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From the Los Angeles Times

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Spokane bomb casualties could have been severe, FBI says

The device was found on the route of Spokane's annual Unity March, held on Martin Luther King Day.

by Abby Sewell, Los Angeles Times

January 18, 2011

Reporting from Los Angeles

A "potentially deadly" explosive device that could have caused severe casualties was found along the intended route of a Martin Luther King Day march in Spokane, Wash., half an hour before the event was to begin, the FBI said Tuesday.

The annual Unity March was rerouted after city workers noticed a black Swiss Army backpack apparently abandoned on a bench about 9:25 a.m. Monday, said Frank Harrill, the supervisory senior resident agent in the FBI's Seattle division.

The device inside "clearly would have had the potential to inflict multiple casualties, injury and death, to humans," Harrill said in an interview Tuesday. He declined to describe the device.

The FBI said the backpack also contained two T-shirts — one from the 2010 Stevens County Relay for Life, an American Cancer Society fundraiser, and the other reading, "Treasure Island Spring 2009."

About 1,500 people marched along the new route without incident while the Spokane Explosives Disposal Unit neutralized the device.

No one has claimed responsibility or offered a motive, Harrill said. But he called the connection with the King Day march "inescapable."

"We're treating this as an act of domestic terrorism," he said.

The FBI, which is leading the investigation, is offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible.

The area has a history of white supremacist activity. Until 2001, the Aryan Nations was headquartered in nearby Hayden Lake, Idaho. As recently as April 2009, the Spokesman-Review newspaper reported that residents of a Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, subdivision had found Aryan Nations recruitment letters on their lawns.

Ivan Bush, who works for Spokane Public Schools and has helped organize the King Day march for more than 20 years, said the attempted attack pained him.

"Man, that's a sad testament," Bush told the Associated Press. "Here we are in the 21st century and these types of things are still happening. It just hurts."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-0119-spokane-bomb-20110119,0,2615642,print.story

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Two Gardena High students wounded in accidental shooting on campus

A gun in a backpack goes off in a classroom. The 17-year-old suspect is arrested about an hour later as anxious parents gather at the school. One of the wounded is listed in critical condition.

by Sam Allen, Mitchell Landsberg and Andrew Blankstein, Los Angeles Times

January 19, 2011

Third-period health class was just beginning Tuesday at Gardena High School when a 17-year-old boy walked in and set his backpack down on a desk. In the chaos that followed, accounts differed about precisely what happened. But this much was clear: A gun had discharged, apparently by accident; two students were wounded, one critically; and the campus of 3,100 was sent into a tense, frightening lockdown.

"Wow, someone just got shot in the classroom," student Dan Im wrote from the scene in a profanity-laced, Korean-language Twitter feed. "I'm freaked out."

After about an hour, police found and arrested the boy suspected of having brought the gun into the class. Meanwhile, the two wounded students, both 15, had been rushed to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, where a girl who had been shot in the head underwent lengthy surgery. She was in critical condition with a skull fracture and brain trauma. A boy who had been shot in the neck was listed as stable, his wound not considered life-threatening.

Police said the two might have been struck by a single bullet.

Friends of the suspect said he was not known as a violent boy, but had brought the gun to school for his own protection.

"I think he was just scared," classmate Para Ross said, "Scared of what was going to happen when he left school and took the bus home. There are a lot of gangs around here. People are dying."

The boy was interviewed by police detectives Tuesday afternoon. Law enforcement sources told The Times one of the aspects of the investigation was whether the teen, a special education student, had been bullied on his way to and from school.

The shooting filled parents and students with dread and anger, many questioning how the student was allowed to bring a loaded gun onto campus.

Like other Los Angeles Unified School District high schools, Gardena periodically conducts random screening of students with a metal detector. John Deasy, the incoming superintendent of L.A. Unified, said the district would review whether that policy needs to be strengthened. He said extra security would be at the campus Wednesday.

