One evening in the spring of 2016, Marjorie Moon slipped off her scrubs and washed the emergency room out of her long blond hair. She stepped into a dress and high heels, transforming herself from a tired trauma nurse into a hot date. The 47-year-old divorcée from Los Angeles was inundated with offers from men on matchmaking websites, who often compared her to the Friends actress, Lisa Kudrow. For Moon, dating involved racing home from 12-hour shifts while wrangling babysitters. "I'd been under a lot of stress," she explained. "Just single mom stuff and whatnot. I have five kids." Scheduling often killed off any romance. Then she matched with a man named Paul on the dating website PlentyofFish. Smooth-talking Paul shared her love for fine dining, and invited her to the Tam O'Shanter, one of LA's oldest eateries. "I'm going to go with or without you," he told her, removing any indecision. Soon she was driving across the city, full of hope that Paul, 43, could be 'the one.' He had sent her videos of his two adorable young sons, and said he was the CEO of the LA Fitness gym franchise. But as Moon handed her car keys to the valet, she saw her date arrive on foot. She wondered, did he not have a car? Paul's dyed-black hair was thick with gel, and he exuded short-guy energy. As he held open the restaurant door, his light green eyes sparkled. "Look how beautiful she is!" said Paul, as the waitress seated the couple. Then, loud enough for everyone to hear, he boomed: "I don't deserve to be with her! She's so gorgeous!" Paul edged his seat closer to hers, then got to work on the menu. Moon said he ordered: "A salad, chicken, fish, and two lobster tails on the side." When Paul finished, he summoned two more lobster tails. After rounding off the meal with a devilish chocolate soufflé, Paul declared that he wanted to date Moon "exclusively," then stepped outside to make a phone call. "A few minutes in, I had a funny feeling," she said. He never came back. A crocodile kiss and other striking photos of the week [Photos] Hot with embarrassment, Moon told the maître d' she'd been ditched. She had never experienced anything like this. Soon the waitress was sitting in her date's empty chair, crying. "I wish I could take care of your bill," she sobbed. "I'm so sorry." But Moon had no tears to cry. She paid the $250 bill and marched out, imagining the cost of the meal in emergency room hours. By the time she reached home, Moon was fuming. When Paul sent her a text message asking "Hi. How are you?" she exploded. She called a girlfriend who convinced her to put the word out. It was late at night when Moon angrily typed a Facebook status update: "Here are the pics of the man who ditched me at dinner...Please share on your FB and tell the story so this loser doesn't do this to others!" But it was too late. Her post went viral, and her inbox filled with other victims of the same man. His name was not Paul Azini, as he had told Moon, but Gonzales. He'd told women he was an NBC sports editor, a sports agent, and that he worked for the Lakers. Gonzales was seemingly everywhere. A widow from Calabasas claimed he'd ditched her at the Cheesecake Factory in Sherman Oaks. "Do you know if he ever lived in Colorado?" asked someone else. His victims all thanked Moon for being 'their voice.' "Us girls need to stick together," Moon replied, and decided to put it all behind her. "Then the media happened," she said. Television stations, a producer from Steve Harvey's radio show, and a Canadian podcast all contacted Moon for interviews. Victims shared other media requests on Facebook messenger. Appearing on a CBS News segment, Diane Guilmette revealed that Gonzales ordered not one, but two entrees at a Long Beach restaurant before leaving her with a $163 bill. "He's a very, very handsome man," admitted another scammed woman. "His eyes are absolutely gorgeous." News anchors soberly issued bulletins warning viewers of the "handsome" bandit's modus operandi: Gonzales quickly enticed women into a dinner date, ate like a king, then bolted, deleting his dating profile on the way out. The 5-foot-5-inch tall lothario mostly drank tea and the occasional glass of wine, but focused on high-ticket food items like filet mignon. US Weekly and CNN called him the "Dine-and-Dash Dater." Online, Gonzales sparked a national conversation fueled by gender politics. Some people argued that for decades women have done the same thing to men by expecting them to pick up the check. Scientists at the Azusa Pacific University examined the myth of the "foodie call" finding that 23 33 percent of women had set up a date only for the purpose of getting a free meal. The report found that these female offenders scored highly on three 'dark' personality traits: "Psychopathy, machiavellianism, and narcissism." Was this Gonzales too? Louis B. Schlesinger, a professor of forensic psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, who did not evaluate Gonzales, told me that his behavior "may just be his own personal gratification of getting one over on somebody." But why? Related: History's most notorious con artists (Lovemoney) Paul Guadalupe Gonzales had a difficult childhood. He was born in Montebello, California, in 1973, and grew up in Alhambra, in the San Gabriel Valley. In kindergarten, he chose to sit next to the teacher, preferring adult conversation. He idolized his father and was devastated by his parents' divorce. When his mother met a new partner, 7-year-old Paul told the man his dad was the boxing champion Roberto Duran. It was one of his earliest fabrications. A teenage Gonzales became a fitness fanatic and at 17 found work as a gym membership salesman. He could sell anything to anyone, a relative told me. He intuitively understood a person's wants and needs, and later sold everything from rubber bands to rifle scopes, earning $20,000 a month. He liked to order steak and lobster on his corporate credit card, gambled in Las Vegas, and dreamed of starting a sports betting company called Sportstradamus. But a messy divorce seemed to derail his life. By 2016 he was unemployed. Flat broke and stripped of his expense account, he started to look for ways to eat for free, a court later heard. Gonzales signed up for various online dating accounts, presenting the picture of the perfect man. Perfectly groomed at all times, he looked like a hunk from a barber shop poster. His profile photos included tight-vest selfies taken in a gym's mirror, and portraits with his two sons, whom he dressed in immaculate matching outfits. "I'm very fun, positive, humorous and adventurous. I love sports, music, water sports and traveling, and dining out and try[ing] new things," his profile read. "Looking for someone to be super adventurous and create a lot of memories and smiles together." He was against casual flings. "Not my style," he wrote. "#TooClassy." Just days after his date with Marjorie Moon, Gonzales finished a crème brûlée at the Yard House in Long Beach. He held up two fingers, and told Irene Rodriguez that he "had to go number two," before escaping into the night. "I just sat there dumbfounded," she recalled, "I was mortified, embarrassed." In July 2016, Lynise Levine, 52, said Paul had promised her Barbra Streisand tickets, but ditched her at a Mexican restaurant in Westwood. Two years later, in the spring of 2018, he was still at it, leaving Tina Martinez to pay for his filet mignon at Smitty's Grill in Pasadena. Even when Gonzales was arrested, for a "snip-and-ditch" he fled a barber's shop with the smock still tied around his neck police found no outstanding warrants. His dates were too ashamed to report his dining misdeeds. Had he created the perfect crime? On April 13, 2018, Detective Victor Cass was summoned to his sergeant's office at the Pasadena Police Department. The 49-year-old investigator was handed an anonymous Crime Stoppers report concerning an incident at Buca di Beppo, an Italian chain restaurant in nearby Glendale. An onlooker had noticed a male diner abandon his date, and filled out an online report. Cass is slim, with tidy black hair, and holsters his Glock 9mm beneath sharply-cut designer suits. He specializes in commercial burglary, but unlike most detectives he has a Fine Art degree and leads a double life as a novelist. His romantic thriller, Telenova , was a Latin indie-publishing hit. Colleagues call him "Casanova." Cass is also a veteran of online dating. "I was divorced in 2003," he told me, at an Irish bar in South Pasadena. He recalled a decade of searching and swiping before meeting his long-term girlfriend while on duty. "Back in the old days, I was on the more primitive dating sites like eHarmony, I even used online matchmaking services." Over the years he met women from MySpace, Match and PlentyofFish (both owned by IAC, which also owns The Daily Beast), and Bumble. According to one wise-cracking cop in the office: "Maybe it takes a casanova to catch a casanova." Cass thought a 'dine and dash' was a fitting crime for a food-lover's city like Pasadena. It is the birthplace of chef Julia Child, home to 500 restaurants, and one of America's few Le Cordon Bleu culinary schools. To its 141,371 residents, Pasadena is known as the "City of Roses," and it is Cass who cleans up its quirkier criminal cases. "They're what we call the 'X-Files,'" he told me. Recently, he captured the 'Glass Man Burglar,' a thief who skillfully removed window panes, and the 'Guitar Bandit' who delighted newspapermen by pulling off a "string" of thefts. When the detective typed "dine and dash" into Google, to brush up on the law, he was surprised to find hundreds of news reports about one local man named Paul Gonzales. "He had, like, fans, and they were like, 'hey, he's not doing anything wrong,'" said Cass. Some websites called Gonzales "scummy" and "Douchebag of the Week." "This guy was not on any police department's radar," said Cass, "yet he was one of the most wanted men in America." At home, Cass had a daughter about to turn 18. He had taught her responsible dating, he said, including "how to spot deadbeat guys." So far, he was impressed with her choices, but he found it hard to think about her falling victim to someone like Gonzales. As he nursed an off-duty pint of Irish lager, Cass told me that Gonzales was not just victimizing women, but "disrupting the internet dating economy." He had to be stopped. The detective travelled to various apartments linked to the suspect, expecting to make a quick and easy arrest. But Gonzales had no fixed address. "We couldn't just go out somewhere and pick him up," he said. And so began the manhunt for Paul Gonzales. Since the first restaurants opened their doors, innkeepers have been plagued by customers who wish to eat but not to pay. In 1885, a Boston Oyster House cashier complained to the Chicago Tribune about so-called 'restaurant deadbeats.' "What the devil a man thinks he is going to gain by robbing a restaurant of 35 or 50 cents is more than I can comprehend," he said. Notoriety was the ambition of Belgium's Titus Clarysse, who became famous for ripping off over 100 fine dining halls, but he was stabbed to death in 2014. Suspects included various restaurateurs. Meanwhile, Australia's "dine-and-dash queen," Lois Loder, 44, racked up thousands of dollars in unpaid restaurant bills before pleading guilty to 82 charges. She spent two years behind bars, because unlike Gonzales, she dined alone, making the restaurants her victim in the eyes of the law. Cass studied the Crime Stoppers report, and realized he had no witnesses or victims, just the scene of an alleged crime. He telephoned Buca di Beppo and found the waiter on duty that night. He discovered that the victim paid the bill using her Visa credit card. He petitioned Visa to give him the name of the victim's bank, and soon Cass was there, leaving a business card for their customer. A few days later, a woman named Daisy Valdez called Cass. She was the Buca di Beppo victim. Like Moon, Valdez was a nurse, and when she met Cass outside a hospital in Upland, she was still wearing her blue scrubs. Cass showed her his six-pack six mugshots, not his washboard stomach. Valdez easily identified Gonzales and his green eyes from the line-up of five Paul-a-likes, and told Cass a familiar story. She had matched with him on Bumble; he claimed he was a physical therapist with two daughters; at dinner, he ordered a chicken salad with added shrimp, sank an iced tea, then vanished. Out of embarrassment, she would later close down her dating profiles and never date online again. The conversation "was all about him," Valdez told Cass. She couldn't get a word in. The divorced mother of three said she was convinced to meet him because he was so direct and persuasive. "You want to know how you get to know somebody?" he had messaged her. "You meet him right away." Cass said that based on his own dating experience, he realized that Gonzales was a smooth operator. "Game recognizes game," he said. In a reversal of his usual investigations, Cass contacted various news outlets to ask for access to victims. He called producers and journalists who connected him to a dozen of Gonzales's dates. He said that during interviews, many victims blamed themselves. Was it something they said, or did? Cass reassured them it wasn't their fault. He'd have to convince them to overcome their embarrassment and give evidence in court, otherwise Gonzales might get away with it. "That was a big challenge to get them to open up, to get them to trust me," said Cass. He promised them: "Justice will be served, you know, we're going to do everything that we can to find this guy, to arrest this guy, to see that he goes to jail. That was a big deal for me." Cass interviewed Martha Barba, who said Gonzales invited her to an after-dinner fireworks show at the Rose Bowl in July 2016, but disappeared after telling her to "order dessert." "I was embarrassed… I felt humiliated... and my self confidence, you know... just wondering what did I do? Did I say something?" After paying the $180 bill, the single mother said she struggled to pay her rent. Other victims said they were still struggling to deal with their emotions. After her date with Gonzales, Irene Rodriguez said she had trouble trusting anyone, and quit online dating forever. Another victim said: "It just makes you feel like a piece of c**p." On April 27, 2018, a woman from Santa Clarita was arriving for a first date with a match from Bumble. Carol Meredith had lost her job of 17 years at a television studio, and was paying the bills with temporary work, while hoping to graduate from plus-size modeling to acting. "Mike" told her he was a sports agent, but later said he worked in advertising. "He just knew all the right things to say," Meredith told me. He also sent her a fake photograph of a bodybuilder. By the time Meredith sat down in Pasadena's Mercado restaurant, Mike had already polished off a plate of shrimp tacos. "I know it's probably surprising," he said, patting his stomach, "But I can eat, like, two meals." He ordered a carne asada and a glass of iced tea, while Meredith politely ate her chile relleno. Then, when Mike slipped away to use the restroom, he found the restaurant's manager blocking his path. Justin Leyvas recognized the man's face from the television. He called up a photo of Paul Gonzales on his cellphone. "You're the notorious dine-and-dash dater?" he asked. "That's you, right?" "Yes?" said Gonzales, stunned. "Well I'm not going to serve you," said Leyvas firmly, and chased a flustered Gonzales out of the restaurant. Leyvas appeared at Meredith's table and showed her his phone. Her meal was on the house, he said. "You've been duped." Meredith said the incident left her feeling completely humiliated, and shattered her confidence. "When it happened to me, I was dumbfounded," she said. "I was more angry than embarrassed." Meredith swore she'd never date online again. A few days later, the telephone rang on the desk of Detective Cass. It was now the second week of his search for Paul Gonzales, and he had plenty of witnesses, but few leads. He picked up. "He's struck again," said his lieutenant. "What?" "Yes, it's on the news, go look. He hit Mercado." Cass opened an internet browser and typed "dine and dash" for the hundredth time. Inside Edition had the scoop. "This man needs to be stopped," Carol Meredith said into the camera. "God knows how many other women he'll attempt to do this to." Mercado was just nine blocks away. Cass threw on his jacket. What was once a cold case with dead-end leads was now a live one with a suspect at large. The television crew had beaten him to the latest victim, but Cass knew to interview everyone not just the manager. A server told him: "I also work at Houston's... this guy struck there two days ago.'" Cass knew Houston's had security cameras. He raced there to score video of Gonzales in action before the restaurant routinely erased it at the end of the week. He watched Gonzales slipping out the front door, mid-meal. "You can see the time frame, everything was brilliant, great evidence," Cass said. Back at his office, Cass started to assemble his victims. He saw that the women were from all backgrounds, all races, and ages. Gonzales didn't seem to have a type, he just wanted three courses and zero bill. As more women encouraged each other to come forward and give evidence, it was as if he was arranging characters in a plot from one of his own books. A Victor Cass novel usually features an ensemble of bodacious female characters, who must overcome adversity by working together. In Black Widow B-----s , his dystopian war thriller, a ragtag group of American women train to become deadly combat troops, helmed by Elias Marin, the only male officer able to lead them. Telenova revolves around three outrageous Latin women and a raunchy daytime soap opera. The jacket promises: "a girls' night out, friendship drama, and sexy romps." His writing explores the interior lives of women more emphatically than it does men. "I am half woman on my mother's side," he joked. Cass applied for a search warrant on Gonzales's cellphone. He analyzed data records to triangulate his suspect's movements, hoping to find where Gonzales laid his head. "It was all over the South Lake District, at all hours of the night, which led me to believe he was homeless," said Cass. One location was a parking structure where transients surreptitiously charge their phones. Cass had a theory that Gonzales' phone held an "electronic shrine" of evidence. "We've all kept text messages and photos of girls we like," Cass admitted. "I needed to get his phone before he erased everything." On May 17, 2018, Paul Gonzales was captured, but not by Detective Cass. An Inside Edition TV crew was laying in wait outside a Pasadena branch of Starbucks. They spotted Gonzales enjoying a coffee just yards away from Mercado, the scene of his last crime. "You've been going to local restaurants with women you meet online," the anchorman barked at a startled Gonzales, as he crossed the street. "You've been leaving them with the check. Don't you feel bad about that? Why don't you apologize to them?" But Gonzales didn't apologize. He ran away, trailed by men carrying cameras and a boom microphone. On May 21, Cass tracked down Gonzales's ex-wife, an aspiring Instagram influencer who curates a food and fashion account. Among the avocado crostinis and cucumber margaritas, Cass recognized the two children he had seen in photographs Gonzales had sent victims. Over the phone she dished up a brief history of her life with Gonzales: They had fallen in love, married, and settled down, but their relationship soured. She told Cass that Gonzales had once enjoyed high-paying jobs, but not any more. She didn't know where he lived. (She did not respond to requests for comment.) On May 25, at a luxury apartment building in Pasadena, Cass pressed the buzzer to the home of Gonzales's mother. "We spoke at length about Paul," he told me. She is a respected clinical social worker, he discovered, and her other children are settled and successful. She didn't know where her son was either, and didn't know about the allegations. She told me Cass questioned her more like a psychologist than a policeman. "She said, 'One thing I can tell you is that he never forgave me for leaving his Dad when he was a kid," recalled Cass. He's been making women pay ever since, he thought. Literally. Cass, who served on the police department's mental health crisis unit, had become fascinated by Gonzales. "I tried to pin down his motivations and psychology," he told me. As the detective built a profile of his suspect, he realized that in 26 years of policing this was his strangest and most difficult case. He'd now gathered 20 victims, from all over Los Angeles County. Each victim seemed to lead to three more. Cass knew the biggest challenge would be to convict Gonzales. His crime was not theft because the restaurants were usually paid. Cass visited the district attorney's office, where they hatched a plan. All of Gonzales's victims told Cass that they were "too embarrassed and afraid" to make a scene. He thought of victim Yolanda Lora, who was conned into buying Gonzales a seafood dinner at a Beverly Hills restaurant so swanky she couldn't pronounce its name. Lora was so scared that she had to "build up the courage" to tell the waiter what had happened. A deputy D.A. said the fear element could amount to extortion, a felony. The charge could mean serious jail time for Gonzales. But after a month, Cass was no closer to finding him. One afternoon Cass had an idea for a honeytrap. "We had a female officer create an online dating account," he told me. "We had her go on Bumble and create a profile to see if she could lure him and save all the text messages... We wanted to see if Paul bites." They planned to send the officer on a date with Gonzales, wearing a wire. They uploaded some photographs in the office and together they wrote her profile. She was in for a surprise. "The experience for women online is vastly different than for men," explained Cass. "An attractive woman can set up a dating site and instantly like within 20 minutes can have 50 contact requests or messages. Our officer was horrified at what these guys sent her." Cass said the unnamed officer is gay, and was appalled at the wild messages she received from men. "Crazy statements, outrageous things," said Cass. "Di-- pics." The experiment was a failure. "Sadly he never took the bait," he said. Cass started to worry that he'd never catch his man. "You know, a lot of time had passed, and we weren't able to get this guy," he said. If he didn't make progress, he'd have to focus on other pressing cases: The "Hipster Shoplifter" was targeting the Madewell store in Pasadena's Old Town. Cass was waiting on DNA results to convict the "Rock Burglar" who smashed into buildings by hurling stones through windows. Cass was also concerned that if another officer arrested Gonzales, they wouldn't know to confiscate his cellphone. Maybe Gonzales would sit in the back of a squad car and delete his digital trophies. "This is probably gonna sound kind of weird, OK, but, I'm a pretty religious dude. Presbyterian," Cass told me. "I believe that everything is predestined to happen. I pray all the time." Cass said he hit his knees and prayed, "God, let me find him." On the evening of August 25, 2018, Cass was working overtime in Pasadena's Old Town. "I know a lot of people down there so I get to socialize, and you know, it is kinda fun," he told me. "It's kind of interesting to see all the characters. You're people-watching." It's also a good opportunity to look for revellers with outstanding warrants. He had been tailing Gonzales for four months, and started to see Paul-a-likes everywhere. "I had gotten all the victims, I felt that I had solidified the case," said Cass. "I just had a feeling because of all the work I'd done, the guarantees I'd made the victims, I had a feeling it would be me." At just after nine o'clock, Cass noticed a street vendor strolling down the boulevard, hawking Lakers T-shirts to tourists. Springing to action, he grabbed the man and threw on the handcuffs. Cass recalled: "My partner, he told me... man, Cass is really cracking down these vendors!" But then he heard the detective make the radio call: "This is footbeat three, we have Paul Gonzales in custody... the Dine-and-Dash Dater." News of the arrest quickly circulated the police department. Though it was a stroke of luck and not a splashy sting or epic foot chase, Cass was a hero. "I think the victims were extremely pleased and happy," he said. "They never thought they would see the day that this guy got busted." That night, Cass typed out a text message to the victims, with the happy news. Carol Meredith was at her desk when the text message landed. "Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!" she screamed. Just as Cass predicted, his suspect's phone was full of dating trophies photographs of hundreds of women. "I was able to go back to at least 2013," said Cass. During his interogation, he asked Gonzales if he was a "demented, sick individual," or if he was like "sex perverts that... get some kind of perversion out of victimizing people?" Or, was he another type of person, "somebody who deep down has a lot of anger... because they were abandoned when they were young by their mothers?" Maybe, said Cass, "you have an abandonment issue." "The reality is I did it one time," Gonzales pleaded. "One accident without meaning... it wasn't... it wasn't like, planned." "Well, no, Paul, it wasn't just one time. It was multiple times," said Cass. "And in fact, during my investigation, I found out that over a three-year span you did it to at least… thirteen women." "He made out he was a perpetual dating victim," said Cass. "He tried to portray himself as the one getting catfished in relationships." Gonzales told Cass about various physical ailments, including an injured back, and claimed that he only felt better when he ate fine foods. If he didn't, Cass recalled, he said he'd "get weaker in both body and mind. He would... feel numbness and pain to his body." On August 27, 2018, Gonzales was charged with seven felony counts of extortion, two felony counts of attempted extortion, and one felony count of grand theft. For good measure, prosecutors added two misdemeanor counts of defrauding an innkeeper, and petty theft. Together, he faced a possible maximum penalty of 13 years in prison, a year for each of his victims. The heavy charges further divided the public. "Felony for eating and running?" someone scoffed on Twitter. "What a waste of tax dollars to imprison someone for that." Unable to make bail, set at $315,000, Gonzales remained in custody until his court date. "He told me stories about inside the jail," Cass recalled, when they later crossed paths in a courthouse hallway. "He lived like a hero in there. He said, you know, inmates were high-fiving him, and... even some of the deputies." On September 11, 2018, Gonzales appeared at a preliminary court hearing, where some of his female victims sarcastically complimented his lime green prison jumpsuit. "He was definitely the cleanest, sharpest looking guy in court, and county jail, probably," Cass recalled. "His hair was always coiffed. And he always came in looking like he was ready for one of his dates." Gonzales pleaded not guilty, then listened to witness statements from half a dozen of his victims. On the witness stand, Wendy Luttrell told the court about a February 2018 date at Pasadena's Parkway Grill. Gonzales said he needed to wire money to his daughters in college in Arizona, then vanished. "I didn't have a choice. He left so I had to pay the bill," said Luttrell, a 52-year-old divorcée. She avoided causing a scene in front of restaurant staff, and added: "It's not their fault that he's a jerk." Gonzales, now 45, interrupted proceedings to complain to the judge about his court-appointed lawyer. While it would have made for incredible entertainment, the judge shut down the idea of Gonzales representing himself. After hearing the evidence, the judge concluded that the women were the victims. "But victims of what crime? That's really the issue," he said, before concluding it wasn't extortion. When the prosecution didn't agree with the judge's ruling, the deputy district attorney asked for a rare motion, sending the case to a superior court for ruling. "It was all very dramatic," recalled Cass. A superior court judge agreed it wasn't extortion. Instead, Gonzales pleaded no contest to four misdemeanors: three counts of defrauding an innkeeper by non-payment, and one count of petty theft. While it was not the 13-year sentence Cass had hoped for, Gonzales was sent to jail for 120 days, and ordered to pay $240 in restitution to two of his victims proving there's no such thing as a free lunch. He was placed on probation for three years, and must stay at least 100 yards away from five restaurants. He was also barred from the dating sites PlentyofFish and Bumble, who sent flowers to victims, including one bouquet that carried a note reading: "Sorry, we got your back, girl." There was a party atmosphere outside the courthouse after the judge handed down his sentence. "I believe in karma," laughed Carol Meredith, who had encouraged other victims to speak to the media, and the police. "He doesn't have to worry about any meals now, he's gonna get three square meals a day!" Eight of the witnesses arrived at a nearby restaurant for happy hour, where glasses were clinked and appetizers shared. "It was pretty awesome," said Marjorie Moon. "We all got to meet each other and know that you're not the only one, it was kinda nice." When a waiter arrived with the ladies' check, he was surprised by a gale of laughter. After he was released from jail, I tried to reach Paul Gonzales through his mother, who asked not to be named. She believes her son "did not commit any crimes." Her professional perspective as a clinical social worker is that her son's behavior may have been caused by his "ugly" break-up, which triggered unprocessed pain from his childhood the feeling of being abandoned. She was upbeat about his future, and said he is focused on being a great father to his sons. "He is all about reading to them, explaining everything to them...doing math with them… baseball, basketball, and football. He's all about their social skills... how to order food at a restaurant." Eventually Gonzales agreed to meet me in April this year, in a Starbucks in Santa Monica, but later changed his mind about giving a full interview. Gonzales claimed he was innocent. He insists he only ran from one restaurant; he'd never met some of his alleged victims; the whole thing was a conspiracy. It was the women who "catfished" him by using outdated photographs, he said. "I got tired of paying for people who are scamming me." According to Gonzales his dating days are over. He says he's in a healthy relationship with newborn twins at home. He also boasted of a new, high-powered job for Nike and the NFL, which I suspected was another of his fabrications. (Nike and the NFL did not respond to a request for comment.) "The construction of the fantasy seems to be an important part of his process," said Dr. Frank T. McAndrew, a professor of psychology at Knox College. "The only thing that makes sense here is that Gonzales gets a rush from pulling off each new caper. The planning of it, luring the victim in, and at least for the moment being the center of a desirable woman's attention." McAndrew said he expected Gonzales to strike again, "as the thrill of possibly getting caught is probably part of the fun." I thought about that when I met Gonzales for the last time at Starbucks, early one Sunday morning. He placed a used coffee cup on the counter and asked the server for a free refill. After he bounced off to find a table, a tired-looking manager appeared. "I've been here since 4:30 this morning and that man has bought nothing," she said flatly. "He's not getting a refill." Out of embarrassment, I quickly paid for his drink. At another café in Pasadena, Cass sometimes bumps into Gonzales, too. He's pecking away at another book, based on a real-life villain who likes to eat but not to pay. You might see them one day, if you're in the City of Roses, just two casanovas enjoying a cup of coffee. Not long ago, I spoke to Carol Meredith, who told me that standing up for herself on Inside Edition gave her acting career a boost. She has since appeared in the CBS cop drama S.W.A.T. , and General Hospital . She is still looking for love and has returned to online dating. Marjorie Moon, who had sworn off restaurant dates, eventually agreed to meet another handsome stranger from a dating app. She found a babysitter, and drove across town, but this time her date picked up the check, she said, speaking from their honeymoon in Hawaii. Read more at The Daily Beast.


