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From Los Angeles Times

Deadly storms, tornadoes kill more than 170 in South

Devastation is spread across five states, with the heaviest toll in Alabama, where at least 128 are dead.

Los Angeles Times

April 28, 2011

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- A wave of tornado-spawning storms strafed the South on Wednesday and early Thursday, splintering buildings across hard-hit Alabama and killing at least 178 people in five states.

At least 128 died in Alabama alone, officials said early Thursday. Among the cities hit hard by a tornado was Tuscaloosa, home to the University of Alabama. The mayor said sections of the city were obliterated and its infrastructure decimated.

"What we faced today was massive damage on a scale we have not seen in Tuscaloosa in quite some time," Mayor Walter Maddox told reporters Wednesday.

The tornado "paralyzed many city operations that directly respond to events like we experienced today," he said. "Pray for us."

News footage showed paramedics lifting a child out of a flattened home, with many neighboring buildings in the city of more than 83,000 also reduced to rubble.

The injured flocked to DCH Regional Medical Center. More than 200 were admitted and four of them died, hospital spokesman Brad Fisher said.

"We got no water and we're on emergency power," he told The Times. "It's pandemonium."

The hospital itself was damaged, Fisher said. Nine diesel generators provided power Wednesday night, as patients and workers relied on bottled water.

Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley declared a state of emergency and mobilized 1,400 National Guard troops to help with search and rescue and law enforcement.

President Obama declared the state a disaster.

"Michelle and I extend our deepest condolences to the families of those who lost their lives because of the tornadoes that have swept through Alabama and the southeastern United States," he said in a statement. "Our hearts go out to all those who have been affected by this devastation, and we commend the heroic efforts of those who have been working tirelessly to respond to this disaster."

Around Tuscaloosa, traffic was snarled by downed trees and power lines, and some drivers abandoned their cars in medians. University officials opened the student recreation center as a shelter.

Blaine Duncan, 34, a high school teacher, had Wednesday off. The storms had been so bad Tuesday evening that the school day had been canceled citywide. About 5:15 p.m., he was relaxing at the home he shares near the university with T.D. Wood, 26, a cook at a local restaurant.

"I was watching the news, and they had a camera stationed in downtown Tuscaloosa on a rooftop," Duncan told The Times. "It picked up a tornado heading practically straight for the camera, which would mean it was headed straight for our house."

The camera went dark. Then Duncan's power went out. He and Wood fled to the hallway, hoping to be safer there. They waited as a low rumbling became a loud rumbling. It was over in 90 seconds. They were fine.

But what they saw outside was shocking. Trees down and blocking their residential street, trees bashed into homes, homes with gashes in the roofs and, then, a few blocks away, a more apocalyptic scene:

"Complete devastation," Duncan said, "to the point where it was piles of bricks instead of buildings."

The University Mall was badly damaged, he said, as was the strip mall that housed the Barnes & Noble. Cars were overturned in the middle of the street with windows broken out. People were roaming amid the rubble, surveying the damage, or "displaced and trying to figure out what they were going to do next."

Tuscaloosa City Councilman Lee Garrison said the twister touched down at the southwest corner of the city and moved northeast, "staying on the ground pretty much the entire time."

About 83,000 homes were without power. Two fire stations and a police substation were also badly hit.

"We are right now just doing what we can," Garrison said, adding that other cities had pledged to send supplies and support.

Earlier in the day, a tornado that "looked like it was a mile wide" struck Birmingham, Mayor William Bell told CNN. That storm also felled numerous trees that impeded emergency responders and those trying to leave hard-hit areas.

Surrounding Jefferson County reported 11 deaths by late Wednesday. Another hard-hit area was Walker County, with eight deaths. The rest of the deaths were scattered around the state, emergency officials told the Associated Press.

Austin Ransdell and a friend had to hike out of their neighborhood south of Birmingham after the house where he was living was crushed by four trees. No one was hurt.

As he walked away from the wreckage, trees and power lines crisscrossed residential streets, and police cars and utility trucks blocked a main highway.

"The house was destroyed. We couldn't stay in it. Water pipes broke; it was flooding the basement," he said. "We had people coming in telling us another storm was coming in about four or five hours, so we just packed up."

In Huntsville, meteorologists found themselves in the path of a tornado and had to evacuate the National Weather Service office. The Browns Ferry nuclear plant west of town lost power and was operating on diesel generators. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission said the safety systems were operating properly, and the emergency was classified as the lowest of four levels.

Thirty-two deaths were reported in Mississippi, 11 in Georgia, six in Tennessee and one in Virginia. In addition, one person in Arkansas was killed by the same storm system Tuesday.

In Choctaw County, Miss., a Louisiana police officer was killed Wednesday morning when a towering sweet gum tree fell on his tent as he shielded his young daughter with his body, said Kim Korthuis, a supervisor with the National Park Service. The 9-year-old wasn't hurt.

