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May 1, 2011

Housing issues nagging at tornado victims

Days after tornadoes devastated swaths of the southeastern U.S., officials are weighing options for quickly providing shelter to thousands left homeless. FEMA is on the scene.

Tuscaloosa's emergency shelter is a crowded but welcoming place — a clean, repurposed community center in a leafy park far from the debris piles, full of smiling volunteers and fresh-faced church members handing out blankets, Bibles and baby diapers.

Still, it's getting old for tornado victim Benjamin Alford and his family. They've been here three nights, sleeping on cots in a basketball gym. His wife is pregnant. There is no privacy. And as of Saturday morning, they had no idea where to go now that the storm had destroyed their rental house.

"It seems like every day you get more stressed out," said Alford, 36. "The longer you're in here, the more agitated you get."

Somebody mentioned that the Federal Emergency Management Agency was lumbering into action, and that trailer homes might be coming. Alford's stepdaughter shook her head emphatically: "Unh-unh," she said. "What if another tornado comes?"

Alford added: "I don't want to live in no trailer."

Three days after tornadoes devastated swaths of the southeastern U.S., killing at least 346 people, officials were assessing the toll on their housing stock and weighing options for quickly providing shelter to thousands left homeless.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-tornado-housing-20110501,0,1559201,print.story

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L.A. County sheriff's deputies head to tornado-torn Alabama

Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca has sent four of his Spanish-speaking deputies to Tuscaloosa, Ala., to aid in the recovery efforts there after this week's deadly tornadoes.

Baca said he spoke to Tuscaloosa Sheriff Ted Sexton, whom he knows well, and was told authorities there were in need of Spanish speakers to help with relief efforts for the county's Latino community.

“You've got to be able to tell them things in the language they'll understand,” Baca said. “This is an unbelievable tragedy on the scale of Katrina.... The challenges are overwhelming.”

The National Weather Service says the death toll across several states is up to 345, making the storms the second-deadliest tornado blast in U.S. history.

Rescue and relief efforts continue through much of seven states, and hundreds of thousands of people are still without electricity.

Baca said he may send out more deputies if needed. He said the deputies there now will stay as long as they're needed.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/

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In Tornado Zone, Many Ask, ‘How Can We Help?'

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — So many contractors showed up at a high school gymnasium here on Saturday that they could not all fit. Even though the death count continued its grim climb upward in what is now the worst tornado disaster in the country since 1925, here at the epicenter people know that the rebuilding has to begin, and quickly.

It is hard to imagine what it will take to put life back together in the states torn by last week's storms. One estimate, by the risk model forecaster EQECAT, put the insured property losses between $2 billion and $5 billion.

Still, the contractors were hoping to secure their share of three contracts the city plans to award for the cleanup. People here expect them to be worth tens or hundreds of millions of dollars to a trade still hobbled by the real estate crash and recession.

“It's an awful situation, but this is how we can help,” said Jordan Huffstetler, 29, a general contractor who drove in from Birmingham, Ala. On Saturday, the number of people reported killed in eight states during last week's storms rose again, to 349. In Alabama, 250 bodies have been recovered, though the hundreds of people still missing suggested that many bodies remained undiscovered.

The last time more people were killed in a series of tornadoes in the United States was March 18, 1925, when almost 700 died in a storm that raged through Illinois, Indiana and Missouri.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/us/01storm.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print

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Drugs in Ozarks Town Infect Even Sheriff's Dept.

ELLSINORE, Mo. — Growing up in the rugged foothills of the Ozarks, Tommy Adams always dreamed of carrying a badge. He realized his wish through grim happenstance: the incumbent sheriff, dogged by rumors of corruption, killed himself weeks before votes were cast, and Mr. Adams slipped past him by a single vote.

For two troubled years, Mr. Adams was sheriff of Carter County, until his arrest last month on charges of distributing methamphetamine, the home-brewed drug that has poisoned much of this poor, sparsely populated stretch of timber country. Mr. Adams was accused of regularly snorting it as well.

But in this long-struggling community in southeastern Missouri where distrust of law enforcement has always run deep, the story of a sheriff enabling the scourge he was supposed to fight has not provoked outrage. Rather, many local residents are accepting it, even sympathetically, as another disappointing chapter in what they see as a hopeless fight.

“It shows how entrenched methamphetamine is in our system,” said Rocky Kingree, the county prosecuting attorney. “It's something that has to be stopped, and it doesn't seem like there is an end in sight.”

For most of a decade, Missouri has led the nation by a wide margin in the number of labs discovered to be producing methamphetamine, a highly addictive stimulant that can be made with household products like nasal decongestants. And throughout the Ozarks, the drug has metastasized.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/us/01sheriff.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=print

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Portland, Ore., Votes to Rejoin Task Force After Terrorism Scare

PORTLAND, Ore. — It has been nearly a decade since the terrorist attacks of 2001 and nearly a decade since this liberal city first established its reluctance to assist in many of the wide-ranging federal terrorism investigations that have followed.

No, it told Attorney General John Ashcroft in the fall of 2001, its police officers would not join federal efforts to interview thousands of Middle Eastern men. No, it said again in 2005, when it became the first city to stop participating in the Joint Terrorism Task Force, which the Department of Justice operates in cities across the country to unite federal, state and local law enforcement authorities.

And then, on Thanksgiving weekend last year, federal authorities arrested Mohamed Osman Mohamud, a Somali-born teenager they accused of trying to detonate a bomb at a Christmas tree-lighting ceremony attended by thousands of people. The investigation had been under way for many months, but the Portland police were consulted only near the end, largely to help with logistics of a sting operation. Mayor Sam Adams was unaware until after the arrest.

“It showed the challenges we face and the fact that the 2005 resolution, while well intentioned, wasn't meeting the needs of collaboration between local and federal law enforcement,” Chief Michael Reese of the Portland police said in an interview. “You're going to be an afterthought, like we were in that investigation.”

Now, after five months of public debate and rewritten drafts — and as Mr. Mohamud's case moves slowly along — city leaders last week approved what one City Council member called a “very Portland” compromise to rejoin the task force.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/01/us/01portland.html?pagewanted=print

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City of Birmingham asks for help in reporting missing persons, items for tornado victims

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April 30, 2011

Mexico extradites drug kingpin to the U.S.

Benjamin Arellano Felix, the former leader of one of Mexico's most feared organized crime groups, had been incarcerated since his 2002 arrest. He is flown to San Diego to face racketeering and drug conspiracy charges.

