President Trump and former vice president Joe Biden ridiculed one another in the harshest terms they've used so far, significantly escalating a feud that loomed over not only their dueling visits to Iowa on Tuesday but the 2020 presidential contest more broadly. Biden questioned the president's intelligence and challenged his morals. By turns chiding and goading, Biden, whose speeches can sometimes ramble and meander, offered one of his most coherent rationales for seeking the presidency. "The president is literally an existential threat to America," Biden said in Ottumwa, the first of several events in Iowa in which he delivered a multipronged indictment of Trump's policies, values and character. Subscribe to the Post Most newsletter: Today's most popular stories on The Washington Post Trump, who has repeatedly brushed aside the advice of aides who warn against elevating Biden by attacking him, responded with the plain-spoken vitriol that built his political brand. He pointed to Biden's dismal finish in the 2008 presidential campaign, saying Barack Obama "took him off the trash heap" by making Biden his running mate, and suggesting the former vice president has lost a step. "He's a different guy," Trump said as he left the White House for Iowa. "He looks different than he used to. He acts different than he used to. He's even slower than he used to be." Biden is 76 and Trump will be 73 on Friday, making both significantly older than most of the Democratic field. "Joe Biden is a dummy," Trump concluded. Unlike his rivals, Biden from the outset has focused his campaign on Trump's suitability for office, launching his effort in April with a video showing the white supremacist march in Charlottesville and Trump's response to it, which Biden portrayed as weak and even immoral. Tuesday was essentially a day when both Biden and Trump got the campaign they wanted. In the state that holds the first presidential nominating votes, Biden was able to frame the race as a contest between himself and the president, with the other 22 Democratic hopefuls largely crowded out of the picture. And Trump could focus his fire, and his insults, on a single rival, in a campaign that otherwise has featured a diffuse and shifting Democratic field. Biden's focus on Trump came after a difficult few days for his presidential run. His campaign admitted to plagiarizing a policy document, and Biden   after initially holding to his decades-long support for a rule against federal money being used for abortions   was forced to abruptly reverse himself amid an outcry led by Democratic women. At the same time, a poll in the Des Moines Register showed that Biden was leading the Democratic field in Iowa but that other candidates   including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.) and South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg   were gaining strength, with supporters who were more passionate about them. Beyond that, several of the other candidates have begun attacking Biden more directly, after an initial stretch in which they'd been more cautious. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has taken a particularly forceful tone against what he sees as Biden's middle-of-the-road policies. The Trump-Biden show dominated most of the day on Tuesday, with clash-of-the-titans news coverage and Biden receiving the kind of wall-to-wall cable television presence that other Democratic candidates have craved and rarely gotten. The three major cable networks   including Fox News, which can be less prone to cover Democratic events   presented a large dose of Biden's first Iowa event. The one-on-one exchange, though, carries risk for both men. Some Democrats note that the party won last year's midterm congressional elections by focusing tightly on issues like health care and jobs, rather than talking about the president and his character. Trump can be a political tornado, sucking in his opponents in and forcing them into a debate on his terms, which can easily turn personal and destructive. Trump, meanwhile, has arguably benefited from an opposition that's divided among 23 widely divergent candidates and a Democratic Party that could face a long, bitter slog to settle on a nominee. By quickly elevating one candidate as an opponent worthy of attack, Trump could reduce that advantage. Responding to Biden's volleys, Trump on the South Lawn of the White House called the former vice president a "loser," "dumb" and "mentally weak." "I'd rather run against, I think, Biden than anybody," Trump said. "I think he's the weakest mentally. The others have much more energy." Biden has said that he doesn't want to get in a "mud-wrestling match" with Trump, but Tuesday's remarks made it clear he was prepared to get a little dirty. The devastating flooding that has damaged Iowa and other parts of the Midwest, Biden said, illustrated the impacts of Trump's skepticism of climate change ("It'd be funny if it wasn't so, so damaging"). The president's attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, he argued, pose a risk to Americans who are now covered. Trump, he said, was not only destroying American alliances but also he was petty and unfocused while doing so. "He found time to go after Bette Midler, for God sakes   in the middle of the D-Day ceremonies," Biden said. Biden released his prepared remarks for a stop in Davenport   all 2,887 words of them   at 6 a.m. Tuesday, getting a jump on the day and guiding cable news coverage in a way that Trump often does in 280-character increments on Twitter. Those remarks asserted, among other things, that Trump's escalation of tariffs between the United States and China has "crushed" farmers in Iowa. "He thinks he's being tough," Biden said. "Well, it's easy to be tough when someone else is feeling the pain." Trump disputed that he was hurting farmers, citing bailouts his administration has offered to farmers hurt by his trade war. "Nobody has treated the farmers better than Donald Trump," the president said, adding that he expects to win Iowa "very easily" next year. Biden also sought to address a comment he made recently about China that drew criticism from Trump. Last month, he said China is "not competition for us" geopolitically, prompting Trump to call him "very naive." Biden said Tuesday he does consider the country a significant threat, adding in his prepared remarks that he is "worried about China   if we keep following Trump's path." In speaking to reporters in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, Biden took a defensive tone, downplaying the need for debate preparations ("This is going to be an appearance, less than a debate"), the sentiments of voters wanting a fresh face ("Vote for a new person then"), and insisting that he was overshooting media expectations for his campaign ("You all said I was going to fail from the beginning. You said it!"). He also launched into an extended argument that while politics needs more civility, the overall system of government does not. "They said that we've got to have a new system. The same people that say: 'We've got to have somebody totally new. We've got to change the system,'" he said. "Well guess what? Systems work pretty damn well. It's called the Constitution. It says you have to get a consensus to get anything done." Trump has taken aim at some of the other Democratic presidential candidates, calling Warren "Pocahontas" because of her claims of Native American heritage, dismissing Buttigieg as "Alfred E. Neuman," the gaptoothed Mad magazine mascot, and dubbing Sanders "Crazy Bernie." But he's signaled he views Biden as the most likely nominee, and especially after Tuesday seems to be directing most of his fire at the former vice president, who was part of an Obama administration that Trump often criticizes. After flying on Air Force One, with the televisions tuned to Biden's speech carried on Fox News, Trump appeared in western Iowa at an ethanol plant in Council Bluffs, where he interspersed more Biden criticisms in remarks on the economy, calling him "sleepy." All day, both Trump and Biden seemed obsessed with how much the other was obsessed with him. "He said my name so many times that people couldn't stand it anymore," Trump said of Biden. "I guess he's really fascinated with me. I find it fascinating," Biden said of Trump. Trump and Biden appeared on opposite ends of the state, making their convergence more symbolic than literal. It came three days after much of the rest of the Democratic field appeared in Iowa for a state party event. Biden skipped the event   citing his daughter's birthday and his granddaughter's high school graduation   and was criticized by some of his rivals, who have visited Iowa more often and have been attending candidate forums that Biden has avoided. As he arrived on Tuesday, Biden focused his attention on some of the areas that swung from Obama to Trump in 2016. His first event in Ottumwa was in rural southeastern Iowa, about 85 miles south of Des Moines. The county voted twice for Barack Obama   who won about 55 percent of votes in both 2008 and 2012   and then Trump won the county in 2016 with 57 percent of votes. The swing was one of the largest in a state where nearly a third of counties flipped from Obama to Trump. Among those in the crowd waiting for Biden in Ottumwa was Patti Durflinger, 61, from nearby Eldon   a historically Democratic town that went for Trump in 2016. It didn't bother her, she said, that Biden didn't show up for the candidate forum in Cedar Rapids or that he's had a lighter schedule than some of his Democratic opponents in the state. But Durflinger said Biden "needs to bring energy" to the race, and he can only do so by campaigning more and "bringing the fight to Trump." "He's got to get people riled up, too   he's got to get people riled up like Trump did," Durflinger said. "We need the Democrats to come out. And I think he can be the man to do that. He just has to be here, show up." matt.viser@washpost.com john.wagner@washpost.com jenna.johnson@washpost.com David Weigel and Holly Bailey contributed to this report.


Prior to making their selection with the 21st pick in the 2019 NBA Draft, ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported the Oklahoma City Thunder made a trade with the Memphis Grizzlies. The Thunder traded their lone first-round pick to the Grizzlies for the 23rd overall pick in the 2019 draft and Memphis' second-round pick in the 2024 NBA Draft. With the pick, the Thunder selected Gonzaga guard Brandon Clarke for the Grizzlies. The 23rd overall pick originally belonged to the Utah Jazz. MORE: It's time for the Cowboys to consider trading Dak Prescott 2019 aggregate mock draft 10.0: What's consensus after team workouts? Pelicans trade fourth pick from Lakers to Atlanta Hawks in deal for picks No. 8, 17 and 35 Bol Bol Showed Up To The 2019 NBA Draft Dressed Like A Supervillain Luke Bowanko: what the Lions are getting with their new OL


A golf game turned violent two months ago, and a 75-year-old man was attacked, according to the Glendale Police Department. Now police are asking for the public's help in tracking down the man suspected of aggravated assault at the Legend at Arrowhead golf course. Police say the man attacked the elderly man after a confrontation between the victim's group and the man's party on May 26 at the Legend, at 21027 N. 67th Ave. According to police, the fight started after the victim hit his golf ball close to the man on the seventh tee. The victim tried to get his ball, but the man attacked him instead, according to a Glendale police press release. Police say two of the victim's friends found the man on top of the victim, beating him in the head. The man fled in a golf cart with another man, who's a person of interest in the case, police said. "Since the attack, the victim has had to be hospitalized twice due to the injuries he sustained during the assault," the press release said. Police described the attacker: A white man; between 20 and 30 years old; short black hair; about 6 feet 3 inches tall and around 240 pounds. He was last seen wearing a black shirt and gray shorts. The person of interest who escaped via a golf cart is a white man with short facial hair. He is between 20 and 30 years old; about 5 feet 10 inches tall and around 160 pounds. Police said he was last seen wearing a blue shirt and tan shorts. Anyone with information about this case can contact Glendale Police Department at 623-930-3000 or Silent Witness at 480-WIT-NESS (480-948-6377). The number for Spanish is (480) TES-TIGO. The investigation is going. Follow azcentral.com for updates. For more stories that matter, subscribe to azcentral.com . This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Glendale PD seeks man suspected of beating an elderly man during golf


