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From the Los Angeles Times

Victor Perez, center, shakes hands with Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer. Perez was watching the morning news showing footage of the kidnapping suspect's truck when he looked out his window and saw the truck making a U-turn.

Concerned citizen helps free kidnapped Fresno girl Police say the 8-year-old, who was abducted Monday while playing outside her home, had been sexually assaulted. The suspect, Gregorio Gonzalez, 24, was on felony probation. An unemployed construction worker spotted Gonzalez's truck and gave chase. by Diana Marcum Los Angeles Times October 6, 2010 Reporting from Fresno An 8-year-old girl, kidnapped from her yard by a stranger — the object of an intensive overnight search — was returned to her mother alive Tuesday after a dramatic rescue by a quick-acting unemployed construction worker. "It's truly a miracle of God that she is with us…we certainly beat the odds," said Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer. The third-grader and a 6-year-old friend were playing in the driveway in front of their apartment complex about 8:30 Monday evening, when a man, whom police later identified as 24-year-old Gregorio Gonzalez, told them he would buy them gifts if they came with him.

Neighbors who saw the man talking to the children shouted at the girls to run. Gonzalez allegedly grabbed the 8-year-old and forced her into an older rust-colored Chevrolet pickup truck with white stripes.

The girl's mother and a neighbor, Enrique Miguel, followed in his car.

"I saw that same truck around here for days," Miguel said. "We chased and chased but lost him."

Authorities issued an Amber Alert, which quickly escalated to a statewide bulletin about a small girl last seen wearing a purple "Winnie the Pooh" sweatshirt. About 130 officers were put on the case, and helicopters scanned the city. Alerts flashed on freeway signs and appeared during television shows.

Everyone working through the night knew the clock was ticking. Dyer would later point out in a news conference that most kidnapping victims are killed within the first 24 hours.

Just down the street from where the girl was kidnapped, Victor Perez was discussing the story with his neighbor.

"He was saying, 'Man, what could we have done different to keep that from happening?' I was saying, 'We've just got to keep a lookout for that truck.' "

On Tuesday morning, the first thing Perez did was turn on the TV to see if there was anything new in the case. Police had released surveillance camera footage of the truck. As Perez and his cousin Flor Urias watched the grainy black-and-white images, Urias looked out their living room window and saw an old rust-colored pickup with stripes making a U-turn in front of their house.

"I was saying, 'Victor, that sure looks like that truck. Is that the truck? That is the truck,' " Urias said.

But Perez was already out the door giving chase in his 1988 Ford pickup, which he always backs into his driveway so he can leave quickly if he needs to.

The first time he caught up to Gonzalez, Perez waved and rolled down his window as though asking for directions.

"I told him, 'Hey man, let me ask you something.' He said he couldn't talk, his battery was about to die. I said 'I have [jumper] cables.' And I'm thinking, 'Maybe it's not him, he seems like a friendly guy.' Then while we were still talking he sped away."

Perez caught up and forced Gonzalez to the side of the road. Gonzalez threw his hands over his head in anger.

He had been holding the little girl down. When his hands shot up, her head popped up over the dashboard and Perez saw her.

"I made eye contact with her. And that's when I wasn't scared anymore," Perez said. "I won't kid you, until then I'd thought 'Does this guy have a gun?' But once I met her eyes, I just thought 'I've got to get that little girl out of there.' "

Gonzalez sped off, at one point driving on the sidewalk.

Perez kept trying to force Gonzalez to the side of the road, finally pulling his truck directly in Gonzalez's path. His plan was to rush the driver's door. But Gonzalez pushed the girl out the passenger-side door and fled.

The girl's first words to Perez were, "I'm scared."

"I said "You're OK now.' Oh, man, she was shaking so bad. She kept saying 'Am I going to be OK?' and I kept saying 'You're OK now.' "

Police say the girl told them Gonzalez took her to a wooded area near a canal where he sexually assaulted her and at one point threatened to "physically harm" her if she did not get back in the truck. Seven witnesses identified Gonzalez. Some witnessed the kidnapping; others witnessed an incident earlier Monday when he allegedly exposed himself to two young girls and then got away in the same truck.

Gonzalez, who lives with his grandparents, had previously been arrested on charges of possession of a sawed-off shotgun and domestic violence. He was on felony probation. About 40 minutes after he pushed the girl out of his truck, he was spotted in central Fresno by California Highway Patrol Officer Dustin Dimmer and taken into custody.

As Perez was chasing Gonzalez, her mother was home after a night at the police station, sobbing uncontrollably. Miguel, the neighbor who had helped her chase the kidnapper, could hear her through the thin walls.

Then, through the walls, he heard a phone ring. She came next door to tell him her daughter was alive.

"She was crying and crying all night," he said. "Then suddenly, hope. I was afraid there was no hope, but there was."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-1006-kidnap-20101006,0,4086217,print.story

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3.5 million Californians would be eligible for healthcare tax credits, study finds

The federal credits, provided under the nation's healthcare overhaul, would help low- and middle-income people slash the cost of coverage through a new state health insurance marketplace.

