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Drone strikes kill 9 ISIS Officials

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A new round of airstrikes in Yemen by American drones killed at least nine ISIS fighters, a military official said Thursday.

The ISIS militants were riding in two vehicles when they were destroyed in two separate airstrikes in in western Yemen, about halfway between the capital, Sana'a and the coastal city of Aden, according to the official.

The drone strike marked the second time this month the U.S. military has bombed ISIS in Yemen, a U.S. military spokesman told Fox News.

Earlier this month on Oct. 16, the U.S. military conducted strikes against ISIS in Yemen for the first time which killed 50 militants inside two training camps.

The U.S. military said so far this month, it has killed over 60 ISIS fighters in Yemen as the battle to wipe out the terrorist group spreads from Iraq and Syria.

"In coordination with the government of Yemen, U.S. forces are supporting ongoing counter-terrorism operations in Yemen against ISIS and AQAP to degrade the groups' ability to coordinate external terror attacks and limit their ability to hold territory seized from the legitimate government," said Maj. Earl Brown, a spokesman for the U.S. military's Central Command.

As of now, ISIS only controls about 3 percent of Iraq and 5 percent in neighboring Syria, and some of its fighters have left to find safe haven elsewhere.

"We are decimating ISIS in the Middle East," President Donald Trump said outside the White House Wednesday. "They'll go to parts of Africa, they'll go to other places, when they get to those places --we'll beat them," he added.

"You expect to see large flows of ISIS fighters coming out of Syria and Iraq. We don't see that at all," said Gen. Joseph F. Dunford, Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

On Thursday, US-backed Iraqi forces kicked off a new offensive to recapture the last remaining ISIS stronghold in al-Qaim. The city, located along the Syrian border in western Iraq, is being defended by 1,500 ISIS fighters, according to U.S. military officials.
Lucas Tomlinson is the Pentagon and State Department producer for Fox News Channel. You can follow him on Twitter: @LucasFoxNews

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US drone strikes in Yemen kill at least 9 ISIS fighters, official says

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A new round of airstrikes in Yemen by American drones killed at least nine ISIS fighters, a military official said Thursday. The ISIS militants were riding in two vehicles when they were destroyed in two separate airstrikes in in western Yemen, about halfway between the capital, Sana'a and the coastal city of Aden, according to the official.

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300,000 year old homosapien fossils were found in Jebel Irhoud, Morocco that are 100,000 years older than any human fossils previously found. Researchers are unsure whether the human species started in Morocco and spread to africa, or if they evolved in isolation.

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Three-hundred-thousand years old, 100,000 years older than anything previously discovered, they stretched the timeline of Homo sapiens, our distant ancestors, further into the past. It left humanity with a new first chapter, blank and waiting to be written.

But it was where the fossils were found that was more intriguing still. Ethiopia was previously the site of the oldest Homo sapiens fossils, and East Africa has long been considered the "cradle of life." However, these new finds came from Jebel Irhoud in Morocco.

A long-held anthropological narrative became more complex. What were these hominids doing on the other side of the continent? Had they evolved in isolation to sapiens in East Africa? What happened during these extra 100,000 years, and could we determine a new starting point for humanity?

Excavated from what was once a barite mine 250 miles from the capital Rabat, the fossils were sent for study to the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. It was here in the thermoluminescence laboratory that advanced dating technology was used to determine the fossils' age.

Alongside sapiens remains at Jebel Irhoud, archaeologists found stone tools that had been burnt with fire. Using thermoluminescence detectors, scientists could establish when an artifact was heated.

"If you have a strong light emission, you have an old artifact. If you only have a very low light emission, you have a very young artifact," explains Tobias Lauer, a post-doctoral researcher at the institute.

"Normally you have an error range of about 10%. If you get an age of around 300,000 years, it means that you have plus (or) minus 30,000 ... it's extremely helpful for us."

CT scans were also used to create hundreds of two-dimensional X-rays of the fossils, compiled to create three-dimensional avatars (see below, courtesy MPI). These computer models are an invaluable way to rebuild fossils that may have broken or missing pieces.

With the pieces assembled as best they could be, a team has been charged with filling in the blanks on the life of these ancient sapiens.

"It's like a puzzle," says Jean-Jacques Hublin, director of the department of human evolution. "We have to put together, to reconstruct, not just the anatomy of these humans but also their lifestyle, their activities.

"The face of these people is a face like my face; it's a face (like) somebody you could cross in the street today," he adds. But there are still significant differences.

"(Through) the course of 300,000 years many things happen, and in particular their brain case and the brain inside is big, but is different in morphology to what we have today -- we suspect not just in morphology but also in the kind of wiring of the brain."

The bridge between the Moroccan fossils and us is "mostly a story of brain evolution," says Hublin.

"Recent discoveries in paleogenetics and genetics show that in this time period, there were a series of mutations affecting brain functioning, brain connectivity, brain development that occurred within our lineage.

"It seems to be something specific to our species that we don't find in other groups of the same period, like Neanderthals or Denisovans or others."

But while there's a strong record of the evolution of many other hominids, "the origin of our own species is much more mysterious," says Hublin.

Until recently it was considered a sort of "enigmatic emergence" of Homo sapiens occurred, originating from sub-Saharan Africa, most likely East Africa, from a "restricted area" and occurring quickly. The find at Jebel Irhoud has caused this narrative to be "completely revised," says the study leader. This doesn't mean Morocco is the new cradle of life; instead, that our ancestors were much more dispersed, and much earlier, than previously thought. (It's worth noting that at the time the Sahara was not a desert, but in fact a lush green grassland, rich in flora and fauna.)

"The notion that somehow just a corner of Africa is involved in the origin of our species -- I think we can forget it," says Hublin. "If there is a Garden of Eden in Africa, this Garden of Eden is the size of the continent."

As announced earlier this year, the institute, a pioneer in the field of fossil DNA extraction and genome mapping, was unable to recover DNA samples from the current Jebel Irhoud find. But this month archaeologists returned to the excavation site to source more artifacts for testing.

They're working with a firmer platform and greater understanding of our origins than before.

"Science is a sort of perpetual reworking of knowledge," muses the project leader. "The tree of hominids is a tree with a picture that is a bit fuzzy. There are many parts that are visible, and so what we're doing is we're completing this picture ... or having a picture that is more in focus.

"I think with Jebel Irhoud, we touched an essential branch of this tree. Because it's our branch."

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inside the lab rewriting the origins of humanity - cnn

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Oldest Homo sapiens fossils rewrite history of humanity

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Three-hundred-thousand years old, 100,000 years older than anything previously discovered, they stretched the timeline of Homo sapiens, our distant ancestors, further into the past. It left humanity with a new first chapter, blank and waiting to be written. But it was where the fossils were found that was more intriguing still.

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In a now deleted Instagram post published on her verified account Tuesday, actress Heather Lind wrote that she was "disturbed today by a photo I saw of President Barack Obama shaking hands with George H. W. Bush in a gathering of ex-presidents organising aid to states and territories damaged by recent hurricanes."

"I found it disturbing because I recognize the respect ex-presidents are given for having served," Lind wrote. "And I feel pride and reverence toward many of the men in the photo."

Lind did not mention the name of the event where the alleged touching took place, nor did she specify in her post the manner in which she was touched. She said in her caption that she was there with the Bushes to promote a TV show.