Lampooned and ignored, the humble Austin Allegro hides substantial merit underneath a sordid reputation. Our Editor took the plunge to prove it's not all doom and breakdowns I'm not saying that I spent immeasurable periods of time in a rough area growing up, but when certain natives smiled in the local shop the barcode scanner picked up their teeth as a set of saucepans. So, even as a child, I wanted something fast to help me escape. After slogging through the necessity of financial woe to attain a degree from Napier University, upon finding employment and beckoning in the first full-time wage, I set about getting myself a set of wheels. With delusions of grandeur, the Jaguar section of the classifieds was whisked open to utter dismay. I couldn't afford any of them; not even an X-type diesel. More British Cars! Cheap classic Minis   should you do it? Celebrating Land Rover's Unloved Range Rover P38a Why The Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato Is Worth $13 Million Why You Shouldn't Be Frightened Of An Early V12 Jaguar XJ-S Unperturbed, the next stop was the local classic car dealer. Swathes of Mercedes and fast Fords stretched out for miles   yet, they were all out of a post-graduate's price range. Deflated, I sought refuge through Facebook   and that's where it jumped at me. An Austin Allegro from 1980, yearning for a new custodian. In Russet Brown with accompanying melted-chocolate beige interior, this was the ultimate underdog. Representing all that was wrong with the 1970s, the automotive equivalent of Eeyore the Donkey, the Austin Allegro was soon to be recycled if no one laid claim. It was a distress call as the original sale had fallen through, so I went for it. Nightmares stalked my sleep that night, visions of Red Robbo lowering me into a flaming brazier, laughing maniacally as he did so to the lulling tones of The Good Life 's opening theme. Yet, I had nothing to worry about. Under the watchful care of the Medway Monkeys club, the 1.3L had covered little more than 30,000 miles. There had only been two previous owners, and the Medway Monkey mechanics had already given the drivetrain a look over. All I had to do was get down to Kent from Edinburgh and drive it home. Would it make it to the Celtic motherland? Collecting 'Jacko' the Austin Allegro Neil Netlingham greeted me at the train station and took me to the Allegro, where we struck up an immediate bond. He was so delighted that 'Jacko' had found favour with someone younger. So much so, he granted me membership to the club. We joked about the car's well-documented faults and I paid the £600 asking price. With paperwork signed and the open road awaiting, I was the fully-fledged owner of a brown Allegro; my street cred was now dead in the water. Yet, I cared not a jot. The spindly gearstick and bouncy ride raised an instant smile, and the charismatic transmission whine and flatulent exhaust pitch sparked appreciative laughter on the test drive. Departing Strood, Kent, for the long drive home, I asked if Neil believed Jacko would complete the journey problem free. 'No', was the steadfast response. Although valuing Neil's honesty, the concept of wallowing 440 miles home suddenly felt quite unnerving. Nevertheless, bidding the Nettlinghams farewell, Jacko and I hit the road. Approaching the first junction out of the street and accelerating away was something of a culture shock; never before had I encountered a car to have run out of gears at 20mph. And I had learned to drive in an old Land Rover … However, despite initial trepidation, the journey north proved more relaxing than expected. Although starting off on the M25 and uncomfortable pushing the Allegro beyond 50mph, thus accidentally delving into London's city centre trying to avoid traffic   during the Queen's Baton Relay, no less   the running gear verified capability of coping with congested city heat. It was proving rather frugal, too; 35mpg was achieved without protest. Still trying to avoid the dual carriageways by heading through York, Team Allegro inadvertently hit the foot of Sutton Bank while traversing the A170. As one of Britain's steepest road hills, Sutton Bank had killed vast numbers of cars. Having nursed the Allegro this far after years sitting idle, there was an air of uncertainty about reaching the top. Dropping from fourth to third, then second to first gear, an ill-tempered queue of traffic spawned behind us. On a crest of revs and several Hail Marys, the Allegro ridged Sutton Bank's summit with the trembling temperature needle residing beyond the red. Pulling over at the first opportunity, the stream of motorists in my wake filed passed with curiosity. Some BMW drivers even waved to me with one finger. After coaxing the temperature down, we set off for the A1M. I admitted defeat in my navigation skills, clearly unable to fix a direct route to Scotland, yet there was a development upon gliding down the on-ramp at Dishforth. After 248 miles and six hours on the move, the Allegro felt happier attempting motorway speeds. Breaching 50mph no longer felt like self-harm, whereas 60mph offered a comfort point. Any faster and the vibrations would have had the trim off, but sticking to just under 60mph made for fine progress. Turning off for the A66 brought raven black skies and pelting rain, yet Jacko didn't flinch. The winds picked up and visibility dropped. Traffic built and dissolved in equal measure, giving the clutch and brakes a thorough work out. The confidence in my new purchase was building. Not even the onward slaughter of Mother Nature's worst discouraged headway. ...and into Scotland... Passing the Scottish border, having only had to stop for petrol once so far, my back wasn't inflamed and my legs still had feeling. Such was the comfort level that the encroaching darkness and time bore my optimism no ill. Yet, it was this attitude that was almost my undoing. Branching off for the leafy back lanes closer to home, I pushed the accelerator into the carpet with ill-gained self-reliance. Despite a reputation for handling like a downhill wheelie bin, Jacko tucked into the curves with aplomb. The Allegro was far from a GTI or hot hatch, but its little 1275cc A-Series engine egged on for more. Accelerating out of the bend proved gutless and flat, but if momentum was carried forward then you could corner with surprising pace. Then it went wrong. Only ten miles from home, the damp tarmac undulations caught me out. Layered with leaves and foliage, a hard-pressed attempt to corner rapidly caused a loss of traction. The back end slung out, the lop-sided hydragas suspension hopping as it crabbed with fierce gusto. With the steering fastened in opposite lock, not even cadence braking could bring the Allegro back into line. It wasn't until I smoothly reduced the speed and fed the throttle with feather-light leverage that the vehicle regained its poise. It must have looked planned with skill, as the local farmer had been watching in the dusk from over the fence in his tractor. Stopping to catch my breath, he gave me a round of applause. 'Lad, I haven't seen driving like that before. I had an Allegro back in the day and I never managed to do that.' Crawling home with a trunk of humble pie, I arrived in Edinburgh some 14 hours after leaving Strood. Neil was impressed that Jacko has lapped up such a journey, but not as impressed as I was. My car-obsessed brethren even took to it with affection   a complete surprise to all involved. I very much doubt a cheap old Jaguar could have successfully attempted such a trip without problems. Whether it be overheating in traffic or up steep hills, coping with hundreds of miles after years in storage or accepting such abuse on home turf. Trundling down to see family the next day, there was a surprise in store. My parents and their close friend  Fiona Duncan   had dressed up in period costume to welcome the car home. They had initially guffawed at such a purchase, but the Allegro bowled them over with its retro charisma, which they viewed very much through rose tinted glasses. My younger sister was harder to impress. Questioning its grunt, commenting on how slow the vehicle was during any trip out, she refused to be seen in it due to lack of speed. To hammer the point home, this is the girl who once took 40 minutes to eat a sandwich because it was her 'friend'. However, it didn't matter. Although having gone forth in search of something fast, exotic and aesthetically pleasing, I instead ended up with what brainwashed wagon-jumpers christen 'the world car in the world'. It's far from it, in fact. For the princely sum of £600, it had all the classic car charm of a Jaguar, yet with the infamy and dependability no luxury vehicle can honestly offer. After nearly 500 miles and two day's worth of activity, the Allegro had defied nearly all urban legends plaguing its reputation. Driving to the local shop, the place which had originally inspired the urge to depart with haste, my mantra was different. The car had taught me a valuable lesson; look beyond initial judgement and there is always merit.


The owners of a replica of Noah's Ark featured at the Ark Encounter in Williamstown, Ky., sued its insurers who refused to cover rain damage. The ark's owner said heavy rains in 2017 and 2018 caused a landslide on its property and its five insurance carriers refused to cover damages totaling nearly $1 million. The ark itself was reportedly undamaged in the rains. Ark Encounter is asking for compensatory and punitive damages and a jury trial in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court. The suit names Swiss-based Allied World Assurance Co. Holdings, its use company and three other carriers. "Subsequent to heavy rains, a significant landslide occurred along portions of the slope, which eliminated the structural support for the roadway, caused significant damage to the road surface itself and the incorporated improvements, and rendered portions of the road unsafe and unfit for use," the suit reads. The Ark Encounter unveiled its Noah's Ark replica in 2016. It says the dimensions are based on those listed in Genesis in the Bible. According to the Bible's flood narrative, Noah was instructed by God to build an ark and take two of each animal species, one of each sex, on board to survive a flood that engulfed the entire earth.


Secret Service arrested a man who allegedly assaulted a police officer and tried to jump over the fence outside the White House late Friday. The incident took place just after 9 p.m. on the northwest side of the Treasury Building on Pennsylvania Avenue, according to the U.S. Secret Service . The person was quickly arrested. "The subject was immediately apprehended by Secret Service personnel and taken into custody," a Secret Service spokesperson said in a statement. The man is being charged with assault on a police officer and unlawful entry, according to the Secret Service. The Secret Service said there was "no impact to White House security operations." The last person to be arrested for breaching the White House's perimeter was in November 2017. That person, identified as Victor Merswin, 24, was also immediately arrested. It was just last week that the White House announced it was raising the fence to further detract people from attempting to jump onto the property. The height is being more than doubled -- from 6 feet, 6 inches to 13 feet, 1 inch -- as part of a $64 million construction project. (MORE: Construction to begin soon on taller White House fence) There were three incidents of people attempting to jump the fence at the White House in 2017, the most since 2014. While it didn't involve a person trespassing on White House property, a man died when he lit himself on fire May 29 just outside the president's residence, on the Ellipse near 15th Street and Constitution Avenue. Arnav Gupta, 33, died the following day from his injuries.


