March 2, 2016


News Clips For The Day


http://www.vox.com/2016/3/1/11139022/samantha-bee-abortion-texas

VIDEO -- Watch Samantha Bee embarrass a Texas lawmaker who doesn’t know how abortion works
Updated by Emily Crockett on March 1, 2016, 10:20 a.m. ET


Ahead of the biggest Supreme Court abortion case in decades, Samantha Bee's Full Frontal on Monday night featured an interview with Texas state Rep. Dan Flynn (R), one of the architects of the Texas anti-abortion law that the justices will rule on.

And Bee showed that Flynn doesn't know the basic facts about how an abortion is performed.

Flynn co-authored HB2, the omnibus anti-abortion bill that has closed about half of Texas's abortion clinics. If it's upheld, it will close even more clinics, and possibly inspire other states to get bolder with their anti-abortion lawmaking.

Bee started off by confronting Flynn about how his bill has forced abortion clinics to close:

Dan Flynn: This was to be sure that we provided health care, safe health care for women.

Samantha Bee: How does removing access to health care increase access to health care?

DF: We're not removing access to health care. We're improving it.

SB: So the intention of the law was not to do away with abortions.

DF: No.

SB: It was just to make them impossible to acquire.

DF: You know better than that.

SB: Do I?

DF: What do you mean impossible? I'll tell you what, anytime you start cutting on people's body you need to have it in a procedure where it can be healthy.

SB: Of course. You don't cut a woman during an abortion, though.

Then Bee cut away to the infamous "Red Wedding" scene from Game of Thrones and said (spoiler alert): "To be fair, Flynn grew up in ancient Westeros, where they did abortions the old-fashioned way."

Westeros aside, Bee is right. Despite being called a "surgical abortion," most abortions don't actually require any surgery or cutting. Everything happens through the cervix, which is slightly dilated so a vacuum aspiration tube can pass through. A first-trimester abortion is an outpatient procedure that takes five to 10 minutes and is usually performed with mild sedation or local anesthesia.

"I'm not a doctor, I don't know," Flynn said after that. "But I listened to many doctors tell me about the procedures that happen when you do an invasive surgery."

"You don't seem to know anything specifically about abortion, really at all," Bee countered. "And yet you did all this with building regulations."

As Bee pointed out, HB2 wasn't exactly Flynn's brainchild even though he co-authored it. That credit goes to Americans United for Life, an anti-abortion lobbying group that prewrites model legislation for abortion opponents in state legislatures to use. Their efforts have helped launch a massive wave of anti-abortion lawmaking in the past five years.

One-quarter of all restrictions passed in last five years
Guttmacher Institute

If Flynn doesn't understand how abortion works, though, he's not alone. As Vox's new poll with PerryUndem Communications showed, most Americans have no idea that abortion is a very safe procedure.



“Ahead of the biggest Supreme Court abortion case in decades, Samantha Bee's Full Frontal on Monday night featured an interview with Texas state Rep. Dan Flynn (R), one of the architects of the Texas anti-abortion law that the justices will rule on. ….

And Bee showed that Flynn doesn't know the basic facts about how an abortion is performed.



http://www.guttmacher.org/about/index.html

About the Guttmacher Institute

Now in its fifth decade, the Guttmacher Institute continues to advance sexual and reproductive health and rights through an interrelated program of research, policy analysis and public education designed to generate new ideas, encourage enlightened public debate and promote sound policy and program development. The Institute’s overarching goal is to ensure the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health for all people worldwide.

The Institute produces a wide range of resources on topics pertaining to sexual and reproductive health, publishes two peer-reviewed journals, Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health and International Perspectives on Sexual and Reproductive Health, and the public policy journal Guttmacher Policy Review. In 2013, the Institute was awarded a prestigious Population Center grant by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in support of the Guttmacher Center for Population Research Innovation and Dissemination. Guttmacher is one of only two non-university-based institutions out of the two dozen receiving such funding.



http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2015/09/lying-charts-anti-abortion-edition

Lying With Charts, Anti-Abortion Edition
—By Kevin Drum
Tue Sep. 29, 2015 2:13 PM EDT

During this morning's Planned Parenthood hearings, Rep. Jason Chaffetz displayed a chart that seemingly showed a huge increase in the number of abortions they've performed. Actually, though, the number has increased only about 2 percent per year since 2006. How did this happen? Well, it turns out that Americans United for Life, which made the chart, decided to ignore the y-axis. But I'm sure it was an honest mistake, probably due to poor math skills from a lifetime spent in the liberal public education system. So as a public service, I've replotted the data using conventional "numbers" and "slopes." You're welcome.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americans_United_for_Life

Americans United for Life
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Americans United for Life (AUL) is an American pro-life public interest law firm and advocacy group based in Washington, D.C. Founded in 1971, the group advocates protection of human life at all stages of life, from conception to death, and is involved in the related issues of health and biotechnology.[1] The organization has led campaigns and been involved in judicial actions to prevent the passage and implementation of legislation that permits abortion, or may increase prevalence of abortion, including successfully defending the Hyde Amendment in the U.S. Supreme Court. It also works to create and support legal protections for pregnant women from violence, for which it has drafted model legislation. AUL's other interests include bioethics, particularly regarding human cloning, embryo research and assisted reproductive technologies, and end-of-life issues including euthanasia and palliative care.[1] AUL has campaigned for bans on provision in healthcare acts for funding of abortion.

