At 2am on a cold winter’s night in London last year I was loitering in the shadows on Furnival Street near Chancery Lane tube station with a veteran urban explorer called Lucy Sparrow. Across the street was a six-storey building with scaffolding haphazardly arranged on its facade, pinioned by a large blue wooden hoarding and an aluminium sign reading: “Caution - deep manhole. Do not enter.”

Our fingers were going numb in the cold as we waited for a black cab parked at the end of the street to leave. It looked like he was taking a break, listening to a late-night radio show, but after what felt like hours he finally clicked on his lights and pulled away. We withdrew into the darkness as he drove past.

When the street was empty, we sauntered across arm-in-arm – just another pair of late-night lovers out on the piss. Out of sight of a nearby CCTV camera I crouched down, interlaced my fingers and boosted Lucy over the wooden hoarding so she could quietly open an emergency fire door from the other side and let me in. The whole performance was over in a blink. Twenty minutes later, a late-night rambler might pass and have no clue that we were 60m under their feet, running through miles of empty tunnels in what was once Britain’s deepest telephone exchange.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Kingsway Telephone Exchange was built as a second world war air-raid shelter

I am a geographer interested in what is not on maps. Over the past six years I have spent much of my time sneaking into places closed to public access as a part of a long-term research project on urban exploration. Urban explorers – who now number in the thousands across the globe – access neglected, forgotten, closed and hidden areas in cities. Tagging along with some of the most dedicated and skilled urban explorers in the world, I have trespassed into countless abandoned buildings and subterranean tunnel systems and scaled prominent skyscrapers in dozens of cities without permission - including the Shard back in 2012, before the far more daring external summit by Greenpeace activists the following year.

Explorations behind the scenes show us that a city is a beautifully threaded tapestry of wires, pipes and rails

There is attentiveness to time in everything urban explorers do: from a considered historic appreciation of derelict remains, to knowing the window of opportunity when one can scale a construction crane over the City – explorers recognise everything is temporary. Not long into my research, I was told by a French explorer that “ruins are just like construction sites because they reveal the city as it really is – a place of constant change”. Though ruins and construction sites morph at a different rate, he argued, they both hint that the city we pass through every day requires careful and dedicated maintenance to preserve the urban stasis we all take for granted.

There is also attentiveness to space. Victorian Londoners used to tour urban infrastructure, including sewage pumping stations, curious to know how it all worked. Far fewer people today think about what happens where they flush the toilet, make a phone call, or throw something in the bin - what kind of process that triggers and what sort of physical spaces are required to make those things possible. As Alan Weisman made clear in his book The World Without Us, the time it would take for the city to begin to break down and deteriorate if we stopped maintaining it is incredibly short.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The River Tyburn flows in underground culverts and sewers for its entire length from Hampstead to the Thames

The photography of hidden places that explorers undertake – a practice which is quickly developing its own particular aesthetic sensibility – is an attempt to create a visual mark of the present, with reference to what came before, what will come after, and how it is all connected through us. Explorations behind the scenes show us that a city is not a collection of isolated locations but a beautifully and delicately threaded tapestry of wires, pipes and rails.

I’ve experienced many incredible things tagging along on missions into the forbidden city, and as much as I might treasure memories of watching sunsets from the roofs of council blocks or waking up on top of bridges, it is undercity London that most piques my interest. The tangle of tunnels that keeps the city ticking are vast, diverse in function and undoubtedly the most difficult in the world to access, this being the city of paranoia and all.

The urban exploration crew I had worked with, the London Consolidation Crew or LCC, had long graduated from ruins and skyscrapers – it was the city in the city they were after, the secrets buried deep underground where the line between construction site and ruin is very thin indeed. The Kingsway Telephone Exchange was the crème de la crème, more coveted even than abandoned Tube stations or possibly even the forgotten Post Office railway we accessed in 2011.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Kingsway Telephone Exchange contained a bar for workers on their off-hours, 60m below the London streets

When I walk the city now, I can’t help but imagine it vertically as well as horizontally

Kingsway was originally built as a second world war air-raid shelter under Chancery Lane. These deep level shelters were, at one time, connected to the Tube and citizens would have undoubtedly taken refuge here during Luftwaffe bombing runs. In 1949 the tunnels were sold to the General Post Office where they became the termination for the first submarine transatlantic phone cable – the £120m TAT1 project. The system, meant to protect the vital connective tissue of the city in the event of terror-from-the-air (including nuclear attack), stretched for miles. It only had three surface entrances and contained a bar for workers on their off-hours, rumoured to be the deepest in the UK at 60m below the street. Although the government employed a host of people to maintain the tunnels, Kingsway was a spatial secret of state - part a trio of the most secure and sensitive telephone exchanges in Britain, along with the Anchor Exchange in Birmingham and the Guardian Exchange in Manchester.

The conversion of the air-raid shelter into the Kingsway Telephone Exchange was undertaken secretly by the government. In 1950 the tunnels suddenly vanished from the map, as did a big chunk of taxpayer money used to retrofit them. However, as the journalist Duncan Campbell wrote in his book War Plan UK, “the secrecy of the new government project did not last long - a report of the ‘Secret Network of Tunnels’ appeared on the front page of the Daily Express in September 1951.” The Express later published a second article suggesting new networks were being dug under Whitehall – what would eventually become subterranean military citadels, connected by tunnels not on any map of underground London, even today. The Cabinet Office called a meeting with MI5, GPO employees and Ministry of Works officials to discuss their options for suppressing the Daily Express or leaking counter-information about the tunnels. Campbell writes:

The minutes of the secret committee, known only as MISC 379, observed: ‘It would be embarrassing to the government if the public got the impression that deep shelters were being constructed. Either the public would think that the government were out to protect their own skins and those of their immediate servants; or the public would assume that the shelters were intended for public use in time of war and would be disappointed when they found they were not.

Word of these tunnels systematically disappeared from the public eye. Then, incredibly, in 1980 the ever-tenacious Campbell – equipped with a bicycle and a camera - gained access to them and explored the entirety of the system. He published his explorations, including photos, in the New Statesman. The GPO suggested the explorations were fake and that the photos of the tunnels had been made in a studio - which obviously wasn’t the case because Campbell relayed access details for the tunnels which, 30 years later, got us in.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest High-voltage electricity cables under central London

After climbing 60m down a set of alternating ladders in a long, vertical metal cage, we emerged into a set of tunnels that smelled reassuringly neglected. Like a post-apocalyptic game show, we suddenly had to make a choice between three tunnel entrances to the left, right and straight ahead. It turned out it didn’t really matter which we entered, they all linked back on each other in the end. Once we had circled back, we were sure we were alone and had the run of the tunnels all night. We found the bar, the switchboard, medical facilities, power control panels and more.

Two things really struck me while we were in there. First, the electricity was on wherever we went. I couldn’t help but wonder whose job it was to change the bulbs in the (no-longer-so) secret subterranean telephone exchange. Second, the tunnels, in the middle of winter, were a cosy hoodie temperature. It made me think about how all this space was being wasted, space that was built with taxpayer money. I thought about Campbell’s determination over 30 years ago to make clear what was being spent by the government and the lengths he was willing to go to to reveal what was still a state secret and the way he insisted that the government should be held accountable for the construction of this bizarre underworld.

Battles over space are nothing new in London of course – urban space is a continually contested place

Today, we’ve been so inculcated with fear and distracted by obligations and consumer junk, we can’t even be bothered to ask why numerous miles of warm, fluorescently lit tunnels under Chancery Lane are laying mothballed while people with no homes freeze to death on the streets above them – forced to sleep in hypothermic conditions by anti-homeless spikes installed on ledges outside shops, luxury flats and offices.

Many of us have a sense that cities are being closed to us, but we find it difficult to articulate how or why; we simply feel we’re losing control of things in some fundamental way. Battles over space are nothing new in London of course: from private Georgian squares in the 18th century to the South Bank Undercroft in the 21st, urban space is a continually contested place. But these days we seem less inclined to stand up to spatial inequality or obstructive behaviour over the release of information.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A huge disused water reservoir under Finsbury Park in north London

There is, perhaps, a sense that the battle is lost; that it is not worth fighting any more in a climate where we are all being monitored. New surveillance technologies or increasing corporate control of space are not the most worrying developments of our time, however – the biggest concern is growing apathy. So before you dismiss urban exploration as a weird fad – or mark it as just another interesting tab in your flooded browser to look at later – be aware that these explorers risked death and imprisonment to bring you these photos and that they insist it was worth it, because if we don’t even know these spaces exist we can hardly have a public conversation about what to do with them. Urban exploration carries on the important work of exploratory journalism; it spreads stories that help us perceive worlds other than the ones presented to us, and it gives us an alternative where one has not been offered. Urban exploration is an apathy killer.

As the geographer David Harvey wrote, the freedom to make and remake our cities and ourselves is one of the most precious and neglected of our human rights. I don’t think I’m overstating the case when I say that it’s vital to the maintenance of what few rights to place remain to continually make transparent and subvert the boundaries that are constantly being circumscribed around our bodies and imaginations. Rather than condemning the system, urban explorers will insist that we must simply carry on exploring and imagining, regardless of those constraints. If we want to live in cities replete with citizens rather than inhabitants, we must encourage exploration.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Aldwych Underground station (which opened as the Strand in 1907) closed in 1994

Being an urban explorer has been a wonderful lesson in geography. I’ve learned about how people build relationships to places; how space is surveilled, controlled and regulated; how the city is built to not just influence our behaviour but to actually condition the way we think about what is ethical, right and even possible. Although it was chasing the story of urban exploration that got me involved in the first instance, it is the way urban exploration makes boundaries visible and keeps me sharp, paying attention to everything and continually calling me to action, which holds my interest as a researcher.