Reporting from San Diego and Mexico City -- The Mexican government Friday extradited to the United States drug kingpin Benjamin Arellano Felix, the former leader of one of Mexico's most feared and powerful organized crime groups, whose ruthless reign transformed northern Baja California into a major drug trafficking corridor into the U.S.

Arellano Felix, who had been incarcerated in a Mexican prison since his arrest in 2002, was flown to San Diego and transferred to the downtown Metropolitan Correctional Center, where he will be held under heightened security during court proceedings that are expected to last months, and possibly years.

The extradition marks the end of a long effort by U.S. authorities to get Arellano Felix into a U.S. courtroom. He faces racketeering and drug conspiracy charges as part of a San Diego federal grand jury indictment that has already led to the arrests and convictions of several of his brothers and associates from the cartel's heyday during the 1980s and '90s.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cartel-leader-20110430,0,3477972.story

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RFK assassin claims woman in polka-dot dress controlled his mind

In a new court filing, the man who assassinated Robert F. Kennedy in 1968 said he was controlled by a mystery woman at the time of the killing. In the papers, which were reviewed by the Associated Press, Sirhan Sirhan says he was led to the Ambassador Hotel with a gun by an unidentified woman in a polka-dot dress.

Last month, Sirhan's lawyer tried to convince a parole board that his client was a brainwashed hit man when he gunned down Sen. Robert F. Kennedy at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles in 1968. The board refused to release Sirhan.

But The Times last month reported on handwritten notes purportedly from Sirhan, kept for 42 years by a Century City business executive, that appear to tell a different story.

Michael McCowan was an investigator and the youngest member of Sirhan's defense team in 1969 when the accused assassin wrote on a legal notepad the narrative of his visit to a target practice range and his election-night trip to the hotel.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/04/rfk-assassin-claims-woman-in-polka-dot-dress-controlled-his-mind-caused-him-to-fire.html

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Sheriff's helicopter pilots being targeted by laser beams an ongoing problem

L.A. County Sheriff's Department helicopters have been targeted from the ground by individuals shooting laser beams six times in the last few months, officials said this week.

The incidents have occurred in Maywood, La Puente, Pico Rivera, and West Covina. In four of those cases, sheriff's deputies made arrests of suspects between the ages of 15 and 25. And two of the arrests have come this month.

"This a serious matter," said Sgt. Morrie Zager, a helicopter pilot with the Sheriff's Aero Bureau. "The pilots' disorientation could cause loss of control of the aircraft."

A 16-year-old Los Alamitos boy was arrested this week after sheriff's deputies said he pointed a laser into one of their helicopters as it flew above Interstate 5 and Rosemead Boulevard.

The pilot of the aircraft was able to make a safe landing.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/04/sheriffs-lasers-helicol.html

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Fatal Bomb in Morocco Shows Signs of Al Qaeda

MARRAKESH, Morocco — The terrorist bomb that killed 16 people in a crowded tourist cafe on Thursday was packed with nails and was set off remotely, most probably by a cellphone, Morocco 's interior minister and security officials said Friday.

The bomb appeared to have all the hallmarks of Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb , Interior Minister Taieb Cherkaoui said, briefing the government in Rabat. “The manner reminds us of the style used generally by Al Qaeda ,” he said. “And this leads us to think that there is a possibility of more dangers to come.”

But there was no claim of responsibility on Friday by Al Qaeda or any other group.

“This was not a suicide attack,” Mr. Cherkaoui said, adding that “it appears the bomb was set off remotely,” in remarks carried by the official news agency, MAP. He said the bomb contained ammonium nitrate. A Moroccan security official, asking for anonymity, said the bomb also contained triacetone triperoxide, or TATP, an explosive easily made and popular among bombers in the Middle East, including those from Al Qaeda.

The bombing is a serious blow to Morocco's tourism industry, already hurt by the economic crisis and anxieties about popular protests that are stirring much of the Arab world. The site — a popular cafe facing the historic Djemma el Fna square — is a regular tourist stop, and the bombing appeared aimed at foreigners.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/30/world/africa/30morocco.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print

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Al Qaeda Attack Was Thwarted by Three Arrests, Germany Says

BERLIN — The German police arrested three men suspected of being members of Al Qaeda on Friday, saying they represented “a concrete and imminent danger” to the nation and had been planning an attack using explosives.

The German authorities presented the bare outlines of a terrorism plot that they said involved at least one person trained at a militant camp in Afghanistan or Pakistan and a cache of material for producing explosives. The men had been under surveillance for seven months, but the authorities said they decided to move fast when the three began preparations for testing an explosive device.

“We succeeded in preventing a concrete and imminent danger,” the interior minister, Hans-Peter Friedrich, said in a statement that acknowledged assistance from foreign investigators. “This proves that Germany continues to be in the cross hairs of international terrorists, and we need to remain vigilant.”

The authorities said more information would be released at the federal prosecutor's headquarters in Karlsruhe on Saturday, when the men would be brought before a judge. But some details emerged from law enforcement officials and the German news media, which said at least two of the men were Moroccan, one with German citizenship and the other living in Germany illegally. The third was said to be a German of Iranian descent, though some reports said he was of Moroccan descent.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/30/world/europe/30germany.html?src=mv&pagewanted=print

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Memories Lost to a Whirlwind Alight on Facebook to Be Claimed

The tornado that killed Emily Washburn's grandfather this week also destroyed his Mississippi home, leaving his family with nothing to remember him by — until a picture of him holding the dog he loved surfaced on Facebook , posted by a woman who found it in her office parking lot, 175 miles away in Tennessee.

Like hundreds of others finding keepsakes that fell from the sky and posting photographs of them on a Facebook lost and found, the woman included her e-mail address, and Ms. Washburn wrote immediately: “That man is my granddaddy. It would mean a lot to me to have that picture.”

Created by Patty Bullion, 37, of Lester, Ala., a page on the social networking site has so far reunited dozens of storm survivors with their prized — and in some cases, only — possessions: a high school diploma that landed in a Lester front yard was traced to its owner in Tupelo, Miss., for example. A woman who lost her home in the tiny town of Phil Campbell, Ala., claimed her homemade quilt found in Athens, Ala., nearly 50 miles away: “Phil Campbell Class of 2000,” it read.

