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From the L.A. Daily News

Gun buyback program nets more than 600 weapons in first hour

by C.J. Lin

Authorities were hoping to net about 2,000 weapons in the city's annual gun buyback program Saturday, but the total tally of firearms that locals exchanged for gift cards won't be available until Monday, according to officials.

The program, in its fourth year and held on Mother's Day weekend, is aimed at cutting down on shootings by allowing people to turn in the weapons - no questions asked - at six locations around the city, including Facey Medical Center in Mission Hills.

About 600 to 700 guns were surrendered citywide in just the first hour, according to LAPD Lt. Andy Neiman. Since the program started in 2009, more than 6,200 guns have been collected.

"Any time you can remove guns that are the potential tool to destroy human lives, it's a positive thing," Neiman said. "So rather than these guns fall into the hands of someone who would do evil with it, they're surrendered and destroyed, and these folks get a gift card to do something nice."

Those turning in handguns and shotguns got a $100 gift card to Ralphs grocery stores or a prepaid Visa card. Assault rifles - like an Egyptian-made AK-47 that came with a 75-round drum magazine that was turned in at Mission Hills - netted $200.

Last year, the city collected 953 handguns, 688 rifles, 330 shotguns and 91 assault weapons. An anti-tank rocket launcher was also turned in.

LAPD will check the guns to see if they were stolen in an attempt to return them to their rightful owners. Otherwise, they will be melted down into rebar.

Allowing people to turn in the guns anonymously and then destroying them have been sore points for pro-gun activist Bruce Boyer, who was trying to direct people away from the city's buyback and toward gun shops.

"This program has a real function of criminals getting a get-out-of-jail-free card," said Boyer, president of San Fernando-based Lone Star Security.

"It's immunity. If even five guns were used in a murder, and five murderers don't go to prison because the city runs this shenanigan stunt, that's five too many."

But getting the guns off the streets far outweighs the slim chance of a murder weapon being destroyed, Neiman said.

"It's a risk we're willing to take to save the lives of many others," Neiman said. "There's always the potential that we could destroy a gun or weapon that was used in a crime. That definitely is there. However, the benefit of destroying weapons in general is that you're taking that potential weapon away from someone who could hurt someone else."

The city collects an average of about 2,000 guns at the buyback each year, according to Neiman. The biggest number was collected in 2010, when more than 2,500 guns were turned in.

City News Service contributed to this report.

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_20611015/gun-buyback-program-nets-more-than-600-weapons

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Fire Service Day offers a look at the life of firefighters

by C.J. Lin

It's not just about putting out fires and saving stranded kittens from trees. Firefighting is also about rushing to provide emergency medical service, cutting people out of mangled cars and cleaning up chemical spills.

Locals got a peek into the lives of firefighters Saturday as part of Fire Service Day, when fire stations across the Los Angeles region opened their doors for tours, demonstrations and other family-friendly activities to increase awareness of services offered by the departments.

At Burbank Fire Department, firefighters simulating the rescue of people trapped after a car crash tore apart a van using saws and the Jaws of Life, prying apart the doors to amazement of children and adults alike.

The demonstration was a firsthand look at one aspect of a firefighter's job, and a good learning experience for Glendale resident Michael Zufelt and his 6-year-old son, Zavery.

"I was explaining to them what the Jaws of Life were, and they had no idea what I was saying," said Zufelt, who watched a firefighter use an axe to dislodge the van's windshield. "It's good that I can show them where someone gets stuck in the car, and now they can actually see it."

It was also a chance for the kids to get used to public safety personnel and not be intimidated when there's trouble, Zufelt said.

"You want them to feel comfortable around police and firefighters so if there's a problem, they can go talk to them," Zufelt said. "They kind of have a rapport established. It's not as scary. They're people and they hand you balloons, and all that kind of stuff."

Zavery, while excited by the action, was even more excited about the tour and medal he was awarded for completing a firefighting obstacle course.

Children, with the help of cadets, attached a hose to a hydrant, then shot a stream of water at a wooden house facade, knocking down fake flames on hinges in the windows. Up next was using a hammer to ventilate a roof, then lugging coiled hose, then finishing the job by rolling the hose back up.