By Duke Helfand, Los Angeles Times

October 5, 2010

An estimated 3.5 million Californians would be eligible for federal tax credits to slash the cost of their health coverage when they begin buying policies through a new statewide insurance marketplace in 2014, a study released Tuesday found.

Under the nation's healthcare overhaul, tax credits will be available to low- and middle-income people once insurers begin selling policies through state-based insurance exchanges like the one being set up in California.

The federal law requires most Americans to have insurance starting in 2014. The credits that help pay insurance costs will go directly to insurers, lowering premiums for those who are uninsured or do not have coverage through jobs.

In California, working families stand to gain most from the tax credits, analysts from the consumer group Families USA concluded. The researchers said that 94% of those who qualify would come from families that have at least one employed person.

The tax credits, the group said, would be worth an estimated $13.8 billion in 2014.

"These premium tax cuts will enable many hard-working Californians to afford health insurance," said Kathleen Stoll, the group's deputy executive director. "They put significant extra cash into Californians' pocketbooks and provide real, concrete relief."

An insurance industry spokesman agreed that the tax credits would help lower insurance premiums but said the subsidies would do nothing to stem the fundamental problem of rising healthcare expenses.

"Premiums are going up because medical costs continue to soar," said Robert Zirkelbach of America's Health Insurance Plans, the industry's lobbying arm in Washington.

"If underlying costs are allowed to continue to increase, it's going to require significantly larger tax credits to afford coverage. By addressing medical costs, it's possible to make coverage more affordable and reduce the financial burden on the government."

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-health-insurance-20101005,0,6338749,print.story

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Report demands that Mexico try human rights claims against military in civilian courts

A new report on human rights abuses by Mexico's military in the country's ongoing armed conflict with drug traffickers depicts in stark terms the air of fear and impunity that have come to define the drug war, particularly in violence-torn Ciudad Juarez on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Human rights claims against the military have jumped by 1,000% since President Felipe Calderon dispatched the army in December 2006 to combat drug gangs, and a variety of institutional reforms are crucial to reversing the trend, says the report released Tuesday by the liberal Washington Office on Latin America .

Mexico's Constitution stipulates that crimes against civilians by members of the military must be tried within civilian institutions, but Mexico's Code of Military Justice has been "broadly interpreted" to "assign jurisdiction of military discipline to include or encompass any disciplinary action against a soldier," said Maureen Meyer, main author of the WOLA report.

"So that's been one of the main issues, that there is that conflict over what the military interprets what their jurisdiction should be and what the Constitution says," Meyer told La Plaza from Washington, D.C. "In practice, the [civilian system] could say, 'This is our case.' But they most actively cede that jurisdiction to the military justice system."

Mexico's military led police operations in Chihuahua state, where Ciudad Juarez is located, between March 2008 and April of this year. Military personnel have been accused of a range of abuses, such as forced disappearances, rape and robbery, even extrajudicial killings.

Army officials say they are working to prevent rights abuses by soldiers and have blamed some incidents on drug-gang henchmen disguised as troops. Military officials say they prosecute wrongdoers when there is evidence. But prosecutions have been few and details generally not made public.

In one case cited in the WOLA report, a man on his way to a night-shift job in Juarez was stopped at a military checkpoint, where soldiers allegedly planted drugs in his vehicle. The man was blindfolded and taken to an undisclosed location, where he was beaten and interrogated for three days. When he was released, the report said, soldiers warned him: "If anyone asks what happened to you, tell them that you were kidnapped. Remember that we know where your family lives."

In another case, a woman was stopped at a military checkpoint on her way to work and sexually assaulted by soldiers.

The report, titled " Abused and Afraid in Ciudad Juarez ," was co-authored with the Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Augustin Pro Juarez , a Jesuit-affiliated organization in Mexico City, and included data and testimonials from affiliated human rights groups in Ciudad Juarez. Such groups are also at risk of abuse as they investigate claims against the military in the violent border city . The WOLA report cites multiple threats against human rights activists and the unsolved shooting death of at least one, Josefina Reyes , in January.

The report concludes by demanding that judicial reforms passed by Mexico's Congress in 2008 be more speedily implemented and that the "gray area" over jurisdiction of human rights claims against the military be resolved. The international human rights community, including the Inter-American Court of Human Rights , has repeatedly called on Mexico to handle military-abuse claims in civilian courts.

The United States is also applying pressure on the issue, recently withholding allotted aid funds under the so-called Merida Initiative due to concerns about progress on human rights, as La Plaza reported earlier this month. Discussions on the jurisdiction issue are expected in the newly convened session of Mexico's Congress, Meyer said.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laplaza/2010/10/mexico-wola-report-military-human-rights-abuses.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LaPlaza+%28La+Plaza%29

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Pot plants worth $52 million seized in Sequoia National Park

In what is becoming an increasingly common announcement, officials said that last month law enforcement rangers at Sequoia National Park raided an illegal marijuana plot, seizing more than 13,000 plants with a street value of $52 million.

Park officials believe that the pot plantation is tied to a Mexican drug trafficking organization. No arrests have been made in the Sept. 29 operation.

The raid also yielded fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides that harm the native vegetation. In addition, agents cleared out trash piles that are likewise detrimental to the environment and the park's natural water systems.

