The Philadelphia Police Department says it has completed its DNC animal analysis: it’s an alpaca, not a llama.

There seemed to be some question as to what kind of animal was hanging out near City Hall earlier this week with Democratic National Convention protesters and attendees.

Our own photographer, Joseph Kaczmarek, snapped a picture of the fuzzy friend on Monday while crossing JFK Boulevard with a handler.

On Wednesday, the city’s official Twitter account put out the following tweet, letting everyone know that an official police report confirmed that the animal was not a llama, but rather an alpaca.

Philly Police quickly responded on Twitter, as only the sassy Philly Police social handlers could:

Turns out the alpaca is named Shay, according to Kaczmarek. Shay’s handler, Ethan, said he uses the alpaca to raise awareness in support of small farms.

In three months, Laurie Cestnick started a Facebook group and turned it into a Bernie Sanders social media machine 33,000 members strong. 

Thousands who joined the online conversation at "Occupy DNC Convention July 2016" pledged to join Cestnick for a week in Philadelphia protesting what many perceived as a subversion of the primary election process in order to hand Hillary Clinton the nomination.

It’s hard to tell exactly how many protesters descended on Philadelphia this week, but local law enforcement said a rough estimate was 5,000. That’s the total for many groups, not just Cestnick’s Facebook collective. She admitted she’d do things differently next time, though she called the overall effect a success.

"If we ever do it again, we would organize more quickly, more efficiently," said Cestnick, a petite, blonde-haired neuroscientist from outside Boston In an interview Wednesday during a protest. "Imagine how many people we could have reached if we had started this a year ago.”

She also conceded that she trusted too many other protest organizers in her first go as an agitant.

"It’s tough trying to organize all this," she said. "It’s hard to know where everyone came from. Don’t work with people you question.”

The fervent Bernie Sanders supporter, who has appeared on CNN to argue what she believes to be several instances of voter fraud during the primaries, so far has spent the convention taking part in protests. Those have been mostly in Center City where she and other protest organizers felt their message would be most heard.

Her considerable success in corralling so many people into one forum had the feel of an experiment in transforming social media into political action.[[388483472,C,600,450]]

The results are hard to measure at this point, but Cestnick’s fellow organizer Brianna Jones, a Mount Airy woman who led a coalition called the DNC Action Committee, was somewhat skeptical leading up to the DNC about a Facebook group’s turnout capacity.

In an interview the week before the election, Jones pointed to expectations most people have in turnouts from evites to parties. She cautioned against putting too much optimism in promises made on Facebook.

Cestnick said she didn’t have a good feel for how many turned out who were members of her “Occupy DNC” group. But she remained in high spirits Wednesday afternoon at the protest she helped organize with another group, Black Men for Bernie, on the Thomas Paine Plaza outside the City of Philadelphia’s Municipal Services Building.

More than a thousand people appeared to rally at that gathering, including dozens of Bernie Sanders delegates who took a stage built on the plaza to demand the Democratic Party reform its selection process -- and build an even more progressive platform.

Cestnick’s boyfriend, Jim Kelly, who works for a beer distributor in the Boston area, said organizing transportation, lodging, and then ultimately protests became a nearly full-time job.

His girlfriend’s effort did have one very tangible effect.

“He used to be a Republican,” Cestnick said, smiling as she sat with Kelly on the side of a protest stage.

“I was, I was a conflicted Republican,” Kelly said. “But no more.”

Two teenagers frantically flagged down a motorist after a man exposed himself to them and then chased after one of the girls.

The 15-year-olds were riding their bikes through the dog park on Crown Royal Parkway in Evesham Township, New Jersey Wednesday afternoon when they saw the man.

He was walking ahead of them and then walked into a hedgerow. When the biked closer to the hedgerow, the man exposed himself, police said.

Both girls sped off and the man chased after one of them. He was scared away when a motorist the teens flagged down, stopped.

Evesham police searched the Kings Grant Development neighborhood but didn't find the guy. They're working on a composite sketch.

The teens described the man as very pale with a military-style haircut. He appeared to be in his 20s, was wearing tan khaki shorts and a black t-shirt.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Evesham Police Department at 856-983-4699.

Two of Congress' youngest members joined millennials in Center City Philadelphia on Wednesday afternoon to talk Uber, the student debt crisis and other issues affecting the country's youngest generation of voters.

Philadelphia's own U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., and U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., spoke on a panel as part of a caucus hosted by the Millennial Action Project, a nonprofit that aims to encourage political cooperation through leadership by millennials. Boyle and Moulton answered questions from Millennial Action Project Co-Founder and President Steven Olikara and people in the audience, and talked about why millennial participation in politics is vital to the country's future.

"The focus on millennial issues is not something you hear about. Most people respond where voters are, so seniors get the most attention because they vote most," Boyle, 39, told NBC10 after the panel. "But issues in the millennial generation matter. It is easy to be apathetic and cynical, but difficult to believe in something and pour your heart and soul into it ... but to create change, you have to bother to show up."

Topics of discussion tailored to millennials included a bill Moulton sponsored to allow the federal government to fund ride-sharing, like Uber and Lyft, as well as legislation Boyle is working on to create better refinancing options for student debt.

