(Photo Illustration: Yahoo News, photos: AP, Robert F. Bukaty/AP)In the latest sign that hedge fund gurus have little influence over the political marketplace, Wall Street billionaire Steven Cohen and his wife pumped another $2 million into a super-PAC backing Chris Christie’s presidential candidacy less than three weeks before the New Jersey governor flamed out in the New Hampshire primary, according to newly filed campaign finance reports.The Jan. 22 contributions by Cohen and his wife, Alexandra Cohen, to the pro-Christie super-PAC, America Leads, amounted to 55 percent of the $3.6 million raised by the group last month, the reports show. The fresh contributions brought to $6 million the amount the Cohens had invested in America Leads over the past year in an effort to elect Christie president, making the couple by far the largest bankrollers of his failed candidacy.The role of Cohen was highlighted in a recent Yahoo News article disclosing that the hedge fund kingpin had principally financed an America Leads TV ad during the New Hampshire primary deriding rival John Kasich as a one-time “Wall Street banker.” This would seem an ironic line of attack, given that Cohen was long one of the most well-known and controversial figures on Wall Street and, in recent years, the focus of an insider trading investigation by the FBI and the U.S. Attorney in New York, Preet Bharara.The investigation resulted in Cohen’s now defunct firm, SAC Capital, paying a $1.8 billion fine and, just last month, shortly before his latest six-figure contribution, reaching a final settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission that bans him from investing money for others until 2018.

Cohen’s financial largesse did Christie little good: He finished in sixth place in the New Hampshire primary, with 7.4 percent of the vote, and suspended his candidacy the next day.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz campaigns Feb. 21 in Pahrump, Nevada (Photo: John Locher/AP)LAS VEGAS — Donald Trump has led the GOP field in every single poll taken in Nevada since he entered the race last June , often by as many as 20 percentage points. And after his resounding victory in South Carolina, the tinsel-haired mogul is the heavy favorite to win yet again when Nevada Republicans come out to caucus on Tuesday.But as recent back-to-back visits to the neighboring Las Vegas headquarters of Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz made clear, neither campaign seems particularly concerned about Trump — or any of the other Republican candidates — in the final days of the Silver State contest. They’re far more focused on each other.That’s because both camps believe that with Trump coasting on his celebrity, as usual, they can reshape the results and beat expectations on Caucus Night by quietly, methodically mastering the unglamorous work of getting out the vote. Their thinking is that in a state where the polling is particularly unreliable, the process is particularly chaotic, and the turnout is particularly low, the ground game could have bigger effect than anywhere else.“Oh, you have to see this,” a gray-haired Rubio volunteer with a thick Southern accent told Yahoo News, gesturing toward her laptop. On the screen was a picture of Cruz’s louche, smirking face superimposed on the body of a naked man lounging in a rubber-duck-filled bathtub — a cheeky response, posted online by a Rubio fan, to the Cruz campaign’s poorly photoshopped image of Rubio shaking hands with President Obama.“He has all his ducks in order!” the volunteer chirped. “Isn’t that hilarious?”An hour later at Cruz HQ, which is tucked into somewhat seedy strip mall a few doors down from a shop selling vaporizers and bongs, staffers could barely contain themselves when a reporter mentioned that he had just visited Rubio’s command post in the fancier office complex one block west on Tropicana Avenue.“How many people were there?” snapped Matthew Bell, a field representative for Cruz. “As many as we have here?” Told that the number of Rubio volunteers — about a dozen — matched the number of Cruz volunteers, Bell looked deflated.The mutual obsession makes perfect sense. Early on, Jeb Bush, who suspended his campaign Saturday after a distant fourth place finish in South Carolina, built what was widely considered the best operation here; the consultant who was running his campaign, Ryan Erwin, led Mitt Romney to caucus victories in both 2008 and 2012. As Lt. Gov. Mark Hutchison, Rubio’s Nevada campaign chairman, told Yahoo News, “Technically, Bush did everything right.” And yet the latest polls, taken before Bush dropped out, showed him in last place locally, behind even Ben Carson and John Kasich.Carson and Kasich remain in the race, but neither is poised to make much of an impact. Like Bush, Carson was on the ground early, but he’s been losing steam for months, and his last-place showing in the Palmetto State won’t help. And Kasich isn’t even visiting Nevada between now and Caucus Day.That leaves Cruz and Rubio. With Trump appearing to hold a sizable lead — and with the two young senators from Florida and Texas having just finished neck-and-neck in South Carolina — the battle for second place will likely be the marquee event Tuesday night.