TIJUANA, Mexico (AP)   Lizbeth De La Cruz Santana returned Friday to the Mexican beach where her father entered the U.S. illegally before she was born, this time to put final touches on a mural of adults who came to the U.S. illegally as young children and were deported. Visitors who hold up their phones to the painted faces are taken to a website that voices first-person narratives. There is a deported U.S. veteran. There are two deported mothers with children who were born in the U.S. There is a man who would have been eligible for an Obama-era program to shield people who came to the U.S. when they were very young from deportation, but was deported less than a year before the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, known as DACA, took effect in 2012. The project blends Mexico's rich history of muralists with what can loosely be called interactive or performance art on the 1,954-mile (3,126-kilometer) U.S.-Mexico border. At the same Tijuana beach during an art festival in 2005, David Smith Jr., known as "The Human Cannonball," flashed his passport, lowered himself into a barrel and was shot over the wall, landing on a net with U.S. Border Patrol agents nearby. In 2017, professional swimmers crossed the border from the U.S. in the Pacific Ocean and landed on the same beach, where a Mexican official greeted them with stamped passports and schoolchildren cheered. Last month, an artist installed three pink seesaws though a border wall that separates El Paso, Texas, from Ciudad Juarez, Mexico. De La Cruz Santana, 28, conceived the interactive mural as part of a doctoral dissertation at University of California, Davis, in Spanish with a focus on literature and immigrant experiences. The faces are affixed with barcodes that link to audio on the project website. Her dissertation will include written arguments for DACA-style benefits to anyone who comes to the U.S. as a young child, without any of the disqualifiers like criminal history that former President Barack Obama included. "Technology is one of the best ways and venues for people to tell their stories," said De La Cruz, whose parents obtained legal status through former President Ronald Reagan's amnesty law. With a $7,500 grant, De La Cruz, who was born and raised in California, directed about 15 people who painted on polyester canvass at a Tijuana art gallery called "House of the Tunnel," which was once used to smuggle drugs in a secret underground passage to San Diego. She partnered with Mauro Carrera, a longtime friend and a muralist who lives in Fresno, California. The project is also deeply personal for Carrera, 32, who was born in Mexico, crossed the border illegally as a toddler, and obtained legal status through his father, who had amnesty. He grew up with friends and neighbors in the U.S. illegally. Carrera said the project aims to "see the people behind the politics." The deportees painted at least 80% of their own faces under his direction. "I feel I'm right in the middle of the issue," he said as others rolled canvases over steel poles that were topped with coiled wire installed after Donald Trump became president. Last year, many Central Americans in a large caravan of asylum seekers gravitated to the beach, which is downhill from a light tower, bull ring and restaurants. The U.S. side of the beach is usually empty, except for Border Patrol agents parked in their vehicles and occasional hikers. De La Cruz Santana is struck by the lively atmosphere on the Mexican side and quiet in the U.S. "If you look past this wall on the U.S. side, there's nothing," she said. "I wanted to erase the border." ___ This story has been corrected to show that two mothers' daughters were not allowed to stay in the U.S. under an Obama-era program.


The parents of a 6-year-old Indian girl who died this month in the Arizona desert say they made the journey because they were desperate. "We wanted a safer and better life for our daughter and we made the extremely difficult decision to seek asylum here in the United States," Gurupreet Kaur's parents said in a statement Monday. "We trust that every parent, regardless of origin, color or creed, will understand that no mother or father ever puts their child in harm's way unless they are desperate." In the statement, which was released by the nonprofit Sikh Coalition, the parents -- identified as S. Kaur and A. Singh -- asked for privacy and said their family is heartbroken over Gurupreet's death. "We will carry the burden of the loss of our beloved Gurupreet for a lifetime," the statement said, "but we will also continue to hold onto the hope that America remains a compassionate nation grounded in the immigrant ideals that make diversity this nation's greatest strength." Border Patrol agents found Gurupreet's body this month about 17 miles west of Lukeville, Arizona, just over the US-Mexico border. The agency said she had been traveling with her mother, but the two were separated when the mother went to search for water. The girl's father, A. Singh, has been living in the United States since 2013 with a pending asylum application before the New York immigration court, Sikh Coalition Program Director Mark Reading-Smith said. Pima County Chief Medical Examiner Gregory Hess determined that Gurupreet's death was accidental and caused by heatstroke. A private funeral will be held Friday in New York City, "the city her family had hoped to make their home," Reading-Smith said.


The San Jose Sharks went all-in this season. A team that was already strong enough to compete for the Stanley Cup decided to go out and acquire Erik Karlsson before the start of the season, sending a huge package of assets to the Ottawa Senators in exchange for the star defenseman. That came just a few months after the team had snatched Evander Kane at the 2018 trade deadline, which had already cost them a fair amount of draft capital. As if that wasn't enough, they then went out at this year's deadline and acquired Gustav Nyquist for another set of picks, leaving them with just one selection in the first four rounds this year and without their first and third picks next season. That kind of shopping spree usually leaves a team with plenty of regret if they don't end up winning it all. The Sharks, if you weren't paying attention, didn't win it all. Still, as San Jose heads into the offseason after another disappointing playoff loss, there is still hope. Despite having a relatively bare cupboard of draft picks, and three players on the wrong end of 30 on the roster making more than $8M per season, the Sharks have an incredible amount of flexibility this summer. That's thanks to a whopping seven players reaching unrestricted free agency, allowing the team to pick and choose whom they bring back and for how much. Obviously, watching Karlsson walk after one year -- or Nyquist after a few months -- would be frustrating for the Sharks. The same could be said about long-time leaders in Joe Pavelski and Joe Thornton , both of whom are also set to become unrestricted free agents. But within that potential frustration is also an opportunity, one which could result in the Sharks being just as competitive again next season, albeit with a different cast of characters. Specifically, Karlsson and Nyquist come with more than just a monetary price tag. Both players will cost the team a second-round pick if they re-sign, to Ottawa or Detroit respectively, as part of the conditions of their trades. That may end up being a deciding factor if GM Doug Wilson doesn't want to lose any more of his already rare picks. Pavelski and Thornton meanwhile come with age and injury concerns, given how their last few seasons have gone. Both -- and perhaps especially Pavelski -- are still effective, but Wilson may have to make the hard decision of letting franchise icons leave, as he did with Patrick Marleau two years ago, if they demand too much money. It's that money question that is what makes this summer so interesting for the Sharks. CapFriendly currently projects San Jose to have nearly $25M in cap space for next season, thanks to just 14 players in the entire organization with one-way contracts. Obviously the team will need to sign several players to fill their ranks, but they aren't forced into anything at the moment. The next wave of on-ice leaders for the Sharks is going to include players like Kevin Labanc and Timo Meier , but both are restricted free agents who can either be signed long-term or short depending on the rest of the offseason. Neither one has arbitration rights, meaning the team can take negotiations slow if they choose. Like last offseason, when the Sharks made a pitch to top free agent John Tavares , Wilson can see what the prices are on some of the other top names before backing himself into a corner. Thornton has already said that he would only come back to play for San Jose, while it would be hard to see Pavelski running into the arms of another team without giving the Sharks every chance to match whatever offers come in. There's nothing good about having such a small selection of draft picks, but the Sharks have done so well over the last few years -- Labanc, for instance is a sixth-round pick from 2014 who looks like he may be a 70-point scorer one day -- they have enough built into the system to overcome this short lull. It's free agency that will be really interesting for a team that can't seem to get over the hump, and they have more than enough financial ammunition to make it a show.


Video by Yahoo! News (Brace Yourself: "Game of Thrones" spoilers are coming.) Sen. Elizabeth Warren , a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez commiserated over the disappointing ending of the HBO mega-hit "Game of Thrones" in a video released Tuesday. Warren and Ocasio-Cortez, both Democrats, were upset that Sansa Stark did not end up taking control of the fictional kingdom of Westeros. The pair also decried the show's treatment of women, a criticism often leveled during the show's run. Like much of the viewing public , critics , and a good chunk of the internet , Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez were disappointed in Sunday's series finale of "Game of Thrones." (Brace Yourself: "Game of Thrones" spoilers are coming.) In a video released Tuesday, the pair of Democratic lawmakers expressed the letdown from the end of the show's nearly ten-year run and criticized the handling of the major female characters in the series. Ocasio-Cortez, a freshman lawmaker who has quickly become one of the national faces of the Democratic Party's progressive wing, said she was "sad" and "disappointed" by the "'Game of Thrones' ending." Warren offered a one-word review: "Meh." Read more: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is watching the final season of 'Game of Thrones,' and she has an idea for how the show should end Both Ocasio-Cortez and Warren also felt that the show failed to do right by its significant female characters and said that the writer's room could have used more influence from women. As context, at the end of the show Bran Stark - a member of the powerful Stark family with mystical abilities to see into the past - was named King of the Six Kingdoms of Westeros, the fictional continent where much of "Game of Thrones" action was set. While Bran's older sister Sansa Stark established an independent kingdom in the North and became its Queen. The void at the top of the fictional kingdoms' political structure came after Daenerys Targaryen, originally set to become Queen of all Seven Kingdoms, was murdered by Jon Snow - her nephew, lover, and technically the rightful heir to Westeros' seat of power: the Iron Throne. (Got it? Hope so.) Ocasio-Cortez and Warren felt that Daenerys' relatively sudden change into the show's final villain ( a major source of consternation among viewers ) was unfortunate and felt that Sansa should have taken over the entire Seven Kingdoms, instead of simply settling for the North. "I feel like we were getting so close to having this ending with just women running the world and then the last two episodes it's like, 'Oh, they're too emotional,'" Ocasio-Cortez said. "It's like, ugh this was written by men!" Read more : Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez just called out Democratic leaders for not moving to impeach Trump "So I was even willing at the end to make a quick allegiance shift, when Dany went nuts. So I was over to Sansa, I was like Team Sansa. I will re-do my shirt, the whole thing," Warren said in the video, with Ocasio-Cortez agreeing. "And yet Sansa, who already is Queen of the North, thank you very much. She walks away saying: 'And I'll still be Queen of the North.'" "Ugh I know, I was so disappointed," Ocasio-Cortez replied. "Come on Sansa, go for the big one!" Warren, who is running for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, said. "I was disappointed, we need to get some feminist analysis up in HBO," Ocasio-Cortez concluded, referencing the show's network home. The treatment of women on "Game of Thrones" was a long-running point of controversy for the show, a criticism that only picked up steam in the fantasy epic's final run . Watch the full back and forth here: It's been over 24 hours. No more spoiler alerts. Here's why @AOC and I are officially on #TeamSansa now. pic.twitter.com/WKKHDbFz1M   Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) May 21, 2019


