The Conserver Post

Dozens Killed In Massive Tornado Near Oklahoma City A massive...

Tue, 21 May 2013 02:06:28 -0400

Dozens Killed In Massive Tornado Near Oklahoma City

A massive tornado ripped through the southern suburbs of Oklahoma City, Monday afternoon, killing at least 51 people, according to the state medical examiner’s office.

The death toll was expected to rise.

Helicopter images showed large tracts of Moore, Okla., completely leveled by what the National Weather Service says was at least an EF-4 tornado with winds in excess of 166 mph. The tornado stayed on the ground for 40 minutes and traveled 20 miles.

On video aired by KFOR-TV, emergency personnel could be seen sifting through rubble, walking over mounds of twisted debris.

Joe Jolly, a Moore resident, told our Newscast unit that his neighborhood looked like a “war zone.”

“I pretty much don’t have much of a house right now,” he said. “I’m still kind of in shock right now. It was intense… I really don’t know what to say. It’s a big deal, devastating.”

KWTV in Oklahoma reports that hundreds of homes and businesses have been destroyed. Jayme Shelton, a public information officer for the Moore Police Department, told All Things Considered the tornado hit two schools and a hospital. Lance West, a reporter from KFOR, was in front of Plaza Tower Elementary School.

West said rescue workers were looking through what was left of the building, searching for children. One of them was pulled out alive and reunited with his parents.

“The walls are gone,” West said. “Cinderblock walls that are ten inches thick are gone.”

Earlier today, the National Weather Service issued a tornado emergency for the Oklahoma City metro area.

That’s a rare warning from the weather service, which says it issues one “when a severe threat to human life and catastrophic damage from a tornado is imminent or ongoing.”

The National Weather Service in Norman, Okla., is tweeting updates. At 4:22 p.m. ET. it warned that:

“the tornado is so large you may not realize it’s a tornado. If you are in Moore, go to shelter NOW!”

This story is breaking, so the news will surely change quickly. We’ll concentrate on information from news outlets and authorities at the scene and will update this post as we get more. KFOR is streaming its live coverage.

Update at 11:45 p.m. ET. Obama Signs Disaster Declaration

President Obama signed a disaster declaration late Monday, ordering federal aid to supplement state and local recovery efforts in the area.

“The President’s action makes federal funding available to affected individuals in the counties of Cleveland, Lincoln, McClain, Oklahoma, and Pottawatomie,” a White House statement said.

The assistance can be in the form of grants for temporary housing and home repairs, “low-cost loans to cover uninsured property losses, and other programs to help individuals and business owners recover.”

Update at 9:00 p.m. ET. Search And Rescue Underway:

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, speaking at a news conference Monday evening, said rescue efforts were underway and officials were “working as quickly as we can”.

“It will be dark pretty soon and we want to do everything we can to continue to look,” she said.

Fallin said that rescue dogs were being called in to assist in the search.

“We do know there are fatalities, but we don’t have a number count yet,” she said.

Authorities said they expected a federal disaster declaration shortly.

“As you know, we’ve been through this before, but I can tell you that our citizens are resilient,” Moore city manager Steve Eddy told reporters. “This city will recover and we will rebuild.”

Update at 8:30 p.m. ET. Death Toll Rises To At Least 51:

At least 51 people have been killed, spokesperson Amy Elliot of the Oklahoma State Medical Examiner’s Office, tells NPR. Elliot said the death toll is expected to rise.

Scott Coppenbarger, a spokesman for OU Medical Center, says the hospital has admitted 20 people for treatment due to tornado-related injuries — 12 adults and eight children.

Update at 7:39 p.m. ET. ‘All Hands On Deck:’

Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin tells KFOR that the state has “all hands on deck.”

“We have called out everyone we can,” she said, adding that she has activated the National Guard and that three out-of-state rescue teams are on the scene.

President Obama called Fallin to say the federal government “stands ready to provide all available assistance as the Governor’s team responds to the storm and that he has directed his team to ensure that they are providing available resources as the response unfolds.”

In a read-out of the president’s call, the White House said:

“FEMA has deployed an Incident Management Assistance Team to the state emergency operations center in Oklahoma City to support state and local officials on the ground and additional personnel and resources stand ready to be dispatched as necessary. The President told Governor Fallin that the people of Oklahoma are in his and the First Lady’s thoughts and prayers and, while his team will continue to keep him updated, he urged her to be in touch directly if there were additional resources the Administration could provide.”

Update at 7:33 p.m. Three Dead:

The Oklahoma Highway Patrol says at least three people are dead.

Norman Regional Health System spokesperson Paula Price tells NPR they have received a total of 40 are injured.

Update at 7:17 p.m. ET. A History Of Okla. Tornadoes:

Scott has put together a post that details the history of tornadoes in Oklahoma. We also added these other posts:

— Measuring The Power Of Deadly Tornadoes

— VIDEO: A Time-Lapse Of The Tornado In Oklahoma

Update at 6:45 p.m. ET. Two Schools And A Hospital:

Jayme Shelton, a public information officer for the Moore Police Department, said the tornado had hit two schools and a hospital.

The Moore Medical Center, Shelton told All Things Considered, is closed because it was heavily damaged.

Shelton said they have not gotten any reports of casualties.

“What we need is people who are not in the area to stay out of the area,” Shelton said.

Update at 6:19 p.m. ET. Dramatic Video:

David Massey, a Twitter user, has uploaded dramatic video of the tornado and the aftermath. NPR’s Andy Carvin is collecting reaction, videos and images that are moving on social media.

Update at 6:13 p.m. ET. At Least An EF-4:

The National Weather Service in Norman, Oklahoma, reports:

“Preliminary Rating of Newcastle-Moore Tornado at least EF-4 #okwx”

An EF-4 tornado has winds speeds of 166 to 200 mph. It is the second strongest rating for a tornado. For perspective, that is more severe than a category 5 hurricane, which has maximum sustained winds of more than 157 mph.

Update at 6:06 p.m. ET. ‘Like A War Zone:’

Joe Wertz of NPR member station KGOU is in Moore. He described a devastating scene for our Newscast unit.

