Officials OKd Miranda warning for accused airline plotter

At least four U.S. agencies were involved in a decision to read Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab his rights, sources say, after it was clear that he had stopped sharing information.

By Richard A. Serrano and David G. Savage

February 1, 2010

Reporting from Washington

The decision to advise the accused Christmas Day attacker of his right to remain silent was made after teleconferences involving at least four government agencies -- and only after Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had stopped talking to authorities, according to knowledgeable law enforcement officials.

Among those involved in the hastily called teleconferences were representatives from the Justice Department and the FBI, along with officials from the State Department and the CIA.

"It was a [law enforcement] community-wide conference, and they discussed a number of things," one source said on condition of anonymity. "That's when decisions were made on which course was going to proceed, to Mirandize him or otherwise."

The source said that Abdulmutallab was not read his rights until he made it clear that he was not going to say anything else.

Other government sources, also speaking anonymously, provided new details about what happened after Northwest Airlines Flight 253 landed in Detroit on Christmas Day. Abdulmutallab was taken to a hospital in Ann Arbor, Mich., for treatment of burns from a fire aboard the plane. Authorities said the blaze was sparked when Abdulmutallab tried to ignite explosives in his underwear.

FBI agents questioned him at the hospital for just under an hour. They did not give him the Miranda warning, which advises suspects that anything they say can be used against them at trial, citing an exemption that allows them first to seek crucial information on any pending crime.

During the questioning, one source said, Abdulmutallab suggested that other terrorism attempts were in the works. "He was making comments like, 'Others were following me.' And that is a circumstance where you've got a potential disaster, that there are others out there and you don't have to Mirandize him right away."

But the questioning stopped when doctors said they needed to sedate Abdulmutallab to treat his injuries. At that point, the sources said, the agents backed off.

"The two agents who interviewed him are very experienced counter-terrorism agents," a source said. "They've been around a long time and have traveled internationally. And the Detroit area has the largest Muslim community in the country."

When Abdulmutallab awakened, a second team of FBI agents was sent in. Authorities thought he might be willing to say even more to the second set of agents.

"We had to see if he was still willing to talk," another source said. "And it was pretty quickly apparent to them that he wasn't. He had had a change of mind. It was only after establishing that with some confidence that they decided to go ahead and Mirandize him."

But by that time, the second source said, "We had already talked to him for almost an hour and he provided a lot of information."

It still remains unclear who gave the go-ahead to read him the Miranda warning.

Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair told the Senate Homeland Security Committee last month that the decision to read Abdulmutallab his rights was a mistake. Now, Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. is being pressured to appear on Capitol Hill to clarify why that decision was made. Blair told senators that the decision was "made by the FBI team agent in charge on the scene, consulting with his headquarters and Department of Justice."

FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III told the Senate Judiciary Committee last month that the decision was, "I believe, very appropriate, given the situation." But he added that he was "not fully familiar with who talked to whom on the afternoon."

The emerging details could fan the debate over whether the government blundered by using the routine criminal procedure with a foreign terrorism suspect. Abdulmutallab, 23, a Nigerian, flew into Detroit from Amsterdam.

Republican critics in particular have said that the way the arrest was handled illustrated a tilt by the Obama administration toward awarding constitutional rights to terrorism suspects who should be subjected to unimpeded interrogations.

The administration's policy is that all terrorism suspects go through the civilian judicial system, unlike during the George W. Bush administration. So at some point authorities had to read Abdulmutallab his rights.

Sen. Jeff Sessions, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee and a former federal prosecutor and state attorney general in Alabama, said in an interview that President Obama's policy of taking terrorism suspects to court rather than military tribunals was carried over from political promises he made on the campaign trail.

"His policy got driven by the campaign," Sessions said. "Now he gets elected and reality keeps intruding. Sometimes you just have to take your lumps and reverse your decision."

And Sen. Susan Collins of Maine said in the GOP weekly address Saturday that the nation's top intelligence officials were not consulted about the Miranda warning. If they had been, she said, "they would have explained the importance of gathering all possible intelligence about Yemen, where there is a serious threat from terrorists whose sights are trained on this nation. They would have explained the critical nature of learning all we could from Abdulmutallab."

Authorities said Abdulmutallab, who once lived in Yemen, had links to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

But an administration official, speaking anonymously because the investigation is ongoing, said Abdulmutallab was being handled exactly like every other suspected terrorist apprehended on U.S. soil since the Sept. 11 attacks, and that the pattern "demonstrates the continuing value of federal courts in combating terrorism."

Unless a suspect is warned of his right to remain silent and to speak with a lawyer, his words cannot be used against him at trial.

But in this case there was no need for authorities to rely on a possible confession because there were plenty of witnesses -- Abdulmutallab's fellow passengers.

"They had a truly overwhelming case against him," said University of Utah law professor Paul Cassell, a former federal judge. "The focus should have been on getting additional information from him."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-na-terror-miranda1-2010feb01,0,3704660,print.story

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Obama pairs a push for jobs with proposed spending cuts

The president is anxious for a $100-billion jobs bill to clear Congress soon. His budget, being proposed Monday, includes spending freezes on NASA and other domestic programs.

By Richard Simon and Christi Parsons

5:57 PM PST, January 31, 2010

Reporting from Washington

President Obama wants Congress to quickly approve a jobs bill in the range of $100 billion, a top White House official said Sunday, reflecting the growing political anxiety among Democrats about stubbornly high unemployment in an election year.

The push for jobs-creation legislation, on top of the $787-billion stimulus measure that Obama signed into law one year ago, comes as Republicans have accused the party in power of pursuing a costly and ineffective economic recovery strategy.

In advocating the new spending at a time when the federal budget deficit has reached once-unimaginable levels, Obama on Monday will propose a $3.8-trillion budget that would freeze spending on many domestic programs in fiscal year 2011, which begins Oct. 1.

Obama, for example, proposes to cut funding for NASA programs that were supposed to send astronauts to the moon by 2020 and replace the space shuttle with a new rocket. Instead, he will direct the agency to concentrate more on Earth science projects, such as researching and monitoring climate change.