The Northern California park has for years been a favorite cultivation site for drug cartels because of its rugged backcountry and rural setting. Rangers work with federal agencies to keep tabs on the pot gardens, but officials say the plots are getting more dangerous and heavily guarded.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/10/52-million-worth-of-pot-plants-seized-in-sequoia-national-park.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GreenspaceEnvironmentBlog+%28Greenspace%29

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White House honors Japanese American WWII veterans

Obama signs legislation awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the 100th Infantry Battalion and those who served with military intelligence.

By Jordan Steffen, Tribune Washington Bureau

October 6, 2010

Reporting from Washington

Nearly 69 years after President Franklin D. Roosevelt ordered Japanese Americans to internment camps, President Obama signed legislation Tuesday awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to Japanese American World War II veterans.

A handful of Japanese American veterans and lawmakers joined Obama in the Oval Office, where he signed the legislation awarding the medal to the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the 100th Infantry Battalion, both known for their motto "Go for Broke," as well as the 6,000 Japanese Americans who served in the Military Intelligence Services during the war.

"It is the greatest thing in my life," 91-year-old Grant Ichikawa said after the ceremony.

In 1942, Ichikawa and his family were ordered to an internment camp in Arizona. Ichikawa, a graduate of UC Berkeley, said he left the camp and his parents to enroll in a six-month language school for the intelligence services, after which he served as a translator in Australia and the Philippines.

"I would never expect something like this," Ichikawa said. "It's the highest 'thank you' that the government can give us for what we went through."

About 120,000 Japanese Americans from the West Coast were ordered to internment camps, said Christine Sato-Yamazaki, chairwoman of the National Veterans Network, a coalition of Japanese American veteran services and civil organizations.

About 33,000 Japanese Americans served in World War II, and 13,000 of them were in the 442nd and the 100th. Some enlisted, others were drafted from the camps.

Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D- Burbank), who championed the legislation with Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), attended the ceremony. Schiff said the president recalled hearing legends about the men of the "Go for Broke" units during his childhood in Hawaii.

"These are incredible heroes who fought for the United States in World War II when many of them had family members interned," Schiff said.

Members of the 442nd were among the most highly decorated combat veterans of the war.

Jimmie Kanaya enlisted and served as a first sergeant in the medical detachment for the 442nd. He was captured in France by German forces and taken to a prison camp in Poland. Kanaya also attended the ceremony at the White House.

"The only regret I have is that we lost over 800 men who gave their all so that those of us who are surviving can receive recognition on their behalf, and they're the ones that deserve all the recognition," Kanaya said after the ceremony. "It just doesn't seem fair."

There are more than 9,000 Japanese American veterans of World War II still living.

The Congressional Gold Medal is the nation's highest civilian honor. Recipients include Rosa Parks, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Walt Disney.

"These men were American heroes. They believed in America, they believed in democracy, they fought for this country and now they're standing here," Sato-Yamazaki said after the ceremony. "I think this moment today allows us to remember all of them, past and living — to remember what they've done for this country."

Sen. Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii), a Medal of Honor recipient who lost his right arm fighting with the 442nd in Italy, also was present.

"Though we appeared to be in a happy, jovial mood, I am certain that all of us recognized the emotional caliber of the moment," he said. "We knew that the recognition we were receiving was the result of lost lives and bloodshed. We were humbled, proud and pleased that the contributions and sacrifices we made in defense of our great nation were recognized."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-veterans-medal-20101006,0,3141243,print.story

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From the New York Times

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France Arrests 12 in Antiterrorism Raids

PARIS — The French police arrested 12 people in two separate raids in southern France on Tuesday in what the Interior Ministry said was part of a campaign against terrorism.

France is already on a state of high alert because of threats from Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, a North African group that is linked to but operates separately from Al Qaeda.

French officials say they are also taking seriously American warnings about the possibility of attacks by small armed groups against targets in Europe, like tourist attractions and public transportation.

The United States has warned American citizens to be vigilant when traveling in Europe.

Three of the arrests Tuesday stemmed from the arrest of a man on Saturday near the central train station in Naples, Italy. The authorities said he was carrying materials for a bomb.

Two men in Marseille and one in Bordeaux were arrested after their telephone numbers were found in the cellphone of the man arrested in Naples, Ryan Hannouni, the authorities said. Mr. Hannouni, 28, is a French citizen of Algerian origin. France has requested his extradition.

The men were said to be involved with a group offering housing and false identity papers, presumably to foreigners seeking to enter France and to French citizens who want to train or fight in Afghanistan.

Agnès Labrégère, a spokeswoman for the Paris prosecutor's office, which handles terrorism investigations, said Mr. Hannouni was suspected of “participation in criminal networks aimed at supplying jihad in the Pakistani-Afghan zone.”

Part of the concern of Western intelligence agencies is that Al Qaeda and its associated groups are using local cells and sympathizers with Western citizenship to aid those seeking to carry out terrorist attacks in Western Europe. On Monday, there were reports that several Germans possibly undergoing weapons training in Pakistan were killed when an American missile strike hit a mosque in the region of North Waziristan.