When I walk the city now, I can’t help but imagine it vertically as well as horizontally. Most of the tourists walking at street level – photographing Parliament and clippers cruising the Thames – haven’t a clue that there is a snarl of tunnels underneath their feet, many of which aren’t on any map.

Perhaps it’s right that local knowledge should reside with locals; this is our city after all. We, like Campbell, are engaged citizens acutely aware of what’s going on around us and determined to partake in the conversation about what constitutes the city. Urban explorers want to know what is being built, by whom, with what funds and to what ends; they want to know what has been forgotten and left behind and how that space might be re-imagined with the public interest in mind. These expectations – like the expectation that people will explore whatever environment they happen to live in – are threaded with common sense throughout, unlike many of the policy decisions that have led to our cities increasingly become a sight to be seen rather than a place to participate in.

Through these photos of the London you never knew, I invite you to expand your vertical imagination of the city into subterranea: delve into the sewers, utility tunnels, abandoned Tube stations, secret bunkers and finally into the new depths being bored by tunnelling machines at this very moment. Although much of what is here is, I believe, an important piece of documentation, it is also more importantly an invitation for you to increase your understanding of what is happening under your feet right now, because the ongoing conversation about public space does not stop at the manhole cover.

Bradley Garrett is a geographer at the University of Southampton and author of Explore Everything: Place Hacking the City. His new book, Subterranean London: Cracking the Capital, was published in October 2014


U.S. Announces Coalition To Fight Against The Islamic State

The United States says it has formed a coalition of 10 countries to help in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq.

The group consists of the United States plus Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, Turkey, Italy, Poland and Denmark.

The New York Times reports that the coalition will act in two ways: It will support allies fighting against the Islamic State on the ground, and it will continue attacking the Sunni militants using air strikes.

Reuters reports that in a meeting on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Wales, Secretary of State John Kerry said the strategy for the coalition was to contain, not destroy, the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

"We need to attack them in ways that prevent them from taking over territory, to bolster the Iraqi security forces and others in the region who are prepared to take them on, without committing troops of our own," Kerry said, according to Reuters. "Obviously I think that's a red line for everybody here: no boots on the ground."

The Times adds:

"American officials are hoping to expand the coalition against ISIS to include as many countries as possible, particularly in the region. Obama administration officials said privately that in addition to the countries that attended the meeting Friday morning, the United States was hoping to get quiet intelligence help about the Sunni militants from Jordan, whose leader, King Abdullah, was participating in the NATO summit. "United States officials said they also expected Saudi Arabia to provide money and aid for moderate Syrian rebel groups. Yousef al-Otaiba, the ambassador of the United Arab Emirates to the United States, said in a statement earlier this week that the United Arab Emirates stood ready to join the fight against ISIS. 'No one has more at stake than the U.A.E. and other moderate countries in the region that have rejected the regressive Islamist creed and embraced a different, forward-looking path,' the ambassador said. The Emiratis, he said, are 'ready to join the international community in an urgent, coordinated and sustained effort to confront a threat that will, if unchecked, have global ramifications for decades to come.' "

The Islamic State, if you remember, caught the international community's attention when it began a brazen and lightning-fast attack on Iraq over the summer. Since then, the group has overtaken several Iraqi cities and has taken responsibility for the beheading of two American journalists.

As the Islamic State moved further into Iraq, the United States began an air campaign against the group.


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It all began when Pat Rothfuss was born to a marvelous set of parents. Throughout his formative years they encouraged him to do his best, gave him good advice, and were no doubt appropriately dismayed when he failed to live up to his full potential.

In high-school Pat was something of a class clown. His hobbies included reading a novel or two a day and giving relationship advice to all his friends despite the fact that he had never so much as kissed a girl. He also role-played and wrote terrible stories about elves. He was pretty much a geek.

Most of Pat's adult life has been spent in the University Wisconsin Stevens Point. In 1991 he started college in order to pursue a career in chemical engineering, then he considered clinical psychology.

It all began when Pat Rothfuss was born to a marvelous set of parents. Throughout his formative years they encouraged him to do his best, gave him good advice, and were no doubt appropriately dismayed when he failed to live up to his full potential.

In high-school Pat was something of a class clown. His hobbies included reading a novel or two a day and giving relationship advice to all his friends despite the fact that he had never so much as kissed a girl. He also role-played and wrote terrible stories about elves. He was pretty much a geek.

Most of Pat's adult life has been spent in the University Wisconsin Stevens Point. In 1991 he started college in order to pursue a career in chemical engineering, then he considered clinical psychology. In 1993 he quit pretending he knew what he wanted to do with his life, changed his major to "undecided," and proceeded to study whatever amused him. He also began writing a book....

For the next seven years Pat studied anthropology, philosophy, eastern religions, history, alchemy, parapsychology, literature, and writing. He studied six different martial arts, practiced improv comedy, learned how to pick locks, and became a skilled lover of women. He also began writing a satirical advice column which he continues to this day: The College Survivial Guide. Through all of this he continued to work on his novel.

In 2000 Pat went to grad school for English literature. Grad school sucked and Pat hated it. However, Pat learned that he loved to teach. He left in 2002 with his masters degree, shaking the dust from his feet and vowing never to return. During this period of time his novel was rejected by roughly every agent in the known universe.

Now Pat teaches half-time at his old school as an assistant-sub-lecturer. He is underpaid but generally left alone to do as he sees fit with his classes. He is advisor for the college feminists, the fencing club, and, oddly enough, a sorority. He still roll-plays occasionally, but now he does it in an extremely sophisticated, debonair way.

Through a series of lucky breaks, he has wound up with the best agent and editor imaginable, and the first book of his trilogy has been published under the title "The Name of the Wind."

Though it has only been out since April 2007, it has already been sold in 26 foreign countries and won several awards.

Pat has been described as "a rough, earthy iconoclast with a pipeline to the divine in everyone's subconscious." But honestly, that person was pretty drunk at the time, so you might want to take it with a grain of salt.


Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Wednesday announced the Department of Education would pause two rules created by former President Barack Obama's administration that would protect student borrowers and imposed requirements on for-profit colleges. Photo by Erin Schaff/UPI | License Photo

June 15 (UPI) -- The Department of Education has paused two rules created by former President Barack Obama's administration to protect student borrowers and impose requirements on for-profit colleges.

"The department intends to develop fair, effective and improved regulations to protect individual borrowers from fraud, ensure accountability across institutions of higher education and protect taxpayers," the Department of Education said in a statement on Wednesday.

One rule, the Gainful Employment regulation, required for-profit colleges and certificate programs at non-profit colleges -- under the threat of withholding federal aid -- to show that a student's education in those institutions would help those students receive "gainful employment."

The second rule, the Borrower Defense to Repayment regulation, clarified how student borrowers who were defrauded or misled by their college could apply for loan forgiveness and also created a fast-track for students who apply for forgiveness in case their college closed.

The rules were to take effect July 1 but the Department of Education under Betsy DeVos said it would delay implementation upon further review. The Obama-era rules were first proposed amid the collapse of the Corinthian Colleges Inc. for-profit institution.

"My first priority is to protect students," DeVos said. "Fraud, especially fraud committed by a school, is simply unacceptable. Unfortunately, last year's rulemaking effort missed an opportunity to get it right."

DeVos said her department would uphold processing claims already filed by 16,000 student borrowers.

Some Democratic members of Congress criticized the move by the department.

"Delaying this important pathway to debt relief would harm thousands of students, many with crushing levels of student loan debt and few meaningful job prospects," Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Patty Murray, Sherrod Brown and Dick Durbin wrote in a statement.


Barney Frank, long known as America’s crankiest liberal, is actually not feeling too bad. Frank retired from Congress in 2012, after three decades of representing Massachusetts’s Fourth District, then wrote a memoir, became a director of the Signature Bank, and took his curmudgeon act on the road as a lecturer. But the election of Donald Trump has not shattered his confidence about the nation’s political future. “This was not a wipeout. People will tend to overinterpret it. Remember, we got more votes than they did,” he said, in an interview this week. “And there is one silver lining for us. They have succeeded in blaming us for everything that goes wrong in the world. From now on, anything bad that happens is on them. They control the whole government—White House, Senate, House, Supreme Court. Some people think that maybe Trump can somehow evade that responsibility, but I think it will be hard to blame it on some Mexicans when something goes wrong.”

Still, Frank believes that politics did change in some fundamental ways with Trump’s victory. “Two major rules of American politics disappeared this year,” he said. “The first was that you had to argue that America has to be strong and assertive worldwide. Trump won while rejecting that view. And the second change was that you should only talk about growth for everyone and avoid talk of class warfare. The fundamental reason that Trump won is the anger in America and other developed countries at the unfairness of the distribution of wealth. It’s been building and building, and all of a sudden it broke through.”

