Sunday, July 6, 2014


News Clips For The Day


Jews arrested in killing of Palestinian youth, official says
CBS/AP July 6, 2014

JERUSALEM - An Israeli official says a number of Jewish suspects have been arrested in the killing of a Palestinian teenager, which set off days of violent protests in Arab areas of Jerusalem and northern Israel.

Mohammed Abu Khdeir, 16, was abducted last week and his charred body found a short while later in a Jerusalem forest in what Palestinians say was a revenge killing for the earlier deaths of three Israeli teens.

The Israeli official said Sunday that investigators have concluded the killing was driven by "nationalistic" motives. There were no further details on the identities of the suspects.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation was continuing.

His death set off days of violent protests in Arab areas of Jerusalem and northern Israel.

Police have been investigating various avenues in the teen's death, including criminal or personal motives. But an official said Sunday that evidence points toward Jewish extremists.

Palestinians have alleged that Abu Khdeir was killed by Jewish extremists to avenge the killings of the three Israeli teenagers, who were abducted in the West Bank on June 12. Their bodies were found last week, and Abu Khdeir was killed just hours after their funeral.

Adding to the tensions, Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip have stepped up rocket attacks on southern Israel, drawing Israeli airstrikes in retaliation. At midday Sunday, militants fired eight more rockets into Israel, the military said. Overnight, Israel had carried out airstrikes on 10 sites in Gaza.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel would act calmly and responsibly in the face of rising Israeli-Palestinian hostilities.

"Experience proves that in moments like these, one must act calmly and responsibly, not hysterically and hastily," Netanyahu said at the opening of his weekly Cabinet meeting.

His statement came after weekend clashes between Israeli police and demonstrators in Jerusalem and Arab towns in northern Israel following Abu Khdeir's death. On Sunday, Tariq Abu Khdeir, a 15-year-old Palestinian American who was badly injured in clashes with Israeli police, was sentenced to nine days of home detention.

His parents say Tariq Abu Khdeir, who goes to school in Florida, was beaten Thursday by Israeli police during clashes over the killing of Mohammed Abu Khdeir. The two youths were cousins.

Amateur video of what Tariq's father Salah said was the beating aired on a local television station, and he said he could recognize his son from his clothing.

The U.S. State Department said it was "profoundly troubled" by reports of his beating and demanded an investigation. Israel's Justice Ministry quickly launched a formal investigation.

Protests spread over the weekend from Jerusalem to Arab towns in northern Israel, with hundreds of people throwing rocks and fire bombs at officers who responded with tear gas and stun grenades, according to Israeli police. Police said 22 Arab Israelis were arrested in clashes on Saturday.

Israeli Arabs, unlike Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, hold citizenship rights. But they often face discrimination and many identify with the Palestinians. Even so, violent riots like those that occurred on Saturday are rare.

Clashes mostly subsided by early Sunday, but the situation remained tense. Police said a Jewish woman was attacked and lightly wounded early Sunday by a group of Palestinians in Jerusalem's Old City. Her husband fired his weapon and the attackers fled, and police were searching for them, Samri said.

In the West Bank, the army arrested a Palestinian in the city of Hebron. His family identified him as Hossam Dufesh. The army would not elaborate on the arrest, but Israeli forces have concentrated its search for the killers of three Israeli teens in the Hebron area.




Mob violence is never a substitute for thoughtful justice, yet it happens in almost all societies on some occasions. “Israeli official said Sunday that investigators have concluded the killing was driven by "nationalistic" motives. There were no further details on the identities of the suspects.... Police have been investigating various avenues in the teen's death, including criminal or personal motives. But an official said Sunday that evidence points toward Jewish extremists.” It is good to see that the Israeli community is investigating the crime thoroughly and acknowledges that such a thing as “Jewish extremism” exists. Sometimes it seems that Israel attacks first and asks questions later in a “knee jerk” manner. The US has been trying for years to get both parties to lay down their arms long enough to reach a peace agreement, but so far both continue to demand impossible things of the other. Israel wants to build Jewish housing and businesses on disputed territory and the Palestinians refuse to acknowledge Israel's right to exist at all.

“Adding to the tensions, Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip have stepped up rocket attacks on southern Israel, drawing Israeli airstrikes in retaliation.... 'Experience proves that in moments like these, one must act calmly and responsibly, not hysterically and hastily,' Netanyahu said at the opening of his weekly Cabinet meeting.”

