South Carolina flooding: Rains start moving off, but trouble isn't over

ATLANTA, Oct 5 (Reuters) - Pacific trade ministers have reached a deal on the most sweepingtrade liberalization pact in a generation that will cut trade barriers and set common standards for 12 countries, an official familiar with the talks said on Monday.
Leaders from a dozen Pacific Rim nations are poised to announce the pact later on Monday. The deal could reshape industries and influence everything from the price of cheese to the cost of cancer treatments.
The Trans-Pacific Partnership would affect 40 percent of the world economy and would stand as a legacy-defining achievement for U.S. President Barack Obama, if it is ratified by Congress.
Lawmakers in other TPP countries must also approve the deal.
The final round of negotiations in Atlanta, which began on Wednesday, had snared on the question of how long a monopoly period should be allowed on next-generation biotech drugs, until the United States and Australia negotiated a compromise.
The TPP deal has been controversial because of the secret negotiations that have shaped it over the past five years and the perceived threat to an array of interest groups from Mexican auto workers to Canadian dairy farmers.
Although the complex deal sets tariff reduction schedules on hundreds of imported items from pork and beef in Japan to pickup trucks in the United States, one issue had threatened to derail talks until the end - the length of the monopolies awarded to the developers of new biological drugs.
Negotiating teams had been deadlocked over the question of the minimum period of protection to the rights for data used to make biologic drugs, made by companies including Pfizer Inc , Roche Group's Genentech and Japan's Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.
The United States had sought 12 years of protection to encourage pharmaceutical companies to invest in expensive biological treatments like Genentech's cancer treatment Avastin. Australia, New Zealand and public health groups had sought a period of five years to bring down drug costs and the burden on state-subsidized medical programs.
Negotiators agreed on a compromise on minimum terms that was short of what U.S. negotiators had sought and that would effectively grant biologic drugs a period of about years free from the threat of competition from generic versions, people involved in the closed-door talks said.
The Washington, D.C.-based Biotechnology Industry Association said it was "very disappointed" by reports that U.S. negotiators had not been able to convince Australia and other TPP members to adopt the 12-year standard approved by Congress.
"We will carefully review the entire TPP agreement once the text is released by the ministers," the industry lobby said in a statement.

FINAL HOURS
A politically charged set of issues surrounding protections for dairy farmers was also addressed in the final hours of talks, officials said. New Zealand, home to the world's biggest dairy exporter, Fonterra, wanted increased access to U.S., Canadian and Japanese markets.
Separately, the United States, Mexico, Canada and Japan also agreed rules governing the autotrade that dictate how much of a vehicle must be made within the TPP region in order to qualify for duty-free status.
The North American Free Trade Agreement between Canada, the United States and Mexico mandates that vehicles have a local content of 62.5 percent. The way that rule is implemented means that just over half of a vehicle needs to be manufactured locally. It has been credited with driving a boom in auto-related in investment in Mexico.
The TPP would give Japan's automakers, led by Toyota Motor Corp, a freer hand to buy parts from Asia for vehicles sold in the United States but sets long phase-out periods for U.S. tariffs on Japanese cars and light trucks.

The TPP deal being readied for expected announcement on Monday also sets minimum standards on issues ranging from workers' rights to environmental protection. It also sets up dispute settlement guidelines between governments and foreign investors separate from national courts.
 (Reporting by Krista Hughes and Kevin Krolicki; Additional reporting by Ana Isabel Martinez in Mexico City; Editing by Will Waterman and Chizu Nomiyama)

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NATO denounces 'unacceptable' Russian incursion into Turkey in Syria air war

Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) meets with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, September 23, 2015.

 

Reuters/Ivan Sekretarev/Pool

The United States and its NATO allies denounced Russia on Monday for violating Turkish air space along the frontier with Syria, and Ankara threatened to respond if provoked again, raising the prospect of direct confrontation between the Cold War enemies.
NATO summoned the ambassadors of its 28 member states for an emergency meeting to respond to what Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called "unacceptable violations of Turkish air space".
Moscow's unexpected move last week to launch air strikes in Syria has brought the greatest threat of an accidental clash between Russian and Western forces since the Cold War.

Russian war planes and those of the United States and its allies are now flying combat missions over the same country for the first time since World War Two, with Moscow repeatedly targeting insurgents trained and armed by Washington's allies.
Turkey, which has the second-largest army in NATO, scrambled two F-16 jets on Saturday after a Russian aircraft crossed into its airspace near its southern province of Hatay, the Turkish foreign ministry said.

In a second incident, the Turkish military said a MiG-29 fighter jet - an aircraft used both by Russia and Syria's own air force - had harassed two of its F-16s by locking its radar on to them on Sunday as they patrolled the border.

Turkey summoned Moscow's ambassador to protest against the violation and said Russia would be held "responsible for any undesired incident that may occur" if it were repeated. Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioglu spoke with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, as well as key NATO partners.
By Monday afternoon, Russia had not given its own public account of the incidents. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed that the Russian ambassador had been summoned and said "some facts were mentioned there which are to be checked", but gave no further details.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said he had been told by Russia that the violation was a "mistake" that would not happen again.
"Turkey's rules of engagement apply to all planes, be they Syrian, Russian or from elsewhere ... Necessary steps would be taken against whoever violates Turkey’s borders, even if it’s a bird," he said in a live interview on HaberTurk TV.

"For Russia, which long opposed foreign intervention in Syria and blocked UN Security Council resolutions, to be actively involved in Syria is both a contradiction and a move that has escalated the crisis."
A senior U.S. defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Washington doubted the incursions were an accident.
"We’re deeply concerned about it and consider it something that just contributes to our overall sense that there’s real strategic and tactical problems with the way Russia is conducting itself in Syria right now."

The United States and its allies are waging their own air campaign against Islamic State fighters in Syria, while demanding that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad step down and supporting other insurgents fighting against him.
Russia says it is targeting Islamic State, but the anti-Assad coalition including Washington, European powers, Turkey and most Arab states, say Moscow has mainly targeted other insurgents and hit few Islamic State targets.

