diff --git a/browser/speedreader/speedreader_browsertest.cc b/browser/speedreader/speedreader_browsertest.cc index 527c9778c343..19fc95873b80 100644 --- a/browser/speedreader/speedreader_browsertest.cc +++ b/browser/speedreader/speedreader_browsertest.cc @@ -69,13 +69,15 @@ const char kTestPageSimple[] = "/simple.html"; const char kTestPageReadable[] = "/speedreader/article/guardian.html"; const char kTestEsPageReadable[] = "/speedreader/article/es.html"; const char kTestPageReadableOnUnreadablePath[] = - "/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/abcnews.com/distilled.html"; + "/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/abcnews.com/original.html"; const char kTestPageRedirect[] = "/articles/redirect_me.html"; const char kTestXml[] = "/speedreader/article/rss.xml"; const char kTestTtsSimple[] = "/speedreader/article/simple.html"; const char kTestTtsTags[] = "/speedreader/article/tags.html"; const char kTestTtsStructure[] = "/speedreader/article/structure.html"; const char kTestErrorPage[] = "/speedreader/article/page_not_reachable.html"; +const char kTestCSPHtmlPage[] = "/speedreader/article/csp_html.html"; +const char kTestCSPHttpPage[] = "/speedreader/article/csp_http.html"; class SpeedReaderBrowserTest : public InProcessBrowserTest { public: @@ -878,6 +880,21 @@ IN_PROC_BROWSER_TEST_F(SpeedReaderBrowserTest, ErrorPage) { tab_helper()->PageDistillState())); } +IN_PROC_BROWSER_TEST_F(SpeedReaderBrowserTest, Csp) { + ToggleSpeedreader(); + + for (const auto* page : {kTestCSPHtmlPage, kTestCSPHttpPage}) { + content::WebContentsConsoleObserver console_observer(ActiveWebContents()); + console_observer.SetPattern( + "Refused to load the image 'https://a.test/should_fail.png' because it " + "violates the following Content Security Policy directive: \"img-src " + "'none'\".*"); + NavigateToPageSynchronously(page, WindowOpenDisposition::CURRENT_TAB); + + EXPECT_TRUE(console_observer.Wait()); + } +} + class SpeedReaderWithDistillationServiceBrowserTest : public SpeedReaderBrowserTest { public: diff --git a/components/speedreader/renderer/speedreader_js_handler.cc b/components/speedreader/renderer/speedreader_js_handler.cc index 4afcc10e8ee8..9188ffac7908 100644 --- a/components/speedreader/renderer/speedreader_js_handler.cc +++ b/components/speedreader/renderer/speedreader_js_handler.cc @@ -37,14 +37,11 @@ SpeedreaderJSHandler::~SpeedreaderJSHandler() = default; // static void SpeedreaderJSHandler::Install( base::WeakPtr owner, - int32_t isolated_world_id) { + v8::Local context) { DCHECK(owner); v8::Isolate* isolate = blink::MainThreadIsolate(); v8::HandleScope handle_scope(isolate); - v8::Local context = - owner->render_frame()->GetWebFrame()->GetScriptContextFromWorldId( - isolate, isolated_world_id); if (context.IsEmpty()) { return; } diff --git a/components/speedreader/renderer/speedreader_js_handler.h b/components/speedreader/renderer/speedreader_js_handler.h index c2d78ea3137b..1240b2296b6e 100644 --- a/components/speedreader/renderer/speedreader_js_handler.h +++ b/components/speedreader/renderer/speedreader_js_handler.h @@ -22,7 +22,7 @@ class SpeedreaderJSHandler final : public gin::Wrappable { SpeedreaderJSHandler& operator=(const SpeedreaderJSHandler&) = delete; static void Install(base::WeakPtr owner, - int32_t isolated_world_id); + v8::Local context); private: explicit SpeedreaderJSHandler( diff --git a/components/speedreader/renderer/speedreader_render_frame_observer.cc b/components/speedreader/renderer/speedreader_render_frame_observer.cc index b4212678c165..65ebf163cc8d 100644 --- a/components/speedreader/renderer/speedreader_render_frame_observer.cc +++ b/components/speedreader/renderer/speedreader_render_frame_observer.cc @@ -18,12 +18,15 @@ SpeedreaderRenderFrameObserver::SpeedreaderRenderFrameObserver( SpeedreaderRenderFrameObserver::~SpeedreaderRenderFrameObserver() = default; -void SpeedreaderRenderFrameObserver::DidClearWindowObject() { - if (!render_frame()->IsMainFrame()) { +void SpeedreaderRenderFrameObserver::DidCreateScriptContext( + v8::Local context, + int32_t world_id) { + if (!render_frame() || !render_frame()->IsMainFrame() || + isolated_world_id_ != world_id) { return; } - SpeedreaderJSHandler::Install(weak_ptr_factory_.GetWeakPtr(), - isolated_world_id_); + + SpeedreaderJSHandler::Install(weak_ptr_factory_.GetWeakPtr(), context); } void SpeedreaderRenderFrameObserver::OnDestruct() { diff --git a/components/speedreader/renderer/speedreader_render_frame_observer.h b/components/speedreader/renderer/speedreader_render_frame_observer.h index c8fb95931260..b00da2c5d409 100644 --- a/components/speedreader/renderer/speedreader_render_frame_observer.h +++ b/components/speedreader/renderer/speedreader_render_frame_observer.h @@ -23,7 +23,8 @@ class SpeedreaderRenderFrameObserver : public content::RenderFrameObserver { ~SpeedreaderRenderFrameObserver() override; // RenderFrameObserver implementation. - void DidClearWindowObject() override; + void DidCreateScriptContext(v8::Local context, + int32_t world_id) override; private: // RenderFrameObserver implementation. diff --git a/components/speedreader/resources/speedreader-desktop.js b/components/speedreader/resources/speedreader-desktop.js index a3f69f6a5599..caf4b1500bc3 100644 --- a/components/speedreader/resources/speedreader-desktop.js +++ b/components/speedreader/resources/speedreader-desktop.js @@ -23,6 +23,21 @@ class speedreaderUtils { return document.getElementById(id) } + static adoptStyles = () => { + for (const style of document.styleSheets) { + style.disabled = true + } + + const braveStyles = + document.querySelectorAll('script[type="brave-style-data"]') + for (const styleData of braveStyles) { + const style = new CSSStyleSheet() + style.replaceSync(styleData.innerText) + document.adoptedStyleSheets.push(style) + } + document.body.hidden = false + } + static initShowOriginalLink = () => { const link = this.$(this.showOriginalLinkId) if (!link) @@ -67,6 +82,20 @@ class speedreaderUtils { return } + { + const spans = + this.$(this.contentDivId)?.querySelectorAll('p > span') + + for (const span of spans) { + const p = span.parentNode + + while (span.childNodes.length > 0) { + p.insertBefore(span.firstChild, span) + } + p.removeChild(span) + } + } + let textToSpeak = 0 const makeParagraph = (elem) => { @@ -267,6 +296,7 @@ class speedreaderUtils { speedreaderUtils.defaultSpeedreaderData, window.speedreaderData) + speedreaderUtils.adoptStyles() speedreaderUtils.initShowOriginalLink() speedreaderUtils.calculateReadtime() speedreaderUtils.initTextToSpeak() diff --git a/components/speedreader/rust/lib/src/readability/src/extractor.rs b/components/speedreader/rust/lib/src/readability/src/extractor.rs index 43fd98397bba..06be8488c53e 100644 --- a/components/speedreader/rust/lib/src/readability/src/extractor.rs +++ b/components/speedreader/rust/lib/src/readability/src/extractor.rs @@ -83,6 +83,7 @@ pub struct Meta { pub description: Option, pub charset: Option, pub last_modified: Option, + pub preserved_meta: Vec, } impl Meta { @@ -102,6 +103,7 @@ impl Meta { }; self.charset = self.charset.or(other.charset); self.last_modified = self.last_modified.or(other.last_modified); + self.preserved_meta.extend(other.preserved_meta); self } } @@ -188,14 +190,14 @@ pub fn extract_metadata(dom: &Sink) -> Meta { } } else if let Some(charset) = attribute.get(local_name!("charset")) { meta_tags.charset = Some(charset.to_string()); - } else if attribute - .get(local_name!("http-equiv")) - .map(|e| e.to_ascii_lowercase() == "content-type") - .unwrap_or(false) - { - if let Some(content) = attribute.get(local_name!("content")) { - if let Some(charset) = content.split("charset=").nth(1) { - meta_tags.charset = Some(charset.trim().to_string()); + } else if let Some(http_equiv) = attribute.get(local_name!("http-equiv")) { + meta_tags.preserved_meta.push(node.clone()); + + if http_equiv.to_ascii_lowercase() == "content-type" { + if let Some(content) = attribute.get(local_name!("content")) { + if let Some(charset) = content.split("charset=").nth(1) { + meta_tags.charset = Some(charset.trim().to_string()); + } } } } @@ -285,11 +287,24 @@ pub fn extract_dom( // Our CSS formats based on id="article". dom::set_attr("id", "article", body.clone(), true); + dom::set_attr("hidden", "true", body.clone(), true); body.to_string() } _ => top_candidate.to_string(), }; + for node in meta.preserved_meta.iter() { + if let Some(data) = node.as_element() { + let attributes = data.attributes.borrow(); + + let mut val: String = String::from("" + &content; + } + } + if let Some(ref charset) = meta.charset { // Since we strip out the entire head, we need to include charset if one // was provided. Otherwise the browser will use the default encoding, @@ -305,18 +320,18 @@ pub fn extract_dom( if theme.is_some() || font_family.is_some() || font_size.is_some() || column_width.is_some() { let mut header: String = String::from("".to_string(), content, "".to_string()].concat(); + content = header + ">" + &content + ""; } Ok(Product { meta, content }) diff --git a/components/speedreader/speedreader_rewriter_service.cc b/components/speedreader/speedreader_rewriter_service.cc index 0883775d3588..d9bf0ca484b9 100644 --- a/components/speedreader/speedreader_rewriter_service.cc +++ b/components/speedreader/speedreader_rewriter_service.cc @@ -5,6 +5,7 @@ #include "brave/components/speedreader/speedreader_rewriter_service.h" +#include #include #include "base/base64.h" @@ -38,25 +39,31 @@ constexpr const char kSpeedreaderStylesheet[] = "speedreader-stylesheet"; std::string WrapStylesheetWithCSP(const std::string& stylesheet, const std::string& atkinson, const std::string& open_dyslexic) { - auto get_sha256 = [](const std::string& v) { - const std::string& style_hash = crypto::SHA256HashString(v); - return base::Base64Encode(base::as_bytes(base::make_span(style_hash))); - }; - constexpr const char kCSP[] = R"html( )html"; - return base::StrCat( - {base::StringPrintf(kCSP, get_sha256(stylesheet).c_str(), - get_sha256(atkinson).c_str(), - get_sha256(open_dyslexic).c_str()), - "", - "", - ""}); + const auto make_style_data = [](std::string_view id, std::string_view data) { + const std::string& hash = crypto::SHA256HashString(data); + const std::string& sha256 = + base::Base64Encode(base::as_bytes(base::make_span(hash))); + + return base::StrCat({""}); + }; + + return base::StrCat({kCSP, + make_style_data("brave_speedreader_style", stylesheet), + make_style_data("atkinson_hyperligible_font", atkinson), + make_style_data("open_dyslexic_font", open_dyslexic)}); } std::string GetDistilledPageStylesheet(const base::FilePath& stylesheet_path) { diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/article/csp_html.html b/test/data/speedreader/article/csp_html.html new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..1cf939b35e42 --- /dev/null +++ b/test/data/speedreader/article/csp_html.html @@ -0,0 +1,48 @@ + + + + + + + + Encrypt the Web with the HTTPS Everywhere Firefox Extension | Electronic Frontier Foundation + + +
+
+
+

Encrypt the Web with the HTTPS Everywhere Firefox Extension

+
+
+

This page is copied from https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/06/encrypt-web-https-everywhere-firefox-extension, with modification. Today EFF and the Tor Project are launching a public beta of a new Firefox extension called + HTTPS Everywhere.

+

This image is not loaded

+

This Firefox extension was inspired by the launch of Google's encrypted + search option. We wanted a way to ensure that every search our browsers sent was + encrypted. At the same time, we were also able to encrypt most or all of the browser's + communications with some other sites:

+
    +
  • Google Search
    • +
  • Wikipedia
    • +
  • Twitter and Identi.ca
    • +
  • Facebook
    • +
  • EFF and Tor
    • +
  • Ixquick, DuckDuckGo, Scroogle and other small search engines
    • +
  • and lots more!
    • +
+

Firefox users can install HTTPS Everywhere by following this link. As always, + even if you're at an HTTPS page, remember that unless Firefox displays a colored address bar + and an unbroken lock icon in the bottom-right corner, the page is not completely encrypted + and you may still be vulnerable to various forms of eavesdropping or hacking (in many cases, + HTTPS Everywhere can't prevent this because sites incorporate insecure third-party content). +

+
+
+
+ + + diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/article/csp_http.html b/test/data/speedreader/article/csp_http.html new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..bab9b7460789 --- /dev/null +++ b/test/data/speedreader/article/csp_http.html @@ -0,0 +1,46 @@ + + + + + + Encrypt the Web with the HTTPS Everywhere Firefox Extension | Electronic Frontier Foundation + + +
+
+
+

Encrypt the Web with the HTTPS Everywhere Firefox Extension

+
+
+

This page is copied from https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2010/06/encrypt-web-https-everywhere-firefox-extension, with modification. Today EFF and the Tor Project are launching a public beta of a new Firefox extension called + HTTPS Everywhere.

+

This image is not loaded

+

This Firefox extension was inspired by the launch of Google's encrypted + search option. We wanted a way to ensure that every search our browsers sent was + encrypted. At the same time, we were also able to encrypt most or all of the browser's + communications with some other sites:

+
    +
  • Google Search
    • +
  • Wikipedia
    • +
  • Twitter and Identi.ca
    • +
  • Facebook
    • +
  • EFF and Tor
    • +
  • Ixquick, DuckDuckGo, Scroogle and other small search engines
    • +
  • and lots more!
    • +
+

Firefox users can install HTTPS Everywhere by following this link. As always, + even if you're at an HTTPS page, remember that unless Firefox displays a colored address bar + and an unbroken lock icon in the bottom-right corner, the page is not completely encrypted + and you may still be vulnerable to various forms of eavesdropping or hacking (in many cases, + HTTPS Everywhere can't prevent this because sites incorporate insecure third-party content). +

+
+
+
+ + + diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/article/csp_http.html.mock-http-headers b/test/data/speedreader/article/csp_http.html.mock-http-headers new file mode 100644 index 000000000000..39ce92fe8621 --- /dev/null +++ b/test/data/speedreader/article/csp_http.html.mock-http-headers @@ -0,0 +1,4 @@ +HTTP/1.1 200 OK +Content-Type: text/html; +Content-Security-Policy: default-src 'none';img-src 'none';style-src 'none';frame-ancestors 'none';form-action 'none';sandbox + diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/article/tags.html b/test/data/speedreader/article/tags.html index e47b55d56f78..4594d0faf125 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/article/tags.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/article/tags.html @@ -20,12 +20,12 @@

Test document title

proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

- Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod + Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet,consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non - proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum. + proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/no_span_root.expected.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/no_span_root.expected.html index 6b06898ecca6..ec30fa80813c 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/no_span_root.expected.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/no_span_root.expected.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Open Graph property title

Open Graph property title

Short

By Dublin Core property author

+Open Graph property title

Open Graph property title

Short

By Dublin Core property author

Test document title

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/blog.cmpxchg8b.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/blog.cmpxchg8b.com/distilled.html index 83f69718aa8a..a57301c5eeb7 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/blog.cmpxchg8b.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/blog.cmpxchg8b.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -You don’t need reproducible builds.

You don’t need reproducible builds.

I’m skeptical about build reproducibility, but ardent supporters are defending and cheering for it at every opportunity. After a few too man...

+You don’t need reproducible builds.

You don’t need reproducible builds.

I’m skeptical about build reproducibility, but ardent supporters are defending and cheering for it at every opportunity. After a few too man...


I’m skeptical about build reproducibility, but ardent supporters are defending and cheering for it at every opportunity. After a few too many heated discussions, I’ve decided to write down my thoughts on the topic.

I’ll try my best to summarize the arguments for reproducible builds, and explain why I find them unconvincing.

Supporters like to pretend the topic is simple, as one reproducibility fan brusquely put it to me on twitter:

“Reproducibility is important. Source code A leading to binary B through a reproducible build guarantees what you see (source) is what you get (the binary from the vendor). What is not clear here?”



diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/blog.evjang.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/blog.evjang.com/distilled.html index 76fb44bb681d..611dc841b7e9 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/blog.evjang.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/blog.evjang.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Meta-Learning in 50 Lines of JAX

Meta-Learning in 50 Lines of JAX

Github repo here:  https://github.com/ericjang/maml-jax Adaptive behavior in humans and animals occurs at many time scales: when I use a n...

+Meta-Learning in 50 Lines of JAX

Meta-Learning in 50 Lines of JAX

Github repo here:  https://github.com/ericjang/maml-jax Adaptive behavior in humans and animals occurs at many time scales: when I use a n...

Github repo here: https://github.com/ericjang/maml-jax

Adaptive behavior in humans and animals occurs at many time scales: when I use a new shower handle for the first time, it takes me a few seconds to figure out how to adjust the water temperature to my liking. Upon reading a news article, I obtain new information that I didn't have before. More difficult skills, such as mastering a musical instrument, are acquired over a lifetime of deliberate practice.
diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/ferrous-systems.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/ferrous-systems.com/distilled.html index 35a08907bab3..6e1dba8ed9b7 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/ferrous-systems.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/ferrous-systems.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Dancing Links In Rust

Dancing Links In Rust

Ferrous Systems is a Berlin based Rust Consultancy

+Dancing Links In Rust

Dancing Links In Rust

Ferrous Systems is a Berlin based Rust Consultancy

Let’s get to the meat of the post — how to express all this in Rust. This section will have a bit of a literal programming vibe to it.

So far, it sounds like we need some kind of Cell object:

diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/figma.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/figma.com/distilled.html index da7e7734b1a1..3d946fee8a80 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/figma.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/figma.com/distilled.html @@ -1 +1 @@ -Figma and Adobe are abandoning our proposed merger

Figma and Adobe are abandoning our proposed merger

Figma and Adobe no longer see a path toward regulatory approval

Figma and Adobe have reached a joint decision to end our pending acquisition. It’s not the outcome we had hoped for, but despite thousands of hours spent with regulators around the world detailing differences between our businesses, our products, and the markets we serve, we no longer see a path toward regulatory approval of the deal.

We entered into this agreement 15 months ago with the goal of accelerating what both Adobe and Figma could do for our respective communities. While we leave that future behind and continue on as an independent company, we are excited to find ways to partner for our users.

Amid the uncertainty of a pending acquisition, I am deeply proud of how the Figma team delivered for our community and feel we have only continued to accelerate our pace over the past 15 months. Our team built and shipped new products to make it easier to ideate, design and build software, including our first native AI features, Dev Mode, Variables, and Advanced Prototyping. We also opened new hubs in the UK and Asia, hosted an epic Config IRL in San Francisco, acquired AI startup Diagram, and added more than 500 new Figmates.

Figma’s founding vision was to “eliminate the gap between imagination and reality.” The shift from a physical economy to a digital economy and huge advances in AI have combined to make this aspiration feel even more urgent and within reach today than it did 11 years ago.

This will be our focus moving forward. We want to make it easy for anyone to design and build digital products on a single multiplayer canvas—from start to finish, idea to production. I’m so excited for what the future holds and beyond grateful to our community for supporting us. Figma’s best, most innovative days are still ahead. See you all in 2024!

\ No newline at end of file +Figma and Adobe are abandoning our proposed merger

Figma and Adobe are abandoning our proposed merger

Figma and Adobe no longer see a path toward regulatory approval

Figma and Adobe have reached a joint decision to end our pending acquisition. It’s not the outcome we had hoped for, but despite thousands of hours spent with regulators around the world detailing differences between our businesses, our products, and the markets we serve, we no longer see a path toward regulatory approval of the deal.

We entered into this agreement 15 months ago with the goal of accelerating what both Adobe and Figma could do for our respective communities. While we leave that future behind and continue on as an independent company, we are excited to find ways to partner for our users.

Amid the uncertainty of a pending acquisition, I am deeply proud of how the Figma team delivered for our community and feel we have only continued to accelerate our pace over the past 15 months. Our team built and shipped new products to make it easier to ideate, design and build software, including our first native AI features, Dev Mode, Variables, and Advanced Prototyping. We also opened new hubs in the UK and Asia, hosted an epic Config IRL in San Francisco, acquired AI startup Diagram, and added more than 500 new Figmates.

Figma’s founding vision was to “eliminate the gap between imagination and reality.” The shift from a physical economy to a digital economy and huge advances in AI have combined to make this aspiration feel even more urgent and within reach today than it did 11 years ago.

This will be our focus moving forward. We want to make it easy for anyone to design and build digital products on a single multiplayer canvas—from start to finish, idea to production. I’m so excited for what the future holds and beyond grateful to our community for supporting us. Figma’s best, most innovative days are still ahead. See you all in 2024!

\ No newline at end of file diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/montulli.blogspot.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/montulli.blogspot.com/distilled.html index f3bad8d36130..95365ac3e8c3 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/montulli.blogspot.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/montulli.blogspot.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -The reasoning behind Web Cookies

The reasoning behind Web Cookies

I get a  fair number of questions about cookies from individuals and the press.    I thought I would try and explain some of the motivati...

+The reasoning behind Web Cookies

The reasoning behind Web Cookies

I get a  fair number of questions about cookies from individuals and the press.    I thought I would try and explain some of the motivati...

I get a  fair number of questions about cookies from individuals and the press.    I thought I would try and explain some of the motivation diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/nationalpost.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/nationalpost.com/distilled.html index 8d3ccad61084..76280623b4bc 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/nationalpost.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/nationalpost.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Canada's public health agency admits it tracked 33 million mobile devices during lockdown

Canada's public health agency admits it tracked 33 million mobile devices during lockdown

The Public Health Agency of Canada accessed data such as cell-tower location to monitor people’s activity during lockdown, it said

By Swikar Oli

Dec 27, 2021 10:09 PM

The Public Health Agency of Canada accessed location data from 33 million mobile devices to monitor people’s movement during lockdown, the agency revealed this week.

“Due to the urgency of the pandemic, (PHAC) collected and used mobility data, such as cell-tower location data, throughout the COVID-19 response,” a spokesperson told National Post. The program’s existence was first brought to wider attention by Blacklock’s Reporter.

PHAC used the location data to evaluate the effectiveness of public lockdown measures and allow the Agency to “understand possible links between movement of populations within Canada and spread of COVID-19,” the spokesperson said.

In March, the Agency awarded a contract to the Telus Data For Good program to provide “de-identified and aggregated data” of movement trends in Canada. The contract expired in October, and PHAC no longer has access to the location data, the spokesperson said.

  1. Alberta launched its contact tracing app, called ABTraceTogether, in early May.

    Canada's public health agency admits it tracked 33 million mobile devices during lockdown

    The Public Health Agency of Canada accessed data such as cell-tower location to monitor people’s activity during lockdown, it said

    By Swikar Oli

    Dec 27, 2021 10:09 PM

    The Public Health Agency of Canada accessed location data from 33 million mobile devices to monitor people’s movement during lockdown, the agency revealed this week.

    “Due to the urgency of the pandemic, (PHAC) collected and used mobility data, such as cell-tower location data, throughout the COVID-19 response,” a spokesperson told National Post. The program’s existence was first brought to wider attention by Blacklock’s Reporter.

    PHAC used the location data to evaluate the effectiveness of public lockdown measures and allow the Agency to “understand possible links between movement of populations within Canada and spread of COVID-19,” the spokesperson said.

    In March, the Agency awarded a contract to the Telus Data For Good program to provide “de-identified and aggregated data” of movement trends in Canada. The contract expired in October, and PHAC no longer has access to the location data, the spokesperson said.

    1. Alberta launched its contact tracing app, called ABTraceTogether, in early May.

      Opt in or opt out? Officials face difficult ethical decision over COVID-19 contact tracing apps

    2. Telecommunications providers in Israel and Taiwan are working with their respective governments to provide cellular location data to track their citizens’ movements, monitor their exposure to COVID-19 and maintain compliance with social-distancing directives.

      Brave Help Center

      Verifying your Brave Rewards wallet means linking your Brave Rewards profile with a custodial wallet service such as Uphold, Gemini, or...

      Verifying your Brave Rewards wallet means linking your Brave Rewards profile with a custodial wallet service such as Uphold, Gemini, or bitFlyer (Japan only). 

      +Brave Help Center

      Brave Help Center

      Verifying your Brave Rewards wallet means linking your Brave Rewards profile with a custodial wallet service such as Uphold, Gemini, or...

      Verifying your Brave Rewards wallet means linking your Brave Rewards profile with a custodial wallet service such as Uphold, Gemini, or bitFlyer (Japan only). 

      💡 Custodian ("custodial account" or "custodial wallet service"):A custodian is a company that holds your BAT for you. Crypto custodial wallet services and exchanges like Uphold, Gemini, and bitFlyer, for example, are custodial partners in the Brave Rewards ecosystem.

      Linking your Brave Rewards wallet to a custodial wallet service allows you to:

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/variety.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/variety.com/distilled.html index 0c9b5683796a..1ad4f1756e21 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/variety.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/variety.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Variety

        Variety

        Rapper 21 Savage was arrested and released on drug and weapon charges his attorneys say were essentially a revenge act by ICE.

        By Jem Aswad

        Sep 24, 2021 03:16 PM

        +Variety

        Variety

        Rapper 21 Savage was arrested and released on drug and weapon charges his attorneys say were essentially a revenge act by ICE.

        By Jem Aswad

        Sep 24, 2021 03:16 PM

        Atlanta rapper 21 Savage, the British born-artist who was arrested by ICE in 2019 for overstaying his visa, turned himself in to authorities on Thursday night on drug and weapons possession charges stemming from his earlier arrest. He was released on bond, his attorney confirmed to Variety.

        Savage (real name: She’yaa Bin Abraham-Joseph) was taken into custody by ICE during Grammy Week in February of 2019, which amplified awareness of his immigration status. After considerable uproar over the questionable circumstances of his arrest — ICE claimed he had been convicted of felony drug charges in 2014; his attorneys clarified that the conviction was later vacated — the aggravated felony charge against him was dropped

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/www.bbc.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/www.bbc.com/distilled.html index 71b59d621bce..66991787a45c 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/www.bbc.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/www.bbc.com/distilled.html @@ -1 +1 @@ -Most workers do not expect full-time office return, survey says

        Most workers do not expect full-time office return, survey says

        Most people do not believe workers will return to the office full-time, according to YouGov research.

        By By Lora Jones & Rebecca Wearn

        Sep 16, 2021 11:56 AM

        Young woman entering office wearing face maskGetty Images

        Most people do not believe workers will return to the office full-time after the coronavirus pandemic, an exclusive survey for the BBC suggests.

        A total of 70% of 1,684 people polled predicted that workers would "never return to offices at the same rate".

        The majority of workers said that they would prefer to work from home either full-time or at least some of the time.

        But managers raised concerns that creativity in the workplace would be affected.

        Half of 530 senior leaders also surveyed by polling organisation YouGov for the BBC said that workers staying at home would adversely affect both creativity and collaboration - against just 38% of the general public.

        Bosses at big firms such as investment bank Goldman Sachs and tech giant Apple have rejected calls for more flexibility, with the former even calling working from home an "aberration".

        Managers and members of the public surveyed for the BBC agreed, however, that neither productivity nor the economy would be harmed by continuing work-from-home policies.

        Chart - majority think people will not return to office at pre-pandemic rate

        BT's chief executive Philip Jansen, for example, told the BBC that it is planning to let most of its office workers work on-site three or four days of the week in future - although thousands of its engineers won't be offered the same flexibility.

        "We are a people business so collaboration, dynamism, teamwork, creativity... is really important to us," he said.

        According to the research, more than three-quarters of people believe their boss will allow them to continue working from home some of the time.

        According to the latest official figures, the proportion of workers who did at least some work from home in 2020 increased to 37%, up from 27% the previous year.

        2px presentational grey line

        'I want to be in the office as much as possible'

        Maisie started work at TalkTalk in July through the Kickstart scheme

        Maisie Lawrinson joined TalkTalk through the government's Kickstart jobs scheme in July. Under the scheme, Jobcentre work coaches match young people aged between 16 and 24 who are on Universal Credit to new, temporary, roles.

        While Maisie is grateful for the six-month contract, she's keen to be in the office as much as possible so she can make a good impression.

        "I've never had a job where I'm speaking to people online or emailing," she says, referring to her past experience in retail.

        She adds: "I'm more productive when I am in the office because it's more of a professional environment and you get to see people."

        Having started the role remotely, she only got to meet her colleagues for the first time in-person recently.

        "We recently had team drinks and I finally got to meet everyone. It was really nice, I got to see everyone in person and get an idea of who they are, rather than just what their email is."

        She says she will still take the opportunity to work from home some days, though, perhaps towards the end of the week.

        2px presentational grey line

        More than 60% of those surveyed thought young people would struggle to progress without face-to-face contact or in-person mentoring.

        As experts have pointed out, under-25s in particular were hit hard by job losses or reduced hours at the onset of the pandemic.

        The bespoke research for the BBC suggests that some inequalities may be exacerbated by the pandemic, while others might have improved.

        Half of the workers surveyed thought that women's careers might be boosted by home-working, with childcare duties being less of a hindrance.

        'This is the new now'

        One enthusiastic home-worker is Antony Howard, who works in procurement for a large defence company in Manchester.

        He's found big benefits to logging on remotely for the last 16 months, from avoiding expensive coffee shops to cutting down on travel time.

        "My health and carbon footprint have never been better. I'm no longer commuting 92 miles a day and I'm more productive," he says.

        While he's also been saving money by shopping more locally, he does worry about those newer to the company.

        Chart - many think young workers will struggle to progress working from home

        "We've had 17-year-old apprentices starting in September who have never been on-site," he says.

        "For me as a 57-year-old, hybrid working is a great scenario, but for the younger ones starting out, they need that workplace experience, that structure."

        Even so, he hopes that the pandemic will "recalibrate" the workplace. Rather than being a novelty, he says, "I think this is the new now."

        'Messy' situation

        Recruiters are finding it tricky to navigate the expectations of candidates demanding hybrid and remote working, and companies who want people back in the office for at least some of the time.

        Kam Vara

        Kam Vara says people are turning down jobs which don't offer remote working

        Kam Vara, a consultant at Katie Bard recruitment, says it has been a very challenging few months.

        "It used to be that people would fit their lives around their work. Covid is teaching people that it doesn't work that way any more", she says.

        "People are turning down opportunities because they don't offer remote working, and they would rather sit tight and wait for the right job to become available".

        She adds: "It feels quite messy right now. What an employer is looking for is some sort of order. To get people into the office and have some structure. But what employees are looking for is something very different. It's going to be like this for a while until the jigsaw fits together."

        'Gradual return'

        In England, Prime Minister Boris Johnson recommended a "gradual return to work" over the summer as coronavirus restrictions eased. Across the rest of the UK, people are still being advised to keep clocking on remotely where possible.

        And working remotely full-time for office staff could well become the norm again.

        Q&A: How do you bring people back to workplace?

        On Tuesday, Health Secretary Sajid Javid told MPs that advising people in England should work from home again would be part of the government's contingency plans if there was considerable pressure on the NHS this winter.

        Prof Andrew Hayward, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, added that the policy could make "a significant difference to transmission if we get into trouble".

        He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Wednesday: "The most important and effective way of reducing spread of the virus is not to be in contact with other people."

        2px presentational grey line

        The BBC commissioned polling organisation YouGov to survey 1,684 working adults and 530 senior leaders in business about their predictions and opinions on working from home. YouGov also re-ran a previous survey of 4,041 British adults, first conducted in March 2021, about their current working from home situation.

        Banner saying 'Get in touch'

        Have your working arrangements changed? Are the changes for better or worse? Share your views and experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

        Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:

        If you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.

        \ No newline at end of file +Most workers do not expect full-time office return, survey says

        Most workers do not expect full-time office return, survey says

        Most people do not believe workers will return to the office full-time, according to YouGov research.

        By By Lora Jones & Rebecca Wearn

        Sep 16, 2021 11:56 AM

        Young woman entering office wearing face maskGetty Images

        Most people do not believe workers will return to the office full-time after the coronavirus pandemic, an exclusive survey for the BBC suggests.

        A total of 70% of 1,684 people polled predicted that workers would "never return to offices at the same rate".

        The majority of workers said that they would prefer to work from home either full-time or at least some of the time.

        But managers raised concerns that creativity in the workplace would be affected.

        Half of 530 senior leaders also surveyed by polling organisation YouGov for the BBC said that workers staying at home would adversely affect both creativity and collaboration - against just 38% of the general public.

        Bosses at big firms such as investment bank Goldman Sachs and tech giant Apple have rejected calls for more flexibility, with the former even calling working from home an "aberration".

        Managers and members of the public surveyed for the BBC agreed, however, that neither productivity nor the economy would be harmed by continuing work-from-home policies.

        Chart - majority think people will not return to office at pre-pandemic rate

        BT's chief executive Philip Jansen, for example, told the BBC that it is planning to let most of its office workers work on-site three or four days of the week in future - although thousands of its engineers won't be offered the same flexibility.

        "We are a people business so collaboration, dynamism, teamwork, creativity... is really important to us," he said.

        According to the research, more than three-quarters of people believe their boss will allow them to continue working from home some of the time.

        According to the latest official figures, the proportion of workers who did at least some work from home in 2020 increased to 37%, up from 27% the previous year.

        2px presentational grey line

        'I want to be in the office as much as possible'

        Maisie started work at TalkTalk in July through the Kickstart scheme

        Maisie Lawrinson joined TalkTalk through the government's Kickstart jobs scheme in July. Under the scheme, Jobcentre work coaches match young people aged between 16 and 24 who are on Universal Credit to new, temporary, roles.

        While Maisie is grateful for the six-month contract, she's keen to be in the office as much as possible so she can make a good impression.

        "I've never had a job where I'm speaking to people online or emailing," she says, referring to her past experience in retail.

        She adds: "I'm more productive when I am in the office because it's more of a professional environment and you get to see people."

        Having started the role remotely, she only got to meet her colleagues for the first time in-person recently.

        "We recently had team drinks and I finally got to meet everyone. It was really nice, I got to see everyone in person and get an idea of who they are, rather than just what their email is."

        She says she will still take the opportunity to work from home some days, though, perhaps towards the end of the week.

        2px presentational grey line

        More than 60% of those surveyed thought young people would struggle to progress without face-to-face contact or in-person mentoring.

        As experts have pointed out, under-25s in particular were hit hard by job losses or reduced hours at the onset of the pandemic.

        The bespoke research for the BBC suggests that some inequalities may be exacerbated by the pandemic, while others might have improved.

        Half of the workers surveyed thought that women's careers might be boosted by home-working, with childcare duties being less of a hindrance.

        'This is the new now'

        One enthusiastic home-worker is Antony Howard, who works in procurement for a large defence company in Manchester.

        He's found big benefits to logging on remotely for the last 16 months, from avoiding expensive coffee shops to cutting down on travel time.

        "My health and carbon footprint have never been better. I'm no longer commuting 92 miles a day and I'm more productive," he says.

        While he's also been saving money by shopping more locally, he does worry about those newer to the company.

        Chart - many think young workers will struggle to progress working from home

        "We've had 17-year-old apprentices starting in September who have never been on-site," he says.

        "For me as a 57-year-old, hybrid working is a great scenario, but for the younger ones starting out, they need that workplace experience, that structure."

        Even so, he hopes that the pandemic will "recalibrate" the workplace. Rather than being a novelty, he says, "I think this is the new now."

        'Messy' situation

        Recruiters are finding it tricky to navigate the expectations of candidates demanding hybrid and remote working, and companies who want people back in the office for at least some of the time.

        Kam Vara

        Kam Vara says people are turning down jobs which don't offer remote working

        Kam Vara, a consultant at Katie Bard recruitment, says it has been a very challenging few months.

        "It used to be that people would fit their lives around their work. Covid is teaching people that it doesn't work that way any more", she says.

        "People are turning down opportunities because they don't offer remote working, and they would rather sit tight and wait for the right job to become available".

        She adds: "It feels quite messy right now. What an employer is looking for is some sort of order. To get people into the office and have some structure. But what employees are looking for is something very different. It's going to be like this for a while until the jigsaw fits together."

        'Gradual return'

        In England, Prime Minister Boris Johnson recommended a "gradual return to work" over the summer as coronavirus restrictions eased. Across the rest of the UK, people are still being advised to keep clocking on remotely where possible.

        And working remotely full-time for office staff could well become the norm again.

        Q&A: How do you bring people back to workplace?

        On Tuesday, Health Secretary Sajid Javid told MPs that advising people in England should work from home again would be part of the government's contingency plans if there was considerable pressure on the NHS this winter.

        Prof Andrew Hayward, a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies, added that the policy could make "a significant difference to transmission if we get into trouble".

        He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Wednesday: "The most important and effective way of reducing spread of the virus is not to be in contact with other people."

        2px presentational grey line

        The BBC commissioned polling organisation YouGov to survey 1,684 working adults and 530 senior leaders in business about their predictions and opinions on working from home. YouGov also re-ran a previous survey of 4,041 British adults, first conducted in March 2021, about their current working from home situation.

        Banner saying 'Get in touch'

        Have your working arrangements changed? Are the changes for better or worse? Share your views and experiences by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

        Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also get in touch in the following ways:

        If you are reading this page and can't see the form you will need to visit the mobile version of the BBC website to submit your question or comment or you can email us at HaveYourSay@bbc.co.uk. Please include your name, age and location with any submission.

        \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/www.eff.org/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/www.eff.org/distilled.html index f5910f0ce1fa..7538de7b1bc9 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/www.eff.org/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/www.eff.org/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -EFF Tells E.U. Commission: Don't Break Encryption

        EFF Tells E.U. Commission: Don't Break Encryption

        An upcoming proposal from the European Union Commission could make government scanning of user messages and photos mandatory throughout the E.U. If that happens, it would be inconsistent with

        By Joe Mullin

        +EFF Tells E.U. Commission: Don't Break Encryption

        EFF Tells E.U. Commission: Don't Break Encryption

        An upcoming proposal from the European Union Commission could make government scanning of user messages and photos mandatory throughout the E.U. If that happens, it would be inconsistent with

        By Joe Mullin

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/www.forbes.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/www.forbes.com/distilled.html index 8b9cce042e81..47ecd884950a 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/www.forbes.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/www.forbes.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Apple Sues Cybersecurity Startup For ‘Illegally Replicating’ iPhone iOS

        Apple Sues Cybersecurity Startup For ‘Illegally Replicating’ iPhone iOS

        Apple says its lawsuit isn't an attack on cybersecurity research but an attempt to protect its copyrighted iOS operating system.

        By Thomas Brewster

        Aug 15, 2019 06:28 PM

        +Apple Sues Cybersecurity Startup For ‘Illegally Replicating’ iPhone iOS

        Apple Sues Cybersecurity Startup For ‘Illegally Replicating’ iPhone iOS

        Apple says its lawsuit isn't an attack on cybersecurity research but an attempt to protect its copyrighted iOS operating system.

        By Thomas Brewster

        Aug 15, 2019 06:28 PM

        Apple has filed a lawsuit against a security startup for what the Cupertino company claims is illegal replication of the iPhone operating system, iOS.

        The startup is Corellium, first revealed by Forbes in February 2018, when the husband-and-wife-founded company came out of stealth. Its product provides “virtualized” versions of iOS. For security researchers, such software-only versions of the Apple operating system are incredibly valuable. For instance, it’s possible to use Corellium to pause the operating system and analyze what’s happening at the code level. Some in the industry have called it “magic,” as it should help security researchers uncover vulnerabilities with greater ease and speed than having to work with a commercial iPhone.

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/www.latimes.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/www.latimes.com/distilled.html index a222101c8616..c42cc1588038 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/www.latimes.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/www.latimes.com/distilled.html @@ -1,2 +1,2 @@ -Expats are moving to Portugal, taking gentrification with them

        Expats are moving to Portugal, taking gentrification with them

        Portugal, with its warm climate, plentiful sun and cheap cost of living, has become a destination for Californians.

        By Jaweed Kaleem

        Jul 24, 2022 08:28 AM

        CASCAIS, Portugal — 

        Jamie Dixon landed in this hilly seaside town nine months ago, ditching her luxury trailer in Malibu for a two-floor rooftop apartment that’s twice the size for a fraction of the rent.

        Her escape from her native California came amid growing costs of living, encroaching wildfires and a waning sense of safety after the burglary of a neighbor’s home. The fitness-trainer-turned-startup-worker decided it was time to reinvent herself in a foreign land, but like many American expats she didn’t want to feel too far from home.

        In this wealthy enclave about 15 miles from the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, she found her slice of California on the west coast of Europe: ocean breezes, mountain views, hot spring days on palm-tree-lined promenades, and the glow of sunsets that seep into the night.

        An expatriate family in their home

        “Things were just becoming too much back home, but I didn’t want to leave everything about L.A. behind,” said Dixon, 37. Dressed in yoga pants and cross-trainers, she sipped white wine at an organic cafe that overlooked waves crashing into Big Sur-like cliffs a short walk from the rental she shares with her actor husband and 7-year-old daughter.

        “With Portugal,” she said, “we could keep the parts we liked and leave the rest.”

        In top photo, two women carry surfboards at a beach. In the bottom photo, swimmers dive into the blue waters.

        Cascais, a wealthy seaside enclave in Portugal, reminds California expatriates of home.

        (Jose Sarmento Matos / For The Times)

        Dixon has plenty of company in a country that has become an international destination for tourism and residency alike.

        This once seafaring empire known for Port wine and Fado music can feel a lot like California. Except it’s much more affordable on a U.S. budget. That’s one reason the slender nation on the Atlantic has attracted — and even advertised to — Americans who are packing up.

        In the last decade, the overall population in Portugal has declined even as the number of foreigners has grown by 40%. The ranks of American citizens living in this land of 10 million shot up by 45% last year. Within the mix of retirees, digital nomads and young families fed up with issues including the costs of housing and healthcare, Trumpian politics and pandemic policies, Californians are making themselves known in a country once considered the forgotten sibling of Spain.

        People congregate at dusk by a river, with views of a bridge

        The boardwalk at the Tagus River is a favorite of locals and newcomers alike. In the background is the 25th of April Bridge.

        (Jose Sarmento Matos / For The Times)

        “I’d say 95% of my clients are now Americans,” said André Fernandes, a 38-year-old Porto-based real estate broker who, upon seeing the surge in interest in his homeland, moved back from New Jersey three years ago and switched from installing fire sprinklers to selling housing. “In the last week, I’ve called or emailed with people from California, Arizona and New Mexico.” One recent client, he said, was a Netflix writer.

        Portugal emerged from the financial crisis of the mid-2000s as one of the European Union’s poorest nations. With the economy in shambles, Lisbon lawmakers drafted immigration laws to aggressively court foreign professionals, from the wealthy, who could essentially buy residency by purchasing land, to remote workers, who could secure a path to citizenship by earning money abroad but spending it here. More recently, the nation, which for the last seven years has hosted the Web Summit tech conference, has fashioned itself as a tax haven for cryptocurrency investors.

        The government estimates that foreigners have invested more than $6 billion in Portugal since 2012 through property purchases alone. The closely related tourist and rental industries brought in more than $10 billion last year and, before the pandemic, represented 15% of the nation’s GDP. (During the same time in the U.S., tourism accounted for less than 3% of the economy.)

        For Dixon, a fourth-generation Californian, the visa process was textbook. She and her husband, Joey Dixon, had to open a Portuguese bank account with savings equal to about $21,000 — about twice the minimum wage — and lock into a yearlong lease.

        Joey Dixon, who has appeared in “Yellowstone” and “S.W.A.T.,” is starting an acting school for other Hollywood transplants. His wife, who at first went through bouts of loneliness, now comes home to plastic containers of homemade soup at her door from the neighbor below, an older Portuguese woman, and has befriended a nearby couple and their child who moved from New York and started a relocation company.

        A woman hugs a young girl in a pink dress as a man and another woman holding a boy look on

        Jamie Dixon picks up her daughter from school in Cascais, Portugal.

        (Jose Sarmento Matos / For The Times)

        A few blocks down the street, the Dixons have met a California couple — one of them works for Adobe — who recently made the move. A family from Seattle is expected to arrive this month and will occupy the first floor of the Dixons’ three-story gated apartment building. Seeing an influx of Americans, their daughter’s school recently hired an English teacher and now has bilingual instruction.

        Global California

        This story is part of our Global California project

        Our correspondents are traveling the globe, sharing stories that examine the complex relationship between the West Coast and the rest of the world.
        Explore more Global California stories.

        “My Portuguese is still bad,” said Jamie Dixon, who has taken classes but uses her favorite phrase to describe her attitude toward the slow journey of integration: não faz mal (“no big deal”). She hopes to speak enough in five years to pass the citizenship test, which would gain the family European Union passports. With them comes the freedom to move and work throughout much of the continent.

        “You just don’t know where America is headed these days. Are we going to be fighting with each other forever? Are we in the Cold War again with Russia?” Dixon said. “Getting that second passport would be a relief.”

        But resentment of newcomers is growing. Angelenos can’t always escape — and sometimes are at the root of — questions over gentrification, income disparities and immigration. The phrase “expat” itself has become loaded in Lisbon, a city that attracts tens of thousands of working-class immigrants from Brazil, Ukraine, Romania and India. In Facebook groups and cafe meetups, well-to-do Westerners debate over how to define themselves. On the streets, Portuguese activists have protested against evictions and skyrocketing rents caused in part by foreigners with banks that count in dollars and pounds.

        “There’s no doubt that the foreign investment has greatly helped Portugal’s economy and made the cities more beautiful,” said Isabel da Bandeira, an activist who co-founded the Lisbon housing rights group Aqui Mora Gente (People Live Here). “But this process has also hurt the long-term residents who don’t recognize parts of their communities anymore or can’t afford to live in them.”

        Across Lisbon, the country’s largest urban center with 550,000 people, it’s hard to miss the Californians. The city, where tourism has boomed over the years to the point that entire streets in its historic core are made up exclusively of hotels and Airbnbs, has attracted monied newcomers from across the world, including the United Kingdom, Cape Verde, South Africa and Russia. But more Americans are buying expensive property than any other foreigners, surpassing the Chinese.

        A blue, white and yellow tram next to a building and pedestrians

        A tram goes up a hill in the historic Alfama neighborhood in Lisbon, Portugal.

        (Jose Sarmento Matos / For The Times)

        An article last year in the Lisbon-based newspaper Diário de Notícias extolled the ties between California and Portugal. “It’s fundamental to put Portugal on the map for Californians,” Pedro Pinto, the Portuguese consul general in San Francisco, said in the piece, as he suggested a direct flight from Los Angeles to Lisbon “would have high demand” (there’s already one from San Francisco).

        California has long drawn the Portuguese. Spain and Portugal claim 16th century colonial explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, who was the first European to land on California’s shores, as one of their own. In the mid-19th century, droves of farmers from the Azores made their way to Central California. In San Jose, the Little Portugal neighborhood pays homage to the region’s immigrant history. But today, the transplants go the other way and are of a different variety: upper middle class or wealthier with online jobs or well-managed retirement accounts.

        After years of divisive politics, failed wars, worsening wealth gaps and fights over national identity, Americans are perhaps more flexible in their patriotism and willing to make a home beyond their borders. For residents of California, where the best and worst of America appear to constantly collide, the shores of Portugal have offered a respite.

        From the retiree villages of Mexico and Central America to the red-white-and-blue enclaves scattered throughout Asia and Europe, Americans have long had a curious and at times contentious relationship with the world and its cultures. They are often viewed as wanting to cast other nations in their image, a criticism cleverly distilled in Graham Greene’s novel “The Quiet American.” They want the exotic so long as there’s a scent of the familiar.

        In Portugal, some recent California expats have taken it upon themselves to make the pitch for how to conjure a bit of their home state while living abroad.

        Jen Wittman, who moved with her husband and 13-year-old son to Lisbon in March last year, runs a Facebook group called Californians Moving To/Living In Portugal. In a community of migrants where dozens of Facebook pages function as a how-to library on moving, Wittman said she created hers a year ago after seeing Californians “getting mocked in other groups for very California questions, like where to get good avocados and Mexican food.”

        A woman, a man and a boy eat ice cream at a table outside a store

        Jen Wittman enjoys ice cream with husband Doug Sanders and their son, Bodhi.

        (Jose Sarmento Matos / For The Times)

        The avocados have been easy to come by. The Mexican food, not so much, though there is a San Diego couple who have a homemade tamale and Mexican import business.

        “I feel like we as Californians have more particular things we want. We want the sun, the water, the amenities, the fresh and organic food,” said Wittman, 47, a former chef who runs an online consulting company for small businesses with her husband. “We also tend to have higher incomes than other Americans so people get annoyed when we ask our budgeting questions in other expat groups.”

        A resident of Playa del Rey for 20 years, she left for Lisbon after a stint in Sonoma County. For Wittman, it was her mother’s death and a desire to rethink the future that spurred the move. She also wanted her son to have free college tuition in EU nations once the family gains citizenship. In Portugal, she said, she feels safer, has more affordable healthcare, and has gained distance from the political division of America.

        A woman with a scooter on a street, left. On the right, people sit along a low stone wall.

        A tourist, left, walks up one of Lisbon’s many hills in the Alfama neighborhood. Right, a streetscape in the Chiado neighborhood, where the growth of tourism and new international residents have caused strains over affordable housing.

        (Jose Sarmento Matos / For The Times)

        The rent on the family’s furnished three-bedroom apartment, tucked away on a cobblestone street next to a 13th century stone cathedral in the Alfama district, is 2,100 euros — less than $2,200. With its elevator access, renovated kitchen and a view of cruise ships on the Tagus River, it’s a steal on their budget. Wittman, accustomed to quick workday meals back home, now has leisurely hours-long lunches at her favorite Portuguese restaurant, where a plate of salad, chicken legs and potatoes is served with wine, espresso and mango custard for 10 euros, or about $11.

        Her neighborhood, one of Lisbon’s oldest where every other apartment is now housing for internationals, has been the center of protests over evictions and gentrification. Wittman, who mostly mingles with foreigners, said she’s received no hostility from locals. Instead, she too has felt the crunch of Portugal’s growing popularity.

        “We were able to get a deal because of COVID and few people visiting the city,” said Wittman, who still maintains bits of her Midwestern accent from her Indiana upbringing. That was before a lease extension offer came in at 3,650 euros. “Now that our time is coming up, we can’t even find anything affordable in the city.”

        People on a balcony look out at rooftops and a cruise ship

        Tourists enjoy one of Lisbon’s lookouts.

        (Jose Sarmento Matos / For The Times)

        This month, the family is moving to the suburbs across the river, 40 minutes away.

        Luis Mendes, a geographer at the University of Lisbon, said the effect of Americans and foreigners in Portugal is mixed.

        “You cannot deny that places like Lisbon have become much more appealing for young, creative people with money to spend. The effect on the economy and the way the buildings look — no longer empty — is astronomical,” said Mendes. “But the average Portuguese person can no longer afford to live in the center of Lisbon. Rents have gone up five times over a few years. Even the basic things, such as buying groceries, take longer trips outside the city center than they used to.”

        The trend has hit not “only lifelong, lower-class residents but also gentrifiers who see a 1,000-euros-per-month rented flat transformed into a 120-euro-per-night Airbnb,” said Jordi Mateo, a professor at NOVA University of Lisbon.

        postage stamp for Lisbon, Portugal, illustrated with yellow buildings

        Postcards from Portugal

        These Californians relocated to Portugal. They share their stories.

        The government has recognized the crisis. As of this year, the nation’s popular “golden visa” program, which offers residency to foreigners who buy homes priced at 500,000 euros or more — Americans dominate the program — is no longer taking applications in the biggest cities. That includes Lisbon, Porto and the Algarve, the southern coastal region long popular with retirees and lovers of surf culture.

        In just a few years, evictions have more than doubled in Lisbon. The city’s former mayor, Fernando Medina, had launched an initiative to rent out hundreds of Airbnbs to use as housing for local workers only to see his ambitions fizzle because owners could make more on the private market. “Lisbon, don’t be French,” said a recent comment on the Facebook page of the activist group Stop Despejos (Stop Evictions), a reference to the exorbitant costs of expat-heavy destinations in France.

        While the nation’s popularity has grown fast during the pandemic with prices for locals and newcomers alike doing the same, those who arrived earlier have in some ways fared better.

        Therese Mascardo, a 39-year-old therapist from Santa Monica, flew to Lisbon in 2019 after experimenting with online sessions to cut down on her four-hour daily round-trip commute to Orange County. Frustrated with the Trump presidency, mass shootings and a car-bound lifestyle, she said she sought out “the antiquity and charm” of an old European city that was walkable. Mascardo was attracted to the fact that right-wing parties have not made the same inroads in the nation as they have elsewhere in Europe.

        Today, she can afford to work just two days a week — on a California schedule — while building out an online social media therapy content brand in her free time. She has money to spare after paying her monthly 1,000-euro rent. One Sunday a month, she leads a rotating museum tour for digital nomads on stopovers in the city.

        A woman in a green jacket looks out the window at other buildings

        Therese Mascardo at her apartment in a Lisbon neighborhood.

        (Jose Sarmento Matos / For The Times)

        From the streets outside her three-bedroom apartment that straddles the Estrela and Lapa neighborhoods, Mascardo, who grew up in Orange and studied at UC Berkeley, can look downhill and spot the the 25th of April Bridge. Modeled after the Bay Bridge, it is painted in the same red as the Golden Gate and reminds her of home.

        But despite twice-yearly trips to Los Angeles, where she lugs in cheap Vinho Verde and stocks up on Anthropologie candles and Trader Joe’s pea chips for the return, she has no plans to leave.

        “I love my weekly stroll to the farmers market and being within a 15-minute walk of most of my friends,” Mascardo said. “I love the kindness and hospitality of the Portuguese people, especially when they graciously endure my nascent Portuguese language skills and gently offer corrections and tips. I love that people eat bread here and aren’t always talking about the restrictive diet they are on. I love that dressing down is the standard way of existence here. I feel happier and not just trying hard to be happy.”

        Jamie Dixon feels the same way.

        Walking recently along the Avenida da República, the cliffside road near her new home that’s lined with cafes overlooking the ocean, she was for moments convinced she was back in Malibu at a sort of Point Dume on the Atlantic. But as she crossed the road and glimpsed the Portuguese street signs, she was reminded that it takes time and patience to build a new life in a distant land.

        A group of men gather near a yellow-and-black ball on a beach with buildings in the background +<title>Expats are moving to Portugal, taking gentrification with them</title><meta charset=

        Expats are moving to Portugal, taking gentrification with them

        Portugal, with its warm climate, plentiful sun and cheap cost of living, has become a destination for Californians.

        By Jaweed Kaleem

        Jul 24, 2022 08:28 AM

        CASCAIS, Portugal — 

        Jamie Dixon landed in this hilly seaside town nine months ago, ditching her luxury trailer in Malibu for a two-floor rooftop apartment that’s twice the size for a fraction of the rent.

        Her escape from her native California came amid growing costs of living, encroaching wildfires and a waning sense of safety after the burglary of a neighbor’s home. The fitness-trainer-turned-startup-worker decided it was time to reinvent herself in a foreign land, but like many American expats she didn’t want to feel too far from home.

        In this wealthy enclave about 15 miles from the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, she found her slice of California on the west coast of Europe: ocean breezes, mountain views, hot spring days on palm-tree-lined promenades, and the glow of sunsets that seep into the night.

        An expatriate family in their home

        “Things were just becoming too much back home, but I didn’t want to leave everything about L.A. behind,” said Dixon, 37. Dressed in yoga pants and cross-trainers, she sipped white wine at an organic cafe that overlooked waves crashing into Big Sur-like cliffs a short walk from the rental she shares with her actor husband and 7-year-old daughter.

        “With Portugal,” she said, “we could keep the parts we liked and leave the rest.”

        In top photo, two women carry surfboards at a beach. In the bottom photo, swimmers dive into the blue waters.

        Cascais, a wealthy seaside enclave in Portugal, reminds California expatriates of home.

        (Jose Sarmento Matos / For The Times)

        Dixon has plenty of company in a country that has become an international destination for tourism and residency alike.

        This once seafaring empire known for Port wine and Fado music can feel a lot like California. Except it’s much more affordable on a U.S. budget. That’s one reason the slender nation on the Atlantic has attracted — and even advertised to — Americans who are packing up.

        In the last decade, the overall population in Portugal has declined even as the number of foreigners has grown by 40%. The ranks of American citizens living in this land of 10 million shot up by 45% last year. Within the mix of retirees, digital nomads and young families fed up with issues including the costs of housing and healthcare, Trumpian politics and pandemic policies, Californians are making themselves known in a country once considered the forgotten sibling of Spain.

        People congregate at dusk by a river, with views of a bridge

        The boardwalk at the Tagus River is a favorite of locals and newcomers alike. In the background is the 25th of April Bridge.

        (Jose Sarmento Matos / For The Times)

        “I’d say 95% of my clients are now Americans,” said André Fernandes, a 38-year-old Porto-based real estate broker who, upon seeing the surge in interest in his homeland, moved back from New Jersey three years ago and switched from installing fire sprinklers to selling housing. “In the last week, I’ve called or emailed with people from California, Arizona and New Mexico.” One recent client, he said, was a Netflix writer.

        Portugal emerged from the financial crisis of the mid-2000s as one of the European Union’s poorest nations. With the economy in shambles, Lisbon lawmakers drafted immigration laws to aggressively court foreign professionals, from the wealthy, who could essentially buy residency by purchasing land, to remote workers, who could secure a path to citizenship by earning money abroad but spending it here. More recently, the nation, which for the last seven years has hosted the Web Summit tech conference, has fashioned itself as a tax haven for cryptocurrency investors.

        The government estimates that foreigners have invested more than $6 billion in Portugal since 2012 through property purchases alone. The closely related tourist and rental industries brought in more than $10 billion last year and, before the pandemic, represented 15% of the nation’s GDP. (During the same time in the U.S., tourism accounted for less than 3% of the economy.)

        For Dixon, a fourth-generation Californian, the visa process was textbook. She and her husband, Joey Dixon, had to open a Portuguese bank account with savings equal to about $21,000 — about twice the minimum wage — and lock into a yearlong lease.

        Joey Dixon, who has appeared in “Yellowstone” and “S.W.A.T.,” is starting an acting school for other Hollywood transplants. His wife, who at first went through bouts of loneliness, now comes home to plastic containers of homemade soup at her door from the neighbor below, an older Portuguese woman, and has befriended a nearby couple and their child who moved from New York and started a relocation company.

        A woman hugs a young girl in a pink dress as a man and another woman holding a boy look on

        Jamie Dixon picks up her daughter from school in Cascais, Portugal.

        (Jose Sarmento Matos / For The Times)

        A few blocks down the street, the Dixons have met a California couple — one of them works for Adobe — who recently made the move. A family from Seattle is expected to arrive this month and will occupy the first floor of the Dixons’ three-story gated apartment building. Seeing an influx of Americans, their daughter’s school recently hired an English teacher and now has bilingual instruction.

        Global California

        This story is part of our Global California project

        Our correspondents are traveling the globe, sharing stories that examine the complex relationship between the West Coast and the rest of the world.
        Explore more Global California stories.

        “My Portuguese is still bad,” said Jamie Dixon, who has taken classes but uses her favorite phrase to describe her attitude toward the slow journey of integration: não faz mal (“no big deal”). She hopes to speak enough in five years to pass the citizenship test, which would gain the family European Union passports. With them comes the freedom to move and work throughout much of the continent.

        “You just don’t know where America is headed these days. Are we going to be fighting with each other forever? Are we in the Cold War again with Russia?” Dixon said. “Getting that second passport would be a relief.”

        But resentment of newcomers is growing. Angelenos can’t always escape — and sometimes are at the root of — questions over gentrification, income disparities and immigration. The phrase “expat” itself has become loaded in Lisbon, a city that attracts tens of thousands of working-class immigrants from Brazil, Ukraine, Romania and India. In Facebook groups and cafe meetups, well-to-do Westerners debate over how to define themselves. On the streets, Portuguese activists have protested against evictions and skyrocketing rents caused in part by foreigners with banks that count in dollars and pounds.