 

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Costa scoring his seventh goal in nine matches in such dramatic circumstances wasn't the story, though. It's Chelsea's failure to once again pick up three points that remains the talking point around this team.
Interim boss Guus Hiddink has seen his side draw six times in the 10 games he has been officially in charge. Just two of his four victories have come in the Premier League, meaning the Blues have picked up a mere 12 points from an available 24.
Compared to the last eight league games of Jose Mourinho's reign, it's an increase of five points—the former manager's Chelsea won two, lost five and drew once, against Tottenham Hotspur.
It's an improvement, but it's still not great. It's still not enough to get Chelsea into the top 10 and comfortably away from being dragged into a potential battle at the foot of the table.
A big reason for the changes we've seen has been the John Obi Mikel-Nemanja Matic combination in midfield.
Hiddink's intentions have been clear in the early weeks of his second spell in charge at Stamford Bridge; he needed to stop that losing habit, which he has.
He hasn’t transformed those defeats into victories, however. All these draws Chelsea are recording aren’t enough to save their season.
The Dutchman needs to take the next step on the road to recover; his challenge is to get this team firing properly and winning games consistently.
To do that, Hiddink must turn his back on the one thing that has made Chelsea hard to beat again—Matic and Mikel's partnership.
We saw why when United visited Stamford Bridge; Chelsea were back to playing with the handbrake firmly on.
That tactic worked against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium a few weeks back as the Blues were able to set up in a way that stemmed Arsene Wenger's men. By controlling those central areas, the Gunners couldn't get through, and it led to Chelsea dominating the game, even when it was 11 versus 11.
When they're at home facing a struggling United side, though, Chelsea have to get at them and make the most of their advantage. They can no longer play so restricted as games are running out in the league.
Chelsea need points to climb the table and draws aren’t delivering them at the required rate.
Louis van Gaal had the laborious Michael Carrick and Marouane Fellaini anchoring his own midfield on Sunday. A lack of dynamism from Chelsea meant the pair looked comfortable, rarely pulled out of position by the players opposite them who were performing the exact same role.
It was similar at Vicarage Road in midweek when Chelsea endured a goalless draw with Watford. The Hornets had lost four of their five league games since the Boxing Day draw with the Blues, but Hiddink still erred on the side of caution.
Regardless of league positions, it was a game of Premier League champions against the Championship runners-up, yet you wouldn’t have known it. The caution hints at confidence remaining fragile, although it’s only by instilling belief in his players that Hiddink will get the best out of them in an attacking sense.
He can give them long speeches to that effect, or the interim boss can alternatively field a team that shows he’s confident in the players’ abilities.
Like United on Sunday, Watford were there to be got at. As remained the case in both games, it was only until the final 20 minutes or so that that Chelsea upped the ante and played with anything resembling ambition.
Dropping four points within the same number of days, the coin has flipped. From being about damage limitation, Matic and Mikel playing together is damaging Chelsea's season further.
It helps that Eden Hazard is back from injury. Hiddink’s hand has partly been forced while the Belgian hasn’t been fully fit.
Chelsea’s squad lacks the same depth of those teams we considered their rivals for honours at the start of the season. Whereas Manchester City have players in reserve to combat the loss of their own dynamic Belgian in Kevin De Bruyne, for instance, Chelsea don’t.
A big part of their dramatic fall from grace this season has been Hazard’s lack of form. He was their talisman as they cruised to the Premier League title. It’s been much different this season and they have suffered.
Hazard is speaking a different language now. From being relatively silent while the chaos ensued around him before Mourinho eventually lost his job, the Belgian is saying all the right things in the present.
In a recent interview with the Guardian, Hazard said:

