Monday, August 31, 2015


News Clips For The Day


http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/08/28/435637815/scientist-who-wrote-protest-song-about-canadas-pm-is-put-on-leave

Scientist Who Wrote Protest Song About Canada's PM Is Put On Leave
Bill Chappell
August 28, 2015

Youtube – Harperman, A Protest Song
Photograph -- Tony Turner, a physical scientist and folksinger who lives in Ottawa, is on paid leave while Canada's environmental agency determines whether he broke the agency's ethics code.


Both the song and its video fit many people's idea of Canada: clever and smiling. But the man who wrote lyrics telling Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, "It's time for you to go," has been put on leave from his job as a federal scientist at Canada's environmental agency.

Tony Turner wrote and performed the song "Harperman," leading a (barefooted) choir known as the Crowd of Well Wishers through lyrics that ask questions such as "Who squashes all dissent?" and "Who muzzles all the scientists?"

A physical scientist and folksinger who lives in Ottawa, Turner is still being paid while the government looks into whether his folky tune, "Harperman," represents a breach of the ethics code, according to his union, the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada. He was placed on leave this week.

The union's president, Debi Daviau, tells the CBC that Environment Canada is alleging that Turner "violated the departmental code of values and ethics in that the writing and performing of this song somehow impeded his ability to impartially study migratory birds."

The song has been on YouTube since June, but it's rising to new prominence as Canada's elections loom in October. It now has more than 60,000 views. Turner and his allies are organizing a sing-along of "Harperman," to be held next month.

Since news of Turner's suspension from work spread, the hashtag #Harperman has been trending on Twitter in Canada. In one tweet, the title was placed over an image of Harper as the Joker. In another, the choir was compared to the dissident Russian band Pussyriot.

Turner leads the song on acoustic guitar, backed by a spirited choir whose members include several ladies in colorful straw hats. In the song's credits, Turner is identified only as an "Ottawa folksinger."

At one point, a man asks, "Who's a two-bit controlling freak?" – a line that was echoed in the Canadian press this week, when a senator who was expelled from Harper's Conservative party caucus called the prime minister a "control freak."

Sen. Patrick Brazeau wrote an essay about his experience, which was quoted by The Hamilton Spectator:

"When you contradict, shame or make the PM look bad regardless of its significance, watch out because some of his soldiers are coming after you."

Brazeau, we'll note, is on trial for assault and sexual assault; he was kicked out of the Conservative caucus after his arrest on those charges in 2013.

As for Turner, the CBC notes that after working for the government for nearly 20 years, he had been planning to retire this fall.




CBS -- “Both the song and its video fit many people's idea of Canada: clever and smiling. But the man who wrote lyrics telling Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, "It's time for you to go," has been put on leave from his job as a federal scientist at Canada's environmental agency. Tony Turner wrote and performed the song "Harperman," leading a (barefooted) choir known as the Crowd of Well Wishers through lyrics that ask questions such as "Who squashes all dissent?" and "Who muzzles all the scientists?" A physical scientist and folksinger who lives in Ottawa, Turner is still being paid while the government looks into whether his folky tune, "Harperman," represents a breach of the ethics code, according to his union, the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada. He was placed on leave this week. ….

Wikipedia -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatch_Act_of_1939, Hatch Act of 1939, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia -- The Hatch Act of 1939, officially An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities, is a United States federal law whose main provision prohibits employees in the executive branch of the federal government, except the president, vice-president, and certain designated high-level officials of that branch, from engaging in some forms of political activity. The law was named for Senator Carl Hatch of New Mexico. It was most recently amended in 2012. …. Criticism centered on swing states such as Kentucky,[1] Tennessee, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. In Pennsylvania, Republicans and dissident Democrats publicized evidence that Democratic politicians were consulted on the appointment of WPA administrators and case workers and that they used WPA jobs to gain unfair political advantages.[2] In 1938, a series of newspaper articles exposed WPA patronage and political contributions in return for employment, prompting an investigation by the Senate Campaign Expenditures Committee, headed by Sen. Morris Sheppard, a Texas Democrat.[3] …. Despite that investigation's inconclusive findings, many in both parties determined to take action against the growing power of the WPA and its chief administrator, Harry Hopkins, an intimate of the president. The Act was sponsored by Senator Carl Hatch, a Democrat from New Mexico. At the time, Roosevelt was struggling to purge the Democratic party of its more conservative members who were increasingly aligned with the administration's Republican opponents. The president considered vetoing the legislation or allowing it to become law without his signature, but instead signed it on the last day he could do so. His signing message welcomed the legislation as if he had called for it and emphasized the protection his administration would provide for political expression on the part of public employees.[4]”

When I read the description of the motivation and situation originating in the Hatch Act, I can see the reason for limiting political work by government employees. The 1938 case involved corruption. This Canadian case appears to me to be about suppression of valid opinions on very important issues – the degradation of our environment. Squashing dissent and muzzling scientists, when the Koch Brothers income is put alongside world carbon emissions and weighed in the scale of public opinion, is the story in Canada. “…the writing and performing of this song somehow impeded his ability to impartially study migratory birds." Right. It thrills me to hear of this ploy of his. It reminds me of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s in the US. Folksinging and parodies are potent tools, and as a result the Canadian government is going after him and his barefoot choir. I hope he will have enough popular appeal to win the political wrestling match with the government. We are already seeing larger, meaner and more unpredictable storms and the Arctic ice is melting. I had hoped to be able to flee across the border to Canada if the radical fundamentalist Christians succeed in making this country a theocracy, but now it looks as though Canada may not be safe for progressives after all.

Do listen to Turner’s song. It’s pretty good music and funny. The video states that Turner is a Unitarian Universalist. I’m proud of him!





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/defendant-in-st-pauls-rape-trial-guilty-of-misdemeanor-sex-assault/

St. Paul's School rape defendant found guilty of misdemeanor sex assault
By CRIMESIDER STAFF CBS/AP
August 28, 2015

Play VIDEO -- Rape case exposes alleged sexual culture at elite prep school
Play VIDEO -- Prep school rape suspect says he stopped sexual encounter


CONCORD, N.H. -- A jury has found former New Hampshire prep school student Owen Labrie not guilty of all three felony sex charges but guilty of lesser offenses -- including three charges of misdemeanor sex assault -- in his rape trial for allegedly assaulting a 15-year-old female student two days before he graduated last year.

Labrie, of Tunbridge, Vermont, faced nine charges, including the three felony sex assault charges that carried potential sentences of 10 to 20 years in prison.

Labrie was also found guilty of endangering the welfare of a child, a misdemeanor, and of using a computer to lure the girl, a Class B felony. He was found not guilty on a simple assault charge.

He faces up to a year in jail for each of the misdemeanors and 3 ½ to 7 years for the felony. Prosecutor Joseph Cherniske says Labrie will have to register as a sex offender.

The jury deliberated for seven and a half hours.

Labrie exhaled loudly after he was found not guilty on the most serious felony sex assault charges. As he was found guilty on the misdemeanor charges, he slumped over and wept. His mother sobbed into a tissue.

The girl remained stoic in court after the verdict.

Prosecutors said Labrie, now 19, took his victim by surprise before she could resist or flee.

Labrie denied having intercourse with the girl, telling police that they partially disrobed, kissed and touched. He also acknowledged putting on a condom. Labrie said the freshman girl was eager to have sex, but the aspiring divinity student said he had a "moment of self-restraint" and stopped.

Labrie did testify that he bragged to friends that the two did have sex.

Prosecutors said Labrie raped the 15-year-old freshman as part of a St. Paul's School tradition known as Senior Salute in which seniors try to romance and have sex with underclassmen.

In graphic and sometimes tearful testimony, the girl, now 16, said she willingly went with Labrie to the rooftop of an academic building after he invited her to take part in Senior Salute, a tradition she said she knew about. But she said she was prepared for kissing at most.

Essentially, the jury by its verdicts signaled it didn't believe Labrie's assertion that there was no intercourse, but it also didn't believe her contention that it was against her will. For that, it found Labrie guilty of statutory rape, because she was underage and could not legally consent to sex.

Defense attorney J.W. Carney said Labrie was "devastated" by the verdict, though he said the jury acquitted Labrie of "every charge that he engaged in any conduct with the complainant without her consent."

"It's the force that drove this case. It's the argument that prosecutors made right until the end - 'this was a forcible rape,'" Carney said. "The jury came back and said, 'No it wasn't.'"

Before the verdict was read, the victim's father hugged prosecutors, saying, "Thank you for everything you've done."

The victim's family released a statement Friday, saying that while Labrie was not convicted on all charges, he was "held accountable in some way by a jury of his peers for crimes he committed against our daughter."

The statement blasted St. Paul's School, which they said "allowed and fostered a toxic culture that left our daughter and other students at risk to sexual violence."

"We continue to feel anger and disappointment for the lack of character and integrity that the young men of St. Paul's School showed, laughing and joking with Owen Labrie at graduation about 'slaying' our daughter," the statement read. "Both the school and these young men should bear the shame of these crimes along with Owen Labrie."

The family praised their daughter for her bravery in taking the stand.

"It is truly her courage that has made this measure of justice possible today," the statement read.

Merrimack County Attorney Scott Murray said the verdict sends a message to the community: "If young people are sexually abused on campus, the perpetrator is going to be charged, prosecuted, sentenced and punished," Murray said.

During the trial, his accuser testified she fought to keep Labrie from removing her underwear during the encounter. She said she told Labrie "no" three times, and that she was "frozen" as she felt the pressure of him penetrating her and blamed herself for not doing more to try to kick and push him off.

Prosecutor Joseph Cherniske said the girl didn't report the rape for several days because she didn't want to disrupt her sister's graduation and because she "thought she could handle it all."

"She thought she could handle going with an 18-year-old boy for a Senior Salute," Cherniske said. "She thought she could say no by holding onto her clothing and saying no and make it stop."
In their final arguments Thursday, lawyers on both sides criticized Concord's St. Paul's School and offered different interpretations of email and Facebook messages the teens exchanged after the encounter in a campus building's dark and noisy mechanical room on May 30, 2014.

Carney told the jury the girl testified she had no recollection of her conversation with her best friend before meeting Labrie because to admit she stated graphically what conduct she was prepared to engage in "would destroy the whole image she'd been trying to create."

"If you conclude she was not being truthful then I submit it taints her entire testimony," Carney said. "In order to put forward this story, she was willing to tell a lie about a critical fact right in front of you."

After the trial, Carney said the most damning evidence against his client were Labrie's own statements he made to his friends in which he said Labrie boasted "about a sexual conquest that never happened."

He blasted St. Paul's school, describing both the accuser and Labrie as victims of the "Senior Salute" because he said the tradition is "something that's expected" at the school.

St. Paul's rector, Michael G. Hirschfeld, commended "the remarkable moral courage and strength demonstrated by the young woman who has suffered through this nightmare," and said the prep school is committed to teaching its students to act honorably.

After Labrie's arrest, school officials said they would expel anyone participating "in any game, 'tradition,' or practice of sexual solicitation or sexual conquest under any name" and throw out those possessing keys or access cards they aren't entitled to. Labrie was said to have used a key that was shared among seniors to get to restricted areas.

Labrie was bound for Harvard on a full scholarship and planned to take divinity school classes but testified his plans are on hold.

Sentencing was scheduled for Oct. 29.




“He faces up to a year in jail for each of the misdemeanors and 3 ½ to 7 years for the felony. Prosecutor Joseph Cherniske says Labrie will have to register as a sex offender. The jury deliberated for seven and a half hours. Labrie exhaled loudly after he was found not guilty on the most serious felony sex assault charges. As he was found guilty on the misdemeanor charges, he slumped over and wept. His mother sobbed into a tissue. The girl remained stoic in court after the verdict.”

Young people of both sexes have the body of an adult and the mind of an adolescent. Both sexes need to be supervised in these residential school settings. They aren’t even in college, yet, and are even more immature than they were when I was young, and plenty of girls got pregnant in those days.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/kentucky-clerk-asks-supreme-court-to-intervene-in-same-sex-marriage-case/

Kentucky clerk asks Supreme Court to intervene in same-sex marriage case
CBS/AP
August 28, 2015

Photograph -- Rowan County Kentucky Clerk Kim Davis shows emotion as she is cheered by a gathering of supporters during a rally on the steps of the Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfort Ky., Saturday, Aug. 22, 2015. Davis spoke at the rally organized by The Family Foundation of Kentucky. The crowd of a few thousand included churchgoers from around the state. Davis has been sued by The American Civil Liberties Union for denying marriage licenses to gay couples. She says her Christian faith prohibits her from signing licenses for same-sex couples AP
Photograph -- rowanclerkoffice.jpg
A sign posted on the door of the Rowan County, Kentucky clerk's office, Aug. 27, 2015. CBS AFFILIATE WKYT
Play VIDEO -- Three states are holding out after Supreme Court's same-sex marriage ruling


MOREHEAD, Ky. -- Two months after it legalized gay marriage nationwide, the U.S. Supreme Court is being asked by a Kentucky county clerk for permission to deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples.

Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis objects to same-sex marriage for religious reasons. The Supreme Court says the constitution guarantees gay people have the right to marry, but Davis contends the First Amendment guarantees her the right of religious freedom.

She stopped issuing all marriage licenses the day after the Supreme Court effectively legalized gay marriage nationwide in June.

Two gay couples and two straight couples sued Davis, arguing she must fulfill her duties as an elected official. A federal judge ordered Davis to issue the licenses and an appeals court upheld that decision. Davis' lawyers said they petitioned the Supreme Court on Friday to delay that decision until her appeal is finished, a process that could take months.

ap130995615485.jpg
William Smith Jr., left, and his partner James Yates talk outside the Rowan County Courthouse following their denial of a marriage licence by the Rowan County Clerk in Morehead, Ky., Thursday, Aug. 27, 2015. AP PHOTO/TIMOTHY D. EASLEY

Her attorneys with the Christian law firm Liberty Counsel wrote in their appeal to the court that Davis is seeking "asylum for her conscience."

