All publications of Mathew Lamert . New York City , United States of Ame

Live TV is no easy feat — even for Oscar-winning actors. On Wednesday night’s live broadcast of Live in Front of a Studio Audience: Norman Lear’s All in the Family and The Jeffersons, Jamie Foxx made a noticeable flub of one of his lines and then proceeded to hilariously call further attention to it. After fumbling his words, Foxx said, “It’s live. It’s live — people at home thinking their TV is messed up.” The rest of the cast couldn’t help but respond to Foxx’s flub with Marisa Tomei and Ellie Kemper visibly laughing and smiling at Foxx’s acknowledgment of the “anything can happen” nature of live television. Ike Barinholtz covered his mouth with his hand to hide his case of the giggles, while Harrelson turned around, unable to contain himself. In this live ABC special, Foxx was taking on the role of George Jefferson, filling the shoes of the original actor Sherman Hemsley down to his signature hairstyle and sharp suit. Foxx was word perfect the night before during dress rehearsal, which EW was present for. At any rate, audiences responded kindly to the organic moment with viewers celebrating the moment and the surrounding cast’s reaction to the error on Twitter. Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/jamie-foxx-hilariously-breaks-character-after-line-flub-on-live-in-front-of-a-studio-audience/ar-AABLU0W?li=BBnb7Kz

Another day, another triumph for reigning "Jeopardy!" champ James Holzhauer. Holzhauer, 34, recorded his 25th consecutive win on Wednesday's edition of the popular quiz show. With $71,885 in winnings Wednesday, Holzhauer, a professional sports gambler from Las Vegas, now sits at $1,939,027 in total prize money. He would cross the $2 million barrier with one more victory at his current daily average of $77,561. Holzhauer's streak has spurred renewed interest in the venerable quiz show, which –with host Alex Trebek – is celebrating its 35th anniversary season. Holzhauer ranks second all-time in "Jeopardy!" victories and prize money. He trails only Ken Jennings, who remains in the top spot on both lists: 74 victories and $2,520,700 in prize winnings. Although the current champ remains far from Jennings' win total, he's closing in on the money crown based on a playing strategy that features picking higher-dollar clues first and betting aggressively on Daily Doubles. Holzhauer's average daily winnings eclipse the previous one-day high, $77,000, set by Roger Craig in 2010. If he keeps winning and continues at that winnings pace, he will be surpass Jennings' money mark with fewer than 10 more victories. Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/jeopardy-juggernaut-james-holzhauer-moves-closer-to-dollar2-million-winnings-with-25th-win/ar-AABL4u3?li=BBnb7Kz

The messy situation between Chiefs defensive back Tyrann Mathieu and multiple family members keeps getting messier. Via Travers Mackel of WDSU-TV, a Wednesday bond-revocation hearing for Geourvon Sears, a Mathieu relative, resulted in multiple allegations that Mathieu has made threats against family members. George Sears, the brother of Geourvon Sears, claimed in court that Mathieu “put a hit on” Geourvon Sears. George Sears also said that he has received threats from Mathieu. George Sears testified that Mathieu drove past their home over the weekend, and that Geourvon feared Mathieu was going to hurt them. Their mother also testified that Mathieu made threats via social media. None of it was enough to keep Geourvon Sears’ bond from being revoked. Based on allegations that he threatened Mathieu with allegations of sexual misconduct, evidence that Sears has been chronically smoking marijuana, and proof of tampering with his ankle monitor, Geourvon Sears ended up in jail. Mathieu’s lawyer separately denied any misconduct on Mathieu’s behalf, claiming that after Mathieu “decided to stop assisting these individuals financially, they turned to harassment, slander and extortion in their quest to gain financially.” Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/multiple-family-members-accuse-tyrann-mathieu-of-making-threats/ar-AABL0bw?li=BBnb7Kz

So many rats regularly lurk on a sidewalk in Brooklyn that it is the humans who avoid the rats, not the other way around. Not even cars are safe: Rats have chewed clean through engine wires. A Manhattan avenue lined with trendy restaurants has become a destination for foodies — and rats who help themselves to their leftovers. Tenants at a public housing complex in the South Bronx worry about tripping over rats that routinely run over their feet. New York has always been forced to coexist with the four-legged vermin, but the infestation has expanded exponentially in recent years, spreading to just about every corner of the city. “I’m a former Marine so I’m not going to be squeamish, but this is bad,” said Pablo Herrera, a 58-year-old mechanic who has counted up to 30 rats while walking on his block in Prospect Heights, just around the corner