Bike, hike, and dive into history on these global adventures for all ages. Gstaad, Switzerland Pick up a backpack preloaded with all the makings of a cheese fondue at the Molkerei (dairy shop) in the valley town of Gstaad, then board a mountain gondola at the base of the Wispile mountains and head 6,270 feet up to the top for a hike and picnic amid the wildflowers. Or hire a guide and hop on a mountain bike (traditional or electric) to tackle the chalet-strewn hills and valleys stopping only for selfies with alpine bovine. For a real thrill, make your way to the alpine coaster, a half-mile mountain descent on a toboggan track where you're in control of your speed up to almost 25 mph, and kids ages nine and up can drive solo. St. Vincent and the Grenadines St. Vincent has waterfalls to sit under, fern-laden rainforest paths to hike, and even a volcano to climb, but make time to explore beyond this main island as well. The Grenadines comprise 32 additional islands and cays, nestled in the clear Caribbean Sea. On Petit St. Vincent Private Island Resort , a National Geographic Unique Lodge, the Jean-Michel Cousteau diving center offers expert-led underwater reef tours. Or explore the Tobago Cays on a daylong charter of the 115-foot Star of the Sea yacht, based in Bequia. Hong Kong Hike the scenic peaks of the Dragon's Back Trail with Wild Hong Kong and you'll see a greener side of this skyscraper-filled city. Then retreat to the cool confines of the striking new Xiqu Centre , an arts venue dedicated to Cantonese opera and music. Paris, France Play pétanque  a popular lawn bowling game or simply stroll the avenues at any one of Paris' s lively gardens. At Jardin du Luxembourg, families can sail a vintage toy boat (rent them in the park) at the Grand Bassin duck pond or enjoy Théâtre des Marionnettes, a puppet show dating back to 1933. The new Parc Rives de Seine fills with sun loungers and palm trees during the annual riverside Paris Plages festival. Festival FNAC Live and other free music events spark hot nights with cool sounds. Vero Beach, Florida Spot manatees and dolphins, learn about oysters and the Indian River Lagoon estuary system (the most biodiverse in North America), and canoe mangrove forests at the Environmental Learning Center. Take an evening walk during sea turtle nesting season at Disney's Vero Beach Resort . (The Walt Disney Company is the majority owner of National Geographic Partners). Sip an orange slushee at Countryside Citrus . Puerto Rico In El Yunque National Forest , the only tropical rainforest in the U.S. Forest Service, glimpse bright green Puerto Rican parrots that scientists are working to save from extinction. Tour the Arecibo Observatory , where a 1,000-foot-wide radio telescope searches our skies for alien intelligence. Grand Canyon, Arizona Shift your perspective on the Grand Canyon , celebrating one hundred years as a national park in 2019. OARS rafting outfitter leads Colorado River trips that range between five and 18 days and have you looking up the mile-deep canyon instead of down into it. (Kids as young as seven can raft Class III rapids.) Book a Grand Canyon mule trip to descend the Bright Angel Trail and enjoy an overnight stay at the base. Or come on a summer Saturday and you can ride one of the Grand Canyon Railway 's steam locomotives that run on french fry oil. Edmonton, Alberta The new Royal Alberta Museum opened late last year with a mandate to be more inclusive of First Nations culture. Today, the largest human and natural history museum in western Canada weaves native languages and narratives throughout its six interactive galleries. The Manitou Stone, a 4.5 billion-year-old meteorite with great spiritual significance for First Nations and Métis people, sits at the center of a circular space intended for quiet reflection. The addition of the museum has revitalized the family-friendly Arts District that is also home to the Art Gallery of Alberta . Washington, D.C. Beyond the Smithsonian, the arts thrive throughout the nation's capital. Inside Artechouse , interactive digital technology takes images and brings them playfully to life. And 90-plus theaters , including five dedicated to young audiences, mean the D.C. area provides compelling storytelling onstage nightly, from Shakespeare tragedies to Spanish-language plays. Namibia Twenty-five percent of all wild cheetahs live in Namibia. Livestock farmers and hungry cheetahs don't usually mix well, but Naankuse Foundation Wildlife Sanctuary came up with one solution. Live-capture cages set by the farmers and managed by the Naankuse team are helping to reestablish the country's wildlife population. Visitors to the sanctuary can sleep at the on-site lodge, participate in wildlife walks, or sign up for volunteer opportunities. Money collected helps preserve all six big cat species that call Namibia home. Bermuda Sea-cliff climbing and cliff jumping are popular activities at Bermuda spots such as Admiralty House Park. Prefer having a guide? The "Stay Together, Play Together" package at the Newstead Belmont Resort , less than four miles away, includes a Jet Ski and cliff jumping adventure with K.S. Watersports, as well as a soft place to land at day's end. Botswana With access to wonders such as Victoria Falls and the Zambezi River, Botswana appears on many bucket lists. Take the country at a slower pace on a guided walking safari in the Okavango Delta. Kids who may struggle on traditional safari experiences will like the 12-day "Botswana with Kids" itinerary from Deeper Africa . Designed by director and former school teacher Karen Zulauf, it features activities, such as animal tracking, drumming, and basket crafting, in between the hippo, elephant, and meerkat sightings. Ozarks, Missouri The Lake of the Ozarks region offers families easy choose-your-own adventure options that include 32 area trails, two state parks, and four explorable caves. Farther south, relax in a log cabin at Big Cedar Lodge before horseback riding or biking at Dogwood Canyon Nature Park . Sweeten any experience with a "concrete" (frozen custard) in hand. Savannah, Georgia Just outside Savannah, the Pin Point Heritage museum explores the history of the Gullah-Geechee people through scavenger hunts, videos, and audio exhibits. The Pin Point community, on the Moon River shores, was founded by free Africans whose ancestors first came here (and to nearby barrier and sea islands) as slaves. The Creole dialects they developed are now rarely spoken. Visitors can still learn some Gullah words and phrases from descendants in communities, such as Hog Hammock on Sapelo Island, along the the 490-mile Gullah-Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor . Ecuador The Sky Bike at Mashpi Lodge allows riders gliding treetop views of the Chocó cloud forest. Inside this National Geographic Unique Lodge, loggers turned staff conservationists give talks on preservation efforts. For multisport adventures, Andando Tours offers new family-friendly itineraries.


One day, Paula Quinn noticed a lot of her 2-year-old daughter's chocolate brown curls on her pillow. She asked Rosie if she was pulling her hair out, but she said she wasn't. "She used to suck her thumb and twirl her hair," Quinn recalls. Quinn thought maybe Rosie was stressed since Quinn was about to go back to work after a six-month maternity leave for Rosie's baby sister, Caroline. "But every day, there was just more and more hair," the 42-year-old Chicago mom says. Two weeks later, Rosie had lost 90 percent of the hair on her body   including her eyelashes, her eyebrows, even the hair on her arms and legs. Rosie's pediatrician diagnosed her with alopecia. A specialist told Rosie's parents that there are a variety of treatments for alopecia, but Quinn and her husband Larry, who works in medical sales, declined. "Since she was so little, we didn't want to pump all of her body with drugs," Quinn says. Plus, Rosie didn't mind being hairless. "It really didn't seem to bother her. No secret, no shame, just embrace the baldness and get her some cute hats," Quinn decided. But when she turned 3, chatty, outgoing Rosie started acting self-conscious. At places like the grocery store, kids would point and ask what was wrong with her. "She would just start getting really quiet and she'd clutch my leg," Quinn says. "I would step in and say, 'This is Rosie. She has alopecia -- that makes her hair fall out. What makes you different?'" Rosie didn't like wigs, so her mom came up with the idea of printing one of Rosie's drawings onto a head scarf. And that changed everything. "She was immediately in love with it. She sat in front of the mirror a good five minutes smiling and putting it on different ways. Now, instead of her baldness, strangers commented on how pretty her scarf was. And that gave Rosie an idea. She told her mom: "I want to give this to all the bald kids." And for six months, Rosie was persistent with the idea. After 10 years of working in human resources at Google, Quinn quit her job in July 2015. A year later, she launched the nonprofit Coming Up Rosies , which sends "Smile Kits" for free to kids with alopecia or medical issues. "At first we were focusing on making all the bald kids smile," Quinn says. "But now it's anyone going through a medical journey   like a heart transplant, or cancer." A child paints the canvas with brushes and paints included in the kit   then an adult takes a picture with their smartphone, and emails a high-resolution image to the nonprofit. The original artwork is then printed on a head scarf, headband, neck scarf or superhero cape and mailed to the child. Coming Up Rosies works with 12 hospitals in Illinois and Houston's Texas Children's Hospital. Through their partnership with jewelry designer Kendra Scott's philanthropy, they are working to expand to other children's hospitals around the country. They started the partnership in May, when Rosie and Scott personally delivered Smile Kits to Dell Children's Hospital in Austin. "I have never met anyone quite like Rosie," Scott told Today.com. "From the moment I met her, I could feel this force of confidence and self-assurance that is pretty rare to see in someone so young." Four-year-old Mary Kate Zweidinger lost her hair shortly after she was diagnosed with kidney cancer in August, and began radiation and chemotherapy. "She loves art -- she decorated her entire hospital room with pictures of princesses, and unicorns and rainbows," says her mother, 39-year-old Sarah McNamara. A friend in their Chicago neighborhood gave Mary Kate a Smile Kit to make a headscarf. "I don't think she's taken it off," her mother says. "She wears it all the time   even to bed. It empowered her." Now a rising third-grader, 8-year-old Rosie loves softball, swim team, and reading Harry Potter books. One day, she wants to be a Supreme Court justice (her idol is Ruth Bader Ginsberg). Rosie says she no longer needs her scarf to feel confident, and she only wears them on cold Chicago nights. "She still rocks the bald," Quinn says. "She tells people, 'I don't want hair. I don't want a cure for alopecia. I like being bald. I like being me.'" Gallery: 18 Proven Strategies to Teach Kids to Handle Bullying (Provided by Cheapism)


