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NBA is back!

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NBA Grant Hughes Twitter Logo National NBA Featured Columnist

Somehow, possibly owing to a time warp that zapped us all the way through August and September in a blink, we're here: The dawn of the 2017-18 NBA regular season.

We should not rule out the possibility that whatever cosmic force governs the universe really wanted to see how James Harden and Chris Paul would coexist, how salty the Kyrie Irving-LeBron James reunion would be, and if anybody stands a chance against the Golden State Warriors.

Who could blame Him/Her/It?

A truncated preseason meant fewer opportunities to be misled by half-speed execution, rotation tinkering and extended garbage time. So as we evaluate the present strength of all 30 NBA teams, most of what we have to go on comes from last year. We'll still be largely guessing at how all of the head-spinning player movement will change things.

As always, we're building a hierarchy based on how good each NBA club is right now. Injuries matter, and we've priced in uncertainty surrounding team chemistry and possible fit issues-though, again, there's some speculation involved on that front.

Rejoice! We made it. It's on.

Lauri Markannen's 18-point night (on 7-of-12 shooting) in a 108-94 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Oct. 10 doesn't mean the Chicago Bulls won their trade with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Chicago still got fleeced for Jimmy Butler. That's not changing.

But that Markkanen flashed the smooth stroke and deft scoring touch of a possible (POSSIBLE!) quality stretch big man means the Bulls will open the season with something to show for the trade that sent Butler away. Zach LaVine's recovery from ACL surgery will keep him out of contact drills until at least late November, and Kris Dunn could miss the season's first couple of weeks after a nasty finger dislocation.

Ryan Arcidiacono will get minutes at backup point guard, and the most important thing to know about him is that you will confuse him with Kirk Hinrich several times the next three months. Or maybe that'll just be me...

In good news for the Bulls, they seem committed to shooting lots of threes. After ranking second-to-last with 22.3 deep shots per game last year, they heaved 34.2 per game during preseason play. That won't keep a team with one legitimate rotation player (Robin Lopez) out of the cellar, but it's something.

The Bulls are bottoming out. It's the right call, but it won't be much fun.

Now three years removed from a 60-win season, the Atlanta Hawks have embraced youth and inexpensive veterans, which prompted this not-so-subtly coded language from new general manager Travis Schlenk, per the Associated Press (via USA Today): "These are scrappy guys, these are competitive guys, these are prideful guys. Now, we're going to be young. Historically, teams that are young take it on the chin a little bit."

It's going to be a long year for the Hawks, and they seem to know it.

Rookie John Collins can dunk from anywhere, second-year wing Taurean Prince might be a three-and-D stud eventually, and Dennis Schroder could take a step forward in his second year as the team's starting point guard.

Over at Nylon Calculus, Ian Levy highlighted the area in which Schroder must improve:
"Among the 46 players who averaged at least 6.0 drives per game last season, Schroder ranked 29th in points scored per drive. His field goal percentage on drives was a respectable 50.4 percent - about the same as Mike Conley or Jimmy Butler - but his turnover percentage was high (36th of 46 players), and his free throw rate was relatively low (38th of 46)."
Better perimeter shooters could entice Schroder to kick out a bit more, but it's also possible his straight-line attack mindset just doesn't leave room for good vision.

Atlanta has a bit more talent than the three teams beneath it, but the biggest reason it ranks above those clubs is the certainty that, no matter how bad its record gets, head coach Mike Budenholzer will have it playing hard to the end.

If we assume Kristaps Porzingis has a breakout season, averaging, say, 24 points per game, improving his efficiency and making the All-Star team, where does that get the New York Knicks?

It won't help the team's defense, which, for all the heat directed at Carmelo Anthony, Phil Jackson, the Triangle offense and a broadly dysfunctional environment created by shoddy ownership, is the main reason the Knicks have stunk for the last few seasons. New York has ranked between 18th and 28th on D every year since 2013-14.

Thankfully, the Knicks weren't last in defense during the preseason...just worst among NBA teams. The Sydney Kings, Guangzhou Long-Lions, Shanghai Sharks and Haifa Maccabi Haifa were all worse.

A Porzingis surge also won't negate the fact that the Knicks are going to trot out several one-way options in their rotation while suffering from a dearth of playmaking and stopping power.

Enes Kanter, Tim Hardaway Jr., Michael Beasley and rookie Frank Ntilikina will log significant minutes, so opponents are going to get their buckets (even if Ntilikina profiles as a fine defender down the line).

Porzingis played just two preseason games (both losses to the Brooklyn Nets) because of a sore hip, and his health will remain the organization's top concern. Less of a priority: fielding a winning roster.

Despite closing out the preseason with a loss, the Orlando Magic's prospects showed genuine signs of progress.

They were 3-2 in exhibition play, and the Orlando Sentinel's Joshua Robbins highlighted three other key developments:
"Gordon, fully healthy, made nine of his 21 tries from 3-point range during the preseason, a success rate of 42.9 percent. Free-agent signee Jonathon Simmons added energy to the mix. Bismack Biyombo, usually stone-handed, drained mid-range shots."
Nice, right?

So much of what made last year disappointing involved Gordon's struggles as a perimeter player, weak wing play and underwhelming production from Biyombo in the first year of a hefty new contract. If those three areas improve (and the Magic defend as though they're being coached by Frank Vogel, and not some imposter), there's an outside shot they make a run at a playoff spot in the scorched rubble that is the Eastern Conference.

Remember, though: Orlando had the second-worst net rating in the league last year, which means its measly total of 29 wins might have overstated the team's quality. This is a squad starting from a lower baseline than you think.

Lonzo Ball only got two preseason games to feel the speed and physicality of real NBA basketball, and though he showed flashes of touch, court sense and skill in averaging 6.5 points, 6.0 assists and 4.5 rebounds, he also had a visibly hard time with stronger, more aggressive defenders.

He has questions to answer, and Los Angeles Lakers head coach Luke Walton acknowledged the sprained ankle that limited Ball's exhibition action puts the rookie in a tough spot. Walton highlighted, via Lance Pugmire of the Los Angeles Times:
"His timing with the plays- the offense we've been putting in, defensive rotation reps (what it's going to be like guarding point guards in this league). We've dedicated a lot of time to defense, and he hasn't been able to get those reps in. He's been able to see it, but you're not going to learn as well by watching as you are going through it."
Kyle Kuzma continued to look like a legitimate rotation weapon, building on his strong summer-league showing but losing some of the perimeter accuracy that made his game especially tantalizing. He's done enough to carve out minutes up front, perhaps cutting into the roles of Larry Nance Jr. or even Julius Randle.

There are reasons to believe the Lakers could score at a level above the league's average this season, especially if Brandon Ingram shapes up and the veteran duo of Brook Lopez and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope benefit from Ball's playmaking. The problems will be on defense, where L.A. will struggle to avoid finishing among the league's bottom five teams.

Taking all that into consideration, this ranking feels about right.

Your faith in the Detroit Pistons shaking off a woefully disappointing 2016-17 depends on which preseason numbers you isolate as meaningful. And, yes, we all realize "meaningful preseason numbers" is basically an oxymoron.

First, the negative: After ranking 24th in pace last year, Detroit posted the preseason's second-slowest pace figure among NBA teams (several international squads participated, and two were slower than the Pistons). That's partly a function of playing a conventional center like Andre Drummond, but also a symptom of Detroit's generally bland offense and slavish devotion to securing defensive rebounds. The Pistons set the all-time record for defensive rebound rate last year, according to ESPN's Zach Lowe.

Playing fast isn't a sure path to better offense, but a little more oomph might energize point guard Reggie Jackson and get the most out of three wings (Avery Bradley, Stanley Johnson and Tobias Harris) who can all get up and down the floor.

More encouraging: Andre Drummond's 80 percent conversion rate from the foul line. The career 38.1 percent shooter from the stripe hit 16 of his 20 freebies-perhaps a small-sample anomaly, or maybe the result of a summer spent working on his stroke. Drummond also told reporters he's down 30 pounds from last year's weight and had surgery to repair a deviated septum.

Much depends on Drummond's energy level and commitment. And if he can hit enough foul shots to stay on the floor in the fourth quarter, the Pistons could make this initial ranking look low in a hurry.

A full season of Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum and Jusuf Nurkic means we should probably adjust our expectations upward for the Portland Trail Blazers. That group produced a plus-11.3 net rating in 419 minutes last year, and Portland went 14-6 in the 20 games during which all three were healthy enough to play.

Though the Blazers finished 41-41, their closing run following the Nurkic acquisition would seem to indicate they're ticketed for more success.

At the same time, Portland isn't a lock for a playoff spot. We've got them as ninth in the West right now, and that's due mostly to some lingering questions.

Will Nurkic, whose attitude and substandard effort contributed to his exit from the Denver Nuggets last year, bristle at the Blazers' decision not to give him an extension?

Can Portland sustain the 103.7 defensive rating it posted wth Nurkic on the floor (especially if the big man doesn't play at the apex he hit a year ago)?

Is there enough shooting on the wings without Allen Crabbe around?

Should we expect improvement from two front-line guards-Lillard and McCollum-who, at 27 and 26, respectively, may have topped out already?

McCollum's one-game suspension for leaving the bench during a preseason altercation might actually end up mattering in the final standings. Forty-one wins won't be enough to snatch the eighth spot again this year, so every game will count.

The range of outcomes is far greater for the Los Angeles Clippers than it is for the Blazers.

Depending on the health of Blake Griffin and Danilo Gallinari, the Clips could have one of the more multi-skilled and dynamic forward duos in the league...or one that combines for about 100 games and sinks the team.

Griffin's facilitation and a possibly improved three-point shot were on display in the preseason, but his athleticism seemed to be even further diminished coming off toe surgery. It will be hard to trust his durability after having his last two seasons ended by surgeries. He's missed an average of nearly 28 games over the last three years.

