Thursday, October 31, 2013
manessmorrison2@yahoo.com


News Clips For The Day

Judge orders surveillance images released in teen's gym death – CNN

Valdosta, Georgia (CNN) -- Surveillance images and other materials that could shed light on the January death of a Georgia teen found dead inside a rolled up high school gym mat must be released to the boy's parents, a Lowndes County judge ruled Wednesday.
"We are happy to hear we are one step closer to the truth," Kendrick Johnson's father, Kenneth Johnson said after the hearing.
A state medical examiner ruled Kendrick, a high school athlete, suffocated after getting stuck in the gym mat. His parents -- who believe he was murdered -- disputed the findings and won a court order to have their son's body exhumed for another autopsy.
The materials to be released by the judge -- photographs from inside the gym at Lowndes County High School, surveillance video from outside and investigative documents -- are unlikely to prove what happened to the boy, attorney Chevene King said.
None of the imagery is believed to show whatever happened that led to Kendrick's death, King said.
Gym mat death shocker: Body stuffed with newspaper
But the materials could cast doubt the official explanation and nudge officials towards reclassifying Kendrick's death to allow a new investigation into what happened, King said.
"Essentially, it shifts the focus from what the sheriff had offered to other theories that were not explored and that have I think begun to slowly creep to the surface," King said after the hearing.
Last week, a lawyer for Lowndes County High School told CNN that surveillance footage from the gym shows other teens were inside around the time Johnson died.
The school district and sheriff's office had refused to release some of the materials, citing state law that exempts the release of "education records of a minor child."
CNN filed a motion last week to join the family's lawsuit seeking investigative files related to the case, including the surveillance records. The motion was granted.
Kendrick's parents will be among those who will review the images.
You can't prepare yourself for it," he told reporters. "It's just something we have to do. We're fighting for Kendrick to the end."
Kendrick Johnson's parents want answers


Video released in mysterious death of Georgia teen Kendrick Johnson leaves questions unanswered – NBC, 1:00 PM

Surveillance video taken at a Georgia high school where a student was found dead, rolled up in a gym mat, was released on Wednesday — but it doesn't appear to show the fateful moment.
The release came after a judge ordered that the recordings be released, which the parents had requested in an effort to learn more about how their son, Kendrick Johnson, died.
One part of the the newly released footage shows Johnson walking into the gym and onto the basketball court where other people are playing. The publicly released video does not show Johnson's death or anything leading up to it. Hours of additional footage may came from cameras inside and outside the gym.
Southern Judicial Circuit Chief Judge Harry Altman made the ruling shortly after a meeting with the attorney for Johnson’s parents, Benjamin Crump, as well as representatives from the local sheriff’s office and the Lowndes County School District.
"This is not a home run, but it gets us on first base," Crump, a civil rights lawyer who had previously worked with Trayvon Martin's family, told WXIA after the meeting. 
The Johnson family, which has requested a coroner’s inquest into their son’s death, will have unrestricted access to view all of the video footage, according to the judge's ruling.
Asked Wednesday about watching his son's final moments on video, Kendrick's father, Kenneth Johnson, said: “It's just something we have to do. And so we're fighting for Kendrick ‘til the end.”
In advance of the video release Jacquelyn Johnson, Kendrick's mother, told NBC News they were determined to learn how their son died.
“We're not stopping until we get justice," she said.

FromCNN, October 13, 2013
(CNN) -- Georgia teen Kendrick Johnson, who was found dead in a rolled-up gym mat at his high school in January, died as the result of "unexplained, apparent non-accidental, blunt force trauma," according to a newly released, independent autopsy report.
The report, obtained exclusively Tuesday by CNN, directly contradicts the finding of an autopsy conducted by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation that determined that Johnson's death was the result of positional asphyxia. The Lowndes County Sheriff's Office determined that his death was accidental.