Video provided by AP House Democrats are stepping up calls for testimony from special counsel Robert Mueller - even if it takes a subpoena to obtain it. Issuing a subpoena to compel testimony from Mueller, who has yet to reach a deal to appear before the House, carries risks for Democrats. It could be viewed as divisive, has the potential to generate negative headlines and is a step most would like to avoid. But as the spring days slip away with no agreement to hear from the special counsel, frustrated lawmakers are saying they should use whatever means are necessary to hear from Mueller. "I think he will have to be subpoenaed," Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told The Hill. "He's critical. He basically made the case for obstruction of justice and we need to hear from him," she said. "I think we should do whatever we can to get that testimony," Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) said when asked whether Mueller should be subpoenaed if he declines to testify publicly. "It's so important for the American public." House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) has repeatedly said the committee would subpoena Mueller if necessary but that he hopes it wouldn't come to that. He declined to comment on reports Tuesday that Mueller did not want all of his testimony to be public. Nadler's staff has been negotiating with the special counsel's office and the Justice Department for weeks over Mueller's potential testimony. Nadler had initially set a tentative date for May 15 to hear from the special counsel, but it now appears his testimony will slip into at least June. Mueller, a widely-respected former FBI director, is unlikely to want to be drawn into a political fight. He quietly investigated Russian interference and potential obstruction by President Trump for two years, speaking only through court filings and his sprawling 448-page report. Some Democrats lay the blame on Mueller's failure to reach a deal to appear on the Justice Department and Attorney General William Barr, who still has control over Mueller's testimony while he remains a Justice employee. It's possible that the Judiciary Committee and Mueller's team could reach an agreement for the special counsel to deliver part or all of his testimony behind closed doors. Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.), a member of the Judiciary panel, said Tuesday she had not been privy to the negotiations but said such a deal would likely be in consideration, describing Nadler as being "accommodating" to witnesses. "I imagine those kinds of considerations for someone this important with the kind of findings that he had, I'm sure that's on the table," Dean told The Hill. Dean also said it would be appropriate for Nadler to subpoena Mueller if he does not agree to a deal to appear. Some Democrats, however, appear wary of subpoenaing the special counsel for public testimony. Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), a Judiciary member, declined to say whether he supported subpoenaing Mueller and added that he's open to hearing arguments for Mueller to testify privately. "If he can demonstrate some compelling reasons why he should be allowed to testify in private, I think we would have to consider that. And I would certainly like to hear - if that is the case - what sort of justification he'd give for wanting to testify in closed door hearings as opposed to open to the public," Johnson told The Hill. It's not entirely clear what the stalemate between Democrats and Mueller centers on. CNN reported that Mueller's team has informed the committee that he does not want to be viewed as political and that those fears have held up a deal on him giving public testimony. The Washington Post subsequently reported that some say the Justice Department has resisted making Mueller's testimony public. Barr has publicly stated he would not object to Mueller testifying before Congress. Trump has left the decision up to Barr, though he publicly objected to Mueller testifying on Twitter in early May. Some have suggested it is more likely that Mueller will testify once he leaves the Justice Department. The timing of his exit is unclear. Peter Carr, a spokesman for Mueller, declined to comment Tuesday. Democrats are particularly anxious to hear from Mueller following the revelation of a letter he sent to Barr in late March criticizing the attorney general's March 24 memo as failing to "fully capture the context, nature, and substance" of his investigation's findings. They're also likely to grill Mueller on his obstruction inquiry and his decision not to make a judgment on whether Trump obstructed the investigation. Some Democrats said they empathized with Mueller's reported concerns, but said his testimony is key to understanding episodes in which Trump may have sought to obstruct justice. "He's led a life of being by the book, rule of law and outside of partisan politics," said Intelligence member Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.). "So I understand his reservation; he doesn't want to get caught up in a partisan fight. But on the other hand, we have got total obstruction on the part of the president." Republicans have accused Democrats of using their investigations to relitigate the Mueller probe, after the special counsel did not find evidence to charge the Trump campaign with conspiring with Russia to meddle in the election. Barr and former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein also judged the evidence to be insufficient to accuse Trump of obstruction, despite Mueller not reaching a judgment one way or another. Nevertheless, both Democrats and Republicans say they are eager to have Mueller testify, though GOP lawmakers did not jump at the idea of supporting a Democratic subpoena. "I think it is important that Bob Mueller come and testify. I look forward to him coming," Rep. Will Hurd (R-Texas), a member of the Intelligence Committee, told The Hill. If he testifies, some Republicans are expected to question Mueller on the origins of the Russia counterintelligence investigation, which they allege was started by agents biased against Trump.


Newly-crowned world number one Ashleigh Barty could never have imagined winning a Grand Slam title and rising to the summit of the rankings when she took a break from professional tennis in 2014. But the 23-year-old Queenslander has gone from strength to strength since returning at Eastbourne three years ago following a brief stint as a professional cricketer. She became Australia's first women's world number one since Evonne Goolagong-Cawley in 1976 by beating her doubles partner Julia Goerges in Sunday's final of the WTA event in Birmingham. Barty broke through with her maiden Grand Slam triumph at the French Open earlier this month, before saying her "next goal" was to usurp Japanese star Naomi Osaka as world number one. She extended her winning streak at 12 matches by seeing off German Goerges 6-3, 7-5, and she now has not lost since a defeat by Kristina Mladenovic on May 16 at the Italian Open in Rome. Barty, the first player from her country to win Roland Garros since Margaret Court in 1973, featured for the Brisbane Heat cricket team in the Women's Big Bash League four years ago, playing nine matches with a top score of 39. "No, not at all," Barty said after the French Open of her hopes of winning a major title when she started her comeback with a surprising run to the Eastbourne semi-finals in 2016. "I was very nervous (at Eastbourne) because I didn't even know if I would get in the draw... "I remember at the end of that week, my body was shot. It wasn't used to playing matches again. It was incredible. "To know that it was three years ago -- it feels like only yesterday that we were there and in the same breath it also feels like it was a lifetime ago." - Stunning upturn - Barty lost in three Grand Slam doubles finals alongside Casey Dellacqua in 2013, but had only won two singles matches and lost nine at the big four tournaments when she stepped away five years ago. Barty did not even play another Grand Slam singles main-draw tie until 2017, and only reached the second week of a major for the first time at least year's US Open. But she does not think she could have seen such a stunning upturn in her fortunes without taking a hiatus. "Absolutely not. I don't even know if I'd be sitting here talking to you if I was playing tennis (and) if I didn't step away," Barty said. "It's obviously a part of my life that I needed to deal with, and I feel like it was the best decision that I made at the time, and it was an even better one coming back." Barty's game is built around a strong serve and an excellent backhand slice, a rarity in the women's game. Her unusual style appears perfectly-suited for grass-court tennis, with the start of Wimbledon on July 1 looming large. Barty said the clay-court French Open, which she won with a 6-1, 6-3 final thrashing of Czech teenager Marketa Vondrousova, was the last Grand Slam she expected to win, potentially firing a warning to her Wimbledon rivals. With 23-time major champion Serena Williams' failure to win a Slam title since January 2017 leaving the women's game more open, Barty now hopes a rivalry can blossom with Osaka, two years her junior. "I think we have only played a couple of times, but I'm sure that we'll play many more times over both of our careers, and hopefully they're in big matches." Related slideshow: Maria Sharapova away from the court (provided by photo services)