Still, in their first year without Chris Paul, perhaps the Clippers will play with a freedom and pace that was never possible under the thumb of a domineering (and dominant) point guard. Patrick Beverley will defend and shoot spot-up treys, Milos Teodosic will not defend but will fire the most mind-bending passes in the league, and DeAndre Jordan never misses a game.

If everything breaks right and the Clips stay healthy, 50 wins aren't out of the question. Lose Griffin and Gallo for significant time, and this thing could combust spectacularly.

Griffin's goal: "Make the playoffs. I don't really see any other goal," he told Elliott Teaford of the Los Angeles Daily News. "Obviously, it's to win a championship. Every team starts out at the beginning of the year saying, 'We want to win a championship,' but you've got to have a goal of getting to the playoffs first."

Cautiously, the wager here is something closer to the positive end of the spectrum. For now, we've got L.A. sneaking into the postseason ahead of the less volatile Blazers.

Slotting the Milwaukee Bucks ahead of the Clippers is about valuing upside over downside.

That's an odd angle of approach for the Bucks, who didn't meaningfully alter last year's roster.

But the Bucks' key players are all either in their primes or just approaching them-led, of course, by Giannis Antetokounmpo and his limitless potential-while the Clips are essentially hoping their veterans avoid injury and dodge imminent decline. Los Angeles won nine more games and had a net rating four points better than the Bucks' last year, but losing Paul is massive. Banking on Griffin and Gallo's health has been a losing bet for the past half-decade or so.

Meanwhile, Khris Middleton is fully healthy after losing much of last season to a hamstring injury. He's among the most underrated two-way wings in the league. Throw in a step forward from Thon Maker, sustained shooting from Tony Snell and added comfort for Rookie of the Year Malcolm Brogdon, and this team can get better. If the Bucks can stay in the mix until Jabari Parker returns from his torn ACL, estimated to be sometime in February, they'll be potent.

If it'd scrap the trapping scheme that yields too many threes and layups, Milwaukee could juice its defensive rating by at least a point or two. Somebody needs to get in head coach Jason Kidd's ear and tell him the league has figured out how to solve his team's preferred approach.

Ultimately, if the Clips and Bucks are roughly equals (as they are here, separated by one spot), Milwaukee's upward trajectory wins the tiebreaker against the Clips' tenuous effort to avoid post-Paul collapse.

It shouldn't be a hot take to say Rudy Gobert is a better player than Gordon Hayward, which is why it also shouldn't be controversial to say Hayward's departure will not kill the Utah Jazz.

When Hayward sat last year, Utah still outscored its opponents. Gobert's absence from the floor resulted in a minus-2.9 net rating.

There's immense value in dynamic wing scoring and underrated defense, both of which Hayward provided as Utah's offensive hub a season ago. But Gobert's defensive impact is game-changing; his contributions as the anchor on that end are harder to replace.

Good thing the Jazz don't have to. Prepare for The Season of Gobert.

If Rodney Hood, Alec Burks and Derrick Favors stay healthy, they compensate for Hayward's absence. All three were either unavailable or ineffective for long stretches of last season. Favors, in particular, seems to have been forgotten by casual fans. He's a force inside on both ends when his knees and back cooperate. At 26, why rule out a bounce-back year?

If rookie Donovan Mitchell's promising preseason carries over, Utah's wing spots will still be a strength without Hayward.

Ricky Rubio could easily outproduce George Hill's contributions last season, considering Hill played just 49 games. A noted ballhawk, Rubio should also induce turnovers in a way Hill never did. His perimeter pestering combined with Gobert's fearsome work inside could lead the Jazz to a No.1 defensive ranking this season.

Don't bury this team. Scoring may be an issue, but a defense like this demands recognition.

The Washington Wizards won't get a league-high 1,347 combined minutes from their starting five again, and they shouldn't want to.

Leaning on starters like that is dangerous, and we saw John Wall run out of gas toward the end of Washington's playoff run last year. If this team wants to do more than fizzle out in May, it needs to scale back its first-unit minutes.

That wasn't an option last year, as Washington's backups hemorrhaged leads. If the Wizards' starters hadn't been remarkably healthy, who knows what might have happened? The lottery would have been a possibility.

Kelly Oubre will have to step in for Markieff Morris, who'll miss time to start the season following sports hernia surgery in September. A pivotal player, the third-year forward must not only hold the fort as a starter for a month or so but also stay focused enough to be a key contributor off the bench all season.

Jodie Meeks and Tim Frazier, both new additions, give the Wizards capable backups at both guard spots. And if Ian Mahinmi provides anything at all behind Marcin Gortat, the frontcourt gets some badly needed depth.

It's possible Washington's starters are less productive but that the team gets better as a whole. Remember, though, that the Wizards were lucky to win 49 games with a margin of victory good enough for just 46 victories, according to Basketball Reference's pythagorean wins formula.

Ranking them ahead of the Raptors is a bet that Wall's prime continues as Lowry tails off a bit.

Saddle up, partners! There's room aplenty aboard the Denver Nuggets bandwagon.

Maybe you hopped on last year, when the Nugs posted the league's highest offensive rating after Dec. 15-a stat that coincided with Nikola Jokic's role expanding and Gary Harris' return from injury. If so, wise move; Denver is only going to get better.

While everyone's fawning over the Wolves as the West's best up-and-comer, the Nuggets are the squad with a locked-in strength. Their offense is going to be fantastic. Jamal Murray will score from everywhere, Harris shot 42 percent from three last year and Jokic is the best big-man passer in the NBA. There is no way these guys rank outside the top five in offensive efficiency.

For all of Minnesota's talent, we can't say that about it.

With Paul Millsap aboard, one of the league's worst defenses can't help but improve. Relieved of the scoring and playmaking duties he shouldered in Atlanta, Millsap can devote his energy to doing the little things and inspiring change on D. Normally, you wouldn't pay $30 million a year for services like that, but Millsap's fit is so perfect that the money's worth it.

If Denver merely gets itself out of the bottom third in defensive efficiency, its offense should be good enough for 50 wins. Nothing's promised, but it's hard not to be wildly optimistic about this group.

A standing ovation is in order for Oklahoma City Thunder GM Sam Presti, who:

Fleeced the Pacers for Paul George

Got Carmelo Anthony from the Knicks

Removed bad money (Victor Oladipo and Enes Kanter) from the books

Added Patrick Patterson on one of the summer's best deals

Convinced Russell Westbrook to sign a max extension

Quite a summer for Presti, and quite a year for a franchise presumed dead after Kevin Durant's exit in 2016.

The version of the Thunder Presti built may be the best equipped group to match up with the Warriors, provided Westbrook and Anthony decide to defend once in a while. With Patterson capable of playing some undersized 5 and George useful as a defender against four positions (especially if the Dubs also play small, which they will) the Thunder can get switchy and versatile with the best of them.

Can Westbrook scale back his stat-hunting, ball-dominating ways now that he's got his MVP?

Can Anthony really thrive as a spot-up weapon who won't grind the offense to a halt whenever he touches the ball in the mid-post?

There are plenty of questions, and even if the talent level is significantly greater than it was last year, OKC must still sort out everyone's fit. It's a good problem to have.

The Golden State Warriors beat their opponents by a league-high 12.1 points per 100 possessions last year despite Draymond Green, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson all hitting threes at rates below their career averages. For Curry, 41.1 percent was his lowest conversion rate ever.

They lost a single playoff game en route to their second title in three years.

They retained everyone who mattered while adding Omri Casspi, Nick Young and rookie Jordan Bell to the rotation, creating the " deepest team we'll probably ever have here," according to head coach Steve Kerr's assessment, per Anthony Slater of the Athletic.

The league's best team (by a huge margin) got better-to the point where it now feels reasonable to predict they'll set the all-time record for offensive rating in a year where they could also lead the league in defensive efficiency.

There's not a lot else to say, but Green usually comes up with something.

Oh, look!

Here's what he told Clay Skipper of GQ in response to Rockets GM Daryl Morey remarking earlier in the offseason that the Warriors weren't unbeatable: "It's pretty f--king sick to see how everybody is just in a f--king panic about what to do. You sit back and think, like, these motherf--kers, they know. That's the fun part about it: They know they don't stand a chance."

He's not wrong.
Stats courtesy ofBasketball ReferenceorNBA.com. Follow Grant onTwitterandFacebook.

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NBA Power Rankings as the 2017-18 Regular Season Begins

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NBA Grant Hughes Twitter Logo National NBA Featured Columnist Somehow, possibly owing to a time warp that zapped us all the way through August and September in a blink, we're here: The dawn of the 2017-18 NBA regular season.

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Gregg Popovich: Donald Trump a 'Soulless Coward' for Comment on Fallen Soldiers

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San Antonio Spurs Scott Polacek Eric Gay/Associated Press Twitter Logo Featured Columnist
San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich called the sitting president a "soulless coward" Monday.

Dave Zirin of The Nation reported the news, noting Popovich's comments were in regard to Donald Trump claiming former presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush failed to call the families of soldiers who had died.
This article will be updated to provide more information on this story as it becomes available.
According to Kevin Liptak of CNN, Trump said Monday he wrote letters to and planned on calling the families of four American soldiers who died in Niger in early October.

"Other presidents did not call, they would write letters, and some presidents didn't do anything," Trump said, per Liptak.

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Gregg Popovich: Donald Trump a 'Soulless Coward' for Comment on Fallen Soldiers

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San Antonio Spurs Scott Polacek Eric Gay/Associated Press Twitter Logo Featured Columnist San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich called the sitting president a "soulless coward" Monday. Dave Zirin of The Nation reported the news, noting Popovich's comments were in regard to Donald Trump claiming former presidents Barack Obama and George W.