There has also been an incident in which the US State Department has become involved. “On Sunday, Tariq Abu Khdeir, a 15-year-old Palestinian American who was badly injured in clashes with Israeli police, was sentenced to nine days of home detention. His parents say Tariq Abu Khdeir, who goes to school in Florida, was beaten Thursday by Israeli police during clashes over the killing of Mohammed Abu Khdeir. The two youths were cousins.... The U.S. State Department said it was "profoundly troubled" by reports of his beating and demanded an investigation. Israel's Justice Ministry quickly launched a formal investigation.” At the US complaint, Israeli is “investigating.”

Group hatred is an evil to which humans are particularly prone. This kind of fighting has no end. When the governments are involved in it rather than repressing it, the situation is even worse. Israel's policy is to strike back twice as hard whenever there is the slightest provocation, with bombs and rockets or the invasion of a Palestinian village in which homes are sometimes destroyed. Hamas forces, likewise, are firing rockets across the border into Israel or rioting within Jerusalem. It simply doesn't stop.

It's like the Clan feud of the famous Hatfields and McCoys in the US mountains of Appalachia a hundred years ago. The feud was finally stopped by the cooperation of the governors of Kentucky and West Virginia, sending in troops to arrest the family members. Eight were sentenced to life in prison and one was hanged. If the government doesn't step in and arrest its own citizens when they are acting out in vengeance, the fighting will continue. War is one thing, but citizens tearing each other apart is abhorrent.





After California Highway Patrol beating, community wants answers
CBS/AP July 5, 2014

LOS ANGELES The California Highway Patrol has vowed to carry out a thorough investigation after a video emerged of one of its officers repeatedly punching a pinned-down woman on the side of a Los Angeles freeway.

The woman had been walking on Interstate 10 west of downtown Los Angeles, endangering herself and people in traffic, and the officer was trying to restrain her, CHP Assistant Chief Chris O'Quinn said at a news conference. O'Quinn said the woman had begun walking off the freeway but returned when the confrontation occurred.

The video shows the woman struggling and trying to sit up while the officer punches her in the face and head until an off-duty law enforcement officer appears and helps him handcuff her.

Passing Driver David Diaz recorded the Tuesday incident and provided it to media outlets. He described the incident as "excessive" and "unnecessary" to CBS News correspondent Teri Okita.

The officer is seen following the woman, who was barefoot and appeared disoriented - onto the freeway shoulder. When she ignored his commands to stop, Diaz said the situation quickly escalated.

"He grabs her and she kind of shuns him back - a very natural instinct. Of course he stronger than her so he grabs her, throws her down," Diaz said.

"With every punch, it's bouncing her head off the concrete."

The officer is on administrative leave while the patrol investigates. He has not been identified.

Late Saturday, attorney Caree Harper held a news conference at a Los Angeles hospital and told reporters the woman seen being punched on the video is Marlene Pinnock.

Harper said any investigation into the incident could only conclude one thing.

"She got beat, she got savagely beat by someone who seemed to be trying out for mixed martial arts," Harper said. "And it's unacceptable."

The video caught the attention of local civil rights leaders, who expressed shock and outrage at their own news conference.

"Speaking for the women of this community, we are angry, we are upset," said Lita Herron of the Youth Advocacy Coalition.

O'Quinn said the CHP would answer community concerns, and that an investigative team already has been assembled and has begun its work.

"We are known as an agency that really polices itself," O'Quinn said.

Community activist Earl Ofari Hutchinson, speaking at the local leaders' news conference, agreed.

"Over the years, CHP has had a very good track record in terms of community relations," Hutchinson said. "That's why this was so shocking."

But Hutchinson said that "excessive force, abuse of authority, is not going to be tolerated," calling for a federal investigation and for the officer to be immediately suspended pending the results of the federal probe, reports CBS Los Angeles.

Hutchinson said the group has not received any information from the CHP about the context of the video, although he could not think of a reason that could justify the officer's actions.

"We don't know at this point [what occurred before the recording]. The only thing we have [is] the video," he said, insisting that no matter what transpired "the officer crossed the line."

"To subdue, that's one thing. But to beat, that's another thing," Hutchinson said.