But the page is also turning social networking software designed to help friends stay in touch into an unexpected meeting ground for strangers. Along with the photographs of found items are the comments of well-wishers and homespun detectives speculating as to the identities of their owners. For those spared by the storms that killed hundreds in the South, the page is a bridge to its victims, a way to offer solace and to share in their suffering.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/30/us/30reunite.html

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The President in Alabama: “We're Going to Make Sure that You're Not Forgotten”

The President stood with Alabama officials this afternoon to discuss what was clearly a sobering tour of Tuscaloosa:

Well, Michelle and I want to express, first of all, our deepest condolences to not just the city of Tuscaloosa but the state of Alabama and all the other states that have been affected by this unbelievable storm. We just took a tour, and I've got to say I've never seen devastation like this. It is heartbreaking. We were just talking to some residents here who were lucky enough to escape alive, but have lost everything. They mentioned that their neighbors had lost two of their grandchildren in the process.

There were stories like that not only all over town, but across the state and even the region, and the President praised the “resilience” of the people he had met even as they were surrounded by tragedy. He commended all the Alabama officials who have been working with the federal government and pledged that the work would continue well after the swarms of television cameras left:

Fortunately the governor has done an extraordinary job with his team in making sure that the resources of the state are mobilized and have been brought in here. I'm very pleased that we've got a FEMA director in Craig Fugate who is as experienced as anybody in responding to disasters even of this magnitude. And we've already provided the disaster designations -- we've already provided the disaster designations that are required to make sure that the maximum federal help comes here as quickly as possible.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/04/29/president-alabama-we-re-going-make-sure-you-re-not-forgotten

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Multi-agency probe targets LA-area gang linked to drug, weapons trafficking

HSI agents among 1,300 federal and local officers involved in pre-dawn takedown

LOS ANGELES - More than 1,300 federal and local law enforcement officers fanned out Thursday morning across the Los Angeles harbor area to arrest 80 alleged members and associates of the Rancho San Pedro gang, capping a nearly three-year investigation that linked the group to firearms and narcotics trafficking.

The enforcement action targeted some 230 Rancho San Pedro members and associates who are charged in federal and state court documents with a host of crimes, including violent acts as well as firearms and narcotics violations. Of the defendants located and taken into custody Thursday, 66 were arrested on state weapons and narcotics charges and 14 were arrested based upon federal indictments.

"The collaboration between federal and local authorities in Los Angeles is unparalleled, and today's operation in San Pedro is another great example of us joining together to take back our neighborhoods," said U.S. Attorney André Birotte Jr. "With scores of gang members, drug dealers and gun merchants being sent to jail today, we have delivered a staggering blow to the Rancho San Pedro gang. The Justice Department is committed to working with our state and local partners to dismantle criminal street gangs so our communities are safer for law-abiding residents."

http://www.ice.gov/news/releases/1104/110428losangeles.htm

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April 29, 2011

Editorial

Unlicensed drivers: Impounding is not the answer

Chief Beck is right to curb the impounding of vehicles driven by unlicensed motorists. A better solution is to allow all immigrants, regardless of status, to apply for licenses.

Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck has adopted a common-sense approach to dealing with unlicensed drivers and the cars they drive. Under Beck's new rule, when officers at sobriety checkpoints stop unlicensed drivers, they can issue them tickets or, if they have no identification, arrest them. But police are no longer allowed to impound a car if a licensed driver or the registered and licensed owner is on hand or can pick up the car in a reasonable amount of time. This helps officers do their jobs while complying with a federal court ruling that set limits on when cars can be seized.

The LAPD's new rule doesn't give a free pass to drivers whose licenses have been revoked or who failed to get one in the first place. Rather, it applies the same rules to them that are applied to drunk drivers. In those cases, police aren't required to impound a vehicle as long as there is a licensed and sober individual available to drive it.

The change was made in part to ensure that sobriety checkpoints focused on nabbing drunk drivers. Beck said the old policy cast too wide a net and suggested that it disproportionately penalized undocumented immigrants, who are barred by law from getting driver's licenses. The new approach should also help prevent abuses like those uncovered in Bell, where police are accused of using impounds to help boost the city's revenues.

A 2005 federal court ruling said that police can't impound a car just because the driver is unlicensed. The California Highway Patrol and other police departments, including San Francisco's, have the same policy. Yet Beck's new rule is opposed by the Los Angeles Police Protective League, which alleged in a grievance filed this month that it violates state law and creates a liability issue. It warns that officers and the city could be sued for any damage or injury caused by an unlicensed driver who later continues to drive. The league argues that impounds discourage such drivers by making it expensive and inconvenient for them to recover a car.

Unlicensed drivers, including illegal immigrants, shouldn't be on the road. But impounding their cars is not the answer. A far better solution would be to enact legislation to allow all immigrants — without regard to their status — to apply for driver's licenses. This would ensure that illegal immigrants learn the rules, pass a driving test and obtain insurance. That, ultimately, would help protect everyone on the roads.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-impound-20110429,0,234768,print.story

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Predicting Tornadoes: It's Still Guessing Game

The cruelty of this particular April, in the number of tornadoes recorded, is without equal in the United States. The record for the month has been shattered, and preliminary assessments say that of the four biggest clusters ever recorded, two have occurred in the last three weeks.

What is happening here? With every passing day, it seems, more precise digital tools emerge to clarify the inner heart of a storm cell in rampage. And yet, for all that solid information, the natural world can still seem murky, unpredictable and downright scary when it roars into full-throated chaos.

Tornadoes in particular, researchers say, straddle the line between the known and the profoundly unknowable.

“There's a large crapshoot aspect,” said Kevin Trenberth, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo. “A little quirky thing can set one off at one time, and another time not.”

Tornadoes need warm, moist air interacting with faster, cooler air. That much scientists know for sure.

“There's a lot we understand about tornadoes,” Dr. Trenberth said. “They're tied to thunderstorms, and also require something that will cause the rotation to occur, a wind shear.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/29/us/29tornadoes.html

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Internet Lets a Criminal Past Catch Up Quicker

Convicted of robbing a video store in California in 1997, Ayanna Spikes decided to change the trajectory of her life. In 14 years, she has had no further brushes with the law.

The eight months she spent in prison, she said, were “the best thing that ever happened to me,” persuading her to pursue training in medical administration and complete coursework for a degree in psychology at the University of California, Berkeley . At 38, she is a far different person from the confused young woman who strayed into crime, she says.

But employers, initially impressed by her credentials, grow leery when they learn her history through criminal background checks. She has been turned down for more than a dozen jobs since finishing college in 2010.

The pool of Americans seeking jobs includes more people with criminal histories than ever before, a legacy in part of stiffer sentencing and increased enforcement for nonviolent crimes like drug offenses, criminal justice experts said. And each year, more than 700,000 people are released from state and federal prisons, a total that is expected to grow as states try to reduce the fiscal burden of their overcrowded penal institutions.