In all, Obama will propose cutting or eliminating some 120 programs for $20 billion in savings, senior administration officials say.

Other programs will grow. Spending for the Pell Grant program for needy college students would nearly double what it was when Obama took office last year.

Reflecting his oft-stated priority on creating more clean-energy jobs, Obama is expected to seek $54 billion in additional loan guarantees for nuclear power plants, a proposal that has drawn criticism from a usual ally -- environmental groups.

A number of his proposals are likely to face resistance on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers fiercely guard their power over the purse.

House Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R- Ohio), appearing on NBC's "Meet the Press," called the proposed spending freeze a "good first step," but added, "I think we can do much better."

Congress rejected a number of spending cuts that the White House sought last year, including an Obama administration effort to end federal payments to states for jailing illegal immigrants convicted of crimes. California is the largest beneficiary of those payments.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, meanwhile, told CNN's "Late Edition" that the president favors a jobs package "in the $100-billion range" and expressed hope that it would be the next order of business before the Senate.

"We need to recognize what's on the mind of the American people, which is jobs," Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who heads the House Democrats' campaign effort, said on " Fox News Sunday."

In December, the House approved a $154-billion jobs bill without a single Republican vote. Senate Democratic leaders are expected to unveil their plans on jobs legislation this week and are looking to pass a series of measures in coming months rather than one large package.

Final legislation is expected to include money to fund infrastructure projects, promote green jobs and keep teachers, police officers and other public workers employed.

Democrats hope to win Republican support for the measure by including tax cuts for small businesses, a GOP favorite. The tax credit is designed to encourage businesses to hire workers.

But while the Democratic president and congressional Republicans held an unusually frank exchange before TV cameras last week in the hope of promoting bipartisanship, little of it appeared Sunday.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on "Late Edition" that as long as the legislation creates jobs, "we're willing to take a look at it." But he and other Republicans suggested that Democrats could improve economic recovery by dropping their healthcare overhaul and extending the tax cuts enacted under President George W. Bush, which expire at the end of the year.

"The best thing that we could do with respect to jobs is put that massive healthcare expansion on the shelf," Sen. John Thune (R-S.C.) said on CBS' "Face the Nation." He added that lawmakers also should "make it clear to small businesses that we're not going to raise their taxes in the middle of a recession," a reference to the upcoming expiration of the Bush tax cuts.

Obama favors extending the tax cuts for the middle class but ending them for the well-to-do, which he defines as families earning at least $250,000 a year.

"If borrowing and spending all this money led to more jobs, then we'd be at full employment already," Rep. Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, top Republican on the House Budget Committee, said on "Fox News Sunday."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-naw-obama-budget1-2010feb01,0,6995240,print.story

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As Mexican teens celebrate school soccer win, gunmen open fire

Fourteen people are killed in Ciudad Juarez during a party in a private home, the latest victims of the drug war. More than 3,700 people have been slain in two years in this violent area of Mexico.

By Ken Ellingwood

February 1, 2010

Reporting from Mexico City

Gunmen stormed a party packed with teenage revelers in Ciudad Juarez early Sunday, killing at least 14 people in the latest spasm of violence to slam the border city, authorities said.

Officials in the northern state of Chihuahua said high school students and others were at a private home celebrating a school soccer victory when armed men rolled up in seven vehicles and opened fire.

At least eight of the dead were younger than 20, officials said. The youngest confirmed victim was 13. At least 14 people were reported wounded.

The motive was not immediately clear. But gatherings in Ciudad Juarez and other Mexican cities have been attacked before as warring gangs pursue targets amid a nationwide drug war.

El Diario, a daily newspaper in Ciudad Juarez, reported on its website that one of the slain teens was a witness in a multiple homicide.

Juarez Mayor Jose Reyes Ferriz announced a reward of 1 million pesos, or about $76,000, for information leading to the capture of the killers, the newspaper said.

Officials said the dead were scattered across three adjacent homes. Investigators recovered at least 82 bullet casings.

Ciudad Juarez has been the most violent corner in Mexico during the last two years, with more than 3,700 people slain as two drug gangs have waged a ferocious battle for control of the important cross-border smuggling passage into nearby El Paso.

The killings have shown no signs of letting up in the new year.

More than 175 people have been slain in the city already in 2010, according to unofficial tallies by Mexican media outlets.

The stubbornness and severity of the violence in Ciudad Juarez have flummoxed the government of Mexican President Felipe Calderon, which declared a war on drug cartels in late 2006.

Early last year, the government created a force of nearly 10,000 military troops and federal police to patrol the city's streets in an attempt to bring the killing under control while a new local police force was being built. But after a brief dip in slayings, the murder rate soared during the second half of 2009, and the death toll of more than 2,000 topped that of a year earlier.

Last month, the Calderon administration took a new tack. Amid widespread complaints that soldiers were trampling people's rights, the government decided to reduce the army's profile by pulling troops off the streets and sent in 3,000 more federal police officers to carry out patrolling and investigative duties.

Elsewhere in Mexico on Sunday, gunmen attacked a police station with assault rifles and fragmentation grenades in Lazaro Cardenas, killing an officer and two civilians, Mexican media reported.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nation-and-world/la-fg-mexico-shooting1-2010feb01,0,1817922,print.story

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From the Daily News

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Obama backs $100 billion for jobs

WASHINGTON - The Obama administration on Sunday endorsed spending an additional $100 billion to attack painfully high unemployment as it prepared to send Congress a $3.8 trillion budget that would provide billions more to pull the country out of the Great Recession while increasing taxes on the wealthy and imposing a spending freeze on many government programs.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the administration believed "somewhere in the $100 billion range" would be the appropriate amount for a new jobs measure made up of a business tax credit to encourage hiring, increased infrastructure spending and money from the government's bailout fund to get banks to increase loans to struggling small businesses.

That price tag would be below a $174 billion bill passed by the House in December but higher than an $83 billion proposal that surfaced last week in the Senate.