Trump is celebrating a new Fox News poll, but the economy was the only area where the majority of people thought the president was doing a good job. Christina Ceithamer wears Trump socks outside a Donald Trump rally in support of U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn for the U.S. Senate at Freedom Hall Civic Center in Johnson City, Monday, Oct. 1, 2018. President Donald Trump stands in front of headstones at Suresnes American Cemetery near Paris on Sunday, Nov. 11, 2018. Russia's President Vladimir Putin offers a ball of the 2018 football World Cup to US President Donald Trump during a joint press conference after a meeting at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, on July 16, 2018. The US and Russian leaders opened an historic summit in Helsinki, with Donald Trump promising an "extraordinary relationship" and Vladimir Putin saying it was high time to thrash out disputes around the world. Donald Trump takes the oath of office, while standing with Melania Trump and Barron Trump, during the 2017 Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol. Chief Justice John Roberts administered the oath of office Jan 20, 2017. President Donald Trump greets House Speaker Paul Ryan before delivering the State of the Union address on Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2018 from the House chamber of the United States Capitol in Washington. President Donald J. Trump arrives at Louis Armstrong Airport in New Orleans. Monday, Jan. 14, 2019. President Donald Trump greets the rally at Nashville Municipal Auditorium at campaign rally on Tuesday night in Nashville on May 29, 2018. President Donald J. Trump waves following his remarks at the 2019 White House Easter Egg Roll on April 22, 2019. President Donald Trump talked about his tax reform plan at the Pennsylvania Air National Guard 193rd Special Operations Wing at the Harrisburg International Airport in Middletown, PA on Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2017. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump pause at the crosses representing the 23 people killed by the Sunday March 3, 2019 tornado in Beauregard, Ala., during his visit to the area on Friday March 8, 2019. President Donald J. Trump awards Sergeant John A. Chapman the posthumous Medal of Honor on August 22, 2018 in the East Room at the White House for his actions on March 4, 2002, on Takur Ghar mountain in Afghanistan. Chapman's aircraft was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, ejecting one teammate rom the aircraft, and crippling the helicopter after it crashed in the valley below. Chapman and the remaining joint special operations team members voluntarily returned to the snow-capped mountain, into known enemy stronghold, in an attempt to rescue their stranded teammate. Sergeant Chapman's spouse, Valerie Nessel, and family joined the President at the White House to commemorate his example of selfless service and sacrifice on Aug 22, 2018. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump pay their respects to former President George H.W. Bush as the 41st President lies in state at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda on Dec. 3, 2018. President Donald Trump, accompanied by First Lady Melania Trump, Florida Gov. Rick Scott, and FEMA director Brock Long, visited the city of Lynn Haven, Florida in the aftermath of Hurricane Michael Monday, Oct. 15, 2018. A large parking area behind the devastated police department and City Hall buildings became a temporary location for local volunteers and people to compile and distribute supplies, food and assistance. President Donald Trump stands with Melania Trump, former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, before the Obama's departs on Marine One after the 2017 Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol on Jan 20, 2017. President Donald Trump gestures while speaking during his meeting with health insurance company executives, Monday, Feb. 27, 2017, in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington. President Donald Trump acknowledges retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, right, during ceremonial swearing-in held at the East Room of the White House for newly confirmed Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, left, on Oct. 8, 2018. President Donald Trump walks with Melania, Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner, alongside Tree of Life Synagogue rabbi Jeffrey Myers, near the memorial site to the 11 victims in Pittsburgh on Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2018. President Donald Trump speaks during the 2017 Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol on Jan 20, 2017. President Donald Trump embraces Pauline Conner the widow of Kentucky soldier First Lt. Garlin M. Conner posthumously honored with the Medal of Honor on Tuesday, June 26, 2018, for his actions in World War II. President Donald Trump holds an executive order he just signed on rural broadband flanked by Rep Diane Black, Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue Sen. Lamar Alexander, Sen. Bob Corker, Sen. Pat Roberts and Rep. Marsha Blackburn at Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center Monday, Jan. 8, 2018 in Nashville, Tenn. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump visit with members of the military at a dining hall at Al Asad Air Base, Iraq, Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2018. In a surprise trip to Iraq, President Donald Trump on Wednesday defended his decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Syria where they have been helping battle Islamic State militants. President Donald Trump arrives in McAllen, Tx to speak to offices and tour the U.S southern border on Thursday, Jan. 10, 2019. The trip comes two days after President Trump delivered a nation wide address setting there is a crises along the border and calling for a wall or barrier. President Donald Trump speaks with Master Chief Special Warfare Operator Britt K. Slabinski, left, after awarding him the Medal of Honor during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Thursday, May 24, 2018. Slabinski oversaw a daring 2002 assault and rescue mission on a snowy Afghanistan mountaintop and carried a "seriously wounded teammate down a sheer cliff face" while leading "an arduous trek across one kilometer of precipitous terrain, through waist-deep snow while continuing to call fire on the enemy." President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address on Feb 5, 2019, from the House chamber of the United States Capitol in Washington. Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) are behind Trump. President Donald Trump takes questions from a gathering of reporters next to Air Force One at Lunken Airport in Cincinnati on Friday, Oct. 12, 2018. President Trump visited the Cincinnati area for a MAGA Rally at the Warren County Fair Grounds in Lebanon, Ohio, Friday night. President Donald Trump meets with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Sentosa Island, Tuesday, June 12, 2018, in Singapore. Donald Trump speaks at the Make America Great Again rally at Hertz Arena in Estero on Wednesday Oct. 31, 2018. First lady Melania Trump looks on as President Donald Trump introduces National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster to Pope Francis, Wednesday, May 24, 2017, at the Vatican. President Donald J. Trump talks to a women at the NRG Center in Houston where he meet with evacuees from Hurricane Harvey on Saturday, Sept. 2, 2017. President Donald Trump salutes as he exits Air Force One after landing at Lunken Airport in Cincinnati on Friday, Oct. 12, 2018.


Cannabis stocks were mixed on Thursday, a day after a landmark congressional hearing on reforming U.S. laws that found bipartisan agreement that the current setup is a mess and needs to change. CannTrust shares took another bath after a report said the company built fake walls to hide from regulators that it was growing unlicensed product. "Marijuana decriminalization may be one of the very few issues upon which bipartisan agreement can still be reached in this session," said Republican Rep. Tom McClintock of California at a hearing held by the House Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on crime and terrorism. The current clash between federal restrictions and state laws "is no longer sustainable" McClintock said, drawing praise from Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the New York Democrat who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, with the caveat that he disagreed with McClintock's assertion that the Democrats were playing the race card, as MarketWatch's Victor Reklaitis reported. Nadler responded that it's "a fact of life" that "enforcement of marijuana laws has been done in a racially disparate manner." For more, read: Republicans and Democrats agree at landmark hearing that U.S. marijuana laws are a mess Overall, analysts still expect the current Congress is unlikely to move far on removing the current federal ban, mostly because of opposition from the Senate, where Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has vowed to oppose it. "Ultimately, the political divide between the House and Senate will serve as the greatest roadblock," Height Capital Markets wrote in a recent note. Jessica Rabe, co-founder of data and markets research company Datatrek , said Thursday 2020 will likely see the next big push for retail cannabis legalization, either through legislative action, as happened recently in Illinois, or the ballot box. For investors, it's important to note than 28% of the U.S. population now live in a state where adult-use of cannabis is legal. "Whether or not populous U.S. states, such as New York and New Jersey, legalize retail marijuana is crucial for public pot companies in order to increase their total addressable markets and growth rates," she wrote in daily commentary. "The sooner, the better, but "sooner" doesn't appear to include 2019." Meanwhile, Colorado broke the $1 billion mark in cannabis-related revenue in June, becoming the first state to hit that milestone, according to data from the state's department of revenue . Colorado was the first state to fully legalize adult-use cannabis back in 2014, offering it a handy first-mover advantage. In company news, CannTrust shares (CTST)(CA:TRST) fell another 6% to bring the stock's week-to-date losses to more than 40%. The stock has been slammed since the company said its cannabis had been seized by the Canadian regulator after it discovered it was growing in unlicensed rooms. The selloff accelerated after the company's Danish partner Stenocare A/S said Tuesday it had received some of the illegal product. Exporting unlicensed product is a big no-no that may lead to an indictment, based on the Canadian Cannabis Act. Stenocare (SE:STENO) (STEOF) said Wednesday that it had discovered even more of the illegal product in oil form and that Danish medical patients might suffer a temporary shortage. Cannabis Watch: For all of MarketWatch's coverage of cannabis companies There was more bad news when the Globe and Mail reported that the company built temporary walls to stage misleading photos of an unlicensed growing room that were sent to the regulator, Health Canada, citing a former company employee. Nick Lalonde, who worked at CannTrust from June 2017 to May of 2019, told the paper employees were asked to stay late to build the fake walls that hid several thousand plants from view. Cronos Group (CRON)(CA:CRON) shares rose 2.4%, after the company said it is buying an 84,000 square foot fermentation and manufacturing facility in Winnipeg from Apotex Fermentation Inc. for an undisclosed sum. The facility will allow the company to produce cultured cannabinoids at commercial scale as part of its partnership with Ginkgo Bioworks Inc. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter and will be paid for with cash on hand, which is not expected to be material to Cronos' cash position. Jefferies analyst Ryan Tomkins took a cautious view of the deal, however. See: One Canopy Growth co-CEO is out, and the other isn't far behind in major shake-up at world's largest cannabis company "We view their commitment and focus on executing their strategy as commendable; this focus is likely to support better financial delivery should it bear fruit," Tomkins wrote in a note to clients. "To that however, we have our reservations around synthetic production, especially over the near term, and as such we could see headwinds on performance until this method is proven at scale." Jefferies rates Cronos stock at underperform with a C$15 ($11.5) price target that is 25% below its current level. Hexo shares (HEXO)(CA:HEXO) were up 0.4%, after the company said it's transferring its listing to the New York Stock Exchange from the smaller NYSE American, effective July 16. The shares will retain their current ticker symbol, "HEXO," and will continue to trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Zenabis closed a previously-announced $30 million financing with a unit of Tilray that it says is non-dilutive. But shares fell about 4%. See also: Zenabis fought short-selling financiers in the cannabis industry, but did it win? Elsewhere, Aurora Cannabis shares (ACB)(CA:ACB)were flat, Tilray (TLRY)was down 0.7%, Canopy Growth (CGC)(CA:WEED) was down 1.4% and Valens GroWorks (VGWCF) was up 4.3%. Aleafia (ALEAF)(CA:ALEF) was up 6%. Investing in a cannabis company? 4 questions to ask The opening of the recreational weed market has spurred an arms race among marijuana companies. Here's what you need to know. Aphria shares (APHA)(CA:APHA)were down 1.2%, Green Growth Brands Inc. (GGBXF)was down 5.5% and Organigram Holdings Inc. (OGI) was down 3.3%. The ETFMG Alternative Harvest ETF (MJ)was down 0.4%, with 31 of its 38 constituent stocks moving lower. The Horizons Marijuana Life Sciences ETF (CA:HMMJ)was down 0.3%, with 28 of its 54 constituent stocks falling. The new Cannabis ETF (THCX)launched Tuesday by Innovation Shares was down 0.3%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA)was up 0.3% and the S&P 500 (SPX)was up 0.7%. Don't miss: People in states where marijuana is legal are eating more salty snacks and ice cream