In June 2017, a married mother of four experiencing severe pelvic pain went to see a UCLA gynecologist. Dr. James Mason Heaps, she alleged, improperly touched her genitals, fondled her breast and buttock and made sexual remarks during the exam. She reported the conduct to UCLA in December of that year. Once notified, UCLA officials could have immediately removed Heaps from campus or restricted his practice to protect the public while investigating the allegations, as allowed under University of California guidelines . They could have warned the campus community   which federal law requires if university officials decide someone accused of sexual assault is a safety threat. They could have encouraged other potential victims to step forward. UCLA officials did none of these things before announcing Heaps' retirement last June without telling the public they found he had violated UC policies on sexual misconduct. He strongly denies all allegations of wrongdoing. UCLA's actions have come under scrutiny since officials announced criminal charges against Heaps on Monday. Interviews and documents reviewed by The Times raise new questions about how UCLA handled the case at a time when the UC system touts itself as a national leader in establishing strong sexual misconduct policies being more sensitive to victims and responsive to complaints. Allowed to continue his practice, Heaps saw another patient in February 2018, two months after the initial complaint. She too alleged sexual misconduct, saying Heaps improperly put his fingers in her vagina. UCLA, contacted by the patient's attorney this year, agreed to a settlement that the university says it will disclose in further detail in coming weeks. This week, at least 22 other women have stepped forward alleging that Heaps sexually assaulted them while practicing at UCLA. The university also discovered two other complaints about Heaps while it was investigating the 2017 allegation. In addition, about 75 people have contacted UCLA about Heaps since the university announced that Los Angeles prosecutors have charged the doctor with sexual battery in the two university cases. About half complained about inappropriate conduct by Heaps or possibly other physicians, UCLA's communication and other issues; a quarter supported the doctor; and the rest had other questions, said Rhonda Curry, spokeswoman for UCLA Health. Heaps has pleaded not guilty to the criminal charges of sexual battery during his treatment of two patients at a university facility. His attorney, Tracy Green, said Heaps was a "respected, talented and thorough gynecological oncologist" whose treatment was always medically necessary and done with respect for patients. "Everything was done for a medical reason," Green said. She called the allegations "baseless" and said Heaps would fight them. Heaps and the UC regents also face two civil lawsuits filed this week by women treated in 2017, who are each identified as Jane Doe. One lawsuit, which alleges that a female medical chaperone in the room witnessed the "horrific encounter" between Doe and Heaps but remained silent, includes allegations of sexual battery, emotional distress, gender discrimination, negligent supervision and failure to warn the public and properly train and educate UC staff on sexual misconduct. That lawsuit, filed Tuesday, involves the woman with pelvic pain. The second lawsuit, filed Friday, involves a college student who was 18 at the time of her July 2017 appointment with Heaps. She alleges he sexually touched her genitals, made vulgar comments about her body and asked embarrassing and medically unnecessary questions about her sex life. UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said in an interview this week that the university properly followed UC sexual misconduct policies and reported the complaints to the state medical board and law enforcement but did not act as "promptly or as efficiently as I think we should have." Block said UCLA did not disclose the allegations of sexual misconduct in announcing Heaps' retirement last June because the university was still investigating them. "We really wanted to know the full facts before we were to make that kind of announcement," he said. "Quite frankly, I take responsibility here. We should have done a better job communicating with patients more quickly." Block has apologized to patients for harm caused. He has created an independent committee to review the university's handling of complaints against Heaps and how to improve sexual misconduct procedures in clinical settings. Jennifer McGrath, an attorney representing both Jane Does, alleged that Heaps' celebrity as a high-profile gynecologist whose practice generated millions of dollars to UCLA may have played a role in the way he was treated. Last year, Heaps earned more than $1 million, far outstripping the 629 other UC employees in the same job category of Health Sciences Clinical Professor Series (the next highest-paid employee, at UC San Francisco, earned about $477,000). Heaps was listed by the Hollywood Reporter in 2015 as one of the top gynecologists and obstetricians in Los Angeles. "We allege that James Heaps used his position of power and authority to abuse multiple women, and UCLA used its institutional authority to try to sweep his misconduct under the rug," McGrath said. Curry, the UCLA spokeswoman, said his stature was "absolutely not" the reason for UCLA's handling of the case. She said UCLA launched a Title IX investigation into Heaps on Dec. 22, 2017, two days after the woman who was treated in June 2017 made her complaint. In May 2018, the Title IX office referred the case to medical staff to assess whether Heaps' treatment was medically appropriate. In September, the external peer review by Greeley Co. found that Heaps had acted inappropriately in touching the patient's buttocks and asking about her genital piercings. Greeley did not interview Heaps. But UCLA never completed the Title IX investigation and therefore never informed patients of any findings or sanctions. The independent committee will investigate why that happened, Curry said. The committee also will look into why UCLA failed to report the 2017 complaint in a timely fashion to federal authorities and whether doing so was required under the Clery Act, she said. In fact, the reason that UCLA officials informed Heaps in April 2018 that they would not reappoint him was not because of the 2017 complaint, she said, but because of an unrelated financial issue and violation of UC sexual misconduct policies. Other issues raised include UCLA's promptness in responding to the complaints. Brett Sokolow, president of the Assn. of Title IX Administrators, said universities usually can consult medical experts and gain a consensus within 24 hours as to whether a physician's treatment was outside the range of standard practice. UCLA took six months to place Heaps on leave and nine months before determining his treatment was inappropriate. If universities keep accused physicians in place, Sokolow said, they should consider imposing safety measures, such as restricting or monitoring the doctor's practice or redirecting patients. Curry said UCLA placed no restrictions on Heaps until putting him on leave in June 2018. Nor did the university make any attempt to encourage other potential victims to step forward, another best practice, until this week. UCLA has created a webpage with information about the Heaps case, which includes a hotline for complaints at (888) 961-9273. Sokolow also questioned UCLA's failure to complete its Title IX investigation and allowing a doctor to retire without disclosing the reason why. "To allow someone to resign in a situation like that probably shows more coddling of faculty and an employee of an institution than most institutions do at this point," he said. He added that at least half a dozen universities have been hit with complaints of sexual misconduct by staff physicians in the last 60 to 90 days as high-profile cases at USC and Michigan State University have raised awareness about the line between acceptable and inappropriate medical exams. "What had previously been very quiet is now much better known as a trend with more and more people coming forward," he said. Times staff writer Richard Winton contributed to this report.


Editor's note: The opinions in this article are the author's, as published by our content partner, and do not necessarily represent the views of MSN or Microsoft. The Supreme Court made clear on Monday that Roe v. Wade may soon no longer be the law of the land. The decision, Franchise Tax Board of California v. Hyatt , actually has nothing to do with abortion; it concerns when one state may be sued in another state's courts. But Hyatt has everything to do with the Supreme Court's respect for precedent. And respect for precedent is one of the few things, if not the only thing, that stands between the conservative Roberts court and overruling Roe v. Wade. Hyatt made clear that the five conservative justices are perfectly content to overrule a precedent merely because they disagree with it. That should raise alarm bills about Roe, particularly as states enact draconian restrictions on abortion. Sign up for the Morning Briefing Newsletter. In Hyatt, the justices were asked to overrule the court's 1979 decision in Nevada v. Hall, which held that an individual could sue a state in the courts of a different state. The doctrine of stare decisis directs judges, including Supreme Court justices, to adhere to prior decisions even when they think those prior decisions are wrong. Under the doctrine, justices shouldn't overrule an earlier ruling unless several things are true: The decision is unworkable and has generated inconsistent results; it rests on outdated facts; and it represents an outdated mode of legal thinking. The court is also not supposed to overrule precedent where parties have relied on the decision to structure their lives. Many legal scholars have identified stare decisis as a substantial obstacle to the overturning of Roe, since women have relied on Roe and it is not unworkable. Roe is also not an aberration   it is part of a long line of cases protecting rights that are not specifically enumerated in the Constitution. Nor does Roe rest on outdated facts; medical advances have made abortion safer, whereas maternal mortality rates in the United States have climbed . Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, who says she is pro-choice, invoked stare decisis to explain her votes to confirm the nominations of Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to the court. She pointed to the nominees' promises to adhere to stare decisis in their confirmation hearings to ward off the suggestion that they would overturn Roe. People sometimes likewise suggest that Chief Justice John Roberts, who has a reputation for being an institutionalist, will display a strong commitment to stare decisis. In Hyatt, however, the five conservative justices based their decision to overrule the earlier decision almost exclusively on their belief that it was an "erroneous precedent" that "is contrary to our constitutional design." The justices' lack of respect for precedent was evident in the amount of space the majority opinion devoted to stare decisis   a mere three paragraphs   and in what the court said about it. Everything the court said about stare decisis in Hyatt could be part of a decision that overrules Roe v. Wade. For example, the court's first paragraph on stare decisis declared that stare decisis is weakest   and it is easier to overrule a decision   when the decision interpreted the constitution rather than a federal statute. The second paragraph focused on how the earlier decision was wrong and "stands as an outlier." You can imagine the conservative justices saying the same about Roe as they overrule it. In the third and final paragraph on stare decisis, the justices said that the reliance of some parties on the prior decision was insufficient to "persuade us to adhere to an incorrect resolution of an important constitutional question." Women who have structured their lives around being able to decide when and whether to have a child should take note. Hyatt's implications for Roe were not lost on the dissenters. In contrast to the majority's mere three paragraphs on stare decisis, Justice Stephen Breyer's dissent devotes over three pages to it. The dissent analyzed the stare decisis factors and found that few supported overruling the decision. Justice Breyer is not one for over-the-top prose, but his dissent is full of alarm bells. He wrote that the majority had "surrendered to the temptation to overrule" a "well-reasoned decision that has caused no serious practical problems in the four decades since we decided it." And he accused the majority of taking the "dangerous" path of overruling a decision "only because five members of a later court come to agree with earlier dissenters." He too seems to have prewritten an opinion   a dissent   for when the court overturns Roe. The court will soon have the opportunity to do just that, as states scramble to impose increasingly draconian restrictions on abortion. Georgia, for example, just enacted a law that prohibits abortion after a fetal heartbeat is detected, roughly six weeks after pregnancy. In Hyatt, Justice Breyer concluded his dissent with this pointed warning: "Today's decision can only cause one to wonder which cases the court will overrule next." If that statement was not enough, Justice Breyer cited Planned Parenthood v. Casey in that same paragraph. Casey is the 1992 decision in which a bare majority of the court opted not to overrule Roe. The guardrails of stare decisis have fallen. Roe v. Wade may very well be next. Leah Litman is an assistant professor of law at the University of California, Irvine. The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We'd like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips . And here's our email: letters@nytimes.com . Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook , Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram .


The Indianapolis Colts offense looked dead in the water for the first three quarters of the preseason opener on Thursday night against the Buffalo Bills at New Era Field. That was until Chad Kelly took over under center. Despite being down 17-6 when taking over in the 10th offensive series of the game for the Colts, Kelly willed the entire unit to life. It was an impressive showing that saw him complete 13-of-19 pass attempts for 121 yards and a passer rating of 85.6. What was most impressive was his ability to extend plays, buy some time and even use his legs to create some offense-something that was lacking all night. Kelly's highlight of the night came on a zone-read that resulted in a 33-yard touchdown run , the first of the preseason for the Colts. Chad Kelly for six ‼ #INDvsBUF @Fox59 | @NFLNetwork pic.twitter.com/Oh41ImWvTu - Indianapolis Colts (@Colts) August 9, 2019 Kelly showed he has plenty of juice in his game. He made some big-time throws, many of which found second-year wideout Daurice Fountain on the other end. He would finish catching five of seven targets for 63 yards-pacing the wide receiver room. It was a strong night for Kelly, who has a lot to prove following his tumultuous exit with the Denver Broncos. In a battle with Phillip Walker for the third quarterback role on the Colts depth chart, Kelly showed he should be the one leading the competition. The Ole Miss product used his legs to extend plays and even took some big hits while delivering throws downfield. With the majority of the night showing the Colts offense as a sputtering unit trying to find its way, Kelly gave it some direction. With three more preseason games left, we will see plenty more of the third-year quarterback. He'll be able to prove it wasn't a fluke in Week 2 when the Colts host the Cleveland Browns at Lucas Oil Stadium. MORE: How to watch, listen, stream Chargers vs. Cardinals A furious Chris Davis had to be held back from Orioles manager Brandon Hyde Patriots undrafted WR Jakobi Meyers wows in preseason debut How to watch and stream Broncos' preseason games Deadline passes as Elliott loses accrued season, fines reach $500K


