644: Why Why Not

Tim Weiner - good friend - Pentagon book next

Wants to have book take seriously

Zbig buddies / tennis story

As per the book: CIA russian ops

Family just as messud up as she is!

Rocket Scientist

Big JCD Fan

NASA

Elon Musk - Modern dat PT Barnum

Has no evidence of actual moon landing

Sent space craft to Mars in 1963 (crashing, not landing)

Thought the landing animations looked great

Small vermont newspaper 15k subs, just now getting 3G towers & service

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Fri, 15 Aug 2014 17:02

Ferguson police released a report today detailing a robbery before the fatal shooting last week of 18 year-old Michael Brown.Chief of police Jackson held a press conference early Friday morning.

Here is a copy of the report on the Ferguson convenience story robbery.Michael Brown was 6'² 4'" and 292 pounds.The convenience store video reveals Michael Brown entering the store followed by Johnson. Brown hands a box of Swisher Sweets to Johnson. Brown took several boxes of cigars and turned to leave the store. ''Brown grabbed the clerk and ''forcefully pushed him back into a display rack.''

From the report: The incident is related to another incident detailed by Ferguson Police.

And here are photos of the robbery at the convenience store with a suspect who was identified as ''Big Mike'' Brown. Ferguson Missouri Police Chief Thomas Jackson identified the officer involved in the shooting of 18 year-old Michael Brown. Officer Darren Wilson shot Michael Brown during the confrontation. Wilson has six years on the force and was injured in the incident.

And here is a copy of the police report alleging Michael Brown robbed the store.

This video below seems to corroborate the police report.

Hands Up '' Don't Rob Me!

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Archived Version

Sun, 17 Aug 2014 14:22

ST. LOUIS ' Robert McCulloch isn't known to back down.

For decades, the St. Louis County prosecutor has been in the spotlight for everything ranging from his prosecution of Guns N' Roses frontman Axl Rose to questions about his deep police roots. And for decades county voters have kept him in office.

On Friday, McCulloch faced calls from political foes to step aside in the investigation of the fatal shooting death of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown at the hand of a white police officer. State Sen. Jamilah Nasheed wrote a letter to McCulloch saying prior prosecutorial decisions and his heavy support of Steve Stenger in his defeat of St. Louis County Executive Charlie Dooley in this month's Democratic primary scarred the black community.

And U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay, D-St. Louis, assailed McCulloch on Friday night on a visit to Ferguson: ''We don't have any confidence in the St. Louis County prosecuting attorney's office.'' He went on to accuse McCulloch of attempting to influence a potential jury by the release this morning of the robbery video at the same time the officer's name was released.

''Bob McCulloch tried to taint the jury pool by the stunt he pulled today. I have no faith in him, but I do trust the FBI and the justice department.''

McCulloch, who as a teenager lost a leg to cancer, made it his career ambition to become a prosecutor.

''I couldn't become a policeman, so being county prosecutor is the next best thing,'' McCulloch once told the Post-Dispatch.

McCulloch took office in 1991. His first big test came a few months later with the infamous Riverport Riot when a Guns N' Roses concert ended with injuries to 40 concertgoers and 25 police officers.

McCulloch charged Axl Rose, the rock band's front man, with misdemeanor assault and property damage alleging that Rose hit a security guard, hurt three concertgoers and trashed a dressing room. He then pursued Rose across the country seeking to enforce an arrest warrant on the charges, saying Rose ''is easy to find '...''Wherever he goes, we'll be waiting for him. If he wants to cancel his whole schedule, fine. If he leaves the country, we'll notify Customs to get him when he comes back.

Rose ended up surrendering after a public uproar and entered a plea agreement.

In 2001, two undercover drug officers from Dellwood shot and killed two men on the parking lot of a Jack in the Box in north St. Louis County. The officers said the suspects, who had prior felony convictions for drug and assault offenses, tried to escape arrest and then drove toward the officers.

A subsequent federal investigation showed that the men were unarmed and that their car had not moved forward when the officers fired 21 shots and killed the suspects, Earl Murray and Ronald Beasley. The probe, however, also concluded that because the officers feared for their safety, the shootings were justified.

McCulloch didn't prosecute the officers. He specifically drew the ire of defense lawyers and protesters, who had been holding demonstrations and threatened to block Highway 40,when he said of Murray and Beasley, ''These guys were bums.''

After being criticized, McCulloch refused to back down, saying, ''The print media and self-anointed activists have been portraying the two gentlemen as folk heroes and have been vilifying the police. I think it is important for the public to know that these two and others like them for years have spread destruction in the community dealing crack cocaine and heroin.''

Nasheed pointed to the Jack in the Box case in her letter: ''Critically important, you must consider the potential consequences if you choose to not seek a special prosecutor. If you should decide to not indict this police officer, the rioting we witnessed this past week will seem like a picnic compared to the havoc that will likely occur, because the black community will never accept that there was an impartial investigation from your office.''

McCulloch's opponents also point to his familial ties to law enforcement. McCulloch's father, brother, nephew and cousin all served with St. Louis police; his mother was a clerk there.

McCulloch was 12 when his father, St. Louis police officer Paul McCulloch, was shot and killed July 2, 1964, in a gun battle with a kidnapper in the 2100 block of Dickson Street at the former Pruitt-Igoe public-housing complex. Witnesses said Paul McCulloch had just rounded the corner responding to the call when he was shot in the head by a fleeing kidnapper, Eddie Glenn.

An hour before, Glenn had kidnapped a woman, 20, in her car in front of her parents' store, in the 800 block of North Leffingwell Avenue, and forced her to drive around. A witness reported the kidnapping. Another officer saw the car and stopped it near 20th and O'Fallon streets. Glenn fired at the other officer and fled into the housing complex, quickly encountering McCulloch. The woman was unharmed.

Glenn was found guilty one year later in St. Louis Circuit Court and sentenced to die in the state gas chamber, but the Missouri Supreme Court reduced the sentence to life in prison. Paul McCulloch, 37, had joined the city police department in 1949 and was a canine officer when he was killed.

His father's death was a major theme for McCulloch's campaign ads that first propelled him to office. He is running unopposed for reelection in November.

Tim O'Neil of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

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Archived Version

Sun, 17 Aug 2014 13:56

Zain Asher Ejiofor (born August 27, 1983) is a British financial news reporter at CNN based in New York City. She frequently files reports for CNN International, CNNMoney.com, CNN and for its weekend business show Your Money. She also has a monthly column in Money. She is the younger sister of British actor Chiwetel Ejiofor.[1][2][3][4]

Education and early career[edit]Asher graduated from Oxford University in 2005 with a degree in French and Spanish. She also graduated from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism in 2006.

Prior to joining CNN in February 2013, Asher was a full-time reporter for Money, where she wrote personal finance articles.

Asher also was a TV reporter at News 12, reporting from Brooklyn, the Bronx and Connecticut.

References[edit]PersondataNameAsher, ZainAlternative namesShort descriptionBritish journalistDate of birthAugust 27, 1983Place of birthDate of deathPlace of death

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Archived Version

Fri, 15 Aug 2014 17:55

While ISIS has issued direct threats against the US in the past week now that the US is officially droning and "humanitarianly advising" it (after having armed it for the past year), until now it was largely broad, diffuse statements. That changed in the last few hours when ABC reported a photo has emerged via Twitter which shows a hand holding up an image of a flag for ISIS, displayed on a smartphone, on Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House fence, an area which is frequented by thousands of tourists every day. The photo was tweeted from an apparently pro-ISIS Twitter handle @sunna_rev on Aug. 9.

And while the president is busy with his vacation, occasionally suffering a harsh interruption of his golf game to read off the teleprompter with the usual 30 minute delay when addressing such trivial topics as domestic rioting and yet another military intervention in Iraq, the secret service is on top of it, because threatening Americans is one thing, but closing in to a few hundred feet of the US president is something totally different. From ABC:

The Secret Service did not respond to an additional question about whether the tweet was believed to be authentic. The FBI has not yet responded to ABC News' request for comment on the tweet, its suspected origin, or whether it signifies a serious threat to the U.S.

A senior U.S. intelligence official told ABC that use of Twitter is consistent with ISIS practices. The group has shown to be at the forefront of social-media use among terrorist and militant groups, the official said.

"We have an intelligence division whose mission is to assess information that we receive every day for dangerousness or potential threat level," Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan told ABC News. "We are aware of the image and will take the necessary and appropriate follow up steps."

In addition to the White House threat, there was a second photo in the tweet, one dated June 20, which shows two American flags appeared over an arched entryway.

The photo also shows a note which reads "Soldiers of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria will pass from here soon," followed by a Koran verse that read, "and Allah is perfecting His Light even though the disbelievers hate (that)."

The underlying tweet carries the following message:

We are in your state

We are in your cities

We are in your streets

Everywhere but Martha's Vineyard apparently.

Average:Your rating: NoneAverage: 4.3(19 votes)

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Sun, 17 Aug 2014 14:17

Ed RendellMike Isikoff has broken an important story on the Treasury Department investigating several former gov't officials for lobbying on behalf of an Iranian group classified by the State Department as terrorist. The story involves hundreds of thousands of speaking fees paid to the former officials' speaking bureaus, money that apparently came from the People's Mujahedin of Iran, the MEK.

The former officials were lobbying the government to delist the MEK as a terrorist group. Isikoff quotes an unnamed Obama official: ''You have to ask the question, whether this is a prima facie case of material support for terrorism.''

The MEK is significant because it is tied to Israel. NBC has previously reported that the group ''is financed, trained and armed by Israel's secret service'' and has been linked to the killings of Iranian scientists.

The former officials under investigation include several prominent supporters of Israel in U.S. politics: former Atty General Michael Mukasey, former Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean, and former PA Gov'r Ed Rendell, who lately appeared at a fundraiser for the Israeli army.

From Isikoff's report:

[Former FBI head Louis] Freeh and [former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Hugh] Shelton are among 40 former senior U.S. government officials who have participated in a public lobbying campaign '' including appearing at overseas conferences and speaking at public rallies '' aimed at persuading the U.S. government to remove the MEK from the terror list.

'...Edward Rendell, a former Pennsylvania governor and ex-Chairman of the Democratic National Committee, whose speaking firm also received a subpoena, has received $160,000 over the past year for appearing at about seven conferences and rallies, including some in Paris, Brussels and Geneva, according to his office. (Rendell is a contributor to MSNBC TV.)'...