The new offshoot from Laurel Tavern debuted last week Wah Wah , Lower Greenville's newest drinking destination, has arrived. The new bar from the minds behind Laurel Tavern debuted last week right next door to its sister establishment, bringing a decidedly rebellious vibe and plenty of '70s nostalgia. Taking its name from the electric modifier pedal that is responsible for many unforgettable guitar solos of the 1970's, the new bar at 1922 Greenville Avenue officially kicked open the doors on Thursday of last week. Wah Wah shares a kitchen and patio with Laurel Tavern, but that's pretty much where the similarities end. Where Laurel Tavern feels closer to a place where you might take the parents for some burgers and brews, Wah Wah is much more intimate, and lends itself to a date spot. And while the space may be reminiscent of more party-focused establishments, don't call it a club. As far as its aesthetic is concerned, Wah Wah recalls a 1970s recording studio. The first sensation of Wah Wah though isn't its looks, but its sound. When a place is designed to imitate a recording studio it, not surprisingly, has excellent acoustic properties. Dark corkboard flanks both walls, and soundproofing foam performs its duties along the ceiling. Low-slung couches and plush stools are scattered throughout the space for seating, and thick curtains guard the entryway to a moodily-lit single room, warmed by cedar countertops. Along with this audiophiles dream is the "analog corner," packed with still-functional 8-track tape, amplifiers, vacuum tubes, and a proud reel-to-reel deck buzz happily against the right side seating area. And of course, because this is 2019, Wah Wah comes complete with a Instagram-standard neon sign along the back hallway of the bar that beams "Living my best life." Despite Laurel Tavern's family-friendly vibe, Wah Wah is decidedly for adults. Its drink menu includes items such as "This Shit Is Bananas", a shot of banana, Montenegro amaro, and white rum. The bathrooms are plastered from floor-to-ceiling with period-appropriate magazine and newspaper cutouts, naked women and album covers included. Before heading to Wah Wah for a drink, take a virtual walk through the space courtesy of Eater photographer Kathy Tran.


New York Giants outside linebacker Markus Golden was taken off the field via a cart at the team's training camp workout on Friday. He apparently was suffering from cramps, possibly caused by dehydration from the near 90-degree heat. Golden was signed to a one-year, $3.75 million deal in March by the Giants to bolster their sagging pass rush and is poised to play a major role in defensive coordinator James Bettcher's scheme this season. The Giants reunited Golden with Bettcher this year because it was under Bettcher in Arizona with the Cardinals back in 2016 that Golden had his finest season as a pro. In 2016, Golden recorded 12.5 sacks but a torn ACL injury in early October of 2017 ended his season. Bettcher left for the Giants in 2018 and Golden, under a new coaching staff, was moved from weak side linebacker to defensive end where he was less effective. Per Giants: Markus Golden had cramps and Brittan Golden has a groin injury. No word on Haley. As for Engram, they're just managing his workload https://t.co/1ioW3TKj0i - Dan Duggan (@DDuggan21) July 26, 2019 This year, with Golden healthy and back at the position he is most comfortable in, the Giants are hoping he can rekindle the flame and resurrect his career as a top-flight pass rusher. Today's incident drew concern from the reporters in attendance based on Golden's injury history and the fact the Giants are sustaining an unusual number of injuries here early on at training camp. A Twitter List by SNYGiants MORE: Bear bites woman in tent at Yellowstone, prompts action Sherra Wright pleads guilty in killing of LeBron's former teammate Lorenzen Wright Behind the scenes with new-look Nets: 'We got stars without mortgaging everything'' Things starting as expected for 2 former Steelers Deals for Wagner, Wilson show Seahawks learned from mistakes with Earl Thomas