The Los Angeles Rams are lacking depth at inside linebacker after cutting Mark Barron, but they're beginning to fortify the position. They drafted Dakota Allen in the seventh round and now they're bringing back Bryce Hager. The Rams announced Monday that they have re-signed Hager to a one-year deal, ending his stay on the free-agent market. He was an unrestricted free agent. Hager has been a staple on special teams since joining the Rams as a seventh-round pick in 2015. He also spent time as the Rams' backup linebacker, never missing a game in four seasons. In his career, he has 37 total tackles with three passes defensed and one forced fumble. Hager could compete with Micah Kiser for the starting job next to Cory Littleton, but he'll likely remain a backup and a special teams player. MORE: Cubs Fan Could Face Lifetime Ban for Making This Hand Sign Behind Doug Glanville Most bizarre and incredible catches by fishermen in past decade Charles Barkley to Kyrie Irving: 'Now you're your own man, and you're going on vacation Thursday morning' Second-year jumps from Josh Jackson, Oren Burks to play pivotal role in Packers' defensive improvement Free agent DE Ezekiel Ansah named a potential fit for Oakland Raiders


APIA, Samoa (Reuters) - Keyonce Lee Hang is busy finishing preparations for the to'ona'i, a traditional lunch served after Sunday church in Samoa, and attending to her elderly, bed-ridden grandmother. Strongly built and wearing a floral dress and false eyelashes - and self-named after American singer Beyonce - Lee Hang can't help but make an entrance, especially when she arrives for Sunday church in her best dress. Genetically male, Lee Hang is a Samoan fa'afafine, a term that translates as "in the manner of a woman". Fa'afafine is a "third gender" in Polynesian culture, according to the Samoa Fa'afafine Association, and has been a part of island life for as long as anyone can remember. Most villages have fa'afafine, with an estimated several thousand across Samoa's islands. Outside the South Pacific, particularly the Polynesian islands, it is a largely misunderstood community, according to Lee Hang, who works for the government's fisheries department. "Western society tries to fit us [in] a box, to put us under gay, under trans and queer … but I think fa'afafine is our cultural identity - it defines us," said Lee Hang. "Despite the body that you have, if you love it, accept it and beautify what you have, it's all that matters." Although most modern fa'afafine partner with men, the identity makes no claim about sexual orientation. As one fa'afafine put it: "What we do in bed has nothing to do with our cultural identity." Samoan law criminalizes sex between men, and culturally, it isn't acceptable for a man to wear a woman's clothes; but the fa'afafine community can freely go outside of those boundaries. When a boy is noticeably effeminate, he will likely be taught the traditional duties of Samoan women, which often means working within the house. Such individuals are often said to have the "fa'afafine spirit", though the extent and the age they express their femininity varies. Lee Hang's mother, Rona Tauli Lee, said Keyonce was a happy child who showed effeminate signs from age three, and who used to wear her sister's dresses. "Keyonce is my child and I accept my children as they are," she said. All fa'afafine interviewed by Reuters dismissed widely reported claims that fa'afafine could be a designated role by families with lots of sons, as a substitute for a daughter. TRADITIONAL ROLES Modern fa'afafine have won favor with large parts of the Samoan community for their hard work, especially in leading charitable causes and taking on caring roles, such as looking after the elderly. During the Olympic-style Pacific Games held in Samoa in July, groups of fa'afafine could be seen handing out sexual health literature and condoms to athletes on the streets of Apia, Samoa's capital. Miriama Seeti, a markets store owner in Apia, said it was advantageous to have community members taking on culturally feminine roles with a man's muscle. This included "carrying coconuts" and "cleaning everything inside the house", she said. But there are complexities in being fa'afafine in a deeply religious country like Samoa, where family and church structures are strong, said Samoa Fa'afafine Association president Alex Su'a. "Most of us are relied on as leaders of our church denominations' choir groups, youth groups, even the decorators and planners of activities," said Su'a. The relationship between fa'afafine and the church is a delicate one and can at times become tense, said Su'a. Reverend Vavatau Taufao said fa'afafine were welcomed into the church and that many contributed to their congregations. He said the church, however, considered fa'afafine to be male and the church didn't endorse same-sex relationships. Taufao, who is general secretary of the Congregation Christian Church in Samoa, said that fa'afafine used to more regularly partner with women, wore more neutral clothing, and undertook traditional chores associated with both men and women. "Before we saw our fa'afafine wearing the same clothes as our men - now they are wearing more female dress," he said. After preparing lunch, which includes taro, crab, chop suey and pork, Lee Hang changes out of a black and white dress into a floral church outfit, with red flower patterns. Lee Hang is running more than 30 minutes late for church, located directly across the road from the family home on a coastal road on the island of Upolu. "Don't worry," said Lee Hang's fa'afafine friend, Vaito'a Toelupe, peering across the road where a large congregation sits, most dressed in conservative white, and the women in hats. "Church doesn't start until Keyonce arrives." (Reporting by Jonathan Barrett in SAMOA; additional reporting by Jill Gralow; Editing by Michael Perry)


Christian Pulisic scored twice as the United States defeated Jamaica 3-1 to reach the CONCACAF Gold Cup final after a weather-disrupted semi-final on Wednesday. The United States will now face fierce regional rivals Mexico in Sunday's final at Soldier Field in Chicago. New Chelsea signing Pulisic bundled home a rebound from Jordan Morris's shot in the 52nd minute to give the US a 2-0 lead and then added third goal late on after a storm in Nashville had forced the players off for almost an hour and a half. "It was a long night, but the mentality of the team was excellent," veteran USA midfielder Michael Bradley said. "We're really excited -- US v Mexico in the final, there's not much better than that." US coach Gregg Berhalter was happy with the way his team had handled the lengthy interruption. "It's part of soccer and the guys dealt with it in a really good way," Berhalter said. "It gave us time to look at film and give them encouragement. "We showed a relentless spirit when we came back out tonight." The defending champions had taken the lead through a superb Weston McKennie ninth-minute strike following a dominant opening spell which saw them carve out a series of chances. Schalke 04 player McKennie was a constant threat for the hosts, who had already gone close to scoring through Paul Arriola and Reggie Cannon when Bradley sprayed a pinpoint pass to Cannon on the flank. - Opportunistic strikes - FC Dallas fullback Cannon crossed into the area, and after the ball rolled past Jozy Altidore, McKennie swept home. Pulisic almost doubled the lead in the 12th minute when his free-kick from the left tested Jamaica goalkeeper Andre Blake, who parried away. The bright US opening was halted four minutes later when an electrical storm rolled into the region. With lightning a possibility, tournament officials called the players off the field and cleared the stands. It was another hour and 27 minutes before play could resume, and the US were slow to regain their rhythm. But they started the second half brightly and when Morris unleashed a well-struck shot Blake was unable to hold on. The rebound fell into the path of Pulisic who jabbed home an opportunistic strike. Substitute Gyasi Zardes squandered a golden chance to make it 3-0 moments later after being released by a superb first time McKennie pass, lashing his shot well wide. Jamaica gave themselves a lifeline in the 69th minute when substitute Shamar Nicholson nodded home a cross after Leon Bailey's driving run to make it 2-1. But with time running out for the Reggae Boyz, Arriola's shot from distance was half-saved by Blake and Pulisic was once again on hand to bury the rebound, to take his international goals tally to 15 in 31 games.


Padres closer Kirby Yates has come up as a speculative trade candidate as Major League Baseball nears its July 31 deadline, but don't count on the right-hander going anywhere. Yates is likely to stay a Padre "barring an unforeseen haul," Dennis Lin of The Athletic reports (subscription link). Yates would no doubt bring back a substantial return, something the Padres unsurprisingly would want for him. However, it's debatable whether the Padres should seriously consider dealing him this month. At 42-41, they're finally making real progress in the standings and have an actual chance to break a 12-year playoff drought this year. San Diego's just a game and a half back of a wild-card spot in a crowded National League field, and a decent portion of its success has come on account of Yates. General manager A.J. Preller has been something of a wizard when it comes to claiming relievers off waivers. He first grabbed Brad Hand from the Marlins in April of 2016 and then landed Yates from the Angels in 2017. Hand turned into a stud for the Padres, although they were in the throes of a rebuild and weren't able to take advantage of his brilliance in the win-loss column. The club flipped a post-breakout Hand to the Indians last June as part of a deal for young catcher Francisco Mejia , whom it hopes will be its long-term answer behind the plate. Just as the Padres picked up a haul for Hand last year, they're in position to hold out for a Godfather offer for Yates this season. The 32-year-old has mimicked Hand in going from castoff to star in a Padres uniform. While Yates was tremendous in 2018, he has been even better this season, having logged a ridiculous 1.27 ERA/1.33 FIP with 14.46 K/9, 2.29 BB/9 and a 46.3% ground-ball rate over 35 1/3 innings. Considering those numbers, it's no surprise Yates has been close to automatic at the end of games. He leads the majors in saves (27) and has blown just one opportunity. The Padres see the brilliant Yates as someone who could help them return to prominence this season and in the near future   at an affordable price, no less. He's making a little over $3 million this year and comes with another season of arbitration eligibility. At the same time, however, Yates' age, lack of long-term control and the volatility of relievers are all reasons for the Padres to consider cashing him in over the next few months. It could be an agonizing decision for Preller.