from the stately Brooklyn Museum. Rat sightings reported to the city’s 311 hotline have soared nearly 38 percent, to 17,353 last year from 12,617 in 2014, according to an analysis of city data by OpenTheBooks.com, a nonprofit watchdog group, and The New York Times. In the same period, the number of times that city health inspections found active signs of rats nearly doubled. Mayor Bill de Blasio, like mayors before him, has declared war on rats, but so far the city is still losing. “There is no doubt that rats have a major impact on New Yorkers’ quality of life and this administration takes seriously our responsibility to control and mitigate their population,” said Laura Anglin, deputy mayor of operations. “No New Yorker likes having rats in their community and we are committed to continuing the work of controlling rats in all of our neighborhoods.” One key reason rats seem to be everywhere? Gentrification. The city’s construction boom is digging up burrows, forcing more rats out into the open, scientists and pest control experts say. Milder winters — the result of climate change — make it easier for rats to survive and reproduce. And New York’s growing population and thriving tourism has brought more trash for rats to feed on. But the onslaught of rats extends beyond New York: Cities such as Philadelphia, Chicago and Los Angeles are also confronting outbreaks. “Everywhere I go, rat populations are up,” said Robert Corrigan, a research scientist in New York who estimates that their numbers may have increased by as much as 15 to 25 percent in some cities. The rodents are not only a nuisance and a blight on the quality of life, but also a health risk. A bacterial infection spread by rat urine, leptospirosis, killed a Bronx resident in 2017. Chicago — crowned the nation’s rat capital in one study — has more than doubled its work crews dedicated to rats, who set out poison and fill in burrows in parks, alleys and backyards. It also passed ordinances requiring developers and contractors to have a rat-control plan before demolishing buildings or breaking ground on new projects. Washington, where rat complaints have nearly tripled to roughly 6,000 last year from 2,400 in 2014, is testing a rat-sterilization program tried elsewhere that uses liquid contraceptives as bait. And Seattle is planning to train neighborhood property owners and managers on how to stem infestations. “We respond where we can, but management of rats, not elimination of them, is our practical goal,” said Hilary Karasz, a county health official. In New York, rats once scurried in the shadows but now they frolic brazenly in broad daylight. One even became a social media star: pizza rat. Parents at an Upper West Side playground said rats jumped into the sandbox where their children played, though the vermin have been cleared for now. Mr. de Blasio, calling for “more rat corpses,” unveiled a $32 million assault on rats in 2017, which included increased litter basket pickups, the deployment of solar-powered, trash compacting bins and rat-resistant steel cans. The city has also used dry ice to smother rats where they live. But after dropping last year, rat sightings are again on the upswing. The top spot for rat sighting complaints has been the Upper West Side, where residents are known for speaking up, followed by four Brooklyn neighborhoods: Prospect Heights, Bedford-Stuyvesant, Bushwick and Ocean Hill. (Find your neighborhood here.) Daniel Barber, the chairman of a citywide council of tenant associations in public housing developments, believes the rat problem has gotten better, though, he added, “I’m not going to say it’s a drastic improvement.” Many community leaders say the city needs to dedicate a lot more money to rooting out the rat problem and expanding trash cleanups and pickups across the city. “It’s a Band-Aid,” said Aaron Biller, the president of Neighborhood in the Nineties, a civic group on the Upper West Side. “It’s like if someone said, ‘we need to clean the floor of a gymnasium’ and handed you a toothbrush.” City health inspections found 30,874 instances of “active rat signs,” which including sightings and droppings, at buildings and properties last year, or nearly double the 16,315 instances in 2014, according to the analysis. In the first three months of this year, there were 8,003 inspection reports of active rat signs, up from 6,787 in the same period last year. City health officials said the results include initial and follow-up inspections and reflect the increasing number of inspections that are being carried out overall as part of the city’s rat reduction campaign. Jason Munshi-South, a biology professor at Fordham University who has led “rat safaris” to observe the vermin in Columbus Park in Chinatown, said that while New York is doing more than other cities, it will never be able to entirely eradicate rats. A major contributing factor is how the city collects trash: bags are left outside on the curb for hours before pick up the next morning. “It’s just