Tuesday, May 22, 2012

U.S. Secret Service chief: no security breach from scandal

U.S. Secret Service chief: no security breach from scandal


U.S. Secret Service chief: no security breach from scandal

Posted: 22 May 2012 07:00 PM PDT

Director of the Secret Service Mark Sullivan at the National Peace Officers Memorial Service on Capitol Hill in WashingtonWASHINGTON (Reuters) - A prostitution scandal in Colombia involving U.S. Secret Service employees did not result in any security breach and was not behavior that reflected the high ethical standards of the agency, the director of the agency said. Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan defended the culture of the agency in testimony prepared for a Senate hearing on Wednesday, saying its employees were among the most dedicated and "self-sacrificing" in the federal government. It will be his first public appearance before Congress since the scandal. ...


Chicago police erase 1968 stain at last with NATO summit

Posted: 22 May 2012 06:14 PM PDT

Police arrest a man during an anti-NATO demonstration in downtown ChicagoCHICAGO (Reuters) - The NATO summit ended without major violence between police and protesters, winning praise for Chicago Police Chief Garry McCarthy and helping erase bad memories of the bloody street battles here during the 1968 Democratic convention. Ever since anti-Vietnam protesters were beaten in what a commission later called a "police riot" in 1968, Chicago has tried to live down its reputation for police brutality. ...


Thousands walk to mark year since tornado hit Joplin, Missouri

Posted: 22 May 2012 05:26 PM PDT

Artists Emily Frankoski and Dolores Bilke paint a tornado damaged tree in Joplin(Reuters) - An estimated 5,000 people participated on Tuesday in a "walk of unity" to Joplin, Missouri, along the path of a deadly tornado that tore through the city one year ago, killing 161 people. The anniversary of the tragedy also was marked by President Barack Obama, who traveled to Joplin to give the commencement address for graduating high school seniors whose school building was obliterated by the EF-5 tornado, the strongest on a rating scale for twisters. "Just as you have learned the goodness of people, so have you learned the power of community," Obama said. ...


White House said to give inside access for bin Laden film

Posted: 22 May 2012 05:10 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration arranged for two Hollywood filmmakers to get special access to government officials involved in the commando operation that killed Osama bin Laden, according to a conservative legal group that posted internal government documents on its website Tuesday. Judicial Watch posted what it said were 153 pages of Pentagon documents and 113 pages of CIA documents about the film project. ...

White supremacist gets 40 years for Arizona package bomb

Posted: 22 May 2012 06:59 PM PDT

PHOENIX (Reuters) - A U.S. federal judge sentenced a 61-year-old white supremacist to 40 years in jail on Tuesday for a racially motivated package bomb attack that injured a black city administrator in Arizona in 2004. Dennis Mahon was found guilty in February of three explosives- and conspiracy-related charges stemming from the attack on Don Logan, then the head of the diversity office for the city of Scottsdale. ...

Border patrol nabs fake UPS truck skirting checkpoint

Posted: 22 May 2012 06:55 PM PDT

SACRAMENTO (Reuters) - Border patrol agents found 13 illegal immigrants in the back of a fake UPS van after they noticed the brown vehicle with yellow insignia trying to circumvent a highway checkpoint, the agency said on Tuesday. The agents arrested the passengers, identified as Mexican citizens without legal immigration documents, at an inland checkpoint on Friday on the dusty Highway 111, about 50 miles by car from the U.S.-Mexico border. The driver of the replica mail delivery van, a 21-year-old U.S. ...

Defense begins in Philadelphia Archdiocese child sex abuse trial

Posted: 22 May 2012 05:54 PM PDT

Monsignor Lynn returns to the courthouse after lunch recess on the opening day of his child sex abuse trial in Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaPHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A priest testified on Tuesday that the Catholic Church had followed the advice of legal counsel in keeping quiet about molestation charges as lawyers for Monsignor William Lynn opened their case in the trial over the Philadelphia child sex abuse scandal. Lynn, 61, the most senior U.S. clergyman to go on trial in the Roman Catholic Church's pedophilia scandal, is charged with child endangerment and conspiracy over accusations he covered up child sex abuse allegations against priests, many of whom were simply transferred to unsuspecting parishes. ...