Gibbs said it was important for Democrats and Republicans to put aside their differences to pass a bill that addresses jobs, the country's No. 1 concern. "I think that would be a powerful signal to send to the American people," Gibbs said in an appearance on CNN's "State of the Union."

Job creation was a key theme of the budget President Barack Obama was sending Congress today, a document designed, as was the president's State of the Union address, to reframe his young presidency after a protracted battle over health care damaged his standing in public opinion polls and contributed to a series of Democratic election defeats.

Obama's $3.8 trillion spending plan for the 2011 budget year that begins Oct. 1 attempts to navigate between the opposing goals of pulling the country out of a deep recession and dealing with a budget deficit that soared to an all-time high of $1.42 trillion last year.

The Congressional Budget Office is forecasting that the deficit for the current budget year will be only slightly lower, $1.35 trillion, and the flood of red ink will remain massive for years to come, raising worries among voters and the foreign investors who buy much of the country's debt.

On the anti-recession front, congressional sources said Obama's new budget will propose extending the popular Making Work Pay middle-class tax breaks of $400 per individual and $800 per couple through 2011. They were due to expire after this year.

The budget will also propose $250 payments to Social Security recipients to bolster their finances in a year when they are not receiving the normal cost-of-living boost to their benefit checks because of low inflation. Obama will also seek a $25 billion increase in payments to help recession-battered states.

Obama's new budget will set off months of debate in the Democratically controlled Congress, especially in an election year in which Republicans are hoping to use attacks against government overspending to gain seats. Obama has argued that he inherited a deficit of more than $1 trillion and was forced to increase spending to stabilize the financial system and combat the worst recession since the 1930s.

Obama's new budget was expected to repeat many of the themes of his first budget. But in a bow to worries over the soaring deficits, the administration is proposing a three-year freeze on spending for a wide swath of domestic government agencies. Military, veterans, homeland security and big benefit programs such as Social Security and Medicare would not feel the pinch.

The freeze would affect $447 billion in spending and is designed to save $250 billion over a decade. However, it would not fall equally on all domestic agencies. Some would see budget cuts to free up spending for programs the administration wants to expand such as education and civilian research efforts.

NASA's mission to return astronauts to the moon would be grounded with the space agency instead getting an additional $5.9 billion over five years to encourage private companies to build, launch and operate their own spacecraft for the benefit of NASA and others. NASA would pay the private companies to carry U.S. astronauts.

Obama's budget repeats his recommendations for an overhaul of the nation's health care system, the fight that dominated his first year in office. It proposes to get billions of dollars in savings from the Medicare program and again seeks increased taxes on the wealthy by limiting the benefits they receive from various tax deductions. Both ideas have met strong resistance in Congress.

Gibbs insisted Sunday that the president's push for health care was "still inside the 5-yard line," but Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, also appearing on CNN, said the public was overwhelmingly against the bill and the administration should "put it on the shelf, go back and start over."

In addition to the freeze on discretionary nonsecurity spending, Obama is proposing to boost revenues by allowing the Bush administration tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 to expire at the end of this year for families making more than $250,000 annually. Tax relief for those less well-off would be extended.

The new Obama budget will also include a proposal to levy a fee on the country's biggest banks to raise an estimated $90 billion to recover losses from the government's $700 billion financial rescue fund. Those losses are expected to come not come from the bank bailouts but from the support extended to General Motors and Chrysler and insurance giant American International Group as well as help provided to homeowners struggling to avoid foreclosures.

Also on the deficit front, the president has endorsed a pay-as-you-go proposal that passed the Senate last week. It would require any new tax cuts or entitlement spending increases to be paid for, and he has promised to create a commission to recommend by year's end ways to trim the deficits. However, a legislatively mandated panel was rejected in a Senate vote last week. Republicans opposed establishing the panel because it might recommend tax increases to close the deficit.

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_14307092

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From the Wall Street Journal

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Heists Targeting Truckers On Rise

Robberies Are "Wreaking Havoc" on U.S. Highways, Endangering Consumers

Thieves are swiping tractor-trailers filled with goods, triggering a spike in cargo theft on the nation's highways.

Over five days last month, an 18-wheeler carrying 710 cartons of consumer electronics was stolen from a Pennsylvania rest stop, a 53-foot-long rig packed with 43,000 pounds of paper was ripped off in Ottawa, Ill., and a 40-foot-long truck filled with reclining armchairs went missing in Atlanta.

Truckloads containing $487 million of goods were stolen in the U.S. in 2009, a 67% increase over the $290 million worth of products swiped a year earlier. Thieves stole 859 truckloads in 2009, up from 767 loads in 2008 and 672 in 2007, according to FreightWatch International, an Austin, Texas-based supply-chain security firm that maintains a database of thefts that several government agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation, look to for trends.

Law-enforcement authorities in Illinois, California and Pennsylvania are among several agencies and industry groups also reporting a spike.

Chubb Corp., a major insurer based in Warren, N.J., said that its own insurance claims and data from other sources show 725 cargo thefts in 2009, up 6.6% from 680 in 2008, and up 23% from 592 cargo thefts recorded for 2007. Chubb estimates the 2009 thefts amounted to $435 million of products.

While organized-crime rings may be involved, "we are seeing a lot more amateurs get into this," said Sgt. Sid Belk, of the California Highway Patrol. Cargo bandits made off with $29 million of goods in 2009 in Southern California, up 67% from $17.4 million in 2008, according to the highway patrol.

Thieves "sit and wait and watch, and when the driver goes in to take a shower, that's when they steal the trucks," said Special Agent John Cannon, head of the Georgia's Bureau of Investigation's cargo-theft squad, which was launched in 2009. He believes that thefts of consumer goods in particular are "directly related to the economy; people are stealing things that they can get rid of quickly, and consumers are looking for a deal."

Thieves drive the whole tractor-trailer away or hitch up to an unattended trailer, as truckers sometimes leave a trailer in a drop lot and drive off in just the tractor for an errand. Typically when stolen, the tractor portion is found close to the site of the theft. The empty trailer is usually found miles away, abandoned, and often repainted or reworked in an effort to disguise the stolen truck.