Almost 65 million Americans have some type of criminal record, either for an arrest or a conviction, according to a recent report by the National Employment Law Project, whose policy co-director, Maurice Emsellem, says that the figure is probably an underestimate.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/29/us/29records.html?pagewanted=print

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Online videos show fistfight between police officer, restaurant patron

Atlanta (CNN) -- Police officials in Atlanta are investigating an incident that started with shouting at a pancake restaurant and ended with a fistfight between a patron and an off-duty officer.

Videos of the altercation posted online show a woman hitting the officer, who responds by slugging her in the face. The incident occurred early Saturday morning, according to an Atlanta police report. One video posted on YouTube had received more than 100,000 hits by Thursday.

"He literally attacked her," witness Roberta Caban told CNN affiliate WSB. But a police report released Thursday had a different take on the incident.

Officer J. Vidal said he punched the woman after she punched him in the face. He also said the woman "used vulgar language," "continued acting in a boisterous manner" and "had a strong odor of alcohol on her breath."

Atlanta police said the officer has been placed on administrative duty pending an investigation. "Use of force by police officers is a matter the department takes seriously, and the...investigation will determine if the officer acted within established guidelines," Atlanta police spokesman Carlos Campos said in a statement.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/CRIME/04/28/georgia.police.punching/

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Red Cross: How to help Alabama tornado victims

While tornadoes and strong storms battered the South and the Midwest Tuesday and Wednesday, none were as catastrophic as the mile-wide behemoth that steamrolled through Tuscaloosa, Alabama on Wednesday.

Relief efforts are underway and Red Cross volunteers are already on the ground there. Do you want to help?

The American Red Cross is asking the community to help the Alabama Red Cross and other Red Cross chapters by making financial contributions.

Go to the Red Cross website or text the word REDCROSS to 90999 to give $10 or call 1-800-RED-CROSS . You can also help by donating blood right where you live. Find a local blood donation center where you live

http://www.wkyc.com/news/article/187571/3/Red-Cross-How-to-help-Alabama-tornado-victims

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Call these numbers to report people missing in Pratt City

BIRMINGHAM, AL (WBRC) - Birmingham Police Chief A.C. Roper says a couple of phone lines are now open to call in reports of missing people in Pratt City.

Call 205-787-1487 or 205-787-1488 to report anyone missing from the Pratt City area.

Please give them the missing person's full name and last known address.

http://www.myfoxal.com/story/14536694/call-these-numbers-to-report-people-missing-in-pratt-city

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President Obama Announces New Members of his National Security Team

As the President announced several new members of his national security team this afternoon, he took a moment to speak to those families in Alabama and throughout the South who are suffering as a result of the devastating storms that just passed through:

I want to begin by saying a few words about the devastating storms that have ripped through the southeastern United States. The loss of life has been heartbreaking, especially in Alabama. In a matter of hours, these deadly tornadoes, some of the worst that we've seen in decades, took mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, friends and neighbors, even entire communities. Others are injured and some are still missing, and in many places the damage to homes and businesses is nothing short of catastrophic.

We can't control when or where a terrible storm may strike, but we can control how we respond to it. And I want every American who has been affected by this disaster to know that the federal government will do everything we can to help you recover. And we will stand with you as you rebuild.

He described some of the federal response so far in coordination with the region's governors, including declaring a state of emergency in Alabama and dispatching Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate to the state, where the President himself will be tomorrow as well. He then went on to discuss the context in which these new appointments are being made.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/04/28/president-obama-announces-new-members-his-national-security-team

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Administration Officials Join Millions of Americans in Public Earthquake Drill

Great Central U.S. ShakeOut Drill Serves as Important Preparedness Exercise for Earthquakes and other Hazards

ST. LOUIS–U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano today joined leaders from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), state and local officials, and more than three million Americans across the central United States to participate in the Great Central U.S. ShakeOut—the largest-ever, multi-state earthquake drill to be held in the United States, and the first major drill to take place along the New Madrid Seismic Zone, which was the site of one of the worst earthquakes in U.S. history nearly 200 years ago.

“The devastating storms and tornadoes that have impacted our nation this week are a vivid reminder that disasters of all kinds can strike at any time, and it is vital that all members of our nation's emergency management team—including the American public—are prepared.” said Secretary Napolitano. “The Great Central U.S. Shakeout exercise will help millions of Americans know how to protect themselves in the event of an earthquake and strengthen the resiliency of communities across the central United States.”

“The safety of our nation's children is everyone's responsibility," said Secretary of Education Arne Duncan. “Community leaders, elected officials and educators need to work together to make sure their schools and communities are prepared to respond to earthquakes and other natural disasters.”

http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1304016665634.shtm

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April 28, 2011

Deadly storms, tornadoes kill more than 170 in South

Devastation is spread across five states, with the heaviest toll in Alabama, where at least 128 are dead.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- A wave of tornado-spawning storms strafed the South on Wednesday and early Thursday, splintering buildings across hard-hit Alabama and killing at least 178 people in five states.

At least 128 died in Alabama alone, officials said early Thursday. Among the cities hit hard by a tornado was Tuscaloosa, home to the University of Alabama. The mayor said sections of the city were obliterated and its infrastructure decimated.

"What we faced today was massive damage on a scale we have not seen in Tuscaloosa in quite some time," Mayor Walter Maddox told reporters Wednesday.

The tornado "paralyzed many city operations that directly respond to events like we experienced today," he said. "Pray for us."

News footage showed paramedics lifting a child out of a flattened home, with many neighboring buildings in the city of more than 83,000 also reduced to rubble.

The injured flocked to DCH Regional Medical Center. More than 200 were admitted and four of them died, hospital spokesman Brad Fisher said.

"We got no water and we're on emergency power," he told The Times. "It's pandemonium."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-severe-weather-web-20110428,0,6079973,print.story

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Mexico: Mass grave toll climbs; government defends itself

The number of bodies pulled from two sets of clandestine graves -- one in the border state of Tamaulipas and the other in Durango state to the southwest -- is climbing toward 300 as violence in Mexico takes an often mind-numbing toll.

In a meeting with the media -- in which questions were not allowed -- federal Atty. Gen. Marisela Morales on Tuesday upped the toll around the Tamaulipas city of San Fernando to 183. Separately, officials in Durango said the corpses there total 96 as of Wednesday.