        “There’s no doubt that the foreign investment has greatly helped Portugal’s economy and made the cities more beautiful,” said Isabel da Bandeira, an activist who co-founded the Lisbon housing rights group Aqui Mora Gente (People Live Here). “But this process has also hurt the long-term residents who don’t recognize parts of their communities anymore or can’t afford to live in them.”

        Across Lisbon, the country’s largest urban center with 550,000 people, it’s hard to miss the Californians. The city, where tourism has boomed over the years to the point that entire streets in its historic core are made up exclusively of hotels and Airbnbs, has attracted monied newcomers from across the world, including the United Kingdom, Cape Verde, South Africa and Russia. But more Americans are buying expensive property than any other foreigners, surpassing the Chinese.

        A blue, white and yellow tram next to a building and pedestrians

        A tram goes up a hill in the historic Alfama neighborhood in Lisbon, Portugal.

        (Jose Sarmento Matos / For The Times)

        An article last year in the Lisbon-based newspaper Diário de Notícias extolled the ties between California and Portugal. “It’s fundamental to put Portugal on the map for Californians,” Pedro Pinto, the Portuguese consul general in San Francisco, said in the piece, as he suggested a direct flight from Los Angeles to Lisbon “would have high demand” (there’s already one from San Francisco).

        California has long drawn the Portuguese. Spain and Portugal claim 16th century colonial explorer Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, who was the first European to land on California’s shores, as one of their own. In the mid-19th century, droves of farmers from the Azores made their way to Central California. In San Jose, the Little Portugal neighborhood pays homage to the region’s immigrant history. But today, the transplants go the other way and are of a different variety: upper middle class or wealthier with online jobs or well-managed retirement accounts.

        After years of divisive politics, failed wars, worsening wealth gaps and fights over national identity, Americans are perhaps more flexible in their patriotism and willing to make a home beyond their borders. For residents of California, where the best and worst of America appear to constantly collide, the shores of Portugal have offered a respite.

        From the retiree villages of Mexico and Central America to the red-white-and-blue enclaves scattered throughout Asia and Europe, Americans have long had a curious and at times contentious relationship with the world and its cultures. They are often viewed as wanting to cast other nations in their image, a criticism cleverly distilled in Graham Greene’s novel “The Quiet American.” They want the exotic so long as there’s a scent of the familiar.

        In Portugal, some recent California expats have taken it upon themselves to make the pitch for how to conjure a bit of their home state while living abroad.

        Jen Wittman, who moved with her husband and 13-year-old son to Lisbon in March last year, runs a Facebook group called Californians Moving To/Living In Portugal. In a community of migrants where dozens of Facebook pages function as a how-to library on moving, Wittman said she created hers a year ago after seeing Californians “getting mocked in other groups for very California questions, like where to get good avocados and Mexican food.”

        A woman, a man and a boy eat ice cream at a table outside a store

        Jen Wittman enjoys ice cream with husband Doug Sanders and their son, Bodhi.

        (Jose Sarmento Matos / For The Times)

        The avocados have been easy to come by. The Mexican food, not so much, though there is a San Diego couple who have a homemade tamale and Mexican import business.

        “I feel like we as Californians have more particular things we want. We want the sun, the water, the amenities, the fresh and organic food,” said Wittman, 47, a former chef who runs an online consulting company for small businesses with her husband. “We also tend to have higher incomes than other Americans so people get annoyed when we ask our budgeting questions in other expat groups.”

        A resident of Playa del Rey for 20 years, she left for Lisbon after a stint in Sonoma County. For Wittman, it was her mother’s death and a desire to rethink the future that spurred the move. She also wanted her son to have free college tuition in EU nations once the family gains citizenship. In Portugal, she said, she feels safer, has more affordable healthcare, and has gained distance from the political division of America.

        A woman with a scooter on a street, left. On the right, people sit along a low stone wall.

        A tourist, left, walks up one of Lisbon’s many hills in the Alfama neighborhood. Right, a streetscape in the Chiado neighborhood, where the growth of tourism and new international residents have caused strains over affordable housing.

        (Jose Sarmento Matos / For The Times)

        The rent on the family’s furnished three-bedroom apartment, tucked away on a cobblestone street next to a 13th century stone cathedral in the Alfama district, is 2,100 euros — less than $2,200. With its elevator access, renovated kitchen and a view of cruise ships on the Tagus River, it’s a steal on their budget. Wittman, accustomed to quick workday meals back home, now has leisurely hours-long lunches at her favorite Portuguese restaurant, where a plate of salad, chicken legs and potatoes is served with wine, espresso and mango custard for 10 euros, or about $11.

        Her neighborhood, one of Lisbon’s oldest where every other apartment is now housing for internationals, has been the center of protests over evictions and gentrification. Wittman, who mostly mingles with foreigners, said she’s received no hostility from locals. Instead, she too has felt the crunch of Portugal’s growing popularity.

        “We were able to get a deal because of COVID and few people visiting the city,” said Wittman, who still maintains bits of her Midwestern accent from her Indiana upbringing. That was before a lease extension offer came in at 3,650 euros. “Now that our time is coming up, we can’t even find anything affordable in the city.”

        People on a balcony look out at rooftops and a cruise ship

        Tourists enjoy one of Lisbon’s lookouts.

        (Jose Sarmento Matos / For The Times)

        This month, the family is moving to the suburbs across the river, 40 minutes away.

        Luis Mendes, a geographer at the University of Lisbon, said the effect of Americans and foreigners in Portugal is mixed.

        “You cannot deny that places like Lisbon have become much more appealing for young, creative people with money to spend. The effect on the economy and the way the buildings look — no longer empty — is astronomical,” said Mendes. “But the average Portuguese person can no longer afford to live in the center of Lisbon. Rents have gone up five times over a few years. Even the basic things, such as buying groceries, take longer trips outside the city center than they used to.”

        The trend has hit not “only lifelong, lower-class residents but also gentrifiers who see a 1,000-euros-per-month rented flat transformed into a 120-euro-per-night Airbnb,” said Jordi Mateo, a professor at NOVA University of Lisbon.

        postage stamp for Lisbon, Portugal, illustrated with yellow buildings

        Postcards from Portugal

        These Californians relocated to Portugal. They share their stories.

        The government has recognized the crisis. As of this year, the nation’s popular “golden visa” program, which offers residency to foreigners who buy homes priced at 500,000 euros or more — Americans dominate the program — is no longer taking applications in the biggest cities. That includes Lisbon, Porto and the Algarve, the southern coastal region long popular with retirees and lovers of surf culture.

        In just a few years, evictions have more than doubled in Lisbon. The city’s former mayor, Fernando Medina, had launched an initiative to rent out hundreds of Airbnbs to use as housing for local workers only to see his ambitions fizzle because owners could make more on the private market. “Lisbon, don’t be French,” said a recent comment on the Facebook page of the activist group Stop Despejos (Stop Evictions), a reference to the exorbitant costs of expat-heavy destinations in France.

        While the nation’s popularity has grown fast during the pandemic with prices for locals and newcomers alike doing the same, those who arrived earlier have in some ways fared better.

        Therese Mascardo, a 39-year-old therapist from Santa Monica, flew to Lisbon in 2019 after experimenting with online sessions to cut down on her four-hour daily round-trip commute to Orange County. Frustrated with the Trump presidency, mass shootings and a car-bound lifestyle, she said she sought out “the antiquity and charm” of an old European city that was walkable. Mascardo was attracted to the fact that right-wing parties have not made the same inroads in the nation as they have elsewhere in Europe.

        Today, she can afford to work just two days a week — on a California schedule — while building out an online social media therapy content brand in her free time. She has money to spare after paying her monthly 1,000-euro rent. One Sunday a month, she leads a rotating museum tour for digital nomads on stopovers in the city.

        A woman in a green jacket looks out the window at other buildings

        Therese Mascardo at her apartment in a Lisbon neighborhood.

        (Jose Sarmento Matos / For The Times)

        From the streets outside her three-bedroom apartment that straddles the Estrela and Lapa neighborhoods, Mascardo, who grew up in Orange and studied at UC Berkeley, can look downhill and spot the the 25th of April Bridge. Modeled after the Bay Bridge, it is painted in the same red as the Golden Gate and reminds her of home.

        But despite twice-yearly trips to Los Angeles, where she lugs in cheap Vinho Verde and stocks up on Anthropologie candles and Trader Joe’s pea chips for the return, she has no plans to leave.

        “I love my weekly stroll to the farmers market and being within a 15-minute walk of most of my friends,” Mascardo said. “I love the kindness and hospitality of the Portuguese people, especially when they graciously endure my nascent Portuguese language skills and gently offer corrections and tips. I love that people eat bread here and aren’t always talking about the restrictive diet they are on. I love that dressing down is the standard way of existence here. I feel happier and not just trying hard to be happy.”

        Jamie Dixon feels the same way.

        Walking recently along the Avenida da República, the cliffside road near her new home that’s lined with cafes overlooking the ocean, she was for moments convinced she was back in Malibu at a sort of Point Dume on the Atlantic. But as she crossed the road and glimpsed the Portuguese street signs, she was reminded that it takes time and patience to build a new life in a distant land.

        A group of men gather near a yellow-and-black ball on a beach with buildings in the background

        A volleyball game on a Cascais beach in Portugal.

        (Jose Sarmento Matos / For The Times)

        “I miss knowing people when I go out to a restaurant or bar. I miss frolicking in the desert. I miss Palm Springs. I miss how easy it is to pay bills or renew my license. I miss being fluent,” Dixon said. “It’s taken months to just feel like we are barely settling in. But I feel safer here going out alone. I’m excited my daughter will speak other languages.”

        She was on her way home to pack for a family trip to Mallorca, something that would have required a week of time off and thousands of dollars when she was back in the U.S. From here, it would be a quick weekend jaunt on the cheap.

        “I thought L.A. was the end-all, be-all and the only place out there,” she said. “But, sometimes, you have to take a leap and realize America isn’t home forever.”

        Times staff writer Rachel Schnalzer contributed to this report.

        \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/www.politico.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/www.politico.com/distilled.html index e6e30fd2e6e7..141efed8f9b9 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/www.politico.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/www.politico.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -‘You’ve disgraced this country’: Judge rips Capitol riot defendant

        ‘You’ve disgraced this country’: Judge rips Capitol riot defendant

        “I find it outrageous that American citizens would do what you did,” George W. Bush appointee Reggie Walton said following a Florida man’s guilty plea.

        +‘You’ve disgraced this country’: Judge rips Capitol riot defendant

        ‘You’ve disgraced this country’: Judge rips Capitol riot defendant

        “I find it outrageous that American citizens would do what you did,” George W. Bush appointee Reggie Walton said following a Florida man’s guilty plea.

        Most of Mariotto’s half-hour-long plea hearing was routine in nature, as the judge led the defendant through a fairly standard series of questions about his competence to enter a plea and about the consequences of doing so.

        However, as the subject turned to whether Mariotto should be detained pending sentencing, Walton’s voice rose and he unleashed an angry fusillade over the storming of the Capitol earlier this year as lawmakers were preparing to certify Joe Biden’s win in the presidential race.

        “I have real concerns about what you and the other people” did, said the judge, an appointee of former President George W. Bush. “It was an attack on our government, and I love my government. This government has been good to me. To see somebody destroy, or try to destroy, the Capitol is very troubling to me.”

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/www.sixthtone.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/www.sixthtone.com/distilled.html index 3d544b73b2e5..ad5472a1bcab 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/www.sixthtone.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/www.sixthtone.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -She Spent a Decade Writing Fake Russian History. Wikipedia Just Noticed.

        She Spent a Decade Writing Fake Russian History. Wikipedia Just Noticed.

        A Chinese woman created over 200 fictional articles on Chinese Wikipedia, writing millions of words of imagined history that went unnoticed for more than 10 years.

        By Sixth Tone

        +She Spent a Decade Writing Fake Russian History. Wikipedia Just Noticed.

        She Spent a Decade Writing Fake Russian History. Wikipedia Just Noticed.

        A Chinese woman created over 200 fictional articles on Chinese Wikipedia, writing millions of words of imagined history that went unnoticed for more than 10 years.

        By Sixth Tone

        Yifan, a fantasy novelist, was browsing Chinese Wikipedia looking for inspiration in history, when he first learned of the great silver mine of Kashin. Originally opened by the principality of Tver, an independent state from the 13th to 15th centuries, it grew to be one of the world’s biggest, a city-sized early modern industry worked by some 30,000 slaves and 10,000 freedmen. Its fabulous wealth made it a vital resource to the princes of Tver, but also tempted the powerful dukes of Moscow, who attempted to seize the mine in a series of wars that sprawled across the land that is now Russia from 1305 to 1485. “After the fall of the Principality of Tver, it continued to be mined by the Grand Duchy of Moscow and its successor regime until the mine was closed in the mid-18th century due to being exhausted,” the entry said.

        Protonmail celebrates Swiss court victory exempting it from telco data retention laws

        Doesn't stop local courts' surveillance orders, though

        By Gareth Corfield

        Oct 27, 2021 02:00 AM

        +Protonmail celebrates Swiss court victory exempting it from telco data retention laws

        Protonmail celebrates Swiss court victory exempting it from telco data retention laws

        Doesn't stop local courts' surveillance orders, though

        By Gareth Corfield

        Oct 27, 2021 02:00 AM

        Encrypted email provider Protonmail has hailed a recent Swiss legal ruling as a "victory for privacy," after winning a lawsuit that sees it exempted from data retention laws in the mountainous realm.

        Referring to a previous ruling that exempted instant messaging services from data capture and storage laws, the Protonmail team said this week: "Together, these two rulings are a victory for privacy in Switzerland as many Swiss companies are now exempted from handing over certain user information in response to Swiss legal orders."

        Switzerland's Federal Administrative Court ruled on October 22 that email providers in Switzerland are not considered telecommunications providers under Swiss law, thereby removing them from the scope of data retention requirements imposed on telcos.

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/www.tmz.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/www.tmz.com/distilled.html index fa3cce4ce704..177a8560321d 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/www.tmz.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/issues_pages/www.tmz.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -SpaceX Sends First All-Civilian Crew Into Space, No Astronauts Required

        SpaceX Sends First All-Civilian Crew Into Space, No Astronauts Required

        SpaceX makes history with first all-civilian crew blasting into space.

        By TMZ Staff

        Sep 16, 2021 01:21 PM

        +SpaceX Sends First All-Civilian Crew Into Space, No Astronauts Required

        SpaceX Sends First All-Civilian Crew Into Space, No Astronauts Required

        SpaceX makes history with first all-civilian crew blasting into space.

        By TMZ Staff

        Sep 16, 2021 01:21 PM

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/abcnews.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/abcnews.com/distilled.html index 09f5f550699b..f9fb7df4a4dc 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/abcnews.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/abcnews.com/distilled.html @@ -1 +1 @@ -Woman struck by lightning near White House talks her road to recovery with 'GMA'

        Woman struck by lightning near White House talks her road to recovery with 'GMA'

        The exclusive interview with Amber Escudero-Kontostathis airs Tuesday morning.

        By Teddy Grant, Alex Colletta, Vera Drymon

        Aug 16, 2022 11:51 AM

        In an exclusive interview with "Good Morning America," Amber Escudero-Kontostathis sits down to talk for the first time about being the sole survivor of a lightning strike near the White House earlier this month, on her 28th birthday, and her road to recovery.

        "I don't remember much of that day at all," Escudero-Kontostathis told "GMA" in her first interview since the incident.

        On Aug. 4, Escudero-Kontostathis, 28, was canvassing outside the White House for Threshold Giving, a nonprofit organization through the International Rescue Committee that helps refugees, when she and three others took cover underneath a tree at Lafayette Square after it began to rain.

        PHOTO: Amber Escudero-Kontostathis, survivor of the Aug. 4 lightning strike near the White House, is interviewed by Good Morning America, in Washington, Aug. 15, 2022.

        Amber Escudero-Kontostathis, survivor of the Aug. 4 lightning strike near the White House, is interviewed by Good Morning America, in Washington, Aug. 15, 2022.

        ABC News

        Six bolts of lightning struck the group within half a second, killing three others, including 76-year-old James Mueller and 75-year-old Donna Mueller, a married couple celebrating their anniversary, and Brooks Lambertson, a 29-year-old Los Angeles man who was in D.C. for business.

        The interview with Escudero-Kontostathis will air Tuesday on "Good Morning America" and across ABC News. "GMA" airs at 7 a.m. ET on ABC.

        Escudero-Kontostathis said the lightning struck her through the ground and traveled through her body, resulting in significant burns on her body.

        PHOTO: Amber Escudero-Kontostathis, survivor of the Aug. 4 lightning strike near the White House, is interviewed by Good Morning America, in Washington, Aug. 15, 2022.

        Amber Escudero-Kontostathis, survivor of the Aug. 4 lightning strike near the White House, is interviewed by Good Morning America, in Washington, Aug. 15, 2022.

        ABC News

        "I don't know why I survived," she said. "I don't feel good about being the only survivor, that's for sure. I'm grateful, but I just don't feel good about being the only one."

        She doesn't recall much of her stay at the hospital, where she was placed in the Intensive Care Unit, but does remember the nurses trying to keep her calm and telling her things would be OK.

        Escudero-Kontostathis praised the burn and ICU nurses for checking on her and providing constant care.

        "You would hit the little things saying you were in pain and they'd be like 'we're coming,' and they walk in and their name was always on the board," she said. "I had more of a personal relationship and memory with the burn center nurses, but I'm excited to eventually get to meet the ICU nurses in person again now that I'm more conscious of that."

        She said her path to recovery has been frustrating both physically and mentally. "I forget that I can't just get up and do stuff. I have to use a walker, for example," she said.

        "You wake up and you think that you can just get up and go and brush your teeth or get a cup of coffee yourself and I can't, my whole left sides like pretty charred," Escudero-Kontostathis said. "Mentally, also a little frustrated because I want to be working and doing things."

        PHOTO: A lightning strike hits a tree in Lafayette Park across from the White House, killing three people and injuring one person below, during a thunderstorm in Washington, Aug. 4, 2022.

        A lightning strike hits a tree in Lafayette Park across from the White House, killing three people and injuring one person below, during a thunderstorm in Washington, Aug. 4, 2022.

        Reuters

        Escudero, who's the director of Threshold Giving's canvassing team, said she enjoyed the work she did and that being unable to work while she recovers is one of the more painful parts of this experience.

        "I get to help people find their inner activist and bridge them to the work they want to see in the world," Escudero-Kontostathis said. "Not getting to do that every day is probably more painful than cleaning the burns, which is pretty painful."

        \ No newline at end of file +Woman struck by lightning near White House talks her road to recovery with 'GMA'

        Woman struck by lightning near White House talks her road to recovery with 'GMA'

        The exclusive interview with Amber Escudero-Kontostathis airs Tuesday morning.

        By Teddy Grant, Alex Colletta, Vera Drymon

        Aug 16, 2022 11:51 AM

        In an exclusive interview with "Good Morning America," Amber Escudero-Kontostathis sits down to talk for the first time about being the sole survivor of a lightning strike near the White House earlier this month, on her 28th birthday, and her road to recovery.

        "I don't remember much of that day at all," Escudero-Kontostathis told "GMA" in her first interview since the incident.

        On Aug. 4, Escudero-Kontostathis, 28, was canvassing outside the White House for Threshold Giving, a nonprofit organization through the International Rescue Committee that helps refugees, when she and three others took cover underneath a tree at Lafayette Square after it began to rain.

        PHOTO: Amber Escudero-Kontostathis, survivor of the Aug. 4 lightning strike near the White House, is interviewed by Good Morning America, in Washington, Aug. 15, 2022.

        Amber Escudero-Kontostathis, survivor of the Aug. 4 lightning strike near the White House, is interviewed by Good Morning America, in Washington, Aug. 15, 2022.

        ABC News

        Six bolts of lightning struck the group within half a second, killing three others, including 76-year-old James Mueller and 75-year-old Donna Mueller, a married couple celebrating their anniversary, and Brooks Lambertson, a 29-year-old Los Angeles man who was in D.C. for business.

        The interview with Escudero-Kontostathis will air Tuesday on "Good Morning America" and across ABC News. "GMA" airs at 7 a.m. ET on ABC.

        Escudero-Kontostathis said the lightning struck her through the ground and traveled through her body, resulting in significant burns on her body.

        PHOTO: Amber Escudero-Kontostathis, survivor of the Aug. 4 lightning strike near the White House, is interviewed by Good Morning America, in Washington, Aug. 15, 2022.

        Amber Escudero-Kontostathis, survivor of the Aug. 4 lightning strike near the White House, is interviewed by Good Morning America, in Washington, Aug. 15, 2022.

        ABC News

        "I don't know why I survived," she said. "I don't feel good about being the only survivor, that's for sure. I'm grateful, but I just don't feel good about being the only one."

        She doesn't recall much of her stay at the hospital, where she was placed in the Intensive Care Unit, but does remember the nurses trying to keep her calm and telling her things would be OK.

        Escudero-Kontostathis praised the burn and ICU nurses for checking on her and providing constant care.

        "You would hit the little things saying you were in pain and they'd be like 'we're coming,' and they walk in and their name was always on the board," she said. "I had more of a personal relationship and memory with the burn center nurses, but I'm excited to eventually get to meet the ICU nurses in person again now that I'm more conscious of that."

        She said her path to recovery has been frustrating both physically and mentally. "I forget that I can't just get up and do stuff. I have to use a walker, for example," she said.

        "You wake up and you think that you can just get up and go and brush your teeth or get a cup of coffee yourself and I can't, my whole left sides like pretty charred," Escudero-Kontostathis said. "Mentally, also a little frustrated because I want to be working and doing things."

        PHOTO: A lightning strike hits a tree in Lafayette Park across from the White House, killing three people and injuring one person below, during a thunderstorm in Washington, Aug. 4, 2022.

        A lightning strike hits a tree in Lafayette Park across from the White House, killing three people and injuring one person below, during a thunderstorm in Washington, Aug. 4, 2022.

        Reuters

        Escudero, who's the director of Threshold Giving's canvassing team, said she enjoyed the work she did and that being unable to work while she recovers is one of the more painful parts of this experience.

        "I get to help people find their inner activist and bridge them to the work they want to see in the world," Escudero-Kontostathis said. "Not getting to do that every day is probably more painful than cleaning the burns, which is pretty painful."

        \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/abcnews.go.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/abcnews.go.com/distilled.html index 78b973df4e41..ec07a8796ff8 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/abcnews.go.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/abcnews.go.com/distilled.html @@ -1 +1 @@ -Prosecutor sues Florida governor over suspension, says 1st Amendment rights violated

        Prosecutor sues Florida governor over suspension, says 1st Amendment rights violated

        Andrew Warren says the governor's move is an abuse of power.

        By Miles Cohen

        Aug 18, 2022 12:08 AM

        The Florida state attorney who was suspended by Gov. Ron DeSantis this month sued the governor on Wednesday, claiming his removal from office violated his First Amendment rights.

        The lawsuit, filed in federal court, alleges the Republican governor retaliated against Andrew Warren, the Hillsborough County state attorney, for siding with progressive prosecutors who vowed not to prosecute crimes related to abortion and gender-transition treatments for children.

        Warren, a Democrat, has called the suspension "political theater" and has claimed DeSantis suspended him to advance his own career.

        Warren's legal team filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida. They hope a judge will rule to reinstate the twice-elected state attorney, who is the top prosecutor in the Tampa Bay area.

        PHOTO: Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, speaks during a Unite and Win rally in Phoenix, Aug. 14, 2022.

        Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, speaks during a Unite and Win rally in Phoenix, Aug. 14, 2022.

        Antranik Tavitian/The Republic via USA Today Network

        "I have the same first amendment right that everybody else in Florida does," Warren said at a press conference in Tallahassee on Wednesday morning, adding that the governor's decision amounted to an abuse of power.

        Jean Jaques Cabou, a lawyer for Warren, said at the press conference that the governor had no grounds to oust Warren. He said DeSantis took his client out of office "because of policy differences [and] because the governor would like to do his job differently than Mr. Warren wants to do his job."

        "Those are not bases for which the governor can suspend Warren," Cabou added.

        DeSantis did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment on the lawsuit. After he suspended Warren on Aug. 4, the governor said in a statement that "state attorneys have a duty to prosecute crimes as defined in Florida law, not to pick and choose which laws to enforce based on his personal agenda."

        The governor also touted his decision to remove Warren from office while on the campaign trail this week.

        "Out of 20 elected prosecutors, we found one who decided to put himself above the law, saying he didn't have to enforce laws that he disagreed with," he said during a speech in Carlsbad, New Mexico, on Sunday.

        Warren has signed two joint statements pledging not to prosecute crimes related to abortion and gender-transition treatments for children. By doing so, DeSantis claims, Warren has neglected his duty and demonstrated incompetence.

        DeSantis signed a law in April that bans abortions in Florida after a 15-week gestation period. The law went into effect on July 1, a week after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

        Florida health care providers last week filed a notice of appeal with the state Supreme Court challenging the abortion law. The plaintiffs argue the law violates the state constitution.

        There is currently no law in Florida that criminalizes gender-related treatment for minors, although some state legislators have pushed for one. The state's Agency for Health Care Administration recently passed a rule barring transgender residents from using Medicaid to pay for gender-affirming care.

        PHOTO: Andrew Warren, who was removed from his elected post as Hillsborough's state attorney by Gov. Ron DeSantis, prepares for a press conference in Tallahassee, Fla., Aug. 17, 2022.

        Andrew Warren, who was removed from his elected post as Hillsborough's state attorney by Gov. Ron DeSantis, prepares for a press conference in Tallahassee, Fla., Aug. 17, 2022.

        Tampa Bay Times via ZumaPress

        The governor says Warren's decision to sign the joint statements, coupled with other decisions Warren has made in his two terms as a state attorney, are sufficient under the Florida Constitution for suspension.

        Cabou argues that it's up to the court to decide whether Warren's statements meet the criteria for a suspension.

        "Just because the governor calls something neglect of duty or the government calls something incompetence doesn't make it true," he said.

        Scott Stephens, a Florida constitutional law professor and former Hillsborough County circuit judge, told ABC News the court will decide whether Warren's decision to sign the two letters can be used as evidence that he neglected his duty or is incompetent.

        Under Florida law, Warren has the right to a hearing before the state senate to decide whether his suspension was constitutional.

        Debbie Brown, the secretary of the Republican-controlled body, sent Warren a letter on Monday to initiate the process for a hearing.

        This process is now on hold due to Wednesday's filing.

        \ No newline at end of file +Prosecutor sues Florida governor over suspension, says 1st Amendment rights violated

        Prosecutor sues Florida governor over suspension, says 1st Amendment rights violated

        Andrew Warren says the governor's move is an abuse of power.

        By Miles Cohen

        Aug 18, 2022 12:08 AM

        The Florida state attorney who was suspended by Gov. Ron DeSantis this month sued the governor on Wednesday, claiming his removal from office violated his First Amendment rights.

        The lawsuit, filed in federal court, alleges the Republican governor retaliated against Andrew Warren, the Hillsborough County state attorney, for siding with progressive prosecutors who vowed not to prosecute crimes related to abortion and gender-transition treatments for children.

        Warren, a Democrat, has called the suspension "political theater" and has claimed DeSantis suspended him to advance his own career.

        Warren's legal team filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida. They hope a judge will rule to reinstate the twice-elected state attorney, who is the top prosecutor in the Tampa Bay area.

        PHOTO: Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, speaks during a Unite and Win rally in Phoenix, Aug. 14, 2022.

        Ron DeSantis, governor of Florida, speaks during a Unite and Win rally in Phoenix, Aug. 14, 2022.

        Antranik Tavitian/The Republic via USA Today Network

        "I have the same first amendment right that everybody else in Florida does," Warren said at a press conference in Tallahassee on Wednesday morning, adding that the governor's decision amounted to an abuse of power.

        Jean Jaques Cabou, a lawyer for Warren, said at the press conference that the governor had no grounds to oust Warren. He said DeSantis took his client out of office "because of policy differences [and] because the governor would like to do his job differently than Mr. Warren wants to do his job."

        "Those are not bases for which the governor can suspend Warren," Cabou added.

        DeSantis did not immediately respond to ABC News' request for comment on the lawsuit. After he suspended Warren on Aug. 4, the governor said in a statement that "state attorneys have a duty to prosecute crimes as defined in Florida law, not to pick and choose which laws to enforce based on his personal agenda."

        The governor also touted his decision to remove Warren from office while on the campaign trail this week.

        "Out of 20 elected prosecutors, we found one who decided to put himself above the law, saying he didn't have to enforce laws that he disagreed with," he said during a speech in Carlsbad, New Mexico, on Sunday.

        Warren has signed two joint statements pledging not to prosecute crimes related to abortion and gender-transition treatments for children. By doing so, DeSantis claims, Warren has neglected his duty and demonstrated incompetence.

        DeSantis signed a law in April that bans abortions in Florida after a 15-week gestation period. The law went into effect on July 1, a week after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

        Florida health care providers last week filed a notice of appeal with the state Supreme Court challenging the abortion law. The plaintiffs argue the law violates the state constitution.

        There is currently no law in Florida that criminalizes gender-related treatment for minors, although some state legislators have pushed for one. The state's Agency for Health Care Administration recently passed a rule barring transgender residents from using Medicaid to pay for gender-affirming care.

        PHOTO: Andrew Warren, who was removed from his elected post as Hillsborough's state attorney by Gov. Ron DeSantis, prepares for a press conference in Tallahassee, Fla., Aug. 17, 2022.

        Andrew Warren, who was removed from his elected post as Hillsborough's state attorney by Gov. Ron DeSantis, prepares for a press conference in Tallahassee, Fla., Aug. 17, 2022.

        Tampa Bay Times via ZumaPress

        The governor says Warren's decision to sign the joint statements, coupled with other decisions Warren has made in his two terms as a state attorney, are sufficient under the Florida Constitution for suspension.

        Cabou argues that it's up to the court to decide whether Warren's statements meet the criteria for a suspension.

        "Just because the governor calls something neglect of duty or the government calls something incompetence doesn't make it true," he said.

        Scott Stephens, a Florida constitutional law professor and former Hillsborough County circuit judge, told ABC News the court will decide whether Warren's decision to sign the two letters can be used as evidence that he neglected his duty or is incompetent.

        Under Florida law, Warren has the right to a hearing before the state senate to decide whether his suspension was constitutional.

        Debbie Brown, the secretary of the Republican-controlled body, sent Warren a letter on Monday to initiate the process for a hearing.

        This process is now on hold due to Wednesday's filing.

        \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/billypenn.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/billypenn.com/distilled.html index bae1feefd36c..2c84f5754b0f 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/billypenn.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/billypenn.com/distilled.html @@ -1,3 +1,3 @@ -New book by Philly doctors offers tips on how to 'weave wellness' into your life

        New book by Philly doctors offers tips on how to 'weave wellness' into your life

        The field of integrative medicine is taking off, and Philadelphia is on the leading edge.

        By Marcus Institute of Integrative Health

        Aug 15, 2022 10:46 AM

        +New book by Philly doctors offers tips on how to 'weave wellness' into your life

        New book by Philly doctors offers tips on how to 'weave wellness' into your life

        The field of integrative medicine is taking off, and Philadelphia is on the leading edge.

        By Marcus Institute of Integrative Health

        Aug 15, 2022 10:46 AM

        Note: This article is a paid placement and does not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of Billy Penn at WHYY.

        With the United States long at the forefront of medical breakthroughs, why do so many Americans still get sick with preventable illnesses?

        Around 60% of adults in the U.S. have a chronic disease, according to the CDC, and over 40% have more than one.

        The fast-growing field of integrative medicine looks to address that problem. Its practitioners are trained to consider the whole patient — the person — instead of just the symptoms or the disease. It’s the driving philosophy behind the Marcus Institute of Integrative Health – Jefferson Health in Philadelphia, where doctors just published a book with insights and tips on how you can use this thinking to further your own health.

        Called “Tapestry of Health: Weaving Wellness into Your Life through the New Science of Integrative Medicine” (Kales Press), the book is by Marcus Institute founding director and CEO Daniel Monti, MD, and Medical Director Anthony Bazzan, MD.

        It presents a step-by-step plan of evidence-based restorative approaches and emerging cutting-edge strategies. It’s been well-received by readers, rocking a 4.4-star rating on Amazon, and by other experts in the field,

        “This book is so incredibly timely and important,” writes Sara Gottfried, a doctor with four NYT best-sellers who provided the new book’s forward, “because it helps you understand this new paradigm of health ― a massive shift that affects healthcare providers and patients alike,”

        As it’s currently structured, the authors say, the medical field suffers from an overemphasis on acute care, which is a reactionary approach. Under this model, when a person gets sick, medical care is sought and a standard treatment — be it drugs or surgery — is prescribed. There’s no doubt this approach has saved many lives. But it is not enough.

        Heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes are leading causes of death and disability in the U.S., accounting for the majority of the nation’s $4.1 trillion a year in health care costs.

        In many cases, these illnesses are significantly exacerbated by key lifestyle risk factors. Some, such as tobacco use, are straightforward and easy to understand. Others, including the vital role of diet and specific nutrients, physical inactivity, and stress effects on immunity, are more complex.

        In the case of immune resilience, the pandemic is a perfect example of how acute care medicine dominated the conversation.

        Everyone understandably became very focused on the COVID-19 pathogen. However, what got lost was the state of the host – i.e. people! For example, we know nutritional status affects the immune response to the virus, and that stress in general affects the immune system in very measurable ways. So while we very much needed an effective vaccine, we also needed tools to maximize immune wellness to maximize the host response to infection. That largely did not happen.

        Some in medicine have begun to recognize the gap, which is why a new paradigm is emerging that integrates the best of modern medicine with proactive, holistic and preventive care.

        Thomas Jefferson University is at the forefront of this movement. The Philly institution recently created the first-ever Department of Integrative Medicine & Nutritional Sciences at Sidney Kimmel Medical College. The new department includes the clinical programs of Jefferson Health’s Marcus Institute of Integrative Health. These programs have introduced an approach to care that is a multifaceted partnership, connecting all aspects of well-being, including the physical, emotional, intellectual, spiritual, social, and nutritional.

        To learn more about the book and other resources, visit the Tapestry of Health website.

        \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/boston.cbslocal.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/boston.cbslocal.com/distilled.html index 9d066fa51c94..1f8357776a13 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/boston.cbslocal.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/boston.cbslocal.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Stabbings at Shannon Beach sparked by car door hitting pickup truck, police say

        Stabbings at Shannon Beach sparked by car door hitting pickup truck, police say

        Multiple people were stabbed, and five were arrested.

        By CBSBoston.com Staff

        +Stabbings at Shannon Beach sparked by car door hitting pickup truck, police say

        Stabbings at Shannon Beach sparked by car door hitting pickup truck, police say

        Multiple people were stabbed, and five were arrested.

        By CBSBoston.com Staff

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/chicago.cbslocal.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/chicago.cbslocal.com/distilled.html index 0cf0b090695c..24884127eaaf 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/chicago.cbslocal.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/chicago.cbslocal.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Jury selection begins in R. Kelly's federal trial, with focus on potential jurors' exposure to "Surviving R. Kelly" documentary

        Jury selection begins in R. Kelly's federal trial, with focus on potential jurors' exposure to "Surviving R. Kelly" documentary

        The singer is charged with child pornography and obstruction of justice.

        By Megan Hickey, Mugo Odigwe

        +Jury selection begins in R. Kelly's federal trial, with focus on potential jurors' exposure to "Surviving R. Kelly" documentary

        Jury selection begins in R. Kelly's federal trial, with focus on potential jurors' exposure to "Surviving R. Kelly" documentary

        The singer is charged with child pornography and obstruction of justice.

        By Megan Hickey, Mugo Odigwe

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/citylimits.org/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/citylimits.org/distilled.html index 4c31ad054c6e..23996a446621 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/citylimits.org/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/citylimits.org/distilled.html @@ -1 +1 @@ -¿Por qué relanzar un manual de defensa contra la deportación en Nueva York?

        ¿Por qué relanzar un manual de defensa contra la deportación en Nueva York?

        En 2017 Se Hace Camino Nueva York, también conocida en inglés como Make The Road New York, lanzó una primera versión del manual de defensa contra la deportación luego de que sus miembros llegaran a la organización buscando ser guiados.

        En 2017, durante la administración del expresidente Donald Trump y en medio de redadas por parte de El Servicio de Control de Inmigración y Aduanas (ICE, por su sigla en inglés), la organización Se Hace Camino Nueva York, también conocida en inglés como Make The Road New York, lanzó una primera versión del manual de defensa contra la deportación luego de que sus miembros llegaran a la organización buscando ser guiados para saber qué hacer en caso de que agentes de ICE llegaran a sus casas, sus lugares de trabajo o los detuvieran mientras conducían.

        Cinco años después, en 2022, una versión ampliada y actualizada fue relanzada el pasado 9 de agosto, incluyendo una sección sobre transferencias en centros de detención tras la transferencia masiva de detenidos en la cárcel del condado de Orange.

        Esta nueva versión del manual también se divide en tres partes. La primera parte se enfoca en que las personas conozcan sus derechos al interactuar con ICE. La segunda parte da los pasos a seguir y la información que se debe conocer para apoyar a una persona o familiar después de una redada de ICE. La tercera parte ofrece ideas sobre cómo organizarse en torno a un caso individual en la comunidad.

        La organización también ha apoyado tres proyectos de ley en el Concejo de la ciudad este año que son: el proyecto de ley 185 que modificaría el código administrativo de la ciudad de Nueva York para que se limite la comunicación entre el departamento de corrección (DOC por sus siglas en inglés) y las autoridades federales de inmigración.

        El segundo proyecto de ley es el 184, que limitaría las circunstancias en las que una persona puede ser detenida por el departamento de policía en una retención civil de inmigración y prohibiría al departamento de policía detener a un individuo más allá de la fecha, sin una orden judicial.

        El tercer proyecto de ley es el 158, que le permitiría a las personas demandar ante el tribunal competente una detención ilegal: como cuando una cárcel local retiene a una persona durante 48 horas adicionales después de su fecha de liberación para darle a los agentes de ICE más tiempo para decidir si se lleva o no a la persona en custodia.

        Para hablar sobre este manual hablamos con Luba Cortes, coordinadora de defensa de los inmigrantes en Make The Road New York. Todos los detalles en nuestra conversación a continuación.

        En 2017, Se Hace Camino Nueva York, también conocida en inglés como Make The Road New York, lanzó una primera versión del manual de defensa contra la deportación luego de que sus miembros llegaran a la organización buscando ser guiados. Cinco años después, una versión ampliada y actualizada ha sido relanzada que incluye una sección sobre transferencias en centros de detención.
        \ No newline at end of file +¿Por qué relanzar un manual de defensa contra la deportación en Nueva York?

        ¿Por qué relanzar un manual de defensa contra la deportación en Nueva York?

        En 2017 Se Hace Camino Nueva York, también conocida en inglés como Make The Road New York, lanzó una primera versión del manual de defensa contra la deportación luego de que sus miembros llegaran a la organización buscando ser guiados.

        En 2017, durante la administración del expresidente Donald Trump y en medio de redadas por parte de El Servicio de Control de Inmigración y Aduanas (ICE, por su sigla en inglés), la organización Se Hace Camino Nueva York, también conocida en inglés como Make The Road New York, lanzó una primera versión del manual de defensa contra la deportación luego de que sus miembros llegaran a la organización buscando ser guiados para saber qué hacer en caso de que agentes de ICE llegaran a sus casas, sus lugares de trabajo o los detuvieran mientras conducían.

        Cinco años después, en 2022, una versión ampliada y actualizada fue relanzada el pasado 9 de agosto, incluyendo una sección sobre transferencias en centros de detención tras la transferencia masiva de detenidos en la cárcel del condado de Orange.

        Esta nueva versión del manual también se divide en tres partes. La primera parte se enfoca en que las personas conozcan sus derechos al interactuar con ICE. La segunda parte da los pasos a seguir y la información que se debe conocer para apoyar a una persona o familiar después de una redada de ICE. La tercera parte ofrece ideas sobre cómo organizarse en torno a un caso individual en la comunidad.

        La organización también ha apoyado tres proyectos de ley en el Concejo de la ciudad este año que son: el proyecto de ley 185 que modificaría el código administrativo de la ciudad de Nueva York para que se limite la comunicación entre el departamento de corrección (DOC por sus siglas en inglés) y las autoridades federales de inmigración.

        El segundo proyecto de ley es el 184, que limitaría las circunstancias en las que una persona puede ser detenida por el departamento de policía en una retención civil de inmigración y prohibiría al departamento de policía detener a un individuo más allá de la fecha, sin una orden judicial.

        El tercer proyecto de ley es el 158, que le permitiría a las personas demandar ante el tribunal competente una detención ilegal: como cuando una cárcel local retiene a una persona durante 48 horas adicionales después de su fecha de liberación para darle a los agentes de ICE más tiempo para decidir si se lleva o no a la persona en custodia.

        Para hablar sobre este manual hablamos con Luba Cortes, coordinadora de defensa de los inmigrantes en Make The Road New York. Todos los detalles en nuestra conversación a continuación.

        En 2017, Se Hace Camino Nueva York, también conocida en inglés como Make The Road New York, lanzó una primera versión del manual de defensa contra la deportación luego de que sus miembros llegaran a la organización buscando ser guiados. Cinco años después, una versión ampliada y actualizada ha sido relanzada que incluye una sección sobre transferencias en centros de detención.
        \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/detroit.cbslocal.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/detroit.cbslocal.com/distilled.html index 76ac80f7dc60..99b1b795dff1 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/detroit.cbslocal.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/detroit.cbslocal.com/distilled.html @@ -1,3 +1,3 @@ -133,000 People Remain Under Boil Water Advisory In Michigan, Could Take Weeks Before Water Is Safe To Drink

        133,000 People Remain Under Boil Water Advisory In Michigan, Could Take Weeks Before Water Is Safe To Drink

        Officials in Shelby Township set up water distribution centers for residents who continue to be impacted by a water main break that has over 130,000 people under a boil water advisory.

        By Raymond Strickland

        Aug 15, 2022 06:36 PM

        +133,000 People Remain Under Boil Water Advisory In Michigan, Could Take Weeks Before Water Is Safe To Drink

        133,000 People Remain Under Boil Water Advisory In Michigan, Could Take Weeks Before Water Is Safe To Drink

        Officials in Shelby Township set up water distribution centers for residents who continue to be impacted by a water main break that has over 130,000 people under a boil water advisory.

        By Raymond Strickland

        Aug 15, 2022 06:36 PM

        (CBS DETROIT) — Officials in Shelby Township set up water distribution centers for residents who continue to be impacted by a water main break that has over 130,000 people under a boil water advisory.

        The advisory remains in effect for the following areas: Village of Almont, Bruce Township, Burtchville Township, Imlay City, Rochester, Shelby Township, and Washington Township.

        READ MORE: Boil-Water Alert Could Last 2 Weeks For Some In SE Michigan

        Governor Gretchen Whitmer also issued a state of emergency for Lapeer, Macomb, Oakland and St. Clair Counties.

        A leak was discovered on Saturday in a 120-inch water transmission main that distributes water from the Lake Huron Water Treatment Facility to residents. Monday, crews were on site to assess the damage, find out why it happened and move forward with creating a repair plan.

        The Great Lakes Water Authority said it could take at least two weeks to complete repairs and finish water quality testing.

        “We’re working as fast as we can. But just with this size of pipe, everything just takes a lot longer than people would expect,” said Sue Coffey, the CEO of GLWA.

        READ MORE: Salvation Army Collecting Supplies For Back To School Drive

        Kenneth McPhaul was one of dozens of people who came to the site at Ford Field Central Park in Shelby Township to get water.

        Out of extreme caution, he said he’s been driving to his daughter’s house in Oakland county to take a shower.

        “I just came back from out of town and I was shocked when I got back. The association left a note saying to not drink the water. To boil the water.”

        McPhaul is optimistic things will return to normal soon.

        MORE NEWS: Detroit Police Searching For Multiple Carjacking Suspects

        “It could be worse,” he said.

        © 2022 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

        \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/dfw.cbslocal.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/dfw.cbslocal.com/distilled.html index f5da33b3beb6..1479d3494c7e 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/dfw.cbslocal.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/dfw.cbslocal.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Liz Cheney took on Trump. Can she survive a Trump-backed challenger in Wyoming?

        Liz Cheney took on Trump. Can she survive a Trump-backed challenger in Wyoming?

        Trump-backed challenger Harriet Hageman has led by nearly 30 points in recent polling on the primary.

        By Aaron Navarro

        +Liz Cheney took on Trump. Can she survive a Trump-backed challenger in Wyoming?

        Liz Cheney took on Trump. Can she survive a Trump-backed challenger in Wyoming?

        Trump-backed challenger Harriet Hageman has led by nearly 30 points in recent polling on the primary.

        By Aaron Navarro

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/espn.go.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/espn.go.com/distilled.html index 011720470e58..836d37d97c35 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/espn.go.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/espn.go.com/distilled.html @@ -1,2 +1,2 @@ -Brett Baty makes immediate impact for New York Mets, slugs home run on first major league swing

        Brett Baty makes immediate impact for New York Mets, slugs home run on first major league swing

        Touted Mets prospect Brett Baty went 1-for-4 with a 2-run home run in his major league debut Wednesday night, a 9-7 victory over the Braves.

        Aug 17, 2022 10:44 PM

        6:44 PM ET

        ATLANTA -- The first time Brett Baty stepped on the field in the big leagues, he simply took a look around.

        "I wanted to soak it all in," he said.

        Then came a moment he'll remember for a lifetime.

        Baty homered in his first major league at-bat, and the New York Mets held off the Braves 9-7 on Wednesday night to snap Atlanta's eight-game winning streak.

        After being outscored 18-1 in the first two games of the series, the NL East-leading Mets jumped to a 6-1 lead and barely made it stand up to push their advantage over the Braves back to 4 1/2 games.

        And Baty was partially to thank.

        The 12th overall pick in the 2019 draft, he came up for the first time in the second inning with a runner aboard and the Mets already ahead 2-0 on back-to-back homers in the first off Jake Odorizzi. After taking a ball, Baty connected with a hanging curve on his very first swing in a New York uniform.

        "I was just looking for a pitch I could drive,'' Baty said. "He left one over the plate.''

        According to ESPN Stats & Information research, Baty is the fifth player with a home run in his first career plate appearance in Mets history and first since Mike Jacobs in 2005.

        Baty, who is from Round Rock, Texas, said pregame that his mother, father, sister and several other relatives had flown to Atlanta for his big league debut. They erupted with applause in their seats upon seeing the ball fly out of Truist Park.

        "To look up (in the stands) and see my family up there, to celebrate in the dugout with my teammates, it's just pure joy,'' Baty said.

        A worker was able to retrieve the ball, which will become a treasured keepsake for Baty, the 37th-best prospect in baseball by ESPN's Kiley McDaniel, who was called up to the big leagues just a week after being promoted to Triple-A Syracuse.

        "For sure, that will be framed up and go on a shelf somewhere,'' he said. "Hopefully there will be more."

        Baty's big night came on the same day the Mets placed Eduardo Escobar on the injured list with a left oblique injury.

        In other injury developments, pitcher Taijuan Walker underwent an MRI after lasting only two innings in his start Tuesday because of back spasms. Walker may not be able to make his next scheduled start Sunday at Philadelphia, but it doesn't appear he'll be out for an extended period, according to manager Buck Showalter.

        "Pretty good news, all things considered," Showalter said of Walker. "His Sunday start is in jeopardy, but we're still holding out hope it manages before that. We've got some different thoughts" about who might step in if Walker can't go.

        The Mets designated reliever R.J. Alvarez for assignment after he gave up three runs in 2 1/3 innings in a 5-0 loss to the Braves on Tuesday -- his first appearance in the big leagues since 2015. Lefty Sam Clay was called up from Syracuse.

        Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

        +Brett Baty makes immediate impact for New York Mets, slugs home run on first major league swing

        Brett Baty makes immediate impact for New York Mets, slugs home run on first major league swing

        Touted Mets prospect Brett Baty went 1-for-4 with a 2-run home run in his major league debut Wednesday night, a 9-7 victory over the Braves.

        Aug 17, 2022 10:44 PM

        6:44 PM ET

        ATLANTA -- The first time Brett Baty stepped on the field in the big leagues, he simply took a look around.

        "I wanted to soak it all in," he said.

        Then came a moment he'll remember for a lifetime.

        Baty homered in his first major league at-bat, and the New York Mets held off the Braves 9-7 on Wednesday night to snap Atlanta's eight-game winning streak.

        After being outscored 18-1 in the first two games of the series, the NL East-leading Mets jumped to a 6-1 lead and barely made it stand up to push their advantage over the Braves back to 4 1/2 games.

        And Baty was partially to thank.

        The 12th overall pick in the 2019 draft, he came up for the first time in the second inning with a runner aboard and the Mets already ahead 2-0 on back-to-back homers in the first off Jake Odorizzi. After taking a ball, Baty connected with a hanging curve on his very first swing in a New York uniform.

        "I was just looking for a pitch I could drive,'' Baty said. "He left one over the plate.''

        According to ESPN Stats & Information research, Baty is the fifth player with a home run in his first career plate appearance in Mets history and first since Mike Jacobs in 2005.

        Baty, who is from Round Rock, Texas, said pregame that his mother, father, sister and several other relatives had flown to Atlanta for his big league debut. They erupted with applause in their seats upon seeing the ball fly out of Truist Park.

        "To look up (in the stands) and see my family up there, to celebrate in the dugout with my teammates, it's just pure joy,'' Baty said.

        A worker was able to retrieve the ball, which will become a treasured keepsake for Baty, the 37th-best prospect in baseball by ESPN's Kiley McDaniel, who was called up to the big leagues just a week after being promoted to Triple-A Syracuse.

        "For sure, that will be framed up and go on a shelf somewhere,'' he said. "Hopefully there will be more."

        Baty's big night came on the same day the Mets placed Eduardo Escobar on the injured list with a left oblique injury.

        In other injury developments, pitcher Taijuan Walker underwent an MRI after lasting only two innings in his start Tuesday because of back spasms. Walker may not be able to make his next scheduled start Sunday at Philadelphia, but it doesn't appear he'll be out for an extended period, according to manager Buck Showalter.

        "Pretty good news, all things considered," Showalter said of Walker. "His Sunday start is in jeopardy, but we're still holding out hope it manages before that. We've got some different thoughts" about who might step in if Walker can't go.

        The Mets designated reliever R.J. Alvarez for assignment after he gave up three runs in 2 1/3 innings in a 5-0 loss to the Braves on Tuesday -- his first appearance in the big leagues since 2015. Lefty Sam Clay was called up from Syracuse.

        Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

        play

        Baty hits HR in first career at-bat, family is elated in the stands (0:29)

        Brett Baty goes deep in his first career MLB at-bat for the Mets and his family goes wild in the stands. (0:29)

        \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/foresthillstimes.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/foresthillstimes.com/distilled.html index 8bdd5745027f..680528b201a2 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/foresthillstimes.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/foresthillstimes.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -The Kew-Forest School Will Host a Virtual Info Session This Thursday, October 7 For Students Interested in Lower School (Preschool

        The Kew-Forest School Will Host a Virtual Info Session This Thursday, October 7 For Students Interested in Lower School (Preschool

        Hits: 995At Kew-Forest, you will find a community that nurtures lifelong learners, educators who inspire young people, and students who support each other.

        +The Kew-Forest School Will Host a Virtual Info Session This Thursday, October 7 For Students Interested in Lower School (Preschool

        The Kew-Forest School Will Host a Virtual Info Session This Thursday, October 7 For Students Interested in Lower School (Preschool

        Hits: 995At Kew-Forest, you will find a community that nurtures lifelong learners, educators who inspire young people, and students who support each other.

        Hits: 995

        At Kew-Forest, you will find a community that nurtures lifelong learners, educators who inspire young people, and students who support each other. Established in 1918, The Kew-Forest School is the oldest independent co-ed, college preparatory school in Queens. Families and staff represent 70+ nationalities and speak 30+ languages.

        The School’s small size allows it to be nimble and quick in response to individual needs of students as well as challenges faced in education today. While all learning is taking place on campus in-person for the 2021-22 school year, the School is poised to transition to a remote learning platform if the need arises for all students in Preschool through Grade 12.

        Virtual Info Sessions

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/foxnews.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/foxnews.com/distilled.html index 4eee49373160..935d3a6b7ed5 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/foxnews.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/foxnews.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Americans say they're unhappy with the state of the nation, agree political divisiveness is a serious concern

        Americans say they're unhappy with the state of the nation, agree political divisiveness is a serious concern

        Americans in St. Louis, Missouri, shared their dissatisfaction with the political divisiveness in America and some pleaded for congressional bipartisanship.

        By Megan Myers

        Aug 15, 2022 08:03 PM

        NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! +Americans say they're unhappy with the state of the nation, agree political divisiveness is a serious concern

        Americans say they're unhappy with the state of the nation, agree political divisiveness is a serious concern

        Americans in St. Louis, Missouri, shared their dissatisfaction with the political divisiveness in America and some pleaded for congressional bipartisanship.

        By Megan Myers

        Aug 15, 2022 08:03 PM

        NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

        ST. LOUIS – Americans outside Busch Stadium told Fox News how they felt about the state of the nation, with many unhappy with its divisiveness.

        "I’m very concerned about with the direction of the country and some of the very serious animosity that’s going on," Sandra, from Oklahoma, said. "I worry about my grandchildren and my great-grandchildren and what we’re gonna leave for them in the future."

        Three-quarters of registered voters are dissatisfied with America's direction, a nearly 25-point increase from April 2021, according to a recent Fox News Poll. 

        "I think we need to get to a point where we stop arguing within our own tribes and start working together," Zack, from St. Louis, said. "We all still want what’s best for the country, even when it looks differently." 

        FOX NEWS POLL: RECORD 70% SAY LIFE WILL BE WORSE FOR THE NEXT GENERATION

        A Fox News poll of how voters feel things are going in the US found 75% of respondents are dissatisfied with the state of America. 

        A Fox News poll of how voters feel things are going in the US found 75% of respondents are dissatisfied with the state of America.  (Fox News)

        Betsy, visiting the Gateway to the West, told Fox News: "I would like to see Congress in particular try to work together rather than keep throwing barbs at one another and keep pointing fingers."

        Bill, from St. Louis, said the country would be better without radicals on either end of the political spectrum.

        "Most of us get along," Bill said. "It would be nice to quit arguing with each other."

        14-YEAR OLD WORLD WAR II ENLISTEE OFFERS LESSONS ON REBUILDING A DIVIDED AMERICA

        One man said he'd like to see improvements from the Biden administration on a few key issues. 

        "I wish they had better foreign policy, better economic stuff going on," he told Fox News. "But I think they've done a halfway decent job."

        Betsy, visiting Saint Louis, says Congress needs to work together across the political aisle.

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/gothamist.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/gothamist.com/distilled.html index 00177e612b3a..18a3c73b146e 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/gothamist.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/gothamist.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Four-year-old boy killed, father arrested in Bronx scooter crash

        Four-year-old boy killed, father arrested in Bronx scooter crash

        The boy did not appear to be wearing a helmet and his father was charged with endangering the welfare of a child.

        +Four-year-old boy killed, father arrested in Bronx scooter crash

        Four-year-old boy killed, father arrested in Bronx scooter crash

        The boy did not appear to be wearing a helmet and his father was charged with endangering the welfare of a child.

        A four-year-old boy was killed while riding a scooter with his father.

        A four-year-old boy was killed while riding a scooter with his father. diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/heartlandnewsfeed.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/heartlandnewsfeed.com/distilled.html index 0be820ba6ec9..d2053de93d79 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/heartlandnewsfeed.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/heartlandnewsfeed.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Holder White sworn in as first Black woman on state Supreme Court

        Holder White sworn in as first Black woman on state Supreme Court

        Lisa Holder White was sworn in Thursday as the first Black woman to serve on the Illinois Supreme Court.

        By Peter Hancock

        +Holder White sworn in as first Black woman on state Supreme Court

        Holder White sworn in as first Black woman on state Supreme Court

        Lisa Holder White was sworn in Thursday as the first Black woman to serve on the Illinois Supreme Court.

        By Peter Hancock

        SPRINGFIELD (Capitol News Illinois) – Lisa Holder White was sworn in Thursday as the first Black woman to serve on the Illinois Supreme Court.

        Holder White, who previously served on the 4th District Court of Appeals, was chosen to succeed one of her mentors in the legal profession, retiring Justice Rita B. Garman, who broke many barriers herself as a woman in what was then a male-dominated profession.

        “It is truly a historic day for the Land of Lincoln,” Garman said, introducing Holder White. “But even while breaking barriers in the judicial system and serving as an inspiration to others, she has remained humble, true to her roots, and dedicated to ensuring that all those who come before the courts are treated with dignity and with respect.”

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/kdvr.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/kdvr.com/distilled.html index 57ce441b8add..acfdb0b8b833 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/kdvr.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/kdvr.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -FOX31 Denver

        FOX31 Denver

        A student was stabbed multiple times at a Greeley high school late Monday morning, the Greeley Police Department said.

        By Colleen Flynn

        Aug 15, 2022 09:06 PM

        +FOX31 Denver

        FOX31 Denver

        A student was stabbed multiple times at a Greeley high school late Monday morning, the Greeley Police Department said.

        By Colleen Flynn

        Aug 15, 2022 09:06 PM

        GREELEY, Colo. (KDVR) — A student was stabbed multiple times at a Greeley high school late Monday morning, the Greeley Police Department said.

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/ktla.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/ktla.com/distilled.html index 7ca30353f1de..fd67468c5286 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/ktla.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/ktla.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -KTLA

        KTLA

        The owner of a Hollywood restaurant is being hailed as a hero after security footage captured him chasing down a robber and restraining him until help arrives. Video of the incident shared to Reddi…

        By Sandra Mitchell, Cameron Kiszla

        Aug 16, 2022 01:04 AM

        +KTLA

        KTLA

        The owner of a Hollywood restaurant is being hailed as a hero after security footage captured him chasing down a robber and restraining him until help arrives. Video of the incident shared to Reddi…

        By Sandra Mitchell, Cameron Kiszla

        Aug 16, 2022 01:04 AM

        The owner of a Hollywood restaurant is being hailed as a hero after security footage captured him chasing down a robber and restraining him until help arrives.

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/lighthome.us/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/lighthome.us/distilled.html index 67df43b878f4..30a7106fc6eb 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/lighthome.us/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/lighthome.us/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Mobile Data, Not Internet Service Providers, To Be Blocked In Bali During Nyepi

        Mobile Data, Not Internet Service Providers, To Be Blocked In Bali During Nyepi

        Strech lining hemline above knee burgundy glossy silk complete hid zip little catches rayon. Tunic weaved strech calfskin spaghetti straps

        +Mobile Data, Not Internet Service Providers, To Be Blocked In Bali During Nyepi

        Mobile Data, Not Internet Service Providers, To Be Blocked In Bali During Nyepi

        Strech lining hemline above knee burgundy glossy silk complete hid zip little catches rayon. Tunic weaved strech calfskin spaghetti straps

        Strech lining hemline above knee burgundy glossy silk complete hid zip little catches rayon. Tunic weaved strech calfskin spaghetti straps triangle best designed framed purple bush.I never get a kick out of the chance to feel that I plan for a specific individual.

        Separated they live in Bookmarksgrove right at the coast of the Semantics, a large language ocean. A small river named Duden flows by their place and supplies it with the necessary regelialia. It is a paradisematic country, in which roasted parts of sentences fly into your mouth.

        A wonderful serenity has taken possession of my entire soul, like these sweet mornings of spring which I enjoy with my whole heart. Even the all-powerful Pointing has no control about the blind texts it is an almost unorthographic life One day however a small line of blind text by the name of Lorem Ipsum decided to leave for the far World of Grammar. The Big Oxmox advised her not to do so, because there were thousands of bad Commas, wild Question Marks and devious Semikoli, but the Little Blind Text didn’t listen.

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/losangeles.cbslocal.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/losangeles.cbslocal.com/distilled.html index 637d5fac470e..03492cad1667 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/losangeles.cbslocal.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/losangeles.cbslocal.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Chris 'Coach Frogg' Flores charged with sexually assaulting teenage girl in Santa Ana

        Chris 'Coach Frogg' Flores charged with sexually assaulting teenage girl in Santa Ana

        Authorities believe Flores may have additional victims and are asking anyone with information to contact the Santa Ana Police Department.