"Millennial Action Project aims to answer how this new generation will govern America in an era of polarization and gridlock. It feels like we can’t get things done any more in our country at the national level. So, we activate millennial policy makers the first of our generation to be elected to office, congress, and state ligatures to foster bi-partisan participation," Olikara said in an interview with NBC10 ahead of Wednesday's caucus.

Perhaps the oldest person who came to the event, held on the 45th floor of the Comcast Center, was Sherry Blumenthal, 70, of Springfield Township, Montgomery County. Blumenthal, a recently retired doctor specializing in obstetrics and gynecology, said she's an avid Hillary Clinton supporter and received an email about the event, so she decided to attend.

"This is the generation coming up that is going to run this country," Blumenthal said. "And I think it's really important to understand them and support them."

The panel drew people from around the country who are in town for the Democratic National Convention to discuss that new generation and its issues and politics.

"Millennials are powerful in this life, and it is time for millennials to assume leadership. Seeing them gives me so much hope that they make progress on the issues that matter," Justin Fairfax, a candidate for lieutenant governor of Virginia, said before the panel. "They are hopeful, optimistic, and daring. Our country is in need of people like them right now."

Former Philadelphia police commissioner Charles Ramsey called for more commonsense measures to address gun violence to protect both police officers and the public at large Wednesday night on stage at the Democratic National Convention.

"I'm here to say we need more than grieving to protect our law enforcement officers and to serve the memory of those heroes who have fallen,” Ramsey told the crowd at the Wells Fargo Center. “We need commonsense measures to reduce gun violence. Police need these commonsense measures and a leader who will fight for them."

Ramsey told a story about growing up in the Englewood neighborhood on the South Side of Chicago, and how both a family friend and a police officer were shot dead just 50 yards from his home just a few years apart.  His brother’s best friend was killed for refusing to join a gang, he said, while the officer was filling out a police report in his patrol car when he was murdered by three gang members.

"Gun violence isn't unique to Englewood. It continues to visit neighborhoods across the United States,” Ramsey said. "During my years in policing, I've seen the crime scenes. I've seen the grieving families, including families of police officers that were killed. I've seen the costs of gun violence. Now more than ever, we need a strong and steady leader to stop the bloodshed, a leader that'll protect our officers from being outgunned by weapons of war, and to rebuild the bonds between police and communities. That's why I'm with Hillary Clinton."

Last week Philadelphia’s Fraternal Order of Police slammed Clinton over the lineup for the DNC, saying in a statement that they didn’t see any widows or family members of slain police officers on the initial itinerary for planned speakers at the DNC. However, when asked officials with the Democratic National Convention Committee told NBC10 that Ramsey as well as Joe Sweeney, a detective with the NYPD who dug through the rubble of the World Trade Center to search for survivors on September 11, 2001, were scheduled to speak at the convention. 

Sweeney spoke Tuesday about 9/11 first responders and their fight for health benefits.

Ramsey was credited for a drop in violent crime in Philadelphia during his tenure, during which he emphasized community policing strategies. He was tapped by President Barack Obama in 2014 to lead a task force on 21st century policing. The task force looks at police-community relations.

"The bonds between law enforcement and communities are frayed,” Ramsey said Wednesday night at the DNC. "But we can't play to America's worst fears. We need to champion our greatest hopes. Hillary will. She'll bring police and communities closer together. She'll support those who feel forgotten in challenged areas like the South Side of Chicago, Southeast D.C., and North Philadelphia. And she'll support dedicated police officers working to improve their communities.

"Important as ever, Hillary Clinton will build bridges between communities and police,” he said. "And ladies and gentleman, that's better than building walls."

Tuesday marked a historic moment as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton became the first woman nominated for president by a major political party. Clinton joined good company when she claimed the "first" title. Here are 13 powerful women who chipped away at the glass ceiling by achieving historic firsts.

Computer Scientist: Ada Lovelace (1815-1852) is considered to be the first female computer scientist. She worked with close friend Charles Babbage on plans for a computing machine in 1834 — they were some of the first people to come up with the concept.

Editor of Major U.S. Newspaper: Cornelia Walter became the first woman to serve as editor of a major U.S. newspaper when she took over as editor of the Boston Transcript in 1842. She was 27 at the time.

American Doctor: In 1849, Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman to get a medical degree at an American university.

American Lawyer: Arabella Mansfield of Iowa became the first woman officially recognized as a lawyer in the United States when she passed the bar exam in 1869. Although she did not go on to practice law, she taught at several colleges.

Presidential Candidate: Though she received no electoral votes, Victoria Woodhull ran for president in 1872 as the People's Party candidate — nearly 50 years before women could even vote. She was jailed on Election Day on obscenity charges.

Prime Minister: Sirimavo Bandaranaike became the first female prime minister or president of a country when she was elected as prime minister of Sri Lanka in 1960.

In Space: Valentaina Tereshkova was the first woman to fly in space when Russia's Vostok 6 launched June 16, 1963. Almost exactly 20 years later, Sally Ride became the first American woman to accomplish the feat when the Challenger launched June 18, 1983.

CEO of Fortune 500 Company: Serving as CEO of The Washington Post from 1963 to 1991, Katharine Graham was the first woman to lead a Fortune 500 Company.

