https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/09/us/politics/us-cyberweapons-russia-trump.html



BERLIN — After months of secret negotiations, a shadowy Russian bilked American spies out of $100,000 last year, promising to deliver stolen National Security Agency cyberweapons in a deal that he insisted would also include compromising material on President Trump, according to American and European intelligence officials.

The cash, delivered in a suitcase to a Berlin hotel room in September, was intended as the first installment of a $1 million payout, according to American officials, the Russian and communications reviewed by The New York Times. The theft of the secret hacking tools had been devastating to the N.S.A., and the agency was struggling to get a full inventory of what was missing.

Several American intelligence officials said they made clear that they did not want the Trump material from the Russian, who was suspected of having murky ties to Russian intelligence and to Eastern European cybercriminals. He claimed the information would link the president and his associates to Russia. Instead of providing the hacking tools, the Russian produced unverified and possibly fabricated information involving Mr. Trump and others, including bank records, emails and purported Russian intelligence data.

The United States intelligence officials said they cut off the deal because they were wary of being entangled in a Russian operation to create discord inside the American government. They were also fearful of political fallout in Washington if they were seen to be buying scurrilous information on the president.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2018/02/08/florida-boy-gets-trapped-inside-arcade-claw-machine.html

A young boy who was really set on getting a stuffed toy from a claw-style vending machine at a Florida restaurant ended up getting stuck inside it on Wednesday, according to officials.

Titusville Fire and Emergency Services said in a Facebook post the incident happened at a Beef O'Brady's restaurant on the state's Atlantic coast.

"This evening little Mason was enjoying some food and decided he wanted a stuffed animal," the rescue agency said. "He wanted it so bad, he climbed into the game to get that toy!!"

Fire officials said the boy was "never in any distress," and an off-duty firefighter who happened to be there eating dinner contacted his colleagues.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/02/09/california-lawmaker-behind-metoo-push-is-accused-of-groping-male-staffer/?hpid=hp_hp-morning-mix_mm-lawmaker%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.519fda0294e3

California Democratic Assemblywoman and vocal #MeToo advocate Cristina Garcia is under investigation for allegedly groping a former male staffer. (Amber Ferguson/The Washington Post)

A California lawmaker who has gained national recognition for fighting against sexual misconduct in the state Capitol is accused of groping a former legislative staffer.

The staffer, Daniel Fierro, told The Washington Post on Thursday that Democratic Assemblywoman Cristina Garcia, who has become a prominent figure in the #MeToo movement, approached him alone after an assembly softball game in 2014, squeezed his buttocks and tried to touch his crotch. He said Garcia was visibly intoxicated.

Fierro, who was 25 at the time, did not report the incident because he worried about the long-term consequences that could come with accusing the powerful lawmaker, who chairs the Legislative Women’s Caucus and the Natural Resources Committee. But in January he told his former boss, Democratic Assemblyman Ian Calderon, who referred the matter to an assembly panel that is now investigating Garcia.

Politico was the first to report on Fierro’s allegations. The story also included sexual misconduct allegations against Garcia from an anonymous male lobbyist that The Post was not able to independently verify.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/07/us/alabama-viral-child-pornography-video/index.html

(CNN)An Alabama man is in custody Tuesday as a suspect in a child pornography video that was shared worldwide on social media, authorities said.

Germaine Moore, 44, of Millbrook, Alabama, turned himself in to authorities outside of Montgomery early Tuesday, according to Lt. Brooke Walker, commander of the Alabama Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. The video depicts a sexual act between an adult male and a minor, whom authorities believe was 6 years old at the time.

Many people shared the video on social media in an apparent attempt to locate the man seen in the video, leading authorities in several states to warn people they could face charges for sharing and possessing the video, according to CNN affiliates WTKR and WFSA.

Charges are pending against Moore in Alabama, according to Elmore County District Attorney Randall V. Houston. Moore already faces criminal sexual conduct charges in Michigan involving three young relatives he allegedly sexually assaulted over the course of several years in Michigan and Alabama, the Wayne County, Michigan Prosecutor's Office said in a statement.