O'Quinn said the incident report listed no injuries for the woman, who would not give her name to officials. She is undergoing psychiatric evaluation, he said.

O'Quinn said he could not say what prompted the officer to act as he did. But he noted California Highway Patrol officers have a heightened sense of the dangers of being on the freeway compared with a citizen "who is not accustomed to the speed and conditions," especially outside of a car.

"I can say that the tape only shows a small part of what transpired. There are events that led up to this. Until that's collected and put into -- perspective, we aren't going to be able to make a determination."




Beating people is something that police in all parts of the country sometimes do, either “to control them” as in this case or to “teach them a lesson,” as when they are disrespectful to the officer. We need police, and they sometimes need to use sufficient force to subdue a dangerous criminal, but not all of such incidents are justified at all – as in this case – or at the very least are not proportionate to the crime. “Passing Driver David Diaz recorded the Tuesday incident and provided it to media outlets. He described the incident as "excessive" and "unnecessary" to CBS News correspondent Teri Okita.” In this case there was a witness with a smart phone who recorded the whole episode. There's nothing like irrefutable proof to make police officials investigate their officer's actions.

By no means are all officers bad, but there are enough who are to give the police a bad name. Police officers have to be assertive and strong enough to fight if they really do need to, but a mentally disturbed woman who was not really committing much of a crime at all is not such a case. I don't see why one competent officer can't subdue and handcuff such a woman by himself. Thank goodness another officer came and helped him, or the incident might have gone on longer. “The officer is seen following the woman, who was barefoot and appeared disoriented - onto the freeway shoulder. When she ignored his commands to stop, Diaz said the situation quickly escalated. 'He grabs her and she kind of shuns him back - a very natural instinct. Of course he stronger than her so he grabs her, throws her down,' Diaz said. 'With every punch, it's bouncing her head off the concrete.'"

“The video caught the attention of local civil rights leaders, who expressed shock and outrage at their own news conference. 'Speaking for the women of this community, we are angry, we are upset,' said Lita Herron of the Youth Advocacy Coalition.... O'Quinn said the incident report listed no injuries for the woman, who would not give her name to officials. She is undergoing psychiatric evaluation, he said.” This is one of those cases that is very sad and also infuriating. When police act like street bullies rather than responsible officials of government it should be punished. I hope the California Highway Patrol will punish this officer rather than slapping him on the wrists. He should be fired if only because he is incompetent and a disgrace to law enforcement.





The dying make farewell videos with help from non-profits – CBS
AP July 5, 2014

SCARSDALE, N.Y. - Carolyn Ngbokoli doesn't remember the sound of her mother's voice. She was just 19 when her mom died, and no recordings were left.

Now Ngbokoli, 37, faces the possibility of her own early death, from breast cancer. But she has made sure that her sons, 4 and 6 years old, can see how she loved them, hear how she spoke to them and be reminded of her advice to them long after she's gone.

With the no-cost help of an organization called Thru My Eyes, Ngbokoli, of White Plains, recorded a video of memories and guidance.

"I want to be able to tell my boys as much as I can and leave them something to look back on," she said.

Leaving a farewell video isn't new - Michael Keaton did it in a 1993 movie called "My Life" - but it is evolving beyond the version in which a dying person talks to an unmanned camera on a tripod or spends hundreds of dollars for a videographer who also records weddings and bar mitzvahs.

Thru My Eyes, based in Scarsdale, and Memories Live, of Milburn, New Jersey, are among the nonprofits filling a niche in which people with terminal diagnoses - usually cancer-stricken parents with young children - get emotional as well as technical support, for free.

E. Angela Heller, a social worker for cancer patients at New York's Presbyterian Hospital, has sent half a dozen patients to Thru My Eyes, which was founded by a cancer survivor.

"Every single one has said it's a wonderful experience," she said. "What makes this different is the deep support from the videographers. These people know illness, they know cancer. They know how to schedule around chemotherapy weeks."

Ngbokoli found the production to be an emotional process.

"There were times when I was laughing about funny things that happened to us," Ngbokoli said. "But then there were times when it was torturous, where I had to look in the camera and say, 'If you're watching this and I'm not here.'"

Carri Rubenstein, 61, is the co-founder and president of Thru My Eyes, which has completed more than 40 videos. A cancer survivor herself, she was inspired when she heard a friend with a bad diagnosis wish aloud a few years ago that she could find someone to help her make a video for her family.

