Fear spreads in Moreno Valley as body is identified as missing girl

Riverside County investigators search for the killer of Norma Lopez and warn residents to be careful. Hundreds attend a gathering to remember the victim.

By Phil Willon, Los Angeles Times

July 22, 2010

With word that a killer was among them, fear spread quickly among Moreno Valley's parents and teenagers Wednesday after authorities confirmed that a body found near a patch of farmland was that of a missing 17-year-old high school student.

Norma Lopez vanished seven days ago as she walked to a friend's house after summer school, triggering a massive search that has now turned into a hunt for a killer throughout Riverside County. Police believe Lopez was abducted as she cut though a field near Valley View High School.

"We haven't caught the suspect who killed Norma, so obviously there is at least [one] murderer out there. So I would be vigilant, I would be aware. If I was a parent, I would keep track of my children,'' said Riverside County Sheriff's Department spokesman Sgt. Joe Borja.

Sonia DeLeon, a prenatal health counselor, wasn't taking any chances. She's sending her 17-year-old daughter to live with relatives in San Diego County for a few weeks.

"It's scary. The person is still out there,'' DeLeon said. "I work, my husband works, we can't keep an eye on her every minute.''

News of Lopez's death, mostly through text messages and cellphones, traveled quickly through her school long before the Sheriff's Department made the official announcement, Principal Kristen Hunter said.

"We've had so many kids come in that I had to call the district to bring in the crisis response team,'' Hunter said. "It was heartbreaking to see how much pain they were in. Some of them went to school with Norma since elementary school. They were hitting their fists on the table, saying 'Why? Why? Why?' ''

Lopez was reported missing a week ago by her older sister, Sonja, after she failed to return home from a summer biology class. She was out of school by 10 a.m. and planned to meet her older sister and a friend, authorities said.

Investigators said they found some of Norma's belongings, as well as signs of a struggle, in a vacant field along Cottonwood Avenue, a popular shortcut among students.

Lopez's body was found in a grassy field Tuesday afternoon by a resident doing yardwork on the eastern edge of town, an area just off Interstate 60 that issurrounded by vast wheat fields.

Authorities declined to provide any details about the cause of death, any evidence found with the body or when they believe that Lopez was killed.

Borja said investigators have no suspects in the case, although a newer model green SUV was seen speeding away from the area where Lopez disappeared.

Until they received word of her death early Wednesday morning, Lopez's parents clung to the hope that their daughter was alive, appearing before television news cameras almost daily begging for her safe return.

"There are no words to describe how I felt at the moment. I have rage, anger with those who did this to her,'' said Melanie Villarreal, 18, a friend of Norma and her sisters. "Moreno Valley is such a small community … now you can't even walk out of your house with your back turned.''

Friends streamed into the Lopez family's house throughout the day, bringing flowers and condolences. Television news vans flanked the house, a well-kept, beige, two-story suburban home with pink rosebushes and a pepper tree in front. Sheriff's officials said the family members were too distraught to comment.

On Tuesday, the Sheriff's Department announced a $35,000 reward for any information leading to the the arrest and conviction of anyone responsible for her abduction. An account also has been set up at Wells Fargo for anyone wishing to contribute to the reward.

On Wednesday evening, hundreds of students, parents and community members started streaming into Valley View High School with flowers, cards and other mementos to express their grief.

"It's scary for all of us who have kids in this town,'' said Erika Rogers, whose 16-year-old daughter will be a senior next year. "Right now, we're not letting her walk anywhere. Not after school, nowhere.''

By 6:30 p.m., the crowd filled one of the grandstands at the school's football field. It was a scene of grief and tears, of emotions rubbed raw by the disappearance and death of an innocent teenager, one of them.

Students and community members were invited to come down to an open microphone on the field to share a story about Norma or a prayer or a song.

Two of Lopez's sisters, Elizabeth and Sonja, sat silently on folding chairs in front of the crowd, comforted by hugs and the kind words from friends and strangers.

The principal opened up with a tearful, stark comment about how Lopez's death had been a tragedy for her family, her school and her community.

"I just want to say I miss you, Norma. Nobody deserves this," said Caroline Benjamin, 15, a friend. "She could have changed the world one day."

Authorities urge anyone with information about the case to call (877) 242-4345 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting   (877) 242-4345 end_of_the_skype_highlighting , or send an e-mail to findnormaskiller@riversidesheriff.org .

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0722-identify-20100722,0,1415412,print.story

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Every soldier a hero? Hardly

Simply joining the armed services does not make you a hero, nor does the act of serving in combat.

By William J. Astore

July 22, 2010

When I was a kid in the 1970s, I loved reading accounts of American bravery during World War II. And I was proud that my uncle had earned a Bronze Star for his service on Guadalcanal. So it came as something of a shock when, in 1980, I first heard Yoda's summary of warriors and war in "The Empire Strikes Back."

Luke Skywalker, if you remember, tells the wizened Jedi master that he seeks "a great warrior."

"Wars not make one great," Yoda replies.

I was struck by the truth of that statement even then, as I was preparing for a career in the military. Certainly, military service (especially the life-and-death struggles of combat) can provide an occasion for the exercise of heroism, but simply joining the armed services does not make you a hero, nor does the act of serving in combat.

Still, ever since the events of 9/11, there's been an almost religious veneration of U.S. service members as "Our American Heroes" (as a well-intentioned sign puts it at my local post office). But a snappy uniform — or even dented body armor — is not a magical shortcut to hero status.

A hero is someone who behaves selflessly, usually at considerable personal risk and sacrifice, to comfort or empower others and to make the world a better place. Heroes, of course, come in all sizes, shapes, ages and colors, most of them looking nothing like John Wayne or John Rambo or GI Joe (or Jane).

I come from a family of firefighters, yet our hero was my mother, a homemaker who raised five kids and endured without complaint the ravages of cancer in the 1970s, with its then crude chemotherapy regimen, its painful cobalt treatments and the collateral damage of loss of hair, vitality and lucidity. In refusing to rail against her fate, she set an example of selfless courage and heroism I shall never forget.

