The organizers of a Madden NFL gaming tournament where an introverted gamer “disconnected from the real world” went on a shooting rampage and killed two contestants should have taken better precautions to protect people, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday.

Gunman David Katz, 24, who had a history of mental issues, “concealed his weapon in his backpack within the venue, right under the nose” of the Jacksonville, Florida game bar supervisors and Electronic Arts Inc., makers of the hugely popular Madden video game, the lawsuit alleges.

Katz, of Columbia, Maryland, killed himself after fatally shooting two gamers and wounding 10.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Jacob Mitich, a Maryland man, college student, and avid gamer who was shot in Sunday’s assault but survived. Among the defendants named are the GLHF Game Bar, Chicago Pizza & Sports Grille, and Electronic Arts.

Mitich, who was shot in the leg, had noticed Katz at the tournament, appearing “disheveled, wearing the same clothes as the day before, wearing his sunglasses inside, and looking disconnected. Plaintiff heard from several other contestants that David Katz slept in his car the night before,” the lawsuit says.

Katz lost his match Sunday and was eliminated from the competition shortly before noon. Mitich described Katz after the loss as pacing around the room, asking where he could find certain gamers.

Minutes later, Katz went to his car, presumably to get a gun armed with a laser sight, and returned, the lawsuit says.

Katz used the laser pointer to open fire on one of Mitich’s friends.

Mitich “in terror and fear for his life . . . bolted from his chair and leaped over a fellow gamer, dropped his cellphone and scrambled past others until he found an exit,” the lawsuit says. “During the chaos, Mitich felt pain in his back and leg, and noticed blood on his pants. He continued running, jumped over a fence and found safety, where he eventually collapsed and passed out.”

In an exclusive interview with the Associated Press, Mitich said no one should experience the terror he did.

“We’re sitting there playing a video game, we shouldn’t have to worry about someone coming up behind us and shooting us,” Mitich said. 

Mitich and his attorney filed suit in circuit court in Duval County, Florida. 

A longtime Madden gamer, he and other elite e-sports players went to these kinds of events not only in hopes of winning money, but to catch up with their tribe of gamers.

When he met up with his friends on Friday night, they went to check out the tournament space at Chicago Pizza, the restaurant and bar inside The Landings waterfront mall in downtown Jacksonville.

“We were all laughing because of how small it was,” he said.

He and his friends went to Hooters that night, then went to the tournament all day Saturday. It was so crowded that they had to compete in groups of ten, and people couldn’t easily watch their friends play.

That evening they stayed out late, and on Sunday, everyone rolled into the tournament area around ten. He recalled Katz, who had won previous tournaments, as a loner. 

“He didn’t like to communicate, he was antisocial,” said Mitich. “The previous year he’d won Buffalo Bill club series. I didn’t think he had a reaction to winning or losing.”

Then it was Mitich’s turn. It was Round Two, which meant he was advancing in the tournament. His friend, Taylor Robertson – a 28-year-old West Virginian known in the esports community as “Spot Me,” after his twitter handle @spotmeplzzz – stood behind and watched.

Mitich made one play on offense and almost scored.

“Pop pop pop. I thought it was a balloon. I didn’t know what it was,” he said. He heard someone say the word, “shooter,” and that’s when he ran. Katz was the shooter.

Robertson was right behind him, or so he thought.

Mitich’s injuries weren’t life-threatening – he was released from the hospital that night and flew home Monday morning. His friend Robertson, however, had been fatally shot.

Mitich’s attorney, James Young with Morgan & Morgan in Jacksonville, said the lawsuit alleges negligence. There was no off-duty officer for the event, which drew more than 100 people, he said. The mall had a private security guard, and she was spotted in the pizza place before the shooting, but Young said it’s unclear where she was during the shooting.

On Wednesday, Jacksonville fire inspectors shut down Chicago Pizza. A city code violation report says the restaurant didn’t have a permit to hold the Madden NFL 19 tournament. Also, The Florida Times-Union reported that the restaurant’s last approved building layout was submitted in 2009. Fire inspectors said the layout was altered without approval to create the GLHF Game Bar, the room where the tournament took place.

The restaurant’s voicemail was full on Thursday, and a message on Facebook wasn’t returned. When reached for comment, a spokeswoman for The Landing didn’t directly respond to the allegations, saying instead that the company is cooperating with authorities.

