White House locked down

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White House locked down
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Officials temporarily locked down the White House
late Tuesday afternoon after a man followed a
motorcade into a secure area of the heavily
guarded complex. Around 440 p.m., the driver
entered the restricted area, behind a motorcade
that included President Barack Obama's two
daughters, who go to school nearby. Obama was
inside the White House at the time, with his
schedule indicating he was meeting with Secretary
of State John Kerry. The driver was stopped by
uniformed officers at the outer perimeter of a
checkpoint at 17th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue
and taken into custody, according to a U.S.
Secret Service spokesperson. The Secret Service
later identified the 55-year-old man as Mathew
Evan Goldstein, who was charged with unlawful
entry. The source familiar with the incident said
the driver holds a pass for the U.S. Treasury
building, which sits next to the White House on
Pennsylvania Avenue. About one hour after it
began, journalists inside the White House were
told the lockdown had been lifted. Video from the
scene showed a gray Honda Civic with its doors,
hood and trunk opened as authorities looked in
and around it. No reasons for the intrusion have
been given.
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In Other News

• America's magnificent redwood forests now face a
  piecemeal but steady assault by poachers. Thieves
  are cutting massive chunks from the base of the
  champion trees, which are the tallest on Earth
  and are up to 2,000 years old. While state
  officials say the damage is far from any
  Amazonian deforestation, they do rank the
  desecration alongside elephant tusk poaching.
  Under the cloak of darkness, bandits are poaching
  the burl from the old-growth redwoods in Redwood
  National and State Parks in California, and that
  lumpy feature from the tree base is then sold for
  thousands of dollars to make furniture, bowls and
  even souvenirs. What makes the poaching so
  distressing is that the burls are crucial to the
  survival of the redwoods, whose towering forests
  block out the sun and draw tourists worldwide.
  When a burl cutting occurs, a lot of the bark is
  damaged or removed, and that bark is critical to
  protecting the redwoods from insect infestation
  and fire because the material is flame-resistant.
  To combat the poachers, officials at Redwood
  National and State Parks in northern California
  have closed an eight-mile drive through the
  forests at night. The Redwood National and State
  Parks comprises 133,000 acres of forest,
  coastlines, prairies, rivers and streams.
  Approximately 40,000 acres are old-growth forest
  and are a big draw for international visitors who
  consider a drive through the park a
  once-in-a-lifetime experience.
• The Meliora tickets have been drawn and the next
  pizza party winners are Zach Yoder, Cole Grife,
  Dane Gilmer, and Morgan Belser.
  Congratulationsthe pizza party will be held in
  June. We will contact the winners with the
  details as we get closer to the date.