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MONITORING FOR ALL COMING FROM EBOLA NATIONS WASHINGTON (AP) -- Significantly expanding their vigilance, federal health officials said Wednesday that they would begin monitoring all travelers - even Americans - who come to the U.S. from Ebola-stricken West African nations for 21 days.

Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the expanded screening would begin Monday in six states - New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, New York and Georgia.

He said the new system would further protect Americans. “The bottom line is that we have to keep our guard against Ebola,” he said.

Travelers from those countries will be given information cards and a thermometer and be required to make daily check-ins with state or local health officials to report their status. He said the check-ins could be in person, by telephone, Skype or Facetime or through employers - CDC was consulting with the state and local officials to help them work that out.

The travelers would be required to report any travel plans.

Frieden said if they don’t cooperate, they would be immediately called in.

EBOLA: WHY VIRUS KILLS SOME, OTHER PEOPLE SURVIVE

Dr. Tom Frieden, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, speaks at a news conference in Atlanta. People who shared an apartment with the country’s first Ebola patient are emerging from quarantine healthy. And while Thomas Eric Duncan died and two U.S. nurses were infected caring for him, there are successes, too: A nurse infected in Spain has recovered, as have four American aid workers infected in West Africa. Even there, not everyone dies.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- People who shared an apartment with the country’s first Ebola patient are emerging from quarantine healthy. And while Thomas Eric Duncan died and two U.S. nurses were infected caring for him, there are successes, too: A nurse infected in Spain has recovered, as have four American aid workers infected in West Africa. Even there, not everyone dies.

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C O R P O R A T E G I A N T S F U N D I N G S TAT E B A L L O T WASHINGTON (AP) -- Voters may not know it, but the millions of dollars paying for ads on ballot measures they will consider next month come from large companies and national advocacy groups.

Many of the messages are tailored to defend or expand the business interests of companies such as Coca-Cola, Monsanto and ExxonMobil, yet few have their names in the ads.

California, home to some of the nation’s most expensive media markets, has the two priciest ballot questions as measured by TV ads.

It’s not clear why Ebola runs a different course in different people. But how rapidly symptoms appear depends partly on how much virus a patient was initially exposed to, McCormick said.

The World Health Organization has made clear that there’s far more virus in blood, vomit and feces than in other bodily fluids.

There is no specific treatment for Ebola but specialists say basic supportive care - providing intravenous fluids and nutrients, and maintaining blood pressure - is crucial to give the body time to fight off the virus. continued on page 2

Consumer Watchdog, a national advocacy group, teamed up with trial lawyers to back the measure. Lawyers stand to benefit because higher judgments against doctors translate to higher attorney fees.

That coalition, calling itself Yes on Prop 46, has spent $3.9 million so far on ads supporting the measure.

Ballot measures are a reliable way to motivate a party’s base. For incontinued on page 2

US JOURNALIST RECOVERS; EBOLA ‘CZAR’ GETS TO WORK hospital since Oct. 6, the second Ebola patient treated there.

The hospital said that tests show Mukpo is now free of the virus and he would be allowed to leave its biocontainment unit Wednesday.

The end of quarantine for 43 people in Dallas who had contact with Duncan “simply supports what most of us who know something about the disease have been saying all along: It’s not that easily spread,” said Dr. Joseph McCormick of the University of Texas School of Public Health. Formerly with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, McCormick worked on the first known Ebola outbreak in 1976 and numerous other outbreaks of Ebola and related hemorrhagic viruses.

Only after enough virus is produced do symptoms appear, starting with fever, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. And only then is someone contagious.

A proposition to require drug testing for doctors and allow more expensive malpractice lawsuits has drawn $23.1 million in advertising.

For example, $6.4 million in ads fundStickers wait for voters at a polling place in Philadelphia. Two weeks beed by Coloradans for Better Schools is fore election day, the nation’s likely voters have started seeing eye-to-eye But the bulk of the spending opposes backed by the Rhode Island-based Twin with the election prognosticators. Most now expect the Republican Party to the measure under the No on 46 banner.

Rivers Casino in favor of a ballot ini- take control of the U.S. Senate, according to a new Associated Press-GfK Doctors and hospital and insurance compoll. And by a growing margin, more say that’s the outcome they’d like to panies have helped fund $19.1 million tiative that would expand gambling to see. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File) trying to stop the ballot measure. horse tracks. Opponents, calling themselves Don’t Turn Racetracks Into Casinos, are backed by a group of Colorado casinos and are helping fund $5.7 million in ads to defend Consumer advocates and the California Nurses Association have thrown their money behind a separate proposition that would require insurers their turf. to receive approval for rate hikes from the state insurance commissionThrough Oct. 20, TV ad spending on ballot issues totaled roughly $119 er, an elected regulator. Ballot committees supporting the measure have million, according to an analysis conducted by the Washington-based aired more than $679,000 in ads so far with the label Consumer WatchCenter for Public Integrity, based on preliminary data from media track- dog Campaign. ing service Kantar Media/CMAG. Four of the five most expensive ballot initiatives - a process designed to give voters a direct say over public But their messages have been crowded out by those of insurers and doctors, who are spending almost $20 million on ads opposing the measures policy - feature at least one corporate patron. through a group branded No on 45. The two California ballot questions Voters may not readily identify the patrons behind the hundreds of mil- account for almost one-third of such spending nationwide. lions of dollars in ads using family farmers, concerned doctors and smiling teachers as spokespeople, as the corporations set up outside groups There are likely many more ads to come: Groups opposing the two measures together have raised more than $100 million, according to Califorwith nondescript names to handle the political ads. nia campaign finance records.

For instance, food industry giants Monsanto, the J.M. Smucker Co., Coca-Cola and Pepsi are spending $3 million opposing an Oregon ballot Spending alone doesn’t mean the insurance companies are heading tomeasure that would require vendors to label genetically modified foods. ward victory. In 2010, a group backed by Pacific Gas & Electric Co. Voters see the ad spending labeled as being from the No on 92 Coalition. spent almost $14 million on ads supporting a California ballot measure Natural food companies are spending $2.1 million on ads to support the that would require local voter approval for any new government-backed utilities. The electric company lost, even though its opponents did not effort through a group called Vote Yes on Measure 92. buy any airtime.

Citizens in 26 states can put on ballots proposals that would create new laws or veto existing ones. Every state but Delaware offers voters the The spending isn’t limited to California. Voters are considering 158 such chance to weigh in on constitutional amendments approved by the legis- statewide ballot initiatives this year, down from the 184 they considered lature. Once an initiative is approved to go before voters, the ad deluge in 2010. But this year already has surpassed the $87 million spent on TV ads in 2010. begins.

So why do some people escape Ebola, and not others?

Ebola spreads by contact with bodily fluids, such as through a break in the skin or someone with contaminated hands touching the eyes or nose. Once inside the body, Ebola establishes a foothold by targeting the immune system’s first line of defense, essentially disabling its alarms. The virus rapidly reproduces, infecting multiple kinds of cells before the immune system recognizes the threat and starts to fight back.

Oct 20 thru Oct 27, 2014

Debra Berry, the mother of Dallas nurse Amber Vinson, said Tuesday her daughter is “doing OK, just trying to get stronger” while being treated at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. Fellow Dallas nurse Nina Pham’s condition has been upgraded from fair to good at the National Institutes of Health outside Washington.

At the White House, Obama was meeting with his new Ebola coordinator Ron Klain and top aides Wednesday afternoon.

Registered nurse Keene Roadman, stands fully dressed in personal protective equipment during a training class at the Rush University Medical Center, in Chicago. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidelines Monday, Oct. 20, for how health workers should gear up to treat Ebola patients. (

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A TV news cameraman treated for Ebola was ready to go home Wednesday, the fifth patient transported from West Africa to recover at a U.S. hospital, as President Barack Obama brought together top aides and his new Ebola “czar” to coordinate a national response to the deadly disease.

Two nurses remain hospitalized after catching the virus from a Liberian man who came down with Ebola symptoms after arriving in the U.S. and died at a Dallas hospital. Because of their cases, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued more stringent safety guidelines this week and is working with states to spread them to health care workers across the country.

“Recovering from Ebola is a truly humbling feeling,” American video journalist Ashoka Mukpo said in a statement Tuesday from the Nebraska Medical Center. “Too many are not as fortunate and lucky as I’ve been. I’m very happy to be alive.”

The virus has killed more than 4,500 people in West Africa, nearly all in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Mukpo, of Providence, Rhode Island, got it while working in Liberia as a freelance cameraman for NBC and other media outlets. He has been at the Nebraska

Under heavy criticism for the government’s handling of the first Ebola case diagnosed within the U.S., Obama reached for help last week from Ron Klain, a veteran political operator and former chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden. Klain will coordinate the array of federal agencies dealing with Ebola in the U.S. and helping to tackle the crisis in West Africa.

The Obama administration has resisted pressure to ban travel from the Ebola-stricken countries but was tightening rules in an effort to ensure that all arrivals from the three nations are screened for the disease.

Under restrictions taking effect Wednesday, air travelers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea must enter the United States through one of five airports doing special screenings and fever checks. A handful of people had been arriving at other airports and missing the checks.

A total of 562 air travelers have been checked in the screenings that started Oct. 11 at New York’s Kennedy airport and expanded to four others last week, Homeland Security officials said. Four were taken from Washington’s Dulles airport to a local hospital. None had Ebola.

The other airports are Newark’s Liberty, Chicago’s O’Hare and continued on page 4

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SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS TO GO UP BY 1.7 PERCENT

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Millions of older Americans who rely on federal benefits will get a 1.7 percent increase in their monthly payments next year, the government announced Wednesday.

Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers, or CPI-W, a broad measure of consumer prices generated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

It measures price changes for food, housing, clothing, transportation, energy, medical care, recreation and education.

It’s the third year in a row the increase will be less than 2 percent.

The annual cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, affects payments to more than 70 million Social Security recipients, disabled veterans and federal retirees. That’s more than a fifth of the country.

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The increase amounts to about $20 a month for the typical Social Security recipient.

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“The COLA helps beneficiaries of all ages maintain their standard of living, keeping many from falling into poverty by providing partial protection against inflation,” said Jo Ann Jenkins, who heads AARP.

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The government announced the benefit increase Wednesday, when it released the latest measure of consumer prices. By law, the increase is based on inflation, which is well below historical averages so far this year.

For example, gasoline prices have dropped over the past year while the cost of clothing is up by less than 1 percent, according to the September inflation report released Wednesday.

The cost of meat, fish and eggs is up by nearly 10 percent, but the overall cost of food is up just 3.1 percent.

Medical costs, which disproportionately affect older Americans, are up 1.9 percent over the past year.

Congress enacted automatic increases for Social Security beneficiaries in 1975, when inflation was high and there was a lot of pressure to regularly raise benefits.

For the first 35 years, the COLA was less than 2 percent only three times. Next year, the COLA will be less than 2 percent for the fifth time in six years. This year’s increase was 1.5 percent, the year before it was 1.7 percent.

Social Security is financed by a 12.4 percent payroll tax on the first $117,000 of a worker’s wages - half is paid by the worker and half is paid by the employer. Next year, the wage cap will increase to $118,500, the Social Security Administration said.

About 59 million retirees, disabled workers, spouses and children get Social Security benefits. The average monthly payment is $1,192.

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The COLA also affects benefits for about 4 million disabled veterans, 2.5 million federal retirees and their survivors, and more than 8 million people who get Supplemental Security Income, the disability program for the poor.

By law, the cost-of-living adjustment is based on the Consumer

C O R P O R AT E G I A N T S continued from page 1

stance, liberal groups helped get measures to raise the minimum wage on five states’ ballots this fall. Yet only Nebraska’s appears to have drawn TV ads: a paltry $79,000 worth.

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The Center for Public Integrity reviewed data about political advertising on national cable and broadcast television in each of the country’s 210 media markets. The organization used research from Kantar Media/ CMAG, which tracks political advertising and offers a widely accepted estimate of the money spent to air each spot between Jan. 1, 2013, and Monday.

The group also used data from the National Institute on Money in State Politics.

These figures only represent part of the money spent on political advertising. They do not include the money spent on ads on radio, online and direct mail, nor do the numbers reflect ads that aired on local cable systems. The estimates also do not account for the cost of making the ads.

That means the total cost of spending on political ads is likely significantly higher.

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The COLA is calculated by comparing consumer prices in July, August and September each year with prices in the same three months from the previous year. If prices go up over the course of the year, benefits go up, starting with payments delivered in January.