“Every window on every house is completely shattered,” he said. “Police have shut down a lot of roads, there are power lines down, there’s an air conditioning unit, roof material… there is just debris everywhere.”

Joe Jolly, a Moore resident, told our Newscast unit that it looked like “war zone.”

“I pretty much don’t have much of a house right now,” he said. “I’m still kind of in shock right now. It was intense… I really don’t know what to say. It’s a big deal, devastating.”

Update at 5:37 p.m. ET. Search And Rescue:

KWTV in Oklahoma reports:

“Complete devastation in Moore, OK. Hundreds home homes and businesses destroyed. National Guard, EMSA, Police and Fire are in search and rescue mode.”

Update at 5:23 p.m. ET. 1999 Tornado:

As we’ve told you, local meteorologists are comparing this tornado to one that ripped through the same area on May 3, 1999.

According to NOAA, that outbreak of tornadoes, which spanned a 38-mile path left “46 dead and 800 injured, more than 8,000 homes damaged or destroyed, and total property damage of nearly $1.5 billion.”

The National Weather Service also put together a map comparing the two tornado paths.

Update at 5:22 p.m. ET. Danger Is Not Over:

One thing to keep in mind is that the danger is not over for the Oklahoma City metro. The National Weather service is reporting that a “dangerous storm may produce a tornado near Ryan and Sugden in Jefferson County.”

Update at 5:20 p.m. ET. Elementary School Hit:

The AP just moved this alert:

“Police: Elementary school in Oklahoma City suburb takes direct hit from mile-wide tornado.”

KFOR showed images of what they believed was Plaza Torres Elementary School. Very little was left of the building.

Update at 5:04 p.m. ET. Tornado Track:

The National Weather Service has put together a preliminary map of the tornado’s tracks.

The NWS reports:

“Newcastle-Moore OKC Tornado was on the ground approx. 40 minutes. Tornado warning was in effect for 16 minutes before tornado developed.”

Update at 4:44 p.m. ET. Devastated Neighborhoods:

Helicopter images of Moore, Oklahoma from KFOR show tracts of devastated neighborhoods. The images show homes missing their roofs, some of them completely leveled.

The reporter on the helicopter said one school was razed by a mile-wide tornado. KFOR showed people walking listlessly through the streets, surveying the damage and reuniting with their families.

Update at 4:38 p.m. ET. Reminiscent Of 1999 Tornado:

Kurt Gwartney of NPR member station KGOU in Oklahoma City said one of the issues with today’s tornadoes is that people are at work and school.

“What we’re seeing from helicopter coverage,” Gwartney tells our Newscast unit, “is very reminiscent of the May 1999 tornado that killed lots of people especially in the Moore area of the Oklahoma City metro.

A report from USA Today at time, put that 1999 tornado’s top winds at 318 mph.

Yahoo board approves $1.1 billion Tumblr acquisition

Mon, 20 May 2013 07:01:00 -0400

Yahoo is apparently ready to make its biggest acquisition since CEO Marissa Mayer started running the company in July 2012. AllThingsD.com reports that Yahoo’s board of directors has indeed approved its rumored acquisition of the Tumblr blogging service for the massive price of $1.1 billion.

The report comes just ahead of a previously announced Monday press conference the company plans to host, where Yahoo has only said it plans to announce “something special.” While some reports claims Yahoo was going to reveal something related to its Flickr photo sharing service, it’s possible that its purchase of Tumblr will come up as well. AllThingsD also reports that Yahoo was the only bidder for Tumblr despite rumors that Facebook and even Microsoft were planning to put an offer for Tumblr on the table.

Yahoo would certainly like to increase its audience with a younger generation, and bringing in Tumblr to its network of sites would do that nicely. The service, which launched in 2007, now has about 108 million blogs and 100 million unique monthly visitors every month. Tumblr is extremely popular in younger demographics, an area where Yahoo has struggled.

Tornadoes Level Homes In Oklahoma, 1 Dead

Mon, 20 May 2013 02:35:16 -0400

Tornadoes ravaged portions of central Oklahoma on Sunday, reducing portions of a mobile home park to rubble and killing a 79-year-old man whose body was found out in the open.

“You can see where there’s absolutely nothing, then there are places where you have mobile home frames on top of each other, debris piled up,” Pottawatomie County Sheriff Mike Booth said after surviving damage in the Steelman Estates Mobile Home Park. “It looks like there’s been heavy equipment in there on a demolition tour.

“It’s pretty bad. It’s pretty much wiped out,” he said.

The Shawnee tornado was one of several that touched down in the nation’s midsection Sunday. Twisters, hail and high winds also struck Iowa and Kansas as part of a massive, northeastward-moving storm system that stretched from Texas to Minnesota.

Across the state, 21 people were injured, not including those who suffered bumps and bruises and chose not to visit a hospital, said Keli Cain, a spokeswoman for the Oklahoma Department of Emergency Management. Booth said six at Steelman Estates were hurt.

Following the twisters, local emergency officials went from home site to home site in an effort to account for everyone. Cain said that, many times in such situations, people who are not found immediately are discovered later to have left the area ahead of the storm. Booth said everyone from the trailer park had been found.

Forecasters had been warning of a general storm outbreak since Wednesday, and for Sunday’s storms some residents had more than a half-hour’s notice that a twister was on the way. Tornado watches and warnings were in effect through late Sunday in much of the nation’s midsection.

The trailer park west of Shawnee was among the hardest-hit areas, and among the hardest to reach, as tractor-trailers that forced the closure of a section of Interstate 40 north of the site and power lines draped across roads to the south.

James Hoke lives with his wife and two children in Steelman Estates. He said the family went into their storm cellar as the storm approached. When they came out, their mobile home had vanished.

“It took a dead hit,” Hoke said.

A storm spotter told the National Weather Service that the tornado left the earth “scoured” at the mobile home park — using a term used by storm chasers to describe grass being ripped out by high winds.

“It seemed like it went on forever. It was a big rumbling for a long time,” said Shawn Savory, standing outside his damaged remodeling business in Shawnee. “It was close enough that you could feel like you could reach out and touch it.”

