where this new feature comes in. When you’re composing or reading an e-mail to someone whose service doesn’t support TLS encryption, you’ll get a little broken lock icon in the upper right hand corner, like so:
The other warning Google will start giving users has to do with authentication: that is, is the name on the message provably actually the entity that sent the message?
We all get messages from spoofed addresses all the time. Hopefully, most of them go to our spam folders. A lack of authentication doesn’t necessarily guarantee that the sender is an impersonator up to no good, but it does mean the recipient should tread with caution — a yellow light, as it were. To that end, GMail is putting in another subtle reminder: instead of showing the regular avatar or logo that GMail would usually show next to a sender’s name (or even the standard square “blank” avatar it uses when none is specified), it’ll show you a big red question mark.
Again, the question mark isn’t necessarily proof that the message you’re getting is nefarious, but it’s a good marker to make you stop and go over the message more carefully.
Everyone knows how annoying it is when all you want is a bunch of carrots, some celery, crusty bread, and body art that will never come off your skin without an expensive, painful removal process, and you just can’t find a one-stop shop for it all. Here comes Whole Foods with its new “365 by Whole Foods Market” stores, which may include in-house tattoo parlors, because that makes complete and total sense.
In what may be something the company dreamed up during a particularly vivid fever dream induced by overexposure to the word “millennial” in marketing meetings, Whole Foods says it’s considering plunking tattoo parlors in its new, lower-priced 365 stores, among other things.
The company is letting it be known that it’s ready to start something meaningful, announcing on the 365 brand’s site that it’s looking for partners to help its new venture be something a bit different than your average grocery store, “to help enhance the 365 experience.”
No partners have been confirmed yet, but it could be anything from the aforementioned tattoo parlor to other services, as well as food vendors, lifestyle brands, and record shops.
“There’s a number of smaller-store competitors out there that are doing a nice job,” Co-Chief Executive Officer Walter Robb said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. “We don’t see any reason why we can’t go participate in that part of the market as well with our 365 by Whole Foods offer — it’s going to be unique.”
The new stores will cater to a younger generation of shoppers who want to buy organic food but don’t want to spend their whole paycheck in the process.
You’ve got time to decide which pithy, yet heartfelt quote you want on the inside of your wrist yet: the first 365 store opens in May in L.A., with a plan for 10 stores total by October 2017.
FAIRFAX, Va.– Thinking about buying someone a scented gift this Valentine’s Day?
It’s a popular present, and a common mistake, says Arielle Weinberg, the owner of Arielle Shoshana, a boutique fragrance store in Fairfax, Virginia. Weinberg began on the chemistry side of the perfume industry, in New York City, but opened her own store in the Mosaic District this Fall.
At the back of Arielle Shoshana is a gift-wrapped box full of unopened perfumes. Weinberg is collecting perfume donations for Dress for Success, an organization that provides women with clothing and accessories for job interviews. Women (and men) who received fragrance gifts that weren’t a perfect fit can trade them in at her store.
“The reason we have this box is because it can be so difficult to find the right fragrance for someone. It’s so personal.”
Weinberg says wearing perfume can be a way to communicate, or to tell a story.
“We say ‘I’m feeling tough today’ or ‘this is what my mother smelled like when she tucked me in at night.’”
While having the person pick out their own scent in person is preferable, Weinberg says offering a variety of options is a good way for them to shop around.
“What we recommend here is a discovery set,” says Weinberg. “Some people might say it’s less romantic than committing to one bottle, but there’s nothing romantic about a fragrance that gets returned.”
This also allows the person to scent-test their desired fragrances.
“The scientists still debate, but many people find, anecdotally, that chemistry can play a huge role in how fragrances work on every individual,” Weinberg says. Buying a perfume or cologne without wearing it on your skin is like buying clothes after seeing them on the mannequin.
“Everything looks good on the mannequin, just like everything smells good on the blotter paper, but you’ve got to try it on yourself to make sure it suits you.”
She suggests waiting at least 10 minutes for the top notes of the scent to settle in. “For many fragrance formulas, all of the money is in the top notes. They want you to spray, fall in love immediately, and run to the register. You’ve got to make sure that after those top notes run out, you’re still happy with what’s lurking underneath.”
Above all, Weinberg says, don’t be afraid to spray, smell and try it all on.