“In the last several years we have had extremely low inflation,” said economist Polina Vlasenko, a research fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research. “Basically because inflation is low, the cost-of-living adjustment is going to be low, too. It’s supposed to just compensate you for inflation.”

Advocates for seniors say the government’s measure of inflation doesn’t accurately reflect price increases faced by older Americans because they tend to spend more of their income on health care. The rise in medical costs has slowed in recent years, but people hit with serious illnesses can still see their individual costs soar.

People on Medicare, the government health insurance program for older Americans, usually have their Part B premiums deducted from Social Security payments. The premiums, which cover outpatient care, are scheduled to stay the same next year $104.90 a month.

However, federal retirees face a 3.8 percent increase in their health insurance premiums next year, said Joseph A. Beaudoin, president of the National Active and Retired Federal Employees Association.

“News of the cost-of-living adjustment for the coming year always is eagerly awaited by the countless Americans who rely on the increase to keep up with the rising price of food, housing, transportation and medical care,” Beaudoin said in a statement.

“However, despite the partial relief this COLA will provide, the announcement is a reminder that our method for calculating the increasing cost of goods and services is out of sync with the reality faced by millions of federal (retirees), Social Security recipients and military retirees.”

SOUTHWEST AIRLINES 3Q PROFIT RISES 2 7 P E R C E N T DALLAS (AP) -- More passengers and lower fuel prices are pushing Southwest Airlines to record profits, and the airline expects an even bigger break at the gas pump this winter.

CEO Gary Kelly says the trend toward higher revenue has continued into October, and bookings for November and December look good.

Southwest Airlines Co. said Thursday that net income rose 27 percent to $329 million , or 48 cents per share, in the July-to-September quarter.

Excluding one-time items such as the falling value of some fuel-hedging contracts, the profit would have been 55 cents per share. On that basis, analysts expected 53 cents per share, according to FactSet. Revenue rose 5.6 percent to $4.80 billion, a tick better than analysts’ forecast of $4.79 billion.

The average one-way fare inched higher - to $160.74, an increase of $1.35 from last summer. Passengers flew 5.6 percent more miles, and planes carried record loads - the average flight was 84.4 percent full, an increase from 80.8 percent the year before.

Southwest spent $2.94 per gallon on fuel in the third quarter, down from $3.06 a year earlier. And the discount will grow - the airline predicted that it will pay between $2.70 and $2.75 per gallon in the fourth quarter.

Fuel spending dropped 4.4 percent in the third quarter, but labor costs rose 7.2 percent.

Southwest Airlines shares rose 90 cents, or 2.6 percent, to $35.10 in premarket trading 90 minutes before the market opening.

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OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) -- Two deadly attacks in three days against members of the military stunned Canadians and raised fears their country was being targeted for reprisals for joining the U.S.-led air campaign against an extremist Islamic group in Iraq and Syria.

Investigators offered little information about the gunman in Ottawa, identified as 32-year-old petty criminal Michael Zehaf-Bibeau. But Harper said: “In the days to come we will learn about the terrorist and any accomplices he may have had.”

Witnesses said the soldier posted at the National War Memorial, identified as Cpl. Nathan Cirillo, was gunned down at point-blank range by a man carrying a rifle and dressed all in black, his face half-covered with a scarf. The gunman appeared to raise his arms in triumph, then entered Parliament, a few hundred yards away, where dozens of shots soon rang out, according to witnesses.

Canada Prime Minister Stephen Harper speaks during a televised address to the nation in Ottawa, Ontario, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2014. A masked gunman killed a soldier standing guard at Canada’s war memorial Wednesday, then stormed Parliament in an attack that was stopped cold when he was shot to death by the ceremonial sergeant-at-arms.

On Thursday, Ottawa police Constable Marc Soucy told The Associated Press police are now satisfied there was only one attacker.

On Twitter, Canada’s justice minister and other government officials credited 58-year-old sergeant-at-arms Kevin Vickers with shooting the attacker just outside the MPs’ caucus rooms. Vickers serves a largely ceremonial role at the House of Commons, carrying a scepter and wearing rich green robes, white gloves and a tall imperial hat.

At least three people were treated for minor injuries.

In Washington, President Barack Obama condemned the shootings as “outrageous” and said: “We have to remain vigilant.” The U.S. Embassy in Ottawa was locked down as a precaution, and security was tightened at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery just outside Washington.

Police said in the initial hours after the shootings that as many as two other gunmen may have taken part. But as the day wore on, it appeared increasingly likely that the attack was the work of a single gunman.

Harper vowed that the attacks will “lead us to strengthen our resolve and redouble our efforts” to keep the country safe and work with Canada’s allies to fight terrorists.

Court records that appear to be the gunman’s show that he had a long

N O R T H K O R E A N D E TA I N E E REUNITES WITH FAMILY IN OHIO Pyongyang who had not been convicted of charges.

The two others were each sentenced to years in North Korean prisons after court trials that lasted no more than 90 minutes. The three Americans entered North Korea separately.

WEST CARROLLTON, Ohio (AP) -- An American arrested and held for nearly six months in North Korea for leaving a Bible at a nightclub returned home to Ohio on Wednesday to tears of joy and hugs from his wife and surprised children.

A plane carrying Jeffrey Fowle landed Wednesday morning at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton, where he was reunited with his family.

Moments after Fowle, carrying two bags, stepped off a plane at the base just after 6:30 a.m., his three children and wife ran from a nearby airplane hangar and shared hugs.

Base Col. John Devillier said Fowle had a tearful reunion, and that Fowle was happy and seemed thrilled to be back in the U.S.

“I was just taking off my jacket to go into caucus. I hear this pop, pop, pop. Possibly 10 shots, don’t really know. Thought it was dynamite or construction rather than anything else,” said John McKay, a member of Parliament.

He said security guards then came rushing down the halls, herding them toward the back of the buildings.

“And then we started talking to another woman and she was apparently inside the library of Parliament, saw the fellow, wearing a hoodie, carrying a gun,” McKay said, “and then the implications of this start to sink in.”

The attack came two days after a recent convert to Islam killed the Canadian soldier and injured another with his car in a parking lot in the Quebec city of Saint-Jean-Sur-Richelieu. The killer had been on the radar of federal investigators, who feared he had jihadist ambitions and seized his passport when he tried to travel to Turkey.

Canada had raised its domestic terror threat level from low to medium Tuesday because of what it called “an increase in general chatter from radical Islamist organizations.” As recently as Tuesday, Canada sent eight fighter jets to the Mideast to join the battle against Islamic State.

WHY VIRUS KILLS continued from page 1

Fowle was flown out of North Korea on a U.S. military jet that was spotted at Pyongyang’s international airport Tuesday by two Associated Press journalists. There was no immediate explanation for the release of Fowle, who was whisked to the U.S. territory of Guam before heading back to his wife and three children in Ohio.

“The key issue is balance between keeping their blood pressure up by giving them fluids, and not pushing them into pulmonary edema where they’re literally going to drown,” McCormick said.

State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said Tuesday that Fowle was seen by doctors and appeared to be in good medical health. She declined to give more details about his release except to thank the government of Sweden, which has an embassy in Pyongyang, for its “tireless efforts.”

Death usually is due to shock and organ failure.

Harf would not say whether any American officials had intervened directly with the North Koreans.

Relations between Washington and Pyongyang, never warm, are at a particularly low point, and the U.S. has sought unsuccessfully for months to send a high-level representative to North Korea to negotiate acquittals for all three men.

In Berlin, Secretary of State John Kerry said “there was no quid pro quo” for the release of Fowle.

“We are very concerned about the remaining American citizens who are in North Korea, and we have great hopes that North Korea will see the benefit of releasing them also as soon as possible,” Kerry told reporters.

Devillier said Fowle’s family hadn’t told the children why they were being brought to the base and that it was a surprise for them to see their father walk off the plane.

The United States has no diplomatic relations with North Korea and strongly warns American citizens against traveling to the country.

“The reaction from his children was priceless,” Devillier said. “They hadn’t seen their dad in some time. The expectation would be that they would get teary eyed and they did, and I did, too. It’s great to welcome him home.”

A report released by the Korean Central News Agency on Wednesday said Kim Jong Un, the leader of North Korea, took “a special measure” by releasing Fowle, who was referred to as a “U.S. criminal.” The report said Kim took “into consideration the repeated requests of U.S. President Barack Obama.”

Standing beside Fowle, his wife and their three children outside the family’s home in rural southwest Ohio later Wednesday, family attorney Timothy Tepe said Fowle had been treated well by the North Korean government and needed time to adjust to life at home.

Fowle arrived there on April 29 and was arrested in May for leaving a Bible at the nightclub.

He had been awaiting trial - the only one of three Americans held by

Cabinet minister Tony Clement tweeted that at least 30 shots were heard inside Parliament, where Conservative and Liberal MPs were holding their weekly caucus meetings.

Profuse vomiting and diarrhea can cause dehydration. Worse, in the most severe cases, patients’ blood vessels start to leak, causing blood pressure to drop to dangerous levels and fluid to build up in the lungs.

“We’re in constant touch with their families, we’re working on their release, we’ve talked to the Chinese and others, and we have a high focus on it,” he said.

The news of Fowle’s return came about six months after he was taken into custody. Fowle said in interviews with The Associated Press that he left a Bible at a nightclub. Christian evangelism is considered a crime in North Korea.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. had video of the gunman going to his car alone with his weapon after the shooting at the memorial. The car was later spotted parked in front of Parliament Hill, just down the block.

Tepe said the Fowle family, despite their joy, is mindful that two other Americans continue to be detained by North Korea and they understand the disappointment their families are experiencing.

“We had a great reunion for an American citizen coming home,” he said.

“The past 24 hours have been a whirlwind for Jeff and his family. Jeff needs some time right now to get adjusted to his life at home,” Tepe said.

rap sheet, with a string of convictions for assault, robbery, drug and weapons offenses, and other crimes.

“I looked out the window and saw a shooter, a man dressed all in black with a kerchief over his nose and mouth and something over his head as well, holding a rifle and shooting an honor guard in front of the cenotaph point-blank, twice,” Zobl told the Canadian Press news agency. “The honor guard dropped to the ground, and the shooter kind of raised his arms in triumph holding the rifle.”

People fled the complex by scrambling down scaffolding erected for renovations, while others took cover inside as police with rifles and body armor took up positions outside and cordoned off the normally bustling streets around Parliament.

Jeffrey Fowle is greeted by family members upon his arrival, early Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2014, at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. Fowle was detained for nearly half a year in North Korea after leaving a Bible at a nightclub. Christian evangelism is considered a crime in North Korea.

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Tony Zobl said he witnessed the Canadian soldier being gunned down from his fourth-floor window directly above the National War Memorial, a 70-foot (21.34-meter), arched granite cenotaph, or tomb, with bronze sculptures commemorating World War I.

“We will not be intimidated. Canada will never be intimidated,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper vowed in a nationally televised address hours after a masked gunman killed a soldier standing guard at Ottawa’s war memorial shortly before 10 a.m. on Wednesday.

The suspect then stormed Parliament in a dramatic attack that was stopped cold when he was shot to death by the ceremonial sergeantat-arms.

Harper called it the country’s second terrorist attack in three days. A man Harper described as an “ISIL-inspired terrorist” on Monday ran over two soldiers in a parking lot in Quebec, killing one and injuring another before being shot to death by police. Like the suspect from Wednesday’s shooting in Ottawa, he was a recent convert to Islam.

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The city where Fowle worked as a streets department employee terminated his employment last month.

“We’re delighted to hear the news and look forward to him returning to the community and his family,” David Hicks, Moraine’s city manager, said Tuesday.

The Dayton Daily News reported last month that the city said Fowle’s term

“We depend on the body’s defenses to control the virus,” said Dr. Bruce Ribner, who runs the infectious disease unit at Atlanta’s Emory University Hospital, which successfully treated three aid workers with Ebola and now is treating one of the Dallas nurses.

“We just have to keep the patient alive long enough in order for the body to control this infection,” he said.

What about experimental treatments? Doctors at Emory and Nebraska Medical Center, which successfully treated another aid worker and now is treating a video journalist infected in West Africa, say there’s no way to know if those treatment really helped. Options include a plasma transfusion, donated by Ebola survivors who have antibodies in their blood able to fight Ebola, or a handful of experimental drugs that are in short supply.

But survival also can depend on how rapidly someone gets care.

It also may be affected by factors beyond anyone’s control: McCormick’s research suggests it partly depends on how the immune system reacts early on - whether too many white blood cells die before they can fight the virus. Other research has linked genetic immune factors to increased survival.

