BY ANDREW FREEDMAN

The floodwaters from Hurricane Harvey have yet to recede in Texas and Louisiana, but weatherforecasters are already warily eyeing another storm that is rapidly intensifying in the tropical Atlantic Ocean — and could threaten the U.S. next week.

Hurricane Irma, which was upgraded to a Category 3 storm on Thursday afternoon — and is likely to become a high-end Category 4 or 5 beast of a storm — is moving west over the open ocean about 840 miles west of the Cabo Verde Islands. On its current track, Irma is forecast to begin affecting the Leeward Islands on Tuesday, with Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and possibly the mainland U.S. in its sights after that.

There are a few factors that worry hurricane forecasters more about this storm when compared to the myriad other tropical storms and hurricanes that tend to form in the Atlantic.

Follow

Maria LaRosa

✔@twcMariaLaRosa

'Going beyond the cone' by using model guidance to give that next heads up on #Irma. h/t @GregPostel @WxDiz

9:26 AM - Aug 31, 2017

• 1212 Replies
• 7575 Retweets
• 6969 likes

Twitter Ads info and privacy

View image on Twitter

Follow

Eric Fisher

✔@ericfisher

HWRF going full blown Category 5 beast as #Irma tracks toward the Windward Islands.

10:42 AM - Aug 31, 2017 · Boston, MA

• 1414 Replies
• 6666 Retweets
• 7777 likes

Twitter Ads info and privacy

First, it's a so-called Cape Verde storm, having formed off the west coast of Africa. These storms tend to be the ones that go on to affect the U.S., after gathering strength for many days during their march across the ocean. For example, Hurricane Andrew, which was the most recent Category 5 storm to hit the U.S. in 1992, was a Cape Verde-type storm.

Because they begin at a relatively low latitude and move west rather than northwest, it can be harder for upper level winds blowing across North America to pick up and steer these types of storms away from the U.S. coast.

Still, it's common for a hurricane like Irma to near the East Coast but then recurve away, after hitting a force field in the form of westerly winds at the upper levels of the atmosphere. Such winds can protect the East Coast from a landfalling hurricane.

It's the hurricanes that fail to recurve, and instead move into or up the eastern seaboard, or even pass into the Gulf of Mexico, that are the most dangerous for the U.S. And computer models are keeping these scenarios very much in play, at least for now.

IMAGE: WEATHERBELL

It is too early to tell which path lies ahead for Hurricane Irma, but it has already become a "major hurricane," of Category 3 intensity or greater, and has a chance to get even stronger during its westward march over Labor Day weekend and into the first week of September.

Computer model guidance suggests that a U.S. landfall is within the realm of possibility, with a turn out into the North Atlantic also still on the table.

Conditions for the next few days are ripe for Irma to maintain its intensity, with little vertical wind shear and relatively warm waters. However, dry air nearby the storm could cause minor weakening to occur, before it moves into a more favorable environment for intensification in a few days.

The best advice for now is for anyone with interests along the East Coast in particular to start paying attention to Irma and its track and intensity forecasts, recognizing that forecasts this far in advance — about a week to 10 days — have a considerable amount of uncertainty associated with them.

The track forecast for Hurricane Irma will depend on how the weather pattern develops across North America, and that is going to be influenced by yet another tropical weather system, this time a typhoon that is spinning off into the North Pacific Ocean.

IMAGE: WEATHERBELL

Studies have shown that when powerful typhoons recurve away from Japan, into the North Central Pacific, they can energize the highway of swiftly flowing winds at high altitudes, popularly known as the jet stream, and lead to a more active weather pattern thousands of miles downstream.

For the jet stream, the storms can function as an injection of steroids, causing it to amplify and contort itself into large north-south undulations. These waves, known to meteorologists as ridges and troughs, get carried downstream like ripples in a pond, affecting weather in Alaska and the continental U.S.

What this means is that the weather pattern across the U.S. next week will probably feature a wavy jet stream. How this jet stream pattern interacts with Irma will be a big question that forecasters hope to answer, since an East Coast trough could help to sweep the storm out to sea.

