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March 20, 2011

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U.S., allies launch missile strikes on Libyan targets

The U.S. takes the lead in the assault to cripple air-defense systems and armor in order to establish a no-fly zone to protect rebel-held areas. Kadafi vows to fight the 'flagrant military aggression.'

U.S., French and British forces blasted Libyan air defenses and armor, drawing intense volleys of tracer and antiaircraft fire over Tripoli early Sunday at the start of a campaign aimed at protecting rebel-held areas that will severely test Moammar Kadafi's powers of survival.

French fighter jets and U.S. and British warships, firing more than 110 cruise missiles from the Mediterranean Sea, struck multiple military targets. The assault cheered the rebels, who had seized control of large areas of Libya as they sought to build on months of discontent across the Arab world but in recent days found themselves retreating in the face of Kadafi's superior firepower.

Libyan officials accused international forces of hitting a hospital and other civilian targets. The armed forces said in a statement that 48 people had been killed in the strikes and 150 injured. Kadafi declared he was willing to die defending Libya, and in a statement broadcast hours after the attacks began, condemned what he called "flagrant military aggression." He vowed to strike civilian and military targets in the Mediterranean.

A nighttime gathering of supporters at Kadafi's compound in Tripoli evaporated when word began circulating of missile strikes in the capital. The thud of cruise missile explosions gave way to deafening barrages of antiaircraft fire that lighted up the sky.

Both Kadafi and his international foes, who began their campaign less than two days after the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution demanding Libyan forces pull back from rebel-held areas, positioned themselves for an end game that focused on whether the long-time leader would remain in power.

Los Angeles Times

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Utah bucks conservative trend on illegal immigration

A state effort to offer legal residency to many illegal immigrants is driven in part by the influence of the Mormon Church.

Salt Lake City -- President Obama's aides were flabbergasted. Here was Mark Shurtleff, the conservative Republican attorney general of deeply red Utah, explaining how he and other GOP officials had approved a statewide version of the immigration measures that the president and his progressive allies have long sought.

"You sued us on healthcare," Shurtleff recalls the aides saying during his meeting in Washington this month. "How is it you did something differently on immigration?"

The answer lies in how Utah expresses its conservative values — particularly the importance placed on family and business — and the influence of the Mormon Church.

Gov. Gary Herbert last week signed a bill that would give illegal immigrants who do not commit serious crimes and are working in Utah documents that, in the state's eyes at least, make them legal residents. For the law to work, however, the Obama administration would have to permit Utah to make it legal to employ people who entered the United States illegally — a federal crime.

Even the law's proponents acknowledge that's an uphill battle.

But they contend that, in symbolism alone, the effort by Utah's conservative government to offer a warm welcome to illegal immigrants can reshape the contentious debate over the issue. Washington has been paralyzed since 2006, when President George W. Bush was unable to persuade other Republicans to approve a national version of what Utah has enacted.

"Utah is proof that there is a true silent majority of decent, level-headed Americans," said Paul Mero, head of the conservative Sutherland Institute here. "Conservative Republican members of Congress will be able to take a step back, not be so knee-jerk and caught up in the fear-mongering, and say, 'Look at Utah, the reddest of the red.' "

Los Angeles Times

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White supremacists, immigrant rights activists face off

About two dozen white supremacists took to the streets in Claremont on Saturday to protest what they view as an unbridled flow of illegal immigration into the region, including the small college town. Their demonstration along Foothill Boulevard was interrupted by a counter-protest by more than 200 immigrant rights activists, who decried the group as racist.

The screaming confrontation appeared to be tense but nonviolent. Dozens of officers from several police agencies watched over both sides, but Claremont police could not be reached for comment on whether anyone was arrested.

Jeff Hall, southwest regional director of the National Socialist Movement, said his group was concerned about protecting U.S. borders. "We patrol the borders, we see the devastation, we see the drugs, we know the reality," Hall said.

Los Angeles Times

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Help From the U.S. for Afflicted Sister Cities in Japan

In Napa, Calif., residents planned a fund-raiser for Iwanuma, Japan, after seeing photographs of the damage caused when the tsunami swept over it. In Galveston, Tex., a group stitched blankets for the residents of Niigata to protect them against radiation that could fall with the snow and rain there. In Tuscaloosa, Ala., residents gathered money for Narashino, a city in Tokyo Bay.

In each case, the American aid was going to a sister city in Japan that had been hit by the earthquake and tsunami. It was an effort repeated across the United States, as towns big and small responded to the destruction and lives lost in their Japanese sister cities.

“This is a very powerful network of people who care about each other like neighbors,” said James Doumas, executive vice president and interim chief executive officer for Sister Cities International, a nonprofit group that is underwritten by the State Department.

During an emergency meeting Monday, more than 100 residents of Riverside, Calif., discussed how to get aid to Sendai, their sister city, which is on the coast near the epicenter of the quake. “There is a very visceral connection between our two cities, and there has been for a long time,” said Lalit Acharya, the international relations officer for the Riverside mayor's office.

New York Times

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OPINION

The Japanese Could Teach Us a Thing or Two

When America is under stress, as is happening right now with debates about where to pare the budget, we sometimes trample the least powerful and most vulnerable among us.

So maybe we can learn something from Japan, where the earthquake, tsunami and radiation leaks haven't caused society to come apart at the seams but to be knit together more tightly than ever. The selflessness, stoicism and discipline in Japan these days are epitomized by those workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, uncomplainingly and anonymously risking dangerous doses of radiation as they struggle to prevent a complete meltdown that would endanger their fellow citizens.

The most famous statue in Japan is arguably one of a dog, Hachiko, who exemplified loyalty, perseverance and duty. Hachiko met his owner at the train station when he returned from work each day, but the owner died at work one day in 1925 and never returned. Until he died about 10 years later, Hachiko faithfully went to the station each afternoon just in case his master returned.

I hope that some day Japan will erect another symbol of loyalty and dedication to duty: a statue of those nuclear plant workers.

New York Times

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EDITORIAL

D.I.Y. Immigration Reform

Political, business, labor and religious leaders in Utah were widely praised last year for signing the Utah Compact, agreeing to seek practical solutions to the problems of illegal immigration while avoiding the extremist oratory and harsh enforcement schemes that have given its neighbor Arizona such a toxic reputation.

The state has now adopted a series of laws to put those goals into practice. They amount to one state's effort to enact its own comprehensive immigration reform, given Washington's continuing failure to do so.

We understand the frustration, but going solo on immigration is not a good idea, even with good intentions.

On the enforcement side, Utah's new laws have some aspects that are sensible in principle, including stricter procedures for verifying immigrants' eligibility to work. We are concerned about the effort to draw local police agencies into federal immigration enforcement.

Arizona's immigration law, which orders its police officers to check the immigration status of anyone they suspect of being here illegally, is a wide-open invitation to racial profiling and an intrusion onto federal authority. The Obama administration sued to block it, and a federal judge has declared much of it unconstitutional.

Though Utah's bill seeks to temper Arizona's approach — it would, for example, require officers to check immigration status only when people are arrested for serious crimes — it is still too open to abuse.

New York Times

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At ground zero, future takes shape

NEW YORK — The noise at ground zero is a steady roar. Cement mixers churn. Air horns blast. Cranes soar and crawl over every corner of the 16-acre site.

For years, the future has been slow to appear at the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. But with six months remaining until the 9/11 memorial opens, the work to turn a mountain of rubble into some of the inspiring moments envisioned nearly a decade ago is thundering forward.

One World Trade Center, otherwise known as the Freedom Tower, has joined the Manhattan skyline. Its steel frame, already clad in glass on lower floors, now is 58 stories tall and starting to inch above many of the skyscrapers ringing the site. A new floor is being added every week.

The mammoth black-granite fountains and reflecting pools that mark the footprints of the fallen twin towers are largely finished, and they are a spectacle. Workers have already begun testing the waterfalls that will ultimately cascade into a void in the center of each square pit.