        By CBSLA Staff

        +Chris 'Coach Frogg' Flores charged with sexually assaulting teenage girl in Santa Ana

        Chris 'Coach Frogg' Flores charged with sexually assaulting teenage girl in Santa Ana

        Authorities believe Flores may have additional victims and are asking anyone with information to contact the Santa Ana Police Department.

        By CBSLA Staff

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/minnesota.cbslocal.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/minnesota.cbslocal.com/distilled.html index 3846dd884229..da74c620fe22 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/minnesota.cbslocal.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/minnesota.cbslocal.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Minnesota State Fair will have enough officers, despite recruitment challenges

        Minnesota State Fair will have enough officers, despite recruitment challenges

        State Fair organizers estimate crowd sizes will be similar to 2019, pre-pandemic. That year, more than two million people visited the fair during the 12 days.

        By Kirsten Mitchell

        +Minnesota State Fair will have enough officers, despite recruitment challenges

        Minnesota State Fair will have enough officers, despite recruitment challenges

        State Fair organizers estimate crowd sizes will be similar to 2019, pre-pandemic. That year, more than two million people visited the fair during the 12 days.

        By Kirsten Mitchell

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/newrightnetwork.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/newrightnetwork.com/distilled.html index 3189f98d4865..b0c2dace9d1f 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/newrightnetwork.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/newrightnetwork.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Trump’s Endorsements Face Major Test Against Established GOP Candidates

        Trump’s Endorsements Face Major Test Against Established GOP Candidates

        Most Trump-backed candidates are winning their primaries, BallotPedia reported. Trump’s choice Harriet Hageman is expected to unseat one of his main

        By Daily Caller News Foundation

        +Trump’s Endorsements Face Major Test Against Established GOP Candidates

        Trump’s Endorsements Face Major Test Against Established GOP Candidates

        Most Trump-backed candidates are winning their primaries, BallotPedia reported. Trump’s choice Harriet Hageman is expected to unseat one of his main

        By Daily Caller News Foundation

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/news.bbc.co.uk/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/news.bbc.co.uk/distilled.html index a4c602eca1ae..2a7c878686cd 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/news.bbc.co.uk/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/news.bbc.co.uk/distilled.html @@ -1 +1 @@ -Afghanistan: Deadly blast rips through crowded Kabul mosque

        Afghanistan: Deadly blast rips through crowded Kabul mosque

        At least 21 people are killed and another 33 injured in the Afghan capital, Taliban officials say.

        By BBC News

        Aug 18, 2022 08:34 AM

        Relatives of some of the victims of Wednesday's mosque blast wait for news outside a hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan. Photo: 18 August 2022Reuters

        Victims' relatives have gathered outside a hospital where their loved ones are being treated

        A huge explosion has ripped through a crowded mosque in the Afghan capital Kabul, killing 21 people, police say.

        Another 33 people were injured, Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran said.

        Wednesday's blast occurred during evening prayers. The mosque's imam is reported to be among the dead.

        It is unclear who was behind the attack, a week after a prominent so-called Islamic State (IS) militants killed a pro-Taliban cleric in a suicide bomb blast, also in Kabul.

        Security forces have now sealed off the blast scene in Kabul.

        Witnesses described hearing a powerful explosion which shattered windows in nearby buildings.

        "I saw that so many people were killed, even people were thrown out of the windows of the mosque," one eyewitness told Reuters news agency.

        Stefano Sozza, the head of the medical charity Emergency, which runs the city's main hospital, told the BBC his group had already treated 35 people, including children.

        "Our doctors... operated the patients in need of surgical assistance all night long. The injuries were mainly related to the blast so there were shells inside the bodies and burning injuries all over the bodies of the victims".

        He said he believed the blast was inside the mosque. "There was probably someone entering during the prayer time, so it was crowded at that moment and then [the attacker] activated this body burning improvised explosive device.

        "So that all the persons that were close to the attacker were basically dead and the ones all around received several injuries," Mr Sozza added.

        IS focus seems to be widening

        The mosque was crowded, the bomb powerful, and another cleric seems to have been in the sights of IS (Islamic State), the group which has emerged as the Taliban's most potent enemy.

        In the past month, three prominent religious leaders were targeted in Kabul and there were assassinations in other cities.

        Last week it was Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani, known to be close to the Taliban. This time it's Amir Muhammad Kabuli, said to be an adherent of the more moderate Sufi faith.

        Video posted on social media showed a scene of carnage.

        One religious student who was just outside the mosque told the BBC he saw the bodies of the dead and injured sprawled inside, including children attending evening prayers.

        IS's signature has been its devastating attacks on the minority Shia Hazara community. But their focus now seems to be widening just as the Taliban celebrate their one year in power - a takeover which ended one chapter of a long bloody war but only ushered in yet another.

        \ No newline at end of file +Afghanistan: Deadly blast rips through crowded Kabul mosque

        Afghanistan: Deadly blast rips through crowded Kabul mosque

        At least 21 people are killed and another 33 injured in the Afghan capital, Taliban officials say.

        By BBC News

        Aug 18, 2022 08:34 AM

        Relatives of some of the victims of Wednesday's mosque blast wait for news outside a hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan. Photo: 18 August 2022Reuters

        Victims' relatives have gathered outside a hospital where their loved ones are being treated

        A huge explosion has ripped through a crowded mosque in the Afghan capital Kabul, killing 21 people, police say.

        Another 33 people were injured, Kabul police spokesman Khalid Zadran said.

        Wednesday's blast occurred during evening prayers. The mosque's imam is reported to be among the dead.

        It is unclear who was behind the attack, a week after a prominent so-called Islamic State (IS) militants killed a pro-Taliban cleric in a suicide bomb blast, also in Kabul.

        Security forces have now sealed off the blast scene in Kabul.

        Witnesses described hearing a powerful explosion which shattered windows in nearby buildings.

        "I saw that so many people were killed, even people were thrown out of the windows of the mosque," one eyewitness told Reuters news agency.

        Stefano Sozza, the head of the medical charity Emergency, which runs the city's main hospital, told the BBC his group had already treated 35 people, including children.

        "Our doctors... operated the patients in need of surgical assistance all night long. The injuries were mainly related to the blast so there were shells inside the bodies and burning injuries all over the bodies of the victims".

        He said he believed the blast was inside the mosque. "There was probably someone entering during the prayer time, so it was crowded at that moment and then [the attacker] activated this body burning improvised explosive device.

        "So that all the persons that were close to the attacker were basically dead and the ones all around received several injuries," Mr Sozza added.

        IS focus seems to be widening

        The mosque was crowded, the bomb powerful, and another cleric seems to have been in the sights of IS (Islamic State), the group which has emerged as the Taliban's most potent enemy.

        In the past month, three prominent religious leaders were targeted in Kabul and there were assassinations in other cities.

        Last week it was Sheikh Rahimullah Haqqani, known to be close to the Taliban. This time it's Amir Muhammad Kabuli, said to be an adherent of the more moderate Sufi faith.

        Video posted on social media showed a scene of carnage.

        One religious student who was just outside the mosque told the BBC he saw the bodies of the dead and injured sprawled inside, including children attending evening prayers.

        IS's signature has been its devastating attacks on the minority Shia Hazara community. But their focus now seems to be widening just as the Taliban celebrate their one year in power - a takeover which ended one chapter of a long bloody war but only ushered in yet another.

        \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/news.google.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/news.google.com/distilled.html index 100c540b4bbf..1fe6be2b2ff8 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/news.google.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/news.google.com/distilled.html @@ -1 +1 @@ -DeSantis sued by prosecutor suspended over stance on abortion-related crime

        DeSantis sued by prosecutor suspended over stance on abortion-related crime

        By Kim Bellware, Lateshia Beachum

        Aug 18, 2022 12:45 AM

        A Florida prosecutor has sued Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in a bid to be reinstated after he was dismissed from his post for pledging he would not prosecute cases stemming from Florida’s 15-week abortion ban and potential bans on gender-affirming care.

        Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren (D) argued his Aug. 4 suspension was unlawful on First Amendment grounds and characterized his removal as “retaliation” by DeSantis against a critic and political rival, according to a federal complaint filed Wednesday in the Northern District of Florida.

        In a video message, Warren said that in addition to violating his free speech rights, DeSantis broke Florida law.

        “He’s violated the Florida Constitution by removing me from office without any legal justification, throwing out the results of a fair and free election,” Warren said.

        DeSantis’s office dismissed Warren’s federal complaint as “baseless.”

        “It’s not surprising Warren, who was suspended for refusing to follow the law, would file a legally baseless lawsuit challenging his suspension. We look forward to responding in court,” a spokesperson for DeSantis said in a statement.

        Warren has been in office since 2016 and was reelected in 2020 with more than 53 percent of the vote.

        DeSantis suspending Warren and replacing him with a person of his choosing sets a concerning tone for democracy in Florida, Louis Virelli, professor of law at Stetson University College of Law, told The Washington Post.

        “A small step from here is if I, as governor, don’t think a state attorney is being hard enough on a particular crime, I’m going to replace you with a person I prefer,” Virelli said. “It’s overriding voters’ choice.”

        Virelli said the complaint is one of the few options available to Warren if he wants to keep his job.

        Part of Warren’s argument in the complaint is that the Florida Constitution limits removal to true incompetence or inability to do the work and violation of a legal obligation.

        “Warren is being punished for what he said and not what he did,” Virelli said.

        Shortly after Warren’s suspension, his office’s chief communications officer was told she had to resign and be paid through the month — or be fired on the spot.

        Melanie Snow-Waxler, who started her role in the state attorney’s office in May, was terminated Aug. 12.

        “This illegal firing is part of a troubling pattern of retaliation,” her attorney, Ryan Barack, said in a statement this week.

        DeSantis and Warren are ideological opposites who have publicly sparred over topics like abortion, covid restrictions, and criminal justice and transgender rights.

        In June, the day that the Dobbs v. Jackson ruling was handed down, effectively ending the federal right to abortion access, Warren joined dozens of prosecutors around the country in signing a pledge that they would “refrain from using limited criminal legal system resources to criminalize personal medical decisions.”

        In 2021, Warren signed a similar joint statement with other elected prosecutors affirming that health-care decisions should be “private discretion” and said they would not use their office to “promote the criminalization of gender-affirming health care or transgender people.”

        DeSantis’s administration has pursued aggressive policies to increasingly restrict medical treatments like puberty blockers and hormone therapy; just last week, the state barred people from using Medicare coverage to help pay for gender-affirming care.

        Since Warren’s suspension, he and DeSantis have disagreed over the nature of the suspension. While Warren characterized his suspension as “temporary” in his filing, DeSantis’s office has said Warren is no longer the state attorney for the 13th Judicial Circuit in Hillsborough County after the governor appointed Susan Lopez, a Republican judge who backed Warren’s opponent in 2016.

        \ No newline at end of file +DeSantis sued by prosecutor suspended over stance on abortion-related crime

        DeSantis sued by prosecutor suspended over stance on abortion-related crime

        By Kim Bellware, Lateshia Beachum

        Aug 18, 2022 12:45 AM

        A Florida prosecutor has sued Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in a bid to be reinstated after he was dismissed from his post for pledging he would not prosecute cases stemming from Florida’s 15-week abortion ban and potential bans on gender-affirming care.

        Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren (D) argued his Aug. 4 suspension was unlawful on First Amendment grounds and characterized his removal as “retaliation” by DeSantis against a critic and political rival, according to a federal complaint filed Wednesday in the Northern District of Florida.

        In a video message, Warren said that in addition to violating his free speech rights, DeSantis broke Florida law.

        “He’s violated the Florida Constitution by removing me from office without any legal justification, throwing out the results of a fair and free election,” Warren said.

        DeSantis’s office dismissed Warren’s federal complaint as “baseless.”

        “It’s not surprising Warren, who was suspended for refusing to follow the law, would file a legally baseless lawsuit challenging his suspension. We look forward to responding in court,” a spokesperson for DeSantis said in a statement.

        Warren has been in office since 2016 and was reelected in 2020 with more than 53 percent of the vote.

        DeSantis suspending Warren and replacing him with a person of his choosing sets a concerning tone for democracy in Florida, Louis Virelli, professor of law at Stetson University College of Law, told The Washington Post.

        “A small step from here is if I, as governor, don’t think a state attorney is being hard enough on a particular crime, I’m going to replace you with a person I prefer,” Virelli said. “It’s overriding voters’ choice.”

        Virelli said the complaint is one of the few options available to Warren if he wants to keep his job.

        Part of Warren’s argument in the complaint is that the Florida Constitution limits removal to true incompetence or inability to do the work and violation of a legal obligation.

        “Warren is being punished for what he said and not what he did,” Virelli said.

        Shortly after Warren’s suspension, his office’s chief communications officer was told she had to resign and be paid through the month — or be fired on the spot.

        Melanie Snow-Waxler, who started her role in the state attorney’s office in May, was terminated Aug. 12.

        “This illegal firing is part of a troubling pattern of retaliation,” her attorney, Ryan Barack, said in a statement this week.

        DeSantis and Warren are ideological opposites who have publicly sparred over topics like abortion, covid restrictions, and criminal justice and transgender rights.

        In June, the day that the Dobbs v. Jackson ruling was handed down, effectively ending the federal right to abortion access, Warren joined dozens of prosecutors around the country in signing a pledge that they would “refrain from using limited criminal legal system resources to criminalize personal medical decisions.”

        In 2021, Warren signed a similar joint statement with other elected prosecutors affirming that health-care decisions should be “private discretion” and said they would not use their office to “promote the criminalization of gender-affirming health care or transgender people.”

        DeSantis’s administration has pursued aggressive policies to increasingly restrict medical treatments like puberty blockers and hormone therapy; just last week, the state barred people from using Medicare coverage to help pay for gender-affirming care.

        Since Warren’s suspension, he and DeSantis have disagreed over the nature of the suspension. While Warren characterized his suspension as “temporary” in his filing, DeSantis’s office has said Warren is no longer the state attorney for the 13th Judicial Circuit in Hillsborough County after the governor appointed Susan Lopez, a Republican judge who backed Warren’s opponent in 2016.

        \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/newyork.cbslocal.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/newyork.cbslocal.com/distilled.html index 74d7936d7416..dcd512fdabfc 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/newyork.cbslocal.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/newyork.cbslocal.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Calls for justice after MTA worker Anthony Nelson assaulted while protecting customers

        Calls for justice after MTA worker Anthony Nelson assaulted while protecting customers

        Many call Anthony Nelson a hero, and a model employee. His union is demanding the maximum penalty for his attacker.

        By John Dias

        +Calls for justice after MTA worker Anthony Nelson assaulted while protecting customers

        Calls for justice after MTA worker Anthony Nelson assaulted while protecting customers

        Many call Anthony Nelson a hero, and a model employee. His union is demanding the maximum penalty for his attacker.

        By John Dias

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/nypost.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/nypost.com/distilled.html index 7ae817268023..34ed9843177c 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/nypost.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/nypost.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Aaron Hicks sinks to new Yankees low on 'extremely embarrassing' night

        Aaron Hicks sinks to new Yankees low on 'extremely embarrassing' night

        In the top of the fourth inning, Hicks’ night went from disappointing to distressing.

        By Mark W. Sanchez

        Aug 16, 2022 10:24 AM

        +Aaron Hicks sinks to new Yankees low on 'extremely embarrassing' night

        Aaron Hicks sinks to new Yankees low on 'extremely embarrassing' night

        In the top of the fourth inning, Hicks’ night went from disappointing to distressing.

        By Mark W. Sanchez

        Aug 16, 2022 10:24 AM

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/observer.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/observer.com/distilled.html index 39e63f32c694..13c66a351413 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/observer.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/observer.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -A Stolen Picasso Was Allegedly Discovered During A Drug Raid in Iraq

        A Stolen Picasso Was Allegedly Discovered During A Drug Raid in Iraq

        Iraq’s anti-narcotic authorities claim to have found a stolen Picasso during a drug raid over the weekend.

        By Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly

        +A Stolen Picasso Was Allegedly Discovered During A Drug Raid in Iraq

        A Stolen Picasso Was Allegedly Discovered During A Drug Raid in Iraq

        Iraq’s anti-narcotic authorities claim to have found a stolen Picasso during a drug raid over the weekend.

        By Alexandra Tremayne-Pengelly

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/philadelphia.cbslocal.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/philadelphia.cbslocal.com/distilled.html index e31b0a5686d2..40688b3aae45 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/philadelphia.cbslocal.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/philadelphia.cbslocal.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Nothing but joy as Marlton Chiefs come home Cal Ripken World Series champions

        Nothing but joy as Marlton Chiefs come home Cal Ripken World Series champions

        The Chiefs are the 2022 Cal Ripkin World Series champions, making them the best 10-and-under team in the country.

        By Siafa Lewis

        +Nothing but joy as Marlton Chiefs come home Cal Ripken World Series champions

        Nothing but joy as Marlton Chiefs come home Cal Ripken World Series champions

        The Chiefs are the 2022 Cal Ripkin World Series champions, making them the best 10-and-under team in the country.

        By Siafa Lewis

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/reporternewspapers.net/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/reporternewspapers.net/distilled.html index fa506b6994fe..c032150f36fa 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/reporternewspapers.net/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/reporternewspapers.net/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Atlanta council approves controversial lease of city jail space to Fulton County

        Atlanta council approves controversial lease of city jail space to Fulton County

        UPDATE: The Atlanta City Council approved Aug. 15 controversial legislation to lease up to 700 beds at the city jail to Fulton County for four years that officials say will alleviate overcrowding at the county jail.  The vote was 10-4 to approve the ordinance during a lengthy and sometimes contentious meeting.

        By Dyana Bagby

        Aug 16, 2022 02:03 AM

        +Atlanta council approves controversial lease of city jail space to Fulton County

        Atlanta council approves controversial lease of city jail space to Fulton County

        UPDATE: The Atlanta City Council approved Aug. 15 controversial legislation to lease up to 700 beds at the city jail to Fulton County for four years that officials say will alleviate overcrowding at the county jail.  The vote was 10-4 to approve the ordinance during a lengthy and sometimes contentious meeting.

        By Dyana Bagby

        Aug 16, 2022 02:03 AM

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/distilled.html index bbebdc504442..aa0aedd0b845 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Update: Fire crews stop Eden Fire progress after homes in Dublin threatened

        Update: Fire crews stop Eden Fire progress after homes in Dublin threatened

        A vegetation fire burned next to Interstate Highway 580 east of Castro Valley and was approaching homes on the western edge of Dublin Monday before firefighters stopped forward progress.

        +Update: Fire crews stop Eden Fire progress after homes in Dublin threatened

        Update: Fire crews stop Eden Fire progress after homes in Dublin threatened

        A vegetation fire burned next to Interstate Highway 580 east of Castro Valley and was approaching homes on the western edge of Dublin Monday before firefighters stopped forward progress.

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/tampa.cbslocal.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/tampa.cbslocal.com/distilled.html index 009916686490..6bb25027e0a2 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/tampa.cbslocal.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/tampa.cbslocal.com/distilled.html @@ -1,3 +1,3 @@ -Preschool Teacher Arrested For Child Abuse

        Preschool Teacher Arrested For Child Abuse

        Deputies with the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office have arrested a preschool teacher for child abuse on a student on August 10.

        By Ashley Cox

        Aug 14, 2022 06:57 PM

        Photo Credits: Pinellas County Sheriff's Office

        +Preschool Teacher Arrested For Child Abuse

        Preschool Teacher Arrested For Child Abuse

        Deputies with the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office have arrested a preschool teacher for child abuse on a student on August 10.

        By Ashley Cox

        Aug 14, 2022 06:57 PM

        Photo Credits: Pinellas County Sheriff's Office

        PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. (CW44 News At 10 )– Deputies with the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office have arrested a preschool teacher for child abuse on a student on August 10.

        According to reports, Deputies responded to Kindercare Learning Center, located at 1990 Main Street in Dunedin, after reports of a child abuse in progress. During the course of the investigation, deputies discovered that a witness overheard screaming coming from the playground of the preschool.

        READ MORE: CDC: Florida Leads Nation In Eutylone Overdose Deaths

        The witness observed 32-year-old Ashley Richards yelling at the victim and repeatedly punching the child with both an open and closed fist to the back and side of the head. Richards was also observed pushing the child to the ground and yelling “Do you want me to hit you?” The incident was captured on the witness’ cell phone. Richards has been employed as a preschool teacher at Kindercare Learning Center since March of 2021 and has been placed on Administrative Leave as a result of the incident.

        READ MORE: St. Petersburg City Council Votes Against Rent Control Cap

        Richards was charged with one count of Felony Child Abuse and transported to the Pinellas County Jail.

        MORE NEWS: Authorities Have Identified The Suspect Who Attacked Author Salman Rushdie

        The investigation continues.

        \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/thealike.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/thealike.com/distilled.html index bafcb2a03298..298f66cded1d 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/thealike.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/thealike.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Zelensky requires extra sanctions on Russia for "nuclear blackmail" round Zaporizhzhia plant

        Zelensky requires extra sanctions on Russia for "nuclear blackmail" round Zaporizhzhia plant

        Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks throughout his night video tackle on Monday August 15. (Office of President of Ukraine) Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday referred to as for more durable sanctions in response to what he described as Russia’s “nuclear blackmail” across the Zaporizhzhia nuclear energy plant. “Provocative shelling of the territory of the plant […]

        +Zelensky requires extra sanctions on Russia for "nuclear blackmail" round Zaporizhzhia plant

        Zelensky requires extra sanctions on Russia for "nuclear blackmail" round Zaporizhzhia plant

        Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks throughout his night video tackle on Monday August 15. (Office of President of Ukraine) Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday referred to as for more durable sanctions in response to what he described as Russia’s “nuclear blackmail” across the Zaporizhzhia nuclear energy plant. “Provocative shelling of the territory of the plant […]

        Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday referred to as for more durable sanctions in response to what he described as Russia’s “nuclear blackmail” across the Zaporizhzhia nuclear energy plant.

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/theintercept.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/theintercept.com/distilled.html index 4bae93b3c7d3..712194cdb667 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/theintercept.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/theintercept.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -An Accused War Criminal Trained Florida Cops in “New Concepts of Shooting”

        An Accused War Criminal Trained Florida Cops in “New Concepts of Shooting”

        A sign of the forever wars coming home, Eddie Gallagher trained officers from the Tallahassee Police Department.

        By Peter Maass

        Aug 12, 2022 11:00 AM

        Should a military veteran who has been reliably accused of war crimes, and who admitted that he killed a prisoner, be invited to train police officers on how to do their job?

        +An Accused War Criminal Trained Florida Cops in “New Concepts of Shooting”

        An Accused War Criminal Trained Florida Cops in “New Concepts of Shooting”

        A sign of the forever wars coming home, Eddie Gallagher trained officers from the Tallahassee Police Department.

        By Peter Maass

        Aug 12, 2022 11:00 AM

        Should a military veteran who has been reliably accused of war crimes, and who admitted that he killed a prisoner, be invited to train police officers on how to do their job?

        The police department in Tallahassee, Florida, found a surprising answer to that question. Retired Navy SEAL Eddie Gallagher, accused by his fellow operators of intentionally shooting civilians and murdering a prisoner in Iraq, shared a photo and video on Instagram last week in which he described working with Tallahassee police officers in close-quarters combat and other lethal skills. He posted a picture of himself flanked by the rifle-bearing officers in Florida, with his caption describing an “awesome day of training” with “an extraordinary group of men who were ready to train and take on new concepts of shooting and CQB to add to their tool box. It was truly an honor!”

        After Gallagher’s picture was spotted and shared by journalist Wesley Morgan, the Tallahassee Police Department stumbled forward with a believe-it-or-not statement that its officers were merely practicing at a private facility operated by a company called Stronghold SOF Solutions, which Gallagher is affiliated with. Gallagher happened to be at the facility and offered his “input” to the officers, according to the TPD. The department did not provide an explanation of how or why its officers assembled for a group photo with Gallagher, whose current business endeavors include private instruction on weapons and tactics.

        Gallagher, imprisoned before his court-martial in 2019, is a free man because a military jury controversially declared him not guilty of premeditated murder, and his conviction on just one minor count — of posing in a picture with a dead prisoner — was essentially overturned when former President Donald Trump granted him clemency. Not long after the trial and grant of clemency, the New York Times released a trove of evidence from Gallagher’s fellow operators that laid out their damning case against him.

        The core problem here is not Gallagher or the Tallahassee Police Department. The conduct of each is consistent with a decadeslong meshing of the military and policing — a violent disaster in America. The process, explored in Radley Balko’s “Rise of the Warrior Cop,” began in the 1960s, was stepped up during the so-called war on drugs, and reached terminal velocity after 9/11, when vast amounts of funding and weapons were poured into local law enforcement agencies, which deployed these resources mainly against minority and poor communities. One of the most notorious signatures of this destructive process is the Pentagon’s 1033 program, which since 1990 has distributed more than $7.4 billion in military weapons — including armored vehicles, grenade launchers, and sniper rifles — to police departments across the country.

        This deluge of military hardware among civilian populations is harmful enough, creating mini-armies inside American communities that are desperate for better schools and social services. But what’s been just as harmful, if not worse, is the military mindset instilled in police ranks after 9/11. As Arthur Rizer, a former police officer and military veteran, wrote recently, “We have for years told American police officers to regard every civilian encounter as potentially deadly, and that they must always be prepared to win that death match. … It was always obvious to me that military tactics, training and weaponry had little place in civilian policing.”

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/timesofsandiego.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/timesofsandiego.com/distilled.html index ffc50f387b67..8780a777accd 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/timesofsandiego.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/timesofsandiego.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Olympian Robyn Stevens’ Sex Assault Allegations Spur Lifetime Ban of Ex-Coronado Coach

        Olympian Robyn Stevens’ Sex Assault Allegations Spur Lifetime Ban of Ex-Coronado Coach

        The U.S. Center for SafeSport provisionally suspended for "sexual misconduct" former world champion walker Andreas "Dre" Gustafsson. following a complaint from a woman he coached.

        By Ken Stone

        Aug 15, 2022 09:18 PM

        +Olympian Robyn Stevens’ Sex Assault Allegations Spur Lifetime Ban of Ex-Coronado Coach

        Olympian Robyn Stevens’ Sex Assault Allegations Spur Lifetime Ban of Ex-Coronado Coach

        The U.S. Center for SafeSport provisionally suspended for "sexual misconduct" former world champion walker Andreas "Dre" Gustafsson. following a complaint from a woman he coached.

        By Ken Stone

        Aug 15, 2022 09:18 PM

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/washington.cbslocal.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/washington.cbslocal.com/distilled.html index 07206a4e8ada..69a9e563677b 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/washington.cbslocal.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/washington.cbslocal.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Afghanistan women's rights activist says Taliban tortured her in prison, but she "had to speak out"

        Afghanistan women's rights activist says Taliban tortured her in prison, but she "had to speak out"

        CBS News meets a women's rights activist who says she's determined to "show the world what the Taliban are really like."

        +Afghanistan women's rights activist says Taliban tortured her in prison, but she "had to speak out"

        Afghanistan women's rights activist says Taliban tortured her in prison, but she "had to speak out"

        CBS News meets a women's rights activist who says she's determined to "show the world what the Taliban are really like."

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/wgntv.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/wgntv.com/distilled.html index 1c13a71ddab7..342aac9192c6 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/wgntv.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/wgntv.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -WGN-TV

        WGN-TV

        A 10-year-old boy is recovering at a Miami hospital from a shark attack that left him without part of his leg, according to news reports.

        By Nathaniel Rodriguez, Nexstar Media Wire

        Aug 16, 2022 10:42 AM

        +WGN-TV

        WGN-TV

        A 10-year-old boy is recovering at a Miami hospital from a shark attack that left him without part of his leg, according to news reports.

        By Nathaniel Rodriguez, Nexstar Media Wire

        Aug 16, 2022 10:42 AM

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/whdh.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/whdh.com/distilled.html index a4ee5db50d4f..4171797efab8 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/whdh.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/whdh.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Mass. High Schoolers Will Need Higher MCAS Scores to Graduate

        Mass. High Schoolers Will Need Higher MCAS Scores to Graduate

        The state board of education voted Monday to raise the minimum score that this year’s incoming freshman class and at least the four classes that...

        +Mass. High Schoolers Will Need Higher MCAS Scores to Graduate

        Mass. High Schoolers Will Need Higher MCAS Scores to Graduate

        The state board of education voted Monday to raise the minimum score that this year’s incoming freshman class and at least the four classes that...

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/wolfdaily.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/wolfdaily.com/distilled.html index 7e88993c210e..97364bfbe913 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/wolfdaily.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/wolfdaily.com/distilled.html @@ -1 +1 @@ -Biden’s top lawyer to leave Whitehouse in latest shuffle

        Biden’s top lawyer to leave Whitehouse in latest shuffle

        Joe Biden's top lawyer, Dana Remus, is departing and will be replaced by her deputy next month, the White House said on Wednesday, the latest staff change for the Democratic president five months...

        Joe Biden’s top lawyer, Dana Remus, is departing and will be replaced by her deputy next month, the White House said on Wednesday, the latest staff change for the Democratic president five months before the midterm election.

        Remus, part of the team that guided the historic nomination of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, will be replaced by her deputy, Stuart Delery, the White House said in a statement.

        “I am immensely grateful for the service of Dana Remus, who has been an invaluable member of my senior staff for the past 3 years and helped reinstate a culture of adherence to the rule of law. I wish her the best as she moves forward,” Biden said.

        On Wednesday, the White House also officially announced former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms as a senior White House aide ahead of the midterm congressional elections in November, replacing Cedric Richmond, who left in April to work at the Democratic National Committee.

        “Bottoms understands that democracy is about making government work for working families, for the people who are the backbone of this country,” Biden said in the statement, noting her integrity and work leading the major Georgia city during the COVID-19 pandemic.

        A White House official on Tuesday told reporters that Bottoms has said she would serve as director of the White House Office of Public Engagement through the Nov. 8 election, in which Democrats are hoping to keep their hold on both chambers of Congress even as Republicans hope to take over.

        Biden had touted upcoming contests as a crucial test for democracy following the Jan. 6, 2021 violent attack on the U.S. Capitol but has seen his approval ratings wane as inflation and rising gasoline prices hit Americans’ wallets.

        Remus, as the White House’s top lawyer, penned the authorization to the National Archives after Biden allowed congressional investigators probing the deadly attack to have access to critical records.

        (Reporting by Steve Holland and Susan Heavey; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)

        tagreuters.com2022binary_LYNXMPEI5E0NR-BASEIMAGE

        U.S. President Biden delivers remarks at the 29th AFL-CIO Quadrennial Constitutional Convention, in Philadelphia
        \ No newline at end of file +Biden’s top lawyer to leave Whitehouse in latest shuffle

        Biden’s top lawyer to leave Whitehouse in latest shuffle

        Joe Biden's top lawyer, Dana Remus, is departing and will be replaced by her deputy next month, the White House said on Wednesday, the latest staff change for the Democratic president five months...

        Joe Biden’s top lawyer, Dana Remus, is departing and will be replaced by her deputy next month, the White House said on Wednesday, the latest staff change for the Democratic president five months before the midterm election.

        Remus, part of the team that guided the historic nomination of Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, will be replaced by her deputy, Stuart Delery, the White House said in a statement.

        “I am immensely grateful for the service of Dana Remus, who has been an invaluable member of my senior staff for the past 3 years and helped reinstate a culture of adherence to the rule of law. I wish her the best as she moves forward,” Biden said.

        On Wednesday, the White House also officially announced former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms as a senior White House aide ahead of the midterm congressional elections in November, replacing Cedric Richmond, who left in April to work at the Democratic National Committee.

        “Bottoms understands that democracy is about making government work for working families, for the people who are the backbone of this country,” Biden said in the statement, noting her integrity and work leading the major Georgia city during the COVID-19 pandemic.

        A White House official on Tuesday told reporters that Bottoms has said she would serve as director of the White House Office of Public Engagement through the Nov. 8 election, in which Democrats are hoping to keep their hold on both chambers of Congress even as Republicans hope to take over.

        Biden had touted upcoming contests as a crucial test for democracy following the Jan. 6, 2021 violent attack on the U.S. Capitol but has seen his approval ratings wane as inflation and rising gasoline prices hit Americans’ wallets.

        Remus, as the White House’s top lawyer, penned the authorization to the National Archives after Biden allowed congressional investigators probing the deadly attack to have access to critical records.

        (Reporting by Steve Holland and Susan Heavey; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)

        tagreuters.com2022binary_LYNXMPEI5E0NR-BASEIMAGE

        U.S. President Biden delivers remarks at the 29th AFL-CIO Quadrennial Constitutional Convention, in Philadelphia
        \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/wsvn.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/wsvn.com/distilled.html index 7c328838110c..36a974ae0ac0 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/wsvn.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/wsvn.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Students, school board prepare for first day of school in Broward County

        Students, school board prepare for first day of school in Broward County

        COCONUT CREEK, FLA. (WSVN) - Students in Broward County are on their way through those school doors to begin the first day of school.Planning ahead...

        +Students, school board prepare for first day of school in Broward County

        Students, school board prepare for first day of school in Broward County

        COCONUT CREEK, FLA. (WSVN) - Students in Broward County are on their way through those school doors to begin the first day of school.Planning ahead...

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/wtop.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/wtop.com/distilled.html index 1c83952dd2d7..c5d92a57fd1c 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/wtop.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/wtop.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Commanders narrow down mascot to four themes; fans to vote on options

        Commanders narrow down mascot to four themes; fans to vote on options

        Using the ‘Command the mascot’ initiative, the Washington Commanders are allowing the fans to pick the ‘theme’ of the team’s new mascot.

        By NBC Sports Washington

        Aug 15, 2022 09:28 PM

        +Commanders narrow down mascot to four themes; fans to vote on options

        Commanders narrow down mascot to four themes; fans to vote on options

        Using the ‘Command the mascot’ initiative, the Washington Commanders are allowing the fans to pick the ‘theme’ of the team’s new mascot.

        By NBC Sports Washington

        Aug 15, 2022 09:28 PM

        Commanders narrow down mascot to four themes; fans to vote on options originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.astronomynow.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.astronomynow.com/distilled.html index 3f7eadf1eb84..e023eb8b4bb9 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.astronomynow.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.astronomynow.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Webb: Southern Ring Nebula comes into full view

        Webb: Southern Ring Nebula comes into full view

        +Webb: Southern Ring Nebula comes into full view

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.bignewsnetwork.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.bignewsnetwork.com/distilled.html index 49ddf6cf7b51..215498896eb9 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.bignewsnetwork.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.bignewsnetwork.com/distilled.html @@ -1 +1 @@ -Dow Jones dives 172 points as Wall Street's 5-day rally ends

        NEW YORK, New York - U.S. industrial stocks interrupted their five-day rally on Wednesday with all the major indices losing ground.

        An aggressive Fed is keeping buyers at bay, with the latest Fed minutes released Wednesday revealing the Federal Reserve remains on track to tame inflation.

        "Participants continued to anticipate that ongoing increases in the target range for the federal funds rate would be appropriate to achieve the Committee's objectives," the minutes said. "With inflation remaining well above the Committee's objective, participants judged that moving to a restrictive stance of policy was required to meet the Committee's legislative mandate to promote maximum employment and price stability."

        The Nasdaq Composite skidded 164.43 points or 1.25 percent to close Wednesday at 12,938.12.

        The Dow Jone industrials dived 171.69 points or 0.50 percent to 33,980.32.

        The Standard and Poor's 500 fell 31.16 points or 0.72 percent to 4,274.04.

        On foreign exchange markets, the euro steadied at 1.0180 around the New York close Wednesday. The British pound dropped to 1.2051 after the nation registered an annualized 10.1 percent inflation reading last month, a level not seen since 1982. The Japanese yen was unwanted at 135.00. The Swiss franc eased to 0.9514.

        The Canadian dollar weakened to 1.2906. The Australian dollar fell to 0.6936. The New Zealand dollar fell to 0.6283 despite an RBNZ 50 basis point interest rate hike.

        On overseas equity markets, the biggest loser was the German Dax which shed 2.04 percent. The Paris-based CAC 40 was down 0.97 percent. In London, the FTSE 100 dipped 0.27 percent.

        In Japan, the Nikkei 225 surged 353.86 points or 1.23 percent to 29,222.77.

        China's Shanghai Composite climbed 14.64 points or 0.45 percent to 3,292.53.

        The Australian All Ordinaries advanced 19.20 points or 0.26 percent to 7,381.10.

        New Zealand's S&P/NZX 50 added 5.78 points or 0.05 percent to 11,852.93.

        In South Korea, the Kospi Composite rose 17.05 points or 0.67 percent to 2,516.47.

        Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 87.40 points or 0.44 percent to 19,918.12.

        Lola Evans
        18th August 2022, 06:14 GMT+10
        \ No newline at end of file +Dow Jones dives 172 points as Wall Street's 5-day rally ends

        Dow Jones dives 172 points as Wall Street's 5-day rally ends

        US industrial stocks interrupted their five-day rally on Wednesday with all the major indices losing ground

        NEW YORK, New York - U.S. industrial stocks interrupted their five-day rally on Wednesday with all the major indices losing ground.

        An aggressive Fed is keeping buyers at bay, with the latest Fed minutes released Wednesday revealing the Federal Reserve remains on track to tame inflation.

        "Participants continued to anticipate that ongoing increases in the target range for the federal funds rate would be appropriate to achieve the Committee's objectives," the minutes said. "With inflation remaining well above the Committee's objective, participants judged that moving to a restrictive stance of policy was required to meet the Committee's legislative mandate to promote maximum employment and price stability."

        The Nasdaq Composite skidded 164.43 points or 1.25 percent to close Wednesday at 12,938.12.

        The Dow Jone industrials dived 171.69 points or 0.50 percent to 33,980.32.

        The Standard and Poor's 500 fell 31.16 points or 0.72 percent to 4,274.04.

        On foreign exchange markets, the euro steadied at 1.0180 around the New York close Wednesday. The British pound dropped to 1.2051 after the nation registered an annualized 10.1 percent inflation reading last month, a level not seen since 1982. The Japanese yen was unwanted at 135.00. The Swiss franc eased to 0.9514.

        The Canadian dollar weakened to 1.2906. The Australian dollar fell to 0.6936. The New Zealand dollar fell to 0.6283 despite an RBNZ 50 basis point interest rate hike.

        On overseas equity markets, the biggest loser was the German Dax which shed 2.04 percent. The Paris-based CAC 40 was down 0.97 percent. In London, the FTSE 100 dipped 0.27 percent.

        In Japan, the Nikkei 225 surged 353.86 points or 1.23 percent to 29,222.77.

        China's Shanghai Composite climbed 14.64 points or 0.45 percent to 3,292.53.

        The Australian All Ordinaries advanced 19.20 points or 0.26 percent to 7,381.10.

        New Zealand's S&P/NZX 50 added 5.78 points or 0.05 percent to 11,852.93.

        In South Korea, the Kospi Composite rose 17.05 points or 0.67 percent to 2,516.47.

        Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 87.40 points or 0.44 percent to 19,918.12.

        Lola Evans
        18th August 2022, 06:14 GMT+10
        \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.bloomberg.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.bloomberg.com/distilled.html index 18cf8b5bf0d4..a5a47ca8186e 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.bloomberg.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.bloomberg.com/distilled.html @@ -1 +1 @@ -Trip to Portugal With Coworkers? It’s a New World of Offsites

        Trip to Portugal With Coworkers? It’s a New World of Offsites

        Tech firms are pioneering a smart way to address apathy from remote working.

        By Parmy Olson

        Aug 18, 2022 04:00 AM

        Grant Wernick is facing a challenge many other Silicon Valley startup founders will find familiar. Before the pandemic, he had 20 employees working for his cybersecurity startup Fletch.ai in San Francisco. Since then, all but one moved to cities such as Portland, Seattle, Denver and Sacramento. His company is now fully remote, and it hasn’t been easy. Productivity slid in the second year of Covid. “Keeping the spirit alive is hard,” he says. Slack and Zoom just don’t beat face-to-face interactions.    

        His answer to the problem has been quarterly “offsite” meetings. Everyone is required to attend unless they have a serious excuse like contracting Covid. But these have become something of a workplace perk — there’s whale watching, pub crawls in Oakland. Younger employees might not want to meet in an office, but they do like the sound of going to Hawaii if the company meets its goals, says Wernick.

        \ No newline at end of file +Trip to Portugal With Coworkers? It’s a New World of Offsites

        Trip to Portugal With Coworkers? It’s a New World of Offsites

        Tech firms are pioneering a smart way to address apathy from remote working.

        By Parmy Olson

        Aug 18, 2022 04:00 AM

        Grant Wernick is facing a challenge many other Silicon Valley startup founders will find familiar. Before the pandemic, he had 20 employees working for his cybersecurity startup Fletch.ai in San Francisco. Since then, all but one moved to cities such as Portland, Seattle, Denver and Sacramento. His company is now fully remote, and it hasn’t been easy. Productivity slid in the second year of Covid. “Keeping the spirit alive is hard,” he says. Slack and Zoom just don’t beat face-to-face interactions.    

        His answer to the problem has been quarterly “offsite” meetings. Everyone is required to attend unless they have a serious excuse like contracting Covid. But these have become something of a workplace perk — there’s whale watching, pub crawls in Oakland. Younger employees might not want to meet in an office, but they do like the sound of going to Hawaii if the company meets its goals, says Wernick.

        \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.boston.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.boston.com/distilled.html index 7168b931b089..6782c8a4c502 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.boston.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.boston.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Trump, vaccine mandates, and the 'millionaires tax': Key takeaways from the MassGOP lieutenant governor debate

        Trump, vaccine mandates, and the 'millionaires tax': Key takeaways from the MassGOP lieutenant governor debate

        Former state Reps. Kate Campanale and Leah Cole Allen tackled everything from the proposed millionaires tax to navigating vaccine mandates.

        +Trump, vaccine mandates, and the 'millionaires tax': Key takeaways from the MassGOP lieutenant governor debate

        Trump, vaccine mandates, and the 'millionaires tax': Key takeaways from the MassGOP lieutenant governor debate

        Former state Reps. Kate Campanale and Leah Cole Allen tackled everything from the proposed millionaires tax to navigating vaccine mandates.

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.bostonherald.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.bostonherald.com/distilled.html index 93271193b939..68d26ccbb33c 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.bostonherald.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.bostonherald.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Feds oppose unsealing affidavit for Mar-a-Lago warrant

        Feds oppose unsealing affidavit for Mar-a-Lago warrant

        WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Monday rebuffed efforts to make public the affidavit supporting the search warrant for former President Donald Trump’s estate in Florida, say…

        By Associated Press

        Aug 16, 2022 05:21 AM

        By MICHAEL BALSAMO

        +Feds oppose unsealing affidavit for Mar-a-Lago warrant

        Feds oppose unsealing affidavit for Mar-a-Lago warrant

        WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Monday rebuffed efforts to make public the affidavit supporting the search warrant for former President Donald Trump’s estate in Florida, say…

        By Associated Press

        Aug 16, 2022 05:21 AM

        By MICHAEL BALSAMO

        WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Monday rebuffed efforts to make public the affidavit supporting the search warrant for former President Donald Trump’s estate in Florida, saying the investigation “implicates highly classified material” and the document contains sensitive information about witnesses.

        The government’s opposition came in response to court filings by several news organizations, including The Associated Press, seeking to unseal the underlying affidavit the Justice Department submitted when it asked for the warrant to search Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate earlier this month.

        Trump, in a Truth Social post early Tuesday, called for the release of the unredacted affidavit in the interest of transparency.

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.businesstribune.org/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.businesstribune.org/distilled.html index f3656bfe45d1..b6638eaa37c2 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.businesstribune.org/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.businesstribune.org/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Nintendo Switch Sports: latest iteration of the Wii Sports™ series

        Nintendo Switch Sports: latest iteration of the Wii Sports™ series

        Serve up some pleasant competitors in Nintendo Change Sports activities, obtainable now! Seize your gear and step into Spocco Sq....

        By admin

        +Nintendo Switch Sports: latest iteration of the Wii Sports™ series

        Nintendo Switch Sports: latest iteration of the Wii Sports™ series

        Serve up some pleasant competitors in Nintendo Change Sports activities, obtainable now! Seize your gear and step into Spocco Sq....

        By admin

        Serve up some pleasant competitors in Nintendo Change Sports activities, obtainable now!
        Seize your gear and step into Spocco Sq. with the
        Nintendo Change™ Sports activities
        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.cbsnews.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.cbsnews.com/distilled.html index bcdf792f08e1..d84475b7a32b 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.cbsnews.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.cbsnews.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -CBS News meets people living in the shadow of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, as Russian rockets rain down

        CBS News meets people living in the shadow of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, as Russian rockets rain down

        Ukraine says Russia is using the Zaporizhzhia nuclear facility as a base to launch attacks on civilians, bringing heartache, and risking catastrophe.

        By Charlie D'Agata

        +CBS News meets people living in the shadow of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, as Russian rockets rain down

        CBS News meets people living in the shadow of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, as Russian rockets rain down

        Ukraine says Russia is using the Zaporizhzhia nuclear facility as a base to launch attacks on civilians, bringing heartache, and risking catastrophe.

        By Charlie D'Agata

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.chicagoreader.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.chicagoreader.com/distilled.html index 0562bdb78378..d243877c178f 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.chicagoreader.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.chicagoreader.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -News Archives

        News Archives

        +News Archives

        News Archives

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.chicagotribune.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.chicagotribune.com/distilled.html index a95479a331bd..f712c2ba861b 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.chicagotribune.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.chicagotribune.com/distilled.html @@ -1 +1 @@ -Shock, confusion at Six Flags after 2 teens wounded in shooting; ‘It was a huge panic’

        Shock, confusion at Six Flags after 2 teens wounded in shooting; ‘It was a huge panic’

        The public shooting was not random and appeared to be targeted, Gurnee police said.

        By Jake Sheridan

        Aug 15, 2022 11:34 PM

        When Aisha Tahir went to buy her kids funnel cake at the end of a long day at Six Flags Great America, she saw things scattered about the food hut’s kitchen. People were hiding under the windows.

        They feared for their lives after a gunman shot two people in the Gurnee amusement park’s parking lot Sunday night.

        Advertisement

        “The way people were panicking, it made us feel like the shooter was close by. And when we saw the police entering the park, we thought the shooter was loose somewhere inside,” the Kenosha resident said.

        The shooting was not random and appeared to be targeted, Gurnee police said. No arrests had been made as of Monday, and police were still investigating, according to Shawn Gaylor, a spokesman for Gurnee police.

        Advertisement

        But the gunshots sparked chaos, confusion and fear among hundreds of park visitors.

        Many fled to the same parking lot where shots were fired. Others hopped fences and tried to break open locked exit gates to escape.

        The bullets struck a 17-year-old Aurora boy in the upper thigh and hit a 19-year-old woman from Appleton, Wisconsin, in her lower leg, police said. Both shooting victims were treated at Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville for injuries not considered life-threatening and released Sunday night, police said. A third victim who suffered a shoulder injury declined additional treatment.

        After noticing the visitors taking shelter at the funnel cake stand, Tahir saw people running and heard yelling about the shooter. Her family ran to a bathroom, where an employee guided them to a hiding spot before escorting them out of the park 20 minutes later.

        She lied to her kids as they hid. The commotion was over fireworks, she told them. But the kids heard people yelling about the shooter.

        Tahir worries about them heading back to school in two weeks. She knows that no place is safe, she said. The 32-year-old mother had talked with her children before about what to do if a gunman attacks their school. They need to be prepared wherever they go, she said.

        “I feel helpless. I don’t know what to do to make the lawmakers understand that gun violence needs to end,” she said.

        Authorities said a white sedan entered the parking lot of Six Flags about 7:50 p.m. and drove toward the front park entrance. Gurnee police said more than one person exited the sedan “and began shooting toward another individual in the parking lot.” After firing multiple times, they “got back in the white sedan and quickly left the area,” according to a news release from Gurnee police.

        Advertisement

        “This was not an active shooter incident inside the park,” police wrote.

        Eddie Cardenas was with his fiancée and their three kids when his mother-in-law called. She had left the park for the car to get a head start on prepping food.

        “Stay inside the park. There’s a shooter out here. There’s a shooter out here. There’s bodies falling,” she cried into the phone after watching the shooting unfold.

        Shocked by the news, Cardenas and his fiancée began to plan. But then dozens of people started running, Cardenas said.

        “There’s a shooter! There’s a shooter! There’s a shooter!” he remembered hearing.

        The couple grabbed their kids — a 7-year-old boy, a 5-year-old boy and a 5-month-old girl — and started running. They took shelter behind the soaring Raging Bull steel coaster and took off again a few moments later.

        Advertisement

        Their stroller was moving too slow, so Cardenas tossed it and put his 5-year-old on his shoulder. His fiancée left a purse behind, too. His 7-year-old son ran ahead and was almost lost in the confusion. Cardenas saw police with guns drawn. In a video he shared with the Tribune, people shrieked and tugged kids along.

        Outside the park, Cardenas regrouped with the nearly 30 family members he had joined for the Great America trip. He saw scared uncles waiting for their teens, who had split off earlier to go on rides.

        “We didn’t know,” the 30-year-old from Joliet said. “It was a huge panic.”

        His 7-year-old said he didn’t want to go to Six Flags ever again.

        His 5-year-old threw his bright plastic toy guns into a trash bag Monday morning.

        “These are not toys,” he told his parents, according to Cardenas.

        Advertisement

        His wife ordered the kids, who return to school soon, five-pound backpack shields.

        After the shooting, the family took a moment to pray in the car. One of Cardenas’ children thanked God that the family wasn’t killed.

        Cardenas began to cry.

        “The world that we live in, where our 5-year-old and 7-year-old have to be worried about shootings, being shot and dying, it’s scary. It’s a really scary world,” he said.

        To protect Six Flags Great America, authorities use security cameras inside the park and in the parking lot, a Six Flags spokesperson said. Uniformed and plainclothes patrols monitor the park, which has a Gurnee Police Department substation on site.

        “Six Flags dedicates our greatest amount of time, talent and resources to safety and security,” Six Flags spokesperson Rachel Kendziora told the Tribune.

        Advertisement

        “Layers of preventive measures both inside and outside the park are in place for the protection of guests and team members. … We are incredibly grateful to our team members who reacted in a professional manner to take care of our guests, and for the Gurnee Police Department for their ongoing presence and commitment to Six Flags Great America,” Kendziora said.

        The Great America amusement park is an 18-mile drive from Highland Park, where a mass shooter opened fire on a crowd gathered for a Fourth of July parade, killing seven and wounding dozens.

        [ Highland Park shooting: Man accused of killing 7 people at July Fourth parade pleads not guilty ]

        Tane Walker was on a Highland Park parade float when the shooting happened. On Sunday, he had left Six Flags earlier in the afternoon, hours before north Chicago suburb crowds would once again flee in fear of gun violence this summer.

        Afternoon Briefing

        Afternoon Briefing

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        Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox each afternoon.

        Worries about what might happen if a gunman tried to attack the park crossed his mind earlier Sunday, the 16-year-old said. It feels unsafe to leave the house or go anywhere in public, he added.

        Walker will soon return to class at the school where he and his family received trauma counseling after the Highland Park shooting.

        “Nowhere is really safe until change is made,” he said.

        Advertisement

        Chicago Tribune editor Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas and freelancer Cliff Ward contributed.

        jsheridan@chicagotribune.com

        Twitter @jakesheridan_

        \ No newline at end of file +Shock, confusion at Six Flags after 2 teens wounded in shooting; ‘It was a huge panic’

        Shock, confusion at Six Flags after 2 teens wounded in shooting; ‘It was a huge panic’

        The public shooting was not random and appeared to be targeted, Gurnee police said.

        By Jake Sheridan

        Aug 15, 2022 11:34 PM

        When Aisha Tahir went to buy her kids funnel cake at the end of a long day at Six Flags Great America, she saw things scattered about the food hut’s kitchen. People were hiding under the windows.

        They feared for their lives after a gunman shot two people in the Gurnee amusement park’s parking lot Sunday night.

        Advertisement

        “The way people were panicking, it made us feel like the shooter was close by. And when we saw the police entering the park, we thought the shooter was loose somewhere inside,” the Kenosha resident said.

        The shooting was not random and appeared to be targeted, Gurnee police said. No arrests had been made as of Monday, and police were still investigating, according to Shawn Gaylor, a spokesman for Gurnee police.

        Advertisement

        But the gunshots sparked chaos, confusion and fear among hundreds of park visitors.

        Many fled to the same parking lot where shots were fired. Others hopped fences and tried to break open locked exit gates to escape.

        The bullets struck a 17-year-old Aurora boy in the upper thigh and hit a 19-year-old woman from Appleton, Wisconsin, in her lower leg, police said. Both shooting victims were treated at Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville for injuries not considered life-threatening and released Sunday night, police said. A third victim who suffered a shoulder injury declined additional treatment.

        After noticing the visitors taking shelter at the funnel cake stand, Tahir saw people running and heard yelling about the shooter. Her family ran to a bathroom, where an employee guided them to a hiding spot before escorting them out of the park 20 minutes later.

        She lied to her kids as they hid. The commotion was over fireworks, she told them. But the kids heard people yelling about the shooter.

        Tahir worries about them heading back to school in two weeks. She knows that no place is safe, she said. The 32-year-old mother had talked with her children before about what to do if a gunman attacks their school. They need to be prepared wherever they go, she said.

        “I feel helpless. I don’t know what to do to make the lawmakers understand that gun violence needs to end,” she said.

        Authorities said a white sedan entered the parking lot of Six Flags about 7:50 p.m. and drove toward the front park entrance. Gurnee police said more than one person exited the sedan “and began shooting toward another individual in the parking lot.” After firing multiple times, they “got back in the white sedan and quickly left the area,” according to a news release from Gurnee police.

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        “This was not an active shooter incident inside the park,” police wrote.

        Eddie Cardenas was with his fiancée and their three kids when his mother-in-law called. She had left the park for the car to get a head start on prepping food.

        “Stay inside the park. There’s a shooter out here. There’s a shooter out here. There’s bodies falling,” she cried into the phone after watching the shooting unfold.

        Shocked by the news, Cardenas and his fiancée began to plan. But then dozens of people started running, Cardenas said.

        “There’s a shooter! There’s a shooter! There’s a shooter!” he remembered hearing.

        The couple grabbed their kids — a 7-year-old boy, a 5-year-old boy and a 5-month-old girl — and started running. They took shelter behind the soaring Raging Bull steel coaster and took off again a few moments later.

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        Their stroller was moving too slow, so Cardenas tossed it and put his 5-year-old on his shoulder. His fiancée left a purse behind, too. His 7-year-old son ran ahead and was almost lost in the confusion. Cardenas saw police with guns drawn. In a video he shared with the Tribune, people shrieked and tugged kids along.

        Outside the park, Cardenas regrouped with the nearly 30 family members he had joined for the Great America trip. He saw scared uncles waiting for their teens, who had split off earlier to go on rides.

        “We didn’t know,” the 30-year-old from Joliet said. “It was a huge panic.”

        His 7-year-old said he didn’t want to go to Six Flags ever again.

        His 5-year-old threw his bright plastic toy guns into a trash bag Monday morning.

        “These are not toys,” he told his parents, according to Cardenas.

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        His wife ordered the kids, who return to school soon, five-pound backpack shields.

        After the shooting, the family took a moment to pray in the car. One of Cardenas’ children thanked God that the family wasn’t killed.

        Cardenas began to cry.

        “The world that we live in, where our 5-year-old and 7-year-old have to be worried about shootings, being shot and dying, it’s scary. It’s a really scary world,” he said.

        To protect Six Flags Great America, authorities use security cameras inside the park and in the parking lot, a Six Flags spokesperson said. Uniformed and plainclothes patrols monitor the park, which has a Gurnee Police Department substation on site.

        “Six Flags dedicates our greatest amount of time, talent and resources to safety and security,” Six Flags spokesperson Rachel Kendziora told the Tribune.

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        “Layers of preventive measures both inside and outside the park are in place for the protection of guests and team members. … We are incredibly grateful to our team members who reacted in a professional manner to take care of our guests, and for the Gurnee Police Department for their ongoing presence and commitment to Six Flags Great America,” Kendziora said.

        The Great America amusement park is an 18-mile drive from Highland Park, where a mass shooter opened fire on a crowd gathered for a Fourth of July parade, killing seven and wounding dozens.

        [ Highland Park shooting: Man accused of killing 7 people at July Fourth parade pleads not guilty ]

        Tane Walker was on a Highland Park parade float when the shooting happened. On Sunday, he had left Six Flags earlier in the afternoon, hours before north Chicago suburb crowds would once again flee in fear of gun violence this summer.

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        Worries about what might happen if a gunman tried to attack the park crossed his mind earlier Sunday, the 16-year-old said. It feels unsafe to leave the house or go anywhere in public, he added.

        Walker will soon return to class at the school where he and his family received trauma counseling after the Highland Park shooting.

        “Nowhere is really safe until change is made,” he said.

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        Chicago Tribune editor Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas and freelancer Cliff Ward contributed.

        jsheridan@chicagotribune.com

        Twitter @jakesheridan_

        \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.csmonitor.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.csmonitor.com/distilled.html index d771e8b5e5fb..5d58eeb3b617 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.csmonitor.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.csmonitor.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Did overturning Roe hand Democrats a lifeline? The view from Virginia.

        Did overturning Roe hand Democrats a lifeline? The view from Virginia.

        Pundits originally predicted that overturning Roe wouldn’t have much impact on November’s elections. But the summer is suggesting otherwise.

        By Story Hinckley

        Aug 15, 2022 04:27 PM

        +Did overturning Roe hand Democrats a lifeline? The view from Virginia.

        Did overturning Roe hand Democrats a lifeline? The view from Virginia.

        Pundits originally predicted that overturning Roe wouldn’t have much impact on November’s elections. But the summer is suggesting otherwise.

        By Story Hinckley

        Aug 15, 2022 04:27 PM

        Culpeper, Va.

        Wearing a pink linen blazer and her congressional pin on a necklace chain, Abigail Spanberger bounces in the passenger seat of Roy Whitlock’s old truck as the octogenarian farmer drives his congresswoman to the wooded pasture where his cattle are hiding from the August sun. 

        Mr. Whitlock tells Ms. Spanberger about how his life has gotten harder recently, now that filling up his truck with gas a few times is equivalent to the profit from selling a calf.

        The farm is one of several stops on a Field to Fridge Supply Chain Tour, in which Representative Spanberger is meeting with farmers, business owners, and voters in Virginia’s new 7th Congressional District that stretches from the northern suburbs to western farmlands. She has just come from a roundtable where farmers were lamenting the labor shortages impacting almost every area of their work, from truck drivers to veterinarians. 

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.dailyherald.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.dailyherald.com/distilled.html index 540e76dad116..029d5a17cfe3 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.dailyherald.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.dailyherald.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -One fleet hits 5 million miles mostly on propane. Experts say it's a start toward greener fuels.

        One fleet hits 5 million miles mostly on propane. Experts say it's a start toward greener fuels.

        As a Chicago company notches more than 5 million miles on its fleet of propane delivery trucks, environmentalists note that while propane is not a perfectly clean fuel source, it can be a good "bridge" allowing companies to have an impact on reducing pollution while still waiting for other alternative sources to mature.

        By BY JENNY WHIDDEN

        Aug 16, 2022 03:49 AM

        +One fleet hits 5 million miles mostly on propane. Experts say it's a start toward greener fuels.

        One fleet hits 5 million miles mostly on propane. Experts say it's a start toward greener fuels.

        As a Chicago company notches more than 5 million miles on its fleet of propane delivery trucks, environmentalists note that while propane is not a perfectly clean fuel source, it can be a good "bridge" allowing companies to have an impact on reducing pollution while still waiting for other alternative sources to mature.

        By BY JENNY WHIDDEN

        Aug 16, 2022 03:49 AM

        Chicago-based Alpha Baking Co., which delivers bakery items to restaurants and grocery stores throughout Illinois and other Midwest states, is celebrating 5 million miles driven in its fleet of alternative-fuel trucks -- primarily propane vehicles.

        Though propane isn't perfect from an emissions standpoint, its proponents say the fuel is economically and environmentally sustainable compared to gasoline and diesel, making it a viable steppingstone on the way to more climate-friendly options such as going electric.

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.denverpost.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.denverpost.com/distilled.html index c3e70b973bc4..bee6f0d06fed 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.denverpost.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.denverpost.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Apartment conversion planned as Broadway building in Denver sells for $3M

        Apartment conversion planned as Broadway building in Denver sells for $3M

        The upper two floors of the building at 1025 N. Broadway have sat vacant for about 40 years.

        By Matthew Geiger

        Aug 16, 2022 12:00 PM

        The upper two floors of the building at 1025 N. Broadway have sat vacant for about 40 years.