"But when I got the chance to meet George H. W. Bush four years ago to promote a historical television show I was working on, he sexually assaulted me while I was posing for a similar photo," the post went on to say. "He didn't shake my hand. He touched me from behind from his wheelchair with his wife Barbara Bush by his side. He told me a dirty joke. And then, all the while being photographed, touched me again."

The former president's spokesman Jim McGrath issued a statement to CNN Wednesday about the allegation.

"President Bush would never - under any circumstance - intentionally cause anyone distress, and he most sincerely apologizes if his attempt at humor offended Ms. Lind," the statement said.

The internet was quick to circulate a picture of Bush and wife Barbara, both of whom appear in the photo flanked by a group of actors featured in the TV series, "TURN: Washington's Spies." Lind, an actress on the show, is seen standing to the left of Bush in the photo.

CNN has reached out to Lind to confirm that the image being circulated is the one she was referencing and to ask why the post was deleted. Lind has not responded to CNN's request for comment.

The photo appears on AMC's official site, with a caption that indicates it was taken at a private screening for the show hosted by the Bushes.

The allegation comes in the wake of the scandal surrounding Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein, director James Toback and other men being accused of harassing and assaulting women. Weinstein, through a spokesperson, has "unequivocally" denied "any allegations of non-consensual sex." Toback denied the allegations to the Los Angeles Times, which was the first to report about women coming forward.

Women worldwide have been using #MeToo on social media to share stories of their own experience with sexual harassment and assault.

Lind said her fellow cast members and producers were aware of what happened and were supportive after the alleged incident.

"I am grateful for the bravery of other women who have spoken up and written about their experiences," she said. "And I thank President Barack Obama for the gesture of respect he made toward George H. W. Bush for the sake of our country, but I do not respect him. #metoo."

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george h.w. bush responds after actress accuses him of sexual assault  - cnn

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George H.W. Bush responds after sexual assault claim

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In a now deleted Instagram post published on her verified account Tuesday, actress Heather Lind wrote that she was "disturbed today by a photo I saw of President Barack Obama shaking hands with George H. W. Bush in a gathering of ex-presidents organising aid to states and territories damaged by recent hurricanes."

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A high school cross country runner carried a teammate with a broken leg across the finish line despite knowing that he would be disqualified for making contact with another racer

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Runner sacrifices race to carry teammate

A high school cross country runner carried a teammate with a broken leg across the finish line despite knowing that he would be disqualified for making contact with another racer.

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Runner sacrifices race to carry teammate | CNN

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Runner sacrifices race to carry teammate A high school cross country runner carried a teammate with a broken leg across the finish line despite knowing that he would be disqualified for making contact with another racer.

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Two teenagers from a high school in Georgia were arrested for planning to attack classmates and faculty at their school. Reporters say that the two 17 year-olds, Alfred Dupree and Victoria McCurley face charges of criminal attempt to commit murder and arson. A journal belonging to Alfred Dupree was found with a list of targets at the school. When police searched their homes, they found firearms, a powdered substance, and a device used to start fires.

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Two Georgia teenagers were arrested Wednesday after they planned to attack their classmates and faculty at their Atlanta-area high school in a plot discovered in one of their diaries, officials said.

Cherokee County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Sgt. Marianne Kelley told reporters that 17-year-olds Alfred Dupree and Victoria McCurley face charges including criminal attempt to commit murder and criminal attempt to commit arson for threats against Etowah High School and its staff.

The arrests came after authorities found a journal belonging to Dupree with a list of targets at the school, according to police.

Kelley said investigators were tipped off by a community member who contacted police. Investigators later met with Dupree and his family Monday and learned of McCurley's involvement in the alleged plot, police said.

When authorities searched the homes of the two teenagers, they found firearms, a powdered substance, and a flammable incendiary device. The school is located about 30 miles north of Atlanta.

"The incendiary devices were described to us as flammable substances, it's been turned over to the [Georgia Bureau of Investigations] to be tested," Kelley said.

A neighbor of Dupree told FOX 5 Atlanta she saw a lot of police cars outside Dupree's home late Monday, and has known him since they were in elementary school.

"He was really into Legos and video games, he was kind of anti-social, but other than that he was really a nice kid," Christina Sovin said.

The principal of Etowah High School, Robert Horn, said in a letter to parents there are no other suspects, and "no active threat" against the school at this time.

"Immediate action and investigation began, and, as a result, two students are currently in custody," Horn wrote.

Parents at the school said the alleged plot is "terrifying."

"It's surreal," Blossom Lewis told FOX 5. "I'm glad they stopped them and they didn't take it to the next level."

Cherokee County Sheriff Frank Reynolds said mental health may have been a factor, according to the Associated Press. Both teens were evaluated before being arrested and charged, with their first court appearance scheduled for noon Thursday.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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2 Georgia threatened terror attack at high school, had hit list, police say

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Two Georgia teenagers were arrested Wednesday after they planned to attack their classmates and faculty at their Atlanta-area high school in a plot discovered in one of their diaries, officials said. Cherokee County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Sgt.

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Lady in Australia finds gigantic 2 foot earthworm.

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7NEWS Queensland on Instagram: "This giant earthworm was captured at Mount Tamborine. #7News"

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683 likes, 79 comments - 7newsqueensland on October 23, 2017: "This giant earthworm was captured at Mount Tamborine. #7News". 

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FBI documents that have been released show the Sandy Hook shooter had an interest in pedophilia and childhood liberation, but because he had not acted on it was not categorized as a pedophile.

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fbi documents reveal adam lanza's pedophilia interes - cnn

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FBI docs reveal Adam Lanza's pedophilia interest, methodical planning

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Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza had an interest in children that could be characterized as pedophilia, but nothing suggests he acted on it, according to an FBI behavioral analysis.

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Newly discovered lunar tunnels provide a unique location for a colon

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The Washington Post 4 days ago Avi Selk

At the close of the Apollo age, a year before the final moonwalk in 1972, a NASA researcher argued that vast tunnels lie beneath the lunar surface.

There was good reason to think so. Lava from ancient volcanoes might have bored miles-long voids beneath the moon, just as volcanoes carved out the Kaumana lava tubes in Hawaii.
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What a sight a lunar lava cave would be. Protected from meteors and radiation that bombards the surface, the tunnels might preserve evidence from the moon's early history and clues to its mysterious origins. And many scientists have long dreamed of building bases inside natural moon caves, where lunar explorers might sleep safely in inflatable homes, protected from the storms above.

But the lava tunnels of the moon, like the mythical canals of Mars, proved elusive.

NASA's Ronald Greeley hypothesized in 1971 that one of the great channels in the moon's Marius Hills region might in fact be a collapsed tunnel. But he admitted that no mission had yet photographed a lunar cave entrance - and some doubted they even existed.

Half a century after Greeley's paper published and NASA left the moon behind, in a paper published this week, Japanese researchers say they've found proof of the tunnels no one could see.

Japan calls its Kaguya orbiter the "largest lunar mission since the Apollo program." It launched in 2007 with state-of-the-art instruments, deployable satellites and a mission to solve the great mysteries of the moon's origin.

In 2009, Kaguya drifted 60 miles above the Marius Hills and took a picture of a large, deep hole.

Holes aren't unusual on the moon's pockmarked surface, but a NASA Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter managed to get a follow-up shot, closer to the ground, as a team of Japanese and American researchers recounted in Geophysical Research Letters last week.