The memorial plaza won't be done when it opens on Sept. 11, 2011. But the agency that has been building it is aiming to deliver a memorial experience on the 10th anniversary that closes one chapter — marked by mourning — and ushers in a new one, where ground zero again becomes part of the city's fabric. “We want people to be able to see that downtown does have this incredible future to it,'' said Chris Ward of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Boston.com

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Radiation Levels Said to Rise In California: Find Out About Your Town

The Associated Press reported Friday that radioactive fallout from Japan's damaged nuclear reactors had made its way to Southern California; however, radiation readings appeared low enough that they did not pose a health threat. Later that day, the Southeast Air Quality Management District said there was no increase in radiation. In fact, AQMD spokeswoman Tina Cherry said, "There's no risk detected through the monitor."

As an East-Coaster whose never given radiation levels much thought, the news about rising levels in Cali (and then not rising) made me think--what are the effects of high radiation levels? What's considered a dangerously high level of radiation? And do I even know what the radiation levels are in my area?

The NRC Presents Facts About Radiation According to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, "Radiation is all around us." Our environment naturally possesses some radiation, which comes from outer space, the ground, and even our own bodies. What's more, radiation levels can vary from one location to another depending on factors such as altitude. "About half of the total annual average U.S. individual's radiation exposure comes from natural sources," says the NRC. "The other half is from diagnostic medical procedures."

The NRC says that low level exposure to radiation has biological effects so small they are undetectable because the body has repair mechanisms that protect against any damage. However, damaged cells could potentially incorrectly repair themselves, resulting in a biophysical change.

Inventor Spot

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March 19, 2011

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EDITORIAL

L.A. County ordinance cracks down on 'puppy mill' abuses

The law's stiffest requirements cover breeding facilities with more than 50 dogs, subjecting them to more frequent inspections and increased minimum hours of staffing.

"Puppy mills" are the factory farms of dog breeding — big and, all too often, neglectful and cruel. Female dogs are frequently overbred in back-to-back heat cycles to the point that their bones break and their teeth fall out. Hundreds, even thousands, of breeding dogs and puppies can end up crammed into filthy cages, according to animal welfare advocates, who have made numerous undercover videos of some of the worst abusers across the country.

But like factory farms, puppy mills are perfectly legal. They are subject to Animal Welfare Act standards so minimal that even the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which enforces them and licenses facilities, urges operators to exceed the standards. Shutting them down is difficult. In Missouri, where there are more commercial dog breeding facilities than anywhere else in the country, a ballot proposition that limited facilities to 50 breeding dogs was approved by voters last year but is now in danger of being dismantled by the state's Legislature. A California bill calling for similar size restrictions passed both houses of the Legislature but was vetoed by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2009. (He said that although he decried animal abuse, the bill went too far.)

If governments are having difficulty capping the number of animals a facility can handle, lawmakers can at least tighten oversight. That's what the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors did this week when it approved an ordinance, championed by Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, that will more closely regulate anyone — breeders, groomers, operators of boarding kennels — housing more than just a few pets.

Los Angeles Times

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Pornography Sites Will Be Allowed to Use .XXX Addresses

SAN FRANCISCO — The agency governing Internet addresses on Friday approved the creation of a new red-light district on the Web, but the decision may not end years of fighting over the contentious plan.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers authorized the creation of an .xxx suffix for pornography Web sites. The decision was immediately slammed by some of the sex industry's biggest names.

Industry members say they fear they could be subject to arbitrary censorship by governments and even by a new board overseeing the dot-xxx domain. They also say the plan would unfairly force existing pornography sites to register their sister domain names ending in xxx to prevent other businesses from using the names.

“Our industry is unanimously opposed,” said Diane Duke, executive director of the Free Speech Coalition, a trade association representing more than 1,000 pornography businesses. Ms. Duke said that she expected the association's members, which include companies like Hustler and Adam & Eve, to continue to use dot-com addresses. She also said the association was considering its legal options.

The dot-xxx registry was also opposed by some religious groups, who feared that the new domain would lead to the further spread of pornography on the Internet.

New York Times

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U.S. Pledges Rights Improvements

The United States disavowed torture on Friday and pledged to treat terrorism suspects humanely, but rejected calls to drop the death penalty, as the United Nations carried out its first review of Washington's human rights record.

At the Human Rights Council in Geneva, the American envoy, Harold Koh, said the United States would agree to improvements in areas including civil rights, national security and immigration, and would not tolerate torture or the inhumane treatment of suspects at the Guantánamo Bay detention facility in Cuba.

But he said the United States would not change its policy on the death penalty, which critics say is inhumane and unfairly applied. Mr. Koh said capital punishment was permitted under international law.

New York Times

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American Official Warns That Qaddafi May Lash Out With New Terrorist Attacks

The United States is bracing for possible Libyan-backed terrorist attacks, President Obama's top counterterrorism official said on Friday.

The official, John O. Brennan, said that the military attacks on civilians ordered in recent days by Libya's leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, coupled with his track record as a sponsor of terrorism, had heightened worries within the administration as an international coalition threatens military action against Libya.

Asked if American officials feared whether Colonel Qaddafi could open a new terrorism front, Mr. Brennan said: “Qaddafi has the penchant to do things of a very concerning nature. We have to anticipate and be prepared for things he might try to do to flout the will of the international community.” Among the threats the United States is focusing on is Libya's stockpile of deadly mustard gas, he said.

After renouncing its nascent nuclear weapons program in 2003, and enjoying a brief interlude as Washington's partner in combating Al Qaeda's branch in North Africa, Libya has reverted to its status as a pariah government whose intelligence operatives blew up Pan Am Flight 103 above Scotland in 1988.

Mr. Brennan acknowledged that the political turmoil in the Middle East in the past three months had breached or weakened counterterrorism cooperation among some Arab countries. But he added that the United States had taken unspecified steps in recent months to offset its losses in that area. Among those steps may be more electronic eavesdropping, spy satellite coverage and more informants on the ground, independent intelligence specialists said.

New York Times

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A Price Too High?

Catastrophes happen. No one thought the Interstate 35W bridge across the Mississippi River in Minneapolis would collapse. No one thought the Gulf of Mexico would be fouled to the horrible extent that it was by the BP oil spill. The awful convergence of disasters in Japan — a 9.0 earthquake followed by a tsunami and a devastating nuclear power emergency — seemed almost unimaginable.

Worst-case scenarios unfold more frequently than we'd like to believe, which leads to two major questions regarding nuclear power that Americans have an obligation to answer. First, can a disaster comparable to the one in Japan happen here? The answer, of course, is yes — whether caused by an earthquake or some other event or series of events. Nature is unpredictable and human beings are fallible. It could happen. So the second question is whether it makes sense to follow through on plans to increase our reliance on nuclear power, thus heightening the risk of a terrible problem occurring here in the United States. Is that a risk worth taking?

Concern over global warming has increased the appeal of nuclear power, which does not produce the high levels of greenhouse gases that come from fossil fuels. But there has been a persistent tendency to ignore the toughest questions posed by nuclear power: What should be done with the waste? What are the consequences of a catastrophic accident in a populated area? How safe are the plants, really? Why would taxpayers have to shoulder so much of the financial risk of expanding the nation's nuclear power capacity, an effort that would be wildly expensive?

A big part of the problem at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi power station are the highly radioactive spent fuel rods kept in storage pools at the plant. What to do, ultimately, with such dangerous waste material is the nuclear power question without an answer. Nuclear advocates and public officials don't talk about it much. Denial is the default position when it comes to nuclear waste.

New York Times

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EDITORIAL

A New Internet Privacy Law?

Considering how much information we entrust to the Internet every day, it is hard to believe there is no general law to protect people's privacy online. Companies harvest data about people as they surf the Net, assemble it into detailed profiles and sell it to advertisers or others without ever asking permission.

So it is good to see a groundswell of support emerging for minimum standards of privacy, online and off. This week, the Obama administration called for legislation to protect consumers' privacy. In the Senate, John Kerry is trying to draft a privacy bill of rights with the across-the-aisle support of John McCain.