One baby step forward, at last, but why didn't they release all of the tapes? The body of a teenaged boy simply could not have slipped inside a rolled up mat. There wouldn't be enough space inside for that. A boy 17 years of age is almost grown. The body had to have been placed there and rolled up around him. This was no accident.

The Sheriff and the school have been trying to prevent a scandal, but by doing so they have created a bigger one. I can't wait to hear what else happens. That's my personal opinion, of course, but to me it seems obvious that this is a murder. It is also probable, unfortunately, that another teen killed him. Teens are big enough and aggressive enough to be dangerous. They aren't really “kids” anymore by the time they are in their teens, and sometimes one of their “bullying” episodes gets out of hand and results in injury or death.

The Sheriff was quoted in one story as saying that he and the school had withheld the tapes because they contained images of youths, as though youths can't be criminals. They failed to investigate this case properly, whatever their reasons. Hopefully they will now reopen the case and at least classify it as a murder. One CNN report, above, said that the second autopsy has shown blunt force trauma as the cause of death.



Shot in face, cop chased suspects 'because I am a mom' – NBC
Video: Police officer Ann Carrizales was shot twice, including once in the face, during a routine traffic stop, but instead of backing down and allowing her fellow cops to chase down the suspects, she chased them in her squad car for 20 miles until they were caught. NBC’s Janet Shamlian reports.
Texas police officer Ann Carrizales took two bullets at point-blank range — including one to the face — during an early morning traffic stop last Saturday. Yet she still went after the bad guys.
“It wasn’t an option for me to give up,” the 40-year-old former Marine and mother of two told NBC’s Janet Shamlian. “I had to stay in that fight because I am a mom and they shot me and they were absolutely not going to get away with that, because I will do everything I can to come home to my children every day.”
Carrizales pulled over a car in Stafford, Texas, just outside Houston, around 3 a.m. She said her instincts told her something was amiss as she walked up to the car with three men inside.
Within seconds, the front-seat passenger leaned over and started firing. 
Carrizales was hit twice: once in the cheek and once in the bulletproof vest that most likely saved her life. She fired back at the car as it sped off, shattering its rear window.  
Then, bleeding and in pain, she got into her squad car and gave chase. The pursuit lasted more than 20 miles.
“I knew that it was what I needed to do, to catch these guys,” she said. “You can’t shoot me and drive away: It’s not allowed.”
Officers from a neighboring police department helped apprehend the alleged gunman. Authorities continue to search for the two other suspects and plan to release video footage of the incident soon.
Carrizales, a former boxer who was named top cop by her colleagues last year, now wears a bandage on her cheek and neck. She is off the streets until she recovers, but she is adamant about returning.
“You need people like me out here to do this, and I’m so proud to do it and honored to do it,” she said.


This lady cop, I noticed, is not only a police officer, she is a former Marine and boxer. They picked on the wrong victim when they attacked her. I'm glad to see people stand up for themselves against the bad guys, especially when they are going against the odds. I'm sure she will get a promotion.




Tax delinquents by the thousands have security clearances, GAO finds – NBC

One government worker with a security clearance owed the Internal Revenue Service $2 million, according to the General Accounting Office.
Thousands of tax delinquents -- including one who owes $2 million to the IRS -- have sensitive security clearances, posing a risk that has gone undetected by federal agencies, congressional investigators will report Thursday.

A report by the General Accounting Office obtained by NBC News found that 8,400 U.S. officials and contractors with access to sensitive government secrets have racked up $8.5 million in delinquent tax debts.  
The report, due to be released Thursday morning at a Senate hearing, is the latest example of what members of Congress and investigators say are glaring weaknesses in the government’s system of vetting those receiving security clearances. 