an all-night buffet for the rats,” he said. On Ninth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, rats chow down on trash bags piled outside restaurants and bars. Steve Belida, the chairman of a local block association, said he used to get the occasional rat complaint. Now he gets a steady stream. Michael Deutsch, an entomologist with Arrow Exterminating on Long Island, said there is no “magic bullet’’ to reducing rats. “You can’t just go in and order an airstrike — and then leave,” he said. “Rat populations can rebound unless you are always pressing them.” Even buildings that never have had a rat problem are now being inundated by those rodents. Larry Jayson said he recently saw a rat jump out of a trash bin in an apartment building that is next to a new tower under construction in Flatbush, Brooklyn. It was the largest rat he had ever seen. “We’ve seen rats the size of Cleveland,” said Mr. Jayson, the executive director of Housing and Family Services of Greater New York, a nonprofit organization. “You’re unearthing and unleashing hell on those poor people who live next door.” Under the city’s building code, developers are required to hire a licensed exterminator for any site where a building is being demolished. But there is no similar rule for new developments. Simon H. Williams, a researcher at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, likened the impact of the construction on rats to “stepping on an ants nest.” In Prospect Heights, rats have made themselves at home on a block of Lincoln Place that has attracted young families and middle-class professionals. A run-down building on the corner is being renovated while several new buildings are going up nearby, contributing to the local rat population. On a recent night, black trash bags piled along a stretch of sidewalk known as “rat alley” seemed to crinkle on their own as rats squirmed inside. High-pitched squeaks filled the air. “It’s not the night before Christmas,” said Mr. Herrera, who lives next door. Mr. Herrera has found gnawed chicken bones and rat droppings underneath his car hood. He spent $150 to replace chewed-up ignition wires. Walking down the street has become a source of anxiety for his 9-year-old daughter, Isabella Henry. Despite numerous complaints to city officials — including dozens of calls to 311 — the rats keep turning up. Residents say they feast on garbage left outside the apartment building under renovation on the corner, which has failed 10 city health inspections since last year, according to records. Getz Obstfeld, a co-owner of FSG Realty, which manages and partly owns the building, said that they have targeted rat holes, added more trash cans and removed construction debris. Still, the rats keep coming. “They love it over here, it’s up and coming,” said Russell Coit, 66, a retired maintenance supervisor who lives on the block. “They would like to invest in something over here, too.” Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/rats-are-taking-over-new-york-city/ar-AABJp16?li=BBnb7Kz

The schooner Clotilda—the last known ship to bring enslaved Africans to America’s shores—has been discovered in a remote arm of Alabama’s Mobile River following an intensive yearlong search by marine archaeologists. "Descendants of the Clotilda survivors have dreamed of this discovery for generations," says Lisa Demetropoulos Jones, executive director of the Alabama Historical Commission (AHC) and the State Historic Preservation Officer. "We’re thrilled to announce that their dream has finally come true." The captives who arrived aboard Clotilda were the last of an estimated 389,000 Africans delivered into bondage in mainland America from the early 1600s to 1860. Thousands of vessels were involved in the transatlantic trade, but very few slave wrecks have ever been found. "The discovery of the Clotilda sheds new light on a lost chapter of American history," says Fredrik Hiebert, archaeologist-in-residence at the National Geographic Society, which supported the search. "This finding is also a critical piece of the story of Africatown, which was built by the resilient descendants of America’s last slave ship." Rare firsthand accounts left by the slaveholders as well as their victims offer a one-of-a-kind window into the Atlantic slave trade, says Sylviane Diouf, a noted historian of the African diaspora. "It’s the best documented story of a slave voyage in the Western Hemisphere," says Diouf, whose 2007 book, Dreams of Africa in Alabama, chronicles the Clotilda’s saga. "The captives were sketched, interviewed, even filmed," she says, referring to some who lived into the 20th century. "The person who organized the trip talked about it. The captain of the ship wrote about it. So we have the story from several perspectives. I haven’t seen anything of that sort anywhere else." It began with a bet Clotilda’s story began when Timothy Meaher, a wealthy Mobile landowner and shipbuilder, allegedly wagered several Northern businessmen a thousand dollars that