While it's possible the storm will eventually enter the Gulf of Mexico, one thing is for sure: Hurricane Irma is not an immediate threat to the Houston area, where the focus is squarely on search and rescue as well as recovery efforts.

This article has been updated to reflect the latest forecast information on Sept. 1, 2017.


(mashable.com)

The U.S.-backed coalition battling the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) in Syria has re-taken the Old City of Raqqa as the battle for its de facto capital continues to rage on.

“Our forces today seized full control of the Old City in Raqqa after clashes with [ISIS],” Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) spokesman Talal Sello told AFP news agency on Friday.

“We are on the edges of [ISIS’] security quarter in the city center, where most of its main bases are,” Sello continued.

The SDF is a Kurdish-Arab coalition supported by U.S.-led coalition air power. Their campaign began in early June and in three months the SDF forces have captured almost two-thirds of the city.

The forces were able to enter the Old City in July after coalition airstrikes made two openings in a wall surrounding the area, allowing them to bypass mines and explosives.

Smoke billows in Raqqa's western al-Darya neighbourhood, on August 14, 2017, as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a U.S. backed Kurdish-Arab alliance, battle to retake the city from the Islamic State militant group (ISIS).
DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP/GETTY

ISIS, as in other cities that it captured after its rise in 2014, has slowed the offensive with booby traps, sniper fire and suicide vehicle attacks. The jihadist group has also laid down an extensive network of tunnels under Raqqa to launch counter-attacks against coalition-supported ground forces, according to the U.S.-led coalition. But the SDF is confident of victory.

"Control over the Old City—which has historical importance—is a moral victory against IS, which is collapsing in Raqa. Its defeat there is inevitable," Sello told AFP.

The eastern Syrian city has served as a hub for ISIS since its overran Syrian regime forces in January 2014. Some of the group’s most shocking propaganda videos were shot on the hills surrounding the city, including the beheadings of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff.

The U.S.-led coalition has said that ISIS fighters trying to flee or who have been captured in the city are “emaciated,” “malnourished” and plied high on drugs. It estimated that some 2,500 jihadists were defending the city.

ISIS continues to control the eastern Syrian cities of Deir Ezzor and Mayadin, as well as the lawless borderlands that connect Iraq with Syria, but the loss of Raqqa as well as Mosul—the group's two greatest prizes in Syria and Iraq respectively—would mark an ideological defeat as well as a territorial one for the group.

(Newsweek)

Adrian Jones’s short, tortured life was spent isolated from outsiders, confined in filthy, mice-infested houses where he was “home-schooled” by the parents who ultimately killed him, according to court documents.

But the abuse he suffered at the hands of his father and stepmother were meticulously documented, through dozens of surveillance cameras. As his family moved from place to place across Kansas and Missouri, his stepmother captured photos of the horrors, images stored online and later recovered by authorities.

His was a brief life of great suffering, as described by police and prosecutors. The story has been extensively reported by the Kansas City Star and other local media, including KSHB.

In several instances, Adrian was shown strapped to a table and blindfolded, or standing in neck-deep water in the family’s dirty swimming pool overnight. In other photographs, his mouth looks bloody and bruised, his teeth rotting, his hands swollen from being restrained, the Kansas City Star reported. In another picture, Adrian appears to be tied up with a plate of food in front of him, a bar of soap in his mouth.

Adrian Jones (via KSHB 41)

Alongside one of the images, reportedly captured from a surveillance camera by the stepmother, there appeared two words: the boy.

During his final days in fall 2015, the young boy was trapped in a white-tiled shower stall and left to die, according to affidavits cited by the Associated Press. Prosecutors later said Adrian essentially starved to death. His body was fed to pigs, authorities said. The young boy’s remains were found in a livestock pen on the family’s property on Nov. 20, 2015.

His father, Michael Jones, told authorities he purchased the swine after keeping the body inside the home for nearly two weeks, the AP reported. A child told investigators he heard Adrian screaming “I’m going to die” through a vent and his stepmother, Heather Jones, telling him to “suck it up.”