“Every perfume on our shelves, on Sephora’s shelves, on everyone’s shelves, can be bought online for the same price or even cheaper, so the only reason anybody has to get off their couch and come in, is if this is the most pleasant fun experience,” she says.
“We’re not the perfume police, there are no rules. As long as you’re having fun, you’re doing it right.”
If your heart is set on a fragrance gift this holiday, Weinberg has a few recommendations.
Arielle’s signature: Weinberg turns to a warm, uncomplicated scent: ‘Safran Troublant‘, by L’artisan Parfumeur. “You’ve got saffron, rosewater, sandalwood. It’s relatively simple but it’s just gorgeous.”
For someone with a sense of humor: “We do have a perfume called ‘Chocolate Box,’ and I think, paired with an actual chocolate box, it could be a winning gift.”
The surefire winner: A perfume with notes of vanilla is a safe choice for pretty much anyone on your list. The best-selling scent in Weinberg’s store so far is a Swiss perfume with notes of vanilla, pipe tobacco and patchouli. “It’s delicious,” says Weinberg. “Like something you could mix with bourbon.”
For the non-perfume wearer: Think clean, Weinberg says. The best-selling unisex scent at her store has a “fresh from the shower” smell. “Maybe 80 percent of the people that come in say ‘I don’t want anything too strong, too heavy or overwhelming.’ This is the fragrance for them.”
There’s a rose for every nose: A perfume with rose notes has a wide appeal, says Weinberg, and can be as fancy or as simple as you’d like. Her store carries one perfume made with Rose de Mai, what she says is the most prized rose used in perfumery. “The bottle is pretty irresistible as well,” she adds.
WASHINGTON — Prince William County Police Chief Steve Hudson will retire at the end of March.
Hudson, the county’s third chief, has been in the top position since 2013 and has been on the force for 34 years.
“I have been immensely blessed to work in the law enforcement profession since 1980 and with the Prince William County Police Department since 1982,” Hudson said in a news release.
“I am genuinely grateful for the many opportunities afforded me and my family by Prince William County, and that gratitude extends to the Police Department staff, the County Executive’s Office, the Board of County Supervisors, and most importantly, the citizens of this County,” Hudson said.
A Prince William County resident since the 1970s, Hudson has held positions within the department ranging from patrol officer to captain overseeing special operations, internal affairs and the vice/narcotics bureaus to assistant chief in charge of criminal investigations before becoming chief.
“Chief Hudson has served the people of Prince William County with great distinction throughout his career,” Board of County Supervisors Chairman Corey Stewart said in a news release.
“We are grateful for his dedication and sacrifice over the past 34 years and wish him all the best in his future endeavors,” Stewart said.
A national search will be conducted for Hudson’s replacement. Until a new chief is selected, Deputy Chief Barry Barnard will serve as acting chief.
Will Manassas save its water tower? PotomacLocal.com The Manassas City Council will vote February 22 on whether or not to keep the water tower that watches over historic Downtown. The old 75,000-gallon water tower is no longer in use, but it serves not only as the entrance to Downtown, it also garnishes ...
WASHINGTON — An infant was found dead in a D.C. residence Wednesday morning and D.C. police say there was no adult supervision at the time.
A sibling found the infant unresponsive at a house on Van Buren Street in Northwest D.C. at about 7 a.m. Wednesday and called for help, police say. The child was one of six children in the house and police say it looks like there was no adult watching them.
Emergency crews transported the infant to Children’s National Medical Center, where the child died. The cause of death isn’t yet known, police say.
Five siblings — each 10 years old or younger — were found in the home and were taken into the custody of Child and Family Services. All of the children are in good health, sources tell WTOP.
An adult relative of the children has been located, D.C. police say.
D.C. Child and Family Services spokeswoman Mindy Good says the agency will have a joint investigation with police.
Stay with WTOP for updates on this developing story.
WASHINGTON — The Washington Humane Society and Washington Animal Rescue League are merging with hopes the added resources will help save more local animals.
“Truly, we will save more animals — we’ll serve more people and that’s what this is all about,” said Roger Marmet, board chair of the soon-to-be-named combined organization. “[WARL was] doing great work that complimented work at Washington Humane, but now it’s all under one roof.”
The two groups have some duplicative functions such as adoptions, foster care, spay and neuter and behavior and training programs. Bringing together programs unique to each organization means the city’s single animal rescue now will have a unified medical center, wildlife program and law enforcement to address cases of animal cruelty.