The large novelty check that 49ers receiver Marquise Goodwin received for winning the "40 yards of gold" competition isn't worth the cardboard it's printed on. At least not until Friday. Daniel Kaplan of TheAthletic.com reports that event organizers have instructed competitors not to try to cash their checks until Friday, July 5. "In regards to the tweets about payouts, everyone received their checks," co-organizer Charles Stewart told Kaplan via email. "We instructed them that they would be able to cash it by Friday ." Per Kaplan, Stewart didn't explain the reason for the delay, and Stewart wouldn't confirm whether the total prize money of $2 million hinges on money made via the $39.95 pay-per-view earnings. An unnamed agent who represents one of the competitors expressed concern to Kaplan regarding the six-day delay between the event and payment, calling it a "complete joke." "I have been suspicious this whole time, but that's a lot of money to pay out for a first-time event," the unnamed agent told Kaplan. Event organizers consistently have claimed that they have an investor, but they consistently have denied to name the investor. (Maybe they also were advised to not cash the check from the investor until Friday.) Whatever the reason, and even if the money is indeed paid on Friday (or ever), it's the latest misstep for an event that (in my opinion) hasn't been marketed or otherwise handled in an optimal way. For example, Stewart has flat-out refused to acknowledge that "40 yards of gold" isn't the first event of its kind   even though NBC televised the NFL Fastest Man competition 11 times, with Hall of Famer Darrell Green winning the thing on four different occasions. "It's not his idea," Stewart told Ben Fischer of Sports Business Journal regarding Bob Basche, who conceived the NFL Fastest Man competition. "I never even saw his event. . . . I'm not acknowledging anything he did. Whatever he did was whatever he did in his time. I wasn't watching. I don't know what he did." I don't know what Stewart gains from having such a gratuitously combative attitude toward an event that no longer exists. It would have cost nothing to embrace the Fastest Man concept; it actually could have helped stir a little nostalgia and perhaps persuaded enough people to support the event so that the checks could have been cashed immediately after they were written.