Michael and Heather Jones both pleaded guilty last year to first-degree murder and were sentenced to life in prison.

Investigators referred to the child abuse case as one of the “worst things” they had ever seen. His disturbing case prompted a state lawmaker to introduce legislation that would penalize adults who fail to report child abuse at home. In the Kansas City area, Adrian became known, hideously, as “the boy who was fed to pigs.”

But with his killers behind bars, Adrian’s family has been left wondering — could the state have done more to prevent the boy’s death?

Records in both Missouri and Kansas reveal a “seemingly endless series of reports and hotline calls” that informed social service and child welfare agencies of the abuse Adrian suffered.

So alleged a wrongful-death lawsuit filed in both states this week by Adrian’s biological mother, maternal grandmother, and oldest sister. It contends that child service agencies failed to keep Adrian out of harm’s way.

“Despite all the warning signs, the hotline calls, and the evidence of the child’s mistreatment, they effectively allowed his father and stepmother to continue to abuse, torture, and ultimately murder the little boy, while they stood idly by, writing it all down,” the family’s lawyer claimed in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleges that the state’s intervention was “limited” to instructing Adrian’s father and stepmother to sign a piece of paper agreeing to stop abusing the boy — “the legal equivalent of a ‘pinky swear.’”

“As it turned out, that signed paper might as well have been A.J.’s death warrant,” the family’s lawyer, Michaela Shelton, wrote. The lawsuit asks for $25,000 in damages.

Representatives from the Kansas Department for Children and Families declined to comment to the Kansas City Star. But a spokeswoman previously released a statement about the case, saying that the agency followed the family as Michael and Heather Jones “worked constantly to evade our intervention.”

“This family moved frequently between Kansas and Missouri, which greatly disrupted continuity of services and evaluation,” the spokeswoman said in a statement to KSHB. Officials in both states remained in regular contact, shared information and continued to talk to the family, the spokeswoman said, adding that child welfare workers thoroughly investigated each reported incident of alleged abuse and neglect.

“It is very difficult to assist families who are constantly transient, especially those who move across state lines and thereby deprive the State of any jurisdiction,” the statement read.

Michael Jones, Heather Jones (Wyandotte County Detention Center via AP)

For Adrian’s first two years of life, he lived with his biological mother and siblings in Lawrence, Kan. After the toddler was found at home unsupervised, he was removed from his mother’s home and placed in the custody of his father.

But within three months of Adrian moving in with his father, Kansas child welfare workers became aware of problems in the home. Hotline calls began pouring in with troubling information: his father had guns all over the house, his stepmother was observed to be high on drugs, according to the lawsuit.

Adrian’s siblings were reported to have suffered significant weight loss and a number of physical injuries, the lawsuit claims. Other calls reported evidence that Adrian was being beaten and choked by his father and stepmother. One hotline caller said Adrian had been spanked to the point where his buttocks were bleeding.

Adrian eventually underwent treatment for disruptive behavior and “parent-child relationship problem,” the lawsuit states. His father and stepmother reported that Adrian frequently wet the bed, stole and hoarded food, picked at sores and lit fires — characteristics that the lawsuit says are common in young victims of child abuse.

The family temporarily moved to Missouri, where hotline calls continued — one caller reporting that Adrian’s stepmother would beat “the living daylights out of the kids for no reason” and would sell “meth” out of the home, the lawsuit stated.

Records show that Adrian himself opened up about the abuse to child welfare workers. In a July 2013 interview with a Missouri Children’s Division worker and a police officer, Adrian — then age 5 — said his father would kick him so violently in the back of his head that a “little bone come out,” the Kansas City Star reported.

“My daddy keeps hitting me in the head and punches me in the stomach and my mom keeps pulling on my ears and it really hurts,” Adrian said. “Mommy and Daddy lock me in my room by myself. Mommy and Daddy can’t feed me.”

On another occasion, Adrian told a case worker that he was forced to stand in the corner and do jumping jacks and push-ups all day.