        +Apartment conversion planned as Broadway building in Denver sells for $3M

        Apartment conversion planned as Broadway building in Denver sells for $3M

        The upper two floors of the building at 1025 N. Broadway have sat vacant for about 40 years.

        By Matthew Geiger

        Aug 16, 2022 12:00 PM

        The upper two floors of the building at 1025 N. Broadway have sat vacant for about 40 years.

        But that may soon change.

        The three-story, 17,688-square-foot building changed hands at the end of July. GM Development, led by Ben Gearhart and Charles Moore, purchased the space for $3.4 million, or about $192 a square foot, according to public records.

        A pawn shop occupies the first floor of the building, and has a lease that runs through 2026, Gearhart said. The upper floors, however, have been unused since the early 1980s.

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.earthtimes.org/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.earthtimes.org/distilled.html index b4260f427784..f9266105ff04 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.earthtimes.org/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.earthtimes.org/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Racing off in a new direction – can Ferrari go green?

        Racing off in a new direction – can Ferrari go green?

        Think of ultra-luxury cars … that thought doesn’t conjure up any environmentally friendly connotations, does it? But perhaps it will, from now on.

        By Samantha Waites

        +Racing off in a new direction – can Ferrari go green?

        Racing off in a new direction – can Ferrari go green?

        Think of ultra-luxury cars … that thought doesn’t conjure up any environmentally friendly connotations, does it? But perhaps it will, from now on.

        By Samantha Waites

        Think of ultra-luxury cars … that thought doesn’t conjure up any environmentally friendly connotations, does it? But perhaps it will, from now on, as globally known sports car manufacturer Ferrari release details of their carbon neutral goals. Hoping to connect their renown historic brand with a keen sense of sustainability might be a tricky challenge for the stylish Italians to pull off, however.

        In a statement released a few weeks ago, the prestige car maker spelled out their desire to make 80% of their output fully electric or hybrid by 2030 – a worthy aim in not too distant timescale. By then, they say that 40% of sales will be totally electric vehicles.

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.eonline.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.eonline.com/distilled.html index d0d6ff3233ac..5c3e4261dc89 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.eonline.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.eonline.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -See Nadya “Octomom” Suleman’s Kids on the First Day of 8th Grade

        See Nadya “Octomom” Suleman’s Kids on the First Day of 8th Grade

        Thirteen years after Nadya Suleman welcomed eight kids and was dubbed “Octomom,” the 47-year-old shared a photo of her teenagers on their first day back to school.

        By Ashley Joy Parker

        Aug 17, 2022 09:33 PM

        Watch:

        Kardashian-Jenner Kids: A COMPLETE Look Back

        It's back to school time—times eight!

        +See Nadya “Octomom” Suleman’s Kids on the First Day of 8th Grade

        See Nadya “Octomom” Suleman’s Kids on the First Day of 8th Grade

        Thirteen years after Nadya Suleman welcomed eight kids and was dubbed “Octomom,” the 47-year-old shared a photo of her teenagers on their first day back to school.

        By Ashley Joy Parker

        Aug 17, 2022 09:33 PM

        Watch:

        Kardashian-Jenner Kids: A COMPLETE Look Back

        It's back to school time—times eight!

        Nadya Suleman, famously dubbed "Octomom," took to social media to share eight youngest kids'—Nariyah, Isaiah, Maliyah, Jeremiah, Noah, Josiah, Jonah and Makai— first day of eighth grade.

        "Be proud of yourselves kids for being kind, respectful, and helpful to all your fellow peers, teachers and staff," she wrote on Instagram on Aug. 17, along with a photo of the octuplets all standing in a line and smiling. "You are exceptional role models to the 6th and 7th graders. I love you."

        Suleman—who now goes by Natalie—also addressed why her other six children were not featured in the photograph, adding, "Side note to critics: their older siblings did not want me to post a picture on their first day. I respect their choice, so should you."

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.forbes.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.forbes.com/distilled.html index b6227182f276..42b8cdc49ee6 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.forbes.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.forbes.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -They Inherited Billions Upon Billions: Meet America’s Richest Heirs

        They Inherited Billions Upon Billions: Meet America’s Richest Heirs

        One of them, Rob Walton, just led a family group to bid $4.65 billion for the Denver Broncos NFL team. Here are the other heirs that rank the highest on Forbes’ list.

        By Jemima McEvoy

        Jun 19, 2022 06:30 AM

        These three billionaires—(left to right) Abigail Johnson, Rob Walton and Julia Koch—are all among the country’s richest heirs.

        +They Inherited Billions Upon Billions: Meet America’s Richest Heirs

        They Inherited Billions Upon Billions: Meet America’s Richest Heirs

        One of them, Rob Walton, just led a family group to bid $4.65 billion for the Denver Broncos NFL team. Here are the other heirs that rank the highest on Forbes’ list.

        By Jemima McEvoy

        Jun 19, 2022 06:30 AM

        These three billionaires—(left to right) Abigail Johnson, Rob Walton and Julia Koch—are all among the country’s richest heirs.

        One of them, Rob Walton, just led a family group to bid $4.65 billion for the Denver Broncos NFL team. Here are the other heirs that rank the highest on Forbes’ list.

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.freep.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.freep.com/distilled.html index 4867f9b72e56..d5fb596b973b 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.freep.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.freep.com/distilled.html @@ -1 +1 @@ -11-foot 'Floating Citadel' sculpture unveiled outside Detroit's Huntington Place

        11-foot 'Floating Citadel' sculpture unveiled outside Detroit's Huntington Place

        Artist Scott Hocking’s giant, globe-like structure made of bronze and spanning 11 feet in diameter was debuted Wednesday.

        Artist Scott Hocking along with Mayor Mike Duggan and others unveil his sculpture "Floating Citadel" on Wednesday Aug. 17, 2022 in front of Huntington Place.

        Detroit’s newest public art installation was unveiled Thursday evening in front of Huntington Place.

        Detroit-based artist Scott Hocking’s “Floating Citadel,” a giant, globe-like structure made of bronze and spanning 11 feet in diameter, was debuted by the Detroit Regional Convention Facility Authority (DRCFA) Art Foundation along with Mayor Mike Duggan, and dedicated to Larry Alexander, the first DRCFA chairman.

        DRCFA Chair Lisa Canada said 75 artists responded to the foundation’s initial call for submissions, and Hocking was ultimately selected for “his vision and creativity and his connection to arts in the city of Detroit.”

        Hocking said his first meetings with the foundation began in March 2020, before the convention's center's latest renaming.

        “At the time, it was the TCF Center,” he recalled, “and even the material we were given was in folders that still said Cobo Hall. "Things have changed so much in such a short time — within weeks, the COVID lockdown happened.”

        Fellow artist and friend Saffell Gardner, left, congratulates Scott Hocking after the unveiling of Hocking's sculpture "Floating Citadel" on Wednesday Aug. 17, 2022 in front of Huntington Place.

        The artist tapped into his love of history for inspiration in designing the sculpture, and referenced the Detroit River and its shoreline just beyond the walls of Huntington Place.

        “I love the history of Detroit,” he said. “I love digging through those layers of what was here before, and what it means to put something here now. We’re within the original borders and fortifications of the city of Detroit when it was just a village, and right behind me was the Citadel. The Citadel was like the defensive core of this village … (which) led to making this piece that feels like this kind of protective, strong piece.

        “It’s made out of bronze, which is 90% copper. My ancestry were Cornish copper miners from the U.P.; the copper came down the waterway to make all the industry in Detroit. All those things factor in. I want to thank the city of Detroit. It’s been a constant inspiration my whole life—that’s why I’m still here.”

        The unveiling comes as Huntington Place prepares to host the North American International Auto Show, which opens to the public Saturday, Sept. 17 and runs through Sept. 25.

        Related: Auto show, Concours d’Elegance team up for September weekend showcasing Detroit

        \ No newline at end of file +11-foot 'Floating Citadel' sculpture unveiled outside Detroit's Huntington Place

        11-foot 'Floating Citadel' sculpture unveiled outside Detroit's Huntington Place

        Artist Scott Hocking’s giant, globe-like structure made of bronze and spanning 11 feet in diameter was debuted Wednesday.

        Artist Scott Hocking along with Mayor Mike Duggan and others unveil his sculpture "Floating Citadel" on Wednesday Aug. 17, 2022 in front of Huntington Place.

        Detroit’s newest public art installation was unveiled Thursday evening in front of Huntington Place.

        Detroit-based artist Scott Hocking’s “Floating Citadel,” a giant, globe-like structure made of bronze and spanning 11 feet in diameter, was debuted by the Detroit Regional Convention Facility Authority (DRCFA) Art Foundation along with Mayor Mike Duggan, and dedicated to Larry Alexander, the first DRCFA chairman.

        DRCFA Chair Lisa Canada said 75 artists responded to the foundation’s initial call for submissions, and Hocking was ultimately selected for “his vision and creativity and his connection to arts in the city of Detroit.”

        Hocking said his first meetings with the foundation began in March 2020, before the convention's center's latest renaming.

        “At the time, it was the TCF Center,” he recalled, “and even the material we were given was in folders that still said Cobo Hall. "Things have changed so much in such a short time — within weeks, the COVID lockdown happened.”

        Fellow artist and friend Saffell Gardner, left, congratulates Scott Hocking after the unveiling of Hocking's sculpture "Floating Citadel" on Wednesday Aug. 17, 2022 in front of Huntington Place.

        The artist tapped into his love of history for inspiration in designing the sculpture, and referenced the Detroit River and its shoreline just beyond the walls of Huntington Place.

        “I love the history of Detroit,” he said. “I love digging through those layers of what was here before, and what it means to put something here now. We’re within the original borders and fortifications of the city of Detroit when it was just a village, and right behind me was the Citadel. The Citadel was like the defensive core of this village … (which) led to making this piece that feels like this kind of protective, strong piece.

        “It’s made out of bronze, which is 90% copper. My ancestry were Cornish copper miners from the U.P.; the copper came down the waterway to make all the industry in Detroit. All those things factor in. I want to thank the city of Detroit. It’s been a constant inspiration my whole life—that’s why I’m still here.”

        The unveiling comes as Huntington Place prepares to host the North American International Auto Show, which opens to the public Saturday, Sept. 17 and runs through Sept. 25.

        Related: Auto show, Concours d’Elegance team up for September weekend showcasing Detroit

        \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.harpers.org/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.harpers.org/distilled.html index 400d3ebcf4a1..de72d6e338d4 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.harpers.org/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.harpers.org/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Both Sides Now, by Tess McNulty

        Both Sides Now, by Tess McNulty

        Domination and abuse on the high school debate circuit

        +Both Sides Now, by Tess McNulty

        Both Sides Now, by Tess McNulty

        Domination and abuse on the high school debate circuit

        In the conference room, three words were printed on the whiteboard: full spectrum dominance. Before them stood a stocky young man in a tactical vest and cadet cap, a prominent debate coach.

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.hollywoodreporter.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.hollywoodreporter.com/distilled.html index 63c4d6f716af..058ce64cb41f 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.hollywoodreporter.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.hollywoodreporter.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -The Hollywood Reporter

        The Hollywood Reporter

        The pop sensation had five No. 1 hits, including "Physical," "Have You Never Been Mellow" and "You're the One That I Want."

        By Mike Barnes

        Aug 09, 2022 11:37 AM

        +The Hollywood Reporter

        The Hollywood Reporter

        The pop sensation had five No. 1 hits, including "Physical," "Have You Never Been Mellow" and "You're the One That I Want."

        By Mike Barnes

        Aug 09, 2022 11:37 AM

        Olivia Newton-John, the angelic Australian singer who forged a hopelessly devoted following with her chart-topping hits “Physical,” “Have You Never Been Mellow” and “You’re the One That I Want,” her Grease duet with John Travolta, has died. She was 73.

        Newton-John died Monday morning at her ranch in Southern California, her husband, John Easterling, announced on Facebook. diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.huffpost.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.huffpost.com/distilled.html index ec67c7e5de54..2d0cdbd497fd 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.huffpost.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.huffpost.com/distilled.html @@ -1 +1 @@ -Joe Biden To Sign Sweeping Climate And Health Care Bill

        Joe Biden To Sign Sweeping Climate And Health Care Bill

        The signing caps a spurt of legislative victories for Biden and Congress, which Democrats hope will help the party in the upcoming midterm elections.

        By AP

        Aug 16, 2022 11:15 AM

        KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. (AP) — President Joe Biden will sign Democrats’ landmark climate change and health care bill on Tuesday, delivering what he has called the “final piece” of his pared-down domestic agenda, as he aims to boost his party’s standing with voters less than three months before the midterm elections.

        The legislation includes the most substantial federal investment in history to fight climate change — some $375 billion over the decade — and would cap prescription drug costs at $2,000 out-of-pocket annually for Medicare recipients. It also would help an estimated 13 million Americans pay for health care insurance by extending subsidies provided during the coronavirus pandemic.

        The measure is paid for by new taxes on large companies and stepped-up IRS enforcement of wealthy individuals and entities, with additional funds going to reduce the federal deficit.

        The House on Friday approved the measure on a party-line 220-207 vote. It passed the Senate days earlier with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking a 50-50 tie in that chamber.

        Biden is set to sign the bill during a small ceremony in the State Dining Room of the White House, sandwiched between his return from a six-day beachside vacation in South Carolina and his departure for his home in Wilmington, Delaware. He plans to hold a larger “celebration” for the legislation on Sept. 6 once lawmakers return to Washington.

        President Joe Biden rides a bicycle along the beach at Kiawah Island, S.C., on Aug. 14, 2022.
        President Joe Biden rides a bicycle along the beach at Kiawah Island, S.C., on Aug. 14, 2022.

        Manuel Balce Ceneta via Associated Press

        The signing caps a spurt of legislative productivity for Biden and Congress, who in three months have approved legislation on veterans’ benefits, the semiconductor industry and gun checks for young buyers. The president and lawmakers have also responded to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and supported NATO membership for Sweden and Finland.

        With Biden’s approval rating lagging, Democrats are hoping that the string of successes will jump-start their chances of maintaining control in Washington in the November midterms. The 79-year-old president aims to restore his own standing with voters as he contemplates a reelection bid.

        The White House announced Monday that it was going to deploy Biden and members of his Cabinet on a “Building a Better America Tour” to promote the recent victories, though the administration has yet to announce specific travel by the president.

        “In the coming weeks, the President will host a Cabinet meeting focused on implementing the Inflation Reduction Act, will travel across the country to highlight how the bill will help the American people, and will host an event to celebrate the enactment of the bill at the White House on September 6th,” the White House said in a statement.

        Republicans say the legislation’s new business taxes will increase prices, worsening the nation’s bout with its highest inflation since 1981. Though Democrats have labeled the measure the Inflation Reduction Act, nonpartisan analysts say it will have a barely perceptible impact on prices.

        The measure is a slimmed-down version of the more ambitious plan to supercharge environment and social programs that Biden and his party unveiled early last year.

        Biden’s initial 10-year, $3.5 trillion proposal also envisioned free prekindergarten, paid family and medical leave, expanded Medicare benefits and eased immigration restrictions. That crashed after centrist Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said it was too costly, using the leverage every Democrat has in the evenly divided Senate.

        Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., one of the Democrats' most conservative members, speaks to reporters about the expansive agreement he reached with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., following months of negotiations on health care, energy, climate issues, and tax initiatives, at the Capitol in Washington, on Aug. 1, 2022.
        Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., one of the Democrats' most conservative members, speaks to reporters about the expansive agreement he reached with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., following months of negotiations on health care, energy, climate issues, and tax initiatives, at the Capitol in Washington, on Aug. 1, 2022.

        J. Scott Applewhite via Associated Press

        Still, Biden and Democrats are hailing the legislation as a once-in-a-generation investment in addressing the long-term effects of climate change, as well as drought in the nation’s West.

        The bill will direct spending, tax credits and loans to bolster technology like solar panels, consumer efforts to improve home energy efficiency, emission-reducing equipment for coal- and gas-powered power plants, and air pollution controls for farms, ports and low-income communities.

        Another $64 billion would help 13 million people pay premiums over the next three years for privately bought health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. Medicare would gain the power to negotiate its costs for pharmaceuticals, initially in 2026 for only 10 drugs. Medicare beneficiaries’ out-of-pocket prescription costs would be limited to $2,000 annually starting in 2025, and beginning next year would pay no more than $35 monthly for insulin, the costly diabetes drug.

        ___

        Associated Press writer Alan Fram in Washington contributed to this report.

        \ No newline at end of file +Joe Biden To Sign Sweeping Climate And Health Care Bill

        Joe Biden To Sign Sweeping Climate And Health Care Bill

        The signing caps a spurt of legislative victories for Biden and Congress, which Democrats hope will help the party in the upcoming midterm elections.

        By AP

        Aug 16, 2022 11:15 AM

        KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. (AP) — President Joe Biden will sign Democrats’ landmark climate change and health care bill on Tuesday, delivering what he has called the “final piece” of his pared-down domestic agenda, as he aims to boost his party’s standing with voters less than three months before the midterm elections.

        The legislation includes the most substantial federal investment in history to fight climate change — some $375 billion over the decade — and would cap prescription drug costs at $2,000 out-of-pocket annually for Medicare recipients. It also would help an estimated 13 million Americans pay for health care insurance by extending subsidies provided during the coronavirus pandemic.

        The measure is paid for by new taxes on large companies and stepped-up IRS enforcement of wealthy individuals and entities, with additional funds going to reduce the federal deficit.

        The House on Friday approved the measure on a party-line 220-207 vote. It passed the Senate days earlier with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking a 50-50 tie in that chamber.

        Biden is set to sign the bill during a small ceremony in the State Dining Room of the White House, sandwiched between his return from a six-day beachside vacation in South Carolina and his departure for his home in Wilmington, Delaware. He plans to hold a larger “celebration” for the legislation on Sept. 6 once lawmakers return to Washington.

        President Joe Biden rides a bicycle along the beach at Kiawah Island, S.C., on Aug. 14, 2022.
        President Joe Biden rides a bicycle along the beach at Kiawah Island, S.C., on Aug. 14, 2022.

        Manuel Balce Ceneta via Associated Press

        The signing caps a spurt of legislative productivity for Biden and Congress, who in three months have approved legislation on veterans’ benefits, the semiconductor industry and gun checks for young buyers. The president and lawmakers have also responded to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and supported NATO membership for Sweden and Finland.

        With Biden’s approval rating lagging, Democrats are hoping that the string of successes will jump-start their chances of maintaining control in Washington in the November midterms. The 79-year-old president aims to restore his own standing with voters as he contemplates a reelection bid.

        The White House announced Monday that it was going to deploy Biden and members of his Cabinet on a “Building a Better America Tour” to promote the recent victories, though the administration has yet to announce specific travel by the president.

        “In the coming weeks, the President will host a Cabinet meeting focused on implementing the Inflation Reduction Act, will travel across the country to highlight how the bill will help the American people, and will host an event to celebrate the enactment of the bill at the White House on September 6th,” the White House said in a statement.

        Republicans say the legislation’s new business taxes will increase prices, worsening the nation’s bout with its highest inflation since 1981. Though Democrats have labeled the measure the Inflation Reduction Act, nonpartisan analysts say it will have a barely perceptible impact on prices.

        The measure is a slimmed-down version of the more ambitious plan to supercharge environment and social programs that Biden and his party unveiled early last year.

        Biden’s initial 10-year, $3.5 trillion proposal also envisioned free prekindergarten, paid family and medical leave, expanded Medicare benefits and eased immigration restrictions. That crashed after centrist Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said it was too costly, using the leverage every Democrat has in the evenly divided Senate.

        Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., one of the Democrats' most conservative members, speaks to reporters about the expansive agreement he reached with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., following months of negotiations on health care, energy, climate issues, and tax initiatives, at the Capitol in Washington, on Aug. 1, 2022.
        Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., one of the Democrats' most conservative members, speaks to reporters about the expansive agreement he reached with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., following months of negotiations on health care, energy, climate issues, and tax initiatives, at the Capitol in Washington, on Aug. 1, 2022.

        J. Scott Applewhite via Associated Press

        Still, Biden and Democrats are hailing the legislation as a once-in-a-generation investment in addressing the long-term effects of climate change, as well as drought in the nation’s West.

        The bill will direct spending, tax credits and loans to bolster technology like solar panels, consumer efforts to improve home energy efficiency, emission-reducing equipment for coal- and gas-powered power plants, and air pollution controls for farms, ports and low-income communities.

        Another $64 billion would help 13 million people pay premiums over the next three years for privately bought health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. Medicare would gain the power to negotiate its costs for pharmaceuticals, initially in 2026 for only 10 drugs. Medicare beneficiaries’ out-of-pocket prescription costs would be limited to $2,000 annually starting in 2025, and beginning next year would pay no more than $35 monthly for insulin, the costly diabetes drug.

        ___

        Associated Press writer Alan Fram in Washington contributed to this report.

        \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.iht.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.iht.com/distilled.html index fd3e856c9abf..0ef30eb128cb 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.iht.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.iht.com/distilled.html @@ -1 +1 @@ -No One Will Get Rid of Vladimir Putin

        No One Will Get Rid of Vladimir Putin

        Terror is always more persuasive than anything else.

        By Oleg Kashin

        Aug 18, 2022 05:00 AM

        Opinion|No One Will Get Rid of Putin

        https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/18/opinion/russia-putin-corruption.html

        What’s easier to imagine — Vladimir Putin suddenly declaring an end to the war on Ukraine and withdrawing his troops or a Russia without Mr. Putin that revises his policies, ends the war and begins to build relations with Ukraine and the West on a peaceful new foundation?

        It’s a hard one to answer. The war in Ukraine is, to a significant degree, the result of Mr. Putin’s personal obsession, and it’s hardly likely that he will voluntarily agree to end it. Which leaves the other possibility: Russia without Mr. Putin, with all hopes for a peaceful Russia tied to a change of power in the country.

        That also seems pretty unlikely. Six months into the war, Mr. Putin’s power does not appear to be any less solid than it was during peacetime. His approval ratings are high, and he doesn’t have a single opponent in Russia whose voice can be heard. Of his two most likely successors — Mikhail Mishustin, the prime minister, and Aleksei Navalny, the opposition leader — one is bound by loyalty to the president, and the other is in prison. For either to come to office, Mr. Putin would have to depart. But short of a sudden change of heart or medical emergency, he’s not going anywhere. Mr. Putin’s successor may well be Mr. Putin.

        It’s a bleak prospect and one many find hard to accept. Why are no members of the ruling elite, faced with a president driving their country to ruin and themselves badly affected by the war, pushing for the removal of Mr. Putin? Where are the brave technocrats or functionaries who will, in the interest of their class and their country, contrive to oust the president? Such questions, given regular voice in the West, are more of a lament than a spur to analysis. But the answer lies close at hand.

        For years, critics inside and outside Russia relied on one major theme to galvanize opposition to Mr. Putin: corruption. For a spell, the approach made some inroads, especially in the hands of Mr. Navalny, whose well-produced videos documenting corruption throughout the ruling elite — including Mr. Putin — appeared to dent the president’s popularity.

        But corruption is the glue that holds the system together, not the catalyst to bring it down. Basing his power on the thievery of his subordinates, Mr. Putin’s goal was hardly to ensure their comfort and well-being. The point, more likely, was to bind the ruling class within a conspiratorial system of collective responsibility, ensuring its absolute solidarity. In this condition of complicity, no one could emerge to challenge the president.

        Strictly speaking, it is not completely correct to call such a system corruption. Corruption entails a deviation from the norm, whereas in Mr. Putin’s Russia the norm is precisely that of officials living on money of dubious origin. If the law were to be followed literally, then practically every Russian minister or governor could end up in prison. In practice, though, Mr. Putin always applied the law selectively. Every time one of his influential subordinates found himself charged with corruption, the main question on people’s minds was about the hidden political reason for the arrest.

        Such was the case with the former economic minister Aleksei Ulyukayev, who was accused of taking bribes after clashing with Igor Sechin, the influential chief executive of the Russian oil giant Rosneft and a friend of Mr. Putin. So, too, with several governors, including Nikita Belykh, who at one time headed a major opposition party, and Sergei Furgal, whose victory in an election ran counter to the Kremlin’s desire and who was duly accused of not corruption but murder.

        What is called corruption in Russia would be more correctly called a system of incitement and blackmail. If you are loyal and if the president is pleased with you, you have the right to steal — but if you are disloyal, you’ll be thrown in prison for theft. It’s no surprise that in recent decades only a few individuals inside Mr. Putin’s system have spoken out publicly against it. Terror is always more persuasive than anything else.

        The war had the potential to upend this calculus. The ruling class, which owes its acquisition of wealth to its position in power, has come up against a new reality: Their property in the West has been either seized or subjected to sanctions — no more yachts, no more villas, nowhere to run. For many officials and oligarchs close to the government, this means the collapse of all their life plans, and in principle, it can be presumed that there’s not a single social group in Russia more dissatisfied with the war than Mr. Putin’s kleptocrats.

        But there’s a catch: They traded in their rights as political agents for those very yachts and villas. The fundamental intrigue in internal Russian politics is tied up with this fact. Mr. Putin’s military escapade has had a devastating impact on the lives of the establishment elite, on whom he has always relied. But the elites, hamstrung by their dependence on power for their wealth and security, find themselves in no position to say no to Mr. Putin.

        That’s not to say their dissatisfaction doesn’t come to light. The finance minister, Anton Siluanov, spoke publicly about the difficulties of carrying out his duties under the new conditions. Aleksei Kudrin, the chairman of the body that audits the state finances and a Kremlin insider, explained at a meeting with Mr. Putin that the war had led Russia’s economy to a dead end. And even the head of the state military-industrial monopoly, Sergei Chemezov, wrote an article about the impossibility of realizing Mr. Putin’s plans. But backed by no political weight, such views hold no interest — or danger — for Mr. Putin.

        It’s true that wars often bring out a new elite among officers and generals, who could conceivably threaten the president’s rule. Yet this is not happening in Russia, possibly because Mr. Putin is trying to prevent his generals from gaining too much fame. The names of those in command of Russian troops in Ukraine were kept secret until the end of June, and propaganda about the “heroes” of the war prefers to feature stories about those who have lost their lives and are no longer able to manifest political ambitions. In any case, Mr. Putin has surrounded himself with favored security personnel whose loyalty to him is beyond question.

        Given this situation, Russia’s functionaries can do little other than wait. They could try to conduct some kind of quiet game of their own, including separate negotiations with the West, but up to now, there has been no evidence of humanitarian corridors for Russian elites. Even if someone — for example, an oligarch close to Mr. Putin such as Roman Abramovich — managed to break through to the West, all that would await him would be confiscated assets and suspicion. By comparison, even Mr. Putin’s paranoia might be preferable.

        If members of the ruling elite aren’t able to topple Mr. Putin, then perhaps the professional middle classes could? But there, too, the outlook is grim. For those who step out to criticize the war, the fate of Marina Ovsyannikova, an editor at the state-controlled Channel 1, is instructive. After staging a high-profile protest — during a live broadcast of a popular evening news program, she stood behind the announcer and held a poster that read, “Stop the war” — she fled the country to avoid arrest, leaving her family behind in Moscow.

        For months she roamed Europe, subjected to numerous accusations that no matter how impressive her protest might have been, she was still, first and foremost, a cog in Mr. Putin’s propaganda machine. She returned to Russia, where she’s been arrested and fined several times, been charged with spreading false information and had her home raided. Her former colleagues in the media and the professional class more widely must understand that it makes no sense to emulate her action. Better to sit out the war quietly in their jobs than to risk ruin and infamy.

        At the popular level, things are no better. The initially promising protests against the war have been completely choked off by the threat of prison time. Critical public statements, let alone rallies or demonstrations, are now all but impossible. Wielding repression, the regime is in full control of the domestic situation.

        Instead, the factor seriously threatening Mr. Putin’s strength today is the Ukrainian Army. Only losses at the front have a realistic chance of bringing change to the political situation in Russia — as Russian history well attests. After defeat in the Crimean War in the mid-19th century, Czar Alexander II was forced to introduce radical reforms. The same thing happened when Russia lost a war with Japan in 1905, and perestroika in the Soviet Union was driven in large part by the failure of the war in Afghanistan. If Ukraine manages to inflict heavy losses on Russian forces, a similar process could unfold.

        Yet for all the damage wrought so far, such a turnaround feels a long way off. For now and the foreseeable future, it’s Mr. Putin — and the fear that without him, things would be worse — that rules Russia.

        Oleg Kashin (@KSHN) is a journalist and the author of “Fardwor, Russia! A Fantastical Tale of Life Under Putin.” This essay was translated by Carol Apollonio from the Russian.

        The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.

        Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram.

        \ No newline at end of file +No One Will Get Rid of Vladimir Putin

        No One Will Get Rid of Vladimir Putin

        Terror is always more persuasive than anything else.

        By Oleg Kashin

        Aug 18, 2022 05:00 AM

        Opinion|No One Will Get Rid of Putin

        https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/18/opinion/russia-putin-corruption.html

        What’s easier to imagine — Vladimir Putin suddenly declaring an end to the war on Ukraine and withdrawing his troops or a Russia without Mr. Putin that revises his policies, ends the war and begins to build relations with Ukraine and the West on a peaceful new foundation?

        It’s a hard one to answer. The war in Ukraine is, to a significant degree, the result of Mr. Putin’s personal obsession, and it’s hardly likely that he will voluntarily agree to end it. Which leaves the other possibility: Russia without Mr. Putin, with all hopes for a peaceful Russia tied to a change of power in the country.

        That also seems pretty unlikely. Six months into the war, Mr. Putin’s power does not appear to be any less solid than it was during peacetime. His approval ratings are high, and he doesn’t have a single opponent in Russia whose voice can be heard. Of his two most likely successors — Mikhail Mishustin, the prime minister, and Aleksei Navalny, the opposition leader — one is bound by loyalty to the president, and the other is in prison. For either to come to office, Mr. Putin would have to depart. But short of a sudden change of heart or medical emergency, he’s not going anywhere. Mr. Putin’s successor may well be Mr. Putin.

        It’s a bleak prospect and one many find hard to accept. Why are no members of the ruling elite, faced with a president driving their country to ruin and themselves badly affected by the war, pushing for the removal of Mr. Putin? Where are the brave technocrats or functionaries who will, in the interest of their class and their country, contrive to oust the president? Such questions, given regular voice in the West, are more of a lament than a spur to analysis. But the answer lies close at hand.

        For years, critics inside and outside Russia relied on one major theme to galvanize opposition to Mr. Putin: corruption. For a spell, the approach made some inroads, especially in the hands of Mr. Navalny, whose well-produced videos documenting corruption throughout the ruling elite — including Mr. Putin — appeared to dent the president’s popularity.

        But corruption is the glue that holds the system together, not the catalyst to bring it down. Basing his power on the thievery of his subordinates, Mr. Putin’s goal was hardly to ensure their comfort and well-being. The point, more likely, was to bind the ruling class within a conspiratorial system of collective responsibility, ensuring its absolute solidarity. In this condition of complicity, no one could emerge to challenge the president.

        Strictly speaking, it is not completely correct to call such a system corruption. Corruption entails a deviation from the norm, whereas in Mr. Putin’s Russia the norm is precisely that of officials living on money of dubious origin. If the law were to be followed literally, then practically every Russian minister or governor could end up in prison. In practice, though, Mr. Putin always applied the law selectively. Every time one of his influential subordinates found himself charged with corruption, the main question on people’s minds was about the hidden political reason for the arrest.

        Such was the case with the former economic minister Aleksei Ulyukayev, who was accused of taking bribes after clashing with Igor Sechin, the influential chief executive of the Russian oil giant Rosneft and a friend of Mr. Putin. So, too, with several governors, including Nikita Belykh, who at one time headed a major opposition party, and Sergei Furgal, whose victory in an election ran counter to the Kremlin’s desire and who was duly accused of not corruption but murder.

        What is called corruption in Russia would be more correctly called a system of incitement and blackmail. If you are loyal and if the president is pleased with you, you have the right to steal — but if you are disloyal, you’ll be thrown in prison for theft. It’s no surprise that in recent decades only a few individuals inside Mr. Putin’s system have spoken out publicly against it. Terror is always more persuasive than anything else.

        The war had the potential to upend this calculus. The ruling class, which owes its acquisition of wealth to its position in power, has come up against a new reality: Their property in the West has been either seized or subjected to sanctions — no more yachts, no more villas, nowhere to run. For many officials and oligarchs close to the government, this means the collapse of all their life plans, and in principle, it can be presumed that there’s not a single social group in Russia more dissatisfied with the war than Mr. Putin’s kleptocrats.

        But there’s a catch: They traded in their rights as political agents for those very yachts and villas. The fundamental intrigue in internal Russian politics is tied up with this fact. Mr. Putin’s military escapade has had a devastating impact on the lives of the establishment elite, on whom he has always relied. But the elites, hamstrung by their dependence on power for their wealth and security, find themselves in no position to say no to Mr. Putin.

        That’s not to say their dissatisfaction doesn’t come to light. The finance minister, Anton Siluanov, spoke publicly about the difficulties of carrying out his duties under the new conditions. Aleksei Kudrin, the chairman of the body that audits the state finances and a Kremlin insider, explained at a meeting with Mr. Putin that the war had led Russia’s economy to a dead end. And even the head of the state military-industrial monopoly, Sergei Chemezov, wrote an article about the impossibility of realizing Mr. Putin’s plans. But backed by no political weight, such views hold no interest — or danger — for Mr. Putin.

        It’s true that wars often bring out a new elite among officers and generals, who could conceivably threaten the president’s rule. Yet this is not happening in Russia, possibly because Mr. Putin is trying to prevent his generals from gaining too much fame. The names of those in command of Russian troops in Ukraine were kept secret until the end of June, and propaganda about the “heroes” of the war prefers to feature stories about those who have lost their lives and are no longer able to manifest political ambitions. In any case, Mr. Putin has surrounded himself with favored security personnel whose loyalty to him is beyond question.

        Given this situation, Russia’s functionaries can do little other than wait. They could try to conduct some kind of quiet game of their own, including separate negotiations with the West, but up to now, there has been no evidence of humanitarian corridors for Russian elites. Even if someone — for example, an oligarch close to Mr. Putin such as Roman Abramovich — managed to break through to the West, all that would await him would be confiscated assets and suspicion. By comparison, even Mr. Putin’s paranoia might be preferable.

        If members of the ruling elite aren’t able to topple Mr. Putin, then perhaps the professional middle classes could? But there, too, the outlook is grim. For those who step out to criticize the war, the fate of Marina Ovsyannikova, an editor at the state-controlled Channel 1, is instructive. After staging a high-profile protest — during a live broadcast of a popular evening news program, she stood behind the announcer and held a poster that read, “Stop the war” — she fled the country to avoid arrest, leaving her family behind in Moscow.

        For months she roamed Europe, subjected to numerous accusations that no matter how impressive her protest might have been, she was still, first and foremost, a cog in Mr. Putin’s propaganda machine. She returned to Russia, where she’s been arrested and fined several times, been charged with spreading false information and had her home raided. Her former colleagues in the media and the professional class more widely must understand that it makes no sense to emulate her action. Better to sit out the war quietly in their jobs than to risk ruin and infamy.

        At the popular level, things are no better. The initially promising protests against the war have been completely choked off by the threat of prison time. Critical public statements, let alone rallies or demonstrations, are now all but impossible. Wielding repression, the regime is in full control of the domestic situation.

        Instead, the factor seriously threatening Mr. Putin’s strength today is the Ukrainian Army. Only losses at the front have a realistic chance of bringing change to the political situation in Russia — as Russian history well attests. After defeat in the Crimean War in the mid-19th century, Czar Alexander II was forced to introduce radical reforms. The same thing happened when Russia lost a war with Japan in 1905, and perestroika in the Soviet Union was driven in large part by the failure of the war in Afghanistan. If Ukraine manages to inflict heavy losses on Russian forces, a similar process could unfold.

        Yet for all the damage wrought so far, such a turnaround feels a long way off. For now and the foreseeable future, it’s Mr. Putin — and the fear that without him, things would be worse — that rules Russia.

        Oleg Kashin (@KSHN) is a journalist and the author of “Fardwor, Russia! A Fantastical Tale of Life Under Putin.” This essay was translated by Carol Apollonio from the Russian.

        The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.

        Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram.

        \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.iol.co.za/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.iol.co.za/distilled.html index e56bd13391e9..03d2435e7aac 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.iol.co.za/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.iol.co.za/distilled.html @@ -1 +1 @@ -Ransom demand made for kidnapped Cape Town boy

        Ransom demand made for kidnapped Cape Town boy

        While the search continues for 6-year-old Shahnawaz Asghar, a ransom demand for the boy’s return has been made.

        By Robin-Lee Francke

        Aug 18, 2022 09:15 AM

        Cape Town – While the search continues for 6-year-old Shahnawaz Asghar, a ransom demand for the boy’s return has been made.

        Shahnawaz was snatched in front of his 9th Street home in Kensington, Cape Town, before 8am on Wednesday.

        Story continues below Advertisement

        Speaking to IOL at the time, the family spokesperson, who identified herself as Ms Joubert, said the boy’s mother was traumatised.

        “He was grabbed right outside the house as his mother was leaving to take the three children (daughter, aged 11 and the two boys, aged 9 and 6) to school just around the corner from them,” Joubert said.

        The boy is in Grade R at the Hidayatul Islam Primary School.

        A search by police, residents and community organisations is under way.

        Shahnawaz is Pakistani, with black hair and brown eyes. He is approximately 1 metre tall and weighs about 40kg.

        He was last seen wearing his blue school tracksuit with a grey-and-white camouflage puffer jacket and black school shoes.

        Story continues below Advertisement

        He is believed to have been taken away in a vehicle with cloned licence plates.

        Police confirmed they were searching for six suspects who were seen fleeing with the child but remained tight-lipped on the incident.

        However, a source has disclosed to IOL a ransom demand was made.

        Story continues below Advertisement

        “They called the family and set a ransom demand,” the source said.

        However, Kensington Community Policing Forum (CPF) chairman, Cheslyn Steenberg has rubbished claims of a ransom demand.

        “I see posts about a ransom being asked for - that type of reporting is irresponsible as it places the life of Shanawaz at risk. Let us remain prayerful for his safe return,” he said.

        Story continues below Advertisement

        Steenberg confirmed progress has been made in this investigation.

        “The Kensington CPF herewith informs the community that progress has been made in this matter, and some noteworthy developments have been made.

        “I would like to urge the public to only share verified information - misinformation can lead to secondary trauma to the family of Shanawaz,” Steenberg added.

        Western Cape Community Safety and Police Oversight MEC Reagen Allen said the number of kidnapping incidents in the province was alarming.

        He said crime statistics for the fourth quarter of the 2021/22 financial year showed kidnappings had increased by 8.3%, or 16 cases, compared to the previous year.

        Allen said Mitchells Plain and Gugulethu had an increase in kidnappings of 122% and 100% respectively.

        “Criminals are using innocent children as pawns in their schemes,” he said.

        “The parents and loved ones (of Shahnawaz) should know that they are in our thoughts and prayers as they endure this very difficult period.

        “I’d like to encourage anyone with information to urgently contact SAPS, so that this young child can be found unharmed and returned to his family,” Allen said.

        \ No newline at end of file +Ransom demand made for kidnapped Cape Town boy

        Ransom demand made for kidnapped Cape Town boy

        While the search continues for 6-year-old Shahnawaz Asghar, a ransom demand for the boy’s return has been made.

        By Robin-Lee Francke

        Aug 18, 2022 09:15 AM

        Cape Town – While the search continues for 6-year-old Shahnawaz Asghar, a ransom demand for the boy’s return has been made.

        Shahnawaz was snatched in front of his 9th Street home in Kensington, Cape Town, before 8am on Wednesday.

        Story continues below Advertisement

        Speaking to IOL at the time, the family spokesperson, who identified herself as Ms Joubert, said the boy’s mother was traumatised.

        “He was grabbed right outside the house as his mother was leaving to take the three children (daughter, aged 11 and the two boys, aged 9 and 6) to school just around the corner from them,” Joubert said.

        The boy is in Grade R at the Hidayatul Islam Primary School.

        A search by police, residents and community organisations is under way.

        Shahnawaz is Pakistani, with black hair and brown eyes. He is approximately 1 metre tall and weighs about 40kg.

        He was last seen wearing his blue school tracksuit with a grey-and-white camouflage puffer jacket and black school shoes.

        Story continues below Advertisement

        He is believed to have been taken away in a vehicle with cloned licence plates.

        Police confirmed they were searching for six suspects who were seen fleeing with the child but remained tight-lipped on the incident.

        However, a source has disclosed to IOL a ransom demand was made.

        Story continues below Advertisement

        “They called the family and set a ransom demand,” the source said.

        However, Kensington Community Policing Forum (CPF) chairman, Cheslyn Steenberg has rubbished claims of a ransom demand.

        “I see posts about a ransom being asked for - that type of reporting is irresponsible as it places the life of Shanawaz at risk. Let us remain prayerful for his safe return,” he said.

        Story continues below Advertisement

        Steenberg confirmed progress has been made in this investigation.

        “The Kensington CPF herewith informs the community that progress has been made in this matter, and some noteworthy developments have been made.

        “I would like to urge the public to only share verified information - misinformation can lead to secondary trauma to the family of Shanawaz,” Steenberg added.

        Western Cape Community Safety and Police Oversight MEC Reagen Allen said the number of kidnapping incidents in the province was alarming.

        He said crime statistics for the fourth quarter of the 2021/22 financial year showed kidnappings had increased by 8.3%, or 16 cases, compared to the previous year.

        Allen said Mitchells Plain and Gugulethu had an increase in kidnappings of 122% and 100% respectively.

        “Criminals are using innocent children as pawns in their schemes,” he said.

        “The parents and loved ones (of Shahnawaz) should know that they are in our thoughts and prayers as they endure this very difficult period.

        “I’d like to encourage anyone with information to urgently contact SAPS, so that this young child can be found unharmed and returned to his family,” Allen said.

        \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.kxan.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.kxan.com/distilled.html index 4680ca8d9310..2244bd11126f 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.kxan.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.kxan.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -KXAN Austin

        KXAN Austin

        Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Monday warned mayors of big, mostly democratic cities to be “on notice” as groups of migrants could be bused to their town from Texas.

        By Jaclyn Ramkissoon

        Aug 16, 2022 03:20 AM

        +KXAN Austin

        KXAN Austin

        Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Monday warned mayors of big, mostly democratic cities to be “on notice” as groups of migrants could be bused to their town from Texas.

        By Jaclyn Ramkissoon

        Aug 16, 2022 03:20 AM

        AUSTIN (KXAN) — Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick on Monday warned mayors of big, mostly Democratic cities to be “on notice” as groups of migrants could be bused to their town from Texas.

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.laobserved.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.laobserved.com/distilled.html index a4b7144896f6..33d48abcf247 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.laobserved.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.laobserved.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Business Guides for Companies – Effective business articles that will improve your business.

        Business Guides for Companies – Effective business articles that will improve your business.

        Effective business articles that will improve your business.

        +Business Guides for Companies – Effective business articles that will improve your business.

        Business Guides for Companies – Effective business articles that will improve your business.

        Effective business articles that will improve your business.

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.latimes.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.latimes.com/distilled.html index d4fdb90f3031..9bb686d646fa 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.latimes.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.latimes.com/distilled.html @@ -1 +1 @@ -Effort to recall Los Angeles D.A. George Gascón fails

        Effort to recall Los Angeles D.A. George Gascón fails

        There were not enough valid signatures to put the recall question on the ballot.

        By James Queally

        Aug 16, 2022 01:38 AM

        A second effort to force Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón into a recall election fizzled out Monday after officials determined that the campaign to boot him from office failed to gain enough valid signatures.

        To put Gascón’s job on the ballot, the campaign seeking his ouster needed to gather 566,857 valid signatures by mid-July; the figure reflects 10% of the people who were eligible to vote in the election cycle when he won office in November 2020. The L.A. County registrar-recorder/county clerk’s office said Monday that about 520,000 of the signatures submitted were valid.

        While the campaign submitted roughly 715,000 signatures, some were inevitably going to be disqualified if they were signed by people who were not properly registered to vote in L.A. County or if a registered voter’s signature didn’t match the one on file with the registrar. In California, most recall drives see at least 20% of collected signatures disqualified, said Joshua Spivak, an expert on recall elections and senior research fellow at UC Berkeley Law School’s California Constitution Center.

        On Monday, the registrar’s office said 195,783 of the signatures submitted — roughly 27% — were invalid. Most that were tossed out were either duplicates or submitted by people who were not registered to vote, officials said.

        In the final weeks of its signature drive, the recall campaign sought signatures through a mass mailing blitz, sending petitions to roughly 3.6 million L.A. County voters. Some observers expressed concern that this might lead to a surge in duplicate signatures, a fear that was borne out Monday. The recall failed by about 46,000 signatures, and 43,593 of the disqualified signatures were duplicates, according to the registrar’s office.

        Loathed by his own prosecutors and with Los Angeles facing a 15-year high in homicides, Gascón was particularly vulnerable to a recall, observers said. They saw Monday’s result as an indictment of the campaign rather than a victory for the embattled district attorney.

        “That’s a major screw-up on their part. They missed by a lot, and they raised more than enough money to have collected more than enough signatures,” said Roy Behr, a Democratic political consultant who was not involved in the effort. “With enough money, you can get 10% of signatures on just about anything, and there’s no doubt at all that over 10% of voters in L.A. County would support a recall.”

        Gascón said he was “grateful” in a statement on Twitter and vowed “to move forward from this attempted political power grab — rest assured L.A. County, the work hasn’t stopped. My primary focus has been & will always be keeping us safe & creating a more equitable justice system for all.”

        In a statement, the recall campaign called the results “surprising and disappointing” and vowed to conduct a thorough legal review of the disqualified signatures. Earlier this year, campaign spokesman Tim Lineberger told The Times that the campaign would not pursue a third recall if this one failed and would instead focus on defeating Gascón in 2024.

        Gascón has faced criticism from law enforcement and business leaders since his election. Many were quick to blame his reform-minded policies for rising crime in Los Angeles, despite the fact that similar surges in violence have occurred in California cities with traditional law-and-order prosecutors.

        Gascón’s moves to severely limit when prosecutors can try juveniles as adults or seek life sentences have stoked the ire of victims’ rights groups and left him in untenable positions in a number of high-profile cases. In the case of Hannah Tubbs — a 26-year-old transgender woman who sexually assaulted a child — Gascón’s policies on youth justice allowed her to receive a short sentence in juvenile court because she was 17 when the crime occurred. The case garnered national outrage and has haunted the district attorney for months.

        The vast majority of Gascon’s own prosecutors supported the recall and, after Monday’s results, vowed to keep fighting him.

        “The residents of L.A. County cannot afford two years of George Gascón’s dangerous policies. The lives of so many innocent residents are at risk,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Jonathan Hatami said. “So we all must come together to help and stand up for one another until George is gone.”

        An initial attempt to recall Gascón last year failed miserably, largely because of a lack of fundraising and organization.

        But this second effort, launched late last year, raised millions of dollars and drew support from a wide swath of police unions and politicians, including Los Angeles mayoral candidate Rick Caruso.

        With Bay Area voters recalling San Francisco Dist. Atty. Chesa Boudin in June, Gascón seemed at risk of facing a similar fate. But Monday’s results spared Gascón from having to defend his record in an election just two years after he won office, even as some challengers were already lining up to face him.

        Brian Van Riper, a political consultant who has worked on recalls in the past, questioned the decision to focus on mail-in petitions in the final few months of the campaign.

        “Typically, you shovel money at the signature gatherers, and they sit out in front of Ralphs in perpetuity until they hit their number. The mailing out of the petitions was irregular,” he said. “Did they light money on fire with those mailers?”

        Van Riper said the recall campaign failed to shake the perception that it was a partisan, Republican effort in deep-blue L.A. County. The campaign’s top two fundraisers were major donors to President Trump or to California GOP causes; its chair was former Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, a Republican; and surrogates often made appearances on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show or the conservative outlet Newsmax.

        “They took the path that they went down, and that allowed them to be branded as Trump-loving extremists, even if there is sincere distrust and disdain of the George Gascón policies,” Van Riper said.

        In early August, recall organizers began arguing that the review process was unfair. Former Deputy Dist. Atty. Marian Thompson, who has a background in election law, sent a letter to the L.A. County Board of Supervisors claiming that the registrar’s office was using out-of-date processes to verify signatures.

        She argued that the registrar was ignoring a 2020 change to the law meant to make it harder to disqualify mail-in votes or petitions if the signature submitted did not match the one on file with the registrar. She also said the recall campaign had been barred from sending observers to monitor the verification process.

        But only 9,490 signatures were disqualified because of a mismatch, less than 2% of all submitted and far less than the number by which the recall failed, according to the data released by the registrar Monday.

        In mid-July, the registrar’s office performed verification tests on 28,000 signatures collected by the campaign and disqualified 22% of them. While Thompson described that rejection rate as “shockingly large,” San Francisco election officials tossed roughly 34% of all signatures submitted during the process that led to Boudin’s recall, according to Spivak, the recall election expert.

        In a statement last week, L.A. County Registrar Dean Logan dismissed Thompson’s letter, denied that officials were using outdated training materials and noted that the California Election Code does not give recall organizers any legal right to monitor the verification process.

        Spivak wondered whether the campaign’s tactics meant that its leaders were fearful they would fail and had begun setting the stage for a distraction.

        “The question is, were they just throwing up dust into the air to try and confuse things?” he asked.

        \ No newline at end of file +Effort to recall Los Angeles D.A. George Gascón fails

        Effort to recall Los Angeles D.A. George Gascón fails

        There were not enough valid signatures to put the recall question on the ballot.

        By James Queally

        Aug 16, 2022 01:38 AM

        A second effort to force Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. George Gascón into a recall election fizzled out Monday after officials determined that the campaign to boot him from office failed to gain enough valid signatures.

        To put Gascón’s job on the ballot, the campaign seeking his ouster needed to gather 566,857 valid signatures by mid-July; the figure reflects 10% of the people who were eligible to vote in the election cycle when he won office in November 2020. The L.A. County registrar-recorder/county clerk’s office said Monday that about 520,000 of the signatures submitted were valid.

        While the campaign submitted roughly 715,000 signatures, some were inevitably going to be disqualified if they were signed by people who were not properly registered to vote in L.A. County or if a registered voter’s signature didn’t match the one on file with the registrar. In California, most recall drives see at least 20% of collected signatures disqualified, said Joshua Spivak, an expert on recall elections and senior research fellow at UC Berkeley Law School’s California Constitution Center.

        On Monday, the registrar’s office said 195,783 of the signatures submitted — roughly 27% — were invalid. Most that were tossed out were either duplicates or submitted by people who were not registered to vote, officials said.

        In the final weeks of its signature drive, the recall campaign sought signatures through a mass mailing blitz, sending petitions to roughly 3.6 million L.A. County voters. Some observers expressed concern that this might lead to a surge in duplicate signatures, a fear that was borne out Monday. The recall failed by about 46,000 signatures, and 43,593 of the disqualified signatures were duplicates, according to the registrar’s office.

        Loathed by his own prosecutors and with Los Angeles facing a 15-year high in homicides, Gascón was particularly vulnerable to a recall, observers said. They saw Monday’s result as an indictment of the campaign rather than a victory for the embattled district attorney.

        “That’s a major screw-up on their part. They missed by a lot, and they raised more than enough money to have collected more than enough signatures,” said Roy Behr, a Democratic political consultant who was not involved in the effort. “With enough money, you can get 10% of signatures on just about anything, and there’s no doubt at all that over 10% of voters in L.A. County would support a recall.”

        Gascón said he was “grateful” in a statement on Twitter and vowed “to move forward from this attempted political power grab — rest assured L.A. County, the work hasn’t stopped. My primary focus has been & will always be keeping us safe & creating a more equitable justice system for all.”

        In a statement, the recall campaign called the results “surprising and disappointing” and vowed to conduct a thorough legal review of the disqualified signatures. Earlier this year, campaign spokesman Tim Lineberger told The Times that the campaign would not pursue a third recall if this one failed and would instead focus on defeating Gascón in 2024.

        Gascón has faced criticism from law enforcement and business leaders since his election. Many were quick to blame his reform-minded policies for rising crime in Los Angeles, despite the fact that similar surges in violence have occurred in California cities with traditional law-and-order prosecutors.

        Gascón’s moves to severely limit when prosecutors can try juveniles as adults or seek life sentences have stoked the ire of victims’ rights groups and left him in untenable positions in a number of high-profile cases. In the case of Hannah Tubbs — a 26-year-old transgender woman who sexually assaulted a child — Gascón’s policies on youth justice allowed her to receive a short sentence in juvenile court because she was 17 when the crime occurred. The case garnered national outrage and has haunted the district attorney for months.

        The vast majority of Gascon’s own prosecutors supported the recall and, after Monday’s results, vowed to keep fighting him.

        “The residents of L.A. County cannot afford two years of George Gascón’s dangerous policies. The lives of so many innocent residents are at risk,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Jonathan Hatami said. “So we all must come together to help and stand up for one another until George is gone.”

        An initial attempt to recall Gascón last year failed miserably, largely because of a lack of fundraising and organization.

        But this second effort, launched late last year, raised millions of dollars and drew support from a wide swath of police unions and politicians, including Los Angeles mayoral candidate Rick Caruso.

        With Bay Area voters recalling San Francisco Dist. Atty. Chesa Boudin in June, Gascón seemed at risk of facing a similar fate. But Monday’s results spared Gascón from having to defend his record in an election just two years after he won office, even as some challengers were already lining up to face him.

        Brian Van Riper, a political consultant who has worked on recalls in the past, questioned the decision to focus on mail-in petitions in the final few months of the campaign.

        “Typically, you shovel money at the signature gatherers, and they sit out in front of Ralphs in perpetuity until they hit their number. The mailing out of the petitions was irregular,” he said. “Did they light money on fire with those mailers?”

        Van Riper said the recall campaign failed to shake the perception that it was a partisan, Republican effort in deep-blue L.A. County. The campaign’s top two fundraisers were major donors to President Trump or to California GOP causes; its chair was former Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, a Republican; and surrogates often made appearances on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show or the conservative outlet Newsmax.

        “They took the path that they went down, and that allowed them to be branded as Trump-loving extremists, even if there is sincere distrust and disdain of the George Gascón policies,” Van Riper said.

        In early August, recall organizers began arguing that the review process was unfair. Former Deputy Dist. Atty. Marian Thompson, who has a background in election law, sent a letter to the L.A. County Board of Supervisors claiming that the registrar’s office was using out-of-date processes to verify signatures.

        She argued that the registrar was ignoring a 2020 change to the law meant to make it harder to disqualify mail-in votes or petitions if the signature submitted did not match the one on file with the registrar. She also said the recall campaign had been barred from sending observers to monitor the verification process.

        But only 9,490 signatures were disqualified because of a mismatch, less than 2% of all submitted and far less than the number by which the recall failed, according to the data released by the registrar Monday.

        In mid-July, the registrar’s office performed verification tests on 28,000 signatures collected by the campaign and disqualified 22% of them. While Thompson described that rejection rate as “shockingly large,” San Francisco election officials tossed roughly 34% of all signatures submitted during the process that led to Boudin’s recall, according to Spivak, the recall election expert.

        In a statement last week, L.A. County Registrar Dean Logan dismissed Thompson’s letter, denied that officials were using outdated training materials and noted that the California Election Code does not give recall organizers any legal right to monitor the verification process.

        Spivak wondered whether the campaign’s tactics meant that its leaders were fearful they would fail and had begun setting the stage for a distraction.

        “The question is, were they just throwing up dust into the air to try and confuse things?” he asked.

        \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.mercurynews.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.mercurynews.com/distilled.html index e8e4c128b777..05131bf218aa 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.mercurynews.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.mercurynews.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Californians should embrace legal, well-regulated gambling

        Californians should embrace legal, well-regulated gambling

        Upsides include job creation, community philanthropy, tax revenue and economic advancement and opportunity

        By David Danzis

        Aug 16, 2022 12:00 PM

        Efforts to discourage voters from supporting legal sports betting in California are relying heavily on hyperbole and misinformation to sway public opinion.

        +Californians should embrace legal, well-regulated gambling

        Californians should embrace legal, well-regulated gambling

        Upsides include job creation, community philanthropy, tax revenue and economic advancement and opportunity

        By David Danzis

        Aug 16, 2022 12:00 PM

        Efforts to discourage voters from supporting legal sports betting in California are relying heavily on hyperbole and misinformation to sway public opinion.

        Whether it be exaggerated claims or malicious mischaracterizations, those who oppose sports betting in the Golden State seem intent on portraying gambling as inherently evil.

        It would be folly to argue gambling is entirely without risk. Obviously, it’s not.

        However, legal gambling does have an upside, such as job creation, community philanthropy, tax revenue and, as is evident by California tribal casinos, economic advancement and opportunity.

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.miaminewtimes.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.miaminewtimes.com/distilled.html index 591993dee0d5..47a89a032373 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.miaminewtimes.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.miaminewtimes.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Does Ron DeSantis Possess BDE? A New Times Investigation

        Does Ron DeSantis Possess BDE? A New Times Investigation

        Election denier Kari Lake says Ron DeSantis has "BDE." Many disagree.

        By Alex DeLuca

        +Does Ron DeSantis Possess BDE? A New Times Investigation

        Does Ron DeSantis Possess BDE? A New Times Investigation

        Election denier Kari Lake says Ron DeSantis has "BDE." Many disagree.

        By Alex DeLuca

        Republican Arizona gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake has made headlines this year as a prominent election denier. It has now become apparent that she's anything but an erection denier.

        On Sunday, during a rally in downtown Phoenix that featured an appearance from GOP idol du jour Ron DeSantis, Lake praised the Florida governor, describing him as "gutsy." Pretending to search for the most fitting way to characterize DeSantis, Lake, former Phoenix TV news anchor turned far-right candidate for her state's highest office, continued, "The guy has bigger... Wait, let me think about how I want to word this. My staff always says, ‘Whatever you do, do not say "balls."' So I'm not going to say it. That guy has a backbone made of steel."
        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.miamitodaynews.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.miamitodaynews.com/distilled.html index 261436b17048..1e21ede878b9 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.miamitodaynews.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.miamitodaynews.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Miami business bankruptcies run against trend

        Miami business bankruptcies run against trend

        Miami business bankruptcies run against trend by at MiamiTodayNews.com.

        +Miami business bankruptcies run against trend

        Miami business bankruptcies run against trend

        Miami business bankruptcies run against trend by at MiamiTodayNews.com.

        Written by on August 9, 2022

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.minnpost.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.minnpost.com/distilled.html index 8b5330b0669e..cd31c4c8ee8e 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.minnpost.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.minnpost.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Overturning of Roe v. Wade pushes Minnesotans to consider long-term life contraception decisions

        Overturning of Roe v. Wade pushes Minnesotans to consider long-term life contraception decisions

        More people are coming into Minnesota clinics, both from in state and out, for contraceptives, according to Dr. Christy Boraas, a physician at M Health Fairview Women's Clinic in Minneapolis, medical director at Planned Parenthood, and abortion provider at Whole Women’s Health in Bloomington.

        +Overturning of Roe v. Wade pushes Minnesotans to consider long-term life contraception decisions

        Overturning of Roe v. Wade pushes Minnesotans to consider long-term life contraception decisions

        More people are coming into Minnesota clinics, both from in state and out, for contraceptives, according to Dr. Christy Boraas, a physician at M Health Fairview Women's Clinic in Minneapolis, medical director at Planned Parenthood, and abortion provider at Whole Women’s Health in Bloomington.

        Following the overturning of Roe v. Wade, more people are seeking long-term contraceptives, according to some clinics.

        In Minnesota, people have made big changes regarding their reproductive systems, prompted by the Supreme Court’s decision nearly two months ago.  Although the SCOTUS ruling did not outlaw abortions in Minnesota, it got Minnesotans thinking of what ifs.

        Among several Reddit inquiry posts from MinnPost about the impact of the ruling, more than 20 Minnesotan users commented about how the decision has changed their reproductive plans and made them inclined to seek long-term contraceptives.

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.mojones.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.mojones.com/distilled.html index 3998e5d762d1..a7f0c68d5138 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.mojones.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.mojones.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Abortion opponents don't want you to read news about abortion.

        Abortion opponents don't want you to read news about abortion.

        A newly proposed ban is so sweeping it could criminalize journalism. We're speaking out—along with more than 20 other leading news organizations.

        +Abortion opponents don't want you to read news about abortion.

        Abortion opponents don't want you to read news about abortion.