For a team of champions to go through what we have this year even I can’t explain.
Things have been better recently, but we’re still not winning games quite as we used to. No one can put his finger on what’s happened at Chelsea.
[…] I’ve never been one to deliver speeches in the dressing room, like a John Terry, Frank Lampard or [Didier] Drogba, but I’ve always tried to lead in my own way on the field: demanding the ball, trying to make a difference. The day I’m 100 per cent again, I’m convinced Chelsea will perform better too.

Those improved performances will only come with a less rigid midfield pairing. Either Mikel or Matic has to be sacrificed in the name of Chelsea’s season.
Averaging two points a game under Hiddink, Chelsea’s current form suggests they’ll finish the campaign on 50 points. That’s enough to avoid a relegation dogfight—which, like it or not, will remain at the back of Chelsea’s minds until they pass the magical 40-points mark—but it will mean they just about scrape into the top 10.
A club of Chelsea’s size and stature has to have bigger ambitions than that. The responsibility lies with Hiddink to implement it.

February 20, 2016 Winners at the Berlinale, the first of the year's major European film festivals, are notoriously hard to predict. This year's jury, led by Meryl Streep, is choosing between 18 entries from across the globe.
They include "Genius," a literary drama starring Colin Firth and Jude Law; two documentaries, among them "Zero Days" from Oscar-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney; and an eight-hour historical drama from the Philippines, "A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery."
Entries come from the U.S., Britain, France, Tunisia, China, Denmark and Iran, among others. Last year's Golden Bear went to Iranian dissident filmmaker Jafar Panahi's "Taxi."

The grammys are supposed to be one of the biggest, craziest and most entertaining award shows of the year, so we’re a bit confused as to why we feel super awkward after watching it.
Like the moment when you get left hanging for high-five, even Taylor Swift had an ‘oops’ moment with Selena Gomez that set the tone for the entire show.
Whether or not you caught the show last night, we’ve compiled all of the awkward moments from the 2016 Grammys so you can get at least some amusement from the show.

Taylor Swift called bestie Selena Gomez over for a photo, who was too busy enjoying her individual attention

February 20, 2016 The historic agreement brought about the lifting of international sanctions last month after the U.N. certified that Iran has met all its commitments to curb its nuclear activities under last summer's accord.
Iran expects an economic breakthrough after the lifting of sanctions, which has allowed it to access overseas assets and sell crude oil more freely. Iran already has access to more than $100 billion worth of frozen overseas assets and Iranian banks earlier this month were reconnected to SWIFT, a Belgian-based cooperative that handles wire transfers between financial institutions.
Tayebnia said Iran's strategic location, political stability and population of 80 million has made the energy-rich Persian state into an attractive place for foreign investment. "All these factors have led to a capacity to attract more than $45 billion in foreign financial resources for next year, with about $15 billion in direct foreign investment," he told a press conference.
Tayebnia said Iran signed an agreement with Japan earlier this month for $10 billion in investments and is seeking similar deals with other nations. Iran is now seeking to reduce reliance on oil revenues and move towards an economy that depends on taxation, tourism, agriculture and other sources of revenue. Attracting foreign investment is seen as a necessary must-do step towards that goal.
Tayebnia, however, said Iran welcomes foreign investment only if it leads to strengthening Iran's economy. "We won't welcome any proposal that doesn't lead to transfer of technology and capital (to Iran) or doesn't boost production and exports," he said.

Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks during a campaign rally in Las Vegas, and Hillary Clinton speaks at the University of Nevada, Reno. (Photos: Ethan Miller-David Calvert/Getty Images) A week before Nevada’s Democratic caucus, Hillary Clinton abruptly cancelled a rally in Palm Beach, sending her husband in her place. Instead, the former secretary of state appeared at three small campaign events in Reno, and then, on Sunday, showed up for service at Victory Missionary Baptist Church in Las Vegas, with her friend and civil rights hero Rep. John Lewis of Georgia in tow.“Crashing” would be a strong word to describe Clinton’s presence at the African American church, but Bernie Sanders had planned a campaign stop there before the secretary of state had. Now, the senator was upstaged at his own event.Lewis introduced her as his “beloved sister” and a “warrior.” Then, Clinton obliquely criticized Sanders, as he listened from a nearby pew. “I am not a single issue candidate and this is not a single issue country,” Clinton said.The former secretary of state has been in an all-out sprint in this final week before Saturday’s caucus, attempting to defend a state that she has long called her firewall. Sanders built surprising momentum in Nevada, a diverse state that, should he win it, would go a long way to silence critics who say the democratic socialist can only win with white voters and lacks the broad appeal to be the nominee. Clinton, whose campaign manager Robby Mook earned his stripes in 2008 working Nevada for her, has had a strong operation here since April, and until recently had a commanding double digit lead in the state’s notoriously unreliable polls.But Sanders came from behind: outspending Clinton two to one on television ads and quickly building up a campaign operation to rival hers in size. His win in New Hampshire and near-win in Iowa catapulted him from unrealistic longshot to serious contender. The latest Nevada poll showed the rivals in a statistical tie. In his final rally before the caucus, Sanders told the thousands of supporters who showed up that he had a “feeling” they would “make history” on Saturday.Clinton did not sound as confident as the senator in her final rally, which drew a few hundred supporters in Las Vegas Friday night. “We’ve got to be in this together,” she said, urging them to bring as many people as possible to caucus for her Saturday morning. “I want you tell them this, If they will stand with me tomorrow, I will stand and fight for them.”A Clinton staffer who did not want to be named talking about strategy said that the campaign realized many Clinton supporters did not fully understand Nevada’s caucus process, which is only eight years old. Having Clinton herself appear at events and explain the importance of the caucus was the best way to motivate voters to actually show up. “Having the candidate is always better,” the staffer said.Clinton’s decision to stay in Nevada an extra day also led to meaningful one-on-one interactions with voters. On Sunday after the church visit, she met with young immigrants and their families, leading to a touching moment that the campaign in which Clinton comforted a 10-year-old girl whose parents might get deported. The Clinton campaign later turned the moment into an ad.Clinton campaigned in Nevada four of the past six days at a grueling pace, while Sanders stumped in the state for just three of those days, spending the rest of his time in Detroit and South Carolina. Clinton’s high-profile surrogates were also out in full force before Sanders’ were. Cabinet members Ken Salazar and Tom Perez, several members of Congress, actresses Chloe Grace Moretz, Eva Longoria and Jamie Lee Curtis, and labor activists Dolores Huerta all appeared at multiple, daily events for the former secretary of state in the past week. Sanders’ surrogates, including Dick Van Dyke and Susan Sarandon, appeared in the final days before the caucus.Clinton also held at least four back-of-the-house meetings with casino workers in the past week, hoping for a repeat of 2008 when she handily won the casino caucus sites.Some see Clinton’s frenzied pace as a sign of desperation as she contemplates losing a state that was once a given. “I think her campaign has been more manic and frenetic,” said Jon Ralston, a long-time political reporter in Nevada who writes a column for the Reno Gazette-Journal.

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While the Guardian's Jamie Jackson and Ed Aarons reported that Jose Mourinho might be about to become Manchester United manager, he is still feeling the love from Chelsea.
The Portuguese coach was sacked in December after a disastrous first half of the season, but he did guide the Blues to Premier League and League Cup glory in 2014/15.
To celebrate that fact, just this week, the club sent Mourinho replicas of those two trophies and a thank-you letter, per Joe Strange of MailOnline:

Blues chairman Bruce Buck sent Mourinho a letter this week, thanking him for his efforts during his second spell while making it clear that he would always be welcome back at Stamford Bridge.