Whether in civilian life or in the military, heroes are rare — indeed, all too rare. Heck, that's the reason we celebrate them. They're the very best of us, which means they can't be all of us.

But does elevating our troops to hero status really cause any harm? What's wrong with praising our troops to the rafters and adding them to our pantheon of heroes?

A lot.

By making our military a league of heroes, we ensure that the brutalizing aspects and effects of war will be played down. In celebrating isolated heroic feats, we often forget that war is guaranteed to degrade humanity as well.

"War," as writer and cultural historian Louis Menand noted, "is specially terrible not because it destroys human beings, who can be destroyed in plenty of other ways, but because it turns human beings into destroyers."

When we create a legion of heroes in our minds, we blind ourselves to evidence of destructive, sometimes atrocious, behavior. Heroes, after all, don't commit atrocities. They don't, for instance, dig bullets out of pregnant women's bodies in an attempt to cover up deadly mistakes, as the Times of London recently reported may have happened in Gardez, Afghanistan. Such atrocities, so common to war's brutal chaos, produce cognitive dissonance in the minds of many Americans, who simply can't imagine their "heroes" killing innocents and then covering up the evidence. How much easier it is to see the acts of violence of our troops as necessary, admirable, even noble.

Even worse, seeing the military as universally heroic can serve to prolong wars. Consider, for example, Germany during World War I, a subject I've studied and written about. As the historian Robert Weldon Whalen noted of those German soldiers of nearly a century ago: "The young men in field-grey were, first of all, not just soldiers, but young heroes, Junge Helden. They fought in the heroes' zone, Heldenzone, and performed heroic deeds, Heldentaten. Wounded, they shed hero's blood, Heldenblut, and if they died, they suffered a hero's death, Heldentod, and were buried in a hero's grave, Heldengrab." The overuse of "Helden" as a modifier to ennoble German militarism during World War I undoubtedly prolonged the war, for how could the government make peace with the villains who had killed these heroes? Wouldn't their deaths then have been in vain?

In rejecting blanket "hero" labels today, we would not be insulting our troops. Quite the opposite: We'd be making common cause with them. Most of them already know the difference between real heroism and everyday military service. Even the young "Helden" of Wilhelmine Germany knew that service alone didn't make them heroic. With the typical sardonic humor of front-line soldiers, they preferred the less comforting but more descriptive label (given their grim situation in the trenches) of "front pigs."

Whatever nationality they may be, troops at the front know the score. Even as our media and our culture seek to elevate them into the pantheon of demigods, the men and women at the front are focused on doing their jobs and returning home with their bodies, their minds and their buddies intact.

So, next time you talk to our soldiers, Marines, sailors or airmen, do them (and your country) a small favor. Thank them for their service. Let them know you appreciate them. Just don't call them heroes.

William J. Astore, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, teaches history at the Pennsylvania College of Technology. A longer version of this piece can be found at TomDispatch.com.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-astore-heroes-20100722,0,6600884,print.story

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From the New York Times

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Iran Now Says Nuclear Scientist Was Double Agent

TEHRAN — Iran fired a new salvo on Wednesday in what is becoming a bizarre propaganda war over the supposed defection and later return of an Iranian nuclear scientist, with Iran's semiofficial media suggesting that he was a covert operative who had provided “valuable information” about the Central Intelligence Agency 's inner workings.

American officials have said that the scientist, Shahram Amiri , was a C.I.A. informant for years in Iran , providing “significant” information about Iran's nuclear program and voluntarily defecting to the United States in 2009. Mr. Amiri returned to Iran last week , saying he had been abducted and tortured by American authorities.

Iran now appears to be turning those claims around, casting Mr. Amiri — whose fate seemed uncertain after his return last week — as the double-agent hero of a plan to outwit American intelligence agencies and provide false nuclear data. His story is being made into a television movie by a company affiliated with Iran's state network, said the semiofficial Fars news agency.

“This was an intelligence war between the C.I.A. and us, which was planned and managed by Iran,” said an unidentified “informed source” cited by Fars, which has close ties to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

The person referred to as a source said Mr. Amiri had begun working with Iranian agents as soon as they were able to contact him this year, providing a list of other Iranians whom the C.I.A. intended to abduct and other information. As examples, the person cited the license plate numbers of two cars said to be used by the agency, and a code name for one of them — “spitfire.”

American officials responded derisively to the new Iranian claims.

“He never had access to American intelligence information,” said one official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because details of the case remained classified. “That's a joke. When you stack what Amiri might have learned here — what he had for dinner or the fake name of someone who might have come to see him — up against verified insights about Iran's nuclear program, it's crystal clear that we got the better end of things.”

American officials say that Mr. Amiri provided details of how a university in Tehran became the covert headquarters of Iran's nuclear efforts, and that he became a source for a much disputed National Intelligence Estimate on Iran's suspected weapons program. Iran has long maintained that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

The person cited by Fars suggested that Mr. Amiri's disclosures were a ruse or without value.

“We had set various intelligence goals in designing this battle and — by the grace of God — we were able to achieve all our goals without our rival winning any real victory,” the person quoted by the news agency said.

American officials have described Mr. Amiri's tale of being abducted during a pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia and later held against his will in the United States as a “fantasy” intended to save his life.

But even if he is held up as a hero now, some analysts say Mr. Amiri's fate in the longer term is still uncertain, if only because Iran must make it clear to other potential defectors that there is a price to be paid for such actions.

Also on Wednesday, Iran announced bold plans for its nuclear program, saying that it would conduct studies for the building of a nuclear fusion reactor, the news agency IRNA reported. Generating energy through nuclear fusion has long been a dream for physicists.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/world/middleeast/22iran.html?adxnnl=1&ref=world&adxnnlx=1279807217-f4WMy5ocWcffz9kCQRgTcA&pagewanted=print

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‘Barefoot Bandit' Started Life on the Run Early

CAMANO ISLAND, Wash. — The “Barefoot Bandit” is not all Colton Harris-Moore has been called in his short splash of life.