Microsoft, which runs one of the biggest Internet advertising networks, said it supports a broad-based privacy law. It has just introduced a version of its Explorer browser that allows surfers to block some tools advertisers use to track consumers' activities online.

It is crucial that lawmakers get this right. There is strong pressure from the advertising industry to water down rules aimed at limiting the data companies can collect and what they can do with it.

New York Times

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Arizona, Bowing to Business, Softens Stand on Immigration

Arizona established itself over the past year as the most aggressive state in cracking down on illegal immigrants, gaining so much momentum with its efforts that several other states vowed to follow suit. But now the harsh realities of economics appear to have intruded, and Arizona may be looking to shed the image of hard-line anti- immigration pioneer.

In an abrupt change of course, Arizona lawmakers rejected new anti-immigration measures on Thursday, in what was widely seen as capitulation to pressure from business executives and an admission that the state's tough stance had resulted in a chilling of the normally robust tourism and convention industry.

The State Senate voted down five bills that among other things sought to require hospitals to inform law enforcement officials when treating patients suspected of being in the country illegally and to prod the Supreme Court to rule against automatic citizenship for American-born children of illegal immigrants.

The Senate move was a victory for the Arizona business lobby, which on many issues is more moderate than state lawmakers. And it was a rebuke for the State Senate president, Russell Pearce, a Republican and the driving force behind tough immigration measures, including the law passed last April requiring police to question the status of anyone they stop if they have a “reasonable suspicion” that the person might be an illegal immigrant.

Opponents of the five bills said that the state's image had been hit hard, and that it did not make sense to pass new measures while the state had already put itself so far out in front of other states and the federal government on the issue — at a cost to tourism and other industries.

New York Times

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March 18, 2011

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Report Finds Wide Abuses by Police in New Orleans

NEW ORLEANS — Justice Department officials on Thursday released the findings of a 10-month investigation into this city's Police Department, revealing a force that is profoundly and alarmingly troubled and setting in motion a process for its wholesale reform.

The report describes in chilling detail a department that is severely dysfunctional on every level: one that regularly uses excessive force on civilians, frequently fails to investigate serious crimes and has a deeply inadequate, in many cases nonexistent, system of accountability.

Using the report as a guideline, federal and local officials will now enter into negotiations leading to a consent decree, a blueprint for systemic reform that will be enforced by a federal judge.

“There is nobody in this room that is surprised by the general tenor and the tone of what this report has to say,” said Mitch Landrieu, the mayor of New Orleans, at a news conference attended by city and federal officials.

But, added Mr. Landrieu, who publicly invited federal intervention in the Police Department just days after his inauguration in May, “I look forward to a very spirited partnership and one that actually transforms this Police Department into one of the best in the country.”

New York Times

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Immigrant Detentions Draw International Fire

Immigration enforcement in the United States is plagued by unjust treatment of detainees, including inadequate access to lawyers and insufficient medical care, and by the excessive use of prison-style detention, the human rights arm of the Organization of American States said Thursday.

The group, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, issued those findings in a report that also took aim at a federal program that allows county and state law enforcement officials to enforce federal immigration laws. The report said the government had failed to ensure that local police were not singling out people by race or detaining illegal immigrants on the pretext of investigating crimes.

The commission recommended that the federal government cancel the program, known as 287(g).

While many of the findings reiterated criticisms that have been made before by immigrant advocates and others, the report appeared to be the first comprehensive review of American immigration enforcement in recent years by an international body of the organization's stature.

The commission, based in Washington, has no enforcement powers, but it has considerable moral authority and a record of cooperation by member countries, including the United States.

New York Times

CDC Urges New HIV Testing for Donors

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is recommending hospitals test living donors for the virus that causes AIDS no more than seven days before their organs are removed and transplanted, following the first documented U.S. case of HIV transmission from a live organ donor in more than two decades.

According to an investigation by the CDC and New York city and state health officials, a kidney transplant recipient contracted the virus from a donor in an unnamed New York City hospital in 2009. The male donor acknowledged that he had engaged in unprotected sex with another man after he was screened for HIV, but before he donated the organ. The New York hospital tested the donor 79 days before transplant, when he showed no evidence of infection, but did not re-test him closer to the surgery that removed the organ.

The centers' 1994 guidelines for organ-donor screening, which are being revised, did not address the timing of screening tests. The CDC is also recommending the use of a test that detects the virus within eight to 10 days of infection.

Of the three major transplant centers serving the city, Mount Sinai Medical Center said the event did not occur there; a spokesman for another, New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, said, "We don't have any information about this." New York University Langone Medical Center said that it would be "inappropriate" to comment.

Wall Street Journal

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Cops, firefighters rehired in Camdeb, NJ

Camden officials announced Thursday that some of the police officers and firefighters who were axed in January because of a budget crisis will be back in uniform effective April 1 -- without federal help and without increasing taxes.

The South Jersey Port Corp., working with Gov. Chris Christie's administration, made available $2.5 million in PILOT (or payments in lieu of taxes) money to fund the rehire 50 police officers and 15 firefighters through the end of fiscal year 2011, which ends June 30.

That means officers and fire personnel would only have salaries and benefits for the three months leading into the summer months -- notorious for higher crime rates. Camden Mayor Dana Redd said the work would have to be done with the city's next budget, not the one for fiscal year 2011, which has yet to be approved.

"It's our intention to retain them through FY12, but this is a temporary solution while we explore a long-term solution, and that may be the regionalized public safety and shared services plan," Redd said.

Additional officers rehired with the PILOT funds increase the number of officers on the street by 20 percent. Already much of Chief J. Scott Thomson's senior administrative staff are back on patrol to make up for the 160 officers lost Jan. 18 to help close the city's $26.5 million budget gap.

Courier Post

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Fourth-grader brings cocaine to Washington D.C. elementary school and shares with classmates: cops

A fourth-grader in Washington, D.C. was charged with drug possession after bringing cocaine to school and sharing it with other students, authorities said.

Four students at Thomson Elementary School either sniffed or swallowed an unknown amount of the drug and were taken to a hospital after complaining they were ill on Thursday. Police later determined the substance they ingested was cocaine.

D.C. Fire Department spokesman Pete Piringer said the students were fine aside from having sore throats. School Principal Albert DuPont sent a letter home to shocked parents saying child protective services and the police are trying to determine how the child got the cocaine.

Authorities did not disclose whether the student is a boy or a girl. "This is not a situation that is typical at Thomson, and we take it very seriously," DuPont wrote. "At school we will address drug awareness as a whole-school issue."

Stuart Hovell, a parent of a fourth-grader at the school, said the incident was disgusting and that he would send his daughter to a different school next year. "It's sad. It's very sad that this is getting into schools," he said.

New York Daily News

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Secretary Napolitano's Remarks at the U.S.-Mexico Congressional Border Issues Conference

Washington, D.C. – Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano today delivered remarks at the Annual U.S.-Mexico Congressional Border Issues Conference – highlighting the continued partnership between the United States and Mexico to ensure our mutual security while facilitating trade and travel along the Southwest border.

"Security and prosperity are mutually reinforcing, and the United States and Mexico are closely linked by a common interest in robust security and growing economies," said Secretary Napolitano. "We are committed to continuing to work with Mexico to foster a safe and secure border zone, while facilitating the legal trade and travel that helps our border regions prosper."

In her remarks, Secretary Napolitano underscored the Obama Administration's unprecedented efforts to strengthen security along the Southwest border, which include increasing the number of Border Patrol agents from approximately 10,000 in 2004 to more than 20,700 today; doubling the number of personnel assigned to Border Enforcement Security Task Forces; and deploying approximately one quarter of all U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement personnel to the Southwest border region – the most ever.

Secretary Napolitano also highlighted the unprecedented collaboration between the United States and Mexico to bolster cooperation on law enforcement, intelligence sharing and joint operations along the Southwest border. As part of a broader bilateral effort, the Department has increased joint training programs with Mexican law enforcement agencies and, for the first time in history, Border Patrol agents are coordinating joint operations along the Southwest border with their colleagues in the Mexican Federal Police to combat human trafficking and smuggling in our respective nations.