Justice Elena Kagan, who joined the majority opinion effectively legalized gay marriage in the U.S., will hear Davis' case.

University of Louisville law professor Sam Marcosson said he believes Kagan will deny Davis' request based on the court's earlier decision.

Davis has refused to comply with several court orders in recent weeks, turning away gay couples over and over. She says they could easily drive to a nearby county to get a marriage license. But gay couples argue they have a right to get a marriage license in the county where they live, work and pay taxes.

(Play VIDEO) Kentucky clerk defies Supreme Court same-sex marriage ruling
Davis has said she will not resign her $80,000-a-year job and will never issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples -- even if the Supreme Court denies her request.

"If a (same-sex marriage) license is issued with Davis' name, authorization and approval, no one can unring that bell," she wrote the court. "That searing act of validation would forever echo in her conscience."

Her attorney, Jonathan D. Christman, wrote that forcing her to issue licenses is akin to forcing a person who objects to war into the battlefield, or forcing a person against capital punishment to carry out an execution.

Davis cannot be fired because she is an elected official. The Legislature could impeach her, but that is unlikely given that many state lawmakers share her beliefs. The Republican president of the state Senate spoke at a rally last week in support of Davis.

The gay couples that sued her could ask U.S. District Judge David Bunning to hold Davis in contempt. That would trigger another court hearing and would likely include testimony from Davis herself. The judge could then order hefty fines or even put her in jail until she complies with the order.

A familiar scene repeated itself at a rural Kentucky courthouse on Thursday: a gay couple marched into the clerk's office, requested a marriage license and insisted that a mounting pile of court orders proves they are entitled to one.

Then, Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis' office again turned them away Thursday morning. The standoff has now stretched into its second month.

CBS affiliate WKYT reports that Friday afternoon, Davis asked U.S. District Judge David Bunning to extend his stay on his marriage license order while she appeals to the Supreme Court.

"It's getting tedious. We get torn down, built back up, torn down, built back up," said David Ermold. He and his partner, David Moore, have been rejected by Davis' office twice. "It's emotionally draining."

Days after the Supreme Court's same-sex marriage ruling, Davis announced that her Christian faith prevents her from sanctioning a gay marriage. She has since refused licenses to any couple, gay or straight.

On Thursday a deputy clerk in Davis' office told William Smith Jr. and James Yates, a couple for nearly a decade, that the office believes Bunning's delay remains in effect until Aug. 31. He refused to give them a license.

Davis, meanwhile, sat in her office with the door closed, ignoring the commotion of television cameras surrounding Yates and Smith as they demanded answers.

Rejected for the third time, Yates and Smith left shaking their heads.

Lawyers with Liberty Counsel, the Christian law firm representing Davis, said the fight is far from over.

"The court of appeals did not provide any religious accommodation rights to individuals, which makes little sense because at the end of the day it's individuals that are carrying out the acts of the office," said attorney Mat Staver. "They don't lose their individual constitutional rights just because they are employed in a public office."

Davis's appeal to the nation's highest court would first be considered by Justice Elena Kagan, who oversees the 6th Circuit. Kagan, a liberal judge, sided with the majority this summer when it ruled gay marriage bans unconstitutional.

Kagan could reject it outright within days and exhaust Davis' options for appeal, said Marcosson.

"Once the stay is denied then the question will be right there on the front burner of whether she will comply because there will be no further avenue for her," Marcosson said.

The question will then become what Davis chooses to do.

She has said she will not resign and pledged to never issue a license to same-sex couples.

If she continues to defy court orders, the couples' attorneys are likely to ask Bunning to hold her in contempt of court. The law offers the judge wide discretion on how to force her hand: he can sanction her with fines or order she be jailed.

The couples waiting to be married think the end may be in sight.

"They're running out of options," Ermold said.

Activists with signs and rainbow umbrellas lined up Thursday on a street outside Davis' window, shouting "Do your job."

But she has her supporters, too.

Casey County Clerk Casey Davis, also opposed to issuing licenses to same-sex couples, got on his bike at 4:30 a.m. Thursday and began cycling more than 450 miles across the state to bring attention to her predicament.

"I cannot let my sister go to jail without my doing something to let others know about her plight," Casey's statement said. Although the two are not related by blood, The Family Foundation says they are bonded by religious conviction.

WKYT reports that early Friday several people showed up to the clerk's office to rally outside the courthouse. Their presence was strong early Friday morning, but it calmed down toward lunch time. A rally in support of gay marriage is scheduled for 9 a.m. to noon Saturday outside the Rowan County courthouse.

© 2015 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.




“Two months after it legalized gay marriage nationwide, the U.S. Supreme Court is being asked by a Kentucky county clerk for permission to deny marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis objects to same-sex marriage for religious reasons. The Supreme Court says the constitution guarantees gay people have the right to marry, but Davis contends the First Amendment guarantees her the right of religious freedom. She stopped issuing all marriage licenses the day after the Supreme Court effectively legalized gay marriage nationwide in June. …. Her attorneys with the Christian law firm Liberty Counsel wrote in their appeal to the court that Davis is seeking "asylum for her conscience." Justice Elena Kagan, who joined the majority opinion effectively legalized gay marriage in the U.S., will hear Davis' case. University of Louisville law professor Sam Marcosson said he believes Kagan will deny Davis' request based on the court's earlier decision. Davis has refused to comply with several court orders in recent weeks, turning away gay couples over and over. She says they could easily drive to a nearby county to get a marriage license. But gay couples argue they have a right to get a marriage license in the county where they live, work and pay taxes.” …. Davis cannot be fired because she is an elected official. The Legislature could impeach her, but that is unlikely given that many state lawmakers share her beliefs. The Republican president of the state Senate spoke at a rally last week in support of Davis. …. Davis's appeal to the nation's highest court would first be considered by Justice Elena Kagan, who oversees the 6th Circuit. Kagan, a liberal judge, sided with the majority this summer when it ruled gay marriage bans unconstitutional. Kagan could reject it outright within days and exhaust Davis' options for appeal, said Marcosson.”

“…Christian law firm Liberty Counsel …” It seems to me that liberty would be the right of each to do what they want to do, not a tool to force Christianity as the only accepted religion. The clerk Davis should have a list of duties assigned to her, including issuing marriage licenses to all comers, unless THE COUNTY and not Davis herself decides to issue NO MARRIAGE LICENSES. That would be a fair situation. Everyone would have to seek out a minister, a ship’s captain, or a wedding parlor of the type that exist in Las Vegas. The clerk can then resign her job if she doesn’t want to do marriage licenses.

I had no idea a clerk in a county court could make as much as $80,000. No wonder she doesn’t want to give up her job. She must be a lawyer. I just checked Wikipedia, and it says that there are clerks who assist judges in administrative duties, who are NOT lawyers, but a “Law Clerk” assists in making decisions and can affect case law by their influence on the judge. A “Law Clerk” is usually a recent law school grad who made top grades, and is on a path to higher career opportunities.

Of course the issue isn’t really about duties and salaries, but about forcing the US to be “a Christian nation” in all ways, which it never has been. The early American settlers came here in many cases specifically to escape a government-enforced religion. England, which is like a democracy in many ways, because we here in the US got our laws essentially from the ancient British Common Law. England, to this day, however has a declared state religion – the Anglican faith. That doesn’t mean that her citizens don’t – in today’s world – have the right to go to any church or to none at all, as we do in the US. The Brits may be a bit more conservative as a society than we are, but not much.

The Dominionists want Biblical law to be set up in this country rather than a rationally based secular law, with individual freedoms built in. The most extreme Christians are just like the radical Islamic groups, who want laws that are based on the Koran. The US government was set up as a secular nation with no religious bias. Everybody can have their individual religious views and practices and that should be good enough – ideal, actually – free of any unfair binding on the exercise of faith. State Sen. Sylvia Allen, R-Snowflake of Arizona, made the comment within the last year that the US would perhaps be “more moral” if everyone were required to go to church. I would never conform to something like that, and I don’t think most Americans would. It is very clear to me that everyone has a slightly, or greatly, different idea of what should be moral. I don’t want to have sex with another woman, but I know some young women are already oriented in that direction by the time they reach their teens. “Imprinting” or hormonal differences may cause this. I don’t consider it sinful. I consider being abusive to someone because of their sexual orientation to be sinful. See the full text from that article below.





http://www.kpho.com/story/28620533/az-senator-church-attendance-should-be-mandatory, AZ Senator: Church attendance should be mandatory, Mar 26, 2015.

PHOENIX (KPHO/KTVK) - Each year a few ideas get proposed at the state Capitol that have people shaking their heads.

This year: Mandatory church attendance.

An Arizona state senator thinks it is a good idea for the American people.

State Sen. Sylvia Allen, R-Snowflake, brought it up during a committee meeting Tuesday while lawmakers were debating a gun bill concerning concealed weapons permits, not religion.

Allen explained that without a "moral rebirth" in the country, more people may feel the need to carry a weapon.

"I believe what's happening to our country is that there's a moral erosion of the soul of America," she said.

"It's the soul that is corrupt. How we get back to a moral rebirth I don't know. Since we are slowly eroding religion at every opportunity that we have. Probably we should be debating a bill requiring every American to attend a church of their choice on Sunday to see if we can get back to having a moral rebirth," she told the committee.

Do you agree with State Sen. Sylvia Allen's idea that church attendance should be mandatory?

"But since that would not be allowed and we would not even be debating that, I'm going to vote yes that people who are responsible who have a CCW permit don't have to worry about their guns as they're out and about and doing business in whatever building they're in except ones that where they aren't allowed," she said.

Democratic Sen. Steve Farley of Tucson, who was at that same meeting, posted Allen's comments on social media, and said he believes the idea goes against the U.S. Constitution.

"Even if you believe that would stem the moral decay, I think the Constitution makes it very clear that our country is founded on the pillar of separation of church and state," Farley said.

Read more: http://www.kpho.com/story/28620533/az-senator-church-attendance-should-be-mandatory#ixzz3kQe242wS





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/wall-street-combats-white-house-crackdown-on-financial-advisors/

Wall Street opposes White House crackdown on financial advisers
By WYATT ANDREWS CBS NEWS
August 28, 2015

Photograph -- andrews-advisors-transferframe0.jpg
Ethyl Sprouse CBS NEWS
Play VIDEO -- Women face tough challenges for retirement savings


WASHINGTON -- Ethyl Sprouse, 68, says she's devastated by the loss of $400,000 from her retirement account. She blames her stockbroker who invested in high-risk stocks despite her order to play it safe.

"I felt like not only had I been betrayed by my broker, I'd been betrayed by the system," said Sprouse. "The system I thought was there to protect me."

To better protect retiree savings, the Obama administration has proposed a new federal rule that sounds simple. It demands that any professional investor handling a retirement account - 401(k) or an IRA - give advice "in the best interests" of that client.
Under the current rule, brokers can sell any investment deemed "suitable," but under that standard officials say retirees lose $17 billion a year thanks to hidden fees paid to stockbrokers on investments that make them, not the client, the most money.

"It's the most important thing that we can do to help people saving for retirement," said Secretary of Labor Tom Perez. "That adviser needs to put your best interest ahead of their self-interest."

Most of Wall Street and the insurance industry is pushing back hard, with an ad campaign saying the rule will raise retirement costs for small businesses.

One ad claims it'll make it harder for employees of small businesses to get information their company's 401(k).

The industry complains the new rule is not simple. As written, it's 900 pages long. Peter Schneider, president of insurance giant Primerica, says the rule is too complicated.

"We all agree we must act in the clients best interests, but it's so complex, so onerous and so costly, it's unworkable," said Schneider.

With retirement accounts now a $12 trillion industry, Wall Street is fighting to keep the fee system that pays its brokers billions, but the White House wants savers to keep more of that money and all of those fees disclosed.




“She blames her stockbroker who invested in high-risk stocks despite her order to play it safe. "I felt like not only had I been betrayed by my broker, I'd been betrayed by the system," said Sprouse. "The system I thought was there to protect me." …. The industry complains the new rule is not simple. As written, it's 900 pages long. Peter Schneider, president of insurance giant Primerica, says the rule is too complicated. …. With retirement accounts now a $12 trillion industry, Wall Street is fighting to keep the fee system that pays its brokers billions, but the White House wants savers to keep more of that money and all of those fees disclosed.

This country is ruled by the law of the jungle, a fine old Republican tradition. “Greed is good,” as the guy in the movie that I didn’t watch, but probably should have, said. Primerica is complaining about the length and complexity of the bill, which is a problem with two thirds of the laws that come through in this country. It’s a game in Congress to keep attaching unrelated and onerous material onto a bill until it is so long that nobody has time to read it. They do that in the hope that the liberals will fail to see that another restriction on aid to the poor has just been inserted in the law. The real reason that the law will be fought, however is the latter statement above – “Wall Street is fighting to keep the fee system that pays its brokers billions.” Wall Street is one of the biggest tigers in our jungle, and it only wants to make as much money for those who are already very rich as possible. They are simply not into the business of “protecting” anyone.




http://www.cbsnews.com/news/man-driving-to-alcoholics-anonymous-meeting-killed-by-alleged-drunk-driver/

Man driving to AA meeting killed by alleged drunk driver
CBS NEWS
August 28, 2015

Photograph -- Reed Hindle, 61, killed by an alleged drunk driver. CBS BOSTON
Photograph -- screen-shot-2015-08-28-at-4-52-32-pm.png
Scene of the accident that killed Reed Hindle. CBS BOSTON

SOMERSWORTH, N.H. -- A recovering alcoholic on his way to an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting was killed by an alleged drunk driver while riding his Harley Davidson motorcycle in Somersworth, N.H., reports CBS Boston.

Reed Hindle, 61, battled addiction his entire life, according to his family. His sister Meredith Patrick was helping her brother on the road to sobriety.