An additional nine people were arrested on Tuesday in Marseille and nearby Avignon on suspicion of involvement in the trafficking of arms and explosives. Searches were continuing for weapons, the police said, and have produced at least one Kalashnikov automatic rifle, a pump-action shotgun, two knives and ammunition.

“We have detained people who are close to the Islamist movement,” said a Marseille police official who refused to be identified by name. She said that they were accused of contacts with arms dealers, and that the arrests were a result of several months of investigation.

All those arrested were reported to be involved with radical Islamic groups, but there was no indication that the two sets of arrests were linked.

“This very morning, police operations were launched in Marseille and Bordeaux that led notably to three arrests directly linked to the fight against terrorism,” Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux told legislators in the National Assembly. But he did not mention the other nine arrests.

An Interior Ministry spokesman, who would not be identified by name under French rules, confirmed the arrest of 12 people, three in what he called “a first wave this morning,” and nine in what he called a separate, later operation.

Last month, the French authorities said they had a tip that a female suicide bomber was preparing to attack the Paris subway. France has been on a higher alert since the kidnapping in Niger last month of seven employees of French companies. Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb took responsibility and warned France against taking military action. The hostages have been moved to Mali.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/06/world/europe/06france.html?_r=1&ref=world&pagewanted=print

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Hazing Accusations Against a Sorority

In two separate hazing cases at universities this year, members of Sigma Gamma Rho, an African-American sorority, have been charged with beating their pledges with wooden paddles.

At Rutgers, six members of Sigma Gamma Rho were arrested in January and charged with aggravated hazing, a felony, after a pledge reported that she had been struck 200 times over seven days before she finally went to the hospital, covered with welts and bloody bruises.

Both the university and the national sorority suspended the Rutgers chapter. The charges were reduced to simple hazing, a disorderly persons offense. The trial, originally set for this month, has been delayed because of the prosecutor's surgery.

In the San Jose State case, Courtney Howard, a former student at the university, charged in a civil lawsuit, filed Aug. 31, that over a three-week period in 2008 she was subjected to progressively more violent hazing from Sigma Gamma Rho members. Ms. Howard claims in her suit that they beat her and other pledges with wooden paddles, slapped them with wooden spoons, shoved them against the wall, and threatened that “snitches get stitches.”

“One of the girls who was a big sister told me it was supposed to be so you can feel what your ancestors went through in slavery, so you will respect what you came from,” Ms. Howard said.

In 2008, San Jose State suspended the sorority chapter until 2016. Four of the sorority members have pleaded no contest to misdemeanor hazing charges, and been sentenced to 90 days in county jail, two years of probation and barred from any further involvement in the sorority.

Ms. Howard's civil suit charges that the university and the sorority were negligent in investigating and responding to her accusations of hazing.

Larry Carr, a spokesman for San Jose State, said he could not comment on pending litigation. But hazing is illegal, he said, and the university makes serious efforts to educate all incoming students — and their parents — about how to deal with it.

The Sigma Gamma Rho Web site, too, clearly states the sorority's anti-hazing policy. “Hazing is wrong, prohibited and unauthorized,” it says. “Members found guilty of hazing will be permanently and irrevocably expelled from Sigma Gamma Rho.”

The two current cases are not the sorority's only hazing violations. The Sigma Gamma Rho chapter at San Jose State was suspended — that is, stopped from recruiting new members or using university facilities — seven years ago for hazing violations. And two years ago, because of hazing activities, the sorority's chapter at the University of Texas at Austin was penalized. The sorority has more than 500 chapters, but is the smallest of the four black sororities.

Jonathan Charleston, general counsel to Sigma Gamma Rho, said Tuesday that the sorority had not yet been served with a copy of the complaint, and that the sorority did not comment on pending litigation.

“Any allegations of hazing are taken very seriously and immediately confronted by Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority,” said a statement from the sorority.

Many white fraternities and sororities haze their pledges, too, but there are differences, according to Lawrence C. Ross Jr., author of “The Divine Nine: The History of African American Fraternities and Sororities.”

“Most predominantly white fraternities and sororities haze around alcohol, but African-American fraternities and sororities typically haze around something physical, violent,” he said.

After the 1989 death of Joel Harris, a Morehouse student, after being beaten on the chest and face — a ritual known as “thunder and lightning” — the nine African-American fraternities and sororities changed their process for taking in new members to try to stop hazing, said Mr. Ross, a member of Alpha Phi Alpha. But the changes drove hazing underground, he said, where it has become more violent, giving rise to more criminal charges and lawsuits.

Angela Reddock, the lawyer representing Ms. Howard, and Mr. Ross both say that hazing has been such a strong tradition in black Greek life that it is hard to end. “I believe this kind of hazing is going on in African-American sororities and fraternities all over the country,” she said. “It's so deeply ingrained in the culture that I think the only thing that will stop it is if they're put out of business because their insurance companies drop them.”

In Texas, a Phi Beta Sigma fraternity pledge at Prairie View A&M died last year after collapsing during a rigorous predawn pledging exercise. And in January, the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity stopped accepting new members because of hazing incidents; new members will be accepted again later this fall.