Cargo theft represents a big concern and cost for trucking and other freight haulers, says J.J. Coughlin, chairman of the SouthWest Transportation Security Council, a nonprofit industry group that represents more than 200 freight-shipping companies. The council estimates that the average loss in each theft is $350,000—and that is just the load inside the truck. "Sometimes you lose that too," he said of the tractor-trailer. Typically, though, the tractor-trailer is found miles away. "We find that thieves target the loads," he said.

Mr. Coughlin said that in an effort to combat the problem, freight shippers have been meeting more with police departments. The shippers have also been pushing owners of truck stops and drop lots to provide better security. "That is easier said than done," he said.

Also, in the past two years, the freight shippers have banded together to try to come up with solutions, such as sharing information about what kinds of loads are most stolen so that when those goods are shipped, everyone in the supply chain can be alerted to pay extra attention.

California, Florida, Texas, Georgia, Illinois and New Jersey are the top states for number of cargo thefts, according to FreightWatch. The crooks are targeting such things as electronics, food and beverages, clothing, pharmaceuticals and cigarettes.

The thefts can also threaten consumer safety. In February 2009, an unattended refrigerated truck loaded with $11 million of insulin made by Danish drug concern Novo Nordisk A/S was ripped off in Conover, N.C., while the driver was in a truck stop, according to Sgt. Shane Moore, of the Conover police department.

After the theft, the Food and Drug Administration and Novo Nordisk put out a news release, alerted the health-care industry, and advised pharmacies to inspect inventories, said Sean Clements, a company spokesman. Still, some of the stolen vials wound up in the hands of diabetics, several of whom showed up at medical centers in Kentucky and Texas over the summer sickened because the insulin was inactive, said Karen Riley, an FDA spokeswoman.

The FDA's Office of Criminal Investigations is looking into how the drugs were given to patients. Mr. Clements said the stolen insulin did not get to patients through Novo Nordisk's normal distribution. He said the "safety of our patients is of paramount concern," and that the company is working with investigators, and has taken steps to improve security.

Electronics were the target of a thief who struck near midnight on Jan. 13 at a minimart in Hazleton, Pa., two hours north of Philadelphia. A trucker hauling $500,000 of electronics to an Amazon.com Inc. distribution center left his trailer parked there while he made another delivery elsewhere, said Trooper Charles Everdale III, of the Pennsylvania's State Police auto-theft task force. When the trucker returned the trailer was gone, the trooper said. He said the partially empty trailer turned up in recent days in Palm Beach, Fla. Amazon declined to comment.

In the pharmaceutical industry, "most everyone has had some type of cargo theft" with a spike in "high-value loads" stolen over the last two years, said Chuck Forsaith, the director of supply-chain security for a unit of Purdue Pharma LP, a privately held pharmaceutical company in Stamford, Conn., and also director of the Pharma Cargo Security Coalition, an industry group.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704722304575037241392821742.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_MIDDLTopStories#printMode

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Republicans Step Up Protests of Civilian Terror Trials

Republican lawmakers, seizing on New York City's resistance to hosting a high-profile terrorism trial, are renewing a push to block foreign terrorist suspects from getting trials in U.S. civilian courts

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) plans to introduce legislation on Tuesday to cut off funding for alleged Sept. 11 conspirators to face prosecution in federal courts, saying they should be tried by military commissions instead.

Attorney General Eric Holder prompted a furor in November when he announced that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the professed mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, would be tried in a federal court in New York.

On Wednesday, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, reversing an earlier position, said Mr. Mohammed's trial should be held elsewhere. Officials now say that is likely, although the White House says a final decision hasn't been made.

Addressing New York's concerns about holding the trials in the city, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on CNN's "State of the Union" program that the administration was talking with New York authorities. "We understand their logistical concerns, their security concerns that are involved. We have been discussing that with them," he said.

White House officials said Republicans were far more accepting of trying terrorism suspects in civilian courts when President George W. Bush was doing it. "The Bush administration tried 190 or more terrorists in that system," David Axelrod, an adviser to Mr. Obama, said on NBC News's "Meet the Press" on Sunday. "Now we have a Democratic president and suddenly we have these protests."

Some opponents of civilian trials are making financial, as well as security, arguments, saying they would cost the government too much. Such arguments could resonate with Democrats such as Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana. Mr. Bayh on Sunday said he opposed an Obama administration proposal to spend $200 million to provide security for civilian terrorist trials. "If there is somewhere we can try them without spending that money, why spend that money?" he said on "Fox News Sunday." "We've got a lot of other fiscal needs."

Mr. Graham's letter to Mr. Holder last week asking that Sept. 11 suspects be tried by military commissions had bipartisan support.

In addition to Republicans, the letter was also signed by Sens. Blanche Lincoln (D., Ark.), Jim Webb (D., Va.) and Joseph Lieberman (I., Conn.)

In the House, Rep. Pete King (R., N.Y.) introduced a bill Wednesday that would prohibit the use of Justice Department funds to try any terrorist suspects being held in the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. A Democratic leadership aide on Sunday suggested that the bill hasn't been embraced by the House leadership.

The debate over how to bring terrorist suspects to justice has always been a contentious part of the fight against terrorism. Some say federal trials would showcase American democracy, and that there is little risk of dangerous terrorists going free. They note that the Bush administration successfully tried such figures as Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and shoe bomber Richard Reid in federal court.

Critics say such trials would create security risks and provide a platform for radical propaganda. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said the problems facing New York, where leaders worry about the burden such a trial would impose on a center of finance and business, aren't unique.

"I think any community in America is going to object in the same way that New York finally did to these people being put on trial in the United States in civilian courts," he said on CNN.

Many Democrats oppose congressional action to send terrorism detainees to military commissions, which they view as susceptible to secrecy and abuse. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.), who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, sent a letter to Mr. Obama on Friday urging that Mr. Mohammed's trial be moved, but she made no mention of a civilian prosecution.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D., N.Y.), chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, has long criticized military commissions. He initially supported the notion of prosecuting the defendants in New York, but is now backing any location where the administration thinks it can hold a successful civilian trial.