"Alcohol got to him in the end, but not by his own doing," Patrick told CBS Boston. "I just see all these things, important things falling into line and then gone. It's awful."

Hindle's family said he struggled. He had demons, moved frequently and had trouble holding down a job. But things started to look up for him in the last few years.

Hindle had even reconnected with his daughter Nicole Kearbey, who says her father was making amends.

"My father worked so hard to be a better person, to be not 'that' person," she said. "He loved his motorcycles and was loving being at peace."

But that all came to an end after his encounter with an accused drunk driver. CBS Boston reports that police say 57-year-old Scott Berry was behind the wheel of the pickup truck that struck and killed Hindle.

According to police, Berry said he drank three beers and smoked some marijuana before the accident.

Family and friends tell CBS Boston they now believe Berry is someone Hindle may have been able to help. After he got sober, family and friends say Hindle dedicated his life to helping others.

"He needs help just like my brother did, because my brother very easily could have done the same thing," said his sister.

It wouldn't be the first time Hindle had helped someone in need.

Rick Gerbrands tells CBS Boston he credits Hindle with encouraging him to stay in recovery.

"One of the first nights I met him early in my recovery. He put his hand out and said welcome. He made me feel welcome," said Gerbrands, who would have seen Hindle at an AA meeting this week. The AA group help a moment of silence for Hindle.

Hindle's family now hopes his death sends a strong message about the dangers of drinking and driving, and his decision to take a different road.

Berry is jailed on drunken driving and negligent homicide charges. He is being held on $10,000 bail.




This is just another sad story, except of course for the irony of the victim’s being on his way to an AA meeting. People know better than to drive after they’ve had enough alcohol to feel woozy, but some of them actually will say that they can drive “better” when they’ve had a drink. It’s like the even more idiotic pattern of teens and even supposedly mature adults “texting” while driving. I don’t get my phone out unless I have pulled the car over. I wish others would do the same. I confess I have eaten a hamburger while driving, which is also against the law and dangerous. I haven’t done that in years, and will never do it again.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/tsa-agent-accused-sexual-assault-laguardia-airport-bathroom/

TSA agent accused of sexual assault at LaGuardia
CBS NEWS
August 28, 2015

Photograph -- A TSA agent watches an xray monitor while screening luggage at a special TSA Pre-check lane at Terminal C of the LaGuardia Airport on January 27, 2014 in New York City. JOHN MOORE, GETTY IMAGES


NEW YORK-- A TSA agent has been arrested on charges he sexually assaulted a 22-year-old woman at LaGuardia Airport Tuesday night, CBS New York reports.

The incident happened in a restroom in Terminal B around 8 p.m. after the agent allegedly told the victim that she had to be searched there, 1010 WINS reported.

The woman, a college student from Korea, identified the suspect out of a group of photos, 1010 WINS reported.

Port Authority spokesman Joe Pantangelo said Maxie Oquendo, of Manhattan, is charged with forcible touching, official misconduct and unlawful imprisonment.

Oquendo was arrested in his TSA uniform on Wednesday night, 1010 WINS reported.

TSA Administrator Peter V. Neffenger said in a statement on Friday that the agency has terminated Oquendo.

"TSA holds its employees to the highest standards. As such, we expect our employees to conduct themselves with integrity, professionalism, and with respect for the public we serve," the statement said.

Neffenger said when TSA employees fail to meet these fundamental ethical standards they must be held "appropriately accountable."

"The vast majority of the TSA workforce serves with honor and integrity, and treats every passenger with dignity and respect," the statement continued. "TSA is working in close partnership with the Port Authority Police Department in support of this investigation."




I thought I remembered another TSA sex charge similar to this one from last year. I found only two that appeared to be real cases on a cursory search, both of which were older than last year, and dozens that read like “conspiracy theories.” A lot of energy has been put on this theme from the Internet agents of fear. I personally wouldn’t like being searched in this way, and would prefer the X-ray type machine that shows the outline of bodily parts, but does not involve any touching. Some things are just too tempting for the weak minded individuals who get hired for a job like that.

I do think there is a need for the searching of everyone who goes on an airplane since 9/11 as there have been at least half a dozen bombs, etc. on the bodies of would be attackers, one being in the perp’s underwear. Ugh! The fact is that the “bad guys” are still trying to score from time to time, and as Middle Eastern problems heat up we must be more vigilant. Twice in the last year or so a train has been attacked. I travel to NC by train once a year at Christmas, so I do hope that wrecking trains doesn't become the newest fad among the fanatics now.

I do think TSA people should be absolutely mentally competent, decent and have no felonies in their background. Same with the police. Getting hired without an exhaustive background check still happens, however. Getting groped is repulsive and infuriating, but it is generally harmless.

Saturday, August 29, 2015


News Clips For The Day


KATRINA -- TWO ARTICLES


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/remembering-the-cajun-navy-10-years-after-hurricane-katrina/

How citizens turned into saviors after Katrina struck
CBS NEWS
August 29, 2015

Photograph -- Katrina 10 years later: New Orleans


Ten years ago Saturday, the most destructive natural disaster in U.S. history struck New Orleans and the eastern Gulf Coast. Hurricane Katrina killed an estimated 1,800 people, but it could have been far worse if not for what became known as "The Cajun Navy." Hundreds of people in hundreds of boats gathered in Lafayette, Louisiana, to rescue thousands trapped by floodwaters, CBS News' David Begnaud reports.

They are some of the starkest scenes from the floodwaters that overwhelmed New Orleans: Thousands of people on rooftops without food or water, begging for help. As many as 60,000 people tried to ride out the storm. So many could only wave and wait for rescue.

Former state Sen. Nick Gautreaux watched it all on television and received a very personal plea for help.

"I got a text from Walter Boasso," Gautreaux said. "He was a senator at the time that I served with the Senate, and his text was simple, 'My people are dying. I need help.'"

Gautreaux put out his own plea across local TV and radio.

"They announced, 'Anybody wants to go help the people of New Orleans please come to the Acadiana Mall,'" south Louisiana journalist Trent Angers said. "They expected 24, 25 boats. Between 350 and 400 boats and people showed up."

It was 4 a.m., two days after Katrina hit, and the mall parking lot was full. David Spizale was there.

"They might not have even used their boat or trailer in a long time," Spizale said. "So you had some axle problems, you had some boats that were askew on the trailer, but the spirit was I'm going to go help, I'm going to hitch it up."

Gautreaux recalls warning of victims drowning and armed robbers roaming the flooded streets.

"If you're afraid of death, possibly you get shot or killed, then this is not a place for you to come," Gautreaux said. "And I will tell you there's not a person that turned around."

What rolled out of Lafayette was a makeshift flotilla that has come to be called the Cajun Navy, an eight-mile convoy of boats that made the two hour ride to New Orleans. Altogether, the Cajun Navy is credited with rescuing more than 10,000 people from flooded homes and rooftops.

"It's still very painful," rescuer Sara Roberts said.

Ten years later, Roberts still gets emotional thinking about the people she saved.

"It's hard to talk about, hard to certainly think about," Roberts said.

She can't forget how desperate people were.

"How eager they were to trust people they didn't even know," Roberts said. "But they were just so grateful that someone cared about them."

It was a rescue effort that was initially stopped at the water's edge. Authorities told Cajun Navy members they could not launch for safety reasons, but they didn't listen.

"You saw people in New Orleans walking in chest-deep water with all of their possessions floating in a plastic garbage can, and you're looking at it and thinking this is in our country, and in our case, it's two hours down the road," Spizale said. "So we were hard-pressed not to go into action. That's where we wanted to be."

Along the way, they had a front row seat to so many selfless acts. Sara saw two men neck-deep coming out of a Walgreens near a high-rise full of elderly people.

"And I was just so frustrated and so angry that these people had looted and had broken in with all this tragedy around, and I later found those guys," Roberts said. "They had broken into the Walgreens to buy, I mean to get medical supplies for those elderly people."

Before David Billeaud and his friend, Keith Bates, could get around law enforcement and into the city, they slept in a parking lot overnight, listening to cries for help on a local radio station.

"There was people calling in, wanting help, and you couldn't sleep, just hearing them, the people calling in telling their situation," Billeaud said. 'Where they're located, they can't get anywhere. There's water everywhere."

Last week, for the first time since he was rescued, Father Hampton Davis had a chance to thank his rescuer, Nick Gautreaux.

"Thanks for not listening to those people who said don't go in there," Davis said.

The former senator rescued a group of seminarians and priests from Notre Dame Seminary, which was surrounded by looting and arson.

"I want to publicly tell the world how grateful the seminary was that you all were there for us, and when we finally got back home in January you were lifted up in prayer at every Mass," Davis said. "Know that."

"If we would have had to wait for the federal government to be down here to help people, you know how many people would have died?" Gautreaux said.

Gen. Russel Honore was put in charge of the federal response during Katrina.

This Louisiana native and three-star general saw to it that the priority of his men and women was search and rescue.

"We had 20,000 federal troops," Honore said. "We had 20 ships and over 225 helicopters."

Honore credits the Cajun Navy for doing much of the initial lifesaving.

"In reality most people are saved by neighbors and volunteers after a disaster than are saved by organized rescue people," Honore said.

Kathleen Blanco was Louisiana's governor when Katrina hit. This past week, she thanked the rescuers.

"We never had enough help, and when you came in, you just made all the difference in the world," Blanco said. "The Cajun Navy rescuers are true heroes. Louisiana people saved Louisiana people."

Angers and filmmaker Allen Durand have researched the accomplishments of the Cajun Navy. Angers wrote a book, and Duran made a documentary.

"They saved 10,000 people, and not a one of them thinks of themself as brave or courageous or as a hero," Durand said.

They were civilian hurricane heroes, whose boat propellers were, as the New Orleans Times-Picayune put it, "The sound of salvation."

"No one will ever know all the people that helped," Gautreaux said. "I won't know everyone who helped, but people that were part of it were part of history."




CBS -- "Hundreds of people in hundreds of boats gathered in Lafayette, Louisiana, to rescue thousands trapped by floodwaters, CBS News' David Begnaud reports. They are some of the starkest scenes from the floodwaters that overwhelmed New Orleans: Thousands of people on rooftops without food or water, begging for help. As many as 60,000 people tried to ride out the storm. So many could only wave and wait for rescue. …. "I got a text from Walter Boasso," Gautreaux said. "He was a senator at the time that I served with the Senate, and his text was simple, 'My people are dying. I need help.'" Gautreaux put out his own plea across local TV and radio. "They announced, 'Anybody wants to go help the people of New Orleans please come to the Acadiana Mall,'" south Louisiana journalist Trent Angers said. "They expected 24, 25 boats. Between 350 and 400 boats and people showed up." …. Gautreaux recalls warning of victims drowning and armed robbers roaming the flooded streets. "If you're afraid of death, possibly you get shot or killed, then this is not a place for you to come," Gautreaux said. "And I will tell you there's not a person that turned around." What rolled out of Lafayette was a makeshift flotilla that has come to be called the Cajun Navy, an eight-mile convoy of boats that made the two hour ride to New Orleans. Altogether, the Cajun Navy is credited with rescuing more than 10,000 people from flooded homes and rooftops. …. It was a rescue effort that was initially stopped at the water's edge. Authorities told Cajun Navy members they could not launch for safety reasons, but they didn't listen. "You saw people in New Orleans walking in chest-deep water with all of their possessions floating in a plastic garbage can, and you're looking at it and thinking this is in our country, and in our case, it's two hours down the road," Spizale said. "So we were hard-pressed not to go into action. That's where we wanted to be." …. The former senator rescued a group of seminarians and priests from Notre Dame Seminary, which was surrounded by looting and arson. "I want to publicly tell the world how grateful the seminary was that you all were there for us, and when we finally got back home in January you were lifted up in prayer at every Mass," Davis said. "Know that." …. Gen. Russel Honore was put in charge of the federal response during Katrina. This Louisiana native and three-star general saw to it that the priority of his men and women was search and rescue. "We had 20,000 federal troops," Honore said. "We had 20 ships and over 225 helicopters." Honore credits the Cajun Navy for doing much of the initial lifesaving. "In reality most people are saved by neighbors and volunteers after a disaster than are saved by organized rescue people," Honore said. …. . Angers wrote a book, and Duran made a documentary. "They saved 10,000 people, and not a one of them thinks of themself as brave or courageous or as a hero," Durand said.”

I’ll never forget the news footage on the morning after this huge storm moved in. The only things that were visible were the tops of trees and buildings. My stomach muscles contracted when I saw the scene. The worst problem was that the levee was weak and when the storm surge went up into Lake Pontchartrain the levee broke, and the city was inundated.

To make things worse, the weather authorities hadn’t given a strong warning because it was considered relatively weak, but like Andrew, it strengthened during the last minutes when it made landfall. As a result, lots of the residents had decided to shelter in place rather than leaving the city and going to higher ground. I have decided that no matter how weak the weather authorities say a hurricane is I will use caution in dealing with it. Luckily I now live on the 9th floor of a highrise building. My car would need to be moved to a city parking garage before a storm hits, of course, because no elevation in Jacksonville is much higher than a few feet. It floods in a number of places here with nothing but a heavy rain storm. The following Wikipedia article gives a good description of the events the night it hit New Orleans. I hope to read the book mentioned in the next article on the storm by journalist Gary Rivlin, called, "Katrina: After the Flood." It’s a blow by blow description as only a good journalist can portray it. I do like exciting reading, and this certainly is.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteorological_history_of_Hurricane_Katrina

Meteorological history of Hurricane Katrina
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The meteorological history of Hurricane Katrina, an extremely destructive Category 5 hurricane, began on August 23, 2005 when it originated as Tropical Depression Twelve near the Bahamas. The next day, the tropical depression strengthened to a tropical storm, and was named Katrina; it proceeded to make landfall on the southern tip of the U.S. state of Florida as a minimal hurricane.