The Times reported earlier this week that many of the Tamaulipas-area victims were passengers pulled from buses and slaughtered in the last couple of months. Many of the Durango bodies are older and none have been identified, officials say. While the San Fernando graves are in a fairly remote zone, the Durango burials are in the state's capital of the same name.

The horrific discovery of the mass graves has renewed pressure on the government of President Felipe Calderon, who has been blasted by the public and in the media for failing to stem bloodshed in the ongoing war with drug cartels. Morales, who is new to the job , was joined by Alejandro Poire, the government's main spokesman on security issues, and the two sought to deflect criticisms.

Poire asserted that Tamaulipas "is under the control of the Mexican state," a response to the widely held perception that authorities have lost out to vicious drug cartels in the area.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laplaza/2011/04/mexico-mass-grave-toll-climbs-government-defends-itself.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LaPlaza+%28La+Plaza%29

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Jurors may hear chloroform evidence

In another setback to Casey Anthony's defense team, a judge ruled Wednesday that evidence about elevated chloroform levels detected in her car may be admissible at her trial.

Orange-Osceola Chief Judge Belvin Perry denied a defense team's request to block evidence about chloroform, which is a potentially deadly chemical that can be used to render a person unconscious.

Prosecutors want to use novel scientific work focusing on odor and air samples originating from the trunk — an emerging science never used in a courtroom. The air samples are key because the state's experts said they show showed signs consistent with human decomposition.

Anthony, 25, is accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter Caylee Marie Anthony in the summer of 2008. Her first-degree murder trial is scheduled to begin with jury selection May 9.

Prosecutors argued that the test instruments used in the detection of chloroform in this case, known as a gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer (GC/MS), have routinely been accepted as evidence in Florida courts.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/caylee-anthony/os-casey-anthony-trial-chloroform-rul20110427,0,5874866,print.story

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247 people on terror watch list buy guns in 2010

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- The government says more than 200 people suspected of ties to terrorism bought firearms in 2010.

The purchases were permitted under federal law. The 247 people who were allowed to buy weapons did so after going through required background checks.

About the same number of people suspected of ties to terrorism also successfully purchased guns in the U.S. in 2009.

It is not illegal for people listed on the government's terror watch list to buy weapons. This has bothered New Jersey Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg for years. He is trying again to change the law to keep weapons out of the hands of terrorists.

The secret, fluid nature of the watch list has made it challenging to close what Lautenberg called a "terror gap" in the nation's gun laws.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/04/28/national/w000410D08.DTL&type=printable

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Over 5,100 Sites Join DEA Nationwide Effort to Take-Back Prescription Drugs on April 30th

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – The Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA's) second National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day is this Saturday, April 30th. More than 5,100 sites nationwide have joined the effort that seeks to prevent pill abuse and theft. This is hundreds more sites than were established for the event last fall. The free event will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. local time.

Government, community, public health and law enforcement partners at these sites will be working together to collect expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs that are potentially dangerous if left in the family's medicine cabinet.

Last September, Americans turned in over 242,000 pounds—121 tons—of prescription drugs at nearly 4,100 sites operated by more than 3,000 of the DEA's state and local law enforcement partners. Also last fall, Congress passed the Safe and Secure Drug Disposal Act of 2010, which amends the Controlled Substances Act to allow users of controlled substance medications to dispose of them by delivering them to entities authorized by the Attorney General to accept them. The Act also allows the Attorney General to authorize long term care facilities to dispose of their residents' controlled substances in certain instances. DEA is presently drafting regulations to implement the Act.

http://www.justice.gov/dea/pubs/pressrel/pr041911a.html

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April 27, 2011

Teen makes digital record of Arlington graves

Ricky Gilleland, a tech-savvy 11th-grader, has created the only digitized record of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery.

Rosemary Brown is standing over the grave of her son at Arlington National Cemetery when someone catches her eye. It's a boy in khaki shorts and muddy shoes, juggling a clunky camera and the Motorola Xoom he got for his 17th birthday five days earlier.

"May I ask what you're doing?" Brown inquires. The boy begins to peck at the Xoom tablet, and in seconds the image that Brown has come all the way from Cartwright, Okla., to see fills the screen. It's the white marble headstone of Army Special Forces Staff Sgt. Jason L. Brown, killed by small-arms fire in Afghanistan three years ago this day. Her face brightens.

"Most of Jason's family and friends are in Oklahoma and Texas. For them to be able to see his grave…," she says, her voice breaking.

Richard "Ricky" Gilleland III — 11th-grader and Junior Future Business Leaders of America computer ace — has succeeded where the Army failed: He has created the only digitized record of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans laid to rest at Arlington. His website, preserveandhonor.com, is a reverent catalog of the fallen, and one young man's response to a scandal of Army mismanagement, mismarked graves and unmarked remains that has rocked this hallowed place for two years.


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-arlington-graves-20110427,0,5046404,print.story

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Dependency courts oversight bill dies in Assembly

A bill that would have allowed public oversight of court hearings that consider foster care placements and other sensitive child-welfare decisions was put on hold Tuesday in an Assembly committee, effectively killing if for the remainder of the Legislative year.

AB 73, by Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles), was supported by many child advocates, the presiding judge of Los Angeles County children's court and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

The bill was opposed by social workers whose work would regularly be available for public review for the first time, as well as the California Youth Connection, former Senate leader John Burton and the court-appointed lawyers who represent children in the Los Angeles County system.

Feuer had said the bill would have provided badly needed oversight to the state's child welfare system. “We need to hold everyone in the system accountable,” he said.

Man, 18, charged with six felonies in LAPD helicopter shooting

Prosecutors charged an 18-year-old Tuesday with half a dozen felonies, including attempted murder of a peace officer, in connection with the Easter Sunday shooting of an LAPD helicopter that pierced its fuel tank.

Danny Anthony Lopez was charged with two counts of attempted murder of a peace officer, two counts of assault on a peace officer with a semiautomatic firearm, one count of shooting at an occupied aircraft and one count of carrying a loaded firearm as part of a street gang with the allegation he personally discharged a firearm.

If convicted, Lopez could face a maximum term of life in prison. He was being held in Los Angeles County jail in lieu of $2.24-million bail.

Authorities say Lopez opened fire on the helicopter, which was responding to a call about 6 a.m. of shots fired near Saticoy Street and Densmore Avenue. A bullet hit the helicopter's fuel tank, forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing at Van Nuys Airport. Neither the officer nor the spotter were injured.

Lopez was taken into custody after being subdued by family members. LAPD investigators received a report of a second suspect firing shots at the helicopter, but they later determined no one else was involved .