Clean energy has a dirty secret. While the industry is welcoming more women leaders, its rank-and-file workforce is still a lot like those at fossil-fuel companies: white and dominated by men. The lack of gender diversity is being driven by manufacturing jobs , and that means women are now missing out on the biggest jobs boom America has to offer. Solar installer and wind-turbine technician are the two fastest-growing professions in the U.S., projected to rise more than any others through 2026. One in every 50 new positions created in the U.S. involved solar in 2016, and clean power now accounts for about a third of all employment in the energy sector. "I have about 170 people on site at this project down in South Texas, and I think I have close to 10% female," said Kim Smith , a 56-year-old vice president of construction for the Spanish renewable energy developer Acciona SA. "It's nowhere near enough. What would be enough? Enough would be 50-50." In terms of leadership, progressive-thinking clean power companies are breaking the mold in the energy industry, where an old boys' club culture has long reigned. Almost a quarter of regulated electric utilities in the U.S. are now run by women -- three times their representation in the Fortune 500 by percentage. The picture looks different when the overall workforce is considered. By Brookings Institution's count, the renewable power generation business is even less diverse than the fossil-fuel production industry, with women accounting for 13% of the U.S. workforce. In Europe, women hold less than a third of renewable energy manufacturing jobs and are largely employed in lower-skilled and administrative jobs. The breakdown is similar in Asia. The seeds for the gender imbalance is seen as having been sown years earlier by a culture where boys get toy trucks, girls get dolls and the former are encouraged to study science, technology and engineering more. By the time women go to college, they're gravitating toward consulting and project management rather than traditional construction jobs, said Remy Pangle , director at James Madison University's sustainable energy division. "How do you get girls interested in things that are more interesting to boys," she said, "without having to make your LEGOs pink?" A study by the International Renewable Energy Agency released this year showed women account for 45% of the industry's administrative jobs but only 28% of its math, science, technology and engineering ones. Acciona's Smith calls herself "lucky" because she grew up helping her father and uncle with their small construction company. She fears her teenage nieces will shy away from jobs like hers. That's what prompted her to write a letter to the Chicago Tribune in March. "We need to excite girls even younger," she wrote. "Let them know their lives don't have to be spent behind a desk. They're needed in the field." For women already in the industry, the going isn't easy. At a time when the #MeToo movement is raising awareness about gender-based discrimination everywhere from Hollywood to Wall Street, Jamie Yarmoff -- a 24-year-old project manager for power generator AES Corp. -- says the renewable industry too needs to change. Ignored Emails She recalls being a construction manager on a solar project and having to make multiple requests for plans from a contractor. She never received a response, and the information was instead being sent to one of her male colleagues, according to Yarmoff. "I have to go further than my male counterparts to prove the same worth, because otherwise, why should they listen to me?" she said. AES said in a statement that it's advancing diversity and inclusion throughout the entire company. As for wages, men earn 26% more than women in the the U.S. solar business -- at all position levels -- a joint report by the Solar Foundation and Solar Energy Industries Association shows. "We have a responsibility to create cultural change and address the systemic forces that have allowed discrimination to fester," said Abigail Ross Hopper, SEIA's president and CEO. "It's imperative that we take proactive steps to advance these issues, because it isn't going to happen on its own." 'A Family Business' In Asia, most of the female leaders at clean energy companies didn't "earn" their positions, said Molly Huang , executive secretary of the group Women in Renewables Asia. Instead, "it's like a family business, and they are wives, daughters and family members of the board," she said. "The ultimate goal is to improve the hiring process to include more women in clean energy." Meanwhile, Brussels-based Women Enablers Change Agent Network is fighting for a breakthrough in gender equality. "While European women outnumber men in university degrees, they are less likely to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics," co-founder Anna-Kaisa Itkonen said. Kristen Graf, who runs a New York-based group representing women in renewable energy, cautions that lack of diversity is so pronounced that even those getting into the field can feel alienated. "Unfortunately, this is the case in a lot of places where there's one woman on the site -- that sense of isolation in the mix," she said. "Even if you're that woman who loves hanging out with the guys and fits in, is incredibly good at your work and loves that space, it still can be an isolating feeling. So how do you stay in it and stick with it?" --With assistance from Ewa Krukowska and Aaron Clark. To contact the reporters on this story: Gerald Porter Jr. in New York at gporter30@bloomberg.net;Lynn Doan in San Francisco at ldoan6@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: Pratish Narayanan at pnarayanan9@bloomberg.net, Janet Paskin For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com ©2019 Bloomberg L.P.