While some students do cross the color lines, in both directions, Greek life remains one of the most segregated aspects of higher education. Ms. Howard said that, as an only child, she had looked forward to forging close bonds with sorority sisters at San Jose State. “I'd heard rumors about paddling,” she said. “But when I went to all the black Greek welcome nights, they made it very clear that they don't condone hazing.”

And yet, she said, the required “set nights” quickly turned violent.

“The hazing got progressively worse,” Ms. Howard said. “But I thought I could tolerate it, and I just kept going out of fear. They drill into you that if you drop, you're weak, and snitches get stitches.”

After the fifth night, Sept. 13, the complaint said, Ms. Howard was injured enough that she went to a doctor. On the 10th night, a pledge was knocked unconscious, and the others were told to carry her into the bathroom and wake her by splashing water on her face, but not to take her to a doctor or tell anyone what happened. The paddling began on the 11th night, and continued through the final night, Sept. 29. Pledges were told that they would each be hit with the wooden paddle seven times each night, once for each founder of the sorority.

According to the complaint, both Ms. Howard's roommates, who saw her bruises, and her mother, reported the hazing to representatives of the sorority and the university. Ms. Howard filed a formal complaint with the university and her mother met with the associate vice president of student life, who, the mother said, told her that hazing had been getting worse at the university, and asked for suggestions for fixing the problem.

That fall, sorority members began to harass her, Ms. Howard said, so she did not return to campus after winter break.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/06/us/06hazing.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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Shahzad Gets Life Term for Times Square Bombing Attempt

The defendant came to Federal District Court in Manhattan on Tuesday ready to ladle out several minutes of anti-American justification for his act of terrorism in Times Square. But the judge, Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum, best known of late for presiding over Martha Stewart's trial, came ready, too.

She repeatedly interrupted the defendant, Faisal Shahzad, to spar with him over his interpretation of the Koran, his invocation of a Muslim warrior in the Crusades and, above all, the relevance of any of it to the life sentence that hung over him like the dozen United States deputy marshals who guarded the prisoner in court.

And after the judge formally sentenced Mr. Shahzad to life in prison, she left him a parting shot: “I do hope that you will spend some of the time in prison thinking carefully about whether the Koran wants you to kill lots of people.”

The six or eight minutes or so of back and forth brought a bit of drama to the endgame of a case that, as nerve-rattling as it was at its inception, with the discovery of a potentially lethal bomb in Times Square on May 1, had drawn to a close with the sentencing on Tuesday.

The hearing was a part-sentencing and part-scolding, and the latter started before the former. Judge Cedarbaum looked at Mr. Shahzad, seated between lawyers, his beard thick and his hair long under his white skullcap, and said, “I think you should get up.”

Mr. Shahzad, 31, rose. He seemed to have aged in the last five months from the boyish man who was arrested aboard a jet that had been cleared for takeoff at Kennedy Airport.

He asked the judge for 5 or 10 minutes, then launched into a soliloquy that was at times rambling, at times threatening and delivered with the crinkly-eyed grin of a man who acted as if he could not be happier than where he was at that moment.

“This is but one life,” he said. “If I am given a thousand lives, I will sacrifice them all for the sake of Allah, fighting this cause, defending our lands, making the word of Allah supreme over any religion or system.”

He made his one and only reference to his arrest by claiming, for the first time, that his rights had been denied. Law enforcement officials have said that immediately following his arrest, on May 3, Mr. Shahzad cooperated, but he said otherwise on Tuesday.

“On the second day of my arrest, I asked for the Miranda,” he said, referring to the required notification of his right to counsel. “And the F.B.I. denied it to me for two weeks” and threatened his wife and children, he said. The judge, prosecutors and defense lawyers stayed silent as Mr. Shahzad, who has mounted no substantive defense in his case and who pleaded guilty to all charges against him on June 21, continued to speak. His lawyer, Philip L. Weinstein, had no comment on the statements after the hearing.

Mr. Shahzad attacked the American military forces “who have occupied the Muslim lands,” and said that attacks like his attempted bombing would continue.

“Brace yourselves, because the war with Muslims has just begun,” he said. “Consider me only a first droplet of the flood that will follow me.”

He went on about the war and about the “fragile economy” that he said would soon prove unable to sustain the troops, when Judge Cedarbaum interrupted and asked, “Do you want to comment in any way in connection with sentence?” He said he was getting to that, his motivations, when the judge asked, “Didn't you swear allegiance to this country when you became an American citizen?”

He smiled like a boy caught in a fib, and said as much: “I did swear, but I did not mean it.”

“You took a false oath?”

“Yes.”

“Very well. Is there anything else you want to tell me?”

“Sure,” he began, and went on to say, “Blessed be” Osama bin Laden, “who will be known as no less than Saladin of the 21st-century crusade, and blessed be those who give him asylum.”

The judge stopped him again. “How much do you know about Saladin, as you called him?”

He is known in the Middle East as Salahuddin al-Ayubi, but commonly known in the West as Saladin, the Muslim leader who took Jerusalem from the Crusaders in 1187. He is remembered in biographies as being a lover of peace who waged war reluctantly.

“He didn't want to kill people,” the judge told the defendant.

“He liberated — ” Mr. Shahzad continued.