Early history and mission[edit]

AUL was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1971, two years prior to the nationwide legalization of abortion following the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Roe v. Wade.[2] The organization's first chairman of the board was Unitarian minister and then-Hollis Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School, George Huntston Williams.[2] Initially the group was involved in the intellectual debate surrounding abortion, but in 1975 the founders reorganized it into a legal organization. One of the group's early areas of focus was on building a case to persuade the Supreme Court to overturn its 1973 ruling. In 1987 the group outlined their plan to overturn Roe v. Wade in a book titled Abortion and the Constitution: Reversing Roe v. Wade Through the Courts.[3] AUL was inspired by efforts of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in its strategy to impact legislation.[4] The organization is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, educational organization and public-interest law firm, with a specific interest in pro-life legislation. AUL's areas of legal interest include abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, stem cell research, and human cloning.[5]

Model legislation[edit]

AUL writes model legislation every year and makes it available on the web for state legislators and others involved in the policy process. The model legislation is also included in the organization's annual guidebook, Defending Life, which is provided to state legislators.[7] The organization developed model legislation for state laws requiring that either a parent or doctor be informed before a minor's pregnancy is terminated.[3][5] In addition, the organization developed language for state laws requiring doctors to advise patients about the health risks from abortions.[3] AUL has also drafted model legislation for states to ban assisted suicide, human cloning and specific kinds of stem cell research,[3] and an opt-out provision for states objecting to the "abortion mandate" in the 2009 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.[15]

In 2008, AUL produced the Pregnant Woman's Protection Act, a piece of model legislation aimed at providing greater rights to pregnant women to defend themselves from physical attack, especially in regard to domestic violence.[16] In 2011, Mother Jones published a report on Nebraska's Legislative Bill 232, a bill based on the Pregnant Women's Protection Act, that was critical of both the bill's wording and AUL's campaign to introduce the legislation. The report claimed that the bill's wording strongly advocates 'justifiable force', including homicide, against anyone that would be performing or seeking to perform legal abortion services.[17] Mother Jones was also critical of similar bills, also based in part on the AUL model legislation for the Pregnant Woman's Protection Act, that were introduced in South Dakota[18] and Iowa.[19]



BEE -- “Westeros aside, Bee is right. Despite being called a "surgical abortion," most abortions don't actually require any surgery or cutting. Everything happens through the cervix, which is slightly dilated so a vacuum aspiration tube can pass through. A first-trimester abortion is an outpatient procedure that takes five to 10 minutes and is usually performed with mild sedation or local anesthesia. …. As Bee pointed out, HB2 wasn't exactly Flynn's brainchild even though he co-authored it. That credit goes to Americans United for Life, an anti-abortion lobbying group that prewrites model legislation for abortion opponents in state legislatures to use. Their efforts have helped launch a massive wave of anti-abortion lawmaking in the past five years.”


AUL -- “In 2011, Mother Jones published a report on Nebraska's Legislative Bill 232, a bill based on the Pregnant Women's Protection Act, that was critical of both the bill's wording and AUL's campaign to introduce the legislation. The report claimed that the bill's wording strongly advocates 'justifiable force', including homicide, against anyone that would be performing or seeking to perform legal abortion services.[17] Mother Jones was also critical of similar bills, also based in part on the AUL model legislation for the Pregnant Woman's Protection Act, that were introduced in South Dakota[18] and Iowa.[19]”

Like the right wing ALEC, this group writes Model Legislation, which can be copied verbatim and signed into law by state legislatures to restrict access to legal abortions. AUL is also active in efforts to overturn Roe v Wade. The “justifiable force” phrase mentioned above does indeed appear to be setting up a legal loophole for radical anti-abortion groups who do occasionally injure or kill an abortion doctor, bomb clinics, etc., for the purpose of allowing murderers to get away without punishment, or at least a just punishment.

What disturbs me most is not merely the ruthlessness that these radical groups go to, but the high-sounding names and descriptions they adopt, like “think tank” and the performing of “educational” services. The service is one of propaganda, not education. My view of a church has always been one of higher thought and meditation and helping the poor and downtrodden in the world around us. That does not include the sanctioning of murder in the name of a greater good, even if preventing all abortion actually is a good. To make abortion illegal can include criminal punishment, perhaps in prison, or could if such laws were allowed.

Personally, the rate at which women get pregnant if they don’t use an effective birth control, literally EVERY TIME they have sex, justifies allowing abortion on demand, as they can’t always control their mate to prevent the interaction and at the same time they perhaps don’t even have enough food for the family they have. Most of those women are very young and immature, definitely not ready to be a mother. It isn’t just the poor who are victimized by anti-abortion legislation which actually criminalizes the procedure; but anyone who has been raped, especially by a family member. We need to protect those people from having to bear a child of incest, or who will be grievously damaged such as the Zika virus babies. Even the Catholic hierarchy is giving some consideration to allowing abortion in those cases by special permission. To me a life which will be one of utter misery – a baby with microcephaly for instance – should not be required to live under such a terrible condition.




http://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-swingers-club-may-be-forced-to-reveal-guest-list/

Texas swingers club may be forced to reveal guest list
CBSNEWS.COM
March 1, 2016, 6:24 PM

Photograph -- Randy Carter approaches a news crew reporting on his alleged swingers club. CBS AFFILIATE DFW


PARKER COUNTY -- A Texas homeowner may be forced to reveal the names of hundreds of guests at his late-night swinger parties in Parker County, CBS affiliate DFW reports.