The shooting occurred just after 10:30 a.m. on the large, one-story campus at 182nd Street and Normandie Avenue. According to police and Los Angeles Unified School District officials, the 17-year-old came into the classroom, set his backpack on a desk or table, and a gun inside it discharged.

However, a student who was in the class, Miguel Lopez, 17, said the boy was reaching into the pack when the gun went off. In another version, the gun discharged when the boy leaned on the backpack.

Im, a senior who was sitting in the back corner of the classroom, said the shooting sounded like a bag of chips had been popped, but louder. He recalled hearing a student exclaim, "Something popped in my backpack."

Then came a shriek from the teacher and a frantic cry for someone to call 911. A girl on the other side of the classroom clutched her bleeding neck, then collapsed, Im said. A boy asked, "Why does my neck hurt?" and then realized he was bleeding near his shoulder.

By all accounts, the shooting was accidental. By some accounts, the boy with the gun apologized to classmates before bolting from the class, leaving behind a scene of blood and chaos, with students crying and frantically phoning their parents and 911.

Outside the class, the boy apparently dropped the 9-mm Beretta handgun, then walked into a room where students were learning piano. About an hour later, in a scene captured from above by a helicopter-mounted news camera, heavily armed police ordered students in that classroom to file out with their hands up. When a boy who matched the description of the suspect emerged, police immediately threw him to the ground and handcuffed him.

Some students who knew the youth described him as someone who was unlikely to have acted intentionally.

"He was a sweetheart, always smiling and hugging people," said Ross, an 11th-grader.

"He never would have done this on purpose," said 10th-grader Brian Rogers, who said he had known the suspect for about a year.

But Hoda Makkar, a campus aide who has worked at the school for a year and a half, said she had spoken to him frequently about his temper.

"Some kids come to school angry and he was one of those who came to school angry. He walked around a lot with his fists up all the time," Makkar said. She added that his parents were frequently at the school to speak to counselors.

"I thought he was doing better," Makkar said, shaking her head. "That's why I was shocked. Bringing a gun to school? That is so dumb."

The shooting turned the Gardena campus into a barricaded crime scene, with students held in locked-down classrooms, police SWAT teams roaming the halls and helicopters hovering above. As word got out, parents descended on the school, clustering on the street outside in anxious knots.

Patricia Gutierrez rushed from her home in Inglewood after she got a call from her brother. Her nephew is a sophomore at Gardena High.

"I don't even remember getting here — I just flew out the door," she said. "I was thinking of the congresswoman in Arizona, and I thought, 'This is crazy. What is going on? Why?' "

Gutierrez said her nephew had called his father and said he was fine.

Some parents expressed anger and disappointment with the school.

Candace Green, who graduated from Gardena in 1989, has a 15-year-old daughter on campus. Green said that after moving from Bellflower this school year, her daughter was coming home from Gardena High with stories of fights on campus. Her daughter didn't want to go to homecoming after hearing about fights rumored to occur at the event.

"She loves the teachers, but she hates the students," Green said. "It's a mentality. In Bellflower, the focus was on learning. Here, the dress codes are lax, the students aren't interested in learning. This proves it."

Still, Brooke Lundy, a theater teacher at Gardena High, said the shooting did not reflect the character of the school.

"We're so much better than this," she said.

Lundy said she watched as the suspect was taken into custody.

"He didn't look cocky or anything," she said. "He looked like he knew what he did was wrong."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0119-gardena-school-shooting-20110119,0,7259585,print.story

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L.A. Unified to review search policy in wake of Gardena High shooting

District officials consider whether the screening policy needs to be updated. One Gardena student said weapons checks using hand-held metal detectors occurred 'once in a blue moon.'

by Jason Song, Los Angeles Times

January 19, 2011

Administrators and staff randomly search students for weapons on Los Angeles city school campuses, but officials acknowledged that it is nearly impossible to keep all weapons away from classrooms.

Two students were shot Tuesday at Gardena High School when a classmate's gun went off. The weapon was in his backpack and it reportedly fired when he put the bag on his desk. A girl was shot in the head and a boy was hit in the neck.