“He was a very moderate man,” Judge Cedarbaum said. Mr. Shahzad spoke more about the war in Iraq and said, “If you call us terrorists, then we are proud terrorists, and we will keep on terrorizing until you leave our land and people at peace.”

He finished, and it was time for the sentencing by Judge Cedarbaum. “Although happily, the training you sought in making bombs was unsuccessful and you were unsuccessful in your effort to kill many Americans,” she said, the facts of the case “require that you be incarcerated for life.”

She began going through the 10 separate sentences he faced: “I sentence you to life in prison,” she said.

“Allahu akbar,” he replied. (“God is great.”)

“I understand that you welcome that,” the judge said.

Mr. Shahzad was handcuffed and led away.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/06/nyregion/06shahzad.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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121 Tons of Drugs Cleared From Cabinets

A nationwide effort to get people to turn in old or unwanted prescription drugs has collected more than 121 tons of medicine. The Drug Enforcement Administration said Tuesday that 242,000 pounds of pills were collected Sept. 25 at more than 4,000 “take-back” sites. The goal was to keep the drugs away from criminals or drug abusers.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/06/us/06brfs-121TONSOFDRU_BRF.html?ref=us

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EDITORIAL

Civil Justice, Military Injustice

Supporters of the tribunals at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, who insist military justice, not the federal courts, is the best way to deal with terrorists, should pay close attention to Tuesday's events in a United States District Court in Manhattan. Faisal Shahzad was sentenced to life imprisonment , five months and four days after he tried to blow up his car in Times Square.

When Mr. Shahzad was arrested, and later given a Miranda warning, the “tough on terrorists” crowd screamed about coddling and endangering the country's security. They didn't stop complaining, even after Mr. Shahzad cooperated with investigators and entered a guilty plea with a mandatory life sentence. All of this happened without the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the New York Police Department breaking laws or violating Constitutional protections.

Now let's check in on Guantánamo Bay, where President George W. Bush opened an illegal detention camp, authorized torture and abuse, and then set up military tribunals engineered to produce guilty verdicts no matter how thin or tainted the evidence. When the courts declared the system illegal, Congress made it slightly better. President Obama improved it a bit more. But it is still not up to American standards, or to its task.

There are more than 170 inmates left in Guantánamo. Only 36 have been referred for prosecution, some very dangerous men. Forty-eight are in a long-term detention that is certainly illegal. Almost all the rest are in limbo while the Obama team tries to figure out what to do. The chances are dimming every day that prisoners like Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, will ever be brought to justice.

The only inmate on trial in Guantánamo is Omar Khadr, a Canadian who was accused at age 15 of killing an American soldier in Afghanistan. He has been held in extralegal detention for more than eight years, and the military has been attempting to try him since 2005. The thin evidence against him is tainted by his credible allegations of abuse.

The Pentagon has further shamed American justice during the trial by imposing censorship that included temporarily banning four reporters from the courtroom because they published the name of a witness who had been identified in news reports and public documents.

This is the choice: Justice in long-established federal courts that Americans can be proud of and the rest of the world can respect. Or illegal detentions and unending, legally dubious military tribunals. It is an easy one.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/06/opinion/06wed3.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

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From the Chicago Sun Times

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'Mentally unstable' shooter on the lam

Sought in Indiana and Will County; 1 dead, 2 injured  

October 6, 2010

BY SUSAN DEMAR LAFFERTY SouthtownStar

A man killed a construction worker and wounded two other people in what appeared to be a random shooting spree that began Tuesday morning near far south suburban Beecher.

The suspect, described as "mentally unstable,'' struck up conversations about honeybees before shooting the victims, Will County sheriff's spokesman Pat Barry said.

''We've got somebody who's very mentally unstable,'' Barry said.

The man was last seen heading north on Cline Avenue in Lowell, Ind., officials said.

About 10:30 a.m., he approached a construction crew restoring a home on Stony Island Avenue near the village of Beecher. He talked to them briefly and shot two workers from Rich Construction, officials said.

One person at the home was pronounced dead at the scene and the second was airlifted in critical condition to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Barry said. A third worker, identified only as a 19-year-old Indiana man, fled into a field and escaped injury. He gave police a description of the gunman, Barry said.

The suspect then fled north on Stony Island and east into Indiana, where he shot a farmer, police said.

Farmer Pete Dahl, 63, was hospitalized at St. Anthony Medical Center in Crown Point with gunshot wounds in his left shoulder and arm.

Lake County, Ind., Sheriff Roy Dominguez said a man pulled into Dahl's driveway about 11:30 a.m. and started talking to Dahl, then he pulled out a weapon and shot him.

The suspect was described as a heavyset white male believed to be in his 40s, between 230 and 260 pounds, with brown hair and wearing a green jacket, baseball hat and jeans. He is driving a light-colored Chevrolet pickup, possibly from the 1990s, with a loud muffler and debris in the truck bed, officials said.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/24-7/2776318,CST-NWS-shoot06.article

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More people delaying retirement, survey finds

Many cite health-care costs, declining 401(k) as reason for working longer

October 6, 2010

BY KIM JANSSEN

Fears over health-care costs and savings shortfalls have led two in five U.S. workers to delay their planned retirement date, according to a survey released Tuesday.