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All lanes are open on Interstate 95 southbound at Palmetto Park Road after an earlier wreck Thursday morning, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. CLEARED: Crash in Palm Beach on I-95 south at Exit 44 Palmetto Park Rd, 2 right lanes blocked.[...]

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A Lakeland man driving east on Interstate 4 crashed a tractor-trailer carrying concrete beams at the U.S. 301 exit this morning, the Florida Highway Patrol reported.[...]

Car struck back of cruiser investigating earlier accident A Florida Highway Patrol cruiser was rear-ended on Interstate 95 in St. Johns County on Wednesday morning, one of two state troopers who had stopped to assist with an earlier accident was injured, and a woman suffered life-threatening injuries,

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A 62-year-old Tampa man died Wednesday morning after he had medical condition while driving on Interstate 275 and crashed, the Florida Highway Patrol said.[...]

Pick-up lodged under semi, WB I-4 lanes blocked at Thonotosassa Rd. All westbound lanes of I-4 are blocked after an accident involving a Publix semi-truck and a pick-up truck. The Florida Highway Patrol said it happened shortly before 7 a.m. near Thonotosassa Road.

Northbound I-275 lanes are now open The northbound Interstate 275 lanes are open again after being shut down earlier because of an accident.[...]

OCT 23, 2014 07:09AM

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________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The Weekly News Digest, Oct 20 thru Oct 27, 2014

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E X C L U S I V E E L E C T I O N B O D Y A T H E A R T O F H K P R O T E S T S HONG KONG (AP) -- It’s among the most powerful clubs in this city of enormous wealth and influence. Only 1,200 people are allowed in, and they decide who leads Hong Kong every five years.

People’s Congress, can be trusted to vote Beijing’s way, said Dixon Sing, a political science professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. The Congress’ August decision requires any candidate for chief executive to receive more than half of the committee’s support, raising the threshold from the current 15 percent.

As thousands of protesters block city streets demanding democratic reforms, the future of Hong Kong’s exclusive - some would say purposefully opaque - election committee may prove key to defusing a high-stakes political standoff that has dragged on for nearly a month.

When Hong Kong and Chinese authorities launched the committee in 1997, they billed it as a diverse body where everyone from business leaders to fishermen to social workers would come together to choose Hong Kong’s top leader. In August, China’s powerful National People’s Congress picked the committee as the model for screening candidates in the city’s first election for chief executive in 2017. China agreed to hold elections beginning that year, with candidates named by a “broadly representative nominating committee,” in the deal that led the U.K. to hand over Hong Kong to China in 1997.

The problem, at least for thousands of student demonstrators, is both the committee’s track record and its labyrinthine rules for picking candidates.

In the three elections since its formation, the committee has chosen only chief executives loyal to the central Chinese government. Yet the city’s 3.5 million general voters have reliably cast more than half their ballots for pro-democracy legislative candidates critical of Beijing.

Demonstrators and even some committee members complain that business interests and pro-Beijing trade groups hold too much influence on the body.

Hundreds of seats are appointed rather than broadly elected.

Though a wide swath of workers are ostensibly represented, in many cases it is their employers who choose committee members.

Some Hong Kong tycoons, such as Asia’s richest person Li Kashing, can cast multiple votes because their businesses touch on different sectors represented by the committee.

“This is a kind of gerrymandering of votes that’s off the Richter

Many of those pro-Beijing ballots come from trade groups representing a negligible fraction of the city’s population and economy who were added at the central government’s insistence and who appoint rather than elect members, said Ken Tsang, a committee member who elected to represent social workers.

Riot police advance on a pro-democracy protest encampment in the Mong Kok district of Hong Kong early Sunday, Oct. 19, 2014. Hong Kong riot police battled with thousands of pro-democracy protesters for control of the city’s streets Saturday, using pepper spray and batons to hold back defiant activists who returned to a protest zone that officers had partially cleared.

scale, designed to keep the establishment camp in control,” said Michael Davis, a law professor at the University of Hong Kong.

Protesters are demanding that Chief Executive Leung Chun-Ying resign and that Beijing allow open nominations for Hong Kong’s leader in 2017. There is little chance that either demand will be met, but with the protest in a sort of stalemate, the composition of the nominating committee has emerged as a possible point of compromise.

During a meeting with reporters Tuesday, Leung said such proposals could be hashed out in a second upcoming consultation on the 2017 vote.

“How we should elect the 1,200 so that the nominating committee will be broadly representative - there’s room for discussion there,” Leung said. “There’s room to make the nominating committee more democratic, and this is one of the things we very much want to talk to not just the students but the community at large about.”

Student protest leaders continue to demand completely open nominations, but at least some pro-democracy protesters on the streets are willing to consider reforms to the committee instead.

EBOLA ‘CZAR’

“At least we need to bring more people into the committee,” said Kate Chow, a 33-year-old logistics manager who joined thousands at the main downtown protest site. “If we can choose more of these 1,200 people ourselves, I would be comfortable with that.”

Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson.

About 70 percent of committee members, from appointed representatives of commercial interests to seats guaranteed to the National

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The tightened rules for West African travelers come as Rwanda - an Ebola-free country in East Africa - said it would begin checking visiting Americans for the disease because of the three cases that occurred in the U.S. Many U.S. lawmakers and members of the public have been pushing for a ban on travel into the United States from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. Obama and federal health authorities say that could make the situation worse, by making it harder for foreign doctors and aid workers to get help to nations that desperately need it and can’t stop the outbreak on their own.

There are no direct flights from the three countries into the U.S. The government has said as many as 150 fliers per day arriving by various multi-leg routes was typical, but that number has dropped since the Ebola outbreak began in March.

When the Ebola screenings began at five airports, U.S. officials said about 6 percent of arrivals from the affected nations were coming through other airports that didn’t have the fever checks.

By changing that, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said, “We currently have in place measures to identify and screen anyone at all land, sea and air ports of entry into the United States who we have reason to believe has been present in Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea in the preceding 21 days.”

Homeland Security officials at the airports use no-touch thermometers to check for fever, which can be a symptom of Ebola infection.

People who have been infected with the virus may not develop a fever and illness for up to 21 days, however. The Liberian patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, wasn’t showing symptoms when he entered the United States, officials said.

In addition to Mukpo, three American doctors and an aide worker, all infected in Liberia or Sierra Leone, have been treated at the Neb

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www.redcross.org

“It’s difficult to find a fisherman in Hong Kong anymore, yet there are 60 of them within the 1,200, the same ratio as teachers, social workers and lawyers,” Tsang said. “That’s totally unreasonable and unfair and unbalanced. How can it happen like this?”

Scholars and protesters have proposed lowering the vote threshold for candidates, creating more groups within the committee that would represent more sectors of the city, and allowing all company employees to vote for committee members, rather than just their top executives.

Anson Chan, a former Hong Kong chief secretary who’s become a top pro-democracy advocate, suggested eliminating such “corporate” votes.

Willy Lam, a political analyst at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said room for compromise is shrinking, however, as protesters win more support. An opinion poll released by the university Wednesday showed 37.8 percent of respondents supporting the protesters, up from 31.1 percent in September. The researchers polled 802 Hong Kong residents from Oct. 8 to 15.

“The stakes have become higher so even those moderate pan-democratic legislators who before the movement might have been amenable to this compromise might have become more radicalized,” Lam said. “They see the tide seems to be turning in favor of more democracy.”

Yet Paul Zimmerman, a Hong Kong district councilor who ran for a spot on the 2011 committee but lost, said the city’s own laws and the National People’s Congress’ guidelines leave little room for negotiation. Diving into the nominating committee’s arcane rules and broadening its membership may offer the only way out.

“The only movable part is changing the constituency base of the nominating committee,” Zimmerman said. “It’d be quite a lot of footwork, but it can be done.”

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The Weekly News Digest, Oct 20 thru Oct 27, 2014

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A N A LY S I S : F O W L E WA S N O R T H K O R E A ’ S E A S I E S T U S C A S E

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) -- Why did North Korea free Jeffrey Fowle, and only him, when two other Americans remain in prison there? Probably because Pyongyang considered him the most minor of the three offenders, and may believe that releasing him could improve abysmal U.S. relations and even temper growing international criticism of its human-rights record.

Both Miller and Bae told the AP they believe their only chance of release is the intervention of a high-ranking government official or a senior U.S. statesman. Previously, former Vice President Al Gore and former President Jimmy Carter have come to Pyongyang to bring detainees back home.

Fowle was not accused of espionage or “hostile acts,” as the other Americans were. The 56-year-old was detained for six months for leaving a Bible in a nightclub in the city of Chongjin, where he was visiting with a foreign tour group.

North Korea’s calculus in releasing Fowle probably reflects several larger concerns.

North Korea is trying to counter criticism of its human-rights situation following the release earlier this year of a groundbreaking U.N. report laying out the regime’s widespread abuses against its own citizens.

The European Union and Japan have been pushing a U.N. resolution to refer North Korea to the International Criminal Court, and Pyongyang doesn’t want the issue to even get to a vote.

He was flown out of North Korea on Tuesday, on a U.S. military jet that two Associated Press journalists spotted at Pyongyang’s international airport. He was whisked to the U.S. territory of Guam before reuniting with his family early Wednesday at an Air Force base in Ohio.

His release follows a number of appeals recently from the North Korean government for Washington to take steps to resolve the matter. As part of its campaign to keep the issue on Washington’s radar, Pyongyang allowed Fowle and the other two detainees to meet with the AP and other media several times to discuss their predicament and plea for help from their government.

Fowle, whose case never went to trial, said he left the Bible at the nightclub on an impulse, and later regretted it. Christian evangelism can lead to harsh punishment and even prison time in North Korea, but Fowle was not seen as having planned out any larger, systematic attempt to violate North Korean laws.

That is not the case with Matthew Miller and Kenneth Bae, who are serving lengthy sentences.

U.S. officials had no immediate comment on whether any progress toward releasing Miller or Bae has been made.

The North’s official Korean Central News Agency said Fowle’s release was a “special measure” by leader Kim Jong Un, “taking into consideration the repeated requests” of President Barack Obama. The KCNA report provided no updates on the other two men.

Miller, who like Fowle entered the country on a tourist visa, ripped up the document at Pyongyang’s airport on April 10 and demanded asylum.

American Jeffrey Fowle is interviewed by journalists at the Koryo National Club in Pyongyang, North Korea. Fowle was detained for six months for leaving a Bible in a nightclub in the city of Chongjin, where he was visiting with a foreign tour group. He was flown out of North Korea on Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2014, on a U.S. military jet that two Associated Press journalists spotted at Pyongyang’s international airport. Why did North Korea free Fowle, and only him, when two other Americans remain in prison there?

Probably because Pyongyang considered him the most minor of the three offenders, and may believe that releasing him could improve abysmal U.S. relations and even temper growing international criticism of its human-rights record.

But North Korean authorities claim he intended to conduct espionage.

He was convicted and sentenced to six years in prison. During his brief trial six weeks ago, North Korean prosecutors said he admitted to the “wild ambition” of experiencing prison life so that he could secretly investigate North Korea’s human rights situation.

Late last month, he told the AP he was digging in fields eight hours a day and being kept in isolation.

Bae, 46, has been held since November 2012, when he was detained while leading a tour group in a special North Korean economic zone.

He was sentenced to 15 years in prison for “hostile acts” after being accused of smuggling in inflammatory literature and trying to establish a base for anti-government activities at a border city hotel. Bae is a Korean-American missionary, and his family believes he was detained because of his Christian faith.

Bae is suffering from chronic health issues, including back pain, diabetes, an enlarged heart and liver problems. He has said he feels abandoned by the U.S. government.

MAN SUSPECTED OF KILLING 7 REFUSES TO ANSWER JUDGE This undated photo provided by the Lake County Sheriff’s office shows Darren Vann. Vann, 43, of Gary, Ind., was charged Monday, Oct. 20, 2014 in the death of 19-year-old Afrikka Hardy, whose body was found Friday night at a Motel 6 in nearby Hammond, Ind. Hammond Police Chief John Doughty says Vann confessed to Hardy’s slaying and directed police to six bodies in Gary

CROWN POINT, Ind. (AP) -- A man who allegedly confessed to killing seven women in Indiana refused to respond to the judge during his initial court appearance Wednesday, prompting her to postpone it and to warn him he’d spend “the rest of his life” in jail unless he cooperates.

