8.5 Magnitude Earthquake off the Coast of Japan

Earthquakes with magnitude of about 2.0 or less are usually called microearthquakes; they are not commonly felt by people and are generally recorded only on local seismographs. Events with magnitudes of about 4.5 or greater - there are several thousand such shocks annually - are strong enough to be recorded by sensitive seismographs all over the world. Great earthquakes, such as the 1964 Good Friday earthquake in Alaska, have magnitudes of 8.0 or higher. On the average, one earthquake of such size occurs somewhere in the world each year.

Magnitude measures the energy released at the source of the earthquake as determined from measurements on seismographs. An earthquake has one magnitude. The magnitude scale most commonly in use now is called the moment magnitude scale. Moment is a physical quantity proportional to the slip on the fault times the area of the fault surface that slips; it is related to the total energy released in the EQ. The moment magnitude provides an estimate of earthquake size that is valid over the complete range of magnitudes, a characteristic that was lacking in other magnitude scales.

Intensity measures the strength of shaking produced by the earthquake at a certain location. Intensity is determined from effects on people, human structures, and the natural environment. An earthquake can produce shaking of many different intensities. The Modified Mercalli Intensity Scale is used in the US.

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NC Governor Pat McCrory vetoes controversial 'Ag-Gag' bill

RALEIGH (WTVD) --

North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory has vetoed a bill that would allow businesses to sue employees who secretly record animal abuse or other illegal activity.

"While I support the purpose of this bill, I believe it does not adequately protect or give clear guidance to honest employees who uncover criminal activity. I am concerned that subjecting these employees to potential civil penalties will create an environment that discourages them from reporting illegal activities," said McCrory.

Several groups had come out in opposition to North Carolina House Bill 405 - also known as the "ag-gag" bill. It doesn't just apply to farms. It also applies to other businesses like restaurants and daycares.

Secret recordings have been repeatedly used in the state by animal rights groups to expose mistreatment on farms. Some of the investigations have led to criminal charges.

The AARP also called on McCrory to veto the bill saying it cast too wide a net and potentially would prevent employees from reporting problems in "nursing homes, hospitals, group homes, medical practices, charter and private schools, daycare centers, and so forth."

"AARP applauds Governor McCrory for vetoing HB 405. This bill has many unintended negative consequences on older adults, families and children. When it comes to protecting the health and safety of our loved ones, we agree with the Governor that we need to create an environment that does not discourage people from reporting illegal activities," the group said in a statement.

Animal rights groups also thanked McCrory.

"We applaud Gov. McCrory for standing up for the principles of promoting transparency and rooting out cruelty, whether to animals or to veterans or to senior citizens. The Humane Society of the United States thanks him for vetoing this overreaching and dangerous bill, which was more about covering up bad actors than anything else," offered Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States.

"Today is a great day for animals in North Carolina and nationwide. Governor McCrory has restored faith in North Carolina's political system by listening to the will of his constituents and vetoing the dangerous and un-American ag-gag bill," said Nathan Runkle, President of Mercy For Animals.

Mercy for Animals has used secret recordings to expose animal abuse.

Supporters say the law is needed to protect against employment fraud, but critics say it puts business's right to privacy above the public's right to know.

Despite vetoing the bill, the Governor expressed sympathy for businesses who want to prevent secret filming on their property.

"This bill is intended to address a valid concern of our state's businesses - how to discourage those bad actors who seek employment with the intent to engage in corporate espionage or act as an undercover investigator. This practice is unethical and unfair to employers, and is a particular problem for our agricultural industry. It needs to be stopped," said McCrory.

"I encourage the General Assembly to reconsider this bill as soon as possible and add protections for those employees who report illegal activities directly and confidentially to the proper authorities. I stand ready to work with legislators during this process, and I am very optimistic that we can reach a solution that addresses the concerns of our North Carolina employers while still protecting honest employees," McCrory continued.

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Wichita State student dies while trying to prevent ISIS suicide bombing

WICHITA, Kan. -

Abdul al-Arbash, a 22-year-old WSU student in electrical engineering, is credited with stopping a suicide bombing from being carried out by ISIS.