Young said the suit also is seeking relief from Electronic Arts Inc., the game developer, to provide safe spaces for tournaments. The lawsuit said Electronic Arts failed to provide security, screen the gamers, inform local law enforcement about the tournament or tell the gamers anything about the venue. Similar claims about security were made against other defendants.

Electronic Arts didn’t respond to an emailed request for comment, but in a statement earlier this week, CEO Andrew Wilson said they were cancelling all scheduled Madden qualifier events “while we run a comprehensive review of safety protocols for competitors and spectators. We will work with our partners and our internal teams to establish a consistent level of security at all of our competitive gaming events.”

Four days after the shooting, Mitich is hoping to begin college a week late. But memories of his friend Robertson haunt him.

“His life ended watching me play Madden,” Mitich said.

CONTRIBUTING: Associated Press

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Sen. John McCain’s 2008 running mate Sarah Palin and other members of the Arizona Republican’s failed 2008 presidential campaign were not invited to his funeral or other memorial services, according to multiple media reports. 

The former Alaska governor, campaign manager Steve Schmidt, adviser Nicolle Wallace and strategist John Weaver were all left off the guest lists for any of McCain’s memorial services, Politico reported, citing three unnamed sources. 

CNN and NBC News both reported that a source close to the Palin family said, “Out of respect for Sen. McCain and his family we have nothing to add at this point. The Palin family will always cherish their friendship with the McCains and hold those memories dear.” 

More: Nation’s capital prepares a hero’s welcome for late Sen. John McCain

“John McCain was my friend,” Palin tweeted Saturday after McCain died from brain cancer. “I will remember the good times. My family and I send prayers for Cindy and the McCain family.”

In another tweet Saturday, Palin said, “Today we lost an original. Sen. John McCain was a maverick and a fighter, never afraid to stand for his beliefs.” 

In McCain’s memoir, “The Restless Wave: Good Times, Just Causes, Great Fights, and Other Appreciations,” which published in May, he said he wished he had picked Democrat-turned-independent Joe Lieberman as his running mate instead of Palin. 

Palin told the Daily Mail that hearing reports of that excerpt was like a “gut punch,” although she said she attributed it to “ghostwriters.” 

Politico reported that McCain became angry with Schmidt for his criticism of the decision to select Palin, even though Schmidt had been one of the advisers advocating her for the VP slot.

Schmidt and Wallace cooperated with the authors of the 2009 book “Game Change” (which was made into and HBO movie), which painted Palin in a very unflattering light. 

Weaver, the man behind McCain’s “Straight Talk Express,” left the campaign in 2007 when McCain’s primary run appeared doomed.

The move not to invite Palin did not sit well with some conservatives. 

“I don’t get that,” said “Fox & Friends” host Brian Kilmeade Thursday. “It doesn’t make any sense.”

“If she’s good enough to be VP, she’s good enough to be at the funeral,” one former aide told Politico. 

A memorial service for McCain was held Thursday in Phoenix before his body was flown to Washington, D.C. He will lie in state in the Capitol on Friday and a funeral service will be held at the National Cathedral on Saturday. He will be buried Sunday at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.

 

 

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England head coach Eddie Jones met with referees’ chief Tony Spreadbury last week to try to closer align officiating from club to international level.

Premiership referees last season favoured the attacking side, encouraging teams to keep the ball.

However England struggled in the Six Nations and on the summer tour of South Africa, where officials allowed defenders more leeway.

Spreadbury says Jones “wants a contest” at the breakdown in the Premiership.

“He was saying to me ‘if we have a contest, that will be great for us’,” Spreadbury said.

“I said that’s fine, but we will referee the laws of the game, and he accepts that. We also want a contest and we want to allow a contest.”

As well as speaking to the England boss, Spreadbury regularly canvasses the views of the Premiership coaches, and expects to see a slight tweak in how the game is refereed in the upcoming campaign.

“All the directors of rugby who have spoken to me in July and August say it is about getting people away from the ball but when there’s a good jackal let’s reward them,” Spreadbury added.

The new Premiership season starts on Friday night, as newly-promoted Bristol Bears host Bath at Ashton Gate.

“We’ll see how players react this weekend, and if there’s anything different in their approach to how they want to play the breakdown,” Spreadbury said.

‘Protect the game’s values’

RFU officials have also vowed to crack down this season on player behaviour, including appealing to the referee, goading the opposition, and brandishing imaginary cards.

They will also look to discipline unwanted involvement from “non-participants”, such as team medics and water-carriers.

