Cyberterrorism is under attack

WASHINGTON - The mysterious caller claimed to be from Microsoft and offered step-by-step instructions to repair damage from a software virus. The electric power companies weren't falling for it.

The caller, who was never traced or identified, helpfully instructed the companies to enable specific features in their computers that actually would have created a trapdoor in their networks. That vulnerability would have allowed hackers to shut down a plant and thrown thousands of customers into the dark.

The power employees hung up on the caller and ignored the advice.

The incident from February, documented by one of the government's emergency cyber- response teams, shows the persistent threat of electronic attacks and intrusions that could disrupt the country's most critical industries.

The House this coming week will consider legislation to better defend these and other corporate networks from foreign governments, cybercriminals and terrorist groups. But deep divisions over how best to handle the growing problem mean that solutions are a long way off.

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_20452663/cyberterrorism-is-under-attack

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From the Washington Times

Alternatives to Invisible Children and Kony 2012

WEST PALM BEACH, Fl ., April 21, 2012 – The Kony 2012 video helped raise international awareness of the problem of forced conscription of children into the brutal Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). Since the popularity of the viral video and associated campaign against Joseph Kony, international fugitive and head of the LRA, however, information has surfaced raising questions about Invisible Children, the organization behind the video.

Invisible Children may have pure intentions, but a relatively small percentage of donations go to the cause of stopping forced conscription of children. About 30 cents of every donated dollar goes to the children. Most of the funds raised are used for producing videos and paying salaries.

Invisible Children's method of fighting child solders is to fund the Ugandan army, which has been fighting Joseph Kony since 1987, when he launched his effort to overthrow the Ugandan government and instill a theocracy. However, Kony and the LRA no longer operate in Uganda. There are questions about whether the Ugandan military is serious about eradicating the LRA.

Over the last several years, it has benefitted from boosts in international aid – including additional US training and logistics personnel – which it will lose if the LRA stops operation.

http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/life-lisa/2012/apr/21/alternatives-invisible-children-and-kony-2012/

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Prostitution's problem is not the U.S. Secret Service

WEST PALM BEACH , Fl., April 20, 2012

Before President Obama's trip to the Summit of the America's in Cartagena, Colombia, Secret Service Agents engaged in a night of entertainment that included prostitutes.

Secret Service Agents initially were quick to point out the prostitution is legal in Cartagena, and they did nothing wrong.

One question is certainly whether we want Agents with poor judgment protecting the leader of the free world. But the second question is about prostitution.

Is it ok if it is legal? Is the fact that prostitution is illegal the only thing that makes it a problem? If prostitution was legal, would all the ugliness fade away?

Prostitution is the oldest profession in the world. Since it has been in existence, society has struggled with how to deal with prostitution and the sex trade.

http://communities.washingtontimes.com/neighborhood/life-lisa/2012/apr/21/prostitutions-problem-not-us-secret-service/

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From Google News

Task force to consider 'stand your ground' after Trayvon Martin death

(CNN) -- Florida authorities have picked 17 people to tackle a heated question brought on by the killing of unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin: whether the state's "stand your ground law" should be changed.

The task force, whose membership was announced Thursday, will hear impassioned arguments and testimony from residents at public meetings across the state. Its first meeting is set for May 1 in Tallahassee.

"We're not walking into this with any preconceived notions," Gov. Rick Scott said at a news conference. If there are "logical changes to be made," he said, the task force "will provide those."

It will pass along recommendations to the governor and the Legislature. The group will review Florida Statute Chapter 776, which deals with justifiable use of force, including the stand your ground provision.

The law allows people to use deadly force when they feel a reasonable threat of death or serious injury. Critics and defenders of the law have argued over just what it allows, when it applies and whether it achieves its intended effect.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/04/19/justice/florida-stand-your-ground/index.html

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Texas

Austin data buff gives civilians tools to help fight crime in their communities

An information technology analyst with more than 20 years of experience, Darby has worked for six technology consulting startups in Austin, modeling and converting data and forecasting trends. He is a numbers buff.