"It's just showing them what we do on a small scale, and getting the kids excited and showing a little interest," said firefighter Cameron Cerwin.

But it wasn't all just about fighting fires, said Cerwin, who guided his 3-year-old son through the course. Hazmat and training Community Emergency Response Teams are part of the deal, too, he said.

"That's what you'll see when you walk around - you see the EMS side, which is a large part of our job, about 90 percent," Cerwin said. "Fighting fire is a small scale."

Paramedics were also teaching a basic form of CPR called "street CPR" that doesn't require mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. The technique in recent years has shifted away from mouth-to-mouth, instead focusing only on chest compressions because studies have shown that it's more important to keep the heart pumping and blood circulating rather than stopping and starting up again, according to firefighter Devon Meister, a paramedic.

Street CPR is more sanitary, and easier for people to perform because they don't have to know the breath-to-compression ratios, Meister said.

"It's so more people can have a basic understanding so any person on the street can help somebody," said Meister said. "If someone goes down, call 911 to get that ball rolling, and then go straight to compressions."

The lesson was a good brush-up to the CPR skills that Phil Restivo Jr. learned as a Marine, especially since the techniques have evolved.

"It's changed so it's important to keep up to date on stuff," said Restivo, of Burbank. "We live in earthquake country. We're interested in being safe.

"It's always an important thing."

http://www.dailynews.com/breakingnews/ci_20611014/fire-service-day-offers-look-at-life-firefighters

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Ray Castellani serves up his one millionth sandwich to homeless

by Susan Abram

The first time Ray Castellani drove down to Skid Row to feed the hungry, he handed out 111 peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches and cups of coffee from the back of his pickup truck.

He went back a second time with more sandwiches. And a third time, with even more food.

He returned again and again, toward the hopeless, the unloved, and the desperately addicted of downtown Los Angeles. Now, 25 years later, Castellani has given out 999,889 sandwiches - just 111 short of 1 million.

On Sunday, he will serve up that millionth sandwich and with that, he thinks maybe God will relieve him of duty.

"I was told to do this," Castellani, 79, said of his meal giveaways. "It wasn't coming from the goodness of my heart. I was orchestrated by God. That's the story. I was obedient to a call."

But it's been a difficult call to answer. Two years ago, Castellani told the Daily News he was quitting for good. He had come to a crossroads emotionally, and the economy had sliced away at the donations to the nonprofit Frontline Foundation he founded after he delivered those first few sandwiches.

At one time, the organization's volunteers prepared and packaged meals for up to 6,500 a month, working from a kitchen in Van Nuys.

And he never had to ask. When people heard about what he was doing, they just brought more food. Casseroles, hot dogs, even fancy sandwiches on naan with humus spread came to him from school children, businesses and religious groups.

Frontline even garnered national attention. President George H.W. Bush and First Lady Barbara Bush took notice, as well as President Bill Clinton, who in 1995 invited Castellani to the White House to present him with the President's Service Award, the country's highest volunteer honor.

But the work took its toll. Castellani suffered two heart attacks.

The recession hit. Donations were barely trickling in. In 2010, Castellani had to close the industrial kitchen.

But he couldn't turn away from the men and women he came to know down on Skid Row.

"He can't not do it," said Noreen Castellani, Ray's ex-wife who was there with him at the beginning of Frontline. "That's hard for people to understand. It's hard for me to understand, to have something inside you so strong that it directs your life."

So even though the breads and deli meats stopped coming, Castellani continued going to Skid Row with fewer sandwiches and on less days.

He'd tell his doctor, dentists, nurses who tended to him about what he was doing.

The donations starting coming back.

"I think he's such a dynamic person and people admire the fact that he has this calling," Noreen Castellani said. "I think Frontline has endured because of his charisma. Whenever he speaks to people, he inspires them to get involved."

On a recent day at his home, Castellani said he was awaiting a volunteer to bring him some ingredients for the sandwiches, likely hundreds of them, he'll serve on Skid Row today. He'll have tuna fish, peanut butter, and egg salad sandwiches, along with some chips and candies. He likes to give the homeless a choice, he said, because they have so few.