Merging the two groups also means they no longer will compete for donations and can share staff and facilities. When the merger is complete, D.C. will have five animal-care facilities throughout the city.
The group’s new name, brand, mission and vision statements will be developed in the near future — but CEO Lisa LaFontaine says the region’s animal needs are clear.
“The systemic problem is the overpopulation problem,” said LaFontaine. “That’s why we want to put a lot of resources into spaying and neutering.”
Another local challenge is families not being able to afford veterinary care for their pets.
“So, together we’re going to look for ways we can create better safety net medical programs that will help people keep their pets,” LaFontaine says.
The two D.C. animal rescue organizations have served the city independently for more than 100 years. The Washington Human Society was founded in 1870.
When the Washington Animal Rescue League was established in 1914, it opened the city’s first animal shelter that assisted dogs and cats, but specialized in helping sick and injured horses.
Watch a video from the news conference about the merger:
Editor’s Note: WARL and WTOP are partners for the Pet of the Week segment where adoptable pets are showcased.
Pushing a wheelchair as well as a shopping cart may pose a bit of a challenge for your average shopper. In an effort to provide another option for those customers, Target is introducing new shopping carts in all of its stores that are specifically designed for children and adults with disabilities.
The carts will look a lot like Target’s traditional red carts but have a larger, harness-equipped seats. Target tested the carts in some stores over the last year, announcing recently that starting March 19, all stores will have at least one of the Caroline’s Carts, except for the smallest stores that don’t offer full-size carts.
Caroline’s Cart was designed by a mother whose daughter has a neurological developmental disorder called Rett syndrome, and she had outgrown the seat in a standard shopping cart. Because maneuvering a wheelchair and shopping cart in store aisles isn’t easy, and many families don’t want to or can’t leave children with special needs at home while they shop, she decided to take matters into her own hands, she told the Chicago Tribune.
“If a retailer is going to provide a variety of carts, it’s an accommodation they should provide,” she said. “Families of children with disabilities should be able to have the same experience as a typical family.”
“Caroline’s Cart can be a game-changer for families, and we’re excited to offer this for our guests across the country,” Juan Galarraga, senior vice president of store operations for Target, said in a statement. “Target is always looking for new ways to make guests feel welcome in our stores and give them a more comfortable shopping experience.”
With the FCC prepping to vote on new rules that aim to break up cable companies’ monopolies on set-top boxes, the pay-TV industry is fighting back with an astroturfing campaign that tries to make the case that having more choices in set-top boxes will somehow harm diversity in TV programming.
4 Fictions About Set-Top Box Competition
1: These box makers will be “poaching” programming for free.
Set-top boxes are just devices to receive and decode cable TV signals. This is like claiming that Samsung or Apple is poaching content by allowing people to watch video on their phones. 2: Smaller and minority-focused channels will be exiled to the bottom of the channel guide.
If companies are allowed to make competing set-top boxes, they are not allowed to change the cable company’s channel lineup or interfere with programming in any way. 3: Smaller cable channels will lose revenue.
New set-top boxes will not impact a channel’s ad revenue or the fees paid to it by the cable company. 4: All TV watchers would have a “government-mandated” AllVid box in their living room.
Cable companies are currently the ones requiring that customers have set-top boxes. Under the proposed rule, customers would simply have a choice of who to get that box from.
FCC Chair Tom Wheeler proposed last month that cable companies — who earn about $20 billion a year from monthly set-top box rental fees — should be required to allow other manufacturers to make devices that work on their networks. The idea is that consumers will have more choices, hopefully encouraging cable companies to reduce their fees and/or improve their boxes so that customers will be willing to continuing paying top-dollar for them.
Now the industry is pumping many of these same talking points through a recently created group called Future Of TV Coalition, whose membership combines the pay-TV companies, existing set-top box and modem manufacturers (Arris, Cisco), and a variety of advocacy and community organizations like the Minority Business RoundTable, National Black Caucus of State Legislators, and the Hispanic Technology & Telecommunications Partnership — itself a coalition of other organizations, and a continued vocal opponent of net neutrality.
The Future of TV Coalition is led by Nomi Bergman, president of Bright House Networks, and Alfred Liggins, CEO of TV One — a network that had, until only a few months ago, been co-owned by Comcast.