In passing across Florida, Katrina did not attain any more strength but did manage to maintain hurricane status. After passing over Florida, the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico allowed it to rapidly intensify to the sixth strongest Atlantic hurricane in recorded history. Afterward, Katrina made landfall as a Category 3 storm near Buras-Triumph, Louisiana, and once more near the Mississippi/Louisiana border. Katrina progressed northward through the central United States and finally dissipated near the Great Lakes on August 31, when it was absorbed by a cold front.



This excerpt from the book on Katrina shows the reason why hurricanes should always be respected if not feared. Exactly where they will go or how strong they will be when they hit the land is unpredictable. That's why TV forecasters use the "cone of uncertainty" to show their path. “The wind was still blowing at around fifty miles per hour when they pulled out of the barn at around 10:00 a.m. Eddington remembered a blue Chevy parked at the Chevron station a block away. The water, maybe curb high, reached the bottom of the Chevy's hubcaps. The water was halfway up the car's windows when they returned ninety minutes later.” People should never think they can outrun a storm like this one.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/book-excerpt-katrina-after-the-flood/

Book excerpt: "Katrina: After the Flood"
CBS NEWS
August 29, 2015

Photograph -- katrina-after-the-flood-cover-244.jpg
SIMON & SCHUSTER

In 2005 journalist Gary Rivlin covered Hurricane Katrina for The New York Times. His new book, "Katrina: After the Flood" (published by Simon & Schuster, which is owned by CBS), explores New Orleans in the years since the tragic storm hit.

Read the book's prologue below; then, watch Martha Teichner's interview with Rivlin on CBS' "Sunday Morning" August 30.


Water Rising

Overtime pay was never enough. The bosses running the city's transit agency needed to offer more than money to convince the bus drivers, streetcar operators, mechanics, and others they needed to stay in town through a big storm. So in August 2005, with a hurricane named Katrina bearing down on New Orleans, they did as they had in the past ahead of previous scares: they opened up the agency's headquarters, a three-story brick fortress on Canal Street on the edge of the city's central business district. "To get the volunteers we needed, we'd allow them to bring their spouses, their children, grandmothers, grandfathers, girlfriends, nieces, nephews, whoever," said Bill Deville, then the general manager of the New Orleans Regional Transit Authority.

The A. Philip Randolph Building -- what RTA employees called the "Canal Street barn" or simply "the barn" -- was hardly the Hilton. People slept on air mattresses and needed to bring their own food. But the barn was also a veritable fort, stocked with military food rations and water and with its own backup generator. Most important, it was in a part of town that everyone knew never flooded. "People really want to be together in a protected facility," Deville said.
Around the region, the traffic on the highways out of town ahead of Katrina was heaviest on Sunday. The storm wouldn't hit New Orleans until early on Monday morning. Yet the city's bus drivers and others needed to work on Sunday, picking up people at evacuation centers around the city and dropping them off at the Superdome. Thus, on Saturday the RTA employees, their families, and their friends started showing up at the barn, dragging with them their suitcases and carrying coolers, and the occasional large silver pot heavy with gumbo. By Sunday night, somewhere around three hundred people were taking refuge there. The group, around 90 percent black, included grandparents and a couple of babies. Only around one-third worked for the RTA. People plugged in hot plates to heat up their food and shared the flasks and bottles they had brought with them. By 10:00 p.m., the winds sounded like a jet engine roaring. By midnight, the pounding rain echoed through the building. Why not a party when there was nothing to do except wait?

Monday

Gerald Robichaux, the RTA's deputy general manager for operations, was up early Monday morning. He saw water in the streets and immediately regretted his decision to leave the agency's three big dump trucks parked at the Uptown facility a few miles away, along with the big rigs they used to tow disabled buses. These trucks with tires as tall as the average-size man, Robichaux realized, might prove to be their chariots of escape if the water in the streets kept rising. Robichaux ordered a small crew to take the single high-wheeled vehicle they had at the Canal Street barn and pick up the other rigs on Napoleon Avenue. Robichaux also asked Wilfred Eddington to join them. Eddington was a member of the New Orleans Police Department, and part of the RTA's transit police unit.

The wind was still blowing at around fifty miles per hour when they pulled out of the barn at around 10:00 a.m. Eddington remembered a blue Chevy parked at the Chevron station a block away. The water, maybe curb high, reached the bottom of the Chevy's hubcaps. The water was halfway up the car's windows when they returned ninety minutes later.

From "Katrina" After the Flood" by Gary Rivlin. Copyright © 2015 by Gary Rivlin. Excerpted with permission by Simon & Schuster, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

GALLERY: Katrina 10 years later: New Orleans
GALLERY: Katrina 10 years later: Plaquemines Parish, La.
GALLERY: Katrina 10 years later: Mississippi

For more info:

"Katrina: After the Flood" by Gary Rivlin (Simon & Schuster); Also available in eBook format
garyrivlin.com





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-manhunt-killing-houston-sheriffs-deputy-suspect/

Sheriff: "Absolute madness" working motive in deputy's killing
CBS/AP
August 29, 2015

Photograph -- Harris County Sheriff's Deputy Darren Goforth is seen in this undated handout photo. HARRIS COUNTY SHERIFF'S OFFICE


HOUSTON -- Authorities are still looking for the suspect in the fatal shooting of a sheriff's deputy at a suburban Houston gas station, Harris County Sheriff Ron Hickman said.

Hickman said at a Saturday afternoon news conference that the working motive for the Friday night shooting death of Deputy Darren Goforth was "absolute madness."

Surveillance video showed there were people at the gas station in suburban Houston about 8:30 p.m. when Goforth was ambushed by a man and shot several times. Hickman asked that they reach out to the sheriff's office with any information.

District Attorney Devon Anderson had strong words at the news conference, saying it is "time for the silent majority in the country to support law enforcement" and that there should not be "open warfare on law enforcement officers."

Authorities said the investigation is ongoing.

Earlier, spokesman Deputy Thomas Gilliland said officials were speaking with a person of interest in connection with the shooting and have obtained a search warrant for the two-story brick home where the person lives. No arrests have been made, Gilliland said.

Nine patrol cars, including one with the words "crime scene unit" on the side of the vehicle, were parked near the home, which is about a quarter-mile from the gas station in Copperfield, a middle-class to upper middle-class area of Harris County that is unincorporated.

Police described the suspect as a male with a dark complexion, about 5-foot-10 to 6 feet tall, wearing a white T-shirt and red shorts and driving a red or maroon pickup-style truck with an extended cab. Authorities did not say what race they believe him to be.

Goforth was a 10-year veteran of the force, had a wife and two children, Hickman said.

"In my 45 years in law enforcement, I can't recall another incident so cold-blooded and cowardly," Hickman said.

An impromptu memorial had begun Saturday morning at the Chevron station pump that Goforth was using on Friday night, a pile of balloons, flowers, candles and notes, including one that said, "Gone but never forgotten R.I.P. Deputy Goforth." The gas station was open, but that pump was closed.

Brian McCullar knew Goforth because the deputy had patrolled his neighborhood, which is about two miles from the gas station, and spoke often.

"He was passionate about what he did," the 49-year-old said, adding, "We're still in shock. ... It's a huge loss for his family. It's a huge loss for this area.

"You're talking about a guy that made a difference."

Goforth had traveled to the Chevron station after responding to a routine car accident, Gilliland said.

"He was pumping gas into his vehicle and the male suspect came up behind him and shot the deputy multiple times," Gilliland told the Houston Chronicle. "The deputy fell to ground. The suspect came over and shot the deputy again multiple times as he lay on the ground."

Detectives were checking security camera video for possible clues.

"I can tell you with diligence and justice the suspect will be caught," Gilliland told the newspaper. "And he will be brought to justice ... This is a very callous individual."

Harris County Sheriff's deputies and homicide investigators joined officers from other agencies, including the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Houston Police Department, in the search.

"This is a very tough moment right now for the Harris County Sheriff's Office," Gilliland said. "Keep us in your prayers and in your thoughts."

Bob Goerlitz, president of the Harris County Deputies Organization, said the incident was "shocking."

"We've been warned of things like this, because of public sentiment nationally and events over the last few years ... It's just horrific. That's the only way to describe it."




As sad as I am when I see that a police officer has violated the trust that society puts in him by abusing a citizen who is poor, perhaps mentally ill, and unarmed, I am equally saddened by this story. This officer, as far as I can tell, was one of the good guys. He was only gassing up his vehicle when a black man, possibly with group revenge motivating him, shot him down pointlessly.

It follows on the heels of the event in Virginia where the two reporters were shot. They were believed to have spoken abusively of black people by the shooter. Nonetheless a blood feud never brings justice. That’s like the well-known Hatfields and McCoys in the 1800s. There is no end to the killing, and society as we know it will be destroyed.





http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2015/08/29/435512651/high-profile-russian-trials-bring-international-criticism

High-Profile Russian Trials Bring International Criticism
Corey Flintoff
August 29, 2015

Photograph -- Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov (right), was recently convicted of terrorism charges in Crimea dating to last year, when Russia seized the territory from Ukraine. A Russian military court sentenced him to 20 years in one of several cases that have drawn criticism from human rights groups. He's shown here at a hearing at Moscow's Lefortovo District Court on Dec. 26, 2014.
Mikhail Pochuyev/ITAR-TASS/Landov
Photograph -- Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves (left), with intelligence officer Eston Kohver in 2010. Kohver was arrested by Russian police on spying charges, but Estonian officials called it an illegal kidnapping.


In one of several high-profile cases that have drawn international criticism, a Russian military court has sentenced a Ukrainian film director to 20 years in prison for allegedly plotting terrorist attacks in Crimea.

The cases have provoked protests from human rights groups and Western governments, including the United States.

As the sentence was being read Tuesday for the filmmaker, Oleg Sentsov, and his co-defendant, Oleksander Kolchenko, they laughed derisively and began singing the Ukrainian national anthem.

From the beginning of the trial, Sentsov, 39, rejected the authority of the military court in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.

"I don't consider this court a court at all," he said.

In his final statement, Sentsov quoted the Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov, who said that cowardice is "the greatest sin."

Sentsov was accused of leading a terrorist cell that allegedly plotted attacks in Crimea after the Ukrainian region was taken over by Russian troops in February of last year. Russia annexed the territory shortly afterward, a move not recognized internationally.

Prosecutors said Sentsov's group planned to blow up a statue of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin and a monument to Soviet soldiers from World War II.

Related Stories

Ukrainian military officer Nadezhda Savchenko speaks to journalists shortly after her capture in Luhansk, Ukraine, on June 19, 2014. She was apparently captured by pro-Russian insurgents during fighting in eastern Ukraine. But she is being held in Russia, which claims she was arrested in that country. Ukrainian officials say the separatists handed her over to Russia.

Estonia 'Spy' Dispute Could Be Russia Making Anti-NATO Mischief

"We are talking about a man against whom the prosecutors had no criminal evidence, no evidence of his direct involvement in any criminal acts," says Tanya Lokshina, director of the Russia Program for Human Rights Watch in Moscow.

Lokshina says the charges against Sentsov were trumped up, but that even if they were true, the sentence of 20 years in prison was disproportionately long.

Sentsov's co-defendant, Kolchenko, 25, confessed to two arson attacks that caused minor damage at pro-Russian organizations in Crimea and was given 10 years in prison.

Sentsov's supporters say he was targeted because he is a high-profile figure, an up-and-coming film director who attracted a lot of attention with his 2011 debut Gamer, about a Ukrainian teenager who wins big at a video game championship.

Last year, more than a dozen noted film directors and producers, including Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, wrote an open letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling for Sentsov's release.

Sentsov's conviction was based on the testimony of two other defendants, who said he was their leader in the terrorist group.

"One of these individuals actually withdrew his testimony, saying that he provided the testimony under torture, and the testimony had been entirely false," Lokshina says.

Sentsov himself said that police had beaten him and threatened to rape and kill him if he didn't sign a confession.

U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby condemned the trial and sentencing, calling it "a miscarriage of justice."

"Mr. Sentsov and Mr. Kolchenko were targeted by authorities because of their opposition to Russia's attempted annexation of Crimea," Kirby said.

One Of Several Cases

The Sentsov case isn't the only one that has attracted international condemnation.

Last week, a secret court in Russia sentenced an Estonian intelligence officer, Eston Kohver, to 15 years in prison for spying.

Estonia says that not only was Kohver not a spy, but that he was kidnapped by Russian agents on Estonian soil.

Tanya Lokshina points to a number of harsh sentences in political cases over the past several years, and says they're designed to send a message to the public, "if you're discontented, you should keep quiet—or else. You might face very serious consequences."

The next high-profile trial that's expected in Russia is that of Nadezhda Savchenko, a Ukrainian army pilot who's accused of targeting two Russian journalists who were killed by artillery fire in eastern Ukraine last year.

Ukraine says that Savchenko, too, was kidnapped and subjected to trumped-up charges in Russia.




“In one of several high-profile cases that have drawn international criticism, a Russian military court has sentenced a Ukrainian film director to 20 years in prison for allegedly plotting terrorist attacks in Crimea. The cases have provoked protests from human rights groups and Western governments, including the United States. As the sentence was being read Tuesday for the filmmaker, Oleg Sentsov, and his co-defendant, Oleksander Kolchenko, they laughed derisively and began singing the Ukrainian national anthem. …. In his final statement, Sentsov quoted the Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov, who said that cowardice is "the greatest sin." Sentsov was accused of leading a terrorist cell that allegedly plotted attacks in Crimea after the Ukrainian region was taken over by Russian troops in February of last year. Russia annexed the territory shortly afterward, a move not recognized internationally. …. Ukrainian military officer Nadezhda Savchenko speaks to journalists shortly after her capture in Luhansk, Ukraine, on June 19, 2014. She was apparently captured by pro-Russian insurgents during fighting in eastern Ukraine. But she is being held in Russia, which claims she was arrested in that country. Ukrainian officials say the separatists handed her over to Russia. …. Lokshina says the charges against Sentsov were trumped up, but that even if they were true, the sentence of 20 years in prison was disproportionately long. Sentsov's co-defendant, Kolchenko, 25, confessed to two arson attacks that caused minor damage at pro-Russian organizations in Crimea and was given 10 years in prison. …. Sentsov's conviction was based on the testimony of two other defendants, who said he was their leader in the terrorist group. "One of these individuals actually withdrew his testimony, saying that he provided the testimony under torture, and the testimony had been entirely false," Lokshina says. Sentsov himself said that police had beaten him and threatened to rape and kill him if he didn't sign a confession. …. "Mr. Sentsov and Mr. Kolchenko were targeted by authorities because of their opposition to Russia's attempted annexation of Crimea," Kirby said.”

