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From the Los Angeles Times

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6 die in Tucson rampage

Congresswoman is critically injured; suspected gunman arrested

by Kim Murphy and Seema Mehta, reporting from Tucson

January 9, 2011

Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' "Congress on Your Corner" event started much like dozens of her previous meetings with constituents: in a supermarket parking lot with two dozen people assembled. Only this time, a gunman stepped forward.

The shooting Saturday morning was so fast that there was barely time for people to scream before they fell, witnesses said. When it was over, six were dead and 12 were wounded, including Giffords, who was shot in the head.

The suspected gunman was identified by police as 22-year-old Jared Lee Loughner. Police say the shooter may not have acted alone, and witnesses said he fired at close range with a semiautomatic pistol and was preparing to reload when two onlookers tackled him.

By that time, U.S. District Judge John M. Roll, who had stopped by the event to say hello to Giffords, was dead, as was Gabe Zimmerman, 30, the congresswoman's director of community outreach.

Also killed were Dorothy Murray, 76, Dorwin Stoddard, 76, and Phyllis Schneck, 79. A 9-year-old girl died at the hospital.

Giffords' chief of staff, Ron Barber, and staffer Pam Simon were shot but were expected to recover. Giffords was conscious and responsive after brain surgery, though former U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona, a family friend, said she had suffered a "very devastating … very severe" injury.

"They were operating like a combat casualty hospital," Carmona said of the University Medical Center, where many of the injured, including Giffords, were taken.

"It was a lot of shots, a slurry of shots," said David Beal, a retired obstetrician who was waiting to greet the congresswoman when the gunfire erupted. "It was really horrendous. She was kind of crumpled on the sidewalk," he said. "I just told the guy who was with her to keep her head up, and I gave him my sweater, and he put it under her head. He kept holding her. All you can do with a head wound is to keep her head up."

"He was just spraying gunfire, and people were at close enough range that he was taking them out, effectively," Steven Rayle, a former emergency room physician who attended the event and helped treat the injured, told CNN.

At least two witnesses said paramedics took about 15 minutes to arrive, though sheriff's deputies were on the scene almost immediately.

Pima County Sheriff Clarence W. Dupnik did not ascribe a motive to the shooting but lashed out at what he called a climate of "vitriol that has permeated the political scene and left elected officials facing constant threats.

"And unfortunately Arizona, I think, has become sort of the capital," he said. "We have become the mecca for prejudice and bigotry."

He went on to point a finger at the media.

"I think it's time as a country that we do a little soul-searching. Because I think it's the vitriolic rhetoric that we hear day in and day out, from people in the radio business, and some people in the TV business … that this has not become the nice United States of America that most of us grew up in," Dupnik said.

Referring to the increasing vitriol, he said, "that may be free speech, but it may not be without consequences."

Giffords, a 40-year-old centrist Democrat who is a leading proponent of immigration reform and fiscal belt-tightening, had been the subject of at least two "unfortunate incidents" during the recent campaign for reelection to her third term in Congress, Dupnik said. She defeated "tea party" candidate Jesse Kelly by just 4,000 votes.

Much of the public debate over the shooting centered on frequent images of guns in Kelly's campaign. In June, he invited supporters to join him in firing an automatic weapon, to "Get on Target for Victory" and "Help remove Gabrielle Giffords from office."

Dupnik said in one threat against Giffords, someone "in a very angry audience" had a weapon drop out of his pants; in another, the windows were broken at her headquarters. On Saturday, he said, police were investigating a suspicious package found near her Tucson headquarters.

The suspect, said the sheriff, has a "troubled" background and a record of contacts with police. He described Loughner as possibly "unbalanced.... There's reasons to believe that this individual may have a mental issue," he said.

"We're not convinced that he acted alone," Dupnik said. "There's some reason to believe that he came to this location with another individual, and there's reason to believe that the other individual may somehow be involved."

Authorities have a possible photograph of the second person of interest, identified as a white man in his 50s, and are trying to identify him, Dupnik said.

There was no immediate indication that Loughner had overt political connections. A rambling series of YouTube videos posted as "my final thoughts" by someone with the same name talked of "a mind controller … able to control every belief and religion."

In one of the videos, the poster indicates he applied to the Army, professed nonbelief in God, made reference to "treasonous laws" that contradicted the Constitution, and said he did not trust the government.

Bert Escovar, 71, a resident in Loughner's northwest Tucson working-class neighborhood, said that "every time I saw him, he was by himself," adding that he had never spoken with him and that he "dressed like a normal teenager."

Giffords was struck by a single bullet that went "through and through" her head, but she was "responding to commands" after undergoing surgery, said Peter Rhee, director of trauma at the University Medical Center in Tucson.

"I can tell you at the current time period, I'm very optimistic about recovery," Rhee told reporters. "We cannot tell about full recovery, but I'm about as optimistic as I can get in this situation."

Mark Kimble, who works in Giffords' communication office in Tucson, was visibly shaken as he stood in the lobby of the hospital.