It was the second time a gun was found on a Los Angeles Unified School District campus since classes began this school year, according to district officials. A gun was found at Sylmar High earlier this year after administrators received a tip. Officials found 11 firearms the year before and six in the 2008-09 school year.

Students caught with weapons are expelled from L.A. Unified for at least one year, according to state and federal law. Since 2005, two students from Gardena High have been expelled for having firearms, district officials said.

Steven Zipperman, the school district's police chief, told the school board Tuesday that it was possible the 17-year-old suspect was not checked for weapons.

District officials have required searches since 1993, largely leaving principals to decide the details of when and where to conduct them. A district policy memo recommends that searches take place on a daily basis at different times so they don't become predictable.

The search policy was instituted after several incidents, including one in 1993 at Reseda High School where one student fatally shot another during a morning break. Officials have periodically updated the policy after campus attacks, which are rare.

Incoming Supt. John Deasy said he convened a meeting Tuesday with school and district staff members to consider whether the policy should be updated.

The meeting also will focus on the automated system that notifies families of campus emergencies. Many parents waiting anxiously outside the school had complained of delays or never receiving a call or text message about the situation.

"The system notifies parents with the number that students give us. Sometimes they are inaccurate," Deasy said. "If there were delays, I personally apologize."

School board member Richard Vladovic saw staff members at Gardena High searching students with hand-held metal detectors when he visited the campus, south of downtown, six months ago.

"It seems like they were following policy," said Vladovic, who was a district administrator overseeing the area including Gardena in 2002, when two students there were shot on campus during a robbery.

Vladovic said school district administrators would check campus logs to make sure protocol has been followed.

Vladovic said securing a large campus such as Gardena is especially difficult. The school, which has about 3,100 students and takes up nearly two acres, is one of the biggest in the district.

He said district officials would review their policies but "we can't control every entrance and exit at every school all the time," Vladovic said. "It would be physically impossible to do."

Gardena student Jessica Santiago, 15, said random inspections happened "once in a blue moon."

"They would almost never use it," she said. "Only if you looked suspicious or someone heard something and told a teacher."

L.A. Unified has the largest school police department in the nation with about 340 sworn personnel, including 270 officers and 20 detectives. But those numbers still represent a thin deployment force for more than 1,000 campuses. High school campuses typically have two officers and some have three. Most secondary schools also employ unarmed security aides.

Students have been most at risk of violence on the peripheries of campuses — especially just before the start of school, just after school and, occasionally, at athletic events.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0119-school-security-20110119,0,6845750,print.story

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Judge rules against new state ammunition rules

Californians who buy handgun ammunition will not have to supply their thumbprint, photo ID and other information starting Feb. 1 after a judge in Fresno ruled Tuesday that a new state law mandating the information is unconstitutionally vague.

The law, signed in 2009 by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, was meant to give law enforcement officers a better opportunity to track criminals buying ammunition.

But Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Hamilton issued a summary judgment against the law, which also required ammo buyers to provide their birth date and address, and issued an injunction preventing the state from enforcing it Feb. 1. The law also would have prevented mail-order sales of handgun ammunition.

The judge sided Tuesday with former Tehama County Sheriff Clay Parker, who filed a lawsuit arguing that the law was not clear.

"I'm pleased," Parker said. "My whole concern was: What is the definition of handgun ammunition? There is a lot of ammunition that goes both in handguns and long-guns."

Sen. Kevin De Leon (D-Los Angeles), who wrote AB 962, is considering his legal and legislative options, including a possible appeal, said Dan Reeves, his chief of staff.

"The code section defining handgun ammo is very similar to the federal definition and has been on the books for 30 years," Reeves said in an e-mail. "Today a judge ruled in a summary judgment it was unconstitutionally vague."

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

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L.A. County supervisors call for better mental health evaluations of students

Los Angeles County Supervisors voted Tuesday to develop a plan to step up identification of students who show signs of mental health problems that could pose a public safety concern.