The incident happened in al-Arbash's home of Saudi Arabia. Friends tell Eyewitness News he was in his home country for the summer to get married.

The Associated Press reports al-Arbash and his friend Mohammed Hassan Ali bin Isa were killed chasing down the man and preventing him from entering the Imam Hussein mosque.

The friends were manning a civilian checkpoint when the man tried to enter the mosque, according to The Independent, a UK-based newspaper.

The suicide bomber then detonated his explosives killing four.

WSU released a statement saying the university is saddened by al-Arbash's death and extends its condolences to his family, friends and colleagues. 

Eyewitness News has several crews working this story.  More reaction coming up on-air and online.

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Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht sentenced to life in prison

A federal judge sentenced Ross Ulbricht to life in prison today in New York City for his role as the mastermind of Silk Road, once the largest online black market for illegal drugs on the Internet. 

Two life sentences for Ross Ulbricht plus max sentences on all other charges

— Patrick O'Neill (@HowellONeill) May 29, 2015

A jury convicted Ulbricht, who pioneered the secure sale of illegal goods online, in February on seven felony counts, including drug trafficking, money laundering, computer hacking, and identity fraud.

Silk Road, which ran from January 2011 to October 2013 before the FBI seized the site and its assets, was an anonymous marketplace used to sell illegal goods, the vast majority of which were drugs, including heroine, methamphetamine, MDMA, LSD, and others. The website hid the location of itself and its users by utilizing the Tor anonymity network, privacy software developed and funded in part by the U.S. government that's used by police, criminals, journalists, soldiers, and activists worldwide.

Prior to sentencing, Ulbricht, clearly upset, apologized for any lives ruined by overdoses caused by drugs purchased off of Silk Road. "I never wanted that to happen," he said, adding, "I wish I could go back and convince myself to take a different path."

Judge called the harm reduction argument nonsense, called Dr. X "particularly despicable" and "irresponsible"

— Patrick O'Neill (@HowellONeill) May 29, 2015

Both the parents of overdose victims and Ross cried as they spoke out to the judge prior to sentencing.

— Patrick O'Neill (@HowellONeill) May 29, 2015

Sales on Silk Road were entirely conducted in Bitcoin. From February 2011 through July 2013, Ulbricht and other Silk Road staffers collected 614,305 bitcoins, or $145,516,568.40 at today's exchange rate, in commissions from sales on the site, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. At the time of Ulbricht's arrest, the total Silk Road commissions were worth just under $80 million.

In a memo to the court, U.S. prosecutors said Ulbricht owes the government $183,961,921 based on the total number of transactions on Silk Road.

Ulbricht's defense team has repeatedly promised an appeal, meaning this saga is far from over. Years after Ulbricht's 2013 arrest, many questions remain about the police investigation including how they found Silk Road's servers and whether police violated the law in doing so.

Federal prosecutors have continuously pushed for harsh sentencing beyond the minimum 20 years against Ulbricht in order to "send a message" to other Dark Net criminals.

"Ulbricht's conviction is the first of its kind, and his sentencing is being closely watched," the prosecution wrote in a letter to Judge Katherine Forrest. "The Court thus has an opportunity to send a clear message to anyone tempted to follow his example that the operation of these illegal enterprises comes with severe consequences."

Judge condemned the harm reduction arguments as "privileged" and said ulbricht was no better than a dangerous dealer from the Bronx.

— Patrick O'Neill (@HowellONeill) May 29, 2015

Ulbricht and his defense team have pushed in the other direction, arguing that Silk Road reduced the dangers of drug use.

"In contrast to the government's portrayal of the Silk Road website as a more dangerous version of a traditional drug marketplace, in fact the Silk Road website was in many respects the most responsible such marketplace in history, and consciously and deliberately included recognized harm-reduction measures, including access to physician counseling," Joshua Dratel, Ulbricht's lead defense attorney, wrote to the court. "In addition, transactions on the Silk Road website were significantly safer than traditional illegal drug purchases, and included quality-control and accountability features that made purchasers substantially safer than they were when purchasing drugs in a conventional manner."