So in the 1990s, when his home in the Cherrywood neighborhood of East Austin was broken into twice on consecutive days — leaving him feeling powerless, he said — Darby fought back by crunching data.

He started by tracking crime trends in Cherrywood, where he has lived for more than 30 years, and in January 2007 decided to expanded his digging through police records to create an electronic compendium of crime statistics. He said he soon realized it wouldn't be too hard to cull data for the entire city.

Now, his website offers information about almost 2 million arrest and incident reports, mug shots and adjudicated case files through software that allows residents to track crimes that occur near their homes.

http://www.statesman.com/news/local/austin-data-buff-gives-civilians-tools-to-help-2318489.html

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Policies on wearing body armor vary across Top of Utah

At the time of the shootout, police department policy only required officers to purchase vests through a federal grant reimbursement program but did not state anything about wearing them, said Ogden Police Chief Mike Ashment.

The policy was changed in January after the shooting to require all uniform, crime reduction, community policing and traffic officers to wear body armor, Ashment said.

The new policy is necessary for the police department's continued participation in the Bulletproof Vest Partnership grant program administered by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Through the program, the Ogden Police Department receives up to 50 percent of the cost of each vest. The cost of body armor can range from several hundred to several thousand dollars.

http://www.standard.net/stories/2012/04/21/policies-wearing-body-armor-vary-across-top-utah

Police Chiefs from Netherlands study Dearborn's community policing

DEARBORN — The Dearborn Police Department hosted the FIANNA GROUP — a network of senior police chief from the Netherlands April 16.

The Dutch police are working at a strategic level on community policing.

The group wanted to gain information on best practices and innovative concepts on community policing.

The Dearborn department has been recognized by the Department of Homeland Security and the White House as a best practices model in the area of community dolicing.

Dearborn Police Chief Ron Haddad had a participating role in the development of National Policy because of the advanced relationship the Dearborn Police Department has with the entire Dearborn community as well as the chief's vision on cooperative efforts through out the South-East region of Michigan.

http://www.pressandguide.com/articles/2012/04/20/business/doc4f9164f779592231778197.txt

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New York

Rockland D.A., RCC will host seminar on 21st century crime-fighting

RAMAPO — The Rockland District Attorney's Office will host a conference next month that will dissect the crime-fighting challenges faced by law enforcement and government in the 21st century.

The May 3 conference will run from 8:30 a.m. until noon at the Technology Center Ellipse Room at Rockland Community College.

Government officials, police officials and community leaders can gain a clearer understanding of the issues related to “Crime in the 21st Century,” District Attorney Thomas Zugibe said in a news release.

The challenges will be outlined with some examples of tactics used by other law enforcement jurisdictions, Zugibe said.

He said the goal is to make those attending aware of what the trends are and how, in these financially difficult times, Rockland law enforcement and government can make policing and prosecuting more effective and efficient.

http://www.lohud.com/article/20120421/NEWS03/304210070/Rockland-D-RCC-will-host-seminar-21st-century-crime-fighting

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From the Department of Justice

Thank you, Mary Lou, for those kind words, and for the outstanding work that you and your team are leading at the Office of Justice Programs.

It is an honor to take part in this ceremony once again. And I want to thank Joye and her colleagues at the Office for Victims of Crime for bringing this extraordinary group of allies and advocates together; for organizing this week's events; and for their commitment, and expertise, in supporting victims' services year round.

It is a privilege to stand with you today, and to join with so many critical partners – including United States Attorneys Walker, of the Eastern District of North Carolina, and Machen, of the District of Columbia – who have been instrumental in advancing the Justice Department's efforts to protect the most vulnerable among us; to prevent and combat crime, violence, abuse, and exploitation; and to help victims seek justice, find hope, and rebuild their lives.

Today, because of many of the people in this very room – and thanks to the dedicated work of senior Department leaders like Acting Associate Attorney General West, Director Jarrett, and Director Alexandre; and partners like Chief Postal Inspector Cottrell – these efforts have never stronger. And I'm particularly grateful for all that this year's National Crime Victims' Service Award recipients have helped to achieve.