Two charged in killing of Chinese graduate students

Posted: 22 May 2012 05:44 PM PDT

University of Southern California grad student Ying Wu of Hunan, China is shown in this undated photograph provided by USCLOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Two men accused of fatally shooting a pair of Chinese graduate students at the University of Southern California were charged on Tuesday with capital murder, making them eligible to face the death penalty if convicted, prosecutors said. Engineering graduate students Ming Qu and Ying Wu, both 23, were killed early on April 11 as they were sitting in a parked car outside Wu's rented home, a few blocks from the USC campus. ...


Police arrest man in shooting outside Oklahoma NBA game

Posted: 22 May 2012 06:34 PM PDT

OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - Police on Tuesday arrested a 19-year-old man suspected of opening fire the night before outside an Oklahoma City arena in a shooting that wounded eight people after a National Basketball Association playoff game.

Five Oregon family members dead in suspected murder-suicide

Posted: 22 May 2012 05:56 PM PDT

PORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) - A mother and her three young children were found dead in a burning house in Salem, Oregon, on Tuesday and police said a man believed to be the children's father, whose body was discovered elsewhere, was the suspected killer. The bodies of the woman and children were found by firefighters after a neighbor noticed smoke billowing from a house in Salem, about 50 miles south of Portland. Their names and ages were not released. ...

Secret Service chief: no security breach from scandal

Posted: 22 May 2012 04:55 PM PDT

Director of the Secret Service Mark Sullivan at the National Peace Officers Memorial Service on Capitol Hill in WashingtonWASHINGTON (Reuters) - A prostitution scandal in Colombia involving U.S. Secret Service employees did not result in any security breach and was not behavior that reflected the high ethical standards of the agency, the director of the agency said. Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan defended the culture of the agency in testimony prepared for a Senate hearing on Wednesday, saying its employees were among the most dedicated and "self-sacrificing" in the federal government. It will be his first public appearance before Congress since the scandal. ...


Jury to take closer look at evidence in ex-Senator Edwards' trial

Posted: 22 May 2012 04:03 PM PDT

Former U.S. senator Edwards leaves the federal courthouse in GreensboroGREENSBORO, North Carolina (Reuters) - A North Carolina jury broke from its third day of deliberations after asking on Tuesday for a closer look at evidence offered to show that former U.S. Senator John Edwards committed a crime as he sought to hide his affair during his 2008 White House run. Jurors must decide if more than $900,000 funneled by two Edwards supporters to his then-pregnant mistress, Rielle Hunter, and his aide, Andrew Young, qualified as campaign contributions that are subject to limits and reporting requirements. ...


US schools with single-sex classrooms may face ACLU lawsuit

Posted: 22 May 2012 05:22 PM PDT

LITTLETON, New Hampshire (Reuters) - The American Civil Liberties Union is threatening legal action against as many as a dozen school districts from Maine to Mississippi unless they stop programs the group says illegally segregate boys and girls into single-sex classes and promote stereotypes. The group also was demanding that Florida's Department of Education launch an investigation into widespread single-sex teaching in that state, where 32 schools in 16 districts offer single-gender classes. ...

Death rate drops among Americans with diabetes -CDC

Posted: 22 May 2012 04:24 PM PDT

A diabetic patient injects himself with insulin in downtown Los Angeles July 30, 2007.ATLANTA (Reuters) - A 40 percent decline in the death rate of diabetic American adults from heart disease and strokes is a sign that patients are taking better care of themselves and receiving improved treatment, according to a government study released on Tuesday. While the drop in death rates from cardiovascular disease was the most dramatic, overall death rates among diabetic adults dropped 23 percent from 1997 to 2006, according to the study by researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health. ...


Flood of fake Chinese parts in US military gear: report

Posted: 22 May 2012 04:43 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Fake electronic parts are widespread in key U.S. military systems and threaten national security, with China the top source for bogus gear, a U.S. Senate investigation has concluded. The year-long probe by the Senate Armed Services Committee found counterfeit electronic parts from China in the Air Force's C-130J cargo plane, in assemblies for Special Operations helicopters and in the Navy's Poseidon surveillance plane, the panel said in its report released on Monday. ...

White supremacist gets 40 years for Arizona package bomb

Posted: 22 May 2012 04:53 PM PDT

PHOENIX (Reuters) - A federal judge sentenced a white supremacist to 40 years in jail on Tuesday for a 2004 package bombing that injured a black city administrator in Arizona. Dennis Mahon, 61, was found guilty in February of three explosives- and conspiracy-related charges stemming from the attack against Don Logan, then the head of the diversity office for the city of Scottsdale. His identical twin brother, Daniel Mahon, was acquitted of a single charge of conspiracy to damage buildings and property by means of explosives, following a six-week trial in U.S. District Court in Phoenix. ...