The replica trophies—which were also sent to first-team squad members and backroom staff employed during the successful 2014/15 campaign—were delivered to the former Real Madrid manager's west London home, where he still lives with his family.

It seems Kanye West had a moment while backstage at Saturday Night Live this weekend.A source close to the 38-year-old rapper told ET that West threatened to walk off the program when he found out that part of his set had been taken down before showtime, and now, new audio obtained by Page Six appears to reveal some of the behind-the-scenes venting that transpired.WATCH: Taylor Swift Slams Kanye West in the Most Epic Way Possible During GRAMMYs Acceptance SpeechIn the one-minute clip, West calls Taylor Swift a “fake-a**,” before lamenting the comedy variety show for the set changes.“Look at that s**t, they took my stage off of ‘SNL.’ Without asking me. Now I’m bummed,” West can be heard saying. “I went through six years of this f**king s**t.”“Are they f**king crazy?” West adds, claiming that he’s “50 percent more influential than any other human being… Dead or alive.”“Stanley Kubrick, Picasso, Apostle Paul, f**king Picasso and Escobar,” the rapper says.WATCH: Kanye West Threatened to Walk Off 'Saturday Night Live’But a source close to West tells ET, “He did NOT yell at SNL staff. This audio was secretly recorded while he was venting his frustration in a private moment with his team.”“He found out his stage design was changed and taken apart under the direction of the show’s lighting director without anyone’s approval,” the source adds. “He had spent an entire day rehearsing and a lot of hard work into the performance. Dramatic set changes were made 30 minutes before going live.”“It should be understandable why he was upset after being completely blindsided,” the source continues.The source also notes: “Kanye was seen hugging [SNL creator] Lorne Michaels just before the goodnights, and he stayed afterwards to chat with the staff and the cast, and thanked the producers on his way out the door.”The source also mentioned that the show producer’s were very “apologetic” about the situation.Meanwhile, on Wednesday, West shared a moment of humility on Twitter, tweeting, “My number one enemy has been my ego.”

Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis in ‘Thelma & Louise’ (Everett)By Stephen Galloway, The Hollywood ReporterIt’s been 25 years since Thelma & Louise, the landmark feminist film directed by Ridley Scott and starring Geena Davis and Susan Sarandon as two friends who go on the run.But Davis says the film might have been very different if she had been given the role she first wanted: That of Louise, the waitress who pulls out a gun and kills a would-be rapist.“I’d been following this [project] for a year,” she recalled, before her agents contacted Scott to ask for a meeting. “He said, ‘Yes, sure, you could come in.’ And I’d met with my acting coach. And we had decided that I should play Louise. And I wanted this so bad, and I’m just pitching my heart out, and I brought all my notes and everything about why I absolutely have to be Louise. And he finally says, 'So, in other words, you wouldn’t play Thelma?’ And there was only a very slight pause, actually, before I said: 'You know what’s so weird is, I’ve been listening to myself as I’m talking and I’m not convinced anymore. Actually, I think I should play Thelma.’”Related: George Miller on 'Mad Max’ Sequels, His Secret Talks With Stanley KubrickDavis was signed to play one or the other of the leads, with the final decision dependent on who would play opposite her. When Scott chose Sarandon as Louise, she accepted the role of Thelma.“The first time I meet [Sarandon], it was just Ridley and she and I,” Davis noted. “We were going to get together and go through the script. And pretty much the second I met her, I was like: 'What was I thinking? How could I possibly play Louise? She’s just fabulous.’ We hung out all the time together during the shooting. Because it was mostly just us. And a lot of times you can’t go all the way back to your trailer, because you’re out in the middle of the desert or something. So we’re just hanging around in the car, talking. We spent a lot of time together.”Davis spoke Feb. 10 at Loyola Marymount University’s School of Film & TV, where she took part in THR’s ongoing interview series, The Hollywood Masters.The founder of the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media, she lamented how little progress Hollywood has made in finding roles for women.When she speaks to studio and network executives, she said, “[They’re] stunned. They [had] no idea they were leaving out that many female characters, that the world is bereft of female presence. If I was going in, saying, 'You’re making less movies with a female star,’ they’d say, ‘We know that very well, and you know, we’re worried about doing anything different, because women will watch movies about men, but men don’t want to watch movies about women.’ Whatever. So I don’t say that at all. I just say, 'Whatever you are already making, you’re leaving out half of the population.’”Asked her thoughts on the recent controversy about the motion picture Academy and its lack of diversity, particularly as it relates to women, she said: “It’s great that more and more people are talking about it. Because it’s something that people just go along with. My whole theory about why I couldn’t find any creators who realized they were leaving out female characters is because they were raised on the same ratio. I just heard someone the other day call it either 'smurfing’ a movie, which is when there’s one female character, or 'minioning’ a movie, which is when there’s no female characters. Because there aren’t any female minions. The ratio of male to female characters in movies has been exactly the same since 1946. So if you’ve ever had people say, you know, 'It’s better now, it’s all changed, it’s all different,’ it’s not, it hasn’t. Not yet.”