This year's 12 awardees have helped change the course of recovery for survivors of sexual assault; created one of the first state corrections-based victim assistance programs in the nation; and promoted awareness of – and improvements to – federal victims' rights laws.

http://www.justice.gov/iso/opa/ag/speeches/2012/ag-speech-120420.html

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Apr 20, 2012

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From the Washington Times

Nations unite for all-out effort to hunt down warlord Kony

KAMPALA, UGANDA — African nations have redoubled their resolve to capture Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony in the wake of the viral online documentary highlighting his rebel group's atrocities.

The African Union has started a troop surge to end the Lord's Resistance Army's 25-year war on civilians in East and Central Africa, weeks after the video “Kony 2012” attracted more than 100 million viewers on the Internet.

The force includes an estimated 5,000 soldiers from Uganda, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic, along with communications and logistic support from the United States, and civilian escorts from the U.N.

A regional task force will be headquartered in Yambio, South Sudan, and will allow for free movement of troops across borders.

Kony and his estimated 500 fighters, many of them abducted children, are thought to be hiding in the dense jungle border region of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/apr/19/africa-gearing-nab-ugandan-warlord-kony/

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Newest Michigan museum showcases racist artifacts

BIG RAPIDS, Mich. — The objects displayed in Michigan's newest museum range from the ordinary, such as simple ashtrays and fishing lures, to the grotesque — a full-size replica of a lynching tree. But all are united by a common theme: They are steeped in racism so intense that it makes visitors cringe.

That's the idea behind the Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia, which says it has amassed the nation's largest public collection of artifacts spanning the segregation era, from Reconstruction until the civil rights movement, and beyond.

The museum in a gleaming new exhibit hall at Ferris State University “is all about teaching, not a shrine to racism,” said David Pilgrim, the founder and curator who started building the collection as a teenager.

Pilgrim, who is black, makes no apologies for the provocative exhibits. The goal of the $1.3 million gallery, he explained, is “to get people to think deeply.”

The displays are startling. The n-word is prevalent throughout, and many items portray black men as lazy, violent or inarticulate. Black women are shown as kerchief-wearing mammies, sexually charged Jezebels or other stereotypes.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/apr/19/newest-michigan-museum-showcases-racist-artifacts/?page=all#pagebreak

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From Google News

Missouri

Community Policing Work Day set for Saturday in Carthage

CARTHAGE, Mo. — Area residents may show up to help clean up on Saturday when the Carthage Police Department holds its third Community Policing Work Day.

The event will focus on neighborhoods north of Central Avenue, where Carthage officers have been working in a community policing project designed to reduce crime and address other problems.

The work day, set for 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., will bring together police officers, volunteers from churches, civic groups and others to help residents with projects around their homes, said police Capt. Randee Kaiser.

“These are needs that residents have identified — usually things they've not been able to do because they're not physically able,” he said. “Volunteers can step in and help.”

http://www.joplinglobe.com/local/x1774444364/Community-Policing-Work-Day-set-for-Saturday-in-Carthage

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Apr 19, 2012

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From Google News

US Muslim: I was tortured at FBI's behest in UAE

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — His interrogators usually came in the morning. Peeking under a blindfold in a cold concrete cell, Yonas Fikre says he caught only glimpses of their shoes.

They beat the soles of his feet with hoses and sticks, asking him about his Portland, Ore., mosque and its imam. Each day, the men questioning him in a United Arab Emirates prison told the 33-year-old Fikre he would be released "tomorrow," according to an account he gave on Wednesday at a press conference in Sweden, where he has been since September.

"It was very hard, because you don't know why you are in there and the only person you speak to is either yourself, or the wall, or when you go to the restroom or when you go to the torture place," said Fikre, who was held for 106 days. "I have never been that isolated from human beings in my entire life."