Gov. Mary Fallin declared an emergency for 16 Oklahoma counties that suffered from severe storms and flooding during the weekend. The declaration lets local governments acquire goods quickly to respond to their residents’ needs and puts the state in line for federal help if it becomes necessary.

Heavy rains and straight-line winds hit much of western Oklahoma on Saturday. Tornadoes were also reported Sunday at Edmond, Arcadia and near Wellston to the north and northeast of Oklahoma City. The supercell that generated the twisters weakened as it approached Tulsa, 90 miles to the northeast.

“I knew it was coming,” said Randy Grau, who huddled with his wife and two young sons in their Edmond home’s safe room when the tornado hit. He said he peered out his window as the weather worsened and believed he saw a flock of birds heading down the street.

“Then I realized it was swirling debris. That’s when we shut the door of the safe room,” said Grau, adding that they remained in the room for 10 minutes.

In Wichita, Kan., a tornado touched down near Mid-Content Airport on the city’s southwest side shortly before 4 p.m., knocking out power to thousands of homes and businesses but bypassing the most populated areas of Kansas’ biggest city. The Wichita tornado was an EF1 on the enhanced Fujita scale, with winds of 110 mph, according to the National Weather Service.

Sedgwick County Emergency Management Director Randy Duncan said there were no reports of fatalities or injuries in Kansas.

There were also two reports of tornadoes touching down in Iowa on Sunday night, including one near Huxley, about 20 miles north of Des Moines, and one in Grundy County, which is northeast of Des Moines, according to the Des Moines Register. There were no immediate reports of major damage or injuries.

In Oklahoma, aerial television news footage showed homes with significant damage northeast of Oklahoma City. Some outbuildings appeared to have been leveled, and some homes’ roofs or walls had been knocked down.

“When I first drove into the neighborhood, I didn’t see any major damage until I pulled into the front of my house,” said Csaba Mathe, of Edmond, who found a part of his neighbor’s fence in his swimming pool. “My reaction was: I hope insurance pays for the cleaning.”

“I typically have two trash cans, and now I have five in my driveway.”

The Storm Prediction Center had been warning about severe weather in the region since Wednesday, and on Friday, it zeroed in on Sunday as the day the storm system would likely pass through.

“They’ve been calling for this all day,” Edmond resident Anita Wright said after riding out the twister in an underground shelter. She and her husband, Ed, emerged from their hiding place to find uprooted trees, downed limbs and damaged gutters in their home.

In Katie Leathers’ backyard, the family’s trampoline was tossed through a section of fence and a giant tree uprooted.

“I saw all the trees waving, and that’s when I grabbed everyone and got into two closets,” Leathers said. “All these trees just snapped.”

Boston Bombings Prompt Fresh Look At Unsolved Murders

Sat, 18 May 2013 02:47:17 -0400

An unsolved triple murder in the Boston suburbs is getting a closer look in the wake of the marathon bombings. One of the victims may have been a friend of bombing suspect Tamerlan Tsarnaev. That’s prompting authorities to revisit the 2011 case.

The murders took place in Waltham, Mass. On Sept. 12, 2011, police responded to a house in the leafy suburb a few miles west of Boston.

“They went to the second floor and saw a very graphic crime scene — three dead bodies in the apartment,” said Gerry Leone, who was then district attorney for Middlesex County. He spoke to reporters outside the house later that night.

Leone: “It does look like the assailants and the decedents did know each other. We have no evidence of a break in the apartment.”

Reporter: “You’re saying assailants plural — more than one person responsible?”

Leone: “We’re not sure at this time. We know there were at least two people who are not in that apartment now, who were there earlier.”

There were no witnesses to the murders. Neighbors reported no loud noises, nothing unusual — until the bodies were discovered by a woman who ran screaming out of the apartment and called the police. Authorities identified the victims as Brendan Mess, 25; Erik Weissman, 31; and Raphael Teken, 37. All three were discovered with their throats slit and their bodies sprinkled with marijuana. The brutality of the crime shocked Waltham residents.

“It doesn’t happen in Waltham. A triple murder is rare. I can’t recall there being a triple murder in Waltham prior to this one,” says Gary Marchese, a lawyer and the Waltham city councilman for the neighborhood where the killings occurred. “Three young men, in very good shape, to have been killed quietly, without a sound — it said to me that whoever did the killings, there were either several that overpowered them, or one or two that were extremely strong and obviously prone to violence.”

The crime was never solved. Most people assumed it was connected to drugs, since police discovered marijuana and $5,000 in cash in the apartment. Weissman, one of the victims, had been charged with intent to distribute before, and another victim, Mess, was apparently an avid marijuana smoker. A posthumous video tribute posted on YouTube shows what appears to be Mess smoking a blunt.

But the case has gotten a fresh look since the marathon bombings because Mess was reportedly a friend of one of the bombing suspects. Tamerlan Tsarnaev would sometimes spar at the same mixed martial arts gym in Boston where Mess worked as an instructor. Two of the victims were Jewish. And while their bodies were discovered on Sept. 12, at least one family member reportedly believes they were killed on Sept. 11, suggesting a very different motive.

The district attorney’s office says the investigation into the Waltham murders remains open and that it’s “eager” to pursue new leads. But a spokesperson for the D.A. was careful not to make any connection between the marathon bombing suspects and the 2011 killings. City councilman Marchese says the case may hinge on whether forensic evidence was discovered at the scene.

“If there are any forensics that tie suspect No. 1 or No. 2 to the crime scene, I’m going to be a happy man. I do hope that we get some finality,” Marchese says.

But if authorities do have evidence linking Tamerlan or Dzhokhar Tsarnaev to the killings, they are not sharing it with the public — which means Marchese, and the rest of Waltham, are still waiting to find out how this story ends.

Yahoo holding special event on Monday amid Tumblr acquisition rumors

Sat, 18 May 2013 02:39:00 -0400

Yahoo will be holding a product-focused event this Monday in New York. The presentation reportedly will be conducted by the company’s CEO, Marissa Mayer. CNBC tweeted out the announcement on Friday evening, confirming that Mayer would be in attendance at the event and speaking.