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/04/teen-suspect-charged-with-half-dozen-felonies-in-shooting-of-lapd-helicopter.html

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From the New York Times

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Deportation Halted for Some Students as Lawmakers Seek New Policy

Olga Zanella, a Mexican-born college student in Texas, should have started months ago trying to figure out how she could make a life in Mexico, since American immigration authorities were working resolutely to deport her there.

But Ms. Zanella, 20, could not bring herself to make plans. She was paralyzed by fear of a violent country she could not remember, where she had no close family.

Ms. Zanella, who has been living illegally in the United States since her parents brought her here when she was 5, had been trying to fight her deportation for more than two years. She was pulled over by the local police in February 2009 as she was driving in her hometown, Irving, Tex., and did not have a driver's license. The police handed her over to immigration agents.

Her case looked bleak, but in recent days everything changed. Last Thursday, an Immigration and Customs Enforcement official in Dallas summoned Ms. Zanella and told her she could remain in this country, under the agency's supervision, if she stayed in school and out of trouble.

Encouraged by the surprising turnaround, Ms. Zanella's parents and two siblings, who also had been living in the United States illegally, presented papers late Monday to ICE, as the agency is known, turning themselves in and requesting some form of legal immigration status.

“It's an opportunity we are going to take,” Ms. Zanella said in a telephone interview from Dallas. “It's better than being in the shadows.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/27/us/politics/27immigration.html

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April 26, 2011

Mohammed says he beheaded U.S. reporter despite warnings

Chilling portraits of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-proclaimed Sept. 11 mastermind, and other Guantanamo detainees emerge in the latest release of classified material from WikiLeaks.

A senior Al Qaeda military commander strongly warned Khalid Shaikh Mohammed not to kill Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in 2002, cautioning him "it would not be wise to murder Pearl" and that he should "be returned back to one of the previous groups who held him, or freed."

But Mohammed told his U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo Bay that he cut off Pearl's head anyway, according to U.S. military documents posted on the Internet on Monday by WikiLeaks.

Mohammed, the self-proclaimed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, also told his captors of the aborted attempt by Richard Reid to light a shoe bomb aboard a flight from London to the U.S. in late 2001. He "stated that he had instructed Reid to shave his beard prior to boarding the airplane and to detonate the bomb inside the airplane bathroom."

But Reid refused to shave his beard, tried to ignite the bomb in his seat, and was stopped and arrested and sentenced to life in prison. For that, according to a disgusted Mohammed, Reid was "irresponsible," according to the documents.

Fresh and often chilling portraits of Mohammed and the other most-prized "high value" detainees at Guantanamo emerged from the latest release of classified material by WikiLeaks, the controversial Web organization that has tormented the U.S. by revealing a stream of its military and diplomatic secrets. U.S. and British news organization first reported the release of the documents Sunday night.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-wikileaks-interrogations-20110425,0,132185,print.story

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Many freed Guantanamo inmates join terrorists, files say

Detainees from Yemen and Saudi Arabia are the most problematic, according to classified documents released by WikiLeaks. And with Yemen roiled in political upheaval, some worry that the former inmates will see an opportunity.

Said Shihri, who was captured in Pakistan in late 2001 and became one of the first suspected terrorists held at Guantanamo Bay, was released six years later after he convinced U.S. officials that he would go home to Saudi Arabia to work in his family's furniture store.

He emerged instead as the No. 2 leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, a Yemen-based group that U.S. intelligence considers the world's most dangerous terrorist organization.

Review panels at Guantanamo Bay also released at least six other detainees who later joined the militant group that has turned Yemen into a key battleground for Al Qaeda. One former detainee now is a prominent radical cleric, and another writes propaganda in English encouraging others to attack the United States.

Classified documents from Guantanamo Bay that were released to news organizations by WikiLeaks indicate U.S. officials repeatedly returned detainees to their home countries in hopes they would be incarcerated or be rehabilitated into society. Detainees returned to Saudi Arabia and Yemen have proved the most problematic.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-yemen-wikileaks-20110426,0,1886883,print.story

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Push for open dependency courts set for key test on Tuesday

The push to allow public oversight of court hearings that consider foster care placements and other sensitive child welfare decisions faces a crucial test when it is reaches the state assembly's human services committee on Tuesday.

The bill, AB73 by Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles), enjoys support among many child advocates, the presiding judge of Los Angeles County children's court and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors.

But the bill has also attracted the opposition of social workers whose work would regularly be available for public review for the first time, as well as the California Youth Connection, former Senate leader John Burton and the court-appointed lawyers who represent children in the Los Angeles County system.

Leslie Starr Heimov, executive director of the Children's Law Center, wrote in a letter to the committee that children risk a “loss of dignity associated with having one's entire life subject to scrutiny.”

Burton said in an interview that his opposition to the bill was “visceral” and “emotional,” and he said court hearings were “already traumatizing enough without having a bunch of gawkers.”

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/

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Let sun shine on dependency court

An Assembly committee should approve a bill aimed at helping troubled children by opening California's dependency court proceedings to the public.

One of the most important pieces of state legislation to be introduced this year — a bill to open California's dependency courts to the public — faces a tough committee vote Tuesday. That should not be the case. AB 73 by Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles) has the potential to significantly improve the lives of thousands of children, at no cost to taxpayers. But because organized labor is agitated at the prospect of increased scrutiny of some of its members, the bill is in jeopardy.

Dependency courts are where the fates of troubled children often are decided. The judges who oversee those proceedings decide whether children should be taken from their homes or reunited with their families, whether they belong in foster care or under the custody of a parent or other relative. It is no exaggeration to say that lives turn on those questions.

Unlike in criminal courts, however, those proceedings take place largely in secret, ostensibly to protect the privacy of children but in fact more often to insulate social workers, lawyers and judges from public accountability. Feuer's bill would subtly but importantly change that. Judges would operate under a rule that hearings are open, though they would still retain the right — as they do in adult proceedings — to close them if especially delicate or sensitive matters are to be discussed.

Children would have no fear of having to testify to intimate details of their lives in open court, but the public could be assured that its dependency system — which the public pays for, after all — is subject to oversight. Indeed, Feuer's bill stops short of mandating that rule for the whole state, as it would merely launch a pilot project, with an eye toward analyzing the results and then expanding it statewide if the pilot is successful.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-court-20110426,0,6827436,print.story

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FBI issues warning for armed suspect

LITTLETON, Colo. (KGO) -- The FBI has issued a nationwide "be on the lookout" alert for a suspect wanted in a mall fire last week in Littleton Colorado.