"The next three days are going to be very critical as far as swelling of the brain," Kimble said. Giffords' husband, Mark E. Kelly, 46, a pilot and astronaut who is scheduled to command the space shuttle Endeavour, was at her side along with other family members.

Hundreds of people gathered in a prayer vigil at the medical center. Softly weeping and clutching candles, they gathered on a grassy lawn, circling six pillar candles that represented the six fatalities.

As religious leaders and local officials spoke, additional candles to represent the injured victims were added, as well as a picture of a beaming Giffords.

President Obama called the shooting an "unspeakable tragedy."

"We're going to get to the bottom of this, and we're going to get through this," he declared. "I know Gabby is as tough as they come, and I am hopeful that she is going to pull through."

Arizona Sen. John McCain, a Republican, called the shooter a "wicked person who has no sense of justice or compassion" and said he was praying for the recovery of the victims.

Arizona's GOP chairman, Randy Pullen, said party members were "deeply saddened and mortified" by the shooting.

"Senseless acts of violence like these are shocking, disturbing and have no place in our country. The thoughts and prayers of all Arizonans are with the victims and families during this terrible tragedy in our state's history. We sincerely hope that the responsible party is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," he said.

Officials said all legislation that was scheduled to be heard by the House of Representatives this week is being postponed, which would put off a vote to repeal healthcare reform legislation.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-gabrielle-giffords-20110109,0,7456247,print.story

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Mystery surrounds suspect in rampage

Jared Lee Loughner, 22, posted YouTube videos that offer rambling texts on mind control, currency, the Constitution and English grammar.

by Scott Kraft and Mark Porubcansky, Los Angeles Times

January 8, 2011

Reporting from Los Angeles and Tucson

Until Saturday morning, Jared Lee Loughner was a sometime community college student who had attended high school in northwest Tucson, lived with his parents there in a quiet, working-class neighborhood of ranch homes and had recently posted several rambling messages on YouTube.

Now, the 22-year-old is in police custody, the chief suspect in a shooting rampage 10 minutes from his house that left six dead and 12 wounded, including U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), the apparent target of the attack, who remained in critical condition.

Late Saturday, though, authorities still were wrestling with a central mystery in the case: Did the suspect in the attack have a clear political agenda? Or is he a mentally unbalanced young man, perhaps spurred to action by what the sheriff called "the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths" in this country "about tearing down the government."

Pima County Sheriff Clarence W. Dupnik said the suspect, whom law enforcement officials privately identified as Loughner, had "a troubled past" and had come to the attention of the police because of his behavior while a student at Pima County Community College. The sheriff did not specify the nature of that behavior.

"There's reason to believe that this individual may have a mental issue, and people who are unbalanced are especially susceptible to vitriol," Dupnik said.

Loughner had remained mostly silent during a day of questioning, the sheriff said.

Authorities said he had purchased the Glock semiautomatic pistol used in the shootings recently. The sheriff added that "we are not convinced that he acted alone." A white male in his 50s who was seen at the scene of the crime was "a person of interest" in the case and was still being sought, Dupnik said.

Part of the mystery about Loughner's possible motive stems from five messages he posted in a slide presentation on YouTube in recent weeks. In the videos, which displayed typewritten messages, he covers a seemingly random range of topics, including a proposal for a new world currency and references to the number of illiterate people in "District 8," which is his congressional district and the one represented by Giffords.

One message apparently posted within the last two weeks was labeled "My Final Thoughts: Jared Lee Loughner!" In the disjointed missive, he talked about the definition of terrorism and the U.S. Constitution. "You don't have to accept the federalist laws," he writes at one point in the video. "Nonetheless, read the United States of America's Constitution to apprehend all of the current treasonous laws."

The same video also says that he "can't trust the current government because of the ratifications: The government is implying mind control and brainwash on the people by controlling grammar." He concludes with: "No! I won't pay debt with a currency that's not backed by gold and silver! No! I won't trust in God!"

Mark Kalish, a forensic psychiatrist and assistant clinical professor at UC San Diego, said the writings had the hallmarks of mental illness and suggested that the shooting was probably premeditated and an act of delusion.

"It's got these paranoid elements," said Kalish, who said it appeared that the writer of those words suffered from schizophrenia. "There's a conspiratorial flavor to it," he added. "It is nonsensical but it's psychotic."

On the YouTube slides, Loughner describes himself in the third person as "a United States Military recruit at MEPS in Phoenix," a reference to the Military Entrance Processing Station there. CNN reported late Saturday that Loughner had applied for the military but been rejected.

By Saturday night, police had cordoned off the working-class neighborhood of SUVs and pickups where Loughner lived with his parents. The 1980s-vintage homes are well-kept; many have gravel front yards, some planted with palm trees.

"Every time I saw him he was by himself," said Bert Escovar, 71, a neighbor who frequently saw Loughner but had never spoken with him. Another neighbor, David Cook, said the family seemed friendly and often waved hello when they drove past on the street. He said Loughner's father rebuilt classic cars and owned a 1967 Chevelle he had restored.

