Royal Air Force jets in Estonia took to the sky to intercept Russian military aircraft for the second time in one day, the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defense said. The RAF Typhoon fighters intercepted Russian SU-30 fighters and related military transport aircraft while over the Baltic Sea on the evening of June 14 and during June 15. The RAF has been working with Estonian authorities since May after taking over the Baltic Air Policing mission. This series of interceptions has brought Britain's incidents with Russian aircraft to a total of 11 since then. "This was a routine NATO airspace policing mission for the Typhoon detachment providing continued reassurance to the region," the RAF in a statement. "The U.K. operates in support of NATO to reassure our allies and is a further demonstration of the U.K's commitment to the security of the region." A Typhoon pilot from the XI Squadron who was called onto duty that day said they were sent up between two periods of bad weather. "We were scrambled to intercept a contact close to Estonian airspace in the early evening," the pilot reported to the RAF. "Shortly after getting airborne, we came alongside a SU-30 Flanker fighter aircraft. We escorted the fighter over the Baltic Sea, around Estonia, and passing over another Russian military transport aircraft in the process." Russia's military-related incidents with western democratic nations have been numerous, including frequent activity involving both the United Kingdom and the United States. Their consistent military activity with both countries has caused tensions to run high on the global stage. Earlier this month, an American warship encountered a near-collision with a Russian destroyer in the Philippine Sea. Fox News' Morgan Cheung and the Associated Press contributed to this report.


While New Orleans is known year-round as a melting pot of music, food and culture, the Crescent City raises the bar each Fourth of July weekend with the annual Essence Festival, the "party with a purpose." Spread over a main stage and four "superlounges," the Essence Festival is the largest celebration of African American culture and music in the United States. Marking its 25th anniversary this year, the festival features a conversation with former first lady Michelle Obama, and headline music acts including Missy Elliott, Mary J. Blige, Nas and Pharrell Williams. Events are scattered across the city, so the Essence Festival also offers a chance to take in the sights and sounds of New Orleans. The festival runs July 4-7. Using travel site Skyscanner , we've sifted through the cheapest flights between Chicago and New Orleans, including some popular hotel options and other highly reviewed local attractions. (Prices and availability are current as of publication and subject to change.) Hoodline offers data-driven analysis of local happenings and trends across cities. Links included in the articles may earn Hoodline a commission on clicks and transactions. Flight deals to New Orleans Currently, the cheapest flights between Chicago and New Orleans are if you leave on July 5 and return from Louisiana on July 10. Spirit Airlines currently has tickets for $186, roundtrip. If you fly out of Chicago on July 5 and return from New Orleans on July 9, Spirit Airlines can get you there and back for $220 roundtrip. Top New Orleans accommodations To plan your accommodations, here are some of New Orleans' top-rated hotels, that we selected from Skyscanner's listings based on price and customer satisfaction. The Hotel Monteleone (214 Royal St.) If you're looking to treat yourself, consider The Hotel Monteleone . The hotel has a 4.7-star rating on Skyscanner, and rooms are currently available for $179. The Hotel Monteleone stands in the French Quarter within four blocks of Jackson Square, the Canal Street Shops, Harrah's New Orleans Casino, Cafe du Monde and lively Bourbon Street. Dining options include Le Cafe serving buffet-style breakfasts and cooked-to-order selections. The Columns Hotel (3811 St. Charles Ave.) If you're looking for an inexpensive place to stay, try The Columns Hotel , which has rooms for $100/night. It overlooks St. Charles Avenue, and you can watch the famous streetcar go by   or ride it to the French Quarter. The Hampton Inn & Suites Convention Center (1201 Convention Center Blvd.) A third option is The Hampton Inn & Suites Convention Center . The 4.6-star hotel has rooms for $99/night. It's just across from the Ernest Morial Convention Center, the site of many Essence Festival events. Featured New Orleans food and drink If you're looking to snag a bite at one of New Orleans' many quality eateries, here are a few popular culinary destinations from Skyscanner's listings that will help keep you satiated. Cafe Du Monde (800 Decatur St.) Let's start with the essentials: where to get beignets. For a popular option, check out Cafe Du Monde , which has an average of 4.6 stars out of 408 reviews on Skyscanner. This 24/7 French cafe (only closed on Christmas and during hurricanes) serves its patrons a mean cup of dark roasted chicory coffee. Complement your cup of Joe with one of its famous beignets, gratuitously topped with powdered sugar and occasionally filled with fruit. "This place is open 24 hours but is always super packed," wrote visitor Monica. "It is worth it though ... also not super expensive." Commander's Palace (1403 Washington Ave.) If you're looking for a local favorite restaurant pick, head to Commander's Palace , with 4.8 stars from 93 reviews. "Jazz brunches are a tradition here in the garden room overlooking the courtyard," wrote reviewer Michelle. "The traditional place in New Orleans to celebrate a special occasion and the staff goes over the top to make you feel like a king or queen for the event." Jacques-Imo's Cafe (8324 Oak St.) Also worth considering is Jacques-Imo's Cafe . Not your typical New Orleans restaurant   Jacques-Imo's Cafe has become one of the hottest food tickets in town, known for its eclectic mix of Creole and Cajun specialties, at reasonable prices. "One of the busiest and smallest cafes in town because the food is wonderful and plentiful," wrote Cindee. "This is a neighborhood restaurant that is warm and friendly." Featured local attractions Not sure what to do in New Orleans, besides eat and drink? Here are a few recommendations, provided by Skyscanner. The French Quarter (501 Basin St.) First up is The French Quarter , the heart of New Orleans as far as tourist attractions go. The iconic Bourbon and Royal streets run parallel here, offering a rambunctious nightlife at the former and unique boutiques at the latter. Countless restaurants and bars reside here, and finding jazz is as easy as catching multi-colored beads. "The place for nightlife, social scene and overall fun," wrote visitor Kay. "When in New Orleans, go to the French Quarter. The French Quarter is always full of life and good vibes." Jackson Square (700 Decatur St.) Jackson Square is another popular destination. The pleasant green square located near the waterfront of New Orleans serves as the home of the statue of Andrew Jackson. Bars and restaurants border the park, and the legendary Cafe Du Monde is just across the street. Carriages stop near its entrance, marked by four striking light pillars. Audubon Park (6500 Magazine St.) Lastly, consider checking out Audubon Park . This breezy northern New Orleans park features ancient live oaks, a tranquil 1.8-mile jogging path, a lagoon, picnic shelters, playgrounds, tennis courts and soccer fields. "Take a ride down Magazine to the park," wrote visitor JJ. "Walk, run, bring the kids ... It's a big park with a lot of space to enjoy the outdoors. Enjoy some peace and quiet away from the Quarter." This story was created automatically using flight, hotel, and local attractions data, then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.


Is Oklahoma's offense going to be just as good with Jalen Hurts at quarterback? Lincoln Riley sure thinks so. The Sooners have won the Big 12 in each of the last four seasons and are the preseason favorites to win again in 2019. But there's a lot to replace on offense. In addition to Hurts taking over for 2018 Heisman winner Kyler Murray and first-round wide receiver Marquise Brown now in the NFL, Oklahoma has to replace four of its five starting offensive linemen from 2018. Riley doesn't expect any drop off. And he anticipates the defense will be a lot better than it was a year ago. "We don't plan on the offense dipping," Riley said Monday at Big 12 media days. "The second part of that, we definitely expect our defense to be better. I don't think there is any doubt. That's why we have recruited as hard as we have. That's why we made the changes on the coaching staff that we've made." "As we feel like there is going to be positive results behind that. What we have been able to see behind the scenes up to this point get you encouraged and excited that both those things will happen. The expectations are very high on both sides of the ball and we feel like we've got the right people in place to meet those expectations." Oklahoma's offense became the first in FBS history to have a 4,000-yard passer, two 1,000-yard rushers and two 1,000-yard receivers in 2018. A repeat of that seems unlikely, no matter how optimistic Riley is. That record-setting offense powered by Murray, the no. 1 pick in the 2019 NFL draft, led the Sooners to the College Football Playoff in spite of a defense that gave up over six yards per play and 33 yards per game. Ruffin McNeill replaced Mike Stoops as the team's defensive coordinator when Stoops was fired in August. And now Alex Grinch, the co-defensive coordinator at Ohio State in 2018, takes over as Oklahoma's defensive coordinator in 2019. If Oklahoma's offense does take a step back in the upcoming season, it's not going to take much defensive improvement to make up for it. "We haven't played our best defensively consistently through the years but in a lot of big games, including the last one [at AT&T Stadium in Arlington], we've played pretty darn good," Riley said. "We've got to do that more consistently to make ourselves a better team and we feel like we've taken the steps to do that." - - - - - - - Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports More from Yahoo Sports: Boxing legend Pernell Whitaker killed in accident Lakers' Davis won't play in FIBA's World Cup Kerr calls on Congress to stand up to Trump Padres phenom avoids rundown tag in epic fashion