He is identified as 65-year-old Earl Albert Moore, but has a number of aliases. He's considered armed and dangerous.

You might also recognize him by the tattoos on his arms. Moore is wanted in connection with not only the fire, but also the discovery of a pipe bomb and two propane tanks last week, on the anniversary of the Columbine High School shootings, two miles from the mall.

An FBI spokesman said investigators have uncovered a motive for the fire, but would only say it was probably not related to the columbine anniversary.

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/national_world&id=8094120

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Meeting the Needs of People with Autism

Helping every American with autism achieve their full potential is one of this administration's top priorities. At the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, we continue to strive to meet the complex needs of all people with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and their families. While there is no cure, early intervention is critical and can greatly improve a child's development.

Perhaps the biggest step we've taken to support those affected by autism and their families happened over a year ago, with the signing of the Affordable Care Act . Now, new insurance plans are required to cover autism screening and developmental assessments for children at no cost to parents. Insurers will also no longer be allowed to deny children coverage for a pre-existing condition such as ASD or to set arbitrary lifetime or annual limits on benefits.

Also, thanks to the new law, young adults are allowed to stay on their family health insurance until they turn 26. For a young adult with autism spectrum disorder and their family, that means peace of mind. It means more flexibility, more options, and more opportunity to reach their full potential.

Ultimately, there is more support for Americans with autism than ever before. This means more promise of new breakthroughs that will help us understand autism even better. But in order to continue meeting the needs of people with autism, the Combating Autism Act must be fully reauthorized. We still have a long way to go. Working collaboratively with important partners, the Affordable Care Act and the Combating Autism Act will allow us to continue important research and develop and refine vital treatments.

There are still many unknowns. However, one thing is certain. We will continue to work harder than ever to find solutions and provide support to individuals with ASD and their families. Together, we can help reduce disparities and allow everyone to actualize their greatest potential.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/04/25/meeting-needs-people-autism

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Secretary Napolitano Announces “If You See Something, Say Something™” Campaign Partnership with Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES—Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano today joined Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, LA County Sheriff Baca, Chief of Los Angeles Port Police Ronald Boyd and Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck at the Los Angeles Port of Entry to announce the expansion of the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) "If You See Something, Say Something™" public awareness campaign to the city of Los Angeles, Los Angeles Police Department, and the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department to help ensure the safety and security of Los Angeles.

"Every citizen plays a role in identifying and reporting suspicious activities and threats," said Secretary Napolitano. "Expanding the 'If You See Something, Say Something™' campaign to Los Angeles and across the country is an important part of our efforts to partner with the public to keep our country safe and resilient."

The "If You See Something, Say Something™" campaign—originally implemented by New York City's Metropolitan Transportation Authority and now licensed to DHS for a nationwide campaign—is a simple and effective program to engage the public and key frontline employees to identify and report indicators of terrorism, crime and other threats to the proper transportation and law enforcement authorities.

DHS and the city of Los Angeles will distribute "If You See Something, Say Something™" campaign posters in English and Spanish throughout the city, with materials displayed throughout the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority Transit System, the Port of Los Angeles, as well as police stations and fire stations.

http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/releases/pr_1303758062431.shtm

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Attorney General Eric Holder Speaks About the Department of Justice's Priorities and Mission

Good morning, and thank you all for being here – and for tuning in from Department of Justice offices across the country. It is a pleasure to join Lee [Lofthus] in welcoming so many colleagues and critically important partners here today.

I'd also like to thank Lee – and each of our Assistant Attorneys General, our Associate Attorney General, and all of our component heads – for their outstanding leadership of the Department, and for the invaluable guidance that – over the last two years – they have provided to me. And although he could not be here today, I also want to thank our Deputy Attorney General, Jim Cole, for his dedicated partnership and friendship – not only over the last few months, but also over the last few decades, since the two of us – fresh out of law school – began our careers in this great Department.

Nearly 35 years ago, I arrived here, to this building, to begin my “dream job” as a line attorney in the Criminal Division's Public Integrity Section. The day before starting work, I had moved down from New York City, assuring my friends and family that I only would be in Washington for a couple of years. That was 1976.

What I did not know then – but soon discovered – is that I had been given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: the chance to be part of a highly skilled and motivated team – an extraordinary group of men and women who – in common cause and through individual action – were reaffirming our nation's founding principles of liberty, equality, and security; helping to shape America's future; and taking innovative and collaborative steps to protect our fellow citizens.

http://www.justice.gov/iso/opa/ag/speeches/2011/ag-speech-110425.html

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April 25, 2011

Giffords to attend husband's shuttle launch in Florida

The Arizona congresswoman still recovering from a gunshot wound to the head has been cleared by doctors to travel to Cape Canaveral to watch the launch of Endeavour, which husband Mark Kelly is commanding.

Rep. Gabrielle Giffords plans to attend her husband's space shuttle launch in Florida on Friday, he said, in what will be the Arizona congresswoman's first excursion since she was flown to Houston more than three months ago to recover from a gunshot wound to the head.

In an interview with CBS' Katie Couric, husband Mark E. Kelly said Giffords' doctors had given her permission to go to Kennedy Space Center for the launch of Endeavour, which Kelly is commanding.

CBS released excerpts of the interview, which is scheduled to air Monday on the "CBS Evening News," according to a network statement.

"I've met with her doctors, her neurosurgeon … and they've given us permission to take her down to the launch," Kelly said in the interview.

James Hartsfield, spokesman for NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, referred all questions about Giffords to the congresswoman's office.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-giffords-20110425,0,1347739,print.story

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Man booked on suspicion of attempted murder after allegedly firing at police helicopter

The LAPD copter was fired on after the pilot responded to a report of gunshots in Van Nuys, a detective says. Danny Lopez, 18, is arrested after family members tackle him. A tipster's report of a second gunman sets off a search, but no suspect is found.

An 18-year-old man was booked on suspicion of attempted murder Sunday after he allegedly shot at a police helicopter in Van Nuys, rupturing its fuel tank and forcing it to make an emergency landing. A tipster's report of a second gunman set off an hours-long search and evacuations, but no suspect was found.

The Los Angeles Police Department helicopter was fired on after the pilot responded to a report of gunshots in the 15700 block of Saticoy Street about 6 a.m., Det. Gus Villanueva said. Officers who arrived in patrol cars saw San Fernando Valley resident Danny Lopez shooting at the copter from a yard, Villanueva said. Family members eventually tackled Lopez and held him until his arrest. A semi-automatic rifle was recovered, Villanueva said.