Boston Marathon Runner: When Bobbi Gibb's 1966 application to run the Boston Marathon was rejected because she was a woman, she decided to join in anyway. After sneaking into the starting gate, she ran the marathon in 3:21:40.

Military Academy Graduate: Andrea Hollen was the first of 62 women to graduate from West Point University in the class of 1980. She also received a Rhodes scholarship.

Oscar-Winning Director: Winning an Oscar in 2010 for "The Hurt Locker," Kathryn Bigelow became the first woman to win Best Director at the Academy Awards. She was the fourth woman to be nominated for that award.

Head of Major U.S. Sports Magazine: ESPN hired Alison Overholt to be editor of ESPN The Magazine in January, making her the first woman to lead a major American sports magazine.

SEAL Candidates: In light of the recent law change that allows women to serve in more combat military roles, the first female SEAL candidates could start training in late August, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. That means a female Navy SEAL could be just a couple of years away.

A United Airlines flight was diverted to O'Hare International Airport on Wednesday evening, authorities confirmed.

Flight 1696 from Newark, New Jersey, to Seattle, Washington, landed at O'Hare around 8 p.m. due to a "non-credible threat," according to a spokesperson for United Airlines.

The flight was diverted "out of an abundance of caution," according to United. The passengers and crew were safely taken off the plane, according to the Chicago Police Department, who continue to investigate the incident.

United was working to get customers to Seattle Wednesday night.

Further details about the threat were not immediately available. 

A man smoking marijuana with an acquaintance at the Port Authority bus terminal allegedly said, "Let's off some cops" and showed the friend a gun inside his bag, law enforcement sources say. 

The two men were smoking and talking inside the bus terminal Wednesday night when the 18-year-old suspect allegedly uttered the menacing phrase as Port Authority police officers walked by. 

The acquaintance became startled and made an excuse to walk away. He then went to find some Port Authority officers, the sources said.

The officers took Hunter Lee Taylor, who is from Florida, into custody and found a fully loaded revolver inside his bag. He was transferred to Manhattan Central Booking on Thursday morning. 

The man who turned in Taylor lives at Samaritan Village, a homeless shelter in Brooklyn, sources say. He was interviewed by police and released.

It's not clear how the two knew one another.

Sources say the investigation is ongoing. They believe this was an isolated incident and that there is no danger to commuters. 

Several protesters briefly broke through a security gate outside of the Wells Fargo Center just before President Barack Obama addressed Democratic National Convention attendees inside the arena.

Philadelphia Police said they detained seven people who breached the fence at Broad Street and Pattison Avenue. The Secret Service arrested the seven and said they faced felony charges for entering a restricted area. The protesters didn't enter the Wells Fargo Center, said authorities.

Police Commissioner Richard Ross said protesters were warned repeatedly not to breach the area.

"For whatever reason, they chose to do it anyway with multiple officers sitting there waiting for them, so it was over before it started," Ross said, explaining the situation never got tense for the officers, who were still in "soft" clothes rather than protective gear. "We're just not gonna let anything get out of hand," Ross said, adding that 99-percent of the people were not an issue, only a handful of instigators.

Officers secured the fence and the crowd calmed down.

Separately, a woman was injured while trying to ‎put out a flag that was set on fire, according to NBC News. She was treated at the scene for burns on her leg.

One police officer suffered non-life-threatening injuries trying to stop someone from cutting into a fence at Broad and Geary streets -- slightly north of the arena, said Philadelphia Police.

Philadelphia Police turned the arrested protesters over to the Secret Service who took them to the city's Federal Detention Center for arraignment, said the Secret Service.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is investigating reports of hair loss, balding, rashes and other issues stemming from the use of WEN by Chaz Dean Cleansing Conditioners, a line of products by a Los Angeles stylist.

In a post on its website on July 19, the FDA said consumers who experienced a reaction after using WEN conditioner products should stop using the product and consult with their dermatologist or other health care provider.

Consumers should also report to the FDA any reactions they may have experienced while using the products. The conditioners come in three varieties: Sweet Almond Mint, Lavender and Pomegranate

According to the WEN website, the conditioners cleanse "hair thoroughly without lather or harsh sulfates found in some ordinary shampoos." 

The FDA said that as of July 7, 2016, the agency had received 127 adverse event reports directly from consumers about WEN conditioner products, the largest number of reports ever associated with any cosmetic hair cleansing product, including cleansing conditioners. 

The FDA also said that when it inspected the manufacturing and distribution facilities for these products, it learned that consumers had reported reactions to the products in more than 21,000 complaints submitted to Chaz Dean, Inc. and Guthy Renker LLC, the companies that market and manufacture the products.

The FDA has not yet determined a possible cause for the adverse reactions. The agency said it has called on the company to “provide any data that might help us to better understand the reports of hair loss associated with the use of WEN by Chaz Dean Cleansing Conditioner products.”

The FDA also has reached out to physicians and other health care providers asking them to notify their patients of hair loss and other complaints associated with the use of these products and to report adverse events to the agency.