Former Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson doesn't vehemently disagree with his former coach about the idea of paying college football players. Clemson coach Dabo Swinney has been one of the more outspoken coaches against the idea of paying players as more and more people are open to the idea that college athletes should get paid. Watson told Yahoo Sports that he was "50-50" when it came to paying players. "I'm like 50-50, I guess. I see where a lot of people come from when they don't want to pay the players," the Houston Texans QB said in the video above before noting that a star quarterback on a team gets a lot more attention than an offensive lineman. All college football teammates get the same cost-of-attendance stipends and book and housing stipends. In a May interview with ESPN in the afterglow of his 10-year, $93 million contract extension, Swinney mentioned how professionalizing college football would turn him off from it. "Who knows what's going to happen down the road? I have no idea," Swinney said. "I just try to be great where my feet are. That's my focus every day. Who knows? They may do away with college football in three years. There may be no college football. They may want to professionalize college athletics. Well, then, maybe I'll go to the pros. If I'm going to coach pro football, I might as well do that." It wasn't the first time Swinney   the man with the richest college football coaching contract ever   had used the term professionalize when it comes to paying college football players. Watson, the quarterback on Clemson's 2016 national championship team, said he wasn't worried about the money when he was in school. "It just depends. I was fine whenever I was in school I was good. I didn't really care about the money."               Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports. More from Yahoo Sports: Report: Big changes coming for NCAA football bowls Barkley: Durant doesn't have 'mental makeup' for NY Canelo, ESPN's Stephen A. trade verbal barbs Ex-NFL star faces life in prison as jury deliberates


You may already have the Peach Truck's arrival marked on your calendar. If not   the popular mobile fresh fruit delivery makes its annual trips from Ft. Valley, Georgia, to a handful of spots around the Louisville area twice this month and again in July. "Louisville really gets the energy of what we are trying to do with the Peach Truck," Stephen Rose said. "In Louisville, you all will come out no matter what the weather and wait in line because you really love the fresh fruit of the South. Louisville is our biggest stop on the tour." And that's saying a lot. The Peach Truck makes stops all summer selling half bushel boxes (25 pounds) of super fresh juicy Georgia peaches for $45 not only in Kentucky but Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Texas, Tennessee and Pennsylvania. Rose, who grew up in Georgia eating aromatic peaches straight off the tree, started his fruit delivery service with his wife Jessica in 2012 because he says he was "tired of the tasteless grocery store peach options" in his new home in Tennessee. You may like: This generation's 'When Harry Met Sally'? A Louisville producer's 'Plus One' hits theaters It didn't take long for word about the Peach Truck to spread and soon the Roses were providing peaches to cities and towns all over the Midwest and the South. But here's the thing, unless you are feeding a hungry sports team or hosting a neighborhood picnic, it's not easy to consume a half bushel   about 55 peaches   before they go bad. Sure you may split your bounty with family and friends or spend a day canning your super sweet peaches, but we're here to tell you there is a third way to utilize your Peach Truck purchase. The Roses have written "The Peach Truck Cookbook " filled with 100 recipes. That's more than enough options to use up every last piece of fruit in your order. "We know that most people think of peaches as a snack or dessert food like a cobbler, but our cookbook is filled with so many other ideas like a great double cheeseburger with peach catsup, baked peach oatmeal that will last all week and information on canning and freezing peaches," Rose said. You can pick up a cookbook when you buy your peaches but wouldn't it be fun to spend some time with the Roses? The couple will also visit Carmichael's Bookstore , 2720 Frankfort Ave., for a signing of their book (Scribner, $28) and to answer your orchard-to-table questions on at 7 p.m. June 27. You may like: Going to see 'Hamilton' in Louisville? Here are 9 tips to make you feel 'satisfied' Whether you're craving peach pecan sticky buns, peach jalapeno cornbread, white pizza with peach, pancetta, and chile, or peach lavender lemonade   or have always wanted to try your hand at making a classic peach pie   The Peach Truck Cookbook can be your go-to resource. Besides their new cookbook, the Roses post recipe ideas on their website which happens to also be where you'll find details on all the Peach Truck stops this summer. We've listed a few for you here, but it's always a good idea to double check before you make the drive. Now you can have your fresh peaches and eat them too   in 100 different ways. Reach Kirby Adams at kadams@courier-journal.com or Twitter @kirbylouisville. Support strong local journalism by subscribing today: courier-journal.com/kirbya. Peach Truck locations The Peach Truck will make multiple stops around the Louisville area in June and July and prefers any major credit or debit card for purchases. For a full list of stops, visit thepeachtruck.com/pages/tour . Friday, June 21 Rural King, 5985 N Dixie Highway, Elizabethtown: 8-10:30 a.m. Buzick Lumber, 1330 E John Rowan Blvd., Bardstown: 12:30 -2 p.m. Tractor Supply Company and Hillview Peddlers Mall, 11250 Preston Hwy.: 3:30-5 p.m. Saturday, June 22 Brownsboro Hardware and Paint, 4858 Brownsboro Road: 8-10 a.m. and noon-1:30 p.m. Rural King, 960 E 10th St., Jeffersonville, Indiana: 3-4:30 p.m. Rural King, 181 Boone Station Road, Shelbyville: 4:30-5:30 p.m. Friday, July 12 Rural King, 5985 N Dixie Highway, Elizabethtown: 8-10:30 a.m. Buzick Lumber, 1330 E John Rowan Blvd, Bardstown: 12:30 -2 p.m. Tractor Supply Company and Hillview Peddlers Mall, 11250 Preston Highway.: 3:30-5 p.m. Saturday, July 13 Brownsboro Hardware and Paint, 4858 Brownsboro Road: 8-10 a.m. and noon-1:30 p.m. Rural King, 960 E 10th St., Jeffersonville, Indiana: 3-4:30 p.m. Rural King, 181 Boone Station Road, Shelbyville: 4:30-5:30 p.m. This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: The Peach Truck returns to Louisville for summer 2019