While it is "logical" to bring the indictments in New York, where many of the Sept. 11 deaths occurred, he said through a spokesman, "I have no personal preference regarding one district versus another."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703762504575037550051072986.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_US_News_5#printMode

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Once-Robust Charity Sector Hit With Mergers, Closings

Hearth, a Boston-based nonprofit, has a mission of helping people like Yvonne Rock find housing and medical care.

By SHELLY BANJO and S. MITRA KALITA

Ms. Rock, a 59-year-old former mental-health counselor, has been diagnosed with terminal lung cancer and can no longer work. After nearly a year on Hearth's waiting list for an apartment, she still has nowhere to live.

But Hearth is badly in need of charity itself. The group lost $325,000 in government contracts last year, laid off five employees and cut managers' pay. Its plans to add housing units are stalled because it hasn't been able to raise the final $600,000 from private donors to qualify for matching government funds. Yet Hearth is receiving more applications for housing than it can process.

"We've had funding cut after funding cut, and we never know when the next shoe is going to drop," says May Shields, Hearth's chief operating officer.

The story is the same across the country. The once-booming nonprofit sector is in the midst of a shakeout, leaving many Americans without services and culling weak groups from the strong. Hit by a drop in donations and government funding in the wake of a deep recession, nonprofits—from arts councils to food banks—are undergoing a painful restructuring, including mergers, acquisitions, collaborations, cutbacks and closings.

"Like in the animal kingdom, at some point, the weaker organizations will not be able to survive," says Diana Aviv, chief executive of Independent Sector, a coalition of 600 nonprofits.

In November, the Hoop Dreams Scholarship Fund in Washington, D.C., which has helped more than 1,000 low-income high-school students go to college, folded.

The Amherst H. Wilder Foundation, Minnesota's 100-year-old health and human services organization, in October announced plans to cut 263 jobs and eliminate programs that serve the elderly and troubled children. The Greater Boston Guild for the Blind, an adult health-care center for the blind, closed in April.

Many groups have no choice but to cut back. After private donations to charities more than doubled between 1987 and 2007, private giving fell by 6% in 2008, the largest drop since Giving USA began tracking the data more than 50 years ago.

It isn't clear how lasting this trend will be. Disasters such as this month's earthquake in Haiti can result in a surge of donations, for instance. Through Friday, the Red Cross had raised $198 million for relief efforts in Haiti. Catholic Relief Services raised $31.8 million and the U.S. Fund for Unicef took in $33.8 million for recovery efforts. About 300 businesses have contributed more than $122 million to Haiti through the Business Civic Leadership Center, the nonprofit arm of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

But longer term, say many nonprofits, the decline in donations to charities appears likely to continue. The sector's difficulties are re-awakening a touchy debate among some leaders in the nonprofit world over whether the economic prosperity of the past few decades has spawned an excess of nonprofits.

With the bar to getting tax-exempt status low, the number of nonprofits registered with the Internal Revenue Service doubled to 1.5 million organizations, employing about 12 million people, or 10% of America's work force, over the past 15 years. Organizations range in size and substance, from the 1,300 local United Way charities to the Grand Canyon Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence Inc., whose members dress in drag to raise funds for HIV/AIDS.

"There were too many poorly performing nonprofits," says Paul C. Light, a professor at New York University's Wagner School of Public Service. "There were very many niche nonprofits devoted to small slices of a problem and they needed to be merged."

But it's one thing to agree that winnowing is necessary, and it's another to decide which organizations need to go. Nonprofit leaders fear that essential services they provide—such as food, shelter and job support—will evaporate just when the nation's most vulnerable keenly need them.

"When a Starbucks closes, customers may just have to walk further for coffee. But when a nonprofit fails, there might not be another homeless shelter or enough food at the next soup kitchen to serve those in need," says Tim Delaney, chief executive of the National Council of Nonprofits.

The nonprofit sector includes everything from universities to hospitals, arts councils to homeless shelters. While all categories are suffering, human service organizations—which account for nearly one-third of public charities—may be hurting the most. Private donations to these groups fell 12.7% in 2008, while demand for such services was booming.

"It's a triple whammy," says Elizabeth Boris, director of the Urban Institute's Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy. "Donations are down. Government funding is down. Need is up."

A $35,000 emergency housing fund administered by FSW Inc., a social-services nonprofit in Connecticut, to help people pay rents or mortgages, was depleted within five months. Now people are being turned away.

In 2009, Catholic Charities of Youngstown, Ohio, saw a 35% increase in requests for help from people who have lost their jobs and homes. At the same time, the charity suffered a 30% cut in funding from its $2 million budget. The group laid off eight employees and cut its long-term-care counseling.

"The mass number of people who come to us now is so vast, at times, it's daunting," says Terry Vicars, a caseworker in Youngstown who speaks with up to 30 clients a day.

Some nights, Mr. Vicars must send homeless people to surrounding cities such as Akron or to Pennsylvania due to overcrowding in nearby shelters. Other times, he says he's forced to turn people away outright. "It's tough. The healthy thing to do I guess is to concentrate on the people we are able to help," he says.

To qualify for additional funding, many donors are providing incentives to collaborate or merge with other groups. The Lodestar Foundation, started by Arizona entrepreneur Jerry Hirsch, launched a $250,000 annual collaboration prize in 2008 to encourage nonprofits to increase efficiency and eliminate duplication by joining together. In April, world leaders and philanthropists will meet at Oxford University for former eBay President Jeff Skoll's annual forum on social entrepreneurship. This year's title: "Catalysing Collaboration for Large-Scale Change."

"This is a wave of the future, not just a result of these times," says Lodestar's president, Lois Savage. "The sector is realizing that running a nonprofit isn't a God-given right, it's a privilege. Leaders need to look beyond their organization and focus on the mission they're trying to accomplish."