Infomercial giant Guthy-Renker, told NBC in a statement on July 20, 2016: “We have confidence in WEN® by Chaz Dean. We have no evidence that WEN, or any of the individual ingredients in WEN, causes hair loss. WEN is used by hundreds of thousands of satisfied customers, and all formulations of the product comply with applicable regulations wherever it is sold. We have consistently cooperated with the FDA with respect to any inquiries regarding WEN and we intend to continue to do so.​”

Last year, more than 200 people in 40 different states filed a class-action lawsuit against Wen Hair Care and Guthy-Renker. The lawsuit, filed by the law firm of Christiansen Davis, alleged that using the company's cleansing conditioner resulted in baldness, rashes, scalp irritation, hair breakage and hair discoloration, NBC News reported. 

The lawsuit also alleged that the manufacturer knew about these complaints but refused to do anything about them, including removing the products from stores.

In a statement provided to NBC News in December 2015, Wen, Guthy-Renker and Chaz Dean rebutted the lawsuit's claims, saying, "There is no scientific evidence to support any claim that our hair care products caused anyone to lose their hair. There are many reasons why individuals may lose their hair, all unrelated to Wen hair products."

"We intend to vigorously contest the allegations made against our products. And we encourage any customer with any questions to contact us," the statement added. 

The FDA said it will provide additional updates on its investigation as new information becomes available.

The president headlined the night’s speeches, and a few of his boasts of his record headline our fact-checking report:

• President Barack Obama claimed that under his administration, “we finally began to wean ourselves off foreign oil,” but dependency on imported oil had begun to drop years before he took office.
• The president repeated a frequent boast that the U.S. “doubled our production of clean energy” during his tenure. Monthly renewable energy production has gone up 40 percent.
• Obama said deficits have “come down” under his administration. That’s true, but they are expected to rise again soon under his proposed budget.
• Vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine falsely referred to economist Mark Zandi as “John McCain’s chief economic adviser during the ’08 race,” in touting an estimate of job loss under Donald Trump’s proposals. In fact, Zandi is a Democrat.
• Rev. Jesse Jackson wrongly said “we have not lost a single job, a single month” since Obama became president, and he was also off in saying the U.S. trades “more with Mexico than we do with China.”
• Former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta falsely claimed that Trump “says he gets his foreign policy experience from … running the Miss Universe pageant.” Trump didn’t say that was his foreign policy experience.
• Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid claimed that the GOP ticket wanted to “gamble” Social Security “in the stock market.” But Trump’s campaign has called for making no changes to Social Security.
• Kaine claimed that Trump said he “wants to abandon” our NATO allies. Trump has said that he doesn’t want the U.S. to leave NATO, but has suggested he would not automatically defend NATO allies that do not pay their share of defense costs.

• DNC Final Night: Hillary Clinton to Make Her Case

Note to Readers

This story was written with the help of the entire staff, including some of those based in Philadelphia who are at the convention site. As we did for the Republican National Convention, we intend to vet the major speeches at the Democratic National Convention for factual accuracy, applying the same standards to both.

• Chelsea Clinton Will Testify to Her Mother's Credentials

Foreign Oil Dependency

President Obama made a misstep when he said, “After decades of talk, we finally began to wean ourselves off foreign oil” under his administration.

Actually, U.S. dependency on imported oil had already begun to decline years before Obama first took office.

According to official figures from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, dependency peaked in 2005, when the nation imported 60.3 percent of the crude oil it consumed. But that percentage dropped to 57 percent in 2008, the year before Obama was sworn in.

It’s true that U.S. dependency had continued to drop during Obama’s time — down to 24 percent last year.

But the fact is the decline “began” well before Obama entered the White House. Also, dependency has now begun to rise again due to low oil prices and reduced U.S. drilling. The U.S. imported 26.6 percent of its crude oil in the first half of 2016.

And Clean Energy Growth

Obama also repeated his frequent, and inflated, boast that during his time in office the U.S. “doubled our production of clean energy.”

Monthly renewable energy production has increased by about 40 percent from January 2009 to April 2016, far from the 100 percent increase Obama claimed. While it is true that wind and solar power have more than doubled since 2008 (they’ve nearly quadrupled, in fact), they represent only part of the renewable energy picture. Less than a third of renewable energy consumption in April came from wind and solar.

As we wrote back in 2012 when Obama made a similar claim, the largest category of renewable energy is biomass, such as ethanol that is blended in gasoline. And the second-biggest category is hydropower — electricity generated from dams. Together, hydroelectric power and biomass accounted for nearly 70 percent of renewable energy consumption in April.

Deficits to Rise Again

Boasting of his post-recession record, President Obama said that “we’ve seen deficits come down.” They have, but deficits will soon begin to rise again under the president’s proposed budget unless his successor cuts revenues or increases taxes, or both.

It’s true that annual federal deficits have declined since peaking at $1.4 trillion in fiscal year 2009 — a deficit Obama largely inherited from a budget signed into law by his predecessor, George W. Bush. The decline was slow at first with deficits stubbornly remaining above the $1 trillion mark for four straight years.

Since then, the yearly deficits have declined markedly. In fiscal year 2015, which ended last Sept. 30, the deficit was $438 billion, a drop of 69 percent from FY 2009.

In an analysis of Obama’s fiscal year 2017 budget, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects deficits will continue to fall for two more years. But it also warned about the return of growing deficits in the 10-year period covered by the analysis.

CBO, March: Under the President’s proposals, CBO estimates, the deficit would total $529 billion in 2016. It would fall to $433 billion in 2017, fall further to $383 billion in 2018, and then increase in most subsequent years, eventually growing to $972 billion in 2026.