        A newly proposed ban is so sweeping it could criminalize journalism. We're speaking out—along with more than 20 other leading news organizations.

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nbcchicago.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nbcchicago.com/distilled.html index 685b16747617..f24d03a6520c 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nbcchicago.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nbcchicago.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -From Shelter to Home-Sweet-Home: Meet The Vets Who Make It Happen For Animals in Need

        From Shelter to Home-Sweet-Home: Meet The Vets Who Make It Happen For Animals in Need

        The duality of a veterinarian’s job can be challenging—a vet must be both caring and analytical, combining scientific training and technical skills with...

        +From Shelter to Home-Sweet-Home: Meet The Vets Who Make It Happen For Animals in Need

        From Shelter to Home-Sweet-Home: Meet The Vets Who Make It Happen For Animals in Need

        The duality of a veterinarian’s job can be challenging—a vet must be both caring and analytical, combining scientific training and technical skills with...

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nbcdfw.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nbcdfw.com/distilled.html index e86a7cc95bc8..2f4f6d3c4310 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nbcdfw.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nbcdfw.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -<![CDATA[News – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth]]>

        <![CDATA[News – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth]]>

        +<![CDATA[News – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth]]>

        <![CDATA[News – NBC 5 Dallas-Fort Worth]]>

        en_US Tue, 16 Aug 2022 07:15:38 -0500 Tue, 16 Aug 2022 07:15:38 -0500 diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nbclosangeles.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nbclosangeles.com/distilled.html index ab105951aa1a..7041106553dc 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nbclosangeles.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nbclosangeles.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Prosecutors Have Asked to Hold Nurse Charged in Fatal Windsor Hills Crash With No Bail

        Prosecutors Have Asked to Hold Nurse Charged in Fatal Windsor Hills Crash With No Bail

        The LA County District Attorney’s Office has asked a judge to hold in jail with no bail the woman accused of killing six people in a fiery crash earlier this...

        By Eric Leonard

        +Prosecutors Have Asked to Hold Nurse Charged in Fatal Windsor Hills Crash With No Bail

        Prosecutors Have Asked to Hold Nurse Charged in Fatal Windsor Hills Crash With No Bail

        The LA County District Attorney’s Office has asked a judge to hold in jail with no bail the woman accused of killing six people in a fiery crash earlier this...

        By Eric Leonard

        The LA County District Attorney’s Office has asked a judge to hold in jail with no bail the woman accused of killing six people in a fiery crash earlier this month in Windsor Hills, citing ‘worsening’ mental health concerns.

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nbcmiami.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nbcmiami.com/distilled.html index 5612e76d39c9..6a15ffe2cc88 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nbcmiami.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nbcmiami.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -From Shelter to Home-Sweet-Home: Meet The Vets Who Make It Happen For Animals in Need

        From Shelter to Home-Sweet-Home: Meet The Vets Who Make It Happen For Animals in Need

        The duality of a veterinarian’s job can be challenging—a vet must be both caring and analytical, combining scientific training and technical skills with...

        +From Shelter to Home-Sweet-Home: Meet The Vets Who Make It Happen For Animals in Need

        From Shelter to Home-Sweet-Home: Meet The Vets Who Make It Happen For Animals in Need

        The duality of a veterinarian’s job can be challenging—a vet must be both caring and analytical, combining scientific training and technical skills with...

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nbcnews.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nbcnews.com/distilled.html index 21fe773630bb..cf78361478b3 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nbcnews.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nbcnews.com/distilled.html @@ -1 +1 @@ -Rudy Giuliani informed he's a target of probe into Trump's alleged election interference in Georgia

        Rudy Giuliani informed he's a target of probe into Trump's alleged election interference in Georgia

        Giuliani, Trump's former personal attorney, was ordered last week to testify in the Georgia investigation in person on Wednesday.

        WASHINGTON — Rudy Giuliani is a "target" of the criminal investigation into possible 2020 election interference in Georgia by former President Donald Trump and others, his attorney told NBC News.

        The lawyer, Robert Costello, said that as part of their efforts to compel Giuliani’s testimony, Georgia prosecutors initially told New York courts that Giuliani was a material witness. Then, Costello said, Giuliani's lawyers were informed Monday that he is a "target" of the probe.

        Giuliani, Trump's former personal attorney and the former mayor of New York City, was ordered last week to testify in person Wednesday before a grand jury handling the case.

        The grand jury, called by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, subpoenaed Giuliani last month as a material witness as part of its investigation into "coordinated attempts to unlawfully alter the outcome of the 2020 elections." The subpoena said Giuliani made statements at legislative hearings in Georgia falsely claiming that there had been "widespread voter fraud" in the state.

        A judge ordered Giuliani to testify after he failed to appear at a July 13 hearing to challenge the subpoena. Costello said Monday that Giuliani still intends to testify this week. The New York Times was first to report that Giuliani had been informed he was a target of the probe.

        Meanwhile, a federal judge on Monday denied Sen. Lindsey Graham's effort to quash a subpoena seeking his testimony in the Georgia investigation.

        In a 22-page order, U.S. District Judge Leigh Martin May in Atlanta rejected arguments by Graham, R-S.C., against having to testify, including his contention that the speech and debate clause of the Constitution shields him from testifying.

        Graham's lawyers had argued that a post-election phone call Graham made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in November 2020 had a legislative purpose and therefore was covered by the clause.

        The judge also rejected Graham's argument that sovereign immunity protects him from having to testify because he is a sitting U.S. senator.

        "If the court were to accept Senator Graham’s sovereign immunity argument, it would mean that U.S. senators would not be required to testify before state grand juries no matter the circumstances," May wrote. "The law would give them complete immunity based solely on their status as federal officials."

        Last, the judge said Graham's reasoning for being exempt from testifying because he's a high-ranking official also doesn't carry weight. Willis has shown that "extraordinary circumstances" necessitated the testimony of Graham, who has "unique personal knowledge about the substance and circumstances of the phone calls with Georgia election officials, as well as the logistics of setting them up and his actions afterward," May said.

        "Senator Graham’s potential testimony on these issues — in addition to his knowledge about topics outside of the calls such as his alleged coordination with the Trump campaign before and after the calls are unique to Senator Graham, and Senator Graham has not suggested that anyone else from his office can speak to these issues or has unique personal knowledge of them," the order said.

        Graham's office released a statement saying he will appeal the judge's decision.

        "The Constitution’s speech or debate clause prevents a local official from questioning a senator about how that senator did his job," the statement said. "Here, Senator Graham was doing his due diligence before the Electoral Count Act certification vote — where he voted to certify the election. Although the district court acknowledged that speech or debate may protect some of Senator Graham’s activities, she nevertheless ignored the constitutional text and binding Supreme Court precedent, so Senator Graham plans to appeal to the 11th Circuit."

        Willis is looking into Graham’s call to Raffensperger in the days after the November 2020 election. Raffensperger has said Graham pressed him about whether he had the power to reject certain absentee ballots, which Raffensperger said he interpreted as a suggestion to toss out legally cast votes.

        The subpoena seeking Graham's testimony said he "made at least two telephone calls" to Raffensperger and his staff. "During the telephone calls, [Graham] questioned Secretary Raffensperger and his staff about reexamining certain absentee ballots cast in Georgia in order to explore the possibility of a more favorable outcome for former President Donald Trump. [Graham] also made reference to allegations of widespread voter fraud in the November 2020 election in Georgia, consistent with public statements made by known affiliates of the Trump Campaign," the subpoena said.

        Rebecca Shabad is a politics reporter for NBC News based in Washington.

        Tom Winter is a New York-based correspondent covering crime, courts, terrorism and financial fraud on the East Coast for the NBC News Investigative Unit.

        Frank Thorp V

        contributed

        .

        \ No newline at end of file +Rudy Giuliani informed he's a target of probe into Trump's alleged election interference in Georgia

        Rudy Giuliani informed he's a target of probe into Trump's alleged election interference in Georgia

        Giuliani, Trump's former personal attorney, was ordered last week to testify in the Georgia investigation in person on Wednesday.

        WASHINGTON — Rudy Giuliani is a "target" of the criminal investigation into possible 2020 election interference in Georgia by former President Donald Trump and others, his attorney told NBC News.

        The lawyer, Robert Costello, said that as part of their efforts to compel Giuliani’s testimony, Georgia prosecutors initially told New York courts that Giuliani was a material witness. Then, Costello said, Giuliani's lawyers were informed Monday that he is a "target" of the probe.

        Giuliani, Trump's former personal attorney and the former mayor of New York City, was ordered last week to testify in person Wednesday before a grand jury handling the case.

        The grand jury, called by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, subpoenaed Giuliani last month as a material witness as part of its investigation into "coordinated attempts to unlawfully alter the outcome of the 2020 elections." The subpoena said Giuliani made statements at legislative hearings in Georgia falsely claiming that there had been "widespread voter fraud" in the state.

        A judge ordered Giuliani to testify after he failed to appear at a July 13 hearing to challenge the subpoena. Costello said Monday that Giuliani still intends to testify this week. The New York Times was first to report that Giuliani had been informed he was a target of the probe.

        Meanwhile, a federal judge on Monday denied Sen. Lindsey Graham's effort to quash a subpoena seeking his testimony in the Georgia investigation.

        In a 22-page order, U.S. District Judge Leigh Martin May in Atlanta rejected arguments by Graham, R-S.C., against having to testify, including his contention that the speech and debate clause of the Constitution shields him from testifying.

        Graham's lawyers had argued that a post-election phone call Graham made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in November 2020 had a legislative purpose and therefore was covered by the clause.

        The judge also rejected Graham's argument that sovereign immunity protects him from having to testify because he is a sitting U.S. senator.

        "If the court were to accept Senator Graham’s sovereign immunity argument, it would mean that U.S. senators would not be required to testify before state grand juries no matter the circumstances," May wrote. "The law would give them complete immunity based solely on their status as federal officials."

        Last, the judge said Graham's reasoning for being exempt from testifying because he's a high-ranking official also doesn't carry weight. Willis has shown that "extraordinary circumstances" necessitated the testimony of Graham, who has "unique personal knowledge about the substance and circumstances of the phone calls with Georgia election officials, as well as the logistics of setting them up and his actions afterward," May said.

        "Senator Graham’s potential testimony on these issues — in addition to his knowledge about topics outside of the calls such as his alleged coordination with the Trump campaign before and after the calls are unique to Senator Graham, and Senator Graham has not suggested that anyone else from his office can speak to these issues or has unique personal knowledge of them," the order said.

        Graham's office released a statement saying he will appeal the judge's decision.

        "The Constitution’s speech or debate clause prevents a local official from questioning a senator about how that senator did his job," the statement said. "Here, Senator Graham was doing his due diligence before the Electoral Count Act certification vote — where he voted to certify the election. Although the district court acknowledged that speech or debate may protect some of Senator Graham’s activities, she nevertheless ignored the constitutional text and binding Supreme Court precedent, so Senator Graham plans to appeal to the 11th Circuit."

        Willis is looking into Graham’s call to Raffensperger in the days after the November 2020 election. Raffensperger has said Graham pressed him about whether he had the power to reject certain absentee ballots, which Raffensperger said he interpreted as a suggestion to toss out legally cast votes.

        The subpoena seeking Graham's testimony said he "made at least two telephone calls" to Raffensperger and his staff. "During the telephone calls, [Graham] questioned Secretary Raffensperger and his staff about reexamining certain absentee ballots cast in Georgia in order to explore the possibility of a more favorable outcome for former President Donald Trump. [Graham] also made reference to allegations of widespread voter fraud in the November 2020 election in Georgia, consistent with public statements made by known affiliates of the Trump Campaign," the subpoena said.

        Rebecca Shabad is a politics reporter for NBC News based in Washington.

        Tom Winter is a New York-based correspondent covering crime, courts, terrorism and financial fraud on the East Coast for the NBC News Investigative Unit.

        Frank Thorp V

        contributed

        .

        \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nbcnewyork.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nbcnewyork.com/distilled.html index e02849830f94..9a67736286f8 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nbcnewyork.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nbcnewyork.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -From Shelter to Home-Sweet-Home: Meet The Vets Who Make It Happen For Animals in Need

        From Shelter to Home-Sweet-Home: Meet The Vets Who Make It Happen For Animals in Need

        The duality of a veterinarian’s job can be challenging—a vet must be both caring and analytical, combining scientific training and technical skills with...

        +From Shelter to Home-Sweet-Home: Meet The Vets Who Make It Happen For Animals in Need

        From Shelter to Home-Sweet-Home: Meet The Vets Who Make It Happen For Animals in Need

        The duality of a veterinarian’s job can be challenging—a vet must be both caring and analytical, combining scientific training and technical skills with...

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nbcphiladelphia.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nbcphiladelphia.com/distilled.html index 397db0e89eb2..218c939a51e9 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nbcphiladelphia.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nbcphiladelphia.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Bat in Hand: Phillies Star Bryce Harper Shares Encouraging Injury Update

        Bat in Hand: Phillies Star Bryce Harper Shares Encouraging Injury Update

        The Phillies need more pop in the lineup as they approach a playoff push, and just in time it seems superstar Bryce Harper is progressing just in time.

        By Adam Hermann

        +Bat in Hand: Phillies Star Bryce Harper Shares Encouraging Injury Update

        Bat in Hand: Phillies Star Bryce Harper Shares Encouraging Injury Update

        The Phillies need more pop in the lineup as they approach a playoff push, and just in time it seems superstar Bryce Harper is progressing just in time.

        By Adam Hermann

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nbcsandiego.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nbcsandiego.com/distilled.html index 57ad56a00c35..2f3642dd6fb6 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nbcsandiego.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nbcsandiego.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Mexico Remains on Alert After Chaotic Weekend in Tijuana, Rosarito, Ensenada

        Mexico Remains on Alert After Chaotic Weekend in Tijuana, Rosarito, Ensenada

        The Mexican military patrolled the streets of Baja California, Mexico through the weekend after chaotic scenes of vehicles on fire and road blockades in cities...

        By TELEMUNDO 20, Ana Gómez

        +Mexico Remains on Alert After Chaotic Weekend in Tijuana, Rosarito, Ensenada

        Mexico Remains on Alert After Chaotic Weekend in Tijuana, Rosarito, Ensenada

        The Mexican military patrolled the streets of Baja California, Mexico through the weekend after chaotic scenes of vehicles on fire and road blockades in cities...

        By TELEMUNDO 20, Ana Gómez

        The Mexican military patrolled the streets of Baja California, Mexico through the weekend after chaotic scenes of vehicles on fire and road blockades in cities like Tijuana, Rosarito and Ensenada led to a shelter-in-place advisory for U.S. citizens in the beachside state.

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nbcwashington.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nbcwashington.com/distilled.html index 2831a05997f0..95554dc16119 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nbcwashington.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nbcwashington.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Arlington Pub Crash Not Intentional, Driver Wasn't Drunk, Police Say

        Arlington Pub Crash Not Intentional, Driver Wasn't Drunk, Police Say

        The rideshare driver who slammed into an Irish pub in the Courthouse area of Arlington, Virginia, injuring 15 people and sparking a fire, did not crash into the...

        By Gina Cook, Dominique Moody, News4 Reporter

        +Arlington Pub Crash Not Intentional, Driver Wasn't Drunk, Police Say

        Arlington Pub Crash Not Intentional, Driver Wasn't Drunk, Police Say

        The rideshare driver who slammed into an Irish pub in the Courthouse area of Arlington, Virginia, injuring 15 people and sparking a fire, did not crash into the...

        By Gina Cook, Dominique Moody, News4 Reporter

        The rideshare driver who slammed into an Irish pub in Arlington, Virginia, injuring 15 people and sparking a fire, did not crash into the bar intentionally and they were not under the influence of alcohol, police said Monday.

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.news10.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.news10.com/distilled.html index ffdf8fbfabaa..3070ae6791b7 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.news10.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.news10.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -NEWS10 ABC

        NEWS10 ABC

        SCHENECTADY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — Staffing woes still plaque nearly every industry from food service to healthcare and even law enforcement. “Like any other organization, we’re hurting right…

        By Conall Smith

        Aug 16, 2022 02:28 AM

        +NEWS10 ABC

        NEWS10 ABC

        SCHENECTADY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — Staffing woes still plaque nearly every industry from food service to healthcare and even law enforcement. “Like any other organization, we’re hurting right…

        By Conall Smith

        Aug 16, 2022 02:28 AM

        SCHENECTADY, N.Y. (NEWS10) — Staffing woes still plaque nearly every industry from food service to healthcare and even law enforcement.

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.newsday.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.newsday.com/distilled.html index e0ada1fbb83a..bc83534965d8 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.newsday.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.newsday.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Long Island home prices aren't dropping as the real estate market slows. Here's why.

        Long Island home prices aren't dropping as the real estate market slows. Here's why.

        The housing market has showed signs of slowing, as the spring marked the end of an era of historically low mortgage rates. But so far prices haven't budged.

        By Jonathan LaMantia

        Aug 12, 2022 09:55 PM

        The Long Island housing market has showed signs of slowing, as the spring marked the end of an era of historically low mortgage rates. But so far prices haven’t budged.

        The culprit, real estate experts say, is a shortage of homes for sale on the Island that won’t be resolved quickly.

        Higher mortgage rates have diminished the number of buyers who can afford a home and the amount of money they can offer. The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 5.52% in June, up from 3.1% in December, according to mortgage giant Freddie Mac. This week the average was 5.22%  

        The rate increase has affected the number of transactions but prices continued to rise. Closed sales fell by about 23% in July compared with the same month a year ago on Long Island while median prices remained at records in both counties, according to monthly data from OneKey MLS.  

        Fewer sales helped the supply of available homes grow but also showed the extreme depth of the Island's shortfall, which has contributed to the appreciation of home prices. The number of single-family houses and condominiums for sale increased to 6,407 by the end of June, according to data from real estate brokerage Douglas Elliman and appraisal firm Miller Samuel. That inventory figure was up nearly 48% compared with the end of March, more than three times the usual seasonal increase of 14% in the past decade. Still, it was the fourth-lowest it has been at the end of a quarter in the past 20 years. The Miller Samuel data excludes homes in the Hamptons and on the North Fork, which the firm reports separately.  

        The data show how Long Islanders are simultaneously seeing more options for buying than in the winter but are still faced with a seller's market.

        The median sale price of a home in Nassau County in July matched the record of $720,000 set in the previous month. It was 7.5% higher than the median in the same month a year ago. In Suffolk County, the median rose 9.5% to a record $575,000, according to OneKey MLS.  

        To understand why prices haven’t dropped to reflect the smaller pool of buyers that can afford homes, it’s worth looking at housing supply data from before the pandemic-era real estate frenzy. There are still fewer than half as many houses on the market as there were in June 2019, when 14,051 homes were for sale.

        “During this pandemic boom, inventory wasn’t just burned off, it was obliterated,” said Jonathan Miller, CEO of Miller Samuel. “We’ve not seen lows like anywhere near what we’ve experienced during this boom, and it will take a little while for supply to rise.”

        Given the current debate about whether the U.S. economy is in a recession, real estate observers are closely watching the market for signs of weakness. But the Island’s housing supply is in a far different place than it was after the real estate bubble popped. During the Great Recession, in 2008 and 2009, there were more than three times as many houses on the market as there are now, with a peak above 26,000.

        “Because the bidding wars that we had seen a few months ago have settled down, it looks like a bit of a calmer market compared to the frenzied activity that we saw a year ago,” said Jessica Lautz, vice president of demographics and behavioral insights at the National Association of Realtors. “It’s all a matter of perspective, and if we look over a longer time frame, we still have a very limited housing inventory.”

        Lautz also expressed confidence that today’s buyers are on more solid financial footing than those who borrowed to buy a house in the years leading up to the Great Recession.

        Sixty-five percent of borrowers taking out new mortgages had credit scores above 760 in the second quarter of the year, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Equifax. That compared with 38% from 2003 to 2006.

        “We do know that homebuyers have had higher credit scores than what we have seen historically,” Lautz said. “Lending is still quite tight for homebuyers, and there’s none of the goofy loan products out there,” such as mortgages that require limited documentation to verify income or large balloon payments at the end of the loan term.

        Rising home prices have also been a boon for homeowners’ equity. Across the United States, 48.1% of homeowners had at least 50% equity in their homes in the second quarter, compared with 34.4% a year ago, according to real estate data company Attom.

         At the national level, NAR expects the median price of existing homes sold across all 12 months of 2022 to be 11.5% higher than it was in 2021. Next year, it is projecting price growth of just 2.1%, according to its latest forecast published this month. That would represent “home price gains more to what is traditionally the historical norm as opposed to these double-digit gains that we have been seeing,” Lautz said.

         Miller said he expects slower price appreciation on Long Island as well as in the Hamptons and North Fork in the short term.

        "I don't think we're going to be using words like correction," Miller said. "It's going to be modest decline, or stability in prices, barring the economy doesn't go into a deep, dark, significant recession." 

        Jonathan Chandler, a real estate agent with Compass in Rockville Centre, said the local market feels as if it has eased up since the spring, when waiting in lines for open houses with his clients and dozens of others often felt like a day at Six Flags Great Adventure.

        “You’re starting to see less competition with the increase in rates,” Chandler said, “but I’m still not seeing the inventory needed to help with the buyers who are ready and willing to purchase. You’re still in bidding wars. It just may not be as crazy.”

        Chandler, who works in Nassau, Suffolk and Brooklyn, said the market hasn’t shifted to the point that buyers can ask homeowners to make seller concessions, such as covering a portion of closing costs, and still expect to have their offers accepted.

        “Seller concessions right now, to me, is out of the question in this market,” he said, noting that if a house has been sitting on the market for a month or two, a buyer could see if there is an opportunity to get a discount from the asking price. But those opportunities are “far and few,” he said. “It’s not an across-the-board situation right now.”

        Months of supply on Long Island, which measures the time it would take for all the houses on the market to be sold given the current pace of homes going into contract, was 2.9 in July, according to data from OneKey MLS. That still indicates a fast-paced market that favors sellers. Five to six months of supply is typically needed to put buyers and sellers on even footing in negotiations. The last time that happened was in May 2020, when New York was facing the first stage of the pandemic.  

        Deirdre O'Connell, CEO of Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty, said her agents have seen less foot traffic at open houses, which isn't unusual during the hottest weeks of August. She views the change in the market as positive for first-time buyers, who are less likely to be forced to waive contract contingencies that would protect them if they couldn't secure a mortgage or an inspection revealed needed repairs. 

        "The pace for the past two years has boxed out a lot of buyers, particularly first-time homebuyers, who couldn't keep up with it or were maybe forced to pay over market value to even get a home," she said. 

        For sellers, a changing market increases the importance of marketing a home with proper staging and high-quality photography, O'Connell said. 

        "The people that have to adjust a little bit of expectations are some of our sellers," O'Connell said. "If they think they're going to make a large percentage more than their neighbor got for their house six to 12 months ago, that's probably the wrong expectation."

        Another factor contributing to the supply shortage nationally is that the pace of home-building has failed to keep up with the rate of household formation as younger millennials reach peak homebuying age, said George Ratiu, senior economist and manager of economic research at Realtor.com. He cited a report published by Realtor.com in February that found a growing gap between U.S. household formation and the number of single-family homes that were built

        The cities with the most U.S. building permits per capita last year were concentrated in the South and West and were led by the metro areas of Austin, Texas; Nashville, Tennessee; Jacksonville, Florida; and Raleigh, North Carolina; according to Realtor.com. 

        “We remain in a tremendously underbuilt housing market,” Ratiu said. “New homes have mostly been built at the upper end, premium and luxury segment of the market, which left only the existing-home market for first-time buyers, and that’s precisely where we’ve seen so much activity.”

        Building hasn’t kept up with population growth in the New York metro area, according to an analysis published in February by the Regional Plan Association. The report found the population in the tristate area increased by nearly 6% from 2010 to 2020, while housing stock increased by 3.5%, according to U.S. census data.

        Nassau and Suffolk issued the fewest housing permits per capita from 2010 to 2020 among 31 counties RPA analyzed in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Suffolk issued 7.4 per 1,000 people and Nassau issued 7.8 per 1,000. Hudson County, N.J. led the region at 64.7 housing permits per 1,000 people. Permits include those for apartment buildings and houses. 

        Strong employment numbers, such as those that were reported last week, with 528,000 more jobs added to the U.S. economy in July,  should keep homebuying demand strong, Ratiu said.

        “It’s likely we’ll still have buyers who will feel safe in their jobs, have enough down payment and will still be continuing to look at homes,” he said. “That means price declines might not be on the menu.”

        On the other hand, Ratiu said, if companies are concerned the economy could slip into a recession, they might begin laying off workers, which “could trigger a much steeper turn in the housing market.”

        One measure Ratiu is watching is consumer sentiment. The University of Michigan’s index of consumer sentiment hit an all-time low in June and improved slightly above that level in August.  

        “The big question is, ‘Are companies likely to overreact over the next half of the year?’ Because so much of it boils down to consumer confidence,” Ratiu said.

        Ratiu said Long Island has several things going for it that could keep homebuying demand robust. Its unemployment rate in June, 2.9%, was better than the national rate that month of 3.6%. Its home prices also didn’t spike as much as other markets. For example, home prices in some parts of Arizona, Florida and Texas, increased by more than 25% last year compared with 2020.

        Price growth in New York and the surrounding metro area was more moderate, Ratiu said. “It tells you that the market hasn’t been as overheated,” Ratiu said.

        Slower growth in prices would put the housing market on a more sustainable path, and be a welcome development for buyers, he said.

        “To see the market move more toward that direction is a really positive sign,” Ratiu said. “At some point more buyers will actually get a chance to find properties that match their budget."

        The Long Island housing market has showed signs of slowing, as the spring marked the end of an era of historically low mortgage rates. But so far prices haven’t budged.

        The culprit, real estate experts say, is a shortage of homes for sale on the Island that won’t be resolved quickly.

        Higher mortgage rates have diminished the number of buyers who can afford a home and the amount of money they can offer. The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 5.52% in June, up from 3.1% in December, according to mortgage giant Freddie Mac. This week the average was 5.22%  

        The rate increase has affected the number of transactions but prices continued to rise. Closed sales fell by about 23% in July compared with the same month a year ago on Long Island while median prices remained at records in both counties, according to monthly data from OneKey MLS.  

        Fewer sales helped the supply of available homes grow but also showed the extreme depth of the Island's shortfall, which has contributed to the appreciation of home prices. The number of single-family houses and condominiums for sale increased to 6,407 by the end of June, according to data from real estate brokerage Douglas Elliman and appraisal firm Miller Samuel. That inventory figure was up nearly 48% compared with the end of March, more than three times the usual seasonal increase of 14% in the past decade. Still, it was the fourth-lowest it has been at the end of a quarter in the past 20 years. The Miller Samuel data excludes homes in the Hamptons and on the North Fork, which the firm reports separately.  

        The data show how Long Islanders are simultaneously seeing more options for buying than in the winter but are still faced with a seller's market.

        The median sale price of a home in Nassau County in July matched the record of $720,000 set in the previous month. It was 7.5% higher than the median in the same month a year ago. In Suffolk County, the median rose 9.5% to a record $575,000, according to OneKey MLS.  

        To understand why prices haven’t dropped to reflect the smaller pool of buyers that can afford homes, it’s worth looking at housing supply data from before the pandemic-era real estate frenzy. There are still fewer than half as many houses on the market as there were in June 2019, when 14,051 homes were for sale.

        'During this pandemic boom inventory wasn’t just burned off, it was obliterated.'

        -Jonathan Miller, CEO of Miller Samuel

        +Long Island home prices aren't dropping as the real estate market slows. Here's why.

        Long Island home prices aren't dropping as the real estate market slows. Here's why.

        The housing market has showed signs of slowing, as the spring marked the end of an era of historically low mortgage rates. But so far prices haven't budged.

        By Jonathan LaMantia

        Aug 12, 2022 09:55 PM

        The Long Island housing market has showed signs of slowing, as the spring marked the end of an era of historically low mortgage rates. But so far prices haven’t budged.

        The culprit, real estate experts say, is a shortage of homes for sale on the Island that won’t be resolved quickly.

        Higher mortgage rates have diminished the number of buyers who can afford a home and the amount of money they can offer. The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 5.52% in June, up from 3.1% in December, according to mortgage giant Freddie Mac. This week the average was 5.22%  

        The rate increase has affected the number of transactions but prices continued to rise. Closed sales fell by about 23% in July compared with the same month a year ago on Long Island while median prices remained at records in both counties, according to monthly data from OneKey MLS.  

        Fewer sales helped the supply of available homes grow but also showed the extreme depth of the Island's shortfall, which has contributed to the appreciation of home prices. The number of single-family houses and condominiums for sale increased to 6,407 by the end of June, according to data from real estate brokerage Douglas Elliman and appraisal firm Miller Samuel. That inventory figure was up nearly 48% compared with the end of March, more than three times the usual seasonal increase of 14% in the past decade. Still, it was the fourth-lowest it has been at the end of a quarter in the past 20 years. The Miller Samuel data excludes homes in the Hamptons and on the North Fork, which the firm reports separately.  

        The data show how Long Islanders are simultaneously seeing more options for buying than in the winter but are still faced with a seller's market.

        The median sale price of a home in Nassau County in July matched the record of $720,000 set in the previous month. It was 7.5% higher than the median in the same month a year ago. In Suffolk County, the median rose 9.5% to a record $575,000, according to OneKey MLS.  

        To understand why prices haven’t dropped to reflect the smaller pool of buyers that can afford homes, it’s worth looking at housing supply data from before the pandemic-era real estate frenzy. There are still fewer than half as many houses on the market as there were in June 2019, when 14,051 homes were for sale.

        “During this pandemic boom, inventory wasn’t just burned off, it was obliterated,” said Jonathan Miller, CEO of Miller Samuel. “We’ve not seen lows like anywhere near what we’ve experienced during this boom, and it will take a little while for supply to rise.”

        Given the current debate about whether the U.S. economy is in a recession, real estate observers are closely watching the market for signs of weakness. But the Island’s housing supply is in a far different place than it was after the real estate bubble popped. During the Great Recession, in 2008 and 2009, there were more than three times as many houses on the market as there are now, with a peak above 26,000.

        “Because the bidding wars that we had seen a few months ago have settled down, it looks like a bit of a calmer market compared to the frenzied activity that we saw a year ago,” said Jessica Lautz, vice president of demographics and behavioral insights at the National Association of Realtors. “It’s all a matter of perspective, and if we look over a longer time frame, we still have a very limited housing inventory.”

        Lautz also expressed confidence that today’s buyers are on more solid financial footing than those who borrowed to buy a house in the years leading up to the Great Recession.

        Sixty-five percent of borrowers taking out new mortgages had credit scores above 760 in the second quarter of the year, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Equifax. That compared with 38% from 2003 to 2006.

        “We do know that homebuyers have had higher credit scores than what we have seen historically,” Lautz said. “Lending is still quite tight for homebuyers, and there’s none of the goofy loan products out there,” such as mortgages that require limited documentation to verify income or large balloon payments at the end of the loan term.

        Rising home prices have also been a boon for homeowners’ equity. Across the United States, 48.1% of homeowners had at least 50% equity in their homes in the second quarter, compared with 34.4% a year ago, according to real estate data company Attom.

         At the national level, NAR expects the median price of existing homes sold across all 12 months of 2022 to be 11.5% higher than it was in 2021. Next year, it is projecting price growth of just 2.1%, according to its latest forecast published this month. That would represent “home price gains more to what is traditionally the historical norm as opposed to these double-digit gains that we have been seeing,” Lautz said.

         Miller said he expects slower price appreciation on Long Island as well as in the Hamptons and North Fork in the short term.

        "I don't think we're going to be using words like correction," Miller said. "It's going to be modest decline, or stability in prices, barring the economy doesn't go into a deep, dark, significant recession." 

        Jonathan Chandler, a real estate agent with Compass in Rockville Centre, said the local market feels as if it has eased up since the spring, when waiting in lines for open houses with his clients and dozens of others often felt like a day at Six Flags Great Adventure.

        “You’re starting to see less competition with the increase in rates,” Chandler said, “but I’m still not seeing the inventory needed to help with the buyers who are ready and willing to purchase. You’re still in bidding wars. It just may not be as crazy.”

        Chandler, who works in Nassau, Suffolk and Brooklyn, said the market hasn’t shifted to the point that buyers can ask homeowners to make seller concessions, such as covering a portion of closing costs, and still expect to have their offers accepted.

        “Seller concessions right now, to me, is out of the question in this market,” he said, noting that if a house has been sitting on the market for a month or two, a buyer could see if there is an opportunity to get a discount from the asking price. But those opportunities are “far and few,” he said. “It’s not an across-the-board situation right now.”

        Months of supply on Long Island, which measures the time it would take for all the houses on the market to be sold given the current pace of homes going into contract, was 2.9 in July, according to data from OneKey MLS. That still indicates a fast-paced market that favors sellers. Five to six months of supply is typically needed to put buyers and sellers on even footing in negotiations. The last time that happened was in May 2020, when New York was facing the first stage of the pandemic.  

        Deirdre O'Connell, CEO of Daniel Gale Sotheby's International Realty, said her agents have seen less foot traffic at open houses, which isn't unusual during the hottest weeks of August. She views the change in the market as positive for first-time buyers, who are less likely to be forced to waive contract contingencies that would protect them if they couldn't secure a mortgage or an inspection revealed needed repairs. 

        "The pace for the past two years has boxed out a lot of buyers, particularly first-time homebuyers, who couldn't keep up with it or were maybe forced to pay over market value to even get a home," she said. 

        For sellers, a changing market increases the importance of marketing a home with proper staging and high-quality photography, O'Connell said. 

        "The people that have to adjust a little bit of expectations are some of our sellers," O'Connell said. "If they think they're going to make a large percentage more than their neighbor got for their house six to 12 months ago, that's probably the wrong expectation."

        Another factor contributing to the supply shortage nationally is that the pace of home-building has failed to keep up with the rate of household formation as younger millennials reach peak homebuying age, said George Ratiu, senior economist and manager of economic research at Realtor.com. He cited a report published by Realtor.com in February that found a growing gap between U.S. household formation and the number of single-family homes that were built

        The cities with the most U.S. building permits per capita last year were concentrated in the South and West and were led by the metro areas of Austin, Texas; Nashville, Tennessee; Jacksonville, Florida; and Raleigh, North Carolina; according to Realtor.com. 

        “We remain in a tremendously underbuilt housing market,” Ratiu said. “New homes have mostly been built at the upper end, premium and luxury segment of the market, which left only the existing-home market for first-time buyers, and that’s precisely where we’ve seen so much activity.”

        Building hasn’t kept up with population growth in the New York metro area, according to an analysis published in February by the Regional Plan Association. The report found the population in the tristate area increased by nearly 6% from 2010 to 2020, while housing stock increased by 3.5%, according to U.S. census data.

        Nassau and Suffolk issued the fewest housing permits per capita from 2010 to 2020 among 31 counties RPA analyzed in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Suffolk issued 7.4 per 1,000 people and Nassau issued 7.8 per 1,000. Hudson County, N.J. led the region at 64.7 housing permits per 1,000 people. Permits include those for apartment buildings and houses. 

        Strong employment numbers, such as those that were reported last week, with 528,000 more jobs added to the U.S. economy in July,  should keep homebuying demand strong, Ratiu said.

        “It’s likely we’ll still have buyers who will feel safe in their jobs, have enough down payment and will still be continuing to look at homes,” he said. “That means price declines might not be on the menu.”

        On the other hand, Ratiu said, if companies are concerned the economy could slip into a recession, they might begin laying off workers, which “could trigger a much steeper turn in the housing market.”

        One measure Ratiu is watching is consumer sentiment. The University of Michigan’s index of consumer sentiment hit an all-time low in June and improved slightly above that level in August.  

        “The big question is, ‘Are companies likely to overreact over the next half of the year?’ Because so much of it boils down to consumer confidence,” Ratiu said.

        Ratiu said Long Island has several things going for it that could keep homebuying demand robust. Its unemployment rate in June, 2.9%, was better than the national rate that month of 3.6%. Its home prices also didn’t spike as much as other markets. For example, home prices in some parts of Arizona, Florida and Texas, increased by more than 25% last year compared with 2020.

        Price growth in New York and the surrounding metro area was more moderate, Ratiu said. “It tells you that the market hasn’t been as overheated,” Ratiu said.

        Slower growth in prices would put the housing market on a more sustainable path, and be a welcome development for buyers, he said.

        “To see the market move more toward that direction is a really positive sign,” Ratiu said. “At some point more buyers will actually get a chance to find properties that match their budget."

        The Long Island housing market has showed signs of slowing, as the spring marked the end of an era of historically low mortgage rates. But so far prices haven’t budged.

        The culprit, real estate experts say, is a shortage of homes for sale on the Island that won’t be resolved quickly.

        Higher mortgage rates have diminished the number of buyers who can afford a home and the amount of money they can offer. The average 30-year fixed mortgage rate was 5.52% in June, up from 3.1% in December, according to mortgage giant Freddie Mac. This week the average was 5.22%  

        The rate increase has affected the number of transactions but prices continued to rise. Closed sales fell by about 23% in July compared with the same month a year ago on Long Island while median prices remained at records in both counties, according to monthly data from OneKey MLS.  

        Fewer sales helped the supply of available homes grow but also showed the extreme depth of the Island's shortfall, which has contributed to the appreciation of home prices. The number of single-family houses and condominiums for sale increased to 6,407 by the end of June, according to data from real estate brokerage Douglas Elliman and appraisal firm Miller Samuel. That inventory figure was up nearly 48% compared with the end of March, more than three times the usual seasonal increase of 14% in the past decade. Still, it was the fourth-lowest it has been at the end of a quarter in the past 20 years. The Miller Samuel data excludes homes in the Hamptons and on the North Fork, which the firm reports separately.  

        The data show how Long Islanders are simultaneously seeing more options for buying than in the winter but are still faced with a seller's market.

        The median sale price of a home in Nassau County in July matched the record of $720,000 set in the previous month. It was 7.5% higher than the median in the same month a year ago. In Suffolk County, the median rose 9.5% to a record $575,000, according to OneKey MLS.  

        To understand why prices haven’t dropped to reflect the smaller pool of buyers that can afford homes, it’s worth looking at housing supply data from before the pandemic-era real estate frenzy. There are still fewer than half as many houses on the market as there were in June 2019, when 14,051 homes were for sale.

        'During this pandemic boom inventory wasn’t just burned off, it was obliterated.'

        -Jonathan Miller, CEO of Miller Samuel

        Credit: Courtesy of Miller Samuel Inc.

        “During this pandemic boom, inventory wasn’t just burned off, it was obliterated,” said Jonathan Miller, CEO of Miller Samuel. “We’ve not seen lows like anywhere near what we’ve experienced during this boom, and it will take a little while for supply to rise.”

        Given the current debate about whether the U.S. economy is in a recession, real estate observers are closely watching the market for signs of weakness. But the Island’s housing supply is in a far different place than it was after the real estate bubble popped. During the Great Recession, in 2008 and 2009, there were more than three times as many houses on the market as there are now, with a peak above 26,000.

        “Because the bidding wars that we had seen a few months ago have settled down, it looks like a bit of a calmer market compared to the frenzied activity that we saw a year ago,” said Jessica Lautz, vice president of demographics and behavioral insights at the National Association of Realtors. “It’s all a matter of perspective, and if we look over a longer time frame, we still have a very limited housing inventory.”

        'It looks like a bit of a calmer market compared to the frenzied activity that we saw a year ago.' 

        -Jessica Lautz, vice president of demographics and behavioral insights at the National Association of Realtors

        Credit: Courtesy of National Association of Realtors diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.newsmax.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.newsmax.com/distilled.html index 3520fa6e5f75..fbbcfd5cd1fa 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.newsmax.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.newsmax.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Rutgers Keeping Mask, Vaccination Mandates for Fall Semester

        Rutgers Keeping Mask, Vaccination Mandates for Fall Semester

        New Jersey’s Rutgers University Keeping Mask and Vaccination Mandates for Fall Semester

        +Rutgers Keeping Mask, Vaccination Mandates for Fall Semester

        Rutgers Keeping Mask, Vaccination Mandates for Fall Semester

        New Jersey’s Rutgers University Keeping Mask and Vaccination Mandates for Fall Semester

        Rutgers University in New Jersey will continue requiring masks and vaccinations for its fall semester due to COVID-19 and monkeypox, the school announced Tuesday.

        “As we return for the fall semester and a full repopulation of our campuses, we continue to monitor the effects of the COVID-19 and the monkeypox viruses. Each is different and unique, but both have tremendous potential to affect the health and well-being of our community,” Rutgers Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Antonio Calcado wrote in a letter to the school community Tuesday. “It is clear that the COVID-19 virus, in some form, is now a permanent part of our daily lives. As the virus moves from pandemic to endemic, Rutgers continues to maintain its COVID-19 safety protocols on face coverings, vaccines and boosters, testing, and quarantining and isolation.”

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.npr.org/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.npr.org/distilled.html index a3a161defcf5..465dd5ead724 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.npr.org/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.npr.org/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Giuliani is the target of a Georgia election probe, his lawyers are told

        Giuliani is the target of a Georgia election probe, his lawyers are told

        Rudy Giuliani's lawyers say he is the target of a criminal investigation into possible illegal attempts by then-President Donald Trump and others to interfere in the 2020 election in Georgia.

        Aug 15, 2022 03:24 PM

        +Giuliani is the target of a Georgia election probe, his lawyers are told

        Giuliani is the target of a Georgia election probe, his lawyers are told

        Rudy Giuliani's lawyers say he is the target of a criminal investigation into possible illegal attempts by then-President Donald Trump and others to interfere in the 2020 election in Georgia.

        Aug 15, 2022 03:24 PM

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nydailynews.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nydailynews.com/distilled.html index fda6be895d37..83b8c8a412c6 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nydailynews.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nydailynews.com/distilled.html @@ -1 +1 @@ -NYC investigators interview fired social services official in probe of Commissioner Gary Jenkins’ shelter slipup: sources

        NYC investigators interview fired social services official in probe of Commissioner Gary Jenkins’ shelter slipup: sources

        Julia Savel, who was axed as deputy commissioner of public information at DSS on Aug. 5, sat down with the Department of Investigation officials for three hours, said the sources.

        By Chris Sommerfeldt

        Aug 15, 2022 09:46 PM

        City government investigators interviewed the Department of Social Services’ recently fired spokeswoman on Monday as part of a probe into allegations that her former boss tried to cover up the agency’s failure to provide housing for Latin American migrants, according to two sources directly familiar with the matter.

        Julia Savel, who was axed as deputy commissioner of public information at DSS on Aug. 5, sat down with the Department of Investigation officials for more than three hours, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

        Advertisement

        DOI rep Diane Struzzi declined to comment after the sit-down, as did Savel.

        Julia Savel

        In addition to giving testimony, Savel turned over text messages, emails and other records to DOI pertaining to her former boss, DSS Commissioner Gary Jenkins, and his handling of the city’s recent violation of the “Right to Shelter” law, the sources said.

        Advertisement

        The law requires the city to provide same-day placement in a homeless shelter to any family with young children who show up at an intake facility before 10 p.m.

        But in late July, DSS failed to provide timely shelter to several families from Central and South America, hundreds of whom had arrived in the city in recent weeks. As a result, city officials have acknowledged that at least four families were forced to sleep on the floor of intake centers.

        According to text messages reviewed by the Daily News and first reported by NBC4 last week, Savel told a City Hall aide that Jenkins had instructed her and other DSS officials not to inform Mayor Adams’ office or the public that the families went unsheltered for longer than legally permissible.

        “Gary was trying to not tell city hall that we broke the law,” Savel wrote in one text.

        Department of Social Services Commissioner Gary P. Jenkins speaks during a press conference on an ongoing investigation at One Police Plaza. (Pacific Press/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Ge)

        A few days after raising those concerns, Savel was fired. Jenkins and Adams have declined to specify why Savel got the boot.

        Speaking at an unrelated press conference in the Bronx Monday afternoon, Adams offered a full-throated defense of Jenkins in the face of the DOI probe, which first came to light this past Friday.

        “I have the utmost confidence in him, I thank him for the job he’s doing and the entire team over there,” the mayor said. “I’m happy he’s part of my team.”

        New York City Mayor Eric Adams (Shawn Inglima/for New York Daily News)

        Adams said DOI has not asked to interview anyone from his office as part of the Jenkins probe. He dismissed concern over the matter, saying his administration has since found shelter placement for the families who went unhoused.

        Advertisement

        “There has been no attempt to cover that up,” he said.

        Still, the Legal Aid Society and other advocacy groups said several more families than the four acknowledged by Adams have gone without shelter for longer than legally permitted.

        At his Bronx press conference, Adams did not dispute that more families may have fallen through the cracks of the shelter system, but said he only received official reports about four. He also continued to point fingers at Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for refusing to house some of the asylum seekers in his state.

        “We are going to provide these families with the dignity that the Texas governor failed to do,” he said.

        The shelter crisis is being driven by waves of migrants who continue to be sent to New York after crossing the U.S. southern border in hopes of seeking asylum. Many of them are fleeing violence and persecution in their home countries.

        \ No newline at end of file +NYC investigators interview fired social services official in probe of Commissioner Gary Jenkins’ shelter slipup: sources

        NYC investigators interview fired social services official in probe of Commissioner Gary Jenkins’ shelter slipup: sources

        Julia Savel, who was axed as deputy commissioner of public information at DSS on Aug. 5, sat down with the Department of Investigation officials for three hours, said the sources.

        By Chris Sommerfeldt

        Aug 15, 2022 09:46 PM

        City government investigators interviewed the Department of Social Services’ recently fired spokeswoman on Monday as part of a probe into allegations that her former boss tried to cover up the agency’s failure to provide housing for Latin American migrants, according to two sources directly familiar with the matter.

        Julia Savel, who was axed as deputy commissioner of public information at DSS on Aug. 5, sat down with the Department of Investigation officials for more than three hours, said the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

        Advertisement

        DOI rep Diane Struzzi declined to comment after the sit-down, as did Savel.

        Julia Savel

        In addition to giving testimony, Savel turned over text messages, emails and other records to DOI pertaining to her former boss, DSS Commissioner Gary Jenkins, and his handling of the city’s recent violation of the “Right to Shelter” law, the sources said.

        Advertisement

        The law requires the city to provide same-day placement in a homeless shelter to any family with young children who show up at an intake facility before 10 p.m.

        But in late July, DSS failed to provide timely shelter to several families from Central and South America, hundreds of whom had arrived in the city in recent weeks. As a result, city officials have acknowledged that at least four families were forced to sleep on the floor of intake centers.

        According to text messages reviewed by the Daily News and first reported by NBC4 last week, Savel told a City Hall aide that Jenkins had instructed her and other DSS officials not to inform Mayor Adams’ office or the public that the families went unsheltered for longer than legally permissible.

        “Gary was trying to not tell city hall that we broke the law,” Savel wrote in one text.

        Department of Social Services Commissioner Gary P. Jenkins speaks during a press conference on an ongoing investigation at One Police Plaza. (Pacific Press/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Ge)

        A few days after raising those concerns, Savel was fired. Jenkins and Adams have declined to specify why Savel got the boot.

        Speaking at an unrelated press conference in the Bronx Monday afternoon, Adams offered a full-throated defense of Jenkins in the face of the DOI probe, which first came to light this past Friday.

        “I have the utmost confidence in him, I thank him for the job he’s doing and the entire team over there,” the mayor said. “I’m happy he’s part of my team.”

        New York City Mayor Eric Adams (Shawn Inglima/for New York Daily News)

        Adams said DOI has not asked to interview anyone from his office as part of the Jenkins probe. He dismissed concern over the matter, saying his administration has since found shelter placement for the families who went unhoused.

        Advertisement

        “There has been no attempt to cover that up,” he said.

        Still, the Legal Aid Society and other advocacy groups said several more families than the four acknowledged by Adams have gone without shelter for longer than legally permitted.

        At his Bronx press conference, Adams did not dispute that more families may have fallen through the cracks of the shelter system, but said he only received official reports about four. He also continued to point fingers at Texas Gov. Greg Abbott for refusing to house some of the asylum seekers in his state.

        “We are going to provide these families with the dignity that the Texas governor failed to do,” he said.

        The shelter crisis is being driven by waves of migrants who continue to be sent to New York after crossing the U.S. southern border in hopes of seeking asylum. Many of them are fleeing violence and persecution in their home countries.

        \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nytimes.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nytimes.com/distilled.html index c573b6cd2049..c2a95eeec7f3 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nytimes.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.nytimes.com/distilled.html @@ -1 +1 @@ -As Oil Falls Below $90, Where Do Prices Go From Here?

        As Oil Falls Below $90, Where Do Prices Go From Here?

        Oil is under $90 a barrel, and consumers are benefiting. Geopolitics, the economy and unforeseen events will determine whether the relief will last.

        By Clifford Krauss

        Aug 16, 2022 03:43 AM

        When Russia invaded Ukraine last spring, energy experts were predicting that oil prices could reach $200 a barrel, a price that would send the costs of shipping and transportation into the stratosphere and bring the global economy to its knees.

        Now oil prices are lower than they were when the war began, having dropped more than 30 percent in barely two months. On Monday, news of a slowing Chinese economy and a cut in Chinese interest rates sent prices down further, to less than $90 a barrel for the American benchmark.

        Gasoline prices have fallen every day over the last nine weeks, to an average of less than $4 nationwide, and prices of jet fuel and diesel are easing as well. That should translate eventually to lower prices for things as diverse as food and airline tickets.

        But it would be premature to celebrate. Energy prices can spike as easily as they can plummet, unexpectedly and suddenly.

        China, where Covid-19 lockdowns remain widespread, will eventually reopen its cities to more commerce and traffic, increasing demand. Withdrawals of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve will end in November, and it will need to be refilled. And a single unexpected event — say, a hurricane flooding the Houston Ship Channel and taking several Gulf of Mexico refineries out of commission for weeks or even months — could send fuel prices soaring.

        That sort of catastrophe could send tidal waves through the American and even global economy since energy prices are fundamental to the prices of everything that is shipped and produced, whether it be grain or building supplies.

        “Oil prices always have the capacity to surprise,” said Daniel Yergin, the energy historian and author of “The New Map: Energy, Climate and the Clash of Nations.”

        Prices could ease further if Iran agrees to a new draft nuclear agreement after it backed off from its demand that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards be removed from the U.S. terrorism list, opening a potential spigot of at least one million more barrels a day of Iranian petroleum exports.

        In addition, the prospect of a continuing increase in interest rates has many investors and economists predicting a recession — and a reduction in demand — even though unemployment is low and profits remain resilient.

        “I think oil prices could go lower,” said Sarah Emerson, president of ESAI Energy, an analytics company. “We have several factors coming together at the same time: We have China reducing its imports of crude oil in the third quarter, we have the end of the summer gasoline season, we have concerns about an economic slowdown, and frankly, plenty of supply.”

        But she quickly added, “That is not to say prices won’t go back up,” noting the coming end to the drawdown of the strategic reserve — from which the United States, in coordination with other countries, has been releasing up to a million barrels a day — and the possibility that Europe will substitute oil burning for natural gas in case there is a cold winter.

        Fuel prices, which consumers can see go up and down on a daily basis at their corner filling stations, play an outsize role in economic perceptions. “The price of fuel is not that big a deal,” said Mark Finley, a Rice University energy economist, “but if you look at its impact on consumer confidence, it seems to be a proxy for how you feel about the world in general.”

        Roughly 3.5 percent of total personal spending by Americans is devoted to gasoline, according to an RBC Capital Markets report in June. Lower-income and rural workers who have older, less fuel-efficient vehicles and drive longer distances to work are particularly hurt by high gasoline prices.

        Credit...Gabby Jones for The New York Times

        Overall, fuel prices are less important than in the past because people are driving more efficient cars and are lately working more from home. But the more people spend on gasoline or diesel, the less they have to spend on everything else.

        When oil prices fall, many costs for industry and agriculture, including chemicals and fertilizer, generally follow. And shipping becomes more economical. But when they rise sharply, as they did in 2008 and in the 1970s, they tend to increase other prices and suppress the overall economy. And political fallout often ensues.

        Predicting energy prices has always been a fool’s game because there are so many factors, including the expectations of traders who buy and sell fuel, the political fortunes of unstable producing countries like Venezuela, Nigeria and Libya, and the investment decisions of state and private oil company executives.

        Today those complexities are particularly difficult to assess.

        “(When) Will Oil Bulls Start Revising Forecasts Down?” was the title of a recent Citigroup commodities report. With a global recession “on the horizon,” it said, “which is more likely, a robust hurricane season, seeing prices skyrocketing? A return of Iranian barrels? Or a recession, with oil in the $60s by year-end/early 2023?” If a barrel of oil should drop to $60 a barrel, average gasoline prices in the United States would probably fall at least another dollar a gallon.

        But a few days after Citi’s projections, Goldman Sachs Commodities Research predicted a price bounce as fuel demand rebounds. “We see growing tail risks to commodity prices inherent in the scenario of sustained growth, low unemployment and stabilized household purchasing power,” the report concluded.

        The war in Ukraine remains a major variable in the worldwide supply outlook since Russia normally supplies one of every 10 barrels of the global 100-million-barrel-a-day market. Since the invasion of Ukraine, daily Russian exports have declined by about 580,000 barrels. European sanctions on Russian oil are expected to tighten somewhat more by February, reducing daily Russian exports by an additional 600,000 barrels.

        And as Russia further tightens its grip on natural gas sales to Europe in tit-for-tat sanctions retaliation, European utilities will be forced to burn more oil to substitute for gas.

        The energy markets are sending mixed signals. In forecasts last week, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said it expected petroleum demand to be weaker than originally expected this year and next. Still, the cartel expects global demand for 2023 to expand to nearly 103 million barrels a day.

        Credit...Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The New York Times

        Supplies are gradually climbing because of expanded production in Guyana, Brazil and the United States. Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf countries are following suit, though probably not nearly as much as the Biden administration would like. OPEC and its partners, including Russia, had promised to raise their production by 600,000 barrels a day in July and August, although they have fallen somewhat short of that mark.

        The outlook for refining is also improving, which could lower prices for gasoline and other fuels. While refining capacity in Europe and the United States has declined in recent years, it is growing in the Middle East, Latin America, Asia and Africa.

        Another factor has been relatively tepid demand in the United States, which accounts for more than one-third of global gasoline demand. The summer driving season normally increases consumption by 400,000 barrels a day from Memorial Day to Labor Day. But so far this summer, gasoline demand has been flat with April averages, according to J.P. Morgan Commodities research.

        That trend could change as prices go down. Americans increased their gasoline consumption by 508,000 barrels a day last week from the week before, according to the Energy Department. Still, consumption remained more than 300,000 barrels a day less than a year ago.

        And then there is the larger shift away from fossil fuels. A growing number of energy investors are skeptical about the future of oil-based transportation and say prices over the long term will come down.

        “Demand for electric vehicles is going up,” said Daniel Sperling, a transportation expert at the University of California, Davis. “That sends a lot of signals.”

        \ No newline at end of file +As Oil Falls Below $90, Where Do Prices Go From Here?

        As Oil Falls Below $90, Where Do Prices Go From Here?

        Oil is under $90 a barrel, and consumers are benefiting. Geopolitics, the economy and unforeseen events will determine whether the relief will last.

        By Clifford Krauss

        Aug 16, 2022 03:43 AM

        When Russia invaded Ukraine last spring, energy experts were predicting that oil prices could reach $200 a barrel, a price that would send the costs of shipping and transportation into the stratosphere and bring the global economy to its knees.

        Now oil prices are lower than they were when the war began, having dropped more than 30 percent in barely two months. On Monday, news of a slowing Chinese economy and a cut in Chinese interest rates sent prices down further, to less than $90 a barrel for the American benchmark.

        Gasoline prices have fallen every day over the last nine weeks, to an average of less than $4 nationwide, and prices of jet fuel and diesel are easing as well. That should translate eventually to lower prices for things as diverse as food and airline tickets.

        But it would be premature to celebrate. Energy prices can spike as easily as they can plummet, unexpectedly and suddenly.

        China, where Covid-19 lockdowns remain widespread, will eventually reopen its cities to more commerce and traffic, increasing demand. Withdrawals of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve will end in November, and it will need to be refilled. And a single unexpected event — say, a hurricane flooding the Houston Ship Channel and taking several Gulf of Mexico refineries out of commission for weeks or even months — could send fuel prices soaring.

        That sort of catastrophe could send tidal waves through the American and even global economy since energy prices are fundamental to the prices of everything that is shipped and produced, whether it be grain or building supplies.

        “Oil prices always have the capacity to surprise,” said Daniel Yergin, the energy historian and author of “The New Map: Energy, Climate and the Clash of Nations.”

        Prices could ease further if Iran agrees to a new draft nuclear agreement after it backed off from its demand that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards be removed from the U.S. terrorism list, opening a potential spigot of at least one million more barrels a day of Iranian petroleum exports.

        In addition, the prospect of a continuing increase in interest rates has many investors and economists predicting a recession — and a reduction in demand — even though unemployment is low and profits remain resilient.

        “I think oil prices could go lower,” said Sarah Emerson, president of ESAI Energy, an analytics company. “We have several factors coming together at the same time: We have China reducing its imports of crude oil in the third quarter, we have the end of the summer gasoline season, we have concerns about an economic slowdown, and frankly, plenty of supply.”

        But she quickly added, “That is not to say prices won’t go back up,” noting the coming end to the drawdown of the strategic reserve — from which the United States, in coordination with other countries, has been releasing up to a million barrels a day — and the possibility that Europe will substitute oil burning for natural gas in case there is a cold winter.

        Fuel prices, which consumers can see go up and down on a daily basis at their corner filling stations, play an outsize role in economic perceptions. “The price of fuel is not that big a deal,” said Mark Finley, a Rice University energy economist, “but if you look at its impact on consumer confidence, it seems to be a proxy for how you feel about the world in general.”

        Roughly 3.5 percent of total personal spending by Americans is devoted to gasoline, according to an RBC Capital Markets report in June. Lower-income and rural workers who have older, less fuel-efficient vehicles and drive longer distances to work are particularly hurt by high gasoline prices.

        Credit...Gabby Jones for The New York Times

        Overall, fuel prices are less important than in the past because people are driving more efficient cars and are lately working more from home. But the more people spend on gasoline or diesel, the less they have to spend on everything else.

        When oil prices fall, many costs for industry and agriculture, including chemicals and fertilizer, generally follow. And shipping becomes more economical. But when they rise sharply, as they did in 2008 and in the 1970s, they tend to increase other prices and suppress the overall economy. And political fallout often ensues.

        Predicting energy prices has always been a fool’s game because there are so many factors, including the expectations of traders who buy and sell fuel, the political fortunes of unstable producing countries like Venezuela, Nigeria and Libya, and the investment decisions of state and private oil company executives.

        Today those complexities are particularly difficult to assess.

        “(When) Will Oil Bulls Start Revising Forecasts Down?” was the title of a recent Citigroup commodities report. With a global recession “on the horizon,” it said, “which is more likely, a robust hurricane season, seeing prices skyrocketing? A return of Iranian barrels? Or a recession, with oil in the $60s by year-end/early 2023?” If a barrel of oil should drop to $60 a barrel, average gasoline prices in the United States would probably fall at least another dollar a gallon.

        But a few days after Citi’s projections, Goldman Sachs Commodities Research predicted a price bounce as fuel demand rebounds. “We see growing tail risks to commodity prices inherent in the scenario of sustained growth, low unemployment and stabilized household purchasing power,” the report concluded.

        The war in Ukraine remains a major variable in the worldwide supply outlook since Russia normally supplies one of every 10 barrels of the global 100-million-barrel-a-day market. Since the invasion of Ukraine, daily Russian exports have declined by about 580,000 barrels. European sanctions on Russian oil are expected to tighten somewhat more by February, reducing daily Russian exports by an additional 600,000 barrels.

        And as Russia further tightens its grip on natural gas sales to Europe in tit-for-tat sanctions retaliation, European utilities will be forced to burn more oil to substitute for gas.

        The energy markets are sending mixed signals. In forecasts last week, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries said it expected petroleum demand to be weaker than originally expected this year and next. Still, the cartel expects global demand for 2023 to expand to nearly 103 million barrels a day.

        Credit...Ivan Pierre Aguirre for The New York Times

        Supplies are gradually climbing because of expanded production in Guyana, Brazil and the United States. Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf countries are following suit, though probably not nearly as much as the Biden administration would like. OPEC and its partners, including Russia, had promised to raise their production by 600,000 barrels a day in July and August, although they have fallen somewhat short of that mark.