Dept of Homeland Security

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March 17, 2011

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Small amounts of radiation headed for California, but no health risk seen

Very low levels of radioactive isotopes from the damaged Japanese nuclear plant are expected to reach California as soon as Friday, but experts say the amount will be well within safe limits. A network of radiation monitors is keeping close watch.

Small amounts of radioactive isotopes from the crippled Japanese nuclear power plant are being blown toward North America high in the atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean and will reach California as soon as Friday, according to experts.

A network of sensors in the U.S. and around the world is watching for the first signs of that fallout, though experts said they were confident that the amount of radiation would be well within safe limits.

Operated by the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. network known as Radnet is a system of 100 radiation monitors that work 24 hours a day, spread across the country in places such as Anaheim, Bakersfield and Eureka. In addition, a network of 63 sensors is operated by the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization, an international agency allied with the United Nations.

Atmospheric experts said the material should begin showing up on the West Coast as early as Friday, though it could take up to an additional week for the 5,000-mile trip from Japan to Southern California. Although the organization has told its member countries that the first indication of radiation would hit on Friday, the plume from a North Korean nuclear test in 2006 took about two weeks to travel to North America, U.N. officials said.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which oversees the U.S. nuclear industry, said Wednesday that it did not expect dangerous levels of radioactivity to hit the West Coast, Hawaii, Alaska or U.S. territories in the Pacific.

The Los Angeles Times

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California's tsunami threat

Japan's disaster serves as a reminder to the West Coast to be prepared.

The images of destruction coming from Japan have caused those who dwell on America's West Coast to wonder: Could a devastating tsunami hit here? The answer is a resounding yes. Our coast is under threat from two types of tsunamis.

One type is caused by earthquakes that happen far away. In the last half-century, the West Coast has experienced tsunamis originating in Chile, Alaska and the Kuril Islands in Russia, as well as last week's ocean surge from Japan. These tsunamis generated far away will continue to strike the West Coast, given the multiple sources for earthquakes around the Pacific Rim. But they allow for more warning. In Japan, where the earthquake struck, the tsunami followed quickly. But the surge of ocean water took several hours to arrive here, giving people enough time to move out of harm's way.

A more dangerous though less common tsunami threat on the West Coast is one that arrives within minutes of being generated. In Southern California, there is geologic evidence of rare tsunamis created by earthquake-triggered undersea landslides. Communities to the north are threatened by the Cascadia subduction zone, an offshore seismic region that stretches from Northern California's Cape Mendocino to southern British Columbia. A Cascadia earthquake and tsunami might well cause the kind of destruction in the Pacific Northwest that we've witnessed in Japan this week. The Cascadia subduction zone is capable of generating a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and a "local" tsunami that would begin to inundate coastal communities in a matter of minutes.

Cascadia tsunami-hazard zones in the Pacific Northwest are home to tens of thousands of residents and are visited by hundreds of thousands of tourists. Those who live in the area are taught to evacuate after recognizing natural cues of a tsunami (significant ground shaking from an earthquake, followed by a quick retreat of the ocean from the shoreline) and not to wait for official tsunami warnings.

The Los Angeles Times

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4 Times Journalists Are Missing in Libya

The New York Times said Wednesday that four of its journalists reporting on the conflict in Libya were missing.

Editors said they were last in contact with the journalists, who were reporting from the eastern city of Ajdabiya, on Tuesday morning New York time. And despite secondhand reports that they had been swept up by Libyan government forces, the newspaper said it could not confirm that information.

“We have talked with officials of the Libyan government in Tripoli, and they tell us they are attempting to ascertain the whereabouts of our journalists,” said Bill Keller, executive editor of The Times. “We are grateful to the Libyan government for their assurance that if our journalists were captured they would be released promptly and unharmed.”

The missing journalists are Anthony Shadid, the Beirut bureau chief and twice winner of the Pulitzer Prize for foreign reporting; Stephen Farrell, a reporter and videographer who was kidnapped by the Taliban in 2009 and rescued by British commandos; and two photographers, Tyler Hicks and Lynsey Addario, who have worked extensively in the Middle East and Africa.

Mr. Keller said there was some speculation that they had been detained at a government checkpoint between Ajdabiya and Benghazi, a rebel stronghold in eastern Libya. If that is the case, he said, they would eventually be taken to Tripoli. “Beyond that, we're still pretty much in the dark,” he added.

The New York Times

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Executions in Doubt in Fallout Over Drug

ATLANTA — The worldwide shortage of a drug used in executions reverberated this week in two of the most active death-penalty states as Texas announced it would replace the anesthetic in its three-drug regimen and federal agents seized Georgia's supply.

The seizure on Tuesday of the powerful barbiturate — sodium thiopental — at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison in Jackson, site of the state's death row, has at least temporarily blocked future executions, although none are now scheduled.

In Texas, where the administrative change was announced Wednesday, lawyers for an inmate scheduled to die next month are preparing to challenge the substitution of the new drug.

The moves in both states continue the fallout from the January announcement that Hospira Inc., the only American producer of sodium thiopental, had stopped making the anesthetic. The shortages began after the company suspended production in 2009 because of problems obtaining an ingredient. They now have become dire because the drug's shelf life is typically no more than two years.

Many of the 34 states with the death penalty (Illinois repealed its law last week) have been scrambling for months to find stores of sodium thiopental or to replace it with other drugs with similar effects. Several states have delayed executions because of its unavailability. Texas has 314 inmates on death row; Georgia has 99.

In most state lethal injection protocols, sodium thiopental is first used to anesthetize the inmate, and then other drugs are administered to paralyze the body and stop the heart.

The New York Times

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Talking About Guns

More than two months after the killings in Tucson, Ariz., and some 2,400 American gun deaths later, President Obama has finally broken his silence on gun violence.

In an op-ed article on Sunday in The Arizona Daily Star, Mr. Obama called on gun control and gun rights advocates to set aside their broader differences for now and support a worthwhile goal: fixing gaps in the National Instant Criminal Background Check System so that it would be harder for dangerous people to buy weapons.

His starting point was the “clear and terrible fact” that the Tucson shooter — a man rejected as unfit by the Army, deemed too unstable for college and thought to be inclined to violence by neighbors and school officials — was, nevertheless, “able to walk into a store and buy a gun.”

Mr. Obama said many state records on disqualifying involuntary commitments or criminal records are not being submitted to the federal background check system. He stressed the need for an “instant, accurate, comprehensive” system devoid of loopholes that allow dangerous people to avoid background checks altogether. He was alluding to the perilous exception for private sales by unlicensed sellers, including at gun shows.

“If we're serious about keeping guns away from someone who's made up his mind to kill, then we can't allow a situation where a responsible seller denies him a weapon at one store, but he effortlessly buys the same gun someplace else,” the president wrote.

The New York Times

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Justice Department to reveal findings of New Orleans police probe

(CNN) -- The Justice Department plans to announce its findings Thursday following an investigation into allegations against the New Orleans Police Department. Members of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division will be at a morning news conference about the investigation.

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and police Superintendent Ronal Serpas are also expected to be there. The investigation has already led to several convictions and indictments. In November, three current and former New Orleans police officers were convicted of shooting and burning a man in the chaos following Hurricane Katrina, then later trying to cover up the crime.

Two other officers -- one current and one former -- were acquitted at the close of the 19-day trial. Earlier that year, federal prosecutors announced the indictments of at least four New Orleans police officers accused of killing two men in the infamous Danziger Bridge incident.

The shootings occurred at the bridge on September 4, 2005, six days after Katrina slammed into the Gulf Coast. An indictment alleges that two separate shootings at the bridge resulted in the deaths of a teenager and a 40-year-old disabled man.

Both cases are part of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division's investigation in what it called "patterns or practices" of alleged misconduct within the New Orleans police department in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

CNN

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'Blue Alert' to nab suspected police attackers among bills signed into law in Colo.