In particular, Frank believes that Bernie Sanders’s primary campaign helped Trump’s portrayal of himself as a populist succeed in the fall. “Sanders wounded her badly,” Frank said, referring to Hillary Clinton. “His differing with her on the issues was entirely reasonable, but he’s the one who sold the argument that she was corrupt and bought by Wall Street. He had one ad which I called McCarthyite—where he essentially said Goldman Sachs got off so easy because they paid Clinton for speeches. Sanders helped Trump become the guy who says we are tired of rich guys getting away with everything. Sanders helped persuade people that she is on the wrong side of that issue.” Then, too, of course, there were the e-mails and the last-minute intervention of James Comey, the F.B.I. director. “If she hadn’t been using that e-mail system, she would have won, and Comey exacerbated the problem,” Frank said.

Frank is fond of the adage, attributed to Harold Macmillan, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, that the future of politics is determined by “events, my dear boy, events.” The success or failure of Trump’s Presidency will be the critical factor in the future of the Democratic Party. “If he delivers somehow and increases employment among the white working class, and increases prosperity, then we”—the Party, that is—“have a political problem,” Frank said. But since Frank believes that Trump’s program will not yield these kinds of successes, he feels that Democrats will have room to criticize and propose alternatives.

In some respects, Frank believes that the Trump campaign may help the Democrats produce an updated and more appealing message. “Obama began to walk away from the idea that we have to be the leader of the free world,” Frank said. “Now it’s clear that we don’t have to be the leader of the free world and we don’t have to pay to be the leader of the free world.” That will open the door, Frank believes, to substantial reductions in military spending—on the order of a hundred and fifty to two hundred billion a year. “We could then use that money to offset some of the inequality in the economy. Reduce the age of access to Medicare to fifty-five. Raise the minimum wage. Put a lot of people to work on infrastructure.”

His second idea for Democrats may be more controversial within the Party. “We need to be less absolutist on environmental issues, especially wetlands and endangered species,” he said. “We currently treat those issues as absolute bars to development, and they should not be absolute. They should be balances. I saw in my district how much anger these issues generate. Our current position is bad politics and bad public policy.” Frank does not believe, however, that Democrats should retreat on climate change. “Too much at stake on climate change to give way there,” he said.

One part of Trump’s ascendancy reflects the great political success of Frank’s life. During Trump’s campaign, and in a recent interview on “60 Minutes,” the President-elect said that he regarded same-sex marriage as a settled issue, which he would not seek to overturn. As a longtime leader in the gay-rights movement, and the husband of Jim Ready since 2012, Frank, who is now seventy-six, watched the cause of same-sex marriage move from the fringe to the realm of conventional wisdom. Indeed, the subject turns this often cantankerous man downright cheerful. “Sixty years ago, people didn’t talk about being gay,” Frank said. “But now that so many people are out, straight people know they have gay relatives, gay co-workers. Being gay is kind of positive. It’s kind of fun.”


CNN has set a September 1 premiere date for Holy Hell, an inside look at Buddhafield, a secretive, spiritual cult formed in 1980s West Hollywood. The pic will air at 9 PM ET and repeat at 11.

Director Will Allen joined the group just after graduating from film school and eventually became its unofficial documentarian. As he got more deeply involved, he began filming his experiences as the group’s unofficial videographer. It wasn’t until after Allen left the cult that he understood the film he’d been making for more than 20 years. The close-knit Buddhafield aspired to an artistic utopian communal life. Led by enigmatic and charismatic guru, Michel. Buddhafield members pursued his vision for fulfillment while living together, exploring nature, and performing together. Gradually, several came to grow disenchanted with Michel and alleged emotional manipulation and even physical abuse.

Holy Hell had its world premiere at Sundance in January, followed by a May 27 theatrical self-release via Allen’s WRA Productions. He produced the film along with Tracey Harnish and Alexandra Johnes. Michael C. Donaldson, Julian Goldstein, Jared Leto, and Cheryl Wheeler Sanders are the executive producers. Check out the newly released key art for the film:


CTV.ca News Staff

For the first time there are more single Canadian adults than married Canadians, a new report says.

Canadians are also working longer hours, and spending less time with their families -- and the families they have are less likely to be the traditional nuclear family.

Those are just some of the findings in Families Count: Profiling Canada's Families IV, a new report released Monday by the Vanier Institute of the Family.

Using information from the 2006 census, the report said that only 47.9 per cent of adults were married.

The highest amount of married people by province was in Newfoundland and Labrador with 54.3 per cent and the lowest was in Quebec, with 37.5 per cent. Among the territories, only 31 per cent of adults were married in Nunavut.

The number of married couples without children also outnumbered married couples with children for the first time.

Married-with-children families now represent 39 per cent of families, compared to 55 per cent in 1981.

Common-law families are the fastest-growing family type in Canada, from 5.6 per of families in 1981 to 15.5 per cent in 2006.

Two decades ago, 81 per cent of children under the age of 15 lived with legally married parents, but in 2006, only 66 per cent of children under 15 did.

Kathy Buckworth, the author of several books on motherhood, said the rising proportion of common law relationships may be due to the fact that "we're dealing with people who grew up in the divorce generation."

"If they grew up in that situation, perhaps they're thinking, ‘If I can't get married, I can't get divorced,'" she told CTV News Channel.

Buckworth also said that financial factors may play a role, with many couples opting to keep their finances separate.

"Weddings can cost a lot of money, and with less pressure to have that traditional relationship, or marriage certificate, maybe that's being bypassed," she added.

The 2006 census was the first to record data on same-sex marriages. The data said 16.5 per cent of same-sex couples were married.

Economic impact on families

Clarence Lochhead, the executive director of the Vanier Institute of the Family, said modern economic realities have had a serious impact on the makeup of the Canadian family.

More adult children are living with their families, especially young men. Some 60 per cent of men between 20-24 were living at home, as were 26 per cent of men between the ages of 25 to 29.

"If you think about the education required to be successful in the labour markets . . . people are waiting much longer to leave home . . . it's a reflection of the economic reality of the labour market," Lochhead told CTV News Channel.

Aging parents are also an additional stress on families, as 4.7 million Canadians were providing care for a senior.

"It's one of the big challenges we have as a society," Lochhead said.

Families are responding by working more. In 82 per cent of two-parent families, each parent is earning some income and in 32 per cent of two-parent families, each parent is working full time.

Men are working longer hours, up to 8.8 a day in 2005 compared to 8.2 hours in 1986. That extra work is coming at the expense of the family, with men now spending 3.4 hours a day with family, compared to 4.2 hours in 1986.

Women are now more likely to be the breadwinner in a two-parent family, with 28 per cent being the primary earner in their family. That is up from 12 per cent in 1976.


Adapted from a recent online discussion.

Hi Carolyn:

I live on a street with a large number of young children (under age 6). One family recently bought a new puppy, and we were surprised to learn that it is a pit bull. Now several of us are worried about letting our children play freely on the street, since pit bulls are known as an aggressive breed that can attack without provocation. Any advice on what we can do?

Neighbors bought a pit bull

Yes: Inform yourselves about pit bulls. Heck, about dogs: Just about any dog can hurt a small child, badly.

Dogs don’t “attack without provocation” unless they have temperament problems, and those problems are quite visible in other circumstances. Otherwise, dogs who bite give all kinds of signs that they’re going to defend themselves or their people. Many people ignore/are ignorant of those signs and so they continue the behavior that provokes the dog — or, the owners don’t know anything about dogs and don’t train or handle them safely. Again, this is all dogs, not just pit bulls.

Unfortunately, pit bulls became a look-at-how-cool-I-am accessory and fell in disproportionate numbers into the hands of idiots, posers and thugs — people who have no business having pets, much less powerful dogs.

The pit bull is not the most dangerous breed out there. What is? Trick question: The most dangerous dog is one that has irresponsible owners and is big enough to kill.

Meanwhile, “cute” little dogs, like dachshunds and Jack Russells, are much more likely to bite the neighborhood 6-and-unders. Pits historically have been bred to be responsive to their humans, and they’re actually far less likely to bite if a kid, say, tugs an ear (it just makes the news if they do). Tugging not recommended, by the way, with any dog, which responsible parents teach their kids.

Ever see “Our Gang/Little Rascals”? The dog, Petey, is a pit. Pit bulls’ nickname in the past has been “the nanny” because they were known as great family dogs. Still are, by a dedicated population of defenders.

So. Do not fear this dog unless you have cause to fear the neighbors. Is the dog spayed or neutered, trained, never chained, walked/exercised regularly and otherwise supervised — all just as good for dogs as for neighbors? Are the neighborhood kids taught how to interact with dogs?

Hysteria is no way to protect children from anything. When you feel threatened by something, seek knowledge first, then seek a remedy, if you even need one after you have the facts.

Re: Pit bull bullies:

It took a conscious effort on my part to learn about pit bulls when a roommate decided to get not one but two! These dogs ended up being the kindest, most well-behaved dogs I’ve ever been around. My roommate also had a

3-year-old daughter.

“Neighbors” needs to teach her children about how to approach a dog and what a dog means by its body languages.

Anonymous

Absolutely. Abundant resources are a browser away. Type “dog stress signs.”

Anyone curious about pit bulls should also check out what became of the Michael Vick pit bulls. Educational and inspiring.

Write to Tell Me About It, Style, 1150 15th St. NW, Washington, D.C. 20071, or tellme@washpost.com.