On his MySpace page, Loughner said he had attended elementary school and middle school in Tucson before he went to Mountain View High School. Since graduating, he said, he had attended Northwest Aztec Middle College and Pima Community College.

He described his "favorite interest" as reading and said he had studied grammar and "conscience dreams." Among the books he listed among his favorites were "Animal Farm" "The Wizard of Oz," "Gulliver's Travels," "Mein Kampf" and Plato's "Meno."

Tyler Ramsier, 24, who attended high school with Loughner at Mountain View, said Loughner and a group of friends often wore trench coats and baggy pants. Ramsier said the group, which he described as "contrary," mostly kept to themselves.

In his high school yearbook photo, Loughner has a shaggy head of curly hair. But a smiling Loughner, with closely cropped hair, appeared in a photo taken more recently by a local newspaper. In that photograph, Loughner is identified by name as a volunteer at the Tucson Festival of Books, where he's shown manning a giant crossword puzzle for passersby.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-jared-loughner-shooting-20110108,0,1028966,print.story

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Jared Lee Loughner, shooting suspect, leaves YouTube rants

Videos posted under the profile of Jared Lee Loughner, who is being held in the Giffords attack, offer a scroll of rambling texts on mind control, currency, the Constitution and English grammar.

by Rick Rojas, Los Angeles Times

January 8, 2011

Jared Lee Loughner, the 22-year-old suspect in the Tucson shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) and 17 others, left behind a series of rambling YouTube videos in which he speaks of mind control, dreaming and a "new currency."

He doesn't appear in any of the videos. Instead, the five clips he apparently posted since October under the screen name Classitup10, feature scrolling text on a black screen and diagrams attempting to explain his theories on obscure subjects.

His first video made reference to Giffords' 8th Congressional district, with stretches south and east across the desert from Tucson to the Mexican border.

"[My] hope — is for you to be literate!" the text in the video said. "If you're literate in English grammar, then you comprehend English grammar. The majority of people, who reside in District-8, are illiterate — hilarious. I don't control your English grammar structure, but you control your English grammar structure."

In his profile on YouTube, he said that he's an avid reader and included in a long list of favorite books "Animal Farm," "Brave New World," "The Communist Manifesto," and "Mein Kampf."

His profile said he has attended Pima Community College. One of the videos rambled for several paragraphs, suggesting that Loughner had once been removed from campus for "talking."

He wrote of creating a new system of currency and designing coins. "You're distributing your new currency lethally to people or you're distributing your new currency non-lethally to people," the video reads. In another video he wrote: "No! I won't pay debt with a currency that's not backed by gold and silver!"

Loughner expressed a deep interest in the dystopia that made up the plots of his favorite books.

"I know who's listening: Government Officials, and the People," read one video. "Nearly all the people, who don't know this accurate information of a new currency, aren't aware of mind control and brainwash methods. If I have my civil rights, then this message wouldn't have happen." [sic]

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YouTube link for his posting:

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http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-jared-loughner-20110109,0,5759303,print.story

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EDITORIAL

Shooting from the lip in reaction to Gabrielle Giffords tragedy

The unreasoned and intemperate Web commentary on the Giffords shooting is shameful, embarrassing.

January 8, 2011

The shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is, of course, both heartbreaking and depressing. It's been years since our country has been through the trauma of a political assassination attempt, and it's no wonder that even the suggestion of one puts us on edge and stokes our fears. Nevertheless, the sane and rational approach to such an event is to stop, take a deep breath, listen to the facts — and above all, to condemn violence in the harshest possible terms.

That, however, was not the immediate reaction of many Americans, as anyone who was surfing the news Saturday morning is aware. Within minutes, hundreds of commenters were at work across the Web loudly seeking to appropriate the story for their own purposes, in many cases fanning it for maximum fear, and injecting it into the roiling narrative of anger, partisanship and paranoia that has taken over so much of the national political conversation.

Some of the comments were vitriolic, bordering on scary. "So Congresswoman Giffords," wrote one commenter on latimes.com, "how's that Obamacare vote working out for you?" On the Washington Post's website, a commenter wrote: "Too bad it wasn't Howard Dean or Al Gore. But a Demokrat is a Demokrat."

The left, for its part, was adamant about who was to blame. "This was a political assassination promoted by the tea party and Sarah Palin," said a not atypical comment on the L.A. Times site. Then there was the paranoid fringe: "2 and 1/2 hours since she was shot and NO WORD on the 'gunman.' Dontcha wonder why???????"

All day, these voices dominated the online debate, opining mostly anonymously and drawing sweeping conclusions before any meaningful information was available. For some of that time, it wasn't clear whether Giffords was dead or alive, or who shot her or why. Despite that, few seemed to have any doubt whatsoever about what had happened and what it all meant. It's a sad commentary on the state of discourse, on the mood of the nation, on all of us.