When the judge asked Darren Vann, 43, if he swore to tell the truth at his initial court appearance in the strangulation death of 19-year-old Afrikka Hardy, he didn’t respond or flinch and stood unmoving and stone-faced.

Lake Superior Court judge Kathleen Sullivan warned Vann, who stood with his wrists and legs shackled and flanked by two jail guards, he could be held in contempt and he still declined to speak.

“Mr. Vann, are you choosing not to take part in this hearing?” Sullivan asked Vann during the hearing in a courtroom at the Lake County Jail in Crown Point.

Sullivan then addressed Vann’s public defender, urging him to make his client speak.

“Tell your client that he stays in jail the rest of his life until this hearing takes place,” she said.

Vann’s public defender walked up to him and put his hand on Vann’s shoulder encouraging him to speak, but he refused.

Sullivan said she would schedule another initial hearing for next week.

Vann, a convicted sex offender, is charged with the strangulation death of Hardy, whose body was found Friday in a bathtub at a Motel 6 in Hammond, 20 miles south-

east of Chicago. Authorities said Hardy was involved in prostitution and had arranged to meet Vann at the motel through a Chicago-area website.

Police arrested him Saturday in Hardy’s death after obtaining a search warrant for Vann’s vehicle and home in nearby Gary. After his arrest, investigators say Vann directed them to the bodies of six other women in Gary whom he also confessed to killing. More charges are likely.

Officers found the body of 35-year-old Anith Jones, of Merrillville, Indiana, on Saturday night in an abandoned home. She had been missing since Oct. 8.

Five more bodies were found Sunday in other homes, said Hammond Police Chief John Doughty, who identified two of the women as Gary residents Teaira Batey, 28, and Kristine Williams, 36. Police have not determined the identities of the other three women, including two whose bodies were found on the same block where Jones’ body was found Saturday.

Investigators in Indiana and Texas, where he has also lived and served prison time, have been poring over cold case files and missing person reports to determine if there are more victims.

Vann was convicted in 2009 of raping a woman in his Austin, Texas, apartment. He was released from prison last year and moved back to Indiana.

Before that conviction, he served a year in prison in Indiana after he grabbed a Gary woman in a chokehold in 2004, doused her with gasoline and threatened to set her on fire.

In both the Texas and Indiana cases, the charges against Vann were reduced in plea bargains, and Texas officials deemed him a low risk for violence. Vann registered as a sex offender in Indiana and police made a routine check in September that he lived at the address he provided.

Additionally, relations between Washington and Pyongyang are particularly bad, raising the possibility that the U.S. could strengthen its sanctions against the North or call on its allies to clamp down harder.

On Tuesday, North Korea’s state-run Rodong Sinmun newspaper described relations with the U.S. at “the lowest ebb” since a 1994 diplomatic agreement between the two nations. Tuesday marked the 20th anniversary of that protocol, which froze Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons program in return for the provision of nuclear power reactors and the eventual normalization of ties with the United States.

The protocol has since unraveled. Subsequent aid-for-disarmament negotiations involving the U.S., North Korea, South Korea, Japan, China and Russia have been stalled since 2008. The newspaper editorial Tuesday spoke of a “hostile policy” of the U.S. and said Washington should not oppose North Korea’s nuclear deterrence.

Fowle’s release could thus be seen as an attempt to feel out Washington and see if there is any possibility of broader talks.

Analysts say North Korea has previously used detained Americans as leverage, a contention that Pyongyang denies. Washington, too, has floated the possibility of a diplomatic opening should North Korea free the detainees.

U.S. State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said Fowle was seen by doctors and appeared to be in good health. She declined to give more details about his release except to thank the government of Sweden for its “tireless efforts.” Sweden handles U.S. consular affairs in Pyongyang because the U.S. has no embassy there.

Harf would not say whether any American officials had intervened directly with the North Koreans.

“We’ll let the North Koreans speak for themselves about why did they decide to do this,” Harf said. “But we are pleased that he was able to leave, and urge the immediate release of the other two.”

The United States has no diplomatic relations with North Korea and strongly warns American citizens against traveling to the country.

NOKIA TURNAROUND SINCE HANDSET UNIT SALE CONTINUES HELSINKI (AP) -- Nokia appears to have turned around its fortunes after the sale of its ailing cellphone unit to Microsoft, reporting a third-quarter net profit of 747 million euros ($950 million), from a loss of 91 million euros a year earlier.

Sales grew 13 percent.

The result surprised markets, pushing Nokia Corp. stock up more than 6 percent to 6.90 euros in Helsinki.

CEO Rajeev Suri said he was pleased to note strong growth in all three remaining operations during the quarter - networks, mapping and software - saying the performance of the key networks sector was “particularly satisfying.”

Suri, who joined Nokia in 1995 and took over as CEO in May after the completion of the $7.2 billion sale of the handset and services unit to Microsoft, said the quarterly result “demonstrates our strong position in a world where technology is undergoing significant change.”

Nokia predicted strong growth to continue in the networks sector, which accounts for around 90 percent of Nokia’s revenue, but cautioned that annual expenditures were expected to be 250 million euros this year, compared with an earlier estimate of 200 million euros. Also, investments in technologies and patent licensing “will take time to come to fruition,” it said.

Sales in the period grew to 3.3 billion euros, from 2.9 billion euros a year earlier.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The Weekly News Digest, Oct 20 thru Oct 27, 2014

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I R A Q I K U R D S A U T H O R I Z E S E N D I N G F I G H T E R S T O K O B A N I

IRBIL, Iraq (AP) -- Lawmakers in Iraq’s largely autonomous Kurdish region voted Wednesday to authorize sending Kurdish fighters known as peshmerga to help defend the embattled town of Kobani in Syria, where fellow Kurds are facing an onslaught by militants of the Islamic State group.

Still, it was unprecedented for Turkey to promise to give Kurds passage to fight in Syria.

Ankara views the main Syrian Kurdish military force fighting IS militants - the People’s Protection Units, or YPG - as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK. That group has waged a 30-year insurgency in Turkey and is designated a terrorist group by the U.S. and NATO.

Kurdish officials said an unspecified number of fighters would be sent through Turkey to support their ethnic brethren in a battle playing out just across the Turkish border. The fight has grabbed the world’s attention and triggered sympathy for the outgunned Kurds.

Anwar Muslim, a Kobani-based senior Kurdish official, praised the decision, saying “all help is welcome.” He said there seemed to be a solidifying international push to help Kobani combat the militants.

As details of the deployment were being worked out, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the United States made a mistake in airdropping weapons to Kurdish fighters in Kobani earlier this week because some of the weapons ended up in IS hands.

“It turns out that what was done was wrong,” he said, according to Turkey’s private Dogan news agency.

REPORT BLASTS RABBIT MASSAGES A M ONG GO V’ T WAST E

Peshmerga spokesman Halgurd Hekmat in Irbil said Wednesday there is still a lot of uncertainty on the details of the deployment, including how many forces will be sent and when.

Thick smoke from an airstrike by the US-led coalition rises in Kobani, Syria, as seen from a hilltop on the outskirts of Suruc, at the Turkey-Syria border, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2014.

Kobani, also known as Ayn Arab, and its surrounding areas, has been under assault by extremists of the Islamic State group since mid-September and is being defended by Kurdish fighters.

Activists said Tuesday that the Islamic militants seized a small part of the airdrop. A video uploaded by a media group loyal to the Islamic State group showed it included hand grenades, ammunition and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.

The caches were airdropped early Monday to Kurds in embattled Kobani. Differences about how to defend Kobani have sparked tensions between Turkey and its NATO partners.

The vote by Kurdish lawmakers comes two days after Turkey said it would help Iraqi Kurdish fighters cross into Syria to support their brethren defending the town. Turkey in recent years has built friendly ties with the leadership of the largely autonomous Iraqi Kurdish region.

“We’re sending the peshmerga, not to become YPG but to fight alongside the YPG,” Hekmat said. “We will send the peshmerga to do their job for as long as they’re needed and to come back after that.”

Hekmat said Iraqi forces will also provide weapons, but he did not say what kind.

Turkey is under pressure to take greater action against the IS militants - not only from the West but also from Kurds in Syria and inside Turkey who accuse Ankara of standing by while their people are slaughtered. Earlier this month across Turkey, widespread protests threatened to derail promising talks to end the PKK insurgency.

Sunni extremists of the Islamic State group, which has rampaged across Iraq and Syria, have been attacking Kobani for a month. The U.S. and its allies are assisting the Kurds by conducting airstrikes targeting IS infrastructure in and around the town. Earlier this week, the U.S. air dropped weapons and other assistance to the Kurds for the first time.

$8M FOR 88 VICTIMS OF ABUSE B Y F R A N C I S C A N F R I A R

Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla. speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington. Coburn has released his annual collection of billions of dollars of government waste, citing examples like faulty missile defenses, unneeded airports and golf course repairs completed on taxpayers’ dollars. Coburn’s yearly “Wastebook” cites 100 examples, big and small, of questionable spending like a $347,000 alternative medicine grant to measure the benefits of massage on rabbits or $200,000 to upgrade Ithaca, New York’s SWAT team equipment.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A maverick Republican senator criticized faulty missile defenses, unneeded airports and golf course repairs among the projects completed on the taxpayers’ tab in his annual collection of billions of dollars of government waste, released Wednesday.

Sen. Tom Coburn, in his yearly “Wastebook,” cited 100 examples, big and small, of questionable spending, such as a $347,000 alternative medicine grant to measure the benefits of massage on which rabbits and $200,000 to upgrade Ithaca, New York’s SWAT team equipment.

The Oklahoman also blasted his Mississippi Republican colleagues for forcing funding of a $350 million NASA launch pad tower that was to have supported a rocket program shut down four years ago. The tower was immediately mothballed.

Coburn claimed to find waste totaling up to $25 billion, much of which comes in big chunks like the $3 billion annual budget for the International Space Station, which he says conducts research on projects like the “effect of microgravity on the growth of mold on white bread.” He also takes a dim view of $1 billion spent annually on a missile defense system that has a 30 percent success rate in tests that don’t copy real world conditions.

“Is each of these a true national priority or could the money have been better spent on a more urgent need or not spent at all in order to reduce the burden of debt being left to be paid off by our children and grandchildren?” Coburn asks.

Coburn has crusaded against “pork barrel” projects since coming to Congress in 1995. While he has been on the losing end of most votes, he cites several examples in which publicity ended waste, such as an almost $500,000 annual subsidy for an Oklahoma airport that had hardly any flights.

He criticized $4.6 million in overpriced housing for temporary Border Patrol agents in Arizona, an $18 million grant for an airport serving Sun Valley, Idaho, and Coast Guard patrols of private parties in ritzy coastal communities. There’s another $468 million for 20 Afghan Air Force planes that turned out to be unsuitable and are being scrapped, $335,000 for traffic humps in Portland, Maine, and more than $600,000 each year to send anthracite coal to heat U.S. military bases in Germany.

Coburn is retiring from Congress this year.

PITTSBURGH (AP) -Eighty-eight former students who were sexually molested by a Franciscan friar who worked as an athletic trainer at a Catholic high school have settled their legal claims for $8 million, according to two attorneys who represent more than half the victims.

Altoona attorney Richard Serbin represents 13 ex-students from the former Bishop McCort High School in Johnstown, and Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian represents 33. The students said they were abused by Brother Stephen Baker, who worked at the school, 60 miles east of Pittsburgh, from 1992 to 2001.

Baker, 62, committed suicide at his monastery in Newry by stabbing himself in the heart in January 2013. That occurred days after the Youngstown, Ohio, diocese disclosed abuse settlements with 11 former students who said they were abused by him at John F. Kennedy High School in Warren, Ohio, from 1986 to 1990.

News of those settlements prompted many of the Bishop McCort victims to come forward.

Serbin has been pursuing clergy abuse claims for nearly 30 years but said, “What’s unique here is the sheer number of students that were abused.”

“I’ve filed claims against child predators who have had multiple victims, but this certainly was a predator that was prolific, and the position he was given as an athletic trainer allowed him to have such easy access to young people,” Serbin said.

Garabedian said the victims settled for amounts between $60,000 and slightly more than $120,000 each, depending on the duration of abuse, its impact on their lives and other factors, including whether their claims would have been barred by the statute of limitations.

“The settlements will help the victims gain a degree of closure and assist them in trying to heal from these terrible acts of sexual abuse,” Garabedian said.

The school was owned and operated by the diocese, based 85 miles east of Pittsburgh, when the abuse occurred but has been operated since 2008 by an independent board, which renamed it Bishop McCort Catholic High School. The school’s principal, who served when Baker was on the staff, resigned in June 2013 as the abuse allegations surfaced.