Rendell said that there have been weekly conference calls among a ''core group'' of former U.S. senior officials participating in the lobbying campaign, organized by Freeh, to talk about ways to prod the State Department to remove the MEK from the terror list and protect its followers at Camp Ashraf. He identified this group as including former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, former Democratic National Committee Chair Howard Dean and Mukasey '-- all of whom have publicly spoken out on behalf of the MEK and spoken at its rallies.

From Peter O'ROurke

In the late 70's and early 80' and certainly during the Reagan administration a call went out from the U.S. for foreign physician's to fill less than glamorous jobs in the medical field like state mental health institutions and the like. These jobs were filled and this created a toe hold for Indians on the continent. Before this Indian Immigration had been light with only around 2000 or so in the 1900 census.

Seeing the success of their Indian counterparts a wave of immigration ensued. The reason that their are so many Indians in Canada is that after a residency in Canada of five years entrance to the U.S. is almost guaranteed, this is the goal of many of the Canadian/Indians.

I got much of this from and Indian friend.

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Archived Version

Sun, 17 Aug 2014 12:16

NetherlandsOn the 30th of August, the Museumplein in Amsterdam will become the scene of an anti-ISIS protest planned by a group of Christians in the city, Het Parool reports.

Benjamin Sumer, one of the initiators, says that the protest is especially against the violence committed by ISIS against Christians in Iraq. ''But there are many more ethnic population groups suffering under this movement, to which attention will also be given'', Sumer tells Het Parool.

About 2000 people are expected at this protest. ''Different pastors from the churches in Amsterdam will come to speak about the ISIS atrocities '', Sumer says.

The protest was first planned to take place on Dam square, but because many people are expected, the location has been moved. It will now take place between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. on the Museumplein.

Sumer tells Het Parool that the inspiration for this protest came from similar demonstrations in other countries. ''France, Canada, Sweden: everywhere in the world you can hear the call for this to end. We have to participate in that in Amsterdam as well.''

''We have to prevent at all cost that the Islamic world expands in this manner. It cannot be that people massacre each other in this way'', Sumer says.

wow.

it sounds both disgusting and offensive.

bag, fag

quilt bag, douhce bag.

this is like the dirtiest slur I've ever heard.

Maybe i missed your mention of this one:

QUILTBAG is an acronym. It stands for Queer/Questioning, Undecided, Intersex, Lesbian, Transgender/Transsexual, Bisexual, Allied/Asexual, Gay/Genderqueer. It is meant to be a more inclusive term than GLBT/LGBT and to be more pronounceable (and memorable) than some of the other variations or extensions on the GLBT/LGBT abbreviation.

your favorite fucking quilt bagger,

Mike!

Just a FYI, I had several friends participate in the Gay Games. One of them who was Straight.

Everyone who participates receives a medal (which what is the point). Total agree with your presumptions on this and I have to bite my tongue with my friends on this one as not to hurt their feelings. When I heard President Obama was speaking I just shook my head.

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Sun, 17 Aug 2014 13:25

Rose Mary Woods (December 26, 1917 '' January 22, 2005) was Richard Nixon's secretary from his days in Congress in 1951, through the end of his political career. Before H. R. Haldeman and John Ehrlichman became the operators of Nixon's presidential campaign, Woods was Nixon's gatekeeper.[1]

Early life and connection to Nixon[edit]Rose Mary Woods was born in northeastern Ohio in the small pottery town of Sebring on December 26, 1917.[2] Following graduation from McKinley High School, she went to work for Royal China, Inc., the city's largest employer. Woods had been engaged to marry, but her fiance died during World War II. To escape all the memories of her hometown she moved to Washington, D.C., in 1943, working in a variety of federal offices until she met Nixon while she was a secretary to the Select House Committee on Foreign Aid. Impressed by his neatness and efficiency, she accepted his job offer in 1951.[3]

She developed a very close relationship with the Nixon family, especially First LadyPat Nixon.

Secretary to the President[edit]Woods was President Nixon's personal secretary, the same position she held from the time he hired her until the end of his lengthy political career.

Fiercely loyal to Nixon, Woods claimed responsibility in a 1974 grand jury testimony for inadvertently erasing up to five minutes of the 181'2 minute gap in a June 20, 1972, audio tape. Her demonstration of how this might have occurred '' which depended upon her stretching to simultaneously press controls several feet apart (what the press dubbed the "Rose Mary Stretch"[4]) '' was met with skepticism from those who believed the erasures, from whatever source, to be deliberate. The contents of the gap remain a mystery.[5]

Woods died on January 22, 2005, at a nursing home (McCrea Manor) in Alliance, Ohio.[3] A memorial service was held at the Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace in Yorba Linda, California.

References[edit]^Wilkinson, Francis (2005-12-25), Nixon's Real Enforcer, New York Times, retrieved 2008-10-08 ^Rose Mary Woods, Nixon Presidential Library and Museum, retrieved 2012-04-26 ^ abSullivan, Patricia (2005-01-24), Rose Mary Woods Dies; Loyal Nixon Secretary, Washington Post, retrieved 2008-10-08 ^The Watergate Files - Battle for the Tapes: July 1973 - November 1973, Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library ^Shenon, Philip (2005-01-24), Rose Mary Woods, 87, Nixon Loyalist for Decades, Dies, New York Times, retrieved 2008-10-08 External links[edit]PersondataNameWoods, Rose MaryAlternative namesShort descriptionPersonal secretary to the President of the United StatesDate of birthDecember 26, 1917Place of birthSebring, OhioDate of deathJanuary 22, 2005Place of deathAlliance, Ohio

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Sun, 17 Aug 2014 13:23

Judge Emmet Sullivan, who is presiding over watchdog group Judicial Watch's lawsuit against the IRS ordered further IRS affidavits yesterday, suggesting that the sworn testimony the IRS has provided thus far has not met Judge Sullivan's approval. The order, made available to attorneys of both parties on Thursday, reads:

In light of [26] the Declarations filed by the IRS, the IRS is hereby ORDERED to file a sworn Declaration, by an official with the authority to speak under oath for the Agency, by no later than August 22, 2014. In this Declaration, the IRS must:

(1) provide information about its efforts, if any, to recover missing Lois Lerner emails from alternate sources (i.e., Blackberry, iPhone, iPad);

(2) provide additional information explaining the IRS's policy of tracking inventory through use of bar code property tags, including whether component parts, such as hard drives, receive a bar code tag when serviced. If individual components do not receive a bar code tag, provide information on how the IRS tracks component parts, such as hard drives, when being serviced;

(3) provide information about the IRS's policy to degauss hard drives, including whether the IRS records whose hard drive is degaussed, either by tracking the employee's name or the particular machine with which the hard drive was associated; and

(4) provide information about the outside vendor who can verify the IRS's destruction policies concerning hard drives.

Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton issued the following statement in response to Judge Sullivan's order:

In an extraordinary step, U. S. District Court Judge Emmett Sullivan has launched an independent inquiry into the issue of the missing emails associated with former IRS official Lois Lerner.

Previously, Judge Sullivan ordered the IRS to produce sworn declarations about the IRS email issue by August 11. Today's order confirms Judicial Watch's read of this week's IRS' filings that treated as a joke Judge Sullivan's order.

At last month's status hearing, Judge Sullivan ordered the IRS to declare under oath what had happened to Lois Lerner's ''lost'' IRS e-mails and what steps had been taken to recover them. Those affidavits were due August 10.

In 2013, Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act request for e-mails to and from Lerner, the former head of the IRS's tax-exempt division. The organization claims that the IRS never informed them of Lerner's computer crash, in violation of the law.

After September 10, Judicial Watch will be allowed to file a motion requesting limited discovery.

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Sun, 17 Aug 2014 12:27

Enacted on March 31, 2014, Article 14 of the Election Law was amended to provide for expanded disclosure of Independent Expenditures. This section of the New York State Board of Elections website will provide updates and information pertaining to the new Independent Expenditure disclosure requirements as it becomes available.

Chapter 55 of the Laws of 2014, Subpart C NYS Election Law, Article 14, Title I, Independent Expenditure Reporting:

SUBPART C

Presentation on Independent Expenditure Reporting ( 2,770KB)

2014 Independent Expenditure Calendar ( 77KB)

New Independent Expenditure Disclosure Requirements ( 414KB)

Adopted Emergency RegulationsEmergency regulation relative to Independent Expenditure Reporting was discussed and adopted by the Board at its May 22, 2014 meeting. A revised version of the regulation was discussed and adopted at the Board's July 9, 2014 meeting. The most recent language for the adopted emergency regulation can be accessed using the link below.

Emergency Regulation on Independent Expenditure Reporting (revised 07/09/14)( 360KB)

24 Hour and Weekly disclosure of Independent ExpendituresWhen a contribution or loan over $1,000 is received or an expenditure over $5,000 is made within 30 days of the applicable election, such transaction must be electronically disclosed within 24 hours to the NYSBOE. When a contribution or loan over $1,000 is received or when an expenditure over $5,000 is made, outside of the 30 day - 24 hour disclosure provision, such transaction must be electronically disclosed on a weekly basis, on Friday, to NYSBOE.

All 24 hour and Weekly disclosures must be reported to NYSBOE on the next applicable election cycle or periodic report.

I want to file my Weekly or 24 Hour Independent Expenditure Contributions/Loans

I want to file my Weekly or 24 Hour Independent Expenditure Expenditures/Payments

View Independent Expenditure Weekly and 24 Hour Notices filed by Date Range

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Archived Version

Sun, 17 Aug 2014 12:22

Keep quiet. That's the message being sent by New York State Board of Elections, which disregarded the First Amendment to enact new ''emergency regulations'' on political speech that could become permanent at the end of this month.

Intended to regulate spending by independent groups during campaign season, the regulations are so expansive that almost anyone, citizen or organization, hoping to have their say on any issue could find themselves in bureaucratic dire straits.

Imagine you hear a radio ad where your state representative '-- let's call him Fred '-- claims to oppose higher taxes. But you know that Fred voted three times for higher taxes.

Outraged, you print up 500 flyers with a picture of Fred, a copy of his voting record on taxes and a brief statement about how you think your neighbors should know the truth.

You hand out these flyers at your son's Little League game, your daughter's soccer practice and in front of the grocery store while your husband is shopping.

While most would applaud you for performing your civic duty and educating the public about a dishonest politician, the New York State Board of Elections could now fine you at least $1,000.

Why? Because you failed to register as a political committee, complete the appropriate paperwork for filing an ''independent expenditure,'' list your donors and your treasurer and provide copies of your flyer to the board for its stamp of approval.

And, unfortunately for you, one of Fred's campaign staffers saw your flyer and reported you to the authorities.

This, sadly, is just the tip of the regulatory iceberg. These new rules give the board unprecedented say in determining if speech is supporting or opposing a candidate.