Interested in discovering the freshest new spots in the Loop? From a French restaurant to a fried chicken spot, read on for a list of the newest hotspots to debut in this area of Chicago. Francois Frankie 222 W. Randolph St. Francois Frankie is a French spot. This new business offers pasta, salad, seafood and more. On the menu, look for the truffle macaroni and cheese, the jumbo shrimp cocktail or the lobster bisque. Francois Frankie's current Yelp rating of 4.5 stars out of 15 reviews indicates positive attention from users. Yelper Mimi L., who reviewed Francois Frankie on July 27, wrote , "This place is so lovely! A classy, upscale restaurant with a unique twist   a revolving carousel bar! In addition to the nice interior design, our server, Kori, was such a delight, very sweet and professional." Minnie C. noted , "Went on opening weekend and tried the calamari, crab cake, blackened redfish and prime rib. All the food was delicious, the calamari had a nice spicy kick also, quite unique and good. Redfish and steak were also nicely seasoned and cooked." Francois Frankie is open from 7 a.m. 10 p.m. on weekdays and 10 a.m. 10 p.m. on weekends. Teatro Zinzanni 32 W. Randolph St. Teatro Zinzanni is a dinner theater spot. Teatro Zinzanni offers both dinner and show. On the dinner menu, look for the bucatini pasta with Italian sausage, braised beef short rib or the salmon with farro and spinach pilaf. Yelp users are excited about Teatro Zinzanni, which currently holds five stars out of five reviews on the site. Yelper Robert G., who reviewed Teatro Zinzanni on July 21, wrote , "Lots of skill and practice went into this show. Pay attention to the band, especially the drummer, he's quite good! Had the salmon was good enough; the dessert which was vanilla cheesecake and caramel popcorn was outstanding." Yelper Lori M. wrote , "Absolutely fantastic! A must see show! Even in the general seating you were very close to the performers. Not a bad seat anywhere!" The new business hasn't shared its hours online thus far. Fry The Coop 205 W. Wacker Drive, Suite 100 Fry The Coop is a chicken shop, offering sandwiches and more. This new business specializes in fried chicken. On the menu, look for the doughnut fried chicken sandwich with a glazed doughnut and special sauce or the chicken and waffles with maple syrup. Yelp users are excited about Fry The Coop, which currently holds five stars out of five reviews on the site. Yelper Lee E., who reviewed Fry The Coop on July 20, wrote , "Wow, this is the best chicken sandwich I have ever had. So much flavor and fresh. And the coleslaw was outstanding! Slaw is usually lame. It is a tiny place, and the spicy is off the chart." Yelper Chris R. wrote , "This Nashville hot chicken sandwich joint is brand new inside the Wells St Market in the Loop and doesn't disappoint on the fried chicken heat." The new spot has yet to share its hours online. This story was created automatically using local business data, then reviewed and augmented by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.


ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) The Tampa Bay Rays keep winning - and drawing sparse crowds at home. Austin Meadows homered for the third straight game and five Tampa Bay relievers combined to throw a six-hitter and beat struggling AL East rival Toronto 3-1 on Tuesday night. The second-place Rays have won fourth straight, improving to a season-best 14 games over .500 before an announced crowd of just 5,786 - smallest ever for a Rays home game at Tropicana Field. ''I noticed it during the anthem, and I was like: `Oh it's still early, maybe people will still file in,''' opener Ryne Stanek said after Tampa Bay's sixth win in seven games moved them within one game of the division-leading New York Yankees. ''It's tough, especially when we're playing well and we're playing a fun brand of baseball that's fun to watch,'' Stanek added. ''We don't play boring baseball. We don't play sloppy.'' The Rays, who routinely rank at or near the bottom of the major leagues in attendance, began the night averaging an AL-worst 14,578 per game. There have been only two smaller crowds for big league games played in the domed stadium - both in 2017, when Hurricane Harvey forced relocation of a Rangers-Astros series from Houston and attracted 3,485 on Aug. 29, 6,123 on Aug. 30 and 3,385 on Aug. 31. Meadows hit his 12th homer of the season, a solo shot to right field off reliever Thomas Pannone in the seventh inning. He also homered Sunday at Cleveland, as well as Monday during an 8-3 victory over Toronto and has nine hits and seven RBIs in the past three games. Avisail Garcia had an inside-the-park homer off Clayton Richard (0-1) in the third and also scored on a first-inning sacrifice fly. Meanwhile, the Rays bullpen - beginning with opener Ryne Stanek - limited the Blue Jays to four singles and a pair of doubles. Ryan Yarbrough (4-1) pitched 3 2/3 innings for the win, working out of a jam after Justin Smoak singled and Rowdy Tellez doubled to begin the Toronto fourth. Chaz Roe, Emilio Pagan and Diego Castillo, who yielded two hits and Brandon Drury's sacrifice fly in the ninth inning, finished up. The Blue Jays have dropped six of seven and fell to 0-8-1 in their series against Tampa Bay, dating to August 2017. The Rays used an opener for the 17th time this season. Stanek has made 15 of those starts, holding opponents scoreless in 13 of those outings. Yarbrough, meanwhile, continued to prosper in what's become his customary role of following an opener. The 27-year-old left-hander led major league rookies with 16 victories last season, 14 of them as a reliever. Richard, acquired from San Diego in an offseason trade, made his second start for Toronto after beginning the season on the injured list (right knee). He allowed two runs, three hits and four walks over four innings - the biggest blow Garcia's routine fly that dropped behind right fielder Randal Grichuk and rolled to the wall. Garcia, who singled in the first and scored on Travis d'Arnaud's sacrifice fly, circled the bases for the first inside-the-park homer of his career. ''He said that he got disorientated,'' Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo said of Grichuk, who broke in on the ball before realizing it was going to land well behind him. ''He was looking up, looking up and then he was like, it was weird,'' the manager added. ''He felt bad about it, too.'' TRAINER'S ROOM Blue Jays: RHP Aaron Sanchez, who left Monday's series opener with a finger injury, will throw a side session Thursday or Friday before a decision is made on whether he'll go on the injured list or remain in the rotation. ... A flu bug has affected several Blue Jays the past week, including INF Cavan Biggio, who was not in the lineup Tuesday. Rays: C Mike Zunino (left quadriceps strain) started a rehab assignment with Class A Charlotte and will have his status evaluated this weekend. ... INF Matt Duffy, out all season with a strained left hamstring, will see a specialist Wednesday. ... INF Yandy Diaz still felt some discomfort in his bruised left hand during his first batting practice session. He plans to hit again Wednesday. MCKAY'S DAY Rays two-way prospect Brendan McKay allowed three hits and struck out four over five scoreless innings in his first start with Triple-A Durham against Louisville. The lefty went 3-0 in eight games, striking out 62 and walking nine over 41 2/3 innings with Double-A Montgomery. He struggled offensively at Double-A, hitting .167 (13 for 78). UP NEXT Reigning AL Cy Young Award winner Blake Snell (3-4, 3.07 ERA), who's received a combined two runs of support over his last three outings, starts the finale of the three-game series Wednesday night. The Blue Jays counter with right-hander Trent Thornton (1-4, 4.42). --- More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP-Sports


When the United States women's national team announced the starting lineup for the team's Tuesday match against England, a notable name was missing: Megan Rapinoe, who had scored all four of the U.S. team's knockout round goals against Spain and France. We now have some insight as to why Rapinoe is not on the field for the USWNT's match vs. England in the Women's World Cup semifinal. Fox Sports host Rob Stone said on air during halftime that Rapinoe has a reported hamstring injury. MORE: USWNT vs. England live scores, highlights While the loss certainly stings, especially as it relates to the USWNT's offensive capability, the U.S. managed to take a 2-1 lead at the half. There's no word if Rapinoe will be able to suit up for the U.S. in its next match   either in the bronze or gold medal match.


The battle over whether to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census was thrown into turmoil on Tuesday, just as the Supreme Court was expected to issue a ruling on the dispute this week. By allowing a district judge to reopen a case related to the origin of the question, a federal appeals court raised the prospect that the federal government might be unable to meet a deadline for completing census questionnaires that include it, regardless of the Supreme Court's ruling. New hearings in the reopened case would stretch well beyond July 1, which is the deadline for printing the questionnaire and other forms. The Census Bureau has said that meeting that deadline is essential to conducting the national head count on time. Sign Up for the Morning Briefing Newsletter The case had appeared to be on a fast track to a resolution   until documents on the computer backups of a deceased Republican strategist, Thomas B. Hofeller, emerged last month. Those documents revealed new details about the genesis of the question, casting additional doubt on the Trump administration's rationale for asking 2020 census respondents whether they are citizens. [ How a deceased G.O.P. strategist's hard drives reveal ed new details on the c ensus citizenship question ] In a 2-to-1 ruling on Tuesday, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit halted its review of a decision in two Maryland lawsuits challenging the citizenship question and returned the case to United States District Judge George J. Hazel. The judge had asked last week to reopen the case so that Mr. Hofeller's newly discovered files could be factored into his ruling. Judge Hazel now has license to explore the issue and indicated this week that he would give plaintiffs in the Maryland lawsuit 45 days to gather new evidence. One appeals court judge suggested in the ruling on Tuesday that Judge Hazel should issue an injunction barring the addition of the question to the census until the new proceedings are finished. Should that happen, as appeared likely on Tuesday, the Census Bureau could print forms with a citizenship question on schedule only if the Supreme Court intervened. On Tuesday, the Justice Department asked the Supreme Court in a letter to step into the Maryland lawsuit and resolve the issue itself. Otherwise, the letter stated, the administration would ask the justices to lift any injunction that Judge Hazel might impose. Photo gallery by Business Insider The appeals court's ruling effectively throws a wrench into a hugely consequential legal dispute that already had been expedited through the courts because of the bureau's printing deadline. The two judges who voted to reopen the case, Robert B. King and James A. Wynn Jr., were nominated by President Clinton and President Obama. The dissenting judge, G. Steven Agee, was nominated by President George W. Bush. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who oversees the Census Bureau, has said he ordered the citizenship question added to the census because the Justice Department needed citizenship data to better enforce the Voting Rights Act. But judges in three federal lawsuits opposing the question, including Judge Hazel, have called that a poorly manufactured excuse that conceals a different motivation. Plaintiffs in the lawsuits   cities, states, advocacy groups and others   say Mr. Ross is trying to turn the census into a political weapon against Democrats. They say the citizenship question will deter noncitizens and minorities from filling out the form, leading to an undercount in the predominantly Democratic areas where they live. And they charge that the Republican Party wants a count of noncitizens so that it can exclude them entirely from the population base used for drawing new political maps. By that argument, the citizenship question is an extension of the Republican Party's wildly successful effort in 2010 to gain and hold political power by controlling the redistricting process. The strategy then was to pour money and talent into winning control of the state legislatures that draw political maps. The strategy now, the plaintiffs say, is to further control redistricting by reducing the number of people who are represented in Democratic districts   and thus reduce the number of Democratic districts as well. The Trump administration has dismissed that as fantasy. But evidence from the lawsuits showed that Mr. Ross took an interest in the impact of noncitizens on political maps only weeks after taking office and invented the rationale that more data was needed for Voting Rights Act enforcement. The disclosure of Mr. Hofeller's files last month added weight to the plaintiffs' claims. They included a study that Mr. Hofeller prepared for a major Republican donor in 2015, which concluded that the next round of redistricting could be swayed to Republicans' advantage in some states by excluding mostly Hispanic noncitizens and people under voting age from the population totals used to draw political maps. But that could only happen, he wrote, if the next census included a question on citizenship. The next year, Mr. Hofeller urged President-elect Trump's transition advisers to add the question to the 2020 census. Judge Hazel had ruled in April that Mr. Ross's actions violated the Constitution's requirements for the census and federal rule-making guidelines. But he said that the plaintiffs in the Maryland lawsuit had failed to prove a third contention   that the citizenship question was a deliberate effort by Mr. Ross to discriminate against Hispanics for political gain, violating their civil rights and the Fifth Amendment's equal protection guarantee. In an opinion issued on Monday, the judge wrote that the Hofeller documents were reason enough to take a second look at that issue. "It is becoming difficult to avoid seeing that which is increasingly clear," he wrote. "As more puzzle pieces are placed on the mat, a disturbing picture of the decision makers' motives takes shape." Although the census lawsuit before the Supreme Court is a different case that originated in Manhattan, it includes the same issues that Judge Hazel considered. But the question of discrimination is at issue only in the Maryland lawsuit, which is why the fate of the citizenship question appears to rest on its resolution   and on the July 1 printing deadline. In papers filed in the Supreme Court last week, the Justice Department took issue with the Census Bureau's contention that it needed to start printing forms next month, saying the agency could wait as late as Oct. 31 to begin the work. But experts say the printing work is so vast   more than a billion pieces of paper   and such a logistical tangle that the bureau's ability to put off its start is measured in weeks, not months. Some of the census forms require high-quality printing equipment that is not commonly available; in 2010, the bureau had to use virtually every such printer in the nation to complete its work. Nor is rescheduling the work a simple matter, because printing companies have contracts to serve other customers that have been scheduled for times when census forms are not being printed. Nor does the bureau have any give in its own schedule. The first census forms must be distributed in Alaska in January, and by law, the count must be complete by Dec. 31 of next year. "It's not like the Census Bureau can demand things at the drop of a hat," said one former senior official at the bureau, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of an advising relationship with the agency. "You'd really be putting the operational plan at great risk if this stretches into mid-August. You may not have a census at all in 2020."