DENVER — A new "blue alert" advisory system to help nab people accused of hurting police officers is among bills Gov. John Hickenlooper planned to sign into law Thursday. Blue Alerts have been adopted in several states and work similarly to Amber Alerts for missing children.

The Democratic governor also planned to make a new requirement for an informative statement to accompany ballot initiatives.

On Friday, Hickenlooper was headed to a Denver day care center to sign a bill allowing child care facilities with common owners to share fingerprint-based criminal history checks for employees.

When the Legislature is in session, Colorado's governor has just 10 days to sign or veto bills after lawmakers send them to him.

The Republic .com

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71 Defendants Charged with Gun and Drug Trafficking Offenses after Undercover Investigation

Undercover RCSO officers purchased and seized over 192 firearms during Operation Fox Hunt

AUGUSTA, GA – Forty–one federal indictments, today unsealed in federal court, have charged 51 defendants with federal firearm, drug trafficking or other federal offenses. Twenty additional defendants were charged by Richmond County authorities on related state firearm and drug charges. The federal and state charges follow an 18-month undercover investigation in the Augusta area dubbed Operation Fox Hunt.

The Richmond County Sheriff's Office ( RCSO ), and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ( ATF ) initiated Operation Fox Hunt in August of 2009. Undercover RCSO deputies posed as members of the Augusta community interested in purchasing guns and drugs from the criminal element. During the operation, undercover officers purchased or recovered over 192 firearms, including handguns, rifles, assault rifles and sawed-off shotguns; and, approximately $75,000 worth of illegal drugs, including marijuana, cocaine and ecstasy pills. Many of the individuals who allegedly sold firearms and drugs to the undercover agents are convicted felons. In addition, a number of the guns purchased by undercover agents were reported stolen.

United States Attorney Edward J. Tarver stated, Operation Fox Hunt was a bold undertaking designed to protect public safety by removing violent criminals in who sell guns and drugs within our Augusta community. This undercover operation serves as notice to the criminal element that if you traffic in firearms or drugs in this district, law enforcement is watching and you will be prosecuted. Mr. Tarver praised the exemplary partnership between the ATF and the Richmond County Sheriff's Office.

Special Agent in Charge Gregory Gant of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives' Atlanta Field Division stated, ATF stands at the front line against violent crime with its state, local and federal counterparts. This case is a great example of the law enforcement community coming together to remove dangerous criminals off the streets of Augusta. This enforcement action should serve as a clear indication that we will continually strive to investigate and prosecute those individuals who threaten the very fabric of our communities.

ATF

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March 16, 2011

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Patient tells police she was raped at hospital emergency room in Orange County

A female patient has alleged that she was sexually assaulted by a hospital worker while seeking treatment in the emergency room at St. Joseph Hospital in Orange, according to police.

Orange police received a report from the hospital about the alleged assault by a patient care technician on March 9, a day after the woman was treated, but had not yet talked to the alleged assailant as of Tuesday afternoon -- five days later, according to a department spokesman.

Sgt. Dan Adams said that a patrol officer took reports from the hospital and that the victim filed the paperwork by Thursday. But the detective bureau is generally closed Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays unless there is a pressing case like a murder, he said, and on Monday all of the department's detectives were tied up investigating a homicide.

“The timeline is very normal for an investigation like this,” Adams said. Adams said the patient first reported the incident to the hospital, which in turn contacted the Police Department. Hospital officials refused to provide details about the alleged attack, saying that they needed to “respect the rights and privacy of everyone involved in this situation.”

“St. Joseph Hospital is committed to providing the highest quality of care, safety and support to our patients,” the hospital said in a statement, adding that officials are “fully cooperating” with the police investigation. An official with the state Department of Public Health said that office also has opened an investigation but declined to provide further details.

Los Abgeles Times

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Murder conviction voided after 20 years

Five witnesses who identified Francisco Carrillo as the gunman in a Lynwood drive-by shooting recant. A mock staging of the crime raises doubts about whether they could ever have reliably identified the shooter.

Superior Court Judge Paul A. Bacigalupo posed a question to the slim man wearing blue jailhouse scrubs. Which is worse, the judge asked, an innocent man wrongfully convicted or the real perpetrator remaining free? "The wrong guy going to prison," Francisco "Franky" Carrillo replied without hesitation. "For the past 20 years, I've lived that experience. And I think it's the worst predicament any human being can be under."

Days after the courtroom exchange, Carrillo, 37, was expected to be freed late Tuesday or Wednesday from Los Angeles County Jail, having spent two decades behind bars for a fatal drive-by shooting he insists he did not commit. Bacigalupo overturned Carrillo's 1992 murder conviction Monday after witnesses recanted their identification of him as the gunman and a dramatic reconstruction of the shooting raised doubts about whether they could have ever reliably identified the shooter.

The murder case against Carrillo hinged solely on the word of six teenage boys who had been standing with the victim on a Lynwood street when the gunman drove by. One jury deadlocked 7 to 5 in favor of acquitting Carrillo, but a second jury found him guilty. He was sentenced to two life terms in prison.

Last week, five of the six witnesses testified at the Compton Courthouse that they had not clearly seen the gunman. Among them was the victim's son, who said he made his identification because one of his friends at the scene said he recognized Carrillo as the shooter. That friend also recanted.

The case underscores what legal experts say is the danger of eyewitness testimony. Studies have shown that faulty identifications are the biggest factor in wrongful convictions and that witnesses are particularly unreliable when identifying someone of a different race. The witnesses who identified Carrillo are black, while he is Latino.

Los Angeles Times

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Convicted murderer pleads guilty to killing 10-year-old Riverside County boy

Striking a deal to spare his life, convicted killer Joseph Edward Duncan III entered a guilty plea Tuesday in a Riverside County Superior Court for the murder of a 10-year-old Beaumont boy.

Duncan, already convicted of killing an Idaho boy and members of his family, had faced the death penalty for the 1997 killing of Anthony Martinez, a 10-year-old abducted near his backyard.

In February, Duncan's defense team went to Riverside County prosecutors, offering to have their client plead guilty in exchange for a sentence of life in prison, said John Hall, a spokesman for the Riverside County district attorney's office.

“The district attorney agreed to a sentence of life without the possibility of parole,” Hall said, adding that Duncan is scheduled to be formally sentenced next month. “The agreement is in place, it's just the formality of the sentencing that is going to happen in April.”

In 2008, a federal jury convicted Duncan of murdering 9-year-old Dylan Groene, his mother, Brenda Groene, her fiancé, and another of her sons in Idaho. Duncan was sentenced to death and also given nine life terms for those crimes.

Los Angeles Times

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U.S. Drones Fight Mexican Drug Trade

WASHINGTON — Stepping up its involvement in Mexico 's drug war, the Obama administration has begun sending drones deep into Mexican territory to gather intelligence that helps locate major traffickers and follow their networks, according to American and Mexican officials.

The Pentagon began flying high-altitude, unarmed drones over Mexican skies last month, American military officials said, in hopes of collecting information to turn over to Mexican law enforcement agencies. Other administration officials said a Homeland Security drone helped Mexican authorities find several suspects linked to the Feb. 15 killing of Jaime Zapata, a United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement Immigration agent.

President Obama and his Mexican counterpart, Felipe Calderón, formally agreed to continue the surveillance flights during a White House meeting on March 3. The American assistance has been kept secret because of legal restrictions in Mexico and the heated political sensitivities there about sovereignty, the officials said.

Before the outbreak of drug violence in Mexico that has left more than 34,000 dead in the past four years, such an agreement would have been all but unthinkable, they said.

Pentagon, State Department, Homeland Security and Mexican officials declined to comment publicly about the introduction of drones in Mexico's counternarcotics efforts. But some officials, speaking only on the condition of anonymity, said the move was evidence of the two countries' deepening cooperation in efforts to prevail over a common threat.

In addition to expanding the use of drones, the two leaders agreed to open a counternarcotics “fusion” center, the second such facility in Mexico, where Mexican and American agencies would work together, the officials said.