For a period of several months in 2014, Adrian was placed in a residential treatment center in Grandview, Mo., having been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. He was discharged on Sept. 4, 2014, on the condition that his father and stepmother follow an “aftercare plan,” including enrollment in school and therapy. The center did not follow up with Adrian after he was discharged, the lawsuit alleges.

A month later, Adrian’s stepmother emailed the boy’s therapist at the treatment center, saying Adrian was “getting to be too much all over again.”

Leading up to the boy’s death, his stepmother, Heather Jones, often posted angry rants about Adrian on a private Facebook page, and alluded to wanting to kill him, according to an affidavit obtained by the Kansas City Star. On Christmas Day 2014, the stepmother made a reference to wanting to simulate an episode of “The Walking Dead” in which a character shoots a child in the back of the head.

Three days later, Heather Jones posted that she “might be the next (redacted) and have to feed some pigs a body.”

Just over a year after Adrian was discharged from the residential treatment center, he died.

At Adrian’s father’s sentencing hearing, a detective nearly broke down in tears during his remarks, the Kansas City Starrecounted. He said the torture Adrian went through was unlike anything he had seen in more than two decades in law enforcement.

The detective, Stuart Littlefield, recalled how Adrian was shocked with a stun gun by his stepmother. Littlefield paused his words for 20 seconds — demonstrating how long the shocks would sometimes last.

“Imagine the screams of a 7-year-old boy,” the detective said. “Twenty seconds is a very long time when you’re in agony.”

(The Washington Post)

By all accounts, the head nurse at the University of Utah Hospital’s burn unit was professional and restrained when she told a Salt Lake City police detective he wasn’t allowed to draw blood from a badly injured patient.

The detective didn’t have a warrant, first off. And the patient wasn’t conscious, so he couldn’t give consent. Without that, the detective was barred from collecting blood samples — not just by hospital policy, but by basic constitutional law.

Still, Detective Jeff Payne insisted that he be let in to take the blood, saying the nurse would be arrested and charged if she refused.

Nurse Alex Wubbels politely stood her ground. She got her supervisor on the phone so Payne could hear the decision loud and clear. “Sir,” said the supervisor, “you’re making a huge mistake because you’re threatening a nurse.”

Payne snapped. He seized hold of the nurse, shoved her out of the building and cuffed her hands behind her back. A bewildered Wubbels screamed “help me” and “you’re assaulting me” as the detective forced her into an unmarked car and accused her of interfering with an investigation.

On Friday, Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said he wanted a criminal investigation into the incident. Salt Lake Mayor Jackie Biskupski and Police Chief Mike Brown apologized to the nurse in a statement. “I extend a personal apology to Ms. Wubbels for what she has been through for simply doing her job,” the mayor said.

The explosive July 26 encounter was captured on officers’ body cameras and is now the subject of an internal investigation by the police department, as the Salt Lake Tribune reported. The videos were released by the Tribune, the Deseret News and other local media.

On top of that, Wubbels was right. The U.S. Supreme Court has explicitly ruled that blood can only be drawn from drivers for probable cause, with a warrant.

Wubbels, who was not criminally charged, played the footage at a news conference Thursday with her attorney. They called on police to rethink their treatment of hospital workers and said they had not ruled out legal action.

“I just feel betrayed, I feel angry, I feel a lot of things,” Wubbels said. “And I’m still confused.”

Salt Lake police spokesman Sgt. Brandon Shearer initially told local media that Payne had been suspended from the department’s blood draw unit but remained on active duty. But late Friday, the police department’s Twitter feed said that Payne and another unnamed officer had been placed on administrative leave.

It all started when a suspect speeding away from police in a pickup truck on a local highway smashed head-on into a truck driver, as local media reported. Medics sedated the truck driver, who was severely burned, and took him to the University of Utah Hospital. He arrived in a comatose state, according to the Deseret News. The suspect died in the crash.

A neighboring police department sent Payne, a trained police phlebotomist, to collect blood from the patient and check for illicit substances, as the Tribune reported. The goal was reportedly to protect the trucker, who was not suspected of a crime. His lieutenant ordered him to arrest Wubbels if she refused to let him draw a sample, according to the Tribune.