he could smuggle a cargo of Africans into Mobile Bay under the nose of federal officials. Importing slaves into the United States had been illegal since 1808, and southern plantation owners had seen prices in the domestic slave trade skyrocket. Many, including Meaher, were advocating for reopening the trade. Meaher chartered a sleek, swift schooner named Clotilda and enlisted its builder, Captain William Foster, to sail it to the notorious slave port of Ouidah in present-day Benin to buy captives. Foster left West Africa with 110 young men, women, and children crowded into the schooner’s hold. One girl reportedly died during the brutal six-week voyage. Purchased for $9,000 in gold, the human cargo was worth more than 20 times that amount in 1860 Alabama. After transferring the captives to a riverboat owned by Meaher’s brother, Foster burned the slaver to the waterline to hide their crime. Clotilda kept her secrets over the decades, even as some deniers contended that the shameful episode never occurred. After the Civil War ended and slavery was abolished, the Africans longed to return to their home in West Africa. Lacking the means, they managed to buy small plots of land north of Mobile, where they formed their own tight-knit community that came to be known as Africatown. There they made new lives for themselves but never lost their African identity. Many of their descendants still live there today and grew up with stories of the famous ship that brought their ancestors to Alabama. "If they find evidence of that ship, it's going to be big," descendant Lorna Woods predicted earlier this year. "All Mama told us would be validated. It would do us a world of good." Mary Elliott, a curator at the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, agrees. "There are many examples today—the Tulsa race riots of 1921, this story, even the Holocaust—where some people say it never happened. Now, because of the archaeology, the archival research, the science combined with the collective memories of the community, it can't be refuted. They are now connected to their ancestors in a tangible way, knowing this story is true." (Their ancestors survived slavery. Can their descendants save the town they built?) The hunt for lost history Several attempts to locate Clotilda’s remains have been made over the years, but the Mobile-Tensaw Delta is rife with sloughs, oxbows, and bayous, as well as scores of shipwrecks from more than three centuries of maritime activity. Then in January 2018, a local journalist reported that he had discovered the remains of a large wooden ship during an abnormally low tide. The AHC, which owns all abandoned ships in Alabama’s state waters, called in the archaeology firm Search, Inc., to investigate the hulk. The vessel in question turned out to be another ship, but the false alarm focused national attention on the long-lost slaver. The incident also prompted the AHC to fund further research in partnership with the National Geographic Society and Search, Inc. Researchers combed through hundreds of original sources from the period and analyzed records of more than 2,000 ships that were operating in the Gulf of Mexico during the late 1850s. They discovered that Clotilda was one of only five Gulf-built schooners then insured. Registration documents provided detailed descriptions of the schooner, including its construction and dimensions. "Clotilda was an atypical, custom-built vessel," says maritime archaeologist James Delgado of Search, Inc. "There was only one Gulf-built schooner 86 feet long with a 23-foot beam and a six-foot, 11-inch hold, and that was Clotilda." Records also noted that the schooner was built of southern yellow pine planking over white oak frames and was outfitted with a 13-foot-long centerboard that could be raised or lowered as needed to access shallow harbors. Based on their research of possible locations, Delgado and Alabama state archaeologist Stacye Hathorn focused on a stretch of the Mobile River that had never been dredged. Deploying divers and an array of devices—a magnetometer for detecting metal objects, a side-scan sonar for locating structures on and above the river bottom, and a sub-bottom profiler for detecting objects buried beneath the mucky riverbed—they discovered a veritable graveyard of sunken ships. Most were easily eliminated: wrong size, metal hull, wrong type of wood. But one vessel, labeled Target 5, stood out from the rest. It "matched everything on record about Clotilda," says Delgado, including its design and dimensions, the type of wood and metal used in its construction, and evidence that it had burned. Samples of wood recovered from Target 5 are white oak and southern yellow pine from the Gulf coast. The archaeologists also found the remains of a centerboard of the correct size. Metal fasteners from its hull are made of hand-forged pig iron, the same type known to have been used on Clotilda. And there’s evidence that the hull was originally sheathed with copper, as was then common