"The floor of the hole extended at least several meters eastward and westward under a ceiling of two other holes," the researchers wrote - like the mouth of a tunnel.

But the murky picture revealed no more. Did the cave go on for miles, like the hypothetical lava tube, or dead-end just out of sight?

It took years to find out. The Japanese got another assist from the United States in 2011, when NASA put twin spacecraft - Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory, or GRAIL - in orbit around the moon.

GRAIL measured tiny fluctuations in the moon's gravity to map out mountains and subterranean features. When it flew over the Marius Hills, the researchers wrote, it detected something long and hollow beneath the surface - extending more than 30 miles from the hole Kaguya found.

So Kaguya swung back into action. The Japanese probe blasted radar waves down onto the suspected tunnel, listening for anomalies in the echoes that came back from underground.

Over and over, Kaguya heard a distinctive pattern of echoes. The researchers think it is either the floor or ceiling of a cave - the long-hoped-for lava tunnel.

It is very long - 31 miles, according to Japan's Institute of Space and Astronautical Science.

It must be ancient, and may be buried more than 300 feet below the surface. It might even contain ice or water.

If the researchers are correct, it sounds just like what the old Apollo scientists and would-be colonists were looking for.

"Their existence has not been confirmed until now," Junichi Haruyama, one of the paper's authors, told Agence France-Presse. And now that he knows the tunnel exists, he said, he looks forward to finding out what's inside.
Read more: Thousands of tiny satellites are about to go into space and possibly ruin it forever Terrorists are building drones. France is destroying them with eagles. Canadian scientists were followed, threatened and censored. They warn that Trump could do the same. We thought New Zealand was an island nation. Scientists say it's the tip of a 'hidden continent.'

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A newly discovered moon tunnel could be the perfect place for a colony, scientists say

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The Washington Post 4 days ago Avi Selk At the close of the Apollo age, a year before the final moonwalk in 1972, a NASA researcher argued that vast tunnels lie beneath the lunar surface. There was good reason to think so.

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FBI documents are now revealing that the Sandy Hook shooter had an interest in pedophilia. It is suggested that he has never acted on it, but friends of the killer have said that he would speak on the topic often. He was not categorized as a pedophile.

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fbi documents reveal adam lanza's pedophilia interes - cnn

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FBI docs reveal Adam Lanza's pedophilia interest, methodical planning

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Sandy Hook shooter Adam Lanza had an interest in children that could be characterized as pedophilia, but nothing suggests he acted on it, according to an FBI behavioral analysis.

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Last night, the long awaited matchup between John Wall and Lonzo Ball came into play as the Lakers won 102-99. Wall finished with 18 points while Lonzo only finished with 6. Lonzo did come up big on assists however, going into the double digits with 10.

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North Korean defector describes 'life of hell' for Christians

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North Korean Choi Kwanghyuk is one of the lucky ones.

The 55-year-old managed to escape from the work camp where he was sent after being targeted and persecuted by the government for his Christian faith.

"We couldn't raise our voice during a service, we couldn't sing out loud during a worship ... that was hard," Choi told Fox News through a translator. "Also, we had to hide so that other people could not see us."

Despite having to hide his faith in plain sight while living in North Hamgyong province, Choi was still compelled to bring religion to others when he started an underground church.

"There were about nine people," he said. "I couldn't do mission work because we had to keep it secret that we had a church."

"If that information had leaked, we could have faced the death penalty."

North Korea is officially an atheist state where - except for a "show church" in Pyongyang that tourists are shown -- public worship is forbidden. The country is ranked the most oppressive place for Christians in the world and has had that ignominious status for years, according to Open Doors USA.

"[Choi's] statements describing oppression, as well as his report of imprisonment for owning a Bible or practicing faith, align with everything we know about North Korea," Open Doors President David Curry told Fox News. "Rated the worst place for the persecution of Christians, North Korea treats Christians horrendously and registers them as 'enemies of the state' for their faith."

The totalitarian state forces the estimated 300,000 Christians living there to hide their religious beliefs and fellowship among each other.

"In a nation where the ruling regime demands total control over the general public, anything that challenges the government's power is seen as a threat, including religion," Jeff King, president of International Christian Concern, told Fox News. "As a result, the North Korean government does everything in its power to squash the spread of Christianity."

This leads much of the religious population in North Korea to go underground with their worship, much like Choi and his church were forced to do.

"We had only one Bible," he said. "North Hamgyong province is very cold. In the winter, we would dig a big hole and store kimchi there. We sometimes had services there. In the summer, we had services in the mountain or by the river."

"I never heard the term 'underground church' until I got here [to the U.S.]."

In 2008, North Korean authorities caught up to Choi and arrested him. He was held in prison by the state security department where he says he was interrogated about his faith.

"I was tortured there," he said. "I kept denying it."

He said that he was about to be sent to one of North Korea's brutal labour camps when he was able to break free.

"I decided to escape because I thought that once they sent me to the other camp, they could eventually send me to the concentration camp or kill me," Choi recalled. "I was traveling back and forth between China and North Korea, but they kept searching for me, and I knew it could put my friends in danger too, so I left."

The North Korean gulag system is notorious for harsh conditions and brutal treatment of its prisoners.

Choi feared being sent to the most notorious camp within the system -- Camp 22.

Also known as Hoeryong concentration camp, and part of a large system of prison camps throughout the Communist dictatorship, Camp 22 is an 87-square-mile penal colony located in North Hamgyong province where most of the prisoners are people accused of criticizing the government.

Inmates, most of whom are serving life sentences, face harsh and often lethal conditions. According to the testimony of a former guard from Camp 22, prisoners live in bunkhouses with 100 people per room and some 30 percent show the markings of torture and beatings -- torn ears, gouged eyes and faces covered with scars.

"Unfortunately, it is inexplicably easy to wind up in one of these camps. While someone can be sent to one of these camps for openly evangelizing, someone can just as easily be sent there for simply being in contact with a religious person," said King of the International Christian Concern.

Prisoners are forced to stand on their toes in tanks filled with water up to their noses for 24 hours, stripped and hanged upside-down while being beaten or given the infamous "pigeon torture" -- where both hands are chained to a wall at a height of 2 feet, forcing them to crouch for hours at a time.

Tiny rations of watery corn porridge leave inmates on the brink of starvation, and many hunt rats, snakes and frogs for protein. Some even take the drastic measure of searching through animal dung for undigested seeds to eat. Beatings are handed out daily for offenses as simple as not bowing down in respect to the guards fast enough. Prisoners are used as practice targets during martial arts training. Guards routinely rape female inmates.

Choi said he finally escaped to neighboring China. While he was figuring out where to go next, he had heard how the general image of North Korean defectors was not positive among those in South Korea.

"So, I applied for asylum in the U.S.," he told Fox News.

Choi, who was single when he lived in North Korea, was granted asylum in the U.S. in 2013. He first lived in Dallas before eventually moving to Los Angeles where he now lives.

Choi said that as a result of injuries he received while being tortured, he is unable to work but has committed himself to telling the world about the human rights abuses in his native land.

"First of all, every human must have the right to freedom," he said. "There is no freedom in North Korea. By law, they have the freedom of religion and the freedom of the press, but the reality is very different."

And despite the hardships he may face, Choi said that life in the U.S. is a vast improvement.