Image: wireless sensor microchip/UCL

The IEEE Computer Society released a report this week detailing its predictions for the state of computing technology in 2022. No, the Singularity is not part of it: no downloaded personalities or post-human artificial intelligence. It nonetheless sounds a lot like "the future" should, with wearable, implantable nanotechnology and batteries that hold charges for months on end, just a more comprehensible future, one that doesn't involve sudden innovative inflationary periods or out-of-the-blue discoveries.

Technology follows a trajectory.

"Predicting the future in the computer industry is even harder and riskier due to dramatic changes in technology and limitless challenges to innovation," the IEEE CS report begins. "Only a small fraction of innovations truly disrupt the state of the art."

"Some [innovations] not practical or cost-effective, some are ahead of their time, and some simply do not have a market," the report continues. "There are numerous examples of superior technologies that were never adopted because others arrived on time or fared better n the market. Therefore this document is only an attempt to better understand where technologies are going."

The report is the product of nine technical leaders within the IEEE Computer Society surveying the current states and progressions of 23 different technologies, including,

3D printing, big data and analytics, open intellectual property movement, massively online open courses, security cross-cutting issues, universal memory, 3D integrated circuits, photonics, cloud computing, computational biology and bioinformatics, device and nanotechnology, sustainability, high-performance computing, the Internet of Things, life sciences, machine learning and intelligent systems, natural user interfaces, networking and inter-connectivity, quantum computing, software-defined networks, multicore, and robotics for medical care.

This authors took the above listed technologies and examined them in light of different drivers and disruptors. The relative weights of technological drivers there were able to determine are indicated in the chart below.

Disruptors:

So, what does it all add up to? A key projection of the IEEE report is the "seamless intelligence scenario. Computing devices—from the very small, such as wearable devices and chips embedded under the skin, to the computers inside our mobile devices, laptops, desktops, home servers, TV sets, and refrigerators, to the computing cloud that we reach via the Internet—are interconnected via different communication and networking technologies," the report explains.

"Together, they form an intelligent mesh," the authors continue, "a computing and communication ecosystem that augments reality with information and intelligence gathered from our fingertips, eyes, ears, and other senses, and even directly interfaced to our brain waves." It's the internet of things, where we ourselves become a thing.

The report is really a series of reports, each one examining each of the aforementioned 23 technologies in great detail. It's open-access and worth a deep dive.

Some other highlights include a worrisome note about the looming limits of classical computer systems, as they shrink to their absolute minimum and effectively put the brakes on Moore's law. Computers as we know them will stop getting faster and smaller—soon. The authors seem hopeful that quantum computing can save the day, but as to whether practical QC will be ready in time is unsettled.

Advances in computer memory will help stave off this Moore's wall, at least. I've written here before about the profound limits current memory systems are putting on computing power. Computers may get faster, but they're not gaining memory access speed nearly as fast. The hope is for a "universal memory" system to save the day, in which SRAM, DRAM, hard-drive, and flash memory are all integrated into one quickly accessible and extremely small system. In the future, hard-drive access could be as quick as it is for an actual logic unit to access its own registers (the slivers of memory within the unit itself).

"We expect at least one NVM [non-volitile universal memory] technology to reach maturity and volume manufacturing capabilities within the next three to five years," the IEEE team predicts. By 2022, it's reasonable to expect a "collapsing" of the memory hierarchy into a single (or near to it) uniform technology. There will still be organization, of course, but all within the same basic superfast device.

Fortunately, medicine seems less likely to hit a fundamental limit than computers. "Imagine your life being saved by a custom-designed medical machine made from particles 50,000 times as small as a single strand of your hair," the report offers. You might be living with a fleet of diagnostic bots just cruising around inside your body, looking for trouble and fixing it. A proper auxiliary immune system.

In Wired, the IEEE's Dejan Milojicic, makes a valiant effort at summarizing the report's other key findings, which are extensive. "With energy consumption increasing along with the world's population, electric cars, LEDs, smart grids, smart cities, dark silicon, new battery technology, and new ways of cooling data centers are some areas where advances in sustainability are expected," he writes.

"Silicon photonics will address bandwidth, latency, and energy challenges, and developments at all levels of the network stack will continue to drive research and the Internet economy," Milojicic continues. "In the area of software-defined networks, OpenFlow and SDN will make networks more secure, transparent, flexible, and functional."

Fortunately, predicting the future isn't solely the realm of futurists, but of scientists too. In some ways that's just as hopeful.


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WEBVTT THE STATE CAPITOL TODAY, INHOPES OF DOING AWAY WITH PERMITSFOR CONCEALED WEAPONS.BILL O'NEIL TAKES US THERE.BILL: GUN RIGHTS ADVOCATES CAMEUP SHORT THIS PAST SESSION.THEIR EFFORTS TO ELIMINATECONCEAL CARRY PERMITS PASSED THEHOUSE, BUT NEVER CAME TO A VOTEIN THE SENATE.>> WE ARE TELLING THEM TO DOWHAT THEY SENT YOU HERE FOR.THEY SEEM TO HAVE FORGOTTEN WHOBROUGHT THEM TO THE DANCE.BILL: TODAY'S RALLY TARGETSSENATE REPUBLICANS.THE GUN RIGHTS GROUP CALLEDGRASSROOTS NORTH CAROLINA SAYSIT WANTS TO SHAME THEM INTOACTION.THEY USED A MASCOT NAMED SQUISHYTHE MAGIC RINO TO CALL OUT WHATGUN SUPPORTERS SAY ARE RINOS,REPUBLICANS IN NAME ONLY.>> THE FACT IS VOTERS SENT THEMHERE, GUN VOTERS SENT THEM HERETO DO A JOB, AND WE WANT THEM TODO T JOB WE SENT THEM TO DO.BILL: GUN SUPPORTERS DELIVERTHEIR MESSAGE TO THE OFFICE OFTHE SENATE'S TOP REPUBLICAN,PHIL BERGER, WHO WASN'T IN.BUT A NUMBER OF REPUBLICANSOPPOSE ELIMINATING PERMITS FORCONCEALED WEAPONS, INCLUDINGGUILFORD COUNTY LAWMAKER JOHNFAIRCLOTH.>> LOOK AT HOW MANY KILLINGS WEHAVE HAD IN NORTH CAROLINA INTHE LAST SIX MONTHS.IT IS GETTING TO BE AN EPIDEMIC,ALMOST.BILL: GUN RIGHTS ADVOCATES SAYSSENATE REPUBLICANS CAN EXPECT TOSEE THEIR RINO MASCOT NOT ONLYAT THE LEGISLATURE, BUT AT GOPCAMPAIGN EVENTS AS WEL


Image copyright Reuters Image caption Northern Ireland has effectively been without a devolved government for almost six months

Sinn Féin has called on the British and Irish governments to intervene to help break the deadlock in Stormont's power-sharing negotiations.

John O'Dowd said they must inject "leadership and energy" into the talks.

But the DUP's Edwin Poots said that "one party cannot deliver this process on its own".

Talks to restore Northern Ireland's devolved government are going down to the wire, with the parties having until 16:00 BST on Thursday to reach a deal.

If agreement is not reached by the deadline, which is set down in law, Northern Ireland faces the prospect of a return of direct rule from London.

'Expect very late night'

The negotiations involve the five main Northern Ireland parties and the UK and Irish governments, although a deal is dependent on whether the two biggest parties, the DUP and Sinn Féin, can resolve their differences.

These include republican demands for a stand-alone Irish Language Act and rights for the LGBT (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender) community.

The DUP has criticised the Irish government for supporting Sinn Féin's demand for an Irish Language Act.

In a statement, the party said: "Only last week the Irish government lectured our United Kingdom government on the importance of observing neutrality when dealing with Northern Ireland parties.

"Yet by publicly declaring its support for Sinn Féin's position in negotiations, the Irish government has undermined its own credibility as being neutral."

Round-table talks involving the five party leaders were due to take place on Wednesday but the BBC understands the DUP and Sinn Féin did not show up.

Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney tweeted: "Stormont talks continuing - efforts intensified to find agreement on outstanding issues before tomorrow's deadline. Expect very late night."

Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption What are the options if no deal is reached?

Shortly after 17:00 BST on Wednesday, Sinn Féin's John O'Dowd said no compromise had been reached and he called on the governments to become more involved in the efforts to reach a deal.

"With less than 24 hours to go in these talks, the DUP have not moved to resolve the issues which brought down the institutions in January," Mr O'Dowd said.

Image caption Sinn Féin's John O'Dowd called on the British and Irish governments to help break the deadlock

"Rights, equality and respect need to be resolved, they need to be implemented in legislation and we need to get to that position.

"There is now clearly an onus on the two governments to inject energy into these talks, to inject leadership into these talks and ensure that the outstanding issues are resolved in the timescale we have left to us."

However, the DUP's Edwin Poots said the party wanted to show "absolute respect for other people's language and culture" in respect of Sinn Féin's demand of an Irish Language Act.

Mr Poots also said that talks had been a "slow grind".

"We're trying to get to people's bottom lines so decisions can be made as to how we can move forward. We would like to do that tomorrow but that's up to others.

"Ultimately, one party can't deliver on this process on its own, it's going to be an engagement."

He added that the DUP were ready to establish government before the deadline and "if there's issues outstanding that we need to continue to work on, then we're happy to do that".