The company have subsequently confirmed to The Next Web the event will take place on Monday, offering an invite for the announcement, asking them to “join us as we share something special.”

An event, for some, may seem very coincidental given the company’s rumored acquisition of popular blogging service, Tumblr. Yahoo have reportedly been in talks with Tumblr over a deal that could exceed even that of Facebook’s $1 billion acquisition of Instagram. Tumblr are also based out in Manhattan, making the event location very apt should a deal have been finalised.

Bloomberg have since reported that the event will serve to showcase an update to Yahoo-owned photo sharing site, Flickr, citing “a person familiar with the matter”.

Naturally, there’s no hard evidence to suggest there will be any mention of Tumblr, or indeed any acquisition, but the timing points towards it as a likely topic to be covered at Monday’s event. Yahoo have also been recently buying up a number of small companies to build up it’s ever-growing mobile offerings. Most notably, the company recently snapped up social news app Summly from British teenager Nick D’Aloisio for a cool $30 million and incorporated features into its own mobile app.

IRS official who oversaw unit targeting Tea Party now heads...

Fri, 17 May 2013 06:57:24 -0400

IRS official who oversaw unit targeting Tea Party now heads ObamaCare office

The IRS official who led the tax-exempt organizations unit when Tea Party groups were targeted is now in charge of the IRS office responsible for ObamaCare, two Capitol Hill sources told Fox News.

The acknowledgement comes after the administration announced that the official’s successor — who had only been on the job a few days — would be retiring. And it fueled criticism of the agency, as the outgoing IRS commissioner prepared to face lawmakers’ questions at a hearing Friday morning.

“Stunning. Just stunning,” Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell said in reaction to the latest development.

President Obama, meanwhile, maintained Thursday that he didn’t know about the investigation into the IRS program until it was made public.

The ObamaCare official in question, Sarah Hall Ingram, had been serving as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations from 2009 to 2012 — the division included the group that targeted Tea Partiers — and has since left to serve as director of the IRS’ Affordable Care Act division. That unit is responsible for enforcing parts of the health care law, including the fines associated with the so-called individual mandate — the requirement to buy health insurance.

Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn, citing her current position and history with the scandal-marred unit, reinforced his call Thursday for the IRS to be blocked from implementing the health care law. “Now more than ever, we need to prevent the IRS from having any role in Americans’ health care,” he said.

While still the commissioner of the Tax-Exempt and Government Entities Division, Ingram was assigned to head the implementation of ObamaCare at the IRS in 2010 after the law was enacted. It is not clear when she stopped being the head of the tax-exempt office or how active her role was there while she was implementing ObamaCare.

But the official who succeeded her, Joseph Grant, is now leaving the agency in the wake of the scandal. His retirement was announced Thursday, even though he only took the job May 8.

Meanwhile, President Obama appointed a new acting commissioner after the prior IRS chief announced his resignation.

That official, Steven Miller, will be in the hot seat Friday when he is scheduled to testify before the House Ways and Means Committee in the first congressional hearing on the IRS scandal.

Also scheduled to testify is J. Russell George — the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration — and the man whose report released this week exposed the IRS practice that led to Miller’s ouster (though Miller was apparently planning to leave the agency anyway).

The revelations at the Friday hearing could add more headaches for the Obama administration, as it tries to juggle its response to several scandals at once.

It’s unclear whether more officials will resign at the IRS in the days to come.

An internal memo Thursday stated that Grant — at the tax-exempt unit — will retire on June 3. Grant oversaw the IRS division being called out for holding up applications from Tea Party groups applying for tax-exempt status. He was appointed to his position on May 8 by Miller.

The Senate side holds its first IRS-related hearing on May 21.

This week’s clean-up at the agency is part of the Obama administration’s mad dash to save face and regain footing after being hammered by a series of scandals this week, including new questions over the Benghazi terror attack and the Justice Department’s seizing of journalists’ phone records.

On Thursday, Obama appointed senior White House budget officer Daniel Werfel as acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service.

“Throughout his career working in both Democratic and Republican administrations, Danny has proven an effective leader who serves with professionalism, integrity and skill,” Obama said in a statement. “The American people deserve to have the utmost confidence and trust in their government, and as we work to get to the bottom of what happened and restore confidence in the IRS, Danny has the experience and management ability necessary to lead the agency at this important time.”

Allegations that the IRS had been targeting conservative groups that applied for tax-exempt status date back years but a government report released this week backed up the claims.

“Americans are right to be angry about it, and I am angry about it,” Obama said.

Republican leaders were quick to call out Obama for being too passive with the situation and demanded more be done.

“This is runaway government at its worst,” McConnell said Thursday. “Who knows who they will target next? The truth will come out. It always does.”

However, the president knocked down the prospect of appointing a special prosecutor to investigate the IRS, saying the congressional investigations and a separate Justice Department probe should be enough to nail down who was responsible for improperly targeting Tea Party groups when they applied for tax-exempt status.

Asked whether he previously knew about the IRS practice, Obama said Thursday: “I can assure you that I certainly did not know anything about the (inspector general) report” beforehand.

The president, though, did not say whether he was previously aware of the IRS’ actions, which allegedly started as early as 2010, well before the inspector general’s office began to investigate. Republican lawmakers were inquiring about the alleged targeting of Tea Party groups by the IRS more than a year ago.

But White House Press Secretary Jay Carney has said no one in the White House knew about the practice.

Yahoo said to be mulling investment in, or acquisition of,...

Fri, 17 May 2013 02:23:59 -0400

Yahoo said to be mulling investment in, or acquisition of, Tumblr

If you can’t be cool, why not buy someone who is? That’s what Yahoo is looking to do with an investment in — or perhaps outright acquisition of — blogging service Tumblr, whose valuation could be as high as $1 billion.

All Things D first reported the rumors of a Yahoo investment in Tumblr, and Adweek followed up citing sources of its own. Adweek’s report seems more certain that Yahoo is interested in an outright acquisition, while ATD’s report is more circumspect.

Tumblr has raised $125 million in funding to date at a reported valuation of $800 million. It is reportedly in talks to raise another round of funding at a reported $1 billion valuation, according to ATD.