Rubenstein wanted to make it a free service, so with the help of her lawyer husband, she formed the not-for-profit. She accepts donations and holds fundraisers.

At first, Rubenstein went to hospitals "looking for business," she said. Now she's getting calls from across the country.

Kathy Yeatman-Stock, a social worker in the cancer center at the Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center in Pomona, California, contacted Thru My Eyes in hopes of getting patients at Pomona to make videos via Skype.

"People in the past have left letters and birthday cards for their children, but there is so much more impact with seeing the parent on film," she said.

Heller said patients are "facing their mortality in probably the most profound way" and want to give advice for their children at various life stages. "They say, 'I won't be at the wedding' but they want to give advice."

She said one mother read "Goodnight Moon" on the video so her children could hear it forever.

Such videos convey "a very personal touch, going beyond the stiff words you might have in your will, let's say," said Sally Hurme, a project adviser at AARP and author of "Checklist for Family Survivors."

Patients who want to make a video are given an interviewer, usually a volunteer health care professional who tries to take subjects through their lives. One prompt that always brings joy, Rubenstein said, is to talk about the day patients found out they'd be parents.
"Then we get into the first step, the first words, all the fun moments."

The videos run between an hour and 90 minutes and include photos, documents, music and interaction with the family.

Kerry Glass, 41, a former nursing home art therapist who runs Memories Live, says she prompts patients to talk about the overview of their lives as well as details: "the house you grew up in, your favorite game, your first job, your first car."

In one video, a man talks about growing up in a family of 10 in which the boys could never get into the bathroom and "would have to go outside to take care of whatever we had to take care of." Another talks about spaghetti and meatballs and says, "Marrying into an Italian family was probably the best move I ever made." A woman says she still gets "fluttery in my heart" when her husband enters a room.

Ngbokoli is enthusiastic about her video and says she's recording more family moments in hopes of being around to update it in a few years.

"It's a nasty cancer that I have, but I'm responding well," she said. "Every day's a gift, so as long as I'm here, why not document it?"





With the no-cost help of an organization called Thru My Eyes, Ngbokoli, of White Plains, recorded a video of memories and guidance. 'I want to be able to tell my boys as much as I can and leave them something to look back on,' she said.... Carri Rubenstein, 61, is the co-founder and president of Thru My Eyes, which has completed more than 40 videos.... Rubenstein wanted to make it a free service, so with the help of her lawyer husband, she formed the not-for-profit. She accepts donations and holds fundraisers.”

This service is a stroke of genius, and especially to offer it free of charge. Most middle class or poor people with long-term cancer have no discretionary money left, and wouldn't be able to pay for the service. Hospice care rather than a long and miserable stay in the hospital with oxygen tubes and feeding tubes is another important advance in our modern society. If I ever do end up in a cancer ward with a hopeless prognosis I will in all probability try to remember this organization, and find myself a hospice. I'll have to call my Medicare insurance plan to see if it is covered under my policy.





Report: Ordinary Americans Caught up in Data Sweep – ABC
Washington – July 5, 2014

When the U.S. National Security Agency intercepted the online accounts of legally targeted foreigners over a four-year period it also collected the conversations of nine times as many ordinary Internet users, both Americans and non-Americans, according to a probe by The Washington Post.

Nearly half of those surveillance files contained names, email addresses or other details that the NSA marked as belonging to U.S. citizens or residents, the Post reported in a story posted on its website Saturday night. While the federal agency tried to protect their privacy by masking more than 65,000 such references to individuals, the newspaper said it found nearly 900 additional email addresses that could be strongly linked to U.S. citizens or residents.

At the same time, the intercepted messages contained material of considerable intelligence value, the Post reported, such as information about a secret overseas nuclear project, double-dealing by an ostensible ally, a military calamity that befell an unfriendly power, and the identities of aggressive intruders into U.S. computer networks.

As an example, the newspaper said the files showed that months of tracking communications across dozens of alias accounts led directly to the capture in 2011 of a Pakistan-based bomb builder suspected in a 2002 terrorist bombing in Bali. The Post said it was withholding other examples, at the request of the CIA, that would compromise ongoing investigations.