“Pre-season we have given the clubs the message,” Spreadbury said.

“We met yesterday with all the members of the PGMOT [Professional Game Match Official Team].

“We presented to them about the game values, and want we want.”

First, there was Dallas and Los Angeles. Now Uber wants a third city to fly its air taxi service, and it’s looking internationally.

In what feels like Amazon’s search for a second headquarters location, Uber this week announced its shortlist for countries the ride-hailing app would work with to launch its aviation project UberAir, a flight-sharing network with electric vertical take-off and landing (e-VTOLs) aircraft. The planes are expected to cruise at about 150 mph and reach about 2,000 feet. The electric planes will go 60 miles on a charge.

The countries were announced during the Uber Elevate Asia Pacific Expo in Japan. The list includes Japan and the cities of Tokyo and Osaka; India with Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore; Australia in Melbourne or Sydney; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and Paris, France, where Uber already announced an Advanced Technologies Center to study and develop flying cars.

Uber already announced that Los Angeles and Dallas would be the first American cities to demo its flying taxi system in 2020, with flights expected to be offered to commercial fliers by 2023. Last year, Uber produced a slick, futuristic video (above) to preview what that might look like.

But first, Uber has to determine which international city will join in the company’s ambitious plans. 

During the expo in Japan, Uber presented potential flight paths for cities to show what it could look like when a customer orders a short plane ride from an app.

Here’s a proposed trip near Tokyo from Haneda to Narita airports:

Uber says its e-VTOLs would take under 20 minutes to cover about 40 miles (what is usually nearly two hours by car). Uber also showed potential routes in Delhi, Mumbai, Seoul, Sydney, and Taipei. 

Here’s what the Sydney route could look like:

Preference is being given to high density metro areas with more than 2 million people so that pooled flights make sense. Uber says it also wants “polycentric” regions (urban areas made up of multiple cities), and would rather work with cities that already cooperate smoothly with Uber on the street. Uber has a full list that goes deep into its criteria.

Separate from Uber’s search, Bloomberg reports that Japanese government officials are moving ahead to develop a flying car system. The country is in talks with Uber and other aviation companies to bring short-haul, commuter flights to the country within the next 10 years.

No word yet on when the UberAir finalist cities will be announced, but if it’s anything like the Amazon search for a second headquarters, this might take a while.

Alex Jones will have to answer for at least one of his conspiracy theories.

The right-wing media host on Thursday was denied in his motion for dismissal of a defamation lawsuit against him, forcing him to address the claims of two parents of a child killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre, the Huffington Post reported.

Judge Scott Jenkins of the 53rd District Court in Austin, Texas, rejected Jones’ argument that, as a citizen exercising his First Amendment rights, he was protected from lawsuits by the Texas Citizens Participation Act.

Jones, whose Infowars media group is based in Austin, was also seeking more than $100,000 in court costs from the parents.

Instead, he faces more than $1 million in damages claimed by Leonard Pozner and Veronique De La Rosa, whose 6-year-old son, Noah, was among the 20 kids and six adults slain at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Connecticut, on Dec. 14, 2012.

Jones has repeatedly said that mass shooting was an elaborate hoax perpetrated by the government. He has also maintained that the students who spoke out after the Feb. 14 school shooting that took 17 lives in Parkland, Florida, were actors, and that the rampage was orchestrated by gun-control advocates.

Earlier this month, Jones was accused in a court filing of destroying evidence by deleting web pages and video content related to the Sandy Hook carnage.

In two separate lawsuits, Sandy Hook parents said they’ve been subjected to death threats and online harassment by people who believe Jones’ baseless statements. Pozner and De La Rosa said the constant stalking has forced them to move seven times.

More: Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones destroyed evidence, court motion claims

Opinion: Alex Jones will never abandon deranged propaganda, that’s why Twitter needs to ban him

One of the lawsuits quotes Jones as saying on March 14, 2014: “We’ve clearly got people where it’s actors playing different parts of different people. I’ve looked at it and undoubtedly there’s a cover-up, there’s actors, they’re manipulating, they’ve been caught lying and they were pre-planning before it and rolled out with it.”

Infowars is also defending itself against a defamation lawsuit brought by a Massachusetts resident named Marcel Fontaine, whom the website misidentified as the Parkland shooter.

Pressure on Jones has intensified from several fronts, including the online platforms he uses to disseminate his propaganda. This month, Facebook, Apple, Spotify, Twitter and YouTube have either purged his content from their websites or suspended his account.