There were, of course, voices of sanity. "Some of the posters here are real morons," wrote madsircool at 12:19 on latimes.com. "The name of the suspect hasn't been released…. We don't know the possible motive of the shooter. All of you frothing at the mouth from your unfounded speculation should calm down and wait till the facts come out."

We entirely agree (especially with some early reports suggesting the shooter may be more deranged than political). On the 15th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, former President Clinton noted that we are living today in a contentious and partisan time. "We are more connected than ever before," he said, "more able to spread our ideas and beliefs, our anger and fears. As we exercise the right to advocate our views, and as we animate our supporters, we must all assume responsibility for our words and actions before they enter a vast echo chamber and reach those both serious and delirious, connected and unhinged."

Free speech is one of this page's most fundamental values; we wouldn't suggest for a minute that it should be curtailed for fear of its consequences. But we agree with Clinton that people should assume responsibility for what they say, and we are both ashamed and embarrassed at the unreasoned and intemperate commentary we read Saturday.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/opinionla/la-ed-giffords-20110108,0,6704292.story

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Suspect in videos of disabled women being sexually abused is arrested in Hollywood, authorities say

Los Angeles County sheriff's detectives said late Saturday that they have arrested one man -- and located a second in state prison -- believed to be part of a group who allegedly filmed and sexually assaulted severely disabled women.

Sheriff's officials released still images and composite drawings of at least eight men suspected in attacks on 10 of the disabled women in hopes of identifying those who carried out the assaults.

Ernie Lloyd, 27, of Los Angeles was arrested Saturday after he turned himself in to Los Angeles police in Hollywood after telling them he knew he was wanted, said Sheriff's Capt. Mike Parker. Lloyd is the same man described as "Suspect #1" in images released Thursday by the sheriff's department.

"On Saturday morning, suspect Lloyd arrived at the Hollywood Station of the Los Angeles Police Department, saying he had seen himself on the news and that he knew he was wanted," Parker said in a statement. " The LAPD contacted detectives with the sheriff's Special Victims Bureau.

Lloyd is being held in lieu of $100,000 bail after being arrested on suspicion of rape of a person with disabilities.

Bert Hicks of Los Angeles, who is currently serving a sentence in Tehachapi State Prison until 2012, was identified by an LAPD detective who handled a previous case in which he was convicted of lewd and lascivious acts on a dependent adult. Sheriff's officials say he is suspect #4 in the images they released last week.

The sheriff's investigation began in March when a package was mysteriously left at sheriff's headquarters with 100 hours of video footage showing severely disabled women, many in diapers, being sexually assaulted by anonymous men.

The attacks on the women, ages 20 to 40, appeared to have taken place at residential care centers from 2007 to 2009, authorities said, and most of the attackers are believed to be employees.

Although authorities were confident the scenes were shot in residential care facilities, it was unclear if they were in Los Angeles County. Much of the footage is so grainy that only the faces of four of the estimated 10 men could be seen.

Although sheriff's officials cautioned that they are in the early stages of their investigation, Parker said they believe the assault allegedly involving Lloyd took place at a Los Angeles facility.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/01/one-man-arrested-another-located-behind-bars-in-connection-with-sexual-assaults-of-disabled-women.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+lanowblog+%28L.A.+Now%29

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25 bodies found in Acapulco, 15 decapitated

Messages attached to some of the bodies reportedly claim responsibility on behalf of the Sinaloa drug cartel and accuse the dead men of being extortionists.

by Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times

January 9, 2011

Reporting from Mexico City

The bodies of at least 25 people, 15 of them with their heads cut off, were discovered Saturday in the resort city of Acapulco, authorities said.

Drug cartel violence has increasingly plagued Acapulco as rival gangs fight for control of the local market, occasionally spilling into the tourist areas of the city.

Even though most of Saturday's killings appeared to have steered clear of those sections, the violence damages the reputation of a once-glamorous city struggling to make a comeback amid President Felipe Calderon's drug war.

The grimmest discovery came as police were investigating a burning car in a shopping center parking lot early in the morning: the decapitated bodies of 15 people. Security officials for the state of Guerrero, where Acapulco is located, said all were men younger than 30.

Police also discovered messages attached to the bodies, and journalists said the notes claimed responsibility on behalf of the Sinaloa cartel and accused the dead men of being extortionists.

Later, six more bodies were discovered in a minivan taxi in the Rebirth neighborhood of Acapulco. All had been shot in the head and were in their late teens or early 20s, officials said.

At least four other people were killed elsewhere in separate incidents.

Late last year, 20 young men from the neighboring state of Michoacan were kidnapped by drug hit men in Acapulco. Weeks later, the bodies of 18 of the men, whose families said they were taking a vacation, were discovered in a mass grave about 40 minutes from the city.

The theory is that the men were seized by gunmen working for a faction of the Beltran Leyva cartel who had mistaken them for members of the rival La Familia gang, which is based in Michoacan.