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Top Senate Republican Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said that the Senate should not fill the Supreme Court vacancy until a new president is elected. (Photo: J. Scott Applewhite/AP)The U.S. Senate should not act to fill the sudden Supreme Court vacancy opened up by the death of Justice Antonin Scalia until after President Obama departs office, Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a statement Saturday.“The American people should have a voice in the selection of the next Supreme Court justice. Therefore, this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president,” McConnell said.Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, as well as current Republican presidential candidates and Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, also came out of the gate opposing confirmation of a final Obama Supreme Court nominee.The Republican majority in the Senate gives the party leverage for a battle with Obama over a new Supreme Court nomination, but would not be without risks. Any nominee would need 60 affirmative votes on cloture to proceed to final confirmation, meaning that Obama would be under pressure to choose a more moderate versus liberal justice in order to win the at least 14 Republicans he would need to support his nominee.That pressure would vanish if Republicans cannot retake the White House in 2016 or hold their majority in the Senate. Many Republicans in D.C. are skeptical that the party will be able to do either, especially if Donald J. Trump or Ted Cruz win the GOP presidential nomination. These establishment Republicans have seen evidence that Trump or Cruz would create a drag on races lower down the ballot, such as the Senate races in November, and are worried Republicans could lose the Senate.Slideshow: Justice Antonin Scalia – A look backRepublicans currently hold the Senate majority with 54 members, but 24 of those seats are being contested this year — including seven in states where Obama won twice.If Republicans wait and Democrats win the White House and regain the Senate majority, a hypotheticalPresident Hillary Clinton, for example, would have greater leeway to select a more liberal justice than Obama might have submitted.But the politics could also work in Republicans’ favor, as mobilization for a Supreme Court nomination by a Republican president could cause conservative voter turnout to spike in 2016, helping candidates across the board. Democrats, of course, would similarly seek to boost turnout and support based on the nomination fight (or lack thereof).There is precedent for the Senate to act in a presidential year on a confirmation. Justice Anthony Kennedy was chosen by Republican President Ronald Reagan and confirmed by a Democratic Senate on February 3, 1988 — also the last year of a lame-duck presidency.But SCOTUSBlog’s Tom Goldstein does not see a scenario in which Senate Republicans will change their minds.“Theoretically, that process could conclude before the November election. But realistically, it cannot absent essentially a consensus nominee — and probably not even then, given the stakes,” he wrote. “A Democratic president would replace a leading conservative vote on a closely divided court. The Republican Senate will not permit such a consequential nomination — which would radically shift the balance of ideological power on the court — to go forward.”Democrats, of course, do not see it that way, but without the Senate majority, there’s little they can do but highlight what they believe is political negligence and then campaign on that. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid called on Obama to send a nominee to the Senate, and Obama said Saturday night he would, indeed, nominate someone.The top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Patrick Leahy, released a statement mourning Scalia and calling on Republicans to work with Democrats to replace him swiftly because failing to do so would weaken democracy “for partisan reasons.”“I hope that no one will use this sad news to suggest that the president or the Senate should not perform its constitutional duty,” Leahy said. “The American people deserve to have a fully functioning Supreme Court. The Supreme Court of the United States is too important to our democracy for it to be understaffed for partisan reasons. It is only February. The president and the Senate should get to work without delay to nominate, consider and confirm the next justice to serve on the Supreme Court.