"There is an enormous difference between my life in North Korea and my life in the U.S," he said.

"The life in North Korea is hell ... life in America is heaven."
Fox News' Inwook Song contributed to this article.

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North Korean defector describes 'life of hell' for Christians

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North Korean Choi Kwanghyuk is one of the lucky ones. The 55-year-old managed to escape from the work camp where he was sent after being targeted and persecuted by the government for his Christian faith. "We couldn't raise our voice during a service, we couldn't sing out loud during a worship ...

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For the past three years, a 21 year-old Woman repeatably Sweats Blood from her face, palms, and just about everywhere. She was admitted to an Italian hospital on Monday. Dermatologists diagnosed Hematohidrosis, a rare disease marked by spontaneous discharge of "blood sweat" through intact skin. Cures are still being researched. This is not the first case discovered for this rare disorder.

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the alarming story of a woman who sweats blood from her palms and her face   - cnn

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A patient with no signs of wounds was admitted to an Italian hospital due to sweating blood from her face and the palms of her hands, a recent case study says.

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A small Montana utility firm with ties to the Trump administration has won a major multi-million-dollar contract to help restore large portions of Puerto Rico's crippled electrical grid.

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A small Montana utility firm with ties to the Trump administration has won a major multimillion-dollar contract to help restore large portions of Puerto Rico's crippled electrical grid.

Whitefish Energy, a two-year old electrical utility firm, announced last week it secured a $300 million contract from the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority to repair and reconstruct parts of the island's electrical infrastructure.

This is the largest contract awarded to any company for relief efforts on the island in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

The deal surpassed a six-month contract worth $240 million to Fluor Corp. from the Army Corps of Engineers to help bring power back to the island and a $35.1 million contract to Weston Solutions to provide two generators for temporary power to the city of San Juan.

The arrangementhas raised a few eyebrows among Democrats given that Whitefish only had two employees the day Hurricane Maria hit.Already, Whitefish has scaled up to 300 employees in Puerto Rico -- and it says 700 more are on the way. Such quick growth is typical among utility firms when they are awarded large contracts.

On Tuesday, both a House anda Senate committee called for a review into the Whitefish contract.

Related: Relief group hits major hurdles getting aid to Puerto Rico

"Today I am calling on the Government Accountability Office to investigate the circumstances surrounding the multi-million dollar contract awarded to Whitefish Energy -- a brand new company with two employees," said Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell, the ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, on Tuesday.

"The size and unknown details of this contract raises numerous questions," said Parish Braden, a spokesman for the House Committee on Natural Resources, which is also reviewing Whitefish's role in Puerto Rico.

Othershave questioned why PREPA did not choose a larger, more established utility.

"Congress needs to understand why the Whitefish contract was awarded and whether other, more cost-effective options were available," said Democratic Rep. Raúl Grijalva from Arizona, in a statement Tuesday.

PREPA's executive director, Ricardo Ramos, told reporters last week during a press conference the cash-strapped island chose Whitefish because it didn't require a big deposit upfront. The other unnamed contenderwanted a $25 million down payment for the work, Ramos said.

"In that moment, we were not in a position to offer that collateral," said Ramos. "The other company did not ask for a guarantee of payment."

But some on Capitol Hill are concerned that Whitefish may have stood out for another reason.

The tiny utility company is based in Whitefish, Montana, which also happens to be the hometown of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.

Both Zinke and Whitefish CEO Andy Techmanski acknowledge knowing one another. Zinke's office described Whitefish as a "small town" with a population of roughly 6,000 people. One of the secretary's sons "joined a friend who worked a summer job at one their [Whitefish's] construction sites."

Whitefish spokesman Ken Luce confirmed an Oct. 1 report by NBC Montana, which quoted Techmanski as saying he reached out to Zinke after winning the contractto help get resources to the island more quickly,

But Luce told CNN that the company did not make any requests to the administration except for one after the contract was signed on Sept. 26.

"The secretary had absolutely nothing to do with Whitefish getting the contract," he said.

Related: Puerto Rican exodus could boost Small Town, USA

Zinke's office acknowledged they received an email from Techmanski, but said no one at the agency took any further action.On Tuesday, the spokeswoman for the Department of Interior told CNN Zinke played no role in securing the work for Whitefish in Puerto Rico.

Techmanski, who has described the firm as specializing in "difficult and mountainous terrain projects," has downplayed any ties to the administration.

"All I can say is, we took the call and we're here," Techmanskitold CNN Friday, referring to a call from director Ramos. "We called each other."

Still, PREPA, a state-owned utility, chose to hire Whitefish rather than initiate agreements with other utilities to help recover from the natural disaster more quickly.

The bankrupt utility, which is $9 billion in debt, could have requested aid after Maria through the American Public Power Association, a network that provides help to other utilities during widespread power outages. That's what Texas and Florida did after Hurricanes Harvey and Irma.

Related: Workers are dangling from helicopters to fix Puerto Rico's power lines

A PREPA representative did not respond to an email from CNN asking why the utility didn't activate the mutual-aid network.

On Monday, Rep. Nydia Velázquez -- a New York Democrat -- sent a letter to the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency raising questions on the handling of such contracts to restore power and water to the crippled island.

"Due to the island's current state of affairs, there is a legitimate and unquestionable need to expedite the process of restoring power and water for the residents in Puerto Rico," Velázquez wrote in the letter. "However, such an accelerated procurement process should not be without sufficient safeguards and proper oversight mechanisms."

CNNMoney (Washington) First published October 24, 2017: 8:01 PM ET

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Donna Borak, Rene Marsh and Gregory Wallace

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Questions swirl after small Montana firm lands Puerto Rico power contract

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Whitefish Energy, a two-year old electrical utility firm, announced last week it secured a $300 million contract from the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority to repair and reconstruct parts of the island's electrical infrastructure. This is the largest contract awarded to any company for relief efforts on the island in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.

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New England Patriots linebacker Dont'a Hightower will reportedly miss the rest of the 2017 season due to a torn pectoral muscle

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New England Patriots Mike Chiari Bill Kostroun/Associated Press Twitter Logo Featured Columnist
New England Patriots linebacker Dont'a Hightower will reportedly miss the rest of the 2017 season due to a torn pectoral muscle, according to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport.

Jeff Howe of the Boston Herald reported Wednesday that Hightower had been ruled out for Sunday's game against the Los Angeles Chargers due to a shoulder injury suffered during New England's Week 7 win over the Atlanta Falcons.

As the centerpiece of New England's defense, Hightower has registered 14 tackles and 2.0 sacks in five games this season.

He has already missed a pair of contests due to a sprained MCL, and playing without Hightower isn't a foreign concept to the Pats.

In his six NFL seasons, Hightower has appeared in all 16 games just once, and he has missed multiple games in the other five campaigns.

Despite missing three games in 2016, Hightower racked up 65 tackles and 2.5 sacks en route to his first career Pro Bowl nod.

He is a true, do-it-all linebacker, and that may never have been more apparent than in 2014 when he made 105 tackles and set a career mark with 6.0 sacks.

The 2012 first-round pick out of Alabama represents a significant loss for a Patriots defense that ranks last in the NFL in total yardage allowed per game (426.7) and 23rd in points allowed per game (23.7).

Veteran David Harris will likely step into a starting role with Hightower on the shelf.