With no breakthrough reached by Wednesday evening, it would be very difficult to meet Thursday's deadline, according to BBC NI political correspondent Enda McClafferty.

"It appears there has been little or no progress made on the key issue which is emerging - the Irish Language Act," he told the BBC's Evening Extra programme.

'Real Madrid star'

Earlier, Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire said that there would be serious implications if the Stormont parties could not agree a deal by Thursday's deadline.

Mr Brokenshire would not go into detail about any alternatives he might be considering if the talks fail.

He also denied the Tory-DUP confidence and supply deal would make it impossible for the government to maintain their impartiality in Northern Ireland.

He said he had not been part of those talks.

Speaking at Northern Ireland Questions in Westminster, Mr Brokenshire said he would not be on a liaison committee being set up by the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the Conservatives.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption DUP MP Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and Tory Chief Whip Gavin Williamson signed the deal agreed this week

Under the "confidence and supply" arrangement, the DUP guarantees that its 10 MPs will vote with the government on the Queen's Speech, the Budget, and legislation relating to Brexit and national security - while Northern Ireland will receive an extra £1bn over the next two years.

While rival Stormont parties have largely welcomed the additional funding, concerns have been raised that the deal could undermine the peace process and devolution negotiations, with the UK government dependent on the support of the DUP.

The Scottish National Party said the DUP was holding a "sword of Damocles" over the government's head.

SNP MP Alison Thewliss joked that the £1bn deal meant each DUP MP was now worth more than the Real Madrid footballer Cristiano Ronaldo.

The new Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Smith said there was a danger that trust in the perception of the government's impartiality would be eroded.

He called on the government to publish the minutes of any meetings of the new liaison committee.

Image caption If parties cannot agree a deal by Thursday, then direct rule could be implemented

Northern Ireland has effectively been without a devolved government for almost six months.

Its institutions collapsed amid a bitter row between the DUP and Sinn Féin about a botched green energy scheme.

The late deputy first minister, Martin McGuinness, stood down in protest over the DUP's handling of an investigation into the scandal, in a move that triggered a snap election in March.


David Cameron is “living in cloud cuckoo land” when he suggests a new Tory government would ban messaging apps that use encryption, security experts have told the Guardian.

The prime minister has pledged anti-terror laws to give the security services the ability to read encrypted communications in extreme circumstances. But experts say such access would mean changing the way internet-based messaging services such as Apple’s iMessage or Facebook’s WhatsApp work.

Independent computer security expert Graham Cluley said: “It’s crazy. Cameron is living in cloud cuckoo land if he thinks that this is a sensible idea, and no it wouldn’t be possible to implement properly.”

Other security experts echo Cluley, describing the approach as “idiocy” and saying Cameron’s plans are “ill-thought out and scary”. The UK’s data watchdog has also spoken out against “knee-jerk reactions”, saying moves could undermine consumer security.

Meanwhile a start-up has warned on the possible effect on Britain’s nascent technology sector of Cameron’s plans. Eris Industries, which uses open-source cryptography, has said it is already making plans to leave the UK if the Conservative party is re-elected with this policy in its programme.

On Monday, Cameron made a speech in which he decried the ability of ordinary people to have conversations on which the security services were unable to eavesdrop.

“In extremis, it has been possible to read someone’s letter, to listen to someone’s call, to mobile communications,” Cameron said. “The question remains: are we going to allow a means of communications where it simply is not possible to do that? My answer to that question is: no, we must not.”

Cluley said either tech companies would have to work with UK government and build backdoors into their software to allow the authorities to intercept messages, or the apps themselves will have to be banned.

“If there are backdoors in the apps, or if weak encryption is used, then you are only opening up opportunities for hackers to break in and steal information too. That’s not going to go down well with businesses or consumers,” Cluley said.

Ross Anderson, professor of security engineering at the University of Cambridge, said: “This is just what the agencies pushed in the late 1990s, after Al Gore persuaded Tony Blair to go back on his pre-election promise not to ban encryption.

“Industry fought back, along with civil society, and the outcome was the Rip Act, which gives a chief constable the power to demand decryption.”

Peter Sommer, professor of cybersecurity and digital evidence at de Montfort and the Open Universities, said: “The National Crime Agency and the people there understand that relationships with people and the companies like Google are important, as they will help you, but passing laws and badmouthing in public is simply not going to work,”

“But at the top there’s been the kind of idiocy exemplified by what happened in the basement of the Guardian, where there were obviously lots of copies of the Snowden material but they insisted on the destruction of a computer that might have been used for storing them.”

“Yes you can pass laws in Westminster until you’re blue in the face but you can’t enforce them,” said Sommer.

The UK’s data watchdog, the Information Commissioner Christopher Graham and data privacy campaigners were equally worried by Cameron’s comments and the implications it could have on data security and privacy.

“We must avoid knee jerk reactions,” said Graham. “In particular, I am concerned about any compromising of effective encryption for consumers of online services.”

“Citizens, businesses, and nation states need to protect themselves. Internet companies are understandably offering their customers online services that are better encrypted following recent security incidents,” said Graham.

“Cameron’s plans appear dangerous, ill-thought out and scary,” said Jim Killock, director of the Open Rights Group. “Having the power to undermine encryption will have consequences for everyone’s personal security. It could affect not only our personal communications but also the security of sensitive information such as bank records, making us all more vulnerable to criminal attacks.”

“The only practicable way forward is a new international treaty on access to communications data and content, which must involve safeguards that will be acceptable to all,” said Anderson.

Preston Byrne, the chief operating officer of Eris Industries, warns that his company will be forced to leave the UK if Cameron’s comments on the technology become policy, and move to “more liberal climes such as Germany, the U.S., the People’s Republic of China, Zimbabwe, or Iraq.”

Byrne, who is also a fellow at the London-based free-market think tank ASI, told the Guardian that “secure open-source cryptography is at the core of our business… so we were able to make the decision more or less immediately.”

Eris Industries uses technology loosely based on the bitcoin cryptocurrency to build a decentralised network, with potential applications in communications, social networking and community governance. But, Byrne warns, “none of these benefits can be realised without secure cryptography, including end-to-end encryption.

“David Cameron has said this measure is designed to ‘modernise’ the law. He fails to understand the full extent of how out of date the law is. The only way you can shut down cryptographic distributed networks today is to either arrest the vast majority of (or in the case of a blockchain database, all) persons running a node and ensure that every single data store containing a copy of that application database is destroyed; or shut down the Internet.”

As a result, he tells the Guardian, “I’d be very surprised if the Conservatives stick to their guns on this.”

One insider at a major US technology firm told the Guardian that “politicians are fond of asking why it is that tech companies don’t base themselves in the UK”.

“I think if you’re saying that encryption is the problem, at a time when consumers and businesses see encryption as a very necessary part of trust online, that’s a very indicative point of view.”


PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Four men are in custody after a shooting Thursday morning just a block away from the Garrahy Judicial Complex in downtown Providence.

A report of shots fired came in to Providence police at 10:48 a.m., after a possibly gang-related dispute broke out inside the courthouse and moved outside after deputy sheriffs ejected the participants, Providence Police Chief Hugh Clements Jr. said.

Detectives converged on the downtown area and quickly took four young males into custody. The suspect who was believed to have fired the gun was picked up behind the Coro Center, Clements said.

There were no reported victims, but detectives will check with the hospitals, Clements said.

Detectives recovered a handgun, according to Commander Thomas Verdi.

"Everyone is safe," Clements said. The suspect "clearly had an intended target."

Lawyer Nick Obolensky was inside the fourth-floor court hallway when he saw several young men get into a fight and the deputy sheriffs eject them, he said.

The young men went outside, where the fight continued and gravitated on to Pine Street.

Garrahy courthouse was placed on lockdown for about a half-hour, with no one allowed to go in or out, Amanda Lysikatos, who'd been in court on a matter, said as she watched detectives work the scene.

Beverly Berard, of North Providence, said she saw about 10 young people fighting and cursing in the center of Pine Street.

"All of a sudden a gun went off," said Berard, who works at the Pierce Atwood law firm.

Four to five people scattered in one direction on foot. Four to five others ran in the opposite direction, she said. One of the people involved had a ponytail and wore red shorts.

"You hear fighting at the courthouse, but never a gun shot," she said.

A suspect was seen sprinting down Fountain Street moments later.

The scene drew the attention of criminal justice majors at Johnson and Wales University as police and prosecutors questioned witnesses. Several left the homeland security class after hearing gunfire and checking Providence police scanner activity.

"I wanted to go so bad," said Michael Clark, a senior who plans to go to law school.

Alexis Pollack, also a senior and budding cop, documented the scene on Facebook Live.

It is the second shooting outside a courthouse in less than a year. A 22-year-old Pawtucket man was critically injured after a noontime drive-by shooting in January near the Licht Judicial Complex.

Discussions are afoot in the state judiciary about changing the policy that bars deputy sheriffs from carrying guns. Since 2015, some deputy sheriffs have carried Tasers in addition to batons, pepper spray and handcuffs.

Craig Berke, spokesman for the judiciary, said the deputy sheriffs armed themselves during the incident and security was enhanced at the courthouse. Surveillance video taken in and outside the courthouse is being reviewed, he said.