While Tumblr is popular, it only made $13 million in revenue last year, when it first started selling ads, and hopes to grow that to $100 million in revenue this year.

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has already presided over several acquisitions as head of the company and just a week ago she snapped up two more startups — GoPollGo and Milewise. Most of the deals thus far have been much smaller deals, more focused on hiring strong talent rather than getting shiny new products. In fact, Yahoo has shut down most of the services it has purchased.

A deal to buy New York City-based blogging powerhouse Tumblr would act in an opposite fashion, and Yahoo would almost certainly leave Tumblr’s products fully intact. But Tumblr has hardly monetized its large audience and just a few weeks ago it introduced a mobile ad platform to let brands to advertise inside Tumblr’s mobile apps. If Yahoo were to take its advertising know-how and apply that to Tumblr’s platform, it could lead to big bucks.

“If you could pick a company that fits in with what Marissa Mayer has demonstrated in her career — aesthetics software technology and fast-growing — you could not land on a better choice,” a source told AllThingsD.

Tumblr’s investors include Union Square Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners, Insight Venture Partners, The Chernin Group, Spark Capital, and CrunchFund.

O.J. Simpson Seeks Retrial On Robbery-Kidnapping Conviction

Tue, 14 May 2013 06:13:27 -0400

O.J. Simpson, shackled and wearing a blue prison uniform, was back in court on Monday asking for a new trial in the 2008 robbery-kidnapping case that landed him in prison.

The Associated Press described 65-year-old football star and TV pitchman as “Looking grayer and heavier … flanked by guards as he nodded and raised his eyebrows to acknowledge people he recognized in the audience.”

Simpson filed papers claiming his defense had dropped the ball in the trial that led to his conviction in a gunpoint robbery of two sports memorabilia dealers in a Las Vegas hotel room in 2007.

The Los Angeles Times says:

“In the sworn statements, Simpson alleges that [defense lawyer Yale] Galanter never told him that prosecutors had offered him a plea bargain. He says Galanter also had a conflict of interest in the case because he approved of Simpson’s plan to retrieve the family photos, footballs, trophies and other personal belongings as long as no one trespassed and no force was used.

[Clark County District Court Judge Linda Marie Bell] has agreed to hear 19 of 22 allegations of conflict of interest alleged by Simpson’s lawyers.”

Smoke forces evacuation of White House press room

Sat, 11 May 2013 09:03:12 -0400

Reporters and photographers were evacuated early Saturday from the White House press room because of smoke.

The journalists were sent outside shortly after 7 a.m. while firefighters inspected the West Wing. They were allowed back into the building about an hour later.

White House press officials did not immediately respond to calls and emails and the source of the smoke was unclear.

Spire Intact, World Trade Center Stretches To 1,776 Feet With...

Fri, 10 May 2013 09:53:34 -0400

Spire Intact, World Trade Center Stretches To 1,776 Feet

With its glittering spire now firmly attached, the new World Trade Center became the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere Friday morning. The building at One World Trade Center now stands at 1,776 feet.

“It will give a tremendous indication to people around the entire region, and the world, that we’re back and better than ever,” Steven Plate, the head of construction at the World Trade Center, said when the spire was first raised into place last week.

Weighing 758 tons, the spire includes a bright light at the top of its 408 feet, sure to become a new landmark for lower Manhattan. Parts of the spire were assembled on the World Trade Center’s roof and raised atop the structure last week; the final sections were bolted into place early Friday.

The building rose near the site of the old World Trade Center, whose twin towers were destroyed in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001; other construction at the site is under way. The new building is the result of a collaboration between the Durst Organization and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

“The tower is slated to open for business in 2014,” reports NBC New York. “Tenants include the magazine publisher Conde Nast, the government’s General Services Administration and Vantone Holdings China Center, which will provide business space for international companies.”

At 1,776 feet, the building is the tallest in America — provided those who make those designations see Friday’s addition as a spire, and not as an antenna. The structure will broadcast TV and radio signals.

The Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat has several criteria for measuring the height of buildings, with the first among them being “height to architectural top” — something that doesn’t include “antennae, signage, flag poles or other functional-technical equipment.”

The council is based in Chicago, home of the Willis Tower (the former Sears Tower), at 1,451 feet, and the Trump International Center, at 1,389 feet.

As Chicago Real Estate Daily reports, a group of architects, engineers, and builders will convene in November to decide the official status of the World Trade Center’s spire — and its standing among tall buildings.

You can explore the world’s tallest buildings at the Skyscraper Center’s website.

Joe Biden Wants Churches To Push For Gun Control

Fri, 10 May 2013 03:40:44 -0400

The Obama Administration hasn’t been a friend to Christians. It’s promoted abortion and gay marriage. It’s persecuted Catholics. The military has become hostile to Christians under Obama. But now, the Obama Administration wants pastors and churches to join its push for gun control.

Vice President Joe Biden has a commandment for pastors, rabbis and nuns: He wants them to tell their flocks that enacting gun control is the moral thing to do. But another vote may have to wait until Congress wraps up work on an immigration overhaul.

Biden met for two-and-a-half hours Monday with more than a dozen leaders from various faith communities – Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh, to name a few. Both Biden and the faith leaders encouraged each other not to give up on what has been an arduous and thus far fruitless effort by Biden and President Barack Obama to pass new gun laws in the wake of December’s schoolhouse shooting in Connecticut.

…Lingering concerns from some participants illustrated the ongoing challenge the administration faces in winning support for the proposals, even though Biden and Obama regularly tout polls suggesting they enjoy broad support. Some participants raised questions about whether background checks could lead to a national gun registry or whether mental health provisions would be used to create a list of individuals permanently banned from obtaining guns.

Isn’t it funny that a liberal administration that is habitually hostile to Christians still has the nerve to ask for their help while Republicans seem to be afraid to be associated with Christians? Why aren’t more Republicans having meetings with“leaders from various faith communities” to ask for their help in pushing our mutual agenda?

Several Dead After Ship Crashes Into Dock In Italy A cargo ship...