“It is absurd to give federal employees and contractors who have already failed to follow the law access to our nation’s classified information,” said Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn, ranking Republican on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, who requested the GAO study. “Awarding security clearances to tax cheats puts the integrity of the federal work force, along with the confidential materials entrusted with them, at greater risk. 
Coburn, in a statement to NBC News, demanded that the administration take immediate steps to stop what he called the “egregious” practice of granting security clearances to tax delinquents.
A spokesman for Director of National Intelligence James Clapper declined comment, noting that the report had not yet been publicly released. But in written comments to the GAO, a Clapper aide noted that the intelligence office and the Office of Personnel Management were working with Treasury Department officials to develop a plan to check and more closely monitor government databases to identify tax delinquents with security clearances.
The GAO study did not examine members of the U.S. military or employees of U.S. intelligence agencies with clearances. Instead, it focused on a universe of 240,000 officials and contractors with clearances elsewhere in the government — such as the Homeland Security, State and Energy departments. It then took the Social Security numbers of those with clearances and plugged them into an Internal Revenue Service database of tax delinquents, yielding matches to about 4,800 individuals — about half of whom had top-secret clearances, the report says.
More than three-fourths of the tax delinquents amassed their debts only after receiving their clearances — an indication, congressional investigators said, that those with access to sensitive secrets were not being adequately monitored.
The report does not name any of the tax delinquents. But it cited several examples: One of the delinquents with a clearance owed $2 million in back taxes, the report states. Another federal contractor with a top-secret clearance didn’t file federal tax returns for several years and was granted a “conditional clearance” despite concerns among background checkers about his financial problems.
The GAO report states that an official or contractor with tax debts is “at risk of having to engage in illegal acts to generate funds” – and therefore could put national security secrets at risk. (Some high profile espionage cases, such as those of former CIA agent Aldrich Ames and FBI agent Robert Hanssen, sold secrets to Russia for cash, although neither was in debt.)
But the report notes that the current federal background check system does not check federal tax databases before granting clearances. Instead, it relies on “self-reporting” of debts and checking of credit reports – which do not disclose tax debts unless liens have been filed.
The issue of federal background checks has taken on new urgency after revelations that Washington Navy Yard shooter Aaron Alexis was granted a secret clearance for 10 years despite multiple security problems in his background, including a 2002 arrest for shooting the tires of a neighbor’s car. Alexis’ arrest, which he blamed on anger problems and which did not result in criminal charges, was never fully investigated by the private company, USIS, hired to do his background check.
USIS, now the subject of a federal grand jury probe, also performed the background check of ex-NSA contractor Edward Snowden, failing to interview any personal references other than his girlfriend. Nor did the firm investigate a reported security violation in his past, according to a report by the Office of Director of National Intelligence.
USIS has denied any wrongdoing, saying its background checks in both instances met federal standards and that it is cooperating with the federal investigation. 


This is something that should be easy to check. If USIS isn't doing it's job, they should be replaced with another company, even if it costs more money. Or, simply, make it mandatory in their contract that they do check with the IRS in the future and contact all personal references. When a tax cheat owes $2,000,000, that's a sizable chunk of money that the very needy US government is not getting, and it's also grossly unfair for some people to get away with that while others have to pay. Hopefully Congress will investigate this and get it straightened out. It may prove embarrassing to our current administration, if it was known before this report and if names are released to the press, of course. I'll brace myself for the scandal.




Syria destroys all chemical production equipment, weapons watchdog says--NBC

The Nov. 1 deadline has been met and Syria has destroyed its chemical weapons production and mixing facilities. The deadline was part of a compromise brokered by the U.S. and Russia, with the next deadline approaching in two weeks.

BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Syria has destroyed or rendered inoperable all of its declared chemical weapons production and mixing facilities, meeting a major deadline in an ambitious disarmament program, the international chemical weapons watchdog said Thursday.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which won the Nobel Peace prize this month, said its teams had inspected 21 out of 23 chemical weapons sites across the country. The other two were too dangerous to inspect, but the chemical equipment had already been moved to other sites that experts had visited, it said

Syria "has completed the functional destruction of critical equipment for all of its declared chemical weapons production facilities and mixing/filling plants, rendering them inoperable," it said, meeting a deadline to do so no later than November 1.
The next deadline is November 15, by when the OPCW and Syria must agree to a detailed plan of destruction, including how and where to destroy more than 1,000 metric tons of toxic agents and munitions.
Under a Russian-American brokered deal, Damascus agreed to destroy all its chemical weapons after Washington threatened to use force in response to the killing of hundreds of people in a sarin attack on the outskirts of Damascus on August 21.