Homeowner Randy Carter is being sued by his homeowner association for throwing the bashes at what was dubbed the "Naughty Neighbors" club, which had set hours and entry fees listed on websites for swingers.

Carter refused to comment on the case in court, but he later spotted a CBS 11 crew in the neighborhood and demanded it leave.

"I'm gonna go get my gun," he threatened before re-appearing with his hand hidden near his waist band.

He later approached the crew in front of a neighbor's house.

"They want my guest list for everyone who has come on my property for the last eight years. Would you turn over your guest list?" he asked.

He then headed for the affiliate's news camera and tried pushing it to the ground before throwing himself onto the road and demanding an ambulance be called.

Carter's attorneys say the guest list isn't relevant to the lawsuit, but the attorney for the HOA says the list is necessary to find witnesses who were present at the affairs.

"They can tell us about the loud music, about the lights, about the traffic. And we want to speak to them," attorney Luke Beshara said.

Chase Patterson, who lives next door to the home where the alleged parties were thrown, described it as "extremely busy, loud, lots of traffic" and called the gatherings "a nightly thing,"

Patterson said those crazy nights have come to an end since the lawsuit was filed, but he's curious to see the guest list and to find out who was keeping up his family at night.

"We were told one evening that there were several judges and attorneys on it. So I'd be curious to see if that's the case. We've been told everything else under the sun, too, though," he said.

Once an ambulance crew arrived, Carter refused to be evaluated.

Beshara said he expects a decision from the judge within 30 days.



“A Texas homeowner may be forced to reveal the names of hundreds of guests at his late-night swinger parties in Parker County, CBS affiliate DFW reports. …. Carter refused to comment on the case in court, but he later spotted a CBS 11 crew in the neighborhood and demanded it leave. "I'm gonna go get my gun," he threatened before re-appearing with his hand hidden near his waist band. …. Carter's attorneys say the guest list isn't relevant to the lawsuit, but the attorney for the HOA says the list is necessary to find witnesses who were present at the affairs.…. Patterson said those crazy nights have come to an end since the lawsuit was filed, but he's curious to see the guest list and to find out who was keeping up his family at night. "We were told one evening that there were several judges and attorneys on it. So I'd be curious to see if that's the case. We've been told everything else under the sun, too, though," he said. Once an ambulance crew arrived, Carter refused to be evaluated.”


“He then headed for the affiliate's news camera and tried pushing it to the ground before throwing himself onto the road and demanding an ambulance be called.” I think this man is not only amoral, he has some serious mental issues that are making him irrational and emotionally unstable. I don’t know what the law on swinger’s clubs is, but creating a disturbance of the peace is usually illegal. As for the judges and lawyers who are members, that disgusts me, but it doesn’t surprise me. Maybe it’s unfair, but I expect a higher personal standard for people who have lots of wealth. Often the most flagrant violations of public standards of good behavior occur among the wealthy. That kid who is not in jail despite his “affluenza” defense isn’t an oddity. Only the creative legal defense and the fact that a judge actually bought it is what’s odd.



https://www.yahoo.com/gma/scientists-eagerly-await-rare-birth-baby-dragons-slovenian-180638143--abc-news-topstories.html

Scientists Eagerly Await Rare Birth of 'Baby Dragons' in Slovenian Cave
AVIANNE TAN, Good Morning America
March 1, 2016

Go to the website for photographs.


In a Slovenian cave only accessible by an underground train, scientists are eagerly awaiting the rare hatching of more than 57 "baby dragon" eggs.

The "baby dragons" aren't really dragons, but olms -- ancient, blind salamanders that resemble the mythological creature, according to biologist Sašo Weldt, who studies the amphibians at Postojna Cave in Slovenia.

Though olms have existed for at least 15 million years, Slovenians first documented seeing them in the middle of the 17th century, when they apparently washed up from underground rivers after heavy rains, Weldt told ABC News.

"People had never seen it and didn't know what it was," he said. "During the winter time, clouds of fog often rose from the cave, so they came up with stories of a dragon breathing fire from the cave, and they thought the olms were its babies."

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Though olms don't breathe fire nor grow to gargantuan sizes, they do have several "unusual attributes and features" that make them quite fascinating creatures, Weldt said.

"They're believed to be able to live 100 years or longer, and they can survive without food for up to 10 years," he explained. "They have transparent white skin that also covers their eyes, but they don't need to see. They have incredible sense of smell and hearing and can detect detect light and electrical or magnetic fields."

Weldt added that female olms only reproduce once every six to seven years. The rare birth of olms has only been witnessed in labs, but for the first time, the public may be able to view a hatching at the Postojna Cave, where Weldt works, he said.

The first time eggs were found in the cave was in 2013, Weldt explained, but he said that they were unfortunately eaten before any could be born.

In January a tour guide noticed a new olm egg. Now, there are over 57.