Thu, 09 May 2013 03:56:00 -0400

Several Dead After Ship Crashes Into Dock In Italy

A cargo ship slammed into a dock in Genoa, Italy, on Wednesday, killing at least seven people and toppling the control tower at one of the country’s busiest ports.

The Associated Press reports that divers had found seven bodies in the wreckage. Four others have been hospitalized and two were still unaccounted for, Luca Cari, a spokesman for the fire rescue teams at the scene, told The Associated Press.

The AP says the crash occurred around 11 p.m. Tuesday during a shift change in the control tower, as the cargo ship, the “Jolly Nero,” was leaving port accompanied by tugboats.

Prosecutors said the captain of the vessel was being investigated for possible manslaughter.

Bill Maher: ‘Ridiculous,’ ‘quaint’ to think 2nd Amendment can protect from tyranny

Sun, 05 May 2013 22:50:27 -0400

HBO host Bill Maher and MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell seemed to agree Friday night that it’s ridiculous for Americans to think the Second Amendment can protect them from tyranny.

“Can we get to, first of all, how ridiculous it is for people to think that the Second Amendment protects them from tyranny. Didn’t Waco solve that?” Mr. Maher asked on his show, “Real Time.” “We just had the anniversary a couple of weeks ago. Remember Waco? You know what they had in Waco? They had like 1.9 million rounds of ammunition; they had .50-caliber machine guns; they had grenades. … What did the government have? Everything else. The winner and still champion — the United States government.

“Thinking the Second Amendment protects you from tyranny is like thinking the First Amendment protects you from Thor,” he continued. “It’s quaint. It’s ridiculous. It’s nonsensical. And they never get called [on] it.”

Mr. Lawrence chimed in, saying the United States is long past the point of a necessary rebellion.

“Gun ownership is a minority activity,” he said. “The rate of gun ownership is declining significantly; that’s why the NRA is pushing this so hard. And what you have in terms of gun sales is simply fanatic collectors. People have 48 guns where they used to have four. And that’s how you get gun sales in this country, not by getting new buyers.”

Cool, moist air aids fight against California wildfire A big...

Sun, 05 May 2013 02:25:04 -0400

Cool, moist air aids fight against California wildfire

A big cool-down calmed a huge wildfire burning in Southern California’s coastal mountains Saturday, and firefighters worked to build miles of containment lines while conditions were favorable.

High winds and witheringly hot, dry air were replaced by the normal flow of damp air off the Pacific, significantly reducing fire activity.

“The fire isn’t really running and gunning,” said Tom Kruschke, a Ventura County Fire Department spokesman.

The 43-square-mile blaze at the western end of the Santa Monica Mountains was 56 percent surrounded.

The humidity level rose so much that an overnight effort to burn away fuel at one section of the fire did not work well, Kruschke said.

Despite the favorable conditions, evacuation orders remained in place for residents of several areas.

Nearly 2,000 firefighters using bulldozers and aircraft worked to corral the blaze.

Firefighting efforts were focused on the fire’s east side, rugged canyons that are a mix of public and private lands, Kruschke said.

The National Weather Service said an approaching low-pressure system would bring a 20 percent chance of showers Sunday afternoon, with the likelihood increasing into the night and on Monday.

“Anything we get is going to help us,” Kruschke said.

The change in the weather was also expected to bring gusty winds to some parts of Southern California, but well away from the fire area.

Despite its size and speed of growth, the fire that broke out Thursday and quickly moved through neighborhoods of Camarillo Springs and Thousand Oaks has caused damage to just 15 homes, although it has threatened thousands.

The fire also swept through Point Mugu State Park, a hiking and camping area that sprawls between those communities and the ocean. The park district’s superintendent, Craig Sap, told the Ventura County Star that two old, unused ranch-style homes in the backcountry burned. Restrooms and campgrounds also were damaged. Sap estimated that repairs would cost $225,000.

The only injuries as of Saturday were a civilian and a firefighter involved in a traffic accident away from the fire.

Residents were grateful that so many homes were spared.

“It came pretty close. All of these houses — these firemen did a tremendous job. Very, very thankful for them,” Shayne Poindexter said. Flames came within 30 feet of the house he was building.

On Friday, the wildfire reached the ocean, jumped the Pacific Coast Highway and burned a Navy base’s rifle range on the beach at Point Mugu. When winds reversed direction from offshore to onshore, the fire stormed back up canyons toward inland neighborhoods.

The blaze is one of more than 680 wildfires in the state so far this year, about 200 more than average.

East of Los Angeles in Riverside County, a new fire that broke out Saturday afternoon burned 650 acres of wilderness south of Banning. It was 20 percent contained. Banning has been flanked by a nearly 5-square-mile fire to the north since Wednesday. Firefighters contained 85 percent of that fire, which destroyed one home shortly after it broke out.

In Northern California, a fire that has blackened more than 10 square miles of wilderness in Tehama County was a threat to 10 unoccupied summer homes near the community of Butte Meadows, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.

Thunderstorms on Saturday were expected to bring erratic winds but little rain to the area about 200 miles north of San Francisco.

Nearly 1,300 firefighters were on the lines, and the blaze, which started Wednesday, was 20 percent contained.

Witherspoon's Punishment: $100 Fine & A Viral Arrest Video

Sat, 04 May 2013 00:33:25 -0400

Actress Reese Witherspoon on Friday “pleaded no contest and paid a $100 fine [for] berating a state trooper in Atlanta while her husband was given a sobriety test,” The Associated Press writes.

Her punishment for that bad behavior doesn’t stop there. TMZ.com obtained dashcam video of the Legally Blonde star’s arrest, which happened in the early morning hours of April 19.

The embarrassing video, which of course has gone viral, is posted here. It’s safe to say that it’s not one of her proudest performances. Her husband, Jim Toth, appears to realize that she’s headed for big trouble as Witherspoon says things such as “I’m an American citizen!” and “do you know my name, sir?” He looks back at the dashcam more than once.

“I tried,” Georgia State Trooper First Class J. Pyland tells Toth after handcuffing the actress and putting her in his patrol car. Pyland had warned her several times not to interfere.