In its analysis of the presidential budget proposal, the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said the plan would “stabilize the debt as a share of the economy,” but it “does not go far enough” to reduce the debt “from its current record-high levels.”

The CBO analysis showed that federal debt owed to the public was 73.6 percent of GDP in 2015, and will creep up under the budget plan to 77.4 percent by 2026.

Kaine Wrong on McCain Adviser

Vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine repeated a shopworn Democratic falsehood when he referred to economist Mark Zandi as “John McCain’s chief economic adviser.”

Kaine: John McCain’s chief economic adviser during the ’08 race … estimates that Trump’s promises would cause America to lose 3.5 million jobs.

It’s true that Moody’s Analytics, where Zandi is chief economist, issued a report last month concluding that the combined effects of Trump’s policy proposals on taxes, government spending, immigration and international trade — if fully implemented — would cause “a decline of 3.4 million jobs” during the four years of a Trump presidency.

Zandi was lead author of that study, and he’s a well-respected business economist. But he wasn’t the 2008 GOP nominee’s “chief” economic adviser. He’s not even a Republican. Kaine and other Democrats have adopted the bad habit of referring to him that way in the hope that it will give added weight to whatever Zandi says that’s critical of Republican policy.

Kaine is a serial offender in this bit of petty deceit. Nearly six years ago, in September 2010, Kaine described Zandi that way in a Sunday talk show, when Kaine was chairman of the Democratic National Committee. What we wrote then still goes:

FactCheck.org, Sept. 7, 2010: Kaine got it wrong when he called economist Mark Zandi “John McCain’s chief economics adviser.” … It’s true that Zandi was one of those who offered advice to McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign. But as we’ve reported before, he says he’s a registered Democrat, and he was just one of several economists who advised McCain. His chief economic adviser was Douglas Holtz-Eakin.

What we reported prior to that was that Zandi said in a 2009 interview: “I’m a registered Democrat.” Zandi said in that same 2009 Washington Post interview that he had agreed to advise McCain at the request of an old friend, McCain’s chief economic adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin. Zandi also advises Democrats.

And last year, Zandi gave $2,700 — the legal maximum — to Hillary Clinton’s primary campaign.

Jesse Jackson, Off-Script

Rev. Jesse Jackson — departing from his prepared remarks — made two false claims, about trade and about Obama’s record on jobs.

Jobs: Jackson said: “He came in office, we lost 800,000 jobs. We have not lost a single job, a single month since Barack has been president.”

That’s off by a mile.

It’s true that the U.S. was losing jobs at the rate of hundreds of thousands per month at the time Obama first took office, but that hemorrhaging continued for months afterward as well.

The loss in total nonfarm employment, officially measured by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, was 769,000 in November 2008, 695,000 in December and 791,000 in January 2009.

Every month of Obama’s first year in office showed losses, and there were five months in 2010 that also showed losses. In all, the U.S. lost close to 4.4 million jobs in the months before Obama took office, but it lost a little more than 4.3 million more in the opening months of Obama’s term — not hitting bottom until February 2010.

Trade: Jackson said, “We trade more with Mexico than we do with China and Japan every day.”

Not so. It’s true that the U.S. trades more with Mexico than with Japan — but not more than it trades with China.

Total trade in goods (the value of all exports plus the value of all imports) between Mexico and the U.S. was $214 billion in the first five months of this year, according to the U.S Census Bureau. That’s a bit less than the $216 billion total trade with China.

And that’s been true for years. Trade in goods with China has exceeded that with Mexico for all of 2015, and for all of 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011 and 2010 as well. We had to go back more than a decade, to 2005, to find a year in which trade with Mexico exceeded that with China.

Foreign Policy and Pageants

Former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta falsely claimed that “Donald Trump says he gets his foreign policy experience from … running the Miss Universe pageant.”

Panetta was referring to a Trump interview with Fox News anchor Bret Baier in May. As we’ve written before, Baier asked Trump whether he had talked to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump refused to answer, and went on to say that “I know Russia well” because “I had a major event in Russia two or three years ago,” referring to the 2013 pageant.

But Trump didn’t go so far as to say that the pageant was an example of his foreign-policy experience, and Baier never asked him that question.

Hillary Clinton has made similar claims, saying that Trump “says he’s qualified to be commander in chief because he took Miss Universe to Moscow.”

Reid’s Outdated Social Security Claim

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid dredged up an old Democratic talking point in claiming that, “Donald Trump and Mike Pence want to gamble with your retirement benefits in the stock market.” But Trump has said he wants to “leave [Social Security] the way it is.”

Pence supported a plan more than a decade ago that would have allowed younger workers to voluntarily invest part of their Social Security taxes in private mutual funds. Trump advocated something like that 16 years ago, but not now.

We’ve seen Reid’s claim over and over again, and it usually refers to a lawmaker’s support for President George W. Bush’s 2005 proposal for private accounts. And, in fact, Pence, then a congressman, did back Bush’s plan. But that called for voluntary private accounts and limiting how much workers could put into them — plus the accounts would have been government-approved mutual funds. The plan wouldn’t have forced anyone to have their Social Security taxes “gamble[d]” on the stock market.