“In his final statement, Sentsov quoted the Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov, who said that cowardice is "the greatest sin." I tend to agree with that statement, though I would put abusing a weaker person above it on the scale of sins. Dissenters have very frequently been treated very roughly around the world and down through time by people in power. The right to speak one’s own views was written into the Constitution of the US, but it is not unlimited even here. “Fighting words,” irresponsible words that produce a dangerous situation such as “standing up in a crowded theater and yelling FIRE,” are punishable under the law, and committing libel or slander are grounds for a lawsuit here. Delivering a threat against another’s life is also illegal, I believe, and not merely grounds for a suit. However saying that the policeman in Ferguson, MO committed a murder rather than a legitimate exercise of his lawful authority is not, so far, illegal. Neither is marching around chanting “black lives matter,” though the police and civil authorities would like for it to be.

I have my worries about the future of the right to voice that opinion here in this country, the way we have been going since 9/11. Members of our government went a little crazy when that happened, and have tightened up on what they think should be allowed here. Things happened under George W. Bush and Mr. Chaney that I was shocked to see. I didn’t believe I would see them in my lifetime. I was wrong. I intend to keep writing this blog as long as I can get away with it, though, and as long as my health holds out.

Friday, August 28, 2015


News Clips For The Day


TRUMP TRUMPED – TWO ARTICLES


http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2015/08/26/434836996/univisions-jorge-ramos-ive-never-been-kicked-out-of-a-press-conference

Univision's Jorge Ramos: Journalists Must 'Denounce' Trump's 'Dangerous Words'
Eyder Peralta
AUGUST 26, 2015

Photograph -- A security guard for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump removes Univision anchor Jorge Ramos from a news conference on Tuesday in Iowa.
Charlie Neibergall/AP


Jorge Ramos, one of the most influential journalists in the United States, says he had never been thrown out of a press conference before last night, when GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump ejected him.

"This is the first time," the news anchor told his network. "It's never happened anywhere in the world. I've never been forcibly removed from a press conference or an interview."

If you went to bed early last night, you may have missed the clash. Ramos, who has been publicly seeking an interview with Trump to no avail, showed up at a press conference in Dubuque, Iowa.

After a couple of journalists had asked questions, Ramos stood up to ask his. Trump had none of it. He told him that he needed to be called on first, and as Ramos tried to wedge in a question, Trump said, "Go back to Univision." He then motioned for a security guard to escort Ramos out of the room.

Ramos said that the use of force to "suppress freedom of expression" worried him. He also defended his aggressive approach at the press conference.

"My job as a journalist is to ask questions from the powerful, and that's what we tried to do," Ramos said, adding that he had on various previous occasions tried to set up an interview with the presidential candidate. (Trump posted a picture of a handwritten note from Ramos to his Instagram account. The note included Ramos' phone number.)

In an interview with ABC, Ramos said that another responsibility of being a journalist is to "denounce" the "dangerous words and extreme behavior of Donald Trump."

Ramos was asked what he would say to critics who say he is more of an advocate than a journalist.

"I think the best journalism happens when you take a stand, and when it comes to racism, discrimination, corruption, public life, dictatorship or human rights, as journalists, we are not only required but we are forced to take a stand, and clearly when Mr. Trump is talking about immigration in an extreme way, we have to confront him, and I think that's what I did yesterday," he said.

Last night, Univision posted video of what happened after Ramos was escorted into a hallway. A Trump supporter tells Ramos, "You were very rude. It's not about you. Get out of my country."

YouTube
Ramos, for the record, is a U.S. citizen.

The Univision anchor was eventually let back into the press conference to ask a series of questions.

Here is that exchange: Go to website to view video of news conference.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/jorge-ramos-slams-donald-trump-tossing-out-news-conference/

Jorge Ramos slams Donald Trump for tossing him from news conference
By REENA FLORES CBS NEWS
August 26, 2015

Play VIDEO -- Trump boots Univision anchor from presser, defends Kelly criticism
Play VIDEO -- Donald Trump, Fox News feud escalates

Univision anchor Jorge Ramos is blasting Donald Trump for his treatment at Trump's Iowa press conference Tuesday.

When Ramos tried to ask Donald Trump the first question, Trump tried to shut him down, and eventually tossed him from the press conference. Trump was then asked by other reporters whether it was appropriate to rebuke Ramos like that, Trump said "certainly he was not chosen" to ask the first question. "He just stands up and starts screaming," he said. "If he wanted to come back in, I'd love to have him. ... He's obviously a very emotional person." Ramos was allowed to return later.

But Ramos, who appeared on "CBS This Morning" early Wednesday, refuted Trump's account.

"I waited for my turn, I asked the question, he didn't like the question, and he was clearly in control of that press room," Ramos told CBS News. "I've been a journalist for more than 30 years, I've been all over the world, and I've never been thrown out of any press conference from any interview."

Asked if he was in Iowa to pick a fight with the immigration hawk, Ramos said that "no, I was there to ask questions -- that's our job as journalists."

The National Association of Hispanic Journalists also condemned Trump for tossing Ramos, protesting that "Mr. Ramos was doing what journalists have done for decades - asking questions!"

The exchange with Ramos didn't seem to faze Trump supporters attending his rally following his press conference. Before Trump took the stage, one animated Trump fan leaned over to his friend to say that Trump had just "kicked out Hispanic journalist." His friend laughed.

One supporter at Trump's rally, Mary Horton -- a 72-year-old self-proclaimed "NASCAR nut" from East Dubuque, Illinois -- said that she appreciated the casino magnate's attitude.

"We need our own people to be taken care of for a change," Horton said. The great grandmother of four sported a Trump t-short layered over her pink and white collared shirt, topped with a sparkly Fourth of July-style boa. She arrived at the Grand River Center at 10:30 a.m. to ensure she'd get a place inside for the rally. Her early arrival made her the first person in line.

Horton wasn't alone in admiring Trump for his straight talk in Iowa.

"He is a damn good showman," explained Frank Kennedy, an Iowan artist who did a painting of Trump that he carried around with him at the rally.

Trump's inflammatory comments come on the heels of another brewing media feud -- this time, with conservative-leaning cable outlet Fox News.

Trump, who resumed his attacks against Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly earlier this week on Twitter by criticizing her first show after returning from vacation, and he also quoted a series of tweets insulting Kelly.

Fox News chairman Roger Ailes called Trump's comments "crude and irresponsible" on Tuesday. He added that "Donald Trump rarely apologizes, although in this case, he should."

At the news conference in Dubuque late Tuesday, when CBS News' Chip Reid asked Trump if he would apologize to Kelly, he refused.

"She actually should be apologizing to me," Trump said, adding that her attitude at the debate was "totally inappropriate."

Trump, who is leading in national Republican polls, has drawn considerable support from many influential figures in the conservative base. One potential supporter - according to Trump, anyway - was Anthony Scaramucci, Skybridge Capital founder and financial backer of Trump's primary opponent Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. Scaramucci says that's not the case.

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that the top Walker fundraiser met with Trump to discuss the possibility of leaving the Wisconsin governor's campaign, hours after Scaramucci had lambasted Trump as "a Democratic plant" for Hillary Clinton in an appearance on the Fox Business Network.

Trump was asked about the meeting during the presser, and he said of Scaramucci, "He said some negative things about me - then he comes up to my office two or three hours later, he wants to be part of my campaign," and added, "He wanted to leave Walker to support me."

Scaramucci, however, vehemently disagreed with Trump's comments, posting his reaction on Twitter. -- Anthony Scaramucci ✔@Scaramucci,
“Anybody that understand loyalty which I assume includes Mr. Trump knows that I would never do that.” https://twitter.com/philiprucker/status/636315336531296256 …
7:16 PM - 25 Aug 2015

The hedge fund founder said that it was, in fact, Trump's office who asked to meet with Scaramucci Monday.

On Sunday, Trump appeared on CBS' "Face the Nation" and criticized "hedge fund guys," saying they're "getting away with murder."

CBS News Digital Journalist Kylie Atwood contributed to this report.




NPR -- “Jorge Ramos, one of the most influential journalists in the United States, says he had never been thrown out of a press conference before last night, when GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump ejected him. …. "My job as a journalist is to ask questions from the powerful, and that's what we tried to do," Ramos said, adding that he had on various previous occasions tried to set up an interview with the presidential candidate. (Trump posted a picture of a handwritten note from Ramos to his Instagram account. The note included Ramos' phone number.) In an interview with ABC, Ramos said that another responsibility of being a journalist is to "denounce" the "dangerous words and extreme behavior of Donald Trump." Ramos was asked what he would say to critics who say he is more of an advocate than a journalist. "I think the best journalism happens when you take a stand, and when it comes to racism, discrimination, corruption, public life, dictatorship or human rights, as journalists, we are not only required but we are forced to take a stand, and clearly when Mr. Trump is talking about immigration in an extreme way, we have to confront him, and I think that's what I did yesterday," he said. …. "You were very rude. It's not about you. Get out of my country." YouTube. Ramos, for the record, is a U.S. citizen. The Univision anchor was eventually let back into the press conference to ask a series of questions. ….

CBS -- But Ramos, who appeared on "CBS This Morning" early Wednesday, refuted Trump's account. "I waited for my turn, I asked the question, he didn't like the question, and he was clearly in control of that press room," Ramos told CBS News. …. One supporter at Trump's rally, Mary Horton -- a 72-year-old self-proclaimed "NASCAR nut" from East Dubuque, Illinois -- said that she appreciated the casino magnate's attitude. "We need our own people to be taken care of for a change," Horton said. …. "He is a damn good showman," explained Frank Kennedy, an Iowan artist who did a painting of Trump that he carried around with him at the rally. …. Fox News chairman Roger Ailes called Trump's comments "crude and irresponsible" on Tuesday. He added that "Donald Trump rarely apologizes, although in this case, he should." …. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that the top Walker fundraiser met with Trump to discuss the possibility of leaving the Wisconsin governor's campaign, hours after Scaramucci had lambasted Trump as "a Democratic plant" for Hillary Clinton in an appearance on the Fox Business Network. Trump was asked about the meeting during the presser, and he said of Scaramucci, "He said some negative things about me - then he comes up to my office two or three hours later, he wants to be part of my campaign," and added, "He wanted to leave Walker to support me." Scaramucci, however, vehemently disagreed with Trump's comments, posting his reaction on Twitter. -- Anthony Scaramucci ✔@Scaramucci, “Anybody that understand loyalty which I assume includes Mr. Trump knows that I would never do that.”

I did listen to the videos and Ramos was speaking clearly and audibly, and he did not sit down and stop talking when Trump demanded it, but he was not “screaming.” His words were moderate and well-considered. Trump has stated that he didn’t “know” Ramos, but he almost immediately said to him “Get back to Univision.” He purposely passed Ramos over for his chance to ask a question. Many people who are responsible and unbiased individuals don’t like or trust Trump, even though they are sometimes Republicans. He seems to me to say always the first thing that comes to his mind, and it is often “crude” as the head of Fox News stated. Mary Horton, a Trump fan, speaks of his support of “our own people,” which I assume means socially biased white Anglo Americans and their other ultraconservative cohorts. I still don’t think Trump will be able to win in a general election for President, no matter how much he huffs and puffs and struts around in front of the camera.




FLANAGAN SHOOTING – TWO ARTICLES


http://www.cbsnews.com/news/virginia-police-shooting-live-television-news-report/

Cops: Suspect in on-air attack shoots self
Apparently disgruntled former employee suspected of gunning down reporter, cameraman has shot himself
CBS/AP August 26, 2015

Play VIDEO -- Ex-ATF official on WDBJ shooting
Photograph -- brycewilliamsap966307663839crop.jpg -- In this framegrab from video posted on Bryce Williams' Twitter account and Facebook page, Williams, whose real name is Vester Lee Flanagan II, aims a gun at television reporter Alison Parker as she conducts a live on-air interview Aug. 26, 2015, in Moneta, Va. VESTER LEE FLANAGAN II/TWITTER VIA AP
Photograph -- vester-flanagan.jpg,


MONETA, Va. -- A suspect in the deadly shooting of a television reporter and cameraman during a live report Wednesday morning shot himself and later died at a Virginia hospital, authorities said.

Virginia State Police Sgt. Rick Garletts said that the suspect, identified as Vester Lee Flanagan II, 41, died at approximately 1:30 p.m. of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Earlier Wednesday, the state police said a vehicle belonging to the suspect was spotted at 11:30 a.m. on Interstate 66. Police attempted to pull the vehicle over, but it sped away, eventually running off the road and crashing.

Inside the vehicle, troopers found the suspect suffering from a gunshot wound, the state police said. He was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries.

Garletts said a license-plate reader alerted the troopers to the suspect's vehicle.

Authorities described the gunman as a disgruntled station employee. A second video of the shooting, apparently recorded by the killer, was posted on social media even as police tried to locate the suspect.

CBS Roanoke affiliate WDBJ-TV reporter Alison Parker was interviewing an economic development official about local tourism as eight shots rang out. She screamed, ran and could be heard saying "Oh my God," as she too was shot. Adam Ward's camera captured a fleeting image, including the face, of a man holding a handgun.