Her father, Lt. Wade Sharp, had been with the Covington Police Department for 19 years.

"He was a hell of an investigator," said Capt. Jack West, a colleague in Louisiana.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour declared a state of emergency. That state's fatalities also included a man crushed in his mobile home when a tree fell during the storm, a truck driver who hit a downed tree on a state highway and a member of a county road crew who was struck by a tree the workers were removing.

Duncan, the Tuscaloosa teacher, called the devastation "the worst thing I've seen with my own two eyes in person."

The area has little choice about what to do next, he said. "I mean, the cheesy obvious answer is that we're gonna band together and rebuild, and everthing's going to be OK. But I guess that's my answer, because what else are we gonna do?"

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-severe-weather-web-20110428,0,6079973,print.story

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Mexico: Mass grave toll climbs; government defends itself

The number of bodies pulled from two sets of clandestine graves -- one in the border state of Tamaulipas and the other in Durango state to the southwest -- is climbing toward 300 as violence in Mexico takes an often mind-numbing toll.

In a meeting with the media -- in which questions were not allowed -- federal Atty. Gen. Marisela Morales on Tuesday upped the toll around the Tamaulipas city of San Fernando to 183. Separately, officials in Durango said the corpses there total 96 as of Wednesday.

The Times reported earlier this week that many of the Tamaulipas-area victims were passengers pulled from buses and slaughtered in the last couple of months. Many of the Durango bodies are older and none have been identified, officials say. While the San Fernando graves are in a fairly remote zone, the Durango burials are in the state's capital of the same name.

The horrific discovery of the mass graves has renewed pressure on the government of President Felipe Calderon, who has been blasted by the public and in the media for failing to stem bloodshed in the ongoing war with drug cartels. Morales, who is new to the job , was joined by Alejandro Poire, the government's main spokesman on security issues, and the two sought to deflect criticisms. Poire asserted that Tamaulipas "is under the control of the Mexican state," a response to the widely held perception that authorities have lost out to vicious drug cartels in the area.

(You can read the statements from Morales and Poire and see a video of the officials delivering them -- all in Spanish -- on this government website.)

Later Wednesday, Poire went before the media for the second time in two days and this time answered questions. He said the "great majority" of the suspected killers in the Tamaulipas case have been arrested, and that a purge of local authorities was necessary to restore the public trust, complaining that local officials had failed to inform federal officials of the kidnappings and killings.

Meanwhile, civic groups led by Mexican poet Javier Sicilia , whose son was killed last month, called for another round of large street demonstrations starting next week to protest the violence.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laplaza/2011/04/mexico-mass-grave-toll-climbs-government-defends-itself.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+LaPlaza+%28La+Plaza%29

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From Google News

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Jurors may hear chloroform evidence

by Amy Pavuk, Orlando Sentinel

April 27, 2011

In another setback to Casey Anthony's defense team, a judge ruled Wednesday that evidence about elevated chloroform levels detected in her car may be admissible at her trial.

Orange-Osceola Chief Judge Belvin Perry denied a defense team's request to block evidence about chloroform, which is a potentially deadly chemical that can be used to render a person unconscious.

Prosecutors want to use novel scientific work focusing on odor and air samples originating from the trunk — an emerging science never used in a courtroom. The air samples are key because the state's experts said they show showed signs consistent with human decomposition.

Anthony, 25, is accused of killing her 2-year-old daughter Caylee Marie Anthony in the summer of 2008. Her first-degree murder trial is scheduled to begin with jury selection May 9.

Prosecutors argued that the test instruments used in the detection of chloroform in this case, known as a gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer (GC/MS), have routinely been accepted as evidence in Florida courts.

Perry said in the ruling he found that it is "generally accepted in the scientific community to use the GC/MS to test for the presence of chloroform."

The state's expert, Dr. Arpad Vass, "based his opinion regarding the existence of chloroform on reliable scientific tests and methods for the interpretation of data," Perry wrote.

"His testimony will assist the jury in understanding the evidence regarding chloroform allegedly found in the trunk of the Defendant's car. As a forensic anthropologist with a background in biology and forensic science, he is qualified as an expert to present opinion testimony on the issue."

Perry said the evidence will be admissible at trial, as long as the state establishes the legal groundwork, "and the jury will be entitled to determine the credibility of his opinion, which it may accept or reject."

Perry noted that when an expert's opinion is based on generally accepted scientific principles and methodology, it isn't necessary that his opinion be generally accepted as well.

The defense was also trying to block evidence about Internet searches for the word "chloroform." Investigative reports released in the case show that someone at the Anthony home had used the family computer to search the Internet for directions on how to make chloroform.

In his order, Perry ruled that evidence may also be admitted at trial, noting he finds no legal basis to grant the defense's request.