The potential confrontation comes at a time when relations between Russia and the West are at their worst since the Cold War, with the United States and European Union having imposed financial sanctions on Moscow over its intervention in Ukraine.
Over the past year, NATO has repeatedly accused Moscow of sending planes to violate the air space of the alliance's member countries in Europe.
Speaking during a trip to Spain, U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter compared Moscow's effort to bolster Assad to tethering itself to a sinking ship.
"By taking military action in Syria against moderate groups targets, Russia has escalated the civil war," Carter said in a speech in Madrid.
More than 40 Syrian insurgent groups, including some of the most powerful groups fighting against Assad and armed by Arab states, called on regional states to forge an alliance against Russia and Assad's other big foreign backer, Iran.
Regional cooperation was needed to counter "the Russian-Iranian alliance occupying Syria", they said. "Civilians have been directly targeted in a manner that reminds us of the scorched earth policy pursued by Russia in its past wars."
ENEMIES LIST

By infuriating Ankara, Russian President Vladimir Putin risks adding another name his costly and expanding enemies list: fast-growing Turkey is a big buyer of Russian gas and Moscow has announced ambitious plans to build pipelines across it to reach markets further west.
Turkey is one of Assad's fiercest foes in the region, has by far the biggest army on the border with Syria and has taken in the largest number of refugees.

President Tayyip Erdogan said Russia's defense of Assad was a "grave mistake".
"Assad has committed state terrorism, and unfortunately you find Russia and Iran defending (him)," Erdogan was quoted by the Hurriyet newspaper as telling a crowd of supporters in Strasbourg, France, late on Sunday.

"Those countries that collaborate with the regime will account for it in history," he said.
Britain's Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond said on Twitter: "(The) Russian incursion into Turkish air space raises stakes in what is already a high risk situation."
(Additional reporting by Maria Tsvetkova in Moscow, Phil Stewart in Madrid, Robin Emmott in Brussels; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Peter Graff)

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Coast Guard: Missing cargo ship El Faro sank

(CNN)[Breaking news update, 10:15 a.m. ET]

The U.S. Coast Guard is no longer searching for the missing cargo ship El Faro but focusing on any signs of survivors. Searchers have found life rafts and survival suits, including one survival suit with human remains, Coast Guard Capt. Mark Fedor said Monday. The body inside the survival suit was unidentifiable, he said.

[Previous story, published at 9:45 a.m. ET]

The U.S. Coast Guard believes the missing cargo ship El Faro sank, an agency spokesman told CNN. The search for the 33 people aboard continues, the Coast Guard said. Contact with El Faro was lost on Thursday.

The massive search for a container ship in the Caribbean Sea has yielded a 225-square-mile debris field, but no sign of the ship itself.

The vessel was carrying a crew of 28 Americans and five Polish nationals when it went missing near the Bahamas last week as Hurricane Joaquin, with winds blowing at 130 mph, passed over the archipelago.

El Faro, based in Jacksonville, Florida, was headed to San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The U.S. Coast Guard reported Sunday evening that it had discovered the 225-square-mile debris field, which consisted of Styrofoam, wood, cargo and other items.

The announcement came hours after the agency said searchers had found "multiple items," including an oil sheen, life jackets and containers in the same search area.

The company that owns the 790-foot ship, TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico, released a statement saying that a recovered container "appears to be from the El Faro," but according to the Coast Guard, there is no confirmation at this point that it or any of the other objects belong to the missing vessel.

"We located the objects via aircraft," explained Lt. Cmdr. Gabe Somma, who also said that Coast Guard cutters were still fighting the weather as they try to get to the ship's last known position, about 35 nautical miles northeast of the Bahamas.

The Coast Guard said Sunday evening that the search teams, which also include personnel and resources from U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Navy, have covered more than 70,000 square miles.

Still, no sign of El Faro or of any lifeboats, according to TOTE.

"With every passing hour, the search expands. When you're searching for something in the ocean, tracking the drift patterns and dealing with weather elements -- things are moving," said Somma, describing the challenges of the search.

Chief Petty Officer Bobby Nash said search teams have had to weather 150-mph gusts, 30-foot waves and heavy rain.

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Deal reached on Pacific Rim trade pact in boost for Obama economic agenda

Protestors in Atlanta stage marches against the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal, which was reached Monday after years of talks. (Paul Handley/AFP/Getty Images)

 

 

By David Nakamura October 5 at 10:10 AM

 
ATLANTA — The United States, Japan and 10 other Pacific Rim nations reached agreement Monday on the largest free-trade accord in a generation, an ambitious effort led by the Obama administration to knit together economies across a vast region.

The deal capped more than five years of arduous negotiations on a project central to President Obama’s economic agenda and potentially hands him a legacy-defining victory late in his presidency.

U.S. Trade Representative Michael B. Froman described the pact as a “historic agreement” that addresses economic and international trade “challenges faced in the 21st century.”

The deal “helps define the rules of the road for the Asian-Pacific region” for decades ahead, he told journalists.

Negotiators spent a feverish week of talks to find consensus on terms for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). On Sunday, plans to publicly announce a deal were delayed several times as the parties wrangled over the technical details related to market access for dairy products and new-generation biologic medicines.

“We achieved something that some people thought was unachievable,” said Canada’s envoy in the talks, Trade Minister Ed Fast.

Those are just two sections of a sprawling, multiple-chapter pact that addresses tariff reductions for agriculture and automobiles as well as intellectual-property rights for pharmaceutical drugs and movies, the free flow of information on the Internet, wildlife conservation, online commerce and dispute settlements for multinational corporations.

During the crunch-time talks, the sense of urgency was elevated by elections in Canada this month and the United States next year. Opponents of the deal have staged demonstrations inside and outside a Westin hotel in Atlanta, where the negotiators were meeting.

The Obama administration has cast the accord as a landmark effort to establish new rules of international commerce among a dozen nations at a time when evolving technologies are disrupting old industries and creating new ones.
But in a sign of possible political head winds for Obama, the Senate Finance Committee chairman, Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), described the deal as falling “woefully short” of goals such as opening more foreign markets to U.S. exports and boosting domestic jobs. Hatch was a strong backer of giving the White House so-called “fast track” powers to pursue the pact.
The 12 TPP nations — the others are Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam — account for a combined 40 percent of the world’s gross domestic product.
Obama, who announced in 2011 that his administration would take a leading role in the negotiations, stands to realize a major victory with just over a year left in office. Initially skeptical of large trade deals when he entered the White House, Obama came to embrace the Pacific Rim pact as a way to bolster his strategy of rebalancing U.S. foreign policy toward Asia and maintaining an economic edge in the face of China’s growing clout.