WASHINGTON   Impeachment is very much on President Donald Trump's mind even after he declared victory right as special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's report was made public. But some of his arguments against it are contradicted by the former FBI director's conclusions and legal scholars. "Only high crimes and misdemeanors can lead to impeachment. There were no crimes by me (No Collusion, No Obstruction), so you can't impeach," the president tweeted Monday morning as the hashtag #ImpeachDonaldTrump was trending on Twitter in the United States. A few hours later, the president told reporters he was "not even a little bit" concerned about being impeached. There are a few questionable assumptions and legal implications in those 23 words, starting with the president's assertion that he did not obstruct justice. 'No obstruction' Mueller made no final conclusion on the topic   though Attorney General William Barr did, saying he and his deputy, Rod Rosenstein, found no criminal-level obstruction. But Mueller did find evidence of presidential-level obstruction, and included a damning passage about why he didn't find even more. The special counsel's report plainly stated in that section that Trump very much tried on multiple occasions and through multiple aides to hinder, limit and even end the probe. Trump's attempts to do so "were often carried out through one-on-one meetings in which the President sought to use his official power outside of usual channels," according to the report. "The President's efforts to influence the investigation were mostly unsuccessful, but that is largely because the persons who surrounded the President declined to carry out orders or accede to his requests." So Trump's repeated claims about "no obstruction" are not exactly accurate. He also was asked Monday about those very findings, and replied: "Nobody disobeys my orders." Trump spoke to pool reporters at the end of an appearance at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll, an otherwise cheerful event on the South Lawn that features a gaggle of children playing games and frolicking about. 'High crimes and misdemeanors' Then there is his implied definition about the Constitution's use of "high crimes and misdemeanors" when laying out broad ground rules for Congress impeaching and removing a sitting chief executive. Trump's tweet suggests there is a finite legal definition for the phrase, and that anything he might have done fails to clear it. But the authors of the Constitution left the meaning of the phrase "open-ended for the reason many constitutional provisions are vague and open-ended," as Georgia State University law professor Neil Kinkopf put it in an essay for the nonprofit Constitution Center. "The Constitution cannot be expected to specify in detail every ground on which impeachment is or is not permissible," Kinkopf wrote. "The Constitution sets forth the general principle of impeachment and leaves its more specific definition to be developed by the House of Representatives and the Senate." As Kinkopf noted   and other legal scholars and lawmakers from both parties have echoed   impeachment is much more of a political decision than one about criminality. Yet, the second part of Trump's tweet also focuses on crimes he alleges took place. "It was the Democrats that committed the crimes, not your Republican President!" he wrote, referring to his assertion that Mueller's investigation was started on "illegal" grounds. "Impeachment is a powerful political tool for addressing a class of important and distinctly political problems, but it is not always the right tool for the job. Politics is inescapably at the heart of any impeachment," said Keith Whittington, a politics professor at Princeton. "Impeachments require the political act of persuasion to convince the public and legislators in a partisan political environment that the dramatic step of impeaching and removing a high government official is warranted in a particular situation," he added. Decision time for Democrats The political nature of impeaching a sitting president   or other high-ranking federal official   is exactly why House Democrats huddled on a recess-week conference call to discuss their next steps after the release of Mueller's redacted report. For now, House Democratic leaders and key chairmen are urging caution   but some of the latter are notably not ruling out an impeachment proceeding. "I don't think we're doing that. We may get to that. We may not. As I've said before, it is our job to go through all the evidence, all the information we can get," House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday. When pressed if he thinks parts of what Mueller laid out would warrant impeachment, Nadler replied: "Yeah, I do. I do think, if proven, which hasn't been proven yet, if proven, some of this would be impeachable, yes." "Obstruction of justice, if proven, would be impeachable," the New York Democrat said. "We're going to see where the facts lead us." But it's not exactly clear just yet whether Nadler's assessment is correct. That means Democratic leaders "would need to demonstrate that Trump's continued occupation of the White House has become unendurable," Whittington said, "and that leaving him to face the electorate again in 2020 and to serve out the remainder of his term poses unacceptable risks to the nation." That's a high bar by design, however. The matter inevitably will take more than one conference call to resolve.


Communities are fighting the installation of 5G wireless internet technology because of its bulky infrastructure. The courts may have just bolstered their case. As soon as the first 5G poles went up, the residents of Upper Cole Valley wanted them down. Later, residents would take issue with the notice that informed the community of plans to install 5G wireless internet equipment   they say it was "poorly affixed to the single pole," allowing it to either fall off or be blown off; and that San Francisco's Public Works Department didn't give them enough time to weigh in on the process. But adequate warning or not, when Sprint mobile vendor Mobilitie came to the San Francisco neighborhood hawking super-fast internet service, residents had more fundamental concerns. "Our Upper Cole Valley … neighborhood would suffer harm if the large pole-borne equipment box is installed, on an even taller pole, directly in front of our Excellent Views," read a complaint from a group of more than 100 residents, which they submitted to the DPW in the hopes of getting Mobilitie's permit denied. "This indeed 'detract(s) from the streetscape… that defines (this) individual neighborhood' and that would adversely affect our home's and our neighborhood's … value." The city ended up rejecting this appeal and others like it. For now, at least, the 5G network is there to stay in Cole Valley. But the neighborhood's concerns are echoed in cities across the country. For 5G boosters, the benefits of installing the wireless technology are obvious: It allows delivery of super-fast internet speeds. But the nimble technology is connected by not-so-nimble infrastructure. To hook up the "small cells" that power 5G grids, wireless providers have to install thick wires and poles and antennae on nearly every block they want to cover, outfitted with equipment that is about the size of a large backpack. It's not just that 5G requires a lot of gear, which alone can provoke the not-in-my-backyard backlash that puts a stop to all sorts of projects. It's also that some people really don't like it when they see it. "These things can be quite ugly," says Christopher Mitchell, the director of Community Broadband Networks at the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. 5G networks have only just begun to spread   a few providers, including AT&T and Verizon, have started going live in a handful of cities . Already, though, the NIMBY problem looms large for those who want to see the next generation of wireless technology proliferate. And last month, in what could be a precedent-setting decision, a San Francisco judge ruled that the aesthetic argument alone can be enough to justify the rejection of new 5G infrastructure. The decision came in response to a lawsuit filed by T-Mobile against the city and county, challenging a 2011 city ordinance limiting telecommunications companies from installing 5G lines and equipment on utility poles. T-Mobile argued that the local law was preempted by state law. Now, a judge has determined it wasn't, and agreed with San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera's argument that putting 5G equipment up on San Francisco's utility poles could take away from the city's allure as a tourist destination, by "diminish[ing] the City's beauty." "Private companies don't have free rein when it comes to using a public resource," Herrerra said in a statement to Bloomberg News . "San Francisco's approach strikes the right balance. It allows for innovation and improved technology while ensuring that unsightly poles and equipment don't mar public views of the Painted Ladies or the Golden Gate Bridge." Related video: The potential risks of cell towers (provided by CBS Los Angeles) *** The San Francisco ruling could be a blow not only to telecommunications companies, but to the Federal Communications Commission, which has tried to jumpstart the spread of these networks from the top down. In an order last year , the FCC gave 5G-toting wireless companies broad powers to sidestep local control over the public right-of-way. If Verizon wants to build a 5G network in a city, the local government is limited in how much it can charge in application fees, and is pushed to approve permits quickly. The idea, says the FCC, is to remove "regulatory barriers that would unlawfully inhibit the deployment of infrastructure necessary to support these new services." Already, these "regulatory obstacles have threatened the widespread deployment of these new services and, in turn, U.S. leadership in 5G," reads another FCC statement . These rules also mean cities are limited in how they can respond to residents who are upset about equipment going up near them. Many local leaders have spoken out against the FCC's rules, dozens of whom have banded together to file a lawsuit to overturn it, which has advanced to the Tenth Circuit . "[T]he FCC is forcing cities to race to the courthouse to defend the most basic of local government rights the authority to manage and seek fair compensation from private users that seek to employ public assets," Tom Cochran, the CEO and executive director of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, said in a statement . "I don't have an objection to 5G or deploying 5G," Montgomery County, Maryland council member-at-large Hans Riemer told CityLab. "I just want to preserve local authority to guide the deployment." There are still a few avenues for cities to influence how and where 5G equipment is installed, though. If local governments have clear and reasonable design guidelines in place before companies apply to build facilities, for example, the companies have to follow them. Localities are also allowed to mandate that some   but not all   equipment be put underground. The FCC included these exemptions to avoid legal blowback, especially from the historic preservation movement, Mitchell says. "If you can imagine an antennae on the Alamo, or on the grounds of the state capital, or a historic district somewhere   imagine an ugly antennae at Gettysburg!" he said. "Those are the sorts of things I think they wanted to avoid." But advocates of the technology maintain that 5G equipment is not particularly obtrusive, especially compared to traditional wireless infrastructure. "It makes very little sense," reads a letter from an Ohio state representative to the FCC, "for rules designed for 100-foot cell towers to govern the path to deployment for modern equipment called small cells that can fit into a pizza box." *** In Cole Valley's case, it was the city that pursued 5G, not just the FCC. And in a district whose telecom infrastructure had mostly been put underground, bringing anything above it was seen as an affront to the community's aesthetics. "We cannot allow/accept the newly proposed antenna and equipment box which would be bolted and strapped on directly in front of that … bedroom window, obstructing views, light and potentially affecting [our daughter's] physical safely," reads a July 2018 email from Brian and Maggie Sedar, who led the counter-effort. "It's simply too much invasion of this one street pole into and on our home." "We didn't want it, and the city crammed it down our throat," Maggie Sedar told CityLab. The residents also cited research   which has been disputed by the World Health Organization and multiple scientific studies   that small cells can cause long-term health problems, and even cancer. It's common to see aesthetic concerns used as a proxy for health concerns over 5G, says Mitchell, despite the lack of credible data to support it. In Whitefish, a small town in Montana that's currently taking steps to curb 5G installation preemptively, these fears are colliding, too. According to the Whitefish Pilot , City Attorney Angela Jacobs is moving to create "a city small cell permit" that introduces strict design regulations. 5G facilities, she says, are "ugly and we're concerned about the potential they have to be extremely unsightly especially in our downtown." According to the Pilot , she also "notes that many people have health concerns regarding the operation of the 5G facilities." No one challenge will spell life or death for 5G, Mitchell says. "The benefits of 5G over the next few years have been dramatically overstated," he said. "And so I think it's more important that San Francisco makes sure it protects its aesthetics than it worries it will somehow miss out if it takes six months longer to have 5G saturation." *** In Montgomery County, Riemer says most of the complaints he hears come from neighborhoods with underground utilities, too; or those with decorative lamps, which might have to be replaced with something smaller and sturdier. "That has people concerned, because they see in their mind the junky, clunky installations that the industry has done in certain locations and they say hey, that's not what I want in my neighborhood," he said. "I think the industry could resolve that with real careful attention to the details, and putting in equipment that is context-sensitive and appropriate." Telecommunications companies do have tools to adapt to cities' beauty standards. They can paint the backpack-sized 5G boxes to blend into what's around them, or dress them up to look like trees. They've used these strategies to deal with other aesthetic concerns for decades. San Francisco is, unsurprisingly, the site of one such successful compromise. In the 1990s, the city allowed AT&T to install refrigerator-sized boxes of high-speed internet wiring on dozens of corners. But San Francisco Beautiful, a non-profit that advocates for "civic beauty," worried that the boxes would become targets for graffiti, and have "cumulative negative impacts." So the group sued the city. As in Cole Valley's case, the city was unsympathetic. The utility company had eminent domain to deliver a public service, and San Fransisco Beautiful couldn't stop AT&T from setting up the network. But decades later, with 700-plus boxes scattered across San Francisco's streets, AT&T approached San Francisco Beautiful again. It proposed partnering with the non-profit to commission designs for some of the boxes by local artists. "Flash forward 20 years and we're beautifying those boxes, and the neighbors are thrilled," said Darcy Brown, executive director of SF Beautiful. "This is called evolution." The wireless data service stayed, and the city got a little more colorful. "It's an example of how things can come full circle to benefit the neighborhoods," she said. "And it's an example of how you can work with people as opposed to fighting them; and use money to beautify as opposed to litigate." Sarah Holder is a staff writer at CityLab.