        The outlook for refining is also improving, which could lower prices for gasoline and other fuels. While refining capacity in Europe and the United States has declined in recent years, it is growing in the Middle East, Latin America, Asia and Africa.

        Another factor has been relatively tepid demand in the United States, which accounts for more than one-third of global gasoline demand. The summer driving season normally increases consumption by 400,000 barrels a day from Memorial Day to Labor Day. But so far this summer, gasoline demand has been flat with April averages, according to J.P. Morgan Commodities research.

        That trend could change as prices go down. Americans increased their gasoline consumption by 508,000 barrels a day last week from the week before, according to the Energy Department. Still, consumption remained more than 300,000 barrels a day less than a year ago.

        And then there is the larger shift away from fossil fuels. A growing number of energy investors are skeptical about the future of oil-based transportation and say prices over the long term will come down.

        “Demand for electric vehicles is going up,” said Daniel Sperling, a transportation expert at the University of California, Davis. “That sends a lot of signals.”

        \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.pcworld.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.pcworld.com/distilled.html index bda7db6119e5..a7f418af21bb 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.pcworld.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.pcworld.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Reviews and rankings

        Reviews and rankings

        Surfing the web through a virtual private network (VPN) can keep your identity and data safe and secure online. We show you what to look for in a VPN and help you pick the best one for your needs.

        +Reviews and rankings

        Reviews and rankings

        Surfing the web through a virtual private network (VPN) can keep your identity and data safe and secure online. We show you what to look for in a VPN and help you pick the best one for your needs.

        A virtual private network (VPN) service can help you safeguard your identity, location, and activities online. When looking for a VPN you’ll want to consider your options carefully. For instance, a VPN should keep your internet usage private and secure but not at the expense of too speed. If anonymity is a concern, you should look for a VPN with clear and transparent data collection policies. The number of available servers and country locations a VPN offers is also important if you are trying to get around region locks. And finally, extra perks aren’t necessary but could sweeten the deal.

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.pe.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.pe.com/distilled.html index c60fdb04cfd2..edff9ce4c92b 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.pe.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.pe.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Police searching for suspect after 1 killed, 2 hurt in Perris shooting

        Police searching for suspect after 1 killed, 2 hurt in Perris shooting

        Callers reported hearing gunshots in a residential area near Saddleback Way and Pillar Court, and summoned deputies at about 12:22 a.m., officials said.

        By Eric Licas

        Aug 15, 2022 11:43 AM

        +Police searching for suspect after 1 killed, 2 hurt in Perris shooting

        Police searching for suspect after 1 killed, 2 hurt in Perris shooting

        Callers reported hearing gunshots in a residential area near Saddleback Way and Pillar Court, and summoned deputies at about 12:22 a.m., officials said.

        By Eric Licas

        Aug 15, 2022 11:43 AM

        Deputies investigate a shooting in Perris that left one man dead and two other people wounded as bystanders wait by yellow tape early Sunday, Aug. 14. (Photo by RMG News) diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.phoenixnewtimes.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.phoenixnewtimes.com/distilled.html index 06336728d8f7..6963389ee0ad 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.phoenixnewtimes.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.phoenixnewtimes.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -<title>Ron DeSantis to Rally with Kari Lake, Blake Masters in Phoenix</title><meta charset=

        Ron DeSantis to Rally with Kari Lake, Blake Masters in Phoenix

        One new sign of Arizona's importance to the "new right" of the GOP: Florida governor Ron DeSantis is rallying with Kari Lake and Blake Masters this weekend.

        By Katya Schwenk

        +Ron DeSantis to Rally with Kari Lake, Blake Masters in Phoenix

        Ron DeSantis to Rally with Kari Lake, Blake Masters in Phoenix

        One new sign of Arizona's importance to the "new right" of the GOP: Florida governor Ron DeSantis is rallying with Kari Lake and Blake Masters this weekend.

        By Katya Schwenk

        Editor's note: This story was updated on August 10 to reflect that the rally was moved to Arizona Financial Theatre.

        The August primary elections are over. For the extreme — and energized — wing of the Republican Party in Arizona, they proved a decisive win.
        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.politico.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.politico.com/distilled.html index 4b36257d4a4e..19dc3366c55b 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.politico.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.politico.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Trump Steamrolls His Way Past Accountability. The Mar-a-Lago Search Might Be Different.

        Trump Steamrolls His Way Past Accountability. The Mar-a-Lago Search Might Be Different.

        Donald Trump’s signature strategy for getting ahead of scandals, ignoring inconvenient facts and hammering his own version of events has served him well, but it might not save him this time.

        +Trump Steamrolls His Way Past Accountability. The Mar-a-Lago Search Might Be Different.

        Trump Steamrolls His Way Past Accountability. The Mar-a-Lago Search Might Be Different.

        Donald Trump’s signature strategy for getting ahead of scandals, ignoring inconvenient facts and hammering his own version of events has served him well, but it might not save him this time.

        Trump premiered this signature M.O. in 1973, when the Justice Department sued the Trump Organization for racial discrimination. He retaliated with a press conference and a $100 million countersuit for defamation. The headline-grabbing move catapulted him into the public eye. Few noticed when the judge tossed Trump’s suit as “a waste of time.” Fewer noticed the endless delaying tactics used by Trump’s lawyer, Roy Cohn, to achieve a settlement in the original case that amounted to little more than a slap on the wrist.

        Trump trotted out the same strategy again in 1980, when he was razing the old department store building that stood on the future site of Trump Tower and jackhammered a pair of much-admired art deco bas reliefs that had been promised to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. After the New York Times ran a front-page story about the destruction of artworks estimated to be worth $200,000, a man who identified himself as a Trump Organization vice-president named John Barron — but who sounded exactly like Trump — phoned reporters and said the art was worthless. Later, Trump, as Trump, called the sculptures junk and said he’d demolished them to protect pedestrians from falling debris. As before, public attention faded, and when Trump Tower opened four years later, the New York Times architecture critic gave it a rave review.

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.pridepublishinggroup.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.pridepublishinggroup.com/distilled.html index af4b01731b9c..2af6093540de 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.pridepublishinggroup.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.pridepublishinggroup.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Star-studded Voting Rights celebration encourages 10M more registered Black voters

        Star-studded Voting Rights celebration encourages 10M more registered Black voters

        The Transformative Justice Coalition (TJC) and the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) joined the Rainbow Push Coalition and others at a star-studded…

        By PRIDE Newsdesk

        +Star-studded Voting Rights celebration encourages 10M more registered Black voters

        Star-studded Voting Rights celebration encourages 10M more registered Black voters

        The Transformative Justice Coalition (TJC) and the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) joined the Rainbow Push Coalition and others at a star-studded…

        By PRIDE Newsdesk

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.reuters.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.reuters.com/distilled.html index 1ea7daf05d7c..3903fa4b5dab 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.reuters.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.reuters.com/distilled.html @@ -1 +1 @@ -Exclusive: China regulator probes banks' property loan exposure

        Exclusive: China regulator probes banks' property loan exposure

        China's banking regulator is scrutinising property sector loan portfolios of some local and foreign lenders to assess systemic risks, sources with knowledge of the matter said, as the real estate sector's debt crisis worsens.

        Aug 18, 2022 09:35 AM

        SHANGHAI/BEIJING, Aug 18 (Reuters) - China's banking regulator is scrutinising property sector loan portfolios of some local and foreign lenders to assess systemic risks, sources with knowledge of the matter said, as the real estate sector's debt crisis worsens.

        As part of their assessment, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) is looking at banks' loan book exposure to developers to find out if those credit decisions were made according to the rules, one of the sources said.

        The aim of the latest regulatory probe is to measure risks to the financial system from the ongoing property sector turmoil in the world's second-largest economy, two of the sources said. It was not immediately clear what action the regulator might take after the investigation.

        Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

        The CBIRC did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.

        All the sources declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.

        The move comes as policymakers have been trying to stabilise the property sector that accounts for a quarter of the economy after a string of defaults among developers on their bond repayments and a slump in home sales.

        The investigation underscores the challenges for Beijing in its efforts to encourage banks to extend fresh loans to embattled real estate developers, while managing lending risks.

        Property loans accounted for 25.7% of total banking sector credit in China as of end-June, Chinese central bank data showed. The banking sector's total outstanding loans was 206 trillion yuan ($30.3 trillion) at the end of the first half.

        While Chinese banks have the biggest exposure to local developers and homebuyers, foreign lenders including HSBC Holdings (HSBA.L) and Standard Chartered (STAN.L) lend to property firms.

        HSBC and StanChart spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment.

        The debt crisis in China's property sector worsened in recent weeks after a large number of homebuyers threatened to stop making their mortgage payments for stalled property projects, aggravating a crisis that has already hit the economy and could lead to social instability. read more

        The CBIRC is also asking some developers for details of their cash positions and the source of money for debt repayments, a third banking source said. The probe is different to the routine self-reporting the regulator requires from banks.

        Beijing's launch of tough leverage rules for developers in recent years has led to cashflow issues for many, leaving some scrambling from one month to the next to pay upcoming debt and sometimes failing.

        "The regulator wants to know how to tailor policy and assess risk," said one banker at a foreign lender, who has been asked for property sector-related lending documents over the last couple of weeks.

        The investigation is very detailed and loan officers are being approached multiple times, sometimes over many weeks for additional documents on lending to specific developers, two of the sources said.

        The rise in mortgage defaults raises risks for banks and developers.

        "The risk of new NPLs (non-performing loans) will remain a threat to banks' asset quality," said rating agency Moody's in a June note.

        Commercial banks' non-performing loan ratio stood at 1.67% at the end of June, down from 1.73% at the beginning of this year, according to CBIRC data.

        New bank lending in China tumbled more than expected in July while broad credit growth slowed, as fresh COVID-19 flare-ups, worries about jobs and the property crisis made companies and consumers wary of taking on more debt. read more

        The property sector credit trouble is at risk of seeping into secondary industries such as asset management companies, privately-owned construction firms and small steelmakers, said Fitch Ratings in an August note.

        ($1 = 6.7890 Chinese yuan)

        Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

        Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Jacqueline Wong

        Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

        A man works at a construction site of apartment buildings in Beijing, China, July 15, 2022. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

        Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
        \ No newline at end of file +Exclusive: China regulator probes banks' property loan exposure

        Exclusive: China regulator probes banks' property loan exposure

        China's banking regulator is scrutinising property sector loan portfolios of some local and foreign lenders to assess systemic risks, sources with knowledge of the matter said, as the real estate sector's debt crisis worsens.

        Aug 18, 2022 09:35 AM

        SHANGHAI/BEIJING, Aug 18 (Reuters) - China's banking regulator is scrutinising property sector loan portfolios of some local and foreign lenders to assess systemic risks, sources with knowledge of the matter said, as the real estate sector's debt crisis worsens.

        As part of their assessment, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) is looking at banks' loan book exposure to developers to find out if those credit decisions were made according to the rules, one of the sources said.

        The aim of the latest regulatory probe is to measure risks to the financial system from the ongoing property sector turmoil in the world's second-largest economy, two of the sources said. It was not immediately clear what action the regulator might take after the investigation.

        Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

        The CBIRC did not respond to Reuters requests for comment.

        All the sources declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.

        The move comes as policymakers have been trying to stabilise the property sector that accounts for a quarter of the economy after a string of defaults among developers on their bond repayments and a slump in home sales.

        The investigation underscores the challenges for Beijing in its efforts to encourage banks to extend fresh loans to embattled real estate developers, while managing lending risks.

        Property loans accounted for 25.7% of total banking sector credit in China as of end-June, Chinese central bank data showed. The banking sector's total outstanding loans was 206 trillion yuan ($30.3 trillion) at the end of the first half.

        While Chinese banks have the biggest exposure to local developers and homebuyers, foreign lenders including HSBC Holdings (HSBA.L) and Standard Chartered (STAN.L) lend to property firms.

        HSBC and StanChart spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment.

        The debt crisis in China's property sector worsened in recent weeks after a large number of homebuyers threatened to stop making their mortgage payments for stalled property projects, aggravating a crisis that has already hit the economy and could lead to social instability. read more

        The CBIRC is also asking some developers for details of their cash positions and the source of money for debt repayments, a third banking source said. The probe is different to the routine self-reporting the regulator requires from banks.

        Beijing's launch of tough leverage rules for developers in recent years has led to cashflow issues for many, leaving some scrambling from one month to the next to pay upcoming debt and sometimes failing.

        "The regulator wants to know how to tailor policy and assess risk," said one banker at a foreign lender, who has been asked for property sector-related lending documents over the last couple of weeks.

        The investigation is very detailed and loan officers are being approached multiple times, sometimes over many weeks for additional documents on lending to specific developers, two of the sources said.

        The rise in mortgage defaults raises risks for banks and developers.

        "The risk of new NPLs (non-performing loans) will remain a threat to banks' asset quality," said rating agency Moody's in a June note.

        Commercial banks' non-performing loan ratio stood at 1.67% at the end of June, down from 1.73% at the beginning of this year, according to CBIRC data.

        New bank lending in China tumbled more than expected in July while broad credit growth slowed, as fresh COVID-19 flare-ups, worries about jobs and the property crisis made companies and consumers wary of taking on more debt. read more

        The property sector credit trouble is at risk of seeping into secondary industries such as asset management companies, privately-owned construction firms and small steelmakers, said Fitch Ratings in an August note.

        ($1 = 6.7890 Chinese yuan)

        Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com

        Editing by Sumeet Chatterjee and Jacqueline Wong

        Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

        A man works at a construction site of apartment buildings in Beijing, China, July 15, 2022. REUTERS/Thomas Peter

        Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com
        \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.salon.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.salon.com/distilled.html index ffee5c391c47..5120c337460d 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.salon.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.salon.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -The long controversy around Salman Rushdie, and his refusal to stop speaking up

        The long controversy around Salman Rushdie, and his refusal to stop speaking up

        The celebrated author is currently recovering from serious injuries after an attack on his life

        By Alison Stine

        Aug 15, 2022 06:03 PM

        +The long controversy around Salman Rushdie, and his refusal to stop speaking up

        The long controversy around Salman Rushdie, and his refusal to stop speaking up

        The celebrated author is currently recovering from serious injuries after an attack on his life

        By Alison Stine

        Aug 15, 2022 06:03 PM

        Author Salman Rushdie has often sparked controversy and even incited anger, but the latest protest to his work has left him recovering after sustaining severe injuries during an attack in western New York. 

        Rushdie, who won the Booker Prize for his second novel "Midnight's Children," was scheduled to appear Friday in a public lecture at the Chautauqua Institute, along with Henry Reese, co-founder and president of City of Asylum in Pittsburgh, which provides sanctuary to exiled writers. At the event, a 24-year-old man rushed the stage and stabbed the 75-year-old Rushdie multiple times, including in the neck and stomach. Rushdie also received puncture wounds in his right eye, chest and thigh. Reese was also injured.

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.seattletimes.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.seattletimes.com/distilled.html index 95099eff1894..78cf81a6ec77 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.seattletimes.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.seattletimes.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -The Seattle Times

        The Seattle Times

        The Seattle Times covers politics and government in Seattle, the Eastside, Washington state and the Northwest.

        +The Seattle Times

        The Seattle Times

        The Seattle Times covers politics and government in Seattle, the Eastside, Washington state and the Northwest.

        More Headlines

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.sfgate.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.sfgate.com/distilled.html index 7cadc666efaf..7696a4cc1404 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.sfgate.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.sfgate.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Missing 13-year-old SF Bay Area girl is found safe

        Missing 13-year-old SF Bay Area girl is found safe

        The Oakland Police Department called on the public to help find a 13-year-old girl from...

        By Amy Graff

        Aug 17, 2022 09:48 PM

        +Missing 13-year-old SF Bay Area girl is found safe

        Missing 13-year-old SF Bay Area girl is found safe

        The Oakland Police Department called on the public to help find a 13-year-old girl from...

        By Amy Graff

        Aug 17, 2022 09:48 PM

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.sojo.net/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.sojo.net/distilled.html index dd9363ce4721..cd4704bf1e2e 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.sojo.net/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.sojo.net/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Earth Is in Trouble. Can Hymns Help?

        Earth Is in Trouble. Can Hymns Help?

        Christian worship music is having a climate moment. Will it inspire climate activism?

        By Rebecca Randall

        +Earth Is in Trouble. Can Hymns Help?

        Earth Is in Trouble. Can Hymns Help?

        Christian worship music is having a climate moment. Will it inspire climate activism?

        By Rebecca Randall

        In 2020, Taylor Swift released the albums folklore and evermore. The two albums were replete with forest imagery, so much so that Jeff Opperman, a conservation scientist, wrote optimistically about the value of Swift’s nature references in her music.

        “Ms. Swift’s songs aren’t going to reverse climate change or the decline of wildlife,” Opperman wrote for the New York Times. “But they are a step toward reversing the decline of nature in pop culture, and that matters.”

        In 2022, however, a report from The Yard, deemed Swift the worst climate “offender” in regard to her private jet use. While Swift’s team contended that her private jet was loaned out to others, making her not responsible for many of the trips, the internet felt otherwise.

        The backlash to Swift’s jet raises the question: Can songs about nature contribute to climate activism? And Christians across the country are asking a similar question: How can hymns and worship songs respond to the climate crisis?

        Hymns to inspire orthopathy

        Debra Rienstra, an English professor at Calvin University and author of Refugia Faith: Seeking Hidden Shelters, Ordinary Wonders, and the Healing of the Earth, said hymns and other worship music may play a role in shaping and deepening our feelings toward God’s natural world.

        Rienstra, who hosts a podcast that explores places of renewal spiritually, biologically, and otherwise, told Sojourners that spiritual formation includes orthodoxy (right thinking), orthopraxy (right doing), but also orthopathy (right feeling). Getting people to care about creation might be part of orthopathy, she said. “Can we shape that pathos toward a renewed love for creation? I hope that answer is yes.”

        It’s a delicate hope, but it’s hope rising.

        On a 2021 podcast episode of How to Save a Planet, hosts Alex Blumberg and Ayana Elizabeth Johnson discussed the lack of a climate anthem, despite journalist Kendra Pierre-Louis’ findings that climate change was increasingly mentioned in the songs on Billboard’s domestic charts in 2021. They opened discussion by lauding “We Shall Overcome,” a song that became a mainstay in the fight for civil rights. But the anthem of the civil rights movement was first sung in churches: The Black Philadelphia minister Charles Albert Tindley penned the words for a hymn in 1901. Black civil rights leaders, many of whom grew up in churches, pulled from their worship hymnals to reinforce their activism.

        Now, there’s a similar climate movement happening in worship music. The June release of a Climate Vigil The Porter’s Gate Worship Project aims to nudge Christians toward climate action, but it isn’t alone among contenders to inspire the climate movement. For over 20 years, Carolyn Winfrey Gillette, a Presbyterian minister from New York, has written hymns for the times, including one for the 2021 UN climate talks held in Scotland and several to recognize increasing natural disasters such as wildfires, hurricanes, and floods. Fossil Free PCUSA, a campaign within the Presbyterian Church (USA) has used hymns in protests, including songs by Christian artist Matthew Black. 

        Australian Bible professor John Griffiths found a significant increase in creation imagery in Hillsong Worship songs since 2016, after infrequent mentions in the 1990s through the mid-2010s. He notes that the ecological message is sometimes mixed. Yet the theology of creation in “So Will I (100 Billion X)” speaks of God’s creative power in birthing galaxies, commanding science, and giving life to creatures. The song ultimately sees creation as a partner in worshipping God. “If the stars were made to worship, so will I. / If the mountains bow in reverence, so will I.”

        Before climate activists celebrate any emerging momentum, though, it’s important to acknowledge that growth comes from a fairly low point. Indeed, this deficit is a cultural problem going back decades: A 2017 scientific study found a decline in nature references in fiction books, songs, and films since 1950.

        Richard Lindroth, a forest ecologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and teacher on Christian environmental ethics, wrote that inaction in Christian churches is a result of “long-term estrangement from the natural world.” Similarly, Debra’s diagnosis is a “disconnection of place,” which she sees as foundational in colonialism.

        “The Bible is about Indigenous peoples basically. So, what we need to receive from Indigenous people is connection to place,” she said.

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.sportingnews.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.sportingnews.com/distilled.html index a54ab3dc0876..20cb771c7caa 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.sportingnews.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.sportingnews.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Anthony Joshua's Boxing Multiverse, Part 2: 'What if' Jarrell Miller's failed drug test never led to historic loss to Andy Ruiz Jr.?

        Anthony Joshua's Boxing Multiverse, Part 2: 'What if' Jarrell Miller's failed drug test never led to historic loss to Andy Ruiz Jr.?

        There is a world in which Anthony Joshua would have been widely recognized as the greatest non-American heavyweight of all-time.

        It's officially fight week! Anthony Joshua's rematch with Oleksandr Usyk in Saudi Arabia represents another fork in the road moment for the former heavyweight champion. On the eve of a potentially career-altering fight, The Sporting News looks back on the four biggest moments that have come to define the former heavyweight champion's career and ponders "what if?" with the 32-year-old boxing superstar.

        +Anthony Joshua's Boxing Multiverse, Part 2: 'What if' Jarrell Miller's failed drug test never led to historic loss to Andy Ruiz Jr.?

        Anthony Joshua's Boxing Multiverse, Part 2: 'What if' Jarrell Miller's failed drug test never led to historic loss to Andy Ruiz Jr.?

        There is a world in which Anthony Joshua would have been widely recognized as the greatest non-American heavyweight of all-time.

        It's officially fight week! Anthony Joshua's rematch with Oleksandr Usyk in Saudi Arabia represents another fork in the road moment for the former heavyweight champion. On the eve of a potentially career-altering fight, The Sporting News looks back on the four biggest moments that have come to define the former heavyweight champion's career and ponders "what if?" with the 32-year-old boxing superstar.

        Welcome to the Anthony Joshua multiverse. 

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.the-times.co.uk/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.the-times.co.uk/distilled.html index af92177a711f..80f54e38cb90 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.the-times.co.uk/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.the-times.co.uk/distilled.html @@ -1 +1 @@ -A-level results: Generation Covid faces university rejection

        A-level results: Generation Covid faces university rejection

        Tens of thousands of teenagers are expected to miss out on their first-choice university as the most disrupted school leavers since the Second World War recei

        By Nicola Woolcock, Emma Yeomans

        Aug 18, 2022 06:38 AM

        Tens of thousands of teenagers are expected to miss out on their first-choice university as the most disrupted school leavers since the Second World War receive their exam results today.

        The first pupils to sit traditional exams since the start of the pandemic will be awarded about 80,000 fewer A and A* grades than last year’s cohort.

        Experts say 40,000 candidates could be rejected by their first choice if they miss a grade. This is partly because the population of school leavers has grown but universities also over-recruited last year owing to sharp grade inflation at A-level.

        • A-level results day 2022: a full guide to clearing
        • Should I go to university? The pros and cons of higher education
        • How to get

        \ No newline at end of file +A-level results: Generation Covid faces university rejection

        A-level results: Generation Covid faces university rejection

        Tens of thousands of teenagers are expected to miss out on their first-choice university as the most disrupted school leavers since the Second World War recei

        By Nicola Woolcock, Emma Yeomans

        Aug 18, 2022 06:38 AM

        Tens of thousands of teenagers are expected to miss out on their first-choice university as the most disrupted school leavers since the Second World War receive their exam results today.

        The first pupils to sit traditional exams since the start of the pandemic will be awarded about 80,000 fewer A and A* grades than last year’s cohort.

        Experts say 40,000 candidates could be rejected by their first choice if they miss a grade. This is partly because the population of school leavers has grown but universities also over-recruited last year owing to sharp grade inflation at A-level.

        • A-level results day 2022: a full guide to clearing
        • Should I go to university? The pros and cons of higher education
        • How to get

        \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.theatlantic.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.theatlantic.com/distilled.html index 4b5c4cac4a2b..b677e3465117 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.theatlantic.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.theatlantic.com/distilled.html @@ -1 +1 @@ -John Donne’s Unlovable, Irresistible Poetry

        John Donne’s Unlovable, Irresistible Poetry

        The Elizabethan poet and divine was a mystic in bed and a mystic in the pulpit.

        By James Parker

        Aug 16, 2022 10:00 AM

        If you were a gentleman in Elizabethan London, a gentleman of more or less regular means and habits, your typical day went something like this: You rose at 4 a.m., you wrote 14 letters and a 30-page treatise on the nonexistence of purgatory, you fought a duel, you composed a sonnet, you went to watch a Jesuit get publicly disemboweled, you invented a scientific instrument, you composed another sonnet, you attended the premiere of As You Like It, you romanced someone else’s wife, and then you caught the bubonic plague and died.

        They packed a lot in, the Elizabethans, is my point. Maybe posterity, considering our own age, will judge that we are packing a lot in, with the fascism and the COVID and the melting glaciers. Maybe. But there was a peculiar paradoxical ugly-beautiful density to life as the Elizabethans lived it. The Reformation was just behind them; the civil war was coming; Elizabeth, the virgin queen, may have been semi-celestial, but her subjects lived in a police state. They had a passion for virtue and a genius for cruelty. They had wonderful manners and barbaric inclinations, lovely clothes and terrible diseases. They oscillated madly between the abstract and the corporeal. And among his contemporaries, nobody oscillated more madly than John Donne.

        Donne was made of contradiction, or of transformation. Born an outsider, a Catholic at a time when being Catholic in England was illegal—his uncle and then his brother went to prison for their faith, and his brother would die there—Donne worked his way in, into the inside, shifting and shedding as he went.

        He was a bookish lover-poet who went to sea with the doomed and dashing Earl of Essex and caught a vision of hell when he watched Spanish sailors being burned alive in the harbor at Cádiz. (His Rutger Hauer–in–Blade Runner moment: “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.”) He was a splenetic satirist, all-observing, all-condemning, who was also a world-class flatterer/ingratiator. He had a slicing, dicing, predatory mind that he applied with equal force to sex, to politics, and finally to a religious vocation. Young Donne had an inflamed libido, old Donne an inflamed conscience. The man who wrote “License my roving hands, and let them go / Before, behind, between, above, below” would become, as the dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral, the grave divine who warned his congregants that “a man may be an adulterer in his wife’s bosom, though he seek not strange women.”

        As for his poetry, it’s unlovable and it’s irresistible. English verse is not the same after Donne. Harmony and gentility—the music of Spenser—go out the window, and in comes a ferocious, sometimes grating intellectual energy and an intense superiority. You can read pages of Donne and register only the oppressive proximity of his pulsing brain. But then he’ll snag you. “Busy old fool, unruly sun,” grumbles the lover as daylight pushes in at the bedroom window. “Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide / Late school boys.” Encrusted as his vocabulary could be, he had a shocking talent for immediate, everyday speech. One moment his verse is alien, twisted, full of fussy wiring and strange mechanical conceits (Dr. Johnson: “Who but Donne would have thought that a good man is a telescope?”); the next he writes “For God’s sake hold your tongue, and let me love,” or “I run to death, and death meets me as fast,” and we hear him speaking to us across four centuries in ringing monosyllables.

        Super-Infinite is the title of Katherine Rundell’s new biographical study of Donne. It sounds like an album by Monster Magnet. And indeed, Rundell responds to Donne in something of a heavy-metal, hyperbolizing register. Read the first stanza of “Love’s Growth,” she promises us, and “all the oxygen in a five-mile radius rushes to greet you.” Another poem, “The Comparison,” in which Donne contrasts the charms of his mistress with those of another woman, takes the tradition of poets praising female beauty “and knifes it in a dark alley.” And so on.

        Read: Passion and paradox in John Donne’s ‘Batter My Heart, Three-Person’d God’

        But overpraise, or praise with reverb, is very Elizabethan and very, very John Donne, as Rundell shows us. “Compliments,” she writes, “were core currency,” and Donne was loaded. He flung out admirations; he strewed encomia. “Your going away,” he assured one Lady Kingsmill in a letter, “hath made London a dead carcass.” Rundell calls this Donne’s “pleasure in extravagance.” When Elizabeth, the young daughter of Sir Robert Drury, died, Drury (the sort of grandee to whom Donne was always sucking up) commissioned an elegy. And although Donne had never met Elizabeth Drury, he went at it with a vengeance: In two long, slightly bonkers poems, “The First Anniversary” and “The Second Anniversary,” he unfurled the full howling panorama of human existence and almost beatified the deceased girl. “She, she is dead; she’s dead; when thou knowest this / Thou knowest how dry a cinder this world is.” It was heavenly hackwork. “If he had written it of the Virgin Mary,” opined Ben Jonson, “it had been something.”

        Donne’s love poetry is extreme: Bodies melt, souls commingle, genders elide, death is an atom away. For sheer piercing morbidity, what image can match the “bracelet of bright hair about the bone” that he summons in “The Relic,” his fantasy of being exhumed while still wearing the tokens of his love? His religious poetry is equally extreme: “Spit in my face you Jews, and pierce my side,” runs one of his Holy Sonnets (more of those hammering monosyllables), in which he prays to take on the sufferings of Christ. “Buffet, and scoff, scourge, and crucify me, / For I have sinned, and sinned.” On a good day, Donne saw the world as an organic biological-spiritual unity, the famous whole where “no man is an island.” On a bad one, it became a slaughterhouse, a Boschian mill: “Th’ earth’s race is but thy table; there are set / Plants, cattle, men, dishes for Death to eat. / In a rude hunger now he millions draws / Into his bloody, or plaguey, or starved jaws” (“Elegy on Mistress Bulstrode”).

        An extremity of perception, in the end, is where the two Donnes meet: He was a mystic in bed, and a mystic in the pulpit. The almost Tantric lover, seeking an essence beyond the body, was also the yearning-for-eternity preacher: “As soon as my soul enters heaven, I shall be able to say to the angels, I am of the same stuff as you.”

        He managed his exit like David Bowie, stripping naked in the weeks before he died and wrapping himself in his winding-sheet so that an artist could make sketches for the posthumous carving of a marble monument. As a preacher, Rundell tells us, Donne’s “speciality” was his gift for riffing on infinity. One imagines his congregants at St. Paul’s creaking and shuffling in their pews as he laid the vision upon them: “There shall be no cloud nor sun, no darkness nor dazzling, but one equal light; no noise nor silence, but one equal music.” And there it is, the final resolving power chord: the radiant wave in which all the contradictions—of the age, and of the man—would be consumed.

        This article appears in the September 2022 print edition with the headline “Heavenly Hackwork.”

        \ No newline at end of file +John Donne’s Unlovable, Irresistible Poetry

        John Donne’s Unlovable, Irresistible Poetry

        The Elizabethan poet and divine was a mystic in bed and a mystic in the pulpit.

        By James Parker

        Aug 16, 2022 10:00 AM

        If you were a gentleman in Elizabethan London, a gentleman of more or less regular means and habits, your typical day went something like this: You rose at 4 a.m., you wrote 14 letters and a 30-page treatise on the nonexistence of purgatory, you fought a duel, you composed a sonnet, you went to watch a Jesuit get publicly disemboweled, you invented a scientific instrument, you composed another sonnet, you attended the premiere of As You Like It, you romanced someone else’s wife, and then you caught the bubonic plague and died.

        They packed a lot in, the Elizabethans, is my point. Maybe posterity, considering our own age, will judge that we are packing a lot in, with the fascism and the COVID and the melting glaciers. Maybe. But there was a peculiar paradoxical ugly-beautiful density to life as the Elizabethans lived it. The Reformation was just behind them; the civil war was coming; Elizabeth, the virgin queen, may have been semi-celestial, but her subjects lived in a police state. They had a passion for virtue and a genius for cruelty. They had wonderful manners and barbaric inclinations, lovely clothes and terrible diseases. They oscillated madly between the abstract and the corporeal. And among his contemporaries, nobody oscillated more madly than John Donne.

        Donne was made of contradiction, or of transformation. Born an outsider, a Catholic at a time when being Catholic in England was illegal—his uncle and then his brother went to prison for their faith, and his brother would die there—Donne worked his way in, into the inside, shifting and shedding as he went.

        He was a bookish lover-poet who went to sea with the doomed and dashing Earl of Essex and caught a vision of hell when he watched Spanish sailors being burned alive in the harbor at Cádiz. (His Rutger Hauer–in–Blade Runner moment: “I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.”) He was a splenetic satirist, all-observing, all-condemning, who was also a world-class flatterer/ingratiator. He had a slicing, dicing, predatory mind that he applied with equal force to sex, to politics, and finally to a religious vocation. Young Donne had an inflamed libido, old Donne an inflamed conscience. The man who wrote “License my roving hands, and let them go / Before, behind, between, above, below” would become, as the dean of St. Paul’s Cathedral, the grave divine who warned his congregants that “a man may be an adulterer in his wife’s bosom, though he seek not strange women.”

        As for his poetry, it’s unlovable and it’s irresistible. English verse is not the same after Donne. Harmony and gentility—the music of Spenser—go out the window, and in comes a ferocious, sometimes grating intellectual energy and an intense superiority. You can read pages of Donne and register only the oppressive proximity of his pulsing brain. But then he’ll snag you. “Busy old fool, unruly sun,” grumbles the lover as daylight pushes in at the bedroom window. “Saucy pedantic wretch, go chide / Late school boys.” Encrusted as his vocabulary could be, he had a shocking talent for immediate, everyday speech. One moment his verse is alien, twisted, full of fussy wiring and strange mechanical conceits (Dr. Johnson: “Who but Donne would have thought that a good man is a telescope?”); the next he writes “For God’s sake hold your tongue, and let me love,” or “I run to death, and death meets me as fast,” and we hear him speaking to us across four centuries in ringing monosyllables.

        Super-Infinite is the title of Katherine Rundell’s new biographical study of Donne. It sounds like an album by Monster Magnet. And indeed, Rundell responds to Donne in something of a heavy-metal, hyperbolizing register. Read the first stanza of “Love’s Growth,” she promises us, and “all the oxygen in a five-mile radius rushes to greet you.” Another poem, “The Comparison,” in which Donne contrasts the charms of his mistress with those of another woman, takes the tradition of poets praising female beauty “and knifes it in a dark alley.” And so on.

        Read: Passion and paradox in John Donne’s ‘Batter My Heart, Three-Person’d God’

        But overpraise, or praise with reverb, is very Elizabethan and very, very John Donne, as Rundell shows us. “Compliments,” she writes, “were core currency,” and Donne was loaded. He flung out admirations; he strewed encomia. “Your going away,” he assured one Lady Kingsmill in a letter, “hath made London a dead carcass.” Rundell calls this Donne’s “pleasure in extravagance.” When Elizabeth, the young daughter of Sir Robert Drury, died, Drury (the sort of grandee to whom Donne was always sucking up) commissioned an elegy. And although Donne had never met Elizabeth Drury, he went at it with a vengeance: In two long, slightly bonkers poems, “The First Anniversary” and “The Second Anniversary,” he unfurled the full howling panorama of human existence and almost beatified the deceased girl. “She, she is dead; she’s dead; when thou knowest this / Thou knowest how dry a cinder this world is.” It was heavenly hackwork. “If he had written it of the Virgin Mary,” opined Ben Jonson, “it had been something.”

        Donne’s love poetry is extreme: Bodies melt, souls commingle, genders elide, death is an atom away. For sheer piercing morbidity, what image can match the “bracelet of bright hair about the bone” that he summons in “The Relic,” his fantasy of being exhumed while still wearing the tokens of his love? His religious poetry is equally extreme: “Spit in my face you Jews, and pierce my side,” runs one of his Holy Sonnets (more of those hammering monosyllables), in which he prays to take on the sufferings of Christ. “Buffet, and scoff, scourge, and crucify me, / For I have sinned, and sinned.” On a good day, Donne saw the world as an organic biological-spiritual unity, the famous whole where “no man is an island.” On a bad one, it became a slaughterhouse, a Boschian mill: “Th’ earth’s race is but thy table; there are set / Plants, cattle, men, dishes for Death to eat. / In a rude hunger now he millions draws / Into his bloody, or plaguey, or starved jaws” (“Elegy on Mistress Bulstrode”).

        An extremity of perception, in the end, is where the two Donnes meet: He was a mystic in bed, and a mystic in the pulpit. The almost Tantric lover, seeking an essence beyond the body, was also the yearning-for-eternity preacher: “As soon as my soul enters heaven, I shall be able to say to the angels, I am of the same stuff as you.”

        He managed his exit like David Bowie, stripping naked in the weeks before he died and wrapping himself in his winding-sheet so that an artist could make sketches for the posthumous carving of a marble monument. As a preacher, Rundell tells us, Donne’s “speciality” was his gift for riffing on infinity. One imagines his congregants at St. Paul’s creaking and shuffling in their pews as he laid the vision upon them: “There shall be no cloud nor sun, no darkness nor dazzling, but one equal light; no noise nor silence, but one equal music.” And there it is, the final resolving power chord: the radiant wave in which all the contradictions—of the age, and of the man—would be consumed.

        This article appears in the September 2022 print edition with the headline “Heavenly Hackwork.”

        \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.thenation.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.thenation.com/distilled.html index a65da15db4d9..1ccfd06e07f6 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.thenation.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.thenation.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Recent Migrant Deaths Highlight the Danger of Deterrence

        Recent Migrant Deaths Highlight the Danger of Deterrence

        Deterrence is a failed strategy for reducing migration—while driving up the number of migrants who die trying to come to the United States.

        +Recent Migrant Deaths Highlight the Danger of Deterrence

        Recent Migrant Deaths Highlight the Danger of Deterrence

        Deterrence is a failed strategy for reducing migration—while driving up the number of migrants who die trying to come to the United States.

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.thenewrepublic.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.thenewrepublic.com/distilled.html index c1cd87168bc6..34b5a31a557b 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.thenewrepublic.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.thenewrepublic.com/distilled.html @@ -1 +1 @@ -Trump’s Republican Defenders Inexplicably Forgot To Expect the Worst

        Trump’s Republican Defenders Inexplicably Forgot To Expect the Worst

        After the Mar-a-Lago search, Trump's allies were swift to jump into the breach on behalf of the former president. Beginner's mistake!

        By Matt Ford

        When news broke last week that the FBI had searched former President Donald Trump’s residence and offices at Mar-a-Lago, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott reacted with concerned caution. “We need to let this play out and see exactly what happens,” he said in a CBS News interview. “But we should have been stunned and surprised and shocked with what happened yesterday.”

        Scott’s measured reaction was the exception and not the rule. Most Republican officials responded to the search with threats to open investigations of their own into Attorney General Merrick Garland and the FBI, with calls to defund the FBI and retaliate against federal agents, and with freewheeling claims that the United States had become, in their words, a banana republic, a Third-World dictatorship, or some other kind of foreign autocracy.

        The knee-jerk reactions looked bad in real time, as I noted last week. They look even worse now. And they represent a surprising departure from what had once been a time-tested series of responses for whenever Trump did or said something boorish, authoritarian, or outright bigoted: Don’t be the first to rush to his defense. This was the time tested means by which Republican electeds dealt with Trump’s firehose of controversy throughout his time in office: “Sorry, no, I didn’t see the tweet you’re talking about.”

        As Election Day neared in November 2020, for instance, it looked possible and even likely from polls and early-voting counts that Trump would not win reelection. The former president suggested that he wouldn’t concede the election if he lost, would file legal challenges if he disagreed with the margins, and wanted to stop states from counting mail-in ballots after Election Night. “We’re going in the night of—as soon as the election is over—we’re going in with our lawyers,” he told reporters at one point.

        Trump’s reasons were transparently self-serving. Thanks to his own misinformation campaign about voting by mail, those who relied on it tended to be considerably more likely to vote for then-candidate Joe Biden. This led to a predicted and semi-observed phenomenon known as the “red mirage” and the “blue shift”: in-person votes that trended Republican would be counted first, while absentee votes that trended Democratic would be counted later. This would not be a problem in a healthy democracy where leaders expressed confidence in the democratic process. For a party that had spent years gorging itself on voter-fraud myths and chosen a would-be autocrat as its leader, it was a recipe for disaster.

        For most elected Republicans—or at least those who weren’t actively part of Trump’s pre-January 6 schemes—his efforts to undermine American democracy were something to ignore. “It’s not new for Trump’s party brethren to duck and cover when he says something troubling,” Politico noted at the time. “But after five years of perfecting the art of explaining how they ‘didn’t see the tweet’—the much parodied talking point to which Republicans on Capitol Hill often resort—it is shocking but not surprising that they aren’t speaking up now, even when the integrity of America’s electoral system is under attack by their party’s leader.”

        There were a few instances where some leading Republicans expressed mild criticism of Trump. Only after January 6, when he sent a mob to attack Congress, some top GOP lawmakers did condemn him. (It didn’t last long in most cases: McConnell famously denounced Trump for his role in the insurrection and then voted to acquit him for incitement of insurrection during the impeachment trial a few weeks later.) His infamous Helsinki summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his corrosive remarks after the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia drew above-average levels of Republican consternation.

        But those few moments stood out mainly because they occurred against a backdrop of acquiescence and silence by top Republicans. When Trump wrote on Twitter in 2019 that four Democratic lawmakers—all of whom were women of color—were “people who hate America” who should “go back” to where they came from, it drew a flurry of condemnation from the left and mostly chirping crickets from the right. “The reality is I want to shift back to the issues and the America they represent versus the America that I want to see,” North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis, who was up for reelection at the time, said while brushing off requests from reporters to weigh in on the president’s remarks.

        This inclination to avoid commenting was strategic on two levels. For one, many Republicans apparently considered it unwise to criticize Trump lest they become victims of his wrath, as many other anti-Trump Republicans became over the four years of his presidency. As for defending Trump when they agreed with him, there was another strong point in favor of keeping silent: He might inflame things even further and place any Republicans who had defended him in an even more uncomfortable spot.

        Those lessons were apparently unlearned during his 18 months out of power. Since the search of Mar-a-Lago, reports emerged that some of the classified materials pertained to the nuclear secrets of either the U.S. or other countries, which are among the most sensitive secrets held by the federal government. (The exact nature of these reported secrets hasn’t been made public and may never be.) Multiple news outlets also reported that the search was far from spontaneous: Government officials had already spent months quietly trying to recover classified documents and other official records before resorting to a search warrant. Trump and his lawyers, for some inexplicable reason, apparently held some back.

        Some of Trump’s more fervent allies fell back to wilder assertions to defend him. Trump had a standing order to declassify anything that went into his personal residence! (That’s not how it works.) The FBI may have tried to plant evidence! (Astonishingly unlikely.) There was a spy or a traitor inside Mar-a-Lago! (Trump loyalists are free to spend as much time as they want accusing each other of betrayal.) One Fox News host even approvingly cited Richard Nixon’s infamous claim that if the president does it, then it’s not illegal. That is not a sign that things are going well for you, to say the least. When it comes to a certain segment of Trumpworld, the last 96 hours felt like watching someone try to swim while wearing a tuxedo.

        Over the weekend, however, leading Republicans have remembered their best practices and have started to fall curiously silent—a modified, limited hangback, if you please. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who threatened to investigate Garland if the GOP retakes the House in the fall, has returned to tweeting about inflation and Afghanistan. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell kept himself at a similar arms-length approach. Perhaps they and their colleagues have relearned a maxim that the writer Tom Scocca first proffered on Twitter in 2016 at the dawn of the Trump era. “Nothing about Trump has ever looked kinda bad at first but turned out OK,” Scocca wrote. “He’s always worse than you thought.”

        \ No newline at end of file +Trump’s Republican Defenders Inexplicably Forgot To Expect the Worst

        Trump’s Republican Defenders Inexplicably Forgot To Expect the Worst

        After the Mar-a-Lago search, Trump's allies were swift to jump into the breach on behalf of the former president. Beginner's mistake!

        By Matt Ford

        When news broke last week that the FBI had searched former President Donald Trump’s residence and offices at Mar-a-Lago, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott reacted with concerned caution. “We need to let this play out and see exactly what happens,” he said in a CBS News interview. “But we should have been stunned and surprised and shocked with what happened yesterday.”

        Scott’s measured reaction was the exception and not the rule. Most Republican officials responded to the search with threats to open investigations of their own into Attorney General Merrick Garland and the FBI, with calls to defund the FBI and retaliate against federal agents, and with freewheeling claims that the United States had become, in their words, a banana republic, a Third-World dictatorship, or some other kind of foreign autocracy.

        The knee-jerk reactions looked bad in real time, as I noted last week. They look even worse now. And they represent a surprising departure from what had once been a time-tested series of responses for whenever Trump did or said something boorish, authoritarian, or outright bigoted: Don’t be the first to rush to his defense. This was the time tested means by which Republican electeds dealt with Trump’s firehose of controversy throughout his time in office: “Sorry, no, I didn’t see the tweet you’re talking about.”

        As Election Day neared in November 2020, for instance, it looked possible and even likely from polls and early-voting counts that Trump would not win reelection. The former president suggested that he wouldn’t concede the election if he lost, would file legal challenges if he disagreed with the margins, and wanted to stop states from counting mail-in ballots after Election Night. “We’re going in the night of—as soon as the election is over—we’re going in with our lawyers,” he told reporters at one point.

        Trump’s reasons were transparently self-serving. Thanks to his own misinformation campaign about voting by mail, those who relied on it tended to be considerably more likely to vote for then-candidate Joe Biden. This led to a predicted and semi-observed phenomenon known as the “red mirage” and the “blue shift”: in-person votes that trended Republican would be counted first, while absentee votes that trended Democratic would be counted later. This would not be a problem in a healthy democracy where leaders expressed confidence in the democratic process. For a party that had spent years gorging itself on voter-fraud myths and chosen a would-be autocrat as its leader, it was a recipe for disaster.

        For most elected Republicans—or at least those who weren’t actively part of Trump’s pre-January 6 schemes—his efforts to undermine American democracy were something to ignore. “It’s not new for Trump’s party brethren to duck and cover when he says something troubling,” Politico noted at the time. “But after five years of perfecting the art of explaining how they ‘didn’t see the tweet’—the much parodied talking point to which Republicans on Capitol Hill often resort—it is shocking but not surprising that they aren’t speaking up now, even when the integrity of America’s electoral system is under attack by their party’s leader.”

        There were a few instances where some leading Republicans expressed mild criticism of Trump. Only after January 6, when he sent a mob to attack Congress, some top GOP lawmakers did condemn him. (It didn’t last long in most cases: McConnell famously denounced Trump for his role in the insurrection and then voted to acquit him for incitement of insurrection during the impeachment trial a few weeks later.) His infamous Helsinki summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his corrosive remarks after the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia drew above-average levels of Republican consternation.

        But those few moments stood out mainly because they occurred against a backdrop of acquiescence and silence by top Republicans. When Trump wrote on Twitter in 2019 that four Democratic lawmakers—all of whom were women of color—were “people who hate America” who should “go back” to where they came from, it drew a flurry of condemnation from the left and mostly chirping crickets from the right. “The reality is I want to shift back to the issues and the America they represent versus the America that I want to see,” North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis, who was up for reelection at the time, said while brushing off requests from reporters to weigh in on the president’s remarks.

        This inclination to avoid commenting was strategic on two levels. For one, many Republicans apparently considered it unwise to criticize Trump lest they become victims of his wrath, as many other anti-Trump Republicans became over the four years of his presidency. As for defending Trump when they agreed with him, there was another strong point in favor of keeping silent: He might inflame things even further and place any Republicans who had defended him in an even more uncomfortable spot.

        Those lessons were apparently unlearned during his 18 months out of power. Since the search of Mar-a-Lago, reports emerged that some of the classified materials pertained to the nuclear secrets of either the U.S. or other countries, which are among the most sensitive secrets held by the federal government. (The exact nature of these reported secrets hasn’t been made public and may never be.) Multiple news outlets also reported that the search was far from spontaneous: Government officials had already spent months quietly trying to recover classified documents and other official records before resorting to a search warrant. Trump and his lawyers, for some inexplicable reason, apparently held some back.

        Some of Trump’s more fervent allies fell back to wilder assertions to defend him. Trump had a standing order to declassify anything that went into his personal residence! (That’s not how it works.) The FBI may have tried to plant evidence! (Astonishingly unlikely.) There was a spy or a traitor inside Mar-a-Lago! (Trump loyalists are free to spend as much time as they want accusing each other of betrayal.) One Fox News host even approvingly cited Richard Nixon’s infamous claim that if the president does it, then it’s not illegal. That is not a sign that things are going well for you, to say the least. When it comes to a certain segment of Trumpworld, the last 96 hours felt like watching someone try to swim while wearing a tuxedo.

        Over the weekend, however, leading Republicans have remembered their best practices and have started to fall curiously silent—a modified, limited hangback, if you please. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, who threatened to investigate Garland if the GOP retakes the House in the fall, has returned to tweeting about inflation and Afghanistan. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell kept himself at a similar arms-length approach. Perhaps they and their colleagues have relearned a maxim that the writer Tom Scocca first proffered on Twitter in 2016 at the dawn of the Trump era. “Nothing about Trump has ever looked kinda bad at first but turned out OK,” Scocca wrote. “He’s always worse than you thought.”

        \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.thestandard.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.thestandard.com/distilled.html index cbaa5a590caf..ade62f05f03f 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.thestandard.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.thestandard.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Lift and shift Windows applications to containers

        Lift and shift Windows applications to containers

        Microsoft’s own experience with Microsoft 365 shows that moving to cloud-native is possible, even when you have a lot of code to move.

        By Simon Bisson

        +Lift and shift Windows applications to containers

        Lift and shift Windows applications to containers

        Microsoft’s own experience with Microsoft 365 shows that moving to cloud-native is possible, even when you have a lot of code to move.

        By Simon Bisson

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.thestar.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.thestar.com/distilled.html index c690a1ffd7b2..d994cb839e2a 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.thestar.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.thestar.com/distilled.html @@ -1 +1 @@ -WestJet customers report data breach, leaked personal information

        WestJet customers report data breach, leaked personal information

        WestJet app users say they were able to see personal details and account information associated with complete strangers.

        WestJet customers reported Wednesday that the Canadian airline’s app has compromised personal information.

        App users took to Twitter to express their concern with the situation, claiming that when they logged in to the WestJet app, they were able to see personal details and account information associated with complete strangers.

        WestJet acknowledged the issue on Twitter, saying the issue lasted less than an hour and was resolved by 4:30 p.m. MST.

        The airline apologized, saying they “continue to actively investigate the cause of this issue.”

        The cause of the breach is not yet known. WestJet said on Twitter that once new information is available it will be provided to those affected by the error.

        WestJet responded to the Star’s request for comment, saying “we take the privacy of our guests extremely seriously and will continue to provide updates to our guests as required.”

        JOIN THE CONVERSATION

        Conversations are opinions of our readers and are subject to the

        Code of Conduct. The Star does not endorse these opinions.

        \ No newline at end of file +WestJet customers report data breach, leaked personal information

        WestJet customers report data breach, leaked personal information

        WestJet app users say they were able to see personal details and account information associated with complete strangers.

        WestJet customers reported Wednesday that the Canadian airline’s app has compromised personal information.

        App users took to Twitter to express their concern with the situation, claiming that when they logged in to the WestJet app, they were able to see personal details and account information associated with complete strangers.

        WestJet acknowledged the issue on Twitter, saying the issue lasted less than an hour and was resolved by 4:30 p.m. MST.

        The airline apologized, saying they “continue to actively investigate the cause of this issue.”

        The cause of the breach is not yet known. WestJet said on Twitter that once new information is available it will be provided to those affected by the error.

        WestJet responded to the Star’s request for comment, saying “we take the privacy of our guests extremely seriously and will continue to provide updates to our guests as required.”

        JOIN THE CONVERSATION

        Conversations are opinions of our readers and are subject to the

        Code of Conduct. The Star does not endorse these opinions.

        \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.twincities.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.twincities.com/distilled.html index de9f6604c3f3..0ef41c2241c1 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.twincities.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.twincities.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Stillwater wants to ban jumping off historic Lift Bridge

        Stillwater wants to ban jumping off historic Lift Bridge

        The city council Tuesday night is expected to approve the first reading of an ordinance that would make it illegal to climb, jump or dive off any bridge or structure over a channel of public water …

        By Mary Divine

        Aug 15, 2022 07:31 PM

        A rite of passage enjoyed by generations of Stillwater residents soon could be banned.

        +Stillwater wants to ban jumping off historic Lift Bridge

        Stillwater wants to ban jumping off historic Lift Bridge

        The city council Tuesday night is expected to approve the first reading of an ordinance that would make it illegal to climb, jump or dive off any bridge or structure over a channel of public water …

        By Mary Divine

        Aug 15, 2022 07:31 PM

        A rite of passage enjoyed by generations of Stillwater residents soon could be banned.

        The city council Tuesday night is expected to approve the first reading of an ordinance that would make it illegal to climb, jump or dive off any bridge or structure over a channel of public water in the city.

        The rule is meant to stop people from jumping off the historic Stillwater Lift Bridge into the St. Croix River, said Police Chief Brian Mueller.

        Bridge tenders who work for the Minnesota Department of Transportation approached city officials earlier this summer and asked them to consider the ordinance. “I thought it was already illegal, to be honest,” Mueller said.

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.upi.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.upi.com/distilled.html index d1aaaa0c14cf..cb637ea528cf 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.upi.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.upi.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -Giuliani testifies in Georgia on Trump efforts to overturn Biden's 2020 election win

        Giuliani testifies in Georgia on Trump efforts to overturn Biden's 2020 election win

        After efforts to delay the proceeding, former Donald Trump attorney Rudolph Giuliani appeared in a Georgia court for several hours on Wednesday to face a special grand jury over efforts in the state to overturn the outco

        By Clyde Hughes, Daniel Uria

        Aug 17, 2022 10:19 PM

        +Giuliani testifies in Georgia on Trump efforts to overturn Biden's 2020 election win

        Giuliani testifies in Georgia on Trump efforts to overturn Biden's 2020 election win

        After efforts to delay the proceeding, former Donald Trump attorney Rudolph Giuliani appeared in a Georgia court for several hours on Wednesday to face a special grand jury over efforts in the state to overturn the outco

        By Clyde Hughes, Daniel Uria

        Aug 17, 2022 10:19 PM

        Aug. 17 (UPI) -- After efforts to delay the proceeding, former Donald Trump attorney Rudolph Giuliani appeared in a Georgia court for several hours on Wednesday to face a special grand jury over efforts in the state to overturn the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

        Giuliani was involved in Trump's post-election efforts in late 2020 and early 2021 after Democrat Joe Biden defeated the former president, which included moves in Georgia, where Biden won the state's 16 key electoral votes. diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.usatoday.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.usatoday.com/distilled.html index 82e055b7ea2e..4a4e73396cd5 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.usatoday.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.usatoday.com/distilled.html @@ -1 +1 @@ -Teachers often buy school supplies themselves. In 2023, they can deduct $50 more on their taxes

        Teachers often buy school supplies themselves. In 2023, they can deduct $50 more on their taxes

        It's back to school season, which means many educators are paying for school supplies out of pocket. Soon, they'll be able to deduct up to $300.

        Teachers and other educators will be able to deduct up to $300 of out-of-pocket costs for their classrooms this upcoming school year – thanks to the first increase in 20 years.  

        The Internal Revenue Service announced that educators can deduct up to $300 for their classroom necessities when they file their federal income tax returns next year. It’s the first time the annual limit has increased since 2002, the IRS confirmed in a news release last week.  

        The previous limit was $250 annually. The ceiling is set to rise in $50 increments based on inflation, according to the IRS. The agency confirmed to USA TODAY that inflation adjustments are typically annual and apply to a slate of tax policies.  

        People eligible for the deduction include K-12 teachers, other instructors, counselors, principals or aides in a school for at least 900 hours during the school year. Educators may work at public or private schools, and they can deduct costs that haven’t been reimbursed for books, computer equipment, COVID-19 protective items such as hand soap and face masks and more.  

        Educators can still take the deduction if they take the standard deduction on their personal taxes. If an educator is married and files a joint return with another eligible educator, they are able to deduct up to $600, but not more than $300 for each person. 

        Florida:High school student wins Google Doodle contest by showcasing her mother's support

        California:Schools to provide free breakfast, lunch for students in first statewide meals program

        Some states also offer deductions for teachers purchasing classroom materials and other essentials. For example, in Virginia, eligible educators may deduct up to $500 on their returns filed in 2023.  

        Although inflation has eased off historic levels, prices for essentials remain elevated across the country.  

        A recent survey from EdChoice found that about half of U.S. teachers under age 55 considered leaving the field in fall 2021. About 64% of teachers older than 55 considered retiring in fall 2021, with many citing feelings of being undervalued and underpaid.  

        High school teachers in the U.S. make a median salary of $61,820, as of 2021, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Middle school teachers make a median salary of $61,320, while kindergarten and elementary school teachers make a median salary of $61,350 as of 2021. However, pay for teachers, administrators and other educators varies by state and region across the country. 

        \ No newline at end of file +Teachers often buy school supplies themselves. In 2023, they can deduct $50 more on their taxes

        Teachers often buy school supplies themselves. In 2023, they can deduct $50 more on their taxes

        It's back to school season, which means many educators are paying for school supplies out of pocket. Soon, they'll be able to deduct up to $300.

        Teachers and other educators will be able to deduct up to $300 of out-of-pocket costs for their classrooms this upcoming school year – thanks to the first increase in 20 years.  

        The Internal Revenue Service announced that educators can deduct up to $300 for their classroom necessities when they file their federal income tax returns next year. It’s the first time the annual limit has increased since 2002, the IRS confirmed in a news release last week.  

        The previous limit was $250 annually. The ceiling is set to rise in $50 increments based on inflation, according to the IRS. The agency confirmed to USA TODAY that inflation adjustments are typically annual and apply to a slate of tax policies.  

        People eligible for the deduction include K-12 teachers, other instructors, counselors, principals or aides in a school for at least 900 hours during the school year. Educators may work at public or private schools, and they can deduct costs that haven’t been reimbursed for books, computer equipment, COVID-19 protective items such as hand soap and face masks and more.  

        Educators can still take the deduction if they take the standard deduction on their personal taxes. If an educator is married and files a joint return with another eligible educator, they are able to deduct up to $600, but not more than $300 for each person. 

        Florida:High school student wins Google Doodle contest by showcasing her mother's support

        California:Schools to provide free breakfast, lunch for students in first statewide meals program

        Some states also offer deductions for teachers purchasing classroom materials and other essentials. For example, in Virginia, eligible educators may deduct up to $500 on their returns filed in 2023.  

        Although inflation has eased off historic levels, prices for essentials remain elevated across the country.  

        A recent survey from EdChoice found that about half of U.S. teachers under age 55 considered leaving the field in fall 2021. About 64% of teachers older than 55 considered retiring in fall 2021, with many citing feelings of being undervalued and underpaid.  

        High school teachers in the U.S. make a median salary of $61,820, as of 2021, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Middle school teachers make a median salary of $61,320, while kindergarten and elementary school teachers make a median salary of $61,350 as of 2021. However, pay for teachers, administrators and other educators varies by state and region across the country. 

        \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.usnews.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.usnews.com/distilled.html index 52af8498cde4..e0a28ed8d049 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.usnews.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.usnews.com/distilled.html @@ -1 +1 @@ -‘I would rather be in Afghanistan’ – Group Resettling Afghans Faces Scrutiny

        ‘I would rather be in Afghanistan’ – Group Resettling Afghans Faces Scrutiny

        A year after the fall of Kabul, some Afghan refugees resettled by a Washington-area organization say they are still struggling to get basic services – and sources say the State Department is looking into it.

        Mohammad’s journey from Afghanistan to a home in the U.S. played out in three stages.

        The first occurred following the fall of Kabul a year ago, after which the husband and father who worked with the U.S. government for 14 years spent a month shuttling his family from safe house to safe house, trying to outrun the Taliban.

        The second took place in Qatar, where his family spent four weeks on a military base, living in a shipping container turned into transitional housing. And the third leg involved two months on a military base in New Jersey, where his family was vaccinated, processed and housed under a tent with hundreds of other Afghan evacuees, their only privacy provided by a thin partition dividing households.

        In February, Mohammad and his family reached their final destination in Manassas, Virginia, where they now live in a two-story, three-bedroom apartment with a proper roof and sturdy walls. It couldn’t have come soon enough: His wife is struggling with a dangerous medical condition. Still, nobody in his family has found work. Food is scarce, and he’s not sure how he’ll pay his bills. In fact, Mohammad says he feels more insecure now than at any time since his government fell. From the moment his family was assigned to Northern Virginia, he says his refugee resettlement caseworker – the person assigned to help him with his basic needs – has been unresponsive to his pleas for assistance.

        “To be honest, I’m disappointed,” says Mohammad, whose real name can’t be used due to security concerns.