U.S. says drug abuse needs treatment, not just jail

Posted: 22 May 2012 01:17 PM PDT

LONDON (Reuters) - The United States sees drug abuse as a public health problem as much as a crime issue and is seeking to learn from countries in Europe and elsewhere about how to treat addiction as a disease, Barack Obama's drugs policy chief said on Tuesday. Gil Kerlikowske, the U.S. president's director of national drug control policy, said the United States is taking a more balanced approach to substance abusers rather than fighting a "war on drugs" centered mainly on law enforcement. ...

Blast at Illinois electric parts plant kills one

Posted: 22 May 2012 04:16 PM PDT

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A powerful explosion at a manufacturing plant in a Chicago suburb on Tuesday killed one worker and injured 12 people, including some who breathed in a caustic chemical released by the blast, the local fire chief said. A 55-year-old employee was repairing a testing machine at Arens Controls, a maker of electronic parts for automobiles and other vehicles, when there was an explosion in the machine, killing him, Arlington Heights Fire Chief Glenn Ericksen said. Seven workers among the 50 others working at the plant suffered concussion-like injuries, Ericksen said. ...

Exclusive: Spy agency seeks cyber-ops curriculum

Posted: 22 May 2012 11:39 AM PDT

A view of the National Security Agency at Ft. Meade, MarylandFORT MEADE, Maryland (Reuters) - The National Security Agency is trying to expand U.S. cyber expertise needed for secret intelligence operations against adversaries on computer networks through a new cyber-ops program at selected universities. The cyber-ops curriculum is geared to providing the basic education for jobs in intelligence, military and law enforcement that are so secret they will only be revealed to some students and faculty, who need to pass security clearance requirements, during special summer seminars offered by NSA. ...


U.S. Airways flight diverted due to "suspicious" passenger

Posted: 22 May 2012 01:27 PM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Airways flight from Paris to Charlotte, North Carolina, was diverted to an airport in Maine where it landed safely after reports of a passenger showing "suspicious behavior," U.S. officials said on Tuesday. Two fighter jets were scrambled in response to the incident on US Airways flight 787, which landed in Bangor, Maine. House Homeland Security Chairman Peter King said a female passenger, who was a French citizen born in Cameroon, handed a note to a flight attendant saying she had a surgically implanted device. ...

Court upholds $3.4 billion Native American deal

Posted: 22 May 2012 10:49 AM PDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An appeals court on Tuesday upheld a $3.4 billion settlement of a class-action lawsuit over mismanagement of government trust funds for hundreds of thousands of Native Americans, ruling that it was fair, reasonable and adequate. The settlement resolved a lawsuit filed in 1996 claiming the U.S. Department of the Interior had mismanaged funds held in trust on behalf of Native Americans. The trust money was from transactions involving land allotted to individual Native Americans under an 1887 law. ...

Alabama's Jefferson County votes to skip bond payment

Posted: 22 May 2012 03:13 PM PDT

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (Reuters) - County legislators for Alabama's bankrupt Jefferson County voted unanimously on Tuesday to skip a $15 million payment due October 1 on about $200 million of Jefferson County general obligation warrants. The cash-strapped county declared bankruptcy in November with slightly more than $4 billion in debt, which is the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. Last month, Jefferson County skipped - for the first time - a $15 million GO bond payment as officials said they needed the money to pay for basic government services. ...

Las Vegas police seek suspects in foiled casino heist

Posted: 22 May 2012 02:58 PM PDT

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Las Vegas police were seeking two men on Tuesday over a foiled weekend heist in which robbers tried to grab $115,000 in casino chips from a blackjack table, spraying the dealer with a substance akin to pepper spray. Police said two men approached a blackjack table at the Bellagio Hotel late on Saturday, and one of them sprayed a guest and a card dealer, according to the arrest report. One of the pair grabbed 23 chips valued at $5,000 each and tried to flee. Hotel employees stopped one of the men, identified as Michael Belton, 24, of California. ...

Ohio lawmakers set new limits on owning exotic animals

Posted: 22 May 2012 03:21 PM PDT

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) - Ohio state lawmakers on Tuesday approved restrictions on exotic animal ownership that were pressed by officials after a man released dozens of dangerous animals from his farm and then killed himself last fall, touching off a big game hunt to quell a panic. The Ohio House voted 87 to 9 to approve restrictions and the Senate quickly concurred. The bill next goes to Governor John Kasich, who has indicated that he will sign it. ...