Neighbors say his mother screamed things at him so vicious that they cringed when her words echoed through the giant evergreens that cover much of this island in Puget Sound. Classmates say he could be a bully — when he attended school.

Yet perhaps his most benign nickname is the most telling. Long before stealing boats and planes made him a marvel of elusiveness, an Internet antihero, Mr. Harris-Moore, 19, was suspected of stealing cookies and frozen pizza from the Kostelyk family, a few gravel roads from the squalor that was his home, a trailer on a dead end here, barely an hour from Seattle. The Kostelyks had waterfront property and a freezer full of food. He lived inland and had nothing.

“We called him ‘Island Boy,' ” recalled Linda Johnson, whose mother, Maxine Kostelyk, was among Mr. Harris-Moore's first suspected victims. “He came back over and over again — frozen pizza, cookies, ice cream. He was a tall boy, and he was growing.”

By the time he was captured on a stolen motorboat in the Bahamas last week, racing from the police with video-game gall, the 6-foot-5 Mr. Harris-Moore had become a sensation. After escaping from a juvenile halfway house here more than two years ago, he eluded the authorities across North America using his wits and his fleet (sometimes bare) feet. The police said he made makeshift homes in empty houses for days or weeks at a time and somehow taught himself to fly, mastering the art of crash-landing and walking away.

Even in the age of the search engine, Mr. Harris-Moore seemed untraceable and unknowable, part high-tech Huck Finn, part cunning criminal.

An examination of his early life and troubles suggests a picture far less cinematic. According to court and public documents and dozens of interviews, Mr. Harris-Moore was nobody's hero, not even his own. On the contrary, whether he was hiding in the Kostelyks' tree house, watching for delivery of the high-powered flashlight the police believe he ordered with a stolen credit card, or flying solo to the Bahamas in a stolen Cessna this month, isolated in the tiny cockpit for more than a thousand miles — Colton Harris-Moore, for much of his life, was alone and hungry.

That was true even as he was being celebrated by thousands of fans on Facebook .

“He says he's not into any of that,” said Monique Gomez, a lawyer who briefly represented Mr. Harris-Moore in the Bahamas. “He just wants to get this behind him.”

Ms. Gomez added, “I think if he had proper direction, he wouldn't have done what he did.”

Mr. Harris-Moore had a volatile childhood and was often in conflict with his mother, Pam Kohler. His father appears to have been absent. According to public documents, child protection officials had been referred to the family at least a dozen times by the time Mr. Harris-Moore was 15.

A social worker's report from the time he was first arrested, at 12, drew a succinct conclusion, at least from the boy's point of view. “Colton wants Mom to stop drinking and smoking, get a job and have food in the house,” the report said. “Mom refuses.”

When Mr. Harris-Moore was 4, someone reported Ms. Kohler after seeing “a woman grab a small child by the hair and beat his head severely,” according to a psychiatric summary 12 years later. By the time he was 10, an investigation involving “negligent treatment or maltreatment” had been initiated.

Ms. Kohler does not appear to have been prosecuted for a crime related to the complaints.

Ms. Kohler, 59, declined to be interviewed. A lawyer she has hired to handle news media inquiries and film and book proposals based on her son's story said he had not seen allegations of abuse against Ms. Kohler in public records.

Several neighbors on Haven Place, the gravel road on the southern end of Camano Island where Mr. Harris-Moore grew up and his mother still lives, recalled often hearing mother and son screaming at each other into the night. All spoke on condition of anonymity because they said they feared Ms. Kohler.

A hand-painted sign at the end of her wooded driveway warns: “If you go past this sign you will be shot.”

Asked whether it was an empty threat, one neighbor said, “She shoots.”

The neighbor recalled a land surveyor telling how he had heard gunshots fired in his direction when he was surveying the property next door.

According to records and interviews, Mr. Harris-Moore was disciplined frequently in school. One fifth-grade classmate, Mariah Campbell, recalled other students making fun of Mr. Harris-Moore's dirty clothing and said he could be mean to classmates.

“Because he never did his homework,” Ms. Campbell said, “he never got to go to recess or anything.”

About age 12, Mr. Harris-Moore was determined to have several psychiatric conditions, including depression, attention deficit disorder and intermittent explosive disorder , according to a later psychiatric report. He was prescribed antidepressant and antipsychotic drugs.

He dropped out of school after ninth grade.

“He never wanted to go home,” said Christa Postma, who added that she became friends with Mr. Harris-Moore in middle school “because we both got in trouble all the time.”

The crimes for which Mr. Harris-Moore has been convicted or is suspected of show an increasing focus on technology and transportation, involving the theft of laptops and mountain bikes, GPS devices and power boats. But it is hard to find anything in his past that suggests he would soon be capable of commandeering airplanes and flying them out of the country without any cockpit training, much less without getting caught.

He is suspected of taking at least five planes — including once during the Vancouver Olympics — and crash landing all of them. He walked away each time.

The skies above Puget Sound rumble with small planes going to and from its islands. Ms. Kohler has told reporters that her son could identify different models as they flew overhead. The Internet is filled with speculation that Mr. Harris-Moore taught himself to fly using simulation software on the laptops he is suspected of stealing. But there is little hard evidence of how he really learned.

“That will be the question that everybody will want to ask him when he talks, if he talks,” said Ed Wallace, a detective with the Island County sheriff's office .

The “Barefoot Bandit” label is a relatively new nickname here, too, stemming from real footprints found at some crime scenes last year and drawings of footprints that the police believe Mr. Harris-Moore made at other scenes.

“He took the mantle and was wearing it proudly,” said Sheriff Bill Cumming of San Juan County.

Neighbors say they do have memories of Mr. Harris-Moore going barefoot at times when he was a boy. Back then, he complained to caseworkers that his mother did not press him to be more responsible. Caseworkers noted more than once that Ms. Kohler declined to follow up on the various counseling and treatment programs that were prescribed for her son.