        Mohammad is referring to his treatment by Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area, a refugee resettlement agency charged with using federal funds to provide housing and other basic services to help refugees get on their feet. The agency says it has resettled more than 4,500 Afghan refugees so far – the most, it says, of any organization on the East Coast.

        In Mohammad’s mind, it’s doing an inadequate job of it. And plenty of others agree, according to a U.S. News investigation. More than two dozen interviews with Afghan clients of the agency, current and former employees and volunteers who work closely with the organization uncovered stories about multiple failures to perform services.

        Some employees, sources say, have provided inadequate food, housing and other services to refugees and played favorites among clients. They also say some staff have failed to securely store sensitive documents, falsified case notes, skimmed funds from petty cash and paid questionable bonuses to employees.

        Mohammad poses for a photo at his home in Manassas, Virginia.(Avi Gupta for USN&WR)

        “You just scratch your head going, ‘Is anybody watching this office? Is anybody auditing them?’” says Ted Vinatieri, a pastor at Pillar Church in Stafford, Virginia, and one of several volunteers who expressed apprehension about the treatment of Afghan refugees by Lutheran Social Services.

        Concerns about the agency have already made their way to the federal government, where the Department of State monitors refugee resettlement during the first few months after their arrival. Individuals close to Lutheran Social Services have reached out to the State Department, which is now investigating claims about client mistreatment.

        One of those individuals reached out to the FBI with concerns, and the law enforcement agency has contacted at least one former and one current employee to discuss their experiences. The FBI would not confirm whether there is an official investigation.

        Lutheran Social Services declined to comment on many of the allegations against it. However, it said it was aware of the complaints and that it had worked with third-party organizations, including an accounting firm and a law firm, to investigate them.

        Lutheran Social Services declined to share the law firm’s report with U.S. News, but it shared its 2021 third-party financial audit, which showed no evidence of financial malfeasance or fraud. It says the same firm looked beyond 2021 to the present and found the same but Lutheran Social Services declined to share that report as well. The group’s parent organization, which is responsible for monitoring Lutheran Social Services, also investigated complaints and found no evidence of financial malfeasance or fraud.

        “We are committed to serving our community with excellence,” the group said in a statement, adding, “we welcome and respond to all concerns brought to our attention.”

        An Emergency Response

        There is no doubt resettlement agencies have faced a herculean challenge. More than 74,000 Afghans have come to the United States following the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul a year ago, according to the State Department. Of those, about 9,000 – or 12% – settled in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. Many asked to be resettled in the Washington area because of a desire to be near the government agencies they’d worked closely with in Afghanistan and because of its sizable Afghan community. Virginia had the most resettled Afghan refugees of any state per capita between 2001 and September 2021.

        The U.S. government contracts nine nonprofit agencies to assist with resettling refugees from all over the world. Those agencies rely on a network of local affiliates, like Lutheran Social Services, across the country that provide basic services to refugees and sometimes offer additional assistance such as medical screening programs or support for unaccompanied migrant children. In the last 12 months alone, those agencies have received nearly $1.5 billion in federal funds.
        The State Department says it awarded more than $40 million to Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, Lutheran Social Services’ parent organization, in August 2021 to resettle Afghan refugees. Since then, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service says it has helped about 12,000 Afghan refugees find a home in the U.S.

        Under their cooperative agreements with the State Department, resettlement agencies like Lutheran Social Services have a list of services they’re obligated to provide to Afghan refugees within three months, using a fixed per capita grant of $2,275. Upon arrival, refugees are supposed to have safe housing, for example, as well as culturally appropriate food, seasonal clothes and pocket money for emergency expenses. The State Department’s agreement with Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service requires staff members to perform two home-visits to refugees within 30 days of arrival – either virtually or in-person – to the extent possible, and to help them apply for cash assistance, Social Security cards, English-language programs and an array of other services and benefits within 90 days.

        Within five days, according to their agreement, employees are required to conduct intake interviews with refugees and explain their rights and responsibilities. Within 90 days, they’re required to provide “orientation” information about a range of topics, including housing, immigration status, employment and U.S. law.

        In the immediate weeks following the evacuation of Kabul, refugee resettlement organizations struggled to meet those obligations – and, many argued, understandably so.

        Former President Donald Trump drastically lowered the country’s refugee admissions cap during his time in office, essentially incapacitating the U.S. refugee program. Presidents typically set the country’s refugee cap between 70,000 to 90,000, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Yet the Trump administration reduced the fiscal 2017 cap set by the Obama administration from 110,000 to 50,000, and then continued to lower it until in fiscal 2021 it reached 15,000 – the lowest since the 1980 Refugee Act that governs admissions took effect.

        Because resettlement groups receive money based on the numbers of refugees they resettle, their budgets were devastated. Hundreds of affiliate offices had to close, and many employees – some with decades of experience – lost their jobs. Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service alone had to close a third of its 48 offices and lay off more than 120 employees. Lutheran Social Services says its resources and staff were “decimated.”

        After the evacuation of Kabul in August 2021, resettlement organizations found themselves pushed to the limit. Usually, they would have weeks or months to plan for refugee arrivals. Now they had days and far too few staff members to deal with the sheer numbers – the largest influx of refugees since roughly 125,000 Vietnamese arrived at the end of the Vietnam War. Lutheran Social Services says it went from serving 500 people a year through its refugee program during the Trump administration to 500 people a month in August 2021. And it kept its doors open to Afghans, even after local peers began to limit their numbers.

        The sudden uptick in refugees caused problems not only for Lutheran Social Services but for resettlement organizations throughout the country: Airport pickups didn’t run as smoothly as they once did. Refugees were placed in cramped hotel rooms while staff looked for more permanent housing. Some arrived at homes without furniture. Services that were once commonplace fell by the wayside.

        “When Kabul fell, like when Saigon fell in 1975, we weren’t prepared,” says Eskinder Negash, president and CEO of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, one of the nine resettlement organizations that contracts with the U.S. government. “I’m just being very candid. We are not a disaster response team.”

        On top of that, there was a global pandemic to contend with. Refugee resettlement groups were working remotely. Employees fell ill and couldn’t work. When entire offices were overwhelmed with coronavirus outbreaks, refugee flights had to be redirected to other locations. Afghans were also arriving in the midst of a housing crisis, with rents climbing to some of the highest prices in decades.

        “I've done this work for over four decades,” Negash says. “This was probably the most challenging environment to resettle anybody, let alone over 70,000 Afghans.”

        Initially, some groups had to tap into privately raised funds to meet the needs. But soon federal dollars rolled in, allowing organizations to hire staff and provide services. Yet now, a year after the evacuation, clients and others say Lutheran Social Services is still struggling to provide vital assistance to Afghan refugees.

        Promises Unfulfilled

        In late June, Amir, a Lutheran Social Services client and former member of the Afghan special forces, is sitting behind his coffee table in his sparsely furnished apartment in Hyattsville, Maryland. As his toddler darts in and out the room, he holds up his phone and shows his text message exchanges with his caseworker.

        “Hello brother,” he starts out each text, before asking for help with things like rent, a bus card and English-language classes. The caseworker doesn’t always respond, but when he does, it’s with phrases like, “in a meeting” or “will call you back.” The problem, according to Amir, is that he never does.

        It’s been over four months since Amir – a soft spoken 29-year-old – and his wife, son and sister left a military base in Virginia and moved to Maryland. Yet his wife, who has a medical condition and has been struggling with headaches and sleeplessness, still doesn’t have the Medicaid insurance she should be eligible for.

        Amir displays his Afghan special forces beret, as his toddler looks on, in Hyattsville, Maryland. (Avi Gupta for USN&WR)

        The issue has been eating away at Amir, who has been asking his caseworker for help to no avail. He’s taken his wife to the front desk of the hospital two times, he says, but administrators wouldn’t accept her without Medicaid. At one point, Amir’s caseworker told him to just call 911, and he almost did – before a friend cautioned against it due to cost.

        “I asked [the caseworker] many times, please make an appointment for my wife, she has a health problem and we don't know what's going on,” Amir says. “When we call him every time he tells me, ‘I'm very busy. I’ll call you back.’ We wait one, two, three days, we call him back and he says, ‘I'm on vacation,’ ‘I'm in the vehicle.’”

        “Four months and we cannot get insurance,” he continues. “My wife’s health is very important. … This is very difficult.”

        Amir, whose name has been changed, rattles off a list of other complaints: Despite multiple invitations for a meal or tea, his caseworker never entered his home, where he would have seen his dilapidated stove and broken dining chairs or heard the mice in the walls. At one point, the caseworker stopped by with documents but asked that Amir come to his car to sign them since he was running late. Paperwork was never explained. After his caseworker told him his unit couldn’t receive internet, he turned to a volunteer who nevertheless found him Wi-Fi so he could take English classes. Amir’s family has food stamps – but not because his caseworker set them up – because Amir went to a county office in person to get them himself.

        “They made me mad,” he says of the agency – so mad, in fact, that in June he blocked his case manager’s phone number.

        Lutheran Social Services says it does not comment on specific clients as their privacy and safety is of “utmost importance” to the agency. But volunteers and other Afghan refugee clients of the agency say the complaints made by Amir (whose wife received Medicaid in mid-July) are not isolated.

        They say some caseworkers, often inexperienced and overwhelmed with high caseloads, regularly ignore client messages about urgent needs. Refugees say house visits can be irregular and rushed and that paperwork often goes unexplained. Some said they’ve waited months to receive the government documents that allow them to work and get benefits, and that their caseworkers didn’t follow-up to explain or help reduce the delays.

        At times, rent checks, which Lutheran Social Services is supposed to pay for the first three months, come late, leaving refugees worried about late fees. Housing can be inappropriate, unfurnished or unsanitary. In July, U.S. News visited a family in an extended stay hotel that they’d been staying in since May. Several refugees pointed to bites on their arms and said they’d seen insects in their sheets.

        Vinatieri, the pastor, says he was especially bewildered by the treatment of a wheelchair-bound paraplegic man who the agency moved into an Airbnb with seven front steps.

        “This whole thing was just like, ‘Oh, come on,’” he says. “This guy got shot defending the American cause and this is how we treat him? Let’s do better with our tax dollars.”

        Behind the scenes, two current employees say they have seen some staff members make up case notes about services they didn’t deliver and falsify client signatures meant to verify that they’d received things like food delivery and cash. One current employee says they saw a caseworker give a family of seven $200 in cash, had them sign a receipt and later wrote on it that the family had been given $700.

        Another current employee says they have gone through several audits, including annual financial audits and monitoring by Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, the parent organization. In the weeks before each audit, which they tell U.S. News are “very easy to pass,” they say some staff members forged client signatures on receipts and other documents to be compliant. Whether or not the services were actually provided to refugees, the employee says, was unclear.

        “What they do is they quickly call the families and see what they are missing. They sometimes provide it right before the audit – a day before. … I, myself, dropped off furniture almost in the middle of the night – at 10 p.m. – because the auditor was coming at 8 a.m. to see and check the furniture.”

        Whether or not a family receives something as basic as a couch can come down to their position on a hierarchy determined by Lutheran Social Services staff, sources say. Refugees and volunteers say some staff members, who are mostly well-educated Afghans, can be dismissive of Afghan refugees who struggle to read and write or who speak a different first language. Sources say refugees with strong U.S. ties, and those savvy enough to leverage them, are often the ones who get the most attention: prompt responses to their questions, rent paid beyond the required three months, new furniture, funds from the petty cash box.

        Current staff members said there’s another factor that can give refugees an advantage: sharing the same last names as staff.

        “Some clients who are relatives are getting better services,” one current employee says plainly. They reported seeing relatives get more rent, more cash, better furniture, more job assistance and more Uber trips for transportation.

        A member of another organization helping Afghan refugees says they saw nepotism firsthand. Their organization was working with Lutheran Social Services to do home setups, using private donations to ensure families had furniture, basic house supplies, food and other necessities they needed when they first arrived. Lutheran Social Services would flag needy homes for them, but half of the time, they say, the group would show up to find that homes flagged as needy often had more than enough supplies.

        “A handful of times, that person would turn out to be a relative of a case manager or employee,” they say. (Lutheran Social Services declined to comment on some of these claims, but said its legal investigators did not find evidence to sustain allegations that its case management team treats clients differently based on their ethnic backgrounds.)

        While sources say well-connected Afghans see their complaints addressed quickly, others are said to be ignored, dismissed or even threatened if they share their concerns.

        Two refugee families told U.S. News they’d been instructed by the same caseworker not to complain to the media about their treatment by Lutheran Social Services. A father with a young child was so worried during his interview with U.S. News that he closed his window blinds, nervously peeking outside to see if anyone was watching. One of the families said the caseworker also told them they would be deported by the State Department if they complained.

        Lutheran Social Services says its media policy doesn’t restrict client participation in media interviews. We believe “in the importance of sharing and amplifying Afghan Allies’ stories,” the group said in a statement. “We are grateful to those who are willing to share their experiences and support their right to do so.”

        Mohammad puts himself in the ignored and dismissed category.

        On Feb.12, the day Mohammad and his family were scheduled to leave a military base in New Jersey for Virginia, his wife had a medical emergency while waiting in line for the bus. She was rushed to an off-base emergency room and had surgery early the next morning.

        While Mohammad stayed at his wife’s bedside, his four teenaged children remained at the base for another week, until Feb. 18, when the government removed the last remaining evacuees from the facility. That day Mohammad’s children packed into a bus with other refugees and were driven about 200 miles south to an area near Washington Dulles International Airport in the D.C. suburbs of Virginia. There, Mohammad says, his children waited for hours, luggage in tow, while other Afghans were picked up by their caseworkers and taken to their new housing.

        Mohammad was preparing for his wife to have another operation when his kids called him and asked what they should do. He called his caseworker, who told him she couldn’t make the trip and suggested that he ask a friend to retrieve his children.

        Mohammad scrambled to reach one of his friends – a colleague he knew from the development work he did with the U.S. back in Afghanistan – and he agreed to head toward Dulles.

        “He was shocked,” Mohammad says.

        The friend took the children to their designated hotel, where the surprises kept coming: The four children were to stay in a single room with one bed. There was no food or money to pay for it. Mohammad says he frantically called his caseworker to ask how his children could eat.

        Her response?

        “Ask your friend.”

        The fact that Mohammad’s family ended up in a hotel wasn’t atypical. Some refugees have waited months in hotels while resettlement agencies have worked to find them more permanent housing. But Mohammad didn’t want his children to wait, so he reached out to the same friend, who helped him secure an apartment in the Washington suburbs three days later.

        While his caseworker approved of the apartment and agreed to pay the rent, Mohammad says he had to once again rely on his friend, instead of the caseworker, to get his children there.

        “And then when they came, there was nothing inside the house,” Mohammad says. “No furniture, no kitchen tools, no water, no food.”

        When Mohammad and his wife finally reunited with their children in mid-March, he said his apartment was sparsely furnished with pieces of furniture his children had salvaged from garbage they’d found on a nearby curb. Soon, he noticed small, itchy red bumps on everyone's arms and legs – bites from insects that had infested the sofa.

        Lutheran Social Services also declined to comment on the specifics of Mohammad’s story, citing client privacy and safety concerns.

        The Commander

        Employees say they have tried to flag cases like Mohammad's, but that it doesn’t go well. They feel that when they raise concerns, supervisors either ignore their claims, say they will address them and do nothing, or use the opportunity to question the employee’s own performance. “Dismissive and indifferent” are the words one employee used to describe the leadership culture.

        For a brief moment last January, several Lutheran Social Services employees had hope the organization could turn itself around. The CEO, Kristyn Peck, had announced the hire of a new executive director of refugee and immigrant services named Eric Coulson – and he had the kind of resume that convinced staff he meant business. Coulson was a retired attorney and former Army Reserve captain who had commanded a 130-soldier engineer company in Ramadi and Fallujah, Iraq, during which time he earned a Bronze Star and a Combat Action Badge. He served as a legal adviser to the U.S. military in Egypt, a special assistant to the U.S. ambassador to Nigeria and had experience as a consular officer and refugee program officer at the State Department.

        Eric Coulson poses for a portrait at his Alexandria, Virginia home. (Avi Gupta for USN&WR)

        Coulson, 54, was nervous about his decision to retire from the State Department and join Lutheran Social Services – he’d never been part of the nonprofit world – but he was excited by the opportunity to give back to Afghans who had sacrificed on behalf of the U.S.

        He spent the first three weeks of his tenure working from home, attending virtual training sessions and online meetings he found less than effective. Then, just after this third week, he got a message that an overwhelmed employee had passed out at work. Immediately, he says, he hopped into his car and drove to the organization’s branch office where it happened to investigate.

        “By the time I got there, she had gone home,” he says. “But I start poking around, looking at how people are doing, really going back to my Army days of being a commander and trying to take care of people and find out what's going on.”

        The first thing he noticed, he says, was seven employees in a meeting trying to figure out how to pay rent for Afghan refugees with the first of the month just three days away. When he subsequently asked the office director about the late-stage decision making, he says he was told, “We have until the fifth of the month to pay anyway.” (One message reviewed by U.S. News shows a staff member asking about a May rent check for a client on May 17; another shows staff discussing how to pay July rent on the first of July.)

        But more worrying, according to Coulson, was the fact that refugee identity documents, Social Security cards and employment authorization cards were scattered haphazardly around the main office area, where they could have been easily snatched and used for identity theft.

        “I spent the last seven years handling passports and all sorts of identity documents,” he says. “If I had to go to the restroom when I was working with a bunch of diplomatic passports, I would lock them in my desk. I take identity document protection very seriously, as does the U.S. government.”

        Coulson shared his concerns with the organization’s executives, who agreed there was a problem, and they met with the person in charge of the office to express their concerns. Coulson said he planned to counsel the employee – a direct report – in writing, and he says his bosses approved of the approach.

        The employee pushed back, insisting he did have a process in place to store sensitive documents, but Coulson says he visited the office a few days later to find checks totalling more than $10,000 sitting on his desk. “They were just sitting there, signed, anyone could have taken them,” he says.

        “The other thing I found is two boxes on the floor, just cardboard boxes, that had hundreds of Social Security cards and employment authorization documents – no inventories. And it wasn’t even like someone had set them on their desk or whatever. No, they were just tossed there.”

        In one corner of the office, he found opened and discarded envelopes that had contained Social Security cards simply thrown in a pile. He went through them again and found five cards that employees had missed.

        “What I would have expected generally was that those would have been in a locked safe of some sort with a list of the documents and who they belong to and who signed them,” he says. “I would expect some sort of record keeping so that you don't run the risk of identity theft. And there were no such controls in place.”

        Opened and discarded envelopes sit in an office at Lutheran Social Services. Coulson says he went through them again and found five social security cards that employees had missed.(Courtesy of Eric Coulson)

        At that point, Coulson says, “I'm like, OK, this is why I was hired. I have lots of leadership experience in situations that are challenging,” including managing sensitive documents. “This is all within my wheelhouse.”

        Coulson went ahead with his plan: He had a conversation with his direct report, which he recorded, and he also counseled the employee in writing. But when Coulson’s supervisor got word of the moves, Coulson says he was chastised for putting the “operation at risk” and warned his behavior could undermine trust in the organization.

        “I couldn't believe what I was hearing,” Coulson says. “I said, ‘Well, I guess maybe if you don't think I should be counseling people in writing and worrying about some of these things, maybe I'm not the person for you.’”

        In response, Coulson says he was told where to return his office equipment. And within 10 minutes, he says, his access to all systems was cut off.

        “They really wanted me out,” he says. “I was zeroing in on processes that were clearly not working and clearly put people at risk, and I think I was clearly going to find more that was going on.”

        Lutheran Social Services declined to comment on Coulson’s versions of events, saying it doesn’t discuss personnel matters. However, it notes that its 2021 audit, which ran through September – the beginning of the refugee surge – was clean except for one issue: Of 40 “items” randomly selected, there was one instance where Lutheran Social Services either misplaced or potentially destroyed an eligibility document that would have allowed a client to receive benefits.

        “This appears to be an isolated incident,” according to Pager Metis, the firm that conducted the audit.

        At the time, the agency was only keeping physical copies of documents, the report said, but it is now also using electronic copies.

        A Hefty Bonus

        Coulson didn’t have the chance, but there was another issue he’d planned to bring up in that final meeting with management – something that had been bothering him for a while.

        On Martin Luther King Day, less than two weeks after Coulson started, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield came to a resettlement office to take part in a day of service on behalf of refugees. Coulson decided to swing by, just to check it out, and the following week he noticed he’d been given a $250 bonus simply for attending.

        “I didn’t really know what to do,” he says, adding that coming out of the Army and the State Department, he’d never been paid for that kind of thing. “Especially as someone almost making six figures a year, I wasn't really comfortable,” he says. “I kept the money, but it was one of those things that I was having problems processing.”

        It turns out Coulson had received a “surge bonus,” which was part of a new program that raised eyebrows among several employees.

        In November, when Afghans were arriving to the Washington area in record numbers, Peck instituted a program in which employees would be paid more for working beyond their regular hours to “show appreciation for those going above and beyond” to meet the organization’s “growing needs.” Anyone working an extra 3 1/2 hours would earn a $250 bonus, and anyone working seven hours would earn $500. All staff, regardless of whether they were hourly or salaried, were eligible.

        When the bonuses were first announced, there was no formal process tied to earning them, says Rosalind Floyd, who processed the payments as part of her role as then-human resources manager. At first, she says, managers would simply email her telling her to process bonuses for their employees. Eventually, a form was created. But even then, she says, employees only needed to include a brief description of what work they were doing and when.

        When Coulson approved his first round of paychecks, he was alarmed to see that several people directly reporting to him were earning thousands of dollars in bonuses for work that they had claimed to do all weekend.

        “There was no real explanation of what they had been doing,” he says. “Just something very vague about, you know, working refugee issues.”

        Coulson says he didn’t “believe for a second” that these employees were working all weekend. “And if they were there,” he says, “there was certainly nothing to show for it.”

        It was, in fact, common for staff to receive thousands of dollars in bonuses, even in a single two-week pay period, Floyd says. She says she processed one paycheck in which a single employee earned a $9,000 bonus. Over three months, she says she processed more than $100,000 in the surge stipends. She recalls an employee who was so confused by her pay bump that she called HR just to make sure there hadn’t been an error.

        Lutheran Social Services said the bonuses, all reviewed by leadership, were to reward employees working “70-hour plus weeks during the surge” and that they were allowable costs through federal funding. The group also emphasized its staffing challenges, which put great strain on employees at the start of the refugee deluge. In July 2021, it says, it had a team of 65. Today, it has 140 employees.

        Floyd also expressed concern about an issue several other current and former staff members mentioned to U.S. News: insufficient accounting of community donations, which, like refugees, were flowing in at levels not seen in decades.

        “Everybody wanted to be a part of the cause, and not just with the money, but with the physical donations,” she says. “They had everything: cribs, laptops, iPads, gift cards of $5,000.”

        The problem, she says, was that there were no records of how many donations were received, or who ended up receiving them. Theoretically, in other words, anyone could have taken the items home.

        “I went and worked in the Virginia office over a weekend,” she says. “There were so many donations, and nothing was cataloged.”

        Lutheran Social Services disputes this account and says it “reached out to a national volunteer organization which deployed a team of volunteers to track, inventory, warehouse, and distribute the donated goods to clients in need.” It also said its recent audit assessed its system of inventorying and distributing in-kind donations and found it to be sound.

        One employee of Lutheran Social Services says that they did indeed see theft, albeit on a small scale. A handful of employees, they say, sometimes took home donations meant for refugees, including gift cards, backpacks, toys, home items and hygiene supplies. They say some staff used the Uber account meant for refugee transportation for personal errands.

        The same employee says a senior staff member in one office treated the petty cash box like his own “personal cash box,” taking money out to pay for his wife’s shoes. A handful of others, they say, would sometimes use petty cash for lunch or for other personal needs. (In the spring, a message went out to staff in one office saying $300 was missing from petty cash. A month later, a note was sent saying that moving forward, only two people would have keys to the cash box. Both messages were reviewed by U.S. News.)

        Sufficient Oversight? 

        It’s not uncommon to hear tales of refugees-turned-case workers taking advantage of those who followed in their footsteps, says Anita Fábos, an anthropologist at Clark University with a focus on refugee issues.

        “Just because a person is of the same nationality doesn't mean that they're going to be not trying to exploit another person,” she says. “There are caste differences. Class differences. Sometimes you find employees from the same backgrounds of other refugees doing things like charging them to help them fill out a Social Security application.”

        But, after learning from U.S. News about the concerns with Lutheran Social Services, she says, “In my years of working in this, I've never quite heard the level of what sounds to me like chaos.” She notes she’s seen all of the things described to her at other agencies – albeit on a smaller scale.

        Affiliates like Lutheran Social Services essentially have two organizations charged with monitoring the services provided to refugees during the first three months after their arrival: their parent organization – in this case, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service – and the State Department.

        Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, like the other eight resettlement organizations, is required to monitor its affiliates once every three years and within a year of the appointment of a new executive director. It’s also obligated to conduct additional monitoring of affiliates, like Lutheran Social Services, that are resettling the recent wave of Afghan refugees.

        Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service is led by Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, a Washington insider who previously served as policy director for Michelle Obama and as senior adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of State John Kerry. Vignarajah declined to speak about Lutheran Social Services, but a statement released by her organization confirmed that it had launched an investigation into the affiliate following “complaints raised to the State Department about working practices” there.

        The parent organization said its investigation, just like its affiliates’, found “no indication of fraud or financial malfeasance.” The group declined to release its report or to comment on any additional findings and directed U.S. News to the State Department, which said it was unable to provide the requested information.

        “LIRS treats any complaint about client or staff well-being with the utmost seriousness,” Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service said in a statement. “Our oversight of implementing organizations is of the highest standards and complies with all legal and regulatory requirements.” At least one of the group’s other affiliates – Lutheran Services in Iowa – has been accused of failing to meet the needs of Afghan refugees, and a refugee recently expressed complaints about a Texas affiliate to the National Journal.

        The State Department, which said it could not answer specific questions about Lutheran Social Services while “conducting an ongoing review,” says it audits every single affiliate office every five years unless it has a reason to do so more often. Of the roughly 250 local organizations resettling the recent wave of Afghan refugees, the department says it’s monitoring about 30, “with the vast majority of monitoring taking place virtually.”

        So far, one State Department official suggested, there appears to be little cause for concern about how resettlement organizations are performing their duties.

        "I will say that the grievances that we have followed up on, given the sheer scope of how many people have come … proportionally it's not that high,” one State Department official said. “Every time we follow up, we have not found negligence, we have found that there are some unrealistic expectations."

        That doesn’t make sense to Megan Flores, executive director of the Immigrant & Refugee Outreach Center, which has provided volunteer help to more than 70 of Lutheran Social Services’ Afghan families.

        “How can they say, ‘We’re barely monitoring’ and also say ‘but things are going fine?’ They are clearly far removed,” says Flores, who has concerns about how local resettlement agencies have responded to the influx of Afghans. “This isn’t like most refugee crises, these folks served side by side with our military. They gave the ultimate sacrifice, and now that they’re here in the U.S. they’re being told, ‘Figure it out – sink or swim.’ It’s a tough thing to watch and an even tougher thing to justify or explain. Yes, there have definitely been some unrealistic expectations [among refugees], but there have also been some egregious mishandlings throughout this entire situation.”

        Lost Hope

        Mohammad eventually received better furniture.

        “See this?” he says one afternoon in late May, pointing to a shiny, large screen TV. “This is from my friend.”

        He points to his sofa. “And see this? This, too, is from my friend.”

        He gestures toward his coffee table and to three geometric burgundy rugs that cover his living room carpet. All gently used items, he says, were given to him by his friend just across the street in the same apartment complex.

        It’s been more than three months since Mohammad joined his family in this apartment, and he says every day is still a struggle.

        He hasn’t been able to find a job he can do remotely, which he says he needs to support his wife, who requires help with simple things like changing her clothes. She’s already been rushed to the emergency room several times since they arrived in their apartment. On a handful of occasions, he says, he’s made it to the final rounds of interviews, only to be asked about his work authorization, which expires in December 2022. He’s not sure when his green card will arrive.

        Mohammad's passport sits on his coffee table at his Manassas, Virginia apartment.(Avi Gupta for USN&WR)

        He says he received about $600 each month through food stamps, but that’s not enough for four children and an ill wife. He can’t afford transportation to the grocery store, so he walks each way, lugging what he can carry.

        Then there’s the issue of rent: $2,500 a month for his three-bedroom apartment, which, while commonplace in the Washington area, feels like a crushing weight upon his shoulders.

        After sending several inquiries, Mohammad says he finally managed to arrange an in-person meeting at one of the Lutheran Social Services offices to talk about his concerns. When he asked if the agency could help with rent for July – his fourth month – he says they agreed to pay.

        “They told me nice words,” he says. “They said, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll support you.’ They said, ‘We’re sorry for this. We’re sorry for that,’ but nothing is happening. There are no actions.”

        Mohammad finally received his rent check on July 13, eight days after it was due. Even still, on July 25, he received an eviction notice, though Lutheran Social Services paid his August rent, and the leasing agent said the notice would be canceled.

        Mohammad says he struggles to sleep at night because he feels so powerless to help his family. At times he’s thought about ending his life.

        Reflecting on his experience with the U.S. government, he says he has nothing but glowing reviews of the U.S. military. But the project manager in him remains baffled by the U.S. refugee resettlement program, which he says is giving hard-earned taxpayer money to ineffective groups like Lutheran Social Services.

        “When friends and family ask, I tell them, ‘Don’t come,’” he says. “I would rather be in Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, if the Taliban slits your throat, it is only seconds of pain. Here, it is pain every day.”

        – Elliott Davis, Christopher Wolf and Madeline Fitzgerald contributed to this report. 

        \ No newline at end of file +‘I would rather be in Afghanistan’ – Group Resettling Afghans Faces Scrutiny

        ‘I would rather be in Afghanistan’ – Group Resettling Afghans Faces Scrutiny

        A year after the fall of Kabul, some Afghan refugees resettled by a Washington-area organization say they are still struggling to get basic services – and sources say the State Department is looking into it.

        Mohammad’s journey from Afghanistan to a home in the U.S. played out in three stages.

        The first occurred following the fall of Kabul a year ago, after which the husband and father who worked with the U.S. government for 14 years spent a month shuttling his family from safe house to safe house, trying to outrun the Taliban.

        The second took place in Qatar, where his family spent four weeks on a military base, living in a shipping container turned into transitional housing. And the third leg involved two months on a military base in New Jersey, where his family was vaccinated, processed and housed under a tent with hundreds of other Afghan evacuees, their only privacy provided by a thin partition dividing households.

        In February, Mohammad and his family reached their final destination in Manassas, Virginia, where they now live in a two-story, three-bedroom apartment with a proper roof and sturdy walls. It couldn’t have come soon enough: His wife is struggling with a dangerous medical condition. Still, nobody in his family has found work. Food is scarce, and he’s not sure how he’ll pay his bills. In fact, Mohammad says he feels more insecure now than at any time since his government fell. From the moment his family was assigned to Northern Virginia, he says his refugee resettlement caseworker – the person assigned to help him with his basic needs – has been unresponsive to his pleas for assistance.

        “To be honest, I’m disappointed,” says Mohammad, whose real name can’t be used due to security concerns.

        Mohammad is referring to his treatment by Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area, a refugee resettlement agency charged with using federal funds to provide housing and other basic services to help refugees get on their feet. The agency says it has resettled more than 4,500 Afghan refugees so far – the most, it says, of any organization on the East Coast.

        In Mohammad’s mind, it’s doing an inadequate job of it. And plenty of others agree, according to a U.S. News investigation. More than two dozen interviews with Afghan clients of the agency, current and former employees and volunteers who work closely with the organization uncovered stories about multiple failures to perform services.

        Some employees, sources say, have provided inadequate food, housing and other services to refugees and played favorites among clients. They also say some staff have failed to securely store sensitive documents, falsified case notes, skimmed funds from petty cash and paid questionable bonuses to employees.

        Mohammad poses for a photo at his home in Manassas, Virginia.(Avi Gupta for USN&WR)

        “You just scratch your head going, ‘Is anybody watching this office? Is anybody auditing them?’” says Ted Vinatieri, a pastor at Pillar Church in Stafford, Virginia, and one of several volunteers who expressed apprehension about the treatment of Afghan refugees by Lutheran Social Services.

        Concerns about the agency have already made their way to the federal government, where the Department of State monitors refugee resettlement during the first few months after their arrival. Individuals close to Lutheran Social Services have reached out to the State Department, which is now investigating claims about client mistreatment.

        One of those individuals reached out to the FBI with concerns, and the law enforcement agency has contacted at least one former and one current employee to discuss their experiences. The FBI would not confirm whether there is an official investigation.

        Lutheran Social Services declined to comment on many of the allegations against it. However, it said it was aware of the complaints and that it had worked with third-party organizations, including an accounting firm and a law firm, to investigate them.

        Lutheran Social Services declined to share the law firm’s report with U.S. News, but it shared its 2021 third-party financial audit, which showed no evidence of financial malfeasance or fraud. It says the same firm looked beyond 2021 to the present and found the same but Lutheran Social Services declined to share that report as well. The group’s parent organization, which is responsible for monitoring Lutheran Social Services, also investigated complaints and found no evidence of financial malfeasance or fraud.

        “We are committed to serving our community with excellence,” the group said in a statement, adding, “we welcome and respond to all concerns brought to our attention.”

        An Emergency Response

        There is no doubt resettlement agencies have faced a herculean challenge. More than 74,000 Afghans have come to the United States following the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul a year ago, according to the State Department. Of those, about 9,000 – or 12% – settled in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. Many asked to be resettled in the Washington area because of a desire to be near the government agencies they’d worked closely with in Afghanistan and because of its sizable Afghan community. Virginia had the most resettled Afghan refugees of any state per capita between 2001 and September 2021.

        The U.S. government contracts nine nonprofit agencies to assist with resettling refugees from all over the world. Those agencies rely on a network of local affiliates, like Lutheran Social Services, across the country that provide basic services to refugees and sometimes offer additional assistance such as medical screening programs or support for unaccompanied migrant children. In the last 12 months alone, those agencies have received nearly $1.5 billion in federal funds.
        The State Department says it awarded more than $40 million to Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, Lutheran Social Services’ parent organization, in August 2021 to resettle Afghan refugees. Since then, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service says it has helped about 12,000 Afghan refugees find a home in the U.S.

        Under their cooperative agreements with the State Department, resettlement agencies like Lutheran Social Services have a list of services they’re obligated to provide to Afghan refugees within three months, using a fixed per capita grant of $2,275. Upon arrival, refugees are supposed to have safe housing, for example, as well as culturally appropriate food, seasonal clothes and pocket money for emergency expenses. The State Department’s agreement with Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service requires staff members to perform two home-visits to refugees within 30 days of arrival – either virtually or in-person – to the extent possible, and to help them apply for cash assistance, Social Security cards, English-language programs and an array of other services and benefits within 90 days.

        Within five days, according to their agreement, employees are required to conduct intake interviews with refugees and explain their rights and responsibilities. Within 90 days, they’re required to provide “orientation” information about a range of topics, including housing, immigration status, employment and U.S. law.

        In the immediate weeks following the evacuation of Kabul, refugee resettlement organizations struggled to meet those obligations – and, many argued, understandably so.

        Former President Donald Trump drastically lowered the country’s refugee admissions cap during his time in office, essentially incapacitating the U.S. refugee program. Presidents typically set the country’s refugee cap between 70,000 to 90,000, according to the Migration Policy Institute. Yet the Trump administration reduced the fiscal 2017 cap set by the Obama administration from 110,000 to 50,000, and then continued to lower it until in fiscal 2021 it reached 15,000 – the lowest since the 1980 Refugee Act that governs admissions took effect.

        Because resettlement groups receive money based on the numbers of refugees they resettle, their budgets were devastated. Hundreds of affiliate offices had to close, and many employees – some with decades of experience – lost their jobs. Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service alone had to close a third of its 48 offices and lay off more than 120 employees. Lutheran Social Services says its resources and staff were “decimated.”

        After the evacuation of Kabul in August 2021, resettlement organizations found themselves pushed to the limit. Usually, they would have weeks or months to plan for refugee arrivals. Now they had days and far too few staff members to deal with the sheer numbers – the largest influx of refugees since roughly 125,000 Vietnamese arrived at the end of the Vietnam War. Lutheran Social Services says it went from serving 500 people a year through its refugee program during the Trump administration to 500 people a month in August 2021. And it kept its doors open to Afghans, even after local peers began to limit their numbers.

        The sudden uptick in refugees caused problems not only for Lutheran Social Services but for resettlement organizations throughout the country: Airport pickups didn’t run as smoothly as they once did. Refugees were placed in cramped hotel rooms while staff looked for more permanent housing. Some arrived at homes without furniture. Services that were once commonplace fell by the wayside.

        “When Kabul fell, like when Saigon fell in 1975, we weren’t prepared,” says Eskinder Negash, president and CEO of the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, one of the nine resettlement organizations that contracts with the U.S. government. “I’m just being very candid. We are not a disaster response team.”

        On top of that, there was a global pandemic to contend with. Refugee resettlement groups were working remotely. Employees fell ill and couldn’t work. When entire offices were overwhelmed with coronavirus outbreaks, refugee flights had to be redirected to other locations. Afghans were also arriving in the midst of a housing crisis, with rents climbing to some of the highest prices in decades.

        “I've done this work for over four decades,” Negash says. “This was probably the most challenging environment to resettle anybody, let alone over 70,000 Afghans.”

        Initially, some groups had to tap into privately raised funds to meet the needs. But soon federal dollars rolled in, allowing organizations to hire staff and provide services. Yet now, a year after the evacuation, clients and others say Lutheran Social Services is still struggling to provide vital assistance to Afghan refugees.

        Promises Unfulfilled

        In late June, Amir, a Lutheran Social Services client and former member of the Afghan special forces, is sitting behind his coffee table in his sparsely furnished apartment in Hyattsville, Maryland. As his toddler darts in and out the room, he holds up his phone and shows his text message exchanges with his caseworker.

        “Hello brother,” he starts out each text, before asking for help with things like rent, a bus card and English-language classes. The caseworker doesn’t always respond, but when he does, it’s with phrases like, “in a meeting” or “will call you back.” The problem, according to Amir, is that he never does.

        It’s been over four months since Amir – a soft spoken 29-year-old – and his wife, son and sister left a military base in Virginia and moved to Maryland. Yet his wife, who has a medical condition and has been struggling with headaches and sleeplessness, still doesn’t have the Medicaid insurance she should be eligible for.

        Amir displays his Afghan special forces beret, as his toddler looks on, in Hyattsville, Maryland. (Avi Gupta for USN&WR)

        The issue has been eating away at Amir, who has been asking his caseworker for help to no avail. He’s taken his wife to the front desk of the hospital two times, he says, but administrators wouldn’t accept her without Medicaid. At one point, Amir’s caseworker told him to just call 911, and he almost did – before a friend cautioned against it due to cost.

        “I asked [the caseworker] many times, please make an appointment for my wife, she has a health problem and we don't know what's going on,” Amir says. “When we call him every time he tells me, ‘I'm very busy. I’ll call you back.’ We wait one, two, three days, we call him back and he says, ‘I'm on vacation,’ ‘I'm in the vehicle.’”

        “Four months and we cannot get insurance,” he continues. “My wife’s health is very important. … This is very difficult.”

        Amir, whose name has been changed, rattles off a list of other complaints: Despite multiple invitations for a meal or tea, his caseworker never entered his home, where he would have seen his dilapidated stove and broken dining chairs or heard the mice in the walls. At one point, the caseworker stopped by with documents but asked that Amir come to his car to sign them since he was running late. Paperwork was never explained. After his caseworker told him his unit couldn’t receive internet, he turned to a volunteer who nevertheless found him Wi-Fi so he could take English classes. Amir’s family has food stamps – but not because his caseworker set them up – because Amir went to a county office in person to get them himself.

        “They made me mad,” he says of the agency – so mad, in fact, that in June he blocked his case manager’s phone number.

        Lutheran Social Services says it does not comment on specific clients as their privacy and safety is of “utmost importance” to the agency. But volunteers and other Afghan refugee clients of the agency say the complaints made by Amir (whose wife received Medicaid in mid-July) are not isolated.

        They say some caseworkers, often inexperienced and overwhelmed with high caseloads, regularly ignore client messages about urgent needs. Refugees say house visits can be irregular and rushed and that paperwork often goes unexplained. Some said they’ve waited months to receive the government documents that allow them to work and get benefits, and that their caseworkers didn’t follow-up to explain or help reduce the delays.

        At times, rent checks, which Lutheran Social Services is supposed to pay for the first three months, come late, leaving refugees worried about late fees. Housing can be inappropriate, unfurnished or unsanitary. In July, U.S. News visited a family in an extended stay hotel that they’d been staying in since May. Several refugees pointed to bites on their arms and said they’d seen insects in their sheets.

        Vinatieri, the pastor, says he was especially bewildered by the treatment of a wheelchair-bound paraplegic man who the agency moved into an Airbnb with seven front steps.

        “This whole thing was just like, ‘Oh, come on,’” he says. “This guy got shot defending the American cause and this is how we treat him? Let’s do better with our tax dollars.”

        Behind the scenes, two current employees say they have seen some staff members make up case notes about services they didn’t deliver and falsify client signatures meant to verify that they’d received things like food delivery and cash. One current employee says they saw a caseworker give a family of seven $200 in cash, had them sign a receipt and later wrote on it that the family had been given $700.

        Another current employee says they have gone through several audits, including annual financial audits and monitoring by Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, the parent organization. In the weeks before each audit, which they tell U.S. News are “very easy to pass,” they say some staff members forged client signatures on receipts and other documents to be compliant. Whether or not the services were actually provided to refugees, the employee says, was unclear.

        “What they do is they quickly call the families and see what they are missing. They sometimes provide it right before the audit – a day before. … I, myself, dropped off furniture almost in the middle of the night – at 10 p.m. – because the auditor was coming at 8 a.m. to see and check the furniture.”

        Whether or not a family receives something as basic as a couch can come down to their position on a hierarchy determined by Lutheran Social Services staff, sources say. Refugees and volunteers say some staff members, who are mostly well-educated Afghans, can be dismissive of Afghan refugees who struggle to read and write or who speak a different first language. Sources say refugees with strong U.S. ties, and those savvy enough to leverage them, are often the ones who get the most attention: prompt responses to their questions, rent paid beyond the required three months, new furniture, funds from the petty cash box.

        Current staff members said there’s another factor that can give refugees an advantage: sharing the same last names as staff.

        “Some clients who are relatives are getting better services,” one current employee says plainly. They reported seeing relatives get more rent, more cash, better furniture, more job assistance and more Uber trips for transportation.

        A member of another organization helping Afghan refugees says they saw nepotism firsthand. Their organization was working with Lutheran Social Services to do home setups, using private donations to ensure families had furniture, basic house supplies, food and other necessities they needed when they first arrived. Lutheran Social Services would flag needy homes for them, but half of the time, they say, the group would show up to find that homes flagged as needy often had more than enough supplies.

        “A handful of times, that person would turn out to be a relative of a case manager or employee,” they say. (Lutheran Social Services declined to comment on some of these claims, but said its legal investigators did not find evidence to sustain allegations that its case management team treats clients differently based on their ethnic backgrounds.)

        While sources say well-connected Afghans see their complaints addressed quickly, others are said to be ignored, dismissed or even threatened if they share their concerns.

        Two refugee families told U.S. News they’d been instructed by the same caseworker not to complain to the media about their treatment by Lutheran Social Services. A father with a young child was so worried during his interview with U.S. News that he closed his window blinds, nervously peeking outside to see if anyone was watching. One of the families said the caseworker also told them they would be deported by the State Department if they complained.

        Lutheran Social Services says its media policy doesn’t restrict client participation in media interviews. We believe “in the importance of sharing and amplifying Afghan Allies’ stories,” the group said in a statement. “We are grateful to those who are willing to share their experiences and support their right to do so.”

        Mohammad puts himself in the ignored and dismissed category.

        On Feb.12, the day Mohammad and his family were scheduled to leave a military base in New Jersey for Virginia, his wife had a medical emergency while waiting in line for the bus. She was rushed to an off-base emergency room and had surgery early the next morning.

        While Mohammad stayed at his wife’s bedside, his four teenaged children remained at the base for another week, until Feb. 18, when the government removed the last remaining evacuees from the facility. That day Mohammad’s children packed into a bus with other refugees and were driven about 200 miles south to an area near Washington Dulles International Airport in the D.C. suburbs of Virginia. There, Mohammad says, his children waited for hours, luggage in tow, while other Afghans were picked up by their caseworkers and taken to their new housing.

        Mohammad was preparing for his wife to have another operation when his kids called him and asked what they should do. He called his caseworker, who told him she couldn’t make the trip and suggested that he ask a friend to retrieve his children.

        Mohammad scrambled to reach one of his friends – a colleague he knew from the development work he did with the U.S. back in Afghanistan – and he agreed to head toward Dulles.

        “He was shocked,” Mohammad says.

        The friend took the children to their designated hotel, where the surprises kept coming: The four children were to stay in a single room with one bed. There was no food or money to pay for it. Mohammad says he frantically called his caseworker to ask how his children could eat.

        Her response?

        “Ask your friend.”

        The fact that Mohammad’s family ended up in a hotel wasn’t atypical. Some refugees have waited months in hotels while resettlement agencies have worked to find them more permanent housing. But Mohammad didn’t want his children to wait, so he reached out to the same friend, who helped him secure an apartment in the Washington suburbs three days later.

        While his caseworker approved of the apartment and agreed to pay the rent, Mohammad says he had to once again rely on his friend, instead of the caseworker, to get his children there.

        “And then when they came, there was nothing inside the house,” Mohammad says. “No furniture, no kitchen tools, no water, no food.”

        When Mohammad and his wife finally reunited with their children in mid-March, he said his apartment was sparsely furnished with pieces of furniture his children had salvaged from garbage they’d found on a nearby curb. Soon, he noticed small, itchy red bumps on everyone's arms and legs – bites from insects that had infested the sofa.

        Lutheran Social Services also declined to comment on the specifics of Mohammad’s story, citing client privacy and safety concerns.

        The Commander

        Employees say they have tried to flag cases like Mohammad's, but that it doesn’t go well. They feel that when they raise concerns, supervisors either ignore their claims, say they will address them and do nothing, or use the opportunity to question the employee’s own performance. “Dismissive and indifferent” are the words one employee used to describe the leadership culture.

        For a brief moment last January, several Lutheran Social Services employees had hope the organization could turn itself around. The CEO, Kristyn Peck, had announced the hire of a new executive director of refugee and immigrant services named Eric Coulson – and he had the kind of resume that convinced staff he meant business. Coulson was a retired attorney and former Army Reserve captain who had commanded a 130-soldier engineer company in Ramadi and Fallujah, Iraq, during which time he earned a Bronze Star and a Combat Action Badge. He served as a legal adviser to the U.S. military in Egypt, a special assistant to the U.S. ambassador to Nigeria and had experience as a consular officer and refugee program officer at the State Department.

        Eric Coulson poses for a portrait at his Alexandria, Virginia home. (Avi Gupta for USN&WR)

        Coulson, 54, was nervous about his decision to retire from the State Department and join Lutheran Social Services – he’d never been part of the nonprofit world – but he was excited by the opportunity to give back to Afghans who had sacrificed on behalf of the U.S.

        He spent the first three weeks of his tenure working from home, attending virtual training sessions and online meetings he found less than effective. Then, just after this third week, he got a message that an overwhelmed employee had passed out at work. Immediately, he says, he hopped into his car and drove to the organization’s branch office where it happened to investigate.

        “By the time I got there, she had gone home,” he says. “But I start poking around, looking at how people are doing, really going back to my Army days of being a commander and trying to take care of people and find out what's going on.”

        The first thing he noticed, he says, was seven employees in a meeting trying to figure out how to pay rent for Afghan refugees with the first of the month just three days away. When he subsequently asked the office director about the late-stage decision making, he says he was told, “We have until the fifth of the month to pay anyway.” (One message reviewed by U.S. News shows a staff member asking about a May rent check for a client on May 17; another shows staff discussing how to pay July rent on the first of July.)

        But more worrying, according to Coulson, was the fact that refugee identity documents, Social Security cards and employment authorization cards were scattered haphazardly around the main office area, where they could have been easily snatched and used for identity theft.

        “I spent the last seven years handling passports and all sorts of identity documents,” he says. “If I had to go to the restroom when I was working with a bunch of diplomatic passports, I would lock them in my desk. I take identity document protection very seriously, as does the U.S. government.”

        Coulson shared his concerns with the organization’s executives, who agreed there was a problem, and they met with the person in charge of the office to express their concerns. Coulson said he planned to counsel the employee – a direct report – in writing, and he says his bosses approved of the approach.

        The employee pushed back, insisting he did have a process in place to store sensitive documents, but Coulson says he visited the office a few days later to find checks totalling more than $10,000 sitting on his desk. “They were just sitting there, signed, anyone could have taken them,” he says.

        “The other thing I found is two boxes on the floor, just cardboard boxes, that had hundreds of Social Security cards and employment authorization documents – no inventories. And it wasn’t even like someone had set them on their desk or whatever. No, they were just tossed there.”

        In one corner of the office, he found opened and discarded envelopes that had contained Social Security cards simply thrown in a pile. He went through them again and found five cards that employees had missed.

        “What I would have expected generally was that those would have been in a locked safe of some sort with a list of the documents and who they belong to and who signed them,” he says. “I would expect some sort of record keeping so that you don't run the risk of identity theft. And there were no such controls in place.”

        Opened and discarded envelopes sit in an office at Lutheran Social Services. Coulson says he went through them again and found five social security cards that employees had missed.(Courtesy of Eric Coulson)

        At that point, Coulson says, “I'm like, OK, this is why I was hired. I have lots of leadership experience in situations that are challenging,” including managing sensitive documents. “This is all within my wheelhouse.”

        Coulson went ahead with his plan: He had a conversation with his direct report, which he recorded, and he also counseled the employee in writing. But when Coulson’s supervisor got word of the moves, Coulson says he was chastised for putting the “operation at risk” and warned his behavior could undermine trust in the organization.

        “I couldn't believe what I was hearing,” Coulson says. “I said, ‘Well, I guess maybe if you don't think I should be counseling people in writing and worrying about some of these things, maybe I'm not the person for you.’”

        In response, Coulson says he was told where to return his office equipment. And within 10 minutes, he says, his access to all systems was cut off.

        “They really wanted me out,” he says. “I was zeroing in on processes that were clearly not working and clearly put people at risk, and I think I was clearly going to find more that was going on.”

        Lutheran Social Services declined to comment on Coulson’s versions of events, saying it doesn’t discuss personnel matters. However, it notes that its 2021 audit, which ran through September – the beginning of the refugee surge – was clean except for one issue: Of 40 “items” randomly selected, there was one instance where Lutheran Social Services either misplaced or potentially destroyed an eligibility document that would have allowed a client to receive benefits.

        “This appears to be an isolated incident,” according to Pager Metis, the firm that conducted the audit.

        At the time, the agency was only keeping physical copies of documents, the report said, but it is now also using electronic copies.

        A Hefty Bonus

        Coulson didn’t have the chance, but there was another issue he’d planned to bring up in that final meeting with management – something that had been bothering him for a while.

        On Martin Luther King Day, less than two weeks after Coulson started, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield came to a resettlement office to take part in a day of service on behalf of refugees. Coulson decided to swing by, just to check it out, and the following week he noticed he’d been given a $250 bonus simply for attending.

        “I didn’t really know what to do,” he says, adding that coming out of the Army and the State Department, he’d never been paid for that kind of thing. “Especially as someone almost making six figures a year, I wasn't really comfortable,” he says. “I kept the money, but it was one of those things that I was having problems processing.”

        It turns out Coulson had received a “surge bonus,” which was part of a new program that raised eyebrows among several employees.

        In November, when Afghans were arriving to the Washington area in record numbers, Peck instituted a program in which employees would be paid more for working beyond their regular hours to “show appreciation for those going above and beyond” to meet the organization’s “growing needs.” Anyone working an extra 3 1/2 hours would earn a $250 bonus, and anyone working seven hours would earn $500. All staff, regardless of whether they were hourly or salaried, were eligible.

        When the bonuses were first announced, there was no formal process tied to earning them, says Rosalind Floyd, who processed the payments as part of her role as then-human resources manager. At first, she says, managers would simply email her telling her to process bonuses for their employees. Eventually, a form was created. But even then, she says, employees only needed to include a brief description of what work they were doing and when.

        When Coulson approved his first round of paychecks, he was alarmed to see that several people directly reporting to him were earning thousands of dollars in bonuses for work that they had claimed to do all weekend.

        “There was no real explanation of what they had been doing,” he says. “Just something very vague about, you know, working refugee issues.”

        Coulson says he didn’t “believe for a second” that these employees were working all weekend. “And if they were there,” he says, “there was certainly nothing to show for it.”

        It was, in fact, common for staff to receive thousands of dollars in bonuses, even in a single two-week pay period, Floyd says. She says she processed one paycheck in which a single employee earned a $9,000 bonus. Over three months, she says she processed more than $100,000 in the surge stipends. She recalls an employee who was so confused by her pay bump that she called HR just to make sure there hadn’t been an error.

        Lutheran Social Services said the bonuses, all reviewed by leadership, were to reward employees working “70-hour plus weeks during the surge” and that they were allowable costs through federal funding. The group also emphasized its staffing challenges, which put great strain on employees at the start of the refugee deluge. In July 2021, it says, it had a team of 65. Today, it has 140 employees.

        Floyd also expressed concern about an issue several other current and former staff members mentioned to U.S. News: insufficient accounting of community donations, which, like refugees, were flowing in at levels not seen in decades.

        “Everybody wanted to be a part of the cause, and not just with the money, but with the physical donations,” she says. “They had everything: cribs, laptops, iPads, gift cards of $5,000.”

        The problem, she says, was that there were no records of how many donations were received, or who ended up receiving them. Theoretically, in other words, anyone could have taken the items home.

        “I went and worked in the Virginia office over a weekend,” she says. “There were so many donations, and nothing was cataloged.”

        Lutheran Social Services disputes this account and says it “reached out to a national volunteer organization which deployed a team of volunteers to track, inventory, warehouse, and distribute the donated goods to clients in need.” It also said its recent audit assessed its system of inventorying and distributing in-kind donations and found it to be sound.

        One employee of Lutheran Social Services says that they did indeed see theft, albeit on a small scale. A handful of employees, they say, sometimes took home donations meant for refugees, including gift cards, backpacks, toys, home items and hygiene supplies. They say some staff used the Uber account meant for refugee transportation for personal errands.

        The same employee says a senior staff member in one office treated the petty cash box like his own “personal cash box,” taking money out to pay for his wife’s shoes. A handful of others, they say, would sometimes use petty cash for lunch or for other personal needs. (In the spring, a message went out to staff in one office saying $300 was missing from petty cash. A month later, a note was sent saying that moving forward, only two people would have keys to the cash box. Both messages were reviewed by U.S. News.)

        Sufficient Oversight? 

        It’s not uncommon to hear tales of refugees-turned-case workers taking advantage of those who followed in their footsteps, says Anita Fábos, an anthropologist at Clark University with a focus on refugee issues.

        “Just because a person is of the same nationality doesn't mean that they're going to be not trying to exploit another person,” she says. “There are caste differences. Class differences. Sometimes you find employees from the same backgrounds of other refugees doing things like charging them to help them fill out a Social Security application.”

        But, after learning from U.S. News about the concerns with Lutheran Social Services, she says, “In my years of working in this, I've never quite heard the level of what sounds to me like chaos.” She notes she’s seen all of the things described to her at other agencies – albeit on a smaller scale.

        Affiliates like Lutheran Social Services essentially have two organizations charged with monitoring the services provided to refugees during the first three months after their arrival: their parent organization – in this case, Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service – and the State Department.

        Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, like the other eight resettlement organizations, is required to monitor its affiliates once every three years and within a year of the appointment of a new executive director. It’s also obligated to conduct additional monitoring of affiliates, like Lutheran Social Services, that are resettling the recent wave of Afghan refugees.

        Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service is led by Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, a Washington insider who previously served as policy director for Michelle Obama and as senior adviser to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of State John Kerry. Vignarajah declined to speak about Lutheran Social Services, but a statement released by her organization confirmed that it had launched an investigation into the affiliate following “complaints raised to the State Department about working practices” there.

        The parent organization said its investigation, just like its affiliates’, found “no indication of fraud or financial malfeasance.” The group declined to release its report or to comment on any additional findings and directed U.S. News to the State Department, which said it was unable to provide the requested information.

        “LIRS treats any complaint about client or staff well-being with the utmost seriousness,” Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service said in a statement. “Our oversight of implementing organizations is of the highest standards and complies with all legal and regulatory requirements.” At least one of the group’s other affiliates – Lutheran Services in Iowa – has been accused of failing to meet the needs of Afghan refugees, and a refugee recently expressed complaints about a Texas affiliate to the National Journal.

        The State Department, which said it could not answer specific questions about Lutheran Social Services while “conducting an ongoing review,” says it audits every single affiliate office every five years unless it has a reason to do so more often. Of the roughly 250 local organizations resettling the recent wave of Afghan refugees, the department says it’s monitoring about 30, “with the vast majority of monitoring taking place virtually.”

        So far, one State Department official suggested, there appears to be little cause for concern about how resettlement organizations are performing their duties.

        "I will say that the grievances that we have followed up on, given the sheer scope of how many people have come … proportionally it's not that high,” one State Department official said. “Every time we follow up, we have not found negligence, we have found that there are some unrealistic expectations."

        That doesn’t make sense to Megan Flores, executive director of the Immigrant & Refugee Outreach Center, which has provided volunteer help to more than 70 of Lutheran Social Services’ Afghan families.

        “How can they say, ‘We’re barely monitoring’ and also say ‘but things are going fine?’ They are clearly far removed,” says Flores, who has concerns about how local resettlement agencies have responded to the influx of Afghans. “This isn’t like most refugee crises, these folks served side by side with our military. They gave the ultimate sacrifice, and now that they’re here in the U.S. they’re being told, ‘Figure it out – sink or swim.’ It’s a tough thing to watch and an even tougher thing to justify or explain. Yes, there have definitely been some unrealistic expectations [among refugees], but there have also been some egregious mishandlings throughout this entire situation.”

        Lost Hope

        Mohammad eventually received better furniture.

        “See this?” he says one afternoon in late May, pointing to a shiny, large screen TV. “This is from my friend.”

        He points to his sofa. “And see this? This, too, is from my friend.”

        He gestures toward his coffee table and to three geometric burgundy rugs that cover his living room carpet. All gently used items, he says, were given to him by his friend just across the street in the same apartment complex.

        It’s been more than three months since Mohammad joined his family in this apartment, and he says every day is still a struggle.

        He hasn’t been able to find a job he can do remotely, which he says he needs to support his wife, who requires help with simple things like changing her clothes. She’s already been rushed to the emergency room several times since they arrived in their apartment. On a handful of occasions, he says, he’s made it to the final rounds of interviews, only to be asked about his work authorization, which expires in December 2022. He’s not sure when his green card will arrive.

        Mohammad's passport sits on his coffee table at his Manassas, Virginia apartment.(Avi Gupta for USN&WR)

        He says he received about $600 each month through food stamps, but that’s not enough for four children and an ill wife. He can’t afford transportation to the grocery store, so he walks each way, lugging what he can carry.

        Then there’s the issue of rent: $2,500 a month for his three-bedroom apartment, which, while commonplace in the Washington area, feels like a crushing weight upon his shoulders.

        After sending several inquiries, Mohammad says he finally managed to arrange an in-person meeting at one of the Lutheran Social Services offices to talk about his concerns. When he asked if the agency could help with rent for July – his fourth month – he says they agreed to pay.

        “They told me nice words,” he says. “They said, ‘Don’t worry, we’ll support you.’ They said, ‘We’re sorry for this. We’re sorry for that,’ but nothing is happening. There are no actions.”

        Mohammad finally received his rent check on July 13, eight days after it was due. Even still, on July 25, he received an eviction notice, though Lutheran Social Services paid his August rent, and the leasing agent said the notice would be canceled.

        Mohammad says he struggles to sleep at night because he feels so powerless to help his family. At times he’s thought about ending his life.

        Reflecting on his experience with the U.S. government, he says he has nothing but glowing reviews of the U.S. military. But the project manager in him remains baffled by the U.S. refugee resettlement program, which he says is giving hard-earned taxpayer money to ineffective groups like Lutheran Social Services.