WDBJ quickly switched back to a shot of the anchor back at the station, her eyes large and jaw dropping as she said, "OK, not sure what happened there. We will of course let you know as soon as we find out what those sounds were from."

The station said Flanagan appeared on air as Bryce Williams.

In an interview with CBSN, WDBJ general manager Jeffrey Marks said Flanagan's name came to mind "instantly" when he heard about the shooting.

"He left here in a cloud ... We asked him to leave and that itself was difficult," Marks said.

Video of the shooting was later posted on the Twitter account and Facebook page of Bryce Williams, who was on the staff at WDBJ. It showed an outstretched arm holding the handgun and firing repeatedly at Parker as she tried to run away.

The shooter appeared to walk up to the victims and stand a few feet away from them while holding the weapon. The three, in the midst of a live TV interview, do not seem to notice the gunman, who doesn't start shooting until Ward points the camera at Parker and Gardner.

Parker is heard screaming and is seen running away as shots are fired. Roughly 15 shots can be heard, including several that were fired after the video goes dark.

Posts on the Twitter account said that a complaint was filed with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against Parker over "racist comments." Other tweets said Ward went to the station's human resources office "after working with me one time."

Marks told CBSN the EEOC complaint was dismissed.

The Facebook and Twitter accounts have been suspended.

ABC News reported on its website that the network received a 23-page fax from someone claiming to be Williams. The network says the fax was turned over to authorities and did not elaborate on its contents.

Federal law enforcement was assisting, and federal officials said there was no indication of a connection to terrorism.

The shooting happened around 6:45 a.m. at Bridgewater Plaza in Franklin County, as Parker interviewed Vicki Gardner about the upcoming 50th anniversary festivities for Smith Mountain Lake, a local tourism destination. Gardner also was shot and hospitalized.

Both the victims were romantically involved with other employees at the station, according to Parker's boyfriend, WDBJ anchor Chris Hurst.

Parker had just turned 24. She had just completed a special report on child abuse for the station, where she had worked as an intern. She attended James Madison University, where she was the editor of the school's newspaper, The Breeze. According to her Facebook page, Parker spent most of her life outside Martinsville, Virginia. She was an avid kayaker and attended community theater events in her spare time.

Hurst said they hadn't shared their relationship publicly but "were very much in love." He said they had just moved in together and wanted to get married. "I am numb," he said.

Ward, 27, graduated from Virginia Tech University and was engaged to a producer at the station, Melissa Ott, said WDBJ spokesman Mike Morgan.

"Adam was our go-to guy. He pretty much was available to do anything that we asked," Morgan said. "He did live shots during our morning show for several years."

The station is based in Roanoke, Virginia, and serves the southwest and central part of the state. The shopping mall where the incident happened is just off Smith Mountain Lake in Moneta, about 25 miles southeast of Roanoke.



http://heavy.com/news/2015/08/lester-lee-flanagan-flanighan-flanigan-wdbj-tv-disgruntled-employee-virginia-shooting-suspect-cameraman-photos-video-chase-gun-gunman-arrested/

Vester Lee Flanagan: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know
By Tom Cleary
August 26, 2015


Photograph -- vester lee flanagan, bryce williams
Flanagan posted this photo of a newspaper article about the lawsuit to Twitter just days before the shooting. (Twitter)


A disgruntled former employee of a Virginia TV station stalked and ambushed a news crew during a live interview Wednesday morning before opening fire, killing a reporter and photographer and wounding the woman being interviewed.

Vester Lee Flanagan II, 41, who went by the name Bryce Williams while working at the station, WDBJ, has been identified as the suspect. His name was initially reported as Lester Lee Flanagan.

Flanagan shot himself after being confronted by police, WHSV reports. He was taken to the hospital and died at about 1:25 p.m.

The gunman opened fire during a live interview with a member of the local Chamber of Commerce. Cameraman Adam Ward, 27, and reporter Alison Parker, 23, of WDBJ 7 TV, were killed. The woman being interviewed, Vicki Gardner, was also shot and wounded, the Roanoke Times reports. She is in surgery after being shot in the back. Gardner is the executive director at the Smith Mountain Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce.

He was later confronted by police in Fauquier County, about three hours away from where the shooting occurred.

Here’s what you need to know:

1. He Posted Video He Recorded of the Shooting on Social Media
He posted video of the shooting on his Facebook and Twitter pages. The video shows him approaching the victims, and pointing a gun at them. He is behind them for several moments as Parker interviews Gardner. He holds the gun out until Ward turns the camera back toward Parker and Gardner, and then begins firing. The camera then shakes and drops as he opens fire. The camera continues recording, with a black screen, as screams and several more gunshots are heard.

WARNING: The video below shows the gunman opening fire. Viewer discretion is advised.

The shooting happened at about 6:45 a.m. Virginia State Police said his vehicle was spotted on Interstate 66 and tried to make a traffic stop.

“The suspect vehicle refused to stop and sped away from the trooper. Minutes later, the suspect vehicle ran off the road and crashed,” state police said in a statement. “The troopers approached the vehicle and found the male driver suffering from a gunshot wound. He is being transported to a nearby hospital for treatment of life-threatening injuries.

He also posted his apparent motive for the shootings on Twitter: Allyson made racist comments.

2. He Told ABC News He Was Inspired by the Charleston Church Shooting & Was a ‘Powder Keg’
On his Twitter account, he said Parker made racist comments. He also said Adam Ward went to human resources on him.

ABC News said it received a 23-page fax from someone named Bryce Williams after the shooting. ABC said it has shared the fax with police, and posted some of its contents Wednesday afternoon. The fax came about two hours after the shooting. He also called ABC twice in the hours after the shooting.

In the fax, Flanagan wrote, “Why did I do it? I put down a deposit for a gun on 6/19/15. The Church shooting in Charleston happened on 6/17/15 … What sent me over the top was the church shooting. And my hollow point bullets have the victims’ initials on them.”

He also referenced Virginia Tech shooter Seuing Hui Choi, calling him “his boy,” and expressed admiration for the Columbine High School shooters.

Flanagan wrote that he suffered racial discrimination, sexual harassment and bullying at work, because he was a gay black man.

“Yes, it will sound like I am angry…I am. And I have every right to be. But when I leave this Earth, the only emotion I want to feel is peace,” he wrote. “The church shooting was the tipping point…but my anger has been building steadily…I’ve been a human powder keg for a while…just waiting to go BOOM!!!!”

3. He Was Fired by WDBJ in 2013 & Was Escorted From the Building by Police

(Twitter)
Flanagan, often using the on-air name Bryce Williams, has worked at several news stations around the country, according to his LinkedIn page.

He worked at WDBJ from March 2012 to February 2013.

“Vester was an unhappy man. We employed him as a reporter and he had some talent in that respect and some experience,” WDBJ General Manager Jeff Marks said on the air. “He quickly gathered a reputation of someone who was difficult to work with. He was sort of looking out to people to say things he could take offense to. Eventually, after many incidents of his anger, we dismissed him. He did not take that well. We had to call police to escort him from the building.”

Video from his career as a reporter was posted on YouTube:
Flanagan is originally from California and graduated from San Francisco State University. He previously worked at WNCT-TV as a reporter and anchor, WTWC-TV, WTOC-TV, KMID-TV and KPIX-TV.

4. He Was a Jehovah’s Witness & Worked as a ‘High Paid Companion’

Flanagan posted this just days before the shooting. (Twitter)

Flanagan was raised as a Jehovah’s Witness, according to his Twitter page.

He also said he once worked as a “high paid companion,” tweeting, “Hell yeah I’ve been a high paid ‘companion.’ You wish u could too!! Lol” Flanagan joined Twitter on August 12 and posted pictures from his high school graduation, from his time as a model and from other jobs he has held, in the days leading up to the shooting.

His father, Vester Flanagan Sr., played professional. football. He was a lineman at Humboldt State University and was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in 1960, TMZ Sports reports.

5. He Sued a Station Where He Previously Worked for Racial Discrimination

Flanagan posted this photo of a newspaper article about the lawsuit to Twitter just days before the shooting. (Twitter)
Flanagan previously sued a news station where he worked for racial discrimination.

According to federal court records, he sued WTWC-TV, a Tallahassee, Florida station, in 2000 for “discrimination and retaliation.” The case was settled, but details of the settlement weren’t immediately available.

An allegation made in a lawsuit by Vester Lee Flanagan. -- He posted a photo of a newspaper article about the lawsuit on his Twitter page just days before the shooting. Flanagan claimed in the lawsuit that he encountered racism while at the news station. He said he was called a “monkey” by a producer in 1999, and that another black tape operator was told to “stop talking ebonics.”

Read the lawsuit below: Available on website.
Flanagan had also filed an EEOC complaint against WDBJ after he was fired, seeking $15,000 in damages, but that was dismissed.

Read more about Vester Lee Flanagan in Spanish on AhoraMismo.com:

Tom Cleary is a reporter and editor for Heavy.com. Tom was a breaking news reporter at the Connecticut Post and an editor at the Register Citizen and New Haven Register. He can be reached by email at Tom.Cleary@Heavy.com. Follow him on Twitter @tomwcleary.




“He worked at WDBJ from March 2012 to February 2013. “Vester was an unhappy man. We employed him as a reporter and he had some talent in that respect and some experience,” WDBJ General Manager Jeff Marks said on the air. “He quickly gathered a reputation of someone who was difficult to work with. He was sort of looking out to people to say things he could take offense to. Eventually, after many incidents of his anger, we dismissed him. He did not take that well. We had to call police to escort him from the building.” …. An allegation made in a lawsuit by Vester Lee Flanagan. -- He posted a photo of a newspaper article about the lawsuit on his Twitter page just days before the shooting. Flanagan claimed in the lawsuit that he encountered racism while at the news station. He said he was called a “monkey” by a producer in 1999, and that another black tape operator was told to “stop talking ebonics.”

The heavy.com article gives the best background information on Flanagan. It’s another sad story of a man apparently subject to depression and a more extreme mental disorder. Depressed people rarely assassinate anyone without a worse condition, although I have noticed from news reports that most if not all of these shooting episodes involve men. One woman several years ago did kill her children when diagnosed with post-partum depression. Associated with racial stress on a number of TV news service jobs where he worked, he mentions the use of the term “monkey” and the phrase “stop talking ebonics,” at a prior job; and he accused Parker of using racist slurs. He also mentions the recent black church shooting in Charleston SC as a trigger. Before the shooting he was fired from his last job as being “angry” and presumably considered dangerous, or at least being unable to get along with co-workers. Of course if he were being called racist names that makes a certain amount of sense. Unfortunately instead of seeking psychiatric help when he became so angry, he “snapped” and started shooting. I do wish more people in this country would “believe in” good mental health treatment and go for help rather than buying a gun.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/back-on-the-trail-clinton-presents-rural-policy/

Back on the trail, Clinton presents rural policy
By HANNAH FRASER-CHANPONG
CBS NEWS
August 26, 2015

Photograph -- Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks at a town hall meeting Tuesday, Aug. 18, 2015, in North Las Vegas, Nev. The stop was the first of three in the Las Vegas area on Tuesday. (AP Photo/John Locher) JOHN LOCHER, AP


NEW YORK -- Hillary Clinton is set to roll out her plan to strengthen rural communities across the country Wednesday in Iowa, where Clinton will attend three campaign events after taking a few days off of the campaign trail for her family vacation.

Clinton's policy plan, described in a detailed fact-sheet shared by her campaign Wednesday morning ahead of her first appearance in Ankeny, Iowa is a four-part proposal to ensure that rural communities get to share in the nation's economic growth.

"We must do more to ensure the vitality of our rural areas," it reads, "not only because America's 46 million rural residents make up nearly 15 percent of our population, but also because rural America provides the foundation for the entire country's economic success."

Clinton's plan focuses first on encouraging investment in farms and other rural businesses. According to the fact-sheet, Clinton will propose making it easier for rural business owners to access capital by increasing the number of Rural Business Investment Companies creating "capital networks" outside urban centers and simplifying regulations on the small community banks that a majority of people in rural areas rely on. In addition, Clinton will propose permanently expanding the New Markets Tax Credit, which rewards investment into businesses and projects in low-income communities, and creating new credits for communities experiencing economic hardship.

Specifically for farms, Clinton will say she will double funding for the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development program, which provides training and assistance to the next generation of farmers and ranchers. She will also expand funding for and encourage programs that increase farmers' access to additional markets for their products, including schools, retailers, wholesalers and farmers markets.

Clinton will be joined in Des Moines by former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack, who currently serves as the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. Vilsack offered his official endorsement to Clinton in an op-ed published Wednesday in the Cedar Rapids Gazette.

"Hillary Clinton understands that some of the deepest and most pronounced poverty exists in rural areas of the country," Vilsack wrote. "Her strong support for the Renewable Fuel Standard and bio-based manufacturing as important parts of a revitalized rural economy makes clear she will work hard to promote meaningful economic opportunity throughout the country."

Fuel Standard and further incentivizing the creation and use of renewable energy. The final piece of her plan aims to provide greater opportunity for those who grow up and live in rural communities, by ensuring access to high quality, affordable education programs at every level of schooling, better healthcare that leverages new technology and access to care for those suffering from mental health problems and substance abuse issues.

Clinton's plan draws in part from stories and insights that she has collected from people she has met on the campaign trail. On her second trip to South Carolina in June, Clinton hosted a meeting with South Carolinians from the surrounding rural areas in Santee, where she discussed ways to improve rural infrastructure, expand broadband Internet access, and bring early childhood education to rural areas. While campaigning in Hopkinton, New Hampshire, more recently, Clinton visited a local farm stand and peppered the farm's owner, Jane Presby, with questions about farming education programs and lectures.

Woven through her four-part rural policy plan are pieces of other proposals that Clinton has announced in recent weeks, like her plan to lower the cost of going to college and relieve student debt, and other promises, like her pledge to fight for comprehensive immigration reform.