If members of the Sinaloa cartel were responsible for Saturday's slayings and have moved into Acapulco, a nasty fight may be in store between them and Beltran Leyva gang members.

The two groups were once allied but have been deadly rivals for several years. The Beltran Leyva group, while dominant in Acapulco, is seen as greatly weakened after the killing or capture of several of its leaders. The Sinaloa cartel is probably the most powerful drug-trafficking organization in the nation.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-bodies-20110109,0,7463264,print.story

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In tough times, schools try to keep homeless students' education on track.

School on Wheels is one of the nonprofits trying to meet the needs of thousands of L.A.-area students whose families are homeless. But funds are shrinking.

by Rick Rojas, Los Angeles Times

January 8, 2011

The line of students who walk the few blocks from Western Avenue Elementary keeps getting longer. Only a year ago, it was just a handful who ventured once a week to the South Los Angeles Learning Center, an afterschool program for homeless children in a tiny strip mall.

Now, it's more than a dozen, five days a week.

On this afternoon, the kids are rowdy and restless. They chomp on chips and grapes, sip punch and chatter. The noise ricochets through the cramped classroom, but Charles Evans, the man who runs the place for School on Wheels, hones in on Jeanquis. The first-grader in a stained white shirt is reading aloud.

Above the din, Evans is caught off guard. Jeanquis reminds him of how quickly the center has grown. Just six months ago, Evans made all the students read aloud. It was the only way he could be sure they were actually reading.

Now, the words of "Green Eggs and Ham" uttered in Jeanquis' raspy little voice barely register in the roomful of students who need a place to go after school until their shelter opens for the night.

As jobs are lost, houses are foreclosed and tenants are evicted, more families are being pushed into shelters, motels, even cars.

In the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation's second-largest, nearly 13,500 students were identified as homeless in the 2009-10 school year, records show, a 53% increase from five years ago. The increase reflects more accurate information gathering as well increasing poverty, the district says.

The programs attempting to help the children in these situations, like School on Wheels, face a sad dilemma: The same difficult economic times that create the need for such services also cause them to struggle financially.

School on Wheels, the nonprofit that runs the South L.A. Learning Center and serves more than 6,000 homeless youths each year, is bracing for its budget of about $800,000 to shrink as homelessness among families expands at an unprecedented rate, said Catherine Meek, its executive director.

School on Wheels solicits and trains hundreds of volunteers who provide one-on-one tutoring for homeless students in the Los Angeles area. They work in parks, libraries and other public places as well as in the storefront in South L.A. and one on Skid Row.

Homeless children tend to be four to six months behind their classmates, Meek said. They move around constantly, depending on shelter openings and whether family members can take them in. L.A. Unified tries to keep them in the same schools, even offering transportation to help get them there.

School on Wheels and the district's programs work to keep school "a point of stability," said Melissa Schoonmaker, L.A. Unified's coordinator of pupil services and attendance.

High school became the one steady place for Angela Sanchez when a swirl of bad fortune uprooted her family. When she was 16, her family was evicted from the home she grew up in. Her mother had been sick and her father, an architect, lost his job.

Like many newly homeless families, they hopped from motel to motel. The money ran out and they wound up in a cold-weather shelter. "It was terrible," she said, recalling a huge, harshly lighted hall of stiff cots where men, women and children bunked together.

The family finally found a spot in a more hospitable family shelter in Pasadena. Yet her father continued to take her to school in Glendale, where she kept up her grades. ("My father saw to that," she said.)

Sanchez had ambitions of going to UCLA and becoming a teacher, but those dreams began to falter.

"Your motivation starts to wane," Sanchez said. "College does start to look like a bunch of smiling faces on a pamphlet."

But Sanchez made it to UCLA, where she's in her second year and has enough credits to be a junior.

Meek called Sanchez the outlier among School on Wheels students. For most, tutors measure success in much more rudimentary terms: "A kid does his homework for a month or his grades improve."

Achieving that requires trust, she said. Meek recalled one of the first children she mentored: a young girl who was soon abandoned by her mother. She wouldn't come out from under a table in the shelter. Meek climbed under and sat with her.

A bond had to form, Meek said, before studies were even a concern.

"Education is not on the top of your list," she said of homeless students. "It's about survival."

Moreover, the older students tend to hide their homelessness, making it harder for programs to find and help them. "They don't want to be identified," said Blue McDonald, regional director of School on Wheels for West L.A. "It's shameful for them."

The younger children at the South L.A. center aren't embarrassed. They are simply aware, even in their young age, that their lives are different from those of their classmates.

They awake at 5 a.m., which is why they are dragging once the afternoon rolls around. Stephen, 6, falls asleep after snack time, his fruit punch-stained mouth hanging open as his head rests on a table.

Their dreams are more grounded and practical than those of others their age. Chiaw Yongpang, a volunteer at the South L.A. Learning Center, said she asked them what they hoped Santa would bring or what they want for a birthday.

A car for their family, they reply.

Or, the ultimate gift: permanent housing.