An advocacy group alleges that over the past two years the FBI has been using aggressive tactics against Muslim-Americans travelling abroad to try to pressure them to become informants when they got home. Gadeir Abbas, staff attorney for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, says there have been several instances of FBI agents calling travelers into embassies or consulates for questioning.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hgjNbIiMbI_rEAJ-4b-L3rsnt_iA?docId=96eadf7ed9b946dda97fb5a1d6099068

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New Jersey

Englewood council, police department looking to take steps against underage drinking

ENGLEWOOD — The council is set to introduce an ordinance on underage drinking that holds the youth responsible rather than parents in the event of an arrest for underage drinking on private property.

The ordinance, Police Chief Arthur O'Keefe said, would provide the department with more leverage in those cases, and give the youth involved incentive to go through the county's Creating Healthy Attitudes in Teens, or CHAT, program.

"It's a way to have teens reconsider their behavior," Ellen Elias, director of the center, said at the April 3 council meeting where she and Lt. Claudia Cubillos of Englewood 's Juvenile Bureau and Community Policing made a presentation on the program and the ordinance.

"Our primary concern is for them to learn a lesson," Cubillos said. "The ordinance is a great tool for us."

In 2000, a state law was adopted allowing municipalities to pass laws holding youth responsible for underage drinking on private properties.

http://www.northjersey.com/news/148042625_Council__PD_looking_to_take_steps_against_underage_drinking___.html?page=all

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From the Department of Justice

It is an honor to join with you, and with this group of policy experts, frontline practitioners, service providers, and dedicated – and courageous – advocates like Dr. Anne Marie Hunter and Sharon Love – as we call for the legislative action, and the continued bipartisan Congressional leadership, that is necessary to better protect women and girls from violence, abuse, and exploitation. I want to thank each of our speakers and panelists for lending your voices to this work – and for sharing your concerns, as well as your remarkable stories, with us.

I'd also like to recognize the law enforcement officials; community leaders; school association representatives; local, state, and tribal advocates; and Congressional staffers who are here with us this morning. Through your partnership in implementing and enforcing the landmark Violence Against Women Act over the past two decades – and your leadership in working to refine, and fighting to reauthorize, this critical law – you have helped to improve – and even save – countless lives.

Recent statistics show that between 1993 – the year before then-Senator Joe Biden authored this transformative legislation – and 2010, the number of women killed by an intimate partner declined by 30 percent. And annual rates of domestic violence against women plummeted by two thirds.

http://www.justice.gov/iso/opa/ag/speeches/2012/ag-speech-120418.html

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Apr 18, 2012

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From the L.A. Daily News

Alleged Secret Service sex scandal may have involved 20 women

WASHINGTON - At least 20 foreign women and as many Secret Service officers and Marines met at a hotel in Colombia in an incident involving prostitution, and lawmakers are seeking information about any possible threat to the U.S. or to President Barack Obama who arrived for a conference soon after, congressional officials said Tuesday.

In briefings throughout the day, Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan told lawmakers that 11 members of his agency met with 11 women at a hotel in Cartagena and that more foreign females were involved with American military personnel.

Obama and some key congressional Republicans, meanwhile, said they continued to support Sullivan. "The president has confidence in the director of the Secret Service. Director Sullivan acted quickly in response of this incident and is overseeing an investigation as we speak in to the matter," said White House spokesman Jay Carney.

Sullivan shuttled between meetings with lawmakers Tuesday, outlining what his investigators in Washington and in Colombia have found about the incident. "Twenty or 21 women foreign nationals were brought to the hotel," Sen. Susan Collins, the ranking Republican on the Homeland Security Committee, said Sullivan told her. Eleven of the Americans involved were Secret Service, she reported, and "allegedly Marines were involved with the rest."

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_20416296/alleged-secret-service-sex-scandal-may-have-involved

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From Google News

Michigan

Port Huron shines a light on crime

Partnership offers motion-activated lighting

What started as a political science homework assignment for Brad Genaw has morphed into a community effort to light the darkest corners of Port Huron.