New York Times

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March 15, 2011

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Japan fears a nuclear disaster after reactor breach

Officials warn of health risks, telling people in a 20-mile area to stay indoors as dangerous levels of radiation leak into the air after a third explosion and fire at the Fukushima No. 1 (Daiichi) plant.

— Dangerous levels of radiation escaped a quake-stricken nuclear power plant after one reactor's steel containment structure was apparently breached by an explosion, and a different reactor building in the same complex caught fire after another explosion, Japan's leaders told a frightened population. Authorities warned that people within 20 miles of the crippled reactors should stay indoors to avoid being sickened by radiation.

The fast-moving developments at the Fukushima No. 1 (Daiichi) plant, 150 miles north of Tokyo, catapulted the 4-day-old nuclear crisis to an entirely new level, threatening to overshadow even the massive damage and loss of life spawned by a devastating earthquake and tsunami.

Prime Minister Naoko Kan, in a nationwide address to the Japanese people, called for calm even as he acknowledged the radiation peril. Dressed in industrial-style blue coveralls, he offered solemn assurances that authorities were doing "everything we can" to contain the leakage.

"There is a danger of even higher radiation levels," he said — chilling words to a nation where the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the waning days of World War II are known to every schoolchild. Slightly elevated radiation was detected in Tokyo, but not at health-affecting levels, officials said.

Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, speaking shortly afterward, said radiation levels around the plant's six reactors had climbed to the extent that "without a doubt would affect a person's health." But he insisted that outside the existing 12-mile evacuation zone, there was little or no health danger.

Los Angeles Times

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Japan's nuclear problems pose little danger to U.S., Nuclear Regulatory Commission chief says

Gregory Jaczko, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, says there is 'a very low probability' of harmful radiation levels affecting any U.S. territories. Jaczko says the U.S. is providing technical assistance to Japanese officials in response to the crisis at Fukushima No. 1 (Daiichi) nuclear power plant.

The threat to the United States of a meltdown at a Japanese nuclear plant is minimal, the chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said Monday.

Speaking at the White House, Gregory Jaczko said there is "a very low probability" of harmful radiation levels affecting any U.S. territories, and that the government is providing technical assistance to Japanese officials in response to the crisis at Fukushima No. 1 (Daiichi) nuclear power plant.

"Right now, based on the information we have, we believe that the steps that the Japanese are taking to respond to this crisis are consistent with the approach that we would use here in the United States," Jaczko said. "We advise Americans in Japan to listen to and to follow the instructions of the Japanese government with regard to the nuclear facilities."

White House spokesman Jay Carney said that President Obama has been briefed multiple times since Friday's earthquake and tsunami. The White House counter-terrorism advisor, John Brennan, is coordinating the administration's response.

Officials also told reporters that the U.S. is well-equipped to respond to events like the one in Japan. The government reviewed its readiness to deal with natural disasters in the wake of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

Los Angeles Times

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Resident of San Diego County 'bomb house' pleads guilty, faces 30 years in prison

A 54-year-old Escondido-area man admitted in federal court Monday that he made a wide variety of explosives and kept them in his rented home, and also that he used a firearm in two bank robberies. George Djura Jakubec faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years in prison on the bank robbery charges, according to U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy.

Jakubec, a Serbian emigre and unemployed software consultant, was arrested Nov. 18 after a gardener was injured in a backyard explosion at the home on Via Scott just outside the city limits of Escondido in northern San Diego County. County authorities later determined that the explosives were too volatile to remove safely; the home was destroyed in a controlled burn Dec. 9.

No motive for the bomb-making is suggested in the plea agreement between prosecutors and Jakubec's attorney. But Jakubec's estranged wife had told reporters that her husband was mentally unstable. Under the plea bargain, no additional prison time will be requested beyond the 30 years for the bank robberies. The bomb charges will be dropped when Jakubeci is sentenced.

Sentencing is set for June 13 in federal court. As part of the plea, Jakubec agreed to pay $541,000 to the county government -- the cost of the controlled burn -- and $54,892 to Bank of America, the amount taken in the two robberies. "Jakubec will be held accountable for his actions and for placing the community of Escondido at risk," said John Torres, special agent in charge of the Los Angeles office of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

Among the explosives were blasting caps and parts of grenades. Chemicals similar to those used by Al Qaeda terrorists were also found. There was no evidence that Jakubec used the homemade arsenal in any crimes. Jakubec has remained in federal prison since his arrest.

Los Angeles Times

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Japan Confronts Multiple Crises as Death Toll Climbs

TOKYO — Japanese authorities struggled to contain new nuclear emergencies on Tuesday — including a possible rupture in a reactor containment vessel — as the death toll continued to climb with search teams reaching towns that were flattened by last week's earthquake and tsunami.

The National Police Agency said Tuesday afternoon that 2,722 people have died, and many thousands were still missing. Bodies continued to wash ashore at various spots along the coast after having been pulled out to sea by the tsunami's retreat.

Some 400,000 people were living in makeshift shelters or evacuation centers, officials said. Bitterly cold and windy weather that was pushing into northern Japan was compounding the misery as the region struggled with shortages of food, fuel and water.

An explosion Tuesday morning at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Station -- the third reactor blast in four days -- damaged the vessel containing the nuclear core at reactor No. 2 , government officials said, and there was a growing fear of a catastrophic meltdown.

The overwhelmed operator of the nuclear plants, Tokyo Electric Power Company, confirmed there had been radiation leaks and that water was being pumped into three overheated reactors in the Fukushima complex.

New York Times

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For Honolulu's Homeless, an Eviction Notice

HONOLULU — From his home on Ilalo Street, Banery Afituk can feel the breeze off Mamala Bay, two blocks away. Walking out his front door, to his right, he can make out the tops of the luxury ocean liners, and to his left, some of this city's finer high rises. “I like it here,” he said, as his three children played around him.

Home for Mr. Afituk, his pregnant wife and their children is, in fact, a tattered tent rising low off the sidewalk, one of dozens that have sprung up in a colony of homelessness near the downtown of this tropical tourist getaway.

But all these tents, including Mr. Afituk's, are about to disappear. Hawaii redevelopment officials told residents of this fetid colony that by Tuesday they would remove the estimated 75 remaining tents, lean-tos and other structures, forcing about 100 people who have called the area home to find somewhere else.

State officials said they were simply trying to enforce the law and clean up the waterfront district to encourage development in a desirable corner of the island where the tents, piles of garbage and wandering homeless offer quite a contrast to the rest of Oahu.

But this forced exodus is only the latest chapter in Hawaii's difficult relationship with its homeless as it wrestles with two forces: a warm climate that facilitates outdoor living and the threat to the image of the state that is central to tourism. Advocates for the homeless said this latest sweep would have the same effect as the last few: the homeless will simply take their tents elsewhere.

New York Times

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EDITORIAL

Japan's Multiple Calamities

Any comment on the disaster in Japan must begin with the stunning scale of human loss. Thousands dead or missing from the devastating earthquake and tsunami surge. Hundreds of thousands homeless. Whole villages wiped out. And now there is the threat of further harm from badly damaged nuclear reactors. The worst-case accident would be enormous releases of radioactivity.

The unfolding Japanese tragedy also should prompt Americans to closely study our own plans for coping with natural disasters and with potential nuclear plant accidents to make sure they are, indeed, strong enough. We've already seen how poor defenses left New Orleans vulnerable to Hurricane Katrina and how industrial folly and hubris led to a devastating blowout and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

It is sobering that such calamities could so badly hurt Japan, a technologically advanced nation that puts great emphasis on disaster mitigation. Japan's protective seawalls proved no match for the high waves that swept over them and knocked out the safety systems that were supposed to protect nearby nuclear reactors from overheating and melting down.

It is much too early to understand the magnitude of what has happened. But, as of now, this four-day crisis in Japan already amounts to the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl in 1986.

From early reports, it appears that the troubled reactors survived the earthquake. Control rods shut down the nuclear fission reactions that generate power. But even after shutdown, there is residual heat that needs to be drawn off by cooling water pumped through the reactor core, and that's where the trouble came.