School spokesman Matthew Beyon confirmed the settlement but declined to elaborate.

Altoona Bishop Mark Bartchak said in a statement: “The diocese hopes that this outcome will allow the victims to seek counseling and find the healing and comfort they deserve. We continue to pray for them and all victims of sexual abuse.”

Diocesan spokesman Tony DeGol announced in August that the sale of the bishop’s home was pending and that money from the nearly $1 million asking price might be used to care for sexual-misconduct victims.

Bartchak, who was not targeted in the abuse claims, has moved into the rectory at Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament in Altoona.

“Once again, you’re dealing with dioceses and religious orders that appear to be doing the right thing but are only reacting to getting caught,” Garabedian said.

The settlement also named a former Altoona bishop who headed the diocese when the abuse occurred; Baker’s order, the Franciscan Friars of the Third Order Regular, based in Loretto; and the related Province of the Immaculate Conception. Franciscan officials didn’t immediately return calls for comment.

The Diocese of Youngstown, Ohio, also participated in the settlement.

It said Tuesday that, although it was not named in any lawsuits filed in Pennsylvania, it elected to participate in the settlement “for reasons of pastoral concern and healing.”

The settlement is believed to cover nearly all the former Bishop McCort students, nearly all males, who have alleged abuse. Garabedian said another former student had just come forward and separate legal action will be taken on his behalf.

h t t p : / / w w w . l i p t o n t o y o t a . c o m /

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The Weekly News Digest, Oct 20 thru Oct 27, 2014

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‘ S I L I C O N B E A C H ’ B R I N G S T E C H B O O M T O L O S A N G E L E S

OS ANGELES (AP) -- So long Silicon Valley. These days entrepreneurs and engineers are flocking to a place better known for wave surfing than Web surfing. Amid the palm trees and purple sunsets of the Southern California coastline, techies have built “Silicon Beach.”

In the past few years Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and YouTube have opened offices on the west side of Los Angeles from Santa Monica south to Venice and Playa del Rey. They are joined by hundreds of startups including Hulu, Demand Media and Snapchat, which nixed a $3 billion takeover offer from Facebook. Major Hollywood players like The Walt Disney Co. and Time Warner Inc.’s Warner Bros. have launched startup accelerators to help local tech entrepreneurs. The city of Los Angeles even hired its first chief technology officer, former Qualcomm executive Peter Marx, earlier this year.

“Historically, Silicon Valley has been the center of gravity for tech and startups but I think more and more, these types of companies can be built anywhere,” says Erik Rannala, who moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles with his entrepreneurial partner William Hsu several years ago.

Rannala and Hsu oversee MuckerLab, a technology incubator in Santa Monica, California, that has invested in 45 startups such as flower marketplace BloomNation and online tuxedo rental outfit The Black Tux. Many of the ideas for the companies were hatched in MuckerLab’s concrete-walled space, which is covered with white boards and sticky tabs.

The vibe is eclectic. No office-park chic here. Graffiti murals mix with coffee shops, foodie scenes, and boutiques. Companies allocate ample space for bikes and surfboards so employees can hit the beach after work.

Social media software maker Epoxy TV, founded by Juan Bruce and Jason Ahmad, is located in a Venice complex formerly owned by the late actor Dennis Hopper. They still get his mail. One of Hopper’s sculptures adorns the yard and inside, there’s a staircase

All the prosperity has caused the cost of living in Silicon Valley to soar. It’s nearly impossible to buy even a small home for less than a $1 million in San Francisco and many other nearby cities. Tiny apartments can cost $2,500 to $3,500 per month.

Prices like those are one more reason that less expensive, but still enticing places like Los Angeles make sense to tech entrepreneurs, says Chris DeWolfe, who runs a rapidly growing company called the Social Gaming Network in Beverly Hills.

“It’s more affordable to live almost anywhere in Los Angeles, and you still get a great variety of life here with an amazing culture, super beaches and great hiking,” DeWolfe says. “And the sun is almost always shining.” a man in a dress shirt and sport jacket skateboards his way along the Venice beach boardwalk in Los Angeles. The relocation of tech companies to southern California is part of a growing movement of U.S. cities seeking to duplicate the formula that turned northern California’s Silicon Valley, slightly south of San Francisco, into a mecca of society-shifting innovation and immense wealth.

to nowhere designed by renowned Los Angeles architect Frank Gehry. The Venice scene also has helped online razor service Dollar Shave Club recruit employees, according to founder and Philadelphia native Michael Dubin.

“It’s very different to be at the heart of Venice than to be in the heart of Mountain View,” says Epoxy TV’s Ahmad. “Culturally it’s just a vastly different place.”

What’s happening here is part of a growing movement of U.S. cities seeking to duplicate the formula that turned northern California’s Silicon Valley, slightly south of San Francisco, into a mecca of society-shifting innovation and immense wealth. Cupertino-based Apple Inc., Mountain View’s Google Inc. and Menlo Park-based Facebook Inc. collectively have created more than $1 trillion in shareholder wealth while routinely paying employees six-figure salaries, generous benefits and stock options that can generate multimillion-dollar windfalls.

C A R E Q U E S T I O N E D I N 1 5 N Y J A I L D E A T H S Other factors: Policies entitling inmates to only “minimum standards” of care, often less than what is provided in the outside world; pressure to keep costs down; and guards who can be cynical and dismissive of inmate complaints.

“Everywhere you look at the system, it’s structured to prevent prisoners from getting the health care they need,” said Brad Brockmann, who heads the Center for Prisoner Health and Human Rights at Brown University.

NEW YORK (AP) -- These are the deaths in New York City’s Rikers Island jail that don’t make headlines - prisoners with diseases, disorders and addictions who succumb to heart attacks, infections and other causes officially filed away as “medical.”

But hundreds of documents obtained by The Associated Press through public records requests raise serious questions about the quality and timeliness of the medical care many of these inmates received, with the treatment, or lack of it, cited as a factor in at least 15 deaths over the past five years.

They include: - A 36-year-old man with a severe seizure disorder who died two days after he was placed in solitary confinement and denied his medication.

Witnesses said they heard him screaming for his medication.

- A 59-year-old drug addict who wasn’t properly assessed for a common side effect of methadone - constipation - and died of complications from an infected bowel.

- A 32-year-old man who died of a bacterial infection in his stomach and intestines after days of bloody stools. He received treatment only after fellow inmates staged a protest.

- A 20-year-old man who died after an artery in his heart ruptured. A fellow inmate said that he heard the man complain countless times over two days of chest pains and difficulty breathing.

Such accounts have prompted city officials to re-examine the quality of medical and mental health care in the city’s 11,000-inmate jail system and whether the outside company that holds a three-year, $126.6 million contract to provide treatment, Corizon Health Inc., should essentially be fired.

Experts say the problems documented by the AP are particularly troubling because New York City is better equipped to deal with inmate health needs than perhaps anywhere else, with 1,180 health workers employed by Corizon and the city, a mandatory doctor’s visit within the first 24 hours of custody, 30 on-island clinics that handled more than 112,000 sick-call visits last year, and access to some of the nation’s finest hospitals, which saw more than 3,700 inmate referrals last year.

In New York and in most other lockups across the nation, experts say there are many obstacles to delivering quality care, most significantly the flood of mostly poor inmates who come through the door with various maladies and addictions that have gone untreated for years.

The only thing that remains as a major benchmark for Los Angeles is to give birth to a city-defining company in the same way that Facebook, Google and Apple have defined Silicon Valley, or how Amazon and Microsoft have reshaped Seattle.

On the other opposite side of the U.S., New York’s “Silicon Alley” has been a high-tech cove for the past 15 years. Boston and Washington D.C. also have had some success cultivating a vibrant technology scene, though neither city has coined a catchy nickname that has stuck. Billionaire Steve Case, who co-founded AOL Inc. in Virginia, is trying to spread the tech gospel in U.S. cities that have been brushed off as rusty relics of a bygone industrial era.

In June, Case visited more than 100 entrepreneurs and startups during a bus tour of Detroit, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and Nashville, Tennessee that he called the “Rise of the Rest.” This month he followed up with another round of technology-preaching stops in Minneapolis, St. Louis, Madison, Wisconsin; Des Moines, Iowa; and Kansas City, Missouri.

“This tech phenomenon in other parts of the country besides Silicon Valley is only going to increase as it becomes easier and cheaper to start companies,” Case predicts.

DeWolfe said he had trouble luring technology engineers to Beverly Hills a decade ago when he was trying to expand MySpace, the social networking forerunner to Facebook that he co-founded.

That’s no longer a problem now that there’s a steady stream of local students graduating with engineering degrees from local colleges like CalTech, UCLA and USC, says Marx, Los Angeles’ chief technology officer.

Those students are flocking to local universities inspired by southern California’s own success stories, including Internet search engine Overture Services of Pasadena, which Yahoo Inc. bought for $1.3 billion; MySpace, which News Corp. bought for $650 million; YouTube channel producer Maker Studios of Culver City, which sold to Disney in May for up to $950 million; and virtual reality headset maker Oculus of Irvine, which agreed to a $2 billion sale to Facebook in March.

Rikers, the huge jail complex on an island in the East River, has come under increased scrutiny this year after the AP detailed the deaths of two mentally ill inmates - one who was left unattended in a 101-degree cell and another who sexually mutilated himself while locked up alone for seven days.

Meanwhile, venture capitalists continue to pour more money into Southern California startups. In the first nine months of this year, venture capitalists invested $1.6 billion in startups based in Los Angeles County and neighboring Orange County. That’s up 26 percent from the same time last year, according to figures compiled by PricewaterCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association.

Since then, reporters, lawmakers and federal prosecutors have investigated the city’s jails, particularly the system’s problems in dealing with violence and growing numbers of mentally ill, who now make up 40 percent of the inmate population.

That’s still a pittance compared to Silicon Valley, where venture capital investments nearly doubled to $17 billion during the same period.

Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration has quietly begun discussions about alternatives to Brentwood, Tennessee-based Corizon, the nation’s biggest provider of health care behind bars, according to two city officials.

Those plans could include replacing Corizon entirely with city-run health care services, or hiring a teaching hospital to run the system and provide a steady stream of young, committed doctors, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t permitted to discuss the plans.

In a statement, de Blasio spokeswoman Marti Adams said only that the administration has begun a “comprehensive review” of Corizon.

Experts say the teaching or nonprofit hospital model, used previously in New York City and currently in states such as Texas and Connecticut, can bring higher standards of inmate care than for-profit health providers.

“In New York City, these are large organizations which have greater public support and the ability to recruit qualified and enthusiastic staff,” said Dr. Bobby Cohen, a member of the watchdog agency charged with overseeing city jails. He helped run jail health in the 1980s when it was overseen by Montefiore Medical Center, a hospital in the Bronx.

But experts say running jail health services around the clock is extremely complicated and costly, and not all teaching and nonprofit hospitals are accustomed to the tough and sometimes dangerous world of corrections.

A contract evaluation obtained by the AP shows city officials downgraded Corizon’s performance from “good” in 2012 to “fair” in 2013, citing inconsistent leadership and care in several mental observation units.

Corizon spokeswoman Susan Morgenstern wouldn’t discuss individual cases or the potential loss of the city contract but said in a statement that the company tries to provide quality treatment in a difficult environment, and “we regrettably sometimes face adverse outcomes despite our best efforts.”

The city’s health department said in a statement that the Corizon contract provides no financial incentive to skimp on care - the city pays for medications, lab testing and hospitalizations.

A spokesman for Correction Commissioner Joseph Ponte said Ponte

DeWolfe, who shuttles between Social Gaming Network’s Beverly Hills headquarters and a San Francisco office, doubts Silicon Beach will ever come close to matching Silicon Valley’s technology prowess. “There is something about Silicon Valley lore that you will never be able to reproduce, no matter how much you say you want to,” he says.

That doesn’t mean Silicon Valley can’t be toppled from its perch, Case cautions. “It’s important to never get cocky or complacent.

Fifty or 60 years ago, Detroit was like the Silicon Valley of its day.

You have to constantly attract talent and constantly innovate.”

has already made improvements to how guards and health workers deal with each other “to ensure inmates have access to care that is both timely and effective.”

Of the 98 inmates to die in New York City jails over the past five years, at least a dozen had cancer and many more were suffering from health problems related to longtime drug or alcohol use. Fifteen had AIDS, HIV or hepatitis C. The AP was able to obtain city and state investigative records on 44 of the 98 deaths. A review of those documents found 15 cases of neither homicide nor suicide in which the quality or timeliness of the health care was an issue.