A Salt Lake City police detective handcuffed a nurse after she prevented him from collecting blood from an unconscious patient. (Screen grab via Deseret News)

A 19-minute video from the body camera of a fellow officer shows the bitter argument that unfolded on the floor of the hospital’s burn unit. (Things get especially rough around the 6-minute mark).

A group of hospital officials, security guards and nurses are seen pacing nervously in the ward. Payne can be seen standing in a doorway, arms folded over his black polo shirt, waiting as hospital officials talk on the phone.

“So why don’t we just write a search warrant,” the officer wearing the body camera says to Payne.

“They don’t have PC,” Payne responds, using the abbreviation for probable cause, which police must have to get a warrant for search and seizure. He adds that he plans to arrest the nurse if she doesn’t allow him to draw blood. “I’ve never gone this far,” he says.

After several minutes, Wubbels shows Payne and the other officer a printout of the hospital’s policy on obtaining blood samples from patients. With her supervisor on speakerphone, she calmly tells them they can’t proceed unless they have a warrant or patient consent, or if the patient is under arrest.

“The patient can’t consent, he’s told me repeatedly that he doesn’t have a warrant, and the patient is not under arrest,” she says. “So I’m just trying to do what I’m supposed to do, that’s all.”

“So I take it without those in place, I’m not going to get blood,” Payne says.

Wubbels’s supervisor chimes in on the speakerphone. “Why are you blaming the messenger,” he asks Payne.

“She’s the one that has told me no,” the officer responds.

“Sir, you’re making a huge mistake because you’re threatening a nurse,” Wubbels’s supervisor says over the phone.

At that point, Payne seems to lose it.

He paces toward the nurse and tries to swat the phone out of her hand. “We’re done here,” he yells. He grabs Wubbels by the arms and shoves her through the automatic doors outside the building.

Wubbels screams. “Help! Help me! Stop! You’re assaulting me! Stop! I’ve done nothing wrong! This is crazy!”

Payne presses her into a wall, pulls her arms behind her back and handcuffs her. Two hospital officials tell him to stop, that she’s doing her job, but he ignores them.

“I can’t believe this! What is happening?” Wubbels says through tears as the detective straps her into the front seat of his car.

Another officer arrives and tells her she should have allowed Payne to collect the samples he asked for. He says she obstructed justice and prevented Payne from doing his job.

“I’m also obligated to my patients,” she tells the officer. “It’s not up to me.”

In Thursday’s news conference, Wubbels’s attorney Karra Porter said that Payne believed he was authorized to collect the blood under “implied consent,” according to the Tribune. But Porter said “implied consent” law changed in Utah a decade ago. And in 2016, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that warrantless blood tests were illegal. Porter called Wubbels’s arrest unlawful.

“The law is well-established. And it’s not what we were hearing in the video,” she said. “I don’t know what was driving this situation.”

Wubbels has worked as a nurse at the hospital since 2009, according to the Tribune. She was previously an Alpine skier who competed under her maiden name in the 1998 and 2002 Winter Olympics.

As a health-care worker, she said it was her job to keep her patients safe.

“A blood draw, it just gets thrown around like it’s some simple thing,” she said, according to the Deseret News. “But your blood is your blood. That’s your property.”

For now, Wubbels is not taking any legal action against police. But she’s not ruling it out.

“I want to see people do the right thing first and I want to see this be a civil discourse,” she said Thursday, according to the Deseret News. “If that’s not something that’s going to happen and there is refusal to acknowledge the need for growth and the need for re-education, then we will likely be forced to take that type of step. But people need to know that this is out there.”

View image on Twitter

Follow

SLC Police Dept.

✔@slcpd

Please see @slcmayor and @ChiefMikeBrown additional statements regarding incident involving University of Utah Hospital #nurse.

5:39 PM - Sep 1, 2017

• 1,5301,530 Replies
• 342342 Retweets
• 455455 likes

Twitter Ads info and privacy

This story has been updated.

The Washington Post