Girl Scouts of America is touting the efficiencies it gained after five Indiana councils merged in 2007. After the merger, the councils had enough money to hire a fund-raising department—something they couldn't afford individually. As a result, donations increased 25% by 2008. Participation in the scouts' technology workshop, hosted by Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., expanded to 44,000 girls, up from the 4,000 who were eligible for the original program.

By combining administrative functions, property management and audits, the organization is saving about $1 million a year. "Five councils need five executive directors and five fax machines, meaning that money is not going to programs," says Ms. Aviv of Independent Sector.

But not all mergers go so smoothly.

The Alliance for Children & Families, a national umbrella organization based in Milwaukee, has weathered several mergers over the past decade. Each time, "you're bringing together two cultures and two forms of governance," says Peter Goldberg, the organization's president and CEO.

Mr. Goldberg's alliance was formed by the 1998 merger of Family Service America and the National Association of Homes and Services for Children. It's still intact, but "the first two, three years were very, very tough," he says. "At many points in time, it could have exploded on us."

The alliance had to work through sticky issues such as how many board members to pull from each of the organizations, Mr. Goldberg said. It also had to reconcile differences in salary and benefits. Each organization also had different membership fees and dues schedules. Because of such differences, newly merged nonprofits often don't realize savings for several years, Mr. Goldberg said.

Because many nonprofits were founded by people who believe passionately in their causes, they often find it difficult to make the compromises necessitated by a merger.

After Women Empowered Against Violence, based in Washington, D.C., lost half of its $2 million budget due to government-funding cuts last fall, it was teetering on the edge of insolvency. The group, called Weave, tried at least six times to merge with Washington-area nonprofits but could never find the right partner.

The mission of the organization, founded in 1996 by a group of women law students at American University, is to provide legal and emotional counseling for victims of domestic violence. All the potential partners wanted the group to provide either one service or the other, says Anne McFadden, Weave's board chairwoman.

After the funding cut last fall, Katherine Morrison, the previous interim executive director, told tearful employees not to count on jobs after Oct. 1. At the 11th hour, the founders launched an appeal to donors and raised $140,000. The group has moved to a cheaper building, laid off four employees, and transferred half its programs and six accompanying staff members to another organization.

"I don't think it will ever be back to normal," Ms. McFadden says. "The economic climate has changed too significantly. We just can't rely on government the way we used to."

One result of recent consolidations is that many of the strong are getting stronger.

Four years ago, Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago was dependent on government and United Way support for two-thirds of its budget. Because of the volatile nature of the funding, it was constantly lurching from one financial crisis to another. "In order to grow, we needed to run the organization in a smarter way," says Art Mollenhauer, the organization's chief executive.

The Chicago chapter merged four affiliates into one and now receives 95% of its revenue from private funding. It took over a faltering chapter in Gary, Ind., and a smaller chapter in the western suburbs of Chicago, formed partnerships with 10 companies and is running mentoring programs within eight Chicago-area Boys & Girls Clubs.

The changes are not only making Big Brothers Big Sisters more efficient, but also attracting new donors, board members and participants. In the past three years, the organization has been able to double the number of children served in Chicago to 1,300 a year. In 2009, it expanded the board by six people and won a $346,000 grant from Atlantic Philanthropies to run mentoring programs for more than 300 new children. By running programs at other nonprofits or companies they partner with, the organization has generated $750,000 in new revenue.

The culture of nonprofits often poses a dilemma for backers seeking more businesslike attitudes. Under pressure from donors, the executive director of New York Asian Women's Center, Larry Lee, in early December began enlisting volunteers for translation services, a task that used to be performed by paid staff. The center runs two shelters, counseling services and a hotline for battered and abused women.

"We have these goals where funders want to see outcomes," Mr. Lee says. "How many people got jobs? How many people did we help?"

This is changing the culture of the center, Mr. Lee says.

In the past, for example, the nonprofit might advise women and wait for cues from them before broaching subjects such as getting a job or an apartment.

"Now, maybe we have to be more assertive and say, 'Maybe you need to think about getting a job,' " says Mr. Lee, choosing his words carefully. "Foundations have to show donors they are getting the most bang for their buck."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704586504574654404227641232.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_US_News_6#printMode

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From the Washington Times

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A colorblind America

by Armstrong Williams

ANALYSIS / OPINION

Barack Obama has now served one year as America's first black president — an unmistakable sign that the country has taken an astonishing step away from its history of slavery and institutionalized racism.

Equally instructive, however, just a fortnight after Martin Luther King Jr. Day and on the cusp of Black History Month, is the work that remains to be done.

In the afterglow of Mr. Obama's election, an overwhelming majority of the country believed that race relations would dramatically improve. According to a Gallup poll the day after Mr. Obama won the presidency, 67 percent of Americans felt that racism would eventually be eradicated — that's 10 percentage points higher than at any other point in the decades that Gallup has been polling the issue. Indeed, most Americans surveyed said that Mr. Obama's election represented the most important milestone for blacks in the last 100 years. Pundits wasted no time proclaiming that America had finally achieved a post-racial society. The mood of the country was downright euphoric.

A little more than one year later, Americans' opinion on race relations has changed. According to a new Gallup poll, the number of people who say racial problems will be worked out has dropped back to its pre-election level. Notably, the number of people who say race will always be a problem has risen from 30 percent to 40 percent; and one in five persons surveyed actually thought race relations had worsened. Perhaps most striking is that number of Americans reporting optimism regarding race relations — 56 percent — was approximately the same as in 1963. Bottom line: Most Americans feel the same about race relations in this country now, as they did before Mr. Obama was elected.

So what happened to all of that hope and optimism that greeted the Obama election — and what does it say about the country's evolving dialogue on race? It seems that a majority of black Americans do not feel that the election of Mr. Obama has substantively changed their daily lives. While there is a consensus that seeing a black man in the White House is inspiring, there is little to point to in terms of genuine gains in racial equality. In other words, while the election of Mr. Obama provided an emotional boost, it does not seem to have dramatically impacted the underlying dynamics between white and black Americans.