That played out tragically in the May 2013 death of Mark Johnson.

Johnson, 32, died of a painful bacterial infection in his stomach and small bowel while jailed in a Rikers mental observation unit. For days, he demanded medical care from jail guards as he continued to suffer from bloody stools.

It wasn’t until inmates in the housing area staged a protest - refusing to go for a meal until Johnson was attended to - that doctors came.

Johnson underwent emergency surgery but died soon after, his stomach full of pus.

In its preliminary investigation, the department found no negligence on its own part and said Johnson had a pre-existing condition that caused his death.

“With antibiotics he could be alive today,” said his mother, June Broer, who is suing the city. “It is heartbreaking. He should have gone to the hospital.”

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The Weekly News Digest, Oct 20 thru Oct 27, 2014

9

D E N V E R T E E N S ’ T R AV E L S T I R S T E R R O R A P P E A L C O N C E R N S DENVER (AP) -- The case of three teenage girls being investigated for trying to join Islamic State militants poses vexing questions for U.S. officials about the use of social media by terror groups to recruit people inside the United States, experts said Wednesday.

The U.S. government doesn’t have any restrictions on children flying alone, domestically or internationally. Airline policies vary. Most U.S. airlines allow children 12 and older to fly alone but often with restrictions on international flights, according to the U.S. Transportation Department.

A Colorado school official said the Denver area girls - two sisters ages 17 and 15, and a 16-year-old friend - were victims of an online predator who encouraged them to travel overseas and eventually to Syria.

Mia Bloom, a professor of security studies at the University of Massachusetts-Lowell, said the girls’ story so far suggests how Islamic extremists have mastered social media to prey on younger and younger women with “Disney-like versions of what it is like to live in the caliphate,” complete with promises of husbands and homes.

At least one of the girls was communicating with someone online who encouraged the three to travel to Syria, said Tustin Amole, a spokeswoman for the Cherry Creek School District where the girls attend high school.

Fellow high school students told school officials that the girls had been discussing travel plans over Twitter, Amole said.

The girls were detained at an airport in Frankfurt, Germany, and sent home over the weekend. They were interviewed by the FBI and returned to their parents in suburban Aurora.

Those in the tight-knit east African community where they live said the sisters are of Somali descent and their friend is of Sudanese descent.

“There’s no indication they had been radicalized in a way that they wanted to fight for ISIS,” Amole said.

A U.S. official said evidence gathered so far made it clear that the girls were headed to Syria, though the official said investigators were still trying to determine what sort of contacts they had in that country. Another U.S. official said that investigators were reviewing evidence, including the girls’ computers. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation by name.

The girls’ parents reported them missing Friday after they skipped school. They had taken passports and $2,000 in cash from the sisters’ parents’ home.

This Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2014, photo shows the apartment complex in Aurora, Colo., which police say is the home of one of the three teenage girls who, according to U.S. authorities, were en route to join the Islamic State group in Syria when they were stopped at an airport in Germany. The two sisters, ages 17 and 15, and their 16-year-old friend have been reunited with their families in Colorado, according to an FBI spokeswoman.

“Social media has played a very significant role in the recruitment of young people,” said FBI spokesman Kyle Loven in Minneapolis, home to the largest Somali community in the U.S. Authorities there have been concerned about terror recruiting of the young for years.

“What we’ve experienced here in Minneapolis is that young, disaffected youth who exist primarily on the fringes of society - they seem to be more susceptible to this type of propaganda, unfortunately,” Loven said.

Terror recruiting has been a problem for years in Minneapolis. Since 2007, roughly 22 young Somali-Americans have traveled to Somalia to take up arms with al-Shabab, an al-Qaida linked group. Those were all men.

At some point, the U.S. informed German authorities at the airport about the girls arriving alone on their way to Turkey, German Interior Ministry spokeswoman Pamela Mueller-Niese told reporters Wednesday. She said the three were detained by German police, with approval from a judge, and returned voluntarily to the U.S. on Sunday.

Once home, the girls told a deputy they went to Germany for “family,” but wouldn’t elaborate.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office in Denver would not say whether prosecutors plan to charge the girls with a crime. State prosecutors said they have no imminent plans to charge the girls. Amole said they will not face discipline

RED CROSS OFFICIAL: 6 MONTHS T O C O N TA I N E B O L A

Within the last year, a handful of people from the community left Minnesota to join militant groups in Syria, and this time, there are fears that women might have been targeted.

Loven said the FBI is working with the Somali community to establish trust and help identify young people at risk for radicalization.

In Colorado, Amole said the three teens had no prior problems at school, aside from unexcused absences on Friday.

Still unknown is how they managed to get to Frankfurt.

S H O T S R I N G O U T A T C A N A D A ’ S P A R L I A M E N T

officials

Police converge on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday Oct. 22, 2014. A soldier standing guard at the National War Memorial was shot by an unknown gunman and people reported hearing gunfire inside the halls of Parliament.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper was rushed away from Parliament Hill to an undisclosed location, according to

empty tomb, with bronze sculptures dedicated to those who died in World War I. “I looked out the window and saw a shooter, a man dressed all in black with a kerchief over his nose and mouth and something over his head as well, holding a rifle and shooting an honor guard in front of the cenotaph point-blank, twice,” Zobl told the Canadian Press news agency.

“The honor guard dropped to the ground, and the shooter kind of raised his arms in triumph holding the rifle.”

BEIJING (AP) -- A top Red Cross official said Wednesday that he is confident the Ebola epidemic that has killed thousands of people in West Africa can be contained within four to six months.

The wounded soldier was taken away in an ambulance. His condition was not immediately known.

Elhadj As Sy, secretary general of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told a news conference in Beijing that the time frame is possible if there is “good isolation, good treatment of the cases which are confirmed,” and “safe burials” of those who die from the disease.

Cabinet minister Tony Clement tweeted that at least 30 shots were heard inside Parliament, where Conservative and Liberal MPs were holding their weekly caucus meetings.

The Ebola outbreak has killed more than 4,500 people since it emerged 10 months ago, with Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone the worst-affected countries.

Ottawa police Constable Marc Soucy said it was unclear whether there was more than one shooter.

“I’m safe locked in a office awaiting security,” Kyle Seeback, another member of Parliament, tweeted.

The Red Cross is holding its Asia-Pacific regional conference, held every four years, in the Chinese capital.

The attack came two days after a recent convert to Islam killed one Canadian soldier and injured another in a hit-andrun before being shot to death by police. The killer had been on the radar of federal investigators, who feared he had jihadist ambitions and seized his passport when he tried to travel to Turkey.

The top spokesman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Harper was safe and had left Parliament Hill.

Canada had raised its domestic terror threat level from low to medium Tuesday because of “an increase in general chatter from radical Islamist organizations,” said Jean-Christophe de Le Rue, a spokesman for the public safety minister.

Officials also canceled two events in Toronto honoring Pakistani teenager and Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai, including one in which she was supposed to receive honorary Canadian citizenship. The teenager was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman in 2012 for calling for schooling for girls.

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) -- A gunman shot and wounded a Canadian soldier standing guard at a war memorial in the country’s capital Wednesday, then entered Parliament, where numerous shots rang out, police and witnesses said.

People fled Parliament by scrambling down scaffolding erected for renovations, witnesses said. Others were in lockdown.

Police with rifles and body armor stood guard outside and blocked the normally bustling streets leading to Parliament.

On Wednesday, Tony Zobl, 35, said he witnessed the soldier being gunned down from his fourth-floor window directly above the National War Memorial, a tall granite cenotaph, or

Zobl said the gunman then ran up the street toward Parliament Hill.

Shots were also fired at a shopping mall near Parliament, police said. All three sites - the war memorial, Parliament and the mall - are within less than a mile from each other.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police warned people in downtown Ottawa to stay away from windows and rooftops.

Sy praised China for contributing relief items, laboratory equipment and protective gear to help in the fight against Ebola at a time when “many people were coming out and running away and others were very hesitant to send people.”

The World Food Program announced Monday that China has donated $6 million to help stave off food shortages in the three worst-affected countries.

With the world’s second-largest economy and a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, China is beginning to make larger contributions to international aid efforts.

China is also Africa’s largest trading partner.

“As some said it when I was in Sierra Leone and Guinea, it is only at this time that you know who your friends are, and definitely they see China as their friend,” Sy said.

Dont Text and Drive

10

The Weekly News Digest, Oct 20 thru Oct 27, 2014 ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

R E V I E W : B E T T E R C A M E R A S , L E S S G L A R E I N I P A D A I R 2

CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) -- If I’ve seen you taking photos with a tablet computer, I’ve probably made fun of you (though maybe not to your face, depending on how big you are). I’m old school: I much prefer looking through the viewfinder of my full-bodied, single-lens reflex camera, even though it has a large LCD screen.

cranked all the way up, sound is louder on the new model. Apple says there shouldn’t be a difference, though I’m not complaining.

(My neighbors might, though.)

But as I tested out Apple’s new iPad Air 2, I see why people like to shoot pictures with a tablet. Images look great on the large screen, and there’s less guesswork about whether or not small details, such as lettering on a sign, will be in focus.

I’m glad to see the fingerprint ID sensor for unlocking both new tablets. Passcodes seem so last century, not to mention inconvenient.

And what you see - and get - with the iPad Air 2 is a better camera. The rear one now matches the iPhone’s 8 megapixels, up from 5 megapixels, and incorporates features such as slow-motion video. Packed with a faster processor, the 9.7-inch tablet is also 18 percent thinner and 7 percent lighter than the previous model, at about a quarter of an inch and just under a pound.

Apple is also updating its 7.9-inch iPad Mini, though the cameras, processor and dimensions haven’t changed.

The tablets go on sale this week, starting at $499 for the iPad Air 2 and $399 for the iPad Mini 3. Both now have fingerprint ID technology to expedite online purchases through Apple Pay. Gold joins silver and grey as color choices, and pricier models have twice as much storage as before.

OTHER CHANGES

In this Oct. 16, 2014 file photo, the iPad Air 2 is displayed for journalists at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, Calif. Apple unveiled the thinner iPad with a faster processor and a better camera as it tries to drive excitement for tablets amid slowing demand. (

The new Air’s front camera gets a burst mode, too, and the front sensor is better than before at capturing light for indoor and night selfies.

Unfortunately, the iPad still doesn’t have a flash. Although I prefer taking shots with natural light anyway, a lot of people like the flash. My advice is to light subjects with the iPhone’s flashlight.

IMPROVED CAMERA

BETTER VIEWING AND SOUND

The iPad Air 2 takes sharper images. I can tell even before snapping the shot because I see all that detail on the screen. I’m able to read the small name tag on a baby bottle. Lettering on a van across the street looks clearer.

An anti-reflective coating reduces glare on the iPad Air 2. It’s a first for Apple and possibly a first for any consumer mobile device. I was dubious until I watched video with light shining in through my window. The coating didn’t eliminate glare completely, but made video viewable. The glare was too distracting on last year’s Air.

Last month’s iOS 8 software update brought panorama and timelapse features to the iPad. With the iPad Air 2, you can snap 10 shots per second in a burst mode - great for restless kids, as you can choose the best shots later. You also get slow-motion video, though only at 120 frames per second. The new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus offer 240 frames per second as well, so motion looks even slower.

The coating also promises to improve contrast. However, I had to look hard to notice differences in some dull-color scenes in Showtime’s “Homeland.” In many cases, the quality of the video stream makes a bigger difference.

To me, the iPad Air 2 also has better speakers. With the volume

U S I N C R E A S E S S E C U R I T Y , T H O U G H N O T H R E A T S C I T E D Authorities increased security at the Tomb of the Unknowns, which draws 4 million tourists a year. The Military District of Washington, which oversees the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, known as The Old Guard, that protects the tomb, said the added security was a “precautionary measure.”

The U.S. Embassy in Ottawa was also placed on lockdown as a precaution.

It was unclear whether Wednesday’s shootings were terrorism-related.

Earlier this week one Canadian soldier was killed and another injured in a hit-and-run crash. Authorities have said the suspect in that earlier case was a recent convert to Islam who is suspected of having jihadist ambitions. The suspect was shot to death by police after the deadly crash.

Tomb guards walks at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2014. The military increased security Wednesday at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery after fatal shootings at a Canadian war memorial and Parliament, even though the FBI and the Homeland Security Department said there was no specific threat against the U.S. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The military increased security Wednesday at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery after fatal shootings at a Canadian war memorial and Parliament, even though the FBI and the Homeland Security Department said there was no specific threat against the U.S. President Barack Obama condemned the shootings in Canada as “outrageous acts.”