“I’m sorry,” Toth replies. “I had nothing to do with that” (her behavior).

Soon after the incident, Witherspoon released a statement saying she was deeply embarrassed and had been “disrespectful to the officer who was just doing his job.” Thursday on ABC-TV’s Good Morning America, Witherspoon apologized again, calling the couple’s decision to drive after having wine with dinner “poor judgment.”

“We made a mistake and it was something that will never happen again” she said of that decision and her behavior at the scene.

Witherspoon had been charged with obstruction. Toth, the AP adds, “pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of drunken driving, Graham said. He was fined $600 and ordered to perform 40 hours of community service and participate in a program for DUI offenders.”

Obama comfortable with decision on morning-after pill for 15 year olds

Fri, 03 May 2013 07:48:15 -0400

President Obama said Thursday he was comfortable with his administration’s decision to allow over-the-counter purchases of a morning-after pill for anyone 15 and older.

The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday had lowered the age at which people can buy the Plan B One-Step morning-after pill without a prescription to 15 - younger than the current limit of 17. The FDA decided that the pill could be sold on drugstore shelves near condoms, instead of locked behind pharmacy counters.

Obama, speaking at a news conference while in Mexico, said the FDA’s decision was based on “solid scientific evidence.”

What’s still unclear is whether the administration will prevail on its appeal of a court order that would lift all age limits on purchasers of the pill.

That decision to appeal set off a storm of criticism from reproductive rights groups, who denounced it as politically motivated and a step backward for women’s health.

“We are profoundly disappointed. This appeal takes away the promise of all women having timely access to emergency contraception,” Susannah Baruch, Interim President & CEO of the Reproductive Health Technologies Project, said in a statement late Wednesday.

“It is especially troubling in light of the Food and Drug Administration’s move yesterday to continue age restrictions and ID requirements, despite a court order to make emergency contraception accessible for women of all ages. Both announcements, particularly in tandem, highlight the administration’s corner-cutting on women’s health,” Baruch said. “It’s a sad day for women’s health when politics prevails.”

After the appeal was announced late Wednesday, Terry O’Neill, president of the National Organization for Women, said, “The prevention of unwanted pregnancy, particularly in adolescents, should not be obstructed by politicians.” She called it a “step backwards for women’s health.”

Last week, O’Neill noted, Obama was applauded when he addressed members of Planned Parenthood and spoke of the organization’s “core principle” that women should be allowed to make their own decisions about their health.

“President Obama should practice what he preaches,” O’Neill said.

In appealing the ruling Wednesday, the administration recommitted itself to a position Obama took during his re-election campaign that younger teens shouldn’t have unabated access to emergency contraceptives, despite the insistence by physicians groups and much of his Democratic base that the pill should be readily available.

The Justice Department’s appeal responded to an order by U.S. District Judge Edward Korman in New York that would allow girls and women of any age to buy not only Plan B but its cheaper generic competition as easily as they can buy aspirin. Korman gave the FDA 30 days to comply, and the Monday deadline was approaching.

In its filing, the Justice Department said Korman exceeded his authority and that his decision should be suspended while that appeal is under way, meaning only Plan B One-Step would appear on drugstore shelves until the case is finally settled. If Korman’s order isn’t suspended during the appeals process, the result would be “substantial market confusion, harming FDA’s and the public’s interest” as drugstores receive conflicting orders about who’s allowed to buy what, the Justice Department concluded.

Reluctant to get drawn into a messy second-term spat over social issues, White House officials insisted Wednesday that both the FDA and the Justice Department were acting independently of the White House in deciding how to proceed. But the decision to appeal was certain to irk abortion-rights advocates who say they can’t understand why a Democratic president is siding with social conservatives in favor of limiting women’s reproductive choices.

Current and former White House aides said Obama’s approach to the issue has been heavily influenced by his experience as the father of two school-age daughters. Obama and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius have also questioned whether there’s enough data available to show the morning-after pill is safe and appropriate for younger girls, even though physicians groups insist that it is.

Rather than take matters into his own hands, the Justice Department argued to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that Korman should have ordered the FDA to reconsider its options for regulating emergency contraception. The court cannot overturn the rules and processes that federal agencies must follow “by instead mandating a particular substantive outcome,” the appeal stated.

Social conservatives were outraged by the FDA’s move to lower the age limits for Plan B - as well as the possibility that Korman’s ruling might take effect and lift age restrictions altogether.

“This decision undermines the right of parents to make important health decisions for their young daughters,” said Anna Higgins of the Family Research Council.

If a woman already is pregnant, the morning-after pill has no effect. It prevents ovulation or fertilization of an egg. According to the medical definition, pregnancy doesn’t begin until a fertilized egg implants itself into the wall of the uterus. Still, some critics say Plan B is the equivalent of an abortion pill because it may also be able to prevent a fertilized egg from attaching to the uterus, a contention that many scientists - and Korman, in his ruling - said has been discredited.

California Wildfire Burns 6,500 Acres, Shuts Down Highway A...

Fri, 03 May 2013 02:00:00 -0400

California Wildfire Burns 6,500 Acres, Shuts Down Highway

A wildfire, dubbed the Springs Fire, in Ventura County has burned more than 6,500 acres and shut down a 9-mile stretch of the Pacific Coast Highway.

NPR member station KPCC is live-blogging. They report that at around 1 p.m. ET., authorities ordered the evacuation of an area that includes “California State University, Channel Islands, where students were notified by text, email and by the campus-wide speaker system to evacuate.”

The Los Angeles Times reports that four homes in the Jurupa Valley were burned. The paper adds:

“Hundreds of firefighters have made some progress on the flank of the wind-driven fire, Ventura County Fire Department spokesman Bill Nash said. But the blaze remained uncontained because crews have been unable to get in front of it, he said.

“Helicopters were being used in the attack, but fixed-wing aircraft had been grounded because of the weather conditions, the Ventura County Fire Department said.

“Television footage showed numerous motor homes burning in a parking lot along with some type of agricultural building.”

NBC Los Angeles spoke to Capt. Mike Lindberry, of the Ventura County Fire Department, who said that after a slow couple of summers, this fire has woken them up.