It was a night of routs in MLS as both Atlanta United and the New England Revolution came away as huge winners. Atlanta United thrashed ten-man Houston Dynamo, 5-0, while the Revs took out the Vancouver Whitecaps, 4-0. Toronto FC outlasted the New York Red Bulls with a 3-1 victory at home, while Columbus earned a point thanks to a 90th minute goal. Here's a rundown of today's action, and what we learned from it. Atlanta United 5-0 Houston Dynamo Atlanta United dominated the match on Wednesday, but they got an assist from a poor decision from Alberth Elis. The Honduran forward, while arguing with the referee after being shown a yellow card, appeared to bump into the referee. Immediately, the referee reached into his back pocket and pulled out a red card, just six minutes into the match. That really put Houston on the back foot and led to relentless pressure from Atlanta. First it was Darlington Nagbe and Brandon Vasquez scoring in the box. Then Josef Martinez scored a brace before Julian Gressel, who's cross set up the opener, put the finishing touches on the match. 1   @ATLUTD has lost just one of their last 20 league matches at Mercedes-Benz Stadium (13W-6D), outscoring opponents 40-17. Fortress. #ATLvHOU   OptaJack⚽ (@OptaJack) July 17, 2019 It was a rare bright spot for Atlanta United fans in what's been an up and down season. However, it seems that Frank De Boer has figured this team out, and is starting to get some strong results. New England Revolution 4-0 Vancouver Whitecaps What once seemed impossible   the Revolution making the playoffs in 2019   now seems like it could happen. Bruce Arena's Midas touch continued on Wednesday as the Revolution routed the Whitecaps, 4-0. Revs new signing Gustavo Bou opened the scoring, but it was Carles Gill, Teal Bunburry and Diego Fagundez who all found the scoresheet. Since Arena's arrival in New England, the Revolution has lost just once. The club's current form is what's keeping them alive in the playoff picture. 8   The @NERevolution is unbeaten in their last eight #MLS matches (4W-4D), their longest such run since 2015. They had won four of their prior 19 league games. Revival. #NEvVAN   OptaJack⚽ (@OptaJack) July 17, 2019 Other MLS scores Toronto FC 3-1 New York Red Bulls Chicago Fire 2-2 New York Red Bulls


Over his eight years in Congress, Rep. Paul Gosar has spent more of his taxpayer-funded office budget on travel than nearly every member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Among those not in party leadership, only Madeleine Bordallo, the now-former delegate from Guam, spent more than the $1.2 million Gosar, R-Ariz., has designated for travel since 2011. The data comes from an Arizona Republic review of the 435-member House financial records. The records don't make clear where Gosar and his staff have gone over the past eight years. But his longstanding involvement with the Western Caucus, a conservative group with deep ties to the energy industry, suggest oil, gas and other extraction industries feature prominently in his travels. The Arizona Republic began examining Gosar's records in March as part of a routine look at the Arizona delegation's congressional spending. Officially, the travel records reviewed by The Republic identify only the vendor he pays for his travels: typically, Citibank. There is no public record of where Gosar stays, although his lodging costs are noticeably higher than the typical House member's. Gosar declined to detail his travels but defended them as essential to serving his district. "DC is not where you find solutions to challenges facing rural America," he said in a statement. "My staff and I make ourselves available to the people of Arizona's 33,000+ square mile Fourth District and are constantly traveling to meet with them and hear about their priorities, which is why travel is one of my top expenses." A Republic review of years of Gosar's social media posts and official statements from his office helps fill in some of the blanks. He's stood next to an oil pipeline in Alaska and sat alongside Capitol Hill colleagues such as U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, at a March retreat in Houston supported in part by the oil and gas industry . This past weekend, the Western Caucus was deep in the heart of Texas! On Friday, the @WestCaucusFound hosted an Energy Policy Roundtable with @SenWestCaucus and House Western Caucus Members. Here are some of the highlights! pic.twitter.com/KN0vmNNeeo   Western Caucus (@westerncaucus) April 1, 2019 Gosar's travel is already getting more scrutiny on Capitol Hill. He reported to the U.S. House clerk that a privately funded trip to London last summer included a dinner with members of the United Kingdom's parliament. That appears incorrect in light of documentary footage of him dining with Steve Bannon, President Donald Trump's former political adviser, and several far-right figures in European politics at the time he said he was with British lawmakers. In the past, he has railed against wasteful spending on Capitol Hill. In 2014, he sought to bar first-class travel by his colleagues. "As with all federal spending, Member's Representational Allowance funds are taxpayer dollars," he and two other congressmen wrote. "As such, the use of these finds must be exercised with the utmost efficiency and transparency." Who is Paul Gosar? Gosar, a dentist and conservative provocateur , represents Arizona's Prescott-based 4th Congressional District, the 24th-largest district in the country by land area. It covers northwestern Arizona and wraps around the Phoenix area. To many, Gosar is perhaps best known as a source of outrageous claims and a supporter of controversial causes . He has passed little legislation of his own : Three of the five bills he wrote that became law renamed buildings in Arizona. In his fifth term, Gosar is the top Republican on the House subcommittee that oversees energy production, including mining on federal lands, but it comes at a time when his party lost its majority. Since January 2017, he has served as the chairman of the Congressional Western Caucus, a group comprised mostly of House Republicans from Western states. All four of Arizona's Republican House members are part of the caucus. Much of Gosar's travel appears linked to that group, taking him to states such as Minnesota and Montana. Even so, his office-paid travel expenses stand above those of most other members of the group. Follow Arizona politics? Our reporters stay on top of it all. Subscribe to azcentral.com . What is typical travel spending? Travel for House members typically is between 4 and 5 percent of their taxpayer-funded office budgets and varies widely by geography. Gosar's travel expenses represented more than 12 percent of his overall spending, according to House budget records. Gosar's district isn't the biggest in Arizona. That honor goes to the 1st Congressional District represented by Rep. Tom O'Halleran, a Democrat. It spans northeastern Arizona and runs down to the outskirts of Tucson. A few House districts encompass entire states , including Montana and Alaska. The largest state by far, Alaska, is 17 times larger than Gosar's district. Gosar's expenses are nearly double the next-closest Arizona total, $688,000, for Rep. David Schweikert, a Republican who also went to Washington after the 2010 elections. The travel spending comes from Gosar's overall office budget and at the expense of other items. By far, the biggest expense for Gosar and other members of Congress is personnel compensation. An analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service found that about 75 percent of members' budget goes to their employees. For Gosar, 69 percent went to his staffers. That's the lowest share of any Arizona House member in the same span except former Rep. Ben Quayle, R-Ariz., who served only one term. Gosar was among the House's biggest spenders on travel long before he headed the Western Caucus. In 2012, his second year in Washington, Gosar ranked No. 2 for travel costs paid from office budgets, behind only Bordallo. It was the beginning of seven straight years in which Gosar placed in the top four in such travel costs, according to House budget records. A low-profile caucus focused on energy issues The Western Caucus is a relatively low-profile group in Washington, lacking the prominence of, for example, the conservative Freedom Caucus, which also includes all four of Arizona's GOP members. It isn't as well known as other groups, such as the Congressional Black Caucus, which is largely a Democratic group. Members of the Western Caucus drew some of their greatest attention earlier this year by ridiculing other energy plans. They ripped the Democrats' Green New Deal ideas, which are intended to bring down the carbon emissions that contribute to climate change in part by redirecting government resources and offering new mandates. At a news conference earlier this year, Gosar gulped a glass of milk, which he claimed would be harder to come by if the Green New Deal limited cattle grazing. It made for good political theater. In his review of how the Western Caucus fared in the 115th Congress that ended at the beginning of the year, Gosar touted the fact that the group's Twitter following had grown to 3,500 from 2,700 in two years. It currently stands at about 4,000 . By comparison, the Freedom Caucus has 50,000 followers and the CBC has 92,000 . The Western Caucus has a related nonprofit, the Western Caucus Foundation, whose priority is promoting access to energy resources . It is operated by lobbyists and advocates for energy and extraction companies with business interests pending in Washington, based on the roster of officers from the organization's most recent tax statement. Darrell Henry, a former lobbyist for the American Gas Association , which advocates for natural gas, was listed as the executive director of the foundation. Its director was identified as Shawn Whitman, a lobbyist with FMC Corp. , a chemical company that has federally monitored pollution-cleanup sites in Washington state , Idaho , Minnesota and New York . Pete Obermueller, president of the Petroleum Association of Wyoming , was listed as the foundation's secretary. The foundation's Facebook account spotlights congressional criticism of energy-related issues such as the Paris Agreement on climate change. Travel costs have varied for others who have chaired the Western Caucus. Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, led it in 2009 and 2010. He was not in the top 10 either of those years for travel spending. Neither was former Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., when she headed it in 2015 and 2016. Rep. Steve Pearce, R-N.M., headed the group from 2011 through 2014. Pearce ranks behind Gosar for the most travel spending by a member of the House during Gosar's tenure. Hints of Gosar's travels House member office budget records only sketch out the amounts spent on various items. Travel records don't specify where members traveled or stayed or even when they went, making it difficult to measure the value for their constituents. Adam Andrzejewski, CEO of Open the Books, a nonpartisan government watchdog, said the lack of transparency is regular business in Washington. "The way the House discloses office allotments tends to raise more questions than it answers. Members of Congress   and taxpayers   would be better off providing a much more detailed description of their spending in user-friendly formats," he said. Scouring Gosar's social media posts only hints at some of the places he's gone. Among his hundreds of Facebook posts, for example, only a smattering of entries clearly came from his travels. In an August post, there is a collage of pictures and video taken during a trip, apparently including a manufacturer in Montana and a stop at Old Faithful at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. In 2017, Gosar spent part of the August congressional recess in Alaska inspecting the oil pipeline. "Thanks BP!" Gosar noted in a Facebook post of his visit. The warm feelings may be mutual. Gosar voted for corporate tax cuts passed in December 2017 that included a provision allowing oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a long-sought goal of the British multinational oil and gas company. In June 2017, Gosar was part of a Western Caucus contingent that traveled to Minnesota's Iron Range, an iron ore-rich area newly brimming again with mining business . Gosar said on Facebook he went there "to see the overreach of the federal government on local mining firsthand. The power should belong to the state and to the people." The Twitter account used to communicate as a member of Congress largely mirrors his Facebook posts. Lodging expenses above the norm Gosar's office budget spending records indicate that he spends a disproportionate share of his travel budget on lodging costs, The Republic 's analysis found. In the 115th Congress that convened in 2017 and 2018, Gosar spent $112,000, or 28 percent, of all his travel expenses on lodging. All the other House members spent 16 percent of travel expenses on lodging. In the 114th Congress two years earlier, Gosar spent $105,000 on lodging, or 31 percent of his overall travel expenses. For other members, lodging represented 11 percent of their travel budget. Privately funded travel Apart from the trips Gosar has taken at taxpayer expense, he or his staff members have taken at least 33 trips worth $62,000 paid for by private interests, according to figures tracked by LegiStorm, a nonpartisan organization that monitors congressional reports. One of them was Gosar's trip last year to London, paid for by the Middle East Forum. In 2016, he went to Tampa and Havana, Cuba, at the expense of the Center for Democracy in the Americas, which promotes engagement with Cuba. About half of Gosar's privately funded trips involved his longtime chief of staff, Tom Van Flein. Van Flein made two trips to Turkey, one in an effort to locate Kayla Mueller , the Prescott woman kidnapped by ISIS who died in the terrorist group's custody in Syria in February 2015. His second trip to Turkey came a month after Mueller's death. Two California-based affiliated nonprofits, the Pacifica Institute and the West America Turkic Council , paid for the trips, which cost $6,700. Van Flein also traveled to Paris twice for the Organization of Iranian American Communities, a nonprofit that advocates regime change of the Iranian government . That group has ties to the National Council of Resistance of Iran, a Paris-based, would-be government-in-exile that the U.S. government considered a terrorist organization from 2003 until 2012. He also went to Germany at the expense of the Robert Bosch Foundation , which owns a controlling interest in the world's largest auto supplier, and to Israel via an arm of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobbying group . Gosar has repeatedly appeared at functions paid for by the conservative Heritage Foundation, which views him as one of its favorite members of Congress . He has sent his staff to a dozen events with the Congressional Institute, a nonprofit that draws on support from lobbyists and holds annual retreats for Republicans. Overseas travel Members of Congress are required to document their official foreign travels. Gosar has visited at least 15 countries or city-states as part of four such trips, according to the congressional record. That's not even close to the most since 2011. That honor appears to go to Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., who has taken dozens of foreign trips in that time. And among Arizona's House members, Schweikert has taken the most trips, eight. In 2017, Gosar took two trips. On one, he traveled to Germany, Lithuania and Norway. In the other, he visited Vietnam, Singapore and Hong Kong. His trip to the Far East cost more than $20,000, of which nearly $18,000 was identified as commercial airfare. A similar itinerary from Washington to Vietnam, Singapore and Hong Kong and back would have cost about $4,300 on short notice on a popular travel website in April. Gosar was the only person identified on that official trip. Republic data reporter Justin Price contributed to this report. Reach the reporter Ronald J. Hansen at ronald.hansen@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4493. Follow him on Twitter @ronaldjhansen . Support local journalism. Subscribe to azcentral.com today. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Rep. Paul Gosar spends more on travel than almost everyone on Capitol Hill