Ulbricht also wrote a personal letter to judge Katherine Forrest in which he pleaded with her to "leave a light at the end of the tunnel" with sentencing that does not take away the rest of his life.

"I know you must take away my middle years, but please leave me my old age," Ulbricht, now 31, wrote. "Please leave a small light at the end of the tunnel, an excuse to stay healthy, an excuse to dream of better days ahead, and a chance to redeem myself before I meet my maker."

Despite Ulbricht's arrest and the turbulence experienced on the Dark Net ever since, similar black markets grew 37 percent in the last year.

Illustration by Max Fleishman

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Emails Reveal Ag-Gag Bill was crafted by Dairy Lobby

I think corporate lobbyists write a shitload of shit bills.

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To sunset the PATRIOT Act, over 10,000 web sites are now blacking out access to Congress, redirecting to the naked photos of indignant NSA protestors.

Everyone focuses on the NSA, but there's tons of heinous stuff in the patriot act:

• Sneak and Peak searches: The PATRIOT Act broadened the government's power to search an individual's home without telling her until weeks or months later, and to do so in any criminal case.

• Access to Sensitive Business Records: The PATRIOT Act gave the FBI nearly unlimited power to obtain business records, including sensitive files like medical, library and bookstore records, with a secret court order issued with no factual showing of need.

• Monitoring of Email and Web Surfing: The PATRIOT Act extended to the Internet the already broad authority to monitor transactional (non-content) information about communications with very little justification. A record of every call you make and every email you receive offers a full picture of your life, even without the contents.

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8,000 Chinese students were expelled from US universities last year, mostly for cheating and bad grades

Students study for the national college entrance exam in Lianyungang, a port city in east China's Jiangsu Province.

Wang Jianmin/Zuma Press

As tens of thousands of Chinese students prepare to study in the U.S., they might reflect on the experience of some of those who went before them. According to an estimate by a U.S. education company, some 8,000 Chinese students were expelled from American universities last year alone – and the main reasons were poor grades and cheating.

The estimate by WholeRen Education, a U.S. company that caters to Chinese students, was based on official U.S. data and a survey of 1,657 students expelled from American universities last year. More than 80% of these students were expelled because of poor academic performance or dishonesty, the company said.

The company surveyed students about their U.S. study experience a year earlier but didn't make any estimate for expulsions.

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The survey comes amid reports that federal prosecutors in Pittsburgh have indicted 15 Chinese citizens for allegedly taking part in a college exam scheme.

Stacked up against the huge numbers of Chinese students who go to American universities every year, the failure rate isn't so bad, WholeRen said, though it does suggest a change in the once-shining image of students from China.

"Chinese students used to be considered top-notch but over the past five years their image has changed completely — wealthy kids who cheat," said Chen Hang, chief development officer at WholeRen, which is based in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Two decades of rapid economic growth and a burgeoning middle class have given Chinese parents more resources to send their children abroad.

Last year alone, 459,800 students went overseas to study, according to China's Ministry of Education. Most financed their studies on their own or had scholarships from a U.S. university. Only 4.6% of them were sponsored by the Chinese  government.

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Students from China account for nearly one-third of all international students in the U.S., taking the single largest share, according to a March report by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Financially strained public universities are aggressively recruiting students from abroad.

Unlike American students who more frequently enter programs that fit their capabilities, Chinese students care most about the reputation of the school, trying hard to get into the top universities. But in reality they are not always prepared to study in highly-competitive programs, said Mr. Chen. More than half of the Chinese students expelled were from top 100 U.S. universities, the survey found. Cheating at exams, plagiarism and finding other students to write papers for them were frequently cited as the specific causes of expulsion, the survey showed.

In a commentary based on the survey, the state-run Guangming Daily said that the fact that thousands of students were expelled was not surprising given the large numbers of students in the U.S. It added that different education standards and different attitudes toward unacceptable behavior were partly to blame.

It also said the problem wasn't just with Chinese students that chose to go to the U.S.  "This is an issue not just about students in the U.S., but about the entire higher-education system in China," said the unsigned commentary.

–Liyan Qi

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