Amy Jean Klobuchar is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States Senator from Minnesota. A member of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, Minnesota's affiliate of the Democratic Party, she previously served as the Hennepin County Attorney. Born: May 25, 1960 (age 59) Office: Senator D-MN (Since 2007) Spouse: John Bessler Official site: https://amyklobuchar.com/ Find more on Bing ON KEY ISSUES: Minimum wage: Supports $15/hour federal minimum wage Electoral college: Supports eliminating the electoral college Climate change: Supports the Green New Deal Gun control: Favors assault weapons ban, favors universal background checks Health care: Opposes Medicare for All, but would expand coverage ( Positions compiled by Politico . Click here for a detailed look at Amy Klobuchar's views and where other 2020 candidates stand on the issues .) Microsoft News candidate guide: Learn about any or all of the other Democratic contenders COMPLETE PROFILE: Who is Amy Klobuchar? An in-depth look at her biography, family, key positions and where she stands in the race. (Business Insider) RELATED CONTENT: 100 actions, 100 days: The Minnesota Democrat, who is touting herself as a Midwestern pragmatist in a field of coastal liberals, said there were "things that can get done right now, without waiting on the Republican leaders." (Roll Call) Policy with laughter: As much as she dislikes President Donald Trump's behavior, Klobuchar believes his use of humor, albeit mostly cutting, helped get him elected. (Des Moines Register)


Marquise Brown 's stay on the Ravens' active/PUP list looks to be nearing an end. The first-round wide receiver received medical clearance on Tuesday, Jamison Hensley of ESPN.com tweets . After passing his conditioning test last week, Brown passed his physical. The Oklahoma-produced deep threat has been rehabbing a Lisfranc injury since before the Combine. Brown, who had foot surgery in January, is now on track to play in each of Baltimore's preseason games, Hensley adds ( on Twitter ). This is welcome news for a Ravens team that has a few new skill-position contributors around a developing quarterback. John Harbaugh recently said this new Ravens offense will "change the way offensive football is played in the National Football League." Brown stands to play a major role in that lofty aspiration coming to fruition.


WASHINGTON   Robert S. Mueller III's longtime right-hand aide will appear beside him to assist as he testifies before two House committees on Wednesday, and will be sworn in as a witness for one of the sessions, according to congressional officials familiar with the arrangement. The unusual arrangement was agreed to at the 11th hour on Tuesday, as lawmakers on the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees were undertaking their final preparations for what was expected to be an inflection point in the Democrats' investigations of President Trump. [ Follow our live coverage of Mueller's testimony before Congress .] Mr. Mueller, the former special counsel, had been expected to appear alone during both hearings, but his team made a last-minute request in recent days that the aide, Aaron Zebley , be sworn in as a witness. The Judiciary Committee did not ultimately agree to that, but it said Mr. Zebley could sit beside Mr. Mueller to provide counsel as he navigates lawmakers' questions. Late Tuesday, an Intelligence Committee official said that panel would allow the deputy to take an oath and theoretically answer questions himself from members of the panel. Sign Up For the Morning Briefing Newsletter The requests injected a taste of uncertainty on Capitol Hill on the eve of the long-anticipated hearings. At least in the Intelligence Committee, the arrangement will take pressure off Mr. Mueller, 74, to respond to questions he may not be able or want to answer. Mr. Zebley's presence could also upend carefully laid plans by Democrats and Republicans over how to use their scant time with Mr. Mueller, a reluctant witness known for his concision while under oath. [ Here are 19 questions we have for Mr. Mueller before he testifies . ] Jim Popkin, a spokesman for Mr. Mueller, said on Tuesday that Mr. Zebley would "accompany Special Counsel Mueller to the Wednesday hearings, as was discussed with the committees more than a week ago." The congressional officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private negotiations, did not specify whether Mr. Mueller or his team explained the requests. Mr. Zebley has worked closely with Mr. Mueller for years. He worked alongside the special counsel during his 22-month investigation, served as his chief of staff when Mr. Mueller was F.B.I. director and followed him into private practice at the WilmerHale law firm. Mr. Zebley filled a similar role on the special counsel's team, coordinating it and serving as a go-between with the Justice Department. Mr. Popkin identified Mr. Zebley as the investigation's "deputy special counsel" and said he "had day-to-day oversight of the investigations conducted by the office." It is not uncommon for government witnesses to bring aides to congressional hearings for private assistance, though in almost all cases, the aides sit behind, rather than next to, the witness, as Mr. Zebley will do before the Judiciary Committee. Here, assistance could be particularly beneficial. Mr. Mueller is being asked to account for two years' worth of investigative details uncovered by a large team of investigators and to do so while avoiding the disclosure of nonpublic information. The committees have roughly divided their focus, so the Judiciary Committee will concentrate on Mr. Mueller's account of possible obstruction of justice by Mr. Trump and the Intelligence Committee on Russia's interference in the 2016 election and ties to the Trump campaign. The idea of speaking to Mr. Mueller's deputies is not necessarily new. The two panels had previously expected to talk to Mr. Zebley and another former member of the special counsel's team, James L. Quarles III, in private sessions after the public hearings. But those meetings were canceled after the Justice Department objected . The department is unlikely to be pleased by Tuesday's developments, but because Mr. Mueller and Mr. Zebley are now private citizens, officials there have little recourse. Democrats signaled they had little interest in the department's view, either. In a separate letter to Mr. Mueller on Tuesday night, Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, said he expected Mr. Mueller to answer the committee's questions on a wide range of topics, regardless of instruction by the Justice Department to limit his testimony. "The D.O.J. letter attempts unduly to circumscribe your testimony and represents yet another attempt by the Trump administration to obstruct the authorized oversight activity and legitimate investigations of the committee," Mr. Schiff wrote. "The committee categorically rejects the department's overly expansive and baseless 'prophylactic' assertion of executive privilege in all its various forms. Accordingly, I fully expect that the D.O.J. letter will have no bearing on your testimony before the committee tomorrow." On Tuesday night on Twitter , Mr. Trump made his thoughts about the hearings clearly known, calling them a "rigged Witch Hunt," a refrain he has used since the start of the Russia investigation. He also identified Mr. Zebley, without evidence, as a "Never Trumper" and called his presence in the hearings "a disgrace to our system." "Never heard of this before," Mr. Trump tweeted. "VERY UNFAIR, SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED." The president frequently attacked members of Mr. Mueller's team during his investigation for their political affiliations or prior statements. But Mr. Zebley was not one of those targets. He has no known party affiliation, and according to a Washington Post review , has not donated to candidates from either party. Congressional Republicans had quickly denounced the possibility that Mr. Zebley could appear in public as a witness for other reasons. Representative Doug Collins of Georgia, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said the last-minute addition of a witness could violate House rules. He called on Democrats to reject the request. "If Democrats believe it is the special counsel's responsibility to testify to his report," he said, "they have no ground for outsourcing that duty at the expense of our committee's integrity."