The Huffington Post reported that Jones’ former wife, Kelly Jones, offered her support to parents outside the courthouse during Thursday’s hearing, carrying a sign that read, “Honk 4 Sandy Hook kids.’’

 “Texans do care about justice, we care about bullies,” Kelly Jones was quoted as saying. “We’re a strong state and we don’t put up with people bullying kids or parents of murdered schoolkids. We’re not gonna tolerate that.’’

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WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump threatened to upend the rules of global trade on Thursday, saying he would pull out of the World Trade Organization unless it adopts rules more favorable to the United States.

“If they don’t shape up, I would withdraw from the WTO,” Trump told Bloomberg News.

Trump has long been frustrated with the WTO, which sets the standards and rules that govern other international trade agreements, and provides a forum for resolving disputes. He specifically wants the Geneva-based body to take a tougher stance on China’s steel dumping and theft of U.S. intellectual property.

But Trump’s remark on Thursday marks his most explicit threat to withdraw from the WTO yet.

Just last month, he expressed a desire to work with other countries to reform the WTO from within the organization. “WTO has treated the United States very badly, and I hope they change their ways,” he said then. “And we’re not planning anything now, but if they don’t treat us properly, we will be doing something.”

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders later explained that while the president is frustrated by the organization, “that is not accurate that the U.S. is leaving the WTO.”

Congress voted in 1994 to join the WTO, which replaced an earlier post-World War II pact called the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. So it’s unclear what power Trump would have to pull out of the WTO without congressional approval.

The threat comes amid tense negotiations over the North American Free Trade Agreement, which Trump wants to replace with a brand new agreement with Mexico and Canada. 

Trump said this week that the United States and Mexico had reached a new bilateral trade deal, noting it would be called the United States-Mexico trade agreement and would replace NAFTA, which he said had “bad connotations” for the United States.

Meanwhile, U.S. and Canadian negotiators continue meeting to overhaul NAFTA.

“We continue to be encouraged by the constructive atmosphere that I think both countries are bringing to the table,” Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters Thursday after leaving a meeting with U.S. Trade Rep. Robert Lighthizer.

Freeland, who is leading Canada’s delegation in the talks with US officials, joined with other top Canadian officials to brief leaders of the country’s provinces and territories on the status of trade negotiations.

Among those on the call were Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Ambassador to the U.S. David MacNaughton.

The Associated Press contributed.

 

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Watch highlights as Sam Curran hits 78 as England are bowled out for 246 on day one of the fourth Test against India at Southampton.

MATCH REPORT: England bowled out for 246 despite Curran’s 78

WATCH MORE: ‘A quality innings’ – Curran reaches 50 with huge six

WATCH MORE: ‘A horrible dismissal’ – Jennings ‘completely deceived’ by Bumrah

Available to UK users only.

Ah, online dating. If you’ve dated in the past 20 years, you’ve likely encountered one – or all – of the myriad dating sites in some form. 

And as we’ve increasingly moved our lives online, digital dating’s finally shed the stigma it once carried, leaving people free to meet others however they choose.

Julie Spira, dating expert and CEO of cyberdatingexpert.com says it wasn’t always so easy to meet people online. She would know: she’s been helping clients find love online since 1994.

“People didn’t have mobile phones and laptops, and the process was people would go home, log on slowly, see who had written to them and write back,” she says. “The courtship process was a lot slower, so it took quite a while to get from the first interaction to actually going on a date. Plus in those days, there was a stigma associated with online dating. You did not tell people you met your spouse, or partner, or even a date online.”

As we’ve changed, so has the online dating landscape. In the years since their initial launches, the forefathers of dating sites have forged ahead on mobile while holding on to their desktop roots.

Here are our top 5 dating site picks:

1. Best for international daters: Zoosk

What initially began as a Facebook app developed in 2007 has grown into a company with 35 million users in more than 80 countries. 

“Zoosk is fun and flirty,” Spira says.

Rather than asking its user for dating questions, Zoosk picks dates for its users based on a user’s on-site activity. If you shoot a message to Jake Doe, for example, Zoosk says it’ll use that action to determine which types of profiles to show you going forward.

“Zoosk is fun and flirty,” Spira says. “It does cater to a younger crowd – more of a millennial crowd.”