New York Times

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Parker County kidnapping leads investigators to look at cases of two other women who vanished, including suspect's wife

Investigators are reviewing the cold cases of at least two missing women after a third was rescued from what the Parker County sheriff called Jeffrey Allan Maxwell's “house of horrors” in Corsicana. Meanwhile, a retired Fort Worth police detective said he had “no doubt” that Maxwell, who now faces charges of kidnapping and sexual assault, got away with killing his wife 19 years ago.

Maxwell, 58, was arrested Saturday after sheriff's investigators and Texas Rangers discovered a Parker County woman — missing since her house burned down nearly two weeks ago — was being confined in a secret compartment in Maxwell's home. The woman had been bound, raped and probably tortured, said Parker County Sheriff Larry Fowler, adding, “I hope to never see it again.”

An affidavit listed a bed with chains, leather restraints and sexual devices among items seized from the home. An investigator connected to the case reported seeing an electric winch used for stringing up animal carcasses. The affidavit said Maxwell confessed to kidnapping and sexually assaulting the woman. He claimed he had been paid to make the reclusive 62-year-old “go away,” the affidavit said, but refused to tell investigators who paid him.

And while Texas Rangers continue to interview Maxwell, investigators are exploring possible connections to at least two disappearances in the last two decades, including his wife's.

Dallas News

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FEMA, NOAA and Partners Encourage U.S. Residents to Prepare For Springtime Flooding

March 14th through 18th Marks 2011 Flood Awareness Week

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- With many communities throughout the nation facing threats of spring flooding, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) are once again joining forces to commemorate Flood Safety Awareness Week March 14 - 18.

FEMA and NOAA's National Weather Service are providing tips and information to help individuals and families prepare for flooding dangers during the week and throughout the spring season. The resources can be accessed at the Flood Safety Awareness Week landing page, located at www.ready.gov/floodawareness.

"As the nation's most common and expensive natural disaster, floods can strike virtually every community," said FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate. "We're encouraging individuals and families to take a few simple steps to protect themselves and their property. These include learning about their risk of flooding, having an emergency preparedness kit, storing important documents in a safe place and considering the purchase of flood insurance. Most homeowners insurance policies don't cover flooding, and most policies take 30 days to go into effect so it's important to act now."

Floods do more than damage property; they can also threaten lives if safety precautions are not followed. "Floods occur somewhere in the United States or its territories nearly every day of the year, killing nearly 100 people on average annually, and causing damage in the billions of dollars," said Jack Hayes, Ph.D., director of the National Weather Service. "Awareness, preparedness and action are the key ingredients to protecting lives and property when floods threaten. One essential safety tip is to never cross a road that is covered by water. Remember, Turn Around, Don't Drown."

FEMA

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Migrant Interdiction: Safety of life at sea

As the United States' primary maritime law enforcement agency, the Coast Guard is tasked with enforcing immigration law at sea. The Coast Guard conducts patrols and coordinates with other federal agencies and foreign countries to interdict undocumented migrants at sea, denying them entry via maritime routes to the United States, its territories and possessions. Thousands of people try to enter this country illegally every year using maritime routes, many via smuggling operations.

The Coast Guard and its partner agencies use a layered approach to maritime migrant interdiction operations. Cutters patrol offshore, effectively pushing America's borders outward. Aircraft and patrol boats add speed and agility to our patrol efforts, covering large areas and resulting in faster responses to intelligence reports or visual sightings of potential migrant vessels. In the nearshore areas, federal, state and local law enforcement boats conduct regular patrols and provide the last maritime line of defense against migrants reaching shore illegally.

Many attempts to illegally migrate to the U.S. involve some type of smuggling venture, which makes them inherently dangerous. Smugglers focus on maximizing profits, not the safety of their passengers. This frequently results in grossly overloaded vessels or vessels that aren't carrying the necessary safety equipment. Oftentimes smugglers go out of their way to avoid detection departing late at night and without lights; sometimes with deadly results. When vessels are detected by law enforcement authorities, brazen smugglers, who choose to refuse to comply with lawful orders to stop, force authorities to compel compliance through the skillful application of approved use of force techniques.

Over the past two weeks, Coast Guard crews took part in two interdictions made hundreds of miles away from each other and involving migrants of two different nationalities using two very different types of vessels in their attempt to reach the United States illegally.

Coast Guard

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Tips on Avoiding Fraudulent Charitable Contribution Schemes

The Federal Bureau of Investigation reminds the public to use caution when making donations in the aftermath of natural disasters. Unfortunately, criminals can exploit these tragedies for their own gain by sending fraudulent e-mails and creating phony websites designed to solicit contributions.

The FBI and the National Center for Disaster Fraud have an existing tip line to receive information from the public about suspected fraud associated with the earthquake and tsunami that affected Japan. Tips should be reported to the National Center for Disaster Fraud, (866) 720-5721 . The line is staffed by a live operator 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Additionally, e-mails can be sent to disaster@leo.gov, and information can be faxed to (225) 334-4707 .

The National Center for Disaster Fraud was created by the Department of Justice to investigate, prosecute, and deter fraud in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, when billions of dollars in federal disaster relief poured into the Gulf Coast region. Now, its mission has expanded to include suspected fraud from any natural or man-made disaster. More than 20 federal agencies, including the FBI, participate in the NCDF, which allows the center to act as a centralized clearinghouse of information related to disaster relief fraud.

The FBI continues to remind the public to perform due diligence before giving contributions to anyone soliciting donations or individuals offering to provide assistance to the people of Japan. Solicitations can originate from e-mails, websites, door-to-door collections, flyers, mailings, telephone calls, and other similar methods.

Ten Most Wanted Fugitives List Turns 61

The Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list celebrates 61 years today. Since its inception, 494 fugitives have been on the "Top Ten" list, and 463 have been apprehended or located; 152 fugitives have been captured/located as a result of citizen cooperation.

At a minimum, a reward of up to $100,000 is offered by the FBI for information which leads directly to the arrest of a "Top Ten" fugitive. In some instances, the reward is more than $100,000.

Ten Most Wanted Fugitives | About the program

FBI

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March 14, 2011

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Immigration, state by state

Utah is the latest state to consider a local fix to a federal problem. The federal government needs to step up.

Fueled by frustration, states are striking out and creating their own immigration rules. Utah is the latest state to consider a local fix to a federal problem. Lawmakers this month passed a package of reforms that includes granting police broader powers to check the immigration status of those arrested and creating a state guest-worker program for illegal workers.

And more than a dozen other states are pushing immigration legislation that ranges from the benign to the ridiculous. In Oklahoma, for example, lawmakers are seeking to ban motorists from picking up illegal day laborers, while South Carolina's Legislature is considering making it a felony to sell a fake ID to immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally.

So far, none of the proposals go as far as Arizona's draconian anti-immigrant law, known as SB 1070, that requires people to carry identification proving they are authorized to be in the U.S. But like Arizona, other states that adopt immigration enforcement measures will probably face legal challenges over attempts to encroach on the federal government's authority.

The flurry of proposals should serve as a wake-up call to Washington. Congress has failed in the last few years to provide a comprehensive solution to the nation's broken immigration system and instead has wasted time sparring over building bigger fences and funding stricter enforcement programs. The White House hasn't done much better. President Obama has spoken eloquently about the need to overhaul immigration but has offered little else. Washington can't continue to abdicate its authority to the states. Lawmakers and the White House must begin the conversation and provide some legislative action.

Meanwhile, Congress can provide some short-term relief. Lawmakers should revive the Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors bill, known as the DREAM Act. The bill would provide a conditional path to legalization to young illegal immigrants who attend college or serve in the military and plan to address the nation's need for skilled and unskilled labor.

And Republicans and Democrats can also reconsider legislation to help farmers. Last year, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Rep. Howard Berman (D-Valley Village) sponsored the Agricultural Job Opportunities, Benefits and Security Act, or AgJobs. The bill remains a viable approach to helping farmers by providing temporary work permits for certain types of farmworkers and their families who are in the U.S. illegally.