In less than one year, the possibility of electing a black president has given way to a sinking reality: Very little has actually changed for the average black person. America's legacy of racial injustices remains evident in the racial education and economic gap. Segregation remains a problem throughout America. Today, public schools are more segregated than during the Jim Crow era. Nearly one out of every four black families lives below the poverty line compared to just 6 percent of white families. Blacks were particularly hard hit by the economic downturn. More than twice as likely as whites to receive subprime loans, black families are now losing their homes at an alarming rate. Substandard education begets poverty begets violence. The Justice Department estimates that 32 percent of black men will go to prison at some point in their lives, compared with just six percent of white males.

If you ask most blacks how they feel about Mr. Obama, they are understandably proud. There is no doubt that Mr. Obama's election has instilled a sense of "pride" that gives American blacks hope and inspiration. But if you ask whether Mr. Obama's election will reduce the foreclosure rate, or the racial economic gap, or keep cops from beating on them, they say "of course not." Daily life is not changing just because there is a black face in the White House. And in some ways, it may be getting worse.

I worry that Mr. Obama's victory could undermine the push for equality by creating a sense of passivity amongst both black and white voters. Though there is no way to prove this, I suspect that much of Mr. Obama's crossover appeal resides in the fact that he seems safe to white voters. Like Bill Cosby or former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, Mr. Obama is the perfect American black to overcome latent biases — a homogenized upper-class person who seems to carry around none of the anger for centuries of racial injustices. This is the subliminal appeal to Mr. Obama's presidential candidacy: he seems to represent the exception to every black stereotype. Mr. Obama presented the white voting populace with a unique opportunity to vote for someone who evoked none of the black anger, while at the same time offering them atonement for centuries of racial inequality. By pulling a lever, white America collectively congratulated itself for moving beyond its ugly past. At the same time, American blacks seem to be regarding the mere fact of a black face in the White House as some sign of fundamental change. Both views are naive. A lot of work needs to be done to root out the systemic racism that remains in our society. No one success story — no matter how inspiring — should distract us from the systemic racism that still exists.

So, what lessons can we draw from this historical moment? It could very well be that Mr. Obama's election signals a decline in individual racism, but not systemic racism — the inequities that are entrenched in our social institutions. For example, the best public school systems are located in the most expensive communities. Poor people — mostly of color — are priced out of these communities. Consequently, public schools are now more segregated than during the Jim Crow era. These types of inequities may not be the result of individual bigotry, but they are certainly hangover from a shared history of racial and economic segregation.

What the success of Mr. Obama tells us is that our primary concern can no longer be with individual bigotry. We must shift our focus to the systemic issues that have resulted from a shared history of slavery. The crucial first step is realizing that the lessons of liberalism no longer apply. The dialogue in the black community should not be about getting a seat at the table; it should be about owning the table. We need to educate ourselves on how to build wealth in our communities because the mere fact that the president is black doesn't mean that our lives will change. The key to overcoming systemic racism is to rely on ourselves instead of the government. Without this crucial first step, the dialogue on race relations in this country will remain mired in accusation and defensiveness — and the lingering systemic issues will remain unchanged.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/feb/01/williams-a-colorblind-america//print/

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From Fox News

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Oklahoma Man Accused of Killing Wife, Kidnapping Her Daughter

Tuesday , January 26, 2010

Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY  — 

A woman found beaten to death in a motor home recently sought a protective order against her estranged husband, an ex-convict who was charged Tuesday with killing her and kidnapping her 7-year-old daughter.

Comanche County prosecutors charged Lester William Hobbs, 46, with first-degree murder and kidnapping in the killing of Tonya Hobbs and disappearance of her daughter, Aja Daniell Johnson.

Hobbs' body was discovered Sunday inside Lester Hobbs' motor home in Geronimo, a small town about 100 miles southwest of Oklahoma City. Lester Hobbs and the missing girl, who is not his biological daughter, were last seen by relatives Saturday evening.

"He has gone from being a person of interest in this case to a criminal defendant," Comanche County District Attorney Fred Smith said.

The medical examiner's office has not determined the official cause of death, but charging documents show Tonya Hobbs suffered blunt force trauma to her body.

In August, Tonya Hobbs sought a protective order against Lester Hobbs, writing in a petition that he threatened her daughters and vowed to kill her if she ever left him.

"My husband has threatened to hit my daughters in the head with a hammer and kill them," she wrote.

An emergency protective order was granted, but the case was dismissed two weeks later when both Tonya Hobbs and her husband failed to appear in court, records show.

Tonya Hobbs traveled with her two daughters to Geronimo on Saturday in an attempt to reconcile the relationship with Lester Hobbs, said Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation spokeswoman Jessica Brown.

Tonya Hobbs' older daughter stayed with Hobbs' relatives and is not missing.

Aja's father, J.J. Johnson of Oklahoma City, delivered a tearful plea Monday for the girl's safe return.

"Please Lester, if you're listening, anybody who knows where she is, please take her to a safe spot," Johnson said. "I'll see that she's picked up with no questions asked.

"She's only been seven years old for 20 days."

Oklahoma authorities issued an Amber Alert on Monday and asked law enforcement agencies to be on the lookout in Texas, California and Oregon, where Lester Hobbs has relatives.

Lester Hobbs was last seen driving his wife's 1992 Toyota Paseo with the Oklahoma license plate number 577-BPW. The car has no hubcaps and has plastic covering the rear passenger window.

"Time is not working in our favor in this situation. We need to find this girl as soon as possible," Brown said.

Lester Hobbs has several tattoos, including the letters "LOVE" stitched on the fingers of his left hand and "ROSE" on the fingers of his right hand.

Aja Johnson is 4 feet tall and weighs about 65 pounds. She has brown, shoulder length hair and brown eyes, officials said.

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,583943,00.html

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Murdered Oklahoma Woman's Car Possibly Spotted

Friday , January 29, 2010

Associated Press

OKLAHOMA CITY  — 

Authorities in Oklahoma are trying to follow the trail of a murder suspect and a missing 7-year-old girl.

They say Lester Hobbs murdered his estranged wife Sunday and then vanished with her young daughter, Aja Johnson. The woman was found beaten to death in a motor home about 100 miles southwest of Oklahoma City.