Ms. Postma, the friend from eighth grade, who now works in quality control at a fish processor in Alaska, said that she had been in counseling, and “that really helped me.”

Several people in Mr. Harris-Moore's neighborhood said he seemed to be on a search for parental substitutes as a boy — asking people to make him peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or watching them do basic chores, then stealing their mailboxes or computers. Some noted that even as his efforts to avoid capture escalated into spectacle, cheered on by virtual friends on the Internet, he stayed in contact with his mother.

Mr. Harris-Moore arrived back in Washington on Wednesday and was due in court Thursday. He faces one federal charge of stealing an airplane and transporting it across state lines and potentially faces dozens more charges, including burglary, theft and credit card fraud.

At the end, his mother publicly encouraged him to escape to a country that does not extradite to the United States. Instead Mr. Harris-Moore ended up in the Bahamas.

“He wasn't really trying to get away,” said Kyle Ater, who found bare footprints drawn in chalk on the floor of his natural food store on nearby Orcas Island on the morning after the police say Mr. Harris-Moore burglarized it, destroyed the alarm system, and ate an entire blueberry cheesecake from the cooler.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/us/22barefoot.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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2 Americans in Cases Tied to Terrorism

WASHINGTON — A 20-year-old Virginia man who had made threatening statements about the television show “South Park” was arrested on Wednesday and charged with supporting the Shabab , a Somalia-based terrorist group, after he allegedly tried to board a flight to Africa with his infant son.

The man, a Muslim convert from Fairfax County, Va., named Zachary A. Chesser, had been in e-mail contact with Anwar al-Awlaki , an American-born radical cleric now hiding in Yemen, prosecutors said. Mr. Chesser was briefly in the news in April after he posted on the Internet a statement that the makers of “South Park” might be killed for portraying the Prophet Muhammad in a bear suit.

In an unrelated case on Wednesday, another American convert to Islam, Paul G. Rockwood Jr., 35, of King Salmon, Alaska, admitted that he had been radicalized by reading Mr. Awlaki's tracts on the Web and had prepared a list of 15 people he believed should be killed for “desecrating Islam.”

According to his guilty plea in federal court in Anchorage, Mr. Rockwood gave the list to his wife, Nadia Piroska Maria Rockwood, but neither is accused of taking any steps toward harming the people on the list, whom prosecutors did not name.

Mr. Rockwood, who previously lived in Virginia but moved to Alaska in 2006, agreed to an eight-year sentence for making false statements during a terrorism investigation. Mrs. Rockwood, who also admitted making false statements, agreed to five years of probation, to be served in her native Britain, according to court papers.

The terrorism-related charges against two Americans, both devotees of Mr. Awlaki, are part of a marked increase in homegrown extremism in the United States, often influenced by radical material on the Internet. According to Justice Department statistics, 19 American citizens were charged in international terrorism cases in 2009 and 15 more so far this year.

In case after case, investigators have discovered the writings and recordings of Mr. Awlaki. American intelligence officials believe he played a role in organizing the attempted bombing of a Detroit-bound airliner on Dec. 25, and this year he became the first American citizen to be placed on the Central Intelligence Agency 's capture-or-kill list.

Mr. Chesser, according to a Federal Bureau of Investigation affidavit, sent several e-mail messages to Mr. Awlaki, receiving two replies. In April, he posted on the Web site RevolutionMuslim.com a statement that the “South Park” creators would “probably end up like” Theo Van Gogh, a Dutch filmmaker killed after being accused of attacking Islam.

Mr. Chesser told F.B.I. investigators that he twice tried to fly to Somalia to join the Shabab, which has links to Al Qaeda . The second time, on July 10, when he tried to board a plane bound for Uganda, he was told he was on the no-fly list, charging documents say. He had told his wife he was taking their young son along for “cover,” the documents say.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/22/us/22terror.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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From the White House

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Helping New Parents and Gaining Long-Term Savings

New and expecting mothers and fathers across the country will have a helping hand in those first, crucial years of child rearing thanks to the Affordable Care Act.  Today, Secretary Sebelius announced $88 million in grants for the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program.  These grants will help new and expecting parents by providing in-home visits by professionals who can teach them the important skills every new parent should know. 

The concept is simple and the results are strong.  Research shows home visits can yield substantial improvements in school readiness, father involvement, and parent employment as well as reductions in child abuse, neglect, and dependence on public supports.  Home visits can actually reap Medicaid savings through fewer preterm births and emergency room use.  Independent non-partisan organizations estimate that every dollar spent on evidence-based home visitation yields between $3-6 of savings to federal, state, and local governments.

By building on models that have been developing  across the country, we're working to support this crucial service and, at the same time, reaping long-term savings and rewards as children grow up in healthier environments.

For more information on Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting, go to: www.hrsa.gov

Melody Barnes is the President's Domestic Policy Advisor and Director of the Domestic Policy Council 

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/07/21/helping-new-parents-and-gaining-long-term-savings

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Apples and Oranges

In recent days, some in Massachusetts have examined the impact of the state's health reform law on small businesses, such as this article from the Boston Globe , with some comparing the Massachusetts law to the Affordable Care Act. While both laws share the goal of increasing health insurance coverage, the Affordable Care Act includes a number of features that aren't found in the Massachusetts law that will do even more to improve our nation's existing health care system, lower costs and provide significant benefits for small businesses. 

As Administrator for the Small Business Administration, I've talked with entrepreneurs and small business owners around the country.  The Affordable Care Act will help address many of the concerns I hear from them and make it easier for them to provide coverage to their workers.

Specifically, the new law:

• Makes millions of small businesses eligible now for tax credits to help them offer health benefits to their employees, and the size of the credits increase over time . Businesses with up to 25 employees that pay average annual wages below $50,000 and provide insurance to their workers can qualify this year for a tax credit up to 35 percent. In 2014, the tax credit goes up to 50 percent. An estimated 4 million small businesses nationwide could qualify for a small business tax credit this year, which will provide a total of $40 billion in relief for small firms over the next 10 years.
  