“Obviously the situation there is tragic,” Obama said, adding, “we’re all shaken by it.” He confirmed the death of a Canadian soldier, and extended his condolences.

The Canadian soldier had been standing guard at the National War Memorial in the capital of Ottawa, Ontario. Gunfire also erupted inside the Parliament, and authorities in Canada said at least one gunman was killed.

STUDY FINDS DRUGS STILL IN RECALLED S U P P L E M E N T S CHICAGO (AP) -- Dietary supplements containing potentially dangerous prescription drug ingredients may still be for sale even years after safety recalls, a study found.

In supplements bought online, researchers detected hidden steroids, similar ingredients to Viagra and Prozac and a weight loss drug linked with heart attacks.

They tested 27 products promising big muscles, sexual prowess, weight loss and more. Of those, 18 contained ingredients not approved for over-the-counter use; 17 still had the same drug that prompted the recalls.

The White House said Obama spoke by telephone with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The U.S. has offered to help the U.S. ally with its response, and Obama expressed the American people’s solidarity with Canada.

Manufacturers are putting profit ahead of consumer health, but lax oversight by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is contributing to the problem, said lead author Dr. Pieter Cohen, an internist and researcher at Cambridge Health Alliance, a Boston-area health care system.

In a statement, the FBI said it had reminded field offices and government partners to remain vigilant in light of recent calls for attacks against government personnel by what it described as terrorist groups and like-minded individuals. “We stand ready to assist our Canadian partners as they deal with the ongoing situation in their capital,” it said.

The tested supplements were recalled by manufacturers after FDA raised concerns about drugs in their products. This type of recall is usually voluntary, involving products that could potentially cause serious health problems and even death. The FDA’s role includes

The agency and Homeland Security said there was no specific threat against this country.

A U.S. Capitol police spokesman said the force remained at a post-9/11 “heightened level of awareness,” but did not make any significant modifications as a result of the shootings in Canada.

“The USCP continues to monitor and track the Canadian event,” Officer Shennell Antrobus said.

That fingerprint can now be used to authorize Apple Pay purchases in apps. Unlike the new iPhones, the iPad doesn’t have a wireless chip needed for in-store transactions. Then again, I’d probably mock anyone who tried to wave a giant device over a cashier’s payment terminal. But I can see myself choosing a tablet over a phone for online shopping, and the fingerprint with Apple Pay will work nicely for that.

For the iPad Air 2 only, there’s a faster Wi-Fi technology called 802.11ac, though you need new home-networking equipment to take advantage of it. The Air also gets a barometer sensor to track elevation in fitness apps.

THE BARGAIN Last year’s iPad Air was a huge improvement over the 2012 iPad, so this year’s update seems small by comparison. The improvements might not be enough for existing iPad Air owners to upgrade, but there’s enough there for those who have older models or are getting their first tablets.

The update in the iPad Mini is less pronounced. That makes it less tempting to save $100 by going for the Mini. For the same price as an iPad Mini 3, you can get last year’s full-size iPad with similar technical specifications. Bargain hunters should consider previous versions of the Mini, including the original model for $249, the cheapest iPad yet.

If you can afford it, though, spend more for added storage. For $599, you get an iPad Air 2 with 64 gigabytes, compared with 16 GB in the $499 base model. For $699, you get 128 GB. You’ll be surprised how quickly your iPad fills up with photos and video especially now that I won’t mock you. assessing whether recalls successfully remove potentially unsafe products from the market.

“There should be significant legal and financial consequences for manufacturers who the FDA finds to be continuing to sell these spiked supplements,” Cohen said.

Unlike prescription drugs, dietary supplements don’t need FDA approval before they are marketed. Still, their labels must list all ingredients and manufacturers are not allowed to sell products that are “adulterated or misbranded,” the agency’s website say The study was published in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association. The authors say laws that increase FDA’s enforcement powers may be needed to fix the problem.

In response to the study, the FDA said it has issued hundreds of consumer alerts warning about tainted products, sent warning letters to supplement makers “and pursued civil and criminal enforcement” against those illegally marketed products. Deterring manufacturers is sometimes challenging because they are often difficult to locate and some are overseas, the agency said.

The researchers bought 27 of the 274 supplements recalled from 2009 to 2012. The products were purchased in summer 2013 from manufacturers’ websites or other online retailers. An Oregon research laboratory tested them. Whether any consumers were harmed by using the tainted supplements was beyond the study’s scope.

Among the 27 products: -Six weight loss supplements contained sibutramine or a substance similar to the diet drug removed from the U.S. market in 2010 after it was linked with heart attacks and strokes. Two also contained the active ingredient in Prozac.

-Ten body-building supplements contained anabolic steroids or related compounds, which have been linked with side effects including prostate cancer, aggression and infertility.

-One sexual enhancement product contained sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra, which is not recommended for those taking some heart medicines.

The Consumer Healthcare Products Association, a supplements trade group, said it encourages federal regulators to crack down on “rogue” companies.

“Unapproved or adulterated drugs’ masquerading as lawful supplements is a threat to public health and to consumer confidence in the supplement industry,” Scott Melville, the association’s president and CEO, said in an emailed statement.

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The Weekly News Digest, Oct 20 thru Oct 27, 2014

11

U N I N Q U I R Y H E A D R E J E C T S N .

K O R E A ’ S ‘ H O N E Y E D W O R D S ’ UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- “A few honeyed words” by North Korea as it tries to avoid a referral to the International Criminal Court has not changed the human rights situation on the ground there, the head of a U.N. commission of inquiry on the North told reporters Wednesday.

and other abuses in North Korea.

Australian Ambassador Gary Quinlan, who chaired Wednesday’s event, said the North Koreans realize that the international community is taking this seriously. “They know they have a problem,” he said.

Michael Kirby then had a rare exchange with North Korean officials, who showed up and challenged the commission’s work during a U.N. human rights event featuring testimonies from North Korean refugees.

T H E T O P 2 0 U S CITIES FOR TECH S TA RT U P F U N D I N G

“We can’t let lies pass at the United Nations,” Kim Ju Song, an adviser with the North’s foreign ministry, said before the meeting began.

Kirby thanked the North Korean officials for coming, and he asked repeatedly to visit the country.

The pressure is on Pyongyang, with a new resolution before the General Assembly’s human rights committee calling on the Security Council to refer the North’s situation to the ICC.

North Korean Councillor Kim Song, left, speaks during a panel discussion on human rights abuses in North Korea at United Nations headquarters, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2014.

It would be the global community’s strongest effort so far to take action on the North’s dismal, documented rights record of sprawling political prison camps, starvation and mass executions.

After the meeting, as the North’s officials gathered for a smoke, Kim Ju Song said Kirby could indeed come to North Korea, “if he’s willing to cooperate.”

The commission of inquiry report this year placed the North’s record firmly in the international spotlight, and its officials have been attempting what Kirby, a retired Australian judge, called a “charm offensive” to avert any moves toward accountability.

Kim also offered a packet of documents and a DVD that he said would discredit the North Korean refugees who spoke at the meeting about their time in political prison camps. North Korean officials filmed them as they spoke Wednesday.

North Korea has made several surprising moves in recent weeks, including releasing its own glowing report on its human rights record and sending its foreign minister to address the annual U.N. General Assembly of world leaders for the first time in more than a decade.

Kirby earlier told reporters that the United Nations is “about to face a moment of truth” with the General Assembly resolution. China, a top Pyongyang ally, could veto a Security Council referral to the ICC, but Kirby warned that it will have to “stand before the world” if it does.

But Kirby told reporters that actions speak louder than words.

“We continue to hope that China, as a great power, will act as a great power,” he said. He said his commission spoke with the Chinese embassy in Geneva repeatedly.

During Wednesday’s meeting, attended by a half-dozen North Korean officials, Kirby made three demands: Allow him to visit North Korea to debate the report, allow the report to be accessible in North Korea and delete language from Pyongyang’s own human rights report describing the refugees who spoke to the commission of inquiry as “human scum.”

In response, North Korean councilor Kim Song demanded, “You must make the report again in a fair manner.”

Kirby pointed out that China has used its veto just 10 times since taking its permanent council seat as the People’s Republic of China, and he said people shouldn’t assume that China will use the veto now. “The veto is not basically the way China does diplomacy,” he said.

China, however, cast one of six “no” votes earlier this year as the U.N. Human Rights Council approved a resolution that allowed a special investigator to keep investigating suspected crimes against humanity

C A L I F O R N I A M A L P R A C T I C E C A P G E N E R AT E S B I G S P E N D I N G In this photo taken Friday, Oct. 17, 2014, Dr. Richard Thorp, a general internist and president of the California Medical Association, poses at the CMA headquarters in Sacramento, Calif. The CMA opposes Proposition 46, which would raise the cap on pain and suffering in medical liability lawsuits from $250,000 to $1.1 million, on the November ballot. Insurance companies and doctors are heavily opposed, saying it will raise health care costs.

Thorp, who has practice medicine for 37 years, said the current cap is a good balance between fair compensation for victims and allowing doctors to keeping practicing.

to the health care system.

Gov. Jerry Brown signed the bill that created the cap during his first term in office. It was a time of skyrocketing malpractice insurance costs that forced physicians to retire early or leave California.

The law made California rates among the lowest in the nation today. According to the California Medical Association, the average doctor in the state paid $26,511 last year in premiums compared to $99,290 in Connecticut and $137,412 in New York, two states without caps.

Under Proposition 46, the new limit would raise the cap to amount that it would have been if kept pace with inflation. The measure also requires doctors to submit to random drug and alcohol tests and require doctors to check a statewide database before prescribing drugs in an attempt to curb pill shopping.

Employees of Rivalry Games work on their computers at technology incubator MuckerLab, in Santa Monica, Calif. The relocation of tech companies to southern California is part of a growing movement of U.S. cities seeking to duplicate the formula that turned northern California’s Silicon Valley, slightly south of San Francisco, into a mecca of society-shifting innovation and immense wealth.

When you think of tech startups, you probably think Northern California. Companies there receive the largest share of funding from venture capitalists, but there are several other notable pockets around the country.

In the first nine months of the year, venture capitalists poured $24 billion into tech startups around the country. About half of that funding went to San Francisco and Silicon Valley, according to the National Venture Capital Association.

Here are the top 20 metropolitan areas receiving such funding through Sept. 30, ranked by funding amount. The figures include tech startups for software, business services, networking and telecom, but exclude some categories such as biotech, energy, medical devices and retail.

1. San Francisco, $9.32 billion, 506 deals 2. San Jose, California (Silicon Valley), $3.78 billion, 237 deals 3. New York, $3.05 billion, 272 deals 4. Boston, $1.05 billion, 158 deals 5. Los Angeles-Long Beach, California (Silicon Beach), $768 million, 105 deals 6. Oakland, California, $510 million, 41 deals 7. Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, Washington, $471 million, 56 deals

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- Bob Pack wanted to go after the HMO doctors for recklessly prescribing painkillers to a drug-abusing nanny who ran over his 10-year-old son and 7-year-old daughter as they were heading for ice cream one early fall evening in 2003.

President George W. Bush proposed a national cap of $250,000 in 2005 to stop huge damage awards as a way to reduce overall health care spending. Democrats said ceilings would simply shield bad doctors.

In 2009, the Congressional Budget Office concluded that limiting liability would lead to savings of 0.5 percent to 1 percent on health care spending, a negligible amount because so many states already have caps.

9. Washington D.C., $456 million, 77 deals

But under California’s 1970s-era medical malpractice law there was a $250,000 cap on pain and suffering. Instead of pursuing a case because of the cap, he settled so he could care for his wife, who lost the twins she was carrying in the crash.

In California, the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office projects that Proposition 46 would increase overall health care spending by 0.1 percent to 0.5 percent if voters approve it Nov. 4.

11. Austin-San Marcos, Texas, $315 million, 58 deals

“It would have been too difficult to tackle a private trial,” he said.

A November ballot initiative named after his children - Troy and Alana - seeks to raise the cap to $1.1 million. The campaign has prompted a ferocious fight between doctors and attorneys over the rights of injured patients with more than $102 million spent in one of the state’s most expensive ballot initiatives.

The campaign, which exceeds the most competitive U.S. Senate races this year, underscores the effect that reforms passed in California have on the rest of the nation. The 1975 malpractice law was the first in the nation, paved the way for roughly 30 states to adopt some limits on medical malpractice payouts and used as a template for national proposals.