Officials say a car matching the description of a vehicle belonging to the slain woman may have been spotted in Oklahoma City.

Meanwhile, the missing girl's father has been issuing frantic appeals for his daughter's safe return "no questions asked." Authorities in Oklahoma say it is crucial to find Aja as quickly as possible.

Lester Hobbs was last seen driving his wife's 1992 Toyota Paseo with Oklahoma license plates. The car has no hubcaps and has plastic covering the rear passenger window.

http://www.foxnews.com/printer_friendly_story/0,3566,584134,00.html

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From MSNBC

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Amber Alert update: Aja Johnson mother history of domestic abuse

An Amber Alert has been issued for 7 year old Aja Johnson. Aja was last seen on Saturday night when her mother , Tonya Hobbs, brought 7 year old Aja and her 13 year old daughter Kerissa Hobbs on a visit with Lester Hobbs. Lester Hobbs has since been charged with the beating death of Tonya Hobbs.

Officials believe that Lester Hobbs arranged to see his daughters before attending a court hearing on Monday, January 25, 2010 for DUI. There was an order of protection against Lester Hobbs and he wasn't allowed to have contact with Aja. There was also an order of protection sought by Tonya Hobbs against Lester Hobbs in August, 2009. Tonya Hobbs never appeared in court and the order of protection was dismissed. The order of protection for Aja Johnson, however, is current. Now, Tonya Hobbs is dead and two states, Oklahoma and Texas have issued Amber Alerts searching for missing Aja and Lester Hobbs.

On Wednesday night, the Oklahoma Medical Examiner's office announced that Tonya Hobbs died from traumatic injuries to her head, neck, and abdomen. Previous reports suggested that she was shot to death but there was no gun involved. Tonya Hobbs was beaten to death.

Court documents show that Tonya Hobbs said that Lester Hobbs threatened to kill her and her two daughters if she ever tried to leave him. Tonya did leave Lester. However, she returned to visit him one last time, before he appeared in court.

Tonya Hobbs mother, Alice Dunkin, spoke with WKFOR news and remarked upon the allegations that Lester Hobbs beat Tonya to death before fleeing with Aja. She said, "I never thought he would go that far. He's beat her up, black eye and stuff, but I didn't think he'd go as far as murder."

Aja Daniell Johnson is a white female and 7-years-old. She stands 4 feet tall and weighs 65 pounds. Aja has brown hair and brown eyes.

Lester Hoobs is  believed to be driving a 1992, white Toyota Paseo with the license plate number 577-BPW. If you spot the vehicle call the national tip line established through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678).  You may also call 9-1-1.

http://www.examiner.com/x-32312-Amber-Alerts-Examiner~y2010m1d28-Amber-Alert-update-Aja-Johnson-mother-history-of-domestic-abuse-videos-photos

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Aja Johnson Feared Dead as Search Goes Nationwide for Missing 7-Year-Old, Violent Stepfather

Aja Johnson Update: Aja Needs Her Medication

Little 7 year old Aja Johnson has apparently been kidnapped after the police found her mother, 37 year old Tonya Hobbs dead in her mother's RV in Geronimo, Oklahoma sometimes before 9 pm Sunday night.

Aja is believed to have been taken by the mother's estranged husband, 46 yr. old Lester Hobbs. Lester Hobbs is also considered to be a person of interest in the death of Tonya Hobbs.

Authorities are worried about the little girl especially because of the violent history behind Hobbs. He has been in and out of prison for various charges starting from burglary in 1983 to driving under the influence. He recently served time in jail in 2005 for assault and battery with a deadly weapon.

Tonya Hobbs had filed a request for a protective order against Hobbs in August. In the petition she wrote, “My husband has threatened to hit my daughters in the head with a hammer and kill them. He also threatened to kill me if I left him.”  The protective order was dismissed when neither of them showed up for the hearing in August.

According to attorney John Branch, Aja John's father's attorney without Aja's medication her behavior become a bit erratic. She suffers from attention deficit disorder and sleep deprivation so without her medication her behavior is likely to cause her to irritate Hobbs. “If she's not getting her sleep, then her behavior becomes more and more erratic,” said Branch. “And as her behavior becomes more and more erratic, we're concerned even more for her safety.”

Aja's father, J.J. Johnson appeared at a press conference today and was begging for the safe return for his daughter and he reiterated her need for medical treatment.

“I'm here to make a plea to everybody who's listening. I need my little girl back,” said Johnson. “She's missing and I love her dearly. She needs her medication.”

Tonya Hobbs was visiting Lester Hobbs sister with Aja before she was killed according to the authorities. Johnson, had been granted temporary custody of Aja in November 2009, but he said he let her go with her mother to a birthday party but he didn't know they were going to Geronimo. “Tonya said if the party went too late that they might stay overnight so that's all she had was a pair of clothing for that evening and that day and her medication for that evening and the next morning,” said Johnson.

Hobbs seems to have relatives in Davenport, where he lived with Tonya before they separated and he also has relatives in Texas and Oregon and in Bakersfield California. Aja is described as about 65 lbs, and 4 ft tall. She has brown eyes and brown hair.

Lester Hobbs is about 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighs about 185 pounds, with hazel eyes and brown hair, according to the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation but it is said that he no longer has the goatee that he has in this photo. .

He was last seen driving a 1992 Toyota Paseo with the Oklahoma license plate number 577-BPW.

If you have seen this little girl please contact: COMANCHE County Sheriffs Office at 580-353-4280 or 877-652-6237 or Geronimo Police Department at this direct line, 580-355-1115.

Lester Hobbs if by some miracle you or anyone you know could be reading this please find it in your heart to return this child to her father. Please don't make her suffer because she doesn't have her medication.

My prayers are with Aja Johnson as well as all the other missing children including Adji Desir, Haleigh Cummings, Hassani Campbell, Masaraha Ross (who remains missing with her Mom), Marc Anthony Bookal and Aveion Malik Lewis.

http://www.bloggernews.net/123651

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