Aston Villa's triumph over Derby County in the Championship play-off final last week concluded what has been an epic season of Championship football. What lies ahead now is an agonisingly long wait for it to get started all over again. For most clubs, the summer will be one of rebuilding as they look to put the measures in place to achieve promotion to the Premier League. Inevitably, this off-season period brings us a summer of transfer rumours, managerial changes and much more. Let's take a look at the stories from around the Championship right now. Derby Departure Possible for Bogle Derby 's breakthrough youngster Jayden Bogle could be on his way out of the club after just one season of senior football. The right-back made 50 appearances for the Rams in his first year after being introduced to first-team action by manager Frank Lampard. After his stellar season, The Sun claim (via HITC ) that the 18 year-old is on his way to the Premier League to join Brighton & Hove Albion for £10m, following the appointment of Graham Potter as manager. A deal involving Christian Walton moving in the other direction on loan has been mooted, with goalkeeper Kelle Roos, whose costly blunder in the Championship playoff cost Derby dear, likely to lose his place in the team if a deal materialises. The End of EFL Clubs' Twitter Shenanigans For some reason, the end of this season has seen a rapid increase in the exchange of petty insults, or childish swipes at rival clubs. Leeds for example took the opportunity to have a dig at Derby (and bizarrely Niall Horan) for the club's failure to secure promotion.  Hopefully you performed better than @dcfcofficial ! See you next season! #StopCrying https://t.co/YHYJciXGvg   Leeds United (@LUFC) May 27, 2019 Elsewhere, Newcastle United took the opportunity to congratulate former player Lee Bowyer on leading Charlton Athletic to promotion after they beat the Magpies' fierce rivals Sunderland. Whilst some fans find the attempts at 'banter' amusing, the EFL are expected to warn clubs to tone down this sort of behaviour at their annual meeting this summer, as reported by the Daily Mail . Dwight Gayle Targeted by Boro Championship goal-machine Dwight Gayle is being lined up by Middlesbrough , as they look to build a strike force capable of firing them back to the top flight of English football. The striker, who spent last season on loan at West Brom from Newcastle , scored 24 goals for the Baggies, leading them into the play-offs. As reported by Daily Star , Albion have ruled themselves out of another loan move for the forward, and Boro head the list of clubs looking to make a swoop. The Riverside club just missed out on the play-offs this season, and will hope Gayle can help them into the top six in the next campaign. Assombalonga Linked With Cut-Price Sheffield Utd Move Just as Gayle could be coming in at the Riverside, star striker Britt Assombalonga could be on his way out. Assombalonga signed for Boro for a whopping £15m in 2017 and has scored 31 goals in his two years at the north east club. As reported by The Sheffield Star , the 26-year-old is being lined up by Premier League new boys Sheffield United , as they look to bolster their striking options ahead of their first top flight season in 12 years. However, in an effort to satisfy the EFL's profit and sustainability regulations, the Blades are angling for a cut-price deal, as they are reluctant to match what Boro paid for the striker two years ago. Whelan Targets Stoke Return After Villa Release Following promotion with Aston Villa at Wembley, Glenn Whelan now finds himself out of contract, as the midlands club opted not to offer new terms. StokeOnTrentLive say the 35-year-old free agent is keen on reuniting with former club Stoke City , for whom he made nearly 300 appearances during a nine-year spell. With Potters boss Nathan Jones favouring a diamond midfield, Whelan would be a good fit to play at the base of the four. Jones is expected to be a busy man this summer, as he looks to rebuild his Stoke squad and the capture of Whelan would be the perfect way to get fans on board from the off. Labbadia Leads the Race for West Brom Job Bruno Labbadia has emerged as the front runner for the West Brom managerial job, as the Baggies look to find a permanent replacement for Darren Moore, who left the club towards the end of the season. A move for Labbadia, who has a wealth of experience in the Bundesliga , suggests Albion may be looking at the Norwich City approach in order to earn promotion back to the top flight; the Canaries having hired German boss Daniel Farke, who this season led them to the Championship title. Birmingham Mail report that the Wolfsburg boss has held talks with the Hawthorns club, but they are waiting to speak to more candidates before naming their standout pick.


Video by Newsweek Televangelist Pat Robertson, who is opposed to abortion, criticized an anti-abortion bill passed by the Alabama legislature Tuesday as "extreme." "I think Alabama has gone too far," he said during a Wednesday appearance on " The 700 Club ", referencing the bill's 99-year maximum sentence for doctors who perform abortions and the fact that it does not provide exceptions for rape or incest cases. He added that he does not think the bill would be upheld by the Supreme Court. "It's an extreme law, and they want to challenge Roe vs. Wade, but my humble view is that this is not the case we want to bring to the Supreme Court because I think this one will lose," he said. "The Alabama case, God bless them, they're trying to do something, but I don't think that's the case that I'd want to bring to the Supreme Court," he later reiterated. Alabama's state Senate on Wednesday passed a bill that would ban almost all abortions, sending the bill to the governor's desk. Gov. Kay Ivey's (R) has not said whether she would sign the bill into law. If it is passed, the legislation would prohibit abortion in all cases, including rape and incest, except for when the mother's life was in danger. People who perform abortions would face sentences from 10 to 99 year, but the person receiving the abortion would not be punished. Lawmakers tabled the legislation last week after a shouting match erupted when lawmakers decided not to include an exception for rape and incest cases.