“We can promote growth through trade that meets a higher standard,” Obama said in a speech at the United Nations in New York last week. “And that’s what we’re doing through the Trans-Pacific Partnership — a trade agreement that encompasses nearly 40 percent of the global economy, an agreement that will open markets while protecting the rights of workers and protecting the environment that enables development to be sustained.”

The president personally intervened in the final days of talks, having phone conversations with several leaders, including Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. The final sticking points in Atlanta centered on the length of market protections for an emerging class of pharmaceuticals, tariffs for dairy products and rules governing how to classify where automobiles are manufactured.
Even if the deal is completed, Obama’s work is not yet done, however. Though he won new “fast-track” trade powers from Congress in the spring to help smooth negotiations, the president still must get the final pact ratified by a vote in Congress, which probably will take place early next year.
Lawmakers will not be allowed to amend or filibuster the TPP deal, but the vote will come during the presidential primary nominating contests. Candidates from both parties have lambasted U.S. trade policies as contributing to a reordering of the American economy that has led to a growing income gap.

Opponents of the deal, including labor unions, environmental groups and liberal Democrats, have pledged to mount a final campaign to block the accord on Capitol Hill. They have criticized the TPP as a regulatory framework aimed at protecting the interests of large multinational corporations while doing little to protect worker rights and the environment. U.S. officials have said that there are chapters in the agreement with enforceable provisions to do just that.
On Sunday morning, a handful of protesters unfurled a large banner reading “#StopTPP!” They chanted “TPP is corporate greed. Affordable medicine is what we need” before being removed from the lobby of the Westin hotel.

The TPP represents the largest U.S. trade pact since the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico in 1993. The accord has its roots in the mid-2000s, when Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore began discussing a tiny regional trade pact.
The United States first declared an interest in joining the talks in the final year of the George W. Bush administration, and the negotiations grew to encompass eight nations. But Obama put a halt on U.S. efforts after taking office in 2009, amid a global recession.

A year later, Obama notified Congress of his administration’s intent to reenter the talks, and the White House’s support helped draw in additional countries, including Japan, the world’s third-largest economy, whose entry in 2013 helped boost the global scale of the pact.
In all, the 12 nations held more than three dozen negotiating sessions over the past five years.
Obama’s decision to make a concerted push to close the deal this year put the White House in a rare partnership with Republican leaders to push the fast-track powers through Congress in the spring.

That effort angered much of his liberal base, but the legislation was approved in June after fierce political wrangling, passing with broad GOP support and a fraction of Democrats.
Under the terms of the fast-track legislation, Obama must wait 90 days after the TPP agreement is completed before he signs it and sends it to Congress for a vote, and the text of the accord must be made public for at least 60 of those days.

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Louis DeLuca/Staff Photographer

Texas Rangers fans sit in stunned disbelief after the final out in their 11-10 loss to the Angels during the Los Angeles Angels vs. the Texas Rangers major league baseball game at Globe Life Park in Arlington on Saturday, October 3, 2015. (Louis DeLuca/The Dallas Morning News)

By Adam Schrader

ARLINGTON — For nine innings Saturday, a crowd of more than 37,000 at Globe Life Park tried to jump and scream and will the Texas Rangers to a crucial victory against the Los Angeles Angels.

But after the Angels’ stunning 11-10 comeback victory, fans left filled mostly with disappointment and dread, knowing their team’s hopes of wrapping up the AL West Division title remained in the balance.

“We had the Angels on the ropes and just couldn’t keep them there,” said a frustrated Lynn Jimerson of Mansfield.

After the meltdown, the Rangers’ future was very much uncertain. If the Houston Astros lost to the Arizona Diamondbacks Saturday night, the Rangers would automatically win the division crown. If not, they faced a final, must-win game Sunday against their rivals from Anaheim, Calif.

The Rangers are in the playoffs regardless, but that knowledge didn’t take the edge off Saturday’s shocking defeat for fans like Daniel Parisi of Flower Mound.

“They had a golden opportunity to close it out,” he said.

Parisi said he was disheartened to see fans heading for the exits after the Angels’ Carlos Perez tied the game with a single in the bottom of the ninth.

“At least stick it out and go down with the ship like a real fan,” he said.

Fans were thrilled when the Rangers struck first with Josh Hamilton’s solo home run in the bottom of the second inning. But their smiles gradually turned downward as Angels built a 5-1 lead several innings later.

The emotional ups and downs continued. Heading into the ninth inning, though, the Rangers owned a 10-6 lead and seemed to have things in hand.

Then it happened: The Angels mounted their biggest comeback of the season — including back-to-back home runs surrendered by closer Shawn Tolleson — and Johnny Giavotella finally dispatched the Rangers with the hit that sent Perez home with the game-winning run.

“They should have left Jake Diekman in there and let him finish it off,” Parisi said. “You could just feel the negativity everywhere when Tolleson gave up those runs.”

Drew Carpenter of Arlington was trying to keep a positive outlook. He said it feels good that the lengths of time between Rangers playoff trips seems to be getting shorter.

“This is a more balanced team than the 2010 and 2011 [AL] championship teams,” he said. “Our pitching and offense is good. They may not be as explosive at times as it was then, but it’s pretty consistent.”

And John Gonzales of Euless noted that Rangers fans have dialed up their support to a high level.

“In previous games this year, other fans just sat down and watched. I think it’s going to be a standing crowd today,” he said before game time. “I like it when they stand up and cheer.”

Stand and cheer they did on Saturday. In the end, though, it just wasn’t quite enough.

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Texas Rangers' Twitter account posts 'Fire Charlie' during 'Horns loss

The Texas Longhorns are in full meltdown mode.
After back-to-back awful losses thanks to special teams gaffes, the Longhorns lost to TCU 50-7 Saturday. During halftime, Texas freshman cornerback Kris Boyd appeared to retweet a message about transferring to Texas A&M, which was bad enough.