Car dealer Stephen Gilchrist has sold Ford, Chevrolet, GMC and Ram pickups in Texas truck country for more than two decades. His rule of thumb was: "A Ford guy is a Ford guy, a Chevy guy is a Chevy guy and a Ram guy is a Ram guy," he said. Not anymore . "I've had more people call me looking at Ram for the 12-inch infotainment screen or looking at GMC for the MultiPro tailgate," said Gilchrist, dealer operator of Gilchrist Automotive in Dallas-Fort Worth. "It's the most I've seen people willing to jump from brand to brand and it's for these unique features rather than the payload and towing ability." The intense competition in the Detroit Three's Truck Wars has led to deep discounts, an unusual move given that two of the three have redesigned pickups out. Typically, automakers resist markdowns on newly designed vehicles because such rebates erode profits. But in a frenzied fight for a piece of the highly profitable pickup segment, and with Ford's F-Series secure as the top seller, General Motors' Chevrolet Silverado and Fiat-Chrysler's Ram are jockeying for the No. 2 slot. That means Detroit automakers appear willing to keep using price cuts to lure new consumers, dealers say. "You're always told your most expensive customer is your conquest customer," said Gilchrist, referring to buyers who switch brands. Second-quarter sales Fiat Chrysler released its second-quarter sales Tuesday. Sales of the Ram rose nearly 38.5% to 179,454 in the quarter compared with the same period a year ago. That makes Ram the second-top selling pickup in the United States behind the Ford F-Series, which has been the leader for 42 years. The Ram this year has led the Chevrolet Silverado, which had historically held the No. 2 spot. Ram has been beating Chevy every quarter this year. Ford reports its second-quarter sales Wednesday. GM reported Tuesday that Silverado quarterly sales tumbled 9% to 155,529 and sales of the GMC Sierra slid 4.3% to 56,857 in the second quarter compared with a year earlier. Through June, Ram sales are up 28% to 299,480, but Silverado sales are down 12.2% to 255,463. Death of an auto icon: Tributes roll in after Lee Iacocca's passing Driving this July 4th?: Here's a road trip checklist "Ram has pulled out a lot of stops with incentives to grab market share   and it's working   while Silverado is disadvantaged in launch mode," said Michelle Krebs, executive analyst for AutoTrader. "Still, the new Ram 1500 has garnered critical acclaim, and the brand has been on an upward trajectory in terms of reputation." For the automaker's total sales year-to-date, FCA reported a dip of 2% to 1.1 million vehicles compared with the first half of 2018. GM reported a 4.2% decline in total sales to 1.4 million vehicles sold.. Among other automakers reporting sales Tuesday, Nissan Group, which includes its luxury brand Infiniti, reported year-to-date sales down 8.2% to 717,036. Likewise, Toyota Motors North America, which includes Lexus, reported its sales through June down 3.1% to 1.15 million. Subaru reported its sales are up 5.2% to 339,525 through June. American Honda reported, through June, its sales dropped 1.4% to 776,995. GM isn't going down without a fight, telling Reuters last week, "We will defend our franchise and we will do it the right way," said Barry Engle, head of GM's North American operations. Ford reports its quarterly sales Wednesday. But data from Cox Automotive show that through May, the F-series has dominated sales over GM and FCA pickups and sold for a higher price. The average transaction price of the Silverado was $48,498 in the first five months compared to $49,182 for the Ram. The F-Series brought in $52,227, said Cox. Ford's truck manager told Reuters that GM's and FCA's heavy discounting of newly designed pickups is "unprecedented" and while Ford will defend its top spot, it won't sacrifice profits. The battling Ram During the past month, many dealers have offered up to 30% off the list price for Ram, Chevrolet Silverado, GMC Sierra and Ford F-series, Reuters reported. GMC touted June as "Truck Month" in its advertising, a wink to consumers that price cuts lay ahead. Gilchrist said at the end of June, he was offering a 20% discount on the list price of 2019 Ram 1500 pickup. Market research firm JD Power said discounts on light-duty pickups last month averaged $5,250, 11% higher than the year-to-date average of $4,726. In June, according to an analysis by Cox Automotive Rates & Incentives, each of the Detroit Three offered significant guaranteed cash incentives to help move their full-size pickups. Ram led with an average guaranteed cash incentive of $4,198. Ford average guaranteed cash is lowest at $2,412, and Chevy is in the middle at $3,377 on the Silverado. The Cox analysis shows Ford and Ram offering slightly less than they did in June 2018. But Chevrolet nearly doubled the amount of guaranteed cash offered compared with June of last year. But Ram is not letting up, said Cox, which reported that during the lead-up to the long Fourth of July weekend, Ram has been offering aggressive deals of 15% to 20% of the sticker price on pickups. Until now, only GM brands were focused on percentage off sticker-type deals, said Cox analysts. The hottest selling vehicles of 2019: Ram, Porsche, Subaru top the list Importance of pickups Pickup sales are crucial for the Detroit automakers. GM, for example, needs to deliver about $10 billion in free cash flow, a measure of how much cash GM generates after accounting for capital expenditures, in the remaining quarters to hit its full-year target. That's challenging as consumer demand sputters and sales are plummeting in China, the world's largest car market. Analysts say throwing too much cash on the hood to chase a sales ranking is less important than maintaining profit margins. "It is not crucial for Silverado to be No. 2," said AutoTrader's Krebs. "What is crucial is for GM to make as much profit as possible on its pickup trucks as it invests in future technologies like electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles and mobility services. Today's sales and profits will fuel the future and GM has aggressive plans." Engle said Silverado sales numbers, in part, reflect an effort to build more higher-margin Sierras aimed at buyers willing to spend more on a luxury truck. But having more of the high-volume, lower-priced models in the mix will spike Silverado sales, dealers and industry observers said. According to CarGurus, shopper interest in the Silverado 1500 took a dip in May, but the Ram Classic has had consistent interest through the year. It said interest in the Ram 1500 spiked around the time the Silverado started to dip, and affordability was a driving factor in its results. "Ram's higher interest levels and increased sales numbers are lifted by both the addition of the affordable Ram Classic trim, as well as the technology in the other Ram trim levels such as the 12-inch infotainment screen and safety features such as drive lane assist and smart cruising," said George Augustaitis, CarGurus director of industry analytics. New records at Tesla: Tesla sets new delivery and production records while stock surges Dealer deals At George Matick Chevrolet in Redford, demand for the 2019 Silverado is strong, said General Sales Manager Sam Vitale. Most customers buy the crew cab and LT crew cab variants on 24-month to 36-month leases with a price tag in the high $40,000 to low $50,000 range. Competition against Ram is fierce, said Vitale, but Matick has won some business from former Ram owners. In June, Matick Chevrolet sold about 50 of the new body-style 2019 Silverado pickups, which Vitale said will incrementally increase each month. It has about 250-300 pickups in inventory and in-transit as of July 1, said Vitale. He did not have June 2018 sales available for comparison. Vitale said that GM has assured dealers it will maintain its incentives. To beat Ram, he said, GM must offer broad incentives across all eight trim levels. "What we're most excited about is GM putting the incentives on the crew cabs now," said Vitale. "We always had our best deals on the double-cab pickups, so having that incentive on the crew cab, which has the bigger back seat, is how we're best going to compete." Gilchrist said he believes Ford, Ram, Chevrolet and GMC are still wrestling with the right incentive play. Ram has been "very aggressive," he said. Meanwhile, the Silverado and Sierra are "incredible trucks," but Gilchrist has had trouble getting the right inventory levels and mix of trims to be competitive. Gilchrist said GM has assured him the production mix is fixed, so, "Now it's just getting them in stock," he said. Until then, he's adjusting to the new world of Truck Wars where brand loyalty is as swift as the next big spiff. "It's an interesting time to be a truck dealer," said Gilchrist. "Ram's going to continue to be aggressive, GMC and Chevrolet will get their inventory mix fixed and Ford will stay on their game. So it's a good time to be in the truck market as a consumer." Contact Jamie L. LaReau: 313-222-2149 or jlareau@freepress.com . Follow her on Twitter @ jlareauan . Read more on General Motors and sign up for our autos newsletter . This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Ram and Silverado truck battle could mean deep discounts for consumers


Michelle Wilson, an attorney who was hired to serve as a Baltimore Police Department chief until Commissioner Michael Harrison abruptly reversed his decision last month, will keep her old job at the Maryland Attorney General's Office. Wilson was one of two new hires announced by Harrison on May 21 as part of Harrison's effort to assemble his executive staff. But two days later, the department announced Wilson would not be overseeing the public integrity bureau, which includes the internal affairs unit that investigates officer misconduct. The decision followed publicity connected to Wilson's allegations that Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn Mosby was not truthful when testifying in a civil lawsuit. Wilson made the allegations first in a Facebook post and also in a sworn statement in the lawsuit. The animosity did not cost Wilson her old post. She will stay at the Maryland Attorney General's Office representing the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, spokeswoman Raquel Coombs said in an email on Tuesday. The police department has not said why Wilson was no longer taking the chief position, but she was seen as a controversial choice because she publicly questioned Mosby's veracity. The clash could have been especially awkward since Wilson would have been in charge of investigating wayward police officers that ultimately could have been charged by Mosby's prosecutors. Harrison, an outsider from New Orleans, initially defended hiring Wilson, saying the dispute between her and Mosby would not interfere with the collaboration between the police department and the ethics bureau. Former city prosecutor Keri Borzilleri sued Mosby in Baltimore Circuit Court claiming she was fired as retribution for supporting the political campaign of then-State's Attorney Gregg Bernstein, whom Mosby beat in the 2014 primary election. Borzilleri's attorneys claimed Mosby made a "throat-slitting gesture" toward another former prosecutor and Bernstein supporter at a banquet for the Alliance of Black Women Attorneys. Wilson wrote a Facebook post during the trial that said Mosby "lied on that witness stand under oath." She later deleted the post. Wilson later signed a sworn affidavit questioning the truthfulness of Mosby, contradicting Mosby's account. Mosby has denied the claims. A spokeswoman for her office it would work with whomever Harrison hired to oversee the public integrity bureau. Wilson could not be reached for comment Tuesday. jkanderson@baltsun.com twitter.com/janders5


Missed the the most recent top news in Boston? Read on for everything you need to know. For the first time ever, Bruins will host game 7 of Stanley Cup Final For the first time ever, Boston will host Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. Read the full story on WBZ | CBS Boston . Big Papi arrives to Boston in air ambulance sent by Red Sox Ex-Red Sox star David Ortiz, wounded in a shooting, is back in Boston for treatment. Read the full story on WCVB Channel 5 Boston . Lyft driver robbed at gunpoint in Roxbury; suspect arrested Boston Police report arresting a Dorchester man on charges he held up a Lyft driver on Codman Park in Roxbury with a loaded gun around 12:20 p.m. on Sunday. Read the full story on Universal Hub . Investigators point to operator in Boston subway derailment A transit official says a subway derailment that sent nine people to the hospital over the weekend in Boston appears to have been "operator-related." Read the full story on MySanAntonio . TSA finds loaded gun at checkpoint at Boston's Logan Airport The Transportation Security Administration says its officers found a loaded handgun in a North Carolina man's luggage at Boston's Logan International Airport over the weekend. Read the full story on MySanAntonio . This story was created automatically using data about news stories on social media from CrowdTangle , then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.