The proposal by Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky cited a case uncovered last week at Cal State Northridge. In that incident, a student was charged with possession of explosive materials and a firearm that authorities said were found in his dorm room after he allegedly threatened staff and students.

The supervisors asked staff to report back in two months on how best to expand a program -- the School Threat Assessment Response Team -- involving Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health workers and Los Angeles police. Since its inception in 2008, the team has responded to approximately 250 incidents at elementary, middle and high schools, and colleges.

Although supervisors acknowledged that it was too early to know if the shooting Tuesday at Gardena High School involved mental health issues, they said it might prove to be further reason for the increased vigilance.

“This kind of shocking occurrence proves that we must do everything in our power to eradicate the roots and causes of violence on our campuses,” Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas said. “I strongly encourage the rapid response to the motion before us.”

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2011/01/la-county-supervisors-call-for-better-mental-health-evaluations-of-students.html

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From the New York Times

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Getting Someone to Psychiatric Treatment Can Be Difficult and Inconclusive

TUCSON —What are you supposed to do with someone like Jared L. Loughner?

That question is as difficult to answer today as it was in the years and months and days leading up to the shooting here that left 6 dead and 13 wounded.

Millions of Americans have wondered about a troubled loved one, friend or co-worker, fearing not so much an act of violence, but — far more likely — self-inflicted harm, landing in the streets, in jail or on suicide watch. But those in a position to help often struggle with how to distinguish ominous behavior from the merely odd, the red flags from the red herrings.

In Mr. Loughner's case there is no evidence that he ever received a formal diagnosis of mental illness, let alone treatment. Yet many psychiatrists say that the warning sings of a descent into psychosis were there for months, and perhaps far longer.

Moving a person who is resistant into treatment is an emotional, sometimes exhausting process that in the end may not lead to real changes in behavior. Mental health resources are scarce in most states, laws make it difficult to commit an adult involuntarily, and even after receiving treatment, patients frequently stop taking their medication or seeing a therapist, believing that they are no longer ill.

The Virginia Tech gunman was committed involuntarily before killing 32 people in a 2007 rampage.

With Mr. Loughner, dozens of people apparently saw warning signs: the classmates who listened as his dogmatic language grew more detached from reality. The police officers who nervously advised that he could not return to college without a medical note stating that he was not dangerous. His father, who chased him into the desert hours before the attack as Mr. Loughner carried a black bag full of ammunition.

“This isn't an isolated incident,” said Daniel J. Ranieri, president of La Frontera Center, a nonprofit group that provides mental health services. “There are lots of people who are operating on the fringes who I would describe as pretty combustible. And most of them aren't known to the mental health system.”

Dr. Jack McClellan, an adult and child psychiatrist at the University of Washington, said he advises people who are worried that someone is struggling with a mental disorder to watch for three things — a sudden change in personality, in thought processes, or in daily living. “This is not about whether someone is acting bizarrely; many people, especially young people, experiment with all sorts of strange beliefs and counterculture ideas,” Dr. McLellan said. “We're talking about a real change. Is this the same person you knew three months ago?”

Those who have watched the mental unraveling of a loved one say that recognizing the signs is only the first step in an emotional, often confusing, process. About half of people with mental illnesses do not receive treatment, experts estimate, in part because many of them do not recognize that they even have an illness.

Pushing such a person into treatment is legally difficult in most states, especially when he or she is an adult — and the attempt itself can shatter the trust between a troubled soul and the one who is most desperate to help. Others, though, later express gratitude.

“If the reason is love, don't worry if they'll be mad at you,” said Robbie Alvarez, 28, who received a diagnosis of schizophrenia after being involuntarily committed when his increasingly erratic behavior led to a suicide attempt. At the time, he said, he was living in Phoenix with his parents, who he was convinced were trying to kill him. In Arizona it is easier to obtain an involuntary commitment than in many states because anyone can request an evaluation if they observe behavior that suggests a person may present a danger or is severely disabled (often state laws require some evidence of imminent danger to self or others).