Castellani said much has changed since that December day in 1987 when he delivered those first peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

In those days, Skid Row was an alcoholic's world, where the homeless could spread out and sleep near the railroad tracks or under the bridges. It was a volatile place, where people died on the street. Once an alcoholic himself, Castellani said he could relate to the men and women he met.

"When I handed out those sandwiches that first time, I felt I was in communion with people," he said. "I felt as if I had touched the soul of mankind."

Castellani, who was working then as a character actor playing bad guys in such television shows as "Quincy," "Simon & Simon" and "CHiPs," left the business just as he was getting better parts, so he could focus on Frontline. He made his living painting houses, he said.

Over time, he saw Skid Row change as well. Some homeless forgo missions and the SROs and simply squat. Their world condensed as the down-on-their-luck, the immigrants, the drug-addicted and the mentally ill all share a small space around Fifth and San Julian streets, where Castellani parks his van and he and his volunteers hand out food.

Castellani said he knows some social service agencies say just providing food is not the answer to homelessness. But some people simply don't want to be bothered, he said.

"These are people who want to be left alone," he said. "They have been talked to, preached to, saved, moved, and slashed."

Volunteer Wendy Williams said when the men and women see Castellani, they seem to come alive.

"Every one of them comes up to Ray," Williams said. "They race up to the car and say `We love you!"'

Castellani said he's uncertain if Sunday will be his last delivery, if the calling he has heard all these years will subside.

"I don't know what is next in my life," he said.

"I think it may end," he said, of his mission on Skid Row. "I think the curtain is coming down."

He said if he had to do it all over, he wouldn't do it. It's been too difficult.

"Twenty five years of this and all I have is this white hair, these wrinkles on my face, the years of sickness and all I went through," he said. "I could have been something else."

But then again, that calling may come and Castellani could be out there again. And again.

"I take no credit," he said. "This has all been placed in front of me and I just did it."

http://www.dailynews.com/ci_20610211/ray-castellani-serves-up-his-one-millionth-sandwich

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From Google News

Hunt to find doctors training Al Qaeda to plant explosives inside suicide bombers

by Tara Brady

Doctors are training Al-Qaeda in Yemen to plant explosives inside the bodies of suicide bombers, it is believed.

Security at airports in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East has been stepped up amid fears terrorists with surgically implanted bombs are planning to strike on the eve of Osama bin Laden's death.

Body scanners would not be able to detect if explosive compounds were planted inside a person sparking fears the bombers could evade airport security and bring down an aircraft.

Western intelligence believe a group of doctors are working with Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri - chief bomb maker for Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) - who has been in hiding.

Al-Asiri was responsible for placing a bomb inside the rectal cavity of his 23-year-old brother, Abdullah, in a botched suicide mission aimed at Saudi Arabian intelligence chief Prince Muhammad bin Nayef in 2009.

He was also responsible for building the underwear bomb used by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab in an attempt to bring down a Detroit-bound jetliner on Christmas Day in 2009.

Now the CIA fear medics are working with the terrorist and want to hunt them down before the 'body-bombers' strike.

A western security official told The Sunday Times: 'This is a transferable skill and there is still some concern.'

Experts say wounds could heal following the planting of explosive compounds such as PETN (pentaerythritol tetranitrate) inside a person.

The device could be detonated by injection.

Last week, it emerged that an Al Qaeda bomber sent to blow up a U.S.-bound airliner was actually a double agent who infiltrated the group and volunteered for the suicide mission.

Saudi Arabia's intelligence agency placed the undercover operator inside Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula where he convinced his handlers to give him the new type of non-metallic bomb.

The agent, who was in Yemen, was liaising with the CIA before handing the device over to intelligence services.

The explosive device was supposed to be smuggled aboard an aircraft undetected and then detonated.

The agent arrived safely in an unidentified country and is being debriefed.

The device is in a secure laboratory in Virginia where it is being examined.