“AllVid is a technology mandate that would allow companies to poach programming from TV providers and repackage it into their own products and services without negotiating or paying for the rights,” reads one of the talking points from the coalition.
Comcast tried to argue this same point a couple weeks back, and it’s just as nonsensical as today as it was then.
A set-top box is nothing but a device that receives, decodes, and sometimes stores the TV feed from the pay-TV provider. Cable customers are still paying the same subscription every month to their cable company. The programmers are still receiving their agreed-upon carriage fees from the cable company. The networks and the cable company are still earning money from advertising.
If anything, broadcasters should be hoping for competition in the set-top box market. If subscribers can spend slim down this costly part of their monthly cable bills, they might be less likely to cut the cord.
We’ll Raise Your Bills!
The talking point continues, without any explanation, to claim that set-top box competition could drive up consumer bills.
First off, cable companies will use any excuse to raise bills. As demonstrated in our recent breakdown of a typical Comcast bill, the company deploys multiple surcharges — like the “Broadcast TV Fee,” the “Regional Sports Fee,” and the “Regulatory Recovery Fee” — to squeeze the customer for extra money without raising the advertised rate.
In our example for that story, just those three fees added more than eight dollars each month to what was supposed to be a $99/month cable and Internet bill. Over the course of a year, that’s an additional $97.56 in Comcast’s coffers. When you figure in Comcast’s base of more than 20 million customers, you’re looking at a multibillion-dollar revenue stream from fees the company is not in any way obliged to collect.
It’s baffling that the broadcasters and the minority community groups are begging the FCC to not do something that might raise rates, when they should be asking why the cable companies are always threatening to do so.
Less Diverse Programming?
The coalition contends that “Small, independent, and diverse networks are particularly vulnerable to AllVid because they lack the scale and resources to absorb the revenue losses, channel dislocation, and other harms that AllVid would cause.”
Again, this simply doesn’t mesh with the reality of the situation. All that the FCC is considering is whether or not to allow other manufacturers to make competing set-top boxes. As proposed by Wheeler, manufacturers would not be able to reshuffle channels at whim, so this “channel dislocation” complaint is a non-starter with no basis in fact.
And yet TV One’s Liggins still contends that new manufacturers would engage in “digital ‘redlining” that could “bury diversity programming in the farthest reaches of the program guide.”
Except that’s simply not true. If Google or TiVo or Jimmy Joe Johnson’s Set-Top Boxeria Inc. decided to make a box for Comcast or DirecTV or Sal’s Hoagies and Cable TV, they could not in any way interfere with the content provided to them by the pay-TV companies.
And what “revenue losses”? As mentioned above, programmers would still get the same fees and ad revenue they are seeing now. Another smoke screen rising up from the astroturf.
The Government-Mandated Box!
The following statement contains what is perhaps our favorite bit of pablum from the coalition’s talking points:
“Current AllVid proposals would actually require a new, additional government-mandated ‘AllVid’ device in customers’ homes – resulting in more in-home devices, not fewer.”
Once again, this is absolutely not at all, in any possible world, true.
It is your cable company that requires that you have a set-top box, because it’s the easiest way to (A) prevent piracy of its signals, and (B) reap billions in monthly fees.
The coalition loves to mention all the “TV Everywhere” apps offered by cable companies that let you watch programming without a box on your phone, computer, or tablet. But guess what — you still need to have that cable company-provided box (or cable card) in your home just to be a customer.
I propose the following challenge to any of the coalition members: See what happens when you try to take your cable box back to Comcast/TWC/DirecTV/Sal’s and say “I’m not canceling service; I just don’t need to pay $10/month for this box because I only watch cable on my phone now.”
The Fiction Is Now Viral
The anti-consumer untruths being disseminated by the coalition would be merely risible if it was just another industry-backed campaign shouting into the wind. But these talking points are now filtering out into seemingly more legitimate forums.
This piece repeats Liggins’ fiction about reshuffling and redlining, alleging that programming for racial and ethnic minority communities “could be dropped or buried at the far end of the digital dial.”
Williams also makes baseless claims about piracy and privacy when she says that “Nothing would stop AllVid companies from selling viewers’ individualized television viewing habits to advertisers (just as they do your internet habits today), airing pirated television shows and movies alongside the original, or placing adult entertainment or violent programming next to children’s shows.”