practice for oceangoing merchant vessels. No nameplate or other inscribed artifacts conclusively identified the wreck, Delgado says, "but looking at the various pieces of evidence, you can reach a point beyond reasonable doubt." A national slave ship memorial? The wreck of Clotilda now carries the dreams of Africatown, which has suffered from declining population, poverty, and a host of environmental insults from heavy industries that surround the community. Residents hope that the wreck will generate tourism and bring businesses and employment back to their streets. Some have even suggested it be raised and put on display. The community was recently awarded nearly $3.6 million from the BP Deepwater Horizon legal settlement to rebuild a visitor center destroyed in 2005 by Hurricane Katrina. But what’s left of the burned-out wreck is in very poor condition, says Delgado. Restoring it would cost many millions of dollars. But a national slave ship memorial—akin to the watery grave of the U.S.S. Arizona in Pearl Harbor—might be an option. There visitors could reflect on the horrors of the slave trade and be reminded of Africa’s enormous contribution to the making of America. "We are still living in the wake of slavery," says Paul Gardullo, director of the Center for the Study of Global Slavery at the National Museum of African American History and Culture and a member of the Slave Wrecks Project that was involved in the search for Clotilda. “We continue to be confronted by slavery. It keeps popping up because we haven’t dealt with this past. If we do our work right, we have an opportunity not just to reconcile, but to make some real change.” The Alabama Historical Commission will release the official archaeology report at a community celebration in Africatown on Thursday, May 30. Source: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/last-american-slave-ship-is-discovered-in-alabama/ar-AABKIR0?li=BBnb7Kz

For people without heart disease, a new study found taking low-dose aspirin is associated with an increased risk for bleeding within the skull. Patients with a low body mass index or Asian backgrounds face the highest risk, according to the study published Monday in the journal JAMA Neurology. The report follows the American Heart Association's recommendation for adults older than 70 not to take regular low-dose aspirin to prevent atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. The March guidelines followed a clinical trial concluding daily low doses of the medication could be linked to major hemorrhages and did not prolong life in healthy, elderly people. Researchers studied 13 clinical trials with a total of about 134,000 patients without a history of strokes or heart disease. Those who took a placebo had a 0.46% risk of having a head bleed during all the tests combined. Those who took low-dose aspirin faced a 0.63% risk, meaning an additional 2 out of every 1,000 people suffered from intracerebral hemorrhage. Death and functional dependency are linked to bleeding within the skull, researchers said. For those who have experienced a stroke or heart attack, doctors sometimes still prescribe a daily low dose of aspirin to prevent another, according to the American Heart Association. A low dose of aspirin is considered to be between 75 and 100 milligrams. Doctors may also give aspirin to patients with a high risk of cardiovascular disease and low risk of bleeding, as a preventative measure, cardiologist Roger Blumenthal said in a statement. Regular exercise, maintaining a healthy weight, avoiding tobacco and eating a diet rich in vegetables and low in sugar and trans fats can also prevent cardiovascular disease, according to the heart association. Source: https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/05/13/low-dose-aspirin-tied-bleeding-within-skull-study-says/1194102001/

Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein on Monday evening bashed James Comey as a "partisan pundit," several days after the former FBI director criticized Rosenstein's character. During remarks to the Greater Baltimore Committee, Rosenstein, just days removed from his tumultuous tenure helping to lead the Justice Department for the past two years, defended his oversight of special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia probe and responded to remarks his former colleague made about him last week. Rosenstein said that during Comey's time as FBI director, he did not dislike him: "At the time, I admired him personally and appreciated some of his accomplishments at the FBI." However, Rosenstein said that Comey made some mistakes, which crossed "bright lines that should never be crossed." The former deputy attorney general critiqued Comey's handling of the Hillary Clinton email investigation during the 2016 presidential race. He went on to respond to criticism from the former FBI director, who said last week during a televised CNN town hall that he does not believe Rosenstein has "strong character." "But now the former