The 18-year-old Port Huron resident said when he wrote a letter to Rep. Candice Miller, R-Harrison Township, in the late fall for his class at St. Clair County Community College, it was like “writing a letter to Santa.” He never thought anything would come of it. He didn't even know if she'd read it.

But on Tuesday Genaw got a surprise. The Port Huron Police Department had a press conference announcing a new program called “Light Up the City.”

Chief Michael Reaves said it started with Genaw's letter, which was forwarded to him from Miller's office.

Genaw wrote in his letter he had concerns with an alley behind his White Street home not being lighted. A light fixture that had been on a neighboring garage was removed when the residents left the city nearly a year ago, and reports of vandalism and criminal activities in the alley weren't uncommon.

http://www.thetimesherald.com/article/20120418/NEWS01/304180005/Port-Huron-shines-light-crime?odyssey=nav%7Chead

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Apr 17, 2012

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From the Washington Times

Norway killer: ‘I would have done it again'

OSLO, Norway (AP) — Norwegian gunman Anders Behring Breivik defended his massacre of 77 people, insisting Tuesday he would do it all again and calling his rampage the most “spectacular” attack by a nationalist militant since World War II.

Reading a prepared statement in court, the anti-Muslim extremist lashed out at Norwegian and European governments for embracing immigration and multiculturalism.

He claimed to be speaking as a commander of an “anti-communist” resistance movement and an anti-Islam militant group he called the Knights Templar. Prosecutors have said the group does not exist.

Maintaining he acted out of “goodness, not evil” to prevent a wider civil war, Breivik vowed, “I would have done it again.”

Pressed by prosecutors later to explain what he meant, he compared his attacks to the U.S. atom bombs on Japan during World War II.

“They did it for something good. To prevent further war,” Breivik said.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/apr/17/norway-killer-i-would-have-done-it-again/?page=all#pagebreak

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School bus drivers take turns for the worse

Rash of reports of reckless behavior

School bus drivers across the nation have made headlines recently for all the wrong reasons, including spectacular crashes and charges of drunken driving and theft of the iconic yellow vehicle.

While the vast majority of bus drivers get their students to and from school each day with no problems, safety advocates say the rash of incidents, with reports of some operators acting less like responsible public servants and more like irresponsible Otto from “The Simpsons,” is troubling.

“The real problem comes down to economics. We pay these people barely above the minimum wage in some states. You sometimes get what you pay for,” said Alan Ross, president of the National Coalition for School Bus Safety.

Over the past two months, accusations of booze and cigarettes have brought trouble to some drivers. In Sumter, S.C., police say Lauritha McGhaney crashed her school bus into another vehicle, injuring its two occupants, while reaching for a lit cigarette she had dropped onto the floor. No students were on board at the time, but Ms. McGhaney has been charged with reckless driving, driving without a seat belt and smoking on a school bus, the Associated Press reported.

Miguel Rivera, a 49-year-old bus driver from Washington, Pa., has been accused of driving 142 students on a field trip while drunk. After being charged with driving under the influence, Mr. Rivera was stopped 17 hours later while driving drunk in his own vehicle, authorities say. In Grand Junction, Colo., a student texted his mother to say his bus driver smelled of alcohol. The driver, Gary Williams, 54, was later charged with impaired driving.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/apr/16/school-bus-drivers-take-turns-for-the-worse/?page=all#pagebreak

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Other targets eyed in NYC plot

Subway allegedly not only location contemplated

NEW YORK — Three former high school classmates, after getting terror training at an al Qaeda outpost, discussed bombing New York movie theaters, Grand Central Terminal, Times Square and the New York Stock Exchange before targeting the city's subways, a prosecutor said Monday at the trial for one of them.

Once back home, Adis Medunjanin and the others formed a sleeper cell of would-be suicide bombers that in 2009 nearly pulled off one of the most chilling terror plots since the Sept. 11 attacks, said Assistant U.S. Attorney James Loonam . The terror network valued them for their U.S. passports, which let them slip back into the U.S. and “blend in” until it was time to strike, he said.