Battles for the No. 1 goalie spot heading into any given season often isn't where teams want to be. The uncertainty for hockey's most important position is unsettling and often means the team embroiled in a training camp battle for that club's top job is far closer to the draft lottery than the Stanley Cup. Not everyone can have an Andrei Vasilevskiy or a Ben Bishop . Today, we will focus on a few teams that don't necessarily have that position locked up, and look into four battles that should play out once training camp gets underway in a couple month's time. 1. Edmonton Oilers Mikko Koskinen is Peter Chiarelli's last defining moment in a terrible tenure with the Oilers. Chiarelli, apparently with the blessing of the team, gave .900-save-percentage man Koskinen a three-year, $13.5 million raise because of reasons that may never been fully certain. The deal paved the way for a lot of scrutiny, the exit of Cam Talbot and the continuation of what was a compounding year of bad in Northern Alberta. Now, the Oilers have Mike Smith in the mix, the goalie who started 40 games and posted an .898 save percentage for the Calgary Flames last season in a timeshare with David Rittitch. But Smith's experience in the playoffs led head coach Bill Peters to give him the nod in goal. And now Smith heads up the road to battle for a job in Edmonton. Sure, Koskinen has the contract, but there's no question that Smith could outplay him in training camp and set up a big decision for newly-minted coach Dave Tippett. Tippett knows Smith well from his days as the bench boss in Arizona. 2. Arizona Coyotes Speaking of the desert dogs, what's the plan there? They essentially have two starting-caliber netminders with Antti Raanta and Darcy Kuemper . Raanta's season was derailed thanks to injury. He made just 12 starts before Kuemper took over the starting role. Raanta's 2017-18 campaign was outstanding with a .930 save percentage across 47 starts. The Coyotes had found someone to replace Mike Smith as a solid No. 1. When the lower-body injury ended Raanta's season in Nov. 2018, it would have been easy to write off the Coyotes   something many did. Kuemper would start 55 games, winning 27 of them and posting a .925 save percentage. His play gave the Coyotes a chance down the stretch, and while it ultimately ended with them not making the playoffs, it certainly showed that Arizona had two viable options between the pipes. [ ProHockeyTalk's 2019 NHL free agency tracker ] That's what makes this situation interesting. A time-share might be ideal here. It's something that's worked for several teams, including the New York Islanders, and to a certain extent, the Boston Bruins   while not a true timeshare   were able to rest Tuukka Rask more with a quality backup, allowing them to reach Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. If general manager John Chayka wants, he also has quite the asset in either goalie on the trade market, too. Kuemper is an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season and will likely be looking for a raise. For now, they have one of the better goaltending tandems in the league and some decisions to make because of it. 3. Ottawa Senators Craig Anderson has one year left on a deal that will pay him $4.75 million this coming season. Anders Nilsson is getting $2.6 million next season and impressed in 26 games played last season after getting shipped to Ottawa from Vancouver. Mike Condon is set to make $2.4 million this season. Nilsson seems the best bet to grab the starting role after the Sens gave him a two-year deal earlier this summer. Anderson's season last year wasn't great and Condon isn't going to be the starter after playing two games last season. Nilsson, on his sixth NHL team since being drafted in 2009 by the Islanders, finally found his stride in Ottawa, posting a .914 save percentage on a bad Senators team. 4. Los Angeles Kings Yes, Jonathan Quick has four years left and yes, he's getting paid $5.8 million. He was also a complete disaster last season between the pipes. So were the Kings, for that matter. But who really stood out among the wreckage was backup Jack Campbell . While Quick, 33, had a less than ideal .888 save percentage across 46 starts, Campbell, 27, and getting paid $5.125 million less than his teammate, put up a .928 on a very bad team. It's impressive. While the Kings haven't done much to improve themselves this summer, giving Campbell a shot at the starting gig might light a spark elsewhere in their lineup. They did seem to play better in front of him, and he inspired confidence with his play. Perhaps the time is now to give Campbell is chance and let Quick groom him (and potentially Cal Petersen) as the Kings begin to look to the future.   Scott Billeck is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports . Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @scottbilleck


Make the most of Social Security by knowing these answers. 10 Questions Before Signing Up for Social Security The process of collecting Social Security sounds simple   reach retirement age, file for benefits and start receiving paychecks. However, if you want to maximize your benefits, there are certain questions you should ask before you file. Click through to see what you should ask, and get the answers to your Social Security questions . What Is My Full Retirement Age? Your full retirement age, also known as your normal retirement age, is the age at which you can receive the full amount of your Social Security benefits. Full retirement age is defined by the Social Security Administration and varies based on your date of birth. If you were born in 1960 or later, full retirement age is 67. If you were born in 1937 or earlier, it's 65. When it comes to choosing your Social Security retirement age, your options are threefold. You can claim at your full retirement age, as early as 62 or wait until age 70. This is important to know before you file because it affects the amount of your payout . If you file at age 62, your benefits can be reduced by as much as 30 percent. If you wait until after full retirement age, your benefits can increase by as much as 8 percent per year until age 70, if you were born in 1943 or later. What Is My Breakeven Age? A simple breakeven age calculation can help you determine when you should claim your Social Security benefits . Your breakeven age is the age at which your total lifetime benefit would be the same, regardless of which age you began taking benefits. The calculation of your breakeven age depends on the amount of your benefit payments and when you claim them. You can use the Social Security Administration's calculator to help determine your benefit amount. For most people, the breakeven age is somewhere between 77 and 83. Have I Worked Enough Years? Before you file for Social Security , make sure that you qualify. You'll need 40 credits of coverage to qualify for Social Security retirement benefits. As of 2018, you get one credit of coverage for every $1,320 in earnings that you pay Social Security taxes on, up to a maximum of four per year. Since quarters of coverage were defined differently in prior years, you can check with the Social Security Administration to determine if you have qualified for retirement benefits or what your shortfall is. If you're filing for disability or survivor's benefits, you may not need 40 quarters of coverage. Check with the Social Security Administration or your tax advisor. How's My Health? Your health can play a big role in when you should claim your Social Security retirement benefits. While no one can predict with certainty how long they will live, you can make an educated guess based on your family history, genetics and personal health situation. If you've lived a healthy life and your family tree shows signs of longevity, you might be able to maximize your benefits by waiting to claim until after your full retirement age. If you've had health problems or if they run in your family, you might want to take benefits early . Is My Earnings Record Correct? Your Social Security benefits are based on your earnings record. This is a compilation of your earnings and Social Security taxes paid as recorded by the Social Security Administration. You can view your earnings record at any time on the Social Security Administration website, along with your projected benefits. Because your benefits are based on your earnings, you should check your Social Security statement annually to determine that the SSA has an accurate record of your earnings. The SSA uses your 35 highest-earning years to determine your benefits. If you have any low-earning years, or zero years, you can raise your benefit by replacing those years with additional higher-earning years. If you find any errors, you might be cheating yourself out of payments if you don't have them corrected. The SSA publishes instructions on how to correct your record if there are errors. What Are Spousal Benefits? If you're the spouse of an eligible recipient, you should ask about spousal benefits . You could end up receiving a benefit greater than one you might receive on your own. The beauty of spousal benefits is that you might be entitled to payments once you reach age 62 even if you haven't worked. You should ask the spousal benefits question even if you're divorced. As long as you were married at least 10 years, you could qualify for spousal benefits from your divorced spouse   even if they remarried   as long as:   You are at least age 62   You are unmarried   Your ex-spouse is entitled to benefits   Your own benefit is less than your spousal benefit If you claim a spousal benefit from your ex-spouse at full retirement age, you're entitled to one-half of your ex-spouse's benefit. Does Social Security Pay Additional Benefits? Social Security pays out more than just retirement benefits. Other people entitled to benefits under the program include:   Dependents of beneficiaries, including spouses and children   People who are disabled   Survivors of workers who have died, including divorced spouses   Dependents of workers who have died, including parents, spouses, children and divorced spouses While you're asking questions about signing up for Social Security, visit the SSA's online Benefit Eligibility Screening Tool. Filling out the questionnaire will tell you which benefits you might be eligible for, along with information about how to qualify and apply for those benefits. Will My Benefits Be Taxed? For many recipients, Social Security benefits are tax-free. But if you have substantial income in addition to your Social Security payments, you might have to pay tax on up to 85 percent of your benefits. The SSA defines income for these purposes as wages, self-employment income, dividends, interest or other taxable income that you'd normally declare when you file your taxes. Here are the income levels that determine taxation of Social Security benefits . Will Social Security Still Be Here in 2035? There have been lots of alarming stories in the press about how Social Security will go bankrupt by 2035, so this is a very current and valid question. The truth is comforting   and concerning. On one hand, the Social Security Trustees currently project that the Social Security surplus, which was $2.8 trillion at the end of 2016, will be exhausted by 2034. That doesn't mean that Social Security will go away when that happens. The active workforce in 2035 will still be paying into Social Security, and that money will be disbursed to Social Security recipients. However, if trends continue as they currently stand, that money will only be enough to pay about 77 percent of current Social Security benefits. This means that unless legislation is introduced to somehow raise revenue for the Social Security program, benefits will likely be cut by 2035. Are My Payments Reduced If I'm Still Working? If you have significant income beyond Social Security, those earnings could trigger taxation and a reduction in your Social Security payments. The good news is that once you reach full retirement age, you're entitled to your full benefits no matter how much money you earn. However, before full retirement age, your benefits will be reduced as follows:   If you're under full retirement age for the entire year, your benefits are reduced by $1 for every $2 you earn above the annual limit, which is $17,040 as of 2018.   In the year you reach full retirement age, your benefits are reduced by $1 for every $3 you earn above a different limit, which is $45,360 as of 2018. An important item to note is that this reduction in your benefits is not a withholding or a confiscation; you're still entitled to get those payments back once you reach full retirement age. Up Next: If You Can't Pass This Social Security Quiz, Don't Retire


Your Juicy Couture sweat suit will be right at home at the Victoria & Albert Museum's new exhibit, titled " Undressed: A Brief History of Underwear ." The show, which opens April 16, 2016 and will run through March 2017, will "tell the story of underwear design from the 18th century to the present day." While the "story of underwear," could just be a display of underpinning sure to make a nine-year old boy blush, the show will take a deeper look at the cultural and societal implications of undergarments and what they say about gender mores, sexuality, morality, and beauty ideals. Those Juicy Couture sweat pants are an example of the evolution of underwear and pajamas from house wear to an ensemble fit for a P.T.A. meeting. According to Dazed , other examples include a corset made from paper under the austerity measures of World War One and gender-neutral briefs by Acne. While you may be embarrassed by having once gone outside in those infamous sweat pants with the word "Juicy" emblazoned on your backside, at least you're not Queen Victoria's mother, whose "long cotton" underthings will be on display for all to see. It's not just women's under clothing on display, either. There are examples of the first-ever Y-front briefs and a look at the history of Calvin Klein boxers. These items will sit in the London museum alongside a sheer Liza Bruce dress worn by Kate Moss, undergarments of a typical 18th century working-class woman, corsets from all eras, cage crinolines, and iconic underwear designs by the likes of Calvin Klein, Dolce & Gabbana, Elsa Schiaparelli, Elie Saab, Jean Paul Gaultier, and Vivienne Westwood.