"Defendant had access to the computer and it may be circumstantially inferred that she was the one who conducted the searches in question."

Earlier this week, the judge denied several other defense requests to block evidence from the trial.

Perry ruled that evidence of heart-shaped residue spotted on duct tape that covered Caylee's mouth could be admissible at trial. That piece of evidence is significant because investigators also found heart-shaped stickers at the home Anthony and Caylee shared with their family.

Perry also denied a defense motion to exclude expert testimony about "postmortem banding" on a single strand of hair found in Anthony's car, and ruled that evidence and testimony about cadaver dogs used in the case could also be admissible at trial.

Perry still has not issued rulings on other defense evidence objections, including the growth of plant roots where Caylee's remains were found.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/caylee-anthony/os-casey-anthony-trial-chloroform-rul20110427,0,5874866,print.story

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247 people on terror watch list buy guns in 2010

by EILEEN SULLIVAN, Associated Press

April 28, 2011

WASHINGTON, (AP) -- The government says more than 200 people suspected of ties to terrorism bought firearms in 2010.

The purchases were permitted under federal law. The 247 people who were allowed to buy weapons did so after going through required background checks.

About the same number of people suspected of ties to terrorism also successfully purchased guns in the U.S. in 2009.

It is not illegal for people listed on the government's terror watch list to buy weapons. This has bothered New Jersey Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg for years. He is trying again to change the law to keep weapons out of the hands of terrorists.

The secret, fluid nature of the watch list has made it challenging to close what Lautenberg called a "terror gap" in the nation's gun laws.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/04/28/national/w000410D08.DTL&type=printable

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From the DEA

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Over 5,100 Sites Join DEA Nationwide Effort to Take-Back Prescription Drugs on April 30th

(WASHINGTON, D.C.) – The Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA's) second National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day is this Saturday, April 30th. More than 5,100 sites nationwide have joined the effort that seeks to prevent pill abuse and theft. This is hundreds more sites than were established for the event last fall. The free event will be held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. local time.

Government, community, public health and law enforcement partners at these sites will be working together to collect expired, unused, and unwanted prescription drugs that are potentially dangerous if left in the family's medicine cabinet.

Last September, Americans turned in over 242,000 pounds—121 tons—of prescription drugs at nearly 4,100 sites operated by more than 3,000 of the DEA's state and local law enforcement partners. Also last fall, Congress passed the Safe and Secure Drug Disposal Act of 2010, which amends the Controlled Substances Act to allow users of controlled substance medications to dispose of them by delivering them to entities authorized by the Attorney General to accept them. The Act also allows the Attorney General to authorize long term care facilities to dispose of their residents' controlled substances in certain instances. DEA is presently drafting regulations to implement the Act.

Collection sites in every local community can be found by going to www.dea.gov and clicking on the “Got Drugs?” banner at the top of the home page, which connects to a database that citizens can search by zip code, city or county. This site is continuously updated with new take-back locations. In addition, interested media can now go to: www.nationaltakebackday.com to download a public service announcement about the initiative.

This initiative addresses a vital public safety and public health issue. Medicines that languish in home cabinets are highly susceptible to diversion, misuse, and abuse. Rates of prescription drug abuse in the U.S. are alarmingly high—more Americans currently abuse prescription drugs than the number of those using cocaine, hallucinogens, and heroin combined, according to the 2009 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Studies show that individuals that abuse prescription drugs often obtained them from family and friends, including from the home medicine cabinet. In addition, many Americans do not know how to properly dispose of their unused medicine, often flushing them down the toilet or throwing them away – both potential safety and health hazards.

“The overwhelming public response to DEA's first nationwide Take-Back event last fall not only rid homes of potentially harmful prescription drugs, but was an unprecedented opportunity to educate everyone about the growing prescription drug abuse problem," said DEA Administrator Michele Leonhart. “Studies have shown that, for many, prescription drugs are the very first drugs they abuse—and all too often they aren't the last. That is why we are committed to helping Americans keep their homes safe by ridding their medicine cabinets of expired, unused, and unwanted drugs.”

“I encourage every American to take advantage of this valuable opportunity to safely dispose of unused, un-needed, or expired prescription drugs,” said Gil Kerlikowkse, Director of National Drug Control Policy. “Preventing these readily available and potentially deadly drugs from being diverted and misused is something each and every one of us can do to help reduce the epidemic of prescription drug abuse that is harming so many Americans.”

Other participants in this initiative include the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy; the American Association of Poison Control Centers; the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America; D.A.R.E. America; the Federation of State Medical Boards; the U. S. Health Resources and Services Administration; the International Association of Chiefs of Police; the National Association of Attorneys General; the National Family Partnership; the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives; the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy; the National District Attorneys Association; the National Sheriffs Association; and The Partnership at Drugfree.org.

http://www.justice.gov/dea/pubs/pressrel/pr041911a.html

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