director seems to be acting as a partisan pundit, selling books and earning speaking fees while speculating about the strength of my character and the fate of my immortal soul. I kid you not," Rosenstein said during his remarks Monday "That is disappointing. Speculating about souls is not a job for police and prosecutors," he continued. Last week, Comey criticized Rosenstein's character, saying that it was not "strong." The former FBI director was expanding on an op-ed he penned for the New York Times where he said President Donald Trump "eats your soul in small bites." "I think people like that, like Rod Rosenstein, who are people of accomplishment but not real sterling character, strong character, find themselves trapped," Comey said during a CNN town hall. "Then they start telling themselves a story to try justifying their being trapped which is 'yeah he's awful, but the country needs me.'" Comey added that Rosenstein and other Republicans who don't stand up to Trump make compromises or stay silent because they believe they are needed in the long run to combat Trump. "They become trapped, they're not strong enough to push out of it, and they end up making comprises that they lose everything," Comey said. When asked by CNN's Anderson Cooper whether he believes Rosenstein is of a strong character, Comey doubled down. "Yeah, I don't think he is," the former FBI director said. Source: https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/05/13/rosenstein-criticizes-comey-partisan-pundit/1195383001/

Goodnight moon? Scientists Monday gave us the unsettling news that our favorite natural satellite is shrinking, according to a new study. The shrinking is also causing "moonquakes," which have only recently been detected. But it's no cause for concern, said study co-author Nicholas Schmerr, a University of Maryland geologist, in an email to USA TODAY. "As the moon cools, its overall size has contracted or decreased by about 100 meters over the past 4.5 billion years, which is why we say it is shrinking," he said. "This puts the crust under compression. "If there's enough compressive stress, the crust can fail, producing earthquakes – or in this case moonquakes," he said. Fortunately, the moon's mass isn’t changing, "and the radius change is small, so the effect on Earth is minuscule, and it won’t affect tides or make the moon disappear," Schmerr said. To detect the quakes, researchers reviewed data gathered by Apollo astronauts back in the late 1960s and early 1970s, along with new information from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). The LRO is an unmanned probe in orbit around the moon. Here's what's going on up there, according to the study: Just as a grape wrinkles as it shrinks down to a raisin, the moon gets wrinkles as it shrinks. Unlike the flexible skin on a grape, however, the moon’s surface crust is brittle. Therefore, the crust breaks as the moon shrinks, forming “thrust faults” where one section of crust is pushed up over a neighboring part. “Our analysis gives the first evidence that these faults are still active and likely producing moonquakes today as the moon continues to gradually cool and shrink,” said study lead author Thomas Watters of the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum. “Some of these quakes can be fairly strong, around five on the Richter scale." What's impressive, scientists say, is that the data from the Apollo program decades ago is still paying dividends for researchers today: “It’s a great testament to the continued benefits of the Apollo program that seismic data collected over 40 years ago is helping to confirm that the moon is likely tectonically active today,” Watters said. Schmerr, the University of Maryland geologist, said the findings also "emphasize that we need to go back to the moon. We learned a lot from the Apollo missions, but they really only scratched the surface. "With a larger network of modern seismometers, we could make huge strides in our understanding of the moon’s geology. This provides some very promising low-hanging fruit for science on a future mission to the moon.” Monday's study was published in the peer-reviewed British journal Nature Geoscience. Source: https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/05/13/moon-shrinking-and-quaking-new-study-reviews-apollo-era-data/1188571001/