The survey of more than 9,000 workers by consultants Towers Watson found that 40 percent plan to retire later than they did two years ago. Most expected to work three years longer than they'd planned.

Older workers -- with less time to make up shortfalls in their shrunken 401(k) accounts -- and those in poor health, who rely more heavily on their employer's health insurance plan, are the most likely to have postponed retirement, the study found.

Among the sick, 45 percent said they now expect to work longer than they did in 2008, while more than two-thirds of over-50s who plan to delay retirement cited keeping their healthcare coverage as a key factor.

"It's unfortunate that the people who need retirement the most are the people who can least afford it," retirement consultant David Speier said.

The survey also showed that almost twice as many workers are paying off debt than they were last year, and that almost twice as many are reviewing how much they need to save for retirement.

Half of all respondents cut their daily spending, while six in 10 over-50s delaying retirement cited poorly performing 401(k)s as a factor.

The economic downturn means more than half of all workers are willing to accept larger paycheck deductions in return for guaranteed retirement benefits, the survey found.

http://www.suntimes.com/business/2776444,CST-NWS-retire06.article

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Medicare drug costs up 10%

October 6, 2010

Medicare beneficiaries will pay an average 10 percent more in premiums for prescription drug plans next year, according to a new Kaiser Family Foundation analysis that also finds the average beneficiary will have a choice of 33 Part D stand-alone prescription drug plans despite a 30 percent reduction in the total number of stand-alone plans available nationwide.

The analysis shows that premiums for the plans will rise, on average, to $40.72 per month in 2011 if beneficiaries stay with their 2010 plans, the foundation said. That is up from $36.90 in 2010 and 57 percent higher than in 2006, the first year of the Medicare Part D drug benefit.

The analysis also found beneficiaries who reach the so-called "doughnut hole" or coverage gap next year will see a significant reduction in their out-of-pocket costs compared to previous years due to the health care reform law.

http://www.suntimes.com/lifestyles/health/2776628,CST-NWS-Health06.article

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More illegal immigrants with records deported  

October 6, 2010

More illegal immigrants with criminal convictions are being deported, while removal of those deemed non-criminals is going down, according to government data.

Of the 350,000 people deported this year, more than half had criminal convictions, a 55 percent increase since 2008, the data show.

By contrast, noncriminal deportations -- which include voluntary returns -- have dropped 30 percent.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said the trend shows a shift in the agency's priorities to focus on removing the most dangerous criminals from the country.

But Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, said ICE's focus on deporting the most violent criminals is "like putting up a speed limit sign on the highway that only applies if you are driving drunk or have guns in your car."

Immigrant rights groups, on the other hand, contend the majority of people being deported either are not criminals or were charged with low-level offenses, such as public intoxication or petty theft.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/2776614,CST-NWS-deport06.article

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From the White House

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Ending Violence Against Women

Last Friday, President Obama signed the proclamation of October as Domestic Violence Awareness Month .   Here at the White House, we've already started commemorating this important month, recognizing the remarkable work being done to address domestic violence and the distance we still must travel to end it.  

On September 22, Vice President Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden opened their home for a night dedicated to ending violence against women.  It was a night to mark the 16th anniversary of the Violence Against Women Act and to recommit ourselves to ending sexual and domestic violence.  The event brought together groups from national organizations as well as groups of college students working on this issue on their campuses. Many students had the great opportunity to speak with the Vice President and Dr. Biden about what was going on in their lives and the lives of young people across the country.

The message was clear.  Despite all we have accomplished since passing the Violence Against Women Act, there is a new generation of teens and college-age young people who are facing the threat of abuse all too often. Young women, ages 16-24, experience the highest rates of rape and sexual assault.  The Vice President addressed the need for systemic change in the way that society values women.  He said, “This is not just a problem of black eyes and broken bones, it's a problem of attitudes.”  In fact, a 2009 study of sixth-grade students found that 25% thought it was acceptable for boys to hit their girlfriends.  These are attitudes we must change.

This is a generation that has grown up with the Internet.  Social networking sites and text messaging have become the favored communication methods of the majority of American teens.  The resources we provide victims of violence must keep up with the technological advances we have integrated into our daily lives.  Some organizations are already doing this, like the Teen Dating Violence Helpline, which has a “chat” function that is answered by teens.  We need to reach people where they are and get young women and girls the information they need.

“Our course of action needs to adapt, to change with the times if we are here to keep a promise we have made to our daughters and granddaughters: to end domestic violence and sexual abuse.  Not to reduce it.  To end it,” said the Vice President. We have come a long way since the passage of the Violence Against Women Act and there is no better time to renew our pledge to stand up to those attitudes and end violence against women.

Throughout the month of October we will be updating the White House blog and Facebook page with regular updates on violence against women, so please stay tuned!

If you or someone you love has been affected by domestic or sexual violence, visit the Department of Health and Human Services violence against women website for resources.  For more information about the Violence Against Women Act, visit the and the Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women .