Is an ad for a charity that supports war veterans advocating for a candidate who is also a war vet? Is an AARP pamphlet opposing higher prescription-drug prices under ObamaCare opposing every candidate who supports New York's state-run insurance marketplace?

What about billboards for a local gun show that say, ''Support the Second Amendment'' '-- are those attack ads against all pro-gun control candidates?

Under the new regulations, these decisions are left entirely to the discretion of the four unelected commissioners on the Board of Elections.

And the rules are so unclear that there is no way for New Yorkers to know the answers to these questions in advance. The board has full discretion to decide whose ads are acceptable and who to throw the book at.

As the recent IRS scandal has made abundantly clear, government bureaucrats can't fairly assess what groups have the right to speak. The opportunity for politically malicious prosecutions in New York will be rampant.For nearly four decades, courts have consistently discarded as unconstitutional such haphazard definitions of political speech.

If the board's new regulations become permanent, they will undoubtedly face similar court challenges.

Ultimately, the courts will quash the rules, as they have New York's past efforts to squelch independent political speech.

But in the meantime, while the state squanders taxpayer dollars on litigation, these regulations will prevent individuals and organizations from delivering their message to the public.

The rules are so convoluted that even sophisticated lawyers won't be able to give clear guidance on what is permitted and what is not. This is especially the case for smaller groups with less experience, less access to regulators and less money to hire the necessary lawyers.

The end result? Politicians can worry less about taking actions that might offend their constituents, because fewer amateurs will be able to speak out against crony deals, crummy tax laws, environmental problems and innumerable other bad policies.

That may be great news for incumbents, but it is terrible news for New Yorkers who want a free and open democracy.

The most important aspect of the First Amendment is embodied in these citizen groups '-- the little guy who is willing to speak truth to power.

At the Board of Elections, however, those in power clearly aren't interested in hearing from those speaking the truth.

Scott Blackburn is a research fellow at the Center for Competitive Politics.

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Fri, 15 Aug 2014 17:19

Jungle crucial to proliferation

One theory for how the disease has been spread to humans is via fruit bats. Karesh noted that variations in rainfall have a big impact on the rate at which trees shed their branches and buds, and that this impacted the Ebola-carrying bats that eat their fruit.

"If one year, fruit is more abundant, than fruit bats will have more babies. In another, they may have to move around to find food. That could have something to do with what years you see Ebola," said Karesh.

According to the WHO, the rate of global warming has accelerated further over the last 50 years, with temperatures rising by over 0.18 degrees Celsius per decade. The prevailing scientific argument is that this has caused rainfall patterns to change and extreme weather to become more intense and frequent.

In agrarian West Africa, climate change may also be bringing humans into closer contact with virus-carrying bats, as increasing and more severe dry spells hit agricultural yields and drive humans into the forest for food.

"It could be that they (bats) have long had Ebola, but spillover to humans is more recent," wrote Melissa Leach, an academic at Sussex University, England, in a blog post for both the WHO and the Lancet medical journal this April.

"This assumes that once extensive forests in which bats lived, separately from humans, have undergone progressive deforestation under the influence of population growth, land use, and climate change. As bat habitats have fragmented and as people have moved into once-pristine forest areas, so human-bat contact has increased, making viral spillover more likely," she explained.

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Sun, 17 Aug 2014 09:48

UPDATED August 14, 2014 '' Hello everybody and thank you for tuning in today. I'm going to talk a little bit about the Ebola crisis. We have a bit of a crisis in Ukraine. We're very much involved in getting more engaged in Iraq. But there's also a lot in the news about Ebola and a lot of frightening reports about Ebola.

There's no doubt in my mind that it's a very, very serious illness and I don't doubt it for a minute that it is very hard to treat, and they have no magic pill, and it's quite deadly. But I'd like to put it in a little different perspective than the way they advertise it in the headlines. ''Scale of Ebola Crisis Unprecedented, CDC Director Says.'' Well, so far there has not been a case in the United States other than the two individuals that were brought here. So it is not exactly unprecedented in the United States. And also, they know pretty much how it spreads. So, with caution, I think a civilized nation can protect against it.

But it reminds me of 1976. One of the first votes I cast, and Gerald Ford was president at the time, was the threat of the swine flu, I believe, was coming in and it was going to be epidemic and a horror to the United States. So they quickly passed a bill to inoculate everybody in the country. There were two of us who voted against it'--another physician, Larry McDonald, who was a Democrat, and myself. We thought it was unwise to inoculate everybody and we didn't have the evidence that it was going to be deadly.

It turned out that it was a false alarm. The crisis was never materialized, and more people died from the shots than people got sick with the flu. So there's always this chance that they overreact to some of these crises.

The one thing good that has come out of this Ebola crisis is that the FDA has recently said, ''well, you can use the experimental drugs,'' which the FDA should ever prevent. As long as there is full disclosure, whether it's a cancer drug or an infection, and as long as the doctor and the patient knows exactly the risk that goes on. The FDA should be always holding back. So I think it's good that the FDA has actually gotten rid of that regulation.

But to put it in further perspective, I mean, there are 1,700 or so that have been infected in southern Africa. Also there has been over 900 deaths. So it's nothing to laugh at. But there are 627,000, mostly children, who die every year from malaria in the same region of the world, in the southern part of Africa. And there are 207 million cases every year. So that's a big issue. But we can sort of forget about that and not worry about it. Some people get involved in a controversial argument about this and say there hasn't been a lot of help since the DDT has been removed from the market. That's very controversial, and nobody wants to hear about that.

The actual, absolute proof of the danger of DDT was never completed, as far as I'm concerned. DDT was cheap and it was never known to kill anybody. Instead, what we use is very expensive organic phosphates, which do kill people. They are very dangerous to the human being. But I think if we try to put this in a better perspective, if DDT isn't quite as dangerous as they said, and you could save a million people a year from getting this illness, maybe we should think about it.

Could there be a possibility that making the organic phosphates, maybe there is a profit in this and maybe that is the reason that we end up doing this. So this is a serious problem. I don't think it should ever be laughed at. I'm not saying I know the final answer on DDT, but I do know that governments deceive us and sometimes they hide things. I don't think we're going to see in the next year a horrendous breakout of Ebola in this country. That would be my suspicion. But in the same sense, we should not ignore the fact that it is a very deadly disease. But I'm glad at least the FDA is backing away and allowing treatment for this to be more readily available and maybe a quicker answer to this disease will be found under these circumstances.

'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'--'---August 12, 2014 '' There's no doubt in my mind that Ebola is a very serious illness. I don't doubt for a minute that it is very hard to treat. They have no magic pill. It's quite deadly. But I'd like to put it in a different perspective than the mainstream media uses to advertise it in the headlines.

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Fri, 15 Aug 2014 17:46

Photographs of Obama dancing at a party while the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, raged on hit the internet and quickly went viral, resulting in the photographer quietly deleting them, ostensibly in an attempt to mitigate the political damage.

From Breitbart.com:

Editorial and fine art photographer Elizabeth Cecil posted two photos of the president on her Instagram account from the party that was closed to the press.

The photos featured President Obama dancing and one of him offering a birthday toast to Ann Jordan at a party at the Farm Neck Golf Club.

The party included about 150 guests, including former President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton.

The photo of the president dancing was discovered on Instagram early Thursday morning by Republican National Committee War Room staffer Elliott Schwartz, who posted it on Twitter.

After the pictures were picked up by news organizations and they went viral with a hit from the Drudge Report, they mysteriously disappeared. But not before some who were disappointed with the failure in optics could respond:

DEEP'... But REAL! RT @PhillyTheBoss: Bush flew over New Orleans post-Katrina'... Obama dancing through Ferguson.

'-- ® (@RyanRstar) August 14, 2014

Hold up, @BarackObama is at Martha's Vineyard drinking & dancing at a bday party while this is happening? http://t.co/tcpa2tFHhW#ferguson

'-- Trap Phone Ibz (@StrictlyBizz) August 14, 2014

Nero? RT @NeedlesOnNews: Obama is going to take all sorts of heat for doing dancing during the #Ferguson mess. It's a Bush-like moment

'-- Minor Leaguer (@Minor_Leaguer) August 14, 2014

While a black community was under militarized siege last night, Obama was dancing around at Farm Neck Golf Club. #Ferguson#HandsUpDontShoot

'-- Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) August 14, 2014

The police looking like the the military in Ferguson and Obama is out dancing'....so disappointed right now

'-- #TheCurlPatternGawd (@TheSwaggDaddy_) August 14, 2014

Obama dancing at a country club while Ferguson falls under police occupation deserves one big explanation. Radio silence.

'-- Tom Kinslow (@TomKinslow) August 14, 2014

While President Obama is dancing tonight the people of Ferguson,Mo constitutional rights are being violated.#WhiteHouse#MikeBrown

'-- Laveda Glover (@AlligatorPurse) August 14, 2014

Obama is literally dancing the night away while #Ferguson citizens get tear-gassed https://t.co/AjKyaF3Wuy

'-- sep (@EmpressMarket) August 14, 2014

The truth about Obama's arrogance and incompetence is beginning to dawn on a lot of people, after years of conservatives being derided for pointing it out. All his biggest fans in the media can do is try to scrub the record. Seems familiar.

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Fri, 15 Aug 2014 17:19

Jungle crucial to proliferation

One theory for how the disease has been spread to humans is via fruit bats. Karesh noted that variations in rainfall have a big impact on the rate at which trees shed their branches and buds, and that this impacted the Ebola-carrying bats that eat their fruit.

"If one year, fruit is more abundant, than fruit bats will have more babies. In another, they may have to move around to find food. That could have something to do with what years you see Ebola," said Karesh.

According to the WHO, the rate of global warming has accelerated further over the last 50 years, with temperatures rising by over 0.18 degrees Celsius per decade. The prevailing scientific argument is that this has caused rainfall patterns to change and extreme weather to become more intense and frequent.

In agrarian West Africa, climate change may also be bringing humans into closer contact with virus-carrying bats, as increasing and more severe dry spells hit agricultural yields and drive humans into the forest for food.

"It could be that they (bats) have long had Ebola, but spillover to humans is more recent," wrote Melissa Leach, an academic at Sussex University, England, in a blog post for both the WHO and the Lancet medical journal this April.

"This assumes that once extensive forests in which bats lived, separately from humans, have undergone progressive deforestation under the influence of population growth, land use, and climate change. As bat habitats have fragmented and as people have moved into once-pristine forest areas, so human-bat contact has increased, making viral spillover more likely," she explained.