Attorney General William Barr tapped Connecticut's chief federal prosecutor, John Durham, to assist in an investigation into the origins of the Russia investigation and the FBI's surveillance activities, a person familiar with the matter said Monday. The person, who is not authorized to comment publicly, said that Durham has been assisting the attorney general for at least a couple of weeks to determine whether federal investigators acted appropriately in the early stages of the now-completed inquiry into Russia's interference in the 2016 election. Barr announced that he had launched the review last month during an appearance before a Senate subcommittee. He expressed concern about the FBI's use of surveillance involving associates of then-candidate Donald Trump as authorities sought to understand Russia's interference efforts, though Barr also said he did not know whether officials had done anything wrong. "Spying on a campaign is a big deal," Barr told lawmakers then. "I think spying did occur. The question is whether it was adequately predicated." At that time, the attorney general said he planned to examine the "genesis and the conduct" of the FBI's investigation into possible ties between the Trump campaign and Russia. "I am not saying that improper surveillance occurred," Barr told the Senate Appropriations subcommittee. "I am concerned about it. There is a basis for my concern." Democrats have seized on Barr's use of the term "spying," asserting that the attorney general has sided with President Trump to disparage the 22-month investigation that the president has repeatedly described as a "witch-hunt." As recently as last week, however, FBI Director Christopher Wray said he was unaware of any evidence indicating that the FBI had abused its surveillance authority, distancing himself from the attorney general. "That's not the term I would use," Wray told the same Senate committee, referring to the "spying" reference. Rod Rosenstein, until recently the department's second-in-command, said in a speech Monday that based on what he knew in 2017, "the investigation of Russian election interference was justified, and closing it was not an option." The review involving the attorney general and Durham, a longtime Justice Department official, marks the third such inquiry into aspects of the Russia investigation that was led by special counsel Robert Mueller. It was first reported late Monday by the New York Times. The department's inspector general is conducting a review of surveillance warrants authorities used to eavesdrop on a former campaign aide, Carter Page, in October 2016. Barr has said that effort should be completed by late May or perhaps June. The chief federal prosecutor in Utah, John Huber, also is in the midst of a separate review. Trump and Republicans in Congress have complained repeatedly that the FBI targeted the president's campaign for political reasons, revealing text messages between two senior officials involved in the probe who expressed their personal contempt for Trump. And they have focused on the FBI's reliance on information from a former British spy who had been hired indirectly by Clinton's campaign to conduct research on Trump before the election. During his long career at the Justice Department, Durham has taken on a number of special investigations, including an appointment during the George W. Bush administration to investigate the CIA's destruction of videotapes depicting the torture of terror suspects. Source: https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/05/13/attorney-general-barr-john-durham-us-attorney-connecticut-review-trump-russia-investigation-origin/1195462001/

Tiger Woods and the general manager of Woods’ Florida restaurant face a wrongful death lawsuit brought by the parents of a 24-year-old bartender of the Jupiter establishment. Nicholas Immesberger had an estimated blood alcohol concentration of 0.28 — more than three times the legal limit — when he died after his 1999 Chevrolet Corvette left the roadway. The lawsuit filed in Palm Beach County on Monday alleges Immesberger was over-served for about three hours after his shift at The Woods concluded, before the fatal crash. While the lawsuit alleges, "Tiger is individually liable in this action because he individually participated in the serving of alcohol," that doesn’t mean Woods served — or was even at The Woods — that day. Woods, under state alcohol laws, potentially could be held liable as an owner of the establishment even if he wasn’t physically at the venue if a foreseeable risk of injury or death occurs due to over-serving somebody with a known history of alcohol abuse issues. Immesberger had a history of alcohol abuse, and the lawsuit alleges “Tiger knew, or reasonably should have known, that Immesberger was habitually addicted to the use of any or all alcoholic beverages, and/or was a habitual drunkard.” Messages left with Woods' representatives by USA TODAY Sports were not immediately returned Monday. "The employees and management at The Woods had direct knowledge that Immesberger had a habitual problem with alcohol," the lawsuit read. "In fact, employees and managers knew that Immesberger had attended Alcoholic Anonymous meetings prior to the night of his crash and was attempting to treat his disease. Despite this, the employees and management at The Woods continued to serve Immesberger alcohol while he was working as well as after work, while he sat at the bar." The lawsuit seeks "in excess of" $15,000. A news conference is scheduled for Tuesday morning. Sourse: https://eu.usatoday.com/story/sports/golf/2019/05/13/tiger-woods-wrongful-death-lawsuit-florida/1195131001/