But then the Texas Rangers seemed to jump on the "Fire Charlie Strong" bandwagon. Or, at least one rogue employee did

Per FOX Sports Southwest:

The tweet was quickly taken down after it was posted, but the damage had already been done. ... The employee was fired less than an hour later.

"The Texas Rangers wish to apologize to the University of Texas and its head football coach Charlie Strong for the very inappropriate and insensitive message that was briefly posted on the team's twitter account this afternoon," read a statement from the team. "The tweet was posted by a member of the team's social media department who was neither working for the Rangers nor was at Globe Life Park today. Effective immediately, that individual is no longer employed by the Rangers. The Rangers sincerely regret this incident and have taken the appropriate measures to make certain it does not occur in the future."

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Bahamas search finds life ring but no other sign of El Faro

NASSAU, Bahamas —Rescuers spotted floating debris and an oil sheen Sunday as U.S. crews continue an intensive search off the southeastern Bahamas for a U.S. cargo ship with 33 people on board that has not been heard from since it lost power days ago and was taking on water in fierce seas churned up by Hurricane Joaquin.
Watch report
At least four members of the crew are from Maine.
The ship is captained by Michael Davidson of Windham, who once was a Casco Bay Lines ferry captain in Portland, the Portland Press Herald reported. Another crew member is Dylan Meklin, 23, of Rockland, whose father, Karl, confirmed that his son was aboard.
Early Sunday afternoon, the U.S. Coast Guard said its aircrews have spotted "life jackets, life rings, containers and an oil sheen" in the sprawling search area but they have not yet been able to confirm whether the debris and oil is from the 790-foot El Faro. On Saturday, the Coast Guard said it located an orange life ring from the missing cargo ship.

U.S. Navy and Air Force planes and helicopters were helping Coast Guard crews looking for the ship across a broad expanse of the Atlantic Ocean around Crooked Island, which the El Faro was passing as the storm turned into a powerful Category 4 hurricane.

Hurricane Joaquin moved out of the Bahamas and was nearing the mid-Atlantic territory of Bermuda on Sunday afternoon as a weakening Category 3 storm. Rough weather had initially hampered the search, but conditions had improved enough by Sunday for the Coast Guard to dispatch one of its cutters, the Northland, to aid the aerial search. Two other cutters were on their way.

"Our hope is that we can really saturate that area better than yesterday," Petty Officer First Class David Schuhlein, a Coast Guard spokesman.

By early Sunday afternoon, weather conditions had improved significantly, with rescuers dealing with 1-foot seas, 15-knot winds and unrestricted visibility, according to the Guard.

The El Faro departed from Jacksonville, Florida on Sept. 29, when Joaquin was still a tropical storm, with 28 crew members from the United States and five from Poland. The ship was heading to Puerto Rico on a regular cargo supply run to the U.S. island territory when it ran into trouble. It was being battered by winds of more than 130 mph and waves of up to 30 feet (9 meters).

The crew reported it had taken on water and was listing 15 degrees but said it was "manageable," according to its owner, TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico.

In a statement, TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico said it authorized the sailing "knowing that the crew are more than equipped to handle situations such as changing weather." Before the other debris was spotted, it told family members of the crew gathered at a union hall in Jacksonville not to be discouraged by the discovery of the life ring.

Laurie Bobillot, whose daughter, Danielle Randolph, is a second mate on the El Faro, said she was trying not to lose hope after nearly four days anxiously waiting for news of the ship.

"We've got to stay positive," said Bobillot, of Rockland, Maine. "These kids are trained. Every week they have abandon ship drills."

Both she and Robin Roberts, whose stepson Mike Holland is an engineer on the El Faro, said they had faith in the skill of the ship's captain, whose name the company has declined to release.

"This is a top-notch captain. He's well-educated," Bobillot said. "He would not have put the life of his crew in danger, and would not have out his own life in danger, had he known there was danger out there. He had the best intentions. He has a family too, and he wanted to go home to them too. That storm just came up way too fast."

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Rescuers spot debris, oil as rescuers search for ship lost off Bahamas in Hurricane Joaquin

By BEN FOX and JASON DEAREN, Associated Press

NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) — Rescuers spotted floating debris and an oil sheen Sunday as U.S. crews continue an intensive search off the southeastern Bahamas for a U.S. cargo ship with 33 people on board that has not been heard from since it lost power days ago and was taking on water in fierce seas churned up by Hurricane Joaquin.

Early Sunday afternoon, the U.S. Coast Guard said its aircrews have spotted "life jackets, life rings, containers and an oil sheen" in the sprawling search area but they have not yet been able to confirm whether the debris and oil is from the 790-foot El Faro. On Saturday, the Coast Guard said it located an orange life ring from the missing cargo ship.

U.S. Navy and Air Force planes and helicopters were helping Coast Guard crews looking for the ship across a broad expanse of the Atlantic Ocean around Crooked Island, which the El Faro was passing as the storm turned into a powerful Category 4 hurricane.

Hurricane Joaquin moved out of the Bahamas and was nearing the mid-Atlantic territory of Bermuda on Sunday afternoon as a weakening Category 3 storm. Rough weather had initially hampered the search, but conditions had improved enough by Sunday for the Coast Guard to dispatch one of its cutters, the Northland, to aid the aerial search. Two other cutters were on their way.
"Our hope is that we can really saturate that area better than yesterday," Petty Officer First Class David Schuhlein, a Coast Guard spokesman.
 By early Sunday afternoon, weather conditions had improved significantly, with rescuers dealing with 1-foot seas, 15-knot winds and unrestricted visibility, according to the Guard.
The El Faro departed from Jacksonville, Florida on Sept. 29, when Joaquin was still a tropical storm, with 28 crew members from the United States and five from Poland. The ship was heading to Puerto Rico on a regular cargo supply run to the U.S. island territory when it ran into trouble. It was being battered by winds of more than 130 mph and waves of up to 30 feet (9 meters).

The crew reported it had taken on water and was listing 15 degrees but said it was "manageable," according to its owner, TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico.
In a statement, TOTE Maritime Puerto Rico said it authorized the sailing "knowing that the crew are more than equipped to handle situations such as changing weather." Before the other debris was spotted, it told family members of the crew gathered at a union hall in Jacksonville not to be discouraged by the discovery of the life ring.