Lynn Rosenthal is the White House Advisor on Violence Against Women

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/10/05/ending-violence-against-women

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From the Department of Justice

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Federal Agencies Host National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention

WASHINGTON – At the direction of President Obama, the Departments of Justice and Education officially launched the National Forum on Youth Violence Prevention (the forum) along with participating localities and other federal agencies. The administration created the forum as a context for participating localities to share challenges and promising strategies with each other and to explore how federal agencies can better support local efforts.

At a working session on Monday and Tuesday, teams from the cities of Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Memphis, Tenn., Salinas, Calif. and San Jose, Calif., met with federal agencies and each other to share information and experience about what works in preventing youth and gang violence. Participating cities have pledged to develop or enhance comprehensive plans to prevent youth and gang violence in their city, using multi-disciplinary partnerships, balanced approaches and data-driven strategies. The cities' comprehensive plans will be presented at a Youth Violence Summit to be held in Washington, D.C., next spring. These plans will aim to reduce violence, improve opportunities for youth, and encourage innovation at the local and federal levels.

"Our effort to combat youth violence isn't about federally-imposed fixes, it's about changing the way we do business on this critical public safety issue," said Attorney General Eric Holder, who met with the forum today. "We must come together to share knowledge and experience about what works, creating networks of local law enforcement agencies, educators, public health providers, community and faith-based organizations, parents and kids to stand together in the fight against youth and gang violence. This administration will continue to do what it takes to reclaim our communities and our youth from crime and violence. The lives of our nation's children are at stake."

"We know that if children aren't safe, then they can't learn," said Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, who met with the forum on Monday. "We all have a stake in public safety and a responsibility to keep our children out of harm's way. This administration is committed to working with community and school leaders to identify core causes of crime and violence in and around our schools and to build the most effective solutions. This forum is an opportunity to better learn how we can provide the tools and resources that communities, administrators, teachers, parents and students need to keep our children safe."

"This forum provides not only an occasion for the federal government to assist cities, but also a platform for the cities to learn from one another," said White House Domestic Policy Advisor Melody Barnes. "The agencies' efforts here illustrate the administration's commitment to address the complex and urgent problem of youth violence with innovation, coordination, and hands-on hard work."

Participating cities were selected on the basis of need, geographic diversity, and willingness and capacity to engage. Along with Justice and Education, participating federal agencies include the Departments of Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, Labor and the Office of National Drug Control Policy.

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/October/10-ag-1120.html

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From the DEA

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DEA personnel unload boxes of prescription drugs into a front-end loader prior to incineration in Texas.

American Public Overwhelmingly Responds to DEA Prescription Drug Take-Back Effort October 5, 2010 WASHINGTON, D.C. – The United States Drug Enforcement Administration today announced the overwhelmingly successful results of the first-ever national prescription drug “Take-Back” campaign. The American public turned in more than 242,000 lbs of prescription drugs for safe and proper disposal. More than 4,000 take back sites were available in all 50 states this past Saturday, and Americans responded in huge numbers. “The Take-Back Campaign was a stunning nationwide success that cleaned out more than 121 tons of pills from America's medicine cabinets, a crucial step toward reducing the epidemic of prescription drug abuse that is plaguing this nation,” said DEA Acting Administrator Michele M. Leonhart.

“Thanks to our state and local law enforcement and community partners—and the public—we not only removed these dangerous drugs from our homes, but also educated countless thousands of concerned citizens about the dangers of drug abuse.

Congress cleared legislation for the President on Wednesday that will allow DEA to create a framework for a permanent solution for prescription drug disposal. Currently, there are no legal means to transfer possession of certain prescription drugs for disposal. Until permanent regulations are in place, however, DEA will continue to hold one-day take-back programs.

“I applaud Congress for recognizing the magnitude of this threat to public health and safety and passing the Secure and Responsible Drug Disposal Act of 2010, which will provide Americans with safe, environmentally sound ways to dispose of unused or expired prescription drugs,” said Leonhart.

“I commend the DEA under Acting Administrator Leonhart's leadership for its efforts in coordinating this important nationwide prescription drug take-back effort” said Office of National Drug Control Policy Director Kerlikowske.  “More than 70 percent of people who abuse prescription drugs get them from friends or family – often from the home medicine cabinet.  Expanding take-back efforts nationwide is a key strategy in preventing prescription drug diversion and abuse, while safeguarding the environment.” 

DEA and other law enforcement working at disposal sites around the country reported huge turnouts of people ridding their medicine cabinets of unused or unwanted drugs. For example, in Troy, Missouri, a man literally brought his kitchen drawer full of medication to the collection site to empty. At another site in Jacksonville, Ill., a woman brought in nearly 50 years' worth of medicines for disposal.

This initiative addresses a vital public safety and public health issue. More than seven million Americans abuse prescription drugs, according to the 2009 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's National Survey on Drug Use and Health. And every day, on average, 2,500 teens use them to get high for the first time, according to the Partnership for a Drug-Free America. Studies show that a majority of abused prescription drugs are obtained from family and friends, including from the home medicine cabinet.

Other participants in this initiative include the Partnership for a Drug-Free America; the International Association of Chiefs of Police; the National Association of Attorneys General; the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy; the Federation of State Medical Boards; and the National District Attorneys Association.

Click here for Drug-Take Back photos >>

http://www.justice.gov/dea/pubs/pressrel/pr100510.html

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