Although the former New York Jets star has made 100 or more tackles in a season on six occasions, he is now 33 years of age and has just four tackles thus far in 2017.

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Dont'a Hightower Reportedly Out for Season Due to Torn Pectoral Muscle Injury

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New England Patriots Mike Chiari Bill Kostroun/Associated Press Twitter Logo Featured Columnist New England Patriots linebacker Dont'a Hightower will reportedly miss the rest of the 2017 season due to a torn pectoral muscle, according to NFL Network's Ian Rapoport.

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Man arrested after police pull over 11-year-old ‘designated driver’

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FOX 4 Kansas City WDAF-TV | News, Weather, Sports

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PORT HUENEME, Calif. -- A 29-year-old man was arrested in California after a patrol officer pulled over his 11-year-old nephew who was allegedly serving as his designated driver on Sunday, according to KTLA.

The officer first spotted the vehicle mid-afternoon Sunday at the heavily traveled intersection of Surfside Drive and Hueneme Road and noticed a child behind the wheel of a vehicle making a right-hand turn, according to a Port Hueneme Police Department news release.

"The kid obviously did not know how to drive a car. He was making traffic violations, weaving, the speed was erratic," said Port Hueneme police Sgt. Christopher Graham.

After observing multiple violations, the officer pulled the vehicle over; the car was partially off the road when it yielded, the release stated.

Meanwhile, as the officer conducted the traffic stop, the police dispatch center received multiple calls from motorists and witnesses that a child was driving with a man slumped in the vehicle's front passenger seat, according to the release.

Police discovered the driver was 11 years old, and that his uncle -- allegedly intoxicated at the time -- was in the passenger seat. He had apparently been seated on a sweatshirt to help him drive, authorities noted.

"The uncle - someone had to have propped up some clothing for him, which allowed him to reach the pedals and also see over the steering wheel," Graham said.

When asked why he was behind the wheel, the boy initially told the officer that his uncle was teaching him to drive, but he later told police that his uncle "was too drunk to drive," the release stated.

The suspect, identified as Oxnard resident Genoro Lopez, is accused of having an open container of alcohol -- Graham described it as a container of beer -- in his lap and showing signs of intoxication, police said.

After asking the man to get out of the car, police also found what appeared to be a firearm located between his seat and the door, according to the release.

At that point, Lopez was placed in handcuffs. Investigators later determined the firearm to be an imitation one.

Authorities also conducted a records check and discovered a misdemeanor warrant out on Lopez for being an unlicensed driver, according to the release.

He later allegedly admitted to investigators that the boy was driving because he was trying to avoid a drunken driving arrest. A criminal history check revealed that he had a previous DUI arrest this past May, authorities said.

"It's just crazy that he put his nephew and the public in danger, just cause he didn't want to go to jail," Graham said.

Lopez is also accused of using methamphetamine several hours earlier, while the nephew was in his care, the release stated.

The suspect was arrested on suspicion of child endangerment, having an open container of alcohol in a vehicle and the outstanding warrant, police said.

He was booked at the Ventura County Main Jail and was being held on $50,000 bail.

The child was released to his mother.

Graham offered this to advice to motorists: "Don't drive your car. If you know you're that intoxicated, get someone to come and get you, call Uber."

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Man arrested after police pull over 11-year-old 'designated driver'

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PORT HUENEME, Calif. -- A 29-year-old man was arrested in California after a patrol officer pulled over his 11-year-old nephew who was allegedly serving as his designated driver on Sunday, according to KTLA.

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An assembly line worker says others mocked his pants as "gay tight". An engineer says she was taunted and catcalled on the factory floor, and was fired from the company after she sued for gender discrimination, including unequal pay. Four lawsuits filed in recent months at the plant in Fremont, California, where Tesla manufactures its electric cars and where  10,000 people work.

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Three employees say Tesla's auto manufacturing facility was so hostile to black workers that it was "straight from the Jim Crow era."

An assembly line worker says others mocked his pants as "gay tight."

An engineer says she was taunted and catcalled on the factory floor, and was fired from the company after she sued for gender discrimination, including unequal pay.

Four lawsuits filed in recent months describe a toxic culture at the plant in Fremont, California, where Tesla manufactures its electric cars and where about 10,000 people work.

The suits also make Tesla the latest Silicon Valley company to come under scrutiny after workers alleged discrimination. The best-known example is Uber, where complaints of sexual harassment ultimately forced out the CEO.

In statements, Tesla told CNN Tech that it takes all complaints seriously. But it said that, "in the history of Tesla, there has never been a single proven case of discrimination against the company. Not one."

The workers are suing for mistreatment on Tesla's factory premises, alleging inaction by the company and, in some cases, the third-party staffing companies it contracts with. Those companies are also named in the suits.

Related: Readers react to 'Money, Power, and Sexual Harassment'

The plaintiffs, in some cases, say they were retaliated against after they came forward.

At least four workers claim they were discriminated against at the factory because of race.

DeWitt Lambert, a former electrician, alleges that coworkers called him the N-word and flashed gang signs at him, and that one worker threatened to "cut Mr. Lambert up into pieces and send his body parts to his family members."

Tesla, in response, says Lambert frequently socialized with the men he's accusing, that other employees say Lambert used "the same racially insensitive language that he had complained about," and that his complaint to the company about them was an "attempt to turn the tables" because he thought they had reported him first.

The company said it fired several employees after investigating, adding "...it's also clear that DeWitt's version of events is not supported by the facts."

"There was no objective evidence that anything inappropriate occurred" toward Lambert, the company says in a statement, noting that he was transferred to another work area after complaining to HR about the employees.

Tesla said it has suspended Lambert with pay while it continues to investigate the situation.

When asked for comment, Lambert's lawyers -- Lawrence A. Organ and Navruz Avloni of the California Civil Rights Law Group -- questioned Tesla's response. "Tesla has admitted to the press that Mr. Lambert's harassers were disciplined. If this wasn't harassment, why did it discipline his harassers?"

In another lawsuit filed last week, three people who worked for a Tesla contractor allege that coworkers called them racial epithets. That suit was filed by Demetric Diaz, a production associate, and two elevator operators, Lamar Patterson and Owen Diaz.

Tesla said it only learned about the complaints in that suit through media reports, and that the three men never raised a complaint within the company.

According to the suit, the plaintiffs did report the problem to Tesla and, in some cases, the third-party staffing companies who employed them and put them to work inside Tesla.

Organ and Avloni -- the lawyers representing Lambert in his suit, as well as the other three men alleging racial discrimination in their separate lawsuit -- say they've received an outpouring of calls from current and former employees about discrimination at the factory since Lambert filed the suit in March.

Related: Another billion-dollar startup upended by sexual harassment

"At some point, we were receiving dozens of calls per day," Avloni, a managing attorney at the ‎California Civil Rights Law Group, told CNN Tech. "Most of the calls from Tesla employees are related to race harassment issues, which is reflective of how serious this problem is at the company."

The complaints against Tesla go beyond race.

AJ Vandermeyden, an engineer at the factory, sued the company in the fall of 2016 for gender discrimination while she still worked there.

She alleged that male engineers were paid higher salaries and promoted ahead of women who were equally or more qualified. In addition, she said, she endured "inappropriate language, whistling, and catcalls" on the factory floor, she said.

Vandermeyden was fired in May, she claims in retaliation for her lawsuit. Her case is in arbitration, according to her lawyer.