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A 3 year old girl fell into a 6 foot deep grease pit in Alabama. They are saying the lid for the grease was not locked so she was easily able to open it and fall in.

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

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AUBURN, Ala. - At what is normally the happiest of family destinations, a horror: Police investigating a call of a missing child at Bruster's Real Ice Cream in Auburn, Ala., before 1pm Saturday arrived to find the 3-year-old had been located but was unresponsive.

Sadie Grace Andrews had been found in a 6-foot-deep in-ground grease trap and drowned, reports the Opelika-Auburn News. It's believed to have been an accident, with surveillance footage showing her playing with two of her five siblings in a picnic table-studded grassy area on the property and apparently falling through the lid.

She was missing for no more than 10 minutes. AL.com reports on Lee County Coroner Bill Harris' description of the incident, which occurred during a trip to a location the family had been to previously.

Harris says the grease trap's lid wasn't locked or fastened in any way, and opened when Sadie stepped on it; the lid then closed with her inside.

Mom Corrie Andrews shares a moving story with the newspaper: Sadie always slept with a blanket her grandmother had given her, but the morning before she died, she stuffed it in a bag and said she was a big girl who didn't need it anymore.

Shop owners Lance and Kara Latham posted a statement on Facebook that reads in part, "Our deepest condolences go to the family of the child who tragically died Saturday. They are acquaintances of ours and have been regular customers. We are truly heartbroken that this happened. Our thoughts also are with our young crewmember who tried to revive the child. Like all of us, he is quite shaken."
This article originally appeared on Newser: Family Trip to the Ice Cream Shop Ends in Tragedy

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Girl, 3, drowns in grease pit at Alabama ice cream shop

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AUBURN, Ala. - At what is normally the happiest of family destinations, a horror: Police investigating a call of a missing child at Bruster's Real Ice Cream in Auburn, Ala., before 1pm Saturday arrived to find the 3-year-old had been located but was unresponsive.

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A 3 year old girl fell into a 6 foot deep grease pit in Alabama. They are saying the lid for the grease trap was not locked in any way

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

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AUBURN, Ala. - At what is normally the happiest of family destinations, a horror: Police investigating a call of a missing child at Bruster's Real Ice Cream in Auburn, Ala., before 1pm Saturday arrived to find the 3-year-old had been located but was unresponsive.

Sadie Grace Andrews had been found in a 6-foot-deep in-ground grease trap and drowned, reports the Opelika-Auburn News. It's believed to have been an accident, with surveillance footage showing her playing with two of her five siblings in a picnic table-studded grassy area on the property and apparently falling through the lid.

She was missing for no more than 10 minutes. AL.com reports on Lee County Coroner Bill Harris' description of the incident, which occurred during a trip to a location the family had been to previously.

Harris says the grease trap's lid wasn't locked or fastened in any way, and opened when Sadie stepped on it; the lid then closed with her inside.

Mom Corrie Andrews shares a moving story with the newspaper: Sadie always slept with a blanket her grandmother had given her, but the morning before she died, she stuffed it in a bag and said she was a big girl who didn't need it anymore.

Shop owners Lance and Kara Latham posted a statement on Facebook that reads in part, "Our deepest condolences go to the family of the child who tragically died Saturday. They are acquaintances of ours and have been regular customers. We are truly heartbroken that this happened. Our thoughts also are with our young crewmember who tried to revive the child. Like all of us, he is quite shaken."
This article originally appeared on Newser: Family Trip to the Ice Cream Shop Ends in Tragedy

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Girl, 3, drowns in grease pit at Alabama ice cream shop

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AUBURN, Ala. - At what is normally the happiest of family destinations, a horror: Police investigating a call of a missing child at Bruster's Real Ice Cream in Auburn, Ala., before 1pm Saturday arrived to find the 3-year-old had been located but was unresponsive.

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Tillerson remains on thin ice in Trump WH, sources say

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's future in the Trump administration is looking increasingly uncertain, an administration source tells CNN.

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"I would say the ice continues to thin," the source said. "The question is when does it actually break."

During a Sunday interview with CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union," Tillerson maintained that he's fully committed to the job. He said he wouldn't dignify confirming or denying reports indicating that he called President Donald Trump a "moron" in a private conversation with fellow US officials following a meeting with the President at the Pentagon. While Tillerson has repeatedly declined to flatly deny using the insult to describe Trump, Heather Nauert, a State Department spokeswoman, has denied Tillerson ever called the President a "moron."

When the "moron" story became public, Health & Human Services Secretary Tom Price had just resigned over his private jet use on the federal government's dime. Senior Republican sources say Tillerson wasn't axed then because White House chief of staff John Kelly didn't want to reinforce the "chaos" theme surrounding the high turnover rate within the administration.

Multiple senior Republican sources say they don't expect Tillerson to last past January. Some names being floated to replace Tillerson include US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley and CIA Director Mike Pompeo.

While Haley has long been mentioned as a contender, some members of the administration are lobbying against her and don't want her to have such a highly visible job, the GOP sources said.

Pompeo, who briefs the President nearly every day, may be the leading candidate for State, the senior Republican sources say. And Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, who garnered support from Trump for his immigration bill, has also been mentioned as a possible replacement for Pompeo at the CIA were he to succeed Tillerson at State, the sources said. Axios first reported the possibility of Cotton taking over at CIA.

Tillerson has also faced critics within the Republican Party, namely, outgoing Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, who told The Washington Post last week the President "cannot publicly castrate your own secretary of state without giving [himself] that binary choice."

Corker referenced public statements from the President -- including a recent tweet regarding North Korea in which he said Tillerson was "wasting his time" on diplomatic efforts with the US foe -- suggesting they undermined the secretary's efforts.

Behind the scenes, the senior Republican sources say Trump and Tillerson strongly dislike each other -- especially following the "moron" incident.

But Tillerson and Trump both say they get along just fine. Trump has said he has confidence in the secretary, and Tillerson has repeatedly stated that he is committed to executing the President's objectives.

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tillerson remains on thin ice in trump wh

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Tillerson remains on thin ice in Trump WH, sources say

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"I would say the ice continues to thin," the source said. "The question is when does it actually break." During a Sunday interview with CNN's Jake Tapper on "State of the Union," Tillerson maintained that he's fully committed to the job.

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In Las Vegas at a concert a gun men opened fire. A girl was shot in the head. Today she takes her first steps.

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In June a 17-year-old Muslim girl was killed as she walked to her mosque. A recent indictment alleged that in addition to being murdered the girl was raped. 22-year-old Darwin Martinez-Torres is being charged with the girl's rape and murder. This charge allows prosecutors to pursue the death penalty. Virginia law requires certain conditions to be met in order to pursue the death penalty and that includes the commission of rape and murder.

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An already disturbing case about a 17-year-old Muslim girl killed as she walked to her mosque took another unsettling turn after an indictment alleged the victim was raped as well.

The indictment Monday includes capital murder and rape charges and will allow prosecutors to pursue a death-penalty case against Darwin Martinez-Torres, 22, of Sterling.

He is accused in the slaying of Nabra Hassanen of Reston, whose death back in June rattled northern Virginia's Muslim community.

Prior to Monday's indictment, much of the discussion surrounding the case revolved around whether prosecutors should bring hate-crime charges - as sought by some activists - or whether it was a case of road rage, as police have long maintained.

Monday's indictment, though, brought into focus another aspect of the case: While police had said previously they were investigating whether Nabra had been sexually assaulted, the indictment is the first court document to spell out any kind of sex-crime charges against Martinez-Torres.

Virginia law allows prosecutors to pursue a death penalty case only under certain conditions. Those include murder in the commission of a rape and murder during an abduction with intent to defile.

The seven-count indictment handed up Monday actually includes four counts of capital murder, with occasionally graphic detail on the ways in which prosecutors believe the slaying qualifies for the death penalty.

Nabra's death continues to resonate. More than 200 supporters wearing "Justice for Nabra" T-shirts showed up at a preliminary hearing Friday for Martinez-Torres. The hearing was delayed when Nabra's parents had to be restrained from charging at Martinez-Torres. Nabra's mother threw a shoe at him.

Police have said Hassanen was out with a group of more than a dozen friends at about 3:40 a.m. June 18. The group was walking back to their mosque, the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, after eating at a McDonald's ahead of a daylong fast. Observant Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset during Ramadan, which this year coincided with the summer solstice. As a result, teens from the mosque sometimes went out for fast-food meals in the overnight hours between the late-night and early morning prayer services.

Police say Martinez-Torres encountered the group and got into a confrontation with some of the kids who had been in the roadway. Martinez-Torres chased after the group and caught Hassanen, at one point bludgeoning her with a baseball bat, police said.

In a search warrant affidavit, police say Martinez-Torres admitted killing Nabra and that he led them to where he had dumped her body in a nearby pond.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim civil rights group, is representing Nabra's family. CAIR lawyer Gadeir Abbas said the family "is focused on ensuring that there is justice for Nabra and that the murderer is held accountable for his crimes. This tragedy has affected the family, but also the Muslim community across the country, coming as it did during Ramadan when the kids were gathering at the mosque to socialize and for prayer."

Some Muslim activists called for hate-crime charges. Police and prosecutors said they have seen no evidence of anti-Muslim bias that would warrant such a charge.

Dawn Butorac, the public defender appointed to represent Martinez-Torres, did not return a call Monday seeking comment.

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Associated Press writer Juliet Linderman in Greenbelt, Maryland, contributed to this report.

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Rape allegation makes Muslim teen's death a capital case

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An already disturbing case about a 17-year-old Muslim girl killed as she walked to her mosque took another unsettling turn after an indictment alleged the victim was raped as well. The indictment Monday includes capital murder and rape charges and will allow prosecutors to pursue a...