  
• In the years ahead, allows small businesses to more effectively leverage their buying power when they shop for insurance plans. Starting in 2014, small businesses with up to 100 employees will have access to state-based Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP) Exchanges. These Exchanges will include online websites that will make comparing and purchasing health care coverage easier and eliminate much of the administrative work that comes with offering health insurance. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has estimated that the Exchanges could reduce premiums by up to 4 percent for small businesses.
  
  
• Implements new insurance market reforms in 2014 that will keep insurance companies from increasing premiums for small businesses simply because one of their workers becomes sick, thereby providing stability and predictability to small businesses owners that they do not have today.

Small business owners have been suffering under the weight of high health care costs for too long. In today's insurance market, small businesses pay 18 percent higher premiums than large businesses and have higher administrative costs. The Affordable Care Act will help reduce the burden on small businesses and help ensure small business owners can continue to extend health care benefits to their employees.

And while it is always important to look back at previous work to reform the health care system at the state and federal level, we should remember that the Affordable Care Act is unlike any reform passed before. Commentators who try to compare the Commonwealth's law and the Affordable Care Act are improperly comparing apples and oranges.

Karen Mills is Administrator of the Small Business Administration

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/07/21/apples-and-oranges

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The President's Commitment to Fight HIV/AIDS

In light of the International AIDS Society conference being held in Vienna this week, many people have raised questions about the Obama Administration's commitment to the fight against HIV/AIDS.  

First, consider the facts:

The Obama Administration has made a significant investment – and increases – in our efforts to fight HIV/AIDS and improve the health of those living in developing countries. President Obama requested increases for the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) in both his FY 2010 and FY 2011 budgets, as part of a $63 billion Global Health Initiative (GHI).  In fact, the FY 2011 request is the largest request to date in a President's Budget, and the program is slated to increase in the years ahead.  The President's FY 2011 budget request for the Global Fund is the largest request ever and represents a doubling of the budget request from FY 2009.  Between 2004 and 2008, the U.S. devoted a cumulative $17 billion to the global fight against HIV/AIDS.  In 2011 alone, the President request nearly $7 billion.  In addition, the United States will not be reducing the number of people it is supporting on anti-retroviral (ARV) drugs.  During FY 2009, PEPFAR increased the number of people directly supported on treatment from 1.7 million to nearly 2.5 million.  The numbers of those treated in coming years will not be reduced either.  By 2014 the United States will be supporting more than 4 million people on anti-retroviral treatments. 

As a UNAIDS report documented just days ago, the United States provided 58 percent of all funds worldwide to fight HIV/AIDS in developing countries.  Furthermore, while numerous developed countries were cutting back on their support for HIV/AIDS between 2008 and 2009, the United States actually increased its funding by more than 10 percent.  The fact that these increases were done during the worst recession in a generation and a deteriorating fiscal situation speaks volumes about the President's – and our country's – commitment to the fight against the HIV/AIDS epidemic.

Second, these arguments about dollars spent miss the point:

The amount of money spent on HIV/AIDS cannot be the measure of success.  The right measures are lives saved and lengthened.  There is not a simple equation of dollars in and lives saved.  There is huge variation in costs, and improvements in how we deliver care and ARV treatments can save money that can be used to treat more people living with AIDS.  More importantly, what it takes to save lives of those with HIV and those most at risk to contract it is a comprehensive approach that recognizes the roles of other diseases (many inexpensively preventable), child and maternal health, and strong health systems play in saving lives and solidifying health gains in developing nations. 

This comprehensive approach is what the President's GHI is all about.  It recognizes that we cannot treat our way out of the HIV-AIDS epidemic. The key to ending it is to reduce the number of those who become HIV-positive in the long-term – and that takes improving their overall health and the health systems around them.  After all, patients don't come to doctors with one disease or condition, and our response shouldn't focus on solely one as well.

President Obama believes we must work toward a future free of HIV/AIDS.  There is no retreat and no alternative.  The facts demonstrate the President is leading the world in making that vision a reality.

Gayle Smith is Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Development and Democracy

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/07/21/president-s-commitment-fight-hivaids

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From the Department of Justice

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Thank you, Tony [Coelho]. I appreciate your kind words, but I am especially grateful for your outstanding leadership. As a long-time advocate for equal opportunity, as a principal author of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and as Chair of the AAPD's Board of Directors, your dedication and hard work have helped to create the progress we celebrate today. And I want to thank you, Andy Imparato, and the entire AAPD team for bringing us together to reflect on what has been – and what still must be – achieved to ensure our nation's promise of justice for all.

I also would like to congratulate this year's “Justice for All” award recipients. In many different and innovative ways, your efforts have improved conditions, and increased opportunities, for people with disabilities. It's an honor to salute your contributions and to celebrate the 20 th Anniversary of the ADA – and the 15 th Anniversary of the AAPD – with so many friends, colleagues and partners. And it's a special privilege to commemorate this milestone with one of my predecessors and one of the ADA's greatest champions, and my first boss as a lawyer– Attorney General Thornburgh.

Two decades ago, shortly after the ADA became law, Attorney General Thornburgh described this achievement as, “another emancipation, [recognizing] the right of people with disabilities to come into mainstream society – to come into the restaurant or the concert hall or house of worship or movie theater…or the workplace, and, above all, to long-term prospects for a future life of hope and achievement.”

That was his vision in July of 1990.  And, in July of 2010, that vision is – more than ever before – reality.

Over the last two decades, the ADA has helped to revolutionize the conditions of – and society's perceptions toward – Americans with disabilities. Many of the advocates and policymakers in this very room helped to ensure that the spirit of this law became action across the land.  The AAPD's leadership, membership and network of supporters have been essential in fulfilling the goals the ADA was developed to achieve. Today, your efforts – particularly to ensure that ADA keeps up with advances in technology and that people with disabilities do not have to turn to institutions or nursing homes to access the services they need – will pave the way for continued progress.