Mountain lion wanders into California city center, is killed

Posted: 22 May 2012 03:03 PM PDT

Handout photo of a mountain lion cornered in Santa Monica, CaliforniaLOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A mountain lion ventured into the center of a crowded Southern California city on Tuesday, and was shot and killed when authorities had trouble corralling the animal in the courtyard of a building, police said. It was not immediately clear how the 3-year-old mountain lion weighing about 75 pounds (34 kg) ended up in the middle of the beachside city of Santa Monica, which lies just west of Los Angeles. ...


FBI urged to include White House in leak inquiry

Posted: 22 May 2012 12:02 PM PDT

(Reuters) - Two Republican congressional leaders have asked the FBI to examine whether White House officials may have inadvertently fueled news leaks which disrupted a Western intelligence operation targeting Al Qaeda's Yemen-based affiliate. On Monday, Rep Peter King, chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, requested that an FBI investigation of alleged leaks cover the White House, including the National Security staff, according to a letter which King sent to FBI director Robert Mueller. Later on Monday, Sen. ...

Coast Guard suspends search off Texas for fishing boat

Posted: 22 May 2012 02:04 PM PDT

SAN ANTONIO (Reuters) - The U.S. Coast Guard said on Tuesday it had suspended its search off the Texas coast for a fishing boat with six people aboard after a radio transmission that had reported it was sinking. An emergency radio caller said on Sunday the boat was sinking in the Gulf of Mexico near Galveston and he and the five others aboard were climbing into a life raft. After searching about 2,400 nautical square miles by air and sea, "we found no signs of debris, no signs of anything that indicates that a vessel went down," Coast Guard spokeswoman Elvie Damaso said. ...

New York City to get first major natgas line in 40 years

Posted: 22 May 2012 12:41 PM PDT

The Brooklyn Bridge can be seen lit up during 125th anniversary celebrations in New YorkNEW YORK (Reuters) - The bright lights of New York City may burn a little cleaner next year, when the first major natural gas pipeline in a generation is built to connect the largest U.S. metropolis to new energy-producing regions across the country. Spectra Energy's controversial $1.2 billion pipeline, which received approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Monday, has met with stiff opposition from local communities, but is seen as a key to reduce New York's reliance on dirtier oil-based fuels. ...


Two charged in killing of Chinese graduate students

Posted: 22 May 2012 12:54 PM PDT

(Reuters) - Two men accused of fatally shooting a pair of Chinese graduate students at the University of Southern California were charged on Tuesday with capital murder, making them eligible to face the death penalty if convicted, prosecutors said. Engineering graduate students Ming Qu and Ying Wu, both 23, were killed early on April 11 as they were sitting in a parked car outside Wu's rented home, a few blocks from the USC campus. ...

U.S. Secret Service chief: no security breach from scandal

Posted: 22 May 2012 07:00 PM PDT

Director of the Secret Service Mark Sullivan at the National Peace Officers Memorial Service on Capitol Hill in WashingtonWASHINGTON (Reuters) - A prostitution scandal in Colombia involving U.S. Secret Service employees did not result in any security breach and was not behavior that reflected the high ethical standards of the agency, the director of the agency said. Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan defended the culture of the agency in testimony prepared for a Senate hearing on Wednesday, saying its employees were among the most dedicated and "self-sacrificing" in the federal government. It will be his first public appearance before Congress since the scandal. ...


White supremacist gets 40 years for Arizona package bomb

Posted: 22 May 2012 06:59 PM PDT

PHOENIX (Reuters) - A U.S. federal judge sentenced a 61-year-old white supremacist to 40 years in jail on Tuesday for a racially motivated package bomb attack that injured a black city administrator in Arizona in 2004. Dennis Mahon was found guilty in February of three explosives- and conspiracy-related charges stemming from the attack on Don Logan, then the head of the diversity office for the city of Scottsdale. ...

Border patrol nabs fake UPS truck skirting checkpoint

Posted: 22 May 2012 06:55 PM PDT

SACRAMENTO (Reuters) - Border patrol agents found 13 illegal immigrants in the back of a fake UPS van after they noticed the brown vehicle with yellow insignia trying to circumvent a highway checkpoint, the agency said on Tuesday. The agents arrested the passengers, identified as Mexican citizens without legal immigration documents, at an inland checkpoint on Friday on the dusty Highway 111, about 50 miles by car from the U.S.-Mexico border. The driver of the replica mail delivery van, a 21-year-old U.S. ...