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After Daniel Rushing had taken a friend to chemo and drove her home, he is arrested and put into jail for what was presumed to be crystal meth in his car. It turned out to be flakes from a doughnut in December of 2015. The testing used had been cheap-- false positives are quite common with these for meth. He has recently sued the city for $37.5K. He has "no hard feelings and is trying to get his arrest wiped."

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Good Samaritan takes a friend to chemo: check. Good Samaritan drives a fellow churchgoer home: check. Good Samaritan arrested and jailed for having crystal meth in his car that turned out to be flakes from a doughnut: Wait, what? This all happened in one day to Daniel Rushing in Orlando in December 2015, and NPR reports the 65-year-old now has a $37,500 settlement from the city after he sued them.

Rushing was leaving a 7-Eleven (one being monitored by cops for drug activity, per the Orlando Sentinel) with his church friend when he was pulled over for speeding and another minor infraction; the police officer noticed he had a concealed-weapons permit, confirmed he had a pistol on him, and asked him to step out of the car.

He agreed to let his car be searched, and when officers spotted crystals on the floor and tested them, they came up positive for methamphetamine. "I've never even smoked a cigarette!" he told cops, explaining it was just Krispy Kreme residue, but he was arrested on charges of meth possession while armed and thrown in jail, where he sat for 10 hours before making bail.

NPR reports that the cheap drug-testing kits that law enforcement rely on in the field are often inaccurate: A 2016 ProPublica-New York Times probe found false positives often emerge from these kits, with 21% of evidence wrongly determined by Florida cops to be meth.

The results of these kits can be marred by everything from weather to human error. In Rushing's case, the cops weren't trained correctly in using the kits, per WHAS.

Rushing has no hard feelings and says his goal now is to get his arrest wiped: He's trying to get security work and having a hard time due to his record.

(More on that ProPublica investigation here.)

This article originally appeared on Newser: He Ate a Krispy Kreme in His Car. Now He's $37K Richer

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He ate a Krispy Kreme doughnut in his car, is now $37G richer

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Good Samaritan takes a friend to chemo: check. Good Samaritan drives a fellow churchgoer home: check. Good Samaritan arrested and jailed for having crystal meth in his car that turned out to be flakes from a doughnut: Wait, what?

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Three people in Ireland have been reported died after Hurricane Ophelia hit. The three people were two men and one woman. One of the men was outside trying to cut a fallen tree and was killed by the chainsaw he was using.

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9 year old died, Dericka Lindsay,has died from punishment as 325 pound cousin sits on her. The cousin ,Veronica Green Posey, told police she sat on her for "being out of control" . Police later arrested her on charges of homicide and cruelty towards child. Dericka's mother has said that before her death, Dericka was struck with a metal pipe and a ruler and that Posey had sat on her for an extra 2 minutes before she got up and declared Dericka as unresonsive. Dericka died at the hospital.

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A little girl in Florida has died after her 325-pound cousin sat on her as punishment, even as the child complained she couldn't breathe.

The Escambia County Sheriff's Office said 9-year-old Dericka Lindsay was pronounced dead on Saturday afternoon after officers received a cardiac arrest call at a Pensacola home.

When police responded, they found Dericka unresponsive, the Pensacola News Journal reports.

She was rushed to Baptist Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

The little girl's cousin, 64-year-old Veronica Green Posey, told police she had sat on Dericka "for being out of control."

According to the arrest report, the child said she could not breathe and after standing up Posey noticed Dericka was unresponsive. Posey said she called 911 and then started CPR. She later told deputies she weighed 325 pounds.

Posey was arrested and charged with homicide and cruelty toward a child.

Police also arrested 69-year-old Grace Joan Smith and 62-year-old James Edmund Smith, Dericka's parents. They were charged with child neglect for failing to report the abuse.

(Escambia County Jail)

Dericka's mother told police she called Posey, her niece, over to her house Saturday afternoon to help discipline the girl.

She said Posey allegedly struck Dericka with a metal pipe and a ruler before sitting on the child.

Dericka's father said Posey was sitting on his daughter for about 10 minutes before she started complaining of breathing problems.

He said Posey remained sitting on the child for another two minutes before she got up.

The Florida Department of Children and Families called the death "appalling" and told Pensacola News Journal the family had a prior incident in the past.

Posey was taken to Escambia County Jail on a $125,000 bond. Jail records show she was released on Monday.

Grace's bond was set for $75,000 and she was also released on Monday. James remains in jail on a $50,000 bond.
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Child dies after her 325-pound cousin sits on her as punishment

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A little girl in Florida has died after her 325-pound cousin sat on her as punishment, even as the child complained she couldn't breathe. The Escambia County Sheriff's Office said 9-year-old Dericka Lindsay was pronounced dead on Saturday afternoon after officers received a cardiac arrest call at a Pensacola home.

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New fires break out in California, including a part of Los Angeles.

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Interested in California Wildfires?

Add California Wildfires as an interest to stay up to date on the latest California Wildfires news, video, and analysis from ABC News.

As fire crews gain on wildfires burning for more than a week in Northern California's wine country, new fires broke out in other parts of the state, including northeast of Los Angeles.

Fire fighters are battling a blaze that sprang up overnight in the southern Bay Area Santa Cruz mountains, prompting evacuation orders and threatening 100 homes. The fire has torched about 125 acres.

At least one structure was destroyed, Rob Sherman, assistant chief of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, told KNTV news.

Further south, crews with air support are racing to protect a historic observatory and communications towers from a growing brush fire on Mount Wilson northeast of Los Angeles. The blaze was initially estimated at around 5 acres (2 hectares). Officials say the observatory has been evacuated and the fire is not burning near foothill residences.

A week after fleeing wildfires in Northern California, tens of thousands of people are drifting back into their neighborhoods. Some will face the prospect of destroyed homes. All will face the possibility of lasting emotional damage.

The cluster of wildfires has been burning in Northern California's wine country for more than a week. The fires, the deadliest cluster in California history, have killed at least 41 people and destroyed nearly 6,000 homes.

"It's never going to be the same," said Rob Brown, a supervisor in Mendocino County, where all 8,000 evacuees were cleared to go home Monday. "You're going to have to seek a new normal."

The fires, the deadliest cluster in California history, have killed at least 41 people and destroyed nearly 6,000 homes.

The thousands of calls coming from concerned residents in neighboring Sonoma County "have shifted from questions about evacuation to questions about coping," Sonoma County Supervisor Shirlee Zane said.

"Many people who call are sad and worried, the shock has worn off and the sadness, depression and loss is setting in."

As a former grief therapist, she advised people with a family member or loved one who has lost everything to understand they can't fix this but they can offer support.

"Provide a compassionate listening ear right now, and let them feel whatever they're feeling," Zane said.

And those who must rebuild from nothing are in for a changed life.

"You're in for decades," Brown said. "You'll see benefits within years, but you're literally in for decades of recovery."

Jennifer Kelly and her husband and three sons lost their home and everything in it to a fire in Middletown in Lake County two years ago.

Now, with the new home 95 percent rebuilt, there are distant sirens, helicopters and tankers, plumes of smoke, on-again, off-again evacuation orders.

"I'm pretty anxious," she said Sunday in their new home, 95 percent complete. "We wake up a few times a night, one time last week we saw red on the horizon which was a little intimidating."

The Kellys are ready to evacuate. Since they started from scratch two years ago, aside from their pets there's not much to put in their van.

They have talked about what they'll do if it happens again: "We're moving far away, to Wyoming," she said.

The return home was emotional even for those whose properties were spared.

"When we came up to check on it, we were amazed it was here," said Tom Beckman. "All the trivial things we have to work on - cleaning up, replacing the stuff in the fridge and freezer - that's nothing compared to my friends who lost their homes."

In the hard-hit city of Santa Rosa, two hospitals were forced to close during the fires, leaving just one open, St. Joseph Health.

Eighty-three hospital employees and 51 doctors had homes destroyed during the fires, though many continued to report to work.

"We expect the number to go up," said St. Joseph Health spokeswoman Vanessa DeGier. "We have a bunch of folks going back tonight after evacuation was lifted."

There was also good news to report.

Vicki White, chief nursing officer, said that a total of 36 babies were born at St. Joseph during the week since wildfires started, which represents about three times the normal delivery rate.

"All of those babies are doing very well," she said

Improving weather, the prospect of some light rain later in the week and tightening containment of the flames were tempered by the first death from the firefighting effort - a driver who was killed when his truck overturned on a winding mountain road.

The truck driver, who had been delivering water to the fire lines, crashed before dawn Monday in Napa County on a roadway that climbs from vineyards into the mountains. No other details were available about the accident, which was under investigation, said Mike Wilson, a fire spokesman.

In the historic main square of the wine and tourist town of Sonoma, a statue of the community's 19th-century founder was draped with signs thanking firefighters who have saved the town from disaster.

"The love in the air is thicker than the smoke," read a sign on the bench that displays the statue of Gen. Mariano Vallejo, which was wearing a face mask.

---

Associated Press writers Ellen Knickmeyer in Sonoma, Brian Skoloff in Napa, Andrew Dalton in Los Angeles, Martha Mendoza in Santa Cruz, Christopher Weber in Los Angeles, and Brian Melley, Janie Har and Jocelyn Gecker in San Francisco contributed to this report.

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Follow the AP's complete wildfire coverage here: https://apnews.com/tag/Wildfires.

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New fires break out in California as wine country fires dim

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As fire crews gain on wildfires burning for more than a week in Northern California's wine country, new fires broke out in other parts of the state, including northeast of Los Angeles. Fire fighters are battling a blaze that sprang up overnight in the southern Bay Area Santa Cruz mountains,...

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Dust from the Sahara by the storm Ophelia turned the sky red over buildings in Canary Wharf.