I want all of you to know that the Justice Department plans, not only to continue its tradition of supporting your work, but also to strengthen our joint efforts and build on all that we've accomplished together since the ADA became law. In the 1990s, with your help and guidance, the Justice Department compelled facilities in every corner of America to provide access to people with disabilities; tackled HIV/AIDS discrimination head on; secured full health-care access to deaf Americans and others suffering from hearing loss; accommodated children with disabilities in child care programs; and agreed with the Olympic Games Committee to ensure sports venues under construction for the 1996 Olympics and Paralympics in Atlanta were fully accessible to fans with disabilities.

These were breakthroughs. They began to shift legal paradigms, enlighten attitudes and change lives. These actions were also a model for the aggressive – and appropriate – enforcement of the ADA. And I'm pleased to report that the Justice Department has returned to this model once again. At every level of our work – and in cooperation with partners across the Administration – we have placed renewed focus on enforcing the ADA. And we're seeing results.

In recent months, our Civil Rights Division has settled several lawsuits alleging egregious discrimination against people with disabilities. And just last week we announced a comprehensive settlement calling for accessibility compliance and a $1.5 million compensatory damages fund with a company that owns and operates more than 550 gas stations, convenience stores, travel centers and truck stops across the country.

That's not all. We have also strengthened our commitment to the aggressive enforcement of the Supreme Court's landmark decision in Olmstead – recognizing the right of Americans with disabilities to access the care and services they need in their own homes and communities – with suits against Georgia, Arkansas and New York, as well as participation in suits against Connecticut, Illinois, North Carolina, Florida, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia and California.

At its core, the ADA is about ensuring that all Americans can participate fully in our democracy.  That is why this administration is committed to protecting the fundamental voting rights of Americans with disabilities.  The administration is taking steps to offer fully accessible voter registration services at federal agencies, as intended by the National Voting Rights Act.  Just last week, as part of our enforcement of that Act, the Justice Department announced a settlement with the State of New York, which had failed to provide voter registration services to students with disabilities at its public universities and colleges.

All this, of course, is just a snapshot of our enforcement efforts, which extend far beyond lawsuits and settlements.  The last two decades have taught us that accessibility and opportunity are best delivered voluntarily and cooperatively – and that when the ADA is well understood, its provisions are well executed.  That's why we've launched multiple educational outreach initiatives, such as Project Civic Access and the department's Technical Assistance Program.  And through our ADA Mediation Program, we have dramatically expanded the ADA's reach, saving scarce resources while spreading the spirit of accessibility that inspired this law.

But because accessibility without adaptability is counterproductive, we are also working hard to respond to the technological advances, and societal changes, that were – quite simply – unimaginable in 1990.  Just as these quantum leaps can help all of us, they can also set us back – if regulations are not updated or compliance codes become too confusing to implement.  To avoid this, the department will soon be publishing four advanced notices of proposed rulemaking seeking public comment on establishing accessibility requirements for websites, movies, equipment and furniture, and 911 call-taking technologies.

Still, our commitment does not – and cannot – stop there. Our leadership role in enforcing the ADA – and our responsibility as a federal agency with more than 100,000 employees – comes with a solemn responsibility: to make sure that our own house is in order… and open to all qualified candidates with disabilities.

Although we are not yet where we want to be on this front, the Justice Department is taking bold steps to ensure that we get there – and that we get there soon. The Attorney General's Committee on the Employment of Persons with Disabilities continues to advise me on the best ways to incorporate persons with disabilities into the department's recruitment, hiring, retention, accommodation, and promotion practices. And I am proud to announce that under our new Deputy Associate Attorney General for Diversity Management, Channing Phillips, there is now a vacancy – to be filled within several weeks – for a critical new position: Special Assistant for Disability Resources.

I am committed to holding the Department's senior leadership accountable for encouraging the contributions of employees with disabilities, and working to attract qualified candidates with disabilities. This is a priority of mine.

As some of you know, earlier this year, the Justice Department launched a diversity initiative to help accomplish this goal. With me here today are two Justice Department employees who are members of the committee that recommended that move – Fred Parmenter and Ollie Cantos. Many of you know Ollie from his days as the AAPD's General Counsel. But I'd still like Ollie and Fred to raise their hands so you can see where they are. I encourage anyone here – especially the AAPD summer interns who I hear are so outstanding – to speak with Fred and Ollie if you are interested in exploring opportunities to serve the Justice Department. They'll both be here for the remainder of the event – and, like me, they are eager to fulfill President Obama's call to “build a world free of unnecessary barriers, stereotypes and discrimination.”

The process of building that world may not always be easy – and, at times, the next steps may be unclear.  But, at this 20-year milestone, I look out at all of you and see leaders who, today and beyond, will provide the vision and focus necessary to make certain that we continue to move forward in ensuring equal rights, equal access, and equal opportunity.

As Attorney General Thornburgh put it twenty years ago, “Each time civil rights are enlarged in our country, they extend over the whole of our society, [so] do not let this bright moment in… American history escape you.”

Once again, a bright moment has arrived. Today, together, let us seize this opportunity. Let us strengthen our work. Let us enrich our nation. Let us fully, and finally, realize the promise of justice and opportunity for all.

Thank you.

http://www.justice.gov/ag/speeches/2010/ag-speech-100721.html

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Good afternoon and thank you Amy for that introduction. I want to thank Valerie Fletcher for hosting us here at the Institute for Human Centered Design. This is a very impressive facility that shows us universal design in action. And I'd also like to thank the Vera Institute of Justice for the work they do for our Disability Grant Program, including organizing this training. I am excited to be here today to hear about the innovative programs that are incorporating the principles of universal design to make resources and shelters more accessible to individuals with disabilities and Deaf individuals who are victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking.

As the Associate Attorney General, I am the third ranking official at the Department of Justice. My responsibilities include overseeing our grant making programs for state, local and tribal law enforcement and communities throughout the country. That includes the Office on Violence Against Women, which administers critical funding to victim service providers and programs across the United States, including the Disability Grant Program, which is why you all are here today.