"I believe we have the right person for this event," Walker told CNN.
Alabama authorities are trying to determine when and where the viral video was taken, and who first shared it to social media. Walker said the video is not a recent video. Authorities believe that a person in the Montgomery area originally posted the video to Facebook, Walker told CNN.

https://www.mediamatters.org/video/2018/02/05/sean-hannity-blames-obama-historic-market-crash/219279

Hannity: "The era of cheap money at some point has to come to an end"

SEAN HANNITY (HOST): Because the Obama economy was so weak all of these years we had just artificially cheap money. Now what’s cheap money? Cheap money is when you can borrow at ridiculously low rates. The era of cheap money at some point has to come to an end. The government has artificially, the Fed has artificially kept the price of money down and the price borrowing down and now that’s going to come to an end. In many ways it represents; Ashley Webster is the name? In many ways it’s a sign of the strength of the economy more than anything else.

https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/jun/30/plastic-road-india-tar-plastic-transport-environment-pollution-waste

In India, roads made from shredded plastic are proving a popular solution to tackling waste and extreme weather

Jambulingam Street, Chennai, is a local legend. The tar road in the bustling Nungambakkam area has weathered a major flood, several monsoons, recurring heat waves and a steady stream of cars, trucks and auto rickshaws without showing the usual signs of wear and tear. Built in 2002, it has not developed the mosaic of cracks, potholes or craters that typically make their appearance after it rains. Holding the road together is an unremarkable material: a cheap, polymer glue made from shredded waste plastic.

Jambulingam Street was one of India’s first plastic roads . The environmentally conscious approach to road construction was developed in India around 15 years ago in response to the growing problem of plastic litter. As time wore on, polymer roads proved to be surprisingly durable, winning support among scientists and policymakers in India as well as neighboring countries like Bhutan. “The plastic tar roads have not developed any potholes, rutting, raveling or edge flaw, even though these roads are more than four years of age,” observed an early performance report by India’s Central Pollution Control Board. Today, there are more than 21,000 miles of plastic road in India, and roughly half are in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. Most are rural roads, but a small number have also been built in cities such as Chennai and Mumbai.

Adding flexible materials to strengthen tar roads is not a new idea. Commercially made polymer-modified asphalts first became popular in the 1970s in Europe. Now, North America claims 35% of the global market. Modified asphalts are made from virgin polymers and sometimes crumb rubber (ground tires). They are highly versatile: Illinois uses them to build high-traffic truck roads, Washington State uses them for noise reduction and in rural Ontario they are used to prevent roads from cracking after a harsh winter. Polymerized asphalts also tend not to buckle in extreme heat the way conventional roads do – plastic roads will not melt unless the temperature goes beyond 66C (150F), compared to 50.2C (122.5F) for ordinary roads – and are frequently used on roads in the Middle East.

But even in the US, cost is a significant barrier. The most widely used polymer, styrene-butadiene-styrene, can increase the price of a road by 30-50%. In India, high-stress roads like runways and expressways are increasingly using polymer modified asphalts made by manufacturers like DuPont.

https://www.cnn.com/2018/02/04/us/philadelphia-after-super-bowl-win/index.html

Shortly after the final whistle, Philadelphia Eagles supporters came out en masse to celebrate their team's victory over the New England Patriots and the Eagles's first-ever Super Bowl victory in franchise history.

The festivities, however, weren't without instances of vandalism and looting by some fans.

Between the "E-A-G-L-E-S, Eagles" chants, some fans flipped over a car.

https://twitter.com/Christie_Ileto/status/960369595633848320

Aerial images from CNN affiliate WPVI showed fans packing Broad Street leading up to Philadelphia City Hall. Fans crammed the streets shoulder to shoulder.

Most of downtown Philly was packed Sunday evening, with celebrants braving the cold weather. Adults, elderly fans, children and even infants were out to share the win.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2018/02/02/floridas-ban-on-ex-felons-voting-is-unconstitutional-and-biased-federal-judge-rules/?utm_term=.435f54aad9dc

In a blistering decision that could impact the 2018 midterm elections, a federal judge on Thursday ruled that Florida’s system for barring former felons from voting is unconstitutional and potentially tainted by racial, political or religious bias.

U.S. District Judge Mark Walker blasted the state panel led by Florida’s governor that decides whether to restore voting rights to people who have completed their sentences, saying their process is arbitrary and exceedingly slow.

“In Florida, elected, partisan officials have extraordinary authority to grant or withhold the right to vote from hundreds of thousands of people without any constraints, guidelines, or standards,” Walker wrote. “The question now is whether such a system passes constitutional muster. It does not.”

“A person convicted of a crime may have long ago exited the prison cell and completed probation,” the judge continued in the 43-page order. “Her voting rights, however, remain locked in a dark crypt. Only the state has the key — but the state has swallowed it.”

The judge did not rule on how the issue should be remedied — he will hold hearings on that in mid-February — but he said the voter restoration system must be changed as soon as possible.