Berke released this statement late Thursday: "Court security procedures are constantly under review and the Judiciary's administration is certainly looking at this event. We are always looking at measures that will further enhance the safety of litigants, the public, judges and staff within our courthouses. Our security protocols worked today. There was no breach within the courthouse or on the courthouse grounds, not even when one of the subjects involved sought refuge from the shooting by returning to the courthouse, where he was screened and detained for the police."

This story was updated multiple times, most recently at 11:46 a.m., 12:43 p.m. and 3:59 p.m.


You really can’t make up how ludicrous things have gotten at campuses in the United States. Here’s the latest via the University of Michigan:

Delicate snowflakes. Univ. of Michigan cancels ‘American Sniper’ screening: ‘Made students feel unsafe’ http://t.co/NJ8SH4cGPI — JWF (@JammieWF) April 8, 2015

Oh, COME ON!

I'm disgusted by the Univ of Michigan, it cancelled the campus screening of American Sniper http://t.co/sBixroYm0p #ChrisKyleAmericanHero — Dave Melin (@Schneider_F3) April 8, 2015

Gutless display by my alma mater. University cancels ‘American Sniper’ screening: ’Made students feel unsafe’… http://t.co/SwS3TfT4xF — Steve (@evetsgnaw) April 8, 2015

Are U of Mich students delusional, thinking campus was in Iraq or just wussies? American Sniper canceled. http://t.co/tu7h69ES3s — Michael R Shannon (@ReluctantUser2) April 8, 2015

And instead of “American Sniper,” the vicious, killer Wolverines of Michigan will see…

Win for the precious snowflakes. Univ of Michigan pulls "American Sniper" screening, replaces w/ "Paddington Bear". http://t.co/r6JPc3Pzbg — CamEdwards (@CamEdwards) April 8, 2015

@Mashon45 Paddington will be shown instead. — Campus Involvement (@UMInvolvement) April 7, 2015

Ha!

Here’s the official statement from UM’s Center for Campus Involvement on the cancellation:

A statement from the Center for Campus Involvement regarding the screening of American Sniper at UMix this Friday. pic.twitter.com/uClDigpd4w — Campus Involvement (@UMInvolvement) April 7, 2015

Update: The university has decided to go ahead and screen the film, but with these safeguards.

***

Related:

Twitchy coverage of American Sniper


Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, quit his position on Friday after telling President Donald Trump he disagreed with the hiring of Anthony Scaramucci as communications director.

Trump offered Scaramucci, a New York financier, the job on Friday morning and reportedly requested that Spicer stay on. Scaramucci said at a White House briefing that “Sean decided that he thought it would be better to go.”

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, who had been Spicer’s deputy, will take over for Spicer as White House press secretary.

See live blog of White House press briefing.

Scaramucci founded the investment firm SkyBridge Capital, and the SALT hedge-fund conference. He regularly defended Trump on television during the campaign and was a campaign fundraiser.

AFP/Getty Images Anthony Scaramucci

Spicer was communications director at the Republican National Committee before joining the Trump team. The 45-year-old was known for being combative with White House reporters and the subject of lampoons by comedian Melissa McCarthy on “Saturday Night Live.”

See: Sean Spicer on Melissa McCarthy’s ‘SNL’ performance: Cute, funny but ‘dial it back.’

Sanders read a statement from Trump at the briefing, saying he was “grateful” for Spicer’s White House service and that he wished him well. “Just look at his great television ratings,” Trump said in the statement.

Scaramucci said he loved Spicer and that “I hope he goes on to make a tremendous amount of money.”

Spicer’s tenure got off to a controversial start when he said Trump’s inauguration was “the most watched ever,” a statement that was later debunked. In recent weeks, Spicer had briefed the press less regularly. Sanders has instead frequently taken the podium at the White House briefings, which have often been held off camera. Before Friday, there had not been an on-camera briefing since June 29.

Spicer said in a tweet on Friday that it had been an “honor” to serve Trump and that he would work through August.

It's been an honor & a privilege to serve @POTUS @realDonaldTrump & this amazing country. I will continue my service through August — Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) July 21, 2017

In May, Trump blamed his press team, including Spicer, for failing to put out the public firestorm that erupted after Trump fired James Comey as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. As USA Today wrote, the strain in the Trump-Spicer relationship was on display when Trump did not invite the devout Catholic to a meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican in late May.

In another memorable episode involving Spicer and the media, a Washington Post story in May said he was hiding in bushes at the White House. The Post later said he was “among” the bushes. The story prompted mocked-up pictures of Spicer in bushes, including one on Friday.


Two of the longer term concerns entering the 2013-14 season for the Toronto Maple Leafs were the contract statuses of their star players Phil Kessel and Dion Phaneuf. GM Dave Nonis made good on Kessel’s desire to negotiate before the season, and now the Leafs leading scorer will be in the fold until 2022. Having taken care of the time sensitive work, now Nonis’ sights will be set on re-signing the Leafs captain to a long term deal. But what’s it going to cost? Let’s take a look.

For his part, Phaneuf has said he’s open to negotiating a new deal midseason, having done so in Calgary back in 2008. And why not? The Flames overpaid to lock up a young, budding star defender that had already reached the 20-goal and 60-point plateau by the age of 23. He’s never managed to repeat either feat since, and was shipped to Toronto two years later as a high-priced disappointment. Since coming to Toronto, he’s lost and re-found some measure of his scoring touch, while regularly lining up in the toughest defensive assignments. His role has changed, the cap has risen, the rules have changed, but his paycheque has remained static since then.

To look at what Phaneuf should get, I looked into the last four seasons of data on defensemen (2009-10 through 2012-13). Amusingly, these happen to be the four worst years of Phaneuf’s career from a statistical standpoint, but probably better reflect his scoring output as the seasons roll on. Yes, in an eight-year career, two Phaneuf’s worst individual seasons saw him feature 10th and 12th in league scoring among defenders. So please understand that I used the word ‘worst’ in a relative sense here.

In 277 games over the last four seasons, Phaneuf ranks 23rd in points scored with 134, good for .48 points per game. More impressively, he ranks 8th in goals (41), power play goals (18) and time on ice (6916 minutes). It is in that last category where there’s some interesting salary correlations, as six of the seven players ahead of him in TOI over the last four seasons also have higher cap hits (Weber, Chara, Bouwmeester, Doughty, Suter and Boyle). Only Duncan Keith, signed to a phony 13-year, $72-million deal that pays just 5% of his total salary over his final two seasons, has a lower annual cap hit and has played more hockey than Phaneuf.

Now, ice time is hardly a perfect measure of Phaneuf’s worth, and I think most would agree that at least five of the seven players ahead of Phaneuf on that list are better defensemen than the Leafs captain. But what we can extrapolate is that is that defensemen who play as much as Phaneuf does tend to get paid as much as Phaneuf does. They also tend to have both a leadership role and a ‘play in all situations’ role with their club, much like Phaneuf does. So while I’d be hesitant to say that Phaneuf is the league’s 8th best defenseman, he’s certainly in the top 20.

But one of the greatest difficulties in projecting Phaneuf’s future cap hit is understanding the vast shift in his playing style since coming to Toronto. As alluded to above, he has been tasked with defensive zone starts and top lines every shift he’s skated in Toronto. In his early days, Phaneuf saw over 5 minutes a night on the power play, and was given sheltered minutes at even strength. This season, Phaneuf finds himself in an elite pair of defenders (the other being Phoenix Coyotes defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson) who average at least 3:30 in ice time on both the penalty kill and power play per game while facing the league’s best forwards.

At this point, I’d like to remind Leafs fans of Phaneuf’s idol and potential career model, Scott Stevens. While known for punishing hits and staunch defensive play for the New Jersey Devils, it’s sometimes hard to remember that he was once a pure scorer. While never among the ranks of Larry Murphy or Paul Coffey offensively, Stevens still tallied 900 points in his career. His best season was 1993-94 when he finished with 78 points. Then came the first of Gary Bettman’s lockouts and a new game format that encouraged stifling defensive play. In 10 more seasons, Stevens would only crack 30 points once more, yet he became the most notable defensive presence of the “Dead Puck Era.”

Similarly for Phaneuf, the offensive dynamism that made him rich seems to have been replaced by defensive prowess. It’s not that Phaneuf has lost that offensive side to his game, it’s that his role and usage limit his overall number of offensive chances for in favour of limiting offensive chances against. Phaneuf could never score 40 points again, but he’s significantly more reliable, responsible and positionally sound than he was in his halcyon days as a scorer. As both James Mirtle and I said on Monday, Phaneuf is without a doubt the most irreplaceable player in the line up.

Many have argued that Phaneuf’s current cap number looks out of place citing his capgeek comparables, and have been using Jay Bouwmeester when forecasting Phaneuf’s next deal. The St. Louis Blues defender and former linemate of Phaneuf’s is in the last year of a deal that pays him $6.68-million annually. He also recently signed a five-year extension with the Blues that will pay him a mere $5.4-million. And for seemingly little reason, that’s what Phaneuf should get. Or so the thinking goes.