Laurie Bobillot, whose daughter, Danielle Randolph, is a second mate on the El Faro, said she was trying not to lose hope after nearly four days anxiously waiting for news of the ship.
"We've got to stay positive," said Bobillot, of Rockland, Maine. "These kids are trained. Every week they have abandon ship drills."

Both she and Robin Roberts, whose stepson Mike Holland is an engineer on the El Faro, said they had faith in the skill of the ship's captain, whose name the company has declined to release.
"This is a top-notch captain. He's well-educated," Bobillot said. "He would not have put the life of his crew in danger, and would not have out his own life in danger, had he known there was danger out there. He had the best intentions. He has a family too, and he wanted to go home to them too. That storm just came up way too fast."

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Jason Chaffetz challenges Kevin McCarthy for House speaker

Washington (CNN)Rep. Jason Chaffetz on Sunday officially entered the race to replace House Speaker John Boehner.

Chaffetz, the Utah Republican who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, is taking on his party's current No. 2 -- Kevin McCarthy.

Chaffetz officially announced his bid for speaker on "Fox News Sunday," saying that McCarthy is a "good man" who has a "math problem" driven by conservatives' discontent, and that he's being recruited to enter the race.

7 photos: The hand-off: How Speakers Boehner to O'Neill came to power

He said with Boehner's retirement coming amid growing discontent from the party's right wing, Republicans shouldn't promote a member of his leadership team.

"You don't just give automatic promotion to the existing leadership team," he said. "That doesn't signal change. I think they want a fresh face and a fresh, new person who's actually there at the leadership table in the speaker's role."

House Speaker John Boehner: 'I decided today is the day'

Chaffetz said McCarthy has the support of the majority of the Republican conference, but will struggle to get 218 votes for his speakership on the House floor from the 246 House Republicans, largely because about 50 conservatives would vote against him.

"We were entrusted by the American people with the largest majority Republicans have ever had since Babe Ruth was swinging the baseball bat, but they didn't send us here to perpetuate the status quo," Chaffetz said Sunday.

"They want us to take that fight to the Senate," he said, alluding to the GOP-led chamber. "They want us to take that fight to the president."

Chaffetz is two years younger and has served less time in the House than the 50-year-old McCarthy, who has also faced questions about his lack of experience compared to other speakers.

Kevin McCarthy announces bid for Speaker

His foray into the speaker's race comes days after McCarthy triggered controversy by pointing to the House committee investigating the Benghazi incident and crediting that panel's work with dragging down Hillary Clinton's poll numbers. He was repudiated by members of his own party, including Chaffetz, for politicizing the investigation.

"I am running for speaker of the House of Representatives because I want to lead the way on tackling the toughest issues facing the United States of America," said Chaffetz in the statement issued Sunday.

"The American people have entrusted Republicans with the largest majority since the 1920's, but with that majority comes a responsibility to get the job done that we were elected to do," he said. "I came to Congress to help fix problems, and as speaker I will fight every day to make that happen. I look forward to sharing my vision for the speakership with my colleagues and the American people."

Chaffetz's announcement that he's jumping into the speaker's race could open the door for other challengers, a source familiar with the House Republican leadership race said. Some names to watch closely include Reps. Jim Jordan and Jeb Hensarling.

Also worth keeping an eye on: Rep. Tom Price. Price is currently running for majority leader, but could jump into the speaker's race if he thinks he'll find more support there than in his current race against Rep. Steve Scalise, the source said.

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The 4 Types of Supreme Court Justices

In friendship and romance, people are drawn to identifiable types. Some of us like larger-than-life figures, full of charisma, wild plans and fun. Some people favor quiet types, projecting wisdom, calm and a wry sense of humor. Still others prefer those who seem loyal and reliable, the kind you can trust in a crisis.

We are used to thinking of constitutional law in ways that have become predictable, even tiresome. Some Supreme Court justices are “liberals,” while others are “conservatives,” and so constitutional law is not so different from a presidential debate, but camouflaged in impenetrable legal jargon. (In the memorable words of Senator Ted Cruz, a nominee from a Democratic president “votes like a radical liberal nutcase.”) Alternatively, we might insist that some justices are “activists,” while others believe in “restraint.” It’s not always clear what these terms mean, but no matter who uses it, “activist” is almost always pejorative. Finally, we like to say—fairly, but not always informatively—that while some justices believe in “originalism,” interpreting the Constitution to mean what it meant when ratified, others believe in a “living document,” whose meaning evolves over time.

These distinctions capture some important differences in the ways that different Supreme Court justices think and act, but they also miss something fundamental about judicial inclinations and self-understanding. No less than in friendship and romance, constitutional law, it turns out, is dominated by specific types, or personae. Below the surface, they can be found in every era—and they will inevitably play a large role once again in the Supreme Court’s coming term.

A review of our history, and of the great battles that have defined our nation, reveals that if we want to understand our constitutional order, we need to focus on these personae. For all their differences, there are important commonalities between yesterday’s defining liberals, like Earl Warren and Thurgood Marshall, and today’s defining conservatives, like Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas. If we don’t understand the personae—and what draws different people to one type or the other—we will be trapped in categories and clichés that give us a hopelessly incomplete picture of constitutional law. We will fail to understand past cases, or appreciate the different possibilities in future ones.

There are just four personae, so let’s introduce them: heroes, soldiers, minimalists and mutes.

Heroes might be the most familiar. As believers in big, bold strokes, they do not hesitate to use the Constitution to strike down acts of Congress and state governments. They believe in big principles, and in big rulings in the service of those principles. Justice Anthony Kennedy often plays the hero. After writing several other opinions advancing gay rights over the years, he wrote the court’s opinion last term, Obergefell v. Hodges, striking down state bans against same-sex marriage. Brown v. Board of Education, invalidating racial segregation, was unquestionably heroic, as was its author, Chief Justice Warren, the iconic judicial hero.