The company goes on to say that after hiring an outside investigator, it became "absolutely convinced that Ms. Vandermeyden's claims were illegitimate," and had no choice but to fire her.

In fact, Tesla claims that Vandermeyden "was given special treatment and opportunities for advancement that were unwarranted based on her qualifications."

Related: Bill seeks to curb tech's sexual harassment problem

In another lawsuit, Jorge Ferro, an assembly line production worker, alleges that a supervisor repeatedly harped on his sexuality, telling him that everyone suspected he was gay, and commenting that his pants were "too tight -- gay tight."

He was threatened with taunts to watch his back, according to a lawsuit filed in May and revealed by The Guardian this week.

After reporting the harassment to a superior, he claims, he was fired because of an "injury" -- which Ferro said was a scar he'd had for 16 years. He's suing to get his job reinstated, as well as for damages. The case is in private mediation.

A Tesla spokesperson said that while Ferro and the supervisor are employed by a third party, "Tesla still stepped in to try to keep these individuals apart from one another and to ensure a good working environment."

In its statement, as with the other statements provided for this article, the spokesperson alluded to the misuse of its name in lawsuits to garner media attention.

"... it maximizes the chances of generating publicity for their case," the company said in a statement. "They abuse our name, because they know it is catnip for journalists. Tesla takes any and every form of discrimination or harassment extremely seriously. There is no company on Earth with a better track record than Tesla."

CNNMoney (New York) First published October 25, 2017: 11:37 AM ET

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Tesla factory at center of discrimination lawsuits

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An assembly line worker says others mocked his pants as "gay tight." An engineer says she was taunted and catcalled on the factory floor, and was fired from the company after she sued for gender discrimination, including unequal pay.

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The Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee paid more than $9 million to a law firm that, in turn, retained the political consultants who commissioned the now-infamous Trump dossier.

But nobody at the top is copping to knowing a thing about it.

Hillary Clinton is conspicuously silent on the new revelations, while Clinton World gives mixed messages about her knowledge. Her top campaign spokesman says "she may have known," while an anonymous source is telling reporters she only learned about the dossier after BuzzFeed News published it early this year.

'[Clinton] may have known, but the degree of exactly what she knew is beyond my knowledge.'
- Ex-Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon

"I don't know what she knew or did not know," House Oversight Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., told "Fox & Friends" on Thursday, adding: "I would find it pretty interesting if her campaign was making decisions at that level that she didn't know about."

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said he can't believe Clinton or a top official like then-campaign chairman John Podesta was not aware.

"You don't lay out that kind of money in a campaign unless you know" how and why it's being spent, he told Fox News' "America's Newsroom."

Clinton, though, hasn't personally spoken up, and the rest of the Democratic brass are treating the dossier like a freelance project gone rogue.

A spokesman for Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., who led the DNC at the time, told Fox News on Wednesday that, "She did not have any knowledge of this arrangement."

A DNC official stressed that current Chairman "Tom Perez and the new leadership of the DNC were not involved in any decision-making regarding Fusion GPS, nor were they aware that Perkins Coie was working with the organization."

In a carefully worded response, former Clinton campaign spokesman Brian Fallon told CNN on Wednesday that he didn't personally know - but left the door open as to his boss's awareness.

"I don't know. I haven't asked. I haven't spoken to her," Fallon said. "She may have known, but the degree of exactly what she knew is beyond my knowledge."
TRUMP RIPS CLINTON-DOSSIER LINK AS A 'DISGRACE'
The Washington Post reported this week - and Fox News confirmed - that the political consulting firm Fusion GPS was retained last year by Marc E. Elias, an attorney representing the DNC and the Clinton campaign. The firm then hired former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele to write the now-infamous dossier.

Seeking to clarify who knew what when, Fallon suggested on CNN that the campaign could have cleared the law firm to commission "some kind of research" - but as for the decision to retain Fusion GPS and Steele, Clinton "may or may not have been aware."

The controversial dossier contained unverified and lurid allegations about dirt the Russians had on then-candidate Donald Trump and his campaign's possible connections to Moscow.

Trump has long denied the claims, and he and his allies are now trying to turn the tables on Democrats who have alleged Trump-Russia collusion during the campaign.

"They're embarrassed by it, but I think it's a disgrace," Trump told reporters on Wednesday. "It's a very sad commentary on politics in this country."

But Fallon, seeing the coverage of his own remarks on CNN, pushed back on Republicans highlighting his suggestion that Clinton might have known about the dossier.

"So what if she did? Looking forward to the RNC reaction when the identity of the GOP funder comes out," he tweeted, in reference to reports that an unnamed Republican client paid for the research before the Democrats stepped in.

Fallon has remained defiant over the revelations, comparing the project to the kind of "oppo research" that "happens on every campaign." In a statement, he said, "here you had probably the most shadowy guy ever running for president and the FBI certainly has seen fit to look into it. I probably would have volunteered to go to Europe myself to try and verify if it would have helped get more of this out there before the election."

But the developments could raise legal problems

The Campaign Legal Center, a watchdog group, filed a complaint Wednesday with the Federal Election Commission accusing the DNC and Clinton's campaign committee of breaking campaign finance law by failing to accurately disclose the money spent on the Trump-Russia dossier.

"Questions about who paid for this dossier are the subject of intense public interest, and this is precisely the information that FEC reports are supposed to provide," Brendan Fischer of the Campaign Legal Center said in a statement to Fox News.

According to the Post, that money was routed from the Clinton campaign and the DNC through the law firm Perkins Coie and described on FEC reports as legal services.

But the Campaign Legal Center described the FEC reporting as "misleading."

"Payments by a campaign or party committee to an opposition research firm are legal, as long as those payments are accurately disclosed," Fischer said. "But describing payments for opposition research as 'legal services' is entirely misleading and subverts the reporting requirements."
Fox News' Judson Berger, Brooke Singman, Alex Pappas and Mike Emanuel contributed to this report.

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Clinton mum on Fusion GPS scandal as Dems' dossier denials pile up

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The Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee paid more than $9 million to a law firm that, in turn, retained the political consultants who commissioned the now-infamous Trump dossier. But nobody at the top is copping to knowing a thing about it.

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Joe Girardi Yankees manager out after 10 seasons with the Yankees.

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New York Yankees Tyler Conway Kathy Willens/Associated Press Twitter Logo Featured Columnist
Joe Girardi reportedly will not return for an 11th season as New York Yankees manager, as the two sides have agreed to part ways.

David Kaplan of ESPN 1000 (via Andrew Marchand of ESPN) relayed the report, noting an official announcement will be made later on Thursday. Jon Heyman of FanRag Sports confirmed the report.

Marchand noted the "complications" surrounding Girardi's eventual replacement, reporting that "bench coach Rob Thomson is highly respected, but it is unclear whether the Yankees would go with a lower-profile candidate. First-base coach Tony Pena has managed in the majors before."

ESPN's report states the Yankees "are expected to look externally as well."

Girardi, 53, finished the final year of his contract in 2017. He compiled a 910-710 record in 10 seasons with the team that was highlighted by a 2009 World Series championship.

The Yankees failed to reach the postseason in three of Girardi's last five years as manager. Despite making a surprise postseason run in 2017, Girardi's decision-making came under fire in the playoffs-particularly in a Game 2 ALDS loss to the Cleveland Indians, where he chose to not challenge an errant hit-by-pitch call that wound up arguably costing the Yankees the game.