This year we are marking a couple of extremely important anniversaries. This week marks the 20 th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, a landmark statute that has made the United States, in the words of the late Senator Edward Kennedy, “a better and fairer nation.” This past September marked the 15th year anniversary of President Bill Clinton signing the Violence Against Women Act – or VAWA – into law. As the 15th anniversary of VAWA approached, it became clear that we needed to do more than a press release or single event. This was a moment in time for the Department of Justice and the Obama administration to send a clear signal that the fight against domestic and sexual violence is a national priority. That is why we at the Department launched a year-long initiative to raise public awareness, build stronger coalitions among federal, state, local and tribal communities, and redouble efforts to end domestic and dating violence, sexual assault and stalking for men, women and children across the country.

As part of the initiative, we have worked to make sure that survivors everywhere know that they have a place – and a voice – in this administration, and to build toward a future where domestic abuse and sexual assault are eradicated. We have created new alliances among rural, tribal, elder, youth and military communities to share lessons learned and new, innovative paths forward. And we have dedicated ourselves to addressing domestic violence and sexual assault in communities that have suffered the most – in particular American Indian and Alaska Native communities which can suffer rates of violence against women of 2, 4 or even 10 times the national average.

As part of this initiative, we knew that we would have to talk about things that may be difficult – things like the stories of Americans with disabilities who have been abused and victimized. In taking on the hard subjects and talking about them not just to service providers and advocacy groups, but to business groups, lawyers, foundations, police officers, state and local government authorities and other federal agencies, we bring new people into the fight. And we honor the survivors who have spoken out, who have helped educate others, and who rely on us to help protect them.

In the United States, one in five people – that's 54.4 million Americans – have at least one disability. While the precise number of incidents of violence against individuals with disabilities is unknown, the few studies that have been conducted reveal alarming results. For example, individuals with disabilities are four to ten times more likely to experience crimes like domestic and sexual violence than people without disabilities. People with disabilities are more likely to experience severe victimization, experience it for a longer duration, be victims of multiple episodes of abuse, and be victims of a larger number of perpetrators. Isolation, reliance on caregivers for personal care and other daily services, limited transportation options, and perceptions among perpetrators that people with disabilities are “easy targets” are some of the factors that contribute to the higher rates of victimization and repeat victimization.

In addition to victimization that comes from violence, we also know that individuals with disabilities face unique obstacles in getting the help and services that they need. For example, shelter and rape crisis centers may not be physically or programmatically accessible, and therefore individuals may believe that such services are not appropriate for them. Service providers are experts in domestic and sexual violence, but may lack knowledge about the needs of victims with disabilities or Deaf victims. Conversely, disability and Deaf service organizations often lack the expertise in the areas of domestic and sexual violence. Prosecution of offenders are challenging because individuals with disabilities or Deaf individuals may be viewed as poor witnesses or the individual's disability may be used against them. Finally, there is a lack of collaboration among domestic and sexual violence service providers, disability and Deaf organizations, and the criminal justice system. The result is that victims with disabilities and Deaf victims do not receive the support and services they desperately need.

We recognize these challenges and will continue to work to raise awareness and increase resources to serve and combat abuse against people with disabilities and Deaf individuals. The ADA and the work that we are doing to expand its protection and support individuals with disabilities and those who are Deaf is critical to ensuring that services become more accessible. And the 2000 reauthorization of VAWA established the Disability Grant Program, which focuses on the creation of an infrastructure to support all victims and the development of tailored services and support for survivors with disabilities and who are Deaf. Our hope for this, as with many of VAWA's programs, is that we will develop best practices and models, in collaboration with those working in the field, provide technical assistance to advocates and service providers across the country, and ensure that in the years to come, domestic violence and sexual assault service providers fully understand and meet the needs of victims with disabilities and Deaf victims.

We have come a long way, but there is still much to accomplish. However, we are not in this alone. The central message that we have sought to carry throughout the 15th anniversary of VAWA is that domestic and sexual violence is not just issues for the victim, and his or her family. They are everyone's problem. It cannot be the work of the Department of Justice alone, or the criminal justice system, or state government or the advocates and service providers. Leaders at all levels in the public and private sectors and each community must take an active role in responding to sexual assault and domestic violence. Communities must do a better job of educating themselves about domestic and sexual violence, the prevalence of assault, the need for services and support to victims, and the necessary criminal justice response to these crimes. And we must work together to find new and innovative approaches to helping victims of crime, and preventing violence in the first place.

Thank you for being here today and for your critical work to prevent abuse of people with disabilities and Deaf individuals and to serve those victims. We at the Department are committed to this cause and will work with state, local and tribal partners to ensure that all communities – particularly those that have been chronically neglected – are given the resources and support they need. We share your vision where people with disabilities and Deaf individuals can live in a world without the fear of domestic or sexual violence. 

http://www.justice.gov/asg/speeches/2010/asg-speech-100721.html

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From ICE

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DHS finalizes I-9 employment form rule streamlining efforts to ensure a legal workforce nationwide

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) today finalized a regulation that provides greater flexibility for employers to electronically sign and store I-9 forms, which are used by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to verify employment eligibility-eliminating the need for paper filing and streamlining efforts to ensure a legal workforce nationwide.

Previously, employers were required to store the paper forms for later inspection by DHS and ICE. DHS adopted rules in 2006 permitting electronic storage of employment verification forms, consistent with the electronic storage rules for tax records, and this rule provides additional flexibility for employers-including more options for data compression, fewer storage requirements, and more options for storage systems, among others. It addresses specific concerns many employers had expressed during the public notice and comment period on the 2006 interim final rule.

In April 2009, DHS issued updated worksite enforcement guidance to the field emphasizing ICE's major enforcement priorities-focusing on dangerous criminal aliens and employers who knowingly cultivate illegal workplaces and exploit illegal workers. As part of this strategy, ICE identified I-9 audits as an important administrative tool in building criminal cases, issuing civil penalties such as fines and bringing employers into compliance with the law.

More information about I-9 forms and Employment Eligibility Verification is available on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services website at www.uscis.gov/I-9 .