"This time, we've removed all the other olms to make sure [the eggs] don't get eaten again," Weldt said. "We're hopeful for a successful birth."

He added that the cave's scientists have set up cameras that use infrared light to capture the "Mama Dragon" and her little ones, so that cave visitors can keep tabs on them as well.

"Everything seems to be going according to plan, and we're really, really excited," he said. "We just had a scientist from Uganada and America come to see the olms. It's a great moment to be working and studying the olms and the cave right now."

If all goes well, the "baby dragons" could be born within three to four months, Weldt said.



"This time, we've removed all the other olms to make sure [the eggs] don't get eaten again," Weldt said. "We're hopeful for a successful birth." He added that the cave's scientists have set up cameras that use infrared light to capture the "Mama Dragon" and her little ones, so that cave visitors can keep tabs on them as well.”


Since I had never heard the word “olm” at all, I was curious. Dear old Wikipedia produced another great article for my aid. Olms go back hundreds of years in the knowledge of people in the area, and the segment near the end of the article on folklore is especially interesting. Charles Darwin studied them also. This animal sounds like what is called a “glass snake” since both are legless varieties of four legged species, rather than snakes. A glass snake is more properly termed “glass lizard,” according to Wikipedia, and an olm is a form of legless salamander. Salamanders have a very soft, wet skin which makes some of us go “yuck,” but they are interesting.

The Wikipedia article below is fascinating. These amazing facts are clipped from it. “The olm is resistant to long-term starvation, an adaptation to its underground habitat. It can consume large amounts of food at once, and store nutrients as large deposits of lipids and glycogen in the liver. When food is scarce, it reduces its activity and metabolic rate, and can also reabsorb its own tissues in severe cases. Controlled experiments have shown that an olm can survive up to 10 years without food.[30]” WOW!!



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olm

Olm
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The olm or proteus (Proteus anguinus) is an aquatic salamander in the family Proteidae, the only exclusively cave-dwelling chordate species found in Europe. In contrast to most amphibians, it is entirely aquatic; it eats, sleeps, and breeds underwater. Living in caves found in the Dinaric Alps, it is endemic to the waters that flow underground through the extensive limestone of the karst of Central and Southeastern Europe, specifically southern Slovenia, the Soča river basin near Trieste, Italy, southwestern Croatia, and Herzegovina.[2]

It is also occasionally called the "human fish" by locals because of its skin color, similar to that of white people (translated literally from Slovene: človeška ribica and Croatian: čovječja ribica), as well as "cave salamander" or "white salamander".[3] In Slovenia, it is also known by the name močeril, which translates as "the one that burrows into wetness".[4] It was first mentioned in 1689 by the local naturalist Valvasor in his Glory of the Duchy of Carniola, who reported that, after heavy rains, the olms were washed up from the underground waters and were believed by local people to be a cave dragon's offspring.

This animal is most notable for its adaptations to a life of complete darkness in its underground habitat. The olm's eyes are undeveloped, leaving it blind, while its other senses, particularly those of smell and hearing, are acutely developed. It also lacks any pigmentation in its skin. It has three toes on its forelimbs, but only two toes on its hind feet. It also exhibits neoteny, retaining larval characteristics like external gills into adulthood,[5] like the American amphibians, the axolotl and the mudpuppy. The olm is the only species in the genus Proteus and the only European species of the family Proteidae.

Etymology[edit]

The word "olm" is a German loanword that was incorporated into English in the late 19th century.[6] The origin of the German original, "Olm" or "Grottenolm" ("cave olm") is unclear, perhaps a variant of the word "Molch", meaning salamander.[7]

Anatomy[edit]
External appearance[edit]

Image -- The olm as depicted by the French biologist Gaston Bonnier in 1907

The olm's body is snakelike, 20–30 cm (8–12 in) long, with some specimens reaching up to 40 centimetres (16 in).[8] The trunk is cylindrical, uniformly thick, and segmented with regularly spaced furrows at the myomere borders. The tail is relatively short, laterally flattened, and surrounded by a thin fin. The limbs are small and thin, with a reduced number of digits compared to other amphibians: the front legs have three digits instead of the normal four, and the rear have two digits instead of five. Its body is covered by a thin layer of skin, which contains very little of the pigment riboflavin,[9] making it yellowish-white or pink in color.[5] The internal organs can be seen shining through on the abdominal part of the body. The resemblance in color to that of white humans is the reason why the Proteus is called human fish in some languages. However, the olm's skin retains the ability to produce melanin. When exposed to light, it will gradually turn dark, and in some cases the larvae are also colored. Its pear-shaped head ends with a short, dorsoventrally flattened snout. The mouth opening is small, with tiny teeth forming a sieve to keep larger particles inside the mouth. The nostrils are so small as to be imperceptible, but are placed somewhat laterally near the end of the snout. The regressed eyes are covered by a layer of skin. The olm breathes with external gills that form two branched tufts at the back of the head.[5] They are red in color because the oxygen-rich blood shows through the non-pigmented skin. The olm also has rudimentary lungs, but their role in respiration is only accessory. The sexes are very similar in appearance, with males having a somewhat thicker cloaca than females.[10]

Ecology and life history[edit]

Photograph -- The olm swims by serpentine bending of the body.