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The sky turns red as dust from the Sahara carried by storm Ophelia filters sunlight over London.

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A 10 year old boy fell over the railing at Niagara Falls. He was on the Canadian side of the falls and was sitting on the railing while his mom took a picture. He was flown to McMaster Children's hospital in Ontario, Canada, and is now in serious, but stable condition.

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One family's dream vacation at Niagara Falls turned into a nightmare over the weekend when a 10-year-old boy toppled off a railing and fell into a gorge.

Police say the boy was on the Canadian side of the falls when his family decided to take a picture of Horseshoe Falls, the largest of the three falls composing Niagara Falls.

He was sitting on the railing having his picture taken by his mother when he apparently lost his balance, fell over the railing, and plunged 100 feet, injuring his head, the BBC reports.

Police say they were called to the scene at about 4:34pm, the Buffalo News reports. Members of the Niagara Falls Fire Department, Niagara Parks Police High Angle River Team, and Niagara Emergency Medical Service were able to stabilize the boy so he could be taken by helicopter to McMaster Children's hospital in nearby Hamilton, Ontario.

The boy's injuries were originally considered life-threatening, but the hospital later changed his condition to serious but stable. (A daredevil's very peculiar death at Niagara left cops perplexed.)

This article originally appeared on Newser: 10-Year-Old Boy Falls Over Railing at Niagara Falls

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10-year-old boy falls over railing at Niagara Falls

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One family's dream vacation at Niagara Falls turned into a nightmare over the weekend when a 10-year-old boy toppled off a railing and fell into a gorge. Police say the boy was on the Canadian side of the falls when his family decided to take a picture of Horseshoe Falls, the largest of the three falls composing Niagara Falls.

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Prince William and Kate Middleton are delighted to confirm they are expecting a baby in April.

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Prince William and Kate Middleton Announce Royal Baby's Due Date!

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Prince William and Kate Middleton Announce Royal Baby's Due Date!

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Amazon plans to hire 120,000 new employees for the holiday season.

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Amazon is gearing up for the holidays, and plans to hire 120,000 temporary U.S. workers to help it fulfill the millions of orders coming its way.
The surge of temporary help will nearly double the number of the workers it has at its fulfillment centers, sorting centers and customer service sites. The company will be hiring in 33 states.

Amazon hired the same number of seasonal workers last year, and 100,000 workers for the 2015 holiday season. Overall the company has more than 200,000 permanent U.S. employees.

Related: Report of Amazon looking at own deliver service hits shares of UPS, FedEx

It's getting harder to find holiday employees with unemployment now at 4.2%, the lowest jobless rate since 2001. The Labor Department said Wednesday that there are 6.1 million unfilled job openings across the economy, essentially unchanged from the record level reached the month before. A little over one in ten of those openings are in retail.

Earlier this fall Walmart , the nation's largest employer, said it would fill its need for more seasonal help by giving additional hours to its existing part-time workers, rather than bringing on additional employees.

CNNMoney (New York) First published October 12, 2017: 10:36 AM ET

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Amazon wants to hire 120,000 U.S. workers for the holidays

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Amazon hired the same number of seasonal workers last year, and 100,000 workers for the 2015 holiday season. Overall the company has more than 200,000 permanent U.S. employees. Related: Report of Amazon looking at own deliver service hits shares of UPS, FedEx It's getting harder to find holiday employees with unemployment now at 4.2%, the lowest jobless rate since 2001.

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The General Motors will be testing the Chevy Bolt in New York early 2018. 37,000 car accident deaths were caused by human error in 2016. Experts say self driving cars will be most likely to be first released in Arizona. Car companies plan to have self driving cars out in 2020.

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Self-driving cars will soon take on perhaps their biggest challenge yet: driving in New York City.

Cruise Automation, the self-driving arm of General Motors, announced Tuesday it will begin testing its Chevy Bolts inside five square miles of Manhattan in early 2018.

Testing in New York had previously been limited, due in part to a state regulation requiring drivers to keep a hand on the wheel at all times.

But in May, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo announced a one-year pilot program to allow for testing of fully self-driving vehicles on public roads.

Cruise has applied for a permit, and a spokeswoman for the governor said it was very unlikely that Cruise wouldn't receive approval.

Leaders around the country are clearing the way for autonomous vehicles technology given the expected safety benefits. Car crashes are overwhelmingly caused by human error and there were more than 37,000 deaths caused by U.S. motor vehicle crashes in 2016.

Related: 2016: A tipping point for excitement in self-driving cars

Many experts expect self-driving vehicles to first be available to the public in Arizona, due to favorable weather and simpler road conditions. There are fewer pedestrians and cyclists to worry about in suburban settings.

But General Motors has made a habit of testings its cars in difficult, urban environments. It already tests in downtown San Francisco. Its cars there have been the victims of a series of fender-benders in the last month amid the rough-and-tumble nature of city driving.

"Based on our experience, every minute of testing in San Francisco is about as valuable as an hour of testing in the suburbs," Cruise Automation CEO Kyle Vogt said in a Medium post earlier this month. "We test in San Francisco only because we have to. We believe it's the fastest path toward deploying self-driving cars at scale."

In New York, GM's self-driving cars will tango with aggressive pedestrians and cab drivers. The cars are programmed to stop for pedestrians, a habit that hurried New Yorkers may take advantage of, slowing the Bolts from being able to drive at a reasonable speed.

There's no consensus over when exactly autonomous vehicles will become common and available for the public to use. Many car and tech companies have cited 2020 as a date for deploying the technologies.

Vogt has previously said he believes the technology will arrive in months, rather than years. Some Cruise employees are using the company's internal ridesharing app to travel around the city.

Earlier this week, Bryan Salesky -- who leads Ford's self-driving car program, Argo AI -- cautioned that the vehicles wouldn't be ubiquitous on city streets for at least a few years.

CNNMoney (Washington) First published October 17, 2017: 11:34 AM ET

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GM will test self-driving cars in New York City

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Cruise Automation, the self-driving arm of General Motors, announced Tuesday it will begin testing its Chevy Bolts inside five square miles of Manhattan in early 2018. Testing in New York had previously been limited, due in part to a state regulation requiring drivers to keep a hand on the wheel at all times.

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Trumps businesses in Scotland are loosing millions of dollars, The businesses have lost a total of 53 million since trump acquired them.

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President Trump's businesses in Scotland are losing huge amounts of money.

Trump has two golf resorts in the country -- one near Aberdeen and the other at Turnberry. Their combined losses nearly doubled to £19 million ($25 million) in 2016, according to accounts filed in the U.K.

Trump resigned as director of the Scottish companies before his inauguration in January 2017, but remains the owner via a trust set up when he became president. His son Eric is a director of both resorts.

Trump valued each of the resorts at "over $50 million" in a disclosure form published in June by the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.

However, last year's deficit means the projects have lost a combined £40.5 million ($53 million) since Trump acquired them, and the president continues to provide financial support.

He has supplied both businesses with huge loans: at the end of 2016 they owed him £152.5 million ($200 million).

Officials at the Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.

Related: Trump reports hundreds of millions in income

The Trump Turnberry resort in southwest Scotland lost £17.6 million ($23.1 million) in 2016, a sharp increase from losses of £8.4 million ($11.3 million) in 2015.

The resort was closed for six months of renovations in 2016. In June, Eric Trump unveiled a new layout for the resort's "King Robert the Bruce" course.

His father purchased the resort in 2014 -- that year it lost £3.6 million ($4.8 million).

Asked about the losses, Turnberry general manager Ralph Porciani told CNNMoney Monday that business has been "fantastic" over the past two years.

"I've been here for 13 years and I've never been this busy," he said, adding that business had not slowed since Trump became president.

Related: Trump's Scottish golf plans face new obstacles after Charlottesville

Trump's second resort in Scotland -- Trump International Golf Links -- reported a loss of £1.4 million ($1.8 million) in 2016.

Trump built the resort near Aberdeen from scratch after purchasing the land in 2006. Financial statements show that it lost nearly £11 million ($14.4 million) between 2006 and 2016.

The resort has also been the subject of environmental and political controversies.

Almost 95,000 people have signed a petition opposing plans to expand the course, which would include the addition of a second 18-hole course.

A decision from local authorities is due later this year on the proposed expansion.

Trump refused to sell his business holdings as president, as experts in government ethics urged him to do. Instead, he transferred them into a trust in his name. Any business profits will ultimately accrue to him when he leaves office.

Trump businesses have become lightning rods for protest since he became president.

A flurry of charities canceled events at his Mar-a-Lago club after he equated white supremacists with counterprotesters following violent clashes in Charlottesville.

CNNMoney (London) First published October 9, 2017: 8:17 AM ET

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Trump's businesses are losing millions in Scotland

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Trump has two golf resorts in the country -- one near Aberdeen and the other at Turnberry. Their combined losses nearly doubled to £19 million ($25 million) in 2016, according to accounts filed in the U.K. Trump resigned as director of the Scottish companies before his inauguration in January 2017, but remains the owner via a trust set up when he became president.

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An estimated $10 octillion in gold was created when 2 stars crashed into each other back in August.

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It was a faint signal, but it told of one of the most violent acts in the universe, and it would soon reveal secrets of the cosmos, including how gold was created.

Forbes estimated that the collision created an estimated $10 octillion in gold, which is $10 billion, billion, billion.

What they witnessed in mid-August and revealed Monday was the long-ago collision of two neutron stars - a phenomenon California Institute of Technology's David H. Reitze called "the most spectacular fireworks in the universe."

The crash happened 130 million years ago, while dinosaurs still roamed on Earth, but the signal didn't arrive on Earth until Aug. 17 after traveling 130 million light-years. A light-year is 5.88 trillion miles.

"We already knew that iron came from a stellar explosion, the calcium in your bones came from stars and now we know the gold in your wedding ring came from merging neutron stars," said University of California Santa Cruz's Ryan Foley.