The material reviewed by the Post included roughly 160,000 intercepted e-mail and instant-message conversations, some of them hundreds of pages long, and 7,900 documents taken from more than 11,000 online accounts. It spanned President Barack Obama's first term, 2009 to 2012, and was provided to the Post by former NSA analyst Edward Snowden.

The daily lives of more than 10,000 account holders who were not targeted were catalogued and recorded, the Post reported. The newspaper described that material as telling "stories of love and heartbreak, illicit sexual liaisons, mental-health crises, political and religious conversions, financial anxieties and disappointed hopes." The material collected included more than 5,000 private photos, the paper said.

The cache Snowden provided to the newspaper came from domestic NSA operations under the broad authority granted by Congress in 2008 with amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, according to the Post.

By law, the NSA may "target" only foreign nationals located overseas unless it obtains a warrant based on probable cause from a special surveillance court, the Post said. "Incidental collection" of third-party communications is inevitable in many forms of surveillance, according to the newspaper. In the case of the material Snowden provided, those in an online chat room visited by a target or merely reading the discussion were included in the data sweep, as were hundreds of people using a computer server whose Internet protocol was targeted.





To justify the NSA activity, the Washington Post concedes the following: “At the same time, the intercepted messages contained material of considerable intelligence value, the Post reported, such as information about a secret overseas nuclear project, double-dealing by an ostensible ally, a military calamity that befell an unfriendly power, and the identities of aggressive intruders into U.S. computer networks.” Still, out of some 160,000 searches, over 65,000 NSA searches included personal information on innocent Americans. 900 of those cases were not “masked,” as the NSA attempted to do to protect private individuals. “'Incidental collection' of third-party communications is inevitable in many forms of surveillance, according to the newspaper.” This is all under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act as extended and amended in 2008 and 2013. For the 2013 amendments, see below. It is true that a number of plots have been identified and disrupted, presumably due to this body of information.

The website http://www.businessinsider.com/fisa-amendments-act-how-prism-nsa-phone-collection-is-it-legal-2013-6 discusses the current status of the FISA law. “Section 702 of the act raised concerns among members of the Senate Intelligence Committee during discussion of the act's renewal last year. 

The section allows the Attorney General and Director of National Intelligence, for a period of up to one year, to engage in "the targeting of persons reasonably believed to be located outside the United States to acquire foreign intelligence information."

There are limits to the section. No one inside the United States and no U.S. citizens currently in or out of the country may be "intentionally" targeted. 

The Attorney General and DNI must submit to the FISA Court an application for an order (termed a "mass acquisition order") for the surveillance of the target either before their joint authorization or within seven days.
Sens. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Mark Udall (D-Colo.) last year raised alarm at the possibility of a loophole in section 702 that "could be used to circumvent traditional warrant protections and search for the communications of a potentially large number of American citizens." This is because the FISA Amendments Act does not require the government to identify targets of their surveillance. 

"Information collected under this program is among the most important and valuable foreign intelligence information we collect, and is used to protect our nation from a wide variety of threats," Clapper said on Thursday.”




Gas Station Attendant Nabs Alleged Kidnapper Grandma
By Gillian Mohney via World News
July 5, 2014

An Arizona gas station attendant is being hailed a hero after helping police nab a woman accused of kidnapping her granddaughter.

Karin Akins was working at a gas station earlier this week when 57-year-old Carolyn Ferguson came into the station with a baby after breaking down nearby. Akins said she became suspicious after noticing that Ferguson tried to give the infant with her cappuccino milk.

Akins called 911 and her supervisior after Ferguson was unable to answer simple questions about her granddaughter's name.

Eventually Akins and her supervisor figured out that an Amber alert had been issued for 6-month-old Laylani Mosley, who was last seen with her grandmother Carolyn Ferguson. According to court documents Ferguson was listed as bipolar and off her medication.

"It's a mom thing," Akins said of her suspicions. "If it wasn't her baby ... it would kill me if I let her walk out that door and know later on that it wasn't hers and could have done something at that moment."

To keep Ferguson from leaving, Akins distracted the woman by taking pictures with the baby and changing her diaper. Eventually police arrived and were able to take Ferguson into custody.

But it is Akins who is being credited with saving Laylani.

"Had it not been for her and how observant she was, and attention to detail, we probably wouldn't be standing here with a successful story right now," said Deputy Joaquin Enriquez of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office.