“We’re chasing it, but we can’t stay ahead of this — it’s moving so fast,” said Lindberry. “We haven’t seen anything like this in a while.”

Reports: Boston Bombing Suspects Had Planned July 4 Attack

Thu, 02 May 2013 23:39:35 -0400

Another interesting thread has developed this evening in the narrative of the Boston bombings: The New York Times, CNN, Reuters, CBS,The Boston Globe and NBC are reporting that in an initial interrogation, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev said he and his brother, Tamerlan, originally planned a suicide attack on July 4.

Now, keep in mind that these reports are being attributed to unnamed officials. The New York Times, which broke the story, originally sourced it to a single official and later to “two law enforcement officials.” NPR has not independently confirmed these reports (read a note on how we cover these stories). The media outlets also report this information came out of an interrogation conducted before Tsarnaev was read his Miranda Rights.

The Times adds:

“The brothers finished building the bombs in Tamerlan’s apartment in Cambridge, Mass., faster than they anticipated, and so decided to accelerate their attack to the Boston Marathon on April 15, Patriots’ Day in Massachusetts, from July, according to the account that Dzhokhar provided authorities. They picked the finish line of the marathon after driving around the Boston area looking for alternative sites, according to this account.

“In addition, Mr. Tsarnaev has told authorities that he and his brother viewed the Internet sermons of Anwar al-Awlaki, a radical American cleric who moved to Yemen and was killed in September 2011 by an American drone strike. There is no indication that the brothers communicated with Mr. Awlaki before his death.”

CNN adds that the apartment where the bombs were built is the same one Tamerlan shared with his wife and child.

CBS News reports that an official tells them Dzhokhar said he was brought into the plot by his brother “a couple of months before” the bombing. The network offers a warning: “The official noted that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had said different things at different times and that it is all subject to investigation.”

In other news, The Boston Globe reports that the body of Tamerlan — who died after a firefight with police — was claimed by his family.

Terrel Harris, a spokesman for the Massachusetts medical examiner’s office, told the paper the body was picked up at 5:30 p.m. ET.

NPR’s coverage of the April 15 bombings that killed three people and wounded more than 250 is collected here.

Note: As happens when stories such as this are developing, there will likely be reports that turn out to be mistaken. We will focus on news being reported by NPR, other news outlets with expertise, and statements from authorities who are in a position to know what’s going on. And if some of that information turns out to be wrong, we’ll update.

A Sleep Gene Has A Surprising Role In Migraines

Wed, 01 May 2013 22:11:51 -0400

Mutations on a single gene appear to increase the risk for both an unusual sleep disorder and migraines, a team reports in Science Translational Medicine.

The finding could help explain the links between sleep problems and migraines. It also should make it easier to find new drugs to treat migraines, researchers say.

And for one member of the research team, Emily Bates, the discovery represents a personal victory.

Bates remembers getting a lot of migraines in elementary school. They would start with nausea and changes in vision, she says. Then came the pain.

“Loud sounds and light kind of hurt my eyes and my ears and my head,” she says. Moving or applying any sort of pressure to her skin also hurt.

The problem was embarrassing and caused her to miss a lot of school, Bates says. It also was frustrating, she says, because back then, in the 1990s, no one could tell her much about what was causing her migraines or how to stop them.

So Bates decided to become a scientist in order to understand “these bizarre, awful migraines.” She earned a doctorate in genetics at Harvard in 2005. Then, a couple of years later, while working in a lab at the University of California, San Francisco, she got a remarkable opportunity.

Researchers in Los Angeles had been studying a family with a lot of migraines. The team discovered something really surprising about this family: They were early birds who were usually asleep by 8 p.m. and up by 5 a.m. The scientific name for the condition is “advanced sleep phase.”

The researchers were able to trace the family’s sleep disorder to a mutation on a gene that helps control circadian rhythms, says Andrew Charles, a neurologist at UCLA. “We then turned our attention to the question of how this gene mutation could be involved in migraine,” he says.

The first step was to show that the gene really could cause both sleep problems and migraines. So the team found a second family being studied at UCSF that had a slightly different mutation on the same gene. Sure enough, many members of this family were also early birds who had migraines.

The next step was to study mice carrying the mutated gene. And that’s where Emily Bates got a chance to help explain the disorder that had so disrupted her childhood.

Bates’ boss at UCSF, Louis Ptacek, had asked her to study the behavior of mice carrying the mutated gene and to find out whether they were experiencing any symptoms of migraines.

There’s no sure way to know if a mouse has a headache, Bates says. So she began looking for some of the other migraine symptoms she knew so well — things like sensitivity to heat and touch — and she found them.

“All of the things that we looked at basically said these mice are more susceptible to migraine than a normal mouse,” she says. The mice also had brain changes similar to those seen in people experiencing a migraine.

The findings should help explain the elusive link between sleep patterns and migraine, Charles says. “Disruptions of sleep are very well known to be a migraine trigger,” he says. “And many migraine patients will tell you that their migraine attack will only end if they’re able to get to sleep.”

The results also serve as a reminder that there is a lot more to a migraine than headache and pain, Charles says. He says the study represents “another step toward bringing migraine forward as a disorder of the brain and a disorder for which there’s a genetic basis.”

But the ultimate payoff of the new research should be new ways to treat or prevent migraines, says Bates, who is now on the faculty at Brigham Young University.

“I know so well how frustrating and really demoralizing it can be to get a migraine,” she says. “But I think once we understand the mechanism we can design better drugs.”

One World Trade Center spire delivery delayed due to...

Wed, 01 May 2013 00:15:54 -0400

One World Trade Center spire delivery delayed due to weather

Blame it on the weather. The final two sections for the 408-foot spire that’s supposed to top the One World Trade Center couldn’t be delivered on Monday, as scheduled, because of rainy conditions, Port Authority officials said.

The addition of the sections will make the center the tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, CNN reported.

The pieces weigh almost 6 tons. They’re made of stainless steel and, once put in place, will bring the height of the building to 1,776 feet, the Port Authority said.

The spire is functional, too. It will serve as a broadcasting site, owned by One World Trade Center, CNN said.