Measurements of the light and other energy emanating from the crash have helped scientists explain how planet-killing gamma ray bursts are born, how fast the universe is expanding, and where heavy elements like platinum and gold come from.

"This is getting everything you wish for," said Syracuse University physics professor Duncan Brown, one of more than 4,000 scientists involved in the blitz of science that the crash kicked off. "This is our fantasy observation."

It started in a galaxy called NGC 4993, seen from Earth in the Hydra constellation. Two neutron stars, collapsed cores of stars so dense that a teaspoon of their matter would weigh 1 billion tons, danced ever faster and closer together until they collided, said Carnegie Institution astronomer Maria Drout.

The crash, called a kilonova, generated a fierce burst of gamma rays and a gravitational wave, a faint ripple in the fabric of space and time, first theorized by Albert Einstein.

"This is like a cosmic atom smasher at a scale far beyond humans would be capable of building," said Andy Howell, a staff scientist at the Las Cumbres Observatory. "We finally now know what happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object and it's a kilonova."

Signals were picked up within 1.7 seconds of each other, by NASA's Fermi telescope, which detects gamma rays, and gravity wave detectors in Louisiana and Washington state that are a part of the LIGO Laboratory , whose founders won a Nobel Prize earlier this month. A worldwide alert went out to focus telescopes on what became the most well-observed astronomical event in history.

Before August, the only other gravity waves detected by LIGO were generated by colliding black holes. But black holes let no light escape, so astronomers could see nothing.

This time there was plenty to see, measure and analyze: matter, light, and other radiation. The Hubble Space Telescope even got a snapshot of the afterglow.

Finding where the crash happened wasn't easy. Eventually scientists narrowed the location down to 100 galaxies, began a closer search of those, and found it in the ninth galaxy they looked at.

It is like "the classic challenge of finding a needle in the haystack with the added challenge that the needle is fading away and the haystack is moving," said Marcelle Soares-Santos, an astrophysicist at Brandeis University.

"The completeness of this picture from the beginning to the end is unprecedented," said Columbia University physics professor Szabolcs Marka. "There are many, many extraordinary discoveries within the discovery."

The colliding stars spewed bright blue, super-hot debris that was dense and unstable. Some of it coalesced into heavy elements, like gold, platinum and uranium. Scientists had suspected neutron star collisions had enough power to create heavier elements, but weren't certain until they witnessed it.

"We see the gold being formed," said Syracuse's Brown.

Calculations from a telescope measuring ultraviolet light showed that the combined mass of the heavy elements from this explosion is 1,300 times the mass of Earth. And all that stuff - including lighter elements - was thrown out in all different directions and is now speeding across the universe.

Perhaps one day the material will clump together into planets the way ours was formed, Reitze said - maybe ones with rich veins of precious metals.

The crash also helped explain the origins of one of the most dangerous forces of the cosmos - short gamma ray bursts, focused beams of radiation that could erase life on any planet that happened to get in the way. These bursts shoot out in two different directions perpendicular to where the two neutron stars first crash, Reitze said.

Luckily for us, the beams of gamma rays were not focused on Earth and were generated too far away to be a threat, he said.

Scientists knew that the universe has been expanding since the Big Bang. By using LIGO to measure gravitational waves while watching this event unfold, researchers came up with a new estimate for how fast that is happening, the so-called Hubble Constant. Before this, scientists came up with two slightly different answers using different techniques. The rough figure that came out of this event is between the original two, Reitze said.

The first optical images showed a bright blue dot that was very hot, which was likely the start of the heavy element creation process amid the neutron star debris, Drout said. After a day or two that blue faded, becoming much fainter and redder. And after three weeks it was completely gone, she said.

This almost didn't happen. Eight days after the signal came through, the LIGO gravitational waves were shut down for a year's worth of planned upgrades. A month later the whole area where the crash happened would have been blocked from astronomers' prying eyes by the sun.

Scientists involved with the search for gravitational waves said this was the event they had prepared for over more than 20 years.

The findings are "of spectacular importance," said Penn State physicist Abhay Ashtekar, who wasn't part of the research. "This is really brand new."

Almost all of the discoveries confirmed existing theories, but had not been proven - an encouraging result for theorists who have been trying to explain what is happening in the cosmos, said France Cordova, an astrophysicist who directs the National Science Foundation.

"We so far have been unable to prove Einstein wrong," said Georgia Tech physics professor Laura Cadonati. "But we're going to keep trying."
The Associated Press contributed to this report

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Astronomers strike gold, witness massive cosmic collision

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It was a faint signal, but it told of one of the most violent acts in the universe, and it would soon reveal secrets of the cosmos, including how gold was created. Forbes estimated that the collision created an estimated $10 octillion in gold, which is $10 billion, billion, billion.

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Approximately three months ago a Californian couple went missing while hiking in the extreme heat. On Monday, October 16, 2017, authorities might have discovered the bodies of these two hikers, locked in embrace.. The two hikers were Joseph Orbeso, 21, and Rachel Nguyen, 21. No cause of death was given immediately, but it is believed that the instense conditions contributed to the demise of the pair. Their car was found a week after they went missing. Orbeso's father has said that he feels a "sense of relief" after the remians were discovered. "I feel closure," he added. "And we know we found them. That was our main goal was to find them."

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Authorities on Monday may have discovered the bodies of two long-missing hikers, found locked in an embrace, in Joshua Tree National Park -- nearly three months after the couple went missing while hiking in extreme heat.

While no cause of death was immediately given, pending an autopsy, it's believed the intense conditions contributed to the pair's demise.

A search team discovered the remains in a remote area of the park after months of combing through the place for Joseph Orbeso, 21, and Rachel Nguyen, 21, FOX11 Los Angeles reported. Gilbert Orbeso, Joseph's father, was part of the search team that discovered the bodies.

"We hope that they can rest in peace now,'' Orbeso told KESQ Sunday afternoon. "I believed that I was going to find them. I didn't know when. But I had my answer today.''

The coroner's office is working to formally identify the remains as Joseph Orbeso and Nguyen. The couple from Lakewood was reported missing on July 28 after they didn't check out of their Airbnb rental. They were last seen hiking in the park a day before, when temperatures topped 100 degrees. Officials said there's no water in the park and the heat created dangerous conditions for people.

The couple's car was discovered more than a week after their disappearance.

Orbeso's father added he feels a "sense of relief" after the remains were discovered.

"I feel that we have closure,'' he said. "And we know we found them. That was our main goal was to find them."

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Bodies of missing California hikers found locked in embrace, cops say

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Authorities on Monday may have discovered the bodies of two long-missing hikers, found locked in an embrace, in Joshua Tree National Park -- nearly three months after the couple went missing while hiking in extreme heat. While no cause of death was immediately given, pending an autopsy, it's believed the intense conditions contributed to the pair's demise.

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A plaque arose last week in Madagascar's capital, Antananarivo. The plaque has so far killed 63 people. The Red Cross is sending its first-ever plaque treatment center to Madagascar.

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As plague cases rose last week in Madagascar's capital, many city dwellers panicked. They waited in long lines for antibiotics at pharmacies and reached through bus windows to buy masks from street vendors. Schools have been canceled, and public gatherings are banned.

The plague outbreak has killed 63 people in the Indian Ocean island nation, Madagascar's government says. For the first time, the disease long seen in the country's remote areas is largely concentrated in its two largest cities, Antananarivo and Toamasina.

Global health officials have responded quickly. The World Health Organization, criticized for its slow response to the 2014 Ebola epidemic in West Africa, has released $1.5 million and sent plague specialists and epidemiologists. The Red Cross is sending its first-ever plague treatment center to Madagascar.

On Wednesday, Madagascar's minister of public health rallied doctors and paramedics in a packed auditorium at the country's main hospital, saying they're not allowed to go on vacation.

"Let's be strong, because it's only us. We're at the front, like the military," Mamy Lalatiana Andriamanarivo said. The outbreak could continue until the end of infection season in April, experts warn.

Madagascar has about 400 plague cases per year, or more than half of the world's total, according to a 2016 World Health Organization report. Usually, they are cases of bubonic plague in the rural highlands. Bubonic plague is carried by rats and spread to humans through flea bites. It is fatal about the half the time, if untreated.

Most of the cases in the current outbreak are pneumonic plague, a more virulent form that spreads through coughing, sneezing or spitting and is almost always fatal if untreated. In some cases, it can kill within 24 hours. Like the bubonic form, it can be treated with common antibiotics if caught in time.

The WHO calls plague a "disease of poverty" caused in part by unsanitary living conditions. Madagascar has a per capita GDP of about $400, and national programs to control the disease have been "hampered by operational and management difficulties," according to a report by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.

But the airborne pneumonic plague, which accounts for about 75 percent of cases in the current outbreak, makes no class distinctions.

"Normally, the people who catch the plague are dirty people who live in poor areas, but in this case we find the well-to-do, the directors, the professors, people in every place in society, catching the disease," said Dr. Manitra Rakotoarivony, Madagascar's director of health promotion.

The current outbreak began in August, earlier than usual, when a 31-year-old man who had spent time in a village in the central highlands, Ankazobe, traveled by bush taxi to the east coast, unaware that he had the plague. He died en route and was buried without any safety precautions in Toamasina. Four people in contact with him also died.

Residents of the capital began to relax in recent days amid the global response to the outbreak, but the disease remains a serious threat with the number of new cases per day remaining steady.

Madagascar has fought the disease for more than a century. It was introduced to the island in 1898 when steamships from India brought rats infected with the bacteria that causes the disease. The plague nearly disappeared from Madagascar for 60 years, starting in 1930, but re-emerged in recent decades.