Trump, however, hasn’t called for any such thing in this campaign. In fact, he said in a March GOP debate, “I will do everything within my power not to touch Social Security, to leave it the way it is.” And in response to an AARP request for information on his stance, Trump said, “The key to preserving Social Security and other programs that benefit AARP members is to have an economy that is robust and growing.” He went on to talk about “tax reform” and “immigration reform.” He didn’t outline any changes to Social Security.

Back in 2000, Trump did advocate private Social Security accounts, writing in his book “The America We Deserve”: “The solution to the Great Social Security Crisis couldn’t be more obvious: Allow every American to dedicate some portion of their payroll taxes to a personal Social Security account that they could own and invest in stocks and bonds.”

But 16 years later, that’s not a plan he has pushed on the campaign trail.

Abandonment Issues

Kaine said that Trump said he “wants to abandon” our NATO allies. Trump has said that he doesn’t want the U.S. to leave the international security alliance. However, he has recently suggested that he would not automatically defend NATO allies that do not pay their share of defense costs.

Kaine: I want to start off thanking my wife, Anne, and my three beautiful children, Nat, Woody and Annella. … You know, my son, Nat, deployed with his Marine battalion just two days ago. He deployed overseas to protect and defend the very NATO allies that Donald Trump says he now wants to abandon.

Trump’s most recent comments on NATO came during a July interview with David E. Sanger and Maggie Haberman of the New York Times. Trump said that he would be willing to defend fellow NATO members, “if they fulfill their obligations to us.”

Sanger, July 21: My point here is, Can the members of NATO, including the new members in the Baltics, count on the United States to come to their military aid if they were attacked by Russia? And count on us fulfilling our obligations.

Trump: Have they fulfilled their obligations to us? If they fulfill their obligations to us, the answer is yes.

Haberman: And if not?

Trump: Well, I’m not saying if not. I’m saying, right now there are many countries that have not fulfilled their obligations to us.

Throughout his campaign, Trump has been critical of NATO, which was established in 1949 by the U.S., Canada and 10 Western European nations to defend against the former Soviet Union. One of Trump’s main criticisms of NATO, which now has 28 member nations, is that it is too costly to the U.S., which pays about 22 percent of direct spending by NATO, and an even larger share of indirect costs, according to budget information. In addition, only five member nations, including the U.S., spend the 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense called for by NATO guidelines, according to a CNN Money analysis.

But Trump didn’t actually tell the Times reporters that “he wants to abandon” allies that don’t make the required payments. He declined to say what he would do if countries had not fulfilled their financial obligations.

And as we wrote in May, Trump, despite his criticisms of NATO, has said that he doesn’t want the U.S. to leave the NATO alliance. Although, he also said that he would “certainly look at” doing so. But in his more recent interview with the Times, Trump at least suggested that he’s open to not defending those nations that don’t pay more.

— Eugene Kiely, with Brooks Jackson, Lori Robertson, Robert Farley, D’Angelo Gore and Zachary Gross

Sources

Congressional Budget Office. “Federal Budget Deficit Totals $1.4 Trillion in Fiscal Year 2009.” 6 Nov 2009.

Office of Management and Budget. “Fiscal 2017 Budget of the United States, Historical Tables: “Table 1.1—Summary of Receipts, Outlays, and Surpluses or Deficits (-): 1789–2021.” 9 Feb 2016.

Congressional Budget Office. “An Analysis of the President’s 2017 Budget.” Mar 2016.

Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. “Analysis of the President’s FY 2017 Budget.” 9 Feb 2016.

“DNCC Announces Third Night Program for Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.” Press release. Democratic National Convention Committee. 27 Jul 2016.

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A student triggered a scare on a New Jersey college campus Wednesday after someone spotted him with a gun, police say. 

Police said a woman saw the young man with a gun in the front seat of his car outside Brookdale Community College in Lincroft. She followed him on campus, where she spotted him getting out of his car. That’s when she called police.

It turns out the gun was a pellet gun, but that wasn’t discovered until after the campus went into lockdown and police scoured the campus for the man.

During the lockdown, Rick Carr, a professor at the college, said he got as many people as he could and told them to get in his classroom.

“I don’t want to say I’m scared all the time, but there are reasons to be concerned,” Carr said. 

Officers surrounded the young man's station wagon and, with the help of students, eventually located him in a classroom. He was searched and that’s when the pellet gun was found.

Monmouth County Chief of Detectives Michael Pasterchick said that the man did not have the gun on him while in the classroom.

“They brought him out and he eventually denied it, but eventually did admit that he had a gun in his car, which was a BB gun,” Pasterchick said.

The man was taken into custody, the lockdown was lifted and a sigh of relief was felt across campus.

It wasn’t clear Wednesday what charges the man may face, but in New Jersey pellet guns are subject to all state laws that apply to handguns, meaning people need a permit to carry them.

“In today’s day and age of terrorism, sure there’s a lot wrong with it, you can’t be showing guns or flashing guns in cars," Pasterchick said.

President Barack Obama excoriated Donald Trump's vision of America Wednesday night as he endorsed Hillary Clinton, telling Democrats Trump was betting he could get win in November by scaring enough people into voting for him. 

"That is another bet that Donald Trump will lose," Obama said. "Because he's selling the American people short."