While some justices, such as Kennedy and Warren, have strong heroic tendencies, no member of the court is consistently heroic. Justices tend to pick their spots, which means it is easiest to speak of heroic decisions—for instance, Roe v. Wade—rather than heroic individuals. Of course, conservative justices and rulings can be heroic, as well. Cruz and many other conservatives, alarmed by what they take as overreaching by the Obama administration, seem to want far more heroic justices, who will strike down various laws (including Obamacare) in order to restore what they see as the constitutional balance. Repeatedly voting to invalidate bans on commercial advertising and limit the power of the national government, Justice Thomas may be the most heroic member of the current court. My vote for the most consequential heroic ruling in recent decades would go to the 2010 Citizens United decision, invalidating restrictions on corporate contributions to campaigns in the name of free speech. The court’s majority has also embraced heroism in protecting the individual right to possess guns. The assault on affirmative action programs, undertaken in the name of color-blindness, is unquestionably heroic, too.

Soldiers are at the opposite pole from heroes. They do not want to invalidate the acts of democratically enacted branches. They believe in following orders. They want to defer to We the People. They agree with Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, history’s greatest soldier, who wrote, “If the people want to go to hell I’ll help them. It’s my job.”

Chief Justice John Roberts shows strong soldierly tendencies. In the opinion in favor of upholding Obamacare in 2012, Roberts emphasized the importance of judicial respect for other branches of government. Dissenting from the court’s same-sex marriage ruling earlier this year, Justice Antonin Scalia, too, spoke for the soldier, emphasizing what he saw as the court’s intrusion on the people’s “freedom to govern themselves.” Some people have defended affirmative action on the ground that judges should defer to the judgments of university administrators, who, in the view of many people, have the greatest expertise about educational needs.

Minimalists, meanwhile, insist on small steps and narrow, unambitious rulings. They want to resolve the specific problem at hand, but without pronouncing broadly on liberty or equality, or on the system of checks and balances. In American history, Justice Felix Frankfurter was a great defender of minimalism, especially in the area of presidential power, where he wanted the court to avoid sweeping rules. Justice Sandra Day O’Connor was also a great minimalist. Whether the issue involved abortion, free speech or affirmative action, she liked to focus on particular facts, not big ideas or abstract theories.

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Review: Hillary Clinton on ‘Saturday Night Live’

By JAMES PONIEWOZIKOCT.

Kate McKinnon, left, as Hillary Rodham Clinton and Mrs. Clinton as Val in a sketch on "Saturday Night Live." Credit Dana Edelson/NBC

Hillary Rodham Clinton appears to have figured out how best to neutralize, at least for a night, a potential public image problem. Just pour her a stiff drink.

On the season premiere of “Saturday Night Live,” Mrs. Clinton played “Val,” a kindly bartender opposite Kate McKinnon, the cast member who portrays her. It was a nice encounter — surprisingly nice, given Ms. McKinnon’s work to date.

Ms. McKinnon’s impression has been the toughest “S.N.L.” has done of Mrs. Clinton in her long political career. In 2008, Amy Poehler played her sharply but admiringly, as a well-prepared aspirant whose fault was mainly being too eager. Arguably, Ms. Poehler’s Clinton was even a rough model for her later role as the idealistic if overzealous bureaucrat, Leslie Knope, on “Parks and Recreation.”

Ms. McKinnon has taken some of the same attributes of Mrs. Clinton and sharpened them into a flint dagger. She’s played the candidate as unhinged by ambition, struggling to ask for votes rather than simply demand them. Where Ms. Poehler gave Mrs. Clinton a fulsome belly laugh, Ms. McKinnon’s is a brusque, “Hah hah HAH!” (“What a relatable laugh!” she once congratulated herself.) But the key to Ms. McKinnon’s character is in her face: the eyes flaring into burning headlamps of desire, her teeth bared in an Ed Grimley rictus.

Those teeth were still there in their joint sketch, but the satire was comparatively toothless. Candidate and doppelgänger commiserated about the campaign trail and generously poked fun at election-speak. When Mrs. Clinton’s Val asked her what she did for a living, Ms. McKinnon’s Clinton answered, “First, I am a grandmother. Second, I am a human entrusted with this one green Earth.” (“Oh, I get it,” Mrs. Clinton said. “You’re a politician.”) But there was no mention, for instance, of the controversy over the candidate’s using a personal email server while Secretary of State.

There were a few digs, notably when a bar patron thanked Mrs. Clinton for supporting same-sex marriage. Ms. McKinnon suggested, in character, that she should have supported it sooner. “You did it pretty soon,” Mrs. Clinton said. “Could have been sooner,” Ms. McKinnon-as-Mrs. Clinton said, pointedly.

But it rarely hurts candidates to show up and take their lumps on a national comedy show, even if we’re a long way from the days when it was stunning to see Richard Nixon say “Sock it to me?” on “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In.” Mrs. Clinton’s appearance in character was a departure: candidates usually play themselves, though her Val was really a sort of meta-image of Mrs. Clinton’s ideal voter. (“I’m just an ordinary citizen,” Val said, “who believes the Keystone pipeline will destroy our environment.”)

Mrs. Clinton also showed off a serviceable Donald Trump impression. And that may have said more than anything in the sketch about the state of satire in this election cycle: you can’t get away from Mr. Trump right now, even when you have his chief opponent from the opposing party in the flesh.

In fact, Mrs. Clinton didn’t even get the episode’s cold-open segment: that went to Mr. Trump, in the person of cast member Taran Killam, with Cecily Strong as his wife, Melania. (Ms. Strong also played Mrs. Clinton’s adviser Huma Abedin on the later segment.) This segment was harsher, with the duo sending up Mr. Trump’s insults of women, his ideological inconsistency and his vanity. (“I’m just like you, a regular Joe,” he told voters, “but better.”)

The Clinton sketch, on the other hand, ended with the candidate singing a few bars of “Lean on Me” with Ms. McKinnon. If Mr. Trump is going to be this much of a presence in late night, then, he might be wise to follow Mrs. Clinton’s lead and appear on the show. As his fellow New Yorker discovered, it’s possible to find somebody to lean on in the world of political satire. You just have to show up.

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'Daddy, he began to shoot": A daughter's account of Oregon rampage

Randy Scroggins relates the story of how his daughter, Lacey, escaped death in Thursday's shooting rampage at Umpqua Community College
(Matt Pearce) 

 

Matt PearceContact Reporter

 

Randy Scroggins sat down on his porch as dusk fell Saturday, his eyes red with emotion and exhaustion. He had a story to tell. It was time to tell it.
Scroggins' story was about his 18-year-old daughter, Lacey, and about the boy he believes saved her life on Thursday when a gunman strode into her classroom at Umpqua Community College, killing her teacher and eight of her schoolmates before fatally shooting himself.
It was one of the worst tragedies in Oregon's history. Lacey Scroggins lived. The boy didn't.
Randy Scroggins is still trying to make sense of it, if he can.