Clinton's intense focus on policy comes as questions about her and her staff's use of private email and increased interest in a possible run by Vice President Joe Biden threaten to throw the Democratic frontrunner's campaign off course.




“Clinton's policy plan, described in a detailed fact-sheet shared by her campaign Wednesday morning ahead of her first appearance in Ankeny, Iowa is a four-part proposal to ensure that rural communities get to share in the nation's economic growth. "We must do more to ensure the vitality of our rural areas," it reads, "not only because America's 46 million rural residents make up nearly 15 percent of our population, but also because rural America provides the foundation for the entire country's economic success." …. Clinton's plan focuses first on encouraging investment in farms and other rural businesses. According to the fact-sheet, Clinton will propose making it easier for rural business owners to access capital by increasing the number of Rural Business Investment Companies creating "capital networks" outside urban centers and simplifying regulations on the small community banks that a majority of people in rural areas rely on. In addition, Clinton will propose permanently expanding the New Markets Tax Credit, which rewards investment into businesses and projects in low-income communities, and creating new credits for communities experiencing economic hardship. …. Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development program, which provides training and assistance to the next generation of farmers and ranchers. She will also expand funding for and encourage programs that increase farmers' access to additional markets for their products, including schools, retailers, wholesalers and farmers markets. …. "Hillary Clinton understands that some of the deepest and most pronounced poverty exists in rural areas of the country," Vilsack wrote. …. The final piece of her plan aims to provide greater opportunity for those who grow up and live in rural communities, by ensuring access to high quality, affordable education programs at every level of schooling, better healthcare that leverages new technology and access to care for those suffering from mental health problems and substance abuse issues. …. rural areas in Santee, where she discussed ways to improve rural infrastructure, expand broadband Internet access, and bring early childhood education to rural areas. …. pieces of other proposals that Clinton has announced in recent weeks, like her plan to lower the cost of going to college and relieve student debt, and other promises, like her pledge to fight for comprehensive immigration reform.”

It is true that rural areas, which when I was young were primarily Democratic – of course they also were too frequently racist were also full of poor whites and blacks alike. Government just hasn’t tended to support farming much since the 1930s. Then when the Civil Rights legislation went through in the 1960s they began to turn Republican. The “Solid South” was no longer a Democratic power enclave. At the same time, Democrats went to blacks and other ethnic groups including labor unions for their primary support. That was because they still had votes there, but it shouldn’t have occurred in that way. Unfortunately rural areas didn’t get the government help for their poor that cities did.

That political trend was not only unfair – many whites have been poor as long as I can remember and before – but it was not well considered politically. FDR’s New Deal didn’t make that mistake. I have a friend who stated that she and her husband who were living within the city of Jacksonville at the time were turned away by an aide organization because her husband lived with her. Unfortunately he had been unable to get work, as had she. Rules like that make government poverty programs suspect, and over time the radical right has been growing, especially rural in areas. Poor people are not all black and not all men are able to work, for a number of reasons. City people of all races tend to have more governmental help than country people do, and have had, again, “for years” because there are so few factories and union jobs in the rural areas. A program that changes the nature of the rural economic landscape, which is happening slowly anyway as city areas expand their territories, to bring in reliable jobs for the relatively undereducated is a very wise decision on Hillary’s part.

Clinton needs to help the power of unions to come back also, because as people get better salaries and more jobs they will tend to join the “liberal” Democratic Party in greater numbers once again. Life in the US is a practical matter. More food on the table will bring more loyalty, I do believe. White people weren’t so “conservative” (read that as “radical”) when I was young, because they were often union members who could afford to buy a modest house and send their kids to a state-supported college, their religious affiliations were not so fundamentalist and politically activist as they are now, and there was no radical and half crazy Tea Party stirring up an active case of racial hatred. When we sat at my grandfather’s table in my young years, we had a “healthy” discussion over the Republicans versus the Democrats. My grandfather was still a Republican but he didn’t call my father a “Communist.” Also, Grandpa wasn’t one who made ugly comments about blacks. He was an independent on that matter, and his grandfather had run away from the Confederate army because he didn’t believe in slavery. My father’s grandfather did, too, but he stated it was because the Civil War was “a rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight.” The south was not as “solid” in those days as we might think. There was a big difference between poor whites and rich, slave-owning ones.

I still have little enough hope for Clinton’s presidential race, but I support her in this plan for rural America and if she does end up as our candidate I will certainly vote for her.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/dod-manual-allows-journalists-to-be-held-as-belligerents/

DoD manual allows journalists to be held as "belligerents"
AP August 26, 2015

Photograph -- Defense Secretary Ash Carter speaks during a news conference at the Pentagon, Aug. 20, 2015. New Defense Department guidelines allow commanders to punish journalists and treat them as "unprivileged belligerents" if they believe journalists are sympathizing or cooperating with the enemy. AP PHOTO/MANUEL BALCE CENETA


WASHINGTON - New Defense Department guidelines allow commanders to punish journalists and treat them as "unprivileged belligerents" if they believe journalists are sympathizing or cooperating with the enemy.

The Law of War manual, updated to apply for the first time to all branches of the military, contains a vaguely worded provision that military commanders could interpret broadly, experts in military law and journalism say. Commanders could ask journalists to leave military bases or detain journalists for any number of perceived offenses.

"In general, journalists are civilians," the 1,180 page manual says, but it adds that "journalists may be members of the armed forces, persons authorized to accompany the armed forces, or unprivileged belligerents."

A person deemed "unprivileged belligerent" is not entitled to the rights afforded by the Geneva Convention so a commander could restrict from certain coverage areas or even hold indefinitely without charges any reporter considered an "unprivileged belligerent."

The manual adds, "Reporting on military operations can be very similar to collecting intelligence or even spying. A journalist who acts as a spy may be subject to security measures and punished if captured." It is not specific as to the punishment or under what circumstances a commander can decide to "punish" a journalist.

Defense Department officials said the reference to "unprivileged belligerents" was intended to point out that terrorists or spies could be masquerading as reporters, or warn against someone who works for jihadist websites or other publications, such as al-Qaida's "Inspire" magazine, that can be used to encourage or recruit militants.

Another provision says that "relaying of information" could be construed as "taking a direct part in hostilities." Officials said that is intended to refer to passing information about ongoing operations, locations of troops or other classified data to an enemy.

Army Lt. Col. Joe Sowers, a Pentagon spokesman, said it was not the Defense Department's intent to allow an overzealous commander to block journalists or take action against those who write critical stories.

"The Department of Defense supports and respects the vital work that journalists perform," Sowers said. "Their work in gathering and reporting news is essential to a free society and the rule of law." His statement added that the manual is not policy and not "directive in nature."

But Ken Lee, an ex-Marine and military lawyer who specializes in "law of war" issues and is now in private practice, said it was worrisome that the detention of a journalist could come down to a commander's interpretation of the law.

If a reporter writes an unflattering story, "does this give a commander the impetus to say, now you're an unprivileged belligerent? I would hope not," Lee said.

"I'm troubled by the label 'unprivileged belligerents,' which seems particularly hostile," said Kathleen Carroll, AP's executive editor. "It sounds much too easy to slap that label on a journalist if you don't like their work, a convenient tool for those who want to fight wars without any outside scrutiny."

The history of war is replete with tension between military commanders and the journalists who cover them. War reporting is meant to train an independent eye on combat - its horrors as well as its heroics, as close as possible to the action without interference from commanders. That can place journalists, who sometimes rely on the military for their own security, at odds with officers who may see openness and access as potential threats to their troops' security and to battlefield success.

The nature of the problem has evolved over time. In conflicts like World War II, in which each side fought under generally accepted rules like wearing uniforms, the U.S. military and the media worked out guidelines for coverage, which included official censorship. Today's battlefields in Iraq and elsewhere are more complex and fluid, with front lines less well defined, greater ability for remote and instant communication, and combatants who are not always distinguishable from civilians.

A system of "embedding" journalists with U.S. military units was formalized during the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, providing a measure of security for the journalists while imposing security restrictions and giving commanders control over the journalists' movements. It's unclear whether the Pentagon's amended Law of War manual will change that relationship; Pentagon officials insist it should not.

Journalists working for The Associated Press and other news organizations have been detained or thrown out of embed arrangements for stories, video or photographs that the military found unflattering, even before the new manual was published on June 21. But the manual has raised concerns that commanders would feel even more free to find fault with reporting - or that other governments might use the U.S. rules to mistreat reporters working on their soil.

The Law of War manual pulls together all international laws on war applicable to the U.S. armed forces, and is designed as a reference guide for the military.

Defense officials said the manual describes the law for informational purposes and is not an authorization for anyone to take any particular action regarding journalists. The manual notes that journalists captured by the enemy are supposed to be given the rights of prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention.

"At a time when international leadership on human rights and press freedom is most needed, the Pentagon has produced a self-serving document that is unfortunately helping to lower the bar," wrote Frank Smyth, senior adviser for journalist security at the Committee to Protect Journalists.




“New Defense Department guidelines allow commanders to punish journalists and treat them as "unprivileged belligerents" if they believe journalists are sympathizing or cooperating with the enemy. The Law of War manual, updated to apply for the first time to all branches of the military, contains a vaguely worded provision that military commanders could interpret broadly, experts in military law and journalism say. Commanders could ask journalists to leave military bases or detain journalists for any number of perceived offenses. …. A person deemed "unprivileged belligerent" is not entitled to the rights afforded by the Geneva Convention so a commander could restrict from certain coverage areas or even hold indefinitely without charges any reporter considered an "unprivileged belligerent." …. "Reporting on military operations can be very similar to collecting intelligence or even spying. A journalist who acts as a spy may be subject to security measures and punished if captured." It is not specific as to the punishment or under what circumstances a commander can decide to "punish" a journalist. …. Another provision says that "relaying of information" could be construed as "taking a direct part in hostilities." Officials said that is intended to refer to passing information about ongoing operations, locations of troops or other classified data to an enemy. …. War reporting is meant to train an independent eye on combat - its horrors as well as its heroics, as close as possible to the action without interference from commanders. …. . In conflicts like World War II, in which each side fought under generally accepted rules like wearing uniforms, the U.S. military and the media worked out guidelines for coverage, which included official censorship. …. providing a measure of security for the journalists while imposing security restrictions and giving commanders control over the journalists' movements. It's unclear whether the Pentagon's amended Law of War manual will change that relationship; Pentagon officials insist it should not. …. "At a time when international leadership on human rights and press freedom is most needed, the Pentagon has produced a self-serving document that is unfortunately helping to lower the bar," wrote Frank Smyth, senior adviser for journalist security at the Committee to Protect Journalists.

“DoD manual allows journalists to be held as "belligerents." Does this scare anybody else as much as it does me? Those who value our constitutional rights need to stand to attention and step up in what looks quite a bit like a cultural war that can lead in a radical political scenario to a civil war here in this country. I’m sorry to say that this is happening under Obama’s watch. Does he have nothing to say about this? Who oversees the military really – is it Congress? The president is the “Commander-in-chief,” but is he empowered with making the rules which govern the military? They probably have to go to the Constitution for the authority. Who 1) made these changes apply to all military branches and 2) gave the Pentagon this permission basically to rearrange government’s powers? I wonder what the Supreme Court might have to say about this if the Pentagon were sued.

“Army Lt. Col. Joe Sowers, a Pentagon spokesman, said it was not the Defense Department's intent to allow an overzealous commander to block journalists or take action against those who write critical stories.” That may not be the DOD’s “intent,” but it clearly could be the result of those words. The reporter who filmed US soldiers in Vietnam using a cigarette lighter on a hut in a village which at the time had no soldiers there could probably be thrown into the local military prison for doing that, it seems to me. “Sowers said. "Their work in gathering and reporting news is essential to a free society and the rule of law." His statement added that the manual is not policy and not "directive in nature." What the bleep is the DOD manual then? Does it serve a useful purpose?

“If a reporter writes an unflattering story, "does this give a commander the impetus to say, now you're an unprivileged belligerent? I would hope not," Lee said. "I'm troubled by the label 'unprivileged belligerents,' which seems particularly hostile," said Kathleen Carroll, AP's executive editor. "It sounds much too easy to slap that label on a journalist if you don't like their work, a convenient tool for those who want to fight wars without any outside scrutiny." This may not be done with the “intention” to cause trouble by the DOD, but it sure is riling a lot of people up who are just educated good citizens. Ex-Marine Lee and the executive editor of the Associated Press are not, I don’t believe, radical leftists, or radically anything. They are talking about the basic principles of our freedom based governmental bodies and what may be, though I hope not, a problematic Executive. Where is President Obama here? I will look for more on this matter.

“Journalists working for The Associated Press and other news organizations have been detained or thrown out of embed arrangements for stories, video or photographs that the military found unflattering, even before the new manual was published on June 21.” I had never heard of this conflict between the press and the military coming up before, though it would be surprising if it weren’t the case, especially in situations like Vietnam and Iraq where disorder was the prevailing situation, however I just missed the story about US torture in Iraq. The “whistleblower” of the Iraq torture story was imprisoned for his actions, while all of the torturers, though known to authorities, went unpunished. That’s just par for the course, I guess.

See the article below on this matter -- http://www.salon.com/2012/09/11/whistle_blowing_us_torture/, “Whistle-blowing US torture,” by Peter Van Buren, TomDispatch.com. Tuesday, Sep 11, 2012

John Kiriakou exposed the CIA's dark dealings, and as a reward, he's facing 45 years in prison.

This piece originally appeared on TomDispatch.

Here is what military briefers like to call BLUF, the Bottom Line Up Front: no one except John Kiriakou is being held accountable for America’s torture policy. And John Kiriakou didn’t torture anyone, he just blew the whistle on it.

In a Galaxy Far, Far Away

A long time ago, with mediocre grades and no athletic ability, I applied for a Rhodes Scholarship. I guess the Rhodes committee at my school needed practice, and I found myself undergoing a rigorous oral examination. Here was the final question they fired at me, probing my ability to think morally and justly: You are a soldier. Your prisoner has information that might save your life. The only way to obtain it is through torture. What do you do?