Aurora will see a return of last week's winds this coming week, according to drone-powered weather forecasting service Saildrone . Winds are expected to climb up to 22 mph on Sunday, while today and tomorrow will remain calmer. Also, expect light rainfall later in the week. Monday's forecast shows the highest likelihood of rain at 76 percent, while the most rainfall is expected on Tuesday at 0.29 inches. Temperatures will be cool today, making way for milder weather from tomorrow through Sunday, with a high of 67 degrees on Saturday. Skies will be cloudy today and mostly cloudy tomorrow. This story was created automatically using Saildrone's local weather forecast data, then reviewed by an editor. We also incorporate historic weather data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.


According to rental site Zumper , median rents for a one-bedroom in Houston are hovering around $1,230. But how does the low-end pricing on a Houston rental look these days and what might you get for your money? We took a look at local listings for studios and one-bedroom apartments to find out what budget-minded apartment seekers can expect to find. Read on for the cheapest listings available right now. (Note: prices and availability are subject to change.) Hoodline offers data-driven analysis of local happenings and trends across cities. Links included in this article may earn Hoodline a commission on clicks and transactions. 470 Maxey Road, #5164 Here's a one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment at 470 Maxey Road, #5164 in Northshore, which is going for $535/month. Pets are not permitted. Future tenants needn't worry about a leasing fee. Walk Score indicates that the area around this address is somewhat walkable, is bikeable and has some transit options. (See the full listing here .) 1303 Gears Road Next up is this 484-square-foot studio, located at 1303 Gears Road in Greater Greenspoint and listed for $575/month. The building offers storage space, secured entry and a swimming pool. In the unit, the listing promises a air conditioning, a fireplace and a walk-in closet. Luckily for pet owners, both dogs and cats are welcome. The listing specifies a $99 deposit. According to Walk Score, the area around this address is car-dependent, isn't particularly bikeable and has a few nearby public transportation options. (Here's the listing .) 2305 Hayes Road, #4487 This studio apartment, situated at 2305 Hayes Road, #4487, in Briarforest Area, is also listed for $575/month. Pets are not permitted. Future tenants needn't worry about a leasing fee. Per Walk Score ratings, this location is moderately walkable, has some bike infrastructure and offers many nearby public transportation options. (See the listing here .) 503 El Dorado Blvd., #5160 And here's a one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment at 503 El Dorado Blvd., #5160, in Clear Lake, which is going for $595/month. Pets are not permitted. There isn't a leasing fee associated with this rental. According to Walk Score's assessment, this location is somewhat walkable, is fairly bikeable and has minimal transit options. (Check out the listing here .) This story was created automatically using local real estate data, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.


Video by Reuters WASHINGTON   The Justice Department, after weeks of tense negotiations, has agreed to provide Congress with key evidence collected by Robert S. Mueller III that House Judiciary Committee members said could shed light on possible obstruction of justice and abuse of power by President Trump, the House Judiciary Committee said on Monday. The exact scope of the material the Justice Department has agreed to provide was not immediately clear, but the committee signaled that it was a breakthrough after weeks of wrangling over those materials and others that the Judiciary panel demanded under subpoena. The announcement appeared to provide a rationale for House Democrats' choice, announced last week , to back away from threats to hold Attorney General William P. Barr in contempt of Congress. The House will still proceed on Tuesday with a vote to empower the Judiciary Committee to take Mr. Barr to court to fully enforce its subpoena, but even that may no longer be necessary, the panel's leader said. "We have agreed to allow the department time to demonstrate compliance with this agreement. If the Department proceeds in good faith and we are able to obtain everything that we need, then there will be no need to take further steps," Representative Jerrold Nadler of New York, the committee chairman, said in a statement. "If important information is held back, then we will have no choice but to enforce our subpoena in court and consider other remedies." Sign Up For the Morning Briefing Newsletter Mr. Nadler said he expected the department to begin sharing some of the material Monday afternoon and that all members of the committee would be able to view it privately. The agreement appears to have been foreshadowed in an exchange of letters in recent weeks between the committee and the department . In a May 24 letter outlining a proposed compromise Mr. Nadler wrote that he was "prepared to prioritize production of materials that would provide the committee with the most insight into certain incidents when the special counsel found 'substantial evidence' of obstruction of justice." Those incidences include Mr. Trump's attempts to fire Mr. Mueller, the special counsel; his request that Donald F. McGahn II, the former White House counsel, create "a fraudulent record denying that incident;" and Mr. Trump's efforts to get former Attorney General Jeff Sessions to undo his recusal and curtail the scope of the special counsel inquiry. After weeks of objections, the Justice Department said it found the proposal reasonable and would work with the committee to share the materials in question, but only if the House would back off holding Mr. Barr in contempt of Congress for his defiance of the subpoena in question. Democrats were willing to do so. The House still plans to vote on Tuesday to authorize the committee to go to a federal court against Mr. Barr to seek full enforcement of its subpoena and to petition a judge to unseal grand jury secrets related to the case for Congress. But in a sign of the newfound cooperation, the House will not formally vote to hold Mr. Barr in contempt of Congress , leveling a criminal accusation against him, at least for now. "We are pleased the committee has agreed to set aside its contempt resolution and is returning to the traditional accommodation process," Department of Justice spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said. "The Department of Justice remains committed to appropriately accommodating Congress's legitimate interests related to the special counsel's investigation and will continue to do so provided the previously voted-upon resolution does not advance." Republicans cheered the agreement. Representative Doug Collins of Georgia, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said "today's good faith provision from the administration further debunks claims that the White House is stonewalling Congress." News of the deal also came just hours before the committee convened the first of a series of hearings focused on the findings of Mr. Mueller's obstruction of justice investigation   a much-anticipated session that underscored the Democrats' dilemma in the wake of Mr. Mueller's report. Because the Trump administration has blocked relevant witnesses from testifying, Monday's session starred John W. Dean, a former White House counsel who turned against President Richard M. Nixon during the Watergate affair, and former federal prosecutors, who assessed the implications of the special counsel's findings. The testimony was limited to the contents of Mr. Mueller's 448-page report already voluntarily made public by Mr. Barr. Nonetheless, Mr. Trump appeared to be fixated on the committee's efforts. Can't believe they are bringing in John Dean, the disgraced Nixon White House Counsel who is a paid CNN contributor. No Collusion - No Obstruction! Democrats just want a do-over which they'll never get!   Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 10, 2019 Weeks ago, the Judiciary Committee requested   and then subpoenaed   the full text of Mr. Mueller's report without redactions, as well as all of the evidence underlying it. Mr. Barr initially refused and after negotiations broke down, Mr. Trump asserted executive privilege over all the material. Democrats then voted to recommend the House hold Mr. Barr in contempt. But in recent weeks, the Justice Department appeared amenable to a proposed compromise that would give the committee access to F.B.I. interview summaries with key witnesses, contemporaneous notes taken by White House aides, and certain memos and messages cited in the report. The more limited request outlined in recent weeks includes the F.B.I. summaries   called 302 reports   with Mr. McGahn, who served as a kind of narrator for Mr. Mueller as he assembled an obstruction case. Mr. Mueller ultimately concluded that Justice Department policy prevented him from contemplating charges against Mr. Trump and instead left action to Congress. Democrats asked for summaries from interviews with Annie Donaldson, Mr. McGahn's chief of staff; Hope Hicks, the former communications director; Reince Priebus and John F. Kelly, former White House chiefs of staff; Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trump's one-time fixer and personal lawyer; and Mr. Sessions, among others. Democrats had also requested detailed notes taken by Ms. Donaldson about White House meetings and Mr. McGahn's interactions with the president that proved pivotal for Mr. Mueller's team, as well as notes taken by Joseph H. Hunt, Mr. Sessions's chief of staff when he was attorney general. Other documents in the narrowed request included a draft letter justifying the firing of James B. Comey as F.B.I. director; a White House counsel memo on the firing of Michael T. Flynn as national security adviser; and other documents created by the White House. Katie Benner contributed reporting.