Los Angeles Times

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The conversation: Three views on immigration policy

Immigration enforcement plan Secure Communities should be shelved or retooled

The Obama administration is right to enforce immigration laws, and smart to focus on those who pose the greatest danger to communities. With an estimated 11 million people illegally living and working in the United States, immigration officials can't deport everyone, and would waste precious resources in the effort to do so.

But Secure Communities isn't succeeding at targeting violent criminals. Instead, it is increasingly diverting police from public safety for other purposes. The White House should heed the recommendations of police chiefs who are calling on federal immigration officials to stop trying to turn police into immigration agents.

-- Los Angeles Times editorial

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Obama should consider Utah's common-sense, market-based answer to the immigration question

As Reagan himself pointed out: "Are great numbers of our unemployed really victims of the illegal alien invasion, or are those illegal tourists actually doing work our own people won't do? One thing is certain in this hungry world: No regulation or law should be allowed if it results in crops rotting in the fields for lack of harvesters."

In other words, if businesses can't find U.S. workers for certain jobs, government should not stop them from hiring the foreign workers they need. […]

The Utah immigrant work permit program should serve as a model for Republicans in other states, and even in Congress, about how to address the immigration crisis within a conservative framework of limited government and the free market. The "Utah solution" demonstrates that there are Republicans who want to work on the issue constructively -- and are willing to pass laws welcoming to immigrants.

-- Alfonso Aguilar, Politico

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More support for the 'Utah Way'

[T]he "Utah Way," as some are calling it, is also a fraternal attack on Republicans, in Washington and elsewhere, whose only strategy is to demonize, criminalize and deport 11 million illegal immigrants. […]

Utah's guest-worker bill doesn't grant citizenship, of course, but in every other way it's exactly what national Republicans have derided as "amnesty." It would grant work permits to undocumented immigrants, and their immediate families, who pay a fine, clear a criminal background check and study English.

The bill's chief sponsor, state Rep. Bill Wright, is a plain-spoken dairy farmer who describes his politics as "extremely" conservative, likes Sarah Palin and believes he may have once voted for a Democrat - possibly 40 years ago for sheriff. He admires the work ethic of the Hispanic farmhands he's employed over the years and doesn't care much for anything the government does, least of all the idea that it might deport millions of immigrant workers and their families.

-- Lee Hockstader, The Washington Post

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Stop illegal immigration: America's not a "free-for-all"

[Ron Paul] is tough on illegal immigration. He wrote on his Web site that "decades of misguided policies" have left America "a free-for-all." He has a six-point plan to stop illegal immigration:

-- Mark Berman, Opposing Views

Los Angeles Times

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Done with the death penalty

California should follow Illinois, the latest state to stop executions.

Illinois last week became the latest state to stop committing what in some cases may amount to government-sponsored murder. California should be next. More than a dozen people have been wrongly sent to death row in Illinois since 1977, a record that prompted then-Gov. George Ryan to impose a capital punishment moratorium in 2000. Last week it became permanent when Gov. Pat Quinn signed a bill banning the practice; at the same time, he commuted the sentences of 15 death row inmates to life without the possibility of parole.

There are plenty of reasons to oppose the death penalty, but our biggest complaint has long been that the American justice system, good as it is, isn't perfect. Police, prosecutors and juries make mistakes. Once a convict is executed, it's too late to set him or her free if evidence of innocence later emerges. Quinn agrees, and his signing statement was dead-on: "Since our experience has shown that there is no way to design a perfect death penalty system, free from the numerous flaws that can lead to wrongful convictions or discriminatory treatment, I have concluded that the proper course of action is to abolish it."

Illinois isn't an aberration — innocent people in many other states, including California, have been sentenced to death. Our zeal for executions is also expensive. If California went the same way as Illinois — abolishing the death penalty and commuting the sentences of those on death row — it would save the Golden State an estimated $1 billion over five years. (This is derived by adding the $137 million a year in court, security and other costs associated with the death penalty to the $400 million that would be saved by not building a new death row facility to replace the crumbling one at San Quentin.)

Illinois is now the 16th state to ban capital punishment. Quinn's critics believe his actions were a betrayal of the state's voters, who widely favor the death penalty, just as they do in California. But state-sponsored murder is the ultimate violation not only of civil rights but of human rights, which is why most developed nations have ended capital punishment. Our constitutional system places a high value on protecting individual civil rights even when the majority wants to take them away.

We execute convicted killers not because it has a deterrent effect on crime — there's little evidence that it does — but because of the visceral satisfaction derived from this form of "justice." But California hasn't executed anyone since 2006 because of court delays, so who's satisfied? Society would be protected just as well by putting convicts in prison for life, without the moral, legal and financial complications of killing them.

Los Angeles Times

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In Tsunami's Wake, Much Searching but Few Are Rescued

NATORI, Japan — The tsunami that barreled into northeast Japan on Friday was so murderous and efficient that not much was left when search-and-rescue teams finally reached Natori on Monday. There was searching, but not much rescuing. There was, essentially, nobody left to rescue.

The mournful scene here in Natori, a farm and fishing town that has been reduced to a vast muddy plain, was similar to rescue efforts in other communities along the coast as police, military and foreign assistance teams poked through splintered houses and piles of wreckage. The death toll from the 8.9-magnitude quake — the strongest in Japan's seismically turbulent history — continued to climb, inexorably so, as officials uncovered more bodies. By Monday afternoon, the toll stood at more than 1,800 confirmed dead and 2,300 missing. Police officials, however, said it was certain that more than 10,000 had died.

Police teams, for example, found about 700 bodies that had washed ashore on a scenic peninsula in Miyagi Prefecture, close to the epicenter of the quake that unleashed the tsunami. The bodies washed out as the tsunami retreated. Now they are washing back in.

A string of crippled nuclear reactors at Fukushima also continued to bedevil engineers who were desperately trying to cool them down. The most urgent worries concerned the failures of two reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, where workers were still struggling to avert meltdowns and where some radiation had already leaked.

The building housing Reactor No. 1 exploded on Saturday, and a hydrogen buildup blew the roof off the No. 3 reactor facility on Monday morning. The blast did not appear to have harmed the reactor itself, government and utility officials said, but six workers were injured in the blasts. Later Monday, Reactor No. 2 was losing cooling function and workers were pumping in water, according to Yukio Edano, the chief government spokesman.

In the city of Fukushima, gas stations, grocery stores and restaurants were closed, and convenience stores had no food or drinks to sell — only cigarettes. Red Cross water tankers dispensed drinking water to Fukushima residents who waited in long, orderly lines. Prime Minister Naoto Kan described the triple whammy — the earthquake, the tsunami and the nuclear troubles — as Japan's “worst crisis since World War II.”

New York Times

2 deputies slain, 2 wounded in small Va. town

VANSANT, Va. - A small southwestern Virginia community is again dealing with a deadly shooting rampage that this time killed two deputies and wounded two more before the suspect who may have been trying to rob a salvage yard was fatally shot by police.

Buchanan County deputies investigating at Roger's Service Center in Vansant on Sunday afternoon were met by gunfire from long range, Virginia State Police said. Two were hit and died at the scene. Two others who arrived also were shot, said State Police Sgt. Steve Lowe.

One deputy has life-threatening injuries and the other was in serious condition, state police said. No names were released late Sunday. Christina Stiltner lives across the street from the salvage yard in the southwestern Virginia area and had just walked into her home with her 10-year-old son when she heard "pow, pow, pow."

She opened her front door and saw one deputy run into a neighbor's yard. She heard another "pow" and the deputy went down. He was one of the injured, she said. "It scares you so much," she said. "I sat there thinking 'what's the number to 911'? It shocked me so badly, I didn't know the number to 911."

Residents said such violence is rare in the rural area of about 1,000 people, though in January 2002, a student opened fire on the Appalachian School of Law campus in Grundy just down the road from Vansant after learning he had flunked out of school. The school's dean, a professor and a student were killed in the attack. Three other students were wounded. The shooter, Peter Odighizuwa, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to life in prison.

Associated Press

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