A man who threw a milkshake at Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage was on Tuesday ordered to carry out 150 hours of community service and pay the British politician £350 ($438, 391 euros) in compensation. Paul Crowther, 32, admitted assault and criminal damage to a lapel microphone on Farage's suit after dousing him with a milkshake while he was campaigning for European elections in Newcastle, northeast England, on May 20. Judge Bernard Begley told Crowther he was guilty of an "act of crass stupidity", ordering him to do 150 hours of unpaid work. "I suppose for the split second the attack took place, Mr Farage would not know whether it was a harmless liquid or something, in this day and age, far more sinister," prosecutor James Long told North Tyneside Magistrates' Court. Numerous members of parliament have been subject to death threats and harassment over their positions on Brexit since the 2016 referendum to leave the European Union. Crowther told reporters at the time of the milkshake assault on Farage that his action was "a right of protest against people like him". "The bile and the racism he spouts out in this country is far more damaging than a bit of milkshake to his front," Crowther said. In a victim statement, Farage said: "I am concerned because of the behaviour of individuals like this, the normal democratic process cannot continue in a lawful and peaceful manner." During the campaign for the May 23 European Parliament election, Carl Benjamin of the UK Independent Party (UKIP) and former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson were also targeted with milkshakes. In March, a man was jailed for 28 days for striking opposition Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn while holding an egg, in a pro-Brexit protest.


Nipsey Hussle spent part of the afternoon of March 31 signing autographs, taking photos with fans and talking with friends at the Hyde Park strip mall where he owned several businesses. Less than a half hour into his visit, Eric Holder approached the famed rapper, who was with a larger group, and the two shook hands. They had a four-minute conversation, and at some point, the topic turned to snitching. "Apparently, the conversation had something to do with [Hussle] telling Mr. Holder that word on the street was that Mr. Holder was snitching," Deputy Dist. Atty. John McKinney told a grand jury in May, saying that was a serious offense in the gang world. "The conversation wasn't particularly intense. It wasn't particularly belligerent." But the conversation was enough, the prosecutor said, "that it moved Eric Holder to a point of wanting to return to the parking lot and kill Nipsey Hussle." After they talked, Holder picked up chili cheese fries from a nearby burger shop, got in a woman's car and they drove off. Soon after, the 29-year-old man returned, a pistol in each hand, and allegedly opened fire. Hussle fell to the ground, suffering at least 10 gunshot wounds, authorities said, adding that before fleeing, Holder kicked him in the head. "You got me," Hussle said after he was shot. The chronology of Hussle's final moments comes from a 515-pages of grand jury testimony ordered released at a hearing Thursday by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Robert J. Perry after the Los Angeles Times argued in court for public access. Holder's public defender had sought to keep the grand jury proceedings secret until after his trial, arguing that making the transcript public could jeopardize his right to a fair trial. For most of Thursday's hearing, Holder stared stoically ahead, occasionally looking at spectators. Three deputies stood close behind the defendant, who wore glasses and a yellow jail shirt with his wrists cuffed, while several other deputies were scattered throughout the courtroom. The documents, which include the prosecutor's opening statement during the May hearing, as well as the testimony of several witnesses to the killing and investigating officers, provide the most detailed account to date of Hussle's slaying and potential clues to the prosecution's case against Holder. Two others were wounded during the shooting. The grand jury panel returned a six-count indictment charging Holder with one count of murder, two counts each of attempted murder and assault with a firearm and one count of possession of a firearm by a felon. He is being held in lieu of $6.5-million bail. If convicted, he faces life in state prison. He has pleaded not guilty. Hussle, 33, born Ermias Asghedom, was a celebrated rapper as well as an investor, activist and entrepreneur, whose death sparked days of memorials and grieving far beyond his South L.A. neighborhood. Los Angeles police have said the motive for the shooting was a personal dispute. But the documents reveal more details about the words alleged to have been exchanged between Hussle and Holder. They include the first account from a woman Holder was dating who drove him to and from the strip mall and was offered immunity for her testimony. The woman, who works as a caregiver and driver, was not identified by name because of numerous credible threats to her safety. She said she and Holder met in February. When she and Holder first pulled up to the burger joint, she testified, she spotted Hussle and got excited. She pulled into a parking lot and Holder walked over to Hussle's group. She wanted a photo with Hussle, so she also approached and said she heard Holder telling Hussle: "Cuz, have you ever snitched?" She snagged a selfie with the rapper and went back to her car, where she uploaded it to her Facebook profile. Holder, meanwhile, picked up his fries and returned to the car. As she drove around the block, Holder pulled out a gun and started loading it, she testified. "You're not gonna do a drive-by in my car," she recalled telling him. He put the gun away. She pulled over so he could eat, and a few minutes later, he told her he'd be right back. Moments later, she said that she heard two gunshots. People ran from the area. The woman said Holder returned angry and jumped back into her car. She testified that when she asked what happened, he said to drive away or he would slap her. She dropped him off at his cousin's house, she said. Holder called her later, asking if he could stay with her that night. The next day, she said, he asked for her help securing a motel room. The prosecutor asked if it occurred to her that he was trying to hide out. "No," she said. By then, she was seeing social media posts implicating him in the shooting. When she confronted him at the motel later, he started breathing harder, but stayed quiet, she said. He asked her to take him to get cigarettes and food from Jack in the Box. When she got home later that night, she saw her car   and license plate   on the news. She testified that she and her mother went to the police station early the next morning, telling a desk officer that her car was linked to a murder. "Don't listen to the news," a police officer said, according to her testimony, turning her away. She called the police later that morning, and was told to return to the station. According to the transcripts, detectives interviewed her for five hours, during which she told them that, before she heard the gunshots, Holder "wanted to do a drive-by." She objected to using her car, and Holder told her to pull around back, she told detectives. The transcripts also include testimony from Herman Douglas, who worked for Hussle, and Kerry Lathan, who was wounded in the shooting. Douglas said he heard Hussle and Holder greet each other that afternoon. "Man, you know, they got some paperwork on you," Hussle told Holder, according to Douglas. "Like you need to maybe take care of that." Douglas explained that to mean that there were rumors Holder had snitched on someone. Hussle was "basically telling the guy you need to be careful," Douglas said. Douglas had gone inside to eat his lunch when he heard gunshots. When he got to the front door, Hussle was on the ground, Holder running, he said. "He was still breathing, you know, like biting his tongue a little bit, then he   he was just trying to fight it, trying to gain consciousness, and he was going out. And he just kept   he just kept fighting." Lathan, who testified in a wheelchair because of his injuries, was also offered immunity to testify. He said he was released from prison in 2018, after more than two decades behind bars in a murder. Two weeks after his release, Hussle, whom he'd never met, gave him a care package of shoes and clothing. He said he went to the strip mall that day to go shopping, and was there for about two minutes before he was shot. Just before the shooter opened fire, Lathan testified, he said, "You're through." A coroner testified that Hussle sustained at least 10 gunshot wounds, including to his scalp, chest, abdomen and foot. Six bullets were removed from his body. Holder was arrested in Bellflower two days after the shooting. An aspiring rapper who went by the moniker Fly Mac, Holder has sung of body bags, "38 gun blasts" and bloody homicides. Times staff writer Cindy Chang contributed to this report.


Fabio Quartararo beat Marc Marquez in the Sunday morning MotoGP warm-up session in Barcelona, as Andrea Dovizioso lost half of his session to a brake problem. Dovizioso couldn't begin the session along with other riders as his front brake was reportedly jammed, and the Italian had to wait for 10 of the warm-up's 20 minutes to get onto the track. By that time Marquez was leading comfortably with a 1m39.965s, having demoted surprise early leader Aleix Espargaro. Espargaro was still second behind Marquez and the duo kept their places until the chequered flag fell, even with the Aprilia rider having crashed at Turn 9. But then Quartararo set a late flyer of 1m39.918s, overhauling Marquez by less than half a tenth. Yamaha's Maverick Vinales, who got a three-place grid penalty for riding in an irresponsible manner in qualifying, was a close fourth behind Espargaro, with Alex Rins completing the top five for Suzuki. LCR Honda's Takaaki Nakagami and Yamaha's Valentino Rossi were the last two riders within half a second of the top time, followed by factory Ducatis of Danilo Petrucci and Dovizioso. The latter was in the lower ranks of the order for most of the session after he started running, and in the end only recorded six laps. Cal Crutchlow (LCR Honda) completed the top 10, beating the works Honda of Jorge Lorenzo by 0.003s. Pol Espargaro crashed, seconds before his brother did, at Turn 5 but still ended up as the top KTM in 16th, while another KTM rider Hafizh Syahrin also had an early fall at Turn 2. ClaRiderBikeLapsTimeGap 1 Fabio Quartararo Yamaha 12 1'39.918 2 Marc Marquez Honda 12 1'39.965 0.047 3 Aleix Espargaro Aprilia 7 1'40.173 0.255 4 Maverick Viñales Yamaha 12 1'40.188 0.270 5 Alex Rins Suzuki 11 1'40.298 0.380 6 Takaaki Nakagami Honda 10 1'40.323 0.405 7 Valentino Rossi Yamaha 12 1'40.417 0.499 8 Danilo Petrucci Ducati 12 1'40.532 0.614 9 Andrea Dovizioso Ducati 6 1'40.560 0.642 10 Cal Crutchlow Honda 11 1'40.705 0.787 11 Jorge Lorenzo Honda 12 1'40.708 0.790 12 Joan Mir Suzuki 12 1'40.733 0.815 13 Tito Rabat Ducati 12 1'40.734 0.816 14 Francesco Bagnaia Ducati 11 1'40.748 0.830 15 Jack Miller Ducati 12 1'40.789 0.871 16 Pol Espargaro KTM 7 1'40.821 0.903 17 Johann Zarco KTM 12 1'40.976 1.058 18 Andrea Iannone Aprilia 10 1'41.076 1.158 19 Karel Abraham Ducati 12 1'41.104 1.186 20 Franco Morbidelli Yamaha 11 1'41.123 1.205 21 Miguel Oliveira KTM 12 1'41.212 1.294 22 Bradley Smith Aprilia 11 1'41.345 1.427 23 Sylvain Guintoli Suzuki 10 1'42.217 2.299 24 Hafizh Syahrin KTM 6 1'44.444 4.526 View full results