INDIANAPOLIS   It took a dozen tries for Tony Kanaan to win the Indianapolis 500, leaving the Brazilian with nearly too much emptiness, frustration and heartache to bear at times. If only he knew from the outset what he and so many other IndyCar drivers have come to learn about winning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the world-famous 500-Mile Race that the 2.5-mile oval has hosted for more than a century. "The track will choose you," said Kanaan, who led eight races and probably had the best car three or four times before finally tasting the Winner's Circle milk in 2013. "If she picks the winner, that's the guy who's going to win. "There's something magical about this place that you can't explain. When people think they have it figured out, the place goes, 'No you haven't. I own this thing. And I will decide.' " There could be more worthy candidates desperate to be tapped Sunday than ever. The 103 rd Indy 500 will roll off at 12:45 p.m. ET on NBC with its closest field in history . A scant 1.8932 seconds separates pole-sitter Simon Pagenaud from Pippa Mann, breaking the previous mark of 2.1509 seconds in 2014 (which featured the race's second-closest finish with Ryan Hunter-Reay holding off three-time winner Helio Castroneves by 0.6 seconds). The 2019 race occurs with the NTT IndyCar Series enjoying a major renaissance with many proclaiming it's depth of talent and teams is at a high-water mark since 1995, the last year before racing's worst civil war split IndyCar into two rival series that diluted the competition and desecrated the Greatest Spectacle in Racing for several years. A decade past reunification, a new era is under way in which IndyCar again has become a destination for world-class drivers, and its biggest race will be the benefactor Sunday. "It's the most competitive field I've ever seen in my 18 years here," Kanaan said. "Qualifying was extremely hard, and it's really tight. So yeah, I think it's going to be a difficult race. I do strongly believe that everybody, every single guy starting this race, and girl, they think they can win this race, which is true." But there still is that matter of having good fortune smile upon you, as it has for 70 of the 777 drivers who have started at Indy (six for the first time this year). It happened in 2016 for rookie Alexander Rossi, who was running in the top 10 but didn't have "a race-winning car by any stretch of the imagination." Two mediocre pit stops put him off sequence from the rest of the field … and on the path to victory lane on fuel mileage. "We found a strategy that was the right one," Rossi said. "Whereas in 2017, I feel I had the most dominant car, and then I end up finishing seventh and were nowhere close at the end. "It is impossible to know who's going to win this one, which is what makes it what it is. You can go to a Road America or even an Iowa and the guy on pole, he's probably got it locked up. Whereas here, it can be 33 guys who can win this race. "That's why we all have such an obsession with it because it's not necessarily the guy who does the best job. It's just the guy that the track chooses. I think there's a lot of merit to that." If the outcome does come down to the best driver and fastest car, many are pointing at Rossi's No. 27 Dallara-Honda. The Andretti Autosport ace has had the fastest car for much of the past two weeks, and he left no doubt about his ability to manage traffic last year when he started 32 nd and finished fourth with a blinding array of brilliant passes on restarts . Rossi and others complained that passing was too difficult in 2018 (after a string of Indy 500s in which lead changes seemingly were nonstop), and IndyCar officials responded by tweaking this year's cars to enhance front grip. Because Sunday's temperatures are expected to be in the 70s, the ambient track temperature should be low enough to engender more action than last year. "I think they made a step," Rossi said. "I don't know it's completely all the way to get back to the race we've had in '14 through 2017. Because the issue last year was if you were behind one car, it was easy to follow, and you could get around someone. If you were two to three cars back, it was really, really challenging. Now you can be three to four cars back and be OK. "The short answer is it'll definitely be a more interesting race than last year. And that's a good thing, for sure." As always, the key to winning will be positioning   particularly with a well-executed final pit stop and accompanying handling adjustments to the car. Drivers want that, plus a top-five spot with 75 to 100 miles remaining to have a legitimate shot at winning. "You have to put yourself in position every single year, and hopefully one of the years, it just kind of falls your way and works out," said Team Penske's Josef Newgarden, who will make his eighth Indy start in search of his first win. "A lot of people say the track chooses you, and I think to some degree that's true. You have 10 races there, and you could put yourself in position all 10 races, and maybe none of them choose you. It's just such a hard race to win. "The best thing you can do is put yourself in position. Being in that top three right at the very end and hoping you had the right car, the right trim level, you made the right decision. You had the best final pit stop. All those things line up, and I think you can win the event. So the more times you give yourself that opportunity, I think the more likely it is that one of those years is going to pan out." Graham Rahal, who will be trying to join his father, Bobby, as one of 70 Indy 500 winners, will be making his dozenth attempt at the Brickyard. He was stunned to learn that Rick Mears, one of three four-time Indy 500 winners, collected all of his wins over a period of 13 starts. "This place is so elusive," Rahal said. "When it's your opportunity, you have to take advantage of it. When you're a kid, you don't think about things like that. This is my 12 th . You start to think about that. What am I doing wrong? Every opportunity you get, you have to make the most out of it because for me, God knows how many more there are. There aren't many opportunities to maximize that. "It's easy not to think that way when you first come around this place. It's easy to take it for granted and think some day it'll be your turn. It's just going to happen. It isn't just going to happen. You have to put it all together. It's hard to do." Said Rossi: "It's a part of the addiction. It's why as soon as Sunday at 4 o'clock rolls around, and you haven't one, you're immediately thinking about the next year's race. And you don't have that at other events. If you have another event and finish third and on the podium, that's pretty cool, that's a good result. Whatever. Here if you're third, you're angry. Nothing else matters. You either win or you might as well as go home." It's a feeling Kanaan knows well, though the A.J. Foyt Racing driver said his long wait never was tinged by bitterness but instead full of respect for a track with 110 years of history. "I remember the worst days of my life were the Mondays after this race when you don't win," he said. "You feel like extremely empty. It's like a hangover. Not to get affected by it and say, 'I'd never do this again.' It just took all my power away. "So, for me, it was always Monday I'd wake up if I hadn't won and think about what's going to happen 364 days from then."


Pennies cost more to produce than they're actually worth as currency unless, of course, you use them for one of these genius life hacks. The post 9 Brilliant Uses for Your Spare Pennies appeared first on Reader's Digest. Save a glass of stale wine Tragic scenario: You're ready to relax with a stiff glass of wine, but your pinot noir is a day past prime and smells like rotten eggs. Don't fret. According to the American Chemistry Society , saving a bottle of wine only costs a penny (and an open mind!). Stale wine stinks because of sulfur compounds called thiols that form while uncorked wine reacts with oxygen. Remove that stink by dropping a clean copper penny right into your glass you should use a penny dated 1909-1982 since it will be 95 percent copper. After 1982, pennies have since switched to 97.5 percent zinc . Stir it briefly with a spoon, then remove it. Because copper reacts with thiols to produce odorless copper sulfide, you will smell (and taste) the difference right away. Three cheers for science! Repel garden slugs Your wine safe in hand, take that penny that just improved your day and use it to ruin a slug's. While there is no definitive science on this soil hack, many a gardener swears that a ring of copper pennies buried around your prized plants will keep slugs at bay. Biomedical scientist Chris Bland explains on Huffington Post : "Copper metal reacts with the slime that covers snails and slugs, resulting in an unpleasant electro-neural signal (similar to an electrical shock) that repels them." Even if the pennies don't keep snails and slugs away, copper is known to prevent plant diseases and has been used in fungicide formulas for centuries. Not all garden pests are harmful, so be wary of the 7 bugs you should never kill in your garden . Build a ruler Need a ruler in a pinch? Pennies are uniformly minted with a 0.75-inch diameter. Line up 16 cents end to end on a flat surface, and you have exactly one foot. Stack those 16 cents into a neat pile, and you have close to an even inch (0.96 inches, to be exact.) Still in need of some other tools? Don't miss these discount products that DIYers shouldn't pass up. Drive some screws If you're in your car, at work, or otherwise removed from the comfort of your tool kit, the penny makes a functional screwdriver when properly angled, at a slim 1.52 millimeters thick . Depending on the screw, you might not be able to fit your cent perfectly into the grooves but press the penny's edge into the grooves at a 15-20 degree angle and you will be able to get enough torque to tighten or loosen it. If you seek a different kind of fastener, try these incredible uses for superglue that you've never known about . Diagnose your tires Worn out tire treads are a driving liability, especially if you're on a long road trip with no good place to stop and check them. Luckily, there are many car problems that you can fix yourself. Slot a penny between the ribs of your car tire with Lincoln's head upside-down. According to Goodyear Tire, if you can see all of Lincoln's head above the tread, your tire is worn down and should be replaced; if most of his forehead disappears, your tire is still good. Visit the folks at Bridgestone.com for a more detailed diagram of the test. Stabilize a wobbly table The bane of every restaurant guest: a higgledy-piggledy table that clatters about every time someone adds or subtracts their arms from it. Wobble no more, with a stack of sturdy Lincolns slipped under the problematic table or chair leg. If the wobbly furniture is your own, feel free to superglue the pennies right onto the bottom of the offending appendage. Now be sure to thank Honest Abe every time you sit to eat your daily bread which, to be honest, all of us should probably just do anyway. On a home-repair roll? Make sure to fix up these household issues that are dangerous to ignore. Make a one-cent washer With a drill or metal hole-puncher, stamp a hole into the center of a cent to turn it into a non-corroding washer. Sound like a lot of effort? A zinc-plated washer costs about 11 cents at your typical hardware store. That's a whole ten cents you're throwing away with every penny you don't repurpose. Think of all the gumballs you're missing out on! A penny washer is the most similar in diameter to an M10 washer, with a .48mm difference in thickness, and a .95mm discrepancy in diameter. (Our attorney would like us to point out that it is illegal to deface or destroy U.S. currency with the intent to profit from it; thus, we strongly advise you not to sell an augmented penny washer, and please don't sue us.) Collect valuable treasures From 1909 to 1956, the butt-side of your typical penny did not feature the Lincoln memorial, but two stalks of wheat curled around a bold proclamation of "one cent." These so-called Wheat Pennies keep coin collectors on their toes for good reason today: every wheat penny is worth more than face value (usually by a couple of cents). However, a single rare penny could be worth hundreds of dollars . No kidding. Find a complete list of wheat penny values at cointrackers.com . Get decorating Copper accents are in right now, and with a jar full of spare pennies on your side, adding copper to your home decor is cheaper than ever. To personalize your home with pennies, you can use super glue to add a rustic copper border around a mirror or photo frame. Want to jazz up your kitchen? You can combine pennies and resin to create a shiny new coaster. Some penny collectors have even decorated their walls and floors with permanent penny backsplashes; it's so common that there are templates you can purchase , making it simple and affordable to redecorate your home! Surprised at what you can do with a couple of pennies? Check out more extraordinary uses for objects in your home. Every product is independently selected by our editors. If you buy something through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.


DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM)   An officer at Baylor Scott & White Hospital in Dallas fired his weapon toward a suspect Friday morning after he backed his vehicle into officers, police say. Dallas police say hospital officers were responding to a call about a person slumped over in a vehicle in the parking lot. Witnesses told police that when officers approached the vehicle, the person reversed quickly and hit the officers. According to police, an officer then fired his weapon at the vehicle as it drove away from the scene. The hospital officers were not injured during the incident. Dallas police responded to assist the hospital officers at around 7:30 a.m. and later found the suspect vehicle at a nearby apartment complex. The suspect was found and arrested thanks to descriptions provided by witnesses. Police say he was not injured. Police say the vehicle the suspect was in was reported stolen out of Plano in April.