It was the world's deadliest chemical weapons incident since Saddam Hussein's forces used poison gas against the Kurdish town of Halabja 25 years ago.
"This was a major milestone in the effort to eliminate Syria's chemical weapons program," Ralf Trapp, an independent chemical weapons disarmament specialist, said.
"Most of the sites and facilities declared by Syria to the OPCW have been inspected, their inventories verified, equipment for chemical weapons production disabled and put beyond use, and some of the unfilled weapons have also been disabled."
At one of those locations the OPCW said it was able to verify destruction work remotely, while Syrian forces had abandoned the other two sites.
Trapp said it was "important to ensure that the remaining facilities can be inspected and their equipment and weapons inventoried and prepared for destruction as soon as possible."
The United States and its allies blamed Assad's forces for the attack and several earlier incidents. The Syrian president has rejected the charge, blaming rebel brigades.
Under the disarmament timetable, Syria was due to render unusable all production and chemical weapons filling facilities by November 1 -- a target it has now met. By mid-2014 it must have destroyed its entire stockpile of chemical weapons.
The OPCW mission is being undertaken in the midst of Syria's 2-1/2 year civil war, which has killed more than 100,000 people. The unprecedented conditions had raised concerns that the violence would impede the disarmament, but the OPCW says Syrian authorities have been cooperating with the weapons experts, who have been able to visit all but three of the chemical sites.
Syrian authorities said that "the chemical weapons program items removed from these sites were moved to other declared sites,"an OPCW document said. "These sites holding items from abandoned facilities were inspected."
The OPCW has not said which sites it has been unable to visit, but a source briefed on their operations said one of them was in the Aleppo area of northern Syria and another was in Damascus province.
One major chemical weapons site is located close to the town of Safira, south-east of Aleppo. Assad's forces have bombarded the town in recent weeks in an attempt to expel rebel fighters including al Qaeda-linked brigades.


Obama's threat to attack was, of course, the subject of Putin's famous Op Ed piece accusing him of brinksmanship. Putin's cooperation with the US to get the Syrian weapons neutralized probably wouldn't have occurred if the US hadn't threatened Syria, though. The Russians had been solidly behind Syria up to that time. I am relieved to see that the weapons and the weapon producing sites have been rendered harmless.

The Middle East does seem to be full of “bad guys,” usually in the name of religion. If religious organizations are not peaceful, they are failing in their main purpose. This has sometimes included Christianity. Whenever religious zealots take over, there is trouble. I don't think religions should be in the political game. Separation of church and state is in our Constitution for a reason. People should go to church to achieve peaceful goals, not political conquest.



'I had to step in': Hero bus driver coaxes woman off ledge of bridge – NBC
Video: Bus driver Darnell Barton is being hailed as a hero for helping a woman who was standing outside the railing of an overpass by coaxing her down from the ledge. NBC’s Mara Schiavocampo reports.
A bus driver in Buffalo, N.Y., is being celebrated as a hero after he stopped on an overpass and coaxed a woman who appeared to be on the brink of suicide to safety.
“Knowing that I saved somebody's life, it makes me feel good, being at the right place at the right time,’’ driver Darnell Barton told TODAY Thursday.
Barton, 37, was driving a bus full of McKinley High School students home on Oct. 18 when he spotted a young woman standing outside of a railing on a narrow ledge of an overpass on the Scajaquada Expressway.
“When I saw her on the other side of the guard rail, I immediately (thought)…this is something, this isn’t right,’’ Barton said.
Surveillance video shows Barton stopping the bus, opening the door and calling out to the woman, who is believed to be in her 20s. The woman has her back turned to the bus and is clinging to the railing while looking over the edge of the overpass. Barton called the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority’s Metro Bus dispatcher to inform them of the situation while continuing to speak to the woman.
“Once I opened the door and made contact, and I saw her look back at me and then look back at the 198 (highway), I knew that was it,’’ Barton said. “I had to step in.”
Barton got off the bus, walked over to her, slipped his left arm around her body and gently coaxed her off the ledge. He then sat down on the ground next to her and put his arm around her.
“I said, ‘Whatever it is, it might feel bad, it may feel bad, but jumping is not the answer,’’’ Barton said.
Shortly after, officials arrived on the scene. When Barton got back on the bus, his student passengers gave him a round of applause. Another bus was dispatched to take the students home while Barton gave his account of the event to police. 
Barton returned to work, completing the rest of his shift for the day. 