Karin Akins, a gas station attendant, happened to notice that a middle aged woman with a small baby was trying to feed it from her cappuccino rather than from a bottle. Akins asked the woman the child's name and she was unable to tell her. “Eventually Akins and her supervisor figured out that an Amber alert had been issued for 6-month-old Laylani Mosley, who was last seen with her grandmother Carolyn Ferguson. According to court documents Ferguson was listed as bipolar and off her medication.” Akins kept Ferguson in the store by photographing them until police arrived. Deputy Enriquez gave Akins the credit for the capture of Ferguson. I assume Ferguson will be treated somewhat gently by the courts and required to go back to her therapist for her bipolar disorder. There was no sign that she intended to hurt the child.







It's A Nice Day For A Flash Wedding – NPR
by DENISE A. STEPHAN
July 06, 2014

You've heard of pop-up restaurants, flash mobs and other hipster happenings. Now comes a pair of entrepreneurs in Washington, D.C., offering pop-up weddings for those who want to elope, but do it with flair.

Locations are never booked ahead of time, planning is minimal and fingers are crossed that you and your partner don't get asked to leave before you are pronounced husband and wife, or wife and wife.

PopWed Co., which started last January, procures the wedding license, chooses a creative location, takes the photographs and performs the ceremony.

The unusual venues are what make it fun, PopWed's Maggie Winters tells NPR's Linda Wertheimer. Some couples may not want to throw a big party. "They still want to commemorate the day in a really special way, but dial it back," says Winters, so it's just the two of them focusing on the moment instead of stressing out about a party.

Winters describes herself as the "tiny, technicolor half of PopWed" — a reference to her fuchsia, asymmetrical haircut. She started the company with her boyfriend, Steven Gaudaen, a management student at George Mason University.

Gaudaen is a secular humanist wedding officiant who performs the ceremonies. Winters, a professional photographer, takes the photos.

"We generally chat with [couples] about what they like to do, and how they met, to see where we should marry them," Winters explains. As Washington natives, Winters says they know all the secret, trendy and colorful locations around the city.

They've held ceremonies at a church converted into an art gallery painted with the colors of the rainbow, and inside the pearly marble atrium of the American Art Museum. They also married a couple in one of the Smithsonian museums — the one with the Hall of Bones and an 8-ton African elephant.

"When I was really small, my parents would take me to the Natural History Museum, and I just remember feeling this sense of awe when I looked at that giant elephant," Winters says. "I really wanted to find the right couple to marry [there], and when our bride told us she had just gotten back from a safari in Africa ... it was perfect."

But sometimes half the adventure is when things don't go as planned.

"They did kick us out two-thirds of the way through," Winters concedes, "so as we were walking out, Steven pronounced them legally married so we could put the Natural History Museum on their wedding certificate."

PopWed Co. isn't "trying to be a budget wedding option" but rather, "an awesome wedding option that happens to be less expensive," Winters says.

Continuing their passion for spontaneity but with plenty of whimsy, high school sweethearts Winters and Gaudaen are planning their own pop-up wedding in the fall.




“Pop-up weddings” may be the next fad if PopWed Co becomes a success. I must say it does sound like fun, and it does no harm. I think the so-called “flash mobs” could get out of hand, causing injury, fright or wrecks by motorists nearby. They're fun, too, though. I can see the appeal of this kind of thing. A good prank is often very funny, and a wedding like this would be unforgettable. “Locations are never booked ahead of time, planning is minimal and fingers are crossed that you and your partner don't get asked to leave before you are pronounced husband and wife, or wife and wife. PopWed Co., which started last January, procures the wedding license, chooses a creative location, takes the photographs and performs the ceremony.”

Maggie Winters and Steven Gaudaen, a management student at George Mason University, started the company. Winters is the photographer and Gaudaen is a secular humanist “wedding officiant.” What this lacks in religious solemnity is compensated with joyous remembrance. Their selection for one wedding of the Natural History Museum at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC, one of my favorite places, was spectacular but fated to be disrupted by the museum guards. Gaudaen declared the couple man and wife just before they were ushered out “'so we could put the Natural History Museum on their wedding certificate.'" PopWed Co. isn't trying to be merely an inexpensive wedding outfit, but an “awesome wedding option that happens to be less expensive,' Winters says.” These entrepreneurs should get enough business to become a major success, and all due to their great imagination and positive thinking. I wish them well.