The black rats that carry the disease in the highlands have gradually developed resistance to it. Unsafe burial practices that involve touching corpses are another reason the disease spreads, according to a 2015 study by scientists at the Pasteur Institute in Madagascar.

The outbreak has alarmed neighboring countries. A 34-year-old man in another Indian Ocean island nation, the Seychelles, contracted the pneumonic plague while in Madagascar. He was treated in his own country and no longer has symptoms.

It was the first-ever plague case in the Seychelles, said the country's public health commissioner, Dr. Jude Gedeon. Another Seychellois, a 49-year-old basketball coach, died of the plague last month while in Antananarivo for a tournament.

Seychelles authorities have established a plague isolation ward and announced that schools will be closed through Tuesday. Foreign travelers who have recently visited Madagascar are not being allowed into the country.

While the WHO says the risk of the epidemic spreading beyond the region is very low and does not advise restrictions on travel to Madagascar, Air Seychelles has canceled all flights to and from the island until further notice.

"The situation is still not under control in Madagascar," Gedeon said.

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In Madagascar, plague outbreak now threatens largest cities

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As plague cases rose last week in Madagascar's capital, many city dwellers panicked. They waited in long lines for antibiotics at pharmacies and reached through bus windows to buy masks from street vendors. Schools have been canceled, and public gatherings are banned. The plague outbreak...

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The USS Comfort is waiting near Puerto Rico, but is nearly empty. Puerto Rico's Department of Health has to decide which patients can receive care aboard the ship, but referrals have been minimal.

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There is help available for the 18-year-old -- right offshore. A floating state-of-the-art hospital, the USNS Comfort, could provide critical care, his doctor says.

But nobody knows how to get him there. And Sammy is not alone.

Clinics that are overwhelmed with patients and staff say they don't even know how to begin sending cases to the ship. Doctors say there's a rumor that patients have to be admitted to a central hospital before they can be transferred to the Comfort. Only 33 of the 250 beds on the Comfort -- 13% -- are being used, nearly two weeks after the ship arrived.

The hospital ship was deployed as part of the federal response to the storm and its aftermath that has left 3.4 million Americans facing power and communications outages, water and food shortages and at risk for worsening health conditions.

The USS Comfort is waiting. But Puerto Rico's Department of Health has to decide which patients can get care aboard the ship. And referrals have been minimal.

CNN's Leyla Santiago asked Ricardo Rosselló, Governor of Puerto Rico, why so many are in need of help and yet a ship with operating rooms and intensive care units sits nearly empty.

"The disconnect or the apparent disconnect was in the communications flow," Rosselló said.

He acknowledged the system must get better.

"I asked for a complete revision of that so that we can now start sending more patients over there," Rosselló said.

For doctors and medics in hospitals and makeshift clinics, time is of the essence. It is difficult for them to watch patients suffer, and not be able to provide answers or direction about whether the USNS Comfort is an option.

Dr. Jorge Rosado, who oversees Sammy's care at the clinic and works at the San Jorge Children's Hospital, says the young man is a prime example.

"He can become acutely ill if he continues to be (at the school)," he said. "It's very frustrating. I know they have the capacity, they have the medical staff, they have the supplies. ... To hear there's only 33 patients in such a big mobile hospital -- it's tough."

Capt. Kevin Robinson, the Comfort's mission commander, says help is waiting.

"I know that we have capacity. I know that we have the capability to help. What the situation on the ground is ... that's not in my lane to make a decision," he said. "Every time that we've been tasked by (Puerto Rico's) medical operation center to respond or bring a patient on, we have responded."

For Sammy's father, Jose Cruz, the waiting for a plan is heartbreaking.

"I feel horrible," he says. "Because I can't help him."

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floating hospital sits near puerto rico after hurricane maria with empty beds - cnn

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Hospital ship empty as ill Puerto Ricans suffer

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A hospital ship deployed as part of federal response to Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico is waiting. But hospitals that are overwhelmed with patients and staff say they don't even know how to begin sending people to the Comfort. Only 33 of the 250 beds on the Comfort -- 13% -- are being used, nearly two weeks after the ship arrived.

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A hashtag "#metoo" is trending. It was made to show how large of an issue sexual assault is and people will log onto social media and see how many women around them are affected.

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On Sunday night, the actress Alyssa Milano tweeted a suggestion. ''If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote 'Me too' as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem."

Within hours, the hashtag #metoo was trending. By Monday morning, hundreds of thousands of women had said "me too." Me too.

Perhaps Milano's plan has worked. If you are a man and you log on to Twitter today, perhaps you'll now learn that sexual pestering, sexual blackmail, sexual assault -- the full gamut -- are everyday concerns for the women around you.

Although one wonders. Perhaps no woman in your life has felt comfortable telling you this in the past. Perhaps you've never noticed it for yourself. Are you going to have your mind changed by the latest trending hashtag?

Perversely, however, the #metoo hashtag also puts the onus on women to dispense with our own privacy. If we've learned anything from the Harvey Weinstein scandal, which kicked off this fortnight's international introspection on gender and power, it should be that victims of sexual harassment have always had good reasons to keep quiet.

For most of us, that hasn't changed since Weinstein's fall. I'm a writer, and the men who have harassed me are still senior sources in politics, are still well-lawyered, and still hold established positions at newspapers where I freelance. When I mention harassment but decline to name names, I am bombarded with accusations that my silence is complicity.

It's easier still not to speak, not to tweet.

Women, especially those of us with a media platform, will have to figure out over the next few months how to have this conversation. If we do strip off our Band-Aids and tell our stories in their own gruesome detail, we may need to build a new culture of personal journalism. Throughout international media, women are consistently pushed towards confessional first-person writing -- sometimes under the guise of "lifestyle journalism." And like all sectors dominated by women -- nursing, teaching -- personal journalism is often a low-status pathway that rarely leads to a high-profile career.

Since writing about Harvey Weinstein last week, I've been bombarded with requests to write about my experiences of sexual harassment. But I'd rather be known for my insights into Theresa May's Brexit negotiations, or the history of British nationalism. Perhaps I'm wrong to feel this way, but I do.

Meanwhile, those women who do speak out face being shouted down -- including by other women. The actress Mayim Bialik wrote an op-ed in the New York Times this week, in which she described the discomfort of life in Hollywood as "a prominent-nosed, awkward, geeky, Jewish 11-year-old." The backlash was immediate.

Like many readers, I also bridled at her suggestion that women who "dress modestly" are less likely to encounter sexual harassment. Women should never respond to culture's sexualization of the female body by further fetishizing it, but nor should we shift the burden of responsibility from male predators to women's clothing choices. (Are they even choices? Here in the UK, high heels are compulsory in some workplaces; airline hostess have strict, sexualizing dress codes.)

But it was depressing to see many women -- hurt, angry and raw after a week of re-traumatizing headlines -- turn their anger on another woman who had taken the risk of sharing her experience in public.

I wondered if the left would have been so vitriolic had such a piece been written by a woman of conservative Muslim birth in defense of the hijab, instead of from the perspective of an Orthodox Jew. Since the rise of anti-hijab legislation by rightwing governments in Europe, showing tolerance for the tradition of Islamic "modesty" dressing has become a point of pride for the European left.

Perhaps we all, whatever our backgrounds, need to talk more about the gulf between what our clothes say about us and what we'd like them to say about us. Can any woman always get it right?

Mayim Bialik's piece was marked by a refusal to see herself as a victim -- an instinct expressed by many of the women who have resisted the feminist mainstream's talk of mass sexual harassment or dismissed them as scare stories. But we are most empowered by facing up to the scale of the problem and forcing change. If you're lengthening your hemlines to stop your boss groping you -- or if you don a hijab in order to be accepted as a good girl -- you're still a victim.

Victims of sexual harassment have always shared our experiences underground. If you're a straight, powerful man, that's probably why you haven't heard them: This is a privilege exclusive to the networks of the powerless.

In theater, in which I also work, conversations are growing about big names in the West End and Broadway who abuse their power as Weinstein did his. I'd heard plenty of stories about a particular male artistic director who pressures female assistants for sex.

But a few months ago, I was surprised to learn that a large network of young men also whisper stories about a powerful gay artistic director who prefers to prey on men. I was introduced to a whole world of stories by a young male relative; otherwise, I never might have known. For the first time, I realized what it is to have been oblivious to a bubble of whispers. Powerless women talk to women; powerless men talk to men.

We are beginning to make these secret stories public. A number of outlets are publicizing new ways for employees to share their tips about powerful abusers in their industries, and more exposés are coming. But we will need to find ways to minimize the burden on individuals while also allowing those who do want to share individual stories to do so.

It will require empathy. It will require men and women to listen, not shout, to the Mayim Bialiks of the world whose analyses do not match our own. A hashtag will not solve any of this. But it may give us courage to take the next steps.

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mayim bialik and the trouble with #metoo (opinion)  - cnn

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Mayim Bialik and the trouble with #MeToo

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On Sunday night, the actress Alyssa Milano tweeted a suggestion. ''If all the women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote 'Me too' as a status, we might give people a sense of the magnitude of the problem." Within hours, the hashtag #metoo was trending.

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First, it was Sonic, now restaurant chain Pizza Hut has reported that it got hacked, too.
The company emailed a select group of customers on Saturday to inform them that their personal information may have compromised in an early October hack, but only did so two weeks later, letting hackers drain bank accounts from affected individuals.

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First, it was Sonic, now restaurant chain Pizza Hut has reported that it got hacked, too.

The company emailed a select group of customers on Saturday to inform them that their personal information may have compromised in an early October hack.

According to the email, shared on social media by some of the victims, Pizza Hut classified it as a "temporary security intrusion," that was carried out between the morning of Oct. 1 and midday Oct. 2, which affected information of some customers who visited its website or mobile app during the 28-hour period.