Detroit will see a return of last week's light rainfall today and tomorrow, according to drone-powered weather forecasting service Saildrone . Thursday should see the most rain, with a projected accumulation of 0.64 inches. The immediate forecast also has warm temperatures in store for today. Temperatures will reach a high of 80 degrees on Monday, and remain warm through Tuesday. Skies will be mostly cloudy on Friday. Winds should reach a modest high of 16 mph on Saturday, while today will be calmer with a top speed of just 11 mph. 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.


NEW JERSEY   People who were sexually abused by Catholic priests can file to receive financial compensation from the five dioceses in New Jersey starting next week, four months after the fund was promised. The New Jersey Independent Victim Compensation Program (IVCP) will begin accepting claims beginning on June 15 from anyone who has been sexually abused by a diocesan priest or deacon in the Arch/Dioceses of Metuchen, Camden, Newark, Paterson and Trenton. The fund was first promised in February, when dioceses across the state releases names of priests and deacons credibly accused of sexual assault and abuses. The February announcement was the first from the church naming accused priests of abuse dating back to the 1940s, with much of it being dated to the late 1900s. Claims can be filed starting on June 15, and the filing window closes on Dec. 31, 2019. All claims will be considered, regardless of the date of the abuse. You can find more claim filing protocol information here . Read More: Here's List Of NJ Priests Accused Of Child Sexual Abuse (UPDATED) Missing Names On List Of NJ Priests Accused Of Child Sex Abuse? Another 100 NJ Priests, Clergy Accused Of Sex Abuse In Disclosure "This program is endorsed by all five Roman Catholic Dioceses in N.J. and their bishops who are united in supporting abuse survivors by providing them with an efficient alternative to litigation, that is both speedy and transparent, to resolve their claims with a significantly lower level of proof and corroboration than required in a court of law," the spokesperson said. Jeff Anderson, a lawyer with Jeff Anderson and Associates who has represented dozens of abuse victims across several states told Patch that the compensation program was one option for survivors, but wasn't the best option. "It serves the Dioceses interests more than the survivors," Anderson said, adding that the payout amounts are much smaller than a victim might get by filing a lawsuit. He called the program designed to protect the status quo and keep the secrets of the Catholic church. It keeps things "business as usual," Anderson said, because once a victim goes through the compensation fund, they forfeit their right to sue over the abuse. In addition to the possibility of higher compensation, a lawsuit brings to light the details of the abuse while allowing the victim to file as John or Jane Doe, Anderson said. Still, some victims might chose to go through the fund just to "get it over with," Anderson acknowledged. The fund will be administered by Kenneth R. Feinberg and Camille S. Biros, who have previously designed and administered similar programs in New York and Pennsylvania. They've also spearheaded compensation efforts for sexual abuse victims at Penn State, of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the Boston Marathon bombing victims. Feinberg and Biros will have "complete autonomy" to assess claims, and church officials cannot challenge the awarding of money, or the amount of the award, church officials said. A Diocese of Metuchen spokesperson said no funds from the Bishop's Annual Appeal, nor money "given by a donor for a specific ministry or apostolate" will be used to settle claims. The Metuchen Diocese anticipates using insurance funds to pay out claims; since it was founded in 1981, the Diocese has paid out $1.5 million in settlements to 21 survirors. Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, the archbishop of Newark, previously said the program also will assure that victims who have not received any financial compensation will be paid, regardless of whether their claims meet the time requirements of the statute of limitations. "The allegations that have been received by our diocese as related to the sexual abuse of minors by diocesan priests in our parishes and schools are, in all cases, decades old," said Bishop James F. Checchio of the Diocese of Metuchen. "While our present Church has been entrusted with the responsibility of handling the misdeeds of the past, our diocese has taken significant steps to create safe environments in our parishes and our schools to ensure that these crimes and sins will not be repeated or tolerated, in any way, in our future."


It is a holy spot for the indigenous Anangu, where their ancestors rest and outsiders are cursed for disturbing the red-colored Uluru monolith reaching for the sky. The problem, however, is that Uluru has become revered by another group: Instagramming tourists drawn to hike and climb the 1,100-foot formation in central Australia, capturing photos of sunlight glinting off sandstone. With a ban on hiking the formation set for October, tourists are making a last-ditch pilgrimage to set foot on the rock before it's illegal, creating human traffic jams reminiscent of deadly congestion on Mount Everest . Subscribe to the Post Most newsletter: Today's most popular stories on The Washington Post Local reporter Glenn Minett captured images of people on their way up Uluru in an antlike formation, leaving the surrounding area filled with trash, overflowing septic waste and illegal camping sites, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported . Outsider pilgrimages to Uluru have long angered the Anangu people. Large signs adorn the entrance of Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, where in several languages people are asked to not climb on the formation. In 2017, the Anangu successfully lobbied the government to ban climbing on the rock in a region where their ancestors arrived thousands of years ago. As The Post's Cleve Wootson wrote then , Uluru is blessed territory fiercely protected by Aboriginals there: The first Aborigines may have moved into the area that includes Uluru's rock as early as 20,000 years ago, according to a travel website that focuses on the formation. The indigenous people believe the world was unformed and featureless before ancestral beings emerged and shaped species and landscapes. For millennia, Uluru was a holy place, the land where Aborigines believed the shapers of the world walked. Europeans exploring the center of Australia "discovered" the rock in the 1870s. They slapped their own names on Uluru and other features they found. Uluru was named Ayers Rock, after Sir Henry Ayers, the chief secretary of South Australia. The struggle over Uluru went on for decades, until 1985, when the federal government surrendered the title deeds back to the Anangu traditional landowners, according to the park's blog . The Anangu people signed an agreement that leased the land to the Australian Parks and Wildlife Service. That agreement was a huge win for the Anangu. In a symbolic move, the hiking ban will go into effect Oct. 26   the 34th anniversary of the handover. Before then, the Anangu installed a sign near the base of the climb, News.com.au reported , in a last-ditch effort to ward off hikers   and stunt-seeking tourists such as Alizee Sery, a French woman who ascended the rock and stripped to her bikini in 2010. "We, the traditional Anangu owners have this to say," the sign reads. "The climb is not prohibited, but we ask you to respect our law and culture by not climbing Uluru. We have a responsibility to teach and safeguard visitors to our land. The climb can be dangerous. Too many people have died while attempting to climb Uluru." At least 35 people have died after facing the steep ascent, blistering sun and decades-old safety chains, News.com.au reported. Those deaths come as awareness of cultural heritage and other tourist activities led to a climbing decline. The number of people who climbed Uluru has dipped for years, with fewer than 20 percent of park visitors braving the ascent, News.com.au reported   down from 70 percent in previous years. In 2017, that amounted to about 140 people climbing it every day. But the ban has spurred as many as 500 people each day, a number that will probably swell as October grows near. The congestion in the region has spilled out into surrounding areas. "On Sunday I went to the Ayers Rock campground to meet a marrying couple and at the reception there," Meredith Campell told ABC , "they were just like processional caterpillars; caravan after caravan, arriving, arriving, arriving." Those strains are undoubtedly from droves of tourists and Instagram husbands eager to snap staged-but-not-staged-looking photos in front of Uluru. Visitors have flooded social media with posed photos of couples kissing and holding wine glasses in front of the formation. Some strike yoga poses. Others treat it as a fashion shoot backdrop . Amid the meticulous photos geotagged at the park, one stands out . It's a set of brown-skinned hands set against a pink background, bearing a message: "Don't climb Uluru." State Dept. report on allegedly tainted alcohol in Mexico highlights red tape tourists face in emergency


Chelsea have lost their appeal with FIFA after being handed a ban on signing first-team players. [ MORE: Pulisic back to his best? ] The Premier League side were banned from signing new players for the next two transfer windows by world soccer's governing body, after a lengthy investigation saw FIFA charge them with breaking rules regarding the signing of foreign players under the age of 18. That means Chelsea will not be able to sign any new players until the summer of 2020. FIFA have agreed to allow Chelsea to continue to sign players under the age of 16 from the UK, which is a small victory for the Blues. However, the west London club said they are "disappointed" and will now launch an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to try and get the ban overturned. "The Club notes that the FIFA Appeal Committee has decided to partially uphold the appeal lodged by Chelsea FC against the decision of the FIFA Disciplinary Committee. However, the Club is very disappointed that the transfer ban of two consecutive registration periods was not overturned. Chelsea FC categorically refutes the findings of the FIFA Appeal Committee. It acted in accordance with the relevant regulations and will appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS)." So, Chelsea will take this case to CAS and that is their last chance of overturning this decision. Maurizio Sarri 's side have achieved their goal of qualifying for the UEFA Champions League for next season, but the Italian coach knows it will be tough to kick on and challenge Manchester City and Liverpool for the Premier League title without reinforcements over the summer, especially if Eden Hazard leaves as expected. USMNT star Christian Pulisic will be the only new arrival this summer after his January move to Stamford Bridge which saw him loaned back to Borussia Dortmund for the remainder of the 2018-19 campaign. But don't get your violins out for Chelsea. They have a staggering number of players out on loan, and have stockpiled young talent for years. Next season is the perfect time to use the likes of Tammy Abraham , Callum Hudson-Odoi , Ruben Loftus-Cheek , Kurt Zouma , Tiemoue Bakayoko, Michy Batshuayi and Mason Mount to bolster their squad. In the grand scheme of things, a two window transfer ban isn't ideal for Chelsea, but even if Hazard leaves this summer they could cope and finish in the top four again in 2019-20. Follow @JPW_NBCSports