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Fri, 15 Aug 2014 18:18

Published time: August 16, 2013 14:53A woman holds a portrait of former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden in front of her face as she stands in front of the U.S. embassy during a protest in Berlin.(Reuters / Thomas Peter)

A Beijing-based electric car technology company wants to use NSA-leaker Edward Snowden's name as a brand for their new 'secret technology'.

Electric car technology firm Hong Yuan Lan Xiang (HYLX) submitted an application to the Chinese authorities to register the ''Snowden'' trademark in both Chinese and English, manager Hefeng Zhu told the South China Morning Post.

''We are talking with China's domestic carmakers, and we aim to launch cars equipped with our technology by the end of this year,'' Zhu told the South China Morning Post in a telephone interview on Friday.

HYLX considers their new 'top-secret' technology to be as groundbreaking as Snowden's leaks. Removable batteries, conversion from fuel to electric, and expedited charging are some of the new products the company is offering, Zhu said.

''Snowden'', a brand already registered by several Chinese companies prior to the famed NSA leaks, may be denied on the basis it is too ''political'' as the name is considered a ''sensitive'' subject to Chinese authorities, according to Wang Hao, manager of Beijing-based Baishifuda Times Intellectual Property firm, told the Post.

Experts believe it could take 12 to 15 months for the patent application to be approved, Wang Hao said.

Unlike other patent law, a trademark can be used for multiple products, as long as the industries don't overlap.

But since firms are allowed to register the same trademark under different ''categories'' listed by the country's State Administration for Industry and Commerce, the Chinese aren't the only ones hoping to cash in on the former US intelligence agent's name by registering it as a trademark.

Russian businessmen have attempted to register the image of the whistleblower's face. Rospatent has three reported applications for the image of Snowden's face, likely lifted from screen shots of his on-air interview with the Guardian."The desire of businessmen to make money on some media personalities is clear. If his portrait is recognizable, Snowden may challenge in court its commercial use and has all chances to succeed," Stanislav Kaufman, brand manager of 'Putinka' vodka told Russian Beyond the Headlines.

Celebrities often patent themselves to gain exclusive rights so their names aren't used without permission in commercials or endorsements, but there have been no reports if Snowden filed a trademark for his own name.

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Fri, 15 Aug 2014 18:21

In the computer and network security industry, few people are as well known as Dan Geer. A long-time researcher who is thought of as one of the industry's thought leaders, Geer is currently the Chief Information Security Officer at In-Q-Tel -- a non-profit venture capital firm that invests in technology to support the Central Intelligence Agency.

Speaking on his own behalf as the keynote at Black Hat USA last week, Geer laid out an ambitious plan to help secure the Internet and define privacy in the digital age, including mandating security breach disclosure, having the U.S. government buy and disclose all the zero day vulnerabilities it can find, and supporting an even stronger "right to be forgotten" than is currently being tried out by the European Union. His full keynote is available to watch on YouTube -- or to read via Black Hat's Web site.

The Switch spoke with him after his keynote to dig into a different topic that he touched on: His distrust of increasing data collection and how he tries to stay off the digital grid in his own life. This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

One of the things I was very interested in from your talk was your personal approach to technology now -- as one of the sort of elders of the cybersecurity community you really seem to try to stay off the network as much as possible. Is that accurate?

I don't carry a cellphone. Honestly, it's a nuisance -- it would be very helpful because as you know things aren't about planning these days, they're about coordination. "Oh, did you see this? Get over here." It's about coordination rather than planning.

But on the other hand, I testified actually twice -- once at the FCC, once in a congressional committee -- that if you required location tracking, I was going to give one up. And to an extent, it's only putting my money where my mouth is. I said I would give it up, and went ahead and did it. So you say, "Well, you're cutting of your nose to cut your face, you're just being stubborn." But no, I meant it.

You no doubt have written about data retention laws and the like... The whole bit about data retention laws bothers me in many ways. On the other hand, if you're an optimist or you're in an position to control how data is used you'll be much more comfortable about having it. Does the name Alessandro Acquisti mean anything to you?

It does -- although probably more to you...

He's a professor at Carnegie Mellon. I think he's about as good as a designer of experiments in privacy -- in particular people's real opinions on privacy -- as anybody. He's really good at experimental design, which speaking as someone who was once trained as a statistician appeals to me. He runs very clever experiments, and those clever experiments include getting past the institutional review committee which is not exactly a walk in the park...

But he's done a bunch of things, and shown that if you give people fine-grained control over what their information is in public, people reveal more. They might say if you give me a lot of control, they'd reveal less -- but it doesn't work that way. People will reveal more if they have more control so to a certain extent is what he's verifying is sort of my own feeling: If I don't have control I don't want to reveal it.

Part of my personal opinion about all this is that I don't trust a situation where I have not only no control about its use, but no visibility about whether it is being used. Take electronic health records. We're obviously going towards it in a big way. But I ask you, who owns the electronic health records?

That's a good question.

I worked in Harvard's teaching hospitals for 10 years after getting out of college. And in 1974, I'm fairly certain that was the year -- this is by memory, but I'm fairly certain that was the year -- but in Massachusetts that's when who owned the medical record changed from being the individual to the institution. Before that, when I went to the window I could say "give me my record" and you would have to produce a stack of paper and when I took it and walked out, I had my records. There wasn't another.

That was changed, ostensibly, to combat insurance fraud -- people were taking records, removing parts of it and going to another institution to get more medicine or more whatever. Insurance fraud, okay? But the point was there was a record and you knew where it was -- because if I have it, you don't, and if you have it, I don't. But now electronic health records, where is that going to go? There are people who argue that in the world of electronic health records, it's natural for it to revert to the patients. I think that's probably true -- but let's think about this.

I have a practicing lawyer friend who argues in a world where malpractice suits are so ordinary, common, and frequent that if might not be the case. If you are a practitioner and it's 100 percent electronic records and you're worried about being sued, will you or will you not want a copy of that record in your files as well as wherever else I might be? Or are you willing to say, "I looked at Dan's records in this cloud at this time and it told me I should give you the transfusion" versus "I've got a copy of the record and this is what I used to make my decision and you know that my copy and this copy are not the same, so someone has modified it?"

So that's going back to what this guy is actually talking about doing: Founding a company that provides time-stamped delivery of medical records fragments so that someone can say, "no, this is what I had and I can prove it -- this third party over here can say, no that is what I transmitted to Dan's doctor on this date. We don't know what's in it because it was encrypted, but we can say it was the same bits because we stamped it in a certain way."

And I think he's right about that -- the integrity in electronic health records becomes perhaps more important than confidentiality. It may well be that we are at a moment in time when what changes under the pressure to provide observability. I'm using electronic health records, but it could just as easily be cars, or the smart grid or anything else. What changes is confidentiality for better or worse goes away. But that leaves the question of integrity.

I'm sure you've seen this, but the so-called CIA rule -- confidentiality, integrity and availability -- is a traditional triad about computer security concerns. Availability is not as big of one, but it has to do with "if I go looking for Dan's records will I actually get it." Integrity is "has anybody mucked with it?" And confidentiality is "has anyone whose never had any reason to know able to see it?" I think it's honest to say we may lose a certain amount of confidentiality control. It would be most unfortunate if we lost integrity control at the same time.

So what do we do when there's lots of fragments of my medical records and every practitioner I deal with wants their piece of it, or maybe the whole thing? Integrity actually is the big deal then, I would argue.

Arguably the same points could be made about tracking cars for insurance purposes...

And I understand why you would say you want to record everything with a car -- I understand that. Where's it has been? One of the things Tim O'Reilly suggested in his work on Algorithmic Regulation was, well you know you could make obeying the speed limit built into the car, but you could also make the speed limit dependent on how crowded the roads are -- so you could drive faster in the off hours. In rush hour, the car would drive slower. Yeah, we'd probably do what they do in London and adjust for congestion. But his point is that instead of regulating the prior conditions -- "you can't go faster than this, or you can't do that" -- regulate it on the run with an algorithm. Of course, that way lies wonderful things and terrible things. It's what do you think is probable? As for myself...

I'm not a Luddite. Luddites smash machines. But I am getting older, and it's easier to say "why do I care?" To continue with the cellphone conversation, it would be especially useful. A member of my family is mentally ill, I've been carrying a paging device but the pager companies are slowly going out of business because of this [points towards cellphone being used to record interview] for obvious reasons. But it's important for some people to be able to reach me for certain situations that occur, as you might guess. Maybe I'll give up and do this. GPS built into cars, or OnStar that you can't turn off. Do you care about that? As I'm sure you know, the most common reaction is "I live a good life, I have nothing to hide." Daniel Solove has a book about this in which he dismembers that argument, showing that just because you have nothing to hide doesn't mean that you want everything recorded.

This comes down to what do you expect as defaults. For me, the default I find easier to expect is "data doesn't exist" rather than "data exists but we handle it properly. Look, I mean nobody who contributed to the 1.2 billion passwords [reportedly in the hands of Russian cybercriminals] expected to do that. That's presumably a rare event -- reasonably rare -- but what default you are willing to accept or what default feels natural to you is really what it comes down to. For me the default of "the data doesn't exist" seems more natural to me than trusting everyone to not abuse it.

So you don't trust a world where data creation and collection is the default.

Trust, what's the definition of trust? You know I have a sort of personal definition of privacy and a personal definition of security. For me, trust is the availability of effective recourse. I don't guard myself if I have effective recourse, so I trust family members because of course you always have some recourse if it's family -- one way or another you do, maybe not today, maybe not with your grandmother, but you do. There's always something. But there's lots of situations now where I would have no effective recourse, so I don't trust it. If I don't trust it, what should be my default? The answer is probably the creation of data is something I should avoid if I can do so. That's an awfully long-winded answer to your initial question, but nuances matter.

Do you think that the new default as surveillance has become more ubiquitous is that everything is public to a certain extent?

Man, what is public these days? If I can read your newspaper from orbit, what is public? If I can tell where you are in your house by imaging through the wall, what is public? On and on and on. We're not there yet, but I figure we're within a few years of being able to figure out if you're in a room by sniffing out your DNA. Is that public? Or putting it differently, as that sphere enlarges, what remains private? Do you have to own a house to have privacy in it or not? If your landlord owns a house...

And mine does.

So does he have the right to examine the records of a smart meter and see if you're running the toaster and the washer and the air conditioning at full blast? The farm that we have, we have several people who live there who work there just because with horses if you have an emergency, like god forbid a fire, you have a very short time -- there's no time to call people and ask them to get their pants on to come help. It's now or never. So we have a certain number of people, six, two trainers, three groomers, and a vet in training. I did, in fact, put in a water meter of sorts -- a flow rate meter -- because one of our wells kept running dry and I wanted to know if there was a leak in the pipes and it was just seeping down into the ground or if someone was taking six hour showers or what. You might say, that's a little invasive. Turned out, one of the tenants had a bad leak in the bathroom and thought nothing of it. "You could have told me" was my reaction.