After the story of the 14 year old girl who bullied her former friend to death over a boy, and who said in her Facebook “I don't give a f____,” we get a story about an ordinary citizen who, without any special training, followed his instincts and prevented a suicide, comforting the woman until help arrived. There is good as well as bad in the world. I was very glad to see this story. Things like this keep me from getting cynical and discouraged.





9,000-year-old painting of volcano linked to a real eruption – NBC

Hasan Dag volcano in Turkey erupted 9,000 years ago. The blast is depicted in the oldest known painting of a volcanic eruption.
DENVER — A 9,000-year-old painting of an exploding volcano, the oldest ever found, can now be linked to a real-life eruption in Turkey.
The towering Hasan Dag volcano erupted 8,970 years ago, plus or minus 640 years, according to a new dating technique that analyzes zircon crystals in volcanic rock, geochemist Axel Schmitt of the University of California, Los Angeles, reported here Wednesday at the Geological Society of America's annual meeting.
Turkish scientists long suspected Hasan Dag was the source of the painting's dramatic scene, but never had a precise date for its volcanic rocks, Schmitt told LiveScience. The volcano is about 80 miles (130 kilometers) from the ancient village of Çatalhöyük, where the painting was discovered in 1964 during an archaeological dig.

"The volcanological evidence also supports what previous interpreters have said about the volcanic style of the eruption here," Schmitt said. "It wasn't a Mount St. Helens-type cataclysmic event. It was small and local, more like a little burp of the volcano."
Schmitt and his colleagues dated volcanic pumice (lava that cooled so quickly it's glass) from the sides and top of Hasan Dag. Only pumice from the volcano's peak was 9,000 years old, they discovered. Rocks lower down were about 29,000 years old. This means the eruption wasn't big enough to spew lava and ash across the lower slopes.
"If anything, it was a relatively small event, like a Strombolian-type eruption," Schmitt said, referring to the small but spectacular lava fountains that frequently burst from Mount Etna and Mount Stromboli in Italy.

Catalhöyük was a proto-urban village settled during the Neolithic, or Stone Age. It is the largest and best-preserved Neolithic city ever found. The mural was painted in red-colored ochre on the wall of a shrine, showing what appears to be a map of the settlement and the double peaks of Hasan Dag.
Since its discovery, the painting has been preserved in a museum and Catalhöyük has become a popular tourist site. The evidence for a volcanic eruption has also been offered as proof that Hasan Dag is an active volcano.
Schmitt and his colleagues are conducting further studies to date the past eruption histories of Turkey's many volcanoes, and help better understand the risk of future eruptions.
"Some of these stratovolcanoes have probably had fairly large eruptions," Schmitt said. "They clearly need better constraints about their recurrence."


Some people think that information passed down from thousands of years in the past are simply “legends,” or elaborated and invented stories. Some of them, however, are clearly fact-based stories – history rather than entertainment for children. The solid facts may be fragmentary or changed in the retelling, but they should be valued when they can be connected with other stories or archaeological evidence to create a logical tale. Until science discovered the way to date the pumice, the drawing was only artwork, but now it is history. Being able to touch the past in this way is really exciting, taking us back to our forefathers in the Near East as they were developing into modern societies.