Most travelers have heard of the Algarve. Its award-winning golf courses, you-can-have-it-all resorts, and stunning and craggy coastlines have been the playground of sun-starved northern Europeans for decades. But most of them have relentlessly stuck to a very specific section of southern Portugal . The towns of Faro, Portimão, Albufeira, and Vilamoura (all of which are in the geographic center of this region) are so tourist-mobbed that you rarely hear the Portuguese language there. To escape all of that, locals have headed east to quieter, simple hideaways that they're all too happy to keep to themselves. But the recent unveiling of Grand House Algarve , a luxury hotel so far east you can see Spain from some of its bedroom windows, has brought a bit more polish to the area. The Grand House Algarve, in the tiny town of Vila Real de Santo António, might be brand new, but the historic corner building it occupies actually housed the oldest hotel in the Algarve. Known as the Hotel Guadiana, it opened in 1926 for businessmen traveling through for the fish canning industry. The current ownership is big on preserving this heritage: "We didn't really build a new five-star product," says general manager Marita Barth. "We revitalized the oldest hotel of the Algarve to its former glory." Part of this revitalization was properly highlighting the many architectural details. Originally created by Swiss architect Ernesto Korrodi, there's Art Nouveau, baroque, and even a splash of colonial style in the mix. The team at White and Kaki , a Portuguese interior design atelier, decided to adopt a similar mix-and-match aesthetic to make every room feel like part of an impossibly chic home. A subtle palette of easy-on-the-eyes neutrals provides the foundation: taupe rugs, linen couches, billowing curtains in pale pink, bathroom floor tiles in geometric patterns, and warm wood bedside tables. More head-turning pieces are piled on top, including dramatic chandeliers collected through the years, porcelain vases from China, 1920s privacy screens, and even textiles from the Louis Vuitton fashion house. The Grand Salon, the main dining room where all meals are served, has a more refined and more nautical style, with blue and white stripes throughout, as well as straw chairs and leaf-shaped ceiling fans. The floor-to-ceiling windows have views of the Guadiana River, which separates Portugal from Spain. Naturally, the kitchen serves Portuguese food, leaning specifically on Algarvean delicacies including muxama, or thinly sliced slivers of smoked tuna, and the dessert plate of almond mousse, carob biscuit, and port ice cream. Almond and carob are two of the region's most enduring crops. While the Grand House Algarve gives travelers a fabulous new place to stay, the wild, natural landscape that surrounds it also plays a significant role in why the hotel is so special. Secret beaches, salt marshes, flamingo colonies, sleepy little towns, sandbanks that appear at low tie, and crystal-clear lagoons are just some of the treasures of a destination that has surprisingly flown under the radar even as Portugal continues to skyrocket in popularity . "The discovery of the 'sand Algarve,' which is what you can call the east, has only just begun now," Barth says. "This region is completely authentic and of simple beauty: no shopping malls, no water activity parks, no overcrowded beaches, no English breakfast." To that end, the property organizes countless activities that show off all of the above: horseback riding on the beaches of Tavira, tours and tastings at an oyster farm, guided dives and swims with wild tuna, and a stroll through Vila Real de Santo António, a town rebuilt by Marques de Pombal to look just like downtown Lisbon . Or visitors can bike a mile to the property's private beach club, which has dedicated sun loungers, an infinity pool, and a restaurant serving pizzas, fresh salads, and grilled local fish. The easternmost tip of Portugal is only about 40 miles from the Faro airport meaning this part of the Algarve is actually not that far from the staggeringly popular areas. It's just managed to fly under the radar, until now. Related video: Hidden Secrets of The Plaza Hotel (Provided by Architectural Digest)


The Cincinnati Bengals had to hit the reset button once again upon learning the news of Jonah Williams' likely season-ending injury. Williams, a first-round pick, was penciled in as the left tackle, which shifted Cordy Glenn to left guard. If the rookie could have held up for 16 games, the idea is the line would have been quite a bit better than last year's miserable offering. But with Williams out, Glenn is back to left tackle and the line looks largely the same. As such, Pro Football Focus indeed expects largely the same and ranked the unit 27th: One step forward, two steps back. The Bengals looked set at the left tackle spot after they selected Jonah Williams with the 11th overall pick of the 2019 NFL Draft, but a torn labrum for the Alabama product means that it's right back to the drawing board for a Bengals side that ranked 24th among teams in pass-blocking efficiency last year. Cordy Glenn is now set to return to left tackle after he earned a 60.9 overall grade there last year, while center Billy Price will hope to move swiftly on from a rookie season that consisted of only 558 snaps and zero single-game grades above 64.0. After all the offseason shuffling, the team remains steadfast in their support of Bobby Hart at right tackle, a player who hasn't graded above 60.0 since 2015. It is a hard point to contest. Glenn wasn't great last year on the left edge. PFF has John Jerry winning the battle at left guard, which is a bad sign considering he's a street free agent who spent a year out of football. Clint Boling has been MIA and the vibes aren't good. Price in the middle was a liability when healthy last season. John Miller comes over and could be an incremental upgrade at right guard, though his prior team was more than willing to let him walk. And Bengals fans don't need much of an introduction to Bobby Hart, who the new coaching staff seems to like almost unreasonably. So yes, at least for now, poor rankings for the unit are justified and - more importantly - stress just how much of the season once again rides on the unit's performance. MORE: Freddie Freeman was mic'd up during his at-bat against Justin Verlander and it was pure gold Roundup: Ariana Grande; Ross Perot Dies at 89; Tom Steyer Announces 2020 Run; Mexican Finance Minister Quits Former Steeler DeAngelo Williams throws shade at WR Ryan Switzer News: Believe in Maher at own risk, next Prescott ID'd, whew Larry Allen Expected starting lineup for Lakers with LeBron James at point guard


Green Bay Packers offensive lineman Cole Madison is still getting comfortable in the offseason workout program after missing his entire rookie season while dealing with a personal issue away from the game. Offensive line coach Adam Stenavich said Madison has been playing guard and center and is slowly but surely getting reacclimated to football. "You can tell he's been gone for a year from the game," Stenavich said. "There's some things that he's gotta improve on. But he's doing a good job. We're asking him to do a lot of things, we're putting a lot on his plate with guard and center, and he's handled it pretty well. At first his head was kind of spinning. You can see as we go on he's getting more and more comfortable. Hopefully by the time training camp rolls around, he'll be rolling." An adjustment period should be expected for Madison, a fifth-round pick of the Packers in 2018. Despite him making 47 starts at Washington State, a year away from football would create a layer of rust for any player, especially a young player with no previous NFL experience. Madison participated in last year's offseason workout program but did not report to training camp in late July. He spent the entire year away from the team working on improving his mental health. Back in Green Bay, Stenavich and the Packers are giving Madison - who played right tackle in college - a chance to earn a roster spot as a backup at guard and center. Versatility is always a great way to make the team as a reserve offensive lineman. The more you can do, the more valuable you are. Training camp figures to be a competitive setting along the offensive line, especially inside. Madison, Justin McCray, Lucas Patrick, Alex Light, Adam Pankey and rookie Elgton Jenkins will all be competing for spots behind the expected starters at guard and center. After a year away, can Madison get comfortable quick enough this summer to make a legitimate run at a roster spot? MORE: Did Nike accidentally reveal that Kevin Durant is staying with the Warriors? Why James Holzhauer's small Final Jeopardy! bet made total sense Should Bills fans worry about Roger Goodell's comments? Roundup: iTunes Done; Chipotle Prices; North Carolina Shark Attack; Billionaire Jay-Z Joe Thomas defends Odell Beckham Jr. vs. the negative media


German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday defended her treatment of a crying teenage Palestinian refugee following a storm of protest on social media. Merkel told public broadcaster ARD that she had been honest and sympathetic with 14-year-old Reem, whom she met last week at a public discussion under the banner "Living Well in Germany". During the exchange, which touched off a heated debate on immigration policy after a video of the event went viral, Reem told Merkel in fluent German that she and her family, who arrived in Rostock from a Lebanese refugee camp four years ago, faced possible deportation. "It's really very hard to watch how other people can enjoy life and you yourself can't ... I don't know what my future will bring," she said. Merkel responded that Germany would be unable to shoulder the burden of all the people fleeing war and poverty who would like to move to Europe's top economy seeking a better life. Minutes later, Reem began to weep and the chancellor stroked her head and tried to comfort her in a way critics said appeared awkward and cold. "I think the gesture was fine," Merkel, 61, said Sunday. She said it would be wrong to tell people "just because you met the chancellor, we can resolve your case faster than many, many other people's". "We are a state under the rule of law," she said. "But nevertheless, you want to comfort a crying girl." Reem told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper that she also appreciated Merkel's matter-of-fact approach. "It would have bothered me more if she had not been honest," she said. Officials later said it was unlikely Reem and her family would have to leave Germany given how well-integrated they appeared to be. Germany's upper house of parliament recently passed a measure making it easier for certain refugees to stay on in Germany. Members of Germany's ruling left-right coalition at the weekend said that the reforms should go further to prevent asylum seekers like Reem from being deported. The debate comes amid rising tensions in Germany over a strong influx of asylum seekers, expected to reach 450,000 this year. Xenophobic sentiment has swept some regions of the country and President Joachim Gauck this month denounced a series of arson attacks against buildings set to house refugees as "despicable".