But there are also questions about whether the system can accommodate an influx of new patients. Arizona's mental health system has been badly strained by recent budget cuts that left those without Medicaid stripped of most of their services, including counseling and residential treatment, though eligibility remains for emergency services like involuntary commitment. And the state is trying to change eligibility requirements for Medicaid, which would potentially reduce financing further and leave more with limited services.

Still, people who have been through the experience argue that it is better to act sooner rather than later. “It's not easy to know when we could or should intervene but I would rather err on the side of safety than not,” said H. Clarke Romans, executive director of the local chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, an advocacy group, who had a son with schizophrenia.

The collective failure to move Mr. Loughner into treatment, either voluntarily or not, will never be fully understood, because those who knew the young man presumably wrestled separately and privately about whether to take action. But the inaction has certainly provoked second-guessing. Sheriff Clarence Dupnik of Pima County told CNN last Wednesday that Mr. Loughner's parents were as shocked as everyone else. “It's been very, very devastating for them,” he said. “They had absolutely no way to predict this kind of behavior.”

Linda Rosenberg, president of the National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare, said, “The failure here is that we ignored someone for a long time who was clearly in tremendous distress.” Ms. Rosenberg, whose group is a nonprofit agency leading a campaign to teach people how to recognize and respond to signs of mental illness, added, “He wasn't someone who could ask for help because his thinking was affected, and as a community no one said, let's stop and make sure he gets help.”

At the University of Arizona, where a nursing student killed three instructors on campus eight years ago before killing himself, feelings of sadness and anger initially mixed with some guilt as the university examined the missed warning signs.

The overhauled process for addressing concerns is now more responsive, even if there are sometimes false alarms, said Melissa M. Vito, vice president for student affairs. “I guess I'd rather explain why I called someone's parents than why I didn't do something,” she said.

Many others feel the same way.

Four years ago Susan Junck watched her 18-year-old son return from community college to their Phoenix home one afternoon and, after preparing a snack, repeatedly call the police to accuse his mother of poisoning him. She assumed it was an isolated outburst, maybe connected to his marijuana use. In the coming months, though, her son's behavior grew more alarming, culminating in an arrest for assaulting his girlfriend, who was at the center of a number of his conspiracy theories.

“I knew something was wrong but I literally just did not understand what,” Ms. Junck, 49, said in a recent interview. “It probably took a year before I realized my son has a mental illness. This isn't drug related, this isn't bad behavior, this isn't teenage stuff. This is a serious mental illness.”

Fearful and desperate, she brought her son to an urgent psychiatric center and — after a five-hour wait — agreed to sign paperwork to have him involuntarily committed as a danger to himself or others. Her son screamed for her help as he was carried off. He was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and remains in a residential treatment facility.

This week Erin Adams Goldman, a suicide prevention specialist with a mental health nonprofit organization in Tucson, is teaching the first local installment of a course that is being promoted around the country called mental health first aid, which instructs participants how to recognize and respond to the signs of mental illness.

A central tenet is that if a person has suspicions about mental illness it is better to open the conversation, either by approaching the individual directly, someone else who knows the person well or by asking for a professional evaluation.

“There is so much fear and mystery around mental illness that people are not even aware of how to recognize it and what to do about it,” Ms. Goldman said. “But we get a feeling when something is not right. And what we teach is to follow your gut and take some action.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/19/us/19mental.html?_r=1&ref=us&pagewanted=print

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From the White House

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Hospital Visitation Regulations Go Into Effect Today

"There are few moments in our lives that call for greater compassion and companionship than when a loved one is admitted to the hospital.  In these hours of need and moments of pain and anxiety, all of us would hope to have a hand to hold, a shoulder on which to lean – a loved one to be there for us, as we would be there for them."

With those words on April 15, 2010 President Obama directed HHS Secretary Sebelius to initiate rulemaking to ensure that hospitals that participate in Medicare and Medicaid respect the rights of patients to designate visitors.  The President further advised that the rule should ensure that participating hospitals may not deny visitation privileges based on factors including sexual orientation or gender identity. 