        “When friends and family ask, I tell them, ‘Don’t come,’” he says. “I would rather be in Afghanistan. In Afghanistan, if the Taliban slits your throat, it is only seconds of pain. Here, it is pain every day.”

        – Elliott Davis, Christopher Wolf and Madeline Fitzgerald contributed to this report. 

        \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.villagevoice.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.villagevoice.com/distilled.html index f68600738cea..1982816043e8 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.villagevoice.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.villagevoice.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -James Ponsoldt’s ‘Summering’ Stumbles Over a Corpse in the Woods

        James Ponsoldt’s ‘Summering’ Stumbles Over a Corpse in the Woods

        A dead body can’t compete with these girls’ middle school anxieties.

        By R.C. Baker

        +James Ponsoldt’s ‘Summering’ Stumbles Over a Corpse in the Woods

        James Ponsoldt’s ‘Summering’ Stumbles Over a Corpse in the Woods

        A dead body can’t compete with these girls’ middle school anxieties.

        By R.C. Baker

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.washingtonpost.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.washingtonpost.com/distilled.html index 7c7e702800c4..4a9217ca99dd 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.washingtonpost.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.washingtonpost.com/distilled.html @@ -1,3 +1,3 @@ -Trump is rushing to hire seasoned lawyers — but he keeps hearing ‘No’

        Trump is rushing to hire seasoned lawyers — but he keeps hearing ‘No’

        The former president’s current legal team includes a Florida insurance lawyer who’s never had a federal case, a past general counsel for a parking garage company and a former host at far-right One America News.

        By Isaac Arnsdorf, Josh Dawsey, Carol D. Leonnig, Jacqueline Alemany, Rosalind S. Helderman

        Aug 17, 2022 02:57 AM

        Former president Donald Trump and close aides have spent the eight days since the FBI searched his Florida home rushing to assemble a team of respected defense lawyers. But the answer they keep hearing is “no.”

        The struggle to find expert legal advice puts Trump in a bind as he faces potential criminal exposure from a records dispute with the National Archives that escalated into a federal investigation into possible violations of the Espionage Act and other statutes.

        “Everyone is saying no,” said a prominent Republican lawyer, who like some others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential conversations.

        Trump is no stranger to legal proceedings, and his scramble to hire lawyers in the face of an ominous federal probe recalls his predicament in the summer of 2017, when he was under scrutiny from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III in the Russia probe. Once again, Trump is struggling to find a veteran criminal defense lawyer with a strong track record of dealing with the Justice Department in a sprawling, multipronged investigation.

        Trump is rushing to hire seasoned lawyers — but he keeps hearing ‘No’

        The former president’s current legal team includes a Florida insurance lawyer who’s never had a federal case, a past general counsel for a parking garage company and a former host at far-right One America News.

        By Isaac Arnsdorf, Josh Dawsey, Carol D. Leonnig, Jacqueline Alemany, Rosalind S. Helderman

        Aug 17, 2022 02:57 AM

        Former president Donald Trump and close aides have spent the eight days since the FBI searched his Florida home rushing to assemble a team of respected defense lawyers. But the answer they keep hearing is “no.”

        The struggle to find expert legal advice puts Trump in a bind as he faces potential criminal exposure from a records dispute with the National Archives that escalated into a federal investigation into possible violations of the Espionage Act and other statutes.

        “Everyone is saying no,” said a prominent Republican lawyer, who like some others spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential conversations.

        Trump is no stranger to legal proceedings, and his scramble to hire lawyers in the face of an ominous federal probe recalls his predicament in the summer of 2017, when he was under scrutiny from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III in the Russia probe. Once again, Trump is struggling to find a veteran criminal defense lawyer with a strong track record of dealing with the Justice Department in a sprawling, multipronged investigation.

        A list of items seized in the FBI’s search of former president Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago home was unsealed on Aug. 12. (Video: Blair Guild/The Washington Post)

        Longtime confidants and advisers of Trump have grown extremely worried about Trump’s current stable of lawyers, noting that most of them have little to no experience in cases of this type, according to two people familiar with the internal discussions.

        Taylor Budowich, a Trump spokesman, defended the quality of the former president’s legal team in a statement Tuesday night, pointing to former federal prosecutors Evan Corcoran and James Trusty.

        “The President’s lead counsel in relation to the raid of his home, Jim Trusty and Evan Corcoran, have decades of prosecutorial experience and have litigated some of the most complex cases in American history," Budowich said. “President Trump is represented by some of the strongest attorneys in the country, and any suggestion otherwise is only driven by envy.”

        Jon Sale, a prominent Florida defense attorney who worked on the Watergate prosecution team and said he turned down representing Trump last week because he did not have enough time to devote to the case, said “the Trump team needs a first-rate, highly experienced federal criminal practitioner.”

        “You have to evaluate whether you want to take it,” Sale said. “It’s not like a DUI. It’s representing the former president of the United States — and maybe the next one — in what’s one of the highest-visibility cases ever.”

        Ordinarily, the prestige and publicity of representing a former president, as well as the new and complex legal issues at stake in this case, would attract high-powered attorneys. But Trump’s search is being hampered by his divisiveness, as well as his reputation for stiffing vendors and ignoring advice.

        “In olden days, he would tell firms representing him was a benefit because they could advertise off it. Today it’s not the same,” said Michael Cohen, a former lawyer for Trump who was convicted of tax evasion, false statements, campaign finance violations and lying to Congress in 2018. “He’s also a very difficult client in that he’s always pushing the envelope, he rarely listens to sound legal advice, and he wants you to do things that are not appropriate, ethically or legally.”

        One lawyer told a story from early in Trump’s presidency of his legal team urging him against tweeting about the Mueller probe, only to find he’d tweeted about it before they got to the end of the West Wing driveway. Several people said Trump was nearly impossible to represent and that it would be unclear if they would ever get paid.

        People familiar with the search for legal help said the effort includes Susie Wiles, a close adviser to Trump, and attorney Christina Bobb, who was present at Mar-a-Lago during the search and signed for the list of documents taken. Former campaign adviser Boris Epshteyn is taking a prominent role, and former White House aide Kash Patel is advising informally. Patel is raising money for a “legal offense” fund by selling merchandise such as tank tops and beanies emblazoned with the logo “K$H.”

        “You get these guys who just live to be around him, and mistakes get made,” a lawyer who isn’t part of the team said. “These guys just want to make him happy.”

        Bobb was previously a host on the far-right, pro-Trump television network One America News. At OAN, Bobb covered the Arizona Republican Party’s review of 2020 ballots — which ultimately confirmed Joe Biden’s win in the state — while also raising money for the effort and conferring with Trump advisers, The Washington Post has reported.

        Bobb’s prior legal experience at the federal level consists mainly of a handful of trademark infringement cases on behalf of CrossFit during a stint at a San Diego law firm. She did not respond to requests for comment.

        Trump’s other lawyer currently based in Florida is Lindsey Halligan, whose practice, according to a professional biography, focuses on insurance claims at residential and commercial properties. She was admitted to the Florida bar in 2014. A search of federal court records found no filings under her name. She did not respond to requests for comment.

        Trump is also being represented in the records dispute by Alina Habba, who leads a three-attorney firm with an office near Trump’s golf club in Bedminster, N.J. Her professional experience includes serving as general counsel to a parking garage company. Last year, Habba started representing Trump in several cases including defending him from a defamation claim by the writer E. Jean Carroll, who accused him of a decades-old sexual assault; suing the New York Times and Trump’s niece, Mary L. Trump; and suing 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton, the Democratic National Committee and other perceived enemies, alleging a conspiracy to harm Donald Trump through the Russia scandal. Habba did not respond to requests for comment.

        Others on the team have relatively more experience with federal criminal probes. Trusty formerly served in the Justice Department’s criminal division and headed the organized crime and gang section. He has recently represented clients accused of financial fraud, defrauding the U.S. Department of Agriculture and trading in counterfeit military uniforms. He referred questions to Trump’s spokesman.

        Corcoran is a former federal prosecutor viewed by Trump aides as a serious and experienced attorney. His recent clients include a former Capitol Police officer accused of obstructing the Jan. 6 investigation by telling a riot suspect to remove Facebook posts, and a Pennsylvania man who pleaded guilty to participating in the riot and was sentenced to 60 days in prison. Corcoran also represented former Trump adviser Stephen K. Bannon in his contempt trial for defying a House subpoena in the Jan. 6 probe. Bannon was convicted in July.

        Some of Trump’s interactions with the Justice Department have also been handled by John Rowley, another former federal prosecutor now at his own firm, Politico has reported. Rowley didn’t respond to requests for comment.

        In another potential complication, any lawyer who made assurances to the FBI on Trump’s behalf could have their own legal exposure or become a witness in the case. One letter signed by a lawyer on Trump’s team was sent to the Justice Department in June suggesting that all classified material had been turned over, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. The existence of the letter was first reported by the New York Times.

        “Either the attorney acted in good faith on what turned out to be false factual representations made by Mr. Trump or someone else communicating on his behalf, in which case Mr. Trump or his proxy would have criminal jeopardy for false statements or obstruction of justice, or the attorney knowingly gave false assurances to the government,” said David Laufman, the former Justice Department chief of the counterintelligence division, which is now investigating the classified records kept at Trump’s home. “And it’s hard to believe that a lawyer knowingly would have lied to the government about the continued presence of classified documents.”

        Attorney General Merrick Garland spoke Aug. 11 about a search warrant executed at former president Donald Trump’s Mar-A-Lago residence. (Video: The Washington Post)

        The universe of experienced federal practitioners is not actually that extensive, and the case would likely monopolize their time to the exclusion of all other clients. Possible candidates and their firms may be further deterred by the controversy that would attach to defending Trump.

        “Good lawyers should have been working on this case for months,” said Alan Dershowitz, the former Harvard Law School professor who has advised Trump in the past and said he hasn’t been asked to get involved now. “He needs a big and good and very experienced defense team with experience trying cases.”

        Dershowitz said he recommended Harvard colleague Ronald S. Sullivan Jr., the faculty director of the Harvard Criminal Justice Institute and the Harvard Trial Advocacy Workshop. Sullivan said he hasn’t heard from Trump’s team.

        “They clearly need someone with federal trial experience, and someone familiar with high-profile cases who can stay on task and not be distracted by the media glare,” Sullivan said. “The case itself presents a range of issues that would be of interest to a lot of good lawyers. Some lawyers may reasonably feel as though the public will conflate Mr. Trump’s policy aims and positions with the lawyer’s. In that way, many lawyers may be disinclined to expose themselves to the public opprobrium that would follow that sort of representation.”

        Trump has long been a notoriously high-maintenance client. When he was trying to make his mark in Manhattan real estate as a young man, Trump had an especially demanding cadence with his lawyer, the late Roy Cohn. “Donald calls me 15 to 20 times a day. He is always asking, ‘What is the status of this ... and that?’” Cohn was quoted as saying in a Vanity Fair story about their attorney-client relationship.

        Many of the president’s former lawyers, such as Pat Cipollone, Pat Philbin and Justin Clark are not expected to be involved in the investigation’s defense, people familiar with the matter said. Cipollone has been interviewed already, one of these people said, a detail first reported by the New York Times.

        Two longtime Trump top legal advisers during the Mueller investigation, Jay Sekulow and Jane Raskin, are still close to the former president but not involved in his current legal team. Among other alumni of the defense to the Mueller investigation, Ty Cobb has become publicly critical of Trump, and former White House counsel Donald McGahn is no longer close with the former president. McGahn represented Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), who is fighting a subpoena in a separate investigation into Trump and his allies in Georgia. Another former Trump lawyer, Emmet Flood, is now representing Marc Short, adviser to former vice president Mike Pence.

        “This is not good,” one Trump confidant said of the president’s lack of a high-profile white-collar defense lawyer. “Something big is going to pop. Somebody needs to be in charge.”

        Ellen Nakashima contributed to this report.

        correction

        An earlier version of this article misstated the name of a spokesman for former president Donald Trump. He is Taylor Budowich, not Taylor Budovich. This article has been corrected.

        \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.washingtontimes.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.washingtontimes.com/distilled.html index 76f0afda870e..4bd54e39d0eb 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.washingtontimes.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.washingtontimes.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -FBI warns of threats of 'civil war,' 'dirty bomb' following Trump raid

        FBI warns of threats of 'civil war,' 'dirty bomb' following Trump raid

        The FBI is warning of calls for civil war and a dirty bomb threat against its D.C. headquarters following its raid on former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

        By Jeff Mordock

        +FBI warns of threats of 'civil war,' 'dirty bomb' following Trump raid

        FBI warns of threats of 'civil war,' 'dirty bomb' following Trump raid

        The FBI is warning of calls for civil war and a dirty bomb threat against its D.C. headquarters following its raid on former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

        By Jeff Mordock

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.wired.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.wired.com/distilled.html index a85d36cd6d47..8b857d1eb323 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.wired.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.wired.com/distilled.html @@ -1 +1 @@ -The Curious Afterlife of a Brain Trauma Survivor

        The Curious Afterlife of a Brain Trauma Survivor

        Sophia Papp emerged from an accident with her personality transformed. She tried to continue on as before—until she realized she could reinvent herself.

        By Mike Mariani

        Aug 16, 2022 06:00 AM

        Sophie Papp and her family had a ritual for the recently departed. Whenever a relative died, she and her brother and cousins would all squeeze into a car and drive to Koksilah River, an hour north of their homes in Victoria, British Columbia. There, they would spend the day swimming in the glassy jade water, letting the current drag them along the squishy riverbed and gazing at the native arbutus trees, whose red bark peeled like crinkly snakeskin. After her grandmother passed away, Sophie—a sweet, reserved 19-year-old with gray-blue eyes and freckles—joined her younger brother, her cousin Emily, and a close friend for a drive up-island. It was September 1, 2014.

        On the way, the group made a quick stop at a Tim Hortons for coffee and breakfast. That’s the last memory Sophie has of that day. About 45 minutes after the stop, Emily, who was driving, spilled her iced coffee. Her attention slipped from the highway, and she lost control of the Volkswagen Golf. The car skidded across multiple lanes in both directions before somersaulting into a ravine on the opposite side of the road.

        Of the four, Sophie was most severely injured in the crash. At the crash site, EMTs gave her a score of six on the Glasgow Coma Scale, indicating profound brain trauma. She was rushed, unconscious, into Victoria General Hospital’s trauma center, where doctors and nurses worked to save her life. After a week, she emerged from the coma.

        In her second week at the hospital, Sophie’s convalescence began to assume perplexing qualities. Just days after regaining rudimentary communication skills, she was engaging in extended, in-depth conversations with everyone around her. “One day she spoke a sentence, and then not long after, she was talking endlessly, about everything,” her mother Jane recalled. Sophie asked staff how old they were, whether they had children, what their most interesting cases had been. She slipped effortlessly into sincere, heartfelt exchanges with the floor’s nurses’ aides.

        One morning, she had an appointment with a radiologist to discuss MRI scans she’d taken a few days earlier. With her mother at her side, Sophie interjected with one question after another. “Are any of the lesions in the cerebellum?” she asked. “Has an fMRI been done? What about the thalamus, fornix, and pons? Have they been affected?” The radiologist paused, and his furrowed brow and sharp eyes slid over to Jane, briefly, before turning back to Sophie. “How do you know these things, Sophie?” he asked. In the days before the appointment, Sophie had convinced her father to borrow several books on neurology from the library. After he dropped off the texts on neuroscience and brain anatomy, she “read away into the night,” she remembered.

        All her life, Sophie had been a “fairly introverted, cautious girl,” Jane remembered. As her time at the hospital progressed, though, that young woman faded more and more from view. When a nurse went through the neurology wing and marked each room with colored tape, Sophie snuck around and mischievously peeled all the tape off. One night, after most of the patients had gone to sleep, she wheeled around the floor and changed the dates on all their whiteboards to December 24. When a technician explained that he would be doing something called a “propeller rotation” while she was in the MRI machine, she told him, “It’s not a helicopter, so fuck you.” She found one of the neurosurgeons who made rounds on her wing handsome, and she asked him out on the spot. With intense sincerity, she queried one of the physicians on her care team about where the source of consciousness lay in the brain. “She was really, really social, and that wasn’t the Sophie that we knew from before,” Jane recalled.

        Sophie’s doctors believed that her traumatic brain injury (TBI) affected her executive functioning, including her inhibition control. The result was a more disinhibited person—one who acted freely, spoke effusively, and approached others with a directness verging on audacity that her old self wouldn’t have dreamed of employing. The metamorphosis wasn’t limited to the way she communicated with others, either. In her monthlong stay at VGH, Sophie grew more emotional than she’d ever been before. An even-keeled girl during most of her adolescence, she rose to a boil quickly that September, tumbled into the undertow of powerful mood swings, and broke into convulsive crying jags.

        Because of the deep-seated, manifold ways the head trauma affected her brain, Sophie had become a markedly different person. A quiet, easygoing young woman fell into a weeklong slumber and woke up talkative, tempestuous, and inscrutable. Of course, she would always be Sophia Papp, daughter of Jane and Jamie, born December 12, 1994, with the same singular two-decade narrative. But at times it seemed as though the Sophie Papp everyone knew had been swapped out for a charismatic, capricious changeling. “It was like losing a child, but a physical representation of that child is still living, and we had to get to know who she was,” Jane said.

        Sophie’s continuity of self had been ruptured forever. Her new reality forced her to reckon with an identity crisis writ large as she began her afterlife living under the skin of somebody who’d been born in the crash.

        On October 1, after exactly a month in the hospital, Sophie was discharged to her parents’ two-floor stucco house in Victoria. Almost as soon as she returned home, she found life outside the hospital’s steady, predictable rhythms to be unbearably turbulent. The part of Sophie’s brain responsible for filtering stimuli had been severely affected by the TBI, and she started suffering from bouts of sensory overload. “It was like every single detail, every sound or sight or feeling, was just bombarding my brain,” Sophie said.

        Increasingly frustrated, and desperate to grasp what was going on, Sophie started doing her own research. It didn’t take long for her to amass much more information on traumatic brain injuries than she’d received at the hospital—web pages, online articles, statistics, scientific studies. She discovered that people with even moderate traumatic brain injuries often suffer permanent physical and mental impairments, many severe enough to leave them unable to work. A significant number of brain-injured people reported feeling worse five years after their injury, and the group was on average far more vulnerable to seizures, infections, and other illnesses than the general population.

        The research focused on long-term prognoses was even more discouraging. Poring over Google searches in her bedroom, her back propped against a pillow, Sophie found several academic journal articles showing how people with moderate to severe TBIs (hers was somewhere in between) had shortened life expectancies. Worse, she uncovered research examining the relationship between TBIs and IQ. In one work, researchers carried out a controlled study over a period of years and determined that TBIs typically lowered a person’s IQ, often for the rest of their lives.

        For Sophie, who’d always prided herself on her intelligence, it was the most agonizing discovery of them all. The notion that she was no longer capable of attending college tormented her. Eventually, she bottomed out. After weeks of living in the hungry quicksand of paranoia and self-doubt, she arrived at the only path forward she could think of: She refused to accept the scientific conclusions. “One of my acute fears was that I could no longer do anything,” Sophie said. “I really wanted to prove to myself that I could.”

        Sophie’s doctors had strongly recommended that she wait two years before starting college. Resuming her studies any sooner, they warned, could be too overwhelming, and might also wreak emotional havoc. Sophie found these recommendations unacceptable. In December, without telling anyone, she enrolled in two introductory courses, in psychology and chemistry, at a local community college. The courses would start in January, little more than four months after the accident.

        To everyone’s surprise, her classes were an emphatic success. Sophie found that she could train her anxiety on homework, papers, and exams, and she earned two A-pluses. Buoyed by her auspicious performance, she enrolled in two summer courses at the University of Victoria. During one of her first days in her new psychology class, held in a lecture hall with long beige tables that circled the stage like horseshoes, the professor was discussing how frontal lobe damage affects behavior. Quietly registering the coincidence, Sophie listened as the professor explained how altered executive functioning in these individuals’ brains changes their sense of humor. To illustrate her point, she offered a joke that, she said, only people with frontal lobe damage would find funny—something about non-waterproof watches being submerged underwater. The lecture hall remained dead quiet following the joke; after a beat, Sophie erupted in peals of loud, uncontrollable laughter.

        At first Sophie had found the joke’s peculiar construction hilarious. Individuals with frontal lobe damage occasionally report a phenomenon sometimes called Witzelsucht—German for “joking addiction”—in which they find non sequiturs, puns, and other one-liners hysterically funny while losing an appreciation for other varieties of humor. What really sent her over the top, though, was the uncomfortable surrealism of the situation. “It was the awkwardness of however many hundreds of students were there, and this one student was just killing herself laughing at a joke that was not supposed to be funny,” Sophie said.

        Observing her classmates’ hard, appraising expressions as she slid out of her seat and left the room to collect herself, Sophie felt exposed in an oddly circuitous way: By assuming she did not exist, the professor had paradoxically revealed her and her neurological differences to the rest of the class. If she’d started to convince herself that her TBI symptoms would not play much of a role in her college experience, the episode was a jolting illustration to the contrary.

        Sophie managed to receive A’s in both her classes. But the following fall, when she matriculated into the University of Victoria as a full-time student majoring in general science, the dramatic increase in workload blindsided her. Within just a few days of classes, she was spiraling—her mind careering out of control, her body sputtering. Her anxiety soared, and her thoughts, trapped on a hamster wheel, kept her awake at night. She reviewed the same assignments, the same tasks, the same details over and over, her brain cycling through a progressively decaying loop. A sense of rapacious perfectionism had set in, one that verged on obsessive-compulsive disorder. (TBIs have been found to affect specific neural circuits that are associated with OCD, including those in the frontal subcortical region of the brain.) She experienced such wallops of dread that her limbs were often numb and her lips an icy, waxen blue. She moved through the campus greens and her own house with the stiffened, halting posture of someone shuffling around in a straitjacket. “She was so cognitively exhausted,” Jane said. “She didn’t have facial expressions, she barely talked. We knew she felt really unwell. She was pale and gaunt looking.”

        One evening, with her family gathered for dinner, Sophie attempted to convey the depths of her psychological unease. Her anxiety often became so acute that she felt as though someone else were experiencing it. It was a jarring shift in perception, she noted, that felt like she was observing herself from the third person. She also shared with them a disturbing theory she’d been harboring. Periodically, she would find herself gripped by a conviction that she was still in a coma, “somewhere in the bottom of a hospital basement,” living out her days in an unconscious state cleverly mimicking waking reality.

        When she finished speaking, her family paused to process everything she’d told them, their eyes heavy and searching. Her parents, who were both doctors, realized that Sophie was describing episodes of depersonalization—also called derealization—a serious psychiatric symptom in which a person becomes detached from their own reality and begins to doubt whether the world around them is real. (Individuals with traumatic brain injuries are at heightened risk for the phenomenon.)

        Sophie started seeing a psychiatrist, who suggested that she try a low-dose SSRI, a type of antidepressant frequently prescribed to people with traumatic brain injuries. The medication, mercifully, took rapid effect; within a week, Sophie was sleeping for several hours each night, and her anxiety ratcheted down. But her struggles as a first-year college student continued. She’d dedicated herself to rebutting the notion that the TBI had blunted her intelligence, and she was consistently earning A’s and A-pluses. Succeeding in her college classes would serve as proof, she thought, that either her cognitive faculties had not been negatively affected by the brain injury or she’d managed to reverse its effects. But by framing her coursework in this way, Sophie’s recovery, well-being, and sense of self-worth all hinged on how she managed in her classes.

        In May of 2016, after a turbulent first year at the University of Victoria, Sophie took a research position at a neuroscience lab at McGill University in Montreal, where her workload was not nearly as onerous. As she closed in on two years since the accident, her body’s recuperation had largely gone exceptionally well. She had regained most of her physical abilities, to the point that she could not only walk on her own but also hike, bike, and even put in time at rock climbing gyms. Maybe, she thought, this would be the ideal time to experiment with weaning herself off her SSRI, the antidepressant medication she’d been prescribed.

        Within a few days of stopping her medication, she noticed herself getting up at five in the morning, unable to fall back asleep. Her anxiety ramped up, too, and she began compulsively picking at her skin—a condition called excoriation disorder that’s most often seen in individuals with OCD. One minute, she’d be entering her dimly lit bathroom to pee; the next, her face would be pushed up just inches from the mirror as she moved over each tiny pore with the engrossed precision of a surgeon. The derealization episodes also returned. When conversing with anybody she’d met for the first time, she was often struck by the fear that they were figments of her imagination, hallucinations springing from a mind she no longer trusted. Stopping to talk to members of Montreal’s homeless population—an example of her post-TBI extroversion—Sophie would find herself questioning the objective reality of their existence: As they drifted through the streets and around metro stations and were rarely acknowledged by other passersby, she had no proof outside of her own perception that they were actually there.

        Most of these symptoms were not altogether unexpected. But as the extra serotonin floating freely in her brain was flushed out completely, she experienced an effect she hadn’t expected: She became more searching and inquisitive. Her thoughts drifted, unbidden, toward weighty questions about the relationship between her traumatic brain injury and her sense of self. She pondered where the boundary lay between former and latter, whose perceptions of that boundary counted the most, and the agency she’d had in becoming the person she was now.

        In a journal entry from July 4, after she’d been off her medication for nearly six weeks, Sophie wrote, “I think that my car accident and subsequent injury led me to define myself as brain-injured. Along with the label came the constraints, the fear of the unknown, the possibility that I am less than who I was.”

        During her first two months in Montreal, Sophie had decided not to tell anybody she’d met about her brain injury. Her tacit hope was that if she came across as “normal” to others, it might serve as proof for herself that she’d made a thorough recovery. When she did start to tell some of her new friends about her condition, they registered surprise but didn’t seem to view her any differently for it. “They were like, ‘Oh, wow, that’s an interesting story,’ but they didn’t realize the impact that it was actively having on my psyche,” she said. Sophie was gratified to hear how successful her concealment had been. Each person that responded to the disclosure of her traumatic brain injury with genuine unbelief was more evidence supporting the case that she was healthy and thriving, in no way notably different from any other 21-year-old.

        In her journal, Sophie grappled over and over with the concept of identity, laboring to decipher what it really came down to once you accepted how much a person’s personality and character were controlled by chance and circumstance. For her, people were defined less by a series of neat categories—each one laid squarely on top of the other—than by a heaving, churning chaos, like the ocean. “The tide is always moving, bringing new water, material, and it coincides with the moon,” she wrote in her journal. “It’s relatively stable short-term, even though there is always current, but over a lifetime it can change drastically to house different life-forms.” Here, she felt, was the truth about identity: It was fluid, subject to change at any time, less the product of some imperishable internal self than the endless array of natural forces convulsing around it.

        There had been an unfathomable aspect to Sophie’s injury, an existential absurdity in how she’d been knocked unconscious and awoken, a week later, as a wholly different person. It sounded like an old fairy tale, perhaps a particularly vivid nightmare, but not biographical fact. She was finally reckoning with the powerful feelings such an extreme event evoked, the way it called into question universal axioms about coherent identities and continuous selves that everyone else seemed to unreservedly accept. The more she explored these concepts, the more she felt she was exposing their ephemeral nature and discontinuity, uncloaking the assuaging narratives others subscribed to and draped over more troubling truths. “Based on my model of personality, I am just a jumble of tendencies and perceptions, based on the input I’m given,” she wrote.

        Slowly, Sophie began to see that her “reality was very, very different from before the injury.” The person she was trying so desperately to return to—her mind, her faculties, her stamina, and her poise—was not hiding underneath the ever-shifting composition of her symptoms. By the time she was preparing to return home to Victoria, she was gradually growing more comfortable with a definition of recovery that exchanged an idealized normalcy for a model where permanent changes coexisted alongside personal growth.

        She realized that she had been seeking to fulfill a story she was inventing about her recovery. Humans have an instinct, an adaptive response likely forged long ago, to extract some kind of deeper value or importance from their most challenging experiences. “We love finding meaning,” Sophie told me during one of our conversations. “We’re just trying to create meaning. We’re trying to create a narrative that we can understand and that sits right. And that might not be the truth—and that’s OK. That’s just how it is.” When catastrophes cleave our lives apart, in order to restore purpose and cohesion we need to stitch our stories back together with a new through line.

        But those leading afterlives, like Sophie, often regard the changes they’ve undergone and the circumstances they’ve been forced into with deep-seated ambivalence. Their feelings are emblazoned with contradictions, internal conflict, and layered ambiguities. Our inner lives can undergo unexpected transformations in the months and years following a catastrophic life event. When an experience wipes out much of the architecture and skyline of our day-to-day existence, our internal landscape, deprived of what it once zealously reflected, acclimates in enigmatic ways. It is desolate and dystopian for a time, but also, eventually, fertile.

        Year two as a full-time college student, alas, began much like year one. When classes started, Sophie’s anxiety began climbing almost immediately. The nonacademic aspects of her life shriveled away like neglected crops. Her steely focus and avowed determination to blaze through her bachelor’s and immediately move forward with a PhD earned her the nickname Little Professor among her peers. To get the grades she pined for, she offered up her body, her mind, even her sanity.

        The following winter, Sophie began a relationship with a deaf male student at the University of Victoria. The two had met through the Society for Students with a Disability, where she worked as a community liaison and later a chairperson. They dated for a year, and she found the experience “world altering.” Seeing the gauntlet of obstacles he faced on campus every single day—from straining to follow lectures he couldn’t hear to communicating with professors through a limited number of available interpreters—opened her eyes to the innumerable ways access, privilege, and physical capability paved so much of each individual’s academic path. When Sophie was later exposed to the larger Deaf community in Victoria, through him, she witnessed his social barriers on an even larger scale. Deaf Victorians faced pervasive levels of poverty and illiteracy and profound social marginalization, and suffered disproportionately high incarceration rates.

        Sophie’s long-standing conceptions about intelligence and worth were shattered. Seeing the systemic effects of ableism firsthand exposed just how flawed her thinking had been, and her relationship with her studies began to evolve. By her fourth year at the University of Victoria, her yearslong thralldom to schoolwork was dissipating. She found herself growing emotionally detached from her classes and started questioning her long-established ambitions to become a scientific researcher. “When I reflect or imagine wanting to be a researcher, there’s a part of me that’s trying to fix myself, and there’s a part of me that is absolutely terrified of the changes that my brain underwent,” she said. “I’m trying to find solutions because I’m so deathly afraid of it.”

        In June 2020, Sophie earned her bachelor of science in biopsychology. That fall, she accepted a part-time position at the university’s Society for Students with a Disability. She was still only 26 years old.

        The sweeping changes in her perception became the crux of her reinvention. After all her experiences distrusting her senses and cognition and relentlessly plumbing the slippery depths of her identity, Sophie had come to imagine a different sort of self. “I have rejected the notion of having an identity, and I take so much meaning from the things around me,” she said. “The birds coming out, the mushrooms growing, the rain coming back, the smoke rolling in.” She was, she said, “just a witness, a witness to everything wonderful and awful going on.” It was a reconfiguration of how she saw the world, a view that promised to honor everything she’d been through without relinquishing the person she had been before she stepped into the Volkswagen Golf on that fate-twisting September morning.

        This story is adapted from What Doesn’t Kill Us Makes Us, by Mike Mariani. The book will be published this month by Ballantine Books.

        Let us know what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor at mail@wired.com.

        \ No newline at end of file +The Curious Afterlife of a Brain Trauma Survivor

        The Curious Afterlife of a Brain Trauma Survivor

        Sophia Papp emerged from an accident with her personality transformed. She tried to continue on as before—until she realized she could reinvent herself.

        By Mike Mariani

        Aug 16, 2022 06:00 AM

        Sophie Papp and her family had a ritual for the recently departed. Whenever a relative died, she and her brother and cousins would all squeeze into a car and drive to Koksilah River, an hour north of their homes in Victoria, British Columbia. There, they would spend the day swimming in the glassy jade water, letting the current drag them along the squishy riverbed and gazing at the native arbutus trees, whose red bark peeled like crinkly snakeskin. After her grandmother passed away, Sophie—a sweet, reserved 19-year-old with gray-blue eyes and freckles—joined her younger brother, her cousin Emily, and a close friend for a drive up-island. It was September 1, 2014.

        On the way, the group made a quick stop at a Tim Hortons for coffee and breakfast. That’s the last memory Sophie has of that day. About 45 minutes after the stop, Emily, who was driving, spilled her iced coffee. Her attention slipped from the highway, and she lost control of the Volkswagen Golf. The car skidded across multiple lanes in both directions before somersaulting into a ravine on the opposite side of the road.

        Of the four, Sophie was most severely injured in the crash. At the crash site, EMTs gave her a score of six on the Glasgow Coma Scale, indicating profound brain trauma. She was rushed, unconscious, into Victoria General Hospital’s trauma center, where doctors and nurses worked to save her life. After a week, she emerged from the coma.

        In her second week at the hospital, Sophie’s convalescence began to assume perplexing qualities. Just days after regaining rudimentary communication skills, she was engaging in extended, in-depth conversations with everyone around her. “One day she spoke a sentence, and then not long after, she was talking endlessly, about everything,” her mother Jane recalled. Sophie asked staff how old they were, whether they had children, what their most interesting cases had been. She slipped effortlessly into sincere, heartfelt exchanges with the floor’s nurses’ aides.

        One morning, she had an appointment with a radiologist to discuss MRI scans she’d taken a few days earlier. With her mother at her side, Sophie interjected with one question after another. “Are any of the lesions in the cerebellum?” she asked. “Has an fMRI been done? What about the thalamus, fornix, and pons? Have they been affected?” The radiologist paused, and his furrowed brow and sharp eyes slid over to Jane, briefly, before turning back to Sophie. “How do you know these things, Sophie?” he asked. In the days before the appointment, Sophie had convinced her father to borrow several books on neurology from the library. After he dropped off the texts on neuroscience and brain anatomy, she “read away into the night,” she remembered.

        All her life, Sophie had been a “fairly introverted, cautious girl,” Jane remembered. As her time at the hospital progressed, though, that young woman faded more and more from view. When a nurse went through the neurology wing and marked each room with colored tape, Sophie snuck around and mischievously peeled all the tape off. One night, after most of the patients had gone to sleep, she wheeled around the floor and changed the dates on all their whiteboards to December 24. When a technician explained that he would be doing something called a “propeller rotation” while she was in the MRI machine, she told him, “It’s not a helicopter, so fuck you.” She found one of the neurosurgeons who made rounds on her wing handsome, and she asked him out on the spot. With intense sincerity, she queried one of the physicians on her care team about where the source of consciousness lay in the brain. “She was really, really social, and that wasn’t the Sophie that we knew from before,” Jane recalled.

        Sophie’s doctors believed that her traumatic brain injury (TBI) affected her executive functioning, including her inhibition control. The result was a more disinhibited person—one who acted freely, spoke effusively, and approached others with a directness verging on audacity that her old self wouldn’t have dreamed of employing. The metamorphosis wasn’t limited to the way she communicated with others, either. In her monthlong stay at VGH, Sophie grew more emotional than she’d ever been before. An even-keeled girl during most of her adolescence, she rose to a boil quickly that September, tumbled into the undertow of powerful mood swings, and broke into convulsive crying jags.

        Because of the deep-seated, manifold ways the head trauma affected her brain, Sophie had become a markedly different person. A quiet, easygoing young woman fell into a weeklong slumber and woke up talkative, tempestuous, and inscrutable. Of course, she would always be Sophia Papp, daughter of Jane and Jamie, born December 12, 1994, with the same singular two-decade narrative. But at times it seemed as though the Sophie Papp everyone knew had been swapped out for a charismatic, capricious changeling. “It was like losing a child, but a physical representation of that child is still living, and we had to get to know who she was,” Jane said.

        Sophie’s continuity of self had been ruptured forever. Her new reality forced her to reckon with an identity crisis writ large as she began her afterlife living under the skin of somebody who’d been born in the crash.

        On October 1, after exactly a month in the hospital, Sophie was discharged to her parents’ two-floor stucco house in Victoria. Almost as soon as she returned home, she found life outside the hospital’s steady, predictable rhythms to be unbearably turbulent. The part of Sophie’s brain responsible for filtering stimuli had been severely affected by the TBI, and she started suffering from bouts of sensory overload. “It was like every single detail, every sound or sight or feeling, was just bombarding my brain,” Sophie said.

        Increasingly frustrated, and desperate to grasp what was going on, Sophie started doing her own research. It didn’t take long for her to amass much more information on traumatic brain injuries than she’d received at the hospital—web pages, online articles, statistics, scientific studies. She discovered that people with even moderate traumatic brain injuries often suffer permanent physical and mental impairments, many severe enough to leave them unable to work. A significant number of brain-injured people reported feeling worse five years after their injury, and the group was on average far more vulnerable to seizures, infections, and other illnesses than the general population.

        The research focused on long-term prognoses was even more discouraging. Poring over Google searches in her bedroom, her back propped against a pillow, Sophie found several academic journal articles showing how people with moderate to severe TBIs (hers was somewhere in between) had shortened life expectancies. Worse, she uncovered research examining the relationship between TBIs and IQ. In one work, researchers carried out a controlled study over a period of years and determined that TBIs typically lowered a person’s IQ, often for the rest of their lives.

        For Sophie, who’d always prided herself on her intelligence, it was the most agonizing discovery of them all. The notion that she was no longer capable of attending college tormented her. Eventually, she bottomed out. After weeks of living in the hungry quicksand of paranoia and self-doubt, she arrived at the only path forward she could think of: She refused to accept the scientific conclusions. “One of my acute fears was that I could no longer do anything,” Sophie said. “I really wanted to prove to myself that I could.”

        Sophie’s doctors had strongly recommended that she wait two years before starting college. Resuming her studies any sooner, they warned, could be too overwhelming, and might also wreak emotional havoc. Sophie found these recommendations unacceptable. In December, without telling anyone, she enrolled in two introductory courses, in psychology and chemistry, at a local community college. The courses would start in January, little more than four months after the accident.

        To everyone’s surprise, her classes were an emphatic success. Sophie found that she could train her anxiety on homework, papers, and exams, and she earned two A-pluses. Buoyed by her auspicious performance, she enrolled in two summer courses at the University of Victoria. During one of her first days in her new psychology class, held in a lecture hall with long beige tables that circled the stage like horseshoes, the professor was discussing how frontal lobe damage affects behavior. Quietly registering the coincidence, Sophie listened as the professor explained how altered executive functioning in these individuals’ brains changes their sense of humor. To illustrate her point, she offered a joke that, she said, only people with frontal lobe damage would find funny—something about non-waterproof watches being submerged underwater. The lecture hall remained dead quiet following the joke; after a beat, Sophie erupted in peals of loud, uncontrollable laughter.

        At first Sophie had found the joke’s peculiar construction hilarious. Individuals with frontal lobe damage occasionally report a phenomenon sometimes called Witzelsucht—German for “joking addiction”—in which they find non sequiturs, puns, and other one-liners hysterically funny while losing an appreciation for other varieties of humor. What really sent her over the top, though, was the uncomfortable surrealism of the situation. “It was the awkwardness of however many hundreds of students were there, and this one student was just killing herself laughing at a joke that was not supposed to be funny,” Sophie said.

        Observing her classmates’ hard, appraising expressions as she slid out of her seat and left the room to collect herself, Sophie felt exposed in an oddly circuitous way: By assuming she did not exist, the professor had paradoxically revealed her and her neurological differences to the rest of the class. If she’d started to convince herself that her TBI symptoms would not play much of a role in her college experience, the episode was a jolting illustration to the contrary.

        Sophie managed to receive A’s in both her classes. But the following fall, when she matriculated into the University of Victoria as a full-time student majoring in general science, the dramatic increase in workload blindsided her. Within just a few days of classes, she was spiraling—her mind careering out of control, her body sputtering. Her anxiety soared, and her thoughts, trapped on a hamster wheel, kept her awake at night. She reviewed the same assignments, the same tasks, the same details over and over, her brain cycling through a progressively decaying loop. A sense of rapacious perfectionism had set in, one that verged on obsessive-compulsive disorder. (TBIs have been found to affect specific neural circuits that are associated with OCD, including those in the frontal subcortical region of the brain.) She experienced such wallops of dread that her limbs were often numb and her lips an icy, waxen blue. She moved through the campus greens and her own house with the stiffened, halting posture of someone shuffling around in a straitjacket. “She was so cognitively exhausted,” Jane said. “She didn’t have facial expressions, she barely talked. We knew she felt really unwell. She was pale and gaunt looking.”

        One evening, with her family gathered for dinner, Sophie attempted to convey the depths of her psychological unease. Her anxiety often became so acute that she felt as though someone else were experiencing it. It was a jarring shift in perception, she noted, that felt like she was observing herself from the third person. She also shared with them a disturbing theory she’d been harboring. Periodically, she would find herself gripped by a conviction that she was still in a coma, “somewhere in the bottom of a hospital basement,” living out her days in an unconscious state cleverly mimicking waking reality.

        When she finished speaking, her family paused to process everything she’d told them, their eyes heavy and searching. Her parents, who were both doctors, realized that Sophie was describing episodes of depersonalization—also called derealization—a serious psychiatric symptom in which a person becomes detached from their own reality and begins to doubt whether the world around them is real. (Individuals with traumatic brain injuries are at heightened risk for the phenomenon.)

        Sophie started seeing a psychiatrist, who suggested that she try a low-dose SSRI, a type of antidepressant frequently prescribed to people with traumatic brain injuries. The medication, mercifully, took rapid effect; within a week, Sophie was sleeping for several hours each night, and her anxiety ratcheted down. But her struggles as a first-year college student continued. She’d dedicated herself to rebutting the notion that the TBI had blunted her intelligence, and she was consistently earning A’s and A-pluses. Succeeding in her college classes would serve as proof, she thought, that either her cognitive faculties had not been negatively affected by the brain injury or she’d managed to reverse its effects. But by framing her coursework in this way, Sophie’s recovery, well-being, and sense of self-worth all hinged on how she managed in her classes.

        In May of 2016, after a turbulent first year at the University of Victoria, Sophie took a research position at a neuroscience lab at McGill University in Montreal, where her workload was not nearly as onerous. As she closed in on two years since the accident, her body’s recuperation had largely gone exceptionally well. She had regained most of her physical abilities, to the point that she could not only walk on her own but also hike, bike, and even put in time at rock climbing gyms. Maybe, she thought, this would be the ideal time to experiment with weaning herself off her SSRI, the antidepressant medication she’d been prescribed.

        Within a few days of stopping her medication, she noticed herself getting up at five in the morning, unable to fall back asleep. Her anxiety ramped up, too, and she began compulsively picking at her skin—a condition called excoriation disorder that’s most often seen in individuals with OCD. One minute, she’d be entering her dimly lit bathroom to pee; the next, her face would be pushed up just inches from the mirror as she moved over each tiny pore with the engrossed precision of a surgeon. The derealization episodes also returned. When conversing with anybody she’d met for the first time, she was often struck by the fear that they were figments of her imagination, hallucinations springing from a mind she no longer trusted. Stopping to talk to members of Montreal’s homeless population—an example of her post-TBI extroversion—Sophie would find herself questioning the objective reality of their existence: As they drifted through the streets and around metro stations and were rarely acknowledged by other passersby, she had no proof outside of her own perception that they were actually there.

        Most of these symptoms were not altogether unexpected. But as the extra serotonin floating freely in her brain was flushed out completely, she experienced an effect she hadn’t expected: She became more searching and inquisitive. Her thoughts drifted, unbidden, toward weighty questions about the relationship between her traumatic brain injury and her sense of self. She pondered where the boundary lay between former and latter, whose perceptions of that boundary counted the most, and the agency she’d had in becoming the person she was now.

        In a journal entry from July 4, after she’d been off her medication for nearly six weeks, Sophie wrote, “I think that my car accident and subsequent injury led me to define myself as brain-injured. Along with the label came the constraints, the fear of the unknown, the possibility that I am less than who I was.”

        During her first two months in Montreal, Sophie had decided not to tell anybody she’d met about her brain injury. Her tacit hope was that if she came across as “normal” to others, it might serve as proof for herself that she’d made a thorough recovery. When she did start to tell some of her new friends about her condition, they registered surprise but didn’t seem to view her any differently for it. “They were like, ‘Oh, wow, that’s an interesting story,’ but they didn’t realize the impact that it was actively having on my psyche,” she said. Sophie was gratified to hear how successful her concealment had been. Each person that responded to the disclosure of her traumatic brain injury with genuine unbelief was more evidence supporting the case that she was healthy and thriving, in no way notably different from any other 21-year-old.

        In her journal, Sophie grappled over and over with the concept of identity, laboring to decipher what it really came down to once you accepted how much a person’s personality and character were controlled by chance and circumstance. For her, people were defined less by a series of neat categories—each one laid squarely on top of the other—than by a heaving, churning chaos, like the ocean. “The tide is always moving, bringing new water, material, and it coincides with the moon,” she wrote in her journal. “It’s relatively stable short-term, even though there is always current, but over a lifetime it can change drastically to house different life-forms.” Here, she felt, was the truth about identity: It was fluid, subject to change at any time, less the product of some imperishable internal self than the endless array of natural forces convulsing around it.

        There had been an unfathomable aspect to Sophie’s injury, an existential absurdity in how she’d been knocked unconscious and awoken, a week later, as a wholly different person. It sounded like an old fairy tale, perhaps a particularly vivid nightmare, but not biographical fact. She was finally reckoning with the powerful feelings such an extreme event evoked, the way it called into question universal axioms about coherent identities and continuous selves that everyone else seemed to unreservedly accept. The more she explored these concepts, the more she felt she was exposing their ephemeral nature and discontinuity, uncloaking the assuaging narratives others subscribed to and draped over more troubling truths. “Based on my model of personality, I am just a jumble of tendencies and perceptions, based on the input I’m given,” she wrote.

        Slowly, Sophie began to see that her “reality was very, very different from before the injury.” The person she was trying so desperately to return to—her mind, her faculties, her stamina, and her poise—was not hiding underneath the ever-shifting composition of her symptoms. By the time she was preparing to return home to Victoria, she was gradually growing more comfortable with a definition of recovery that exchanged an idealized normalcy for a model where permanent changes coexisted alongside personal growth.

        She realized that she had been seeking to fulfill a story she was inventing about her recovery. Humans have an instinct, an adaptive response likely forged long ago, to extract some kind of deeper value or importance from their most challenging experiences. “We love finding meaning,” Sophie told me during one of our conversations. “We’re just trying to create meaning. We’re trying to create a narrative that we can understand and that sits right. And that might not be the truth—and that’s OK. That’s just how it is.” When catastrophes cleave our lives apart, in order to restore purpose and cohesion we need to stitch our stories back together with a new through line.

        But those leading afterlives, like Sophie, often regard the changes they’ve undergone and the circumstances they’ve been forced into with deep-seated ambivalence. Their feelings are emblazoned with contradictions, internal conflict, and layered ambiguities. Our inner lives can undergo unexpected transformations in the months and years following a catastrophic life event. When an experience wipes out much of the architecture and skyline of our day-to-day existence, our internal landscape, deprived of what it once zealously reflected, acclimates in enigmatic ways. It is desolate and dystopian for a time, but also, eventually, fertile.

        Year two as a full-time college student, alas, began much like year one. When classes started, Sophie’s anxiety began climbing almost immediately. The nonacademic aspects of her life shriveled away like neglected crops. Her steely focus and avowed determination to blaze through her bachelor’s and immediately move forward with a PhD earned her the nickname Little Professor among her peers. To get the grades she pined for, she offered up her body, her mind, even her sanity.

        The following winter, Sophie began a relationship with a deaf male student at the University of Victoria. The two had met through the Society for Students with a Disability, where she worked as a community liaison and later a chairperson. They dated for a year, and she found the experience “world altering.” Seeing the gauntlet of obstacles he faced on campus every single day—from straining to follow lectures he couldn’t hear to communicating with professors through a limited number of available interpreters—opened her eyes to the innumerable ways access, privilege, and physical capability paved so much of each individual’s academic path. When Sophie was later exposed to the larger Deaf community in Victoria, through him, she witnessed his social barriers on an even larger scale. Deaf Victorians faced pervasive levels of poverty and illiteracy and profound social marginalization, and suffered disproportionately high incarceration rates.

        Sophie’s long-standing conceptions about intelligence and worth were shattered. Seeing the systemic effects of ableism firsthand exposed just how flawed her thinking had been, and her relationship with her studies began to evolve. By her fourth year at the University of Victoria, her yearslong thralldom to schoolwork was dissipating. She found herself growing emotionally detached from her classes and started questioning her long-established ambitions to become a scientific researcher. “When I reflect or imagine wanting to be a researcher, there’s a part of me that’s trying to fix myself, and there’s a part of me that is absolutely terrified of the changes that my brain underwent,” she said. “I’m trying to find solutions because I’m so deathly afraid of it.”

        In June 2020, Sophie earned her bachelor of science in biopsychology. That fall, she accepted a part-time position at the university’s Society for Students with a Disability. She was still only 26 years old.

        The sweeping changes in her perception became the crux of her reinvention. After all her experiences distrusting her senses and cognition and relentlessly plumbing the slippery depths of her identity, Sophie had come to imagine a different sort of self. “I have rejected the notion of having an identity, and I take so much meaning from the things around me,” she said. “The birds coming out, the mushrooms growing, the rain coming back, the smoke rolling in.” She was, she said, “just a witness, a witness to everything wonderful and awful going on.” It was a reconfiguration of how she saw the world, a view that promised to honor everything she’d been through without relinquishing the person she had been before she stepped into the Volkswagen Golf on that fate-twisting September morning.

        This story is adapted from What Doesn’t Kill Us Makes Us, by Mike Mariani. The book will be published this month by Ballantine Books.

        Let us know what you think about this article. Submit a letter to the editor at mail@wired.com.

        \ No newline at end of file diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.wivb.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.wivb.com/distilled.html index 37bbff55780a..820b9d18f3a3 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.wivb.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.wivb.com/distilled.html @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -News 4 Buffalo

        News 4 Buffalo

        The medical investigator’s report was made public Monday by the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office along with numerous reports from the FBI.

        By NewsNation Staff, Nexstar Media Wire

        Aug 16, 2022 11:39 AM

        +News 4 Buffalo

        News 4 Buffalo

        The medical investigator’s report was made public Monday by the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office along with numerous reports from the FBI.

        By NewsNation Staff, Nexstar Media Wire

        Aug 16, 2022 11:39 AM

        diff --git a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.zdnet.com/distilled.html b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.zdnet.com/distilled.html index d9b3884e7c63..64623aa57ce0 100644 --- a/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.zdnet.com/distilled.html +++ b/test/data/speedreader/rewriter/pages/news_pages/www.zdnet.com/distilled.html @@ -1 +1 @@ -Hackers are finding ways around multi-factor authentication. Here's what to watch for

        Hackers are finding ways around multi-factor authentication. Here's what to watch for

        MFA provides a significant barrier against cyber attacks - but isn't infallible.

        Image: Getty/MoMo Productions

        It's often said that the most important things you can do protect your accounts and wider network from hackers is to use multi-factor authentication (MFA). 

        That's because one of the most common ways cyber criminals breach networks is by using phishing attacks to steal passwords or simply by guessing weak ones. Either way, so long as they are using a real password many systems will assume it's safe to give them access.

        MFA creates and additional barrier to attackers because it requires the user to additionally verify that the login attempt was really made by them. This verification can be via an SMS message, an authenticator app or even a physical security key. If the attacker has the password, but not the verification message or physical device, then the system won't let them in and they can't get any further.

        Using MFA protects against the vast majority of attempted account takeovers, but recently there's been a surge in cyber attacks which aim to dodge past multi-factor authentication security. According to Microsoft, in just one campaign 10,000 organisations have been targeted in this way during the last year. 

        One option to for hackers who want to get around MFA is to use so-called adversary-in-the-middle (AiTM) attack which combined a phishing attack with a proxy server between the victim and the website they're trying to login to. This allows the attackers to steal the password and session cookie which provides the additional level of authentication they can exploit - in this case to steal email. The user simply thinks they have logged into their account as usual.

        "Note that this is not a vulnerability in MFA; since AiTM phishing steals the session cookie, the attacker gets authenticated to a session on the user's behalf, regardless of the sign-in method the latter uses," as Microsoft notes of that particular campaign.

        That's because the attackers haven't broken the MFA themselves, they've managed to bypass it by stealing the cookies, and are now able to use the account as if they were the user, even if they go away and come back later. That means despite the presence of multi-factor authentication, it's unfortunately being made redundant in this situation – and that's bad for everyone. 

        SEE: A winning strategy for cybersecurity (ZDNet special report)

        So while multi-factor authentication is a deterrent most of the time, these attacks show that it isn't infallible. 

        "Even though security features such as multi-factor authentication (MFA) add an extra layer of security, they should not be considered as a silver bullet to protect against phishing attacks. With the use of advanced phishing kits (AiTM) and clever evasion techniques, threat actors can bypass both traditional as well as advanced security solutions," said security company ZScaler in its analysis of a similar attack.

        And there are other scenarios which can be exploited to bypass multi-factor authentication too, because in many instances, a code is required, and a person needs to enter that code. And people can be tricked or manipulated even while the technology tries to protect us.

        "At the end of the day, whether it's a number or it's a piece of information, as soon as the user sees it, it becomes something they know and if it's something that they know it's something the attacker can steal," says Etay Maor, senior director of security strategy at Cato Networks. 

        It takes a little more effort from the attacker, but it's possible to grab these codes. For example, SMS verification is still a common method of MFA for many, particularly for things like bank accounts and phone contracts. In some cases, the user is required to read out a code over the phone or input it into a service. 

        It's a potentially complex process, but it's possible for cyber criminals to spoof helplines and other services which ask for codes to devices – especially if people think they're talking to someone who is trying to help them. It's why many services will preface an SMS code with a warning that they'll never call you to ask for it. 

        "It's not that surprising attackers prey on the human aspect, the people components of the system. People being busy, people being stressed, all sorts of things influence decisions we make," says Oz Alashe, CEO & Founder of CybSafe.

        SEE: The biggest cyber-crime threat is also the one that nobody wants to talk about

        Another method cyber criminals can exploit to bypass MFA is by using malware which actively steals codes. For example, the hackers could gain access to an account by using trojan malware to watch a user gain access to their account, then use the access they have from the infected device to go about their business.  

        There's also the potential for them to take control of devices without the victim knowing, using the authenticator app and using the code that's provided to remotely access the account they're after from another machine. 

        As far as the network or account is concerned, because the authentication has been used correctly, it's the legitimate user using the service. But there are signs which networks and information security teams could be set up to watch for, signs something might not be right, even if the correct details are used. 

        "The system itself should consider whether this person doesn't normally log in from here or at this time and, therefore, do we need to do another level, another layer of verification before we provide them access?" says Alashe.  

        While it isn't totally infallible, using multi-factor authentication is still a must as it stops a significant amount of attempted account takeover attempts. But as cyber criminals get smarter they're increasingly going to go after it – and that requires extra levels of defence, particularly from those responsible for securing networks. 

        "It's good it's recommended because you won't be the lower hanging fruit. But you definitely need to augment it with an additional layers of security because, just like just like any other siloed security solution, it can be circumvented and you can't think everything is secure, just because of one security layer," says Maor.  

        And technology can only do so much, especially when attackers are explicitly attempting to manipulate people into making bad decisions. That needs to be taken into account too, especially as more of what we do shifts towards cloud and other online services. 

        "This is a really important challenge for society right now as we increasingly digitize we've got an incredible opportunity to continue to put technology really good use. But we've also got to address these challenges when it comes to resilience and the human aspect," says Alashe. 

        "People are wonderful, they want to be helpful, so they'll get tricked sometimes," he adds. 

        MORE ON CYBERSECURITY

        \ No newline at end of file +Hackers are finding ways around multi-factor authentication. Here's what to watch for

        Hackers are finding ways around multi-factor authentication. Here's what to watch for

        MFA provides a significant barrier against cyber attacks - but isn't infallible.

        Image: Getty/MoMo Productions

        It's often said that the most important things you can do protect your accounts and wider network from hackers is to use multi-factor authentication (MFA). 

        That's because one of the most common ways cyber criminals breach networks is by using phishing attacks to steal passwords or simply by guessing weak ones. Either way, so long as they are using a real password many systems will assume it's safe to give them access.

        MFA creates and additional barrier to attackers because it requires the user to additionally verify that the login attempt was really made by them. This verification can be via an SMS message, an authenticator app or even a physical security key. If the attacker has the password, but not the verification message or physical device, then the system won't let them in and they can't get any further.

        Using MFA protects against the vast majority of attempted account takeovers, but recently there's been a surge in cyber attacks which aim to dodge past multi-factor authentication security. According to Microsoft, in just one campaign 10,000 organisations have been targeted in this way during the last year. 

        One option to for hackers who want to get around MFA is to use so-called adversary-in-the-middle (AiTM) attack which combined a phishing attack with a proxy server between the victim and the website they're trying to login to. This allows the attackers to steal the password and session cookie which provides the additional level of authentication they can exploit - in this case to steal email. The user simply thinks they have logged into their account as usual.

        "Note that this is not a vulnerability in MFA; since AiTM phishing steals the session cookie, the attacker gets authenticated to a session on the user's behalf, regardless of the sign-in method the latter uses," as Microsoft notes of that particular campaign.

        That's because the attackers haven't broken the MFA themselves, they've managed to bypass it by stealing the cookies, and are now able to use the account as if they were the user, even if they go away and come back later. That means despite the presence of multi-factor authentication, it's unfortunately being made redundant in this situation – and that's bad for everyone. 

        SEE: A winning strategy for cybersecurity (ZDNet special report)

        So while multi-factor authentication is a deterrent most of the time, these attacks show that it isn't infallible. 

        "Even though security features such as multi-factor authentication (MFA) add an extra layer of security, they should not be considered as a silver bullet to protect against phishing attacks. With the use of advanced phishing kits (AiTM) and clever evasion techniques, threat actors can bypass both traditional as well as advanced security solutions," said security company ZScaler in its analysis of a similar attack.

        And there are other scenarios which can be exploited to bypass multi-factor authentication too, because in many instances, a code is required, and a person needs to enter that code. And people can be tricked or manipulated even while the technology tries to protect us.

        "At the end of the day, whether it's a number or it's a piece of information, as soon as the user sees it, it becomes something they know and if it's something that they know it's something the attacker can steal," says Etay Maor, senior director of security strategy at Cato Networks. 

        It takes a little more effort from the attacker, but it's possible to grab these codes. For example, SMS verification is still a common method of MFA for many, particularly for things like bank accounts and phone contracts. In some cases, the user is required to read out a code over the phone or input it into a service. 

        It's a potentially complex process, but it's possible for cyber criminals to spoof helplines and other services which ask for codes to devices – especially if people think they're talking to someone who is trying to help them. It's why many services will preface an SMS code with a warning that they'll never call you to ask for it. 

        "It's not that surprising attackers prey on the human aspect, the people components of the system. People being busy, people being stressed, all sorts of things influence decisions we make," says Oz Alashe, CEO & Founder of CybSafe.

        SEE: The biggest cyber-crime threat is also the one that nobody wants to talk about

        Another method cyber criminals can exploit to bypass MFA is by using malware which actively steals codes. For example, the hackers could gain access to an account by using trojan malware to watch a user gain access to their account, then use the access they have from the infected device to go about their business.  

        There's also the potential for them to take control of devices without the victim knowing, using the authenticator app and using the code that's provided to remotely access the account they're after from another machine. 

        As far as the network or account is concerned, because the authentication has been used correctly, it's the legitimate user using the service. But there are signs which networks and information security teams could be set up to watch for, signs something might not be right, even if the correct details are used. 

        "The system itself should consider whether this person doesn't normally log in from here or at this time and, therefore, do we need to do another level, another layer of verification before we provide them access?" says Alashe.  

        While it isn't totally infallible, using multi-factor authentication is still a must as it stops a significant amount of attempted account takeover attempts. But as cyber criminals get smarter they're increasingly going to go after it – and that requires extra levels of defence, particularly from those responsible for securing networks. 

        "It's good it's recommended because you won't be the lower hanging fruit. But you definitely need to augment it with an additional layers of security because, just like just like any other siloed security solution, it can be circumvented and you can't think everything is secure, just because of one security layer," says Maor.  

        And technology can only do so much, especially when attackers are explicitly attempting to manipulate people into making bad decisions. That needs to be taken into account too, especially as more of what we do shifts towards cloud and other online services. 

        "This is a really important challenge for society right now as we increasingly digitize we've got an incredible opportunity to continue to put technology really good use. But we've also got to address these challenges when it comes to resilience and the human aspect," says Alashe. 

        "People are wonderful, they want to be helpful, so they'll get tricked sometimes," he adds. 

        MORE ON CYBERSECURITY

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