The olm's embryonic development takes 140 days, after which it takes another 14 years to reach sexual maturity. The larvae gain adult appearance after nearly four months, with the duration of development strongly correlating with water temperature.[26] Unconfirmed historical observations of vivipary exist, but it has been shown that the females possess a gland that produces the egg casing, similar to those of fish and egg-laying amphibians.[27] It was long thought that female olm gave birth to live young at lower temperatures and laid eggs at higher, but rigorous observations have not confirmed that. The olm appears to be oviparous.[28]

The female lays up to 70 eggs, each about 12 millimetres (0.5 in) in diameter, and places them between rocks, where they remain under her protection. The tadpoles are 2 centimetres (0.8 in) long when they hatch and live on yolk stored in the cells of the digestive tract for a month.[29]

Development of the olm and other troglobite amphibians is characterized by heterochrony – the animal does not undergo metamorphosis and instead retains larval features.

The olm swims by eel-like twisting of its body, assisted only slightly by its poorly developed legs. It is a predatory animal, feeding on small crabs, snails and occasionally insects.[5] It does not chew its food, instead swallowing it whole. The olm is resistant to long-term starvation, an adaptation to its underground habitat. It can consume large amounts of food at once, and store nutrients as large deposits of lipids and glycogen in the liver. When food is scarce, it reduces its activity and metabolic rate, and can also reabsorb its own tissues in severe cases. Controlled experiments have shown that an olm can survive up to 10 years without food.[30]

Olms are gregarious, and usually aggregate either under stones or in fissures.[31] Sexually active males are an exception, establishing and defending territories where they attract females. The scarcity of food makes fighting energetically costly, so encounters between males usually only involve display. This is a behavioral adaptation to life underground.[27]

Longevity is estimated at up to 58 years.[32] A study published in Biology Letters estimated that they have a maximum lifespan of over 100 years and that the lifespan of an average adult is around 68.5 years. When compared to the longevity and body mass of other amphibians, olms are outliers, living longer than would be predicted from their size.[33]

Taxonomic history[edit]

Olms from different cave systems differ substantially in body measurements, color and some microscopic characters. Earlier researchers used these differences to support the division into five species, while modern herpetologists understand that external morphology is not reliable for amphibian systematics and can be extremely variable, depending on nourishment, illness, and other factors; even varying among individuals in a single population. Proteus anguinus is now considered a single species. The length of the head is the most obvious difference between the various populations – individuals from Stična, Slovenia, have shorter heads on average than those from Tržič, Slovenia, and the Istrian peninsula, for example.[34]

Research history[edit]

The first written mention of the olm is in Janez Vajkard Valvasor's The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola (1689) as a baby dragon. Heavy rains of Slovenia would wash the olms up from their subterranean habitat, giving rise to the folklore belief that great dragons lived beneath the Earth's crust, and the olms were the undeveloped offspring of these mythical beasts. In The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola, Valvasor compiled the local Slovenian folk stories and pieced together the rich mythology of the creature and documented observations of the olm as "Barely a span long, akin to a lizard, in short, a worm and vermin of which there are many hereabouts".[37]

Sketch of the olm in Specimen Medicum, Exhibens Synopsin Reptilium Emendatam cum Experimentis circa Venena (1768) by Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti

The first researcher to retrieve a live olm was a physician and researcher from Idrija, G.A. Scopoli; he sent dead specimens and drawings to colleagues and collectors. Josephus Nicolaus Laurenti, though, was the first to briefly describe the olm in 1768 and give it the scientific name Proteus anguinus. It was not until the end of the century that Carl Franz Anton Ritter von Schreibers from the Naturhistorisches Museum of Vienna started to look into this animal's anatomy. The specimens were sent to him by Žiga Zois. Schreibers presented his findings in 1801 to The Royal Society in London, and later also in Paris. Soon, the olm started to gain wide recognition and attract significant attention, resulting in thousands of animals being sent to researchers and collectors worldwide. The basis of functional morphological investigations in Slovenia was set up by Lili Istenič in the 1980s. More than twenty years later, the Research Group for functional morphological Studies of the Vertebrates in the Department of Biology (Biotechnical Faculty, University of Ljubljana), is one of the leading groups studying the olm under the guidance of Boris Bulog.[38] There are also several cave laboratories in Europe in which olms have been introduced and are being studied. These are Moulis, Ariège (France), Kent's Cavern (England), Han-sur-Lesse (Belgium) and Aggtelek (Hungary). They were also introduced into the Hermannshöhle (Germany) and Oliero (Italy) caves, where they still live today.[39][40]

The olm was used by Charles Darwin in his famous On the Origin of Species as an example for the reduction of structures through disuse:[41] ‘Far from feeling surprise that some of the cave-animals should be very anomalous...as is the case with blind Proteus with reference to the reptiles of Europe, I am only surprised that more wrecks of ancient life have not been preserved, owing to the less severe competition to which the scanty inhabitants of these dark abodes will have been exposed.’”