 
“Here's what I do know: I know that I'm grateful,” said Scroggins, 56, a local pastor, his voice wavering as he spoke Saturday evening. “My daughter's alive. And I'm grateful my daughter's alive. And I am deeply, deeply sorry that others are not. ... And I am grateful for the young man that I still believe is the reason that my daughter is alive.”

'Amazing,' 'compassionate,' 'cool': Loved ones remember the 9 Oregon shooting victims

Lacey Scroggins' day Thursday began with a driving lesson with her father. She had just bought a stick shift but didn't quite know how to drive it without making it shudder and jerk. She called it off at 9:20 a.m., saying she had to get to class.
Lacey is studying nursing at Umqua Community College -- she wants to be a surgeon, according to her father -- but her first class that day was expository writing, taught by Lawrence Levine.
Lacey Scroggins later told her father she remembered looking up at the clock in class to see what time it was -- 10:27 a.m. -- and a few minutes later, one of her classmates, Chris Harper-Mercer, 26, walked in.

Nine people were killed and nine others injured by a gunman at Umpqua Community College in Roseburg, Ore., on Thursday. The gunman later killed himself.

Almost everyone who said they'd met Harper-Mercer during his time in Roseburg and earlier in Southern California recalled him as being quiet and even a little awkward. Lacey Scroggins, however, told her father that Harper-Mercer had been quite talkative and inquisitive during class earlier in the week.
“Daddy, he was talking, he was verbal, he was not mean, he was not aggressive,” she told her father. “He was just asking questions about the class.”
But this time as Harper-Mercer strode into the classroom there was a gunshot. Lacey saw broken glass. Harper-Mercer, armed with a pistol, shot two or three times at the ceiling and told everyone to get down.
“At that point in time, she actually thought it was a drill,” Scroggins said. “And then she looked up, and she said that 'I couldn't see the teacher anymore.'“
Lacey looked to her left and saw Harper-Mercer shoot someone. “'And his body dropped to the ground, and I realized this is not a drill any longer,'“ Scroggins recalled his daughter saying.
She lay on the floor with her arms in front of her and heard the shooter say: “You, in the orange shirt. Stand up. What religion are you? Are you a Christian?”
When the student answered, Lacy told her father, “I heard, Daddy, I heard a pop, and then the thud of a body that just hit the ground.” The gunman asked the same question of another student and shot them, too, she said.
Then he told someone to stand up and come over to him.
“You're the lucky one,” the shooter said, as Lacey related it to her father. “I want you to give this bag to whoever needs it. I've got a flash drive in it, and the rest of us, we will all be together in just a moment.”
At that point, Harper-Mercer told another student that if she begged for her life, he would spare her. But when the woman began to beg, she said, “Daddy, he shot her anyway. And then he told all of us to get to the center of the room, so we all crawled as quickly as we could to the center of the room. And then he walked over, Daddy, and he began to shoot.”

One of the students on the floor next to Lacey was Treven Anspach, 20, a former classmate of hers at Sutherlin High School.
She heard a massive bang next to her ear. Anspach had been shot. He then fell or rolled onto Lacey, weighing her down. His blood spilled over her and onto the floor next to her arm.
“And then I heard him,” Lacey told her father, referring to the gunman. “He stood over me and yelled, 'Get up! Get up!' But because of the weight of Treven's body on me, I felt frozen to the ground. And then he looked at the girl next to me who he had already shot, but she was still alive. And he said to her, 'Is she still alive?'“
This time, he was talking about Lacey, who stayed quiet. “'And the lady said, 'I don't know,' and then he said, 'She must already be dead.'“
“He walked over my daughter and shot the next one,” Scroggins said.
Lacey told her father that at one point she could hear a woman tell the gunman, “I'm sorry that you are going through this -- I'm sorry that somebody has hurt you.”
“I bet you are, but it's not good enough,” Lacey remembered the gunman replying, and then, she said, he shot the woman.
At some point during the mayhem, Chris Mintz, a 30-year-old Iraq war veteran who was in a nearby classroom, came to see what was wrong, and Harper-Mercer shot him multiple times. Sometime later, Lacey heard a heavy burst of gunfire and realized the police had arrived.
“Then Lacey said that she heard the shooter say, 'I'm done, you got me, I'm finished,'“ Scroggins said.
Investigators believe Harper-Mercer then killed himself.
What happened next is something Scroggins wants everyone to remember about his daughter.
When she realized it was safe to get up, he said, Lacey pulled a scarf off her neck and used it as a tourniquet on a victim, She did the same for another classmate; she remembered urging them to use a finger to plug a bullet hole.
The police soon cleared her out of the room, questioned her, and she called her parents, who were at home.
“I heard my wife as she began to say, 'Randy' -- she came out of the room, and Lacey was on the phone,” Scroggins said. “She was wailing, crying. I heard the words, 'Somebody has been shot.'“
When Scroggins picked up his daughter that day, she was still covered in Anspach's blood.

“We all believe with the last piece of effort that [Treven] had, that he moved on top of her on purpose,” Scroggins said
As he neared the end of the story, sitting on his porch as darkness settled, Scroggins' voice was breaking.
“We know beyond a shadow of any doubt that his blood on my daughter convinced the shooter that she was dead," he said. “That young man, whose name is Treven Anspach … saved our daughter's life.”
Scroggins tried to call Anspach's parents, and finally reached his mother on Saturday. The call was emotional.
“It appeared to me that although she could not understand why, as no parent could, she was grateful to know that her son was a hero in many, many people's eyes. And ... Treven will always be our hero,” Scroggins said.
He asked Anspach's mother what he could do in return.
“Her response was so simple: 'Make sure that you hug your daughter every day of her life,'“ Scroggins said. “A request that we will gladly do.”

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In South Carolina, 'it's a historic flood,' emergency official says

Charleston, South Carolina (CNN)As teams from multiple agencies try to save people from their cars on flooded streets across South Carolina, officials are struggling just to keep count, the state's emergency management spokesman told CNN on Sunday.