With training camp closing in, most people only have one thing on their mind and that's what's in store for Chargers running back Melvin Gordon and his future. We ran a poll earlier on asking fans what they believe should be the forecast for Gordon and many voted that Los Angeles should trade the former Wisconsin product to another team. We listed four potential trade suitors for Gordon and it just so happens that Bleacher Report's Brent Sobleski drew up five scenarios along with the compensation that L.A. would receive for the Pro Bowl running back. Buffalo Bills Gordon Compensation : 2020 fourth-round draft pick, offensive lineman LaAdrian Waddle and defensive end Shaq Lawson In return, the Chargers would receive some competition for Sam Tevi at right tackle, depth behind Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram, and an early Day 3 draft pick. Chicago Bears Gordon Compensation : 2020 second-round draft pick With Gordon's value, he would demand a high draft selection if he were to be traded alone. The Bears have an extra pick in next year's draft that they could afford to give up. Green Bay Packers Gordon Compensation : 2020 third-round pick and safety Josh Jones The Chargers are loaded at the safety position with Derwin James, Nasir Adderley, Jaylen Watkins and Rayshawn Jenkins, but Jones would present more of a dime linebacker like Adrian Phillips, giving the team more playmakers on the defensive side of the ball. Houston Texans Gordon Compensation : 2020 third-round pick and tight end Jordan Akins The Chargers will be getting Hunter Henry back this season, which is a huge plus for the offense. But as far as the depth behind him, there aren't that many pass-catching options. Virgil Green proved last season that he couldn't step up in the No. 1 role as he was outplayed by Antonio Gates and Sean Culkin is coming off an injury. Akins averaged 13.2 yards per catch last season. Tampa Bay Buccaneers Gordon Compensation : Cornerback Vernon Hargreaves III and 2020 sixth-round pick Arguably one of the biggest positional battles entering training camp is for the No. 2 cornerback spot between Trevor Williams and Michael Davis. Bringing in Hargreaves wouldn't give them an instant starter by any means, as his professional career has been up and down. Instead, it would provide much-needed depth at the position in case injuries occur. What do you guys feel would be the best trade out of the five listed above? MORE: Poker player argues over dealer chip counting error during crucial all-in hand at WSOP Main Event Colts ranked No. 1 in NFL future power rankings Big Baller Brand Hits New Low With Clearance Sale at Local Gym Trysten Hill may be crowning point on Cowboys star-studded defense Future looks bright for the Steelers according to ESPN


Astros righty Corbin Martin is down for the rest of the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery, GM Jeff Luhnow told reporters, including Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle ( via Twitter ). Martin was pitching at Triple-A on optional assignment after debuting in the majors earlier this year. Entering the 2019 campaign, the 23-year-old Martin was graded as one of the game's top 100 prospects and seen by the Houston organization as a key near-term depth piece. He already took five MLB starts for the club in just his third season as a professional. Martin wasn't able to establish himself in the Astros rotation, working to a 5.59 ERA with 19 strikeouts and a dozen walks over 19 1/3 innings. He was done in by the long ball, coughing up eight. Martin is hardly the first young hurler to have some early hiccups and turned in good results at Triple-A prior to his promotion. This injury dents both the depth and the upside of the Houston pitching staff, a strong unit that nevertheless seems a likely area to upgrade at the trade deadline. The loss of Martin comes amid ongoing uncertainty surrounding Brad Peacock. There are plenty of other options to patch things up for the time being   Jose Urquidy just got the call; Framber Valdez and Cionel Perez are among those available at Triple-A   but it's hard to imagine the 'Stros won't look far and wide for new arms. Indeed, it seems that pursuit has already begun . All indications are that the injury occurred after Martin's demotion; Luhnow specifically said so this afternoon, in fact (via Rome, on Twitter ). If that is indeed the case, then Martin will not accrue MLB service time while he is sidelined. Given the typical year-plus layoff occasioned by a TJ procedure, it's likely that Martin won't be seen again at the game's highest level until late in 2020 or early in the 2021 campaign.


Curious just how far your dollar goes in Minneapolis? We've rounded up the latest places for rent via rental sites Zumper and Apartment Guide to get a sense of what to expect when it comes to scoring apartment rentals in Minneapolis if you've got a budget of $1,500/month. Take a peek at what rentals the city has to offer, below. (Note: Prices and availability are subject to change.) Hoodline offers data-driven analysis of local happenings and trends across cities. Links included in this article may earn Hoodline a commission on clicks and transactions. 600 N. Fifth St. (North Loop) Here's this apartment situated at 600 N. Fifth St. It's listed for $1,410/month for its 726 square feet. The building features on-site laundry and garage parking. The listing also promises hardwood floors in the unit. When it comes to pets, both meows and barks are allowed. According to Walk Score's assessment, the area around this address is friendly for those on foot, is very bikeable and has excellent transit. (Check out the complete listing here .) 1028 28th Ave. NE (Audubon Park) Next, check out this 950-square-foot two-bedroom, one-bathroom abode that's located at 1028 28th Ave. NE. It's listed for $1,425/month. Amenities offered in the building include on-site laundry. The residence also has central heating and carpeted flooring. Luckily for pet owners, both dogs and cats are welcome. There's no leasing fee required for this rental. According to Walk Score, the area around this address is somewhat walkable, is very bikeable and has some transit options. (See the complete listing here .) 3535 Grand Ave. South (Lyndale) Located at 3535 Grand Ave. South, here's a 645-square-foot one-bedroom, one-bathroom unit that's listed for $1,445/month. In the unit, you'll see in-unit laundry, a dishwasher and stainless steel appliances. Feline companions are allowed. Look out for a $35 application fee. According to Walk Score, this location is very walkable, is very bikeable and has good transit options. (Take a gander at the complete listing here .) West 28th Street and Fremont Avenue South (Lowry Hill East) Finally, there's this one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment over at West 28th Street and Fremont Avenue South. It's listed for $1,450/month for its 750 square feet. In the unit, the listing promises air conditioning, hardwood flooring and a dishwasher. The building offers on-site laundry. Attention, dog owners: Scout is allowed here. Future tenants needn't worry about a leasing fee. According to Walk Score, this location is a "walker's paradise," is great for biking and has good transit options. (Take a gander at the complete listing here .) Working with a tight budget? Here are the cheapest rentals recently listed in Minneapolis . This story was created automatically using local real estate data from Zumper and Apartment Guide , then reviewed by an editor. Click here for more about what we're doing. Got thoughts? Go here to share your feedback.


Sunday was Mother's Day, and multiple current and former Seattle Seahawks' players went on social media to send messages of gratitude to their moms, their wives, and all the moms out there. All love for our moms. Happy Mother's Day, 12s! pic.twitter.com/hodUdtJQRw - Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) May 12, 2019 Happy Mother's Day! ❤ - Russell Wilson (@DangeRussWilson) May 12, 2019 Happy Mother's Day to all the women blessed and tasked with the sacred role of motherhood. Enjoy your day and know you are appreciated! ❤ - Duane Brown (@DuaneBrown76) May 12, 2019 Happy Mothers Day to all moms out there. Your strength is amazing!!!! - Kameron Chancellor (@KamChancellor) May 12, 2019 Every minute spent with Mom is a gift, even when it's over the phone. Today I'm spending a few more with the woman who makes the minutes matter. #CallMom #ad pic.twitter.com/pAtHahmk1d - Tyler Lockett (@TDLockett12) May 12, 2019 Some players gave specific shoutouts to their wives: Happy Mother's Day to my amazing and beautiful wife @tia827 and to my wonderful and lovely Mom! You guys have always had my back and I'm blessed to have you in my life! https://t.co/QRxDUcLpMs - Cliff Avril (@cliffavril) May 12, 2019 Happy mother's Day to my beautiful wife and mother. You guys are truly the backbone of this family and so thankful for you both https://t.co/pA7ZtCq7mG - Jermaine Kearse (@JKearse_15) May 12, 2019 Happy Mothers Day to the woman who helped change my walk. Things became clear, meaningless problems seem to disappear, expectations seem to fade, and purpose begin to set in. Thank you… https://t.co/V9fynRAAhb - Kameron Chancellor (@KamChancellor) May 12, 2019 Happy First Mother's Day to my amazing wife @DeviBrown thank you for blessing me with our angel Quest. I'm eternally grateful! Love you! pic.twitter.com/OownEFzSBT - Duane Brown (@DuaneBrown76) May 12, 2019 Happy Mother's Day My Love!!! I love you @Ciara … also… so about that… baby numero 3… pic.twitter.com/ImlGgXwDFR - Russell Wilson (@DangeRussWilson) May 12, 2019 Happy Mothers Day 2 all da mothers… We wouldn't be here witout yall… Love u mama pick up da phone ha, I no church out #4⃣go #Ezzz https://t.co/RP8Ztlv8Oo - Neiko Thorpe (@Neiko15) May 12, 2019 Of course, Seahawks star quarterback Russell Wilson didn't just give love to his wife, Ciara, but he also wanted to give his mom something special. And now that he has a shiny new $140 million dollar contract that something special happened to be a new house. Check out the heartfelt video below. All these years you have never asked me for anything… only thing you ever wanted is for me to LOVE. Well thanks for loving us the way you do. This ones for you. I love you momma.… https://t.co/O2RN21V9fT - Russell Wilson (@DangeRussWilson) May 13, 2019 Wilson was not the only player giving out houses on Sunday, as former Seahawks running back Mike Davis used his new contract to buy his mom a house as well. They tried to get me crying but you can't see them . Happy Mother's Day Mom new crib pic.twitter.com/3vrb9NmcIH - IG MikeDavisRB (@MikeDavisRB) May 12, 2019 Now that the gift-giving is over, the Seahawks will turn their attention to phase two of the offseason workouts, the organized team activities (OTAs) which will begin on May 20. MORE: NBA Free Agency 2019: The top players These five photos of Kawhi Leonard watching his buzzer-beater are incredible Video confirms reports of Chris Paul's attempt to sabotage Steph Curry Dak Prescott's accuracy, aggressive quantified ahead of new deal How can SS Johnathan Abram help the Raiders in Year 1?