As the afternoon sky outside the burglar bars fades to shades of purple and orange, Evans tells the students at the South L.A. center to pack up. He nudges a bleary-eyed Stephen to wake up. The rest line up outside — jackets finally zipped, their School on Wheels backpacks in place — and they're off, accompanied by two adults from the center.

They pass the abandoned storefronts and the 98-cent store where they eye the toy lightsabers on sale, scurry across five lanes of Western Avenue traffic and give wide berth to the guard dog at an empty lot sticking his nose through a chain-link fence. They finally arrive at the dormitory of the Testimonial Cathedral shelter they now consider home.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0109-lausd-homeless-20101212,0,128842,print.story

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From the New York Times

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Arizona Suspect's Recent Acts Offer Hints of Alienation

WASHINGTON — Jared Lee Loughner had become increasingly erratic in recent months, so much so that others around him began to worry.

He had posted on his Myspace page at some point a photograph of a United States history textbook, on top of which he had placed a handgun. He prepared a series of Internet videos filled with rambling statements on topics including the gold standard, mind control and SWAT teams. And he had started to act oddly during his classes at Pima Community College, causing unease among other students.

That behavior, along with a disturbing video, prompted school administrators to call in Mr. Loughner's parents and tell them that their son had been suspended and would have to get a mental health evaluation to return to college. Instead, he dropped out in October, a spokesman for the college said.

The evidence and reports about Mr. Loughner's unusual conduct suggest an increasing alienation from society, confusion, anger as well as foreboding that his life could soon come to an end. Still, there appear to be no explicit threats of violence that explain why, as police allege, Mr. Loughner, 22, would go to a Safeway supermarket north of Tucson on Saturday morning and begin shooting at a popular Democratic congresswoman and more than a dozen other people, killing 6 and wounding 19.

Police officials on Saturday said that Mr. Loughner had a criminal record of some kind, but they did not provide any details. They also hinted that he might have had the help of a second person, adding that they were searching for another man.

Don Coorough, 58, who sat two desks in front of Mr. Loughner in a poetry class last semester, described him as a “troubled young man” and “emotionally underdeveloped.” After another student read a poem about getting an abortion, Mr. Loughner compared the young woman to a “terrorist for killing the baby.”

“No one in that class would even sit next to him,” Mr. Coorough said. Another fellow student said that he found Mr. Loughner's behavior so eccentric — including inappropriate remarks and unusual outbursts — that he wondered if he might be on hallucinogens. Mr. Loughner grew up in Tucson and was an unremarkable student at Mountain View High School, classmates said.

Grant Wiens, 22, who graduated in 2006 from Mountain View High School, a year ahead of Mr. Loughner, described him as “a kind of rare bird, very shy.”

“He didn't seem very popular, but he kind of did his own thing,” Mr. Wiens said.

Mr. Wiens said that something Mr. Loughner said during a discussion about religion had stuck in his mind: “Whatever happens, happens,” Mr. Wiens recalled the suspect saying. “Might as well enjoy life now.”

Another former high school classmate said that Mr. Loughner may have met Representative Giffords, who was shot in the head outside the Safeway supermarket, several years ago.

“As I knew him he was left wing, quite liberal. & oddly obsessed with the 2012 prophecy,” the former classmate, Caitie Parker, wrote in a series of Twitter feeds Saturday. “I haven't seen him since '07 though. He became very reclusive.”

“He was a political radical & met Giffords once before in '07, asked her a question & he told me she was ‘stupid & unintelligent,' ” she wrote.

Neighbors of Mr. Loughner in Orangewood Estates, a middle-class subdivision of single-family homes north of Tucson, said that he lived with his parents, Amy and Randy Loughner, and that they did not believe he had siblings. Two neighbors said they saw the family come and go but knew little about them.

A series of short videos posted on the Internet, apparently by Mr. Loughner, consist of changing blocs of text that are largely rambling and incoherent. Many take the form of stating a premise and then a logical conclusion that would follow from it.

They speak of being a “conscience dreamer”; becoming a treasurer of a new currency; controlling “English grammar structure”; mentioned brainwashing and suggested that he believed he had powers of mind control.

“In conclusion, my ambition — is for informing literate dreamers about a new currency; in a few days, you know I'm conscience dreaming!” he wrote in one video, which was uploaded to YouTube on Dec. 15.

Still, some strands of recognizable political thought are woven among the more incoherent writings. Another video, for example, says debts should only be paid in currency that is backed by gold and silver.

One of his videos also suggests that he may have applied to join the Army at a recruiting station in Phoenix. It says he received a miniature Bible before taking tests there, and that he did not write a belief on his application form, so a recruiter wrote “none.”

Army officials said Saturday night that he had tried to enlist but had been rejected for military service. Privacy rules prevented them from disclosing the reason.

Paul Schwalbach, the spokesman for the Pima Community College, said one video that Mr. Loughner had prepared was considered particularly troubling by campus administrators, motivating them to suspend Mr. Loughner in September.