But the point is that after I ascertained that water was indeed not going back into the ground, I knew it had to be going somewhere. And I don't go visit other people's apartments at random -- I could but I don't. But sure, I put a meter on. And certainly your average electrical engineering student could create a device to determine if you're on your cell phone. Maybe that doesn't matter, but they could tell when you're on the phone. So they wait until you're on the phone, run up to the porch and steal your newspaper.

I'm making this up, but if it's observable does that mean it's public? That's sort of your question, and my question too. Just because it's observable without crossing the boundaries of your property, does that mean it's public? I think if we don't do something, that's where it's going. What was it, the 1920s [Olmstead] through the 1960s [Katz] where wiretaps went from not requiring warrants to, of course they do? It was very plausible -- this wire leaves your property, why wouldn't you expect it to be listened to on someone else's property? The decision that overruled that was "no, you have a reasonable expectation of privacy." But that phrase, reasonable expectation is open to interpretation. What's a reasonable expectation. As you know, it doesn't take much to have a parabolic antenna and we can listen to you in an open room.

Yep, someone else could be recording this interview right now.

Absolutely. Or there could be a ghost in your machine.

Yep.

But it's observable, because it's in public. I'd like to think that we stopped there for a little bit. We can always let go later. We can always say, "nope, your copyright is invalid because it was published three times" and it's now in the public domain. That happened once to the poem "Desiderata" -- "go placidly amid the noise and haste" -- it was published repeatedly in church newsletters and the courts said it was in the public domain. What is the public domain? That's really the question. Technology is changing what is public by changing what is observable, and that's what I'm getting at. And I don't know the answer, but I do know that if we don't answer it, things will continue.

So one of the points you made earlier was that it is actually very inconvenient for you not to have a smartphone. Clearly, I'm recording this interview on my smartphone -- actually I have two smartphones on me, and a laptop, and all other kinds of gadgetry...

Of course.

But it seems like the lifestyle choice you've made would be very difficult for a lot of people without your technical understanding or resources...

Yes, and maybe without my gray hair. I'm not asking how old you are, but young people such as yourself in a way can't do without social media. If you're a high school student for example and you don't play that game you will not be part of any circle of friends -- or probably not, maybe if you're going to a forestry high school or something, but you know what I'm saying: Generally speaking, it changes what is possible on the human scale that you almost have no choice and I understand that. Just to be clear, I'm not belittling that at all.

Your question was about lifestyle choice, and I said it in the talk: There's an old engineering rule about fast, cheap, and reliable -- choose two. If you're at NASA and you're sending something to the moon you need it to be fast and reliable, but you can throw away cheap. Throwaway medical instruments in an operating room need to have a different thing -- doesn't have to work for long, and since you're going to throw it away it would be nice if it's cheap, so you make your trade-offs.

That as a rule of thumb is mostly what engineering is about. You can have most things, but not everything. I think security engineering are about tolerable failure modes -- are about what the tolerable levels of failure are. Determine what failure modes are tolerable and what are not and I can design around not having the intolerable ones. But the cost of it will be some others, because you can't have them all. So when I say, not not fast, cheap and reliable but freedom, security, and convenience, choose two -- it's in that spirit as an engineer.

I was once trained as an electrical engineer, so that rings true to me for maybe you could say reasons of indoctrination. But I would say really everything in life is a trade-off. There's an economic argument that the cost to everything is the forgoing of an alternative. You buy a hundred dollar this you can't buy a hundred dollar something else. In this case, the forgone alternative is on the risk accumulation side. But it was a choice saying, "what do I need" versus "what do I want?"

I live in a world of old machinery -- with hat number two [as a farmer] on. And old machinery has an interesting characteristic compared to new machinery. New machinery doesn't break very often, but when it does you cannot fix it. The old machinery breaks all the damn time, but anybody with a few wrenches, a hammer, and a willingness to get dirty can fix it. One of my guys set an old tractor on fire -- burnt out the wiring harness. I have no instructions, but it's so straight forward. It was a freakin' mix, but it's fixable. Maybe your newspaper has covered the right to repair.

Yes, we've talked to the iFixit folks about how consumers' ability to repair items in their own lives has really changed.

Right. I'm in a sense flying in formation out of regular contact with those folks. As I said, I live with old machinery which breaks often, but any idiot can fix. Who fixes their own Prius? I haven't heard of anybody -- there's one guy I know who could and might well, but he also spent an entire summer working in a Prius shop because he wanted to know how it works.

Which is not a luxury everyone else has.

It's not a luxury everyone else has. In fact, when I said from the podium when I said that one way for a supplier to avoid liability would be to give consumers the right to recompile, well I was talking to someone a few days ago who sai,d "well, nobody wants to recompile, nobody knows how -- who do you think you are?" It was a good point, not denying that at all.

But if the choice is "here are the means to change it or repair it or whatever, you don't have to use them, if you do use them it will work, but if you want to do that, the following rules apply: you must bring it to the dealership, you must bring it on schedule, and if you have a collision we need to know about it." I'm making this all up, but lithium batteries don't take shocks very well so if you do have a collision with a bunch of lithium batteries in the back of your car, you probably ought to look at it.

You know, Jeff [Moss, the founder of Black Hat also known as The Dark Tangent] was talking in his opening remarks about "radical simplicity" -- I'm not quite sure what that means in plain English. Is that a movement or a term of art or something?

I don't know, quote, what it means, but let me guess: You can actually draw a line around something and say, "all of the moving parts in the system are inside this box -- I don't have to know about a cloud in Singapore, I don't have to know." After all, how did Target get taken over? Their air conditioning contractor -- who probably knows nothing about computers and shouldn't have to. If you go to the big banks in New York, I wish I could say which ones, but I probably shouldn't. But most of the ones I know, and that is a subset, are really bearing down on what they call counter party risk: If you have access to my data through some relationship, then an invasion of you is an invasion of me therefore I'm going to hold you to standards that are relevant to me. Even if they aren't relevant to you, if you want to do business with me you're going to have to do this.

And the banks are really enforcing this. If you're a trade clearance firm, what are you doing? The answer is making lists and comparing them and looking for good matches -- but no, there are all sort of other requirements because you won't be able to do business with your clients because they need to make sure your air conditioning contractor can't get into you like Target's got a hold of them. That's the complexity and maybe what this radical simplicity says: I should be able to ascertain the the moving parts are.

What is it that Leslie Lamport says? A distributed system is one where the failure of a machine you've never heard of stops you from being able to do your job.

Yes, I've had that problem many times...

I went to check out and they told me I couldn't because their computer wasn't working, and I was like "wait a minute, do you know what audience you have here?" I didn't say anything, but you know when you can't give money to the front desk at this conference [it] just seems highly coincidental.

Andrea Peterson covers technology policy for The Washington Post, with an emphasis on cybersecurity, consumer privacy, transparency, surveillance and open government.

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Fri, 15 Aug 2014 17:26

The Amsterdam court and UN experts have deemed the blackfaced characters, known as 'Zwarte Piet' or 'Black Pete', racist. Photograph: Peter Dejong/AP

Amsterdam's mayor and the organisers of a large children's winter festival have unveiled plans to overhaul the image of "Black Pete" '' the sidekick to the Dutch Santa Claus '' after protests that the character exhibited racist elements.

Mayor Eberhard van der Laan said that Pete's appearance will be changed over several years from his current blackface to make him look like he has been merely covered with soot from going down chimneys to deliver presents.

Black Pete has become the subject of protests in the Netherlands. Opponents say he is a caricature of an African slave carried over from colonial times '' he is usually portrayed by white people wearing blackface makeup, bold red lipstick and Afro wigs.

But a large majority of the Netherlands' mostly white population says that Pete is a positive figure and denies any racial insult.

Last month an Amsterdam court agreed with findings by a Dutch discrimination vetting board and a UN advisory panel that Black Pete's look is offensive.

Pam Evenhuis, spokesman for the Amsterdam committee that organises the arrival of Santa Claus, or Sinterklaas in Dutch, says change is necessary to make sure the children's festival is fun and not controversial. Details were still being debated.

"The Pete photoshoot for 2014 isn't ready yet," he said.

In the Dutch tradition, Sinterklaas arrives on a steamboat laden with gifts, accompanied by numerous Black Petes. More than 250,000 people attend the celebration in Amsterdam alone.

Evenhuis said it's not possible to change Pete's appearance drastically in just a year, as his look is engrained in the minds of Dutch adults and children.

Although Amsterdam is influential, other towns, businesses and individuals across the country may not want to change his look, the mayor added.

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Fri, 15 Aug 2014 17:25

AMSTERDAM (AP) -- Amsterdam's mayor and the organizers of a large children's winter festival have unveiled plans to overhaul the image of "Black Pete" - the sidekick to the Dutch Santa Claus - after protests that the character exhibited racist elements.Mayor Eberhard van der Laan said Thursday that Pete's appearance will be changed over several years from his current blackface to make him look like he has been merely covered with soot from going down chimneys to deliver presents.Black Pete has become the subject of protests in the Netherlands. Opponents say he is a caricature of an African slave carried over from colonial times - he is usually portrayed by white people wearing blackface makeup, bold red lipstick and frizzy Afro wigs.But a large majority of the Netherlands' mostly white population says that Pete is a positive figure and denies any racial insult.Last month an Amsterdam court agreed with findings by a Dutch discrimination vetting board and a U.N. advisory panel that Black Pete's look is offensive.Pam Evenhuis, spokesman for the Amsterdam committee that organizes the arrival of Santa Claus, or "Sinterklaas" in Dutch, says change is necessary to make sure the children's festival is fun and not controversial. Details were still being debated."The Pete photo-shoot for 2014 isn't ready yet," he said.In the Dutch tradition, Sinterklaas arrives on a steamboat laden with gifts, accompanied by numerous Black Petes. More than 250,000 people attend the celebration in Amsterdam alone.Evenhuis said it's not possible to change Pete's appearance drastically in just a year, as his look is engrained in the minds of Dutch adults and children.Although Amsterdam is influential, other towns, businesses and individuals across the country may not want to change his look, the mayor added.

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Fri, 15 Aug 2014 18:16

Soccer player Tim Howard, one of the best goalies in the world, became an American hero with his record 16 saves in a match against Belgium at the World Cup last month.

But Howard believes his incredible athletic ability is helped by a secret weapon that lies deep inside his brain.