The Treasury Department has unveiled new regulations aimed at reeling in tax-dodging U.S. corporations trying to take advantage of friendly international tax codes. But the guidelines   which were designed to address an issue recognized as problematic by both the right and the left of the political spectrum, from GOP front-runner Donald Trump to President Barack Obama   are merely a bandage over a much deeper problem that will require congressional action to patch up. And even though Republicans and Democrats generally agree that hiding corporate earnings overseas isn't exactly helpful to the domestic economy, U.S. lawmakers for years have failed to reach any sort of consensus on how to retool the American tax code. So the Treasury's adjustments could ultimately just further complicate an already circuitous tax code. "U.S. companies are currently taking advantage of an environment that allows them to move their tax residence overseas in order to avoid paying taxes in the United States without making significant changes in the nature of their overall business operations," Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew told reporters Thursday as he announced his department's new corporate inversion guidelines. A corporate inversion is essentially the process by which a firm moves its tax residence to another country where it does business, generally to avoid getting hit by both international and domestic income taxes. Typically, a company would relocate to a country in which it does a lot of business that has a loose tax code, since money earned overseas that's brought back to the U.S. still faces the country's effective 35 percent corporate earnings tax . Firms rarely pay that full 35 percent tax straight to the IRS, but between international and domestic tax obligations, American corporations part with a significant chunk of change (barring exclusions and credits that can occasionally bump that burden down). There are rules and regulations governing how American firms go about inverting, and there isn't anything inherently illegal about moving to another country to do business. But some firms in the past have uncovered loopholes in the tax code allowing them to shift operations overseas on paper without necessarily adjusting the bulk of their business practices. Foreign earnings aren't taxed in the U.S. until that money is brought back home to the parent company that's on American soil. So some companies stash as much as they can overseas to avoid their obligations to the IRS. Bloomberg earlier this year estimated a whopping $2.1 trillion in foreign earnings was stashed overseas to avoid U.S. taxes. There are a couple ways to go about doing this. A firm could potentially purchase or be purchased by an international corporation, for example, and keep its foreign earnings overseas   usually in a country whose tax code affords them a significantly reduced tax burden. The ultimate loser in this scenario is the U.S. government, which would no longer be the recipient of taxes placed on foreign earnings. But Lew's new regulations announced Thursday aim to reduce instances of unwanted inversions by limiting where and how U.S. companies can merge and set up shop with international firms to potentially avoid taxation. A senior Treasury Department official says the new regulations will generally "apply to things that occur after today," though some of its guidelines will be applied retroactively to corporate activities that have taken place since the department last updated its inversion code on Sept. 22, 2014. "This is an important step, but it is not the end of our work," Lew said Thursday, promising to take further action. "We continue to explore additional ways to address inversions, including potential guidance on earnings stripping, and we intend to take further actions in the coming months." Tax-dodging inversion practices have been criticized by both Democrats and Republicans, and fixing the problem is one of the few things Obama and Trump actually have in common. Trump has said his controversial tax plan would encourage companies to bring in foreign earnings with a one-time 10-percent corporate tax on earnings held overseas. Obama earlier this year proposed a one-time 14 percent tax on such earnings, which, if paid in full value, could bring about $238 billion in tax revenue to the U.S. government. He also proposed instituting a lower 19 percent tax rate on companies' future earnings. "This is basically taking advantage of tax provisions that are technically legal. But I think most people would say, 'If you're doing business here, if you're basically still an American company but you're simply changing your mailing address in order to avoid paying taxes, then you're really not doing right by the country or by the American people,'" Obama said earlier this year during an interview with CNBC . "What we're trying to do is to say, if you simply acquire a small company in Ireland or some other country to take advantage of the low tax rate   you start saying we're now magically an Irish company despite the fact that you may only have 100 employees there and you've got 10,000 employees in the United States   you're gaming the system." It's interesting Obama referenced Ireland specifically, considering U.S.-based Pfizer pharmaceutical corporation is currently in the process of negotiating a merger deal with Dublin-based Allergan. Pfizer last year was sitting on a $74 billion chunk of change that had yet to be funneled back into the U.S. The company has said these earnings "are intended to be indefinitely reinvested overseas," and a deal with Allergan could potentially allow the pharmaceutical giant to avoid its U.S. tax obligations and instead face Dublin's more forgiving 12.5 percent corporate tax rate. If the deal goes through and Pfizer indeed moves its corporate residence overseas, it will become one of the largest companies in history to dodge U.S. taxation via inversion. "Allergan is domiciled in Ireland, and if consummated, this will be the largest corporate inversion to date, and as a result our country will lose Pfizer, its tenth largest company," billionaire investor Carl Icahn wrote last month in a letter to Congress, saying he fears "we will lose many more iconic companies, such as Pfizer, in the months to come" without tax reform. The terms of the deal have yet to be completely finalized, but Pfizer is hardly the first big-name corporation whose potential inversion drew government and media attention. When Burger King was courting Tim Hortons (a Canadian establishment) last year, the Americans for Tax Fairness organization released a report estimating the burger company would dodge $400 million between 2015 and 2018 by becoming a Canadian company. Tim Hortons did eventually merge with Burger King, though the latter's CEO said the move was " not really about taxes ." "[Firms] used to leave New York to go to Florida. We got better taxes. We got, maybe, something else. Now they are [leaving] the United States and going to other countries," Trump said during the most recent GOP debate. "It's something where the Democrats and the Republicans both agree. It's the only thing I can think of. They both agree, let the money come back in. Three and a half years [after the Treasury Department and the IRS unveiled a series of policies aimed at curbing inversion], they still can't make a deal. They can't get the money in." And that's a problem, because Lew openly admitted Thursday that his guidelines and regulations will only go so far in curbing inversion. "There's only so much the Treasury can do to prevent these tax avoidance transactions. We look forward to continuing to work with Congress in a bipartisan manner to reform our broken business tax system and eliminate inversions for good," Lew said. So the right and the left both agree that inversion practices are problematic. So what's the hold up? "The reason it's not getting done right now is that Congress, as you may have noticed, is just not real productive. They have trouble getting stuff done right now even when they say they want to do something," Obama told CNBC earlier this year. "Invariably, it takes some time to work through a big tax reform piece of legislation." Those on the right generally want to avoid sweeping tax increases for American corporations, while proposals brought forward by the left typically try to account for the lost tax revenues associated with a lower corporate rate by increasing taxes in other areas. Lew said he continues to work with his colleagues in Congress, and a senior Treasury official said Thursday there was plenty of reason to think Congress may be able to pass small inversion-targeting legislation, though the official noted sweeping tax reform isn't terribly likely in the immediate future. But sweeping reform may be more likely today than it's been for decades, as the topic has flared up as a key issue during the 2016 presidential election. And new House Speaker Paul Ryan gives many tax reform advocates optimism, considering he has been outspoken in recent years about adjusting the U.S. tax code. "It's very clear that the solution here is tax reform. Because if we try to do some short-term patch, all we'll end up doing is accelerating the trend of foreign companies buying U.S. companies," the Wisconsin Republican said of tackling inversions during an event last year hosted by the Christian Science Monitor. "So we will actually make problems worse. We will make things worse off, and we will lose even more U.S. companies." Copyright 2015 U.S. News & World Report


(Bloomberg) -- The Trump administration officially canceled $929 million in federal grants earmarked for California's ambitious high-speed rail project, escalating tensions between the federal government and the most-populous U.S. state. Federal Railroad Administrator Ronald Batory said in a letter Thursday to Brian Kelly, the chief executive officer of the state agency running the project, that California has failed to show progress and meet requirements under the agreements for the funds. Governor Gavin Newsom, through a spokesman, vowed a court fight. "It is now clear that California has no foreseeable plans, nor the capability, to pursue that statewide HSR System as originally proposed," Batory wrote. Initially conceived as connecting San Francisco and Los Angeles with a high-speed train that would slash travel times and transform the state's economy, the project has been beset by cost overruns and delays, causing its estimated price to balloon to $79 billion. Newsom, a Democrat who took office this year, said in February that the train as planned "would cost too much and take too long," and he would focus on finishing roughly 170 miles of track already under construction in the Central Valley. The announcement from Washington came the same day that a top California environmental regulator threatened to enact tougher pollution rules that could include a ban on vehicles that burn petroleum-based fuels in retaliation against a federal plan to relax vehicle emission standards. California's leaders and Trump, who often criticizes the state's policies in tweets, have fought over issues in court dozens of times. Related: California Regulator Threatens Trump With 'Extreme' Auto Rule "The Trump administration's action is illegal and a direct assault on California, our green infrastructure, and the thousands of Central Valley workers who are building this project," Nathan Click, a spokesman for Newsom, said by email. "Just as we have seen from the Trump administration's attacks on our clean air standards, our immigrant communities and in countless other areas, the Trump administration is trying to exact political retribution on our state." Newsom's comments on the train in February were initially interpreted as walking away from the project that has been in the works for more than a decade, and the Trump administration subsequently seized on them to announce its intent to cancel the grant and claw back dollars already spent. The Federal Railroad Administration "continues to consider all options" regarding the return of $2.5 billion in federal funds already awarded to the project, the agency said in a statement Thursday. Kelly argued in a March letter to the federal administration that Newsom's proposal wasn't a "fundamental change" and that it's a "pragmatic approach" to ultimately connect the line to Silicon Valley and southern California. --With assistance from Mark Niquette. To contact the reporter on this story: Romy Varghese in San Francisco at rvarghese8@bloomberg.net To contact the editors responsible for this story: James Crombie at jcrombie8@bloomberg.net, Michael B. Marois, Boris Korby For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com ©2019 Bloomberg L.P.


It was mid-June and the sun was out   I braced myself for chaotic crowds and selfie-stick wielding tourists doing their best pensive Poldark faces. Charlestown, after all, was one of the most-used locations in the filming of the hit TV show   it's bound to be overrun with visitors, right? The period drama set in 18th-century Cornwall first graced our screens in March 2015, and thanks to Aidan Turner's "wonderful chest and thighs"   the chief executive of Visit Cornwall's words, not mine   it became a sensation. And so did Cornwall along with it. Sweeping views of the county's beaches, rolling hills and rocky coves awed viewers, and so last summer it came as no surprise when the media named Cornwall the latest victim of overtourism. Two of its finest beaches, Kynance Cove and Porthcurno   both used in the filming of Poldark   were so busy it became a major concern for the tourist board and locals. The single-track roads were gridlocked and there was little space on the sand to lay down a towel. So when I came to Charlestown I half expected to spend 40 minutes looking for a parking space, then another half an hour queueing for a coffee at one of the waterfront cafes before craning my neck over the hordes of people jostling to see its incredibly preserved 18th-century harbour. This tiny town played a big role in Poldark , standing in as bustling Truro. It was here that Ross first met Demelza, and where all those atmospheric market day scenes took place. But the crowds I was expecting were nowhere to be seen. Instead, I sat on the harbour wall as the sun shone down on couples eating ice cream on the small beach below me and the sound of the masts on a nearby tallship clinked in the breeze. It was peaceful, idyllic even. A far cry from the overtourism picture painted by last year's sensationalist news stories. "To be honest with you, if you live in a Cornish seaside town, your life is going to be busy over the summer regardless," Colette Pearce told me as we crossed Charlestown's lock. As Relations and Operations Manager for the harbour, she says Poldark has certainly helped bring in visitors. She sees it on their social media feeds and overhears conversations among tourists in town. But she doesn't think it has had a huge effect, and certainly not a detrimental one. "The people that come here would come here anyway. They just like the added extra of Poldark . Cornwall gets busier in the summer. That's part of life here. And thank goodness for it, because then we have jobs and revenue." Her sentiments echo those of many. In fact, every local I spoke to from Falmouth to Fowey, Charlestown and beyond told me they weren't worried. When I mentioned the word overtourism, more often than not I was laughed off the harbour. For a county whose historic industries have been fleeting   both mining and smuggling died a death centuries ago   and where agriculture is almost impossible, tourism has provided a sustainable economy they can rely on. Cornwall makes £2 billion in revenue from tourism each year. They can't get enough of it, people told me   there's certainly no overtourism here, they said. That's not to say Poldark has had no effect whatsoever. Research by Visit Cornwall shows that 13 per cent of tourists cite the show as one of the reasons   if not the main reason   for their visit. It's opening up the county to new markets, too, says Malcom Bell, Chief Executive of Visit Cornwall. "We know that particularly for the American markets, it's the reason they've come. And we're starting to see them coming from Scandinavia too, so it's definitely given us huge exposure in other countries." John Marshall, owner of Cornish Welcome Tours ( cornishwelcometours.co.uk ), even set up an entirely new arm of his business centred around Poldark . When the first series aired on TV, he realised it was going to be big and purchased poldarktours.com for a very reasonable price. Last summer, he told me, they did 88 tours and the majority of those were Poldark trips to locations like the Lizard Peninsula, Charlestown and Botallack Mines. "It's fair to say, 90 per cent of our Poldark clients are Americans, followed by Australians, Canadians and New Zealanders. I believe it's now on in China, so we're anticipating a big Chinese influx too." Bell estimates that once the series concludes this summer, the benefits will go on for another decade. Businesses like Poldark Tours and luxury holiday resort Gwel An Mor (gwelanmor.com) on the north coast, where the cast stayed during series two filming, will continue to benefit and cash in on their connections with the show. David Wadsworth, the Operations Manager at Gwel An Mor, told me they get plenty of requests to stay in the very same private ecolodge where Aidan Turner resided in 2015. They've even put spoof blue plaques on the holiday homes where notable cast members stayed for those two months. The future is bright for Cornish tourism too, says Bell. Shows like Doc Martin   which is hugely popular in the USA   and the adaptations of Rosamunde Pilcher's novels set in Cornwall   a hit on German TV   will keep the international visitors coming. He too brushes off the idea of overtourism. "It's something we've got to be aware of but we're certainly not suffering from it," he says. "And actually, most of the extra custom coming from Poldark is in the spring. The incidents last year were partly down to the stunning weather. We've got a strategy   it's about communication, really, there are lots of other things [for visitors] to do."