College “police and other officials viewed it and found it very disturbing,” he said. After he was suspended, Mr. Loughner and his parents met with administrators, who said he would require a mental health clearance if he wanted to return to college. It could not be learned on Saturday whether Mr. Loughner ever saw a psychiatrist or other professional or was diagnosed with a mental illness.

But the rambling, disconnected writings and videos he has left on the Web are consistent with the delusions produced by a psychotic illness like schizophrenia, which develops most often in the teens or 20s.

Among other complaints, Mr. Loughner's social networking pages suggest that he had grievances against Pima Community College, that he felt cheated in some way.

“If I'm not receiving the purchase from a payment then I'm a victim of fraud,” he wrote, referencing the school, in one of his many confusing phrases posted in his videos.

His YouTube page also listed a series of favorite books. Some were novels about political dystopias — including “Animal Farm” by George Orwell and “Brave New World” by Aldous Huxley. Others were about falling into fantasy worlds — like “Alice's Adventures in Wonderland” and “Through the Looking-Glass” by Lewis Carroll.

In one extended Internet posting, Mr. Loughner suggested that the government was trying to trick him, or take advantage of him, although he never explained exactly what caused these concerns.

He also prepared a video that he called “My Final Thoughts: Jared Lee Loughner!”

“All humans are in need of sleep. Jared Loughner is a human. Hence, Jared Loughner is in need of sleep,” he wrote. He also briefly discusses terrorism.

“If I define terrorist then a terrorist is a person who employs terror or terrorism, especially as a political weapon. I define terrorist,” he wrote. “If you call me a terrorist then the argument to call me a terrorist is ad hominem. You call me a terrorist.”

As recently as Saturday, he posted a message on his Myspace account hinting that he was going away.

“Goodbye,” he wrote at about 5 a.m. Saturday. “Dear friends . . . Please don't be mad at me.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/us/politics/09shooter.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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From Google News

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Fiery package in DC triggers memories of anthrax

by BRETT ZONGKER

The Associated Press

January 8, 2011

WASHINGTON -- Postal workers who returned to work Saturday said a package that ignited at a government mail facility conjured painful memories of the anthrax attacks that killed two of their colleagues in 2001.

The fiery package found Friday, which was addressed to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, followed two packages that ignited Thursday in Maryland state government mailrooms. It halted government mail until bomb-sniffing dogs could sweep the D.C. facility.

Mail processing resumed Saturday morning after a meeting with workers, the local postmaster and the workers' union.

Postal workers union President Dena Briscoe said that the meeting was helpful but that the fiery package worried many employees. She said most of the postal workers also were sorting D.C. mail back in 2001, when letters containing anthrax were sent to lawmakers and news organizations as the nation was still reeling from the 9/11 attacks.

"One of the ladies was crying because these episodes are bringing those feelings and those emotions and those memories back," Briscoe said. "We want them to feel safe and secure and be able to trust management to respond properly if this were to happen again." Postal officials installed new sensors and other safety equipment in the wake of the anthrax mailings.

When the popping and smoking package was discovered Friday, postal service managers failed to follow proper safety procedures, Briscoe said.

The evacuation process was "very sloppy," she said, because workers in the back of the building had no idea they were supposed to evacuate. Managers should have made an announcement on the public address system, she said.

Helen Lewis, a mail processing clerk at the D.C. facility, said co-workers told her management had trouble deciding whether to evacuate the building and wanted to wait for postal inspectors or police to decide. A worker ended up flagging down a police car, and workers said police evacuated the building.

"That's not good enough," she said. "This is not a suspicious package. This is a package that went off."

People in the back of the building didn't know about the ignited package until police arrived, Lewis said.

"We have two employees who passed" because of anthrax, she said, adding that workers need information in an emergency to keep themselves safe. "Something is wrong with that picture right there. We must do better."

Workers said they should have been given mandatory talks on safety procedures early Friday because the Maryland packages had been sent through the U.S. mail system.

The area the package ignited in was properly isolated, though, and the emergency response improved as more agencies got involved, Briscoe said.

Washington Postmaster Gerald Roane met with about 40 workers early Saturday and acknowledged some things could have been handled better, Briscoe said. A U.S. Postal Service spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"Employees let him know that this brings them back to the anthrax experience" when workers felt their safety wasn't a priority, Briscoe said. "Safety needs to be much more effective in the Postal Service."

Workers at the postal facility where two workers died had sued the Postal Service for failing to protect them, but a federal judge ruled in 2004 that the service is immune.

By Saturday, postal workers had each been given a photograph of the original Maryland package and were briefed on how the package addressed to Napolitano was similar. Briscoe also was urging Roane to establish worker safety committees to better prepare employees. At least one worker asked for thicker gloves to protect their hands.

The Maryland packages burned the fingers of state workers as they were opened. The packages carried a message railing against highway signs that urge motorists to report suspicious activity. The message read: "Report suspicious activity! Total Bull----! You have created a self fulfilling prophecy."