Here are the top moments of Obama's speech and of the rest of the third day of the Democratic National Convention, inside the convention hall and out.

"We Don't Look to Be Ruled"

Obama told the DNC he was ready to pass the baton to Clinton and asked his audience to reject cynicism and fear and summon what was best in the country.

"Tonight, I ask you to do for Hillary Clinton what you did for me," he said. "I ask you to carry her the same way you carried me. Because you're who I was talking about 12 years ago, when I talked about hope. It's been you who've fueled my dogged faith in our future, even when the odds are great, even when the road is long."

This election was not a typical one between Democrats and Republicans, he said. Republicans at their convention last week had presented a deeply pessimistic vision of a country turning against each other and away from the rest of the world.

"And that is not the America I know," he said. "The America I know is full of courage, and optimism and ingenuity. The America I know is decent and generous."

The United States does not depend on any one person, Obama said. It has never been about what one person says he will do but about what the country can achieve together, he said.

"We don't look to be ruled," he said. "Our power comes from those immortal declarations first put to paper right here in Philadelphia all those years ago. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that together, We, the People, can form a more perfect union."

There had never been a man or woman more qualified than Hillary Clinton to serve as president, he said, not him, not Bill Clinton.

He acknowledged that Clinton had critics and had made mistakes, but compared her to the kind of citizen Teddy Roosevelt had once described — not timid souls on the sidelines but in the arena.

"Hillary Clinton is that woman in the arena," he said. "She's been there for us - even if we haven't always noticed. And if you're serious about our democracy, you can't afford to stay home just because she might not align with you on every issue. You've got to get in the arena with her, because democracy isn't a spectator sport. America isn't about 'Yes he will.' It's about 'Yes we can.'"

"Lying Is Second Nature to Him"

Vice presidential candidate Tim Kaine of Virginia, a U.S. senator and the state's former governor, mocked Trump's credibility and his repeated use of the phrase "believe me."

"Believe me?" Kaine asked. "Believe me?"

Trump's ghostwriter on "The Art of the Deal" has said that lying was second nature to him, Kaine said. U.S. Sen. John McCain's former economic adviser said that Trump's policies would result in the loss of 3.5 million jobs. His tax plan would leave the country $30 trillion debt, according to an independent assessment, he said. Charity after charity believed Trump when he said he would contribute to them, he said.

"Folks, you cannot believe one word that comes out of Donald Trump's mouth," he said as the audience chanted "Not one word."

"Our nation is too great to put it in the hands of a slick-talking, empty-promising, self-promoting one-man wrecking crew," he said.

Bloomberg: "I’m a New Yorker and I Know a Con When I See One"

Vice President Joseph Biden and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, another billionaire businessman from New York, went on the attack, calling Trump in succession a man of unbounded cynicism and a hypocrite.

His lack of compassion and empathy can be summed up in one of Trump's favorite phrases, Biden said: "You’re fired."

"He's trying to tell us he cares about the middle-class," Biden said. "Give me a break. That's a bunch of malarkey."

America is strong and has held together because of its middle class, Biden said. When the middle class does well, the rich do very well and the poor has hope, he said.

"This guy doesn’t have a clue about the middle class, not a clue," Biden said.

"He has no clue period," he added and the phrase quickly became a refrain on the convention floor.

Trump is appealing to fear, but Americans never bow, never bend and never break, Biden said.

"We are America, second to none, and we own the finish line," he said.

Bloomberg spoke to the convention as an independent. He was there, he said, to urge other independents to unite around the candidate who could defeat a dangerous demagogue.

"I built a business, and I didn't start it with a million-dollar check from my father," he said.

Bloomberg belittled Trump's business experience, calling attention to his bankruptcies, the lawsuits brought against him and the contractors who said he had cheated them. 

He said he watched Clinton work with Republicans in Congress to get the money New York City needed to recover from the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. He did not always agree with her, but she always listened, he said.

"Truth be told, the richest thing about Donald Trump is his hypocrisy," he said. "He wants you to believe that we can solve our biggest problems by deporting Mexicans and shutting out Muslims. He wants you to believe that erecting trade barriers will bring back good jobs. He's wrong on both counts."

"Russia, If You're Listening"

Far from the Democratic National Convention, Donald Trump caused a stir on Wednesday when - at a time Russia is suspected of trying to interfere in the U.S. presidential election - he appeared to ask Russia to hack into Hillary Clinton's emails.

"Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing," Trump said during a news conference in Florida. "I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press."

His comments immediately drew condemnation, with the Clinton campaign accusing Trump of encouraging a foreign power to conduct espionage against his opponent.

"This has gone from being a matter of curiosity, and a matter of politics, to being a national security issue," Jake Sullivan, a Clinton spokesman, said.

Paul Ryan, the Republican speaker of the House, called Putin a "devious thug" who should stay out of the U.S. election.

Trump has said he doubted Russia was behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee computer servers, but U.S. intelligence believe it was.

Clinton has said she deleted 30,000 emails from her personal email server, received while she was secretary of state, before turning others over to the U.S. State Department. FBI Director James Comey criticized Clinton's use of a private email server but recommended against her prosecution.