Adam Eaton and Todd Frazier might finally be cordial , but the current NL East rivals and former Chicago White Sox teammates apparently needed several on-field exchanges, plus a couple days worth of parting shots through the media, to squash a years-old beef. But in a game where unwritten rules are made to be broken and bat flips increasingly incite debate, their feud assuredly will not be the last to grace MLB headlines. It got us thinking, though. Who else has drawn attention for something other than their performance on the diamond? Which other players have engaged in notable feuds in recent MLB history? It turns out there are no shortage of scuffles to choose from, but here are five of the best: Mike Piazza vs. Roger Clemens The battle between the New York stars began during the 2000 regular season when Clemens nailed Piazza in the head with a wayward fastball -- which Piazza suggested was intentional. Things got uglier in the first inning of a World Series rematch between the Mets and Yankees , with Piazza breaking his bat on a foul ball against Clemens and the latter side-arming a jagged piece of the bat toward Piazza as he ran up the first-base line. The broadcast of the incident shows Clemens pleading that he thought the broken bat was "the ball," but that never explained why he chucked it in Piazza's direction and invited both teams' benches to clear. Madison Bumgarner vs. Yasiel Puig This one hasn't yet reached a World Series spotlight like Clemens vs. Piazza, but it's been going for more than five years now. Puig initially pulled off a slow trot after homering against the Giants ace during his 2014 season with the Dodgers , then provoked a clearing of the benches after being hit by a Bumgarner pitch five months later. The two exchanged words and prompted another bench-clearing in 2016 following a Puig ground-out, then rekindled their rivalry in 2019 with Puig, now with the Reds , flipping his bat following a homer off the San Fran veteran. Nolan Ryan vs. Robin Ventura "The Ryan Express" still had plenty of fire at age 46 in 1993, when tensions from an incident three years prior flared up in a battle with Ventura, the longtime White Sox star. Back in 1990, Chicago's Craig Grebeck took his sweet time appreciating a homer against Ryan, who publicly accused him of showboating, and the following week, Ryan hit Grebeck, Ventura's teammate. Then, in '93, a few innings after Ventura lined an RBI off Ryan, the ace hit Ventura. The hitter proceeded to charge the mound... and get put in a headlock and suffered Ryan's wrath. Bill Lee vs. New York Yankees You could classify this one as " Red Sox vs. Yankees," because in 1976, when New York's Lou Piniella collided with Boston's Carlton Fisk with the Yanks up 1-0, both sides' entire benches went at it following punches between those two. It was Bill "Spaceman" Lee, however, who may have riled up the rivalry three years earlier, when he said the Yankees " fight like a bunch of Times Square hookers " following a 1973 brawl also involving Fisk. Decades later, Lee still admits to despising New York's Graig Nettles and the Yankees. Jose Mesa vs. Omar Vizquel These two started as friends and teammates, but after Mesa's collapse in the 1997 World Series, things deteriorated in a hurry, with the pitcher apparently taking offense at Vizquel's celebrations against him in spring-training batting practice. Mesa ultimately threw at him intentionally for a half-decade. Vizquel criticized Mesa early in his autobiography, while Mesa returned the favor by promising to fire pitches at his old friend every time they met. He did it three times, and the two still remained uneasy years later . Honorable mention Barry Bonds vs. Jeff Kent Coco Crisp vs. Tampa Bay Rays Jose Bautista vs. Texas Rangers Kevin Youkilis vs. Joba Chamberlain Darryl Strawberry vs. Keith Hernandez Chris Sale vs. wool jerseys Chris Young vs. Derrek Lee


The fate of the updated trade deal between the U.S., Mexico and Canada was thrown into question after United States President Donald Trump announced Thursday that his country plans to impose a 5% tariff on all Mexican imports from June 10 . Trump said in a White House statement on Thursday that the tariff was meant to address what he claimed is a "border crisis" that has resulted in America being "invaded by hundreds of thousands of people." He said if Mexico doesn't halt the flow of those undocumented migrants, the U.S. will progressively raise the overarching tariff to 25% by Oct. 1 this year. On June 10th, the United States will impose a 5% Tariff on all goods coming into our Country from Mexico, until such time as illegal migrants coming through Mexico, and into our Country, STOP. The Tariff will gradually increase until the Illegal Immigration problem is remedied,..   Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 30, 2019 John Negroponte, highly esteemed career diplomat and current vice chairman of consultancy McLarty Associates, said Trump's announcement was "ill-timed" given that the process to ratify the three-country trade deal   called the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA   has just kicked off . "I think it's both bad politically and bad economically and I don't think it's really going to help solve the immigration problem, either, which is what Mr. Trump said he's trying to attack," Negroponte, who served as U.S. ambassador to Honduras, Mexico, the Philippines, the United Nations, and Iraq, told CNBC's "Street Signs." He noted that Mexico is a large export market for the U.S., so Trump's Thursday announcement put American exporters at "a certain amount of jeopardy." Mexico is America's third-largest goods trading partner . The U.S. exported $265 billion of goods to Mexico in 2018, according to the Office of the United States Trade Representative. Mick Mulvaney , acting White House chief of staff, told reporters that the tariff wouldn't affect the approval of the USMCA. He insisted that the latest threatened tariff is "part of an immigration problem," and isn't related to trade. But Negroponte is hardly the only one predicting a tougher route for ratification of the USMCA, which is intended to be an updated version of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Some say that the deal could have had an easy passage through Mexico's Congress before Trump's latest threats, but it has become politically difficult for lawmakers to ratify it now. Juan Carlos Hartasanchez, senior director at advisory firm Albright Stonebridge Group, said it seemed unlikely that the USMCA will be ratified this year. "Many congressmen and senators in Mexico are going to be asking themselves whether or not they're in a position to ratify an agreement when they have a gun pointed to their heads. So it just becomes a very complicated situation," he told CNBC's "Street Signs." It's not just Mexican lawmakers that will reconsider their stance on the trade deal, noted William Reinsch, senior advisor and Scholl Chair in international business at think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies. The president's threat "will probably end up torpedoing the USMCA agreement," Reinsch told CNBC's "Squawk Box." He predicted that Mexico "will probably be forced to retaliate," while the U.S. House of Representatives will also "react very negatively." The Democratic-led House has had lingering concerns about the new three-party trade deal. After U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Thursday sent a letter to congressional leaders to kick start the process of approving the USMCA, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi issued a statement suggesting that the deal lacks "strong enforcement provisions."


Daniel Hemric topped the board in Thursday's opening Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Charlotte Motor Speedway ahead of Sunday's Coca-Cola 600 (6 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) with a fast lap of 182.791 mph in his No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. Hemric is in his rookie season in the sport's top series and led a brigade of Chevrolets to four of the top five spots in practice. RELATED: Practice results | Full Charlotte schedule Hendrick Motorsports placed three of its cars in the top five with Chase Elliott taking second (No. 9 Chevrolet, 182.340 mph) followed by William Byron (No. 24 Chevrolet, 182.211 mph) coming home third and Jimmie Johnson (No. 48 Chevrolet, 182.008 mph) placing fifth. The fourth Hendrick driver, Alex Bowman (No. 88 Chevrolet), came in seventh in the 50-minute session and is riding three straight runner-up finishes into this race weekend. Defending race winner Kyle Busch took fourth in the session with a fast lap at 182.168 mph in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was the highest-finishing Ford, coming in sixth. This was the first of three scheduled practice sessions for the Monster Energy Series. The last two will take place on Saturday morning. The next on-track activity for the Cup drivers will be for Busch Pole Qualifying at 7:05 p.m. ET with coverage on FS1. ]]>


BALTIMORE - Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski Jr. said Monday that President Donald Trump's Twitter attacks on Baltimore and the region are ironic, but he hoped to turn what he called a pile-on into a conversation about solutions. On Saturday Trump unleashed several insults on Twitter against "brutal bully" Democratic U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings and his district, Maryland's 7th Congressional District, which includes much of Baltimore but reaches into Baltimore and Howard counties as well. Trump, a Republican, specifically mentioned crime, rats and trash. But Olszewski, a Democrat, noted that the county once had to threaten the family real estate company of Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, to get the firm to address code violations and other issues at its Baltimore County properties. The Kushner Cos., and its affiliates, own nearly 9,000 rental properties in Maryland, more than 7,200 in Baltimore County alone. "We had to both threaten significant fines as well as withholding federal payments to ensure there was compliance," Olszewski said of county efforts in 2017, under his predecessor, Democrat Kevin Kamenetz. "There's a certain irony in hearing the president attacking a city and region when his own son-in-law was directly involved and his company was directly involved in creating the conditions where that quality of life was threatened." A Kushner Cos. spokesperson told The Baltimore Sun "Kushner Companies is proud to own thousands of apartments in the Baltimore area. Substantial amounts are constantly reinvested in the properties to maintain a high quality residential experience for our tenants," according to the statement. Kushner's real estate firm Kushner Cos. owns 17 complexes in Maryland, the Sun reported earlier this year. In November 2017, Kamenetz said county code inspectors had cited the Kushner Cos. for more than 200 violations. The company had $3,500 in unpaid fines, Kamenetz said. There were nine properties where the county did indeed charge significant fines, in addition to actually withholding rental assistance payments, Olszewski said. "You're talking about a company that was using local taxpayer dollars to help subsidize these apartments," he said, "and they were frankly in conditions that as a father I wouldn't want to raise my daughter or my family in." It's part of a longer pattern of complaints against Kushner Cos.-owned properties. The Sun in 2017 found that corporate entities affiliated with the Kushner complexes have sought the civil arrest of more than 100 former tenants for failing to appear in court to face allegations of unpaid debt. Between 2013 and 2017, Kushner affiliates had filed at least 1,250 legal actions, and judges had awarded a total of $5.4 million in judgments against tenants who owed an average of $4,400, the Sun reported. In one case involving the Kushner-owned firm Westminster Management, an attorney for Westminster tenants alleged the firm charged illegal fees and threatened eviction to force payment. The Kushner Cos. also went to court with the Sun and other media outlets to keep private the names of investors in their Maryland apartment buildings. A judge eventually ruled the investors had to be disclosed. Kushner stepped down as CEO of the Kushner Cos. when he joined the Trump administration in January 2017, but he still retains his ownership of the firm. The debate about Baltimore seemed to be sparked Saturday by a Baltimore County Republican's video of trash-filled streets that was shown on Fox News. Olszewski said he hoped the conversation would turn toward how to address problems the city and region are facing. "This isn't about a person trying to raise an issue or concerns that they have," he said. "It's really more about the response and the piling on that was done subsequent to that." Visit The Baltimore Sun at www.baltimoresun.com