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In conjunction with Forbes’ just-released Celebrity 100 List, we’ve compiled a round-up of where these stars lay their heads, focused on the top earners. Pictured here: Taylor Swift’s Watch Hill, R.I., home.

register here to get the best online web houting:https://portal.eapps.com/aff.php?aff=2016 Want to join the upper crust of the billionaire ranks? Building a tech company could be your way in: Seven of the world’s 15 richest self-made billionaires earned their wealth through a technology business.
FORBES ranked the 15 richest tech billionaires, altogether worth $426 billion. Their wealth is up 11.6% from last year’s group. Take a look at who made the list.

Billionaires have been trading multimillion-dollar real estate with tremendous zeal in recent years, slapping down record sums for trophy homes while quietly floating other properties in their portfolios through brokers in unofficial, off-market offerings. While the downturn paused activity in the super luxury end of the market, high net-worth buyers started fresh buying sprees in late 2010, trolling for high-end trophy property ‘bargains’ selling at markedly lower prices than their housing bubble heights or parking investment cash in prized pied-a-terres tucked inside the world’s most exclusive buildings. In fact, billionaire buying activity in the super luxury end of the world’s most expensive housing markets has been, according to a recent report from Savills, “so intense over the last seven years that it has led to a doubling of property values in this [super luxury housing] sector.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama.....woman convicted of capital murder in the running death of her 9-year-old granddaughter died Friday less than a year into her life-without-parole sentence for the killing.

. (US Customs and Border Protection/KGUN9) Meth packages in the wall of a tractor-trailer, seized in Nogales, Arizona, on February 5.
A tractor-trailer hauling bell peppers that was attempting to cross at the Mariposa Commercial Facility was stopped, and CBP agents pulled 400 packages of meth worth $1.1 million out of the trailer's front wall and rear doors.

The Sinaloa cartel

These DEA maps released last year show that the cartel controls the territory on both sides of the crossing at Nogales.

(2015 DEA NDTA) The Nogales border crossing and the entirety of Arizona are suspected of being Sinaloa cartel areas of influence.
"The Sinaloa cartel maintains the most significant presence in the United States," the DEA said in an intelligence report released last summer.
Guzmán's Sinaloa organization, a multibillion-dollar operation, is "the dominant [transnational criminal organization] along the West Coast, through the Midwest, and into the Northeast," the report added.

(Business Insider/Andy Kiersz) Based on the testimony of former Sinaloa operatives, this map shows the cartel's distribution network as of the late 2000s.
And if Lugo was working for the Sinaloa cartel, it would not be the cartel's first effort to hide drugs in a shipment of peppers.

Beltran-Leyva Organization

That Lugo was captured in Nogales, however, also suggests another possible backer.
The city was identified as an area of "significant or increasing presence" for the Beltran-Leyva Organization, or BLO, by the DEA's 2015 National Drug Threat Assessment.

(DEA 2015 NDTA) Meth seizures were up all along the US border in 2014.

'Meth is the only way here to make some real money'

(Hannelore Foerster/Getty) Members of the Bundeskriminalamt German law enforcement agency, the Federal Criminal Office, with portions of 2.9 tonnes of confiscated chlorephedrin, one of the main ingredients used to make methamphetamine, also called crystal meth, at a news conference in 2014 in Wiesbaden, Germany.
That was "more than double the 1,838 pounds it seized in 2011."