At that time, a million years ago in an America that no longer exists, my obvious answer was never to torture, never to lower oneself, never to sacrifice one’s humanity and soul, even if it meant death. My visceral reaction: to become a torturer was its own form of living death. (An undergrad today, after the “enhanced interrogation” Bush years and in the wake of 24, would probably detail specific techniques that should be employed.) My advisor later told me my answer was one of the few bright spots in an otherwise spectacularly unsuccessful interview.

It is now common knowledge that between 2001 and about 2007 the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) sanctioned acts of torture committed by members of the Central Intelligence Agency and others. The acts took place in secret prisons (“black sites”) against persons detained indefinitely without trial. They were described in detail and explicitly authorized in a series of secret torture memos drafted by John Yoo, Jay Bybee, and Steven Bradbury, senior lawyers in the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel. (Office of Legal Counsel attorneys technically answer directly to the DOJ, which is supposed to be independent from the White House, but obviously was not in this case.) Not one of those men, or their Justice Department bosses, has been held accountable for their actions.

Some tortured prisoners were even killed by the CIA. Attorney General Eric Holder announced recently that no one would be held accountable for those murders either. “Based on the fully developed factual record concerning the two deaths,” he said, “the Department has declined prosecution because the admissible evidence would not be sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction beyond a reasonable doubt.”

Jose Rodriguez, a senior CIA official, admitted destroying videotapes of potentially admissible evidence, showing the torture of captives by operatives of the U.S. government at a secret prison thought to be located at a Vietnam-War-era airbase in Thailand. He was not held accountable for deep-sixing this evidence, nor for his role in the torture of human beings.

John Kiriakou Alone

The one man in the whole archipelago of America’s secret horrors facing prosecution is former CIA agent John Kiriakou. Of the untold numbers of men and women involved in the whole nightmare show of those years, only one may go to jail.

And of course, he didn’t torture anyone.

The charges against Kiriakou allege that in answering questions from reporters about suspicions that the CIA tortured detainees in its custody, he violated the Espionage Act, once an obscure World War I-era law that aimed at punishing Americans who gave aid to the enemy. It was passed in 1917 and has been the subject of much judicial and Congressional doubt ever since. Kiriakou is one of six government whistleblowers who have been charged under the Act by the Obama administration. From 1917 until Obama came into office, only three people had ever charged in this way.

The Obama Justice Department claims the former CIA officer “disclosed classified information to journalists, including the name of a covert CIA officer and information revealing the role of another CIA employee in classified activities.”

The charges result from a CIA investigation. That investigation was triggered by a filing in January 2009 on behalf of detainees at Guantanamo that contained classified information the defense had not been given through government channels, and by the discovery in the spring of 2009 of photographs of alleged CIA employees among the legal materials of some detainees at Guantanamo. According to one description, Kiriakou gave several interviews about the CIA in 2008. Court documents charge that he provided names of covert Agency officials to a journalist, who allegedly in turn passed them on to a Guantanamo legal team. The team sought to have detainees identify specific CIA officials who participated in their renditions and torture. Kiriakou is accused of providing the identities of CIA officers that may have allowed names to be linked to photographs.

Many observers believe however that the real “offense” in the eyes of the Obama administration was quite different. In 2007, Kiriakou became a whistleblower. He went on record as the first (albeit by then, former) CIA official to confirm the use of waterboarding of al-Qaeda prisoners as an interrogation technique, and then to condemn it as torture. He specifically mentioned the waterboarding of Abu Zubaydah in that secret prison in Thailand. Zubaydah was at the time believed to be an al-Qaeda leader, though more likely was at best a mid-level operative. Kiriakou also ran afoul of the CIA over efforts to clear for publication a book he had written about the Agency’s counterterrorism work. He maintains that his is instead a First Amendment case in which a whistleblower is being punished, that it is a selective prosecution to scare government insiders into silence when they see something wrong.

If Kiriakou had actually tortured someone himself, even to death, there is no possibility that he would be in trouble. John Kiriakou is 48. He is staring down a long tunnel at a potential sentence of up to 45 years in prison because in the national security state that rules the roost in Washington, talking out of turnabout a crime has become the only possible crime.

Welcome to the Jungle

John Kiriakou and I share common attorneys through the Government Accountability Project, and I’ve had the chance to talk with him on any number of occasions. He is soft-spoken, thoughtful, and quick to laugh at a bad joke. When the subject turns to his case, and the way the government has treated him, however, things darken. His sentences get shorter and the quick smile disappears.

He understands the role his government has chosen for him: the head on a stick, the example, the message to everyone else involved in the horrors of post-9/11 America. Do the country’s dirty work, kidnap, kill, imprison, torture, and we’ll cover for you. Destroy the evidence of all that and we’ll reward you. But speak out, and expect to be punished.

Like so many of us who have served the U.S. government honorably only to have its full force turned against us for an act or acts of conscience, the pain comes in trying to reconcile the two images of the U.S. government in your head. It’s like trying to process the actions of an abusive father you still want to love.

One of Kiriakou’s representatives, attorney Jesselyn Radack, told me, “It is a miscarriage of justice that John Kiriakou is the only person indicted in relation to the Bush-era torture program. The historic import cannot be understated. If a crime as egregious as state-sponsored torture can go unpunished, we lose all moral standing to condemn other governments’ human rights violations. By ‘looking forward, not backward’ we have taken a giant leap into the past.”

One former CIA covert officer, who uses the pen name “Ishmael Jones,” lays out a potential defense for Kiriakou: “Witness after witness could explain to the jury that Mr. Kiriakou is being selectively prosecuted, that his leaks are nothing compared to leaks by Obama administration officials and senior CIA bureaucrats. Witness after witness could show the jury that for any secret material published by Mr. Kiriakou, the books of senior CIA bureaucrats contain many times as much. Former CIA chief George Tenet wrote a book in 2007, approved by CIA censors, that contains dozens of pieces of classified information — names and enough information to find names.”

If only it was really that easy.

Never Again

For at least six years it was the policy of the United States of America to torture and abuse its enemies or, in some cases, simply suspected enemies. It has remained a U.S. policy, even under the Obama administration, to employ “extraordinary rendition” — that is, the sending of captured terror suspects to the jails of countries that are known for torture and abuse, an outsourcing of what we no longer want to do.

Techniques that the U.S. hanged men for at Nuremburg and in post-war Japan were employed and declared lawful. To embark on such a program with the oversight of the Bush administration, learned men and women had to have long discussions, with staffers running in and out of rooms with snippets of research to buttress the justifications being so laboriously developed. The CIA undoubtedly used some cumbersome bureaucratic process to hire contractors for its torture staff. The old manuals needed to be updated, psychiatrists consulted, military survival experts interviewed, training classes set up.

Videotapes were made of the torture sessions and no doubt DVDs full of real horror were reviewed back at headquarters. Torture techniques were even reportedly demonstrated to top officials inside the White House. Individual torturers who were considered particularly effective were no doubt identified, probably rewarded, and sent on to new secret sites to harm more people.

America just didn’t wake up one day and start slapping around some Islamic punk. These were not the torture equivalents of rogue cops. A system, a mechanism, was created. That we now can only speculate about many of the details involved and the extent of all this is a tribute to the thousands who continue to remain silent about what they did, saw, heard about, or were associated with. Many of them work now at the same organizations, remaining a part of the same contracting firms, the CIA, and the military. Our torturers.

What is it that allows all those people to remain silent? How many are simply scared, watching what is happening to John Kiriakou and thinking: not me, I’m not sticking my neck out to see it get chopped off. They’re almost forgivable, even if they are placing their own self-interest above that of their country. But what about the others, the ones who remain silent about what they did or saw or aided and abetted in some fashion because they still think it was the right thing to do? The ones who will do it again when another frightened president asks them to? Or even the ones who enjoyed doing it?

The same Department of Justice that is hunting down the one man who spoke against torture from the inside still maintains a special unit, 60 years after the end of WWII, dedicated to hunting down the last few at-large Nazis. They do that under the rubric of “never again.” The truth is that same team needs to be turned loose on our national security state. Otherwise, until we have a full accounting of what was done in our names by our government, the pieces are all in place for it to happen again. There, if you want to know, is the real horror.

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Peter Van Buren blew the whistle on State Department waste and mismanagement during Iraqi reconstruction in his first book, We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People. A TomDispatch regular, he writes about current events at his blog, We Meant Well. His new book, Ghosts of Tom Joad: A Story of the #99Percent, has just been published.




http://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-much-money-do-us-families-need-to-get-by/

How much money do U.S. families need to get by?
By AIMEE PICCHI MONEYWATCH
August 26, 2015

Play VIDEO -- U.S. states, cities raising minimum wage

How much money do Americans need to maintain a modest standard of living, where families don't struggle to put food on the table or pay the rent?

In most large U.S. cities, meeting that basic level of economic security requires income that's far beyond the federal poverty line, which is often used to measure what families need to survive, according to a new study from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.

Indeed, the federal poverty line is increasingly outdated, no longer accurately marking the boundary between getting by and financial hardship, according to EPI senior economist Elise Gould, one of the researchers who worked on the project to assess what families today need to meet a modest standard of living. The poverty threshold fails to take into account geographical differences, such as the higher rents in cities such as San Francisco, and also hasn't kept up with the rising cost of health care, among other issues, Gould contends.


Take the federal poverty cutoff for a family of four, which stood at $23,850 last year. That income level is about half of what a family of four would need to get by in the country's least expensive metropolitan area -- Morristown, Tennessee. The researchers estimate that a two-parent, two-child family in the town of roughly 30,000 would require gross income of $49,114 simply to cover rent, taxes, food, transportation, child care and other basics.

For families of four living in the 10 largest family budget areas (see chart below), the U.S. median household income of $53,046 would fall short in every location, EPI found. The most expensive city, not surprisingly, is New York, where a family of four needs $98,722 to afford their basic needs. The median household income in the Big Apple stands at only $58,003.

"Getting by" doesn't necessarily mean a middle-class lifestyle. The EPI's calculations assume that a family will simply have enough income to cover their bills, but there's no extra fat in the budgets that would allow for vacations or even putting aside money for an emergency. Given the gap between the country's median income and the EPI's budget estimates, it's no surprise that almost half of Americans don't have the resources to cover a $400 emergency expense.

"What we're thinking about is a secure but modest life; it's not actually a middle-class lifestyle," Gould said. A middle-class income would provide for "the ability to be more forward-looking -- to be able to save for your children's college, and being able to save for retirement, aside from just Social Security contributions, being able to have a little in the bank in case a rainy day comes up. This is not these families."

The discussion of what households require to afford the basics comes at a tough time for many Americans, given that real wages have been treading water for decades. Adjusted for inflation, the average U.S. hourly wage peaked in 1973, according to Pew Research. In the meantime, costs for everything from health care to housing have surged.

Among those costs is the price of child care, which the EPI found represents a significant portion of families' budgets in most U.S. cities. In fact, child care costs are higher than rent in 500 out of the 618 metropolitan areas included in the study. That result was "really striking," Gould said.

"Families can meet their budgets in other ways," such as by relying on family members and friends to provide child care, she noted.

The findings suggest the increasing need for child care reform, especially given the importance of early childhood education and the financial strain felt by many families, Gould says. In some states, the cost of child care is higher than the annual tuition at a public university, and both mothers and fathers have said they've given up work opportunities, quit or switched jobs to cope.




“How much money do Americans need to maintain a modest standard of living, where families don't struggle to put food on the table or pay the rent? In most large U.S. cities, meeting that basic level of economic security requires income that's far beyond the federal poverty line, which is often used to measure what families need to survive, according to a new study from the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. …. The poverty threshold fails to take into account geographical differences, such as the higher rents in cities such as San Francisco, and also hasn't kept up with the rising cost of health care, among other issues, Gould contends. …. For families of four living in the 10 largest family budget areas (see chart below), the U.S. median household income of $53,046 would fall short in every location, EPI found. …. Given the gap between the country's median income and the EPI's budget estimates, it's no surprise that almost half of Americans don't have the resources to cover a $400 emergency expense. "What we're thinking about is a secure but modest life; it's not actually a middle-class lifestyle," Gould said. …. The findings suggest the increasing need for child care reform, especially given the importance of early childhood education and the financial strain felt by many families, Gould says. In some states, the cost of child care is higher than the annual tuition at a public university, and both mothers and fathers have said they've given up work opportunities, quit or switched jobs to cope.”

This article stresses childcare expenses as being very difficult, but doesn’t even mention food, housing and medical attention. Okay, we need to improve the child care situation but we also need to raise the minimum wage nationally to $15.00 per hour as Obama recommended, and the federal poverty line as well, which is used to decide which households qualify for government aid. Somehow, we need to raise the median income on the family of four well above a mere $53,000, which falls far short in the top ten cities chosen in the article. The chart covers NYC, Philadelphia, LA, Chicago, San Bernardino, Phoenix, Detroit, Atlanta, Dallas and Houston, and the figures run between $98,722 at the top to $60,608 in Texas. The New York cost of living lies $20,000 higher than the next lower city of Philadelphia, the next three are in the $70,000 range and the rest are in the $60,000s.

The rural poor, mentioned earlier today, have one advantage over most city dwellers. A shovel, a hoe and a dozen or so packets of seeds will help country people a great deal, because they do not tend to live in apartments with nowhere to plant a garden. I’ve never seen an apartment house in the country. It’s unfortunate that poor people sometimes turn to selling drugs or worse to make money, but it’s not surprising either. That group of people does include both city and rural populations, however, with their hidden patch of ground out in the woods behind the house covered in a healthy green plant – marijuana. When I was growing up it was moonshine whiskey. Underground economies can be as lucrative, or more so, than the stock market. I’m not saying I think this is good, just “understandable.”