The helicopter, which was leaking fuel, landed at Van Nuys Airport and the pilot was uninjured.

"This situation could have easily turned tragic, and we were just fortunate," Assistant Chief Earl Paysinger said. "It's ironic that it happened on Easter Sunday. Someone divine was watching over us."

Officers offered no possible motive for the shooting. Villanueva said Lopez "was upset about a friend or family member who passed away."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-helicopter-shooting-20110425,0,7521920,print.story

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Police, bus companies failed to act as graves filled in Tamaulipas

There were clues but nothing was done, and now at least 177 bodies have been unearthed. Demand grows for dismissing the state's elected but apparently ineffective officials.

Suitcases started piling up, unclaimed, at the depot where buses crossing northern Tamaulipas state ended their route. That should have been an early clue.

Then the bodies started piling up, pulled by forensic workers from two dozen hidden graves in the scruffy brush-covered ravines around the town of San Fernando, 80 miles south of this city that borders Brownsville, Texas.

At least 177 corpses have been recovered in the last few weeks, most of them, officials now say, passengers snatched from interstate buses, tortured and slaughtered. Women were raped before being killed, and some victims were burned alive, according to accounts from survivors who eventually overcame their fears and came forward.

The slayings have horrified a Mexican public already awash in violence and led commentators to call them "our Auschwitz" and a "Mexican genocide."

Worse yet is the realization that the killing in Tamaulipas state has been going on for months — including the brutal slayings of bus passengers — and no one, not the bus companies, nor the police, nor the officials in charge, acted to stop it.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-mass-graves-20110425,0,5293561,print.story

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FBI identifies suspect in attempted bombing at Colorado mall

The FBI issues a nationwide alert in a search for Earl Albert Moore, 65, who was seen on surveillance video. Officials say he is probably armed and dangerous.

The FBI identified a 65-year-old man with a raft of aliases as the suspect in the attempted bombing of a suburban shopping mall on the anniversary of the Columbine massacre and issued a nationwide alert Sunday, warning that he is probably armed and dangerous.

Earl Albert Moore is the lone suspect in the case, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said. It listed five aliases for him and said he had an "extensive" criminal background.

One week before Wednesday's attempted bombing, the FBI said, Moore had been released from federal prison after serving a sentence for armed bank robbery in West Virginia.

Authorities found a pipe bomb and two propane tanks while extinguishing a small fire in the Southwest Plaza food court. The mall is less than two miles from Columbine High School, where in 1999 two students killed 13 people before turning guns on themselves. The mall, which can have as many as 10,000 shoppers at its busiest, was evacuated for hours.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-colorado-mall-suspect-20110425,0,355322,print.story

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Noncriminals swept up in federal deportation program

Secure Communities, a federal program launched in 2008 with the stated goal of identifying and deporting more illegal immigrants 'convicted of serious crimes,' has netted many noncriminals or those who committed misdemeanors.

More than once, Norma recalls, she yearned to dial 911 when her partner hit her. But the undocumented mother of a U.S.-born toddler was too fearful of police and too broken of spirit to do so.

In October, she finally worked up the courage to call police — and paid a steep price.

Officers who responded found her sobbing, with a swollen lower lip. But a red mark on her alleged abuser's cheek prompted police to book them both into the San Francisco County Jail while investigators sorted out the details.

With that, Norma was swept into the wide net of Secure Communities, a federal program launched in 2008 with the stated goal of identifying and deporting more illegal immigrants "convicted of serious crimes."

But Norma was never convicted of a crime. She was not charged in the abuse case, though the jail honored a request to turn her over to immigration authorities for possible deportation.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-secure-communities-20110425,0,4002513,print.story

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At juvenile hall, an exercise in forgiveness on Easter

An Easter Mass at the Sylmar juvenile hall offers victims and offenders a chance to make peace, seek mercy.

Sylvia Guzman seemed unemotional for most of Sunday's sunrise Easter Mass outside a juvenile hall in Sylmar.

But she wiped away a tear when Francisco "Franky" Carrillo spoke about spending nearly 20 years in jail before his conviction was overturned earlier this year.

"It makes me sad that I cannot see my sons … but he gives me hope that someday they will be free," said Guzman, whose two sons are being held pending trial on charges including attempted murder.

Guzman said she believed her children are innocent.

The predawn ceremony, which drew about 100 worshipers in a light drizzle, drew curious stares from workers and guards as they filtered in and out of the Barry J. Nidorf Juvenile Hall during a shift change. The annual event organized by the Jesuit Restorative Justice Initiative is meant to give victims of violence a forum to forgive their attackers and families an opportunity to ask for changes in state law that would give young offenders a chance at parole.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-easter-mass-20110425,0,4914200,print.story

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Editorial

Multiple Inequities

For a generation, in one of the law's gross inequities that has fallen unduly on African-Americans, 1 gram of crack cocaine was treated the same as 100 grams of powder cocaine in federal courts. It didn't matter that the theory behind the law that crack — cocaine cooked in baking powder — was somehow more addictive and led to more violent crime soon proved false.

Congress moderated, but unfortunately didn't eliminate, that disparity last year by passing the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010, reducing the ratio to 18 to 1. For anyone, that is, who committed a crack offense after the law went into effect last August. For those who committed crack-related crimes before then but have yet to be sentenced, it doesn't. They are subject to the old mandatory minimum sentences — 5 years for 5 grams, 10 years for 50 grams.

As Adam Liptak reported in The Times, federal judges have expressed outrage about being forced to impose the harsher treatment with no discretion. While courts decide if the new law can be applied retroactively, the Justice Department has the discretion to do something now, building on a policy Attorney General Eric Holder Jr. began last May.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/25/opinion/25mon2.html?_r=1&pagewanted=print

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Weather radios part of home safety

A Denison, Iowa, doctor has been such a big believer in storm sirens that, back in 2008, he tracked down a 1950s-era civil defense siren, plopped down $100 and installed it at the Boy Scout camp where he volunteers each summer.

Two months later, that camp — the Little Sioux Scout Ranch — was struck by a horrifying tornado that left four Scouts dead and 48 people injured.

If it hadn't been for that siren and weather radios, Dr. Dennis Crabb said he believes the toll probably would have been higher.

While both of those tools, along with the Internet, play a role in saving lives, weather radios are unique because they've been the subject of significant government investment as part of the nation's emergency alert system.

The government has erected more than 1,000 transmitters across the country so that nearly every American using a weather radio will receive instant alerts on it.

http://www.omaha.com/article/20110425/NEWS01/704259933/8

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