Cultural significance[edit]

The olm is a symbol of Slovenian natural heritage. The enthusiasm of scientists and the broader public about this inhabitant of Slovenian caves is still strong 300 years after its discovery. Postojna Cave is one of the birthplaces of speleobiology due to the olm and other rare cave inhabitants, such as the blind cave beetle. The image of the olm contributes significantly to the fame of Postojna Cave, which Slovenia successfully utilizes for the promotion of ecotourism in Postojna and other parts of Slovenian karst. Tours of Postojna Cave also include a tour around the speleobiological station – the Proteus vivarium, showing different aspects of the cave environment.[46]

The olm was also depicted on one of the Slovenian tolar coins,[47] and was the namesake of Proteus, the oldest Slovenian popular science magazine, first published in 1933.[48]



TRUMP – THREE ARTICLES

https://www.yahoo.com/politics/ny-court-reinstates-fraud-case-trump-said-was-215708361.html

NY court reinstates fraud case Trump said was ‘largely won’
Michael Isikoff
March 1, 2016

Image -- Donald Trump speaks during a campaign stop in Columbus, Ohio. (Photo: John Minchillo/AP)


On a day when he seems poised for victories in Republican primaries across the country, Donald Trump suffered another legal setback in a ruling by a New York State appeals court that the state’s attorney general could move forward with a lawsuit seeking $40 million in damages against the businessman for allegedly defrauding students at his now defunct Trump University.

The unanimous ruling by a four-judge panel essentially handed the state’s Democratic attorney general, Eric Schneiderman, a new weapon to pursue Trump in the state’s courts even while the businessman runs for president. After being tied up in legal battles with Trump’s lawyers since 2013, Schneiderman got a green light from the judges to pursue his efforts to recover tuition and other payments made by students to Trump’s school going back six years. Trump’s lawyers had sought to limit their liability to three years. At the same time, the ruling limits efforts by Trump’s lawyers to depose all the students who attended courses there — a move that Schneiderman had argued could bog the case down.

“Today’s decision is a clear victory in our effort to hold Donald Trump and Trump University accountable for defrauding thousands of students,” Schneiderman said in a statement that described the shuttered school as a “sham for-profit college.”

It means, he added, “our entire fraud case can move forward, and confirms that the case is subject to a six-year statute of limitations. As the state’s chief law enforcement officer, my job is to see that perpetrators of fraud are brought to justice.”

“Of course, we think it’s wrong,” Alan Garten, Trump’s chief lawyer, told Yahoo News Tuesday about the judicial ruling. “So we’re going to pursue an appeal.”

The ruling was especially inopportune for Trump given that, in the last few days, as Trump University has turned into a campaign issue, the Republican frontrunner had dismissed the New York attorney general’s lawsuit as essentially over. “That case has been largely won, although they’re appealing,” Trump said on “Meet the Press” Sunday about the Schneiderman lawsuit. “But that case has been largely won by me.”

Now, just as the Republican presidential battle heats up — Trump will be fighting legal battles over Trump University on three fronts. He is facing two class-action lawsuits over the school in federal court in San Diego, one of which, as Yahoo News first reported, is headed to trial — possibly as early as later this spring or summer — with Trump on the witness list. A spokesman for Schneiderman said that, based on the ruling today, the attorney general may seek to short-circuit a trial and ask a lower court judge to rule against Trump on summary judgment based on the record already before her.

Trump University was launched by Trump in 2005 with a promotional video in which he claimed, “I can turn anyone into a successful real estate investor, including you,” and direct-mail solicitations in which he wrote, “In just 90 minutes, my handpicked instructors will share my techniques, which took my entire career to develop.” Students were invited to “just copy exactly what I’ve done and get rich.”

Trump has claimed that 98 percent of the students who enrolled in the courses were satisfied. But in today’s ruling, the New York appellate judges cited evidence compiled by Schneiderman that the students, who paid up to $35,000 for the seminars and “mentoring,” received little for their money and that the claim that they would receive mentoring from Trump’s “handpicked experts” was misleading.

Citing Schneiderman’s evidence, the judges wrote, “Trump did not handpick the instructors; indeed, only one of the live-event speakers for Trump University had even ever met Donald Trump. … Similarly, the attorney general stated, Donald Trump never participated in the creation of any instructional content and never reviewed any curricula,” the judges wrote. “The attorney general further maintained that the instructors had been inadequately vetted and in fact had little or no experience in real estate investing, instead having prior work experience such as food-service management and graphic design.”

In his “Meet the Press” interview on Sunday, Trump complained that the federal judge who refused to dismiss the California cases, Gonzalo Curiel, was biased against him because he was Hispanic. The four judges who ruled against him in the New York case were David B. Saxe, Angelo Mazzarelli, Diane Renwick and Karla Moskowitz.


“ … Donald Trump suffered another legal setback in a ruling by a New York State appeals court that the state’s attorney general could move forward with a lawsuit seeking $40 million in damages against the businessman for allegedly defrauding students at his now defunct Trump University. ….


Under what conditions, I wonder, can a businessman be charged with FRAUD, which is a crime, as in the case of Bernie Madoff. He did go to jail. Trump’s “instructors” were without an eligible background. They had various jobs in the past, none of which were academic. All he did was set up a website with instructions and model forms on it which the poor student can copy off and use verbatim. Supposedly there were businessmen who would spend time with them in a mentoring capacity, but the article said that they didn’t always follow through on that in actuality.