The men “were prepared to kill themselves and everyone else around them - men, women and children,” Mr. Loonam said during opening statements in federal court in Brooklyn. “These men came so close - within days of carrying out this attack.”

Defense attorney Robert Gottlieb countered by accusing the government of using “inflammatory rhetoric” about al Qaeda and terrorism to prevent jurors “from seeing the truth about this case.”

The lawyer conceded his client - a Muslim born in Bosnia - had sought to support the Taliban's struggle against U.S. forces in Afghanistan, but denied he ever agreed to kill American civilians for al Qaeda.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/apr/16/us-other-targets-eyed-in-nyc-plot/

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From Google News

Panetta Calls for New Steps to Stop Assaults

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Monday announced new steps to combat sexual assaults in the military, with serious offenses such as rape and forcible sodomy subject to a court-martial review at the authority level of Army colonel or Navy captain.

"Sexual assault has no place in the military. It is a violation of everything that the U.S. military stands for," Panetta told a Capitol Hill news conference after a closed-door meeting with members of the House Armed Services Committee who have pushed for the Pentagon to take aggressive steps to stop sexual assaults.

The Pentagon said Friday that the number of reported sexual assaults had increased slightly last year, with 3,192 cases involving service members as either victims or perpetrators. But the Defense Department also has estimated that 86 percent of sexual assaults go unreported, a reflection of the fear some have for the prosecutorial system or their own standing in the service.

Panetta said that as Pentagon chief he would issue a directive changing the way cases are handled. A higher authority within the military now will review the most serious cases, ensuring that cases remain within the chain of the command and leaders are held responsible.

He said he would work with Congress on legislation implementing several other initiatives, including creation of special victims units within the services, allowing National Guard and reserve members to remain on active duty after they file a complaint and an explanation of sexual assault policies to all service members within 14 days of their entry in the military.

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/panetta-calls-steps-stop-assaults-16151778

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Duluth citizen patrols, police stress safety first

You could call it a walk with purpose.

You could call it a walk with purpose.

Debbie Isabell-Nelson and her Morgan Park citizen patrol group were out in the brisk weather late Monday afternoon, as they are every day, walking the street grid in the tightly knit community.

Citizen patrols are alive and well in Duluth, where there are six groups.

The Morgan Park walkers, along with patrols in other communities along the St. Louis River — Riverside, Gary-New Duluth, Fond du Lac — will hold a recruitment and training session tonight at the community center in Morgan Park, where they also will celebrate their partnership with Duluth Police Officer Jim Rodman. He is moving to the Life Safety Office within the Duluth Fire Department.

The recruitment is key as patrols have been in a harsh spotlight since the Feb. 26 shooting death of Trayvon Martin in Florida by an armed citizen patrol member, George Zimmerman.

http://www.duluthnewstribune.com/event/article/id/228803/

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How Safe Do You Feel in Your Neighborhood

FAITH LAPIDUS: Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus.

BOB DOUGHTY: And I'm Bob Doughty. Political and social scientist James Q. Wilson was interested in a great many subjects. But he was best known for his research into the behavior of criminals and police. He helped change the way policing is done is America.

FAITH LAPIDUS: James Q. Wilson died last month at the age of eighty. This week on our program we look back at his influence on modern policing. We also look at some of the ways technology is leading law enforcement into the future.

James Q. Wilson wrote the article with criminologist George Kelling. Crime and disorder in a community are usually linked, they said, and they used an example. "Social psychologists and police officers tend to agree that if a window in a building is broken and is left unrepaired, all the rest of the windows will soon be broken. This is as true in nice neighborhoods as in rundown ones," they wrote.

The idea was that keeping order in a community and fighting low-level crime can lead to a reduction in more serious crimes. The article was called "Broken Windows: The Police and Neighborhood Safety." The theory came to be known as the "broken windows" theory.

http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/Do-You-Feel-Safe-in-Your-Community-147609525.html

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Apr 16, 2012

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From the L.A. Daily News

Canoga Park veteran who helped free concentration camps returns to Europe

David Cohen hasn't been back to Europe since his U.S. Army unit swept through Germany at the end of World War II.