The soccer stud suffers from a neurological disorder called Tourette syndrome that causes him to constantly twitch involuntarily.

Watch the full story on ABC's "20/20," Friday, Aug. 15 at 10 p.m. ET

It's estimated that as many as 200,000 Americans suffer from a severe form of Tourette syndrome, and as many as one in 100 Americans show milder symptoms, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, and symptoms usually begin in childhood. Boys are three times more likely to have the condition than girls and there is no known cure.

Howard was first diagnosed when he was 10 years old.

''I remember being so exhausted at the end of days ... trying to suppress it or maybe wait until I could get home in my room to really have an outburst,'' Howard told ESPN. ''People think they're hiding it, but it's very obvious to someone who has Tourette syndrome that they're being looked at and made fun of.''

As Howard struggled with the social stigma of the disorder, he flourished on the field, eventually becoming the top goalkeeper in the United States. Now, at age 35, Howard thinks his condition doesn't hurt him, but rather helps him, tend goal. Howard believes his Tourette's gives him an edge with abnormally rapid reflexes allowing him to move faster than his opponents.

Kirby Lee/USA Today Sports/Reuters

PHOTO: Anthony Ervin dives into the pool at the start of the 50m freestyle

Olympic swimmer Anthony Ervin, who took gold at the 2000 summer games in Sydney, also suffers from Tourette's. He just reclaimed the national championship title in the 50-meter freestyle on Sunday.

''The only sign at first was an uncontrollable spasmal blinking, and I would just keep blinking,'' the 33-year-old sprint swimmer said of his condition. ''It was really, really fast ... and it would come in fits, and then I would kind of stop and I would almost be out of breath, because it was over.''

Whether his condition makes him one fastest swimmer in the country, Ervin said he can only speculate, but believes it does help him.

''There have been very positive ways that it has helped me,'' he said, such as, ''making me faster than everybody else ... most of the time.''

Ervin isn't sure his Tourette's gives him quicker reflexes, but he, like Howard, believes he can somehow turn the tics into speed.

ABC News

PHOTO: Olympic swimmer Anthony Ervin sat down with ABC's Elizabeth Vargas for "20/20."

''The way that I have come to understand my Tourette's is that there is an over excitation of the nervous system,'' he said. ''I can channel all that nervousness better than a majority of my competitors.''

Researchers believe Tourette syndrome originates in the basal ganglia region of the fore-brain, the same section of the brain that controls many motor functions. Famed neurologist Oliver Sacks backs up the theory that Tourette's can supercharge the brain, giving those with the disorder extraordinary quickness and swifter reaction times.

However, Dr. Jonathan Mink, who specializes in Tourette syndrome and other movement disorders at the University of Rochester, and is the co-chair of the National Tourette Syndrome Association's scientific advisory board, is more skeptical, citing conflicting studies. He said the science isn't there yet to definitively prove that Tourette's can help give athletes with the condition superior skills or make, say, a basketball player the next Lebron James.

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Fri, 15 Aug 2014 18:28

NEW YORK (AP) -- A government scientist kept silent about a potentially dangerous lab blunder and revealed it only after workers in another lab noticed something fishy, according to an internal investigation.The accident happened in January at the headquarters of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. A lab scientist accidently mixed a deadly strain of bird flu with a tamer strain, and sent the mix to another CDC lab and to an outside lab in Athens, Georgia.No one was sickened by bird flu. But unsuspecting scientists worked with the viral mix for months before it was discovered.CDC officials have called the incident the most worrisome in a series of lab safety problems at the government agency, long regarded as one of the most respected public health agencies in the world. Earlier this summer, a lab mishandled anthrax samples and both the bird flu and anthrax labs were shut down."We all feel horrible this happened," said Dr. Anne Schuchat, who oversees the CDC's Influenza Division - which includes the lab where the bird flu accident took place.Because of employee privacy rules, she said she could not name the lab scientist or the leader of the scientist's team, who were both faulted in the investigation report released Friday. She said disciplinary actions are taking place, but she did not provide any details.CDC's release of the report is one of many signs the agency is trying to make things right, said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University. But he added that the CDC should at least disclose any disciplinary measures, to reassure the public that the agency is taking the matter seriously.According to the report, the lab scientist was doing work with both bird flu strains - the deadly form and a tamer version. Lab rules call for them to be handled separately, and the tasks should take at least 90 minutes.The CDC investigation found the work was completed in 51 minutes. That's a clear indication the scientist took short-cuts, Schuchat said.The lab scientist told investigators that the work was done in the proper sequence, but noted being rushed to finish the job and attend a meeting. CDC officials say it's possible the scientist worked on both strains at the same time.In February, some of the mixed virus sample was sent to another CDC lab in Atlanta. In March, a shipment of it went to a U.S. Department of Agriculture laboratory in Athens. For a study, the bird flu virus was given to chickens. The chickens died, prompting USDA staff to take a hard look at the sample and detect the deadly strain.The USDA lab notified the CDC lab in May, and the CDC lab confirmed the finding.But the CDC team leader didn't report what happened to supervisors or anyone else, reasoning that the viral mix was at all times contained in specialized laboratories and was never a threat to the public, the investigation report said.CDC officials were only notified in June after the second CDC lab reported a problem with its sample. Two weeks later, CDC Director Dr. Tom Frieden was notified.Frieden ordered the flu and anthrax labs closed, an internal review and other steps. The anthrax lab director resigned last month.

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Sun, 17 Aug 2014 15:25

patrick.goodenoughPatrick covered government and politics in South Africa and the Middle East before joining CNSNews.com in 1999. Since then he has launched foreign bureaus for CNSNews.com in Jerusalem, London and the Pacific Rim. From October 2006 to July 2007, Patrick served as Managing Editor at the organization's world headquarters in Alexandria, Va. Now back in the Pacific Rim, as International Editor he reports on politics, international relations, security, terrorism, ethics and religion, and oversees reporting by CNSNews.com's roster of international stringers.

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Sun, 17 Aug 2014 15:16

MRC TV is an online platform for people to share and view videos, articles and opinions on topics that are important to them '-- from news to political issues and rip-roaring humor.

MRC TV is brought to you by the Media Research Center, a 501(c) 3 nonprofit research and education organization. The MRC is located at: 1900 Campus Commons Drive, Reston, VA 20194. For information about the MRC, please visit www.MRC.org.

Copyright (C) 2014, Media Research Center. All Rights Reserved.

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Sun, 17 Aug 2014 15:04

MRC TV is an online platform for people to share and view videos, articles and opinions on topics that are important to them '-- from news to political issues and rip-roaring humor.

MRC TV is brought to you by the Media Research Center, a 501(c) 3 nonprofit research and education organization. The MRC is located at: 1900 Campus Commons Drive, Reston, VA 20194. For information about the MRC, please visit www.MRC.org.

Copyright (C) 2014, Media Research Center. All Rights Reserved.

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Sun, 17 Aug 2014 14:55

MRC TV is an online platform for people to share and view videos, articles and opinions on topics that are important to them '-- from news to political issues and rip-roaring humor.

MRC TV is brought to you by the Media Research Center, a 501(c) 3 nonprofit research and education organization. The MRC is located at: 1900 Campus Commons Drive, Reston, VA 20194. For information about the MRC, please visit www.MRC.org.

Copyright (C) 2014, Media Research Center. All Rights Reserved.

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Sun, 17 Aug 2014 14:50

[More in the cross-post on the MRC's NewsBusters blog.]

NBC Nightly News was the sole Big Three evening newscast on 15 August 2014 to cover ISIS's ongoing rampage against non-Muslims in northern Iraq. Chris Jansing filed a full report on the heartbreak for a Yazidi community in Nebraska who have lost family to the Islamist group's campaign of terror. By contrast, ABC World News and CBS Evening News both found time to air news briefs on the historical gaffe in a photo promoting the new season of PBS's Downton Abbey.

Jansing interviewed several Yazidis for the segment, who detailed the atrocities that ISIS is inflicting on their minority community:

CHRIS JANSING: ...Julia escaped a refugee camp during the first Gulf War, and is now a fourth grade teacher in Lincoln. Her uncle sent video of the school where he lives with 700 others who escaped off Mt. Sinjar. Food and water are still scarce. (audio recording of man speaking in foreign language) He tells her horrifying stories about a market run by ISIS.

JULIA: They're '' they're selling Yazidi women in the Tal Afar market right now for about a couple of dollars.

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Sun, 17 Aug 2014 14:48

MRC TV is an online platform for people to share and view videos, articles and opinions on topics that are important to them '-- from news to political issues and rip-roaring humor.

MRC TV is brought to you by the Media Research Center, a 501(c) 3 nonprofit research and education organization. The MRC is located at: 1900 Campus Commons Drive, Reston, VA 20194. For information about the MRC, please visit www.MRC.org.

Copyright (C) 2014, Media Research Center. All Rights Reserved.

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Sun, 17 Aug 2014 13:19

Net NeutralityComcast is the only Internet service provider in America bound by full Net Neutrality rules, ensuring an open Internet and protecting customers. Comcast's transaction with Time Warner Cable will bring Net Neutrality protection to millions of new customers across the country.

Comcast's Internet Essentials is the nation's largest and most comprehensive broadband adoption program, having signed up over 1.2 million low-income Americans. Through this transaction, we will bring the power of the Internet to more low-income families at home.

Product InnovationComcast is a leader in high speed Internet and next generation TV. We're investing billions in new technologies and through this transaction, we'll bring new innovations in TV to more customers and create a stronger, more reliable broadband network for millions of Americans.

Independent NetworksComcast carries more than 160 independent networks and we are committed to supporting 10 new cable channels, most minority owned. The transaction with Time Warner Cable will bring independent voices to new audiences across the country.

BlogsLearn more from us about the Comcast and Time Warner Cable transaction.

Official FilingsView federal government filings related to the Comcast and Time Warner Cable transaction.

What's Being SaidRead what outside voices have to say about the Comcast and Time Warner Cable transaction.

In the NewsAccess the latest news and information about the Comcast and Time Warner Cable transaction.