Preliminary hearing for "NATO 3" delayed until June

Posted: 22 May 2012 06:18 PM PDT

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A judge postponed a preliminary hearing in Chicago on Tuesday for three men arrested last week ahead of a NATO summit on terrorism-related charges to give prosecutors more time to assemble the case against them. The suspects, Brent Betterly, 24, Jared Chase, 27, and Brian Church, 20 - each being held on $1.5 million bond - appeared before Cook County Circuit Court Judge Adam Bourgeois Jr., who granted a prosecution request and postponed the hearing until June 12. The men, dubbed "the NATO Three" by Chicago media, did not speak during the brief hearing. ...

Chicago police erase 1968 stain at last with NATO summit

Posted: 22 May 2012 06:14 PM PDT

Police arrest a man during an anti-NATO demonstration in downtown ChicagoCHICAGO (Reuters) - The NATO summit ended without major violence between police and protesters, winning praise for Chicago Police Chief Garry McCarthy and helping erase bad memories of the bloody street battles here during the 1968 Democratic convention. Ever since anti-Vietnam protesters were beaten in what a commission later called a "police riot" in 1968, Chicago has tried to live down its reputation for police brutality. ...


Five Oregon family members dead in suspected murder-suicide

Posted: 22 May 2012 05:56 PM PDT

PORTLAND, Oregon (Reuters) - A mother and her three young children were found dead in a burning house in Salem, Oregon, on Tuesday and police said a man believed to be the children's father, whose body was discovered elsewhere, was the suspected killer. The bodies of the woman and children were found by firefighters after a neighbor noticed smoke billowing from a house in Salem, about 50 miles south of Portland. Their names and ages were not released. ...

Defense begins in Philadelphia Archdiocese child sex abuse trial

Posted: 22 May 2012 05:54 PM PDT

Monsignor Lynn returns to the courthouse after lunch recess on the opening day of his child sex abuse trial in Philadelphia, PennsylvaniaPHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - A priest testified on Tuesday that the Catholic Church had followed the advice of legal counsel in keeping quiet about molestation charges as lawyers for Monsignor William Lynn opened their case in the trial over the Philadelphia child sex abuse scandal. Lynn, 61, the most senior U.S. clergyman to go on trial in the Roman Catholic Church's pedophilia scandal, is charged with child endangerment and conspiracy over accusations he covered up child sex abuse allegations against priests, many of whom were simply transferred to unsuspecting parishes. ...


Two charged in killing of Chinese graduate students

Posted: 22 May 2012 05:44 PM PDT

University of Southern California grad student Ying Wu of Hunan, China is shown in this undated photograph provided by USCLOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Two men accused of fatally shooting a pair of Chinese graduate students at the University of Southern California were charged on Tuesday with capital murder, making them eligible to face the death penalty if convicted, prosecutors said. Engineering graduate students Ming Qu and Ying Wu, both 23, were killed early on April 11 as they were sitting in a parked car outside Wu's rented home, a few blocks from the USC campus. ...


Thousands walk to mark year since tornado hit Joplin, Missouri

Posted: 22 May 2012 05:26 PM PDT

Artists Emily Frankoski and Dolores Bilke paint a tornado damaged tree in Joplin(Reuters) - An estimated 5,000 people participated on Tuesday in a "walk of unity" to Joplin, Missouri, along the path of a deadly tornado that tore through the city one year ago, killing 161 people. The anniversary of the tragedy also was marked by President Barack Obama, who traveled to Joplin to give the commencement address for graduating high school seniors whose school building was obliterated by the EF-5 tornado, the strongest on a rating scale for twisters. "Just as you have learned the goodness of people, so have you learned the power of community," Obama said. ...


US schools with single-sex classrooms may face ACLU lawsuit

Posted: 22 May 2012 05:22 PM PDT

LITTLETON, New Hampshire (Reuters) - The American Civil Liberties Union is threatening legal action against as many as a dozen school districts from Maine to Mississippi unless they stop programs the group says illegally segregate boys and girls into single-sex classes and promote stereotypes. The group also was demanding that Florida's Department of Education launch an investigation into widespread single-sex teaching in that state, where 32 schools in 16 districts offer single-gender classes. ...

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