Mr. Trump, meanwhile, did nothing to change those conditions and charged “tuition” in the $35, 000 range. Well, as people attribute to P T Barnum – but more likely it was said by a David Hannum, according to Wikipedia – “There’s a sucker born every minute.” I took a first course in business law at George Mason University, which was really fascinating, but in that course the book said that the business practice which the law calls “puffery,” is not usually illegal. With the financial stakes in such a high range, and the severe lack of any follow through on the part of the Donald to meet his promises, it looks like grounds for a charge that should make him legally ineligible to perform the office of President. He also should spend some years behind bars.




http://www.cbsnews.com/news/after-super-tuesday-is-the-gop-ready-for-a-donald-trump-takeover/

After Super Tuesday, is the GOP ready for a Donald Trump takeover?
By STEPHANIE CONDON CBS NEWS
March 2, 2016, 1:46 AM

Play VIDEO -- Analysis: Donald Trump's Super Tuesday
Play VIDEO -- Marco Rubio vows to fight on after disappointing Super Tuesday
Play VIDEO -- Lindsey Graham: Republicans are handing election to Hillary Clinton
Play VIDEO -- Super Tuesday 2016 highlights: Donald Trump says he will unite country


There's no question Donald Trump is a winner: After Super Tuesday, the Republican candidate has now won at least 11 GOP presidential nominating contests. He's done it with diverse coalitions of supporters in every corner of the country, from New Hampshire to Nevada and back to South Carolina, Georgia and Alaska.

Yet now that Trump appears to be the presumptive GOP nominee, his party has another question to grapple with: Is he the winner they want?

"Donald Trump will never get to 1,237 delegates," Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida declared to CBS News' Charlie Rose, seemingly suggesting the GOP establishment may even consider challenging Trump's claim to the nomination at the GOP convention in July.

Rubio has won just one nominating contest -- the caucuses in Minnesota. Even so, he said, "I'll do anything it takes to keep Donald Trump from being our nominee. Anyone who won't condemn the KKK -- there's no place in the party for that."

In spite of Trump's dominance Tuesday night, none of the other GOP candidates is ready to cede the nomination to him. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas pulled off a much-needed victory in his home state and potentially gained some momentum with additional wins in Oklahoma and Alaska. Ohio Gov. John Kasich -- who never expected to perform well on Super Tuesday -- exceeded expectations in Vermont. And even retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, whose support never surpassed 10 percent on Super Tuesday, said Tuesday that he is "not ready to quit." He's staying in the race, he said, because the political system is "rotten to the core."

The closer Trump gets to the GOP nomination, the more the GOP establishment drags its heels, finally coming to grips with the controversial businessman's popularity among conservative voters.

"How could you do that, nominate somebody who's crazy? Donald Trump's just crazy," Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, himself a failed 2016 candidate, said to CBS News on Tuesday night. Trump's candidacy, Graham said, "will tear the party apart -- we're going to lose to Hillary Clinton."

Graham added, "Ted Cruz is not my favorite... but we may be in a position where we have to rally around Ted Cruz as the only way to stop Donald Trump."

The senator slammed Trump for alienating Hispanic voters. Earlier in the day, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, admonished the GOP front-runner -- without explicitly naming him -- for failing to unequivocally reject bigotry. Other prominent members of the Republican Party, including moderates like Christine Todd Whitman and conservatives like Sen. Ben Sasse, have blatantly disavowed Trump. Meanwhile, a group of Republican business leaders held a conference call Tuesday to discuss ways to stop Trump's march to the nomination.

Trump, for his part, sounded like a slightly different candidate Tuesday night -- one ready to assume responsibility as the face of the Republican Party.

"I'm a unifier," he declared from his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago. "I know people will find that hard to believe. Once we get all of this finished, I will go after one person, that's Hillary Clinton."

Trump continued, "We are going to be a much finer party, we're going to be a unified party, and we are going to be a much bigger party -- our party is expanding... I think we're going to be more inclusive, more unified, and I think we're going to be a much bigger party in November."

Indeed, exit polling shows that wins the support of both men and women, voters of all ages and education levels. He does well among moderates, conservatives and independents. However, it's unclear whether the GOP voters who supported Cruz and Rubio in the primary would turn out for Trump in the general election. In six of the exit polls Tuesday night (Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia) voters were asked how satisfied they would be if Trump, Cruz, or Rubio won the nomination. As 74 percent of non-Trump voters said they would be dissatisfied if Trump were the nominee.

Unhappy GOP voters could be especially problematic in a state like Virginia -- a purple state with a diverse, dynamic electorate that will be critical in the general election. The exit polling out of Virginia perfectly illustrated the split emerging in the GOP.

Trump voters in Virginia said they are angry at the way the federal government is working, they want a temporary ban on non-citizen Muslims, and they are very worried about the direction of the economy. Trump performed most strongly among less affluent voters and those with less education.

By contrast, nearly half of Virginia voters who oppose a ban on non-citizen Muslims chose Rubio. Most voters who said they were dissatisfied but not angry with the government chose Rubio. Also, Rubio's support increased among voters with higher levels of education.

"I believe we are seeing a great political party shatter before our eyes," Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan told CBS News on Tuesday night.