Important Information For Investors And ShareholdersThis communication does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities or a solicitation of any vote or approval. In connection with the proposed transaction between Comcast Corporation ("Comcast") and Time Warner Cable Inc. ("Time Warner Cable"), on August 14, 2014, Comcast filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") an amendment to the registration statement on Form S-4 that was originally filed on March 20, 2014, containing a preliminary joint proxy statement of Comcast and Time Warner Cable that also constitutes a preliminary prospectus of Comcast. The registration statement has not yet become effective. After the registration statement is declared effective by the SEC, a definitive joint proxy statement/prospectus will be mailed to shareholders of Comcast and Time Warner Cable. INVESTORS AND SECURITY HOLDERS OF COMCAST AND TIME WARNER CABLE ARE URGED TO READ THE JOINT PROXY STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS AND OTHER DOCUMENTS FILED OR THAT WILL BE FILED WITH THE SEC CAREFULLY AND IN THEIR ENTIRETY BECAUSE THEY CONTAIN OR WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION. Investors and security holders may obtain free copies of the registration statement and the joint proxy statement/prospectus and other documents filed with the SEC by Comcast or Time Warner Cable through the website maintained by the SEC at http://www.sec.gov. Copies of the documents filed with the SEC by Comcast are available free of charge on Comcast's website at http://cmcsa.com or by contacting Comcast's Investor Relations Department at 866-281-2100. Copies of the documents filed with the SEC by Time Warner Cable will be available free of charge on Time Warner Cable's website at http://ir.timewarnercable.com or by contacting Time Warner Cable's Investor Relations Department at 877-446-3689.

In addition, in connection with the proposed transaction between Comcast and Charter Communications, Inc. ("Charter"), Charter will file with the SEC a registration statement on Form S-4 that will include a proxy statement of Charter that also constitutes a prospectus of Charter, and a definitive proxy statement/prospectus will be mailed to shareholders of Charter. INVESTORS AND SECURITY HOLDERS OF COMCAST AND CHARTER ARE URGED TO READ THE PROXY STATEMENT/PROSPECTUS AND OTHER DOCUMENTS THAT WILL BE FILED WITH THE SEC CAREFULLY AND IN THEIR ENTIRETY BECAUSE THEY WILL CONTAIN IMPORTANT INFORMATION. Investors and security holders will be able to obtain free copies of the registration statement and the proxy statement/prospectus (when available) and other documents filed with the SEC by Comcast or Charter through the website maintained by the SEC at http://www.sec.gov. Copies of the documents filed with the SEC by Comcast are available free of charge on Comcast's website at http://cmcsa.com or by contacting Comcast's Investor Relations Department at 866-281-2100. Copies of the documents filed with the SEC by Charter will be available free of charge on Charter's website at charter.com, in the "Investor and News Center" near the bottom of the page, or by contacting Charter's Investor Relations Department at 203-905-7955.

Shareholders of Comcast and Time Warner Cable are not being asked to vote on the proposed transaction between Comcast and Charter, and the proposed transaction between Comcast and Time Warner Cable is not contingent upon the proposed transaction between Comcast and Charter.

Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Charter and their respective directors and certain of their respective executive officers may be considered participants in the solicitation of proxies in connection with the proposed transaction between Comcast and Time Warner Cable, and Comcast, Charter and their respective directors and certain of their respective executive officers may be considered participants in the solicitation of proxies in connection with the proposed transaction between Comcast and Charter. Information about the directors and executive officers of Time Warner Cable is set forth in its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2013, which was filed with the SEC on February 18, 2014, its proxy statement for its 2014 annual meeting of stockholders, which was filed with the SEC on April 29, 2014, and its Current Report on Form 8-K, which was filed with the SEC on June 13, 2014. Information about the directors and executive officers of Comcast is set forth in its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2013, which was filed with the SEC on February 12, 2014, its proxy statement for its 2014 annual meeting of stockholders, which was filed with the SEC on April 11, 2014, and its Current Report on Form 8-K, which was filed with the SEC on July 1, 2014. Information about the directors and executive officers of Charter is set forth in its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2013, which was filed with the SEC on February 21, 2014, its proxy statement for its 2014 annual meeting of stockholders, which was filed with the SEC on March 27, 2014, and its Current Report on Form 8-K, which was filed with the SEC on May 9, 2014. These documents can be obtained free of charge from the sources indicated above. Additional information regarding the participants in the proxy solicitations and a description of their direct and indirect interests, by security holdings or otherwise, are contained in the preliminary joint proxy statement/prospectus of Comcast and Time Warner Cable filed with the SEC and will be contained in the definitive joint proxy statement/prospectus of Comcast and Time Warner Cable and other relevant materials to be filed with the SEC when they become available, and will also be contained in the preliminary proxy statement/prospectus of Charter when it becomes available.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements Certain statements in this communication regarding the proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable by Comcast and the proposed transaction between Comcast and Charter, including any statements regarding the expected timetable for completing the transactions, benefits and synergies of the transactions, future opportunities for the respective companies and products, and any other statements regarding Comcast's, Time Warner Cable's and Charter's future expectations, beliefs, plans, objectives, financial conditions, assumptions or future events or performance that are not historical facts are "forward-looking" statements made within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These statements are often, but not always, made through the use of words or phrases such as "may", "believe," "anticipate," "could", "should," "intend," "plan," "will," "expect(s)," "estimate(s)," "project(s)," "forecast(s)", "positioned," "strategy," "outlook" and similar expressions. All such forward-looking statements involve estimates and assumptions that are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results expressed in the statements. Among the key factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements are the following: the timing to consummate the proposed transactions; the risk that a condition to closing either of the proposed transactions may not be satisfied; the risk that a regulatory approval that may be required for either of the proposed transactions is not obtained or is obtained subject to conditions that are not anticipated; the parties' ability to achieve the synergies and value creation contemplated by the proposed transactions; the parties' ability to promptly, efficiently and effectively integrate acquired operations into their own operations; and the diversion of management time on transaction-related issues. Additional information concerning these and other factors can be found in Comcast's, Time Warner Cable's and Charter's respective filings with the SEC, including Comcast's, Time Warner Cable's and Charter's most recent Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and Current Reports on Form 8-K. Comcast, Time Warner Cable and Charter assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements that speak only as of the date hereof.

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Sun, 17 Aug 2014 04:27

Team of WPP Agencies Launches Global Climate Change Campaign by Al Gore & The Climate Reality Project

Former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and The Climate Reality Project have appointed a team of WPP agencies to create a global campaign that puts pressure on world leaders, through their citizens, to commit to meaningful carbon emission reductions.

Former Vice President of the United States Al Gore is supporting the United Nations by urging young people across the globe to demand world leaders act on climate change as part of the new Why? Why Not? campaign.

The campaign will work to recruit young people from around the world, aged between 13 and 21, to be the voices of the generation with the most to lose from the effects of climate change. The campaign will launch a contest inviting young people to film a short video asking leaders a ''Why?'' or ''Why not?'' question on climate change and solutions.

For information on how to create and submit a short ''Why?'' or ''Why not?'' video, please go to: http://www.askwhywhynot.org/

The press release and supporting imagery and video are all included in this digital press pack.

Multimedia

(C) 2014 for PSS Media Communications Pty Ltd - V3.1.1

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Fri, 15 Aug 2014 19:02

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Fri, 15 Aug 2014 17:23

The New York rally in support of Michael Brown began Thursday evening in a march up Broadway before culminated in Times SquareHead of highway patrol, put in charge of Ferguson security by Governor Jay Nixon on Thursday, the St Louis suburb resembled a 'war zone'In addition to vigils in Ferguson and New York, there have been protests planned across the country via TwitterFerguson police have said that on Friday they will name the police officer who shot BrownBy Josh Gardner and Louise Boyle and Daniel Bates for MailOnline

Published: 21:16 EST, 14 August 2014 | Updated: 08:23 EST, 15 August 2014

The fifth night of demonstrations in support of gunned down Ferguson, Missouri teen Michael Brown saw scores of protesters marching through the streets of New York in a vigil that culminated in Times Square Thursday night.

Tensions flared as some protestors attempted to shove their way through a police barricade set up in their path toward the beating heart of the city.

Police held their own and tempers soon calmed, but as night gripped New York, the already congested Times Square ground to a halt as over 1000 marchers flowed into the streets to demand an end to police brutality and militarization and justice for 18-year-old Brown.

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Taking to the streets: Thousands of protesters clogged Manhattan streets Thursday night before bringing Times Square to a stand still as they demonstrated in support of gunned down Missouri teen Michael Brown

Bright lights: The New york vigil was one of many nationwide and saw thousands clog the streets of Times Square on Thursday

The group chanted 'Hands Up, Don't Shoot' in their march toward midtown that tied up traffic in the hours after the evening rush.

According to WABC, police for the most part allowed the protest to move forward unhampered before forcing them into a corral at 42nd Street and 9th Avenue.

Authorities, not nearly as heavily armed or intimidating as the now widely criticized Ferguson police were in previous nights of protest, kept the group confined with orange netting and only allowed people to disperse in small groups.

Some arrests were made, though an exact number remained unclear.

New York's was one of a slew of protests and vigils held nationally--from Miami to Houston to Chicago and Los Angeles--as part of the National Day of Silence in Remembrance of Michael Brown.

Paused at police precinct: The group chanted 'Hands Up, Don't Shoot' in their march from Union Square to Times Sqaure

Peaceful: A few demonstrators were arrested while the New York demonstration remained largely peaceful

Vigil: The New York vigil sprung up around the National Day of Silence in Remembrance of Mike Brown, the unarmed teen shot by Ferguson, Missouri police

'New York stands with Ferguson': The protest culminated in Times Square after a march through Manhattan began at Union Square around 7pm

Swarm: An overhead shot reveals the massive extent of the New York City crowds as they swarmed Times Square

Thousands gather in New York to mourn Michael Brown

Meanwhile, in Missouri, a black police chief who is now in charge of policing the protests in St Louis over the death of a black teenager walked among the crowd as he began the 'shift' away from military style policing.

Captain Ron Johnson said: 'I'm not afraid to be in this crowd today' as he marched with 1,000 people in the suburb of Ferguson.

The Missouri Highway Patrol chief said he wanted a 'new day' and an end to the violence.

Protests are planned for a fifth night in Ferguson, the once quiet suburb of St Louis, where Missouri Governor Jay Nixon said today that State Highway Patrol will take over supervision of security.

Capt. Ronald Johnson, foreground, commander of Missouri Highway Patrol's Troop C, addresses media on Thursday after Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon, right, announced that Johnson and the Highway Patrol will be taking over security at the Ferguson protest scene

Riot police clear a street with smoke bombs while clashing with demonstrators in Ferguson, Missouri on a fourth night of violence on Wednesday

Officials hoped that the change in law enforcement would end the days of violence between protesters and officers following Saturday's fatal shooting of Brown. Governor Nixon said security will be overseen by Captain Johnson who is black, said he grew up in the community.

Asked how he thought about the death of Michael Brown, who was gunned down by a white cop, he said: 'If that was my son, if that was my friend, how would I feel?'