"Strong Women Get Things Done"

Former U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, shot in the head when a man opened fire at a constituent meeting five years ago, walked onto the stage on the convention's third night to endorse Clinton as the candidate who would be able to stand up to the gun lobby.

"Speaking is difficult for me, but come January I want to say these two words: 'Madame President,'" she said.

She described Clinton as a tough and courageous woman who would fight to make families safer.

"In Congress I learned a powerful lesson: Strong women get things done," she said.

Giffords was among those touched by gun violence to speak — survivors or the relatives of whose who had been killed. They demanded what they called common-sense gun legislation, expanded background checks and other similar measures.

Giffords' husband, former astronaut U.S. Navy Capt. Mark Kelly, said Clinton would work to close loopholes governing who could buy weapons. Clinton is ready to take on one of the country's greatest moral failings at home -- the gun violence that is tearing up so many communities, Kelly said. 

Erica Smeglieski, the daughter of the Sandy Hook Elementary School principal who was shot to death with five other staff members and 20 schoolchildren in Newtown, Connecticut, said she did not want to be addressing the convention. She wanted to be at home watching the convention with her mother, Dawn Hochsprung, with whom she had planned her wedding, she said.

"My mom was murdered so I'm here," she said. "I'm here for the mothers and daughters who are planning weddings so you get to watch your daughter walk down the aisle."

Felicia Sanders and Polly Sheppard, survived the shooting at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, during Bible studies. Sanders said her son’s last words were, "We mean you no harm." Two days later she forgave the shooter, she said.

Sheppard said the shooter, like those in Orlando and Dallas, had hate in his heart.

"Love never fails and so I choose love," she said.

Christine Leinonen's son was killed in the massacre at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. It takes five minutes for a church bell to ring 49 times for the victims but only a minute to fire 30 rounds with the weapon used to shoot her son, she said.

When she went into labor with her son, said Leinonen, who was then a Michigan state trooper, her weapon was placed in a safe. She did not object because she knew common sense gun policy saves lives, she said.

"Where was that common sense the day that he died," she asked.

Emilie Plesset contributed information to this article.

A dead whale struck by a ship several days ago in New Jersey has apparently resurfaced in the Hudson River — it's one of a number that have been spotted around New York City over the past few days. 

The 30-foot whale was first spotted under the bow of a cargo ship in Newark Bay by a pilot boat driver a couple of days ago, according to Bob Schoelkopf of Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine. The ship appeared to have struck the whale, the pilot boat driver confirmed. 

The whale apparently sank, then floated to the surface in the Hudson River off Jersey City Wednesday, according to Schoelkopf. 

On Wednesday, crews were approaching the whale to try to remove it, Chopper 4 over the scene shows. 

Schoelkopf said he thinks it may be a fin whale, not a humpback, but couldn't tell precisely from Chopper 4's aerial shot. 

Paul Seaswerda, who runs Gotham Whale, a nonprofit that studies marine life around the city and offers whale watching tours, says that whales are being drawn back to the city, partly because of climate change.

"We have whales around here and we have them in abundance," Seaswerda said. "We see whales with the skyline in the background and the whales in the foreground. It's just amazing." 

Some whales can be found just 200 feet from shore. They've been seen near the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, where ships enter the busiest port on the Atlantic Seaboard. It's a boon for whale watchers, but it can spell disaster for the whales.

"In 2014 we had more whales than in the previous three years put together," Seaswerda said. "If there's any kind of adjustments that have to be made to so that humans and whales can live happily together, those measures can be taken." 

Marine scientists say 2015 was the worst year so far for whales in the tri-state area; nine whales were reportedly killed, mostly by ship strikes. NOAA put out a warning Tuesday, telling people to watch out for whales in the water. 

Brian Thompson contributed to this report 

New Jersey Transit approved contracts with its two remaining rail unions Wednesday, bringing to a close a more than five-year saga that put the agency at the precipice of a crippling strike four months ago.

NJ Transit's board approved the contracts ratified last weekend by unions representing locomotive engineers and conductors.

Details weren't immediately disclosed pending final execution of the contracts, and representatives of both unions didn't immediately respond to email requests for comment Wednesday.

The engineers union ratified its contract by a vote of 184-140 last Friday, and the conductors ratified by a 545-322 margin a day later. NJ Transit has more than 4,000 union-covered employees.

The other nine rail unions signed contracts after a tentative agreement was reached in March, about a day before a deadline for a strike that could have wreaked havoc for commuters in the New York region. The agency hasn't had a strike in more than 30 years.

At the time, NJ Transit officials outlined contingency plans they admitted would be able to accommodate only four in 10 of the roughly 105,000 commuters who use NJ Transit trains for all or part of their trip into New York.

The 11 rail unions had been working without a contract for five years.

They had been seeking a 2.9 percent annual wage increase over six years plus an increase in health insurance payments from 1.8 percent to 2 percent of straight pay. NJ Transit initially offered average 1.4 percent wage increases and proposed that workers pay between 10 percent and 20 percent of their health care premium costs.

Two emergency labor boards convened by President Barack Obama over the last year weighed in on the dispute, and the parties met before a national mediation board in Washington in March.

NJ Transit officials had previously said fares might have to be raised to cover the costs associated with the new contracts, but Gov. Chris Christie said in March there would be no fare increases at least until July 2017.