But there’s several factors that make me believe there’s no chance that Phaneuf can be re-signed for JayBo’s modest number. Firstly, there’s little similarity in their game, beyond the fact that both log a tonne of minutes. Over the past four seasons, Bouwmeester has 30 fewer points than Phaneuf; 22 fewer goals. While a top defenseman in his own right, Bouwmeester has to fight for third billing behind standouts Alex Pietrangelo and Kevin Shattenkirk. It’s hard to ask for a raise when there are two other guys at your work who do your job better than you. Phaneuf does not have to suffer that workplace competition, and might never in a Leaf uniform. Also, George W. Bush was still president at the start of the last season where Bouwmeester recorded 40 points. Finally, Phaneuf is also a year younger than Bouwmeester, still closer to his prime and still able to crack 40 points.

So what does it all mean? What is Phaneuf worth? Most would agree that he’s not worthy of Ryan Suter’s $7.4-million paycheque, despite Phaneuf having 59 more points over 600-game careers. He’s also worth more than Jay Bouwmeester’s future cap hit of $5.4-million.

If I had to stake a guess, I’d actually say that Phaneuf will see a slight raise ahead of next season. He’s still only 28, and has been healthy most of his career. He’s proven capable of playing 25-minutes a night and more likely than not to score 40 points a season. There’s a dearth of options internally or externally that the Leafs could acquire to immediately replace and improve upon what Phaneuf does.

The only way I could see him re-signing at his current price tag or for less money is if the Leafs are willing to offer Phaneuf an eight-year deal. But if I had to give a more accurate range, I’d say that the Leafs and Phaneuf will probably end up coming to terms on a deal in the 7-8 year, $47-56-million deal. That would put his annual cap hit at a reasonable, $6.7 to $7-million cap hit on a deal that would expire when Phaneuf was 36 or 37 years of age. Should the Leafs want shorter term, expect the AAV to go up accordingly.

While it might sound unreasonable, nothing about NHL player’s paydays are ever reasonable. And ask yourself, what would you rather have? Phaneuf at 6.9 million, or to spend the next few seasons trying to replace him?

Highest Scoring NHL Defenseman

For combined seasons, from 2005-06 to 2013-14, playing defenseman, sorted by descending goals scored.


Buy Photo Domestic abuse victims who call the police often won’t have to worry about being kicked out of their rental properties under a bill approved by the Legislature and sent to the governor Wednesday, April 27, 2016. (Photo: William Petroski/The Register)Buy Photo

Iowa lawmakers voted Monday to advance Gov. Terry Branstad's controversial water quality proposal with assurances from his staff that they will offer amendments to address the concerns of various stakeholders.

A three-person House subcommittee voted to 2-1 to advance the bill to a full committee. It was the first time lawmakers had a chance to publicly consider the bill.

"I’ve seen two proposals for water quality in our state over the last year. One was a lawsuit," said Rep. Peter Cownie, R-West Des Moines, referencing a suit brought by the Des Moines Water Works against three northwest Iowa counties over water quality.

He credited that action with drawing state attention to the issue, but said "I like this way of doing things better."

The governor's proposal, which he has said is his top priority for the session, would extend for another 20 years a one-cent sales tax currently earmarked for education infrastructure spending. That tax currently is set to expire in 2029.

Schools would be guaranteed everything they currently receive through the tax plus an additional $10 million annually. The proposal would capture revenue growth beyond that cap and direct it to water quality projects.

The Department of Revenue projects the plan would create $4.7 billion to support water quality over 32 years and maintain $21 billion for schools.

But so far, the proposal has been met with skepticism, with some arguing that it pits water quality against education — two high-priority issues in the state.

Many people who spoke at the subcommittee meeting said they appreciate that the governor has attempted to tackle the issue, but most said they are reserving judgment before choosing to support or oppose the legislation.

Ted Stopulos, a legislative liaison for the governor, said the bill was designed to be a starting "framework" for discussions. He said Branstad has been meeting with stakeholders in the weeks since announcing his plan and his administration plans to bring amendments to address a number of issues that have caused some concern.

He said there will be an amendment forthcoming that would allow school districts to use revenue generated by the tax to support not just infrastructure needs, but also transportation, per pupil spending and property tax relief. But it would prevent districts from using the money to build new sports stadiums.

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Stopulos said there also would be an amendment to require that any school infrastructure project worth than more than $1 million would require a vote to move forward.

Finally, he said, they will support a provision promoting accountability, such as requiring some form of annual report to the Legislature.

Rep. Lee Hein, R-Monticello, who chaired the committee, said he believes this is the first step in what will likely be a long process. But he said he's glad to see the conversation continuing and believes the issue is worthy of being discussed at the committee level.

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A former South Carolina police officer has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for fatally shooting an unarmed African-American motorist.

Michael Slager committed second-degree murder when he shot Walter Scott, 50, in the back as he fled arrest after a traffic stop, a judge ruled.

"I forgive you," relatives of Scott told Slager, 36, in court, as they spoke about the death's impact on them.

A bystander recorded mobile phone video of the April 2015 shooting.

Experts say that without a video of the shooting, the former officer probably would not have been fired from the force nor have faced murder charges.

Video caption The dash cam footage shows Walter Scott's car being pulled over and Officer Michael Slager asking for his paperwork before Mr Scott runs away

Judge David Norton told the court that Slager, who is white, had "lived a spotless life" before the shooting.

"Regardless, this is a tragedy that shouldn't have happened," he added.

Lawyers for Slager had argued in court that he opened fire on Scott because he thought he had taken his police-issued stun gun during their scuffle.

The case ended in a mistrial in 2016, and rather than face another jury, the former North Charleston officer pleaded guilty in May to a federal charge of violating the victim's civil rights.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption The dead man's mother, Judy Scott, forgave Slager in court

In Thursday's sentencing, the judge ruled that Slager had acted with malice and "willful intent to provide false testimony".

The judge also had the option of sentencing him for a lesser crime of voluntary manslaughter, which would have carried a sentence of 12 to 15 years.

The dead man's mother, Judy Scott, told Slager in court on Thursday that she forgave him.

She said she hoped he would repent and allow Jesus into his heart.

Scott's brother, Anthony, said it had taken him a long time to overcome his depression and forgive Slager.

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Michael Slager gestures as he testifies in his murder trial last year

"I'm not angry at you, Michael," he told Slager. "I pray for you."

Members of the family thanked onlooker Feidin Santana for filming the encounter.

The City of North Charleston paid a $6.5m (£4.8m) settlement to the Scotts.

Slager told the court on Thursday: "I wish this never would have happened.

"I wish I could go back and change events, but I can't and I am very sorry for that."

Slager chased Scott after pulling him over for a broken brake light.

Scott, who was wanted for unpaid child support, fled the vehicle, police dashcam footage shows.

Video caption Racism in the US: Is there a single step that can bring equality?

A bystander's video captured Scott breaking free from Slager's grasp and running directly away from him, with his back to the officer.

Slager draws his pistol and fires from about 15ft (4.5m) away, hitting Scott five times.

The death took place amid US media scrutiny of police treatment of African Americans, and provoked protests by the Black Lives Matter movement.

US Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a statement: "Officers who violate anyone's rights also violate their oaths of honour.

"And they tarnish the names of the vast majority of officers, who do incredible work."


House OKs small biz jobs bill

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- One week after the Senate passed a $42 billion bill aimed at helping small businesses, the House voted Thursday to send the bill to President Obama's desk.

The measure, which passed the House in a 237 to 187 vote, is aimed at creating 500,000 jobs, according to a Senate summary of the bill. The Small Business Jobs Act also is intended to make credit more available for Main Street and enacts about $12 billion in tax breaks.

The president will sign the bill into law on Monday.

"The small business jobs bill passed today will help provide loans and cut taxes for millions of small business owners without adding a dime to our nation's deficit," said Obama in a statement.

Not only is Obama under pressure to create jobs, but he started talking about getting cheap capital to small businesses nearly a year ago.

The House first passed a version of the legislation about 3 months ago, but the bill met stiff Republican opposition in the Senate. After months of debate and significant pressure from the White House, the Senate finally passed the bill in a 61 to 38 vote last week.

The president chided Congress for the politicking even as he celebrated the passage. "After months of partisan obstruction and needless delay, I'm grateful that Democrats and a few Republicans came together to support this common-sense plan to put Americans back to work," he said.

The Financial Services Roundtable, a group of the nation's largest financial institutions, supports the bill. "Small businesses are the linchpin of our nation's economic growth and well-being," said Steve Bartlett, president of the Roundtable.

Republicans have largely opposed the bill: The votes in both the House and the Senate have fallen nearly on party lines.

"Unfortunately, this bill does nothing to help end the uncertainty that is crippling job creation and hurting small businesses," said House Republican Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio. "Instead it puts taxpayers on the hook for even more bailouts."

What is in the bill: The Small Business Jobs Act authorizes the creation of a $30 billion fund run by the Treasury Department that would deliver ultra-cheap capital to banks with less than $10 billion in assets.

The idea is that community banks do the lion's share of lending to small businesses, and pumping capital into them will get money in the hands of Main Street businesses.

Another provision aims to increase the flow of capital by providing $1.5 billion in grants to state lending programs that in turn support loans to small businesses. The state programs have proven themselves to be efficient, targeted and effective, but with many states struggling to balance their budgets, the programs are going broke.

The bill would also provide a slew of tax breaks that will cost $12 billion over a decade, according to a preliminary estimate from the Joint Committee on Taxation. The breaks aim to encourage small businesses to purchase new equipment, to incentivize venture capital firms to invest in small businesses, and to motivate entrepreneurs to start their own business.