As night fell however it remained to be seen if the goodwill would endure.

Most of the violence over the past four days in this Missouri city has come after dark.

Johnson was asked to take over from St Louis County Police after their heavy handed tactics - involving tear gas and riot police - were condemned and commented on by President Obama.

The new approach involved Johnson coming down to the crowd himself around 5.30pm

He was hugged by a reverend and did numerous interviews to the media - until now the commanding officer was nowhere to be seen.

Peaceful: Early demonstrations in Ferguson have so far been peaceful with groups of all ages gathering to remember Michael Brown and make a stand against police brutality

Solidarity: Groups across the U.S. held vigils and demonstrations to support Ferguson against police brutality today. Here crowds are pictured protesting in Miami

Black officers walked among the protestors and listened to them and white officers made hand signals to each other to stay calm.

Captain Ronnie Johnson, of St Louis Police, said: 'The community asked for nourishment and we're going to give it to them'.

Earlier a crowd of 1,000 had peacefully marched from the gas station that was torched during the riots and stopped outside the spot where Michael was shot dead.

He said that he would work to restore peace to his community which he said had been turned into a 'war zone.'

A chain of protests has spread across the U.S. and appeared to have been started by the Twitter hashtag #NMOS14, which called for a national moment of silence for 18-year-old Brown.

On Thursday starting 7pm (EST), hundreds of groups began to peacefully protest in locations from New York City to Detroit, DC, Chicago, Boston and Hawaii against police brutality.

Amnesty International tweeted: 'Tonight we're joining National Moment of Silence for victims of police brutality.'

Public outcry: Here Rev. Traci Blackmon talks to demonstrators at the site where Michael Brown was shot and killed

Don't shoot: Protestors are outraged about the death of unarmed Michael Brown

Teach For America added: 'We are joining tonight's #NMOS14 at 7pm ET.'

Governor Nixon championed people's right to publicly protest on Thursday but said that Ferguson would not tolerate violence.

'Ferguson will not be defined as a community that was torn apart by violence but will be known as a community that pulled together to overcome it,' Nixon said at a news conference earlier on Thursday.

'What's gone on here over the last few days is not what Missouri is about, it is not what Ferguson is about. This is a place where people work, go to school, raise their families and go to church, a diverse community, a Missouri community,' he added.

His strong words followed a phone call from Obama earlier in the day, where the President expressed concern over how the protests were being handled.

TAKING CHARGE: WHO ARE THE MISSOURI HIGHWAY PATROL? The Missouri State Highway Patrol today took over command of response to protests in Ferguson following the cop shooting of a black teenager, Michael Brown.

The primary purpose of the highway patrol 'is to enforce the traffic laws and promote safety upon the highways', according to Chapter 43 of the State Highway Patrol statute in Missouri, dated August 2013.

However the legislation goes on to say that Missouri state highway patrol has 'full power and authority' as a law enforcement agency.

Highway patrol officers have jurisdiction anywhere in the state of Missouri.

Heavily-militarized units of officers have been patrolling the streets of Ferguson, a St Louis suburb, deploying canisters of tear gas, rubber bullets and smoke bombs.

St Louis County police spokesman Brian Schellman said officers on Wednesday night, the fourth night of violence, tossed tear gas to disperse a large crowd of protesters after some threw Molotov cocktails and rocks at officers. More than 10 people were arrested in Ferguson.

'In talking to these guys, it is scary,' Schellman said of officers on the front lines of the protest. 'They hear gunshots going off, and they don't know where they're coming from.'

Obama said today there was no place in America for police brutality but appealed for 'peace and calm' on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri following the cop shooting of Michael Brown.

The President has ordered the FBI and Department of Justice to conduct an 'open and transparent' investigation into the death of the unarmed 18-year-old student on Saturday. Obama said Brown's death occurred 'in heartbreaking and tragic circumstances'.

President Obama held a press conference from Martha's Vineyard today where he is on vacation. He appealed for peace and calm in Ferguson, Missouri following the fatal shooting of unarmed teen Michael Brown by a police officer

Despite speaking up for the public's right to demonstrate, the President went on to say there was 'no excuse' for violence against police or the looting which were done under the guise of protests.

Michael Brown was shot dead on Saturday night in Ferguson, Missouri by a police officer

He said: 'There is never an excuse for violence against police, or for those who would use this tragedy as a cover for vandalism or looting.

'There's also no excuse for police to use excessive force against peaceful protesters, or to throw protesters in jail for lawfully exercising their First Amendment rights.'

Obama also referred to the arrest of two journalists on Wednesday night, saying that it was not acceptable for police to arrest reporters who were just doing their job by sharing with the public what they saw on the ground.

The President held a press conference from his vacation spot in Martha's Vineyard on Thursday afternoon to address the escalating situation in Missouri.

Obama spoke with Attorney General Eric Holder today who was closely following the situation in Ferguson.

The Department of Justice will conduct an independent investigation into Brown's death.

'I made clear to the Attorney General that we should do what is necessary to help determine exactly what happened and to see that justice is done,' he said.

Obama called the images of clashes between police and protesters as 'deeply disturbing' but said that he had faith in Missouri Governor Jay Nixon to restore peace and ensure that justice is done.

President Obama speaks with Attorney-General Eric Holder on Thursday on the escalating situation in Ferguson, Missouri. The President has tasked the Department of Justice with conducting an 'open and transparent' investigation into teenager Michael Brown's death

Obama calls for peace in Missouri after shooting

Obama said he had spoken with Governor Nixon, calling him a 'good man' and a 'fine governor'. adding that he had faith in him to take control of the situation.

The President said that although 'emotions are raw in Ferguson', it must be remembered that behind the widespread unrest was the death of a young man.

He said: 'We lost a young man, Michael Brown, in heartbreaking and tragic circumstances. He was 18 years old, and his family will never hold Michael in their arms again.'

An individual called tef_poe posted this image on Instagram earlier today as evidence of police tactics in Ferguson which has involved rubber bullets, tear gas and smoke bombs. The caption said that this lady is a pastor and was praying when she was shot by a rubber bullet

Howard University students, pictured today, standing up in protest against the shooting of black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri

Obama closed his remarks by saying: 'Let's remember that we're all part of one American family. We are united in common values and that includes the belief in equality under the law, respect for public order and the right to peaceful public protests.'

Governor Nixon traveled to Ferguson on Thursday where he announced there would be an 'operational shift' in policing in the town.

Nixon has faced criticism for not doing more to control the violence in the St Louis suburb.

At the community meeting, Sierra Smith, who lives in the neighborhood where Brown was shot, told the governor 'the police have no respect at all for the community'.

Nixon responded that the Bill of Rights gives the people 'the right speak truth to power' and 'we will work to live out those rights'.

NewsChannel 5 reported that the FBI will now take the reins in Ferguson, overseeing a large part of the investigation into the shooting. The FBI will also be in charge of operations and protests in the suburb.

The local police, including St Louis County, will be under the charge of the FBI. The Department of Justice are also sending special prosecutors to assist with the investigation.

Reporter recounts experience being arrested in Missouri

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon told clergy and community leaders today at a church that there will be an 'operational shift' in law enforcement in Ferguson, with the FBI taking greater control

President Obama (pictured on vacation in Martha's Vineyard today) talks on phone with Missouri Governor Jay Nixon about the escalating unrest in Ferguson today

Governor promises 'a different tone' in Ferguson

Radio airs confrontation between police and protesters

During a fourth night of protests over the teen's death in Ferguson on Thursday, heavily-armed SWAT police trained their guns on the public and fired tear gas to disperse crowds.

An estimated 500 people ignored the night curfew imposed by police and instead faced-off against officers chanting: 'Hands Up! Don't Shoot!'

After repeatedly asking them to disperse, the riot police then fired tear gas into the crowd to break it up.

The protesters that remained began pitched street battles with police and lobbed Molotov cocktails at the camouflage-clad officers who responded with more tear gas, rubber bullets and smoke bombs.

There were no immediate reports of injuries from the violence but later on Thursday, an image was posted to an Instagram account by 'tef_poe' showing a middle-aged lady, identified as a Pastor of America, who had been praying when she was hit with a rubber bullet.

The rubber bullet left a bloody wound ringed with dark bruising on the woman's abdomen. A caption next to the image read: 'For all those who think this is a joke or think we are being irrational, this lady is a pastor she was praying when they shot her.'

There were at least ten arrests. Among them were two journalists, working for the Huffington Post and Washington Post, who were arrested while working in a McDonald's. Ryan J. Reilly and Wesley Lowery were taken into custody but later released.

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Fri, 15 Aug 2014 17:06

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Fri, 15 Aug 2014 16:51

4288595

U.S. District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan Thursday ordered the Internal Revenue Service to come up with new answers after IRS employees contradicted sworn testimony about damage to Lois Lerner's hard drive.

Sullivan ruled that ''the IRS is hereby ORDERED to file a sworn Declaration, by an official with the authority to speak under oath for the Agency, by no later than August 22, 2014'" on four issues: the IRS' attempted recovery of Lerner's lost emails after her computer allegedly crashed, bar codes that could have been on the hard drive, IRS policies on hard drive destruction, and information about an outside vendor who worked on IRS hard drives.

Recent documents from nonprofit group Judicial Watch's Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the IRS, which Sullivan is presiding over, showed that IRS technology officials contradicted sworn testimony about damage to Lerner's hard drive.

Aaron Signor, an IRS technician that looked at Lerner's hard drive in June 2011, said in IRS court filings that he saw no damage to the drive before sending it off to another IRS technician, leading some in the media to suggest that the lost emails scandal is basically over. But Signor's statement, issued in response to the Judicial Watch lawsuit, does not jibe with sworn congressional testimony.

The Daily Caller reported that Lerner's hard drive was ''scratched'' and then ''shredded,'' according to a court filing the IRS made to the House Committee on Ways and Means. (RELATED: How To Destroy A Hard Drive: IRS Edition)

The IRS technology official who served as the source of the ''scratched'' and ''shredded'' revelation is believed to have looked at the hard drive after Signor.

Sullivan's order seems to have been motivated by the obvious contradiction. Judicial Watch said that Sullivan made the order because the IRS' new court filing featuring Signor's statement was a ''joke.''

''In an extraordinary step, U. S. District Court Judge Emmett Sullivan has launched an independent inquiry into the issue of the missing emails associated with former IRS official Lois Lerner,'' Judicial Watch said in a statement. ''Previously, Judge Sullivan ordered the IRS to produce sworn declarations about the IRS email issue by August 11. Today's order confirms Judicial Watch's read of this week's IRS' filings that treated as a joke Judge Sullivan's order.''

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