What you need to know:

• Zoosk is free to sign up, but you’ll need a paid subscription to interact with other users. The company also uses its own form of currency called Zoosk coins that are available for purchase. Daters can use these for features like adding a “boost” to their own profiles in search or sending another user a “virtual gift.”

• Users can browse the site on both desktop and mobile.

2. Best for all kinds of daters: Match

Before there were apps on which one could swipe right and left on a dizzying number of potential connections, there was Match. Yes, Match.com is the mother of all dating sites. Launched back in 1995, its decades in the business help it bring a ton of insight to the table for singles looking for all kinds of connections. 

“Match is the family brand,” Spira says.

And with its more recent push into mobile come a few new features that have helped make the ancient site more relevant, including its very own version of Stories, popularized by Snapchat and, uh … adopted by everyone else.

Match users can shoot little videos of their day or add voiceovers to photos and post them to their profiles for other users to check out.

“Match is the family brand,” Spira says. “It’s the one where someone could see their grandmother on, and someone could see their grandson on. It has the largest critical mass, and they have done a fabulous job of keeping up with the technology.”

What you need to know: 

• It’s technically free to build a profile and browse for matches, but users who want to engage in direct messaging with their matches will have to upgrade to a paid membership, which costs on average about $20 per month. There’s also a free trial option.

• Match users can browse on desktop and on mobile through its app.

• Match also recently added Missed Connections which, like the app Happn, tells users who they’ve crossed paths with recently.

• More than 25,000 new users join each day, apparently.

• Spira says it “spans a lot of different relationship types,” from casual to serious.

3. Best for those looking to get hitched: eHarmony

Founded in 2000 by Dr. Neil Clark Warren, eHarmony is the site for serious daters. A spokesperson for the site says it’s been used by 54 million people, and is apparently responsible for 4 percent of U.S. marriages.. Users answer a lengthy questionnaire that helps eHarmony determine what it calls a “a select group of compatible matches with whom you can build a quality relationship.”

Spira says she’s always seen eHarmony as a “matrimonial dating site.”

“That doesn’t mean you’re going to walk down the aisle, but it certainly means that you’re looking for a very serious relationship that may or may not lead to marriage. It may lead to living together or at least being in an exclusive, committed relationship.”

What you need to know:

• While it’s free to make an account, answer questions, and see your matches, you’ll need to select a paid membership to make contact. Prices start at $19.95 per month.

• It’s available on both desktop and through its app.

• It’s not recommended for users looking to date casually. “eHarmony will not cater to somebody who’s looking for a casual relationship or hookup– you will never see that on eHarmony,” Spira says.

4. Best for the opinionated: OkCupid

On OkCupid, users can offer a ton of information about themselves through the site’s Match Questions. Examples include: “Would you date someone who keeps a gun in the house?” or “Should the government require children be vaccinated for preventable diseases?” The answers to these questions help OkCupid determine which members might be a good match for one another. 

Of note: Per OkCupid’s own stats, liberal women in particular have luck on the site. And in 2017, the site offered users the chance to answer 50 “current events” questions that illuminate a user’s politics.

“OkCupid has been a favorite of mine for years,” Spira says. “I always liked OkCupid because they have a great critical mass and they have the thought-provoking questions that really allow you to think about how you feel about some of these issues, whether it’s politics or gun control, and how do you feel about your date’s answers. People spend a lot of time on site just perusing the questions that other people answer, and I like that. “

What you need to know:

• OkCupid is free for the most part, but does offer some paid upgrades for features like increased search abilities, a “free automatic boost per day during prime time,” or even the option to browse privately in “Incognito Mode.”

• It’s available on both desktop and mobile.

Plenty of Fish, sometime styled as POF, boasts 4 million daily active users, with 65,000 new users each day apparently, and claims users send 1 billion messages per month. After registering for POF, hopeful daters take a personality test that then helps POF determine what they call, “Your Relationship Needs.” Basically, it’s a way to make sure users know what they want from their love lives, and to ensure that it serves users with other profiles that meet that criteria.

One unusual quirk: The site recently launched a feature that allows users to message others through Google Home.

Says Spira: “They have a large user base, are a free site, and are very popular.”

What you need to know:

• POF is pretty much entirely free, but does offer upgrades. Like Zoosk, POF offers “tokens” that let users “highlight” their profiles so that they stand out to other users, send a message that goes straight to the top of their inboxes, or send a “Super Yes” to users they’re particularly interested in.

• It has both a desktop site, and an app.

Alright, daters – get your beautiful faces out there.