For further guidance on the electronic signing and storage of the I-9, and the changes to the current regulations to assist businesses in complying with the requirements of the law, please visit www.ice.gov or view the Federal Register at www.gpoaccess.gov .

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/1007/100721washingtondc.htm

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High school football coach arrested on federal child pornography charges

Titles of seized explicit videos included "Sex with Teacher" and "Sex in the Classroom"

FRESNO, Calif. - The coach of the Hanford High School freshman football team was arrested Wednesday on a federal criminal complaint charging him with possessing and receiving child pornography as a result of an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Kings County District Attorney's Office.

Eric Rodriguez, 33, of Hanford, Calif., was taken into custody Wednesday morning at a residence in Porterville, Calif. The Hanford High School physical education instructor, who also served as a coach for the school's football and wrestling programs, was placed on administrative leave by the school district in late April after the allegations first came to light. Rodriguez is expected to make his initial appearance in federal court Wednesday afternoon. The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of California.

"This case is particularly troubling because of the suspect's position and longstanding contact with young people," said Paul Leonardi, ICE resident agent in charge of the Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Fresno. "ICE will continue to work closely with our local law enforcement partners to investigate those who sexually exploit our young people and ensure that these predators feel the full weight of the law."

Suspicions about Rodriguez initially arose after ICE HSI agents conducting an investigation into the use of peer-to-peer file sharing software to distribute child pornography determined that a computer at the coach's residence was being used to download such material off the Internet. On April 27, ICE HSI agents and investigators from the Kings County District Attorney's Office executed a state search warrant at Rodriguez's residence.

 "This should serve as a message to those who engage in this type of illegal activity, that federal, state, and local agencies will come together to identify, apprehend and prosecute those who present a real threat to our children," said Kings County District Attorney Investigator Trish Hershberger. "We must realize that every time these types of videos are viewed, the children are re-victimized. Our dedicated personnel will continue to work closely with allied agencies and have no tolerance for sexual predators, especially those who hold a position of trust."

During the search of Rodriguez's residence, agents seized a computer with a single user profile - "eric." A forensic analysis of that computer revealed 30 child pornography videos totaling more than 9 hours in length. One of the videos depicts an 11-to-13-year-old girl struggling as she is tied up by an adult male and ultimately forced to have sex. Many of the child pornography videos found on the seized computer featured titles related to Rodriguez's profession, including "Sex with Teacher," "Sex in the Classroom" and "My First Sex Teacher."

This investigation is part of ICE's Operation Predator, a nationwide initiative to identify, investigate and arrest those who sexually exploit children, and the Department of Justice's Project Safe Childhood, which marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet.

As part of Operation Predator, ICE encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free hotline at 1-866-347-2423 . This hotline is staffed around the clock by investigators. Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, at 1-800-843-5678 or http://www.cybertipline.com .

Through Project Safe Childhood, the Department of Justice is seeking to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov .

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/1007/100721fresno.htm

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From the FBI

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The case was opened in 2004 by our Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) in our Toledo Resident Agency.

MADE IN THE U.S.A. The Case of the Toledo Terror Cell July 22, 2010 In the suburbs of Toledo—a bustling city on the northern border of Ohio—three men were leading seemingly normal lives. One worked at a travel agency. Another ran a car dealership with his brother. The third was a self-employed businessman with several kids. All three, however—two American citizens and the third a legal permanent resident—were secretly part of a homegrown terror cell conspiring to recruit and train insurgents to kill U.S. soldiers in Iraq.   (Also part of the cell—two Chicago cousins named in a superseding indictment who were sentenced earlier this month  after being recruited by one of the Toledo defendants.)

How did he end up in an American courtroom? Because U.S. law says that if human rights violators are U.S. nationals, commit offenses against U.S. citizens, or are present in this country, they can be charged here. In Taylor's case, he was born in America, and he was arrested in 2006 while trying to enter the country illegally.

What the men didn't realize was that we knew all about it—thanks to a cooperating witness who helped our investigation from start to finish, and testified at trial.

The case was opened in 2004 by our Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) in our Toledo Resident Agency . Also pitching in were JTTFs in our Cleveland and Chicago Divisions, as well as a host of local, federal, and international partners.

Our cooperating witness, who began working for us after 9/11, was actually a decorated veteran of the U.S. Army's Special Forces, specifically playing the part of an ex-soldier, only with a twist—he'd grown disenchanted with U.S. policies, become a radical convert to Islam, and was willing to provide training for violent jihad.

For two years, during the operational phase of the investigation, our witness met with the three men—Mohammad Zaki Amawi, Marwan El-Hindi, and Wassim Mazloum—and made more than 100 secret (and fully lawful) recordings of those meetings, giving us a real-time view into the activities of the cell. At the same time, we were able to control what the trio obtained from our witness—for example, he didn't give them actual explosives training.  

Because of his military expertise, our witness gained the trust of all three men—crucial in such an operation. He even took a trip overseas to Jordan with Amawi, where he was introduced to Amawi's family.

The recordings revealed a litany of activities and support in the name of terror. Working together or separately, the three men :

• Taught themselves how to make and use explosives;
  
  
• Conducted their own training exercises;
  
  
• Looked at and shared often graphic jihadist videos and materials on the Internet, including on how to make a suicide bomber's vest;
  
  
• Tried to provide computers and explosives to mujahideen fighters overseas and attempted to set up a false company that would funnel money; and
  
  
• Discussed possible targets for their violent jihad, ultimately agreeing that they should go after U.S. soldiers in Iraq.

In February 2006—because of mounting concern about the intentions of Amawi, who was in Jordan at the time—we shut the operation down and took all three suspects into custody. All were found guilty at trial in June 2008, becoming the first members of a homegrown terror cell since 9/11 to be convicted at trial on terrorism-related charges. And the three men were sentenced last fall to prison terms ranging from eight to 20 years.

In the end, the success of the investigation was the result of both time-tested law enforcement techniques and our growing post-9/11 partnerships and intelligence-gathering/analysis capabilities.

http://www.fbi.gov/page2/july10/toledo_072210.html

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