Another provision of the legislation increases the loan limits on government-backed loans. It also extends the popular loan sweeteners for Small Business Administration loans through the end of the year. The sweeteners, initiated with the 2009 Recovery Act, have been a ,stimulus success story, and small businesses have been in line waiting for more funding.

There are quite a few tax breaks, but here is a rundown of five that have the potential to be game changers for the small businesses that are affected:

100% exclusion of capital gains: The bill would eliminate capital gains taxes on investments in qualifying small businesses.

To qualify for the tax break, a small business needs to be a C corporation - sorry, LLCs and S-corps - with assets of less than $50 million. The investor must buy the stock at "original issue," meaning it's purchased directly from the company, and has to hold it for at least five years.

Carry back provision extended to 5 years: When a business books a profit, it pays income tax on its earnings. But if the business then turns a loss in later years, tax rules allow the business to "carry back" its loss and deduct the money from earlier profits.

By filing an amended tax return for the earlier, profitable year, the business can claim an immediate refund on the taxes it paid. The bill allows certain small businesses to extend the carryback for 5 years.

Increase of Section 179: To motivate companies to go spend money on equipment, "Section 179" of the tax code allows businesses to write off capital expenditures immediately, putting cash in a company's pocket quickly.

Thanks to the Recovery Act, businesses can write off up to $250,000 worth of equipment through 2009. This bill extends the benefit through 2011 and the maximum increases to $500,000.

Bonus depreciation extension: Businesses can also opt to recover the cost of capital expenditures by writing off a bit of the cost of the purchase over a number of years, following a depreciation schedule.

Temporarily, businesses can front-load that deduction by writing off 50% of capital expenditures made in 2008 and 2009. This bill extends that first-year depreciation for qualifying property that is put in service in 2010.

Help for start-ups: Currently, entrepreneurs can deduct up to $5,000 in start-up expenses. That amount is reduced by the amount that the start-up's expenses exceed $50,000. The bill would increase the deduction to $10,000 for 2010, and the deduction would be reduced by the amount that an entrepreneur exceeds $60,000.


Blue Bunny, one of the biggest ice cream makers, is testing a line of nondairy vegan ice cream in five cities, and Dallas and Houston are on the list.

The line includes four flavors — vanilla, chocolate, mint chocolate chip and mocha fudge — and can be found at all Kroger stores in Dallas and Houston. It's also being sold in Denver, Omaha and Des Moines.

Company spokeswoman Deanna Dugo says the new ice cream reflects a nationwide trend. "In the current climate, nondairy alternatives are huge, whether it's a sensitivity or with more people becoming vegan," she says.

The ice creams are made with almond milk, and they are cholesterol- and lactose-free. "Almond milk has become a big trend," Dugo says. "This means you can eat ice cream even if you don't do dairy."

They run from 150 to 180 calories per serving — typical for supermarket-style ice cream — with 6 to 8 grams of fat, also typical. They provide 20 percent of the recommended daily allotment of calcium, which is higher than most regular ice cream.

Nondairy ice cream is common at natural-food stores like Sprouts and Whole Foods Markets, who devote half their freezer case to nondairy, but it says something when it's a mainstream company like Blue Bunny. Ben & Jerry's also recently announced that it will start selling vegan ice cream in 2016.

With Texas-based Blue Bell still downed following a recall of its products in April after an outbreak of listeria, the timing is good for Blue Bunny to add something new to the freezer case, especially in these parts, says Gary Huddleston, spokesman for Kroger.

"Dallas-Fort Worth is a huge ice cream market, and as of a couple of weeks ago, the Blue Bunny ice creams are at all of our stores," he says.


The myth of 'mum and dad' property investors

Updated

Property groups want us to believe that average income earners dominate property investment and negative gearing - a closer look at the statistics shows that's a furphy, writes Michael Janda.

There's no doubt that a lot of ordinary, average-income Australians own investment properties, many of which are negatively geared.

If you aren't a property investor yourself, then there's a good chance you know plenty of them, and run into them incessantly at weekend barbeques, weddings, on the golf course, or at a range of other social functions.

That's not surprising, because Tax Office statistics show there are almost 1.9 million individuals who declare rental income or, more typically, make rental losses.

What is surprising is that, according to the Housing Industry Association, nearly three quarters of them earn a taxable income of $80,000 or less.

That's one of the key justifications trotted out for maintaining the current negative gearing regime - that it overwhelmingly benefits ordinary, average-income 'mum and dad' investors.

When the HIA made that claim again this week upon releasing an economic report in defence of negative gearing, it set off my bull-dust detectors big time.

So I went to the source, the ATO's tax stats, to find out the truth.

For those who argue that negative gearing isn't overwhelmingly the domain of society's better-off, the truth hurts.

When I crunched the raw numbers, I did find that 72 per cent of investors indeed earned $80,000 or less in the latest 2011-12 figures (the discrepancy with the HIA figures being that their report used the 2010-11 stats).

But this just didn't tally up with Melbourne University's widely respected Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey taken every four years that examines the nation's household finances in depth.

Figures compiled by the Reserve Bank from that survey show that investment housing loans are, unsurprisingly, more than twice as common amongst the top fifth of highest-earning households than amongst any other income group.

In its latest Financial Stability Report, the RBA's analysis of HILDA also shows that a whopping 60 per cent of investment housing debt is held by the top fifth of income earners.

That got me thinking about the apparent discrepancy between the RBA data and the tax stats - such a large survey as HILDA surely couldn't have got it that wrong.

An obvious issue with the HIA's use of the ATO data was that it looked at taxable income - after people take out various deductions to lower their tax bills.

When I crunched the numbers, over 60,000 people with investment properties whose taxable income was $80,000 or less had total incomes above that $80,000 threshold.

That takes the HIA's claimed 74 per cent, which is 72 per cent on the latest data, further down to 68 per cent.

But more than two thirds of landlords earning under $80,000 a year still seemed way too high in light of other evidence.

That's when I found the ATO's Excel tables that look at what taxable and total incomes people have declared who collect rent from investment properties.

Almost 74,000 people who declare rental income or losses have a total income of less than $0 - that's right, they either live on nothing or have other means of paying the bills that don't have to be declared to the ATO.

Speaking to tax experts, including Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand's Michael Croker and UNSW's Professor Peter Swan, there are a few unverifiable possibilities as to who these people might be.

They could be people who own a property, are losing money on it, but are living off their partners' incomes; they could be people living off savings whose rental losses outweigh any investment income they earn; they could be superannuants drawing on now non-taxed drawdowns and pension streams; maybe they have some sophisticated trust structures which mean they can pay the bills while apparently earning no money.

Or they could be foreign investors.

Rental income or losses are the only earnings that non-resident foreign property investors are likely to have to declare to the Australian Tax Office, as their wages, profits or other investment earnings are likely to be sourced overseas.

Separate ATO data show 50,600 non-residents declared rental income in 2011-12, of which almost all (49,520) earned $80,000 or less in Australia.

So take them out of the HIA figures and you are now down to 65.7 per cent.

That's already a fair bit less than three-quarters, but still more than the HILDA figures would seem to suggest.

However, on top of the 74,000 negative income earners, there are another quarter of a million people declaring rental income or losses who have total incomes below $20,000.

Again, it is highly unlikely that these people could survive if that was their genuine income level, let alone service the mortgages that the 116,000 of them who are negatively geared have.

Completely removing all double counting, if we exclude these people as well, that takes the proportion of landlords earning $80,000 or less down to around 60 per cent - certainly closer to the truth, but probably still overstating the true situation.

The very reason that many housing investors fall below the $80,000 threshold is because they have used negative gearing to slash their tax bill.

That's because the ATO's measure of "total income" includes net, not gross, rent - that is, rental earnings or losses after deductions such as interest payments have already been removed.

The very reason that many housing investors fall below the $80,000 threshold is because they have used negative gearing to slash their tax bill.

The net result of all these calculations could be boiled down to a 'fact check' of the HIA's statement, and the outcome would be 'massively overstated'.

The vagaries of what is counted as income for tax purposes, and of tax deductibility, mean that it is impossible to be sure exactly how many landlords really earn less than $80,000 per year.

One other interesting fact from the ATO's figures is that the average 'total income' of Australian taxpayers was $55,000.

That means that on the way the tax office calculates 'total income' - looking at net rent and net capital gains, and excluding non-taxable items - someone on $80,000 is already a relatively high income earner.

Income by itself is also an incomplete measure of whether these are 'average' Australians - wealth is just as important as income when considering the equality of tax measures.

Many of the sub-$80,000 income earners are self-funded retirees who may own several investment properties, and possibly have a substantial share portfolio or bank balance as well.

Their incomes may be below $80,000 in any given year, but they have the option to liquidate those assets at will to fund their retirement lifestyle.

Given that superannuation drawdowns aren't counted either, it is certain that many of these superannuants are exactly the "so-called wealthy investors" that the HIA claims the tax figures show are so few in number.

A lot of this group may no longer be utilising negative gearing, but it will have undoubtedly assisted them in building up the assets that will give them a comfortable retirement.

For all these reasons, the HILDA data - used extensively by the Reserve Bank - is a much more reliable measure than the Tax Office data on what type of household gets by far the biggest benefit from negative gearing, and it ain't the poor.

Michael Janda is an online business reporter with the ABC. View his full profile here.

Topics: housing, housing-industry, tax

First posted