First off, does she think that the existing broadcasters and cable networks are not tracking users’ online behavior, or that these companies aren’t also buying tracking data? It’s not that this isn’t an entirely valid concern, but Williams provides no evidence to support her statement.
Second, why on Earth would these set-top box manufacturers want to air pirated TV shows and movies? If Williams means that users of these boxes would be able to access pirated videos on the same device as they do their cable TV programming, she’s unintentionally undercutting the coalition’s argument in favor of app-based TV access.
After all, you can watch your Comcast feed on your phone or tablet, then switch right over to another app, or browse to a website, where pirated content is readily available. Let’s not forget that a number of set-top boxes now have apps that let you watch videos from YouTube and other services that are brimming with illegally shared content.
As for Williams’ dangling sword of “placing adult entertainment or violent programming next to children’s shows,” we’ve already covered the fact — repeatedly — that set-top box makers would have no ability to rearrange channels. And if she wants to see flesh, blood, and kids’ cartoons sharing the same neighborhood of the channel guide, she need look no further than HBO’s bundle of premium channels.
I’ve said before that there is no guarantee that set-top box competition would result in lower prices for consumers. We’d need enough manufacturers to step up to the plate, the pay-TV companies to not drag their feet in complying, and for TV viewers to give a darn. That’s a lot of things that have to happen in order to make this a success; it doesn’t need the additional roadblock of overcoming industry-backed falsehoods.
Back in June 2014, Consumerist showed readers what might have been the scammiest payday loan we’d ever seen. Today, federal authorities arrested the man behind the company, AMG Services — along with his lawyer and another, unrelated, payday lender — for allegedly running online payday lending operations that exploited more than 5 million consumers.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced the arrests today of Scott Tucker, the man behind AMG Services, and his lawyer Timothy Muir for illegal actions related to operating a $2 billion payday lending enterprise that “systematically evaded state laws.”
According to the DOJ indictment [PDF], the online payday loan operation — which did business as Ameriloan, Cash Advance, One Click Cash, Preferred Cash Loans, United Cash Loans, US FastCash, 500 FastCash, Advantage Cash Services, and Star Cash Processing — charged illegal interest rates as high as 700% and collected hundreds of millions of dollars in undisclosed fees from consumers, including those in states with laws that bar interest rates in excess of 36%.
The indictment alleges that from 1997 until 2013, Tucker’s business issued loans to more than 4.5 million people. On average the loans carried interest rates between 400% and 500% through “deceptive and misleading disclosures” about the loans’ costs.
The company’s disclosure, as required by the Truth in Lending Act (TILA), allegedly materially understated the amount a loan would cost, including the total of payments that would be taken from the borrower’s bank account.
In one example, the disclosure box for a customer who borrowed $500, showed they would only have a finance charge of $150, for a total payment of $650. In reality, the finance charge was $1,425, for a total payment of $1,925 by the borrower.
Additionally, the indictment claims that Muir created sham associations with Native American tribes, the DOJ announcement states, claiming that the enterprise used these filings as a shield against state enforcement actions.
According to the DOJ, starting in 2003, Tucker and Muir entered into agreements with several Native American tribes, including the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma.
The purpose of the agreements was to entice the tribes to claim they owned and operated parts of the payday lending enterprise, so that when states sought to enforce laws prohibiting the loans, the businesses could claim to be protected by sovereign immunity.
In return for the claiming part ownership of the company, the tribes were compensated with a potion of the revenues from the business.
Tucker and Muir were charged with violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act including three counts of conspiring to collect unlawful debts and three counts of collecting unlawful debts; as well as violating the Truth in Lending Act.
AMG has been in a legal battle with the FTC for several years, when it tried to block a 2012 lawsuit filed by the regulators by claiming tribal affiliation.
In a separate action on Wednesday, the Department of Justice U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York announced criminal charges against payday lender Richard Moseley for violations of TILA and RICO.
According to the indictment [PDF], Moseley, who ran a $161 million internet payday loan operation called Hydra Lenders, allegedly made predatory loans to more than 620,000 borrowers over more than a decade.
Between 2004 and September 2014, Moseley’s businesses issued and serviced small, short-term, unsecured loans — with interest rates as high as 700% — via the internet.