Luke Rockhold isn't impressed by Jon Jones' hesitation to move up a weight class, but at least it gives him 'dibs.' UFC 239 on July 6th is a big night for light heavyweights, not only featuring the latest 205 pound title defense from Jon Jones against Thiago Santos, it also features Luke Rockhold's long awaited debut in the division against Jan Blachowicz. Rockhold has always been a cocky outspoken dude, and unsurprisingly he's already cooking up some rivalries in the weight class. You almost can't put a mic in front of his face without him dissing Anthony Smith, and of course he's also got his sights set on champion Jones. "I'm gonna focus on fighting Blachowicz, and I'm gonna put this man away and then I'm gonna look forward," he told Submission Radio when asked about a Jones fight. "And if there's opportunities out there, we'll see what's up. You know, Jon Jones is right there, and I'm not looking to dance around too long." "If there's an opportunity and things work out and I perform and he performs, you never know, you never know. And if there's a delay   there's also a business side of this thing too. So, Anthony Smith could work his way in too. Anybody above me, I'm looking to make a mark on their faces." Rockhold didn't hesitate to agree when asked if "Bones" was scared of moving up to fight his teammate Daniel Cormier at heavyweight. "Yeah he is, you're damn straight he is," Luke said. "Jon ain't talking about fighting DC at heavyweight, he's just kind of beating around the bush and he's trying to bait him back down and antagonize him. So, Jon doesn't want to fight DC at heavyweight. There's only a few guys he wants to fight that makes sense." With Jones 'scared' and Cormier unlikely to drop back to 205, Luke is no longer deferring to his teammate when it comes to stumping for a Jones fight. "Well, I'm fighting before DC, so I'm gonna take my dibs on that thing if the opportunity presents itself," he said. "DC, I think it's foolish for him to come try to challenge Jon back down. I think Jon should have to come challenge him up for the heavyweight title. I mean, that's where the natural weight is. Jon's a big guy and he cuts a lot of weight too to get down. So, Jon's scared to fight DC at heavyweight. I don't know why DC thinks he's gotta come back down to fight him there to prove some point. It just… it doesn't make sense." And Cormier has been talking about the Miocic fight being his last, so it may not be an issue. Of course, we imagine the UFC could always sweeten the pot enough to make "DC" stick around. Jones has already made it clear that money is the grease that'd make him move up to heavyweight to fight Cormier. Let's hope the UFC is willing to pony up ... but if not, Jones vs. Rockhold isn't the worst consolation fight.