"There are a lot of people upset with me," Girardi told reporters a day after the game. "And that's all part of it. And that's something I have to deal with. The only thing I can do is give my best to this team moving forward. And that's what I'll do."

Girardi said at the time "I'll live" if management chose to let him go in part for the gaffe. While it's unlikely one mistake led to his dismissal, it's fair to wonder if the Yankees simply wanted a fresh start as they build around their young core.

Reliever Aroldis Chapman liked an Instagram comment calling Girardi an "imbecile" after the Game 2 debacle, and fans rained boos down upon Girardi in Yankee Stadium during Games 3 and 4. After an up-and-down decade, it might just have been time for a new voice leading the clubhouse.

Only Mike Scioscia and Bruce Bochy had longer tenures with their current teams among active MLB managers.

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Joe Girardi, Yankees Reportedly Part Ways After 10 Seasons

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New York Yankees Tyler Conway Kathy Willens/Associated Press Twitter Logo Featured Columnist Joe Girardi reportedly will not return for an 11th season as New York Yankees manager, as the two sides have agreed to part ways. David Kaplan of ESPN 1000 (via Andrew Marchand of ESPN) relayed the report, noting an official announcement will be made later on Thursday.

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the leaves of the kratom plant are traditionally crushed and made into a tea, but in the U.S. its usually sold in the form of a pill. It's used to self-treat heroin/morphine dependence, or to reduce opiate withdrawal among illicit drug users, It can also be used for pain relief.

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Her doctors' answer was pills and more pills.

"It makes you feel better for a little while, but then after a little while, it doesn't help as much, " said Vinson, 41, of Crystal River, Florida, who has been coping with pain for most of the past decade.

Like many opioid users, Vinson built up a tolerance to the doses of painkillersshe was prescribed. "Every month, (the doctors) say, 'How are you?' I say, 'Well, it's not really helping as much. I'm still in a lot of pain.' " To give her some relief, her doctors would say,"OK, well, add this to it. This pill and then this patch."

Eventually, she was on 12 prescriptions, some to manage her pain and others to manage the side effects of the pills she was taking for the pain. She didn't want to be on the pills, but without them, she couldn't function at all.

"I was torn between not being able to care for my family or (taking) care of them if I just take some more pills. Which shame do I choose?"Vinson said.

The stigma of pain

Despite more meds, her pain persisted. About a year ago, she was back in the hospital, begging for relief. A surgeon was called over. "I thought he was going to come and save the day, and he's going to agree to do the surgery," she recalled, Instead, she said, she was judged. She remembers being told, "You don't have a surgery problem. You have a drug problem."

Vinson felt stigmatized for asking for help and decided she would take matters into her own hands: She stopped taking the pills. But not only did the pain come back even stronger, the withdrawal symptoms weren't manageable. She began researching natural remedies to treat pain and came across kratom.

According to Darshan Singh Mahinder, a professor at the Centre for Drug Research at the University of Science Malaysia, throughout Malaysia, the leaves of the kratom plant are traditionally crushed and made into a tea. It's used to "self-treat heroin/morphine dependence, or to reduce opiate withdrawal among illicit drug users," he said. It can also be used for pain relief.

But in the United States, it's sold as a supplement, usually in the form of powder, pills, capsules or even energy drinks, and loosely regulated by the Food and Drug Administration.

Vinson was dubious at first. "If this is so good, why isn't it the first thing I see? Why haven't I read about it?" she asked.

After having no luck with other home remedies such as magnesium and Imodium A-D, potassium and Benadryl, she decided to try kratom. "I need this to stop. Clearly, I don't have what it takes to get through this withdrawal. As strong as I think I am, I'm not. I can't," she recalled.

She left the house and bought some kratom capsules. Within several hours of her first dose, she was able to start working around the kitchen. She had a full night's sleep for the first time in years. She was convinced.

'Kratom saved my life'

On online forums such as Reddit or Bluelight, there are thousands of posts about kratom. People like Vinson testify about personal miracles.

"Kratom saved my life by getting me through the hardest thing I've ever had to do."

"Hooked on Oxy, Hydro and Aderrall for over a year. Kratom helped me kick the habit."

"Was using norcos and tramadol ... for pain management though they weren't much help. I found kratom back in November and within weeks I was completely free of both. ... Its not perfect but it has definitely changed my life."

Christopher McCurdy, president-elect of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists, believes that kratom has the potential to work for patients and even help solvethe opioid crisis.

"There's a huge wealth of anecdotal evidence, and some scientific, that there is definite medical potential for this plant. If it's not in the treatment of mild and moderate pain, it's definitely in the treatment of potential opioid withdrawal," said McCurdy, a medicinal chemist at the University of Florida and director of the UF Translational Drug Development Core. He is one of few scientists in the country who's examined kratom closely.

He believes that the success of the plant may lie in its two principal alkaloids, mitragynine and 7-hydroxymitragynine. These chemicals can bond to the body's opioid receptors and act very much like opioids do, providing some pain relief and causing a release of dopamine, but at a much more toned-down level than prescription pills or heroin. Users say there are mild, if any, withdrawal symptoms.

McCurdy pointed out that his studies indicate that 7-hydroxymitragynine may have some addictive qualities, but when looked at in the entire plant, the ratio of that element is so little that the plant has very low abuse potential, one he likened to coffee.

And unlike opiods, McCurdy said, kratom doesn't slow breathing. And that's key. When people overdose on opioids, whether it is a legally prescribed oxycodone or illicit heroin, their body's respiratory system completely stops.

"We've never seen respiratory depression in the animal studies that we've conducted, and we've never seen or heard reports of respiratory depression in the human population that's been using. And this is something that's really amazing when you start thinking about a potential treatment for opioid addiction or opioid withdrawal."

A devastating epidemic

Public health experts believe that for every fatal drug overdose in the United States, there are approximately 30 non-fatal overdoses. That means in 2015, in the United States, there were over 900,000 opioid overdoses. It is a record high, and estimates from 2016 predict even worse. Considering that we are in the midst of potentially the worst drug epidemic the country has ever seen, why don't we know more about this plant?

McCurdy believes it boils down to money. "There's no financial incentive for any drug company to really pursue developing this into a drug." Developing kratom into a therapy would cost hundreds of millions of dollars, he said. On top of that, patenting a plant it is nearly impossible.

"There's no profit incentive for a pharmaceutical to spend millions of dollars -- to do the studies the FDA requires ... to get approval," said Jag Davies of the nonprofit Drug Policy Alliance. Davies said it is an issue that faces many botanical drugs, including marijuana.

"The FDA approval (process) is only geared toward single novel (or) single compound drugs," he said.

In turn, without much interest from pharmaceutical companies, there isn't much research into this plant. A search of PubMed, the US National Library of Medicine archive, found just a handful of studies of the plant in its entire canon.

Turning kratom into a therapy is something McCurdy is working on: isolating the plant to the essential molecules he believes have potential.

"If we can come up with some sort of standardized, modified, unique and proprietary formulation, then there's a way to gain some patent stance around that, and then there might be a way to entice a pharmaceutical company into pursuing this as a potential treatment option," he explained.

But until then, the cost-benefit is just too high for a pharmaceutical company, he said, adding that he will keep doing the heavy lifting of trying to create a standard drug.