AQAP has now been identified as the most dangerous and determined branch of the terror network.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2143695/Hunt-doctors-training-Al-Qaeda-plant-explosives-inside-suicide-bombers.html

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NYPD's stop-and-frisk stops still on the rise

Associated Press

NEW YORK — The latest numbers show the New York Police Department's skyrocketing street stops increased to more than 200,000 stops during the first three months of 2012.

The NYPD says officers stopped people on New York City's streets 203,500 times from January through March. That's up from 183,326 during the same quarter last year.

The policy allows an officer to stop a person based on reasonable suspicion, which is lower than that of probable cause needed to justify an arrest.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the practice has gotten guns off the streets and saved lives. The city's number of murders is expected to be a record low of less than 500 this year.

Critics say the police department is unfairly targeting minorities.

http://online.wsj.com/article/AP98b6e8a2f396476487f069c62d06f4b5.html

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Illinois

Lynwood entering ‘new age’ for community policing

by STEVE METSCH

Would-be wrongdoers who are considering committing a crime in Lynwood may think twice, thanks to a new software application the police department soon will be rolling out.

Another option is to smile for the camera as they are caught in the act.

Using a new free app, nearly anyone with a smart phone who witnesses a crime will be able to send text messages, photos or videos to the Lynwood Police Department even as the crime is being committed.

A number of cities nationwide are using the application, and Lynwood Police Chief Michael Mears envisions a day when other Southland communities get the software, “and we could all share data and info in real time,” he said.

“It’s basically the new age for community policing,” said Mears, who expects to launch the program in Lynwood soon.

Anybody with a smart phone, iPhone, Blackberry or Android can download iWatch — the free app — from their app store and start sending in crime reports, he said. Reports also can be sent from a home computer.

Even reports that involve public works issues — such as stop signs being knocked down or faulty streetlights — will be accepted. But to Mears, it’s more about reporting crimes and having more eyes and ears on the streets.

“This is a no-brainer for me,” he said. “It not only involves policing, but it involves the whole community.”

Lynwood is the first community in Illinois to offer the program. After a set-up fee of $1,000, the village will pay $70 monthly for the service, Mears said.

Tips received will be steered toward the proper recipient. For example, a tip about a narcotics crime would go to detectives; a tip about an officer acting unprofessionally would go to internal affairs.

The app, Mears said, makes it easier for police to collect information from a sometimes reluctant public.

“In this day and age, it’s hard to get information from the public. They now have the opportunity to give us information anonymously, if they choose, or with their name,” he said.

Mears said the app won’t create a “Big Brother” atmosphere because, to some extent, it’s already been done.

“Everybody has to be cognizant they’re on camera now whenever they’re out in public — at banks, convenience stores and red lights,” he said.

Software creator Dan Elliott, of iThinQware, said nearly 70 cities and towns nationwide use the system.

Police in Bridgeport, Conn., started using it in October.

“We love it. We get four tips a day,” Lt. David Daniels said.

Anonymous tips led to arrests for two murders this year, he said.

“People can tell us what happened at their own leisure. When crimes occur, the police are hardly ever there, but the public is often there,” he said. “This is the best thing we ever did. It’s changed the way we fight crime in the city. This helps you do a lot more because everybody has a smart phone in their pocket.”

In Bridgeport, population 143,000, about 1,000 residents have downloaded the app, Daniels said.

Mears won’t be asking Lynwood residents to act as police officers.

“This gives more reason not to,” he said. “You can ultimately use the power of your phone. Instead of getting into a confrontation, you capture what’s going on, send it and drive away.

“I need to stress this is not a 911 reporting system. This is for tips. If there is a heated domestic argument going on, we don’t want someone getting stabbed doing this. This is for observation. It will be monitored by dispatch, but by no means does it take precedent over the 911 operations.”

The Cook County Sheriff’s Department is familiar with the app, thinks Lynwood will benefit from it and is interested in a variation of the app, spokeswoman Brittney Blair said.

“Community policing is a huge priority for us,” she said.

http://southtownstar.suntimes.com/12398231-522/lynwood-entering-new-age-for-community-policing.html