Stacker looked back at historical data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau and compared how both the people have changed and how the questionnaire itself has changed since the first census was released in August 1790. Conducting a census and counting the American population every 10 years has been a practice since the ratification of the U.S. Constitution in 1790. Besides being a growing source of economic, demographic, and social information about the nation's people and being used to determine how many Congressional seats and electoral votes each state receives, the questions asked by each version of the census and the answers received show how the country has changed amid colonization, war, immigration, civil rights movements, and a growing economy. The census also guides federal funding for many public programs, including those in the realm of healthcare, highway planning, and education. The first few decades of the census excluded numerous groups of people, and put the emphasis on counting free white men for the purposes of comparing how many of them would potentially be able to work or fight in the military , if necessary. In the nearly 230 years since then, however, the census has grown to collect data on every group and individual living in the United States, and can also provide a wealth of data on topics such as education levels, types of households and family relationships, and even commuting times to work. In preparation for the census being distributed, Stacker looked back at historical data collected by the U.S. Census Bureau and compared how both the people have changed and how the questionnaire itself has changed since the first census was released. As questions keep evolving throughout the decades and response collection improves with new technology, the initial goal of the decennial census will always be to account for every person living in America as efficiently as possible. You may also like: Defining historical moments from the year you were born 1790: 17.8% of the American population is enslaved - U.S. resident population: 3,929,214 - Number of official states: 13 - Median age of population: Not available for this year - Immigrants obtaining legal resident status: Not available for this year - Biggest cities: New York, NY (Population: 33,131), Philadelphia, PA (28,522), Boston, MA (18,320) The first U.S. census included data on 16 recognized states (although Vermont wasn't included until 1791 after becoming recognized as a state) and features the highest proportion of enslaved people to free of any census. By law, every household in the United States was to be visited, their information recorded, and the data posted in a public place. 1800: New territories to the Northwest - U.S. resident population: 5,308,483 - Number of official states: 16 - Median age of population: Not available for this year - Immigrants obtaining legal resident status: Not available for this year - Biggest cities: New York, NY (Population: 60,515), Philadelphia, PA (41,220), Baltimore, MD (26,514) The second-ever census was authorized to include new territories and states northwest of the Mississippi Territory and Ohio River. That year, 5.3 million people were recorded as living in the U.S. 893,602 of whom were enslaved. 1810: Ohio is included on the census - U.S. resident population: 7,239,881 - Number of official states: 17 - Median age of population: Not available for this year - Immigrants obtaining legal resident status: Not available for this year - Biggest cities: New York, NY (Population: 96,373), Philadelphia, PA (53,722), Baltimore, MD (46,555) The census of 1810 was the first to include the new state of Ohio. The authorization act for this year's census required assistant marshals to make home visits in order to confirm headcounts. 1820: The U.S. has six new states - U.S. resident population: 9,638,453 - Number of official states: 23 - Median age of population: 16.7 - Immigrants obtaining legal resident status: 8,385 - Biggest cities: New York, NY (Population: 123,706), Philadelphia, PA (63,802), Baltimore, MD (62,738) The 1820 census featured six newly recognized states: Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Maine, and Mississippi. The new states also indicated a rapidly swelling population that was fast-approaching 10 million. 1830: U.S. center of population is in present-day West Virginia - U.S. resident population: 12,860,702 - Number of official states: 24 - Median age of population: 17.2 - Immigrants obtaining legal resident status: 23,322 - Biggest cities: New York, NY (Population: 202,589), Baltimore, MD (80,620), Philadelphia, PA (80,462) The center of population for an area is a geographic point representing the exact center balance of a population. In 1830, that center was roughly 170 miles west of Washington D.C., in what is now West Virginia's Grant County. Today, the center of population in the United States is around Plato, Mo., according to 2010 census data. 1840: 'Mental illness' controversy - U.S. resident population: 17,063,353 - Number of official states: 26 - Median age of population: 17.8 - Immigrants obtaining legal resident status: 84,066 - Biggest cities: New York, NY (Population: 312,710), Baltimore, MD (102,313), New Orleans, LA (102,193) The 1840 census was the first that sought to tally the number of  insane  or  idiotic  Americans. The results of the questionable survey showed steep numbers of black people in free states suffering from mental illness while mental illness rates were markedly lower in slaveholding states. The flawed results were illuminated in an 1844 report in the American Journal of the Medical Sciences and their errors exposed; however, no revisions were made to the census information. 1850: Census board established - U.S. resident population: 23,191,876 - Number of official states: 30 - Median age of population: 13.9 - Immigrants obtaining legal resident status: 369,980 - Biggest cities: New York, NY (Population: 515,547), Baltimore, MD (169,054), Boston, MA (136,881) The attorney general, secretary of state, and postmaster general comprised the first-ever census board, created in 1849 and utilized in the 1850 census. The board was tasked with printing census forms and preparing them for various topics. The population recorded on the 1850 census revealed a massive, 35.9% jump from the 1840 census, to 23,191,876 people. 1860: Census data used for Union Army maps - U.S. resident population: 31,443,321 - Number of official states: 33 - Median age of population: 19.4 - Immigrants obtaining legal resident status: 153,640 - Biggest cities: New York, NY (Population: 813,669), Philadelphia, PA (565,529), Brooklyn, NY (266,661) With the Civil War looming, cartographers used information from the 1860 census such as slave populations rail routes, and agricultural products by county to draw up maps for Union field commanders. Casualties in the war (620,000) represent 2% of the entire population. With numbers adjusted for today's population, that would be like losing 6.2 million people in a war. 1870: The census in a post-Civil War America - U.S. resident population: 38,558,371 - Number of official states: 37 - Median age of population: 20.2 - Immigrants obtaining legal resident status: 387,203 - Biggest cities: New York, NY (Population: 942,292), Philadelphia, PA (674,022), Brooklyn, NY (396,099) Just five years after the end of the Civil War and the national emancipation of slaves, the 1870 Census was updated and the slave questionnaire was removed. Instead, the results provided an in-depth look at the African-American population. Additionally, this was the first census that included nativity questions and recorded the origins of foreign-born residents, as well as the cities with the largest migrant populations. 1880: Women become enumerators - U.S. resident population: 50,189,209 - Number of official states: 38 - Median age of population: 22 - Immigrants obtaining legal resident status: 457,257 - Biggest cities: New York, NY (Population: 1,206,299), Philadelphia, PA (847,170), Brooklyn, NY (566,663) 1880 marks the first census in which women were able to serve as enumerators (those gathering data on behalf of the U.S. Census Bureau). Five categories on that year's census were  Agriculture,   Manufacturing,   Mortality,   Population,  and  Social Statistics.  1890: Census goes electric - U.S. resident population: 62,979,766 - Number of official states: 42 - Median age of population: 22.9 - Immigrants obtaining legal resident status: 455,302 - Biggest cities: New York, NY (Population: 1,515,301), Chicago, IL (1,099,850), Philadelphia, PA (1,046,964) The 1890 census was the very first in which electronic tabulation was used. As the prior census took nearly a decade to tabulate, census officials were craving a more efficient way to aggregate the necessary data with few mistakes, unlike the work-intensive and frequently error-laden hand-counting process. A former census employee, Herman Hollerith, invented an electric machine that revolutionized the census and sold them under the newly formed Tabulating Machine Company. Eventually, the company went from Tabulating Machines to International Business Machines and became IBM. 1900: New York City expands and Hawaii is added to census - U.S. resident population: 76,212,168 - Number of official states: 45 - Median age of population: 24.1 - Immigrants obtaining legal resident status: 448,572 - Biggest cities: New York, NY (Population: 3,437,202), Chicago, IL (1,698,575), Philadelphia, PA (1,293,697) The 1900 census was the first year that New York City included all five of its present boroughs, after the existing City of New York consolidated with the Bronx, Brooklyn, parts of Queens, and Staten Island in 1898 in order to contend with Chicago, which was growing in size, business, and technology . 1898 was also the year that the United States annexed Hawaii during the Spanish-American war, and the territory's residents were included in the overall population count. 1910: Summer vacations inspire move of Census Day date - U.S. resident population: 92,228,496 - Number of official states: 46 - Median age of population: 25.3 - Immigrants obtaining legal resident status: 1,041,570 - Biggest cities: New York, NY (Population: 4,766,883), Chicago, IL (2,185,283), Philadelphia, PA (1,549,008) Arguing that city dwellers would be off to their vacation homes on June 1, which had been Census Day since 1830, Census Day was moved in 1910 to April 15. When the U.S. entered World War I seven years later, data from the 1910 census proved vital in reporting on populations of draft-age men and the potential industrial output of each state. 1920: New York State surpasses 10 million residents - U.S. resident population: 106,021,537 - Number of official states: 48 - Median age of population: 26.5 - Immigrants obtaining legal resident status: 430,001 - Biggest cities: New York, NY (Population: 5,620,048), Chicago, IL (2,701,705), Philadelphia, PA (1,823,779) The date for the 1920 census was switched to January thanks to the Department of Agriculture; officials hoped that information about their most recent harvests would be more fresh in farmers' minds in winter, leading to more accurate data. In this census, four new questions were added specifically to collect information on America's immigrants: one question asked about year of naturalization and three asked about mother tongue. New York was the most populous state this year at 10,385,227 people, with more than half of those people living in New York City. 1930: The census and the Great Depression - U.S. resident population: 123,202,624 - Number of official states: 48 - Median age of population: 29 - Immigrants obtaining legal resident status: 241,700 - Biggest cities: New York, NY (Population: 6,930,446), Chicago, IL (3,376,438), Philadelphia, PA (1,950,961) The 1930 census reflected growing American consumerism : it was the first to ask a question about a consumer item, through inquiring whether respondents owned a  radio set.  But this census also reflected concerns about economic turmoil, coinciding with the beginning of the Great Depression, through more detailed questions about respondents' employment or lack thereof. In fact, academics and statisticians were so intent on analyzing nationwide unemployment data, they pressured the Census Bureau into conducting a special unemployment census in January 1931. 1940: First use of probability sampling - U.S. resident population: 132,164,569 - Number of official states: 48 - Median age of population: 30.2 - Immigrants obtaining legal resident status: 70,756 - Biggest cities: New York, NY (Population: 7,454,995), Chicago, IL (3,396,808), Philadelphia, PA (1,931,334) The 1940 Census was the first national census to utilize probability sampling , a statistical technique in which subjects are randomly selected in order to ensure that a small sample accurately reflects an entire population. This technique allowed the number of questions asked by the Census Bureau to be raised without putting a huge strain on the respondents or on the analysts who would process the data and allowed census results to be released much earlier. New questions this year discussed employment, unemployment, internal migration, and income. 1950: Census pulls in Americans abroad and computers at home - U.S. resident population: 151,325,798 - Number of official states: 48 - Median age of population: 29.6 - Immigrants obtaining legal resident status: 249,187 - Biggest cities: New York, NY (Population: 7,891,957), Chicago, IL (3,620,962), Philadelphia, PA (2,071,605) In 1950, the Census Bureau expanded its questioning to include members of the armed forces and government employees living abroad ; some civilians living abroad were also included (reported by their families or neighbors back at home), but this data was not of sufficient quality to be included in published statistics. Later that decade, the Census Bureau became the first non-military agency in America to use a computer: UNIVAC I, used to tabulate statistics for the 1954 economic census, weighed 16,000 pounds. 1960: Tracking increased urbanization - U.S. resident population: 179,323,175 - Number of official states: 50 - Median age of population: 29.5 - Immigrants obtaining legal resident status: 265,398 - Biggest cities: New York, NY (Population: 7,781,984), Chicago, IL (3,550,404), Los Angeles, CA (2,479,015) For the first time, all 50 states in 1960 had a population of more than 200,000, with about 80% of the nation's population living in urban areas. Census enumerators working in urban areas practiced random sampling by questioning every fourth housing unit . Meanwhile, in areas of lower population density, a mail-out census was used for the first time. This year's census included new questions on place of work and means of transportation to work. 1970: California is the most populous state - U.S. resident population: 203,302,031 - Number of official states: 50 - Median age of population: 28.1 - Immigrants obtaining legal resident status: 373,326 - Biggest cities: New York, NY (Population: 7,894,862), Chicago, IL (3,366,957), Los Angeles, CA (2,816,061) Thirteen questions were asked of all households that adhered to that year's housing theme. Questions included inquiries about where there was a phone in the household, whether there was a flush toilet, and costs of utilities. The population U.S. population rose by 13.4% between 1960 and 1970, bringing numbers up to 203.4 million, and marked the first census year since 1800 that New York was not the most populous state in the U.S. (California came in first) 1980: Advertising campaign seeks more robust response rates - U.S. resident population: 226,542,199 - Number of official states: 50 - Median age of population: 30 - Immigrants obtaining legal resident status: 524,295 - Biggest cities: New York, NY (Population: 7,071,639), Chicago, IL (3,005,072), Los Angeles, CA (2,966,850) A campaign in 1978 sought to increase public awareness and ensure more people filled out and returned their questionnaires. California became the first state to have a population of 20 million (that number today exceeds 39.5 million). 1990: LA overtakes Chicago as the second-largest city - U.S. resident population: 248,709,873 - Number of official states: 50 - Median age of population: 32.8 - Immigrants obtaining legal resident status: 1,535,872 - Biggest cities: New York, NY (Population: 7,322,564), Los Angeles, CA (3,485,398), Chicago, IL (2,783,726) This census used two questionnaires, a  short form  and a  long form  : The short form asked 13 questions to 100% of the population, while the long form asked 45 questions to 20% of the population. The Census Bureau continued to increase public awareness of the census this year, specifically publicizing to Black Americans by recruiting Bill Cosby, Magic Johnson, Alfre Woodard, and Debbye Turner as spokespeople. In the resulting population counts, Los Angeles was the second-largest city in America at 3.5 million people pushing Chicago out of this top spot for the first time since 1890. 2000: Census takes to the internet - U.S. resident population: 281,421,906 - Number of official states: 50 - Median age of population: 35.3 - Immigrants obtaining legal resident status: 841,002 - Biggest cities: New York, NY (Population: 8,008,278), Los Angeles, CA (3,694,820), Chicago, IL (2,896,016) Respondents to the 2000 census were able to use the Internet to submit their answers to the short form, which was the shortest census questionnaire since 1820 at only seven questions. Seventy thousand households took this option. The internet was also the main medium for dissembling 2000 census data: Tables could be purchased on CD-ROM and DVD or viewed through an online database called the American FactFinder, which is still the name of the census database today. 2010: Same-sex married couples are included - U.S. resident population: 308,745,538 - Number of official states: 50 - Median age of population: 37.2 - Immigrants obtaining legal resident status: 1,042,625 - Biggest cities: New York, NY (Population: 8,175,133), Los Angeles, CA (3,792,621), Chicago, IL (2,695,598) LGBTQ+ respondents to the 2010 census could mark their spouses as "husband or wife" for the first time, while an "unmarried partner" option was still available for same-sex and opposite-sex couples alike. The 2010 census was publicized with the most extensive outreach campaign yet, including a road tour, a national "Teach Census Week," and advertisements in 28 languages.


On its own, a single ant can only accomplish so much, but you toss it into the mix with a couple hundred of its peers and suddenly the capabilities of the group are exponentially greater than the sum of its parts. Could the same be true of robots? Some robotics researchers think so, and a team from Switzerland is already experimenting with an army of pint-sized bots that can take on complicated tasks as a group. The robots, called simply "Tribots," are tiny foldable, flexible machines that think and move as a group, solving problems that would normally take the power of a much larger robot. Each individual bot weighs a scant 10 grams, and they're capable of traversing a variety of terrain thanks to their ability to "walk" and even fling themselves over short distances. But what makes the tiny machines special is their ability to communicate with each other in a way that mimics insects. When the robots reach an obstacle they can relay information to each other and work as a team to overcome it. As a team, the bots are assigned specific roles based on the needs of the group. If an object has to be moved, multiple robots might be needed to accomplish the task. Once the work is completed, the group can move on. The robots embrace their assigned roles at a moment's notice, taking orders from a single group leader. One of the other major benefits of having several small robots instead of a single large machine is that smaller bots can be easily replaced if need. "Since they can be manufactured and deployed in large numbers, having some 'casualties' would not affect the success of the mission," professor Jamie Paik of EPFL said in a statement ." "With their unique collective intelligence, our tiny robots can demonstrate better adaptability to unknown environments; therefore, for certain missions, they would outperform larger, more powerful robots."