The FDA provided guidance for the development of botanical drugs in 2004, but since then, according to the agency, there have been only two botanical drugs approved: Veregen, for warts, and Mytesi, an anti-diarrheal for HIV patients on antiretrovirals. The FDA doesn't keep track of how many drugs have been submitted that were unsuccessful in gaining approval.

The Wild West of supplements

In the meantime, kratom has found a home on the poorly regulated supplements market. It's now sold in head shops and gas stations, and there is no clear standard as to what passes for kratom.

Though the kratom plant itself can grow only in Southeast Asia, American distributors are buying leaves to dry and make into powders and pills.

Last year, the Drug Enforcement Administration considered designating kratom as a Schedule 1 controlled substance, the same category as heroin and LSD. According to the DEA, Schedule 1 compounds have "no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse." The DEA says there were 15 deaths related to the plant between 2014 and 2016.

In addition, the CDC found over five years a tenfold increase in calls about kratom to poison control centers, from 26 in 2010 to 263 in 2015. However, while 7% of the calls were for serious side effects, including one death, most of the calls reported minimal to moderate side effects.

McCurdy has analyzed samples of kratom from emergency room patients and found that they frequently aren't what they claim to be. "We've unfortunately seen them spiked with morphine in some cases, and we've also seen ones that have been spiked with oxycodone." He's also seen them spiked with increased concentrations of 7-hydroxymitragynine, the more addictive of the plant's naturally occurring alkaloids.

"We're in a totally unregulated environment," McCurdy said, a "buyer-beware marketplace." As he sees it, this is the extreme opposite of the DEA's consideration "to put it into the most restricted class of scheduled substances. And then we make it very difficult to find out if that medical potential is really there."

Since the DEA's public comment period about regulating kratom ended in December, it has not made any announcements about the herb.

"Right now, the kratom industry is trying to self-regulate," Davies said. And that means people like Vinson are left to having to reach out to Internet boards and rely on the word of mouth from other users. "You don't know," Vinson said. "The best thing for me personally, I only buy from one person that I trust very much."

'I'll never go back'

Vinson believes in the plant so much that she's introduced kratom to her older sister, Patrica Coleman Slevin. Slevin began using narcotics about five years ago to help with chronic pain, she said. Within months, she was dependent. Two years after getting her first prescriptions for pain medication, she was alternating between high dosages of Dilaudid and oxycodone daily. Her body needed higher doses to get rid of the pain and manage the withdrawal.

"Everything hurts. You're sick. You're nauseous. You're throwing up. Diarrhea. Your will to live is gone because you can't, it's just the most unfathomable feeling. Everything, everything is just broke," explained Slevin, 45, of Live Oak, Florida.

When she couldn't get more pills, she turned to heroin. Her husband also began using. Coleman eventually lost her job as a server. They lost their home. "It takes no time for the bottom to fall out," Slevin said.

Last year, she was caught shoplifting and ended up in jail.

When she got out, she called her sister. Vinson remembers picking up the phone and saying, "I will not send you money for drugs ... but I will buy you kratom."

In November, Slevin and her husband moved in with her parents, and she hasn't touched heroin since.

Will kratom keep her off heroin for the rest of her life?

"It's a powerful, powerful, powerful drug, but I think as long as I have kratom, as long as I can get it, me personally, I'll never go back."

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can the kratom plant help fix the opioid crisis?  - cnn

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Can the kratom plant help fix the opioid crisis?

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Her doctors' answer was pills and more pills. "It makes you feel better for a little while, but then after a little while, it doesn't help as much, " said Vinson, 41, of Crystal River, Florida, who has been coping with pain for most of the past decade.

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Two Georgia teenagers will be in court Thursday on charges that they allegedly planned to attack their high school. Police ordered a search warrant at both houses and they found a diary of their plans.

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Alfred Dupree and Victoria McCurley, who were arrested Wednesday, face several charges including attempted murder and making terroristic threats, according to a statement from the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office. Both are 17 but are being charged as adults.

A judge denied bond for both suspects at an initial hearing Thursday afternoon. Police said the investigation remains open and ongoing. Neither Dupree nor McCurley has entered a plea.

Police said Wednesday they were informed of the threat by campus police officers at Etowah High School in Woodstock, Georgia, about 20 miles northwest of Atlanta.

Campus police were originally tipped off by someone who had become aware of "suspicious statements that had been made" indicating a potential threat.

Asked about the seriousness of the threat, Sgt. Marianne Kelley, spokeswoman for the sheriff's office, told reporters Wednesday, "We assessed that it was definitely something that could have been moved forward with," hence the serious charges.

Diary detailed plans

Authorities went to Dupree's home Wednesday evening and spoke with the 17-year-old and his parents, Kelley told CNN Thursday.

Investigators were provided with Dupree's personal diary, Kelley said, which outlined alleged threats to the school and specific staff members and students, as well as the intention to carry out an attack.

Over the course of the investigation, police became aware of McCurley's involvement, and search warrants were executed at both students' homes.

It was at McCurley's home that police found what was described as an "incendiary device," and an "undetermined powder substance," Kelley said in a news conference Wednesday. Both of the items were sent to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation for further testing to "determine the chemical make up."

The people whose names were listed in the diary have been made aware of the fact their names were included in the diary, Kelley said.

The diary did not provide investigators with a tentative timeline for when an attack might occur, police said.

Firearms were not believed to be involved in the attack, but a family member did voluntarily turn over some weapons for safekeeping, Kelley told CNN, but "not for evidentiary purposes."

Sheriff Frank Reynolds said in a press conference Thursday afternoon that he spoke to one of the detectives involved, who "indicated this would have been a Columbine-type incident in his opinion, and that's why the severity of the charges and so forth."

"I think there was an imminent threat," Reynolds said, "only for the fact that they had detailed plans of what they wanted to do and how they wanted to carry it out."

Principal reassures parents

"The Cherokee Sheriff's Office wants to make sure that parents and families understand that we take this very seriously," Kelley said Wednesday. "We don't want anything to happen to students in our county, or in our community. We will do anything to protect them."

Etowah High School Principal Robert Horn informed parents of the situation in a letter sent home Wednesday, emphasizing that there are no additional threats to the school.

"We will not tolerate violence of any kind at our schools," the Cherokee County School District said in a statement.

"We take all threats to the safety and security of our students and employees very seriously. Anyone with information about threats is asked to immediately report it to police."

The arrest warrants for both suspects have been sealed by a judge. It was not clear Thursday morning if the suspects were represented by attorneys.

CNN's Jamiel Lynch contributed to this report

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two teenagers charged with plotting to attack high school

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Teens charged in alleged plot to attack high school

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Alfred Dupree and Victoria McCurley, who were arrested Wednesday, face several charges including attempted murder and making terroristic threats, according to a statement from the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office. Both are 17 but are being charged as adults. A judge denied bond for both suspects at an initial hearing Thursday afternoon.

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Norway will open Europe's first underwater restaurant in early 2019. The restaurant will stand on the sea bed five meters below the surface and construction will start in February 2018. There is expected to be three levels and a capacity of up to 100 people.

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Yesterday, Trump teased about the JFK assassination files dropping today. Nothing has come out as of now.

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Trump releases some, but not all, JFK records

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Trump followed the recommendations of his national security agencies that some of records be redacted, White House officials said