The company allegedly targeted consumers with deceptive and misleading disclosures and contracts.
and extended loans to consumers with interest rates as high as 700% using deceptive illegally high interest
“Hydra Lenders’ loan agreements materially understated the amount the payday loan would cost, the annual percentage rate of the loan, and the total of payments that would be taken from the borrower’s bank account,” the DOJ states.
For example, the loan agreement stated that the borrower would pay $30 in interest for $100 borrowed. In reality, the repayment schedule was structured so that Hydra could “automatically withdrew the entire interest payment due on the loan, but left the principal balance untouched so that, on the borrower’s next payday, the Hydra Lenders could again automatically withdraw an amount equaling the entire interest payment due (and already paid) on the loan.”
Moseley was charged with wire fraud, RICO violations and Truth in Lending Act violations.
In September 2014, the Federal Trade Commission filed suit against Hydra’s 19 different but connected companies and their two principals, alleging that they made millions of dollars off of consumers who found themselves trapped in payday loans they did not authorize.
According to the FTC complaint [PDF], the defendants issued a total of $28 million in payday loans during an 11-month period in 2012 and 2013. Thing is, these loans were allegedly not authorized by the borrowers.
The companies allegedly provided fake documents like loan applications and electronic transfer authorizations to bolster their claims that borrowers had actually authorized the loans.
Victims who tried to get out of this trap by closing their affected bank accounts, often found that their bogus debt had been sold to a collections agency, resulting in more harassment, the FTC contends.
While there are many Internet-savvy police departments out there, one thing that the world’s cops have not yet learned how to do is receive reports of car crashes and other catastrophes through Facebook posts. That’s why the Iowa State University police are annoyed with the population they serve. When an out-of-control Infiniti landed on top of some other cars, onlookers took their phones out to take pictures, but not to call emergency services.
Careless driving affects more than just you and your car. Fortunately nobody was hurt this morning. pic.twitter.com/RpqmnNN8U7
Posting things to social media is important, of course, because nobody is going to believe you when you say that you saw an SUV nesting on top of some other cars. However, the university police took the opportunity to remind everyone, not just their students, that someone needs to let them know about incidents like this. If you think you won’t be the first to call… well, evidently you won’t be, especially if you’re on a college campus.
Even the police department’s Twitter biography implies that they’ve had students try to report incidents using social media instead of opening the “phone” app on their phones.
“This account is not monitored 24/7,” they say. “Dial 515-294-4428 for non-emergencies. Dial 911 for emergencies.”
I like to put the non-emergency numbers for the police departments of the cities or towns where I live, work, and frequently travel in my phone, just so I can report things like this attempted monster truck stunt quickly.
Remember, they aren’t saying not to take pictures. They’re just saying to call 9-1-1 or the non-emergency number (depending on the situation) first. We’ve discussed this here on the site before: in a less dangerous situation, a reader tweeted at Panera about his subpar sandwich from inside the restaurant rather than speaking to any of the employees about it.
Twitter is a useful customer service tool, but it’s for after the usual channels fail.
When shopping for a used car, buying from a private party in your real-life social network or who you found through an ad is cheaper than going through a dealership, but has some dangers that you may not think to look out for. There are small-time dealers who pretend to be individual sellers, and here’s another thing to keep in mind: cars can be the victim of identity theft.
No one wants to — and virtually no one does — read the lengthy, legalese-filled user agreements. But for those who do choose to plow through the mouseprint, Amazon has left an amusing zombie-flavored treat in one of its contracts.
Everyone knows how annoying it is when all you want is a bunch of carrots, some celery, crusty bread, and body art that will never come off your skin without an expensive, painful removal process, and you just can’t find a one-stop shop for it all. Here comes Whole Foods with its new “365 by Whole Foods Market” stores, which may include in-house tattoo parlors, because that makes complete and total sense.
Pushing a wheelchair as well as a shopping cart may pose a bit of a challenge for your average shopper. In an effort to provide another option for those customers, Target is introducing new shopping carts in all of its stores that are specifically designed for children and adults with disabilities.
While there are many Internet-savvy police departments out there, one thing that the world’s cops have not yet learned how to do is receive reports of car crashes and other catastrophes through Facebook posts. That’s why the Iowa State University police are annoyed with the population they serve. When an out-of-control Infiniti landed on top of some other cars, onlookers took their phones out to take pictures, but not to call emergency services.