"The security intrusion at issue impacted a small percentage of our customers and we estimate that less than one percent of the visits to our website over the course of the relevant week were affected. That said, we regret to say that we believe your information is among that impacted group," the company wrote in the email.

Yet, many customers unleashed their frustration on the company on Twitter, for not notifying them sooner but instead waiting two weeks, giving hackers time to use their information.

Peter Yoachim tweeted, "Hey Pizza Hut, thanks for telling me you got hacked two weeks after you lost my CC number. And a week after someone started using it. #timely."

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Hey @pizzahut, thanks for telling me you got hacked 2 weeks after you lost my cc number. And a week after someone started using it.#timely
- Peter Yoachim (@PeterYoachim) October 14, 2017

Another customer tweeted that her bank account has been drained as a result of the hack.

so @pizzahut sent an email today about a breach that occurred 2 weeks ago. their delay resulted in my bank acct being drained thx to fraud.
- ᴄᴏᴜʀᴛɴᴇʏ. (@runawaywithit) October 14, 2017

The information stolen included names, delivery addresses, email addresses and payment card information, including the number, expiration and the CVV number. Pizza Hut said it believes "less than one percent of the visits" were affected, which turns out to be approximately 60,000 individuals.

A spokesperson for Pizza Hut told FOX Business that it "notified customers in less than two weeks, while the standard has been 30+ days with some extending as long as eight months before customers were notified."

"With less than one percent of our weekly traffic affected, we are pleased to have detected it so quickly allowing us to be far under the millions of customers exposed by recent unfortunate intrusions at other companies," the spokesperson said.

The company told victims that it will offer anyone affected by this one year of free credit monitoring through Kroll Information Assurance.

Pizza Hut now joins Sonic, the nation's largest drive-in restaurant chain, which disclosed a credit and debit card breach last month, affecting an unknown number of store payment systems. The fast-food chain has nearly 3,600 locations across 45 U.S states.

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Pizza Hut got hacked but waited two weeks to tell its customers

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First, it was Sonic, now restaurant chain Pizza Hut has reported that it got hacked, too. The company emailed a select group of customers on Saturday to inform them that their personal information may have compromised in an early October hack.

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A Toyota Corolla had to be pulled out of a canal after a Florida man attempted to jump the 20-foot gap. Let's just say he didn't quite hit the mark. He walked away uninjured, and without charges of any kind. Witnesses say there was no ramp or lip in the ground of any kind present.

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The Drive 15 hrs ago Kyle Cheromcha

Florida Man, you're no Bo Duke. Authorities in southwest Florida had to pull a thoroughly-ruined Toyota Corolla out of an area canal last week after the driver reportedly attempted to jump the watery 20-foot gap, only to fall quite a bit short in his quest to get to the other side.

As funny as that image is, it's the little details that add this story to the pantheon of truly great Florida Man stories. According to WFTX-TV, witnesses saw the man drive the blue Corolla up to the edge of the canal in Lehigh Acres and exit the car to observe the distance and ponder his options. Just why he was so determined to make the journey across, officials can't say...but they did note this all went down a few short blocks from a bridge that spans the canal for just such occasions.

After careful consideration, the man got back in his Corolla, reversed quite aways, then gunned the compact back towards the edge of the canal. Careful observers of the photo above will note the complete absence of a raised lip or anything resembling a ramp-so it should be no surprise that he didn't make it.

The Lee County Sheriff's Department said the man was uninjured, though the Toyota Corolla was totaled. Surprisingly, the unnamed man wasn't charged with anything....which means he was likely sober during all of this, to boot.

Just like this real-life stunt with a real-life General Lee shows, it's not the jump that's the hard part- it's the landing.
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Florida Man Tries, Fails to Jump Canal in Toyota Corolla

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The Drive 15 hrs ago Kyle Cheromcha Florida Man, you're no Bo Duke. Authorities in southwest Florida had to pull a thoroughly-ruined Toyota Corolla out of an area canal last week after the driver reportedly attempted to jump the watery 20-foot gap, only to fall quite a bit short in his quest to get to the other side.

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Colin Kaepernick says he' s not being offered to play for NFL teams due to his National Anthem protests. Kaepernick filed a collusion complaint against the NFL.

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Colin Kaepernick isn't playing this season, and that's costing him millions.

Kaepernick had started the National Anthem protests that are now roiling the NFL. He hasn't been signed by a team since. In a grievance filed against the league, he alleges that NFL teams colluded not to sign him due to his controversial protest.

Whether he isn't playing because of his politics or his playing ability is debatable. But the fact is, Kaepernick made $14.3 million with the San Francisco 49ers in 2016. The contract would have paid him $16.9 million this season. But when it looked like he would be cutbefore he got that money, he became a free agent.

Kaepernick had good reason to believe he'd get signed by another team. Although the 49ers lost 10of the11 of the games he started last year, he threw 16 touchdowns and only four interceptions -- a very respectable record.

There were no offers.

If the arbitrator hearing the case decides in Kaepernick's favor, he stands to win millions in lost wages and damages.

It's hard to say just how much he could have earned this season.

"I'd say that $10 million is about what quarterbacks who are thought to be on the downside of their careers are getting," said Michael Ginnitti, managing editor of Spotrac, which tracks player salaries.

That's what quarterbackJay Cutler agreed to when he came out of retirement and signed a one-year deal with Miami. Tyrod Taylor signed a $30.5 million, two-year extension with Buffalo, but only half that money was guaranteed.

Related: NFL Commissioner - 'We need to move past this controversy'

Kaepernick's collusion complaint points out he never even got an offer to be a backup. A deal like that would have meant a big pay cut. But there are former starting quarterbacks, including Colt McCoy and Ryan Fitzpatrick, who agreed to deals worth about $3 million a year to be backups this season.

Kaepernick has already missed six weeks of a 17-week season, so even if he signed with a team now, he'd be looking at only about two-thirds of a full-year contract.

The absolute minimum for a veteran like Kaepernick to play the rest of this year would be about $500,000, under the collective bargaining agreement.

Kaepernick's complaint will be heard by an independent arbitrator, but collusion can be difficult to prove.

The agreement between the NFL and the players union specifically statesthatsimply presenting evidence of a player's skills, and the lack of offers from teams, is not enough to meet the "burden of proof" needed to prove collusion.

Related: NFL No fines for teams that skilled National Anthem

It will help Kaerpnick's case if his lawyers find emails between clubs, or between the clubs and the league office, that show they discussed whether to sign him. But that kind of evidence isn't necessary to win, said Gene Orza, who was the chief counsel for the baseball players union when it won a massive $280 million case against Major League Baseball after teams stopped signing free agents in the late 1980s.

"A smoking gun was not the basis of that decision. Instead it was simply the inference of collusion, that all of sudden not one player who was a free agent was getting an offer," Orza told CNNMoney on Monday.

But it's tougher to prove collusion in the case of a single player, rather than with a series of players who don't get contract offers.

Barry Bonds also filed a collusion case against the league when didn't get a single offer back in 2007. But it was widely believed that the allegations he used steroids made him too toxic for a team to sign, and he lost his case.

"The better analogy might be the Bonds case and not be the free agent collusion case," said Orza. "And if that's the case, it is problematic for Kaepernick."

If each team decided independently that Kaepernick is too controversial to sign, without communicating about it with each other or the league office, then there would be no collusion.

"It's a very tough case," said CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin. "Picking quarterbacks is a very subjective process. And collusion requires not one team rejecting Kaepernick, it requires agreements between two or more teams. And that is very difficult to prove, even though all of us who are football fans know intuitively that Kaepernick is better than a lot of the quarterbacks who have been hired."

CNNMoney (New York) First published October 17, 2017: 12:15 AM ET

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How much could Colin Kaepernick win in his collusion case against the NFL?

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Kaepernick had started the National Anthem protests that are now roiling the NFL. He hasn't been signed by a team since. In a grievance filed against the league, he alleges that NFL teams colluded not to sign him due to his controversial protest. Whether he isn't playing because of his politics or his playing ability is debatable.

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Three year old falls into a grease pit at Alabama ice cream shop.

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

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AUBURN, Ala. - At what is normally the happiest of family destinations, a horror: Police investigating a call of a missing child at Bruster's Real Ice Cream in Auburn, Ala., before 1pm Saturday arrived to find the 3-year-old had been located but was unresponsive.

Sadie Grace Andrews had been found in a 6-foot-deep in-ground grease trap and drowned, reports the Opelika-Auburn News. It's believed to have been an accident, with surveillance footage showing her playing with two of her five siblings in a picnic table-studded grassy area on the property and apparently falling through the lid.

She was missing for no more than 10 minutes. AL.com reports on Lee County Coroner Bill Harris' description of the incident, which occurred during a trip to a location the family had been to previously.

Harris says the grease trap's lid wasn't locked or fastened in any way, and opened when Sadie stepped on it; the lid then closed with her inside.

Mom Corrie Andrews shares a moving story with the newspaper: Sadie always slept with a blanket her grandmother had given her, but the morning before she died, she stuffed it in a bag and said she was a big girl who didn't need it anymore.

Shop owners Lance and Kara Latham posted a statement on Facebook that reads in part, "Our deepest condolences go to the family of the child who tragically died Saturday. They are acquaintances of ours and have been regular customers. We are truly heartbroken that this happened. Our thoughts also are with our young crewmember who tried to revive the child. Like all of us, he is quite shaken."
This article originally appeared on Newser: Family Trip to the Ice Cream Shop Ends in Tragedy

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Girl, 3, drowns in grease pit at Alabama ice cream shop

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AUBURN, Ala. - At what is normally the happiest of family destinations, a horror: Police investigating a call of a missing child at Bruster's Real Ice Cream in Auburn, Ala., before 1pm Saturday arrived to find the 3-year-old had been located but was unresponsive.