This week, though, the Canoga Park veteran will celebrate his 88th birthday in Poland. At Auschwitz, the site of the infamous Nazi death camp.

Cohen is one of 16 concentration camp liberators joining Holocaust survivors and some 10,000 high school students from 35 countries on the 25th March of the Living. It's the first time U.S. WWII vets will be going on the march from Auschwitz to Birkenau, which takes place on Holocaust Remembrance Day, April 19.

Like the survivors who have done so for a quarter century, the vets will tell the teenagers their eyewitness accounts of the Nazis' genocidal horrors, in hopes that the aged generation's stories do not die out with them.

Cohen - a 19-year-old enlisted man from Brooklyn at the time - will speak of a growing astonishment as the 69th Infantry Division drove deeper into Germany in the winter of 1945.

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_20405086/canoga-park-veteran-who-helped-free-concentration-camps

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From the Washington Times

Obama: ‘I'll be angry' if Secret Service allegations are true

President Obama said Sunday that he would be “angry” if accusations prove true that his Secret Service agents hired prostitutes, while congressional Republicans called for investigations of the scandal that exploded over the weekend and overshadowed the president's three-day Summit of the Americas trip to Colombia .

In a news conference in Cartagena before he departed, Mr. Obama said the charges, if true, would dishonor both the U.S. and the agency charged with his protection.

“If it turns out some of the allegations that have been made in the press are confirmed, then, of course, I'll be angry,” Mr. Obama said in his first public comments on the incident.

“We represent the United States,” the president said. “When we travel to another country, I expect them to observe the highest standards because we're not just representing ourselves. We're here on behalf of our people. … Obviously, what's been reported does not match up with those standards.”

Republicans went further Sunday, saying the reports of agents' bringing hookers to their hotel before Mr. Obama's arrival made the agents vulnerable to blackmail and could still be threatening the president's security.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/apr/15/obama-ill-be-angry-if-secret-service-allegations-a/?page=all#pagebreak

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From Google News

Why Airport Security Is Broken-And How To Fix It

Airport security in America is broken. I should know. For 3½ years—from my confirmation in July 2005 to President Barack Obama's inauguration in January 2009—I served as the head of the Transportation Security Administration.

You know the TSA. We're the ones who make you take off your shoes before padding through a metal detector in your socks (hopefully without holes in them). We're the ones who make you throw out your water bottles. We're the ones who end up on the evening news when someone's grandma gets patted down or a child's toy gets confiscated as a security risk. If you're a frequent traveler, you probably hate us.

More than a decade after 9/11, it is a national embarrassment that our airport security system remains so hopelessly bureaucratic and disconnected from the people whom it is meant to protect. Preventing terrorist attacks on air travel demands flexibility and the constant reassessment of threats. It also demands strong public support, which the current system has plainly failed to achieve.

The crux of the problem, as I learned in my years at the helm, is our wrongheaded approach to risk. In attempting to eliminate all risk from flying, we have made air travel an unending nightmare for U.S. passengers and visitors from overseas, while at the same time creating a security system that is brittle where it needs to be supple.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303815404577335783535660546.html#printMode

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Colorado

Fort Collins community policing to offer more than 'Band-Aids'

A more noticeable police presence is coming to Fort Collins neighborhoods this summer as a community policing unit rolls out to tackle quality-of-life issues from party houses to code enforcement.

The Neighborhood Enforcement Team expands police officers' role "so we can solve problems and not just apply Band-Aids to them," Fort Collins Police Chief John Hutto said.

The six officers and a sergeant are financed through the Keep Fort Collins Great ballot item approved in 2010. No other police resources will lose support as a result, he said.

Depending on an area's needs, police may be in a cruiser, on foot or riding a bicycle. They'll attend community meetings and work with and advise neighborhood watch organizations.

"We've seen what can go horribly wrong with neighborhood watches in Florida, for instance," Hutto said.

http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20120415/NEWS01/204150336/Fort-Collins-community-policing-offer-more-than-Band-Aids

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