This level of dissension within the Republican Party isn't completely unprecedented, Republican political consultant Rick Davis pointed out on CBSN. In 1976, Ronald Reagan challenged President Gerald Ford's claim to the GOP nomination, leaving the party with no clear nominee at the start of the party convention that year.

This year, the current delegate math suggests Cruz is best poised to challenge Trump. While Rubio insists he'll challenge Trump all the way to the convention, his performance Tuesday didn't help his cause. Rubio failed to meet the 20 percent threshold in Texas necessary to claim any of the state's 155 delegates. He also failed to meet the 20 percent threshold for delegates in Alabama and just barely crossed it in Tennessee.

The senator's poor showing on Super Tuesday makes the March 15 primary in his home state in Florida all the more critical -- especially since the delegates in Florida are awarded on a winner-take-all basis.

Trump, however, pointed out Tuesday night that he currently has a double-digit lead over Rubio in Florida. "We're going to spend so much time in Florida," the front-runner said, adding that Marco Rubio "is a lightweight, as I've said before."



"Donald Trump will never get to 1,237 delegates," Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida declared to CBS News' Charlie Rose, seemingly suggesting the GOP establishment may even consider challenging Trump's claim to the nomination at the GOP convention in July. …. . Trump's candidacy, Graham said, "will tear the party apart -- we're going to lose to Hillary Clinton." Graham added, "Ted Cruz is not my favorite... but we may be in a position where we have to rally around Ted Cruz as the only way to stop Donald Trump." The senator slammed Trump for alienating Hispanic voters. Earlier in the day, House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, admonished the GOP front-runner -- without explicitly naming him -- for failing to unequivocally reject bigotry. …. As 74 percent of non-Trump voters said they would be dissatisfied if Trump were the nominee. Unhappy GOP voters could be especially problematic in a state like Virginia -- a purple state with a diverse, dynamic electorate that will be critical in the general election. The exit polling out of Virginia perfectly illustrated the split emerging in the GOP. …. In 1976, Ronald Reagan challenged President Gerald Ford's claim to the GOP nomination, leaving the party with no clear nominee at the start of the party convention that year.”


It would be interesting if the party members became so alarmed by Trump’s success that someone, perhaps someone very highly placed, would – to use a crude phrase – have Trump “whacked.” The Koch brothers would be ideal for that. If someone had stopped Hitler in exactly that way, WWII, if it did happen at all, would have been less shockingly horrible. Perhaps we could make a law requiring a segment of the Senate, that august body, to vet each nominee from every party before every election. That should include the newly elected members of the legislature, too. Too many “dirty” people make it into office.

That’s probably the purpose behind the Electoral College, but no candidate as far as I know has ever been challenged before taking office. They just sit there and bollox up elections by the people’s popular vote. I would like to get rid of the Electoral College as it exists, and call the new body the “Board of Regulators.” The actions of the Regulators could be approved by two members of the Supreme Court reviewing in the data for accuracy and fairness.

We first, however, need a fairly lengthy and restrictive list of basic criteria which every candidate for every office should have to satisfy. That the candidate be between a certain age range is not enough. In the case of an insufficient college background, to include at least the basics of grammar, speech, business writing, world affairs, economics and law; close ties to organized crime, corruption or any group which advocates the overthrow of the US government such as the militias; connection with any violent, socially restrictive, and/or racist groups such as a White Supremacy or Nazi group; any personal history of violence in or outside the home; untreated heavy drinking or drug use, depression or more serious mental health problems; an open history of disorderly behavior including sexual carousing of any kind (gay or straight); theft or embezzlement; the ownership of more than six guns or an automatic assault rifle; more than one bankruptcy or any white collar crime including income tax evasion; or other disturbing and proven serious problems that might emerge: the candidate would be judged to be “unqualified” and an alternate choice would be made from the same hierarchical order as in the case of a president’s death or disqualifying incapacitation. For instance, Ronald Reagan, I heard, was already suffering from Alzheimer’s before he left office. He was a lovable guy, but that shouldn’t happen.

What I would like to see is a separate body whose only function is to examine the candidate’s background for all serious problems as the Senate now does of all offices which are nominated by the President. We should do the same for elected offices. On that body there could be the sitting US Vice President, a highly respected member of each party from both the Congress and the Senate, the Attorney General and a member of the Supreme Court. Perhaps the Board of Regulators could be a part of the Cabinet instead of the legislature. If so the President would appoint the members. They should have the investigative power of the FBI and the DOJ to see that all criteria are satisfied.

I no longer trust the Senate to approve the President's judgeship selections due to their ongoing childish intransigence in fulfilling that role. Members of both houses need to be restricted to two terms of two years. That way they will not be able to do as much harm as they now can, with their almost unlimited time in office. The Senate's Republican dominated membership has now vowed to block any nominations of our -- unfortunately black --President, who has been hounded on one issue or another by the Republican members of the legislature since he came into office. It has so obviously been because of his race and political leanings. Clearly they can't be trusted to perform the oversight function delegated to them by the Constitution in an honest and reliable manner. We need to change that. Besides being incapable of passing any good laws, they are politically and morally unreliable to do their jobs. They plan to deny the President his legitimate nominating function, at the risk of crippling our Supreme Court for all practical purposes for years. That, to any fair-minded and logical person, is despicable. I command that these changes be done!