A Twitter spat between Rep. Joaquin Castro and Fox News' Laura Ingraham escalated quickly on Wednesday   with the Texas congressman branding the conservative talking head "a white supremacist" during an exchange over conditions at migrant detention centers. Castro, the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and several other lawmakers on Monday toured facilities operated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection to hold Central American migrants, including the controversial Border Patrol station in Clint, Texas, that has come under intense scrutiny for the treatment of children confined there. Castro on Monday tweeted out a 10-second clip of a dingy shower at the center, which Ingraham re-posted Wednesday and described as "similar to Army facilities in Iraq I saw (and used) visiting Camp Victory & Balad." Ingraham also charged that "@JoaquinCastrotx needs to spend more time overseas w/ our troops bef[ore] he calls this inhumane." Castro responded three hours later, writing online: "You're a white supremacist, Laura." He added: "And, no, I don't think refugees should be kept in war-zone conditions in the most prosperous nation on earth." Ingraham, a favorite media personality of Donald Trump who the president singled out for praise during a news conference in the White House Rose Garden earlier this year, has faced widespread criticism over the past year for a variety of divisive comments made on her nightly talk show. In June 2018, Ingraham described centers used to detain migrant children who had been separated from their families as "essentially like summer camps," likening the facilities to "boarding schools," and she has previously equated a surge in border crossings to a "slow-rolling invasion of the United States." Ingraham was similarly slammed as recently as last month for a segment on her podcast concerning reparations for descendants of slaves, during which she declared: "We won, you lost, that's that." She subsequently sought to clean up those remarks in a series of tweets.


The Supreme Court is expected to rule this month on whether respondents to the 2020 census can be asked if those in their households are citizens. But while the citizenship question has been the most visible census-related controversy, it has not been the only one. Another, less publicized but similarly consequential debate, is why the census manages to lose millions of children every decade, and what can be done to fix that. There were 2.2 million missing from the 2010 count, or one in every 10 children ages 0 to 4, according to the Census Bureau's own estimates . The lost children result in lost dollars for themselves and their neighbors. That's because census numbers are not only used to determined representation in Congress, but also to determine funding levels for more than 300 federal programs, everything from the social safety net to municipal infrastructure. Deb Stein runs the Count All Kids Committee, a partnership of advocacy groups, including Partnership for America's Children and Zero to Three. She estimates that the 2010 miscount of children resulted in a loss of half a billion dollars in allocations to Medicaid, Community Housing Improvement Program, foster care, adoption assistance and childcare combined. "The undercount has very important practical consequences," she said. The last census was not the first one in which children were undercounted, experts say. "It's a problem that has been growing since 1980," says William O'Hare, who ran the Kids Count project at the Annie E. Casey Foundation and is the author of "The Undercount of Young Children in the U.S. Decennial Census. " "It's just in the past few years, though, that demographers have begun to pay attention and figure out why." Thus far there are more questions   and theories   than answers as to why a far higher percentage of children (and an even higher percentage of Hispanic and African-American children) are omitted from census counts compared with other age groups. It is known that younger adults are less likely to complete and return a census form than older adults, and since young children are more likely to be living with younger parents, that might explain some of the undercount. Similarly, young families are more likely to move often, be less educated, rent instead of own their homes and have lower incomes than older families, all of which correlate with lower response rates to the census. This does not explain, however, why 75 to 80 percent of the children who are missed live in households that do return the questionnaire. "Whereas adults are missed because they don't return the form, children are missed because they are left off forms that are returned," Stein says. And the "why" of that is still a matter of speculation. Demographers doubt that parents are simply forgetting the existence of their youngest child, and suspect instead that it is a result of a misunderstanding or miscommunication by the one person in the household who fills out each form as to who is to be counted. "We have some anecdotal clues about why young children are left off," says Margo Anderson, emeritus professor at the University of Wisconsin and author of "The American Census: A Social History" and an editor of the "Encyclopedia of the U.S. Census." Those include: complex households, where many families of multiple generations live together; temporary households, such as homeless parents and children living with relatives or friends; crowded households, where   despite Census Bureau guarantees that identifying data will not be made public for 70 years, residents might fear the landlord would object to the number of occupants; new immigrant households who, again, despite the bureau's policies to the contrary, fear that children might be taken away. "Bottom line, we don't know why," Stein says. "And it's crucial that we figure it out." Another unknown is the effect of a citizenship question, if the Supreme Court allows it to be included in next year's questionnaire. It is being challenged by 18 states and six cities , and documents that surfaced in the last week showed that the proposal had been advanced by a Republican consultant who believed it would weight the census results in favor of Republican-leaning neighborhoods. Child advocates have expressed concern that adding a citizenship question would scare off respondents whose households include undocumented (or even legal) immigrants. This could result in missing even children who are U.S. citizens but whose parents are not. "If the citizenship question is on the form, that will make the undercount of young children worse," Stein says. "There are almost 2 million children in the U.S. living with at least one undocumented relative." Article 1, Section 2 of the Constitution requires a decennial count of the population of the United States, and when James Madison first formulated that plan, its goal was simply to keep track of who lived where in a rapidly growing nation, allocating seats in the House of Representatives according to population. It is still used for that purpose, but over time, other uses for the data have been added, and the list of questions has grown. "Having decided 'We the People,' then the question is 'Who are the people?'" Anderson says. For nearly 150 years, the count was taken by physically sending a census worker to every household in the country and asking a series of questions, entering the answers by hand. By 1930, the questionnaire included 40 questions, but the once-a-decade pace left President Herbert Hoover unsatisfied because it didn't provide up-to-date economic statistics, including the unemployment rate. That led the Census Bureau to experiment with statistical sampling, a relatively new science at the time. During the 1940s and 50s statistical techniques improved, and in 1960   the first Census done by mail rather than in person   the long form was introduced. Rather than ask the full set of questions of everyone, one in four households (later reduced to 1 in 6) was sent a detailed version while the population in general answered a more limited list. Soon afterward, the American Community Survey was established, "essentially a continuous long form," says Andrew Reamer, a professor at George Washington University and an expert on the census. The resulting stream of data has become "the foundation not for American democracy but also the plumbing or electrical grid for the economy, for nonprofit and government services. The list is endless," he says. Starting in the 1980s, the census bureau began to use these same kinds of analysis to determine whether its own numbers were accurate. Before then it was assumed the counts were not exact, Anderson says, "but now we can actually measure the inaccuracy, which wasn't really possible until 50, 60 years ago." This involved a physical recheck (picking a sample set of census tracts around the country and sending a phalanx of census takers into those neighborhoods to confirm the response forms) and a statistical one (comparing the results from returned forms with similar counts by local municipal entities.) After the 1980 census, for instance, the reanalysis determined that one in 20 African-Americans were not counted. When preparing for the 2000 census, the Clinton administration proposed allowing a statistical adjustment of the numbers to correct for the undercounts. Republicans in Congress objected and eventually the Supreme Court ruled that the official tally must be based only on actual counts, not statistical projections. Experts stress that undercounting is not the only known glitch in census numbers. There are also overcounts . It is believed that in 2010, 1 million children were counted twice. This would make the actual undercount closer to 1 million, "still a huge number, and still representing a lot of funding" Stein says. Overcounts most often occur because families have more than one home, or because parents count children away at college who are also counted in their dorms. These double counts are most likely to be of children who are wealthy and white, portraying the child population as even more affluent and Caucasian than it actually is. Groups representing those who stand to lose most from an undercount of children have been warning of the problem for nearly a decade. They had some success, including changes in the actual language on the form so that instead of asking for a list of all household residents, it specifies "adults, children and babies." And before signing off from the form, which can be submitted electronically this year, respondents are reminded to include both babies and foster children. But, says Stein, these changes assume that children are omitted because they are forgotten, and that may not be accurate. More research is needed, she says, on the reasons why children have been historically undercounted so those obstacles can be addressed, "They did 42 focus groups," she says of the bureau, "with all sorts of hard to count groups, not one of them was families with young children. Then they did an online survey of 17,000 respondents, and they did ask who had young children, but none of the questions were to help identify why people leave young children off." In response, child advocacy groups organized, forming such entities as Count All Kids and lobbied the bureau for more attention. In November, the bureau responded, creating an Undercount of Young Children Task Force to work with stakeholder groups. "I give them credit for the changes that happened since then," Stein says. O'Hare agrees. "I like what they are coming up with now," he says, but adds, "I say that with some frustration that it wasn't done a year or two ago." It is too late, for instance, for testing the efficacy and accuracy of different wording of questions. "With more time, we could have tested the messaging, trying to understand what you could say to a respondent that would make it more likely to include young children in their survey response." As a result, much of the work done over the past six months has been more intuition than science, as groups like Stein's prepare mailings and messaging. Preliminary focus groups are finding that what resonates most with high-risk families is that there is money on the line. More traditional messaging tends to be "about the allocation of congressional seats, and the civic duty, and all that's true," O'Hare says. "But you get people's attention when you talk about the money." Adds Stein: "What is most helpful is talking about the way that this data is needed to make sure communities get enough funding for things like health care, childcare, housing, transportation." Her group plans to enlist childcare centers, pediatrician's offices, religious centers and other organizations that work with young families to spread the word. The actual administration of the census takes place between March and May of next year, which means, she says, "we're obviously racing the clock." _____ Read more from Yahoo News: Behind the scenes, candidates vie for Hollywood cash while keeping populist cred Can Lower Manhattan survive climate change? New York's sea level rise plan faces pushback How Sen. Mazie Hirono became Trump's toughest Democratic critic Younger voters continued to outstrip turnout by seniors in 2018 Did this $2M winner break 'Jeopardy!'? PHOTOS: A look back at D-Day 75 years later