Today the new Hospital Visitation Regulations go into effect. 

This policy impacts millions of LGBT Americans and their families.  The President saw an injustice and felt very strongly about correcting this and has spoken about it often over the years.  I want to thank HHS Secretary Sebelius and her team for their resolve to see this rule implemented.  In fact, long before this rule was finalized, back in June, 2010 the Secretary laid the groundwork by reaching out to leaders of major hospital associations asking them to encourage their member hospitals to not wait for the formal rulemaking to run its course regarding patient-centered visitation rights suggested by the President.

This significant policy change is due in no small part to the journeys of two incredibly courageous and passionate women, Janice Langbehn and Charlene Strong.  Both lived through unimaginable experiences with the loss of their wives and life partners.   While I never had the opportunity to meet Janice's wife Lisa Pond, or Charlene's wife Kate Fleming, I have had the honor to meet and work with Janice and Charlene.  I want to thank them for bringing us all into their lives and for sharing themselves and their families with us, and for using their voices to make lives better for LGBT families.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/01/18/hospital-visitation-regulations-go-effect-today

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From the FBI

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Successes in Gang Enforcement

From Coast to Coast

01/18/11

Last week, a long-time member and so-called “shot caller” for the Varrio Hawaiian Gardens (VHG) street gang in Los Angeles, California was sentenced to 30 years in prison for helping coordinate the racketeering activities of the gang, including carjackings, kidnappings, and drug trafficking. A sheriff's deputy was also murdered during the VHG's reign.

The  week before that, on the other side of the country, the last in a line of 25 gang members named in a racketeering conspiracy in Albany, New York pled guilty in federal court to his involvement in the Original Gangster Killers gang that engaged in criminal activities like drug trafficking, firearms possession, assault, robbery, and attempted murder. He faces a maximum of 40 years in prison.

And in other parts of the country, the FBI and our many law enforcement partners—local, state, and federal—have effectively shut down a number of violent and extremely dangerous street gangs:

• New Haven, Connecticut: 35 people were indicted on federal drug and firearms violations after an operation targeting members and associates of several street gangs. More
• Denver, Colorado: 35 people—many of them gang members—were indicted on charges of trafficking large amounts of cocaine to the Denver area every week. More
• Omaha, Nebraska: 12 individuals—most gang members--were charged with drug trafficking and firearms violations and are also believed to have been involved in other crimes like assaults, witness intimidation, and robberies. More

All told, in the past decade, accomplishments recorded under our violent crime program include 152 undercover operations, 25,498 gang convictions, 1,896 racketeering indictments, and 703 dismantled gangs.

The reason for these successes? Our multi-faceted investigative approach using the resources of combined task forces—primarily our 168 Safe Street Task Forces operating around the country—to disrupt the operations of the most violent and dangerous gangs and completely dismantle them, from the top down.

Currently, our task forces include 789 FBI agents and 1,694 task force officers from our partner agencies at the local, state, and federal level working together against the most violent gangs by:

• Identifying past crimes;
• Gathering and analyzing existing intelligence on the gang and its leaders;
• Proactively developing human sources from different segments of the community;
• Developing an investigative plan to exploit a gang's weakness (i.e., its communication network); and
• Using ALL investigative tools available, both overt (i.e., interviews, interrogations, subpoenas, plea agreements) and covert (i.e., physical/electronic surveillance, confidential informants, undercover operations.)

The overall gang picture. At least 30,000 violent street gangs, motorcycle gangs, and prison gangs have been identified by law enforcement.

Thirty-nine of those gangs are considered national threats based on their level of criminal activity, violence, and ties to international criminal organizations (like MS-13 and the 18th Street gang).The rest are neighborhood gangs that are often responsible for illegal drug distribution and for a substantial portion of violent crimes within communities.

And while law enforcement has had a recent impact on the threat posed by violent gangs, our efforts to take back the streets of our cities and towns and make them safe once again for innocent citizens will continue. In doing so, we ask for your continued support as well.

http://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/2011/january/gangs_011811/gangs_011811

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