In July, Napolitano launched a nationwide "see something, say something" campaign similar to the signs, reminding commuters to report suspicious behavior.

Authorities fear there could be more packages.

"We've got to make sure we go after this person and get them off the street and get them behind bars, because these kinds of things are very, very dangerous," Maryland State Police Col. Terrence Sheridan said Friday.

Police in D.C. and Maryland on Saturday had not identified a suspect or where the packages originated. Investigators were searching for disgruntled people who've made threats against the government.

Anyone arrested would be charged with possession and use of an incendiary device, which includes a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, authorities said.

Dangerous devices sent through the mail remain extremely rare, postal inspectors said, with 13 such cases reported since 2005.

That's not much comfort for Leroy Richmond, 66, who retired from the postal service after two of his co-workers died in the anthrax attacks. The postal facility that had been contaminated has since been renamed in honor of those who died - Joseph Curseen Jr., 47, and Thomas Morris Jr., 55.

The fiery packages were much different than the anthrax letters, but workers must remain vigilant, he said.

"I'm truly worried because I know initially when the anthrax bacteria went through ... it seemed as though the post office was more concerned about moving the mail and not losing money, as opposed to not losing people's lives," Richmond said. "I don't want that to ever happen again because I lost two friends that way."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/08/AR2011010800700_pf.html

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Unclaimed veterans buried in NY with full honors

CALVERTON, N.Y. — They were once forgotten: 20 Americans who had served their country in uniform and died years later, their remains unclaimed — until now.

On Saturday, they were buried with full honors at Calverton National Cemetery on eastern Long Island, complete with flag-draped coffins, prayers by a military chaplain and a 21-gun salute.

"Go gently dear brothers, your wait is done," said John Caldarelli, an American Legion member. "Taps has sounded and you are dismissed. ... No longer forgotten or cast aside."

Along with their names went life stories that placed the men in military service as far back as World War II.

In that conflict, Anderson Alston served as an Army master sergeant. Pvt. Frederick Hunter was a U.S. soldier from 1968 to 1971. And Myron Sanford Mabry was in the Navy from May 1960 to July 1971.

They were among the 20 who died in recent years in New York City, with no one to legally claim their remains.

Ordinarily, they would have been quietly buried in a potter's field, their graves unmarked.

On Saturday morning, hearses bearing their remains pulled up to the cemetery entrance to the sound of bagpipes, with color guards representing various branches of the military. In tribute, local fire department trucks — two at a time — hoisted their ladders to form arches from which American flags were suspended.

Later, a folded flag from each coffin — usually presented to the next of kin — was handed to mourners standing in for absent relatives. They included members of Gold Star Mothers, a group of parents who lost their children in the military.

"It was bittersweet," Michele McNaughton said later of the moment she received the flag from the coffin of John Palazzo, a U.S. Navy seaman who served from 1965 to 1967 and died in 2006.

Calverton, McNaughton said, "is the same place where my son is buried."

James McNaughton died in 2005 when he was a 27-year-old U.S. Army staff sergeant, killed by a sniper in Baghdad.

A white rose was placed on each coffin after it was undraped.

The somber service was part of a national effort by the Department of Veterans Affairs and private groups to clear a backlog of unburied or unclaimed veterans' remains. Speakers included two Long Island congressmen, — U.S. Rep. Timothy Bishop, D-N.Y., and Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y.

"Today, we laid to rest 20 veterans, but tonight, 134,000 veterans will go to sleep on American sidewalks," Israel said. "One out of every four homeless people in America wore the uniform of the United States military, and tonight they'll keep themselves warm with tattered blankets."

Israel said "the most fitting way" to honor those buried Saturday would be to end homelessness among America's veterans. On Wednesday, the first session of the new Congress, he introduced a bill that would allow taxpayers to check off a contribution for homeless veterans.

The ceremony was the result of efforts by the Missing in America Project, which strives to provide a respectful funeral for any veteran with an honorable discharge.

Since 2006, the organization's hundreds of volunteers have contacted funeral homes and morgues across the country, seeking unclaimed remains. The project is sanctioned by the Department of Veterans Affairs, which contacted the group about assisting with the New York City cases.

The New York veterans had identification documents when they died and the group worked with the VA and other agencies to confirm their military service. Some of the men may have been homeless or poor, but others may have simply led lonely lives and had little contact with their families.

The bill for expenses associated with the burials was covered by the Dignity Memorial Homeless Veterans Burial Program, a national network of funeral, cremation and cemetery service providers.

Lisa Marshall, a Dignity Memorial spokeswoman, said the organization is planning similar services in 32 other states. Saturday's burial in New York was the first, she said.

"We don't know what happened in their lives that left them in a position where they died alone, but for a part of their life they gave themselves completely to their country," said Bishop, the congressman. "That is something we cannot forget."

http://online.wsj.com/article/APe93f2c089cd24b6e8286c4f1d8a72ec1.html

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