More than $93 million has been raised by Proposition 46 opponents, while backers have raised at least $9.1 million, as of Wednesday.

Trial lawyers and patient advocates say the malpractice law is long past due for an update. They say victims of medical negligence have trouble finding lawyers willing to take their cases and those who do discover that California has one of the nation’s most restrictive payouts.

Doctors, hospitals and medical liability insurers say raising the cap would drive up medical costs, force doctors out of state and reduce access to medical care. They say it would add uncertainty

About 30 states have some kind of limit on the amount of damages a jury can award to patients for medical mistakes, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Most of the restrictions are from $250,000 to $500,000 for pain and suffering.

8. Provo-Orem, Utah, $462 million, nine deals

10. Chicago, $402 million, 57 deals

12. Salt Lake City-Ogden, Utah, $275 million, 16 deals 13. Denver, $240 million, 26 deals 14. Atlanta, $233 million, 32 deals

In recent years, the landscape on medical liability has shifted as courts have ruled caps unconstitutional. Florida, for example, has joined Georgia and Illinois in overturning their caps. Other caps, including California, have been upheld.

15. Orange County, California, $212 million, 46 deals

Since Texas set a limit at $750,000 in 2003, more doctors are practicing in emergency rooms and the state is attracting doctors from states without caps, said Jon Opelt, executive director for Texas Alliance For Patient Access, which represents health providers.

17. Phoenix, $136 million, 12 deals

Bernard Black, a law and business professor at Northwestern University who has tracked caps, said limits have benefited doctors.

But for patients, health care costs tend to go up and quality tends goes down.

Dr. Richard Thorp, a general internist who has practiced medicine for 37 years and is president of the California Medical Association, said the amount is never enough for Proposition 46 proponents.

“As a society,” he said, “we have to decide: What is a reasonable number to compensate someone for an adverse event and still be able to provide health care to the rest of society?”

16. San Diego, $140 million, 31 deals

18. Dallas, $132 million, 21 deals 19. Philadelphia, $125 million, 32 deals 20. Pittsburgh, $124 million, 35 deals

12 The Weekly News Digest, Oct 20 thru Oct 27, 2014

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T H R E AT T O B R E A K I S O L AT I O N I N L I B E R I A O V E R F O O D

MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) -- Dozens of people quarantined for Ebola monitoring in western Liberia are threatening to break out of isolation because they have no food, the West African nation’s state radio reported Thursday.

Banbury said, “The World has never seen a serious, grave and complex crisis of this nature where people are dying everyday with unsafe burial practices.”

Among needs he identified were efficient contact tracing, safe burials, social mobilization and involvement of communities, bringing treatment centers closer to communities and ensuring that the centers are supported by robust logistics and training.

Forty-three people were put in quarantine after four people died of Ebola in Jenewonda, a town in an impoverished corner of Grand Cape Mount County near the Sierra Leone border, the Liberia Broadcasting System said.

“A lot of work needs to be done and no one country can do it alone,” he said.

It quoted those quarantined as saying that the U.N. World Food Program apparently has stopped providing food to people affected by Ebola in the area. A WFP press officer said he is looking into the claim.

Liberia is the hardest hit of three West African nations being ravaged by Ebola. The latest figures published Wednesday by the U.N. World Health Organization show the country has at least 4,665 infected people and 2,705 have died there. WHO says there probably are more ill people and deaths but the numbers are under-reported. Overall, the WHO says the disease has killed 4,877 people and infected 9,936, almost all in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.

Rwanda’s minister of health, meanwhile, is reversing a decision she made to require visitors who had been in the U.S. or Spain during the previous 22 days to report their medical condition to Rwandan authorities daily. Dr. Agnes Binagwaho said on Twitter late Wednesday that the decision to screen travelers from the U.S. and Spain, two countries that have seen cases of Ebola, was solely her decision and not the government’s. She apologized for any inconvenience.

A posting on President Paul Kagame’s Twitter account said the measures instituted by Binagwaho weren’t necessary and that his health minister sometimes acts first and thinks later.

Health workers bury the body of a woman who is suspected of having died of the Ebola virus in Bomi county, on the outskirts of Monrovia, Liberia, Monday, Oct. 20, 2014. Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said Ebola has killed more than 2,000 people in her country and has brought it to “a standstill,” noting that Liberia and two other badly hit countries were already weakened by years of war.

No Ebola cases have been reported in Rwanda. The U.S. Embassy said that Rwanda is not allowing visitors who have recently traveled to Guinea, Liberia, Senegal, or Sierra Leone.

In Freetown, the Sierra Leone capital, the head of the U.N. Mission for Ebola Emergency Response, Anthony Banbury, told a news conference Thursday that “We are working to put this fire under control.”

They would start by trying to isolate at least 70 percent of cases, he said. The U.N. plan to stop transmission also includes safely burying at least 70 percent of victims by Dec. 1, and to have 100 percent of cases isolated and all the dead safely buried

by Jan. 1.

An internal U.N. World Health Organization report obtained by The Associated Press blames a series of blunders for allowing the epidemic to spiral out of control, notably the organization’s own “failure to see that conditions for explosive spread were present right at the start.”

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WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal forecasters say a brief but strong solar flare Wednesday morning temporarily blacked out a few radio communication systems before weakening.

Space Weather Prediction Center forecaster Christopher Balch said it affected radio that uses part of the upper atmosphere. That includes some radar and plane systems, but not all, and amateur radio.

The storm came from a large group of sunspots and hit Earth between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. EDT. Balch said the storm briefly was rated as strong for affecting Earth radio systems but then dropped to minor levels.

He said so far forecasters see no high-energy particles coming from the flare. That means other effects are not expected, such as changes in the colorful northern lights, or harm to the electrical grid or satellites.

3 R D S PA C E WA L K I N 3 W E E K S AT 4 N O R T H E R N C A L I F O R N I A S P A C E S T A T I O N FA U LT S P R I M E D F O R B I G Q U A K E S This undated handout image provided by Michael Skrepnick, Dinosaurs in Art, Nature Publishing Group, shows a Deinocheirus.

Nearly 50 years ago, scientists found two large powerful arm bones of a new dinosaur species in Mongolia and figured it was a fearsome critter with killer claws.

Now scientists have found the rest of the dinosaur and have new descriptions for the dinosaur: “goofy” and “weird.” The dinosaur probably lumbered along like a cross between TV dinosaur Barney and Jar Jar Binks of Star Wars fame: 16feet tall, 36-foot long, 7-tons with a duckbill on its head and a humplike sail on its back. Throw in those killer claws, tufts of feathers here and there, and no teeth _ and try not to snicker. And if that’s not enough, it ate like a giant vacuum cleaner.

This frame grab image from a live NASA feed shows Russian astronauts Maxim Suraev and Alexander Samokutyaev during a spacewalk outside the International Space Station on Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2014. The astronauts are performing maintenance, removing two antennas that are no longer needed, inspecting the outside of the Russian segment, collecting samples from windows and elsewhere to check for engine exhaust and other materials.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- Spacewalking astronauts heaved an old seismic experiment overboard at the International Space Station on Wednesday.

It was the third spacewalk in as many weeks outside the orbiting lab.

This time, it was on the Russian side of the house.

Russian spaceman Alexander Samokutyaev alerted flight controllers outside Moscow as he released his grip on the large rectangular panel holding the experiment. “Off it goes,” he said.

“Three cheers,” someone noted in Russian. “This is an event of some note.”

The panel, shining yellow in the station spotlights, slowly spun in circles as it tumbled away into the blackness. The experiment was launched in 2011 to monitor seismic activity on Earth and had completed its job.

NASA’s Mission Control in Houston said analyses were conducted to ensure the object would not come back and smash into the space station.

Samokutyaev and Maxim Suraev, doubling as trash men, had two more items to junk: a pair of Russian antennas no longer needed 260 miles up.

The Russian Space Agency routinely gets rid of old equipment by setting it loose in orbit. The objects eventually lose altitude and burn up in the atmosphere.

During the planned six-hour excursion, the spacewalkers also planned to inspect the outside of the Russian segment, collecting samples from windows and elsewhere to check for engine exhaust and other materials.

During each of the previous two weeks, American spacewalkers took care of some outside maintenance.

Altogether, six people live on the orbiting lab: three Russians, two Americans and one German.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Nearly 50 years ago, scientists found bones of two large, powerful dinosaur arms in Mongolia and figured they had discovered a fearsome critter with killer claws.

Now scientists have found the rest of the dinosaur and have new descriptions for it: goofy and weird.

The beast probably lumbered along on two legs like a cross between TV dinosaur Barney and Jar Jar Binks of Star Wars fame.

It was 16 feet tall and 36 feet long, weighing seven tons, with a duckbill on its head and a hump-like sail on its back. Throw in those killer claws, tufts of feathers here and there, and no teeth and try not to snicker.

And if that’s not enough, it ate like a giant vacuum cleaner.

That’s Deinocheirus mirificus (DY’-noh’-KY-ruhs mur-IHF’-ee-kuhs), which means “terrible hands that look peculiar.” It is newly reimagined after a full skeleton was found in Mongolia and described in a paper released Wednesday by the journal Nature. Some 70 million years old, it’s an ancestral relative of the modern ostrich and belongs to the dinosaur family often called ostrich dinosaurs.

“Deinocheirus turned out to be one the weirdest dinosaurs beyond our imagination,” study lead author Yuong-Nam Lee, director of the Geological Museum in Daejeon, South Korea, said in an email.

When scientists in 1965 found the first forearm bones - nearly 8 feet long - many of them envisioned “a creature that would strike terror in people,” said University of Maryland dinosaur expert Thomas Holtz Jr, who wasn’t part of the study. “Now it’s a creature that would strike bemusement, amazement.”

And yes, he said, “it’s pretty goofy.”

Lee figures the tilted wide hips and massive feet show that Deinocheirus was a slow mover and probably grew so big to escape from being regularly feasted on by bigger dinosaurs.

It had a beak that could eat plants, but it also had a massive tongue that created suction for vacuuming up food from the bottoms of streams, lakes and ponds, Lee wrote.

Originally Lee’s team couldn’t find the dinosaur’s skull, but a tip from another researcher led them to recover it from the private market in Germany.

Some kids will soon adopt this dinosaur as their favorite, Holtz said, “and those are kids with a sense of humor.”

JERUSALEM STONE M AY A N S W E R J E W I S H R E V O LT Q U E S T I O N S A commemorative inscription dedicated to the Emperor Hadrian that was found outside Jerusalem’s Old City, is on display at the Rockefeller museum in Jerusalem, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2014. Israeli archaeologists said Tuesday they have discovered a large stone with Latin engravings that lends credence to the theory that the reason Jews revolted against Roman rule nearly 2,000 ago was because of their harsh treatment.

Israel’s Antiquities Authority said the stone bears the name of the Roman emperor Hadrian and the year of his visit to Jerusalem, a few years before the failed Bar Kochba revolt in the second century A.D

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israeli archaeologists said Tuesday they have discovered a large stone with Latin engravings that lends credence to the theory that the reason Jews revolted against Roman rule nearly 2,000 ago was because of their harsh treatment.

Israel’s Antiquities Authority said the stone bears the name of the Roman emperor Hadrian and the year of his visit to Jerusalem, a few years before the failed Bar Kochba revolt in the second century A.D. The inscription backs up historical accounts that Rome’s Tenth Legion was present in Jerusalem in the run-up to the revolt.

The find is tremendous but is a cautionary tale about jumping to conclusions without enough evidence, said University of Chicago dinosaur expert Paul Sereno, who wasn’t part of the discovery.

The cause of the Jewish revolt, which resulted in their exile, is disputed.

It is unclear whether they rose up independently or were provoked by harsh Roman measures, but the presence of the legion would give credence to the latter.

It also reminds us that evolution isn’t always what we think, Sereno said.

Hadrian is reviled in Jewish history for imposing dictates aimed at persecuting Jews and forcing them to abandon their religion.

“This is evolution in a dinosaur - not a mammal - world,” Sereno said in email. “The starting point is a two-legged animal looking somewhat like a fuzzy-feathered ostrich. Now you want to get really big and suck up lots of soft vegetation. In the end you look like a goofy Michelin ostrich with fuzz and a tail - not a cow.”

Along with Jewish accounts, the history of the Bar Kochba revolt is also known from the works of Roman historian Cassius Dio, who mentions that Hadrian visited Jerusalem in 129 A.D., three years before the revolt erupted.

The stone was found outside Jerusalem’s Old City.