"It's a historic flood the likes of which we haven't seen," Eric Rousey said. Most of the rescue operations are being staged in Dorchester and Charleston, where at least 30,000 people are without power. Emergency officials said there were about 140 water rescues in Dorchester overnight.

In Charleston, people paddled kayaks and canoes down city thoroughfares, as more than 6 inches of rain fell in downtown on Saturday, according to the National Weather Service Twitter account.

18 photos: Storms drench East Coast

By noon, about 11½ inches of rain had fallen in the city, the weather service said. That's an inch more than the all-time highest amount of rain in the area, recorded in September 1998.

Of the 83 road closures throughout the state early Sunday, 46 were in Charleston, Rousey said.

President Barack Obama has declared an emergency in South Carolina, authorizing federal aid in anticipation of more rain.

The weather service forecast "catastrophic flash flooding" overnight into Monday in Berkeley County in South Carolina, where more than 18 inches of rain had fallen in 24 hours, according to the CNN Weather Center.

The situation is so extreme that the helpers are in need of help as well.

"Four additional swift-water rescue teams are coming in from out of state to assist with SC rescues," the South Carolina Emergency Management Division tweeted.

For motorists tempted to drive during the deluge, Charleston County's government tweeted the urgent message, "Please stay HOME."

'Turn around, don't drown'

Motorists are often the casualties in strong storms, and 8 to 10 inches of rain were predicted to fall over most of the state's coast late Sunday through Monday.

Three people died Friday and Saturday in traffic incidents in South Carolina, and a car passenger died in North Carolina on Thursday when a tree fell on Interstate 95, officials said. The deaths were blamed on the weather.

The weather service opened the extreme weather forecast on its website with a public service announcement video reminding people not to drive through rushing waters, no matter how shallow. "Do not attempt to drive into flooded roadways. Turn around, don't drown," it said.

"It takes just 12 inches of flowing water to carry off a small car; 18 to 24 inches for larger vehicles," the video said.

Inundated homes, streets

In Dorchester County, South Carolina, where a flash flood emergency was already in effect, the county didn't have sandbags for residents trying to shore up their doorways from rising waters.

"If water is entering your house and you feel unsafe, please evacuate to the county shelter," emergency management tweeted. "Call 911 if you need help doing so."

The water was still feet away from Joe Shetrom's door overnight, but even that came as a surprise to him.

"When we built our house almost 3 years ago, I questioned if we really were in a flood zone. Now I know," he tweeted along with a photo of the water creeping up his front yard.

Lauren Tuorto closed her Holy City Consignment shop on the Charleston peninsula until Tuesday.

"It is impossible to navigate the peninsula right now without a kayak or a monster truck," she said.

The second punch

The wet misery extends from Georgia to Delaware, and the weather service has issued flood watches up the coast. And it comes from two sources.

The low pressure area associated with the rain soaking the Carolinas is funneling heavy tropical moisture into the region, creating the torrential rainfall, the CNN Weather Center said.

While Hurricane Joaquin is predicted to miss the U.S., water connected to the storm is feeding torrential rain on the East Coast.

The moisture the storm is pulling in is also associated with Hurricane Joaquin, but the two systems shouldn't be confused.

Joaquin weakened to Category 3 strength early Sunday and was predicted to weaken further over the following 48 hours. It is inching north in the Atlantic, but luckily away from U.S. shores. Joaquin is expected to push in a storm surge in the Northeast as it passes.

The two separate storms will result in a one-two water punch. And they are triggering more dangers than just rain.

"Life-threatening rip currents, high surf and coastal flooding, mainly at high tides, will stretch nearly the entire eastern U.S. coast," CNN meteorologist Michael Guy said. Wind gusts could reach 30 mph and could topple trees.

 

Trouble elsewhere

As South Carolina residents hunkered down, up to 500 residents were evacuated in coastal Brunswick County, North Carolina, that state's governor said.

A foot of rain could fall in the southern Appalachians. The Northeast could see 2 inches of rain. And up to 4 inches could strike the waterfront between Georgia and New Jersey.

Flooding is a major concern for a number of reasons: directly from all the rain, indirectly from rivers and creeks possibly overflowing their banks, and also from storm surges fanned by strong winds.

Along with the Carolinas, New Jersey, and Virginia have declared states of emergency.

Track Hurricane Joaquin here

CNN's Nick Valencia reported from South Carolina. CNN's Ben Brumfield and Ashley Fantz wrote and reported from Atlanta. CNN's Greg Botelho, Joe Sutton, Devon Sayers, Tony Marco, Shawn Nottingham, Dominique Dodley, Michael Martinez and Kerry Chan-Laddaran also contributed to this report.

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This baby is considered as the world's blackest baby! Unbelievable!

We often say that we should not be judging other people by their skin complexion. But then when this photo went viral online, netizens can't help but spread news and fake stories about this.

Photos of this baby is now making rounds on different social media sites, this baby is considered as the baby who has the darkest skin color. We're not being racist here, it's just that people were very much amazed with such magnificent skin color this baby has! 

People claim that the baby was born in South Africa. People say that this baby is set to prove that there is indeed beauty in people with darker skin color! 

After this photo went viral, another photo was released and it shows that the baby had already grown up. Maybe the kid in the photo was about two years of age.

Let the whole world know about this story! 

Via Virtual World

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A 16 Year Old Entered A Competition With Just A Pencil. The Outcome Blew Everyone's Mind.

The competition is the Texaco Children's Art Competition, an art contest in Ireland that draws in 50,000 paintings annually, helping to distinguish talented, young artists across the country. This year, there was one entry that made waves across the internet and art world, a stunning piece of art that will not only blow your mind but have you doing a double take.

In 2010, a young girl by the name of Shania McDonagh won category C (12-13 year olds) with the below painting:

via Texaco Children's Art

Not too bad, nothing to crazy to write home about, right? Then she won again with this painting entitled, "Bill." 

via Texaco Children's Art

Stunning, right? But her streak didn't stop there. Next up was 2012 and her newest entry, "Jack." 

via Texaco Children's Art

I know what you're already thinking: "That's a photograph." Nope, but she gets better. This is her 2013 entry, "Denis," which snagged her three wins in a row:

via Texaco Children's Art

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